initial commit of ebook 44703HEADmain

7 files changed, 56420 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/old/44703-8.txt b/old/44703-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..68f370e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44703-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,17378 @@
+Project Gutenberg's The Eighteen Christian Centuries, by James White
+
+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 Eighteen Christian Centuries
+
+Author: James White
+
+Release Date: January 18, 2014 [EBook #44703]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charlene Taylor, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe,
+Norbert Müller and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
+images generously made available by the Digital & Multimedia
+Center, Michigan State University Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  THE
+                     EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES.
+
+
+                                  BY
+                         THE REV. JAMES WHITE,
+                   AUTHOR OF A "HISTORY OF FRANCE."
+
+
+                         With a Copious Index.
+
+
+                  FROM THE SECOND EDINBURGH EDITION.
+
+
+                               NEW YORK:
+                       D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
+                          549 & 551 BROADWAY.
+                                 1878.
+
+
+
+
+                   NOTE BY THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS.
+
+This valuable work, which has been received with much favour in Great
+Britain, is reprinted without abridgment from the second Edinburgh
+edition. The lists of names of remarkable persons in the present issue
+have been somewhat enlarged, and additional dates appended, thereby
+increasing the value of the book.
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+
+
+                            FIRST CENTURY.
+
+  THE BAD EMPERORS                                                   9
+
+
+                            SECOND CENTURY.
+
+  THE GOOD EMPERORS.                                                41
+
+
+                            THIRD CENTURY.
+
+  ANARCHY AND CONFUSION--GROWTH OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.            65
+
+
+                            FOURTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE REMOVAL TO CONSTANTINOPLE--ESTABLISHMENT OF
+  CHRISTIANITY--APOSTASY OF JULIAN--SETTLEMENT OF THE GOTHS.        83
+
+
+                            FIFTH CENTURY.
+
+  END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE--FORMATION OF MODERN STATES--GROWTH
+  OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY.                                     105
+
+
+                            SIXTH CENTURY.
+
+  BELISARIUS AND NARSES IN ITALY--SETTLEMENT OF THE
+  LOMBARDS--LAWS OF JUSTINIAN--BIRTH OF MOHAMMED.                  123
+
+
+                           SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+  POWER OF ROME SUPPORTED BY THE MONKS--CONQUESTS OF THE
+  MOHAMMEDANS.                                                     141
+
+
+                            EIGHTH CENTURY.
+
+  TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES--THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE.          171
+
+
+                            NINTH CENTURY.
+
+  DISMEMBERMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE--DANISH INVASION
+  OF ENGLAND--WEAKNESS OF FRANCE--REIGN OF ALFRED.                 193
+
+
+                            TENTH CENTURY.
+
+  DARKNESS AND DESPAIR.                                            219
+
+
+                           ELEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE COMMENCEMENT OF IMPROVEMENT--GREGORY THE SEVENTH--FIRST
+  CRUSADE.                                                         241
+
+
+                           TWELFTH CENTURY.
+
+  ELEVATION OF LEARNING--POWER OF THE CHURCH--THOMAS
+  À-BECKETT.                                                       269
+
+
+                          THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  FIRST CRUSADE AGAINST HERETICS--THE ALBIGENSES--MAGNA
+  CHARTA--EDWARD I.                                                297
+
+
+                          FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  ABOLITION OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLARS--RISE OF MODERN
+  LITERATURES--SCHISM OF THE CHURCH.                               325
+
+
+                          FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  DECLINE OF FEUDALISM--AGINCOURT--JOAN OF ARC--THE
+  PRINTING-PRESS--DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.                            359
+
+
+                          SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE REFORMATION--THE JESUITS--POLICY OF ELIZABETH.               401
+
+
+                         SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  ENGLISH REBELLION AND REVOLUTION--DESPOTISM OF LOUIS THE
+  FOURTEENTH.                                                      447
+
+
+                          EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  INDIA--AMERICA--FRANCE                                           491
+
+
+  INDEX                                                            527
+
+
+
+
+                          FIRST CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+  A.D.
+
+      AUGUSTUS CÆSAR.
+
+  14. TIBERIUS.
+
+  37. CAIUS CALIGULA.
+
+  41. CLAUDIUS.
+
+  54. NERO. First Persecution of the Christians.
+
+  68. GALBA.
+
+  69. OTHO.     }
+
+  69. VITELLIUS.}
+
+  69. VESPASIAN.}
+
+  79. TITUS.
+
+  81. DOMITIAN. Second Persecution of the Christians.
+
+  96. NERVA.
+
+  98. TRAJAN.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+LIVY, OVID, TIBULLUS, STRABO, COLUMELLA, QUINTUS CURTIUS, SENECA,
+LUCAN, PETRONIUS, SILIUS ITALICUS, PLINY THE ELDER, MARTIAL,
+QUINCTILIAN, TACITUS.
+
+
+Christian Fathers and Writers.
+
+BARNABAS, CLEMENT OF ROME, HERMAS, IGNATIUS, POLYCARP.
+
+
+
+
+                                  THE
+                     EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE FIRST CENTURY.
+
+                           THE BAD EMPERORS.
+
+
+Nobody disputes the usefulness of History. Many prefer it, even for
+interest and amusement, to the best novels and romances. But the
+extent of time over which it has stretched its range is appalling to
+the most laborious of readers. And as History is growing every day,
+and every nation is engaged in the manufacture of memorable events, it
+is pitiable to contemplate the fate of the historic student a hundred
+years hence. He is not allowed to cut off at one end, in proportion as
+he increases at the other. He is not allowed to forget Marlborough,
+in consideration of his accurate acquaintance with Wellington. His
+knowledge of the career of Napoleon is no excuse for ignorance of
+Julius Cæsar. All must be retained--victories, defeats--battles,
+sieges--knights in armour, soldiers in red; the charge at Marathon,
+the struggle at Inkermann--all these things, a thousand other things,
+at first apparently of no importance, but growing larger and larger
+as time develops their effects, till men look back in wonder that
+the acorn escaped their notice which has produced such a majestic
+oak,--a thousand other things still, for a moment rising in apparently
+irresistible power, and dying off apparently without cause, must be
+folded up in niches of the memory, ready to be brought forth when
+needed, and yet room be left for the future. And who can pretend
+to be qualified for so great a work? Most of us confess to rather
+dim recollections of things occurring in our own time,--in our own
+country--in our own parish; and some, contemplating the vast expanse
+of human history, its innumerable windings and perplexing variations,
+are inclined to give it up in despair, and have a sulky sort of
+gratification in determining to know nothing, since they cannot
+know all. All kings, they say, are pretty much alike, and whether
+he is called John in England, or Louis in France, doesn't make much
+difference. Nobles also are as similar as possible, and peoples are
+everywhere the same. Now, this, you see, though it ambitiously pretends
+to be ignorance, is, in fact, something infinitely worse. It is false
+knowledge. It might be very injurious to liberty, to honour, and to
+religion itself, if this wretched idea were to become common, for where
+would be the inducement to noble endeavour? to reform of abuses? to
+purity of life? Kings and nobles and peoples are not everywhere the
+same. They are not even _like_ each other, or like themselves in the
+same land at different periods. They are in a perpetual series, not
+only of change, but of contrast. They are "variable as the sea,"--calm
+and turbulent, brilliant and dark by turns. And it is this which
+gives us the only chance of attaining clearness and distinctness
+in our historic views. It is by dissimilarities that things are
+individualized: now, how pleasant it would be if we could simplify and
+strengthen our recollections of different times, by getting personal
+portraits, as it were, of the various centuries, so as to escape the
+danger of confounding their dress or features. It would be impossible
+in that case to mistake the Spanish hat and feather of the sixteenth
+century for the steel helmet and closed vizor of the fourteenth. We
+should be able, in the same way, to distinguish between the modes of
+thought and principles of action of the early ages, and those of the
+present time. We should be able to point out anachronisms of feeling
+and manners if they occurred in the course of our reading, as well
+as of dress and language. It is surely worth while, therefore, to
+make an attempt to individualize the centuries, not by affixing to
+them any arbitrary marks of one's own, but by taking notice of the
+distinguishing quality they possess, and grouping round that, as a
+centre, the incidents which either produce this characteristic or are
+produced by it. What should we call the present century, for instance?
+We should at once name it the Century of Invention. The great war with
+Napoleon ending in 1815, exciting so many passions, and calling forth
+such energy, was but the natural introduction to the wider efforts and
+amazing progress of the succeeding forty years. Battles and bulletins,
+alliances and quarrels, ceased, but the intellect aroused by the
+struggle dashed into other channels. Commerce spread its humanizing
+influences over hitherto closed and unexplored regions; the steamboat
+and railway began their wondrous career. The lightning was trained
+to be our courier in the electric telegraph, and the sun took our
+likenesses in the daguerreotype. How changed this century is in all its
+attributes and tendencies from its predecessor, let any man judge for
+himself, who compares the reigns of our first Hanoverian kings with
+that of our gracious queen.
+
+In nothing, indeed, is the course of European history so remarkable as
+in the immense differences which intervals of a few years introduce.
+In the old monarchies of Asia, time and the world seem almost to stand
+still. The Indian, the Arab, the Chinese of a thousand years ago, wore
+the same clothes, thought the same thoughts, and led the same life as
+his successor of to-day. But with us the whole character of a people
+is changed in a lifetime. In a few years we are whirled out of all our
+associations. Names perhaps remain unaltered, but the inner life is
+different; modes of living, states of education, religious sentiments,
+great national events, foreign wars, or deep internal struggles--all
+leave such ineffaceable marks on the history of certain periods, that
+their influence can be traced through all the particulars of the time.
+The art of printing can be followed, on its first introduction, into
+the recesses of private life, as well as in the intercourse of nations.
+The Reformation of religion so entirely altered the relations which the
+states of the world bore to each other, that it may be said to have put
+a limit between old history and new, so that human character itself
+received a new development; and actions, both public and private, were
+regulated by principles hitherto unknown.
+
+In one respect all the past centuries are alike,--that they have done
+their part towards the formation of this. We bear the impress, at this
+hour, of the great thoughts and high aspirations, the struggles, and
+even the crimes, of our ancestral ages; and yet they have no greater
+resemblance to the present, except in the unchangeable characteristics
+of human nature itself, than the remotest forefathers in a long line
+of ancestry, whose likenesses hang in the galleries of our hereditary
+nobles, bear to the existing owner of title and estate. The ancestor
+who fought in the wars of the Roses has a very different expression
+and dress from the other ancestor who cheated and lied (politically,
+of course) in the days of the early Georges. Yet from both the present
+proprietor is descended. He retains the somewhat rusty armour on an
+ostentatious nail in the hall, and the somewhat insincere memoirs in a
+secret drawer in the library, and we cannot deny that he is the joint
+production of the courage of the warrior and the duplicity of the
+statesman; anxious to defend what he believes to be the right, like the
+supporter of York or Lancaster--but trammelled by the ties of party,
+like the patriot of Sir Robert Walpole.
+
+If we could affix to each century as characteristic a presentment as
+those portraits do of the steel-clad hero of Towton, or the be-wigged,
+be-buckled courtier of George the Second, our object would be gained.
+We should see a whole history in a glance at a century's face. If
+it were peculiarly marked by nature or accident, so much the more
+easy would it be to recognise the likeness. If the century was a
+warlike, quarrelsome century, and had scars across its brow; if it
+was a learned, plodding century, and wore spectacles on nose; if it
+was a frivolous, gay century, and simpered forever behind bouquets of
+flowers, or tripped on fantastic toe with a jewelled rapier at its
+side, there would be no mistaking the resemblance; there would also be
+no chance of confusing the actions: the legal century would not fight,
+the dancing century would not depose its king.
+
+Taking our stand at the beginning of our era, there are only eighteen
+centuries with which we have to do, and how easily any of us get
+acquainted with the features and expression of eighteen of our friends!
+Not that we know every particular of their birth and education, or can
+enter into the minute parts of their character and feelings; but we
+soon know enough of them to distinguish them from each other. We soon
+can say of which of the eighteen such or such an action or opinion
+is characteristic. We shall not mistake the bold deed or eloquent
+statement of one as proceeding from another.
+
+    "Boastful and rough, your first son is a squire.
+     The next a tradesman, meek, and much a liar:
+     Tom struts a soldier, open, bold, and brave:
+     Will sneaks a scrivener, an exceeding knave.
+     Is he a churchman? then he's fond of power:
+     A Quaker? sly: a Presbyterian? sour:
+     A smart free-thinker? all things in an hour."
+
+Now, though it is impossible to put the characteristics of a whole
+century into such terse and powerful language as this, it cannot be
+doubted that each century, or considerable period, has its prevailing
+Thought,--a thought which it works out in almost all the ramifications
+of its course; which it receives from its predecessor in a totally
+different shape, and passes on to its successor in a still more
+altered form. Else why do we find the faith of one generation the
+ridicule and laughing-stock of the next? How did knighthood rise
+into the heroic regions of chivalry, and then sink in a succeeding
+period into the domain of burlesque? How did aristocracy in one age
+concentrate into kingship in another? And in a third, how did the
+golden ring of sovereignty lose its controlling power, and republics
+take their rise? How did the reverence of Europe settle at one time on
+the sword of Edward the Third, and at another on the periwig of Louis
+the Fourteenth? These and similar inquiries will lead us to the real
+principles and motive forces of a particular age, as they distinguished
+it from other ages. We shall label the centuries, as it were, with
+their characteristic marks, and know where to look for thoughts and
+incidents of a particular class and type.
+
+Let us look at the first century.
+
+Throughout the civilized world there is nothing but Rome. Under
+whatever form of government--under consuls, or triumvirs, or
+dictators--that wonderful city was mistress of the globe. Her internal
+dissensions had not weakened her power. While her streets were running
+with the blood of her citizens, her eagles were flying triumphant in
+Farther Asia and on the Rhine. Her old constitution had finally died
+off almost without a blow, and unconsciously the people, still talking
+of Cato and Brutus, became accustomed to the yoke. For seven-and-twenty
+years they had seen all the power of the state concentrated in one man;
+but the names of the offices of which their ancestors had been so proud
+were retained; and when Octavius, the nephew of the conqueror Julius
+Cæsar, placed himself above the law, it was only by uniting in his own
+person all the authority which the law had created. He was consul,
+tribune, prætor, pontifex, imperator,--whatever denomination conferred
+dignity and power; and by the legal exercise of all these trusts he had
+no rival and no check. He was finally presented by the senate with the
+lofty title of Augustus, which henceforth had a mysterious significance
+as the seal of imperial greatness, and his commands were obeyed without
+a murmur from the Tigris to the Tyne. But whilst in the enjoyment of
+this pre-eminence, the Roman emperor was unconscious that in a village
+of Judea, in the lowest rank of life, among the most contemned tribe of
+his dominions, his Master was born. [A.D. 1.] By this event the whole
+current of the world's history was changed. The great became small and
+the small great. Rome itself ceased to be the capital of the world,
+for men's eyes and hearts, when the wonderful story came to be known,
+were turned to Jerusalem. From her, commissioned emissaries were to
+proceed with greater powers than those of Roman prætors or governors.
+From her gates went forth Peter and John to preach the gospel. Down
+her steep streets rode Paul and his companions, breathing anger
+against the Church, and ere they reached Damascus, behold, the eyes
+of the persecutor are blinded with lightning, and his understanding
+illuminated with the same flash; and henceforth he proceeds, in
+lowliness and humility, to convey to others the glad tidings that had
+been revealed to himself. Away in all directions, but all radiating
+from Jerusalem, travelled the messengers of the amazing dispensation.
+Everywhere--in all centuries--in all regions, we shall encounter the
+results of their ministry; and as we watch the swelling of the mighty
+tide, first of Christian faith and then of priestly ambition, which
+overspread the fairest portions of the globe, we shall wonder more
+and more at the apparent powerlessness of its source, and at the vast
+effects for good and evil which it has produced upon mankind.
+
+What were they doing at Rome during the thirty-three years of our
+Saviour's sojourn upon earth? For the first fourteen of them Augustus
+was gathering round him the wits, and poets, and sages, who have made
+his reign immortal. [A.D. 14.] After that date his successor, Tiberius,
+built up by stealthy and slow degrees the most dreadful tyranny the
+world had ever seen,--a tyranny the results of which lasted long after
+the founders of it had expired. For from this period mankind had
+nothing to hope but from the bounty of the emperor. It is humiliating
+to reflect that the history of the world for so long a period consists
+of the deeds and dispositions of the successive rulers of Rome.
+All men, wherever their country, or whatever their position, were
+dependent, in greater or less degree, for their happiness or misery
+on the good or bad temper of an individual man. If he was cruel, as
+so many of them were, he filled the patricians of Rome with fear, and
+terrified the distant inhabitants of Thrace or Gaul. His benevolence,
+on the other hand, was felt at the extremities of the earth. No
+wonder that every one was on the watch for the first glimpse of a new
+emperor's character and disposition. What rejoicings in Italy and
+Greece and Africa, and all through Europe, when a trait of goodness
+was reported! and what a sinking of the heart when the old story was
+renewed, and a monster of cruelty succeeded to a monster of deceit!
+For the fearfullest thing in all the descriptions of Tiberius is the
+duplicity of his behaviour. He withdrew to an island in the sunniest
+part of the Mediterranean, and covered it with gorgeous buildings,
+and supplied it with all the implements of luxury and enjoyment. From
+this magnificent retirement he uttered a whisper, or made a motion
+with his hand, which displaced an Eastern monarch from his throne, or
+doomed a senator to death. He was never seen. He lived in the dreadful
+privacy of some fabled deity, and was only felt at the farthest ends
+of his empire by the unhappiness he occasioned; by his murders, and
+imprisonments, and every species of suffering, men's hearts and minds
+were bowed down beneath this invisible and irresistible oppressor.
+Self-respect was at an end, and liberty was not even wished for. The
+emperor had swallowed up the empire, and there was no authority or
+influence beside. This is the main feature of the first or Imperial
+Century, that, wherever we look, we see but one,--one gorged and
+bloated brutalized man, sitting on the throne of earthly power, and
+all the rest of mankind at his feet. [A.D. 37.] Humanity at its flower
+had culminated into a Tiberius; and when at last he was slain, and the
+world began to breathe, the sorrow was speedily deeper than before, for
+it was found that the Imperial tree had blossomed again, and that its
+fruit was a Caligula.
+
+This was a person with much the same taste for blood as his
+predecessor, but he was more open in the gratification of this
+propensity. He did not wait for trial and sentence,--those dim
+mockeries of justice in which Tiberius sometimes indulged. He had a
+peculiar way of nodding with his head or pointing with his finger,
+and the executioner knew the sign. The man he nodded to died. For the
+more distinguished of the citizens he kept a box,--not of snuff, like
+some monarchs of the present day, but of some strong and instantaneous
+poison. Whoever refused a pinch died as a traitor, and whoever took one
+died of the fatal drug. [A.D. 41.] Even the degenerate Romans could
+not endure this long, and Chæreas, an officer of his guard, put him to
+death, after a sanguinary reign of four years.
+
+Still the hideous catalogue goes on. Claudius, a nephew of Tiberius,
+is forced upon the unwilling senate by the spoilt soldiers of the
+capital, the Prætorian Guards. Colder, duller, more brutal than the
+rest, Claudius perhaps increased the misery of his country by the
+apathy and stupidity of his mind. The other tyrants had some limit
+to their wickedness, for they kept all the powers of the State in
+their own hands, but this man enlisted a countless host of favourites
+and courtiers in his crusade against the happiness of mankind. Badly
+eminent among these was his wife, the infamous Messalina, whose name
+has become a symbol of all that is detestable in the female sex. Some
+people, indeed, in reading the history of this period, shut the book
+with a shudder, and will not believe it true. They prefer to think that
+authors of all lands and positions have agreed to paint a fancy picture
+of depravity and horror, than that such things were. But the facts are
+too well proved to be doubted. We see a dull, unimpassioned, moody
+despot; fond of blood, but too indolent to shed it himself, unless at
+the dictation of his fiendish partner and her friends; so brutalized
+that nothing amazed or disturbed him; so unobservant that, relying on
+his blindness, she went through the ostentatious ceremony of a public
+marriage with one of her paramours during the lifetime, almost under
+the eyes, of her husband; and yet to this frightful combination of
+ferocity and stupidity England owes its subjection to the Roman power,
+and all the blessings which Roman civilization--bringing as it did the
+lessons of Christianity in its train--was calculated to bestow. In the
+forty-fourth year of this century, and the third year of the reign of
+Claudius, Aulus Plautius landed in Britain at the head of a powerful
+army; and the tide of Victory and Settlement never subsided till the
+whole country, as far north as the Solway, submitted to the Eagles.
+The contrast between the central power at Rome, and the officials
+employed at a distance, continued for a long time the most remarkable
+circumstance in the history of the empire. Tiberius, Caligula,
+Claudius, vied with each other in exciting the terror and destroying
+the happiness of the world; but in the remote extremities of their
+command, their generals displayed the courage and virtue of an earlier
+age. They improved as well as conquered. They made roads, and built
+bridges, and cut down woods. They established military stations, which
+soon became centres of education and law. They deepened the Thames,
+and commenced those enormous embankments of the river, to which, in
+fact, London owes its existence, without being aware of the labour
+they bestowed upon the work. If by some misfortune a great fissure
+took place--as has occurred on a small scale once before--in these
+artificial dikes, it would task the greatest skill of modern engineers
+to repair the damage. They superseded the blood-stained ceremonies of
+the Druids with the more refined worship of the heathen deities, making
+Claudius himself a tutelary god, with priest and temple, in the town
+of Colchester; and this, though in our eyes the deification of one of
+the worst of men, was, perhaps, in the estimation of our predecessors,
+only the visible embodiment of settled government and beneficent power.
+But murder and treachery, and unspeakable iniquity, went their way
+as usual in the city of the Cæsars. Messalina was put to death, and
+another disgrace to womanhood, in the person of Agrippina, took her
+place beside the phlegmatic tyrant. Thirteen years had passed, when
+the boundary of human patience was attained, and Rome was startled one
+morning with the joyful news that her master was no more. [A.D. 54.]
+The combined cares of his loving spouse and a favourite physician had
+produced this happy result,--the one presenting him with a dish of
+deadly mushrooms, and the other painting his throat for a hoarseness
+with a poisoned feather.
+
+Is there no hope for Rome or for mankind? Is there to be a perpetual
+succession of monster after monster, with no cessation in the dreadful
+line? It would be pleasant to conceal for a minute or two the name of
+the next emperor, that we might point to the glorious prospect now
+opening on the world. But the name has become so descriptive that
+deception is impossible. When the word Nero is said, little more is
+required. But it was not so at first; a brilliant sunrise never had so
+terrible a course, or so dark a setting. We still see in the earlier
+statues which remain of him the fine outline of his face, and can fancy
+what its expression must have been before the qualities of his heart
+had stamped their indelible impression on his features. For the first
+five years of his reign the world seemed lost as much in surprise as in
+admiration. Some of his actions were generous; none of them were cruel
+or revengeful. He was young, and seemed anxious to fulfil the duties of
+his position. But power and flattery had their usual effect. All that
+was good in him was turned into evil. He tortured the noblest of the
+citizens; and degraded the throne to such a degree by the expositions
+he made of himself, sometimes as a musician on the stage, sometimes
+as a charioteer in the arena, that if there had been any Romans left
+they would have despised the tyrant more than they feared him. But
+there were no Romans left. The senators, the knights, the populace,
+vied with each other in submission to his power and encouragement of
+his vices. The rage of the monster, once excited, knew no bounds. He
+burned the city in the mere wantonness of crime, and fixed the blame
+on the unoffending Christians. These, regardless of age or condition
+or sex, he destroyed by every means in his power. He threw young
+maidens into the amphitheatre, where the hungry tigers leapt out upon
+them; he exposed the aged professors of the gospel to fight in single
+combat with the trained murderers of the circus, called the Gladiators;
+and once, in ferocious mockery of human suffering, he enclosed whole
+Christian families in a coating of pitch and other inflammable
+materials, and, setting fire to the covering, pursued his sport all
+night by the light of these living flambeaux. Some of his actions it
+is impossible to name. It will be sufficient to say that at the end of
+thirteen years the purple he disgraced was again reddened with blood.
+Terrified at the opposition that at last rose against him--deserted, of
+course, by the confederates of his wickedness--shrinking with unmanly
+cowardice from a defence which might have put off the evil day, he
+fled and hid himself from his pursuers. Agonized with fear, howling
+with repentant horror, he was indebted to one of his attendants for
+the blow which his own cowardly hand could not administer, and he
+died the basest, lowest, and most pitiless of all the emperors. And
+all those hopes he had disappointed, and all those iniquities he had
+perpetrated, at the age of thirty-two. He was the last of the line
+of Cæsar; and if that conqueror had foreseen that in so few years
+after his death the Senate of Rome would have been so debased, and the
+people of Rome so brutalized, he would have pardoned to Brutus the
+precautionary blow which was intended to prevent so great a calamity.
+
+[A.D. 68.]
+
+Galba was elected to fill his place, and was murdered in a few months.
+
+The degraded prætorians then elevated one of the companions of Nero's
+guilty excesses to the throne in the person of Otho, but resistance was
+made to their selection. [A.D. 69.] The forces in Germany nominated
+Vitellius to the supreme authority; and Otho, either a voluptuary tired
+of life, or a craven incapable of exertion, committed suicide to save
+the miseries of civil war. But this calamity was averted by a nobler
+hand. Vitellius had only time to show that, in addition to the usual
+vices of the throne, he was addicted to the animal enjoyments of eating
+and drinking to an almost incredible degree, when he heard a voice from
+the walls of Jerusalem which hurled him from the seat he had so lately
+taken; for the legions engaged in that most memorable of sieges had
+decided on giving the empire of the world to the man who deserved it
+best, and had proclaimed their general, Flavius Vespasian, Imperator
+and Master of Rome.
+
+[A.D. 70.]
+
+Now we will pause, for we have come to the year seventy of this
+century, and a fit breathing-time to look round us and see what
+condition mankind has fallen into within a hundred years of the end of
+the Republic. We leave out of view the great empires of the farther
+East, where battles were won, and dynasties established on the plains
+of Hindostan, and within the Chinese Wall. The extent of our knowledge
+of Oriental affairs is limited to the circumference of the Roman
+power. Following that vast circle, we see it on all sides surrounded by
+tribes and nations who derive their sole illumination from its light,
+for unless the Roman conquests had extended to the confines of those
+barbaric states, we should have known nothing of their existence.
+Beyond that ring of fire it is almost matter of conjecture what must
+have been going on. Yet we learn from the traditions of many peoples,
+and can guess with some accuracy from the occurrences of a later
+period, what was the condition of those "outsiders," and what were
+their feelings and intentions with regard to the civilized portions of
+the world. Bend your eyes in any direction you please, and what names,
+what thoughts, suggest themselves to our minds! We see swarms of wild
+adventurers with wives and cattle traversing with no definite object
+the uncultivated districts beyond the Danube; occasionally pitching
+their tents, or even forming more permanent establishments, around
+the roots of Caucasus and north of the Caspian Sea, where grass was
+more plentiful, and hills or marshes formed an easily defended barrier
+against enemies as uncivilized as themselves. Coming from no certain
+region--that is, forgetting in a few years of wandering the precise
+point from which they set out, pushed forward by the advancing waves
+of great national migrations in their rear--moving onward across the
+upper fields of Europe, but keeping themselves still cautiously from
+actual contact with the Roman limits, from those hordes of homeless,
+lawless savages are derived the most polished and greatest nations
+of the present day. Forming into newer combinations, and taking
+different names, their identity is scarcely to be recognised when,
+three or four centuries after this, they come into the daylight of
+history; but nobody can doubt that, during these preliminary ages,
+they were gathering their power together, hereafter, under the
+impulse of fresh additions, to be hurled like a dammed-up river upon
+the prostrate realm, carrying ruin and destruction in their course,
+but no less certainly than the overflowing Nile leaving the germs of
+future fertility, and enriching with newer vegetation the fields they
+had so ruthlessly submerged. And year by year the mighty mass goes on
+accumulating. The northern plains become peopled no one knows how. The
+vast forests eastward of the Rhine receive new accessions of warriors,
+who rapidly assimilate with the old. United in one common object of
+retaining the wild freedom of their tribe, and the possession of the
+lands they have seized, they have opposed the advance of the Roman
+legions into the uncultivated districts they call their own; they
+have even succeeded in destroying the military forces which guarded
+the Rhine, and have with difficulty been restrained from crossing
+the great river by a strong line of forts and castles, of which the
+remains astonish the traveller of the present day, as, with Murray's
+Guide-Book in his hand, he gazes upon their ruins between Bingen and
+Aix-la-Chapelle.
+
+Repelled by these barriers, they cluster thicker than ever in the woods
+and valleys, to which the Romans have no means of penetrating. Southern
+Gaul submits, and becomes a civilized outpost of the central power; but
+far up in the wild regions of the north, and even to the eastward of
+the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, the assemblage goes on. Scandinavia
+itself becomes over-crowded by the perpetual arrival of thousands of
+these armed and expatriated families, and sends her teeming populations
+to the east and south. But all these incidents, I must remind you,
+are occurring in darkness. We only know that the desert is becoming
+peopled with crowded millions, and that among them all there floats
+a confused notion of the greatness of the Roman power, the wealth
+of the cities and plains of Italy; and that, clustering in thicker
+swarms on the confines of civil government, the watchful eyes of
+unnumbered savage warriors are fixed on the territories lying rich
+and beautiful within the protection of the Roman name. So the whole
+Roman boundary gets gradually surrounded by barbaric hosts. Their
+trampings may be heard as they marshal their myriads and skirt the
+upper boundaries of Thrace; but as yet no actual conflict has occurred.
+A commotion may become observable among some of the farthest distant
+of the half intimidated of the German tribes; or an enterprising
+Roman settler beyond the frontier, or travelling merchant, who has
+penetrated to the neighbourhood of the Baltic, may bring back amazing
+reports of the fresh accumulations of unknown hordes of strange and
+threatening aspect; but the luxurious public in Rome receive them
+merely as interesting anecdotes to amuse their leisure or gratify their
+curiosity: they have no apprehension of what may be the result of those
+multitudinous arrivals. They do not foresee the gradual drawing closer
+to their outward defences--the struggle to get within their guarded
+lines--the fight that is surely coming between a sated, dull, degraded
+civilization on the one side, and a hungry, bold, ambitious savagery
+on the other. They trust every thing to the dignity of the Eternal
+City, and the watchfulness of the Emperor: for to this, his one idea
+of irresistible power equally for good or evil, the heart of the Roman
+was sure to turn. And for the eleven years of the reigns of Vespasian
+and Titus, the Roman did not appeal for protection against a foreign
+enemy in vain. Rome itself was compensated by shows and buildings--with
+a triumph and an arch--for the degradation in which it was held. But
+prætor and proconsul still pursued their course of oppressing the
+lands committed to their defence; and the subject, stripped of his
+goods, and hopeless of getting his wrongs redressed, had only the
+satisfaction of feeling that the sword he trembled at was in the hand
+of a man and not of an incarnate demon. A poor consolation this when
+the blow was equally fatal. Vespasian, in fact, was fonder of money
+than of blood, and the empire rejoiced in having exchanged the agony of
+being murdered for the luxury of being fleeced. [A.D. 79.] With Titus,
+whom the fond gratitude of his subjects named the Delight of the human
+race, a new age of happiness was about to open on the world; but all
+the old horrors of the Cæsars were revived and magnified when he was
+succeeded, after a reign of two years, by his brother, the savage and
+cowardly Domitian. [A.D. 81.] With the exception of the brief period
+between the years 70 and 81, the whole century was spent in suffering
+and inflicting pain. The worst excesses of Nero and Caligula were now
+imitated and surpassed. The bonds of society became rapidly loosened.
+As in a shipwreck, the law of self-preservation was the only rule.
+No man could rely upon his neighbour, or his friend, or his nearest
+of kin. There were spies in every house, and an executioner at every
+door. An unconsidered word maliciously reported, or an accusation
+entirely false, brought death to the rich and great. To the unhappy
+class of men who in other times are called the favourites of fortune,
+because they are born to the possession of great ancestral names and
+hereditary estates, there was no escape from the jealous and avaricious
+hatred of the Emperor. If a patrician of this description lived in the
+splendour befitting his rank--he was currying favour with the mob! If
+he lived retired--he was trying to gain reputation by a pretence of
+giving up the world! If he had great talents--he was dangerous to the
+state! If he was dull and stupid--oh! don't believe it--he was only an
+imitative Brutus, concealing his deep designs under the semblance of
+fatuity! If a man of distinguished birth was rich, it was not a fitting
+condition for a subject--if he was poor, he was likely to be seduced
+into the wildest enterprises. So the prisons were filled by calumny and
+suspicion, and emptied by the executioner. A dreadful century this--the
+worst that ever entered into tale or history; for the memory of former
+glories and comparative freedom was still recent. A man who was sixty
+years old, in the midst of the terrors of Tiberius, had associated
+in his youth with the survivors of the Civil War, with men who had
+embraced Brutus and Cassius; he had seen the mild administration of
+Augustus, and perhaps had supped with Virgil and Horace in the house
+of Mæcenas. And now he was tortured till he named a slave or freedman
+of the Emperor his heir, and then executed to expedite the succession.
+There was a hideous jocularity in some of these imperial proceedings,
+which, however, was no laughing-matter at the time. When a senator was
+very wealthy, it was no unusual thing for Tiberius and his successors
+to create themselves the rich man's nearest relations by a decree of
+the Senate. The person so honoured by this graft upon his family tree
+seldom survived the operation many days. The emperor took possession of
+the property as heir-at-law and next of kin; and mourned for his uncle
+or brother--as the case might be--with the most edifying decorum.
+
+But besides giving the general likeness of a period, it is necessary
+to individualize it still further by introducing, in the background of
+the picture, some incident by which it is peculiarly known, as we find
+Nelson generally represented with Trafalgar going on at the horizon,
+and Wellington sitting thoughtful on horseback in the foreground of the
+fire of Waterloo. Now, there cannot be a more distinguishing mark than
+a certain great military achievement which happened in the year 70 of
+this century, and is brought home to us, not only as a great historical
+event in itself, but as the commencement of a new era in human affairs,
+and the completion of a long line of threats and prophecies. This was
+the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. The accounts given us of this
+siege transcend in horror all other records of human sorrow. It was at
+the great annual feast of the Passover, when Jews from all parts of the
+world flocked to the capital of their nation to worship in the Temple,
+which to them was the earthly dwelling-place of Jehovah. The time was
+come, and they did not know it, when God was to be worshipped in spirit
+and in truth. More than a million strangers were resident within the
+walls. There was no room in house or hall for so vast a multitude; so
+they bivouacked in the streets, and lay thick as leaves in the courts
+of the holy place. Suddenly the Roman trumpets blew. The Jews became
+inspired with fanatical hatred of the enemy, and insane confidence that
+some miracle would be wrought for their deliverance. They deliberated,
+and chose for their leaders the wildest and most enthusiastic of the
+crowd. They refused the offers of mercy and reconciliation made to
+them by Titus. They sent back insulting messages to the Roman general,
+and stood expectant on the walls to see the idolatrous legions smitten
+by lightning or swallowed up by an earthquake. But Titus advanced his
+forces and hemmed in the countless multitude of men, and women, and
+children--few able to resist, but all requiring to be fed. Famine and
+pestilence came on; but still the mad fanatics of the Temple determined
+to persevere. They occasionally opened a gate and rushed out with the
+cry of "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" and were slaughtered
+by the unpitying hatred of the Roman soldiers. Their cruelty to
+their prisoners, when they succeeded in carrying off a few of their
+enemies, was great; but the patience of Titus at last gave way, and
+he soon bettered the instruction they gave him in pitilessness and
+blood. He drew a line of circumvallation closer round the city, and
+intercepted every supply; when deserters came over, he crucified them
+all round the trenches; when the worn-out people came forth, imploring
+to be suffered to pass through his ranks, he drove them back, that
+they might increase the scarcity by their lives, or the pestilence
+by adding to the heaps of unburied dead. Dissensions were raging all
+this time among the defenders themselves. They fought in the streets,
+in the houses, and heaped the floor and outcourts of the Temple with
+thousands of the slain. There was no help either from heaven or earth;
+eleven hundred thousand people had died of plague and the sword; and
+the rest were doomed to perish by more lingering torments. Nearest
+relations--sisters, brothers, fathers, wives--all forgot the ties of
+natural affection under this great necessity, and fought for a handful
+of meal, or the possession of some reptile's body if they were lucky
+enough to trace it to its hiding-place; and at last--the crown of all
+horrors--the daughter of Eleazer killed her own child and converted it
+into food. The measure of man's wrong and Heaven's vengeance was now
+full. The daily sacrifice ceased to be offered; voices were audible
+to the popular ear uttering in the Holy of Holies, "Let us go hence."
+The Romans rushed on--climbed over the neglected walls--forced their
+way into the upper Temple, and the gore flowed in streams so rapid and
+so deep that it seemed like a purple river! Large conduits had been
+made for the rapid conveyance away of the blood of bulls and goats
+offered in sacrifice; they all became choked now with the blood of
+the slaughtered people. At last the city was taken; the inhabitants
+were either dead or dying. Many were crushed as they lay expiring in
+the great tramplings of the triumphant Romans; many were recovered by
+food and shelter, and sold into slavery. The Temple and walls were
+levelled with the ground, and not one stone was left upon another. The
+plough passed over where palace and tower had been, and the Jewish
+dispensation was brought to a close.
+
+History in ancient days was as exclusive as the court newsman in ours,
+and never published the movements of anybody below a senator or a
+consul. All the Browns and Smiths were left out of consideration; and
+yet to us who live in the days when those families--with the Joneses
+and Robinsons--form the great majority both in number and influence,
+it would be very interesting to have any certain intelligence of their
+predecessors during the first furies of the Empire. We have but faint
+descriptions even of the aristocracy, but what we hear of them shows,
+more clearly than any thing else, the frightful effect on morals and
+manliness of so uncontrolled a power as was vested in the Cæsars, and
+teaches us that the worst of despotisms is that which is established by
+the unholy union of the dregs of the population and the ruling power,
+against the peace and happiness and security of the middle class. You
+see how this combination of tyrant and mob succeeded in crushing all
+the layers of society which lay between them, till there were left
+only two agencies in all the world--the Emperor on his throne, and the
+millions fed by his bounty. The hereditary nobility--the safest bulwark
+of a people and least dangerous support of a throne--were extirpated
+before the end of the century, and impartiality makes us confess that
+they fell by their own fault. As if the restraints of shame had been
+thrown off with the last hope of liberty, the whole population broke
+forth into the most incredible licentiousness. If the luxury of
+Lucullus had offended the common sense of propriety in the later days
+of the republic, there were numbers now who looked back upon his feasts
+as paltry entertainments, and on the wealth of Croesus as poverty. The
+last of the Pompeys, in the time of Caligula, had estates so vast, that
+navigable rivers larger than the Thames performed the whole of their
+course from their fountain-head to the sea without leaving his domain.
+There were spendthrifts in the time of Tiberius who lavished thousands
+of pounds upon a supper. The pillage of the world had fallen into the
+hands of a few favoured families, and their example had introduced a
+prodigality and ostentation unheard of before. No one who regarded
+appearances travelled anywhere without a troop of Numidian horsemen,
+and outriders to clear the way. He was followed by a train of mules
+and sumpter-horses loaded with his vases of crystal--his richly-carved
+cups and dishes of silver and gold. But this profusion had its natural
+result in debt and degradation. The patricians who had been rivals of
+the imperial splendour became dependants on the imperial gifts; and the
+grandson of the conqueror of a kingdom, or the proconsul of the half of
+Asia, sold his ancestral palace, lived for a while on the contemptuous
+bounty of his master, and sank in the next generation into the nameless
+mass. Others, more skilful, preserved or improved their fortunes while
+they rioted in expense. By threats or promises, they prevailed on
+the less powerful to constitute them their heirs; they traded on the
+strength, or talents, or the beauty of their slaves, and lent money
+at such usurious interest that the borrower tried in vain to escape
+the shackles of the law, and ended by becoming the bondsman of the
+kind-hearted gentleman who had induced him to accept the loan.
+
+If these were the habits of the rich, how were the poor treated? The
+free and penniless citizens of the capital were degraded and gratified
+at the same time. The wealthy vied with each other in buying the favour
+of the mob by shows and other entertainments, by gifts of money and
+donations of food. But when these arts failed, and popularity could
+no longer be obtained by merely defraying the expense of a combat of
+gladiators, the descendants of the old patricians--of the men who
+had bought the land on which the Gauls were encamped outside the
+gates of Rome--went down into the arena themselves and fought for
+the public entertainment. Laws indeed were passed even in the reign
+of Tiberius, and renewed at intervals after that time, against this
+shameful degradation, and the stage was interdicted to all who were
+not previously declared infamous by sentence of a court. But all was
+in vain. Ladies of the highest rank, and the loftiest-born of the
+nobility, actually petitioned for a decree of defamation, that they
+might give themselves up undisturbed to their favourite amusement. This
+perhaps added a zest to their enjoyment, and rapturous applauses must
+have hailed the entrance of the beautiful grandchild of Anthony or
+Agrippa, in the character and drapery of a warlike amazon--the louder
+the applause and greater the admiration. Yet in order to gratify them
+with such a sight, she had descended to the level of the convict, and
+received the brand of qualifying disgrace from a legal tribunal. But
+the faint barrier of this useless prohibition was thrown down by the
+policy and example of Domitian. The emperor himself appeared in the
+arena, and all restraint was at an end. Rather, there was a fury of
+emulation to copy so great a model, and "Rome's proud dames, whose
+garments swept the ground," forgot more than ever their rank and
+sex, and were proud, like their lovers and brothers, not merely to
+mount the stage in the lascivious costume of nymph or dryad, but to
+descend into the blood-stained lists of the Coliseum and murder each
+other with sword and spear. There is something strangely horrible in
+this transaction, when we read that it occurred for the first time in
+celebration of the games of Flora--the goddess of flowers and gardens,
+who, in old times, was worshipped under the blossomed apple-trees in
+the little orchards surrounding each cottage within the walls, and was
+propitiated with children's games and chaplets hung upon the boughs.
+But now the loveliest of the noble daughters of the city lay dead upon
+the trampled sand. What was the effect upon the populace of these
+extraordinary shows?
+
+Always stern and cruel, the Roman was now never satisfied unless with
+the spectacle of death. Sometimes in the midst of a play or pantomime
+the fierce lust of blood would seize him, and he would cry out for a
+combat of gladiators or nobles, who instantly obeyed; and after the
+fight was over, and the corpses removed, the play would go on as if
+nothing had occurred. The banners of the empire still continued to bear
+the initial letters of the great words--the Senate and people of Rome.
+We have now, in this rapid survey, seen what both those great names
+have come to--the Senate crawling at the feet of the emperor, and the
+people living on charity and shows. The slaves fared worst of all,
+for they were despised by rich and poor. The sated voluptuary whose
+property they were sometimes found an excitement to his jaded spirits
+by having them tortured in his sight. They were allowed to die of
+starvation when they grew old, unless they were turned to use, as was
+done by one of their possessors, Vidius Pollio, who cast the fattest of
+his domestics into his fish-pond to feed his lampreys. The only other
+classes were the actors and musicians, the dwarfs and the philosophers.
+They contributed by their wit, or their uncouth shape, or their
+oracular sentences, to the amusement of their employers, and were safe.
+They were licensed characters, and could say what they chose, protected
+by the long-drawn countenance of the stoic, or the comic grimaces of
+the buffoon. So early as the time of Nero, the people he tyrannized and
+flattered were not less ruthless than himself. In his cruelty--in his
+vanity--in his frivolity, and his entire devotion to the gratification
+of his passions--he was a true representative of the men over whom he
+ruled. Emperor and subject had even then become fitted for each other,
+and flowers, we are credibly told by the historians, were hung for many
+years upon his tomb.
+
+Humanity itself seemed to be sunk beyond the possibility of
+restoration; but we see now how necessary it was that our nature should
+reach its lowest point of depression to give full force to the great
+reaction which Christianity introduced. Men were slavishly bending at
+the footstool of a despot, trembling for life, bowed down by fear and
+misery, when suddenly it was reported that a great teacher had appeared
+for a while upon earth, and declared that all men were equal in the
+sight of God, for that God was the Father of all. The slave heard this
+in the intervals of his torture--the captive in his dungeon--the widow
+and the orphan. To the poor the gospel, or good news, was preached.
+It was this which made the trembling courtiers of the worst of the
+emperors slip out noiselessly from the palace, and hear from Paul of
+Tarsus or his disciples the new prospect that was opening on mankind.
+It spread quickly among those oppressed and hopeless multitudes. The
+subjection of the Roman empire--its misery and degradation--were only a
+means to an end. The harsher the laws of the tyrant, the more gracious
+seemed the words of Christ. The two masters were plainly set before
+them, which to choose. And who could hesitate? One said, "Tremble!
+suffer! die!" The other said, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and
+heavy laden, and I will give you rest!"
+
+
+
+
+                            SECOND CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       TRAJAN--(_continued._) Third Persecution of the Christians.
+
+  117. ADRIAN. Fourth Persecution of the Christians.
+
+  138. ANTONINUS PIUS.
+
+  161. MARCUS AURELIUS.
+
+  180. COMMODUS.
+
+  193. PERTINAX--DIDIUS, and NIGER--Defeated by
+
+  193. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+PLINY THE YOUNGER, PLUTARCH, SUETONIUS, JUVENAL, ARRIAN, ÆLIAN,
+PTOLEMY, (Geographer,) APPIAN, EPICTETUS, PAUSANIAS, GALEN,
+(Physician,) ATHENÆUS, TERTULLIAN, JUSTIN MARTYR, TATIAN, IRENÆUS,
+ATHENAGORAS, THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH, CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, MARCION,
+(Heretic.)
+
+
+
+
+                          THE SECOND CENTURY.
+
+                          THE GOOD EMPERORS.
+
+
+In looking at the second century, we see a total difference in the
+expression, though the main features continue unchanged. There is still
+the central power at Rome, the same dependence everywhere else; but the
+central power is beneficent and wise. As if tired of the hereditary
+rule of succession which had ended in such a monster as Domitian, the
+world took refuge in a new system of appointing its chiefs, and perhaps
+thought it a recommendation of each successive emperor that he had no
+relationship to the last. We shall accordingly find that, after this
+period, the hereditary principle is excluded. It was remarked that, of
+the twelve first Cæsars, only two had died a natural death--for even
+in the case of Augustus the arts of the poisoner were suspected--and
+those two were Vespasian and Titus, men who had no claim to such an
+elevation in right of lofty birth. Birth, indeed, had ceased to be a
+recommendation. All the great names of the Republic had been carefully
+rooted out. Few people were inclined to boast of their ancestry
+when the proof of their pedigree acted as a sentence of death; for
+there was no surer passport to destruction in the times of the early
+emperors than a connection with the Julian line, or descent from a
+historic family. No one, therefore, took the trouble to inquire into
+the genealogy of Nerva, the old and generous man who succeeded the
+monster Domitian. [A.D. 96.] His nomination to the empire elevated him
+at once out of the sphere of these inquiries, for already the same
+superstitious reverence surrounded the name of Augustus which spreads
+its inviolable sanctity on the throne of Eastern monarchs. Whoever sits
+upon that, by whatever title, or however acquired, is the legitimate
+and unquestioned king. No rival, therefore, started up to contest the
+position either of Nerva himself, or of the stranger he nominated to
+succeed him. [A.D. 102.] Men bent in humble acquiescence when they
+knew, in the third year of this century, that their master was named
+Trajan,--that he was a Spaniard by birth, and the best general of Rome.
+For eighty years after that date the empire had rest. Life and property
+were comparatively secure, and society flowed on peaceably in deep
+and well-ascertained channels. A man might have been born at the end
+of the reign of Domitian, and die in extreme old age under the sway
+of the last of the Antonines, and never have known of insecurity or
+oppression--
+
+    "Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
+     Could touch him farther!"
+
+No wonder those agreeable years were considered by the fond gratitude
+of the time, and the unavailing regrets of succeeding generations,
+the golden age of man. Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus
+Aurelius Antoninus--these are still great names, and are everywhere
+recognised as the most wonderful succession of sovereigns the world has
+ever seen. They are still called the "Good Emperors," the "Wise Rulers."
+
+It is easy, indeed, to be good in comparison with Nero, and wise in
+comparison with Claudius; but the effect of the example of those
+infamous tyrants made it doubly difficult to be either good or wise.
+The world had become so accustomed to oppression, that it seemed at
+first surprised at the change that had taken place. The emperors
+had to create a knowledge of justice before their just acts could
+be appreciated. The same opposition other men have experienced in
+introducing bad and cruel measures was roused by their introduction
+of wise and salutary laws. What! no more summary executions, nor
+forfeitures of fortunes, nor banishments to the Danube? All men equal
+before the dread tribunal of the imperial judge? The world was surely
+coming to an end, if the emperor did not now and then poison a senator,
+or stab his brother, or throw half a dozen courtiers to the beasts!
+It is likely enough that some of the younger Romans at first lamented
+those days of unlimited license and perpetual excitement; but in the
+course of time those wilder spirits must have died out, and the world
+gladly acquiesced in an existence of dull security and uninteresting
+peace. By the end of the reign of Trajan the records of the miseries of
+the last century must have been studied as curiosities--as historical
+students now look back on the extravagances and horrors of the French
+Revolution. Fortunately, men could not look forward to the times, more
+pitiable still, when their descendants should fall into greater sorrows
+than had been inflicted on mankind by the worst of the Cæsars, and they
+enjoyed their present immunity from suffering without any misgivings
+about the future. But a government which does every thing for a people
+renders it unable to do any thing for itself. The subject stood quietly
+by while the emperor filled all the offices of the State--guarded him,
+fed him, clothed him, treated him like a child, and reduced him at
+last to childlike dependence. An unjust proconsul, instead of being
+supported and encouraged in his exactions, was dismissed from his
+employment and forced to refund his ill-got gains,--the population,
+relieved from their oppressor, saw in his punishment the hand of an
+avenging Providence. The wakeful eye of the governor in Rome saw the
+hostile preparations of a tribe of barbarians beyond the Danube; and
+the legions, crossing the river, dispersed and subdued them before they
+had time to devastate the Roman fields. The peaceful colonist saw, in
+the suddenness of his deliverance, the foresight and benevolence of a
+divinity. No words were powerful enough to convey the sentiments of
+admiration awakened, by such vigour and goodness, in the breast of a
+luxurious and effeminate people; and accordingly, if we look a little
+closely into the personal attributes of the five good emperors, we
+shall see that some part of their glory is due to the exaggerations of
+love and gratitude.
+
+Nerva reigned but sixteen months, and had no time to do more than
+display his kindness of disposition, and to name his successor. This
+was Trajan, a man who was not even a Roman by birth, but who was
+thought by his patron to have retained, in the distant province of
+Spain where he was born, the virtues which had disappeared in the
+centre and capital of the empire. The deficiency of Nerva's character
+had been its softness and want of force. The stern vigilance of Trajan
+made ample amends. He was the best-known soldier of his time, and
+revived once more the terror of the Roman arms. He conquered wherever
+he appeared; but his warlike impetuosity led him too far. He trod in
+the footsteps of Alexander the Great, and advanced farther eastward
+than any of the Roman armies had previously done. But his victories
+were fruitless: he attached no new country permanently to the empire,
+and derives all his glory now from the excellence of his internal
+administration. He began his government by declaring himself as
+subordinate to the laws as the meanest of the people. His wife, Pompeia
+Plotina, was worthy of such a husband, and said, on mounting the steps
+of the palace, that she should descend them unaltered from what she
+was. The emperor visited his friends on terms of equality, and had the
+greatness of mind, generally deficient in absolute princes, to bestow
+his confidence on those who deserved it. Somebody, a member perhaps
+of the old police who had made such fortunes in the time of Domitian
+by alarming the tyrant with stories of plots and assassinations, told
+Trajan one day to beware of his minister, who intended to murder him
+on the first opportunity. "Come again, and tell me all particulars
+to-morrow," said the emperor. In the mean time he went unbidden and
+supped with the accused. He was shaved by his barber--was attended for
+a mock illness by his surgeon--bathed in his bath--and ate his meat
+and drank his wine. On the following day the informer came. "Ah!" said
+Trajan, interrupting him in his accusation of Surenus, "if Surenus had
+wished to kill me, he would have done it last night."
+
+[A.D. 117.]
+
+The emperor died when returning from a distant expedition in the
+East, and Pompeia declared that he had long designated Adrian as his
+successor. This evidence was believed, and Adrian, also a Spaniard by
+birth, and eminent as a military commander, began his reign. Trajan had
+been a general--a conqueror, and had extended for a time the boundaries
+of the Roman power. But Adrian believed the empire was large enough
+already. He withdrew the eagles from the half-subdued provinces, and
+contented himself with the natural limits which it was easy to defend.
+But within those limits his activity was unexampled. He journeyed from
+end to end of his immense domain, and for seventeen years never rested
+in one spot. News did not travel fast in those days--but the emperor
+did. Long before the inhabitants of Syria and Egypt heard that he had
+left Rome on an expedition to Britain, he had rushed through Gaul,
+crossed the Channel, inquired into the proceedings of the government
+officers at York, given orders for a wall to keep out the Caledonians,
+(an attempt which has proved utterly vain at all periods of English
+history, down to the present day,) and suddenly made his appearance
+among the bewildered dwellers in Ephesus or Carthage, to call
+tax-gatherers to order and to inspect the discipline of his troops.
+The master's eye was everywhere, for nobody knew on what point it was
+fixed. And such a master no kingdom has been able to boast of since.
+His talents were universal. He read every thing and forgot nothing.
+He was a musician, a poet, a philosopher. He studied medicine and
+mineralogy, and plead causes like Cicero, and sang like a singer at the
+opera. Perhaps it is difficult to judge impartially of the qualities
+of a Roman emperor. One day he found fault on a point of grammar with
+a learned man of the name of Favorinus. Favorinus could have defended
+himself and justified his language, but continued silent. His friends
+said to him, "Why didn't you answer the emperor's objections?" "Do
+you think," said the sensible grammarian, "I am going to enter into
+disputes with a man who commands thirty legions?" But the greatness
+of Adrian's character is, that he _did_ command those thirty legions.
+He was severe and just; and Roman discipline was never more exact.
+The result of this was shown on the grand scale only once during this
+reign, and that was in the case of the revolted Jews. We have seen the
+state to which their Temple at Jerusalem was reduced by Titus. Fifty
+years had now passed, and the passionate love of the people for their
+native land had congregated them once more within their renovated
+walls, and raised up another temple on the site of the old. They still
+expected the Messiah, for the Messiah to them represented vengeance
+upon the Romans and triumph over the world. An impostor of the name
+of Barcho-chebas led three hundred thousand of them into the field.
+They were mad with national hatred, and inspired with fanatical hope.
+It took three years of desperate effort to quell this sedition; and
+then Adrian had his revenge. The country was laid waste. Fifty towns
+and a thousand villages were sacked and burned. The population, once
+more nearly exhausted by war and famine, furnished slaves, which were
+sold all over the East. Jerusalem itself felt the conqueror's hatred
+most. Its name was blotted out--it was called Ælia Capitolina; and,
+with ferocious mockery, over the gate of the new capital of Judea
+was affixed the statue of the unclean beast, the abomination of the
+Israelite. But nothing could keep the Jews from visiting the land of so
+many promises and so much glory. Whenever they had it in their power,
+they crept back from all quarters, if it were only to weep and die amid
+the ruins of their former power.
+
+Trajan and Adrian had now made the world accustomed to justice in its
+rulers; and as far as regards their public conduct, this character
+is not to be denied. Yet in their private relations they were not so
+faultless. Trajan the great and good was a drunkard. To such a pitch
+did he carry this vice, that he gave orders that after a certain hour
+of the day none of his commands were to be obeyed. Adrian was worse: he
+was regardless of life; he put men to death for very small offences. An
+architect was asked how he liked a certain series of statues designed
+by the emperor and ranged in a sitting attitude round a temple which
+he had built. The architect was a humourist, not a courtier. "If the
+goddesses," he said, "take it into their heads to rise, they will never
+be able to get out at the door." A poor criticism, and not a good
+piece of wit, but not bad enough to justify his being beheaded; yet
+the answer cost the poor man his life. As Adrian grew older, he grew
+more reckless of the pain he gave. He had a brother-in-law ninety years
+of age, and there was a grandson of the old man aged eighteen. He had
+them both executed on proof or suspicion of a conspiracy. The popular
+feeling was revolted by the sight of the mingled blood of two sufferers
+so nearly related, at the opposite extremities of life. The old man,
+just before he died, protested his innocence, and uttered a revengeful
+prayer that Adrian might wish to die and find death impossible! This
+imprecation was fulfilled. The emperor was tortured with disease, and
+longed for deliverance in vain. He called round him his physicians, and
+priests, and sorcerers, but they could give him no relief. He begged
+his slaves to kill him, and stabbed himself with a dagger; but in
+spite of all he could not die. Lingering on, and with no cessation of
+his pain, he must have had sad thoughts of the past, and no pleasant
+anticipations of the future, if, as we learn from the verses attributed
+to him, he believed in a future state. His lines still remain, but are
+indebted to Pope, who paraphrased them, for their Christian spirit and
+lofty aspiration:--
+
+    "Vital spark of heavenly flame!
+     Quit, oh, quit this mortal frame!
+     Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,
+     Oh, the pain, the bliss of dying!
+     Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,
+     And let me languish into life!
+
+    "Hark! they whisper! angels say,
+     Sister spirit, come away!
+     What is this absorbs me quite,
+     Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
+     Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?
+     Tell me, my soul, can this be death?
+
+    "The world recedes; it disappears!
+     Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears
+       With sounds seraphic ring:
+     Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
+     O Grave! where is thy victory?
+       O Death! where is thy sting?"
+
+His wish was at last achieved. He died aged sixty-two, having reigned
+twenty-one years. In travelling and building his whole time was spent.
+Temples, theatres, bridges--wherever he went, these evidences of his
+wisdom or magnificence remained. He persecuted the Christians, but
+found persecution a useless proceeding against a sect who gloried in
+martyrdom, and whose martyrdoms were only followed by new conversions.
+He tried what an opposite course of conduct would do, and is said to
+have intended to erect a temple to Jesus Christ. "Take care what you
+do," said one of his counsellors: "if you permit an altar to the God of
+the Christians, those of the other gods will be deserted."
+
+[A.D. 138.]
+
+But now came to supreme authority the good and wise Antoninus Pius, who
+was as blameless in his private conduct as in his public acts. His fame
+extended farther than the Roman arms had ever reached. Distant kings,
+in lands of which the names were scarcely known in the Forum, took him
+as arbiter of their differences. The decision of the great man in Rome
+gave peace on the banks of the Indus. The barbarians themselves on the
+outskirts of his dominions were restrained by respect for a character
+so pure and power so wisely used. An occasional revolt in Britain
+was quelled by his lieutenants--an occasional conspiracy against his
+authority was caused by the discontent which turbulent spirits feel
+when restrained by law. The conspiracies were repressed, and on one
+occasion two of the ringleaders were put to death. The Senate was for
+making further inquiry into the plot. "Let us stop here," said the
+emperor. "I do not wish to find out how many people I have displeased."
+Some stories are told of him, which show how little he affected the
+state of a despotic ruler. A pedantic philosopher at Smyrna, of the
+name of Polemo, returned from a journey at a late hour, and found the
+proconsul of Rome lodged in his house. This proconsul was Antonine,
+who at that time had been appointed to the office by Adrian. Instead
+of being honoured by such a guest, the philosopher stormed and raged,
+and made so much noise, that in the middle of the night the sleepless
+proconsul left the house and found quarters elsewhere. When years
+passed on, and Antonine was on the throne, Polemo had the audacity to
+present himself as an old acquaintance. "Ha! I remember him," said the
+emperor: "let him have a room in the palace, but don't let him leave
+it night or day." The imprisonment was not long, for we find the same
+Polemo hero of another anecdote during this visit to Rome. He hissed
+a performer in the theatre, and stamped and screeched, and made such
+a disturbance that the unfortunate actor had to leave the stage. He
+complained of Polemo to the emperor. "Polemo!" exclaimed Antonine; "he
+forced you off the stage in the middle of the day, but he drove me
+from his house in the middle of the night, and yet I never appealed."
+It would be pleasant if we could learn that Polemo did not get off so
+easily. But the twenty-two years of this reign of mildness and probity
+were brought to a close, and Marcus Aurelius succeeded in 161.
+
+[A.D. 161]
+
+Marcus Aurelius did no dishonour to the discernment of his friend and
+adoptive father Antoninus Pius. Studying philosophy and practising
+self-command, he emulated and surpassed the virtues of the self-denying
+leaders of his sect, and only broke through the rule he imposed
+on himself of clemency and mildness, when he found philosophy in
+danger of being counted a vain deceit, and the active duties of human
+brotherhood preferred to the theoretic rhapsodies on the same subject
+with which his works were filled. Times began to change. Men were
+dissatisfied with the unsubstantial dream of Platonist and Stoic. There
+were symptoms of an approaching alteration in human affairs, which
+perplexed the thoughtful and gave promise of impunity to the bad.
+Perhaps a man who, clothed in the imperial purple, bestowed so much
+study on the intellectual niceties of the Sophists, and endeavoured
+to keep his mind in a fit state for abstract speculation by scourging
+and starving his body, was not so fitted for the approaching crisis
+as a rougher and less contemplative nature would have been. Britain
+was in commotion, there were tumults on the Rhine, and in Armenia the
+Parthians cut the Roman legions to pieces. And scarcely were those
+troubles settled and punished, when a worse calamity befell the Roman
+empire. Its inviolability became a boast of the past. The fearful
+passions for conquest and rapine of the border-barbarians were roused.
+Barbaric cohorts encamped on the fields of Italy, and the hosts of wild
+men from the forests of the North pillaged the heaped-up treasures
+of the garden of the world. The emperor flew to the scene of danger,
+but the fatal word had been said. Italy was accessible from the Alps
+and from the sea; and, though a bloody defeat at Aquileia flung back
+the invaders, disordered and dispirited, over the mountains they had
+descended with such hopes, the struggle was but begun. The barbarians
+felt their power, and the old institutions of Rome were insufficient
+to resist future attacks. But to the aid of the old Roman institutions
+a new institution came, an institution which was destined to repel the
+barbarians by overcoming barbarism itself, and save the dignity of
+Rome by giving it the protection of the Cross. But at present--that
+is, during the reign of the philosophic Marcus Aurelius--a persecution
+raged against the Christians which seemed to render hopeless all
+chance of their success. The mild laws of Trajan and Adrian, and
+the favourable decrees of Antoninus Pius, were set aside by the
+contemptuous enmity of this explorer of the mysterious heights of
+virtue, which occasionally carried him out of sight of the lower but
+more important duties of life. An unsocial tribe the Christians were,
+who rigorously shut their eyes to the beauties of abstract perfection,
+and preferred the plain orders of the gospel to the most ambitious
+periods of the emperor. But the persecution of a sect so small and so
+obscure as the Christian was at that time, is scarcely perceptible as
+a diminution of the sum of human happiness secured to the world by
+the gentleness and equity which regulated all his actions. Here is an
+example of the way in which he treated rebels against his authority.
+An insurrection broke out in Syria and the East, headed by a pretended
+descendant of the patriot Cassius, who had conspired against Julius
+Cæsar. The emperor hurried to meet him--some say to resign the empire
+into his hands, to prevent the effusion of blood; but the usurper died
+in an obscure commotion, and nothing was left but to take vengeance
+on his adherents. This is the letter the conqueror wrote to the
+Senate:--"I beseech you, conscript Fathers! not to punish the guilty
+with too much rigour. Let no Senator be put to death. Let the banished
+return to their country. I wish I could give back their lives to those
+who have died in this quarrel. Revenge is unworthy of an emperor. You
+will pardon, therefore, the children of Cassius, his son-in-law, and
+his wife. Pardon, did I say? Ah! what crime have they committed? Let
+them live in safety, let them retain all that Cassius possessed. Let
+them live in whatever place they choose, to be a monument of your
+clemency and mine."
+
+In such hands as these the fortune of mankind was safe. A pity
+that the father's feelings got the better of his judgment in the
+choice of his successor. It is the one blot on his otherwise perfect
+disinterestedness. In dying, with such a monster as Commodus ready
+to leap into his seat, he must have felt how inexpressibly valuable
+his life would be to the Roman people. He perhaps saw the danger to
+which he exposed the world; for he committed his son to the care of
+his wisest counsellors, and begged him to continue the same course of
+government he had pursued. Perhaps he was tired of life, perhaps he
+sought refuge in his self-denying philosophy from the prospect he saw
+before him of a state of perpetual struggle and eventual overthrow.
+When the Tribune came for the last time to ask the watchword of the
+day, "Go to the rising sun," he said; "for me, I am just going to set."
+
+And here the history of the Second Century should close. It is painful
+to go back again to the hideous scenes of anarchy and crime from which
+we have been delivered so long. What must the sage counsellors, the
+chosen companions and equals in age of the Antonines, have thought
+when all at once the face of affairs, which they must have believed
+eternal, was changed?--when the noblest and wisest in the land were
+again thrown heedlessly into the arena without trial?--when spies
+watched every meal, and the ferocious murderer on the throne seemed to
+gloat over the struggles of his victims? Yet, if they had reflected
+on the inevitable course of events, they must have seen that a
+government depending on the character of one man could never be relied
+on. Where, indeed, could any element of security be found? The very
+ground-work of society was overthrown. There was no independent body
+erect amid the general prostration at the footstool of the emperor.
+Local self-government had ceased except in name. All the towns which
+hitherto had been subordinate to Rome, but endowed at the same time
+with privileges which were worth defending, had been absorbed into the
+great whirlpool of imperial centralization, and were admitted to the
+rights of Roman citizenship,--now of little value, since it embraced
+every quarter of the empire. Jupiter and Juno, and the herd of effete
+gods and goddesses, if they had ever held any practical influence
+over the minds of men, had long sunk into contempt, except in so far
+as their rich establishments were defended by persons interested in
+their maintenance, and the processions and gaudy display of a foul and
+meretricious worship were pleasing to the depraved taste of the mob.
+But the religious principle, as a motive of action, or as a point of
+combination, was at an end. Augurs were still appointed, and laughed
+at the uselessness of their office; oracles were still uttered, and
+ridiculed as the offspring of ignorance and imposture; conflicting
+deities fought for pre-eminence, or compromised their differences by an
+amalgamation of their altars, and perhaps a division of their estates.
+It was against this state of society the early Fathers directed their
+warnings and denunciations. The world did certainly lie in darkness,
+and it was indispensable to warn the followers of Christ not to be
+conformed to the fashion of that fleeting time. Some, to escape the
+contagion of this miserable condition, when men were without hope, and
+without even the wretched consolation which a belief in a false god
+would have given them, fled to the wilds and caves. Hermits escaped
+equally the perils of sin and the hostility of the heathen. Believers
+were exhorted to flee from contamination, and some took the words
+in their literal meaning. But not all. Many remained, and fought the
+good fight in the front of the battle, as became the soldiers of the
+cross. In the midst of the anarchy and degradation which characterized
+the last years of the century, a society was surely and steadily
+advancing towards its full development, bound by rules in the midst
+of the helplessness of external law, and combined by strong faith,
+in a world of utter unbelief--an empire within an empire--soon to be
+the only specimen left either of government or mutual obligation, and
+finally to absorb into its fresh and still-spreading organization the
+withered and impotent authority which had at first seen in it its enemy
+and destroyer, and found it at last its refuge and support. Yet at
+this very time the empire had never appeared so strong. By a stroke of
+policy, which the event proved to be injudicious, Marcus Aurelius, in
+the hope of diminishing the number of his enemies, had converted many
+thousands of the barbarians into his subjects. They had settlements
+assigned them within the charmed ring. What they had not been able to
+obtain by the sword was now assured to them by treaty. But the unity of
+the Roman empire by this means was destroyed. Men were admitted within
+the citadel who had no reverence implanted in them from their earliest
+years for the majesty of the Roman name. They saw the riches contained
+in the stronghold, and were only anxious to open the gates to their
+countrymen who were still outside the walls.
+
+But before we enter on the downward course, and since we are now
+arrived at the period of the greatest apparent force and extent of the
+Roman empire, let us see what it consisted of, and what was the real
+amount of its power.
+
+Viewed in comparison with some of the monarchies of the present day,
+neither its extent of territory, nor amount of population, nor number
+of soldiers, is very surprising. The Queen of England reigns over more
+subjects, and commands far mightier fleets and armies, than any of
+the Roman emperors. The empire of Russia is more extensive, and yet
+the historians of a few generations ago are lost in admiration of the
+power of Rome. The whole military force of the empire amounted to four
+hundred and fifty thousand men. The total number of vessels did not
+exceed a thousand. But see what were the advantages Rome possessed in
+the compactness of its territory and the unity of its government. The
+great Mediterranean Sea, peopled and cultivated on both its shores, was
+but a peaceful lake, on which the Roman galley had no enemy to fear,
+and the merchant-ship dreaded nothing but the winds and waves. There
+were no fortresses to be garrisoned on what are now the boundaries of
+jealous or hostile kingdoms. If the great circuit of the Roman State
+could be protected from barbarian inroads, the internal defence of all
+that vast enclosure could be left to the civil power. If the Black Sea
+and the Sea of Azoff could be kept clear of piratical adventurers, the
+broad highway of the Mediterranean was safe. A squadron near Gibraltar,
+a squadron at the Dardanelles, and the tribes which might possibly
+venture in from the ocean--the tribes which, slipping down from the
+Don or the Dnieper, might thread their way through the Hellespont and
+emerge into the Egean--were caught at their first appearance; and when
+the wisdom of the Romans had guarded the mouths of the Danube from the
+descent, in canoe or coracle, of the wild settlers on its upper banks,
+the peace and commerce of the whole empire were secured. With modern
+Europe the case is very different. There are boundaries to be guarded
+which occupy more soldiers than the territories are worth. Lines are
+arbitrarily fixed across the centre of a plain, or along the summit
+of a mountain, which it is a case of war to pass. Belgium defends
+her flats with a hundred thousand men, and the marshes of Holland
+are secured by sixty thousand Dutch. The State of Dessau in Germany,
+threatens its neighbours with fifteen hundred soldiers, while Reuss
+guards its dignity and independence with three hundred infantry and
+fifty horse. But the Great Powers, as they are called, take away from
+the peaceable and remunerative employments of trade or agriculture an
+amount of labour which would be an incalculable increase to the riches
+and happiness of the world. The aggregate soldiery of Europe is upwards
+of five millions of men,--just eleven times the largest calculation
+of the Roman legions. The ships of Europe--to the smaller of which
+the greatest galleys of the ancient world would scarcely serve as
+tenders--amount to 2113. The number of guns they carry, against which
+there is nothing we can take as a measure of value in ancient warfare,
+but which are now the greatest and surest criterions of military power,
+amounts to 45,367. But this does not give so clear a view of the
+alteration in relative power as is yielded by an inspection of some
+of the separate items. Gaul, included within the Rhine, was kept in
+order by six or seven legions. The French empire has on foot an army of
+six hundred and fifty thousand men, and a fleet of four hundred sail.
+Britain, which was garrisoned by thirty thousand men, had, in 1855, an
+army at home and abroad of six hundred and sixty thousand men, and a
+fleet of five hundred and ninety-one ships of war, with an armament of
+seventeen thousand guns. The disjointed States which now constitute the
+Empire of Austria, and which occupied eight legions in their defence,
+are now in possession of an army of six hundred thousand men; and
+Prussia, whose array exceeds half a million of soldiers, was unheard of
+except in the discussions of geographers.[A]
+
+[A.D. 181.]
+
+With the death of the excellent Marcus Aurelius the golden age came to
+a close. Commodus sat on the throne, and renewed the wildest atrocities
+of the previous century. Nero was not more cruel--Domitian was not so
+reckless of human life. He fought in the arena against weakly-armed
+adversaries, and slew them without remorse. He polluted the whole
+city with blood, and made money by selling permissions to murder.
+Thirteen years exhausted the patience of the world, and a justifiable
+assassination put an end to his life. There was an old man of the
+name of Pertinax, originally a nickname derived from his obstinate or
+pertinacious disposition, who now made his appearance on the throne
+and perished in three months. It chanced that a certain rich man of
+the name of Didius was giving a supper the night of the murder to some
+friends. The dishes were rich, and the wine delicious. Inspired by
+the good cheer, the guests said, "Why don't you buy the empire? The
+soldiers have proclaimed that they will give it to the highest bidder."
+Didius knew the amount of his treasure, and was ambitious: he got up
+from table and hurried to the Prætorian camp. On the way he met the
+mutilated body of the murdered Pertinax, dragged through the streets
+with savage exultation. Nothing daunted, he arrived at the soldiers'
+tents. Another had been before him--Sulpician, the father-in-law and
+friend of the late emperor. A bribe had been offered to each soldier,
+so large that they were about to conclude the bargain; but Didius bade
+many sesterces more. The greedy soldiery looked from one to the other,
+and shouted with delight, as each new advance was made. [A.D. 193.] At
+last Sulpician was silent, and Didius had purchased the Roman world at
+the price of upwards of £200 to each soldier of the Prætorian guard. He
+entered the palace in state, and concluded the supper, which had been
+interrupted at his own house, on the viands prepared for Pertinax. But
+the excitement of the auction-room was too pleasant to be left to the
+troops in Rome. Offers were made to the legions in all the provinces,
+and Didius was threatened on every side. Even the distant garrisons of
+Britain named a candidate for the throne; and Claudius Albinus assumed
+the imperial purple, and crossed over into Gaul. More irritated still,
+the army in Syria elected its general, Pescennius Niger, emperor, and
+he prepared to dispute the prize; but quietly, steadily, with stern
+face and unrelenting heart, advancing from province to province,
+keeping his forces in strict subjection, and laying claim to supreme
+authority by the mere strength of his indomitable will, came forward
+Septimius Severus, and both the pretenders saw that their fate was
+sealed. Illyria and Gaul recognised his title at once. Albinus was
+happy to accept from him the subordinate title of Cæsar, and to rule as
+his lieutenant. Didius, whose bargain turned out rather ill, besought
+him to be content with half the empire. Severus slew the messengers
+who brought this proposition, and advanced in grim silence. The Senate
+assembled, and, by way of a pleasant reception for the Illyrian chief,
+requested Didius to prepare for death. The executioners found him
+clinging to life with unmanly tenacity, and killed him when he had
+reigned but seventy days. One other competitor remained, the general of
+the Syrian army--the closest friend of Severus, but now separated from
+him by the great temptation of an empire in dispute. This was Niger,
+from whom an obstinate resistance was expected, as he was equally
+famous for his courage and his skill. But fortune was on the side of
+Severus. Niger was conquered after a short struggle, and his head
+presented to the victor. Was Albinus still to live, and approach so
+near the throne as to have the rank of Cæsar? Assassins were employed
+to murder him, but he escaped their assault. The treachery of Severus
+brought many supporters to his rival. The Roman armies were ranged
+in hostile camps. Severus again was fortunate, and Albinus, dashing
+towards him to engage in combat, was slain before his eyes. He watched
+his dying agonies for some time, and then forced his horse to trample
+on the corpse. A man of harsh, implacable nature--not so much cruel as
+impenetrable to human feelings, and perhaps forming a just estimate
+of the favourable effect upon his fortunes of a disposition so calm,
+and yet so relentless. The Prætorians found they had appointed their
+master, and put the sword into his hand. He used it without remorse.
+He terrified the boldest with his imperturbable stillness; he summoned
+the seditious soldiery to wait on him at his camp. They were to come
+without arms, without their military dress, almost like suppliants,
+certainly not like the ferocious libertines they had been when they
+had sold the empire at the highest price. "Whoever of you wishes to
+live," said Severus, frowning coldly, "will depart from this, and
+never come within thirty leagues of Rome. Take their horses," he added
+to the other troops who had surrounded the Prætorians, "take their
+accoutrements, and chase them out of my sight." Did the Senate receive
+a milder treatment? On sending them the head of Albinus, he had written
+to the Conscript Fathers alarming them with the most dreadful threats.
+And now the time of execution had come. He made them an oration in
+praise of the proscriptions of Marius and Sylla, and forced them to
+deify the tyrant Commodus, who had hated them all his life. He then
+gave a signal to his train, and the streets ran with blood. All who
+had borne high office, all who were of distinguished birth, all who
+were famous for their wealth or popular with the citizens, were put
+to death. He crossed over to England and repressed a sedition there.
+His son Caracalla accompanied him, and commenced his career of warlike
+ardour and frightful ferocity, which can only be explained on the
+ground of his being mad. He tried even to murder his father, in open
+day, in the sight of the soldiers. He was stealing upon the old man,
+when a cry from the legion made him turn round. His inflexible eye fell
+upon Caracalla--the sword dropped from his unfilial hand--and dreadful
+anticipations of vengeance filled the assembly. The son was pardoned,
+but his accomplices, whether truly or falsely accused, perished by
+cruel deaths. At last the emperor felt his end approach. He summoned
+his sons Caracalla and Geta into his presence, recommended them to live
+in unity, and ended by the advice which has become the standing maxim
+of military despots, "Be generous to the soldiers, and trample on all
+beside."
+
+With this hideous incarnation of unpitying firmness on the
+throne--hopeless of the future, and with dangers accumulating on every
+side, the Second Century came to an end, leaving the amazing contrast
+between its miserable close and the long period of its prosperity by
+which it will be remembered in all succeeding time.
+
+
+
+
+                            THIRD CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+  A.D.
+
+            SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS--(_continued._) Fifth Persecution of the
+              Christians.
+
+  211.      CARACALLA and GETA.
+
+  217.      MACRINUS.
+
+  218.      HELIOGABALUS.
+
+  222.      ALEXANDER SEVERUS.
+
+  235.      MAXIMIN. Sixth Persecution.
+
+  238.      MAXIMUS and BALBINUS
+
+  238.      GORDIAN.
+
+  244.      PHILIP THE ARABIAN.
+
+  249.      DECIUS. Seventh Persecution.
+
+  251.      VIBIUS.
+
+  251.      GALLUS.
+
+  254.      VALERIAN. Eighth Persecution.
+
+  260.      GALLIEN.
+
+  268.      CLAUDIUS THE SECOND.
+
+  270.      AURELIAN. Ninth Persecution.
+
+  275.      TACITUS.
+
+  276.      FLORIAN.
+
+  277.      PROBUS.
+
+  278.      CARUS.
+
+  278.      CARINUS and NUMERIAN.
+
+  284.      DIOCLETIAN and MAXIMIAN. Tenth and Last Persecution.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, DION CASSIUS, ORIGEN, CYPRIAN, PLOTINUS,
+LONGINUS, HIPPOLITUS PORTUENSIS, JULIUS AFRICANUS CELSUS, ORIGEN.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE THIRD CENTURY.
+
+        ANARCHY AND CONFUSION--GROWTH OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
+
+
+We are now in the twelfth year of the Third Century. Septimius Severus
+has died at York, and Caracalla is let loose like a famished tiger
+upon Rome. He invites his brother Geta to meet him to settle some
+family feud in the apartment of their mother, and stabs him in her
+arms. The rest of his reign is worthy of this beginning, and it would
+be fatiguing and perplexing to the memory to record his other acts.
+Fortunately it is not required; nor is it necessary to follow minutely
+the course of his successors. What we require is only a general view of
+the proceedings of this century, and that can be gained without wading
+through all the blood and horrors with which the throne of the world is
+surrounded. Conclusive evidence was obtained in this century that the
+organization of Roman government was defective in securing the first
+necessities of civilized life. When we talk of civilization, we are too
+apt to limit the meaning of the word to its mere embellishments, such
+as arts and sciences; but the true distinction between it and barbarism
+is, that the one presents a state of society under the protection of
+just and well-administered law, and the other is left to the chance
+government of brute force. There was now great wealth in Rome--great
+luxury--a high admiration of painting, poetry, and sculpture--much
+learning, and probably infinite refinement of manners and address. But
+it was not a civilized state. Life was of no value--property was not
+secure. A series of madmen seized supreme authority, and overthrew all
+the distinctions between right and wrong. Murder was legalized, and
+rapine openly encouraged. It is a sort of satisfaction to perceive that
+few of those atrocious malefactors escaped altogether the punishment
+of their crimes. If Caracalla slays his brother and orders a peaceable
+province to be destroyed, there is a Macrinus at hand to put the
+monster to death. [A.D. 218.] But Macrinus, relying on the goodness
+of his intentions, neglects the soldiery, and is supplanted by a boy
+of seventeen--so handsome that he won the admiration of the rudest of
+the legionaries, and so gentle and captivating in his manners that
+he strengthened the effect his beauty had produced. He was priest of
+the Temple of the Sun at Emesa in Phoenicia; and by the arts of
+his grandmother, who was sister to one of the former empresses, and
+the report that she cunningly spread abroad that he was the son of
+their favourite Caracalla, the affection of the dissolute soldiery
+knew no bounds. Macrinus was soon slaughtered, and the long-haired
+priest of Baal seated on the throne of the Cæsars, under the name
+of Heliogabalus. As might be expected, the sudden alteration in
+his fortunes was fatal to his character. All the excesses of his
+predecessors were surpassed. His extravagance rapidly exhausted the
+resources of the empire. His floors were spread with gold-dust. His
+dresses, jewels, and golden ornaments were never worn twice, but went
+to his slaves and parasites. He created his grandmother a member
+of the Senate, with rank next after the consuls; and established a
+rival Senate, composed of ladies, presided over by his mother. Their
+jurisdiction was not very hurtful to the State, for it only extended
+to dresses and precedence of ranks, and the etiquette to be observed
+in visiting each other. But the evil dispositions of the emperor were
+shown in other ways. He had a cousin of the name of Alexander, and
+entertained an unbounded jealousy of his popularity with the soldiers.
+Attempts at poison and direct assassination were resorted to in vain.
+The public sympathy began to rise in his favour. The Prætorians
+formally took him under their protection; and when Heliogabalus,
+reckless of their menaces, again attempted the life of Alexander, the
+troops revolted, proclaimed death to the infatuated emperor, and slew
+him and his mother at the same time.
+
+[A.D. 222.]
+
+Alexander was now enthroned--a youth of sixteen; gifted with higher
+qualities than the debased century in which he lived could altogether
+appreciate. But the origin of his noblest sentiments is traced to
+the teaching he had received from his mother, in which the precepts
+of Christianity were not omitted. When he appointed the governor of
+a province, he published his name some time before, and requested
+if any one knew of a disqualification, to have it sent in for his
+consideration. "It is thus the Christians appoint their pastors,"
+he said, "and I will do the same with my representatives." When his
+justice, moderation, and equity were fully recognised, the beauty of
+the quotation, which was continually in his mouth, was admired by all,
+even though they were ignorant of the book it came from: "Do unto
+others as you would that they should do unto you." He trusted the
+wisest of his counsellors, the great legalists of the empire, with the
+introduction of new laws to curb the wickedness of the time. But the
+multiplicity of laws proves the decline of states. In the ancient Rome
+of the kings and earlier consuls, the statutes were contained in forty
+decisions, which were afterwards enlarged into the laws of the Twelve
+Tables, consisting of one hundred and fifty texts. The profligacy of
+some emperors, the vanity of others, had loaded the statute-book with
+an innumerable mass of edicts, senatus-consultums, prætorial rescripts,
+and customary laws. It was impossible to extract order or regularity
+from such a chaos of conflicting rules. The great work was left for
+a later prince; at present we can only praise the goodness of the
+emperor's intention. But Alexander, justly called Severus, from the
+simplicity of his life and manners, has held the throne too long. The
+Prætorians have been thirteen years without the donation consequent on
+a new accession.
+
+Among the favourite leaders selected by Alexander for their military
+qualifications was one Maximin, a Thracian peasant, of whose strength
+and stature incredible things are told. He was upwards of eight feet
+high, could tire down a horse at the gallop on foot, could break its
+leg by a blow of his hand, could overthrow thirty wrestlers without
+drawing breath, and maintained this prodigious force by eating forty
+pounds of meat, and drinking an amphora and a half, or twelve quarts,
+of wine. This giant had the bravery for which his countrymen the
+Goths have always been celebrated. He rose to high rank in the Roman
+service; and when at last nothing seemed to stand between him and the
+throne but his patron and benefactor, ambition blinded him to every
+thing but his own advancement. He murdered the wise and generous
+Alexander, and presented for the first time in history the spectacle
+of a barbarian master of the Roman world. Other emperors had been born
+in distant portions of the empire; an African had trampled on Roman
+greatness in the person of Septimius Severus; a Phoenician priest had
+disgraced the purple in the person of Heliogabalus; Africa, however,
+was a Roman province, and Emesa a Roman town. But here sat the colossal
+representative of the terrible Goths of Thrace, speaking a language
+half Getic, half Latin, which no one could easily understand; fierce,
+haughty, and revengeful, and cherishing a ferocious hatred of the
+subjects who trembled before him--a hatred probably implanted in him
+in his childhood by the patriotic songs with which the warriors of his
+tribe kept alive their enmity and contempt for the Roman name. The
+Roman name had indeed by this time lost all its authority. The army,
+recruited from all parts of the empire, and including a great number
+of barbarians in its ranks, was no longer a bulwark against foreign
+invasion. Maximin, bestowing the chief commands on Pannonians and other
+mercenaries, treated the empire as a conquered country. He seized on
+all the wealth he could discover--melted all the golden statues, as
+valuable from their artistic beauty as for the metal of which they
+were composed--and was threatening an approach to Rome to exterminate
+the Senate and sack the devoted town. In this extremity the Senate
+resumed its long-forgotten power, and named as emperors two men of
+the name of Gordian--father and son--with instructions "to resist the
+enemy." But father and son perished in a few weeks, and still the
+terrible Goth came on. His son, a giant like himself, but beautiful as
+the colossal statue of a young Apollo, shared in all the feelings of
+his father. Terrified at its approaching doom, the Senate once more
+nominated two men to the purple, Maximus and Balbinus: Balbinus, the
+favourite, perhaps, of the aristocracy, by the descent he claimed from
+an illustrious ancestry; while Maximus recommended himself to the now
+perverted taste of the commonalty by having been a carter. Neither was
+popular with the army; and, to please the soldiers, a son or nephew of
+the younger Gordian was associated with them on the throne. But nothing
+could have resisted the infuriated legions of the gigantic Maximin;
+they were marching with wonderful expedition towards their revenge. At
+Aquileia they met an opposition; the town shut its gates and manned its
+walls, for it knew what would be the fate of a city given up to the
+tender mercies of the Goths. Meanwhile the approach of the destroyer
+produced great agitation in Rome. The people rose upon the Prætorians,
+and enlisted the gladiators on their side. Many thousands were slain,
+and at last a peace was made by the intercession of the youthful
+Gordian. Glad of the cessation of this civic tumult, the population
+of Rome betook itself to the theatres and shows. Suddenly, while the
+games were going on, it was announced that the army before Aquileia
+had mutinied and that both the Maximins were slain. [A.D. 235.] All at
+once the amphitheatre was emptied; by an impulse of grateful piety, the
+emperors and people hurried into the temples of the gods, and offered
+up thanks for their deliverance. The wretched people were premature
+in their rejoicing. In less than three months the spoiled Prætorians
+were offended with the precaution taken by the emperors in surrounding
+themselves with German guards. They assaulted the palace, and put
+Maximus and Balbinus to death. Gordian the Third was now sole emperor,
+and the final struggle with the barbarians drew nearer and nearer.
+
+Constantly crossing the frontiers, and willingly received in the Roman
+ranks, the communities who had been long settled on the Roman confines
+were not the utterly uncultivated tribes which their name would seem
+to denote. There was a conterminous civilization which made the two
+peoples scarcely distinguishable at their point of contact, but which
+died off as the distance from the Roman line increased. Thus, an
+original settler on the eastern bank of the Rhine was probably as
+cultivated and intelligent as a Roman colonist on the other side; but
+farther up, at the Weser and the Elbe, the old ferocity and roughness
+remained. Fresh importations from the unknown East were continually
+taking place; the dwellers in the plains of Pannonia, now habituated
+to pasturage and trade, found safety from the hordes which pressed
+upon them from their own original settlements beyond the Caucasus, by
+crossing the boundary river; and by this means the banks were held by
+cognate but hostile peoples, who could, however, easily be reconciled
+by a joint expedition against Rome. New combinations had taken place
+in the interior of the great expanses not included in the Roman
+limits. The Germans were no longer the natural enemies of the empire.
+They furnished many soldiers for its defence, and several chiefs
+to command its forces. But all round the external circuit of those
+half-conciliated tribes rose up vast confederacies of warlike nations.
+There were Cheruski, and Sicambri, and Attuarians, and Bruttuarians,
+and Catti, all regularly enrolled under the name of "Franks," or
+the brave. The Sarmatians or Sclaves performed the same part on the
+northeastern frontier; and we have already seen that the irresistible
+Goths had found their way, one by one, across the boundary, and
+cleared the path for their successors. The old enemies of Rome on the
+extreme east, the Parthians, had fallen under the power of a renovated
+mountain-race, and of a king, who founded the great dynasty of the
+Sassanides, and claimed the restoration of Egypt and Armenia as ancient
+dependencies of the Persian crown. To resist all these, there was, in
+the year 241, only a gentle-tempered youth, dressed in the purple which
+had so lost its original grandeur, and relying for his guidance on
+the wisdom of his tutors, and for his life on the forbearance of the
+Prætorians. The tutors were wise and just, and victory at first gave
+some sort of dignity to the reign of Gordian. [A.D. 244.] The Franks
+were conquered at Mayence; but Gordian, three years after, was murdered
+in the East; and Philip, an Arabian, whose father had been a robber of
+the desert, was acknowledged emperor by senate and army. Treachery,
+ambition, and murder pursued their course. There was no succession to
+the throne. Sometimes one general, luckier or wiser than the rest,
+appeared the sole governor of the State. At other times there were
+numberless rivals all claiming the empire and threatening vengeance
+on their opponents. Yet amidst this tumult of undistinguishable
+pretenders, fortune placed at the head of affairs some of the best
+and greatest men whom the Roman world ever produced. There was
+Valerian, whom all parties agreed in considering the most virtuous and
+enlightened man of his time. [A.D. 253.] Scarcely any opposition was
+made to his promotion; and yet, with all his good qualities, he was the
+man to whom Rome owed the greatest degradation it had yet sustained.
+He was taken prisoner by Sapor, the Persian king, and condemned, with
+other captive monarchs, to draw the car of his conqueror. No offers of
+ransom could deliver the brave and unfortunate prince. He died amid his
+deriding enemies, who hung up his skin as an offering to their gods.
+Then, after some years, in which there were twenty emperors at one
+time, with army drawn up against army, and cities delivered to massacre
+and rapine by all parties in turn, there arose one of the strong minds
+which make themselves felt throughout a whole period, and arrest for a
+while the downward course of states. [A.D. 276.] The emperor Probus,
+son of a man who had originally been a gardener, had distinguished
+himself under Aurelian, the conqueror of Palmyra, and, having survived
+all his competitors, had time to devote himself to the restoration
+of discipline and the introduction of purer laws. His victories over
+the encroaching barbarians were decided, but ineffectual. New myriads
+still pressed forward to take the place of the slain. On one occasion
+he crossed the Rhine in pursuit of the revolted Germans, overtook them
+at the Necker, and killed in battle four hundred thousand men. Nine
+kings threw themselves at the emperor's feet. Many thousand barbarians
+enlisted in the Roman army. Sixty great cities were taken, and made
+offerings of golden crowns. The whole country was laid waste. "There
+was nothing left," he boasted to the Senate, "but bare fields, as if
+they had never been cultivated." So much the worse for the Romans. The
+barbarians looked with keener eyes across the river at the rich lands
+which had never been ravaged, and sent messages to all the tribes
+in the distant forests, that, having no occasion for pruning-hooks,
+they had turned them into swords. But Probus showed a still more
+doubtful policy in other quarters. When he conquered the Vandals
+and Burgundians, he sent their warriors to keep the Caledonians in
+subjection on the Tyne. The Britons he transported to Moesia or Greece.
+What intermixtures of race may have arisen from these transplantations
+it is impossible to say; but the one feeling was common to all the
+barbarians, that Rome was weak and they were strong. He settled a large
+detachment of Franks on the shores of the Black Sea; and of these an
+almost incredible but well-authenticated story is told. They seized or
+built themselves boats. They swept through the Dardanelles, and ravaged
+the isles of Greece. They pursued their piratical career down the
+Mediterranean, passed the pillars of Hercules into the Great Sea, and,
+rounding Spain and France, rowed up the Elbe into the midst of their
+astonished countrymen, who had long given them up for dead. A fatal
+adventure this for the safety of the Roman shores; for there were the
+wild fishermen of Friesland, and the audacious Angles of Schleswig and
+Holstein, who heard of this strange exploit, and saw that no coast was
+too distant to be reached by their oar and sail. But if these forced
+settlements of barbarians on Roman soil were impolitic, the generous
+Probus did not feel their bad effect. His warlike qualities awed his
+foes, and his inflexible justice was appreciated by the hardy warriors
+of the North, who had not yet sunk under the debasing civilization of
+Rome. In Asia his arms were attended with equal success. He subdued the
+Persians, and extended his conquests into Ethiopia and the farthest
+regions of the East, bringing back some of its conquered natives to
+swell the triumph at Rome and terrify the citizens with their strange
+and hideous appearance. But Probus himself must yield to the law
+which regulated the fate of Roman emperors. He died by treachery and
+the sword. All that the empire could do was to join in the epitaph
+pronounced over him by the barbarians, "Here lies the emperor Probus,
+whose life and actions corresponded to his name."
+
+Three or four more fantastic figures, "which the likeness of a kingly
+crown have on," pass before our eyes, and at last we observe the
+powerful and substantial form of Diocletian, and feel once more we
+have to do with a real man. [A.D. 284.] A Druidess, we are told,
+had prophesied that he should attain his highest wish if he killed
+a wild boar. In all his hunting expeditions he was constantly on
+the look-out, spear in hand, for an encounter with the long-tusked
+monster. Unluckily for a man who had offended Diocletian before,
+and who had basely murdered his predecessor, his name was Aper; and
+unluckily, also, _aper_ is Latin for a boar. This fact will perhaps be
+thought to account for the prophecy. It accounts, at all events, for
+its fulfilment; for, the wretched Aper being led before the throne,
+Diocletian descended the steps and plunged a dagger into his chest,
+exclaiming, "I have killed the wild boar of the prediction." This is
+a painful example of how unlucky it is to have a name that can be
+punned upon. Determined to secure the support of what he thought the
+strongest body in the State, he gratified the priests by the severest
+of all the many persecutions to which the Christians had been exposed.
+By way of further showing his adhesion to the old faith, he solemnly
+assumed the name of Jove, and bestowed on his partner on the throne
+the inferior title of Hercules. In spite of these truculent and absurd
+proceedings, Diocletian was not altogether destitute of the softer
+feelings. The friend he associated with him on the throne--dividing
+the empire between them as too large a burden for one to sustain--was
+called Maximian. They had both originally been slaves, and had neither
+of them received a liberal education. Yet they protected the arts, they
+encouraged literature, and were the patrons of modest merit wherever it
+could be found. They each adopted a Cæsar, or lieutenant of the empire,
+and hoped that, by a legal division of duties among four, the ambition
+of their generals would be prevented. But the limits of the empire
+were too extended even for the vigilance of them all. In Britain,
+Carausius raised the standard of revolt, giving it the noble name of
+national independence; and, with the instinctive wisdom which has been
+the safeguard of our island ever since, he rested his whole chance of
+success upon his fleet. Invasion was rendered impossible by the care
+with which he guarded the shore, and it is not inconceivable that even
+at that early time the maritime career of Britain might have been begun
+and maintained, if treason, as usual, had not cut short the efforts of
+Carausius, who was soon after murdered by his friend Allectus. The
+subdivision of the empire was a successful experiment as regarded its
+external safety, but within, it was the cause of bitter complaining.
+There were four sumptuous courts to be maintained, and four imperial
+armies to be paid. Taxes rose, and allegiance waxed cold. The Cæsars
+were young, and looked probably with an evil eye on the two old men who
+stood between them and the name of emperor. However it may be, after
+many victories and much domestic trouble, Diocletian resolved to lay
+aside the burden of empire and retire into private life. His colleague
+Maximian felt, or affected to feel, the same distaste for power, and
+on the same day they quitted the purple; one at Nicomedia, the other
+at Milan. Diocletian retired to Salona, a town in his native Dalmatia,
+and occupied himself with rural pursuits. He was asked after a while
+to reassume his authority, but he said to the persons who made him the
+request, "I wish you would come to Salona and see the cabbages I have
+planted with my own hands, and after that you would never wish me to
+remount the throne."
+
+The characteristic of this century is its utter confusion and want
+of order. There was no longer the unity even of despotism at Rome to
+make a common centre round which every thing revolved. There were
+tyrants and competitors for power in every quarter of the empire--no
+settled authority, no government or security, left. In the midst of
+this relaxation of every rule of life, grew surely, but unobserved, the
+Christian Church, which drew strength from the very helplessness of the
+civil state, and was forced, in self-defence, to establish a regular
+organization in order to extend to its members the inestimable benefits
+of regularity and law. Under many of the emperors Christianity was
+proscribed; its disciples were put to excruciating deaths, and their
+property confiscated; but at that very time its inner development
+increased and strengthened. The community appointed its teachers, its
+deacons, its office-bearers of every kind; it supported them in their
+endeavours--it yielded to their directions; and in time a certain
+amount of authority was considered to be inherent in the office of
+pastor, which extended beyond the mere expounding of the gospel or
+administration of the sacraments. The chief pastor became the guide,
+perhaps the judge, of the whole flock. While it is absurd, therefore,
+in those disastrous times of weakness and persecution to talk in
+pompous terms of the succession of the Bishops of Rome, and make out
+vain catalogues of lordly prelates who sat on the throne of St. Peter,
+it is incontestable that, from the earliest period, the Christian
+converts held their meetings--by stealth indeed, and under fear of
+detection--and obeyed certain canons of their own constitution. These
+secret associations rapidly spread their ramifications into every
+great city of the empire. When by the friendship, or the fellowship,
+of the emperor, as in the case of the Arabian Philip, a pause was
+given to their fears and sufferings, certain buildings were set apart
+for their religious exercises; and we read, during this century, of
+basilicas, or churches, in Rome and other towns. The subtlety of the
+Greek intellect had already led to endless heresies and the wildest
+departures from the simplicity of the gospel. The Western mind was
+more calm, and better adapted to be the lawgiver of a new order of
+society composed of elements so rough and discordant as the barbarians,
+whose approach was now inevitably foreseen. With its well-defined
+hierarchy--its graduated ranks, and the fitness of the offices for
+the purposes of their creation; with its array of martyrs ready to
+suffer, and clear-headed leaders fitted to command, the Western Church
+could look calmly forward to the time when its organization would
+make it the most powerful, or perhaps the only, body in the State; and
+so early as the middle of this century the seeds of worldly ambition
+developed themselves in a schism, not on a point of doctrine, but on
+the possession of authority. A double nomination had made the anomalous
+appointment of two chief pastors at the same time. Neither would yield,
+and each had his supporters. All were under the ban of the civil power.
+They had recourse to spiritual weapons; and we read, for the first time
+in ecclesiastical history, of mutual excommunications. Novatian--under
+his breath, however, for fear of being thrown to the wild beasts for
+raising a disturbance--thundered his anathemas against Cornelius as an
+intruder, while Cornelius retorted by proclaiming Novatian an impostor,
+as he had not the concurrence of the people in his election. This gives
+us a convincing proof of the popular form of appointing bishops or
+presbyters in those early days, and prepares us for the energy with
+which the electors supported the authority of their favourite priests.
+
+But, while this new internal element was spreading life among the
+decayed institutions of the empire, we have, in this century, the first
+appearance, in great force, of the future conquerors and renovators
+of the body politic from without. It is pleasant to think that the
+centuries cast themselves more and more loose from their connection
+with Rome after this date, and that the barbarians can vindicate
+a separate place in history for themselves. In the first century,
+the bad emperors broke the strength of Rome by their cruelty and
+extravagance. In the second century, the good emperors carried on the
+work of weakening the empire by the softening and enervating effects
+of their gentle and protective policy. The third century unites the
+evil qualities of the other two, for the people were equally rendered
+incapable of defending themselves by the unheard-of atrocities of some
+of the tyrants who oppressed them and the mistaken measures of the
+more benevolent rulers, in committing the guardianship of the citizens
+to the swords of a foreign soldiery, leaving them but the wretched
+alternative of being ravaged and massacred by an irruption of savage
+tribes or pillaged and insulted by those in the emperor's pay.
+
+The empire had long been surrounded by its foes. [A.D. 273.] It will
+suffice to read the long list of captives who were led in triumph
+behind the car of Aurelian when he returned from foreign war, to
+see the fearful array of harsh-sounding names which have afterwards
+been softened into those of great and civilized nations. It is in
+following the course of some of these that we shall see how the
+present distribution of forces in Europe took place, and escape from
+the polluted atmosphere of Imperial Rome. In that memorable triumph
+appeared Goths, Alans, Roxolans, Franks, Sarmatians, Vandals, Allemans,
+Arabs, Indians, Bactrians, Iberians, Saracens, Armenians, Persians,
+Palmyreans, Egyptians, and ten Gothic women dressed in men's apparel
+and fully armed. These were, perhaps, the representatives of a large
+body of female warriors, and are a sign of the recent settlement of the
+tribe to which they belonged. They had not yet given up the habits of
+their march, where all were equally engaged in carrying the property
+and arms of the nation, and where the females encouraged the young men
+of the expedition by witnessing and sometimes sharing their exploits in
+battle.
+
+The triumph of Probus, when only seven years had passed, presents us
+with a list of the same peoples, often conquered but never subdued.
+Their defeats, indeed, had the double effect of showing to them
+their own ability to recruit their forces, and of strengthening the
+degraded people of Rome in the belief of their invincibility. After
+the loss of a battle, the Gothic or Burgundian chief fell back upon
+the confederated tribes in his rear; a portion of his army either
+visited Rome in the character of captives, or enlisted in the ranks of
+the conquerors. In either case, the wealth of the great city and the
+undefended state of the empire were permanently fixed in their minds;
+the populace, on the other hand, had the luxury of a noble show and
+double rations of bread--the more ambitious of the emperors acting
+on the professed maxim that the citizen had no duty but to enjoy the
+goods provided for him by the governing power, and that if he was fed
+by public doles, and amused with public games, the purpose of his life
+was attained. The idlest man was the safest subject. A triumph was,
+therefore, more an instrument of degradation than an encouragement
+to patriotic exertion. The name of Roman citizen was now extended to
+all the inhabitants of the empire. The freeman of York was a Roman
+citizen. Had he any patriotic pride in keeping the soil of Italy
+undivided? The nation had become too diffuse for the exercise of this
+local and combining virtue. The love of country, which in the small
+states of Greece secured the individual's affection to his native city,
+and yet was powerful enough to extend over the whole of the Hellenic
+territories, was lost altogether when it was required to expand itself
+over a region as wide as Europe. It is in this sense that empires fall
+to pieces by their own weight. The Roman power broke up from within.
+Its religion was a source of division, not of union--its mixture of
+nations, and tongues, and usages, lost their cohesion. And nothing was
+left at the end of this century to preserve it from total dissolution,
+but the personal qualities of some great rulers and the memory of its
+former fame.
+
+
+
+
+                            FOURTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+                  A.D.
+
+                  304. GALERIUS and CONSTANTIUS.
+
+                  305. MAXIMIN.
+
+                  306. CONSTANTINE.
+
+                  337. CONSTANTINE II., CONSTANS and
+                       CONSTANTIUS.
+
+                  361. JULIAN THE APOSTATE.
+
+                  363. JOVIAN.
+
+  A.D.    _West._                     A.D.   _East._
+
+  364. VALENTINIAN.                   364. VALENS.
+
+  367. GRATIAN.
+
+  375. VALENTINIAN II.                379. THEODOSIUS.
+
+  395. HONORIUS.                      395. ARCADIUS.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+DONATUS, EUTROPIUS, ST. ATHANASIUS, AUSONIUS, CLAUDIAN, ARNOBIUS,
+(303,) LACTANTIUS, (306,) EUSEBIUS, (315,) ARIUS, (316,) GREGORY
+NAZIANZEN, (320-389,) BASIL THE GREAT, Bishop Of Cesarea, (330-379,)
+AMBROSE, (340-397,) AUGUSTINE (353-429,) THEODORET, (386-457,) MARTIN,
+Bishop of Tours.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE FOURTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE REMOVAL TO CONSTANTINOPLE--ESTABLISHMENT OF
+  CHRISTIANITY--APOSTASY OF JULIAN--SETTLEMENT OF THE GOTHS.
+
+
+As the memory of the old liberties of Rome died out, a nearer approach
+was made to the ostentatious despotisms of the East. Aurelian, in
+270, was the first emperor who encircled his head with a diadem; and
+Diocletian, in 284, formed his court on the model of the most gorgeous
+royalties of Asia. On admission into his presence, the Roman Senator,
+formerly the equal of the ruler, prostrated himself at his feet. Titles
+of the most unmanly adulation were lavished on the fortunate slave or
+herdsman who had risen to supreme power. He was clothed in robes of
+purple and violet, and loaded with an incalculable wealth of jewels
+and gold. It was from deep policy that Diocletian introduced this
+system. Ceremony imposes on the vulgar, and makes intimacy impossible.
+Etiquette is the refuge of failing power, and compensates by external
+show for inherent weakness, as stiffness and formality are the refuge
+of dulness and mediocrity in private life. There was now, therefore,
+seated on the throne, which was shaken by every commotion, a personage
+assuming more majestic rank, and affecting far loftier state and
+dignity, than Augustus had ventured on while the strength of the
+old Republic gave irresistible force to the new empire, or than the
+Antonines had dreamt of when the prosperity of Rome was apparently at
+its height. But there was still some feeling, if not of self-respect,
+at least of resistance to pretension, in the populace and Senators
+of the capital. Diocletian visited Rome but once. He was attacked in
+lampoons, and ridiculed in satirical songs. His colleague established
+his residence in the military post of Milan. We are not, therefore,
+to feel surprised that an Orientalized authority sought its natural
+seat in the land of ancient despotisms, and that many of the emperors
+had cast longing eyes on the beautiful towns of Asia Minor, and even
+on the far-off cities of Mesopotamia, as more congenial localities
+for their barbaric splendours. By a sort of compromise between his
+European origin and Asiatic tastes, the emperor Constantine, after many
+struggles with his competitors, having attained the sole authority,
+transferred the seat of empire from Rome to a city he had built on the
+extreme limits of Europe, and only divided from Asia by a narrow sea.
+All succeeding ages have agreed in extolling the situation of this
+city, called, after its founder, Constantinople, as the finest that
+could have been chosen. All ages, from the day of its erection till the
+hour in which we live, have agreed that it is fitted, in the hands of a
+great and enterprising power, to be the metropolis and arbiter of the
+world; and Constantinople is, therefore, condemned to the melancholy
+fate of being the useless and unappreciated capital of a horde of
+irreclaimable barbarians. To this magnificent city Constantine removed
+the throne in 329, and for nearly a thousand years after that, while
+Rome was sacked in innumerable invasions, and all the capitals of
+Europe were successively occupied by contending armies, Constantinople,
+safe in her two narrow outlets, and rich in her command of the two
+continents, continued unconquered, and even unassailed.
+
+Rome was stripped, that Constantinople might be filled. All the wealth
+of Italy was carried across the Ægean. The Roman Senator was invited
+to remove with his establishment. He found, on arriving at his new
+home, that by a complimentary attention of the emperor, a fac-simile of
+his Roman palace had been prepared for him on the Propontis. The seven
+hills of the new capital responded to the seven hills of the old. There
+were villas for retirement along the smiling shores of the Dardanelles
+or of the Bosphorus, as fine in climate, and perhaps equal in romantic
+beauty, to Baiæ or Brundusium. There was a capital, as noble a piece
+of architecture as the one they had left, but without the sanctity
+of its thousand years of existence, or the glory of its unnumbered
+triumphs. One omission was the subject of remark and lamentation. The
+temples were nowhere to be seen. The images of the gods were left at
+Rome in the solitude of their deserted shrines, for Constantine had
+determined that Constantinople should, from its very foundation, be the
+residence of a Christian people. Churches were built, and a priesthood
+appointed. Yet, with the policy which characterized the Church at
+that time, he made as little change as possible in the external
+forms. There is still extant a transfer of certain properties from
+the old establishment to the new. There are contributions of wax for
+the candles, of frankincense and myrrh for the censers, and vestures
+for the officiating priests as before. Only the object of worship is
+changed, and the images of the heathen gods and heroes are replaced
+with statues of the apostles and martyrs.
+
+It is difficult to gather a true idea of this first of the Christian
+emperors from the historians of after-times. The accounts of him by
+contemporary writers are equally conflicting. The favourers of the old
+superstition describe him as a monster of perfidy and cruelty. The
+Church, raised to supremacy by his favour, sees nothing in him but
+the greatest of men--the seer of visions, the visible favourite of
+the Almighty, and the predestined overthrower of the powers of evil.
+The easy credulity of an emancipated people believed whatever the
+flattery of the courtiers invented. His mother Helena made a journey to
+Jerusalem, and was rewarded for the pious pilgrimage by the discovery
+of the True Cross. Chapels and altars were raised upon all the places
+famous in Christian story; relics were collected from all quarters,
+and we are early led to fear that the simplicity of the gospel is
+endangered by its approach to the throne, and that Constantine's object
+was rather to raise and strengthen a hierarchy of ecclesiastical
+supporters than to give full scope to the doctrine of truth. But not
+the less wonderful, not the less by the divine appointment, was this
+unhoped-for triumph of Christianity, that its advancement formed part
+of the ambitious scheme of a worldly and unprincipled conqueror. Rather
+it may be taken as one among the thousand proofs with which history
+presents us, that the greatest blessings to mankind are produced
+irrespective of the character or qualities of the apparent author. A
+warrior is raised in the desert when required to be let loose upon
+a worn-out society as the scourge of God; a blood-stained soldier
+is placed on the throne of the world when the time has come for the
+earthly predominance of the gospel. But neither is Attila to be blamed
+nor Constantine to be praised.
+
+It was the spirit of his system of government to form every society
+on a strictly monarchical model. There was everywhere introduced a
+clearly-defined subordination of ranks and dignities. Diocletian, we
+saw, surrounded the throne with a state and ceremony which kept the
+imperial person sacred from the common gaze. Constantine perfected his
+work by establishing a titled nobility, who were to stand between
+the throne and the people, giving dignity to the one, and impressing
+fresh awe upon the other. In all previous ages it had been the office
+that gave importance to the man. To be a member of the Senate was a
+mark of distinction; a long descent from a great historic name was
+looked on with respect; and the heroic deeds of the thousand years of
+Roman struggle had founded an aristocracy which owed its high position
+either to personal actions or hereditary claims. But now that the
+emperors had so long concentrated in themselves all the great offices
+of the State--now that the bad rulers of the first century had degraded
+the Senate by filling it with their creatures, the good rulers of
+the second century had made it merely the recorder of their decrees,
+and the anarchy of the third century had changed or obliterated its
+functions altogether--there was no way left to the ambitious Roman
+to distinguish himself except by the favour of the emperor. The
+throne became, as it has since continued in all strictly monarchical
+countries, the fountain of honour. It was not the people who could name
+a man to the consulship or appoint him to the command of an army. It
+was not even in the power of the emperor to find offices of dignity
+for all whom he wished to advance. So a method was discovered by which
+vanity or friendship could be gratified, and employment be reserved for
+the deserving at the same time. Instead of endangering an expedition
+against the Parthians by intrusting it to a rich and powerful courtier
+who desired to have the rank of general, the emperor simply named
+him Nobilissimus, or Patricius, or Illustris, and the gratified
+favourite, the "most noble," the "patrician," or the "illustrious,"
+took place with the highest officers of the State. A certain title
+gave him equal rank with the Senator, the judge, or the consul. The
+diversity of these honorary distinctions became very great. There
+were the clarissimi--the perfectissimi--and the egregii--bearing the
+same relative dignity in the court-guide of the fourth century, as the
+dukes, marquises, earls, and viscounts of the peerage-books of the
+present day. But so much did all distinction flow from proximity to the
+throne, that all these high-sounding names owed their value to the fact
+of their being bestowed on the associates of the sovereign. The word
+Count, which is still the title borne by foreign nobles, comes from the
+Latin word which means "companion." There was a Comes, or Companion, of
+the Sacred Couch, or lord chamberlain--the Companion of the Imperial
+Service, or lord high steward--a Companion of the Imperial Stables,
+or lord high constable; through all these dignitaries, step above
+step, the glorious ascent extended, till it ended in the Companion of
+Private Affairs, or confidential secretary. At the head of all, sacred
+and unapproachable, stood the embodied Power of the Roman world, who,
+as he had given titles to all the magnates of his court, heaped also
+a great many on himself. His principal appellation, however, was not
+as in our degenerate days "Majesty," whether "Most Catholic," "Most
+Christian," or "Most Orthodox," but consisted in the rather ambitious
+attribute--eternity. "Your Eternity" was the phrase addressed to some
+miserable individual whose reign was ended in a month. It was proposed
+by this division of the Roman aristocracy to furnish the empire with
+a body for show and a body for use; the latter consisting of the real
+generals of the armies and administrators of the provinces. And with
+this view the two were kept distinct; but military discipline suffered
+by this partition. The generals became discontented when they saw
+wealth and dignities heaped upon the titular nobles of the court; and
+to prevent the danger arising from ill will among the legions on the
+frontier, the emperor withdrew the best of his soldiers from the posts
+where they kept the barbarians in check, and entirely destroyed their
+military spirit by separating them into small bodies and stationing
+them in towns. This exposed the empire to the foreign foes who still
+menaced it from the other side of the boundary, and gave fresh
+settlements in the heart of the country to the thousands of barbarian
+youth who had taken service with the eagles. In every legion there was
+a considerable proportion of this foreign element: in every district
+of the empire, therefore, there were now settled the advanced guards
+of the unavoidable invasion. Men with barbaric names, which the Romans
+could not pronounce, walked about Roman towns dressed in Roman uniforms
+and clothed with Roman titles. There were consulars and patricians in
+Ravenna and Naples, whose fathers had danced the war-dance of defiance
+when beginning their march from the Vistula and the Carpathian range.
+
+All these troops must be supported--all these dignitaries maintained
+in luxury. How was this done? The ordinary revenue of the empire in
+the time of Constantine has been computed at forty millions of our
+money a year. Not a very large amount when you consider the number of
+the population; but this is the sum which reached the treasury. The
+gross amount must have been far larger, and an ingenious machinery was
+invented by which the tax was rigorously collected; and this machinery,
+by a ludicrous perversion of terms, was made to include one of the most
+numerous classes of the artificial nobility created by the imperial
+will. In all the towns of the empire some little remains were still to
+be found of the ancient municipal government, of which practically they
+had long been deprived. There were nominal magistrates still; and among
+these the _Curials_ held a distinguished rank. They were the men who,
+in the days of freedom, had filled the civic dignities of their native
+city--the aldermen, we should perhaps call them, or, more nearly, the
+justices of the peace. They were now ranked with the peerage, but with
+certain duties attached to their elevation which few can have regarded
+in the light of privilege or favour. To qualify them for rank, they
+were bound to be in possession of a certain amount of land. They were,
+therefore, a territorial aristocracy, and never was any territorial
+aristocracy more constantly under the consideration of the government.
+It was the duty of the curials to distribute the tax-papers in their
+district; but, in addition to this, it was unfortunately their duty
+to see that the sum assessed on the town and neighbourhood was paid
+up to the last penny. When there was any deficiency, was the emperor
+to suffer? Were the nobilissimi, the patricii, the egregii, to lose
+their salaries? Oh, no! As long as the now ennobled curial retained
+an acre of his estate, or could raise a mortgage on his house, the
+full amount was extracted. The tax went up to Rome, and the curial,
+if there had been a poor's house in those days, would have gone into
+it--for he was stripped of all. His farm was seized, his cattle were
+escheated; and when the defalcation was very great, himself, his wife
+and children were led into the market and sold as slaves. Nothing so
+rapidly destroyed what might have been the germ of a middle class
+as this legalized spoliation of the smaller landholders. Below this
+rank there was absolutely nothing left of the citizenship of ancient
+times. Artificers and workmen formed themselves into companies; but
+the trades were exercised principally by slaves for the benefit of
+their owners. These slaves formed now by far the greatest part of the
+Roman population, and though their lot had gradually become softened
+as their numbers increased, and the domestic bondsman had little to
+complain of except the greatest of all sorrows, the loss of freedom,
+the position of the rural labourers was still very bad. There were
+some of them slaves in every sense of the word--mere chattels, which
+were not so valuable as horse or dog. But the fate of others was
+so far mitigated that they could not be sold separate from their
+family--that they could not be sold except along with the land; and at
+last glimpses appear of a sort of rent paid for certain portions of the
+lord's estate in full of all other requirements. But this process had
+again to be gone through when many centuries had elapsed, and a new
+state of society had been fully established, and it will be sufficient
+to remind you that in the fourth century, to which we are now come,
+the Roman world consisted of a monarchy where all the greatness and
+magnificence of the empire were concentrated on the emperor and his
+court; that the monarchical system was rapidly pervading the Church;
+and that below these two distinct but connected powers there was no
+people, properly so called--the country was oppressed and ruined, and
+the ancient dignity of Rome transplanted to new and foreign quarters,
+at the sacrifice of all its oldest and most elevating associations.
+The half-depopulated city of Romulus and the Kings--of the Consuls
+and Augustus, looked with ill-disguised hatred and contempt on the
+modern rival which denied her the name of Capital, and while fresh
+from the builder's hand, robbed her of the name of the Eternal City.
+We shall see great events spring from this jealousy of the two towns.
+In the mean time, we shall finish our view of Constantine by recording
+the greatness of his military skill, and merely protest against the
+enrolment in the list of _saints_ of a man who filled his family
+circle with blood--who murdered his wife, his son, and his nephew,
+encouraged the contending factions of the now disputatious Church--gave
+a fallacious support to the orthodox Athanasius, and died after a
+superstitious baptism at the hands of the heretical Arius. [A.D. 337.]
+An unbiassed judgment must pronounce him a great politician, who
+played with both parties as his tools, a Christian from expediency and
+not from conviction. It is a pity that the subserviency of the Greek
+communion has placed him in the number of its holy witnesses, for we
+are told by a historian that when the emperor, after the dreadful
+crimes he had perpetrated, applied at the heathen shrines for expiatory
+rites, the priests of the false gods had truly answered, "there are no
+purifications for such deeds as these." But nothing could be refused
+to the benefactor of the Church. The great ecclesiastical council of
+this age, (325), consisting of three hundred and eighteen bishops,
+and presided over by Constantine in person, gave the Nicene Creed as
+the result of their labours--a creed which is still the symbol of
+Christendom, but which consists more of a condemnation of the heresies
+which were then in the ascendant, than in the plain enunciation
+of the Christian faith. A layman, we are told, an auditor of the
+learned debates in this great assembly, a man of clear and simple
+common sense, met some of the disputants, and addressed them in these
+words:--"Arguers! Christ and his apostles delivered to us, not the art
+of disputation, nor empty eloquence, but a plain and simple rule which
+is maintained by faith and good works." The disputants, we are further
+told, were so struck with this undeniable truth that they acknowledged
+their error at once.
+
+But not yet firm and impregnable were the bulwarks of Christianity.
+[A.D. 360.] While dreaming anchorites in the deserts of Thebais were
+repeating the results of fasting and insanity as the manifestation
+of divine favour, the world was startled from its security by the
+appalling discovery that the emperor himself, the young and vigorous
+Julian, was a follower of the old philosophers, and a worshipper of
+the ancient gods. And a dangerous antagonist he was, even independent
+of his temporal power. His personal character was irreproachable, his
+learning and talent beyond dispute, and his eloquence and dialectic
+skill sharpened and improved by an education in Athens itself. Less
+than forty years had elapsed since Constantine pronounced the sentence
+of banishment on the heathen deities. It was not possible that the
+Christian truth was in every instance received where the old falsehood
+was driven away. We may therefore conclude, without the aid of historic
+evidence, that there must have been innumerable districts--villages
+in far-off valleys, hidden places up among the hills--where the name
+of Christ had not yet penetrated, and all that was known was, that
+the shrine of the local gods was overthrown, and the priests of the
+old ceremonial proscribed. When we remember that the heathen worship
+entered into almost all the changes of the social and family life--that
+its sanction was necessary at the wedding--that its auguries were
+indispensable at births--that it crowned the statue of the household
+god with flowers--that it kept alive the fire upon the altar of the
+emperor--and that it was the guardian of the tombs of the departed, as
+it had been the principal consolation during the funeral rites,--we
+shall perceive that, irrespective of absolute faith in his system of
+belief, the cessation of the priest's office must have been a serious
+calamity. The heathen establishment had been enriched by the piety or
+ostentation of many generations. There must have been still alive many
+who had been turned out of their comfortable temples, many who viewed
+the assumption of Christianity into the State as a political engine
+to strengthen the tyranny under which the nations groaned. We may see
+that self-interest and patriotism may easily have been combined in the
+effort made by the old faith to regain the supremacy it had lost. The
+Emperor Julian endeavoured to lift up the fallen gods. He persecuted
+the Christians, not with fire and sword, but with contempt. He scorned
+and tolerated. He preached moderation, self-denial, and purity of life,
+and practised all these virtues to an extent unknown upon a throne, and
+even then unusual in a bishop's palace.
+
+How those Christian graces, giving a charm and dignity to the
+apostate emperor, must have received a still higher authority from
+the painful contrast they presented to the agitated condition and
+corrupted morals of the Christian Church! Everywhere there was war and
+treachery, and ambition and unbelief. Half the great sees were held
+by Arians, who raved against the orthodox; and the other half were
+held by Athanasius and his followers, who accused their adversaries
+of being "more cruel than the Scythians, and more irreconcilable than
+tigers." At Rome itself there was an orthodox bishop and an Arian
+rival. It is not surprising that Julian, disgusted with the scenes
+presented to him by the mutual rage of the Christian sects, thought
+the surest method of restoring unity to the empire would be to silence
+all the contending parties and reintroduce the peaceful pageantries
+of the old Pantheon. If some of the fanciful annotators of the new
+faith had allegorized the facts of Christianity till they ceased to
+be facts at all, Julian performed the same office for the heathen
+gods. Jupiter and the rest were embodiments of the hidden powers of
+nature. Vulcan was the personification of human skill, and Venus the
+beautiful representative of connubial affection. But men's minds
+were now too sharpened with the contact they had had with the real to
+be satisfied with such fallacies as these. Eloquent teachers arose,
+who separated the eternal truths of revelation from the accessories
+with which they were temporarily combined. Ridicule was retorted on
+the emperor, who had sneered at the Christian services. Who, indeed,
+who had caught the slightest view of the spirituality of Christ's
+kingdom, could abstain from laughing at the laborious heathenism of
+the master of the world? He cut the wood for sacrifice, he slew the
+goat or bull, and, falling down on his knees, puffed with distended
+cheeks the sacred fire. He marched to the temple of Venus between
+two rows of dissolute and drunken worshippers, striving in vain by
+face and attitude to repress the shouts of riotous exultation and the
+jeers of the spectators. Then, wherever he went he was surrounded by
+pythonesses, and augurs, and fortune-tellers, magicians who could work
+miracles, and necromancers who could raise the dead. When he restored
+a statue to its ancient niche, he was rewarded by a shake of its head;
+when he hung up a picture of Thetis or Amphitrite, she winked in sign
+of satisfaction. Where miracles are not believed, the performance of
+them is fatal. But his expenditure of money in honouring the gods was
+more real, and had clearer results. He nearly exhausted the empire by
+the number of beasts he slew. He sent enormous offerings to the shrines
+of Dodona, and Delos, and Delphi. He rebuilt the temples, which time or
+Christian hatred had destroyed; and, by way of giving life to his new
+polity, he condescended to imitate the sect be despised, in its form
+of worship, in its advocacy of charity, peace, and good will, and in
+its institutions of celibacy and retirement, which, indeed, had been
+a portion of heathen virtue before it was admitted into the Christian
+Church. But his affected contempt soon degenerated into persecution.
+He would have no soldiers who did not serve his gods. Many resigned
+their swords. He called the Christians "Galileans," and robbed them
+of their property and despitefully used them, to try the sincerity of
+their faith. "Does not your law command you," he said, "to submit to
+injury, and to renounce your worldly goods? Well, I take possession
+of your riches that your march to heaven may be unencumbered." All
+moderation was now thrown off on both sides. Resistance was made by the
+Christians, and extermination threatened by the emperor. In the midst
+of these contentions he was called eastward to resist the aggression
+of Sapor, the Persian king. An arrow stretched Julian on his couch.
+He called round him his chief philosophers and priests. With them, in
+imitation of Socrates, he entered into deep discussions about the soul.
+[A.D. 363.] Nothing more heroic than his end, or more eloquent than
+his parting discourse. But death did not soften the animosity of his
+foes. The Christians boasted that the arrow was sent by an angel, that
+visions had foretold the persecutor's fall, and that so would perish
+all the enemies of God. The adherents of the emperor in return blamed
+the Galileans as his assassins, and boldly pointed to Athanasius, the
+leader of the Christians, as the culprit. Athanasius would certainly
+not have scrupled to rid the world of such an Agag and Holofernes, but
+it is more probable that the death occurred without either a miracle
+or a murder. The successors of Julian were enemies of the apostate.
+They speedily restored their fellow-believers to the supremacy they
+had lost. A ferocious hymn of exultation by Gregory of Nazianzen
+was chanted far and wide. Cries of joy and execration resounded in
+market-places, and churches, and theatres. The market-places had been
+closed against the Christians, their churches had been interdicted,
+and the theatres shut up, by the overstrained asceticism of the
+deceased. It was perceived that Christianity had taken deeper root
+than the apostate had believed, and henceforth no effort could be
+made to revivify the old superstition. After a nominal election of
+Jovian, the choice of the soldiers fell on two of their favourite
+leaders, Valentinian and Valens, brothers, and sufferers in the late
+persecutions for their faith. Named emperors of the Roman world, they
+came to an amicable division of the empire into East and West. Valens
+remained in Constantinople to guard the frontiers of the Danube and
+the Euphrates; while Valentinian, who saw great clouds darkening over
+Italy and Gaul, fixed his imperial residence in the strong city of
+Milan. The separation took place in 364, and henceforth the stream of
+history flows in two distinct and gradually diverging channels. This
+century has already been marked by the removal of the seat of power
+to Constantinople; by the attempt at the restoration of Paganism by
+Julian; and we have now to dwell for a little on the third and greatest
+incident of all, the invasion of the Goths, and final settlement of
+hostile warriors on the Roman soil.
+
+Names that have retained their sound and established themselves as
+household words in Europe now meet as at every turn. Valentinian is
+engaged in resisting the Saxons. The Britons, the Scots, the Germans,
+are pushing their claims to independence; and in the farther East,
+the persecutions and tyranny of the contemptible Valens are suddenly
+suspended by the news that a people hitherto unheard of had made their
+appearance within an easy march of the boundary, and that universal
+terror had taken possession of the soldiers of the empire. Who were
+those soldiers? We have seen for many years that the policy of the
+emperors had been to introduce the barbarians into the military
+service of the State, and to expose the wasted and helpless inhabitants
+to the rapacity of their tax-gatherers. This system had been carried
+to such a pitch, that it is probable there were none but mercenaries
+of the most varying interests in the Roman ranks. Yet such is the
+effect of discipline, and the pride of military combination, that all
+other feelings gave way before it. The Gothic chief, now invested with
+command in the Roman armies, turned his arms against his countrymen.
+The Albanian, the Saxon, the Briton, elevated to the rank of duke or
+count, looked back on Marius and Cæsar as their lineal predecessors in
+opposing and conquering the enemies of Rome. The names of the generals
+and magistrates, accordingly, which we encounter after this date,
+have a strangely barbaric sound. There are Ricimer, and Marcomir, and
+Arbogast--and finally, the name which overtopped and outlived them
+all, the name of Alaric the Goth. Now, the Goths, we have seen, had
+been settled for many generations on the northern side of the Danube.
+Much intercourse must have taken place between the inhabitants of the
+two banks. There must have been trade, and love, and quarrellings,
+and rejoicings. At shorter and shorter intervals the bravest of the
+tribes must have passed over into the Roman territory and joined the
+Legions. Occasionally a timid or despotic emperor would suddenly order
+his armies across, and carry fire and sword into the unsuspecting
+country. But on the whole, the terms on which they lived were not
+hostile, for the ties which united the two peoples were numerous and
+strong. Even the languages in the course of time must have come to be
+mutually intelligible, and we read of Gothic leaders who were excellent
+judges of Homer and seldom travelled without a few chosen books. This
+being the case, what was the consternation of the almost civilized
+Goths in the fertile levels of the present Wallachia and Moldavia to
+hear that an innumerable horde of dreadful savages, calling themselves
+Huns and Magyars, had appeared on the western shore of the Black Sea,
+and spread over the land, destroying, murdering, burning whatever
+lay in their way! Cooped up for an unknown period, it appeared, on
+the northeastern side of the Palus Maeotis, now better known to us
+as the Sea of Azof--living on fish out of the Don, and on the cattle
+of the long steppes which extend across the Volga, these sons of the
+Scythian desert had never been heard of either by the Goths or Romans.
+A hideous people to behold, as the perverted imagination of poet or
+painter could produce. They were low in stature, but broad-shouldered
+and strong. Their wide cheek-bones and small eyes gave them a savage
+and cruel expression, which was increased by their want of nose, for
+the only visible appearance of that indispensable organ consisted of
+two holes sunk into the square expanse of their faces. Fear is not a
+flattering painter, but from these rude descriptions it is easy to
+recognise the Calmuck countenance; and when we add their small horses,
+long spears, and prodigious lightness and activity, we shall see a
+very close resemblance between them and their successors in the same
+district, the Russian Cossacks of the Don. On, on, came the torrent of
+these pitiless, fearless, ugly, dirty, irresistible foes. The Goths,
+terrified at their aspect, and bewildered with the accounts they
+heard of their numbers and mode of warfare, petitioned the emperor to
+give them an asylum on the Roman side. Their prayer was granted on
+condition of depositing their children and arms in Roman hands. They
+had no time to squabble about terms. Every thing was agreed to. Boats
+manned by Roman soldiers were busy, day and night in transporting
+the Gothic exiles to the Roman side. Arms and jewels, and wives and
+children, the furniture of their tents, and idols of their gods, all
+got safely across the guarding river. The Huns, the Alans, and the
+other unsightly hordes who had gathered in the pursuit, came down to
+the bank, and shouted useless defiance and threats of vengeance. The
+broad Danube rolled between; and there rested that night on the Roman
+soil a whole nation, different in interest, in manners and religion,
+from the population they had joined, numbering upwards of a million
+souls, bound together by every thing that constitutes the unity of a
+people. The avarice and injustice of the Roman authorities negatived
+the clause of the agreement that stipulated for the surrender of the
+Gothic arms. To redeem their swords and spears, they parted with
+the silver and gold they had amassed in their predatory incursions
+on the Roman territory. They know that once in possession of their
+weapons they could soon reclaim all they gave--and in no long time
+the attempt was made. Fritigern, the leader of their name, led them
+against the armies of Rome. Insulted at their audacity, the Emperor
+Valens, at the head of three hundred thousand men, met them in the
+plain of Adrianople. The existence of the Gothic people was at stake.
+[A.D. 379.] They fought with desperation and hatred. The emperor was
+defeated, leaving two-thirds of his army on the field of battle.
+Seeking safety in a cottage at the side of the road, he was burned by
+the inexorable pursuers, who, gathering up their broken lines, marched
+steadily through the intervening levels and gazed with enraptured eyes
+on the glittering towers and pinnacles of Constantinople itself. But
+the walls were high and strongly armed. The barbarians were inveigled
+into a negotiation, and mastered by the unequal powers of lying
+at all times characteristic of the Greeks. Fritigern consented to
+withdraw his troops: some were embodied in the levies of the empire,
+and others dispersed in different provinces. Those settled in Thrace
+were faithful to their employers, and resisted their ancient enemies
+the Huns; but the great body of the discontented conquerors were ready
+for fresh assaults on the Roman land. Theodosius, called to the throne
+in 379, succeeded in staving off the evil day; but when the final
+partition of the empire took place between his two sons--Honorius
+and Arcadius--there was nothing to oppose the terrible onset of the
+Goths. [A.D. 394.] At their head was Alaric, the descendant of their
+original chiefs, and himself the bravest of his warriors. He broke
+into Greece, forcing his way through Thermopylæ, and devastated the
+native seats of poetry and the arts with fire and sword. The ruler at
+Constantinople heard of his advance with terror, and opposed to him
+the Vandal Stilicho, the greatest of his generals. But the wily Alaric
+declined to fight, and out-manoeuvred his enemies, escaping to the sure
+fastnesses of Epirus, and sat down sullen and discontented, meditating
+further expeditions into richer plains, and already seeing before him
+the prostrate cities of Italy. The terror of Arcadius tried in vain
+to soften his rage, or satisfy his ambition with vain titles, among
+others, that of Count of the Illyrian Border. The spirit of aggression
+was fairly roused. All the Gothic settlers in the Roman territory were
+ready to join their countrymen in one great and combined attack;--and
+with this position of the personages of the drama, the curtain falls on
+the fourth century, while preparations for the great catastrophe are
+going on.
+
+
+
+
+                             FIFTH CENTURY
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+  A.D.   _West._
+
+       HONORIUS--(_cont._)
+
+  424. VALENTINIAN III.
+
+  455. PETRONIUS MAXIMUS.
+
+  455. AVITUS.
+
+  457. MAJORIANUS.
+
+  461. SEVERUS.
+
+  467. ANTHEMIUS.
+
+  472. OLIBIUS.
+
+  473. GLYCERIUS.
+
+  474. JULIUS NEPOS.
+
+  475. AUGUSTULUS ROMULUS.
+
+  A.D.   _East._
+
+       ARCADIUS--(_cont._)
+
+  408. THEODOSIUS II.
+
+  450. MARCIAN.
+
+  457. LEO THE GREAT.
+
+  474. ZENO.
+
+  491. ANASTASIUS.
+
+
+King of the Franks.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  481. CLOVIS.
+
+
+King of Italy.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  489. THEODORIC.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+CHRYSOSTOM, JEROME, AUGUSTINE, PELAGIUS, (405,) SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS,
+PATRICIUS, MACROBIUS, VICENTIUS OF LERINS, (died 450,) CYRIL, BISHOP OF
+ALEXANDRIA, (412-444.)
+
+
+
+
+                          THE FIFTH CENTURY.
+
+  END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE--FORMATION OF MODERN STATES--GROWTH OF
+  ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY.
+
+
+We find the same actors on the stage when the curtain rises again, but
+circumstances have greatly changed. After his escape from Stilicho,
+Alaric had been "lifted on the shield," the wild and picturesque way
+in which the warlike Goths nominated their kings, and henceforth
+was considered the monarch of a separate and independent people, no
+longer the mere leader of a band of predatory barbarians. In this new
+character he entered into treaties with the emperors of Constantinople
+or Rome, and broke them, as if he had already been the sovereign of a
+civilized state.
+
+In 403 he broke up from his secure retreat on the Adriatic, and burst
+into Italy, spreading fire and famine wherever he went. Honorius,
+the Emperor of the West, fled from Milan, and was besieged in Asti
+by the Goths. Here would have ended the imperial dynasty, some years
+before its time, if it had not been for the watchful Stilicho. This
+Vandal chief flew to the rescue of Honorius, repulsed Alaric with
+great slaughter, and delivered his master from his dangerous position.
+The grateful emperor entered Rome in triumph, and for the last time
+the Circus streamed with the blood of beasts and men. [A.D. 408.] He
+retired after this display to the inaccessible marshes of Ravenna, at
+the mouths of the Po, and, secure in that fortress, sent an order to
+have his preserver and benefactor murdered; Stilicho, the only hope
+of Rome, was assassinated, and Alaric once more saw all Italy within
+his grasp. It was not only the Goths who followed Alaric's command. All
+the barbarians, of whatever name or race, who had been transplanted
+either as slaves or soldiers--Alans, Franks, and Germans--rallied
+round the advancing king, for the impolitic Honorius had issued an
+order for the extermination of all the tribes. There were Britons,
+and Saxons, and Suabians. It was an insurrection of all the manly
+elements of society against the indescribable depravation of the
+inhabitants of the Peninsula. The wildest barbarian blushed in the
+midst of his ignorance and rudeness to hear of the manners of the
+highest and most distinguished families in Rome. Nobody could hold out
+a hand to avert the judgment that was about to fall on the devoted
+city. Ambassadors indeed appeared, and bought a short delay at the
+price of many thousand pounds' weight of gold and silver, and of large
+quantities of silk; but these were only additional incitements to the
+cupidity of the invader. Tribe after tribe rose up with fresh fury;
+warriors of every hue and shape, and with every manner of equipment.
+The handsome Goth in his iron cuirass; the Alan with his saddle covered
+with human skin; the German making a hideous sound by shrieking on
+the sharp edge of his shield; and the countryman of Alaric himself
+sounding the "horn of battle," which terrified the Romans with its
+ominous note--all started forward on the march. At the head of each
+detachment rode a band, singing songs of exultation and defiance; and
+the Romans, stupefied with fear, saw these innumerable swarms defile
+towards the Milvian bridge and close up every access to the town.
+There was no corn from Sicily or Africa; a pest raged in every house,
+and hunger reduced the inhabitants to despair. The gates were thrown
+open, and all the pent-up animosity of the desert was poured out upon
+the mistress and corrupter of the world. For six days the city was
+given up to remorseless slaughter and universal pillage. The wealth
+was incalculable. The captives were sold as slaves. The palaces were
+overthrown, and the river choked with carcasses and the treasures of
+art which the barbarians could not appreciate. "The new Babylon," cries
+Bossuet, the great Bishop of Meaux, "rival of the old, swelled out like
+her with her successes, and, triumphing in her pleasures and riches,
+encountered as great a fall." And no man lamented her fate.
+
+[A.D. 410.]
+
+Alaric, who had thus achieved a victory denied to Hannibal and Pyrrhus,
+resolved to push his conquests to the end of Italy. But on his march
+towards the Straits of Sicily, illness overtook him. His life had been
+unlike that of other men, and his burial was to excite the wonder of
+the Bruttians, among whom he died. A large river was turned from its
+course, and in its channel a deep grave was dug and ornamented with
+monumental stone. To this the body of the barbaric king was carried,
+clothed in full armour, and accompanied with some of the richest spoils
+of Rome; and then the stream was turned on again, the prisoners who
+had executed the works were slaughtered to conceal the secret of the
+tomb, and nobody has ever found out where the Gothic king reposes. But
+while the Busentino flowed peaceably on, and guarded the body of the
+conqueror from the revenge of the Romans, new perils were gathering
+round the throne of the Western emperor. As if the duration of the
+empire had been inseparably connected with the capital, the reverence
+of mankind was never bestowed on Milan or Ravenna, in which the court
+was now established, as it had been upon Rome. Britain had already
+thrown off the distant yoke, and submitted to the Saxon invaders.
+Spain had also peaceably accepted the rule of the three kindred tribes
+of Sueves and Alans and Vandals. Gaul itself had given its adhesion
+to the Burgundians (who fixed their seat in the district which still
+bears their name) and offered a feeble resistance to any fresh invader.
+Ataulf, the brother of Alaric, came to the rescue of the empire, and of
+course completed the destruction. He married the sister of Honorius,
+and retained her as a hostage of the emperor's good faith. He promised
+to restore the revolted provinces to their former master, and succeeded
+in overthrowing some competitors who had started up to dispute with
+Ravenna the wrecks of former power. He then forced his way into Spain,
+and the hopes of the degenerate Romans were high. But murder, as usual,
+stopped the career of Ataulf, and all was changed. [A.D. 415.] The
+emperor ratified the possessions which he could not dispute, and in
+the first twenty years of this century three separate kingdoms were
+established in Europe. This was soon followed by a Vandal conquest of
+the shores of Africa, which raised Carthage once more to commercial
+importance, united Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia to the new-founded
+state, and by the creation of a fleet gained the command of the
+Mediterranean Sea, and threatened Constantinople itself.
+
+With so many provinces not only torn from the empire, but erected into
+hostile kingdoms, nothing was wanting but some new irruption into the
+still dependent territories to put a final end to the Roman name. And a
+new incursion came. In the very involved relations existing between the
+emperors of the East and West, it is difficult to follow the course of
+events with any clearness. While the deluded populace of Constantinople
+were rejoicing in the fall of their Italian rival, they heard with
+amazement, in 441, that a savage potentate, who had pitched his tents
+in the plains of Pannonia and Thrace, and kept round him, for defence
+or conquest, seven hundred thousand of those hideous-featured Huns who
+had spread devastation and terror all over the populations of Asia,
+from the borders of China to the Don, had determined on stretching his
+conquests over the whole world, and merely hesitated with which of the
+doomed empires to begin his career. His name was Attila, or, according
+to its native pronunciation, Etzel; and it soon resounded, louder and
+more terrifying than that of Alaric the Goth. The Emperor of the East
+sent an embassy to this dreadful neighbour, a minute account of which
+remains, and from which we learn the barbaric pomp and ceremony of the
+leader of the Huns, and the perfidy and debasement of the Greeks. An
+attempt was made to poison the redoubtable chief, and he complained
+of the guilty ambassador to the very person who had given him his
+instructions for the deed. Unsatisfied with the result, the Hunnish
+monarch advanced his camp. Constantinople, anxious to ward off the blow
+from itself, descanted to the savage king on the exposed condition and
+ill-defended wealth of the Italian towns. Treachery of another kind
+came to his aid. An offended sister of the emperor sent to Attila her
+ring as a mark of espousal, and he now claimed a portion of the empire
+as the dowry of his bride. When this was refused, he reiterated his old
+claim of satisfaction for the attempt upon his life, and ravaged the
+fields of Belgium and Gaul, in the double character of avenger of an
+insult and claimant of an inheritance. It does not much matter under
+what plea a barbarous chieftain, with six hundred thousand warriors,
+makes a demand. It must be answered sword in hand, or on the knees.
+The newly-established Frankish and Burgundian kings gathered their
+forces in defence of their Christian faith and their recently-acquired
+dominions. Attila retired from Orleans, of which he had commenced the
+siege, and chose for the battle-field, which was to decide the destiny
+of the world, a vast plain not far from Châlons, on the Marne, where
+his cavalry would have room to act, and waited the assault of all the
+forces that France and Italy could collect. The Visigoths prepared
+for the decisive engagement under their king, Theodoric; the Franks
+of the Saal under Meroveg; the Ripuarian Franks, the Saxons, and the
+Burgundians were under leaders of their own. [A.D. 451.] It was a
+fight in which were brought face to face the two conquering races of
+the world, and upon its result it depended whether Europe was to be
+ruled by a dynasty of Calmucks or left to her free progress under her
+Gothic and Teutonic kings. Three hundred thousand corpses marked the
+severity of the struggle, but victory rested with the West. Attila
+retreated from Gaul, and wreaked his vengeance on the Italian cities.
+He destroyed Aquileia, whose terrified inhabitants hid themselves in
+the marshes and lagoons which afterwards bore the palaces of Venice;
+Vicenza, Padua, and Verona were spoiled and burned. Pavia and Milan
+submitted without resistance. On approaching Rome, the venerable
+bishop, Saint Leo, met the devastating Hun, and by the gravity of his
+appearance, the ransom he offered, and perhaps the mystic dignity
+which still rested upon the city whose cause he pleaded, prevailed on
+him to retire. Shortly after, the chief of this brief and terrible
+visitation died in his tent on the banks of the Danube, and left no
+lasting memorial of his irruption except the depopulation his cruelty
+had caused, and the ruin he had spread over some of the fairest regions
+of the earth.
+
+But Rome, spared by the influence of the bishop from the ravage of
+the Huns, could not escape the destroying enmity of Genseric and the
+Vandals. Dashing across from Africa, these furious conquerors destroyed
+for destruction's sake, and affixed the name of Vandalism on whatever
+is harsh and unrefined. For fourteen days the spoilers were at work in
+Rome, and it is only wonderful that after so many plunderings any thing
+worth plundering remained. When the sated Vandals crossed to Carthage
+again, the Gothic and Suevic kings gave the purple to whatever puppet
+they chose. Afraid still to invest themselves with the insignia of
+the Imperial power, they bestowed them or took them away, and at last
+rendered the throne and the crown so contemptible, that when Odoacer
+was proclaimed King of Italy, the phantom assembly which still called
+itself the Roman Senate sent back to Constantinople the tiara and
+purple robe, in sign that the Western Empire had passed away. Zeno, the
+Eastern ruler, retained the ornaments of the departed sovereignty, and
+sent to the Herulean Odoacer the title of "Patrician," sole emblem left
+of the greatness and antiquity of the Roman name. It may be interesting
+to remember that the last who wore the Imperial crown was a youth who
+would probably have escaped the recognition of posterity altogether, if
+he had not, by a sort of cruel mockery of his misfortunes, borne the
+names of Romulus Augustulus--the former recalling the great founder of
+the city, and the latter the first of the Imperial line.
+
+Thus, then, in 476, Rome came to her deserved and terrible end; and
+before we trace the influence of this great event upon the succeeding
+centuries, it will be worth while to devote a few words to the cause of
+its overthrow. These were evidently three--the ineradicable barbarity
+and selfishness of the Roman character, the depravation of manners in
+the capital, and the want of some combining influence to bind all the
+parts of the various empire into a whole. From the earliest incidents
+in the history of Rome, we gather that she was utterly regardless of
+human life or suffering. Her treatment of her vanquished enemies, and
+her laws upon parental authority, upon slaves and debtors, show the
+pitiless disposition of her people. Look at her citizens at any period
+of her career--her populace or her consuls--in the field of battle
+or in the forum, you will always find them the true descendants of
+those blood-stained refugees, who established their den of robbers on
+the seven hills, and pretended they were led by a man who had been
+suckled by a wolf. While conquest was their object, this sanguinary
+disposition enabled them to perform great exploits; but when victory
+had secured to them the blessings of peace and safety, the same thirst
+for excitement continued. They cried out for blood in the amphitheatre,
+and had no pleasure in any display which was not accompanied with pain.
+The rival chief who had perilled their supremacy in the field was led
+in ferocious triumph at the wheel of his conqueror, and beheaded or
+flogged to death at the gate of the Capitol. The wounded gladiator
+looked round the benches of the arena in hopes of seeing the thumbs
+of the spectators turned down--the signal for his life being spared;
+but matrons and maids, the high and the low, looked with unmoved faces
+upon his agonies, and gave the signal for his death without remorse.
+They were the same people, even in their amusements, who gave order for
+the destruction of Numantium and Carthage. But cruelty was not enough.
+They sank into the wildest vices of sensuality, and lost the dignity
+of manhood, and the last feelings of self-respect. Never was a nation
+so easily habituated to slavery. They licked the hand that struck them
+hardest. They hung garlands for a long time on the tomb of Nero. They
+insisted on being revenged on the murderers of Commodus, and frequently
+slew more citizens in broils in the street and quarrels in the theatre,
+than had fought at Cannæ or Zama. It might have been hoped that the
+cruelty which characterized the days of their military aggression
+would be softened down when they had become the acknowledged rulers of
+the world. Luxury itself, it might be thought, would be inconsistent
+with the sight of blood. But in this utterly detestable race the two
+extremes of human society seemed to have the same result. The brutal,
+half-clothed savage of an early age conveyed his tastes as well as his
+conquests to the enervated voluptuary of the empire. The virtues, such
+as they were, of that former period--contempt of danger, unfaltering
+resolution, and a certain simplicity of life--had departed, and all the
+bad features were exaggerated. Religion also had disappeared. Even a
+false religion, if sincerely entertained, is a bond of union among all
+who profess its faith. But between Rome and its colonies, and between
+man and man, there was soon no community of belief. The sweltering
+wretches in the Forum sneered at the existence of Bacchus in the midst
+of his mysteries, and imitated the actions of their gods, while they
+laughed at the hypocrisy of priests and augurs, who treated them as
+divine. A cruel, depraved, godless people--these were the Romans who
+had enslaved the world with their arms and corrupted it with their
+civilization. When their capital fell, men felt relieved from a burden
+and shame. The lessons of Christianity had been thrown away on a
+population too gross and too truculent to receive them. Some of gentler
+mould than others had received the Saviour; but to the mass of Romans
+the language of peace and justice, of forgiveness and brotherhood, was
+unknown. It was to be the worthier recipients of a pure and elevating
+faith, that the Goth was called from his wilderness and the German from
+his forest.
+
+But the faith had to be purified itself before it was fitted for the
+reception of the new conquerors of the world. The dissensions of the
+Christian Churches had added only a fresh element of weakness to the
+empire of Rome. There were heretics everywhere, supporting their
+opinions with bigotry and violence--Arians, Sabellians, Montanists, and
+fifty names besides. Torn by these parties, dishonoured by pretended
+conversions, the result of flattery and ambition, the Christian Church
+was further weakened by the effect of wealth and luxury upon its
+chiefs. While contending with rival sects upon some point of discipline
+or doctrine, they made themselves so notorious for the desire of
+riches, and the infamous arts they practised to get themselves
+appointed heirs of the rich members of their congregations, that a
+law was passed making a conveyance in favour of a priest invalid. And
+it is not from Pagan enemies or heretical rivals we learn this--it
+is from the letters still extant of the most honoured Fathers of the
+Church. One of them tells us that the Prefect Pretextatus, alluding
+to the luxury of the Pontiffs, and to the magnificence of their
+apparel, said to Pope Damasus, "Make me Bishop of Rome, and I will
+turn Christian." "Far, then," says a Roman Catholic historian of our
+own day, "from strengthening the Roman world with its virtues, the
+Christian society seemed to have adopted the vices it was its office
+to overcome." But the fall of Roman power was the resurrection of
+Christianity. It had a Resurrection, because it had had a Death, and a
+new world was now prepared for its reception. Its everlasting truths,
+indeed, had been full of life and vigour all through the sad period
+of Roman depravation, but the ground was unfitted for their growth;
+and the great characteristic of this century is not the conquest of
+Rome by Alaric the Goth, or the dreadful assault on Europe by Attila
+the Hun, or the final abolition of the old capital of the world by
+Odoacer the Herulean, but rather the ecclesiastical chaos which spread
+over the earth. The age of martyrs had passed--the philosophers had
+begun their pestiferous tamperings with the facts of revelation--and
+over all rioted and stormed an ambitious and worldly priesthood, who
+hated their opponents with more bitterness than the heathens had
+displayed against the Christians, and ran wild in every species of
+lawlessness and vice. The deserts and caves which used to give retreat
+to meditative worshippers or timid believers, now teemed with thousands
+of furious and fanatical monks, who rushed occasionally into the great
+cities of the empire, and filled their streets with blood and rapine.
+Guided by no less fanatical bishops, they spread murder and terror
+over whole provinces. Alexandria stood in more fear of these professed
+recluses than of an army of hostile soldiers. "There is a race," says
+Eunapius, "called monks--men indeed in form, but hogs in life, who
+practise and allow abominable things. Whoever wears a black robe, and
+is not ashamed of filthy garments, and presents a dirty face to the
+public view, obtains a tyrannical authority." False miracles, absurd
+prophecies, and ludicrous visions were the instruments with which these
+and other impostors established their power. Mad enthusiasts imprisoned
+themselves in dungeons, or exposed themselves on the tops of pillars,
+naked, except by the growth of their tangled hair, and the coating of
+filth upon their persons,--and gained credit among the ignorant for
+self-denial and abnegation of the world.
+
+All the high offices of the Church were so lucrative and honourable as
+to be the object of universal desire.
+
+To be established archbishop of a diocese cost more lives than the
+conquest of a province. When the Christian community needed support
+from without, they had recourse to some rich or powerful individual,
+some general of an army, or governor of a district, and begged him
+to assume the pastoral staff in exchange for his military sword.
+Sometimes the assembled crowd cried out the name of a favourite who
+was not even known to be a Christian, and the mitre was conveyed by
+acclamation to a person who had to undergo the ceremonies of baptism
+and ordination before he could place it on his head. Sometimes the
+exigencies of the congregation required a scholar or an orator for
+its head. It applied to a philosopher to undertake its direction. He
+objected that his philosophy had been declared inconsistent with the
+Christian faith, and his mode of life contrary to Christian precept.
+They forgave him his philosophy, his horses and hounds, his wife and
+children, and constituted him their chief. Age was of no consequence.
+A youth of eighteen has been saluted bishop by a cry which seemed to
+the multitude the direct inspiration of Heaven, and seated in the
+chair of his dignity almost without his knowledge. Once established
+on his episcopal seat, he had no superior. The Roman Bishop had not
+yet asserted his supremacy over the Church. Each prelate was sovereign
+Pontiff of his own see, and his doctrines for a long time regulated the
+doctrines of his flock. Under former bishops, Milan had been Arian,
+under Ambrose it was orthodox, and with a change of master might
+have been Arian again. The emperors had occasionally interfered with
+their authoritative decisions, but generally the dispute was left in
+divided dioceses to be settled by argument, when the rivals' tempers
+allowed such a mode of warfare, but more frequently by armed bands of
+the retainers of the respective creeds, and sometimes by an appeal to
+miracles. But with this century a new spirit of bitterness was let
+loose upon the Church. Councils were held, at which the doctrines of
+the minority were declared dangerous to the State, and the civil power
+was invoked to carry the sentence into effect. In Africa, where the
+great name of Augustin of Hippo admitted no opposition, the Donatists,
+though represented by no less than two hundred and seventy-nine
+prelates, were condemned as heretics, and given over to the persecuting
+sword. But in other quarters the dissidents looked for support to
+the civil power, when it happened to be of their opinion in Church
+affairs. Rome chose Clovis, the politic and energetic Frank, for its
+guardian and protector, and the Arians threw themselves in the same
+way on the support of the Visigoths and Burgundians. A difference of
+faith became a pretext for war. Clovis, who envied his neighbours
+their territories south of the Loire, led an expedition against them,
+crying, "It is shameful to see those Arians in possession of such
+goodly lands!" and everywhere a vast activity was perceptible in
+the Church, because its interests were now connected with those of
+kings and peoples. In earlier times, discussions were carried on on a
+great variety of doctrines which, though widely spread, were not yet
+authoritatively declared to be articles of faith. St. Jerome himself,
+and others, had had to defend their opinions against the attacks of
+various adversaries, who, without ceasing to be considered true members
+of the Church, wrote powerfully against the worship of martyrs and
+their relics; against the miracles professedly wrought at their tombs;
+against fasting, austerities, and celibacy. No appeal was made on
+those occasions either to the Bishop of Rome as head of the Church,
+or to the emperor as head of the State. Now, however, the spirit of
+moderation was banished, and the decrees of councils were considered
+superior to private or even diocesan judgment. Life and freedom of
+discussion were at an end under an enforced and rigid uniformity. But
+the struggle lasted through the century. It was the period of great
+convulsions in the State, and disputations, wranglings, and struggle
+in the Church. How these, in a State tortured by perpetual change,
+and a Church filled with energy and fire, acted upon each other, may
+easily be supposed. The doubtful and unsteady civil government had
+subordinated itself to the turbulent ardour of the perplexed but
+highly-animated Church. After the conquest of Rome, where was the
+barbaric conqueror to look for any guide to internal unity, or any
+relic of the vanished empire by which to connect himself with the past?
+There was only the Church, which was now not only the professed teacher
+of obedience, peace, and holiness, but the only undestroyed institution
+of the State. The old population of Rome had been wasted by the sword,
+and famine, and deportation. The emperors of the West had left the
+scene; the Roman Senate was no more. There was but one authority which
+had any influence on the wretched crowd who had returned to their
+ancient capital, or sought refuge in its ruined palaces or grass-grown
+streets from the pursuit of their foes; and that was the Bishop of
+the Christian congregation--whose palace had been given to him by
+Constantine--who claimed already the inheritance of St. Peter--and who
+carried to the new government either the support of a willing people,
+or the enmity of a seditious mob.
+
+[A.D. 489.]
+
+A new hero came upon the scene in the person of Theodoric, the
+Ostrogoth. Odoacer tried in vain to resist the two hundred thousand
+warriors of this tribe who poured upon Italy in 490, and, after
+a long resistance in Ravenna, yielded the kingdom of Italy to his
+rival. Theodoric, though an Arian, cultivated the good opinion of the
+orthodox, and gained the favour of the Roman Bishop. He had almost a
+superstitious veneration for the dignities of ancient Rome. He treated
+with respect an assembly which called itself the Senate, but did not
+allow his love of antiquity to blind him to the degeneracy of the
+present race. He interdicted arms to all men of Roman blood, and tried
+in vain to prevent his followers from using the appellation "Roman"
+as their bitterest form of contempt. Lands were distributed to his
+followers, and they occupied and improved a full third of Italy. Equal
+laws were provided for both populations, but he forbade the toga and
+the schools to his countrymen, and left the studies and refinements of
+life, and offices of civil dignity, to the native race. The hand that
+holds the pen, he said, becomes unfitted for the sword. But, barbarian
+as he was called, he restored the prosperity which the fairest region
+of the earth had lost under the emperors. Bridges, aqueducts, theatres,
+baths, were repaired; palaces and churches built. Agriculture was
+encouraged, attempts were made to drain the Pontine Marshes; iron-mines
+were worked in Dalmatia, and gold-mines in Bruttium. Large fleets
+protected the coasts of the Mediterranean from pirates and invaders.
+Population increased, taxes were diminished; and a ruler who could
+neither read nor write attracted to his court all the learned men of
+his time. Already the energy of a new and enterprising people was felt
+to the extremities of his dominions. A new race, also, was established
+in Gaul. Klodwig, leader of the Franks, received baptism at the hands
+of St. Remi in 496, and began the great line of French rulers, who,
+passing his name through the softened sound of Clovis, presented, in
+the different families who succeeded him, eighteen kings of the name of
+Louis, as if commemorative of the founder of the monarchy.
+
+In England the petty kingdoms of the Heptarchy were in the course of
+formation, and though, when viewed closely, we seemed a divided and
+even hostile collection of individual tribes, the historian combines
+the separate elements, and tells us that, before the fifth century
+expired, another branch of the barbarians had settled into form and
+order, and that the Anglo-Saxon race had taken possession of its place.
+
+With these newly-founded States rising with fresh vigour from among the
+decayed and festering remains of an older society, we look hopefully
+forward to what the future years will show us.
+
+
+
+
+                            SIXTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Kings of the Franks.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       CLOVIS.--(_cont._)
+
+  511. CHILDEBERT, THIERRY, CLOTAIRE, CLODOMIR.
+
+  559. CLOTAIRE (sole King).
+
+  562. CHARIBERT, GONTRAN, SIGEBERT and CHILDERIC.
+
+  584. CLOTAIRE II., (of Soissons.)
+
+  596. THIERRY II., THEODOBERT, (of Paris and Austrasia.)
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       ANASTASIUS.--(_cont._)
+
+  518. JUSTIN.
+
+  527. JUSTINIAN I.
+
+  565. JUSTIN II.
+
+  578. TIBERIUS II.
+
+  582. MAURICE.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+BOETHIUS, PROCOPIUS, GILDAS, GREGORY OF TOURS, COLUMBA, (520-597,)
+PRISCIAN, COLUMBANUS, BENEDICT, EVAGRIUS, (SCHOLASTICUS,) FULGENTIUS,
+GREGORY THE GREAT.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE SIXTH CENTURY.
+
+  BELISARIUS AND NARSES IN ITALY--SETTLEMENT OF THE LOMBARDS--LAWS OF
+  JUSTINIAN--BIRTH OF MOHAMMED.
+
+
+Theodoric, though not laying claim to universal empire in right of
+his possession of Rome and Italy, exercised a sort of supremacy over
+his contemporaries by his wisdom and power. He also strengthened his
+position by family alliances. His wife was sister of Klodwig or Clovis,
+King of the Franks. He married his own sister to Hunric, King of the
+Vandals, his niece to the Thuringian king. One of his daughters he
+gave to Sigismund, King of the Burgundians, and the other to Alaric
+the Second, King of the Visigoths. Relying on the double influence
+which his relationship and reputation secured to him, he rebuked or
+praised the potentates of Europe as if they had been his children, and
+gave them advice in the various exigencies of their affairs, to which
+they implicitly submitted. He would fain have kept alive what was
+left of the old Roman civilization, and heaped honours on the Senator
+Cassiodorus, one of the last writers of Rome. "We send you this man
+as ambassador," he said to the King of the Burgundians, "that your
+people may no longer pretend to be our equals when they perceive what
+manner of men we have among us." But his rule, though generous, was
+strict. He imprisoned the Bishop of Rome for disobedience of orders
+in a commission he had given him, and repressed discontent and the
+quarrels of the factions with an unsparing hand. But the death of this
+great and wise sovereign showed on what unstable foundations a barbaric
+power is built. Frightful tragedies were enacted in his family. His
+daughter was murdered by her nephew, whom she had associated with her
+in the guardianship of her son. But vengeance overtook the wrong-doer,
+and a strange revolution occurred in the history of the world. The
+emperor reigning at Constantinople was the celebrated Justinian. He
+saw into what a confused condition the affairs of the new conquerors
+of Italy had fallen. Rallying round him all the recollections of the
+past--giving command of his armies to one of the great men who start
+up unexpectedly in the most hopeless periods of history, whose name,
+Belisarius, still continues to be familiar to our ears--and rousing
+the hostile nationalities to come to his aid, he poured into the
+peninsula an army with Roman discipline and the union which community
+of interests affords. [A.D. 535.] In a remarkably short space of time,
+Belisarius achieved the conquest of Italy. The opposing soldiers threw
+down their arms at sight of the well-remembered eagles. The nations
+threw off the supremacy of the Ostrogoths. Belisarius had already
+overthrown the kingdom of the Vandals and restored Africa to the empire
+of the East. He took Naples, and put the inhabitants to the sword.
+He advanced upon Rome, which the Goths deserted at his approach. The
+walls of the great city were restored, and a victory over the fugitives
+at Perugia seemed to secure the whole land to its ancient masters.
+But Witig, the Ostrogoth, gathered courage from despair. He besought
+assistance from the Franks, who had now taken possession of Burgundy;
+and volunteers from all quarters flocked to his standard, for he had
+promised them the spoils of Milan. Milan was immensely rich, and had
+espoused the orthodox faith. The assailants were Arians, and intent on
+plunder. Such destruction had scarcely been seen since the memorable
+slaughter of the Huns at Châlons on the Marne. The Ostrogoths and
+Burgundian Franks broke into the town, and the streets were piled up
+with the corpses of all the inhabitants. There were three hundred
+thousand put to death, and multitudes had died of famine and disease.
+The ferocity was useless, and Belisarius was already on the march;
+Witig was conquered, in open fight, while he was busy besieging Rome;
+Ravenna itself, his capital, was taken, and the Ostrogothic king was
+led in triumph along the streets of Constantinople.
+
+[A.D. 540.]
+
+But the conqueror of the Ostrogoths fell into disfavour at court. He
+was summoned home, and a great man, whom his presence in Italy had kept
+in check, availed himself of his absence. Totila seemed indeed worthy
+to succeed to the empire of his countryman Theodoric. He again peopled
+the utterly exhausted Rome; he restored its buildings, and lived among
+the new-comers himself, encouraging their efforts to give it once more
+the appearance of the capital of the world. But these efforts were
+in vain. There was no possibility of reviving the old fiction of the
+identity of the freshly-imported inhabitants and the countrymen of
+Scipio and Cæsar. Only one link was possible between the old state of
+things and the new. It was strange that it was left for the Christian
+Bishop to bridge over the chasm that separated the Rome of the
+Consulship and the Empire from the capital of the Goths. Yet so it was.
+While the short duration of the reigns of the barbaric kings prevented
+the most sanguine from looking forward to the stability of any power
+for the future, the immunity already granted to the clerical order, and
+the sanctuary afforded, in the midst of the wildest excesses of siege
+and storm, by their shrines and churches, had affixed a character of
+inviolability and permanence to the influence of the ecclesiastical
+chief. At Constantinople, the presence of the sovereign, who affected a
+grandeur to which the pretensions to divinity of the Roman emperors had
+been modesty and simplicity, kept the dignity of the Bishop in a very
+secondary place. But at Rome there was no one left to dispute his rank.
+His office claimed a duration of upwards of four hundred years; and
+though at first his predecessors had been fugitives and martyrs, and
+even now his power had no foundation except in the willing obedience
+of the members of his flock, the necessity of his position had forced
+him to extend his claims beyond the mere requirements of his spiritual
+rule. During the ephemeral occupations of the city by Vandals and Huns
+and Ostrogoths, and all the tribes who successively took possession of
+the great capital, he had been recognised as the representative of the
+most influential portion of the inhabitants. As it naturally followed
+that the higher the rank of a ruler or intercessor was, the more likely
+his success would be, the Christians of the orthodox persuasion had
+the wisdom to raise their Bishop as high as they could. He had stood
+between the devoted city and the Huns; he had promised obedience or
+threatened resistance to the Goths, according to the conduct pursued
+with regard to his flock by the conquerors. He had also lent to
+Belisarius all the weight of his authority in restoring the power of
+the emperors, and from this time the Bishop of Rome became a great
+civil as well as ecclesiastical officer. All parties in turn united in
+trying to win him over to their cause--the Arian kings, by kindness
+and forbearance to his adherents; and the orthodox, by increasing the
+rights and privileges of his see. And already the policy of the Roman
+Pontiffs began to take the path it has never deserted since. They
+looked out in all quarters for assistance in their schemes of ambition
+and conquest. Emissaries were despatched into many nations to convert
+them, not from heathenism to Christianity, but from independence to an
+acknowledgment of their subjection to Rome. It was seen already that
+a great spiritual empire might be founded upon the ruins of the old
+Roman world, and spread itself over the perplexed and unstable politics
+of the barbaric tribes. No means, accordingly, were left untried to
+extend the conquests of the spiritual Cæsar. When Clovis the Frank was
+converted by the entreaties of his wife from Arianism to the creed
+of the Roman Church, the orthodox bishops of France considered it a
+victory over their enemies, though these enemies were their countrymen
+and neighbours. And from henceforth we find the different confessions
+of faith to have more influence in the setting up or overthrowing of
+kingdoms than the strength of armies or the skill of generals. Narses,
+who was appointed the successor of Belisarius, was a believer in the
+decrees of the Council of Nice. His orthodoxy won him the support of
+all the orthodox Huns and Heruleans and Lombards, who formed an army
+of infuriated missionaries rather than of soldiers, and gained to his
+cause the majority of the Ostrogoths whom it was his task to fight.
+Totila in vain tried to bear up against this invasion. The heretical
+Ostrogoths, expelled from the towns by their orthodox fellow-citizens,
+and ill supported by the inhabitants of the lands they traversed,
+were defeated in several battles; and at last, when the resisting
+forces were reduced to the paltry number of seven thousand men, their
+spirits broken by defeat, and a continuance in Italy made useless by
+the hostile feelings of the population, they applied to Narses for
+some means of saving their lives. He furnished them with vessels,
+which carried them from the lands which, sixty years before, had
+been assigned them by the great Theodoric, and they found an obscure
+termination to so strange and checkered a career, by being lost and
+mingled in the crowded populations of Constantinople. This was in
+553. The Ostrogoths disappear from history. The Visigoths have still
+a settlement at the southwest of France and in the rich regions of
+Spain, but they are isolated by their position, and are divided into
+different branches. The Franks are a great and seemingly well-cemented
+race between the Rhine and the sea. The Burgundians have a form of
+government and code of laws which keep them distinct and powerful.
+There are nations rising into independence in Germany. In England,
+Christianity has formed a bond which practically gives firmness and
+unity to the kingdoms of the Heptarchy; and it might be expected
+that, having seen so many tribes of strange and varying aspect emerge
+from the unknown regions of the East, we should have little to do but
+watch the gradual enlightenment of those various races, and see them
+assuming, by slow degrees, their present respective places; but the
+undiscovered extremities of the earth were again to pour forth a swarm
+of invaders, who plunged Italy back into its old state of barbarism and
+oppression, and established a new people in the midst of its already
+confused and intermixed populations.
+
+Somewhere up between the Aller and the Oder there had been settled,
+from some unknown period, a people of wild and uncultivated habits,
+who had occasionally appeared in small detachments in the various
+gatherings of barbarians who had forced their way into the South.
+Following the irresistible impulse which seems to impel all the
+settlers in the North, they traversed the regions already occupied
+by the Heruleans and the Gepides, and paused, as all previous
+invasions had done, on the outer boundary of the Danube. These were
+the Longobards or Lombards, so called from the spears, _bardi_, with
+which they were armed; and not long they required to wait till a
+favourable opportunity occurred for them to cross the stream. In the
+hurried levies of Narses some of them had offered their services, and
+had been present at the victory over Totila the Goth. They returned,
+in all probability, to their companions, and soon the hearts of
+the whole tribe were set upon the conquest of the beautiful region
+their countrymen had seen. If they hesitated to undertake so long an
+expedition, two incidents occurred which made it indispensable. Flying
+in wild fury and dismay from the face of a pursuing enemy, the Avars,
+themselves a ferocious Asiatic horde which had terrified the Eastern
+Empire, came and joined themselves to the Lombards. With united forces,
+all their tents, and wives and children, their horses and cattle, this
+dreadful alliance began their progress to Italy. The other incident
+was, that in revenge for the injustice of his master, and dreading his
+further malice, Narses himself invited their assistance. Alboin, the
+Lombard king, was chief of the expedition. He had been refused the hand
+of Rosamund, the daughter of Cunimond, chief of the Gepides. He poured
+the combined armies of Lombards and Avars upon the unfortunate tribe,
+slew the king with his own hand, and, according to the inhuman fashion
+of his race, formed his drinking-cup of his enemy's skull. He married
+Rosamund, and pursued his victorious career. He crossed the Julian
+Alps, made himself master of Milan and the dependent territories, and
+was lifted on the shield as King of Italy. At a festival in honour of
+his successes, he forced his favourite wine-goblet into the hands of
+his wife. She recognised the fearful vessel, and shuddered while she
+put her lips to the brim. But hatred took possession of her heart. She
+promised her hand and throne to Kilmich, one of her attendants, if he
+would take vengeance on the tyrant who had offered her so intolerable a
+wrong. The attendant was won by the bride, and slew Alboin. But justice
+pursued the murderers. They were discovered, and fled to Ravenna, where
+the Exarch held his court. Saved thus from human retribution, Rosamund
+brought her fate upon herself. Captivated with the prospect of marrying
+the Exarch, she presented a poisoned cup to Kilmich, now become her
+husband, as he came from the bath. The effect was immediate, and the
+agonies he felt told him too surely the author of his death. [A.D. 575.]
+He just lived long enough to stab the wretched woman with his dagger,
+and this frightful domestic tragedy was brought to a close.
+
+Alboin had divided his dominion into many little states and dukedoms.
+A kind of anarchy succeeded the strong government of the remorseless
+and clear-sighted king, and enemies began to arise in different
+directions. The Franks from the south of France began to cross the
+Alps. The Greek settlements began to menace the Lombards from the
+South. Internal disunion was quelled by the public danger, and
+Antharis, the son of Cleph, was nominated king. To strengthen himself
+against the orthodox Franks, he professed himself a Christian and
+joined the Arian communion. With the aid of his co-religionists
+he repelled the invaders, and had time, in the intervals of their
+assaults, to extend his conquests to the south of the peninsula. There
+he overthrew the settlements which owned the Empire of the East;
+and coming to the extreme end of Italy, the savage ruler pushed his
+war-horse into the water as deep as it would go, and, standing up in
+his stirrups, threw forward his javelin with all his strength, saying,
+"That is the boundary of the Lombard power." Unhappily for the unity
+of that distracted land, the warrior's boast was unfounded, and it
+has continued ever since a prey to discord and division. [A.D. 591.]
+Another kingdom, however, was added to the roll of European states;
+and this was the last settlement permanently made on the old Roman
+territory.
+
+The Lombards were a less civilized horde than any of their
+predecessors. The Ostrogoths had rapidly assimilated themselves to
+the people who surrounded them, but the Lombards looked with haughty
+disdain on the population they had subdued. By portioning the country
+among the chiefs of the expedition, they commenced the first experiment
+on a great scale of what afterwards expanded into the feudal system.
+There were among them, as among the other northern settlers, an
+elective king and an hereditary nobility, owing suit and service to
+their chief, and exacting the same from their dependants; and already
+we see the working of this similarity of constitution in the diffusion
+throughout the whole of Europe of the monarchical and aristocratic
+principle, which is still the characteristic of most of our modern
+states. From this century some authors date the origin of what are
+called the "Middle Ages," forming the great and obscure gulf between
+ancient and modern times. Others, indeed, wish to fix the commencement
+of the Middle Ages at a much earlier date--even so far back as the
+reign of Constantine. They found this inclination on the fact that to
+him we are indebted for the settlement of barbarians within the empire,
+and the institution of a titled nobility dependent on the crown. But
+many things were needed besides these to constitute the state of
+manners and polity which we recognise as those of the Middle Ages,
+and above them all the establishment of the monarchical principle in
+ecclesiastical government, and the recognition of a sovereign priest.
+This was now close at hand, and its approach was heralded by many
+appearances.
+
+How, indeed, could the Church deprive itself of the organization
+which it saw so powerful and so successful in civil affairs? A
+machinery was all ready to produce an exact copy of the forms of
+temporal administration. There were bishops to be analogous to the
+great feudataries of the crown; priests and rectors to represent the
+smaller freeholders dependent on the greater barons; but where was the
+monarch by whom the whole system was to be combined and all the links
+of the great chain held together by a point of central union? The
+want of this had been so felt, that we might naturally have expected
+a claim to universal superiority to have long ere this been made by
+a Pope of Rome, the ancient seat of the temporal power. But with his
+residence perpetually a prey to fresh inroads, a heretical king merely
+granting him toleration and protection, the pretension would have been
+too absurd during the troubles of Italy, and it was not advanced for
+several years. The necessity of the case, however, was such, that a
+voice was heard from another quarter calling for universal obedience,
+and this was uttered by the Patriarch of Constantinople. Rome, we must
+remember, had by this time lost a great portion of her ancient fame.
+It was reserved for this wonderful city to rise again into all her
+former grandeur, by the restoration of learning and the knowledge of
+what she had been. At this period all that was known of her by the
+ignorant barbarians was, that she was a fresh-repaired and half-peopled
+town, which had been sacked and ruined five times within a century,
+that her inhabitants were collected from all parts of the world, and
+that she was liable to a repetition of her former misfortunes. They
+knew nothing of the great men who had raised her to such pre-eminence.
+She had sunk even from being the capital of Italy, and could therefore
+make no intelligible claim to be considered the capital of the world.
+Constantinople, on the other hand, which, by our system of education,
+we are taught to look upon as a very modern creation compared with
+the Rome of the old heroic ages of the kings and consuls, was at that
+period a magnificent metropolis, which had been the seat of government
+for three hundred years. The majesty of the Roman name had transferred
+itself to that new locality, and nothing was more natural than that the
+Patriarch of the city of Constantine, which had been imperial from its
+origin, and had never been defiled by the presence of a Pagan temple,
+should claim for himself and his see a pre-eminence both in power and
+holiness. Accordingly, a demand was made in 588 for the recognition
+throughout the Christian world of the universal headship of the
+bishopric of Constantinople. But at that time there was a bishop of
+Rome, whom his successors have gratefully dignified with the epithet
+of Great, who stood up in defence, not of his own see only, but of all
+the bishoprics in Europe. Gregory published, in answer to the audacious
+claim of the Eastern patriarch, a vigorous protest, in which these
+remarkable words occur:--"This I declare with confidence, that whoso
+designates himself Universal Priest, or, in the pride of his heart,
+consents to be so named--he is the forerunner of Antichrist." It was
+therefore to Rome, on the broad ground of the Christian equality of all
+the chief pastors of the Church, that we owe this solemn declaration
+against the pretensions of the ambitious John of Constantinople.
+
+But Constantinople itself was about to fade from the minds of men.
+Dissatisfied with the opposition to its supremacy, the Eastern Church
+became separated in interest and discipline and doctrine from its
+Western branch. The intercourse between the two was hostile, and in
+a short time nearly ceased. The empire also was so deeply engaged
+in defending its boundaries against the Persians and other enemies
+in Asia, that it took small heed of the proceedings of its late
+dependencies, the newly-founded kingdoms in Europe. It is probable
+that the refined and ostentatious court of Justinian, divided as it
+was into fanatical parties about some of the deepest and some of the
+most unimportant mysteries of the faith, and contending with equal
+bitterness about the charioteers of the amphitheatre according as
+their colours were green or blue, looked with profound contempt on
+the struggles after better government and greater enlightenment of
+the rabble of Franks, and Lombards, and Burgundians, who had settled
+themselves in the distant lands of the West. The interior regulations
+of Justinian formed a strange contrast with the grandeur and success of
+his foreign policy. By his lieutenants Belisarius and Narses, he had
+reconquered the lost inheritance of his predecessors, and held in full
+sovereignty for a while the fertile shores of Africa, rescued from the
+debasing hold of the Vandals; he had cleared Italy of Ostrogoths, Spain
+even had yielded an unwilling obedience, and his name was reverenced in
+the great confederacy of the Germanic peoples who held the lands from
+the Atlantic eastward to Hungary, and from Marseilles to the mouth of
+the Elbe. But his home was the scene of every weakness and wickedness
+that can disgrace the name of man. Kept in slavish submission to his
+wife, he did not see, what all the rest of the world saw, that she
+was the basest of her sex, and a disgrace to the place he gave her.
+Beginning as a dancer at the theatre, she passed through every grade of
+infamy and vice, till the name of Theodora became a synonym for every
+thing vile and shameless. Yet this man, successful in war and politic
+in action, though contemptible in private life, had the genius of a
+legislator, and left a memorial of his abilities which extended its
+influence through all the nations which succeeded to any portion of the
+Roman dominion, and has shaped and modified the jurisprudence of all
+succeeding times. He was not so much a maker of new laws, as a restorer
+and simplifier of the old; and as the efforts of Justinian in this
+direction were one of the great features by which the sixth century is
+distinguished, it will be useful to devote a page or two to explain in
+what his work consisted.
+
+The Roman laws had become so numerous and so contradictory that the
+administration of justice was impossible, even where the judges
+were upright and intelligent. The mere word of an emperor had been
+considered a decree, and legally binding for all future time. No
+lapse of years seems to have brought a law once promulgated into
+desuetude. The people, therefore, groaned under the uncertainty of
+the statutes, which was further increased by the innumerable glosses
+or interpretations put upon them by the lawyers. All the decisions
+which had ever been given by the fifty-four emperors, from Adrian to
+Justinian, were in full force. All the commentaries made upon them by
+advocates and judges, and all the sentences delivered in accordance
+with them, were contained in thousands of volumes; and the result
+was, when Justinian came to the throne in 526, that there was no
+point of law on which any man could be sure. He employed the greatest
+jurisconsults of that time, Trebonian and others, to bring some order
+into the chaos; and such was the diligence of the commissioners,
+that in fourteen months they produced the Justinian Code in twelve
+books, containing a condensation of all previous constitutions.
+[A.D. 527.] In the course of seven years, two hundred laws and fifty
+judgments were added by the emperor himself, and a new edition of the
+Code was published in 534. [A.D. 533.] Under the name of Institutes
+appeared a new manual for the legal students in the great schools of
+Constantinople, Berytus, and Rome, where the principles of Roman law
+are succinctly laid down. The third of his great works was one for the
+completion of which he gave Trebonian and his assessors ten years.
+It is called the Digest or Pandects of Justinian, because in it were
+digested, or put in order in a general collection, the best decisions
+of the courts, and the opinions and treatises of the ablest lawyers.
+All previous codes were ransacked, and two thousand volumes of legal
+argument condensed; and in three years the indefatigable law-reformers
+published their work, wherein three million leading judgments were
+reduced to a hundred and fifty thousand. Future confusion was guarded
+against by a commandment of the emperor abolishing all previous laws
+and making it penal to add note or comment to the collection now
+completed. The sentences delivered by the emperor, after the appearance
+of the Pandects, were published under the name of the Novellæ; and
+with this great clearing-out of the Augean stable of ancient law, the
+salutary labours of Trebonian came to a close. In those laws are to be
+seen both the virtues and the vices of their origin. They sprang from
+the wise liberality of a despot, and handle the rights of subjects,
+in their relation to each other, with the equanimity and justice of a
+power immeasurably raised above them all. But the unlimited supremacy
+of the ruler is maintained as the sole foundation for the laws
+themselves. So we see in these collections, and in the spirit which
+they have spread over all the codes which have taken them for their
+model, a combination of humanity and probity in the civil law, with a
+tendency to exalt to a ridiculous excess the authority of the governing
+power.
+
+This has been a century of wonderful revolutions. We have seen the
+kingdom of the Ostrogoths take the lead in Europe under the wise
+government of Theodoric the Great. We have seen it overthrown by
+an army of very small size, consisting of the very forces they had
+so recently triumphed over in every battle; and finally, after the
+victories over them of Belisarius and Narses, we have seen the
+last small remnant of their name removed from Italy altogether and
+eradicated from history for all future time. But, strange as this
+reassertion of the Greek supremacy was, the rapidity of its overthrow
+was stranger still. A new people came upon the stage, and established
+the Lombard power. The empire contracted itself within its former
+narrow bounds, and kept up the phantom of its superiority merely by
+the residence of an Exarch, or provincial governor, at Ravenna. The
+fiction of its power was further maintained by the Emperor's official
+recognition of certain rulers, and his ratification of the election of
+the Roman bishops. But in all essentials the influence had departed
+from Constantinople, and the Western monarchies were separated from the
+East.
+
+In the Northwest, the confederacy of the Franks, which had consolidated
+into one immense and powerful kingdom under Clovis, became separated,
+weakened, and converted into open enemies under his degenerate
+successors.
+
+But as the century drew to a close, a circumstance occurred, far away
+from the scene of all these proceedings, which had a greater influence
+on human affairs than the reconquest of Italy or the establishment
+of France. This was the marriage of a young man in a town of Arabia
+with the widow of his former master. In 564 this young man was born in
+Mecca, where his family had long held the high office of custodiers
+and guardians of the famous Caaba, which was popularly believed to be
+the stone that covered the grave of Abraham. But when he was still a
+child his father died, and he was left to the care of his uncle. The
+simplicity of the Arab character is shown in the way in which the young
+noble was brought up. Abu Taleb initiated him in the science of war
+and the mysteries of commerce. He managed his horse and sword like an
+accomplished cavalier, and followed the caravan as a merchant through
+the desert. Gifted with a high poetical temperament, and soaring above
+the grovelling superstitions of the people surrounding him, he used
+to retire to meditate on the great questions of man's relation to his
+Maker, which the inquiring mind can never avoid. Meditation led to
+excitement. He saw visions and dreamed dreams. He saw great things
+before him, if he could become the leader and lawgiver of his race. But
+he was poor and unknown. His mistress Cadijah saw the aspirations of
+her noble servant, and offered him her hand. He was now at leisure to
+mature the schemes of national regeneration and religious improvement
+which had occupied him so long, and devoted himself more than ever to
+study and contemplation. This was Mohammed, the Prophet of Islam, who
+retired in 594 to perfect his scheme, and whose empire, before many
+years elapsed, extended from India to Spain, and menaced Christianity
+and Europe at the same time from the Pyrenees and the Danube.
+
+
+
+
+                           SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Kings of the Franks.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       THIERRY II. and THEODOBERT II.--(_cont._)
+
+  614. CLOTAIRE III. (sole king.)
+
+  628. DAGOBERT and CHARIBERT.
+
+  638. SIGEBERT and CLOVIS II.
+
+  654. CHILDERIC II.
+
+  679. THIERRY IV.
+
+  692. CLOVIS III. (PEPIN, Mayor.)
+
+  695. CHILDEBERT III. (do.)
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       MAURICE--(_cont._)
+
+  602. PHOCAS.
+
+  611. HERACLIUS.
+
+  641. CONSTANTINE, (and others.)
+
+  642. CONSTANS.
+
+  668. CONSTANTIUS V.
+
+  685. JUSTINIAN II.
+
+  695. LEONTIUS.
+
+  697. TIBERIUS.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+NENNIUS, (620,) BEDE, (674-735,) ALDHELM, ADAMNANUS.
+
+
+
+
+                         THE SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+  POWER OF ROME SUPPORTED BY THE MONKS--CONQUESTS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+
+This, then, is the century during which Mohammedanism and Christianity
+were marshalling their forces--unknown, indeed, to each other, but
+preparing, according to their respective powers, for the period when
+they were to be brought face to face. We shall go eastward, and follow
+the triumphant march of the warriors of the Crescent from Arabia to
+the shores of Africa; but first we shall cast a desponding eye on
+the condition and prospects of the kingdoms of the West. Conquest,
+spoliation, and insecurity had done their work. Wave after wave had
+passed over the surface of the old Roman State, and obliterated almost
+all the landmarks of the ancient time. The towns, to be sure, still
+remained, but stripped of their old magnificence, and thinly peopled
+by the dispossessed inhabitants of the soil, who congregated together
+for mutual support. Trade was carried on, but subject to the exactions,
+and sometimes the open robberies, of the avaricious chieftains who had
+reared their fortresses on the neighbouring heights. Large tracts of
+country lay waste and desolate, or were left to the happy fertility of
+nature in the growth of spontaneous woods. Marshes were formed over
+whole districts, and the cattle picked up an uncertain existence by
+browsing over great expanses of poor and unenclosed land. These flocks
+and herds were guarded by hordes of armed serfs, who camped beside
+them on the fields, and led a life not unlike that of their remote
+ancestors on the steppes of Tartary. A man's wealth was counted by his
+retainers, and there was no supreme authority to keep the dignitaries,
+even of the same tribe, from warring on each other and wasting their
+rival's country with fire and sword. Agriculture, therefore, was in
+the lowest state, and famines, plagues, and other concomitants of
+want were common in all parts of Europe. One beautiful exception must
+be made to this universal neglect of agriculture, in favour of the
+Benedictine monks, established in various parts of Italy and Gaul in
+the course of the preceding century. Religious reverence was a surer
+safeguard to those lowly men than castles or armour could have been.
+No marauder dared to trespass on lands which were under the protection
+of priest and bishop. And these Western recluses, far from imitating
+the slothful uselessness of the Eastern monks, turned their whole
+attention to the cultivation of the soil. In this they bestowed a
+double benefit on their fellow-men, for, in addition to the positive
+improvement of the land, they rescued labour from the opprobrium into
+which it had fallen, and raised it to the dignity of a religious
+duty. Slavery, we have seen, was universally practised in all the
+conquered territories, and as only the slaves were compelled to the
+drudgeries of the field, the work itself borrowed a large portion of
+the degradation of the unhappy beings condemned to it; and robbery,
+pillage, murder, and every crime, were considered far less derogatory
+to the dignity of free Frank or Burgundian than the slightest touch of
+the mattock or spade. How surprised, then, were the haughty countrymen
+and descendants of Clovis or Alboin to see the revered hands from which
+they believed the highest blessings of Heaven to flow, employed in
+the daily labour of digging, planting, sowing, reaping, thrashing,
+grinding, and baking! At first they looked incredulously on. Even
+the monks were disposed to consider it no part of their conventual
+duties. But the founder of their institution wrote to them, "to
+beware of idleness, as the greatest enemy of the soul," and not to
+be uneasy if at any time the cares of the harvest hindered them from
+their formal readings and regulated prayers. "No person is ever more
+usefully employed than when working with his hands or following the
+plough, providing food for the use of man." And the effects of these
+exhortations were rapidly seen. Wherever a monastery was placed, there
+were soon fertile fields all round it, and innumerable stacks of
+corn. Generally chosen with a view to agricultural pursuits, we find
+sites of abbeys at the present day which are the perfect ideal of a
+working farm; for long after the outburst of agricultural energy had
+expired among the monks of St. Benedict, the choice of situation and
+knowledge of different soils descended to the other ecclesiastical
+establishments, and skill in agriculture continued at all times a
+characteristic of the religious orders. What could be more enchanting
+than the position of their monastic homes? Placed on the bank of some
+beautiful river, surrounded on all sides by the low flat lands enriched
+by the neighbouring waters, and protected by swelling hills where
+cattle are easily fed, we are too much in the habit of attributing the
+selection of so admirable a situation to the selfishness of the portly
+abbot. When the traveller has admired the graces of Melrose or of
+Tintern--the description applies equally to almost all the foundations
+of an early date--and has paid due attention to the chasteness of the
+architecture, and beauty of "the long-resounding aisle and fretted
+vault," he sometimes contemplates with a sneer the matchless charm of
+the scenery, and exceeding richness of the haugh or strath in which
+the building stands. "Ah," he says, "they were knowing old gentlemen,
+those monks and priors. They had fish in the river, fat beeves upon
+the meadow, red-deer on the hill, ripe corn on the water-side, a full
+grange at Christmas, and snowy sheep at midsummer." And so they had,
+and deserved them all. The head of that great establishment was not
+wallowing in the fat of the land to the exclusion of envious baron or
+starving churl. He was, in fact, setting them an example which it would
+have been wise in them to follow. He merely chose the situation most
+fitted for his purpose, and bestowed his care on the lands which most
+readily yielded him his reward. It was not necessary for the monks in
+those days to seek out some neglected corner, and to restore it to
+cultivation, as an exercise of their ingenuity and strength. They were
+free to choose from one end of Europe to the other, for the whole of
+it lay useless and comparatively barren. But when these able-bodied
+recluses, if such they may be called, had shown the results of patient
+industry and skill, the peasants, who had seen their labours, or
+occasionally been employed to assist them, were able to convey to their
+lay proprietors or masters the lessons they had received. And at last
+something venerable was thought to reside in the act of farming itself.
+It was so uniformly found an accompaniment of the priestly character,
+that it acquired a portion of its sanctity, and the rude Lombard or
+half-civilized Frank looked with a kind of awe upon waving corn and
+rich clover, as if they were the result of a higher intelligence and
+purer life than he possessed. Even the highest officers in the Church
+were expected to attend to these agricultural conquests. In this
+century we find, that when kings summoned bishops to a council, or an
+archbishop called his brethren to a conference, care was taken to
+fix the time of meeting at a season which did not interfere with the
+labours of the farm. Privileges naturally followed these beneficial
+labours. The kings, in their wondering gratitude, surrounded the
+monasteries with fresh defences against the envy or enmity of the
+neighbouring chiefs. Their lands became places of sanctuary, as the
+altar of the Church had been. Freedmen--that is, persons manumitted
+from slavery, but not yet endowed with property--were everywhere put
+under the protection of the clergy. Immunities were heaped upon them,
+and methods found out of making them a separate and superior race.
+At the Council of Paris, in 613, it was decreed that the priest who
+offended against the common law should be tried by a mixed court of
+priests and laymen. But soon this law, apparently so just, was not
+considered enough, and the trial of ecclesiastics was given over to the
+ecclesiastical tribunals, without the admixture of the civil element.
+Other advantages followed from time to time. The Church was found in
+all the kingdoms to be so useful as the introducer of agriculture, and
+the preserver of what learning had survived the Roman overthrow, that
+the ambitious hierarchy profited by the royal and popular favour. They
+were the most influential, or perhaps it would be more just to say they
+were the only, order in the State. There was a nobility, but it was
+jarring and disunited; there were citizens, but they were powerless
+and depressed; there was a king, but he was but the first of the
+peers, and stood in dignified isolation where he was not subordinate
+to a combination of the others. The clergy, therefore, had no enemy
+or rival to dread, for they had all the constituents of power which
+the other portions of the population wanted. Their property was more
+secure; their lands were better cultivated; they were exempt from many
+of the dangers and burdens to which the lay barons were exposed;
+they were not liable to the risks and losses of private war; they had
+more intelligence than their neighbours, and could summon assistance,
+either in advice, or support, or money, from the farthest extremity
+of Europe. Nothing, indeed, added more, at the commencement of this
+century, to the authority of those great ecclesiastical chieftains,
+than the circumstance that their interests were supported, not only
+by their neighbouring brethren, but by mitred abbot and lordly bishop
+in distant lands. If a prior or his monks found themselves ill used
+on the banks of the Seine, their cause was taken up by all other
+monks and priors wherever they were placed. And the rapidity of their
+intercommunication was extraordinary. Each monastery seems to have had
+a number of active young brethren who traversed the wildest regions
+with letters or messages, and brought back replies, almost with the
+speed and regularity of an established post. A convent on Lebanon was
+informed in a very short time of what had happened in Provence--the
+letter from the Western abbot was read and deliberated on, and an
+answer intrusted to the messenger, who again travelled over the immense
+tract lying between, receiving hospitality at the different religious
+establishments that occurred upon his way, and everywhere treated with
+the kindness of a brother. Monasteries in this way became the centres
+of news as well as of learning, and for many hundred years the only
+people who knew any thing of the state of feeling in foreign nations,
+or had a glimpse of the mutual interests of distant kingdoms, were the
+cowled and gowned individuals who were supposed to have given up the
+world and to be totally immersed in penances and prayers. What could
+Hereweg of the strong hand do against a bishop or abbot, who could tell
+at any hour what were the political designs of conquerors or kings
+in countries which the astonished warrior did not know even by name;
+who retained by traditionary transmission the politeness of manner and
+elegance of accomplishment which had characterized the best period of
+the Roman power, when Christianized noblemen, on being promoted to an
+episcopal see, had retained the delicacies of their former life, and
+wrote love-songs as graceful as those of Catullus, and epigrams neither
+so witty nor so coarse as those of Martial? Intelligence asserted its
+superiority over brute force, and in this century the supremacy of the
+Church received its accomplishment in spite of the depravation of its
+principles. It gained in power and sank in morals. A hundred years of
+its beneficial action had made it so popular and so powerful that it
+fell into temptations, from which poverty or unpopularity would have
+kept it free. The sixth century was the period of its silent services,
+its lower officers endearing themselves by useful labour, and its
+dignitaries distinguishing themselves by learning and zeal. In the
+seventh century the fruit of all those virtues was to be gathered by
+very different hands. Ambitious contests began between the different
+orders composing the gradually rising hierarchy, from the monk in
+his cell to the Bishop of Rome or Constantinople on their pontifical
+thrones. It is very sad, after the view we have taken of the early
+benefits bestowed on many nations by the labours and example of the
+priests and monks, to see in the period we have reached the total
+cessation of life and energy in the Church;--of life and energy, we
+ought to say, in the fulfilment of its duties; for there was no want of
+those qualities in the gratification of its ambition. Forgetful of what
+Gregory had pronounced the chief sign of Antichrist, when he opposed
+the pretension of his rival metropolitan to call himself Universal
+Bishop, the Bishops of Rome were deterred by no considerations of
+humility or religion from establishing their temporal power. Up to this
+time they had humbly received the ratification of their election from
+the Emperors of the East, whose subjects they still remained. But the
+seat of their empire was far off, their power was a tradition of the
+past, and great thoughts came into the hearts of the spiritual chiefs,
+of inroads on the territory of the temporal rulers. In this design they
+looked round for supporters and allies, and with a still more watchful
+eye on the quarters from which opposition was to be feared. The bishops
+as a body had fallen not only into contempt but hatred. One century
+had sufficed to extinguish the elegant scholarship I have mentioned,
+at one time characteristic of the Christian prelates. Ignorance had
+become the badge of all the governors of the Church--ignorance and
+debauchery, and a tyrannical oppression of their inferiors. The wise
+old man in Rome saw what advantage he might derive from this, and
+took the monks under his peculiar protection, relieved them from the
+supervision of the local bishop, and made them immediately dependent on
+himself. By this one stroke he gained the unflinching support of the
+most influential body in Europe. Wherever they went they held forth
+the Pope as the first of earthly powers, and began already, in the
+enthusiasm of their gratitude, to speak of him as something more than
+mortal. To this the illiterate preachers and prelates had nothing to
+reply. They were sunk either in the grossest darkness, or involved in
+the wildest schemes of ambition, bishoprics being even held by laymen,
+and by both priest and laymen used as instruments of advancement and
+wealth. From these the Pontiff on the Tiber, whose weaknesses and vices
+were unknown, and who was held up for invidious contrast with the
+bishops of their acquaintance by the libellous and grateful monks, had
+nothing to fear. He looked to another quarter in the political sky, and
+perceived with satisfaction that the kingly office also had fallen into
+contempt. Having lost the first impulse which carried it triumphantly
+over the dismembered Roman world, and made it a tower of strength in
+the hands of warriors like Theodoric the Goth and Clovis the Frank, it
+had forfeited its influence altogether in the pitiful keeping of the
+bloodthirsty or do-nothing kings who had submitted to the tutelage of
+the Mayors of the Palace.
+
+One of the great supports of the royal influence was the fiction of
+the law by which all lands were supposed to hold of the Crown. As
+in ancient days, in the German or Scythian deserts, the ambitious
+chieftain had presented his favourite with spear or war-horse in token
+of approval, so in the early days of the conquest of Gaul, the leader
+had presented his followers with tracts of land. The war-horse, under
+the old arrangement, died, and the spear became rotten; but the land
+was subject neither to death nor decay. What, then, was to become
+of the warrior's holding when he died? On this question, apparently
+so personal to the barbaric chiefs of the time of Dagobert of Gaul,
+depended the whole course of European history. The kings claimed
+the power of re-entering on the lands in case of the demise of the
+proprietor, or even in case of his rebellion or disobedience. The
+Leud, as he was called--or feudatory, as he would have been named at
+a later time--disputed this, and contended for the perpetuity and
+inalienability of the gift. It is easy to perceive who were the winners
+in this momentous struggle. From the success of the leuds arose the
+feudal system, with limited monarchies and national nobilities. The
+success of the kings would have resulted in despotic thrones and
+enslaved populations. Foremost in the struggle for the royal supremacy
+had been the famous and unprincipled Brunehild, a woman more resembling
+the unnatural creation of a romance than a real character. She had
+succeeded at one time in subordinating the leuds, by exterminating the
+recusants with remorseless cruelty; and her triumph might have been
+final and irrevocable if she had not had the bad luck or impolitic
+hardihood to offend the Church. The Abbot Columba, a holy man from the
+far-distant island of Iona in the Hebrides of Scotland, had ventured to
+upbraid her with her crimes. She banished him from the Abbey of Luxeuil
+with circumstances of peculiar harshness, and there was no hope for her
+more. The leuds she might have overcome singly, for they were disunited
+and scattered; but now there was not a monastery in Europe which did
+not side with her foes. Clotaire, her grandson, marched against her
+at the instigation of priests and leuds combined. She was conquered
+and taken. She was tortured for three days with all the ingenuity of
+hatred, and on the fourth was tied to the tails of four wild horses and
+torn to pieces, though the mother, sister, daughter, of kings, and now
+more than eighty years of age. And this brings us to the institution
+and use of the strange officers we have already named Mayors of the
+Palace.
+
+To aid them in their efforts against the royal assumptions, the leuds
+long ago had elected one of themselves to be domestic adviser of the
+king, and also to command the armies in war. This soon became the
+recognised right of the Mayor of the Palace; and as in that state of
+society the wars were nearly perpetual, and bearers of arms the only
+wielders of power, the person invested with the command was in reality
+the supreme authority in the State. When the king happened to be feeble
+either in body or mind, the mayor supplied his place, without even the
+appearance of inferiority; and when Dagobert, the last active member
+of the Merovingian family, died in 638, his successors were merely the
+nominal holders of the Crown. A new race rose into importance, and
+it will not be very long before we meet the hereditary Mayors of the
+Palace as hereditary Kings of the Franks. Here, then, was the whole of
+Europe heaving with some inevitable change. It will be interesting to
+look at the position of its different parts before they settled into
+their new relations. The constitutions of the various kingdoms were
+very nearly alike at this time. There were popular assemblies in every
+nation. In France they were called the "Fields of May" or of "March,"
+in England the "Wittenagemot," in Spain the "Council of Toledo." These
+meetings consisted of the freemen and landholders and bishops. But it
+was soon found inconvenient for the freemen and smaller proprietors to
+attend, in consequence of the length of the journey and the miserable
+condition of the roads; and the nobles and bishops were the sole
+persons who represented the State. The nobles held a parallel rank
+to each other in all countries, though called by different names. In
+France, a person in possession of any office connected with the court,
+or of lands presented by the Crown, was called a leud or entrustion, a
+count or companion, or vassal. In England he was called a royal thane.
+The lower order of freemen were called herimans, or inferior thanes;
+in Latin _liberi_, or more simply, _boni homines_, good men. Below
+these were the Romans, or old inhabitants of the country; below these,
+the serfs or bondmen attached to the soil; and far down, below them
+all, out of all hope or consideration, the slaves, who were the mere
+chattels of their lords. This, then, was the constitution of European
+society when the Arabian conquests began--at the head of the nation
+the King, at the head of the people the Church; the nobles followed
+according to their birth or power; the freemen, whether citizens
+engaged in the first infant struggles of trade, or occupying a farm,
+came next; and the wretched catalogue was ended by the despoiled serf,
+from whom every thing, even his property in himself, had been taken
+away. There were laws for the protection or restraint of each of these
+orders, and we may gather an idea of the ranks they held in public
+estimation by the following table of the price of blood:--
+
+                                                                 Sols.
+
+  For the murder of a freeman, companion, or leud of the king,
+      killed in his palace by an armed band                      1800
+  A duke--among the Bavarians, a bishop                           960
+  A relation of a duke                                            640
+  The king's leud, a count, a priest, a judge                     600
+  A deacon                                                        500
+  A freeman, of the Salians or Ripuarians                         200
+  A freeman, of the other tribes                                  160
+  The slave--a good workman in gold                               100
+  The man of middle station, a colon, or good workman in silver   100
+  The freedman                                                     80
+  The slave, if a barbarian--that is, of the conquering tribe      55
+  The slave, a workman in iron                                     50
+  The serf of the Church or the king                               45
+  The swineherd                                                    30
+  The slave, among the Bavarians                                   20
+
+Distinctions of dress pointed out still more clearly the difference of
+rank and station. The principal variety, however, was the method of
+wearing the hair. The chieftain among the Franks considered the length
+and profusion of his locks as the mark of his superiority. His broad
+flowing tresses were divided up the middle of his head, and floated
+over his shoulders. They were curled and oiled--not with common butter,
+like some other nations, says an author quoted by Chateaubriand; not
+twisted in little plaits, like those of the Goths, but carefully
+combed out to their full luxuriance. The common soldier, on the other
+hand, wore his hair long in front, but trimmed close behind. They
+swore by their hair as the most sacred of their oaths, and offered
+a tress to the Church on returning from a successful war. From this
+peculiar consideration given to the hair arose the custom, still
+prevalent, of shaving the heads of ecclesiastics. They were the serfs
+of God, and sacrificed their locks in token that they were no longer
+free. When a chief was dishonoured, when a king was degraded, when a
+rival was to be rendered incapable of opposition, he was not, as in
+barbarous countries, put to death: he was merely made bald. No amount
+of popularity, no degree of right, could rouse the people in support of
+a person whose head was bare. When his hair grew again, he might again
+become formidable; but the scissors were always at hand. A tyrannical
+king clipped his enemies' hair, instead of taking off their heads. They
+were condemned to the barber instead of the executioner, and sometimes
+thought the punishment more severe. The sons of Clothilde sent an
+emissary to her, bearing in his hand a sword and a pair of scissors.
+"O queen," he said, "your sons, our masters, wish to know whether you
+will have your grandchildren slain or clipped." The queen paused for a
+moment, and then said, "If my grandchildren are doomed not to mount the
+throne, I would rather have them dead than hairless."
+
+Distinguished thus from the lower orders, the nobility soon found that
+their interests differed from those of the Church. The Church placed
+itself at the head of the democracy in opposition to the overweening
+pretensions of the chiefs. It opened its ranks to the conquered races,
+and invested even the converted serf with dignities which placed him
+above the level of Thane or Count. The head of the Western Church, now
+by general consent recognised in the Bishop of Rome, was not slow to
+see the advantage of his position as leader of a combination in favour
+of the million. The doctrine of the equality of all men in the sight
+of Heaven was easily commuted into a demand of universal submission
+to the Holy See; and so wide was the range given to this claim to
+obedience that it embraced the proudest of the nobles and haughtiest
+of kings. It was a satisfaction to the slave in his dungeon to hear
+that the great man in his castle had been forced to do homage to the
+Church. There was one earthly power to which the oppressed could look
+up with the certainty of support. It was this intimate persuasion in
+the minds of the people which gave such undying vigour to the counsels
+and pretensions of the ecclesiastical power. It was a power sprung from
+the people, and exercised for the benefit of the people. The Popes
+themselves were generally selected from the lowest rank. But what did
+it matter to the man who led the masses of the trampled nations, and
+stood as a shield between them and their tyrants, whether he claimed
+relationship with emperors or slaves? What did it matter, on the other
+hand, to those hoping and trusting multitudes, whether the object of
+their confidence was personally a miracle of goodness and virtue, or a
+monster of sin and cruelty? It was his office to trample on the necks
+of kings and nobles, and bid the captive go free. While he continued
+true to the people, the people were true to him. Monarchs who governed
+mighty nations, and dukes who ruled in provinces the size of kingdoms,
+looked on with surprise at the growth of a power supported apparently
+by no worldly arms, but which penetrated to them through their courts
+and armies. There was no great mind to guide the opposition to its
+claims. The bishops were sunk in ignorance and sloth, and had lost the
+respect of their countrymen. The populations everywhere were divided.
+The succession to the throne was uncertain. The Franks, the leading
+nation, were never for any length of time under one head. Neustria,
+or the Western State, comprising all the land between the Meuse,
+the Loire, and the Mediterranean, Austrasia, or the Eastern State,
+comprising the land between the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle,
+and Burgundy, extending from the Loire to the Alps, were at one time
+united under a common head, and at another held by hostile kings. The
+Visigoths were obscurely quarrelling about points of divinity within
+their barrier of the Pyrenees. England was the battle-field of half a
+dozen little chieftains who called themselves kings; Germany was only
+civilized on its western border. Italy was cut up into many States,
+Lombards looking with suspicion on the Exarchate, which was still
+nominally attached to the Eastern Empire, and Greeks established in the
+South, sighing for the restoration of their power. Over all this chaos
+of contending powers appeared the mitre and crozier of the Pope; always
+at the head of the disaffected people, supported by the monks, who
+felt the tyranny of the bishops as keenly as the commonalty felt the
+injustice of their lords; always threatening vengeance on overweening
+baron or refractory monarch--enhancing his influence with the glory
+of new miracles wrought in his support, and witnessed unblushingly
+by preaching friars, who were the missionaries of papal power;
+concentrating all authority in his hands, and gradually laying the
+foundation for a trampling and domination over mind and body such as
+the world had never seen. From this almost universal prostration before
+the claims of Rome, it is curious to see that the native Irish were
+totally free. With contemptuous independence, they for a long time
+rejected the arrogant assumptions of the successor of St. Peter, and
+were firm in their maintenance of the equality of all the Sees. It was
+from the newly-converted Anglo-Saxons that the chief recruits in the
+campaign against the liberties of the national churches were collected.
+Almost all the names of missionaries on behalf of the Roman pontiff in
+this century have the home-sound in our ears of "Wigbert," "Willibald,"
+"Wernefried," or "Adalbert." But there are no Gaelic patronymics from
+the Churches of Ireland or Wales. They were sisters, they haughtily
+said, not daughters of the Roman See, as the Anglo-Saxon Church had
+been; and dwelt with pride on the antiquity of their conversion before
+the pretensions of the Roman Bishops had been heard of; and thus was
+added one more to the elements of dissension which wasted the strength
+of Europe at the very time when unanimity was most required.
+
+But towards the end of this period the rumours of a new power in the
+East drew men's attention to the defenceless state in which their
+internal disagreements had left them. The monasteries were filled with
+exaggerated reports of the progress of this vast invasion, which not
+only threatened the national existences of Europe, but the Christian
+faith. It was a hostile creed and a destroying enemy. What had the
+Huns been, compared with this new swarm--not of savage warriors turned
+aside with a bribe or won by a prayer, but enthusiasts in what they
+considered a holy cause, flushed with victory, armed and disciplined
+in a style superior to any thing the West could show? We should try to
+enter into the feelings of that distant time, when day by day myriads
+of strange and hitherto unconquerable enemies were reported to be on
+their march.
+
+In the year 621 of the Christian era, Mohammed made his triumphant
+entry into Medina, a great city of Arabia, having been expelled from
+Mecca by the enmity of the Jews and the tribe of Koreish. This entry is
+called the Hegira or Flight, and forms the commencement of the Moslem
+chronology. All their records are dated from this event. The persons
+who accompanied him were few in number--his father-in-law, some of
+his wives, and some of his warriors; but the procession was increased
+by the numerous believers in his prophetship who resided in the town.
+At this place began the public worship inculcated by the leader. The
+worshippers were summoned by a voice sounding from the highest pinnacle
+of the mosque or church, and pronouncing the words which to this hour
+are heard from every minaret in the East:--"God is great! God is great!
+There is no God but God. Mohammed is the apostle of God. Come to
+prayers, come to prayers!" and when the invitation is given at early
+dawn, the declaration is added, "Prayer is better than sleep! prayer is
+better than sleep." These exhortations were not without their intended
+effect. Prayer was uttered by many lips, and sleep was banished from
+many eyes; but the prayers were never thought so effectual as when
+accompanied by sword and lance. Courage and devotedness were now the
+great supports of the faith. Ali, the husband of Fatima the favourite
+daughter of the chief, fought and prayed with the same irresistible
+force. He conquered the unbelieving Jews and Koreishites, cleaving
+armed men from the crown to the chin with one blow, and wielding a
+city gate which eight men could not lift, as a shield. Abou Beker,
+whose daughter was one of the wives of Mohammed, was little inferior
+to Ali; and Mohammed himself saw visions which comforted and inspired
+his followers in the midst of battle, and shouted, "On, on! Fight and
+fear not! The gates of Paradise are under the shade of swords. He will
+assuredly find instant admission who falls fighting for the faith!" It
+was impossible to play the hypocrite in a religion where such strength
+of arm and sharpness of blade were required. Prayers might indeed be
+mechanical, or said for show, but the fighting was a real thing, and,
+as such, prevailed over all the shams which were opposed to it. Looking
+forth already beyond the narrow precincts of his power, Mohammed saw
+in the distance, across the desert, the proud empires of Persia and
+Constantinople. To both he wrote letters demanding their allegiance as
+God's Prophet, and threatening vengeance if they disobeyed. Chosroes,
+the Persian, tore the letter to pieces. "Even so," said Mohammed,
+"shall his kingdom be torn." Heraclius the Greek was more respectful.
+He placed the missive on his pillow, and very naturally fell asleep,
+and thought of it no more. But his descendants were not long of having
+their pillows quite so provocative of repose. The city of Medina
+grew too small to hold the Prophet's followers, and they went forth
+conquering and to conquer. There were Abou Beker the wise, and Omar
+the faithful, and Khaled the brave, and Ali the sword of God. Mecca
+fell before them, and city after city sent in its adhesion to the
+claims of a Prophet who had such dreadful interpreters as these. The
+religion he preached was comparatively true. He destroyed the idols
+of the land, inculcated soberness, chastity, charity, and, by some
+faint transmission of the precepts of the Bible, inculcated brotherly
+love and forgiveness of wrong. But the sword was the true gospel. Its
+light was spread in Syria and all the adjoining territories. People in
+apparently sheltered positions could never be sure for an hour that
+the missionaries of the new faith would not be climbing over their
+walls with shouts of conquest, and giving them the option of conversion
+or death. Power spread in gradually-widening circles, but at the
+centre sad things were going on. Mohammed was getting old. He lost
+his only son. He laid him in the grave with tears and sighs, and made
+his farewell pilgrimage to Mecca. Had he no relentings at the visible
+approach of the end? Was he to go to the grave untouched by all the
+calamities he had brought upon mankind? the blood he had shed, the
+multitudes he had beguiled? He had no touch of remorse for any of these
+things; rather he continued firmer in his course than ever--seemed more
+persuaded of the genuineness of his mission, and uttered prophecies of
+the universal extension of his faith. "When the angels ask thee who
+thou art," he said, as the body of his son was lowered into the tomb,
+"say, God is my Lord, the Prophet of God was my father, and my faith
+was Islam!" Islam continued his own faith till the last. He tottered to
+the mosque where Abou Beker was engaged in leading the prayers of the
+congregation, and addressed the people for the last time. "Every thing
+happens," he said, "according to the will of God, and has its appointed
+time, which is not to be hastened or avoided. My last command to you is
+that you remain united; that you love, honour, and uphold each other;
+that you exhort each other to faith and constancy in belief, and to the
+performance of pious deeds: by these alone men prosper; all else leads
+to destruction." A few days after this there was grief and lamentation
+all over the faithful lands. He died on his sixty-third birthday, in
+the eleventh year of the Hegira, which answers to our year 632.
+
+Great contentions arose among the chief disciples for the succession
+to the leadership of the faithful. Abou Beker was father-in-law of
+the Prophet, and his daughter supported his cause. Omar was also
+father-in-law of the Prophet, and his daughter supported his cause.
+Othman had married two of the daughters of the Prophet, but both were
+dead, and they had left no living child. Ali, the hero of the conquest,
+was cousin-german of the Prophet, and husband of his only surviving
+daughter. Already the practices of a court were perceptible in the
+Emir's tent. The courtiers caballed and quarrelled; but Ayesha, the
+daughter of Abou Beker, had been Mohammed's favourite wife, and her
+influence was the most effectual. How this influence was exercised
+amid the Oriental habits of the time, and the seclusion to which the
+women were subjected, it is difficult to decide; but, after a struggle
+between her and Hafya, the daughter of Omar, the widowed Othman was
+found to have no chance; and only Ali remained, still young and ardent,
+and fittest, to all ordinary judgments, to be the leader of the armies
+of Allah. While consulting with some friends in the tent of Fatima,
+his rivals came to an agreement. In a distant part of the town a
+meeting had been called, and the claims of the different pretenders
+debated. Suddenly Omar walked across to where Abou Beker stood, bent
+lowly before him, and kissed his hand in token of submission, saying,
+"Thou art the oldest companion and most secret friend of the Prophet,
+and art therefore worthy to rule us in his place." The example was
+contagious, and Abou Beker was installed as commander and chief of
+the believers. A resolution was come to at the same time, that any
+attempt at seizing the supremacy against the popular will should be
+punished with death. Ali was constrained to yield, but lived in haughty
+submission till Fatima died. He then rose up in his place, and taking
+his two sons with him, Hassan and Hossein, retired into the inner
+district of Arabia, carrying thus from the camp of the usurping caliph
+the only blood of the Prophetchief which flowed in human veins. Yet
+the spirit of the Prophet animated the whole mass. Energy equal to
+Ali's was exhibited in Khaled. Omar was earnest in the collection
+of all the separated portions of the Koran. Othman was burning to
+spread the new empire over the whole earth; and in this combination
+of courage, ambition, and fanaticism all Arabia found its interest to
+join, and ere a year had elapsed from the death of the Prophet, the
+whole of that peninsula, and all the swart warriors who travelled its
+sandy steppes, had accepted the great watchword of his religion--"There
+is no God but God, and Mohammed is the Prophet of God." Ere another
+year had elapsed the desert had sent forth its swarms. The plains of
+Asia were overflowed. The battle-cry of Zeyd, the general of the army,
+was heard in the great commercial cities of the East, and in the lands
+where the gospel of peace had first been uttered, Emasa and Damascus,
+and on the banks of Jordan. It was natural that the first effort of the
+false should be directed against the true. But not indiscriminate was
+the wrath of Abou Beker against the professors of Christianity. The
+claims of that dispensation were ever treated with respect, but the
+depraved priesthood were held up to contempt. "Destroy not fruit-tree
+nor fertile field on your path," these were the instructions of the
+Caliph to the leaders of the host. "Be just, and spare the feelings of
+the vanquished. Respect all religious persons who live in hermitages or
+convents, and spare their edifices. But should you meet with a class
+of unbelievers of a different kind, who go about with shaven crowns,
+and belong to the synagogue of Satan, be sure you cleave their skulls,
+unless they embrace the true faith or render tribute."
+
+Gentle and merciful, therefore, to the peaceful inhabitants, respectful
+to the gloomy anchorite and industrious monk, but breathing death
+and disgrace against the proud bishop and ambitious presbyter, the
+mighty horde moved on. Syria fell; the Persian monarchy was menaced,
+and its western provinces seized; a Christian kingdom called Hira,
+situated on the confines of Babylonia, was made tributary to Medina;
+and Khaled stood triumphant on the banks of the Euphrates, and sent a
+message to the Great King, commanding him either to receive the faith,
+or atone for his incredulity with half his wealth. The despot's ears
+were unaccustomed to such words, and the fiery deluge went on. At the
+end of the third year, Abou Beker died, and Omar was the successor
+appointed by his will. This was already a departure from the law of
+popular election, but Islam was busy with its conquests far from its
+central home, and accepted the nomination. Khaled's course continued
+westward and eastward, forcing his resistless wedge between the
+exhausted but still majestic empires of the Greeks and Persians. Blow
+after blow resounded as the great march went on. Constantinople, and
+Madayn upon the Tigris, the capitals of Christianity and Mithrism, were
+equally alarmed and equally powerless. Omar, the Caliph--the word means
+the Successor of the Apostle--determined to join the army which was
+encamped against the walls of Jerusalem, and added fresh vigour to the
+assailants by the knowledge that they fought under his eye.
+
+Heraclius, the degenerate inheritor of the throne of Constantine,
+and Yezdegird, the successor of Darius and Xerxes, if they had moved
+towards the seat of war would have been surrounded by all the pomp of
+their exalted stations. Battalions of guards would have encompassed
+their persons, and countless officers of their courts attended their
+progress.
+
+Omar, who saw already the world at his feet, journeyed by slow
+stages on a wretched camel, carrying his provisions hanging from his
+saddle-bow, and slept at night under the shelter of some tree, or on
+the margin of some well. He had but one suit, and that of worsted
+material, and yet his word was law to all those breathless listeners,
+and wherever he placed his foot from that moment became holy ground.
+Jerusalem and Aleppo yielded; Antioch, the chief seat of Grecian
+government, fell into his hands; Tyre and Tripoli submitted to his
+power; and the Saracenic hosts only paused when they reached the border
+of the sea, which they knew washed the fairest shores of Africa and
+Europe. It did not much matter who was in nominal command. Khaled
+died; Amru took his place; and yet the tide went on. The great city of
+Alexandria, which disputed with Constantinople the title of Capital of
+the World, with its almost fabulous wealth, its four thousand palaces,
+and five thousand baths, and four hundred theatres, was twice taken,
+and brought on the submission and conversion of the whole of Egypt.
+Amru in his hours of leisure was devoted to the cultivation of taste
+and genius. In John the Grammarian, a Christian student, he found a
+congenial spirit. Poetry, philosophy, and rhetoric were treated of in
+the conversations of the Arabic conqueror and the monkish scholar. At
+last, in reliance on his literary taste, the priest confided to the
+Moslem that in a certain building in the town there was a library so
+vast that it had no equal on earth either for number or value of the
+manuscripts it contained. This was too important a treasure to be dealt
+with without the express sanction of the Caliph. So the Christian
+legend is, that Omar replied to the announcement of his general,
+"Either what those books contain is in the Koran, or it is not. If it
+is, these volumes are useless; if it is not, they are wicked. Burn
+them." The skins and parchments heated the baths of Alexandria for
+many months, irrecoverable monuments of the past, and an everlasting
+disgrace to the Saracen name. Yet the story has been doubted; at
+least, the extent of the destruction. Rather, it has been supposed,
+the ignorant fanaticism of the illiterate monks, in covering with the
+legends of saints the obliterated lines of the classic authors, has
+been more destructive to the literary treasures of those ancient times
+than the furious zeal of Amru or the bigotry of Omar.
+
+If this great overflow from the desert of Arabia had consisted of
+nothing but armed warriors or destructive fanatics, its course would
+have been as transient as it was terrible. The Gothic invaders who had
+desolated Europe fortunately possessed the flexibility and adaptiveness
+of mind which fitted them for the reception of the purer faith and more
+refined manners of the vanquished races. They mixed with the people who
+submitted to their power, and in a short time adopted their habits and
+religion. Whatever faith they professed in their original seats, seems
+to have worn out in the long course of their immigration. The powers
+they had worshipped in their native wilds were local, and dependent on
+clime and soil. An easy opening, therefore, was left for Christianity
+into hearts where no hostile deity guarded the portal of approach. But
+with the Saracens the case was reversed. Incapable of assimilation with
+any rival belief--jealously exclusive of the commonest intercourse
+with the nations they subdued--unbending, contemptuous to others, and
+carried on by burning enthusiasm in their own cause, and confidence
+in the Prophet they served, there was no possibility of softening or
+elevating them from without. The pomps of religious worship, which
+so awed the wondering tribes of Franks and Lombards, were lost on a
+people who considered all pomp offensive both to God and man. They
+saw the sublimity of simple plainness both in word and life. Their
+caliph lived on rice, and saddled his camel with his own hands. He
+ordered a palace to be burned, which Seyd, who had conquered for
+him the capital of Persia, had built for his occupation. Unsocial,
+bigoted, austere, drinking no wine, accumulating no personal wealth,
+how was the mind of this warrior of the wilderness to be trained to the
+habits of civilized society, or turned aside from the rude instincts
+of destructiveness and domination? But the Arab intellect was subtle
+and active. Mohammedanism, indeed, armed the multitude in an exciting
+cause, and sent them forth like a destroying fire; but there was
+wisdom, policy, refinement, among the chiefs. While they devastated the
+worn-out territories of the Persian, and laid waste his ostentatious
+cities, which had been purposely built in useless places to show the
+power of the king, they founded great towns on sites so adapted for
+the purposes of trade and protection that they continue to the present
+time the emporiums and fortresses of their lands. Balsorah, at the top
+of the Persian Gulf, at the junction of the Tigris and the Euphrates,
+was as wisely selected for the commercial wants of that period as
+Constantinople itself. Bagdad was encouraged, Cufa built and peopled in
+exchange for the gorgeous but unwholesome Madayn, from which Yezdegird
+was driven. Many other towns rose under the protection of the Crescent;
+and by the same impulse which made the Saracens anxious to raise new
+centres of wealth and enterprise in the East, they were excited to the
+most amazing efforts to make themselves masters of the greatest city
+in the world, the seat of arts, of literature, and religion; and they
+pushed forward from river to river, from plain to plain, till, in the
+year 672, they raised their victorious standard in front of the walls
+of Constantinople. Here, however, a new enemy came to the encounter,
+and for the first time scattered dismay among the Moslem ranks. From
+the towers and turrets came down a shower of fire, burning, scorching,
+destroying, wherever it touched. Projected to great distances, and
+wrapping in a moment ship after ship in unextinguishable flames, these
+discharges appeared to the warriors of the Crescent a supernatural
+interference against them. This was the famous Greek fire, of which the
+components are not now known, but it was destructive beyond gunpowder
+itself. Water could not quench it, nor length of time weaken its power.
+For five successive years the assault was renewed by fresh battalions
+of the Saracens, but always with the same result. So, giving up at
+last their attempts against a place guarded by lightning and by the
+unmoved courage of the Greek population, they poured their thousands
+along the northern shores of Africa. Cyrene, the once glorious capital
+of the Pentapolis, in which Carthage saw her rival and Athens her
+superior, yielded to their power. Everywhere high-peaked mosques,
+rising where a short time before the shore had been unoccupied or in
+cities where the Basilicas of Christian worship had been thrown down,
+marked the course of conquest. Carthage received its new lords. Hippo,
+the bishopric of the best of ancient saints, the holy Augustine,
+saw its church supplanted by the temples of the Arabian impostor. A
+check was sustained at Tchuda, where their course was interrupted by
+a combined assault of Christian Greeks and the indigenous Berbers.
+Internal troubles also arrested their career, for there were disputes
+for the succession, and court intrigues and open murders, and all the
+usual accompaniments of a contest for an elective throne. One after
+another, the Caliphs had been murdered, or had died of broken hearts.
+The old race--the "Companions," as they were called, because they had
+been the contemporaries and friends of Mohammed--had died out. Ali,
+after three disappointments, had at last been chosen. His sons Hassan
+and Hossein had been put to death; and it was only in the time of the
+eighth successor, when Abdelmalek had overcome all competition, that
+the unity of the Moslem Empire was restored, and the word given for
+conquest as before. This was in the 77th year of the Hegira, (698 of
+our era,) and an army was let loose upon the great city of Carthage, at
+the same time that movements were again ordered across the limits of
+the Grecian Empire, in Asia, and advances made towards Constantinople.
+Carthage fell--Tripoli was occupied--and now, with their territories
+stretching in unbroken line from Syria along the two thousand miles
+of the southern shore of the great Mediterranean Sea, the conquerors
+rested from their labours for a while, and prepared themselves for
+a dash across the narrow channel, from which the hills of Atlas and
+the summits of Gibraltar are seen at the same time. What has Europe,
+with its divided peoples, its worn-out kings, its indolent Church, and
+exhausted fields, to oppose to this compact phalanx of united blood,
+burning with fanatical faith, submissive to one rule, and supported
+by all the wealth of Asia and Africa; whose fleets sweep the sea, and
+whose myriads are every day increased by the accession of fresh nations
+of Berbers, Mauritanians, and the nameless children of the desert?
+
+This is the hopeless century. Manhood, patriotism, Christianity
+itself, are all at the lowest ebb. But let us turn to the next, and
+see how good is worked out of evil, and acknowledge, as in so many
+instances the historian is obliged to do, that man can form no estimate
+of the future from the plainest present appearances, but that all
+things are in the hands of a higher intelligence than ours.
+
+
+
+
+                            EIGHTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Kings of the Franks.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       CHILDEBERT III.--(_cont._)
+
+  711. DAGOBERT III.}
+
+  716. CHILDERIC.   }  CHARLES MARTEL Mayor.
+
+  720. THIERRY.     }
+
+  742. CHILDERIC III.
+
+  _Carlovingian Line._
+
+  751. PEPIN THE SHORT.
+
+  768. CHARLEMAGNE.
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       TIBERIUS.--(_cont._)
+
+  711. PHILIPPICUS BARDANES.
+
+  713. ANASTASIUS II.
+
+  714. THEODOSIUS III.
+
+  716. LEO THE ISAURIAN.
+
+  741. CONSTANTINE COPRONYMUS.
+
+  775. LEO IV.
+
+  781. CONSTANTINE PORPHYROGENITUS.
+
+  802. NICEPHORUS.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+ALCUIN, (735-804,) BEDE, (674-735,) EGBERT, CLEMENS, DUNGAL, ACCA, JOHN
+DAMASCANUS.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE EIGHTH CENTURY.
+
+  TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES--THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE.
+
+
+This is indeed a great century, which has Pepin of Heristhal at its
+commencement and Charlemagne at its end. In this period we shall see
+the course of the dissolution of manners and government arrested
+throughout the greater part of Europe, and a new form given to its
+ruling powers. We must remember that up to this time the progress of
+what we now call civilization was very slow; or we may perhaps almost
+say that the extent of civilized territory was smaller than it had been
+at the final breaking up of the Roman Empire four hundred years before.
+England had lost the elevating influences which the residence of Roman
+generals and the presence of disciplined forces had spread from the
+seats of their government. Every occupied position had been a centre
+of life and learning; and we see still, from the discoveries which
+the antiquaries of the present day are continually making, that the
+dwellings of the Prætors and military commanders were constructed in a
+style of luxury and refinement which argues a high state of culture and
+art. All round the circumference of the Romanized portion of Britain
+these head-quarters of order and improvement were fixed; outside of it
+lay the obscure and tumultuous populations of Wales and Scotland; and
+if we trace the situations of the towns with terminations derived from
+_castra_, (a camp,) we shall see, by stretching a line from Winchester
+in the south to Ilchester, thence up to Gloucester, Worcester,
+Wroxeter, and Chester, how carefully the Western Gael were prevented
+from ravaging the peaceful and orderly inhabitants; and, as the same
+precautions were taken to the North against the Picts and Scots, we
+shall easily be able to estimate the effect of those numerous schools
+of life and manners on the country-districts in which they were placed.
+All these establishments had been removed. Barbarism had reasserted her
+ancient reign; and at the century we have now reached, the institution
+which alone could compete in its elevating effect with the old imperial
+subordination, the Christian Church, had not yet established its
+authority except for the benefit of ambitious bishops; and the same
+anarchy reigned in the ecclesiastical body as in the civil orders. The
+eight or nine kingdoms spread over the land were sufficiently powerful
+in their separate nationalities to prevent any unity of feeling among
+the subjects of the different crowns. A prelate of the court of
+Deiria had no point of union with a prelate protected by the kings of
+Wessex. And it was this very incapacity of combination at home, from
+the multiplicity of kings, which led to the astonishing spectacle in
+this century of the efforts of the Anglo-Saxon clergy in behalf of the
+Bishop of Rome in distant countries. In this great struggle to extend
+the power of the Popes, the regular orders particularly distinguished
+themselves. The fact of submitting to convent-rules, of giving up the
+stormy pleasures of independence for the safe placidity of unreasoning
+obedience, is a proof of the desire in many human minds of having
+something to which they can look up, something to obey, in obeying
+which their self-respect may be preserved, even in the act of offering
+up their self-will--a desire which, in civil actions and the atmosphere
+of a court, leads to slavery and every vice, but in a monastery
+conducts to the noblest sacrifices, and fills the pages of history
+with saints and martyrs. The Anglo-Saxon, looking out of his convent,
+saw nothing round him which could give him hope or comfort. Laws were
+unsettled, the various little principalities were either hostile or
+unconnected, there was no great combining authority from which orders
+could be issued with the certainty of being obeyed; and even the
+clergy, thinly scattered, and dependent on the capricious favour or
+exposed to the ignorant animosity of their respective sovereigns, were
+torn into factions, and practically without a chief. But theoretically
+there was the noblest chiefship that ever was dreamed of by ambition.
+The lowly heritage of Peter had expanded into the universal government
+of the Church. In France this claim had not yet been urged; in the
+East it had been contemptuously rejected; in Italy the Lombard kings
+were hostile; in Spain the Visigoths were heretic, and at war among
+themselves; in Germany the gospel had not yet been heard; in Ireland
+the Church was a rival bitterly defensive of its independence; but
+in England, among the earnest, thoughtful Anglo-Saxons, the majestic
+idea of a great family of all the Christian Churches, wherever placed,
+presided over by the Vicar of Christ and receiving laws from his
+hallowed lips, had impressed itself beyond the possibility of being
+effaced. Rome was to them the residence of God's vicegerent upon earth;
+obedience to him was worship, and resistance to his slightest wish
+presumption and impiety. So at the beginning of this century holy men
+left their monasteries in Essex, and Warwickshire, and Devon, and knelt
+at the footstool of the Pope, and swore fealty and submission to the
+Holy See.
+
+It has often been observed that the Papacy differs from other powers in
+the continued vitality of its members long after the life has left it
+at the heart. Rome was weak at the centre, but strong at the extremity
+of its domain. The Emperor of Constantinople looked on the Pope as his
+representative in Church-affairs, ratified his election, and exacted
+tribute on his appointment. The Exarch of Ravenna, representing as he
+did the civil majesty of the successor of the Cæsars, looked down on
+him as his subordinate. There was also a duke in Rome whose office it
+was to superintend the proceedings of the bishop, and another officer
+resident in the Grecian court to whom the bishop was responsible
+for the management of his delegated powers. But outside of all this
+depression and subordination, among tribes of half-barbaric blood,
+among dreamy enthusiasts contemplating what seemed to them the simple
+and natural scheme of an earthly judge infallible in wisdom and
+divinely inspired; among bewildered and trampled ecclesiastics, looking
+forth into the night, and seeing, far above all the storms and darkness
+that surrounded them in their own distracted land, a star by which they
+might steer their course, undimmed and unalterable--the Pope of Rome
+was the highest and holiest of created men. No thought is worth any
+thing that continues in barren speculation. Honour, then, to the brave
+monks of England who went forth the missionaries of the Papal kings!
+Better the struggles and dangers of a plunge among the untamed savages
+of Friesland, and the blood-stained forests of the farthest Germany, in
+fulfilment of the office to which they felt themselves called, than the
+lazy, slumbering way of life which had already begun to be considered
+the fulfilment of conventual vows. Soldiers of the Cross were they,
+though fighting for the advancement of an ambitious commander more than
+the success of the larger cause; and we may well exult in the virtues
+which their undoubting faith in the supremacy of the pontiff called
+forth, since it contrasts so nobly with the apathy and indifference to
+all high and self-denying co-operation which characterized the rest of
+the world. We shall see the monk Winifried penetrate, as the Pope's
+minister, into the darkness beyond the Rhine, and emerge, with crozier
+and mitre, as Boniface the Archbishop of Mayence, and converter to the
+Christian faith of great and populous nations which were long the most
+earnest supporters of the rights and pre-eminence of Rome. This is one
+strong characteristic of this century, the increased vigour of the
+Papacy by the efforts of the Anglo-Saxons on its behalf; and now we are
+going to another still stronger characteristic, the further increase of
+its influence by the part it played in the change of dynasty in France.
+
+A strange fortune, which in the old Greek mythologies would have been
+looked on as a fate, overshadowing the blood-stained house of Clovis,
+had befallen his descendants through all their generations for more
+than a hundred years. Feeble in mind, and even degenerated in body,
+the kings of that royal line had been a sight of grief and humiliation
+to their nominal subjects. Married at fifteen, they had all sunk into
+premature old age, or died before they were thirty. Too listless for
+work, and too ignorant for council, they had accepted the restricted
+sphere within which their duties were confined, and showed themselves,
+on solemn occasions, at the festivals of the Church, and other great
+anniversaries, bearing, like their ancestors, the long flowing locks
+which were the natural sign of their crowned supremacy, seated in a
+wagon drawn by oxen, and driven by a wagoner with a goad--a primitive
+relic of vanished times, and as much out of place in Paris in the
+eighth century as the state carriage of the Queen or the Lord-Mayor's
+coach of the present day among ourselves Strange thoughts must have
+passed through the minds of the spectators as they saw the successors
+of the rough leader of the Franks degraded to this condition; but the
+change had been gradual; the public sentiment had become reconciled
+to the apparent uselessness of the highest offices of the State; for
+under another title, and with much inferior rank, there was a man who
+held the reins of government with a hand of iron, and whose power was
+perhaps strengthened by the fiction which called him the servant and
+minister of the _fainéant_ or do-nothing king. A succession of men
+arose in the family of the mayors of the palace, as remarkable for
+policy and talent as the representatives of the royal line were for the
+want of these qualities. The origin of their office was conveniently
+forgotten, or converted by the flattery of their dependants into an
+equality with the monarchs. Chosen, they said, by the same elective
+body which nominated the king, they were as much entitled to the
+command of the army and the administration of the law as their nominal
+masters to the possession of the palace and royal name. And when
+for a long period this claim was allowed, who was there to stand up
+in opposition, either legal or forcible, to a man who appointed all
+the judges and commanded all the troops? The office at last became
+hereditary. The successive mayors left their dignity to their sons by
+will; and time might have been slow in bringing power and title into
+harmony with each by giving the name of king to the man who already
+exercised all the kingly power and fulfilled all the kingly duties, if
+Charles Martel, the mayor, had not, in 732, established such claims to
+the gratitude of Europe by his defeat of the Saracens, who were about
+to overrun the whole of Christendom, that it was impossible to refuse
+either to himself or his successor the highest dignity which Europe had
+to bestow. When other rulers and princes were willing to acknowledge
+his superiority, not only in power, but in rank and dignity, it was
+necessary that their submission should be offered, not to a mere
+Major-domo, or chief domestic of a court, but to a free sovereign and
+anointed king. The two most amazing fictions, therefore, which ever
+flourished on the contemptuous forbearance of mankind, were both about
+to expire beneath the breath of reality at this time--the kingship
+of the descendants of Clovis, and the pretensions of the successors
+of Constantine. The Saracens appeared upon the scene, and those
+gibbering and unsubstantial ghosts, as if they scented the morning air,
+immediately disappeared. The Emperors of the East, by a self-deluding
+process, which preserved their dignity and flattered their pride,
+professed still to consider themselves the lords of the Roman Empire,
+and took particular pains to acknowledge the kings and potentates,
+who established themselves in the various portions of it, as their
+representatives and lieutenants. They lost no time in sending the title
+of Patrician and the ensigns of royal rank to the successful founders
+of a new dynasty, and had gained their object if they received the new
+ruler's thanks in return. At Rome, as we have said, they protected the
+bishop, and gave him the investiture of his office. They retained also
+the territories called the Exarchate of Ravenna, but with no power of
+vindicating their authority if it was disputed, or of exacting revenue,
+except what the gratitude of the bishop or the Exarch might induce
+them to present to their patron on their nomination or instalment. A
+long-haired, sad-countenanced, decrepit young man in a wagon drawn by
+oxen, and a vain voluptuary, wrapped in Oriental splendour, without
+influence or wealth, were the representatives at this time of the
+irresistible power of the Frankish warriors, and the glories of Julius
+and Augustus. But the present had its representatives as well as the
+past. Charles Martel had still the Frankish sword at his command; the
+Roman Pontiff had thousands ready to believe and support his claims to
+be the spiritual ruler of the world. Something was required to unite
+them in one vast effort at unity and independence, and this opportunity
+was afforded them by the common danger to which the Saracenic invasion
+exposed equally the civil and ecclesiastical power. Africa, we have
+seen, was fringed along the whole of the Mediterranean border with the
+followers of the Prophet. In one generation the blood of the Arabian
+and Mauritanian deserts became so blended, that no distinction whatever
+existed between the men of Mecca and Medina and the native tribes.
+Where Carthaginian and Roman civilization had never penetrated, the
+faith of Mohammed was accepted as an indigenous growth. Fanaticism
+and ambition sailed across the Channel; and early in this century
+the hot breath of Mohammedanism had dried up the promise of Spain;
+countless warriors crossed to Gibraltar; their losses were supplied
+by the inexhaustible populations from the interior, (the ancestors
+of the Abd-el Kaders and Ben Muzas of modern times,) and, elate with
+hopes of universal conquest, the crowded tents of the Moslem army were
+seen on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees, and presently all the
+plains of Languedoc, and the central fields of France as far up as the
+Loire, were inundated by horse and man. Incredible accounts are given
+of the number and activity of the desert steeds bestrode by these
+turbaned apostles. A march of a hundred miles--a village set on fire,
+and all the males extirpated--strange-looking visages, and wild arrays
+of galloping battalions seen by terrified watchers from the walls of
+Paris itself; then, in the twinkling of an eye, nothing visible but
+the distant dust raised up in their almost unperceived retreat,--these
+were the peculiarities of this new and unheard-of warfare. And while
+these dashes were made from the centre of the invasion, alarming the
+inhabitants at the extremities of the kingdom, the host steadily moved
+on, secured the ground behind it before any fresh advance, and united
+in this way the steadiness of European settlement with the wild fury
+of the original mode of attack. Already the provinces abutting on the
+Pyrenees had owned their power. Gascony up to the Garonne, and the
+Narbonnais nearly to the Rhine, had submitted to the conquerors; but
+when the dispossessed proprietors of Novempopulania and Septimania, as
+those districts were then called, and the powerful Duke of Aquitaine,
+also fled before the advancing armies; when all the churches were
+filled with prayer, and all the towns were in momentary expectation of
+seeing the irresistible horsemen before their walls, patriotism and
+religion combined to call upon all the Franks and all the Christians to
+expel the infidel invader. So Charles, the son of Pepin, whose exploits
+against the Frisons and other barbaric peoples in the North had already
+acquired for him the complimentary name of Martel, or the Hammer, put
+himself at the head of the military forces of the land, and encountered
+the Saracenic myriads on the great plain round Tours. The East and
+West were brought front to front--Christianity and Mohammedanism stood
+face to face for the first time; and it is startling to consider for
+a moment what the result of an Asiatic victory might have been. If
+ever there was a case in which the intervention of Divine Providence
+may be claimed without presumption on the conquering side, it must
+be here, where the truths of revelation and the progress of society
+were dependent on the issue. The two faiths, according to all human
+calculation, had rested their supremacy on their respective champions.
+If Charles and his Franks and Germans were defeated, there was nothing
+to resist the march of the perpetually-increasing numbers of the
+Saracens till they had planted their standards on the pinnacles of
+Rome. The first glow of Christian belief had been exchanged, we have
+seen, for ambitious disputes, or died off in many of the practices of
+superstition. The very man in whom the Christian hope was placed was
+suspected of leaning to the Wodenism of his Northern ancestors, and
+was scarcely bought over to the defence of the Church's faith by a
+permission to pillage the Church's wealth. Mohammedanism, on the other
+hand, was fresh and young. Its promises were clear and tempting--its
+course triumphant, and its doctrines satisfactory equally to the
+pride and the indolence of the human heart. But in the former, though
+unperceived by the warriors at Tours and the prelates at Rome, lay the
+germ of countless blessings--elevating the mind by the discovery of
+its strength at the same moment in which it is abased by the feeling
+of its weakness, and gifted above all with the power of expansion and
+universality; themselves proofs of its divine original, to which no
+false religion can lay the slightest claim. Cultivate the Christian
+mind to the highest--fill it with all knowledge--place round it the
+miracles of science and art--station it in the snows of Iceland or the
+heats of India--Christianity, like the all-girding horizon of the sky,
+widens its circle so as to include the loftiest, and contain within
+its embrace the utmost diversities of human life and speculation. But
+with the Mohammedan, as with other impostures, the range is limited.
+When intellect expands, it bursts the cerement in which it has been
+involved; and with Buddhism, and Mithrism, and Hindooism, it will be
+as it was with Druidism, and the more elegant heathendom of Greece
+and Rome: there will be no safety for them but in the ignorance and
+barbarism of their disciples. On the result of that great day at Tours
+in the year 732, therefore, depended the intellectual improvement and
+civil freedom of the human race. Few particulars are preserved of
+this momentous battle; but the result showed that the light cavalry,
+in which the Saracens excelled, were no match for the firm line of
+the Franks. When confusion once began among the swarthy cavaliers of
+Abderachman, there was no restoration possible. In wild confusion the
+_mêlée_ was continued; and all that can be said is, that the slaughter
+of upwards of three hundred thousand of these impulsive pilgrims of
+the desert so weakened the Saracenic power in Europe, that in no long
+time their hosts were withdrawn from the soil of Gaul, and guarded
+with difficulty the conquest they had made behind the barrier of the
+Pyrenees. Could the gratitude of Church or State be too generous
+to the man who preserved both from the sword of the destroyer? If
+Charles pillaged a monastery or seized the revenues of a bishopric,
+nobody found any fault. It was almost just that he should have the
+wealth of the cathedral from which he had driven away the mufti and
+muezzin. But monasteries and bishops were still powerful, and did not
+look on the proceedings of Charles the Hammer with the equanimity of
+the unconcerned spectators. They perhaps thought the battle of Tours
+had only given them a choice of spoilers, instead of protection from
+spoliation. In a short time, however, the policy of the sagacious
+leader led him to see the necessity of gaining over the only united
+body in the State. He became a benefactor of the Church, and a staunch
+ally of the Roman bishop. Both had an object to obtain. What the
+phantom king was to Charles, the phantom emperor was to the Pope. If
+there was unison between the two dependants, it would be easy to get
+rid of the two superiors. Presents and compliments were interchanged,
+and moral support trafficked for material aid. Wherever the one sent
+missionaries with the Cross, the other sent warriors to their support.
+The Pontiff bestowed on the Mayor the keys of the sepulchre of St.
+Peter, and the title of Consul and Patrician, and begged him to come to
+his assistance against Luitprand, the Lombard king. But this was far
+too great an exploit to be expected by a simple Bishop, and performed
+by a simple Mayor of the Palace. So the next great thing we meet with
+in this century is the investiture of the Mayor with the title of
+king, and of the Bishop with the sovereignty of Rome and Ravenna. This
+happened in 752. Pepin the Short, as he was unflatteringly called by
+his subjects, succeeded Charles in the government of the Franks. The
+king was Childeric the Third, who lived in complete seclusion and
+cherished his long hair as the only evidence of monarchy left to the
+sons of Clovis. Wars in various regions established the reputation
+of Pepin as the worthy successor of Charles; and by a refinement of
+policy, the crown, the consummation of all his hopes, was reached in
+a manner which deprived it of the appearance of injustice, for it was
+given to him by the hands of saints and popes, and ratified by the
+council of the nation. He had already asked Pope Zachariah, "who had
+the best right to the name of king?--he who had merely the title, or he
+who had the power?" And in answer to this, which was rather a puzzling
+question, our countryman Winifried, in his new character of Boniface
+and archbishop, placed upon his head the golden round, and Might and
+Right were restored to their original combination. But St. Boniface was
+not enough. In two years the Pope himself clambered over the Alps and
+anointed the new monarch with holy oil; and by the same act stripped
+the long hair from the head of the Merovingian puppet, and condemned
+him and his descendants to the privacy of a cloister.
+
+Now then that Pepin is king, let Luitprand, or any other potentate,
+beware how he does injury to the Pope of Rome. Twice the Frank armies
+are moved into Italy in defence of the Holy See; and at last the
+Exarchate is torn from the hands of its Lombard oppressor, and handed
+over in sovereignty to the Spiritual Power. Rome itself is declared
+at the same time the property of the Bishop, and free forever from
+the suzerainty of the Emperors of the East. No wonder the gratitude
+of the Popes has made them call the kings of France the eldest sons
+of the Church. Their donations raised the bishopric to the rank of
+a royal state; yet it has been remarked that the generosity of the
+French monarchs has always been limited to the gift of other people's
+lands. They were extremely liberal in bestowing large tracts of country
+belonging to the Lombard kings or the Byzantine Cæsars; but they kept
+a very watchful eye on the possessions of pope and bishop within
+their own domain. They reserved to themselves the usufruct of vacant
+benefices, and the presentations to church and abbey. At almost all
+periods, indeed, of their history, they have seemed to retain a very
+clear remembrance of the position which they held towards the Papacy
+from the beginning, and, while encouraging its arrogance against other
+principalities and powers, have held a very contemptuous language
+towards it themselves.
+
+This, then, is the great characteristic of the present century,
+the restoration of the monarchical principle in the State, and its
+establishment in the Church. During all these wretched centuries, from
+the fall of the Roman Empire, the progress has been towards diffusion
+and separation. Kings rose up here and there, but their kingships were
+local, and, moreover, so recent, that they were little more than the
+first officer or representative of the warriors whose leaders they
+had been. A longing for some higher and remoter influence than this
+had taken possession of the chiefs of all the early invasions, and
+we have seen them (even while engaged in wresting whole districts
+from the sway of the old Roman Empire) accepting with gratitude
+the ensigns of Roman authority. We have seen Gothic kings glorying
+in the name of Senator, and Hunnish savages pacified and contented
+by the title of Prætor or Consul. The world had been accustomed to
+the oneness of Consular no less than Imperial Rome for more than a
+thousand years; for, however the parties might be divided at home, the
+great name of the Eternal City was the sole sound heard in foreign
+lands. The magic letters, the initials of the Senate and People, had
+been the ornament of their banners from the earliest times, and a
+division of power was an idea to which the minds of mankind found it
+difficult to become accustomed. It was better, therefore, to have
+only a fragment of this immemorial unity than the freshness of a new
+authority, however extensive or unquestionable. Vague traditions must
+have come down--magnified by distance and softened by regret--of the
+great days before the purple was torn in two by the transference of
+the seat of power to Constantinople. There were nearly five hundred
+years lying between the periods; and all the poetic spirits of the new
+populations had cast longing, lingering looks behind at the image of
+earthly supremacy presented to them by the existence of an acknowledged
+master of the world. A pedantic sophist, speaking Greek--the language
+of slaves and scholars--wearing the loftiest titles, and yet hemmed
+in within the narrow limits of a single district, assumed to be the
+representative of the universal "Lord of human kind," and called
+himself Emperor of the East and West. The common sense of Goth and
+Saxon, of Frank and Lombard, rebelled against this claim, when they
+saw it urged by a person unable to support it by fleets and armies.
+When, in addition to this want of power, they perceived in this
+century a want of orthodox belief, or even what they considered an
+impious profanity, in the successor of Augustus and Constantine, they
+were still more disinclined to grant even a titular supremacy to the
+Byzantine ruler. Leo, at that time wearing the purple, and zealous for
+the purity of the faith, issued an order for the destruction of the
+marble representations of saints and martyrs which had been used in
+worship; and within the limits of his personal authority his mandate
+was obeyed. But when it reached the West, a furious opposition was made
+to his command. The Pope stood forward as champion of the religious
+veneration of "storied urn and animated bust." The emperor was branded
+with the name of Iconoclast, or the Image-breaker, and the eloquence
+of all the monks in Europe was let loose upon the sacrilegious Cæsar.
+Interest, it is to be feared, added fresh energy to their conscientious
+denunciations, for the monks had attracted to themselves a complete
+monopoly of the manufacture of these aids to devotion--and obedience
+to Leo's order would have impoverished the monasteries all over the
+land. A Western emperor, it was at once perceived, would not have been
+so blind to the uses of those holy sculptures, and soon an intense
+desire was manifested throughout the Western nations for an emperor
+of their own. Already they were in possession of a spiritual chief,
+who claimed the inheritance of the Prince of the Apostles, and looked
+down on the Patriarchs of Constantinople as bishops subordinate to his
+throne. Why should not they also have a temporal ruler who should renew
+the old glories of the vanished Empire, and exercise supremacy over
+all the governors of the earth? Why, indeed, should not the first of
+those authorities exert his more than human powers in the production
+of the other? He had converted a Mayor of the Palace into a King of
+the Franks. Could he not go a step further, and convert a King of the
+Franks into an Emperor of the West? With this hope, not yet perhaps
+expressed, but alive in the minds of Pepin and the prelates of France,
+no attempt was made to check the Roman pontiffs in the extravagance
+of their pretensions. Lords of wide domains, rich already in the
+possession of large tracts of country and wealthy establishments
+in other lands, they were raised above all competition in rank and
+influence with any other ecclesiastic; and relying on spiritual
+privileges, and their exemption from active enmity, they were more
+powerful than many of the greatest princes of the time. Everywhere the
+mystic dignity of their office was dwelt upon by their supporters.
+For a long time, as we have seen, their omnipotence was acknowledged
+by the two classes who saw in the use of that spiritual dominion a
+counterpoise to the worldly sceptres by which they were crushed. But
+now the worldly sceptres came to the support of the spiritual dominion.
+Its limit was enlarged, and made to include the regulation of all human
+affairs. [A.D. 768.] It was its office to subdue kings and bind nobles
+in links of iron; and when the son of Pepin, Charles, justly called the
+Great, though travestied by French vanity into the name of Charlemagne,
+sat on the throne of the Franks, and carried his arms and influence
+into the remotest States, it was felt that the hour and the man were
+come; and the Western Empire was formally renewed.
+
+The curious thing is, that this longing for a restoration of the Roman
+Empire, and dwelling on its usefulness and grandeur, were dominant,
+and productive of great events, in populations which had no drop of
+Roman blood in their veins. The last emperor resident in Rome had never
+heard the names of the hordes of savages whose descendants had now
+seized the plains of France and Italy. Yet it seemed as if, with the
+territory of the Roman Empire, they had inherited its traditions and
+hopes. They might be Saxons, or Franks, or Burgundians, or Lombards,
+by national descent, but by residence they were Romans as compared
+with the Greeks in the East,--and by religion they were Romans as
+compared with the Sclaves and Saracens, who pressed on them on the
+North and South. It would not be difficult in this country to find
+the grandchildren of French refugees boasting with patriotic pride of
+the English triumphs at Cressy and Agincourt--or the sons of Scottish
+parents rejoicing in their ancestors' victory under Cromwell at Dunbar;
+and here, in the eighth century, the descendants of Alaric and Clovis
+were patriotically loyal to the memory of the old Empire, and were
+reminded by the victories of Charlemagne of the trophies of Scipio and
+Marius. These victories, indeed, were not, as is so often found to
+be the case, the mere efforts of genius and ambition, with no higher
+object than to augment the conqueror's power or reputation. They were
+systematically pursued with a view to an end. In one advancing tide,
+all things tended to the Imperial throne. Whatever nation felt the
+force of Charlemagne's sword felt also a portion of its humiliation
+lightened when its submission was perceived to be only an advancement
+towards the restoration of the old dominion. It might have been
+degrading to acknowledge the superiority of the son of Pepin--but who
+could offer resistance to the successor of Augustus? So, after thirty
+years of uninterrupted war, with campaigns succeeding each in the most
+distant regions, and all crowned with conquest; after subduing the
+Saxons beyond the Weser, the Lombards as far as Treviso, the Arabs
+under the walls of Saragossa, the Bavarians in the neighbourhood of
+Augsburg, the Sclaves on the Elbe and Oder, the Huns and Avars on the
+Raab and Danube, and the Greeks themselves on the coast of Dalmatia;
+when he looked around and saw no rebellion against his authority,
+but throughout the greater part of his domains a willing submission
+to the centralizing power which rallied all Christian states for the
+defence of Christianity, and all civilized nations for the defence
+of civilization,--nothing more was required than the mere expression
+in definite words of the great thing that had already taken place,
+and Charlemagne, at the extreme end of this century, bent before the
+successor of St. Peter at Rome, and stood up crowned Emperor of the
+West, and champion and chief of Christendom.
+
+[A.D. 786-814.]
+
+The period of Charlemagne is a great date in history; for it is the
+legal and formal termination of an antiquated state of society. It was
+also the introduction to another, totally distinct from itself and from
+its predecessor. It was not barbarism; it was not feudalism; but it
+was the bridge which united the two. By barbarism is meant the uneasy
+state of governments and peoples, where the tribe still predominated
+over the nation; where the Frank or Lombard continued an encamped
+warrior, without reference to the soil; and where his patriotism
+consisted in fidelity to the traditions of his descent, and not to
+the greatness or independence of the land he occupied. In the reign
+of Charlemagne, the land of the Frank became practically, and even
+territorially, France; the district occupied by the Lombards became
+Lombardy. The feeling of property in the soil was added to the ties
+of race and kindred; and at the very time that all the nations of the
+Invasion yielded to the supremacy of one man as emperor, the different
+populations asserted their separate independence of each other, as
+distinct and self-sufficing kingdoms--kingdoms, that is to say, without
+the kings, but in all respects prepared for those individualized
+expressions of their national life. For though Charlemagne, seated in
+his great hall at Aix-la-Chapelle, gave laws to the whole of his vast
+domains, in each country he had assumed to himself nothing more than
+the monarchic power. To the whole empire he was emperor, but to each
+separate people, such as Franks and Lombards, he was simply king. Under
+him there were dukes, counts, viscounts, and other dignitaries, but
+each limited, in function and influence, to the territory to which he
+belonged. A French duke had no pre-eminence in Lombardy, and a Bavarian
+graf had no rank in Italy. Other machinery was at times employed by
+the central power, in the shape of temporary messengers, or even of
+emissaries with a longer tenure of office; but these persons were sent
+for some special purpose, and were more like commissioners appointed
+by the Crown, than possessors of authority inherent in themselves. The
+term of their ambassadorship expired, their salary, or the lands they
+had provisionally held in lieu of salary, reverted to the monarch,
+and they returned to court with no further pretension to power or
+influence than an ambassador in our days when he returns from the
+country to which he is accredited. But when the great local nobility
+found their authority indissolubly connected with their possessions,
+and that ducal or princely privileges were hereditary accompaniments
+of their lands, the foundations of modern feudalism were already laid,
+and the path to national kingship made easy and unavoidable. When
+Charlemagne's empire broke into pieces at his death, we still find, in
+the next century, that each piece was a kingdom. Modern Europe took
+its rise from these fragmentary though complete portions; and whereas
+the breaking-up of the first empire left the world a prey to barbaric
+hordes, and desolation and misery spread over the fairest lands, the
+disruption of the latter empire of Charlemagne left Europe united as
+one whole against Saracen and savage, but separated in itself into many
+well-defined states, regulated in their intercourse by international
+law, and listening with the docility of children to the promises or
+threatenings of the Father of the Universal Church. For with the
+empire of Charlemagne the empire of the Papacy had grown. The temporal
+power was a collection of forces dependent on the life of one man; the
+spiritual power is a principle which is independent of individual aid.
+So over the fragments, as we have said, of the broken empire, rose
+higher than ever the unshaken majesty of Rome. Civil authority had
+shrunk up within local bounds; but the Papacy had expanded beyond the
+limits of time and space, and shook the dreadful keys and clenched the
+two-edged sword which typified its dominion over both earth and heaven.
+
+
+
+
+                            NINTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+  A.D.  _West._
+
+  800. CHARLEMAGNE, (crowned by the Pope.)
+
+  814. LOUIS THE DEBONNAIRE.
+
+  840. CHARLES THE BALD.
+
+  877. LOUIS THE STAMMERER.
+
+  879. LOUIS III. and CARLOMAN.
+
+  884. CHARLES THE FAT.
+
+  887. ARNOLD.
+
+  899. LOUIS IV.
+
+  A.D.    _East._
+
+       NICEPHORUS--(_cont_.)
+
+  811. MICHAEL.
+
+  813. LEO THE ARMENIAN.
+
+  821. MICHAEL THE STAMMERER.
+
+  829. THEOPHILUS.
+
+  842. MICHAEL III.
+
+  886. LEO THE PHILOSOPHER.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  887.  EUDES, (Count of Paris.)
+
+  898.  CHARLES THE SIMPLE.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  827.  EGBERT.
+
+  837.  ETHELWOLF.
+
+  857.  ETHELBALD.
+
+  860.  ETHELBERT.
+
+  866.  ETHELRED.
+
+  872.  ALFRED THE GREAT.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+JOHN SCOTUS, (ERIGENA,) HINCMAR, HERIC, (preceded Des Cartes in
+philosophical investigation,) MACARIUS.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE NINTH CENTURY.
+
+  DISMEMBERMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE--DANISH INVASION OF
+  ENGLAND--WEAKNESS OF FRANCE--REIGN OF ALFRED.
+
+
+The first year of this century found Charlemagne with the crown of
+the old Empire upon his head, and the most distant parts of the world
+filled with his reputation. As in the case of the first Napoleon, we
+find his antechambers crowded with the fallen rulers of the conquered
+territories, and even with sovereigns of neighbouring countries. Among
+others, two of our Anglo-Saxon princes found their way to the great
+man's court at Aix-la-Chapelle. Eardulf of Northumberland pleaded his
+cause so well with Charlemagne and the Pope, that by their good offices
+he was restored to his states. But a greater man than Eardulf was also
+a visitor and careful student of the vanquisher and lawgiver of the
+Western world. Originally a Prince of Kent, he had been expelled by the
+superior power or arts of Beortrick, King of the West Saxons, and had
+betaken himself for protection, if not for restoration, to the most
+powerful ruler of the time. Whether Egbert joined in his expeditions or
+shared his councils, we do not know, but the history of the Anglo-Saxon
+monarchies at this date (800 to 830) shows us the exact counterpart,
+on our own island, of the actions of Charlemagne on the wider stage
+of continental Europe. Egbert, on the death of Beortrick, obtained
+possession of Wessex, and one by one the separate States of the British
+Heptarchy were subdued; some reduced to entire subjection, others only
+to subordinate rank and the payment of tribute, till, when all things
+were prepared for the change, Egbert proclaimed the unity of Southern
+Britain by assuming the title of Bretwalda, in the same way as his
+prototype had restored the unity of the empire by taking the dignity
+of Emperor. It is pleasant to pause over the period of Charlemagne's
+reign, for it is an isthmus connecting two dark and unsatisfactory
+states of society,--a past of disunion, barbarity, and violence,
+and a future of ignorance, selfishness, and crime. The present was
+not, indeed, exempt from some or all of these characteristics. There
+must have been quarrellings and brutal animosities on the outskirts
+of his domain, where half-converted Franks carried fire and sword,
+in the name of religion, among the still heathen Saxons; there must
+have been insolence and cruelty among the bishops and priests, whose
+education, in the majority of instances, was limited to learning the
+services of the Church by heart. Many laymen, indeed, had seized on the
+temporalities of the sees; and, in return, many bishops had arrogated
+to themselves the warlike privileges and authority of the counts and
+viscounts. But within the radius of Charlemagne's own influence, in his
+family apartments, or in the great Hall of Audience at Aix-la-Chapelle,
+the astonishing sight was presented of a man refreshing himself, after
+the fatigues of policy and war, by converting his house into a college
+for the advancement of learning and science. From all quarters came
+the scholars, and grammarians, and philosophers of the time. Chief
+of these was our countryman, the Anglo-Saxon monk Alcuin, and from
+what remains of his writings we can only regret that, in the infancy
+of that new civilization, his genius, which was undoubtedly great,
+was devoted to trifles of no real importance. Others came to fill up
+that noble company; and it is surely a great relief from the bloody
+records with which we have so long been familiar, to see Charlemagne
+at home, surrounded by sons and daughters, listening to readings and
+translations from Roman authors; entering himself into disquisitions on
+philosophy and antiquities, and acting as president of a select society
+of earnest searchers after information. To put his companions more at
+their ease, he hid the terrors of his crown under an assumed name, and
+only accepted so much of his royal state as his friends assigned to him
+by giving him the name of King David. The best versifier was known as
+Virgil. Alcuin himself was Horace; and Angelbert, who cultivated Greek,
+assumed the proud name of Homer. These literary discussions, however,
+would have had no better effect than refining the court, and making
+the days pass pleasantly; but Charlemagne's object was higher and
+more liberal than this. Whatever monastery he founded or endowed was
+forced to maintain a school as part of its establishment. Alcuin was
+presented with the great Abbey of St. Martin of Tours, which possessed
+on its domain twenty thousand serfs, and therefore made him one of the
+richest land-owners in France. There, at full leisure from worldly
+cares, he composed a vast number of books, of very poor philosophy
+and very incorrect astronomy, and perhaps looked down from his lofty
+eminence of wealth and fame on the humble labours of young Eginhart,
+the secretary of Charlemagne, who has left us a Life of his master,
+infinitely more interesting and useful than all the dissertations of
+the sage. From this great Life we learn many delightful characteristics
+of the great man, his good-heartedness, his love of justice, and
+blind affection for his children. But it is with his public works,
+as acting on this century, that we have now to do. Throughout the
+whole extent of his empire he founded Academies, both for learning
+and for useful occupations. He encouraged the study and practice of
+agriculture and trade. The fine arts found him a munificent patron;
+and though the objects on which the artist's skill was exercised were
+not more exalted than the carving of wooden tables, the moulding of
+metal cups, and the casting of bells, the circumstances of the time
+are to be taken into consideration, and these efforts may be found
+as advanced, for the ninth century, as the works of the sculptors
+and metallurgists of our own day. It is painful to observe that the
+practice of what is now called adulteration was not unknown at that
+early period. There was a monk of the name of Tancho, in the monastery
+of St. Gall, who produced the first bell. Its sound was so sweet and
+solemn, that it was at once adopted as an indispensable portion of the
+ornament of church and chapel, and soon after that, of the religious
+services themselves. Charlemagne, hearing it, and perhaps believing
+that an increased value in the metal would produce a richer tone, sent
+him a sufficient quantity of silver to form a second bell. The monk,
+tempted by the facility of turning the treasure to his own use, brought
+forward another specimen of his skill, but of a mixed and very inferior
+material. What the just and severe emperor might have done, on the
+discovery of the fraud, is not known; but the story ended tragically
+without the intervention of the legal sword. At the first swing of the
+clapper it broke the skull of the dishonest founder, who had apparently
+gone too near to witness the action of the tongue; and the bell was
+thenceforth looked on with veneration, as the discoverer and punisher
+of the unjust manufacturer.
+
+The monks, indeed, seem to have been the most refractory of subjects,
+perhaps because they were already exempted from the ordinary
+punishments. In order to produce uniformity in the services and
+chants of the Church, the emperor sent to Rome for twelve monkish
+musicians, and distributed them in the twelve principal bishoprics of
+his dominions. The twelve musicians would not consent to be musical
+according to order, and made the confusion greater than ever, for each
+of them taught different tunes and a different method. The disappointed
+emperor could only complain to the Pope, and the Pope put the recusant
+psalmodists in prison. But it appears the fate of Charlemagne, as of
+all persons in advance of their age, to be worthy of congratulation
+only for his attempts. The success of many of his undertakings was not
+adequate to the pains bestowed upon them. He held many assemblages,
+both lay and ecclesiastical, during his lengthened reign; he published
+many excellent laws, which soon fell into disuse; he tried many reforms
+of churches and monasteries, which shared the same fortune; he held the
+Popes of Rome and the dignitaries of his empire in perfect submission,
+but professed so much respect for the office of Pontiff and Bishop,
+that, when his own overwhelming superiority was withdrawn, the Church
+rebelled against the State, and claimed dominion over it. His sense
+of justice, as well as the custom of the time, led him to divide his
+states among his sons, which not only insured enmity between them, but
+enfeebled the whole of Christendom. Clouds, indeed, began to gather
+over him some time before his reign was ended. One day he was at a
+city of Narbonese Gaul, looking out upon the Mediterranean Sea. He
+saw some vessels appear before the port. "These," said the courtiers,
+"must be ships from the coast of Africa, Jewish merchantmen, or British
+traders." But Charlemagne, who had leaned a long time against the
+wall of the room in a passion of tears, said, "No! these are not the
+ships of commerce; I know by their lightness of movement. They are
+the galleys of the Norsemen; and, though I know such miserable pirates
+can do me no harm, I cannot help weeping when I think of the miseries
+they will inflict on my descendants and the lands they shall rule." A
+true speech, and just occasion for grief, for the descents of these
+Scandinavian rovers are the great characteristic of this century, by
+which a new power was introduced into Europe, and great changes took
+place in the career of France and England.
+
+It would perhaps be more correct to say that, by this new mixture of
+race and language, France and England were called into existence.
+England, up to this date, had been a collection of contending states;
+France, a tributary portion of a great Germanic empire. Slowly
+stretching northward, the Roman language, modified, of course, by
+local pronunciation, had pushed its way among the original Franks.
+Latin had been for many years the language of Divine Service, and of
+history, and of law. All westward of the Rhine had yielded to those
+influences, and the old Teutonic tongue which Clovis had brought
+with him from Germany had long disappeared, from the Alps up to the
+Channel. [A.D. 814.] When the death of Charlemagne, in 814, had
+relaxed the hold which held all his subordinate states together, the
+diversity of the language of Frenchman and German pointed out, almost
+as clearly as geographical boundaries could have done, the limits of
+the respective nations. From henceforward, identity of speech was to
+be considered a more enduring bond of union than the mere inhabiting
+of the same soil. But other circumstances occurred to favour the
+idea of a separation into well-defined communities; and among these
+the principal was a very long experience of the disadvantages of an
+encumbered and too extensive empire. Even while the sword was held
+by the strong hand of Charlemagne, each portion of his dominions saw
+with dissatisfaction that it depended for its peace and prosperity on
+the peace and prosperity of all the rest, and yet in this peace and
+prosperity it had neither voice nor influence. The inhabitants of the
+banks of the Loire were, therefore, naturally discontented when they
+found their provisions enhanced in price, and their sons called to
+arms, on account of disturbances on the Elbe, or hostilities in the
+south of Italy. These evils of their position were further increased
+when, towards the end of Charlemagne's reign, the outer circuit of
+enemies became more combined and powerful. In proportion as he had
+extended his dominion, he had come into contact with tribes and
+states with whom it was impossible to be on friendly terms. To the
+East, he touched upon the irreclaimable Sclaves and Avars--in the
+South, he came on the settlements of the Italian Greeks--in Spain,
+he rested upon the Saracens of Cordova. It was hard for the secure
+centre of the empire to be destroyed and ruined by the struggles of
+the frontier populations, with which it had no more sympathy in blood
+and language than with the people with whom they fought. Already,
+also, we have seen how local their government had become. They had
+their own dukes and counts, their own bishops and priests to refer to.
+The empire was, in fact, a name, and the land they inhabited the only
+reality with which they were concerned. We shall not be surprised,
+therefore, when we find that universal rebellion took place when Louis
+the Debonnaire, the just and saint-like successor of Charlemagne,
+endeavoured to carry on his father's system. Even his reforms served
+only to show his own unselfishness, and to irritate the grasping and
+avaricious offenders whom it was his object to amend. Bishops were
+stripped of their lay lordships--prevented from wearing sword and
+arms, and even deprived of the military ornament of glittering spurs
+to their heels. The monks and nuns, who had almost universally fallen
+into evil courses, were forcibly reformed by the laws of a second St.
+Benedict, whose regulations were harsh towards the regular orders, but
+useless to the community at large--a sad contrast to the agricultural
+and manly exhortations of the first conventual legislator of that
+name. Nothing turned out well with this simplest and most generous of
+the Carlovingian kings. His virtues, inextricably interlaced as they
+were with the weaknesses of his character, were more injurious to
+himself and his kingdom than less amiable qualities would have been.
+Priest and noble were equally ignorant of the real characteristics
+of a Christian life. When he refunded the exactions of his father,
+and restored the conquests which he considered illegally acquired,
+the universal feeling of astonishment was only lost in the stronger
+sentiment of disdain. An excellent monk in a cell, or judge in a court
+of law, Louis the Debonnaire was the most unfit man of his time to
+keep discordant nationalities in awe. His children were as unnatural
+as those of Lear, whom he resembled in some other respects: for he
+found what little reverence waits upon a discrowned king; and personal
+indignities of the most degrading kind were heaped upon him by those
+whose duty it was to maintain and honour him. Superstition was set
+to work on his enfeebled mind, and twice he did public penance for
+crimes of which he was not guilty; and on the last occasion, stripped
+of his military baldric--the lowest indignity to which a Frankish
+monarch could be subjected--clothed in a hair shirt by the bands of an
+ungrateful bishop, he was led by his triumphant son, Lothaire, through
+the streets of Aix-la-Chapelle. [A.D. 833.] But natural feeling was
+not extinguished in the hearts of the staring populace. They saw in
+the meek emperor's lowly behaviour, and patient endurance of pain and
+insult, an image of that other and holier King who carried his cross up
+the steeps of Jerusalem. They saw him denuded of the symbols of earthly
+power and of military rank, oppressed and wronged--and recognised in
+that down-trodden man a representation of themselves. This sentiment
+spread with the magic force of sympathy and remorse. All the world, we
+are told, left the unnatural son solitary and friendless in the very
+hour of his success; and Louis, too pure-minded himself to perceive
+that it was the virtue of his character which made him hated, persisted
+in pushing on his amendments as if he had the power to carry them
+into effect. He ordered all lands and other goods which the nobles
+had seized from the Church to be restored--a tenderness of conscience
+utterly inexplicable to the marauding baron, who had succeeded by open
+force, and in a fair field, in despoiling the marauding bishop of land
+and tower. It was arming his rival, he thought, with a two-edged sword,
+this silence as to the inroads of the churchman on the property of the
+nobles, and prevention of their just reprisals on the property of the
+prelate, by placing it under the safeguard of religion. The rugged
+warrior kept firm hold of the bishopric or abbey he had secured, and
+the belted bishop reimbursed himself by appropriating the wealth of his
+weaker neighbours.
+
+But Louis was as unfortunate in his testamentary arrangement as in all
+the other regulations of his life. Lothaire was to retain the eastern
+portion of the empire; Charles, his favourite, had France as far as
+the Rhine; while Louis was limited to the distant region of Bavaria.
+[A.D. 840.] And having made this disposition of his power, the meek
+and useless Louis descended into the tomb--a striking example, the
+French historians tell us, of the great historic truth renewed at such
+distant dates, that the villanies and cruelties of a race of kings
+bring misery on the most virtuous of their descendants. All the crimes
+of the three preceding reigns--the violence and disregard of life
+exhibited by Charlemagne himself--found their victim and expiation
+in his meek and gentle-minded son. The harshness of Henry VIII. of
+England, they add, and the despotic claims of James, were visited on
+the personally just and amiable Charles; and they point to the parallel
+case of their own Louis XVI., and see in the sad fortune of that mild
+and guileless sovereign the final doom of the murderous Charles IX.,
+and the voluptuous and hypocritical Louis XIV. But these kings are
+still far off in the darkness of the coming centuries. It is a strange
+sight, in the middle of the ninth century, to see the successor of the
+great Emperor stealing through the confused and chaotic events of that
+wretched period, stripped as it were of sword and crown, but everywhere
+displaying the beauty of pure and simple goodness. He refused to
+condemn his enemies to death. He was only inexorable towards his own
+offences, and sometimes humbled himself for imaginary sins. A protector
+of the Church, a zealous supporter of Rome, it would give additional
+dignity to the act of canonization if the name of Louis the Debonnaire
+were added to the list of Saints.
+
+But we have left the empire which it had taken so long to consolidate,
+now legally divided into three. There is a Charles in possession of the
+western division; a Louis in the farther Germany; and Lothaire, the
+unfilial triumpher at Aix-la-Chapelle, invested with the remainder of
+the Roman world. But Lothaire was not to be satisfied with remainders.
+Once in power, he was determined to recover the empire in its undivided
+state. He was King of Italy; master of Rome and of the Pope; he was
+eldest grandson of Charlemagne, and defied the opposition of his
+brothers. [A.D. 842.] A battle was fought at Fontenay in 842, in which
+these pretensions were overthrown; and the final severance took place
+in the following year between the French and German populations.
+The treaty between the brothers still remains. It is written in
+duplicate--one in a tongue still intelligible to German ears, and the
+other in a Romanized speech, which is nearer the French of the present
+day than the English of Alfred, or even of Edward the Confessor, is to
+ours.
+
+[A.D. 843.]
+
+France, which had hitherto attained that title in right of its
+predominant race, held it henceforth on the double ground of language
+and territory. But there is a curious circumstance connected with the
+partition of the empire, which it may be interesting to remember.
+France, in gaining its name and language, lost its natural boundary of
+the Rhine. Up to this time, the limit of ancient Gaul had continued
+to define the territory of the Western Franks. In rude times, indeed,
+there can be no other divisions than those supplied by nature; but
+now that a tongue was considered a bond of nationality, the French
+were contented to surrender to Lothaire the Emperor a long strip of
+territory, running the whole way up from Italy to the North Sea,
+including both banks of the Rhine, and acting as a wall of partition
+between them and the German-speaking people on the other side,--a great
+price to pay, even for the easiest and most widely-spread language in
+Europe. Yet the most ambitious of Frenchmen would pause before he undid
+the bargain and reacquired the "exulting and abounding river" at the
+sacrifice of his inimitable tongue.
+
+Very confused and uncertain are all the events for a long time after
+this date. We see perpetual attempts made to restore the reality as
+well as the name of the Empire. These battles and competitions of the
+line of Charlemagne are the subject of chronicles and treaties, and
+might impose upon us by the grandeur of their appearance, if we did
+not see, from the incidental facts which come to the surface, how
+unavailing all efforts must be to arrest the dissociation of state
+from state. The principle of dissolution was at work everywhere.
+Kingship itself had fallen into contempt, for the great proprietors
+had been encouraged to exert a kind of personal power in the reign of
+Charlemagne, which contributed to the strength of his well-consolidated
+crown; but when the same individual influence was exercised under the
+nominal supremacy of Louis the Debonnaire or Charles the Bald, it
+proved a humiliating and dangerous contrast to the weakness of the
+throne. A combination of provincial dignitaries could at any time
+outweigh the authority of the king, and sometimes, even singly, the
+owners of extensive estates threw off the very name of subject. They
+claimed their lands as not only hereditary possessions, but endowed
+with all the rights and privileges which their personal offices had
+bestowed. If their commission from the emperor had given them authority
+to judge causes, to raise taxes, or to collect troops, they maintained
+from henceforth that those high powers were inherent in their lands.
+The dukes, therefore, invested their estates with ducal rights,
+independent of the Crown, and left to the holder of the kingly name
+no real authority except in his own domains. Brittany, and Aquitaine,
+and Septimania, withdrew their allegiance from the poor King of
+France. He could not compel the ambitious owners of those duchies to
+recognise his power, and condescended even to treat them as rival and
+acknowledged kings. Then there were other magnates who were not to be
+left mere subjects when dukes had risen to such rank. So the Marquises
+of Toulouse and Gothia, a district of Languedoc, and Auvergne, were
+treated more as equals than as appointed deputies recallable at
+pleasure. But worse enemies of kingly dignity than duke or marquis
+were the ambitious bishops, who looked with uneasy eyes on the rapid
+rise of their rivals the lay nobility. Already the hereditary title of
+those territorial potentates was an accomplished fact; the son of the
+count inherited his father's county. But the general celibacy of the
+clergy fortunately prevented the hereditary transmission of bishopric
+and abbey. To make up for the want of this advantage, they boldly
+determined to assert far higher claims as inherent in their rank than
+marquis or count could aim at. Starting from the universally-conceded
+ground of their right to reprimand and punish any Christian who
+committed sin, they logically carried their pretension to the right
+of deposing kings if they offended the Church. More than fifty years
+had passed since Charlemagne had received the imperial crown from the
+hands of the Pope of Rome. Dates are liable to fall into confusion in
+ignorant times and places, and it was easy to spread a belief that
+the popes had always exercised the power of bestowing the diadem upon
+kings. To support these astounding claims with some certain guarantee,
+and give them the advantage of prescriptive right by a long and
+legitimate possession, certain documents were spread abroad at this
+time, purporting to be a collection by Isidore, a saint of the sixth
+century, of the decretals or judicial sentences of the popes from a
+very early period, asserting the unquestioned spiritual supremacy of
+the Roman See at a date when it was in reality but one of many feeble
+seats of Christian authority; and to equalize its earthly grandeur
+with its religious pretension, the new edition of Isidore contained
+a donation by Constantine himself, in the beginning of the fourth
+century, of the city of Rome and enormous territories in Italy, to
+be held in sovereignty by the successors of St. Peter. These are now
+universally acknowledged to be forgeries and impostures of the grossest
+kind, but at the time they appeared they served the purpose for which
+they were intended, and gave a sanction to the Papal assumptions far
+superior to the rights of any existing crown.
+
+[A.D. 859.]
+
+Charles the Bald was a true son of Louis the Debonnaire in his devotion
+to the Church. When the bishops of his own kingdom, with Wenilon of
+Sens as their leader, offended with some remissness he had temporarily
+shown in advancing their worldly interests, determined to depose
+him from the throne, and called Louis the German to take his place,
+Charles fled and threw himself on the protection of the Pope. And
+when by submission and promises he had been permitted to re-enter
+France, he complained of the conduct of the prelates in language
+which ratified all their claims. "Elected by Wenilon and the other
+bishops, as well as by the lieges of our kingdom, who expressed their
+consent by their acclamations, Wenilon consecrated me king according
+to ecclesiastic tradition, in his own diocese, in the Church of the
+Holy Cross at Orleans. He anointed me with the holy oil; he gave me
+the diadem and royal sceptre, and seated me on the throne. After that
+consecration I could not be removed from the throne, or supplanted
+by any one, at least without being heard and judged by the bishops,
+by whose ministry I was consecrated king. It is they who are as the
+thrones of the Divinity. God reposes upon them, and by them he gives
+forth his judgments. At all times I have been ready to submit to their
+fatherly corrections, to their just castigations, and am ready to
+do so still." What more could the Church require? Its wealth was the
+least of its advantages, though the abbacies and bishoprics were richer
+than dukedoms all over the land. Their temporal power was supported
+by the terrors of their spiritual authority; and kings, princes, and
+people appeared so prone to the grossest excesses of credulity and
+superstition, that it needed little to throw Europe itself at the
+feet of the priesthood, and place sword and sceptre permanently in
+subordination to the crozier. Blindly secure of their position, rioting
+in the riches of the subject land, the bishops probably disregarded, as
+below their notice, the two antagonistic principles which were at work
+at this time in the midst of their own body--the principle of absolute
+submission to authority in articles of faith, and the principle of
+free inquiry into all religious doctrine. The first gave birth to
+the great mystery of transubstantiation, which now first made its
+appearance as an indispensable belief, and was hailed by the laity and
+inferior clergy as a crowning proof of the miraculous powers inherent
+in the Church. The second was equally busy, but was not productive of
+such permanent effects. At the court of Charles the Bald there was a
+society of learned and ingenious men, presided over by the celebrated
+John Scot Erigena, (or native of Ireland,) who had studied the early
+Fathers and the Platonic philosophy, and were inclined to admit human
+reason to some participation in the reception of Christian truths.
+There were therefore discussions on the real presence, and free-will,
+and predestination, which had the usual unsatisfactory termination of
+all questions transcending man's understanding, and only embittered
+their respective adherents without advancing the settlement on either
+side. While these exercitations of talent and dialectic quickness were
+carried on, filling the different dioceses with wonder and perplexity,
+the great body of the people in various countries of Europe were
+recalled to the practical business of life by disputes of a far more
+serious character than the wordy wars of Scotus and his foes. Michelet,
+the most picturesque of the recent historians of France, has given us
+an amazing view of the state of affairs at this time. It is the darkest
+period of the human mind; it is also the most unsettled period of
+human society. Outside of the narrowing limits of peopled Christendom,
+enemies are pressing upon every side. Saxons on the East are laying
+their hands in reverence on the manes of horses, and swearing in the
+name of Odin; Saracens, in the South and West, are gathering once more
+for the triumph of the Prophet; and suddenly France, Germany, Italy,
+and England, are awakened to the presence and possible supremacy of a
+more dreaded invader than either, for the Vikinger, or Norsemen, were
+abroad upon the sea, and all Christendom was exposed to their ravages.
+Wherever a river poured its waters into the ocean, on the coast of
+Narbonne, or Yorkshire, or Calabria, or Friesland, boats, small in
+size, but countless in number, penetrated into the inland towns, and
+disembarked wild and fearless warriors, who seemed inspired by the
+mad fanaticism of some inhuman faith, which made charity and mercy
+a sin. Starting from the islands and rugged mainland of the present
+Denmark and Norway, they swept across the stormy North Sea, shouting
+their hideous songs of glory and defiance, and springing to land when
+they reached their destination with the agility and bloodthirstiness
+of famished wolves. Their business was to carry slaughter and
+destruction wherever they went. They looked with contempt on the lazy
+occupations of the inhabitants of town or farm, and, above all, were
+filled with hatred and disdain of the monks and priests Their leaders
+were warriors and poets. Gliding up noiseless streams, they intoned
+their battle-cry and shouted the great deeds of their ancestors when
+they reached the walls of some secluded monastery, and rejoiced in
+wrapping all its terrified inmates in flames. Bards, soldiers, pirates,
+buccaneers, and heathens, destitute of fear, or pity, or remorse,
+amorous of danger, and skilful in management of ship and weapon, these
+were the most ferocious visitants which Southern Europe had ever seen.
+No storm was sufficient to be a protection against their approach.
+On the crest of the highest waves those frail barks were seen by the
+affrighted dwellers on the shore, careering with all sail set, and
+steering right into their port. All the people on the coast, from
+the Rhine to Bayonne, and from Toulouse to the Grecian Isles, fled
+for protection to the great proprietors of the lands. But the great
+proprietors of the lands were the peaceful priors of stately abbeys,
+and bishops of wealthy sees. Their pretensions had been submitted to
+by kings and nobles; they were the real rulers of France; and even
+in England their authority was very great. Excommunications had been
+their arms against recusant baron and refractory count; but the Danish
+Northmen did not care for bell, book, and candle. The courtly circle of
+scholars and divines could give no aid to the dishoused villagers and
+trembling cities, however ingenious the logic might be which reconciled
+Plato to St. Paul; and Charles the Bald, surprised, no doubt, at the
+inefficacy of prayers and processions, was forced to replace the
+influence in the hands, not which carried the crozier and cross, but
+which curbed the horse and couched the spear. The invasion of the
+Danes was, in fact, the resuscitation of the courage and manliness
+of the nationalities they attacked. Dreadful as the suffering was at
+the time, it was not given to any man then alive to see the future
+benefits contained in the present woe. We, with a calmer view, look
+back upon the whole series of those events, and in the intermixture
+of the new race perceive the elements of greatness and power.
+Priest-ridden, down-trodden populations received a fresh impulse from
+those untamed children of the North; and in the forcible relegation
+of ecclesiastics to the more peaceable offices of their calling, we
+see the first beginning of the gradation of ranks, and separation of
+employments, which gave honourable occupation to the respective leaders
+in Church and State; which limited the clergyman to the unostentatious
+discharge of his professional duties, and left the baron to command his
+warriors and give armed protection to all the dwellers in the land.
+For feudalism, as understood in the Middle Ages, was the inevitable
+result of the relative positions of priest and noble at the time of
+the Norsemen's forays. It was found that the possession of great
+domains had its duties as well as its rights, and the duty of defence
+was the most imperative of all. Men held their grounds, therefore,
+on the obligation of keeping their vassals uninjured by the pirates;
+the bishops were found unable to perform this work, and the territory
+passed away from their keeping. Vast estates, no doubt, still remained
+in their possession, but they were placed in the guardianship of the
+neighbouring chateaux; and though at intervals, in the succeeding
+centuries, we shall see the prelate dressing himself in a coat of mail,
+and rendering in person the military service entailed upon his lands,
+the public feeling rapidly revolted against the incongruity of the
+deed. The steel-clad bishop was looked on with slender respect, and
+was soon found to do more damage to his order, by the contrast between
+his conduct and his profession, than he could possibly gain for it by
+his prowess or skill in war. Feudalism, indeed, or the reciprocal
+obligation of protection and submission, reached its full development
+by the formal deposition of a descendant of Charlemagne, on the express
+ground of his inability to defend his people from the enemies by which
+they were surrounded. [A.D. 879.] A congress of six archbishops, and
+seventeen bishops, was held in the town of Mantela, near Vienne; and
+after consultation with the nobility, they came to the following
+resolution:--"That whereas the great qualities of the old mayors of the
+palace were their only rights to the throne, and Charlemagne, whom all
+willingly obeyed, did not transmit his talents, along with his crown,
+to his posterity, it was right to leave that house." They therefore
+sent an offer of the throne of Burgundy to Boso, Count of the Ardennes,
+with the conditions "that he should be a true patron and defender
+of high and low, accessible and friendly to all, humble before God,
+liberal to the Church, and true to his word."
+
+By this abnegation of temporal weapons, and dependence on the armed
+warrior for their defence, the prelates put themselves at the head
+of the unarmed peoples at the same moment that they exercised their
+spiritual authority over all classes alike. It was useless for them to
+draw the sword themselves, when they regulated every motion of the hand
+by which the sword was held.
+
+While this is the state of affairs on the Continent--while the great
+Empire of Charlemagne is falling to pieces, and the kingly office is
+practically reduced to a mere equality with the other dignities of the
+land--while this disunion in nations and weakness in sovereigns is
+exposing the fairest lands in Europe to the aggressions of enemies on
+every side--let us cast our eyes for a moment on England, and see in
+what condition our ancestors are placed at the middle of this century.
+A most dreadful and alarming condition as ever Old England was in. For
+many years before this, a pirate's boat or two from the North would
+run upon the sand, and send the crews to burn and rob a village on the
+coast of Berwick or Northumberland. Pirates we superciliously call
+them, but that is from a misconception of their point of honour, and of
+the very different estimate they themselves formed of their pursuits
+and character. They were gentleman, perhaps, "of small estate" in some
+outlying district of Denmark or Norway, but endowed with stout arms and
+a great wish to distinguish themselves--if the distinction could be
+accompanied with an increase of their worldly goods. They considered
+the sea their own domain, and whatever was found on it as theirs
+by right of possession. They were, therefore, lords of the manor,
+looking after their rights, their waifs and strays, their flotsams and
+jetsams. They were also persons of a strong religious turn, and united
+the spirit of the missionary to the courage of the warrior and the
+avidity of the conqueror. Odin was still their god, the doors of the
+Walhalla were still open to them after death, and the skulls of their
+enemies were foaming with intoxicating mead. The English were renegades
+from the true faith, a set of drivelling wretches who believed in a
+heaven where there was no beer, and worshipped a god who bade them
+pray for their enemies and bless the very people who used them ill.
+The remaining similarity in the language of the two peoples must have
+added a bitterness to the contemptuous feelings of the unreclaimed
+rovers of the deep; and probably, on their return, these enterprising
+warriors were as proud of the number of priests they had slain, as of
+the more valuable trophies they carried home. Denmark itself, up to
+this time, had been distracted with internal wars. It was only the
+more active spirits who had rushed across from the Sound, and solaced
+themselves, in the intervals of their own campaigns, with an onslaught
+upon an English town. But now the scene was to change. The inroads
+of separate crews were to be exchanged for national invasions.
+[A.D. 838.] Harold of the Fair Hair was seated on an undisputed throne,
+and repressed the outrages of these adventurous warriors by a strong
+and determined will. He stretched his sceptre over all the Scandinavian
+world, and neither the North Sea nor the Baltic were safe places for
+piracy and spoil. One of his countrymen had founded the royal line of
+Russia, and from his capital of Kieff or Novgorod was civilizing, with
+whip and battle-axe, the original hordes which now form the Empire
+of the Czars. Already, from their lurking-places on the shores of
+the Black Sea, the Norwegian predecessors of the men of Odessa and
+Sebastopol were threatening a dash upon Constantinople; while sea-kings
+and jarls, compelled to be quiet and peaceable at home, but backed by
+all the wild populations of the North, anxious for glory, and greedy
+of gold and corn, resolved to reduce England to their obedience, and
+collected an enormous fleet in the quiet recesses of the Baltic,
+withdrawn from the observation of Harold. It seems fated that France is
+always, in some sort or other, to set the fashion to her neighbours.
+We have seen, at the beginning of this century, how England followed
+the example of the Frankish peoples in consolidating itself into one
+dominion. Charlemagne was recognised chief potentate of many states,
+and Egbert was sovereign of all the Saxon lands, from Cornwall to the
+gates of Edinburgh. But the model was copied no less closely in the
+splitting-up of the central authority than in its consolidation. While
+Louis the Debonnaire and Charles the Bald were weakening the throne of
+Charlemagne, the states of Egbert became parcelled out in the same
+way between the descendants of the English king. Ethelwolf was the
+counterpart of Louis, and carried the sceptre in too gentle a hand. He
+still further diminished his authority by yielding to the dissensions
+of his court. Like the Frankish ruler, also, he left portions of his
+territory to his four sons; of whom it will be sufficient for us to
+remember that the youngest was the great Alfred--the foremost name in
+all mediæval history; and by an injudicious marriage with the daughter
+of Charles the Bald, and his unjust divorce of the mother of all his
+sons, he offended the feelings of the nation, and raised the animosity
+of his children. Ethelbald his son completed the popular discontent
+by marrying his father's widow, the French princess, who had been
+the cause of so much disagreement; and while the people were thus
+alienated, and the guiding hand of a true ruler of men was withdrawn,
+the terrible invasion of Danes and Jutlanders went on. [A.D. 839.] They
+sailed up the Thames and pillaged London. Winchester was given to the
+flames. The whole isle of Thanet was seized and permanently occupied.
+The magic standard, a raven, embroidered by the daughters of the famous
+Regner Lodbrog, (who had been stung to death by serpents in a dungeon
+into which he was thrown by Ella, King of Northumberland,) was carried
+from point to point, and was thought to be the symbol of victory and
+revenge. The offending Northumbrian now felt the wrath of the sons of
+Lodbrog. They landed with a great army, and after a battle, in which
+the chiefs of the English were slain, took the Northumbrian kingdom.
+Nottingham was soon after captured and destroyed. It was no longer a
+mere incursion. The nobles and great families of Denmark came over to
+their new conquest, and stationed themselves in strong fortresses,
+commanding large circles of country, and lived under their Danish
+regulations. The land, to be sure, was not populous at that time, and
+probably the Danish settlements were accomplished without the removal
+of any original occupiers. [A.D. 860.] But the castles they built, and
+the towns which rapidly grew around them, acted as outposts against
+the remaining British kingdoms; and at last, when fleet after fleet
+disembarked their thousands of warlike colonists--when Leicester,
+Lincoln, Stamford, York, and Chester, were all in Danish hands, and
+stretched a line of intrenchments round the lands they considered their
+own--the divided Anglo-Saxons were glad to purchase a cessation of
+hostilities by guaranteeing to them forever the places and territories
+they had secured. And there was now a Danish kingdom enclosed by
+the fragments of the English empire; there were Danish laws and
+customs, a Danish mode of pronunciation, and for a good while a still
+broader gulf of demarcation established between the peoples by their
+diversity in religious faith. [A.D. 872.] But when Alfred attained the
+supreme power--and although respecting the treaties between the Danes
+and English, yet evidently able to defend his countrymen from the
+aggressions of their foreign neighbour--the pacified pirate, tired of
+the sea, and softened by the richer soil and milder climate of his new
+home, began to perceive the very unsatisfactory nature of his ancient
+belief, and rapidly gave his adhesion to the lessons of the gospel.
+Guthrum, the Danish chieftain, became a zealous Christian according to
+his lights, and was baptized with all his subjects. Alfred acted as
+godfather to the neophyte, and restrained the wildest of his followers
+within due bounds. Perhaps, even, he was assisted by his Christianized
+allies in the great and final struggle against Hastings and a new swarm
+of Scandinavian rovers, whose defeat is the concluding act of this
+tumultuous century. Alfred drew up near London, and met the advancing
+hosts on the banks of the river Lea, about twenty miles from town. The
+patient angler in that suburban river seldom thinks what great events
+occurred upon its shore. Great ships--all things are comparative--were
+floating upon its waters, filled with armed Danes. Alfred cut certain
+openings in the banks and lowered the stream, so that the hostile navy
+stranded. Out sprang the Danes, astonished at the interruption to their
+course, and retreated across the country, nor stopped till they had
+placed themselves in inaccessible positions on the Severn. But the
+century came to a close. Opening with the great days of Charlemagne,
+it is right that it should close with the far more glorious reign
+of Alfred the patriot and sage;---a century illuminated at its two
+extremes, but in its middle period dark with disunion and ignorance,
+and not unlikely, unless controlled to higher uses, to give birth to a
+state of more hopeless barbarism than that from which the nations of
+Europe had so recently emerged.
+
+
+
+
+                            TENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       LOUIS IV.--(_cont._)
+
+  911. CONRAD.
+
+  920. HENRY THE FOWLER.
+
+  936. OTHO THE GREAT.
+
+  973. OTHO II.
+
+  983. OTHO III.
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       LEO.--(_cont._)
+
+  911. CONSTANTINE IX.
+
+  915. CONSTANTINE and ROMANUS.
+
+  959. ROMANUS II.
+
+  963. NICEPHORUS PHOCAS.
+
+  969. JOHN ZIMISCES.
+
+  975. BASILIUS AND CONSTANTINE X.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       CHARLES THE SIMPLE.--(_cont._)
+
+  923. RODOLPH.
+
+  936. LOUIS IV., (d'Outremer.)
+
+  954. LOTHAIRE.
+
+  986. LOUIS V., (le Fainéant.)
+
+  987. HUGH CAPET, (new Dynasty.)
+
+  996. ROBERT THE WISE.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       ALFRED.--(_cont._)
+
+  901. EDWARD THE ELDER.
+
+  925. ATHELSTANE.
+
+  941. EDMUND I.
+
+  948. ELDRED.
+
+  955. EDWY.
+
+  959. EDGAR.
+
+  976. EDWARD II.
+
+  978. ETHELRED II.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+SUIDAS, (Lexicographer), GERBERT, ODO, DUNSTAN.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE TENTH CENTURY.
+
+                         DARKNESS AND DESPAIR.
+
+
+The tenth century is always to be remembered as the darkest and most
+debased of all the periods of modern history. It was the midnight of
+the human mind, far out of reach of the faint evening twilight left
+by Roman culture, and further still from the morning brightness of
+the new and higher civilization. If we try to catch any hope of the
+future, we must turn from the oppressed and enervated populations of
+France and Italy to the wild wanderers from the North. By following
+the latter detachment of Norsemen who made their settlements on
+the Seine, we shall see that what seemed the wedge by which the
+compactness of an organized kingdom was to be split up turned out
+to be the strengthening beam by which the whole machinery of legal
+government had been kept together. Romanized Gauls, effeminated
+Franks, Goths, and Burgundians, were found unfitted for the duties
+either of subjects or rulers. They were too ambitious to obey, and
+too ignorant to command. Religion itself had lost its efficacy, for
+the populations had been so fed with false legends, that they had no
+relish for the truths of the gospel, which, indeed, as an instrument
+of instruction, had fallen into complete disuse. Ship-loads of false
+relics, and army-rolls of imaginary saints, were poured out for
+the general veneration. The higher dignitaries of the Church were
+looked on with very different feelings, according to the point of
+view taken of them. When regarded merely as possessors of lands and
+houses, they were loved or hated according to the use they made of
+their power; but at the very time when cruelties and vices made them
+personally the objects of detestation or contempt, the sacredness
+of their official characters remained. Petitions were sent to the
+kings against the prelates being allowed to lead their retainers into
+battle, not entirely from a scruple as to the unlawfulness of such a
+proceeding, but from the more serious consideration that their death
+or capture would be taken as a sign of the vengeance of Heaven, and
+damp the ardour of the party they supported. Churches and cathedrals
+were filled with processionary spectacles, and their altars covered
+with the offerings of the faithful; and yet so brutal were the manners
+of the times, and so small the respect entertained for the individual
+priest, that laymen of the highest rank thought nothing of knocking
+down the dignitaries of the Church with a blow on the head, even while
+solemnly engaged in the offices of devotion. The Roman pontiffs, we
+have seen, did not scruple to avail themselves of the forgeries of
+their enthusiastic supporters to establish their authority on the basis
+of antiquity, and at the middle of this century we should find, if we
+inquired into it, that the sacred city and chair of St. Peter were a
+prey to the most violent passions. Many devout Roman Catholics have
+been, at various periods, so horrified with the condition of their
+chiefs, and of the perverted religion which had arisen from tradition
+and imposture, that they have claimed the mere continued existence of
+the Papacy as a proof of its Divine institution, and a fulfilment of
+the prophecy that "the gates of hell should not prevail against it."
+Yet even in the midst of this corruption and ignorance, there were not
+wanting some redeeming qualities, which soften our feelings towards
+the ecclesiastic power. It was at all times, in its theory, a protest
+against the excesses of mere strength and violence. The doctrines it
+professed to teach were those of kindness and charity; and in the great
+idea of the throned fisherman at Rome, the poorest saw a kingdom which
+was not of this world, and yet to which all the kingdoms of this world
+must bow. Temporal ranks were obliterated when the descendants of kings
+and emperors were seen paying homage to the sons of serfs and workmen.
+The immunity, also, from spoil and slaughter, which to a certain extent
+still adhered to episcopal and abbatial lands, reflected a portion
+of their sanctity on the person of the bishop and abbot. Mysterious
+reverence still hung round the convents, within which such ceaseless
+prayers were said and so many relics exposed, and whither it was also
+known that all the learning and scholarship of the land had fled for
+refuge. The doles at monastery-doors, however objected to by political
+economists, as encouragements of mendicancy and idleness, were viewed
+in a very different light by the starving crowds, who, besides being
+qualified by destitution and hunger for the reception of charitable
+food, had an incontestable right, under the founder's will, to be
+supported by the establishment on whose lands they lived. The abbot
+who neglected to feed the poor was not only an unchristian contemner
+of the precepts of the faith, but ran counter to the legal obligations
+of his place. He was administrator of certain properties left for the
+benefit of persons about whose claims there was no doubt; and when the
+rapacious methods of maintaining their adherents, which were adopted by
+the count and baron, were compared with the baskets of broken victuals,
+and the jugs of foaming beer, which were distributed at the buttery
+of the abbey, the decision was greatly in favour of the spiritual
+chief. His ambling mule, and swift hound, and hooded hawks, were not
+grudged, nor his less defensible occupations seriously inquired into,
+as long as the beef and mutton were not stinted, and the liquor flowed
+in reasonable streams. As to his theological tenets, or knowledge of
+history, either sacred or profane, the highest ecclesiastic was on
+the same level of utter ignorance and indifference with the lowest
+of his serfs. There were no books of controversial divinity in all
+this century. There were no studies exacted from priest or prelate.
+All that was required was an inordinate zeal in the discovery of holy
+relics, and an acquaintance with the unnumbered ceremonies performed
+in the celebration of the service. Morals were in as low a state as
+learning. Debauchery, drunkenness, and uncleanness were the universal
+characteristics both of monk and secular. So it is a satisfaction to
+turn from the wretched spectacle of the decaying and corrupt condition
+of an old society, to the hardier vices of a new and undegenerated
+people. Better the unreasoning vigour of the Normans, and their wild
+trust in Thor and Odin--their spirit of personal independence and pride
+in the manly exercises--than the creeping submission of an uneducated
+population, trampled on by their brutal lay superiors, and cheated out
+of money and labour by the artifices of their priests.
+
+Rollo, the Norman chief, had pushed his unresisted galleys up the
+Seine, and strongly intrenched himself in Rouen, in the first year
+of this century. From this citadel, so admirably selected for his
+purposes, whether of defence or conquest, he spread his expeditions
+on every side. The boats were so light that no shallowness of water
+hindered their progress even to the great valleys where the river was
+still a brook. When impediments were encountered on the way, in the
+form of waterfall, or, more rarely, of bridge or weir, the adventurers
+sprang to shore and carried their vessels along the land. When greater
+booty tempted them, they even crossed long tracts of country, hauling
+their boats along with them, and launching them in some peaceful
+vale far away from the sea. Every islet in the rivers was seized and
+fortified; so that, dotted about over all the beautiful lands between
+the Seine and the borders of Flanders, were stout Norman colonies,
+with all the pillage they had obtained securely guarded in those
+unassailable retreats, and ready to carry their maritime depredations
+wherever a canoe could swim. Their rapidity of locomotion was equal
+to that of the Saracenic hordes who had poured down from the Pyrenees
+in the days of Charles the Hammer. But the Norsemen were of sterner
+stuff than the light chivalry of Abderachman. Where they stopped they
+took root. They found it impossible to carry off all the treasure they
+had seized, and therefore determined to stay beside it. Rouen was at
+first about to be laid waste, but the policy of the bishop preserved it
+from destruction, while the wisdom of the rovers converted it into a
+fortress of the greatest strength. Strong walls were reared all round.
+The beautiful river was guarded night and day by their innumerable
+fleet, and in a short time it was recognised equally by friend and foe
+as the capital and headquarters of a new race. Nor were the Normans
+left entirely to Scandinavia for recruits. The glowing reports of their
+success, which successively arrived at their ancient homes, of course
+inspired the ambitious listeners with an irresistible desire to launch
+forth and share their fortune; but there were not wanting thousands
+of volunteers near at hand. King and duke, bishop and baron, were all
+unable to give protection to the cultivator of the soil and shepherd
+of the flock. These humble sufferers saw their cabins fired, and all
+their victuals destroyed. Rollo was too politic to make it a war of
+extermination against the unresisting inhabitants, and easily opened
+his ranks for their reception. The result was that, in those disastrous
+excursions, shouting the war-cry of Norway, and brandishing the
+pirate's axe, were many of the original Franks and Gauls, allured by
+the double inducement of escaping further injury themselves and taking
+vengeance on their former oppressors. Religious scruples did not stand
+in their way. They gave in their adhesion to the gods of the North, and
+proved themselves true converts to Thor and Odin, by eating the flesh
+of a horse that had been slain in sacrifice. It is perhaps this heathen
+association with horseflesh as an article of food, which has banished
+it from Christian consumption for so long a time. But an effort is
+now made in France to rescue the fattened and roasted steed from the
+obloquy of its first introduction; and the success of the movement
+would be complete if there were no other difficulty to contend against
+than the stigma of its idolatrous origin. Yet the recruits were not
+all on one side, for we read of certain sea-kings who have grown tired
+of their wandering life, and taken service under the kings of France.
+Of these the most famous was Hastings, whom we saw defeated at the end
+of the last century, on the banks of the river Lea. He is old now, and
+so far forgetful of his Scandinavian origin that some French annalists
+claim him as a countryman of their own, and maintain that he was the
+son of a husbandman near Troyes. He is now a great landed lord, Count
+of Chartres, and in high favour with the French king. When Rollo had
+established his forces on the banks of the Eure, one of the tributaries
+of the Seine, the ancient pirate went at the head of an embassy to see
+what the new-comer required. Standing on the farther bank of the little
+river, he raised his voice, and in good Norwegian demanded who they
+were, and who was their lord. "We have no lord!" they said: "we are all
+equal." "And why do you come into this land, and what are you going to
+do?" "We are going to chase away the inhabitants, and make the country
+our home. But who are you, who speak our language so well?" The count
+replied, "Did you never hear of Hastings the famous pirate, who had so
+many ships upon the sea, and did such evil to this realm?" "Of course,"
+replied the Norsemen: "Hastings began well, but has ended poorly."
+"Have you no wish, then," said Hastings, "to submit yourselves to King
+Charles, who offers you land and honours on condition of fealty and
+service?" "Off! off!--we will submit ourselves to no man; and all we
+can take we shall keep, without dependence on any one. Go and tell the
+king so, if you like." Hastings returned from his unsuccessful embassy,
+and the attempt at compromise was soon after followed by a victory of
+Rollo, which decided the fate of the kingdom. The conquerors mounted
+the Seine, and laid siege to Paris; but failing in this, they retraced
+their course to Rouen, and made themselves masters of Bayeux, and of
+other places. Rollo was now raised to supreme command by the voices of
+his followers, and took rank as an independent chief. But he was too
+sagacious a leader to rely entirely on the favour or success of his
+countrymen. He protected the native population, and reconciled them
+to the absence of their ancient masters, by the increased security in
+life and property which his firmness produced. He is said to have hung
+a bracelet of gold in an exposed situation, with no defence but the
+terror of his justice, and no one tried to remove it. He saw, also,
+that however much his power might be dreaded, and his family feared, by
+the great nobility of France with whom he was brought into contact, his
+position as a heathen and isolated settler placed him in an inferior
+situation. The Archbishop of Rouen, who had been his ally in the
+peaceable occupation of the city, was beside him, with many arguments
+in favour of the Christian faith. The time during which the populations
+had been intermixed had smoothed many difficulties on either side.
+[A.D. 911.] The worship of Thor and Odin was felt to be out of place in
+the midst of great cathedrals and wealthy monasteries, and it created
+no surprise when, in a few years, the ambitious Rollo descended from
+his proud independence, did suit and service to his feeble adversary
+Charles the Simple, and retained all his conquests in full property as
+Duke of Normandy and Peer of France.
+
+Already the divinity that hedged a king placed the crown, even when
+destitute of real authority, at an immeasurable height above the
+loftiest of the nobles; and it will be well to preserve this in our
+memory; for to the belief in this mystical dignity of the sovereign,
+the monarchical principle was indebted for its triumph in all the
+states of Europe. No matter how powerless the anointed ruler might
+be--no matter how greatly a combination of vassals, or a single vassal,
+might excel him in men and money--the ineffable supremacy of the sacred
+head was never denied. This strange and ennobling sentiment had not yet
+penetrated the mind of Rollo and his followers, at the great ceremonial
+of his reception as a feudatory of the Crown. He declined to bend
+the knee before his suzerain, but gave him his oath of obedience and
+faith, standing at his full height. When a stickler for court etiquette
+insisted on the final ceremony of kissing the foot of the feudal
+superior, the duke made a sign to one of his piratical attendants to
+go through the form instead of him. Forth stalked the Norseman towards
+the overjoyed Charles, and without stooping his body laid hold of the
+royal boot, and, lifting it with all his strength up to his mouth,
+upset the unfortunate and short-legged monarch on his back, to the
+great consternation of his courtiers, and the hilarious enjoyment of
+his new subjects. But there was henceforth a new element in French
+society. The wanderers were unanimously converted to Christianity, and
+the shores of the whole kingdom perpetually guarded from piratical
+invaders by the contented and warlike countrymen of Hastings and Rollo.
+Normandy and Brittany were the appanage of the new duke, and perhaps
+they were more useful to the French monarch, as the well-governed
+territories of a powerful vassal, than if he had held them in full
+sovereignty in their former disorganized and helpless state. Language
+soon began to exert its combining influence on the peoples thus brought
+into contact, and in a few years the rough Norse gave place to the
+Romanized idiom of the rest of the kingdom, and the descendants of
+Rollo in the next generation required an interpreter if any of their
+relatives came to visit them from Denmark.
+
+But the true characteristic event of this century was the first
+establishment of real feudalism. The hereditary nature of lands and
+tenements had long been recognised; the original granter had long
+surrendered his right to reclaim the property on the death of the
+first possessor. Gradually also, and by sufferance, the offices to
+which, in the stronger periods of royalty, the favoured subjects had
+been promoted for life or a definite time were considered to belong
+to the descendant of the holder. But it was only now, in the weak
+administration of a series of nominal kings, that the rights and
+privileges of a titular nobility were legally recognised, and large
+portions of the monarchy forever conveyed away from the control of
+the Crown. There is a sort of natural feudalism which must always
+exist where there are degrees of power and influence, and which is
+as potent at this moment as in the time we are describing. A man who
+expects a favour owes and performs suit and service to the man who
+has the power of bestowing it. A man with land to let, with money to
+lend, with patronage to exert, is in a sort of way the "superior"
+of him who wants to take the farm, or borrow the money, or get the
+advancement. The obligations of these positions are mutual; and only
+very advanced philosophers in the theory of disunion and ingratitude
+would object to the reciprocal feelings of kindness and attachment
+they naturally produce. In a less settled state of society, such
+as that now existing, or which lately existed, at the Cape of Good
+Hope and in New Zealand, the feudal principle is fresh and vigorous,
+though not recognised under that name, for the peaceful or weak are
+glad to pay deference and respect to the wielder of the protective
+sword. In the tenth century there were customs, but no laws, for laws
+presuppose some external power able to enforce them, and the decay of
+the kingly authority had left the only practical government in the
+hands of the great and powerful. They gave protection in return for
+obedience. But when more closely inquired into, this assumption of
+authority by a nobility or upper class is found to have been purely
+defensive on the part of the lay proprietors, against the advancing
+tide of a spiritual Democracy, which threatened to submerge the whole
+of Europe. Already the bishops and abbots had got possession of nearly
+half the realm of France, and in other countries they were equally
+well provided. Those great officers were the leaders of innumerable
+priests and monks, and owed their dignities to the popular will. The
+Pope himself--a sovereign prince when once placed in the chair of St.
+Peter--was indebted for his exaltation to a plurality of votes of the
+clergy and people of Rome. Election was, in fact, the universal form
+of constituting the rule under which men were to live. But who were
+the electors? The appointment was still nominally in the people, but
+the people were almost entirely under the influence of the clerical
+orders. Mechanics and labourers were the serfs or dependants of the
+rich monasteries, and tillers of the episcopal lands. The citizens
+had not yet risen into wealth or intelligence, and, though subject in
+their persons to the baron whose castle commanded their walls, they
+were still under the guidance of their priests. No middle class existed
+to hold the balance even between the nobility and the Church; and the
+masses of the population were naturally disposed to throw power into
+the hands of persons who sprang, in most instances, from families no
+better than their own, and recommended themselves to popular favour
+by opposition (often just, but always domineering) to the proceedings
+of the lay aristocracy. The labouring serfs, who gave the vote, were
+not much inferior in education or refinement to the ordained serfs who
+canvassed for their favour. Abbacies, priories, bishoprics, parochial
+incumbencies, and all cathedral dignities, were held by a body distinct
+from the feudal gentry, and elevated, mediately or immediately, by
+universal suffrage. If some stop had not been put to the aggressions of
+the priesthood, all the lands in Christendom would have been absorbed
+by its insatiable greed--all the offices of the State would have been
+conveyed to sacerdotal holders; all kings would have been nominated by
+the clerical voice alone, and freedom and progress would never have had
+their birth. The monarchs--though it is almost mockery to call them so
+in England--were waging an unsuccessful war with the pretensions of
+St. Dunstan, who was an embodiment of the pitiless harshness and blind
+ambition of a zealot for ecclesiastic supremacy. In France a succession
+of imbecile rulers, whose characters are clearly enough to be guessed
+from the descriptive epithets which the old chroniclers have attached
+to their names, had left the Crown a prey to all its enemies. What was
+to be expected from a series of governors whose mark in history is
+made by such nicknames as "The Bald," "The Stammerer," "The Fat," and
+finally, without circumlocution, "The Fool"? Everybody tried to get
+as much out of the royal plunder as he could. Bishops got lands and
+churches. Foreign pirates, we have seen, got whole counties at a time,
+and in self-defence the nobility were forced to join in the universal
+spoil. Counties as large as Normandy were retained as rightful
+inheritances, independent of all but nominal adhesion to the throne.
+Smaller properties were kept fast hold of, on the same pretence. And
+by this one step the noble was placed in a position of advantage over
+his rival the encroaching bishop. His power was not the mere creation
+of a vote or the possession of a lifetime. His family had foundations
+on which to build through a long succession of generations. Marriage,
+conquest, gift, and purchase, all tended to the consolidation of his
+influence; and the result was, that, instead of one feeble and decaying
+potentate in the person of the king, to resist the aggressions of an
+absorbing and levelling Church, there were hundreds all over the land,
+democratic enough in regard to their dislike of the supremacy of the
+sovereign, but burning with a deep-seated aristocratic hatred of the
+territorial aggrandizement of the dissolute and low-born clergy. Europe
+was either in this century to be ruled by mailed barons or surpliced
+priests. Sometimes they played into each other's hands. Sometimes
+the warrior overwhelmed an adversary by enlisting on his side the
+sympathies of the Church. Sometimes the Church, in its controversies
+with the Crown, cast itself on the protection of the warrior, but
+more frequently it threw its weight into the scale of the vacillating
+monarch, who could reward it with such munificent donations. But
+those munificent donations were equivalent to aggressions on the
+nobles. There was no use in their trying to check the aggrandizement
+of the clerical power, if the Crown continued its gifts of territory
+and offices to the priests and churches. And at last, when the
+strong-handed barons of France were tired out with the fatuity of
+their effete kings, they gave the last proof of the supremacy they had
+attained, by departing from the line of Charlemagne and placing one
+of themselves upon the throne. Hugh Capet, the chief of the feudal
+nobles, was chosen to wear the crown as delegate and representative of
+the rest. The old Mayors of the Palace had been revived in his family
+for some generations; and when Louis the son of Lothaire died, after a
+twelvemonth's permissive reign, in 987, the warriors and land-owners
+turned instinctively to the strongest and most distinguished member
+of their body to be the guardian of the privileges they had already
+secured. This was an aristocratic movement against the lineal supremacy
+of the Crown, and in reply to the democratic policy of the Church. But
+the Pope was too clear-sighted to lose the chance of attaching another
+champion to the papal chair. [A.D. 987.] He made haste to ratify the
+new nomination to the throne, and pronounced Hugh Capet "King of France
+in right of his great deeds."
+
+Hugh Capet had been first of the feudal nobility; but from thenceforth
+he laboured to be "every inch a king." He tried to please both parties,
+and to humble them at the same time. He did not lavish crown-lands or
+lofty employments on the clergy; he took a new and very economical way
+of attaching them to his cause. He procured his election, it is not
+related by what means, to the highest dignities in the Church, and,
+although not in holy orders, was invested with the abbacies of St.
+Denis and St. Martin's and St. Germain's. The clergy were delighted
+with the increase to the respectability of their order, which had thus
+a king among its office-bearers. The Pope, we have seen, was first to
+declare his legitimacy; the bishops gave him their support, as they
+felt sure that, as a threefold abbot, he must have interests identical
+with their own. He was fortunate, also, in gaining still more venerated
+supporters; for while he was building a splendid tomb at St. Valery,
+the saint of that name appeared to him and said, with larger promise
+than the witches to Banquo, "Thou and thy descendants shall be kings to
+the remotest generations."
+
+With the nobles he proceeded in a different manner. His task, you
+will remember, was to regain the universal submission of the nation;
+and success at first seemed almost hopeless, for his real power,
+like that of the weakest of his immediate predecessors, extended no
+further than his personal holdings. In his fiefs of France proper (the
+small district including Paris) and Burgundy he was all-powerful;
+but in the other principalities and dukedoms he was looked on merely
+as a neighbouring potentate with some shadowy claims of suzerainty,
+with no right of interference in their internal administration. The
+other feudatories under the old monarchy, but who were in reality
+independent sovereigns under the new, were the Dukes of Normandy and
+Flanders, and Aquitaine and Toulouse. These made the six lay peerages
+of the kingdom, and, with the six ecclesiastical chief rulers, made
+the Twelve Peers of France. Of the lay peerages it will be seen that
+Hugh was in possession of two--the best situated and most populous of
+all. The extent of his possessions and the influence of his name were
+excellent starting-points in his efforts to restore the power of the
+Crown; but other things were required, and the first thing he aimed at
+was to place his newly-acquired dignity on the same vantage-ground of
+hereditary succession as his dukedoms had long been. [A.D. 989.] With
+great pomp and solemnity he himself was anointed with the holy oil by
+the hands of the Pope; and he took advantage of the self-satisfied
+security of the other nobles to have the ceremony of a coronation
+performed on his son during his lifetime, and by this arrangement the
+appearance of election was avoided at his death. Its due weight must
+be given to the universal superstition of the time, when we attribute
+such importance to the formal consecration of a king. Externals, in
+that age, were all in all. Something mystic and divine, as we have
+said before, was supposed to reside in the very fact of having the
+crown placed on the head with the sanction and prayers of the Church.
+Opposition to the wearer became not only treason, but impiety; and
+when the same policy was pursued by many generations of Hugh's
+successors, in always procuring the coronation of their heirs before
+their demise, and thus obliterating the remembrance of the elective
+process to which they owed their position, the royal power had the
+vast advantage of hereditary descent added to its unsubstantial but
+never-abandoned claim of paramount authority. The effects of this
+momentous change in the dynasty of one of the great European nations
+were felt in all succeeding centuries. The family connection between
+the house of France and the Empire was dissolved; and the struggle
+between the old condition of society and the rising intelligence of
+the peoples--which is the great characteristic of the Middle Ages--took
+a more defined form than before: aristocracy assumed its perfected
+shape of king and nobility combined for mutual defence on one side,
+and on the other the towns and great masses of the nations striving
+for freedom and privilege under the leadership of the sympathizing and
+democratic Church; for the Church was essentially democratic, in spite
+of the arrogance and grasping spirit of some of its principal leaders.
+From hereditary aristocracy and hereditary royalty it was equally
+excluded; and the celibacy of the clergy has had this good effect,
+if no other: Its members were recruited from the people, and derived
+all their influence from popular support. In Germany the same process
+was going on, though without the crowning consummation of making the
+empire non-elective. [A.D. 962.] Otho, however--worthier of the name
+of Great than many who have borne that ambitious title--succeeded in
+limiting that highest of European dignities to the possessors of the
+German crown, and commenced the connection between Upper Italy and the
+Emperors which still subsists (so uneasily for both parties) under the
+house of Austria.
+
+In England the misery of the population had reached its maximum. The
+immigration of the Norsemen had been succeeded by numberless invasions,
+accompanied with all the horrors of barbarism and religious hatred; for
+the Danes who devastated the shores in this age were as remorselessly
+savage, and as bitterly heathen, as their predecessors a hundred
+years before. No place was safe for the unhappy Christianized Saxons.
+Their sufferings were of the same kind as those of the inhabitants of
+Normandy when Rollo began his ravages. Their priest-ridden kings and
+impoverished nobles could give them no protection. Bribes were paid to
+the assailants, and only brought over increasing and hungrier hordes.
+The land was a prey to wretchedness of every kind, and it was slender
+consolation to the starving and trampled multitudes that all the world
+was suffering to almost the same extent. Saracens were devastating the
+coasts of Italy, and a wild tribe of Sclaves trying to burst through
+the Hungarian frontier. At Rome itself, the capital of intellect
+and religion, such iniquities were perpetrated on every side that
+Protestant authors themselves consent to draw a veil over them for the
+sake of human nature; and in those sketches we require to do nothing
+more than allude to the crimes and wickedness of the papal court as
+one of the features by which the century was marked. Women of high
+rank and infamous character placed the companions of their vices in
+the highest offices of the Church, and seated their sons or paramours
+on the papal throne. Spiritual pretensions rose almost in proportion
+to personal immorality, and the curious spectacle was presented of a
+power losing all respect at home by conduct which the heathen emperors
+of the first century scarcely equalled; of popes alternately dethroning
+and imprisoning each other--sometimes of two popes at a time--always
+dependent for life or influence on the will of the emperor, or whoever
+else might be dominant in Italy--and yet successfully claiming the
+submission and reverence of distant nations as "Bishop of all the
+world" and lineal "successors of the Prince of the Apostles." This
+claim had never been expressly made before, and is perhaps the most
+conclusive proof of the darkness and ignorance of this period. Men were
+too besotted to observe the incongruity between the life and profession
+of those blemishes of the Church, even when by travelling to the seat
+of government they had the opportunity of seeing the Roman pontiff and
+his satellites and patrons. The rest of the world had no means of
+learning the real state of affairs. Education had almost died out among
+the clergy themselves. Nobody else could write or read. Travelling
+monks gave perverted versions, we may believe, of every thing likely to
+be injurious to the interests of the Church; and the result was, that
+everywhere beyond the city-walls the thunder of a Boniface the Seventh,
+or a John the Twelfth, was considered as good thunder as if it had
+issued from the virtuous indignation of St. Paul.
+
+But just as this century drew to a close, various circumstances
+concurred to produce a change in men's minds. It was a
+universally-diffused belief that the world would come to an end when
+a thousand years from the Saviour's birth were expired. The year 999
+was therefore looked upon as the last which any one would see. And if
+ever signs of approaching dissolution were shown in heaven and earth,
+the people of this century might be pardoned for believing that they
+were made visible to them. Even the breaking up of morals and law, and
+the wide deluge of sin which overspread all lands, might be taken as a
+token that mankind were deemed unfit to occupy the earth any more. In
+addition to these appalling symptoms, famines were renewed from year to
+year in still increasing intensity and brought plague and pestilence
+in their train. The land was left untilled, the house unrepaired, the
+right unvindicated; for who could take the useless trouble of ploughing
+or building, or quarrelling about a property, when so few months were
+to put an end to all terrestrial interests? Yet even for the few
+remaining days the multitudes must be fed. Robbers frequented every
+road, entered even into walled towns; and there was no authority left
+to protect the weak, or bring the wrong-doer to punishment. Corn and
+cattle were at length exhausted; and in a great part of the Continent
+the most frightful extremities were endured; and when endurance could
+go no further, the last desperate expedient was resorted to, and human
+flesh was commonly consumed. One man went so far as to expose it for
+sale in a populous market-town. The horror of this open confession of
+their needs was so great, that the man was burned, but more for the
+publicity of his conduct than for its inherent guilt. Despair gave
+a loose to all the passions. Nothing was sacred--nothing safe. Even
+when food might have been had, the vitiated taste made bravado of
+its depravation, and women and children were killed and roasted in
+the madness of the universal fear. Meantime the gentler natures were
+driven to the wildest excesses of fanaticism to find a retreat from
+the impending judgment. Kings and emperors begged at monastery-doors
+to be admitted brethren of the Order. Henry of Germany and Robert of
+France were saints according to the notions of the time, and even now
+deserve the respect of mankind for the simplicity and benevolence of
+their characters. Henry the Emperor succeeded in being admitted as a
+monk, and swore obedience on the hands of the gentle abbot who had
+failed in turning him from his purpose. "Sire," he said at last, "since
+you are under my orders, and have sworn to obey me, I command you to
+go forth and fulfil the duties of the state to which God has called
+you. Go forth, a monk of the Abbey of St. Vanne, but Emperor of the
+West." Robert of France, the son of Hugh Capet, placed himself, robed
+and crowned, among the choristers of St. Denis, and led the musicians
+in singing hymns and psalms of his own composition. Lower men were
+satisfied with sacrificing the marks of their knightly and seignorial
+rank, and placed baldrics and swords on the altars and before the
+images of saints. Some manumitted their serfs, and bestowed large
+sums upon charitable trusts, commencing their disposition with words
+implying the approaching end of all. Crowds of the common people would
+sleep nowhere but in the porches, or at any rate within the shadow,
+of the churches and other holy buildings; and as the day of doom drew
+nearer and nearer, greater efforts were made to appease the wrath of
+Heaven. Peace was proclaimed between all classes of men. From Wednesday
+night till Monday evening of each week there was to be no violence or
+enmity or war in all the land. It was to be a Truce of God; and at
+last, all their strivings after a better state, acknowledgments of
+a depraved condition, and heartfelt longings for something better,
+purer, nobler, received their consummation, when, in the place of the
+unprincipled men who had disgraced Christianity by carrying vice and
+incredulity into the papal chair, there was appointed to the highest of
+ecclesiastical dignities a man worthy of his exaltation; and the good
+and holy Gerbert, the tutor, guide, and friend of Robert of France, was
+appointed Pope in 998, and took the name of Sylvester the Second.
+
+
+
+
+                           ELEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        OTHO III.--(_cont_.)
+
+  1002. HENRY OF BAVARIA.
+
+  1024. CONRAD II.
+
+  1039. HENRY III.
+
+  1056. HENRY IV.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ETHELRED II.--(_cont._)
+
+  1013. SWEYN.                          }
+
+  1015. CANUTE THE GREAT.               }
+
+  1017. EDMUND II.                      } Danes.
+
+  1039. HAROLD and HARDICANUTE.         }
+
+  1042. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
+
+  1066. HAROLD, (son of Godwin.)
+
+  1066. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
+
+  1087. WILLIAM RUFUS.
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        BASILIUS.--(_cont._)
+
+  1028. ROMANUS III.
+
+  1042. EMPRESS ZOE and THEODORA.
+
+  1056. MICHAEL VI.
+
+  1057. ISAAC COMNENUS.
+
+  1059. CONSTANTINE X., (DUCAS.)
+
+  1067. EUDOXIA and CONSTANTINE XI.
+
+  1068. ROMANUS IV., (DIOGENES.)
+
+  1071. MICHAEL.
+
+  1078. { Two princes of the
+
+  1081. { House of the Comneni.
+
+  1081. ALEXIS I.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ROBERT THE WISE.--(_cont._)
+
+  1031. HENRY I.
+
+  1060. PHILIP I.
+
+
+  1096. THE FIRST CRUSADE.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+ANSELM, (1003-1079,) ABELARD, (1079-1142,) BERENGARIUS, ROSCELIN,
+LANFRANC, THEOPHYLACT, (1077.)
+
+
+
+
+                         THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE COMMENCEMENT OF IMPROVEMENT--GREGORY THE SEVENTH--FIRST CRUSADE.
+
+
+And now came the dreaded or hoped-for year. The awful Thousand had
+at last commenced, and men held their breath to watch what would be
+the result of its arrival. "And he laid hold of the dragon, that old
+serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand
+years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set
+a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till
+the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be
+loosed a little season." (Revelation xx. 2, 3.) With this text all
+the pulpits in Christendom had been ringing for a whole generation.
+And not the pulpits only, but the refection-halls of convents, and
+the cottages of the starving peasantry. Into the castle also of the
+noble, we have seen, it had penetrated; and the most abject terror
+pervaded the superstitious, while despair, as in shipwrecked vessels,
+displayed itself amid the masses of the population in rioting and
+insubordination. The spirit of evil for a little season was to be let
+loose upon a sinful world; and when the observer looked round at the
+real condition of the people in all parts of Europe--at the ignorance
+and degradation of the multitude, the cruelty of the lords, and the
+unchristian ambition and unrestrained passions of the clergy--it must
+have puzzled him how to imagine a worse state of things even when the
+chain was loosened from "that old serpent," and the world placed
+unresistingly in his folds. Yet, as if men's minds had now reached
+their lowest point, there was a perpetual rise from the beginning of
+this date. When the first day of the thousand-and-first year shone
+upon the world, it seemed that in all nations the torpor of the past
+was to be thrown off. There were strivings everywhere after a new
+order of things. Coming events cast their shadows a long way before;
+for in the very beginning of this century, when it was reported that
+Jerusalem had been taken by the Saracens, Sylvester uttered the
+memorable words, "Soldiers of Christ, arise and fight for Zion." By
+a combination of all Christian powers for one object, he no doubt
+hoped to put an end to the party quarrels by which Europe was torn
+in pieces. And this great thought must have been germinating in the
+popular heart ever since the speech was spoken; for we shall see at the
+end of the period we are describing how instantaneously the cry for
+a crusade was responded to in all lands. In the mean time, the first
+joy of their deliverance from the expected destruction impelled all
+classes of society in a more honourable and useful path than they had
+ever hitherto trod. As if by universal consent, the first attention
+was paid to the maintenance of the churches, those holy buildings by
+whose virtues the wrath of Heaven had been turned away. In France, and
+Italy, and Germany, the fabrics had in many places been allowed to fall
+into ruin. They were now renovated and ornamented with the costliest
+materials, and with an architectural skill which, if it previously
+existed, had had no room for its display. Stately cathedrals took the
+place of the humble buildings in which the services had been conducted
+before. Every thing was projected on a gigantic scale, with the idea of
+permanence prominently brought forward, now that the threatened end of
+all things was seen to be postponed. The foundations were broad and
+deep, the walls of immense thickness, roofs steep and high to keep off
+the rain and snow, and square buttressed towers to sustain the church
+and furnish it at the same time with military defence. It was a holy
+occupation, and the clergy took a prominent part in the new movement.
+Bishops and monks were the principal members of a confraternity who
+devoted themselves to the science of architecture and founded all their
+works on the exact rules of symmetry and fitness. Artists from Italy,
+where Roman models were everywhere seen, and enthusiastic students from
+the south of France, where the great works of the Empire must have
+exercised an ennobling influence on their taste and fancy, brought
+their tribute of memory or invention to the design. Tall pillars
+supported the elevated vault, instead of the flat roof of former days;
+and gradually an approach was made to what, in after-periods, was
+recognised as the pure Gothic. Here, then, was at last a real science,
+the offspring of the highest aspirations of the human mind. Churches
+rising in rich profusion in all parts of the country were the centres
+of architectural taste. The castle of the noble was no longer to be a
+mere mass of stones huddled on each other, to protect its inmates from
+outward attack. The skill of the learned builder was called in, and on
+picturesque heights, safe from hostile assault by the difficulty of
+approach, rose turret and bartizan, arched gateway and square-flanked
+towers, to add new features to the landscape, and help the march of
+civilization, by showing to that allegorizing age the result, both
+for strength and beauty, of regularity and proportion. For at this
+time allegory, which gave an inner meaning to outward things, was in
+full force. There was no portion of the parish church which had not
+its mystical significance; and no doubt, at the end of this century,
+the architectural meaning of the external alteration of the structure
+was perceived, when the great square tower, which typified resistance
+to worldly aggression, was exchanged for the tall and graceful spire
+which pointed encouragingly to heaven. Occasions were eagerly sought
+for to give employment to the ruling passion. Building went on in all
+quarters. The beginning of this century found eleven hundred and eight
+monasteries in France alone. In the course of a few years she was put
+in possession of three hundred and twenty-six more. [A.D. 1035.] The
+magnificent Abbey of Fontenelle was restored in 1035 by William of
+Normandy; and this same William, whom we shall afterwards see in the
+somewhat different character of Conqueror and devastator of England,
+was the founder and patron of more abbeys and monasteries than any
+other man. Many of them are still erect, to attest the solidity of his
+work; the ruins of the others raise our surprise that they are not
+yet entire--so vast in their extent and gigantic in their materials.
+But the same character of permanence extended to all the works of
+this great builder's[B] hands--the systems of government no less than
+the fabrics of churches. The remains of his feudalism in our country,
+no less than the fragments of his masonry at Bayeux, Fecamp, and St.
+Michael's, attest the cyclopean scale on which his superstructures were
+reared. Nor were these great architectural efforts which characterize
+this period made only on behalf of the clergy. It gives a very narrow
+notion, as Michelet has observed, of the uses and purposes of those
+enormous buildings, to view them merely as places for public worship
+and the other offices of religion. The church in a district was, in
+those days, what a hundred other buildings are required to make up in
+the present. It was the town-hall, the market-place, the concert-room,
+the theatre, the school, the news-room, and the vestry, all in one.
+We are to remember that poverty was almost universal. The cottages in
+which the serfs and even the freemen resided were wretched hovels.
+They had no windows, they were damp and airless, and were merely
+considered the human kennels into which the peasantry retired to sleep.
+In contrast to this miserable den there arose a building vast and
+beautiful, consecrated by religion, ornamented with carving and colour,
+large enough to enable the whole population to wander in its aisles,
+with darker recesses under the shade of pillars, to give opportunity
+for familiar conversation or the enjoyment of the family meal. The
+church was the poor man's palace, where he felt that all the building
+belonged to him and was erected for his use. It was also his castle,
+where no enemy could reach him, and the love and pride which filled his
+heart in contemplating the massive proportions and splendid elevation
+of the glorious fane overflowed towards the officers of the church.
+The priest became glorified in his eyes as the officiating servant in
+that greatest of earthly buildings, and the bishop far outshone the
+dignity of kings when it was known that he had plenary authority over
+many such majestic fabrics. Ascending from the known to the unknown,
+the Pope of Rome, the Bishop of Bishops, shone upon the bewildered mind
+of the peasant with a light reflected from the object round which all
+his veneration had gathered from his earliest days--the scene of all
+the incidents of his life--the hallowed sanctuary into which he had
+been admitted as an infant, and whose vaults should echo to the funeral
+service when he should have died.
+
+But this century was distinguished for an upheaving of the human
+mind, which found its development in other things besides the bursting
+forth of architectural skill. It seemed that the chance of continued
+endurance, vouchsafed to mankind by the rising of the sun on the first
+morning of the eleventh century, gave an impulse to long-pent-up
+thoughts in all the directions of inquiry. The dulness of unquestioning
+undiscriminating belief was disturbed by the freshening breezes of
+dissidence and discussion. The Pope himself, the venerable Sylvester
+the Second, had acquired all the wisdom of the Arabians by attending
+the Mohammedan schools in the royal city of Cordova. There he had
+learned the mysteries of the secret sciences, and the more useful
+knowledge--which he imported into the Christian world--of the Arabic
+numerals. The Saracenic barbarism had long yielded to the blandishments
+of the climate and soil of Spain; and emirs and sultans, in their
+splendid gardens on the Guadalquivir, had been discussing the most
+abstruse or subtle points of philosophy while the professed teachers
+of Christendom were sunk in the depths of ignorance and credulity.
+Sylvester had made such progress in the unlawful learning accessible at
+the head-quarters of the unbelievers, that his simple contemporaries
+could only account for it by supposing he had sold himself to the
+enemy of mankind in exchange for such prodigious information. He was
+accused of the unholy arts of magic and necromancy; and all that
+orthodoxy could do to assert her superiority over such acquirements
+was to spread the report, which was very generally credited, that when
+the years of the compact were expired, the paltering fiend appeared
+in person and carried off his debtor from the midst of the affrighted
+congregation, after a severe logical discussion, in which the father
+of lies had the best of the argument. This was a conclusive proof
+of the danger of all logical acquirements. But as time passed on,
+and the darkness of the tenth century was more and more left behind,
+there arose a race of men who were not terrified by the fate of the
+philosophic Sylvester from cultivating their understandings to the
+highest pitch. Among those there were two who particularly left their
+marks on the genius of the time, and who had the strange fortune also
+of succeeding each other as Archbishops of Canterbury. These were
+Lanfranc and Anselm. [A.D. 1042.] When Lanfranc was still a monk at
+Caen, he had attracted to his prelections more than four thousand
+scholars; and Anselm, while in the same humble rank, raised the schools
+of Bec in Normandy to a great reputation. From these two men, both
+Italians by birth, the Scholastic Philosophy took its rise. The old
+unreasoning assent to the doctrines of Christianity had now new life
+breathed into it by the permitted application of intellect and reason
+to the support of truth. In the darkness and misery of the previous
+century, the deep and mysterious dogma of Transubstantiation had made
+its first authoritative appearance in the Church. Acquiesced in by the
+docile multitude, and accepted by the enthusiastic and imaginative as
+an inexpressible gift of fresh grace to mankind, and a fitting crown
+and consummation of the daily-recurring miracles with which the Mother
+and Witness of the truth proved and maintained her mission, it had been
+attacked by Berenger of Tours, who used all the resources of reason and
+ingenuity to demonstrate its unsoundness. [A.D. 1059.] But Lanfranc
+came to the rescue, and by the exercise of a more vigorous dialectic,
+and the support of the great majority of the clergy, confuted all that
+Berenger advanced, had him stripped of his archdeaconry of Angers and
+other preferments, and left him in such destitution and disfavour
+that the discomfited opponent of the Real Presence was forced to
+read his retractation at Rome, and only expiated the enormity of his
+fault by the rigorous seclusion of the remainder of his life. The
+hopeful feature in this discussion was, that though the influence of
+ecclesiastic power was not left dormant, in the shape of temporal
+ruin and spiritual threats, the exercise of those usual weapons of
+authority was accompanied with attempts at argument and conviction.
+Lanfranc, indeed, in the very writings in which he used his talents
+to confute the heretic, made such use of his reasoning and inductive
+faculties that he nearly fell under the ban of heresy himself. He had
+the boldness to imagine a man left to the exercise of his natural
+powers alone, and bringing observation, argument, and ratiocination
+to the discovery of the Christian dogmas; but he was glad to purchase
+his complete rehabilitation, as champion of the Church, by a work in
+which he admits reason to the subordinate position of a supporter or
+commentator, but by no means a foundation or inseparable constituent of
+an article of the faith. Any thing was better than the blindness and
+ignorance of the previous age; and questions of the purest metaphysics
+were debated with a fire and animosity which could scarcely have been
+excited by the greatest worldly interests. The Nominalists and Realists
+began their wordy and unprofitable war, which after occasional truces
+may at any moment break out, as it has often done before, though it
+would now be confined to the professorial chairs in our universities,
+and not exercise a preponderating influence on the course of human
+affairs. The dispute (as the names of the disputants import) arose
+upon the question as to whether universal ideas were things or only
+the names of things, and on this the internecine contest went on.
+All the subtlety of the old Greek philosophies was introduced into
+the scholasticisms and word-splittings of those useless arguers; and
+vast reputations, which have not yet decayed, were built on this very
+unsubstantial foundation.
+
+It shows how immeasurably the efforts of the intellect, even when
+misapplied, transcend the greatest triumphs of military skill, when we
+perceive that in this age, which was illustrated by the Conquest of
+England, first by the Danes, and then by William, by the marvellous
+rise and triumphant progress of the sons of Tancred of Hauteville, and
+by the startling incidents of the First Crusade,--the central figure
+is a meagre, hard-featured monk, who rises from rank to rank, till
+he governs and tramples on the world under the name of Gregory the
+Seventh. It may seem to some people, who look at the present condition
+of the Romish Church, that too prominent a place is assigned in these
+early centuries to the growth and aggrandizement of the ecclesiastical
+power; but as the object of these pages is to point out what seems
+the main distinguishing feature of each of the periods selected for
+separate notice, it would be unpardonable to pass over the Papacy,
+varying in extent of power and pretension at every period when it
+comes into view, and always impressing a distinct and individualizing
+character on the affairs with which it is concerned. It is the most
+stable, and at the same time the most flexible, of powers. Kingdoms
+and dynasties flourish and decay, and make no permanent mark on the
+succeeding age. The authority of a ruler like Charlemagne or Otho
+rises in a full tide, and, having reached its limits, yields to the
+irresistible ebb. But Roman influence knows no retrocession. Even when
+its pretensions are defeated and its assaults repulsed, it claims as
+_de jure_ what it has lost _de facto_, and, though it were reduced to
+the possession of a single church, would continue to issue its orders
+to the habitable globe.
+
+Like the last descendant of the Great Mogul, who professed to rule over
+Hindostan while his power was limited to the walls of his palace at
+Delhi, the bearer of the Tiara abates no jot of his state and dignity
+when every vestige of his influence has disappeared. While ridiculed
+as a puppet or pitied as a sufferer at home, he arrogates more than
+royal power in regions which have long thrown off his authority, and
+announces his will by the voice of blustering and brazen heralds to a
+deaf and rebellious generation, which looks on him with no more respect
+than the grotesquely-dressed conjurers before a tent-door at a fair.
+But the herald's voice would have been listened to with respect and
+obedience if it had been heard at the Pope's gate in 1073. There had
+never been such a pope before, and never has been such a pope since.
+Others have been arrogant and ambitious, but no one has ever equalled
+Hildebrand in arrogance and ambition. Strength of will, also, has been
+the ruling character of many of the pontiffs, but no one has ever
+equalled Hildebrand in the undying tenacity with which he pursued his
+object. He was like Roland, the hero of Roncesvalles, who even in
+defeat knew how to keep his enemies at a distance by blowing upon his
+horn. When Durandal foiled the vanquished Gregory, he spent his last
+breath in defiant blasts upon his Olifant.
+
+But there were many circumstances which not only rendered the rise
+of such a person possible, but made his progress easy and almost
+unavoidable. First of all, the crusading spirit which commenced with
+this century had introduced a great change in the principles and
+practice of the higher clergy. It is a mistake to suppose that the
+expedition to Jerusalem, under the preaching of Peter the Hermit, which
+took place in 1094, was the earliest manifestation of the aggressive
+spirit of the Christian, as such, against the unbeliever. A holy
+war was proclaimed against the Saracens of Italy at an early date.
+An armed assault upon the Jews, as descendants of the murderers of
+Christ, had taken place in 1080. Even the Norman descent on England was
+considered by the more devout of the Papist followers in the light of
+a crusade against the enemies of the Cross, as the Anglo-Saxons were
+not sufficiently submissive to the commands of Rome. Bishops, we saw,
+were held in a former century to derogate from the sanctity of their
+characters when they fought in person like the other occupants of
+fiefs. But the sacred character which expeditions like those against
+Sicily and Salerno gave to the struggle made a great difference in
+the popular estimate of a prelate's sphere of action. He was now held
+to be strictly in the exercise of his duty when he was slaying an
+infidel with the edge of the sword. He was not considered to be more
+in his place at the head of a procession in honour of a saint than at
+the head of an army of cavaliers destroying the enemies of the faith.
+Warlike skill and personal courage became indispensable in a bishop
+of the Church; and in Germany these qualities were so highly prized,
+that the inhabitants of a diocese in the empire, presided over by a man
+of peace and holiness, succeeded in getting him deposed by the Pope
+on the express ground of his being "placable and far from valiant."
+The epitaph of a popular bishop was, that he was "good priest and
+brave chevalier." The manners and feelings of the camp soon became
+disseminated among the reverend divines, who inculcated Christianity
+with a battle-axe in their hands. They quarrelled with neighbouring
+barons for portions of land. They seized the incomes of churches and
+abbeys. Bishop and baron strove with each other who could get most
+for himself out of the property of the Church. The layman forced his
+serfs to elect his infant son to an abbacy or bishopric, and then
+pillaged the estate and stripped the lower clergy in the minor's name.
+Other abuses followed; and though the strictness of the rule against
+the open marriage of priests had long ceased, and in some places the
+superiority of wedded incumbents had been so recognised that the
+appointment of a pastor was objected to unless he was accompanied by
+a wife--still, the letter of the Church-law, enjoining celibacy on
+all orders of the clergy, had never been so generally neglected as at
+the present time. No attempt was made to conceal the almost universal
+infraction of the rule. Bishops themselves brought forward their wives
+on occasions of state and ceremony, who disputed the place of honour
+with the wives of counts and barons. When strictly inquired into,
+however, these alliances were not allowed to have the effect of regular
+matrimony. They were looked upon merely as a sort of licensed and not
+dishonourable concubinage, and the children resulting from them were
+deprived of the rights of legitimacy. Yet the wealth and influence
+of their parents made their exclusion from the succession to land of
+little consequence. They were enriched sufficiently with the spoil of
+the diocese to be independent of the rights of heirship. This must
+have led, however, to many cases of hardship, when the feudal baron,
+tempted by the riches of the neighbouring see, had laid violent hands
+on the property, and by bribery or force procured his own nomination as
+bishop. The children of any marriage contracted after that time lost
+their inheritance of the barony by the episcopal incapacity of their
+father, and must have added to the general feeling of discontent caused
+by the junction of the two characters. For when the tyrannical lord
+became a prelate, it only added the weapons of ecclesiastic domination
+to the baronial armory of cruelty and extortion. He could now withhold
+all the blessings of the Church, as bishop, unless the last farthing
+were yielded up to his demands as landlord. An appalling state of
+things, when the refractory vassal, who had escaped the sword, could be
+knocked into submission by the crozier, both wielded by the same man.
+The Church, therefore, in its highest offices, had become as mundane
+and ambitious as the nobility. And it must have been evident to a far
+dimmer sight than Hildebrand's, that, as the power and independence
+of the barons had been gained at the expense of the Crown, the wealth
+and possessions of the bishops would weaken their allegiance to the
+Pope. Sprung from the lowest ranks of the people, the grim-hearted monk
+never for a moment was false to his order. He looked on lords and kings
+as tyrants and oppressors, on bishops themselves as lording it over
+God's heritage and requiring to be held down beneath the foot of some
+levelling and irresistible power, which would show them the nothingness
+of rank and station; and for this end he dreamed of a popedom,
+universal in its claims, domineering equally over all conditions of
+men--an incarnation of the fiercest democracy, trampling on the people,
+and of the bitterest republicanism, aiming at more than monarchical
+power. He had the wrath of generations of serfdom rankling in his
+heart, and took a satisfaction, sweetened by revenge, in bringing low
+the haughty looks of the proud. And in these strainings after the
+elevation of the Papacy he was assisted by several powers on which he
+could securely rely.
+
+The Normans, who by a wonderful fortune had made themselves masters of
+England under the guidance of William, were grateful to the Pope for
+the assistance he had given them by prohibiting all opposition to their
+conquest on the part of the English Church. Another branch of Normans
+were still more useful in their support of the papal chair. A body of
+pilgrims to Jerusalem, amounting to only forty men, had started from
+Scandinavia in 1006, and, having landed at Salerno, were turned aside
+from completing their journey by the equally meritorious occupation of
+resisting the Saracens who were besieging the town. They defeated them
+with great slaughter, and were amply rewarded for their prowess with
+goods and gear. News of their gallantry and of their reward reached
+their friends and relations at home. In a few years they were followed
+by swarms of their countrymen, who disposed of their acquisitions in
+Upper Italy to the highest bidder, and were remunerated by grants of
+land in Naples for their exertion on behalf of Sergius the king. But
+in 1037 a fresh body of adventurers proceeded from the neighbourhood
+of Coutances in Normandy, under the command of three brothers of the
+family of Hauteville, to the assistance of the same monarch, and,
+with the usual prudence of the Norman race, when they had chased the
+enemy from the endangered territory, made no scruple of keeping it
+for themselves. Robert, called Guiscard, or the Wise, was the third
+brother, and succeeded to the newly-acquired sovereignty in 1057. In
+a short time he alarmed the Pope with the prospect of so unscrupulous
+and so powerful a neighbour. His Holiness, therefore, demanded the
+assistance of the German Emperor, and boldly took the field. The
+Normans were no whit daunted with the opposition of the Father of
+Christendom, and dashed through all obstacles till they succeeded
+in taking him prisoner. Instead of treating him with harshness, and
+exacting exorbitant ransom, as would have been the action of a less
+sagacious politician, the Norman threw himself on his knees before the
+captive pontiff, bewailed his hard case in being forced to appear so
+contumacious to his spiritual lord and master, and humbly besought
+him to pardon his transgression, and accept the suzerainty of all the
+lands he possessed and of all he should hereafter subdue. [A.D. 1059.]
+It was a delightful surprise to the Pope, who immediately ratified all
+the proceedings of his repentant son, and in a short time was rewarded
+by seeing Apulia and the great island of Sicily held in homage as
+fiefs of St. Peter's chair. From thenceforth the Italian Normans were
+the bulwarks of the papal throne. But, more powerful than the Normans
+of England, and more devoted personally to the popes than the greedy
+adventurers of Apulia, the Countess Matilda was the greatest support
+of all the pretensions of the Holy See. Young and beautiful, the
+holder of the greatest territories in Italy, this lady was the most
+zealous of all the followers of the Pope. Though twice married, she on
+both occasions separated from her husband to throw herself with more
+undivided energy into the interests of the Church. With men and money,
+and all the influence that her position as a princess and her charms as
+a woman could give, the sovereign pontiff had no enemy to fear as long
+as he retained the friendship of his enthusiastic daughter.
+
+[A.D. 1060.]
+
+Hildebrand was the ruling spirit of the papal court, and was laying his
+plans for future action, while the world was still scarcely aware of
+his existence. He began, while only Archdeacon of Rome, by a forcible
+reformation of some of the irregularities which had crept into the
+practice of the clergy, as a preparatory step to making the clergy
+dominant over all the other orders in the State. He gave orders, in the
+name of Stephen the Tenth, for every married priest to be displaced and
+to be separated from his wife. For this end he stirred up the ignorant
+fanaticism of the people, and encouraged them in outrages upon the
+offending clergy, which frequently ended in death. The virtues of the
+cloister had still a great hold on the popular veneration, in spite
+of the notorious vices of the monastic establishments, both male and
+female; and Hildebrand's invectives on the wickedness of marriage,
+and his praises of the sanctity of a single life, were listened to
+with equal admiration. The secular clergy were forced to adopt the
+unsocial and demoralizing principles of their monkish rivals; and
+when all family affections were made sinful, and the feelings of the
+pastor concentrated on the interests of his profession, the popes had
+secured, in the whole body of the Church, the unlimited obedience
+and blind support which had hitherto been the characteristic of the
+monastic orders. With the assistance of the warlike Normans, the
+wealth and influence of the Countess Matilda, the adhesion of the
+Church to his schemes of aggrandizement, he felt it time to assume in
+public the power he had exercised so long in the subordinate position
+of counsellor of the popes; and the monk seated himself on what he
+considered the highest of earthly thrones, and immediately the contest
+between the temporal and spiritual powers began. [A.D. 1073.] The King
+of France (Philip the First) and the Emperor of Germany (Henry the
+Fourth) were both of disreputable life, and offered an easy mark for
+the assaults of the fiery pontiff. He threatened and reprimanded them
+for simony and disobedience, proclaimed his authority over kings and
+princes as a fact which no man could dispute without impiety, and had
+the inward pleasure of seeing the proudest of the nobles, and finally
+the most powerful of the sovereigns, of Europe, forced to obey his
+mandates. The pent-up hatred of his race and profession was gratified
+by the abasement of birth and power.
+
+The struggle with the Empire was on the subject of investiture.
+The successors of Charlemagne had always retained a voice in the
+appointment of the bishops and Church dignitaries in their states;
+they had even frequently nominated to the See of Rome, as to the other
+bishoprics in their dominions. The present wearer of the iron crown
+had displaced three contending popes, who were disturbing the peace
+of the city by their ferocious quarrels, and had appointed others in
+their room. There was no murmur of opposition to their appointment.
+They were pious and venerable men; and of each of them the inscrutable
+Hildebrand had managed to make himself the confidential adviser,
+and in reality the guide and master. Even in his own case he waited
+patiently till he had secured the emperor's legal ratification of his
+election, and then, armed with legitimacy, and burning with smothered
+indignation, he kicked down the ladder by which he had risen, and
+wrote an insulting letter to the emperor, commanding him to abstain
+from simony, and to renounce the right of investiture by the ring and
+cross. These, he maintained, were the signs of spiritual dignity, and
+their bestowal was inherent in the Pope. The time for the message
+was admirably chosen; for Henry was engaged in a hard struggle for
+life and crown with the Saxons and Thuringians, who were in open
+revolt. Henry promised obedience to the pontiff's wish, but when his
+enemies were defeated he withdrew his concession. The Pope thundered
+a sentence of excommunication against him, released his subjects from
+their oath of fealty, and pronounced him deprived of the throne.
+The emperor was not to be left behind in the race of objurgation.
+[A.D. 1076.] He summoned his nobles and prelates to a council at Worms,
+and pronounced sentence of deprivation on the Pope. Then arose such
+a storm against the unfortunate Henry as only religious differences
+can create. His subjects had been oppressed, his nobility insulted,
+his clergy impoverished, and all classes of his people were glad of
+the opportunity of hiding their hatred of his oppressions under the
+cloak of regard for the interests of religion. He was forced to yield;
+and, crossing the Alps in the middle of winter, he presented himself
+at the castle of Canossa. Here the Pope displayed the humbleness and
+generosity of his Christian character, by leaving the wretched man
+three days and nights in the outer court, shivering with cold and
+barefoot, while His Holiness and the Countess Matilda were comfortably
+closeted within. And after this unheard-of degradation, all that could
+be wrung from the hatred of the inexorable monk was a promise that the
+suppliant should be tried with justice, and that, if he succeeded in
+proving his innocence, he should be reinstated on his throne; but if
+he were found guilty, he should be punished with the utmost rigour of
+ecclesiastical law.
+
+Common sense and good feeling were revolted by this unexampled
+insolence. Friends gathered round Henry when the terms of his sentence
+were heard. The Romans themselves, who had hitherto been blindly
+submissive, were indignant at the presumption of their bishop. None
+continued faithful except the imperturbable Countess Matilda. He was
+still to her the representative of divine goodness and superhuman
+power. But her troops were beaten and her money was exhausted in
+the holy quarrel. Robert Guiscard, indeed, came to the rescue, and
+rewarded himself for delivering the Pope by sacking the city of Rome.
+Half the houses were burned, and half the population killed or sold
+as slaves. It was from amidst the desolation his ambition had caused
+that the still-unsubdued Hildebrand was guarded by the Normans to
+the citadel of Salerno, and there he died, issuing his orders and
+curses to his latest hour, and boasting with his last breath that
+"he had loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and that therefore
+he expired in exile." [A.D. 1085.] After this man's throwing off the
+mask of moderation under which his predecessors had veiled their
+claims, the world was no longer left in doubt of the aims and objects
+of the spiritual power. There seems almost a taint of insanity in
+the extravagance of his demands. In the published collection of his
+maxims we see the full extent of the theological tyranny he had in
+view. "There is but one name in the world," we read; "and that is
+the Pope's. He only can use the ornaments of empire. All princes
+ought to kiss his feet. He alone can nominate or displace bishops and
+assemble or dissolve councils. Nobody can judge him. His mere election
+constitutes him a saint. He has never erred, and never shall err in
+time to come. He can depose princes and release subjects from their
+oaths of fidelity." Yet, in spite of the wildness of this language, the
+ignorance of the period was so great, and the relations of European
+nations so hostile, that the most daring of these assumptions found
+supporters either in the superstitious veneration of the peoples or the
+enmity and interests of the princes. The propounder of those amazing
+propositions was apparently defeated, and died disgraced and hated; but
+his successors were careful not to withdraw the most untenable of his
+claims, even while they did not bring them into exercise. They lay in
+an armory, carefully stored and guarded, to be brought out according
+to the exigencies either of the papal chair itself, or of the king
+or emperor who for the moment was in possession of the person of the
+Pope. None of the great potentates of Europe, therefore, was anxious
+to diminish a power which might be employed for his own advantage,
+and all of them by turns encouraged the aggressions of the Papacy,
+with a short-sighted wisdom, to be an instrument of offence against
+their enemies. Little encouragement, indeed, was offered at this time
+to opposition to the spiritual despot. Though Hildebrand had died a
+refugee, it was remarked with pious awe that Henry the Fourth, his
+rival and opponent, was punished in a manner which showed the highest
+displeasure of Heaven. His children, at the instigation of the Pope,
+rebelled against him. He was conquered in battle and taken prisoner by
+his youngest son. [A.D. 1106] He was stripped of all his possessions,
+and at last so destitute and forsaken that he begged for a subchanter's
+place in a village church for the sake of its wretched salary, and
+died in such extremity of want and desolation that hunger shortened
+his days. For five years his body was left without the decencies of
+interment in a cellar in the town of Spires.
+
+But an immense movement was now to take place in the European mind,
+which had the greatest influence on the authority of Rome. [A.D. 1095]
+A crusade against the enemies of the faith was proclaimed in the
+year 1095, and from all parts of Europe a great cry of approval was
+uttered in all tongues, for it hit the right chord in the ferocious and
+superstitious heart of the world; and it was felt that the great battle
+of the Cross and the Crescent was most fitly to be decided forever on
+the soil of the Holy Land.
+
+From the very beginning of this century the thought of armed
+intervention in the affairs of Palestine had been present in the
+general mind. Religious difference had long been ready to take the form
+of open war. As the Church strengthened and settled into more dogmatic
+unity, the desire to convert by force and retain within the fold by
+penalty and proscription had increased. As yet some reluctance was
+felt to put a professing Christian to death on merely a difference
+of doctrine, but with the open gainsayers of the faith no parley
+could be held. Thousands, in addition to their religious animosities,
+had personal injuries to avenge; for pilgrimage to Jerusalem was
+already in full favour, and the weary wayfarers had to complain of the
+hostility of the turbaned possessors of the Holy Sepulchre, and the
+indignities and peril to which they were exposed the moment they came
+within the infidel's domain. Why should the unbelievers be allowed any
+longer to retain the custody of such inherently Christian territories
+as the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane? Why should
+the unbaptized followers of Mohammed, those children of perdition,
+pollute with hostile feet the sacred ground which had been the
+witness of so many miracles and still furnished so many relics which
+manifested superhuman power? Besides, what was the wealth of other
+cities--their gold and precious jewels--to the store of incalculable
+riches contained in the very stones and woodwork of the metropolis and
+cradle of the faith? Bones of martyrs--garments of saints--nails of the
+cross--thorns of the crown--were all lying ready to be gathered up by
+the faithful priesthood who would lead the expedition. And who could
+be held responsible, in this world or the next, for any sins, however
+grievous, who had washed them out by purifying the floors of Zion with
+the blood of slaughtered Saracens and saying prayers and kneeling
+in contemplation within sight of the Sepulchre itself? So Peter the
+Hermit, an enthusiast who preached a holy war, was listened to as if
+he spake with the tongues of angels. The ravings of his lunacy had a
+prodigious effect on all classes and in all lands; and suddenly there
+was gathered together a confused rabble of pilgrims, armed in every
+variety of fashion--princes and beggars, robbers and adventurers--the
+scum of great cities and the simple-hearted peasantry from distant
+farms--upwards of three hundred thousand in number, all pouring down
+towards the seaports and anxious to cross over to the land where so
+many high hopes were placed. Vast numbers of this multitude found their
+way from France through Italy; and luckily for Urban the Second--the
+fifth in succession from Gregory--they took the opportunity of paying
+a visit to the city of Rome, scarcely less venerable in their eyes
+than Jerusalem itself. They were the soldiers of the Cross, and in
+that character felt bound to pay a more immediate submission to the
+Chief of Christianity than to their native kings. They found the city
+divided between two rivals for the tiara, and, having decided in favour
+of Urban, chased away the anti-pope who was appointed by the Imperial
+choice. Terrified at the accession of such powerful supporters, the
+Germans were withdrawn from Italy, and Urban felt that the claims
+of Hildebrand were not incapable of realization if he could get
+quit of unruly barons and obstinate monarchs by engaging them in a
+distant and ruinous expedition. It needed little to spread the flame
+of fanaticism over the whole of Christendom. The accounts given of
+this first Crusade transcend the wildest imaginings of romance. An
+indiscriminate multitude of all nations and tongues seemed impelled
+by some irresistible impulse towards the East. Ostensibly engaged in
+a religious service, enriched with promises and absolutions from the
+Pope, giving up all their earthly possessions, and filled with the one
+idea of liberating the Holy Land, it might have been expected that the
+sobriety and order of their march would have been characteristic of
+such elevating aspirations. But the infamy of their behaviour, their
+debauchery, irregularity, and dishonesty, have never been equalled
+by the basest and most degraded of mankind. Like a flood they poured
+through the lands of Italy, Bohemia, and Germany, polluting the cities
+with their riotous lives, and poisoning the air with the festering
+corruption of their innumerable dead. They at last found shipping from
+the ports, and presented themselves, drunk with fanatical pride, and
+maddened with the sufferings they had undergone, before the astonished
+people of Constantinople. That enervated and over-civilized population
+looked with disgust on the unruly mass. Of the vast multitudes who had
+started under the guidance of Peter the Hermit, not more than 20,000
+survived; and of these none found their way to the object of their
+search. The Turks, who had by this time obtained the mastery of Asia,
+cut them in pieces when they had left the shelter of Constantinople,
+and Alexis Comnenus, the Grecian emperor, had little hope of aid
+against the Mohammedan invaders from the unruly levies of Europe.
+
+But in the following year a new detachment made their appearance in
+his states. This was the second ban, or crusade of the knights and
+barons. Better regulated in its military organization than the other,
+it presented the same astonishing scenes of debauchery and vice; and
+dividing, for the sake of sustenance, into four armies, and taking four
+different routes, they at length, in greatly-diminished numbers, but
+with unabated hope and energy, presented themselves before the walls
+of Constantinople. This was no mob like their famished and fainting
+predecessors. All the gallant lords of Europe were here, inspired by
+knightly courage and national rivalries to distinguish themselves in
+fight and council. Of these the best-known were Godfrey of Bouillon,
+Baldwyn of Flanders, Robert of Normandy, (William the Conqueror's
+eldest son,) Hugh the Great, Count of Vermandois, and Raymond of St.
+Gilles. Six hundred thousand men had left their homes, with innumerable
+attendants--women, and jugglers, and servants, and workmen of all
+kinds. Tens of thousands perished by the way; others established
+themselves in the cities on their route to keep up the communication;
+and at last the Genoese and Pisan vessels conveyed to the Golden Horn
+the strength of all Europe, the hardy survivors of all the perils of
+that unexampled march--few indeed in number, but burning with zeal and
+bravery. Alexis lost no time in diverting their dangerous strength from
+his own realms. He let them loose upon Nicea, and when it yielded to
+their valour he had the cleverness to outwit the Christian warriors,
+and claimed the city as his possession. On pursuing their course, they
+found themselves, after a victory over the Turks at Dorylæum, in the
+great Plain of Phrygia. Hunger, thirst, the extremity of heat, and
+the difficulty of the march, brought confusion and dismay into their
+ranks. All the horses died. Knights and chevaliers were seen mounted
+on asses, and even upon oxen; and the baggage was packed upon goats,
+and not unfrequently on swine and dogs. Thirst was fatal to five
+hundred in a single day. Quarrels between the nationalities added to
+these calamities. Lorrains and Italians, the men of Normandy and of
+Provence, were at open feud. And yet, in spite of these drawbacks, the
+great procession advanced. Baldwyn and Tancred succeeded in getting
+possession of the town of Edessa, on the Euphrates, and opened a
+communication with the Christians of Armenia. [A.D. 1098.] The siege
+of Antioch was their next operation, and the luxuries of the soil and
+climate were more fatal to the Crusaders than want and pain had been.
+On the rich banks of the Orontes, and in the groves of Daphne, they
+lost the remains of discipline and self-command and gave themselves
+up to the wildest excesses. But with the winter their enjoyment came
+to an end. Their camp was flooded; they suffered the extremities of
+famine; and when there were no more horses and impure animals to eat,
+they satiated their hunger on the bodies of their slaughtered enemies.
+Help, however, was at hand, or they must have perished to the last man.
+Bohemund corrupted the fidelity of a renegade officer in Antioch, and,
+availing themselves of a dark and stormy night, they scaled the walls
+with ladders, and rushed into the devoted city, shouting the Crusaders'
+war-cry:--"It is the will of God!" and Antioch became a Christian
+princedom. But not without difficulty was this new possession retained.
+The Turks, under the orders of Kerboga, surrounded it with two hundred
+thousand men. There was neither entrance nor exit possible, and the
+worst of their previous sufferings began to be renewed. But Heaven
+came to the rescue. A monk of the name of Peter Bartholomew dreamt
+that under the great altar of the church would be found the spear
+which pierced the Saviour on the cross. The precious weapon rewarded
+their toil in digging, and armed with this the Christian charge was
+irresistible, and the Turks were cut in pieces or dispersed. Instead
+of making straight for Jerusalem, they lingered six months longer in
+Antioch, suffering from plague and the fatigues they had undergone.
+When at last the forward order was given, a remnant, consisting of
+fifty thousand men out of all the original force, began the march. As
+they got nearer the object of their search, and recognised the places
+commemorated in Holy Writ, their enthusiasm knew no bounds. The last
+elevation was at length surmounted, and Jerusalem lay in full view.
+"O blessed Jesus," cries a monk who was present, "when thy Holy City
+was seen, what tears fell from our eyes!" Loud shouts were raised of
+"Jerusalem! Jerusalem! God wills it! God wills it!" They stretched
+out their hands, fell upon their knees, and embraced the consecrated
+ground. But Jerusalem was yet in the hands of the Saracens, and the
+sword must open their way into its sacred bounds. The governor had
+offered to admit the pilgrims within the walls, but in their peaceful
+dress and merely as visitors. This they refused, and determined to
+wrest it from its unbelieving lords. On the 15th of July, 1099, they
+found that their situation was no longer tenable, and that they must
+conquer or give up the siege. The brook Kedron was dried up, the
+sun poured upon them with unendurable heat, their provisions were
+exhausted, and in agonies of despair as well as of military ardour
+they gave the final assault. The struggle was long and doubtful. At
+length the Crusaders triumphed. Tancred and Godfrey were the first to
+leap into the devoted town. Their soldiers followed, and filled every
+street with slaughter. The Mosque of Omar was vigorously defended, and
+an indiscriminate massacre of Mussulmans and Jews filled the whole
+place with blood. In the mosque itself the stream of gore was up to
+the saddle-girths of a horse. The onslaught was occasionally suspended
+for a while, to allow the pious conquerors to go barefoot and unarmed
+to kneel at the Holy Sepulchre; and, this act of worship done, they
+returned to their ruthless occupation, and continued the work of
+extermination for a whole week. The depopulated and reeking town was
+added to the domains of Christendom, and the kingdom of Jerusalem was
+offered to Godfrey of Bouillon. With a modesty befitting the most
+Christian and noble-hearted of the Crusaders, Godfrey contented himself
+with the humbler name of Baron of the Holy Sepulchre; and with three
+hundred knights--which were all that remained to him when that crowning
+victory had set the other survivors at liberty to revisit their native
+lands--he established a standing garrison in the captured city, and
+anxiously awaited reinforcements from the warlike spirits they had left
+at home.
+
+
+
+
+                           TWELFTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        HENRY IV.--(_cont._)
+
+  1106. HENRY V.
+
+  _House of Suabia._
+
+  1138. CONRAD III.
+
+  1152. FREDERICK BARBAROSSA.
+
+  1190. HENRY VI.
+
+  1198. PHILIP and OTHO IV., (of Brunswick.)
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1100. HENRY I.
+
+  1135. STEPHEN.
+
+  1154. HENRY II.
+
+  1189. RICHARD I.
+
+  1199. JOHN.
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ALEXIS I.--(_cont._)
+
+  1118. JOHN.
+
+  1143. MANUEL.
+
+  1183. ANDRONICUS I.
+
+  1185. ISAAC II., (the Angel.)
+
+  1195. ALEXIS III.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+         PHILIP I.--(_cont._)
+
+  1108. LOUIS VI.
+
+  1137. LOUIS VII.
+
+  1180. PHILIP AUGUSTUS.
+
+
+King of Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1165. WILLIAM.
+
+
+  1147. SECOND CRUSADE, led by Louis VII. of France.
+
+  1189. THIRD CRUSADE, led by Frederick Barbarossa, Philip Augustus, and
+          Richard of England.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+BERNARD, (1091-1153,) BECKET, (1119-1170,) EUSTATHIUS, THEODORUS,
+BALSAMON, PETER LOMBARD, WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY, (1096-1143.)
+
+
+
+
+                          THE TWELFTH CENTURY
+
+  ELEVATION OF LEARNING--POWER OF THE CHURCH--THOMAS À-BECKETT.
+
+
+The effect of the first Crusade had been so prodigious that Europe
+was forced to pause to recover from its exhaustion. More than half a
+million had left their homes in 1095; ten thousand are supposed to have
+returned; three hundred were left with Godfrey in the Christian city
+of Jerusalem; and what had become of all the rest? Their bones were
+whitening all the roads that led to the Holy Land; small parties of
+them must have settled in despair or weariness in towns and villages on
+their way; many were sold into slavery by the rapacity of the feudal
+lords whose lands they traversed; and when the madness of the time
+had originated a Crusade of Children, and ninety thousand boys of ten
+or twelve years of age had commenced their journey, singing hymns and
+anthems, and hoping to conquer the infidels with the spiritual arms of
+innocence and prayer, the whole band melted away before they reached
+the coast. Barons, and counts, and bishops, and dukes, all swooped down
+upon the devoted march, and before many weeks' journeying was achieved
+the Crusade was brought to a close. Most of the children had died of
+fatigue or starvation, and the survivors had been seized as legitimate
+prey and sold as slaves.
+
+Meantime the brave and heroic Godfrey--the true hero of the expedition,
+for he elevated the ordinary virtues of knighthood and feudalism into
+the nobler feelings of generosity and romance--gained the object of
+his earthly ambition. Having prayed at the sepulchre, and cleansed
+the temple from the pollution of the unbelievers' presence, wearied
+with all his labours, and feeling that his task was done, he sank
+into deep despondency and died. [A.D. 1100.] Volunteers in small
+numbers had occasionally gone eastward to support the Cross Ambition,
+thoughtlessness, guilt, and fanaticism sent their representatives
+to aid the conqueror of Judea; and his successors found themselves
+strong enough to bid defiance to the Turkish power. They carried all
+their Western ideas along with them. They had their feudal holdings
+and knightly quarrels. The most venerated names in Holy Writ were
+desecrated by unseemly disputes or the most frivolous associations. The
+combination, indeed, of their native habits and their new acquisitions
+might have moved them to laughter, if the men of the twelfth century
+had been awake to the ridiculous. There was a Prince of Galilee,
+a Marquis of Joppa, a Baron of Sidon, a Marquis of Tyre. Our own
+generation has renewed the strange juxtaposition of the East and West
+by the language employed in steamboats and railways. Trains will soon
+cross the Desert with warning whistles and loud jets of steam and
+all the phraseology of an English line. For many years the waters of
+the mysterious Red Sea have been dashed into foam by paddles made in
+Liverpool or Glasgow. But these are visitors of a very different kind
+from Bohemund and Baldwyn. Baldwyn, indeed, seemed less inclined than
+his companions to carry his European training to its full extent. He
+Orientalized himself in a small way, perhaps in imitation of Alexander
+the Great, and, dressed in the long flowing robes of the country,
+he made his attendants serve him with prostrations, and almost with
+worship. He married a daughter of the land, and in other respects
+endeavoured to ingratiate himself with the Saracens by treating them
+with kindness and consideration. The bravery of those warriors of
+the Desert endeared them to the rough-handed barons of the West. It
+was impossible to believe that men with that one pre-eminent virtue
+could be so utterly hateful as they had been represented; and when
+the intercourse between the races became more unrestrained, even the
+religious asperities of the Crusaders became mitigated, they found
+so many points of resemblance between their faiths. There was not an
+honour which the Christian paid to the Virgin which was not yielded
+by the Mohammedan to Fatima. All the doctrines of the Christian creed
+found their counterparts in the professions of the followers of the
+Law. Allah was an incarnation of the Deity; and even the mystery of
+the Trinity was not indistinctly seen in the legend of the three rays
+which darted from the idea of Mohammed in the mind of the Creator.
+While this community of sentiment softened the animosity of the
+crusading leaders towards their enemies, a still greater community of
+suffering and danger softened their feelings towards their followers
+and retainers. In that scarcity of knights and barons, the value of a
+serf's arm or a mechanic's skill was gratefully acknowledged. There had
+been many mutual kindnesses between the two classes all through those
+tedious and blood-stained journeys and desperate fights. A peasant had
+brought water to a wounded lord when he lay fainting on the burning
+soil; a workman had had the revelation of the true crown: they were
+no longer the property and slaves of the noble, who considered them
+beings of a different blood, but fellow-soldiers, fellow-sufferers,
+fellow-Christians. They were not spoken of in the insulting language
+of the West, and called "our thralls," "our slaves," "our bondsmen;"
+at the worst they were called "our poor," and lifted by that word into
+the quality of brothers and men. The precepts of the gospel in favour
+of the humble and suffering were felt for the first time to have an
+application to the men who had toiled on their lands and laboured in
+their workshops, but who were now their support in the shock of battle,
+and companions when the victory was won. Only they were poor; they had
+no lands; they had no arms upon their shields. So Baldwyn gave them
+large tracts of country; and they became vassals and feudatories for
+fertile fields near Jericho and rich farms on the Jordan. They were
+gentlemen by the strength of their own right hands, as the fathers of
+their lords and suzerains had been.
+
+But the amalgamation of race and condition was not carried on in the
+East more surely or more extensively than in the West. The expenses
+of preparing for the pilgrimage had impoverished the richest of the
+lords of the soil. They had been forced to borrow money and to mortgage
+their estates to the burghers of the great commercial towns, which,
+quietly and unobserved, had spread themselves in many parts of France
+and Italy. Genoa had already attained such a height of prosperity that
+she could furnish vessels for the conveyance of half the army of the
+Crusade. In return for her cargoes of knights and fighting-men, she
+brought back the wealth of the East,--silks, and precious stones, and
+spices, and vessels of gold and silver. The necessities of the time
+made the money-holder powerful, and the men who swung the hammer, and
+shaped the sword, and embroidered the banner, and wove the tapestry,
+indispensable. And what hold, except kindness, and privilege, and
+grants of land, had the baron on the skilful smith or the ingenious
+weaver who could carry his skill and energy wherever he chose? Besides,
+the multitudes who had been carried away from the pursuits of industry
+to fall at the siege of Antioch or perish by thirst in the Desert had
+given a greatly-increased value to their fellow-labourers left at
+home. While the castle became deserted, and all the pomp of feudalism
+retreated from its crumbling walls, the village which had grown in
+safety under its protection flourished as much as ever--flourished,
+indeed, so much that it rapidly became a town, and boasted of rich
+citizens who could help to pay off their suzerain's encumbrances
+and present him with an offering on his return. The impoverished
+and grateful noble could do no less, in gratitude for gift and
+contribution, than secure them in the enjoyment of greater franchises
+and privileges than they had possessed before. The Church also gained
+by the diminished number and power of the lords, who had seized upon
+tithe and offering and had looked with disdain and hostility on the
+aggressions of the lower clergy. True to its origin, the Church still
+continued the leader of the people, in opposition to the pretensions
+of the feudal chiefs. It was still a democratic organization for the
+protection of the weak against the powerful; and though we have seen
+that the bishops and other dignitaries frequently assumed the state and
+practised the cruelties of the grasping and illiterate baron, public
+opinion, especially in the North of Europe, was not revolted against
+these instances of priestly domination, for whatever was gained by the
+crozier was lost to the sword. It was even a consolation to the injured
+serf to see the truculent landlord who had oppressed him oppressed in
+his turn by a still more truculent bishop, especially when that bishop
+had sprung from the dregs of the people, and--crown and consummation
+of all--when the Pope, God's vicegerent upon earth, who dethroned
+emperors and made kings hold his stirrup as he mounted his mule, was
+descended from no more distinguished a family than himself. It was
+the effort of the Church, therefore, in all this century, to lower
+the noble and to elevate the poor. To gain popularity, all arts were
+resorted to. The clergy were the showmen and play-actors of the time.
+The only amusement the labourer could aim at was found for him, in rich
+processions and gorgeous ceremony, by the priest. How could any fault
+of the abbot or prelate turn away the affection of the peasant from the
+Church, which was in a peculiar manner his own establishment? Never
+had the drunkenness, the debauchery and personal indulgences of the
+upper ecclesiastics reached such a pitch before. The gluttony of friars
+and monks became proverbial. The community of certain monasteries
+complained of the austerity of their abbots in reducing their ordinary
+dinners from sixteen dishes to thirteen. The great St. Bernard
+describes many of the rulers of the Church as keeping sixty horses in
+their stables, and having so many wines upon their board that it was
+impossible to taste one-half of them. Yet nothing shook the attachment
+of the uneducated commons. Their priest got up dances and concerts
+and miracles for their edification, and had a right to enjoy all the
+luxuries of life. Once freed, therefore, from the watchful enmity
+of lord and king, the Church was well aware that its power would be
+irresistible. The people were devoted to it as their earthly defender
+against their earthly oppressors, the caterer of all their amusements,
+and as their guide in the path to heaven. Gratitude and credulity,
+therefore, were equally engaged in its behalf. And new influences came
+to its support. Romance and wonder gathered round the champions of the
+Faith fighting in the distant regions of the East. Every thing became
+magnified when seen through the medium of ignorance and fanaticism. The
+tales, therefore, strange enough in themselves, which were related by
+pilgrims returning from the Holy Land, and amplified a hundredfold by
+the natural exaggeration of the vulgar, raised higher than ever the
+glory of the Church. The fastings and self-inflicted scourgings of
+holy men, it was believed, effected more than the courage of Godfrey
+or Bohemund; and even of Godfrey it was said that his ascetic life and
+painful penances caused more losses to the enemy than his matchless
+strength and military skill.
+
+It would be delightful if we could place ourselves in the position
+of the breathless crowds at that time listening for the news from
+Palestine. No telegraphic despatch from the Crimea or Hindostan was
+ever waited for with such impatience or received with such emotion. The
+baron summoned the palmer into his hall, and heard the strange history
+of the march to Jerusalem, and the crowning of a Christian king, and
+the creation of a feudal court, with a pang, perhaps, of regret that
+he had not joined the pilgrimage, which might have made him Duke of
+Bethlehem or monarch of Tiberias. But the peasants in their workshops,
+or the whole village assembled in the long aisles of their church, lent
+far more attentive ears to the wayfaring monk who had escaped from
+the prison of the Saracen, and told them of the marvels accomplished
+by the bones of martyrs and apostles which had been revealed to holy
+pilgrims in their dream on the Mount of Olives. Footprints on the
+heights of Calvary, and portions of the manger in Bethlehem, were
+described in awe-struck voice; and when it was announced that in the
+belt of the narrator, enwrapped in a silken scarf,--itself a fabric
+of incalculable worth,--was a hair of an apostle's head, (which their
+lord had purchased for a large sum,) to be deposited upon their altar,
+they must have thought the sacrifices and losses of the Crusade
+amply repaid. And no amount of these sacred articles seemed in the
+least to diminish their importance. The demand was always greatly in
+advance of the supply, however vast it might be. And as the mines of
+California and Australia have hitherto deceived the prophets of evil,
+by having no perceptible effect on the price of the precious metals,
+the incalculable importation of saints' teeth, and holy personages'
+clothes, and fragments of the true Cross, and prickles of the real
+Crown of Thorns, had no depressing effect on the market-value of
+similar commodities with which all Christian Europe was inundated.
+Faith seemed to expand in proportion as relics became plentiful, as
+credit expands on the security of a supply of gold. And as many of
+those articles were actually of as clearly-recognised a pecuniary value
+as houses or lands, and represented in any market or banking-house a
+definite and very considerable sum, it is not too much to say that the
+capital of the West was greatly increased by these acquisitions from
+the East. The cup of onyx, carved in one stone, which was believed
+to have been that in which the wine of the Last Supper was held when
+our Saviour instituted the Communion, was pledged by its owner for an
+enormous sum, and--what is perhaps more strange--was redeemed when the
+term of the loan expired by the repayment of principal and interest.
+The intercourse, therefore, between power and money showed that each
+was indispensable to the other. The baron relaxed his severity, and the
+citizen opened his purse-strings; the Church inculcated the equality
+of all men in presence of the altar; and when the kings perceived what
+merchandise might be made of privileges and exemptions accorded to
+their subjects, and how at one great blow the townsman's squeezable
+riches would be increased and the baron's local influence diminished,
+there was a struggle between all the crowned heads as to which should
+be most favourable to the commons. It was in this century, owing to
+the Crusades, which made the commonalty indispensable and the nobility
+weak, which strengthened the Crown and the Church and made it their
+joint interest to restrain the exactions of the feudal proprietors,
+that the liberties of Europe took their rise in the establishment
+of the third estate. In the county of Flanders, the great towns had
+already made themselves so wealthy and independent that it scarcely
+needed a legal ratification of their franchise to make them free
+cities. But in Italy a step further had been made, and the great word
+Republic, which had been silent for so many years, had again been
+heard, and had taken possession of the general mind. In spite of the
+opposition and the military successes of Roger, the Norman king of
+Sicily, the spirit which animated those great trading communities was
+never subdued. In Venice itself--the greatest and most illustrious of
+those republics, the first founded and last overthrown--the original
+municipal form of government had never been abolished. At all times its
+liberties had been preserved and its laws administered by officers of
+its own choice, and from it proceeded at this time a feeling of social
+equality and an example of commercial prosperity which had a strong
+effect on the nascent freedom of the lower and industrious classes over
+all the world. Genoa was not inferior either in liberty or enterprise
+to any of its rivals. Its fleets traversed the Mediterranean, and,
+being equally ready to fight or to trade, brought wealth and glory
+home from the coasts of Greece and Asia. It is to be observed that the
+first reappearance of self-government was presented in the towns upon
+the coast, whose situation enabled them to compensate for smallness
+of territory by the command of the sea. The shores of Italy and the
+south of France, and the indented sea-line of Flanders, followed in
+this respect the example set in former ages by Greece, and Tyre, and
+Pentapolis, and Carthage. There can be no doubt that the sight of these
+powerful communities, governed by their consuls and legislated for by
+their parliamentary assemblies, must have put new thoughts into the
+heads of the serfs and labourers returning, in vessels furnished by
+citizens like themselves, from the conquest of Cyprus and Jerusalem,
+where the whole harvest of wealth and glory had been reaped by their
+lords. Encouraged by these examples, and by the protection of the King
+of France and Emperor of Germany, the towns in Central and Western
+Europe exerted themselves to emulate the republican cities of the
+South. The nearest approach they could hope to the independence they
+had seen in Pisa or Venice was the possession of the right of electing
+their own magistrates and making their own laws. These privileges, we
+have seen, were insured to them by the helplessness and impoverishment
+of the feudal aristocracy and the countenance of the Church.
+
+But the Church towards the middle of this century found that the
+countenance she had given to liberty in other places was used as an
+argument against herself in the central seat of her power. Rome, the
+city of consuls and tribunes, was carried away by the great idea; and
+under the guidance of Arnold of Brescia, a monk who believed himself
+a Brutus, the standard was again hoisted on the Capitol, displaying
+the magic letters S. P. Q. R., (Senatus Populus que Romanus.) The Pope
+was expelled by the population, the freedom of the city proclaimed,
+the separation of the spiritual and temporal powers pronounced by the
+unanimous voice, the government of priests abolished, and measures
+taken to maintain the authority the citizens had assumed. The banished
+Pope had died while these things were going on, and his successor
+was hunted down the steps of the Capitol, and the revolution was
+accomplished. "Throughout the peninsula," says a German historian,
+"except in the kingdom of Naples, from Rome to the smallest city,
+the republican form prevailed." Every thing had concurred to this
+result,--the force of arms, the rise of commerce, and the glorious
+remembrance of the past. St. Bernard himself acquiesced in the position
+now occupied by the Pope, and he wrote to his scholar Eugenius the
+Third, to "leave the Romans alone, and to exchange the city against
+the world," ("urbem pro orbe mutatam.") But the effervescence of the
+popular will was soon at an end. The fear of republicanism made common
+cause between the Pope and Emperor. Frederick Barbarossa revenged the
+indignities cast on the chair of St. Peter by burning the rebellious
+Arnold and re-establishing the ancient form of government by force. Yet
+the spirit of equality which was thus repressed by violence fermented
+in secret; nor was equality all that was aimed at amid some of the
+swarming seats of population and commerce. We find indeed, from this
+time, that in a great number of instances the original relations
+between the town and baron were reversed: the noble put himself under
+the protection of the municipality, and received its guarantee against
+the assaults or injuries of the prouder and less politic members of his
+class. It was a strange thing to see a feudal lord receive his orders
+from the municipal officers of a country town, and still stranger to
+perceive the low opinion which the courageous and high-fed burghers
+entertained of the pomp and circumstance of the mailed knights of
+whom they had been accustomed to stand in awe. Their ramparts were
+strong, their granaries well filled, their companions stoutly armed;
+and they used to lean over the wall, when a hostile champion summoned
+them to submit to the exactions of a great proprietor, and watch
+the clumsy charger staggering under his heavy armour, with shouts of
+derision. Men who had thus thrown off their hereditary veneration
+for the lords of the soil, and contentedly saw the deposition of
+the Roman Pope by a Roman Senate and People, were not likely to pay
+a blind submission to the spiritual dictation of their priests. In
+the towns, accordingly, a spirit of free inquiry into the mysteries
+of the faith began; and, while country districts still heard with
+awe the impossible wonders of the monkish legends, there were rash
+and daring scholars in several countries, who threw doubt upon the
+plainest statements of Revelation. Of these the best-known is the
+still famous Abelard, whose exertions as a religious inquirer have
+been thrown into the shade by his more interesting character of the
+hero of a love-story. The letters of Eloisa, and the unfortunate issue
+of their affection, have kept their names from the oblivion which has
+fallen upon their metaphysical triumphs. And yet during their lives
+the glory of Abelard did not depend on the passionate eloquence of
+his pupil, but arose from the unequalled sharpness of his intellect
+and his skill in argumentation. Of noble family, the handsomest man
+of his time, wonderfully gifted with talent and accomplishment, he
+was the first instance of a man professing the science of theology
+without being a priest. Wherever he went, thousands of enthusiastic
+scholars surrounded his chair. His eloquence was so fascinating that
+the listener found himself irresistibly carried away by the stream;
+and if an opponent was hardy enough to stand up against him, the
+acuteness of his logic was as infallible as the torrent of his oratory
+had been, and in every combat he carried away the prize. He doubted
+about original sin, and by implication about the atonement, and many
+other articles of the Christian belief. The power and constitution
+of the Church were endangered by the same weapons which assailed the
+groundworks of the faith; and yet in all Europe no sufficient champion
+for truth and orthodoxy could be found. Abelard was triumphant over
+all his gainsayers, till at length Bernard of Clairvaux, who even in
+his lifetime was looked on with the veneration due to a saint, who
+refused an archbishopric, and the popedom itself, took up the gauntlet
+thrown down by the lover of Eloisa, and reduced him to silence by the
+superiority of his reasonings and the threats of a general council. It
+is sufficient to remark the appearance of Abelard in this century, as
+the commencement of a reaction against the dogmatic authority of the
+Church. It was henceforth possible to reason and to inquire; and there
+can be no doubt that Protestantism even in this modified and isolated
+form had a beneficial effect on the establishment it assailed. A new
+armory was required to meet the assaults of dialectic and scholarship.
+Dialecticians and scholars were therefore, henceforth, as much valued
+in the Church as self-flagellating friars and miracle-performing
+saints. The faith was now guarded by a noble array of highly-polished
+intellects, and the very dogma of the total abnegation of the
+understanding at the bidding of the priest was supported by a show
+of reasoning which few other questions had called forth. With the
+enlargement of the clerical sphere of knowledge, refinement in taste
+and sentiment took place. And at this time, as philosophic discussion
+took its rise with Abelard, the ennobling and idealization of woman
+took its birth contemporaneously with the sufferings of Eloisa. Up
+to this period the Church had avowedly looked with disdain on woman,
+as inheriting in a peculiar degree the curse of our first parents,
+because she had been the first to break the law Knightly gallantry,
+indeed, had thought proper to elevate the feminine ideal and clothe
+with imaginary virtues the heroines of its fictitious idolatry. It made
+her the aim and arbiter of all its achievements. The principal seat
+in hall and festival was reserved for the softer sex, which hitherto
+had been considered scarcely worthy of reverence or companionship.
+Perhaps this courtesy to the ladies on the part of knights and nobles
+began in an opposition to the wife-secluding habits of the Orientals
+against whom they fought, as at an earlier date the worship of images
+was certainly maintained by Rome as a protest against the unadorned
+worship of the Saracens. Perhaps it arose from the gradual expansion
+of wealth and the security of life and property, which left time and
+opportunity for the cultivation of the female character. Ladies were
+constituted chiefs of societies of nuns, and were obeyed with implicit
+submission. Large communities of young maidens were presided over by
+widows who were still in the bloom of youth; and so holy and pure
+were these sisterhoods considered, that brotherhoods and monks were
+allowed to occupy the same house, and the sexes were only separated
+from each other, even at night, by an aged abbot sleeping on the
+floor between them. Though this experiment failed, the fact of its
+being tried proved the confidence inspired by the spotlessness of the
+female character. Other things conspired to give a greater dignity to
+what had been called the inferior sex. The death of whole families in
+the Crusade had left the daughters heiresses of immense possessions.
+In every country but France the Crown itself was open to female
+succession, and it was henceforth impossible to affect a superiority
+over a person merely because she was corporeally weak and beautiful,
+who was lady of strong castles and could summon a thousand retainers
+beneath the banners of her house. The very elevation of the women
+with whom they were surrounded--the peeresses, and princesses, and
+even the ladies of lower rank, to whom the voice of the troubadours
+attributed all the virtues under heaven--necessitated in the mind of
+the clergy a corresponding elevation in the character of the queen and
+representative of the female sex, whom they had already worshipped as
+personally without sin and endowed with superhuman power. At this time
+the immaculate conception of the Holy Virgin was first broached as an
+article of belief,--a doctrine which, after being dormant at intervals
+and occasionally blossoming into declaration, has finally received
+its full ratification by the authority of the present Pope,--Pius the
+Ninth. In the twelfth century it was acknowledged and propagated as a
+fresh increase to the glory of the mother of God; but it is now fixed
+forever as indispensable to the salvation of every Christian.
+
+Such, then, are the great features by which to mark this century,--the
+combination of rank with rank caused by the mutual danger of lord and
+serf in the Crusade, the rise of freedom by the commercial activity
+imparted by the same cause to the towns, the elevation of the idea
+of woman, without which no true civilization can take place. These
+are the leading and general characteristics: add to them what we
+have slightly alluded to,--the first specimens of the joyous lays
+and love-sonnets of the young knights returning from Palestine and
+pouring forth their admiration of birth and beauty in the soft
+language of Italy or Languedoc,--the intercourse between distant
+nations, which was indispensable in the combined expeditions against
+the common foe, so that the rough German cavalier gathered lessons
+in manner or accomplishment from the more polished princes of Anjou
+or Aquitaine,--and it will be seen that this was the century of
+awakening mind and softening influences. There were scholars like
+Abelard, introducing the hitherto unknown treasures of the Greek and
+Hebrew tongues, and yet presenting the finest specimens of gay and
+accomplished gentlemen, unmatched in sweetness of voice and mastery
+of the harp; and there were at the other side of the picture saints
+like Bernard of Clairvaux, not relying any longer on visions and the
+traditionary marvels of the past, but displaying the power of an
+acute diplomatist and wide-minded politician in the midst of the most
+extraordinary self-denial and the exercises of a rigorous asceticism,
+which in former ages had been limited to the fanatical and insane. To
+this man's influence was owing the Second Crusade, which occurred in
+1147. [A.D. 1147.] Different from the first, which had been the result
+of popular enthusiasm and dependent for its success on undisciplined
+numbers and religious fury, this was a great European and Christian
+movement, concerted between the sovereigns and ratified by the peoples.
+Kings took the command, and whole nations bestowed their wealth and
+influence on the holy cause. Louis the Seventh of France led all the
+paladins of his land; and Conrad, the German Emperor, collected all
+the forces of the West to give the finishing-blow to the power of the
+Mohammedans and restore the struggling kingdom of Jerusalem. Seventy
+thousand horsemen and two hundred and fifty thousand foot-soldiers were
+the smallest part of the array. Whole districts were depopulated by the
+multitudes of artificers, shopmen, women, children, buffoons, mimics,
+priests, and conjurers who accompanied the march. It looked like one
+of the great movements which convulsed the Roman Empire when Goths
+or Burgundians poured into the land. But the results were nearly the
+same as in the days of Godfrey and Bohemund. Valour and discipline,
+national emulation and knightly skill, were of no avail against climate
+and disease. Again the West astonished the Turks with the impetuosity
+of its courage and the display of its hosts, but lay weakened and
+exhausted when the convulsive effort was past. A million perished in
+the useless struggle. Forty years scarcely sufficed to restore the
+nobility to sufficient power to undertake another suicidal attempt.
+[A.D. 1191.] But in 1191 the Third Crusade departed under the conduct
+of Richard of England, and earned the same glory and unsuccess. The
+century was weakened by those wretched but not fruitless expeditions,
+which, in round numbers, cost two millions of lives, and produced such
+memorable effects on the general state of Europe; yet it will be better
+remembered by us if we direct our attention to some of the incidents
+which have a more direct bearing on our own country. Of these the most
+remarkable is the commencement of the long-continued enmity between
+France and England, of the wars which lasted so many years, which made
+our most eminent politicians at one time believe that the countries
+were natural enemies, incapable of permanent union or even of mutual
+respect; and these took their rise, as most great wars have done,
+from the paltriest causes, and were continued on the most unfounded
+pretences.
+
+Henry the First was the son of William the Conqueror. On the death
+of his brother William Rufus he seized the English crown, though the
+eldest of the family, Robert, was still alive. Robert was fond of
+fighting without the responsibility of command, and delighted to be
+religious without the troubles of a religious life. He therefore joined
+the First Crusade to gratify this double desire, and mortgaged his
+dukedom of Normandy to Henry to supply him with horses and arms and
+enable him to support his dignity as a Christian prince at Jerusalem.
+His dukedom he never could recover, for his extravagances prevented
+him from repayment of the loan. He tried to reconquer it by force,
+but was defeated at the battle of Tinchebray, and was guarded by the
+zealous affection of his brother all the rest of his life in the Tower
+of London. He left a son, who was used as an instrument of assault
+against Henry by the Suzerain of Normandy, Louis the Sixth, King of
+France. Orders were issued to the usurping feudatory to resign his
+possessions into the hands of the rightful heir; but, however obedient
+the Duke of Normandy might profess to be to his liege lord the King of
+France, the King of England held a very different language, and took
+a different estimate of his position. [A.D. 1153.] And in the time of
+the second Henry a change took place in their respective situations
+which seemed to justify the assumptions of the English king. That
+grandson of Henry the First had opposed his liege lord of France by
+arms and arts, and at last by one great master-stroke turned his own
+arms upon his rival and strengthened himself on his spoils. In the
+Second Crusade the scrupulous delicacy of Louis the Seventh of France
+had been revolted by the indiscreet or guilty conduct of Eleanor his
+wife. He repudiated her as unworthy of his throne; and Henry, who had
+no delicacies of conscience when they interfered with his interest,
+offered the rejected Eleanor his hand; for she continued the undoubted
+mistress of Poitou and Guienne. No stain derived from her principles
+or conduct was reflected in the eyes of the ambitious Henry on those
+noble provinces, and from henceforth his Continental possessions far
+exceeded those of his suzerain. The other feudatories, encouraged by
+this example, owned a very modified submission to their nominal head;
+and the inheritors of the throne of the Capets were again reduced to
+the comparative weakness of their predecessors of the Carlovingian
+line. Yet there was one element of vitality of which the feudal barons
+had not deprived the king. A fief, when it lapsed for want of heirs,
+was reattached to the Crown; and in the turmoil and adventure of those
+unsettled times the extinction of a line of warriors and pilgrims was
+not an uncommon event. Even while a family was numerous and healthy the
+uncertain nature of their possession deprived it of half its value,
+for at the end of that gallant line of knights and cavaliers, slain
+as they might be in battle, carried off by the pestilences which were
+usual at that period, or wasted away in journeys to the Holy Land and
+sieges in the heats of Palestine, stood the feudal king, ready to enter
+into undisputed possession of the dukedoms or counties which it had
+cost them so much time and danger to make independent and strong. In
+the case of Normandy or Guienne themselves, Louis might have looked
+without much uneasiness on the building of castles and draining of
+marshes, when he reflected that but a life or two lay between him and
+the enriched and strengthened fief; and when those lives were such
+desperadoes as Richard and such cowards as John, the prospect did
+not seem hopeless of an immediate succession. But the French kings
+were still more fortunate in being opposed to such unamiable rivals
+as the coarse and worldly descendants of the Conqueror. The personal
+characters of those men, however their energy and courage might benefit
+them in actual war, made them feared and hated wherever they were
+known. They were sensual, cruel, and unprincipled to a degree unusual
+even in those ages of rude manners and undeveloped conscience. Their
+personal appearance itself was an index of the ungovernable passions
+within Fat, broad-shouldered, low-statured, red-haired, loud-voiced,
+they were frightful to look upon even in their calmest moods; but
+when the Conqueror stormed, no feeling of ruth or reverence stood in
+his way. When he was refused the daughter of the Count of Boulogne,
+he forced his way into the chamber of the countess, seized her by the
+hair of her head, dragged her round the room, and stamped on her with
+his feet. Robert his son was of the same uninviting exterior. William
+Rufus was little and very stout. Henry the Second was gluttonous and
+debauched. Richard the Lion-Heart was cruel as the animal that gave him
+name; and John was the most debased and contemptible of mankind. A race
+of gentle and truthful men, on the other hand, ennobled the crown of
+France. The kings, from Louis the Debonnaire to Louis the Seventh, or
+Young, were favourites of the Church and champions of the people. The
+harsh and violent nobility despised them, but they were venerated in
+the huts where poor men lie. The very scruple which induced Louis to
+divorce his wife, whose conduct had stained the purity of the Crusade,
+almost repaid the loss of her great estates by the increased love and
+respect of his subjects. [A.D. 1180.] And when the line of pure and
+honourable rulers was for a while interrupted by the appearance, upon a
+throne so long established in equity, of an armed warrior in the person
+of Philip Augustus, it was felt that the sword was at last in the
+hands of an avenger, who was to execute the decrees of Heaven upon the
+enemies whom the moderation, justice, and mercy of his predecessors had
+failed to move.
+
+But before we come to the personal relations of the French and English
+kings we must take a rapid view of one of the great incidents by which
+this century is marked,--an incident which for a long time attracted
+the notice of all Europe, and was productive of very important
+consequences within our own country. Hitherto England had played the
+part of a satellite to the Court of Rome. Previous to the quarrels with
+France, indeed, one great tie between her and the Continental nations
+was the community of their submission to the Pope. Foreigners have at
+all times found wealth and kind treatment here. Germans, Italians,
+Frenchmen, any one who could make interest with the patrons of large
+livings, held rank and honours in the English Church. [A.D. 1154-1159.]
+Little enough, it was felt, was all that could be done in behalf
+of foreign ecclesiastics to repay them for the condescension they
+showed in elevating Nicholas Breakspear, an Anglo-Saxon of St.
+Alban's, to the papal chair. But Nicholas, in taking another name,
+lost his English heart. As Adrian the Fourth, he preferred Rome to
+England, and maintained his authority with as high a hand as any of
+his predecessors. Knights and nobles, and even the higher orders of
+the clergy, were at length discontented with the continual exactions
+of the Holy See; and in 1162 the same battle which had agitated the
+world between Henry the Fourth of Germany and Gregory the Seventh was
+fought out in a still bitterer spirit between Henry the Second of
+England and Thomas à-Beckett. All the story-books of English history
+have told us the romantic incidents of the birth of the ambitious
+priest. It is possible the obscurity of his origin was concealed by his
+contemporaries under the interesting legend, which must have been a
+very early subject for the fancy of the poet and troubadour, of a love
+between a Red-Cross pilgrim and a Saracen emir's daughter. It shows a
+remarkable softening of the ancient hatred to the infidels, that the
+votaress of Mohammed should have been chosen as the mother of a saint.
+But whatever doubt there may arise about the reality of the deserted
+maiden's journey in search of her admirer, and her discovery of his
+abode by the mere reiteration of his name, which is beautifully said
+to be the only word of English she remembered, there is no doubt of
+the early favour which the young Anglo-Saracen attained with the king,
+or of the desire the sagacious Henry entertained to avail himself of
+the great talents which made his favourite delightful as a companion
+and indispensable as a chancellor, in the higher position still of
+Archbishop of Canterbury and Comptroller of the English Church. For
+high pretensions were put forward by the clergy: they insisted upon the
+introduction of the canon laws; they claimed exemption from trial by
+civil process; they were to be placed beyond the reach of the ordinary
+tribunals, and were to be under their own separate rulers, and directly
+subject in life and property to the decrees of Rome.
+
+Henry knew but one man in his dominions able to contend in talent and
+acuteness with the advocates of the Church, and that was his chancellor
+and friend, the gay and generous and affectionate à-Beckett. So one
+day, without giving him much time for preparation, he persuaded him
+to be made a priest, and at the same moment named him Archbishop of
+Canterbury and Primate of all England. Now, he thought, we have a
+champion who will do battle in our cause and stand up for the liberties
+of his native land. But à-Beckett had dressed himself in a hair shirt
+and flogged himself with an iron scourge. He had invited the holiest of
+the priests to favour him with their advice, and had thrown himself on
+his knees on the approach of the most ascetic of the monks and friars.
+All his fine establishments were broken up; his horses were sent away;
+his silver table-services sold; and the new archbishop fasted on bread
+and water and lay on the hard floor. Henry was astonished and uneasy;
+and he had soon very good cause for his uneasiness, for his favourite
+orator, his boon-companion, his gallant chancellor, from whom he had
+expected support and victory, turned against him with the most ruthless
+animosity, and pushed the pretensions of Rome to a pitch they had never
+reached before. Nobody, however he may blame the double-dealing or the
+ambition of à-Beckett, can deny him the praise of personal courage
+in making opposition to the king. The Norman blood was as hot in him
+as in any of his predecessors. When he got into a passion, we are
+told by a contemporary chronicler, his blue eyes became filled with
+blood. In a fit of rage he bit a page's shoulder. A favourite servant
+having contradicted him, he rushed after the man on the stair, and,
+not being able to catch him, gnawed the straw upon the boards. We may
+therefore guess with what feelings the injured Plantagenet received
+the behaviour of his newly-created primate. He stormed and raged,
+terrified the other prelates to join him in his measures for curbing
+the power of the Church, chafed himself for several years against the
+unconquerable firmness of the arrogant archbishop, and finally failed
+in every object he had aimed at. The violence of the king was met
+with the affected resignation of the sufferer; and at last, when the
+impatience of Henry gave encouragement to his followers to put the
+refractory priest to death, the quarrel was lifted out of the ordinary
+category of a dispute between the crown and the crozier: it became a
+combat between a wilful and irreligious tyrant and a martyred saint.
+It requires us to enter into the feelings of the twelfth century to
+be able to understand the issue of this great conflict. In our own
+day the assumptions of à-Beckett, and his claims of exemption from
+the ordinary laws, have no sympathizers among the lovers of progress
+or freedom. But in the time of the second Henry the only chance of
+either, in England, was found under the shelter of the Church. That
+great establishment was still the only protection against the lawless
+violence of the king and nobles. The Norman possessors of the land
+were still an army encamped on hostile soil and levying contributions
+by the law of the strong hand. Disunion had not yet arisen between
+the sovereign and his lords, except as to the division of the spoil.
+The Crusades had not depopulated England to the same extent as some
+of the other countries in Europe; and the wars of the troubled days
+of Stephen and Matilda, though fatal to the prosperity of the land,
+and destructive of many of the nobles on either side, had attracted
+an immense number of high-born and strong-handed adventurers, who
+amply supplied their place. The clergy had been forced to retain their
+original position as leaders of the popular mind, superintendents of
+the interests of their flocks, and teachers and comforters of the
+oppressed: à-Beckett, therefore, was not in their eyes an ambitious
+priest, sacrificing every thing for the elevation of his order. He
+was a champion fighting the battles of the poor against the rich,--a
+ransomer of at least one powerful body in the State from the capricious
+cruelty of Henry and the grasping avarice of the Norman spoliation. The
+down-trodden Saxons received with the transports of gratified revenge
+any humiliation inflicted on the proud aristocracy which had thriven
+on the ruin of their ancestors. The date of the Conquest was not yet
+so distant as to hinder the feeling of personal wrong from mingling in
+the conflict between the races. A man of sixty remembered the story
+told him by his father of his dispossession of holt and field, on
+which the old manor-house had stood since Alfred's days, and which now
+had been converted into a crenelated tower by the foreign conqueror.
+Nor are we to forget, in the midst of the idea of antiquity conveyed
+at the present time by the fact of a person's ancestor having "come
+in with William," that the bitterness of dispossession was increased
+in the eyes of the long-descended Saxon franklin by the lowness of
+his dispossessor's birth. Half the roll-call of the Norman army was
+made up of the humblest names,--barbers and smiths, and tailors and
+valets, and handicraftsmen of all descriptions. And yet, seated in
+his fortified keep, supported by the sixty thousand companions of his
+success, enriched by the fertile harvests of his new domain, this
+upstart adventurer filled the wretched cottages of the land with a
+distressed and starving peasantry; and where were those friendless and
+helpless outcasts to look for succour and consolation? They found them
+in the Church. Their countrymen generally filled the lower offices,
+speaking in good Saxon, and feeling as good Saxons should; while the
+lordly abbot or luxurious bishop kept high state in his monastery or
+palace, and gave orders in Norman French with feelings as foreign as
+his tongue. But à-Beckett was an Englishman; à-Beckett was Archbishop
+of Canterbury, and chief of all the churchmen in the land. To honour
+à-Beckett was to protest against the Conquest; and when the crowning
+glory came, and the crimes of Henry against themselves attained their
+full consummation in the murder of the prelate at the altar,--the
+patriot in his resistance to oppression,--the enthusiasm of the country
+knew no bounds. The penitential pilgrimage which the proudest of the
+Plantagenets made to the tomb of his victim was but small compensation
+for so enormous a wickedness, and for ages the name of à-Beckett was
+a household word at the hearths of the English peasantry, as their
+great representative and deliverer,--only completing the care he took
+of their temporal interests while on earth by the superintendence he
+bestowed on their spiritual benefit now that he was a saint in heaven.
+Curses fell upon the head and heart of the royal murderer, as if by
+a visible retribution. His children rebelled and died; the survivors
+were false and hostile. Richard, who had the one sole virtue of animal
+courage, was incited by his mother to resist his father, and was joined
+in his unnatural rebellion by his brother John, who had no virtue at
+all. His mind, before he died, had lost the energy which kept the
+sceptre steady; and the century went down upon the glory of England,
+which lay like a wreck upon the water, and was stripped gradually, and
+one by one, of all the possessions which had made it great, and even
+the traditions of military power which had made it feared. John was on
+the throne, and the nation in discontent.
+
+
+
+
+                          THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        OTHO, (of Brunswick.)--(_cont._)
+
+  1212. FREDERICK II.
+
+  1247. WILLIAM, (of Holland.)
+
+  1257. RICHARD, (of Cornwall.)
+
+  1257. ALPHONSO, (of Castile.)
+
+  1273. RODOLPH, (of Hapsburg.)
+
+  1291. ADOLPH, (of Nassau.)
+
+  1298. ALBERT I., (of Austria.)
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        PHILIP AUGUSTUS.--(_cont._)
+
+  1223. LOUIS VIII.
+
+  1226. LOUIS IX., (the Fat.)
+
+  1270. PHILIP III., (the Hardy.)
+
+  1285. PHILIP IV., (the Handsome.)
+
+
+Kings of Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        WILLIAM.--(_cont._)
+
+  1214. ALEXANDER II.
+
+  1249. ALEXANDER III.
+
+  1286. MARGARET.
+
+  1291. JOHN BALIOL, deposed 1296.
+
+
+Emperors of Constantinople.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1203. ISAAC.
+
+  1204. ALEXIS IV.
+
+  1204. DUCAS, (Usurper,) dethroned by warriors of Fourth Crusade.
+
+  _Latin Empire._
+
+  1204. BALDWYN, (of Flanders.)
+
+  1206. HENRY, (his brother.)
+
+  1216. PETER, (of Courtney.)
+
+  1219. ROBERT, (his son.)
+
+  1228. JOHN, (of Brienne.)
+
+  1231. BALDWYN.
+
+  _Greek Empire of Nicæa._
+
+  1222. JOHN DUCAS.
+
+  1255. THEODORUS II.
+
+  1261. JOHN LASCARIS--retakes Constantinople.
+
+  1261. MICHAEL.
+
+  1282. ANDRONICUS II.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        JOHN.--(_cont._)
+
+  1216. HENRY III.
+
+  1276. EDWARD I.
+
+
+  1201. FOURTH CRUSADE.
+
+  1217. FIFTH CRUSADE.
+
+  1228. SIXTH CRUSADE.
+
+  1248. SEVENTH CRUSADE.
+
+  1270. EIGHTH AND LAST CRUSADE, by St. Louis against Tunis.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+ROGER BACON, MATTHEW PARIS, ALEXANDER HALES, (Irrefragable Doctor,)
+THOMAS AQUINAS, (the Angelic Doctor.)
+
+
+
+
+                        THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  FIRST CRUSADE AGAINST HERETICS--THE ALBIGENSES--MAGNA CHARTA--
+  EDWARD I.
+
+
+The progress and enlightenment of Europe proceed from this period
+at a constantly-increasing rate. The rise of commercial cities,
+the weakening of the feudal aristocracy, the introduction of the
+learning of the Saracenic schools, and the growth of universities
+for the cultivation of science and language, contributed greatly to
+the result. Another cause used to be assigned for this satisfactory
+advance, in the discovery which had been made in the last century at
+Amalfi, of a copy of the long-forgotten Pandects of Justinian, and the
+reintroduction of the Roman laws, in displacement of the conflicting
+customs and barbarous enactments of the various states; but the fact
+of the continued existence of the Roman Institutes is not now denied,
+though it is probable that the discovery of the Amalfi manuscript may
+have given a fresh impulse to the improvement of the local codes.
+But an increase of mental activity had at first its usual regretable
+accompaniment in the contemporaneous rise of dangerous and unfounded
+opinions. Philosophy, which began with an admiration of the skill and
+learning of Aristotle, ended by enthroning him as the uncontrolled
+master of human reason. Wherever he was studied, all previous standards
+of faith and argument were overthrown. The cleverest intellects of
+the time could find themselves no higher task than to reconcile the
+Christian Scriptures with the decrees of the Stagyrite, for it was
+felt that in the case of an irreconcilable divergence between the
+teaching of Christ and of Aristotle the scholars of Christendom would
+have pronounced in favour of the Greek. A formulary, indeed, was found
+out for the joint reception of both; many statements were declared
+to be "true in philosophy though false in religion," so that the
+most orthodox of Churchmen could receive the doctrines of the Church
+by an act of belief, while he gave his whole affection to Aristotle
+by an act of the understanding. When teachers and preachers tamper
+with the human conscience, the common feelings of honour and fair
+play revolt at the degrading attempt. Men of simple minds, who did
+not profess to understand Aristotle and could not be blinded by the
+subtleties of logic, endeavoured to discover "the more excellent way"
+for themselves, but were bewildered by the novelty of their search
+for Truth. There were mystic dreamers who saw God everywhere and in
+every thing, and counted human nature itself a portion of the Deity,
+or maintained that it was possible for man to attain a share of the
+divine by the practice of virtue. This Pantheism gave rise to numerous
+displays of popular ignorance and impressibility. Messiahs appeared
+in many parts of Europe, and were followed by great multitudes. Some
+enthusiasts taught that a new dispensation was opening upon man; that
+God was the Governor of the world during the Old Testament period;
+that Christ had reigned till now, but that the reign of the Holy
+Spirit was about to commence, and all things would be renewed. Others,
+more hardy, declared their adhesion to the Persian principle of a
+duality of persons in heaven, and revived the old Manichean heresy
+that the spirit of Hatred was represented in the Jewish Scriptures and
+the spirit of Love in the Christian; that the Good god had created
+the soul, and the Evil god the body,--on which were justified the
+sufferings they voluntarily inflicted on the workmanship of Satan, and
+the starvings and flagellations required to bring it into subjection.
+This belief found few followers, and would have died out as rapidly as
+it had arisen; but the malignity of the enemies of any change found it
+convenient to identify those wild enthusiasts with a very different
+class of persons who at this time rose into prominent notice. The rich
+counties of the South of France were always distinguished from the rest
+of the nation by the possession of greater elegance and freedom. The
+old Roman civilization had never entirely deserted the shores of the
+Mediterranean or the valleys of Languedoc and Provence. In Languedoc a
+sect of strange thinkers had given voice to some startling doctrines,
+which at once obtained the general consent. Toulouse was the chief
+encourager of these new beliefs, and in its hostility to Rome was
+supported by its reigning sovereign, Count Raymond VI. This potentate,
+from the position of his States,--abutting upon Barcelona, where the
+Spaniards, who remembered their recent emancipation from the Mohammedan
+yoke, were famous for their tolerance of religious dissent,--and
+deriving the greater portion of his wealth from the trade and industry
+of the Jews and Arabs established in his seaport towns, saw no great
+evil in the principles professed by his people. Those principles,
+indeed, when stripped of the malicious additions of his enemies, were
+not different from the creed of Protestantism at the present time. They
+consisted merely of a complete denial of the sovereignty of the Pope,
+the power of the priesthood, the efficacy of prayers for the dead, and
+the existence of purgatory.
+
+The other princes of the South looked on religion as a mere instrument
+for the advancement of their own interests, and would have imitated
+the greater sovereigns of Europe, several of whom for a very slender
+consideration would have gone openly over to the standard of Mohammed.
+The inhabitants, therefore, of those opulent regions, by the favour of
+Raymond and the indifference of the rest, were left for a long time
+to their own devices, and gave intimation of a strong desire to break
+off their connection with the hierarchy of Rome. And no wonder they
+were tired of their dependence on so grasping and unprincipled a power
+as the Church had proved to them. More depraved and more exacting
+in this district than in any other part of Europe, the clergy had
+contrived to alienate the hearts of the common people without gaining
+the friendship of the nobility. Equally hated by both,--despised for
+their sensuality, and no longer feared for their spiritual power,--the
+priests could offer no resistance to the progress of the new opinions.
+Those opinions were in fact as much due to the vices of the clergy as
+to the convictions of the congregations. Any thing hostile to Rome was
+welcomed by the people. A musical and graceful language had grown up
+in Languedoc, which was universally recognised as the fittest vehicle
+for descriptions of beauty and declarations of love, and had been
+found equally adapted for the declamations of political hatred and
+denunciations of injustice. But now the whole guild of troubadours,
+ceasing to dedicate their muses to ladies' charms or the quarrels
+of princes, poured forth their indignation in innumerable songs on
+their clerical oppressors. The infamies of the whole order--the monks
+black and white, the deacons, the abbots, the bishops, the ordinary
+priests--were now married to immortal verse. Their spoiling of orphans,
+their swindling of widows and wards, their gluttony and drunkenness,
+were chronicled in every township, and were incapable of denial.
+Their dishonesty became proverbial. The simplest peasant, on hearing
+of a scandalous action, was in the habit of saying, "I would rather
+be a priest than be guilty of such a deed." But there were two men
+then alive exactly adapted to meet the exigencies of the time. One
+was a noble Castilian of the name of Dominic Guzman, who had become
+disgusted with the world, and had taken refuge from temptations and
+strife among the brethren of a reformed cathedral in Spain. But
+temptations and strife forced their way into the cells of Asma, and the
+eloquent friar was torn away from his prayers and penances and brought
+prominently forward by the backslidings of the men of Languedoc. The
+saturnine and self-sacrificing Spaniard had no sympathy with the joyous
+proceedings of the princes and merchants of the South. He saw sin in
+their enjoyment even of the gifts of nature,--their gracious air and
+beautiful scenery. How much more when the gayety of their meetings was
+enlivened by interludes throwing ridicule on the pretensions of the
+bishops, by hootings at any ecclesiastic who presented himself in the
+street, and by sneers and loud laughter at the predictions and miracles
+with which the Church resisted their attack! The unbelieving populace
+did not spare the personal dignity of the missionary himself. They
+pelted him with mud, and fixed long tails of straw at the back of his
+robe; they outraged all the feelings of his heart, his Castilian pride,
+his Christian belief, his clerical obedience. There is no denying
+the energy with which he exerted himself to recall those wandering
+sheep to the true fold. His biographer tells us of the successes of
+his eloquence, and of the irresistible effect of the inexhaustible
+fountain of tears with which he inundated his face till they formed
+a river down to his robes. His writings, we are assured, being found
+unanswerable by the heretics, were submitted to the ordeal of fire.
+Twice they resisted the hottest flames which could be raised by
+wood and brimstone, and still without converting the incredulous
+subjects of Count Raymond. His miracles, which were numerous and
+undeniable, also had no effect. Even his prayers, which seem to have
+moved houses and walls, had no efficacy in moving the obdurate hearts
+of the unbelievers; and at last, tired out with their recalcitrancy,
+the dreadful word was spoken. He cursed the men of Languedoc, the
+inhabitants of its towns, the knights and gentlemen who received his
+oratory with insult, and in addition to his own anathemas called in the
+spiritual thunder of the Pope.
+
+This was the other man peculiarly fitted for the work he had to do. His
+cruelty would have done no dishonour to the blood-stained scutcheon of
+Nero, and his ambition transcended that of Gregory the Seventh. His
+name was Innocent the Third. [A.D. 1207.] For one-half of the crimes
+alleged against those heretics, who, from their principal seat in the
+diocese of Albi, were known as Albigenses, he would have turned the
+whole of France into a desert; and when, with greedy ear, he heard the
+denunciations of Dominic, he declared war on the devoted peasants,--war
+on the consenting princes; a holy war--more meritorious than a Crusade
+against the Turks and infidels--where no life was to be spared, and
+where houses and lands were to be the reward of the assailants. All the
+wild spirits of the age were wakened by the call. It was a pilgrimage
+where all expenses were paid, without the danger of the voyage to the
+East or the sword of the Saracen. Foremost among those who hurried
+to this mingled harvest of money and blood, of religious absolution
+and military fame, was the notorious Simon de Montfort, a man fitted
+for the commission of any wickedness requiring a powerful arm and
+unrelenting heart. Forward from all quarters of Europe rushed the
+exterminating emissaries of the Pope and soldiers of Dominic. "You
+shall ravage every field; you shall slay every human being: strike,
+and spare not. The measure of their iniquity is full, and the blessing
+of the Church is on your heads." These words, sung in sweet chorus by
+the Pope and the Monk, were the instructions on which De Montfort was
+prepared to act; and what could the sunny Languedoc, the land of song
+and dance, of olive-yard and vineyard, do to repel this hostile inroad?
+Suddenly all the music of the troubadours was hushed in dreadful
+expectation. Raymond was alarmed, and tried to temporize. [A.D. 1208.]
+Promises were made and explanations given, but without any offer of
+submission to the yoke of Rome: so the infuriated warriors came on,
+burning, slaying, ravaging, in terms of their commission, till Dominic
+himself grew ashamed of such blood-stained missionaries; and when their
+slaughters went on, when they had murdered half the population in cold
+blood, and ridden down the peasantry whom despair had summoned to the
+defence of their houses and properties, the saintly-minded Spaniard
+could no longer honour their hideous butcheries with his presence.
+He contented himself with retiring to a church and praying for the
+good cause with such zeal and animation that De Montfort and eleven
+hundred of his ruffians put to flight a hundred thousand of the armed
+soldiers of the South, who felt themselves overthrown and scattered
+by an invisible power. Yet not even the prayers of Dominic could keep
+the outraged people in unresisting acquiescence. Simon de Montfort was
+expelled from the territories he had usurped, and found a mysterious
+death under the walls of Toulouse in 1218.
+
+[A.D. 1223.]
+
+The old family was restored in the person of Raymond the Seventh, and
+preparations made for defence. But Louis the Eighth of France came to
+the aid of the infuriated Pope. Two hundred thousand men followed in
+the holy campaign. All the atrocities of the former time were renewed
+and surpassed. Town after town yielded, for all the defenders had died.
+Pestilence broke out in the invading force, and Louis himself was
+carried off by fever. Champions, however, were ready in all quarters to
+carry on the glorious cause. Louis the Ninth was now King of France,
+and under the government of his mother, Blanche of Castile, the work
+commenced by her countryman was completed. The final victory of the
+crusaders and punishment of the rebellious were celebrated by the
+introduction of the Inquisition, of which the ferocious Dominic was
+the presiding spirit. The fire of persecution under his holy stirrings
+burnt up what the sword of the destroyer had left, and from that time
+the voice of rejoicing was heard no more in Languedoc: her freedom of
+thought and elegance of sentiment were equally crushed into silence
+by the heel of persecution. The "gay science" perished utterly; the
+very language in which the sonnets of knight and troubadour had been
+composed died away from the literatures of the earth; and Rome rejoiced
+in the destruction of poetry and the restoration of obedience. This is
+a very mark-worthy incident in the thirteenth century, as it is the
+first experiment, on a great scale, which the Church made to retain her
+supremacy by force of arms. The pagan and infidel, the denier of Christ
+and the enemies of his teaching, had hitherto been the objects of the
+wrath of Christendom. This is the first instance in which a difference
+of opinion between Christians themselves had been the ground for
+wholesale extermination; for those unfortunate Albigenses acknowledged
+the divinity of the Saviour and professed to be his disciples. It
+is the crowning proof of the totally-secularized nature of the
+established faith. Its weapons were no longer argument and proof, or
+even persuasion and promise. The horse up to his fetlocks in blood, the
+sword waved in the air, the trampling of marshalled thousands, were
+henceforth the supports of the religion of love and charity; and fires
+glowing in every market-place and dungeons gaping in every episcopal
+castle were henceforth the true expositors of the truth as it is in
+Jesus. Fires, indeed, and dungeons, were required to compensate for the
+incompleteness, as it appeared to the truly orthodox, of the vengeance
+inflicted on the rebels. The Abbot of Citeaux, who gave his spiritual
+and corporeal aid to the assault on Beziers, was for a moment made
+uneasy by the difficulty his men experienced in distinguishing between
+the heretics and believers at the storm of the town. At last he got
+out of the difficulty by saying, "Slay them all! The Lord will know
+his own." The same benevolent dignitary, when he wrote an account of
+his achievement to the Pope, lamented that he had only been able to
+cut the throats of twenty thousand. And Gregory the Ninth would have
+been better pleased if it had been twice the number. "His vast revenge
+had stomach for them all," and already a quarter of a million of the
+population were the victims of his anger. Every thing had prospered
+to his hand. Raymond was despoiled of the greater portion of his
+estates, the voice of opposition was hushed, the castles of the nobles
+confiscated to the Church; and yet, when the treaty of Meaux, in 1229,
+by which the war was concluded, came to be considered, it was perceived
+that the pacification of Languedoc turned not so much to the profit of
+Rome as of the rapidly-coalescing monarchy of France.
+
+Long before this, in 1204, Philip Augustus had found little difficulty
+in tearing the continental possessions of the English crown, except
+Guienne, from the trembling hands of John. The possession of Normandy
+had already made France a maritime power; and now, by the acquisition
+of the Narbonnais and Maguelonne from Raymond the Seventh, she not
+only extended her limits to the Mediterranean, but, by the extinction
+of two such vassals as the Count of Toulouse and the Duke of Normandy,
+incalculably strengthened the royal crown. Extinguished, indeed, was
+the power of Toulouse; for by the same treaty the unfortunate Raymond
+bought his peace with Rome by bestowing the county of Venaissin and
+half of Avignon on the Holy See. These sacrifices relieved him from the
+sentence of excommunication, and made him the best-loved son of the
+Church, and the poorest prince in Christendom.
+
+While monarchy was making such strides in France, a counterbalancing
+power was formed in England by the combination of the nobility and
+the rise of the House of Commons. The story of Magna Charta is so
+well known that it will be sufficient to recall some of its principal
+incidents, which could not with propriety be omitted in an account of
+the important events of the thirteenth century. No event, indeed, of
+equal importance occurred in any other country of Europe. However more
+startling a crusade or a victory might be at the time, the results of
+no single incident have ever been so enduring or so wide-spread as
+those of the meeting of the barons at Runnymede and the summoning of
+the burgesses to Parliament.
+
+The whole reign of John (1199-1216) is a tale of wickedness and
+degradation. Richard of the Lion-Heart had been cruel and unprincipled;
+but the sharpness of his sword threw a sort of respectability over
+the worst portions of his character. His practical talents, also, and
+the romantic incidents of his life, his confinement, and even of his
+death, lifted him out of the ordinary category of brutal and selfish
+kings and converted a very ferocious warrior into a popular hero. But
+John was hateful and contemptible in an equal degree. He deserted his
+father, he deceived his brother, he murdered his nephew, he oppressed
+his people. He had the pride that made enemies, and wanted the courage
+to fight them. A knight without truth, a king without justice, a
+Christian without faith,--all classes rebelled against him. Innocent
+the Third scented from afar the advantage he might obtain from a
+monarch whose nobility despised him and who was hated by his people.
+And when John got up a quarrel about the nomination of an archbishop
+to Canterbury, the Pope soon saw that though Langton was no à-Beckett,
+still less was John a Henry the Second. A sentence of excommunication
+was launched at the coward's head, and the crown of England offered to
+Philip Augustus of France. Philip Augustus had the modesty to refuse
+the splendid bribe, and contented himself with aiding to weaken a
+throne he did not feel inclined to fill. It is characteristic of John,
+that in the agonies of his fear, and of his desire to gain support
+against his people, he hesitated between invoking the assistance of the
+Miramolin of Morocco and the Pope of Rome. As good Mussulman with the
+one as Christian with the other, he finally decided on Innocent, and
+signed a solemn declaration of submission, making public resignation
+of the crowns of England and Ireland "to the Apostles Peter and
+Paul, to Innocent and his legitimate successors;" and, aided by the
+blessings of these new masters, and by the enforced neutrality of
+France, he was enabled to defeat his indignant nobles, and force them
+for two years to wear the same chains of submission to Rome which
+weighed upon himself. But in 1215 the patience of noble and peasant,
+of bishop and priest, was utterly exhausted. [A.D. 1215.] John fled
+on the first outburst of the collected storm, and thought himself
+fortunate in stopping its violence by signing the Great Charter,
+the written ratification of the liberties which had been conferred
+by some of his predecessors, but whose chief authority was in the
+traditions and customs of the land. This was not an overthrow of an
+old constitution and the substitution of a new and different code, but
+merely a formal recognition of the great and fundamental principles
+on which only government can be carried on,--security of person and
+property, and the just administration of equitable laws. All orders in
+the State were comprehended in this national agreement. The Church was
+delivered from the exactions of the king, and left to an undisturbed
+intercourse on spiritual matters with her spiritual head. She was to
+have perfect freedom of election to vacant benefices, and the king's
+rapacity was guarded against by a clause reducing any fine he might
+impose on an ecclesiastic to an accordance with his professional
+income, and not with the extent of his lay possessions. The barons,
+of course, took equal care of their own interests as they had shown
+for those of the Church. They corrected many abuses from which they
+suffered, in respect to their feudal obligations. They regulated the
+fines and quit-rents on succession to their fiefs, the management of
+crown wards, and the marriage of heiresses and widows. They insisted
+also on the assemblage of a council of the great and lesser barons,
+to consult for the general weal, and put some check on the disposal
+of their lands by their tenants, in order to keep their vassals from
+impoverishment and their military organization unimpaired. But when
+church and aristocracy were thus protected from the tyranny of the
+king, were the interests of the great mass of the people neglected?
+This has sometimes been argued against the legislators of Runnymede,
+but very unjustly; for as much attention was paid to the liberties
+and immunities of the municipal corporations and of ordinary subjects
+as to those of the prelates and lords. Every person had the right to
+dispose of his property by will. No arbitrary tolls could be exacted of
+merchants. All men might enter or leave the kingdom without restraint.
+The courts of law were no longer to be stationary at Westminster, to
+which complainants from Northumberland or Cornwall never could make
+their way, but were to travel about, bringing justice to every man's
+door. They were to be open to every one, and justice was to be neither
+"sold, refused, nor delayed." Circuits were to be held every year. No
+man was to be put on his trial from mere rumour, but on the evidence
+of lawful witnesses. No sentence could be passed on a freeman except
+by his peers in jury assembled. No fine could be imposed so exorbitant
+as to ruin the culprit. But the bishops and clergy, the nobility and
+their vassals, the corporations and freemen, were not the main bodies
+of the State; and the framers of Magna Charta have been blamed for
+neglecting the great majority of the population, which consisted of
+serfs or villeins. This accusation is, however, not true, even with
+respect to the words of the Charter; for it is expressly provided that
+the carts and working-implements of that class of the people shall
+not be seizable in satisfaction of a fine; and in its intention the
+accusation is more untenable still; for although the reformers of 1215
+had no design of granting new privileges to any hitherto-unprivileged
+order and their work was limited to the legal re-establishment of
+privileges which John had attempted to overthrow, the large and
+liberal spirit of their declarations is shown by the notice they take
+of the hitherto-unconsidered classes. For the protection accorded to
+their ploughs and carts, which are specifically named in the Charter,
+ratified at once their right to hold property,--the first condition of
+personal freedom and independence,--and, by an analogy of reasoning,
+restrained their more immediate masters from tyranny and injustice. It
+could not be long before a man secured by the national voice in the
+possession of one species of property extended his rights over every
+thing else. If the law guaranteed him the plough he held, the cart he
+drove, the spade he plied, why not the house he occupied, the little
+field he cultivated? And if the poorest freeman walked abroad in the
+pride of independence, because the baron could no longer insult him,
+or the priest oppress him, or the king himself strip him of land and
+gear, how could he deny the same blessings to his neighbour, the rustic
+labourer, who was already master of cart and plough and was probably
+richer and better fed than himself?
+
+But a firmer barrier against the encroachments of kings and nobles
+than the written words of Magna Charta was still required, and people
+were not long in seeing how little to be trusted are legal forms when
+the contracting parties are disposed to evade their obligations. John
+indeed attempted, in the very year that saw his signature to the
+Charter, to expunge his name from the obligatory deed by the plenary
+power of the Pope. Innocent had no scruple in giving permission to
+his English vassal to break the oath and swerve from his engagement.
+But the English spirit was not so broken as the king's, and the
+barons took the management of the country into their own hands. When
+the experience of a few years of Henry the Third had shown them that
+there was no improvement on the personal character of his predecessor,
+they took effectual measures for the protection of all classes of the
+people. Henry began his inglorious reign in 1216, and ended it in
+1272. In those fifty-six years great changes took place, but all in an
+upward direction, out of the darkness and unimpressionable stolidity
+of previous ages. The dawn of a more intellectual period seemed at
+hand, and already the ghosts of ignorance and oppression began to scent
+the morning air. In 1264 an example was set by England which it would
+have been well if all the other Western lands had followed, for by the
+institution of a true House of Commons it laid the foundation for the
+only possible liberal and improvable government,--the only government
+which can derive its strength from the consent of the governed
+legitimately expressed, and vary in its action and spirit with the
+changes in the general mind. In cases of error or temporary delusion,
+there is always left the most admirable machinery for retracing its
+steps and rectifying what is wrong. In cases of universal approval and
+unanimous exertion, there is no power, however skilfully wielded by
+autocrats or despots, which can compare with the combined energy of a
+whole and undivided people.
+
+[A.D. 1226-1270.]
+
+The contemporary of this Henry on the throne of France was the gentle
+and honest Louis the Ninth. If those epithets do not sound so high as
+the usual phraseology applied to kings, we are to consider how rare are
+the examples either of honesty or gentleness among the rulers of that
+time, and how difficult it was to possess or exercise those virtues.
+But this gentle and honest king, who was scarcely raised in rank when
+the Church had canonized him as a saint, achieved as great successes
+by the mere strength of his character as other monarchs had done by
+fire and sword. His love of justice enabled him to extend the royal
+power over his contending vassals, who chose him as umpire of their
+quarrels and continued to submit to him as their chief. He heard
+the complaints of the lower orders of his people in person, sitting,
+like the kings of the East, under the shade of a tree, and delivering
+judgment solely on the merits of the case. His undoubted zeal on behalf
+of his religion permitted him, without the accusation of heresy, to
+put boundaries to the aggressions of the Church. He resisted its more
+violent claims, and gave liberty to ecclesiastics as well as laymen,
+who were equally interested in the curtailment of the Papal power. He
+granted a great number of municipal charters, and published certain
+Establishments, as they were called, which were improvements on the old
+customs of the realm and were in a great measure founded on the Roman
+law. The spirit of the time was popular progress; and both in France
+and England great advances were made; deliberative national assemblies
+took their rise,--in France, under the conscientious monarch, with the
+full aid and influence of the royal authority, in England, under the
+feeble and selfish Henry, by the necessity of gaining the aid of the
+Commons against the Crown to the outraged and insulted nobility. In
+both nations these assemblies bore for a long time very distinguishable
+marks of their origin. The Parliaments of France, sprung from the
+royal will, were little else than the recorders of the decrees of the
+monarch; while the Parliaments of England, remembering their popular
+origin, have always had a feeling of independence, and a tendency to
+make rather hard bargains with our kings. Even before this time the
+Great Council had occasionally opposed the exactions of the Crown; but
+when the falsehood and avarice of Henry III. had excited the popular
+odium, the barons of 1263, in noble emulation of their predecessors
+of 1215, had risen in defence of the nation's liberties, and the last
+hand was put to the building up of our present constitution, by the
+summoning, "to consult on public affairs," of certain burgesses from
+the towns, in addition to the prelates, knights, and freeholders
+who had hitherto constituted the parliamentary body. But those
+barons and tenants-in-chief attended in their own right, and were
+altogether independent of the principle of election and representation.
+[A.D. 1265.] The summons issued by Simon de Montfort (son of the
+truculent hero of the Albigensian crusade, and brother-in-law of Henry)
+invested with new privileges the already-enfranchised boroughs. From
+this time the representatives of the Commons are always mentioned in
+the history of parliaments; and although this proceeding of De Montfort
+was only intended to strengthen his hands against his enemies, and,
+after his temporary object was gained, was not designed to have any
+further effect on the constitutional progress of our country, still,
+the principle had been adopted, the example was set, and the right to
+be represented in Parliament became one of the most valued privileges
+of the enfranchised commons.
+
+It is observable that this increase of civil freedom in the various
+countries of Europe was almost in exact proportion to the diminution
+of ecclesiastical power. It is equally observable that the weakening
+of the priestly influence rapidly followed the infamous excesses
+into which its intolerance and pride had hurried the princes and
+other supporters of its claims. Never, indeed, had it appeared in so
+palmy and flourishing a state as in the course of this century; and
+yet the downward journey was begun. The devastation it carried into
+Languedoc, and the depopulation of all those sunny regions near the
+Mediterranean Sea--the crusades against the Saracens in Asia, to which
+it sent the strength of Europe, and against the Moors in Africa, to
+which it impelled the most obedient, and also, when his religious
+passions were roused, the most relentless, of the Church's sons,
+no other than St. Louis--and the submission of the Patriarchates of
+Jerusalem and Alexandria to the Romish See--these and other victories
+of the Church were succeeded, before the century closed, by a manifest
+though silent insurrection against its spiritual domination. There
+were many reasons for this. The inferior though still dignified clergy
+in the different nations were alienated by the excessive exactions
+of their foreign head. In France the submissive St. Louis was forced
+to become the guardian of the privileges and income of the Gallican
+Church. In England the number of Italian incumbents exceeded that of
+the English-born; and in a few years the Pope managed to draw from the
+Church and State an amount equal to fifteen millions of our present
+coin. In Scotland, poorer and more proud, the king united himself to
+his clergy and nobles, and would not permit the Romish exactors to
+enter his dominions. The avarice and venality of Rome were repulsive
+equally to priest and layman. The strong support, also, which hitherto
+had arisen to the Holy See from the innumerable monks and friars,
+could no longer be furnished by the depressed and vitiated communities
+whom the coarsest of the common people despised for their sensuality
+and vice. In earlier times the worldly pretensions of the secular
+clergy were put to shame by the poverty and self-denial of the regular
+orders. Their ascetic retirement, and fastings, and scourgings, had
+recommended them to the peasantry round their monasteries, by the
+contrast their peaceful lives presented to the pomp and self-indulgence
+of bishops and priests. But now the character of the two classes was
+greatly changed. The parson of the parish, when he was not an Italian
+absentee, was an English clergyman, whose interests and feelings were
+all in unison with those of his flock; the monks were an army of
+mercenary marauders in the service of a foreign prince, advocating his
+most unpopular demands and living in the ostentatious disregard of all
+their vows. Even the lowest class of all, the thralls and villeins,
+were not so much as before in favour of their tonsured brothers, who
+had escaped the labours of the field by taking refuge in the abbey;
+for Magna Charta had given the same protection against oppression to
+themselves, and the enfranchisement of the boroughs had put power
+into the hands of citizens and freemen, who would not be so apt to
+abuse it as the martial baron or mitred prelate had been. The same
+principles were at work in France; and when the newly-established
+Franciscans and Dominicans were pointed to as restoring the purity and
+abnegation of the monks of old, the time for belief in those virtues
+being inherent, or even possible, in a cloister, was past, and little
+effect was produced in favour of Rome by the bloodthirsty brotherhood
+of the ferocious St. Dominic or the more amiable professions of the
+half-witted St. Francis of Assisi. [A.D. 1272.] The tide, indeed,
+had so completely turned after the commencement of the reign of
+Edward the First, that the Churchmen, both in England and France,
+preferred being taxed by their own Sovereign to being subjected to
+the arbitrary exactions of the Pope. Edward gave them no exemption
+from the obligation to support the expenses of the State in common
+with all the other holders of property, and pressed, indeed, rather
+more heavily upon the prelates and rich clergy than on the rest of the
+contributors, as if to drive to a decision the question, to which of
+the potentates--the Pope or the sovereign--tribute was lawfully due.
+When this object was gained, a bull was let loose upon the sacrilegious
+monarch by Boniface the Eighth, which positively forbids any member
+of the priesthood to contribute to the national exchequer on any
+occasion or emergency whatever. But the king made very light of the
+papal authority when it stood between him and the revenues of his
+crown, and the national clergy submitted to be taxed like other men.
+In France the same discussion led to the same result. The Gallican and
+English Churches asserted their liberties in a way which must have been
+peculiarly gratifying to the kings,--namely, by subsidies to the Crown,
+and disobedience to the fulminations of the Pope.
+
+But no surer proof of the increased wisdom of mankind can be given
+than the termination of the Crusades. Perhaps, indeed, it was found
+that religious excitement could be combined with warlike distinction
+by assaults on the unbelieving or disobedient at home. There seemed
+little use in traversing the sea and toiling through the deserts of
+Syria, when the same heavenly rewards were held out for a campaign
+against the inhabitants of Languedoc and the valleys of the Alps.
+Clearer views also of the political effect of those distant expeditions
+in strengthening the hands of the Pope, who, as spiritual head of
+Christendom, was _ex officio_ commander of the crusading armies, must
+no doubt have occurred to the various potentates who found themselves
+compelled to aid the very authority from whose arrogance they suffered
+so much. The exhaustion of riches and decrease of population were
+equally strong reasons for repose. But none of all these considerations
+had the least effect on the simple and credulous mind of Louis the
+Ninth. Resisting as he did the interference of the Pope in his
+character of King of France, no one could yield more devoted submission
+to the commands of the Holy Father when uttered to him in his character
+of Christian knight. At an early age he vowed himself to the sacred
+cause, and in the year 1248 the seventh and last crusade to the Holy
+Land took its way from Aigues-Mortes and Marseilles, under the guidance
+of the youthful King and the Princes of France. Disastrous to a more
+pitiful degree than any of its predecessors, this expedition began its
+course in Egypt by the conquest of Damietta, and from thenceforth sank
+from misery to misery, till the army, surprised by the inundations
+of the Nile, and hemmed in by the triumphant Mussulmans, surrendered
+its arms, and the nobility of France, with its king at its head,
+found itself the prisoner of Almohadam. An insurrection in a short
+time deprived their conqueror of life and crown, and a treaty for the
+payment of a great ransom set the captives free. Ashamed, perhaps,
+to return to his own country, sighing for the crown of martyrdom,
+zealous at all events for the privileges of a pilgrim, Louis betook
+himself to Palestine, and, as he was bound by the convention not
+to attack Jerusalem, he wasted four years in uselessly rebuilding
+the fortifications of Ptolemais, and Sidon, and Jaffa, and only
+embarked on his homeward voyage when the death of his mother and the
+discontent of his subjects necessitated his return. [A.D. 1254.] After
+an absence of six years, the enfeebled and exhausted king sat once more
+in the chair of judgment, and gained all hearts by his generosity
+and truth. Yet the old fire was not extinct. His oath was binding
+still, and in 1270, girt with many a baron bold, and accompanied by
+his brother, Charles of Anjou, and the gay Prince Edward of England,
+he fixed the red cross upon his shoulder and led his army to the
+sea-shore. The ships were all ready, but the destination of the war was
+changed. A new power had established itself at Tunis, more hostile to
+Christianity than the Moslem of Egypt, and nearer at hand. In an evil
+hour the King was persuaded to attack the Tunisian Caliph. He landed
+at Carthage, and besieged the capital of the new dominion. But Tunis
+witnessed the death of its besieger, for Louis, worn out with fatigue
+and broken with disappointment, was stricken by a contagious malady,
+and expired with the courage of a hero and the pious resignation of a
+Christian. With him the crusading spirit vanished from every heart.
+All the Christian armies were withdrawn. The Knights-Hospitallers,
+the Templars, the Teutonic Order, passed over to Cyprus, and left the
+hallowed spots of sacred story to be profaned by the footsteps of the
+Infidel. Asia and Europe henceforth pursued their separate courses; and
+it was left to the present day to startle the nations of both quarters
+of the world with the spectacle of a war about the possession of the
+Holy Places.
+
+The century which has the slaughter of the Albigenses, the Magna
+Charta, the rise of the Commons, the termination of the Crusades, to
+distinguish it, will not need other features to be pointed out in
+order to abide in our memories. Yet the reign of Edward the First,
+the greatest of our early kings, must be dwelt on a little longer, as
+it would not be fair to omit the personal merits of a man who united
+the virtues of a legislator to those of a warrior. Whether it was
+the prompting of ambition, or a far-sighted policy, which led him to
+attempt the conquest of Scotland, we need not stop to inquire. It
+might have satisfied the longings both of policy and ambition if he
+had succeeded in creating a compact and irresistible Great Britain
+out of England harassed and Scotland insecure. And if, contented with
+his undivided kingdom, he had devoted himself uninterruptedly to the
+introduction and consolidation of excellent laws, and had extended the
+ameliorations he introduced in England to the northern portion of his
+dominions, he would have earned a wider fame than the sword has given
+him, and would have been received with blessings as the Justinian of
+the whole island, instead of establishing a rankling hatred in the
+bosoms of one of the cognate peoples which it took many centuries to
+allay, if, indeed, it is altogether obliterated at the present time;
+for there are not wanting enthusiastic Scotchmen who show considerable
+wrath when treating of his assumptions of superiority over their
+country and his interference with their national affairs.
+
+Edward's sister had been the wife of Alexander the Third of Scotland.
+Two sons of that marriage had died, and the only other child, a
+daughter, had married Eric the Norwegian. In Margaret, the daughter of
+this king, the Scottish succession lay, and when her grandfather died
+in 1290, the Scottish states sent a squadron to bring the young queen
+home, and great preparations were made for the reception of the "Maid
+of Norway." But the Maid of Norway was weak in health; the voyage was
+tempestuous and long; and weary and exhausted she landed on one of the
+Orkney Islands, and in a short time a rumour went round the land that
+the hope of Scotland was dead. Edward was among the first to learn
+the melancholy news. He determined to assert his rights, and began
+by trying to extend the feudal homage which several of the Scottish
+kings had rendered for lands held in England, over the Scottish crown
+itself. When the various competitors for the vacant throne submitted
+their pretensions to his decision he made their acknowledgment of
+his supremacy an indispensable condition. Out of the three chief
+candidates he fixed on John Baliol, who, in addition to the most legal
+title, had perhaps the equal recommendation of being the feeblest
+personal character. Robert Bruce and Hastings, the other candidates,
+submitted to their disappointment, and Baliol became the mere viceroy
+of the English king. He obeyed a summons to Westminster as a vassal
+of Edward, to answer for his conduct, and was treated with disdain.
+[A.D. 1293.] But the Scottish barons had more spirit than their king.
+They forced him to resist the pretensions of his overbearing patron,
+and for the first time, in 1295, began the long connection between
+France and Scotland by a treaty concluded between the French monarch
+and the twelve Guardians of Scotland, to whom Baliol had delegated his
+authority before retiring forever to more peaceful scenes. From this
+time we find that, whenever war was declared by France on England,
+Scotland was let loose on it to distract its attention, in the same way
+as, whenever war was declared upon France, the hostility of Flanders
+was roused against its neighbour. But the benefits bestowed by England
+on her Low Country ally were far greater than any advantage which
+France could offer to Scotland. Facilities of trade and favourable
+tariffs bound the men of Ghent and Bruges to the interests of Edward.
+But the friendship of France was limited to a few bribes and the loan
+of a few soldiers. Scotland, therefore, became impoverished by her
+alliance, while Flanders grew fat on the liberality of her powerful
+friend. England itself derived no small benefit both from the hostility
+of Scotland and the alliance of the Flemings. When the Northern army
+was strong, and the King was hard pressed by the great Wallace, the
+sagacious Parliament exacted concessions and immunities from its
+imperious lord before it came liberally to his aid; and whenever we
+read in one page of a check to the arms of Edward, we read in the next
+of an enlargement of the popular rights. When the first glow of the
+apparent conquest of Scotland was past, and the nation was seen rising
+under the Knight of Elderslie after it had been deserted by its natural
+leaders, the lords and barons,--and, later, when in 1297 he gained a
+great victory over the English at Stirling,--the English Parliament
+lost no time in availing themselves of the defeat, and sent over to the
+king, who was at the moment in Flanders menacing the flanks of France,
+a parchment for his signature, containing the most ample ratification
+of their power of granting or withholding the supplies. It was on
+the 10th of October, 1297, that this important document was signed;
+and, satisfied with this assurance of their privileges, the "nobles,
+knights of the shire, and burgesses of England in parliament assembled"
+voted the necessary funds to enable their sovereign lord to punish his
+rebels in Scotland. Perhaps these contests between the sister countries
+deepened the patriotic feeling of each, and prepared them, at a later
+day, to throw their separate and even hostile triumphs into the united
+stock, so that, as Charles Knight says in his admirable "Popular
+History," "the Englishman who now reads of the deeds of Wallace and
+Bruce, or hears the stirring words of one of the noblest lyrics of
+any tongue, feels that the call to 'lay the proud usurper low' is one
+which stirs his blood as much as that of the born Scotsman; for the
+small distinctions of locality have vanished, and the great universal
+sympathies for the brave and the oppressed stay not to ask whether the
+battle for freedom was fought on the banks of the Thames or of the
+Forth. The mightiest schemes of despotism speedily perish. The union
+of nations is accomplished only by a slow but secure establishment of
+mutual interests and equal rights."
+
+
+
+
+                          FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ALBERT.--(_cont._)
+
+  1308. HENRY VII., (of Luxemburg.)
+
+  1314. LOUIS IV., (of Bavaria).                 } Rival
+
+  1314. FREDERICK III., (of Austria,) died 1330. } Emperors
+
+  1347. CHARLES IV., (of Luxemburg.)
+
+  1378. WENCESLAS, (of Bohemia.)
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        PHILIP IV.--(_cont._)
+
+  1314. LOUIS X., (Hutin.)
+
+  1316. PHILIP V., (the Long.)
+
+  1322. CHARLES IV., (the Handsome.)
+
+  1328. PHILIP VI.
+
+  1350. JOHN II., (the Good.)
+
+  1364. CHARLES V., (the Wise.)
+
+  1380. CHARLES VI., (the Beloved.)
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ANDRONICUS II.--(_cont._)
+
+  1332. ANDRONICUS III.
+
+  1341. JOHN PALÆOLOGUS.
+
+  1347. JOHN CANTACUZENUS.
+
+  1355. JOHN PALÆOLOGUS, (restored.)
+
+  1391. MANUEL PALÆOLOGUS.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        EDWARD I.--(_cont._)
+
+  1307. EDWARD II.
+
+  1327. EDWARD III.
+
+  1377. RICHARD II.
+
+  1399. HENRY IV.
+
+
+Kings of Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1306. ROBERT BRUCE
+
+  1329. DAVID II.
+
+  1371. ROBERT II.
+
+  1390. ROBERT III.
+
+
+  1311. Suppression of the Knights Templars.
+
+  1343. Cannon first used.
+
+  1370. John Huss born.
+
+  1383. Bible first translated into a vulgar tongue, (Wickliff's.)
+
+
+Authors.
+
+DANTE, PETRARCH, BOCCACCIO, CHAUCER, FROISSART, JOHN DUNS SCOTUS,
+BRADWARDINE, WILLIAM OCCAM, WICKLIFF.
+
+
+
+
+                        THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  ABOLITION OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLARS--RISE OF MODERN
+  LITERATURES--SCHISM OF THE CHURCH.
+
+
+In the year 1300 a jubilee was celebrated at Rome, when remission of
+sins and other spiritual indulgences were offered to all visitors by
+the liberal hand of Pope Boniface the Eighth. And for the thirty days
+of the solemn ceremonial, the crowds who poured in from all parts
+of Europe, and pursued their way from church to church and kissed
+with reverential lips the relics of the saints and martyrs, gave an
+appearance of strength and universality to the Roman Church which had
+long departed from it. Yet the downward course had been so slow, and
+each defection or defeat had been so covered from observation in a
+cloud of magnificent boasts, that the real weakness of the Papacy was
+only known to the wise and politic. Even in the splendours and apparent
+triumph of the jubilee processions it was perceived by the eyes of
+hostile statesmen that the day of faith was past.
+
+Dante, the great poet of Italy, was there, piercing with his Ithuriel
+spear the false forms under which the spiritual tyranny concealed
+itself. Countless multitudes deployed before him without blinding him
+for a moment to the unreality of all he saw. Others were there, not
+deriving their conclusions, like Dante, from the intuitive insight
+into truth with which the highest imaginations are gifted, but from
+the calmer premises of reason and observation. Even while the pæans
+were loudest and the triumph at its height, thoughts were entering
+into many hearts which had never been harboured before, but which in
+no long space bore their fruits, not only in opposition to the actual
+proceedings of Rome, but in undisguised contempt and ridicule of all
+its claims. Boniface himself, however, was ignorant of all these
+secret feelings. He was now past eighty years of age, and burning with
+a wilder personal ambition and more presumptuous ostentation than
+would have been pardonable at twenty. He appeared in the processions
+of the jubilee, dressed in the robes of the Empire, with two swords,
+and the globe of sovereignty carried before him. A herald cried,
+at the same time, "Peter, behold thy successor! Christ, behold thy
+vicar upon earth!" But the high looks of the proud were soon to be
+brought low. The King of France at that time was Philip the Handsome,
+the most unprincipled and obstinate of men, who stuck at no baseness
+or atrocity to gain his ends,--who debased the Crown, pillaged the
+Church, oppressed the people, tortured the Jews, and impoverished the
+nobility,--a self-willed, strong-handed, evil-hearted despot, and
+glowing with an intense desire to humble and spoil the Holy Father
+himself. If he could get the Pope to be his tax-gatherer, and, instead
+of emptying the land of all its wealth for the benefit of the Roman
+exchequer, pour Roman, German, English, European contributions into his
+private treasury, the object of his life would be gained. His coffers
+would be overflowing, and his principal opponent disgraced. A wonderful
+and apparently impossible scheme, but which nevertheless succeeded. The
+combatants at first seemed very equally matched. When Boniface made an
+extravagant demand, Philip sent him a contemptuous reply. When Boniface
+turned for alliances to the Emperor or to England, Philip threw himself
+on the sympathy of his lords and the inhabitants of the towns; for
+the parts formerly played by Pope and King were now reversed. The
+Papacy, instead of recurring to the people and strengthening itself
+by contact with the masses who had looked to the Church as their
+natural guard from the aggressions of their lords, now had recourse
+to the more dangerous expedient of exciting one sovereign against
+another, and weakened its power as much by concessions to its friends
+as by the hostility of its foes. The king, on the other hand, flung
+himself on the support of his subjects, including both the Church and
+Parliament, and thus raised a feeling of national independence which
+was more fatal to Roman preponderance than the most active personal
+enmity could have been. Accordingly, we find Boniface offending the
+population of France by his intemperate attacks on the worst of kings,
+and that worst of kings attracting the admiration of his people by
+standing up for the dignity of the Crown against the presumption of the
+Pope. The fact of this national spirit is shown by the very curious
+circumstance that while Philip and his advisers, in their quarrels
+with Boniface, kept within the bounds of respectful language in the
+letters they actually sent to Rome, other answers were disseminated
+among the people as having been forwarded to the Pope, outraging all
+the feelings of courtesy and respect. It was like the conduct of the
+Chinese mandarins, who publish vainglorious and triumphant bulletins
+among their people, while they write in very different language to
+the enemy at their gates. Thus, in reply to a very insulting brief of
+Boniface, beginning, "Ausculta, fili," (Listen, son,) and containing
+a catalogue of all his complaints against the French king, Philip
+published a version of it, omitting all the verbiage in which the
+insolent meaning was involved, and accompanied it in the same way with
+a copy of the unadorned eloquence which constituted his reply. In this
+he descended to very plain speaking. "Philip," he says, "by the grace
+of God, King of the French, to Boniface, calling himself Pope, little
+or no salutation. Be it known to your Fatuity that we are subject in
+temporals to no man alive; that the collation of churches and vacant
+prebends is inherent in our Crown; that their 'fruits' belong to us;
+that all presentations made or to be made by us are valid; that we
+will maintain our presentees in possession of them with all our power;
+and that we hold for fools and idiots whosoever believes otherwise."
+This strange address received the support of the great majority of
+the nation, and was meant as a translation into the vulgar tongue of
+the real intentions of the irritated monarch, which were concealed
+in the letter really despatched in a mist of polite circumlocutions.
+Boniface perceived the animus of his foe, but bore himself as loftily
+as ever. When a meeting of the barons, held in the Louvre, had appealed
+to a General Council and had passed a vote of condemnation against
+the Pope as guilty of many crimes, not exclusive of heresy itself, he
+answered, haughtily, that the summoning of a council was a prerogative
+of the Pope, and that already the King had incurred the danger of
+excommunication for the steps he had taken against the Holy Chair. To
+prevent the publication of the sentence, which might have been made a
+powerful weapon against France in the hands of Albert of Germany or
+Edward of England, it was necessary to give notice of an appeal to a
+General Council into the hands of the Pope in person. He had retired
+to Anagni, his native town, where he found himself more secure among
+his friends and relations than in the capital of his See. Colonna, a
+discontented Roman and sworn enemy of Boniface, and Supino, a military
+adventurer, whom Philip bought over with a bribe of ten thousand
+florins, introduced Nogaret, the French chancellor and chief adviser of
+the king, into Anagni, with cries from their armed attendants of "Death
+to the Pope!" "Long live the King of France!" The cardinals fled in
+dismay. The inhabitants, not being able to prevent their visitors from
+pillaging the shops, joined them in that occupation, and every thing
+was in confusion. The Pope was in despair. His own nephew had abandoned
+his cause and made terms for himself. Accounts vary as to his behaviour
+in these extremities. Perhaps they are all true at different periods of
+the scene. At first, overwhelmed with the treachery of his friends, he
+is said to have burst into tears. Then he gathered his ancient courage,
+and, when commanded to abdicate, offered his neck to the assailants;
+and at last, to strike them with awe, or at least to die with dignity,
+he bore on his shoulders the mantle of St. Peter, placed the crown of
+Constantine on his head, and grasped the keys and cross in his hands.
+Colonna, they say, struck him on the cheek with his iron gauntlet till
+the blood came. Let us hope that this is an invention of the enemy; for
+the Pope was eighty-six years old, and Colonna was a Roman soldier.
+There is always a tendency to elevate the sufferer in the cause we
+favour, by the introduction of ennobling circumstances. In this and
+other instances of the same kind there is the further temptation in
+orthodox historians to make the most they can of the martyrdom of
+one of their chiefs, and in a peculiar manner to glorify the wrongs
+of their hero by their resemblance to the sufferings of Christ. But
+the rest of the story is melancholy enough without the aggravation of
+personal pain. The pontiff abstained from food for three whole days.
+He consumed his grief in secret, and was only relieved at last from
+fears of the dagger or poison by an insurrection of the people. They
+fell upon the French escort when they perceived how weak it was, and
+carried the Pope into the market-place. He said, "Good people, you have
+seen how our enemies have spoiled me of my goods. Behold me as poor as
+Job. I tell you truly, I have nothing to eat or drink. If there is any
+good woman who will charitably bestow on me a little bread and wine, or
+even a little water, I will give her God's blessing and mine. Whoever
+will bring me the smallest thing in this my necessity, I will give him
+remission of all his sins." All the people cried, "Long live the Holy
+Father!" They ran and brought him bread and wine, and any thing they
+had. Everybody would enter and speak to him, just as to any other of
+the poor. In a short time after this he proceeded to Rome, and felt
+once more in safety. But his heart was tortured by anger and a thirst
+for vengeance. He became insane; and when he tried to escape from the
+restraints his state demanded, and found his way barred by the Orsini,
+his insanity became madness. He foamed at the mouth and ground his
+teeth when he was spoken to. He repelled the offers of his friends with
+curses and violence, and died without the sacraments or consolations of
+the Church. [A.D. 1303.] The people remembered the prophecy made of him
+by his predecessor Celestin:--"You mounted like a fox; you will reign
+like a lion; you will die like a dog."
+
+But the degradation of the papal chair was not yet complete, and Philip
+was far from satisfied. Merely to have harassed to death an old man
+of eighty-six was not sufficient for a monarch who wanted a servant
+in the Pope more than a victim. To try his power over Benedict the
+Eleventh, the successor of Boniface, he began a process in the Roman
+court against the memory of his late antagonist. Benedict replied by
+an anathema in general terms on the murderers of Boniface, and all
+Philip's crimes and schemings seemed of no avail. But one day the
+sister of a religious order presented His Holiness with a basket of
+figs, and in a short time the pontifical throne was vacant.
+
+Now was the time for the triumph of the king. He had devoted much
+time and money to win over a number of cardinals to his cause, and
+obtained a promise under their hands and seals that they would vote
+for whatever candidate he chose to name. He was not long in fixing on
+a certain Bernard de Goth, Archbishop of Bordeaux, the most greedy
+and unprincipled of the prelates of France, and appointed a meeting
+with him to settle the terms of a bargain. They met in a forest, they
+heard mass together, and took mutual oaths of secrecy, and then the
+business began. "See, archbishop," said the king: "I have it in my
+power to make you Pope if I choose; and if you promise me six favours
+which I will ask of you, I will assure you that dignity, and give you
+evidence of the truth of what I say." So saying, he showed the letters
+and delegation of both the electoral colleges. The archbishop, filled
+with covetousness, and seeing at once how entirely the popedom depended
+on the king, threw himself trembling with joy at Philip's feet. "My
+lord," he said, "I now perceive you love me more than any man alive,
+and that you render me good for evil. It is for you to command,--for
+me to obey; and I shall always be ready to do so." The king lifted
+him up, kissed him on the mouth, and said to him, "The six special
+favours I have to ask of you are these. First, that you will reconcile
+me entirely with the Church, and get me pardoned for my misdeed in
+arresting Pope Boniface. Second, that you will give the communion to
+me and all my supporters. Third, that you will give me tithes of the
+clergy of my realm for five years, to supply the expenses of the war
+in Flanders. Fourth, that you will destroy and annul the memory of
+Boniface the Eighth. Fifth, that you will give the dignity of Cardinal
+to Messer Jacopo, and Messer Piero de la Colonna, along with certain
+others of my friends. As for the sixth favour and promise, I reserve
+it for the proper time and place, for it is a great and secret thing."
+The archbishop promised all by oath on the Corpus Domini, and gave his
+brother and two nephews as hostages. The king, on the other hand, made
+oath to have him elected Pope.
+
+[A.D. 1305.]
+
+His Holiness Clement the Fifth was therefore the thrall and servant of
+Philip le Bel. No office was too lowly, or sacrifice too large, for
+the grateful pontiff. He carried his subserviency so far as to cross
+the Alps and receive the wages of his obedience, the papal tiara, at
+Lyons. He became in fact a citizen of France, and subject of the crown.
+He delivered over the clergy to the relentless hands of the king. He
+gave him tithes of all their livings; and as the Count of Flanders
+owed money to Philip which he had no means of paying, the generosity
+of the Pope came to the rescue, and he gave the tithes of the Flemish
+clergy to the bankrupt count in order to enable him to pay his debt to
+the exacting monarch. But the gift of these taxes was not a transfer
+from the Pope to the king or count: His Holiness did not reduce his
+own demands in consideration of the subsidies given to those powers.
+He completed, indeed, the ruin the royal tax-gatherers began; for he
+travelled in more than imperial state from end to end of France, and
+ate bishop and abbot, and prior and prebendary, out of house and home.
+Wherever he rested for a night or two, the land became impoverished;
+and all this wealth was poured into the lap of a certain Brunissende
+de Périgord, who cost the Church, it was popularly said, more than
+the Holy Land. But the capacity of Christian contribution was soon
+exhausted; and yet the interminable avarice of Pope and King went on.
+The honourable pair hit upon an excellent expedient, and the Jews were
+offered as a fresh pasture for the unimpaired appetite of the Father
+of Christendom and the eldest son of the Church. Philip hated their
+religion, but seems to have had a great respect for the accuracy of
+their proceedings in trade. So, to gratify the first, he stripped
+them of all they had, and, to prove the second, confiscated the money
+he found entered in their books as lent on interest to Christians.
+He was found to be a far more difficult creditor to deal with than
+the original lenders had been, and many a baron and needy knight had
+to refund to Philip the sums, with interest at twenty per cent.,
+which they might have held indefinitely from the sons of Abraham and
+repudiated in an access of religious fervour at last.
+
+But worse calamities were hanging over the heads of knights and barons
+than the avarice of Philip and the dishonesty of Clement. Knighthood
+itself, and feudalism, were about to die,--knighthood, which had
+offered at all events an ideal of nobleness and virtue, and feudalism,
+which had replaced the expiring civilization of Rome founded on the
+centralization of power in one man's hands, and the degradation of all
+the rest, with a new form of society which derived its vitality from
+independent action and individual self-respect. It was by a still wider
+expansion of power and influence that feudalism was to be superseded.
+Other elements besides the possession of land were to come into the
+constitution of the new state of human affairs. The man henceforth
+was not to be the mere representative of so many acres of ground. His
+individuality was to be still further defined, and learning, wealth,
+knowledge, arts, and sciences were from this time forth to have as
+much weight in the commonwealth as the hoisted pennon and strong-armed
+followers of the steel-clad warrior.
+
+    "The old order changeth, giving place to new,
+     Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
+
+We have already seen the prosperity of the towns, and have even heard
+the contemptuous laughter with which the high-fed burghers of Ghent
+or Bruges received the caracollings of their ponderous suzerain as,
+armed _cap-à-pied_, he rode up to their impregnable walls. Not less
+barricaded than the contemptuous city behind the steel fortifications
+with which he protected his person, the knight had nothing to fear so
+long as he bestrode his war-horse and managed to get breath enough
+through the openings of his cross-barred visor. He was as safe in his
+iron coating as a turtle in its shell; but he was nearly as unwieldy as
+he was safe. When galloping forward against a line of infantry, nothing
+could resist his weight. With heavy mace or sweeping sword he cleared
+his ground on either side, and the unarmoured adversary had no means
+of repelling his assault. A hundred knights, therefore, we may readily
+believe, very often have put their thousands or tens of thousands to
+flight. We read, indeed, of immense slaughters of the common people,
+accompanied with the loss of one single knight; and this must be
+attributed to the perfection which the armourer's art had attained,
+by which no opening for arrow or spear-point was left in the whole
+suit. But military instruments had for some time been invented, which,
+by projecting large stones with enormous force, flattened the solid
+cuirass or crushed the glittering helm. Once get the stunned or wounded
+warrior on the ground, there was no further danger to be apprehended.
+He lay in his iron prison unable to get up, unable to breathe, and
+with the additional misfortune of being so admirably protected that his
+enemies had difficulty in putting him out of his pain. This, however,
+was counterbalanced by the ample time he possessed, during their futile
+efforts to reach a vital part, to bargain for his life; and this was
+another element in the safety of knightly war. A ransom could at all
+times preserve his throat, whereas the disabled foot-soldier was
+pierced with relentless point or trodden down by the infuriated horse.
+The knight's position, therefore, was more like that of a fighter
+behind walls, only that he carried his wall with him wherever he went,
+and even when a breach was made could stop up the gap with a sum of
+money. Nobody had ever believed it possible for footmen to stand up
+against a charge of cavalry. No manoeuvres were learned like the hollow
+squares of modern times, which, at Waterloo and elsewhere, have stood
+unmoved against the best swordsmen of the world. But once, at the
+beginning of this century, in 1302, a dreadful event happened, which
+gave a different view of the capabilities of determined infantry in
+making head against their assailants, and commenced the lesson of the
+resistibility of mounted warriors which was completed by Bannockburn in
+Scotland, and Crecy and Poictiers.
+
+The dreadful event was the entire overthrow of the knights and
+gentlemen of France by the citizens of a Flemish manufacturing town
+at the battle of Courtrai. Impetuous valour, and contempt for smiths
+and weavers, blinded the fiery nobles. They rushed forward with loose
+bridles, and, as they had disdained to reconnoitre the scene of the
+display, they fell headlong, one after another, horse and plume,
+sword and spur, into one enormous ditch which lay between them and
+their enemies. On they came, an avalanche of steel and horseflesh,
+and floundered into the muddy hole. Hundreds, thousands, unable to
+check their steeds, or afraid to appear irresolute, or goggling in
+vain through the deep holes left for their eyes, fell, struggled,
+writhed, and choked, till the ditch was filled with trampled knights
+and tumbling horses, and the burghers on the opposite bank beat in the
+helmets of those who tried to climb up, with jagged clubs, and hacked
+their naked heads. And when the whole army was annihilated, and the
+spoils were gathered, it was found there were princes and lords in
+almost incredible numbers, and four thousand golden spurs to mark the
+extent of the knightly slaughter and give name to the engagement. It
+is called the Battle of the Spurs,--for a nobler cause than another
+engagement of the same name, which we shall meet with in a future
+century, and which derived its appellation from the fact that spurs
+were more in requisition than swords.
+
+Philip was at this moment in the middle of his quarrel with Boniface.
+He determined to compensate himself for the loss he had sustained
+in military fame at Courtrai by fiercer exactions on his clergy and
+bitterer enmity to the Pope. We have seen how he pursued the wretched
+Boniface to the grave, and persisted in trying to force the obsequious
+Clement to blacken his memory after he was dead. Clement was unwilling
+to expose the vices and crimes of his predecessor, and yet he had given
+a promise in that strange meeting in the forest to work his master's
+will; he was also resident in France, and knew how unscrupulous his
+protector was. Philip availed himself of the discredit brought on
+knighthood by the loss of all those golden spurs, and compounded for
+leaving the deceased pontiff alone, by exacting the consent of Clement
+to his assault on the order of the Templars, the wealthiest institution
+in the world, who held thousands of the best manors in France, and
+whose spoils would make him the richest king in Christendom. Yet the
+Templars were no contemptible foes. In number they were but fourteen
+thousand, but their castles were over all the land; they were every
+one of them of noble blood, and strong in the relationship of all the
+great houses in Europe. If they had united with their brethren, the
+Knights Hospitallers, no sovereign could have resisted their demands;
+but, fortunately for Philip, they were rivals to the death, and gave no
+assistance to each other when oppressed. Both, in fact, had outlived
+the causes of their institution, and had forfeited the respect of the
+masses of the people by their ostentatious abnegation of all the rules
+by which they professed to be bound. Poverty, chastity, and brotherly
+kindness were the sworn duties of the most rich, sensual, and unpitying
+society which ever lived. When Richard of England was dying, he made an
+imaginary will, and said, "I leave my avarice to the Citeaux, my luxury
+to the Grey Friars, and my pride to the Templars." And the Templars
+took possession of the bequest. When driven from the Holy Land, they
+settled in all the Christian kingdoms from Denmark to the south of
+Italy, and everywhere presented the same spectacle of selfishness and
+debauchery. In Paris they had got possession of a tract of ground
+equal to one-third of the whole city, and had covered it with towers
+and battlements, and within the unapproachable fortress lived a life
+of the most luxurious self-indulgence. Strange rumours got abroad
+of the unholy rites with which their initiations were accompanied.
+Their receptions into the order were so mysterious and sacred that
+an interloper (if it had been the King of France) would have been
+put to death for his intrusion. Frightful stories were told of their
+blasphemies and hideous ceremonials. Reports came even from over the
+sea, that while in Jerusalem they had conformed to the Mohammedan faith
+and had exchanged visits and friendly offices with the chiefs of the
+unbelievers. Against so dark and haughty an association it was easy to
+stir up the popular dislike. Nobody could take their part, they lived
+so entirely to themselves and shunned sympathy and society with so cold
+a disdain. They were men of religious vows without the humility of that
+condition, so they were hated by the nobles, who looked on priests
+as their natural inferiors; they were nobles without the individual
+riches of the barons and counts, and they were hated by the priests,
+who were at all times the foes of the aristocracy. Hated, therefore, by
+priest and noble, their policy would have been to make friends of the
+lower orders, rising citizens, and the great masses of the people. But
+they saw no necessity for altering their lofty course. They bore right
+onward in their haughty disregard of all the rest of the world, and
+were condemned by the universal feeling before any definite accusation
+was raised against them.
+
+Clement yielded a faint consent to the proceedings of Philip, and that
+honourable champion of the faith gave full loose to his covetousness
+and hatred. First of all he prayed meekly for admission as a brother
+of the order. He would wear the red cross upon his shoulder and obey
+their godly laws. If he had obtained his object, he would have procured
+the grand-mastership for himself and disposed of their wealth at his
+own discretion. The order might have survived, but their possessions
+would have been Philip's. They perhaps perceived his aim, and declined
+to admit him into their ranks. A rejected candidate soon changes his
+opinion of the former object of his ambition. He now reversed his plan,
+and declared they were unworthy, not only to wallow in the wealth and
+splendour of their commanderies, but to live in a Christian land. He
+said they were guilty of all the crimes and enormities by which human
+nature was ever disgraced. James de Molay, the grand-master, and all
+the knights of the order throughout France, were seized and thrown into
+prison. Letters were written to all other kings and princes, inciting
+them to similar conduct, and denouncing the doomed fraternity in the
+harshest terms. The promise of the spoil was tempting to the European
+sovereigns, but all of them resisted the inducement, or at least took
+gentler methods of attaining the same end. But Philip was as much
+pleased with the pursuit as with the catching of the game. He summoned
+a council of the realm, and obtained at the same time a commission
+of inquiry from the Pope. With these two courts to back him, it was
+impossible to fail. The knights were kept in noisome dungeons. They
+were scantily fed, and tormented with alternate promises and threats.
+When physically weak and mentally depressed, they were tortured in
+their secret cells, and under the pressure of fear and desperation
+confessed to whatever was laid to their charge. Relieved from their
+torments for a moment, they retracted their confessions; but the
+written words remained. [A.D. 1312.] And in one day, before the public
+had been prepared for such extremity of wrong, fifty-four of these
+Christian soldiers--now old, and fallen from their high estate--were
+publicly burned in the place of execution, and no further limit was
+placed to the rapacity of the king. Still the odious process crept on
+with the appearance of law, for already the forms of perverted justice
+were found safer and more certain than either sword or fagot; and at
+last, in 1314, the ruined brotherhood were allowed to join themselves
+to other fraternities. The name of Templar was blotted out from the
+knightly roll-call of all Europe; and in every nation, in England and
+Scotland particularly, the order was despoiled of all its possessions.
+Clement, however, was furious at seeing the moderation of rulers like
+Edward II., who merely stripped the Templars of their houses and lands,
+and did not dabble, as his patron Philip had done, in their blood,
+and rebuked them in angry missives for their coldness in the cause of
+religion.
+
+Now, early in this century, a Pope had been personally ill used, and
+his successor had become the pensioner and prisoner of one of the
+basest of kings; a glorious brotherhood of Christian knights had been
+shamelessly and bloodily destroyed. Was there no outcry from outraged
+piety?--no burst of indignation against the perpetrator of so foul a
+wrong? Pity was at last excited by the sufferings and humiliations
+of the brothers of the Temple; but pity is not a feeling on which
+knighthood can depend for vitality or strength. Perhaps, indeed, the
+sympathy raised for the sad ending of that once-dreaded institution
+was more fatal to its revival, and more injurious to the credit of
+all surviving chivalry, than the greatest amount of odium would have
+been. Speculative discussions were held about the guilt or innocence
+of the Templars, but the worst of their crimes was the crime of being
+weak. If they had continued united and strong, nobody would have heard
+of the excesses laid to their charge. Passing over the impossible
+accusations brought against them by ignorance and hatred, the offence
+they were charged with which raised the greatest indignation, and was
+least capable of disproof, was that in their reception into the order
+they spat upon the crucifix and trampled on the sign of our salvation.
+Nothing can be plainer than that this, at the first formation of the
+order, had been a symbol, which in the course of years had lost its
+significance. At first introduced as an emblem of Peter's denial and
+of worldly disbelief, to be exchanged, when once they were clothed
+with the Crusader's mantle, for unflinching service and undoubting
+Faith,--a passage from death unto life,--it had been retained long
+after its intention had been forgotten; and nothing is so striking as
+the confession of some of the younger knights, of the reluctance, the
+shame and trembling, with which, at the request of their superior, they
+had gone through the repulsive ceremony. This is one of the dangers of
+a symbolic service. The symbol supersedes the fact. The imitation of
+Peter becomes a falling away from Christ. But a century before this
+time, who can doubt that all Christendom would have rushed to the
+rescue of the Pope if he had been seized in his own city and maltreated
+as Boniface had been, and that every gentleman in Europe would have
+drawn sword in behalf of the noble Templars?
+
+But papacy, feudalism, and knighthood, as they had risen and flourished
+together, were enveloped in the same fall. The society of the Dark
+Ages had been perfect in its symmetry and compactness. Kings were but
+feudal leaders and chiefs in their own domains. Knighthood was but the
+countenance which feudalism turned to its enemies, while hospitality,
+protection, and alliance were its offerings to its friends. Over all,
+representative of the heavenly power which cared for the helpless
+multitudes, the serfs and villeins, those who had no other friend,--the
+Church extended its sheltering arms to the lowest of the low. Feudalism
+could take care of itself; knighthood made itself feared; but the
+multitudes could only listen and be obedient. All, therefore, who
+had no sword, and no broad acres, were natural subjects of the Pope.
+But with the rise of the masses the relations between them and the
+Church became changed. It was found that during the last two hundred
+years, since the awakening of mercantile enterprise by the Crusades
+and the commingling of the population in those wild and yet elevating
+expeditions, by the progress of the arts, by the privileges wrung
+from king and noble by flourishing towns or purchased from them with
+sterling coin, by the deterioration in the morals of priest and baron,
+and the rise in personal importance of burghers, who could fight like
+those of Courtrai or raise armies like those of Pisa and Genoa,--that
+the state of society had gradually been changed; that the commons were
+well able to defend their own interest; that the feudal proprietor had
+lost his relative rank; that the knight was no longer irresistible
+as a warrior; and that the Pope had become one of the most worldly
+and least scrupulous of rulers. Far from being the friend of the
+unprotected, the Church was the subject of all the ballads of every
+nation, wherein its exactions and debaucheries were sung at village
+fairs and conned over in chimney-corners. Cannon were first used in
+this century at the siege of Algesiras in 1343; and with the first
+discharge knighthood fell forever from the saddle. The Bible was first
+translated into a national tongue,[C] and Popery fell forever from its
+unopposed dominion. How, indeed, even without this incident, could the
+Papacy have retained its power? From 1305 till 1376 the wearers of the
+tiara were the mere puppets of the Kings of France. They lived in a
+nominal freedom at Avignon, but the college of electors was in the pay
+of the French sovereign, and the Pope was the creature of his hands.
+This was fatal to the notion of his independence. But a heavier blow
+was struck at the unity of the papal power when a double election, in
+1378, established two supreme chiefs, one exacting the obedience of
+the faithful from his palace on the banks of the Rhone, and the other
+advancing the same claim from the banks of the Tiber. From this time
+the choice of the chief pontiff became a political struggle between
+the principal kings. There were French and German, and even English,
+parties in the conclave, and bribes were as freely administered as
+at a contested election or on a dubious question in the time of Sir
+Robert Walpole. Family interest also, from this time, had more effect
+on the policy of the Popes than the ambition to extend their spiritual
+authority. They sacrificed some portion of their claims to insure
+the elevation of their relations. Alliances were made, not for the
+benefit of the Roman chair, but for some kinsman's establishment in a
+principality. Dukedoms became appanages of the papal name, and every
+new Pope left the mark of his beneficence in the riches and influence
+of the favourite nephew whom he had invested with sovereign rank.
+Italy became filled with new dynasties created by these means, and the
+politics of the papal court became complicated by this diversity of
+motive and influence. Yet feudalism struggled on in spite of cannon and
+the rise of the middle orders; and Popery struggled on in spite of the
+spread of information and the diffusion of wealth and freedom. For some
+time, indeed, the decline of both those institutions was hidden by a
+factitious brilliancy reflected on them by other causes. The increase
+of refinement gave rise to feelings of romance, which were unknown in
+the days of darkness and suffering through which Europe had passed. A
+reverence for antiquity softened the harsher features by which they
+had been actually distinguished, and knighthood became subtilized into
+chivalry. [A.D. 1350.] As the hard and uninviting reality retreated
+into the past, the imagination clothed it in enchanting hues; and at
+the very time when the bowmen and yeomanry of England had shown at
+Crecy how unfounded were the "boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,"
+Edward III. had instituted the Order of the Garter,--a transmutation
+as it were of the rude shocks of knighthood into carpet pacings in the
+gilded halls of a palace; as in a former age the returned Crusaders
+had supplied the want of the pride and circumstance of the real
+charge against the Saracen by introducing the bloodless imitation
+of it afforded by the tournament. In the same way the personal
+disqualification of the Pope was supplied by an elevation of the ideal
+of his place and office. Religion became poetry and sentiment; and
+though henceforth the reigning pontiff was treated with the harshness
+and sometimes the contempt his personal character deserved, his
+throne was still acknowledged as the loftiest of earthly thrones. The
+plaything of the present was nevertheless an idol and representative
+of the past; and kings who drove him from his home, or locked him up
+in their prisons, pretended to tremble at his anger, and received his
+letters on their knees.
+
+It must have been evident to any far-seeing observer that some great
+change was in progress during the whole of this century, not so much
+from the results of Courtrai, or Crecy, or Poictiers, or the migration
+of the Pope to Avignon, or the increasing riches of the trading and
+manufacturing towns, as from the great uprising of the human mind
+which was shown by the almost simultaneous appearance of such stars
+of literature as Dante, and Petrarch, and Boccaccio, and our English
+Chaucer. I suppose no single century since has been in possession of
+four such men. Great geniuses, indeed, and great discoveries, seem
+to come in crops, as if a certain period had been fixed for their
+bursting into flower; and we find the same grand ideas engaging
+the intellects of men widely dispersed, so that a novelty in art or
+science is generally disputed between contending nations. But this
+synchronous development of power is symptomatic of some wide-spread
+tendency, which alters the ordinary course of affairs; and we see in
+the Canterbury Tales the dawning of the Reformation; in Shakspeare
+and Bacon the inauguration of a new order of government and manners;
+in Locke and Milton a still further liberation from the chains of a
+worn-out philosophy; in Watt, and Fulton, and Cartwright, we see the
+spread of civilization and power. In Walter Scott and Wordsworth, and
+the wonderful galaxy of literary stars who illuminated the beginning
+of this century, we see Waterloo and Peace, a widening of national
+sympathies, and the opening of a great future career to all the
+nations of the world. For nothing is so true an index of the state
+and prospects of a people as the healthfulness and honest taste of
+its literature. It was in this sense that Fletcher of Saltoun said,
+(or quoted,) "Give me the making of the ballads of a people, and I
+don't care who makes the laws." While we have such pure and wholesome
+literature as is furnished us by Hallam, and Macaulay, and Alison, by
+Tennyson, Dickens, Thackeray, and the rest, philosophy like Hamilton's,
+and science like Herschel's and Faraday's, we have no cause to look
+forward with doubt or apprehension.
+
+  "Naught shall make us rue
+   If England to herself do rest but true."
+
+But those pioneers of the Fourteenth Century had dangers and
+difficulties to encounter from which their successors have been free.
+It is a very different thing for authors to write for the applause of
+an appreciating public, and for them to create an appreciating public
+for themselves. Their audience must at first have been hostile.
+First, the critical and scholarly part of the world was offended with
+the bad taste of writing in the modern languages at all. Secondly,
+the pitch at which they struck the national note was too high for the
+ears of the vulgar. A correct and dignified use of the spoken tongue,
+the conveyance, in ordinary and familiar words, of lofty or poetical
+thoughts, filled both those classes with surprise. To the scholar it
+seemed good materials enveloped in a very unworthy covering. To "the
+general" it seemed an attempt to deprive them of their vernacular
+phrases and bring bad grammar and coarse expressions into disrepute.
+Petrarch was so conscious of this that he speaks apologetically of his
+sonnets in Italian, and founds his hope of future fame on his Latin
+verses. But more important than the poems of Dante and Chaucer, or
+the prose of Boccaccio, was the introduction of the new literature
+represented by Froissart. Hitherto chronicles had for the most part
+consisted of the record of such wandering rumours as reached a
+monastery or were gathered in the religious pilgrimages of holy men.
+Mingled, even the best of them, with the credulity of inexperienced
+and simple minds, their effect was lost on the contemporary generation
+by the isolation of the writers. Nobody beyond the convent-walls knew
+what the learned historians of the establishment had been doing. Their
+writings were not brought out into the light of universal day, and a
+knowledge of European society gathered point by point, by comparing,
+analyzing, and contrasting the various statements contained in those
+dispersed repositories. But at this time there came into notice the
+most inquiring, enterprising, picturesque, and entertaining chronicler
+that had ever appeared since Herodotus read the result of his personal
+travels and sagacious inquiries to the assembled multitudes of Greece.
+
+John Froissart, called by the courtesy of the time Sir John, in honour
+of his being priest and chaplain, devoted a long life to the collection
+of the fullest and most trustworthy accounts of all the events and
+personages characteristic of his time. From 1326, when his labours
+commenced, to 1400, when his active pen stood still, nothing happened
+in any part of Europe that the Paul Pry of the period did not rush
+off to verify on the spot. If he heard of an assemblage of knights
+going on at the extremities of France or in the centre of Germany,
+of a tournament at Bordeaux, a court gala in Scotland, or a marriage
+festival at Milan, his travels began,--whether in the humble guise of a
+solitary horseman with his portmanteau behind his saddle and a single
+greyhound at his heels, as he jogged wearily across the Border, till
+he finally arrived in Edinburgh, or in his grander style of equipment,
+gallant steed, with hackney led beside him, and four dogs of high
+race gambolling round his horse, as he made his dignified journey
+from Ferrara to Rome. Wherever life was to be seen and painted, the
+indefatigable Froissart was to be found. Whatever he had gathered up on
+former expeditions, whatever he learned on his present tour, down it
+went in his own exquisite language, with his own poetical impression
+of the pomps and pageantries he beheld; and when at the end of his
+journey he reached the court of prince or potentate, no higher treat
+could be offered to the "noble lords and ladies bright" than to form a
+glittering circle round the enchanting chronicler and listen to what
+he had written. From palace to palace, from castle to castle, the
+unwearied "picker-up of unconsidered trifles" (which, however, were
+neither trifles nor unconsidered, when their true value became known,
+as giving life and reality to the annals of a whole period) pursued
+his happy way, certain of a friendly reception when he arrived, and
+certain of not losing his time by negligence or blindness on the
+road. If he overtakes a stately cavalier, attended by squires and
+men-at-arms, he enters into conversation, drawing out the experiences
+of the venerable warrior by relating to him all he knew of things and
+persons in which he took an interest. And when they put up at some
+hostelry on the road, and while the gallant knight was sound asleep
+on his straw-stuffed couch, and his followers were wallowing amid the
+rushes on the parlour floor, Froissart was busy with pen and note-book,
+scoring down all the old gentleman had told him, all the fights he had
+been present at, and the secret history (if any) of the councils of
+priests and kings. In this way knights in distant parts of the world
+became known to each other. The same voice which described to Douglas
+at Dalkeith the exploits of the Prince of Wales sounded the praises of
+Douglas in the ears of the Black Prince at Bordeaux. A community of
+sentiment was produced between the upper ranks of all nations by this
+common register of their acts and feelings; and knighthood received its
+most ennobling consummation in these imperishable descriptions, at the
+very time when its political and military influence came to a close.
+Froissart's Chronicles are the epitaph of feudalism, written indeed
+while it was yet alive, but while its strength was only the convulsive
+energy of approaching death. The standard of knightly virtue became
+raised in proportion as knightly power decayed. In the same way as the
+increased civilization and elevating influences of the time clothed
+the Church in colours borrowed from the past, while its real influence
+was seriously impaired, the expiring embers of knighthood occasionally
+flashed up into something higher; and in this century we read of Du
+Guesclin of France, Walter Manny and Edward the Third of England, and
+many others, who illustrated the order with qualifications it had
+never possessed in its palmiest state.
+
+Courtrai was fought and Amadis de Gaul written almost at the same
+time. Let us therefore mark, as a characteristic of the period we have
+reached, the decay of knighthood, or feudalism in its armour of proof,
+and the growth at the same time of a sense of honour and generosity,
+which contrasted strangely in its softened and sentimentalized
+refinement with the harshness and cruelty which still clung to the
+ordinary affairs of life. Thus the young conqueror of Poictiers led his
+captive John into London with the respectful attention of a grateful
+subject to a crowned king. He waited on him at table, and made him
+forget the humiliation of defeat and the griefs of imprisonment in
+the sympathy and reverence with which he was everywhere surrounded.
+This same prince was regardless of human life or suffering where the
+theatrical show of magnanimity was not within his reach, bloodthirsty
+and tyrannical, and is declared by the chronicler himself to be of "a
+high, overbearing spirit, and cruel in his hatred." It shows, however,
+what an advance had already been made in the influence of public
+opinion, when we read how generally the treatment of the noble captive,
+John of France, was appreciated. In former ages, and even at present in
+nations of a lower state of feelings, the kind treatment of a fallen
+enemy, or the sparing of a helpless population, would be attributed
+to weakness or fear. Chivalry, which was an attempt to amalgamate the
+Christian virtues with the rougher requirements of the feudal code,
+taught the duty of being pitiful as well as brave. And though at this
+period that feeling only existed between knight and knight, and was not
+yet extended to their treatment of the common herd, the principle was
+asserted that war could be carried on without personal animosity, and
+that courage, endurance, and the other knightly qualities were to be
+admired as much in an enemy as a friend.
+
+There was, however, another reason for this besides the natural
+admiration which great deeds are sure to call forth in natures capable
+of performing them; and that was, that Europe was divided into petty
+sovereignties, too weak to maintain their independence without foreign
+aid, too proud to submit to another government, and trusting to the
+support their money or influence could procure. In all countries,
+therefore, there existed bodies of mercenary soldiers--or Free Lances,
+as they were called--claiming the dignity and rank of knights and
+noblemen, who never knew whether the men they were fighting to-day
+might not be their comrades and followers to-morrow. In Italy, always a
+country of divisions and enmities, there were armed combatants secured
+on either side. Unconnected with the country they defended by any ties
+of kindred or allegiance, they found themselves opposed to a body,
+perhaps of their countrymen, certainly of their former companions; and,
+except so much as was required to earn their pay and preserve their
+reputation, they did nothing that might be injurious to their temporary
+foes. Battles accordingly were fought where feats of horsemanship
+and dexterity at their weapons were shown; where rushes were made
+into the vacant space between the armies by contending warriors, and
+horse and man acquitted themselves with the acclamations, and almost
+with the safety, of a charge in the amphitheatre at Astley's. But no
+blood was spilt, no life was taken; and a long summer day has seen a
+confused mêlée going on between the hired combatants of two cities or
+principalities, without a single casualty more serious than a cavalier
+thrown from his horse and unable to rise from the weight and tightness
+of his armour. Fights of this kind could scarcely be considered in
+earnest, and we are not surprised to find that the burden and heat of
+an engagement was thrown upon the light-armed foot: we gather, indeed,
+towards the end of Froissart's Chronicles, that while the cavaliers
+persisted in endeavouring to distinguish their individual prowess, as
+at the battle of Navareta in Spain, and got into confusion in their
+eagerness of assault, "the sharpness of the English arrows began to be
+felt," and the fate of the battle depended on the unflinching line and
+impregnable solidity of the archers and foot-soldiers. These latter
+took a deeper interest in the result than the more showy performers,
+and were not carried away by the vanities of personal display.
+
+Look at the year 1300, with the jubilee of Boniface going on. Look
+at 1400, with the death of Chaucer and Froissart, and the enthroning
+of Henry the Fourth, and what an amount of incident, of change and
+improvement, has been crowded into the space! The rise of national
+literatures, the softening of feudalism, the decline of Church
+power,--these--illustrated by Dante and Chaucer, by the alteration
+in the art of war, and above all, perhaps, by the translation of the
+Bible into the vulgar tongue--were not only the fruits gained for the
+present, but the promise of greater things to come. There will be
+occasional backslidings after this time, but the onward progress is
+steady and irresistible: the regressions are but the reflux waves in
+an advancing tide, caused by the very force and vitality of the great
+sea beyond. And after this view of some of the main features of the
+century, we shall take a very cursory glance at some of the principal
+events on which the portraiture is founded.
+
+It is a bad sign of the early part of this period that our great
+landmarks are still battles and invasions. [A.D. 1314.] After
+Courtrai in 1302, where the nobility rushed blindfold into a natural
+ditch, we come upon Bannockburn in 1314, where Edward the Second,
+not comprehending the aim of his more politic father,--whose object
+was to counterpoise the growing power of the French monarchy by
+consolidating his influence at home,--had marched rather to revenge
+his outraged dignity than to establish his denied authority, and
+was signally defeated by Robert Bruce. Is it not possible that the
+stratagem by which the English chivalry suffered so much by means
+of the pits dug for their reception in the space in front of the
+Scottish lines was borrowed from Courtrai,--art supplying in that dry
+plain near Stirling what nature had furnished to the marshy Brabant?
+However this may be, the same fatal result ensued. Pennon and standard,
+waving plume and flashing sword, disappeared in those yawning gulfs,
+and at the present hour very rusty spurs and fragments of broken
+helmets are dug from beneath the soil to mark the greatness and the
+quality of the slaughter. Meantime, in compact phalanx--protected by
+the knights and gentlemen on the flanks, but left to its own free
+action--the Scottish array bore on. Strong spear and sharp sword did
+the rest, and the English army, shorn of its cavalry, disheartened by
+the loss of its leaders, and finally deserted by its pusillanimous
+king, retreated in confusion, and all hope of retaining the country
+by the right of conquest was forever laid aside. Poor Edward had,
+in appalling consciousness of his own imperfections, applied to the
+Pope for permission to rub himself with an ointment that would make
+him brave. Either the Pope refused his consent or the ointment failed
+of its purpose. Nothing could rouse a brave thought in the heart of
+the fallen Plantagenet. Sir Giles de Argentine might have been more
+effectual than all the unguents in the world. He led the king by the
+bridle till he saw him in a place of safety. He then stopped his horse
+and said, "It has never been my custom to fly, and here I must take my
+fortune." Saying this, he put spurs to his horse, and, crying out, "An
+Argentine!" charged the squadron of Edward Bruce, and was borne down by
+the force of the Scottish spears. The fugitive king galloped in terror
+to the castle of Dunbar, and shipped off by sea to Berwick.
+
+The next battle is so strongly corroborative of the failing supremacy
+of heavy armour, and the rising importance of the well-trained
+citizens, that it is worth mention, although at first sight it
+seems to controvert both these statements; for it was a fight in
+which certain courageous burghers were mercilessly exterminated by
+gorgeously-caparisoned knights. [A.D. 1328.] The townsmen of Bruges and
+Ypres had grown so proud and pugnacious that in 1328 they advanced to
+Cassel to do battle with the young King of France, Philip of Valois,
+at the head of all his chivalry. There was a vast amount of mutual
+contempt in the two armies. The leader of the bold Flemings, who
+was known as Little Jack, entered the enemy's camp in disguise, and
+found young lords in splendid gowns proceeding from point to point,
+gossiping, visiting, and interchanging their invitations. Making his
+way back, he ordered a charge at once. The rush was nearly successful,
+and was only checked within a few yards of the royal tent. But the
+check was tremendous. The bloated burghers, filled with pride and
+gorged with wealth, had thought proper to ensconce their unwieldy
+persons in cuirasses as brilliant and embarrassing as the armour of the
+knights. The knights, however, were on horseback, and the embattled
+townsfolk were on foot. Great was the slaughter, useless the attempt
+to escape, and thirteen thousand were overborne and smothered. Ten
+thousand more were executed by some form of law, and the Bourgeoisie
+taught to rely for its safety on its agility and compactness, and not
+on "helm or hauberk's twisted mail."
+
+The crop of battles grows rich and plentiful, for Edward the Third and
+Philip of Valois are rival kings and warriors, and may be taken as
+the representatives of the two states of society which were brought
+at this time face to face. For Edward, though as true a knight as
+Amadis himself in his own person, in policy was a favourer of the new
+ideas. When the war broke out, Philip behaved as if no change had taken
+place in the seat of power and the world had still continued divided
+between the lords and their armed retainers. He threw himself for
+support on the military service of his tenants and the aristocratic
+spirit of his nobles. Edward, wiser but less romantic, turned for
+assistance to the Commons of England,--bought over their good will and
+copious contributions by privileges granted to their trades,--invited
+skilled workmen over from Flanders, which, with the freest spirit in
+Europe, was under the least improved of the feudal governments,--and
+established woollen-works at York, fustian-works at Norwich, serges
+at Colchester, and kerseys in Devonshire. Mills were whirling round
+in all the counties, and ships coming in untaxed at every harbour.
+Fortunately, as is always the case in this country, it was seen that
+the success of one class of the people was beneficial to every other
+class. The baron got more rent for his land and better cloth for his
+apparel by the prosperity of his manufacturing neighbours. Money was
+voted readily in support of a king who entered into alliance with their
+best customers, the men of Ghent and Bruges; and at the head of all
+the levies which the parliament's liberality enabled him to raise were
+the knights and gentlemen of England, totally freed now from any bias
+towards the French or prejudice against the Saxon; for they spoke the
+English tongue, dressed in English broadcloth, sang English ballads,
+and astonished the men of Gascony and Guienne with the vehemence of
+their unmistakably English oaths. Yet some of them held lands in feudal
+subjection to the French king. Flanders itself confessed the same
+sovereignty; and men of delicate consciences might feel uneasy if they
+lifted the sword against their liege lord. To soothe their scruples,
+James Van Arteveldt, the Brewer of Ghent, suggested to Edward the
+propriety of his assuming the title of King of France. The rebellious
+freeholders would then be in their duty in supporting their liege's
+claims. So Edward, founding upon the birth of his mother, the daughter
+of the last King, Philip le Bel,--who was excluded by the Salic law, or
+at least by French custom, from the throne,--made claim to the crown
+of St. Louis, and transmitted the barren title to all his successors
+till the reign of George the Fourth. As if in right of his property
+on both sides of the Channel, Edward converted it into his exclusive
+domain. [A.D. 1340.] He so entirely exterminated the navy of France,
+and impressed that chivalrous nation with the danger of the seas by
+the victory of Helvoet Sluys, that for several centuries the command
+of the strait was left undisputed to England. Philip had endeavoured
+to obtain the mastery of it with a fleet of a hundred and fifty ships,
+mounted by forty thousand men. The Genoese had furnished an auxiliary
+squadron, and also a commander-in-chief, of the name of Barbavara. But
+the French admiral was a civilian of the name of Bahuchet, who thought
+the safest plan was the best, and kept his whole force huddled up in
+the commodious harbour. Edward collected a fleet of scarcely inferior
+strength, and fell upon the enemy as they lay within the port. It
+was in fact a fight on the land, for they ranged so close that they
+almost touched each other, and the gallant Bahuchet preserved himself
+from sea-sickness at the expense of all their lives. For the English
+archers made an incredible havoc on their crowded decks, and the
+pike-men boarded with irresistible power. Twenty thousand were slain
+in that fearful _mêlée_; and Edward, to show how sincere he was in
+his claim upon the throne of France, hanged the unfortunate Bahuchet
+as a traitor. The man deserved his fate as a coward: so we need not
+waste much sympathy on the manner of his death. This success with his
+ships was soon followed by the better-known victory of Crecy, 1346,
+and the capture of Calais. [A.D. 1356.] In ten years afterwards, the
+crowning triumph of Poictiers completed the destruction of the military
+power of France, by a slaughter nearly as great as that at Sluys and
+Crecy. In addition to the loss of lives in these three engagements,
+amounting to upwards of ninety thousand men, we are to consider the
+impoverishment of the country by the exorbitant ransoms claimed for
+the release of prisoners. John, the French king, was valued at three
+million crowns of gold,--an immense sum, which it would have exhausted
+the kingdom to raise; and, in addition to those destructive fights and
+crushing exactions, France was further weakened by the insurrection of
+the peasantry and the frightful massacres by which it was put down. If
+to these causes of weakness we add the depopulation produced by the
+unequalled pestilence, called the Plague of Florence, which spread all
+over the world, and in the space of a year carried off nearly a third
+of the inhabitants of Europe, we shall be justified in believing that
+France was reduced to the lowest condition she has ever reached, and
+that only the dotage of Edward, the death of the Black Prince, and
+the accession of a king like Richard II., saved that noble country
+from being, for a while at least, tributary and subordinate to her
+island-conqueror.
+
+
+
+
+                          FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1400. RUPERT.
+
+  1410. JOSSUS.
+
+  1410. SIGISMUND.
+
+  _House of Austria._
+
+  1438. ALBERT II.
+
+  1440. FREDERICK IV.
+
+  1493. MAXIMILIAN I.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1399. HENRY IV.
+
+  1413. HENRY V.
+
+  1422. HENRY VI.
+
+  1461. EDWARD IV.
+
+  1483. EDWARD V.
+
+  1483. RICHARD III.
+
+  1485. HENRY VII.
+
+
+Kings of Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ROBERT III.--(_cont._)
+
+  1406. JAMES I.
+
+  1437. JAMES II.
+
+  1460. JAMES III.
+
+  1488. JAMES IV.
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        MANUEL PALÆOLOGUS.--(_cont._)
+
+  1425. JOHN PALÆOLOGUS II.
+
+  1448. CONSTANTINE XIII., (PALÆOLOGUS.)
+
+  1453. Capture of Constantinople by the Turks, and
+        close of the Eastern Empire.
+
+
+Sultans of Turkey.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1451. MOHAMMED II.
+
+  1481. BAJAZET II.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        CHARLES VI.--(_cont._)
+
+  1422. CHARLES VII.
+
+  1461. LOUIS XI.
+
+  1483. CHARLES VIII.
+
+  1498. LOUIS XII.
+
+
+Kings of Spain.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1479. Union of the Kingdom under FERDINAND and ISABELLA.
+
+
+  1452. INVENTION OF PRINTING.
+
+  1455. WARS OF THE ROSES BEGIN.
+
+  1483. LUTHER BORN.
+
+  1492. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
+
+
+Eminent Men.
+
+JOHN HUSS, (1370-1415,) XIMINES
+
+
+
+
+                         THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
+
+  DECLINE OF FEUDALISM--AGINCOURT--JOAN OF ARC--THE
+  PRINTING-PRESS--DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
+
+
+The whole period from the twelfth to the fifteenth century has
+generally been considered so unvarying in its details, one century
+so like another, that it has been thought sufficient to class them
+all under the general name of the Middle Ages. Old Monteil, indeed,
+the author of "The French People of Various Conditions," declines to
+individualize any age during that lengthened epoch, for "feudalism,"
+he says, "is as little capable of change as the castles with which it
+studded the land." But a closer inspection does by no means justify
+this declaration. From time to time we have seen what great changes
+have taken place. The external walls of the baronial residence may
+continue the same, but vast alterations have occurred within. The rooms
+have got a more modern air; the moat has begun to be dried up, and
+turned into a bowling-green; the tilt-yard is occasionally converted
+into a garden; and, in short, in all the civilized countries of Europe
+the life of society has accumulated at the heart. Power is diffused
+from the courts of kings; and instead of the spirit of independence
+and opposition to the royal authority which characterized former
+centuries, we find the courtiers' arts more prevalent now than the
+pride of local grandeur. The great vassals of the Crown are no longer
+the rivals of their nominal superior, but submissively receive his
+awards, or endeavour to obtain the sanction of his name to exactions
+which they would formerly have practised in their own. Monarchy, in
+fact, becomes the spirit of the age, and nobility sinks willingly
+into the subordinate rank. This itself was a great blow to the feudal
+system, for the essence of that organized society was equality among
+its members, united to subordination of conventional rank,--a strange
+and beautiful style of feeling between the highest and the lowest
+of that manly brotherhood, which made the simple chevalier equal to
+the king as touching their common knighthood,--of which we have at
+the present time the modernized form in the feeling which makes the
+loftiest in the land recognise an equal and a friend in the person
+of an untitled gentleman. But this latter was to be the result of
+the equalizing effect of education and character. In the fifteenth
+century, feudalism, represented by the great proprietors, was about
+to expire, as it had already perished in the decay of its armed and
+mailed representatives in the field of battle. By no lower hand than
+its own could the nobility be overthrown either in France or England.
+The accident of a feeble king in both countries was the occasion of
+an internecine struggle,--not, as it would have been in the tenth
+century, for the possession of the crown, but for the custody of the
+wearer of it. The insanity of Charles VI. almost exterminated the
+lords of France; the weakness of Henry VI. and the Wars of the Roses
+produced the same result in England. It seemed as if in both countries
+an epidemic madness had burst out among the nobility, which drove them
+to their destruction. Wildly contending with each other, neglecting and
+oppressing the common people, the lords and barons were unconscious of
+the silent advances of a power which was about to overshadow them all.
+And, as if to drive away from them the sympathy which their fathers
+had known how to excite among the lower classes by their kindness and
+protection, they seemed determined to obliterate every vestige of
+respect which might cling to their ancient possessions and historic
+names, by the most unheard-of cruelty and falsehood in their treatment
+of each other.
+
+The leader of one of the parties which divided France was John, son of
+Philip the Hardy, prince of the blood royal and Duke of Burgundy. The
+leader of the other party was Louis of Orleans, brother of the demented
+king, and the gayest cavalier and most accomplished gentleman of his
+time. The Burgundian had many advantages in his contest for the reins
+of government. The wealth and population of the Low Countries made him
+as powerful as any of the princes of Europe, and he could at all times
+secure the alliance of England to the most nefarious of his schemes by
+the bribe of a treaty of trade and navigation. He accordingly brought
+his great possessions in Flanders to the aid of his French ambition,
+and secured the almost equally important assistance of the University
+of Paris, by giving in his adhesion to the Pope it had chosen and
+denying the authority of the Pope of his rival Orleans. Orleans had
+also offended the irritable population of Paris by making his vows,
+on some solemn occasion, by the bones of St. Denis which adorned the
+shrine of the town called after his name,--whereas it was well known to
+every Parisian that the real bones of the patron of France were those
+which were so religiously preserved in the treasury of Notre Dame. The
+clergy of the two altars took up the quarrel, and as much hostility
+was created by the rival relics of St. Denis and Paris as by the rival
+pontiffs of Avignon and Rome. Thus the Church, which in earlier times
+had been a bond of unity, was one of the chief causes of dissension;
+and the result in a few years was seen in the attempt made by France
+to shake off, as much as possible, the supremacy of both the divided
+Popes, as it managed to shake off entirely the yoke of the divided
+nobility.
+
+Quarrels and reconciliations among the princes, feasts and festivals
+among the peerage, and the most relentless treatment of the citizens,
+were the distinguishing marks of the opening of this century. Isabella
+of Bavaria, the shameless wife of the hapless Charles, added a great
+feature of infamy to the state of manners at the time, by the openness
+of her profligacy, and her neglect of all the duties of wife and queen.
+Rioting with the thoughtless Orleans, while her husband was left to the
+misery of his situation, unwashed, unshorn, and clothed in rags and
+filth, the abandoned woman roused every manly heart in all the land
+against the cause she aided. Relying on this national disgust, the wily
+Burgundian waited his opportunity, and revenged his private wrongs
+by what he afterwards called the patriotic dagger of an assassin.
+[A.D. 1407.] On the night of the 23d of December, 1407, the gay and
+handsome Louis was lured by a false message from the queen's quarters
+to a distant part of the town, and was walking in his satin mantle,
+twirling his glove in his hand, and humming the burden of a song, when
+he was set on by ten or twelve of the adherents of his enemy, stabbed,
+and beaten long after he lay dead on the pavement, and was then left
+motionless and uncared-for under the shade of the high house-walls of
+the Vieille Rue du Temple.
+
+Public conscience was not very acute at that time; and, although no
+man for a moment doubted the hand that had guided the blow, the Duke
+of Burgundy was allowed to attend the funeral of his murdered cousin,
+and to hold the pall in the procession, and to weep louder than any
+as the coffin was lowered into the vault. But the common feelings of
+humanity were roused at last. People remembered the handsome, kindly,
+merry-hearted Orleans thus suddenly struck low, and the ominous looks
+of the Parisians warned the powerful Burgundy that it was time to take
+his hypocrisy and his tears out of the sight of honest men. He slipped
+out of the city, and betook himself to his Flemish states. But the helm
+was now without a steersman; and, while all were looking for a guide
+out of the confusion into which the appalling incident had brought the
+realm, the guilty duke himself, armed _cap-à-pie_, and surrounded by a
+body-guard which silenced all opposition, made his solemn entry into
+the town, and fixed on the door of his hotel the emblematic ornament of
+two spears, one sharp at the point as if for immediate battle, and one
+blunted and guarded as if for a friendly joust. Eloquence is never long
+absent when power is in want of an oration. A great meeting was held,
+in which, by many brilliant arguments and incontrovertible examples
+from holy writ and other histories, John Petit proved, to the entire
+satisfaction of everybody who did not wish to be slaughtered on the
+spot, that the doing to death of the Duke of Orleans was a good deed,
+and that the doer was entitled to the thanks of a grateful country. The
+thanks were accordingly given, and the murderer was at the height of
+his ambition. As a warning to the worthy citizens of what they had to
+expect if they rebelled against his authority, he took the opportunity
+of hurrying northward to his states, where the men of Liege were in
+revolt, and, having broken their ill-formed squares, committed such
+slaughter upon them as only the madness of fear and hatred could have
+suggested. Dripping with the blood of twenty-four thousand artisans,
+he returned to Paris, where the citizens were hushed into silence,
+and perhaps admiration, by the terrors of his appearance. They called
+him John the Fearless,--a noble title, most inadequately acquired;
+but, in spite of their flattery and their submission, he did not feel
+secure without the presence of his faithful subjects. He therefore
+summoned his Flemings and Burgundians to share his triumphs, and a
+loose was given to all their desires. They pillaged, burned, and
+destroyed as if in an enemy's country, encamping outside the walls,
+and giving evident indications of an intention to force their way into
+the streets. But the sight of gore, though terrifying at first, sets
+the tamest of animals wild. The Parisians smelt the bloody odour and
+made ready for the fray. The formidable incorporation of the Butchers
+rose knife in hand, and at the command of their governor prepared to
+preserve the peace of the city. Burgundians and Orleanists were equally
+to be feared, and by a curious coincidence both those parties were
+at the gate; for the Count of Armagnac, father-in-law of the orphan
+Duke of Orleans, had assumed the leadership of the party, and had
+come up to Paris at the head of his infuriated Gascons and the men of
+Languedoc. North and South were again ranged in hostile ranks, and
+inside the walls there was a reign of terror and an amount of misery
+never equalled till that second reign of terror which is still the
+darkest spot in the memory of old men yet alive. No man could put faith
+in his neighbour. The murder of the Duke of Orleans had dissolved all
+confidence in the word of princes. One half of France was ready to draw
+against the other. Each half was anxious for support, from whatever
+quarter it came, and to gain the destruction of their rivals would
+sacrifice the interests of the nation.
+
+But the same spirit of disunion and extirpation of ancient landmarks
+was at work in England. The accession of Henry the Fourth was not
+effected without the opposition of the adherents of the former king
+and of the supporters, on general principles, of the legitimate line.
+There were treasons, and plots, and pitiless executions. The feudal
+chiefs were no longer the compact body which could give laws both to
+King and Parliament, but ranged themselves in opposite camps and waited
+for the spoils of the vanquished side. The clergy unanimously came to
+the aid of the usurper on his faithful promise to exempt them from
+taxation; and, by thus throwing their own proportion of the public
+burdens on the body of the people, they sundered the alliance which
+had always hitherto subsisted between the Church and the lower class.
+Another bribe was held out to the clerical order for its support to
+the unlineal crown by the surrender to their vengeance of any heretics
+they could discover. [A.D. 1401.] In the second year of this reign,
+accordingly, we find a law enabling the priests to burn, "on some
+high and conspicuous piece of ground," any who dissented from their
+faith. This is the first legal sanction in England to the logic of
+flame and fagot. How dreadfully this permission was used, we shall see
+ere many years elapse. In the mean time, it is worth while to remark
+that in proportion as the Church lost in popularity and affection it
+gained in legal privilege. While it was strong it did not need to be
+cruel; and if it had continued its care of the poor and helpless, it
+would have been able to leave Wickliff to his dissertations on its
+doctrinal errors undisturbed. A Church which is found to be nationally
+beneficial, and which endears itself to its adherents by the practical
+graces of Christianity, will never be overthrown, or even weakened, by
+any theoretical defects in its creeds or formularies. It was perhaps,
+therefore, a fortunate circumstance that the Church of Rome had
+departed as much by this time from the path of honesty and usefulness
+as from the simplicity of gospel truth. The Bible might have been
+looked at in vain, even in Wickliff's translation, if its meanings had
+not been rendered plain by the lives and principles of the clergy.
+Henry the Fifth, feeling the same necessity of clerical support which
+had thrown his father into the hands of the Church, left nothing
+untried to attach it to his cause. All the opposition which had been
+offered to its claims had hitherto been confined to men of low rank,
+and generally to members of its own body. Wickliff himself had been
+but a country vicar, and had been unnoticed and despised in his small
+parsonage at Lutterworth. But three-and-twenty years after he was
+dead, his name was celebrated far and wide as the enemy of constituted
+authority and a heretic of the most dangerous kind. His guilt consisted
+in nothing whatever but in having translated the Bible into English;
+but the fact of his having done so was patent to all. No witnesses were
+required. The bones of the old man were dug up from their resting-place
+in the quiet churchyard in Leicestershire, carried ignominiously to
+Oxford, and burned amid the howls and acclamations of an infuriated
+mob of priests and doctors. This was in 1409. But, in his character of
+heretic and unbeliever, Wickliff had high associates in this same year;
+for the General Council sitting at Pisa declared the two Popes--of
+Avignon and Rome--who still continued to divide the Christian world, to
+be "heretics, perjurers, and schismatics."
+
+Europe, indeed, was ripe for change in almost all the relations both
+of Church and State. There would seem no close connection between
+Bohemia and England; yet in a very short time the doctrines of Wickliff
+penetrated to Prague. There Huss and Jerome preached against the
+enormities and contradictions of the Romish system, and bitterly
+paid for their presumption in the fires of Constance before many
+years had passed. But in England the effects of the new revelation
+of the hidden gospel had been stronger than even at Prague. Public
+opinion, however, divided itself into two very different channels; and
+while the whole nation listened with open ear to the denunciations
+rising everywhere against the corruption, pride, and sensuality of
+the priesthood, it rushed at the same time into the wildest excesses
+of cruelty against the opponents of any of the doctrinal errors or
+superstitious beliefs in which it had been brought up. In the same
+year in which several persons were burnt in Smithfield as supporters
+of Wickliff and the Bible, the Parliament sent up addresses to the
+Crown, advising the king to seize the temporalities of the Church,
+and to apply the riches wasted on luxurious monks and nuns to the
+payment of his soldiers. Henry the Fifth adroitly availed himself of
+the double direction in which the popular feeling ran. He gained over
+the priesthood by exterminating the opponents of their ceremonies
+and faith, and rewarded himself by occasionally confiscating the
+revenues of a dozen or two of the more notorious monasteries. In 1417
+a heavier sacrifice was demanded of him than his mere presence at the
+burning of a plebeian heretic like John Badby, whose execution he had
+attended at Smithfield in 1410. He was required to give up into the
+hands of the Church the great and noble Oldcastle, Lord Cobham. The
+Church, as if to mark its triumph, did not examine the accused on
+any point connected with civil or political affairs. It questioned
+him solely on his religious beliefs; and as it found him unconvinced
+of the necessity of confession to a priest, of pilgrimages to the
+shrines of saints, of the worship of images, and of the doctrine of
+transubstantiation, it delivered him over to the secular arm, and
+the stout old soldier was taken to St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, and
+suspended, by an iron chain round his body, above a fire, to die by
+the slowest and most painful of deaths. But, in this yielding up of a
+nobleman to the vengeance of the priesthood, Henry had a double motive:
+he terrified the proudest of the barons, and attached to himself the
+other bodies in the State. The people were still profoundly ignorant,
+and looked on the innovators as the enemies both of God and man. And
+nothing but this can account for the astonishing spectacle presented
+by Europe at this date. The Church torn by contending factions--three
+Popes at one time--and council arrayed against council; every nation
+disgusted with its own priesthood, and enthusiasm bursting out in
+the general confusion into the wildest excesses of fanaticism and
+vice,--and yet a total incapacity in any country of devising means of
+amendment. Great efforts were made, by wise and holy men within the
+Church itself, to shake off the impediments to its development and
+increase. Reclamations were made, more in sorrow than in anger, against
+the universal depravation of morals and beliefs. The Popes were not
+unmoved with these complaints, and gave credence to the forebodings
+of evil which rose from every heart. Yet the network of custom, the
+authority of tradition, and the unchangeableness of Roman policy
+marred every effort at self-reformation. An opening was apparently
+made for the introduction of improvement, by the declaration of the
+supremacy of general councils, and the cessation of the great schism
+of the West on the nomination of Martin the Fifth to the undisputed
+chair. [A.D. 1429.] But the force of circumstances was irresistible.
+Cardinals who approved of the declaration while members of the council
+repudiated its acts when, by good fortune, they succeeded to the
+tiara; and one of them even ventured the astounding statement that
+in his character of Æneas Sylvius, and approver of the decree of
+Basle, he was guilty of damnable sin, but was possessed of immaculate
+virtue in the character of Paul the Second. It was obvious that this
+unnatural state of things could not last. An establishment conscious of
+its defects, but unable to throw them off, and finally forced to the
+awful necessity of defending them by the foulest and most unpardonable
+means, might have read the inevitable result in every page of history.
+But worse remained behind. There sat upon the chair of St. Peter, in
+the year 1492, the most depraved and wicked of mankind. No earthly
+ruler had equalled him in profligacy and the coarser vices of cruelty
+and oppression since the death of the Roman Nero. This was a man of
+the name of Borgia, who fixed his infamous mark on the annals of the
+Papacy as Alexander the Sixth. While this bloodthirsty ruffian was at
+the summit of sacerdotal power--this poisoner of his friends, this
+polluter of his family circle with unimaginable crimes--as the visible
+representative upon earth of the Church of Christ, what hope could
+there be of amendment in the lower orders of the clergy, or continuance
+of men's belief in the popish claims? Long before this, in 1442, the
+falsehood of the pretended donation of Constantine, on which the Popes
+founded their territorial rights, was triumphantly proved by the
+learned Valla; and at the end of the century the reverence of mankind
+for the successor of the Prince of the Apostles was exposed to a trial
+which the authenticity of all the documents in the world could not
+have successfully stood, in the personal conduct of the Pope and his
+familiars.
+
+While this was the general state of Europe in the fifteenth century
+as regards the position of the clergy, high and low, the Church,
+in all countries, threw itself on the protection of the kings. By
+the middle, or towards the end, of this period, there was no other
+patronage to which they could have recourse. The nobility in France
+and England were practically eradicated. All confidence between baron
+and baron was at an end, and all belief in knightly faith and honour
+in the other classes of the people. As if the time for a new state
+of society was arrived, and instruments were required to clear the
+way for the approaching form, the nobility and gentry of England
+first were effectual in overthrowing their noble brethren in France,
+and then, with infuriate bitterness, turned their swords upon each
+other. The most rememberable general characteristic of this century is
+the consolidation of royal power. The king becomes despotic because
+the great nobility is overthrown and the Church stripped of its
+authority. Tired of hoping for aid from their ancient protector, the
+lowest classes cast their eyes of helplessness to the throne instead
+of to the crozier. They see in the reigning sovereign an ideal of
+personified Power. All other ideals with which the masses of the people
+have deluded themselves have passed away. The Church is stripped of
+the charm which its lofty claims and former kindness gave it. It is
+detected for the thing it is,--a corporation for the grinding of the
+poor and the support of tyranny and wrong. The nobility is stripped
+also of the glitter which covered its harsh outlines with the glow
+of Christian qualifications. It is found to be selfish, faithless,
+untrustworthy, and divided against itself. To the king, then, as the
+last refuge of the unfortunate, as the embodied State, a combination,
+in his own person, of the manly virtues of the knight with the
+Christian tenderness of the priest, the public transfers all the
+romantic confidence it had lavished on the other two. And, as if to
+prove that this idea came to its completeness without reference to
+the actual holder of sovereign authority, we find that in France the
+first really despotic king was Louis the Eleventh, and in England the
+first king by divine right was Henry the Seventh. Two more unchivalrous
+personages never disgraced the three-legged stool of a scrivener. Yet
+they sat almost simultaneously on two of earth's proudest thrones.
+
+No century had ever witnessed so great a change in manners and
+position as this. In others we have seen a gradual widening-out of
+thought and tendencies, all, however, subdued by the universal shadow
+in which every thing was carried on. But in this the progress was
+by a sudden leap from darkness into light. In ancient times Europe
+was held together by certain communities of interest and feeling, of
+which the chief undoubtedly was the centralization of the spiritual
+power in Rome. At the Papal Court all the nations were represented,
+and Stockholm and Saragossa were brought into contact by their common
+dependence on the successor of St. Peter. The courtly festivals which
+invited a knight of Scotland to cross blunted spears in a glittering
+tournament with a knight of Sicily in the court of an emperor of
+Germany was another bond of union between remotest regions; and in
+the fourteenth century the indefatigable Froissart, as we remarked,
+conveyed a knowledge of one nation to another in the entertaining
+chapters with which he delighted the listeners in the different
+palaces where he set up his rest. But all these lights, it will be
+observed, illumined only the hill-tops, and left the valleys still
+obscure. Ambitious Churchmen encountered their brethren of all
+kindreds and tongues in the court of the Vatican; tiltings were only
+for the high-born and rich, and Froissart himself poured forth his
+treasures only for the delight of lords and ladies. The ballads of
+the common people, on the other hand, had had a strongly disuniting
+effect. The songs which charmed the peasant were directed against the
+exacting priest and oppressive noble. In England they were generally
+pointed against the Norman baron, with whose harshness and pride
+were contrasted the kindness and liberality of Robin Hood and his
+peers. The French ballads were hostile to the English invader; the
+Scottish poems were commemorative of the heroism of Wallace and the
+cruelties of the Southern hordes. Literatures were thus condemned
+to be hostile, because they were not lofty enough to overlook the
+boundaries of the narrow circles in which they moved. By slow and
+toilsome process books were multiplied,--carefully copied in legible
+hand, and then chained up, like inestimable jewels, in monastery or
+palace, as too valuable to be left at large. A king's library was
+talked of as a wonder when it contained six or seven hundred volumes.
+The writings of controversialists were passed from hand to hand, and
+the publication of a volume was generally achieved by its being read
+aloud at the refectory-table of the college and then discussed, in
+angry disputations, in the University Hall. Not one man in five hundred
+could read, if the book had been written in the plainest text; and at
+length the running hand was so indistinct as to be not much plainer
+than hieroglyphics. The discoveries, therefore, of one age had all to
+be discovered over again in the next. Roger Bacon, the English monk,
+in the eleventh century, was acquainted with gunpowder, and had clear
+intimations of many of the other inventions of more recent times.
+But what was the use of all his genius? He could only write down his
+triumph in a book; the book was carefully arranged on the shelf of
+his monastery; clever men of his own society may have carried the
+report of his doings to the neighbouring establishments; but time
+passed on, those clever men died out, the book on the monastery shelf
+was gradually covered with dust, and Roger Bacon became a conjurer in
+popular estimation, who foretold future events and took counsel from
+a supernatural brazen head. But in this century the art of printing
+was discovered and perfected. A thousand copies now darted off in
+all directions, cheap enough to be bought by the classes below the
+highest, portable enough to be carried about the person to the most
+distant lands, and in a type so large and clear that a very little
+instruction would enable the most illiterate to master its contents.
+Here was the lever that lifted the century at its first appearance
+into the light of modern civilization. And it came at the very nick of
+time. Men's minds were disturbed on many subjects; for old unreasoning
+obedience to authority had passed away. Who was to guide them in their
+future voyage? Isolated works would no longer be of any use. Great
+scholars and acute dialecticians had been tried and found wanting. They
+only acted on the highly-educated class; and now it was the people
+in mass--the worker, the shopkeeper, the farmer, the merchant--who
+were anxious to be informed; and what could a monk in a cell, or
+even Chaucer with his harp in hand, do for the edification of such
+a countless host? People would no longer be fed on the dry crust of
+Aristotelianism or be satisfied with the intellectual jugglery of the
+Schoolmen. Rome had lost its guiding hand, and its restraining sword
+was also found of no avail. Some rest was to be found for the minds
+which had felt the old foundation slip away from them; and in this
+century, thus pining for light, thus thrusting forward eager hands to
+be warmed at the first ray of a new-risen sun, there were terrible
+displays of the aberrations of zeal without knowledge.
+
+Almost within hearing of the first motion of the press, incalculable
+numbers of enthusiasts revived the exploded sect of the Flagellants of
+former centuries, and perambulated Europe, plying the whip upon their
+naked backs and declaring that the whole of religion consisted in the
+use of the scourge. Others, more crazy still, pronounced the use of
+clothes to be evidence of an unconverted nature, and returned to the
+nakedness of our first parents as proof of their restoration to a state
+of innocence. Mortality lost all its terrors in this earnest search
+for something more than the ordinary ministrations of the faith could
+bestow; and in France and England the hideous spectacles called the
+Dance of Death were frequent. In these, under the banner of a grinning
+skeleton, the population danced with frantic violence, shouting,
+shrieking, in the exultation of the time,--a scene where the joyous
+appearance of the occupation contrasted shockingly with the awful place
+in which the orgies were held, for the catacombs of Paris, filled with
+the bones and carcasses of many generations, were the chosen site for
+these frightful exhibitions. Like the unnatural gayety that reigned in
+the same city when the guillotine had filled every family with terror
+or grief, they were but an abnormal development of the sentiment of
+despair. People danced the Dance of Death, because life had lost its
+charm. Life had lost its security in the two most powerful nations
+of the time. England was shaken with contending factions, and France
+exhausted and hopeless of restoration. [A.D. 1451.] The peasantry in
+both were trampled on without remorse. Jack Cade led up his famishing
+thousands to lay their sufferings before the throne. They asked
+for nothing but a slight relaxation of the burdens that oppressed
+them, and were condemned without mercy to the sword and gallows. The
+French "Jacques Bonhomme" was even in a worse condition. There was
+no controlling power on the throne to guard him from the tyrannies
+of a hundred petty superiors. The Church of his country was as much
+conquered by the Church of England as its soil by the English arms.
+A cardinal, bloated and bloody, dominated both London and Paris, and
+sent his commands from the Palace at Winchester, which were obeyed by
+both nations. [A.D. 1452.] [A.D. 1483.] [A.D. 1492.] And all this on
+the very eve of the introduction of the perfected printing-press, the
+birth of Luther, and the discovery of America! From the beginning of
+the century till government became assured by the accession of Henry
+VII. and Louis XI., the whole of Europe was unsettled and apparently on
+the verge of dissolution. In the absence of the controlling power of
+the Sovereign, each little baron asserted his own right and privileges,
+and aimed perhaps at the restoration of his feudal independence, when
+the spirit of feudalism had passed away. The nobility, even if it had
+been united, was not now numerous enough to present a ruling body to
+the State. It became despised as soon as it was seen to be powerless;
+and at last, in sheer exhaustion, the people, the churches, and the
+peerage of the two proudest nations in the world lay down helpless and
+unresisting at the footstool of the only authority likely to protect
+them from each other or themselves. When we think of the fifteenth
+century, let us remember it as the period when mankind grew tired
+of the establishments of all former ages, when feudalism resigned
+its sword into the hands of monarchy, and when the last days of the
+expiring state of society were distinguished by the withdrawal of the
+death-grasp by France and England from each other's throats, and the
+establishment of respectful if not friendly sentiments between them.
+By the year 1451, there was not one of all the conquests of the Edwards
+and Henrys left to the English except Calais. If that miserable relic
+had also been restored, it would have prevented many a heart-burning
+between the nations, and advanced, perhaps by centuries, the happy time
+when each can look across the narrow channel which divides them without
+a wish save for the glory and prosperity of the other.
+
+It is like going back to the time of the Crusades to turn our eyes
+from the end of this century to the beginning, so great and essential
+is the change that has taken place. Yet it is necessary, having given
+the general view of the condition of affairs, to descend to certain
+particulars by which the progress of the history may be more vividly
+defined. And of these the principal are the battle of Agincourt, the
+relief of Orleans, the invention of Guttenberg, and the achievement
+of Columbus. These are fixed on, not for their own intrinsic merits,
+but for the great results they produced. Agincourt unfeudalized
+France; Joan of Arc restored man's faith in human virtue and divine
+superintendence; printing preserved forever the conquests of the human
+intellect; and the discovery of America opened a new world to the
+energies of mankind.
+
+We must return to the state of France when the Duke of Orleans was so
+treacherously slain by the ferocious Duke of Burgundy in 1407. For a
+time the crime was successful in establishing the murderer's power,
+and the Burgundians were strengthened by obtaining the custody of the
+imbecile king, Charles the Sixth, and the support of his infamous
+consort, Isabeau of Bavaria. But authority so obtained could not be
+kept without plunging into greater excesses. So the populace were let
+loose, and no man's life was safe. In self-defence--burning with
+hatred of the slayer of his son-in-law and betrayer of his country--the
+Count of Armagnac denounced the dominant party. [A.D. 1411.] Burgundy
+threw himself into the arms of England, and was only outbidden in his
+offers of submission by the Armagnacs in the following year. Each party
+in turn promised to support the English king in all his claims, and
+before he set foot in France he already found himself in possession
+of the kingdom. [A.D. 1413.] Many strong places in the South were
+surrendered to him as pledges of the fidelity of his supporters. The
+whole land was the prey of faction and party hate. The Church had
+repudiated both Pope and Council; the towns were in insurrection in
+every street; and Henry the Fifth was only twenty-six years of age,
+full of courage and ambition, supported by the love and gratitude of
+the national Church, and anxious to glorify the usurpation of his
+family by a restoration of the triumphs of Cressy and Poictiers. He
+therefore sent an embassy to France, demanding his recognition by
+all the States as king, though he modestly waived the royal title
+till its present holder should be no more. He declared also that he
+would not be content without the hand of Catharine, the French king's
+daughter, with Normandy and other counties for her dowry; and when
+these reasonable conditions, as he had anticipated, were rejected,
+and all his preparations were completed, he threw off the mask of
+negotiation, and sailed from Southampton with an army of six thousand
+men-at-arms and twenty-four thousand archers. A beautiful sight it
+must have been that day in September, 1415, when the enormous convoy
+sailed or rowed down the placid Southampton water. Sails of various
+colours, and streamers waving from every mast, must have given it the
+appearance of an immense regatta; and while all France was on the watch
+for the point of attack, and Calais was universally regarded as the
+natural landing-place for an English army, the great flotilla pursued
+its course past the Isle of Wight, and struck out for the opposite
+coast, filling up the mouth of the Seine with innumerable vessels,
+and casting anchor off the town of Harfleur. Prayers for its success
+ascended from every parish in England; for the clergy looked on the
+youthful king as their champion against all their enemies,--against
+the Pope, who claimed their tithes, against the itinerant monks, who
+denied and resisted their authority, and against the nobles, who envied
+them their wealth and territories. And no wonder; for at this time the
+ecclesiastical possessions included more than the half of England.
+Of fifty-three thousand knightly holdings on the national register,
+twenty-eight thousand belonged to mother Church! Prayers also for its
+success were uttered in the workshops and markets. People were tired
+of the long inaction of Richard the Second's time, and longed for the
+stirring incidents they had heard their fathers speak of when the Black
+Prince was making the "Mounseers" fly. For by this time a stout feeling
+of mutual hatred had given vigour to the quarrel between the nations.
+Parliament had voted unexampled supplies, and "all the youth of England
+was afire."
+
+Meantime the siege of Harfleur dragged its slow length along.
+Succours were expected by the gallant garrison, but succour never
+came. Proclamations had indeed been issued, summoning the _ban_ and
+_arrière ban_ of France, and knights were assembling from all quarters
+to take part in the unavoidable engagement. But the counsels at
+head-quarters were divided. The masses of the people were not hearty
+in the cause, and the men of Harfleur, at the end of the fifth week
+of their resistance, sent to say they would surrender "if they were
+not relieved by a great army in two days." "Take four," said Henry,
+wishing nothing more than a decisive action under the very walls. But
+the time rapidly passed, and Harfleur was once more an English town.
+Henry might look round and triumph in the possession of streets and
+houses; but that was all, for his usual barbarity had banished the
+inhabitants. The richer citizens were put to ransom; all the rest were
+driven from the place,--not quite naked, nor quite penniless, for one
+petticoat was left to each woman, and one farthing in ready money.
+Generosity to the vulgar vanquished was not yet understood, either
+as a Christian duty or a stroke of policy. But courage, not unmixed
+with braggadocio, was still the character of the time. The English had
+lost many men from sickness during the siege. No blow had been boldly
+struck in open field, and a war without a battle, however successful
+in its results, would have been thought no better than a tournament.
+All the remaining chivalry of France was now collected under its chiefs
+and princes, and Henry determined to try what mettle they were of. He
+published a proclamation that he and his English would march across
+the country from Harfleur to Calais in spite of all opposition; and,
+as the expedition would occupy eight days at least, he felt sure that
+some attempt would be made to revenge so cutting an insult. He might
+easily have sent his forces, in detachments, by sea, for there was not
+a French flag upon all the Channel; but trumpets were sounded one day,
+swords drawn, cheers no doubt heartily uttered, by an enthusiastic
+array of fifteen thousand men, and the dangerous march began. It
+was the month of October, the time of the vintage: there was plenty
+of wine; and a French author makes the characteristic remark, "with
+plenty of wine the English soldier could go to the end of the world."
+When the English soldier, on this occasion, had got through the eight
+days' provisions with which he started, instead of finding himself at
+Calais, he was only advanced as far as Amiens, with the worst part of
+the journey before him. The fords of the Somme were said to be guarded;
+spies came over in the disguise of deserters, and told the king that
+all the land was up in arms, that the princes were all united, and that
+two hundred thousand men were hemming them hopelessly round. In the
+midst of these bad news, however, a ray of light broke in. A villager
+pointed out a marsh, by crossing which they could reach a ford in
+the stream. They traversed the marsh without hesitation, waded with
+difficulty through morass and water, and, behold! they were safe on the
+other side. The road was now clear, they thought, for Calais; and they
+pushed cheerily on. But, more dangerous than the marsh, more impassable
+than the river, the vast army of France blocked up their way. Closing
+across a narrow valley which lay between the castle of Agincourt and
+the village of Tramecourt, sixty thousand knights, gentlemen, and
+man-at-arms stood like a wall of steel. There were all the great names
+there of all the provinces,--Dukes of Lorraine, and Bar, and Bourbon,
+Princes of Orleans and Berri, and many more. Henry by this time had but
+twelve thousand men. He found he had miscalculated his movements, and
+was unwilling to sacrifice his army to the point of honour. He offered
+to resign the title of King of France and to surrender his recent
+conquest at Harfleur. But the princes were resolved not to negotiate,
+but to revenge. Henry then said to the prisoners he was leading in his
+train, "Gentlemen, go till this affair is settled. If your captors
+survive, present yourselves at Calais." His forces were soon arranged.
+Archers had ceased to be the mere appendages to a line of battle: they
+now constituted almost all the English army. All the night before they
+had been busy in preparation. They had furbished up their arms, and
+put now cords to their bows, and sharpened the stakes they carried to
+ward off the attack of cavalry. At early dawn they had confessed to the
+priest; and all the time no noise had been heard. Henry had ordered
+silence throughout the camp on pain of the severest penalties,--loss
+of his horse to a gentleman, and of his right ear to a common soldier.
+[A.D. 1415.] The 23d of October was the great, the important day. Henry
+put a noble helmet on his head, surmounted by a golden crown, sprang
+on his little gray hackney, encouraged his men with a few manly words,
+reminding them of Old England and how constantly they had conquered the
+French, and led them to a field where the grass was still green, and
+which the rains had not converted into mud; for the weather had long
+been unpropitious. And here the heroic little army expected the attack.
+But the enemy were in no condition to make an advance. Seated all night
+on their enormous war-horses, the heavy-armed cavaliers had sunk the
+unfortunate animals up to their knees in the adhesive soil. Old Thomas
+of Erpingham, seeing the decisive moment, completed the marshalling of
+the English as soon as possible, and, throwing his baton in the air,
+cried, "Now, Strike!" A great hurrah was the answer to this order; but
+still the French line continued unmoved. If it had been turned into
+stone it could not have been more inactive. Ranged thirty-two deep,
+and fixed to the spot they stood on, buried up in armour, and crowded
+in the narrow space, the knights could offer no resistance to the
+attack of their nimble and lightly-armed foes. A flight of ten thousand
+arrows poured upon the vast mass, and saddles became empty without a
+blow. There came, indeed, two great charges of horse from the flank
+of the French array; but the inevitable shaft found entrance through
+their coats of mail, and very few survived. Of these the greater part
+rushed, blind and wounded, back among their own men, crashing upon the
+still spell-bound line and throwing it into inextricable confusion.
+Horse and man rolled over in the dirt, struggling and shrieking in an
+undistinguishable mass. Meanwhile the archers, throwing aside their
+stakes and seizing the hatchets hanging round their necks, advanced
+at a run,--poured blows without cessation on casque and shield,
+completing the destruction among the crowded multitudes which their
+own disorder had begun; and, as the same cause which hindered their
+advance prevented their retreat, they sat the hopeless victims of
+a false position, and were slaughtered without an attempt made to
+resist or fly. The fate of the second line was nearly the same. Henry,
+forcing his way with sword and axe through the living barrier of horse
+and cavalier, led his compact array to the glittering body beyond.
+There the _mêlée_ became more animated, and prowess was shown upon
+either side. But the rear-guard, warned by previous experience, took
+flight before the middle lines were pierced, and Henry saw himself
+victor with very trifling loss, and only encumbered with the number
+of the slain, and still more with the multitude of prisoners. Almost
+all the surviving noblemen had surrendered their swords. They knew
+too well the fate of wounded or disarmed gentlemen even among their
+countrymen, and trusted rather to the generosity of the conqueror than
+the mercy of their own people. Alas that we must again confess that
+Henry was ignorant of the name of generosity! Alarmed for a moment at
+the threatening aspect of some of the fugitives who had resumed their
+ranks, he gave the pitiless word that every prisoner was to be slain.
+Not a soldier would lift his hand against his captive,--from the double
+motive of tenderness and cupidity. To tell an "archer good" to murder
+a great baron, the captive of his bow and spear, was to tell him to
+resign a ransom which would make him rich for life. But Henry was not
+to be balked. He appointed two hundred men to be executioners of his
+command; and thousands of the young and gay were slaughtered in cold
+blood. Was it hideous policy which thus led Henry to weaken his enemy's
+cause by diminishing the number of its knightly defenders, or was it
+really the result of the fear of being overcome? Whichever it was, the
+effect was the same. Ten thousand of the gentlemen of France were the
+sufferers on that day,--a whole generation of the rich and high-born
+swept away at one blow! It would have taken a long time in the course
+of nature to supply their place; but nature was not allowed to have
+her way. Wars and dissensions interfered with her restorative efforts.
+Six-and-thirty years were yet to be spent in mutual destruction, or in
+struggles against the English name; and when France was again left free
+from foreign occupation, when French chivalry again wished to assume
+the chief rule in human affairs, it was found that chivalry was out of
+place; a new state of things had arisen in Europe; the greatest exploit
+which had been known in their national annals had been performed by a
+woman; and knighthood had so lost its manliness that, when prosperity
+and population had again made France a powerful kingdom, the silk-clad
+courtiers of an unwarlike monarch thought it good taste to sneer at the
+relief of Orleans and the mission of Joan of Arc!
+
+Six years after Agincourt, the English conqueror and the wretched
+phantom of kingship called Charles the Sixth descended to their
+graves. [A.D. 1421.] Military honour and patriotism seemed utterly at
+an end among the French population, and our Henry the Sixth, the son of
+the man of Agincourt, succeeded in the great object of English ambition
+and was recognised from the Channel to the Loire as King of France. In
+the Southern provinces a spark of the old French gallantry was still
+unextinguished, but it showed itself in the gay unconcern with which
+the Dauphin, now Charles the Seventh, bore all the reverses of fortune,
+and consoled himself for the loss of the noblest crown in Europe by the
+enjoyments of love and festivity. Perhaps he saw that the whirligig
+of time would bring about its revenges, and that the curse of envious
+faction would vex the councils of the conquerors as it had ruined the
+fortunes of the subdued. The warriors of Henry still remained, but,
+without the controlling hand, they could direct their efforts to no
+common object. The uncles of the youthful king speedily quarrelled.
+The gallant Bedford was opposed by the treacherous Glo'ster, and both
+were dominated and supplanted by the haughty prelate, the Cardinal
+Bishop of Winchester. Offence was soon taken at the presumption of the
+English soldiery. Religious animosities supervened. The Churches of
+England and France had both made successful endeavours to establish a
+considerable amount of national independence, and the French bishops,
+who had withdrawn themselves from the absolutism of Rome, were little
+inclined to become subordinate to Winchester and Canterbury. A court
+gradually gathered round the Dauphin, which inspired him with more
+manly thoughts. His feasts and tournaments were suspended, and, with
+his hand on the hilt of his sword, he watched the proceedings of the
+English. These proceedings were uniformly successful when restricted
+to the operations of war. They defeated the men of Gascony and the
+reinforcements sent over by the Scotch. They held a firm grasp of Paris
+and all the strong places of the North, and cast down the gauntlet to
+the rest of France by laying siege to the beautiful city of Orleans in
+the winter of 1428. [A.D. 1428.] Once in possession of the Loire, they
+would be able at their leisure to extend their conquests southward; and
+all the loyal throughout the country took up the challenge and resolved
+on the defence of the beleaguered town. The English must have begun by
+this time to despise their enemy; for, in spite of the greatness of
+the stake, they undertook the siege with a force of less than three
+thousand men. To make up for the deficiency in numbers, they raised
+twelve large bastions all round the walls, exhausting the troops by
+the labour and finding it impossible to garrison them adequately when
+they were finished. It seems that Sebastopol was not the first occasion
+on which our soldiers were overworked. To surround a city of several
+thousand inhabitants, strongly garrisoned, and with an open country
+at its back for the supply of provisions, would have required a large
+and well-directed force. But the moral effects of Agincourt, and even
+of Cressy and Poictiers, were not yet obliterated. Public spirit was
+dead, and very few entertained a hope of saving the doomed place.
+Statesmen, politicians, and warriors, all calculated the chances of
+success and decided against the cause of France. But in the true heart
+of the common people far better feelings survived. They were neither
+statesmen, nor politicians, nor warriors; but they were loyal and
+devoted Frenchmen, and put their trust in God.
+
+A peasant-girl, eighteen years of age, born and bred in a little
+village called Domremy, in Lorraine, was famous for her religious
+faith and simplicity of character. Her name was Joan d'Arc,--a dreamy
+enthusiast, believing with full heart all the legends of saints and
+miracles with which the neighbourhood was full. She rested, also, with
+a sort of romantic interest on the personal fortunes of the young
+discrowned king, who had been unjustly excluded by foreigners from his
+rights and was now about to lose the best of his remaining possessions.
+She walked in the woods and heard voices telling her to be up and
+doing. She went to pray in the dim old church, and had glorious visions
+of angels who smiled upon her. One time she saw a presence with a
+countenance like the sun, and wings upon his shoulders, who said, "Go,
+Joan, to the help of the King of France." But she answered, "My lord,
+I cannot ride, nor command men-at-arms." The voice replied, "Go to M.
+de Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs: he will take thee to the king. Saint
+Catharine and Saint Marguerite will come to thy assistance." There was
+no voluntary deception here. The girl lived in a world of her own, and
+peopled it out of the fulness of her heart. She went to Vaucouleurs:
+she saw M. de Baudricourt. He took her to Poictiers, where the Dauphin
+resided, and when she was led into the glittering ring an attempt was
+made to deceive her by representing another as the prince; but she
+went straight up to the Dauphin and said to him, "Gentle Dauphin, my
+name is Joan the Maid. The King of Heaven sends to you, through me,
+that you shall be anointed and crowned at Rheims, and you shall be
+lieutenant of the King of Heaven, who is King of France." All the court
+was moved,--the more pure-minded, with sympathy for the girl, the more
+experienced, with the use that might be made of her enthusiasm to rouse
+the nation. Both parties conspired to aid Joan in her design; and,
+clothed in white armour, mounted on a war-horse, holding the banner of
+France in her hand, and waited on by knights and pages, she set forth
+on her way to Orleans. It was like a religious procession all the way.
+She prayed at all the shrines, and was blest by the clergy, and held on
+her path undismayed with all the dangers that occurred at every step.
+At length, on the 30th of April, she made her entry into Orleans. Her
+coming had long been expected; and, now that it had really happened,
+people looked back at the difficulties of the route and thought the
+whole march a miracle. Meantime Joan knelt and gave thanks in the great
+church, and the true defence of Orleans began. Into the hard-pressed
+city had gathered all the surviving chivalry of France,--Dunois,
+the bastard of Orleans, La Hire, Saintrailles, rough and dissolute
+soldiers, yet all held in awe by the purity and innocence of the
+Maid. With Joan at the head of the column of assault, the English
+intrenchments fell one after another. In spite of wounds and hardships,
+the peasant-girl pushed fearlessly on; the knights and gentlemen
+could not decline to follow where she led the way; and ten days after
+her arrival old Talbot and Falstaff gathered up the fragments of
+their troops and made a precipitate retreat from the scene of their
+discomfiture. But there was not yet rest for the dreamer of Domremy.
+She hurried off to the Dauphin. "Gentle Dauphin," she said, "till you
+are crowned with the old crown and bedewed with the holy oil, you can
+never be King of France. Come with me to Rheims. There shall no enemy
+hurt you on the way." The country through which they had to pass was
+bristling with English castles and swarming with wandering troops. Yet
+the counsel which appeared so hardy was in fact the wisest that could
+be given. The faith in the sanctity of coronations was still strong.
+Whoever was first crowned would in the eye of faith be true king.
+Winchester was bringing over the English claimant. All France would be
+startled at the news that the descendant of St. Louis was beforehand
+with his rival; and the march was successfully made. [July 17, 1429.]
+"Gentle king," said Joan, kneeling after the ceremony, and calling him
+for the first time King,--"Gentle King, Orleans is saved, the true king
+is crowned. My task is done. Farewell." But they would not let her
+leave them so soon. The people crowded round her and blest her wherever
+she appeared. "Oh, the good people of Rheims!" she cried: "when I die
+I should like to be buried here." "When do you think you shall die?"
+inquired the archbishop,--perhaps with a sneer upon his lips. "That I
+know not," she replied: "whenever it pleases God. But, for my own part,
+I wish to go back and keep the sheep with my sister and brothers. They
+will be so glad to see me again!" But this was not to be.
+
+If Talbot and Suffolk had been foiled and vanquished by Dunois and La
+Hire, they would have accepted their defeat as one of the mischances of
+war. A knightly hand ennobles the blow it gives. But to be humbled by
+a woman, a peasant, a prophetess, an impostor,--this was too much for
+the proud stomachs of our steel-clad countrymen. But far worse was it
+in the eyes of our stole-clad ecclesiastics. Apparitions of saints and
+angels vouchsafed to the recalcitrant Church of France!--voices heard
+from heaven denouncing the claims of the English king!--visible glories
+hanging round the head of a simple shepherdess! It was evident to every
+clergyman and monk and bishop in England that the woman was a witch or
+a deceiver. And almost all the clergymen in France thought the same;
+and after a while, when the exploit was looked back upon with calmness,
+almost all the soldiers on both sides were of the same opinion. Nobody
+could believe in the exaltation of a pure and enthusiastic mind, making
+its own visions, and performing its own miracles, without a tincture of
+deceit. It was easier and more orthodox to believe in the liquefaction
+of the holy oil and the wonders wrought by the bones of St. Denis: so,
+with a nearly universal assent of both the parties, the humbled English
+and delivered French, the most heroic and most feminine of women was
+handed over to the Church tribunals, and Joan's fate was sealed.
+Unmanly priests, whose law prevented them from having wives, unloving
+bishops, whose law prevented them from having daughters,--how were
+they to judge of the loving heart and trusting tenderness of a girl
+not twenty years of age, standing before them, with modesty not shown
+in blushes but in unabated simplicity of behaviour, telling the tale
+of all her actions as if she were pouring it into the ears of father
+and mother in her own old cottage at home, unconscious, or at least
+regardless, of scowling looks, and misleading questions, directed to
+her by those predetermined murderers? No one tried to save her. Charles
+the Seventh, with the oil of Rheims scarcely dried upon his head,
+made no attempt to get her from the hands of her enemies. The process
+took place at Rouen. Magic and heresy were the crimes laid to her
+charge; and as generosity was magic in the eyes of those narrow-souled
+inquisitors, and trust in God was heresy, there was no defence
+possible. Her whole life was a confession. First, she was condemned to
+perpetual imprisonment, and to resume the dress of her sex. Then she
+was exposed to every obloquy and insult which hatred and superstition
+could pour upon her. A gallant "Lord" accompanied the Count de Ligny in
+a visit to her cell. She was chained to a plank by both feet, and kept
+in this attitude night and day. The noble Englishman did honour to
+his rank and country. When Joan said, "I know the English will procure
+my death, in hopes of getting the realm of France; but they could not
+do it, no, if they had a hundred thousand _Goddams_ more than they
+have to-day;" the gallant visitor was so enraged by those depreciating
+remarks, and perhaps at the nickname thus early indicative of the
+national oath, that he drew his dagger, and would have struck her, if
+he had not been hindered by Lord Warwick. Another gentleman, on being
+admitted to her prison, insulted her by the grossness of his behaviour,
+and then overwhelmed her with blows. It was time for Joan to escape her
+tormentors. She put on once more the male apparel which she had thrown
+off, and sentence of death was passed. On the 30th of May, 1431, in the
+old fishmarket of Rouen, the great crime was consummated. [A.D. 1431.]
+The flames mounted very slowly; and when at last they enveloped her
+from the crowd, she was still heard calling on Jesus, and declaring,
+"The voices I heard were of God!--the voices I heard were of God!" The
+age of chivalry was indeed past, and the age of Church-domination was
+also about to expire. The peasant-girl of Domremy wrote the dishonoured
+epitaph of the first in the flame of Rouen, and a citizen of Mentz was
+about to give the other its death-blow with the printing-press.
+
+This is one of the inventions apparently unimportant, by which
+incalculable results have been produced. At first it was intended
+merely to simplify the process of copying the books which were
+already well known. And, if we may trust some of the stories told of
+the earliest specimens of the art, we shall see that there was some
+slight portion of dishonesty mingled with the talent of the Fathers
+of printing. These were Guttenberg of Mentz, and his apprentice or
+partner Faust. [A.D. 1455.] The first of their productions was a
+Latin Bible; and the letters of this impression were such an exact
+imitation of the works of the amanuensis that they passed it off as
+an exquisite specimen of the copyist's art. Faust sold a copy to the
+King of France for seven hundred crowns, and another to the Archbishop
+of Paris for four hundred. The prelate, enchanted with his bargain,
+(for the usual price was several hundred crowns above what he had
+given,) showed it in triumph to the king. The king compared the two,
+and was filled with astonishment. They were identical in every stroke
+and dot. How was it possible for any two scribes, or even for the same
+scribe, to produce so undeniable a fac-simile of his work? The capital
+letters of the edition were of red ink. They inquired still further,
+and found that many other copies had been sold, all precisely alike
+in form and pressure. They came to the conclusion that Faust was a
+wizard and had sold himself to the devil, and that the initials were
+of blood. The Church and State, in this case united in the persons of
+king and archbishop, had the magician apprehended. To save himself
+from the flames, the unhappy Faust had to confess the deceit, and also
+to discover the secret of the art. The whole mystery consisted in
+cutting letters upon movable metal types, and, after rubbing them with
+ink when they were correctly set, imprinting them upon paper by means
+of a screw. A simple expedient, as it appeared to everybody when the
+secret was spread abroad; for there had been seals stamping impressions
+on wax for many generations. Medals and coins had been poured forth
+from the dies of every nation from the dawn of history. In England,
+playing-cards had been produced for several years, with the figures
+impressed on them from wooden blocks; and in 1423 a stamped book,
+with wood engravings, had made its appearance, which now, with many
+treasures of typography, is in the library of Lord Spencer. Even in
+Nineveh, we learn from recent discovery, the dried bricks, while in a
+soft state, had been stamped with those curious-looking inscriptions,
+by a board in which the unsightly letters were set in high relief.
+Wooden letters had also long been known; and yet it was not till 1440
+that Guttenberg bethought him of the process of printing, and only
+after ten or twelve years' labour that he brought his experiments to
+perfection and with one crush of the completed press opened new hopes
+and prospects to the whole family of mankind. But things apparently
+unconnected are brought together for good when the great turning-points
+of human history are attained. There are always pebbles of the brook
+within reach when the warrior-shepherd has taken the sling in his hand.
+Shortly before the invention of printing, a discovery was made without
+which Guttenberg's skill would have been of no avail. This was the
+applicability of linen rags to the manufacture of paper. Parchment, and
+preparations of straw and papyrus, had sufficed for the transcriber and
+author of those unliterary times, but would have been inadequate to
+supply the demand of the new process; and therefore we may say that, as
+gunpowder was essential to the use of artillery, and steam-power for
+the railway-train, linen paper was indispensable to the development of
+the press. And the development was rapid beyond all imagination. In the
+remaining portion of the century, eight thousand five hundred and nine
+books were published, of which the English Caxton and his followers
+supplied one hundred and forty-two,--a small contribution in actual
+numbers, but valuable for the insight it gives us into the favourite
+literature of the time. Among those volumes there are
+
+    "Songs of war for gallant knight,
+     Lays of love for lady bright;"
+
+"The Tale of Troy divine," for scholars; "Tullie, of old age," and
+"of Friendship," and "Virgil's Æneid," for the classical; "Lives of
+Our Ladie and divers Saints," for the religious; and "The Consolation
+of Boethius," for the afflicted. But several editions prove the
+popularity of the Father of English poetry; and we find the "Tales of
+Cauntyrburrie," and the "Book of Fame," and "Troylus and Cresyde, made
+by Geoffrey Chaucer," the great and fitting representatives of the
+native English muse.
+
+We ought to remember, in judging of the paucity of books produced in
+England, that the Wars of the Roses broke out at the very time when
+Guttenberg's labours began. In such a season of struggle and unrest as
+the thirty years of civil strife--for though Mr. Knight, in his very
+interesting sketch of this date,[D] has shown that the period of actual
+and open war was very short, the state of uneasiness and expectation
+must have endured the whole time--there was small encouragement to the
+peaceful triumphs of art or literature. And, moreover, the pride of
+station was revolted by the prospect of the spread of information among
+the classes to whom it had not yet reached. The noble could afford to
+acknowledge his inferiority in learning and research to the priest
+or monk, for it was their trade to be wise and learned, and their
+scholarship was even considered a badge of the lowness of their birth,
+which had given them the primer and psalter instead of the horse and
+sword. But those high-hearted cavaliers could ill brook the notion of
+educated clowns and peasants. And, strange to say, the sentiment was
+shared and exaggerated by the peasants and clowns themselves. Jack
+Cade is represented, by an anachronism of date but with perfect truth
+of character, as profoundly irritated at the invention of printing, and
+the building of a paper-mill, and the introduction of such heathenish
+words as nominatives and adverbs: so that the press began its career
+opposed by the two greatest parties of the State. Yet truth is mighty
+and will prevail. No nobility in Europe gives such contributions to
+the general stock of high and healthy thought as the descendants of
+the men of Towton and Bosworth, and no peasantry values more deeply,
+or would defend more gallantly, the gifts poured upon it by a free
+and sympathizing press. Warwick the King-maker, if he had lived just
+now, would have made speeches in Parliament and had them reported in
+the _Times_, and Jack Cade would have been sent to the reformatory and
+taught to read and write.
+
+But, with the peerages of Europe greatly thinned, with mounted
+feudalism overthrown, with the press rejoicing as a giant to run its
+course, something also was needed in order to make a wider theatre for
+the introduction of the new life of men. Another world lay beyond the
+great waters of the Atlantic. Whispers had been going round the circle
+of earnest inquirers, which gradually grew louder and louder till they
+reached the ears of kings, that great things lay hidden in the awful
+and mysterious solitudes of the ocean; that westward, to balance the
+preponderance of our used-up continent, must be solid land, equal
+in weight and size, so that the uninterrupted waters would conduct
+the adventurous mariner to the farther India by a nearer route than
+Bartholomew Diaz, the Portuguese, had just discovered. [A.D. 1487.]
+This man sailed to the southern extremity of Africa, passed round to
+the east without being aware of his achievement, and penetrated as
+far as Lagoa Bay. But the crew became discontented, and the navigator
+retraced his steps. Alarmed at the commotion of the vast waves of the
+Southern Ocean pouring its floods against the Table Mountain, he had
+retired from further research, and called the southern point of his
+pilgrimage the Cape of Storms. It is now known to us by a happier
+augury as the Cape of Good Hope. But, whether perpetually haunted by
+tempests or not, the truth was discovered that the land ceased at that
+promontory and left an unexplored sea beyond. This was cherished in
+many a heart; for in this century maritime discovery kept pace with
+the other triumphs of mental power. Wherever ship could swim man could
+venture. The Azores had been discovered in 1439 and colonized by the
+Portuguese in 1440. Already in possession of Cape Verd, Madeira, and
+the Canaries, Portugal looked forward to greater discoveries, for these
+were the nurseries of gallant and skilful mariners. But the glory was
+left for another nation,--though, by a strange caprice of fortune, the
+chance of it had been offered to nearly all.
+
+The life of Columbus is more wonderful than a romance. He hawked about
+his notion of the way to India at all the courts of Europe. By birth
+a Genoese, he considered the great ocean the patrimony of any person
+able to seize it. When his services, therefore, were rejected by his
+own country, he offered them successively to Portugal, to Spain, and to
+England. Henry the Seventh was inclined to venture a small sum in the
+lottery of chances; but, while still in negotiation with the brother
+of Columbus, the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, closed with
+the navigator's terms, and on the 3d of August, 1492, the squadron of
+discovery, consisting of a vessel of some size, and two small pinnaces,
+with a crew at most of a hundred persons in all the three, sailed from
+the port of Palos, in Andalusia. Three weeks' constant progress to
+the westward took them far beyond all previous navigation. The men
+became disheartened, discontented, and finally rebellious. Against all,
+Columbus bore up with the self-relying energy of a great mind, but was
+driven to the compromise of promising, if they confided in him for
+three days longer, he would return, if the object of his voyage was
+yet unattained. But by this time his sagacious observation had assured
+him of success. Strange appearances began to be perceived from the
+ship's decks. A carved piece of wood floated past, then a reed newly
+cut, and, best sign of all, a branch with red berries still fresh.
+"From all these symptoms, Columbus was so confident of being near land,
+that on the evening of the 11th of October, after public prayers for
+success, he ordered the sails to be furled, and the ships to lie to,
+keeping strict watch, lest they should be driven ashore in the night.
+During this interval of suspense and expectation no man shut his eyes:
+all kept upon deck, gazing intently towards that quarter where they
+expected to discover the land, which had been so long the object of
+their wishes. About two hours before midnight, Columbus, standing on
+the forecastle, observed a light at a distance, and privately pointed
+it out to Pedro Guttierez, a page of the queen's wardrobe. Guttierez
+perceiving it, and calling to Salcedo, comptroller of the fleet, all
+three saw it in motion, as if it were carried from place to place. A
+little after midnight the joyful sound of '_Land! land!_' was heard
+from the Pinta, which kept always ahead of the other ships. But, having
+been so often deceived by fallacious appearances, every man was now
+become slow of belief, and waited in all the anguish of uncertainty
+and impatience for the return of day. As soon as morning dawned, all
+doubts and fears were dispelled. From every ship an island was seen
+about two leagues to the north, whose flat and verdant fields, well
+stored with wood, and watered with many rivulets, presented the aspect
+of a delightful country. The crew of the Pinta instantly began the _Te
+Deum_ as a hymn of thanksgiving to God, and were joined by those of
+the other ships, with tears of joy and transports of congratulation.
+This office of gratitude to Heaven was followed by an act of justice to
+their commander. They threw themselves at the feet of Columbus, with
+feelings of self-condemnation mingled with reverence. They implored
+him to pardon their ignorance, incredulity, and insolence, which had
+created him so much unceasing disquiet and had so often obstructed the
+prosecution of his well-concerted plan; and, passing in the warmth
+of their admiration from one extreme to another, they now pronounced
+the man whom they had so lately reviled and threatened to be a person
+inspired by Heaven with sagacity and fortitude more than human, in
+order to accomplish a design so far beyond the ideas and conception of
+all former ages."
+
+Many excellent writers have described this wondrous incident, but none
+so well as the historian of America, Dr. Robertson, whose eloquent
+account is borrowed in the preceding lines. The great event occurred on
+Friday, the 12th of October, 1492, and the connection between the two
+worlds began. The place he first landed at was San Salvador, one of the
+Bahamas; and after attaching Cuba and Hispaniola to the Spanish crown,
+and going through imminent perils by land and sea, he achieved his
+glorious return to Palos on the 15th of March, 1493. He brought with
+him some of the natives of the different islands he had discovered,
+and their strange appearance and manners were vouchers for the facts
+he stated. The whole town, when he came into the harbour, was in an
+uproar of delight. "The bells were rung, the cannon fired, Columbus
+was received at landing with royal honours, and all the people, in
+solemn procession, accompanied him and his crew to the church, where
+they returned thanks to Heaven, which had so wonderfully conducted,
+and crowned with success, a voyage of greater length, and of more
+importance, than had been attempted in any former age."[E]
+
+
+
+
+                          SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        MAXIMILIAN I.--(_cont._)
+
+  1519. CHARLES V.,(1st of Spain.)
+
+  1558. FERDINAND I.
+
+  1564. MAXIMILIAN II.
+
+  1576. RODOLPH II.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        HENRY VII.--(_cont._)
+
+  1509. HENRY VIII.
+
+  1547. EDWARD VI.
+
+  1553. MARY.
+
+  1558. ELIZABETH.
+
+
+Kings of Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        JAMES IV. (_cont._)
+
+  1513. JAMES V.
+
+  1542. MARY.
+
+  1567. JAMES VI.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        LOUIS XII.--(_cont._)
+
+  1515. FRANCIS I.
+
+  1547. HENRY II.
+
+  1559. FRANCIS II.
+
+  1560. CHARLES IX.
+
+  1574. HENRY III.
+
+  (_The Bourbons._)
+
+  1589. HENRY IV.
+
+
+Kings of Spain.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1512. FERDINAND V., (the Catholic.)
+
+  1516. CHARLES I., (Emperor of Germany.)
+
+  1556. PHILIP II.
+
+  1598. PHILIP III.
+
+
+Distinguished Men.
+
+LEONARDO DA VINCI, MICHAEL ANGELO, RAFFAELLE, CORREGGIO, TITIAN,
+(Painters,) SIR PHILIP SYDNEY, RALEIGH, SPENSER, SHAKSPEARE,
+(1564-1616,) ARIOSTO, TASSO, LOPE DE VEGA, CALDERON, CERVANTES,
+SCALIGER, (1484-1558,) COPERNICUS, (1473-1543,) KNOX, (1505-1572,)
+CALVIN, (1509-1564,) BEZA, (1519-1605,) BELLARMINE, (1542-1621,) TYCHO
+BRAHE, (1546-1601.)
+
+
+
+
+                        THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE REFORMATION--THE JESUITS--POLICY OF ELIZABETH
+
+
+In the last two years of the preceding century the course of maritime
+discovery had been accelerated by fresh success. To balance the glories
+of Columbus in the West, the "regions of the rising sun" had been
+explored by Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese. This great navigator sailed
+back into the harbour of Lisbon on the 16th of September, 1499, with
+the astonishing news that he had doubled the Cape of Storms, which
+had so alarmed Bartholomew Diaz, and established relations of amity
+and commerce with the vast continent of India, having traded with a
+civilized and industrious people at Calicut, a great city on the coast
+of Malabar. Under these reiterated widenings of men's knowledge of the
+globe, the human mind itself expanded. Familiar names meet us from
+henceforth in the most distant quarters of the world. All national
+or domestic history becomes mixed up with elements hitherto unknown.
+The balance of power, which is the new constitution of the European
+States, depends on circumstances and places of the most heterogeneous
+character. A treaty between France and Spain, or between England and
+either, is regulated by events occurring on the Amazon or Ganges.
+The whole world gets more closely connected than ever it was before,
+and we can look back on the proceedings of previous ages as filling
+a very narrow theatre, and regulated by very contracted interests,
+when compared with the universal policies on which public affairs have
+now to rest. At first, however, the great results of these stupendous
+discoveries were naturally not observed. Contemporaries are justly
+accused of magnifying the small affairs of life of which they are
+witnesses; but this observation does not hold good with respect to the
+really momentous incidents of human history. A man who saw Columbus
+return from his voyage, or Guttenberg pulling at his press, could not
+rise to the contemplation of the prodigious consequences of these
+two events. He thought, perhaps, a quarrel between two neighbouring
+potentates, or a battle between France and Spain, the greatest incident
+of his time. His son forgot all about the quarrel; his grandson had
+no recollection of the battle; but widening in a still increasing
+circle, expanding into still more wonderful proportions, were the
+Discovery of America and the Art of Printing,--showing themselves in
+combinations of events and changes of circumstances where they were
+never expected to appear,--the one threatening to overthrow the freedom
+of every State in Europe by the supremacy of the Spanish crown, the
+other in reality preventing the chance of that consummation by raising
+up the indomitable spirit of spiritual liberty. For there now came to
+the aid of national independence the far more elevating feelings of
+religious emancipation. Protestantism was not limited in this century
+to denial of the spiritual authority of popes, but embodied itself also
+in resistance to the political ambition of kings. America might have
+enabled Charles the Fifth to conquer all Europe, if the Reformation had
+not strengthened men's minds with a determination to stand up against
+oppression.
+
+But the commencement of this century gave no intimation of its
+tempestuous course. The first few years saw the peaceable accession to
+the thrones of Spain and France and England of the three sovereigns
+whose contemporaneous reigns, and also whose personal characters,
+had the most preponderating influence on the succeeding current of
+events. We have left Spain for a long time out of these general views
+of a century's condition and special notices of individual incidents
+which affected the condition of the world; for Spain for a long time
+lay obscurely between the ocean and the Pyrenees and carried on wars
+and policies which were limited by its territorial bounds. But, if we
+take a hurried retrospect of the last few years, we shall see that the
+different nations contained in the Peninsula had amalgamated into one
+mighty and strongly-cemented State. [A.D. 1497.] Ferdinand of Aragon,
+by marriage with Isabella of Castile, united the various nationalities
+under one homogeneous government, and by wisdom and magnanimity--the
+wisdom being the man's and the magnanimity the woman's--had rendered
+forever famous the joint reign of husband and wife, had reconciled
+the jarring factions of their respective subjects, and seen with
+the triumphant faith of believers and the satisfaction of sagacious
+rulers the reunion of the last Mohammedan State to the dominion of
+the Cross and of the crown. They watched the long, slow march of the
+Moorish king and his cavaliers as they took their way in poverty and
+despair from the towers and meadows of Granada, which a possession of
+seven hundred years had failed to make their own. This--the conquest
+of Granada--took place in 1491; and 1516 saw the supreme power over
+all united Spain descend on the head of the grandson of Ferdinand and
+Isabella,--inheriting, along with their royal dignity, the cautious
+wisdom of the one and the wider intelligence of the other. In three
+years from that time--it will be easy to remember that Charles's age
+is the same as the century's--he was elected to the Imperial crown,
+so that the greatest dominion ever held by one man since the days of
+Charlemagne now fell to the rule of a youth of nineteen years of age.
+Germany, the Netherlands, Naples, Sicily, and Spain, more than equalled
+the extent and power of Charlemagne's empire. [A.D. 1520.] But ere
+Charles was a year older, vaster dominions than Charlemagne had ever
+dreamt of acknowledged his royal sway; for Montezuma, the Emperor of
+Mexico, whose realm was without appreciable limit either in size or
+wealth, professed himself the subject and servant of the Spanish king.
+
+Henry the Eighth of England had also succeeded at an early age, being
+but eighteen in 1509, when the death of his father, the politic and
+successful founder of the Tudor dynasty, left him with a people silent
+if not quite satisfied, and an exchequer overflowing with what would
+now amount to ten or twelve millions of gold. This treasure had been
+accumulated by the infamous exactions of the late sovereign, who was
+aided in the ignoble service by two men of the names of Empson and
+Dudley. These were spies and informers, not, as in other climes and
+countries, about the religious or political sentiments of the people,
+but about their titles to their estates, the fines they were disposed
+to pay, or the bribes they would advance to the royal extortioner to
+avoid litigation and injustice. Henry had an admirable opportunity
+of showing his hatred of these practices, and availed himself of it
+at once. Before he had been four months on the throne, Empson and
+Dudley were ignominiously hanged; and with safe conscience, after
+this sacrifice at the shrine of legality, he entered into possession
+of the pilfered store. The people applauded the rapid decision of his
+character in both these instances, and scarcely grudged him the money
+when the subordinates were given up to their revenge. They could
+not, indeed, grudge their young king any thing; his manners were so
+open and sincere, his laugh so ready, and his teeth so white; for we
+are not to forget, in compliment to what is facetiously called the
+dignity of history, the immense advantages a ruler gains by the fact
+of being good-looking. Nobody feels inclined to find fault with a
+lad of eighteen, if moderately endowed with health and features; but
+when that lad is eminently handsome, rioting in strength and spirits,
+open in disposition, and, above all, a king, you need not wonder at
+the universal inclination to overlook his faults, to exaggerate his
+virtues, and even, after an interval of two hundred and fifty years, to
+hear the greatest tyrant of our history, and the worst man perhaps of
+his time, talked of by the ordinary title of Bluff King Hal. If he had
+been as ugly and hump-backed as his grand-uncle Richard the Third, he
+would have been detested from the first.
+
+But in the neighbouring land of France there reigned at the same
+time a prince almost as handsome as Henry, and nearly as popular
+with his people, with as little real cause. In 1515, Francis
+the First was twenty years of age, a perfect specimen of manly
+strength,--accomplished in all knightly exercises,--generous and
+magnificent in his intercourse with his nobility,--and the greatest
+_roué_ and debauchee in all the kingdom of France. Here, then, at the
+beginning of the age we have now to examine, were the three mightiest
+sovereigns of Europe, all arriving at their crowns before attaining
+their majority; and with so many years before them, and such powerful
+nations obeying their commands, great prospects for good or evil were
+opening on the world. But in the early years of the century no human
+eye perceived in what direction the future was going to pursue its
+course. People were all watching for the first indication of what was
+to come, and kept their eyes on the courts of Paris and London and
+Madrid; but nobody suspected that the real champions of the time were
+already marshalling their forces in far different situations. There
+was a thoughtful monk in a convent in Germany, and a Spanish soldier
+before the walls of Pampeluna. These were the true movers of men's
+minds, of the great thoughts by which events are created; and their
+names were soon to sound louder than those of Henry or Charles or
+Francis; for one was Martin Luther, the hero of the Reformation, and
+the other was Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Take note
+of them here as mere accessories to the march of general history: we
+shall return to them again as characteristics of the century on which
+they placed their indelible mark. At this time, in the gay young days
+of the three crowned striplings, these future combatants are totally
+unknown. Brother Martin is singing charming hymns to the Virgin, in a
+voice which it was delightful to hear; and Don Ignacio is also singing
+to his guitar the praises of one of the beautiful maidens of his native
+land. Public opinion was still stagnant with regard to home-affairs,
+in spite of the efforts of the infant press. People, bowed down by the
+claims of implicit obedience exacted from them by the Church, accepted
+with wondering submission the pontificate of such an atrocious murderer
+as Alexander the Sixth; and some even ingeniously founded an argument
+of the divine institution of the Papacy upon its having survived the
+eleven years' desecration of that monster of cruelty and unbelief. Yet
+now it happened by a strange coincidence that the chair of St. Peter
+was to be filled by a gayer and more accomplished ruler than any of the
+earthly thrones we have mentioned. In 1513, Leo the Tenth, the most
+celebrated of the family of the Medicis of Florence, put on the tiara
+at the age of thirty-six, a period of life which was considered as
+youthful for the father of Christendom as even the boyish years of the
+temporal kings. And Leo did not belie the promise of his juvenility.
+None of the dulness of age, or even the caution of maturity, was
+perceived in his public or private conduct. He was a patron of arts
+and sciences, and buffoonery, and infidelity; and it is curious to
+observe how the pretensions of Rome were more shaken by the frivolous
+magnificence of a good-hearted, graceful voluptuary than they had been
+by the crimes of his two immediate predecessors, the truculent Borgia
+and the warlike Julius the Second.
+
+This latter pontiff was intended by nature for a leader of Free Lances,
+to live forever in "the joy of battle," and must have felt a little
+out of his element as the head of the Christian Church. However, he
+rapidly discovered that he was a secular prince as well as a spiritual
+teacher, and cast his eyes in the former capacity with ominous ill will
+on the industrious Republic of Venice. The fishermen and fugitives of
+many centuries before, who had settled among the Adriatic lagoons,
+had risen into the position of princes and treasurers of Europe. By
+their possessions in the East, and their trading-factories established
+along the whole route from India to the Mediterranean, they had made
+themselves the intermediaries between the barbaric pearls and gold,
+the silks and spices, of the Oriental regions, and the requirements
+of the West. Their galleys were daily bringing them the commodities
+of the Levant, which they distributed at an exorbitant profit among
+the nations beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. Mercantile wealth and
+maritime enterprise elevated the taste and confidence of those Venetian
+traffickers, till their whole territory, amid the lifeless waters
+of their canals, was covered with stately palaces, and their fleets
+assumed the dominion of the inland seas. On the mainland they had
+stretched their power over Dalmatia and Trieste, and in their own
+peninsula over Rimini and Ferrara and a great part of the Romagna. Two
+ruling passions agitated the soul of Julius the Second: one was to
+recover whatever territory or influence had once belonged to the Holy
+See; the other was to expel the hated barbarian, whether Frenchman,
+or Swiss, or Austrian, from the soil of Italy. To achieve this last
+object he would sacrifice any thing except the first; and to unite
+the two was difficult. He made his approaches to Venice in a gentle
+manner at first. He asked her to restore the lands she had lately won,
+which he claimed as appendages of his chair, because they had been
+torn unjustly from the original holders by Cæsar Borgia, the son of
+Alexander the Infamous; and if she had agreed to this he would no doubt
+have proceeded with his further scheme of banishing all ultramontane
+invaders. But as the commercial council of the great emporium hesitated
+at giving up what they had entered in their books as fairly their
+own, he altered his note in a moment, put on the insignia of his holy
+office, and, denouncing the astonished republic as rebellious and
+ungrateful to Mother Church, he called in the aid of the very French
+whom he was so anxious to get quit of, to execute his judgment upon the
+offending State. Venice was rich, and France at that time was poor and
+at all times is greedy. So preparations were made for an assault with
+the readiness and glee with which a party of freebooters would make a
+descent on the Bank of England. The temptation also was too great to be
+resisted by other kings and princes, who were as hungry for spoil and
+as attached to religion as the French. So in an incredibly short space
+of time the league of Cambrai was joined by Maximilian, the Emperor of
+Germany, and Ferdinand of Spain, and dukes and marquesses of less note.
+There were few of the Southern potentates, indeed, who had not some
+cause of complaint against the haughty Venetians. [A.D. 1508.] Some
+(as the German Maximilian) they had humbled by defeat; others they had
+insulted by their purse-proud insolence; others, again, by superiority
+in commercial skill; and all, by the fact of being wealthy and, as they
+fancied, weak.
+
+Louis the Twelfth of France was first in the field. He conquered at
+Agnadello, and, forcing his way to the shore, alarmed the marble halls
+of the Venetians with the sound of his harmless cannonade. The Pope
+was next, and took possession of the towns he wanted. The Duke of
+Ferrara laid hold of some loose articles in the confusion, and the
+Marquis of Mantua got back some villages which his grandfather had
+lost. Maximilian was disconsolate at not being in time for the general
+pillage, and had to content himself with Padua and Vicenza and Verona.
+Maximilian was a gentleman in difficulties, who has the misfortune to
+be known in history as Max the Penniless. The Venetians sent to tell
+him they were ready to acknowledge his suzerainty as emperor, and to
+pay him a tribute of fifty thousand ducats. The man would have forgiven
+them a hundred times their offences for half the money, and was anxious
+to close with their offer. But they had made no similar proposition
+to the French king, nor to Ferdinand, nor even of a ten-pound note
+to the Mantuan Marquis or the Magnifico of Ferrara. Wherefore they
+all began to hate the emperor. Louis declined to give him any more
+assistance. Julius sent a secret message to the Venetians that Holy
+Church was not inexorable; and Venice, relying on the placability of
+Rome, hung out her flag against her secular foes in prouder defiance
+than ever. She knelt at the feet of the Pope, and allowed him to retain
+his acquisitions in Romagna and elsewhere; and as his first object,
+the enrichment of his domain, was accomplished, he lost no time in
+carrying out the second. [A.D. 1510.] By the fortunate possession
+of an unlimited power of loosing mankind from unpleasant oaths and
+obligations, he astonished his late confederates by publishing a
+sentence releasing the Venetians from the censures of the Church and
+the Allies from the covenants of the Treaty of Cambrai. He then joined
+the pontifical forces to the troops of Venice, and in hot haste made a
+rush upon the French. He bought over Ferdinand of Spain to the cause
+by giving him the investiture of Naples, hired a multitude of Swiss
+mercenaries, and, drawing the sword like a stout man-at-arms as he was,
+he laid siege to Mirandola. In spite of his great age,--he was now past
+seventy,--he performed all the offices of an active general, visited
+the trenches, encouraged his army, and after a two months' bombardment
+disdained to enter the city by the opened gate, but was triumphantly
+carried in military pomp through a breach in the shattered wall. His
+perfidy as a statesman and audacity as a soldier were too much for the
+Emperor and the King of France. [A.D. 1511.] They collected as many
+troops as they could, and threatened to summon a general council; for
+what excommunication as an instrument of offence was to the popes, a
+general council was to the civil power. The French clergy met at Tours,
+and supported the Crown against Julius. The German emperor was still
+more indignant. He published a paper of accusations, in which the
+bitterness of his penniless condition is not concealed. "The enormous
+sums daily extracted from Germany," he says, "are perverted to the
+purposes of luxury or worldly views, instead of being employed for
+the service of God or against the Infidels. So extensive a territory
+has been alienated for the benefit of the Pope that scarcely a florin
+of revenue remains to the Emperor in Italy." Louis and the French
+appeared triumphant in the field; but their triumphs threw them into
+dismay, for their protean adversary, when defeated as temporal prince,
+thundered against them as successor of St. Peter, and taught them that
+their victories were impiety and their acquisitions sacrilege. A hard
+case for Louis, where if he retreated his territories were seized,
+and if he advanced his soul was in danger. The war, which had begun
+as a combination against Venice, was now converted into a holy league
+in defence of Rome. Spaniards came to the rescue; and Henry, the
+youthful champion of England, and all who either thought they loved
+religion or who really hated France, were inspired as if for a crusade.
+[A.D. 1512.] And Maximilian himself, poor and friendless,--how was it
+possible for him to continue obstinately to reject the overtures of the
+Pope, the purse of the Venetians, or the far more tempting whisperings
+of Ferdinand of Aragon, who said to him, "Julius is very old. Would
+it not be possible to win over the cardinals to make your majesty his
+successor?" Such a golden dream had never suggested itself to the
+pauperized emperor before. He swallowed the bait at once. He determined
+to bribe the Sacred College, and, to raise the necessary funds, pawned
+the archducal mantle of Austria to the rich merchants, the Fuggers
+of Antwerp, for a large sum, and wrote to his daughter Margaret,
+"To-morrow I shall send a bishop to the Pope, to conclude an agreement
+with him that I may be appointed his coadjutor and on his death succeed
+to the Papacy, that you may be bound to worship me,--of which I
+shall be very proud." This may appear a rather jocular announcement
+of so serious a design; but there is no doubt that the project was
+entertained. Matters, however, advanced at too rapid a pace for the
+slow calculations of politicians. The French, by a noble victory at
+Ravenna, established their fame as warriors, and roused the fear of
+all the other powers. Maximilian grasped at last the Venetian ducats
+which had been offered him so long before, and turned suddenly against
+his ally. Ferdinand and Henry pressed forward on France itself on the
+side of the Pyrenees. Foot by foot the land of Italy was set free from
+the French invaders, and Julius the Second, dying before the emperor's
+plans were matured, left the tangled web of European politics to be
+unravelled by a younger hand.
+
+We have dwelt on this strange contest, where many sovereign states
+combined to overthrow a colony of traders, and failed in all their
+attempts, because it is the last great appearance that Venice has made
+in the general history of the world. From this time her power rapidly
+decayed. Her galleys lay rotting at their wharves, and the marriage of
+her Doge to the Sea was a symbol without a meaning. The discovery of
+a passage to India by the Cape, which we saw announced to Europe by
+Vasco da Gama in the last year of the late century, was a sentence of
+death to the carriers of the Adriatic. Commerce sought other channels
+and enriched other lands. Wherever the merchant-vessels crowded the
+harbour, whether with the commodities of the East or West, the war-ship
+was sure to follow, and the treasures gained in traffic to be guarded
+by a navy. All the ports of Spain became rallying-places of wealth
+and power in this century. Portugal covered every sea with her guns
+and galleons; Holland rose to dignity and freedom by her heavy-armed
+marine; and England began the career of enterprise and liberty which
+is still typified and assured by the preponderance of her commercial
+and royal fleets. Questions are asked--which the younger among us, who
+may live to see the answer, may amuse themselves by considering--as to
+the chance of Venice recovering her ancient commerce if the pathway of
+Eastern trade be again traced down the Mediterranean, when the Isthmus
+of Suez shall be cut through by a canal or curtailed by a railway.
+In former times the whole civilized world lay like a golden fringe
+round the shores of that one sea, and the nation which predominated
+there, either in wealth or arms, was mistress of the globe. But
+the case is altered now. If the Gates of Hercules were permanently
+closed, the commerce of the world would still go on; and, so far from
+a Mediterranean supremacy indicating a universal pre-eminence, it is
+perhaps worthy of remark that the only Mediterranean nations which have
+in later times been recognised as of first-rate rank in Europe have had
+their principal ports upon the Atlantic and in the Channel.
+
+There is a circumstance which we may observe as characteristic of many
+of the European states at this time,--the desire of combination and
+consolidation at home even more than of foreign conquest. In Spain the
+cessation of the oligarchy of kingships had established a national
+crown. The hopes of recasting the separated and mutilated limbs of
+ancient Latium into a gigantic Italy were rife in that sunny land of
+high resolves and futile acts. In Germany, the official supremacy
+of the emperor was insufficient to prevent the strong definement of
+the corporate nationalities. Holland secured its individuality by
+unheard-of efforts; and in England the great thought took possession
+of the political mind of a union of the whole island. Visions already
+floated before the statesmen on both sides of the Tweed of a Great
+Britain freed from intestine disturbance and guarded by undisputed
+seas. But the general intelligence was not yet sufficiently far
+advanced. [A.D. 1502.] The Scotch were too Scotch and the English too
+English to sink their national differences; and we can only pay homage
+to the wisdom which by a marriage between the royal houses--James
+the Fourth, and Margaret of England--planted the promise which came
+afterwards to maturity in the junction of the crowns in 1603, and the
+indissoluble union of the countries in 1707.
+
+Meantime, the wooing was of the harshest. The last great battle,
+Flodden, that marked the enmity of the kingdoms, was decided in this
+century, and has left a deep and sorrowful impression even to our
+own times. There is not a cottage in Scotland where "The Fight of
+Flodden" is not remembered yet. And its effects were so desolating and
+dispiriting that it may be considered the death-bed to the feeling of
+equality which had hitherto ennobled the weaker nation. From this time
+England held the position of a virtual superior, regulating her conduct
+without much regard to the dignity or self-respect of her neighbour,
+and employing the arts of diplomacy, and the meaner tricks of bribery
+and corruption, only because they were more easy and less expensive
+than the open method of invasion and conquest. "Scotland's shield" was
+indeed broken at Flodden, but her character for courage and honour
+remained. It was the treachery of Solway Moss, and the venality of most
+of the surviving nobility, that were the real causes of her weakness,
+and of the subordinate place which at this time she held in Europe.
+
+Thus the object which in other nations had been gained by a union of
+crowns was attained also in our island by the absence of opposition
+between the peoples. Flodden and Pinkie may therefore be looked upon
+with kindlier eyes if they are regarded as steps to the formation of
+so great a realm. No nation retained its feudal organization so long
+as Scotland, or so completely departed from the original spirit of
+feudalism. Instead of being leaders and protectors of their dependants,
+and attached vassals of the kings, the barons of the North were an
+oligarchy of armed conspirators both against the crown and the people.
+Few of the earlier Stuarts died in peaceful bed; for even those of
+them who escaped the dagger of the assassin were hunted to death by
+the opposition and falsehood of the chiefs. Perpetually engaged in
+plots against the throne or forays against each other, the Scottish
+nobility weakened their country both at home and abroad. Law could
+have no authority where mailed warriors settled everything by the
+sword, and no resistance could be offered to a foreign enemy by men
+so divided among themselves. Down to a period when the other nations
+of Europe were under the rule of legal tribunals, the High Street of
+Edinburgh was the scene of violence and bloodshed between rival lords
+who were too powerful for control by the civil authority. A succession
+of foolishly rash or unwisely lenient sovereigns left this ferocity and
+independence unchecked; and though poetry and patriotism now combine
+to cast a melancholy grace on the defeat at Flodden, from the Roman
+spirit with which the intelligence was received by the population
+of the capital, the unbiassed inquirer must confess that, with the
+exception of the single virtue of personal courage, the Scottish array
+was ennobled by no quality which would have justified its success. It
+was ill commanded, ill disciplined, and ill combined. The nobility, as
+usual, were disaffected to the king and averse to the War. But the
+crown-tenants and commonalty of the Lowlands were always ready for an
+affray with England; and James the Fourth, the most chivalrous of that
+line of chivalrous and unfortunate princes, merrily crossed the Border
+and prepared for feats of arms as if at a tournament. [A.D. 1513.]
+The cautious Earl of Surrey, the leader of the English army, availed
+himself of the knightly prepossessions of his enemy, and sent a herald,
+in all the frippery of tabard and cross, to challenge him to battle
+on a set day, when Lord Thomas Howard would run a tilt with him at
+the head of the English van. James fell into the snare, and regulated
+his movements, in fact, by the direction of his opponent. When, in a
+momentary glimpse of common sense, he established his quarters on the
+side of a hill, from which it would have been impossible to dislodge
+him, Surrey relied on the absurd generosity of his character, and sent
+a message to complain that he had placed himself on ground "more like
+a fortress or a camp than an ordinary battle-field." James pretended
+to despise the taunt, and even to refuse admission to the herald; but
+it worked on his susceptible and fearless nature; for we find that he
+allowed the English to pass through difficult and narrow ways, which
+were commanded by his guns, and when they were fairly marshalled on
+level ground he set fire to his tents and actually descended the hill
+to place himself on equal terms with the foe. Such a beginning had
+the only possible close. Strong arms and sharp swords are excellent
+supports of generalship, but cannot always be a substitute for it.
+Never did the love of fight so inherent in the Scottish character
+display itself more gallantly than on this day. Again and again the
+Scottish earls dashed forward against the English squares. These were
+composed of the steadiest of the pikemen flanked by the wondrous
+archers who had turned so many a tide of battle. Fain would the veteran
+warriors have kept their men in check; fain would the commanders of
+the French auxiliaries have restrained the Scottish advance. But the
+Northern blood was up. Onward they went, in spite of generalship and
+all the rules of discipline, and with a great crash burst upon the wall
+of steel. It was magnificent, as the Frenchmen said at Balaklava, but
+it was not war. Repelled by the recoil of their own impetuous charge,
+they fell into fragments and encumbered the gory plain. Very few fled,
+very few had the opportunity of flying; for the cloth-yard shaft never
+missed its aim. There was no crying for quarter or sparing of the
+flashing blade. Both sides were irritated to madness. James pushed on,
+shouting and waving his bloody sword, and was wounded by an arrow and
+gashed with a ponderous battle-axe when he had forced himself within a
+few paces of Surrey. Darkness was now closing in. The king's death was
+rapidly known, but still the struggle went on. At length the wearied
+armies ceased to kill. The Scotch retreated, and in the dawn of the
+next morning a compact body of them was seen still threatening on the
+side of a distant hill. But the day was lost and won. The chivalry of
+Scotland received a blow from which it never recovered. What Courtrai
+had been to the French, and Granson and Nanci to the Burgundians, and
+Towton and Tewkesbury to the English, the 9th of September, 1513,
+was to the peerage of the North. Thirteen earls were killed, fifteen
+barons, and chiefs and members of all the gentle houses in the land.
+Some were stripped utterly desolate by this appalling slaughter; and
+from many a hall, as well as from humble shieling, rose the burden of
+the tearful ballad, "The flowers o' the forest are a' wedd awa'." There
+were ten thousand slain in the field, the gallant James cut off in
+the prime of strength and manhood, and the sceptre which required the
+grasp of an Edward the First left to be the prize of an unprincipled
+queen-mother, or any ambitious cabal which could conspire to seize it.
+James the Fifth was but a year or two old, and the country discouraged
+and demoralized.
+
+But Henry the Eighth was destined to some other triumphs in this
+fortunate year. First there was the victory which his forces won at
+Guinegate, near Calais, where the French chivalry fled in the most
+ignominious manner, and struck their rowels into their horses' flanks,
+without remembering that they carried swords in their hands. This
+is known in history as the second Battle of the Spurs,--not, as at
+Courtrai, for the number of those knightly emblems taken off the heels
+of the dead, but for the amazing activity they displayed on the heels
+of the living. And, secondly, he could boast that the foremost man
+in Christendom wore his livery and pocketed his pay; for Maximilian
+the Penniless, successor of Charlemagne and Constantine and Augustus,
+enlisted and did good service as an English trooper at a hundred crowns
+a day. Let Henry rejoice in these achievements while he may; for the
+time is drawing near when the old sovereigns of Europe are to be moved
+out of the way and France and Spain are to be governed by younger men
+and more ambitious politicians than himself. Evil times indeed were
+at hand, when it required the strength of youth and wisdom of policy
+to guide the bark not only of separate states, but of settled law and
+Christian civilization. For, however pleasant it may be to trace Henry
+through his home-career and Francis and Charles in their national
+rivalries, we are not to forget that the real interest of this century
+is that it is the century of the Reformation,--a movement before whose
+overwhelming importance the efforts of the greatest individuals sink
+into insignificance,--an upheaving of hidden powers and principles,
+which in truth so altered all former relations between man and man that
+it found the most influential personage in Europe, not in the Apostolic
+Emperor, or the Christian King, or the Defender of the Faith, but in a
+burly friar at Wittenberg, whose name had never been heard before.
+
+Let us see what was the general condition of the Romish Chair before
+the outburst of its enemies at this time. One thing is very observable:
+that its claims to supremacy and obedience were, ostensibly at least,
+almost universally acquiesced in. From Norway to Calabria the theory
+of a Universal Church, divinely founded and divinely sustained, in
+possession of superhuman power and uncommunicated knowledge, governed
+by an infallible chief, and administered by an uninterrupted line
+of priests and bishops, who had given up the vanities of the world,
+satisfier of doubts, and sole instrument of salvation,--this seemed so
+perfect and so natural an organization that it had been accepted from
+time immemorial as incapable of denial. If a voice was heard here and
+there in an Alpine valley or in a scholastic debating-room impugning
+these arrangements or asking proof from history or revelation, the
+civil power was let loose upon the gainsayer, with the general consent
+of orthodox men, and the Vaudois were murdered with sword and spear
+and the inquiring student chained in his monkish cell. The theory and
+organization of the Universal Church were, in fact, never so well
+defined as at the moment when its reign was drawing to a close. Nobody
+doubted that a general Father, clothed in infallible wisdom, and armed
+with powers directly committed to him for the guidance or punishment of
+mankind, was the Heaven-sent arbiter of differences, the rewarder of
+faithful kings, the corrector of unruly nations; and yet the spectacle
+was presented, to the believers in this ideal, of a series of wicked
+and abandoned rulers sitting in Peter's chair, and only imitating the
+apostle in his furiousness and his denial; cardinals depraved and
+worldly beyond the example of temporal princes; a priesthood steeped,
+for the most part, in ignorance and vice, and monks and nuns the
+_opprobria_ of all nations where they were found. Never were claims
+and performances brought into such startling contrast before. The
+Pope was the representative upon earth of the Saviour of men; and he
+poisoned his guests, like Borgia, slew his opponents, like Julius,
+or led the life of an intellectual epicure, like Leo the Tenth. In
+former times the contrariety between doctrine and practice would have
+been slightly known or easily reconciled. Few comparatively visited
+Rome; cardinals were seldom seen; priests were not more ignorant than
+their parishioners, and monks not more wicked than their admirers. All
+believed in the miraculous efficacy of the wares in which even the
+lower order of the clergy dealt, and their rule in country places was
+so lax, their penances so easily performed or commuted, their relations
+with their people so friendly and on such equal terms, that in the
+rural districts the voice of complaint was either unheard or neglected.
+In Italy, the head-quarters of the faith, the excesses of priestly
+rule were the most glaring and wide-spread. Rome itself was always the
+seat of turbulence and disaffection. The lives of professedly holy men
+were known, and the vices of popes and prelates pressed heavily on the
+people, who were the first victims of their avarice or cruelty. But
+the utmost extent of their indignation never reached to a questioning
+of the foundation of the power from which they suffered. An Italian
+crushed to the earth by the extortion of his Church, irritated perhaps
+by the personal wickedness of his director, sought no escape from such
+inflictions in disbelieving either the temporal or spiritual authority
+of his oppressor. Rather he would have looked with savage satisfaction
+on the fagot-fire of any one who hinted that the principles of his
+Church required the slightest amendment; that the absolution of his
+sensual confessor was not altogether indispensable; that the image he
+bowed down to was common wood, or that the relics he worshipped were
+merely dead men's bones. Perhaps, indeed, in those luxurious regions,
+a bare and unadorned worship would not seem to be worship at all. With
+his impassioned mind and glowing fancy, the Spaniard or Italian must
+pour out his whole being on the object of his adoration. He loves his
+patron saint with the warmth of an earthly affection, and thinks he
+undervalues her virtues or her claims if he does not heap her shrine
+with his offerings and address her image with rapture. He must make
+external demonstration of his inward feelings, or nobody will believe
+in their existence. The crouchings and kneelings, therefore, which our
+colder natures stigmatize as idolatry, are to him nothing more than
+the outward manifestation of affection and thankfulness. He does the
+same to his master or his benefactor without degradation in the eyes
+of his countrymen. Without these bowings and genuflections his conduct
+would be thought ungrateful and disrespectful. That this amount of
+warm-hearted sincerity is wasted upon such unworthy objects as his
+saints and relics is greatly to be deplored; but wide allowances must
+be made for peculiarities of situation and disposition; and we should
+remember that whereas in the North a religion of forms and ceremonies
+would be a body without a soul, because there would be no inward
+exaltation answering to the outward manifestation, the Southern heart
+sees a meaning where there is none to us, is conscious of a sense of
+trust and reverence where we only see slavishness and imposture, and
+a feeling of divine consolation and hope in services which to us are
+histrionic and absurd. Religious belief, in the sense of a true and
+undivided faith in the doctrines of Christianity, had no recognised
+existence at the period we have reached. But this absence of religious
+belief was combined, however strange the statement may appear, with
+a most implicit trust in the directions and authority of the Church.
+Sunny skies might have shone forever over the political abasement
+and slightly Christianized paganism of the inhabitants of the two
+peninsulas and the Southeast of Europe, but a cloud was about to rise
+in the North which dimmed them for a time, but which, after it burst
+in purifying thunder, has refreshed and cleared the atmosphere of the
+whole world.
+
+The first book that Guttenberg published in 1451 was the Holy
+Bible,--in the Latin language, to be sure, and after the Vulgate
+edition, but still containing, to those who could gather it, the
+manna of the Word. Two years after that, in 1453, the capture of
+Constantinople by the Turks had scattered the learning of the Greeks
+among all the nations of the West. The universities were soon supplied
+with professors, who displayed the hitherto-unexplored treasures of the
+language of Pericles and Demosthenes. Everywhere a spirit of inquiry
+began to reawaken, but limited as yet to subjects of philosophy and
+antiquity. Christianity, indeed, had so lost its hold on the minds of
+scholars that it was not considered worth inquiring into. It was looked
+on as a fable, and only profitable as an instrument of policy. Erasmus
+was alarmed at the state of feeling in 1516, and expressed his belief
+that, if those Grecian studies were pursued, the ancient deities would
+resume their sway. But the Bible was already reaping its appointed
+harvest. Its voice, lost in the din of speculative philosophies and
+the dissipation of courts, was heard in obscure places, where it never
+had penetrated before. In 1505, Luther was twenty-two years of age. He
+had made himself a scholar by attendance at schools where his poverty
+almost debarred him from appearing. At Eisenach he gained his bread by
+singing at the richer inhabitants' doors. Afterwards he had gone to
+Erfurt, and, tired or afraid of the world, anxious for opportunities
+of self-examination, and dissatisfied with his spiritual state, he
+entered the convent of the Augustines, and in two years more, in 1507,
+became priest and monk. There was an amazing amount of goodness and
+simplicity of life among the brotherhood of this community. Learning
+and devout meditation were encouraged, holy ascetic lives were led, the
+body was kept under with fastings and stripes. A Bible was open to them
+all, but chained to its place in the chapel, and only to be studied
+by standing before the desk on which it lay. All these things were
+insufficient, and Brother Martin was miserable. His companions pitied
+and respected him. Staupitz, a man of great rank in the Church, a sort
+of inspector-general of a large district, visited the convent, and in
+a moment was attracted by the youthful monk. He conversed with him,
+soothed his agitated mind, not with anodynes from the pharmacopoeia of
+the Church, but from the fountain-head of the faith. He painted God as
+the forgiver of sinners, the Father of all men; and Luther took some
+comfort. But, on going away, the kind-hearted Staupitz gave the young
+man a Bible,--a Bible all to himself, his own property, to carry in
+his bosom, to study in his cell. His vocation was at once fixed. The
+Reformer felt his future all before him, like Achilles when he grasped
+the sword and rejected the feminine toys. The books he had taken
+with him into the monastery were Plautus and Virgil; but he studied
+plays and epics no more. Augustin and the Bible supplied their place.
+Hungering for better things than the works of the law,--abstinence,
+prayer-repetitions, scourgings, and all the wearisome routine of
+mechanical devotion,--he dashed boldly into the other extreme, and
+preached free grace,--grace without merit, the great doctrine which is
+called, theologically, "justification by faith alone." This had been
+the main theme of his master Augustin, and Luther now gave it practical
+shape. In 1510 he was sent on some business of his convent to Rome,--to
+Rome, the head-quarters of the Church, the earthly residence of the
+infallible! How holy will be its dwellings, how gracious the words of
+its inhabitants! The German monk saw nothing but sin and infidelity.
+In high places as in low, the taint of corruption was polluting all
+the air. In terror and dismay, he left the city of iniquity within
+a fortnight of his arrival, and hurried back to the peacefulness of
+his convent. "I would not for a hundred thousand florins have missed
+seeing Rome," he said, long afterwards. "I should always have felt
+an uneasy doubt whether I was not, after all, doing injustice to the
+Pope. As it is, I am quite satisfied on the point." The Pope was Julius
+the Second, whose career we followed in the League of Cambrai; and
+we may enter into the surprise of Luther at seeing the Father of the
+Faithful breathing blood and ruin to his rival neighbours. But the
+force of early education was still unimpaired. The Pope was Pope, and
+the devout German thought of him on his knees. But in the year 1517 a
+man of the name of Tetzel, a Dominican of the rudest manners and most
+brazen audacity, appeared in the market-place of Wittenberg, ringing a
+bell, and hawking indulgences from the Holy See to be sold to all the
+faithful. A new Pope was on the throne,--the voluptuous Leo the Tenth.
+He had resolved to carry on the building of the great Church of St.
+Peter, and, having exhausted his funds in riotous living, he sent round
+his emissaries to collect fresh treasures by the sale of these pardons
+for human sin. "Pour in your money," cried Tetzel, "and whatever crimes
+you have committed, or may commit, are forgiven! Pour in your coin,
+and the souls of your friends and relations will fly out of purgatory
+the moment they hear the chink of your dollars at the bottom of the
+box." Luther was Doctor of Divinity, Professor in the University,
+and pastoral visitor of two provinces of the empire. He felt it was
+his duty to interfere. He learned for the first time himself how far
+indulgences were supposed to go, and shuddered at the profanity of the
+notion of their being of any value whatever. On the festival of All
+Saints, in November, 1517, he read a series of propositions against
+them in the great church, and startled all Germany like a thunderbolt
+with a printed sermon on the same subject. The press began its work,
+and people no longer fought in darkness. Nationalities were at an end
+when so wide-embracing a subject was treated by so universal an agent.
+The monk's voice was heard in all lands, even in the walls of Rome, and
+crossed the sea, and came in due time to England. "Tush, tush! 'tis
+a quarrel of monks," said Leo the Tenth; and, with an affectation of
+candour, he remarked, "This Luther writes well: he is a man of fine
+genius."
+
+Gallant young Henry the Eighth thought it a good opportunity to show
+his talent, and meditated an assault on the heretic,--a curious duel
+between a pale recluse and the gayest prince in Christendom. But
+the recluse was none the worse when the book was published, and the
+prince earned from the gratitude of the Pope the name "Defender of
+the Faith," which is still one of the titles of the English crown.
+Penniless Maximilian looked on well pleased, and wrote to a Saxon
+counsellor, "All the popes I have had any thing to do with have been
+rogues and cheats. The game with the priests is beginning. What your
+monk is doing is not to be despised: take care of him. It may happen
+that we shall have need of him." Luther's own prince, the Elector of
+Saxony, was his firm friend, and on one side or other all Europe was
+on the gaze. Leo at last perceived the danger, and summoned the monk
+to Rome. He might as well have yielded in the struggle at once, for
+from Rome he never could have returned alive. He consented, however, to
+appear before the Legate at Augsburg, attended by a strong body-guard
+furnished by the Elector, and held his ground against the threats
+and promises of the Cardinal of Cajeta. But Maximilian carried his
+poverty and disappointment to the grave in 1519; and when Leo saw
+the safe accession of his successor Charles the Fifth, the faithful
+servant of St. Peter, he pushed matters with a higher hand against
+the daring innovator. Brother Martin, however, was unmoved. He would
+not retreat; he even advanced in his course, and wrote to the Pope
+himself an account of the iniquities of Rome. "You have three or four
+cardinals," he says, "of learning and faith; but what are these three
+or four in so vast a crowd of infidels and reprobates? The days of
+Rome are numbered, and the anger of God has been breathed forth upon
+her. She hates councils, she dreads reforms, and will not hear of a
+check being placed on her desperate impiety." This was a dangerous
+man to meet with such devices as bulls and interdicts. Charles
+determined to try harsher measures, and summoned him to appear at
+a Diet of the States held in Worms. The emperor was now twenty-one
+years old. His sceptre stretched over the half of Europe, and across
+the great sea to the golden realm of Mexico. Martin begged a new gown
+from the not very lavish Elector, and went in a sort of chariot to
+the appointed city,--serene and confident, for he had a safe-conduct
+from the emperor and various princes, and trusted in the goodness of
+his cause. [A.D. 1521.] Such a scene never occurred in any age of the
+world as was presented when the assemblage met. All the peers and
+potentates of the German Empire, presided over by the most powerful
+ruler that ever had been known in Europe, were gathered to hear the
+trial and condemnation of a thin, wan-visaged young man, dressed in
+a monk's gown and hood and worn with the fatigues and hazards of his
+recent life. "Yet prophet-like that lone one stood, with dauntless
+words and high," and answered all questions with force and modesty.
+But answers were not what the Diet required, and retractation was
+far from Luther's mind. So the Chancellor of Trèves came to him and
+said, "Martin, thou art disobedient to his Imperial Majesty: wherefore
+depart hence under the safe-conduct he has given thee." And the monk
+departed. As he was nearing his destination, and was passing through a
+wood alone, some horsemen seized his person, dressed him in military
+garb, and put on him a false beard. They then mounted him on a led
+horse and rode rapidly away. His friends were anxious about his fate,
+for a dreadful sentence had been uttered against him by the emperor on
+the day when his safe-conduct expired, forbidding any one to sustain
+or shelter him, and ordering all persons to arrest and bring him into
+prison to await the judgment he deserved. People thought he had been
+waylaid and killed, or at all events sent into a dungeon. Meantime he
+was living peaceably and comfortably in the castle of Wartburg, to
+which he had been conveyed in this mysterious manner by his friend the
+Elector,--safe from the machinations of his enemies, and busily engaged
+in his immortal translation of the Bible.
+
+The movement thus communicated by Luther knew no pause nor end.
+It soon ceased to be a merely national excitement caused by local
+circumstances, and became the one great overwhelming question of
+the time. Every thing was brought into its vortex: however distant
+might be its starting-point, to this great central idea it was sure
+to attach itself at last. Involuntarily, unconsciously, unwillingly,
+every government found that the Reformation formed part of its scheme
+and policy. One nation, and one only, had the clear eye and firm
+hand to make it ostensibly, and of its deliberate choice, the guide
+and landmark in its dangerous and finally triumphant career. This
+was England,--not when under the degrading domination of its Henry
+or the heavy hand of its Mary, but under the skilful piloting of the
+great Elizabeth, the first of rulers who seems to have perceived that
+submission to a foreign priest is a political error on the part both
+of kings and subjects, and that occupation by a foreign army is not
+more subversive of freedom and independence than the supremacy of a
+foreign Church. Hitherto England had been nearly divided from the whole
+world, and was merely one of the distant satellites that revolved on
+the outside of the European system, the centre of which was Rome.
+She was now to burn with light of her own. The Continent, indeed,
+at the commencement of the Reformation, seemed almost in a state of
+dissolution. In 1529 disunion had attained such a pitch in the Empire
+that the different princes were ranged on hostile sides. At the Diet
+of Spires, in this year, the name of Protestant had been assumed by
+the opponents of the excesses and errors of the Church of Rome. At
+the same time that the religious unity was thus finally thrown off,
+the Turks were thundering at the Eastern gates of Europe, and Solyman
+of Constantinople laid siege to Vienna. France was exhausted with her
+internal troubles. Spain came to the rescue of the outraged faith, and
+made heresy punishable with death throughout all her dominions. While
+the Netherlands, against which this was directed, was groaning under
+this new infliction, disorder seemed to extend over the solid earth
+itself. There were earthquakes and great storms in many lands. Lisbon
+was shaken into ruins, with a loss of thirty thousand inhabitants; and
+the dykes of Holland were overwhelmed by a prodigious rising of the
+sea, and four hundred thousand people were drowned.
+
+Preparations were made in all quarters for a great and momentous
+struggle: nobody could tell where it would break forth or where it
+would end. And ever and anon Luther's rallying-cry was heard in answer
+to the furious denunciations of cardinals and popes. Interests get
+parcelled out in so many separate portions that it is impossible
+to unravel the state of affairs with any clearness. We shall only
+notice that, in 1531, the famous league of Smalcalde first embodied
+Protestantism in its national and lay constitution by the banding
+together of nine of the sovereign princes of Germany, and eleven free
+cities, in armed defence, if needed, of their religious belief. Where
+is the fiery Henry of England, with his pen or sword? A very changed
+man from what we saw him only thirteen years ago. He has no pen now,
+and his sword is kept for his discontented subjects at home. In 1534,
+King and Lords and Commons, in Parliament assembled, threw off the
+supremacy of Rome, and Henry is at last a king, for his courts hold
+cognizance of all causes within the realm, whether ecclesiastical or
+civil. Everybody knows the steps by which this embodied selfishness
+achieved his emancipation from a dominant Church. It little concerns
+us now, except as a question of historic curiosity, what his motives
+were. Judging from the analogy of all his other actions, we should
+say they were bad; but by some means or other the evil deeds of this
+man were generally productive of benefit to his country. He cast off
+the Pope that he might be freed from a disagreeable wife; but as the
+Pope whom he rejected was the servant of Charles, (the nephew of the
+repudiated queen,) he found that he had freed his kingdom at the same
+time from its degrading vassalage to the puppet of a rival monarch.
+He dissolved the monasteries in England for the purpose of grasping
+their wealth; but the country found he had at the same time delivered
+it from a swarm of idle and mischievous corporations, which in no long
+time would have swallowed up the land. Their revenues were immense,
+and the extent of their domains almost incredible. Before people had
+recovered from their disgust at the hateful motives of their tyrant's
+behaviour, the results of it became apparent in the elevation of the
+finest class of the English population; for the "bold peasantry, their
+country's pride," began to establish their independent holdings on
+the parcelled-out territories of the monks and nuns. Vast tracts of
+ground were thrown open to the competition of lay proprietors. Even the
+poorest was not without hope of becoming an owner of the soil; nay, the
+released estates were so plentiful that in Elizabeth's reign an act was
+passed making it illegal for a man to build a cottage "unless he laid
+four acres of land thereto." The cottager, therefore, became a small
+farmer; and small farmers were the defence of England; and the defence
+of England was the safety of freedom and religion throughout the world.
+There were some hundred thousands of those landed cottagers and smaller
+gentry and great proprietors established by this most respectable
+sacrilege of Henry the Eighth, and for the sake of these excellent
+consequences we forgive him his pride and cruelty and all his faults.
+But Henry's work was done, and in January, 1547, he died. The rivals
+with whom he started on the race of life were still alive; but life was
+getting dark and dreary with both of them. Francis was no longer the
+hero of "The Field of the Cloth-of-Gold," conqueror of Marignano, the
+gallant captive of Pavia, or the winner of all hearts. He was worn out
+with a life of great vicissitudes, and heard with ominous foreboding
+the news of Henry's death. [March 11, 1547.] A fate seemed to unite
+them in all those years of revelry and hate and friendship, and in a
+few weeks the most chivalrous and generous of the Valois followed the
+most tyrannical of the Tudors to the tomb. A year before this, the
+Monk of Wittenberg, now the renowned and married Dr. Martin Luther,
+had left a place vacant which no man could fill; and now of all those
+combatants Charles was the sole survivor. Selfish as Henry, dissolute
+as Francis, obstinate as Martin, his race also was drawing to a close.
+But the play was played out before these chief performers withdrew. All
+Europe had changed its aspect. The England, the France, the Empire, of
+five-and-twenty years before had utterly passed away. New objects were
+filling men's minds, new principles of policy were regulating states.
+Protestantism was an established fact, and the Treaty of Passau in 1552
+gave liberty and equality to the professors of the new faith. Charles
+was sagacious though heartless as a ruler, but an unredeemed bigot as
+an individual man. The necessities of his condition, by which he was
+forced to give toleration to the enemies of the Church, weighed upon
+his heart. A younger hand and bloodier disposition, he thought, were
+needed to regain the ground he had been obliged to yield; and in Philip
+his son he perceived all these requirements fulfilled. When he looked
+round, he saw nothing to give him comfort in his declining years. War
+was going on in Hungary against the still advancing Turks; war was
+raging in Lorraine between his forces and the French; Italy, the land
+of volcanoes, was on the eve of outbreak and anarchy; and, thundering
+out defiance of the Imperial power and the Christian Cross, the guns
+of the Ottoman fleet were heard around the shores of Sicily and up to
+the Bay of Naples. The emperor was faint and weary: his armies were
+scattered and dispirited; his fleets were unequal to their enemy: so in
+1556 he resigned his pompous title of monarch of Spain and the Indies,
+with all their dependencies, to his son, and the empire to his brother
+Ferdinand, who was already King of Hungary and Bohemia and hereditary
+Duke of Austria; and then, with the appearance of resignation, but his
+soul embittered by anger and disappointment, he retired to the Convent
+of St. Just, where he gorged himself into insanity with gluttonies
+which would have disgraced Vitellius, and amused himself by interfering
+in state affairs which he had forsworn, and making watches which
+he could not regulate, and going through the revolting farce of a
+rehearsal of his funeral, with his body in the coffin and the monks of
+the monastery for mourners. Those theatrical lamentations were probably
+as sincere as those which followed his real demise in 1558; for when he
+surrendered the power which made him respected he gave evidence only
+of the qualities which made him disliked.
+
+The Reformation, you remember, is the characteristic of this century.
+We have traced it in Germany to its recognition as a separate and
+liberated faith. In England we are going to see Protestantism
+established and triumphant. But not yet; for we have first to notice
+a period when Protestantism seems at its last hour, when Mary, wife
+of the bigot Philip, and true and honourable daughter of the Church,
+is determined to restore her nation to the Romish chair, or die in
+the holy attempt. We are not going into the minutiæ of this dreadful
+time, or to excite your feelings with the accounts of the burnings and
+torturings of the dissenters from the queen's belief. None of us are
+ignorant of the cruelty of those proceedings, or have read unmoved the
+sad recital of the martyrdom of the bishops and of such men as the
+joyous and innocent Rowland Taylor of Hadleigh. Men's hearts did not
+become hardened by these sights. Rather they melted with compassion
+towards the dauntless sufferers; and, though the hush of terror
+kept the masses of the people silent, great thoughts were rising in
+the general mind, and toleration ripened even under the heat of the
+Smithfield fires. Attempts have been made to blacken Mary beyond her
+demerits and to whiten her beyond her deservings. Protestants have
+denied her the virtues she unquestionably possessed,--truthfulness,
+firmness, conscientiousness, and unimpeachable morals. Her panegyrists
+take higher ground, and claim for her the noblest qualifications
+both as queen and woman,--patriotism, love of her people, fulfilment
+of all her duties, and exquisite tenderness of disposition. It will
+be sufficient for us to look at her actions, and we will leave her
+secret sentiments alone. We shall only say that it is very doubtful
+whether the plea of conscientiousness is admissible in such a case.
+If perverted reasoning or previous education has made a Thug feel it
+a point of conscience to put his throttling instrument under a quiet
+traveller's throat, the conscientious belief of the performer that his
+act is for the good of the sufferer's soul will scarcely save him from
+the gallows. On the contrary, a conscientious persistence in what is
+manifestly wrong should be an aggravation of the crime, for it gives
+an appearance of respectability to atrocity, and, when punishment
+overtakes the wrong-doers, makes the Thug an honoured martyr to his
+opinions, instead of a convicted felon for his misdeeds. Let us hope
+that the rights of conscience will never be pleaded in defence of
+cruelty or persecution.
+
+[A.D. 1554.]
+
+The restoration of England to the obedience of the Church, the marriage
+of Mary, the warmest partisan of Popery, with Philip, the fanatical
+oppressor of the reformed,--these must have raised the hopes of
+Rome to an extraordinary pitch. But greater as a support, and more
+reliable than queens or kings, was the Society of the Jesuits, which
+at this time demonstrated its attachment to the Holy See, and devoted
+itself blindly, remorselessly, unquestioning, to the defence of the
+old faith. Having sketched the rise of Luther, a companion-picture
+is required of the fortunes of Ignatius Loyola. We hinted that a
+Biscayan soldier, wounded at the siege of Pampeluna in Spain, divided
+the notice of Europe with the poor Austin Friar of Wittenberg.
+Enthusiasm, rising almost into madness, was no bar, in the case of
+this wonderful Spaniard, to the possession of faculties for government
+and organization which have never been surpassed. Shut out by the
+lameness resulting from his wound from the struggles of worldly and
+soldierly ambition, he gave full way to the mystic exaltation of his
+Southern disposition. He devoted himself as knight and champion to the
+Virgin, heard with contempt and horror of the efforts made to deny the
+omnipotence of the Chair of Rome, and swore to be its defender. Others
+of similar sentiments joined him in his crusade against innovation.
+[A.D. 1540.] A company of self-denying, self-sacrificing men began,
+and, adding to the previous laws of their order a vow of unqualified
+submission to the Pope, they were recognised by a bull, and the Society
+of Jesus became the strongest and most remarkable institution of modern
+times. Through all varieties of fortune, in exile and imprisonment, and
+even in dissolution, their oath of uninquiring, unhesitating obedience
+to the papal command has never been broken. With Protean variety of
+appearance, but unvarying identity of intention, these soldiers of St.
+Peter are as relentless to others, and as regardless of themselves, as
+the body-guard of the old Assassins. No degradation is too servile,
+no place too distant, no action too revolting, for these unreasoning
+instruments of power. Wilfully surrendering the right of judgment and
+the feelings of conscience into the hands of their superior, there
+is no method by law or argument of regulating their conduct. The one
+principle of submission has swallowed up all the rest, and fulfilment
+of that duty ennobles the iniquitous deeds by which it is shown. Other
+societies put a clause, either by words or implication, in their
+promise of obedience, limiting it to things which are just and proper.
+This limit is ostentatiously abrogated by the followers of Loyola. The
+merit of obeying an order to slay an enemy of the Church more than
+compensates for the guilt of the murder. In other orders a homicide is
+looked upon with horror; in this, a Jesuit who kills a heretical king
+by command of his chiefs is venerated as a saint. Against practices
+and feelings like these you can neither reason nor be on your guard.
+In all kingdoms, accordingly, at some time or other, the existence of
+the order has been found inconsistent with the safety of the State,
+and it has been dissolved by the civil power. The moment, however,
+the Church regains its hold, the Jesuits are sure to be restored. The
+alliance, indeed, is indispensable, and the mutual aid of the Order
+and of the Papacy a necessity of their existence. Incorporated in
+1540, the brothers of the Company of Jesus considered the defections
+of the Reformation in a fair way of being compensated when the death
+of our little, cold-hearted, self-willed Edward the Sixth--a Henry
+the Eighth in the bud--left the throne in 1553 to Mary, a Henry the
+Eighth full blown. [A.D. 1558.] When nearly five years of conscientious
+truculence had shown the earnestness of this unhappy woman's belief,
+the accession of Elizabeth inaugurated a new system in this country,
+from which it has never departed since without a perceptible loss
+both of happiness and power. A strictly home and national policy was
+immediately established by this most remarkable of our sovereigns, and
+pursued through good report and evil report, sometimes at the expense
+of her feelings--if she was so little of a Tudor as to have any--of
+tenderness and compassion, sometimes at the expense--and here she was
+Tudor enough to have very acute sensations indeed--of her personal and
+official dignity, but always with the one object of establishing a
+great united and irresistible bulwark against foreign oppression and
+domestic disunion. It shows how powerful was her impression upon the
+course of European history, that her character is as fiercely canvassed
+at this day as in the speech of her contemporaries. Nobody feels as
+if Elizabeth was a personage removed from us by three hundred years.
+We discuss her actions, and even argue about her looks and manners,
+as if she had lived in our own time. And this is the reason why such
+divergent judgments are pronounced on a person who, more than any other
+ruler, united the opinions of her subjects during the whole of her
+long and agitated life. Her acts remain, but her judges are different.
+If we could throw ourselves with the reality of circumstance as well
+as the vividness of feeling into the period in which she moved and
+governed, we should come to truer decisions on the points submitted to
+our view. But if we look with the refinements of the present time, and
+the speculative niceties permissible in questions which have no direct
+bearing on our prosperity and safety, we shall see much to disapprove
+of, which escaped the notice, or even excited the admiration, of the
+people who saw what tremendous arbitraments were on the scale. If we
+were told that a cold-blooded individual had placed on one occasion
+some murderous weapons on a height, and then requested a number of his
+friends to stand before them, while some unsuspecting persons came
+up in that direction, and then, suddenly telling his companions to
+stand on one side, had sent bullets hissing and crashing through the
+gentlemen advancing to him, you would shudder with disgust at such
+atrocious cruelty, till you were told that the cold-blooded individual
+was the Duke of Wellington, and the advancing gentlemen the French
+Old Guard at Waterloo. And in the same way, if we read of Elizabeth
+interfering in Scotland, domineering at home, and bellicose abroad,
+let us inquire, before we condemn, whether she was in her duty during
+those operations,--whether, in fact, she was resisting an assault, or
+capriciously and unjustifiably opening her batteries on the innocent
+and unprepared. Fiery-hearted, strong-handed Scotchmen are ready to
+fight at this time for the immaculate purity and sinless martyrdom of
+their beautiful Mary, and sturdy Englishmen start up with as bold a
+countenance in defence of good Queen Bess. It is not to be doubted
+that a roll-call as numerous as that of Bannockburn or Flodden could
+be mustered on this quarrel of three centuries ago; but the fight is
+needless. The points of view are so different that a verdict can never
+be given on the merits of the two personages principally engaged; but
+we think an unprejudiced examination of the course of Elizabeth's
+policy in Scotland, and her treatment of her rival, will establish
+certain facts which neither party can gainsay.
+
+1st. From this it will result, that, to keep reformed England secure,
+it was indispensable to have reformed Scotland on her side.
+
+2d. That, in order to have Scotland either reformed or on her side, it
+was indispensable to render powerless a popish queen,--a queen who was
+supported as legitimate inheritor of England by the Pope and Philip of
+Spain, and the King and princes of France.
+
+3d. That Elizabeth had a right, by all the laws of self-preservation,
+to sustain by every legal and peaceable means that party in Scotland
+which was _de facto_ the government of the country, and which promised
+to be most useful to the objects she had in view. Those objects have
+already been named,--peace and security for the Protestant religion,
+and the honour and independence of the whole British realm.
+
+To gain these ends, who denies that she bribed and bullied and
+deceived?--that she degraded the Scottish nobles by alternate promises
+and threats, and weakened the Scottish crown by encouraging its
+enemies, both ecclesiastical and civil? In prudishly finding fault
+with these proceedings, we forget the Scotch, French, Spanish, popish,
+emissaries who were let loose upon England; the plots at home, the
+scowling messages from abroad; the excommunications uttered from Rome;
+the massacre of the Protestants gloried in in France, and the vast
+navies and immense armies gathering against the devoted Isle from all
+the coasts and provinces of Spain.
+
+In 1568, after the defeat of the queen's party at Langside, Mary
+threw herself on the pity and protection of Elizabeth, and was kept
+in honourable safety for many years. She did not allow her to collect
+partisans for the recovery of her kingdom, nor to cabal against the
+government which had expelled her. To do so would not have been to
+shelter a fugitive, but to declare war on Scotland. In 1848, Louis
+Philippe, chased by the revolutionists of Paris, came over to England.
+He was kept in honourable retirement. He was not allowed to cabal
+against his former subjects, nor to threaten their policy. To do so
+would not have been to shelter a fugitive, but to declare war on
+France. Even in the case of the earlier Bourbons, we permitted no
+gatherings of forces on their behalf, and did not encourage their
+followers to molest the settled government,--no, not when the throne of
+France was filled by an enemy and we were at deadly war with Napoleon.
+But Mary was put to death. A sad story, and very melancholy to read in
+quiet drawing-rooms with Britannia ruling the waves and keeping all
+danger from our coasts. But in 1804, if Louis the Eighteenth or Charles
+the Tenth, instead of eating the bread of charity in peace, had been
+detected in conspiracy with our enemies, in corresponding with foreign
+emissaries, when a thousand flat-bottomed boats were marshalling for
+our invasion at Boulogne, and Brest and Cherbourg and Toulon were
+crowded with ships and sailors to protect the flotilla, it needs no
+great knowledge of character to pronounce that English William Pitt
+and Scottish Harry Dundas would have had the royal Bourbon's head on
+a block, or his body on Tyburn-tree, in spite of all the romance and
+eloquence in the world.
+
+Mary's guilt or innocence of the charges brought against her in
+her relations with Darnley and Bothwell has nothing to do with the
+treatment she received from Elizabeth. She was not amenable to English
+law for any thing she did in Scotland, nor was she condemned for any
+thing but treasonable practices which it was impossible to deny.
+She certainly owed submission and allegiance to the English crown
+while she lived under its protection. Let us indulge our chivalrous
+generosity, and enjoy delightful poems in defence of an unfortunate and
+beautiful sovereign, by believing that the blots upon her fame were
+the aspersions of malignity and political baseness: the great fact
+remains, that it was an indispensable incident to the security of both
+the kingdoms that she should be deprived of authority, and finally, as
+the storm darkened, and derived all its perils from her conspiracies
+against the State and breaches of the law, that she should be deprived
+of life. Far more sweeping measures were pursued and defended by the
+enemies of Elizabeth abroad. Present forever, like a skeleton at a
+feast, must have been the massacre of St. Bartholomew in the thoughts
+of every Protestant in Europe, and most vividly of all in those of the
+English queen. That great blow was meant to be a warning to heretics
+wherever they were found, and in olden times and more revengeful
+dispositions might have been an excuse for similar atrocity on the
+other side. The Bartholomew massacre and the Armada are the two great
+features of the latter part of this century; and they are both so well
+known that it will be sufficient to recall them in a very few words.
+
+This massacre was no chance-sprung event, like an ordinary popular
+rising, but had been matured for many years. The Council of Trent,
+which met in 1545 and continued its sittings till 1563, had devoted
+those eighteen years to codifying the laws of the Catholic Church. A
+definite, clear, consistent system was established, and acknowledged
+as the religious and ecclesiastical faith of Christendom. Men were not
+now left to a painful gathering of the sentiments and rescripts of
+popes and doctors out of varying and scattered writings. Here were the
+statutes at large, minutely indexed and easy of reference. From these
+many texts could be gathered which justified any method of diffusing
+the true belief or exterminating the false. And accordingly, a short
+time after the close of the Council, an interview took place between
+two personages, of very sinister augury for the Protestant cause.
+Catherine de Medicis and the Duke of Alva met at Bayonne in 1565. In
+this consultation great things were discussed; and it was decided by
+the wickedest woman and harshest man in Europe that government could
+not be safe nor religion honoured unless by the introduction of the
+Inquisition and a general massacre of heretics in every land. A few
+months later saw the ferocious Alva beginning his bloodthirsty career
+in the Netherlands, in which he boasted he had put eighteen thousand
+Hollanders to death on the scaffold in five years. Catherine also
+pondered his lessons in her heart, and when seven years had passed, and
+the Huguenots were still unsubdued, she persuaded her son Charles the
+Ninth that the time was come to establish his kingdom in righteousness
+by the indiscriminate murder of all the Protestants. An occasion was
+found in 1572, when the marriage of Henry of Navarre, afterwards the
+best-loved king of France, with the Princess Margaret de Valois, held
+out a prospect of soothing the religious troubles, and also (which
+suited her designs better) of attracting all the heads of the Huguenot
+cause to Paris. Every thing turned out as she hoped. There had been
+feasts and gayeties, and suspicion had been thoroughly disarmed.
+Suddenly the tocsin was sounded, and the murderers let loose over all
+the town. No plea was received in extenuation of the deadly crime of
+favouring the new opinions. Hospitality, friendship, relationship,
+youth, sex, all were disregarded. The streets were red with blood, and
+the river choked with mutilated bodies. Upwards of seventy thousand
+were butchered in Paris alone, and the metropolitan example was
+followed in other places. The deed was so awful that for a while it
+silenced the whole of Europe. Some doubted, some shuddered; but Rome
+sprang up with a shout of joy when the news was confirmed, and uttered
+prayers of thanksgiving for so great a victory. If it could have been
+possible to put every gainsayer to death everywhere, the triumph would
+have been complete; but there were countries where Catherine's dagger
+could not reach; and whenever her name was heard, and the terrible
+details of the massacre were known, undying hatred of the Church which
+encouraged such iniquity mingled with the feelings of pity and alarm.
+For no one henceforth could feel safe. The Huguenots were under the
+highest protection known to the heart of man. They were guests, and
+they were taken unawares in the midst of the rejoicings of a marriage.
+Rome lost more by the massacre than the Protestants. People looked
+round and saw the butcheries in the Netherlands, the slaughters in
+Paris, the tortures in the Inquisition, and over all, rioting in hopes
+of recovered dominion, supported by his priests and Dominicans, a Pope
+who plainly threatened a repetition of such scenes wherever his power
+was acknowledged. Germany, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and
+the Northern nations, were lost to the Church of Rome more surely by
+the scaffold and crimes which professed to bring her aid, than by any
+other cause. Elizabeth was now the accepted champion and leader of the
+Protestants, and on her all the malice of the baffled Romanists was
+turned. To weaken, to dethrone or murder the English heretic was the
+praiseworthiest of deeds.
+
+But one great means of distracting England from her onward course was
+now removed. In former days Scotland would have been let loose upon
+her unguarded flanks; but by this time the genius of Knox, running
+parallel with the efforts of the Southern reformers, had raised a
+religious feeling which responded to the English call. Scotland, freed
+from an oppressive priesthood, did manful battle at the side of her
+former enemy. Elizabeth was kept safe by the joint hatred the nations
+entertained to Rome, and, as regarded foreigners, the Union had already
+taken place. On one sure ground, however, those foreigners could still
+build their hopes. Mary, conscientious in her religion, and embittered
+in her dislike, was still alive, to be the rallying-point for every
+discontented cry and to represent the old causes,--the legitimate
+descent and the true faith. The greatest circumspection would have
+been required to keep her conduct from suspicion in these embarrassing
+circumstances. But she was still as thoughtless as in her happier
+days, and exposed herself to legal inquiries by the unguardedness of
+her behaviour. The wise counsellors of Elizabeth saw but one way to
+put an end to all those fears and expectations; and Mary, after due
+trial, was condemned and executed. [A.D. 1587.] Hope was now at an end;
+but revenge remained, and the great Colossus of the Papacy bestirred
+himself to punish the sacrilegious usurper. Philip the Second was
+still the most Catholic of kings. More stern and bigoted than when he
+had tried to restrain the burning zeal of Mary of England, he was
+resolved to restore by force a revolted people to the Chair of St.
+Peter and exact vengeance for the slights and scorns which had rankled
+in his heart from the date of his ill-omened visit. He prepared all
+his forces for the glorious attempt. Nothing could have been devised
+more calculated to bring all English hearts more closely to their
+queen. Every report of a fresh squadron joining the fleets already
+assembled for the invasion called forth more zeal in behalf of the
+reformed Church and the undaunted Elizabeth. Scotland also held some
+vessels ready to assist her sister in this great extremity, and lined
+her shores with Presbyterian spearmen. Community of danger showed more
+clearly than ever that safety lay in combination. Chains, we know, were
+brought over in those missionary galleys, and all the apparatus of
+torture, with smiths to set them to work. But the smiths and the chains
+never made good their landing on British ground. The ships covered all
+the narrow sea; but the wind blew, and they were scattered. It was
+perhaps better, as a warning and a lesson, that the principal cause of
+the Spaniard's disaster was a storm. If it had been fairly inflicted on
+them in open battle, the superior seamanship or numbers or discipline
+of the enemy might have been pleaded. But there must have mingled
+something more depressing than the mere sorrow of defeat when Philip
+received his discomfited admiral with the words, "We cannot blame you
+for what has happened: we cannot struggle against the will of God."
+
+
+
+
+                         SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        HENRY IV.--(_cont._)
+
+  1610. LOUIS XIII.
+
+  1643. LOUIS XIV.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        RODOLPH II.--(_cont._)
+
+  1612. MATTHIAS.
+
+  1619. FERDINAND II.
+
+  1637. FERDINAND III.
+
+  1658. LEOPOLD I.
+
+
+Kings of England and Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ELIZABETH.--(_cont._)
+
+  (_House of Stuart._)
+
+  1603. JAMES I.
+
+  1625. CHARLES I.
+
+  1649. Commonwealth.
+
+  1660. CHARLES II.
+
+  1685. JAMES II.
+
+  1689. WILLIAM III. and MARY.
+
+
+Kings of Spain.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        PHILIP III.--(_cont._)
+
+  1621. PHILIP IV.
+
+  1665. CHARLES II.
+
+
+Distinguished Men.
+
+BACON, MILTON, LOCKE, CORNEILLE, RACINE, MOLIÈRE, KEPLER, (1571-1630,)
+BOYLE, (1627-1691,) BOSSUET, (1627-1704,) NEWTON, (1642-1727,)
+BURNET, (1643-1715,) BAYLE, (1647-1706,) CONDÉ, TURENNE, (1611-1675,)
+MARLBOROUGH, (1650-1722.)
+
+
+
+
+                       THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  ENGLISH REBELLION AND REVOLUTION--DESPOTISM OF LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH.
+
+
+We are apt to suppose that progress and innovation are so peculiarly
+the features of these latter times that it is only in them that a man
+of more than ordinary length of life has witnessed any remarkable
+change. We meet with men still alive who were acquainted with Franklin
+and Voltaire, who have been presented at the court of Louis the
+Sixteenth and have visited President Pierce at the White House. But
+the period we have now to examine is quite as varied in the contrasts
+presented by the duration of a lifetime as in any other age of the
+world. Of this we shall take a French chronicler as an example,--a
+man who was as greedy of news, and as garrulous in relating it, as
+Froissart himself, but who must take a very inferior rank to that
+prose minstrel of "gentle blood," as he limited his researches
+principally to the scandals which characterized his time. We mean the
+truth-speaking libeller Brantôme. [A.D. 1616.] This man died within a
+year or two of Shakspeare, and yet had accompanied Mary to Scotland,
+and given that poetical account of the voyage from Calais, when she
+sat in the stern of the vessel with her eyes fixed on the receding
+shore, and said, "Adieu, France, adieu! I shall never see you more;"
+and again, on the following morning, bending her looks across the
+water when land was no longer to be seen, and exclaiming, "Adieu,
+France! I shall never see you more." The mere comparison of these two
+things--the return of Mary to her native kingdom, torn at that time
+with all the struggles of anarchy and distress, and the death of the
+greatest of earth's poets, rich and honoured, in his well-built house
+at Stratford-on-Avon--suggests a strange contrast between the beginning
+of Brantôme's literary career and its close: the events filling up
+the interval are like the scarcely-discernible heavings in a dark
+and tumultuous sea,--a storm perpetually raging, and waves breaking
+upon every shore. In his own country, cruelty and demoralization
+had infected all orders in the State, till murder, and the wildest
+profligacy of manners, were looked on without a shudder. Brantôme
+attended the scanty and unregretted funeral of Henry the Third, the
+last of the house of Valois, who was stabbed by the monk Jacques
+Clement for faltering in his allegiance to the Church. A sentence had
+been pronounced at Rome against the miserable king, and the fanatic's
+dagger was ready. Sixtus the Fifth, in full consistory, declared that
+the regicide was "comparable, as regards the salvation of the world,
+to the incarnation and the resurrection, and that the courage of the
+youthful Jacobin surpassed that of Eleazar and Judith." "That Pope,"
+says Chateaubriand, the Catholic historian of France, "had too little
+political conviction, and too much genius, to be sincere in these
+sacrilegious comparisons; but it was of importance to him to encourage
+the fanatics who were ready to murder kings in the name of the papal
+power." Brantôme had seen the issuing of a bull containing the same
+penalties against Elizabeth, the death of Mary on the scaffold, and
+the failure of the Armada. After the horrors of the religious wars,
+from the conspiracy of Amboise in 1560 to the publication of the edict
+of toleration given at Nantes in 1598, he had seen the comparatively
+peaceful days of Henry the Fourth, till fanaticism again awoke a
+suspicion of a return to his original Protestant leanings, as shown
+in his opposition to the house of Austria, and Ravaillac renewed the
+meritorious work of Clement in 1610. Last of all, the spectator of all
+these changes saw England and Scotland forever united under one crown,
+and the first rise of the master of the modern policy of Europe, for
+in the year of Brantôme's death a young priest was appointed Secretary
+of State in France, whom men soon gazed on with fear and wonder as the
+great Cardinal Richelieu.
+
+In England the alterations were as great and striking. After the
+troubled years from Elizabeth's accession to the Armada, a period of
+rest and progress came. Interests became spread over the whole nation,
+and did not depend so exclusively on the throne. Wisdom and good
+feeling made Elizabeth's crown, in fact, what laws and compacts have
+made her successors',--a constitutional sovereign's. She ascertained
+the sentiments of her people almost without the intervention of
+Parliament, and was more a carrier-through of the national will than
+the originator of absolute decrees. The moral battles of a nation in
+pursuit of some momentous object like religious or political freedom
+bring forth great future crops, as fields are enriched on which
+mighty armies have been engaged. The fertilizing influence extends
+in every direction, far and near. If, therefore, the intellectual
+harvest that followed the final rejection of the Pope and crowning
+defeat of the Spaniard included Shakspeare and Bacon, and a host of
+lesser but still majestic names, we may venture also to remark, on the
+duller and more prosaic side of the question, that in the first year
+of the seventeenth century a patent was issued by which a commercial
+speculation attained a substantive existence, for the East India
+Company was founded, with a stock of seventy-two thousand pounds, and
+a fleet of four vessels took their way from the English harbours, on
+their first voyage to the realm where hereafter their employers, who
+thus began as merchant adventurers, were to rule as kings. The example
+set by these enterprising men was followed by high and low. During
+the previous century people had been too busy with their domestic
+and religious disputes to pay much attention to foreign exploration.
+They were occupied with securing their liberties from the tyranny of
+Henry the Eighth and their lives from the truculence of Mary. Then
+the plots perpetually formed against Elizabeth, by domestic treason
+and foreign levy, kept their attention exclusively on home-affairs.
+But when the State was settled and religion secure, the long-pent-up
+activity of the national mind found vent in distant expeditions. A
+chivalrous contempt of danger, and poetic longing for new adventure,
+mingled with the baser attractions of those maritime wanderings. The
+families of gentle blood in England, instead of sending their sons
+to waste their lives in pursuit of knightly fame in the service of
+foreign states, equipped them for far higher enterprises, and sent
+them forth to gather the riches of unknown lands beyond the sea.
+Romantic rumours were rife in every manor-house of the strange sights
+and inexhaustible wealth to be gained by undaunted seamanship and
+judicious treatment of the natives of yet-unexplored dominions. Spain
+and Portugal had their kingdoms, but the extent of America was great
+enough for all. Islands were everywhere to be found untouched as yet by
+the foot of European; and many a winter's night was spent in talking
+over the possible results of sailing up some of the vast rivers that
+came down like bursting oceans from the far-inland regions to which
+nobody had as yet ascended,--the people and cities that lay upon their
+banks, the gold and jewels that paved the common soil. Towards the
+end of Elizabeth's reign, these imaginings had grown into sufficing
+motives of action, and gentlemen were ready from all the ports of
+the kingdom to sail on their adventurous voyages. In addition to the
+chance those gallant mariners had of realizing their day-dreams by
+the tedious methods of discovery and exploration, there was always
+the prospect of making prize of a galleon of Spain; for at all times,
+however friendly the nations might be in the European waters, a war
+was carried on beyond the Azores. Not altogether lost, therefore,
+was the old knightly spirit of peril-seeking and adventure in those
+commercial and geographical speculations. There were articles of
+merchandise in the hold, gaudy-coloured cloths, and bead ornaments, and
+wretched looking-glasses, besides brass and iron; but all round the
+captain's cabin were arranged swords and pistols, boarding-pikes, and
+other implements of fight. Guns also of larger size peeped out of the
+port-holes, and the crew were chosen as much with a view to warlike
+operations as to the ordinary duties of the ship. The Spaniards had
+made their way into the Pacific, and had established large settlements
+on the shores of Chili and Peru. Scenes which have been reacted at the
+diggings in modern times took place where the Europeans fixed their
+seat, and ships loaded with the precious metals found their way home,
+exposed to all the perils of storm and war. Drake had pounced upon
+several of their galleys and despoiled them of their precious cargo.
+Cavendish, a gentleman of good estate in Suffolk, had followed in his
+wake, and, after forcing his way through the Straits of Magellan, had
+reached the shores of California itself and there captured a Spanish
+vessel freighted with a vast amount of gold. All these adventures of
+the expiring sixteenth century became traditions and ballads of the
+young seventeenth. Raleigh, the most accomplished gentleman of his
+time, gave the glory of his example to the maritime career, and all
+the oceans were alive with British ships. While Raleigh and others of
+the upper class were carrying on a sort of cultivated crusade against
+the monopoly of the Spaniards, others of a less aristocratic position
+were busied in the more regular paths of commerce. We have seen the
+formation of the India Company in 1600. Our competitors, the Dutch,
+fitted out fleets on a larger scale, and established relations of trade
+and friendship with the natives of Polynesia and New Holland, and even
+of Java and India. But the zeal of the public in trading-speculations
+was not only shown in those well-conducted expeditions to lands
+easily accessible and already known: a company was established for
+the purpose of opening out the African trade, and a commercial voyage
+was undertaken to no less a place than Timbuctoo by a gallant pair of
+seamen of the names of Thomson and Jobson. It was not long before these
+efforts at honest international communication, and even the exploits
+of the Drakes and Cavendishes, who acted under commissions from the
+queen, degenerated into lawless piracy and the golden age of the
+Buccaneers. The policy of Spain was complete monopoly in her own hands,
+and a refusal of foreign intercourse worthy of the potentates of China
+and Japan. All access was prohibited to the flags of foreign nations,
+and the natural result followed. Adventurous voyagers made their
+appearance with no flag at all, or with the hideous emblem of a death's
+head emblazoned on their standard, determined to trade peaceably if
+possible, but to trade whether peaceably or not. The Spanish colonists
+were not indisposed to exchange their commodities with those of the
+new-comers, but the law was imperative. The Buccaneers, therefore,
+proceeded to help themselves to what they wanted by force, and at
+length came to consider themselves an organized estate, governed
+by their own laws, and qualified to make treaties like any other
+established and recognised power. Cuba had been nearly depopulated by
+the cruelties and fanaticism of its Spanish masters, and was seized on
+by the Buccaneers. From this rich and beautiful island the pirate-barks
+dashed out upon any Spanish sail which might be leaving the mainland.
+Commanding the Gulf of Mexico, and with the power of crossing the
+Isthmus of Panama by a rapid march, those redoubtable bandits held the
+treasure-lands of the Spaniards in terrible subjection. And up to the
+commencement even of the eighteenth century the frightful spectacle was
+presented of a powerful confederacy of the wildest and most dissolute
+villains in Europe domineering over the most frequented seas in the
+world, and filling peaceful voyagers, and even well-armed men-of-war,
+with alarm by their unsparing cruelty, and atrocities which it curdles
+the blood to think of.
+
+Eastward as far as China, westward to the islands and shores of the
+great Pacific, up the rivers of Africa, and even among the forests of
+New Holland and Tasmania, the swarms of European adventurers succeeded
+each other without cessation. The marvel is, that, with such ceaseless
+activity, any islands, however remote or small, were left for the
+discovery of after-times. But the tide of English emigration rolled
+towards the mainland of North America with a steadier flow than to
+any other quarter. The idea of a northwest passage to India had taken
+possession of men's minds, and hardy seamen had already braved the
+horrors of a polar winter, and set examples of fortitude and patience
+which their successors, from Behrens to Kane, have so nobly followed.
+But the fertile plains of Virginia, and the navigable streams of the
+eastern shore, were more alluring to the peaceful and unenterprising
+settlers, whose object was to find a new home and carry on a
+lucrative trade with the native Indians. In 1607, a colony, properly
+so called,--for it had made provision for permanent settlement, and
+consisted of a hundred and ten persons, male and female,--arrived at
+the mouth of the Chesapeake. The river Powhatan was eagerly explored;
+and at a point sufficiently far up to be secure from sudden attack from
+the sea, and on an isthmus easily defended from native assault, they
+pitched their tents on a spot which was hereafter known as Jamestown
+and is still honoured as the earliest of the American settlements. Our
+neighbour Holland was not behindhand either in trade or colonization,
+and equally with England was excited to fresh efforts by its recovered
+liberty and independence. In all directions of intellectual and
+physical employment those two States went boundingly forward at the
+head of the movement. The absolute monarchies lay lazily by, and
+relied on the inertness of their mass for their defence against those
+active competitors; and Spain, an unwieldy bulk, showed the intimate
+connection there will always exist between liberal institutions at
+home and active progress abroad. The sun never set on the dominions of
+the Spanish crown, but the life of the people was crushed out of them
+by the weight of the Inquisition and despotism. The United Provinces
+and combined Great Britain had shaken off both those petrifying
+institutions, and Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Dutchmen were ploughing
+up every sea, presenting themselves at the courts of strange-coloured
+potentates, in regions whose existence had been unknown a few years
+before, and gradually accustoming the wealth and commerce of the world
+to find their way to London and Amsterdam.
+
+To go from these views of hardihood and enterprise, from the wild
+heaving of unruly vigour which animated the traffickers and tyrants
+of the main, to the peaceful and pedantic domestic reign of James the
+First, shows the two extremes of European character at this time. The
+English people were not more than four millions in number, but they
+were the happiest and most favoured of all the nations. This was indeed
+the time,
+
+                    "Ere England's woes began,
+    When every rood of land maintain'd its man;"
+
+for we have seen how the division of the great monastic properties had
+created a new order in the State. All accounts concur in describing
+the opening of this century as the period of the greatest physical
+prosperity of the body of the people. A great deal of dulness and
+unrefinement there must still have been in the boroughs, where such
+sage officials as Dogberry displayed their pomp and ignorance,--a
+great deal of clownishness and coarseness in country-places, where
+Audreys and Autolycuses were to be found; but among townsmen and
+peasantry there was none of the grinding poverty which a more unequal
+distribution of national wealth creates. There were great Whitsun
+ales, and dancings round the Maypole; feasts on village greens, and a
+spirit of rude and personal independence, which became mellowed into
+manly self-respect when treated with deference by the higher ranks,
+the old hereditary gentry and the retired statesmen of Queen Bess,
+but bristled up in insolence and rebellion when the governing power
+thwarted its wishes, or fanaticism soured it with the bitter waters of
+polemic strife. The sturdy Englishman who doffed his hat to the squire,
+and joined his young lord in sports upon the green, in the beginning
+of James's reign, was the same stout-hearted, strong-willed individual
+who stiffened into Puritanism and contempt of all earthly authorities
+in the unlovely, unloving days of the Rump and Cromwell. Nor should
+we miss the great truth which lies hidden under the rigid forms of
+that period,--that the same noble qualities which characterized the
+happy yeoman and jocund squire of 1620--their earnestness, energy,
+and intensity of home affections--were no less existent in their
+ascetic short-haired descendants of 1650. The brimfulness of life
+which overflowed into expeditions against the Spaniards in Peru, and
+unravellings of the tangled rivers of Africa, and trackings of the wild
+bears among the ice-floes of Hudson's Bay, took a new direction when
+the century reached the middle of its course, and developed itself
+in the stormy discussions of the contending sects and the blood and
+misery of so many battle-fields. How was this great change worked
+on the English mind? How was it that the long-surviving soldier,
+courtier, landholder, of Queen Elizabeth saw his grandson grow up into
+the hard-featured, heavy-browed, keen-sworded Ironside of Oliver? A
+squire who ruined himself in loyal entertainments to King James on his
+larder-and-cellar-emptying journey from Edinburgh to London in 1603 may
+have lived to see his son, and son's son, rejoicing with unholy triumph
+over the victory of Naseby in 1644 and the death of Charles in 1649.
+
+Great causes must have been at work to produce this astonishing
+change, and some of them it will not be difficult to point out.
+Perhaps, indeed, the prosperity we have described may itself have
+contributed to the alteration in the English ways of thought. While
+the nation was trampled on by Henry the Eighth, with property and
+life insecure and poverty universally diffused, or even while it
+was guided by the strong hand of Elizabeth, it had neither power nor
+inclination to examine into its rights. The rights of a starving and
+oppressed population are not very great, even in its own eyes. It is
+the well-fed, law-protected, enterprising citizen who sees the value
+of just and settled government, because the blessings he enjoys depend
+upon its continuance. The mind of the nation had been pauperized along
+with its body by the life of charitable dependence it had led at the
+doors of church and monastery in the olden time. It little mattered
+to a gaping crowd expecting the accustomed dole whether the great man
+in London was a tyrannical king or not. They did not care whether he
+dismissed his Parliaments or cut off the heads of his nobility. They
+still found their "bit and sup," and saw the King, and Parliament, and
+nobility, united in obedience to the Church. But when this debasing
+charity was discontinued, independence came on. The idle hanger-on of
+the religious house became a cottager, and worked on his own land; by
+industry he got capital enough to take some additional acres; and the
+man of the next generation had forgotten the low condition he sprang
+from, and had so sharpened his mind by the theological quarrels of the
+time that he began to be able to comprehend the question of general
+politics. He saw, as every population and potentate in Europe saw with
+equal clearness, that the question of civil freedom was indissolubly
+connected with the relation between Church and State; he perceived
+that the extent of divergence from the old faith regulated in a great
+measure the spirit, and even the constitution, of government where it
+took place,--that adhesion to Rome meant absolutism and dependence,
+that Calvinism had a strong bias towards the republican form, and that
+the Church he had helped to establish was calculated to fill up the
+ground between those two extremes, and be the religious representative
+of a State as liberal as Geneva by its attention to the interests of
+all, and as monarchical as Spain by its loyalty to an hereditary crown.
+Now, the middle ground in great and agitating affairs is always the
+most difficult to maintain. Both sides make it their battle-field,
+and try to win it to themselves; and according as one assailant seems
+on the point of carrying his object, the defender of that disputed
+territory has to lean towards the other. Both parties are offended at
+the apparent inconsistency; and we are therefore not to be surprised if
+we find the Church accused of looking to both the hostile camps in turn.
+
+James was a fatal personage to every cause he undertook to defend. He
+had neither the strength of will of Henry, nor the proud consistency of
+Elizabeth; but he had the arrogance and presumption of both. Questions
+which the wise queen was afraid to touch, and left to the ripening
+influence of time, this blustering arguer dragged into premature
+discussion, stripped them of all their dignity by the frivolousness
+of the treatment he gave them, and disgusted all parties by the
+harshness and rapidity of his partial decisions. Every step he took
+in the quelling of religious dissension by declarations in favour of
+proscription and authority which would have endeared him to Gregory the
+Seventh, he accompanied with some frightful display of his absolutist
+tendencies in civil affairs. The same man who roared down the modest
+claims of a thousand of the clergy who wished some further modification
+of the Book of Common Prayer threw recusant members of Parliament into
+prison, persecuted personal enemies to death, with scarcely a form of
+law, punished refractory towns with loss of franchises and privileges,
+and made open declaration of his unlimited power over the lives and
+properties of all his subjects. People saw this unvarying alliance
+between his polemics and his politics, and began to consider seriously
+whether the comforts their trade and industry had given them could be
+safe under a Church calling itself reformed, but protected by such a
+king. If he was only suspected in England, in his own country he was
+fully known. Dearer to James would have been a hundred bishops and
+cardinals seated in conclave in Holyrood than a Presbyterian Synod
+praying against his policy in the High Kirk. He had even written to
+the Pope with offers of accommodation and reconcilement, and made no
+secret of his individual and official disgust at the levelling ideas
+of those grave followers of Knox and Calvin. Those grave followers
+of Knox and Calvin, however, were not unknown on the south side of
+the Tweed. The intercourse between the countries was not limited to
+the hungry gentry who followed James on his accession. A community of
+interest and feeling united the more serious of the Reformers, and
+visits and correspondence were common between them. But, while a regard
+for their personal freedom and the security of their wealth attracted
+the attention of the English middle class to the proceedings of King
+James, events were going on in foreign lands which had an immense
+effect on the development of the anti-monarchic, anti-episcopal spirit
+at home. These events have not been sufficiently considered in this
+relation, and we have been too much in the habit of looking at our
+English doings in those momentous years,--from the end of James's reign
+to the Restoration,--as if Britain had continued as isolated from her
+Continental neighbours as before the Norman Conquest. But a careful
+comparison of dates and actions will show how intimate the connection
+had become between the European States, and how instantaneously the
+striking of a chord at Prague or Vienna thrilled through the general
+heart in Edinburgh and London.
+
+The Reformation, after achieving its independence and equality at the
+Treaty of Augsburg in 1555, had made great though silent progress.
+Broken off in Germany into two parties, the Lutheran and the Calvinist,
+who hated each other, as usual, in exact proportion to the smallness of
+their difference, the union was still kept up between them as regarded
+their antagonism to the Papists. With all three denominations, the
+religious part of the question had fallen into terrible abeyance. It
+was now looked on by the leaders entirely as a matter of personal
+advancement and political rule. In this pursuit the fanaticism which
+is generally limited to theology took the direction of men's political
+conduct; and there were enthusiasts among all the sects, who saw
+visions, and dreamed dreams, about the succession to thrones and the
+raising of armies, as used to happen in more ancient times about the
+bones of martyrs and the beatification of saints. The great object of
+Protestants and Catholics was to obtain a majority in the college of
+the Prince Electors by whom the Empire was bestowed. This consisted of
+the seven chief potentates of Germany, of whom four were secular,--the
+King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of
+Saxony, and the Marquis of Brandenburg; and three ecclesiastic,--the
+Archbishops of Mentz, Trèves, and Cologne. The majority was naturally
+secured to the Romanists by the official adhesion of these last. But it
+chanced that the Elector of Cologne fell violently in love with Agnes
+of Mansfeldt, a canoness of Gerrestein; and having of course studied
+the history of our Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn, he determined to
+follow his example, and offered the fair canoness his hand. He was
+unwilling, however, to offer his hand without the Electoral crozier,
+and, by the advice of his friends, and with the promised support
+of many of the Protestant rulers, he retained his ecclesiastical
+dignity and made the beautiful Agnes his wife. This would not have
+been of much consequence in a lower rank, for many of the cathedral
+dignitaries in Cologne and other places had retained their offices
+after changing their faith; but all Germany was awake to the momentous
+nature of this transaction, for it would have conveyed a majority
+of the Electoral voices to the Protestants and opened the throne of
+the empire itself to a Protestant prince. Such, however, was the
+strength at that time of the opposition to Rome, that all the efforts
+of the Catholics would have been ineffectual to prevent this ruinous
+arrangement but for a circumstance which threw division into the
+Protestant camp. Gebhard had adhered to the Calvinistic branch of the
+Reformation, and the Lutherans hated him with a deadlier hatred than
+the Pope himself. With delight they saw him outlawed by the Emperor
+and excommunicated by Rome, his place supplied by a Prince of Bavaria,
+who was elected by the Chapter of Cologne to protect them from their
+apostate archbishop, and the head of the house of Austria strengthened
+by the consolidation of his Electoral allies and the unappeasable
+dissensions of his enemies. While petty interests and the narrowest
+quarrels of sectarianism divided the Protestants, and while the
+Electors and other princes who had adopted their theological opinions
+were doubtful of the political results of religious freedom, and many
+had waxed cold, and others were discontented with the small extent of
+the liberation from ancient trammels they had yet obtained, a very
+different spectacle was presented on the other side. Popes and Jesuits
+were heartily and unhesitatingly at work. "No cold, faint-hearted
+doubtings teased them." Their object was incommoded by no refinements
+or verbal differences; they were determined to assert their old
+supremacy,--to trample out every vestige of resistance to their power;
+and they entered upon the task without scruple or remorse. Ferdinand
+the Emperor, the prop and champion of the Romish cause, was as sincere
+and as unpitying as Dominic. When he had been nominated King Elect of
+Bohemia, in 1598, while yet in his twentieth year, his first thought
+was the future use he might make of his authority in the extermination
+of the Protestant faith. The Jesuits, by whom he was trained from his
+earliest years, never turned out a more hopeful pupil. His ambition
+would have been, if he had had it in his power, to become a follower of
+Loyola himself; but, as he was condemned by fate to the lower office
+of the first of secular princes, he determined to employ all its power
+at the dictation of his teachers. He went a pilgrimage to Loretto,
+and, bowing before the miraculous image of the Virgin, promised to
+reinstate the true Church in its unquestioned supremacy, and bent all
+his thoughts to the fulfilment of his vow. Two-thirds of his subjects
+in his hereditary states were Protestant, but he risked all to attain
+his object. He displaced their clergy, and banished all who would not
+conform. He introduced Catholics from foreign countries to supply the
+waste of population, and sent armed men to destroy the newly-erected
+schools and churches of the hateful heretics. This man was crowned King
+of Bohemia in 1618, and Emperor of Germany in the following year.
+
+The attention of the British public had been particularly directed to
+German interests for the six years preceding this date, by the marriage
+of Frederick, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, with Elizabeth, the
+graceful and accomplished daughter of King James. Frederick was young
+and ambitious, and was endeared to the English people as leader of the
+Protestant cause against the overweening pretensions of the house of
+Austria. That house was still the most powerful in Europe; for though
+the Spanish monarchy was held by another branch, for all the purposes
+of despotism and religion its weight was thrown into the same scale.
+Spanish soldiers, and all the treasures of America, were still at the
+command of the Empire; and perhaps Catholicism was rather strengthened
+than weakened by the adherence of two of the greatest sovereigns in the
+world, instead of having the personal influence of only one, as in the
+reign of Charles the Fifth. All the Elector's movements were followed
+with affectionate interest by the subjects of his father-in-law;
+but James himself disapproved of opposition being offered to the
+wildest excesses of royal prerogative either in himself or any other
+anointed ruler. Besides this, he was particularly hostile to the
+young champion's religious principles, for the latter was attached to
+the Calvinistic or unepiscopal party. [A.D. 1619.] James declined to
+give him any aid in maintaining his right to the crown of Bohemia, to
+which he was elected by the Protestant majority of that kingdom on the
+accession of Ferdinand to the Empire, and managed to show his feelings
+in the most offensive manner, by oppressing such of Frederick's
+co-religionists as he found in any part of his dominions. The advocates
+of peace at any price have praised the behaviour of the king in this
+emergency; but it may be doubted whether an energetic display of
+English power at this time might not have prevented the great and cruel
+reaction against freedom and Protestantism which the victory of the
+bigoted Ferdinand over his neglected competitor introduced. A riot,
+accompanied with violence against the Catholic authorities, was the
+beginning of the troubles in Bohemia; and Ferdinand, as if to explain
+his conduct to the satisfaction of James, published a manifesto,
+which might almost be believed to have been the production of that
+Solomon of the North. "If sovereign power," he says, "emanates from
+God, these atrocious deeds must proceed from the devil, and therefore
+must draw down divine punishment." This logic was unanswerable at
+Whitehall, and the work of extermination went on. Feeble efforts were
+forced upon the unwilling father-in-law; for all the chivalry of
+England was wild with sympathy and admiration of the Bohemian queen.
+Hundreds of gallant gentlemen passed over to swell the Protestant
+ranks; and when they returned and told the tale of all the horrors
+they had seen, the remorseless vengeance of the triumphant Church, and
+all the threatenings with which Rome and the Empire endeavoured to
+terrify the nations which had rebelled against their yoke, Puritanism,
+or resistance to the slightest approach towards Popery either in
+essentials or externals, became patriotism and self-defence; and at
+this very time, while men's minds were inflamed with the descriptions
+of the torturings and executions which followed the battle of Prague in
+1620, and the devastation and depopulation of Bohemia, James took the
+opportunity of forcing the Episcopal form of government on the Scottish
+Presbyterians.
+
+"The greatest matter," he says, in an address to the prelates of
+the reluctant dioceses,--"the greatest matter the Puritans had to
+object against the Church government was, that your proceedings were
+warranted by no law, which now by this last Parliament is cutted
+short. The sword is now put in your hands. Go on, therefore, to use
+it, and let it rest no longer till ye have perfected the service
+trusted to you; or otherwise we must use it both against you and
+them." While the people of both nations were willing to sink their
+polemic differences of Calvinist and Anglican in one great attempt
+to deliver the Protestants in Germany from the power of the house
+of Austria,--while for this purpose they would have voted taxes
+and raised armies with the heartiest good will,--the king's whole
+attention was bestowed on a set of manoeuvres for the obtaining a
+Spanish-Austrian bride for his son. To gain this he would have humbled
+himself to the lowest acts. At a whisper from Madrid, he interfered
+with the German war, to the detriment of his own daughter; and
+England perceived that his ineradicable love of power and hatred of
+freedom had blinded him to national interests and natural affections.
+If we follow the whole career of James, and a great portion of his
+successor's, we shall see the same remarkable coincidence between the
+events in England and abroad,--unpopularity of the king, produced by
+his apparent lukewarmness in the general Protestant cause as much as
+by his arbitrary acts at home. Whatever the nation desired, the king
+opposed. When Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion of the North, began his
+triumphant career in 1630, and re-established the fallen fortunes of
+Protestantism, Charles concluded a dishonourable peace with Spain,
+without a single provision in favour of the Protestants of the German
+States, and allowed the Popish Cardinal Richelieu first to consolidate
+his forces by an unsparing oppression of the Huguenots in France, and
+then to almost compensate for his harshness by a gallant support of the
+Swedish hero in his struggle against the Austrian power.
+
+There was no longer the same content and happiness in the towns
+and country districts as there had been at the commencement of the
+century. Men had looked with contempt and dislike on the proceedings
+of James's court,--his coarse buffoonery, and disgraceful patronage
+of a succession of worthless favourites; and they continued to look,
+not indeed with contempt, but with increased dislike and suspicion,
+on the far purer court and dignified manners of his unfortunate son.
+A French princess, though the daughter of Henry the Fourth, was
+regarded as an evil omen for the continuance of good government or
+religious progress. Her attendants, lay and clerical, were not unjustly
+considered spies, and advisers with interests hostile to the popular
+tendencies. And all this time went on the unlucky coincidences which
+distinguished this reign,--of Catholic cruelties in foreign lands,
+and approaches to the Catholic ceremonial in the reformed Church.
+While Tilly, the remorseless general of the Emperor, was letting loose
+the most ferocious army which ever served under a national standard
+upon the inhabitants of Magdeburg, heaping into the history of that
+miserable assault all the sufferings that "horror e'er conceived or
+fancy feigned,"--and while the echo of that awful butchery, which
+has not yet died out of the German heart, was making sorrowful
+every fireside in what was once merry England,--the king's advisers
+pursued their blind way, torturing their opponents with knife and
+burning-brand upon the pillory, flogging gentlemen nearly to death
+upon the streets, and consecrating churches with an array of surplice,
+and censer, and processions, and organ-blowings, which would have done
+honour to St. Peter's at Rome. People saw a lamentable connection
+between the excesses of Catholic cruelty and the tendency in our sober
+establishment to Catholic traditions, and became fanatical in their
+detestation of the simplest forms.
+
+In ordinary times the wise man considers mere forms as almost below his
+notice; but there are periods when the emblem is of as much importance
+as the thing it typifies. Church ceremonies, and gorgeous robes, and
+magnificent worship, were accepted by both parties as the touchstone
+of their political and religious opinions. Laud pushed aside the
+Archbishop of Glasgow, who stood at Charles's right hand on his visit
+to Scotland in 1633, on the express ground that he had not the orthodox
+fringe upon his habit,--a ridiculous ground for so open an insult, if
+it had not had an inner sense. The Archbishop of Glasgow professed
+himself a moderate Churchman by the plainness of his dress, and Laud
+accepted it as a defiance. Meanwhile the essential insignificance of
+the symbol threw an air of ridicule over the importance attached to it.
+Dull-minded men, who had not the faculty of seeing how deep a question
+may lie in a simple exposition of it, or frivolous men, who could
+not rise to the real earnestness which enveloped those discussions,
+were scandalized at the persistency of Laud in enforcing his fancies,
+and the obstinacy of a great portion of the clergy and people in
+resisting them. But the Puritans, with clearer eyes, saw that a dance,
+according to proclamation, on the village green on Sunday, meant not
+a mere desecration of the Sabbath, but a crusade against the rights
+of conscience and an assertion of arbitrary power. Altars instead of
+communion-tables in churches meant not merely a restoration of the
+Popish belief in the real sacrifice of the mass, but a placing of the
+king above the law, and the abrogation of all liberty. They could not
+at this time persuade the nation of these things. The nation, for the
+most part, saw nothing more than met their bodily eyes; and, in despair
+of escaping the slavery which they saw the success of Ferdinand in
+Germany was likely to spread over Europe, they began the long train of
+voyages to the Western World, which times of suffering and uncertainty
+have continued at intervals to the present day. It is said that
+a vessel was stopped by royal warrant when it was on the point of
+sailing from the Thames with emigrants to America in 1637. On board
+were various persons whose names would probably never have been heard
+of if they had been allowed in peace and safety to pursue their way
+to Boston, but with which in a few years "all England rang from side
+to side." They were Oliver Cromwell, and Hampden, and Haselrig, Lord
+Brook, and Lord Saye.
+
+Affairs had now reached such a crisis that they could no longer
+continue undecided. A Parliament was called in 1640, after an
+unexampled interval of eleven years, and, after a few days' session,
+was angrily dissolved. Another, however, was indispensable in the
+same year, and on the 3d of November the Long Parliament met. The
+long-repressed indignation of the Commons broke forth at once. Laud
+and Wentworth, the principal advisers of the king, were tried and
+executed, and precautions taken, by stringent acts, to prevent a
+recurrence of arbitrary government. Everywhere there seemed a rally
+in favour of the Protestant or liberal cause. The death of Richelieu,
+the destroyer of French freedom, opened a prospect of recovered
+independence to the Huguenots; the victories of Torstenson the
+Swede, worthy successor of Gustavus Adolphus, brought down the pride
+of the Austrian Catholics; and Puritans, Independents, and other
+outraged sects and parties, by the restoration of the Parliament,
+got a terrible instrument of vengeance against their oppressors. A
+dreadful time, when on both sides the forms of law were perverted to
+the most lawless purposes; when peacefully-inclined citizens must
+have been tormented with sad misgivings by the contending claims of
+Parliament and King,--a Parliament correctly constituted and in the
+exercise of its recognised authority, a King with no flaw to his
+title, and professing his willingness to limit himself to the undoubted
+prerogatives of his place. [A.D. 1642.] It was probably a relief to
+the undecided when the arbitrament was removed from the court of
+argument to the field of battle. All the time of that miserable civil
+war, the other states of Europe were in nearly as great confusion as
+ourselves. France was torn to pieces by factions which contended for
+the mantle of the departed cardinal; Germany was traversed from end
+to end by alternately retreating and advancing armies. But still the
+simultaneousness of events abroad and at home is worthy of remark. The
+great fights which decided the quarrel in England were answered by
+victories of the Protestant arms in Germany and the apparent triumph
+of the discontented in France. The young king, Louis the Fourteenth,
+carried from town to town, and disputed between the parties, gave
+little augury of the despotism and injustice of his future throne.
+There were barricades in Paris, and insurrections all over the land.
+But at last, and at the same time, all the combatants in England,
+and France, and Germany--Huguenot, Puritan, Calvinist, Protestant,
+and Papist--were tired out with the length and bitterness of the
+struggle. So in 1648 the long Thirty Years' War was brought to a close
+by the Peace of Westphalia. Kingly power in France was curtailed, the
+house of Austria was humbled; and Charles was carried prisoner to
+Windsor. The Protestants of Germany, by the terms of the peace, were
+replaced in their ancient possessions. They had freedom of worship
+and equality of civil rights secured. A general law preserved them
+from the injustice or aggressions of their local masters; and the
+compromise guaranteed by so many divergent interests, and guarded by
+such equally-divided numbers, has endured to the present time. The
+English conquerors would be contented with no less than their foreign
+friends had obtained. But the blot upon their conduct, the blood
+of the misguided and humbled Charles, hindered the result of their
+wisest deliberations. Moderate men were revolted by the violence of
+the act, and old English loyalty, delivered from the fear of foreign
+or domestic oppression, was awakened by the sad end of a crowned and
+anointed King. [A.D. 1649.] Nothing compensates in an old hereditary
+monarchy for the want of high descent in its ruler. Not all Cromwell's
+vigour and genius, his glory abroad and energetic government at home,
+attracted the veneration of English squires, whose forefathers had
+fought at Crecy, to the grandson of a city knight, or, at most, to the
+descendant of a minister of Henry the Eighth. Charles the Second rose
+before them with the transmitted dignity of a hundred kings. He counted
+back to Scottish monarchs before the Norman Conquest, and traced by
+his mother's side his lineal ancestry up to Charlemagne and Clovis.
+English history presents no instance of the intrusion of an unroyal
+usurper in her list of sovereigns. Cromwell stands forth the solitary
+instance of a man of the people virtually seizing the crown; and the
+ballads and pamphlets of the time show how the comparative humility of
+his birth excited the scorn of his contemporaries. And this feeling was
+not limited to ancient lords and belted cavaliers: it permeated the
+common mind. There was something ennobling for the humblest peasant
+to die for King and Cause; but, however our traditions and the lapse
+of two hundred years may have elevated the conqueror at Worcester and
+Dunbar, we are not to forget that, in the estimation of those who had
+drunk his beer at Huntingdon or listened to his tedious harangues in
+Parliament, there would be neither patriotism nor honour in dying for
+bluff Old Noll. But there were more dangerous enemies to bluff Old Noll
+than the newness of his name. The same cause which had made the nation
+dissatisfied with the arbitrary pretensions of James and Charles was at
+work in making it intolerant of the rule of the usurpers.
+
+The great soldier and politician, who had overthrown an ancient dynasty
+and crushed the seditions of the sects, had increased the commercial
+prosperity of the three kingdoms. Wealth poured in at all the ports,
+and was rapidly diffused over the land; internal improvements kept
+pace with foreign enterprise; and the England which long ago had been
+too rich to be arbitrarily governed was now again too rich to be
+kept in durance by the sour-faced hypocrisies of the Puritans. Those
+lank-haired gentlemen, whose conduct had not quite answered to the
+self-denying proclamations with which they had begun, were no longer
+able to persuade the well-to-do citizen, and the high-waged mechanic,
+and the prosperous farmer, that religion consisted in speaking through
+the nose and forswearing all innocent enjoyment. The great battle
+had been fought, and the fruits of it, they thought, were secure.
+Were people to be debarred from social meetings and merry-makings at
+Christmas, and junketings at fairs, by act of Parliament? Acts of
+Parliament would first have been required strong enough to do away with
+youth and health, and the power of admiring beauty, and the hopes of
+marriage. [A.D. 1641-49.] The troubles had lasted seven or eight years;
+and all through that period, and for some time before, while the thick
+cloud was gathering, all gayety had disappeared from the land. But
+by the middle of Cromwell's time there was a new generation, in the
+first flush of youth,--lads and lasses who had been too young to know
+any thing of the dark days of Laud and Wentworth. They were twenty
+years of age now. Were they to have no cakes and ale because their
+elders were so prodigiously virtuous? They had many years of weary
+restraint and formalism to make up for, and in 1660 the accumulated
+tide of joyousness and delight burst all barriers. A flood of dancing
+and revelry, and utter abandonment to happiness, spread over the
+whole country; and merriest of the dancers, loudest of the revellers,
+happiest of the emancipated, was the young and brilliant king. Never
+since the old times of the Feasts of Fools and the gaudy processions of
+the Carnival had there been such a riotous jubilee as inaugurated the
+Restoration. The reaction against Puritanism carried the nation almost
+beyond Christianity and landed it in heathenism again. The saturnalia
+of Rome were renewed in the banquetings of St. James's. Nothing in
+those first days of relaxation seemed real. King and courtiers and
+cavaliers in courtly palaces, and enthusiastic townsfolk and madly
+loyal husbandmen, seemed like mummers at a play; and it was not till
+the candles were burned out, and the scenes grew dingy, and daylight
+poured upon that ghastly imitation of enjoyment, that England came
+to its sober senses again. Then it saw how false was the parody it
+had been playing. It had not been happy; it had only been drunk; and
+already, while Charles was in the gloss of his recovered crown, the
+second reaction began. Cromwell became respectable by comparison with
+the sensual debauchee who sold the dignity of his country for a little
+present enjoyment and soothed the reproaches of his people with a joke.
+Give us a Man to rule over us, the English said, and not a sayer of
+witty sayings and a juggler with such sleight of hand. And yet the
+example of the court was so contagious, and the fashion of enjoyment
+so wide-spread, that on the surface every thing appeared prosperous
+and happy. The stern realities of the first recusants had been so
+travestied by the exaggerated imitation of their successors that no
+faith was placed in the serious earnestness of man or woman. Frivolity
+was therefore adopted as a mark of sense; and if the popular literature
+of a period is to be accepted as a mirror held up to show the time
+its image, the old English character had undergone a perfect change.
+Thousands flocked every day to the playhouses to listen to dialogues,
+and watch the evolvement of plots, where all the laws of decency and
+honour were held up to ridicule. Comus and his crew, which long ago had
+held their poetic festival in the pure pages of Milton, were let loose,
+without the purity or the poetry, in every family circle. And the worst
+and most disgusting feature of the picture is that those wassailers who
+were thus the missionaries of vice were persecutors for religion. While
+one royal brother was leading the revels at Whitehall, surrounded by
+luxury and immorality as by an atmosphere without which he could not
+live, the other, as luxurious, but more moodily depraved, listened to
+the groans of tortured Covenanters at Holyrood House. Charles and James
+were like the two executioners of Louis the Eleventh: one laughed, and
+the other groaned, but both were pitilessly cruel. A recurrence to the
+dark days of the Sects, the godly wrestlings in prayer of illiterate
+horsemen, and the sincere fanaticism of the Fifth-Monarchy men, would
+have been a change for the better from the filth and foulness of the
+reign of the Merry Monarch and the blood and misery of that of the
+gloomy bigot.
+
+But happier times were almost within view, though still hid behind the
+glare of those orgies of the unclean. From 1660 to 1688 does not seem a
+very long time in the annals of a nation, nor even in the life of one
+of ourselves. Twenty-eight years have elapsed since the Revolution in
+Paris which placed Louis Philippe upon the throne; and the young man of
+twenty at that time is not very old yet. But when men or nations are
+cheated in the object of their hopes, it does not take long to turn
+disappointment into hatred. The Restoration of 1660 was to bring back
+the golden age of the first years of James,--the prosperity without
+the tyranny, the old hereditary rule without its high pretensions,
+the manliness of the English yeoman without his tendency to fanatical
+innovation. And instead of this Arcadia there was nothing to be
+seen but a kingdom without dignity, a king without honesty, and a
+people without independence. England was no longer the arbiter of
+European differences, as in the earlier reigns, nor dominator of all
+the nations, as when the heavy sword of Cromwell was uneasy in its
+sheath. It was not even a second-rate power: its capital had been
+insulted by the Dutch; its monarch was pensioned by the French; its
+religion was threatened by the Pope; the old animosities between
+England and Scotland were unarranged; and the point to be remembered
+in your review of the Seventeenth Century is that in the years from
+the Restoration to the Revolution we had touched the basest string
+of humility. We were neither united at home nor respected abroad. We
+had few ships, little commerce, and no public spirit. France revenged
+Crecy and Poictiers and Agincourt, by dressing our kings in her livery;
+and the degraded monarchs pocketed their wages without feeling their
+humiliation. Therefore, as the highest point we have hitherto stood
+upon was when Elizabeth saw the destruction of the Armada, the lowest
+was undoubtedly that when we submitted to the buffoonery of Charles and
+the bloodthirstiness of James.
+
+But far more remarkable, as a characteristic of this century, than
+the lowering of the rank of England in relation to foreign states,
+is the rise, for the first time in Europe, of a figure hitherto
+unknown,--a true, unshackled, and absolute king, and that in the
+least likely of all positions and in the person of the least likely
+man. This was the appearance on the throne of France of Louis the
+Fourteenth. Other monarchs, both in England and France, had attained
+supreme power,--supreme, but not independent. No one had hitherto been
+irresponsible to some other portions of the State. The strongest of the
+feudal kings was held in check by his nobility,--the greatest of the
+Tudors by Parliament and people. Declarations, indeed, had frequently
+been made that God's anointed were answerable to God alone. But of the
+two loudest of these declaimers, John, who said,--
+
+  "What earthly power to interrogatory
+   Can tax the free breath of a Christian king?"
+
+had shortly after this magnificent oration surrendered his crown to the
+Pope; and James the First, who blustered more fiercely (if possible)
+about his superiority to human law, was glad to bend before his Lords
+and Commons in anticipation of a subsidy, and eat his leek in peace.
+
+But this phenomenon of a king above all other authority occurred, we
+have observed, in the most unlikely country to present so strange a
+sight; for nowhere was a European throne so weak and unstable as the
+throne of the house of Bourbon after the murder of Henry the Fourth.
+The moment that strong hand was withdrawn from the government, all
+classes broke loose. The nobles conspired against the queen, Marie de
+Medicis, who relied upon foreign favourites and irritated the nation to
+madness. Paris rose in insurrection, and tore the wretched Concini,
+her counsellor, whom she had created Marshal D'Ancre, to pieces; and,
+to glut their vengeance still more, the judges condemned his innocent
+wife to be burned as a sorceress. Louis the Thirteenth, the unworthy
+son of the great Henry, rejoiced in these atrocities, which he thought
+freed him from all restraint. But he found it impossible to quell
+the wild passions by which he profited for a while. Civil war raged
+between the court and country factions, and soon became embittered into
+religious animosities. [A.D. 1622.] The sight of a king marching at
+the head of a Catholic army against a portion of his Reformed subjects
+was looked upon by the rapidly-increasing malcontents in England with
+anxious curiosity. For year by year the strange spectacle was unrolled
+before their eyes of what might yet be their fate at home. Perhaps,
+indeed, the success of the royal arms, and the policy of strength and
+firmness introduced by Cardinal Richelieu, may have contributed in no
+slight degree to the measures pursued by Wentworth and Laud in their
+treatment of the English recusants. With an anticipative interest in
+our Hull and Exeter, the Puritans of England looked on the resistance
+made by Rochelle; and we can therefore easily imagine with what
+feelings the future soldiers of Marston Moor received the tidings that
+the Popish cardinal had humbled the capital of the Huguenots by the
+help of fleets furnished to them by Holland and England! Richelieu,
+indeed, knew how to make his enemies weaken each other throughout
+his whole career. [A.D. 1627.] Those enemies were the nobility of
+France, the house of Austria, and the Reformed Faith. When Rochelle
+was attacked the second time, and England pretended to arm for its
+defence, he contrived to win Buckingham, the chief of the expedition,
+to his cause, and procured a letter from King Charles, placing the
+fleet, which apparently went to the support of the Huguenots, at the
+service of the King of France! After a year's siege, and the most
+heroic resistance, Rochelle fell at last, in 1628. And, now that the
+Huguenots were destroyed as a dangerous party, the eyes of the great
+minister were turned against his other foes. He divided the nobles
+into hostile ranks, degraded them by petty annoyances, terrified them
+by unpitying executions of the chiefs of the oldest families, showed
+their weakness by arresting marshals at the head of their armies, and
+during the remaining years of his authority monopolized all the powers
+of the state. To weaken Spain and Austria, we have seen how he assisted
+the Protestants in the Thirty Years' War; to weaken England, which
+was only great when it assumed its place as bulwark and champion of
+the Protestant faith, he encouraged the court in its suicidal policy
+and the oppressed population in resistance. Ever stirring up trouble
+abroad, and ever busy in repressing liberty at home, the ministry of
+Richelieu is the triumph of unprincipled skill. But when he died,
+in 1643, there was no man left to lift up the burden he threw off.
+The king himself, Louis the Thirteenth, as much a puppet as the old
+descendants of Clovis under their Mayors of the Palace, left the throne
+he had nominally filled, vacant in the same year; and the heir to
+the dishonoured crown and exhausted country was a boy of five years
+of age, under the tutelage of an unprincipled mother, and with the
+old hereditary counsellors and props of his throne decimated by the
+scaffold or impoverished by confiscation. The tyranny of Richelieu
+had at least attained something noble by the high-handed insolence
+of all his acts. If people were to be trampled on, it was a kind of
+consolation to them that their oppressor was feared by others as well
+as themselves. But the oppression of the doomed French nation was
+to be continued by a more ignoble hand. The Cardinal Mazarin brought
+every thing into greater confusion than ever. In twenty millions of
+men there will always be great and overmastering spirits, if only an
+opportunity is found for their development; but civil commotion is not
+the element in which greatness lives. All sense of honour disappears
+when conduct is regulated by the shifting motives of party politics.
+[A.D. 1648-1654.] The dissensions of the Fronde, accordingly, produced
+no champion to whom either side could look with unmingled respect.
+The Great Condé and the famous Turenne showed military talent of
+the highest order, but a want of principle and a flighty frivolity
+of character counterbalanced all their virtues. The scenes of those
+six years are like a series of dissolving views, or the changing
+combinations of a kaleidoscope: Condé and Turenne, always on opposite
+sides,--for each changed his party as often as the other; battles
+prepared for by masquerades and theatricals, and celebrated on both
+sides with epigrams and songs; the wildest excesses of debauchery
+and vice practised by both sexes and all ranks in the State;
+archbishops fighting like gladiators and intriguing like the vulgarest
+conspirators; princes imprisoned with a jest, and executions attended
+with cheers and laughter; and over all an Italian ecclesiastic,
+grinning with satisfaction at the increase of his wealth,--caballing,
+cheating, and lying, but keeping a firm grasp of power:--no country was
+ever so split into faction or so denuded of great men.
+
+It seemed, indeed, like a demoniacal caricature of our British
+troubles: no sternness, no reality; love-letters and witty verses
+supplying the place of the Biblical language and awful earnestness of
+the words and deeds of the Covenanters and Independents; the gentlemen
+of France utterly debased and frivolized; religion ridiculed; nothing
+left of the old landmarks; and no Cromwell possible. But, while all
+these elements of confusion were heaving and tumbling in what seemed
+an inextricable chaos, Mazarin, the vainest and most selfish of
+charlatans, died, and the young king, whom he had kept in distressing
+dependence and the profoundest political inactivity, found himself
+delivered from a master and free to choose his path. This was in
+1661. Charles and Louis were equally on their recovered thrones;
+for what exile had been to the one, Mazarin had been to the other.
+[A.D. 1641-1660.] Charles had had the experience of nineteen years and
+of various fortunes to guide him. He had seen many men and cities,
+and he deceived every expectation. Louis had been studiously brought
+up by his mother and her Italian favourite in the abasement of every
+lofty aspiration. He was only encouraged in luxury and vice, and kept
+in such painful vassalage that his shyness and awkwardness revealed
+the absence of self-respect to the very pages of his court; and he,
+no less than Charles, deceived all the expectations that had been
+formed of his career. He found out, as if by intuition, how brightly
+the monarchical principle still burned in the heart of all the French.
+Even in their fights and quarrellings there was a deep reverence
+entertained for the ideal of the throne. The King's name was a tower
+of strength; and when the nation, in the course of the miserable years
+from 1610 to 1661, saw the extinction of nobility, religion, law,
+and almost of civilized society, it caught the first sound that told
+it it still had a king, as an echo from the past assuring it of its
+future. It forgot Louis the Thirteenth and Anne of Austria, and only
+remembered that its monarch was the grandson of Henry the Fourth.
+Nobody remembered that circumstance so vividly as Louis himself; but
+he remembered also that his line went upwards from the Bourbons, and
+included the Saint Louis of the thirteenth century and the renewer
+of the Roman Empire of the ninth. He let the world know, therefore,
+that his title was Most Christian King as well as foremost of European
+powers. He forced Spain to yield him precedence, and, for the first
+time in history, exacted a humiliating apology from the Pope. The world
+is always apt to take a man at his own valuation. Louis, swelling with
+pride, ambitious of fame, and madly fond of power, declared himself the
+greatest, wisest, and most magnificent of men; and everybody believed
+him. Every thing was soon changed throughout the land. Ministers had
+been more powerful than the crown, and had held unlimited authority in
+right of their appointment. A minister was nothing more to Louis than
+a _valet-de-chambre_. He gave him certain work to do, and rewarded him
+if he did it; if he neglected it, he discharged him. At first the few
+relics of the historic names of France, the descendants of the great
+vassals, who carried their heads as lofty as the Capets or Valois,
+looked on with surprise at the new arrangements in camp and court.
+But the people were too happy to escape the oligarchic confederacy
+of those hereditary oppressors to encourage them in their haughty
+disaffection. Before Louis had been three years on the unovershadowed
+throne, the struggle had been fairly entered on by all the orders
+of the State, which should be most slavish in its submission. Rank,
+talent, beauty, science, and military fame all vied with each other in
+their devotion to the king. He would have been more than mortal if he
+had retained his senses unimpaired amid the intoxicating fumes of such
+incense. Success in more important affairs came to the support of his
+personal assumptions. Victories followed his standards everywhere.
+Generals, engineers, and administrators, of abilities hitherto
+unmatched in Europe, sprang up whenever his requirements called them
+forth. Colbert doubled his income without increasing the burdens on his
+people. Turenne, Condé, Luxembourg, and twenty others, led his armies.
+Vauban strengthened his fortifications or conducted his sieges, and
+the dock-yards of Toulon and Brest filled the Mediterranean and the
+Atlantic with his fleets. Poets like Molière, Corneille, and Racine
+ennobled his stage; while the genius of Bossuet and Fénélon inaugurated
+the restoration of religion. For eight-and-twenty years his fortunes
+knew no ebb. He was the object of all men's hopes and fears, and almost
+of their prayers. Nothing was too great or too minute for his decision.
+He was called on to arbitrate (with the authority of a master) between
+sovereign States, and to regulate a point of precedence between
+the duchesses of his court. Oh, the weary days and nights of that
+uneasy splendour at Versailles! when his steps were watched by hungry
+courtiers, and his bed itself surrounded by applicants for place and
+favour. No galley-slave ever toiled harder at his oar than this monarch
+of all he surveyed at the management of his unruly family. It was the
+day of etiquette and form. The rights of princesses to arm-chairs or
+chairs with only a back were contested with a vigour which might have
+settled the succession to a throne. The rank which entitled to a seat
+in the king's coach or an invitation to Marly was disputed almost with
+bloodshed, and certainly with scandal and bitterness. The depth of
+the bows exacted by a prince of the blood, the number of attendants
+necessary for a legitimated son of La Vallière or Montespan, put the
+whole court into a turmoil of angry parties; and all these important
+points, and fifty more of equal magnitude, were formally submitted
+to the king and decided with a gravity befitting a weightier cause.
+Nothing is more remarkable in the midst of these absurd inanities than
+the great fund of good common sense that is found in all the king's
+judgments. He meditates, and temporizes, and reasons; and only on great
+occasions, such as a quarrel about dignity between the wife of the
+dauphin and the Duchess of Maine, does he put on the terrors of his
+kingly frown and interpose his irresistible command. It would have been
+some consolation to the foreign potentates he bullied or protected--the
+Austrian and Spaniard, or Charles in Whitehall--if they had known what
+a wretched and undignified life their enslaver and insulter lived at
+home. It was whispered, indeed, that he was tremendously hen-pecked
+by Madame de Maintenon, whom he married without having the courage
+to elevate her to the throne; but none of them knew the pettinesses,
+the degradations, and the miseries of his inner circle. They thought,
+perhaps, he was planning some innovation in the order of affairs in
+Europe,--the destruction of a kingdom, or the change of a dynasty. He
+was devoting his deepest cogitations to the arrangement of a quarrel
+between his sons and his daughters-in-law, the invitations to a little
+supper-party in his private room, or the number of steps it was
+necessary to advance at the reception of a petty Italian sovereign.
+The quarrels between his children became more bitter; the little
+supper-parties became more dull. Death came into the gilded chambers,
+and he was growing old and desolate. Still the torturing wheel of
+ceremony went round, and the father, with breaking heart, had to leave
+the chamber of his deceased son, and act the part of a great king, and
+go through the same tedious forms of grandeur and routine which he had
+done before the calamity came. Fancy has never drawn a personage more
+truly pitiable than Louis growing feeble and friendless in the midst
+of all that magnificence and all that heartless crowd. You pardon him
+for retiring for consolation and sympathy to the quiet apartment where
+Madame de Maintenon received him without formality and continued her
+needlework or her reading while he was engaged in council with his
+ministers. He must have known that to all but her he was an Office
+and not a Man. He yearned for somebody that he could trust in and
+consult with, as entering into his thoughts and interests; and that
+calm-blooded, meek-mannered, narrow-hearted woman persuaded him that in
+her he had found all that his heart thirsted for in the desert of his
+royalty. But in that little apartment he was now to find refuge from
+more serious calamities than the falsehood of courtiers or the quarrels
+of women. Even French loyalty was worn out at last. Victories had
+glorified the monarch, but brought poverty and loss to the population.
+Complaints arose in all parts of the country of the excess of taxation,
+the grasping dishonesty of the collectors, the extravagance of the
+court, and even--but this was not openly whispered--the selfishness
+of the king. He had lavished ten millions sterling on the palace and
+gardens of Versailles; he had enriched his sycophants with pensions
+on the Treasury; he had gratified the Church with gorgeous donations,
+and with the far more fatal gift of vengeance upon its opponents.
+The Huguenots were in the peaceful enjoyment of the rights secured
+to them by the Edict of Nantes, granted by Henry the Fourth in 1598.
+But those rights included the right of worshipping God in a different
+manner from the Church, and denying the distinguishing doctrines of
+the Holy Catholic faith. [A.D. 1685.] The Edict of Toleration was
+repealed as a blot on the purity of the throne of the Most Christian
+King. Thousands of the best workmen in France were banished by this
+impolitic proceeding, and Louis thought he had shown his attachment
+to his religion by sending the ingenuity and wealth, and glowing
+animosity, of the most valuable portion of his subjects into other
+lands. Germany calculated that the depopulation caused by his wars was
+more than compensated by the immigration. England could forgive him
+his contemptuous behaviour to her king and Parliament when she saw the
+silk-mills of Spitalfields supplied by the skilled workmen of Lyons.
+Eight hundred thousand people left their homes in consequence of this
+proscription of their religion, and Germany and Switzerland grew rich
+with the stream of fugitives. It is said that only five thousand found
+their way to this country,--enough to set the example of peaceful
+industry and to introduce new methods of manufacture.
+
+But the full benefit of the measures of Louis and Maintenon was
+denied us, by the distrust with which the Protestant exiles looked
+on the accession to our throne of a narrower despot and more bigoted
+persecutor than Louis; for in this same year James the Second succeeded
+Charles. Relying on each other's support, and gratified with the formal
+approval of the repeal of the Edict of Nantes pronounced by the Pope,
+the two champions of Christendom pursued their way,--dismissals from
+office, exclusion from promotion, proscription from worship in France,
+and assaults on the Church, and bloody assizes, in England,--till all
+the nations felt that a great crisis was reached in the fortunes both
+of England and France, and Protestant and Romanist alike looked on
+in expectation of the winding-up of so strange a history. Judicial
+blindness was equally on the eyes of the two potentates chiefly
+interested. James remained inactive while William Prince of Orange,
+the avowed chief of the new opinions, was getting ready his ships and
+army, and congratulated himself on the silence of his people, which
+he thought was the sign of their acquiescence instead of the hush of
+expectation. All the other powers--the Papal Chair included--were
+not sorry to see a counterpoise to the predominance of France; and
+when William appeared in England as the deliverer from Popery and
+oppression, the battle was decided without a blow. [A.D. 1688.] James
+was a fugitive in his turn, and found his way to Versailles. It is
+difficult to believe that any of the blood of Scotland or Navarre
+flowed in the veins of the pusillanimous king. He begged his protector,
+through whose councils he had lost his kingdom, to give it him back
+again; and the opportunity of a theatrical display of grandeur and
+magnanimity was too tempting to be thrown away. Louis promised to
+restore him his crown, as if it were a broken toy. It was a strange
+sight, during the remainder of their lives, to see those two monarchs
+keeping up the dignity of their rank by exaggerations of their former
+state. No mimic stage ever presented a more piteous spectacle of
+poverty and tinsel than the royal pair. Punctilios were observed at
+their meetings and separations, as if a bow more or less were of as
+much consequence as the bestowal or recovery of Great Britain; and
+in the estimation of those professors of manners and deportment a
+breach of etiquette would have been more serious than La Hogue or
+the Boyne. In that wondrous palace of Versailles all things had long
+ceased to be real. Speeches were made for effect, and dresses and
+decorations had become a part of the art of governing, and for some
+years the system seemed to succeed. When the king required to show
+that he was still a conqueror like Alexander the Great, preparations
+were made for his reception at the seat of war, and a pre-arranged
+victory was attached lo his arrival, as Cleopatra wished to fix a
+broiled fish to Anthony's hook. He entered the town of Mons in triumph
+when Luxembourg had secured its fall. He appeared also with unbounded
+applause at the first siege of Namur, and carried in person the news of
+his achievement to Versailles. Every day came couriers hot and tired
+with intelligence of fresh successes. Luxembourg conquered at Fleurus,
+1690; Catinat conquered Savoy, 1691; Luxembourg again, in 1692, had
+gained the great day of Steinkirk, and Nerwinde in 1693. But the tide
+now turned. William the Third was the representative at that time of
+the stubbornness of his new subjects' character, who have always found
+it difficult to see that they were defeated. He was generally forced
+to retire after a vigorously-contested fight; but he was always ready
+to fight again next day, always calm and determined, and as confident
+as ever in the firmness of his men. Reports very different from the
+glorious bulletins of the earlier years of the Great Monarch now came
+pouring in. Namur was retaken, Dieppe and Havre bombarded, all the
+French establishments in India seized by the Dutch, their colony at St.
+Domingo captured by the English, Luxembourg dead, and the whole land
+again, for the second time, exhausted of men and money. It was another
+opportunity for the display of his absolute power. France prayed him
+to grant peace to Europe, and the earthly divinity granted France's
+prayer. Europe itself, which had rebelled against him, accepted the
+pacification it had won by its battles and combinations, as if it were
+a gift from a superior being. [A.D. 1697.] He surrendered his conquests
+with such grandeur, and looked so dignified while he withdrew his
+pretensions, acknowledging the Prince of Orange to be King of England,
+and the King of England to have no claim on the crown he had promised
+to restore to him, that it took some time to perceive that the terms of
+the Peace of Ryswick were proofs of weakness and not of magnanimity.
+But the object of his life had been gained. He had abased every order
+in the State for the aggrandizement of the Crown, and, for the first
+time since the termination of the Roman Empire, had concentrated the
+whole power of a nation into the will of an individual. And this
+strange spectacle of a possessor of unlimited authority over the lives
+and fortunes of all his subjects was presented in an age that had seen
+Charles the First of England brought to the block and James the Second
+driven into exile! The chance of France's peacefully rising again
+from this state of depression into liberty would have been greater if
+Louis, in displacing the other authorities, had not disgraced them. He
+dissolved his Parliament, not with a file of soldiers, like Cromwell
+or Napoleon, but with a riding-whip in his hand. He degraded the
+nobility by making them the satellites of his throne and creatures
+of his favour. He humbled the Church by secularizing its leaders; so
+that Bossuet, bishop and orator as he was, was proud to undertake the
+office of peacemaker between him and Madame de Montespan in one of
+their lovers' quarrels. And the Frenchmen of the next century looked in
+vain for some rallying-point from which to begin their forward course
+towards constitutional improvement. They found nothing but parliaments
+contemned, nobles dishonoured, and priests unchristianized.
+
+
+
+
+                          EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        LOUIS XIV.--(_cont._)
+
+  1715. LOUIS XV.
+
+  1774. LOUIS XVI.
+
+  1793. LOUIS XVII.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        LEOPOLD I.--(_cont._)
+
+  1705. JOSEPH I.
+
+  1711. CHARLES VI.
+
+  1740. MARIA-THERESA.
+
+  1742. CHARLES VII.
+
+  1745. FRANCIS I.
+
+  1765. JOSEPH II.
+
+  1790. LEOPOLD II.
+
+  1792. FRANCIS II.
+
+
+Kings of England and Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        WILLIAM III. and MARY.--(_cont._)
+
+  1702. ANNE.
+
+  (_Great Britain_, 1707.)
+
+  1714. GEORGE I.    }
+
+  1727. GEORGE II.   }  House of Hanover.
+
+  1760. GEORGE III.  }
+
+
+Kings of Spain.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1700. PHILIP V.
+
+  1724. LOUIS I.
+
+  1724. PHILIP V. again.
+
+  1745. FERDINAND VI.
+
+  1759. CHARLES III.
+
+  1788. CHARLES IV.
+
+
+Distinguished Men.
+
+ADDISON, STEELE, SWIFT, POPE, ROBERTSON, HUME, GIBBON, VOLTAIRE,
+ROUSSEAU, LESAGE, MARMONTEL, MONTESQUIEU, FRANKLIN, (1706-1790,)
+JOHNSON, (1709-1784,) GOLDSMITH, (1728-1774,) WOLFE, (1726-1759,)
+WASHINGTON, (1732-1799.)
+
+
+
+
+                        THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+                        INDIA--AMERICA--FRANCE.
+
+
+The characteristic feature of this period is constant change on
+the greatest scale. Hitherto changes have occurred in the internal
+government of nations: the monarchic or popular feeling has found its
+expression in the alternate elevation of the Kingly or Parliamentary
+power. But in this most momentous of the centuries, nations themselves
+come into being or disappear. Russia and Prussia for the first time
+play conspicuous parts in the great drama of human affairs. France,
+which begins the century with the despotic Louis the Fourteenth at
+its head, leaves it as a vigorous Republic, with Napoleon Buonaparte
+as its First Consul. The foundations of a British empire were laid in
+India, which before the end of the period more than compensated for the
+loss of that other empire in the West, which is now the United States
+of America. It was the century of the breaking of old traditions,
+and of the introduction of new systems in life and government,--more
+complete in its transformations than the splitting up into hitherto
+unheard-of nationalities of the old Roman world had been; for what Goth
+and Vandal, and Frank and Lombard, were to the political geography
+of Europe in the earlier time, new modes of thought, both religious
+and political, were to the moral constitution of that later date. The
+barbarous invasions of the early centuries were the overflowing of
+rivers by the breaking down of the embankments; the revolutionary
+madness of France was the sudden detachment of an avalanche which
+had been growing unobserved, but which at last a voice or a footstep
+was sufficient to set in motion. In all nations it was a period of
+doubt and uneasiness. Something was about to happen, but nobody
+could say what. The political sleight-of-hand men, who considered
+the safety of the world to depend on the balance of power, where a
+weight must be cast into one scale, exactly sufficient, and not more
+than sufficient, to keep the other in equilibrio, were never so much
+puzzled since the science of balancing began. A vast country, hitherto
+omitted from their calculations, or only considered as a make-weight
+against Sweden or Denmark, suddenly came forward to be a check, and
+sometimes an over-weight, to half the states in Europe. Something had
+therefore to be found to be a counterpoise to the twenty millions of
+men and illimitable dominions of the Russian Czars. This was close at
+the conjurer's hand in Prussia and her Austrian neighbour. Counties
+were added,--populations fitted in,--Silesia given to the one,
+Gallicia added to the other; and at last the whole of Poland, which
+had ceased to be of any importance in its separate existence, was
+cut up into such portions as might be required, with here a fragment
+and there a fragment, till the scales stood pretty even, and the
+three contiguous kingdoms were satisfied with their respective shares
+of infamy and plunder. If you hear, therefore, of robberies upon a
+gigantic scale,--no longer the buccaneering exploits of a few isolated
+adventurers in the Western seas, but of kingdoms deliberately stolen,
+or imperiously taken hold of by the right of the strong hand; of the
+same Titanic magnitude distinguishing almost all other transactions;
+colonies throwing off their allegiance, and swelling out into hostile
+empires, instead of the usual discontent and occasional quarrellings
+between the mother-country and her children; of whole nations breaking
+forth into anarchy, instead of the former local efforts at reformation
+ending in temporary civil strife; of commercial speculations reaching
+the sublime of swindling and credulity, and involving whole populations
+in ruin; and of commercial establishments, on the other hand, vaster
+even in their territorial acquisitions than all the conquests of
+Alexander,--you are to remember that these things can only have
+happened in the Eighteenth Century; the century when the trammels of
+all former experiences were thrown off, and when wealth, power, energy,
+and mental aspirations were pushed to an unexampled excess. This
+exaggerated action of the age is shown in the one great statement which
+nearly comprehends all the rest. The Debt of this country, which at the
+beginning of this century was sixteen millions and a half and tormented
+our forefathers with fears of bankruptcy, had risen at the end of
+it, in the heroic madness of conquest and national pride, to the sum
+of three hundred and eighty millions, without a doubt of our perfect
+competency to sustain the burden.
+
+If the tendency of affairs on the other side of our encircling sea
+was to pull down, to destroy, to modify, and to redistribute, the
+tendency at home was to build up and consolidate; so that in almost
+exact proportion to the wild experiments and frantic strugglings of
+other nations after something new--new principles of government, new
+theories of society--there arose in this country a dogged spirit of
+resistance to all alterations, and a persistence in old paths and
+old opinions. The charms which constitution-mongers saw in untried
+novelties and philosophic systems existed for John Bull only in what
+had stood the wear and tear of hundreds of years. The Prussians,
+Austrians, Americans, and finally the French, were groping after
+vague abstractions; and Frederick the Soldier, and Joseph the
+Philanthropist, and Citizen Franklin, and Lafayette and Mirabeau,
+were each in their own way carried away with the delusion of a golden
+age; but the English statesmen clung rigidly to the realities of
+life,--declared the universal fraternity of nations to be a cry of
+knaves or hypocrites,--and answered all exclamations about the dignity
+of humanity and the sovereignty of the people with "Rule Britannia,"
+and "God save the King." How deeply this sentiment of loyalty and
+traditionary Toryism is seated in the national mind is proved by
+nothing so much as by the dreadful ordeal it had to go through in the
+days of the first two Georges. It certainly was a faith altogether
+independent of external circumstances, which saw the divinity that
+hedges kings in such vulgar, gossiping, and undignified individuals.
+And yet through all the troubled years of their reigns the great
+British heart beat true with loyalty to the throne, though it was
+grieved with the proceedings of the sovereigns; and when the third
+George gave it a man to rally round--as truly native-born as the
+most indigenous of the people, as stubborn, as strong-willed, and as
+determined to resist innovation as the most consistent of the squires
+and most anti-foreign of the citizens--the nation attained a point of
+union which had never been known in all their previous history, and
+looked across the Channel, at the insanity of the perplexed populations
+and the threats of their furious leaders, with a growl of contempt
+and hatred which warned their democrats and incendiaries of the fate
+that awaited them here. There are times in all national annals when
+the narrowest prejudices have an amazing resemblance to the noblest
+virtues. When Hannibal was encamped at the gates of Rome, the bigoted
+old Patricians in the forum carried on their courts of law as usual,
+and would not deduct a farthing from the value of the lands they set
+up for sale, though the besieger was encamped upon them. When a king
+of Sicily offered a great army and fleet for the defence of Greece
+against the Persians, the Athenian ambassador said, "Heaven forefend
+that a man of Athens should serve under a foreign admiral!" The
+Lacedemonian ambassador said the Spartans would put him to death if he
+proposed any man but a Spartan to command their troops; and those very
+prejudiced and narrow-minded patriots were reduced to the necessity of
+exterminating the invaders by themselves. Great Britain, in the year
+1800, was also of opinion that she was equal to all the world,--that
+she could hold her own whatever powers might be gathered against
+her,--and would not have exchanged her Hood, and Jervis, and Nelson,
+for the assistance of all the fleets of Europe.
+
+Nothing seems to die out so rapidly as the memory of martial
+achievements. The military glory of this country is a thing of fits and
+starts. Cressy and Poictiers left us at a pitch of reputation which
+you might have supposed would have lasted for a long time. But in a
+very few years after those victories the English name was a byword of
+reproach. All the conquests of the Edwards were wrenched away, and
+it needed only the short period of the reign of Richard the Second
+to sink the recollection of the imperturbable line and inevitable
+shaft. Henry the Fifth and Agincourt for a moment brought the previous
+triumphs into very vivid remembrance. But civil dissensions between
+York and Lancaster blunted the English sword upon kindred helmets, and
+peaceful Henry the Seventh loaded the subject with intolerable taxes,
+and his son wasted his treasures in feasts and tournaments. The long
+reigns of Elizabeth and James were undistinguished by British armies
+performing any separate achievements on the Continent; and again civil
+war lavished on domestic fields an amount of courage and conduct which
+would have eclipsed all previous actions if exhibited on a wider scene.
+We need not, therefore, be surprised, if, after the astonishing course
+of Louis the Fourteenth's arms, the discomfiture of his adversaries,
+the constant repulses of the English contingent which fought under
+William in Flanders, and at last the quiet, looking so like exhaustion,
+which ushered in the Eighteenth Century, the British forces were
+despised, and we were confessed, in the ludicrous cant which at
+intervals becomes fashionable still, to be not a military nation. How
+this astounding proposition agrees with the fact that we have met in
+battle every single nation, and tribe, and kindred, and tongue, on the
+face of the whole earth, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and have
+beaten them all; how it further agrees with the fact that no civilized
+power was ever engaged in such constant and multitudinous wars, so that
+there is no month or week in the history of the last two hundred years
+in which it can be said we were not interchanging shot or sabre-stroke
+somewhere or other on the surface of the globe; how, further still,
+the statement is to be reconciled with the fact, perceptible to all
+mankind, that the result of these engagements is an unexampled growth
+of influence and empire,--the acquisition of kingdoms defended by
+millions of warriors in Hindostan, of colonies ten times the extent
+of the conqueror's realm, defended by Montcalm and the armies of
+France,--we must leave to the individuals who make it: the truth being
+that the British people is not only the most military nation the world
+has ever seen, not excepting the Roman, but the most warlike. It is
+impossible to say when these pages may meet the reader's eye; but, at
+whatever time it may be, he has only to look at the "Times" newspaper
+of that morning, and he will see that either in the East or the West,
+in China or the Cape, or the Persian Gulf, or on the Indus, or the
+Irrawaddy, the meteor flag is waved in bloody advance. And this seems
+an indispensable part of the British position. She is so ludicrously
+small upon the map, and so absorbed in speculation, so padded with
+cotton, and so sunk in coal-pits, that it is only constant experience
+of her prowess that keeps the world aware of her power. The other great
+nations can repose upon their size, and their armies of six or seven
+hundred thousand men. Nobody would think France or Russia weak because
+they were inactive. But with us the case is different: we must fight or
+fall.
+
+Twice in the century we are now engaged on, we rose to be first of the
+military states in Europe, and twice, by mere inaction, we sank to the
+rank of Portugal or Naples.
+
+Charles the Second of Spain died in November, 1700,--a person so
+feeble in health and intellect that in a lower state of life he would
+have been put in charge of guardians and debarred from the management
+of his affairs. As he was a king, these duties were performed on
+his behalf by the priests, and the wretched young man--he succeeded
+at three years old--was nothing but the slave and plaything of his
+confessor. Yet, though his existence was of no importance, his decease
+set all Europe in turmoil. By his testament, obtained from him on his
+death-bed, he appointed the grandson of Louis the Fourteenth his heir.
+A previous will had nominated Charles of Austria. A previous treaty
+between Louis and William of England and the States of Holland had
+arranged a partition of the Spanish monarchy for the benefit of the
+contracting parties and the maintenance of the balance of power. But
+now, when a choice was to be made between the wills and the treaty,
+between the balance of power and his personal ambition, the temptation
+was too great for the cupidity of the Grand Monarque. He accepted the
+throne of Spain and the Indies for his grandson Philip of Anjou, and
+sent him over the Pyrenees to take possession of his dignity. The
+stroke was so sudden that people were silent from surprise. A French
+prince at Madrid, at Milan, and Naples, was only the lieutenant in
+those capitals for the French king. The preponderance of the house of
+Bourbon was dangerous to the liberties of Europe, and when the house
+of Bourbon was represented by the haughtiest, and vainest, and most
+insulting of men, the dignity of the remaining sovereigns was offended
+by his ostentatious superiority; and the house of Austria, which in
+the previous century had been the terror of statesmen and princes, was
+turned to as a shelter from its successful rival, and all the world
+prepared to defend the cause of the Austrian Charles. The affairs of
+Europe, which were disturbed by the death of an imbecile king in Spain,
+were further complicated by the death of a still more imbecile king at
+St. Germain's. James the Second brought his strange life to a close in
+1701; and, though the advisers of Louis pointed out the consequence of
+offending England at that particular time by recognising the Prince
+of Wales as inheritor of the English crown, the vanity of the old man
+who could not forego the luxury of having a crowned king among his
+attendants prevailed over his better knowledge, and one day, to the
+amazement of courtiers and council, he gave the royal reception to
+James the Third, and threw down the gauntlet to William and England,
+which they were not slow to take up. William of Orange was not popular
+among his new subjects, and was always looked on as a foreigner.
+Perhaps the memory of Ruyter and Van Tromp was still fresh enough to
+make him additionally disliked because he was a Dutchman. But when it
+was known over the country that the bigoted and insulting despot in
+Paris had nominated a King of England, while the man the nation had
+chosen was still alive in Whitehall, the indignation of all classes was
+roused, and found its expression in loyalty and attachment to their
+deliverer from Popery and persecution. Great exertions were made to
+conduct the war on a scale befitting the importance of the interests
+at stake. Addresses poured in, with declarations of devotion to the
+throne; troops were raised, and taxes voted; and in the midst of these
+preparations, the King, prematurely old, in the fifty-third year of
+his age, died of a fall from his horse at Kensington, in March, 1702,
+and the powers of Europe felt that the best soldier they possessed was
+lost to the cause. Rather it was a fortunate thing for the confederated
+princes that William died at this time; for he never rose to the rank
+of a first-rate commander, and was so ambitious of glory and power that
+he would not have left the way clear for a greater than himself.
+
+This was found in Marlborough. Military science was the characteristic
+of this illustrious general; and no one before his time had ever
+possessed in an equal degree the power of attaching an army to
+its chief, or of regulating his strategic movements by the higher
+consideration of policy and statesmanship. For the first time, in
+English history at least, a march was equivalent to a battle. A
+change of his camp, or even a temporary retreat, was as effectual
+as a victory; and it was seen by the clearer observers of the time
+that a campaign was a game of skill, and not of the mere dash and
+intrepidity which appeal to the vulgar passions of our nature. Not
+so, however, the general public: their idea of war was a succession
+of hard knocks, with enormous lists of the killed and wounded. A
+manoeuvre, without a charge of bayonets at the end of it, was little
+better than cowardice; and complaints were loud and common against
+the inactivity of a man who, by dint of long-prepared combinations,
+compelled the enemy to retreat by a mere shift of position and cleared
+the Low Countries of its invaders without requiring to strike a blow.
+"Let them see how we can fight," cried all the corporations in the
+realm: "anybody can march and pitch his camp." And it is not impossible
+that the foreign populations who had never seen the red-coats, or,
+at most, who had only known them acting as auxiliaries to the Dutch
+and often compelled to retire before the numbers and impetuosity of
+the French, had no expectation of success when they should be fairly
+brought opposite their former antagonists. Friends and foes alike
+were prepared for a renewal of the days of Luxembourg and Turenne.
+In this they were not disappointed; for a pupil of Turenne renewed,
+in a very remarkable manner, the glories of his master. Marlborough
+had served under that great commander, and profited by his lessons.
+He had fifty thousand British soldiers under his undivided command;
+and, to please the grumblers at home and the doubters abroad, he made
+the reign of Anne the most glorious in the English military annals by
+thick-coming fights, still unforgotten, though dimmed by the exploits
+of the more illustrious Wellington. The first of these was Blenheim,
+against the French and Bavarians, in 1704. How different this was from
+the hand-to-hand thrust and parry of ancient times is shown by the
+fate of a strong body of French, who were so posted on this occasion
+that the duke saw they were in his power without requiring to fire a
+gun. He sent his aid-de-camp, Lord Orkney, to them to point out the
+hopelessness of their position; and when he rode up, accompanied by
+a French officer, to act, perhaps, as his interpreter, a shout of
+gratulation broke from the unsuspecting Frenchmen. "Is it a prisoner
+you have brought us?" they asked their countryman. "Alas! no," he
+replies: "Lord Orkney has come from Marlborough to tell you you are
+his prisoners. His lordship offers you your lives." A glance at the
+contending armies confirmed the truth of this appalling communication,
+and the brigade laid down its arms. The tide of victory, once begun,
+knew no ebb till the grandeur of Louis the Fourteenth was overwhelmed.
+Disgraces followed quickly one upon the other,--marshals beaten, towns
+taken, conquests lost, his wealth exhausted, his people discontented,
+and the bravest of his generals hopeless of success. Prince Eugene of
+Savoy, equal to Marlborough in military genius, was more embittered
+against the French monarch, to whom he had offered his services, and
+who had had the folly to reject them. France, on the side of Germany
+and the Low Countries, was pressed upon by the triumphant invaders.
+In Spain, the affairs of the new king were more desperate still.
+Gibraltar was taken in 1704. Lord Peterborough, a wiser Quixote, of
+whose victories it is difficult to say whether they were the result of
+madness or skill, marched through the kingdom at the head of six or
+seven thousand English and conquered wherever he went.
+
+When the war had lasted eight or nine years, the reputation of
+Marlborough and the British arms was at its height. Our fleets were
+masters of the sea, and the Grand Monarque sent humble petitions to
+the opposing powers for peace upon any terms. People tell us that
+Marlborough rejected all overtures which might have deprived him of the
+immense emoluments he received for carrying on the war. [A.D. 1711.]
+Perhaps, also, he was inspired by the love of fame; but, whether
+meanness or ambition was his motive, his warlike propensities were
+finally overcome,--for his wife, the imperious duchess, quarrelled with
+Queen Anne,--the ministry was changed, and the jealousies of Whitehall
+interfered with the campaigns in Flanders. [A.D. 1713.] Marlborough
+was displaced, and a peace patched up, which, under the name of the
+Peace of Utrecht, is quoted as showing what small fruits British
+diplomacy sometimes derives from British valour. Louis the Fourteenth,
+conquered at all points, his kingdom exhausted, and all his reputation
+gone, saw his grandson in possession of the crown which had been the
+original cause of the war, and Great Britain rewarded for all her
+struggles by the empty glory of filling up the harbour of Dunkirk, and
+the scarcely more substantial advantage, as many considered it at the
+time, of retaining Gibraltar, a barren rock, and Minorca, a useless
+island. After this, we find a long period of inaction on the continent
+produce its usual effect. When thirty years had passed without the
+foreign populations having sight of the British grenadiers, they either
+forgot their existence altogether, or had persuaded themselves that
+the new generation had greatly deteriorated from the old.[A.D. 1743.]
+[A.D. 1745.] It needed the victory of Dettingen, and the more glorious
+repulse of Fontenoy, to recall the soldiers of Oudenarde and Malplaquet.
+
+In the interval, amazing things had been going on. Even while the
+career of Marlborough was attended with such glory in arms, a peaceful
+achievement was accomplished of far more importance than all his
+victories. An Act of Union between the two peoples who occupied the
+Isle was passed by both their Parliaments in 1707, and England and
+Scotland disappeared in their separate nationalities, to receive the
+more dignified appellation of the Kingdom of Great Britain. This was
+a statesman's triumph; for the popular feeling on both sides of the
+Tweed was against it. Scotland considered herself sold; and England
+thought she was cheated. Clauses were introduced to preserve, as far
+as possible, the distinctions which each thought it for its honour to
+keep up. National peculiarities exaggerated themselves to prevent the
+chance of being obliterated; and Scotchmen were never as Scotch, nor
+Englishmen ever so English, as at the time when these denominations
+were about to cease. As neighbours, with the mere tie between them of
+being subjects of the same crown, they were on amicable and respectful
+terms. But when the alliance was proposed to be more intimate, their
+interests to be considered identical and the Parliaments to be merged
+in one, both parties took the alarm. "The preponderating number of
+English members would scarcely be affected by the miserable forty-five
+votes reserved for the Scotch representatives," said Caledonia, stern
+and wild. "The compact phalanx of forty-five determined Scotchmen will
+give them the decision of every question brought before Parliament,"
+replied England, with equal fear,--and equal misapprehension, as it
+happily turned out. When eight years had elapsed after this great
+event in our domestic history, with just sufficient experience of
+the new machinery to find out some of its defects, it was put to the
+proof by an incident which might have been fatal to a far longer
+established system of government. This was a rebellion in favour of
+the exiled Stuarts. James the Third, whom we saw recognised by Louis
+the Fourteenth on the death of his father in 1701, made his appearance
+among the Highlanders of the North in 1714, and summoned them to
+support his family claims.
+
+But the memory of his ancestors was too recent. Men of middle age
+remembered James the Second in his tyrannical supremacy at Holyrood.
+The time was not sufficiently remote for romance to have gathered
+round the harsh reality and hidden its repulsive outlines. A few
+months showed the Pretender the hopelessness of his attempt; and the
+tranquillity of the country was considered to be re-established when
+the adherents of the losing cause were visited with the harshest
+penalties. The real result of these vindictive punishments was, that
+they added the spirit of revenge for private wrong to the spirit of
+loyalty to the banished line. Many circumstances concurred to favour
+the defeated candidate, who seemed to require to do nothing but
+bide his time. The throne was no longer held, even under legalized
+usurpation, as the discontented expressed it, by one of the ancient
+blood. [A.D. 1714.] A foreigner, old and stupid, had come over from
+Hanover and claimed the Parliamentary crown, and the few remaining
+links of attachment which kept the high-prerogative men and the Roman
+Catholics inactive in the reign of Queen Anne, the daughter of their
+rightful king, lost all their power over them on the advent of George
+the First, who had to trace up through mother and grandmother till
+he struck into the royal pedigree in the reign of James the First.
+It was thought hard that descent from that champion of monarchic
+authority and hereditary right should be pleaded as a title to a crown
+dependent on the popular choice. As years passed on, the number of
+the discontented was of course increased. Whoever considered himself
+neglected by the intrusive government turned instinctively to the rival
+house. A courtier offended by the brutal manners of the Hanoverian
+rulers looked longingly across the sea to the descendant of his lineal
+kings. The foreign predilections, and still more foreign English,
+of the coarse-minded Georges, made them unpopular with the weak or
+inconsiderate, who did not see that a very inelegant pronunciation
+might be united with a true regard for the interests of their country.
+
+The commercial passions of the nations succeeded to the military
+enthusiasm of the past age, and brought their usual fruits of selfish
+competition and social degradation. Money became the most powerful
+principle of public and private life: Sir Robert Walpole, a man of
+perfect honesty himself, founded his ministry on the avowed disbelief
+of personal honesty among all classes of the people; and there were
+many things which appeared to justify his incredulity. [A.D. 1720.]
+There was the South-Sea Bubble, a swindling speculation, to which
+our own railway-mania is the only parallel, where lords and ladies,
+high ecclesiastics and dignified office-bearers, the highest and the
+lowest, rushed into the wildest excesses of gambling and false play,
+and which caused a greater loss of character and moral integrity than
+even of money to its dupes and framers. There was the acknowledged
+system of rewarding a ministerial vote with notes for five hundred or a
+thousand pounds. There were the party libels of the time, all imputing
+the greatest iniquities to the object of their vituperation, and left
+uncontradicted except by savage proceedings at law or by similar
+insinuations against the other side. There were philosophers like
+Bolingbroke and clergymen like Swift. But let us distinguish between
+the performers on the great scenes of life, the place hunter at St.
+James's, and the great body of the English and Scottish gentry, and
+their still undepraved friends and neighbours, whom it is the fashion
+to involve in the same condemnation of recklessness and dishonour.
+We are to remember that the dregs of the former society were not yet
+cleared away. The generation had been brought up at the feet of the
+professors of morality and religion as they were practised in the days
+of Charles and James, with Congreve and Wycherly for their exponents on
+the stage and Dryden for their poet-laureate.
+
+It seems a characteristic of literature that it becomes pure in
+proportion as it becomes powerful. While it is the mere vehicle for
+amusement or the exercise of wit and fancy, it does not care in what
+degrading quarters its materials are found. But when it feels that
+its voice is influential and its lessons attended to by a wider
+audience, it rises to the height of the great office to which it is
+called, and is dignified because it is conscious of its authority.
+In the incontestable amendment visible in the writings of the period
+of Anne and the Georges, we find a proof that the vices of the busy
+politicians and gambling speculators were not shared by the general
+public. The papers of the _Spectator_ and _Tatler_, the writings of
+Pope and Arbuthnot, were not addressed to a depraved or sensualized
+people, as the works of Rochester and Sedley had been. When we talk,
+therefore, of the Augustan age of Anne, we are to remember that its
+freedom from grossness and immorality is still more remarkable than
+its advance in literary merit, and we are to look on the conduct of
+intriguing directors and bribed members of Parliament as the relics
+of a time about to pass away and to give place to truer ideas of
+commercial honesty and public duty. The country, in spite of coarseness
+of manners and language, was still sound at heart. The jolly squire
+swore at inconvenient seasons and drank beyond what was right, but he
+kept open house to friend and tenant, administered justice to the best
+of his ability, had his children Christianly and virtuously brought up,
+and was a connecting link in his own neighbourhood between the great
+nobles who affected almost a princely state, and the snug merchant in
+the country town, or retired citizen from London, whom he met at the
+weekly club. The glimpses we get of the social status of the country
+gentlemen of Queen Anne make us enamoured of their simple ways and
+patriarchal position. For the argument to be drawn from the character
+and friends of Sir Roger de Coverly and the delightful Lady Lizard and
+her daughters, is that the great British nation was still the home
+of the domestic affections, that the behaviour was pure though the
+grammar was a little faulty, and the ideas modest and becoming though
+the expression might be somewhat unadorned. Hence it was that, when the
+trial came, the heart of all the people turned to the uninviting but
+honest man who filled the British throne. George the Second became a
+hero, because the country was healthy at the core.
+
+A son of the old Pretender, relying on the lax morality of the
+statesmen and the venality of the courtiers, forgot the unshaken
+firmness and dogged love of the right which was yet a living principle
+among the populations of both the nations, and landed in the North of
+Scotland in 1745, to recover the kingdom of his ancestors by force
+of arms. The kingdoms, however, had got entirely out of the habit of
+being recovered by any such means. The law had become so powerful, and
+was so guarded by forms and precedents, that Prince Charles Edward
+would have had a better chance of obtaining his object by an action of
+ejectment, or a suit of recovery, than by the aid of sword and bayonet.
+Everybody knows the main incidents of this romantic campaign,--the
+successful battles which gave the insurgents the apparent command of
+the Lowlands,--the advance into England,--the retreat from Derby,--the
+disasters of the rebel army, and its final extinction at Culloden. But,
+although to us it appears a very serious state of affairs,--a crown
+placed on the arbitrament of war, battles in open field, surprise on
+the part of the Hanoverians, and loud talking on the part of their
+rivals,--the tranquillity of all ranks and in all quarters is the most
+inexplicable thing in the whole proceeding. When the landing was first
+announced, alarm was of course felt, as at a fair when it is reported
+that a tiger has broken loose from the menagerie. But in a little time
+every thing resumed its ordinary appearance. George himself cried,
+"Pooh! pooh! Don't talk to me of such nonsense." His ministers, who
+probably knew the state of public feeling, were equally unconcerned.
+A few troops were brought over from the Continent, to show that force
+was not wanting if the application of it was required. But in other
+respects no one appeared to believe that the assumed fears of the
+disaffected, and the no less assumed exultation of the Jacobites, had
+any foundation in fact. Trade, law, buying and selling, writing and
+publishing, went on exactly as before. The march of the Pretender was
+little attended to, except perhaps in the political circles in London.
+In the great towns it passed almost unheeded. Quiet families within a
+few miles of the invaders' march posted or walked across to see the
+uncouth battalions pass. Their strange appearance furnished subjects of
+conversation for a month; but nowhere does there seem to have been the
+terror of a real state of war,--the anxious waiting for intelligence,
+"the pang, the agony, the doubt:" no one felt uneasy as to the result.
+England had determined to have no more Stuart kings, and Scotland was
+beginning to feel the benefit of the Union, and left the defence of the
+true inheritor to the uninformed, discontented, disunited inhabitants
+of the hills. When the tribes emerged from their mountains, they
+seemed to melt like their winter snows. No squadrons of stout-armed
+cavaliers came to join them from holt and farm, as in the days of the
+Great Rebellion, when the royal flag was raised at Nottingham. Puritans
+and Independents took no heed, and cried no cries about "the sword
+of the Lord and of Gideon." They had turned cutlers at Sheffield and
+fustian-makers at Manchester. The Prince found not only that he created
+no enthusiasm, but no alarm,--a most painful thing for an invading
+chief; and, in fact, when they had reached the great central plains of
+England they felt lost in the immensity of the solitude that surrounded
+them. If they had met enemies they would have fought; if they had found
+friends they would have hoped; but they positively wasted away for lack
+of either confederate or opponent. The expedition disappeared like a
+small river in sand. What was the use of going on? If they reached
+London itself, they would be swallowed up in the vastness of the
+population, and, instead of meeting an army, they would be in danger
+of being taken up by the police. So they reversed their steps. Donald
+had stolen considerably in the course of the foray, and was anxious
+to go and invest his fortune in his native vale. An English guinea--a
+coin hitherto as fabulous as the _Bodach glas_--would pay the rent of
+his holding for twenty years; five pounds would make him a cousin of
+the Laird. But Donald never got back to display the spoils of Carlisle
+or Derby. He loitered by the road, and was stripped of all his booty.
+[A.D. 1746.] He was imprisoned, and hanged, and starved, and beaten,
+and finally, after the strange tragi-comedy of his fight at Falkirk,
+had the good fortune, on that bare expanse of Drummossie Moor, to
+hide some of the ludicrous features of his retreat in the glory of
+a warrior's death. Justice became revenge by its severity after the
+insurrection was quelled. The followers of the Prince were punished
+as traitors; but treason means rebellion against an acknowledged
+government, which extends to its subjects the securities of law.
+These did not exist in the Highlands. All those distant populations
+knew of law was the edge of its sword, not the balance of its scales.
+They saw their chiefs depressed, they remembered the dismal massacre
+of Glencoe in William's time, and the legal massacres of George the
+First's. They spoke another language, were different in blood, and
+manners, and religion, and should have been treated as prisoners of
+war fighting under a legal banner, and not drawn and quartered as
+revolted subjects. It is doubtful if one man in the hundred knew the
+name of the king he was trying to displace, or the position of the
+prince who summoned him to his camp. Poor, gallant, warm-hearted,
+ignorant, trusting Gael! His chieftain told him to follow and slay
+the Saxons, and he required no further instruction. He was not cruel
+or bloodthirsty in his strange advance. He had no personal enmity to
+Scot or Englishman, and, with the simple awe of childhood, soon looked
+with reverence on the proofs of wealth and skill which met him in the
+crowded cities and cultivated plains. He was subdued by the solemn
+cathedrals and grand old gentlemen's seats that studded all the road,
+as some of his ancestors, the ancient Gauls, had been at the sight of
+the Roman civilization. And, for all these causes, the incursion of
+the Jacobites left no lasting bitterness among the British peoples.
+Pity began before long to take the place of opposition; and when all
+was quite secure, and the Highlanders were fairly subdued, and the
+Pretender himself was sunk in sloth and drunkenness, a sort of morbid
+sympathy with the gallant adventurers arose among the new generation.
+Tender and romantic ballads, purporting to be "Laments for Charlie,"
+and declarations of attachment to the "Young Chevalier," were composed
+by comfortable ladies and gentlemen, and sung in polished drawing-rooms
+in Edinburgh and London with immense applause. Macaulay's "Lays of
+Ancient Rome," or Aytoun's "Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers," have as
+much right to be called the contemporary expression of the sacrifice of
+Virginia or the burial of Dundee as the Jacobite songs to be the living
+voice of the Forty-Five. Who was there in the Forty-Five, or Forty-Six,
+or for many years after that date, to write such charming verses? The
+Highlanders themselves knew not a word of English; the blue bonnets
+in Scotland were not addicted to the graces of poetry and music. The
+citizens of England were too busy, the gentlemen of England too little
+concerned in the rising, to immortalize the landing at Kinloch-Moidart
+or the procession to Holyrood. The earliest song which commemorates
+the Pretender's arrival, or laments his fall, was not written within
+twenty years of his attempt. By that time George the Third was on the
+safest throne in Europe, and Great Britain was mistress of the trade of
+India and the illimitable regions of America. It was easy to sing about
+having our "rightful King," when we were in undisputed possession of
+the Ganges and the Hudson and had just planted the British colours on
+Quebec and Montreal.
+
+This rebellion of Forty-Five, therefore, is remarkable as a feature in
+this century, not for the greatness of the interest it excited, but for
+the small effect it had upon either government or people. It showed on
+what firm foundations the liberties and religion of the nations rested,
+that the appearance of armed enemies upon our soil never shook our
+justly-balanced state. The courts sat at Westminster, and the bells
+rang for church. People read Thomson's "Seasons," and wondered at
+Garrick in "Hamlet" at Drury Lane.
+
+Meantime, a great contest was going on abroad, which, after being
+hushed for a while by the peace of 1748, broke out with fiercer
+vehemence than ever in what is called the Seven Years' War.
+[A.D. 1756-1763.] The military hero of this period was Frederick the
+Second of Prussia, by whose genius and skill the kingdom he succeeded
+to--a match for Saxony or Bavaria--rapidly assumed its position as a
+first-rate power. A combination of all the old despotisms was formed
+against him,--not, however, without cause; for a more unprincipled
+remover of his neighbour's landmarks, and despiser of generosity and
+justice, never appeared in history. But when he was pressed on one side
+by Russia and Austria, and on the other by France, and all the little
+German potentates were on the watch to pounce on the unprotected State
+and get their respective shares in the general pillage, Frederick
+placed his life upon the cast, and stood the hazard of the die in
+many tremendous combats, crushed the belligerents one by one, made
+forced marches which caught them unawares, and, though often defeated,
+conducted his retreats so that they yielded him all the fruits of
+victory. In his extremity he sought and found alliances in the most
+unlikely quarters. Though a self-willed despot in his own domains, he
+won the earnest support and liberal subsidies of the freedom-loving
+English; and though a philosopher of the most amazing powers of
+unbelief, he awakened the sympathy of all the religious Protestants in
+our land. All his faults were forgiven--his unchivalrous treatment of
+the heroic _King_ of Hungary, Maria-Theresa, the Empress-Queen, his
+assaults upon her territory, and general faithlessness and ambition--on
+the one strong ground that he opposed Catholics and tyrants, and,
+though irreligious and even scoffing himself, was at the head of a
+true-hearted Protestant people.
+
+It is not unlikely the instincts of a free nation led us at that time
+to throw our moral weight, if nothing more, into the scale against
+the intrusion of a new and untried power which began to take part in
+the conflicts of Europe; for at this period we find the ill-omened
+announcement that the Russians have issued from their deserts a
+hundred thousand strong, and made themselves masters of most of the
+Prussian provinces. [A.D. 1758.] Though defeated in the great battle
+of Zorndorf, they never lost the hope of renewing the march they
+had made eleven years before, when thirty-five thousand of them had
+rested on the Rhine. But Britain was not blind either to the past or
+future. At the head of our affairs was a man whose fame continues as
+fresh at the present hour as in the day of his greatness. William Pitt
+had been a cornet of horse, and even in his youth had attracted the
+admiration and hatred of old Sir Robert Walpole by an eloquence and a
+character which the world has agreed in honouring with the epithet of
+majestic; and when war was again perplexing the nations, and Britain,
+as usual, had sunk to the lowest point in the military estimate of the
+Continent, the Great Commoner, as he was called, took the government
+into his hands, and the glories of the noblest periods of our annals
+were immediately renewed or cast into the shade. Wherever the Great
+Commoner pointed with his finger, success was certain. His fleets
+swept the seas. Howe and Hawke and Boscawen executed his plans. In
+the East he was answered by the congenial energy of Clive, and in the
+West by the heroic bravery of Wolfe. For, though the war in which we
+were now engaged had commenced nominally for European interests, the
+crash of arms between France and England extended to all quarters of
+the world. In India and America equally their troops and policies were
+opposed, and, in fact, the battle of the two nations was fought out
+in those distant realms. Our triumph at Plassey and on the Heights of
+Abraham had an immense reaction on both the peoples at home. And a very
+cursory glance at those regions, from the middle of the century, will
+be a fitting introduction to the crowning event of the period we have
+now reached,--namely, the French Revolution of 1789. The rise of the
+British Empire in the East, no less than the loss of our dominion in
+the West, will be found to contribute to that grand catastrophe, of
+which the results for good and evil will be felt "to the last syllable
+of recorded time."
+
+The first commercial adventure to India was in the bold days of
+Elizabeth, in 1591. In the course of a hundred years from that time
+various companies had been established by royal charter, and a regular
+trade had sprung up. In 1702 all previous charters were consolidated
+into one, and the East India Company began its career. Its beginning
+was very quiet and humble. It was a trader, and nothing more; but
+when it saw a convenient harbour, a favourable landing-place, and
+an industrious population, it bent as lowly as any Oriental slave
+at the footstool of the unsuspecting Rajah, and obtained permission
+to build a storehouse, to widen the wharf, and, finally, to erect a
+small tower, merely for the defence of its property from the dangerous
+inhabitants of the town. The storehouses became barracks, the towers
+became citadels; and by the year 1750 the recognised possessions of
+the inoffensive and unambitious merchants comprised mighty states, and
+were dotted at intervals along the coast from Surat and Bombay on the
+west to Madras and Calcutta on the east and far north. The French also
+had not been idle, and looked out ill pleased, from their domains at
+Pondicherry and Chandernagore, on the widely-diffused settlements and
+stealthy progress of their silent rivals. They might have made as rapid
+progress, and secured as extensive settlements, if they had imitated
+their rivals' stealthiness and silence. But power is nothing in the
+estimation of a Frenchman unless he can wear it like a court suit
+and display it to all the world. The governors, therefore, of their
+factories, obtained honours and ornaments from the native princes. One
+went so far as to forge a gift of almost regal power from the Great
+Mogul, and sat on a musnud, and was addressed with prostration by his
+countrymen and the workmen in the warerooms. Wherever the British
+wormed their way, the French put obstacles in their path. Whether there
+was peace between Paris and London or not, made no difference to the
+rival companies on the Coromandel shore. They were always at war, and
+only cloaked their national hatred under the guise of supporters of
+opposite pretenders to some Indian throne. Great men arose on both
+sides. The climate or policies of Hindostan, which weaken the native
+inhabitant, only call forth the energies and manly virtues of the
+intrusive settler. No kingdom has such a bead-roll of illustrious names
+as the British occupation. That one century of "work and will" has
+called forth more self-reliant heroism and statesmanlike sagacity than
+any period of three times the extent since the Norman Conquest. From
+Clive, the first of the line, to the Lawrences and Havelocks of the
+present day, there has been no pause in the patriotic and chivalrous
+procession. Clive came just at the proper time. A born general, though
+sent out in an humble mercantile situation, he retrieved the affairs of
+his employers and laid the foundation of a new empire for the British
+crown. Calcutta had been seized by a native ruler, instigated by the
+French, in 1756. The British residents, to the number of one hundred
+and forty-six, were packed in a frightful dungeon without a sufficiency
+of light or air, and, after a night which transcends all nights of
+suffering and despair, when the prison-doors were thrown open, but
+twenty-two of the whole number survived. But these were twenty-two
+living witnesses to the tyranny and cruelty of Surajah Dowlat. Clive
+was on his track ere many months had passed. Calcutta was recovered,
+other places were taken, and the battle of Plassey fought. In this
+unparalleled exploit, Clive, with three thousand soldiers, principally
+Sepoys, revenged the victims of the Black Hole, by defeating their
+murderer at the head of sixty thousand men. This was on the 23d of
+June, 1757; and when in that same year the news of the great European
+war between the nations came thundering up the Ganges, the victors
+enlarged their plans. They determined to expel the French from all
+their possessions in the East; and Admiral Pococke and Colonel Coote
+were worthy rivals of the gallant Clive. Great fleets encountered in
+the Indian seas, and victory was always with the British flag. Battles
+took place by land, and uniformly with the same result. Closer and
+closer the invading lines converged upon the French; and at last, in
+1761, Pondicherry, the last remaining of all their establishments, was
+taken, after a vigorous defence, and the French influence was at an
+end in India. These four years, from 1757 to 1761, had been scarcely
+less prolific of distinguished men on the French side than our own. The
+last known of these was Lally Tollendal, a man of a furious courage and
+headstrong disposition, against whom his enemies at home had no ground
+of accusation except his want of success and savageness of manner. Yet
+when he returned, after the loss of Pondicherry and a long imprisonment
+in England, he was attacked with all the vehemence of personal hatred.
+He was tried for betraying the interests of the king, tortured, and
+executed. The prosecution lasted many years, and the public rage seemed
+rather to increase. [A.D. 1766.] Long after peace was concluded
+between France and England, the tragedy of the French expulsion from
+India received its final scene in the death of the unfortunate Count
+Lally.
+
+Quebec and its dependencies, during the same glorious administration,
+were conquered and annexed by Wolfe; and already the throes of the
+great Revolution were felt, though the causes remained obscure. Cut
+off from the money-making regions of Hindostan and the patriarchal
+settlements of Canada, the Frenchman, oppressed at home, had no outlet
+either for his ambition or discontent. The feeling of his misery was
+further aggravated by the sight of British prosperity. The race of
+men called Nabobs, mercantile adventurers who had gone out to India
+poor and came back loaded with almost incredible wealth, brought the
+ostentatious habits of their Oriental experience with them to Europe,
+and offended French and English alike by the tasteless profusion
+of their expense. Money wrung by extortion from native princes was
+lavished without enjoyment by the denationalized _parvenu_. A French
+duke found himself outglittered by the equipage of the over-enriched
+clove-dealer,--and hated him for his presumption. The Frenchman of
+lower rank must have looked on him as the lucky and dishonourable
+rival who had usurped his place, and hated him for the opportunity
+he had possessed of winning all that wealth. Ground to the earth by
+taxes and toil, without a chance of rising in the social scale or
+of escaping from the ever-growing burden of his griefs, the French
+peasant and small farmer must have listened with indignation to the
+accounts of British families of their own rank emerging from a twenty
+years' residence in Madras or Calcutta with more riches than half
+the hereditary nobles. It was therefore with a feeling of unanimous
+satisfaction that all classes of Frenchmen heard, in 1773, that the
+old English colonies in America were filled with disaffection,--that
+Boston had risen in insurrection, and that a spirit of resistance to
+the mother-country was rife in all the provinces.
+
+The quarrel came to a crisis between the Crown and the colonies within
+fourteen years of the conquest of Canada. It seemed as if the British
+had provided themselves with a new territory to compensate for the
+approaching loss of the old; and bitter must have been the reflection
+of the French when they perceived that the loyalty of that recent
+acquisition remained undisturbed throughout the succeeding troubles.
+Taxation, the root of all strength and the cause of all weakness,
+had been pushed to excess, not in the amount of its exaction, but in
+the principle of its imposition; and the British blood had not been
+so colonialized as to submit to what struck the inhabitants of all
+the towns as an unjustifiable exercise of power. The cry at first,
+therefore, was, No tax without representation; but the cry waxed louder
+and took other forms of expression. The cry was despised, whether
+gentle or loud,--then listened to,--then resented. The passions of
+both countries became raised. America would not submit to dictation;
+Britain would not be silenced by threats. Feelings which would have
+found vent at home in angry speeches in Parliament, and riots at a
+new election, took a far more serious shape when existing between
+populations separated indeed by a wide ocean, but identical in most
+of their qualities and aspirations. The king has been blamed. "George
+the Third lost us the colonies by his obstinacy: he would not yield
+an inch of his royal dignity, and behold the United States our rivals
+and enemies,--perhaps some day our conquerors and oppressors!"
+Now, we should remember that the Great Britain of 1774 was a very
+narrow-minded, self-opinionated, pig-headed Great Britain, compared to
+the cosmopolitan, philanthropical, and altogether disinterested Great
+Britain we call it now. If the king had bated his breath for a moment,
+or even spoken respectfully and kindly of the traitors and rebels who
+were firing upon his flags, he would have been the most unpopular man
+in his dominions. Many, no doubt, held aloof, and found excuses for the
+colonists' behaviour; but the influence of those meditative spirits
+was small; their voice was drowned in the chorus of indignation at
+what appeared revolt and mutiny more than resistance to injustice. And
+when other elements came into the question,--when the French monarch,
+ostensibly at peace with Britain, permitted his nobles and generals
+and soldiers to volunteer in the patriot cause,--the sentiments of
+this nation became embittered with its hereditary dislike to its
+ancient foe. We turned them out of India: were they going to turn us
+out of America? We had taken Canada: are they going to take New York?
+We might have offered terms to our own countrymen, made concessions,
+granted exemptions from imperial burdens, or even a share in imperial
+legislation; but with Lafayette haranguing about abstract freedom, and
+all the young counts and marquises of his expedition declaring against
+the House of Lords, the thing was impossible. [A.D. 1778-1780.] War
+was declared upon France, and upon Spain, and upon Holland. We fought
+everywhere, and lavished blood and treasure in this great quarrel.
+And yet the nation had gradually accustomed itself to the new view of
+American wrongs. The Ministry, by going so far in their efforts at
+accommodation, had confessed the original injustice of their cause.
+So we fought with a blunted sword, and hailed even our victories with
+misgivings as to our right to win them. But it was the season of vast
+changes in the political distribution of all the world. Prussia was
+a foremost kingdom. Russia was a European Empire. India had risen
+into a compact dominion under the shield of Britain. Why should not
+America take a substantive place in the great family of nations, and
+play a part hereafter in the old game of statesmen, called the Balance
+of Power? In 1783 this opinion prevailed. France, Spain, and Holland
+sheathed their swords. The Independence of the United States was
+acknowledged at the Peace of Versailles, and everybody believed that
+the struggle against established governments was over.
+
+France seemed elevated by the results of the American War, and Great
+Britain humiliated. Prophecies were frequent about our rapid fall
+and final extinction. Our own orators were, as usual, the loudest in
+confessions of our powerlessness and decay. Our institutions were held
+up to dislike; and if you had believed the speeches and pamphlets
+of discontented patriots, you would have thought we were the most
+spiritless and down-trodden, the most unmerciful and dishonest, nation
+in the world. The whole land was in a fury of self-abasement at the
+degradation brought upon our name and standing by the treachery and
+iniquities of Warren Hastings in India; our European glory was crushed
+by the surrender at Paris. It must be satisfactory to all lovers of
+their country to know that John Bull has no such satisfaction as in
+proving that he is utterly exhausted,--always deceived by his friends,
+always overreached by his enemies, always disappointed in his aims.
+In this self-depreciating spirit he conducts all his wars and all his
+treaties; yet somehow it always happens that he gets what he wanted,
+and the overreaching and deceiving antagonist gives it up. His power is
+over a sixth of the human race, and he began a hundred years ago with
+a population of less than fourteen millions; and all the time he has
+been singing the most doleful ditties of the ill success that always
+attends him,--of his ruinous losses and heart-breaking disappointments.
+The men at the head of affairs in the trying years from the Peace of
+Versailles to 1793 were therefore quite right not to be taken in by
+the querulous lamentations of the nation. We had lost three millions
+of colonists, and gained three million independent customers. We were
+trading to India, and building up and putting down the oldest dynasties
+of Hindostan. Ships and commerce increased in a remarkable degree;
+the losses of the war were compensated by the gains of those peaceful
+pursuits in a very few years; and we were contented to leave to Paris
+the reputation of the gayest city in the world, and to the French the
+reputation of the happiest and best-ruled people. But Paris was the
+wretchedest of towns, and the French the most miserable of peoples.
+When anybody asks us in future what was the cause of the French
+Revolution, we need not waste time to discuss the writings of Voltaire,
+or the unbelief of the clergy, or the immorality of the nobles. We must
+answer at once by naming the one great cause by which all revolutions
+are produced,--over-taxation. The French peasant, sighing for liberty,
+had no higher object than an escape from the intolerable burden of his
+payments. He cared no more for the rights of man, or the happiness
+of the human race, than for the quarrels of Achilles and Agamemnon.
+He wanted to get rid of the "taille," the "corvée," and twenty other
+imposts which robbed him of his last penny. If he had had a chicken
+in his pot, and could do as he liked with his own spade and pick-axe,
+he never would have troubled his head about codes and constitutions.
+But life had become a burden to him. Everybody had turned against him.
+The grand old feudal noble, who would have protected and cherished
+him under the shadow of his castle-wall, was a lord-chamberlain at
+court. The kind old priest, who would have attended to his wants and
+fed him, if required, at the church-door, was dancing attendance
+in the antechamber of a great lady in Paris, or singing improper
+songs at a jolly supper-party at Versailles. There were intendants
+and commissaries visiting his wretched hovel at rapidly-decreasing
+intervals of time, to collect his contributions to the revenue. These
+men farmed the taxes, and squeezed out the last farthing like a Turkish
+pasha. But while the small land-owner--and they were already immensely
+numerous--and the serf--for he was no better--were oppressed by these
+exactions, the gentry were exempt. The seigneur visited his castle for
+a month or two in the year, but it was to embitter the countryman's
+lot by the contrast. His property had many rights, but no duties.
+In ancient times in France, and at all times in England, those two
+qualities went together. Our upper classes lived among their tenants
+and dependants. They had no alleviation of burdens in consequence of
+their wealth, but they took care that their poorer neighbours should
+have alleviation in consequence of their poverty. Cottages had no
+window-tax. The pressure of the public burdens increased with the
+power to bear them. But in France the reverse was the case. Poverty
+paid the money, and wealth and luxury spent it. The evil was too
+deep-rooted to be remedied without pulling up the tree. The wretched
+millions were starving, toiling, despairing, and the thousands were
+rioting in extravagance and show. The same thing occurred in 1789 as
+had occurred in the last glimmer of the Roman civilization in the time
+of Clovis. The Roman Emperor issued edicts for the collection of his
+revenue. Commissioners spread over the land; the miserable Gaul saw
+the last sheaf of his corn torn away, and the last lamb of his flock.
+But when the last property of the poorest was taken away, the imperial
+exchequer could not remain unfilled. You remember the unhappy men
+called Curials,--holders of small estates in the vicinity of towns.
+They were also endowed with rank, and appointed to office. Their office
+was to make up from their own resources, or by extra severity among
+their neighbours, for any deficiency in the sum assessed. Peasant,
+land-owner, curial,--all sank into hopeless misery by the crushing of
+this gold-producing machinery. They looked across the Rhine to Clovis
+and the Franks, and hailed the ferocious warriors as their deliverers
+from an intolerable woe. They could not be worse off by the sword of
+the stranger than by the ledger of the tax-collector. In 1789 the
+system of the old Roman extortion was revived. The village or district
+was made a curial, and became responsible in its aggregate character
+for the individual payments. If the number of payers diminished, the
+increase fell upon the few who were not yet stripped. The Clovis of
+the present day who was to do away with their oppressors, though
+perhaps to immolate themselves, was a Revolution,--a levelling of all
+distinctions, ranks, rights, exemptions, privileges. This was the
+"liberty, equality, fraternity" that were to overflow the worn-out
+world and fertilize it as the Nile does Egypt.
+
+Great pity has naturally been expressed for the nobility (or gentry)
+and clergy of France; but, properly considered, France had at that
+time neither a nobility nor a clergy. A nobility with no status
+independent of the king--with no connection with its estates beyond
+the reception of their rents--with no weight in the legislature; with
+ridiculously exaggerated rank, and ridiculously contracted influence;
+with no interest in local expenditure or voice in public management; a
+gentry, in short, debarred from active life, except as officers of the
+army--shut out by monarchic jealousy from interference in affairs, and
+by the pride of birth from the pursuits of commerce--is not a gentry
+at all. A clergy, in the same way, is a priesthood only in right of
+its belief in the doctrines it professes to hold, and the attention
+it bestows on its parishioners. Except in some few instances, the
+Christianity both of faith and practice had disappeared from France. It
+was time, therefore, that nobility and clergy should also disappear.
+The excesses of the Revolution which broke out in 1789, and reached
+their climax in the murder of the king in 1793, showed the excesses
+of the misgovernment of former years. If there had been one redeeming
+feature of the ancient system, it would have produced its fruits in
+the milder treatment of the victims of the reaction. In one or two
+provinces, indeed, we are told that hereditary attachment still bound
+the people to their superiors, and in those provinces, the philosophic
+chronicler of the fact informs us, the centralizing system had not
+completed its authority. The gentry still performed some of the duties
+of their station, and the priests, of their profession. Everywhere
+else blind hatred, unreasoning hope, and bloody revenge. The century,
+which began with the vainglorious egotism of Louis the Fourteenth
+and the war of the Spanish Succession,--which progressed through the
+British masterdom of India and the self-sustaining republicanism of
+America,--died out in the convulsive strugglings of thirty-one millions
+of souls on the soil of France to breathe a purer political air and
+shake off the trammels which had gradually been riveted upon them for
+three hundred years. Great Britain had preceded them by a century, and
+has ever since shown the bloodless and legal origin of her freedom by
+the bloodless and legal use she has made of it. We emerged from the
+darkness of 1688 with all the great landmarks of our country not only
+erect, but strengthened. We had king, lords, and commons, and a respect
+for law, and veneration for precedents, which led the great Duke of
+Wellington to say, in answer to some question about the chance of a
+British revolution, that "no man could foresee whether such a thing
+might occur or not, but, when it did, he was sure it would be done by
+Act of Parliament."
+
+War with France began in 1793. Our military reputation was at the
+lowest, for Wolfe and Clive had had time to be forgotten; and even
+our navy was looked on without dismay, for the laurels of Howe and
+Boscawen were sere from age. But in the remaining years of the century
+great things were done, and Britannia had the trident firmly in her
+hand. Jervis, and Duncan, and Nelson, were answering with victories at
+sea the triumphs of Napoleon in Italy. And while fame was blowing the
+names of those champions far and wide, a blast came across also from
+India, where Wellesley had begun his wondrous career. [A.D. 1798.]
+Equally matched the belligerents, and equally favoured with mighty
+men of valour to conduct their forces, the feverish energy of the
+newly-emancipated France being met by the healthful vigour of the
+matured and self-respecting Britain, the world was uncertain how the
+great drama would close. But the last year of the century seemed to
+incline the scale to the British side. [A.D. 1799.] Napoleon, after
+a dash at Egypt, had been checked by the guns of Nelson in the great
+battle of the Nile. He secretly withdrew from his dispirited army, and
+made his appearance in Paris as much in the character of a fugitive as
+of a candidate for power. But all the fruits of his former battles had
+been torn from his countrymen in his absence. Italy was delivered from
+their grasp; Russia was pouring her hordes into the South; confusion
+was reigning everywhere, and the fleets of Great Britain were blocking
+up every harbour in France.
+
+Napoleon was created First Consul, and the Century went down upon the
+final preparations of the embittered rivals. Both parties felt now
+that the struggle was for life or death, and "the boldest held his
+breath for a time," when he thought of what awful events the Nineteenth
+Century would be the scene.
+
+
+
+
+                              FOOTNOTES.
+
+
+[A] The following is a carefully compiled table of the forces of
+    Europe in the year 1854-55. Since that time the Russian fleet
+    has been destroyed, but the diminution has been more than
+    counterbalanced by the increased navies of the other powers.
+
+    Military Forces of Europe in 1855.
+
+                        Men.       Ships.      Guns.
+
+  Austria             650,000       102         752
+  Bavaria             239,886       ...         ...
+  Belgium             100,000       ...         ...
+  Denmark              75,169       120         880
+  France              650,000       407      11,773
+  Germany             452,473       ...         ...
+  Great Britain       265,000[1]    591      17,291
+  Greece               10,226        25         143
+  Ionian Isles          3,000         4         ...
+  Modena and Parma      6,302       ...         ...
+  Netherlands          58,647        84       2,000
+  Papal States         11,274       ...         ...
+  Portugal             33,000        44         404
+  Prussia             525,000        50         250
+  Russia              699,000       207       9,000
+  Sardinia             48,088        40         900
+  Sicilies            106,264        29         444
+  Spain                75,000       410        1530
+  Sweden              167,000       ...         ...
+  Switzerland         108,000       ...         ...
+  Tuscany              16,930       ...         ...
+  Turkey              310,970       ...         ...
+                   ----------      ----     -------
+                    4,611,229      2113      45,367[2]
+
+
+[1] Indian army 250,000, and militia 145,000, not included; making
+    a total of 660,000
+
+
+[2] Taking an average of ten men to each gun, the sailors will be
+    453,670; which gives a total of fighting-men, 5,064,899!!!
+
+[B] He was called Le Grand Bâtisseur.
+
+[C] Wickliff's English Bible, 1383.
+
+[D] Popular History--Henry VI.
+
+[E] Dr. Robertson.
+
+
+
+
+                                INDEX.
+
+
+  Abdelmalek the caliph, 167.
+
+  À-Beckett, the elevation and career of, 290 _et seq._
+
+  Abelard, rise of free inquiry with, 280.
+
+  Abou Beker, the exploits, &c. of, 157, 158
+    --chosen Mohammed's successor, 160
+    --his exploits, 161.
+
+  Absolutism, rise of, in France under Louis XIV., 475 _et seq._
+
+  Abu Taleb, uncle of Mohammed, 138.
+
+  Academies, establishment of, by Charlemagne, 196.
+
+  Adrian, the emperor, accession and reign of, 45 _et seq._
+    --his death, 48.
+
+  Adrian IV., Pope, 289.
+
+  Africa, progress of the Saracens in, 166
+    --trading-company to, 452.
+
+  Agincourt, battle of, 381.
+
+  Agriculture, state of, in seventh century, 142.
+
+  Agrippina, the empress, 22.
+
+  Alans, the, 100.
+
+  Alaric the Goth, first appearance of, 98
+    --hostilities with, 101
+    --sack of Rome, 106
+    --his death and burial, 107.
+
+  Albigenses, tenets, &c. of the, 299
+    --the crusade against them, 302 _et seq._
+
+  Albinus, a candidate for the empire, 60.
+
+  Alboin, King of the Lombards, 129.
+
+  Alcuin at the court of Charlemagne, 194
+    --as Abbot of Tours, 195.
+
+  Aleppo taken by the Saracens, 163.
+
+  Alexander VI., character, &c. of, 389, 406.
+
+  Alexandria, the monks of, 115
+    --taken by the Saracens, and destruction of the library, 163.
+
+  Alexis, the emperor, and the Crusaders, 263.
+
+  Alfred, rise and exploits of, 215.
+
+  Ali becomes caliph, 167
+    --the exploits &c. of, 157, 158, 160.
+
+  Alva, the Duke of, the St. Bartholomew massacre planned with, 441
+    --his cruelties in the Netherlands, 441.
+
+  Amadis de Gaul, the romance of, 349.
+
+  America, the discovery of, 396
+    --growing importance of its discovery, 402
+    --progress of British power in, 517.
+
+  Amru, the Saracen conqueror, 163.
+
+  Anagni, the arrest of Boniface VIII. at, 329.
+
+  Anglican Church, the, under Henry II., 289 _et seq._
+
+  Anglo-Saxons, establishment of the, 120.
+
+  Anne, the literature of the reign of, 506.
+
+  Anselm, learning, &c. of, 247.
+
+  Antharis, conquest of Italy by, 130.
+
+  Antioch, the capture of, by the Crusaders, 264
+    --the battle of, 265.
+
+  Antoninus Pius, the emperor, his character and reign, 49.
+
+  Aquileia, siege of, by Maximin, 70
+    --taken by Attila, 110.
+
+  Aquitaine, power of the Dukes of, 204, 232.
+
+  Arcadius, the emperor, 101.
+
+  Architecture, advancement of, during the eleventh century, 242, 243.
+
+  Argentine, Sir Giles d', death of, 353.
+
+  Arians, enmity between, and the orthodox, 94
+    --quarrels between, and the Athanasians, 117.
+
+  Aristocracy, the Roman, their decay, 32 _et seq._
+
+  Aristotle, supremacy given to, 297.
+
+  Armagnac, the Count of, 364
+    --struggle between, and Burgundy, 377.
+
+  Armies, the modern, of Europe, 57.
+
+  Arnold of Brescia, the revolt of, 278
+    --his death, 279.
+
+  Arteveldt, James Van, 355.
+
+  Asia, stationary condition of, 14.
+
+  Asti, siege of, by Alaric, 105
+
+  Ataulf the Goth, career of, 108.
+
+  Athanasians, division between the, and the Arians, 117.
+
+  Attila the Hun, career of, 109 _et seq._
+
+  Augustin, influence of, on Luther, 424.
+
+  Augustus, the supremacy of, 17
+    --his reign, 18.
+
+  Aulus Plautius, landing of, in England, 21.
+
+  Aurelian, the emperor, 72
+    --his triumph, 79.
+
+  Austrasia, kingdom of, 155.
+
+  Austria, the power of, in the seventeenth century, 463
+    --the seven years' war, 512.
+
+  Auvergne, the Marquises of, 205.
+
+  Avars, junction of the Lombards with the, 129.
+
+  Avignon, acquired by the Pope, 306
+    --the residence of the Popes at, 342.
+
+  Azores, discovery of the, 395.
+
+
+  Bacon, Roger, gunpowder known to, 372.
+
+  Badby, John, martyrdom of, 367.
+
+  Bahuchet, a French admiral, 355.
+
+  Balbinus, appointment of, 69
+    --his death, 70.
+
+  Baldwyn, Count of Flanders, 263
+    --habits of, in the East, 270.
+
+  Baliol, maintained by Edward I., 319.
+
+  Ballads, influence of, on the common people, 372.
+
+  Bannockburn, the battle of, 352.
+
+  Barbarians, first appearance of the, 25
+    --their increased incursions, 51
+    --their continued progress, 71
+    --their increasing strength, 79 _et seq._
+
+  Barbavara, a Genoese admiral, 355.
+
+  Barcho-chebas, the rebellion of the Jews under, 47.
+
+  Bedford, the Duke of, in France, 384.
+
+  Belisarius, exploits of, 124
+    --disgraced, 125.
+
+  Bells, the invention of, 196.
+
+  Benedict. _See_ St. Benedict.
+
+  Benedict XI. poisoned, 331.
+
+  Benedictine monks, industry, &c. of the, 142.
+
+  Berenger, transubstantiation assailed by, 247.
+
+  Bernard de Goth, elevated to the papacy as Clement V., 331 _et seq._
+
+  Beziers, massacre of Albigenses in, 305.
+
+  Bible, Wickliff's translation of the, 342
+    --the first book printed by Guttenberg, 422.
+
+  Bishops, increasing alarm of the, in the ninth century, 205
+    --warlike, of the eleventh century, 251.
+
+  Black Hole of Calcutta, the tragedy of the, 515.
+
+  Blanche, mother of Louis IX., urges the persecution of the
+        Albigenses, 304.
+
+  Blenheim, the battle of, 500.
+
+  Boccaccio, the works of, 344.
+
+  Bohemund, the Crusader, 265.
+
+  Boniface VII., Pope, 236.
+
+  Boniface VIII., bull against Edward I. by, 315
+    --jubilee celebrated by, 325
+    --contest with Philip le Bel, 326 _et seq._
+    --his arrest, 329 _et seq._
+    --his death, 330.
+
+  Boniface, Archbishop of Mayence, 175.
+
+  Books, early value of, 372
+    --multiplied by printing, 373.
+
+  Borgia, elevation of, to the Papacy, 369.
+
+  Brantôme, the memoirs of, 447.
+
+  Bribery, prevalence of, under Walpole, 505.
+
+  Brittany, power of the Dukes of, 204
+    --acquired by Rollo the Norman, 226.
+
+  Bruce, the victory of, at Bannockburn, 352.
+
+  Bruges, defeat of the townsmen of, at Cassel, 353.
+
+  Brunehild, cruelties and career of, 150
+    --her death, 150.
+
+  Brunissende de Périgord, mistress of Clement V., 332.
+
+  Buccaneers, rise of the, 452.
+
+  Burghers, increasing importance of the, 279.
+
+  Burgundians, conquest of Gaul by the, 108.
+
+  Burgundy, kingdom of, 155.
+
+  Busentino, burial of Alaric in the, 107.
+
+
+  Cade, the insurrection of, 374.
+
+  Cadijah, wife of Mohammed, 138.
+
+  Calais, taken by Edward III., 356.
+
+  Caligula, the character, &c. of, 19.
+
+  Caliphs, habits of the, 165.
+
+  Calvinists and Lutherans, hatred between, 460.
+
+  Cambrai, the league of, 409 _et seq._
+
+  Canada, the conquest of, by the British, 517.
+
+  Cannon, first employment of, 342.
+
+  Capetian line, commencement of the, 231.
+
+  Caracalla, character of, 62
+    --his accession and reign, 65.
+
+  Carausius, the revolt of, 75.
+
+  Carlovingian line, close of the, 231.
+
+  Carthage, subdued by the Saracens, 166.
+
+  Cassel, the battle of, 353.
+
+  Cassius, the rebellion of, 52.
+
+  Cathedrals, building of, during the eleventh century, 242.
+
+  Catherine de Medicis, the massacre of St. Bartholomew planned by,
+        441.
+
+  Catholicism, resemblances between, and Mohammedanism, 271.
+
+  Cavendish, the naval exploits of, 451.
+
+  Caxton, books printed by, 393.
+
+  Celibacy, priestly, neglect of, during the eleventh century, 252
+    --enforced by Hildebrand, 256.
+
+  Centuries, characters of different, 13, 15, _et seq._
+
+  Chæreas, assassination of Caligula by, 20.
+
+  Châlons, the battle of, 110.
+
+  Change, prevalence of, during eighteenth century, 491.
+
+  Charlemagne, accession and reign of, 186 _et seq._
+    --his conquests, 187
+    --crowned Emperor of the West, 188
+    --his era, 188 _et seq._
+    --his polity, &c., 189
+    --his court, &c., 193, 194 _et seq._
+    --his encouragement of literature, &c., 195 _et seq._
+    --his death, and disruption of his empire, 198, 201 _et seq._
+
+  Charles, son of Louis the Debonnaire, 201
+    --character and reign of, 206.
+
+  Charles the Simple and Rollo the Norman, 225, 226, 227.
+
+  Charles VI., decline of the French nobility under, 360 _et seq._
+    --death of, 384.
+
+  Charles VII., accession of, 384
+    --the Maid of Orleans, 386 _et seq._
+    --his desertion of her, 389.
+
+  Charles IX., the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 442.
+
+  Charles V., the emperor, extent of his dominions, 404
+    --and Luther, 427
+    --close of his career, 431, 432.
+
+  Charles I., unpopularity of, 465
+    --the execution of, 470.
+
+  Charles II., England under, 472 _et seq._
+
+  Charles II. of Spain, death of, and his will, 497.
+
+  Charles Edward, the rising under, 507.
+
+  Charles Martel, the defeat of the Saracens by, 176, 179, _et seq._
+
+  Chatham, the ministry of, 513.
+
+  Chaucer, the works of, 344.
+
+  Childeric III., the last of the Merovingians, 182.
+
+  Chivalry, rise of the orders of, 344
+    --principles inculcated by, 349.
+
+  Chosroes, King of Persia, 158.
+
+  Christ, the birth of and its influence, 17.
+
+  Christian Church, progressive development of the, 76
+    --its organization, 78
+    --corruption of the, 114
+    --divisions in it, 116
+    --persecutions, 118.
+
+  Christians, persecution of the, by Nero, 23
+    --policy of Adrian towards, 49.
+
+  Christianity, influence of, 17
+    --the first effects of, 36
+    --progress of, 55
+    --establishment of, by Constantine, 85
+    --commencing struggle of, with Mohammedanism, 141.
+
+  Church, the privileges conferred on, and its advantages, 145
+    --corruptions, 147, 148
+    --at variance with the nobility, 153
+    --its unity, 155
+    --state of, in England during eighth century, 172, 173
+    --monarchical principle established in the, 183
+    --effects of the Crusades on, 273
+    --increasing pretensions and power of, 206, 207
+    --possessions, &c. of, in France in the tenth century, 228
+    --resistance to it, 230
+    --policy of Hugh Capet, 231
+    --state of, during the tenth century, 219
+    --during the eleventh century, 253
+    --in England under Henry II., 292 _et seq._
+    --conditions of Magna Charta regarding, 308
+    --changed position of, 342
+    --state of, in the fifteenth century, 368 _et seq._
+    --before the Reformation, 419 _et seq._
+
+  Church of England, the, and its influence and tendencies, 457.
+
+  Churches, schism between the Eastern and Western, 133
+    --rebuilding, &c. of the, in the eleventh century, 242
+    --their objects, &c., 244 _et seq._
+
+  Churchmen, warlike, during the eleventh century, 251.
+
+  Citeaux, the Abbot of, 305.
+
+  Claudius, reign and character of, 20
+    --his death, 22.
+
+  Clement V., election of, 331, 332
+    --his rapacity, &c., 332
+    --the persecution of the Templars, 337 _et seq._
+
+  Clergy, the, privileges conferred on, 145
+    --corruption of the higher, 148
+    --increasing claims of, in the ninth century, 204 _et seq._
+    --claims of, in the tenth century, and resistance to them, 229
+    --policy of Hugh Capet, 232
+    --the higher character of, during the twelfth century, 274
+    --character of, in Provence, 300
+    --taxed in England by Edward I., 315
+    --support Henry IV. in England, 365
+    --the French at the time of the Revolution, 523.
+
+  Clive, the exploits of, 515.
+
+  Clotaire, overthrow of Brunehild by, 150.
+
+  Clothilde, anecdote of, 153.
+
+  Clovis, accession of, in France, 119
+    --the descendants of, 175
+    --set aside, 182.
+
+  Cobham, Lord, martyrdom of, 367.
+
+  Colonies, the first English and Dutch, 454.
+
+  Colonna, the arrest of Boniface VIII. by, 329.
+
+  Columbus, the career of, and his discovery of America, 395.
+
+  Commerce, progress of, in England under Elizabeth, 449 _et seq._
+
+  Commodus, accession and character of, 58 _et seq._
+
+  Commons, rise of the, in England, 306
+    --House of, first constituted in England, 311.
+
+  Condé, the Great, 478, 481.
+
+  Conrad, the emperor, heads the second Crusade, 284.
+
+  Conservatism, strength of, in England during eighteenth century, 494.
+
+  Constantine, accession of, and removal to Constantinople, 84
+    --his character, 85
+    --establishes Christianity, 85
+    --his system of government, 86
+    --nobility founded by him, 87
+    --his system of taxation, 89
+    --death, 92.
+
+  Constantinople, removal of the seat of empire to, 84
+    --subordination of the Bishop of, 125
+    --supremacy claimed for the Bishop of, 132, 133
+    --assailed by the Saracens, 166
+    --early subordination of the Popes to, 174
+    --pretensions of the emperors, 176, 177
+    --the Crusaders at, 262, 263
+    --diffusion of learning by capture of, 422.
+
+  Convents, state of the, during the tenth century, 221.
+
+  Coote, Sir Eyre, 516.
+
+  Cornelius and Novatian, the schism between, 78.
+
+  Council of Toledo, the, 151.
+
+  Count, origin of the title of, 88.
+
+  Courtrai, the battle of, 335.
+
+  Covenanters, persecutions of the, in Scotland, 473.
+
+  Crecy, battle of, 356.
+
+  Cromwell, the rise &c. of, 470
+    --England under, 471.
+
+  Crown, position of the, in England and France during the tenth
+        century, 230
+    --new position given to the, under Hugh Capet, 233 _et seq._
+    --its increasing power, 359 _et seq._
+
+  Crusades, first suggestion of the, 242
+    --the first, 260 _et seq._
+    --losses in it, and its effects on Europe, 269
+    --of children, 269
+    --the second, 284
+    --the third, 285
+    --influence of, on the distribution of wealth, &c., 272
+    --end of, 316.
+
+  Crusading spirit, first rise of the, 250
+
+  Cuba, the buccaneers at, 453.
+
+  Culloden, the battle of, 507, 509.
+
+  Cunimond, defeat and death of, 129.
+
+  Curials, the, under the Roman emperors, 90, 523.
+
+  Cyrene, conquest of, by the Saracens, 166.
+
+
+  Dagobert, King, 151.
+
+  Dance of Death, the, 374.
+
+  Danes, the invasions of the, 209, 210
+    --their invasions of England, 212 _et seq._
+    --their settlements, 214, 215
+    --continued incursions into England, 234.
+
+  Dante, the works of, 325, 344.
+
+  Democracy, early alliance of the Church with, 154.
+
+  Dettingen, the battle of, 502.
+
+  Diaz, Bartholomew, discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by, 395.
+
+  Didius, purchase of the empire by, 59
+    --his death, 60.
+
+  Diocletian, accession and reign of, 74
+    --abdicates, 76
+    --system introduced by him, 83.
+
+  Dominic, originates the crusade against the Albigenses, 301 _et seq._
+    --establishment of the Inquisition under, 304.
+
+  Domitian, the reign of, 28, 34.
+
+  Dorylæum, the battle of, 264.
+
+  Drake, the expeditions of, 451.
+
+  Dress, distinctions from, among the Franks, 152.
+
+  Dudley, the informer, 404.
+
+  Duncan, the victories of, 525.
+
+  Dunois, bastard of Orleans, 387.
+
+  Dutch, the maritime settlements of the, 452.
+
+
+  East India Company, founding of the, 450.
+
+  Eastern Church, schism of the, 133.
+
+  Eastern empire, falling supremacy of the, 185.
+
+  Ecclesiastical power, decay of, in the thirteenth century, 313.
+
+  Edessa, the Crusaders at, 264.
+
+  Education, measures of Charlemagne for, 195.
+
+  Edward I., taxation of the clergy by, 315
+    --character of the reign of, 318
+    --his attempts on Scotland, 319 _et seq._
+
+  Edward II., the defeat of, at Bannockburn, 352.
+
+  Edward III., the Garter instituted by, 344
+    --policy of, his alliance with Flanders, &c., 354 _et seq._
+    --war with France, 355 _et seq._
+    --battles of Helvoet Sluys and Crecy, 355
+    --of Poictiers, 356.
+
+  Edward the Black Prince, his treatment of John, 349
+    --his character, 349
+    --his victory at Poictiers, 356.
+
+  Egbert, subjugation of the Heptarchy by, 193, 194.
+
+  Eginhart, the life of Charlemagne by, 195.
+
+  Egypt, surrender of Louis IX. in, 317.
+
+  Eleanor, wife of Louis VII., 286.
+
+  Elizabeth, policy of, with regard to the Reformation, 428
+    --the policy and measures of, and their results, 436 _et seq._
+    --the Armada, 444
+    --papal bull against, 448
+    --changes in England under, 449.
+
+  Elizabeth, daughter of James I., married to the Elector of Palatine,
+        462.
+
+  Ella, King of Northumberland, 214.
+
+  Eloisa, influence of, 282.
+
+  Empire of the West, restoration of, under Charlemagne, 188.
+
+  Empson, the creature of Henry VII., 404.
+
+  England, conquest of, by the Romans, and its effects, 21
+    --severance of, from the Roman Empire, 107
+    --formation of the Heptarchy in, 120
+    --state of, in the sixth century, 128
+    --divided state of, 155
+    --state of, in the eighth century, 171
+    --the Church and clergy, 172, 173
+    --union of, under Egbert, 193, 194
+    --state of, in the ninth century, 211 _et seq._
+    --the invasions of the Danes, 212
+    --its divided state, 213, 214
+    --settlements of the Danes, 215
+    --rise and career of Alfred, 215
+    --the Church and the Crown in, during the tenth century, 229
+    --state of, during the tenth century, 234
+    --origin of the wars with France, 285 _et seq._
+    --subservience to the papacy in, 289
+    --position of the Church, and feeling towards the Normans, 292
+    --state of, under John, 294
+    --rise of the Commons, &c. in, 306
+    --Magna Charta and its effects, 308 _et seq._
+    --reign of Henry III., 311
+    --supremacy of the papacy in, 314
+    --independence of the Church, 316
+    --the reign of Edward I. in, 318
+    --the battle of Bannockburn, 352
+    --the policy of Edward III., 354
+    --decline of the nobility in, 360
+    --divided state of, on accession of Henry IV., 365
+    --the ballads of, 372
+    --state of, during fifteenth century, 374
+    --loss of her French possessions, 376
+    --conquests of Henry V. in France, 378 _et seq._
+    --accession of Henry VIII., 404
+    --increasing commerce of, 413
+    --first idea of union with Scotland, 414
+    --battle of Flodden, 414
+    --the reformation in, 428
+    --the reign of Mary in, 433
+    --the policy of Elizabeth and its results, 436
+    --progress of, under Elizabeth, 450
+    --the colonization of America by, 454
+    --under James I., 455 _et seq._
+    --state of parties, &c. on accession of Charles I., 465 _et seq._
+    --political and religious parties, 466
+    --the great rebellion, 468
+    --the reaction against Puritanism in, 472
+    --under Charles II., 472
+    --its degraded position, 473
+    --ingress of French Protestants into, 484
+    --reign of James II., 484
+    --William III., 486
+    --state, &c. of, during eighteenth century, 493
+    --state of, under the Georges, 494
+    --is she a military nation? 496
+    --the war of the succession, 498 _et seq._
+    --the peace of Utrecht, 502
+    --the ministry of Walpole, &c., 505
+    --the Pretender in, 509
+    --supports Frederick the Great, 512
+    --the rise of her Indian empire, 514 _et seq._
+    --the revolt of the United States, 518 _et seq._
+    --her progress, 520, 521
+    --her revolution and freedom contrasted with those of France, 525.
+
+  Episcopacy, James's attempt to force, on Scotland, 464.
+
+  Ethelbald, the reign of, 214.
+
+  Ethelwolf, the reign of, 214.
+
+  Etiquette, supremacy of, under Louis XIV., 481.
+
+  Eugene, Prince, 501.
+
+  Eugenius III., Pope, 279.
+
+  Eunapius, character of the early monks by, 115.
+
+  Europe, modern, compared with ancient Rome, 56 _et seq._
+    --state of, in the seventh century, 167
+    --in the eighth, 171
+    --rise of the modern kingdoms of, 190
+    --state of, during the tenth century, 219
+    --effects of the first Crusade on, 269
+    --progressive advances of, 297
+    --state of, during fifteenth century, 375
+    --changed aspect of, in sixteenth century, 431
+    --sensation caused by massacre of St. Bartholomew, 442
+    --changes in, during eighteenth century, 491, 492
+    --the seven years' war, 512.
+
+
+  Famines, frequency of, during the tenth century, 236.
+
+  Faust and the mention of printing, 391.
+
+  Favorinus the Grammarian, anecdote of, 46.
+
+  Ferdinand of Spain, a party to the league of Cambrai, 409
+    --declares war against France, 412.
+
+  Ferdinand, the emperor, character and policy of, 462.
+
+  Ferdinand and Isabella, union of Spain under, 403.
+
+  Feudal organization, long retention of, in Scotland, 415.
+
+  Feudal system, origin of the, 149.
+
+  Feudalism, progress of, in the ninth century, 210
+    --full establishment of, 279
+    --decay of, 333, 341
+    --continued decline of, 359.
+
+  Fields of May or March in France, the, 151.
+
+  Fine arts, encouragement of, by Charlemagne, 196.
+
+  Flagellants, tenets, &c. of the, 374.
+
+  Flanders, power of the Dukes of, 232
+    --rise of the towns of, 277
+    --the alliance of Edward III. with, 354.
+
+  Flodden, battle of, and its effects, 414, 415, _et seq._
+
+  Fontenelle, the abbey of, 244.
+
+  Fontenoy, the battle of, 502.
+
+  France, accession of Clovis in, 119
+    --accession of Pepin to crown of, 183
+    --position of, under Charlemagne, 198
+    --loses the boundary of the Rhine, 203
+    --power of the great nobles, 204
+    --state of, during the tenth century, 219
+    --settlement of Rollo in, 222 _et seq._
+    --possessions of the clergy in, 228
+    --accession of Hugh Capet, 231
+    --his policy, 232 _et seq._
+    --its separation from the empire, 233
+    --monasteries in, 244
+    --origin of the English wars, 285 _et seq._
+    --the kings of, contrasted with the Plantagenets, 288
+    --acquisitions of, in Languedoc, &c., 305
+    --reign of Louis IX. in, 311 _et seq._
+    --the parliaments of, 312
+    --supremacy of the papacy in, 314
+    --degeneracy of the clergy, 315
+    --independence of the church, 316
+    --subserviency of the Popes to, 342
+    --title of King of, assumed by Edward III., 355
+    --depressed state of, at close of fourteenth century, 356
+    --decline, of the nobility in, 360
+    --state of, during fifteenth century, 374, 375
+    --expulsion of the English from, 376
+    --its history during the century, 376
+    --career of Joan of Arc, 386
+    --accession of Francis I., 405
+    --a party to the league of Cambrai, 409
+    --the massacre of St. Bartholomew in, 442
+    --changes witnessed by Brantôme in, 448
+    --rise of absolutism under Louis XIV. in, 475 et seq.
+    --policy of Richelieu and reign of Louis XIII., 476 _et seq._
+    --the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 483
+    --changes in, during eighteenth century, 491
+    --contests in India and America with, 513
+    --the policy and overthrow of, in India, 514 _et seq._
+    --depression and discontent before the Revolution, 517
+    --aids the North American colonies, 519
+    --causes of the Revolution, 522
+    --general discontent, 523
+    --the Revolution, 524 _et seq._
+
+  Francis I., accession and character of, 405
+    --death of, 431.
+
+  Franks, tribes composing the, 71
+    --state of the, in the sixth century, 128
+    --institutions, &c. of the, 151
+    --divisions of their kingdom, 155.
+
+  Frederick the Great, the career of, 512.
+
+  Frederick, Elector Palatine, marriage of, to Elizabeth of England,
+        462.
+
+  Frederick Barbarossa, capture, &c. of Rome by, 279.
+
+  Free lances, the rise, &c. of the, 350 _et seq._
+
+  Freedom, rise of, in England, 306 _et seq._
+
+  French ballads, the early, 372.
+
+  French Revolution, the, 524 _et seq._
+
+  Fritigern, defeat of Valens by, 100.
+
+  Froissart, the writings of, and their influence, 347.
+
+  Fronde, the wars of the, 478.
+
+
+  Galba, the emperor, 24.
+
+  Garter, institution of order of, 344.
+
+  Gaul, severance of, from the Roman empire, 108.
+
+  Gebhard, Elector of Cologne, 460.
+
+  Genoa, prosperity of, during the Crusades, 272
+    --greatness of, 277.
+
+  Genseric, sack of Rome by, 111.
+
+  George I. and II., characters of, 494.
+
+  George III., loyalty to, in England, 494
+    --the alleged loss of the United States by his obstinacy, 518.
+
+  Georges, England under the, 494.
+
+  Germans, defeat of the, by Probus, 73.
+
+  Germany, state of, in the sixth century, 128
+    --divided state of, 155
+    --separation between France and the Empire, and reign of Otho the
+        Great, 234
+    --progress, &c. of the Reformation in, 460
+    --ingress of French Huguenots into, 484.
+
+  Geta, murder of, 65.
+
+  Gibraltar, cession of, to England, 501.
+
+  Gladiatorial shows, passion of the Romans for, 34 _et seq._
+
+  Glo'ster, the Duke of, uncle of Henry VI., 384.
+
+  Godfrey of Bouillon, 263
+    --chosen King of Jerusalem, 266
+    --his death, 270.
+
+  Good Hope, Cape of, discovered, 395.
+
+  Gordian, appointed emperor, 69
+    --his reign, 70
+    --his death, 72.
+
+  Goths, first appearance of the, 98
+    --admitted within the empire, 99.
+
+  Gothia, the Marquises of, 205.
+
+  Granada, loss of, by the Moors, 403.
+
+  Great Britain, the union of, 502, _See_ England.
+
+  Great Rebellion, origin and history of the, 467 _et seq._
+
+  Greek fire, the, 166.
+
+  Gregory the Great, Pope, 133.
+
+  Gregory VII., (Hildebrand,) career, &c. of, 249 _et seq._,
+        255 _et seq._ _See_ Hildebrand.
+
+  Gregory IX., persecution of the Albigenses under, 305.
+
+  Guienne, how acquired by England, 286.
+
+  Guinegate, the battle of, 418.
+
+  Gunpowder, influence of discovery of, 342.
+
+  Guthrum, alliance of, with Alfred, 215.
+
+  Guttenberg, the invention of printing by, 390
+    --printing of the Bible by, 422.
+
+
+  Hadrian. _See_ Adrian.
+
+  Hair, distinction from the, among the Franks, 152.
+
+  Harfleur, siege of, by Henry V., 378.
+
+  Harold of the Fair Hair, the reign of, 213.
+
+  Hastings the Dane, defeated by Alfred, 216
+    --enters the service of France, 224.
+
+  Heathenism, Julian's attempt to restore, 95 _et seq._
+
+  Hegira, the, 157.
+
+  Helena, the mother of Constantine, 86.
+
+  Heliogabalus, the reign of, 66.
+
+  Helvoet Sluys, battle of, 355.
+
+  Henrietta Maria, unpopularity of, 466.
+
+  Henry I., acquisition of Normandy by, 285.
+
+  Henry II., claims of, on France, 286
+    --character of, 288
+    --and À-Beckett, 289 _et seq._
+    --his death, 294.
+
+  Henry III., reign of, in England, 311.
+
+  Henry IV., divided state of England under, 365.
+
+  Henry V., persecution of the Lollards under, 365, 366
+    --invasion of France by, 377
+    --captures Harfleur, 378
+    --battle of Agincourt, 381
+    --his death, 384.
+
+  Henry VI. recognised as King of France, 384.
+
+  Henry VII., character, &c. of, 371
+    --treasure accumulated by, and how, 404.
+
+  Henry VIII., accession and character of, 404
+    --declares war against France, 412
+    --triumphs of, in 1513, 418
+    --controversy of, with Luther, 426
+    --throws off the papal supremacy, 430
+    --death of, 431.
+
+  Henry III. of France, the murder of, 448.
+
+  Henry, the emperor, 237.
+
+  Henry IV. of Germany, attacks of Hildebrand on, 256
+    --the struggle between them, 257 _et seq._
+    --the death of, 260.
+
+  Heptarchy, the, 120
+    --subjugation of the, by Egbert, 193, 194.
+
+  Heraclius, Emperor of the East, 158.
+
+  Heresies, various, of the thirteenth century, 298.
+
+  Heretics, first crusade against the, 302 _et seq._
+    --first law against, in England, 365.
+
+  Highlanders, the, in the Forty-Five, 510.
+
+  Hildebrand, the career, &c. of, 249 et seq., 255 _et seq._
+    --his struggle with the emperor, 257 _et seq._
+    --his death, 259.
+
+  Hippo subdued by the Saracens, 166.
+
+  Hira subjugated by the Mohammedans, 162.
+
+  History, uses of, and difficulties of studying it from its extent,
+        11.
+
+  Holland, increasing commerce of, 412
+    --the colonies of, 454.
+
+  Holy Land, the first Crusade to the, 262
+    --and last, 317.
+
+  Honorius, the emperor, 101
+    --besieged by Alaric, 105
+    --murders Stilicho, 106.
+
+  Hugh Capet, accession of, to the French throne, 231
+    --his policy, 232.
+
+  Hugh the Great, Count of Vermandois, 263.
+
+  Huguenots, the, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 483.
+
+  Huns, first appearance of the, 99.
+
+  Huss, the martyrdom of, 367.
+
+
+  Iconoclast emperor, the, 185.
+
+  Images, defence, &c. of, 185 _et seq._
+
+  Immaculate conception, dogma of the, 283.
+
+  India, Vasco da Gama's voyage to, 401
+    --effect of the new route to, on Venice, 412
+    --rise of the British power in, 491, 514 _et seq._
+
+  Indulgences, protest of Luther against, 425.
+
+  Innocent III., originates the crusade against the Albigenses,
+        302 _et seq._
+    --excommunication of John by, 307, 310.
+
+  Innovation, general tendency to, during eighteenth century,
+        493 _et seq._
+
+  Inquiry, commencement of, with Scotus Erigena, 207
+    --rise of, with the Crusades, 280.
+
+  Inquisition, the, established under Dominic, 304.
+
+  Intellect, direction of, in the present century, 13.
+
+  Invention, the present century distinguished by, 13.
+
+  Investiture, claims of Hildebrand regarding, 257 _et seq._
+
+  Irish Church, the early, its state, &c., 156.
+
+  Isabella, queen of Charles VI., profligacy of, 362.
+
+  Italy, ravaged by Attila, 110
+    --irruption of the Lombards into, 129
+    --state of, in seventh century, 141
+    --divided state of, 155
+    --state of, during the tenth Century, 235
+    --conquests of the Normans in, 254
+    --rise of the republics of, 277
+    --state of, before the Reformation, 420.
+
+
+  Jacobite songs, the, 510.
+
+  Jacques de Molay, death of, 339.
+
+  James I., England under, 455
+    --influence of his character, &c., 458
+    --his conduct towards the Elector Palatine, 464
+    --his attempt to introduce Episcopacy into Scotland, 464.
+
+  James II., persecution of the Covenanters by, 473
+    --accession of, in England, and his dethronement, 485
+    --death of, 498.
+
+  James III., the rebellion in favour of, 503.
+
+  James IV. of Scotland married to Margaret of England, 414
+    --the battle of Flodden, 416.
+
+  Jamestown, the first English settlement in America, 454.
+
+  Jerome, the martyrdom of, 367.
+
+  Jerusalem, importance given by Christianity to, 17
+    --the capture and destruction of, 30 _et seq._
+    --named Ælia Capitolina by Adrian, 47
+    --taken by the Saracens, 162
+    --commencement of pilgrimage to, 260
+    --the capture of, by the Crusaders, 266
+    --the kingdom of, 266.
+
+  Jervis, the victories of, 525.
+
+  Jesuits, institution and influence of the, 435.
+
+  Jews, the dispersion of the, 30 _et seq._
+    --their rebellion against Adrian, 46
+    --crusade against the, 251
+    --spoliation of, by Philip le Bel, 333.
+
+  Joan of Arc, history of, 386 _et seq._
+    --her death, 390.
+
+  John, (of England,) character of, 288
+    --state of England under, 294
+    --excommunication, &c. of, 307
+    --signs Magna Charta, 308
+    --his attempt to evade the charter, 310.
+
+  John, (of France,) the treatment of, by Edward the Black Prince, 349
+    --his capture at Poictiers and ransom, 356.
+
+  John XII., Pope, 236.
+
+  John, Duke of Burgundy, 361
+    --murders Louis of Orleans, 362
+    --assumes the regency, 363
+    --rule of, in France, 376.
+
+  John, Bishop of Constantinople, supremacy claimed by, 133.
+
+  Jovian, the emperor, 97.
+
+  Jubilee, the, in 1300, 325.
+
+  Julian the Apostate, reign and character of, 93 _et seq._
+
+  Julius II., character of, 408
+    --acquisitions from Venice, 410
+    --declares war against France, &c., 410
+    --impression made on Luther by, 424.
+
+  Justinian, efforts of, to recover Italy, 124
+    --internal government of, 134
+    --his law-reforms, 135 _et seq._
+    --re-introduction of code of, 297.
+
+
+  Khaled, the lieutenant of Mohammed, 158
+    --his exploits, 162
+    --and death, 163.
+
+  Kieff, the kingdom of, 213.
+
+  Kilmich, murder of Alboin by, 130.
+
+  Kingdoms, modern, rise of, 190.
+
+  Klodwig or Clovis, accession of, in France, 119. _See_ Clovis.
+
+  Knight, position, &c. of the, 334, 335.
+
+  Knighthood, decay of, 333, 341.
+
+
+  Lally, Count, the execution of, 516.
+
+  Land, grants of, and system these originate, 149.
+
+  Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, 247
+    --defends transubstantiation, 247.
+
+  Languedoc, the Albigenses in, 299
+    --extirpation of the Albigenses in, 304
+    --peace of, 305.
+
+  Laud, Archbishop, 467
+    --execution of, 468.
+
+  Law, the reform of, by Justinian, 135.
+
+  Laws, great increase of, in Rome, 67.
+
+  Lea, defeat of the Danes at the, 216.
+
+  Learning, advancement of, during the eleventh century, 246 _et seq._
+
+  Leo the Iconoclast, 185.
+
+  Leo, Pope, Rome saved from Attila by, 110.
+
+  Leo X., character of, 407
+    --influence of, on the Reformation, 425.
+
+  Leuds or Feudatories, the, 149
+    --their struggle with the crown, 150 _et seq._
+
+  Libraries, early, 372.
+
+  Liege, massacre at, by John the Fearless, 363.
+
+  Literature, revival of, with Dante, &c., 344
+    --the modern, of England, 345
+    --slow diffusion of, before printing, 372
+    --French, under Louis XIV., 481
+    --English, during the eighteenth century, 506.
+
+  Lombards, or Longobards, irruption of the, 129 _et seq._
+    --character and polity of the, 131 _et seq._
+
+  Long Parliament, the, 468.
+
+  Lothaire, son of Louis the Debonnaire, 201, 202, 203
+    --emperor, 204.
+
+  Louis, origin of name of, 120.
+
+  Louis the Debonnaire, reign of, 200.
+
+  Louis, son of Louis the Debonnaire, 201.
+
+  Louis VII. heads the second Crusade, 284
+    --divorces his wife, 286.
+
+  Louis VIII., crusade against the Albigenses under, 304.
+
+  Louis IX., crusade against the Albigenses under, 304
+    --character and reign of, 311 _et seq._
+    --seventh Crusade under, 317
+    --prisoner and ransomed, 317
+    --his death, 318.
+
+  Louis XI., first despotic King of France, 371.
+
+  Louis XII., a party to the league of Cambrai, 409
+    --war with the Pope, 411
+    --expelled from Italy, 412.
+
+  Louis XIII., reign of, in France, 476.
+
+  Louis XIV., accession of, 469
+    --rise of, as the absolute King, 475 _et seq._
+    --the accession, policy, and reign of, 479
+    --private life of, 482
+    --the revocation or the Edict of Nantes, 483
+    --his reception, &c. of James II., 485, 486
+    --his successes in war, 486
+    --peace of Ryswick, 487
+    --the war of the Succession, 489 _et seq._
+    --the peace of Utrecht, 502.
+
+  Louis XVI., the execution of, 524.
+
+  Louis of Orleans, struggle of, with John of Burgundy, 361
+    --his murder, 362.
+
+  Lower classes, how regarded by the Crusaders, 271.
+
+  Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, 406
+    --character of, and institution of the Jesuits by, 434.
+
+  Luitprand, King of Lombardy, 182, 183.
+
+  Luther, early life of, 406
+    --the rise and career of, 423 _et seq._
+    --death of, 431.
+
+  Lutherans and Calvinists, hatred between, 460.
+
+  Luxembourg, the marshal, 481
+    --the victories of, 486.
+
+
+  Macrinus, the emperor, 66.
+
+  Magdeburg, the sack of, 466.
+
+  Magna Charta, effects of, 306, 308
+    --its conditions, 308 _et seq._
+
+  Magyars, first appearance of the, 99.
+
+  Mahomet. _See_ Mohammed.
+
+  Maid of Norway, the, 319.
+
+  Maintenon, Madame de, married to Louis XIV., 482.
+
+  Marcus Aurelius, accession and reign of, 50 _et seq._
+
+  Marlborough, the victories of, 499 _et seq._
+
+  Martin V., Pope, 368.
+
+  Mary, the reign of, in England, 433.
+
+  Mary of Scotland, policy of Elizabeth toward, 437 _et seq._
+    --defence of her execution, 439, 443.
+
+  Mary de Medicis, position of, in France, 475.
+
+  Matilda, the countess, 255, 258.
+
+  Maximilian, the emperor, a party to the league of Cambrai, 409
+    --hostilities with the Pope, 411
+    --proposed as his successor, 411
+    --turns against the French, 412
+    --in the pay of Henry VIII., 418
+    --and Luther, 426.
+
+  Maximian, the emperor, 75
+    --abdicates, 76.
+
+  Maximin, the accession and reign of, 68.
+
+  Maximus, appointment of, 69
+    --his death, 70.
+
+  Mayors of the palace, origin of the, 150
+    --powers, &c. of the, 176.
+
+  Mazarin, the cardinal, the policy, &c. of, 478
+    --his death, 479.
+
+  Mecca, capture of, by Mohammed, 158.
+
+  Mediterranean, supremacy of Rome over the, 56
+    --diminished importance of the, 413.
+
+  Meroveg, King of the Franks, 110.
+
+  Messalina, the empress, 20
+    --her death, 22.
+
+  Mexico, conquest of, by the Spaniards, 404.
+
+  Michelet, picture of France in the ninth century by, 208.
+
+  Middle Ages, commencement of the, 131.
+
+  Middle class, destruction of the, under the Roman emperors, 90.
+
+  Milan, sack of, by the Franks, &c., 124.
+
+  Military spirit, strength of the, in England, 496.
+
+  Military strength, the, of ancient Rome and modern Europe,
+        56 _et seq._
+
+  Minorca ceded to England, 502.
+
+  Mirandola, Julius II. at siege of, 410.
+
+  Mohammed, birth and career of, 138
+    --death of, 159
+    --his successors, 159 _et seq._
+
+  Mohammedanism, commencing struggle of, with Christianity, 141
+    --progress of, 157 _et seq._
+    --first arrested by battle of Tours, 179
+    --resemblances between, and Catholicism, 271.
+
+  Monarchical principle, restoration of the, with Pepin, 183.
+
+  Monasteries, influence of, on agriculture, 143
+    --their intelligence, &c., 146
+    --commencement of corruption, 147
+    --the early English, 173
+    --reformation of, by St. Benedict, 200
+    --state of the, during the tenth century, 221
+    --number of, in France, 244
+    --dissolution of the, in England, 430.
+
+  Monks, the early, 115
+    --industry, &c. of, 142 _et seq._
+    --the early English, 172, 173
+    --gluttony, &c. of the, 274
+    --degeneracy of in the thirteenth century, 314.
+
+  Moors, final loss of Spain by the, 403.
+
+  Municipalities, rise of the 277
+    --their growing importance, 279.
+
+  Murder, fines for, among the Franks, 152.
+
+  Music, encouragement of, by Charlemagne, 197.
+
+
+  Nantes, edict of, its revocation, 483.
+
+  Napoleon, the rise, &c. of, 525.
+
+  Narses, exploits of, in Italy, 127.
+
+  National debt, the English, its growth, 493.
+
+  Navareta, the battle of, 351.
+
+  Navies of Modern Europe, the, 57 _et seq._
+
+  Nelson, the victories of, 525.
+
+  Netherlands, Alva's cruelties in the, 441.
+
+  Nero, character and reign of, 22.
+
+  Nerva, the emperor, 42, 44.
+
+  Neustria, kingdom of, 155.
+
+  Nice, the Council of, 92.
+
+  Nicea taken by the Crusaders, 264.
+
+  Nicene creed, the, 92.
+
+  Nicholas Breakspear becomes pope, 289.
+
+  Niger, a candidate for the empire, 60.
+
+  Nobility, new, originated by Constantine, 87
+    --collision between, and the Church, 153
+    --policy of Hugh Capet towards the, 232
+    --effects of the Crusades on the, 276
+    --conditions of Magna Charta regarding the, 308
+    --decline of the, 359 _et seq._
+    --policy of Richelieu against the, 476 _et seq._
+    --the French, at the time of the Revolution, 523.
+
+  Nogaret, Chancellor of France, 329.
+
+  Nominalists, rise of the, 248.
+
+  Normans, the conquest of England by the, 253
+    --feeling against the, in England, 292.
+
+  Norman kings, character of the, 288.
+
+  Normandy, settlement of the Normans in, 222 _et seq._
+    --power of the dukes, 232.
+
+  Norsemen, Charlemagne's prescience regarding the, 197
+    --progress of the, in the ninth century, 208
+    --their invasions of England, 212 _et seq._
+    --results of the settlements of the, in France, 219
+    --settlement under Rollo, 222 _et seq._
+
+  North America, the English colonization of, 454.
+
+  Novellæ of Justinian, the, 136.
+
+  Novatian and Cornelius, the schism between, 78.
+
+  Novgorod, the kingdom of, 213.
+
+  Nunneries, reformation of, by St. Benedict, 200
+    --of the twelfth century, the, 283.
+
+
+  Odoacer, King of Italy, 111
+    --overthrow of, 118.
+
+  Omar, the lieutenant of Mohammed, 158, 160
+    --chosen caliph, 162
+    --destruction of the Alexandrian library, 164
+    --his habits, 163, 165.
+
+  Orleans, the siege of, 385
+    --relieved by Joan of Arc, 387 _et seq._
+
+  Ostrogoths, overthrow of the, in Italy, 127.
+
+  Otho, the emperor, 24.
+
+  Otho the Great, the emperor, 234.
+
+
+  Padua, destroyed by Attila, 110.
+
+  Palos, the return of Columbus to, 397.
+
+  Palestine, eagerness for news from, during the Crusades, 275.
+
+  Pandects of Justinian, the, 136.
+
+  Pantheism, form of, in the thirteenth century, 298.
+
+  Papacy, the, state of, during the tenth century, 220, 235
+    --supremacy of, under Hildebrand, 250 _et seq._
+    --general subjection to, 289
+    --triumphs of, in the thirteenth century, 314
+    --diminished consideration of, 325
+    --struggle of Philip the Handsome with, 326 _et seq._
+    --the schism in, 342
+    --state of, in the fifteenth century, 369.
+
+  Papal supremacy, the, abjured by England, 430.
+
+  Paper, first manufacture of, from rags, 392.
+
+  Paris, state of, under John the Fearless, 364
+    --the massacre of St. Bartholomew in, 442.
+
+  Parliament, first summoned in England, 313
+    --concessions wrung from Edward I. by, 320.
+
+  Parliaments, the French, what, 312.
+
+  Party libels, prevalence of, under Walpole, 505.
+
+  Passau, the treaty of, 431.
+
+  Peasantry, the, insurrection of, during fourteenth century, 356
+    --state of, during fifteenth century, 374 _et seq._
+    --the French, before the Revolution, 521.
+
+  People, state of the, under the early emperors, 34 _et seq._
+    --conditions of Magna Charta regarding the, 309.
+
+  Pepin, accession of, 182
+    --crowned king, 183.
+
+  Persia, new monarchy of, 71
+    --subdued by the Mohammedans, 165.
+
+  Pertinax, accession and murder of, 59.
+
+  Pestilence, frequency of, during the tenth century, 236.
+
+  Peter the Hermit, preaches the first Crusade, 262.
+
+  Peterborough, Lord, the victories of, in Spain, 501.
+
+  Petrarch, the works of, 344, 346.
+
+  Philip, the emperor, 72.
+
+  Philip I. of France, attacks of Hildebrand on, 256.
+
+  Philip le Bel, struggle of, with Boniface VIII., 326 _et seq._
+    --arrests the latter, 329 _et seq._
+    --poisons Benedict XI., 331
+    --secures election of Bernard de Goth, 331
+    --the persecution of the Templars, 337 _et seq._
+
+  Philip VI., war with Edward III., 355.
+
+  Philip II., accession of, 432
+    --the Spanish Armada, 444.
+
+  Philip of Valois, the victory of, at Cassel, 353.
+
+  Philip Augustus, conquest of the English possessions by, 305.
+
+  Pinkie, the battle of, 415.
+
+  Pitt, (Lord Chatham,) the ministry of, 513.
+
+  Plague of Florence, the, 356.
+
+  Plantagenets, character of the, 288.
+
+  Plassey, the battle of, 513, 516.
+
+  Pococke, Admiral, exploits of, in the East, 516.
+
+  Poictiers, the battle of, 356.
+
+  Poitou, how acquired by England, 286.
+
+  Poland, the partition of, 492.
+
+  Polemo, a philosopher, anecdote of, 50.
+
+  Pompeia Plotina, wife of Trajan, 45.
+
+  Pondicherry, the capture of, by the English, 516.
+
+  Poor, relations of the Church to the, 274.
+
+  Pope, the claims to supremacy of, 132 _et seq._
+    --efforts of the early English monks on behalf of, 172, 173
+    --his position in the eighth century, 174, 175
+    --alliance, &c. between Charles Martel and, 182
+    --crowns Pepin, 183
+    --supremacy of, after Hildebrand, 259
+    --the revolt of Arnold of Brescia against, 278
+    --his supremacy denied by the Albigenses, 299
+    --position, &c. of, before the Reformation, 420.
+
+  Popes, the, the claims of supremacy by, 148
+    --increasing supremacy of, 133
+    --increasing pretensions of, 186, 190
+    --subservience of, to France, 342
+    --the rival, 342.
+
+  Popular assemblies, early, 151.
+
+  Portugal, maritime discoveries of, 395
+    --increasing naval power of, 412.
+
+  Prætorian Guards, sale of the empire by the, 59.
+
+  Printing, influences of, 14
+    --discovery of, and its effects, 373, 391
+    --growing importance of discovery of, 402.
+
+  Probus, the emperor, 72
+    --his conquests and policy, 73.
+
+  Protestantism, influence of, 402
+    --establishment of, by treaty of Passau, 431
+    --established in England under Elizabeth, 436 _et seq._
+
+  Protestants, the, expelled from France, 484.
+
+  Provençal dialect, disappearance of the, 304.
+
+  Prussia, rise of, during eighteenth century, 491, 492
+    --the seven years' war, 512.
+
+  Puritanism, origin, &c. of, in England, 456 _et seq._, 464
+    --growing tendency to, 466.
+
+
+  Quebec, the battle of, 513.
+
+
+  Raleigh, the naval exploits of, 452.
+
+  Ravenna, the Exarch of, 137
+    --the exarchate of, 177
+    --transferred to the Pope, 183.
+
+  Raymond of Toulouse, the leader of the Albigenses, 299.
+
+  Raymond VII., Count of Toulouse, 303
+    --deprived of his possessions, 306.
+
+  Realists, rise of the, 248.
+
+  Rebellion of 1715, the, 504
+    --and of 1745, 507.
+
+  Reformation, influences of the, 14
+    --supreme importance of, 419
+    --state of the Church before it, 419 _et seq._
+    --the rise of the, 422 _et seq._
+
+  Regner Lodbrog, 214.
+
+  Relics, the system of, 262
+    --passion for, during the Crusades, 276.
+
+  Religion, state of, during the tenth century, 219
+    --in the thirteenth century, 298
+    --before the reformation, 422.
+
+  Republics, the Italian, rise of, 277.
+
+  Revolution of 1688, the, 485.
+
+  Rheims, coronation of Charles VII. at, 388.
+
+  Richard Coeur de Lion, character of, 288
+    --heads the third Crusade, 285.
+
+  Richelieu, Cardinal, 449
+    --the policy of, and its results, 476 _et seq._
+    --the death of, 468.
+
+  Robert of Normandy, the Crusader, 263
+    --loss of Normandy by, 285
+    --a prisoner in England, 286.
+
+  Robert, son of Hugh Capet, 237.
+
+  Robert Guiscard, conquests of, in Italy, 254
+    --sack of Rome by, 258.
+
+  Rochelle, the capture of, from the Huguenots, 476, 477.
+
+  Rois fainéants, the 175, 176.
+
+  Rollo, settlement of, in Normandy, 222 _et seq._
+    --created Duke of Normandy, 225 _et seq._
+
+  Romans, the conquest of England by, and its effects, 21
+    --passion of, for gladiatorial shows, 34.
+
+  Roman empire, first broken in on by the barbarians, 51
+    --its extent and forces, 56
+    --compared with modern Europe, 57 _et seq._
+    --divided into East and West, 97.
+
+  Roman law, reintroduction of, in Europe, 297.
+
+  Rome, the supremacy of, the characteristic of the first century, 16
+    --power of the emperor, 20
+    --state of, during the first century, 35
+    --increasing weakness of, 79 _et seq._
+    --removal of the seat of empire from, 84
+    --the sack of, by Alaric, 106
+    --sacked by the Vandals, 111
+    --causes of her fall, 111 _et seq._
+    --recovered by Belisarius, 124
+    --taken, &c. by Totila, 125
+    --supremacy of the Bishop of, 126 _et seq._
+    --fallen state of, in the sixth century, 133
+    --the Bishops of, claim supremacy, 148
+    --influence of the unity of, 184
+    --state of during the tenth century, 235
+    --sack of, by the Normans, 258
+    --the Crusaders at, 262
+    --Arnold of Brescia in, 278
+    --jubilee at, 1300, 325
+    --state of, before the Reformation, 420
+    --Luther at, 424.
+
+  Romish Church, influence of the Jesuits on, 434 _et seq._
+    --rejoicings of, on massacre of St. Bartholomew, 442.
+
+  Romulus Augustulus, the emperor, 111.
+
+  Rosamund, wife of Alboin, 129.
+
+  Roses, the wars of the, 393
+    --effect of, on the nobility, 360.
+
+  Rouen, occupied by the Normans, 222
+    --execution of Joan of Arc at, 390.
+
+  Royal power, general consolidation of, in the fifteenth century, 370.
+
+  Russia, the Danes in, 213
+    --rise of, during eighteenth century, 491, 492
+    --the seven years' war, 512.
+
+
+  St. Bartholomew, the massacre of, 442
+    --its effects, 442.
+
+  St. Benedict, industry, &c. inculcated by, 142, 143
+    --the second, 200.
+
+  St. Bernard on the luxury, &c. of the clergy, 274
+    --discussions of, with Abelard, 281
+    --the second Crusade originated by, 284.
+
+  St. Boniface, coronation of Pepin by, 183.
+
+  St. Columba, and Brunehild, 150.
+
+  St. Dominic. _See_ Dominic.
+
+  St. Francis of Assisi, 315.
+
+  St. Louis. _See_ Louis IX.
+
+  St. Remi, Clovis baptized by, 119.
+
+  Sapor, the capture of Valerian by, 72
+    --death of Julian in war with, 96.
+
+  Saracens, the, the conquests of, 162 _et seq._
+    --their defeat by Charles Martel, 176, 179 _et seq._
+    --in Spain, 246
+    --crusade against, in Italy, 251
+    --in Palestine, 270, 271.
+
+  Sarmatians, the, 71.
+
+  Sassanides, dynasty of, 71.
+
+  Saxons, feeling of the, towards the Normans in England, 292.
+
+  Saxony, the Elector of, and Luther, 426, 428.
+
+  Scholastic philosophy, rise of the, 247.
+
+  Schools, establishment of, under Charlemagne, 195.
+
+  Scotland, state of, in the eighth century, 171, 172
+    --resistance to the papacy in, 314
+    --Edward I.'s attempt on, 319 _et seq._
+    --the battle of Bannockburn, 352
+    --the ballads of, 372
+    --effects of battle of Flodden in, 414, 418
+    --its subsequent state, 415 _et seq._
+    --the policy of Elizabeth in, 437 _et seq._
+    --James's attempt to force Episcopacy on, 464
+    --persecution of the Covenanters in, 473
+    --the Union Act, 502
+    --the rebellion of 1715, 504
+    --and of 1745, 507.
+
+  Scotus Erigena, career, &c. of, 207.
+
+  Septimania, power of the Dukes of, 204.
+
+  Serfs, conditions of Magna Charta regarding the, 309.
+
+  Seven years' war, the, 512.
+
+  Severus, Alexander, accession and reign of, 67.
+
+  Severus, Septimius, accession and reign of, 60 _et seq._
+
+  Sicily, conquest of, by the Normans, 255.
+
+  Simon de Montfort, the crusade against the Albigenses under, 302
+    --his death, 303.
+
+  Simon de Montfort, summoning of parliament by, 313.
+
+  Sixtus V., approval of the murder of Henry III. by, 448.
+
+  Slaves, state of the, under the Romans, 35, 90.
+
+  Smalcalde, the Protestant league of, 429.
+
+  Society, state of, under James I., 455.
+
+  Solway Moss, the battle of, 414.
+
+  South Sea bubble, the, 505.
+
+  Spain, severance of, from the Roman empire, 108
+    --the Saracens in, 246
+    --threatened predominance of, in sixteenth century, 402
+    --its increasing importance, 403
+    --increasing naval power of, 412
+    --consolidation of, in the sixteenth century, 413
+    --continued hostilities with, at sea, 451
+    --the attacks of the buccaneers on her colonies, &c., 452.
+
+  Spanish Armada, the, and its defeat, 444.
+
+  Spanish Succession, the war of the, 498 _et seq._
+
+  Spurs, the battle of the, at Courtrai, 336
+    --at Guinegate, 418.
+
+  Staupitz, connection of, with Luther, 423.
+
+  Stephen, the wars of, in England, 292.
+
+  Stilicho, opposed to Alaric, 101, 105
+    --his murder, 106.
+
+  Strafford, execution of, 468.
+
+  Succession, the war of the, 498 _et seq._
+
+  Sulpician, a candidate for the empire, 59.
+
+  Supino, betrayal of Anagni by, 328.
+
+  Surenus, minister of Trajan, 45.
+
+  Surrey, the Earl of, at Flodden, 416.
+
+  Switzerland, ingress of French Protestants into, 484.
+
+  Sylvester II., Pope, 238, 242
+    --his character, &c., 246.
+
+  Syria, progress of Mohammedanism in, 158, 161.
+
+
+  Talbot, raises the siege of Orleans, 387.
+
+  Tancho, the invention of bells by, 196.
+
+  Taxes, system of collecting, under Constantine, 89.
+
+  Taylor, Rowland, the martyr, 433.
+
+  Tchuda, check of the Saracens at, 166.
+
+  Templars, the destruction of the, 337 _et seq._
+    --the charges against them, 340.
+
+  Tetzel, the sale of indulgences by, 425.
+
+  Theodora, wife of Justinian, 134.
+
+  Theodoric the Goth, at the battle of Châlons, 110.
+
+  Theodoric, the reign of, 119
+    --his supremacy, 123
+    --his death, 123.
+
+  Theodosius, the emperor, 101.
+
+  Tiberius, the reign of, 18
+    --his character, 19.
+
+  Tilly, the sack of Magdeburg by, 466.
+
+  Timbuctoo, expedition by Englishmen to, 452.
+
+  Tinchebray, the battle of, 286.
+
+  Titus, the reign of, 28
+    --the siege and capture of Jerusalem, 30 _et seq._
+
+  Torstenson, the victories of, 468.
+
+  Totila, King of the Goths, 125, 127.
+
+  Toulouse, the Marquises of, 205
+    --power of the Dukes of, 232
+    --the Albigenses in, 299.
+
+  Tours, the battle of, 179 _et seq._
+
+  Towns, effect of the Crusades on the, 273, 277
+    --increasing power of the, in the fourteenth century, 334.
+
+  Trajan, the accession and reign of, 42, 44 _et seq._
+
+  Transubstantiation, doctrine of, 247.
+
+  Trebonian, the Justinian code drawn up by, 136.
+
+  Tripoli, conquered by the Saracens, 167.
+
+  Troubadours, attacks on the clergy by the, 300.
+
+  Truce of God, the, 238.
+
+  Tunis, crusade of Louis IX. against, 318.
+
+  Turenne, the victories of, 478, 481.
+
+
+  Union Act, passing of the, 502.
+
+  United States, the revolt of the, 518 _et seq._
+
+  Universal church, belief in a, before the Reformation, 419.
+
+  Urban II. and the first Crusaders, 262.
+
+  Utrecht, thy peace of, 502.
+
+
+  Valens, the emperor, 97
+    --his defeat and death, 100.
+
+  Valentinian, the emperor, 97.
+
+  Valerian, the emperor, 72.
+
+  Vandals, conquest of Africa by the, 108
+    --sack of Rome by the, 111
+    --overthrow of the, by Belisarius, 124.
+
+  Vasco da Gama, the discovery of the route to India by, 401.
+
+  Venaissin, acquisition of, by the Pope, 306.
+
+  Venice, rise of, 277
+    --power, &c. of, 407
+    --attacked by Julius II., 408
+    --league of Cambrai, 409
+    --decay of the power of, 412.
+
+  Verona destroyed by Attila, 110.
+
+  Versailles, Louis XIV. at, 481
+    --its cost, 483
+    --the peace of, 520.
+
+  Vespasian, accession of, 24.
+
+  Vicenza, taken by Attila, 110.
+
+  Vidius Pollio, anecdote of, 36.
+
+  Vikinger, the, 208.
+
+  Virginia, settlement of, by the English, 454.
+
+  Visigoths, settlements of the, in Spain, &c., 128.
+
+  Vitellius, the emperor, 24.
+
+
+  Wales, early state of, 171, 172.
+
+  Wallace, the victories, &c. of, 320.
+
+  Walpole, Sir R., the ministry of, 505.
+
+  Wartburg, seclusion of Luther at, 428.
+
+  Wealth, influence of the Crusades on, 272.
+
+  Wellington, the victories of, in India, 525.
+
+  Wenilon, Bishop of Sens, 206.
+
+  Wentworth, execution of, 468.
+
+  Western Church, severance of the Eastern from, 133.
+
+  Wickliff, his translation of the Bible, 342.
+
+  Wickliffites, persecution of the, 365.
+
+  William of Normandy, churches, &c. erected by, 244
+    --the conquest of England by, 253
+    --character of, 288.
+
+  William Rufus, character of, 288.
+
+  William III., accession of, in England, 485
+    --his reign, 486
+    --the death of, 499.
+
+  Winchester, the Bishop of, 384.
+
+  Winifried, the monk, 175.
+
+  Witig, King of the Ostrogoths, 124
+    --his overthrow, 125.
+
+  Wittenagemot, the, 151.
+
+  Wolfe, the conquest of Canada by, 517.
+
+  Woman, increased respect paid to, 283.
+
+  Worms, the Diet of, Luther before, 427.
+
+
+  Yeomanry, rise of, in England, 431.
+
+  Yezdegird, King of Persia, 162, 165.
+
+
+  Zorndorf, the battle of, 513.
+
+
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+
+"_A great and noble work, rich in information, eloquent and scholarly
+in style, earnestly devout in feeling._"--LONDON LITERARY WORLD.
+
+                     D. APPLETON & CO., NEW YORK,
+
+                          HAVE JUST PUBLISHED
+
+                     The Life and Words of Christ.
+
+                     _By CUNNINGHAM GEIKIE, D.D._
+
+
+With Twelve Engravings on Steel. In 2 vols. Price, $8.00.
+
+
+                _From Dr. DELITZSCH, the Commentator._
+
+  "A work of gigantic industry, noble in outward form, of the highest
+  rank in its contents, and, what is the chief point, it breathes the
+  spirit of true faith in Christ. I have read enough of it to rejoice
+  at such a magnificent creation, and especially to wonder at the
+  extent of reading it shows. When I shall have occasion to revise my
+  Hebrew New Testament, I hope to get much help from it."
+
+
+                  _From Bishop BECKWITH, of Georgia._
+
+  "The book is of value not merely to the theological student or
+  student of history, but the family. It furnishes information which
+  every one should possess, and which thoughtful people will be glad to
+  gain from so agreeable a teacher."
+
+
+                         _From Dr. JOHN HALL._
+
+  "The author has aimed at producing book of continuous, easy
+  narrative, in which the reader may, as far as possible, see the
+  Saviour of men live and move, and may hear the words he utters with
+  the most vivid attainable idea of his circumstances and surroundings.
+  The result is a work to which all Christian hearts will respond."
+
+
+               _From Bishop LITTLEJOHN, of Long Island._
+
+  "Dr. Geikie has performed his task--the most difficult in
+  biographical literature--with great ability. His pages evince
+  abundant and accurate learning, and, what is of even more
+  consequence, a simple and cordial faith in the Gospel narratives.
+  The more the work shall circulate, the more it will be regarded as a
+  most valuable addition to a branch of sacred literature which ought
+  in every age to absorb the best fruits of sacred scholarship, and to
+  command the highest gifts of human genius."
+
+
+  _From Rev. Dr. ADAMS, President of the Union Theological Seminary._
+
+  "Another invaluable contribution in proof of historical Christianity.
+  It is a beautiful specimen of typography, and we anticipate for it an
+  extensive circulation, to which it is entitled for its substantial
+  worth, its erudition, its brilliant style, and its fervent devotion."
+
+
+_From the Rev. W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., S.T.P., Edinburgh, Member of
+the Old Testament Company of Revision, Editor of Kitto's "Cyclopædia of
+Biblical Literature," etc._
+
+  "Dr. Geikie's work is the result of much thought, research, and
+  learning, and it is adorned with many literary excellences. It cannot
+  fail to become a standard, for its merits are substantial, and its
+  utility great."
+
+                      _From the Rev. Dr. CURRY._
+
+  "A careful examination of Dr. Geikie's work seems to prove, what
+  might before have been doubted, that just such a work was needed to
+  meet a real want; it successfully indicates its own right to be, by
+  responding to the necessity that it discovers."
+
+
+                Dr. Geikie's Life and Words of Christ.
+
+                        OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
+
+
+  "These fresh volumes are marked throughout by a humane and devout
+  spirit. The work is sure to make for itself a place in popular
+  literature."--_New York Times._
+
+
+  "In Dr. Geikie's volumes the person and works of Christ receive the
+  chief attention, of course; but the background is so faithfully and
+  vividly drawn, that the reader is given a fresher idea of the central
+  figure."--_New York Independent._
+
+
+  "A monument of industry and a mine of learning. The students of our
+  theological colleges, ministers, and others, will find much of the
+  information here given of great worth and novelty."--_Nonconformist._
+
+
+  "Dr. Geikie's paraphrases are generally most excellent commentaries.
+
+  "An encyclopædia upon the life and times of Jesus Christ, but an
+  encyclopædia which has an organic unity, pulsating with a true and
+  devout spirituality of thought and feeling."--_London Christian
+  World._
+
+
+  "His style is always clear, rising sometimes into majestic beauty.
+  His most steady point of view is the relation of Christ to the
+  elevation of the race, and he struggles to make clear the amazing
+  richness of Christ's new things--the profound character of his
+  philosophy, and the practical humanity that wells up out of these
+  great deeps."--_New York Methodist._
+
+
+  "The 'Life of Christ' may be fitly compared to a diamond with many
+  facets. From every point of view, the light that streams forth upon
+  us is beneficent. No two observers will probable ever catch precisely
+  the same ray, but, for all who look with unclouded eye (whatever
+  their angle of vision may be), there shines forth 'the light of the
+  glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' Without disparaging in any
+  sense the noble labors of his predecessors, we think Dr. Geikie has
+  caught a new ray from the 'Mountain of Light,' and has added a new
+  page to our Christology which many will delight to read."--_New York
+  Evangelist._
+
+
+  "The chief merit of Dr. Geikie's volumes lies in the attention paid
+  to the surroundings of our Saviour's earthly life; so that the
+  reader is presented with a picture of the Jewish people, national
+  characteristics, social customs, and religious belief and ritual.
+
+  "It is with reluctance that we take leave of these splendid volumes,
+  for it is an enjoyment to examine and a pleasant duty and privilege
+  to commend them. We feel sure we could desire no more valuable and
+  useful addition to Christian libraries."--_Episcopal Recorder_
+  (Philadelphia).
+
+
+  "If any one desires a reliable and intelligent guide in the study
+  of the Gospel history, he cannot, we think, do better than take the
+  graphic pages of Dr. Geikie. The American edition is got up most
+  elegantly; the binding is very handsome, the paper good, the type
+  large and clear; the engravings and maps are excellent. They are,
+  indeed, two beautiful volumes."--_Evangelical Churchman_ (Toronto).
+
+
+  "Of all that has been written hitherto on that life, nothing seems
+  to us to equal in beauty that which we find in the two magnificent
+  volumes before us. They bring to view the social conditions in which
+  Jesus made his appearance. They give us a vivid portraiture of those
+  who were about him--both the friends and the enemies--the parties,
+  the customs, the influences that prevailed."--_Episcopal Register_
+  (Philadelphia).
+
+
+                                   _D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers,_
+                                          549 & 551 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistent
+  spelling and hyphenation in the original document have been
+  preserved. Sidenotes have been enclosed in brackets and moved
+  to the beginning of the respective sentence.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Eighteen Christian Centuries, by James White
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES ***
+
+***** This file should be named 44703-8.txt or 44703-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/7/0/44703/
+
+Produced by Charlene Taylor, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe,
+Norbert Müller and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
+images generously made available by the Digital & Multimedia
+Center, Michigan State University Libraries.)
+
+
+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
+  www.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 1.F.3.  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 MERCHANTABILITY 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 are 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 information page at www.gutenberg.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.  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
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+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 www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+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 checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.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 forty 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:
+
+     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.
diff --git a/old/44703-8.zip b/old/44703-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d39953f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44703-8.zip
diff --git a/old/44703-h.zip b/old/44703-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a2a09d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44703-h.zip
diff --git a/old/44703-h/44703-h.htm b/old/44703-h/44703-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3a3d122
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44703-h/44703-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,21664 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" />
+    <title>
+       The Eighteen Christion Centuries, by James White
+    </title>
+    <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" />
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+body {
+    margin-left: 10%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+}
+
+    h1,h2 {
+    text-align: center; /* all headings centered */
+    clear: both;
+}
+
+h1 {
+  line-height:3em;
+}
+
+h2 {
+    margin-top:5em;
+    margin-bottom: .49em;
+}
+
+p {
+    margin-top: .51em;
+    text-align: justify;
+    margin-bottom: .49em;
+}
+
+td p {
+   text-align: inherit;
+}
+
+hr {
+   clear: both;
+}
+
+hr.chap {
+    width: 65%;
+    margin: 3em 17.5% 3em 17.5%;
+}
+
+hr.full {
+    width: 100%;
+}
+
+ul.index { list-style-type: none; }
+
+table {
+    margin-right: auto;
+}
+
+.table-center {
+    margin-right: auto;
+    margin-left: auto;
+}
+
+.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+    /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+    position: absolute;
+    left: 92%;
+    font-weight:normal;
+    font-size: small;
+    text-align: right;
+} /* page numbers */
+
+.blockquot {
+    margin-left: 10%;
+    margin-right: 10%;
+    font-size: 0.9em;
+}
+
+.crime {
+   text-indent:-1.5em;
+   padding-left:1.5em;
+   padding-right:0.5em;
+}
+
+.price {
+   text-align:right;
+   vertical-align: bottom;
+}
+
+.sidenote {
+    max-width: 5em;
+    padding-bottom: .5em;
+    padding-top: .5em;
+    padding-left: .5em;
+    padding-right: .5em;
+    margin-right: 1em;
+    float: left;
+    clear: left;
+    margin-top: 1em;
+    text-align: left;
+    font-size: smaller;
+    color: black;
+    background: #eeeeee;
+    border: dashed thin;
+}
+
+.center   {text-align: center;}
+
+.right   {text-align: right;}
+
+.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+.sidenote .smcap   {font-size:0.8em;}
+
+/* Footnotes */
+.footnotes        {border: dashed thin; page-break-before:always;}
+
+.footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;}
+
+.footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;}
+
+.fnanchor {
+    vertical-align: super;
+    font-size: .8em;
+    text-decoration:
+    none;
+}
+
+.fncell {
+   text-align:left;
+   padding: 0;
+}
+
+.fn-header {
+  margin-top:1em;
+  margin-bottom:1em;
+  font-size:1.5em;
+  text-align:center;
+}
+
+/* Poetry */
+.poem {
+    margin-left:10%;
+    margin-right:10%;
+    text-align: left;
+}
+
+.poem br {display: none;}
+
+.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+
+/* Transcriber's notes */
+.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA;
+    color: black;
+     font-size:smaller;
+     padding:0.5em;
+     margin-top:5em;
+     font-family:sans-serif, serif; }
+    .poem span.i-1     {display: block; margin-left: -0.5em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i0     {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i1     {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i14     {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+
+.trans-heading {
+    font-size: 1.2em;
+    text-align:center;
+}
+
+.toc_century {
+  text-align:center;
+  padding-top:2em;
+}
+
+.toc_chapter {
+  text-align:left;
+  text-indent:-1.5em;
+  padding-left:1.5em;
+  font-size:0.8em;
+}
+
+.chapter-sub {
+    margin-left: 5%;
+    margin-right: 5%;
+    margin-bottom: 2em;
+    text-align:center;
+}
+
+.sub-heading {
+    display:inline-block;
+    text-align:justify;
+    text-indent:-1.5em;
+    padding-left:1.5em;
+    font-size:0.8em;
+}
+
+.toc_page {
+  text-align:right;
+  vertical-align:bottom;
+}
+
+.small {
+  font-size:0.6em;
+}
+
+.big {
+  font-size:1.3em;
+}
+
+.heading{
+  margin-top:2em;
+  font-size:1.3em;
+  text-align:center;
+}
+
+.spaced-above {
+  margin-top: 4em;
+}
+
+.rulers {
+   margin-top:2em;
+}
+
+.dynast {
+   padding-top: 1em;
+}
+
+.sovereign{
+  text-indent:-1em;
+  padding-left: 2em;
+  text-align: left;
+}
+
+.year-list {
+  text-align:right;
+  line-height:2em;
+}
+
+.year-top {
+  vertical-align:top;
+  text-align:right;
+}
+
+.sovereign-list{
+  padding-left: 1em;
+  text-align: left;
+  line-height:2em;
+  white-space:nowrap;
+}
+
+.mustache2 {
+   font-size:3em;
+}
+
+.mustache3 {
+   font-size:4.5em;
+}
+
+.mustache4 {
+   font-size:6em;
+}
+.mustache2, .mustache3, .mustache4 {
+   text-align: left;
+   vertical-align:middle;
+   padding-bottom:0.2em;
+}
+
+.title{
+  font-size:1.5em;
+  font-weight:bold;
+  text-align:center;
+  line-height:2em;
+  margin-top:6em;
+}
+
+.ad-title {
+  font-size:2em;
+  text-align:center;
+}
+
+.newpage {
+  margin-top:3em;
+  page-break-before:always;
+}
+
+.covernote {visibility: hidden; display: none;}
+@media handheld {
+  .covernote {
+     visibility: visible;
+     display: block;
+}
+
+.sidenote {
+  float: left;
+  clear: none;
+  font-weight: bold;
+}
+
+}
+.hidev {
+   visibility: hidden;
+}
+
+.from-container {
+   margin-top:1em;
+   text-align:center;
+}
+
+.from-container p{
+   display:inline-block;
+   text-align:left;
+   text-indent:-1em;
+   margin-left:1em;
+   margin-bottom:0em;
+}
+
+    </style>
+  </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+Project Gutenberg's The Eighteen Christian Centuries, by James White
+
+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 Eighteen Christian Centuries
+
+Author: James White
+
+Release Date: January 18, 2014 [EBook #44703]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charlene Taylor, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe,
+Norbert Müller and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
+images generously made available by the Digital & Multimedia
+Center, Michigan State University Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>
+<span class="small">THE</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Eighteen Christian Centuries</span>.
+</h1>
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="small">BY</span><br />
+THE REV. JAMES WHITE,<br />
+<span class="small">AUTHOR OF A &ldquo;HISTORY OF FRANCE.&rdquo;</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="center spaced-above big">With a Copious Index.</p>
+
+<p class="center spaced-above">FROM THE SECOND EDINBURGH EDITION.</p>
+
+<p class="center spaced-above">NEW YORK:<br />
+D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,<br />
+549 &amp; 551 BROADWAY.<br />
+1878.
+</p>
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span>
+<a name="NOTE_BY_THE_AMERICAN_PUBLISHERS" id="NOTE_BY_THE_AMERICAN_PUBLISHERS">NOTE BY THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS.</a></h2>
+
+<p class="spaced-above">This valuable work, which has been received with
+much favour in Great Britain, is reprinted without
+abridgment from the second Edinburgh edition. The
+lists of names of remarkable persons in the present
+issue have been somewhat enlarged, and additional
+dates appended, thereby increasing the value of the
+book.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span>
+<a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table class="table-center" border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="right" class="small">PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">FIRST CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">THE BAD EMPERORS</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">SECOND CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">THE GOOD EMPERORS.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">THIRD CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">ANARCHY AND CONFUSION&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;GROWTH OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">FOURTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">THE REMOVAL TO CONSTANTINOPLE&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;&thinsp;APOSTASY
+OF JULIAN&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;SETTLEMENT OF THE GOTHS.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">FIFTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;FORMATION OF MODERN STATES&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;GROWTH
+OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">SIXTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">BELISARIUS AND NARSES IN ITALY&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;SETTLEMENT OF THE LOMBARDS&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;LAWS
+OF JUSTINIAN&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;BIRTH OF MOHAMMED.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">SEVENTH CENTURY.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">POWER OF ROME SUPPORTED BY THE MONKS&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;CONQUESTS OF THE
+MOHAMMEDANS.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_141">141</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">EIGHTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_171">171</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">NINTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">DISMEMBERMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE&rsquo;S EMPIRE&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;DANISH INVASION
+OF ENGLAND&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;WEAKNESS OF FRANCE&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;REIGN OF ALFRED.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_193">193</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">TENTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">DARKNESS AND DESPAIR.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_219">219</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">ELEVENTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">THE COMMENCEMENT OF IMPROVEMENT&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;GREGORY THE SEVENTH&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;FIRST
+CRUSADE.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">TWELFTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">ELEVATION OF LEARNING&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;POWER OF THE CHURCH&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;THOMAS
+À-BECKETT.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">THIRTEENTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">FIRST CRUSADE AGAINST HERETICS&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;THE ALBIGENSES&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;MAGNA
+CHARTA&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;EDWARD I.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">FOURTEENTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">ABOLITION OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLARS&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;RISE OF MODERN
+LITERATURES&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;SCHISM OF THE CHURCH.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_325">325</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">FIFTEENTH CENTURY.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">DECLINE OF FEUDALISM&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;AGINCOURT&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;JOAN OF ARC&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;THE PRINTING-PRESS&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;DISCOVERY
+OF AMERICA.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_359">359</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">SIXTEENTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">THE REFORMATION&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;THE JESUITS&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;POLICY OF ELIZABETH.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_401">401</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">ENGLISH REBELLION AND REVOLUTION&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;DESPOTISM OF LOUIS THE
+FOURTEENTH.</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_447">447</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_century" colspan="2">EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="toc_chapter">INDIA&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;AMERICA&nbsp;&mdash;&thinsp;FRANCE</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_491">491</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left" style="padding-top:2em;">INDEX</td><td class="toc_page"><a href="#Page_527">527</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span>
+<a name="FIRST_CENTURY" id="FIRST_CENTURY">FIRST CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="4" class="big">Emperors.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Augustus Cæsar.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">14.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Tiberius.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">37.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Caius Caligula.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">41.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Claudius.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">54.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Nero.</span> First Persecution of the Christians.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">68.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Galba.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">69.</td><td class="sovereign-list">
+<span class="smcap">Otho.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Vitellius </span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Vespasian.</span><br />
+</td><td class="mustache3">}</td><td style="width:100%"></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">79.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Titus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">81.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Domitian.</span> Second Persecution of the Christians.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">96.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Nerva.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">98.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Trajan.</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Livy</span>, <span class="smcap">Ovid</span>, <span class="smcap">Tibullus</span>, <span class="smcap">Strabo</span>, <span class="smcap">Columella</span>, <span class="smcap">Quintus Curtius</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Seneca</span>, <span class="smcap">Lucan</span>, <span class="smcap">Petronius</span>, <span class="smcap">Silius Italicus</span>, <span class="smcap">Pliny the Elder</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Martial</span>, <span class="smcap">Quinctilian</span>, <span class="smcap">Tacitus</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="heading">Christian Fathers and Writers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Barnabas</span>, <span class="smcap">Clement of Rome</span>, <span class="smcap">Hermas</span>, <span class="smcap">Ignatius</span>, <span class="smcap">Polycarp</span>.</p>
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<p class="title">
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>
+<span class="small">THE</span><br />
+EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES.</p>
+
+
+<hr class="chap" /></div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><a name="THE_FIRST_CENTURY" id="THE_FIRST_CENTURY">THE FIRST CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading ">THE BAD EMPERORS.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Nobody</span> disputes the usefulness of History. Many
+prefer it, even for interest and amusement, to the best
+novels and romances. But the extent of time over which
+it has stretched its range is appalling to the most laborious
+of readers. And as History is growing every day,
+and every nation is engaged in the manufacture of
+memorable events, it is pitiable to contemplate the fate
+of the historic student a hundred years hence. He is
+not allowed to cut off at one end, in proportion as he increases
+at the other. He is not allowed to forget Marlborough,
+in consideration of his accurate acquaintance
+with Wellington. His knowledge of the career of
+Napoleon is no excuse for ignorance of Julius Cæsar.
+All must be retained&mdash;victories, defeats&mdash;battles, sieges&mdash;knights
+in armour, soldiers in red; the charge at
+Marathon, the struggle at Inkermann&mdash;all these things,
+a thousand other things, at first apparently of no importance,
+but growing larger and larger as time develops
+their effects, till men look back in wonder that the acorn
+escaped their notice which has produced such a majestic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span>
+oak,&mdash;a thousand other things still, for a moment rising
+in apparently irresistible power, and dying off apparently
+without cause, must be folded up in niches of the memory,
+ready to be brought forth when needed, and yet room be
+left for the future. And who can pretend to be qualified
+for so great a work? Most of us confess to rather dim
+recollections of things occurring in our own time,&mdash;in
+our own country&mdash;in our own parish; and some, contemplating
+the vast expanse of human history, its innumerable
+windings and perplexing variations, are inclined
+to give it up in despair, and have a sulky sort of
+gratification in determining to know nothing, since they
+cannot know all. All kings, they say, are pretty much
+alike, and whether he is called John in England, or Louis
+in France, doesn&rsquo;t make much difference. Nobles also
+are as similar as possible, and peoples are everywhere
+the same. Now, this, you see, though it ambitiously
+pretends to be ignorance, is, in fact, something infinitely
+worse. It is false knowledge. It might be very injurious
+to liberty, to honour, and to religion itself, if this wretched
+idea were to become common, for where would be the
+inducement to noble endeavour? to reform of abuses?
+to purity of life? Kings and nobles and peoples are not
+everywhere the same. They are not even <i>like</i> each
+other, or like themselves in the same land at different
+periods. They are in a perpetual series, not only of
+change, but of contrast. They are &ldquo;variable as the sea,&rdquo;&mdash;calm
+and turbulent, brilliant and dark by turns. And
+it is this which gives us the only chance of attaining
+clearness and distinctness in our historic views. It is by
+dissimilarities that things are individualized: now, how
+pleasant it would be if we could simplify and strengthen
+our recollections of different times, by getting personal
+portraits, as it were, of the various centuries, so as
+to escape the danger of confounding their dress or features.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span>
+It would be impossible in that case to mistake
+the Spanish hat and feather of the sixteenth century for
+the steel helmet and closed vizor of the fourteenth. We
+should be able, in the same way, to distinguish between
+the modes of thought and principles of action of the
+early ages, and those of the present time. We should
+be able to point out anachronisms of feeling and manners
+if they occurred in the course of our reading, as well as
+of dress and language. It is surely worth while, therefore,
+to make an attempt to individualize the centuries,
+not by affixing to them any arbitrary marks of one&rsquo;s
+own, but by taking notice of the distinguishing quality
+they possess, and grouping round that, as a centre, the
+incidents which either produce this characteristic or are
+produced by it. What should we call the present century,
+for instance? We should at once name it the
+Century of Invention. The great war with Napoleon
+ending in 1815, exciting so many passions, and calling
+forth such energy, was but the natural introduction to
+the wider efforts and amazing progress of the succeeding
+forty years. Battles and bulletins, alliances and quarrels,
+ceased, but the intellect aroused by the struggle dashed
+into other channels. Commerce spread its humanizing
+influences over hitherto closed and unexplored regions;
+the steamboat and railway began their wondrous career.
+The lightning was trained to be our courier in the electric
+telegraph, and the sun took our likenesses in the daguerreotype.
+How changed this century is in all its attributes
+and tendencies from its predecessor, let any man
+judge for himself, who compares the reigns of our first
+Hanoverian kings with that of our gracious queen.</p>
+
+<p>In nothing, indeed, is the course of European history
+so remarkable as in the immense differences which intervals
+of a few years introduce. In the old monarchies
+of Asia, time and the world seem almost to stand still.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span>
+The Indian, the Arab, the Chinese of a thousand years
+ago, wore the same clothes, thought the same thoughts,
+and led the same life as his successor of to-day. But
+with us the whole character of a people is changed in a
+lifetime. In a few years we are whirled out of all our associations.
+Names perhaps remain unaltered, but the
+inner life is different; modes of living, states of education,
+religious sentiments, great national events, foreign
+wars, or deep internal struggles&mdash;all leave such ineffaceable
+marks on the history of certain periods, that their
+influence can be traced through all the particulars of the
+time. The art of printing can be followed, on its first
+introduction, into the recesses of private life, as well as
+in the intercourse of nations. The Reformation of religion
+so entirely altered the relations which the states
+of the world bore to each other, that it may be said to
+have put a limit between old history and new, so that
+human character itself received a new development; and
+actions, both public and private, were regulated by
+principles hitherto unknown.</p>
+
+<p>In one respect all the past centuries are alike,&mdash;that
+they have done their part towards the formation of this.
+We bear the impress, at this hour, of the great thoughts
+and high aspirations, the struggles, and even the crimes,
+of our ancestral ages; and yet they have no greater resemblance
+to the present, except in the unchangeable
+characteristics of human nature itself, than the remotest
+forefathers in a long line of ancestry, whose likenesses
+hang in the galleries of our hereditary nobles, bear to the
+existing owner of title and estate. The ancestor who
+fought in the wars of the Roses has a very different expression
+and dress from the other ancestor who cheated
+and lied (politically, of course) in the days of the early
+Georges. Yet from both the present proprietor is descended.
+He retains the somewhat rusty armour on an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>
+ostentatious nail in the hall, and the somewhat insincere
+memoirs in a secret drawer in the library, and we cannot
+deny that he is the joint production of the courage
+of the warrior and the duplicity of the statesman;
+anxious to defend what he believes to be the right, like
+the supporter of York or Lancaster&mdash;but trammelled
+by the ties of party, like the patriot of Sir Robert Walpole.</p>
+
+<p>If we could affix to each century as characteristic a
+presentment as those portraits do of the steel-clad hero
+of Towton, or the be-wigged, be-buckled courtier of
+George the Second, our object would be gained. We
+should see a whole history in a glance at a century&rsquo;s
+face. If it were peculiarly marked by nature or accident,
+so much the more easy would it be to recognise the likeness.
+If the century was a warlike, quarrelsome century,
+and had scars across its brow; if it was a learned, plodding
+century, and wore spectacles on nose; if it was a
+frivolous, gay century, and simpered forever behind
+bouquets of flowers, or tripped on fantastic toe with a
+jewelled rapier at its side, there would be no mistaking
+the resemblance; there would also be no chance of confusing
+the actions: the legal century would not fight, the
+dancing century would not depose its king.</p>
+
+<p>Taking our stand at the beginning of our era, there
+are only eighteen centuries with which we have to do,
+and how easily any of us get acquainted with the features
+and expression of eighteen of our friends! Not that we
+know every particular of their birth and education, or
+can enter into the minute parts of their character and
+feelings; but we soon know enough of them to distinguish
+them from each other. We soon can say of which of the
+eighteen such or such an action or opinion is characteristic.
+We shall not mistake the bold deed or eloquent
+statement of one as proceeding from another.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i-1">&ldquo;Boastful and rough, your first son is a squire.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The next a tradesman, meek, and much a liar:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tom struts a soldier, open, bold, and brave:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Will sneaks a scrivener, an exceeding knave.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is he a churchman? then he&rsquo;s fond of power:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Quaker? sly: a Presbyterian? sour:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A smart free-thinker? all things in an hour.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Now, though it is impossible to put the characteristics
+of a whole century into such terse and powerful language
+as this, it cannot be doubted that each century, or considerable
+period, has its prevailing Thought,&mdash;a thought
+which it works out in almost all the ramifications of its
+course; which it receives from its predecessor in a totally
+different shape, and passes on to its successor in a still
+more altered form. Else why do we find the faith of one
+generation the ridicule and laughing-stock of the next?
+How did knighthood rise into the heroic regions of
+chivalry, and then sink in a succeeding period into the
+domain of burlesque? How did aristocracy in one age
+concentrate into kingship in another? And in a third,
+how did the golden ring of sovereignty lose its controlling
+power, and republics take their rise? How did
+the reverence of Europe settle at one time on the sword
+of Edward the Third, and at another on the periwig of
+Louis the Fourteenth? These and similar inquiries
+will lead us to the real principles and motive forces of a
+particular age, as they distinguished it from other ages.
+We shall label the centuries, as it were, with their
+characteristic marks, and know where to look for
+thoughts and incidents of a particular class and type.</p>
+
+<p>Let us look at the first century.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the civilized world there is nothing but
+Rome. Under whatever form of government&mdash;under
+consuls, or triumvirs, or dictators&mdash;that wonderful city
+was mistress of the globe. Her internal dissensions had
+not weakened her power. While her streets were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>
+running with the blood of her citizens, her eagles were
+flying triumphant in Farther Asia and on the Rhine.
+Her old constitution had finally died off almost without
+a blow, and unconsciously the people, still talking of
+Cato and Brutus, became accustomed to the yoke. For
+seven-and-twenty years they had seen all the power of
+the state concentrated in one man; but the names of the
+offices of which their ancestors had been so proud were
+retained; and when Octavius, the nephew of the conqueror
+Julius Cæsar, placed himself above the law, it was
+only by uniting in his own person all the authority
+which the law had created. He was consul, tribune,
+prætor, pontifex, imperator,&mdash;whatever denomination
+conferred dignity and power; and by the legal exercise
+of all these trusts he had no rival and no check. He
+was finally presented by the senate with the lofty title
+of Augustus, which henceforth had a mysterious significance
+as the seal of imperial greatness, and his commands
+were obeyed without a murmur from the Tigris to the
+Tyne. But whilst in the enjoyment of this pre-eminence,
+the Roman emperor was unconscious that in a village
+of Judea, in the lowest rank of life, among the most
+contemned tribe of his dominions, his Master was
+born. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>By this event the whole current of the
+world&rsquo;s history was changed. The great became small
+and the small great. Rome itself ceased to be the capital
+of the world, for men&rsquo;s eyes and hearts, when the wonderful
+story came to be known, were turned to Jerusalem.
+From her, commissioned emissaries were to proceed
+with greater powers than those of Roman prætors
+or governors. From her gates went forth Peter and
+John to preach the gospel. Down her steep streets rode
+Paul and his companions, breathing anger against the
+Church, and ere they reached Damascus, behold, the
+eyes of the persecutor are blinded with lightning, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span>
+his understanding illuminated with the same flash; and
+henceforth he proceeds, in lowliness and humility, to
+convey to others the glad tidings that had been revealed
+to himself. Away in all directions, but all radiating
+from Jerusalem, travelled the messengers of the amazing
+dispensation. Everywhere&mdash;in all centuries&mdash;in all
+regions, we shall encounter the results of their ministry;
+and as we watch the swelling of the mighty tide, first
+of Christian faith and then of priestly ambition, which
+overspread the fairest portions of the globe, we shall
+wonder more and more at the apparent powerlessness
+of its source, and at the vast effects for good and evil
+which it has produced upon mankind.</p>
+
+<p>What were they doing at Rome during the thirty-three
+years of our Saviour&rsquo;s sojourn upon earth? For
+the first fourteen of them Augustus was gathering
+round him the wits, and poets, and sages, who have
+made his reign immortal. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 14.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>After that date his
+successor, Tiberius, built up by stealthy and slow
+degrees the most dreadful tyranny the world had ever
+seen,&mdash;a tyranny the results of which lasted long after
+the founders of it had expired. For from this period
+mankind had nothing to hope but from the bounty of
+the emperor. It is humiliating to reflect that the history
+of the world for so long a period consists of the
+deeds and dispositions of the successive rulers of Rome.
+All men, wherever their country, or whatever their
+position, were dependent, in greater or less degree, for
+their happiness or misery on the good or bad temper of
+an individual man. If he was cruel, as so many of them
+were, he filled the patricians of Rome with fear, and
+terrified the distant inhabitants of Thrace or Gaul. His
+benevolence, on the other hand, was felt at the extremities
+of the earth. No wonder that every one was on
+the watch for the first glimpse of a new emperor&rsquo;s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span>
+character and disposition. What rejoicings in Italy and
+Greece and Africa, and all through Europe, when a trait
+of goodness was reported! and what a sinking of the
+heart when the old story was renewed, and a monster
+of cruelty succeeded to a monster of deceit! For the
+fearfullest thing in all the descriptions of Tiberius is the
+duplicity of his behaviour. He withdrew to an island in
+the sunniest part of the Mediterranean, and covered it
+with gorgeous buildings, and supplied it with all the implements
+of luxury and enjoyment. From this magnificent
+retirement he uttered a whisper, or made a motion
+with his hand, which displaced an Eastern monarch
+from his throne, or doomed a senator to death. He was
+never seen. He lived in the dreadful privacy of some
+fabled deity, and was only felt at the farthest ends of
+his empire by the unhappiness he occasioned; by his
+murders, and imprisonments, and every species of suffering,
+men&rsquo;s hearts and minds were bowed down beneath
+this invisible and irresistible oppressor. Self-respect
+was at an end, and liberty was not even wished for. The
+emperor had swallowed up the empire, and there was no
+authority or influence beside. This is the main feature
+of the first or Imperial Century, that, wherever we
+look, we see but one,&mdash;one gorged and bloated brutalized
+man, sitting on the throne of earthly power, and all the
+rest of mankind at his feet. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 37.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Humanity at its flower had
+culminated into a Tiberius; and when at last he was
+slain, and the world began to breathe, the sorrow was
+speedily deeper than before, for it was found that
+the Imperial tree had blossomed again, and that
+its fruit was a Caligula.</p>
+
+<p>This was a person with much the same taste for blood
+as his predecessor, but he was more open in the gratification
+of this propensity. He did not wait for trial
+and sentence,&mdash;those dim mockeries of justice in which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span>
+Tiberius sometimes indulged. He had a peculiar way
+of nodding with his head or pointing with his finger,
+and the executioner knew the sign. The man he nodded
+to died. For the more distinguished of the citizens he
+kept a box,&mdash;not of snuff, like some monarchs of the
+present day, but of some strong and instantaneous
+poison. Whoever refused a pinch died as a traitor, and
+whoever took one died of the fatal drug. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 41.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Even the
+degenerate Romans could not endure this long, and
+Chæreas, an officer of his guard, put him to
+death, after a sanguinary reign of four years.</p>
+
+<p>Still the hideous catalogue goes on. Claudius, a
+nephew of Tiberius, is forced upon the unwilling senate
+by the spoilt soldiers of the capital, the Prætorian
+Guards. Colder, duller, more brutal than the rest,
+Claudius perhaps increased the misery of his country by
+the apathy and stupidity of his mind. The other tyrants
+had some limit to their wickedness, for they kept all the
+powers of the State in their own hands, but this man
+enlisted a countless host of favourites and courtiers in
+his crusade against the happiness of mankind. Badly
+eminent among these was his wife, the infamous Messalina,
+whose name has become a symbol of all that is detestable
+in the female sex. Some people, indeed, in
+reading the history of this period, shut the book with a
+shudder, and will not believe it true. They prefer to
+think that authors of all lands and positions have agreed
+to paint a fancy picture of depravity and horror, than
+that such things were. But the facts are too well
+proved to be doubted. We see a dull, unimpassioned,
+moody despot; fond of blood, but too indolent to shed it
+himself, unless at the dictation of his fiendish partner
+and her friends; so brutalized that nothing amazed or
+disturbed him; so unobservant that, relying on his
+blindness, she went through the ostentatious ceremony<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span>
+of a public marriage with one of her paramours during
+the lifetime, almost under the eyes, of her husband; and
+yet to this frightful combination of ferocity and stupidity
+England owes its subjection to the Roman power, and
+all the blessings which Roman civilization&mdash;bringing as
+it did the lessons of Christianity in its train&mdash;was calculated
+to bestow. In the forty-fourth year of this century,
+and the third year of the reign of Claudius, Aulus
+Plautius landed in Britain at the head of a powerful
+army; and the tide of Victory and Settlement never
+subsided till the whole country, as far north as the Solway,
+submitted to the Eagles. The contrast between
+the central power at Rome, and the officials employed
+at a distance, continued for a long time the most remarkable
+circumstance in the history of the empire.
+Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, vied with each other in exciting
+the terror and destroying the happiness of the
+world; but in the remote extremities of their command,
+their generals displayed the courage and virtue of an
+earlier age. They improved as well as conquered.
+They made roads, and built bridges, and cut down
+woods. They established military stations, which soon
+became centres of education and law. They deepened
+the Thames, and commenced those enormous embankments
+of the river, to which, in fact, London owes its
+existence, without being aware of the labour they bestowed
+upon the work. If by some misfortune a great
+fissure took place&mdash;as has occurred on a small scale
+once before&mdash;in these artificial dikes, it would task the
+greatest skill of modern engineers to repair the damage.
+They superseded the blood-stained ceremonies of the
+Druids with the more refined worship of the heathen
+deities, making Claudius himself a tutelary god, with
+priest and temple, in the town of Colchester; and this,
+though in our eyes the deification of one of the worst<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span>
+of men, was, perhaps, in the estimation of our predecessors,
+only the visible embodiment of settled government
+and beneficent power. But murder and treachery, and
+unspeakable iniquity, went their way as usual in the
+city of the Cæsars. Messalina was put to death, and
+another disgrace to womanhood, in the person of Agrippina,
+took her place beside the phlegmatic tyrant.
+Thirteen years had passed, when the boundary of human
+patience was attained, and Rome was startled one
+morning with the joyful news that her master was no
+more. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 54.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The combined cares of his loving spouse and a
+favourite physician had produced this happy result,&mdash;the
+one presenting him with a dish of deadly mushrooms,
+and the other painting his throat for a hoarseness
+with a poisoned feather.</p>
+
+<p>Is there no hope for Rome or for mankind? Is there
+to be a perpetual succession of monster after monster,
+with no cessation in the dreadful line? It would be
+pleasant to conceal for a minute or two the name of the
+next emperor, that we might point to the glorious prospect
+now opening on the world. But the name has
+become so descriptive that deception is impossible.
+When the word Nero is said, little more is required.
+But it was not so at first; a brilliant sunrise never had
+so terrible a course, or so dark a setting. We still see
+in the earlier statues which remain of him the fine outline
+of his face, and can fancy what its expression must
+have been before the qualities of his heart had stamped
+their indelible impression on his features. For the first
+five years of his reign the world seemed lost as much in
+surprise as in admiration. Some of his actions were
+generous; none of them were cruel or revengeful. He
+was young, and seemed anxious to fulfil the duties of his
+position. But power and flattery had their usual effect.
+All that was good in him was turned into evil. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span>
+tortured the noblest of the citizens; and degraded the
+throne to such a degree by the expositions he made of
+himself, sometimes as a musician on the stage, sometimes
+as a charioteer in the arena, that if there had
+been any Romans left they would have despised the
+tyrant more than they feared him. But there were no
+Romans left. The senators, the knights, the populace,
+vied with each other in submission to his power and
+encouragement of his vices. The rage of the monster,
+once excited, knew no bounds. He burned the city in
+the mere wantonness of crime, and fixed the blame on
+the unoffending Christians. These, regardless of age or
+condition or sex, he destroyed by every means in his
+power. He threw young maidens into the amphitheatre,
+where the hungry tigers leapt out upon them; he exposed
+the aged professors of the gospel to fight in
+single combat with the trained murderers of the circus,
+called the Gladiators; and once, in ferocious mockery
+of human suffering, he enclosed whole Christian families
+in a coating of pitch and other inflammable materials,
+and, setting fire to the covering, pursued his sport all
+night by the light of these living flambeaux. Some of
+his actions it is impossible to name. It will be sufficient
+to say that at the end of thirteen years the purple
+he disgraced was again reddened with blood. Terrified
+at the opposition that at last rose against him&mdash;deserted,
+of course, by the confederates of his wickedness&mdash;shrinking
+with unmanly cowardice from a defence
+which might have put off the evil day, he fled and hid
+himself from his pursuers. Agonized with fear, howling
+with repentant horror, he was indebted to one of his
+attendants for the blow which his own cowardly hand
+could not administer, and he died the basest, lowest, and
+most pitiless of all the emperors. And all those hopes
+he had disappointed, and all those iniquities he had perpetrated,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>
+at the age of thirty-two. He was the last of
+the line of Cæsar; and if that conqueror had foreseen
+that in so few years after his death the Senate of
+Rome would have been so debased, and the people of
+Rome so brutalized, he would have pardoned to Brutus
+the precautionary blow which was intended to prevent
+so great a calamity.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 68.</div>
+
+<p>Galba was elected to fill his place, and was murdered
+in a few months.</p>
+
+<p>The degraded prætorians then elevated one of the
+companions of Nero&rsquo;s guilty excesses to the throne in
+the person of Otho, but resistance was made to their
+selection. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 69.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The forces in Germany nominated
+Vitellius to the supreme authority; and Otho,
+either a voluptuary tired of life, or a craven incapable
+of exertion, committed suicide to save the miseries of
+civil war. But this calamity was averted by a nobler
+hand. Vitellius had only time to show that, in addition
+to the usual vices of the throne, he was addicted to the
+animal enjoyments of eating and drinking to an almost
+incredible degree, when he heard a voice from the walls
+of Jerusalem which hurled him from the seat he had so
+lately taken; for the legions engaged in that most
+memorable of sieges had decided on giving the empire
+of the world to the man who deserved it best, and had
+proclaimed their general, Flavius Vespasian, Imperator
+and Master of Rome.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 70.</div>
+
+<p>Now we will pause, for we have come to the year
+seventy of this century, and a fit breathing-time
+to look round us and see what condition mankind
+has fallen into within a hundred years of the end of the
+Republic. We leave out of view the great empires of
+the farther East, where battles were won, and dynasties
+established on the plains of Hindostan, and within the
+Chinese Wall. The extent of our knowledge of Oriental<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span>
+affairs is limited to the circumference of the Roman power.
+Following that vast circle, we see it on all sides surrounded
+by tribes and nations who derive their sole illumination
+from its light, for unless the Roman conquests
+had extended to the confines of those barbaric states, we
+should have known nothing of their existence. Beyond
+that ring of fire it is almost matter of conjecture what
+must have been going on. Yet we learn from the traditions
+of many peoples, and can guess with some accuracy
+from the occurrences of a later period, what was
+the condition of those &ldquo;outsiders,&rdquo; and what were their
+feelings and intentions with regard to the civilized portions
+of the world. Bend your eyes in any direction you
+please, and what names, what thoughts, suggest themselves
+to our minds! We see swarms of wild adventurers
+with wives and cattle traversing with no definite
+object the uncultivated districts beyond the Danube;
+occasionally pitching their tents, or even forming more
+permanent establishments, around the roots of Caucasus
+and north of the Caspian Sea, where grass was more
+plentiful, and hills or marshes formed an easily defended
+barrier against enemies as uncivilized as themselves.
+Coming from no certain region&mdash;that is, forgetting in a
+few years of wandering the precise point from which
+they set out, pushed forward by the advancing waves of
+great national migrations in their rear&mdash;moving onward
+across the upper fields of Europe, but keeping themselves
+still cautiously from actual contact with the Roman limits,
+from those hordes of homeless, lawless savages are derived
+the most polished and greatest nations of the present
+day. Forming into newer combinations, and taking
+different names, their identity is scarcely to be recognised
+when, three or four centuries after this, they come
+into the daylight of history; but nobody can doubt that,
+during these preliminary ages, they were gathering their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span>
+power together, hereafter, under the impulse of fresh
+additions, to be hurled like a dammed-up river upon the
+prostrate realm, carrying ruin and destruction in their
+course, but no less certainly than the overflowing Nile
+leaving the germs of future fertility, and enriching with
+newer vegetation the fields they had so ruthlessly submerged.
+And year by year the mighty mass goes on
+accumulating. The northern plains become peopled no
+one knows how. The vast forests eastward of the Rhine
+receive new accessions of warriors, who rapidly assimilate
+with the old. United in one common object of retaining
+the wild freedom of their tribe, and the possession
+of the lands they have seized, they have opposed
+the advance of the Roman legions into the uncultivated
+districts they call their own; they have even succeeded
+in destroying the military forces which guarded the
+Rhine, and have with difficulty been restrained from
+crossing the great river by a strong line of forts and
+castles, of which the remains astonish the traveller of
+the present day, as, with Murray&rsquo;s Guide-Book in his
+hand, he gazes upon their ruins between Bingen and
+Aix-la-Chapelle.</p>
+
+<p>Repelled by these barriers, they cluster thicker than
+ever in the woods and valleys, to which the Romans
+have no means of penetrating. Southern Gaul submits,
+and becomes a civilized outpost of the central power;
+but far up in the wild regions of the north, and even to
+the eastward of the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, the
+assemblage goes on. Scandinavia itself becomes over-crowded
+by the perpetual arrival of thousands of these
+armed and expatriated families, and sends her teeming
+populations to the east and south. But all these incidents,
+I must remind you, are occurring in darkness. We only
+know that the desert is becoming peopled with crowded
+millions, and that among them all there floats a confused<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span>
+notion of the greatness of the Roman power, the wealth
+of the cities and plains of Italy; and that, clustering in
+thicker swarms on the confines of civil government, the
+watchful eyes of unnumbered savage warriors are fixed
+on the territories lying rich and beautiful within the
+protection of the Roman name. So the whole Roman
+boundary gets gradually surrounded by barbaric hosts.
+Their trampings may be heard as they marshal their
+myriads and skirt the upper boundaries of Thrace; but
+as yet no actual conflict has occurred. A commotion
+may become observable among some of the farthest distant
+of the half intimidated of the German tribes; or
+an enterprising Roman settler beyond the frontier, or
+travelling merchant, who has penetrated to the neighbourhood
+of the Baltic, may bring back amazing reports
+of the fresh accumulations of unknown hordes of strange
+and threatening aspect; but the luxurious public in
+Rome receive them merely as interesting anecdotes to
+amuse their leisure or gratify their curiosity: they have
+no apprehension of what may be the result of those multitudinous
+arrivals. They do not foresee the gradual
+drawing closer to their outward defences&mdash;the struggle
+to get within their guarded lines&mdash;the fight that is surely
+coming between a sated, dull, degraded civilization on
+the one side, and a hungry, bold, ambitious savagery on
+the other. They trust every thing to the dignity of the
+Eternal City, and the watchfulness of the Emperor: for
+to this, his one idea of irresistible power equally for
+good or evil, the heart of the Roman was sure to turn.
+And for the eleven years of the reigns of Vespasian and
+Titus, the Roman did not appeal for protection against
+a foreign enemy in vain. Rome itself was compensated
+by shows and buildings&mdash;with a triumph and an arch&mdash;for
+the degradation in which it was held. But prætor
+and proconsul still pursued their course of oppressing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span>
+the lands committed to their defence; and the subject,
+stripped of his goods, and hopeless of getting his wrongs
+redressed, had only the satisfaction of feeling that the
+sword he trembled at was in the hand of a man and not
+of an incarnate demon. A poor consolation this when
+the blow was equally fatal. Vespasian, in fact, was
+fonder of money than of blood, and the empire rejoiced
+in having exchanged the agony of being murdered
+for the luxury of being fleeced. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 79.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>With Titus, whom
+the fond gratitude of his subjects named the Delight of
+the human race, a new age of happiness was about to
+open on the world; but all the old horrors of the Cæsars
+were revived and magnified when he was succeeded,
+after a reign of two years, by his brother, the
+savage and cowardly Domitian. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 81.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>With the exception
+of the brief period between the years 70 and 81, the
+whole century was spent in suffering and inflicting pain.
+The worst excesses of Nero and Caligula were now
+imitated and surpassed. The bonds of society became
+rapidly loosened. As in a shipwreck, the law of self-preservation
+was the only rule. No man could rely
+upon his neighbour, or his friend, or his nearest of kin.
+There were spies in every house, and an executioner at
+every door. An unconsidered word maliciously reported,
+or an accusation entirely false, brought death to the rich
+and great. To the unhappy class of men who in other
+times are called the favourites of fortune, because they
+are born to the possession of great ancestral names and
+hereditary estates, there was no escape from the jealous
+and avaricious hatred of the Emperor. If a patrician
+of this description lived in the splendour befitting his rank&mdash;he
+was currying favour with the mob! If he lived retired&mdash;he
+was trying to gain reputation by a pretence of
+giving up the world! If he had great talents&mdash;he was
+dangerous to the state! If he was dull and stupid&mdash;oh!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span>
+don&rsquo;t believe it&mdash;he was only an imitative Brutus, concealing
+his deep designs under the semblance of fatuity!
+If a man of distinguished birth was rich, it was not a
+fitting condition for a subject&mdash;if he was poor, he was
+likely to be seduced into the wildest enterprises. So
+the prisons were filled by calumny and suspicion, and
+emptied by the executioner. A dreadful century this&mdash;the
+worst that ever entered into tale or history; for the
+memory of former glories and comparative freedom was
+still recent. A man who was sixty years old, in the
+midst of the terrors of Tiberius, had associated in his
+youth with the survivors of the Civil War, with men
+who had embraced Brutus and Cassius; he had seen the
+mild administration of Augustus, and perhaps had supped
+with Virgil and Horace in the house of Mæcenas. And
+now he was tortured till he named a slave or freedman
+of the Emperor his heir, and then executed to expedite
+the succession. There was a hideous jocularity in some
+of these imperial proceedings, which, however, was no
+laughing-matter at the time. When a senator was very
+wealthy, it was no unusual thing for Tiberius and his
+successors to create themselves the rich man&rsquo;s nearest
+relations by a decree of the Senate. The person so
+honoured by this graft upon his family tree seldom survived
+the operation many days. The emperor took
+possession of the property as heir-at-law and next of
+kin; and mourned for his uncle or brother&mdash;as the case
+might be&mdash;with the most edifying decorum.</p>
+
+<p>But besides giving the general likeness of a period, it
+is necessary to individualize it still further by introducing,
+in the background of the picture, some incident by which
+it is peculiarly known, as we find Nelson generally represented
+with Trafalgar going on at the horizon, and Wellington
+sitting thoughtful on horseback in the foreground
+of the fire of Waterloo. Now, there cannot be a more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span>
+distinguishing mark than a certain great military achievement
+which happened in the year 70 of this century, and
+is brought home to us, not only as a great historical event
+in itself, but as the commencement of a new era in human
+affairs, and the completion of a long line of threats and
+prophecies. This was the capture and destruction of
+Jerusalem. The accounts given us of this siege transcend
+in horror all other records of human sorrow. It
+was at the great annual feast of the Passover, when Jews
+from all parts of the world flocked to the capital of their
+nation to worship in the Temple, which to them was the
+earthly dwelling-place of Jehovah. The time was come,
+and they did not know it, when God was to be worshipped
+in spirit and in truth. More than a million
+strangers were resident within the walls. There was no
+room in house or hall for so vast a multitude; so they
+bivouacked in the streets, and lay thick as leaves in the
+courts of the holy place. Suddenly the Roman trumpets
+blew. The Jews became inspired with fanatical hatred
+of the enemy, and insane confidence that some miracle
+would be wrought for their deliverance. They deliberated,
+and chose for their leaders the wildest and most
+enthusiastic of the crowd. They refused the offers of
+mercy and reconciliation made to them by Titus. They
+sent back insulting messages to the Roman general, and
+stood expectant on the walls to see the idolatrous legions
+smitten by lightning or swallowed up by an earthquake.
+But Titus advanced his forces and hemmed in the countless
+multitude of men, and women, and children&mdash;few
+able to resist, but all requiring to be fed. Famine and
+pestilence came on; but still the mad fanatics of the
+Temple determined to persevere. They occasionally
+opened a gate and rushed out with the cry of &ldquo;The
+sword of the Lord and of Gideon!&rdquo; and were slaughtered
+by the unpitying hatred of the Roman soldiers. Their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span>
+cruelty to their prisoners, when they succeeded in carrying
+off a few of their enemies, was great; but the patience
+of Titus at last gave way, and he soon bettered the
+instruction they gave him in pitilessness and blood. He
+drew a line of circumvallation closer round the city, and
+intercepted every supply; when deserters came over, he
+crucified them all round the trenches; when the worn-out
+people came forth, imploring to be suffered to pass
+through his ranks, he drove them back, that they might
+increase the scarcity by their lives, or the pestilence by
+adding to the heaps of unburied dead. Dissensions were
+raging all this time among the defenders themselves.
+They fought in the streets, in the houses, and heaped
+the floor and outcourts of the Temple with thousands of
+the slain. There was no help either from heaven or
+earth; eleven hundred thousand people had died of
+plague and the sword; and the rest were doomed to
+perish by more lingering torments. Nearest relations&mdash;sisters,
+brothers, fathers, wives&mdash;all forgot the ties of
+natural affection under this great necessity, and fought
+for a handful of meal, or the possession of some reptile&rsquo;s
+body if they were lucky enough to trace it to its hiding-place;
+and at last&mdash;the crown of all horrors&mdash;the
+daughter of Eleazer killed her own child and converted
+it into food. The measure of man&rsquo;s wrong and Heaven&rsquo;s
+vengeance was now full. The daily sacrifice ceased to be
+offered; voices were audible to the popular ear uttering
+in the Holy of Holies, &ldquo;Let us go hence.&rdquo; The Romans
+rushed on&mdash;climbed over the neglected walls&mdash;forced
+their way into the upper Temple, and the gore flowed
+in streams so rapid and so deep that it seemed like a
+purple river! Large conduits had been made for the
+rapid conveyance away of the blood of bulls and goats
+offered in sacrifice; they all became choked now with
+the blood of the slaughtered people. At last the city<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span>
+was taken; the inhabitants were either dead or dying.
+Many were crushed as they lay expiring in the great
+tramplings of the triumphant Romans; many were recovered
+by food and shelter, and sold into slavery. The
+Temple and walls were levelled with the ground, and
+not one stone was left upon another. The plough passed
+over where palace and tower had been, and the Jewish
+dispensation was brought to a close.</p>
+
+<p>History in ancient days was as exclusive as the court
+newsman in ours, and never published the movements
+of anybody below a senator or a consul. All the Browns
+and Smiths were left out of consideration; and yet to
+us who live in the days when those families&mdash;with the
+Joneses and Robinsons&mdash;form the great majority both
+in number and influence, it would be very interesting to
+have any certain intelligence of their predecessors during
+the first furies of the Empire. We have but faint descriptions
+even of the aristocracy, but what we hear of
+them shows, more clearly than any thing else, the frightful
+effect on morals and manliness of so uncontrolled a
+power as was vested in the Cæsars, and teaches us that
+the worst of despotisms is that which is established by
+the unholy union of the dregs of the population and
+the ruling power, against the peace and happiness and
+security of the middle class. You see how this combination
+of tyrant and mob succeeded in crushing all the
+layers of society which lay between them, till there were
+left only two agencies in all the world&mdash;the Emperor on
+his throne, and the millions fed by his bounty. The
+hereditary nobility&mdash;the safest bulwark of a people and
+least dangerous support of a throne&mdash;were extirpated
+before the end of the century, and impartiality makes
+us confess that they fell by their own fault. As if the
+restraints of shame had been thrown off with the last
+hope of liberty, the whole population broke forth into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span>
+the most incredible licentiousness. If the luxury of
+Lucullus had offended the common sense of propriety
+in the later days of the republic, there were numbers
+now who looked back upon his feasts as paltry entertainments,
+and on the wealth of Cr&oelig;sus as poverty.
+The last of the Pompeys, in the time of Caligula, had
+estates so vast, that navigable rivers larger than the
+Thames performed the whole of their course from their
+fountain-head to the sea without leaving his domain.
+There were spendthrifts in the time of Tiberius who
+lavished thousands of pounds upon a supper. The pillage
+of the world had fallen into the hands of a few
+favoured families, and their example had introduced a
+prodigality and ostentation unheard of before. No one
+who regarded appearances travelled anywhere without
+a troop of Numidian horsemen, and outriders to clear
+the way. He was followed by a train of mules and
+sumpter-horses loaded with his vases of crystal&mdash;his
+richly-carved cups and dishes of silver and gold. But
+this profusion had its natural result in debt and degradation.
+The patricians who had been rivals of the
+imperial splendour became dependants on the imperial
+gifts; and the grandson of the conqueror of a kingdom,
+or the proconsul of the half of Asia, sold his ancestral
+palace, lived for a while on the contemptuous bounty of
+his master, and sank in the next generation into the
+nameless mass. Others, more skilful, preserved or
+improved their fortunes while they rioted in expense.
+By threats or promises, they prevailed on the less
+powerful to constitute them their heirs; they traded
+on the strength, or talents, or the beauty of their
+slaves, and lent money at such usurious interest that
+the borrower tried in vain to escape the shackles of
+the law, and ended by becoming the bondsman of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span>
+the kind-hearted gentleman who had induced him to
+accept the loan.</p>
+
+<p>If these were the habits of the rich, how were the
+poor treated? The free and penniless citizens of the
+capital were degraded and gratified at the same time.
+The wealthy vied with each other in buying the favour
+of the mob by shows and other entertainments, by gifts
+of money and donations of food. But when these arts
+failed, and popularity could no longer be obtained by
+merely defraying the expense of a combat of gladiators,
+the descendants of the old patricians&mdash;of the men who
+had bought the land on which the Gauls were encamped
+outside the gates of Rome&mdash;went down into the
+arena themselves and fought for the public entertainment.
+Laws indeed were passed even in the reign of
+Tiberius, and renewed at intervals after that time,
+against this shameful degradation, and the stage was
+interdicted to all who were not previously declared infamous
+by sentence of a court. But all was in vain.
+Ladies of the highest rank, and the loftiest-born of the
+nobility, actually petitioned for a decree of defamation,
+that they might give themselves up undisturbed to their
+favourite amusement. This perhaps added a zest to
+their enjoyment, and rapturous applauses must have
+hailed the entrance of the beautiful grandchild of
+Anthony or Agrippa, in the character and drapery of a
+warlike amazon&mdash;the louder the applause and greater
+the admiration. Yet in order to gratify them with such
+a sight, she had descended to the level of the convict,
+and received the brand of qualifying disgrace from a
+legal tribunal. But the faint barrier of this useless prohibition
+was thrown down by the policy and example
+of Domitian. The emperor himself appeared in the
+arena, and all restraint was at an end. Rather, there
+was a fury of emulation to copy so great a model, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span>
+&ldquo;Rome&rsquo;s proud dames, whose garments swept the
+ground,&rdquo; forgot more than ever their rank and sex, and
+were proud, like their lovers and brothers, not merely
+to mount the stage in the lascivious costume of nymph
+or dryad, but to descend into the blood-stained lists of
+the Coliseum and murder each other with sword and
+spear. There is something strangely horrible in this
+transaction, when we read that it occurred for the first
+time in celebration of the games of Flora&mdash;the goddess
+of flowers and gardens, who, in old times, was worshipped
+under the blossomed apple-trees in the little
+orchards surrounding each cottage within the walls,
+and was propitiated with children&rsquo;s games and chaplets
+hung upon the boughs. But now the loveliest of the
+noble daughters of the city lay dead upon the trampled
+sand. What was the effect upon the populace of these
+extraordinary shows?</p>
+
+<p>Always stern and cruel, the Roman was now never
+satisfied unless with the spectacle of death. Sometimes
+in the midst of a play or pantomime the fierce lust of
+blood would seize him, and he would cry out for a
+combat of gladiators or nobles, who instantly obeyed;
+and after the fight was over, and the corpses removed,
+the play would go on as if nothing had occurred. The
+banners of the empire still continued to bear the initial
+letters of the great words&mdash;the Senate and people of
+Rome. We have now, in this rapid survey, seen what
+both those great names have come to&mdash;the Senate crawling
+at the feet of the emperor, and the people living on
+charity and shows. The slaves fared worst of all, for
+they were despised by rich and poor. The sated voluptuary
+whose property they were sometimes found an
+excitement to his jaded spirits by having them tortured
+in his sight. They were allowed to die of starvation
+when they grew old, unless they were turned to use, as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>
+was done by one of their possessors, Vidius Pollio, who
+cast the fattest of his domestics into his fish-pond to feed
+his lampreys. The only other classes were the actors
+and musicians, the dwarfs and the philosophers. They
+contributed by their wit, or their uncouth shape, or their
+oracular sentences, to the amusement of their employers,
+and were safe. They were licensed characters, and could
+say what they chose, protected by the long-drawn countenance
+of the stoic, or the comic grimaces of the buffoon.
+So early as the time of Nero, the people he tyrannized
+and flattered were not less ruthless than himself. In
+his cruelty&mdash;in his vanity&mdash;in his frivolity, and his
+entire devotion to the gratification of his passions&mdash;he
+was a true representative of the men over whom he
+ruled. Emperor and subject had even then become
+fitted for each other, and flowers, we are credibly told
+by the historians, were hung for many years upon his
+tomb.</p>
+
+<p>Humanity itself seemed to be sunk beyond the possibility
+of restoration; but we see now how necessary it
+was that our nature should reach its lowest point of
+depression to give full force to the great reaction which
+Christianity introduced. Men were slavishly bending
+at the footstool of a despot, trembling for life, bowed
+down by fear and misery, when suddenly it was reported
+that a great teacher had appeared for a while
+upon earth, and declared that all men were equal in the
+sight of God, for that God was the Father of all. The
+slave heard this in the intervals of his torture&mdash;the captive
+in his dungeon&mdash;the widow and the orphan. To
+the poor the gospel, or good news, was preached. It
+was this which made the trembling courtiers of the
+worst of the emperors slip out noiselessly from the
+palace, and hear from Paul of Tarsus or his disciples
+the new prospect that was opening on mankind. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span>
+spread quickly among those oppressed and hopeless
+multitudes. The subjection of the Roman empire&mdash;its
+misery and degradation&mdash;were only a means to an end.
+The harsher the laws of the tyrant, the more gracious
+seemed the words of Christ. The two masters were
+plainly set before them, which to choose. And who
+could hesitate? One said, &ldquo;Tremble! suffer! die!&rdquo;
+The other said, &ldquo;Come unto me, all ye that are weary
+and heavy laden, and I will give you rest!&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" /></div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span>
+<a name="SECOND_CENTURY" id="SECOND_CENTURY">SECOND CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Trajan</span>&mdash;(<i>continued.</i>) Third Persecution of the Christians.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">117.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Adrian.</span> Fourth Persecution of the Christians.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">138.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Antoninus Pius.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">161.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Marcus Aurelius.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">180.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Commodus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">193.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Pertinax</span>&mdash;<span class="smcap">Didius</span>, and <span class="smcap">Niger</span>&mdash;Defeated by</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">193.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Septimius Severus.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Pliny the Younger</span>, <span class="smcap">Plutarch</span>, <span class="smcap">Suetonius</span>, <span class="smcap">Juvenal</span>, <span class="smcap">Arrian</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Ælian</span>, <span class="smcap">Ptolemy</span>, (Geographer,) <span class="smcap">Appian</span>, <span class="smcap">Epictetus</span>, <span class="smcap">Pausanias</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Galen</span>, (Physician,) <span class="smcap">Athenæus</span>, <span class="smcap">Tertullian</span>, <span class="smcap">Justin Martyr</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Tatian</span>, <span class="smcap">Irenæus</span>, <span class="smcap">Athenagoras</span>, <span class="smcap">Theophilus of Antioch</span>, <span class="smcap">Clement
+Of Alexandria</span>, <span class="smcap">Marcion</span>, (Heretic.)</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_SECOND_CENTURY" id="THE_SECOND_CENTURY">THE SECOND CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">THE GOOD EMPERORS.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> looking at the second century, we see a total difference
+in the expression, though the main features continue
+unchanged. There is still the central power at
+Rome, the same dependence everywhere else; but the
+central power is beneficent and wise. As if tired of the
+hereditary rule of succession which had ended in such a
+monster as Domitian, the world took refuge in a new
+system of appointing its chiefs, and perhaps thought it
+a recommendation of each successive emperor that he
+had no relationship to the last. We shall accordingly
+find that, after this period, the hereditary principle is
+excluded. It was remarked that, of the twelve first
+Cæsars, only two had died a natural death&mdash;for even in
+the case of Augustus the arts of the poisoner were suspected&mdash;and
+those two were Vespasian and Titus, men
+who had no claim to such an elevation in right of lofty
+birth. Birth, indeed, had ceased to be a recommendation.
+All the great names of the Republic had been carefully
+rooted out. Few people were inclined to boast of their
+ancestry when the proof of their pedigree acted as a sentence
+of death; for there was no surer passport to destruction
+in the times of the early emperors than a connection
+with the Julian line, or descent from a historic family.
+No one, therefore, took the trouble to inquire into the
+genealogy of Nerva, the old and generous man
+who succeeded the monster Domitian. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 96.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>His nomination
+to the empire elevated him at once out of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span>
+sphere of these inquiries, for already the same superstitious
+reverence surrounded the name of Augustus
+which spreads its inviolable sanctity on the throne of
+Eastern monarchs. Whoever sits upon that, by whatever
+title, or however acquired, is the legitimate and
+unquestioned king. No rival, therefore, started up to
+contest the position either of Nerva himself, or of the
+stranger he nominated to succeed him. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 102.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Men bent in
+humble acquiescence when they knew, in the third year
+of this century, that their master was named
+Trajan,&mdash;that he was a Spaniard by birth, and
+the best general of Rome. For eighty years after that
+date the empire had rest. Life and property were comparatively
+secure, and society flowed on peaceably in
+deep and well-ascertained channels. A man might have
+been born at the end of the reign of Domitian, and die
+in extreme old age under the sway of the last of the
+Antonines, and never have known of insecurity or oppression&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i-1">&ldquo;Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Could touch him farther!&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>No wonder those agreeable years were considered by
+the fond gratitude of the time, and the unavailing regrets
+of succeeding generations, the golden age of man.
+Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius
+Antoninus&mdash;these are still great names, and are everywhere
+recognised as the most wonderful succession of
+sovereigns the world has ever seen. They are still called
+the &ldquo;Good Emperors,&rdquo; the &ldquo;Wise Rulers.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>It is easy, indeed, to be good in comparison with Nero,
+and wise in comparison with Claudius; but the effect
+of the example of those infamous tyrants made it
+doubly difficult to be either good or wise. The world
+had become so accustomed to oppression, that it seemed
+at first surprised at the change that had taken place.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span>
+The emperors had to create a knowledge of justice before
+their just acts could be appreciated. The same
+opposition other men have experienced in introducing
+bad and cruel measures was roused by their introduction
+of wise and salutary laws. What! no more summary
+executions, nor forfeitures of fortunes, nor banishments
+to the Danube? All men equal before the dread
+tribunal of the imperial judge? The world was surely
+coming to an end, if the emperor did not now and then
+poison a senator, or stab his brother, or throw half a
+dozen courtiers to the beasts! It is likely enough that
+some of the younger Romans at first lamented those
+days of unlimited license and perpetual excitement;
+but in the course of time those wilder spirits must have
+died out, and the world gladly acquiesced in an existence
+of dull security and uninteresting peace. By the
+end of the reign of Trajan the records of the miseries
+of the last century must have been studied as curiosities&mdash;as
+historical students now look back on the extravagances
+and horrors of the French Revolution. Fortunately,
+men could not look forward to the times, more pitiable
+still, when their descendants should fall into greater
+sorrows than had been inflicted on mankind by the
+worst of the Cæsars, and they enjoyed their present
+immunity from suffering without any misgivings about
+the future. But a government which does every thing
+for a people renders it unable to do any thing for itself.
+The subject stood quietly by while the emperor filled all
+the offices of the State&mdash;guarded him, fed him, clothed
+him, treated him like a child, and reduced him at last
+to childlike dependence. An unjust proconsul, instead
+of being supported and encouraged in his exactions, was
+dismissed from his employment and forced to refund
+his ill-got gains,&mdash;the population, relieved from their
+oppressor, saw in his punishment the hand of an avenging<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span>
+Providence. The wakeful eye of the governor in
+Rome saw the hostile preparations of a tribe of barbarians
+beyond the Danube; and the legions, crossing
+the river, dispersed and subdued them before they had
+time to devastate the Roman fields. The peaceful
+colonist saw, in the suddenness of his deliverance, the
+foresight and benevolence of a divinity. No words were
+powerful enough to convey the sentiments of admiration
+awakened, by such vigour and goodness, in the breast
+of a luxurious and effeminate people; and accordingly,
+if we look a little closely into the personal attributes of
+the five good emperors, we shall see that some part of
+their glory is due to the exaggerations of love and gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>Nerva reigned but sixteen months, and had no time
+to do more than display his kindness of disposition, and
+to name his successor. This was Trajan, a man who
+was not even a Roman by birth, but who was thought
+by his patron to have retained, in the distant province
+of Spain where he was born, the virtues which had disappeared
+in the centre and capital of the empire. The
+deficiency of Nerva&rsquo;s character had been its softness
+and want of force. The stern vigilance of Trajan made
+ample amends. He was the best-known soldier of his
+time, and revived once more the terror of the Roman
+arms. He conquered wherever he appeared; but his
+warlike impetuosity led him too far. He trod in the
+footsteps of Alexander the Great, and advanced farther
+eastward than any of the Roman armies had previously
+done. But his victories were fruitless: he attached no
+new country permanently to the empire, and derives all
+his glory now from the excellence of his internal administration.
+He began his government by declaring himself
+as subordinate to the laws as the meanest of the
+people. His wife, Pompeia Plotina, was worthy of such<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span>
+a husband, and said, on mounting the steps of the
+palace, that she should descend them unaltered from
+what she was. The emperor visited his friends on
+terms of equality, and had the greatness of mind, generally
+deficient in absolute princes, to bestow his confidence
+on those who deserved it. Somebody, a member
+perhaps of the old police who had made such fortunes
+in the time of Domitian by alarming the tyrant with
+stories of plots and assassinations, told Trajan one day
+to beware of his minister, who intended to murder him
+on the first opportunity. &ldquo;Come again, and tell me
+all particulars to-morrow,&rdquo; said the emperor. In the
+mean time he went unbidden and supped with the
+accused. He was shaved by his barber&mdash;was attended
+for a mock illness by his surgeon&mdash;bathed in his bath&mdash;and
+ate his meat and drank his wine. On the following
+day the informer came. &ldquo;Ah!&rdquo; said Trajan, interrupting
+him in his accusation of Surenus, &ldquo;if Surenus had
+wished to kill me, he would have done it last night.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 117.</div>
+
+<p>The emperor died when returning from a distant expedition
+in the East, and Pompeia declared that he
+had long designated Adrian as his successor. This
+evidence was believed, and Adrian, also a Spaniard by
+birth, and eminent as a military commander, began his
+reign. Trajan had been a general&mdash;a conqueror, and
+had extended for a time the boundaries of the Roman
+power. But Adrian believed the empire was large
+enough already. He withdrew the eagles from the half-subdued
+provinces, and contented himself with the
+natural limits which it was easy to defend. But within
+those limits his activity was unexampled. He journeyed
+from end to end of his immense domain, and for seventeen
+years never rested in one spot. News did not
+travel fast in those days&mdash;but the emperor did. Long
+before the inhabitants of Syria and Egypt heard that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span>
+he had left Rome on an expedition to Britain, he had
+rushed through Gaul, crossed the Channel, inquired into
+the proceedings of the government officers at York,
+given orders for a wall to keep out the Caledonians, (an
+attempt which has proved utterly vain at all periods of
+English history, down to the present day,) and suddenly
+made his appearance among the bewildered dwellers in
+Ephesus or Carthage, to call tax-gatherers to order and
+to inspect the discipline of his troops. The master&rsquo;s
+eye was everywhere, for nobody knew on what point it
+was fixed. And such a master no kingdom has been
+able to boast of since. His talents were universal. He
+read every thing and forgot nothing. He was a musician,
+a poet, a philosopher. He studied medicine and
+mineralogy, and plead causes like Cicero, and sang
+like a singer at the opera. Perhaps it is difficult to
+judge impartially of the qualities of a Roman emperor.
+One day he found fault on a point of grammar with a
+learned man of the name of Favorinus. Favorinus
+could have defended himself and justified his language,
+but continued silent. His friends said to him, &ldquo;Why
+didn&rsquo;t you answer the emperor&rsquo;s objections?&rdquo; &ldquo;Do you
+think,&rdquo; said the sensible grammarian, &ldquo;I am going to
+enter into disputes with a man who commands thirty
+legions?&rdquo; But the greatness of Adrian&rsquo;s character is,
+that he <i>did</i> command those thirty legions. He was
+severe and just; and Roman discipline was never more
+exact. The result of this was shown on the grand scale
+only once during this reign, and that was in the case of
+the revolted Jews. We have seen the state to which
+their Temple at Jerusalem was reduced by Titus. Fifty
+years had now passed, and the passionate love of the
+people for their native land had congregated them once
+more within their renovated walls, and raised up another
+temple on the site of the old. They still expected the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span>
+Messiah, for the Messiah to them represented vengeance
+upon the Romans and triumph over the world. An impostor
+of the name of Barcho-chebas led three hundred
+thousand of them into the field. They were mad with
+national hatred, and inspired with fanatical hope. It
+took three years of desperate effort to quell this sedition;
+and then Adrian had his revenge. The country
+was laid waste. Fifty towns and a thousand villages
+were sacked and burned. The population, once more
+nearly exhausted by war and famine, furnished slaves,
+which were sold all over the East. Jerusalem itself felt
+the conqueror&rsquo;s hatred most. Its name was blotted out&mdash;it
+was called Ælia Capitolina; and, with ferocious
+mockery, over the gate of the new capital of Judea was
+affixed the statue of the unclean beast, the abomination
+of the Israelite. But nothing could keep the Jews from
+visiting the land of so many promises and so much glory.
+Whenever they had it in their power, they crept back
+from all quarters, if it were only to weep and die amid
+the ruins of their former power.</p>
+
+<p>Trajan and Adrian had now made the world accustomed
+to justice in its rulers; and as far as regards their
+public conduct, this character is not to be denied. Yet
+in their private relations they were not so faultless.
+Trajan the great and good was a drunkard. To such a
+pitch did he carry this vice, that he gave orders that
+after a certain hour of the day none of his commands
+were to be obeyed. Adrian was worse: he was regardless
+of life; he put men to death for very small offences.
+An architect was asked how he liked a certain series of
+statues designed by the emperor and ranged in a sitting
+attitude round a temple which he had built. The architect
+was a humourist, not a courtier. &ldquo;If the goddesses,&rdquo;
+he said, &ldquo;take it into their heads to rise, they
+will never be able to get out at the door.&rdquo; A poor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span>
+criticism, and not a good piece of wit, but not bad
+enough to justify his being beheaded; yet the answer
+cost the poor man his life. As Adrian grew older, he
+grew more reckless of the pain he gave. He had a
+brother-in-law ninety years of age, and there was a
+grandson of the old man aged eighteen. He had them
+both executed on proof or suspicion of a conspiracy.
+The popular feeling was revolted by the sight of the
+mingled blood of two sufferers so nearly related, at the
+opposite extremities of life. The old man, just before
+he died, protested his innocence, and uttered a revengeful
+prayer that Adrian might wish to die and find death
+impossible! This imprecation was fulfilled. The emperor
+was tortured with disease, and longed for deliverance
+in vain. He called round him his physicians, and
+priests, and sorcerers, but they could give him no relief.
+He begged his slaves to kill him, and stabbed himself
+with a dagger; but in spite of all he could not die.
+Lingering on, and with no cessation of his pain, he
+must have had sad thoughts of the past, and no pleasant
+anticipations of the future, if, as we learn from the verses
+attributed to him, he believed in a future state. His lines
+still remain, but are indebted to Pope, who paraphrased
+them, for their Christian spirit and lofty aspiration:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i-1">&ldquo;Vital spark of heavenly flame!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Quit, oh, quit this mortal frame!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Oh, the pain, the bliss of dying!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And let me languish into life!<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i-1">&ldquo;Hark! they whisper! angels say,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sister spirit, come away!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">What is this absorbs me quite,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Steals my senses, shuts my sight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tell me, my soul, can this be death?<br /></span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i-1">&ldquo;The world recedes; it disappears!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">With sounds seraphic ring:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">O Grave! where is thy victory?<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">O Death! where is thy sting?&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>His wish was at last achieved. He died aged sixty-two,
+having reigned twenty-one years. In travelling
+and building his whole time was spent. Temples, theatres,
+bridges&mdash;wherever he went, these evidences of his wisdom
+or magnificence remained. He persecuted the Christians,
+but found persecution a useless proceeding against a sect
+who gloried in martyrdom, and whose martyrdoms were
+only followed by new conversions. He tried what an
+opposite course of conduct would do, and is said to have
+intended to erect a temple to Jesus Christ. &ldquo;Take care
+what you do,&rdquo; said one of his counsellors: &ldquo;if you
+permit an altar to the God of the Christians, those of
+the other gods will be deserted.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 138.</div>
+
+<p>But now came to supreme authority the good and
+wise Antoninus Pius, who was as blameless in
+his private conduct as in his public acts. His
+fame extended farther than the Roman arms had ever
+reached. Distant kings, in lands of which the names
+were scarcely known in the Forum, took him as arbiter
+of their differences. The decision of the great man in
+Rome gave peace on the banks of the Indus. The barbarians
+themselves on the outskirts of his dominions
+were restrained by respect for a character so pure and
+power so wisely used. An occasional revolt in Britain
+was quelled by his lieutenants&mdash;an occasional conspiracy
+against his authority was caused by the discontent
+which turbulent spirits feel when restrained by law.
+The conspiracies were repressed, and on one occasion
+two of the ringleaders were put to death. The Senate
+was for making further inquiry into the plot. &ldquo;Let us<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span>
+stop here,&rdquo; said the emperor. &ldquo;I do not wish to find
+out how many people I have displeased.&rdquo; Some stories
+are told of him, which show how little he affected the
+state of a despotic ruler. A pedantic philosopher at
+Smyrna, of the name of Polemo, returned from a
+journey at a late hour, and found the proconsul of
+Rome lodged in his house. This proconsul was Antonine,
+who at that time had been appointed to the office
+by Adrian. Instead of being honoured by such a guest,
+the philosopher stormed and raged, and made so much
+noise, that in the middle of the night the sleepless proconsul
+left the house and found quarters elsewhere.
+When years passed on, and Antonine was on the throne,
+Polemo had the audacity to present himself as an old
+acquaintance. &ldquo;Ha! I remember him,&rdquo; said the emperor:
+&ldquo;let him have a room in the palace, but don&rsquo;t let
+him leave it night or day.&rdquo; The imprisonment was not
+long, for we find the same Polemo hero of another anecdote
+during this visit to Rome. He hissed a performer in
+the theatre, and stamped and screeched, and made such
+a disturbance that the unfortunate actor had to leave
+the stage. He complained of Polemo to the emperor.
+&ldquo;Polemo!&rdquo; exclaimed Antonine; &ldquo;he forced you off the
+stage in the middle of the day, but he drove me from his
+house in the middle of the night, and yet I never appealed.&rdquo;
+It would be pleasant if we could learn that
+Polemo did not get off so easily. But the twenty-two
+years of this reign of mildness and probity were brought
+to a close, and Marcus Aurelius succeeded in 161.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 161</div>
+
+<p>Marcus Aurelius did no dishonour to the discernment
+of his friend and adoptive father Antoninus Pius.
+Studying philosophy and practising self-command,
+he emulated and surpassed the virtues of the self-denying
+leaders of his sect, and only broke through the rule he
+imposed on himself of clemency and mildness, when he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span>
+found philosophy in danger of being counted a vain deceit,
+and the active duties of human brotherhood preferred
+to the theoretic rhapsodies on the same subject
+with which his works were filled. Times began to
+change. Men were dissatisfied with the unsubstantial
+dream of Platonist and Stoic. There were symptoms
+of an approaching alteration in human affairs, which
+perplexed the thoughtful and gave promise of impunity
+to the bad. Perhaps a man who, clothed in the imperial
+purple, bestowed so much study on the intellectual
+niceties of the Sophists, and endeavoured to keep his
+mind in a fit state for abstract speculation by scourging
+and starving his body, was not so fitted for the approaching
+crisis as a rougher and less contemplative nature
+would have been. Britain was in commotion, there were
+tumults on the Rhine, and in Armenia the Parthians
+cut the Roman legions to pieces. And scarcely were
+those troubles settled and punished, when a worse
+calamity befell the Roman empire. Its inviolability became
+a boast of the past. The fearful passions for conquest
+and rapine of the border-barbarians were roused.
+Barbaric cohorts encamped on the fields of Italy, and
+the hosts of wild men from the forests of the North pillaged
+the heaped-up treasures of the garden of the world.
+The emperor flew to the scene of danger, but the fatal
+word had been said. Italy was accessible from the Alps
+and from the sea; and, though a bloody defeat at Aquileia
+flung back the invaders, disordered and dispirited, over
+the mountains they had descended with such hopes, the
+struggle was but begun. The barbarians felt their
+power, and the old institutions of Rome were insufficient
+to resist future attacks. But to the aid of the old
+Roman institutions a new institution came, an institution
+which was destined to repel the barbarians by overcoming
+barbarism itself, and save the dignity of Rome<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>
+by giving it the protection of the Cross. But at present&mdash;that
+is, during the reign of the philosophic Marcus
+Aurelius&mdash;a persecution raged against the Christians
+which seemed to render hopeless all chance of their
+success. The mild laws of Trajan and Adrian, and the
+favourable decrees of Antoninus Pius, were set aside by
+the contemptuous enmity of this explorer of the mysterious
+heights of virtue, which occasionally carried him
+out of sight of the lower but more important duties of
+life. An unsocial tribe the Christians were, who rigorously
+shut their eyes to the beauties of abstract perfection,
+and preferred the plain orders of the gospel to the
+most ambitious periods of the emperor. But the persecution
+of a sect so small and so obscure as the Christian
+was at that time, is scarcely perceptible as a diminution
+of the sum of human happiness secured to the
+world by the gentleness and equity which regulated all
+his actions. Here is an example of the way in which he
+treated rebels against his authority. An insurrection
+broke out in Syria and the East, headed by a pretended
+descendant of the patriot Cassius, who had conspired
+against Julius Cæsar. The emperor hurried to meet
+him&mdash;some say to resign the empire into his hands, to
+prevent the effusion of blood; but the usurper died in
+an obscure commotion, and nothing was left but to take
+vengeance on his adherents. This is the letter the conqueror
+wrote to the Senate:&mdash;&ldquo;I beseech you, conscript
+Fathers! not to punish the guilty with too much rigour.
+Let no Senator be put to death. Let the banished return
+to their country. I wish I could give back their
+lives to those who have died in this quarrel. Revenge
+is unworthy of an emperor. You will pardon, therefore,
+the children of Cassius, his son-in-law, and his wife.
+Pardon, did I say? Ah! what crime have they committed?
+Let them live in safety, let them retain all
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span>
+that Cassius possessed. Let them live in whatever
+place they choose, to be a monument of your clemency
+and mine.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>In such hands as these the fortune of mankind was
+safe. A pity that the father&rsquo;s feelings got the better of
+his judgment in the choice of his successor. It is the
+one blot on his otherwise perfect disinterestedness. In
+dying, with such a monster as Commodus ready to leap
+into his seat, he must have felt how inexpressibly valuable
+his life would be to the Roman people. He perhaps
+saw the danger to which he exposed the world; for he
+committed his son to the care of his wisest counsellors,
+and begged him to continue the same course of government
+he had pursued. Perhaps he was tired of life, perhaps
+he sought refuge in his self-denying philosophy from
+the prospect he saw before him of a state of perpetual
+struggle and eventual overthrow. When the Tribune
+came for the last time to ask the watchword of the day,
+&ldquo;Go to the rising sun,&rdquo; he said; &ldquo;for me, I am just
+going to set.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>And here the history of the Second Century should
+close. It is painful to go back again to the hideous
+scenes of anarchy and crime from which we have been
+delivered so long. What must the sage counsellors, the
+chosen companions and equals in age of the Antonines,
+have thought when all at once the face of affairs, which
+they must have believed eternal, was changed?&mdash;when
+the noblest and wisest in the land were again thrown
+heedlessly into the arena without trial?&mdash;when spies
+watched every meal, and the ferocious murderer on the
+throne seemed to gloat over the struggles of his victims?
+Yet, if they had reflected on the inevitable course of
+events, they must have seen that a government depending
+on the character of one man could never be
+relied on. Where, indeed, could any element of security<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span>
+be found? The very ground-work of society was overthrown.
+There was no independent body erect amid
+the general prostration at the footstool of the emperor.
+Local self-government had ceased except in name. All
+the towns which hitherto had been subordinate to Rome,
+but endowed at the same time with privileges which
+were worth defending, had been absorbed into the great
+whirlpool of imperial centralization, and were admitted
+to the rights of Roman citizenship,&mdash;now of little value,
+since it embraced every quarter of the empire. Jupiter
+and Juno, and the herd of effete gods and goddesses,
+if they had ever held any practical influence over the
+minds of men, had long sunk into contempt, except in
+so far as their rich establishments were defended by
+persons interested in their maintenance, and the processions
+and gaudy display of a foul and meretricious worship
+were pleasing to the depraved taste of the mob.
+But the religious principle, as a motive of action, or as
+a point of combination, was at an end. Augurs were
+still appointed, and laughed at the uselessness of their
+office; oracles were still uttered, and ridiculed as the
+offspring of ignorance and imposture; conflicting deities
+fought for pre-eminence, or compromised their differences
+by an amalgamation of their altars, and perhaps a division
+of their estates. It was against this state of society
+the early Fathers directed their warnings and denunciations.
+The world did certainly lie in darkness, and it
+was indispensable to warn the followers of Christ not
+to be conformed to the fashion of that fleeting time.
+Some, to escape the contagion of this miserable condition,
+when men were without hope, and without even
+the wretched consolation which a belief in a false god
+would have given them, fled to the wilds and caves.
+Hermits escaped equally the perils of sin and the hostility
+of the heathen. Believers were exhorted to flee<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span>
+from contamination, and some took the words in their
+literal meaning. But not all. Many remained, and
+fought the good fight in the front of the battle, as
+became the soldiers of the cross. In the midst of the
+anarchy and degradation which characterized the last
+years of the century, a society was surely and steadily
+advancing towards its full development, bound by rules
+in the midst of the helplessness of external law, and
+combined by strong faith, in a world of utter unbelief&mdash;an
+empire within an empire&mdash;soon to be the only specimen
+left either of government or mutual obligation, and
+finally to absorb into its fresh and still-spreading organization
+the withered and impotent authority which had
+at first seen in it its enemy and destroyer, and found
+it at last its refuge and support. Yet at this very time
+the empire had never appeared so strong. By a stroke
+of policy, which the event proved to be injudicious,
+Marcus Aurelius, in the hope of diminishing the number
+of his enemies, had converted many thousands of the
+barbarians into his subjects. They had settlements
+assigned them within the charmed ring. What they
+had not been able to obtain by the sword was now
+assured to them by treaty. But the unity of the Roman
+empire by this means was destroyed. Men were admitted
+within the citadel who had no reverence implanted
+in them from their earliest years for the majesty
+of the Roman name. They saw the riches contained in
+the stronghold, and were only anxious to open the gates
+to their countrymen who were still outside the walls.</p>
+
+<p>But before we enter on the downward course, and
+since we are now arrived at the period of the greatest
+apparent force and extent of the Roman empire, let us
+see what it consisted of, and what was the real amount
+of its power.</p>
+
+<p>Viewed in comparison with some of the monarchies<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span>
+of the present day, neither its extent of territory, nor
+amount of population, nor number of soldiers, is very
+surprising. The Queen of England reigns over more
+subjects, and commands far mightier fleets and armies,
+than any of the Roman emperors. The empire of
+Russia is more extensive, and yet the historians of a few
+generations ago are lost in admiration of the power of
+Rome. The whole military force of the empire amounted
+to four hundred and fifty thousand men. The total
+number of vessels did not exceed a thousand. But see
+what were the advantages Rome possessed in the compactness
+of its territory and the unity of its government.
+The great Mediterranean Sea, peopled and cultivated on
+both its shores, was but a peaceful lake, on which the
+Roman galley had no enemy to fear, and the merchant-ship
+dreaded nothing but the winds and waves. There
+were no fortresses to be garrisoned on what are now the
+boundaries of jealous or hostile kingdoms. If the great
+circuit of the Roman State could be protected from barbarian
+inroads, the internal defence of all that vast enclosure
+could be left to the civil power. If the Black
+Sea and the Sea of Azoff could be kept clear of piratical
+adventurers, the broad highway of the Mediterranean
+was safe. A squadron near Gibraltar, a squadron at the
+Dardanelles, and the tribes which might possibly venture
+in from the ocean&mdash;the tribes which, slipping down from
+the Don or the Dnieper, might thread their way through
+the Hellespont and emerge into the Egean&mdash;were caught
+at their first appearance; and when the wisdom of the
+Romans had guarded the mouths of the Danube from
+the descent, in canoe or coracle, of the wild settlers on
+its upper banks, the peace and commerce of the whole
+empire were secured. With modern Europe the case is
+very different. There are boundaries to be guarded
+which occupy more soldiers than the territories are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>
+worth. Lines are arbitrarily fixed across the centre of
+a plain, or along the summit of a mountain, which it is
+a case of war to pass. Belgium defends her flats with a
+hundred thousand men, and the marshes of Holland are
+secured by sixty thousand Dutch. The State of Dessau
+in Germany, threatens its neighbours with fifteen hundred
+soldiers, while Reuss guards its dignity and independence
+with three hundred infantry and fifty horse.
+But the Great Powers, as they are called, take away
+from the peaceable and remunerative employments of
+trade or agriculture an amount of labour which would
+be an incalculable increase to the riches and happiness
+of the world. The aggregate soldiery of Europe is upwards
+of five millions of men,&mdash;just eleven times the
+largest calculation of the Roman legions. The ships of
+Europe&mdash;to the smaller of which the greatest galleys of
+the ancient world would scarcely serve as tenders&mdash;amount
+to 2113. The number of guns they carry, against
+which there is nothing we can take as a measure of
+value in ancient warfare, but which are now the greatest
+and surest criterions of military power, amounts to
+45,367. But this does not give so clear a view of the
+alteration in relative power as is yielded by an inspection
+of some of the separate items. Gaul, included
+within the Rhine, was kept in order by six or seven
+legions. The French empire has on foot an army of six
+hundred and fifty thousand men, and a fleet of four hundred
+sail. Britain, which was garrisoned by thirty
+thousand men, had, in 1855, an army at home and abroad
+of six hundred and sixty thousand men, and a fleet of
+five hundred and ninety-one ships of war, with an armament
+of seventeen thousand guns. The disjointed States
+which now constitute the Empire of Austria, and which
+occupied eight legions in their defence, are now in possession
+of an army of six hundred thousand men; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>
+Prussia, whose array exceeds half a million of soldiers,
+was unheard of except in the discussions of geographers.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 181.</div>
+
+<p>With the death of the excellent Marcus Aurelius the
+golden age came to a close. Commodus sat on
+the throne, and renewed the wildest atrocities
+of the previous century. Nero was not more cruel&mdash;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span>Domitian
+was not so reckless of human life. He fought
+in the arena against weakly-armed adversaries, and
+slew them without remorse. He polluted the whole city
+with blood, and made money by selling permissions to
+murder. Thirteen years exhausted the patience of the
+world, and a justifiable assassination put an end to his life.
+There was an old man of the name of Pertinax, originally
+a nickname derived from his obstinate or pertinacious
+disposition, who now made his appearance on the throne
+and perished in three months. It chanced that a certain
+rich man of the name of Didius was giving a supper the
+night of the murder to some friends. The dishes were
+rich, and the wine delicious. Inspired by the good cheer,
+the guests said, &ldquo;Why don&rsquo;t you buy the empire? The
+soldiers have proclaimed that they will give it to the
+highest bidder.&rdquo; Didius knew the amount of his treasure,
+and was ambitious: he got up from table and hurried to
+the Prætorian camp. On the way he met the mutilated
+body of the murdered Pertinax, dragged through the
+streets with savage exultation. Nothing daunted, he
+arrived at the soldiers&rsquo; tents. Another had been before
+him&mdash;Sulpician, the father-in-law and friend of the late
+emperor. A bribe had been offered to each soldier, so
+large that they were about to conclude the bargain; but
+Didius bade many sesterces more. The greedy soldiery
+looked from one to the other, and shouted with delight,
+as each new advance was made. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 193.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>At last Sulpician was
+silent, and Didius had purchased the Roman world
+at the price of upwards of £200 to each soldier
+of the Prætorian guard. He entered the palace in state,
+and concluded the supper, which had been interrupted
+at his own house, on the viands prepared for Pertinax.
+But the excitement of the auction-room was too pleasant
+to be left to the troops in Rome. Offers were made to
+the legions in all the provinces, and Didius was threatened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>
+on every side. Even the distant garrisons of Britain
+named a candidate for the throne; and Claudius Albinus
+assumed the imperial purple, and crossed over into Gaul.
+More irritated still, the army in Syria elected its general,
+Pescennius Niger, emperor, and he prepared to dispute
+the prize; but quietly, steadily, with stern face and unrelenting
+heart, advancing from province to province,
+keeping his forces in strict subjection, and laying claim
+to supreme authority by the mere strength of his indomitable
+will, came forward Septimius Severus, and
+both the pretenders saw that their fate was sealed.
+Illyria and Gaul recognised his title at once. Albinus
+was happy to accept from him the subordinate title of
+Cæsar, and to rule as his lieutenant. Didius, whose bargain
+turned out rather ill, besought him to be content
+with half the empire. Severus slew the messengers
+who brought this proposition, and advanced in grim
+silence. The Senate assembled, and, by way of a
+pleasant reception for the Illyrian chief, requested
+Didius to prepare for death. The executioners found
+him clinging to life with unmanly tenacity, and killed
+him when he had reigned but seventy days. One other
+competitor remained, the general of the Syrian army&mdash;the
+closest friend of Severus, but now separated from
+him by the great temptation of an empire in dispute.
+This was Niger, from whom an obstinate resistance was
+expected, as he was equally famous for his courage and
+his skill. But fortune was on the side of Severus. Niger
+was conquered after a short struggle, and his head presented
+to the victor. Was Albinus still to live, and approach
+so near the throne as to have the rank of Cæsar?
+Assassins were employed to murder him, but he escaped
+their assault. The treachery of Severus brought many
+supporters to his rival. The Roman armies were ranged
+in hostile camps. Severus again was fortunate, and Albinus,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span>
+dashing towards him to engage in combat, was
+slain before his eyes. He watched his dying agonies
+for some time, and then forced his horse to trample on
+the corpse. A man of harsh, implacable nature&mdash;not so
+much cruel as impenetrable to human feelings, and perhaps
+forming a just estimate of the favourable effect
+upon his fortunes of a disposition so calm, and yet so
+relentless. The Prætorians found they had appointed
+their master, and put the sword into his hand. He used
+it without remorse. He terrified the boldest with his
+imperturbable stillness; he summoned the seditious
+soldiery to wait on him at his camp. They were to
+come without arms, without their military dress, almost
+like suppliants, certainly not like the ferocious libertines
+they had been when they had sold the empire at
+the highest price. &ldquo;Whoever of you wishes to live,&rdquo;
+said Severus, frowning coldly, &ldquo;will depart from this,
+and never come within thirty leagues of Rome. Take
+their horses,&rdquo; he added to the other troops who had
+surrounded the Prætorians, &ldquo;take their accoutrements,
+and chase them out of my sight.&rdquo; Did the Senate
+receive a milder treatment? On sending them the head
+of Albinus, he had written to the Conscript Fathers
+alarming them with the most dreadful threats. And
+now the time of execution had come. He made them
+an oration in praise of the proscriptions of Marius and
+Sylla, and forced them to deify the tyrant Commodus,
+who had hated them all his life. He then gave a signal
+to his train, and the streets ran with blood. All who
+had borne high office, all who were of distinguished
+birth, all who were famous for their wealth or popular
+with the citizens, were put to death. He crossed over
+to England and repressed a sedition there. His son
+Caracalla accompanied him, and commenced his career
+of warlike ardour and frightful ferocity, which can only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span>
+be explained on the ground of his being mad. He tried
+even to murder his father, in open day, in the sight of
+the soldiers. He was stealing upon the old man, when
+a cry from the legion made him turn round. His inflexible
+eye fell upon Caracalla&mdash;the sword dropped from
+his unfilial hand&mdash;and dreadful anticipations of vengeance
+filled the assembly. The son was pardoned, but his accomplices,
+whether truly or falsely accused, perished by
+cruel deaths. At last the emperor felt his end approach.
+He summoned his sons Caracalla and Geta into his presence,
+recommended them to live in unity, and ended by
+the advice which has become the standing maxim of
+military despots, &ldquo;Be generous to the soldiers, and
+trample on all beside.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>With this hideous incarnation of unpitying firmness
+on the throne&mdash;hopeless of the future, and with dangers
+accumulating on every side, the Second Century came to
+an end, leaving the amazing contrast between its miserable
+close and the long period of its prosperity by which
+it will be remembered in all succeeding time.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span>
+<a name="THIRD_CENTURY" id="THIRD_CENTURY">THIRD CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Septimius Severus</span>&mdash;(<i>continued.</i>) Fifth Persecution of the Christians.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">211.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Caracalla</span> and <span class="smcap">Geta</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">217.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Macrinus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">218.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Heliogabalus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">222.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Alexander Severus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">235.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Maximin.</span> Sixth Persecution.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">238.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Maximus</span> and <span class="smcap">Balbinus</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">238.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Gordian.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">244.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip the Arabian.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">249.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Decius.</span> Seventh Persecution.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">251.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Vibius.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">251.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Gallus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">254.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Valerian.</span> Eighth Persecution.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">260.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Gallien.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">268.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Claudius the Second.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">270.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Aurelian.</span> Ninth Persecution.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">275.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Tacitus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">276.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Florian.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">277.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Probus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">278.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Carus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">278.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Carinus</span> and <span class="smcap">Numerian</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">284.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Diocletian</span> and <span class="smcap">Maximian</span>. Tenth and Last Persecution.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Clement of Alexandria</span>, <span class="smcap">Dion Cassius</span>, <span class="smcap">Origen</span>, <span class="smcap">Cyprian</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Plotinus</span>, <span class="smcap">Longinus</span>, <span class="smcap">Hippolitus Portuensis</span>, <span class="smcap">Julius Africanus
+Celsus</span>, <span class="smcap">Origen</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_THIRD_CENTURY" id="THE_THIRD_CENTURY">THE THIRD CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">ANARCHY AND CONFUSION&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;GROWTH OF THE CHRISTIAN
+CHURCH.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span> are now in the twelfth year of the Third Century.
+Septimius Severus has died at York, and Caracalla is let
+loose like a famished tiger upon Rome. He invites his
+brother Geta to meet him to settle some family feud in
+the apartment of their mother, and stabs him in her
+arms. The rest of his reign is worthy of this beginning,
+and it would be fatiguing and perplexing to the memory
+to record his other acts. Fortunately it is not required;
+nor is it necessary to follow minutely the course of his
+successors. What we require is only a general view of
+the proceedings of this century, and that can be gained
+without wading through all the blood and horrors with
+which the throne of the world is surrounded. Conclusive
+evidence was obtained in this century that the
+organization of Roman government was defective in
+securing the first necessities of civilized life. When we
+talk of civilization, we are too apt to limit the meaning
+of the word to its mere embellishments, such as arts and
+sciences; but the true distinction between it and barbarism
+is, that the one presents a state of society under
+the protection of just and well-administered law, and
+the other is left to the chance government of brute force.
+There was now great wealth in Rome&mdash;great luxury&mdash;a
+high admiration of painting, poetry, and sculpture&mdash;much
+learning, and probably infinite refinement of
+manners and address. But it was not a civilized state.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span>
+Life was of no value&mdash;property was not secure. A
+series of madmen seized supreme authority, and overthrew
+all the distinctions between right and wrong.
+Murder was legalized, and rapine openly encouraged.
+It is a sort of satisfaction to perceive that few of those
+atrocious malefactors escaped altogether the punishment
+of their crimes. If Caracalla slays his brother and
+orders a peaceable province to be destroyed, there is a
+Macrinus at hand to put the monster to death. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 218.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>But
+Macrinus, relying on the goodness of his intentions,
+neglects the soldiery, and is supplanted by
+a boy of seventeen&mdash;so handsome that he won the admiration
+of the rudest of the legionaries, and so gentle
+and captivating in his manners that he strengthened
+the effect his beauty had produced. He was priest of
+the Temple of the Sun at Emesa in Ph&oelig;nicia; and by
+the arts of his grandmother, who was sister to one of
+the former empresses, and the report that she cunningly
+spread abroad that he was the son of their
+favourite Caracalla, the affection of the dissolute soldiery
+knew no bounds. Macrinus was soon slaughtered, and
+the long-haired priest of Baal seated on the throne of
+the Cæsars, under the name of Heliogabalus. As might
+be expected, the sudden alteration in his fortunes was
+fatal to his character. All the excesses of his predecessors
+were surpassed. His extravagance rapidly exhausted
+the resources of the empire. His floors were
+spread with gold-dust. His dresses, jewels, and golden
+ornaments were never worn twice, but went to his
+slaves and parasites. He created his grandmother a
+member of the Senate, with rank next after the consuls;
+and established a rival Senate, composed of ladies, presided
+over by his mother. Their jurisdiction was not
+very hurtful to the State, for it only extended to dresses
+and precedence of ranks, and the etiquette to be observed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span>
+in visiting each other. But the evil dispositions of the
+emperor were shown in other ways. He had a cousin of
+the name of Alexander, and entertained an unbounded
+jealousy of his popularity with the soldiers. Attempts
+at poison and direct assassination were resorted to in
+vain. The public sympathy began to rise in his favour.
+The Prætorians formally took him under their protection;
+and when Heliogabalus, reckless of their menaces,
+again attempted the life of Alexander, the troops revolted,
+proclaimed death to the infatuated emperor, and
+slew him and his mother at the same time.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 222.</div>
+
+<p>Alexander was now enthroned&mdash;a youth of sixteen;
+gifted with higher qualities than the debased
+century in which he lived could altogether appreciate.
+But the origin of his noblest sentiments is
+traced to the teaching he had received from his mother,
+in which the precepts of Christianity were not omitted.
+When he appointed the governor of a province, he published
+his name some time before, and requested if any
+one knew of a disqualification, to have it sent in for his
+consideration. &ldquo;It is thus the Christians appoint their
+pastors,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;and I will do the same with my representatives.&rdquo;
+When his justice, moderation, and equity
+were fully recognised, the beauty of the quotation, which
+was continually in his mouth, was admired by all,
+even though they were ignorant of the book it came
+from: &ldquo;Do unto others as you would that they should
+do unto you.&rdquo; He trusted the wisest of his counsellors,
+the great legalists of the empire, with the introduction
+of new laws to curb the wickedness of the time. But
+the multiplicity of laws proves the decline of states.
+In the ancient Rome of the kings and earlier consuls,
+the statutes were contained in forty decisions, which
+were afterwards enlarged into the laws of the Twelve
+Tables, consisting of one hundred and fifty texts. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span>
+profligacy of some emperors, the vanity of others, had
+loaded the statute-book with an innumerable mass of
+edicts, senatus-consultums, prætorial rescripts, and customary
+laws. It was impossible to extract order or
+regularity from such a chaos of conflicting rules. The
+great work was left for a later prince; at present we
+can only praise the goodness of the emperor&rsquo;s intention.
+But Alexander, justly called Severus, from the simplicity
+of his life and manners, has held the throne too
+long. The Prætorians have been thirteen years without
+the donation consequent on a new accession.</p>
+
+<p>Among the favourite leaders selected by Alexander
+for their military qualifications was one Maximin, a
+Thracian peasant, of whose strength and stature incredible
+things are told. He was upwards of eight feet high,
+could tire down a horse at the gallop on foot, could
+break its leg by a blow of his hand, could overthrow
+thirty wrestlers without drawing breath, and maintained
+this prodigious force by eating forty pounds of meat,
+and drinking an amphora and a half, or twelve quarts,
+of wine. This giant had the bravery for which his
+countrymen the Goths have always been celebrated.
+He rose to high rank in the Roman service; and when
+at last nothing seemed to stand between him and the
+throne but his patron and benefactor, ambition blinded
+him to every thing but his own advancement. He murdered
+the wise and generous Alexander, and presented
+for the first time in history the spectacle of a barbarian
+master of the Roman world. Other emperors had been
+born in distant portions of the empire; an African had
+trampled on Roman greatness in the person of Septimius
+Severus; a Ph&oelig;nician priest had disgraced the
+purple in the person of Heliogabalus; Africa, however,
+was a Roman province, and Emesa a Roman town. But
+here sat the colossal representative of the terrible Goths<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span>
+of Thrace, speaking a language half Getic, half Latin,
+which no one could easily understand; fierce, haughty,
+and revengeful, and cherishing a ferocious hatred of the
+subjects who trembled before him&mdash;a hatred probably
+implanted in him in his childhood by the patriotic songs
+with which the warriors of his tribe kept alive their
+enmity and contempt for the Roman name. The Roman
+name had indeed by this time lost all its authority. The
+army, recruited from all parts of the empire, and including
+a great number of barbarians in its ranks, was
+no longer a bulwark against foreign invasion. Maximin,
+bestowing the chief commands on Pannonians and other
+mercenaries, treated the empire as a conquered country.
+He seized on all the wealth he could discover&mdash;melted
+all the golden statues, as valuable from their artistic
+beauty as for the metal of which they were composed&mdash;and
+was threatening an approach to Rome to exterminate
+the Senate and sack the devoted town. In this
+extremity the Senate resumed its long-forgotten power,
+and named as emperors two men of the name of Gordian&mdash;father
+and son&mdash;with instructions &ldquo;to resist the
+enemy.&rdquo; But father and son perished in a few weeks,
+and still the terrible Goth came on. His son, a giant
+like himself, but beautiful as the colossal statue of a
+young Apollo, shared in all the feelings of his father.
+Terrified at its approaching doom, the Senate once more
+nominated two men to the purple, Maximus and Balbinus:
+Balbinus, the favourite, perhaps, of the aristocracy,
+by the descent he claimed from an illustrious
+ancestry; while Maximus recommended himself to the
+now perverted taste of the commonalty by having been
+a carter. Neither was popular with the army; and, to
+please the soldiers, a son or nephew of the younger
+Gordian was associated with them on the throne. But
+nothing could have resisted the infuriated legions of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>
+gigantic Maximin; they were marching with wonderful
+expedition towards their revenge. At Aquileia they
+met an opposition; the town shut its gates and manned
+its walls, for it knew what would be the fate of a city
+given up to the tender mercies of the Goths. Meanwhile
+the approach of the destroyer produced great
+agitation in Rome. The people rose upon the Prætorians,
+and enlisted the gladiators on their side. Many
+thousands were slain, and at last a peace was made by
+the intercession of the youthful Gordian. Glad of the
+cessation of this civic tumult, the population of Rome
+betook itself to the theatres and shows. Suddenly, while
+the games were going on, it was announced that the
+army before Aquileia had mutinied and that both the
+Maximins were slain. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 235.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>All at once the amphitheatre
+was emptied; by an impulse of grateful
+piety, the emperors and people hurried into the temples
+of the gods, and offered up thanks for their deliverance.
+The wretched people were premature in their rejoicing.
+In less than three months the spoiled Prætorians were
+offended with the precaution taken by the emperors in
+surrounding themselves with German guards. They
+assaulted the palace, and put Maximus and Balbinus
+to death. Gordian the Third was now sole emperor,
+and the final struggle with the barbarians drew nearer
+and nearer.</p>
+
+<p>Constantly crossing the frontiers, and willingly received
+in the Roman ranks, the communities who had
+been long settled on the Roman confines were not the
+utterly uncultivated tribes which their name would seem
+to denote. There was a conterminous civilization which
+made the two peoples scarcely distinguishable at their
+point of contact, but which died off as the distance
+from the Roman line increased. Thus, an original settler
+on the eastern bank of the Rhine was probably as cultivated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span>
+and intelligent as a Roman colonist on the other
+side; but farther up, at the Weser and the Elbe, the old
+ferocity and roughness remained. Fresh importations
+from the unknown East were continually taking place;
+the dwellers in the plains of Pannonia, now habituated
+to pasturage and trade, found safety from the hordes
+which pressed upon them from their own original settlements
+beyond the Caucasus, by crossing the boundary
+river; and by this means the banks were held by cognate
+but hostile peoples, who could, however, easily be reconciled
+by a joint expedition against Rome. New combinations
+had taken place in the interior of the great
+expanses not included in the Roman limits. The Germans
+were no longer the natural enemies of the empire.
+They furnished many soldiers for its defence, and several
+chiefs to command its forces. But all round the external
+circuit of those half-conciliated tribes rose up vast confederacies
+of warlike nations. There were Cheruski, and
+Sicambri, and Attuarians, and Bruttuarians, and Catti,
+all regularly enrolled under the name of &ldquo;Franks,&rdquo; or
+the brave. The Sarmatians or Sclaves performed the
+same part on the northeastern frontier; and we have
+already seen that the irresistible Goths had found their
+way, one by one, across the boundary, and cleared the
+path for their successors. The old enemies of Rome on
+the extreme east, the Parthians, had fallen under the
+power of a renovated mountain-race, and of a king, who
+founded the great dynasty of the Sassanides, and claimed
+the restoration of Egypt and Armenia as ancient dependencies
+of the Persian crown. To resist all these,
+there was, in the year 241, only a gentle-tempered youth,
+dressed in the purple which had so lost its original grandeur,
+and relying for his guidance on the wisdom of his
+tutors, and for his life on the forbearance of the Prætorians.
+The tutors were wise and just, and victory at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span>
+first gave some sort of dignity to the reign of Gordian.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 244.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The Franks were conquered at Mayence; but Gordian,
+three years after, was murdered in the East; and
+Philip, an Arabian, whose father had been a
+robber of the desert, was acknowledged emperor by
+senate and army. Treachery, ambition, and murder
+pursued their course. There was no succession to the
+throne. Sometimes one general, luckier or wiser than
+the rest, appeared the sole governor of the State. At
+other times there were numberless rivals all claiming
+the empire and threatening vengeance on their opponents.
+Yet amidst this tumult of undistinguishable
+pretenders, fortune placed at the head of affairs some
+of the best and greatest men whom the Roman world
+ever produced. There was Valerian, whom all parties
+agreed in considering the most virtuous and enlightened
+man of his time. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 253.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Scarcely any opposition
+was made to his promotion; and yet, with all his
+good qualities, he was the man to whom Rome owed the
+greatest degradation it had yet sustained. He was
+taken prisoner by Sapor, the Persian king, and condemned,
+with other captive monarchs, to draw the car
+of his conqueror. No offers of ransom could deliver the
+brave and unfortunate prince. He died amid his deriding
+enemies, who hung up his skin as an offering to
+their gods. Then, after some years, in which there were
+twenty emperors at one time, with army drawn up
+against army, and cities delivered to massacre and rapine
+by all parties in turn, there arose one of the strong
+minds which make themselves felt throughout a whole
+period, and arrest for a while the downward course of
+states. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 276.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The emperor Probus, son of a man who
+had originally been a gardener, had distinguished
+himself under Aurelian, the conqueror of Palmyra, and,
+having survived all his competitors, had time to devote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span>
+himself to the restoration of discipline and the introduction
+of purer laws. His victories over the encroaching
+barbarians were decided, but ineffectual. New myriads
+still pressed forward to take the place of the slain. On
+one occasion he crossed the Rhine in pursuit of the revolted
+Germans, overtook them at the Necker, and
+killed in battle four hundred thousand men. Nine kings
+threw themselves at the emperor&rsquo;s feet. Many thousand
+barbarians enlisted in the Roman army. Sixty great
+cities were taken, and made offerings of golden crowns.
+The whole country was laid waste. &ldquo;There was nothing
+left,&rdquo; he boasted to the Senate, &ldquo;but bare fields, as if
+they had never been cultivated.&rdquo; So much the worse
+for the Romans. The barbarians looked with keener
+eyes across the river at the rich lands which had never
+been ravaged, and sent messages to all the tribes in the
+distant forests, that, having no occasion for pruning-hooks,
+they had turned them into swords. But Probus
+showed a still more doubtful policy in other quarters.
+When he conquered the Vandals and Burgundians, he
+sent their warriors to keep the Caledonians in subjection
+on the Tyne. The Britons he transported to M&oelig;sia or
+Greece. What intermixtures of race may have arisen
+from these transplantations it is impossible to say; but
+the one feeling was common to all the barbarians, that
+Rome was weak and they were strong. He settled a
+large detachment of Franks on the shores of the Black
+Sea; and of these an almost incredible but well-authenticated
+story is told. They seized or built themselves
+boats. They swept through the Dardanelles, and ravaged
+the isles of Greece. They pursued their piratical career
+down the Mediterranean, passed the pillars of Hercules
+into the Great Sea, and, rounding Spain and France, rowed
+up the Elbe into the midst of their astonished countrymen,
+who had long given them up for dead. A fatal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span>
+adventure this for the safety of the Roman shores; for
+there were the wild fishermen of Friesland, and the
+audacious Angles of Schleswig and Holstein, who heard
+of this strange exploit, and saw that no coast was too
+distant to be reached by their oar and sail. But if these
+forced settlements of barbarians on Roman soil were impolitic,
+the generous Probus did not feel their bad effect.
+His warlike qualities awed his foes, and his inflexible
+justice was appreciated by the hardy warriors of the
+North, who had not yet sunk under the debasing civilization
+of Rome. In Asia his arms were attended with
+equal success. He subdued the Persians, and extended
+his conquests into Ethiopia and the farthest regions of
+the East, bringing back some of its conquered natives to
+swell the triumph at Rome and terrify the citizens with
+their strange and hideous appearance. But Probus himself
+must yield to the law which regulated the fate
+of Roman emperors. He died by treachery and the
+sword. All that the empire could do was to join in the
+epitaph pronounced over him by the barbarians, &ldquo;Here
+lies the emperor Probus, whose life and actions corresponded
+to his name.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Three or four more fantastic figures, &ldquo;which the likeness
+of a kingly crown have on,&rdquo; pass before our eyes,
+and at last we observe the powerful and substantial form
+of Diocletian, and feel once more we have to do
+with a real man. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 284.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>A Druidess, we are told, had
+prophesied that he should attain his highest wish if he
+killed a wild boar. In all his hunting expeditions he
+was constantly on the look-out, spear in hand, for an encounter
+with the long-tusked monster. Unluckily for a
+man who had offended Diocletian before, and who had
+basely murdered his predecessor, his name was Aper;
+and unluckily, also, <i>aper</i> is Latin for a boar. This fact
+will perhaps be thought to account for the prophecy. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>
+accounts, at all events, for its fulfilment; for, the wretched
+Aper being led before the throne, Diocletian descended
+the steps and plunged a dagger into his chest, exclaiming,
+&ldquo;I have killed the wild boar of the prediction.&rdquo;
+This is a painful example of how unlucky it is to have
+a name that can be punned upon. Determined to secure
+the support of what he thought the strongest body in
+the State, he gratified the priests by the severest of all
+the many persecutions to which the Christians had been
+exposed. By way of further showing his adhesion to
+the old faith, he solemnly assumed the name of Jove,
+and bestowed on his partner on the throne the inferior
+title of Hercules. In spite of these truculent and absurd
+proceedings, Diocletian was not altogether destitute of
+the softer feelings. The friend he associated with him
+on the throne&mdash;dividing the empire between them as too
+large a burden for one to sustain&mdash;was called Maximian.
+They had both originally been slaves, and had neither
+of them received a liberal education. Yet they protected
+the arts, they encouraged literature, and were the
+patrons of modest merit wherever it could be found.
+They each adopted a Cæsar, or lieutenant of the empire,
+and hoped that, by a legal division of duties among four,
+the ambition of their generals would be prevented. But
+the limits of the empire were too extended even for the
+vigilance of them all. In Britain, Carausius raised the
+standard of revolt, giving it the noble name of national
+independence; and, with the instinctive wisdom which
+has been the safeguard of our island ever since, he
+rested his whole chance of success upon his fleet. Invasion
+was rendered impossible by the care with which he
+guarded the shore, and it is not inconceivable that even
+at that early time the maritime career of Britain might
+have been begun and maintained, if treason, as usual,
+had not cut short the efforts of Carausius, who was soon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span>
+after murdered by his friend Allectus. The subdivision
+of the empire was a successful experiment as regarded
+its external safety, but within, it was the cause of bitter
+complaining. There were four sumptuous courts to be
+maintained, and four imperial armies to be paid. Taxes
+rose, and allegiance waxed cold. The Cæsars were
+young, and looked probably with an evil eye on the two
+old men who stood between them and the name of emperor.
+However it may be, after many victories and
+much domestic trouble, Diocletian resolved to lay aside
+the burden of empire and retire into private life. His
+colleague Maximian felt, or affected to feel, the same
+distaste for power, and on the same day they quitted the
+purple; one at Nicomedia, the other at Milan. Diocletian
+retired to Salona, a town in his native Dalmatia, and
+occupied himself with rural pursuits. He was asked
+after a while to reassume his authority, but he said to
+the persons who made him the request, &ldquo;I wish you
+would come to Salona and see the cabbages I have
+planted with my own hands, and after that you would
+never wish me to remount the throne.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The characteristic of this century is its utter confusion
+and want of order. There was no longer the unity even
+of despotism at Rome to make a common centre round
+which every thing revolved. There were tyrants and
+competitors for power in every quarter of the empire&mdash;no
+settled authority, no government or security, left. In
+the midst of this relaxation of every rule of life, grew
+surely, but unobserved, the Christian Church, which
+drew strength from the very helplessness of the civil
+state, and was forced, in self-defence, to establish a
+regular organization in order to extend to its members
+the inestimable benefits of regularity and law. Under
+many of the emperors Christianity was proscribed; its
+disciples were put to excruciating deaths, and their property<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span>
+confiscated; but at that very time its inner development
+increased and strengthened. The community
+appointed its teachers, its deacons, its office-bearers of
+every kind; it supported them in their endeavours&mdash;it
+yielded to their directions; and in time a certain amount
+of authority was considered to be inherent in the office
+of pastor, which extended beyond the mere expounding
+of the gospel or administration of the sacraments. The
+chief pastor became the guide, perhaps the judge, of the
+whole flock. While it is absurd, therefore, in those disastrous
+times of weakness and persecution to talk in
+pompous terms of the succession of the Bishops of Rome,
+and make out vain catalogues of lordly prelates who
+sat on the throne of St. Peter, it is incontestable that,
+from the earliest period, the Christian converts held
+their meetings&mdash;by stealth indeed, and under fear of
+detection&mdash;and obeyed certain canons of their own constitution.
+These secret associations rapidly spread their
+ramifications into every great city of the empire. When
+by the friendship, or the fellowship, of the emperor, as
+in the case of the Arabian Philip, a pause was given to
+their fears and sufferings, certain buildings were set
+apart for their religious exercises; and we read, during
+this century, of basilicas, or churches, in Rome and other
+towns. The subtlety of the Greek intellect had already
+led to endless heresies and the wildest departures from
+the simplicity of the gospel. The Western mind was
+more calm, and better adapted to be the lawgiver of a
+new order of society composed of elements so rough and
+discordant as the barbarians, whose approach was now
+inevitably foreseen. With its well-defined hierarchy&mdash;its
+graduated ranks, and the fitness of the offices for the
+purposes of their creation; with its array of martyrs
+ready to suffer, and clear-headed leaders fitted to command,
+the Western Church could look calmly forward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span>
+to the time when its organization would make it the
+most powerful, or perhaps the only, body in the State;
+and so early as the middle of this century the seeds of
+worldly ambition developed themselves in a schism, not
+on a point of doctrine, but on the possession of authority.
+A double nomination had made the anomalous appointment
+of two chief pastors at the same time. Neither
+would yield, and each had his supporters. All were
+under the ban of the civil power. They had recourse
+to spiritual weapons; and we read, for the first time in
+ecclesiastical history, of mutual excommunications. Novatian&mdash;under
+his breath, however, for fear of being
+thrown to the wild beasts for raising a disturbance&mdash;thundered
+his anathemas against Cornelius as an intruder,
+while Cornelius retorted by proclaiming Novatian
+an impostor, as he had not the concurrence of the
+people in his election. This gives us a convincing proof
+of the popular form of appointing bishops or presbyters
+in those early days, and prepares us for the energy with
+which the electors supported the authority of their
+favourite priests.</p>
+
+<p>But, while this new internal element was spreading
+life among the decayed institutions of the empire, we
+have, in this century, the first appearance, in great
+force, of the future conquerors and renovators of the
+body politic from without. It is pleasant to think that
+the centuries cast themselves more and more loose from
+their connection with Rome after this date, and that the
+barbarians can vindicate a separate place in history for
+themselves. In the first century, the bad emperors
+broke the strength of Rome by their cruelty and extravagance.
+In the second century, the good emperors carried
+on the work of weakening the empire by the softening
+and enervating effects of their gentle and protective
+policy. The third century unites the evil qualities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span>
+of the other two, for the people were equally rendered
+incapable of defending themselves by the unheard-of
+atrocities of some of the tyrants who oppressed them
+and the mistaken measures of the more benevolent
+rulers, in committing the guardianship of the citizens to
+the swords of a foreign soldiery, leaving them but the
+wretched alternative of being ravaged and massacred
+by an irruption of savage tribes or pillaged and insulted
+by those in the emperor&rsquo;s pay.</p>
+
+<p>The empire had long been surrounded by its foes. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 273.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>It will suffice to read the long list of captives who were
+led in triumph behind the car of Aurelian when he returned
+from foreign war, to see the fearful array
+of harsh-sounding names which have afterwards
+been softened into those of great and civilized nations.
+It is in following the course of some of these that we
+shall see how the present distribution of forces in Europe
+took place, and escape from the polluted atmosphere of
+Imperial Rome. In that memorable triumph appeared
+Goths, Alans, Roxolans, Franks, Sarmatians, Vandals,
+Allemans, Arabs, Indians, Bactrians, Iberians, Saracens,
+Armenians, Persians, Palmyreans, Egyptians, and ten
+Gothic women dressed in men&rsquo;s apparel and fully armed.
+These were, perhaps, the representatives of a large body
+of female warriors, and are a sign of the recent settlement
+of the tribe to which they belonged. They had
+not yet given up the habits of their march, where all
+were equally engaged in carrying the property and arms
+of the nation, and where the females encouraged the
+young men of the expedition by witnessing and sometimes
+sharing their exploits in battle.</p>
+
+<p>The triumph of Probus, when only seven years had
+passed, presents us with a list of the same peoples, often
+conquered but never subdued. Their defeats, indeed,
+had the double effect of showing to them their own<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span>
+ability to recruit their forces, and of strengthening the
+degraded people of Rome in the belief of their invincibility.
+After the loss of a battle, the Gothic or Burgundian
+chief fell back upon the confederated tribes in his
+rear; a portion of his army either visited Rome in the
+character of captives, or enlisted in the ranks of the
+conquerors. In either case, the wealth of the great
+city and the undefended state of the empire were permanently
+fixed in their minds; the populace, on the
+other hand, had the luxury of a noble show and double
+rations of bread&mdash;the more ambitious of the emperors
+acting on the professed maxim that the citizen had no
+duty but to enjoy the goods provided for him by the governing
+power, and that if he was fed by public doles, and
+amused with public games, the purpose of his life was
+attained. The idlest man was the safest subject. A
+triumph was, therefore, more an instrument of degradation
+than an encouragement to patriotic exertion. The
+name of Roman citizen was now extended to all the
+inhabitants of the empire. The freeman of York was a
+Roman citizen. Had he any patriotic pride in keeping
+the soil of Italy undivided? The nation had become
+too diffuse for the exercise of this local and combining
+virtue. The love of country, which in the small states
+of Greece secured the individual&rsquo;s affection to his native
+city, and yet was powerful enough to extend over the
+whole of the Hellenic territories, was lost altogether
+when it was required to expand itself over a region as
+wide as Europe. It is in this sense that empires fall to
+pieces by their own weight. The Roman power broke
+up from within. Its religion was a source of division,
+not of union&mdash;its mixture of nations, and tongues, and
+usages, lost their cohesion. And nothing was left at the
+end of this century to preserve it from total dissolution,
+but the personal qualities of some great rulers and the
+memory of its former fame.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span>
+<a name="FOURTH_CENTURY" id="FOURTH_CENTURY">FOURTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div style="margin-left:4em;">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" summary="" class="table-center" >
+<tr><td align="center" colspan="4" class="big">Emperors.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">304.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Galerius</span> and <span class="smcap">Constantius</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">305.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Maximin.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">306.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Constantine.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">337.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Constantine II.</span>, <span class="smcap">Constans</span> and <span class="smcap">Constantius</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">361.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Julian the Apostate.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">363.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Jovian.</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="" class="table-center">
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td><td align="center"><i>West.</i></td><td style="width:30%"></td><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td><td align="center"><i>East.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">364.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Valentinian.</span></td><td></td><td align="right">364.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Valens.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">367.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Gratian.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">375.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Valentinian II.</span></td><td></td><td align="right">379.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Theodosius.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">395.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Honorius.</span></td><td></td><td align="right">395.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Arcadius.</span></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Donatus</span>, <span class="smcap">Eutropius</span>, <span class="smcap">St. Athanasius</span>, <span class="smcap">Ausonius</span>, <span class="smcap">Claudian</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Arnobius</span>, (303,) <span class="smcap">Lactantius</span>, (306,) <span class="smcap">Eusebius</span>, (315,) <span class="smcap">Arius</span>, (316,)
+<span class="smcap">Gregory Nazianzen</span>, (320-389,) <span class="smcap">Basil the Great</span>, Bishop Of
+Cesarea, (330-379,) <span class="smcap">Ambrose</span>, (340-397,) <span class="smcap">Augustine</span> (353-429,)
+<span class="smcap">Theodoret</span>, (386-457,) <span class="smcap">Martin</span>, Bishop of Tours.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_FOURTH_CENTURY" id="THE_FOURTH_CENTURY">THE FOURTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">THE REMOVAL TO CONSTANTINOPLE&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;ESTABLISHMENT OF
+CHRISTIANITY&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;APOSTASY OF JULIAN&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;SETTLEMENT OF
+THE GOTHS.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">As</span> the memory of the old liberties of Rome died out,
+a nearer approach was made to the ostentatious despotisms
+of the East. Aurelian, in 270, was the first emperor
+who encircled his head with a diadem; and Diocletian,
+in 284, formed his court on the model of the
+most gorgeous royalties of Asia. On admission into his
+presence, the Roman Senator, formerly the equal of the
+ruler, prostrated himself at his feet. Titles of the most
+unmanly adulation were lavished on the fortunate slave
+or herdsman who had risen to supreme power. He was
+clothed in robes of purple and violet, and loaded with
+an incalculable wealth of jewels and gold. It was from
+deep policy that Diocletian introduced this system.
+Ceremony imposes on the vulgar, and makes intimacy
+impossible. Etiquette is the refuge of failing power,
+and compensates by external show for inherent weakness,
+as stiffness and formality are the refuge of dulness
+and mediocrity in private life. There was now, therefore,
+seated on the throne, which was shaken by every
+commotion, a personage assuming more majestic rank,
+and affecting far loftier state and dignity, than Augustus
+had ventured on while the strength of the old Republic
+gave irresistible force to the new empire, or than the
+Antonines had dreamt of when the prosperity of Rome
+was apparently at its height. But there was still some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span>
+feeling, if not of self-respect, at least of resistance to
+pretension, in the populace and Senators of the capital.
+Diocletian visited Rome but once. He was attacked in
+lampoons, and ridiculed in satirical songs. His colleague
+established his residence in the military post of Milan.
+We are not, therefore, to feel surprised that an Orientalized
+authority sought its natural seat in the land of
+ancient despotisms, and that many of the emperors had
+cast longing eyes on the beautiful towns of Asia Minor,
+and even on the far-off cities of Mesopotamia, as more
+congenial localities for their barbaric splendours. By a
+sort of compromise between his European origin and
+Asiatic tastes, the emperor Constantine, after many
+struggles with his competitors, having attained the sole
+authority, transferred the seat of empire from Rome to
+a city he had built on the extreme limits of Europe, and
+only divided from Asia by a narrow sea. All succeeding
+ages have agreed in extolling the situation of this city,
+called, after its founder, Constantinople, as the finest
+that could have been chosen. All ages, from the day of
+its erection till the hour in which we live, have agreed
+that it is fitted, in the hands of a great and enterprising
+power, to be the metropolis and arbiter of the world;
+and Constantinople is, therefore, condemned to the
+melancholy fate of being the useless and unappreciated
+capital of a horde of irreclaimable barbarians. To this
+magnificent city Constantine removed the throne in
+329, and for nearly a thousand years after that, while
+Rome was sacked in innumerable invasions, and all the
+capitals of Europe were successively occupied by contending
+armies, Constantinople, safe in her two narrow
+outlets, and rich in her command of the two continents,
+continued unconquered, and even unassailed.</p>
+
+<p>Rome was stripped, that Constantinople might be
+filled. All the wealth of Italy was carried across the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span>
+Ægean. The Roman Senator was invited to remove
+with his establishment. He found, on arriving at his
+new home, that by a complimentary attention of the
+emperor, a fac-simile of his Roman palace had been
+prepared for him on the Propontis. The seven hills of
+the new capital responded to the seven hills of the old.
+There were villas for retirement along the smiling
+shores of the Dardanelles or of the Bosphorus, as fine in
+climate, and perhaps equal in romantic beauty, to Baiæ
+or Brundusium. There was a capital, as noble a piece
+of architecture as the one they had left, but without the
+sanctity of its thousand years of existence, or the glory
+of its unnumbered triumphs. One omission was the
+subject of remark and lamentation. The temples were
+nowhere to be seen. The images of the gods were left
+at Rome in the solitude of their deserted shrines, for
+Constantine had determined that Constantinople should,
+from its very foundation, be the residence of a Christian
+people. Churches were built, and a priesthood appointed.
+Yet, with the policy which characterized the
+Church at that time, he made as little change as possible
+in the external forms. There is still extant a transfer
+of certain properties from the old establishment to the
+new. There are contributions of wax for the candles,
+of frankincense and myrrh for the censers, and vestures
+for the officiating priests as before. Only the object of
+worship is changed, and the images of the heathen gods
+and heroes are replaced with statues of the apostles and
+martyrs.</p>
+
+<p>It is difficult to gather a true idea of this first of the
+Christian emperors from the historians of after-times.
+The accounts of him by contemporary writers are equally
+conflicting. The favourers of the old superstition describe
+him as a monster of perfidy and cruelty. The
+Church, raised to supremacy by his favour, sees nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span>
+in him but the greatest of men&mdash;the seer of visions, the
+visible favourite of the Almighty, and the predestined
+overthrower of the powers of evil. The easy credulity
+of an emancipated people believed whatever the flattery
+of the courtiers invented. His mother Helena made a
+journey to Jerusalem, and was rewarded for the pious
+pilgrimage by the discovery of the True Cross. Chapels
+and altars were raised upon all the places famous in
+Christian story; relics were collected from all quarters,
+and we are early led to fear that the simplicity of the
+gospel is endangered by its approach to the throne,
+and that Constantine&rsquo;s object was rather to raise and
+strengthen a hierarchy of ecclesiastical supporters than
+to give full scope to the doctrine of truth. But not the
+less wonderful, not the less by the divine appointment,
+was this unhoped-for triumph of Christianity, that its
+advancement formed part of the ambitious scheme of a
+worldly and unprincipled conqueror. Rather it may be
+taken as one among the thousand proofs with which
+history presents us, that the greatest blessings to mankind
+are produced irrespective of the character or qualities
+of the apparent author. A warrior is raised in the
+desert when required to be let loose upon a worn-out
+society as the scourge of God; a blood-stained soldier
+is placed on the throne of the world when the time has
+come for the earthly predominance of the gospel. But
+neither is Attila to be blamed nor Constantine to be
+praised.</p>
+
+<p>It was the spirit of his system of government to form
+every society on a strictly monarchical model. There
+was everywhere introduced a clearly-defined subordination
+of ranks and dignities. Diocletian, we saw, surrounded
+the throne with a state and ceremony which
+kept the imperial person sacred from the common gaze.
+Constantine perfected his work by establishing a titled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span>
+nobility, who were to stand between the throne and the
+people, giving dignity to the one, and impressing fresh
+awe upon the other. In all previous ages it had been
+the office that gave importance to the man. To be a
+member of the Senate was a mark of distinction; a long
+descent from a great historic name was looked on with
+respect; and the heroic deeds of the thousand years of
+Roman struggle had founded an aristocracy which owed
+its high position either to personal actions or hereditary
+claims. But now that the emperors had so long concentrated
+in themselves all the great offices of the State&mdash;now
+that the bad rulers of the first century had degraded
+the Senate by filling it with their creatures, the
+good rulers of the second century had made it merely
+the recorder of their decrees, and the anarchy of the
+third century had changed or obliterated its functions
+altogether&mdash;there was no way left to the ambitious
+Roman to distinguish himself except by the favour of
+the emperor. The throne became, as it has since continued
+in all strictly monarchical countries, the fountain
+of honour. It was not the people who could name a
+man to the consulship or appoint him to the command
+of an army. It was not even in the power of the
+emperor to find offices of dignity for all whom he wished
+to advance. So a method was discovered by which
+vanity or friendship could be gratified, and employment
+be reserved for the deserving at the same time. Instead
+of endangering an expedition against the Parthians by
+intrusting it to a rich and powerful courtier who desired
+to have the rank of general, the emperor simply named
+him Nobilissimus, or Patricius, or Illustris, and the
+gratified favourite, the &ldquo;most noble,&rdquo; the &ldquo;patrician,&rdquo;
+or the &ldquo;illustrious,&rdquo; took place with the highest officers
+of the State. A certain title gave him equal rank with
+the Senator, the judge, or the consul. The diversity of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span>
+these honorary distinctions became very great. There
+were the clarissimi&mdash;the perfectissimi&mdash;and the egregii&mdash;bearing
+the same relative dignity in the court-guide
+of the fourth century, as the dukes, marquises, earls,
+and viscounts of the peerage-books of the present day.
+But so much did all distinction flow from proximity to
+the throne, that all these high-sounding names owed
+their value to the fact of their being bestowed on the
+associates of the sovereign. The word Count, which
+is still the title borne by foreign nobles, comes from the
+Latin word which means &ldquo;companion.&rdquo; There was a
+Comes, or Companion, of the Sacred Couch, or lord
+chamberlain&mdash;the Companion of the Imperial Service,
+or lord high steward&mdash;a Companion of the Imperial
+Stables, or lord high constable; through all these dignitaries,
+step above step, the glorious ascent extended, till
+it ended in the Companion of Private Affairs, or confidential
+secretary. At the head of all, sacred and unapproachable,
+stood the embodied Power of the Roman
+world, who, as he had given titles to all the magnates of
+his court, heaped also a great many on himself. His
+principal appellation, however, was not as in our degenerate
+days &ldquo;Majesty,&rdquo; whether &ldquo;Most Catholic,&rdquo; &ldquo;Most
+Christian,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Most Orthodox,&rdquo; but consisted in the
+rather ambitious attribute&mdash;eternity. &ldquo;Your Eternity&rdquo;
+was the phrase addressed to some miserable individual
+whose reign was ended in a month. It was proposed by
+this division of the Roman aristocracy to furnish the
+empire with a body for show and a body for use; the
+latter consisting of the real generals of the armies and
+administrators of the provinces. And with this view
+the two were kept distinct; but military discipline
+suffered by this partition. The generals became discontented
+when they saw wealth and dignities heaped upon
+the titular nobles of the court; and to prevent the danger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span>
+arising from ill will among the legions on the frontier,
+the emperor withdrew the best of his soldiers from the
+posts where they kept the barbarians in check, and
+entirely destroyed their military spirit by separating
+them into small bodies and stationing them in towns.
+This exposed the empire to the foreign foes who still
+menaced it from the other side of the boundary, and
+gave fresh settlements in the heart of the country to the
+thousands of barbarian youth who had taken service
+with the eagles. In every legion there was a considerable
+proportion of this foreign element: in every district
+of the empire, therefore, there were now settled the advanced
+guards of the unavoidable invasion. Men with
+barbaric names, which the Romans could not pronounce,
+walked about Roman towns dressed in Roman uniforms
+and clothed with Roman titles. There were consulars
+and patricians in Ravenna and Naples, whose fathers
+had danced the war-dance of defiance when beginning
+their march from the Vistula and the Carpathian range.</p>
+
+<p>All these troops must be supported&mdash;all these dignitaries
+maintained in luxury. How was this done?
+The ordinary revenue of the empire in the time of Constantine
+has been computed at forty millions of our
+money a year. Not a very large amount when you consider
+the number of the population; but this is the sum
+which reached the treasury. The gross amount must
+have been far larger, and an ingenious machinery was invented
+by which the tax was rigorously collected; and
+this machinery, by a ludicrous perversion of terms, was
+made to include one of the most numerous classes of the
+artificial nobility created by the imperial will. In all
+the towns of the empire some little remains were still
+to be found of the ancient municipal government, of
+which practically they had long been deprived. There
+were nominal magistrates still; and among these the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span>
+<i>Curials</i> held a distinguished rank. They were the men
+who, in the days of freedom, had filled the civic dignities
+of their native city&mdash;the aldermen, we should perhaps
+call them, or, more nearly, the justices of the peace.
+They were now ranked with the peerage, but with certain
+duties attached to their elevation which few can have
+regarded in the light of privilege or favour. To qualify
+them for rank, they were bound to be in possession of a
+certain amount of land. They were, therefore, a territorial
+aristocracy, and never was any territorial aristocracy
+more constantly under the consideration of the
+government. It was the duty of the curials to distribute
+the tax-papers in their district; but, in addition to
+this, it was unfortunately their duty to see that the sum
+assessed on the town and neighbourhood was paid up to
+the last penny. When there was any deficiency, was
+the emperor to suffer? Were the nobilissimi, the patricii,
+the egregii, to lose their salaries? Oh, no! As long
+as the now ennobled curial retained an acre of his estate,
+or could raise a mortgage on his house, the full amount
+was extracted. The tax went up to Rome, and the
+curial, if there had been a poor&rsquo;s house in those days,
+would have gone into it&mdash;for he was stripped of all. His
+farm was seized, his cattle were escheated; and when the
+defalcation was very great, himself, his wife and children
+were led into the market and sold as slaves. Nothing
+so rapidly destroyed what might have been the germ of
+a middle class as this legalized spoliation of the smaller
+landholders. Below this rank there was absolutely
+nothing left of the citizenship of ancient times. Artificers
+and workmen formed themselves into companies;
+but the trades were exercised principally by slaves for
+the benefit of their owners. These slaves formed now
+by far the greatest part of the Roman population, and
+though their lot had gradually become softened as their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span>
+numbers increased, and the domestic bondsman had
+little to complain of except the greatest of all sorrows,
+the loss of freedom, the position of the rural labourers
+was still very bad. There were some of them slaves in
+every sense of the word&mdash;mere chattels, which were not
+so valuable as horse or dog. But the fate of others was
+so far mitigated that they could not be sold separate
+from their family&mdash;that they could not be sold except
+along with the land; and at last glimpses appear of a
+sort of rent paid for certain portions of the lord&rsquo;s estate
+in full of all other requirements. But this process had
+again to be gone through when many centuries had
+elapsed, and a new state of society had been fully established,
+and it will be sufficient to remind you that in the
+fourth century, to which we are now come, the Roman
+world consisted of a monarchy where all the greatness
+and magnificence of the empire were concentrated on
+the emperor and his court; that the monarchical system
+was rapidly pervading the Church; and that below
+these two distinct but connected powers there was no
+people, properly so called&mdash;the country was oppressed
+and ruined, and the ancient dignity of Rome transplanted
+to new and foreign quarters, at the sacrifice of
+all its oldest and most elevating associations. The half-depopulated
+city of Romulus and the Kings&mdash;of the
+Consuls and Augustus, looked with ill-disguised hatred
+and contempt on the modern rival which denied her the
+name of Capital, and while fresh from the builder&rsquo;s hand,
+robbed her of the name of the Eternal City. We shall
+see great events spring from this jealousy of the two
+towns. In the mean time, we shall finish our view of
+Constantine by recording the greatness of his military
+skill, and merely protest against the enrolment in the
+list of <i>saints</i> of a man who filled his family circle with
+blood&mdash;who murdered his wife, his son, and his nephew,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span>
+encouraged the contending factions of the now disputatious
+Church&mdash;gave a fallacious support to the orthodox
+Athanasius, and died after a superstitious baptism at
+the hands of the heretical Arius. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 337.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>An unbiassed
+judgment must pronounce him a great politician,
+who played with both parties as his tools, a Christian
+from expediency and not from conviction. It is a pity
+that the subserviency of the Greek communion has
+placed him in the number of its holy witnesses, for we
+are told by a historian that when the emperor, after the
+dreadful crimes he had perpetrated, applied at the
+heathen shrines for expiatory rites, the priests of the
+false gods had truly answered, &ldquo;there are no purifications
+for such deeds as these.&rdquo; But nothing could be
+refused to the benefactor of the Church. The great
+ecclesiastical council of this age, (325), consisting of
+three hundred and eighteen bishops, and presided over
+by Constantine in person, gave the Nicene Creed as the
+result of their labours&mdash;a creed which is still the symbol
+of Christendom, but which consists more of a condemnation
+of the heresies which were then in the ascendant,
+than in the plain enunciation of the Christian faith. A
+layman, we are told, an auditor of the learned debates
+in this great assembly, a man of clear and simple common
+sense, met some of the disputants, and addressed them
+in these words:&mdash;&ldquo;Arguers! Christ and his apostles delivered
+to us, not the art of disputation, nor empty
+eloquence, but a plain and simple rule which is maintained
+by faith and good works.&rdquo; The disputants, we
+are further told, were so struck with this undeniable
+truth that they acknowledged their error at once.</p>
+
+<p>But not yet firm and impregnable were the bulwarks
+of Christianity. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 360.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>While dreaming anchorites in the deserts
+of Thebais were repeating the results of fasting and insanity
+as the manifestation of divine favour, the world<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span>
+was startled from its security by the appalling
+discovery that the emperor himself, the young
+and vigorous Julian, was a follower of the old philosophers,
+and a worshipper of the ancient gods. And a
+dangerous antagonist he was, even independent of his
+temporal power. His personal character was irreproachable,
+his learning and talent beyond dispute, and
+his eloquence and dialectic skill sharpened and improved
+by an education in Athens itself. Less than forty years
+had elapsed since Constantine pronounced the sentence
+of banishment on the heathen deities. It was not possible
+that the Christian truth was in every instance
+received where the old falsehood was driven away.
+We may therefore conclude, without the aid of historic
+evidence, that there must have been innumerable districts&mdash;villages
+in far-off valleys, hidden places up among
+the hills&mdash;where the name of Christ had not yet penetrated,
+and all that was known was, that the shrine of
+the local gods was overthrown, and the priests of the old
+ceremonial proscribed. When we remember that the
+heathen worship entered into almost all the changes of
+the social and family life&mdash;that its sanction was necessary
+at the wedding&mdash;that its auguries were indispensable at
+births&mdash;that it crowned the statue of the household god
+with flowers&mdash;that it kept alive the fire upon the altar of
+the emperor&mdash;and that it was the guardian of the tombs
+of the departed, as it had been the principal consolation
+during the funeral rites,&mdash;we shall perceive that,
+irrespective of absolute faith in his system of belief, the
+cessation of the priest&rsquo;s office must have been a serious
+calamity. The heathen establishment had been enriched
+by the piety or ostentation of many generations. There
+must have been still alive many who had been turned
+out of their comfortable temples, many who viewed the
+assumption of Christianity into the State as a political<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>
+engine to strengthen the tyranny under which the
+nations groaned. We may see that self-interest and
+patriotism may easily have been combined in the effort
+made by the old faith to regain the supremacy it had
+lost. The Emperor Julian endeavoured to lift up the
+fallen gods. He persecuted the Christians, not with
+fire and sword, but with contempt. He scorned and
+tolerated. He preached moderation, self-denial, and
+purity of life, and practised all these virtues to an
+extent unknown upon a throne, and even then unusual
+in a bishop&rsquo;s palace.</p>
+
+<p>How those Christian graces, giving a charm and
+dignity to the apostate emperor, must have received a
+still higher authority from the painful contrast they
+presented to the agitated condition and corrupted morals
+of the Christian Church! Everywhere there was war
+and treachery, and ambition and unbelief. Half the
+great sees were held by Arians, who raved against the
+orthodox; and the other half were held by Athanasius
+and his followers, who accused their adversaries of being
+&ldquo;more cruel than the Scythians, and more irreconcilable
+than tigers.&rdquo; At Rome itself there was an orthodox
+bishop and an Arian rival. It is not surprising that
+Julian, disgusted with the scenes presented to him by
+the mutual rage of the Christian sects, thought the
+surest method of restoring unity to the empire would
+be to silence all the contending parties and reintroduce
+the peaceful pageantries of the old Pantheon. If some
+of the fanciful annotators of the new faith had allegorized
+the facts of Christianity till they ceased to be
+facts at all, Julian performed the same office for the
+heathen gods. Jupiter and the rest were embodiments
+of the hidden powers of nature. Vulcan was the personification
+of human skill, and Venus the beautiful representative
+of connubial affection. But men&rsquo;s minds<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span>
+were now too sharpened with the contact they had had
+with the real to be satisfied with such fallacies as these.
+Eloquent teachers arose, who separated the eternal
+truths of revelation from the accessories with which
+they were temporarily combined. Ridicule was retorted
+on the emperor, who had sneered at the Christian services.
+Who, indeed, who had caught the slightest view
+of the spirituality of Christ&rsquo;s kingdom, could abstain
+from laughing at the laborious heathenism of the master
+of the world? He cut the wood for sacrifice, he slew
+the goat or bull, and, falling down on his knees, puffed
+with distended cheeks the sacred fire. He marched to
+the temple of Venus between two rows of dissolute and
+drunken worshippers, striving in vain by face and attitude
+to repress the shouts of riotous exultation and the
+jeers of the spectators. Then, wherever he went he
+was surrounded by pythonesses, and augurs, and fortune-tellers,
+magicians who could work miracles, and necromancers
+who could raise the dead. When he restored a
+statue to its ancient niche, he was rewarded by a shake
+of its head; when he hung up a picture of Thetis or
+Amphitrite, she winked in sign of satisfaction. Where
+miracles are not believed, the performance of them is
+fatal. But his expenditure of money in honouring the
+gods was more real, and had clearer results. He nearly
+exhausted the empire by the number of beasts he slew.
+He sent enormous offerings to the shrines of Dodona,
+and Delos, and Delphi. He rebuilt the temples, which
+time or Christian hatred had destroyed; and, by way
+of giving life to his new polity, he condescended to
+imitate the sect be despised, in its form of worship, in
+its advocacy of charity, peace, and good will, and in its
+institutions of celibacy and retirement, which, indeed,
+had been a portion of heathen virtue before it was admitted
+into the Christian Church. But his affected contempt<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span>
+soon degenerated into persecution. He would
+have no soldiers who did not serve his gods. Many resigned
+their swords. He called the Christians &ldquo;Galileans,&rdquo;
+and robbed them of their property and despitefully
+used them, to try the sincerity of their faith.
+&ldquo;Does not your law command you,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;to submit
+to injury, and to renounce your worldly goods?
+Well, I take possession of your riches that your march
+to heaven may be unencumbered.&rdquo; All moderation
+was now thrown off on both sides. Resistance was
+made by the Christians, and extermination threatened
+by the emperor. In the midst of these contentions he
+was called eastward to resist the aggression of Sapor, the
+Persian king. An arrow stretched Julian on his couch.
+He called round him his chief philosophers and priests.
+With them, in imitation of Socrates, he entered into
+deep discussions about the soul. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 363.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Nothing more
+heroic than his end, or more eloquent than his
+parting discourse. But death did not soften the animosity
+of his foes. The Christians boasted that the
+arrow was sent by an angel, that visions had foretold
+the persecutor&rsquo;s fall, and that so would perish all the
+enemies of God. The adherents of the emperor in
+return blamed the Galileans as his assassins, and boldly
+pointed to Athanasius, the leader of the Christians, as the
+culprit. Athanasius would certainly not have scrupled
+to rid the world of such an Agag and Holofernes, but it
+is more probable that the death occurred without either
+a miracle or a murder. The successors of Julian were
+enemies of the apostate. They speedily restored their
+fellow-believers to the supremacy they had lost. A
+ferocious hymn of exultation by Gregory of Nazianzen
+was chanted far and wide. Cries of joy and execration
+resounded in market-places, and churches, and theatres.
+The market-places had been closed against the Christians,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span>
+their churches had been interdicted, and the
+theatres shut up, by the overstrained asceticism of the
+deceased. It was perceived that Christianity had taken
+deeper root than the apostate had believed, and henceforth
+no effort could be made to revivify the old superstition.
+After a nominal election of Jovian, the choice
+of the soldiers fell on two of their favourite leaders,
+Valentinian and Valens, brothers, and sufferers in the
+late persecutions for their faith. Named emperors of
+the Roman world, they came to an amicable division of
+the empire into East and West. Valens remained in
+Constantinople to guard the frontiers of the Danube and
+the Euphrates; while Valentinian, who saw great clouds
+darkening over Italy and Gaul, fixed his imperial residence
+in the strong city of Milan. The separation took
+place in 364, and henceforth the stream of history
+flows in two distinct and gradually diverging channels.
+This century has already been marked by the removal
+of the seat of power to Constantinople; by the attempt
+at the restoration of Paganism by Julian; and we have
+now to dwell for a little on the third and greatest incident
+of all, the invasion of the Goths, and final settlement
+of hostile warriors on the Roman soil.</p>
+
+<p>Names that have retained their sound and established
+themselves as household words in Europe now meet as
+at every turn. Valentinian is engaged in resisting the
+Saxons. The Britons, the Scots, the Germans, are
+pushing their claims to independence; and in the farther
+East, the persecutions and tyranny of the contemptible
+Valens are suddenly suspended by the news that a people
+hitherto unheard of had made their appearance within
+an easy march of the boundary, and that universal terror
+had taken possession of the soldiers of the empire. Who
+were those soldiers? We have seen for many years that
+the policy of the emperors had been to introduce the barbarians<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span>
+into the military service of the State, and to
+expose the wasted and helpless inhabitants to the rapacity
+of their tax-gatherers. This system had been
+carried to such a pitch, that it is probable there were
+none but mercenaries of the most varying interests in
+the Roman ranks. Yet such is the effect of discipline,
+and the pride of military combination, that all other
+feelings gave way before it. The Gothic chief, now invested
+with command in the Roman armies, turned his
+arms against his countrymen. The Albanian, the Saxon,
+the Briton, elevated to the rank of duke or count, looked
+back on Marius and Cæsar as their lineal predecessors
+in opposing and conquering the enemies of Rome. The
+names of the generals and magistrates, accordingly,
+which we encounter after this date, have a strangely
+barbaric sound. There are Ricimer, and Marcomir, and
+Arbogast&mdash;and finally, the name which overtopped and
+outlived them all, the name of Alaric the Goth. Now,
+the Goths, we have seen, had been settled for many
+generations on the northern side of the Danube. Much
+intercourse must have taken place between the inhabitants
+of the two banks. There must have been
+trade, and love, and quarrellings, and rejoicings. At
+shorter and shorter intervals the bravest of the tribes
+must have passed over into the Roman territory and
+joined the Legions. Occasionally a timid or despotic
+emperor would suddenly order his armies across, and
+carry fire and sword into the unsuspecting country.
+But on the whole, the terms on which they lived were
+not hostile, for the ties which united the two peoples
+were numerous and strong. Even the languages in the
+course of time must have come to be mutually intelligible,
+and we read of Gothic leaders who were excellent
+judges of Homer and seldom travelled without a few
+chosen books. This being the case, what was the consternation<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>
+of the almost civilized Goths in the fertile
+levels of the present Wallachia and Moldavia to hear
+that an innumerable horde of dreadful savages, calling
+themselves Huns and Magyars, had appeared on the
+western shore of the Black Sea, and spread over the
+land, destroying, murdering, burning whatever lay in
+their way! Cooped up for an unknown period, it appeared,
+on the northeastern side of the Palus Mæotis, now
+better known to us as the Sea of Azof&mdash;living on fish
+out of the Don, and on the cattle of the long steppes
+which extend across the Volga, these sons of the Scythian
+desert had never been heard of either by the
+Goths or Romans. A hideous people to behold, as the
+perverted imagination of poet or painter could produce.
+They were low in stature, but broad-shouldered and
+strong. Their wide cheek-bones and small eyes gave
+them a savage and cruel expression, which was increased
+by their want of nose, for the only visible appearance
+of that indispensable organ consisted of two holes sunk
+into the square expanse of their faces. Fear is not a
+flattering painter, but from these rude descriptions it is
+easy to recognise the Calmuck countenance; and when
+we add their small horses, long spears, and prodigious
+lightness and activity, we shall see a very close resemblance
+between them and their successors in the
+same district, the Russian Cossacks of the Don. On, on,
+came the torrent of these pitiless, fearless, ugly, dirty,
+irresistible foes. The Goths, terrified at their aspect,
+and bewildered with the accounts they heard of their
+numbers and mode of warfare, petitioned the emperor
+to give them an asylum on the Roman side. Their
+prayer was granted on condition of depositing their
+children and arms in Roman hands. They had no time
+to squabble about terms. Every thing was agreed to.
+Boats manned by Roman soldiers were busy, day and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span>
+night in transporting the Gothic exiles to the Roman
+side. Arms and jewels, and wives and children, the
+furniture of their tents, and idols of their gods, all got
+safely across the guarding river. The Huns, the Alans,
+and the other unsightly hordes who had gathered in the
+pursuit, came down to the bank, and shouted useless
+defiance and threats of vengeance. The broad Danube
+rolled between; and there rested that night on the
+Roman soil a whole nation, different in interest, in
+manners and religion, from the population they had
+joined, numbering upwards of a million souls, bound
+together by every thing that constitutes the unity of a
+people. The avarice and injustice of the Roman authorities
+negatived the clause of the agreement that stipulated
+for the surrender of the Gothic arms. To redeem
+their swords and spears, they parted with the silver and
+gold they had amassed in their predatory incursions on
+the Roman territory. They know that once in possession
+of their weapons they could soon reclaim all they
+gave&mdash;and in no long time the attempt was made. Fritigern,
+the leader of their name, led them against the
+armies of Rome. Insulted at their audacity, the Emperor
+Valens, at the head of three hundred thousand
+men, met them in the plain of Adrianople. The existence
+of the Gothic people was at stake. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 379.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>They
+fought with desperation and hatred. The emperor
+was defeated, leaving two-thirds of his army on
+the field of battle. Seeking safety in a cottage at the
+side of the road, he was burned by the inexorable pursuers,
+who, gathering up their broken lines, marched
+steadily through the intervening levels and gazed with
+enraptured eyes on the glittering towers and pinnacles
+of Constantinople itself. But the walls were high and
+strongly armed. The barbarians were inveigled into a
+negotiation, and mastered by the unequal powers of lying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span>
+at all times characteristic of the Greeks. Fritigern consented
+to withdraw his troops: some were embodied in
+the levies of the empire, and others dispersed in different
+provinces. Those settled in Thrace were faithful to their
+employers, and resisted their ancient enemies the Huns;
+but the great body of the discontented conquerors were
+ready for fresh assaults on the Roman land. Theodosius,
+called to the throne in 379, succeeded in staving
+off the evil day; but when the final partition of the
+empire took place between his two sons&mdash;Honorius and
+Arcadius&mdash;there was nothing to oppose the
+terrible onset of the Goths. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 394.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>At their head was
+Alaric, the descendant of their original chiefs, and himself
+the bravest of his warriors. He broke into Greece,
+forcing his way through Thermopylæ, and devastated
+the native seats of poetry and the arts with fire and
+sword. The ruler at Constantinople heard of his advance
+with terror, and opposed to him the Vandal Stilicho,
+the greatest of his generals. But the wily Alaric
+declined to fight, and out-man&oelig;uvred his enemies, escaping
+to the sure fastnesses of Epirus, and sat down
+sullen and discontented, meditating further expeditions
+into richer plains, and already seeing before him the
+prostrate cities of Italy. The terror of Arcadius tried
+in vain to soften his rage, or satisfy his ambition with
+vain titles, among others, that of Count of the Illyrian
+Border. The spirit of aggression was fairly roused. All
+the Gothic settlers in the Roman territory were ready to
+join their countrymen in one great and combined attack;&mdash;and
+with this position of the personages of the drama,
+the curtain falls on the fourth century, while preparations
+for the great catastrophe are going on.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span>
+<a name="FIFTH_CENTURY" id="FIFTH_CENTURY">FIFTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td><td align="center"><i>West.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Honorius</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">424.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Valentinian III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">455.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Petronius Maximus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">455.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Avitus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">457.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Majorianus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">461.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Severus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">467.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Anthemius.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">472.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Olibius.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">473.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Glycerius.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">474.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Julius Nepos.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">475.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Augustulus Romulus.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td><td align="center"><i>East.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Arcadius</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">408.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Theodosius II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">450.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Marcian.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">457.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Leo the Great.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">474.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Zeno.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">491.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Anastasius.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">King of the Franks.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td style="width:20%" align="right">481.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Clovis.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">King of Italy.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">489.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Theodoric.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Chrysostom</span>, <span class="smcap">Jerome</span>, <span class="smcap">Augustine</span>, <span class="smcap">Pelagius</span>, (405,) <span class="smcap">Sidonius</span>
+<span class="smcap">Apollinaris</span>, <span class="smcap">Patricius</span>, <span class="smcap">Macrobius</span>, <span class="smcap">Vicentius of Lerins</span>, (died
+450,) <span class="smcap">Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria</span>, (412-444.)</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_FIFTH_CENTURY" id="THE_FIFTH_CENTURY">THE FIFTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;FORMATION OF MODERN
+STATES&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;GROWTH OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span> find the same actors on the stage when the curtain
+rises again, but circumstances have greatly changed.
+After his escape from Stilicho, Alaric had been &ldquo;lifted
+on the shield,&rdquo; the wild and picturesque way in which
+the warlike Goths nominated their kings, and henceforth
+was considered the monarch of a separate and independent
+people, no longer the mere leader of a band of
+predatory barbarians. In this new character he entered
+into treaties with the emperors of Constantinople or
+Rome, and broke them, as if he had already been the
+sovereign of a civilized state.</p>
+
+<p>In 403 he broke up from his secure retreat on the
+Adriatic, and burst into Italy, spreading fire and famine
+wherever he went. Honorius, the Emperor of the West,
+fled from Milan, and was besieged in Asti by the Goths.
+Here would have ended the imperial dynasty, some
+years before its time, if it had not been for the watchful
+Stilicho. This Vandal chief flew to the rescue of Honorius,
+repulsed Alaric with great slaughter, and delivered
+his master from his dangerous position. The grateful
+emperor entered Rome in triumph, and for the last time
+the Circus streamed with the blood of beasts and men.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 408.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>He retired after this display to the inaccessible marshes
+of Ravenna, at the mouths of the Po, and, secure in
+that fortress, sent an order to have his preserver and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>
+benefactor murdered; Stilicho, the only hope of
+Rome, was assassinated, and Alaric once more
+saw all Italy within his grasp. It was not only the
+Goths who followed Alaric&rsquo;s command. All the barbarians,
+of whatever name or race, who had been transplanted
+either as slaves or soldiers&mdash;Alans, Franks, and
+Germans&mdash;rallied round the advancing king, for the impolitic
+Honorius had issued an order for the extermination
+of all the tribes. There were Britons, and Saxons,
+and Suabians. It was an insurrection of all the manly
+elements of society against the indescribable depravation
+of the inhabitants of the Peninsula. The wildest
+barbarian blushed in the midst of his ignorance and
+rudeness to hear of the manners of the highest and
+most distinguished families in Rome. Nobody could
+hold out a hand to avert the judgment that was about
+to fall on the devoted city. Ambassadors indeed appeared,
+and bought a short delay at the price of many
+thousand pounds&rsquo; weight of gold and silver, and of large
+quantities of silk; but these were only additional incitements
+to the cupidity of the invader. Tribe after tribe
+rose up with fresh fury; warriors of every hue and
+shape, and with every manner of equipment. The
+handsome Goth in his iron cuirass; the Alan with his
+saddle covered with human skin; the German making a
+hideous sound by shrieking on the sharp edge of his
+shield; and the countryman of Alaric himself sounding
+the &ldquo;horn of battle,&rdquo; which terrified the Romans with
+its ominous note&mdash;all started forward on the march. At
+the head of each detachment rode a band, singing songs
+of exultation and defiance; and the Romans, stupefied
+with fear, saw these innumerable swarms defile towards
+the Milvian bridge and close up every access to the
+town. There was no corn from Sicily or Africa; a pest
+raged in every house, and hunger reduced the inhabitants<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span>
+to despair. The gates were thrown open, and all
+the pent-up animosity of the desert was poured out upon
+the mistress and corrupter of the world. For six days
+the city was given up to remorseless slaughter and universal
+pillage. The wealth was incalculable. The captives
+were sold as slaves. The palaces were overthrown,
+and the river choked with carcasses and the treasures
+of art which the barbarians could not appreciate. &ldquo;The
+new Babylon,&rdquo; cries Bossuet, the great Bishop of Meaux,
+&ldquo;rival of the old, swelled out like her with her successes,
+and, triumphing in her pleasures and riches, encountered
+as great a fall.&rdquo; And no man lamented her fate.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 410.</div>
+
+<p>Alaric, who had thus achieved a victory denied to
+Hannibal and Pyrrhus, resolved to push his conquests
+to the end of Italy. But on his march
+towards the Straits of Sicily, illness overtook him. His
+life had been unlike that of other men, and his burial
+was to excite the wonder of the Bruttians, among
+whom he died. A large river was turned from its
+course, and in its channel a deep grave was dug and
+ornamented with monumental stone. To this the body
+of the barbaric king was carried, clothed in full armour,
+and accompanied with some of the richest spoils of
+Rome; and then the stream was turned on again, the
+prisoners who had executed the works were slaughtered
+to conceal the secret of the tomb, and nobody has ever
+found out where the Gothic king reposes. But while
+the Busentino flowed peaceably on, and guarded the
+body of the conqueror from the revenge of the Romans,
+new perils were gathering round the throne of the
+Western emperor. As if the duration of the empire had
+been inseparably connected with the capital, the reverence
+of mankind was never bestowed on Milan or Ravenna,
+in which the court was now established, as it
+had been upon Rome. Britain had already thrown off<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span>
+the distant yoke, and submitted to the Saxon invaders.
+Spain had also peaceably accepted the rule of the three
+kindred tribes of Sueves and Alans and Vandals. Gaul
+itself had given its adhesion to the Burgundians (who
+fixed their seat in the district which still bears their
+name) and offered a feeble resistance to any fresh invader.
+Ataulf, the brother of Alaric, came to the rescue
+of the empire, and of course completed the destruction.
+He married the sister of Honorius, and retained
+her as a hostage of the emperor&rsquo;s good faith. He promised
+to restore the revolted provinces to their former
+master, and succeeded in overthrowing some competitors
+who had started up to dispute with Ravenna the wrecks
+of former power. He then forced his way into Spain,
+and the hopes of the degenerate Romans were high.
+But murder, as usual, stopped the career of Ataulf, and
+all was changed. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 415.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The emperor ratified the possessions
+which he could not dispute, and in the first
+twenty years of this century three separate
+kingdoms were established in Europe. This was soon
+followed by a Vandal conquest of the shores of Africa,
+which raised Carthage once more to commercial importance,
+united Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia to the new-founded
+state, and by the creation of a fleet gained the
+command of the Mediterranean Sea, and threatened
+Constantinople itself.</p>
+
+<p>With so many provinces not only torn from the
+empire, but erected into hostile kingdoms, nothing was
+wanting but some new irruption into the still dependent
+territories to put a final end to the Roman name. And
+a new incursion came. In the very involved relations
+existing between the emperors of the East and West, it
+is difficult to follow the course of events with any clearness.
+While the deluded populace of Constantinople
+were rejoicing in the fall of their Italian rival, they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span>
+heard with amazement, in 441, that a savage potentate,
+who had pitched his tents in the plains of Pannonia and
+Thrace, and kept round him, for defence or conquest,
+seven hundred thousand of those hideous-featured Huns
+who had spread devastation and terror all over the
+populations of Asia, from the borders of China to the
+Don, had determined on stretching his conquests over
+the whole world, and merely hesitated with which of
+the doomed empires to begin his career. His name was
+Attila, or, according to its native pronunciation, Etzel;
+and it soon resounded, louder and more terrifying than
+that of Alaric the Goth. The Emperor of the East sent
+an embassy to this dreadful neighbour, a minute account
+of which remains, and from which we learn the barbaric
+pomp and ceremony of the leader of the Huns, and the
+perfidy and debasement of the Greeks. An attempt
+was made to poison the redoubtable chief, and he complained
+of the guilty ambassador to the very person
+who had given him his instructions for the deed. Unsatisfied
+with the result, the Hunnish monarch advanced
+his camp. Constantinople, anxious to ward off the blow
+from itself, descanted to the savage king on the exposed
+condition and ill-defended wealth of the Italian towns.
+Treachery of another kind came to his aid. An offended
+sister of the emperor sent to Attila her ring as a mark
+of espousal, and he now claimed a portion of the empire
+as the dowry of his bride. When this was refused, he
+reiterated his old claim of satisfaction for the attempt
+upon his life, and ravaged the fields of Belgium and
+Gaul, in the double character of avenger of an insult
+and claimant of an inheritance. It does not much
+matter under what plea a barbarous chieftain, with six
+hundred thousand warriors, makes a demand. It must
+be answered sword in hand, or on the knees. The
+newly-established Frankish and Burgundian kings<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>
+gathered their forces in defence of their Christian faith
+and their recently-acquired dominions. Attila retired
+from Orleans, of which he had commenced the siege,
+and chose for the battle-field, which was to decide the
+destiny of the world, a vast plain not far from Châlons,
+on the Marne, where his cavalry would have room to
+act, and waited the assault of all the forces that France
+and Italy could collect. The Visigoths prepared for the
+decisive engagement under their king, Theodoric; the
+Franks of the Saal under Meroveg; the Ripuarian
+Franks, the Saxons, and the Burgundians were
+under leaders of their own. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 451.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>It was a fight in
+which were brought face to face the two conquering
+races of the world, and upon its result it depended
+whether Europe was to be ruled by a dynasty of Calmucks
+or left to her free progress under her Gothic and
+Teutonic kings. Three hundred thousand corpses
+marked the severity of the struggle, but victory rested
+with the West. Attila retreated from Gaul, and wreaked
+his vengeance on the Italian cities. He destroyed Aquileia,
+whose terrified inhabitants hid themselves in the
+marshes and lagoons which afterwards bore the palaces
+of Venice; Vicenza, Padua, and Verona were spoiled
+and burned. Pavia and Milan submitted without resistance.
+On approaching Rome, the venerable bishop,
+Saint Leo, met the devastating Hun, and by the gravity
+of his appearance, the ransom he offered, and perhaps
+the mystic dignity which still rested upon the city whose
+cause he pleaded, prevailed on him to retire. Shortly
+after, the chief of this brief and terrible visitation died
+in his tent on the banks of the Danube, and left no
+lasting memorial of his irruption except the depopulation
+his cruelty had caused, and the ruin he had spread
+over some of the fairest regions of the earth.</p>
+
+<p>But Rome, spared by the influence of the bishop from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span>
+the ravage of the Huns, could not escape the destroying
+enmity of Genseric and the Vandals. Dashing across
+from Africa, these furious conquerors destroyed for destruction&rsquo;s
+sake, and affixed the name of Vandalism on
+whatever is harsh and unrefined. For fourteen days the
+spoilers were at work in Rome, and it is only wonderful
+that after so many plunderings any thing worth plundering
+remained. When the sated Vandals crossed to Carthage
+again, the Gothic and Suevic kings gave the
+purple to whatever puppet they chose. Afraid still to invest
+themselves with the insignia of the Imperial power,
+they bestowed them or took them away, and at last
+rendered the throne and the crown so contemptible,
+that when Odoacer was proclaimed King of Italy, the
+phantom assembly which still called itself the Roman
+Senate sent back to Constantinople the tiara and purple
+robe, in sign that the Western Empire had passed away.
+Zeno, the Eastern ruler, retained the ornaments of the
+departed sovereignty, and sent to the Herulean Odoacer
+the title of &ldquo;Patrician,&rdquo; sole emblem left of the greatness
+and antiquity of the Roman name. It may be interesting
+to remember that the last who wore the Imperial
+crown was a youth who would probably have escaped
+the recognition of posterity altogether, if he had not,
+by a sort of cruel mockery of his misfortunes, borne
+the names of Romulus Augustulus&mdash;the former recalling
+the great founder of the city, and the latter the first of
+the Imperial line.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, then, in 476, Rome came to her deserved and
+terrible end; and before we trace the influence of this
+great event upon the succeeding centuries, it will be
+worth while to devote a few words to the cause of its
+overthrow. These were evidently three&mdash;the ineradicable
+barbarity and selfishness of the Roman character,
+the depravation of manners in the capital, and the want<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span>
+of some combining influence to bind all the parts of the
+various empire into a whole. From the earliest incidents
+in the history of Rome, we gather that she was
+utterly regardless of human life or suffering. Her treatment
+of her vanquished enemies, and her laws upon
+parental authority, upon slaves and debtors, show the
+pitiless disposition of her people. Look at her citizens
+at any period of her career&mdash;her populace or her consuls&mdash;in
+the field of battle or in the forum, you will
+always find them the true descendants of those blood-stained
+refugees, who established their den of robbers
+on the seven hills, and pretended they were led by a
+man who had been suckled by a wolf. While conquest
+was their object, this sanguinary disposition enabled
+them to perform great exploits; but when victory had
+secured to them the blessings of peace and safety, the
+same thirst for excitement continued. They cried out
+for blood in the amphitheatre, and had no pleasure in
+any display which was not accompanied with pain. The
+rival chief who had perilled their supremacy in the field
+was led in ferocious triumph at the wheel of his conqueror,
+and beheaded or flogged to death at the gate of
+the Capitol. The wounded gladiator looked round the
+benches of the arena in hopes of seeing the thumbs of
+the spectators turned down&mdash;the signal for his life being
+spared; but matrons and maids, the high and the low,
+looked with unmoved faces upon his agonies, and gave
+the signal for his death without remorse. They were
+the same people, even in their amusements, who gave
+order for the destruction of Numantium and Carthage.
+But cruelty was not enough. They sank into the
+wildest vices of sensuality, and lost the dignity of manhood,
+and the last feelings of self-respect. Never was a
+nation so easily habituated to slavery. They licked the
+hand that struck them hardest. They hung garlands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span>
+for a long time on the tomb of Nero. They insisted on
+being revenged on the murderers of Commodus, and
+frequently slew more citizens in broils in the street and
+quarrels in the theatre, than had fought at Cannæ or
+Zama. It might have been hoped that the cruelty
+which characterized the days of their military aggression
+would be softened down when they had become
+the acknowledged rulers of the world. Luxury itself,
+it might be thought, would be inconsistent with the
+sight of blood. But in this utterly detestable race the
+two extremes of human society seemed to have the
+same result. The brutal, half-clothed savage of an early
+age conveyed his tastes as well as his conquests to the
+enervated voluptuary of the empire. The virtues, such
+as they were, of that former period&mdash;contempt of danger,
+unfaltering resolution, and a certain simplicity of
+life&mdash;had departed, and all the bad features were exaggerated.
+Religion also had disappeared. Even a false
+religion, if sincerely entertained, is a bond of union
+among all who profess its faith. But between Rome
+and its colonies, and between man and man, there was
+soon no community of belief. The sweltering wretches
+in the Forum sneered at the existence of Bacchus in
+the midst of his mysteries, and imitated the actions of
+their gods, while they laughed at the hypocrisy of
+priests and augurs, who treated them as divine. A
+cruel, depraved, godless people&mdash;these were the Romans
+who had enslaved the world with their arms and corrupted
+it with their civilization. When their capital
+fell, men felt relieved from a burden and shame. The
+lessons of Christianity had been thrown away on a
+population too gross and too truculent to receive them.
+Some of gentler mould than others had received the
+Saviour; but to the mass of Romans the language of
+peace and justice, of forgiveness and brotherhood, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span>
+unknown. It was to be the worthier recipients of a
+pure and elevating faith, that the Goth was called from
+his wilderness and the German from his forest.</p>
+
+<p>But the faith had to be purified itself before it was
+fitted for the reception of the new conquerors of the
+world. The dissensions of the Christian Churches had
+added only a fresh element of weakness to the empire
+of Rome. There were heretics everywhere, supporting
+their opinions with bigotry and violence&mdash;Arians, Sabellians,
+Montanists, and fifty names besides. Torn by
+these parties, dishonoured by pretended conversions, the
+result of flattery and ambition, the Christian Church
+was further weakened by the effect of wealth and
+luxury upon its chiefs. While contending with rival
+sects upon some point of discipline or doctrine, they
+made themselves so notorious for the desire of riches,
+and the infamous arts they practised to get themselves
+appointed heirs of the rich members of their congregations,
+that a law was passed making a conveyance in
+favour of a priest invalid. And it is not from Pagan
+enemies or heretical rivals we learn this&mdash;it is from the
+letters still extant of the most honoured Fathers of the
+Church. One of them tells us that the Prefect Pretextatus,
+alluding to the luxury of the Pontiffs, and to
+the magnificence of their apparel, said to Pope Damasus,
+&ldquo;Make me Bishop of Rome, and I will turn Christian.&rdquo;
+&ldquo;Far, then,&rdquo; says a Roman Catholic historian of our
+own day, &ldquo;from strengthening the Roman world with
+its virtues, the Christian society seemed to have adopted
+the vices it was its office to overcome.&rdquo; But the fall of
+Roman power was the resurrection of Christianity. It
+had a Resurrection, because it had had a Death, and a
+new world was now prepared for its reception. Its
+everlasting truths, indeed, had been full of life and
+vigour all through the sad period of Roman depravation,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span>
+but the ground was unfitted for their growth; and
+the great characteristic of this century is not the conquest
+of Rome by Alaric the Goth, or the dreadful
+assault on Europe by Attila the Hun, or the final abolition
+of the old capital of the world by Odoacer the
+Herulean, but rather the ecclesiastical chaos which
+spread over the earth. The age of martyrs had passed&mdash;the
+philosophers had begun their pestiferous tamperings
+with the facts of revelation&mdash;and over all rioted
+and stormed an ambitious and worldly priesthood, who
+hated their opponents with more bitterness than the
+heathens had displayed against the Christians, and ran
+wild in every species of lawlessness and vice. The
+deserts and caves which used to give retreat to meditative
+worshippers or timid believers, now teemed with
+thousands of furious and fanatical monks, who rushed
+occasionally into the great cities of the empire, and filled
+their streets with blood and rapine. Guided by no less
+fanatical bishops, they spread murder and terror over
+whole provinces. Alexandria stood in more fear of
+these professed recluses than of an army of hostile
+soldiers. &ldquo;There is a race,&rdquo; says Eunapius, &ldquo;called
+monks&mdash;men indeed in form, but hogs in life, who practise
+and allow abominable things. Whoever wears a
+black robe, and is not ashamed of filthy garments, and
+presents a dirty face to the public view, obtains a tyrannical
+authority.&rdquo; False miracles, absurd prophecies,
+and ludicrous visions were the instruments with which
+these and other impostors established their power. Mad
+enthusiasts imprisoned themselves in dungeons, or exposed
+themselves on the tops of pillars, naked, except
+by the growth of their tangled hair, and the coating of
+filth upon their persons,&mdash;and gained credit among the
+ignorant for self-denial and abnegation of the world.</p>
+
+<p>All the high offices of the Church were so lucrative<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span>
+and honourable as to be the object of universal
+desire.</p>
+
+<p>To be established archbishop of a diocese cost more
+lives than the conquest of a province. When the Christian
+community needed support from without, they had
+recourse to some rich or powerful individual, some
+general of an army, or governor of a district, and begged
+him to assume the pastoral staff in exchange for his
+military sword. Sometimes the assembled crowd cried
+out the name of a favourite who was not even known
+to be a Christian, and the mitre was conveyed by acclamation
+to a person who had to undergo the ceremonies
+of baptism and ordination before he could place it on
+his head. Sometimes the exigencies of the congregation
+required a scholar or an orator for its head. It
+applied to a philosopher to undertake its direction. He
+objected that his philosophy had been declared inconsistent
+with the Christian faith, and his mode of life contrary
+to Christian precept. They forgave him his philosophy,
+his horses and hounds, his wife and children,
+and constituted him their chief. Age was of no consequence.
+A youth of eighteen has been saluted bishop
+by a cry which seemed to the multitude the direct inspiration
+of Heaven, and seated in the chair of his dignity
+almost without his knowledge. Once established on his
+episcopal seat, he had no superior. The Roman Bishop
+had not yet asserted his supremacy over the Church.
+Each prelate was sovereign Pontiff of his own see, and
+his doctrines for a long time regulated the doctrines of
+his flock. Under former bishops, Milan had been Arian,
+under Ambrose it was orthodox, and with a change of
+master might have been Arian again. The emperors had
+occasionally interfered with their authoritative decisions,
+but generally the dispute was left in divided dioceses
+to be settled by argument, when the rivals&rsquo; tempers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span>
+allowed such a mode of warfare, but more frequently
+by armed bands of the retainers of the respective creeds,
+and sometimes by an appeal to miracles. But with this
+century a new spirit of bitterness was let loose upon
+the Church. Councils were held, at which the doctrines
+of the minority were declared dangerous to the State,
+and the civil power was invoked to carry the sentence
+into effect. In Africa, where the great name of Augustin
+of Hippo admitted no opposition, the Donatists, though
+represented by no less than two hundred and seventy-nine
+prelates, were condemned as heretics, and given
+over to the persecuting sword. But in other quarters
+the dissidents looked for support to the civil power, when
+it happened to be of their opinion in Church affairs.
+Rome chose Clovis, the politic and energetic Frank, for
+its guardian and protector, and the Arians threw themselves
+in the same way on the support of the Visigoths
+and Burgundians. A difference of faith became a pretext
+for war. Clovis, who envied his neighbours their
+territories south of the Loire, led an expedition against
+them, crying, &ldquo;It is shameful to see those Arians in
+possession of such goodly lands!&rdquo; and everywhere a vast
+activity was perceptible in the Church, because its
+interests were now connected with those of kings and
+peoples. In earlier times, discussions were carried on
+on a great variety of doctrines which, though widely
+spread, were not yet authoritatively declared to be
+articles of faith. St. Jerome himself, and others, had
+had to defend their opinions against the attacks of
+various adversaries, who, without ceasing to be considered
+true members of the Church, wrote powerfully
+against the worship of martyrs and their relics; against
+the miracles professedly wrought at their tombs; against
+fasting, austerities, and celibacy. No appeal was made
+on those occasions either to the Bishop of Rome as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span>
+head of the Church, or to the emperor as head of the
+State. Now, however, the spirit of moderation was
+banished, and the decrees of councils were considered
+superior to private or even diocesan judgment. Life
+and freedom of discussion were at an end under an
+enforced and rigid uniformity. But the struggle lasted
+through the century. It was the period of great convulsions
+in the State, and disputations, wranglings, and
+struggle in the Church. How these, in a State tortured
+by perpetual change, and a Church filled with energy
+and fire, acted upon each other, may easily be supposed.
+The doubtful and unsteady civil government had subordinated
+itself to the turbulent ardour of the perplexed
+but highly-animated Church. After the conquest of
+Rome, where was the barbaric conqueror to look for
+any guide to internal unity, or any relic of the vanished
+empire by which to connect himself with the past?
+There was only the Church, which was now not only
+the professed teacher of obedience, peace, and holiness,
+but the only undestroyed institution of the State. The
+old population of Rome had been wasted by the sword,
+and famine, and deportation. The emperors of the West
+had left the scene; the Roman Senate was no more.
+There was but one authority which had any influence
+on the wretched crowd who had returned to their
+ancient capital, or sought refuge in its ruined palaces or
+grass-grown streets from the pursuit of their foes; and
+that was the Bishop of the Christian congregation&mdash;whose
+palace had been given to him by Constantine&mdash;who
+claimed already the inheritance of St. Peter&mdash;and
+who carried to the new government either the support
+of a willing people, or the enmity of a seditious mob.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 489.</div>
+
+<p>A new hero came upon the scene in the person
+of Theodoric, the Ostrogoth. Odoacer tried
+in vain to resist the two hundred thousand warriors of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span>
+this tribe who poured upon Italy in 490, and, after a
+long resistance in Ravenna, yielded the kingdom of
+Italy to his rival. Theodoric, though an Arian, cultivated
+the good opinion of the orthodox, and gained the
+favour of the Roman Bishop. He had almost a superstitious
+veneration for the dignities of ancient Rome.
+He treated with respect an assembly which called itself
+the Senate, but did not allow his love of antiquity to
+blind him to the degeneracy of the present race. He
+interdicted arms to all men of Roman blood, and tried
+in vain to prevent his followers from using the appellation
+&ldquo;Roman&rdquo; as their bitterest form of contempt.
+Lands were distributed to his followers, and they occupied
+and improved a full third of Italy. Equal laws
+were provided for both populations, but he forbade the
+toga and the schools to his countrymen, and left the
+studies and refinements of life, and offices of civil dignity,
+to the native race. The hand that holds the pen, he
+said, becomes unfitted for the sword. But, barbarian
+as he was called, he restored the prosperity which the
+fairest region of the earth had lost under the emperors.
+Bridges, aqueducts, theatres, baths, were repaired;
+palaces and churches built. Agriculture was encouraged,
+attempts were made to drain the Pontine Marshes; iron-mines
+were worked in Dalmatia, and gold-mines in Bruttium.
+Large fleets protected the coasts of the Mediterranean
+from pirates and invaders. Population increased,
+taxes were diminished; and a ruler who could neither
+read nor write attracted to his court all the learned men
+of his time. Already the energy of a new and enterprising
+people was felt to the extremities of his dominions.
+A new race, also, was established in Gaul. Klodwig,
+leader of the Franks, received baptism at the hands
+of St. Remi in 496, and began the great line of French
+rulers, who, passing his name through the softened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span>
+sound of Clovis, presented, in the different families who
+succeeded him, eighteen kings of the name of Louis, as
+if commemorative of the founder of the monarchy.</p>
+
+<p>In England the petty kingdoms of the Heptarchy
+were in the course of formation, and though, when
+viewed closely, we seemed a divided and even hostile
+collection of individual tribes, the historian combines
+the separate elements, and tells us that, before the fifth
+century expired, another branch of the barbarians had
+settled into form and order, and that the Anglo-Saxon
+race had taken possession of its place.</p>
+
+<p>With these newly-founded States rising with fresh
+vigour from among the decayed and festering remains
+of an older society, we look hopefully forward to what
+the future years will show us.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span>
+<a name="SIXTH_CENTURY" id="SIXTH_CENTURY">SIXTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of the Franks.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Clovis.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">511.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Childebert</span>, <span class="smcap">Thierry</span>, <span class="smcap">Clotaire</span>, <span class="smcap">Clodomir</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">559.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Clotaire</span> (sole King).</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">562.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charibert</span>, <span class="smcap">Gontran</span>, <span class="smcap">Sigebert</span> and <span class="smcap">Childeric</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">584.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Clotaire II.</span>, (of Soissons.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">596.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Thierry II.</span>, <span class="smcap">Theodobert</span>, (of Paris and Austrasia.)</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of the East.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Anastasius.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">518.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Justin.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">527.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Justinian I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">565.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Justin II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">578.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Tiberius II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">582.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Maurice.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Boethius</span>, <span class="smcap">Procopius</span>, <span class="smcap">Gildas</span>, <span class="smcap">Gregory of Tours</span>, <span class="smcap">Columba</span>,
+(520-597,) <span class="smcap">Priscian</span>, <span class="smcap">Columbanus</span>, <span class="smcap">Benedict</span>, <span class="smcap">Evagrius</span>, (<span class="smcap">Scholasticus</span>,)
+<span class="smcap">Fulgentius</span>, <span class="smcap">Gregory the Great</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_SIXTH_CENTURY" id="THE_SIXTH_CENTURY">THE SIXTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">BELISARIUS AND NARSES IN ITALY&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;SETTLEMENT OF THE
+LOMBARDS&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;LAWS OF JUSTINIAN&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;BIRTH OF MOHAMMED.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Theodoric</span>, though not laying claim to universal
+empire in right of his possession of Rome and Italy,
+exercised a sort of supremacy over his contemporaries
+by his wisdom and power. He also strengthened his
+position by family alliances. His wife was sister of
+Klodwig or Clovis, King of the Franks. He married
+his own sister to Hunric, King of the Vandals, his niece
+to the Thuringian king. One of his daughters he gave
+to Sigismund, King of the Burgundians, and the other
+to Alaric the Second, King of the Visigoths. Relying
+on the double influence which his relationship and reputation
+secured to him, he rebuked or praised the potentates
+of Europe as if they had been his children, and
+gave them advice in the various exigencies of their
+affairs, to which they implicitly submitted. He would
+fain have kept alive what was left of the old Roman
+civilization, and heaped honours on the Senator Cassiodorus,
+one of the last writers of Rome. &ldquo;We send you
+this man as ambassador,&rdquo; he said to the King of the
+Burgundians, &ldquo;that your people may no longer pretend
+to be our equals when they perceive what manner of
+men we have among us.&rdquo; But his rule, though generous,
+was strict. He imprisoned the Bishop of Rome
+for disobedience of orders in a commission he had given
+him, and repressed discontent and the quarrels of the
+factions with an unsparing hand. But the death of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span>
+great and wise sovereign showed on what unstable
+foundations a barbaric power is built. Frightful tragedies
+were enacted in his family. His daughter was
+murdered by her nephew, whom she had associated
+with her in the guardianship of her son. But vengeance
+overtook the wrong-doer, and a strange revolution
+occurred in the history of the world. The emperor
+reigning at Constantinople was the celebrated Justinian.
+He saw into what a confused condition the affairs of the
+new conquerors of Italy had fallen. Rallying round
+him all the recollections of the past&mdash;giving command
+of his armies to one of the great men who start up unexpectedly
+in the most hopeless periods of history,
+whose name, Belisarius, still continues to be familiar to
+our ears&mdash;and rousing the hostile nationalities to come
+to his aid, he poured into the peninsula an army with
+Roman discipline and the union which community of
+interests affords. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 535.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>In a remarkably short space
+of time, Belisarius achieved the conquest of
+Italy. The opposing soldiers threw down their arms
+at sight of the well-remembered eagles. The nations
+threw off the supremacy of the Ostrogoths. Belisarius
+had already overthrown the kingdom of the Vandals
+and restored Africa to the empire of the East. He took
+Naples, and put the inhabitants to the sword. He advanced
+upon Rome, which the Goths deserted at his
+approach. The walls of the great city were restored,
+and a victory over the fugitives at Perugia seemed to
+secure the whole land to its ancient masters. But
+Witig, the Ostrogoth, gathered courage from despair.
+He besought assistance from the Franks, who had now
+taken possession of Burgundy; and volunteers from all
+quarters flocked to his standard, for he had promised
+them the spoils of Milan. Milan was immensely rich,
+and had espoused the orthodox faith. The assailants<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span>
+were Arians, and intent on plunder. Such destruction
+had scarcely been seen since the memorable slaughter of
+the Huns at Châlons on the Marne. The Ostrogoths and
+Burgundian Franks broke into the town, and the streets
+were piled up with the corpses of all the inhabitants.
+There were three hundred thousand put to death, and
+multitudes had died of famine and disease. The ferocity
+was useless, and Belisarius was already on the march;
+Witig was conquered, in open fight, while he was busy
+besieging Rome; Ravenna itself, his capital, was taken,
+and the Ostrogothic king was led in triumph along the
+streets of Constantinople.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 540.</div>
+
+<p>But the conqueror of the Ostrogoths fell into disfavour
+at court. He was summoned home, and a great
+man, whom his presence in Italy had kept in
+check, availed himself of his absence. Totila seemed
+indeed worthy to succeed to the empire of his countryman
+Theodoric. He again peopled the utterly exhausted
+Rome; he restored its buildings, and lived
+among the new-comers himself, encouraging their efforts
+to give it once more the appearance of the capital of the
+world. But these efforts were in vain. There was no
+possibility of reviving the old fiction of the identity of
+the freshly-imported inhabitants and the countrymen of
+Scipio and Cæsar. Only one link was possible between
+the old state of things and the new. It was strange
+that it was left for the Christian Bishop to bridge over
+the chasm that separated the Rome of the Consulship
+and the Empire from the capital of the Goths. Yet so
+it was. While the short duration of the reigns of the
+barbaric kings prevented the most sanguine from looking
+forward to the stability of any power for the future,
+the immunity already granted to the clerical order, and
+the sanctuary afforded, in the midst of the wildest excesses
+of siege and storm, by their shrines and churches,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>
+had affixed a character of inviolability and permanence
+to the influence of the ecclesiastical chief. At Constantinople,
+the presence of the sovereign, who affected a
+grandeur to which the pretensions to divinity of the
+Roman emperors had been modesty and simplicity, kept
+the dignity of the Bishop in a very secondary place.
+But at Rome there was no one left to dispute his rank.
+His office claimed a duration of upwards of four hundred
+years; and though at first his predecessors had been
+fugitives and martyrs, and even now his power had no
+foundation except in the willing obedience of the members
+of his flock, the necessity of his position had forced
+him to extend his claims beyond the mere requirements
+of his spiritual rule. During the ephemeral occupations
+of the city by Vandals and Huns and Ostrogoths, and
+all the tribes who successively took possession of the
+great capital, he had been recognised as the representative
+of the most influential portion of the inhabitants.
+As it naturally followed that the higher the rank of a
+ruler or intercessor was, the more likely his success
+would be, the Christians of the orthodox persuasion had
+the wisdom to raise their Bishop as high as they could.
+He had stood between the devoted city and the Huns;
+he had promised obedience or threatened resistance to
+the Goths, according to the conduct pursued with regard
+to his flock by the conquerors. He had also lent to
+Belisarius all the weight of his authority in restoring
+the power of the emperors, and from this time the
+Bishop of Rome became a great civil as well as ecclesiastical
+officer. All parties in turn united in trying to
+win him over to their cause&mdash;the Arian kings, by kindness
+and forbearance to his adherents; and the orthodox,
+by increasing the rights and privileges of his see. And
+already the policy of the Roman Pontiffs began to take
+the path it has never deserted since. They looked out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span>
+in all quarters for assistance in their schemes of ambition
+and conquest. Emissaries were despatched into many
+nations to convert them, not from heathenism to Christianity,
+but from independence to an acknowledgment
+of their subjection to Rome. It was seen already that
+a great spiritual empire might be founded upon the
+ruins of the old Roman world, and spread itself over the
+perplexed and unstable politics of the barbaric tribes.
+No means, accordingly, were left untried to extend the
+conquests of the spiritual Cæsar. When Clovis the
+Frank was converted by the entreaties of his wife from
+Arianism to the creed of the Roman Church, the orthodox
+bishops of France considered it a victory over
+their enemies, though these enemies were their countrymen
+and neighbours. And from henceforth we find the
+different confessions of faith to have more influence in
+the setting up or overthrowing of kingdoms than the
+strength of armies or the skill of generals. Narses,
+who was appointed the successor of Belisarius, was a
+believer in the decrees of the Council of Nice. His orthodoxy
+won him the support of all the orthodox Huns
+and Heruleans and Lombards, who formed an army of
+infuriated missionaries rather than of soldiers, and
+gained to his cause the majority of the Ostrogoths
+whom it was his task to fight. Totila in vain tried to
+bear up against this invasion. The heretical Ostrogoths,
+expelled from the towns by their orthodox fellow-citizens,
+and ill supported by the inhabitants of the lands they
+traversed, were defeated in several battles; and at last,
+when the resisting forces were reduced to the paltry
+number of seven thousand men, their spirits broken by
+defeat, and a continuance in Italy made useless by the
+hostile feelings of the population, they applied to Narses
+for some means of saving their lives. He furnished them
+with vessels, which carried them from the lands which,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span>
+sixty years before, had been assigned them by the great
+Theodoric, and they found an obscure termination to so
+strange and checkered a career, by being lost and mingled
+in the crowded populations of Constantinople. This was
+in 553. The Ostrogoths disappear from history. The
+Visigoths have still a settlement at the southwest of France
+and in the rich regions of Spain, but they are isolated by
+their position, and are divided into different branches.
+The Franks are a great and seemingly well-cemented
+race between the Rhine and the sea. The Burgundians
+have a form of government and code of laws which keep
+them distinct and powerful. There are nations rising
+into independence in Germany. In England, Christianity
+has formed a bond which practically gives firmness
+and unity to the kingdoms of the Heptarchy; and
+it might be expected that, having seen so many tribes
+of strange and varying aspect emerge from the unknown
+regions of the East, we should have little to do but
+watch the gradual enlightenment of those various races,
+and see them assuming, by slow degrees, their present
+respective places; but the undiscovered extremities of
+the earth were again to pour forth a swarm of invaders,
+who plunged Italy back into its old state of barbarism
+and oppression, and established a new people in the
+midst of its already confused and intermixed populations.</p>
+
+<p>Somewhere up between the Aller and the Oder there
+had been settled, from some unknown period, a people
+of wild and uncultivated habits, who had occasionally
+appeared in small detachments in the various gatherings
+of barbarians who had forced their way into the South.
+Following the irresistible impulse which seems to impel
+all the settlers in the North, they traversed the regions
+already occupied by the Heruleans and the Gepides, and
+paused, as all previous invasions had done, on the outer
+boundary of the Danube. These were the Longobards<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span>
+or Lombards, so called from the spears, <i>bardi</i>, with
+which they were armed; and not long they required to
+wait till a favourable opportunity occurred for them to
+cross the stream. In the hurried levies of Narses some
+of them had offered their services, and had been present
+at the victory over Totila the Goth. They returned, in
+all probability, to their companions, and soon the hearts
+of the whole tribe were set upon the conquest of the
+beautiful region their countrymen had seen. If they
+hesitated to undertake so long an expedition, two incidents
+occurred which made it indispensable. Flying in
+wild fury and dismay from the face of a pursuing enemy,
+the Avars, themselves a ferocious Asiatic horde which
+had terrified the Eastern Empire, came and joined themselves
+to the Lombards. With united forces, all their
+tents, and wives and children, their horses and cattle,
+this dreadful alliance began their progress to Italy. The
+other incident was, that in revenge for the injustice of
+his master, and dreading his further malice, Narses himself
+invited their assistance. Alboin, the Lombard
+king, was chief of the expedition. He had been refused
+the hand of Rosamund, the daughter of Cunimond,
+chief of the Gepides. He poured the combined armies
+of Lombards and Avars upon the unfortunate tribe,
+slew the king with his own hand, and, according to the
+inhuman fashion of his race, formed his drinking-cup
+of his enemy&rsquo;s skull. He married Rosamund, and pursued
+his victorious career. He crossed the Julian Alps,
+made himself master of Milan and the dependent territories,
+and was lifted on the shield as King of Italy. At
+a festival in honour of his successes, he forced his
+favourite wine-goblet into the hands of his wife. She
+recognised the fearful vessel, and shuddered while she
+put her lips to the brim. But hatred took possession of
+her heart. She promised her hand and throne to Kilmich,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span>
+one of her attendants, if he would take vengeance
+on the tyrant who had offered her so intolerable a
+wrong. The attendant was won by the bride, and slew
+Alboin. But justice pursued the murderers. They
+were discovered, and fled to Ravenna, where the Exarch
+held his court. Saved thus from human retribution,
+Rosamund brought her fate upon herself. Captivated
+with the prospect of marrying the Exarch, she presented
+a poisoned cup to Kilmich, now become her husband, as
+he came from the bath. The effect was immediate, and
+the agonies he felt told him too surely the author of his
+death. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 575.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>He just lived long enough to stab the wretched
+woman with his dagger, and this frightful domestic
+tragedy was brought to a close.</p>
+
+<p>Alboin had divided his dominion into many little
+states and dukedoms. A kind of anarchy succeeded
+the strong government of the remorseless and clear-sighted
+king, and enemies began to arise in different
+directions. The Franks from the south of France
+began to cross the Alps. The Greek settlements began
+to menace the Lombards from the South. Internal disunion
+was quelled by the public danger, and Antharis,
+the son of Cleph, was nominated king. To strengthen
+himself against the orthodox Franks, he professed himself
+a Christian and joined the Arian communion. With
+the aid of his co-religionists he repelled the invaders,
+and had time, in the intervals of their assaults, to extend
+his conquests to the south of the peninsula. There
+he overthrew the settlements which owned the Empire
+of the East; and coming to the extreme end of Italy,
+the savage ruler pushed his war-horse into the water as
+deep as it would go, and, standing up in his stirrups,
+threw forward his javelin with all his strength, saying,
+&ldquo;That is the boundary of the Lombard power.&rdquo; Unhappily
+for the unity of that distracted land, the warrior&rsquo;s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span>
+boast was unfounded, and it has continued ever
+since a prey to discord and division. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 591.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Another kingdom,
+however, was added to the roll of European states; and
+this was the last settlement permanently made
+on the old Roman territory.</p>
+
+<p>The Lombards were a less civilized horde than any
+of their predecessors. The Ostrogoths had rapidly assimilated
+themselves to the people who surrounded
+them, but the Lombards looked with haughty disdain
+on the population they had subdued. By portioning
+the country among the chiefs of the expedition, they
+commenced the first experiment on a great scale of
+what afterwards expanded into the feudal system.
+There were among them, as among the other northern
+settlers, an elective king and an hereditary nobility,
+owing suit and service to their chief, and exacting the
+same from their dependants; and already we see the
+working of this similarity of constitution in the diffusion
+throughout the whole of Europe of the monarchical and
+aristocratic principle, which is still the characteristic of
+most of our modern states. From this century some
+authors date the origin of what are called the &ldquo;Middle
+Ages,&rdquo; forming the great and obscure gulf between
+ancient and modern times. Others, indeed, wish to fix
+the commencement of the Middle Ages at a much
+earlier date&mdash;even so far back as the reign of Constantine.
+They found this inclination on the fact that to
+him we are indebted for the settlement of barbarians
+within the empire, and the institution of a titled nobility
+dependent on the crown. But many things were needed
+besides these to constitute the state of manners and
+polity which we recognise as those of the Middle Ages,
+and above them all the establishment of the monarchical
+principle in ecclesiastical government, and the recognition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span>
+of a sovereign priest. This was now close at hand,
+and its approach was heralded by many appearances.</p>
+
+<p>How, indeed, could the Church deprive itself of the
+organization which it saw so powerful and so successful
+in civil affairs? A machinery was all ready to produce
+an exact copy of the forms of temporal administration.
+There were bishops to be analogous to the great feudataries
+of the crown; priests and rectors to represent the
+smaller freeholders dependent on the greater barons;
+but where was the monarch by whom the whole system
+was to be combined and all the links of the great chain
+held together by a point of central union? The want
+of this had been so felt, that we might naturally have
+expected a claim to universal superiority to have long
+ere this been made by a Pope of Rome, the ancient seat
+of the temporal power. But with his residence perpetually
+a prey to fresh inroads, a heretical king merely
+granting him toleration and protection, the pretension
+would have been too absurd during the troubles of Italy,
+and it was not advanced for several years. The necessity
+of the case, however, was such, that a voice was
+heard from another quarter calling for universal obedience,
+and this was uttered by the Patriarch of Constantinople.
+Rome, we must remember, had by this time
+lost a great portion of her ancient fame. It was reserved
+for this wonderful city to rise again into all her
+former grandeur, by the restoration of learning and the
+knowledge of what she had been. At this period all
+that was known of her by the ignorant barbarians was,
+that she was a fresh-repaired and half-peopled town,
+which had been sacked and ruined five times within a
+century, that her inhabitants were collected from all
+parts of the world, and that she was liable to a repetition
+of her former misfortunes. They knew nothing
+of the great men who had raised her to such pre-eminence.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span>
+She had sunk even from being the capital of Italy, and
+could therefore make no intelligible claim to be considered
+the capital of the world. Constantinople, on
+the other hand, which, by our system of education, we
+are taught to look upon as a very modern creation
+compared with the Rome of the old heroic ages of the
+kings and consuls, was at that period a magnificent metropolis,
+which had been the seat of government for
+three hundred years. The majesty of the Roman name
+had transferred itself to that new locality, and nothing
+was more natural than that the Patriarch of the city of
+Constantine, which had been imperial from its origin,
+and had never been defiled by the presence of a Pagan
+temple, should claim for himself and his see a pre-eminence
+both in power and holiness. Accordingly, a
+demand was made in 588 for the recognition throughout
+the Christian world of the universal headship of the
+bishopric of Constantinople. But at that time there
+was a bishop of Rome, whom his successors have gratefully
+dignified with the epithet of Great, who stood up
+in defence, not of his own see only, but of all the bishoprics
+in Europe. Gregory published, in answer to the
+audacious claim of the Eastern patriarch, a vigorous
+protest, in which these remarkable words occur:&mdash;&ldquo;This
+I declare with confidence, that whoso designates himself
+Universal Priest, or, in the pride of his heart, consents
+to be so named&mdash;he is the forerunner of Antichrist.&rdquo; It
+was therefore to Rome, on the broad ground of the
+Christian equality of all the chief pastors of the Church,
+that we owe this solemn declaration against the pretensions
+of the ambitious John of Constantinople.</p>
+
+<p>But Constantinople itself was about to fade from the
+minds of men. Dissatisfied with the opposition to its
+supremacy, the Eastern Church became separated in
+interest and discipline and doctrine from its Western<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span>
+branch. The intercourse between the two was hostile,
+and in a short time nearly ceased. The empire also
+was so deeply engaged in defending its boundaries
+against the Persians and other enemies in Asia, that
+it took small heed of the proceedings of its late dependencies,
+the newly-founded kingdoms in Europe. It
+is probable that the refined and ostentatious court of
+Justinian, divided as it was into fanatical parties about
+some of the deepest and some of the most unimportant
+mysteries of the faith, and contending with equal bitterness
+about the charioteers of the amphitheatre according
+as their colours were green or blue, looked with profound
+contempt on the struggles after better government
+and greater enlightenment of the rabble of Franks,
+and Lombards, and Burgundians, who had settled themselves
+in the distant lands of the West. The interior
+regulations of Justinian formed a strange contrast with
+the grandeur and success of his foreign policy. By his
+lieutenants Belisarius and Narses, he had reconquered
+the lost inheritance of his predecessors, and held in full
+sovereignty for a while the fertile shores of Africa,
+rescued from the debasing hold of the Vandals; he had
+cleared Italy of Ostrogoths, Spain even had yielded an
+unwilling obedience, and his name was reverenced in
+the great confederacy of the Germanic peoples who
+held the lands from the Atlantic eastward to Hungary,
+and from Marseilles to the mouth of the Elbe. But his
+home was the scene of every weakness and wickedness
+that can disgrace the name of man. Kept in slavish
+submission to his wife, he did not see, what all the rest
+of the world saw, that she was the basest of her sex,
+and a disgrace to the place he gave her. Beginning as
+a dancer at the theatre, she passed through every grade
+of infamy and vice, till the name of Theodora became a
+synonym for every thing vile and shameless. Yet this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span>
+man, successful in war and politic in action, though contemptible
+in private life, had the genius of a legislator,
+and left a memorial of his abilities which extended its
+influence through all the nations which succeeded to
+any portion of the Roman dominion, and has shaped
+and modified the jurisprudence of all succeeding times.
+He was not so much a maker of new laws, as a restorer
+and simplifier of the old; and as the efforts of Justinian
+in this direction were one of the great features by which
+the sixth century is distinguished, it will be useful to
+devote a page or two to explain in what his work consisted.</p>
+
+<p>The Roman laws had become so numerous and so
+contradictory that the administration of justice was
+impossible, even where the judges were upright and
+intelligent. The mere word of an emperor had been
+considered a decree, and legally binding for all future
+time. No lapse of years seems to have brought a law
+once promulgated into desuetude. The people, therefore,
+groaned under the uncertainty of the statutes,
+which was further increased by the innumerable glosses
+or interpretations put upon them by the lawyers. All
+the decisions which had ever been given by the fifty-four
+emperors, from Adrian to Justinian, were in full force.
+All the commentaries made upon them by advocates
+and judges, and all the sentences delivered in accordance
+with them, were contained in thousands of volumes;
+and the result was, when Justinian came to the throne
+in 526, that there was no point of law on which any
+man could be sure. He employed the greatest jurisconsults
+of that time, Trebonian and others, to bring some
+order into the chaos; and such was the diligence of the
+commissioners, that in fourteen months they produced
+the Justinian Code in twelve books, containing a
+condensation of all previous constitutions. <span class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 527.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[136]</a></span></span>In the course of seven years, two hundred laws and fifty
+judgments were added by the emperor himself, and a
+new edition of the Code was published in 534. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 533.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Under
+the name of Institutes appeared a new manual for the
+legal students in the great schools of Constantinople,
+Berytus, and Rome, where the principles
+of Roman law are succinctly laid down. The third of
+his great works was one for the completion of which he
+gave Trebonian and his assessors ten years. It is called
+the Digest or Pandects of Justinian, because in it were
+digested, or put in order in a general collection, the best
+decisions of the courts, and the opinions and treatises
+of the ablest lawyers. All previous codes were ransacked,
+and two thousand volumes of legal argument
+condensed; and in three years the indefatigable law-reformers
+published their work, wherein three million
+leading judgments were reduced to a hundred and fifty
+thousand. Future confusion was guarded against by a
+commandment of the emperor abolishing all previous
+laws and making it penal to add note or comment to
+the collection now completed. The sentences delivered
+by the emperor, after the appearance of the Pandects,
+were published under the name of the Novellæ; and
+with this great clearing-out of the Augean stable of
+ancient law, the salutary labours of Trebonian came to
+a close. In those laws are to be seen both the virtues
+and the vices of their origin. They sprang from the
+wise liberality of a despot, and handle the rights of subjects,
+in their relation to each other, with the equanimity
+and justice of a power immeasurably raised above
+them all. But the unlimited supremacy of the ruler is
+maintained as the sole foundation for the laws themselves.
+So we see in these collections, and in the spirit
+which they have spread over all the codes which have
+taken them for their model, a combination of humanity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[137]</a></span>
+and probity in the civil law, with a tendency to exalt
+to a ridiculous excess the authority of the governing
+power.</p>
+
+<p>This has been a century of wonderful revolutions.
+We have seen the kingdom of the Ostrogoths take the
+lead in Europe under the wise government of Theodoric
+the Great. We have seen it overthrown by an army of
+very small size, consisting of the very forces they had
+so recently triumphed over in every battle; and finally,
+after the victories over them of Belisarius and Narses,
+we have seen the last small remnant of their name removed
+from Italy altogether and eradicated from history
+for all future time. But, strange as this reassertion
+of the Greek supremacy was, the rapidity of its overthrow
+was stranger still. A new people came upon the
+stage, and established the Lombard power. The empire
+contracted itself within its former narrow bounds, and
+kept up the phantom of its superiority merely by the
+residence of an Exarch, or provincial governor, at
+Ravenna. The fiction of its power was further maintained
+by the Emperor&rsquo;s official recognition of certain
+rulers, and his ratification of the election of the Roman
+bishops. But in all essentials the influence had departed
+from Constantinople, and the Western monarchies were
+separated from the East.</p>
+
+<p>In the Northwest, the confederacy of the Franks,
+which had consolidated into one immense and powerful
+kingdom under Clovis, became separated, weakened,
+and converted into open enemies under his degenerate
+successors.</p>
+
+<p>But as the century drew to a close, a circumstance
+occurred, far away from the scene of all these proceedings,
+which had a greater influence on human affairs
+than the reconquest of Italy or the establishment of
+France. This was the marriage of a young man in a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[138]</a></span>
+town of Arabia with the widow of his former master.
+In 564 this young man was born in Mecca, where his
+family had long held the high office of custodiers and
+guardians of the famous Caaba, which was popularly
+believed to be the stone that covered the grave of
+Abraham. But when he was still a child his father
+died, and he was left to the care of his uncle. The
+simplicity of the Arab character is shown in the way in
+which the young noble was brought up. Abu Taleb
+initiated him in the science of war and the mysteries of
+commerce. He managed his horse and sword like an
+accomplished cavalier, and followed the caravan as a
+merchant through the desert. Gifted with a high poetical
+temperament, and soaring above the grovelling
+superstitions of the people surrounding him, he used
+to retire to meditate on the great questions of man&rsquo;s
+relation to his Maker, which the inquiring mind can
+never avoid. Meditation led to excitement. He saw
+visions and dreamed dreams. He saw great things
+before him, if he could become the leader and lawgiver
+of his race. But he was poor and unknown. His mistress
+Cadijah saw the aspirations of her noble servant,
+and offered him her hand. He was now at leisure to
+mature the schemes of national regeneration and religious
+improvement which had occupied him so long,
+and devoted himself more than ever to study and contemplation.
+This was Mohammed, the Prophet of
+Islam, who retired in 594 to perfect his scheme, and
+whose empire, before many years elapsed, extended from
+India to Spain, and menaced Christianity and Europe
+at the same time from the Pyrenees and the Danube.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[139]</a></span>
+<a name="SEVENTH_CENTURY" id="SEVENTH_CENTURY">SEVENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of the Franks.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Thierry</span> II. and <span class="smcap">Theodobert</span> II.&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">614.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Clotaire III.</span> (sole king.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">628.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Dagobert</span> and <span class="smcap">Charibert</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">638.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Sigebert</span> and <span class="smcap">Clovis II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">654.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Childeric II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">679.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Thierry IV.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">692.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Clovis III.</span> (<span class="smcap">Pepin</span>, Mayor.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">695.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Childebert III.</span> (do.)</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of the East.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Maurice</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">602.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Phocas.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">611.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Heraclius.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">641.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Constantine</span>, (and others.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">642.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Constans.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">668.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Constantius V.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">685.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Justinian II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">695.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Leontius.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">697.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Tiberius.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Nennius</span>, (620,) <span class="smcap">Bede</span>, (674-735,) <span class="smcap">Aldhelm</span>, <span class="smcap">Adamnanus</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[141]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_SEVENTH_CENTURY" id="THE_SEVENTH_CENTURY">THE SEVENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">POWER OF ROME SUPPORTED BY THE MONKS&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;CONQUESTS
+OF THE MOHAMMEDANS.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">This</span>, then, is the century during which Mohammedanism
+and Christianity were marshalling their forces&mdash;unknown,
+indeed, to each other, but preparing, according
+to their respective powers, for the period when they
+were to be brought face to face. We shall go eastward,
+and follow the triumphant march of the warriors of the
+Crescent from Arabia to the shores of Africa; but first
+we shall cast a desponding eye on the condition and
+prospects of the kingdoms of the West. Conquest,
+spoliation, and insecurity had done their work. Wave
+after wave had passed over the surface of the old Roman
+State, and obliterated almost all the landmarks of the
+ancient time. The towns, to be sure, still remained, but
+stripped of their old magnificence, and thinly peopled by
+the dispossessed inhabitants of the soil, who congregated
+together for mutual support. Trade was carried
+on, but subject to the exactions, and sometimes the
+open robberies, of the avaricious chieftains who had
+reared their fortresses on the neighbouring heights.
+Large tracts of country lay waste and desolate, or were
+left to the happy fertility of nature in the growth of
+spontaneous woods. Marshes were formed over whole
+districts, and the cattle picked up an uncertain existence
+by browsing over great expanses of poor and unenclosed
+land. These flocks and herds were guarded by
+hordes of armed serfs, who camped beside them on the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[142]</a></span>
+fields, and led a life not unlike that of their remote
+ancestors on the steppes of Tartary. A man&rsquo;s wealth
+was counted by his retainers, and there was no supreme
+authority to keep the dignitaries, even of the same
+tribe, from warring on each other and wasting their
+rival&rsquo;s country with fire and sword. Agriculture, therefore,
+was in the lowest state, and famines, plagues, and
+other concomitants of want were common in all parts
+of Europe. One beautiful exception must be made to
+this universal neglect of agriculture, in favour of the
+Benedictine monks, established in various parts of Italy
+and Gaul in the course of the preceding century. Religious
+reverence was a surer safeguard to those lowly
+men than castles or armour could have been. No
+marauder dared to trespass on lands which were under
+the protection of priest and bishop. And these Western
+recluses, far from imitating the slothful uselessness of
+the Eastern monks, turned their whole attention to the
+cultivation of the soil. In this they bestowed a double
+benefit on their fellow-men, for, in addition to the positive
+improvement of the land, they rescued labour from
+the opprobrium into which it had fallen, and raised it to
+the dignity of a religious duty. Slavery, we have seen,
+was universally practised in all the conquered territories,
+and as only the slaves were compelled to the drudgeries
+of the field, the work itself borrowed a large portion of
+the degradation of the unhappy beings condemned to
+it; and robbery, pillage, murder, and every crime, were
+considered far less derogatory to the dignity of free
+Frank or Burgundian than the slightest touch of the
+mattock or spade. How surprised, then, were the
+haughty countrymen and descendants of Clovis or
+Alboin to see the revered hands from which they believed
+the highest blessings of Heaven to flow, employed
+in the daily labour of digging, planting, sowing, reaping,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[143]</a></span>
+thrashing, grinding, and baking! At first they looked
+incredulously on. Even the monks were disposed to
+consider it no part of their conventual duties. But the
+founder of their institution wrote to them, &ldquo;to beware
+of idleness, as the greatest enemy of the soul,&rdquo; and not
+to be uneasy if at any time the cares of the harvest
+hindered them from their formal readings and regulated
+prayers. &ldquo;No person is ever more usefully employed
+than when working with his hands or following the
+plough, providing food for the use of man.&rdquo; And the
+effects of these exhortations were rapidly seen. Wherever
+a monastery was placed, there were soon fertile
+fields all round it, and innumerable stacks of corn. Generally
+chosen with a view to agricultural pursuits, we
+find sites of abbeys at the present day which are the
+perfect ideal of a working farm; for long after the outburst
+of agricultural energy had expired among the
+monks of St. Benedict, the choice of situation and knowledge
+of different soils descended to the other ecclesiastical
+establishments, and skill in agriculture continued
+at all times a characteristic of the religious orders. What
+could be more enchanting than the position of their
+monastic homes? Placed on the bank of some beautiful
+river, surrounded on all sides by the low flat lands enriched
+by the neighbouring waters, and protected by
+swelling hills where cattle are easily fed, we are too
+much in the habit of attributing the selection of so
+admirable a situation to the selfishness of the portly
+abbot. When the traveller has admired the graces of
+Melrose or of Tintern&mdash;the description applies equally
+to almost all the foundations of an early date&mdash;and has
+paid due attention to the chasteness of the architecture,
+and beauty of &ldquo;the long-resounding aisle and fretted
+vault,&rdquo; he sometimes contemplates with a sneer the
+matchless charm of the scenery, and exceeding richness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[144]</a></span>
+of the haugh or strath in which the building stands.
+&ldquo;Ah,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;they were knowing old gentlemen,
+those monks and priors. They had fish in the river, fat
+beeves upon the meadow, red-deer on the hill, ripe corn
+on the water-side, a full grange at Christmas, and snowy
+sheep at midsummer.&rdquo; And so they had, and deserved
+them all. The head of that great establishment was
+not wallowing in the fat of the land to the exclusion of
+envious baron or starving churl. He was, in fact, setting
+them an example which it would have been wise
+in them to follow. He merely chose the situation most
+fitted for his purpose, and bestowed his care on the
+lands which most readily yielded him his reward. It
+was not necessary for the monks in those days to seek
+out some neglected corner, and to restore it to cultivation,
+as an exercise of their ingenuity and strength.
+They were free to choose from one end of Europe to the
+other, for the whole of it lay useless and comparatively
+barren. But when these able-bodied recluses, if such
+they may be called, had shown the results of patient
+industry and skill, the peasants, who had seen their
+labours, or occasionally been employed to assist them,
+were able to convey to their lay proprietors or masters
+the lessons they had received. And at last something
+venerable was thought to reside in the act of farming
+itself. It was so uniformly found an accompaniment of
+the priestly character, that it acquired a portion of its
+sanctity, and the rude Lombard or half-civilized Frank
+looked with a kind of awe upon waving corn and rich
+clover, as if they were the result of a higher intelligence
+and purer life than he possessed. Even the
+highest officers in the Church were expected to attend
+to these agricultural conquests. In this century we
+find, that when kings summoned bishops to a council, or
+an archbishop called his brethren to a conference, care<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[145]</a></span>
+was taken to fix the time of meeting at a season which
+did not interfere with the labours of the farm. Privileges
+naturally followed these beneficial labours. The
+kings, in their wondering gratitude, surrounded the
+monasteries with fresh defences against the envy or
+enmity of the neighbouring chiefs. Their lands became
+places of sanctuary, as the altar of the Church had been.
+Freedmen&mdash;that is, persons manumitted from slavery,
+but not yet endowed with property&mdash;were everywhere
+put under the protection of the clergy. Immunities
+were heaped upon them, and methods found out of
+making them a separate and superior race. At the
+Council of Paris, in 613, it was decreed that the priest
+who offended against the common law should be tried
+by a mixed court of priests and laymen. But soon this
+law, apparently so just, was not considered enough, and
+the trial of ecclesiastics was given over to the ecclesiastical
+tribunals, without the admixture of the civil
+element. Other advantages followed from time to time.
+The Church was found in all the kingdoms to be so useful
+as the introducer of agriculture, and the preserver
+of what learning had survived the Roman overthrow,
+that the ambitious hierarchy profited by the royal and
+popular favour. They were the most influential, or perhaps
+it would be more just to say they were the only,
+order in the State. There was a nobility, but it was
+jarring and disunited; there were citizens, but they
+were powerless and depressed; there was a king, but he
+was but the first of the peers, and stood in dignified isolation
+where he was not subordinate to a combination of
+the others. The clergy, therefore, had no enemy or
+rival to dread, for they had all the constituents of
+power which the other portions of the population wanted.
+Their property was more secure; their lands were
+better cultivated; they were exempt from many of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span>
+the dangers and burdens to which the lay barons were
+exposed; they were not liable to the risks and losses of
+private war; they had more intelligence than their
+neighbours, and could summon assistance, either in
+advice, or support, or money, from the farthest extremity
+of Europe. Nothing, indeed, added more, at
+the commencement of this century, to the authority of
+those great ecclesiastical chieftains, than the circumstance
+that their interests were supported, not only by
+their neighbouring brethren, but by mitred abbot and
+lordly bishop in distant lands. If a prior or his monks
+found themselves ill used on the banks of the Seine,
+their cause was taken up by all other monks and priors
+wherever they were placed. And the rapidity of their
+intercommunication was extraordinary. Each monastery
+seems to have had a number of active young
+brethren who traversed the wildest regions with letters
+or messages, and brought back replies, almost with the
+speed and regularity of an established post. A convent
+on Lebanon was informed in a very short time of what
+had happened in Provence&mdash;the letter from the Western
+abbot was read and deliberated on, and an answer intrusted
+to the messenger, who again travelled over the
+immense tract lying between, receiving hospitality at
+the different religious establishments that occurred upon
+his way, and everywhere treated with the kindness of a
+brother. Monasteries in this way became the centres
+of news as well as of learning, and for many hundred
+years the only people who knew any thing of the state
+of feeling in foreign nations, or had a glimpse of the
+mutual interests of distant kingdoms, were the cowled
+and gowned individuals who were supposed to have
+given up the world and to be totally immersed in penances
+and prayers. What could Hereweg of the strong
+hand do against a bishop or abbot, who could tell at any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[147]</a></span>
+hour what were the political designs of conquerors or
+kings in countries which the astonished warrior did not
+know even by name; who retained by traditionary
+transmission the politeness of manner and elegance of
+accomplishment which had characterized the best period
+of the Roman power, when Christianized noblemen, on
+being promoted to an episcopal see, had retained the
+delicacies of their former life, and wrote love-songs as
+graceful as those of Catullus, and epigrams neither so
+witty nor so coarse as those of Martial? Intelligence
+asserted its superiority over brute force, and in this century
+the supremacy of the Church received its accomplishment
+in spite of the depravation of its principles.
+It gained in power and sank in morals. A hundred
+years of its beneficial action had made it so popular and
+so powerful that it fell into temptations, from which
+poverty or unpopularity would have kept it free. The
+sixth century was the period of its silent services, its
+lower officers endearing themselves by useful labour, and
+its dignitaries distinguishing themselves by learning and
+zeal. In the seventh century the fruit of all those virtues
+was to be gathered by very different hands. Ambitious
+contests began between the different orders composing
+the gradually rising hierarchy, from the monk in his
+cell to the Bishop of Rome or Constantinople on their
+pontifical thrones. It is very sad, after the view we
+have taken of the early benefits bestowed on many
+nations by the labours and example of the priests and
+monks, to see in the period we have reached the total
+cessation of life and energy in the Church;&mdash;of life and
+energy, we ought to say, in the fulfilment of its duties;
+for there was no want of those qualities in the gratification
+of its ambition. Forgetful of what Gregory had
+pronounced the chief sign of Antichrist, when he opposed
+the pretension of his rival metropolitan to call<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span>
+himself Universal Bishop, the Bishops of Rome were
+deterred by no considerations of humility or religion
+from establishing their temporal power. Up to this
+time they had humbly received the ratification of their
+election from the Emperors of the East, whose subjects
+they still remained. But the seat of their empire was
+far off, their power was a tradition of the past, and
+great thoughts came into the hearts of the spiritual
+chiefs, of inroads on the territory of the temporal rulers.
+In this design they looked round for supporters and
+allies, and with a still more watchful eye on the quarters
+from which opposition was to be feared. The bishops as
+a body had fallen not only into contempt but hatred.
+One century had sufficed to extinguish the elegant
+scholarship I have mentioned, at one time characteristic
+of the Christian prelates. Ignorance had become the
+badge of all the governors of the Church&mdash;ignorance
+and debauchery, and a tyrannical oppression of their
+inferiors. The wise old man in Rome saw what advantage
+he might derive from this, and took the monks
+under his peculiar protection, relieved them from the
+supervision of the local bishop, and made them immediately
+dependent on himself. By this one stroke he
+gained the unflinching support of the most influential
+body in Europe. Wherever they went they held forth
+the Pope as the first of earthly powers, and began
+already, in the enthusiasm of their gratitude, to speak
+of him as something more than mortal. To this the
+illiterate preachers and prelates had nothing to reply.
+They were sunk either in the grossest darkness, or involved
+in the wildest schemes of ambition, bishoprics
+being even held by laymen, and by both priest and laymen
+used as instruments of advancement and wealth.
+From these the Pontiff on the Tiber, whose weaknesses
+and vices were unknown, and who was held up for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[149]</a></span>
+invidious contrast with the bishops of their acquaintance
+by the libellous and grateful monks, had nothing to
+fear. He looked to another quarter in the political sky,
+and perceived with satisfaction that the kingly office also
+had fallen into contempt. Having lost the first impulse
+which carried it triumphantly over the dismembered
+Roman world, and made it a tower of strength in the
+hands of warriors like Theodoric the Goth and Clovis the
+Frank, it had forfeited its influence altogether in the pitiful
+keeping of the bloodthirsty or do-nothing kings who had
+submitted to the tutelage of the Mayors of the Palace.</p>
+
+<p>One of the great supports of the royal influence was
+the fiction of the law by which all lands were supposed
+to hold of the Crown. As in ancient days, in the German
+or Scythian deserts, the ambitious chieftain had
+presented his favourite with spear or war-horse in token
+of approval, so in the early days of the conquest of
+Gaul, the leader had presented his followers with tracts
+of land. The war-horse, under the old arrangement,
+died, and the spear became rotten; but the land was
+subject neither to death nor decay. What, then, was to
+become of the warrior&rsquo;s holding when he died? On this
+question, apparently so personal to the barbaric chiefs
+of the time of Dagobert of Gaul, depended the whole
+course of European history. The kings claimed the
+power of re-entering on the lands in case of the demise
+of the proprietor, or even in case of his rebellion or disobedience.
+The Leud, as he was called&mdash;or feudatory,
+as he would have been named at a later time&mdash;disputed
+this, and contended for the perpetuity and inalienability
+of the gift. It is easy to perceive who were the winners
+in this momentous struggle. From the success of the
+leuds arose the feudal system, with limited monarchies
+and national nobilities. The success of the kings would
+have resulted in despotic thrones and enslaved populations.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span>
+Foremost in the struggle for the royal supremacy
+had been the famous and unprincipled Brunehild, a
+woman more resembling the unnatural creation of a
+romance than a real character. She had succeeded at
+one time in subordinating the leuds, by exterminating
+the recusants with remorseless cruelty; and her triumph
+might have been final and irrevocable if she had not
+had the bad luck or impolitic hardihood to offend the
+Church. The Abbot Columba, a holy man from the far-distant
+island of Iona in the Hebrides of Scotland, had
+ventured to upbraid her with her crimes. She banished
+him from the Abbey of Luxeuil with circumstances of
+peculiar harshness, and there was no hope for her more.
+The leuds she might have overcome singly, for they
+were disunited and scattered; but now there was not a
+monastery in Europe which did not side with her foes.
+Clotaire, her grandson, marched against her at the instigation
+of priests and leuds combined. She was conquered
+and taken. She was tortured for three days
+with all the ingenuity of hatred, and on the fourth was
+tied to the tails of four wild horses and torn to pieces,
+though the mother, sister, daughter, of kings, and now
+more than eighty years of age. And this brings us to
+the institution and use of the strange officers we have
+already named Mayors of the Palace.</p>
+
+<p>To aid them in their efforts against the royal assumptions,
+the leuds long ago had elected one of themselves
+to be domestic adviser of the king, and also to command
+the armies in war. This soon became the recognised
+right of the Mayor of the Palace; and as in that state
+of society the wars were nearly perpetual, and bearers
+of arms the only wielders of power, the person invested
+with the command was in reality the supreme authority
+in the State. When the king happened to be feeble
+either in body or mind, the mayor supplied his place,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[151]</a></span>
+without even the appearance of inferiority; and when
+Dagobert, the last active member of the Merovingian
+family, died in 638, his successors were merely the
+nominal holders of the Crown. A new race rose into
+importance, and it will not be very long before we meet
+the hereditary Mayors of the Palace as hereditary
+Kings of the Franks. Here, then, was the whole of
+Europe heaving with some inevitable change. It will
+be interesting to look at the position of its different
+parts before they settled into their new relations. The
+constitutions of the various kingdoms were very nearly
+alike at this time. There were popular assemblies in
+every nation. In France they were called the &ldquo;Fields
+of May&rdquo; or of &ldquo;March,&rdquo; in England the &ldquo;Wittenagemot,&rdquo;
+in Spain the &ldquo;Council of Toledo.&rdquo; These meetings
+consisted of the freemen and landholders and bishops.
+But it was soon found inconvenient for the freemen and
+smaller proprietors to attend, in consequence of the
+length of the journey and the miserable condition of the
+roads; and the nobles and bishops were the sole persons
+who represented the State. The nobles held a parallel
+rank to each other in all countries, though called by
+different names. In France, a person in possession of
+any office connected with the court, or of lands presented
+by the Crown, was called a leud or entrustion,
+a count or companion, or vassal. In England he was
+called a royal thane. The lower order of freemen were
+called herimans, or inferior thanes; in Latin <i>liberi</i>, or
+more simply, <i>boni homines</i>, good men. Below these were
+the Romans, or old inhabitants of the country; below
+these, the serfs or bondmen attached to the soil; and far
+down, below them all, out of all hope or consideration,
+the slaves, who were the mere chattels of their lords.
+This, then, was the constitution of European society
+when the Arabian conquests began&mdash;at the head of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[152]</a></span>
+nation the King, at the head of the people the Church;
+the nobles followed according to their birth or power;
+the freemen, whether citizens engaged in the first infant
+struggles of trade, or occupying a farm, came next; and
+the wretched catalogue was ended by the despoiled
+serf, from whom every thing, even his property in himself,
+had been taken away. There were laws for the
+protection or restraint of each of these orders, and we
+may gather an idea of the ranks they held in public
+estimation by the following table of the price of blood:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="price of blood" class="table-center">
+<tr><td class="crime"></td><td class="price">Sols.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">For the murder of a freeman, companion, or leud of the king,
+killed in his palace by an armed band</td><td class="price">1800</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">A duke&mdash;among the Bavarians, a bishop</td><td class="price">960</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">A relation of a duke</td><td class="price">640</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">The king&rsquo;s leud, a count, a priest, a judge</td><td class="price">600</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">A deacon</td><td class="price">500</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">A freeman, of the Salians or Ripuarians</td><td class="price">200</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">A freeman, of the other tribes</td><td class="price">160</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">The slave&mdash;a good workman in gold</td><td class="price">100</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">The man of middle station, a colon, or good workman in silver</td><td class="price">100</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">The freedman</td><td class="price">80</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">The slave, if a barbarian&mdash;that is, of the conquering tribe</td><td class="price">55</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">The slave, a workman in iron</td><td class="price">50</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">The serf of the Church or the king</td><td class="price">45</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">The swineherd</td><td class="price">30</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="crime">The slave, among the Bavarians</td><td class="price">20</td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+<p>Distinctions of dress pointed out still more clearly the
+difference of rank and station. The principal variety,
+however, was the method of wearing the hair. The
+chieftain among the Franks considered the length and
+profusion of his locks as the mark of his superiority.
+His broad flowing tresses were divided up the middle
+of his head, and floated over his shoulders. They were
+curled and oiled&mdash;not with common butter, like some
+other nations, says an author quoted by Chateaubriand;
+not twisted in little plaits, like those of the Goths, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[153]</a></span>
+carefully combed out to their full luxuriance. The
+common soldier, on the other hand, wore his hair long
+in front, but trimmed close behind. They swore by
+their hair as the most sacred of their oaths, and offered
+a tress to the Church on returning from a successful
+war. From this peculiar consideration given to the
+hair arose the custom, still prevalent, of shaving the
+heads of ecclesiastics. They were the serfs of God, and
+sacrificed their locks in token that they were no longer
+free. When a chief was dishonoured, when a king was
+degraded, when a rival was to be rendered incapable of
+opposition, he was not, as in barbarous countries, put to
+death: he was merely made bald. No amount of popularity,
+no degree of right, could rouse the people in support
+of a person whose head was bare. When his hair
+grew again, he might again become formidable; but the
+scissors were always at hand. A tyrannical king clipped
+his enemies&rsquo; hair, instead of taking off their heads.
+They were condemned to the barber instead of the executioner,
+and sometimes thought the punishment more
+severe. The sons of Clothilde sent an emissary to her,
+bearing in his hand a sword and a pair of scissors.
+&ldquo;O queen,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;your sons, our masters, wish to
+know whether you will have your grandchildren slain
+or clipped.&rdquo; The queen paused for a moment, and then
+said, &ldquo;If my grandchildren are doomed not to mount
+the throne, I would rather have them dead than hairless.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Distinguished thus from the lower orders, the nobility
+soon found that their interests differed from those of the
+Church. The Church placed itself at the head of the democracy
+in opposition to the overweening pretensions
+of the chiefs. It opened its ranks to the conquered
+races, and invested even the converted serf with dignities
+which placed him above the level of Thane or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[154]</a></span>
+Count. The head of the Western Church, now by
+general consent recognised in the Bishop of Rome, was
+not slow to see the advantage of his position as leader
+of a combination in favour of the million. The doctrine
+of the equality of all men in the sight of Heaven was
+easily commuted into a demand of universal submission
+to the Holy See; and so wide was the range given to
+this claim to obedience that it embraced the proudest
+of the nobles and haughtiest of kings. It was a satisfaction
+to the slave in his dungeon to hear that the
+great man in his castle had been forced to do homage to
+the Church. There was one earthly power to which
+the oppressed could look up with the certainty of support.
+It was this intimate persuasion in the minds of
+the people which gave such undying vigour to the
+counsels and pretensions of the ecclesiastical power. It
+was a power sprung from the people, and exercised for
+the benefit of the people. The Popes themselves were
+generally selected from the lowest rank. But what did
+it matter to the man who led the masses of the trampled
+nations, and stood as a shield between them and their
+tyrants, whether he claimed relationship with emperors
+or slaves? What did it matter, on the other hand, to
+those hoping and trusting multitudes, whether the object
+of their confidence was personally a miracle of goodness
+and virtue,or a monster of sin and cruelty? It was his
+office to trample on the necks of kings and nobles, and
+bid the captive go free. While he continued true to the
+people, the people were true to him. Monarchs who
+governed mighty nations, and dukes who ruled in provinces
+the size of kingdoms, looked on with surprise at
+the growth of a power supported apparently by no
+worldly arms, but which penetrated to them through
+their courts and armies. There was no great mind to
+guide the opposition to its claims. The bishops were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[155]</a></span>
+sunk in ignorance and sloth, and had lost the respect of
+their countrymen. The populations everywhere were
+divided. The succession to the throne was uncertain.
+The Franks, the leading nation, were never for any
+length of time under one head. Neustria, or the
+Western State, comprising all the land between the
+Meuse, the Loire, and the Mediterranean, Austrasia, or
+the Eastern State, comprising the land between the
+Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle, and Burgundy, extending
+from the Loire to the Alps, were at one time
+united under a common head, and at another held by
+hostile kings. The Visigoths were obscurely quarrelling
+about points of divinity within their barrier of the Pyrenees.
+England was the battle-field of half a dozen
+little chieftains who called themselves kings; Germany
+was only civilized on its western border. Italy was cut
+up into many States, Lombards looking with suspicion
+on the Exarchate, which was still nominally attached to
+the Eastern Empire, and Greeks established in the South,
+sighing for the restoration of their power. Over all this
+chaos of contending powers appeared the mitre and
+crozier of the Pope; always at the head of the disaffected
+people, supported by the monks, who felt the
+tyranny of the bishops as keenly as the commonalty
+felt the injustice of their lords; always threatening
+vengeance on overweening baron or refractory monarch&mdash;enhancing
+his influence with the glory of new miracles
+wrought in his support, and witnessed unblushingly by
+preaching friars, who were the missionaries of papal
+power; concentrating all authority in his hands, and
+gradually laying the foundation for a trampling and
+domination over mind and body such as the world had
+never seen. From this almost universal prostration
+before the claims of Rome, it is curious to see that the
+native Irish were totally free. With contemptuous independence,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[156]</a></span>
+they for a long time rejected the arrogant
+assumptions of the successor of St. Peter, and were firm
+in their maintenance of the equality of all the Sees. It
+was from the newly-converted Anglo-Saxons that the
+chief recruits in the campaign against the liberties of
+the national churches were collected. Almost all the
+names of missionaries on behalf of the Roman pontiff
+in this century have the home-sound in our ears of
+&ldquo;Wigbert,&rdquo; &ldquo;Willibald,&rdquo; &ldquo;Wernefried,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Adalbert.&rdquo;
+But there are no Gaelic patronymics from the Churches
+of Ireland or Wales. They were sisters, they haughtily
+said, not daughters of the Roman See, as the Anglo-Saxon
+Church had been; and dwelt with pride on the antiquity
+of their conversion before the pretensions of the Roman
+Bishops had been heard of; and thus was added one
+more to the elements of dissension which wasted the
+strength of Europe at the very time when unanimity
+was most required.</p>
+
+<p>But towards the end of this period the rumours of
+a new power in the East drew men&rsquo;s attention to the
+defenceless state in which their internal disagreements
+had left them. The monasteries were filled with exaggerated
+reports of the progress of this vast invasion,
+which not only threatened the national existences of
+Europe, but the Christian faith. It was a hostile creed
+and a destroying enemy. What had the Huns been,
+compared with this new swarm&mdash;not of savage warriors
+turned aside with a bribe or won by a prayer, but enthusiasts
+in what they considered a holy cause, flushed
+with victory, armed and disciplined in a style superior
+to any thing the West could show? We should try to
+enter into the feelings of that distant time, when day
+by day myriads of strange and hitherto unconquerable
+enemies were reported to be on their march.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 621 of the Christian era, Mohammed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[157]</a></span>
+made his triumphant entry into Medina, a great city of
+Arabia, having been expelled from Mecca by the enmity
+of the Jews and the tribe of Koreish. This entry is
+called the Hegira or Flight, and forms the commencement
+of the Moslem chronology. All their records are
+dated from this event. The persons who accompanied
+him were few in number&mdash;his father-in-law, some of his
+wives, and some of his warriors; but the procession was
+increased by the numerous believers in his prophetship
+who resided in the town. At this place began the public
+worship inculcated by the leader. The worshippers
+were summoned by a voice sounding from the highest
+pinnacle of the mosque or church, and pronouncing the
+words which to this hour are heard from every minaret
+in the East:&mdash;&ldquo;God is great! God is great! There is no
+God but God. Mohammed is the apostle of God. Come
+to prayers, come to prayers!&rdquo; and when the invitation
+is given at early dawn, the declaration is added, &ldquo;Prayer
+is better than sleep! prayer is better than sleep.&rdquo; These
+exhortations were not without their intended effect.
+Prayer was uttered by many lips, and sleep was banished
+from many eyes; but the prayers were never thought
+so effectual as when accompanied by sword and lance.
+Courage and devotedness were now the great supports
+of the faith. Ali, the husband of Fatima the favourite
+daughter of the chief, fought and prayed with the same
+irresistible force. He conquered the unbelieving Jews
+and Koreishites, cleaving armed men from the crown to
+the chin with one blow, and wielding a city gate which
+eight men could not lift, as a shield. Abou Beker,
+whose daughter was one of the wives of Mohammed,
+was little inferior to Ali; and Mohammed himself saw
+visions which comforted and inspired his followers in
+the midst of battle, and shouted, &ldquo;On, on! Fight and
+fear not! The gates of Paradise are under the shade
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[158]</a></span>
+of swords. He will assuredly find instant admission
+who falls fighting for the faith!&rdquo; It was impossible to
+play the hypocrite in a religion where such strength of
+arm and sharpness of blade were required. Prayers
+might indeed be mechanical, or said for show, but the
+fighting was a real thing, and, as such, prevailed over
+all the shams which were opposed to it. Looking forth
+already beyond the narrow precincts of his power, Mohammed
+saw in the distance, across the desert, the
+proud empires of Persia and Constantinople. To both
+he wrote letters demanding their allegiance as God&rsquo;s
+Prophet, and threatening vengeance if they disobeyed.
+Chosroes, the Persian, tore the letter to pieces. &ldquo;Even
+so,&rdquo; said Mohammed, &ldquo;shall his kingdom be torn.&rdquo;
+Heraclius the Greek was more respectful. He placed
+the missive on his pillow, and very naturally fell asleep,
+and thought of it no more. But his descendants were
+not long of having their pillows quite so provocative of
+repose. The city of Medina grew too small to hold
+the Prophet&rsquo;s followers, and they went forth conquering
+and to conquer. There were Abou Beker the wise, and
+Omar the faithful, and Khaled the brave, and Ali the
+sword of God. Mecca fell before them, and city after
+city sent in its adhesion to the claims of a Prophet who
+had such dreadful interpreters as these. The religion
+he preached was comparatively true. He destroyed the
+idols of the land, inculcated soberness, chastity, charity,
+and, by some faint transmission of the precepts of the
+Bible, inculcated brotherly love and forgiveness of
+wrong. But the sword was the true gospel. Its light
+was spread in Syria and all the adjoining territories.
+People in apparently sheltered positions could never be
+sure for an hour that the missionaries of the new faith
+would not be climbing over their walls with shouts of
+conquest, and giving them the option of conversion or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[159]</a></span>
+death. Power spread in gradually-widening circles, but
+at the centre sad things were going on. Mohammed
+was getting old. He lost his only son. He laid him in
+the grave with tears and sighs, and made his farewell
+pilgrimage to Mecca. Had he no relentings at the
+visible approach of the end? Was he to go to the grave
+untouched by all the calamities he had brought upon
+mankind? the blood he had shed, the multitudes he had
+beguiled? He had no touch of remorse for any of these
+things; rather he continued firmer in his course than
+ever&mdash;seemed more persuaded of the genuineness of his
+mission, and uttered prophecies of the universal extension
+of his faith. &ldquo;When the angels ask thee who thou
+art,&rdquo; he said, as the body of his son was lowered into
+the tomb, &ldquo;say, God is my Lord, the Prophet of God
+was my father, and my faith was Islam!&rdquo; Islam continued
+his own faith till the last. He tottered to the
+mosque where Abou Beker was engaged in leading the
+prayers of the congregation, and addressed the people
+for the last time. &ldquo;Every thing happens,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;according
+to the will of God, and has its appointed time,
+which is not to be hastened or avoided. My last command
+to you is that you remain united; that you love,
+honour, and uphold each other; that you exhort each
+other to faith and constancy in belief, and to the performance
+of pious deeds: by these alone men prosper;
+all else leads to destruction.&rdquo; A few days after this
+there was grief and lamentation all over the faithful
+lands. He died on his sixty-third birthday, in the
+eleventh year of the Hegira, which answers to our
+year 632.</p>
+
+<p>Great contentions arose among the chief disciples for
+the succession to the leadership of the faithful. Abou
+Beker was father-in-law of the Prophet, and his daughter
+supported his cause. Omar was also father-in-law of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[160]</a></span>
+Prophet, and his daughter supported his cause. Othman
+had married two of the daughters of the Prophet, but
+both were dead, and they had left no living child. Ali,
+the hero of the conquest, was cousin-german of the
+Prophet, and husband of his only surviving daughter.
+Already the practices of a court were perceptible in the
+Emir&rsquo;s tent. The courtiers caballed and quarrelled; but
+Ayesha, the daughter of Abou Beker, had been Mohammed&rsquo;s
+favourite wife, and her influence was the most
+effectual. How this influence was exercised amid the
+Oriental habits of the time, and the seclusion to which
+the women were subjected, it is difficult to decide; but,
+after a struggle between her and Hafya, the daughter
+of Omar, the widowed Othman was found to have no
+chance; and only Ali remained, still young and ardent,
+and fittest, to all ordinary judgments, to be the leader
+of the armies of Allah. While consulting with some
+friends in the tent of Fatima, his rivals came to an
+agreement. In a distant part of the town a meeting
+had been called, and the claims of the different pretenders
+debated. Suddenly Omar walked across to
+where Abou Beker stood, bent lowly before him, and
+kissed his hand in token of submission, saying, &ldquo;Thou
+art the oldest companion and most secret friend of the
+Prophet, and art therefore worthy to rule us in his
+place.&rdquo; The example was contagious, and Abou Beker
+was installed as commander and chief of the believers.
+A resolution was come to at the same time, that any
+attempt at seizing the supremacy against the popular
+will should be punished with death. Ali was constrained
+to yield, but lived in haughty submission till Fatima
+died. He then rose up in his place, and taking his two
+sons with him, Hassan and Hossein, retired into the
+inner district of Arabia, carrying thus from the camp
+of the usurping caliph the only blood of the Prophetchief<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[161]</a></span>
+which flowed in human veins. Yet the spirit of
+the Prophet animated the whole mass. Energy equal to
+Ali&rsquo;s was exhibited in Khaled. Omar was earnest in the
+collection of all the separated portions of the Koran.
+Othman was burning to spread the new empire over the
+whole earth; and in this combination of courage, ambition,
+and fanaticism all Arabia found its interest to join,
+and ere a year had elapsed from the death of the Prophet,
+the whole of that peninsula, and all the swart
+warriors who travelled its sandy steppes, had accepted
+the great watchword of his religion&mdash;&ldquo;There is no God
+but God, and Mohammed is the Prophet of God.&rdquo; Ere
+another year had elapsed the desert had sent forth its
+swarms. The plains of Asia were overflowed. The
+battle-cry of Zeyd, the general of the army, was heard
+in the great commercial cities of the East, and in the
+lands where the gospel of peace had first been uttered,
+Emasa and Damascus, and on the banks of Jordan. It
+was natural that the first effort of the false should be
+directed against the true. But not indiscriminate was
+the wrath of Abou Beker against the professors of Christianity.
+The claims of that dispensation were ever
+treated with respect, but the depraved priesthood were
+held up to contempt. &ldquo;Destroy not fruit-tree nor fertile
+field on your path,&rdquo; these were the instructions of the
+Caliph to the leaders of the host. &ldquo;Be just, and spare
+the feelings of the vanquished. Respect all religious
+persons who live in hermitages or convents, and spare
+their edifices. But should you meet with a class of unbelievers
+of a different kind, who go about with shaven
+crowns, and belong to the synagogue of Satan, be sure
+you cleave their skulls, unless they embrace the true
+faith or render tribute.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gentle and merciful, therefore, to the peaceful inhabitants,
+respectful to the gloomy anchorite and industrious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[162]</a></span>
+monk, but breathing death and disgrace
+against the proud bishop and ambitious presbyter, the
+mighty horde moved on. Syria fell; the Persian monarchy
+was menaced, and its western provinces seized;
+a Christian kingdom called Hira, situated on the confines
+of Babylonia, was made tributary to Medina; and
+Khaled stood triumphant on the banks of the Euphrates,
+and sent a message to the Great King, commanding him
+either to receive the faith, or atone for his incredulity
+with half his wealth. The despot&rsquo;s ears were unaccustomed
+to such words, and the fiery deluge went on. At
+the end of the third year, Abou Beker died, and Omar
+was the successor appointed by his will. This was
+already a departure from the law of popular election,
+but Islam was busy with its conquests far from its
+central home, and accepted the nomination. Khaled&rsquo;s
+course continued westward and eastward, forcing his
+resistless wedge between the exhausted but still majestic
+empires of the Greeks and Persians. Blow after blow
+resounded as the great march went on. Constantinople,
+and Madayn upon the Tigris, the capitals of Christianity
+and Mithrism, were equally alarmed and equally powerless.
+Omar, the Caliph&mdash;the word means the Successor
+of the Apostle&mdash;determined to join the army which was
+encamped against the walls of Jerusalem, and added
+fresh vigour to the assailants by the knowledge that
+they fought under his eye.</p>
+
+<p>Heraclius, the degenerate inheritor of the throne of
+Constantine, and Yezdegird, the successor of Darius and
+Xerxes, if they had moved towards the seat of war
+would have been surrounded by all the pomp of their
+exalted stations. Battalions of guards would have encompassed
+their persons, and countless officers of their
+courts attended their progress.</p>
+
+<p>Omar, who saw already the world at his feet, journeyed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span>
+by slow stages on a wretched camel, carrying his provisions
+hanging from his saddle-bow, and slept at night
+under the shelter of some tree, or on the margin of
+some well. He had but one suit, and that of worsted
+material, and yet his word was law to all those breathless
+listeners, and wherever he placed his foot from
+that moment became holy ground. Jerusalem and
+Aleppo yielded; Antioch, the chief seat of Grecian
+government, fell into his hands; Tyre and Tripoli submitted
+to his power; and the Saracenic hosts only
+paused when they reached the border of the sea, which
+they knew washed the fairest shores of Africa and
+Europe. It did not much matter who was in nominal
+command. Khaled died; Amru took his place; and yet
+the tide went on. The great city of Alexandria, which
+disputed with Constantinople the title of Capital of the
+World, with its almost fabulous wealth, its four thousand
+palaces, and five thousand baths, and four hundred
+theatres, was twice taken, and brought on the submission
+and conversion of the whole of Egypt. Amru in
+his hours of leisure was devoted to the cultivation of
+taste and genius. In John the Grammarian, a Christian
+student, he found a congenial spirit. Poetry, philosophy,
+and rhetoric were treated of in the conversations
+of the Arabic conqueror and the monkish scholar.
+At last, in reliance on his literary taste, the priest confided
+to the Moslem that in a certain building in the
+town there was a library so vast that it had no equal on
+earth either for number or value of the manuscripts it
+contained. This was too important a treasure to be
+dealt with without the express sanction of the Caliph.
+So the Christian legend is, that Omar replied to the
+announcement of his general, &ldquo;Either what those books
+contain is in the Koran, or it is not. If it is, these
+volumes are useless; if it is not, they are wicked. Burn
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[164]</a></span>
+them.&rdquo; The skins and parchments heated the baths of
+Alexandria for many months, irrecoverable monuments
+of the past, and an everlasting disgrace to the Saracen
+name. Yet the story has been doubted; at least, the
+extent of the destruction. Rather, it has been supposed,
+the ignorant fanaticism of the illiterate monks, in
+covering with the legends of saints the obliterated lines
+of the classic authors, has been more destructive to the
+literary treasures of those ancient times than the furious
+zeal of Amru or the bigotry of Omar.</p>
+
+<p>If this great overflow from the desert of Arabia had
+consisted of nothing but armed warriors or destructive
+fanatics, its course would have been as transient as it
+was terrible. The Gothic invaders who had desolated
+Europe fortunately possessed the flexibility and adaptiveness
+of mind which fitted them for the reception of
+the purer faith and more refined manners of the vanquished
+races. They mixed with the people who submitted
+to their power, and in a short time adopted their
+habits and religion. Whatever faith they professed in
+their original seats, seems to have worn out in the long
+course of their immigration. The powers they had
+worshipped in their native wilds were local, and dependent
+on clime and soil. An easy opening, therefore,
+was left for Christianity into hearts where no hostile
+deity guarded the portal of approach. But with the
+Saracens the case was reversed. Incapable of assimilation
+with any rival belief&mdash;jealously exclusive of the
+commonest intercourse with the nations they subdued&mdash;unbending,
+contemptuous to others, and carried on
+by burning enthusiasm in their own cause, and confidence
+in the Prophet they served, there was no possibility
+of softening or elevating them from without. The
+pomps of religious worship, which so awed the wondering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span>
+tribes of Franks and Lombards, were lost on a
+people who considered all pomp offensive both to God
+and man. They saw the sublimity of simple plainness
+both in word and life. Their caliph lived on rice, and
+saddled his camel with his own hands. He ordered a
+palace to be burned, which Seyd, who had conquered for
+him the capital of Persia, had built for his occupation.
+Unsocial, bigoted, austere, drinking no wine, accumulating
+no personal wealth, how was the mind of this
+warrior of the wilderness to be trained to the habits of
+civilized society, or turned aside from the rude instincts
+of destructiveness and domination? But the Arab intellect
+was subtle and active. Mohammedanism, indeed,
+armed the multitude in an exciting cause, and sent them
+forth like a destroying fire; but there was wisdom,
+policy, refinement, among the chiefs. While they devastated
+the worn-out territories of the Persian, and laid
+waste his ostentatious cities, which had been purposely
+built in useless places to show the power of the king,
+they founded great towns on sites so adapted for the
+purposes of trade and protection that they continue to
+the present time the emporiums and fortresses of their
+lands. Balsorah, at the top of the Persian Gulf, at the
+junction of the Tigris and the Euphrates, was as wisely
+selected for the commercial wants of that period as
+Constantinople itself. Bagdad was encouraged, Cufa
+built and peopled in exchange for the gorgeous but unwholesome
+Madayn, from which Yezdegird was driven.
+Many other towns rose under the protection of the
+Crescent; and by the same impulse which made the
+Saracens anxious to raise new centres of wealth and
+enterprise in the East, they were excited to the most
+amazing efforts to make themselves masters of the
+greatest city in the world, the seat of arts, of literature,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[166]</a></span>
+and religion; and they pushed forward from river to
+river, from plain to plain, till, in the year 672, they
+raised their victorious standard in front of the walls of
+Constantinople. Here, however, a new enemy came to
+the encounter, and for the first time scattered dismay
+among the Moslem ranks. From the towers and turrets
+came down a shower of fire, burning, scorching,
+destroying, wherever it touched. Projected to great
+distances, and wrapping in a moment ship after ship
+in unextinguishable flames, these discharges appeared
+to the warriors of the Crescent a supernatural interference
+against them. This was the famous Greek fire,
+of which the components are not now known, but it was
+destructive beyond gunpowder itself. Water could not
+quench it, nor length of time weaken its power. For
+five successive years the assault was renewed by fresh
+battalions of the Saracens, but always with the same
+result. So, giving up at last their attempts against a
+place guarded by lightning and by the unmoved courage
+of the Greek population, they poured their thousands
+along the northern shores of Africa. Cyrene, the once
+glorious capital of the Pentapolis, in which Carthage
+saw her rival and Athens her superior, yielded to their
+power. Everywhere high-peaked mosques, rising where
+a short time before the shore had been unoccupied or in
+cities where the Basilicas of Christian worship had been
+thrown down, marked the course of conquest. Carthage
+received its new lords. Hippo, the bishopric of
+the best of ancient saints, the holy Augustine, saw its
+church supplanted by the temples of the Arabian impostor.
+A check was sustained at Tchuda, where their
+course was interrupted by a combined assault of Christian
+Greeks and the indigenous Berbers. Internal
+troubles also arrested their career, for there were disputes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span>
+for the succession, and court intrigues and open
+murders, and all the usual accompaniments of a contest
+for an elective throne. One after another, the Caliphs
+had been murdered, or had died of broken hearts. The
+old race&mdash;the &ldquo;Companions,&rdquo; as they were called, because
+they had been the contemporaries and friends of
+Mohammed&mdash;had died out. Ali, after three disappointments,
+had at last been chosen. His sons Hassan and
+Hossein had been put to death; and it was only in the
+time of the eighth successor, when Abdelmalek had
+overcome all competition, that the unity of the Moslem
+Empire was restored, and the word given for conquest
+as before. This was in the 77th year of the Hegira,
+(698 of our era,) and an army was let loose upon the
+great city of Carthage, at the same time that movements
+were again ordered across the limits of the
+Grecian Empire, in Asia, and advances made towards
+Constantinople. Carthage fell&mdash;Tripoli was occupied&mdash;and
+now, with their territories stretching in unbroken
+line from Syria along the two thousand miles of the
+southern shore of the great Mediterranean Sea, the conquerors
+rested from their labours for a while, and prepared
+themselves for a dash across the narrow channel,
+from which the hills of Atlas and the summits of Gibraltar
+are seen at the same time. What has Europe, with
+its divided peoples, its worn-out kings, its indolent
+Church, and exhausted fields, to oppose to this compact
+phalanx of united blood, burning with fanatical faith,
+submissive to one rule, and supported by all the wealth
+of Asia and Africa; whose fleets sweep the sea, and
+whose myriads are every day increased by the accession
+of fresh nations of Berbers, Mauritanians, and the
+nameless children of the desert?</p>
+
+<p>This is the hopeless century. Manhood, patriotism,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[168]</a></span>
+Christianity itself, are all at the lowest ebb. But let
+us turn to the next, and see how good is worked out of
+evil, and acknowledge, as in so many instances the historian
+is obliged to do, that man can form no estimate
+of the future from the plainest present appearances, but
+that all things are in the hands of a higher intelligence
+than ours.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[169]</a></span>
+<a name="EIGHTH_CENTURY" id="EIGHTH_CENTURY">EIGHTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="4" class="big">Kings of the Franks.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Childebert III.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-list">711.<br />716.<br />720.</td>
+   <td class="sovereign-list"><span class="smcap">Dagobert III.<br />Childeric.<br />Thierry.</span></td>
+   <td class="mustache3">}</td>
+   <td style="width:100%"><span class="smcap">Charles Martel</span> Mayor.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td align="right">742.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Childeric III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td colspan="2" align="center" class="dynast"><i>Carlovingian Line.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">751.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Pepin the Short.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">768.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charlemagne.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of the East.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Tiberius.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">711.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philippicus Bardanes.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">713.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Anastasius II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">714.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Theodosius III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">716.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Leo the Isaurian.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">741.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Constantine Copronymus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">775.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Leo IV.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">781.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Constantine Porphyrogenitus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">802.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Nicephorus.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Alcuin</span>, (735-804,) <span class="smcap">Bede</span>, (674-735,) <span class="smcap">Egbert</span>, <span class="smcap">Clemens</span>, <span class="smcap">Dungal</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Acca</span>, <span class="smcap">John Damascanus</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[171]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_EIGHTH_CENTURY" id="THE_EIGHTH_CENTURY">THE EIGHTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">This</span> is indeed a great century, which has Pepin of
+Heristhal at its commencement and Charlemagne at its
+end. In this period we shall see the course of the dissolution
+of manners and government arrested throughout
+the greater part of Europe, and a new form given
+to its ruling powers. We must remember that up to this
+time the progress of what we now call civilization was
+very slow; or we may perhaps almost say that the
+extent of civilized territory was smaller than it had
+been at the final breaking up of the Roman Empire four
+hundred years before. England had lost the elevating
+influences which the residence of Roman generals and
+the presence of disciplined forces had spread from the
+seats of their government. Every occupied position
+had been a centre of life and learning; and we see still,
+from the discoveries which the antiquaries of the present
+day are continually making, that the dwellings of the
+Prætors and military commanders were constructed in
+a style of luxury and refinement which argues a high
+state of culture and art. All round the circumference
+of the Romanized portion of Britain these head-quarters
+of order and improvement were fixed; outside of it lay
+the obscure and tumultuous populations of Wales and
+Scotland; and if we trace the situations of the towns
+with terminations derived from <i>castra</i>, (a camp,) we shall
+see, by stretching a line from Winchester in the south<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[172]</a></span>
+to Ilchester, thence up to Gloucester, Worcester, Wroxeter,
+and Chester, how carefully the Western Gael were
+prevented from ravaging the peaceful and orderly inhabitants;
+and, as the same precautions were taken to
+the North against the Picts and Scots, we shall easily
+be able to estimate the effect of those numerous schools
+of life and manners on the country-districts in which
+they were placed. All these establishments had been
+removed. Barbarism had reasserted her ancient reign;
+and at the century we have now reached, the institution
+which alone could compete in its elevating effect with
+the old imperial subordination, the Christian Church,
+had not yet established its authority except for the
+benefit of ambitious bishops; and the same anarchy
+reigned in the ecclesiastical body as in the civil orders.
+The eight or nine kingdoms spread over the land were
+sufficiently powerful in their separate nationalities to
+prevent any unity of feeling among the subjects of the
+different crowns. A prelate of the court of Deiria had
+no point of union with a prelate protected by the kings
+of Wessex. And it was this very incapacity of combination
+at home, from the multiplicity of kings, which
+led to the astonishing spectacle in this century of the
+efforts of the Anglo-Saxon clergy in behalf of the Bishop
+of Rome in distant countries. In this great struggle to
+extend the power of the Popes, the regular orders particularly
+distinguished themselves. The fact of submitting
+to convent-rules, of giving up the stormy pleasures
+of independence for the safe placidity of unreasoning
+obedience, is a proof of the desire in many human
+minds of having something to which they can look up,
+something to obey, in obeying which their self-respect
+may be preserved, even in the act of offering up their
+self-will&mdash;a desire which, in civil actions and the atmosphere
+of a court, leads to slavery and every vice, but in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[173]</a></span>
+a monastery conducts to the noblest sacrifices, and fills
+the pages of history with saints and martyrs. The
+Anglo-Saxon, looking out of his convent, saw nothing
+round him which could give him hope or comfort. Laws
+were unsettled, the various little principalities were
+either hostile or unconnected, there was no great combining
+authority from which orders could be issued with
+the certainty of being obeyed; and even the clergy,
+thinly scattered, and dependent on the capricious favour
+or exposed to the ignorant animosity of their respective
+sovereigns, were torn into factions, and practically without
+a chief. But theoretically there was the noblest
+chiefship that ever was dreamed of by ambition. The
+lowly heritage of Peter had expanded into the universal
+government of the Church. In France this claim had
+not yet been urged; in the East it had been contemptuously
+rejected; in Italy the Lombard kings were hostile;
+in Spain the Visigoths were heretic, and at war
+among themselves; in Germany the gospel had not yet
+been heard; in Ireland the Church was a rival bitterly
+defensive of its independence; but in England, among
+the earnest, thoughtful Anglo-Saxons, the majestic idea
+of a great family of all the Christian Churches, wherever
+placed, presided over by the Vicar of Christ and receiving
+laws from his hallowed lips, had impressed itself
+beyond the possibility of being effaced. Rome was to
+them the residence of God&rsquo;s vicegerent upon earth;
+obedience to him was worship, and resistance to his
+slightest wish presumption and impiety. So at the
+beginning of this century holy men left their monasteries
+in Essex, and Warwickshire, and Devon, and knelt at
+the footstool of the Pope, and swore fealty and submission
+to the Holy See.</p>
+
+<p>It has often been observed that the Papacy differs
+from other powers in the continued vitality of its members<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[174]</a></span>
+long after the life has left it at the heart. Rome
+was weak at the centre, but strong at the extremity of
+its domain. The Emperor of Constantinople looked on
+the Pope as his representative in Church-affairs, ratified
+his election, and exacted tribute on his appointment.
+The Exarch of Ravenna, representing as he did the civil
+majesty of the successor of the Cæsars, looked down on
+him as his subordinate. There was also a duke in Rome
+whose office it was to superintend the proceedings of the
+bishop, and another officer resident in the Grecian court
+to whom the bishop was responsible for the management
+of his delegated powers. But outside of all this
+depression and subordination, among tribes of half-barbaric
+blood, among dreamy enthusiasts contemplating
+what seemed to them the simple and natural scheme of
+an earthly judge infallible in wisdom and divinely inspired;
+among bewildered and trampled ecclesiastics,
+looking forth into the night, and seeing, far above all
+the storms and darkness that surrounded them in their
+own distracted land, a star by which they might steer
+their course, undimmed and unalterable&mdash;the Pope of
+Rome was the highest and holiest of created men. No
+thought is worth any thing that continues in barren
+speculation. Honour, then, to the brave monks of
+England who went forth the missionaries of the Papal
+kings! Better the struggles and dangers of a plunge
+among the untamed savages of Friesland, and the blood-stained
+forests of the farthest Germany, in fulfilment of
+the office to which they felt themselves called, than the
+lazy, slumbering way of life which had already begun to
+be considered the fulfilment of conventual vows. Soldiers
+of the Cross were they, though fighting for the
+advancement of an ambitious commander more than the
+success of the larger cause; and we may well exult in
+the virtues which their undoubting faith in the supremacy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[175]</a></span>
+of the pontiff called forth, since it contrasts so nobly
+with the apathy and indifference to all high and self-denying
+co-operation which characterized the rest of the
+world. We shall see the monk Winifried penetrate, as
+the Pope&rsquo;s minister, into the darkness beyond the Rhine,
+and emerge, with crozier and mitre, as Boniface the
+Archbishop of Mayence, and converter to the Christian
+faith of great and populous nations which were long the
+most earnest supporters of the rights and pre-eminence
+of Rome. This is one strong characteristic of this century,
+the increased vigour of the Papacy by the efforts
+of the Anglo-Saxons on its behalf; and now we are going
+to another still stronger characteristic, the further increase
+of its influence by the part it played in the change
+of dynasty in France.</p>
+
+<p>A strange fortune, which in the old Greek mythologies
+would have been looked on as a fate, overshadowing
+the blood-stained house of Clovis, had befallen his descendants
+through all their generations for more than a
+hundred years. Feeble in mind, and even degenerated
+in body, the kings of that royal line had been a sight of
+grief and humiliation to their nominal subjects. Married
+at fifteen, they had all sunk into premature old age, or
+died before they were thirty. Too listless for work,
+and too ignorant for council, they had accepted the restricted
+sphere within which their duties were confined,
+and showed themselves, on solemn occasions, at the
+festivals of the Church, and other great anniversaries,
+bearing, like their ancestors, the long flowing locks
+which were the natural sign of their crowned supremacy,
+seated in a wagon drawn by oxen, and driven by a
+wagoner with a goad&mdash;a primitive relic of vanished
+times, and as much out of place in Paris in the eighth
+century as the state carriage of the Queen or the Lord-Mayor&rsquo;s
+coach of the present day among ourselves<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span>
+Strange thoughts must have passed through the minds
+of the spectators as they saw the successors of the rough
+leader of the Franks degraded to this condition; but the
+change had been gradual; the public sentiment had
+become reconciled to the apparent uselessness of the
+highest offices of the State; for under another title, and
+with much inferior rank, there was a man who held the
+reins of government with a hand of iron, and whose
+power was perhaps strengthened by the fiction which
+called him the servant and minister of the <i>fainéant</i> or
+do-nothing king. A succession of men arose in the
+family of the mayors of the palace, as remarkable for
+policy and talent as the representatives of the royal line
+were for the want of these qualities. The origin of
+their office was conveniently forgotten, or converted by
+the flattery of their dependants into an equality with
+the monarchs. Chosen, they said, by the same elective
+body which nominated the king, they were as much entitled
+to the command of the army and the administration
+of the law as their nominal masters to the possession
+of the palace and royal name. And when for a
+long period this claim was allowed, who was there to
+stand up in opposition, either legal or forcible, to a man
+who appointed all the judges and commanded all the
+troops? The office at last became hereditary. The
+successive mayors left their dignity to their sons by
+will; and time might have been slow in bringing power
+and title into harmony with each by giving the name
+of king to the man who already exercised all the kingly
+power and fulfilled all the kingly duties, if Charles Martel,
+the mayor, had not, in 732, established such claims
+to the gratitude of Europe by his defeat of the Saracens,
+who were about to overrun the whole of Christendom,
+that it was impossible to refuse either to himself or
+his successor the highest dignity which Europe had to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[177]</a></span>
+bestow. When other rulers and princes were willing to
+acknowledge his superiority, not only in power, but in
+rank and dignity, it was necessary that their submission
+should be offered, not to a mere Major-domo, or chief
+domestic of a court, but to a free sovereign and anointed
+king. The two most amazing fictions, therefore, which
+ever flourished on the contemptuous forbearance of mankind,
+were both about to expire beneath the breath of
+reality at this time&mdash;the kingship of the descendants of
+Clovis, and the pretensions of the successors of Constantine.
+The Saracens appeared upon the scene, and those
+gibbering and unsubstantial ghosts, as if they scented
+the morning air, immediately disappeared. The Emperors
+of the East, by a self-deluding process, which preserved
+their dignity and flattered their pride, professed
+still to consider themselves the lords of the Roman
+Empire, and took particular pains to acknowledge the
+kings and potentates, who established themselves in the
+various portions of it, as their representatives and lieutenants.
+They lost no time in sending the title of Patrician
+and the ensigns of royal rank to the successful
+founders of a new dynasty, and had gained their object
+if they received the new ruler&rsquo;s thanks in return. At
+Rome, as we have said, they protected the bishop, and
+gave him the investiture of his office. They retained
+also the territories called the Exarchate of Ravenna,
+but with no power of vindicating their authority if it
+was disputed, or of exacting revenue, except what the
+gratitude of the bishop or the Exarch might induce
+them to present to their patron on their nomination or
+instalment. A long-haired, sad-countenanced, decrepit
+young man in a wagon drawn by oxen, and a vain
+voluptuary, wrapped in Oriental splendour, without influence
+or wealth, were the representatives at this time
+of the irresistible power of the Frankish warriors, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[178]</a></span>
+the glories of Julius and Augustus. But the present had
+its representatives as well as the past. Charles Martel
+had still the Frankish sword at his command; the
+Roman Pontiff had thousands ready to believe and support
+his claims to be the spiritual ruler of the world.
+Something was required to unite them in one vast effort
+at unity and independence, and this opportunity was
+afforded them by the common danger to which the
+Saracenic invasion exposed equally the civil and ecclesiastical
+power. Africa, we have seen, was fringed
+along the whole of the Mediterranean border with
+the followers of the Prophet. In one generation the
+blood of the Arabian and Mauritanian deserts became
+so blended, that no distinction whatever existed between
+the men of Mecca and Medina and the native tribes.
+Where Carthaginian and Roman civilization had never
+penetrated, the faith of Mohammed was accepted as an
+indigenous growth. Fanaticism and ambition sailed
+across the Channel; and early in this century the hot
+breath of Mohammedanism had dried up the promise
+of Spain; countless warriors crossed to Gibraltar; their
+losses were supplied by the inexhaustible populations
+from the interior, (the ancestors of the Abd-el Kaders
+and Ben Muzas of modern times,) and, elate with hopes
+of universal conquest, the crowded tents of the Moslem
+army were seen on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees,
+and presently all the plains of Languedoc, and the central
+fields of France as far up as the Loire, were inundated
+by horse and man. Incredible accounts are given
+of the number and activity of the desert steeds
+bestrode by these turbaned apostles. A march of a
+hundred miles&mdash;a village set on fire, and all the males
+extirpated&mdash;strange-looking visages, and wild arrays
+of galloping battalions seen by terrified watchers from
+the walls of Paris itself; then, in the twinkling of an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[179]</a></span>
+eye, nothing visible but the distant dust raised up in
+their almost unperceived retreat,&mdash;these were the peculiarities
+of this new and unheard-of warfare. And
+while these dashes were made from the centre of the
+invasion, alarming the inhabitants at the extremities
+of the kingdom, the host steadily moved on, secured
+the ground behind it before any fresh advance, and
+united in this way the steadiness of European settlement
+with the wild fury of the original mode of attack.
+Already the provinces abutting on the Pyrenees had
+owned their power. Gascony up to the Garonne, and
+the Narbonnais nearly to the Rhine, had submitted to
+the conquerors; but when the dispossessed proprietors
+of Novempopulania and Septimania, as those districts
+were then called, and the powerful Duke of Aquitaine,
+also fled before the advancing armies; when all the
+churches were filled with prayer, and all the towns
+were in momentary expectation of seeing the irresistible
+horsemen before their walls, patriotism and religion
+combined to call upon all the Franks and all the
+Christians to expel the infidel invader. So Charles, the
+son of Pepin, whose exploits against the Frisons and
+other barbaric peoples in the North had already acquired
+for him the complimentary name of Martel, or
+the Hammer, put himself at the head of the military
+forces of the land, and encountered the Saracenic myriads
+on the great plain round Tours. The East and
+West were brought front to front&mdash;Christianity and
+Mohammedanism stood face to face for the first time;
+and it is startling to consider for a moment what the
+result of an Asiatic victory might have been. If ever
+there was a case in which the intervention of Divine
+Providence may be claimed without presumption on the
+conquering side, it must be here, where the truths of
+revelation and the progress of society were dependent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[180]</a></span>
+on the issue. The two faiths, according to all human
+calculation, had rested their supremacy on their respective
+champions. If Charles and his Franks and Germans
+were defeated, there was nothing to resist the
+march of the perpetually-increasing numbers of the Saracens
+till they had planted their standards on the pinnacles
+of Rome. The first glow of Christian belief had been
+exchanged, we have seen, for ambitious disputes, or died
+off in many of the practices of superstition. The very
+man in whom the Christian hope was placed was suspected
+of leaning to the Wodenism of his Northern ancestors,
+and was scarcely bought over to the defence of
+the Church&rsquo;s faith by a permission to pillage the Church&rsquo;s
+wealth. Mohammedanism, on the other hand, was fresh
+and young. Its promises were clear and tempting&mdash;its
+course triumphant, and its doctrines satisfactory equally
+to the pride and the indolence of the human heart. But
+in the former, though unperceived by the warriors at
+Tours and the prelates at Rome, lay the germ of countless
+blessings&mdash;elevating the mind by the discovery of
+its strength at the same moment in which it is abased
+by the feeling of its weakness, and gifted above all with
+the power of expansion and universality; themselves
+proofs of its divine original, to which no false religion
+can lay the slightest claim. Cultivate the Christian
+mind to the highest&mdash;fill it with all knowledge&mdash;place
+round it the miracles of science and art&mdash;station it in
+the snows of Iceland or the heats of India&mdash;Christianity,
+like the all-girding horizon of the sky, widens
+its circle so as to include the loftiest, and contain within
+its embrace the utmost diversities of human life and
+speculation. But with the Mohammedan, as with other
+impostures, the range is limited. When intellect expands,
+it bursts the cerement in which it has been involved;
+and with Buddhism, and Mithrism, and Hindooism, it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span>
+will be as it was with Druidism, and the more elegant
+heathendom of Greece and Rome: there will be no
+safety for them but in the ignorance and barbarism of
+their disciples. On the result of that great day at Tours
+in the year 732, therefore, depended the intellectual improvement
+and civil freedom of the human race. Few
+particulars are preserved of this momentous battle; but
+the result showed that the light cavalry, in which the
+Saracens excelled, were no match for the firm line of
+the Franks. When confusion once began among the
+swarthy cavaliers of Abderachman, there was no restoration
+possible. In wild confusion the <i>mêlée</i> was continued;
+and all that can be said is, that the slaughter of
+upwards of three hundred thousand of these impulsive
+pilgrims of the desert so weakened the Saracenic power
+in Europe, that in no long time their hosts were withdrawn
+from the soil of Gaul, and guarded with difficulty
+the conquest they had made behind the barrier of
+the Pyrenees. Could the gratitude of Church or State
+be too generous to the man who preserved both from the
+sword of the destroyer? If Charles pillaged a monastery
+or seized the revenues of a bishopric, nobody found
+any fault. It was almost just that he should have the
+wealth of the cathedral from which he had driven away
+the mufti and muezzin. But monasteries and bishops
+were still powerful, and did not look on the proceedings
+of Charles the Hammer with the equanimity of the
+unconcerned spectators. They perhaps thought the
+battle of Tours had only given them a choice of spoilers,
+instead of protection from spoliation. In a short time,
+however, the policy of the sagacious leader led him to
+see the necessity of gaining over the only united body
+in the State. He became a benefactor of the Church,
+and a staunch ally of the Roman bishop. Both had an
+object to obtain. What the phantom king was to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span>
+Charles, the phantom emperor was to the Pope. If
+there was unison between the two dependants, it would
+be easy to get rid of the two superiors. Presents and
+compliments were interchanged, and moral support
+trafficked for material aid. Wherever the one sent
+missionaries with the Cross, the other sent warriors to
+their support. The Pontiff bestowed on the Mayor the
+keys of the sepulchre of St. Peter, and the title of Consul
+and Patrician, and begged him to come to his assistance
+against Luitprand, the Lombard king. But this was far
+too great an exploit to be expected by a simple Bishop,
+and performed by a simple Mayor of the Palace. So
+the next great thing we meet with in this century is the
+investiture of the Mayor with the title of king, and of
+the Bishop with the sovereignty of Rome and Ravenna.
+This happened in 752. Pepin the Short, as he was unflatteringly
+called by his subjects, succeeded Charles in
+the government of the Franks. The king was Childeric
+the Third, who lived in complete seclusion and
+cherished his long hair as the only evidence of monarchy
+left to the sons of Clovis. Wars in various regions established
+the reputation of Pepin as the worthy successor
+of Charles; and by a refinement of policy, the crown,
+the consummation of all his hopes, was reached in a
+manner which deprived it of the appearance of injustice,
+for it was given to him by the hands of saints and popes,
+and ratified by the council of the nation. He had
+already asked Pope Zachariah, &ldquo;who had the best right
+to the name of king?&mdash;he who had merely the title, or
+he who had the power?&rdquo; And in answer to this, which
+was rather a puzzling question, our countryman Winifried,
+in his new character of Boniface and archbishop,
+placed upon his head the golden round, and Might and
+Right were restored to their original combination. But
+St. Boniface was not enough. In two years the Pope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[183]</a></span>
+himself clambered over the Alps and anointed the new
+monarch with holy oil; and by the same act stripped
+the long hair from the head of the Merovingian puppet,
+and condemned him and his descendants to the privacy
+of a cloister.</p>
+
+<p>Now then that Pepin is king, let Luitprand, or any
+other potentate, beware how he does injury to the Pope
+of Rome. Twice the Frank armies are moved into
+Italy in defence of the Holy See; and at last the Exarchate
+is torn from the hands of its Lombard oppressor,
+and handed over in sovereignty to the Spiritual Power.
+Rome itself is declared at the same time the property of
+the Bishop, and free forever from the suzerainty of the
+Emperors of the East. No wonder the gratitude of the
+Popes has made them call the kings of France the eldest
+sons of the Church. Their donations raised the bishopric
+to the rank of a royal state; yet it has been remarked
+that the generosity of the French monarchs
+has always been limited to the gift of other people&rsquo;s
+lands. They were extremely liberal in bestowing large
+tracts of country belonging to the Lombard kings or
+the Byzantine Cæsars; but they kept a very watchful
+eye on the possessions of pope and bishop within their
+own domain. They reserved to themselves the usufruct
+of vacant benefices, and the presentations to church and
+abbey. At almost all periods, indeed, of their history,
+they have seemed to retain a very clear remembrance
+of the position which they held towards the Papacy
+from the beginning, and, while encouraging its arrogance
+against other principalities and powers, have held
+a very contemptuous language towards it themselves.</p>
+
+<p>This, then, is the great characteristic of the present
+century, the restoration of the monarchical principle in
+the State, and its establishment in the Church. During
+all these wretched centuries, from the fall of the Roman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[184]</a></span>
+Empire, the progress has been towards diffusion and
+separation. Kings rose up here and there, but their
+kingships were local, and, moreover, so recent, that
+they were little more than the first officer or representative
+of the warriors whose leaders they had been. A
+longing for some higher and remoter influence than this
+had taken possession of the chiefs of all the early invasions,
+and we have seen them (even while engaged in
+wresting whole districts from the sway of the old Roman
+Empire) accepting with gratitude the ensigns of Roman
+authority. We have seen Gothic kings glorying in the
+name of Senator, and Hunnish savages pacified and contented
+by the title of Prætor or Consul. The world
+had been accustomed to the oneness of Consular no less
+than Imperial Rome for more than a thousand years;
+for, however the parties might be divided at home, the
+great name of the Eternal City was the sole sound
+heard in foreign lands. The magic letters, the initials
+of the Senate and People, had been the ornament of
+their banners from the earliest times, and a division of
+power was an idea to which the minds of mankind found
+it difficult to become accustomed. It was better, therefore,
+to have only a fragment of this immemorial unity
+than the freshness of a new authority, however extensive
+or unquestionable. Vague traditions must have
+come down&mdash;magnified by distance and softened by
+regret&mdash;of the great days before the purple was torn
+in two by the transference of the seat of power to Constantinople.
+There were nearly five hundred years
+lying between the periods; and all the poetic spirits of
+the new populations had cast longing, lingering looks
+behind at the image of earthly supremacy presented to
+them by the existence of an acknowledged master of
+the world. A pedantic sophist, speaking Greek&mdash;the
+language of slaves and scholars&mdash;wearing the loftiest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[185]</a></span>
+titles, and yet hemmed in within the narrow limits of a
+single district, assumed to be the representative of the
+universal &ldquo;Lord of human kind,&rdquo; and called himself
+Emperor of the East and West. The common sense
+of Goth and Saxon, of Frank and Lombard, rebelled
+against this claim, when they saw it urged by a person
+unable to support it by fleets and armies. When, in
+addition to this want of power, they perceived in this
+century a want of orthodox belief, or even what they
+considered an impious profanity, in the successor of
+Augustus and Constantine, they were still more disinclined
+to grant even a titular supremacy to the Byzantine
+ruler. Leo, at that time wearing the purple, and
+zealous for the purity of the faith, issued an order for
+the destruction of the marble representations of saints
+and martyrs which had been used in worship; and
+within the limits of his personal authority his mandate
+was obeyed. But when it reached the West, a furious
+opposition was made to his command. The Pope stood
+forward as champion of the religious veneration of
+&ldquo;storied urn and animated bust.&rdquo; The emperor was
+branded with the name of Iconoclast, or the Image-breaker,
+and the eloquence of all the monks in Europe
+was let loose upon the sacrilegious Cæsar. Interest, it
+is to be feared, added fresh energy to their conscientious
+denunciations, for the monks had attracted to themselves
+a complete monopoly of the manufacture of these
+aids to devotion&mdash;and obedience to Leo&rsquo;s order would
+have impoverished the monasteries all over the land.
+A Western emperor, it was at once perceived, would
+not have been so blind to the uses of those holy sculptures,
+and soon an intense desire was manifested throughout
+the Western nations for an emperor of their own.
+Already they were in possession of a spiritual chief,
+who claimed the inheritance of the Prince of the Apostles,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[186]</a></span>
+and looked down on the Patriarchs of Constantinople
+as bishops subordinate to his throne. Why should
+not they also have a temporal ruler who should renew
+the old glories of the vanished Empire, and exercise
+supremacy over all the governors of the earth? Why,
+indeed, should not the first of those authorities exert
+his more than human powers in the production of the
+other? He had converted a Mayor of the Palace into
+a King of the Franks. Could he not go a step further,
+and convert a King of the Franks into an Emperor of
+the West? With this hope, not yet perhaps expressed,
+but alive in the minds of Pepin and the prelates of
+France, no attempt was made to check the Roman pontiffs
+in the extravagance of their pretensions. Lords
+of wide domains, rich already in the possession of large
+tracts of country and wealthy establishments in other
+lands, they were raised above all competition in rank
+and influence with any other ecclesiastic; and relying
+on spiritual privileges, and their exemption from active
+enmity, they were more powerful than many of the
+greatest princes of the time. Everywhere the mystic
+dignity of their office was dwelt upon by their supporters.
+For a long time, as we have seen, their omnipotence
+was acknowledged by the two classes who
+saw in the use of that spiritual dominion a counterpoise
+to the worldly sceptres by which they were crushed.
+But now the worldly sceptres came to the support of the
+spiritual dominion. Its limit was enlarged, and made to
+include the regulation of all human affairs. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 768.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>It was its
+office to subdue kings and bind nobles in links of
+iron; and when the son of Pepin, Charles, justly
+called the Great, though travestied by French vanity
+into the name of Charlemagne, sat on the throne of
+the Franks, and carried his arms and influence into the
+remotest States, it was felt that the hour and the man<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[187]</a></span>
+were come; and the Western Empire was formally renewed.</p>
+
+<p>The curious thing is, that this longing for a restoration
+of the Roman Empire, and dwelling on its usefulness
+and grandeur, were dominant, and productive of
+great events, in populations which had no drop of
+Roman blood in their veins. The last emperor resident
+in Rome had never heard the names of the hordes of
+savages whose descendants had now seized the plains
+of France and Italy. Yet it seemed as if, with the territory
+of the Roman Empire, they had inherited its
+traditions and hopes. They might be Saxons, or Franks,
+or Burgundians, or Lombards, by national descent, but
+by residence they were Romans as compared with the
+Greeks in the East,&mdash;and by religion they were Romans
+as compared with the Sclaves and Saracens, who pressed
+on them on the North and South. It would not be difficult
+in this country to find the grandchildren of French
+refugees boasting with patriotic pride of the English
+triumphs at Cressy and Agincourt&mdash;or the sons of
+Scottish parents rejoicing in their ancestors&rsquo; victory
+under Cromwell at Dunbar; and here, in the eighth
+century, the descendants of Alaric and Clovis were
+patriotically loyal to the memory of the old Empire,
+and were reminded by the victories of Charlemagne of
+the trophies of Scipio and Marius. These victories,
+indeed, were not, as is so often found to be the case, the
+mere efforts of genius and ambition, with no higher
+object than to augment the conqueror&rsquo;s power or reputation.
+They were systematically pursued with a view
+to an end. In one advancing tide, all things tended to
+the Imperial throne. Whatever nation felt the force of
+Charlemagne&rsquo;s sword felt also a portion of its humiliation
+lightened when its submission was perceived to be
+only an advancement towards the restoration of the old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[188]</a></span>
+dominion. It might have been degrading to acknowledge
+the superiority of the son of Pepin&mdash;but who
+could offer resistance to the successor of Augustus?
+So, after thirty years of uninterrupted war, with campaigns
+succeeding each in the most distant regions, and
+all crowned with conquest; after subduing the Saxons
+beyond the Weser, the Lombards as far as Treviso, the
+Arabs under the walls of Saragossa, the Bavarians in
+the neighbourhood of Augsburg, the Sclaves on the
+Elbe and Oder, the Huns and Avars on the Raab and
+Danube, and the Greeks themselves on the coast of Dalmatia;
+when he looked around and saw no rebellion
+against his authority, but throughout the greater part
+of his domains a willing submission to the centralizing
+power which rallied all Christian states for the defence
+of Christianity, and all civilized nations for the defence
+of civilization,&mdash;nothing more was required than the
+mere expression in definite words of the great thing
+that had already taken place, and Charlemagne, at the
+extreme end of this century, bent before the successor
+of St. Peter at Rome, and stood up crowned Emperor
+of the West, and champion and chief of Christendom.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 786-814.</div>
+
+<p>The period of Charlemagne is a great date in history;
+for it is the legal and formal termination of
+an antiquated state of society. It was also
+the introduction to another, totally distinct from itself
+and from its predecessor. It was not barbarism; it was
+not feudalism; but it was the bridge which united the
+two. By barbarism is meant the uneasy state of governments
+and peoples, where the tribe still predominated
+over the nation; where the Frank or Lombard continued
+an encamped warrior, without reference to the
+soil; and where his patriotism consisted in fidelity to
+the traditions of his descent, and not to the greatness or
+independence of the land he occupied. In the reign of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[189]</a></span>
+Charlemagne, the land of the Frank became practically,
+and even territorially, France; the district occupied by
+the Lombards became Lombardy. The feeling of property
+in the soil was added to the ties of race and
+kindred; and at the very time that all the nations of
+the Invasion yielded to the supremacy of one man as
+emperor, the different populations asserted their separate
+independence of each other, as distinct and self-sufficing
+kingdoms&mdash;kingdoms, that is to say, without
+the kings, but in all respects prepared for those individualized
+expressions of their national life. For though
+Charlemagne, seated in his great hall at Aix-la-Chapelle,
+gave laws to the whole of his vast domains, in each
+country he had assumed to himself nothing more than
+the monarchic power. To the whole empire he was
+emperor, but to each separate people, such as Franks
+and Lombards, he was simply king. Under him there
+were dukes, counts, viscounts, and other dignitaries, but
+each limited, in function and influence, to the territory
+to which he belonged. A French duke had no pre-eminence
+in Lombardy, and a Bavarian graf had no
+rank in Italy. Other machinery was at times employed
+by the central power, in the shape of temporary messengers,
+or even of emissaries with a longer tenure of
+office; but these persons were sent for some special purpose,
+and were more like commissioners appointed by
+the Crown, than possessors of authority inherent in themselves.
+The term of their ambassadorship expired, their
+salary, or the lands they had provisionally held in lieu
+of salary, reverted to the monarch, and they returned
+to court with no further pretension to power or influence
+than an ambassador in our days when he returns from the
+country to which he is accredited. But when the great
+local nobility found their authority indissolubly connected
+with their possessions, and that ducal or princely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[190]</a></span>
+privileges were hereditary accompaniments of their
+lands, the foundations of modern feudalism were already
+laid, and the path to national kingship made easy and
+unavoidable. When Charlemagne&rsquo;s empire broke into
+pieces at his death, we still find, in the next century,
+that each piece was a kingdom. Modern Europe took
+its rise from these fragmentary though complete portions;
+and whereas the breaking-up of the first empire
+left the world a prey to barbaric hordes, and desolation
+and misery spread over the fairest lands, the disruption
+of the latter empire of Charlemagne left Europe united
+as one whole against Saracen and savage, but separated
+in itself into many well-defined states, regulated in
+their intercourse by international law, and listening
+with the docility of children to the promises or threatenings
+of the Father of the Universal Church. For with
+the empire of Charlemagne the empire of the Papacy
+had grown. The temporal power was a collection of
+forces dependent on the life of one man; the spiritual
+power is a principle which is independent of individual
+aid. So over the fragments, as we have said, of the
+broken empire, rose higher than ever the unshaken
+majesty of Rome. Civil authority had shrunk up within
+local bounds; but the Papacy had expanded beyond the
+limits of time and space, and shook the dreadful keys
+and clenched the two-edged sword which typified its
+dominion over both earth and heaven.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span>
+<a name="NINTH_CENTURY" id="NINTH_CENTURY">NINTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td><td align="center"><i>West.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">800.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charlemagne</span>, (crowned by the Pope.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">814.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis the Debonnaire.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">840.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles the Bald.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">877.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis the Stammerer.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">879.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis III.</span> and <span class="smcap">Carloman</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">884.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles the Fat.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">887.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Arnold.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">899.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis IV.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td><td align="center"><i>East.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Nicephorus</span>&mdash;(<i>cont</i>.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">811.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Michael.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">813.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Leo the Armenian.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">821.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Michael the Stammerer.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">829.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Theophilus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">842.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Michael III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">886.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Leo the Philosopher.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of France.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">887.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Eudes</span>, (Count of Paris.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">898.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles the Simple.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of England.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">827.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Egbert.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">837.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Ethelwolf.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">857.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Ethelbald.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">860.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap"> Ethelbert.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">866.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Ethelred</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">872.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Alfred the Great.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">John Scotus</span>, (<span class="smcap">Erigena</span>,) <span class="smcap">Hincmar</span>, <span class="smcap">Heric</span>, (preceded Des
+Cartes in philosophical investigation,) <span class="smcap">Macarius</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[193]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_NINTH_CENTURY" id="THE_NINTH_CENTURY">THE NINTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">DISMEMBERMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE&rsquo;S EMPIRE&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;DANISH INVASION
+OF ENGLAND&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;WEAKNESS OF FRANCE&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;REIGN OF
+ALFRED.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> first year of this century found Charlemagne
+with the crown of the old Empire upon his head, and
+the most distant parts of the world filled with his reputation.
+As in the case of the first Napoleon, we find
+his antechambers crowded with the fallen rulers of the
+conquered territories, and even with sovereigns of neighbouring
+countries. Among others, two of our Anglo-Saxon
+princes found their way to the great man&rsquo;s court
+at Aix-la-Chapelle. Eardulf of Northumberland pleaded
+his cause so well with Charlemagne and the Pope, that
+by their good offices he was restored to his states. But
+a greater man than Eardulf was also a visitor and careful
+student of the vanquisher and lawgiver of the Western
+world. Originally a Prince of Kent, he had been expelled
+by the superior power or arts of Beortrick, King
+of the West Saxons, and had betaken himself for protection,
+if not for restoration, to the most powerful ruler
+of the time. Whether Egbert joined in his expeditions
+or shared his councils, we do not know, but the history
+of the Anglo-Saxon monarchies at this date (800 to 830)
+shows us the exact counterpart, on our own island, of
+the actions of Charlemagne on the wider stage of continental
+Europe. Egbert, on the death of Beortrick, obtained
+possession of Wessex, and one by one the separate
+States of the British Heptarchy were subdued;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[194]</a></span>
+some reduced to entire subjection, others only to subordinate
+rank and the payment of tribute, till, when all
+things were prepared for the change, Egbert proclaimed
+the unity of Southern Britain by assuming the title of
+Bretwalda, in the same way as his prototype had restored
+the unity of the empire by taking the dignity of
+Emperor. It is pleasant to pause over the period of
+Charlemagne&rsquo;s reign, for it is an isthmus connecting two
+dark and unsatisfactory states of society,&mdash;a past of
+disunion, barbarity, and violence, and a future of ignorance,
+selfishness, and crime. The present was not,
+indeed, exempt from some or all of these characteristics.
+There must have been quarrellings and brutal animosities
+on the outskirts of his domain, where half-converted
+Franks carried fire and sword, in the name of religion,
+among the still heathen Saxons; there must have been
+insolence and cruelty among the bishops and priests,
+whose education, in the majority of instances, was
+limited to learning the services of the Church by heart.
+Many laymen, indeed, had seized on the temporalities
+of the sees; and, in return, many bishops had arrogated
+to themselves the warlike privileges and authority of
+the counts and viscounts. But within the radius of
+Charlemagne&rsquo;s own influence, in his family apartments,
+or in the great Hall of Audience at Aix-la-Chapelle, the
+astonishing sight was presented of a man refreshing himself,
+after the fatigues of policy and war, by converting his
+house into a college for the advancement of learning
+and science. From all quarters came the scholars, and
+grammarians, and philosophers of the time. Chief of
+these was our countryman, the Anglo-Saxon monk
+Alcuin, and from what remains of his writings we can
+only regret that, in the infancy of that new civilization,
+his genius, which was undoubtedly great, was devoted
+to trifles of no real importance. Others came to fill up<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span>
+that noble company; and it is surely a great relief from
+the bloody records with which we have so long been
+familiar, to see Charlemagne at home, surrounded by
+sons and daughters, listening to readings and translations
+from Roman authors; entering himself into disquisitions
+on philosophy and antiquities, and acting as president
+of a select society of earnest searchers after information.
+To put his companions more at their ease, he
+hid the terrors of his crown under an assumed name,
+and only accepted so much of his royal state as his
+friends assigned to him by giving him the name of King
+David. The best versifier was known as Virgil. Alcuin
+himself was Horace; and Angelbert, who cultivated
+Greek, assumed the proud name of Homer. These
+literary discussions, however, would have had no better
+effect than refining the court, and making the days pass
+pleasantly; but Charlemagne&rsquo;s object was higher and
+more liberal than this. Whatever monastery he founded
+or endowed was forced to maintain a school as part of
+its establishment. Alcuin was presented with the great
+Abbey of St. Martin of Tours, which possessed on its
+domain twenty thousand serfs, and therefore made him
+one of the richest land-owners in France. There, at full
+leisure from worldly cares, he composed a vast number
+of books, of very poor philosophy and very incorrect
+astronomy, and perhaps looked down from his lofty
+eminence of wealth and fame on the humble labours of
+young Eginhart, the secretary of Charlemagne, who has
+left us a Life of his master, infinitely more interesting
+and useful than all the dissertations of the sage. From
+this great Life we learn many delightful characteristics
+of the great man, his good-heartedness, his love of justice,
+and blind affection for his children. But it is with
+his public works, as acting on this century, that we have
+now to do. Throughout the whole extent of his empire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[196]</a></span>
+he founded Academies, both for learning and for useful
+occupations. He encouraged the study and practice of
+agriculture and trade. The fine arts found him a munificent
+patron; and though the objects on which the artist&rsquo;s
+skill was exercised were not more exalted than the
+carving of wooden tables, the moulding of metal cups,
+and the casting of bells, the circumstances of the time
+are to be taken into consideration, and these efforts may
+be found as advanced, for the ninth century, as the
+works of the sculptors and metallurgists of our own
+day. It is painful to observe that the practice of what
+is now called adulteration was not unknown at that
+early period. There was a monk of the name of Tancho,
+in the monastery of St. Gall, who produced the first bell.
+Its sound was so sweet and solemn, that it was at once
+adopted as an indispensable portion of the ornament of
+church and chapel, and soon after that, of the religious
+services themselves. Charlemagne, hearing it, and perhaps
+believing that an increased value in the metal
+would produce a richer tone, sent him a sufficient
+quantity of silver to form a second bell. The monk,
+tempted by the facility of turning the treasure to his
+own use, brought forward another specimen of his skill,
+but of a mixed and very inferior material. What the
+just and severe emperor might have done, on the discovery
+of the fraud, is not known; but the story ended
+tragically without the intervention of the legal sword.
+At the first swing of the clapper it broke the skull of
+the dishonest founder, who had apparently gone too
+near to witness the action of the tongue; and the bell
+was thenceforth looked on with veneration, as the
+discoverer and punisher of the unjust manufacturer.</p>
+
+<p>The monks, indeed, seem to have been the most refractory
+of subjects, perhaps because they were already
+exempted from the ordinary punishments. In order to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span>
+produce uniformity in the services and chants of the
+Church, the emperor sent to Rome for twelve monkish
+musicians, and distributed them in the twelve principal
+bishoprics of his dominions. The twelve musicians
+would not consent to be musical according to order, and
+made the confusion greater than ever, for each of them
+taught different tunes and a different method. The disappointed
+emperor could only complain to the Pope, and
+the Pope put the recusant psalmodists in prison. But it
+appears the fate of Charlemagne, as of all persons in
+advance of their age, to be worthy of congratulation
+only for his attempts. The success of many of his
+undertakings was not adequate to the pains bestowed
+upon them. He held many assemblages, both lay and
+ecclesiastical, during his lengthened reign; he published
+many excellent laws, which soon fell into disuse; he
+tried many reforms of churches and monasteries, which
+shared the same fortune; he held the Popes of Rome
+and the dignitaries of his empire in perfect submission,
+but professed so much respect for the office of Pontiff
+and Bishop, that, when his own overwhelming superiority
+was withdrawn, the Church rebelled against the
+State, and claimed dominion over it. His sense of justice,
+as well as the custom of the time, led him to divide
+his states among his sons, which not only insured enmity
+between them, but enfeebled the whole of Christendom.
+Clouds, indeed, began to gather over him some time
+before his reign was ended. One day he was at a city
+of Narbonese Gaul, looking out upon the Mediterranean
+Sea. He saw some vessels appear before the port.
+&ldquo;These,&rdquo; said the courtiers, &ldquo;must be ships from the
+coast of Africa, Jewish merchantmen, or British traders.&rdquo;
+But Charlemagne, who had leaned a long time against
+the wall of the room in a passion of tears, said, &ldquo;No!
+these are not the ships of commerce; I know by their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[198]</a></span>
+lightness of movement. They are the galleys of the
+Norsemen; and, though I know such miserable pirates
+can do me no harm, I cannot help weeping when I think
+of the miseries they will inflict on my descendants and
+the lands they shall rule.&rdquo; A true speech, and just occasion
+for grief, for the descents of these Scandinavian
+rovers are the great characteristic of this century, by
+which a new power was introduced into Europe, and
+great changes took place in the career of France and
+England.</p>
+
+<p>It would perhaps be more correct to say that, by this
+new mixture of race and language, France and England
+were called into existence. England, up to this date,
+had been a collection of contending states; France, a
+tributary portion of a great Germanic empire. Slowly
+stretching northward, the Roman language, modified,
+of course, by local pronunciation, had pushed its way
+among the original Franks. Latin had been for many
+years the language of Divine Service, and of history,
+and of law. All westward of the Rhine had yielded to
+those influences, and the old Teutonic tongue which
+Clovis had brought with him from Germany had long
+disappeared, from the Alps up to the Channel. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 814.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>When
+the death of Charlemagne, in 814, had relaxed
+the hold which held all his subordinate states
+together, the diversity of the language of Frenchman
+and German pointed out, almost as clearly as geographical
+boundaries could have done, the limits of the respective
+nations. From henceforward, identity of speech
+was to be considered a more enduring bond of union
+than the mere inhabiting of the same soil. But other
+circumstances occurred to favour the idea of a separation
+into well-defined communities; and among these
+the principal was a very long experience of the disadvantages
+of an encumbered and too extensive empire.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[199]</a></span>
+Even while the sword was held by the strong hand of
+Charlemagne, each portion of his dominions saw with
+dissatisfaction that it depended for its peace and prosperity
+on the peace and prosperity of all the rest, and
+yet in this peace and prosperity it had neither voice nor
+influence. The inhabitants of the banks of the Loire
+were, therefore, naturally discontented when they found
+their provisions enhanced in price, and their sons called
+to arms, on account of disturbances on the Elbe, or hostilities
+in the south of Italy. These evils of their position
+were further increased when, towards the end of
+Charlemagne&rsquo;s reign, the outer circuit of enemies became
+more combined and powerful. In proportion as he had
+extended his dominion, he had come into contact with
+tribes and states with whom it was impossible to be on
+friendly terms. To the East, he touched upon the irreclaimable
+Sclaves and Avars&mdash;in the South, he came on
+the settlements of the Italian Greeks&mdash;in Spain, he
+rested upon the Saracens of Cordova. It was hard for
+the secure centre of the empire to be destroyed and
+ruined by the struggles of the frontier populations, with
+which it had no more sympathy in blood and language
+than with the people with whom they fought. Already,
+also, we have seen how local their government had
+become. They had their own dukes and counts, their
+own bishops and priests to refer to. The empire was, in
+fact, a name, and the land they inhabited the only
+reality with which they were concerned. We shall not
+be surprised, therefore, when we find that universal rebellion
+took place when Louis the Debonnaire, the just
+and saint-like successor of Charlemagne, endeavoured
+to carry on his father&rsquo;s system. Even his reforms served
+only to show his own unselfishness, and to irritate the
+grasping and avaricious offenders whom it was his object
+to amend. Bishops were stripped of their lay lordships<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[200]</a></span>&mdash;prevented
+from wearing sword and arms, and even
+deprived of the military ornament of glittering spurs to
+their heels. The monks and nuns, who had almost universally
+fallen into evil courses, were forcibly reformed
+by the laws of a second St. Benedict, whose regulations
+were harsh towards the regular orders, but useless to
+the community at large&mdash;a sad contrast to the agricultural
+and manly exhortations of the first conventual
+legislator of that name. Nothing turned out well with
+this simplest and most generous of the Carlovingian
+kings. His virtues, inextricably interlaced as they
+were with the weaknesses of his character, were more
+injurious to himself and his kingdom than less amiable
+qualities would have been. Priest and noble were equally
+ignorant of the real characteristics of a Christian life.
+When he refunded the exactions of his father, and restored
+the conquests which he considered illegally acquired,
+the universal feeling of astonishment was only
+lost in the stronger sentiment of disdain. An excellent
+monk in a cell, or judge in a court of law, Louis the
+Debonnaire was the most unfit man of his time to keep
+discordant nationalities in awe. His children were as
+unnatural as those of Lear, whom he resembled in some
+other respects: for he found what little reverence waits
+upon a discrowned king; and personal indignities of the
+most degrading kind were heaped upon him by those
+whose duty it was to maintain and honour him. Superstition
+was set to work on his enfeebled mind, and twice
+he did public penance for crimes of which he was not
+guilty; and on the last occasion, stripped of his military
+baldric&mdash;the lowest indignity to which a Frankish monarch
+could be subjected&mdash;clothed in a hair shirt by the
+bands of an ungrateful bishop, he was led by his triumphant
+son, Lothaire, through the streets of
+Aix-la-Chapelle. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 833.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>But natural feeling was not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[201]</a></span>
+extinguished in the hearts of the staring populace.
+They saw in the meek emperor&rsquo;s lowly behaviour, and
+patient endurance of pain and insult, an image of that
+other and holier King who carried his cross up the
+steeps of Jerusalem. They saw him denuded of the
+symbols of earthly power and of military rank, oppressed
+and wronged&mdash;and recognised in that down-trodden
+man a representation of themselves. This sentiment
+spread with the magic force of sympathy and remorse.
+All the world, we are told, left the unnatural
+son solitary and friendless in the very hour of his success;
+and Louis, too pure-minded himself to perceive
+that it was the virtue of his character which made him
+hated, persisted in pushing on his amendments as if he
+had the power to carry them into effect. He ordered all
+lands and other goods which the nobles had seized from
+the Church to be restored&mdash;a tenderness of conscience
+utterly inexplicable to the marauding baron, who had
+succeeded by open force, and in a fair field, in despoiling
+the marauding bishop of land and tower. It was arming
+his rival, he thought, with a two-edged sword, this
+silence as to the inroads of the churchman on the property
+of the nobles, and prevention of their just reprisals
+on the property of the prelate, by placing it under the
+safeguard of religion. The rugged warrior kept firm
+hold of the bishopric or abbey he had secured, and the
+belted bishop reimbursed himself by appropriating the
+wealth of his weaker neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>But Louis was as unfortunate in his testamentary
+arrangement as in all the other regulations of his life.
+Lothaire was to retain the eastern portion of the empire;
+Charles, his favourite, had France as far as the Rhine;
+while Louis was limited to the distant region of Bavaria.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 840.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>And having made this disposition of his power,
+the meek and useless Louis descended into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[202]</a></span>
+tomb&mdash;a striking example, the French historians tell
+us, of the great historic truth renewed at such distant
+dates, that the villanies and cruelties of a race of kings
+bring misery on the most virtuous of their descendants.
+All the crimes of the three preceding reigns&mdash;the violence
+and disregard of life exhibited by Charlemagne himself&mdash;found
+their victim and expiation in his meek and
+gentle-minded son. The harshness of Henry VIII. of
+England, they add, and the despotic claims of James,
+were visited on the personally just and amiable Charles;
+and they point to the parallel case of their own Louis
+XVI., and see in the sad fortune of that mild and guileless
+sovereign the final doom of the murderous Charles
+IX., and the voluptuous and hypocritical Louis XIV.
+But these kings are still far off in the darkness of the
+coming centuries. It is a strange sight, in the middle
+of the ninth century, to see the successor of the great
+Emperor stealing through the confused and chaotic
+events of that wretched period, stripped as it were of
+sword and crown, but everywhere displaying the beauty
+of pure and simple goodness. He refused to condemn
+his enemies to death. He was only inexorable towards
+his own offences, and sometimes humbled himself for
+imaginary sins. A protector of the Church, a zealous
+supporter of Rome, it would give additional dignity to
+the act of canonization if the name of Louis the Debonnaire
+were added to the list of Saints.</p>
+
+<p>But we have left the empire which it had taken so
+long to consolidate, now legally divided into three.
+There is a Charles in possession of the western division;
+a Louis in the farther Germany; and Lothaire, the unfilial
+triumpher at Aix-la-Chapelle, invested with the
+remainder of the Roman world. But Lothaire was not
+to be satisfied with remainders. Once in power, he was
+determined to recover the empire in its undivided state.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[203]</a></span>
+He was King of Italy; master of Rome and of the
+Pope; he was eldest grandson of Charlemagne, and
+defied the opposition of his brothers. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 842.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>A Battle
+was fought at Fontenay in 842, in which these
+pretensions were overthrown; and the final severance
+took place in the following year between the French
+and German populations. The treaty between the
+brothers still remains. It is written in duplicate&mdash;one
+in a tongue still intelligible to German ears, and the
+other in a Romanized speech, which is nearer the French
+of the present day than the English of Alfred, or even
+of Edward the Confessor, is to ours.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 843.</div>
+
+<p>France, which had hitherto attained that title in right
+of its predominant race, held it henceforth on
+the double ground of language and territory.
+But there is a curious circumstance connected with the
+partition of the empire, which it may be interesting to
+remember. France, in gaining its name and language,
+lost its natural boundary of the Rhine. Up to this time,
+the limit of ancient Gaul had continued to define the
+territory of the Western Franks. In rude times, indeed,
+there can be no other divisions than those supplied by
+nature; but now that a tongue was considered a bond
+of nationality, the French were contented to surrender
+to Lothaire the Emperor a long strip of territory,
+running the whole way up from Italy to the North Sea,
+including both banks of the Rhine, and acting as a wall
+of partition between them and the German-speaking
+people on the other side,&mdash;a great price to pay, even for
+the easiest and most widely-spread language in Europe.
+Yet the most ambitious of Frenchmen would pause
+before he undid the bargain and reacquired the &ldquo;exulting
+and abounding river&rdquo; at the sacrifice of his inimitable
+tongue.</p>
+
+<p>Very confused and uncertain are all the events for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span>
+long time after this date. We see perpetual attempts
+made to restore the reality as well as the name of the
+Empire. These battles and competitions of the line of
+Charlemagne are the subject of chronicles and treaties,
+and might impose upon us by the grandeur of their appearance,
+if we did not see, from the incidental facts
+which come to the surface, how unavailing all efforts
+must be to arrest the dissociation of state from state.
+The principle of dissolution was at work everywhere.
+Kingship itself had fallen into contempt, for the great
+proprietors had been encouraged to exert a kind of personal
+power in the reign of Charlemagne, which contributed
+to the strength of his well-consolidated crown;
+but when the same individual influence was exercised
+under the nominal supremacy of Louis the Debonnaire
+or Charles the Bald, it proved a humiliating and dangerous
+contrast to the weakness of the throne. A combination
+of provincial dignitaries could at any time outweigh
+the authority of the king, and sometimes, even
+singly, the owners of extensive estates threw off the
+very name of subject. They claimed their lands as not
+only hereditary possessions, but endowed with all the
+rights and privileges which their personal offices had
+bestowed. If their commission from the emperor had
+given them authority to judge causes, to raise taxes, or
+to collect troops, they maintained from henceforth that
+those high powers were inherent in their lands. The
+dukes, therefore, invested their estates with ducal
+rights, independent of the Crown, and left to the holder
+of the kingly name no real authority except in his own
+domains. Brittany, and Aquitaine, and Septimania,
+withdrew their allegiance from the poor King of France.
+He could not compel the ambitious owners of those
+duchies to recognise his power, and condescended even
+to treat them as rival and acknowledged kings. Then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[205]</a></span>
+there were other magnates who were not to be left mere
+subjects when dukes had risen to such rank. So the
+Marquises of Toulouse and Gothia, a district of Languedoc,
+and Auvergne, were treated more as equals than as
+appointed deputies recallable at pleasure. But worse
+enemies of kingly dignity than duke or marquis were
+the ambitious bishops, who looked with uneasy eyes on
+the rapid rise of their rivals the lay nobility. Already
+the hereditary title of those territorial potentates was an
+accomplished fact; the son of the count inherited his
+father&rsquo;s county. But the general celibacy of the clergy
+fortunately prevented the hereditary transmission of
+bishopric and abbey. To make up for the want of this
+advantage, they boldly determined to assert far higher
+claims as inherent in their rank than marquis or count
+could aim at. Starting from the universally-conceded
+ground of their right to reprimand and punish any
+Christian who committed sin, they logically carried
+their pretension to the right of deposing kings if they
+offended the Church. More than fifty years had passed
+since Charlemagne had received the imperial crown from
+the hands of the Pope of Rome. Dates are liable to fall
+into confusion in ignorant times and places, and it was
+easy to spread a belief that the popes had always exercised
+the power of bestowing the diadem upon kings.
+To support these astounding claims with some certain
+guarantee, and give them the advantage of prescriptive
+right by a long and legitimate possession, certain documents
+were spread abroad at this time, purporting to be
+a collection by Isidore, a saint of the sixth century, of
+the decretals or judicial sentences of the popes from a
+very early period, asserting the unquestioned spiritual
+supremacy of the Roman See at a date when it was in
+reality but one of many feeble seats of Christian authority;
+and to equalize its earthly grandeur with its religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[206]</a></span>
+pretension, the new edition of Isidore contained
+a donation by Constantine himself, in the beginning of
+the fourth century, of the city of Rome and enormous
+territories in Italy, to be held in sovereignty by the
+successors of St. Peter. These are now universally
+acknowledged to be forgeries and impostures of the
+grossest kind, but at the time they appeared they served
+the purpose for which they were intended, and gave a
+sanction to the Papal assumptions far superior to the
+rights of any existing crown.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 859.</div>
+
+<p>Charles the Bald was a true son of Louis the Debonnaire
+in his devotion to the Church. When the
+bishops of his own kingdom, with Wenilon of
+Sens as their leader, offended with some remissness he
+had temporarily shown in advancing their worldly interests,
+determined to depose him from the throne, and
+called Louis the German to take his place, Charles fled
+and threw himself on the protection of the Pope. And
+when by submission and promises he had been permitted
+to re-enter France, he complained of the conduct of the
+prelates in language which ratified all their claims.
+&ldquo;Elected by Wenilon and the other bishops, as well as
+by the lieges of our kingdom, who expressed their consent
+by their acclamations, Wenilon consecrated me
+king according to ecclesiastic tradition, in his own diocese,
+in the Church of the Holy Cross at Orleans. He
+anointed me with the holy oil; he gave me the diadem
+and royal sceptre, and seated me on the throne. After
+that consecration I could not be removed from the
+throne, or supplanted by any one, at least without being
+heard and judged by the bishops, by whose ministry I
+was consecrated king. It is they who are as the thrones
+of the Divinity. God reposes upon them, and by them
+he gives forth his judgments. At all times I have been
+ready to submit to their fatherly corrections, to their
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[207]</a></span>
+just castigations, and am ready to do so still.&rdquo; What
+more could the Church require? Its wealth was the
+least of its advantages, though the abbacies and bishoprics
+were richer than dukedoms all over the land. Their
+temporal power was supported by the terrors of their
+spiritual authority; and kings, princes, and people appeared
+so prone to the grossest excesses of credulity and
+superstition, that it needed little to throw Europe itself
+at the feet of the priesthood, and place sword and sceptre
+permanently in subordination to the crozier. Blindly
+secure of their position, rioting in the riches of the subject
+land, the bishops probably disregarded, as below
+their notice, the two antagonistic principles which were
+at work at this time in the midst of their own body&mdash;the
+principle of absolute submission to authority in
+articles of faith, and the principle of free inquiry into all
+religious doctrine. The first gave birth to the great
+mystery of transubstantiation, which now first made its
+appearance as an indispensable belief, and was hailed by
+the laity and inferior clergy as a crowning proof of the
+miraculous powers inherent in the Church. The second
+was equally busy, but was not productive of such permanent
+effects. At the court of Charles the Bald there
+was a society of learned and ingenious men, presided
+over by the celebrated John Scot Erigena, (or native of
+Ireland,) who had studied the early Fathers and the
+Platonic philosophy, and were inclined to admit human
+reason to some participation in the reception of Christian
+truths. There were therefore discussions on the
+real presence, and free-will, and predestination, which
+had the usual unsatisfactory termination of all questions
+transcending man&rsquo;s understanding, and only embittered
+their respective adherents without advancing the settlement
+on either side. While these exercitations of talent
+and dialectic quickness were carried on, filling the different<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[208]</a></span>
+dioceses with wonder and perplexity, the great body of
+the people in various countries of Europe were recalled
+to the practical business of life by disputes of a far more
+serious character than the wordy wars of Scotus and his
+foes. Michelet, the most picturesque of the recent historians
+of France, has given us an amazing view of the
+state of affairs at this time. It is the darkest period
+of the human mind; it is also the most unsettled period
+of human society. Outside of the narrowing limits of
+peopled Christendom, enemies are pressing upon every
+side. Saxons on the East are laying their hands in
+reverence on the manes of horses, and swearing in the
+name of Odin; Saracens, in the South and West, are
+gathering once more for the triumph of the Prophet;
+and suddenly France, Germany, Italy, and England, are
+awakened to the presence and possible supremacy of a
+more dreaded invader than either, for the Vikinger, or
+Norsemen, were abroad upon the sea, and all Christendom
+was exposed to their ravages. Wherever a river
+poured its waters into the ocean, on the coast of Narbonne,
+or Yorkshire, or Calabria, or Friesland, boats,
+small in size, but countless in number, penetrated into
+the inland towns, and disembarked wild and fearless
+warriors, who seemed inspired by the mad fanaticism
+of some inhuman faith, which made charity and mercy
+a sin. Starting from the islands and rugged mainland
+of the present Denmark and Norway, they swept across
+the stormy North Sea, shouting their hideous songs of
+glory and defiance, and springing to land when they
+reached their destination with the agility and bloodthirstiness
+of famished wolves. Their business was to
+carry slaughter and destruction wherever they went.
+They looked with contempt on the lazy occupations of
+the inhabitants of town or farm, and, above all, were
+filled with hatred and disdain of the monks and priests<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[209]</a></span>
+Their leaders were warriors and poets. Gliding up
+noiseless streams, they intoned their battle-cry and
+shouted the great deeds of their ancestors when they
+reached the walls of some secluded monastery, and
+rejoiced in wrapping all its terrified inmates in flames.
+Bards, soldiers, pirates, buccaneers, and heathens, destitute
+of fear, or pity, or remorse, amorous of danger,
+and skilful in management of ship and weapon, these
+were the most ferocious visitants which Southern Europe
+had ever seen. No storm was sufficient to be a protection
+against their approach. On the crest of the highest
+waves those frail barks were seen by the affrighted
+dwellers on the shore, careering with all sail set, and
+steering right into their port. All the people on the
+coast, from the Rhine to Bayonne, and from Toulouse
+to the Grecian Isles, fled for protection to the great proprietors
+of the lands. But the great proprietors of the
+lands were the peaceful priors of stately abbeys, and
+bishops of wealthy sees. Their pretensions had been
+submitted to by kings and nobles; they were the real
+rulers of France; and even in England their authority
+was very great. Excommunications had been their
+arms against recusant baron and refractory count; but
+the Danish Northmen did not care for bell, book, and
+candle. The courtly circle of scholars and divines could
+give no aid to the dishoused villagers and trembling
+cities, however ingenious the logic might be which reconciled
+Plato to St. Paul; and Charles the Bald, surprised,
+no doubt, at the inefficacy of prayers and processions,
+was forced to replace the influence in the hands,
+not which carried the crozier and cross, but which
+curbed the horse and couched the spear. The invasion
+of the Danes was, in fact, the resuscitation of the courage
+and manliness of the nationalities they attacked. Dreadful
+as the suffering was at the time, it was not given to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[210]</a></span>
+any man then alive to see the future benefits contained
+in the present woe. We, with a calmer view, look back
+upon the whole series of those events, and in the intermixture
+of the new race perceive the elements of greatness
+and power. Priest-ridden, down-trodden populations
+received a fresh impulse from those untamed
+children of the North; and in the forcible relegation of
+ecclesiastics to the more peaceable offices of their calling,
+we see the first beginning of the gradation of ranks, and
+separation of employments, which gave honourable occupation
+to the respective leaders in Church and State;
+which limited the clergyman to the unostentatious discharge
+of his professional duties, and left the baron to
+command his warriors and give armed protection to all
+the dwellers in the land. For feudalism, as understood
+in the Middle Ages, was the inevitable result of the relative
+positions of priest and noble at the time of the
+Norsemen&rsquo;s forays. It was found that the possession
+of great domains had its duties as well as its rights, and
+the duty of defence was the most imperative of all.
+Men held their grounds, therefore, on the obligation of
+keeping their vassals uninjured by the pirates; the
+bishops were found unable to perform this work, and the
+territory passed away from their keeping. Vast estates,
+no doubt, still remained in their possession, but they
+were placed in the guardianship of the neighbouring
+chateaux; and though at intervals, in the succeeding
+centuries, we shall see the prelate dressing himself in a
+coat of mail, and rendering in person the military service
+entailed upon his lands, the public feeling rapidly
+revolted against the incongruity of the deed. The steel-clad
+bishop was looked on with slender respect, and was
+soon found to do more damage to his order, by the contrast
+between his conduct and his profession, than he
+could possibly gain for it by his prowess or skill in war.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[211]</a></span>
+Feudalism, indeed, or the reciprocal obligation of protection
+and submission, reached its full development by
+the formal deposition of a descendant of Charlemagne,
+on the express ground of his inability to defend his
+people from the enemies by which they were
+surrounded. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 879.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>A congress of six archbishops, and
+seventeen bishops, was held in the town of Mantela, near
+Vienne; and after consultation with the nobility, they
+came to the following resolution:&mdash;&ldquo;That whereas the
+great qualities of the old mayors of the palace were
+their only rights to the throne, and Charlemagne,
+whom all willingly obeyed, did not transmit his talents,
+along with his crown, to his posterity, it was right to
+leave that house.&rdquo; They therefore sent an offer of the
+throne of Burgundy to Boso, Count of the Ardennes,
+with the conditions &ldquo;that he should be a true patron
+and defender of high and low, accessible and friendly to
+all, humble before God, liberal to the Church, and true
+to his word.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>By this abnegation of temporal weapons, and dependence
+on the armed warrior for their defence, the prelates
+put themselves at the head of the unarmed peoples
+at the same moment that they exercised their spiritual
+authority over all classes alike. It was useless for them
+to draw the sword themselves, when they regulated
+every motion of the hand by which the sword was held.</p>
+
+<p>While this is the state of affairs on the Continent&mdash;while
+the great Empire of Charlemagne is falling to
+pieces, and the kingly office is practically reduced to a
+mere equality with the other dignities of the land&mdash;while
+this disunion in nations and weakness in sovereigns is
+exposing the fairest lands in Europe to the aggressions
+of enemies on every side&mdash;let us cast our eyes for a
+moment on England, and see in what condition our
+ancestors are placed at the middle of this century. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[212]</a></span>
+most dreadful and alarming condition as ever Old England
+was in. For many years before this, a pirate&rsquo;s boat or
+two from the North would run upon the sand, and send
+the crews to burn and rob a village on the coast of Berwick
+or Northumberland. Pirates we superciliously
+call them, but that is from a misconception of their
+point of honour, and of the very different estimate they
+themselves formed of their pursuits and character. They
+were gentleman, perhaps, &ldquo;of small estate&rdquo; in some outlying
+district of Denmark or Norway, but endowed
+with stout arms and a great wish to distinguish themselves&mdash;if
+the distinction could be accompanied with an
+increase of their worldly goods. They considered the
+sea their own domain, and whatever was found on it as
+theirs by right of possession. They were, therefore,
+lords of the manor, looking after their rights, their
+waifs and strays, their flotsams and jetsams. They
+were also persons of a strong religious turn, and united
+the spirit of the missionary to the courage of the warrior
+and the avidity of the conqueror. Odin was still their
+god, the doors of the Walhalla were still open to them
+after death, and the skulls of their enemies were foaming
+with intoxicating mead. The English were renegades
+from the true faith, a set of drivelling wretches
+who believed in a heaven where there was no beer, and
+worshipped a god who bade them pray for their enemies
+and bless the very people who used them ill. The remaining
+similarity in the language of the two peoples
+must have added a bitterness to the contemptuous feelings
+of the unreclaimed rovers of the deep; and probably,
+on their return, these enterprising warriors were
+as proud of the number of priests they had slain, as of
+the more valuable trophies they carried home. Denmark
+itself, up to this time, had been distracted with
+internal wars. It was only the more active spirits who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[213]</a></span>
+had rushed across from the Sound, and solaced themselves,
+in the intervals of their own campaigns, with an
+onslaught upon an English town. But now the scene
+was to change. The inroads of separate crews were to
+be exchanged for national invasions. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 838.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Harold of
+the Fair Hair was seated on an undisputed throne,
+and repressed the outrages of these adventurous warriors
+by a strong and determined will. He stretched his
+sceptre over all the Scandinavian world, and neither the
+North Sea nor the Baltic were safe places for piracy
+and spoil. One of his countrymen had founded the royal
+line of Russia, and from his capital of Kieff or Novgorod
+was civilizing, with whip and battle-axe, the original
+hordes which now form the Empire of the Czars. Already,
+from their lurking-places on the shores of the
+Black Sea, the Norwegian predecessors of the men of
+Odessa and Sebastopol were threatening a dash upon
+Constantinople; while sea-kings and jarls, compelled to
+be quiet and peaceable at home, but backed by all the
+wild populations of the North, anxious for glory, and
+greedy of gold and corn, resolved to reduce England
+to their obedience, and collected an enormous fleet in the
+quiet recesses of the Baltic, withdrawn from the observation
+of Harold. It seems fated that France is always,
+in some sort or other, to set the fashion to her neighbours.
+We have seen, at the beginning of this century, how
+England followed the example of the Frankish peoples
+in consolidating itself into one dominion. Charlemagne
+was recognised chief potentate of many states, and
+Egbert was sovereign of all the Saxon lands, from Cornwall
+to the gates of Edinburgh. But the model was
+copied no less closely in the splitting-up of the central
+authority than in its consolidation. While Louis the
+Debonnaire and Charles the Bald were weakening the
+throne of Charlemagne, the states of Egbert became<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span>
+parcelled out in the same way between the descendants
+of the English king. Ethelwolf was the counterpart of
+Louis, and carried the sceptre in too gentle a hand. He
+still further diminished his authority by yielding to the
+dissensions of his court. Like the Frankish ruler, also,
+he left portions of his territory to his four sons; of
+whom it will be sufficient for us to remember that the
+youngest was the great Alfred&mdash;the foremost name in
+all mediæval history; and by an injudicious marriage
+with the daughter of Charles the Bald, and his unjust
+divorce of the mother of all his sons, he offended the
+feelings of the nation, and raised the animosity of his
+children. Ethelbald his son completed the popular discontent
+by marrying his father&rsquo;s widow, the French
+princess, who had been the cause of so much disagreement;
+and while the people were thus alienated, and the
+guiding hand of a true ruler of men was withdrawn,
+the terrible invasion of Danes and Jutlanders
+went on. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 839.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>They sailed up the Thames and pillaged
+London. Winchester was given to the flames.
+The whole isle of Thanet was seized and permanently
+occupied. The magic standard, a raven, embroidered
+by the daughters of the famous Regner Lodbrog, (who
+had been stung to death by serpents in a dungeon into
+which he was thrown by Ella, King of Northumberland,)
+was carried from point to point, and was thought to be
+the symbol of victory and revenge. The offending
+Northumbrian now felt the wrath of the sons of Lodbrog.
+They landed with a great army, and after a
+battle, in which the chiefs of the English were slain,
+took the Northumbrian kingdom. Nottingham was
+soon after captured and destroyed. It was no longer a
+mere incursion. The nobles and great families of Denmark
+came over to their new conquest, and stationed
+themselves in strong fortresses, commanding large circles<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span>
+of country, and lived under their Danish regulations.
+The land, to be sure, was not populous at that
+time, and probably the Danish settlements were accomplished
+without the removal of any original occupiers.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 860.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>But the castles they built, and the towns which rapidly
+grew around them, acted as outposts against the remaining
+British kingdoms; and at last, when fleet after fleet
+disembarked their thousands of warlike colonists&mdash;when
+Leicester, Lincoln, Stamford, York, and
+Chester, were all in Danish hands, and stretched a line
+of intrenchments round the lands they considered their
+own&mdash;the divided Anglo-Saxons were glad to purchase a
+cessation of hostilities by guaranteeing to them forever
+the places and territories they had secured. And there
+was now a Danish kingdom enclosed by the fragments
+of the English empire; there were Danish laws and
+customs, a Danish mode of pronunciation, and for a
+good while a still broader gulf of demarcation established
+between the peoples by their diversity in religious
+faith. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 872.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>But when Alfred attained the supreme
+power&mdash;and although respecting the treaties between
+the Danes and English, yet evidently able to defend his
+countrymen from the aggressions of their foreign neighbour&mdash;the
+pacified pirate, tired of the sea, and softened
+by the richer soil and milder climate of his new home,
+began to perceive the very unsatisfactory nature of his
+ancient belief, and rapidly gave his adhesion to the
+lessons of the gospel. Guthrum, the Danish chieftain,
+became a zealous Christian according to his lights, and
+was baptized with all his subjects. Alfred acted as godfather
+to the neophyte, and restrained the wildest of his
+followers within due bounds. Perhaps, even, he was
+assisted by his Christianized allies in the great and final
+struggle against Hastings and a new swarm of Scandinavian
+rovers, whose defeat is the concluding act of this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[216]</a></span>
+tumultuous century. Alfred drew up near London, and
+met the advancing hosts on the banks of the river Lea,
+about twenty miles from town. The patient angler in
+that suburban river seldom thinks what great events
+occurred upon its shore. Great ships&mdash;all things are
+comparative&mdash;were floating upon its waters, filled with
+armed Danes. Alfred cut certain openings in the banks
+and lowered the stream, so that the hostile navy stranded.
+Out sprang the Danes, astonished at the interruption to
+their course, and retreated across the country, nor
+stopped till they had placed themselves in inaccessible
+positions on the Severn. But the century came to a
+close. Opening with the great days of Charlemagne, it
+is right that it should close with the far more glorious
+reign of Alfred the patriot and sage;&mdash;-a century illuminated
+at its two extremes, but in its middle period dark
+with disunion and ignorance, and not unlikely, unless
+controlled to higher uses, to give birth to a state of more
+hopeless barbarism than that from which the nations of
+Europe had so recently emerged.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[217]</a></span>
+<a name="TENTH_CENTURY" id="TENTH_CENTURY">TENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of Germany.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis IV.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">911.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Conrad.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">920.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry the Fowler.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">936.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Otho the Great.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">973.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Otho II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">983.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Otho III.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of the East.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Leo.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">911.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Constantine IX.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">915.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Constantine</span> and <span class="smcap">Romanus</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">959.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Romanus II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">963.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Nicephorus Phocas.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">969.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John Zimisces.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">975.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Basilius and Constantine X.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of France.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles the Simple.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">923.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Rodolph.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">936.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis IV.</span>, (d&rsquo;Outremer.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">954.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Lothaire.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">986.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis V.</span>, (le Fainéant.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">987.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Hugh Capet</span>, (new Dynasty.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">996.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Robert the Wise.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of England.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Alfred.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">901.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edward the Elder.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">925.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Athelstane.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">941.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edmund I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">948.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Eldred.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">955.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edwy.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">959.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edgar.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">976.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edward II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">978.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Ethelred II.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Suidas</span>, (Lexicographer), <span class="smcap">Gerbert</span>, <span class="smcap">Odo</span>, <span class="smcap">Dunstan</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[219]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_TENTH_CENTURY" id="THE_TENTH_CENTURY">THE TENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">DARKNESS AND DESPAIR.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> tenth century is always to be remembered as the
+darkest and most debased of all the periods of modern
+history. It was the midnight of the human mind, far
+out of reach of the faint evening twilight left by Roman
+culture, and further still from the morning brightness of
+the new and higher civilization. If we try to catch any
+hope of the future, we must turn from the oppressed
+and enervated populations of France and Italy to the
+wild wanderers from the North. By following the
+latter detachment of Norsemen who made their settlements
+on the Seine, we shall see that what seemed the
+wedge by which the compactness of an organized kingdom
+was to be split up turned out to be the strengthening
+beam by which the whole machinery of legal government
+had been kept together. Romanized Gauls,
+effeminated Franks, Goths, and Burgundians, were found
+unfitted for the duties either of subjects or rulers. They
+were too ambitious to obey, and too ignorant to command.
+Religion itself had lost its efficacy, for the populations
+had been so fed with false legends, that they had
+no relish for the truths of the gospel, which, indeed, as
+an instrument of instruction, had fallen into complete
+disuse. Ship-loads of false relics, and army-rolls of
+imaginary saints, were poured out for the general veneration.
+The higher dignitaries of the Church were
+looked on with very different feelings, according to the
+point of view taken of them. When regarded merely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[220]</a></span>
+as possessors of lands and houses, they were loved or
+hated according to the use they made of their power;
+but at the very time when cruelties and vices made them
+personally the objects of detestation or contempt, the
+sacredness of their official characters remained. Petitions
+were sent to the kings against the prelates being
+allowed to lead their retainers into battle, not entirely
+from a scruple as to the unlawfulness of such a proceeding,
+but from the more serious consideration that their
+death or capture would be taken as a sign of the vengeance
+of Heaven, and damp the ardour of the party they
+supported. Churches and cathedrals were filled with
+processionary spectacles, and their altars covered with
+the offerings of the faithful; and yet so brutal were the
+manners of the times, and so small the respect entertained
+for the individual priest, that laymen of the
+highest rank thought nothing of knocking down the
+dignitaries of the Church with a blow on the head, even
+while solemnly engaged in the offices of devotion. The
+Roman pontiffs, we have seen, did not scruple to avail
+themselves of the forgeries of their enthusiastic supporters
+to establish their authority on the basis of antiquity,
+and at the middle of this century we should find,
+if we inquired into it, that the sacred city and chair of
+St. Peter were a prey to the most violent passions.
+Many devout Roman Catholics have been, at various
+periods, so horrified with the condition of their chiefs,
+and of the perverted religion which had arisen from
+tradition and imposture, that they have claimed the
+mere continued existence of the Papacy as a proof of
+its Divine institution, and a fulfilment of the prophecy
+that &ldquo;the gates of hell should not prevail against it.&rdquo;
+Yet even in the midst of this corruption and ignorance,
+there were not wanting some redeeming qualities, which
+soften our feelings towards the ecclesiastic power. It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[221]</a></span>
+was at all times, in its theory, a protest against the
+excesses of mere strength and violence. The doctrines
+it professed to teach were those of kindness and charity;
+and in the great idea of the throned fisherman at Rome,
+the poorest saw a kingdom which was not of this world,
+and yet to which all the kingdoms of this world must
+bow. Temporal ranks were obliterated when the descendants
+of kings and emperors were seen paying
+homage to the sons of serfs and workmen. The immunity,
+also, from spoil and slaughter, which to a certain
+extent still adhered to episcopal and abbatial lands, reflected
+a portion of their sanctity on the person of the
+bishop and abbot. Mysterious reverence still hung
+round the convents, within which such ceaseless prayers
+were said and so many relics exposed, and whither it
+was also known that all the learning and scholarship of
+the land had fled for refuge. The doles at monastery-doors,
+however objected to by political economists, as
+encouragements of mendicancy and idleness, were viewed
+in a very different light by the starving crowds, who,
+besides being qualified by destitution and hunger for the
+reception of charitable food, had an incontestable right,
+under the founder&rsquo;s will, to be supported by the establishment
+on whose lands they lived. The abbot who neglected
+to feed the poor was not only an unchristian contemner
+of the precepts of the faith, but ran counter to the
+legal obligations of his place. He was administrator of
+certain properties left for the benefit of persons about
+whose claims there was no doubt; and when the rapacious
+methods of maintaining their adherents, which
+were adopted by the count and baron, were compared
+with the baskets of broken victuals, and the jugs of
+foaming beer, which were distributed at the buttery of
+the abbey, the decision was greatly in favour of the
+spiritual chief. His ambling mule, and swift hound, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[222]</a></span>
+hooded hawks, were not grudged, nor his less defensible
+occupations seriously inquired into, as long as the beef
+and mutton were not stinted, and the liquor flowed in
+reasonable streams. As to his theological tenets, or
+knowledge of history, either sacred or profane, the
+highest ecclesiastic was on the same level of utter ignorance
+and indifference with the lowest of his serfs.
+There were no books of controversial divinity in all this
+century. There were no studies exacted from priest or
+prelate. All that was required was an inordinate zeal
+in the discovery of holy relics, and an acquaintance with
+the unnumbered ceremonies performed in the celebration
+of the service. Morals were in as low a state as
+learning. Debauchery, drunkenness, and uncleanness
+were the universal characteristics both of monk and
+secular. So it is a satisfaction to turn from the wretched
+spectacle of the decaying and corrupt condition of an
+old society, to the hardier vices of a new and undegenerated
+people. Better the unreasoning vigour of the
+Normans, and their wild trust in Thor and Odin&mdash;their
+spirit of personal independence and pride in the manly
+exercises&mdash;than the creeping submission of an uneducated
+population, trampled on by their brutal lay superiors,
+and cheated out of money and labour by the
+artifices of their priests.</p>
+
+<p>Rollo, the Norman chief, had pushed his unresisted
+galleys up the Seine, and strongly intrenched himself
+in Rouen, in the first year of this century. From this
+citadel, so admirably selected for his purposes, whether
+of defence or conquest, he spread his expeditions on
+every side. The boats were so light that no shallowness
+of water hindered their progress even to the great
+valleys where the river was still a brook. When impediments
+were encountered on the way, in the form of
+waterfall, or, more rarely, of bridge or weir, the adventurers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[223]</a></span>
+sprang to shore and carried their vessels along
+the land. When greater booty tempted them, they
+even crossed long tracts of country, hauling their boats
+along with them, and launching them in some peaceful
+vale far away from the sea. Every islet in the rivers
+was seized and fortified; so that, dotted about over all
+the beautiful lands between the Seine and the borders
+of Flanders, were stout Norman colonies, with all the
+pillage they had obtained securely guarded in those unassailable
+retreats, and ready to carry their maritime
+depredations wherever a canoe could swim. Their
+rapidity of locomotion was equal to that of the Saracenic
+hordes who had poured down from the Pyrenees in the
+days of Charles the Hammer. But the Norsemen were
+of sterner stuff than the light chivalry of Abderachman.
+Where they stopped they took root. They found
+it impossible to carry off all the treasure they had
+seized, and therefore determined to stay beside it.
+Rouen was at first about to be laid waste, but the policy
+of the bishop preserved it from destruction, while the
+wisdom of the rovers converted it into a fortress of the
+greatest strength. Strong walls were reared all round.
+The beautiful river was guarded night and day by their
+innumerable fleet, and in a short time it was recognised
+equally by friend and foe as the capital and headquarters
+of a new race. Nor were the Normans left entirely to
+Scandinavia for recruits. The glowing reports of their
+success, which successively arrived at their ancient
+homes, of course inspired the ambitious listeners with
+an irresistible desire to launch forth and share their
+fortune; but there were not wanting thousands of volunteers
+near at hand. King and duke, bishop and baron,
+were all unable to give protection to the cultivator of
+the soil and shepherd of the flock. These humble sufferers
+saw their cabins fired, and all their victuals destroyed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[224]</a></span>
+Rollo was too politic to make it a war of
+extermination against the unresisting inhabitants, and
+easily opened his ranks for their reception. The result
+was that, in those disastrous excursions, shouting the
+war-cry of Norway, and brandishing the pirate&rsquo;s axe,
+were many of the original Franks and Gauls, allured by
+the double inducement of escaping further injury themselves
+and taking vengeance on their former oppressors.
+Religious scruples did not stand in their way. They
+gave in their adhesion to the gods of the North, and
+proved themselves true converts to Thor and Odin, by
+eating the flesh of a horse that had been slain in sacrifice.
+It is perhaps this heathen association with horseflesh
+as an article of food, which has banished it from
+Christian consumption for so long a time. But an effort
+is now made in France to rescue the fattened and roasted
+steed from the obloquy of its first introduction; and the
+success of the movement would be complete if there
+were no other difficulty to contend against than the
+stigma of its idolatrous origin. Yet the recruits were
+not all on one side, for we read of certain sea-kings who
+have grown tired of their wandering life, and taken service
+under the kings of France. Of these the most
+famous was Hastings, whom we saw defeated at the end
+of the last century, on the banks of the river Lea. He is
+old now, and so far forgetful of his Scandinavian origin
+that some French annalists claim him as a countryman
+of their own, and maintain that he was the son of a
+husbandman near Troyes. He is now a great landed
+lord, Count of Chartres, and in high favour with the
+French king. When Rollo had established his forces on
+the banks of the Eure, one of the tributaries of the
+Seine, the ancient pirate went at the head of an embassy
+to see what the new-comer required. Standing on the
+farther bank of the little river, he raised his voice, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[225]</a></span>
+in good Norwegian demanded who they were, and who
+was their lord. &ldquo;We have no lord!&rdquo; they said: &ldquo;we
+are all equal.&rdquo; &ldquo;And why do you come into this land,
+and what are you going to do?&rdquo; &ldquo;We are going to
+chase away the inhabitants, and make the country our
+home. But who are you, who speak our language so
+well?&rdquo; The count replied, &ldquo;Did you never hear of
+Hastings the famous pirate, who had so many ships
+upon the sea, and did such evil to this realm?&rdquo; &ldquo;Of
+course,&rdquo; replied the Norsemen: &ldquo;Hastings began well,
+but has ended poorly.&rdquo; &ldquo;Have you no wish, then,&rdquo;
+said Hastings, &ldquo;to submit yourselves to King Charles,
+who offers you land and honours on condition of fealty
+and service?&rdquo; &ldquo;Off! off!&mdash;we will submit ourselves to
+no man; and all we can take we shall keep, without
+dependence on any one. Go and tell the king so, if you
+like.&rdquo; Hastings returned from his unsuccessful embassy,
+and the attempt at compromise was soon after followed
+by a victory of Rollo, which decided the fate of the kingdom.
+The conquerors mounted the Seine, and laid siege
+to Paris; but failing in this, they retraced their course to
+Rouen, and made themselves masters of Bayeux, and of
+other places. Rollo was now raised to supreme command
+by the voices of his followers, and took rank as an
+independent chief. But he was too sagacious a leader to
+rely entirely on the favour or success of his countrymen.
+He protected the native population, and reconciled them
+to the absence of their ancient masters, by the increased
+security in life and property which his firmness produced.
+He is said to have hung a bracelet of gold in an
+exposed situation, with no defence but the terror of his
+justice, and no one tried to remove it. He saw, also, that
+however much his power might be dreaded, and his
+family feared, by the great nobility of France with whom
+he was brought into contact, his position as a heathen and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[226]</a></span>
+isolated settler placed him in an inferior situation. The
+Archbishop of Rouen, who had been his ally in the
+peaceable occupation of the city, was beside him, with
+many arguments in favour of the Christian faith. The
+time during which the populations had been intermixed
+had smoothed many difficulties on either side. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 911.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The
+worship of Thor and Odin was felt to be out of place in
+the midst of great cathedrals and wealthy monasteries,
+and it created no surprise when, in a few years, the
+ambitious Rollo descended from his proud independence,
+did suit and service to his feeble adversary
+Charles the Simple, and retained all his conquests
+in full property as Duke of Normandy and Peer
+of France.</p>
+
+<p>Already the divinity that hedged a king placed the
+crown, even when destitute of real authority, at an immeasurable
+height above the loftiest of the nobles; and
+it will be well to preserve this in our memory; for to
+the belief in this mystical dignity of the sovereign, the
+monarchical principle was indebted for its triumph in
+all the states of Europe. No matter how powerless the
+anointed ruler might be&mdash;no matter how greatly a combination
+of vassals, or a single vassal, might excel him
+in men and money&mdash;the ineffable supremacy of the
+sacred head was never denied. This strange and ennobling
+sentiment had not yet penetrated the mind of
+Rollo and his followers, at the great ceremonial of his
+reception as a feudatory of the Crown. He declined to
+bend the knee before his suzerain, but gave him his oath
+of obedience and faith, standing at his full height.
+When a stickler for court etiquette insisted on the final
+ceremony of kissing the foot of the feudal superior, the
+duke made a sign to one of his piratical attendants to
+go through the form instead of him. Forth stalked the
+Norseman towards the overjoyed Charles, and without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span>
+stooping his body laid hold of the royal boot, and, lifting
+it with all his strength up to his mouth, upset the unfortunate
+and short-legged monarch on his back, to the
+great consternation of his courtiers, and the hilarious
+enjoyment of his new subjects. But there was henceforth
+a new element in French society. The wanderers
+were unanimously converted to Christianity, and the
+shores of the whole kingdom perpetually guarded from
+piratical invaders by the contented and warlike countrymen
+of Hastings and Rollo. Normandy and Brittany
+were the appanage of the new duke, and perhaps they
+were more useful to the French monarch, as the well-governed
+territories of a powerful vassal, than if he had
+held them in full sovereignty in their former disorganized
+and helpless state. Language soon began to exert
+its combining influence on the peoples thus brought into
+contact, and in a few years the rough Norse gave place
+to the Romanized idiom of the rest of the kingdom, and
+the descendants of Rollo in the next generation required
+an interpreter if any of their relatives came to visit
+them from Denmark.</p>
+
+<p>But the true characteristic event of this century was
+the first establishment of real feudalism. The hereditary
+nature of lands and tenements had long been recognised;
+the original granter had long surrendered his
+right to reclaim the property on the death of the first
+possessor. Gradually also, and by sufferance, the offices
+to which, in the stronger periods of royalty, the favoured
+subjects had been promoted for life or a definite time
+were considered to belong to the descendant of the
+holder. But it was only now, in the weak administration
+of a series of nominal kings, that the rights and
+privileges of a titular nobility were legally recognised,
+and large portions of the monarchy forever conveyed
+away from the control of the Crown. There is a sort<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[228]</a></span>
+of natural feudalism which must always exist where
+there are degrees of power and influence, and which is
+as potent at this moment as in the time we are describing.
+A man who expects a favour owes and performs
+suit and service to the man who has the power of bestowing
+it. A man with land to let, with money to
+lend, with patronage to exert, is in a sort of way the
+&ldquo;superior&rdquo; of him who wants to take the farm, or borrow
+the money, or get the advancement. The obligations
+of these positions are mutual; and only very advanced
+philosophers in the theory of disunion and ingratitude
+would object to the reciprocal feelings of kindness
+and attachment they naturally produce. In a less
+settled state of society, such as that now existing, or
+which lately existed, at the Cape of Good Hope and in
+New Zealand, the feudal principle is fresh and vigorous,
+though not recognised under that name, for the peaceful
+or weak are glad to pay deference and respect to the
+wielder of the protective sword. In the tenth century
+there were customs, but no laws, for laws presuppose
+some external power able to enforce them, and the decay
+of the kingly authority had left the only practical
+government in the hands of the great and powerful.
+They gave protection in return for obedience. But
+when more closely inquired into, this assumption of
+authority by a nobility or upper class is found to have
+been purely defensive on the part of the lay proprietors,
+against the advancing tide of a spiritual Democracy,
+which threatened to submerge the whole of Europe.
+Already the bishops and abbots had got possession of
+nearly half the realm of France, and in other countries
+they were equally well provided. Those great officers
+were the leaders of innumerable priests and monks, and
+owed their dignities to the popular will. The Pope
+himself&mdash;a sovereign prince when once placed in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[229]</a></span>
+chair of St. Peter&mdash;was indebted for his exaltation to a
+plurality of votes of the clergy and people of Rome.
+Election was, in fact, the universal form of constituting
+the rule under which men were to live. But who were
+the electors? The appointment was still nominally in
+the people, but the people were almost entirely under
+the influence of the clerical orders. Mechanics and
+labourers were the serfs or dependants of the rich
+monasteries, and tillers of the episcopal lands. The
+citizens had not yet risen into wealth or intelligence,
+and, though subject in their persons to the baron whose
+castle commanded their walls, they were still under the
+guidance of their priests. No middle class existed to
+hold the balance even between the nobility and the
+Church; and the masses of the population were naturally
+disposed to throw power into the hands of persons who
+sprang, in most instances, from families no better than
+their own, and recommended themselves to popular
+favour by opposition (often just, but always domineering)
+to the proceedings of the lay aristocracy. The labouring
+serfs, who gave the vote, were not much inferior in
+education or refinement to the ordained serfs who canvassed
+for their favour. Abbacies, priories, bishoprics,
+parochial incumbencies, and all cathedral dignities, were
+held by a body distinct from the feudal gentry, and
+elevated, mediately or immediately, by universal suffrage.
+If some stop had not been put to the aggressions
+of the priesthood, all the lands in Christendom would
+have been absorbed by its insatiable greed&mdash;all the
+offices of the State would have been conveyed to sacerdotal
+holders; all kings would have been nominated by
+the clerical voice alone, and freedom and progress would
+never have had their birth. The monarchs&mdash;though it
+is almost mockery to call them so in England&mdash;were
+waging an unsuccessful war with the pretensions of St.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[230]</a></span>
+Dunstan, who was an embodiment of the pitiless harshness
+and blind ambition of a zealot for ecclesiastic
+supremacy. In France a succession of imbecile rulers,
+whose characters are clearly enough to be guessed from
+the descriptive epithets which the old chroniclers have
+attached to their names, had left the Crown a prey to
+all its enemies. What was to be expected from a
+series of governors whose mark in history is made by
+such nicknames as &ldquo;The Bald,&rdquo; &ldquo;The Stammerer,&rdquo;
+&ldquo;The Fat,&rdquo; and finally, without circumlocution, &ldquo;The
+Fool&rdquo;? Everybody tried to get as much out of the
+royal plunder as he could. Bishops got lands and
+churches. Foreign pirates, we have seen, got whole
+counties at a time, and in self-defence the nobility were
+forced to join in the universal spoil. Counties as large
+as Normandy were retained as rightful inheritances, independent
+of all but nominal adhesion to the throne.
+Smaller properties were kept fast hold of, on the same
+pretence. And by this one step the noble was placed
+in a position of advantage over his rival the encroaching
+bishop. His power was not the mere creation of a vote
+or the possession of a lifetime. His family had foundations
+on which to build through a long succession of
+generations. Marriage, conquest, gift, and purchase, all
+tended to the consolidation of his influence; and the result
+was, that, instead of one feeble and decaying potentate
+in the person of the king, to resist the aggressions
+of an absorbing and levelling Church, there were hundreds
+all over the land, democratic enough in regard to
+their dislike of the supremacy of the sovereign, but
+burning with a deep-seated aristocratic hatred of the
+territorial aggrandizement of the dissolute and low-born
+clergy. Europe was either in this century to be ruled
+by mailed barons or surpliced priests. Sometimes they
+played into each other&rsquo;s hands. Sometimes the warrior<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[231]</a></span>
+overwhelmed an adversary by enlisting on his side the
+sympathies of the Church. Sometimes the Church, in
+its controversies with the Crown, cast itself on the protection
+of the warrior, but more frequently it threw its
+weight into the scale of the vacillating monarch, who
+could reward it with such munificent donations. But
+those munificent donations were equivalent to aggressions
+on the nobles. There was no use in their trying to check
+the aggrandizement of the clerical power, if the Crown
+continued its gifts of territory and offices to the priests
+and churches. And at last, when the strong-handed
+barons of France were tired out with the fatuity of their
+effete kings, they gave the last proof of the supremacy
+they had attained, by departing from the line of Charlemagne
+and placing one of themselves upon the throne.
+Hugh Capet, the chief of the feudal nobles, was chosen
+to wear the crown as delegate and representative of the
+rest. The old Mayors of the Palace had been revived
+in his family for some generations; and when Louis the
+son of Lothaire died, after a twelvemonth&rsquo;s permissive
+reign, in 987, the warriors and land-owners turned instinctively
+to the strongest and most distinguished
+member of their body to be the guardian of the privileges
+they had already secured. This was an aristocratic
+movement against the lineal supremacy of the Crown,
+and in reply to the democratic policy of the Church.
+But the Pope was too clear-sighted to lose the chance of
+attaching another champion to the papal chair. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 987.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>He made haste to ratify the new nomination to the
+throne, and pronounced Hugh Capet &ldquo;King of
+France in right of his great deeds.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Hugh Capet had been first of the feudal nobility; but
+from thenceforth he laboured to be &ldquo;every inch a king.&rdquo;
+He tried to please both parties, and to humble them at
+the same time. He did not lavish crown-lands or lofty<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[232]</a></span>
+employments on the clergy; he took a new and very
+economical way of attaching them to his cause. He
+procured his election, it is not related by what means,
+to the highest dignities in the Church, and, although not
+in holy orders, was invested with the abbacies of St.
+Denis and St. Martin&rsquo;s and St. Germain&rsquo;s. The clergy
+were delighted with the increase to the respectability
+of their order, which had thus a king among its office-bearers.
+The Pope, we have seen, was first to declare
+his legitimacy; the bishops gave him their support, as
+they felt sure that, as a threefold abbot, he must have
+interests identical with their own. He was fortunate,
+also, in gaining still more venerated supporters; for
+while he was building a splendid tomb at St. Valery,
+the saint of that name appeared to him and said, with
+larger promise than the witches to Banquo, &ldquo;Thou and
+thy descendants shall be kings to the remotest generations.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>With the nobles he proceeded in a different manner.
+His task, you will remember, was to regain the universal
+submission of the nation; and success at first seemed
+almost hopeless, for his real power, like that of the
+weakest of his immediate predecessors, extended no
+further than his personal holdings. In his fiefs of
+France proper (the small district including Paris) and
+Burgundy he was all-powerful; but in the other principalities
+and dukedoms he was looked on merely as a
+neighbouring potentate with some shadowy claims of
+suzerainty, with no right of interference in their internal
+administration. The other feudatories under the
+old monarchy, but who were in reality independent sovereigns
+under the new, were the Dukes of Normandy and
+Flanders, and Aquitaine and Toulouse. These made the
+six lay peerages of the kingdom, and, with the six ecclesiastical
+chief rulers, made the Twelve Peers of France.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[233]</a></span>
+Of the lay peerages it will be seen that Hugh was in
+possession of two&mdash;the best situated and most populous
+of all. The extent of his possessions and the influence
+of his name were excellent starting-points in his efforts
+to restore the power of the Crown; but other things
+were required, and the first thing he aimed at was to
+place his newly-acquired dignity on the same vantage-ground
+of hereditary succession as his dukedoms had
+long been. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 989.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>With great pomp and solemnity he himself
+was anointed with the holy oil by the hands of the
+Pope; and he took advantage of the self-satisfied security
+of the other nobles to have the ceremony of
+a coronation performed on his son during his
+lifetime, and by this arrangement the appearance of
+election was avoided at his death. Its due weight must
+be given to the universal superstition of the time, when
+we attribute such importance to the formal consecration
+of a king. Externals, in that age, were all in all.
+Something mystic and divine, as we have said before,
+was supposed to reside in the very fact of having the
+crown placed on the head with the sanction and prayers
+of the Church. Opposition to the wearer became not
+only treason, but impiety; and when the same policy
+was pursued by many generations of Hugh&rsquo;s successors,
+in always procuring the coronation of their heirs before
+their demise, and thus obliterating the remembrance of
+the elective process to which they owed their position,
+the royal power had the vast advantage of hereditary
+descent added to its unsubstantial but never-abandoned
+claim of paramount authority. The effects of this momentous
+change in the dynasty of one of the great
+European nations were felt in all succeeding centuries.
+The family connection between the house of France
+and the Empire was dissolved; and the struggle between
+the old condition of society and the rising intelligence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[234]</a></span>
+of the peoples&mdash;which is the great characteristic of the
+Middle Ages&mdash;took a more defined form than before:
+aristocracy assumed its perfected shape of king and
+nobility combined for mutual defence on one side, and
+on the other the towns and great masses of the nations
+striving for freedom and privilege under the leadership
+of the sympathizing and democratic Church; for the
+Church was essentially democratic, in spite of the arrogance
+and grasping spirit of some of its principal leaders.
+From hereditary aristocracy and hereditary royalty it
+was equally excluded; and the celibacy of the clergy
+has had this good effect, if no other: Its members were
+recruited from the people, and derived all their influence
+from popular support. In Germany the same process
+was going on, though without the crowning consummation
+of making the empire non-elective. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 962.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Otho, however&mdash;worthier
+of the name of Great than many who have
+borne that ambitious title&mdash;succeeded in limiting that
+highest of European dignities to the possessors of the
+German crown, and commenced the connection
+between Upper Italy and the Emperors which
+still subsists (so uneasily for both parties) under the
+house of Austria.</p>
+
+<p>In England the misery of the population had reached
+its maximum. The immigration of the Norsemen had
+been succeeded by numberless invasions, accompanied
+with all the horrors of barbarism and religious hatred;
+for the Danes who devastated the shores in this age
+were as remorselessly savage, and as bitterly heathen,
+as their predecessors a hundred years before. No place
+was safe for the unhappy Christianized Saxons. Their
+sufferings were of the same kind as those of the inhabitants
+of Normandy when Rollo began his ravages.
+Their priest-ridden kings and impoverished nobles could
+give them no protection. Bribes were paid to the assailants,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[235]</a></span>
+and only brought over increasing and hungrier
+hordes. The land was a prey to wretchedness of every
+kind, and it was slender consolation to the starving and
+trampled multitudes that all the world was suffering to
+almost the same extent. Saracens were devastating the
+coasts of Italy, and a wild tribe of Sclaves trying to
+burst through the Hungarian frontier. At Rome itself,
+the capital of intellect and religion, such iniquities were
+perpetrated on every side that Protestant authors themselves
+consent to draw a veil over them for the sake of
+human nature; and in those sketches we require to do
+nothing more than allude to the crimes and wickedness
+of the papal court as one of the features by which the
+century was marked. Women of high rank and infamous
+character placed the companions of their vices
+in the highest offices of the Church, and seated their
+sons or paramours on the papal throne. Spiritual pretensions
+rose almost in proportion to personal immorality,
+and the curious spectacle was presented of a power losing
+all respect at home by conduct which the heathen emperors
+of the first century scarcely equalled; of popes
+alternately dethroning and imprisoning each other&mdash;sometimes
+of two popes at a time&mdash;always dependent
+for life or influence on the will of the emperor, or whoever
+else might be dominant in Italy&mdash;and yet successfully
+claiming the submission and reverence of distant
+nations as &ldquo;Bishop of all the world&rdquo; and lineal &ldquo;successors
+of the Prince of the Apostles.&rdquo; This claim had
+never been expressly made before, and is perhaps the
+most conclusive proof of the darkness and ignorance of
+this period. Men were too besotted to observe the incongruity
+between the life and profession of those blemishes
+of the Church, even when by travelling to the seat of
+government they had the opportunity of seeing the
+Roman pontiff and his satellites and patrons. The rest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[236]</a></span>
+of the world had no means of learning the real state of
+affairs. Education had almost died out among the
+clergy themselves. Nobody else could write or read.
+Travelling monks gave perverted versions, we may believe,
+of every thing likely to be injurious to the interests
+of the Church; and the result was, that everywhere
+beyond the city-walls the thunder of a Boniface the
+Seventh, or a John the Twelfth, was considered as good
+thunder as if it had issued from the virtuous indignation
+of St. Paul.</p>
+
+<p>But just as this century drew to a close, various circumstances
+concurred to produce a change in men&rsquo;s
+minds. It was a universally-diffused belief that the
+world would come to an end when a thousand years
+from the Saviour&rsquo;s birth were expired. The year 999
+was therefore looked upon as the last which any one
+would see. And if ever signs of approaching dissolution
+were shown in heaven and earth, the people of this
+century might be pardoned for believing that they were
+made visible to them. Even the breaking up of morals
+and law, and the wide deluge of sin which overspread
+all lands, might be taken as a token that mankind were
+deemed unfit to occupy the earth any more. In addition
+to these appalling symptoms, famines were renewed
+from year to year in still increasing intensity and brought
+plague and pestilence in their train. The land was left
+untilled, the house unrepaired, the right unvindicated;
+for who could take the useless trouble of ploughing or
+building, or quarrelling about a property, when so few
+months were to put an end to all terrestrial interests?
+Yet even for the few remaining days the multitudes
+must be fed. Robbers frequented every road, entered
+even into walled towns; and there was no authority left
+to protect the weak, or bring the wrong-doer to punishment.
+Corn and cattle were at length exhausted; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span>
+in a great part of the Continent the most frightful extremities
+were endured; and when endurance could go
+no further, the last desperate expedient was resorted to,
+and human flesh was commonly consumed. One man
+went so far as to expose it for sale in a populous market-town.
+The horror of this open confession of their needs
+was so great, that the man was burned, but more for
+the publicity of his conduct than for its inherent guilt.
+Despair gave a loose to all the passions. Nothing was
+sacred&mdash;nothing safe. Even when food might have been
+had, the vitiated taste made bravado of its depravation,
+and women and children were killed and roasted in the
+madness of the universal fear. Meantime the gentler
+natures were driven to the wildest excesses of fanaticism
+to find a retreat from the impending judgment. Kings
+and emperors begged at monastery-doors to be admitted
+brethren of the Order. Henry of Germany and Robert
+of France were saints according to the notions of the
+time, and even now deserve the respect of mankind for
+the simplicity and benevolence of their characters.
+Henry the Emperor succeeded in being admitted as a
+monk, and swore obedience on the hands of the gentle
+abbot who had failed in turning him from his purpose.
+&ldquo;Sire,&rdquo; he said at last, &ldquo;since you are under my orders,
+and have sworn to obey me, I command you to go
+forth and fulfil the duties of the state to which God has
+called you. Go forth, a monk of the Abbey of St. Vanne,
+but Emperor of the West.&rdquo; Robert of France, the son
+of Hugh Capet, placed himself, robed and crowned,
+among the choristers of St. Denis, and led the musicians
+in singing hymns and psalms of his own composition.
+Lower men were satisfied with sacrificing the marks of
+their knightly and seignorial rank, and placed baldrics
+and swords on the altars and before the images of saints.
+Some manumitted their serfs, and bestowed large sums<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span>
+upon charitable trusts, commencing their disposition
+with words implying the approaching end of all.
+Crowds of the common people would sleep nowhere
+but in the porches, or at any rate within the shadow, of
+the churches and other holy buildings; and as the day
+of doom drew nearer and nearer, greater efforts were
+made to appease the wrath of Heaven. Peace was proclaimed
+between all classes of men. From Wednesday
+night till Monday evening of each week there was to be
+no violence or enmity or war in all the land. It was to
+be a Truce of God; and at last, all their strivings after
+a better state, acknowledgments of a depraved condition,
+and heartfelt longings for something better, purer,
+nobler, received their consummation, when, in the place
+of the unprincipled men who had disgraced Christianity
+by carrying vice and incredulity into the papal chair,
+there was appointed to the highest of ecclesiastical dignities
+a man worthy of his exaltation; and the good and
+holy Gerbert, the tutor, guide, and friend of Robert of
+France, was appointed Pope in 998, and took the name
+of Sylvester the Second.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[239]</a></span>
+<a name="ELEVENTH_CENTURY" id="ELEVENTH_CENTURY">ELEVENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of Germany.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Otho III.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont</i>.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1002.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry of Bavaria.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1024.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Conrad II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1039.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1056.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry IV.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of England.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Ethelred II.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-list">1013.<br />1015.<br />1017.<br />1039.</td>
+<td class="sovereign-list">
+<span class="smcap">Sweyn.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Canute the Great.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Edmund II.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Harold</span> and <span class="smcap">Hardicanute</span>.
+</td>
+<td class="mustache4">}</td>
+<td style="width:100%">Danes</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1042.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edward the Confessor.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1066.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Harold</span>, (son of Godwin.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1066.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">William the Conqueror.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1087.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">William Rufus.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="3" class="big">Emperors of the East.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td colspan="2" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Basilius.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1028.</td><td colspan="2" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Romanus III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1042.</td><td colspan="2" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Empress Zoe</span> and <span class="smcap">Theodora</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1056.</td><td colspan="2" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Michael VI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1057.</td><td colspan="2" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Isaac Comnenus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1059.</td><td colspan="2" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Constantine X.</span>, (<span class="smcap">Ducas.</span>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1067.</td><td colspan="2" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Eudoxia</span> and <span class="smcap">Constantine XI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1068.</td><td colspan="2" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Romanus IV.</span>, (<span class="smcap">Diogenes.</span>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1071.</td><td colspan="2" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Michael.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-list">1078.<br />1081.</td>
+<td class="mustache2">{</td>
+<td align="left">Two princes of the House of the Comneni.</td>
+<td style="width:10%"></td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1081.</td><td colspan="2" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Alexis I.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of France.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Robert the Wise.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1031.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1060.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip I.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align="left">1096.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">The First Crusade</span>.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Anselm</span>, (1003-1079,) <span class="smcap">Abelard</span>, (1079-1142,) <span class="smcap">Berengarius</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Roscelin</span>, <span class="smcap">Lanfranc</span>, <span class="smcap">Theophylact</span>, (1077.)</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[241]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_ELEVENTH_CENTURY" id="THE_ELEVENTH_CENTURY">THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">THE COMMENCEMENT OF IMPROVEMENT&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;GREGORY THE
+SEVENTH&thinsp;&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;&thinsp;FIRST CRUSADE.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">And</span> now came the dreaded or hoped-for year. The
+awful Thousand had at last commenced, and men held
+their breath to watch what would be the result of its
+arrival. &ldquo;And he laid hold of the dragon, that old serpent,
+which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him for
+a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit,
+and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should
+deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years
+should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a
+little season.&rdquo; (Revelation xx. 2, 3.) With this text
+all the pulpits in Christendom had been ringing for a
+whole generation. And not the pulpits only, but the refection-halls
+of convents, and the cottages of the starving
+peasantry. Into the castle also of the noble, we have
+seen, it had penetrated; and the most abject terror pervaded
+the superstitious, while despair, as in shipwrecked
+vessels, displayed itself amid the masses of the population
+in rioting and insubordination. The spirit of evil
+for a little season was to be let loose upon a sinful
+world; and when the observer looked round at the real
+condition of the people in all parts of Europe&mdash;at the
+ignorance and degradation of the multitude, the cruelty
+of the lords, and the unchristian ambition and unrestrained
+passions of the clergy&mdash;it must have puzzled
+him how to imagine a worse state of things even when
+the chain was loosened from &ldquo;that old serpent,&rdquo; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[242]</a></span>
+the world placed unresistingly in his folds. Yet, as if
+men&rsquo;s minds had now reached their lowest point, there
+was a perpetual rise from the beginning of this date.
+When the first day of the thousand-and-first year shone
+upon the world, it seemed that in all nations the torpor
+of the past was to be thrown off. There were strivings
+everywhere after a new order of things. Coming events
+cast their shadows a long way before; for in the very
+beginning of this century, when it was reported that
+Jerusalem had been taken by the Saracens, Sylvester
+uttered the memorable words, &ldquo;Soldiers of Christ, arise
+and fight for Zion.&rdquo; By a combination of all Christian
+powers for one object, he no doubt hoped to put an end
+to the party quarrels by which Europe was torn in
+pieces. And this great thought must have been germinating
+in the popular heart ever since the speech was
+spoken; for we shall see at the end of the period we are
+describing how instantaneously the cry for a crusade
+was responded to in all lands. In the mean time, the
+first joy of their deliverance from the expected destruction
+impelled all classes of society in a more honourable
+and useful path than they had ever hitherto trod. As
+if by universal consent, the first attention was paid to
+the maintenance of the churches, those holy buildings
+by whose virtues the wrath of Heaven had been turned
+away. In France, and Italy, and Germany, the fabrics
+had in many places been allowed to fall into ruin. They
+were now renovated and ornamented with the costliest
+materials, and with an architectural skill which, if it
+previously existed, had had no room for its display.
+Stately cathedrals took the place of the humble buildings
+in which the services had been conducted before. Every
+thing was projected on a gigantic scale, with the idea
+of permanence prominently brought forward, now that
+the threatened end of all things was seen to be postponed.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[243]</a></span>
+The foundations were broad and deep, the walls
+of immense thickness, roofs steep and high to keep off
+the rain and snow, and square buttressed towers to sustain
+the church and furnish it at the same time with
+military defence. It was a holy occupation, and the
+clergy took a prominent part in the new movement.
+Bishops and monks were the principal members of a
+confraternity who devoted themselves to the science of
+architecture and founded all their works on the exact
+rules of symmetry and fitness. Artists from Italy,
+where Roman models were everywhere seen, and enthusiastic
+students from the south of France, where the
+great works of the Empire must have exercised an ennobling
+influence on their taste and fancy, brought their
+tribute of memory or invention to the design. Tall
+pillars supported the elevated vault, instead of the flat
+roof of former days; and gradually an approach was
+made to what, in after-periods, was recognised as the
+pure Gothic. Here, then, was at last a real science, the
+offspring of the highest aspirations of the human mind.
+Churches rising in rich profusion in all parts of the
+country were the centres of architectural taste. The
+castle of the noble was no longer to be a mere mass of
+stones huddled on each other, to protect its inmates
+from outward attack. The skill of the learned builder
+was called in, and on picturesque heights, safe from hostile
+assault by the difficulty of approach, rose turret and
+bartizan, arched gateway and square-flanked towers, to
+add new features to the landscape, and help the march
+of civilization, by showing to that allegorizing age the
+result, both for strength and beauty, of regularity and
+proportion. For at this time allegory, which gave an
+inner meaning to outward things, was in full force.
+There was no portion of the parish church which had
+not its mystical significance; and no doubt, at the end<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[244]</a></span>
+of this century, the architectural meaning of the external
+alteration of the structure was perceived, when the
+great square tower, which typified resistance to worldly
+aggression, was exchanged for the tall and graceful spire
+which pointed encouragingly to heaven. Occasions were
+eagerly sought for to give employment to the ruling
+passion. Building went on in all quarters. The beginning
+of this century found eleven hundred and eight
+monasteries in France alone. In the course of a few
+years she was put in possession of three hundred and
+twenty-six more. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1035.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The magnificent Abbey of
+Fontenelle was restored in 1035 by William of
+Normandy; and this same William, whom we shall
+afterwards see in the somewhat different character of
+Conqueror and devastator of England, was the founder
+and patron of more abbeys and monasteries than any
+other man. Many of them are still erect, to attest the
+solidity of his work; the ruins of the others raise our
+surprise that they are not yet entire&mdash;so vast in their
+extent and gigantic in their materials. But the same
+character of permanence extended to all the works of
+this great builder&rsquo;s<a name="FNanchor_A_4" id="FNanchor_A_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_4" class="fnanchor">[B]</a> hands&mdash;the systems of government
+no less than the fabrics of churches. The remains of his
+feudalism in our country, no less than the fragments of
+his masonry at Bayeux, Fecamp, and St. Michael&rsquo;s,
+attest the cyclopean scale on which his superstructures
+were reared. Nor were these great architectural efforts
+which characterize this period made only on behalf of
+the clergy. It gives a very narrow notion, as Michelet
+has observed, of the uses and purposes of those enormous
+buildings, to view them merely as places for public
+worship and the other offices of religion. The church
+in a district was, in those days, what a hundred other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span>
+buildings are required to make up in the present. It
+was the town-hall, the market-place, the concert-room,
+the theatre, the school, the news-room, and the vestry,
+all in one. We are to remember that poverty was
+almost universal. The cottages in which the serfs and
+even the freemen resided were wretched hovels. They
+had no windows, they were damp and airless, and were
+merely considered the human kennels into which the
+peasantry retired to sleep. In contrast to this miserable
+den there arose a building vast and beautiful, consecrated
+by religion, ornamented with carving and colour,
+large enough to enable the whole population to wander
+in its aisles, with darker recesses under the shade of
+pillars, to give opportunity for familiar conversation or
+the enjoyment of the family meal. The church was the
+poor man&rsquo;s palace, where he felt that all the building
+belonged to him and was erected for his use. It was
+also his castle, where no enemy could reach him, and
+the love and pride which filled his heart in contemplating
+the massive proportions and splendid elevation of
+the glorious fane overflowed towards the officers of the
+church. The priest became glorified in his eyes as the
+officiating servant in that greatest of earthly buildings,
+and the bishop far outshone the dignity of kings when
+it was known that he had plenary authority over many
+such majestic fabrics. Ascending from the known to
+the unknown, the Pope of Rome, the Bishop of Bishops,
+shone upon the bewildered mind of the peasant with a
+light reflected from the object round which all his veneration
+had gathered from his earliest days&mdash;the scene
+of all the incidents of his life&mdash;the hallowed sanctuary
+into which he had been admitted as an infant, and
+whose vaults should echo to the funeral service when he
+should have died.</p>
+
+<p>But this century was distinguished for an upheaving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[246]</a></span>
+of the human mind, which found its development in
+other things besides the bursting forth of architectural
+skill. It seemed that the chance of continued endurance,
+vouchsafed to mankind by the rising of the sun on
+the first morning of the eleventh century, gave an impulse
+to long-pent-up thoughts in all the directions of
+inquiry. The dulness of unquestioning undiscriminating
+belief was disturbed by the freshening breezes of
+dissidence and discussion. The Pope himself, the venerable
+Sylvester the Second, had acquired all the wisdom
+of the Arabians by attending the Mohammedan schools
+in the royal city of Cordova. There he had learned the
+mysteries of the secret sciences, and the more useful
+knowledge&mdash;which he imported into the Christian world&mdash;of
+the Arabic numerals. The Saracenic barbarism
+had long yielded to the blandishments of the climate
+and soil of Spain; and emirs and sultans, in their
+splendid gardens on the Guadalquivir, had been discussing
+the most abstruse or subtle points of philosophy
+while the professed teachers of Christendom were sunk
+in the depths of ignorance and credulity. Sylvester had
+made such progress in the unlawful learning accessible
+at the head-quarters of the unbelievers, that his simple
+contemporaries could only account for it by supposing
+he had sold himself to the enemy of mankind in exchange
+for such prodigious information. He was accused
+of the unholy arts of magic and necromancy; and
+all that orthodoxy could do to assert her superiority
+over such acquirements was to spread the report, which
+was very generally credited, that when the years of the
+compact were expired, the paltering fiend appeared in
+person and carried off his debtor from the midst of the
+affrighted congregation, after a severe logical discussion,
+in which the father of lies had the best of the argument.
+This was a conclusive proof of the danger of all logical<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[247]</a></span>
+acquirements. But as time passed on, and the darkness
+of the tenth century was more and more left behind,
+there arose a race of men who were not terrified by
+the fate of the philosophic Sylvester from cultivating
+their understandings to the highest pitch. Among
+those there were two who particularly left their marks
+on the genius of the time, and who had the strange fortune
+also of succeeding each other as Archbishops of
+Canterbury. These were Lanfranc and Anselm. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1042.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>When
+Lanfranc was still a monk at Caen, he had attracted
+to his prelections more than four thousand
+scholars; and Anselm, while in the same humble
+rank, raised the schools of Bec in Normandy to a great
+reputation. From these two men, both Italians by
+birth, the Scholastic Philosophy took its rise. The old
+unreasoning assent to the doctrines of Christianity had
+now new life breathed into it by the permitted application
+of intellect and reason to the support of truth. In
+the darkness and misery of the previous century, the
+deep and mysterious dogma of Transubstantiation had
+made its first authoritative appearance in the Church.
+Acquiesced in by the docile multitude, and accepted by
+the enthusiastic and imaginative as an inexpressible gift
+of fresh grace to mankind, and a fitting crown and consummation
+of the daily-recurring miracles with which
+the Mother and Witness of the truth proved and maintained
+her mission, it had been attacked by Berenger of
+Tours, who used all the resources of reason and ingenuity
+to demonstrate its unsoundness. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1059.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>But Lanfranc came to
+the rescue, and by the exercise of a more vigorous dialectic,
+and the support of the great majority of the
+clergy, confuted all that Berenger advanced, had him
+stripped of his archdeaconry of Angers and other preferments,
+and left him in such destitution and disfavour
+that the discomfited opponent of the Real Presence was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[248]</a></span>
+forced to read his retractation at Rome, and
+only expiated the enormity of his fault by the
+rigorous seclusion of the remainder of his life. The
+hopeful feature in this discussion was, that though the
+influence of ecclesiastic power was not left dormant, in
+the shape of temporal ruin and spiritual threats, the
+exercise of those usual weapons of authority was accompanied
+with attempts at argument and conviction.
+Lanfranc, indeed, in the very writings in which he used
+his talents to confute the heretic, made such use of his
+reasoning and inductive faculties that he nearly fell
+under the ban of heresy himself. He had the boldness
+to imagine a man left to the exercise of his natural
+powers alone, and bringing observation, argument, and
+ratiocination to the discovery of the Christian dogmas;
+but he was glad to purchase his complete rehabilitation,
+as champion of the Church, by a work in which he
+admits reason to the subordinate position of a supporter
+or commentator, but by no means a foundation or inseparable
+constituent of an article of the faith. Any
+thing was better than the blindness and ignorance of
+the previous age; and questions of the purest metaphysics
+were debated with a fire and animosity which
+could scarcely have been excited by the greatest worldly
+interests. The Nominalists and Realists began their
+wordy and unprofitable war, which after occasional
+truces may at any moment break out, as it has often
+done before, though it would now be confined to the
+professorial chairs in our universities, and not exercise
+a preponderating influence on the course of human
+affairs. The dispute (as the names of the disputants
+import) arose upon the question as to whether universal
+ideas were things or only the names of things, and on
+this the internecine contest went on. All the subtlety
+of the old Greek philosophies was introduced into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[249]</a></span>
+scholasticisms and word-splittings of those useless
+arguers; and vast reputations, which have not yet decayed,
+were built on this very unsubstantial foundation.</p>
+
+<p>It shows how immeasurably the efforts of the intellect,
+even when misapplied, transcend the greatest triumphs
+of military skill, when we perceive that in this age,
+which was illustrated by the Conquest of England, first
+by the Danes, and then by William, by the marvellous
+rise and triumphant progress of the sons of Tancred of
+Hauteville, and by the startling incidents of the First
+Crusade,&mdash;the central figure is a meagre, hard-featured
+monk, who rises from rank to rank, till he governs and
+tramples on the world under the name of Gregory the
+Seventh. It may seem to some people, who look at the
+present condition of the Romish Church, that too prominent
+a place is assigned in these early centuries to
+the growth and aggrandizement of the ecclesiastical
+power; but as the object of these pages is to point out
+what seems the main distinguishing feature of each of
+the periods selected for separate notice, it would be unpardonable
+to pass over the Papacy, varying in extent
+of power and pretension at every period when it comes
+into view, and always impressing a distinct and individualizing
+character on the affairs with which it is concerned.
+It is the most stable, and at the same time the
+most flexible, of powers. Kingdoms and dynasties
+flourish and decay, and make no permanent mark on
+the succeeding age. The authority of a ruler like
+Charlemagne or Otho rises in a full tide, and, having
+reached its limits, yields to the irresistible ebb. But
+Roman influence knows no retrocession. Even when its
+pretensions are defeated and its assaults repulsed, it
+claims as <i>de jure</i> what it has lost <i>de facto</i>, and, though it
+were reduced to the possession of a single church,
+would continue to issue its orders to the habitable globe.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Like the last descendant of the Great Mogul, who
+professed to rule over Hindostan while his power was
+limited to the walls of his palace at Delhi, the bearer of
+the Tiara abates no jot of his state and dignity when
+every vestige of his influence has disappeared. While
+ridiculed as a puppet or pitied as a sufferer at home, he
+arrogates more than royal power in regions which have
+long thrown off his authority, and announces his will by
+the voice of blustering and brazen heralds to a deaf and
+rebellious generation, which looks on him with no more
+respect than the grotesquely-dressed conjurers before a
+tent-door at a fair. But the herald&rsquo;s voice would have
+been listened to with respect and obedience if it had
+been heard at the Pope&rsquo;s gate in 1073. There had never
+been such a pope before, and never has been such a
+pope since. Others have been arrogant and ambitious,
+but no one has ever equalled Hildebrand in arrogance
+and ambition. Strength of will, also, has been the
+ruling character of many of the pontiffs, but no one has
+ever equalled Hildebrand in the undying tenacity with
+which he pursued his object. He was like Roland, the
+hero of Roncesvalles, who even in defeat knew how to
+keep his enemies at a distance by blowing upon his
+horn. When Durandal foiled the vanquished Gregory,
+he spent his last breath in defiant blasts upon his Olifant.</p>
+
+<p>But there were many circumstances which not only
+rendered the rise of such a person possible, but made
+his progress easy and almost unavoidable. First of all,
+the crusading spirit which commenced with this century
+had introduced a great change in the principles and
+practice of the higher clergy. It is a mistake to suppose
+that the expedition to Jerusalem, under the preaching
+of Peter the Hermit, which took place in 1094, was the
+earliest manifestation of the aggressive spirit of the
+Christian, as such, against the unbeliever. A holy war<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[251]</a></span>
+was proclaimed against the Saracens of Italy at an early
+date. An armed assault upon the Jews, as descendants
+of the murderers of Christ, had taken place in 1080.
+Even the Norman descent on England was considered
+by the more devout of the Papist followers in the light
+of a crusade against the enemies of the Cross, as the
+Anglo-Saxons were not sufficiently submissive to the
+commands of Rome. Bishops, we saw, were held in a
+former century to derogate from the sanctity of their
+characters when they fought in person like the other
+occupants of fiefs. But the sacred character which expeditions
+like those against Sicily and Salerno gave to
+the struggle made a great difference in the popular estimate
+of a prelate&rsquo;s sphere of action. He was now held
+to be strictly in the exercise of his duty when he was
+slaying an infidel with the edge of the sword. He was
+not considered to be more in his place at the head of a
+procession in honour of a saint than at the head of an
+army of cavaliers destroying the enemies of the faith.
+Warlike skill and personal courage became indispensable
+in a bishop of the Church; and in Germany these qualities
+were so highly prized, that the inhabitants of a diocese
+in the empire, presided over by a man of peace and
+holiness, succeeded in getting him deposed by the Pope
+on the express ground of his being &ldquo;placable and far
+from valiant.&rdquo; The epitaph of a popular bishop was,
+that he was &ldquo;good priest and brave chevalier.&rdquo; The
+manners and feelings of the camp soon became disseminated
+among the reverend divines, who inculcated
+Christianity with a battle-axe in their hands. They
+quarrelled with neighbouring barons for portions of
+land. They seized the incomes of churches and abbeys.
+Bishop and baron strove with each other who could get
+most for himself out of the property of the Church. The
+layman forced his serfs to elect his infant son to an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span>
+abbacy or bishopric, and then pillaged the estate and
+stripped the lower clergy in the minor&rsquo;s name. Other
+abuses followed; and though the strictness of the rule
+against the open marriage of priests had long ceased, and
+in some places the superiority of wedded incumbents had
+been so recognised that the appointment of a pastor
+was objected to unless he was accompanied by a wife&mdash;still,
+the letter of the Church-law, enjoining celibacy on
+all orders of the clergy, had never been so generally
+neglected as at the present time. No attempt was
+made to conceal the almost universal infraction of the
+rule. Bishops themselves brought forward their wives
+on occasions of state and ceremony, who disputed the
+place of honour with the wives of counts and barons.
+When strictly inquired into, however, these alliances
+were not allowed to have the effect of regular matrimony.
+They were looked upon merely as a sort of
+licensed and not dishonourable concubinage, and the
+children resulting from them were deprived of the rights
+of legitimacy. Yet the wealth and influence of their
+parents made their exclusion from the succession to
+land of little consequence. They were enriched sufficiently
+with the spoil of the diocese to be independent of
+the rights of heirship. This must have led, however, to
+many cases of hardship, when the feudal baron, tempted
+by the riches of the neighbouring see, had laid violent
+hands on the property, and by bribery or force procured
+his own nomination as bishop. The children of any
+marriage contracted after that time lost their inheritance
+of the barony by the episcopal incapacity of their
+father, and must have added to the general feeling of
+discontent caused by the junction of the two characters.
+For when the tyrannical lord became a prelate, it only
+added the weapons of ecclesiastic domination to the
+baronial armory of cruelty and extortion. He could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[253]</a></span>
+now withhold all the blessings of the Church, as bishop,
+unless the last farthing were yielded up to his demands
+as landlord. An appalling state of things, when the refractory
+vassal, who had escaped the sword, could be
+knocked into submission by the crozier, both wielded by
+the same man. The Church, therefore, in its highest
+offices, had become as mundane and ambitious as the
+nobility. And it must have been evident to a far dimmer
+sight than Hildebrand&rsquo;s, that, as the power and independence
+of the barons had been gained at the expense
+of the Crown, the wealth and possessions of the bishops
+would weaken their allegiance to the Pope. Sprung
+from the lowest ranks of the people, the grim-hearted
+monk never for a moment was false to his order. He
+looked on lords and kings as tyrants and oppressors, on
+bishops themselves as lording it over God&rsquo;s heritage and
+requiring to be held down beneath the foot of some
+levelling and irresistible power, which would show them
+the nothingness of rank and station; and for this end
+he dreamed of a popedom, universal in its claims, domineering
+equally over all conditions of men&mdash;an incarnation
+of the fiercest democracy, trampling on the people,
+and of the bitterest republicanism, aiming at more than
+monarchical power. He had the wrath of generations
+of serfdom rankling in his heart, and took a satisfaction,
+sweetened by revenge, in bringing low the haughty
+looks of the proud. And in these strainings after the
+elevation of the Papacy he was assisted by several
+powers on which he could securely rely.</p>
+
+<p>The Normans, who by a wonderful fortune had made
+themselves masters of England under the guidance of
+William, were grateful to the Pope for the assistance he
+had given them by prohibiting all opposition to their
+conquest on the part of the English Church. Another
+branch of Normans were still more useful in their support<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[254]</a></span>
+of the papal chair. A body of pilgrims to Jerusalem,
+amounting to only forty men, had started from
+Scandinavia in 1006, and, having landed at Salerno,
+were turned aside from completing their journey by the
+equally meritorious occupation of resisting the Saracens
+who were besieging the town. They defeated them
+with great slaughter, and were amply rewarded for
+their prowess with goods and gear. News of their
+gallantry and of their reward reached their friends and
+relations at home. In a few years they were followed
+by swarms of their countrymen, who disposed of their
+acquisitions in Upper Italy to the highest bidder, and
+were remunerated by grants of land in Naples for
+their exertion on behalf of Sergius the king. But in
+1037 a fresh body of adventurers proceeded from the
+neighbourhood of Coutances in Normandy, under the
+command of three brothers of the family of Hauteville,
+to the assistance of the same monarch, and, with the
+usual prudence of the Norman race, when they had
+chased the enemy from the endangered territory, made
+no scruple of keeping it for themselves. Robert, called
+Guiscard, or the Wise, was the third brother, and succeeded
+to the newly-acquired sovereignty in 1057. In
+a short time he alarmed the Pope with the prospect of
+so unscrupulous and so powerful a neighbour. His
+Holiness, therefore, demanded the assistance of the
+German Emperor, and boldly took the field. The Normans
+were no whit daunted with the opposition of the
+Father of Christendom, and dashed through all obstacles
+till they succeeded in taking him prisoner. Instead of
+treating him with harshness, and exacting exorbitant
+ransom, as would have been the action of a less sagacious
+politician, the Norman threw himself on his knees
+before the captive pontiff, bewailed his hard case in
+being forced to appear so contumacious to his spiritual<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[255]</a></span>
+lord and master, and humbly besought him to pardon
+his transgression, and accept the suzerainty of all the
+lands he possessed and of all he should hereafter
+subdue. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1059.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>It was a delightful surprise to
+the Pope, who immediately ratified all the proceedings
+of his repentant son, and in a short time was rewarded
+by seeing Apulia and the great island of Sicily
+held in homage as fiefs of St. Peter&rsquo;s chair. From
+thenceforth the Italian Normans were the bulwarks of
+the papal throne. But, more powerful than the Normans
+of England, and more devoted personally to the
+popes than the greedy adventurers of Apulia, the
+Countess Matilda was the greatest support of all the
+pretensions of the Holy See. Young and beautiful, the
+holder of the greatest territories in Italy, this lady was
+the most zealous of all the followers of the Pope.
+Though twice married, she on both occasions separated
+from her husband to throw herself with more undivided
+energy into the interests of the Church. With men
+and money, and all the influence that her position as a
+princess and her charms as a woman could give, the
+sovereign pontiff had no enemy to fear as long as he
+retained the friendship of his enthusiastic daughter.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1060.</div>
+
+<p>Hildebrand was the ruling spirit of the papal court,
+and was laying his plans for future action,
+while the world was still scarcely aware of his
+existence. He began, while only Archdeacon of Rome,
+by a forcible reformation of some of the irregularities
+which had crept into the practice of the clergy, as a
+preparatory step to making the clergy dominant over
+all the other orders in the State. He gave orders, in
+the name of Stephen the Tenth, for every married priest
+to be displaced and to be separated from his wife. For
+this end he stirred up the ignorant fanaticism of the
+people, and encouraged them in outrages upon the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[256]</a></span>
+offending clergy, which frequently ended in death. The
+virtues of the cloister had still a great hold on the popular
+veneration, in spite of the notorious vices of the
+monastic establishments, both male and female; and
+Hildebrand&rsquo;s invectives on the wickedness of marriage,
+and his praises of the sanctity of a single life, were
+listened to with equal admiration. The secular clergy
+were forced to adopt the unsocial and demoralizing
+principles of their monkish rivals; and when all family
+affections were made sinful, and the feelings of the
+pastor concentrated on the interests of his profession,
+the popes had secured, in the whole body of the Church,
+the unlimited obedience and blind support which had
+hitherto been the characteristic of the monastic orders.
+With the assistance of the warlike Normans, the wealth
+and influence of the Countess Matilda, the adhesion of
+the Church to his schemes of aggrandizement, he felt it
+time to assume in public the power he had exercised so
+long in the subordinate position of counsellor of the
+popes; and the monk seated himself on what he considered
+the highest of earthly thrones, and immediately
+the contest between the temporal and spiritual
+powers began. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1073.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The King of France (Philip the
+First) and the Emperor of Germany (Henry the Fourth)
+were both of disreputable life, and offered an easy mark
+for the assaults of the fiery pontiff. He threatened
+and reprimanded them for simony and disobedience,
+proclaimed his authority over kings and princes as a
+fact which no man could dispute without impiety, and
+had the inward pleasure of seeing the proudest of the
+nobles, and finally the most powerful of the sovereigns,
+of Europe, forced to obey his mandates. The
+pent-up hatred of his race and profession was gratified
+by the abasement of birth and power.</p>
+
+<p>The struggle with the Empire was on the subject of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[257]</a></span>
+investiture. The successors of Charlemagne had always
+retained a voice in the appointment of the bishops and
+Church dignitaries in their states; they had even frequently
+nominated to the See of Rome, as to the other
+bishoprics in their dominions. The present wearer of
+the iron crown had displaced three contending popes,
+who were disturbing the peace of the city by their
+ferocious quarrels, and had appointed others in their
+room. There was no murmur of opposition to their
+appointment. They were pious and venerable men;
+and of each of them the inscrutable Hildebrand had
+managed to make himself the confidential adviser, and
+in reality the guide and master. Even in his own case
+he waited patiently till he had secured the emperor&rsquo;s
+legal ratification of his election, and then, armed with
+legitimacy, and burning with smothered indignation, he
+kicked down the ladder by which he had risen, and
+wrote an insulting letter to the emperor, commanding
+him to abstain from simony, and to renounce the right
+of investiture by the ring and cross. These, he maintained,
+were the signs of spiritual dignity, and their
+bestowal was inherent in the Pope. The time for the
+message was admirably chosen; for Henry was engaged
+in a hard struggle for life and crown with the Saxons
+and Thuringians, who were in open revolt. Henry
+promised obedience to the pontiff&rsquo;s wish, but when his
+enemies were defeated he withdrew his concession.
+The Pope thundered a sentence of excommunication
+against him, released his subjects from their oath of
+fealty, and pronounced him deprived of the throne.
+The emperor was not to be left behind in the race of
+objurgation. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1076.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>He summoned his nobles and prelates
+to a council at Worms, and pronounced
+sentence of deprivation on the Pope. Then arose such
+a storm against the unfortunate Henry as only religious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[258]</a></span>
+differences can create. His subjects had been oppressed,
+his nobility insulted, his clergy impoverished, and all
+classes of his people were glad of the opportunity of
+hiding their hatred of his oppressions under the cloak
+of regard for the interests of religion. He was forced
+to yield; and, crossing the Alps in the middle of winter,
+he presented himself at the castle of Canossa. Here
+the Pope displayed the humbleness and generosity of
+his Christian character, by leaving the wretched man
+three days and nights in the outer court, shivering with
+cold and barefoot, while His Holiness and the Countess
+Matilda were comfortably closeted within. And after
+this unheard-of degradation, all that could be wrung
+from the hatred of the inexorable monk was a promise
+that the suppliant should be tried with justice, and that,
+if he succeeded in proving his innocence, he should be
+reinstated on his throne; but if he were found guilty,
+he should be punished with the utmost rigour of ecclesiastical
+law.</p>
+
+<p>Common sense and good feeling were revolted by this
+unexampled insolence. Friends gathered round Henry
+when the terms of his sentence were heard. The
+Romans themselves, who had hitherto been blindly submissive,
+were indignant at the presumption of their
+bishop. None continued faithful except the imperturbable
+Countess Matilda. He was still to her the
+representative of divine goodness and superhuman
+power. But her troops were beaten and her money
+was exhausted in the holy quarrel. Robert Guiscard,
+indeed, came to the rescue, and rewarded himself for
+delivering the Pope by sacking the city of Rome. Half
+the houses were burned, and half the population killed
+or sold as slaves. It was from amidst the desolation
+his ambition had caused that the still-unsubdued Hildebrand
+was guarded by the Normans to the citadel of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[259]</a></span>
+Salerno, and there he died, issuing his orders and curses
+to his latest hour, and boasting with his last breath that
+&ldquo;he had loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and
+that therefore he expired in exile.&rdquo; <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1085.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>After this
+man&rsquo;s throwing off the mask of moderation
+under which his predecessors had veiled their claims,
+the world was no longer left in doubt of the aims and
+objects of the spiritual power. There seems almost a
+taint of insanity in the extravagance of his demands.
+In the published collection of his maxims we see the full
+extent of the theological tyranny he had in view.
+&ldquo;There is but one name in the world,&rdquo; we read; &ldquo;and
+that is the Pope&rsquo;s. He only can use the ornaments of
+empire. All princes ought to kiss his feet. He alone
+can nominate or displace bishops and assemble or dissolve
+councils. Nobody can judge him. His mere
+election constitutes him a saint. He has never erred,
+and never shall err in time to come. He can depose
+princes and release subjects from their oaths of fidelity.&rdquo;
+Yet, in spite of the wildness of this language, the ignorance
+of the period was so great, and the relations of
+European nations so hostile, that the most daring of
+these assumptions found supporters either in the superstitious
+veneration of the peoples or the enmity and
+interests of the princes. The propounder of those
+amazing propositions was apparently defeated, and died
+disgraced and hated; but his successors were careful
+not to withdraw the most untenable of his claims, even
+while they did not bring them into exercise. They
+lay in an armory, carefully stored and guarded, to be
+brought out according to the exigencies either of the
+papal chair itself, or of the king or emperor who for the
+moment was in possession of the person of the Pope.
+None of the great potentates of Europe, therefore, was
+anxious to diminish a power which might be employed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[260]</a></span>
+for his own advantage, and all of them by turns encouraged
+the aggressions of the Papacy, with a short-sighted
+wisdom, to be an instrument of offence against
+their enemies. Little encouragement, indeed, was offered
+at this time to opposition to the spiritual despot.
+Though Hildebrand had died a refugee, it was remarked
+with pious awe that Henry the Fourth, his rival and
+opponent, was punished in a manner which showed the
+highest displeasure of Heaven. His children, at the
+instigation of the Pope, rebelled against him. He was
+conquered in battle and taken prisoner by his youngest
+son. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1106<span class="hidev">|</span></span>He was stripped of all his possessions, and at last
+so destitute and forsaken that he begged for a subchanter&rsquo;s
+place in a village church for the sake of its
+wretched salary, and died in such extremity of
+want and desolation that hunger shortened his
+days. For five years his body was left without the
+decencies of interment in a cellar in the town of Spires.</p>
+
+<p>But an immense movement was now to take place in
+the European mind, which had the greatest influence
+on the authority of Rome. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1095<span class="hidev">|</span></span>A crusade against the
+enemies of the faith was proclaimed in the year
+1095, and from all parts of Europe a great cry
+of approval was uttered in all tongues, for it hit the
+right chord in the ferocious and superstitious heart of
+the world; and it was felt that the great battle of the
+Cross and the Crescent was most fitly to be decided forever
+on the soil of the Holy Land.</p>
+
+<p>From the very beginning of this century the thought
+of armed intervention in the affairs of Palestine had
+been present in the general mind. Religious difference
+had long been ready to take the form of open war.
+As the Church strengthened and settled into more dogmatic
+unity, the desire to convert by force and retain
+within the fold by penalty and proscription had increased.
+As yet some reluctance was felt to put a professing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[261]</a></span>
+Christian to death on merely a difference of
+doctrine, but with the open gainsayers of the faith no
+parley could be held. Thousands, in addition to their
+religious animosities, had personal injuries to avenge;
+for pilgrimage to Jerusalem was already in full favour,
+and the weary wayfarers had to complain of the hostility
+of the turbaned possessors of the Holy Sepulchre,
+and the indignities and peril to which they were exposed
+the moment they came within the infidel&rsquo;s domain.
+Why should the unbelievers be allowed any
+longer to retain the custody of such inherently Christian
+territories as the Mount of Olives and the Garden
+of Gethsemane? Why should the unbaptized followers
+of Mohammed, those children of perdition, pollute with
+hostile feet the sacred ground which had been the witness
+of so many miracles and still furnished so many
+relics which manifested superhuman power? Besides,
+what was the wealth of other cities&mdash;their gold and
+precious jewels&mdash;to the store of incalculable riches contained
+in the very stones and woodwork of the metropolis
+and cradle of the faith? Bones of martyrs&mdash;garments
+of saints&mdash;nails of the cross&mdash;thorns of the
+crown&mdash;were all lying ready to be gathered up by the
+faithful priesthood who would lead the expedition.
+And who could be held responsible, in this world or the
+next, for any sins, however grievous, who had washed
+them out by purifying the floors of Zion with the blood
+of slaughtered Saracens and saying prayers and kneeling
+in contemplation within sight of the Sepulchre itself?
+So Peter the Hermit, an enthusiast who preached a holy
+war, was listened to as if he spake with the tongues of
+angels. The ravings of his lunacy had a prodigious
+effect on all classes and in all lands; and suddenly there
+was gathered together a confused rabble of pilgrims,
+armed in every variety of fashion&mdash;princes and beggars,
+robbers and adventurers&mdash;the scum of great cities<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[262]</a></span>
+and the simple-hearted peasantry from distant farms&mdash;upwards
+of three hundred thousand in number, all
+pouring down towards the seaports and anxious to
+cross over to the land where so many high hopes were
+placed. Vast numbers of this multitude found their
+way from France through Italy; and luckily for Urban
+the Second&mdash;the fifth in succession from Gregory&mdash;they
+took the opportunity of paying a visit to the city
+of Rome, scarcely less venerable in their eyes than Jerusalem
+itself. They were the soldiers of the Cross, and
+in that character felt bound to pay a more immediate
+submission to the Chief of Christianity than to their
+native kings. They found the city divided between
+two rivals for the tiara, and, having decided in favour
+of Urban, chased away the anti-pope who was appointed
+by the Imperial choice. Terrified at the accession
+of such powerful supporters, the Germans were
+withdrawn from Italy, and Urban felt that the claims
+of Hildebrand were not incapable of realization if he
+could get quit of unruly barons and obstinate monarchs
+by engaging them in a distant and ruinous expedition.
+It needed little to spread the flame of fanaticism over
+the whole of Christendom. The accounts given of this
+first Crusade transcend the wildest imaginings of romance.
+An indiscriminate multitude of all nations and
+tongues seemed impelled by some irresistible impulse
+towards the East. Ostensibly engaged in a religious
+service, enriched with promises and absolutions from
+the Pope, giving up all their earthly possessions, and
+filled with the one idea of liberating the Holy Land, it
+might have been expected that the sobriety and order
+of their march would have been characteristic of such
+elevating aspirations. But the infamy of their behaviour,
+their debauchery, irregularity, and dishonesty, have
+never been equalled by the basest and most degraded of
+mankind. Like a flood they poured through the lands<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[263]</a></span>
+of Italy, Bohemia, and Germany, polluting the cities
+with their riotous lives, and poisoning the air with the
+festering corruption of their innumerable dead. They
+at last found shipping from the ports, and presented
+themselves, drunk with fanatical pride, and maddened
+with the sufferings they had undergone, before the
+astonished people of Constantinople. That enervated
+and over-civilized population looked with disgust on the
+unruly mass. Of the vast multitudes who had started
+under the guidance of Peter the Hermit, not more than
+20,000 survived; and of these none found their way to
+the object of their search. The Turks, who had by
+this time obtained the mastery of Asia, cut them in
+pieces when they had left the shelter of Constantinople,
+and Alexis Comnenus, the Grecian emperor, had little
+hope of aid against the Mohammedan invaders from the
+unruly levies of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>But in the following year a new detachment made
+their appearance in his states. This was the second
+ban, or crusade of the knights and barons. Better regulated
+in its military organization than the other, it
+presented the same astonishing scenes of debauchery
+and vice; and dividing, for the sake of sustenance, into
+four armies, and taking four different routes, they at
+length, in greatly-diminished numbers, but with unabated
+hope and energy, presented themselves before
+the walls of Constantinople. This was no mob like
+their famished and fainting predecessors. All the gallant
+lords of Europe were here, inspired by knightly courage
+and national rivalries to distinguish themselves in fight
+and council. Of these the best-known were Godfrey of
+Bouillon, Baldwyn of Flanders, Robert of Normandy,
+(William the Conqueror&rsquo;s eldest son,) Hugh the Great,
+Count of Vermandois, and Raymond of St. Gilles. Six
+hundred thousand men had left their homes, with innumerable
+attendants&mdash;women, and jugglers, and servants,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[264]</a></span>
+and workmen of all kinds. Tens of thousands perished
+by the way; others established themselves in the cities
+on their route to keep up the communication; and at
+last the Genoese and Pisan vessels conveyed to the
+Golden Horn the strength of all Europe, the hardy survivors
+of all the perils of that unexampled march&mdash;few
+indeed in number, but burning with zeal and bravery.
+Alexis lost no time in diverting their dangerous strength
+from his own realms. He let them loose upon Nicea,
+and when it yielded to their valour he had the cleverness
+to outwit the Christian warriors, and claimed the
+city as his possession. On pursuing their course, they
+found themselves, after a victory over the Turks at
+Dorylæum, in the great Plain of Phrygia. Hunger,
+thirst, the extremity of heat, and the difficulty of the
+march, brought confusion and dismay into their ranks.
+All the horses died. Knights and chevaliers were seen
+mounted on asses, and even upon oxen; and the baggage
+was packed upon goats, and not unfrequently on swine
+and dogs. Thirst was fatal to five hundred in a single
+day. Quarrels between the nationalities added to these
+calamities. Lorrains and Italians, the men of Normandy
+and of Provence, were at open feud. And yet, in spite
+of these drawbacks, the great procession advanced.
+Baldwyn and Tancred succeeded in getting possession
+of the town of Edessa, on the Euphrates, and opened a
+communication with the Christians of Armenia.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1098.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The siege of Antioch was their next operation,
+and the luxuries of the soil and climate were more fatal
+to the Crusaders than want and pain had been. On the
+rich banks of the Orontes, and in the groves of Daphne,
+they lost the remains of discipline and self-command
+and gave themselves up to the wildest excesses. But
+with the winter their enjoyment came to an end. Their
+camp was flooded; they suffered the extremities of
+famine; and when there were no more horses and impure<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[265]</a></span>
+animals to eat, they satiated their hunger on the
+bodies of their slaughtered enemies. Help, however,
+was at hand, or they must have perished to the last
+man. Bohemund corrupted the fidelity of a renegade
+officer in Antioch, and, availing themselves of a dark
+and stormy night, they scaled the walls with ladders,
+and rushed into the devoted city, shouting the Crusaders&rsquo;
+war-cry:&mdash;&ldquo;It is the will of God!&rdquo; and Antioch became
+a Christian princedom. But not without difficulty was
+this new possession retained. The Turks, under the
+orders of Kerboga, surrounded it with two hundred
+thousand men. There was neither entrance nor exit
+possible, and the worst of their previous sufferings
+began to be renewed. But Heaven came to the rescue.
+A monk of the name of Peter Bartholomew dreamt
+that under the great altar of the church would be found
+the spear which pierced the Saviour on the cross. The
+precious weapon rewarded their toil in digging, and
+armed with this the Christian charge was irresistible,
+and the Turks were cut in pieces or dispersed. Instead
+of making straight for Jerusalem, they lingered six
+months longer in Antioch, suffering from plague and the
+fatigues they had undergone. When at last the forward
+order was given, a remnant, consisting of fifty thousand
+men out of all the original force, began the march. As
+they got nearer the object of their search, and recognised
+the places commemorated in Holy Writ, their enthusiasm
+knew no bounds. The last elevation was at
+length surmounted, and Jerusalem lay in full view. &ldquo;O
+blessed Jesus,&rdquo; cries a monk who was present, &ldquo;when
+thy Holy City was seen, what tears fell from our eyes!&rdquo;
+Loud shouts were raised of &ldquo;Jerusalem! Jerusalem!
+God wills it! God wills it!&rdquo; They stretched out their
+hands, fell upon their knees, and embraced the consecrated
+ground. But Jerusalem was yet in the hands of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[266]</a></span>
+the Saracens, and the sword must open their way into
+its sacred bounds. The governor had offered to admit
+the pilgrims within the walls, but in their peaceful dress
+and merely as visitors. This they refused, and determined
+to wrest it from its unbelieving lords. On the
+15th of July, 1099, they found that their situation was
+no longer tenable, and that they must conquer or give
+up the siege. The brook Kedron was dried up, the sun
+poured upon them with unendurable heat, their provisions
+were exhausted, and in agonies of despair as
+well as of military ardour they gave the final assault.
+The struggle was long and doubtful. At length the
+Crusaders triumphed. Tancred and Godfrey were the
+first to leap into the devoted town. Their soldiers followed,
+and filled every street with slaughter. The Mosque
+of Omar was vigorously defended, and an indiscriminate
+massacre of Mussulmans and Jews filled the
+whole place with blood. In the mosque itself the stream
+of gore was up to the saddle-girths of a horse. The onslaught
+was occasionally suspended for a while, to allow
+the pious conquerors to go barefoot and unarmed to
+kneel at the Holy Sepulchre; and, this act of worship
+done, they returned to their ruthless occupation, and
+continued the work of extermination for a whole week.
+The depopulated and reeking town was added to the
+domains of Christendom, and the kingdom of Jerusalem
+was offered to Godfrey of Bouillon. With a modesty
+befitting the most Christian and noble-hearted of the
+Crusaders, Godfrey contented himself with the humbler
+name of Baron of the Holy Sepulchre; and with three
+hundred knights&mdash;which were all that remained to him
+when that crowning victory had set the other survivors
+at liberty to revisit their native lands&mdash;he established a
+standing garrison in the captured city, and anxiously
+awaited reinforcements from the warlike spirits they
+had left at home.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span>
+<a name="TWELFTH_CENTURY" id="TWELFTH_CENTURY">TWELFTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of Germany.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry IV.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1106.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry V.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td align="left" class="dynast"><i>House of Suabia.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1138.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Conrad III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1152.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Frederick Barbarossa.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1190.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry VI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1198.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip</span> and <span class="smcap">Otho IV.</span>, (of Brunswick.)</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of England.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1100.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1135.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Stephen.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1154.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1189.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Richard I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1199.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap"> John.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of the East.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Alexis I.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1118.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1143.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Manuel.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1183.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Andronicus I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1185.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Isaac II.</span>, (the Angel.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1195.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Alexis III.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of France.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap"> Philip I.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1108.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis VI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1137.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis VII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1180.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip Augustus.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">King of Scotland.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1165.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">William.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td class="year-top">1147.</td><td><span class="smcap">Second Crusade</span>, led by Louis VII. of France.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-top">1189.</td><td><span class="smcap">Third Crusade</span>, led by Frederick Barbarossa, Philip Augustus, and Richard of England.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Bernard</span>, (1091-1153,) <span class="smcap">Becket</span>, (1119-1170,) <span class="smcap">Eustathius</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Theodorus</span>, <span class="smcap">Balsamon</span>, <span class="smcap">Peter Lombard</span>, <span class="smcap">William of Malmesbury</span>,
+(1096-1143.)</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_TWELFTH_CENTURY" id="THE_TWELFTH_CENTURY">THE TWELFTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">ELEVATION OF LEARNING&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;POWER OF THE CHURCH&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;THOMAS
+À-BECKETT.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> effect of the first Crusade had been so prodigious
+that Europe was forced to pause to recover from its exhaustion.
+More than half a million had left their homes
+in 1095; ten thousand are supposed to have returned;
+three hundred were left with Godfrey in the Christian
+city of Jerusalem; and what had become of all the
+rest? Their bones were whitening all the roads that led
+to the Holy Land; small parties of them must have
+settled in despair or weariness in towns and villages on
+their way; many were sold into slavery by the rapacity
+of the feudal lords whose lands they traversed; and
+when the madness of the time had originated a Crusade
+of Children, and ninety thousand boys of ten or twelve
+years of age had commenced their journey, singing
+hymns and anthems, and hoping to conquer the infidels
+with the spiritual arms of innocence and prayer, the
+whole band melted away before they reached the coast.
+Barons, and counts, and bishops, and dukes, all swooped
+down upon the devoted march, and before many weeks&rsquo;
+journeying was achieved the Crusade was brought to a
+close. Most of the children had died of fatigue or starvation,
+and the survivors had been seized as legitimate
+prey and sold as slaves.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the brave and heroic Godfrey&mdash;the true
+hero of the expedition, for he elevated the ordinary
+virtues of knighthood and feudalism into the nobler<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span>
+feelings of generosity and romance&mdash;gained the object
+of his earthly ambition. Having prayed at the sepulchre,
+and cleansed the temple from the pollution of the
+unbelievers&rsquo; presence, wearied with all his labours, and
+feeling that his task was done, he sank into deep
+despondency and died. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1100.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Volunteers in small
+numbers had occasionally gone eastward to support the
+Cross Ambition, thoughtlessness, guilt, and fanaticism
+sent their representatives to aid the conqueror of Judea;
+and his successors found themselves strong enough to
+bid defiance to the Turkish power. They carried all
+their Western ideas along with them. They had their
+feudal holdings and knightly quarrels. The most venerated
+names in Holy Writ were desecrated by unseemly
+disputes or the most frivolous associations. The combination,
+indeed, of their native habits and their new
+acquisitions might have moved them to laughter, if the
+men of the twelfth century had been awake to the ridiculous.
+There was a Prince of Galilee, a Marquis of
+Joppa, a Baron of Sidon, a Marquis of Tyre. Our own
+generation has renewed the strange juxtaposition of the
+East and West by the language employed in steamboats
+and railways. Trains will soon cross the Desert with
+warning whistles and loud jets of steam and all the
+phraseology of an English line. For many years the
+waters of the mysterious Red Sea have been dashed
+into foam by paddles made in Liverpool or Glasgow.
+But these are visitors of a very different kind from Bohemund
+and Baldwyn. Baldwyn, indeed, seemed less inclined
+than his companions to carry his European training
+to its full extent. He Orientalized himself in a small
+way, perhaps in imitation of Alexander the Great, and,
+dressed in the long flowing robes of the country, he
+made his attendants serve him with prostrations, and
+almost with worship. He married a daughter of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[271]</a></span>
+land, and in other respects endeavoured to ingratiate
+himself with the Saracens by treating them with kindness
+and consideration. The bravery of those warriors
+of the Desert endeared them to the rough-handed barons
+of the West. It was impossible to believe that men
+with that one pre-eminent virtue could be so utterly
+hateful as they had been represented; and when the intercourse
+between the races became more unrestrained,
+even the religious asperities of the Crusaders became
+mitigated, they found so many points of resemblance
+between their faiths. There was not an honour which
+the Christian paid to the Virgin which was not yielded
+by the Mohammedan to Fatima. All the doctrines of
+the Christian creed found their counterparts in the professions
+of the followers of the Law. Allah was an incarnation
+of the Deity; and even the mystery of the
+Trinity was not indistinctly seen in the legend of the
+three rays which darted from the idea of Mohammed in
+the mind of the Creator. While this community of
+sentiment softened the animosity of the crusading
+leaders towards their enemies, a still greater community
+of suffering and danger softened their feelings towards
+their followers and retainers. In that scarcity of
+knights and barons, the value of a serf&rsquo;s arm or a
+mechanic&rsquo;s skill was gratefully acknowledged. There
+had been many mutual kindnesses between the two
+classes all through those tedious and blood-stained
+journeys and desperate fights. A peasant had brought
+water to a wounded lord when he lay fainting on the
+burning soil; a workman had had the revelation of the
+true crown: they were no longer the property and
+slaves of the noble, who considered them beings of a
+different blood, but fellow-soldiers, fellow-sufferers, fellow-Christians.
+They were not spoken of in the insulting
+language of the West, and called &ldquo;our thralls,&rdquo; <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[272]</a></span>&ldquo;our
+slaves,&rdquo; &ldquo;our bondsmen;&rdquo; at the worst they were called
+&ldquo;our poor,&rdquo; and lifted by that word into the quality of
+brothers and men. The precepts of the gospel in favour
+of the humble and suffering were felt for the first time
+to have an application to the men who had toiled on
+their lands and laboured in their workshops, but who
+were now their support in the shock of battle, and companions
+when the victory was won. Only they were
+poor; they had no lands; they had no arms upon their
+shields. So Baldwyn gave them large tracts of country;
+and they became vassals and feudatories for fertile fields
+near Jericho and rich farms on the Jordan. They were
+gentlemen by the strength of their own right hands, as
+the fathers of their lords and suzerains had been.</p>
+
+<p>But the amalgamation of race and condition was not
+carried on in the East more surely or more extensively
+than in the West. The expenses of preparing for the
+pilgrimage had impoverished the richest of the lords of
+the soil. They had been forced to borrow money and
+to mortgage their estates to the burghers of the great
+commercial towns, which, quietly and unobserved, had
+spread themselves in many parts of France and Italy.
+Genoa had already attained such a height of prosperity
+that she could furnish vessels for the conveyance of half
+the army of the Crusade. In return for her cargoes of
+knights and fighting-men, she brought back the wealth
+of the East,&mdash;silks, and precious stones, and spices, and
+vessels of gold and silver. The necessities of the time
+made the money-holder powerful, and the men who
+swung the hammer, and shaped the sword, and embroidered
+the banner, and wove the tapestry, indispensable.
+And what hold, except kindness, and privilege,
+and grants of land, had the baron on the skilful
+smith or the ingenious weaver who could carry his skill
+and energy wherever he chose? Besides, the multitudes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[273]</a></span>
+who had been carried away from the pursuits of industry
+to fall at the siege of Antioch or perish by thirst in
+the Desert had given a greatly-increased value to their
+fellow-labourers left at home. While the castle became
+deserted, and all the pomp of feudalism retreated from
+its crumbling walls, the village which had grown in
+safety under its protection flourished as much as ever&mdash;flourished,
+indeed, so much that it rapidly became a
+town, and boasted of rich citizens who could help to pay
+off their suzerain&rsquo;s encumbrances and present him with
+an offering on his return. The impoverished and grateful
+noble could do no less, in gratitude for gift and contribution,
+than secure them in the enjoyment of greater
+franchises and privileges than they had possessed before.
+The Church also gained by the diminished number and
+power of the lords, who had seized upon tithe and offering
+and had looked with disdain and hostility on the
+aggressions of the lower clergy. True to its origin, the
+Church still continued the leader of the people, in opposition
+to the pretensions of the feudal chiefs. It was
+still a democratic organization for the protection of the
+weak against the powerful; and though we have seen
+that the bishops and other dignitaries frequently assumed
+the state and practised the cruelties of the grasping
+and illiterate baron, public opinion, especially in the
+North of Europe, was not revolted against these instances
+of priestly domination, for whatever was gained
+by the crozier was lost to the sword. It was even a
+consolation to the injured serf to see the truculent landlord
+who had oppressed him oppressed in his turn by a
+still more truculent bishop, especially when that bishop
+had sprung from the dregs of the people, and&mdash;crown
+and consummation of all&mdash;when the Pope, God&rsquo;s vicegerent
+upon earth, who dethroned emperors and made
+kings hold his stirrup as he mounted his mule, was descended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[274]</a></span>
+from no more distinguished a family than himself.
+It was the effort of the Church, therefore, in all
+this century, to lower the noble and to elevate the poor.
+To gain popularity, all arts were resorted to. The
+clergy were the showmen and play-actors of the time.
+The only amusement the labourer could aim at was
+found for him, in rich processions and gorgeous ceremony,
+by the priest. How could any fault of the abbot
+or prelate turn away the affection of the peasant from
+the Church, which was in a peculiar manner his own
+establishment? Never had the drunkenness, the debauchery
+and personal indulgences of the upper ecclesiastics
+reached such a pitch before. The gluttony of
+friars and monks became proverbial. The community
+of certain monasteries complained of the austerity of
+their abbots in reducing their ordinary dinners from
+sixteen dishes to thirteen. The great St. Bernard describes
+many of the rulers of the Church as keeping sixty
+horses in their stables, and having so many wines upon
+their board that it was impossible to taste one-half of them.
+Yet nothing shook the attachment of the uneducated
+commons. Their priest got up dances and concerts and
+miracles for their edification, and had a right to enjoy all
+the luxuries of life. Once freed, therefore, from the watchful
+enmity of lord and king, the Church was well aware
+that its power would be irresistible. The people were devoted
+to it as their earthly defender against their earthly
+oppressors, the caterer of all their amusements, and as
+their guide in the path to heaven. Gratitude and credulity,
+therefore, were equally engaged in its behalf. And
+new influences came to its support. Romance and wonder
+gathered round the champions of the Faith fighting
+in the distant regions of the East. Every thing became
+magnified when seen through the medium of ignorance
+and fanaticism. The tales, therefore, strange enough in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[275]</a></span>
+themselves, which were related by pilgrims returning
+from the Holy Land, and amplified a hundredfold by
+the natural exaggeration of the vulgar, raised higher
+than ever the glory of the Church. The fastings and
+self-inflicted scourgings of holy men, it was believed,
+effected more than the courage of Godfrey or Bohemund;
+and even of Godfrey it was said that his ascetic
+life and painful penances caused more losses to the
+enemy than his matchless strength and military skill.</p>
+
+<p>It would be delightful if we could place ourselves in
+the position of the breathless crowds at that time listening
+for the news from Palestine. No telegraphic despatch
+from the Crimea or Hindostan was ever waited
+for with such impatience or received with such emotion.
+The baron summoned the palmer into his hall, and
+heard the strange history of the march to Jerusalem,
+and the crowning of a Christian king, and the creation
+of a feudal court, with a pang, perhaps, of regret that
+he had not joined the pilgrimage, which might have made
+him Duke of Bethlehem or monarch of Tiberias. But
+the peasants in their workshops, or the whole village
+assembled in the long aisles of their church, lent far
+more attentive ears to the wayfaring monk who had escaped
+from the prison of the Saracen, and told them of
+the marvels accomplished by the bones of martyrs and
+apostles which had been revealed to holy pilgrims in
+their dream on the Mount of Olives. Footprints on the
+heights of Calvary, and portions of the manger in
+Bethlehem, were described in awe-struck voice; and
+when it was announced that in the belt of the narrator,
+enwrapped in a silken scarf,&mdash;itself a fabric of incalculable
+worth,&mdash;was a hair of an apostle&rsquo;s head, (which
+their lord had purchased for a large sum,) to be deposited
+upon their altar, they must have thought the
+sacrifices and losses of the Crusade amply repaid. And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[276]</a></span>
+no amount of these sacred articles seemed in the least
+to diminish their importance. The demand was always
+greatly in advance of the supply, however vast it
+might be. And as the mines of California and Australia
+have hitherto deceived the prophets of evil, by
+having no perceptible effect on the price of the precious
+metals, the incalculable importation of saints&rsquo; teeth, and
+holy personages&rsquo; clothes, and fragments of the true
+Cross, and prickles of the real Crown of Thorns, had no
+depressing effect on the market-value of similar commodities
+with which all Christian Europe was inundated.
+Faith seemed to expand in proportion as relics became
+plentiful, as credit expands on the security of a supply
+of gold. And as many of those articles were actually
+of as clearly-recognised a pecuniary value as houses or
+lands, and represented in any market or banking-house
+a definite and very considerable sum, it is not too much
+to say that the capital of the West was greatly increased
+by these acquisitions from the East. The cup
+of onyx, carved in one stone, which was believed to
+have been that in which the wine of the Last Supper
+was held when our Saviour instituted the Communion,
+was pledged by its owner for an enormous sum, and&mdash;what
+is perhaps more strange&mdash;was redeemed when the
+term of the loan expired by the repayment of principal
+and interest. The intercourse, therefore, between power
+and money showed that each was indispensable to the
+other. The baron relaxed his severity, and the citizen
+opened his purse-strings; the Church inculcated the
+equality of all men in presence of the altar; and when the
+kings perceived what merchandise might be made of privileges
+and exemptions accorded to their subjects, and how
+at one great blow the townsman&rsquo;s squeezable riches would
+be increased and the baron&rsquo;s local influence diminished,
+there was a struggle between all the crowned heads as to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[277]</a></span>
+which should be most favourable to the commons. It was
+in this century, owing to the Crusades, which made the
+commonalty indispensable and the nobility weak, which
+strengthened the Crown and the Church and made it
+their joint interest to restrain the exactions of the feudal
+proprietors, that the liberties of Europe took their rise
+in the establishment of the third estate. In the county
+of Flanders, the great towns had already made themselves
+so wealthy and independent that it scarcely
+needed a legal ratification of their franchise to make
+them free cities. But in Italy a step further had been
+made, and the great word Republic, which had been
+silent for so many years, had again been heard, and had
+taken possession of the general mind. In spite of the
+opposition and the military successes of Roger, the Norman
+king of Sicily, the spirit which animated those
+great trading communities was never subdued. In
+Venice itself&mdash;the greatest and most illustrious of those
+republics, the first founded and last overthrown&mdash;the
+original municipal form of government had never been
+abolished. At all times its liberties had been preserved
+and its laws administered by officers of its own choice,
+and from it proceeded at this time a feeling of social
+equality and an example of commercial prosperity
+which had a strong effect on the nascent freedom of the
+lower and industrious classes over all the world. Genoa
+was not inferior either in liberty or enterprise to any of
+its rivals. Its fleets traversed the Mediterranean, and,
+being equally ready to fight or to trade, brought wealth
+and glory home from the coasts of Greece and Asia. It
+is to be observed that the first reappearance of self-government
+was presented in the towns upon the coast,
+whose situation enabled them to compensate for smallness
+of territory by the command of the sea. The
+shores of Italy and the south of France, and the indented<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[278]</a></span>
+sea-line of Flanders, followed in this respect the
+example set in former ages by Greece, and Tyre, and
+Pentapolis, and Carthage. There can be no doubt that
+the sight of these powerful communities, governed by
+their consuls and legislated for by their parliamentary
+assemblies, must have put new thoughts into the heads
+of the serfs and labourers returning, in vessels furnished
+by citizens like themselves, from the conquest of Cyprus
+and Jerusalem, where the whole harvest of wealth and
+glory had been reaped by their lords. Encouraged by
+these examples, and by the protection of the King of
+France and Emperor of Germany, the towns in Central
+and Western Europe exerted themselves to emulate the
+republican cities of the South. The nearest approach
+they could hope to the independence they had seen in
+Pisa or Venice was the possession of the right of electing
+their own magistrates and making their own laws.
+These privileges, we have seen, were insured to them by
+the helplessness and impoverishment of the feudal aristocracy
+and the countenance of the Church.</p>
+
+<p>But the Church towards the middle of this century
+found that the countenance she had given to liberty in
+other places was used as an argument against herself in
+the central seat of her power. Rome, the city of consuls
+and tribunes, was carried away by the great idea;
+and under the guidance of Arnold of Brescia, a monk
+who believed himself a Brutus, the standard was again
+hoisted on the Capitol, displaying the magic letters S.
+P. Q. R., (Senatus Populus que Romanus.) The Pope
+was expelled by the population, the freedom of the city
+proclaimed, the separation of the spiritual and temporal
+powers pronounced by the unanimous voice, the government
+of priests abolished, and measures taken to maintain
+the authority the citizens had assumed. The
+banished Pope had died while these things were going<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[279]</a></span>
+on, and his successor was hunted down the steps of the
+Capitol, and the revolution was accomplished. &ldquo;Throughout
+the peninsula,&rdquo; says a German historian, &ldquo;except in
+the kingdom of Naples, from Rome to the smallest city,
+the republican form prevailed.&rdquo; Every thing had concurred
+to this result,&mdash;the force of arms, the rise of commerce,
+and the glorious remembrance of the past. St.
+Bernard himself acquiesced in the position now occupied
+by the Pope, and he wrote to his scholar Eugenius the
+Third, to &ldquo;leave the Romans alone, and to exchange the
+city against the world,&rdquo; (&ldquo;urbem pro orbe mutatam.&rdquo;)
+But the effervescence of the popular will was soon at an
+end. The fear of republicanism made common cause
+between the Pope and Emperor. Frederick Barbarossa
+revenged the indignities cast on the chair of St. Peter
+by burning the rebellious Arnold and re-establishing the
+ancient form of government by force. Yet the spirit
+of equality which was thus repressed by violence fermented
+in secret; nor was equality all that was aimed
+at amid some of the swarming seats of population and
+commerce. We find indeed, from this time, that in a
+great number of instances the original relations between
+the town and baron were reversed: the noble put himself
+under the protection of the municipality, and received
+its guarantee against the assaults or injuries of
+the prouder and less politic members of his class. It was
+a strange thing to see a feudal lord receive his orders
+from the municipal officers of a country town, and still
+stranger to perceive the low opinion which the courageous
+and high-fed burghers entertained of the pomp and
+circumstance of the mailed knights of whom they had
+been accustomed to stand in awe. Their ramparts were
+strong, their granaries well filled, their companions
+stoutly armed; and they used to lean over the wall,
+when a hostile champion summoned them to submit to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[280]</a></span>
+the exactions of a great proprietor, and watch the
+clumsy charger staggering under his heavy armour,
+with shouts of derision. Men who had thus thrown off
+their hereditary veneration for the lords of the soil, and
+contentedly saw the deposition of the Roman Pope by
+a Roman Senate and People, were not likely to pay a
+blind submission to the spiritual dictation of their
+priests. In the towns, accordingly, a spirit of free inquiry
+into the mysteries of the faith began; and, while
+country districts still heard with awe the impossible
+wonders of the monkish legends, there were rash and
+daring scholars in several countries, who threw doubt
+upon the plainest statements of Revelation. Of these
+the best-known is the still famous Abelard, whose exertions
+as a religious inquirer have been thrown into the
+shade by his more interesting character of the hero of
+a love-story. The letters of Eloisa, and the unfortunate
+issue of their affection, have kept their names from the
+oblivion which has fallen upon their metaphysical
+triumphs. And yet during their lives the glory of Abelard
+did not depend on the passionate eloquence of his
+pupil, but arose from the unequalled sharpness of his
+intellect and his skill in argumentation. Of noble
+family, the handsomest man of his time, wonderfully
+gifted with talent and accomplishment, he was the first
+instance of a man professing the science of theology
+without being a priest. Wherever he went, thousands
+of enthusiastic scholars surrounded his chair. His
+eloquence was so fascinating that the listener found
+himself irresistibly carried away by the stream; and if
+an opponent was hardy enough to stand up against him,
+the acuteness of his logic was as infallible as the torrent
+of his oratory had been, and in every combat he carried
+away the prize. He doubted about original sin, and
+by implication about the atonement, and many other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[281]</a></span>
+articles of the Christian belief. The power and constitution
+of the Church were endangered by the same
+weapons which assailed the groundworks of the faith;
+and yet in all Europe no sufficient champion for truth
+and orthodoxy could be found. Abelard was triumphant
+over all his gainsayers, till at length Bernard of Clairvaux,
+who even in his lifetime was looked on with the
+veneration due to a saint, who refused an archbishopric,
+and the popedom itself, took up the gauntlet thrown
+down by the lover of Eloisa, and reduced him to silence
+by the superiority of his reasonings and the threats of
+a general council. It is sufficient to remark the appearance
+of Abelard in this century, as the commencement
+of a reaction against the dogmatic authority of the
+Church. It was henceforth possible to reason and to
+inquire; and there can be no doubt that Protestantism
+even in this modified and isolated form had a beneficial
+effect on the establishment it assailed. A new armory
+was required to meet the assaults of dialectic and scholarship.
+Dialecticians and scholars were therefore, henceforth,
+as much valued in the Church as self-flagellating
+friars and miracle-performing saints. The faith was
+now guarded by a noble array of highly-polished intellects,
+and the very dogma of the total abnegation of the
+understanding at the bidding of the priest was supported
+by a show of reasoning which few other questions
+had called forth. With the enlargement of the clerical
+sphere of knowledge, refinement in taste and sentiment
+took place. And at this time, as philosophic discussion
+took its rise with Abelard, the ennobling and idealization
+of woman took its birth contemporaneously with
+the sufferings of Eloisa. Up to this period the Church
+had avowedly looked with disdain on woman, as inheriting
+in a peculiar degree the curse of our first parents,
+because she had been the first to break the law<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span>
+Knightly gallantry, indeed, had thought proper to elevate
+the feminine ideal and clothe with imaginary virtues
+the heroines of its fictitious idolatry. It made her
+the aim and arbiter of all its achievements. The principal
+seat in hall and festival was reserved for the softer
+sex, which hitherto had been considered scarcely worthy
+of reverence or companionship. Perhaps this courtesy
+to the ladies on the part of knights and nobles began in
+an opposition to the wife-secluding habits of the Orientals
+against whom they fought, as at an earlier date the
+worship of images was certainly maintained by Rome
+as a protest against the unadorned worship of the Saracens.
+Perhaps it arose from the gradual expansion of
+wealth and the security of life and property, which left
+time and opportunity for the cultivation of the female
+character. Ladies were constituted chiefs of societies
+of nuns, and were obeyed with implicit submission.
+Large communities of young maidens were presided
+over by widows who were still in the bloom of youth;
+and so holy and pure were these sisterhoods considered,
+that brotherhoods and monks were allowed to occupy
+the same house, and the sexes were only separated from
+each other, even at night, by an aged abbot sleeping on
+the floor between them. Though this experiment failed,
+the fact of its being tried proved the confidence inspired
+by the spotlessness of the female character.
+Other things conspired to give a greater dignity to what
+had been called the inferior sex. The death of whole
+families in the Crusade had left the daughters heiresses
+of immense possessions. In every country but France
+the Crown itself was open to female succession, and it
+was henceforth impossible to affect a superiority over a
+person merely because she was corporeally weak and
+beautiful, who was lady of strong castles and could summon
+a thousand retainers beneath the banners of her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[283]</a></span>
+house. The very elevation of the women with whom
+they were surrounded&mdash;the peeresses, and princesses,
+and even the ladies of lower rank, to whom the voice
+of the troubadours attributed all the virtues under
+heaven&mdash;necessitated in the mind of the clergy a corresponding
+elevation in the character of the queen and
+representative of the female sex, whom they had already
+worshipped as personally without sin and endowed with
+superhuman power. At this time the immaculate conception
+of the Holy Virgin was first broached as an
+article of belief,&mdash;a doctrine which, after being dormant
+at intervals and occasionally blossoming into declaration,
+has finally received its full ratification by the
+authority of the present Pope,&mdash;Pius the Ninth. In the
+twelfth century it was acknowledged and propagated as
+a fresh increase to the glory of the mother of God; but
+it is now fixed forever as indispensable to the salvation
+of every Christian.</p>
+
+<p>Such, then, are the great features by which to mark
+this century,&mdash;the combination of rank with rank caused
+by the mutual danger of lord and serf in the Crusade,
+the rise of freedom by the commercial activity imparted
+by the same cause to the towns, the elevation of the
+idea of woman, without which no true civilization can
+take place. These are the leading and general characteristics:
+add to them what we have slightly alluded to,&mdash;the
+first specimens of the joyous lays and love-sonnets
+of the young knights returning from Palestine and
+pouring forth their admiration of birth and beauty in
+the soft language of Italy or Languedoc,&mdash;the intercourse
+between distant nations, which was indispensable
+in the combined expeditions against the common foe, so
+that the rough German cavalier gathered lessons in
+manner or accomplishment from the more polished
+princes of Anjou or Aquitaine,&mdash;and it will be seen that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span>
+this was the century of awakening mind and softening
+influences. There were scholars like Abelard, introducing
+the hitherto unknown treasures of the Greek
+and Hebrew tongues, and yet presenting the finest
+specimens of gay and accomplished gentlemen, unmatched
+in sweetness of voice and mastery of the harp;
+and there were at the other side of the picture saints
+like Bernard of Clairvaux, not relying any longer on
+visions and the traditionary marvels of the past, but
+displaying the power of an acute diplomatist and wide-minded
+politician in the midst of the most extraordinary
+self-denial and the exercises of a rigorous asceticism,
+which in former ages had been limited to the fanatical
+and insane. To this man&rsquo;s influence was owing the
+Second Crusade, which occurred in 1147. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1147.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Different
+from the first, which had been the result
+of popular enthusiasm and dependent for its success on
+undisciplined numbers and religious fury, this was a
+great European and Christian movement, concerted
+between the sovereigns and ratified by the peoples.
+Kings took the command, and whole nations bestowed
+their wealth and influence on the holy cause. Louis the
+Seventh of France led all the paladins of his land; and
+Conrad, the German Emperor, collected all the forces of
+the West to give the finishing-blow to the power of the
+Mohammedans and restore the struggling kingdom
+of Jerusalem. Seventy thousand horsemen and two
+hundred and fifty thousand foot-soldiers were the
+smallest part of the array. Whole districts were depopulated
+by the multitudes of artificers, shopmen,
+women, children, buffoons, mimics, priests, and conjurers
+who accompanied the march. It looked like one of the
+great movements which convulsed the Roman Empire
+when Goths or Burgundians poured into the land. But
+the results were nearly the same as in the days of Godfrey<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[285]</a></span>
+and Bohemund. Valour and discipline, national
+emulation and knightly skill, were of no avail against
+climate and disease. Again the West astonished the
+Turks with the impetuosity of its courage and the display
+of its hosts, but lay weakened and exhausted when
+the convulsive effort was past. A million perished in
+the useless struggle. Forty years scarcely sufficed to
+restore the nobility to sufficient power to undertake
+another suicidal attempt. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1191.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>But in 1191 the
+Third Crusade departed under the conduct of
+Richard of England, and earned the same glory and unsuccess.
+The century was weakened by those wretched
+but not fruitless expeditions, which, in round numbers,
+cost two millions of lives, and produced such memorable
+effects on the general state of Europe; yet it will be
+better remembered by us if we direct our attention to
+some of the incidents which have a more direct bearing
+on our own country. Of these the most remarkable is
+the commencement of the long-continued enmity between
+France and England, of the wars which lasted so
+many years, which made our most eminent politicians
+at one time believe that the countries were natural
+enemies, incapable of permanent union or even of mutual
+respect; and these took their rise, as most great wars
+have done, from the paltriest causes, and were continued
+on the most unfounded pretences.</p>
+
+<p>Henry the First was the son of William the Conqueror.
+On the death of his brother William Rufus he
+seized the English crown, though the eldest of the family,
+Robert, was still alive. Robert was fond of fighting
+without the responsibility of command, and delighted
+to be religious without the troubles of a religious life.
+He therefore joined the First Crusade to gratify this
+double desire, and mortgaged his dukedom of Normandy
+to Henry to supply him with horses and arms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[286]</a></span>
+and enable him to support his dignity as a Christian
+prince at Jerusalem. His dukedom he never could recover,
+for his extravagances prevented him from repayment
+of the loan. He tried to reconquer it by force,
+but was defeated at the battle of Tinchebray, and was
+guarded by the zealous affection of his brother all the
+rest of his life in the Tower of London. He left a son,
+who was used as an instrument of assault against Henry
+by the Suzerain of Normandy, Louis the Sixth, King of
+France. Orders were issued to the usurping feudatory
+to resign his possessions into the hands of the rightful
+heir; but, however obedient the Duke of Normandy
+might profess to be to his liege lord the King of France,
+the King of England held a very different language,
+and took a different estimate of his position.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1153.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>And in the time of the second Henry a change
+took place in their respective situations which seemed
+to justify the assumptions of the English king. That
+grandson of Henry the First had opposed his liege lord
+of France by arms and arts, and at last by one great
+master-stroke turned his own arms upon his rival and
+strengthened himself on his spoils. In the Second
+Crusade the scrupulous delicacy of Louis the Seventh
+of France had been revolted by the indiscreet or guilty
+conduct of Eleanor his wife. He repudiated her as unworthy
+of his throne; and Henry, who had no delicacies
+of conscience when they interfered with his interest,
+offered the rejected Eleanor his hand; for she continued
+the undoubted mistress of Poitou and Guienne. No
+stain derived from her principles or conduct was reflected
+in the eyes of the ambitious Henry on those
+noble provinces, and from henceforth his Continental
+possessions far exceeded those of his suzerain. The
+other feudatories, encouraged by this example, owned a
+very modified submission to their nominal head; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[287]</a></span>
+the inheritors of the throne of the Capets were again
+reduced to the comparative weakness of their predecessors
+of the Carlovingian line. Yet there was one
+element of vitality of which the feudal barons had not
+deprived the king. A fief, when it lapsed for want of
+heirs, was reattached to the Crown; and in the turmoil
+and adventure of those unsettled times the extinction
+of a line of warriors and pilgrims was not an uncommon
+event. Even while a family was numerous and healthy
+the uncertain nature of their possession deprived it of
+half its value, for at the end of that gallant line of
+knights and cavaliers, slain as they might be in battle,
+carried off by the pestilences which were usual at that
+period, or wasted away in journeys to the Holy Land
+and sieges in the heats of Palestine, stood the feudal
+king, ready to enter into undisputed possession of the
+dukedoms or counties which it had cost them so much
+time and danger to make independent and strong. In
+the case of Normandy or Guienne themselves, Louis
+might have looked without much uneasiness on the
+building of castles and draining of marshes, when he
+reflected that but a life or two lay between him and the
+enriched and strengthened fief; and when those lives
+were such desperadoes as Richard and such cowards as
+John, the prospect did not seem hopeless of an immediate
+succession. But the French kings were still more
+fortunate in being opposed to such unamiable rivals as the
+coarse and worldly descendants of the Conqueror. The
+personal characters of those men, however their energy
+and courage might benefit them in actual war, made
+them feared and hated wherever they were known.
+They were sensual, cruel, and unprincipled to a degree
+unusual even in those ages of rude manners and undeveloped
+conscience. Their personal appearance itself
+was an index of the ungovernable passions within<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[288]</a></span>
+Fat, broad-shouldered, low-statured, red-haired, loud-voiced,
+they were frightful to look upon even in their
+calmest moods; but when the Conqueror stormed, no
+feeling of ruth or reverence stood in his way. When
+he was refused the daughter of the Count of Boulogne,
+he forced his way into the chamber of the countess,
+seized her by the hair of her head, dragged her round
+the room, and stamped on her with his feet. Robert
+his son was of the same uninviting exterior. William
+Rufus was little and very stout. Henry the Second was
+gluttonous and debauched. Richard the Lion-Heart
+was cruel as the animal that gave him name; and John
+was the most debased and contemptible of mankind. A
+race of gentle and truthful men, on the other hand,
+ennobled the crown of France. The kings, from Louis
+the Debonnaire to Louis the Seventh, or Young, were
+favourites of the Church and champions of the people.
+The harsh and violent nobility despised them, but they
+were venerated in the huts where poor men lie. The
+very scruple which induced Louis to divorce his wife,
+whose conduct had stained the purity of the Crusade,
+almost repaid the loss of her great estates by the increased
+love and respect of his subjects. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1180.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>And when the
+line of pure and honourable rulers was for a while interrupted
+by the appearance, upon a throne so
+long established in equity, of an armed warrior
+in the person of Philip Augustus, it was felt that the
+sword was at last in the hands of an avenger, who was
+to execute the decrees of Heaven upon the enemies
+whom the moderation, justice, and mercy of his predecessors
+had failed to move.</p>
+
+<p>But before we come to the personal relations of the
+French and English kings we must take a rapid view
+of one of the great incidents by which this century is
+marked,&mdash;an incident which for a long time attracted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[289]</a></span>
+the notice of all Europe, and was productive of very important
+consequences within our own country. Hitherto
+England had played the part of a satellite to the Court
+of Rome. Previous to the quarrels with France, indeed,
+one great tie between her and the Continental nations
+was the community of their submission to the Pope.
+Foreigners have at all times found wealth and kind
+treatment here. Germans, Italians, Frenchmen, any
+one who could make interest with the patrons of large
+livings, held rank and honours in the English Church.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1154-1159.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Little enough, it was felt, was all that could be done in
+behalf of foreign ecclesiastics to repay them for
+the condescension they showed in elevating
+Nicholas Breakspear, an Anglo-Saxon of St. Alban&rsquo;s, to
+the papal chair. But Nicholas, in taking another name,
+lost his English heart. As Adrian the Fourth, he preferred
+Rome to England, and maintained his authority
+with as high a hand as any of his predecessors. Knights
+and nobles, and even the higher orders of the clergy,
+were at length discontented with the continual exactions
+of the Holy See; and in 1162 the same battle which had
+agitated the world between Henry the Fourth of Germany
+and Gregory the Seventh was fought out in a still
+bitterer spirit between Henry the Second of England
+and Thomas à-Beckett. All the story-books of English
+history have told us the romantic incidents of the birth
+of the ambitious priest. It is possible the obscurity of
+his origin was concealed by his contemporaries under
+the interesting legend, which must have been a very
+early subject for the fancy of the poet and troubadour,
+of a love between a Red-Cross pilgrim and a Saracen
+emir&rsquo;s daughter. It shows a remarkable softening of
+the ancient hatred to the infidels, that the votaress of
+Mohammed should have been chosen as the mother of a
+saint. But whatever doubt there may arise about the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[290]</a></span>
+reality of the deserted maiden&rsquo;s journey in search of her
+admirer, and her discovery of his abode by the mere
+reiteration of his name, which is beautifully said to be
+the only word of English she remembered, there is no
+doubt of the early favour which the young Anglo-Saracen
+attained with the king, or of the desire the sagacious
+Henry entertained to avail himself of the great talents
+which made his favourite delightful as a companion and
+indispensable as a chancellor, in the higher position still
+of Archbishop of Canterbury and Comptroller of the
+English Church. For high pretensions were put forward
+by the clergy: they insisted upon the introduction of the
+canon laws; they claimed exemption from trial by civil
+process; they were to be placed beyond the reach of the
+ordinary tribunals, and were to be under their own
+separate rulers, and directly subject in life and property
+to the decrees of Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Henry knew but one man in his dominions able to
+contend in talent and acuteness with the advocates of
+the Church, and that was his chancellor and friend, the
+gay and generous and affectionate à-Beckett. So one
+day, without giving him much time for preparation, he
+persuaded him to be made a priest, and at the same
+moment named him Archbishop of Canterbury and
+Primate of all England. Now, he thought, we have a
+champion who will do battle in our cause and stand up
+for the liberties of his native land. But à-Beckett had
+dressed himself in a hair shirt and flogged himself with
+an iron scourge. He had invited the holiest of the
+priests to favour him with their advice, and had thrown
+himself on his knees on the approach of the most ascetic
+of the monks and friars. All his fine establishments
+were broken up; his horses were sent away; his silver
+table-services sold; and the new archbishop fasted on
+bread and water and lay on the hard floor. Henry was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[291]</a></span>
+astonished and uneasy; and he had soon very good
+cause for his uneasiness, for his favourite orator, his
+boon-companion, his gallant chancellor, from whom he
+had expected support and victory, turned against him
+with the most ruthless animosity, and pushed the pretensions
+of Rome to a pitch they had never reached
+before. Nobody, however he may blame the double-dealing
+or the ambition of à-Beckett, can deny him the
+praise of personal courage in making opposition to the
+king. The Norman blood was as hot in him as in any
+of his predecessors. When he got into a passion, we
+are told by a contemporary chronicler, his blue eyes
+became filled with blood. In a fit of rage he bit a page&rsquo;s
+shoulder. A favourite servant having contradicted him,
+he rushed after the man on the stair, and, not being
+able to catch him, gnawed the straw upon the boards.
+We may therefore guess with what feelings the injured
+Plantagenet received the behaviour of his newly-created
+primate. He stormed and raged, terrified the other
+prelates to join him in his measures for curbing the
+power of the Church, chafed himself for several years
+against the unconquerable firmness of the arrogant archbishop,
+and finally failed in every object he had aimed
+at. The violence of the king was met with the affected
+resignation of the sufferer; and at last, when the impatience
+of Henry gave encouragement to his followers
+to put the refractory priest to death, the quarrel was
+lifted out of the ordinary category of a dispute between
+the crown and the crozier: it became a combat between
+a wilful and irreligious tyrant and a martyred saint. It
+requires us to enter into the feelings of the twelfth century
+to be able to understand the issue of this great conflict.
+In our own day the assumptions of à-Beckett, and
+his claims of exemption from the ordinary laws, have
+no sympathizers among the lovers of progress or<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[292]</a></span>
+freedom. But in the time of the second Henry the only
+chance of either, in England, was found under the
+shelter of the Church. That great establishment was
+still the only protection against the lawless violence of
+the king and nobles. The Norman possessors of the
+land were still an army encamped on hostile soil and
+levying contributions by the law of the strong hand.
+Disunion had not yet arisen between the sovereign and
+his lords, except as to the division of the spoil. The
+Crusades had not depopulated England to the same extent
+as some of the other countries in Europe; and the
+wars of the troubled days of Stephen and Matilda,
+though fatal to the prosperity of the land, and destructive
+of many of the nobles on either side, had attracted
+an immense number of high-born and strong-handed
+adventurers, who amply supplied their place. The
+clergy had been forced to retain their original position
+as leaders of the popular mind, superintendents of the
+interests of their flocks, and teachers and comforters of
+the oppressed: à-Beckett, therefore, was not in their
+eyes an ambitious priest, sacrificing every thing for the
+elevation of his order. He was a champion fighting the
+battles of the poor against the rich,&mdash;a ransomer of at
+least one powerful body in the State from the capricious
+cruelty of Henry and the grasping avarice of the Norman
+spoliation. The down-trodden Saxons received
+with the transports of gratified revenge any humiliation
+inflicted on the proud aristocracy which had thriven
+on the ruin of their ancestors. The date of the Conquest
+was not yet so distant as to hinder the feeling of
+personal wrong from mingling in the conflict between
+the races. A man of sixty remembered the story told
+him by his father of his dispossession of holt and field,
+on which the old manor-house had stood since Alfred&rsquo;s
+days, and which now had been converted into a crenelated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[293]</a></span>
+tower by the foreign conqueror. Nor are we to
+forget, in the midst of the idea of antiquity conveyed
+at the present time by the fact of a person&rsquo;s ancestor
+having &ldquo;come in with William,&rdquo; that the bitterness of
+dispossession was increased in the eyes of the long-descended
+Saxon franklin by the lowness of his dispossessor&rsquo;s
+birth. Half the roll-call of the Norman army was
+made up of the humblest names,&mdash;barbers and smiths,
+and tailors and valets, and handicraftsmen of all descriptions.
+And yet, seated in his fortified keep, supported
+by the sixty thousand companions of his success, enriched
+by the fertile harvests of his new domain, this
+upstart adventurer filled the wretched cottages of the
+land with a distressed and starving peasantry; and
+where were those friendless and helpless outcasts to
+look for succour and consolation? They found them in
+the Church. Their countrymen generally filled the
+lower offices, speaking in good Saxon, and feeling as
+good Saxons should; while the lordly abbot or luxurious
+bishop kept high state in his monastery or palace, and
+gave orders in Norman French with feelings as foreign
+as his tongue. But à-Beckett was an Englishman;
+à-Beckett was Archbishop of Canterbury, and chief of
+all the churchmen in the land. To honour à-Beckett
+was to protest against the Conquest; and when the
+crowning glory came, and the crimes of Henry against
+themselves attained their full consummation in the murder
+of the prelate at the altar,&mdash;the patriot in his resistance
+to oppression,&mdash;the enthusiasm of the country knew
+no bounds. The penitential pilgrimage which the proudest
+of the Plantagenets made to the tomb of his victim
+was but small compensation for so enormous a wickedness,
+and for ages the name of à-Beckett was a household
+word at the hearths of the English peasantry, as
+their great representative and deliverer,&mdash;only completing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[294]</a></span>
+the care he took of their temporal interests while
+on earth by the superintendence he bestowed on their
+spiritual benefit now that he was a saint in heaven.
+Curses fell upon the head and heart of the royal murderer,
+as if by a visible retribution. His children rebelled
+and died; the survivors were false and hostile.
+Richard, who had the one sole virtue of animal courage,
+was incited by his mother to resist his father, and was
+joined in his unnatural rebellion by his brother John,
+who had no virtue at all. His mind, before he died, had
+lost the energy which kept the sceptre steady; and the
+century went down upon the glory of England, which
+lay like a wreck upon the water, and was stripped
+gradually, and one by one, of all the possessions which
+had made it great, and even the traditions of military
+power which had made it feared. John was on the
+throne, and the nation in discontent.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[295]</a></span>
+<a name="THIRTEENTH_CENTURY" id="THIRTEENTH_CENTURY">THIRTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of Germany.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Otho</span>, (of Brunswick.)&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1212.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Frederick II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1247.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">William</span>, (of Holland.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1257.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Richard</span>, (of Cornwall.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1257.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Alphonso</span>, (of Castile.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1273.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Rodolph</span>, (of Hapsburg.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1291.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Adolph</span>, (of Nassau.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1298.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Albert I.</span>, (of Austria.)</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of France.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip Augustus.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1223.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis VIII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1226.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis IX.</span>, (the Fat.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1270.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip III.</span>, (the Hardy.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1285.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip IV.</span>, (the Handsome.)</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of Scotland.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">William.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1214.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Alexander II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1249.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Alexander III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1286.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Margaret.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1291.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John Baliol</span>, deposed 1296.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of Constantinople.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1203.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Isaac.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1204.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Alexis IV.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1204.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Ducas</span>, (Usurper,) dethroned by warriors of Fourth Crusade.</td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td colspan="2" align="left"><i>Latin Empire.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1204.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Baldwyn</span>, (of Flanders.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1206.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry</span>, (his brother.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1216.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Peter</span>, (of Courtney.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1219.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Robert</span>, (his son.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1228.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John</span>, (of Brienne.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1231.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Baldwyn.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td colspan="2" align="left"><i>Greek Empire of Nicæa.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1222.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John Ducas.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1255.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Theodorus II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1261.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John Lascaris</span>&mdash;retakes Constantinople.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1261.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Michael.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1282.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Andronicus II.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of England.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1216.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1276.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edward I.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td class="year-top">1201.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Fourth Crusade.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-top">1217.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Fifth Crusade.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-top">1228.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Sixth Crusade.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-top">1248.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Seventh Crusade.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-top">1270.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Eighth and Last Crusade</span>, by St. Louis against Tunis.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Roger Bacon</span>, <span class="smcap">Matthew Paris</span>, <span class="smcap">Alexander Hales</span>, (Irrefragable
+Doctor,) <span class="smcap">Thomas Aquinas</span>, (the Angelic Doctor.)</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[297]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_THIRTEENTH_CENTURY" id="THE_THIRTEENTH_CENTURY">THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">FIRST CRUSADE AGAINST HERETICS&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;THE ALBIGENSES&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;MAGNA
+CHARTA&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;EDWARD I.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> progress and enlightenment of Europe proceed
+from this period at a constantly-increasing rate. The
+rise of commercial cities, the weakening of the feudal
+aristocracy, the introduction of the learning of the Saracenic
+schools, and the growth of universities for the
+cultivation of science and language, contributed greatly
+to the result. Another cause used to be assigned for
+this satisfactory advance, in the discovery which had
+been made in the last century at Amalfi, of a copy of
+the long-forgotten Pandects of Justinian, and the reintroduction
+of the Roman laws, in displacement of the
+conflicting customs and barbarous enactments of the
+various states; but the fact of the continued existence
+of the Roman Institutes is not now denied, though it is
+probable that the discovery of the Amalfi manuscript
+may have given a fresh impulse to the improvement of
+the local codes. But an increase of mental activity had
+at first its usual regretable accompaniment in the contemporaneous
+rise of dangerous and unfounded opinions.
+Philosophy, which began with an admiration of the skill
+and learning of Aristotle, ended by enthroning him as
+the uncontrolled master of human reason. Wherever
+he was studied, all previous standards of faith and argument
+were overthrown. The cleverest intellects of the
+time could find themselves no higher task than to reconcile
+the Christian Scriptures with the decrees of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[298]</a></span>
+Stagyrite, for it was felt that in the case of an irreconcilable
+divergence between the teaching of Christ and
+of Aristotle the scholars of Christendom would have
+pronounced in favour of the Greek. A formulary,
+indeed, was found out for the joint reception of both;
+many statements were declared to be &ldquo;true in philosophy
+though false in religion,&rdquo; so that the most orthodox
+of Churchmen could receive the doctrines of the Church
+by an act of belief, while he gave his whole affection to
+Aristotle by an act of the understanding. When teachers
+and preachers tamper with the human conscience, the
+common feelings of honour and fair play revolt at the
+degrading attempt. Men of simple minds, who did not
+profess to understand Aristotle and could not be blinded
+by the subtleties of logic, endeavoured to discover &ldquo;the
+more excellent way&rdquo; for themselves, but were bewildered
+by the novelty of their search for Truth. There were
+mystic dreamers who saw God everywhere and in every
+thing, and counted human nature itself a portion of the
+Deity, or maintained that it was possible for man to
+attain a share of the divine by the practice of virtue.
+This Pantheism gave rise to numerous displays of popular
+ignorance and impressibility. Messiahs appeared in
+many parts of Europe, and were followed by great multitudes.
+Some enthusiasts taught that a new dispensation
+was opening upon man; that God was the Governor
+of the world during the Old Testament period;
+that Christ had reigned till now, but that the reign of
+the Holy Spirit was about to commence, and all things
+would be renewed. Others, more hardy, declared their
+adhesion to the Persian principle of a duality of persons
+in heaven, and revived the old Manichean heresy that
+the spirit of Hatred was represented in the Jewish
+Scriptures and the spirit of Love in the Christian; that
+the Good god had created the soul, and the Evil god<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span>
+the body,&mdash;on which were justified the sufferings they
+voluntarily inflicted on the workmanship of Satan, and
+the starvings and flagellations required to bring it into
+subjection. This belief found few followers, and would
+have died out as rapidly as it had arisen; but the malignity
+of the enemies of any change found it convenient
+to identify those wild enthusiasts with a very different
+class of persons who at this time rose into prominent
+notice. The rich counties of the South of France were
+always distinguished from the rest of the nation by the
+possession of greater elegance and freedom. The old
+Roman civilization had never entirely deserted the
+shores of the Mediterranean or the valleys of Languedoc
+and Provence. In Languedoc a sect of strange
+thinkers had given voice to some startling doctrines,
+which at once obtained the general consent. Toulouse
+was the chief encourager of these new beliefs, and in its
+hostility to Rome was supported by its reigning sovereign,
+Count Raymond VI. This potentate, from the position
+of his States,&mdash;abutting upon Barcelona, where the
+Spaniards, who remembered their recent emancipation
+from the Mohammedan yoke, were famous for their
+tolerance of religious dissent,&mdash;and deriving the greater
+portion of his wealth from the trade and industry of the
+Jews and Arabs established in his seaport towns, saw
+no great evil in the principles professed by his people.
+Those principles, indeed, when stripped of the malicious
+additions of his enemies, were not different from the
+creed of Protestantism at the present time. They consisted
+merely of a complete denial of the sovereignty
+of the Pope, the power of the priesthood, the efficacy
+of prayers for the dead, and the existence of purgatory.</p>
+
+<p>The other princes of the South looked on religion as a
+mere instrument for the advancement of their own interests,
+and would have imitated the greater sovereigns<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span>
+of Europe, several of whom for a very slender consideration
+would have gone openly over to the standard of
+Mohammed. The inhabitants, therefore, of those opulent
+regions, by the favour of Raymond and the indifference
+of the rest, were left for a long time to their
+own devices, and gave intimation of a strong desire to
+break off their connection with the hierarchy of Rome.
+And no wonder they were tired of their dependence on
+so grasping and unprincipled a power as the Church had
+proved to them. More depraved and more exacting in
+this district than in any other part of Europe, the clergy
+had contrived to alienate the hearts of the common
+people without gaining the friendship of the nobility.
+Equally hated by both,&mdash;despised for their sensuality,
+and no longer feared for their spiritual power,&mdash;the
+priests could offer no resistance to the progress of the
+new opinions. Those opinions were in fact as much due
+to the vices of the clergy as to the convictions of the
+congregations. Any thing hostile to Rome was welcomed
+by the people. A musical and graceful language
+had grown up in Languedoc, which was universally
+recognised as the fittest vehicle for descriptions of
+beauty and declarations of love, and had been found
+equally adapted for the declamations of political hatred
+and denunciations of injustice. But now the whole
+guild of troubadours, ceasing to dedicate their muses to
+ladies&rsquo; charms or the quarrels of princes, poured forth
+their indignation in innumerable songs on their clerical
+oppressors. The infamies of the whole order&mdash;the monks
+black and white, the deacons, the abbots, the bishops,
+the ordinary priests&mdash;were now married to immortal
+verse. Their spoiling of orphans, their swindling of
+widows and wards, their gluttony and drunkenness,
+were chronicled in every township, and were incapable
+of denial. Their dishonesty became proverbial. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[301]</a></span>
+simplest peasant, on hearing of a scandalous action, was
+in the habit of saying, &ldquo;I would rather be a priest than
+be guilty of such a deed.&rdquo; But there were two men
+then alive exactly adapted to meet the exigencies of the
+time. One was a noble Castilian of the name of Dominic
+Guzman, who had become disgusted with the world, and
+had taken refuge from temptations and strife among the
+brethren of a reformed cathedral in Spain. But temptations
+and strife forced their way into the cells of Asma,
+and the eloquent friar was torn away from his prayers
+and penances and brought prominently forward by the
+backslidings of the men of Languedoc. The saturnine
+and self-sacrificing Spaniard had no sympathy with the
+joyous proceedings of the princes and merchants of the
+South. He saw sin in their enjoyment even of the gifts
+of nature,&mdash;their gracious air and beautiful scenery.
+How much more when the gayety of their meetings
+was enlivened by interludes throwing ridicule on the
+pretensions of the bishops, by hootings at any ecclesiastic
+who presented himself in the street, and by sneers and
+loud laughter at the predictions and miracles with which
+the Church resisted their attack! The unbelieving
+populace did not spare the personal dignity of the missionary
+himself. They pelted him with mud, and fixed
+long tails of straw at the back of his robe; they outraged
+all the feelings of his heart, his Castilian pride,
+his Christian belief, his clerical obedience. There is no
+denying the energy with which he exerted himself to
+recall those wandering sheep to the true fold. His
+biographer tells us of the successes of his eloquence,
+and of the irresistible effect of the inexhaustible fountain
+of tears with which he inundated his face till they
+formed a river down to his robes. His writings, we are
+assured, being found unanswerable by the heretics,
+were submitted to the ordeal of fire. Twice they resisted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[302]</a></span>
+the hottest flames which could be raised by wood
+and brimstone, and still without converting the incredulous
+subjects of Count Raymond. His miracles, which
+were numerous and undeniable, also had no effect.
+Even his prayers, which seem to have moved houses
+and walls, had no efficacy in moving the obdurate
+hearts of the unbelievers; and at last, tired out with
+their recalcitrancy, the dreadful word was spoken. He
+cursed the men of Languedoc, the inhabitants of its
+towns, the knights and gentlemen who received his
+oratory with insult, and in addition to his own anathemas
+called in the spiritual thunder of the Pope.</p>
+
+<p>This was the other man peculiarly fitted for the work he
+had to do. His cruelty would have done no dishonour
+to the blood-stained scutcheon of Nero, and his ambition
+transcended that of Gregory the Seventh. His name was
+Innocent the Third. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1207.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>For one-half of the crimes
+alleged against those heretics, who, from their
+principal seat in the diocese of Albi, were known as Albigenses,
+he would have turned the whole of France into a
+desert; and when, with greedy ear, he heard the denunciations
+of Dominic, he declared war on the devoted peasants,&mdash;war
+on the consenting princes; a holy war&mdash;more
+meritorious than a Crusade against the Turks and infidels&mdash;where
+no life was to be spared, and where houses and
+lands were to be the reward of the assailants. All the wild
+spirits of the age were wakened by the call. It was a pilgrimage
+where all expenses were paid, without the danger
+of the voyage to the East or the sword of the Saracen.
+Foremost among those who hurried to this mingled harvest
+of money and blood, of religious absolution and military
+fame, was the notorious Simon de Montfort, a man
+fitted for the commission of any wickedness requiring a
+powerful arm and unrelenting heart. Forward from all
+quarters of Europe rushed the exterminating emissaries<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[303]</a></span>
+of the Pope and soldiers of Dominic. &ldquo;You shall ravage
+every field; you shall slay every human being: strike,
+and spare not. The measure of their iniquity is full, and
+the blessing of the Church is on your heads.&rdquo; These
+words, sung in sweet chorus by the Pope and the Monk,
+were the instructions on which De Montfort was prepared
+to act; and what could the sunny Languedoc,
+the land of song and dance, of olive-yard and vineyard,
+do to repel this hostile inroad? Suddenly all the music
+of the troubadours was hushed in dreadful expectation.
+Raymond was alarmed, and tried to temporize. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1208.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Promises
+were made and explanations given, but without
+any offer of submission to the yoke of Rome: so the
+infuriated warriors came on, burning, slaying,
+ravaging, in terms of their commission, till
+Dominic himself grew ashamed of such blood-stained
+missionaries; and when their slaughters went on, when
+they had murdered half the population in cold blood,
+and ridden down the peasantry whom despair had summoned
+to the defence of their houses and properties, the
+saintly-minded Spaniard could no longer honour their
+hideous butcheries with his presence. He contented
+himself with retiring to a church and praying for the
+good cause with such zeal and animation that De Montfort
+and eleven hundred of his ruffians put to flight a
+hundred thousand of the armed soldiers of the South,
+who felt themselves overthrown and scattered by an invisible
+power. Yet not even the prayers of Dominic
+could keep the outraged people in unresisting acquiescence.
+Simon de Montfort was expelled from the territories
+he had usurped, and found a mysterious death
+under the walls of Toulouse in 1218.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1223.</div>
+
+<p>The old family was restored in the person of Raymond
+the Seventh, and preparations made for
+defence. But Louis the Eighth of France came<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[304]</a></span>
+to the aid of the infuriated Pope. Two hundred thousand
+men followed in the holy campaign. All the
+atrocities of the former time were renewed and surpassed.
+Town after town yielded, for all the defenders
+had died. Pestilence broke out in the invading force,
+and Louis himself was carried off by fever. Champions,
+however, were ready in all quarters to carry on the
+glorious cause. Louis the Ninth was now King of
+France, and under the government of his mother,
+Blanche of Castile, the work commenced by her countryman
+was completed. The final victory of the crusaders
+and punishment of the rebellious were celebrated by the
+introduction of the Inquisition, of which the ferocious
+Dominic was the presiding spirit. The fire of persecution
+under his holy stirrings burnt up what the sword
+of the destroyer had left, and from that time the voice
+of rejoicing was heard no more in Languedoc: her freedom
+of thought and elegance of sentiment were equally
+crushed into silence by the heel of persecution. The
+&ldquo;gay science&rdquo; perished utterly; the very language in
+which the sonnets of knight and troubadour had been
+composed died away from the literatures of the earth;
+and Rome rejoiced in the destruction of poetry and the
+restoration of obedience. This is a very mark-worthy
+incident in the thirteenth century, as it is the first experiment,
+on a great scale, which the Church made to
+retain her supremacy by force of arms. The pagan and
+infidel, the denier of Christ and the enemies of his
+teaching, had hitherto been the objects of the wrath of
+Christendom. This is the first instance in which a difference
+of opinion between Christians themselves had
+been the ground for wholesale extermination; for those
+unfortunate Albigenses acknowledged the divinity of
+the Saviour and professed to be his disciples. It is the
+crowning proof of the totally-secularized nature of the established<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[305]</a></span>
+faith. Its weapons were no longer argument and
+proof, or even persuasion and promise. The horse up to
+his fetlocks in blood, the sword waved in the air, the trampling
+of marshalled thousands, were henceforth the supports
+of the religion of love and charity; and fires
+glowing in every market-place and dungeons gaping in
+every episcopal castle were henceforth the true expositors
+of the truth as it is in Jesus. Fires, indeed, and
+dungeons, were required to compensate for the incompleteness,
+as it appeared to the truly orthodox, of the
+vengeance inflicted on the rebels. The Abbot of
+Citeaux, who gave his spiritual and corporeal aid to the
+assault on Beziers, was for a moment made uneasy by
+the difficulty his men experienced in distinguishing between
+the heretics and believers at the storm of the
+town. At last he got out of the difficulty by saying,
+&ldquo;Slay them all! The Lord will know his own.&rdquo; The
+same benevolent dignitary, when he wrote an account
+of his achievement to the Pope, lamented that he had
+only been able to cut the throats of twenty thousand.
+And Gregory the Ninth would have been better pleased
+if it had been twice the number. &ldquo;His vast revenge
+had stomach for them all,&rdquo; and already a quarter of a
+million of the population were the victims of his anger.
+Every thing had prospered to his hand. Raymond was
+despoiled of the greater portion of his estates, the voice
+of opposition was hushed, the castles of the nobles confiscated
+to the Church; and yet, when the treaty of
+Meaux, in 1229, by which the war was concluded, came
+to be considered, it was perceived that the pacification
+of Languedoc turned not so much to the profit of Rome
+as of the rapidly-coalescing monarchy of France.</p>
+
+<p>Long before this, in 1204, Philip Augustus had found
+little difficulty in tearing the continental possessions of
+the English crown, except Guienne, from the trembling<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[306]</a></span>
+hands of John. The possession of Normandy had already
+made France a maritime power; and now, by the acquisition
+of the Narbonnais and Maguelonne from Raymond
+the Seventh, she not only extended her limits to the
+Mediterranean, but, by the extinction of two such vassals
+as the Count of Toulouse and the Duke of Normandy,
+incalculably strengthened the royal crown. Extinguished,
+indeed, was the power of Toulouse; for by
+the same treaty the unfortunate Raymond bought his
+peace with Rome by bestowing the county of Venaissin
+and half of Avignon on the Holy See. These sacrifices
+relieved him from the sentence of excommunication,
+and made him the best-loved son of the Church, and the
+poorest prince in Christendom.</p>
+
+<p>While monarchy was making such strides in France,
+a counterbalancing power was formed in England by
+the combination of the nobility and the rise of the
+House of Commons. The story of Magna Charta is so
+well known that it will be sufficient to recall some of its
+principal incidents, which could not with propriety be
+omitted in an account of the important events of the
+thirteenth century. No event, indeed, of equal importance
+occurred in any other country of Europe. However
+more startling a crusade or a victory might be at
+the time, the results of no single incident have ever been
+so enduring or so wide-spread as those of the meeting
+of the barons at Runnymede and the summoning of the
+burgesses to Parliament.</p>
+
+<p>The whole reign of John (1199-1216) is a tale of
+wickedness and degradation. Richard of the Lion-Heart
+had been cruel and unprincipled; but the sharpness
+of his sword threw a sort of respectability over the
+worst portions of his character. His practical talents,
+also, and the romantic incidents of his life, his confinement,
+and even of his death, lifted him out of the ordinary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[307]</a></span>
+category of brutal and selfish kings and converted
+a very ferocious warrior into a popular hero. But John
+was hateful and contemptible in an equal degree. He
+deserted his father, he deceived his brother, he murdered
+his nephew, he oppressed his people. He had the pride
+that made enemies, and wanted the courage to fight
+them. A knight without truth, a king without justice,
+a Christian without faith,&mdash;all classes rebelled against
+him. Innocent the Third scented from afar the advantage
+he might obtain from a monarch whose nobility
+despised him and who was hated by his people. And
+when John got up a quarrel about the nomination of an
+archbishop to Canterbury, the Pope soon saw that
+though Langton was no à-Beckett, still less was John
+a Henry the Second. A sentence of excommunication
+was launched at the coward&rsquo;s head, and the crown of
+England offered to Philip Augustus of France. Philip
+Augustus had the modesty to refuse the splendid bribe,
+and contented himself with aiding to weaken a throne
+he did not feel inclined to fill. It is characteristic of
+John, that in the agonies of his fear, and of his desire
+to gain support against his people, he hesitated between
+invoking the assistance of the Miramolin of Morocco
+and the Pope of Rome. As good Mussulman with the
+one as Christian with the other, he finally decided on
+Innocent, and signed a solemn declaration of submission,
+making public resignation of the crowns of England
+and Ireland &ldquo;to the Apostles Peter and Paul, to Innocent
+and his legitimate successors;&rdquo; and, aided by the
+blessings of these new masters, and by the enforced
+neutrality of France, he was enabled to defeat his indignant
+nobles, and force them for two years to wear
+the same chains of submission to Rome which weighed
+upon himself. But in 1215 the patience of noble and
+peasant, of bishop and priest, was utterly exhausted.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[308]</a></span>
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1215.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>John fled on the first outburst of the collected storm,
+and thought himself fortunate in stopping its
+violence by signing the Great Charter, the
+written ratification of the liberties which had been conferred
+by some of his predecessors, but whose chief
+authority was in the traditions and customs of the land.
+This was not an overthrow of an old constitution and
+the substitution of a new and different code, but merely
+a formal recognition of the great and fundamental
+principles on which only government can be carried
+on,&mdash;security of person and property, and the just administration
+of equitable laws. All orders in the State
+were comprehended in this national agreement. The
+Church was delivered from the exactions of the king,
+and left to an undisturbed intercourse on spiritual
+matters with her spiritual head. She was to have perfect
+freedom of election to vacant benefices, and the
+king&rsquo;s rapacity was guarded against by a clause reducing
+any fine he might impose on an ecclesiastic to an
+accordance with his professional income, and not with
+the extent of his lay possessions. The barons, of course,
+took equal care of their own interests as they had
+shown for those of the Church. They corrected many
+abuses from which they suffered, in respect to their feudal
+obligations. They regulated the fines and quit-rents
+on succession to their fiefs, the management of crown
+wards, and the marriage of heiresses and widows. They
+insisted also on the assemblage of a council of the great
+and lesser barons, to consult for the general weal, and
+put some check on the disposal of their lands by their
+tenants, in order to keep their vassals from impoverishment
+and their military organization unimpaired. But
+when church and aristocracy were thus protected from
+the tyranny of the king, were the interests of the great
+mass of the people neglected? This has sometimes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[309]</a></span>
+been argued against the legislators of Runnymede, but
+very unjustly; for as much attention was paid to the
+liberties and immunities of the municipal corporations
+and of ordinary subjects as to those of the prelates and
+lords. Every person had the right to dispose of his
+property by will. No arbitrary tolls could be exacted
+of merchants. All men might enter or leave the kingdom
+without restraint. The courts of law were no
+longer to be stationary at Westminster, to which complainants
+from Northumberland or Cornwall never could
+make their way, but were to travel about, bringing justice
+to every man&rsquo;s door. They were to be open to
+every one, and justice was to be neither &ldquo;sold, refused,
+nor delayed.&rdquo; Circuits were to be held every year. No
+man was to be put on his trial from mere rumour, but
+on the evidence of lawful witnesses. No sentence could
+be passed on a freeman except by his peers in jury assembled.
+No fine could be imposed so exorbitant as to
+ruin the culprit. But the bishops and clergy, the nobility
+and their vassals, the corporations and freemen, were
+not the main bodies of the State; and the framers of
+Magna Charta have been blamed for neglecting the great
+majority of the population, which consisted of serfs or
+villeins. This accusation is, however, not true, even
+with respect to the words of the Charter; for it is expressly
+provided that the carts and working-implements
+of that class of the people shall not be seizable in satisfaction
+of a fine; and in its intention the accusation is
+more untenable still; for although the reformers of 1215
+had no design of granting new privileges to any hitherto-unprivileged
+order and their work was limited to the
+legal re-establishment of privileges which John had attempted
+to overthrow, the large and liberal spirit of
+their declarations is shown by the notice they take of
+the hitherto-unconsidered classes. For the protection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[310]</a></span>
+accorded to their ploughs and carts, which are specifically
+named in the Charter, ratified at once their right
+to hold property,&mdash;the first condition of personal freedom
+and independence,&mdash;and, by an analogy of reasoning,
+restrained their more immediate masters from
+tyranny and injustice. It could not be long before a
+man secured by the national voice in the possession of
+one species of property extended his rights over every
+thing else. If the law guaranteed him the plough he
+held, the cart he drove, the spade he plied, why not the
+house he occupied, the little field he cultivated? And
+if the poorest freeman walked abroad in the pride of independence,
+because the baron could no longer insult
+him, or the priest oppress him, or the king himself strip
+him of land and gear, how could he deny the same
+blessings to his neighbour, the rustic labourer, who was
+already master of cart and plough and was probably
+richer and better fed than himself?</p>
+
+<p>But a firmer barrier against the encroachments of
+kings and nobles than the written words of Magna
+Charta was still required, and people were not long in
+seeing how little to be trusted are legal forms when the
+contracting parties are disposed to evade their obligations.
+John indeed attempted, in the very year that
+saw his signature to the Charter, to expunge his name
+from the obligatory deed by the plenary power of the
+Pope. Innocent had no scruple in giving permission to
+his English vassal to break the oath and swerve from
+his engagement. But the English spirit was not so
+broken as the king&rsquo;s, and the barons took the management
+of the country into their own hands. When the
+experience of a few years of Henry the Third had
+shown them that there was no improvement on the
+personal character of his predecessor, they took effectual
+measures for the protection of all classes of the people.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[311]</a></span>
+Henry began his inglorious reign in 1216, and ended it
+in 1272. In those fifty-six years great changes took
+place, but all in an upward direction, out of the darkness
+and unimpressionable stolidity of previous ages.
+The dawn of a more intellectual period seemed at hand,
+and already the ghosts of ignorance and oppression
+began to scent the morning air. In 1264 an example
+was set by England which it would have been well if all
+the other Western lands had followed, for by the institution
+of a true House of Commons it laid the foundation
+for the only possible liberal and improvable government,&mdash;the
+only government which can derive its
+strength from the consent of the governed legitimately
+expressed, and vary in its action and spirit with the
+changes in the general mind. In cases of error or temporary
+delusion, there is always left the most admirable
+machinery for retracing its steps and rectifying what is
+wrong. In cases of universal approval and unanimous
+exertion, there is no power, however skilfully wielded
+by autocrats or despots, which can compare with the
+combined energy of a whole and undivided people.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1226-1270.</div>
+
+<p>The contemporary of this Henry on the throne of
+France was the gentle and honest Louis the
+Ninth. If those epithets do not sound so high
+as the usual phraseology applied to kings, we are to
+consider how rare are the examples either of honesty or
+gentleness among the rulers of that time, and how difficult
+it was to possess or exercise those virtues. But
+this gentle and honest king, who was scarcely raised in
+rank when the Church had canonized him as a saint,
+achieved as great successes by the mere strength of his
+character as other monarchs had done by fire and sword.
+His love of justice enabled him to extend the royal
+power over his contending vassals, who chose him as
+umpire of their quarrels and continued to submit to him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[312]</a></span>
+as their chief. He heard the complaints of the lower
+orders of his people in person, sitting, like the kings of
+the East, under the shade of a tree, and delivering
+judgment solely on the merits of the case. His undoubted
+zeal on behalf of his religion permitted him,
+without the accusation of heresy, to put boundaries to
+the aggressions of the Church. He resisted its more
+violent claims, and gave liberty to ecclesiastics as well
+as laymen, who were equally interested in the curtailment
+of the Papal power. He granted a great number
+of municipal charters, and published certain Establishments,
+as they were called, which were improvements
+on the old customs of the realm and were in a great
+measure founded on the Roman law. The spirit of the
+time was popular progress; and both in France and
+England great advances were made; deliberative national
+assemblies took their rise,&mdash;in France, under the conscientious
+monarch, with the full aid and influence of
+the royal authority, in England, under the feeble and
+selfish Henry, by the necessity of gaining the aid of the
+Commons against the Crown to the outraged and insulted
+nobility. In both nations these assemblies bore
+for a long time very distinguishable marks of their
+origin. The Parliaments of France, sprung from the
+royal will, were little else than the recorders of the decrees
+of the monarch; while the Parliaments of England, remembering
+their popular origin, have always had a
+feeling of independence, and a tendency to make rather
+hard bargains with our kings. Even before this time
+the Great Council had occasionally opposed the exactions
+of the Crown; but when the falsehood and avarice of
+Henry III. had excited the popular odium, the barons
+of 1263, in noble emulation of their predecessors of
+1215, had risen in defence of the nation&rsquo;s liberties, and
+the last hand was put to the building up of our present<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[313]</a></span>
+constitution, by the summoning, &ldquo;to consult on public
+affairs,&rdquo; of certain burgesses from the towns, in addition
+to the prelates, knights, and freeholders who had hitherto
+constituted the parliamentary body. But those barons
+and tenants-in-chief attended in their own right, and
+were altogether independent of the principle of election
+and representation. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1265.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The summons issued by
+Simon de Montfort (son of the truculent hero
+of the Albigensian crusade, and brother-in-law of Henry)
+invested with new privileges the already-enfranchised
+boroughs. From this time the representatives of the
+Commons are always mentioned in the history of parliaments;
+and although this proceeding of De Montfort
+was only intended to strengthen his hands against his
+enemies, and, after his temporary object was gained,
+was not designed to have any further effect on the constitutional
+progress of our country, still, the principle
+had been adopted, the example was set, and the right to
+be represented in Parliament became one of the most
+valued privileges of the enfranchised commons.</p>
+
+<p>It is observable that this increase of civil freedom in
+the various countries of Europe was almost in exact
+proportion to the diminution of ecclesiastical power. It
+is equally observable that the weakening of the priestly
+influence rapidly followed the infamous excesses into
+which its intolerance and pride had hurried the princes
+and other supporters of its claims. Never, indeed, had
+it appeared in so palmy and flourishing a state as in the
+course of this century; and yet the downward journey
+was begun. The devastation it carried into Languedoc,
+and the depopulation of all those sunny regions near the
+Mediterranean Sea&mdash;the crusades against the Saracens
+in Asia, to which it sent the strength of Europe, and
+against the Moors in Africa, to which it impelled the
+most obedient, and also, when his religious passions<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[314]</a></span>
+were roused, the most relentless, of the Church&rsquo;s sons, no
+other than St. Louis&mdash;and the submission of the Patriarchates
+of Jerusalem and Alexandria to the Romish
+See&mdash;these and other victories of the Church were succeeded,
+before the century closed, by a manifest though
+silent insurrection against its spiritual domination.
+There were many reasons for this. The inferior though
+still dignified clergy in the different nations were alienated
+by the excessive exactions of their foreign head.
+In France the submissive St. Louis was forced to become
+the guardian of the privileges and income of the
+Gallican Church. In England the number of Italian incumbents
+exceeded that of the English-born; and in a
+few years the Pope managed to draw from the Church
+and State an amount equal to fifteen millions of our
+present coin. In Scotland, poorer and more proud, the
+king united himself to his clergy and nobles, and would
+not permit the Romish exactors to enter his dominions.
+The avarice and venality of Rome were repulsive equally
+to priest and layman. The strong support, also, which
+hitherto had arisen to the Holy See from the innumerable
+monks and friars, could no longer be furnished by the
+depressed and vitiated communities whom the coarsest
+of the common people despised for their sensuality
+and vice. In earlier times the worldly pretensions of
+the secular clergy were put to shame by the poverty
+and self-denial of the regular orders. Their ascetic retirement,
+and fastings, and scourgings, had recommended
+them to the peasantry round their monasteries, by the
+contrast their peaceful lives presented to the pomp and
+self-indulgence of bishops and priests. But now the
+character of the two classes was greatly changed. The
+parson of the parish, when he was not an Italian absentee,
+was an English clergyman, whose interests and
+feelings were all in unison with those of his flock; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[315]</a></span>
+monks were an army of mercenary marauders in the
+service of a foreign prince, advocating his most unpopular
+demands and living in the ostentatious disregard
+of all their vows. Even the lowest class of all,
+the thralls and villeins, were not so much as before in
+favour of their tonsured brothers, who had escaped the
+labours of the field by taking refuge in the abbey; for
+Magna Charta had given the same protection against
+oppression to themselves, and the enfranchisement of
+the boroughs had put power into the hands of citizens
+and freemen, who would not be so apt to abuse it as the
+martial baron or mitred prelate had been. The same
+principles were at work in France; and when the newly-established
+Franciscans and Dominicans were pointed to
+as restoring the purity and abnegation of the monks of
+old, the time for belief in those virtues being inherent,
+or even possible, in a cloister, was past, and little effect
+was produced in favour of Rome by the bloodthirsty
+brotherhood of the ferocious St. Dominic or the more
+amiable professions of the half-witted St. Francis of
+Assisi. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1272.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The tide, indeed, had so completely turned after
+the commencement of the reign of Edward the
+First, that the Churchmen, both in England and
+France, preferred being taxed by their own Sovereign
+to being subjected to the arbitrary exactions of the Pope.
+Edward gave them no exemption from the obligation to
+support the expenses of the State in common with all
+the other holders of property, and pressed, indeed,
+rather more heavily upon the prelates and rich clergy
+than on the rest of the contributors, as if to drive to a
+decision the question, to which of the potentates&mdash;the
+Pope or the sovereign&mdash;tribute was lawfully due.
+When this object was gained, a bull was let loose upon
+the sacrilegious monarch by Boniface the Eighth, which
+positively forbids any member of the priesthood to contribute<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[316]</a></span>
+to the national exchequer on any occasion or
+emergency whatever. But the king made very light of
+the papal authority when it stood between him and the
+revenues of his crown, and the national clergy submitted
+to be taxed like other men. In France the same
+discussion led to the same result. The Gallican and
+English Churches asserted their liberties in a way which
+must have been peculiarly gratifying to the kings,&mdash;namely,
+by subsidies to the Crown, and disobedience to
+the fulminations of the Pope.</p>
+
+<p>But no surer proof of the increased wisdom of mankind
+can be given than the termination of the Crusades.
+Perhaps, indeed, it was found that religious excitement
+could be combined with warlike distinction by assaults
+on the unbelieving or disobedient at home. There
+seemed little use in traversing the sea and toiling
+through the deserts of Syria, when the same heavenly
+rewards were held out for a campaign against the inhabitants
+of Languedoc and the valleys of the Alps.
+Clearer views also of the political effect of those distant
+expeditions in strengthening the hands of the Pope,
+who, as spiritual head of Christendom, was <i>ex officio</i>
+commander of the crusading armies, must no doubt
+have occurred to the various potentates who found
+themselves compelled to aid the very authority from
+whose arrogance they suffered so much. The exhaustion
+of riches and decrease of population were equally
+strong reasons for repose. But none of all these considerations
+had the least effect on the simple and credulous
+mind of Louis the Ninth. Resisting as he did the
+interference of the Pope in his character of King of
+France, no one could yield more devoted submission to
+the commands of the Holy Father when uttered to him
+in his character of Christian knight. At an early age
+he vowed himself to the sacred cause, and in the year<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[317]</a></span>
+1248 the seventh and last crusade to the Holy Land
+took its way from Aigues-Mortes and Marseilles, under
+the guidance of the youthful King and the Princes of
+France. Disastrous to a more pitiful degree than any
+of its predecessors, this expedition began its course in
+Egypt by the conquest of Damietta, and from thenceforth
+sank from misery to misery, till the army, surprised
+by the inundations of the Nile, and hemmed in by the
+triumphant Mussulmans, surrendered its arms, and the
+nobility of France, with its king at its head, found itself
+the prisoner of Almohadam. An insurrection in a short
+time deprived their conqueror of life and crown, and a
+treaty for the payment of a great ransom set the captives
+free. Ashamed, perhaps, to return to his own
+country, sighing for the crown of martyrdom, zealous at
+all events for the privileges of a pilgrim, Louis betook
+himself to Palestine, and, as he was bound by the convention
+not to attack Jerusalem, he wasted four years
+in uselessly rebuilding the fortifications of Ptolemais,
+and Sidon, and Jaffa, and only embarked on his homeward
+voyage when the death of his mother and the discontent
+of his subjects necessitated his return. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1254.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>After an
+absence of six years, the enfeebled and exhausted king
+sat once more in the chair of judgment, and
+gained all hearts by his generosity and truth. Yet the old fire was not extinct. His oath was binding
+still, and in 1270, girt with many a baron bold, and accompanied
+by his brother, Charles of Anjou, and the
+gay Prince Edward of England, he fixed the red cross
+upon his shoulder and led his army to the sea-shore.
+The ships were all ready, but the destination of the war
+was changed. A new power had established itself at
+Tunis, more hostile to Christianity than the Moslem of
+Egypt, and nearer at hand. In an evil hour the King
+was persuaded to attack the Tunisian Caliph. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[318]</a></span>
+landed at Carthage, and besieged the capital of the new
+dominion. But Tunis witnessed the death of its besieger,
+for Louis, worn out with fatigue and broken with disappointment,
+was stricken by a contagious malady, and
+expired with the courage of a hero and the pious resignation
+of a Christian. With him the crusading spirit
+vanished from every heart. All the Christian armies
+were withdrawn. The Knights-Hospitallers, the Templars,
+the Teutonic Order, passed over to Cyprus, and
+left the hallowed spots of sacred story to be profaned
+by the footsteps of the Infidel. Asia and Europe henceforth
+pursued their separate courses; and it was left to
+the present day to startle the nations of both quarters
+of the world with the spectacle of a war about the possession
+of the Holy Places.</p>
+
+<p>The century which has the slaughter of the Albigenses,
+the Magna Charta, the rise of the Commons, the
+termination of the Crusades, to distinguish it, will not
+need other features to be pointed out in order to abide
+in our memories. Yet the reign of Edward the First,
+the greatest of our early kings, must be dwelt on a little
+longer, as it would not be fair to omit the personal merits
+of a man who united the virtues of a legislator to those
+of a warrior. Whether it was the prompting of ambition,
+or a far-sighted policy, which led him to attempt
+the conquest of Scotland, we need not stop to inquire.
+It might have satisfied the longings both of policy and
+ambition if he had succeeded in creating a compact and
+irresistible Great Britain out of England harassed and
+Scotland insecure. And if, contented with his undivided
+kingdom, he had devoted himself uninterruptedly
+to the introduction and consolidation of excellent laws,
+and had extended the ameliorations he introduced in
+England to the northern portion of his dominions, he
+would have earned a wider fame than the sword has<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[319]</a></span>
+given him, and would have been received with blessings
+as the Justinian of the whole island, instead of establishing
+a rankling hatred in the bosoms of one of the
+cognate peoples which it took many centuries to allay,
+if, indeed, it is altogether obliterated at the present
+time; for there are not wanting enthusiastic Scotchmen
+who show considerable wrath when treating of his assumptions
+of superiority over their country and his interference
+with their national affairs.</p>
+
+<p>Edward&rsquo;s sister had been the wife of Alexander the
+Third of Scotland. Two sons of that marriage had
+died, and the only other child, a daughter, had married
+Eric the Norwegian. In Margaret, the daughter of
+this king, the Scottish succession lay, and when her
+grandfather died in 1290, the Scottish states sent a
+squadron to bring the young queen home, and great
+preparations were made for the reception of the &ldquo;Maid
+of Norway.&rdquo; But the Maid of Norway was weak in
+health; the voyage was tempestuous and long; and
+weary and exhausted she landed on one of the Orkney
+Islands, and in a short time a rumour went round the
+land that the hope of Scotland was dead. Edward was
+among the first to learn the melancholy news. He determined
+to assert his rights, and began by trying to
+extend the feudal homage which several of the Scottish
+kings had rendered for lands held in England, over the
+Scottish crown itself. When the various competitors
+for the vacant throne submitted their pretensions to his
+decision he made their acknowledgment of his supremacy
+an indispensable condition. Out of the three chief
+candidates he fixed on John Baliol, who, in addition to
+the most legal title, had perhaps the equal recommendation
+of being the feeblest personal character. Robert
+Bruce and Hastings, the other candidates, submitted to
+their disappointment, and Baliol became the mere viceroy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[320]</a></span>
+of the English king. He obeyed a summons to Westminster
+as a vassal of Edward, to answer for his conduct,
+and was treated with disdain. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1293.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>But the Scottish
+barons had more spirit than their king. They
+forced him to resist the pretensions of his overbearing
+patron, and for the first time, in 1295, began the long
+connection between France and Scotland by a treaty
+concluded between the French monarch and the twelve
+Guardians of Scotland, to whom Baliol had delegated
+his authority before retiring forever to more peaceful
+scenes. From this time we find that, whenever war was
+declared by France on England, Scotland was let loose
+on it to distract its attention, in the same way as, whenever
+war was declared upon France, the hostility of
+Flanders was roused against its neighbour. But the
+benefits bestowed by England on her Low Country ally
+were far greater than any advantage which France
+could offer to Scotland. Facilities of trade and favourable
+tariffs bound the men of Ghent and Bruges to the
+interests of Edward. But the friendship of France was
+limited to a few bribes and the loan of a few soldiers.
+Scotland, therefore, became impoverished by her alliance,
+while Flanders grew fat on the liberality of her powerful
+friend. England itself derived no small benefit both
+from the hostility of Scotland and the alliance of the
+Flemings. When the Northern army was strong, and
+the King was hard pressed by the great Wallace, the
+sagacious Parliament exacted concessions and immunities
+from its imperious lord before it came liberally to
+his aid; and whenever we read in one page of a check
+to the arms of Edward, we read in the next of an enlargement
+of the popular rights. When the first glow
+of the apparent conquest of Scotland was past, and the
+nation was seen rising under the Knight of Elderslie
+after it had been deserted by its natural leaders, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[321]</a></span>
+lords and barons,&mdash;and, later, when in 1297 he gained
+a great victory over the English at Stirling,&mdash;the
+English Parliament lost no time in availing themselves
+of the defeat, and sent over to the king, who was at the
+moment in Flanders menacing the flanks of France, a
+parchment for his signature, containing the most ample
+ratification of their power of granting or withholding
+the supplies. It was on the 10th of October, 1297, that
+this important document was signed; and, satisfied with
+this assurance of their privileges, the &ldquo;nobles, knights
+of the shire, and burgesses of England in parliament assembled&rdquo;
+voted the necessary funds to enable their sovereign
+lord to punish his rebels in Scotland. Perhaps
+these contests between the sister countries deepened the
+patriotic feeling of each, and prepared them, at a later
+day, to throw their separate and even hostile triumphs
+into the united stock, so that, as Charles Knight says
+in his admirable &ldquo;Popular History,&rdquo; &ldquo;the Englishman
+who now reads of the deeds of Wallace and Bruce, or
+hears the stirring words of one of the noblest lyrics of
+any tongue, feels that the call to &lsquo;lay the proud usurper
+low&rsquo; is one which stirs his blood as much as that of the
+born Scotsman; for the small distinctions of locality
+have vanished, and the great universal sympathies for
+the brave and the oppressed stay not to ask whether
+the battle for freedom was fought on the banks of the
+Thames or of the Forth. The mightiest schemes of
+despotism speedily perish. The union of nations is accomplished
+only by a slow but secure establishment of
+mutual interests and equal rights.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" /></div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[323]</a></span>
+<a name="FOURTEENTH_CENTURY" id="FOURTEENTH_CENTURY">FOURTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="4" class="big">Emperors of Germany.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Albert.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1308.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry VII.</span>, (of Luxemburg.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1314.</td><td class="sovereign"><p><span class="smcap">Louis IV.</span>, (of Bavaria).</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Frederick III.</span>, (of Austria,) died 1330.</p></td>
+<td class="mustache3">}</td><td>Rival Empe&shy;rors</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1347.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles IV.</span>, (of Luxemburg.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1378.</td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Wenceslas</span>, (of Bohemia.)</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of France.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip IV.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1314.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis X.</span>, (Hutin.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1316.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip V.</span>, (the Long.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1322.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles IV.</span>, (the Handsome.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1328.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip VI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1350.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John II.</span>, (the Good.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1364.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles V.</span>, (the Wise.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1380.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles VI.</span>, (the Beloved.)</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of the East.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Andronicus II.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1332.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Andronicus III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1341.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John Palæologus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1347.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John Cantacuzenus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1355.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John Palæologus,</span> (restored.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1391.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Manuel Palæologus.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of England.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edward I.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1307.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edward II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1327.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edward III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1377.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Richard II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1399.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry IV.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of Scotland.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1306.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Robert Bruce</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1329.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">David II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1371.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Robert II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1390.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Robert III.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td class="year-top">1311.</td><td align="left">Suppression of the Knights Templars.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-top">1343.</td><td align="left">Cannon first used.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-top">1370.</td><td align="left">John Huss born.</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-top">1383.</td><td align="left">Bible first translated into a vulgar tongue, (Wickliff&rsquo;s.)</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Authors.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dante</span>, <span class="smcap">Petrarch</span>, <span class="smcap">Boccaccio</span>, <span class="smcap">Chaucer</span>, <span class="smcap">Froissart</span>, <span class="smcap">John Duns
+Scotus</span>, <span class="smcap">Bradwardine</span>, <span class="smcap">William Occam</span>, <span class="smcap">Wickliff</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[325]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_FOURTEENTH_CENTURY" id="THE_FOURTEENTH_CENTURY">THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">ABOLITION OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLARS&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;RISE OF
+MODERN LITERATURES&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;SCHISM OF THE CHURCH.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the year 1300 a jubilee was celebrated at Rome,
+when remission of sins and other spiritual indulgences
+were offered to all visitors by the liberal hand of Pope
+Boniface the Eighth. And for the thirty days of the
+solemn ceremonial, the crowds who poured in from all
+parts of Europe, and pursued their way from church to
+church and kissed with reverential lips the relics of the
+saints and martyrs, gave an appearance of strength and
+universality to the Roman Church which had long departed
+from it. Yet the downward course had been so
+slow, and each defection or defeat had been so covered
+from observation in a cloud of magnificent boasts, that
+the real weakness of the Papacy was only known
+to the wise and politic. Even in the splendours and
+apparent triumph of the jubilee processions it was perceived
+by the eyes of hostile statesmen that the day of
+faith was past.</p>
+
+<p>Dante, the great poet of Italy, was there, piercing
+with his Ithuriel spear the false forms under which the
+spiritual tyranny concealed itself. Countless multitudes
+deployed before him without blinding him for a moment
+to the unreality of all he saw. Others were there, not
+deriving their conclusions, like Dante, from the intuitive
+insight into truth with which the highest imaginations
+are gifted, but from the calmer premises of reason and
+observation. Even while the pæans were loudest and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[326]</a></span>
+the triumph at its height, thoughts were entering into
+many hearts which had never been harboured before,
+but which in no long space bore their fruits, not only in
+opposition to the actual proceedings of Rome, but in
+undisguised contempt and ridicule of all its claims.
+Boniface himself, however, was ignorant of all these
+secret feelings. He was now past eighty years of age,
+and burning with a wilder personal ambition and more
+presumptuous ostentation than would have been pardonable
+at twenty. He appeared in the processions of the
+jubilee, dressed in the robes of the Empire, with two
+swords, and the globe of sovereignty carried before him.
+A herald cried, at the same time, &ldquo;Peter, behold thy
+successor! Christ, behold thy vicar upon earth!&rdquo; But
+the high looks of the proud were soon to be brought
+low. The King of France at that time was Philip the
+Handsome, the most unprincipled and obstinate of men,
+who stuck at no baseness or atrocity to gain his ends,&mdash;who
+debased the Crown, pillaged the Church, oppressed
+the people, tortured the Jews, and impoverished the nobility,&mdash;a
+self-willed, strong-handed, evil-hearted despot,
+and glowing with an intense desire to humble and spoil
+the Holy Father himself. If he could get the Pope to be
+his tax-gatherer, and, instead of emptying the land of
+all its wealth for the benefit of the Roman exchequer,
+pour Roman, German, English, European contributions
+into his private treasury, the object of his life would be
+gained. His coffers would be overflowing, and his principal
+opponent disgraced. A wonderful and apparently
+impossible scheme, but which nevertheless succeeded.
+The combatants at first seemed very equally matched.
+When Boniface made an extravagant demand, Philip
+sent him a contemptuous reply. When Boniface turned
+for alliances to the Emperor or to England, Philip threw
+himself on the sympathy of his lords and the inhabitants<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[327]</a></span>
+of the towns; for the parts formerly played by
+Pope and King were now reversed. The Papacy, instead
+of recurring to the people and strengthening itself by
+contact with the masses who had looked to the Church
+as their natural guard from the aggressions of their
+lords, now had recourse to the more dangerous expedient
+of exciting one sovereign against another, and weakened
+its power as much by concessions to its friends as
+by the hostility of its foes. The king, on the other hand,
+flung himself on the support of his subjects, including
+both the Church and Parliament, and thus raised a feeling
+of national independence which was more fatal to
+Roman preponderance than the most active personal
+enmity could have been. Accordingly, we find Boniface
+offending the population of France by his intemperate
+attacks on the worst of kings, and that worst of kings
+attracting the admiration of his people by standing up
+for the dignity of the Crown against the presumption
+of the Pope. The fact of this national spirit is shown
+by the very curious circumstance that while Philip and
+his advisers, in their quarrels with Boniface, kept within
+the bounds of respectful language in the letters they
+actually sent to Rome, other answers were disseminated
+among the people as having been forwarded to the
+Pope, outraging all the feelings of courtesy and respect.
+It was like the conduct of the Chinese mandarins, who
+publish vainglorious and triumphant bulletins among
+their people, while they write in very different language
+to the enemy at their gates. Thus, in reply to a very
+insulting brief of Boniface, beginning, &ldquo;Ausculta, fili,&rdquo;
+(Listen, son,) and containing a catalogue of all his complaints
+against the French king, Philip published a
+version of it, omitting all the verbiage in which the
+insolent meaning was involved, and accompanied it in
+the same way with a copy of the unadorned eloquence<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[328]</a></span>
+which constituted his reply. In this he descended to
+very plain speaking. &ldquo;Philip,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;by the grace
+of God, King of the French, to Boniface, calling himself
+Pope, little or no salutation. Be it known to your
+Fatuity that we are subject in temporals to no man
+alive; that the collation of churches and vacant prebends
+is inherent in our Crown; that their &lsquo;fruits&rsquo; belong
+to us; that all presentations made or to be made
+by us are valid; that we will maintain our presentees in
+possession of them with all our power; and that we
+hold for fools and idiots whosoever believes otherwise.&rdquo;
+This strange address received the support of the great
+majority of the nation, and was meant as a translation
+into the vulgar tongue of the real intentions of the irritated
+monarch, which were concealed in the letter really
+despatched in a mist of polite circumlocutions. Boniface
+perceived the animus of his foe, but bore himself as
+loftily as ever. When a meeting of the barons, held in
+the Louvre, had appealed to a General Council and had
+passed a vote of condemnation against the Pope as
+guilty of many crimes, not exclusive of heresy itself,
+he answered, haughtily, that the summoning of a council
+was a prerogative of the Pope, and that already the
+King had incurred the danger of excommunication for
+the steps he had taken against the Holy Chair. To
+prevent the publication of the sentence, which might
+have been made a powerful weapon against France in
+the hands of Albert of Germany or Edward of England,
+it was necessary to give notice of an appeal to a
+General Council into the hands of the Pope in person.
+He had retired to Anagni, his native town, where he
+found himself more secure among his friends and relations
+than in the capital of his See. Colonna, a discontented
+Roman and sworn enemy of Boniface, and
+Supino, a military adventurer, whom Philip bought<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[329]</a></span>
+over with a bribe of ten thousand florins, introduced
+Nogaret, the French chancellor and chief adviser of the
+king, into Anagni, with cries from their armed attendants
+of &ldquo;Death to the Pope!&rdquo; &ldquo;Long live the King
+of France!&rdquo; The cardinals fled in dismay. The inhabitants,
+not being able to prevent their visitors from pillaging
+the shops, joined them in that occupation, and
+every thing was in confusion. The Pope was in despair.
+His own nephew had abandoned his cause and made
+terms for himself. Accounts vary as to his behaviour
+in these extremities. Perhaps they are all true at different
+periods of the scene. At first, overwhelmed with
+the treachery of his friends, he is said to have burst
+into tears. Then he gathered his ancient courage, and,
+when commanded to abdicate, offered his neck to the
+assailants; and at last, to strike them with awe, or at
+least to die with dignity, he bore on his shoulders the
+mantle of St. Peter, placed the crown of Constantine on
+his head, and grasped the keys and cross in his hands.
+Colonna, they say, struck him on the cheek with his
+iron gauntlet till the blood came. Let us hope that this
+is an invention of the enemy; for the Pope was eighty-six
+years old, and Colonna was a Roman soldier. There
+is always a tendency to elevate the sufferer in the cause
+we favour, by the introduction of ennobling circumstances.
+In this and other instances of the same kind
+there is the further temptation in orthodox historians to
+make the most they can of the martyrdom of one of
+their chiefs, and in a peculiar manner to glorify the
+wrongs of their hero by their resemblance to the sufferings
+of Christ. But the rest of the story is melancholy
+enough without the aggravation of personal pain.
+The pontiff abstained from food for three whole days.
+He consumed his grief in secret, and was only relieved
+at last from fears of the dagger or poison by an insurrection<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[330]</a></span>
+of the people. They fell upon the French escort
+when they perceived how weak it was, and carried the
+Pope into the market-place. He said, &ldquo;Good people,
+you have seen how our enemies have spoiled me of my
+goods. Behold me as poor as Job. I tell you truly, I have
+nothing to eat or drink. If there is any good woman
+who will charitably bestow on me a little bread and
+wine, or even a little water, I will give her God&rsquo;s blessing
+and mine. Whoever will bring me the smallest
+thing in this my necessity, I will give him remission of
+all his sins.&rdquo; All the people cried, &ldquo;Long live the Holy
+Father!&rdquo; They ran and brought him bread and wine,
+and any thing they had. Everybody would enter and
+speak to him, just as to any other of the poor. In a
+short time after this he proceeded to Rome, and felt
+once more in safety. But his heart was tortured by
+anger and a thirst for vengeance. He became insane;
+and when he tried to escape from the restraints his state
+demanded, and found his way barred by the Orsini, his
+insanity became madness. He foamed at the mouth and
+ground his teeth when he was spoken to. He repelled
+the offers of his friends with curses and violence, and
+died without the sacraments or consolations of the
+Church. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1303.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The people remembered the prophecy
+made of him by his predecessor Celestin:&mdash;&ldquo;You
+mounted like a fox; you will reign like a lion; you will
+die like a dog.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>But the degradation of the papal chair was not yet
+complete, and Philip was far from satisfied. Merely to
+have harassed to death an old man of eighty-six was not
+sufficient for a monarch who wanted a servant in the
+Pope more than a victim. To try his power over Benedict
+the Eleventh, the successor of Boniface, he began a
+process in the Roman court against the memory of his
+late antagonist. Benedict replied by an anathema in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[331]</a></span>
+general terms on the murderers of Boniface, and all
+Philip&rsquo;s crimes and schemings seemed of no avail. But
+one day the sister of a religious order presented His
+Holiness with a basket of figs, and in a short time the
+pontifical throne was vacant.</p>
+
+<p>Now was the time for the triumph of the king. He
+had devoted much time and money to win over a number
+of cardinals to his cause, and obtained a promise
+under their hands and seals that they would vote for
+whatever candidate he chose to name. He was not long
+in fixing on a certain Bernard de Goth, Archbishop of
+Bordeaux, the most greedy and unprincipled of the prelates
+of France, and appointed a meeting with him to
+settle the terms of a bargain. They met in a forest,
+they heard mass together, and took mutual oaths of secrecy,
+and then the business began. &ldquo;See, archbishop,&rdquo;
+said the king: &ldquo;I have it in my power to make you
+Pope if I choose; and if you promise me six favours
+which I will ask of you, I will assure you that dignity,
+and give you evidence of the truth of what I say.&rdquo; So
+saying, he showed the letters and delegation of both the
+electoral colleges. The archbishop, filled with covetousness,
+and seeing at once how entirely the popedom depended
+on the king, threw himself trembling with joy
+at Philip&rsquo;s feet. &ldquo;My lord,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;I now perceive
+you love me more than any man alive, and that you
+render me good for evil. It is for you to command,&mdash;for
+me to obey; and I shall always be ready to do so.&rdquo;
+The king lifted him up, kissed him on the mouth, and
+said to him, &ldquo;The six special favours I have to ask of
+you are these. First, that you will reconcile me entirely
+with the Church, and get me pardoned for my misdeed
+in arresting Pope Boniface. Second, that you will give
+the communion to me and all my supporters. Third,
+that you will give me tithes of the clergy of my realm
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[332]</a></span>
+for five years, to supply the expenses of the war in
+Flanders. Fourth, that you will destroy and annul the
+memory of Boniface the Eighth. Fifth, that you will
+give the dignity of Cardinal to Messer Jacopo, and
+Messer Piero de la Colonna, along with certain others
+of my friends. As for the sixth favour and promise, I
+reserve it for the proper time and place, for it is a great
+and secret thing.&rdquo; The archbishop promised all by oath
+on the Corpus Domini, and gave his brother and two
+nephews as hostages. The king, on the other hand,
+made oath to have him elected Pope.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1305.</div>
+
+<p>His Holiness Clement the Fifth was therefore the
+thrall and servant of Philip le Bel. No office
+was too lowly, or sacrifice too large, for the
+grateful pontiff. He carried his subserviency so far as
+to cross the Alps and receive the wages of his obedience,
+the papal tiara, at Lyons. He became in fact a citizen
+of France, and subject of the crown. He delivered over
+the clergy to the relentless hands of the king. He gave
+him tithes of all their livings; and as the Count of
+Flanders owed money to Philip which he had no
+means of paying, the generosity of the Pope came to
+the rescue, and he gave the tithes of the Flemish clergy
+to the bankrupt count in order to enable him to pay his
+debt to the exacting monarch. But the gift of these
+taxes was not a transfer from the Pope to the king or
+count: His Holiness did not reduce his own demands in
+consideration of the subsidies given to those powers.
+He completed, indeed, the ruin the royal tax-gatherers
+began; for he travelled in more than imperial state from
+end to end of France, and ate bishop and abbot, and
+prior and prebendary, out of house and home. Wherever
+he rested for a night or two, the land became impoverished;
+and all this wealth was poured into the lap
+of a certain Brunissende de Périgord, who cost the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[333]</a></span>
+Church, it was popularly said, more than the Holy
+Land. But the capacity of Christian contribution was
+soon exhausted; and yet the interminable avarice of
+Pope and King went on. The honourable pair hit upon
+an excellent expedient, and the Jews were offered as a
+fresh pasture for the unimpaired appetite of the Father
+of Christendom and the eldest son of the Church.
+Philip hated their religion, but seems to have had a
+great respect for the accuracy of their proceedings in
+trade. So, to gratify the first, he stripped them of all
+they had, and, to prove the second, confiscated the money
+he found entered in their books as lent on interest to
+Christians. He was found to be a far more difficult
+creditor to deal with than the original lenders had been,
+and many a baron and needy knight had to refund to
+Philip the sums, with interest at twenty per cent.,
+which they might have held indefinitely from the sons
+of Abraham and repudiated in an access of religious
+fervour at last.</p>
+
+<p>But worse calamities were hanging over the heads of
+knights and barons than the avarice of Philip and the
+dishonesty of Clement. Knighthood itself, and feudalism,
+were about to die,&mdash;knighthood, which had offered
+at all events an ideal of nobleness and virtue, and feudalism,
+which had replaced the expiring civilization of
+Rome founded on the centralization of power in one
+man&rsquo;s hands, and the degradation of all the rest, with a
+new form of society which derived its vitality from independent
+action and individual self-respect. It was by
+a still wider expansion of power and influence that feudalism
+was to be superseded. Other elements besides
+the possession of land were to come into the constitution
+of the new state of human affairs. The man henceforth
+was not to be the mere representative of so many
+acres of ground. His individuality was to be still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[334]</a></span>
+further defined, and learning, wealth, knowledge, arts,
+and sciences were from this time forth to have as much
+weight in the commonwealth as the hoisted pennon and
+strong-armed followers of the steel-clad warrior.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i-1">&ldquo;The old order changeth, giving place to new,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We have already seen the prosperity of the towns,
+and have even heard the contemptuous laughter with
+which the high-fed burghers of Ghent or Bruges received
+the caracollings of their ponderous suzerain as, armed
+<i>cap-à-pied</i>, he rode up to their impregnable walls. Not
+less barricaded than the contemptuous city behind the
+steel fortifications with which he protected his person,
+the knight had nothing to fear so long as he bestrode
+his war-horse and managed to get breath enough
+through the openings of his cross-barred visor. He
+was as safe in his iron coating as a turtle in its shell;
+but he was nearly as unwieldy as he was safe. When
+galloping forward against a line of infantry, nothing
+could resist his weight. With heavy mace or sweeping
+sword he cleared his ground on either side, and the unarmoured
+adversary had no means of repelling his
+assault. A hundred knights, therefore, we may readily
+believe, very often have put their thousands or tens
+of thousands to flight. We read, indeed, of immense
+slaughters of the common people, accompanied with the
+loss of one single knight; and this must be attributed to
+the perfection which the armourer&rsquo;s art had attained, by
+which no opening for arrow or spear-point was left in
+the whole suit. But military instruments had for some
+time been invented, which, by projecting large stones
+with enormous force, flattened the solid cuirass or
+crushed the glittering helm. Once get the stunned or
+wounded warrior on the ground, there was no further
+danger to be apprehended. He lay in his iron prison<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[335]</a></span>
+unable to get up, unable to breathe, and with the additional
+misfortune of being so admirably protected that
+his enemies had difficulty in putting him out of his pain.
+This, however, was counterbalanced by the ample time
+he possessed, during their futile efforts to reach a vital
+part, to bargain for his life; and this was another
+element in the safety of knightly war. A ransom
+could at all times preserve his throat, whereas the disabled
+foot-soldier was pierced with relentless point or
+trodden down by the infuriated horse. The knight&rsquo;s
+position, therefore, was more like that of a fighter
+behind walls, only that he carried his wall with him
+wherever he went, and even when a breach was made
+could stop up the gap with a sum of money. Nobody
+had ever believed it possible for footmen to stand up
+against a charge of cavalry. No man&oelig;uvres were
+learned like the hollow squares of modern times, which,
+at Waterloo and elsewhere, have stood unmoved against
+the best swordsmen of the world. But once, at the
+beginning of this century, in 1302, a dreadful event
+happened, which gave a different view of the capabilities
+of determined infantry in making head against
+their assailants, and commenced the lesson of the resistibility
+of mounted warriors which was completed
+by Bannockburn in Scotland, and Crecy and Poictiers.</p>
+
+<p>The dreadful event was the entire overthrow of the
+knights and gentlemen of France by the citizens of a
+Flemish manufacturing town at the battle of Courtrai.
+Impetuous valour, and contempt for smiths and weavers,
+blinded the fiery nobles. They rushed forward with
+loose bridles, and, as they had disdained to reconnoitre
+the scene of the display, they fell headlong, one after
+another, horse and plume, sword and spur, into one
+enormous ditch which lay between them and their
+enemies. On they came, an avalanche of steel and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[336]</a></span>
+horseflesh, and floundered into the muddy hole. Hundreds,
+thousands, unable to check their steeds, or afraid
+to appear irresolute, or goggling in vain through the
+deep holes left for their eyes, fell, struggled, writhed,
+and choked, till the ditch was filled with trampled
+knights and tumbling horses, and the burghers on the
+opposite bank beat in the helmets of those who tried to
+climb up, with jagged clubs, and hacked their naked
+heads. And when the whole army was annihilated, and
+the spoils were gathered, it was found there were princes
+and lords in almost incredible numbers, and four thousand
+golden spurs to mark the extent of the knightly
+slaughter and give name to the engagement. It is
+called the Battle of the Spurs,&mdash;for a nobler cause than
+another engagement of the same name, which we shall
+meet with in a future century, and which derived its
+appellation from the fact that spurs were more in requisition
+than swords.</p>
+
+<p>Philip was at this moment in the middle of his quarrel
+with Boniface. He determined to compensate himself
+for the loss he had sustained in military fame at Courtrai
+by fiercer exactions on his clergy and bitterer
+enmity to the Pope. We have seen how he pursued
+the wretched Boniface to the grave, and persisted in
+trying to force the obsequious Clement to blacken his
+memory after he was dead. Clement was unwilling to
+expose the vices and crimes of his predecessor, and yet
+he had given a promise in that strange meeting in the
+forest to work his master&rsquo;s will; he was also resident in
+France, and knew how unscrupulous his protector was.
+Philip availed himself of the discredit brought on
+knighthood by the loss of all those golden spurs, and
+compounded for leaving the deceased pontiff alone, by
+exacting the consent of Clement to his assault on the
+order of the Templars, the wealthiest institution in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[337]</a></span>
+world, who held thousands of the best manors in France,
+and whose spoils would make him the richest king in
+Christendom. Yet the Templars were no contemptible
+foes. In number they were but fourteen thousand, but
+their castles were over all the land; they were every
+one of them of noble blood, and strong in the relationship
+of all the great houses in Europe. If they had
+united with their brethren, the Knights Hospitallers, no
+sovereign could have resisted their demands; but, fortunately
+for Philip, they were rivals to the death, and
+gave no assistance to each other when oppressed. Both,
+in fact, had outlived the causes of their institution, and
+had forfeited the respect of the masses of the people by
+their ostentatious abnegation of all the rules by which
+they professed to be bound. Poverty, chastity, and
+brotherly kindness were the sworn duties of the most
+rich, sensual, and unpitying society which ever lived.
+When Richard of England was dying, he made an
+imaginary will, and said, &ldquo;I leave my avarice to the
+Citeaux, my luxury to the Grey Friars, and my pride to
+the Templars.&rdquo; And the Templars took possession of
+the bequest. When driven from the Holy Land, they
+settled in all the Christian kingdoms from Denmark to
+the south of Italy, and everywhere presented the same
+spectacle of selfishness and debauchery. In Paris they
+had got possession of a tract of ground equal to one-third
+of the whole city, and had covered it with towers
+and battlements, and within the unapproachable fortress
+lived a life of the most luxurious self-indulgence. Strange
+rumours got abroad of the unholy rites with which their
+initiations were accompanied. Their receptions into the
+order were so mysterious and sacred that an interloper
+(if it had been the King of France) would have been put
+to death for his intrusion. Frightful stories were told
+of their blasphemies and hideous ceremonials. Reports<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[338]</a></span>
+came even from over the sea, that while in Jerusalem
+they had conformed to the Mohammedan faith and had
+exchanged visits and friendly offices with the chiefs of
+the unbelievers. Against so dark and haughty an association
+it was easy to stir up the popular dislike. Nobody
+could take their part, they lived so entirely to
+themselves and shunned sympathy and society with so
+cold a disdain. They were men of religious vows without
+the humility of that condition, so they were hated
+by the nobles, who looked on priests as their natural inferiors;
+they were nobles without the individual riches
+of the barons and counts, and they were hated by the
+priests, who were at all times the foes of the aristocracy.
+Hated, therefore, by priest and noble, their policy would
+have been to make friends of the lower orders, rising
+citizens, and the great masses of the people. But they
+saw no necessity for altering their lofty course. They
+bore right onward in their haughty disregard of all the
+rest of the world, and were condemned by the universal
+feeling before any definite accusation was raised against
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Clement yielded a faint consent to the proceedings of
+Philip, and that honourable champion of the faith gave
+full loose to his covetousness and hatred. First of all he
+prayed meekly for admission as a brother of the order.
+He would wear the red cross upon his shoulder and
+obey their godly laws. If he had obtained his object,
+he would have procured the grand-mastership for himself
+and disposed of their wealth at his own discretion.
+The order might have survived, but their possessions
+would have been Philip&rsquo;s. They perhaps perceived his
+aim, and declined to admit him into their ranks. A rejected
+candidate soon changes his opinion of the former
+object of his ambition. He now reversed his plan, and
+declared they were unworthy, not only to wallow in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[339]</a></span>
+wealth and splendour of their commanderies, but to live
+in a Christian land. He said they were guilty of all the
+crimes and enormities by which human nature was ever
+disgraced. James de Molay, the grand-master, and all
+the knights of the order throughout France, were seized
+and thrown into prison. Letters were written to all
+other kings and princes, inciting them to similar conduct,
+and denouncing the doomed fraternity in the
+harshest terms. The promise of the spoil was tempting
+to the European sovereigns, but all of them resisted the
+inducement, or at least took gentler methods of attaining
+the same end. But Philip was as much pleased with
+the pursuit as with the catching of the game. He summoned
+a council of the realm, and obtained at the same
+time a commission of inquiry from the Pope. With
+these two courts to back him, it was impossible to fail.
+The knights were kept in noisome dungeons. They
+were scantily fed, and tormented with alternate promises
+and threats. When physically weak and mentally
+depressed, they were tortured in their secret cells, and
+under the pressure of fear and desperation confessed to
+whatever was laid to their charge. Relieved from their
+torments for a moment, they retracted their confessions;
+but the written words remained. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1312.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>And in one day, before
+the public had been prepared for such extremity
+of wrong, fifty-four of these Christian soldiers&mdash;now
+old, and fallen from their high estate&mdash;were publicly
+burned in the place of execution, and no further
+limit was placed to the rapacity of the king. Still the
+odious process crept on with the appearance of law, for
+already the forms of perverted justice were found safer
+and more certain than either sword or fagot; and at
+last, in 1314, the ruined brotherhood were allowed to
+join themselves to other fraternities. The name of
+Templar was blotted out from the knightly roll-call of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[340]</a></span>
+all Europe; and in every nation, in England and Scotland
+particularly, the order was despoiled of all its possessions.
+Clement, however, was furious at seeing the
+moderation of rulers like Edward II., who merely
+stripped the Templars of their houses and lands, and
+did not dabble, as his patron Philip had done, in their
+blood, and rebuked them in angry missives for their
+coldness in the cause of religion.</p>
+
+<p>Now, early in this century, a Pope had been personally
+ill used, and his successor had become the pensioner
+and prisoner of one of the basest of kings; a
+glorious brotherhood of Christian knights had been
+shamelessly and bloodily destroyed. Was there no outcry
+from outraged piety?&mdash;no burst of indignation against
+the perpetrator of so foul a wrong? Pity was at last
+excited by the sufferings and humiliations of the brothers
+of the Temple; but pity is not a feeling on which knighthood
+can depend for vitality or strength. Perhaps,
+indeed, the sympathy raised for the sad ending of that
+once-dreaded institution was more fatal to its revival,
+and more injurious to the credit of all surviving chivalry,
+than the greatest amount of odium would have been.
+Speculative discussions were held about the guilt or innocence
+of the Templars, but the worst of their crimes
+was the crime of being weak. If they had continued
+united and strong, nobody would have heard of the excesses
+laid to their charge. Passing over the impossible
+accusations brought against them by ignorance and
+hatred, the offence they were charged with which
+raised the greatest indignation, and was least capable
+of disproof, was that in their reception into the order
+they spat upon the crucifix and trampled on the sign
+of our salvation. Nothing can be plainer than that this,
+at the first formation of the order, had been a symbol,
+which in the course of years had lost its significance.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[341]</a></span>
+At first introduced as an emblem of Peter&rsquo;s denial and
+of worldly disbelief, to be exchanged, when once they
+were clothed with the Crusader&rsquo;s mantle, for unflinching
+service and undoubting Faith,&mdash;a passage from death
+unto life,&mdash;it had been retained long after its intention
+had been forgotten; and nothing is so striking as the
+confession of some of the younger knights, of the reluctance,
+the shame and trembling, with which, at the
+request of their superior, they had gone through the repulsive
+ceremony. This is one of the dangers of a symbolic
+service. The symbol supersedes the fact. The
+imitation of Peter becomes a falling away from Christ.
+But a century before this time, who can doubt that all
+Christendom would have rushed to the rescue of the
+Pope if he had been seized in his own city and maltreated
+as Boniface had been, and that every gentleman
+in Europe would have drawn sword in behalf of the
+noble Templars?</p>
+
+<p>But papacy, feudalism, and knighthood, as they had
+risen and flourished together, were enveloped in the
+same fall. The society of the Dark Ages had been perfect
+in its symmetry and compactness. Kings were but
+feudal leaders and chiefs in their own domains. Knighthood
+was but the countenance which feudalism turned
+to its enemies, while hospitality, protection, and alliance
+were its offerings to its friends. Over all, representative
+of the heavenly power which cared for the helpless multitudes,
+the serfs and villeins, those who had no other
+friend,&mdash;the Church extended its sheltering arms to the
+lowest of the low. Feudalism could take care of itself;
+knighthood made itself feared; but the multitudes could
+only listen and be obedient. All, therefore, who had no
+sword, and no broad acres, were natural subjects of the
+Pope. But with the rise of the masses the relations
+between them and the Church became changed. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[342]</a></span>
+found that during the last two hundred years, since the
+awakening of mercantile enterprise by the Crusades
+and the commingling of the population in those wild and
+yet elevating expeditions, by the progress of the arts,
+by the privileges wrung from king and noble by flourishing
+towns or purchased from them with sterling coin,
+by the deterioration in the morals of priest and baron,
+and the rise in personal importance of burghers, who
+could fight like those of Courtrai or raise armies like
+those of Pisa and Genoa,&mdash;that the state of society had
+gradually been changed; that the commons were well
+able to defend their own interest; that the feudal proprietor
+had lost his relative rank; that the knight was no
+longer irresistible as a warrior; and that the Pope had
+become one of the most worldly and least scrupulous of
+rulers. Far from being the friend of the unprotected,
+the Church was the subject of all the ballads of every
+nation, wherein its exactions and debaucheries were
+sung at village fairs and conned over in chimney-corners.
+Cannon were first used in this century at the
+siege of Algesiras in 1343; and with the first discharge
+knighthood fell forever from the saddle. The Bible was
+first translated into a national tongue,<a name="FNanchor_A_5" id="FNanchor_A_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_5" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> and Popery fell
+forever from its unopposed dominion. How, indeed,
+even without this incident, could the Papacy have retained
+its power? From 1305 till 1376 the wearers of
+the tiara were the mere puppets of the Kings of France.
+They lived in a nominal freedom at Avignon, but the
+college of electors was in the pay of the French
+sovereign, and the Pope was the creature of his hands.
+This was fatal to the notion of his independence. But
+a heavier blow was struck at the unity of the papal
+power when a double election, in 1378, established two<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[343]</a></span>
+supreme chiefs, one exacting the obedience of the faithful
+from his palace on the banks of the Rhone, and the
+other advancing the same claim from the banks of the
+Tiber. From this time the choice of the chief pontiff
+became a political struggle between the principal kings.
+There were French and German, and even English,
+parties in the conclave, and bribes were as freely administered
+as at a contested election or on a dubious
+question in the time of Sir Robert Walpole. Family
+interest also, from this time, had more effect on the
+policy of the Popes than the ambition to extend their
+spiritual authority. They sacrificed some portion of
+their claims to insure the elevation of their relations.
+Alliances were made, not for the benefit of the Roman
+chair, but for some kinsman&rsquo;s establishment in a principality.
+Dukedoms became appanages of the papal
+name, and every new Pope left the mark of his beneficence
+in the riches and influence of the favourite
+nephew whom he had invested with sovereign rank.
+Italy became filled with new dynasties created by these
+means, and the politics of the papal court became complicated
+by this diversity of motive and influence. Yet
+feudalism struggled on in spite of cannon and the rise
+of the middle orders; and Popery struggled on in spite
+of the spread of information and the diffusion of wealth
+and freedom. For some time, indeed, the decline of
+both those institutions was hidden by a factitious brilliancy
+reflected on them by other causes. The increase
+of refinement gave rise to feelings of romance, which
+were unknown in the days of darkness and suffering
+through which Europe had passed. A reverence for
+antiquity softened the harsher features by which they
+had been actually distinguished, and knighthood became
+subtilized into chivalry. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1350.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>As the hard and uninviting
+reality retreated into the past, the imagination clothed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[344]</a></span>
+it in enchanting hues; and at the very time when the
+bowmen and yeomanry of England had shown at Crecy
+how unfounded were the &ldquo;boast of heraldry, the pomp
+of power,&rdquo; Edward III. had instituted the Order of the
+Garter,&mdash;a transmutation as it were of the rude
+shocks of knighthood into carpet pacings in the
+gilded halls of a palace; as in a former age the returned
+Crusaders had supplied the want of the pride and circumstance
+of the real charge against the Saracen by introducing
+the bloodless imitation of it afforded by the
+tournament. In the same way the personal disqualification
+of the Pope was supplied by an elevation of the
+ideal of his place and office. Religion became poetry
+and sentiment; and though henceforth the reigning pontiff
+was treated with the harshness and sometimes the
+contempt his personal character deserved, his throne
+was still acknowledged as the loftiest of earthly thrones.
+The plaything of the present was nevertheless an idol
+and representative of the past; and kings who drove
+him from his home, or locked him up in their prisons,
+pretended to tremble at his anger, and received his
+letters on their knees.</p>
+
+<p>It must have been evident to any far-seeing observer
+that some great change was in progress during the
+whole of this century, not so much from the results of
+Courtrai, or Crecy, or Poictiers, or the migration of the
+Pope to Avignon, or the increasing riches of the trading
+and manufacturing towns, as from the great uprising of
+the human mind which was shown by the almost simultaneous
+appearance of such stars of literature as Dante,
+and Petrarch, and Boccaccio, and our English Chaucer.
+I suppose no single century since has been in possession
+of four such men. Great geniuses, indeed, and great
+discoveries, seem to come in crops, as if a certain period
+had been fixed for their bursting into flower; and we<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[345]</a></span>
+find the same grand ideas engaging the intellects of men
+widely dispersed, so that a novelty in art or science is
+generally disputed between contending nations. But
+this synchronous development of power is symptomatic
+of some wide-spread tendency, which alters the ordinary
+course of affairs; and we see in the Canterbury Tales
+the dawning of the Reformation; in Shakspeare and
+Bacon the inauguration of a new order of government
+and manners; in Locke and Milton a still further liberation
+from the chains of a worn-out philosophy; in Watt,
+and Fulton, and Cartwright, we see the spread of civilization
+and power. In Walter Scott and Wordsworth,
+and the wonderful galaxy of literary stars who illuminated
+the beginning of this century, we see Waterloo
+and Peace, a widening of national sympathies, and the
+opening of a great future career to all the nations of the
+world. For nothing is so true an index of the state and
+prospects of a people as the healthfulness and honest
+taste of its literature. It was in this sense that Fletcher
+of Saltoun said, (or quoted,) &ldquo;Give me the making
+of the ballads of a people, and I don&rsquo;t care who makes
+the laws.&rdquo; While we have such pure and wholesome
+literature as is furnished us by Hallam, and Macaulay,
+and Alison, by Tennyson, Dickens, Thackeray, and the
+rest, philosophy like Hamilton&rsquo;s, and science like Herschel&rsquo;s
+and Faraday&rsquo;s, we have no cause to look forward
+with doubt or apprehension.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i-1">&ldquo;Naught shall make us rue</span>
+<span class="i0">If England to herself do rest but true.&rdquo;</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>But those pioneers of the Fourteenth Century had
+dangers and difficulties to encounter from which their
+successors have been free. It is a very different thing
+for authors to write for the applause of an appreciating
+public, and for them to create an appreciating public for
+themselves. Their audience must at first have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[346]</a></span>
+hostile. First, the critical and scholarly part of the
+world was offended with the bad taste of writing in the
+modern languages at all. Secondly, the pitch at which
+they struck the national note was too high for the ears
+of the vulgar. A correct and dignified use of the
+spoken tongue, the conveyance, in ordinary and familiar
+words, of lofty or poetical thoughts, filled both those
+classes with surprise. To the scholar it seemed good
+materials enveloped in a very unworthy covering. To
+&ldquo;the general&rdquo; it seemed an attempt to deprive them of
+their vernacular phrases and bring bad grammar and
+coarse expressions into disrepute. Petrarch was so
+conscious of this that he speaks apologetically of his
+sonnets in Italian, and founds his hope of future fame
+on his Latin verses. But more important than the
+poems of Dante and Chaucer, or the prose of Boccaccio,
+was the introduction of the new literature represented
+by Froissart. Hitherto chronicles had for the most part
+consisted of the record of such wandering rumours as
+reached a monastery or were gathered in the religious
+pilgrimages of holy men. Mingled, even the best of
+them, with the credulity of inexperienced and simple
+minds, their effect was lost on the contemporary generation
+by the isolation of the writers. Nobody beyond
+the convent-walls knew what the learned historians of
+the establishment had been doing. Their writings were
+not brought out into the light of universal day, and a
+knowledge of European society gathered point by point,
+by comparing, analyzing, and contrasting the various
+statements contained in those dispersed repositories.
+But at this time there came into notice the most inquiring,
+enterprising, picturesque, and entertaining chronicler
+that had ever appeared since Herodotus read the
+result of his personal travels and sagacious inquiries to
+the assembled multitudes of Greece.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[347]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>John Froissart, called by the courtesy of the time Sir
+John, in honour of his being priest and chaplain, devoted
+a long life to the collection of the fullest and most
+trustworthy accounts of all the events and personages
+characteristic of his time. From 1326, when his labours
+commenced, to 1400, when his active pen stood still,
+nothing happened in any part of Europe that the Paul
+Pry of the period did not rush off to verify on the spot.
+If he heard of an assemblage of knights going on at the
+extremities of France or in the centre of Germany, of
+a tournament at Bordeaux, a court gala in Scotland, or
+a marriage festival at Milan, his travels began,&mdash;whether
+in the humble guise of a solitary horseman with his
+portmanteau behind his saddle and a single greyhound
+at his heels, as he jogged wearily across the Border, till
+he finally arrived in Edinburgh, or in his grander style
+of equipment, gallant steed, with hackney led beside
+him, and four dogs of high race gambolling round his
+horse, as he made his dignified journey from Ferrara to
+Rome. Wherever life was to be seen and painted, the
+indefatigable Froissart was to be found. Whatever he
+had gathered up on former expeditions, whatever he
+learned on his present tour, down it went in his own
+exquisite language, with his own poetical impression of
+the pomps and pageantries he beheld; and when at the
+end of his journey he reached the court of prince or
+potentate, no higher treat could be offered to the &ldquo;noble
+lords and ladies bright&rdquo; than to form a glittering circle
+round the enchanting chronicler and listen to what he
+had written. From palace to palace, from castle to
+castle, the unwearied &ldquo;picker-up of unconsidered trifles&rdquo;
+(which, however, were neither trifles nor unconsidered,
+when their true value became known, as giving life and
+reality to the annals of a whole period) pursued his
+happy way, certain of a friendly reception when he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[348]</a></span>
+arrived, and certain of not losing his time by negligence
+or blindness on the road. If he overtakes a stately cavalier,
+attended by squires and men-at-arms, he enters into
+conversation, drawing out the experiences of the venerable
+warrior by relating to him all he knew of things
+and persons in which he took an interest. And when
+they put up at some hostelry on the road, and while
+the gallant knight was sound asleep on his straw-stuffed
+couch, and his followers were wallowing amid the rushes
+on the parlour floor, Froissart was busy with pen and
+note-book, scoring down all the old gentleman had told
+him, all the fights he had been present at, and the secret
+history (if any) of the councils of priests and kings. In
+this way knights in distant parts of the world became
+known to each other. The same voice which described
+to Douglas at Dalkeith the exploits of the Prince of
+Wales sounded the praises of Douglas in the ears of the
+Black Prince at Bordeaux. A community of sentiment
+was produced between the upper ranks of all nations by
+this common register of their acts and feelings; and
+knighthood received its most ennobling consummation
+in these imperishable descriptions, at the very time when
+its political and military influence came to a close.
+Froissart&rsquo;s Chronicles are the epitaph of feudalism,
+written indeed while it was yet alive, but while its
+strength was only the convulsive energy of approaching
+death. The standard of knightly virtue became raised
+in proportion as knightly power decayed. In the same
+way as the increased civilization and elevating influences
+of the time clothed the Church in colours borrowed
+from the past, while its real influence was seriously impaired,
+the expiring embers of knighthood occasionally
+flashed up into something higher; and in this century
+we read of Du Guesclin of France, Walter Manny and
+Edward the Third of England, and many others, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[349]</a></span>
+illustrated the order with qualifications it had never
+possessed in its palmiest state.</p>
+
+<p>Courtrai was fought and Amadis de Gaul written
+almost at the same time. Let us therefore mark, as a
+characteristic of the period we have reached, the decay
+of knighthood, or feudalism in its armour of proof, and
+the growth at the same time of a sense of honour and
+generosity, which contrasted strangely in its softened
+and sentimentalized refinement with the harshness and
+cruelty which still clung to the ordinary affairs of life.
+Thus the young conqueror of Poictiers led his captive
+John into London with the respectful attention of a
+grateful subject to a crowned king. He waited on him
+at table, and made him forget the humiliation of defeat
+and the griefs of imprisonment in the sympathy and
+reverence with which he was everywhere surrounded.
+This same prince was regardless of human life or suffering
+where the theatrical show of magnanimity was not
+within his reach, bloodthirsty and tyrannical, and is declared
+by the chronicler himself to be of &ldquo;a high, overbearing
+spirit, and cruel in his hatred.&rdquo; It shows, however,
+what an advance had already been made in the
+influence of public opinion, when we read how generally
+the treatment of the noble captive, John of France, was
+appreciated. In former ages, and even at present in
+nations of a lower state of feelings, the kind treatment
+of a fallen enemy, or the sparing of a helpless population,
+would be attributed to weakness or fear. Chivalry,
+which was an attempt to amalgamate the Christian
+virtues with the rougher requirements of the feudal code,
+taught the duty of being pitiful as well as brave. And
+though at this period that feeling only existed between
+knight and knight, and was not yet extended to their
+treatment of the common herd, the principle was
+asserted that war could be carried on without personal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[350]</a></span>
+animosity, and that courage, endurance, and the other
+knightly qualities were to be admired as much in an
+enemy as a friend.</p>
+
+<p>There was, however, another reason for this besides
+the natural admiration which great deeds are sure to
+call forth in natures capable of performing them; and
+that was, that Europe was divided into petty sovereignties,
+too weak to maintain their independence without
+foreign aid, too proud to submit to another government,
+and trusting to the support their money or influence
+could procure. In all countries, therefore, there
+existed bodies of mercenary soldiers&mdash;or Free Lances,
+as they were called&mdash;claiming the dignity and rank of
+knights and noblemen, who never knew whether the
+men they were fighting to-day might not be their comrades
+and followers to-morrow. In Italy, always a
+country of divisions and enmities, there were armed combatants
+secured on either side. Unconnected with the
+country they defended by any ties of kindred or allegiance,
+they found themselves opposed to a body, perhaps
+of their countrymen, certainly of their former companions;
+and, except so much as was required to earn
+their pay and preserve their reputation, they did nothing
+that might be injurious to their temporary foes. Battles
+accordingly were fought where feats of horsemanship
+and dexterity at their weapons were shown; where rushes
+were made into the vacant space between the armies
+by contending warriors, and horse and man acquitted
+themselves with the acclamations, and almost with the
+safety, of a charge in the amphitheatre at Astley&rsquo;s.
+But no blood was spilt, no life was taken; and a long
+summer day has seen a confused mêlée going on between
+the hired combatants of two cities or principalities,
+without a single casualty more serious than a cavalier
+thrown from his horse and unable to rise from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[351]</a></span>
+weight and tightness of his armour. Fights of this
+kind could scarcely be considered in earnest, and we are
+not surprised to find that the burden and heat of an
+engagement was thrown upon the light-armed foot: we
+gather, indeed, towards the end of Froissart&rsquo;s Chronicles,
+that while the cavaliers persisted in endeavouring to
+distinguish their individual prowess, as at the battle of
+Navareta in Spain, and got into confusion in their
+eagerness of assault, &ldquo;the sharpness of the English
+arrows began to be felt,&rdquo; and the fate of the battle depended
+on the unflinching line and impregnable solidity
+of the archers and foot-soldiers. These latter took a
+deeper interest in the result than the more showy performers,
+and were not carried away by the vanities of
+personal display.</p>
+
+<p>Look at the year 1300, with the jubilee of Boniface
+going on. Look at 1400, with the death of Chaucer and
+Froissart, and the enthroning of Henry the Fourth, and
+what an amount of incident, of change and improvement,
+has been crowded into the space! The rise of
+national literatures, the softening of feudalism, the decline
+of Church power,&mdash;these&mdash;illustrated by Dante and
+Chaucer, by the alteration in the art of war, and above
+all, perhaps, by the translation of the Bible into the
+vulgar tongue&mdash;were not only the fruits gained for the
+present, but the promise of greater things to come.
+There will be occasional backslidings after this time,
+but the onward progress is steady and irresistible: the
+regressions are but the reflux waves in an advancing
+tide, caused by the very force and vitality of the great
+sea beyond. And after this view of some of the main
+features of the century, we shall take a very cursory
+glance at some of the principal events on which the portraiture
+is founded.</p>
+
+<p>It is a bad sign of the early part of this period that
+our great landmarks are still battles and invasions.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[352]</a></span>
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1314.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>After Courtrai in 1302, where the nobility rushed blindfold
+into a natural ditch, we come upon Bannockburn in
+1314, where Edward the Second, not comprehending
+the aim of his more politic father,&mdash;whose
+object was to counterpoise the growing power of
+the French monarchy by consolidating his influence at
+home,&mdash;had marched rather to revenge his outraged
+dignity than to establish his denied authority, and was
+signally defeated by Robert Bruce. Is it not possible
+that the stratagem by which the English chivalry
+suffered so much by means of the pits dug for their reception
+in the space in front of the Scottish lines was
+borrowed from Courtrai,&mdash;art supplying in that dry
+plain near Stirling what nature had furnished to the
+marshy Brabant? However this may be, the same fatal
+result ensued. Pennon and standard, waving plume
+and flashing sword, disappeared in those yawning gulfs,
+and at the present hour very rusty spurs and fragments
+of broken helmets are dug from beneath the soil to mark
+the greatness and the quality of the slaughter. Meantime,
+in compact phalanx&mdash;protected by the knights and
+gentlemen on the flanks, but left to its own free action&mdash;the
+Scottish array bore on. Strong spear and sharp
+sword did the rest, and the English army, shorn of its
+cavalry, disheartened by the loss of its leaders, and
+finally deserted by its pusillanimous king, retreated in
+confusion, and all hope of retaining the country by the
+right of conquest was forever laid aside. Poor Edward
+had, in appalling consciousness of his own imperfections,
+applied to the Pope for permission to rub himself with
+an ointment that would make him brave. Either the
+Pope refused his consent or the ointment failed of its
+purpose. Nothing could rouse a brave thought in the
+heart of the fallen Plantagenet. Sir Giles de Argentine
+might have been more effectual than all the unguents in
+the world. He led the king by the bridle till he saw<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[353]</a></span>
+him in a place of safety. He then stopped his horse
+and said, &ldquo;It has never been my custom to fly, and here
+I must take my fortune.&rdquo; Saying this, he put spurs to
+his horse, and, crying out, &ldquo;An Argentine!&rdquo; charged the
+squadron of Edward Bruce, and was borne down by the
+force of the Scottish spears. The fugitive king galloped
+in terror to the castle of Dunbar, and shipped off by sea
+to Berwick.</p>
+
+<p>The next battle is so strongly corroborative of the
+failing supremacy of heavy armour, and the rising importance
+of the well-trained citizens, that it is worth
+mention, although at first sight it seems to controvert
+both these statements; for it was a fight in which certain
+courageous burghers were mercilessly exterminated
+by gorgeously-caparisoned knights. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1328.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The townsmen of
+Bruges and Ypres had grown so proud and pugnacious
+that in 1328 they advanced to Cassel to do
+battle with the young King of France, Philip
+of Valois, at the head of all his chivalry. There was a
+vast amount of mutual contempt in the two armies.
+The leader of the bold Flemings, who was known as
+Little Jack, entered the enemy&rsquo;s camp in disguise, and
+found young lords in splendid gowns proceeding from
+point to point, gossiping, visiting, and interchanging
+their invitations. Making his way back, he ordered a
+charge at once. The rush was nearly successful, and
+was only checked within a few yards of the royal tent.
+But the check was tremendous. The bloated burghers,
+filled with pride and gorged with wealth, had thought
+proper to ensconce their unwieldy persons in cuirasses
+as brilliant and embarrassing as the armour of the
+knights. The knights, however, were on horseback,
+and the embattled townsfolk were on foot. Great was
+the slaughter, useless the attempt to escape, and thirteen
+thousand were overborne and smothered. Ten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[354]</a></span>
+thousand more were executed by some form of law,
+and the Bourgeoisie taught to rely for its safety on its
+agility and compactness, and not on &ldquo;helm or hauberk&rsquo;s
+twisted mail.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The crop of battles grows rich and plentiful, for
+Edward the Third and Philip of Valois are rival kings
+and warriors, and may be taken as the representatives
+of the two states of society which were brought at this
+time face to face. For Edward, though as true a knight
+as Amadis himself in his own person, in policy was a
+favourer of the new ideas. When the war broke out,
+Philip behaved as if no change had taken place in the
+seat of power and the world had still continued divided
+between the lords and their armed retainers. He threw
+himself for support on the military service of his tenants
+and the aristocratic spirit of his nobles. Edward, wiser
+but less romantic, turned for assistance to the Commons
+of England,&mdash;bought over their good will and copious
+contributions by privileges granted to their trades,&mdash;invited
+skilled workmen over from Flanders, which, with
+the freest spirit in Europe, was under the least improved
+of the feudal governments,&mdash;and established woollen-works
+at York, fustian-works at Norwich, serges at Colchester,
+and kerseys in Devonshire. Mills were whirling
+round in all the counties, and ships coming in untaxed
+at every harbour. Fortunately, as is always the case in
+this country, it was seen that the success of one class
+of the people was beneficial to every other class. The
+baron got more rent for his land and better cloth for his
+apparel by the prosperity of his manufacturing neighbours.
+Money was voted readily in support of a king
+who entered into alliance with their best customers, the
+men of Ghent and Bruges; and at the head of all the
+levies which the parliament&rsquo;s liberality enabled him to
+raise were the knights and gentlemen of England, totally
+freed now from any bias towards the French or prejudice<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[355]</a></span>
+against the Saxon; for they spoke the English tongue,
+dressed in English broadcloth, sang English ballads, and
+astonished the men of Gascony and Guienne with the
+vehemence of their unmistakably English oaths. Yet
+some of them held lands in feudal subjection to the
+French king. Flanders itself confessed the same sovereignty;
+and men of delicate consciences might feel uneasy
+if they lifted the sword against their liege lord. To
+soothe their scruples, James Van Arteveldt, the Brewer
+of Ghent, suggested to Edward the propriety of his assuming
+the title of King of France. The rebellious freeholders
+would then be in their duty in supporting their
+liege&rsquo;s claims. So Edward, founding upon the birth of
+his mother, the daughter of the last King, Philip le
+Bel,&mdash;who was excluded by the Salic law, or at least by
+French custom, from the throne,&mdash;made claim to the
+crown of St. Louis, and transmitted the barren title to
+all his successors till the reign of George the Fourth.
+As if in right of his property on both sides of the Channel,
+Edward converted it into his exclusive domain.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1340.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>He so entirely exterminated the navy of France, and
+impressed that chivalrous nation with the danger
+of the seas by the victory of Helvoet Sluys,
+that for several centuries the command of the strait was
+left undisputed to England. Philip had endeavoured to
+obtain the mastery of it with a fleet of a hundred and
+fifty ships, mounted by forty thousand men. The Genoese
+had furnished an auxiliary squadron, and also a
+commander-in-chief, of the name of Barbavara. But
+the French admiral was a civilian of the name of Bahuchet,
+who thought the safest plan was the best, and kept
+his whole force huddled up in the commodious harbour.
+Edward collected a fleet of scarcely inferior strength,
+and fell upon the enemy as they lay within the port. It
+was in fact a fight on the land, for they ranged so close
+that they almost touched each other, and the gallant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[356]</a></span>
+Bahuchet preserved himself from sea-sickness at the
+expense of all their lives. For the English archers made
+an incredible havoc on their crowded decks, and the
+pike-men boarded with irresistible power. Twenty
+thousand were slain in that fearful <i>mêlée</i>; and Edward,
+to show how sincere he was in his claim upon the throne
+of France, hanged the unfortunate Bahuchet as a traitor.
+The man deserved his fate as a coward: so we need not
+waste much sympathy on the manner of his death. This
+success with his ships was soon followed by the better-known
+victory of Crecy, 1346, and the capture of Calais.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1356.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>In ten years afterwards, the crowning triumph
+of Poictiers completed the destruction of the
+military power of France, by a slaughter nearly as great
+as that at Sluys and Crecy. In addition to the loss of
+lives in these three engagements, amounting to upwards
+of ninety thousand men, we are to consider the impoverishment
+of the country by the exorbitant ransoms
+claimed for the release of prisoners. John, the French
+king, was valued at three million crowns of gold,&mdash;an
+immense sum, which it would have exhausted the kingdom
+to raise; and, in addition to those destructive fights
+and crushing exactions, France was further weakened
+by the insurrection of the peasantry and the frightful
+massacres by which it was put down. If to these
+causes of weakness we add the depopulation produced
+by the unequalled pestilence, called the Plague of
+Florence, which spread all over the world, and in the
+space of a year carried off nearly a third of the inhabitants
+of Europe, we shall be justified in believing that
+France was reduced to the lowest condition she has ever
+reached, and that only the dotage of Edward, the death
+of the Black Prince, and the accession of a king like
+Richard II., saved that noble country from being, for a
+while at least, tributary and subordinate to her island-conqueror.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[357]</a></span>
+<a name="FIFTEENTH_CENTURY" id="FIFTEENTH_CENTURY">FIFTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of Germany.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1400.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Rupert.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1410.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Jossus.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1410.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Sigismund.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td colspan="2" align="left" class="dynast"><i>House of Austria.</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1438.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Albert II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1440.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Frederick IV.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1493.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Maximilian I.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of England.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1399.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry IV.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1413.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry V.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1422.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry VI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1461.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edward IV.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1483.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edward V.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1483.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Richard III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1485.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry VII.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of Scotland.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Robert III.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1406.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">James I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1437.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">James II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1460.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">James III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1488.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">James IV.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of the East.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Manuel Palæologus.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1425.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">John Palæologus II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1448.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Constantine XIII.</span>, (<span class="smcap">Palæologus.</span>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1453.</td><td class="sovereign">Capture of Constantinople by the Turks, and close of the Eastern Empire.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Sultans of Turkey.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1451.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Mohammed II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1481.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Bajazet II.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of France.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles VI.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1422.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles VII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1461.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis XI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1483.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles VIII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1498.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis XII.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of Spain.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1479.</td><td class="sovereign">Union of the Kingdom under <span class="smcap">Ferdinand</span> and <span class="smcap">Isabella</span>.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td class="year-top">1452.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Invention of Printing.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-top">1455.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Wars of the Roses Begin.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-top">1483.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Luther Born.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-top">1492.</td><td align="left"><span class="smcap">Discovery of America.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Eminent Men.</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">John Huss</span>, (1370-1415,) <span class="smcap">Ximines</span></p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[359]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_FIFTEENTH_CENTURY" id="THE_FIFTEENTH_CENTURY">THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">DECLINE OF FEUDALISM&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;AGINCOURT&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;JOAN OF ARC&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;THE
+PRINTING-PRESS&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> whole period from the twelfth to the fifteenth
+century has generally been considered so unvarying in
+its details, one century so like another, that it has been
+thought sufficient to class them all under the general
+name of the Middle Ages. Old Monteil, indeed, the
+author of &ldquo;The French People of Various Conditions,&rdquo;
+declines to individualize any age during that lengthened
+epoch, for &ldquo;feudalism,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;is as little capable of
+change as the castles with which it studded the land.&rdquo;
+But a closer inspection does by no means justify this
+declaration. From time to time we have seen what
+great changes have taken place. The external walls of
+the baronial residence may continue the same, but vast
+alterations have occurred within. The rooms have got
+a more modern air; the moat has begun to be dried up,
+and turned into a bowling-green; the tilt-yard is occasionally
+converted into a garden; and, in short, in all
+the civilized countries of Europe the life of society has
+accumulated at the heart. Power is diffused from the
+courts of kings; and instead of the spirit of independence
+and opposition to the royal authority which
+characterized former centuries, we find the courtiers&rsquo; arts
+more prevalent now than the pride of local grandeur.
+The great vassals of the Crown are no longer the rivals
+of their nominal superior, but submissively receive his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[360]</a></span>
+awards, or endeavour to obtain the sanction of his name
+to exactions which they would formerly have practised
+in their own. Monarchy, in fact, becomes the spirit of
+the age, and nobility sinks willingly into the subordinate
+rank. This itself was a great blow to the feudal system,
+for the essence of that organized society was equality
+among its members, united to subordination of conventional
+rank,&mdash;a strange and beautiful style of feeling
+between the highest and the lowest of that manly brotherhood,
+which made the simple chevalier equal to the
+king as touching their common knighthood,&mdash;of which
+we have at the present time the modernized form in the
+feeling which makes the loftiest in the land recognise
+an equal and a friend in the person of an untitled gentleman.
+But this latter was to be the result of the
+equalizing effect of education and character. In the fifteenth
+century, feudalism, represented by the great proprietors,
+was about to expire, as it had already perished
+in the decay of its armed and mailed representatives in
+the field of battle. By no lower hand than its own
+could the nobility be overthrown either in France or
+England. The accident of a feeble king in both countries
+was the occasion of an internecine struggle,&mdash;not,
+as it would have been in the tenth century, for the possession
+of the crown, but for the custody of the wearer
+of it. The insanity of Charles VI. almost exterminated
+the lords of France; the weakness of Henry VI. and
+the Wars of the Roses produced the same result in
+England. It seemed as if in both countries an epidemic
+madness had burst out among the nobility, which drove
+them to their destruction. Wildly contending with
+each other, neglecting and oppressing the common
+people, the lords and barons were unconscious of the
+silent advances of a power which was about to overshadow
+them all. And, as if to drive away from them<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[361]</a></span>
+the sympathy which their fathers had known how to
+excite among the lower classes by their kindness and
+protection, they seemed determined to obliterate every
+vestige of respect which might cling to their ancient
+possessions and historic names, by the most unheard-of
+cruelty and falsehood in their treatment of each
+other.</p>
+
+<p>The leader of one of the parties which divided France
+was John, son of Philip the Hardy, prince of the blood
+royal and Duke of Burgundy. The leader of the other
+party was Louis of Orleans, brother of the demented
+king, and the gayest cavalier and most accomplished
+gentleman of his time. The Burgundian had many
+advantages in his contest for the reins of government.
+The wealth and population of the Low Countries made
+him as powerful as any of the princes of Europe, and
+he could at all times secure the alliance of England to
+the most nefarious of his schemes by the bribe of a
+treaty of trade and navigation. He accordingly brought
+his great possessions in Flanders to the aid of his French
+ambition, and secured the almost equally important
+assistance of the University of Paris, by giving in his
+adhesion to the Pope it had chosen and denying the
+authority of the Pope of his rival Orleans. Orleans had
+also offended the irritable population of Paris by making
+his vows, on some solemn occasion, by the bones of St.
+Denis which adorned the shrine of the town called after
+his name,&mdash;whereas it was well known to every Parisian
+that the real bones of the patron of France were those
+which were so religiously preserved in the treasury of
+Notre Dame. The clergy of the two altars took up
+the quarrel, and as much hostility was created by the
+rival relics of St. Denis and Paris as by the rival pontiffs
+of Avignon and Rome. Thus the Church, which in
+earlier times had been a bond of unity, was one of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[362]</a></span>
+chief causes of dissension; and the result in a few years
+was seen in the attempt made by France to shake off,
+as much as possible, the supremacy of both the divided
+Popes, as it managed to shake off entirely the yoke of
+the divided nobility.</p>
+
+<p>Quarrels and reconciliations among the princes, feasts
+and festivals among the peerage, and the most relentless
+treatment of the citizens, were the distinguishing marks
+of the opening of this century. Isabella of Bavaria,
+the shameless wife of the hapless Charles, added a great
+feature of infamy to the state of manners at the time,
+by the openness of her profligacy, and her neglect of all
+the duties of wife and queen. Rioting with the thoughtless
+Orleans, while her husband was left to the misery
+of his situation, unwashed, unshorn, and clothed in rags
+and filth, the abandoned woman roused every manly
+heart in all the land against the cause she aided. Relying
+on this national disgust, the wily Burgundian waited
+his opportunity, and revenged his private wrongs by
+what he afterwards called the patriotic dagger of an
+assassin. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1407.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>On the night of the 23d of December,
+1407, the gay and handsome Louis was lured by
+a false message from the queen&rsquo;s quarters to a distant
+part of the town, and was walking in his satin mantle,
+twirling his glove in his hand, and humming the burden
+of a song, when he was set on by ten or twelve of the
+adherents of his enemy, stabbed, and beaten long after
+he lay dead on the pavement, and was then left motionless
+and uncared-for under the shade of the high house-walls
+of the Vieille Rue du Temple.</p>
+
+<p>Public conscience was not very acute at that time;
+and, although no man for a moment doubted the hand
+that had guided the blow, the Duke of Burgundy was
+allowed to attend the funeral of his murdered cousin,
+and to hold the pall in the procession, and to weep<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[363]</a></span>
+louder than any as the coffin was lowered into the vault.
+But the common feelings of humanity were roused at
+last. People remembered the handsome, kindly, merry-hearted
+Orleans thus suddenly struck low, and the
+ominous looks of the Parisians warned the powerful
+Burgundy that it was time to take his hypocrisy and
+his tears out of the sight of honest men. He slipped
+out of the city, and betook himself to his Flemish
+states. But the helm was now without a steersman;
+and, while all were looking for a guide out of the confusion
+into which the appalling incident had brought
+the realm, the guilty duke himself, armed <i>cap-à-pie</i>, and
+surrounded by a body-guard which silenced all opposition,
+made his solemn entry into the town, and fixed on
+the door of his hotel the emblematic ornament of two
+spears, one sharp at the point as if for immediate battle,
+and one blunted and guarded as if for a friendly joust.
+Eloquence is never long absent when power is in want
+of an oration. A great meeting was held, in which, by
+many brilliant arguments and incontrovertible examples
+from holy writ and other histories, John Petit proved, to
+the entire satisfaction of everybody who did not wish
+to be slaughtered on the spot, that the doing to death
+of the Duke of Orleans was a good deed, and that the
+doer was entitled to the thanks of a grateful country.
+The thanks were accordingly given, and the murderer
+was at the height of his ambition. As a warning to
+the worthy citizens of what they had to expect if they
+rebelled against his authority, he took the opportunity
+of hurrying northward to his states, where the men of
+Liege were in revolt, and, having broken their ill-formed
+squares, committed such slaughter upon them as only
+the madness of fear and hatred could have suggested.
+Dripping with the blood of twenty-four thousand artisans,
+he returned to Paris, where the citizens were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[364]</a></span>
+hushed into silence, and perhaps admiration, by the
+terrors of his appearance. They called him John the
+Fearless,&mdash;a noble title, most inadequately acquired;
+but, in spite of their flattery and their submission, he
+did not feel secure without the presence of his faithful
+subjects. He therefore summoned his Flemings and
+Burgundians to share his triumphs, and a loose was
+given to all their desires. They pillaged, burned, and
+destroyed as if in an enemy&rsquo;s country, encamping outside
+the walls, and giving evident indications of an intention
+to force their way into the streets. But the sight
+of gore, though terrifying at first, sets the tamest of
+animals wild. The Parisians smelt the bloody odour
+and made ready for the fray. The formidable incorporation
+of the Butchers rose knife in hand, and at the
+command of their governor prepared to preserve the
+peace of the city. Burgundians and Orleanists were
+equally to be feared, and by a curious coincidence both
+those parties were at the gate; for the Count of Armagnac,
+father-in-law of the orphan Duke of Orleans, had
+assumed the leadership of the party, and had come up
+to Paris at the head of his infuriated Gascons and the
+men of Languedoc. North and South were again
+ranged in hostile ranks, and inside the walls there was a
+reign of terror and an amount of misery never equalled
+till that second reign of terror which is still the darkest
+spot in the memory of old men yet alive. No man
+could put faith in his neighbour. The murder of the
+Duke of Orleans had dissolved all confidence in the
+word of princes. One half of France was ready to
+draw against the other. Each half was anxious for
+support, from whatever quarter it came, and to gain the
+destruction of their rivals would sacrifice the interests
+of the nation.</p>
+
+<p>But the same spirit of disunion and extirpation of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[365]</a></span>
+ancient landmarks was at work in England. The accession
+of Henry the Fourth was not effected without the
+opposition of the adherents of the former king and of
+the supporters, on general principles, of the legitimate
+line. There were treasons, and plots, and pitiless executions.
+The feudal chiefs were no longer the compact
+body which could give laws both to King and Parliament,
+but ranged themselves in opposite camps and
+waited for the spoils of the vanquished side. The
+clergy unanimously came to the aid of the usurper on
+his faithful promise to exempt them from taxation; and,
+by thus throwing their own proportion of the public
+burdens on the body of the people, they sundered the
+alliance which had always hitherto subsisted between
+the Church and the lower class. Another bribe was
+held out to the clerical order for its support to the
+unlineal crown by the surrender to their vengeance
+of any heretics they could discover. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1401.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>In the second year of this reign, accordingly, we find a law
+enabling the priests to burn, &ldquo;on some high and conspicuous
+piece of ground,&rdquo; any who dissented from their
+faith. This is the first legal sanction in England to the
+logic of flame and fagot. How dreadfully this permission
+was used, we shall see ere many years elapse. In
+the mean time, it is worth while to remark that in proportion
+as the Church lost in popularity and affection it
+gained in legal privilege. While it was strong it did
+not need to be cruel; and if it had continued its care of
+the poor and helpless, it would have been able to leave
+Wickliff to his dissertations on its doctrinal errors undisturbed.
+A Church which is found to be nationally
+beneficial, and which endears itself to its adherents by
+the practical graces of Christianity, will never be overthrown,
+or even weakened, by any theoretical defects in
+its creeds or formularies. It was perhaps, therefore, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[366]</a></span>
+fortunate circumstance that the Church of Rome had
+departed as much by this time from the path of honesty
+and usefulness as from the simplicity of gospel truth.
+The Bible might have been looked at in vain, even in
+Wickliff&rsquo;s translation, if its meanings had not been
+rendered plain by the lives and principles of the clergy.
+Henry the Fifth, feeling the same necessity of clerical
+support which had thrown his father into the hands of
+the Church, left nothing untried to attach it to his cause.
+All the opposition which had been offered to its claims
+had hitherto been confined to men of low rank, and
+generally to members of its own body. Wickliff himself
+had been but a country vicar, and had been unnoticed
+and despised in his small parsonage at Lutterworth.
+But three-and-twenty years after he was dead,
+his name was celebrated far and wide as the enemy of
+constituted authority and a heretic of the most dangerous
+kind. His guilt consisted in nothing whatever
+but in having translated the Bible into English; but the
+fact of his having done so was patent to all. No witnesses
+were required. The bones of the old man were
+dug up from their resting-place in the quiet churchyard
+in Leicestershire, carried ignominiously to Oxford, and
+burned amid the howls and acclamations of an infuriated
+mob of priests and doctors. This was in 1409. But, in
+his character of heretic and unbeliever, Wickliff had
+high associates in this same year; for the General
+Council sitting at Pisa declared the two Popes&mdash;of
+Avignon and Rome&mdash;who still continued to divide the
+Christian world, to be &ldquo;heretics, perjurers, and schismatics.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Europe, indeed, was ripe for change in almost all the
+relations both of Church and State. There would seem
+no close connection between Bohemia and England; yet
+in a very short time the doctrines of Wickliff penetrated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[367]</a></span>
+to Prague. There Huss and Jerome preached against
+the enormities and contradictions of the Romish system,
+and bitterly paid for their presumption in the fires of
+Constance before many years had passed. But in
+England the effects of the new revelation of the hidden
+gospel had been stronger than even at Prague. Public
+opinion, however, divided itself into two very different
+channels; and while the whole nation listened with open
+ear to the denunciations rising everywhere against the
+corruption, pride, and sensuality of the priesthood, it
+rushed at the same time into the wildest excesses of
+cruelty against the opponents of any of the doctrinal
+errors or superstitious beliefs in which it had been
+brought up. In the same year in which several persons
+were burnt in Smithfield as supporters of Wickliff and
+the Bible, the Parliament sent up addresses to the
+Crown, advising the king to seize the temporalities of
+the Church, and to apply the riches wasted on luxurious
+monks and nuns to the payment of his soldiers. Henry
+the Fifth adroitly availed himself of the double direction
+in which the popular feeling ran. He gained over the
+priesthood by exterminating the opponents of their
+ceremonies and faith, and rewarded himself by occasionally
+confiscating the revenues of a dozen or two of the
+more notorious monasteries. In 1417 a heavier sacrifice
+was demanded of him than his mere presence at the
+burning of a plebeian heretic like John Badby, whose
+execution he had attended at Smithfield in 1410. He
+was required to give up into the hands of the Church
+the great and noble Oldcastle, Lord Cobham. The
+Church, as if to mark its triumph, did not examine the
+accused on any point connected with civil or political
+affairs. It questioned him solely on his religious beliefs;
+and as it found him unconvinced of the necessity of confession
+to a priest, of pilgrimages to the shrines of saints,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[368]</a></span>
+of the worship of images, and of the doctrine of transubstantiation,
+it delivered him over to the secular arm, and
+the stout old soldier was taken to St. Giles&rsquo;s-in-the-Fields,
+and suspended, by an iron chain round his body, above a
+fire, to die by the slowest and most painful of deaths.
+But, in this yielding up of a nobleman to the vengeance
+of the priesthood, Henry had a double motive: he terrified
+the proudest of the barons, and attached to himself
+the other bodies in the State. The people were still
+profoundly ignorant, and looked on the innovators as
+the enemies both of God and man. And nothing but
+this can account for the astonishing spectacle presented
+by Europe at this date. The Church torn by contending
+factions&mdash;three Popes at one time&mdash;and council arrayed
+against council; every nation disgusted with its own
+priesthood, and enthusiasm bursting out in the general
+confusion into the wildest excesses of fanaticism and
+vice,&mdash;and yet a total incapacity in any country of devising
+means of amendment. Great efforts were made,
+by wise and holy men within the Church itself, to shake
+off the impediments to its development and increase.
+Reclamations were made, more in sorrow than in anger,
+against the universal depravation of morals and beliefs.
+The Popes were not unmoved with these complaints,
+and gave credence to the forebodings of evil which rose
+from every heart. Yet the network of custom, the
+authority of tradition, and the unchangeableness of
+Roman policy marred every effort at self-reformation.
+An opening was apparently made for the introduction
+of improvement, by the declaration of the supremacy
+of general councils, and the cessation of the great schism
+of the West on the nomination of Martin the
+Fifth to the undisputed chair. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1429.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>But the force of
+circumstances was irresistible. Cardinals who approved
+of the declaration while members of the council repudiated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[369]</a></span>
+its acts when, by good fortune, they succeeded to
+the tiara; and one of them even ventured the astounding
+statement that in his character of Æneas Sylvius,
+and approver of the decree of Basle, he was guilty of
+damnable sin, but was possessed of immaculate virtue in
+the character of Paul the Second. It was obvious that
+this unnatural state of things could not last. An establishment
+conscious of its defects, but unable to throw
+them off, and finally forced to the awful necessity of defending
+them by the foulest and most unpardonable
+means, might have read the inevitable result in every
+page of history. But worse remained behind. There
+sat upon the chair of St. Peter, in the year 1492, the
+most depraved and wicked of mankind. No earthly
+ruler had equalled him in profligacy and the coarser
+vices of cruelty and oppression since the death of the
+Roman Nero. This was a man of the name of Borgia,
+who fixed his infamous mark on the annals of the
+Papacy as Alexander the Sixth. While this bloodthirsty
+ruffian was at the summit of sacerdotal power&mdash;this
+poisoner of his friends, this polluter of his family circle
+with unimaginable crimes&mdash;as the visible representative
+upon earth of the Church of Christ, what hope could
+there be of amendment in the lower orders of the clergy,
+or continuance of men&rsquo;s belief in the popish claims?
+Long before this, in 1442, the falsehood of the pretended
+donation of Constantine, on which the Popes founded
+their territorial rights, was triumphantly proved by the
+learned Valla; and at the end of the century the reverence
+of mankind for the successor of the Prince of the
+Apostles was exposed to a trial which the authenticity
+of all the documents in the world could not have successfully
+stood, in the personal conduct of the Pope and
+his familiars.</p>
+
+<p>While this was the general state of Europe in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[370]</a></span>
+fifteenth century as regards the position of the clergy,
+high and low, the Church, in all countries, threw itself
+on the protection of the kings. By the middle, or
+towards the end, of this period, there was no other
+patronage to which they could have recourse. The
+nobility in France and England were practically eradicated.
+All confidence between baron and baron was at
+an end, and all belief in knightly faith and honour in
+the other classes of the people. As if the time for a new
+state of society was arrived, and instruments were required
+to clear the way for the approaching form, the
+nobility and gentry of England first were effectual in
+overthrowing their noble brethren in France, and then,
+with infuriate bitterness, turned their swords upon each
+other. The most rememberable general characteristic
+of this century is the consolidation of royal power. The
+king becomes despotic because the great nobility is
+overthrown and the Church stripped of its authority.
+Tired of hoping for aid from their ancient protector, the
+lowest classes cast their eyes of helplessness to the
+throne instead of to the crozier. They see in the reigning
+sovereign an ideal of personified Power. All other
+ideals with which the masses of the people have deluded
+themselves have passed away. The Church is stripped
+of the charm which its lofty claims and former kindness
+gave it. It is detected for the thing it is,&mdash;a corporation
+for the grinding of the poor and the support of
+tyranny and wrong. The nobility is stripped also of the
+glitter which covered its harsh outlines with the glow
+of Christian qualifications. It is found to be selfish,
+faithless, untrustworthy, and divided against itself. To
+the king, then, as the last refuge of the unfortunate, as
+the embodied State, a combination, in his own person,
+of the manly virtues of the knight with the Christian
+tenderness of the priest, the public transfers all the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[371]</a></span>
+romantic confidence it had lavished on the other two.
+And, as if to prove that this idea came to its completeness
+without reference to the actual holder of sovereign
+authority, we find that in France the first really despotic
+king was Louis the Eleventh, and in England the first
+king by divine right was Henry the Seventh. Two
+more unchivalrous personages never disgraced the three-legged
+stool of a scrivener. Yet they sat almost simultaneously
+on two of earth&rsquo;s proudest thrones.</p>
+
+<p>No century had ever witnessed so great a change in
+manners and position as this. In others we have seen
+a gradual widening-out of thought and tendencies, all,
+however, subdued by the universal shadow in which
+every thing was carried on. But in this the progress
+was by a sudden leap from darkness into light. In
+ancient times Europe was held together by certain
+communities of interest and feeling, of which the chief
+undoubtedly was the centralization of the spiritual
+power in Rome. At the Papal Court all the nations
+were represented, and Stockholm and Saragossa were
+brought into contact by their common dependence on
+the successor of St. Peter. The courtly festivals which
+invited a knight of Scotland to cross blunted spears in
+a glittering tournament with a knight of Sicily in the
+court of an emperor of Germany was another bond of
+union between remotest regions; and in the fourteenth
+century the indefatigable Froissart, as we remarked,
+conveyed a knowledge of one nation to another in the
+entertaining chapters with which he delighted the
+listeners in the different palaces where he set up his
+rest. But all these lights, it will be observed, illumined
+only the hill-tops, and left the valleys still obscure.
+Ambitious Churchmen encountered their brethren of all
+kindreds and tongues in the court of the Vatican; tiltings
+were only for the high-born and rich, and Froissart<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[372]</a></span>
+himself poured forth his treasures only for the delight
+of lords and ladies. The ballads of the common people,
+on the other hand, had had a strongly disuniting effect.
+The songs which charmed the peasant were directed
+against the exacting priest and oppressive noble. In
+England they were generally pointed against the Norman
+baron, with whose harshness and pride were contrasted
+the kindness and liberality of Robin Hood and
+his peers. The French ballads were hostile to the
+English invader; the Scottish poems were commemorative
+of the heroism of Wallace and the cruelties of the
+Southern hordes. Literatures were thus condemned to
+be hostile, because they were not lofty enough to overlook
+the boundaries of the narrow circles in which they
+moved. By slow and toilsome process books were multiplied,&mdash;carefully
+copied in legible hand, and then
+chained up, like inestimable jewels, in monastery or
+palace, as too valuable to be left at large. A king&rsquo;s
+library was talked of as a wonder when it contained
+six or seven hundred volumes. The writings of controversialists
+were passed from hand to hand, and the publication
+of a volume was generally achieved by its being
+read aloud at the refectory-table of the college and then
+discussed, in angry disputations, in the University Hall.
+Not one man in five hundred could read, if the book had
+been written in the plainest text; and at length the
+running hand was so indistinct as to be not much plainer
+than hieroglyphics. The discoveries, therefore, of one
+age had all to be discovered over again in the next.
+Roger Bacon, the English monk, in the eleventh century,
+was acquainted with gunpowder, and had clear intimations
+of many of the other inventions of more recent
+times. But what was the use of all his genius? He
+could only write down his triumph in a book; the book
+was carefully arranged on the shelf of his monastery;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[373]</a></span>
+clever men of his own society may have carried the
+report of his doings to the neighbouring establishments;
+but time passed on, those clever men died out, the book
+on the monastery shelf was gradually covered with dust,
+and Roger Bacon became a conjurer in popular estimation,
+who foretold future events and took counsel from
+a supernatural brazen head. But in this century the
+art of printing was discovered and perfected. A thousand
+copies now darted off in all directions, cheap
+enough to be bought by the classes below the highest,
+portable enough to be carried about the person to the
+most distant lands, and in a type so large and clear that
+a very little instruction would enable the most illiterate
+to master its contents. Here was the lever that lifted
+the century at its first appearance into the light of
+modern civilization. And it came at the very nick of
+time. Men&rsquo;s minds were disturbed on many subjects;
+for old unreasoning obedience to authority had passed
+away. Who was to guide them in their future voyage?
+Isolated works would no longer be of any use. Great
+scholars and acute dialecticians had been tried and
+found wanting. They only acted on the highly-educated
+class; and now it was the people in mass&mdash;the worker,
+the shopkeeper, the farmer, the merchant&mdash;who were
+anxious to be informed; and what could a monk in a
+cell, or even Chaucer with his harp in hand, do for the
+edification of such a countless host? People would no
+longer be fed on the dry crust of Aristotelianism or be
+satisfied with the intellectual jugglery of the Schoolmen.
+Rome had lost its guiding hand, and its restraining sword
+was also found of no avail. Some rest was to be found
+for the minds which had felt the old foundation slip
+away from them; and in this century, thus pining for
+light, thus thrusting forward eager hands to be warmed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[374]</a></span>
+at the first ray of a new-risen sun, there were terrible
+displays of the aberrations of zeal without knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>Almost within hearing of the first motion of the press,
+incalculable numbers of enthusiasts revived the exploded
+sect of the Flagellants of former centuries, and perambulated
+Europe, plying the whip upon their naked backs
+and declaring that the whole of religion consisted in the
+use of the scourge. Others, more crazy still, pronounced
+the use of clothes to be evidence of an unconverted
+nature, and returned to the nakedness of our first
+parents as proof of their restoration to a state of innocence.
+Mortality lost all its terrors in this earnest
+search for something more than the ordinary ministrations
+of the faith could bestow; and in France and
+England the hideous spectacles called the Dance of
+Death were frequent. In these, under the banner of a
+grinning skeleton, the population danced with frantic
+violence, shouting, shrieking, in the exultation of the
+time,&mdash;a scene where the joyous appearance of the occupation
+contrasted shockingly with the awful place in
+which the orgies were held, for the catacombs of Paris,
+filled with the bones and carcasses of many generations,
+were the chosen site for these frightful exhibitions. Like
+the unnatural gayety that reigned in the same city
+when the guillotine had filled every family with terror
+or grief, they were but an abnormal development of the
+sentiment of despair. People danced the Dance of
+Death, because life had lost its charm. Life had lost its
+security in the two most powerful nations of the time.
+England was shaken with contending factions, and
+France exhausted and hopeless of restoration. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1451.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The
+peasantry in both were trampled on without remorse.
+Jack Cade led up his famishing thousands
+to lay their sufferings before the throne. They
+asked for nothing but a slight relaxation of the burdens<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[375]</a></span>
+that oppressed them, and were condemned without
+mercy to the sword and gallows. The French &ldquo;Jacques
+Bonhomme&rdquo; was even in a worse condition. There was
+no controlling power on the throne to guard him from
+the tyrannies of a hundred petty superiors. The Church
+of his country was as much conquered by the Church
+of England as its soil by the English arms. A cardinal,
+bloated and bloody, dominated both London and Paris,
+and sent his commands from the Palace at Winchester,
+which were obeyed by both nations. <span class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1452. <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1483.
+<span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1492.</span>And all this on
+the very eve of the introduction of the perfected
+printing-press, the birth of Luther, and
+the discovery of America! From the beginning
+of the century till government became assured
+by the accession of Henry VII. and Louis XI., the whole
+of Europe was unsettled and apparently on the verge
+of dissolution. In the absence of the controlling power
+of the Sovereign, each little baron asserted his own
+right and privileges, and aimed perhaps at the restoration
+of his feudal independence, when the spirit of feudalism
+had passed away. The nobility, even if it had
+been united, was not now numerous enough to present
+a ruling body to the State. It became despised as soon
+as it was seen to be powerless; and at last, in sheer exhaustion,
+the people, the churches, and the peerage of
+the two proudest nations in the world lay down helpless
+and unresisting at the footstool of the only authority
+likely to protect them from each other or themselves.
+When we think of the fifteenth century, let us remember
+it as the period when mankind grew tired of the establishments
+of all former ages, when feudalism resigned
+its sword into the hands of monarchy, and when the
+last days of the expiring state of society were distinguished
+by the withdrawal of the death-grasp by France
+and England from each other&rsquo;s throats, and the establishment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[376]</a></span>
+of respectful if not friendly sentiments between
+them. By the year 1451, there was not one of
+all the conquests of the Edwards and Henrys left to the
+English except Calais. If that miserable relic had also
+been restored, it would have prevented many a heart-burning
+between the nations, and advanced, perhaps by
+centuries, the happy time when each can look across
+the narrow channel which divides them without a wish
+save for the glory and prosperity of the other.</p>
+
+<p>It is like going back to the time of the Crusades to
+turn our eyes from the end of this century to the
+beginning, so great and essential is the change that has
+taken place. Yet it is necessary, having given the
+general view of the condition of affairs, to descend to
+certain particulars by which the progress of the history
+may be more vividly defined. And of these the principal
+are the battle of Agincourt, the relief of Orleans,
+the invention of Guttenberg, and the achievement of
+Columbus. These are fixed on, not for their own intrinsic
+merits, but for the great results they produced.
+Agincourt unfeudalized France; Joan of Arc restored
+man&rsquo;s faith in human virtue and divine superintendence;
+printing preserved forever the conquests of the human
+intellect; and the discovery of America opened a new
+world to the energies of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>We must return to the state of France when the Duke
+of Orleans was so treacherously slain by the ferocious
+Duke of Burgundy in 1407. For a time the crime was
+successful in establishing the murderer&rsquo;s power, and the
+Burgundians were strengthened by obtaining the custody
+of the imbecile king, Charles the Sixth, and the support
+of his infamous consort, Isabeau of Bavaria. But authority
+so obtained could not be kept without plunging into
+greater excesses. So the populace were let loose, and
+no man&rsquo;s life was safe. In self-defence&mdash;burning with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[377]</a></span>
+hatred of the slayer of his son-in-law and betrayer of
+his country&mdash;the Count of Armagnac denounced the
+dominant party. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1411.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Burgundy threw himself into
+the arms of England, and was only outbidden
+in his offers of submission by the Armagnacs in the following
+year. Each party in turn promised to support
+the English king in all his claims, and before he set foot
+in France he already found himself in possession of the
+kingdom. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1413.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Many strong places in the South
+were surrendered to him as pledges of the
+fidelity of his supporters. The whole land was the prey
+of faction and party hate. The Church had repudiated
+both Pope and Council; the towns were in insurrection
+in every street; and Henry the Fifth was only twenty-six
+years of age, full of courage and ambition, supported
+by the love and gratitude of the national Church, and
+anxious to glorify the usurpation of his family by a restoration
+of the triumphs of Cressy and Poictiers. He
+therefore sent an embassy to France, demanding his recognition
+by all the States as king, though he modestly
+waived the royal title till its present holder should be
+no more. He declared also that he would not be content
+without the hand of Catharine, the French king&rsquo;s daughter,
+with Normandy and other counties for her dowry;
+and when these reasonable conditions, as he had anticipated,
+were rejected, and all his preparations were
+completed, he threw off the mask of negotiation, and
+sailed from Southampton with an army of six thousand
+men-at-arms and twenty-four thousand archers. A
+beautiful sight it must have been that day in September,
+1415, when the enormous convoy sailed or rowed
+down the placid Southampton water. Sails of various
+colours, and streamers waving from every mast, must
+have given it the appearance of an immense regatta;
+and while all France was on the watch for the point of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[378]</a></span>
+attack, and Calais was universally regarded as the
+natural landing-place for an English army, the great
+flotilla pursued its course past the Isle of Wight, and
+struck out for the opposite coast, filling up the mouth
+of the Seine with innumerable vessels, and casting
+anchor off the town of Harfleur. Prayers for its success
+ascended from every parish in England; for the
+clergy looked on the youthful king as their champion
+against all their enemies,&mdash;against the Pope, who claimed
+their tithes, against the itinerant monks, who denied
+and resisted their authority, and against the nobles,
+who envied them their wealth and territories. And no
+wonder; for at this time the ecclesiastical possessions
+included more than the half of England. Of fifty-three
+thousand knightly holdings on the national register,
+twenty-eight thousand belonged to mother Church!
+Prayers also for its success were uttered in the workshops
+and markets. People were tired of the long inaction
+of Richard the Second&rsquo;s time, and longed for the
+stirring incidents they had heard their fathers speak of
+when the Black Prince was making the &ldquo;Mounseers&rdquo;
+fly. For by this time a stout feeling of mutual hatred
+had given vigour to the quarrel between the nations.
+Parliament had voted unexampled supplies, and &ldquo;all the
+youth of England was afire.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the siege of Harfleur dragged its slow
+length along. Succours were expected by the gallant
+garrison, but succour never came. Proclamations had
+indeed been issued, summoning the <i>ban</i> and <i>arrière ban</i>
+of France, and knights were assembling from all quarters
+to take part in the unavoidable engagement. But
+the counsels at head-quarters were divided. The masses
+of the people were not hearty in the cause, and the
+men of Harfleur, at the end of the fifth week of their
+resistance, sent to say they would surrender <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[379]</a></span>&ldquo;if they
+were not relieved by a great army in two days.&rdquo; &ldquo;Take
+four,&rdquo; said Henry, wishing nothing more than a decisive
+action under the very walls. But the time rapidly
+passed, and Harfleur was once more an English town.
+Henry might look round and triumph in the possession
+of streets and houses; but that was all, for his usual
+barbarity had banished the inhabitants. The richer
+citizens were put to ransom; all the rest were driven
+from the place,&mdash;not quite naked, nor quite penniless,
+for one petticoat was left to each woman, and one
+farthing in ready money. Generosity to the vulgar
+vanquished was not yet understood, either as a Christian
+duty or a stroke of policy. But courage, not unmixed
+with braggadocio, was still the character of the
+time. The English had lost many men from sickness
+during the siege. No blow had been boldly struck in
+open field, and a war without a battle, however successful
+in its results, would have been thought no better
+than a tournament. All the remaining chivalry of
+France was now collected under its chiefs and princes,
+and Henry determined to try what mettle they were of.
+He published a proclamation that he and his English
+would march across the country from Harfleur to Calais
+in spite of all opposition; and, as the expedition would
+occupy eight days at least, he felt sure that some attempt
+would be made to revenge so cutting an insult. He
+might easily have sent his forces, in detachments, by
+sea, for there was not a French flag upon all the Channel;
+but trumpets were sounded one day, swords drawn,
+cheers no doubt heartily uttered, by an enthusiastic
+array of fifteen thousand men, and the dangerous march
+began. It was the month of October, the time of the
+vintage: there was plenty of wine; and a French author
+makes the characteristic remark, &ldquo;with plenty of wine
+the English soldier could go to the end of the world.&rdquo;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[380]</a></span>
+When the English soldier, on this occasion, had got
+through the eight days&rsquo; provisions with which he started,
+instead of finding himself at Calais, he was only advanced
+as far as Amiens, with the worst part of the
+journey before him. The fords of the Somme were
+said to be guarded; spies came over in the disguise of
+deserters, and told the king that all the land was up in
+arms, that the princes were all united, and that two
+hundred thousand men were hemming them hopelessly
+round. In the midst of these bad news, however, a ray
+of light broke in. A villager pointed out a marsh, by
+crossing which they could reach a ford in the stream.
+They traversed the marsh without hesitation, waded
+with difficulty through morass and water, and, behold!
+they were safe on the other side. The road was now
+clear, they thought, for Calais; and they pushed cheerily
+on. But, more dangerous than the marsh, more impassable
+than the river, the vast army of France blocked
+up their way. Closing across a narrow valley which
+lay between the castle of Agincourt and the village of
+Tramecourt, sixty thousand knights, gentlemen, and
+man-at-arms stood like a wall of steel. There were all
+the great names there of all the provinces,&mdash;Dukes of
+Lorraine, and Bar, and Bourbon, Princes of Orleans
+and Berri, and many more. Henry by this time had
+but twelve thousand men. He found he had miscalculated
+his movements, and was unwilling to sacrifice his
+army to the point of honour. He offered to resign the title
+of King of France and to surrender his recent conquest
+at Harfleur. But the princes were resolved not to negotiate,
+but to revenge. Henry then said to the prisoners
+he was leading in his train, &ldquo;Gentlemen, go till this
+affair is settled. If your captors survive, present yourselves
+at Calais.&rdquo; His forces were soon arranged.
+Archers had ceased to be the mere appendages to a line<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[381]</a></span>
+of battle: they now constituted almost all the English
+army. All the night before they had been busy in preparation.
+They had furbished up their arms, and put
+now cords to their bows, and sharpened the stakes they
+carried to ward off the attack of cavalry. At early
+dawn they had confessed to the priest; and all the time
+no noise had been heard. Henry had ordered silence
+throughout the camp on pain of the severest penalties,&mdash;loss
+of his horse to a gentleman, and of his
+right ear to a common soldier. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1415.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The 23d of October
+was the great, the important day. Henry put a
+noble helmet on his head, surmounted by a golden
+crown, sprang on his little gray hackney, encouraged
+his men with a few manly words, reminding them of Old
+England and how constantly they had conquered the
+French, and led them to a field where the grass was
+still green, and which the rains had not converted into
+mud; for the weather had long been unpropitious.
+And here the heroic little army expected the attack.
+But the enemy were in no condition to make an advance.
+Seated all night on their enormous war-horses,
+the heavy-armed cavaliers had sunk the unfortunate
+animals up to their knees in the adhesive soil. Old
+Thomas of Erpingham, seeing the decisive moment,
+completed the marshalling of the English as soon as
+possible, and, throwing his baton in the air, cried,
+&ldquo;Now, Strike!&rdquo; A great hurrah was the answer to this
+order; but still the French line continued unmoved.
+If it had been turned into stone it could not have been
+more inactive. Ranged thirty-two deep, and fixed to
+the spot they stood on, buried up in armour, and
+crowded in the narrow space, the knights could offer
+no resistance to the attack of their nimble and lightly-armed
+foes. A flight of ten thousand arrows poured
+upon the vast mass, and saddles became empty without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[382]</a></span>
+a blow. There came, indeed, two great charges of
+horse from the flank of the French array; but the inevitable
+shaft found entrance through their coats of
+mail, and very few survived. Of these the greater
+part rushed, blind and wounded, back among their
+own men, crashing upon the still spell-bound line and
+throwing it into inextricable confusion. Horse and man
+rolled over in the dirt, struggling and shrieking in an
+undistinguishable mass. Meanwhile the archers, throwing
+aside their stakes and seizing the hatchets hanging
+round their necks, advanced at a run,&mdash;poured blows
+without cessation on casque and shield, completing the
+destruction among the crowded multitudes which their
+own disorder had begun; and, as the same cause which
+hindered their advance prevented their retreat, they
+sat the hopeless victims of a false position, and were
+slaughtered without an attempt made to resist or fly.
+The fate of the second line was nearly the same. Henry,
+forcing his way with sword and axe through the living
+barrier of horse and cavalier, led his compact array to
+the glittering body beyond. There the <i>mêlée</i> became
+more animated, and prowess was shown upon either
+side. But the rear-guard, warned by previous experience,
+took flight before the middle lines were pierced,
+and Henry saw himself victor with very trifling loss,
+and only encumbered with the number of the slain, and
+still more with the multitude of prisoners. Almost all
+the surviving noblemen had surrendered their swords.
+They knew too well the fate of wounded or disarmed
+gentlemen even among their countrymen, and trusted
+rather to the generosity of the conqueror than the
+mercy of their own people. Alas that we must again
+confess that Henry was ignorant of the name of generosity!
+Alarmed for a moment at the threatening aspect
+of some of the fugitives who had resumed their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[383]</a></span>
+ranks, he gave the pitiless word that every prisoner was
+to be slain. Not a soldier would lift his hand against
+his captive,&mdash;from the double motive of tenderness and
+cupidity. To tell an &ldquo;archer good&rdquo; to murder a great
+baron, the captive of his bow and spear, was to tell him
+to resign a ransom which would make him rich for life.
+But Henry was not to be balked. He appointed two
+hundred men to be executioners of his command; and
+thousands of the young and gay were slaughtered in cold
+blood. Was it hideous policy which thus led Henry to
+weaken his enemy&rsquo;s cause by diminishing the number
+of its knightly defenders, or was it really the result of
+the fear of being overcome? Whichever it was, the
+effect was the same. Ten thousand of the gentlemen of
+France were the sufferers on that day,&mdash;a whole generation
+of the rich and high-born swept away at one
+blow! It would have taken a long time in the course
+of nature to supply their place; but nature was not
+allowed to have her way. Wars and dissensions interfered
+with her restorative efforts. Six-and-thirty years
+were yet to be spent in mutual destruction, or in struggles
+against the English name; and when France was
+again left free from foreign occupation, when French
+chivalry again wished to assume the chief rule in human
+affairs, it was found that chivalry was out of place; a
+new state of things had arisen in Europe; the greatest
+exploit which had been known in their national annals
+had been performed by a woman; and knighthood had
+so lost its manliness that, when prosperity and population
+had again made France a powerful kingdom, the
+silk-clad courtiers of an unwarlike monarch thought it
+good taste to sneer at the relief of Orleans and the
+mission of Joan of Arc!</p>
+
+<p>Six years after Agincourt, the English conqueror and
+the wretched phantom of kingship called Charles the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[384]</a></span>
+Sixth descended to their graves. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1421.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Military
+honour and patriotism seemed utterly at an end
+among the French population, and our Henry the Sixth,
+the son of the man of Agincourt, succeeded in the great
+object of English ambition and was recognised from
+the Channel to the Loire as King of France. In the
+Southern provinces a spark of the old French gallantry
+was still unextinguished, but it showed itself in the gay
+unconcern with which the Dauphin, now Charles the
+Seventh, bore all the reverses of fortune, and consoled
+himself for the loss of the noblest crown in Europe by
+the enjoyments of love and festivity. Perhaps he saw
+that the whirligig of time would bring about its revenges,
+and that the curse of envious faction would vex
+the councils of the conquerors as it had ruined the
+fortunes of the subdued. The warriors of Henry still
+remained, but, without the controlling hand, they could
+direct their efforts to no common object. The uncles of
+the youthful king speedily quarrelled. The gallant
+Bedford was opposed by the treacherous Glo&rsquo;ster, and
+both were dominated and supplanted by the haughty
+prelate, the Cardinal Bishop of Winchester. Offence was
+soon taken at the presumption of the English soldiery.
+Religious animosities supervened. The Churches of
+England and France had both made successful endeavours
+to establish a considerable amount of national independence,
+and the French bishops, who had withdrawn
+themselves from the absolutism of Rome, were little inclined
+to become subordinate to Winchester and Canterbury.
+A court gradually gathered round the Dauphin,
+which inspired him with more manly thoughts. His
+feasts and tournaments were suspended, and, with his
+hand on the hilt of his sword, he watched the proceedings
+of the English. These proceedings were uniformly
+successful when restricted to the operations of war.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[385]</a></span>
+They defeated the men of Gascony and the reinforcements
+sent over by the Scotch. They held a firm grasp
+of Paris and all the strong places of the North, and
+cast down the gauntlet to the rest of France by laying
+siege to the beautiful city of Orleans in the
+winter of 1428. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1428.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Once in possession of the Loire,
+they would be able at their leisure to extend their conquests
+southward; and all the loyal throughout the
+country took up the challenge and resolved on the
+defence of the beleaguered town. The English must have
+begun by this time to despise their enemy; for, in spite
+of the greatness of the stake, they undertook the siege
+with a force of less than three thousand men. To make
+up for the deficiency in numbers, they raised twelve
+large bastions all round the walls, exhausting the troops
+by the labour and finding it impossible to garrison
+them adequately when they were finished. It seems
+that Sebastopol was not the first occasion on which our
+soldiers were overworked. To surround a city of several
+thousand inhabitants, strongly garrisoned, and with an
+open country at its back for the supply of provisions,
+would have required a large and well-directed force.
+But the moral effects of Agincourt, and even of Cressy
+and Poictiers, were not yet obliterated. Public spirit
+was dead, and very few entertained a hope of saving
+the doomed place. Statesmen, politicians, and warriors,
+all calculated the chances of success and decided against
+the cause of France. But in the true heart of the
+common people far better feelings survived. They were
+neither statesmen, nor politicians, nor warriors; but
+they were loyal and devoted Frenchmen, and put their
+trust in God.</p>
+
+<p>A peasant-girl, eighteen years of age, born and bred
+in a little village called Domremy, in Lorraine, was
+famous for her religious faith and simplicity of character.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[386]</a></span>
+Her name was Joan d&rsquo;Arc,&mdash;a dreamy enthusiast,
+believing with full heart all the legends of saints and
+miracles with which the neighbourhood was full. She
+rested, also, with a sort of romantic interest on the personal
+fortunes of the young discrowned king, who had
+been unjustly excluded by foreigners from his rights
+and was now about to lose the best of his remaining
+possessions. She walked in the woods and heard voices
+telling her to be up and doing. She went to pray in the
+dim old church, and had glorious visions of angels who
+smiled upon her. One time she saw a presence with a
+countenance like the sun, and wings upon his shoulders,
+who said, &ldquo;Go, Joan, to the help of the King of France.&rdquo;
+But she answered, &ldquo;My lord, I cannot ride, nor command
+men-at-arms.&rdquo; The voice replied, &ldquo;Go to M. de
+Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs: he will take thee to the
+king. Saint Catharine and Saint Marguerite will come
+to thy assistance.&rdquo; There was no voluntary deception
+here. The girl lived in a world of her own, and peopled
+it out of the fulness of her heart. She went to Vaucouleurs:
+she saw M. de Baudricourt. He took her to
+Poictiers, where the Dauphin resided, and when she
+was led into the glittering ring an attempt was made
+to deceive her by representing another as the prince;
+but she went straight up to the Dauphin and said to
+him, &ldquo;Gentle Dauphin, my name is Joan the Maid. The
+King of Heaven sends to you, through me, that you
+shall be anointed and crowned at Rheims, and you shall
+be lieutenant of the King of Heaven, who is King of
+France.&rdquo; All the court was moved,&mdash;the more pure-minded,
+with sympathy for the girl, the more experienced,
+with the use that might be made of her enthusiasm
+to rouse the nation. Both parties conspired to
+aid Joan in her design; and, clothed in white armour,
+mounted on a war-horse, holding the banner of France<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[387]</a></span>
+in her hand, and waited on by knights and pages, she
+set forth on her way to Orleans. It was like a religious
+procession all the way. She prayed at all the shrines,
+and was blest by the clergy, and held on her path undismayed
+with all the dangers that occurred at every
+step. At length, on the 30th of April, she made her
+entry into Orleans. Her coming had long been expected;
+and, now that it had really happened, people
+looked back at the difficulties of the route and thought
+the whole march a miracle. Meantime Joan knelt and
+gave thanks in the great church, and the true defence
+of Orleans began. Into the hard-pressed city had
+gathered all the surviving chivalry of France,&mdash;Dunois,
+the bastard of Orleans, La Hire, Saintrailles, rough and
+dissolute soldiers, yet all held in awe by the purity and
+innocence of the Maid. With Joan at the head of the
+column of assault, the English intrenchments fell one
+after another. In spite of wounds and hardships, the
+peasant-girl pushed fearlessly on; the knights and gentlemen
+could not decline to follow where she led the
+way; and ten days after her arrival old Talbot and Falstaff
+gathered up the fragments of their troops and
+made a precipitate retreat from the scene of their discomfiture.
+But there was not yet rest for the dreamer
+of Domremy. She hurried off to the Dauphin. &ldquo;Gentle
+Dauphin,&rdquo; she said, &ldquo;till you are crowned with the old
+crown and bedewed with the holy oil, you can never
+be King of France. Come with me to Rheims. There
+shall no enemy hurt you on the way.&rdquo; The country
+through which they had to pass was bristling with
+English castles and swarming with wandering troops.
+Yet the counsel which appeared so hardy was in fact
+the wisest that could be given. The faith in the sanctity
+of coronations was still strong. Whoever was first
+crowned would in the eye of faith be true king. Winchester<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[388]</a></span>
+was bringing over the English claimant. All
+France would be startled at the news that the descendant
+of St. Louis was beforehand with his rival;
+and the march was successfully made. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span>July 17, 1429.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>&ldquo;Gentle king,&rdquo;
+said Joan, kneeling after the ceremony, and
+calling him for the first time King,&mdash;&ldquo;Gentle
+King, Orleans is saved, the true king is crowned. My
+task is done. Farewell.&rdquo; But they would not let her
+leave them so soon. The people crowded round her and
+blest her wherever she appeared. &ldquo;Oh, the good people
+of Rheims!&rdquo; she cried: &ldquo;when I die I should like to be
+buried here.&rdquo; &ldquo;When do you think you shall die?&rdquo; inquired
+the archbishop,&mdash;perhaps with a sneer upon his
+lips. &ldquo;That I know not,&rdquo; she replied: &ldquo;whenever it
+pleases God. But, for my own part, I wish to go back
+and keep the sheep with my sister and brothers. They
+will be so glad to see me again!&rdquo; But this was not
+to be.</p>
+
+<p>If Talbot and Suffolk had been foiled and vanquished
+by Dunois and La Hire, they would have accepted their
+defeat as one of the mischances of war. A knightly
+hand ennobles the blow it gives. But to be humbled by
+a woman, a peasant, a prophetess, an impostor,&mdash;this
+was too much for the proud stomachs of our steel-clad
+countrymen. But far worse was it in the eyes of our
+stole-clad ecclesiastics. Apparitions of saints and angels
+vouchsafed to the recalcitrant Church of France!&mdash;voices
+heard from heaven denouncing the claims of the
+English king!&mdash;visible glories hanging round the head
+of a simple shepherdess! It was evident to every clergyman
+and monk and bishop in England that the woman
+was a witch or a deceiver. And almost all the clergymen
+in France thought the same; and after a while,
+when the exploit was looked back upon with calmness,
+almost all the soldiers on both sides were of the same<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[389]</a></span>
+opinion. Nobody could believe in the exaltation of a
+pure and enthusiastic mind, making its own visions, and
+performing its own miracles, without a tincture of deceit.
+It was easier and more orthodox to believe in the liquefaction
+of the holy oil and the wonders wrought by the
+bones of St. Denis: so, with a nearly universal assent
+of both the parties, the humbled English and delivered
+French, the most heroic and most feminine of women
+was handed over to the Church tribunals, and Joan&rsquo;s
+fate was sealed. Unmanly priests, whose law prevented
+them from having wives, unloving bishops, whose law
+prevented them from having daughters,&mdash;how were
+they to judge of the loving heart and trusting tenderness
+of a girl not twenty years of age, standing before
+them, with modesty not shown in blushes but in unabated
+simplicity of behaviour, telling the tale of all
+her actions as if she were pouring it into the ears of
+father and mother in her own old cottage at home, unconscious,
+or at least regardless, of scowling looks, and
+misleading questions, directed to her by those predetermined
+murderers? No one tried to save her. Charles
+the Seventh, with the oil of Rheims scarcely dried upon
+his head, made no attempt to get her from the hands of
+her enemies. The process took place at Rouen. Magic
+and heresy were the crimes laid to her charge; and as
+generosity was magic in the eyes of those narrow-souled
+inquisitors, and trust in God was heresy, there was no
+defence possible. Her whole life was a confession.
+First, she was condemned to perpetual imprisonment,
+and to resume the dress of her sex. Then she was exposed
+to every obloquy and insult which hatred and
+superstition could pour upon her. A gallant &ldquo;Lord&rdquo;
+accompanied the Count de Ligny in a visit to her cell.
+She was chained to a plank by both feet, and kept in
+this attitude night and day. The noble Englishman did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[390]</a></span>
+honour to his rank and country. When Joan said, &ldquo;I
+know the English will procure my death, in hopes of
+getting the realm of France; but they could not do it,
+no, if they had a hundred thousand <i>Goddams</i> more than
+they have to-day;&rdquo; the gallant visitor was so enraged
+by those depreciating remarks, and perhaps at the nickname
+thus early indicative of the national oath, that he
+drew his dagger, and would have struck her, if he had
+not been hindered by Lord Warwick. Another gentleman,
+on being admitted to her prison, insulted her by
+the grossness of his behaviour, and then overwhelmed
+her with blows. It was time for Joan to escape her tormentors.
+She put on once more the male apparel
+which she had thrown off, and sentence of death was
+passed. On the 30th of May, 1431, in the old fishmarket
+of Rouen, the great crime was consummated. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1431.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The
+flames mounted very slowly; and when at last they enveloped
+her from the crowd, she was still heard calling
+on Jesus, and declaring, &ldquo;The voices I heard
+were of God!&mdash;the voices I heard were of
+God!&rdquo; The age of chivalry was indeed past, and the
+age of Church-domination was also about to expire.
+The peasant-girl of Domremy wrote the dishonoured
+epitaph of the first in the flame of Rouen, and a citizen
+of Mentz was about to give the other its death-blow
+with the printing-press.</p>
+
+<p>This is one of the inventions apparently unimportant,
+by which incalculable results have been produced. At
+first it was intended merely to simplify the process of
+copying the books which were already well known.
+And, if we may trust some of the stories told of the
+earliest specimens of the art, we shall see that there
+was some slight portion of dishonesty mingled with the
+talent of the Fathers of printing. These were Guttenberg
+of Mentz, and his apprentice or partner Faust. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1455.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[391]</a></span>
+first of their productions was a Latin Bible; and the
+letters of this impression were such an exact
+imitation of the works of the amanuensis that
+they passed it off as an exquisite specimen of the copyist&rsquo;s
+art. Faust sold a copy to the King of France for seven
+hundred crowns, and another to the Archbishop of Paris
+for four hundred. The prelate, enchanted with his bargain,
+(for the usual price was several hundred crowns
+above what he had given,) showed it in triumph to the
+king. The king compared the two, and was filled with
+astonishment. They were identical in every stroke and
+dot. How was it possible for any two scribes, or even
+for the same scribe, to produce so undeniable a fac-simile
+of his work? The capital letters of the edition
+were of red ink. They inquired still further, and found
+that many other copies had been sold, all precisely alike
+in form and pressure. They came to the conclusion that
+Faust was a wizard and had sold himself to the devil,
+and that the initials were of blood. The Church and
+State, in this case united in the persons of king and archbishop,
+had the magician apprehended. To save himself
+from the flames, the unhappy Faust had to confess the
+deceit, and also to discover the secret of the art. The
+whole mystery consisted in cutting letters upon movable
+metal types, and, after rubbing them with ink when
+they were correctly set, imprinting them upon paper
+by means of a screw. A simple expedient, as it appeared
+to everybody when the secret was spread abroad;
+for there had been seals stamping impressions on wax
+for many generations. Medals and coins had been
+poured forth from the dies of every nation from the
+dawn of history. In England, playing-cards had been
+produced for several years, with the figures impressed
+on them from wooden blocks; and in 1423 a stamped
+book, with wood engravings, had made its appearance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[392]</a></span>
+which now, with many treasures of typography, is in
+the library of Lord Spencer. Even in Nineveh, we
+learn from recent discovery, the dried bricks, while in a
+soft state, had been stamped with those curious-looking
+inscriptions, by a board in which the unsightly letters
+were set in high relief. Wooden letters had also long
+been known; and yet it was not till 1440 that Guttenberg
+bethought him of the process of printing, and only
+after ten or twelve years&rsquo; labour that he brought his experiments
+to perfection and with one crush of the completed
+press opened new hopes and prospects to the
+whole family of mankind. But things apparently unconnected
+are brought together for good when the great
+turning-points of human history are attained. There are
+always pebbles of the brook within reach when the
+warrior-shepherd has taken the sling in his hand.
+Shortly before the invention of printing, a discovery
+was made without which Guttenberg&rsquo;s skill would have
+been of no avail. This was the applicability of linen
+rags to the manufacture of paper. Parchment, and preparations
+of straw and papyrus, had sufficed for the
+transcriber and author of those unliterary times, but
+would have been inadequate to supply the demand of
+the new process; and therefore we may say that, as
+gunpowder was essential to the use of artillery, and
+steam-power for the railway-train, linen paper was indispensable
+to the development of the press. And the
+development was rapid beyond all imagination. In the
+remaining portion of the century, eight thousand five
+hundred and nine books were published, of which the
+English Caxton and his followers supplied one hundred
+and forty-two,&mdash;a small contribution in actual numbers,
+but valuable for the insight it gives us into the favourite
+literature of the time. Among those volumes there are</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[393]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i-1">&ldquo;Songs of war for gallant knight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Lays of love for lady bright;&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The Tale of Troy divine,&rdquo; for scholars; &ldquo;Tullie, of old
+age,&rdquo; and &ldquo;of Friendship,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Virgil&rsquo;s Æneid,&rdquo; for the
+classical; &ldquo;Lives of Our Ladie and divers Saints,&rdquo; for
+the religious; and &ldquo;The Consolation of Boethius,&rdquo; for
+the afflicted. But several editions prove the popularity
+of the Father of English poetry; and we find the &ldquo;Tales
+of Cauntyrburrie,&rdquo; and the &ldquo;Book of Fame,&rdquo; and
+&ldquo;Troylus and Cresyde, made by Geoffrey Chaucer,&rdquo; the
+great and fitting representatives of the native English
+muse.</p>
+
+<p>We ought to remember, in judging of the paucity of
+books produced in England, that the Wars of the Roses
+broke out at the very time when Guttenberg&rsquo;s labours
+began. In such a season of struggle and unrest as the
+thirty years of civil strife&mdash;for though Mr. Knight, in
+his very interesting sketch of this date,<a name="FNanchor_A_6" id="FNanchor_A_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_6" class="fnanchor">[D]</a> has shown that
+the period of actual and open war was very short, the
+state of uneasiness and expectation must have endured
+the whole time&mdash;there was small encouragement to the
+peaceful triumphs of art or literature. And, moreover,
+the pride of station was revolted by the prospect of the
+spread of information among the classes to whom it had
+not yet reached. The noble could afford to acknowledge
+his inferiority in learning and research to the priest or
+monk, for it was their trade to be wise and learned, and
+their scholarship was even considered a badge of the
+lowness of their birth, which had given them the primer
+and psalter instead of the horse and sword. But those
+high-hearted cavaliers could ill brook the notion of educated
+clowns and peasants. And, strange to say, the
+sentiment was shared and exaggerated by the peasants<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[394]</a></span>
+and clowns themselves. Jack Cade is represented, by
+an anachronism of date but with perfect truth of character,
+as profoundly irritated at the invention of printing,
+and the building of a paper-mill, and the introduction
+of such heathenish words as nominatives and adverbs:
+so that the press began its career opposed by the
+two greatest parties of the State. Yet truth is mighty
+and will prevail. No nobility in Europe gives such contributions
+to the general stock of high and healthy
+thought as the descendants of the men of Towton and
+Bosworth, and no peasantry values more deeply, or would
+defend more gallantly, the gifts poured upon it by a free
+and sympathizing press. Warwick the King-maker, if
+he had lived just now, would have made speeches in
+Parliament and had them reported in the <i>Times</i>, and
+Jack Cade would have been sent to the reformatory and
+taught to read and write.</p>
+
+<p>But, with the peerages of Europe greatly thinned,
+with mounted feudalism overthrown, with the press rejoicing
+as a giant to run its course, something also was
+needed in order to make a wider theatre for the introduction
+of the new life of men. Another world lay
+beyond the great waters of the Atlantic. Whispers had
+been going round the circle of earnest inquirers, which
+gradually grew louder and louder till they reached the
+ears of kings, that great things lay hidden in the awful
+and mysterious solitudes of the ocean; that westward,
+to balance the preponderance of our used-up continent,
+must be solid land, equal in weight and size, so that the
+uninterrupted waters would conduct the adventurous
+mariner to the farther India by a nearer route than
+Bartholomew Diaz, the Portuguese, had just discovered.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1487.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>This man sailed to the southern extremity
+of Africa, passed round to the east without
+being aware of his achievement, and penetrated as far<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[395]</a></span>
+as Lagoa Bay. But the crew became discontented, and
+the navigator retraced his steps. Alarmed at the commotion
+of the vast waves of the Southern Ocean pouring
+its floods against the Table Mountain, he had retired
+from further research, and called the southern point of
+his pilgrimage the Cape of Storms. It is now known to
+us by a happier augury as the Cape of Good Hope. But,
+whether perpetually haunted by tempests or not, the
+truth was discovered that the land ceased at that promontory
+and left an unexplored sea beyond. This was
+cherished in many a heart; for in this century maritime
+discovery kept pace with the other triumphs of mental
+power. Wherever ship could swim man could venture.
+The Azores had been discovered in 1439 and colonized
+by the Portuguese in 1440. Already in possession of
+Cape Verd, Madeira, and the Canaries, Portugal looked
+forward to greater discoveries, for these were the nurseries
+of gallant and skilful mariners. But the glory was
+left for another nation,&mdash;though, by a strange caprice of
+fortune, the chance of it had been offered to nearly all.</p>
+
+<p>The life of Columbus is more wonderful than a romance.
+He hawked about his notion of the way to
+India at all the courts of Europe. By birth a Genoese,
+he considered the great ocean the patrimony of any
+person able to seize it. When his services, therefore,
+were rejected by his own country, he offered them successively
+to Portugal, to Spain, and to England. Henry
+the Seventh was inclined to venture a small sum in the
+lottery of chances; but, while still in negotiation with
+the brother of Columbus, the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand
+and Isabella, closed with the navigator&rsquo;s terms,
+and on the 3d of August, 1492, the squadron of discovery,
+consisting of a vessel of some size, and two small pinnaces,
+with a crew at most of a hundred persons in all
+the three, sailed from the port of Palos, in Andalusia.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[396]</a></span>
+Three weeks&rsquo; constant progress to the westward took
+them far beyond all previous navigation. The men became
+disheartened, discontented, and finally rebellious.
+Against all, Columbus bore up with the self-relying
+energy of a great mind, but was driven to the compromise
+of promising, if they confided in him for three days
+longer, he would return, if the object of his voyage was
+yet unattained. But by this time his sagacious observation
+had assured him of success. Strange appearances
+began to be perceived from the ship&rsquo;s decks. A
+carved piece of wood floated past, then a reed newly
+cut, and, best sign of all, a branch with red berries still
+fresh. &ldquo;From all these symptoms, Columbus was so
+confident of being near land, that on the evening of
+the 11th of October, after public prayers for success, he
+ordered the sails to be furled, and the ships to lie to,
+keeping strict watch, lest they should be driven ashore
+in the night. During this interval of suspense and expectation
+no man shut his eyes: all kept upon deck,
+gazing intently towards that quarter where they expected
+to discover the land, which had been so long the
+object of their wishes. About two hours before midnight,
+Columbus, standing on the forecastle, observed a
+light at a distance, and privately pointed it out to Pedro
+Guttierez, a page of the queen&rsquo;s wardrobe. Guttierez
+perceiving it, and calling to Salcedo, comptroller of the
+fleet, all three saw it in motion, as if it were carried
+from place to place. A little after midnight the joyful
+sound of &lsquo;<i>Land! land!</i>&rsquo; was heard from the Pinta,
+which kept always ahead of the other ships. But,
+having been so often deceived by fallacious appearances,
+every man was now become slow of belief, and waited
+in all the anguish of uncertainty and impatience for the
+return of day. As soon as morning dawned, all doubts
+and fears were dispelled. From every ship an island
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[397]</a></span>
+was seen about two leagues to the north, whose flat and
+verdant fields, well stored with wood, and watered with
+many rivulets, presented the aspect of a delightful
+country. The crew of the Pinta instantly began the
+<i>Te Deum</i> as a hymn of thanksgiving to God, and were
+joined by those of the other ships, with tears of joy
+and transports of congratulation. This office of gratitude
+to Heaven was followed by an act of justice to
+their commander. They threw themselves at the feet
+of Columbus, with feelings of self-condemnation mingled
+with reverence. They implored him to pardon their
+ignorance, incredulity, and insolence, which had created
+him so much unceasing disquiet and had so often obstructed
+the prosecution of his well-concerted plan; and,
+passing in the warmth of their admiration from one
+extreme to another, they now pronounced the man
+whom they had so lately reviled and threatened to be a
+person inspired by Heaven with sagacity and fortitude
+more than human, in order to accomplish a design so
+far beyond the ideas and conception of all former ages.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Many excellent writers have described this wondrous
+incident, but none so well as the historian of America,
+Dr. Robertson, whose eloquent account is borrowed in
+the preceding lines. The great event occurred on Friday,
+the 12th of October, 1492, and the connection between
+the two worlds began. The place he first landed
+at was San Salvador, one of the Bahamas; and after
+attaching Cuba and Hispaniola to the Spanish crown,
+and going through imminent perils by land and sea, he
+achieved his glorious return to Palos on the 15th of
+March, 1493. He brought with him some of the natives
+of the different islands he had discovered, and their
+strange appearance and manners were vouchers for the
+facts he stated. The whole town, when he came into
+the harbour, was in an uproar of delight. &ldquo;The bells
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[398]</a></span>
+were rung, the cannon fired, Columbus was received at
+landing with royal honours, and all the people, in solemn
+procession, accompanied him and his crew to the church,
+where they returned thanks to Heaven, which had so
+wonderfully conducted, and crowned with success, a
+voyage of greater length, and of more importance,
+than had been attempted in any former age.&rdquo;<a name="FNanchor_A_7" id="FNanchor_A_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_7" class="fnanchor">[E]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[399]</a></span>
+<a name="SIXTEENTH_CENTURY" id="SIXTEENTH_CENTURY">SIXTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of Germany.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Maximilian I.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1519.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles V.</span>,(1st of Spain.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1558.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Ferdinand I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1564.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Maximilian II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1576.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Rodolph II.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of England.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry VII.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1509.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry VIII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1547.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Edward VI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1553.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Mary.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1558.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Elizabeth.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of Scotland.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">James IV.</span> (<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1513.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">James V.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1542.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Mary.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1567.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">James Vi.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of France.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis XII.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1515.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Francis I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1547.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1559.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Francis II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1560.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles IX.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1574.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td colspan="2" align="left" class="dynast">(<i>The Bourbons.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1589.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry IV.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of Spain.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1512.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Ferdinand V.</span>, (the Catholic.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1516.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles I.</span>, (Emperor of Germany.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1556.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1598.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip III.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Distinguished Men.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Leonardo Da Vinci</span>, <span class="smcap">Michael Angelo</span>, <span class="smcap">Raffaelle</span>, <span class="smcap">Correggio</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Titian</span>, (Painters,) <span class="smcap">Sir Philip Sydney</span>, <span class="smcap">Raleigh</span>, <span class="smcap">Spenser</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Shakspeare</span>, (1564-1616,) <span class="smcap">Ariosto</span>, <span class="smcap">Tasso</span>, <span class="smcap">Lope de Vega</span>, <span class="smcap">Calderon</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Cervantes</span>, <span class="smcap">Scaliger</span>, (1484-1558,) <span class="smcap">Copernicus</span>, (1473-1543,)
+<span class="smcap">Knox</span>, (1505-1572,) <span class="smcap">Calvin</span>, (1509-1564,) <span class="smcap">Beza</span>, (1519-1605,)
+<span class="smcap">Bellarmine</span>, (1542-1621,) <span class="smcap">Tycho Brahe</span>, (1546-1601.)</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[401]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_SIXTEENTH_CENTURY" id="THE_SIXTEENTH_CENTURY">THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">THE REFORMATION&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;THE JESUITS&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;POLICY OF ELIZABETH</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the last two years of the preceding century the
+course of maritime discovery had been accelerated by
+fresh success. To balance the glories of Columbus in
+the West, the &ldquo;regions of the rising sun&rdquo; had been explored
+by Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese. This great
+navigator sailed back into the harbour of Lisbon on the
+16th of September, 1499, with the astonishing news that
+he had doubled the Cape of Storms, which had so alarmed
+Bartholomew Diaz, and established relations of amity
+and commerce with the vast continent of India, having
+traded with a civilized and industrious people at Calicut,
+a great city on the coast of Malabar. Under these reiterated
+widenings of men&rsquo;s knowledge of the globe,
+the human mind itself expanded. Familiar names meet
+us from henceforth in the most distant quarters of the
+world. All national or domestic history becomes mixed
+up with elements hitherto unknown. The balance of
+power, which is the new constitution of the European
+States, depends on circumstances and places of the most
+heterogeneous character. A treaty between France
+and Spain, or between England and either, is regulated
+by events occurring on the Amazon or Ganges. The
+whole world gets more closely connected than ever it
+was before, and we can look back on the proceedings of
+previous ages as filling a very narrow theatre, and regulated
+by very contracted interests, when compared with
+the universal policies on which public affairs have now<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[402]</a></span>
+to rest. At first, however, the great results of these
+stupendous discoveries were naturally not observed.
+Contemporaries are justly accused of magnifying the
+small affairs of life of which they are witnesses; but
+this observation does not hold good with respect to the
+really momentous incidents of human history. A man
+who saw Columbus return from his voyage, or Guttenberg
+pulling at his press, could not rise to the contemplation
+of the prodigious consequences of these two
+events. He thought, perhaps, a quarrel between two
+neighbouring potentates, or a battle between France
+and Spain, the greatest incident of his time. His son
+forgot all about the quarrel; his grandson had no recollection
+of the battle; but widening in a still increasing
+circle, expanding into still more wonderful proportions,
+were the Discovery of America and the Art of Printing,&mdash;showing
+themselves in combinations of events and
+changes of circumstances where they were never expected
+to appear,&mdash;the one threatening to overthrow
+the freedom of every State in Europe by the supremacy
+of the Spanish crown, the other in reality preventing
+the chance of that consummation by raising up the
+indomitable spirit of spiritual liberty. For there now
+came to the aid of national independence the far more
+elevating feelings of religious emancipation. Protestantism
+was not limited in this century to denial of the
+spiritual authority of popes, but embodied itself also in
+resistance to the political ambition of kings. America
+might have enabled Charles the Fifth to conquer all
+Europe, if the Reformation had not strengthened men&rsquo;s
+minds with a determination to stand up against oppression.</p>
+
+<p>But the commencement of this century gave no intimation
+of its tempestuous course. The first few years
+saw the peaceable accession to the thrones of Spain and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[403]</a></span>
+France and England of the three sovereigns whose contemporaneous
+reigns, and also whose personal characters,
+had the most preponderating influence on the succeeding
+current of events. We have left Spain for a long time
+out of these general views of a century&rsquo;s condition and
+special notices of individual incidents which affected
+the condition of the world; for Spain for a long time
+lay obscurely between the ocean and the Pyrenees and
+carried on wars and policies which were limited by its
+territorial bounds. But, if we take a hurried retrospect
+of the last few years, we shall see that the different
+nations contained in the Peninsula had amalgamated
+into one mighty and strongly-cemented State. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1497.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Ferdinand
+of Aragon, by marriage with Isabella
+of Castile, united the various nationalities
+under one homogeneous government, and by wisdom
+and magnanimity&mdash;the wisdom being the man&rsquo;s and
+the magnanimity the woman&rsquo;s&mdash;had rendered forever
+famous the joint reign of husband and wife, had reconciled
+the jarring factions of their respective subjects,
+and seen with the triumphant faith of believers and the
+satisfaction of sagacious rulers the reunion of the last
+Mohammedan State to the dominion of the Cross and
+of the crown. They watched the long, slow march of
+the Moorish king and his cavaliers as they took their
+way in poverty and despair from the towers and
+meadows of Granada, which a possession of seven
+hundred years had failed to make their own. This&mdash;the
+conquest of Granada&mdash;took place in 1491; and 1516
+saw the supreme power over all united Spain descend
+on the head of the grandson of Ferdinand and Isabella,&mdash;inheriting,
+along with their royal dignity, the cautious
+wisdom of the one and the wider intelligence of the
+other. In three years from that time&mdash;it will be easy
+to remember that Charles&rsquo;s age is the same as the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[404]</a></span>
+century&rsquo;s&mdash;he was elected to the Imperial crown, so that
+the greatest dominion ever held by one man since the
+days of Charlemagne now fell to the rule of a youth of
+nineteen years of age. Germany, the Netherlands,
+Naples, Sicily, and Spain, more than equalled the extent
+and power of Charlemagne&rsquo;s empire. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1520.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>But ere Charles
+was a year older, vaster dominions than Charlemagne
+had ever dreamt of acknowledged his royal sway; for
+Montezuma, the Emperor of Mexico, whose
+realm was without appreciable limit either in
+size or wealth, professed himself the subject and servant
+of the Spanish king.</p>
+
+<p>Henry the Eighth of England had also succeeded at
+an early age, being but eighteen in 1509, when the
+death of his father, the politic and successful founder of
+the Tudor dynasty, left him with a people silent if not
+quite satisfied, and an exchequer overflowing with what
+would now amount to ten or twelve millions of gold.
+This treasure had been accumulated by the infamous
+exactions of the late sovereign, who was aided in the
+ignoble service by two men of the names of Empson
+and Dudley. These were spies and informers, not, as
+in other climes and countries, about the religious or
+political sentiments of the people, but about their titles
+to their estates, the fines they were disposed to pay, or
+the bribes they would advance to the royal extortioner
+to avoid litigation and injustice. Henry had an admirable
+opportunity of showing his hatred of these practices,
+and availed himself of it at once. Before he had
+been four months on the throne, Empson and Dudley
+were ignominiously hanged; and with safe conscience,
+after this sacrifice at the shrine of legality, he entered
+into possession of the pilfered store. The people applauded
+the rapid decision of his character in both these
+instances, and scarcely grudged him the money when<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[405]</a></span>
+the subordinates were given up to their revenge. They
+could not, indeed, grudge their young king any thing;
+his manners were so open and sincere, his laugh so
+ready, and his teeth so white; for we are not to forget,
+in compliment to what is facetiously called the dignity
+of history, the immense advantages a ruler gains by
+the fact of being good-looking. Nobody feels inclined
+to find fault with a lad of eighteen, if moderately endowed
+with health and features; but when that lad is
+eminently handsome, rioting in strength and spirits,
+open in disposition, and, above all, a king, you need not
+wonder at the universal inclination to overlook his
+faults, to exaggerate his virtues, and even, after an
+interval of two hundred and fifty years, to hear the
+greatest tyrant of our history, and the worst man
+perhaps of his time, talked of by the ordinary title of
+Bluff King Hal. If he had been as ugly and hump-backed
+as his grand-uncle Richard the Third, he would
+have been detested from the first.</p>
+
+<p>But in the neighbouring land of France there reigned
+at the same time a prince almost as handsome as Henry,
+and nearly as popular with his people, with as little
+real cause. In 1515, Francis the First was twenty
+years of age, a perfect specimen of manly strength,&mdash;accomplished
+in all knightly exercises,&mdash;generous and
+magnificent in his intercourse with his nobility,&mdash;and
+the greatest <i>roué</i> and debauchee in all the kingdom of
+France. Here, then, at the beginning of the age we
+have now to examine, were the three mightiest sovereigns
+of Europe, all arriving at their crowns before attaining
+their majority; and with so many years before
+them, and such powerful nations obeying their commands,
+great prospects for good or evil were opening on
+the world. But in the early years of the century no
+human eye perceived in what direction the future was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[406]</a></span>
+going to pursue its course. People were all watching
+for the first indication of what was to come, and kept
+their eyes on the courts of Paris and London and
+Madrid; but nobody suspected that the real champions
+of the time were already marshalling their forces in far
+different situations. There was a thoughtful monk in a
+convent in Germany, and a Spanish soldier before the walls
+of Pampeluna. These were the true movers of men&rsquo;s
+minds, of the great thoughts by which events are created;
+and their names were soon to sound louder than those of
+Henry or Charles or Francis; for one was Martin Luther,
+the hero of the Reformation, and the other was Ignatius
+Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Take note of them
+here as mere accessories to the march of general history:
+we shall return to them again as characteristics of the
+century on which they placed their indelible mark. At
+this time, in the gay young days of the three crowned
+striplings, these future combatants are totally unknown.
+Brother Martin is singing charming hymns to the Virgin,
+in a voice which it was delightful to hear; and Don
+Ignacio is also singing to his guitar the praises of one
+of the beautiful maidens of his native land. Public
+opinion was still stagnant with regard to home-affairs,
+in spite of the efforts of the infant press. People, bowed
+down by the claims of implicit obedience exacted from
+them by the Church, accepted with wondering submission
+the pontificate of such an atrocious murderer as
+Alexander the Sixth; and some even ingeniously founded
+an argument of the divine institution of the Papacy
+upon its having survived the eleven years&rsquo; desecration
+of that monster of cruelty and unbelief. Yet now it
+happened by a strange coincidence that the chair of St.
+Peter was to be filled by a gayer and more accomplished
+ruler than any of the earthly thrones we have mentioned.
+In 1513, Leo the Tenth, the most celebrated of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[407]</a></span>
+the family of the Medicis of Florence, put on the tiara
+at the age of thirty-six, a period of life which was considered
+as youthful for the father of Christendom as
+even the boyish years of the temporal kings. And Leo
+did not belie the promise of his juvenility. None of the
+dulness of age, or even the caution of maturity, was
+perceived in his public or private conduct. He was a
+patron of arts and sciences, and buffoonery, and infidelity;
+and it is curious to observe how the pretensions
+of Rome were more shaken by the frivolous magnificence
+of a good-hearted, graceful voluptuary than they
+had been by the crimes of his two immediate predecessors,
+the truculent Borgia and the warlike Julius the
+Second.</p>
+
+<p>This latter pontiff was intended by nature for a leader
+of Free Lances, to live forever in &ldquo;the joy of battle,&rdquo;
+and must have felt a little out of his element as the head
+of the Christian Church. However, he rapidly discovered
+that he was a secular prince as well as a
+spiritual teacher, and cast his eyes in the former capacity
+with ominous ill will on the industrious Republic
+of Venice. The fishermen and fugitives of many centuries
+before, who had settled among the Adriatic
+lagoons, had risen into the position of princes and
+treasurers of Europe. By their possessions in the East,
+and their trading-factories established along the whole
+route from India to the Mediterranean, they had made
+themselves the intermediaries between the barbaric
+pearls and gold, the silks and spices, of the Oriental
+regions, and the requirements of the West. Their galleys
+were daily bringing them the commodities of the
+Levant, which they distributed at an exorbitant profit
+among the nations beyond the Straits of Gibraltar.
+Mercantile wealth and maritime enterprise elevated the
+taste and confidence of those Venetian traffickers, till<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[408]</a></span>
+their whole territory, amid the lifeless waters of their
+canals, was covered with stately palaces, and their fleets
+assumed the dominion of the inland seas. On the mainland
+they had stretched their power over Dalmatia and
+Trieste, and in their own peninsula over Rimini and
+Ferrara and a great part of the Romagna. Two ruling
+passions agitated the soul of Julius the Second: one was
+to recover whatever territory or influence had once
+belonged to the Holy See; the other was to expel the
+hated barbarian, whether Frenchman, or Swiss, or
+Austrian, from the soil of Italy. To achieve this last
+object he would sacrifice any thing except the first;
+and to unite the two was difficult. He made his approaches
+to Venice in a gentle manner at first. He
+asked her to restore the lands she had lately won,
+which he claimed as appendages of his chair, because
+they had been torn unjustly from the original holders
+by Cæsar Borgia, the son of Alexander the Infamous;
+and if she had agreed to this he would no doubt have
+proceeded with his further scheme of banishing all
+ultramontane invaders. But as the commercial council
+of the great emporium hesitated at giving up what they
+had entered in their books as fairly their own, he altered
+his note in a moment, put on the insignia of his holy
+office, and, denouncing the astonished republic as rebellious
+and ungrateful to Mother Church, he called in the
+aid of the very French whom he was so anxious to get
+quit of, to execute his judgment upon the offending
+State. Venice was rich, and France at that time was
+poor and at all times is greedy. So preparations were
+made for an assault with the readiness and glee with
+which a party of freebooters would make a descent on
+the Bank of England. The temptation also was too
+great to be resisted by other kings and princes, who
+were as hungry for spoil and as attached to religion as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[409]</a></span>
+the French. So in an incredibly short space of time the
+league of Cambrai was joined by Maximilian, the Emperor
+of Germany, and Ferdinand of Spain, and dukes
+and marquesses of less note. There were few of the
+Southern potentates, indeed, who had not some cause
+of complaint against the haughty Venetians.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1508.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Some (as the German Maximilian) they had
+humbled by defeat; others they had insulted by their
+purse-proud insolence; others, again, by superiority in
+commercial skill; and all, by the fact of being wealthy
+and, as they fancied, weak.</p>
+
+<p>Louis the Twelfth of France was first in the field. He
+conquered at Agnadello, and, forcing his way to the
+shore, alarmed the marble halls of the Venetians with
+the sound of his harmless cannonade. The Pope was
+next, and took possession of the towns he wanted. The
+Duke of Ferrara laid hold of some loose articles in the
+confusion, and the Marquis of Mantua got back some
+villages which his grandfather had lost. Maximilian
+was disconsolate at not being in time for the general
+pillage, and had to content himself with Padua and
+Vicenza and Verona. Maximilian was a gentleman in
+difficulties, who has the misfortune to be known in history
+as Max the Penniless. The Venetians sent to tell
+him they were ready to acknowledge his suzerainty as
+emperor, and to pay him a tribute of fifty thousand
+ducats. The man would have forgiven them a hundred
+times their offences for half the money, and was anxious
+to close with their offer. But they had made no similar
+proposition to the French king, nor to Ferdinand, nor
+even of a ten-pound note to the Mantuan Marquis or
+the Magnifico of Ferrara. Wherefore they all began to
+hate the emperor. Louis declined to give him any more
+assistance. Julius sent a secret message to the Venetians
+that Holy Church was not inexorable; and Venice,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[410]</a></span>
+relying on the placability of Rome, hung out her flag
+against her secular foes in prouder defiance than ever.
+She knelt at the feet of the Pope, and allowed him to
+retain his acquisitions in Romagna and elsewhere; and
+as his first object, the enrichment of his domain, was
+accomplished, he lost no time in carrying out the
+second. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1510.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>By the fortunate possession of an unlimited
+power of loosing mankind from unpleasant oaths
+and obligations, he astonished his late confederates
+by publishing a sentence releasing the Venetians
+from the censures of the Church and the Allies from the
+covenants of the Treaty of Cambrai. He then joined
+the pontifical forces to the troops of Venice, and in hot
+haste made a rush upon the French. He bought over
+Ferdinand of Spain to the cause by giving him the investiture
+of Naples, hired a multitude of Swiss mercenaries,
+and, drawing the sword like a stout man-at-arms
+as he was, he laid siege to Mirandola. In spite of his
+great age,&mdash;he was now past seventy,&mdash;he performed all
+the offices of an active general, visited the trenches, encouraged
+his army, and after a two months&rsquo; bombardment
+disdained to enter the city by the opened gate,
+but was triumphantly carried in military pomp through
+a breach in the shattered wall. His perfidy as a statesman
+and audacity as a soldier were too much for the
+Emperor and the King of France. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1511.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>They collected
+as many troops as they could, and threatened
+to summon a general council; for what excommunication
+as an instrument of offence was to the popes,
+a general council was to the civil power. The French
+clergy met at Tours, and supported the Crown against
+Julius. The German emperor was still more indignant.
+He published a paper of accusations, in which the bitterness
+of his penniless condition is not concealed. &ldquo;The
+enormous sums daily extracted from Germany,&rdquo; he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[411]</a></span>
+says, &ldquo;are perverted to the purposes of luxury or
+worldly views, instead of being employed for the service
+of God or against the Infidels. So extensive a territory
+has been alienated for the benefit of the Pope that
+scarcely a florin of revenue remains to the Emperor in
+Italy.&rdquo; Louis and the French appeared triumphant in
+the field; but their triumphs threw them into dismay,
+for their protean adversary, when defeated as temporal
+prince, thundered against them as successor of St. Peter,
+and taught them that their victories were impiety and
+their acquisitions sacrilege. A hard case for Louis,
+where if he retreated his territories were seized, and if
+he advanced his soul was in danger. The war, which
+had begun as a combination against Venice, was now
+converted into a holy league in defence of Rome.
+Spaniards came to the rescue; and Henry, the youthful
+champion of England, and all who either thought they
+loved religion or who really hated France, were inspired
+as if for a crusade. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1512.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>And Maximilian himself,
+poor and friendless,&mdash;how was it possible for
+him to continue obstinately to reject the overtures of
+the Pope, the purse of the Venetians, or the far more
+tempting whisperings of Ferdinand of Aragon, who said
+to him, &ldquo;Julius is very old. Would it not be possible
+to win over the cardinals to make your majesty his successor?&rdquo;
+Such a golden dream had never suggested itself
+to the pauperized emperor before. He swallowed
+the bait at once. He determined to bribe the Sacred
+College, and, to raise the necessary funds, pawned the
+archducal mantle of Austria to the rich merchants, the
+Fuggers of Antwerp, for a large sum, and wrote to his
+daughter Margaret, &ldquo;To-morrow I shall send a bishop
+to the Pope, to conclude an agreement with him that I
+may be appointed his coadjutor and on his death succeed
+to the Papacy, that you may be bound to worship me,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[412]</a></span>&mdash;of
+which I shall be very proud.&rdquo; This may appear a
+rather jocular announcement of so serious a design; but
+there is no doubt that the project was entertained.
+Matters, however, advanced at too rapid a pace for the
+slow calculations of politicians. The French, by a noble
+victory at Ravenna, established their fame as warriors,
+and roused the fear of all the other powers. Maximilian
+grasped at last the Venetian ducats which had
+been offered him so long before, and turned suddenly
+against his ally. Ferdinand and Henry pressed forward
+on France itself on the side of the Pyrenees.
+Foot by foot the land of Italy was set free from the
+French invaders, and Julius the Second, dying before
+the emperor&rsquo;s plans were matured, left the tangled web
+of European politics to be unravelled by a younger
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>We have dwelt on this strange contest, where many
+sovereign states combined to overthrow a colony of
+traders, and failed in all their attempts, because it is the
+last great appearance that Venice has made in the
+general history of the world. From this time her power
+rapidly decayed. Her galleys lay rotting at their
+wharves, and the marriage of her Doge to the Sea was
+a symbol without a meaning. The discovery of a passage
+to India by the Cape, which we saw announced to
+Europe by Vasco da Gama in the last year of the late
+century, was a sentence of death to the carriers of the
+Adriatic. Commerce sought other channels and enriched
+other lands. Wherever the merchant-vessels
+crowded the harbour, whether with the commodities of
+the East or West, the war-ship was sure to follow, and
+the treasures gained in traffic to be guarded by a navy.
+All the ports of Spain became rallying-places of wealth
+and power in this century. Portugal covered every sea
+with her guns and galleons; Holland rose to dignity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[413]</a></span>
+and freedom by her heavy-armed marine; and England
+began the career of enterprise and liberty which is still
+typified and assured by the preponderance of her commercial
+and royal fleets. Questions are asked&mdash;which
+the younger among us, who may live to see the answer,
+may amuse themselves by considering&mdash;as to the chance
+of Venice recovering her ancient commerce if the pathway
+of Eastern trade be again traced down the Mediterranean,
+when the Isthmus of Suez shall be cut
+through by a canal or curtailed by a railway. In
+former times the whole civilized world lay like a golden
+fringe round the shores of that one sea, and the nation
+which predominated there, either in wealth or arms,
+was mistress of the globe. But the case is altered now.
+If the Gates of Hercules were permanently closed, the
+commerce of the world would still go on; and, so far from
+a Mediterranean supremacy indicating a universal pre-eminence,
+it is perhaps worthy of remark that the only
+Mediterranean nations which have in later times been
+recognised as of first-rate rank in Europe have had
+their principal ports upon the Atlantic and in the
+Channel.</p>
+
+<p>There is a circumstance which we may observe as
+characteristic of many of the European states at this
+time,&mdash;the desire of combination and consolidation at
+home even more than of foreign conquest. In Spain
+the cessation of the oligarchy of kingships had established
+a national crown. The hopes of recasting the
+separated and mutilated limbs of ancient Latium into a
+gigantic Italy were rife in that sunny land of high resolves
+and futile acts. In Germany, the official supremacy
+of the emperor was insufficient to prevent the
+strong definement of the corporate nationalities. Holland
+secured its individuality by unheard-of efforts; and
+in England the great thought took possession of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[414]</a></span>
+political mind of a union of the whole island. Visions
+already floated before the statesmen on both sides of
+the Tweed of a Great Britain freed from intestine disturbance
+and guarded by undisputed seas. But the
+general intelligence was not yet sufficiently far advanced.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1502.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The Scotch were too Scotch and the English
+too English to sink their national differences; and we
+can only pay homage to the wisdom which by a marriage
+between the royal houses&mdash;James the Fourth,
+and Margaret of England&mdash;planted the promise
+which came afterwards to maturity in the junction
+of the crowns in 1603, and the indissoluble union
+of the countries in 1707.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, the wooing was of the harshest. The
+last great battle, Flodden, that marked the enmity of
+the kingdoms, was decided in this century, and has left
+a deep and sorrowful impression even to our own times.
+There is not a cottage in Scotland where &ldquo;The Fight of
+Flodden&rdquo; is not remembered yet. And its effects were
+so desolating and dispiriting that it may be considered
+the death-bed to the feeling of equality which had
+hitherto ennobled the weaker nation. From this time
+England held the position of a virtual superior, regulating
+her conduct without much regard to the dignity
+or self-respect of her neighbour, and employing the arts
+of diplomacy, and the meaner tricks of bribery and corruption,
+only because they were more easy and less expensive
+than the open method of invasion and conquest.
+&ldquo;Scotland&rsquo;s shield&rdquo; was indeed broken at Flodden, but
+her character for courage and honour remained. It
+was the treachery of Solway Moss, and the venality of
+most of the surviving nobility, that were the real causes
+of her weakness, and of the subordinate place which at
+this time she held in Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Thus the object which in other nations had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[415]</a></span>
+gained by a union of crowns was attained also in our
+island by the absence of opposition between the peoples.
+Flodden and Pinkie may therefore be looked upon with
+kindlier eyes if they are regarded as steps to the formation
+of so great a realm. No nation retained its feudal
+organization so long as Scotland, or so completely departed
+from the original spirit of feudalism. Instead of
+being leaders and protectors of their dependants, and attached
+vassals of the kings, the barons of the North were
+an oligarchy of armed conspirators both against the
+crown and the people. Few of the earlier Stuarts died
+in peaceful bed; for even those of them who escaped
+the dagger of the assassin were hunted to death by the
+opposition and falsehood of the chiefs. Perpetually
+engaged in plots against the throne or forays against
+each other, the Scottish nobility weakened their country
+both at home and abroad. Law could have no authority
+where mailed warriors settled everything by the sword,
+and no resistance could be offered to a foreign enemy by
+men so divided among themselves. Down to a period
+when the other nations of Europe were under the rule
+of legal tribunals, the High Street of Edinburgh was
+the scene of violence and bloodshed between rival lords
+who were too powerful for control by the civil authority.
+A succession of foolishly rash or unwisely lenient sovereigns
+left this ferocity and independence unchecked;
+and though poetry and patriotism now combine to cast
+a melancholy grace on the defeat at Flodden, from the
+Roman spirit with which the intelligence was received
+by the population of the capital, the unbiassed inquirer
+must confess that, with the exception of the single
+virtue of personal courage, the Scottish array was ennobled
+by no quality which would have justified its success.
+It was ill commanded, ill disciplined, and ill combined.
+The nobility, as usual, were disaffected to the king and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[416]</a></span>
+averse to the War. But the crown-tenants and commonalty
+of the Lowlands were always ready for an
+affray with England; and James the Fourth, the most
+chivalrous of that line of chivalrous and unfortunate
+princes, merrily crossed the Border and prepared for
+feats of arms as if at a tournament. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1513.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The cautious
+Earl of Surrey, the leader of the English
+army, availed himself of the knightly prepossessions of
+his enemy, and sent a herald, in all the frippery of
+tabard and cross, to challenge him to battle on a set
+day, when Lord Thomas Howard would run a tilt with
+him at the head of the English van. James fell into the
+snare, and regulated his movements, in fact, by the
+direction of his opponent. When, in a momentary
+glimpse of common sense, he established his quarters
+on the side of a hill, from which it would have been impossible
+to dislodge him, Surrey relied on the absurd
+generosity of his character, and sent a message to complain
+that he had placed himself on ground &ldquo;more like
+a fortress or a camp than an ordinary battle-field.&rdquo;
+James pretended to despise the taunt, and even to refuse
+admission to the herald; but it worked on his susceptible
+and fearless nature; for we find that he allowed the
+English to pass through difficult and narrow ways,
+which were commanded by his guns, and when they
+were fairly marshalled on level ground he set fire to his
+tents and actually descended the hill to place himself on
+equal terms with the foe. Such a beginning had the
+only possible close. Strong arms and sharp swords are
+excellent supports of generalship, but cannot always be
+a substitute for it. Never did the love of fight so inherent
+in the Scottish character display itself more
+gallantly than on this day. Again and again the Scottish
+earls dashed forward against the English squares.
+These were composed of the steadiest of the pikemen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[417]</a></span>
+flanked by the wondrous archers who had turned so
+many a tide of battle. Fain would the veteran warriors
+have kept their men in check; fain would the commanders
+of the French auxiliaries have restrained the
+Scottish advance. But the Northern blood was up.
+Onward they went, in spite of generalship and all the
+rules of discipline, and with a great crash burst upon
+the wall of steel. It was magnificent, as the Frenchmen
+said at Balaklava, but it was not war. Repelled by the
+recoil of their own impetuous charge, they fell into
+fragments and encumbered the gory plain. Very few
+fled, very few had the opportunity of flying; for the
+cloth-yard shaft never missed its aim. There was no
+crying for quarter or sparing of the flashing blade.
+Both sides were irritated to madness. James pushed
+on, shouting and waving his bloody sword, and was
+wounded by an arrow and gashed with a ponderous
+battle-axe when he had forced himself within a few
+paces of Surrey. Darkness was now closing in. The
+king&rsquo;s death was rapidly known, but still the struggle
+went on. At length the wearied armies ceased to kill.
+The Scotch retreated, and in the dawn of the next
+morning a compact body of them was seen still threatening
+on the side of a distant hill. But the day was lost
+and won. The chivalry of Scotland received a blow
+from which it never recovered. What Courtrai had
+been to the French, and Granson and Nanci to the Burgundians,
+and Towton and Tewkesbury to the English,
+the 9th of September, 1513, was to the peerage of the
+North. Thirteen earls were killed, fifteen barons, and
+chiefs and members of all the gentle houses in the land.
+Some were stripped utterly desolate by this appalling
+slaughter; and from many a hall, as well as from humble
+shieling, rose the burden of the tearful ballad, &ldquo;The
+flowers o&rsquo; the forest are a&rsquo; wedd awa&rsquo;.&rdquo; There were ten<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[418]</a></span>
+thousand slain in the field, the gallant James cut off in
+the prime of strength and manhood, and the sceptre
+which required the grasp of an Edward the First left to
+be the prize of an unprincipled queen-mother, or any
+ambitious cabal which could conspire to seize it. James
+the Fifth was but a year or two old, and the country
+discouraged and demoralized.</p>
+
+<p>But Henry the Eighth was destined to some other
+triumphs in this fortunate year. First there was the
+victory which his forces won at Guinegate, near Calais,
+where the French chivalry fled in the most ignominious
+manner, and struck their rowels into their horses&rsquo; flanks,
+without remembering that they carried swords in their
+hands. This is known in history as the second Battle
+of the Spurs,&mdash;not, as at Courtrai, for the number of
+those knightly emblems taken off the heels of the dead,
+but for the amazing activity they displayed on the heels
+of the living. And, secondly, he could boast that the
+foremost man in Christendom wore his livery and
+pocketed his pay; for Maximilian the Penniless, successor
+of Charlemagne and Constantine and Augustus,
+enlisted and did good service as an English trooper at
+a hundred crowns a day. Let Henry rejoice in these
+achievements while he may; for the time is drawing
+near when the old sovereigns of Europe are to be moved
+out of the way and France and Spain are to be governed
+by younger men and more ambitious politicians than
+himself. Evil times indeed were at hand, when it
+required the strength of youth and wisdom of policy to
+guide the bark not only of separate states, but of settled
+law and Christian civilization. For, however pleasant
+it may be to trace Henry through his home-career and
+Francis and Charles in their national rivalries, we are
+not to forget that the real interest of this century is
+that it is the century of the Reformation,&mdash;a movement<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[419]</a></span>
+before whose overwhelming importance the efforts of
+the greatest individuals sink into insignificance,&mdash;an
+upheaving of hidden powers and principles, which in
+truth so altered all former relations between man and
+man that it found the most influential personage in
+Europe, not in the Apostolic Emperor, or the Christian
+King, or the Defender of the Faith, but in a burly friar
+at Wittenberg, whose name had never been heard
+before.</p>
+
+<p>Let us see what was the general condition of the Romish
+Chair before the outburst of its enemies at this time. One
+thing is very observable: that its claims to supremacy and
+obedience were, ostensibly at least, almost universally
+acquiesced in. From Norway to Calabria the theory
+of a Universal Church, divinely founded and divinely
+sustained, in possession of superhuman power and uncommunicated
+knowledge, governed by an infallible
+chief, and administered by an uninterrupted line of
+priests and bishops, who had given up the vanities of
+the world, satisfier of doubts, and sole instrument of
+salvation,&mdash;this seemed so perfect and so natural an
+organization that it had been accepted from time immemorial
+as incapable of denial. If a voice was heard
+here and there in an Alpine valley or in a scholastic
+debating-room impugning these arrangements or asking
+proof from history or revelation, the civil power was
+let loose upon the gainsayer, with the general consent
+of orthodox men, and the Vaudois were murdered with
+sword and spear and the inquiring student chained in
+his monkish cell. The theory and organization of the
+Universal Church were, in fact, never so well defined as
+at the moment when its reign was drawing to a close.
+Nobody doubted that a general Father, clothed in infallible
+wisdom, and armed with powers directly committed
+to him for the guidance or punishment of mankind,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[420]</a></span>
+was the Heaven-sent arbiter of differences, the
+rewarder of faithful kings, the corrector of unruly
+nations; and yet the spectacle was presented, to the
+believers in this ideal, of a series of wicked and abandoned
+rulers sitting in Peter&rsquo;s chair, and only imitating
+the apostle in his furiousness and his denial; cardinals
+depraved and worldly beyond the example of temporal
+princes; a priesthood steeped, for the most part, in
+ignorance and vice, and monks and nuns the <i>opprobria</i>
+of all nations where they were found. Never were
+claims and performances brought into such startling
+contrast before. The Pope was the representative upon
+earth of the Saviour of men; and he poisoned his guests,
+like Borgia, slew his opponents, like Julius, or led the
+life of an intellectual epicure, like Leo the Tenth. In
+former times the contrariety between doctrine and
+practice would have been slightly known or easily reconciled.
+Few comparatively visited Rome; cardinals
+were seldom seen; priests were not more ignorant than
+their parishioners, and monks not more wicked than
+their admirers. All believed in the miraculous efficacy
+of the wares in which even the lower order of the
+clergy dealt, and their rule in country places was so lax,
+their penances so easily performed or commuted, their
+relations with their people so friendly and on such equal
+terms, that in the rural districts the voice of complaint
+was either unheard or neglected. In Italy, the head-quarters
+of the faith, the excesses of priestly rule were
+the most glaring and wide-spread. Rome itself was
+always the seat of turbulence and disaffection. The
+lives of professedly holy men were known, and the vices
+of popes and prelates pressed heavily on the people, who
+were the first victims of their avarice or cruelty. But
+the utmost extent of their indignation never reached to
+a questioning of the foundation of the power from which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[421]</a></span>
+they suffered. An Italian crushed to the earth by the
+extortion of his Church, irritated perhaps by the personal
+wickedness of his director, sought no escape from
+such inflictions in disbelieving either the temporal or
+spiritual authority of his oppressor. Rather he would
+have looked with savage satisfaction on the fagot-fire of
+any one who hinted that the principles of his Church
+required the slightest amendment; that the absolution
+of his sensual confessor was not altogether indispensable;
+that the image he bowed down to was common
+wood, or that the relics he worshipped were merely
+dead men&rsquo;s bones. Perhaps, indeed, in those luxurious
+regions, a bare and unadorned worship would not seem
+to be worship at all. With his impassioned mind and
+glowing fancy, the Spaniard or Italian must pour out
+his whole being on the object of his adoration. He
+loves his patron saint with the warmth of an earthly
+affection, and thinks he undervalues her virtues or her
+claims if he does not heap her shrine with his offerings
+and address her image with rapture. He must make
+external demonstration of his inward feelings, or nobody
+will believe in their existence. The crouchings
+and kneelings, therefore, which our colder natures stigmatize
+as idolatry, are to him nothing more than the
+outward manifestation of affection and thankfulness.
+He does the same to his master or his benefactor without
+degradation in the eyes of his countrymen. Without
+these bowings and genuflections his conduct would
+be thought ungrateful and disrespectful. That this
+amount of warm-hearted sincerity is wasted upon such
+unworthy objects as his saints and relics is greatly to be
+deplored; but wide allowances must be made for peculiarities
+of situation and disposition; and we should remember
+that whereas in the North a religion of forms
+and ceremonies would be a body without a soul, because<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[422]</a></span>
+there would be no inward exaltation answering to the
+outward manifestation, the Southern heart sees a meaning
+where there is none to us, is conscious of a sense of
+trust and reverence where we only see slavishness and
+imposture, and a feeling of divine consolation and hope
+in services which to us are histrionic and absurd. Religious
+belief, in the sense of a true and undivided faith
+in the doctrines of Christianity, had no recognised
+existence at the period we have reached. But this absence
+of religious belief was combined, however strange
+the statement may appear, with a most implicit trust in
+the directions and authority of the Church. Sunny
+skies might have shone forever over the political abasement
+and slightly Christianized paganism of the inhabitants
+of the two peninsulas and the Southeast of Europe,
+but a cloud was about to rise in the North which dimmed
+them for a time, but which, after it burst in purifying
+thunder, has refreshed and cleared the atmosphere of
+the whole world.</p>
+
+<p>The first book that Guttenberg published in 1451 was
+the Holy Bible,&mdash;in the Latin language, to be sure, and
+after the Vulgate edition, but still containing, to those
+who could gather it, the manna of the Word. Two years
+after that, in 1453, the capture of Constantinople by the
+Turks had scattered the learning of the Greeks among
+all the nations of the West. The universities were soon
+supplied with professors, who displayed the hitherto-unexplored
+treasures of the language of Pericles and
+Demosthenes. Everywhere a spirit of inquiry began to
+reawaken, but limited as yet to subjects of philosophy
+and antiquity. Christianity, indeed, had so lost its hold
+on the minds of scholars that it was not considered
+worth inquiring into. It was looked on as a fable, and
+only profitable as an instrument of policy. Erasmus
+was alarmed at the state of feeling in 1516, and expressed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[423]</a></span>
+his belief that, if those Grecian studies were
+pursued, the ancient deities would resume their sway.
+But the Bible was already reaping its appointed harvest.
+Its voice, lost in the din of speculative philosophies and
+the dissipation of courts, was heard in obscure places,
+where it never had penetrated before. In 1505, Luther
+was twenty-two years of age. He had made himself a
+scholar by attendance at schools where his poverty
+almost debarred him from appearing. At Eisenach he
+gained his bread by singing at the richer inhabitants&rsquo;
+doors. Afterwards he had gone to Erfurt, and, tired or
+afraid of the world, anxious for opportunities of self-examination,
+and dissatisfied with his spiritual state, he
+entered the convent of the Augustines, and in two years
+more, in 1507, became priest and monk. There was an
+amazing amount of goodness and simplicity of life
+among the brotherhood of this community. Learning
+and devout meditation were encouraged, holy ascetic
+lives were led, the body was kept under with fastings
+and stripes. A Bible was open to them all, but chained
+to its place in the chapel, and only to be studied by
+standing before the desk on which it lay. All these
+things were insufficient, and Brother Martin was miserable.
+His companions pitied and respected him. Staupitz,
+a man of great rank in the Church, a sort of inspector-general
+of a large district, visited the convent,
+and in a moment was attracted by the youthful monk.
+He conversed with him, soothed his agitated mind, not
+with anodynes from the pharmacop&oelig;ia of the Church,
+but from the fountain-head of the faith. He painted
+God as the forgiver of sinners, the Father of all men;
+and Luther took some comfort. But, on going away,
+the kind-hearted Staupitz gave the young man a Bible,&mdash;a
+Bible all to himself, his own property, to carry in
+his bosom, to study in his cell. His vocation was at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[424]</a></span>
+once fixed. The Reformer felt his future all before him,
+like Achilles when he grasped the sword and rejected
+the feminine toys. The books he had taken with him
+into the monastery were Plautus and Virgil; but he
+studied plays and epics no more. Augustin and the
+Bible supplied their place. Hungering for better things
+than the works of the law,&mdash;abstinence, prayer-repetitions,
+scourgings, and all the wearisome routine of
+mechanical devotion,&mdash;he dashed boldly into the other
+extreme, and preached free grace,&mdash;grace without
+merit, the great doctrine which is called, theologically,
+&ldquo;justification by faith alone.&rdquo; This had been the main
+theme of his master Augustin, and Luther now gave it
+practical shape. In 1510 he was sent on some business
+of his convent to Rome,&mdash;to Rome, the head-quarters of
+the Church, the earthly residence of the infallible!
+How holy will be its dwellings, how gracious the words
+of its inhabitants! The German monk saw nothing but
+sin and infidelity. In high places as in low, the taint
+of corruption was polluting all the air. In terror and
+dismay, he left the city of iniquity within a fortnight of
+his arrival, and hurried back to the peacefulness of his
+convent. &ldquo;I would not for a hundred thousand florins
+have missed seeing Rome,&rdquo; he said, long afterwards.
+&ldquo;I should always have felt an uneasy doubt whether I
+was not, after all, doing injustice to the Pope. As it is,
+I am quite satisfied on the point.&rdquo; The Pope was Julius
+the Second, whose career we followed in the League of
+Cambrai; and we may enter into the surprise of Luther
+at seeing the Father of the Faithful breathing blood and
+ruin to his rival neighbours. But the force of early
+education was still unimpaired. The Pope was Pope,
+and the devout German thought of him on his knees.
+But in the year 1517 a man of the name of Tetzel, a
+Dominican of the rudest manners and most brazen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[425]</a></span>
+audacity, appeared in the market-place of Wittenberg,
+ringing a bell, and hawking indulgences from the Holy
+See to be sold to all the faithful. A new Pope was on
+the throne,&mdash;the voluptuous Leo the Tenth. He had
+resolved to carry on the building of the great Church
+of St. Peter, and, having exhausted his funds in riotous
+living, he sent round his emissaries to collect fresh
+treasures by the sale of these pardons for human sin.
+&ldquo;Pour in your money,&rdquo; cried Tetzel, &ldquo;and whatever
+crimes you have committed, or may commit, are forgiven!
+Pour in your coin, and the souls of your friends
+and relations will fly out of purgatory the moment they
+hear the chink of your dollars at the bottom of the box.&rdquo;
+Luther was Doctor of Divinity, Professor in the University,
+and pastoral visitor of two provinces of the empire.
+He felt it was his duty to interfere. He learned for the
+first time himself how far indulgences were supposed to
+go, and shuddered at the profanity of the notion of
+their being of any value whatever. On the festival of
+All Saints, in November, 1517, he read a series of propositions
+against them in the great church, and startled
+all Germany like a thunderbolt with a printed sermon
+on the same subject. The press began its work, and
+people no longer fought in darkness. Nationalities
+were at an end when so wide-embracing a subject was
+treated by so universal an agent. The monk&rsquo;s voice
+was heard in all lands, even in the walls of Rome, and
+crossed the sea, and came in due time to England.
+&ldquo;Tush, tush! &rsquo;tis a quarrel of monks,&rdquo; said Leo the
+Tenth; and, with an affectation of candour, he remarked,
+&ldquo;This Luther writes well: he is a man of fine
+genius.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>Gallant young Henry the Eighth thought it a good
+opportunity to show his talent, and meditated an
+assault on the heretic,&mdash;a curious duel between a pale<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[426]</a></span>
+recluse and the gayest prince in Christendom. But the
+recluse was none the worse when the book was published,
+and the prince earned from the gratitude of the Pope the
+name &ldquo;Defender of the Faith,&rdquo; which is still one of the
+titles of the English crown. Penniless Maximilian looked
+on well pleased, and wrote to a Saxon counsellor, &ldquo;All
+the popes I have had any thing to do with have been
+rogues and cheats. The game with the priests is beginning.
+What your monk is doing is not to be despised:
+take care of him. It may happen that we shall have
+need of him.&rdquo; Luther&rsquo;s own prince, the Elector of
+Saxony, was his firm friend, and on one side or other
+all Europe was on the gaze. Leo at last perceived
+the danger, and summoned the monk to Rome. He
+might as well have yielded in the struggle at once,
+for from Rome he never could have returned alive.
+He consented, however, to appear before the Legate
+at Augsburg, attended by a strong body-guard furnished
+by the Elector, and held his ground against
+the threats and promises of the Cardinal of Cajeta. But
+Maximilian carried his poverty and disappointment to
+the grave in 1519; and when Leo saw the safe accession
+of his successor Charles the Fifth, the faithful servant
+of St. Peter, he pushed matters with a higher hand
+against the daring innovator. Brother Martin, however,
+was unmoved. He would not retreat; he even advanced
+in his course, and wrote to the Pope himself an
+account of the iniquities of Rome. &ldquo;You have three or
+four cardinals,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;of learning and faith; but
+what are these three or four in so vast a crowd of infidels
+and reprobates? The days of Rome are numbered,
+and the anger of God has been breathed forth upon her.
+She hates councils, she dreads reforms, and will not
+hear of a check being placed on her desperate impiety.&rdquo;
+This was a dangerous man to meet with such devices as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[427]</a></span>
+bulls and interdicts. Charles determined to try harsher
+measures, and summoned him to appear at a Diet of the
+States held in Worms. The emperor was now twenty-one
+years old. His sceptre stretched over the half of
+Europe, and across the great sea to the golden realm of
+Mexico. Martin begged a new gown from the not very
+lavish Elector, and went in a sort of chariot to the appointed
+city,&mdash;serene and confident, for he had a safe-conduct
+from the emperor and various princes, and
+trusted in the goodness of his cause. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1521.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Such
+a scene never occurred in any age of the world
+as was presented when the assemblage met. All the
+peers and potentates of the German Empire, presided
+over by the most powerful ruler that ever had been
+known in Europe, were gathered to hear the trial and
+condemnation of a thin, wan-visaged young man, dressed
+in a monk&rsquo;s gown and hood and worn with the fatigues
+and hazards of his recent life. &ldquo;Yet prophet-like that
+lone one stood, with dauntless words and high,&rdquo; and
+answered all questions with force and modesty. But
+answers were not what the Diet required, and retractation
+was far from Luther&rsquo;s mind. So the Chancellor of
+Trèves came to him and said, &ldquo;Martin, thou art disobedient
+to his Imperial Majesty: wherefore depart
+hence under the safe-conduct he has given thee.&rdquo; And
+the monk departed. As he was nearing his destination,
+and was passing through a wood alone, some horsemen
+seized his person, dressed him in military garb, and put
+on him a false beard. They then mounted him on a led
+horse and rode rapidly away. His friends were anxious
+about his fate, for a dreadful sentence had been uttered
+against him by the emperor on the day when his safe-conduct
+expired, forbidding any one to sustain or shelter
+him, and ordering all persons to arrest and bring
+him into prison to await the judgment he deserved.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[428]</a></span>
+People thought he had been waylaid and killed, or at all
+events sent into a dungeon. Meantime he was living
+peaceably and comfortably in the castle of Wartburg,
+to which he had been conveyed in this mysterious
+manner by his friend the Elector,&mdash;safe from the machinations
+of his enemies, and busily engaged in his immortal
+translation of the Bible.</p>
+
+<p>The movement thus communicated by Luther knew
+no pause nor end. It soon ceased to be a merely
+national excitement caused by local circumstances, and
+became the one great overwhelming question of the
+time. Every thing was brought into its vortex: however
+distant might be its starting-point, to this great
+central idea it was sure to attach itself at last. Involuntarily,
+unconsciously, unwillingly, every government
+found that the Reformation formed part of its scheme
+and policy. One nation, and one only, had the clear
+eye and firm hand to make it ostensibly, and of its deliberate
+choice, the guide and landmark in its dangerous
+and finally triumphant career. This was England,&mdash;not
+when under the degrading domination of its Henry
+or the heavy hand of its Mary, but under the skilful
+piloting of the great Elizabeth, the first of rulers who
+seems to have perceived that submission to a foreign
+priest is a political error on the part both of kings and
+subjects, and that occupation by a foreign army is not
+more subversive of freedom and independence than the
+supremacy of a foreign Church. Hitherto England had
+been nearly divided from the whole world, and was
+merely one of the distant satellites that revolved on the
+outside of the European system, the centre of which
+was Rome. She was now to burn with light of her
+own. The Continent, indeed, at the commencement of
+the Reformation, seemed almost in a state of dissolution.
+In 1529 disunion had attained such a pitch in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[429]</a></span>
+Empire that the different princes were ranged on hostile
+sides. At the Diet of Spires, in this year, the name of
+Protestant had been assumed by the opponents of the
+excesses and errors of the Church of Rome. At the
+same time that the religious unity was thus finally
+thrown off, the Turks were thundering at the Eastern
+gates of Europe, and Solyman of Constantinople laid
+siege to Vienna. France was exhausted with her internal
+troubles. Spain came to the rescue of the outraged
+faith, and made heresy punishable with death
+throughout all her dominions. While the Netherlands,
+against which this was directed, was groaning under
+this new infliction, disorder seemed to extend over the
+solid earth itself. There were earthquakes and great
+storms in many lands. Lisbon was shaken into ruins,
+with a loss of thirty thousand inhabitants; and the
+dykes of Holland were overwhelmed by a prodigious
+rising of the sea, and four hundred thousand people
+were drowned.</p>
+
+<p>Preparations were made in all quarters for a great
+and momentous struggle: nobody could tell where it
+would break forth or where it would end. And ever
+and anon Luther&rsquo;s rallying-cry was heard in answer to
+the furious denunciations of cardinals and popes. Interests
+get parcelled out in so many separate portions
+that it is impossible to unravel the state of affairs with
+any clearness. We shall only notice that, in 1531, the
+famous league of Smalcalde first embodied Protestantism
+in its national and lay constitution by the banding together
+of nine of the sovereign princes of Germany, and
+eleven free cities, in armed defence, if needed, of their
+religious belief. Where is the fiery Henry of England,
+with his pen or sword? A very changed man from
+what we saw him only thirteen years ago. He has no
+pen now, and his sword is kept for his discontented subjects<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[430]</a></span>
+at home. In 1534, King and Lords and Commons,
+in Parliament assembled, threw off the supremacy of
+Rome, and Henry is at last a king, for his courts hold
+cognizance of all causes within the realm, whether
+ecclesiastical or civil. Everybody knows the steps by
+which this embodied selfishness achieved his emancipation
+from a dominant Church. It little concerns us
+now, except as a question of historic curiosity, what his
+motives were. Judging from the analogy of all his
+other actions, we should say they were bad; but by
+some means or other the evil deeds of this man were
+generally productive of benefit to his country. He cast
+off the Pope that he might be freed from a disagreeable
+wife; but as the Pope whom he rejected was the servant
+of Charles, (the nephew of the repudiated queen,) he
+found that he had freed his kingdom at the same time
+from its degrading vassalage to the puppet of a rival
+monarch. He dissolved the monasteries in England for
+the purpose of grasping their wealth; but the country
+found he had at the same time delivered it from a swarm
+of idle and mischievous corporations, which in no long
+time would have swallowed up the land. Their revenues
+were immense, and the extent of their domains almost
+incredible. Before people had recovered from their
+disgust at the hateful motives of their tyrant&rsquo;s behaviour,
+the results of it became apparent in the elevation
+of the finest class of the English population; for the
+&ldquo;bold peasantry, their country&rsquo;s pride,&rdquo; began to establish
+their independent holdings on the parcelled-out
+territories of the monks and nuns. Vast tracts of
+ground were thrown open to the competition of lay proprietors.
+Even the poorest was not without hope of
+becoming an owner of the soil; nay, the released estates
+were so plentiful that in Elizabeth&rsquo;s reign an act was
+passed making it illegal for a man to build a cottage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[431]</a></span>
+&ldquo;unless he laid four acres of land thereto.&rdquo; The cottager,
+therefore, became a small farmer; and small
+farmers were the defence of England; and the defence
+of England was the safety of freedom and religion
+throughout the world. There were some hundred thousands
+of those landed cottagers and smaller gentry and
+great proprietors established by this most respectable
+sacrilege of Henry the Eighth, and for the sake of these
+excellent consequences we forgive him his pride and
+cruelty and all his faults. But Henry&rsquo;s work was done,
+and in January, 1547, he died. The rivals with whom
+he started on the race of life were still alive; but life
+was getting dark and dreary with both of them.
+Francis was no longer the hero of &ldquo;The Field of the
+Cloth-of-Gold,&rdquo; conqueror of Marignano, the gallant
+captive of Pavia, or the winner of all hearts. He was
+worn out with a life of great vicissitudes, and heard
+with ominous foreboding the news of Henry&rsquo;s death.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span>March 11, 1547.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>A fate seemed to unite them in all those years of
+revelry and hate and friendship, and in a few weeks the
+most chivalrous and generous of the Valois
+followed the most tyrannical of the Tudors to
+the tomb. A year before this, the Monk of Wittenberg,
+now the renowned and married Dr. Martin Luther, had
+left a place vacant which no man could fill; and now
+of all those combatants Charles was the sole survivor.
+Selfish as Henry, dissolute as Francis, obstinate as Martin,
+his race also was drawing to a close. But the play
+was played out before these chief performers withdrew.
+All Europe had changed its aspect. The England, the
+France, the Empire, of five-and-twenty years before
+had utterly passed away. New objects were filling
+men&rsquo;s minds, new principles of policy were regulating
+states. Protestantism was an established fact, and the
+Treaty of Passau in 1552 gave liberty and equality to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[432]</a></span>
+the professors of the new faith. Charles was sagacious
+though heartless as a ruler, but an unredeemed bigot as
+an individual man. The necessities of his condition, by
+which he was forced to give toleration to the enemies
+of the Church, weighed upon his heart. A younger
+hand and bloodier disposition, he thought, were needed
+to regain the ground he had been obliged to yield; and
+in Philip his son he perceived all these requirements
+fulfilled. When he looked round, he saw nothing to
+give him comfort in his declining years. War was
+going on in Hungary against the still advancing Turks;
+war was raging in Lorraine between his forces and the
+French; Italy, the land of volcanoes, was on the eve of
+outbreak and anarchy; and, thundering out defiance of
+the Imperial power and the Christian Cross, the guns
+of the Ottoman fleet were heard around the shores of
+Sicily and up to the Bay of Naples. The emperor was
+faint and weary: his armies were scattered and dispirited;
+his fleets were unequal to their enemy: so in 1556
+he resigned his pompous title of monarch of Spain and
+the Indies, with all their dependencies, to his son, and
+the empire to his brother Ferdinand, who was already
+King of Hungary and Bohemia and hereditary Duke of
+Austria; and then, with the appearance of resignation,
+but his soul embittered by anger and disappointment,
+he retired to the Convent of St. Just, where he gorged
+himself into insanity with gluttonies which would have
+disgraced Vitellius, and amused himself by interfering
+in state affairs which he had forsworn, and making
+watches which he could not regulate, and going through
+the revolting farce of a rehearsal of his funeral, with his
+body in the coffin and the monks of the monastery for
+mourners. Those theatrical lamentations were probably
+as sincere as those which followed his real demise in
+1558; for when he surrendered the power which made<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[433]</a></span>
+him respected he gave evidence only of the qualities
+which made him disliked.</p>
+
+<p>The Reformation, you remember, is the characteristic
+of this century. We have traced it in Germany to its
+recognition as a separate and liberated faith. In England
+we are going to see Protestantism established and triumphant.
+But not yet; for we have first to notice a
+period when Protestantism seems at its last hour, when
+Mary, wife of the bigot Philip, and true and honourable
+daughter of the Church, is determined to restore her
+nation to the Romish chair, or die in the holy attempt.
+We are not going into the minutiæ of this dreadful time,
+or to excite your feelings with the accounts of the burnings
+and torturings of the dissenters from the queen&rsquo;s
+belief. None of us are ignorant of the cruelty of those
+proceedings, or have read unmoved the sad recital of
+the martyrdom of the bishops and of such men as the
+joyous and innocent Rowland Taylor of Hadleigh.
+Men&rsquo;s hearts did not become hardened by these sights.
+Rather they melted with compassion towards the dauntless
+sufferers; and, though the hush of terror kept the
+masses of the people silent, great thoughts were rising
+in the general mind, and toleration ripened even under
+the heat of the Smithfield fires. Attempts have been
+made to blacken Mary beyond her demerits and to
+whiten her beyond her deservings. Protestants have
+denied her the virtues she unquestionably possessed,&mdash;truthfulness,
+firmness, conscientiousness, and unimpeachable
+morals. Her panegyrists take higher ground,
+and claim for her the noblest qualifications both as
+queen and woman,&mdash;patriotism, love of her people, fulfilment
+of all her duties, and exquisite tenderness of disposition.
+It will be sufficient for us to look at her
+actions, and we will leave her secret sentiments alone.
+We shall only say that it is very doubtful whether the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[434]</a></span>
+plea of conscientiousness is admissible in such a case.
+If perverted reasoning or previous education has made
+a Thug feel it a point of conscience to put his throttling
+instrument under a quiet traveller&rsquo;s throat, the conscientious
+belief of the performer that his act is for the
+good of the sufferer&rsquo;s soul will scarcely save him from
+the gallows. On the contrary, a conscientious persistence
+in what is manifestly wrong should be an aggravation
+of the crime, for it gives an appearance of respectability
+to atrocity, and, when punishment overtakes the
+wrong-doers, makes the Thug an honoured martyr to
+his opinions, instead of a convicted felon for his misdeeds.
+Let us hope that the rights of conscience will
+never be pleaded in defence of cruelty or persecution.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1554.</div>
+
+<p>The restoration of England to the obedience of the
+Church, the marriage of Mary, the warmest partisan of
+Popery, with Philip, the fanatical oppressor of
+the reformed,&mdash;these must have raised the hopes
+of Rome to an extraordinary pitch. But greater as a
+support, and more reliable than queens or kings, was the
+Society of the Jesuits, which at this time demonstrated
+its attachment to the Holy See, and devoted itself
+blindly, remorselessly, unquestioning, to the defence of
+the old faith. Having sketched the rise of Luther, a
+companion-picture is required of the fortunes of Ignatius
+Loyola. We hinted that a Biscayan soldier,
+wounded at the siege of Pampeluna in Spain, divided
+the notice of Europe with the poor Austin Friar of
+Wittenberg. Enthusiasm, rising almost into madness,
+was no bar, in the case of this wonderful Spaniard, to
+the possession of faculties for government and organization
+which have never been surpassed. Shut out by the
+lameness resulting from his wound from the struggles
+of worldly and soldierly ambition, he gave full way to
+the mystic exaltation of his Southern disposition. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[435]</a></span>
+devoted himself as knight and champion to the Virgin,
+heard with contempt and horror of the efforts made to
+deny the omnipotence of the Chair of Rome, and swore
+to be its defender. Others of similar sentiments joined
+him in his crusade against innovation. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1540.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>A company of
+self-denying, self-sacrificing men began, and, adding to
+the previous laws of their order a vow of unqualified
+submission to the Pope, they were recognised by a bull,
+and the Society of Jesus became the strongest
+and most remarkable institution of modern
+times. Through all varieties of fortune, in exile and
+imprisonment, and even in dissolution, their oath of uninquiring,
+unhesitating obedience to the papal command
+has never been broken. With Protean variety of appearance,
+but unvarying identity of intention, these
+soldiers of St. Peter are as relentless to others, and as
+regardless of themselves, as the body-guard of the old
+Assassins. No degradation is too servile, no place too
+distant, no action too revolting, for these unreasoning
+instruments of power. Wilfully surrendering the right
+of judgment and the feelings of conscience into the
+hands of their superior, there is no method by law or
+argument of regulating their conduct. The one principle
+of submission has swallowed up all the rest, and
+fulfilment of that duty ennobles the iniquitous deeds by
+which it is shown. Other societies put a clause, either
+by words or implication, in their promise of obedience,
+limiting it to things which are just and proper. This
+limit is ostentatiously abrogated by the followers of
+Loyola. The merit of obeying an order to slay an
+enemy of the Church more than compensates for the
+guilt of the murder. In other orders a homicide is
+looked upon with horror; in this, a Jesuit who kills a
+heretical king by command of his chiefs is venerated as
+a saint. Against practices and feelings like these you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[436]</a></span>
+can neither reason nor be on your guard. In all kingdoms,
+accordingly, at some time or other, the existence
+of the order has been found inconsistent with the safety
+of the State, and it has been dissolved by the civil power.
+The moment, however, the Church regains its hold, the
+Jesuits are sure to be restored. The alliance, indeed, is
+indispensable, and the mutual aid of the Order and of
+the Papacy a necessity of their existence. Incorporated
+in 1540, the brothers of the Company of Jesus considered
+the defections of the Reformation in a fair way of
+being compensated when the death of our little, cold-hearted,
+self-willed Edward the Sixth&mdash;a Henry the
+Eighth in the bud&mdash;left the throne in 1553 to Mary, a
+Henry the Eighth full blown. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1558.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>When nearly five years
+of conscientious truculence had shown the earnestness
+of this unhappy woman&rsquo;s belief, the accession
+of Elizabeth inaugurated a new system in this
+country, from which it has never departed since without
+a perceptible loss both of happiness and power. A
+strictly home and national policy was immediately established
+by this most remarkable of our sovereigns, and
+pursued through good report and evil report, sometimes
+at the expense of her feelings&mdash;if she was so little of a
+Tudor as to have any&mdash;of tenderness and compassion,
+sometimes at the expense&mdash;and here she was Tudor
+enough to have very acute sensations indeed&mdash;of her
+personal and official dignity, but always with the one
+object of establishing a great united and irresistible bulwark
+against foreign oppression and domestic disunion.
+It shows how powerful was her impression upon the
+course of European history, that her character is as
+fiercely canvassed at this day as in the speech of her
+contemporaries. Nobody feels as if Elizabeth was a
+personage removed from us by three hundred years.
+We discuss her actions, and even argue about her looks<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[437]</a></span>
+and manners, as if she had lived in our own time. And
+this is the reason why such divergent judgments are
+pronounced on a person who, more than any other
+ruler, united the opinions of her subjects during the
+whole of her long and agitated life. Her acts remain,
+but her judges are different. If we could throw ourselves
+with the reality of circumstance as well as the
+vividness of feeling into the period in which she moved
+and governed, we should come to truer decisions on the
+points submitted to our view. But if we look with the
+refinements of the present time, and the speculative
+niceties permissible in questions which have no direct
+bearing on our prosperity and safety, we shall see much
+to disapprove of, which escaped the notice, or even excited
+the admiration, of the people who saw what tremendous
+arbitraments were on the scale. If we were told that a
+cold-blooded individual had placed on one occasion some
+murderous weapons on a height, and then requested a
+number of his friends to stand before them, while some
+unsuspecting persons came up in that direction, and
+then, suddenly telling his companions to stand on one
+side, had sent bullets hissing and crashing through the
+gentlemen advancing to him, you would shudder with
+disgust at such atrocious cruelty, till you were told that
+the cold-blooded individual was the Duke of Wellington,
+and the advancing gentlemen the French Old Guard at
+Waterloo. And in the same way, if we read of Elizabeth
+interfering in Scotland, domineering at home, and
+bellicose abroad, let us inquire, before we condemn,
+whether she was in her duty during those operations,&mdash;whether,
+in fact, she was resisting an assault, or capriciously
+and unjustifiably opening her batteries on the
+innocent and unprepared. Fiery-hearted, strong-handed
+Scotchmen are ready to fight at this time for the immaculate
+purity and sinless martyrdom of their beautiful<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[438]</a></span>
+Mary, and sturdy Englishmen start up with as bold
+a countenance in defence of good Queen Bess. It is
+not to be doubted that a roll-call as numerous as that of
+Bannockburn or Flodden could be mustered on this
+quarrel of three centuries ago; but the fight is needless.
+The points of view are so different that a verdict can
+never be given on the merits of the two personages
+principally engaged; but we think an unprejudiced
+examination of the course of Elizabeth&rsquo;s policy in Scotland,
+and her treatment of her rival, will establish
+certain facts which neither party can gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>1st. From this it will result, that, to keep reformed
+England secure, it was indispensable to have reformed
+Scotland on her side.</p>
+
+<p>2d. That, in order to have Scotland either reformed
+or on her side, it was indispensable to render powerless
+a popish queen,&mdash;a queen who was supported as legitimate
+inheritor of England by the Pope and Philip of
+Spain, and the King and princes of France.</p>
+
+<p>3d. That Elizabeth had a right, by all the laws of self-preservation,
+to sustain by every legal and peaceable
+means that party in Scotland which was <i>de facto</i> the
+government of the country, and which promised to be
+most useful to the objects she had in view. Those objects
+have already been named,&mdash;peace and security for
+the Protestant religion, and the honour and independence
+of the whole British realm.</p>
+
+<p>To gain these ends, who denies that she bribed and
+bullied and deceived?&mdash;that she degraded the Scottish
+nobles by alternate promises and threats, and weakened
+the Scottish crown by encouraging its enemies, both
+ecclesiastical and civil? In prudishly finding fault with
+these proceedings, we forget the Scotch, French, Spanish,
+popish, emissaries who were let loose upon England; the
+plots at home, the scowling messages from abroad; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[439]</a></span>
+excommunications uttered from Rome; the massacre of
+the Protestants gloried in in France, and the vast navies
+and immense armies gathering against the devoted Isle
+from all the coasts and provinces of Spain.</p>
+
+<p>In 1568, after the defeat of the queen&rsquo;s party at
+Langside, Mary threw herself on the pity and protection
+of Elizabeth, and was kept in honourable safety
+for many years. She did not allow her to collect partisans
+for the recovery of her kingdom, nor to cabal
+against the government which had expelled her. To
+do so would not have been to shelter a fugitive, but to
+declare war on Scotland. In 1848, Louis Philippe,
+chased by the revolutionists of Paris, came over to
+England. He was kept in honourable retirement. He
+was not allowed to cabal against his former subjects,
+nor to threaten their policy. To do so would not have
+been to shelter a fugitive, but to declare war on France.
+Even in the case of the earlier Bourbons, we permitted
+no gatherings of forces on their behalf, and did not encourage
+their followers to molest the settled government,&mdash;no,
+not when the throne of France was filled by
+an enemy and we were at deadly war with Napoleon.
+But Mary was put to death. A sad story, and very
+melancholy to read in quiet drawing-rooms with Britannia
+ruling the waves and keeping all danger from
+our coasts. But in 1804, if Louis the Eighteenth or
+Charles the Tenth, instead of eating the bread of charity
+in peace, had been detected in conspiracy with our
+enemies, in corresponding with foreign emissaries, when
+a thousand flat-bottomed boats were marshalling for
+our invasion at Boulogne, and Brest and Cherbourg and
+Toulon were crowded with ships and sailors to protect
+the flotilla, it needs no great knowledge of character to
+pronounce that English William Pitt and Scottish
+Harry Dundas would have had the royal Bourbon&rsquo;s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[440]</a></span>
+head on a block, or his body on Tyburn-tree, in spite of
+all the romance and eloquence in the world.</p>
+
+<p>Mary&rsquo;s guilt or innocence of the charges brought
+against her in her relations with Darnley and Bothwell
+has nothing to do with the treatment she received
+from Elizabeth. She was not amenable to English law
+for any thing she did in Scotland, nor was she condemned
+for any thing but treasonable practices which
+it was impossible to deny. She certainly owed submission
+and allegiance to the English crown while she lived
+under its protection. Let us indulge our chivalrous
+generosity, and enjoy delightful poems in defence of
+an unfortunate and beautiful sovereign, by believing
+that the blots upon her fame were the aspersions of
+malignity and political baseness: the great fact remains,
+that it was an indispensable incident to the security of
+both the kingdoms that she should be deprived of
+authority, and finally, as the storm darkened, and derived
+all its perils from her conspiracies against the
+State and breaches of the law, that she should be deprived
+of life. Far more sweeping measures were pursued
+and defended by the enemies of Elizabeth abroad.
+Present forever, like a skeleton at a feast, must have
+been the massacre of St. Bartholomew in the thoughts
+of every Protestant in Europe, and most vividly of all
+in those of the English queen. That great blow was
+meant to be a warning to heretics wherever they were
+found, and in olden times and more revengeful dispositions
+might have been an excuse for similar atrocity on
+the other side. The Bartholomew massacre and the
+Armada are the two great features of the latter part of
+this century; and they are both so well known that it
+will be sufficient to recall them in a very few words.</p>
+
+<p>This massacre was no chance-sprung event, like an
+ordinary popular rising, but had been matured for many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[441]</a></span>
+years. The Council of Trent, which met in 1545 and
+continued its sittings till 1563, had devoted those eighteen
+years to codifying the laws of the Catholic Church. A
+definite, clear, consistent system was established, and
+acknowledged as the religious and ecclesiastical faith of
+Christendom. Men were not now left to a painful
+gathering of the sentiments and rescripts of popes and
+doctors out of varying and scattered writings. Here
+were the statutes at large, minutely indexed and easy
+of reference. From these many texts could be gathered
+which justified any method of diffusing the true belief
+or exterminating the false. And accordingly, a short
+time after the close of the Council, an interview took
+place between two personages, of very sinister augury
+for the Protestant cause. Catherine de Medicis and the
+Duke of Alva met at Bayonne in 1565. In this consultation
+great things were discussed; and it was decided
+by the wickedest woman and harshest man in Europe
+that government could not be safe nor religion honoured
+unless by the introduction of the Inquisition and a
+general massacre of heretics in every land. A few
+months later saw the ferocious Alva beginning his
+bloodthirsty career in the Netherlands, in which he
+boasted he had put eighteen thousand Hollanders to
+death on the scaffold in five years. Catherine also pondered
+his lessons in her heart, and when seven years
+had passed, and the Huguenots were still unsubdued,
+she persuaded her son Charles the Ninth that the time
+was come to establish his kingdom in righteousness by
+the indiscriminate murder of all the Protestants. An
+occasion was found in 1572, when the marriage of Henry
+of Navarre, afterwards the best-loved king of France,
+with the Princess Margaret de Valois, held out a prospect
+of soothing the religious troubles, and also (which
+suited her designs better) of attracting all the heads of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[442]</a></span>
+the Huguenot cause to Paris. Every thing turned out
+as she hoped. There had been feasts and gayeties, and
+suspicion had been thoroughly disarmed. Suddenly the
+tocsin was sounded, and the murderers let loose over all
+the town. No plea was received in extenuation of the
+deadly crime of favouring the new opinions. Hospitality,
+friendship, relationship, youth, sex, all were disregarded.
+The streets were red with blood, and the
+river choked with mutilated bodies. Upwards of seventy
+thousand were butchered in Paris alone, and the metropolitan
+example was followed in other places. The deed
+was so awful that for a while it silenced the whole of
+Europe. Some doubted, some shuddered; but Rome
+sprang up with a shout of joy when the news was confirmed,
+and uttered prayers of thanksgiving for so great
+a victory. If it could have been possible to put every
+gainsayer to death everywhere, the triumph would have
+been complete; but there were countries where Catherine&rsquo;s
+dagger could not reach; and whenever her name
+was heard, and the terrible details of the massacre were
+known, undying hatred of the Church which encouraged
+such iniquity mingled with the feelings of pity and
+alarm. For no one henceforth could feel safe. The
+Huguenots were under the highest protection known to
+the heart of man. They were guests, and they were
+taken unawares in the midst of the rejoicings of a
+marriage. Rome lost more by the massacre than the
+Protestants. People looked round and saw the butcheries
+in the Netherlands, the slaughters in Paris, the
+tortures in the Inquisition, and over all, rioting in hopes
+of recovered dominion, supported by his priests and
+Dominicans, a Pope who plainly threatened a repetition
+of such scenes wherever his power was acknowledged.
+Germany, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and the
+Northern nations, were lost to the Church of Rome<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[443]</a></span>
+more surely by the scaffold and crimes which professed
+to bring her aid, than by any other cause. Elizabeth
+was now the accepted champion and leader of the Protestants,
+and on her all the malice of the baffled Romanists
+was turned. To weaken, to dethrone or murder the
+English heretic was the praiseworthiest of deeds.</p>
+
+<p>But one great means of distracting England from her
+onward course was now removed. In former days
+Scotland would have been let loose upon her unguarded
+flanks; but by this time the genius of Knox, running
+parallel with the efforts of the Southern reformers, had
+raised a religious feeling which responded to the English
+call. Scotland, freed from an oppressive priesthood, did
+manful battle at the side of her former enemy. Elizabeth
+was kept safe by the joint hatred the nations entertained
+to Rome, and, as regarded foreigners, the Union
+had already taken place. On one sure ground, however,
+those foreigners could still build their hopes. Mary,
+conscientious in her religion, and embittered in her dislike,
+was still alive, to be the rallying-point for every
+discontented cry and to represent the old causes,&mdash;the
+legitimate descent and the true faith. The greatest
+circumspection would have been required to keep her
+conduct from suspicion in these embarrassing circumstances.
+But she was still as thoughtless as in her
+happier days, and exposed herself to legal inquiries by
+the unguardedness of her behaviour. The wise counsellors
+of Elizabeth saw but one way to put an end to all
+those fears and expectations; and Mary, after due trial,
+was condemned and executed. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1587.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Hope was now
+at an end; but revenge remained, and the great
+Colossus of the Papacy bestirred himself to punish the
+sacrilegious usurper. Philip the Second was still the
+most Catholic of kings. More stern and bigoted than
+when he had tried to restrain the burning zeal of Mary<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[444]</a></span>
+of England, he was resolved to restore by force a revolted
+people to the Chair of St. Peter and exact vengeance
+for the slights and scorns which had rankled in his
+heart from the date of his ill-omened visit. He prepared
+all his forces for the glorious attempt. Nothing
+could have been devised more calculated to bring all
+English hearts more closely to their queen. Every
+report of a fresh squadron joining the fleets already
+assembled for the invasion called forth more zeal in behalf
+of the reformed Church and the undaunted Elizabeth.
+Scotland also held some vessels ready to assist
+her sister in this great extremity, and lined her shores
+with Presbyterian spearmen. Community of danger
+showed more clearly than ever that safety lay in combination.
+Chains, we know, were brought over in those
+missionary galleys, and all the apparatus of torture,
+with smiths to set them to work. But the smiths and
+the chains never made good their landing on British
+ground. The ships covered all the narrow sea; but the
+wind blew, and they were scattered. It was perhaps
+better, as a warning and a lesson, that the principal
+cause of the Spaniard&rsquo;s disaster was a storm. If it
+had been fairly inflicted on them in open battle, the
+superior seamanship or numbers or discipline of the
+enemy might have been pleaded. But there must have
+mingled something more depressing than the mere
+sorrow of defeat when Philip received his discomfited
+admiral with the words, &ldquo;We cannot blame you for
+what has happened: we cannot struggle against the
+will of God.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" /></div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[445]</a></span>
+<a name="SEVENTEENTH_CENTURY" id="SEVENTEENTH_CENTURY">SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of France.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Henry IV.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1610.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis XIII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1643.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis XIV.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of Germany.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Rodolph II.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1612.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Matthias.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1619.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Ferdinand II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1637.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Ferdinand III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1658.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Leopold I.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of England and Scotland.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Elizabeth.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td align="left" class="dynast">(<i>House of Stuart.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1603.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">James I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1625.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1649.</td><td class="sovereign">Commonwealth.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1660.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles II</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1685.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">James II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1689.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">William III.</span> and <span class="smcap">Mary</span>.</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of Spain.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip III.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1621.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip IV.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1665.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles II.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Distinguished Men.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Bacon</span>, <span class="smcap">Milton</span>, <span class="smcap">Locke</span>, <span class="smcap">Corneille</span>, <span class="smcap">Racine</span>, <span class="smcap">Molière</span>, <span class="smcap">Kepler</span>,
+(1571-1630,) <span class="smcap">Boyle</span>, (1627-1691,) <span class="smcap">Bossuet</span>, (1627-1704,) <span class="smcap">Newton</span>,
+(1642-1727,) <span class="smcap">Burnet</span>, (1643-1715,) <span class="smcap">Bayle</span>, (1647-1706,)
+<span class="smcap">Condé</span>, <span class="smcap">Turenne</span>, (1611-1675,) <span class="smcap">Marlborough</span>, (1650-1722.)</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[447]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_SEVENTEENTH_CENTURY" id="THE_SEVENTEENTH_CENTURY">THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">ENGLISH REBELLION AND REVOLUTION&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;DESPOTISM OF
+LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">We</span> are apt to suppose that progress and innovation
+are so peculiarly the features of these latter times that
+it is only in them that a man of more than ordinary
+length of life has witnessed any remarkable change.
+We meet with men still alive who were acquainted with
+Franklin and Voltaire, who have been presented at the
+court of Louis the Sixteenth and have visited President
+Pierce at the White House. But the period we have
+now to examine is quite as varied in the contrasts presented
+by the duration of a lifetime as in any other age
+of the world. Of this we shall take a French chronicler
+as an example,&mdash;a man who was as greedy of news, and
+as garrulous in relating it, as Froissart himself, but who
+must take a very inferior rank to that prose minstrel
+of &ldquo;gentle blood,&rdquo; as he limited his researches principally
+to the scandals which characterized his time.
+We mean the truth-speaking libeller Brantôme. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1616.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>This
+man died within a year or two of Shakspeare,
+and yet had accompanied Mary to Scotland,
+and given that poetical account of the voyage from
+Calais, when she sat in the stern of the vessel with her
+eyes fixed on the receding shore, and said, &ldquo;Adieu,
+France, adieu! I shall never see you more;&rdquo; and again,
+on the following morning, bending her looks across the
+water when land was no longer to be seen, and exclaiming,
+&ldquo;Adieu, France! I shall never see you more.&rdquo; The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[448]</a></span>
+mere comparison of these two things&mdash;the return of
+Mary to her native kingdom, torn at that time with all
+the struggles of anarchy and distress, and the death of
+the greatest of earth&rsquo;s poets, rich and honoured, in
+his well-built house at Stratford-on-Avon&mdash;suggests a
+strange contrast between the beginning of Brantôme&rsquo;s
+literary career and its close: the events filling up the
+interval are like the scarcely-discernible heavings in a
+dark and tumultuous sea,&mdash;a storm perpetually raging,
+and waves breaking upon every shore. In his own
+country, cruelty and demoralization had infected all
+orders in the State, till murder, and the wildest profligacy
+of manners, were looked on without a shudder.
+Brantôme attended the scanty and unregretted funeral
+of Henry the Third, the last of the house of Valois,
+who was stabbed by the monk Jacques Clement for
+faltering in his allegiance to the Church. A sentence
+had been pronounced at Rome against the miserable
+king, and the fanatic&rsquo;s dagger was ready. Sixtus the
+Fifth, in full consistory, declared that the regicide was
+&ldquo;comparable, as regards the salvation of the world, to
+the incarnation and the resurrection, and that the
+courage of the youthful Jacobin surpassed that of
+Eleazar and Judith.&rdquo; &ldquo;That Pope,&rdquo; says Chateaubriand,
+the Catholic historian of France, &ldquo;had too little
+political conviction, and too much genius, to be sincere
+in these sacrilegious comparisons; but it was of importance
+to him to encourage the fanatics who were ready
+to murder kings in the name of the papal power.&rdquo;
+Brantôme had seen the issuing of a bull containing the
+same penalties against Elizabeth, the death of Mary on
+the scaffold, and the failure of the Armada. After the
+horrors of the religious wars, from the conspiracy of
+Amboise in 1560 to the publication of the edict of toleration
+given at Nantes in 1598, he had seen the comparatively<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[449]</a></span>
+peaceful days of Henry the Fourth, till fanaticism
+again awoke a suspicion of a return to his original
+Protestant leanings, as shown in his opposition to the
+house of Austria, and Ravaillac renewed the meritorious
+work of Clement in 1610. Last of all, the spectator of
+all these changes saw England and Scotland forever
+united under one crown, and the first rise of the master
+of the modern policy of Europe, for in the year of
+Brantôme&rsquo;s death a young priest was appointed Secretary
+of State in France, whom men soon gazed on with
+fear and wonder as the great Cardinal Richelieu.</p>
+
+<p>In England the alterations were as great and striking.
+After the troubled years from Elizabeth&rsquo;s accession to
+the Armada, a period of rest and progress came. Interests
+became spread over the whole nation, and did
+not depend so exclusively on the throne. Wisdom and
+good feeling made Elizabeth&rsquo;s crown, in fact, what laws
+and compacts have made her successors&rsquo;,&mdash;a constitutional
+sovereign&rsquo;s. She ascertained the sentiments of
+her people almost without the intervention of Parliament,
+and was more a carrier-through of the national
+will than the originator of absolute decrees. The
+moral battles of a nation in pursuit of some momentous
+object like religious or political freedom bring forth
+great future crops, as fields are enriched on which
+mighty armies have been engaged. The fertilizing
+influence extends in every direction, far and near. If,
+therefore, the intellectual harvest that followed the
+final rejection of the Pope and crowning defeat of the
+Spaniard included Shakspeare and Bacon, and a host of
+lesser but still majestic names, we may venture also to
+remark, on the duller and more prosaic side of the question,
+that in the first year of the seventeenth century a
+patent was issued by which a commercial speculation
+attained a substantive existence, for the East India<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[450]</a></span>
+Company was founded, with a stock of seventy-two
+thousand pounds, and a fleet of four vessels took their
+way from the English harbours, on their first voyage to
+the realm where hereafter their employers, who thus
+began as merchant adventurers, were to rule as kings.
+The example set by these enterprising men was followed
+by high and low. During the previous century people
+had been too busy with their domestic and religious disputes
+to pay much attention to foreign exploration.
+They were occupied with securing their liberties from
+the tyranny of Henry the Eighth and their lives from
+the truculence of Mary. Then the plots perpetually
+formed against Elizabeth, by domestic treason and
+foreign levy, kept their attention exclusively on home-affairs.
+But when the State was settled and religion
+secure, the long-pent-up activity of the national mind
+found vent in distant expeditions. A chivalrous contempt
+of danger, and poetic longing for new adventure,
+mingled with the baser attractions of those maritime
+wanderings. The families of gentle blood in England,
+instead of sending their sons to waste their lives in pursuit
+of knightly fame in the service of foreign states,
+equipped them for far higher enterprises, and sent them
+forth to gather the riches of unknown lands beyond the
+sea. Romantic rumours were rife in every manor-house
+of the strange sights and inexhaustible wealth to
+be gained by undaunted seamanship and judicious treatment
+of the natives of yet-unexplored dominions. Spain
+and Portugal had their kingdoms, but the extent of
+America was great enough for all. Islands were everywhere
+to be found untouched as yet by the foot of
+European; and many a winter&rsquo;s night was spent in
+talking over the possible results of sailing up some of
+the vast rivers that came down like bursting oceans
+from the far-inland regions to which nobody had as yet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[451]</a></span>
+ascended,&mdash;the people and cities that lay upon their
+banks, the gold and jewels that paved the common soil.
+Towards the end of Elizabeth&rsquo;s reign, these imaginings
+had grown into sufficing motives of action, and gentlemen
+were ready from all the ports of the kingdom to
+sail on their adventurous voyages. In addition to the
+chance those gallant mariners had of realizing their
+day-dreams by the tedious methods of discovery and
+exploration, there was always the prospect of making
+prize of a galleon of Spain; for at all times, however
+friendly the nations might be in the European waters, a
+war was carried on beyond the Azores. Not altogether
+lost, therefore, was the old knightly spirit of peril-seeking
+and adventure in those commercial and geographical
+speculations. There were articles of merchandise in
+the hold, gaudy-coloured cloths, and bead ornaments,
+and wretched looking-glasses, besides brass and iron;
+but all round the captain&rsquo;s cabin were arranged swords
+and pistols, boarding-pikes, and other implements of
+fight. Guns also of larger size peeped out of the port-holes,
+and the crew were chosen as much with a view
+to warlike operations as to the ordinary duties of the
+ship. The Spaniards had made their way into the
+Pacific, and had established large settlements on the
+shores of Chili and Peru. Scenes which have been
+reacted at the diggings in modern times took place
+where the Europeans fixed their seat, and ships loaded
+with the precious metals found their way home, exposed
+to all the perils of storm and war. Drake had pounced
+upon several of their galleys and despoiled them of their
+precious cargo. Cavendish, a gentleman of good estate
+in Suffolk, had followed in his wake, and, after forcing
+his way through the Straits of Magellan, had reached
+the shores of California itself and there captured a
+Spanish vessel freighted with a vast amount of gold.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[452]</a></span>
+All these adventures of the expiring sixteenth century
+became traditions and ballads of the young seventeenth.
+Raleigh, the most accomplished gentleman of his time,
+gave the glory of his example to the maritime career,
+and all the oceans were alive with British ships. While
+Raleigh and others of the upper class were carrying on
+a sort of cultivated crusade against the monopoly of the
+Spaniards, others of a less aristocratic position were
+busied in the more regular paths of commerce. We
+have seen the formation of the India Company in 1600.
+Our competitors, the Dutch, fitted out fleets on a larger
+scale, and established relations of trade and friendship
+with the natives of Polynesia and New Holland, and
+even of Java and India. But the zeal of the public in
+trading-speculations was not only shown in those well-conducted
+expeditions to lands easily accessible and
+already known: a company was established for the purpose
+of opening out the African trade, and a commercial
+voyage was undertaken to no less a place than
+Timbuctoo by a gallant pair of seamen of the names of
+Thomson and Jobson. It was not long before these
+efforts at honest international communication, and even
+the exploits of the Drakes and Cavendishes, who acted
+under commissions from the queen, degenerated into
+lawless piracy and the golden age of the Buccaneers.
+The policy of Spain was complete monopoly in her own
+hands, and a refusal of foreign intercourse worthy of
+the potentates of China and Japan. All access was prohibited
+to the flags of foreign nations, and the natural result
+followed. Adventurous voyagers made their appearance
+with no flag at all, or with the hideous emblem of a
+death&rsquo;s head emblazoned on their standard, determined to
+trade peaceably if possible, but to trade whether peaceably
+or not. The Spanish colonists were not indisposed to
+exchange their commodities with those of the new-comers,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[453]</a></span>
+but the law was imperative. The Buccaneers,
+therefore, proceeded to help themselves to what they
+wanted by force, and at length came to consider themselves
+an organized estate, governed by their own laws,
+and qualified to make treaties like any other established
+and recognised power. Cuba had been nearly depopulated
+by the cruelties and fanaticism of its Spanish
+masters, and was seized on by the Buccaneers. From
+this rich and beautiful island the pirate-barks dashed
+out upon any Spanish sail which might be leaving the
+mainland. Commanding the Gulf of Mexico, and with
+the power of crossing the Isthmus of Panama by a
+rapid march, those redoubtable bandits held the treasure-lands
+of the Spaniards in terrible subjection. And up
+to the commencement even of the eighteenth century
+the frightful spectacle was presented of a powerful confederacy
+of the wildest and most dissolute villains in
+Europe domineering over the most frequented seas in
+the world, and filling peaceful voyagers, and even well-armed
+men-of-war, with alarm by their unsparing
+cruelty, and atrocities which it curdles the blood to
+think of.</p>
+
+<p>Eastward as far as China, westward to the islands
+and shores of the great Pacific, up the rivers of Africa,
+and even among the forests of New Holland and Tasmania,
+the swarms of European adventurers succeeded
+each other without cessation. The marvel is, that, with
+such ceaseless activity, any islands, however remote or
+small, were left for the discovery of after-times. But
+the tide of English emigration rolled towards the mainland
+of North America with a steadier flow than to any
+other quarter. The idea of a northwest passage to
+India had taken possession of men&rsquo;s minds, and hardy
+seamen had already braved the horrors of a polar
+winter, and set examples of fortitude and patience<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[454]</a></span>
+which their successors, from Behrens to Kane, have
+so nobly followed. But the fertile plains of Virginia,
+and the navigable streams of the eastern shore, were
+more alluring to the peaceful and unenterprising settlers,
+whose object was to find a new home and carry on a
+lucrative trade with the native Indians. In 1607, a
+colony, properly so called,&mdash;for it had made provision
+for permanent settlement, and consisted of a hundred
+and ten persons, male and female,&mdash;arrived at the mouth
+of the Chesapeake. The river Powhatan was eagerly
+explored; and at a point sufficiently far up to be secure
+from sudden attack from the sea, and on an isthmus
+easily defended from native assault, they pitched their
+tents on a spot which was hereafter known as Jamestown
+and is still honoured as the earliest of the
+American settlements. Our neighbour Holland was
+not behindhand either in trade or colonization, and
+equally with England was excited to fresh efforts by its
+recovered liberty and independence. In all directions
+of intellectual and physical employment those two
+States went boundingly forward at the head of the movement.
+The absolute monarchies lay lazily by, and
+relied on the inertness of their mass for their defence
+against those active competitors; and Spain, an unwieldy
+bulk, showed the intimate connection there will
+always exist between liberal institutions at home and
+active progress abroad. The sun never set on the
+dominions of the Spanish crown, but the life of the
+people was crushed out of them by the weight of the Inquisition
+and despotism. The United Provinces and combined
+Great Britain had shaken off both those petrifying
+institutions, and Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Dutchmen
+were ploughing up every sea, presenting themselves
+at the courts of strange-coloured potentates, in
+regions whose existence had been unknown a few years<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[455]</a></span>
+before, and gradually accustoming the wealth and commerce
+of the world to find their way to London and
+Amsterdam.</p>
+
+<p>To go from these views of hardihood and enterprise,
+from the wild heaving of unruly vigour which animated
+the traffickers and tyrants of the main, to the peaceful
+and pedantic domestic reign of James the First, shows
+the two extremes of European character at this time.
+The English people were not more than four millions in
+number, but they were the happiest and most favoured
+of all the nations. This was indeed the time,</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i14">&ldquo;Ere England&rsquo;s woes began,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When every rood of land maintain&rsquo;d its man;&rdquo;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>for we have seen how the division of the great monastic
+properties had created a new order in the State. All
+accounts concur in describing the opening of this century
+as the period of the greatest physical prosperity
+of the body of the people. A great deal of dulness
+and unrefinement there must still have been in the
+boroughs, where such sage officials as Dogberry displayed
+their pomp and ignorance,&mdash;a great deal of
+clownishness and coarseness in country-places, where
+Audreys and Autolycuses were to be found; but among
+townsmen and peasantry there was none of the grinding
+poverty which a more unequal distribution of
+national wealth creates. There were great Whitsun
+ales, and dancings round the Maypole; feasts on village
+greens, and a spirit of rude and personal independence,
+which became mellowed into manly self-respect when
+treated with deference by the higher ranks, the old
+hereditary gentry and the retired statesmen of Queen
+Bess, but bristled up in insolence and rebellion when
+the governing power thwarted its wishes, or fanaticism
+soured it with the bitter waters of polemic strife. The
+sturdy Englishman who doffed his hat to the squire, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[456]</a></span>
+joined his young lord in sports upon the green, in the
+beginning of James&rsquo;s reign, was the same stout-hearted,
+strong-willed individual who stiffened into Puritanism
+and contempt of all earthly authorities in the unlovely,
+unloving days of the Rump and Cromwell. Nor should
+we miss the great truth which lies hidden under the rigid
+forms of that period,&mdash;that the same noble qualities which
+characterized the happy yeoman and jocund squire of
+1620&mdash;their earnestness, energy, and intensity of home
+affections&mdash;were no less existent in their ascetic short-haired
+descendants of 1650. The brimfulness of life
+which overflowed into expeditions against the Spaniards
+in Peru, and unravellings of the tangled rivers of Africa,
+and trackings of the wild bears among the ice-floes of
+Hudson&rsquo;s Bay, took a new direction when the century
+reached the middle of its course, and developed itself in
+the stormy discussions of the contending sects and the
+blood and misery of so many battle-fields. How was this
+great change worked on the English mind? How was it
+that the long-surviving soldier, courtier, landholder, of
+Queen Elizabeth saw his grandson grow up into the hard-featured,
+heavy-browed, keen-sworded Ironside of Oliver?
+A squire who ruined himself in loyal entertainments to
+King James on his larder-and-cellar-emptying journey
+from Edinburgh to London in 1603 may have lived to
+see his son, and son&rsquo;s son, rejoicing with unholy triumph
+over the victory of Naseby in 1644 and the death of
+Charles in 1649.</p>
+
+<p>Great causes must have been at work to produce this
+astonishing change, and some of them it will not be
+difficult to point out. Perhaps, indeed, the prosperity
+we have described may itself have contributed to the
+alteration in the English ways of thought. While the
+nation was trampled on by Henry the Eighth, with
+property and life insecure and poverty universally diffused,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[457]</a></span>
+or even while it was guided by the strong hand
+of Elizabeth, it had neither power nor inclination to
+examine into its rights. The rights of a starving and
+oppressed population are not very great, even in its own
+eyes. It is the well-fed, law-protected, enterprising
+citizen who sees the value of just and settled government,
+because the blessings he enjoys depend upon its
+continuance. The mind of the nation had been pauperized
+along with its body by the life of charitable dependence
+it had led at the doors of church and monastery
+in the olden time. It little mattered to a gaping
+crowd expecting the accustomed dole whether the great
+man in London was a tyrannical king or not. They did
+not care whether he dismissed his Parliaments or cut
+off the heads of his nobility. They still found their
+&ldquo;bit and sup,&rdquo; and saw the King, and Parliament, and
+nobility, united in obedience to the Church. But when
+this debasing charity was discontinued, independence
+came on. The idle hanger-on of the religious house
+became a cottager, and worked on his own land; by
+industry he got capital enough to take some additional
+acres; and the man of the next generation had forgotten
+the low condition he sprang from, and had so sharpened
+his mind by the theological quarrels of the time
+that he began to be able to comprehend the question of
+general politics. He saw, as every population and potentate
+in Europe saw with equal clearness, that the
+question of civil freedom was indissolubly connected
+with the relation between Church and State; he perceived
+that the extent of divergence from the old faith
+regulated in a great measure the spirit, and even the
+constitution, of government where it took place,&mdash;that
+adhesion to Rome meant absolutism and dependence,
+that Calvinism had a strong bias towards the republican
+form, and that the Church he had helped to establish<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[458]</a></span>
+was calculated to fill up the ground between those two
+extremes, and be the religious representative of a State
+as liberal as Geneva by its attention to the interests of
+all, and as monarchical as Spain by its loyalty to an
+hereditary crown. Now, the middle ground in great
+and agitating affairs is always the most difficult to
+maintain. Both sides make it their battle-field, and try
+to win it to themselves; and according as one assailant
+seems on the point of carrying his object, the defender
+of that disputed territory has to lean towards the other.
+Both parties are offended at the apparent inconsistency;
+and we are therefore not to be surprised if we find the
+Church accused of looking to both the hostile camps in
+turn.</p>
+
+<p>James was a fatal personage to every cause he undertook
+to defend. He had neither the strength of will of
+Henry, nor the proud consistency of Elizabeth; but he
+had the arrogance and presumption of both. Questions
+which the wise queen was afraid to touch, and left to the
+ripening influence of time, this blustering arguer dragged
+into premature discussion, stripped them of all their
+dignity by the frivolousness of the treatment he gave
+them, and disgusted all parties by the harshness and
+rapidity of his partial decisions. Every step he took in
+the quelling of religious dissension by declarations in
+favour of proscription and authority which would have
+endeared him to Gregory the Seventh, he accompanied
+with some frightful display of his absolutist tendencies
+in civil affairs. The same man who roared down the
+modest claims of a thousand of the clergy who wished
+some further modification of the Book of Common
+Prayer threw recusant members of Parliament into
+prison, persecuted personal enemies to death, with
+scarcely a form of law, punished refractory towns with
+loss of franchises and privileges, and made open declaration<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[459]</a></span>
+of his unlimited power over the lives and properties
+of all his subjects. People saw this unvarying alliance
+between his polemics and his politics, and began to consider
+seriously whether the comforts their trade and industry
+had given them could be safe under a Church
+calling itself reformed, but protected by such a king.
+If he was only suspected in England, in his own country
+he was fully known. Dearer to James would have been
+a hundred bishops and cardinals seated in conclave in
+Holyrood than a Presbyterian Synod praying against
+his policy in the High Kirk. He had even written to
+the Pope with offers of accommodation and reconcilement,
+and made no secret of his individual and official
+disgust at the levelling ideas of those grave followers of
+Knox and Calvin. Those grave followers of Knox and
+Calvin, however, were not unknown on the south side
+of the Tweed. The intercourse between the countries
+was not limited to the hungry gentry who followed
+James on his accession. A community of interest and
+feeling united the more serious of the Reformers, and
+visits and correspondence were common between them.
+But, while a regard for their personal freedom and the
+security of their wealth attracted the attention of the
+English middle class to the proceedings of King James,
+events were going on in foreign lands which had an
+immense effect on the development of the anti-monarchic,
+anti-episcopal spirit at home. These events
+have not been sufficiently considered in this relation,
+and we have been too much in the habit of looking at
+our English doings in those momentous years,&mdash;from the
+end of James&rsquo;s reign to the Restoration,&mdash;as if Britain
+had continued as isolated from her Continental neighbours
+as before the Norman Conquest. But a careful
+comparison of dates and actions will show how intimate
+the connection had become between the European States,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[460]</a></span>
+and how instantaneously the striking of a chord at
+Prague or Vienna thrilled through the general heart in
+Edinburgh and London.</p>
+
+<p>The Reformation, after achieving its independence
+and equality at the Treaty of Augsburg in 1555, had
+made great though silent progress. Broken off in Germany
+into two parties, the Lutheran and the Calvinist,
+who hated each other, as usual, in exact proportion to
+the smallness of their difference, the union was still
+kept up between them as regarded their antagonism to
+the Papists. With all three denominations, the religious
+part of the question had fallen into terrible abeyance.
+It was now looked on by the leaders entirely as a matter
+of personal advancement and political rule. In this
+pursuit the fanaticism which is generally limited to
+theology took the direction of men&rsquo;s political conduct;
+and there were enthusiasts among all the sects, who saw
+visions, and dreamed dreams, about the succession to
+thrones and the raising of armies, as used to happen in
+more ancient times about the bones of martyrs and the
+beatification of saints. The great object of Protestants
+and Catholics was to obtain a majority in the college of
+the Prince Electors by whom the Empire was bestowed.
+This consisted of the seven chief potentates of Germany,
+of whom four were secular,&mdash;the King of Bohemia,
+the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of
+Saxony, and the Marquis of Brandenburg; and three
+ecclesiastic,&mdash;the Archbishops of Mentz, Trèves, and
+Cologne. The majority was naturally secured to the
+Romanists by the official adhesion of these last. But
+it chanced that the Elector of Cologne fell violently in
+love with Agnes of Mansfeldt, a canoness of Gerrestein;
+and having of course studied the history of our Henry
+the Eighth and Anne Boleyn, he determined to follow his
+example, and offered the fair canoness his hand. He<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[461]</a></span>
+was unwilling, however, to offer his hand without the
+Electoral crozier, and, by the advice of his friends, and
+with the promised support of many of the Protestant
+rulers, he retained his ecclesiastical dignity and made
+the beautiful Agnes his wife. This would not have been
+of much consequence in a lower rank, for many of the
+cathedral dignitaries in Cologne and other places had
+retained their offices after changing their faith; but all
+Germany was awake to the momentous nature of this
+transaction, for it would have conveyed a majority of
+the Electoral voices to the Protestants and opened the
+throne of the empire itself to a Protestant prince. Such,
+however, was the strength at that time of the opposition
+to Rome, that all the efforts of the Catholics would have
+been ineffectual to prevent this ruinous arrangement
+but for a circumstance which threw division into the
+Protestant camp. Gebhard had adhered to the Calvinistic
+branch of the Reformation, and the Lutherans
+hated him with a deadlier hatred than the Pope himself.
+With delight they saw him outlawed by the Emperor
+and excommunicated by Rome, his place supplied by a
+Prince of Bavaria, who was elected by the Chapter of
+Cologne to protect them from their apostate archbishop,
+and the head of the house of Austria strengthened by
+the consolidation of his Electoral allies and the unappeasable
+dissensions of his enemies. While petty interests
+and the narrowest quarrels of sectarianism
+divided the Protestants, and while the Electors and
+other princes who had adopted their theological opinions
+were doubtful of the political results of religious freedom,
+and many had waxed cold, and others were discontented
+with the small extent of the liberation from
+ancient trammels they had yet obtained, a very different
+spectacle was presented on the other side. Popes and
+Jesuits were heartily and unhesitatingly at work. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[462]</a></span>&ldquo;No
+cold, faint-hearted doubtings teased them.&rdquo; Their object
+was incommoded by no refinements or verbal differences;
+they were determined to assert their old supremacy,&mdash;to
+trample out every vestige of resistance to
+their power; and they entered upon the task without
+scruple or remorse. Ferdinand the Emperor, the prop
+and champion of the Romish cause, was as sincere and
+as unpitying as Dominic. When he had been nominated
+King Elect of Bohemia, in 1598, while yet in his
+twentieth year, his first thought was the future use he
+might make of his authority in the extermination of the
+Protestant faith. The Jesuits, by whom he was trained
+from his earliest years, never turned out a more hopeful
+pupil. His ambition would have been, if he had had it
+in his power, to become a follower of Loyola himself;
+but, as he was condemned by fate to the lower office of
+the first of secular princes, he determined to employ all
+its power at the dictation of his teachers. He went a
+pilgrimage to Loretto, and, bowing before the miraculous
+image of the Virgin, promised to reinstate the true
+Church in its unquestioned supremacy, and bent all his
+thoughts to the fulfilment of his vow. Two-thirds of
+his subjects in his hereditary states were Protestant, but
+he risked all to attain his object. He displaced their
+clergy, and banished all who would not conform. He
+introduced Catholics from foreign countries to supply
+the waste of population, and sent armed men to destroy
+the newly-erected schools and churches of the hateful
+heretics. This man was crowned King of Bohemia in
+1618, and Emperor of Germany in the following year.</p>
+
+<p>The attention of the British public had been particularly
+directed to German interests for the six years preceding
+this date, by the marriage of Frederick, Elector
+Palatine of the Rhine, with Elizabeth, the graceful and
+accomplished daughter of King James. Frederick was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[463]</a></span>
+young and ambitious, and was endeared to the English
+people as leader of the Protestant cause against the
+overweening pretensions of the house of Austria. That
+house was still the most powerful in Europe; for though
+the Spanish monarchy was held by another branch, for
+all the purposes of despotism and religion its weight
+was thrown into the same scale. Spanish soldiers, and
+all the treasures of America, were still at the command
+of the Empire; and perhaps Catholicism was rather
+strengthened than weakened by the adherence of two
+of the greatest sovereigns in the world, instead of
+having the personal influence of only one, as in the
+reign of Charles the Fifth. All the Elector&rsquo;s movements
+were followed with affectionate interest by the subjects
+of his father-in-law; but James himself disapproved of
+opposition being offered to the wildest excesses of royal
+prerogative either in himself or any other anointed
+ruler. Besides this, he was particularly hostile to the
+young champion&rsquo;s religious principles, for the latter was
+attached to the Calvinistic or unepiscopal party. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1619.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>James
+declined to give him any aid in maintaining his right to
+the crown of Bohemia, to which he was elected by the
+Protestant majority of that kingdom on the accession
+of Ferdinand to the Empire, and managed to
+show his feelings in the most offensive manner,
+by oppressing such of Frederick&rsquo;s co-religionists as he
+found in any part of his dominions. The advocates of
+peace at any price have praised the behaviour of the
+king in this emergency; but it may be doubted whether
+an energetic display of English power at this time
+might not have prevented the great and cruel reaction
+against freedom and Protestantism which the victory
+of the bigoted Ferdinand over his neglected competitor
+introduced. A riot, accompanied with violence against
+the Catholic authorities, was the beginning of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[464]</a></span>
+troubles in Bohemia; and Ferdinand, as if to explain
+his conduct to the satisfaction of James, published a
+manifesto, which might almost be believed to have been
+the production of that Solomon of the North. &ldquo;If
+sovereign power,&rdquo; he says, &ldquo;emanates from God, these
+atrocious deeds must proceed from the devil, and therefore
+must draw down divine punishment.&rdquo; This logic
+was unanswerable at Whitehall, and the work of extermination
+went on. Feeble efforts were forced upon the
+unwilling father-in-law; for all the chivalry of England
+was wild with sympathy and admiration of the Bohemian
+queen. Hundreds of gallant gentlemen passed
+over to swell the Protestant ranks; and when they returned
+and told the tale of all the horrors they had
+seen, the remorseless vengeance of the triumphant
+Church, and all the threatenings with which Rome and
+the Empire endeavoured to terrify the nations which
+had rebelled against their yoke, Puritanism, or resistance
+to the slightest approach towards Popery either in
+essentials or externals, became patriotism and self-defence;
+and at this very time, while men&rsquo;s minds were
+inflamed with the descriptions of the torturings and
+executions which followed the battle of Prague in 1620,
+and the devastation and depopulation of Bohemia,
+James took the opportunity of forcing the Episcopal
+form of government on the Scottish Presbyterians.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;The greatest matter,&rdquo; he says, in an address to the
+prelates of the reluctant dioceses,&mdash;&ldquo;the greatest matter
+the Puritans had to object against the Church government
+was, that your proceedings were warranted by no
+law, which now by this last Parliament is cutted short.
+The sword is now put in your hands. Go on, therefore,
+to use it, and let it rest no longer till ye have perfected
+the service trusted to you; or otherwise we must use it
+both against you and them.&rdquo; While the people of both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[465]</a></span>
+nations were willing to sink their polemic differences of
+Calvinist and Anglican in one great attempt to deliver
+the Protestants in Germany from the power of the house
+of Austria,&mdash;while for this purpose they would have
+voted taxes and raised armies with the heartiest good
+will,&mdash;the king&rsquo;s whole attention was bestowed on a set
+of man&oelig;uvres for the obtaining a Spanish-Austrian
+bride for his son. To gain this he would have humbled
+himself to the lowest acts. At a whisper from Madrid,
+he interfered with the German war, to the detriment of
+his own daughter; and England perceived that his
+ineradicable love of power and hatred of freedom had
+blinded him to national interests and natural affections.
+If we follow the whole career of James, and a great
+portion of his successor&rsquo;s, we shall see the same remarkable
+coincidence between the events in England and
+abroad,&mdash;unpopularity of the king, produced by his
+apparent lukewarmness in the general Protestant cause
+as much as by his arbitrary acts at home. Whatever
+the nation desired, the king opposed. When Gustavus
+Adolphus, the Lion of the North, began his triumphant
+career in 1630, and re-established the fallen fortunes of
+Protestantism, Charles concluded a dishonourable peace
+with Spain, without a single provision in favour of the
+Protestants of the German States, and allowed the
+Popish Cardinal Richelieu first to consolidate his forces
+by an unsparing oppression of the Huguenots in France,
+and then to almost compensate for his harshness by a
+gallant support of the Swedish hero in his struggle
+against the Austrian power.</p>
+
+<p>There was no longer the same content and happiness
+in the towns and country districts as there had been at
+the commencement of the century. Men had looked
+with contempt and dislike on the proceedings of James&rsquo;s
+court,&mdash;his coarse buffoonery, and disgraceful patronage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[466]</a></span>
+of a succession of worthless favourites; and they continued
+to look, not indeed with contempt, but with
+increased dislike and suspicion, on the far purer court
+and dignified manners of his unfortunate son. A
+French princess, though the daughter of Henry the
+Fourth, was regarded as an evil omen for the continuance
+of good government or religious progress. Her
+attendants, lay and clerical, were not unjustly considered
+spies, and advisers with interests hostile to the
+popular tendencies. And all this time went on the
+unlucky coincidences which distinguished this reign,&mdash;of
+Catholic cruelties in foreign lands, and approaches to
+the Catholic ceremonial in the reformed Church. While
+Tilly, the remorseless general of the Emperor, was
+letting loose the most ferocious army which ever served
+under a national standard upon the inhabitants of
+Magdeburg, heaping into the history of that miserable
+assault all the sufferings that &ldquo;horror e&rsquo;er conceived or
+fancy feigned,&rdquo;&mdash;and while the echo of that awful
+butchery, which has not yet died out of the German
+heart, was making sorrowful every fireside in what was
+once merry England,&mdash;the king&rsquo;s advisers pursued their
+blind way, torturing their opponents with knife and
+burning-brand upon the pillory, flogging gentlemen
+nearly to death upon the streets, and consecrating
+churches with an array of surplice, and censer, and
+processions, and organ-blowings, which would have done
+honour to St. Peter&rsquo;s at Rome. People saw a lamentable
+connection between the excesses of Catholic cruelty and
+the tendency in our sober establishment to Catholic
+traditions, and became fanatical in their detestation of
+the simplest forms.</p>
+
+<p>In ordinary times the wise man considers mere forms
+as almost below his notice; but there are periods when
+the emblem is of as much importance as the thing it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[467]</a></span>
+typifies. Church ceremonies, and gorgeous robes, and
+magnificent worship, were accepted by both parties as
+the touchstone of their political and religious opinions.
+Laud pushed aside the Archbishop of Glasgow, who
+stood at Charles&rsquo;s right hand on his visit to Scotland in
+1633, on the express ground that he had not the orthodox
+fringe upon his habit,&mdash;a ridiculous ground for so
+open an insult, if it had not had an inner sense. The
+Archbishop of Glasgow professed himself a moderate
+Churchman by the plainness of his dress, and Laud
+accepted it as a defiance. Meanwhile the essential insignificance
+of the symbol threw an air of ridicule over
+the importance attached to it. Dull-minded men, who
+had not the faculty of seeing how deep a question may
+lie in a simple exposition of it, or frivolous men, who
+could not rise to the real earnestness which enveloped
+those discussions, were scandalized at the persistency of
+Laud in enforcing his fancies, and the obstinacy of a
+great portion of the clergy and people in resisting them.
+But the Puritans, with clearer eyes, saw that a dance,
+according to proclamation, on the village green on Sunday,
+meant not a mere desecration of the Sabbath, but
+a crusade against the rights of conscience and an assertion
+of arbitrary power. Altars instead of communion-tables
+in churches meant not merely a restoration of the
+Popish belief in the real sacrifice of the mass, but a
+placing of the king above the law, and the abrogation
+of all liberty. They could not at this time persuade the
+nation of these things. The nation, for the most part,
+saw nothing more than met their bodily eyes; and, in
+despair of escaping the slavery which they saw the
+success of Ferdinand in Germany was likely to spread
+over Europe, they began the long train of voyages to
+the Western World, which times of suffering and uncertainty
+have continued at intervals to the present day.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[468]</a></span>
+It is said that a vessel was stopped by royal warrant
+when it was on the point of sailing from the Thames
+with emigrants to America in 1637. On board were
+various persons whose names would probably never
+have been heard of if they had been allowed in peace
+and safety to pursue their way to Boston, but with
+which in a few years &ldquo;all England rang from side to
+side.&rdquo; They were Oliver Cromwell, and Hampden, and
+Haselrig, Lord Brook, and Lord Saye.</p>
+
+<p>Affairs had now reached such a crisis that they could
+no longer continue undecided. A Parliament was
+called in 1640, after an unexampled interval of eleven
+years, and, after a few days&rsquo; session, was angrily dissolved.
+Another, however, was indispensable in the
+same year, and on the 3d of November the Long Parliament
+met. The long-repressed indignation of the
+Commons broke forth at once. Laud and Wentworth,
+the principal advisers of the king, were tried and executed,
+and precautions taken, by stringent acts, to
+prevent a recurrence of arbitrary government. Everywhere
+there seemed a rally in favour of the Protestant
+or liberal cause. The death of Richelieu, the destroyer
+of French freedom, opened a prospect of recovered independence
+to the Huguenots; the victories of Torstenson
+the Swede, worthy successor of Gustavus Adolphus,
+brought down the pride of the Austrian Catholics; and
+Puritans, Independents, and other outraged sects and
+parties, by the restoration of the Parliament, got a terrible
+instrument of vengeance against their oppressors.
+A dreadful time, when on both sides the forms of law
+were perverted to the most lawless purposes; when
+peacefully-inclined citizens must have been tormented
+with sad misgivings by the contending claims of Parliament
+and King,&mdash;a Parliament correctly constituted
+and in the exercise of its recognised authority, a King<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[469]</a></span>
+with no flaw to his title, and professing his willingness
+to limit himself to the undoubted prerogatives of his
+place. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1642.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>It was probably a relief to the undecided when
+the arbitrament was removed from the court
+of argument to the field of battle. All the
+time of that miserable civil war, the other states of
+Europe were in nearly as great confusion as ourselves.
+France was torn to pieces by factions which contended
+for the mantle of the departed cardinal; Germany was
+traversed from end to end by alternately retreating and
+advancing armies. But still the simultaneousness of
+events abroad and at home is worthy of remark. The
+great fights which decided the quarrel in England were
+answered by victories of the Protestant arms in Germany
+and the apparent triumph of the discontented in
+France. The young king, Louis the Fourteenth, carried
+from town to town, and disputed between the
+parties, gave little augury of the despotism and injustice
+of his future throne. There were barricades in Paris,
+and insurrections all over the land. But at last, and
+at the same time, all the combatants in England, and
+France, and Germany&mdash;Huguenot, Puritan, Calvinist,
+Protestant, and Papist&mdash;were tired out with the length
+and bitterness of the struggle. So in 1648 the long
+Thirty Years&rsquo; War was brought to a close by the Peace
+of Westphalia. Kingly power in France was curtailed,
+the house of Austria was humbled; and Charles was
+carried prisoner to Windsor. The Protestants of Germany,
+by the terms of the peace, were replaced in their
+ancient possessions. They had freedom of worship and
+equality of civil rights secured. A general law preserved
+them from the injustice or aggressions of their
+local masters; and the compromise guaranteed by so
+many divergent interests, and guarded by such equally-divided
+numbers, has endured to the present time. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[470]</a></span>
+English conquerors would be contented with no less
+than their foreign friends had obtained. But the blot
+upon their conduct, the blood of the misguided and
+humbled Charles, hindered the result of their wisest
+deliberations. Moderate men were revolted by the violence
+of the act, and old English loyalty, delivered from
+the fear of foreign or domestic oppression, was awakened
+by the sad end of a crowned and anointed
+King. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1649.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Nothing compensates in an old hereditary
+monarchy for the want of high descent in its
+ruler. Not all Cromwell&rsquo;s vigour and genius, his glory
+abroad and energetic government at home, attracted
+the veneration of English squires, whose forefathers
+had fought at Crecy, to the grandson of a city knight,
+or, at most, to the descendant of a minister of Henry
+the Eighth. Charles the Second rose before them with
+the transmitted dignity of a hundred kings. He counted
+back to Scottish monarchs before the Norman Conquest,
+and traced by his mother&rsquo;s side his lineal ancestry up to
+Charlemagne and Clovis. English history presents no
+instance of the intrusion of an unroyal usurper in her
+list of sovereigns. Cromwell stands forth the solitary
+instance of a man of the people virtually seizing the
+crown; and the ballads and pamphlets of the time
+show how the comparative humility of his birth excited
+the scorn of his contemporaries. And this feeling was
+not limited to ancient lords and belted cavaliers: it
+permeated the common mind. There was something
+ennobling for the humblest peasant to die for King and
+Cause; but, however our traditions and the lapse of two
+hundred years may have elevated the conqueror at
+Worcester and Dunbar, we are not to forget that, in the
+estimation of those who had drunk his beer at Huntingdon
+or listened to his tedious harangues in Parliament,
+there would be neither patriotism nor honour in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[471]</a></span>
+dying for bluff Old Noll. But there were more dangerous
+enemies to bluff Old Noll than the newness of his
+name. The same cause which had made the nation dissatisfied
+with the arbitrary pretensions of James and
+Charles was at work in making it intolerant of the rule
+of the usurpers.</p>
+
+<p>The great soldier and politician, who had overthrown
+an ancient dynasty and crushed the seditions of the
+sects, had increased the commercial prosperity of the
+three kingdoms. Wealth poured in at all the ports, and
+was rapidly diffused over the land; internal improvements
+kept pace with foreign enterprise; and the England
+which long ago had been too rich to be arbitrarily
+governed was now again too rich to be kept in durance
+by the sour-faced hypocrisies of the Puritans. Those
+lank-haired gentlemen, whose conduct had not quite
+answered to the self-denying proclamations with which
+they had begun, were no longer able to persuade the
+well-to-do citizen, and the high-waged mechanic, and
+the prosperous farmer, that religion consisted in speaking
+through the nose and forswearing all innocent enjoyment.
+The great battle had been fought, and the
+fruits of it, they thought, were secure. Were people to
+be debarred from social meetings and merry-makings at
+Christmas, and junketings at fairs, by act of Parliament?
+Acts of Parliament would first have been required
+strong enough to do away with youth and health,
+and the power of admiring beauty, and the hopes of
+marriage. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1641-49.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The troubles had lasted seven or
+eight years; and all through that period, and
+for some time before, while the thick cloud was gathering,
+all gayety had disappeared from the land. But by
+the middle of Cromwell&rsquo;s time there was a new generation,
+in the first flush of youth,&mdash;lads and lasses who
+had been too young to know any thing of the dark<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[472]</a></span>
+days of Laud and Wentworth. They were twenty
+years of age now. Were they to have no cakes and ale
+because their elders were so prodigiously virtuous?
+They had many years of weary restraint and formalism
+to make up for, and in 1660 the accumulated tide of
+joyousness and delight burst all barriers. A flood of
+dancing and revelry, and utter abandonment to happiness,
+spread over the whole country; and merriest of
+the dancers, loudest of the revellers, happiest of the
+emancipated, was the young and brilliant king. Never
+since the old times of the Feasts of Fools and the
+gaudy processions of the Carnival had there been such
+a riotous jubilee as inaugurated the Restoration. The
+reaction against Puritanism carried the nation almost
+beyond Christianity and landed it in heathenism again.
+The saturnalia of Rome were renewed in the banquetings
+of St. James&rsquo;s. Nothing in those first days of
+relaxation seemed real. King and courtiers and cavaliers
+in courtly palaces, and enthusiastic townsfolk and
+madly loyal husbandmen, seemed like mummers at a
+play; and it was not till the candles were burned out,
+and the scenes grew dingy, and daylight poured upon
+that ghastly imitation of enjoyment, that England came
+to its sober senses again. Then it saw how false was
+the parody it had been playing. It had not been
+happy; it had only been drunk; and already, while
+Charles was in the gloss of his recovered crown, the
+second reaction began. Cromwell became respectable
+by comparison with the sensual debauchee who sold the
+dignity of his country for a little present enjoyment
+and soothed the reproaches of his people with a joke.
+Give us a Man to rule over us, the English said, and not
+a sayer of witty sayings and a juggler with such sleight
+of hand. And yet the example of the court was so contagious,
+and the fashion of enjoyment so wide-spread,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[473]</a></span>
+that on the surface every thing appeared prosperous
+and happy. The stern realities of the first recusants
+had been so travestied by the exaggerated imitation of
+their successors that no faith was placed in the serious
+earnestness of man or woman. Frivolity was therefore
+adopted as a mark of sense; and if the popular literature
+of a period is to be accepted as a mirror held up to
+show the time its image, the old English character had
+undergone a perfect change. Thousands flocked every
+day to the playhouses to listen to dialogues, and watch
+the evolvement of plots, where all the laws of decency
+and honour were held up to ridicule. Comus and his
+crew, which long ago had held their poetic festival in
+the pure pages of Milton, were let loose, without the
+purity or the poetry, in every family circle. And the
+worst and most disgusting feature of the picture is that
+those wassailers who were thus the missionaries of vice
+were persecutors for religion. While one royal brother
+was leading the revels at Whitehall, surrounded by
+luxury and immorality as by an atmosphere without
+which he could not live, the other, as luxurious, but
+more moodily depraved, listened to the groans of tortured
+Covenanters at Holyrood House. Charles and
+James were like the two executioners of Louis the
+Eleventh: one laughed, and the other groaned, but both
+were pitilessly cruel. A recurrence to the dark days of
+the Sects, the godly wrestlings in prayer of illiterate
+horsemen, and the sincere fanaticism of the Fifth-Monarchy
+men, would have been a change for the better
+from the filth and foulness of the reign of the Merry
+Monarch and the blood and misery of that of the gloomy
+bigot.</p>
+
+<p>But happier times were almost within view, though
+still hid behind the glare of those orgies of the unclean.
+From 1660 to 1688 does not seem a very long time in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[474]</a></span>
+the annals of a nation, nor even in the life of one of
+ourselves. Twenty-eight years have elapsed since the
+Revolution in Paris which placed Louis Philippe upon
+the throne; and the young man of twenty at that time
+is not very old yet. But when men or nations are
+cheated in the object of their hopes, it does not take
+long to turn disappointment into hatred. The Restoration
+of 1660 was to bring back the golden age of the
+first years of James,&mdash;the prosperity without the
+tyranny, the old hereditary rule without its high pretensions,
+the manliness of the English yeoman without
+his tendency to fanatical innovation. And instead of
+this Arcadia there was nothing to be seen but a kingdom
+without dignity, a king without honesty, and a
+people without independence. England was no longer
+the arbiter of European differences, as in the earlier
+reigns, nor dominator of all the nations, as when the
+heavy sword of Cromwell was uneasy in its sheath. It
+was not even a second-rate power: its capital had been
+insulted by the Dutch; its monarch was pensioned by
+the French; its religion was threatened by the Pope;
+the old animosities between England and Scotland were
+unarranged; and the point to be remembered in your
+review of the Seventeenth Century is that in the years
+from the Restoration to the Revolution we had touched
+the basest string of humility. We were neither united
+at home nor respected abroad. We had few ships, little
+commerce, and no public spirit. France revenged Crecy
+and Poictiers and Agincourt, by dressing our kings in
+her livery; and the degraded monarchs pocketed their
+wages without feeling their humiliation. Therefore, as
+the highest point we have hitherto stood upon was when
+Elizabeth saw the destruction of the Armada, the lowest
+was undoubtedly that when we submitted to the buffoonery
+of Charles and the bloodthirstiness of James.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[475]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>But far more remarkable, as a characteristic of this
+century, than the lowering of the rank of England in
+relation to foreign states, is the rise, for the first time
+in Europe, of a figure hitherto unknown,&mdash;a true, unshackled,
+and absolute king, and that in the least likely
+of all positions and in the person of the least likely
+man. This was the appearance on the throne of France
+of Louis the Fourteenth. Other monarchs, both in
+England and France, had attained supreme power,&mdash;supreme,
+but not independent. No one had hitherto
+been irresponsible to some other portions of the State.
+The strongest of the feudal kings was held in check by
+his nobility,&mdash;the greatest of the Tudors by Parliament
+and people. Declarations, indeed, had frequently been
+made that God&rsquo;s anointed were answerable to God
+alone. But of the two loudest of these declaimers,
+John, who said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i-1">&ldquo;What earthly power to interrogatory</span>
+<span class="i0">Can tax the free breath of a Christian king?&rdquo;</span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>had shortly after this magnificent oration surrendered
+his crown to the Pope; and James the First, who blustered
+more fiercely (if possible) about his superiority to
+human law, was glad to bend before his Lords and
+Commons in anticipation of a subsidy, and eat his leek
+in peace.</p>
+
+<p>But this phenomenon of a king above all other
+authority occurred, we have observed, in the most
+unlikely country to present so strange a sight; for nowhere
+was a European throne so weak and unstable as
+the throne of the house of Bourbon after the murder of
+Henry the Fourth. The moment that strong hand was
+withdrawn from the government, all classes broke loose.
+The nobles conspired against the queen, Marie de Medicis,
+who relied upon foreign favourites and irritated the
+nation to madness. Paris rose in insurrection, and tore<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[476]</a></span>
+the wretched Concini, her counsellor, whom she had
+created Marshal D&rsquo;Ancre, to pieces; and, to glut their
+vengeance still more, the judges condemned his innocent
+wife to be burned as a sorceress. Louis the Thirteenth,
+the unworthy son of the great Henry, rejoiced
+in these atrocities, which he thought freed him from all
+restraint. But he found it impossible to quell the wild
+passions by which he profited for a while. Civil war
+raged between the court and country factions, and soon
+became embittered into religious animosities.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1622.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The sight of a king marching at the head of a
+Catholic army against a portion of his Reformed subjects
+was looked upon by the rapidly-increasing malcontents
+in England with anxious curiosity. For year
+by year the strange spectacle was unrolled before their
+eyes of what might yet be their fate at home. Perhaps,
+indeed, the success of the royal arms, and the policy of
+strength and firmness introduced by Cardinal Richelieu,
+may have contributed in no slight degree to the measures
+pursued by Wentworth and Laud in their treatment of
+the English recusants. With an anticipative interest in
+our Hull and Exeter, the Puritans of England looked on
+the resistance made by Rochelle; and we can therefore
+easily imagine with what feelings the future soldiers of
+Marston Moor received the tidings that the Popish
+cardinal had humbled the capital of the Huguenots by
+the help of fleets furnished to them by Holland and
+England! Richelieu, indeed, knew how to make his
+enemies weaken each other throughout his whole career.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1627.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Those enemies were the nobility of France, the
+house of Austria, and the Reformed Faith. When
+Rochelle was attacked the second time, and England
+pretended to arm for its defence, he contrived to win
+Buckingham, the chief of the expedition, to his cause,
+and procured a letter from King Charles, placing the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[477]</a></span>
+fleet, which apparently went to the support of the
+Huguenots, at the service of the King of France!
+After a year&rsquo;s siege, and the most heroic resistance,
+Rochelle fell at last, in 1628. And, now that the Huguenots
+were destroyed as a dangerous party, the eyes of
+the great minister were turned against his other foes.
+He divided the nobles into hostile ranks, degraded them
+by petty annoyances, terrified them by unpitying executions
+of the chiefs of the oldest families, showed their
+weakness by arresting marshals at the head of their
+armies, and during the remaining years of his authority
+monopolized all the powers of the state. To weaken
+Spain and Austria, we have seen how he assisted the
+Protestants in the Thirty Years&rsquo; War; to weaken England,
+which was only great when it assumed its place as
+bulwark and champion of the Protestant faith, he encouraged
+the court in its suicidal policy and the
+oppressed population in resistance. Ever stirring up
+trouble abroad, and ever busy in repressing liberty at
+home, the ministry of Richelieu is the triumph of unprincipled
+skill. But when he died, in 1643, there was
+no man left to lift up the burden he threw off. The
+king himself, Louis the Thirteenth, as much a puppet
+as the old descendants of Clovis under their Mayors of
+the Palace, left the throne he had nominally filled,
+vacant in the same year; and the heir to the dishonoured
+crown and exhausted country was a boy of
+five years of age, under the tutelage of an unprincipled
+mother, and with the old hereditary counsellors and
+props of his throne decimated by the scaffold or impoverished
+by confiscation. The tyranny of Richelieu
+had at least attained something noble by the high-handed
+insolence of all his acts. If people were to be trampled
+on, it was a kind of consolation to them that their oppressor
+was feared by others as well as themselves.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[478]</a></span>
+But the oppression of the doomed French nation was to
+be continued by a more ignoble hand. The Cardinal
+Mazarin brought every thing into greater confusion
+than ever. In twenty millions of men there will always
+be great and overmastering spirits, if only an opportunity
+is found for their development; but civil commotion
+is not the element in which greatness lives. All
+sense of honour disappears when conduct is regulated
+by the shifting motives of party politics. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1648-1654.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The
+dissensions of the Fronde, accordingly, produced
+no champion to whom either side could look with unmingled
+respect. The Great Condé and the famous
+Turenne showed military talent of the highest order,
+but a want of principle and a flighty frivolity of character
+counterbalanced all their virtues. The scenes of
+those six years are like a series of dissolving views, or
+the changing combinations of a kaleidoscope: Condé and
+Turenne, always on opposite sides,&mdash;for each changed
+his party as often as the other; battles prepared for by
+masquerades and theatricals, and celebrated on both
+sides with epigrams and songs; the wildest excesses of
+debauchery and vice practised by both sexes and all
+ranks in the State; archbishops fighting like gladiators
+and intriguing like the vulgarest conspirators; princes
+imprisoned with a jest, and executions attended with
+cheers and laughter; and over all an Italian ecclesiastic,
+grinning with satisfaction at the increase of his wealth,&mdash;caballing,
+cheating, and lying, but keeping a firm
+grasp of power:&mdash;no country was ever so split into
+faction or so denuded of great men.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed, indeed, like a demoniacal caricature of our
+British troubles: no sternness, no reality; love-letters
+and witty verses supplying the place of the Biblical language
+and awful earnestness of the words and deeds of
+the Covenanters and Independents; the gentlemen of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[479]</a></span>
+France utterly debased and frivolized; religion ridiculed;
+nothing left of the old landmarks; and no Cromwell
+possible. But, while all these elements of confusion
+were heaving and tumbling in what seemed an
+inextricable chaos, Mazarin, the vainest and most selfish
+of charlatans, died, and the young king, whom he had
+kept in distressing dependence and the profoundest
+political inactivity, found himself delivered from a
+master and free to choose his path. This was in 1661.
+Charles and Louis were equally on their recovered
+thrones; for what exile had been to the one, Mazarin
+had been to the other. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1641-1660.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Charles had had the
+experience of nineteen years and of various
+fortunes to guide him. He had seen many men and
+cities, and he deceived every expectation. Louis had
+been studiously brought up by his mother and her
+Italian favourite in the abasement of every lofty aspiration.
+He was only encouraged in luxury and vice, and
+kept in such painful vassalage that his shyness and
+awkwardness revealed the absence of self-respect to the
+very pages of his court; and he, no less than Charles,
+deceived all the expectations that had been formed
+of his career. He found out, as if by intuition, how
+brightly the monarchical principle still burned in the
+heart of all the French. Even in their fights and quarrellings
+there was a deep reverence entertained for the
+ideal of the throne. The King&rsquo;s name was a tower of
+strength; and when the nation, in the course of the
+miserable years from 1610 to 1661, saw the extinction
+of nobility, religion, law, and almost of civilized society,
+it caught the first sound that told it it still had a king,
+as an echo from the past assuring it of its future. It
+forgot Louis the Thirteenth and Anne of Austria, and
+only remembered that its monarch was the grandson of
+Henry the Fourth. Nobody remembered that circumstance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[480]</a></span>
+so vividly as Louis himself; but he remembered
+also that his line went upwards from the Bourbons, and
+included the Saint Louis of the thirteenth century and
+the renewer of the Roman Empire of the ninth. He
+let the world know, therefore, that his title was Most
+Christian King as well as foremost of European powers.
+He forced Spain to yield him precedence, and, for the
+first time in history, exacted a humiliating apology from
+the Pope. The world is always apt to take a man at
+his own valuation. Louis, swelling with pride, ambitious
+of fame, and madly fond of power, declared himself the
+greatest, wisest, and most magnificent of men; and
+everybody believed him. Every thing was soon changed
+throughout the land. Ministers had been more powerful
+than the crown, and had held unlimited authority in
+right of their appointment. A minister was nothing
+more to Louis than a <i>valet-de-chambre</i>. He gave him
+certain work to do, and rewarded him if he did it; if
+he neglected it, he discharged him. At first the few
+relics of the historic names of France, the descendants
+of the great vassals, who carried their heads as lofty as
+the Capets or Valois, looked on with surprise at the
+new arrangements in camp and court. But the people
+were too happy to escape the oligarchic confederacy of
+those hereditary oppressors to encourage them in their
+haughty disaffection. Before Louis had been three
+years on the unovershadowed throne, the struggle had
+been fairly entered on by all the orders of the State,
+which should be most slavish in its submission. Rank,
+talent, beauty, science, and military fame all vied with
+each other in their devotion to the king. He would
+have been more than mortal if he had retained his
+senses unimpaired amid the intoxicating fumes of such
+incense. Success in more important affairs came to the
+support of his personal assumptions. Victories followed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[481]</a></span>
+his standards everywhere. Generals, engineers, and administrators,
+of abilities hitherto unmatched in Europe,
+sprang up whenever his requirements called them forth.
+Colbert doubled his income without increasing the
+burdens on his people. Turenne, Condé, Luxembourg,
+and twenty others, led his armies. Vauban strengthened
+his fortifications or conducted his sieges, and the dock-yards
+of Toulon and Brest filled the Mediterranean and
+the Atlantic with his fleets. Poets like Molière, Corneille,
+and Racine ennobled his stage; while the genius
+of Bossuet and Fénélon inaugurated the restoration of
+religion. For eight-and-twenty years his fortunes knew
+no ebb. He was the object of all men&rsquo;s hopes and fears,
+and almost of their prayers. Nothing was too great or
+too minute for his decision. He was called on to arbitrate
+(with the authority of a master) between sovereign
+States, and to regulate a point of precedence between
+the duchesses of his court. Oh, the weary days
+and nights of that uneasy splendour at Versailles! when
+his steps were watched by hungry courtiers, and his
+bed itself surrounded by applicants for place and favour.
+No galley-slave ever toiled harder at his oar than this
+monarch of all he surveyed at the management of his
+unruly family. It was the day of etiquette and form.
+The rights of princesses to arm-chairs or chairs with
+only a back were contested with a vigour which might
+have settled the succession to a throne. The rank
+which entitled to a seat in the king&rsquo;s coach or an invitation
+to Marly was disputed almost with bloodshed,
+and certainly with scandal and bitterness. The depth
+of the bows exacted by a prince of the blood, the
+number of attendants necessary for a legitimated son
+of La Vallière or Montespan, put the whole court into
+a turmoil of angry parties; and all these important
+points, and fifty more of equal magnitude, were formally<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[482]</a></span>
+submitted to the king and decided with a gravity befitting
+a weightier cause. Nothing is more remarkable in
+the midst of these absurd inanities than the great fund
+of good common sense that is found in all the king&rsquo;s
+judgments. He meditates, and temporizes, and reasons;
+and only on great occasions, such as a quarrel about dignity
+between the wife of the dauphin and the Duchess
+of Maine, does he put on the terrors of his kingly frown
+and interpose his irresistible command. It would have
+been some consolation to the foreign potentates he
+bullied or protected&mdash;the Austrian and Spaniard, or
+Charles in Whitehall&mdash;if they had known what a
+wretched and undignified life their enslaver and insulter
+lived at home. It was whispered, indeed, that he was
+tremendously hen-pecked by Madame de Maintenon,
+whom he married without having the courage to elevate
+her to the throne; but none of them knew the pettinesses,
+the degradations, and the miseries of his inner
+circle. They thought, perhaps, he was planning some
+innovation in the order of affairs in Europe,&mdash;the destruction
+of a kingdom, or the change of a dynasty.
+He was devoting his deepest cogitations to the arrangement
+of a quarrel between his sons and his daughters-in-law,
+the invitations to a little supper-party in his private
+room, or the number of steps it was necessary to advance
+at the reception of a petty Italian sovereign. The
+quarrels between his children became more bitter; the
+little supper-parties became more dull. Death came into
+the gilded chambers, and he was growing old and desolate.
+Still the torturing wheel of ceremony went round,
+and the father, with breaking heart, had to leave the
+chamber of his deceased son, and act the part of a
+great king, and go through the same tedious forms of
+grandeur and routine which he had done before the
+calamity came. Fancy has never drawn a personage<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[483]</a></span>
+more truly pitiable than Louis growing feeble and friendless
+in the midst of all that magnificence and all that
+heartless crowd. You pardon him for retiring for consolation
+and sympathy to the quiet apartment where
+Madame de Maintenon received him without formality
+and continued her needlework or her reading while he
+was engaged in council with his ministers. He must
+have known that to all but her he was an Office and not
+a Man. He yearned for somebody that he could trust
+in and consult with, as entering into his thoughts and interests;
+and that calm-blooded, meek-mannered, narrow-hearted
+woman persuaded him that in her he had found
+all that his heart thirsted for in the desert of his royalty.
+But in that little apartment he was now to find refuge
+from more serious calamities than the falsehood of
+courtiers or the quarrels of women. Even French
+loyalty was worn out at last. Victories had glorified
+the monarch, but brought poverty and loss to the population.
+Complaints arose in all parts of the country of
+the excess of taxation, the grasping dishonesty of the
+collectors, the extravagance of the court, and even&mdash;but
+this was not openly whispered&mdash;the selfishness of the
+king. He had lavished ten millions sterling on the
+palace and gardens of Versailles; he had enriched his
+sycophants with pensions on the Treasury; he had
+gratified the Church with gorgeous donations, and with
+the far more fatal gift of vengeance upon its opponents.
+The Huguenots were in the peaceful enjoyment of the
+rights secured to them by the Edict of Nantes, granted
+by Henry the Fourth in 1598. But those rights included
+the right of worshipping God in a different
+manner from the Church, and denying the distinguishing
+doctrines of the Holy Catholic faith. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1685.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The Edict of
+Toleration was repealed as a blot on the purity
+of the throne of the Most Christian King.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[484]</a></span>
+Thousands of the best workmen in France were banished
+by this impolitic proceeding, and Louis thought he
+had shown his attachment to his religion by sending the
+ingenuity and wealth, and glowing animosity, of the most
+valuable portion of his subjects into other lands. Germany
+calculated that the depopulation caused by his
+wars was more than compensated by the immigration.
+England could forgive him his contemptuous behaviour to
+her king and Parliament when she saw the silk-mills of
+Spitalfields supplied by the skilled workmen of Lyons.
+Eight hundred thousand people left their homes in consequence
+of this proscription of their religion, and Germany
+and Switzerland grew rich with the stream of
+fugitives. It is said that only five thousand found their
+way to this country,&mdash;enough to set the example of
+peaceful industry and to introduce new methods of
+manufacture.</p>
+
+<p>But the full benefit of the measures of Louis and
+Maintenon was denied us, by the distrust with which
+the Protestant exiles looked on the accession to our
+throne of a narrower despot and more bigoted persecutor
+than Louis; for in this same year James the Second
+succeeded Charles. Relying on each other&rsquo;s support,
+and gratified with the formal approval of the repeal of
+the Edict of Nantes pronounced by the Pope, the two
+champions of Christendom pursued their way,&mdash;dismissals
+from office, exclusion from promotion, proscription
+from worship in France, and assaults on the Church,
+and bloody assizes, in England,&mdash;till all the nations felt
+that a great crisis was reached in the fortunes both of
+England and France, and Protestant and Romanist
+alike looked on in expectation of the winding-up of so
+strange a history. Judicial blindness was equally on
+the eyes of the two potentates chiefly interested. James
+remained inactive while William Prince of Orange, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[485]</a></span>
+avowed chief of the new opinions, was getting ready
+his ships and army, and congratulated himself on the
+silence of his people, which he thought was the sign of
+their acquiescence instead of the hush of expectation.
+All the other powers&mdash;the Papal Chair included&mdash;were
+not sorry to see a counterpoise to the predominance of
+France; and when William appeared in England as the
+deliverer from Popery and oppression, the battle
+was decided without a blow. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1688.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>James was a
+fugitive in his turn, and found his way to Versailles.
+It is difficult to believe that any of the blood of Scotland
+or Navarre flowed in the veins of the pusillanimous
+king. He begged his protector, through whose councils
+he had lost his kingdom, to give it him back again; and
+the opportunity of a theatrical display of grandeur and
+magnanimity was too tempting to be thrown away.
+Louis promised to restore him his crown, as if it were
+a broken toy. It was a strange sight, during the remainder
+of their lives, to see those two monarchs keeping
+up the dignity of their rank by exaggerations of
+their former state. No mimic stage ever presented a
+more piteous spectacle of poverty and tinsel than the
+royal pair. Punctilios were observed at their meetings
+and separations, as if a bow more or less were of as
+much consequence as the bestowal or recovery of Great
+Britain; and in the estimation of those professors of
+manners and deportment a breach of etiquette would
+have been more serious than La Hogue or the Boyne.
+In that wondrous palace of Versailles all things had
+long ceased to be real. Speeches were made for effect,
+and dresses and decorations had become a part of the
+art of governing, and for some years the system seemed
+to succeed. When the king required to show that he
+was still a conqueror like Alexander the Great, preparations
+were made for his reception at the seat of war,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[486]</a></span>
+and a pre-arranged victory was attached lo his arrival,
+as Cleopatra wished to fix a broiled fish to Anthony&rsquo;s
+hook. He entered the town of Mons in triumph when
+Luxembourg had secured its fall. He appeared also
+with unbounded applause at the first siege of Namur,
+and carried in person the news of his achievement to
+Versailles. Every day came couriers hot and tired with
+intelligence of fresh successes. Luxembourg conquered
+at Fleurus, 1690; Catinat conquered Savoy, 1691; Luxembourg
+again, in 1692, had gained the great day of
+Steinkirk, and Nerwinde in 1693. But the tide now
+turned. William the Third was the representative at
+that time of the stubbornness of his new subjects&rsquo;
+character, who have always found it difficult to see that
+they were defeated. He was generally forced to retire
+after a vigorously-contested fight; but he was always
+ready to fight again next day, always calm and determined,
+and as confident as ever in the firmness of his
+men. Reports very different from the glorious bulletins
+of the earlier years of the Great Monarch now came
+pouring in. Namur was retaken, Dieppe and Havre
+bombarded, all the French establishments in India
+seized by the Dutch, their colony at St. Domingo captured
+by the English, Luxembourg dead, and the whole
+land again, for the second time, exhausted of men and
+money. It was another opportunity for the display of
+his absolute power. France prayed him to grant peace
+to Europe, and the earthly divinity granted France&rsquo;s
+prayer. Europe itself, which had rebelled against him,
+accepted the pacification it had won by its battles and
+combinations, as if it were a gift from a superior being.
+<span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1697.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>He surrendered his conquests with such grandeur, and
+looked so dignified while he withdrew his pretensions,
+acknowledging the Prince of Orange to be King of
+England, and the King of England to have no claim on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[487]</a></span>
+the crown he had promised to restore to him, that it
+took some time to perceive that the terms of the
+Peace of Ryswick were proofs of weakness and
+not of magnanimity. But the object of his life had
+been gained. He had abased every order in the State
+for the aggrandizement of the Crown, and, for the first
+time since the termination of the Roman Empire, had
+concentrated the whole power of a nation into the will
+of an individual. And this strange spectacle of a possessor
+of unlimited authority over the lives and fortunes
+of all his subjects was presented in an age that had
+seen Charles the First of England brought to the block
+and James the Second driven into exile! The chance
+of France&rsquo;s peacefully rising again from this state of depression
+into liberty would have been greater if Louis,
+in displacing the other authorities, had not disgraced
+them. He dissolved his Parliament, not with a file of
+soldiers, like Cromwell or Napoleon, but with a riding-whip
+in his hand. He degraded the nobility by making
+them the satellites of his throne and creatures of his
+favour. He humbled the Church by secularizing its
+leaders; so that Bossuet, bishop and orator as he was,
+was proud to undertake the office of peacemaker between
+him and Madame de Montespan in one of their lovers&rsquo;
+quarrels. And the Frenchmen of the next century
+looked in vain for some rallying-point from which to
+begin their forward course towards constitutional improvement.
+They found nothing but parliaments contemned,
+nobles dishonoured, and priests unchristianized.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[489]</a></span>
+<a name="EIGHTEENTH_CENTURY" id="EIGHTEENTH_CENTURY">EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of France.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis XIV.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1715.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis XV.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1774.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis XVI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1793.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">LOUIS XVII.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Emperors of Germany.</td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Leopold I.</span>&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1705.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Joseph I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1711.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles VI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1740.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Maria-Theresa.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1742.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles VII.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1745.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Francis I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1765.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Joseph II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1790.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Leopold II.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1792.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Francis II.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="4" class="big">Kings of England and Scotland.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">William III.</span> and <span class="smcap">Mary</span>.&mdash;(<i>cont.</i>)</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1702.</td><td colspan="2" class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Anne.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"></td><td colspan="3" class="sovereign">(<i>Great Britain</i>, 1707.)</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="year-list">1714.<br />1727.<br />1760.</td>
+<td class="sovereign-list">
+<span class="smcap">George I.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">George II.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">George III.</span>
+</td>
+<td class="mustache3">}</td>
+<td style="width:100%">House of Hanover.</td>
+</tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<div class="rulers">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td></td><td align="left" colspan="2" class="big">Kings of Spain.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="small">A.D.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1700.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip V.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1724.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Louis I.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1724.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Philip V.</span> again.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1745.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Ferdinand VI.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1759.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles III.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right">1788.</td><td class="sovereign"><span class="smcap">Charles IV.</span></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<p class="heading">Distinguished Men.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Addison</span>, <span class="smcap">Steele</span>, <span class="smcap">Swift</span>, <span class="smcap">Pope</span>, <span class="smcap">Robertson</span>, <span class="smcap">Hume</span>, <span class="smcap">Gibbon</span>,
+<span class="smcap">Voltaire</span>, <span class="smcap">Rousseau</span>, <span class="smcap">Lesage</span>, <span class="smcap">Marmontel</span>, <span class="smcap">Montesquieu</span>, <span class="smcap">Franklin</span>,
+(1706-1790,) <span class="smcap">Johnson</span>, (1709-1784,) <span class="smcap">Goldsmith</span>, (1728-1774,)
+<span class="smcap">Wolfe</span>, (1726-1759,) <span class="smcap">Washington</span>, (1732-1799.)</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[491]</a></span>
+<a name="THE_EIGHTEENTH_CENTURY" id="THE_EIGHTEENTH_CENTURY">THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.</a></h2>
+<div class="chapter-sub">
+<p class="sub-heading">INDIA&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;AMERICA&thinsp;&mdash;&thinsp;FRANCE.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The</span> characteristic feature of this period is constant
+change on the greatest scale. Hitherto changes have
+occurred in the internal government of nations: the
+monarchic or popular feeling has found its expression in
+the alternate elevation of the Kingly or Parliamentary
+power. But in this most momentous of the centuries,
+nations themselves come into being or disappear.
+Russia and Prussia for the first time play conspicuous
+parts in the great drama of human affairs. France,
+which begins the century with the despotic Louis the
+Fourteenth at its head, leaves it as a vigorous Republic,
+with Napoleon Buonaparte as its First Consul. The
+foundations of a British empire were laid in India,
+which before the end of the period more than compensated
+for the loss of that other empire in the West,
+which is now the United States of America. It was the
+century of the breaking of old traditions, and of the
+introduction of new systems in life and government,&mdash;more
+complete in its transformations than the splitting
+up into hitherto unheard-of nationalities of the old
+Roman world had been; for what Goth and Vandal,
+and Frank and Lombard, were to the political geography
+of Europe in the earlier time, new modes of
+thought, both religious and political, were to the moral
+constitution of that later date. The barbarous invasions
+of the early centuries were the overflowing of
+rivers by the breaking down of the embankments; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[492]</a></span>
+revolutionary madness of France was the sudden detachment
+of an avalanche which had been growing
+unobserved, but which at last a voice or a footstep was
+sufficient to set in motion. In all nations it was a period
+of doubt and uneasiness. Something was about to happen,
+but nobody could say what. The political sleight-of-hand
+men, who considered the safety of the world to depend
+on the balance of power, where a weight must be cast
+into one scale, exactly sufficient, and not more than sufficient,
+to keep the other in equilibrio, were never so much
+puzzled since the science of balancing began. A vast
+country, hitherto omitted from their calculations, or
+only considered as a make-weight against Sweden or
+Denmark, suddenly came forward to be a check, and
+sometimes an over-weight, to half the states in Europe.
+Something had therefore to be found to be a counterpoise
+to the twenty millions of men and illimitable
+dominions of the Russian Czars. This was close at the
+conjurer&rsquo;s hand in Prussia and her Austrian neighbour.
+Counties were added,&mdash;populations fitted in,&mdash;Silesia
+given to the one, Gallicia added to the other; and at
+last the whole of Poland, which had ceased to be of any
+importance in its separate existence, was cut up into
+such portions as might be required, with here a fragment
+and there a fragment, till the scales stood pretty
+even, and the three contiguous kingdoms were satisfied
+with their respective shares of infamy and plunder. If
+you hear, therefore, of robberies upon a gigantic scale,&mdash;no
+longer the buccaneering exploits of a few isolated
+adventurers in the Western seas, but of kingdoms deliberately
+stolen, or imperiously taken hold of by the right
+of the strong hand; of the same Titanic magnitude
+distinguishing almost all other transactions; colonies
+throwing off their allegiance, and swelling out into
+hostile empires, instead of the usual discontent and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[493]</a></span>
+occasional quarrellings between the mother-country and
+her children; of whole nations breaking forth into
+anarchy, instead of the former local efforts at reformation
+ending in temporary civil strife; of commercial
+speculations reaching the sublime of swindling and
+credulity, and involving whole populations in ruin; and
+of commercial establishments, on the other hand, vaster
+even in their territorial acquisitions than all the conquests
+of Alexander,&mdash;you are to remember that these
+things can only have happened in the Eighteenth Century;
+the century when the trammels of all former
+experiences were thrown off, and when wealth, power,
+energy, and mental aspirations were pushed to an unexampled
+excess. This exaggerated action of the age is
+shown in the one great statement which nearly comprehends
+all the rest. The Debt of this country, which
+at the beginning of this century was sixteen millions
+and a half and tormented our forefathers with fears of
+bankruptcy, had risen at the end of it, in the heroic
+madness of conquest and national pride, to the sum of
+three hundred and eighty millions, without a doubt of
+our perfect competency to sustain the burden.</p>
+
+<p>If the tendency of affairs on the other side of our
+encircling sea was to pull down, to destroy, to modify,
+and to redistribute, the tendency at home was to build
+up and consolidate; so that in almost exact proportion
+to the wild experiments and frantic strugglings of other
+nations after something new&mdash;new principles of government,
+new theories of society&mdash;there arose in this
+country a dogged spirit of resistance to all alterations,
+and a persistence in old paths and old opinions. The
+charms which constitution-mongers saw in untried
+novelties and philosophic systems existed for John Bull
+only in what had stood the wear and tear of hundreds
+of years. The Prussians, Austrians, Americans, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[494]</a></span>
+finally the French, were groping after vague abstractions;
+and Frederick the Soldier, and Joseph the Philanthropist,
+and Citizen Franklin, and Lafayette and Mirabeau,
+were each in their own way carried away with
+the delusion of a golden age; but the English statesmen
+clung rigidly to the realities of life,&mdash;declared the
+universal fraternity of nations to be a cry of knaves or
+hypocrites,&mdash;and answered all exclamations about the
+dignity of humanity and the sovereignty of the people
+with &ldquo;Rule Britannia,&rdquo; and &ldquo;God save the King.&rdquo;
+How deeply this sentiment of loyalty and traditionary
+Toryism is seated in the national mind is proved by
+nothing so much as by the dreadful ordeal it had to go
+through in the days of the first two Georges. It certainly
+was a faith altogether independent of external
+circumstances, which saw the divinity that hedges
+kings in such vulgar, gossiping, and undignified individuals.
+And yet through all the troubled years of their
+reigns the great British heart beat true with loyalty to
+the throne, though it was grieved with the proceedings
+of the sovereigns; and when the third George gave it a
+man to rally round&mdash;as truly native-born as the most
+indigenous of the people, as stubborn, as strong-willed,
+and as determined to resist innovation as the most consistent
+of the squires and most anti-foreign of the citizens&mdash;the
+nation attained a point of union which had
+never been known in all their previous history, and
+looked across the Channel, at the insanity of the perplexed
+populations and the threats of their furious
+leaders, with a growl of contempt and hatred which
+warned their democrats and incendiaries of the fate
+that awaited them here. There are times in all national
+annals when the narrowest prejudices have an amazing
+resemblance to the noblest virtues. When Hannibal
+was encamped at the gates of Rome, the bigoted old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[495]</a></span>
+Patricians in the forum carried on their courts of law
+as usual, and would not deduct a farthing from the value
+of the lands they set up for sale, though the besieger
+was encamped upon them. When a king of Sicily
+offered a great army and fleet for the defence of Greece
+against the Persians, the Athenian ambassador said,
+&ldquo;Heaven forefend that a man of Athens should serve
+under a foreign admiral!&rdquo; The Lacedemonian ambassador
+said the Spartans would put him to death if he
+proposed any man but a Spartan to command their
+troops; and those very prejudiced and narrow-minded
+patriots were reduced to the necessity of exterminating
+the invaders by themselves. Great Britain, in the year
+1800, was also of opinion that she was equal to all the
+world,&mdash;that she could hold her own whatever powers
+might be gathered against her,&mdash;and would not have
+exchanged her Hood, and Jervis, and Nelson, for the
+assistance of all the fleets of Europe.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing seems to die out so rapidly as the memory
+of martial achievements. The military glory of this
+country is a thing of fits and starts. Cressy and Poictiers
+left us at a pitch of reputation which you might
+have supposed would have lasted for a long time. But
+in a very few years after those victories the English
+name was a byword of reproach. All the conquests
+of the Edwards were wrenched away, and it needed
+only the short period of the reign of Richard the
+Second to sink the recollection of the imperturbable
+line and inevitable shaft. Henry the Fifth and Agincourt
+for a moment brought the previous triumphs into
+very vivid remembrance. But civil dissensions between
+York and Lancaster blunted the English sword upon
+kindred helmets, and peaceful Henry the Seventh loaded
+the subject with intolerable taxes, and his son wasted
+his treasures in feasts and tournaments. The long reigns<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[496]</a></span>
+of Elizabeth and James were undistinguished by British
+armies performing any separate achievements on the
+Continent; and again civil war lavished on domestic
+fields an amount of courage and conduct which would
+have eclipsed all previous actions if exhibited on a
+wider scene. We need not, therefore, be surprised, if,
+after the astonishing course of Louis the Fourteenth&rsquo;s
+arms, the discomfiture of his adversaries, the constant
+repulses of the English contingent which fought under
+William in Flanders, and at last the quiet, looking so
+like exhaustion, which ushered in the Eighteenth Century,
+the British forces were despised, and we were confessed,
+in the ludicrous cant which at intervals becomes
+fashionable still, to be not a military nation. How this
+astounding proposition agrees with the fact that we
+have met in battle every single nation, and tribe, and
+kindred, and tongue, on the face of the whole earth, in
+Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and have beaten
+them all; how it further agrees with the fact that no
+civilized power was ever engaged in such constant and
+multitudinous wars, so that there is no month or week
+in the history of the last two hundred years in which it
+can be said we were not interchanging shot or sabre-stroke
+somewhere or other on the surface of the globe;
+how, further still, the statement is to be reconciled with
+the fact, perceptible to all mankind, that the result of
+these engagements is an unexampled growth of influence
+and empire,&mdash;the acquisition of kingdoms defended
+by millions of warriors in Hindostan, of colonies ten
+times the extent of the conqueror&rsquo;s realm, defended by
+Montcalm and the armies of France,&mdash;we must leave to
+the individuals who make it: the truth being that the
+British people is not only the most military nation the
+world has ever seen, not excepting the Roman, but the
+most warlike. It is impossible to say when these pages<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[497]</a></span>
+may meet the reader&rsquo;s eye; but, at whatever time it may
+be, he has only to look at the &ldquo;Times&rdquo; newspaper of that
+morning, and he will see that either in the East or the
+West, in China or the Cape, or the Persian Gulf, or on
+the Indus, or the Irrawaddy, the meteor flag is waved
+in bloody advance. And this seems an indispensable
+part of the British position. She is so ludicrously
+small upon the map, and so absorbed in speculation, so
+padded with cotton, and so sunk in coal-pits, that it is
+only constant experience of her prowess that keeps the
+world aware of her power. The other great nations
+can repose upon their size, and their armies of six or
+seven hundred thousand men. Nobody would think
+France or Russia weak because they were inactive.
+But with us the case is different: we must fight or fall.</p>
+
+<p>Twice in the century we are now engaged on, we
+rose to be first of the military states in Europe, and
+twice, by mere inaction, we sank to the rank of Portugal
+or Naples.</p>
+
+<p>Charles the Second of Spain died in November, 1700,&mdash;a
+person so feeble in health and intellect that in a lower
+state of life he would have been put in charge of guardians
+and debarred from the management of his affairs.
+As he was a king, these duties were performed on his
+behalf by the priests, and the wretched young man&mdash;he
+succeeded at three years old&mdash;was nothing but the slave
+and plaything of his confessor. Yet, though his existence
+was of no importance, his decease set all Europe
+in turmoil. By his testament, obtained from him on his
+death-bed, he appointed the grandson of Louis the
+Fourteenth his heir. A previous will had nominated
+Charles of Austria. A previous treaty between Louis
+and William of England and the States of Holland had
+arranged a partition of the Spanish monarchy for the
+benefit of the contracting parties and the maintenance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[498]</a></span>
+of the balance of power. But now, when a choice was
+to be made between the wills and the treaty, between
+the balance of power and his personal ambition, the
+temptation was too great for the cupidity of the Grand
+Monarque. He accepted the throne of Spain and the
+Indies for his grandson Philip of Anjou, and sent him
+over the Pyrenees to take possession of his dignity. The
+stroke was so sudden that people were silent from surprise.
+A French prince at Madrid, at Milan, and Naples,
+was only the lieutenant in those capitals for the French
+king. The preponderance of the house of Bourbon was
+dangerous to the liberties of Europe, and when the
+house of Bourbon was represented by the haughtiest,
+and vainest, and most insulting of men, the dignity of
+the remaining sovereigns was offended by his ostentatious
+superiority; and the house of Austria, which in
+the previous century had been the terror of statesmen
+and princes, was turned to as a shelter from its successful
+rival, and all the world prepared to defend the cause
+of the Austrian Charles. The affairs of Europe, which
+were disturbed by the death of an imbecile king in
+Spain, were further complicated by the death of a still
+more imbecile king at St. Germain&rsquo;s. James the Second
+brought his strange life to a close in 1701; and, though
+the advisers of Louis pointed out the consequence of
+offending England at that particular time by recognising
+the Prince of Wales as inheritor of the English crown,
+the vanity of the old man who could not forego the
+luxury of having a crowned king among his attendants
+prevailed over his better knowledge, and one day, to the
+amazement of courtiers and council, he gave the royal
+reception to James the Third, and threw down the
+gauntlet to William and England, which they were not
+slow to take up. William of Orange was not popular
+among his new subjects, and was always looked on as a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[499]</a></span>
+foreigner. Perhaps the memory of Ruyter and Van
+Tromp was still fresh enough to make him additionally
+disliked because he was a Dutchman. But when it was
+known over the country that the bigoted and insulting
+despot in Paris had nominated a King of England, while
+the man the nation had chosen was still alive in Whitehall,
+the indignation of all classes was roused, and found
+its expression in loyalty and attachment to their deliverer
+from Popery and persecution. Great exertions
+were made to conduct the war on a scale befitting the
+importance of the interests at stake. Addresses poured
+in, with declarations of devotion to the throne; troops
+were raised, and taxes voted; and in the midst of these
+preparations, the King, prematurely old, in the fifty-third
+year of his age, died of a fall from his horse at
+Kensington, in March, 1702, and the powers of Europe
+felt that the best soldier they possessed was lost to the
+cause. Rather it was a fortunate thing for the confederated
+princes that William died at this time; for he never
+rose to the rank of a first-rate commander, and was so
+ambitious of glory and power that he would not have
+left the way clear for a greater than himself.</p>
+
+<p>This was found in Marlborough. Military science was
+the characteristic of this illustrious general; and no one
+before his time had ever possessed in an equal degree
+the power of attaching an army to its chief, or of regulating
+his strategic movements by the higher consideration
+of policy and statesmanship. For the first time, in
+English history at least, a march was equivalent to a
+battle. A change of his camp, or even a temporary retreat,
+was as effectual as a victory; and it was seen by
+the clearer observers of the time that a campaign was
+a game of skill, and not of the mere dash and intrepidity
+which appeal to the vulgar passions of our nature. Not
+so, however, the general public: their idea of war was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[500]</a></span>
+a succession of hard knocks, with enormous lists of the
+killed and wounded. A man&oelig;uvre, without a charge
+of bayonets at the end of it, was little better than cowardice;
+and complaints were loud and common against
+the inactivity of a man who, by dint of long-prepared
+combinations, compelled the enemy to retreat by a mere
+shift of position and cleared the Low Countries of its
+invaders without requiring to strike a blow. &ldquo;Let them
+see how we can fight,&rdquo; cried all the corporations in the
+realm: &ldquo;anybody can march and pitch his camp.&rdquo; And
+it is not impossible that the foreign populations who had
+never seen the red-coats, or, at most, who had only
+known them acting as auxiliaries to the Dutch and
+often compelled to retire before the numbers and impetuosity
+of the French, had no expectation of success
+when they should be fairly brought opposite their former
+antagonists. Friends and foes alike were prepared for
+a renewal of the days of Luxembourg and Turenne.
+In this they were not disappointed; for a pupil of
+Turenne renewed, in a very remarkable manner, the
+glories of his master. Marlborough had served under
+that great commander, and profited by his lessons. He
+had fifty thousand British soldiers under his undivided
+command; and, to please the grumblers at home and
+the doubters abroad, he made the reign of Anne the
+most glorious in the English military annals by thick-coming
+fights, still unforgotten, though dimmed by the
+exploits of the more illustrious Wellington. The first
+of these was Blenheim, against the French and Bavarians,
+in 1704. How different this was from the hand-to-hand
+thrust and parry of ancient times is shown by
+the fate of a strong body of French, who were so posted
+on this occasion that the duke saw they were in his
+power without requiring to fire a gun. He sent his aid-de-camp,
+Lord Orkney, to them to point out the hopelessness<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[501]</a></span>
+of their position; and when he rode up, accompanied
+by a French officer, to act, perhaps, as his
+interpreter, a shout of gratulation broke from the unsuspecting
+Frenchmen. &ldquo;Is it a prisoner you have brought
+us?&rdquo; they asked their countryman. &ldquo;Alas! no,&rdquo; he
+replies: &ldquo;Lord Orkney has come from Marlborough to
+tell you you are his prisoners. His lordship offers you
+your lives.&rdquo; A glance at the contending armies confirmed
+the truth of this appalling communication, and
+the brigade laid down its arms. The tide of victory,
+once begun, knew no ebb till the grandeur of Louis
+the Fourteenth was overwhelmed. Disgraces followed
+quickly one upon the other,&mdash;marshals beaten, towns
+taken, conquests lost, his wealth exhausted, his people
+discontented, and the bravest of his generals hopeless
+of success. Prince Eugene of Savoy, equal to Marlborough
+in military genius, was more embittered against
+the French monarch, to whom he had offered his services,
+and who had had the folly to reject them. France,
+on the side of Germany and the Low Countries, was
+pressed upon by the triumphant invaders. In Spain,
+the affairs of the new king were more desperate still.
+Gibraltar was taken in 1704. Lord Peterborough, a wiser
+Quixote, of whose victories it is difficult to say whether
+they were the result of madness or skill, marched
+through the kingdom at the head of six or seven thousand
+English and conquered wherever he went.</p>
+
+<p>When the war had lasted eight or nine years, the
+reputation of Marlborough and the British arms was at
+its height. Our fleets were masters of the sea, and the
+Grand Monarque sent humble petitions to the opposing
+powers for peace upon any terms. People tell us that
+Marlborough rejected all overtures which might have
+deprived him of the immense emoluments he received
+for carrying on the war. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1711.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Perhaps, also, he was inspired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[502]</a></span>
+by the love of fame; but, whether meanness or ambition
+was his motive, his warlike propensities were finally
+overcome,&mdash;for his wife, the imperious duchess,
+quarrelled with Queen Anne,&mdash;the ministry was
+changed, and the jealousies of Whitehall interfered with
+the campaigns in Flanders. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1713.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Marlborough was displaced,
+and a peace patched up, which, under the name of the
+Peace of Utrecht, is quoted as showing what
+small fruits British diplomacy sometimes derives
+from British valour. Louis the Fourteenth, conquered
+at all points, his kingdom exhausted, and all his reputation
+gone, saw his grandson in possession of the crown
+which had been the original cause of the war, and Great
+Britain rewarded for all her struggles by the empty glory
+of filling up the harbour of Dunkirk, and the scarcely
+more substantial advantage, as many considered it at
+the time, of retaining Gibraltar, a barren rock, and Minorca,
+a useless island. After this, we find a long period
+of inaction on the continent produce its usual effect.
+When thirty years had passed without the foreign populations
+having sight of the British grenadiers, they either
+forgot their existence altogether, or had persuaded themselves
+that the new generation had greatly deteriorated
+from the old.<span class="sidenote"><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1743. <span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1745.</span>
+It needed the victory of
+Dettingen, and the more glorious repulse of Fontenoy,
+to recall the soldiers of Oudenarde and Malplaquet.</p>
+
+<p>In the interval, amazing things had been going on.
+Even while the career of Marlborough was attended
+with such glory in arms, a peaceful achievement was
+accomplished of far more importance than all his victories.
+An Act of Union between the two peoples who
+occupied the Isle was passed by both their Parliaments
+in 1707, and England and Scotland disappeared in their
+separate nationalities, to receive the more dignified appellation
+of the Kingdom of Great Britain. This was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[503]</a></span>
+statesman&rsquo;s triumph; for the popular feeling on both
+sides of the Tweed was against it. Scotland considered
+herself sold; and England thought she was cheated.
+Clauses were introduced to preserve, as far as possible,
+the distinctions which each thought it for its honour to
+keep up. National peculiarities exaggerated themselves
+to prevent the chance of being obliterated; and Scotchmen
+were never as Scotch, nor Englishmen ever so
+English, as at the time when these denominations were
+about to cease. As neighbours, with the mere tie between
+them of being subjects of the same crown, they
+were on amicable and respectful terms. But when the
+alliance was proposed to be more intimate, their interests
+to be considered identical and the Parliaments to be
+merged in one, both parties took the alarm. &ldquo;The preponderating
+number of English members would scarcely
+be affected by the miserable forty-five votes reserved for
+the Scotch representatives,&rdquo; said Caledonia, stern and
+wild. &ldquo;The compact phalanx of forty-five determined
+Scotchmen will give them the decision of every question
+brought before Parliament,&rdquo; replied England, with equal
+fear,&mdash;and equal misapprehension, as it happily turned
+out. When eight years had elapsed after this great
+event in our domestic history, with just sufficient experience
+of the new machinery to find out some of its defects,
+it was put to the proof by an incident which might have
+been fatal to a far longer established system of government.
+This was a rebellion in favour of the exiled
+Stuarts. James the Third, whom we saw recognised by
+Louis the Fourteenth on the death of his father in 1701,
+made his appearance among the Highlanders of the
+North in 1714, and summoned them to support his
+family claims.</p>
+
+<p>But the memory of his ancestors was too recent.
+Men of middle age remembered James the Second in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[504]</a></span>
+his tyrannical supremacy at Holyrood. The time was
+not sufficiently remote for romance to have gathered
+round the harsh reality and hidden its repulsive outlines.
+A few months showed the Pretender the hopelessness
+of his attempt; and the tranquillity of the
+country was considered to be re-established when the
+adherents of the losing cause were visited with the
+harshest penalties. The real result of these vindictive
+punishments was, that they added the spirit of revenge
+for private wrong to the spirit of loyalty to the banished
+line. Many circumstances concurred to favour the defeated
+candidate, who seemed to require to do nothing
+but bide his time. The throne was no longer held, even
+under legalized usurpation, as the discontented expressed
+it, by one of the ancient blood. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1714.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>A foreigner, old and
+stupid, had come over from Hanover and claimed
+the Parliamentary crown, and the few remaining
+links of attachment which kept the high-prerogative
+men and the Roman Catholics inactive in the reign of
+Queen Anne, the daughter of their rightful king, lost all
+their power over them on the advent of George the
+First, who had to trace up through mother and grandmother
+till he struck into the royal pedigree in the reign
+of James the First. It was thought hard that descent
+from that champion of monarchic authority and hereditary
+right should be pleaded as a title to a crown dependent
+on the popular choice. As years passed on, the
+number of the discontented was of course increased.
+Whoever considered himself neglected by the intrusive
+government turned instinctively to the rival house. A
+courtier offended by the brutal manners of the Hanoverian
+rulers looked longingly across the sea to the descendant
+of his lineal kings. The foreign predilections, and
+still more foreign English, of the coarse-minded Georges,
+made them unpopular with the weak or inconsiderate,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[505]</a></span>
+who did not see that a very inelegant pronunciation
+might be united with a true regard for the interests of
+their country.</p>
+
+<p>The commercial passions of the nations succeeded to
+the military enthusiasm of the past age, and brought
+their usual fruits of selfish competition and social degradation.
+Money became the most powerful principle of
+public and private life: Sir Robert Walpole, a man of
+perfect honesty himself, founded his ministry on the
+avowed disbelief of personal honesty among all classes
+of the people; and there were many things
+which appeared to justify his incredulity. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1720.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>There
+was the South-Sea Bubble, a swindling speculation, to
+which our own railway-mania is the only parallel, where
+lords and ladies, high ecclesiastics and dignified office-bearers,
+the highest and the lowest, rushed into the
+wildest excesses of gambling and false play, and which
+caused a greater loss of character and moral integrity
+than even of money to its dupes and framers. There
+was the acknowledged system of rewarding a ministerial
+vote with notes for five hundred or a thousand pounds.
+There were the party libels of the time, all imputing the
+greatest iniquities to the object of their vituperation,
+and left uncontradicted except by savage proceedings
+at law or by similar insinuations against the other side.
+There were philosophers like Bolingbroke and clergymen
+like Swift. But let us distinguish between the performers
+on the great scenes of life, the place hunter at
+St. James&rsquo;s, and the great body of the English and Scottish
+gentry, and their still undepraved friends and neighbours,
+whom it is the fashion to involve in the same condemnation
+of recklessness and dishonour. We are to
+remember that the dregs of the former society were not
+yet cleared away. The generation had been brought up
+at the feet of the professors of morality and religion as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[506]</a></span>
+they were practised in the days of Charles and James,
+with Congreve and Wycherly for their exponents on the
+stage and Dryden for their poet-laureate.</p>
+
+<p>It seems a characteristic of literature that it becomes
+pure in proportion as it becomes powerful. While it is
+the mere vehicle for amusement or the exercise of wit
+and fancy, it does not care in what degrading quarters
+its materials are found. But when it feels that its voice
+is influential and its lessons attended to by a wider audience,
+it rises to the height of the great office to which it
+is called, and is dignified because it is conscious of its
+authority. In the incontestable amendment visible in
+the writings of the period of Anne and the Georges, we
+find a proof that the vices of the busy politicians and
+gambling speculators were not shared by the general
+public. The papers of the <i>Spectator</i> and <i>Tatler</i>, the
+writings of Pope and Arbuthnot, were not addressed to
+a depraved or sensualized people, as the works of Rochester
+and Sedley had been. When we talk, therefore,
+of the Augustan age of Anne, we are to remember that
+its freedom from grossness and immorality is still more
+remarkable than its advance in literary merit, and we
+are to look on the conduct of intriguing directors and
+bribed members of Parliament as the relics of a time
+about to pass away and to give place to truer ideas of
+commercial honesty and public duty. The country, in
+spite of coarseness of manners and language, was still
+sound at heart. The jolly squire swore at inconvenient
+seasons and drank beyond what was right, but he kept
+open house to friend and tenant, administered justice to
+the best of his ability, had his children Christianly and
+virtuously brought up, and was a connecting link in his
+own neighbourhood between the great nobles who affected
+almost a princely state, and the snug merchant in the
+country town, or retired citizen from London, whom he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[507]</a></span>
+met at the weekly club. The glimpses we get of the
+social status of the country gentlemen of Queen Anne
+make us enamoured of their simple ways and patriarchal
+position. For the argument to be drawn from the character
+and friends of Sir Roger de Coverly and the delightful
+Lady Lizard and her daughters, is that the great
+British nation was still the home of the domestic affections,
+that the behaviour was pure though the grammar
+was a little faulty, and the ideas modest and becoming
+though the expression might be somewhat unadorned.
+Hence it was that, when the trial came, the heart of all
+the people turned to the uninviting but honest man who
+filled the British throne. George the Second became a
+hero, because the country was healthy at the core.</p>
+
+<p>A son of the old Pretender, relying on the lax morality
+of the statesmen and the venality of the courtiers, forgot
+the unshaken firmness and dogged love of the right
+which was yet a living principle among the populations
+of both the nations, and landed in the North of Scotland
+in 1745, to recover the kingdom of his ancestors by force
+of arms. The kingdoms, however, had got entirely out
+of the habit of being recovered by any such means. The
+law had become so powerful, and was so guarded by forms
+and precedents, that Prince Charles Edward would have
+had a better chance of obtaining his object by an action
+of ejectment, or a suit of recovery, than by the aid of
+sword and bayonet. Everybody knows the main incidents
+of this romantic campaign,&mdash;the successful battles
+which gave the insurgents the apparent command of the
+Lowlands,&mdash;the advance into England,&mdash;the retreat from
+Derby,&mdash;the disasters of the rebel army, and its final extinction
+at Culloden. But, although to us it appears a
+very serious state of affairs,&mdash;a crown placed on the arbitrament
+of war, battles in open field, surprise on the part
+of the Hanoverians, and loud talking on the part of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[508]</a></span>
+rivals,&mdash;the tranquillity of all ranks and in all quarters
+is the most inexplicable thing in the whole proceeding.
+When the landing was first announced, alarm was of
+course felt, as at a fair when it is reported that a tiger
+has broken loose from the menagerie. But in a little time
+every thing resumed its ordinary appearance. George
+himself cried, &ldquo;Pooh! pooh! Don&rsquo;t talk to me of such
+nonsense.&rdquo; His ministers, who probably knew the state
+of public feeling, were equally unconcerned. A few
+troops were brought over from the Continent, to show
+that force was not wanting if the application of it was
+required. But in other respects no one appeared to believe
+that the assumed fears of the disaffected, and the
+no less assumed exultation of the Jacobites, had any
+foundation in fact. Trade, law, buying and selling,
+writing and publishing, went on exactly as before. The
+march of the Pretender was little attended to, except
+perhaps in the political circles in London. In the great
+towns it passed almost unheeded. Quiet families within
+a few miles of the invaders&rsquo; march posted or walked
+across to see the uncouth battalions pass. Their strange
+appearance furnished subjects of conversation for a
+month; but nowhere does there seem to have been the
+terror of a real state of war,&mdash;the anxious waiting for
+intelligence, &ldquo;the pang, the agony, the doubt:&rdquo; no one
+felt uneasy as to the result. England had determined
+to have no more Stuart kings, and Scotland was beginning
+to feel the benefit of the Union, and left the defence
+of the true inheritor to the uninformed, discontented,
+disunited inhabitants of the hills. When the tribes
+emerged from their mountains, they seemed to melt like
+their winter snows. No squadrons of stout-armed cavaliers
+came to join them from holt and farm, as in the
+days of the Great Rebellion, when the royal flag was
+raised at Nottingham. Puritans and Independents took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[509]</a></span>
+no heed, and cried no cries about &ldquo;the sword of the Lord
+and of Gideon.&rdquo; They had turned cutlers at Sheffield
+and fustian-makers at Manchester. The Prince found
+not only that he created no enthusiasm, but no alarm,&mdash;a
+most painful thing for an invading chief; and, in fact,
+when they had reached the great central plains of England
+they felt lost in the immensity of the solitude that
+surrounded them. If they had met enemies they would
+have fought; if they had found friends they would have
+hoped; but they positively wasted away for lack of either
+confederate or opponent. The expedition disappeared
+like a small river in sand. What was the use of going
+on? If they reached London itself, they would be swallowed
+up in the vastness of the population, and, instead
+of meeting an army, they would be in danger of being
+taken up by the police. So they reversed their steps.
+Donald had stolen considerably in the course of the foray,
+and was anxious to go and invest his fortune in his native
+vale. An English guinea&mdash;a coin hitherto as fabulous
+as the <i>Bodach glas</i>&mdash;would pay the rent of his holding
+for twenty years; five pounds would make him a
+cousin of the Laird. But Donald never got back to display
+the spoils of Carlisle or Derby. He loitered by the
+road, and was stripped of all his booty. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1746.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>He was imprisoned,
+and hanged, and starved, and beaten, and
+finally, after the strange tragi-comedy of his
+fight at Falkirk, had the good fortune, on that
+bare expanse of Drummossie Moor, to hide some of the
+ludicrous features of his retreat in the glory of a warrior&rsquo;s
+death. Justice became revenge by its severity
+after the insurrection was quelled. The followers of the
+Prince were punished as traitors; but treason means
+rebellion against an acknowledged government, which
+extends to its subjects the securities of law. These did
+not exist in the Highlands. All those distant populations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[510]</a></span>
+knew of law was the edge of its sword, not the
+balance of its scales. They saw their chiefs depressed,
+they remembered the dismal massacre of Glencoe in
+William&rsquo;s time, and the legal massacres of George the
+First&rsquo;s. They spoke another language, were different in
+blood, and manners, and religion, and should have been
+treated as prisoners of war fighting under a legal banner,
+and not drawn and quartered as revolted subjects. It is
+doubtful if one man in the hundred knew the name of
+the king he was trying to displace, or the position of the
+prince who summoned him to his camp. Poor, gallant,
+warm-hearted, ignorant, trusting Gael! His chieftain
+told him to follow and slay the Saxons, and he required
+no further instruction. He was not cruel or bloodthirsty
+in his strange advance. He had no personal enmity to
+Scot or Englishman, and, with the simple awe of childhood,
+soon looked with reverence on the proofs of wealth
+and skill which met him in the crowded cities and cultivated
+plains. He was subdued by the solemn cathedrals
+and grand old gentlemen&rsquo;s seats that studded all the
+road, as some of his ancestors, the ancient Gauls, had
+been at the sight of the Roman civilization. And, for all
+these causes, the incursion of the Jacobites left no lasting
+bitterness among the British peoples. Pity began
+before long to take the place of opposition; and when
+all was quite secure, and the Highlanders were fairly
+subdued, and the Pretender himself was sunk in sloth
+and drunkenness, a sort of morbid sympathy with the
+gallant adventurers arose among the new generation.
+Tender and romantic ballads, purporting to be &ldquo;Laments
+for Charlie,&rdquo; and declarations of attachment to
+the &ldquo;Young Chevalier,&rdquo; were composed by comfortable
+ladies and gentlemen, and sung in polished drawing-rooms
+in Edinburgh and London with immense applause.
+Macaulay&rsquo;s &ldquo;Lays of Ancient Rome,&rdquo; or Aytoun&rsquo;s <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[511]</a></span>&ldquo;Lays
+of the Scottish Cavaliers,&rdquo; have as much right to be
+called the contemporary expression of the sacrifice of
+Virginia or the burial of Dundee as the Jacobite songs
+to be the living voice of the Forty-Five. Who was there
+in the Forty-Five, or Forty-Six, or for many years after
+that date, to write such charming verses? The Highlanders
+themselves knew not a word of English; the
+blue bonnets in Scotland were not addicted to the graces
+of poetry and music. The citizens of England were too
+busy, the gentlemen of England too little concerned in
+the rising, to immortalize the landing at Kinloch-Moidart
+or the procession to Holyrood. The earliest song which
+commemorates the Pretender&rsquo;s arrival, or laments his
+fall, was not written within twenty years of his attempt.
+By that time George the Third was on the safest throne
+in Europe, and Great Britain was mistress of the trade
+of India and the illimitable regions of America. It was
+easy to sing about having our &ldquo;rightful King,&rdquo; when
+we were in undisputed possession of the Ganges and the
+Hudson and had just planted the British colours on
+Quebec and Montreal.</p>
+
+<p>This rebellion of Forty-Five, therefore, is remarkable
+as a feature in this century, not for the greatness of the
+interest it excited, but for the small effect it had upon
+either government or people. It showed on what firm
+foundations the liberties and religion of the nations
+rested, that the appearance of armed enemies upon our
+soil never shook our justly-balanced state. The courts
+sat at Westminster, and the bells rang for church.
+People read Thomson&rsquo;s &ldquo;Seasons,&rdquo; and wondered at
+Garrick in &ldquo;Hamlet&rdquo; at Drury Lane.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, a great contest was going on abroad, which,
+after being hushed for a while by the peace of 1748, broke
+out with fiercer vehemence than ever in what
+is called the Seven Years&rsquo; War. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1756-1763.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>The military<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_512" id="Page_512">[512]</a></span>
+hero of this period was Frederick the Second of Prussia,
+by whose genius and skill the kingdom he succeeded
+to&mdash;a match for Saxony or Bavaria&mdash;rapidly assumed
+its position as a first-rate power. A combination of
+all the old despotisms was formed against him,&mdash;not,
+however, without cause; for a more unprincipled remover
+of his neighbour&rsquo;s landmarks, and despiser of
+generosity and justice, never appeared in history. But
+when he was pressed on one side by Russia and Austria,
+and on the other by France, and all the little German
+potentates were on the watch to pounce on the unprotected
+State and get their respective shares in the general
+pillage, Frederick placed his life upon the cast, and
+stood the hazard of the die in many tremendous combats,
+crushed the belligerents one by one, made forced marches
+which caught them unawares, and, though often defeated,
+conducted his retreats so that they yielded him all the
+fruits of victory. In his extremity he sought and found
+alliances in the most unlikely quarters. Though a self-willed
+despot in his own domains, he won the earnest
+support and liberal subsidies of the freedom-loving English;
+and though a philosopher of the most amazing
+powers of unbelief, he awakened the sympathy of all the
+religious Protestants in our land. All his faults were
+forgiven&mdash;his unchivalrous treatment of the heroic <i>King</i>
+of Hungary, Maria-Theresa, the Empress-Queen, his assaults
+upon her territory, and general faithlessness and
+ambition&mdash;on the one strong ground that he opposed
+Catholics and tyrants, and, though irreligious and even
+scoffing himself, was at the head of a true-hearted Protestant
+people.</p>
+
+<p>It is not unlikely the instincts of a free nation led us
+at that time to throw our moral weight, if nothing more,
+into the scale against the intrusion of a new and untried
+power which began to take part in the conflicts of Europe;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_513" id="Page_513">[513]</a></span>
+for at this period we find the ill-omened announcement
+that the Russians have issued from their deserts a
+hundred thousand strong, and made themselves masters
+of most of the Prussian provinces. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1758.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Though defeated in
+the great battle of Zorndorf, they never lost the
+hope of renewing the march they had made
+eleven years before, when thirty-five thousand of them
+had rested on the Rhine. But Britain was not blind
+either to the past or future. At the head of our affairs
+was a man whose fame continues as fresh at the present
+hour as in the day of his greatness. William Pitt had
+been a cornet of horse, and even in his youth had attracted
+the admiration and hatred of old Sir Robert Walpole
+by an eloquence and a character which the world has
+agreed in honouring with the epithet of majestic; and
+when war was again perplexing the nations, and Britain,
+as usual, had sunk to the lowest point in the military
+estimate of the Continent, the Great Commoner, as he
+was called, took the government into his hands, and the
+glories of the noblest periods of our annals were immediately
+renewed or cast into the shade. Wherever the
+Great Commoner pointed with his finger, success was
+certain. His fleets swept the seas. Howe and Hawke
+and Boscawen executed his plans. In the East he was
+answered by the congenial energy of Clive, and in the
+West by the heroic bravery of Wolfe. For, though the
+war in which we were now engaged had commenced
+nominally for European interests, the crash of arms between
+France and England extended to all quarters of
+the world. In India and America equally their troops
+and policies were opposed, and, in fact, the battle of the
+two nations was fought out in those distant realms.
+Our triumph at Plassey and on the Heights of Abraham
+had an immense reaction on both the peoples at home.
+And a very cursory glance at those regions, from the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_514" id="Page_514">[514]</a></span>
+middle of the century, will be a fitting introduction to
+the crowning event of the period we have now reached,&mdash;namely,
+the French Revolution of 1789. The rise of
+the British Empire in the East, no less than the loss of
+our dominion in the West, will be found to contribute to
+that grand catastrophe, of which the results for good
+and evil will be felt &ldquo;to the last syllable of recorded
+time.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>The first commercial adventure to India was in the
+bold days of Elizabeth, in 1591. In the course of a
+hundred years from that time various companies had
+been established by royal charter, and a regular trade
+had sprung up. In 1702 all previous charters were consolidated
+into one, and the East India Company began
+its career. Its beginning was very quiet and humble.
+It was a trader, and nothing more; but when it saw a
+convenient harbour, a favourable landing-place, and an
+industrious population, it bent as lowly as any Oriental
+slave at the footstool of the unsuspecting Rajah, and
+obtained permission to build a storehouse, to widen the
+wharf, and, finally, to erect a small tower, merely for
+the defence of its property from the dangerous inhabitants
+of the town. The storehouses became barracks,
+the towers became citadels; and by the year 1750 the
+recognised possessions of the inoffensive and unambitious
+merchants comprised mighty states, and were
+dotted at intervals along the coast from Surat and Bombay
+on the west to Madras and Calcutta on the east and
+far north. The French also had not been idle, and
+looked out ill pleased, from their domains at Pondicherry
+and Chandernagore, on the widely-diffused settlements
+and stealthy progress of their silent rivals.
+They might have made as rapid progress, and secured
+as extensive settlements, if they had imitated their
+rivals&rsquo; stealthiness and silence. But power is nothing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_515" id="Page_515">[515]</a></span>
+in the estimation of a Frenchman unless he can wear it
+like a court suit and display it to all the world. The
+governors, therefore, of their factories, obtained honours
+and ornaments from the native princes. One went so
+far as to forge a gift of almost regal power from the
+Great Mogul, and sat on a musnud, and was addressed
+with prostration by his countrymen and the workmen
+in the warerooms. Wherever the British wormed their
+way, the French put obstacles in their path. Whether
+there was peace between Paris and London or not,
+made no difference to the rival companies on the Coromandel
+shore. They were always at war, and only
+cloaked their national hatred under the guise of supporters
+of opposite pretenders to some Indian throne.
+Great men arose on both sides. The climate or policies
+of Hindostan, which weaken the native inhabitant,
+only call forth the energies and manly virtues of the
+intrusive settler. No kingdom has such a bead-roll of
+illustrious names as the British occupation. That one
+century of &ldquo;work and will&rdquo; has called forth more self-reliant
+heroism and statesmanlike sagacity than any
+period of three times the extent since the Norman Conquest.
+From Clive, the first of the line, to the Lawrences
+and Havelocks of the present day, there has
+been no pause in the patriotic and chivalrous procession.
+Clive came just at the proper time. A born general,
+though sent out in an humble mercantile situation, he
+retrieved the affairs of his employers and laid the foundation
+of a new empire for the British crown. Calcutta
+had been seized by a native ruler, instigated by the
+French, in 1756. The British residents, to the number
+of one hundred and forty-six, were packed in a frightful
+dungeon without a sufficiency of light or air, and, after
+a night which transcends all nights of suffering and
+despair, when the prison-doors were thrown open, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_516" id="Page_516">[516]</a></span>
+twenty-two of the whole number survived. But these
+were twenty-two living witnesses to the tyranny and
+cruelty of Surajah Dowlat. Clive was on his track ere
+many months had passed. Calcutta was recovered,
+other places were taken, and the battle of Plassey
+fought. In this unparalleled exploit, Clive, with three
+thousand soldiers, principally Sepoys, revenged the
+victims of the Black Hole, by defeating their murderer
+at the head of sixty thousand men. This was on the
+23d of June, 1757; and when in that same year the
+news of the great European war between the nations
+came thundering up the Ganges, the victors enlarged
+their plans. They determined to expel the French
+from all their possessions in the East; and Admiral
+Pococke and Colonel Coote were worthy rivals of the
+gallant Clive. Great fleets encountered in the Indian
+seas, and victory was always with the British flag.
+Battles took place by land, and uniformly with the
+same result. Closer and closer the invading lines converged
+upon the French; and at last, in 1761, Pondicherry,
+the last remaining of all their establishments,
+was taken, after a vigorous defence, and the French
+influence was at an end in India. These four years,
+from 1757 to 1761, had been scarcely less prolific of
+distinguished men on the French side than our own.
+The last known of these was Lally Tollendal, a man of
+a furious courage and headstrong disposition, against
+whom his enemies at home had no ground of accusation
+except his want of success and savageness of manner.
+Yet when he returned, after the loss of Pondicherry
+and a long imprisonment in England, he was attacked
+with all the vehemence of personal hatred. He was
+tried for betraying the interests of the king, tortured,
+and executed. The prosecution lasted many years, and
+the public rage seemed rather to increase. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1766.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Long after<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_517" id="Page_517">[517]</a></span>
+peace was concluded between France and England,
+the tragedy of the French expulsion from India
+received its final scene in the death of the unfortunate
+Count Lally.</p>
+
+<p>Quebec and its dependencies, during the same glorious
+administration, were conquered and annexed by Wolfe;
+and already the throes of the great Revolution were
+felt, though the causes remained obscure. Cut off from
+the money-making regions of Hindostan and the patriarchal
+settlements of Canada, the Frenchman, oppressed
+at home, had no outlet either for his ambition or discontent.
+The feeling of his misery was further aggravated
+by the sight of British prosperity. The race of
+men called Nabobs, mercantile adventurers who had
+gone out to India poor and came back loaded with
+almost incredible wealth, brought the ostentatious habits
+of their Oriental experience with them to Europe, and
+offended French and English alike by the tasteless profusion
+of their expense. Money wrung by extortion from
+native princes was lavished without enjoyment by the denationalized
+<i>parvenu</i>. A French duke found himself outglittered
+by the equipage of the over-enriched clove-dealer,&mdash;and
+hated him for his presumption. The Frenchman
+of lower rank must have looked on him as the lucky and
+dishonourable rival who had usurped his place, and
+hated him for the opportunity he had possessed of winning
+all that wealth. Ground to the earth by taxes and
+toil, without a chance of rising in the social scale or of
+escaping from the ever-growing burden of his griefs,
+the French peasant and small farmer must have listened
+with indignation to the accounts of British families of
+their own rank emerging from a twenty years&rsquo; residence
+in Madras or Calcutta with more riches than
+half the hereditary nobles. It was therefore with a
+feeling of unanimous satisfaction that all classes of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_518" id="Page_518">[518]</a></span>
+Frenchmen heard, in 1773, that the old English colonies
+in America were filled with disaffection,&mdash;that Boston
+had risen in insurrection, and that a spirit of resistance
+to the mother-country was rife in all the provinces.</p>
+
+<p>The quarrel came to a crisis between the Crown and
+the colonies within fourteen years of the conquest of
+Canada. It seemed as if the British had provided themselves
+with a new territory to compensate for the approaching
+loss of the old; and bitter must have been
+the reflection of the French when they perceived that
+the loyalty of that recent acquisition remained undisturbed
+throughout the succeeding troubles. Taxation,
+the root of all strength and the cause of all weakness,
+had been pushed to excess, not in the amount of its
+exaction, but in the principle of its imposition; and the
+British blood had not been so colonialized as to submit
+to what struck the inhabitants of all the towns as an
+unjustifiable exercise of power. The cry at first, therefore,
+was, No tax without representation; but the cry
+waxed louder and took other forms of expression. The
+cry was despised, whether gentle or loud,&mdash;then listened
+to,&mdash;then resented. The passions of both countries
+became raised. America would not submit to dictation;
+Britain would not be silenced by threats. Feelings
+which would have found vent at home in angry speeches
+in Parliament, and riots at a new election, took a far
+more serious shape when existing between populations
+separated indeed by a wide ocean, but identical in most
+of their qualities and aspirations. The king has been
+blamed. &ldquo;George the Third lost us the colonies by his
+obstinacy: he would not yield an inch of his royal
+dignity, and behold the United States our rivals and
+enemies,&mdash;perhaps some day our conquerors and oppressors!&rdquo;
+Now, we should remember that the Great
+Britain of 1774 was a very narrow-minded, self-opinionated,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_519" id="Page_519">[519]</a></span>
+pig-headed Great Britain, compared to the cosmopolitan,
+philanthropical, and altogether disinterested
+Great Britain we call it now. If the king had bated
+his breath for a moment, or even spoken respectfully
+and kindly of the traitors and rebels who were firing
+upon his flags, he would have been the most unpopular
+man in his dominions. Many, no doubt, held aloof, and
+found excuses for the colonists&rsquo; behaviour; but the influence
+of those meditative spirits was small; their voice
+was drowned in the chorus of indignation at what
+appeared revolt and mutiny more than resistance to
+injustice. And when other elements came into the
+question,&mdash;when the French monarch, ostensibly at
+peace with Britain, permitted his nobles and generals
+and soldiers to volunteer in the patriot cause,&mdash;the sentiments
+of this nation became embittered with its hereditary
+dislike to its ancient foe. We turned them out
+of India: were they going to turn us out of America?
+We had taken Canada: are they going to take New
+York? We might have offered terms to our own
+countrymen, made concessions, granted exemptions from
+imperial burdens, or even a share in imperial legislation;
+but with Lafayette haranguing about abstract freedom,
+and all the young counts and marquises of his expedition
+declaring against the House of Lords, the
+thing was impossible. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1778-1780.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>War was declared upon
+France, and upon Spain, and upon Holland. We fought
+everywhere, and lavished blood and treasure in this
+great quarrel. And yet the nation had gradually accustomed
+itself to the new view of American wrongs.
+The Ministry, by going so far in their efforts at accommodation,
+had confessed the original injustice of their
+cause. So we fought with a blunted sword, and hailed
+even our victories with misgivings as to our right to
+win them. But it was the season of vast changes in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_520" id="Page_520">[520]</a></span>
+the political distribution of all the world. Prussia was
+a foremost kingdom. Russia was a European Empire.
+India had risen into a compact dominion under the
+shield of Britain. Why should not America take a
+substantive place in the great family of nations, and
+play a part hereafter in the old game of statesmen,
+called the Balance of Power? In 1783 this opinion
+prevailed. France, Spain, and Holland sheathed their
+swords. The Independence of the United States was
+acknowledged at the Peace of Versailles, and everybody
+believed that the struggle against established
+governments was over.</p>
+
+<p>France seemed elevated by the results of the American
+War, and Great Britain humiliated. Prophecies were
+frequent about our rapid fall and final extinction. Our
+own orators were, as usual, the loudest in confessions
+of our powerlessness and decay. Our institutions were
+held up to dislike; and if you had believed the speeches
+and pamphlets of discontented patriots, you would have
+thought we were the most spiritless and down-trodden,
+the most unmerciful and dishonest, nation in the world.
+The whole land was in a fury of self-abasement at the
+degradation brought upon our name and standing by the
+treachery and iniquities of Warren Hastings in India;
+our European glory was crushed by the surrender at
+Paris. It must be satisfactory to all lovers of their
+country to know that John Bull has no such satisfaction
+as in proving that he is utterly exhausted,&mdash;always
+deceived by his friends, always overreached by his enemies,
+always disappointed in his aims. In this self-depreciating
+spirit he conducts all his wars and all his
+treaties; yet somehow it always happens that he gets
+what he wanted, and the overreaching and deceiving
+antagonist gives it up. His power is over a sixth of the
+human race, and he began a hundred years ago with a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_521" id="Page_521">[521]</a></span>
+population of less than fourteen millions; and all the
+time he has been singing the most doleful ditties of the
+ill success that always attends him,&mdash;of his ruinous losses
+and heart-breaking disappointments. The men at the
+head of affairs in the trying years from the Peace of
+Versailles to 1793 were therefore quite right not to be
+taken in by the querulous lamentations of the nation.
+We had lost three millions of colonists, and gained three
+million independent customers. We were trading to
+India, and building up and putting down the oldest
+dynasties of Hindostan. Ships and commerce increased
+in a remarkable degree; the losses of the war were compensated
+by the gains of those peaceful pursuits in a
+very few years; and we were contented to leave to Paris
+the reputation of the gayest city in the world, and to
+the French the reputation of the happiest and best-ruled
+people. But Paris was the wretchedest of towns, and
+the French the most miserable of peoples. When anybody
+asks us in future what was the cause of the French
+Revolution, we need not waste time to discuss the
+writings of Voltaire, or the unbelief of the clergy, or
+the immorality of the nobles. We must answer at once
+by naming the one great cause by which all revolutions
+are produced,&mdash;over-taxation. The French peasant, sighing
+for liberty, had no higher object than an escape from
+the intolerable burden of his payments. He cared no
+more for the rights of man, or the happiness of the
+human race, than for the quarrels of Achilles and Agamemnon.
+He wanted to get rid of the &ldquo;taille,&rdquo; the
+&ldquo;corvée,&rdquo; and twenty other imposts which robbed him
+of his last penny. If he had had a chicken in his pot,
+and could do as he liked with his own spade and pick-axe,
+he never would have troubled his head about codes
+and constitutions. But life had become a burden to him.
+Everybody had turned against him. The grand old<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_522" id="Page_522">[522]</a></span>
+feudal noble, who would have protected and cherished
+him under the shadow of his castle-wall, was a lord-chamberlain
+at court. The kind old priest, who would
+have attended to his wants and fed him, if required, at
+the church-door, was dancing attendance in the antechamber
+of a great lady in Paris, or singing improper
+songs at a jolly supper-party at Versailles. There were
+intendants and commissaries visiting his wretched hovel
+at rapidly-decreasing intervals of time, to collect his
+contributions to the revenue. These men farmed the
+taxes, and squeezed out the last farthing like a Turkish
+pasha. But while the small land-owner&mdash;and they were
+already immensely numerous&mdash;and the serf&mdash;for he was
+no better&mdash;were oppressed by these exactions, the gentry
+were exempt. The seigneur visited his castle for a month
+or two in the year, but it was to embitter the countryman&rsquo;s
+lot by the contrast. His property had many
+rights, but no duties. In ancient times in France, and
+at all times in England, those two qualities went together.
+Our upper classes lived among their tenants and dependants.
+They had no alleviation of burdens in consequence
+of their wealth, but they took care that their poorer
+neighbours should have alleviation in consequence of
+their poverty. Cottages had no window-tax. The pressure
+of the public burdens increased with the power to
+bear them. But in France the reverse was the case.
+Poverty paid the money, and wealth and luxury spent
+it. The evil was too deep-rooted to be remedied without
+pulling up the tree. The wretched millions were
+starving, toiling, despairing, and the thousands were
+rioting in extravagance and show. The same thing occurred
+in 1789 as had occurred in the last glimmer of
+the Roman civilization in the time of Clovis. The
+Roman Emperor issued edicts for the collection of his
+revenue. Commissioners spread over the land; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_523" id="Page_523">[523]</a></span>
+miserable Gaul saw the last sheaf of his corn torn away,
+and the last lamb of his flock. But when the last property
+of the poorest was taken away, the imperial exchequer
+could not remain unfilled. You remember the
+unhappy men called Curials,&mdash;holders of small estates
+in the vicinity of towns. They were also endowed with
+rank, and appointed to office. Their office was to make
+up from their own resources, or by extra severity among
+their neighbours, for any deficiency in the sum assessed.
+Peasant, land-owner, curial,&mdash;all sank into hopeless
+misery by the crushing of this gold-producing machinery.
+They looked across the Rhine to Clovis and
+the Franks, and hailed the ferocious warriors as their
+deliverers from an intolerable woe. They could not be
+worse off by the sword of the stranger than by the
+ledger of the tax-collector. In 1789 the system of the
+old Roman extortion was revived. The village or district
+was made a curial, and became responsible in its
+aggregate character for the individual payments. If the
+number of payers diminished, the increase fell upon the
+few who were not yet stripped. The Clovis of the present
+day who was to do away with their oppressors,
+though perhaps to immolate themselves, was a Revolution,&mdash;a
+levelling of all distinctions, ranks, rights, exemptions,
+privileges. This was the &ldquo;liberty, equality, fraternity&rdquo;
+that were to overflow the worn-out world and
+fertilize it as the Nile does Egypt.</p>
+
+<p>Great pity has naturally been expressed for the nobility
+(or gentry) and clergy of France; but, properly
+considered, France had at that time neither a nobility
+nor a clergy. A nobility with no status independent of
+the king&mdash;with no connection with its estates beyond
+the reception of their rents&mdash;with no weight in the
+legislature; with ridiculously exaggerated rank, and
+ridiculously contracted influence; with no interest in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_524" id="Page_524">[524]</a></span>
+local expenditure or voice in public management; a
+gentry, in short, debarred from active life, except as
+officers of the army&mdash;shut out by monarchic jealousy
+from interference in affairs, and by the pride of birth
+from the pursuits of commerce&mdash;is not a gentry at all.
+A clergy, in the same way, is a priesthood only in right
+of its belief in the doctrines it professes to hold, and the
+attention it bestows on its parishioners. Except in some
+few instances, the Christianity both of faith and practice
+had disappeared from France. It was time, therefore,
+that nobility and clergy should also disappear. The
+excesses of the Revolution which broke out in 1789, and
+reached their climax in the murder of the king in 1793,
+showed the excesses of the misgovernment of former
+years. If there had been one redeeming feature of the
+ancient system, it would have produced its fruits in the
+milder treatment of the victims of the reaction. In one
+or two provinces, indeed, we are told that hereditary
+attachment still bound the people to their superiors, and
+in those provinces, the philosophic chronicler of the fact
+informs us, the centralizing system had not completed
+its authority. The gentry still performed some of the
+duties of their station, and the priests, of their profession.
+Everywhere else blind hatred, unreasoning hope,
+and bloody revenge. The century, which began with
+the vainglorious egotism of Louis the Fourteenth and
+the war of the Spanish Succession,&mdash;which progressed
+through the British masterdom of India and the self-sustaining
+republicanism of America,&mdash;died out in the
+convulsive strugglings of thirty-one millions of souls on
+the soil of France to breathe a purer political air and
+shake off the trammels which had gradually been riveted
+upon them for three hundred years. Great Britain had
+preceded them by a century, and has ever since shown
+the bloodless and legal origin of her freedom by the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_525" id="Page_525">[525]</a></span>
+bloodless and legal use she has made of it. We emerged
+from the darkness of 1688 with all the great landmarks
+of our country not only erect, but strengthened. We
+had king, lords, and commons, and a respect for law,
+and veneration for precedents, which led the great Duke
+of Wellington to say, in answer to some question about
+the chance of a British revolution, that &ldquo;no man could
+foresee whether such a thing might occur or not, but,
+when it did, he was sure it would be done by Act of
+Parliament.&rdquo;</p>
+
+<p>War with France began in 1793. Our military reputation
+was at the lowest, for Wolfe and Clive had had
+time to be forgotten; and even our navy was looked on
+without dismay, for the laurels of Howe and Boscawen
+were sere from age. But in the remaining years of the
+century great things were done, and Britannia had the
+trident firmly in her hand. Jervis, and Duncan, and
+Nelson, were answering with victories at sea the
+triumphs of Napoleon in Italy. And while fame was
+blowing the names of those champions far and wide, a
+blast came across also from India, where Wellesley had
+begun his wondrous career. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1798.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>Equally matched the belligerents,
+and equally favoured with mighty men of
+valour to conduct their forces, the feverish energy of
+the newly-emancipated France being met by the healthful
+vigour of the matured and self-respecting
+Britain, the world was uncertain how the great
+drama would close. But the last year of the century
+seemed to incline the scale to the British side. <span class="sidenote"><span class="hidev">|</span><span class="smcap">A.D.</span> 1799.<span class="hidev">|</span></span>
+Napoleon,
+after a dash at Egypt, had been checked
+by the guns of Nelson in the great battle of the
+Nile. He secretly withdrew from his dispirited army,
+and made his appearance in Paris as much in the character
+of a fugitive as of a candidate for power. But all
+the fruits of his former battles had been torn from his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_526" id="Page_526">[526]</a></span>
+countrymen in his absence. Italy was delivered from
+their grasp; Russia was pouring her hordes into the
+South; confusion was reigning everywhere, and the
+fleets of Great Britain were blocking up every harbour
+in France.</p>
+
+<p>Napoleon was created First Consul, and the Century
+went down upon the final preparations of the embittered
+rivals. Both parties felt now that the struggle was for
+life or death, and &ldquo;the boldest held his breath for a
+time,&rdquo; when he thought of what awful events the Nineteenth
+Century would be the scene.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+
+<div class="footnotes">
+<p class="fn-header">Footnotes</p>
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The following is a carefully compiled table of the forces of Europe in
+the year 1854-55. Since that time the Russian fleet has been destroyed, but
+the diminution has been more than counterbalanced by the increased navies
+of the other powers.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Military Forces of Europe in 1855.</span></p>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="" class="table-center">
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">Men.</td><td></td><td align="right">Ships.</td><td align="right">Guns.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Austria</td><td align="right">650,000</td><td></td><td align="right">102</td><td align="right">752</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Bavaria</td><td align="right">239,886</td><td></td><td align="right">...</td><td align="right">...</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Belgium</td><td align="right">100,000</td><td></td><td align="right">...</td><td align="right">...</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Denmark</td><td align="right">75,169</td><td></td><td align="right">120</td><td align="right">880</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">France</td><td align="right">650,000</td><td></td><td align="right">407</td><td align="right">11,773</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Germany</td><td align="right">452,473</td><td></td><td align="right">...</td><td align="right">...</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Great Britain</td><td align="right">265,000</td><td class="fncell"><a name="FNanchor_1_2" id="FNanchor_1_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_2" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></td><td align="right">591</td><td align="right" style="padding-left:1em;">17,291</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Greece</td><td align="right">10,226</td><td></td><td align="right">25</td><td align="right">143</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Ionian Isles</td><td align="right">3,000</td><td></td><td align="right">4</td><td align="right">...</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Modena and Parma</td><td align="right">6,302</td><td></td><td align="right">...</td><td align="right">...</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Netherlands</td><td align="right">58,647</td><td></td><td align="right">84</td><td align="right">2,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Papal States</td><td align="right">11,274</td><td></td><td align="right">...</td><td align="right">...</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Portugal</td><td align="right">33,000</td><td></td><td align="right">44</td><td align="right">404</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Prussia</td><td align="right">525,000</td><td></td><td align="right">50</td><td align="right">250</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Russia</td><td align="right">699,000</td><td></td><td align="right">207</td><td align="right">9,000</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Sardinia</td><td align="right">48,088</td><td></td><td align="right">40</td><td align="right">900</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Sicilies</td><td align="right">106,264</td><td></td><td align="right">29</td><td align="right">444</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Spain</td><td align="right">75,000</td><td></td><td align="right">410</td><td align="right">1530</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Sweden</td><td align="right">167,000</td><td></td><td align="right">...</td><td align="right">...</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Switzerland</td><td align="right">108,000</td><td></td><td align="right">...</td><td align="right">...</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Tuscany</td><td align="right">16,930</td><td></td><td align="right">...</td><td align="right">...</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left">Turkey</td><td align="right">310,970</td><td></td><td align="right">...</td><td align="right">...</td></tr>
+<tr><td></td><td><hr class="full" /></td><td></td><td><hr class="full" /></td><td><hr class="full" /></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"></td><td align="right">4,611,229</td><td></td><td align="right">2113</td><td align="right">45,367</td><td class="fncell"><a name="FNanchor_2_3" id="FNanchor_2_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_3" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_1_2" id="Footnote_1_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_2"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Indian army 250,000, and militia 145,000, not included; making a total of 660,000</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_2_3" id="Footnote_2_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_3"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Taking an average of ten men to each gun, the sailors will be 453,670; which gives
+a total of fighting-men, 5,064,899!!!</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_A_4" id="Footnote_A_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_4"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> He was called Le Grand Bâtisseur.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_A_5" id="Footnote_A_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_5"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> Wickliff&rsquo;s English Bible, 1383.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_A_6" id="Footnote_A_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_6"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> Popular History&mdash;Henry VI.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+<p><a name="Footnote_A_7" id="Footnote_A_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_7"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> Dr. Robertson</p></div>.
+</div>
+
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<h2><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_527" id="Page_527">[527]</a></span>
+<a name="INDEX" id="INDEX">INDEX.</a></h2>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Abdelmalek the caliph, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
+
+<li>À-Beckett, the elevation and career of, <a href="#Page_290">290</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Abelard, rise of free inquiry with, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Abou Beker, the exploits, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;chosen Mohammed&rsquo;s successor, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his exploits, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Absolutism, rise of, in France under Louis XIV., <a href="#Page_475">475</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Abu Taleb, uncle of Mohammed, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Academies, establishment of, by Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Adrian, the emperor, accession and reign of, <a href="#Page_45">45</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Adrian IV., Pope, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Africa, progress of the Saracens in, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;trading-company to, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Agincourt, battle of, <a href="#Page_381">381</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Agriculture, state of, in seventh century, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Agrippina, the empress, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Alans, the, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Alaric the Goth, first appearance of, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;hostilities with, <a href="#Page_101">101</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;sack of Rome, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his death and burial, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Albigenses, tenets, &amp;c. of the, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the crusade against them, <a href="#Page_302">302</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Albinus, a candidate for the empire, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Alboin, King of the Lombards, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Alcuin at the court of Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;as Abbot of Tours, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Aleppo taken by the Saracens, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Alexander VI., character, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Alexandria, the monks of, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;taken by the Saracens, and destruction of the library, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Alexis, the emperor, and the Crusaders, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Alfred, rise and exploits of, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ali becomes caliph, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the exploits &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Alva, the Duke of, the St. Bartholomew massacre planned with, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his cruelties in the Netherlands, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Amadis de Gaul, the romance of, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
+
+<li>America, the discovery of, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;growing importance of its discovery, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;progress of British power in, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Amru, the Saracen conqueror, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Anagni, the arrest of Boniface VIII. at, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Anglican Church, the, under Henry II., <a href="#Page_289">289</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Anglo-Saxons, establishment of the, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Anne, the literature of the reign of, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Anselm, learning, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Antharis, conquest of Italy by, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Antioch, the capture of, by the Crusaders, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the battle of, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Antoninus Pius, the emperor, his character and reign, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Aquileia, siege of, by Maximin, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;taken by Attila, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Aquitaine, power of the Dukes of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Arcadius, the emperor, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Architecture, advancement of, during the eleventh century, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_243">243</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Argentine, Sir Giles d&rsquo;, death of, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Arians, enmity between, and the orthodox, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;quarrels between, and the Athanasians, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Aristocracy, the Roman, their decay, <a href="#Page_32">32</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Aristotle, supremacy given to, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Armagnac, the Count of, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;struggle between, and Burgundy, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Armies, the modern, of Europe, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Arnold of Brescia, the revolt of, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Arteveldt, James Van, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Asia, stationary condition of, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Asti, siege of, by Alaric, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+
+<li>Ataulf the Goth, career of, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Athanasians, division between the, and the Arians, <a href="#Page_117">117</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Attila the Hun, career of, <a href="#Page_109">109</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Augustin, influence of, on Luther, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Augustus, the supremacy of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his reign, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Aulus Plautius, landing of, in England, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.
+</li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_528" id="Page_528">[528]</a></span>
+Aurelian, the emperor, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his triumph, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Austrasia, kingdom of, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Austria, the power of, in the seventeenth century, <a href="#Page_463">463</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the seven years&rsquo; war, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Auvergne, the Marquises of, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Avars, junction of the Lombards with the, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Avignon, acquired by the Pope, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the residence of the Popes at, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Azores, discovery of the, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Bacon, Roger, gunpowder known to, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Badby, John, martyrdom of, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bahuchet, a French admiral, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Balbinus, appointment of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Baldwyn, Count of Flanders, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;habits of, in the East, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Baliol, maintained by Edward I., <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ballads, influence of, on the common people, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bannockburn, the battle of, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Barbarians, first appearance of the, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;their increased incursions, <a href="#Page_51">51</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;their continued progress, <a href="#Page_71">71</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;their increasing strength, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Barbavara, a Genoese admiral, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Barcho-chebas, the rebellion of the Jews under, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bedford, the Duke of, in France, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Belisarius, exploits of, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;disgraced, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Bells, the invention of, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Benedict. <i>See</i> St. Benedict.</li>
+
+<li>Benedict XI. poisoned, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Benedictine monks, industry, &amp;c. of the, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Berenger, transubstantiation assailed by, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bernard de Goth, elevated to the papacy as Clement V., <a href="#Page_331">331</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Beziers, massacre of Albigenses in, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bible, Wickliff&rsquo;s translation of the, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the first book printed by Guttenberg, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Bishops, increasing alarm of the, in the ninth century, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;warlike, of the eleventh century, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Black Hole of Calcutta, the tragedy of the, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Blanche, mother of Louis IX., urges the persecution of the Albigenses, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Blenheim, the battle of, <a href="#Page_500">500</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Boccaccio, the works of, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bohemund, the Crusader, <a href="#Page_265">265</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Boniface VII., Pope, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Boniface VIII., bull against Edward I. by, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;jubilee celebrated by, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;contest with Philip le Bel, <a href="#Page_326">326</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;his arrest, <a href="#Page_329">329</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_330">330</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Boniface, Archbishop of Mayence, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Books, early value of, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;multiplied by printing, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Borgia, elevation of, to the Papacy, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Brantôme, the memoirs of, <a href="#Page_447">447</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bribery, prevalence of, under Walpole, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Brittany, power of the Dukes of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;acquired by Rollo the Norman, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Bruce, the victory of, at Bannockburn, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Bruges, defeat of the townsmen of, at Cassel, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Brunehild, cruelties and career of, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;her death, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Brunissende de Périgord, mistress of Clement V., <a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Buccaneers, rise of the, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Burghers, increasing importance of the, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Burgundians, conquest of Gaul by the, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Burgundy, kingdom of, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Busentino, burial of Alaric in the, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Cade, the insurrection of, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cadijah, wife of Mohammed, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Calais, taken by Edward III., <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Caligula, the character, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Caliphs, habits of the, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Calvinists and Lutherans, hatred between, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cambrai, the league of, <a href="#Page_409">409</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Canada, the conquest of, by the British, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cannon, first employment of, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Capetian line, commencement of the, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Caracalla, character of, <a href="#Page_62">62</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his accession and reign, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Carausius, the revolt of, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Carlovingian line, close of the, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Carthage, subdued by the Saracens, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cassel, the battle of, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cassius, the rebellion of, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cathedrals, building of, during the eleventh century, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Catherine de Medicis, the massacre of St. Bartholomew planned by, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Catholicism, resemblances between, and Mohammedanism, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cavendish, the naval exploits of, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Caxton, books printed by, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Celibacy, priestly, neglect of, during the eleventh century, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;enforced by Hildebrand, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Centuries, characters of different, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Chæreas, assassination of Caligula by, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Châlons, the battle of, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Change, prevalence of, during eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Charlemagne, accession and reign of, <a href="#Page_186">186</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his conquests, <a href="#Page_187">187</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;crowned Emperor of the West, <a href="#Page_188">188</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his era, <a href="#Page_188">188</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;his polity, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_189">189</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his court, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;his encouragement of literature, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_195">195</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;his death, and disruption of his empire, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Charles, son of Louis the Debonnaire, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;character and reign of, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Charles the Simple and Rollo the Norman, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Charles VI., decline of the French nobility under, <a href="#Page_360">360</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;death of, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Charles VII., accession of, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the Maid of Orleans, <a href="#Page_386">386</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;his desertion of her, <a href="#Page_389">389</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Charles IX., the massacre of St. Bartholomew, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_529" id="Page_529">[529]</a></span>
+Charles V., the emperor, extent of his dominions, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;and Luther, <a href="#Page_427">427</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;close of his career, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Charles I., unpopularity of, <a href="#Page_465">465</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the execution of, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Charles II., England under, <a href="#Page_472">472</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Charles II. of Spain, death of, and his will, <a href="#Page_497">497</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Charles Edward, the rising under, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Charles Martel, the defeat of the Saracens by, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a>, <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Chatham, the ministry of, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Chaucer, the works of, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Childeric III., the last of the Merovingians, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Chivalry, rise of the orders of, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;principles inculcated by, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Chosroes, King of Persia, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Christ, the birth of and its influence, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Christian Church, progressive development of the, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;its organization, <a href="#Page_78">78</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;corruption of the, <a href="#Page_114">114</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;divisions in it, <a href="#Page_116">116</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;persecutions, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Christians, persecution of the, by Nero, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;policy of Adrian towards, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Christianity, influence of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the first effects of, <a href="#Page_36">36</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;progress of, <a href="#Page_55">55</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;establishment of, by Constantine, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;commencing struggle of, with Mohammedanism, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Church, the privileges conferred on, and its advantages, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;corruptions, <a href="#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;at variance with the nobility, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;its unity, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, in England during eighth century, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;monarchical principle established in the, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;effects of the Crusades on, <a href="#Page_273">273</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;increasing pretensions and power of, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;possessions, &amp;c. of, in France in the tenth century, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;resistance to it, <a href="#Page_230">230</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;policy of Hugh Capet, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;during the eleventh century, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;in England under Henry II., <a href="#Page_292">292</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;conditions of Magna Charta regarding, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;changed position of, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, in the fifteenth century, <a href="#Page_368">368</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;before the Reformation, <a href="#Page_419">419</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Church of England, the, and its influence and tendencies, <a href="#Page_457">457</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Churches, schism between the Eastern and Western, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;rebuilding, &amp;c. of the, in the eleventh century, <a href="#Page_242">242</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;their objects, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_244">244</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Churchmen, warlike, during the eleventh century, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Citeaux, the Abbot of, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Claudius, reign and character of, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Clement V., election of, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his rapacity, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_332">332</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the persecution of the Templars, <a href="#Page_337">337</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Clergy, the, privileges conferred on, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;corruption of the higher, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;increasing claims of, in the ninth century, <a href="#Page_204">204</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;claims of, in the tenth century, and resistance to them, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;policy of Hugh Capet, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the higher character of, during the twelfth century, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;character of, in Provence, <a href="#Page_300">300</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;taxed in England by Edward I., <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;support Henry IV. in England, <a href="#Page_365">365</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the French at the time of the Revolution, <a href="#Page_523">523</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Clive, the exploits of, <a href="#Page_515">515</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Clotaire, overthrow of Brunehild by, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Clothilde, anecdote of, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Clovis, accession of, in France, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the descendants of, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;set aside, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Cobham, Lord, martyrdom of, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Colonies, the first English and Dutch, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Colonna, the arrest of Boniface VIII. by, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Columbus, the career of, and his discovery of America, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Commerce, progress of, in England under Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_449">449</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Commodus, accession and character of, <a href="#Page_58">58</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Commons, rise of the, in England, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;House of, first constituted in England, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Condé, the Great, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Conrad, the emperor, heads the second Crusade, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Conservatism, strength of, in England during eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Constantine, accession of, and removal to Constantinople, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his character, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;establishes Christianity, <a href="#Page_85">85</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his system of government, <a href="#Page_86">86</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;nobility founded by him, <a href="#Page_87">87</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his system of taxation, <a href="#Page_89">89</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;death, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Constantinople, removal of the seat of empire to, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;subordination of the Bishop of, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;supremacy claimed for the Bishop of, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;assailed by the Saracens, <a href="#Page_166">166</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;early subordination of the Popes to, <a href="#Page_174">174</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;pretensions of the emperors, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the Crusaders at, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;diffusion of learning by capture of, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Convents, state of the, during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Coote, Sir Eyre, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cornelius and Novatian, the schism between, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Council of Toledo, the, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Count, origin of the title of, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Courtrai, the battle of, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Covenanters, persecutions of the, in Scotland, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Crecy, battle of, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cromwell, the rise &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_470">470</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;England under, <a href="#Page_471">471</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Crown, position of the, in England and France during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;new position given to the, under Hugh Capet, <a href="#Page_233">233</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;its increasing power, <a href="#Page_359">359</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Crusades, first suggestion of the, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the first, <a href="#Page_260">260</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;losses in it, and its effects on Europe, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;of children, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the second, <a href="#Page_284">284</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the third, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;influence of, on the distribution of wealth, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_272">272</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;end of, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Crusading spirit, first rise of the, <a href="#Page_250">250</a></li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_530" id="Page_530">[530]</a></span>
+Cuba, the buccaneers at, <a href="#Page_453">453</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Culloden, the battle of, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>, <a href="#Page_509">509</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cunimond, defeat and death of, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Curials, the, under the Roman emperors, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>, <a href="#Page_523">523</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Cyrene, conquest of, by the Saracens, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Dagobert, King, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dance of Death, the, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Danes, the invasions of the, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;their invasions of England, <a href="#Page_212">212</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;their settlements, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;continued incursions into England, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Dante, the works of, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Democracy, early alliance of the Church with, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dettingen, the battle of, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Diaz, Bartholomew, discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Didius, purchase of the empire by, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Diocletian, accession and reign of, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;abdicates, <a href="#Page_76">76</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;system introduced by him, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Dominic, originates the crusade against the Albigenses, <a href="#Page_301">301</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;establishment of the Inquisition under, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Domitian, the reign of, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dorylæum, the battle of, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Drake, the expeditions of, <a href="#Page_451">451</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dress, distinctions from, among the Franks, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dudley, the informer, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Duncan, the victories of, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dunois, bastard of Orleans, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Dutch, the maritime settlements of the, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>East India Company, founding of the, <a href="#Page_450">450</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Eastern Church, schism of the, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Eastern empire, falling supremacy of the, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ecclesiastical power, decay of, in the thirteenth century, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Edessa, the Crusaders at, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Education, measures of Charlemagne for, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Edward I., taxation of the clergy by, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;character of the reign of, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his attempts on Scotland, <a href="#Page_319">319</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Edward II., the defeat of, at Bannockburn, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Edward III., the Garter instituted by, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;policy of, his alliance with Flanders, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_354">354</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;war with France, <a href="#Page_355">355</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;battles of Helvoet Sluys and Crecy, <a href="#Page_355">355</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;of Poictiers, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Edward the Black Prince, his treatment of John, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his character, <a href="#Page_349">349</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his victory at Poictiers, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Egbert, subjugation of the Heptarchy by, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Eginhart, the life of Charlemagne by, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Egypt, surrender of Louis IX. in, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Eleanor, wife of Louis VII., <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Elizabeth, policy of, with regard to the Reformation, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the policy and measures of, and their results, <a href="#Page_436">436</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the Armada, <a href="#Page_444">444</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;papal bull against, <a href="#Page_448">448</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;changes in England under, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Elizabeth, daughter of James I., married to the Elector of Palatine, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ella, King of Northumberland, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Eloisa, influence of, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Empire of the West, restoration of, under Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Empson, the creature of Henry VII., <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li>
+
+<li>England, conquest of, by the Romans, and its effects, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;severance of, from the Roman Empire, <a href="#Page_107">107</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;formation of the Heptarchy in, <a href="#Page_120">120</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, in the sixth century, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;divided state of, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, in the eighth century, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the Church and clergy, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;union of, under Egbert, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, in the ninth century, <a href="#Page_211">211</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the invasions of the Danes, <a href="#Page_212">212</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;its divided state, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;settlements of the Danes, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;rise and career of Alfred, <a href="#Page_215">215</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the Church and the Crown in, during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_229">229</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;origin of the wars with France, <a href="#Page_285">285</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;subservience to the papacy in, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;position of the Church, and feeling towards the Normans, <a href="#Page_292">292</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, under John, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;rise of the Commons, &amp;c. in, <a href="#Page_306">306</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;Magna Charta and its effects, <a href="#Page_308">308</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;reign of Henry III., <a href="#Page_311">311</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;supremacy of the papacy in, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;independence of the Church, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the reign of Edward I. in, <a href="#Page_318">318</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the battle of Bannockburn, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the policy of Edward III., <a href="#Page_354">354</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;decline of the nobility in, <a href="#Page_360">360</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;divided state of, on accession of Henry IV., <a href="#Page_365">365</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the ballads of, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, during fifteenth century, <a href="#Page_374">374</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;loss of her French possessions, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;conquests of Henry V. in France, <a href="#Page_378">378</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;accession of Henry VIII., <a href="#Page_404">404</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;increasing commerce of, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;first idea of union with Scotland, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;battle of Flodden, <a href="#Page_414">414</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the reformation in, <a href="#Page_428">428</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the reign of Mary in, <a href="#Page_433">433</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the policy of Elizabeth and its results, <a href="#Page_436">436</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;progress of, under Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_450">450</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the colonization of America by, <a href="#Page_454">454</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;under James I., <a href="#Page_455">455</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of parties, &amp;c. on accession of Charles I., <a href="#Page_465">465</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;political and religious parties, <a href="#Page_466">466</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the great rebellion, <a href="#Page_468">468</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the reaction against Puritanism in, <a href="#Page_472">472</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;under Charles II., <a href="#Page_472">472</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;its degraded position, <a href="#Page_473">473</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;ingress of French Protestants into, <a href="#Page_484">484</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;reign of James II., <a href="#Page_484">484</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;William III., <a href="#Page_486">486</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state, &amp;c. of, during eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_493">493</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, under the Georges, <a href="#Page_494">494</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;is she a military nation? <a href="#Page_496">496</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the war of the succession, <a href="#Page_498">498</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the peace of Utrecht, <a href="#Page_502">502</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the ministry of Walpole, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_505">505</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the Pretender in, <a href="#Page_509">509</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;supports Frederick the Great, <a href="#Page_512">512</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the rise of her Indian empire, <a href="#Page_514">514</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the revolt of the United States, <a href="#Page_518">518</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;her progress, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>, <a href="#Page_521">521</a></li>
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_531" id="Page_531">[531]</a></span>&mdash;her revolution and freedom contrasted with those of France, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Episcopacy, James&rsquo;s attempt to force, on Scotland, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ethelbald, the reign of, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ethelwolf, the reign of, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Etiquette, supremacy of, under Louis XIV., <a href="#Page_481">481</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Eugene, Prince, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Eugenius III., Pope, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Eunapius, character of the early monks by, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Europe, modern, compared with ancient Rome, <a href="#Page_56">56</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;state of, in the seventh century, <a href="#Page_167">167</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;in the eighth, <a href="#Page_171">171</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;rise of the modern kingdoms of, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;effects of the first Crusade on, <a href="#Page_269">269</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;progressive advances of, <a href="#Page_297">297</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, during fifteenth century, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;changed aspect of, in sixteenth century, <a href="#Page_431">431</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;sensation caused by massacre of St. Bartholomew, <a href="#Page_442">442</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;changes in, during eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the seven years&rsquo; war, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Famines, frequency of, during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Faust and the mention of printing, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Favorinus the Grammarian, anecdote of, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ferdinand of Spain, a party to the league of Cambrai, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;declares war against France, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Ferdinand, the emperor, character and policy of, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ferdinand and Isabella, union of Spain under, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Feudal organization, long retention of, in Scotland, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Feudal system, origin of the, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Feudalism, progress of, in the ninth century, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;full establishment of, <a href="#Page_279">279</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;decay of, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;continued decline of, <a href="#Page_359">359</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Fields of May or March in France, the, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Fine arts, encouragement of, by Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Flagellants, tenets, &amp;c. of the, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Flanders, power of the Dukes of, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;rise of the towns of, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the alliance of Edward III. with, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Flodden, battle of, and its effects, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>, <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Fontenelle, the abbey of, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Fontenoy, the battle of, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
+
+<li>France, accession of Clovis in, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;accession of Pepin to crown of, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;position of, under Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_198">198</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;loses the boundary of the Rhine, <a href="#Page_203">203</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;power of the great nobles, <a href="#Page_204">204</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;settlement of Rollo in, <a href="#Page_222">222</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;possessions of the clergy in, <a href="#Page_228">228</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;accession of Hugh Capet, <a href="#Page_231">231</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his policy, <a href="#Page_232">232</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;its separation from the empire, <a href="#Page_233">233</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;monasteries in, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;origin of the English wars, <a href="#Page_285">285</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the kings of, contrasted with the Plantagenets, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;acquisitions of, in Languedoc, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_305">305</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;reign of Louis IX. in, <a href="#Page_311">311</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the parliaments of, <a href="#Page_312">312</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;supremacy of the papacy in, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;degeneracy of the clergy, <a href="#Page_315">315</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;independence of the church, <a href="#Page_316">316</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;subserviency of the Popes to, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;title of King of, assumed by Edward III., <a href="#Page_355">355</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;depressed state of, at close of fourteenth century, <a href="#Page_356">356</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;decline, of the nobility in, <a href="#Page_360">360</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, during fifteenth century, <a href="#Page_374">374</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;expulsion of the English from, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;its history during the century, <a href="#Page_376">376</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;career of Joan of Arc, <a href="#Page_386">386</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;accession of Francis I., <a href="#Page_405">405</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;a party to the league of Cambrai, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the massacre of St. Bartholomew in, <a href="#Page_442">442</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;changes witnessed by Brantôme in, <a href="#Page_448">448</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;rise of absolutism under Louis XIV. in, <a href="#Page_475">475</a> et seq.</li>
+<li>&mdash;policy of Richelieu and reign of Louis XIII., <a href="#Page_476">476</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, <a href="#Page_483">483</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;changes in, during eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_491">491</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;contests in India and America with, <a href="#Page_513">513</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the policy and overthrow of, in India, <a href="#Page_514">514</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;depression and discontent before the Revolution, <a href="#Page_517">517</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;aids the North American colonies, <a href="#Page_519">519</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;causes of the Revolution, <a href="#Page_522">522</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;general discontent, <a href="#Page_523">523</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the Revolution, <a href="#Page_524">524</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Francis I., accession and character of, <a href="#Page_405">405</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;death of, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Franks, tribes composing the, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;state of the, in the sixth century, <a href="#Page_128">128</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;institutions, &amp;c. of the, <a href="#Page_151">151</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;divisions of their kingdom, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Frederick the Great, the career of, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Frederick, Elector Palatine, marriage of, to Elizabeth of England, <a href="#Page_462">462</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Frederick Barbarossa, capture, &amp;c. of Rome by, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Free lances, the rise, &amp;c. of the, <a href="#Page_350">350</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Freedom, rise of, in England, <a href="#Page_306">306</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>French ballads, the early, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li>
+
+<li>French Revolution, the, <a href="#Page_524">524</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Fritigern, defeat of Valens by, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Froissart, the writings of, and their influence, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Fronde, the wars of the, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Galba, the emperor, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Garter, institution of order of, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gaul, severance of, from the Roman empire, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gebhard, Elector of Cologne, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Genoa, prosperity of, during the Crusades, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;greatness of, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Genseric, sack of Rome by, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
+
+<li>George I. and II., characters of, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>.</li>
+
+<li>George III., loyalty to, in England, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the alleged loss of the United States by his obstinacy, <a href="#Page_518">518</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Georges, England under the, <a href="#Page_494">494</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Germans, defeat of the, by Probus, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Germany, state of, in the sixth century, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;divided state of, <a href="#Page_155">155</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;separation between France and the Empire, and reign <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_532" id="Page_532">[532]</a></span>of Otho the Great, <a href="#Page_234">234</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;progress, &amp;c. of the Reformation in, <a href="#Page_460">460</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;ingress of French Huguenots into, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Geta, murder of, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gibraltar, cession of, to England, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gladiatorial shows, passion of the Romans for, <a href="#Page_34">34</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Glo&rsquo;ster, the Duke of, uncle of Henry VI., <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Godfrey of Bouillon, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;chosen King of Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Good Hope, Cape of, discovered, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gordian, appointed emperor, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his reign, <a href="#Page_70">70</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Goths, first appearance of the, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;admitted within the empire, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Gothia, the Marquises of, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Granada, loss of, by the Moors, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Great Britain, the union of, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>, <i>See</i> England.</li>
+
+<li>Great Rebellion, origin and history of the, <a href="#Page_467">467</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Greek fire, the, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gregory the Great, Pope, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gregory VII., (Hildebrand,) career, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_249">249</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <i>et seq.</i> <i>See</i> Hildebrand.</li>
+
+<li>Gregory IX., persecution of the Albigenses under, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Guienne, how acquired by England, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Guinegate, the battle of, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Gunpowder, influence of discovery of, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Guthrum, alliance of, with Alfred, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Guttenberg, the invention of printing by, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;printing of the Bible by, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Hadrian. <i>See</i> Adrian.</li>
+
+<li>Hair, distinction from the, among the Franks, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Harfleur, siege of, by Henry V., <a href="#Page_378">378</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Harold of the Fair Hair, the reign of, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hastings the Dane, defeated by Alfred, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;enters the service of France, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Heathenism, Julian&rsquo;s attempt to restore, <a href="#Page_95">95</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Hegira, the, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Helena, the mother of Constantine, <a href="#Page_86">86</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Heliogabalus, the reign of, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Helvoet Sluys, battle of, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Henrietta Maria, unpopularity of, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Henry I., acquisition of Normandy by, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Henry II., claims of, on France, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;character of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;and À-Beckett, <a href="#Page_289">289</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Henry III., reign of, in England, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Henry IV., divided state of England under, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Henry V., persecution of the Lollards under, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;invasion of France by, <a href="#Page_377">377</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;captures Harfleur, <a href="#Page_378">378</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;battle of Agincourt, <a href="#Page_381">381</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Henry VI. recognised as King of France, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Henry VII., character, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;treasure accumulated by, and how, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Henry VIII., accession and character of, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;declares war against France, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;triumphs of, in 1513, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;controversy of, with Luther, <a href="#Page_426">426</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;throws off the papal supremacy, <a href="#Page_430">430</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;death of, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Henry III. of France, the murder of, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Henry, the emperor, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Henry IV. of Germany, attacks of Hildebrand on, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the struggle between them, <a href="#Page_257">257</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the death of, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Heptarchy, the, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;subjugation of the, by Egbert, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Heraclius, Emperor of the East, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Heresies, various, of the thirteenth century, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Heretics, first crusade against the, <a href="#Page_302">302</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;first law against, in England, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Highlanders, the, in the Forty-Five, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hildebrand, the career, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_249">249</a> et seq., <a href="#Page_255">255</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his struggle with the emperor, <a href="#Page_257">257</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_259">259</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Hippo subdued by the Saracens, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Hira subjugated by the Mohammedans, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>.</li>
+
+<li>History, uses of, and difficulties of studying it from its extent, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Holland, increasing commerce of, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the colonies of, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Holy Land, the first Crusade to the, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;and last, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Honorius, the emperor, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;besieged by Alaric, <a href="#Page_105">105</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;murders Stilicho, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Hugh Capet, accession of, to the French throne, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his policy, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Hugh the Great, Count of Vermandois, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Huguenots, the, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Huns, first appearance of the, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Huss, the martyrdom of, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Iconoclast emperor, the, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Images, defence, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_185">185</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Immaculate conception, dogma of the, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
+
+<li>India, Vasco da Gama&rsquo;s voyage to, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;effect of the new route to, on Venice, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;rise of the British power in, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a href="#Page_514">514</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Indulgences, protest of Luther against, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Innocent III., originates the crusade against the Albigenses, <a href="#Page_302">302</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;excommunication of John by, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Innovation, general tendency to, during eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_493">493</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Inquiry, commencement of, with Scotus Erigena, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;rise of, with the Crusades, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Inquisition, the, established under Dominic, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Intellect, direction of, in the present century, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Invention, the present century distinguished by, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Investiture, claims of Hildebrand regarding, <a href="#Page_257">257</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Irish Church, the early, its state, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Isabella, queen of Charles VI., profligacy of, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Italy, ravaged by Attila, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;irruption of the Lombards into, <a href="#Page_129">129</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, in seventh century, <a href="#Page_141">141</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;divided state of, <a href="#Page_155">155</a><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_533" id="Page_533">[533]</a></span></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, during the tenth Century, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;conquests of the Normans in, <a href="#Page_254">254</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;rise of the republics of, <a href="#Page_277">277</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, before the Reformation, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Jacobite songs, the, <a href="#Page_510">510</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jacques de Molay, death of, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li>
+
+<li>James I., England under, <a href="#Page_455">455</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;influence of his character, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_458">458</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his conduct towards the Elector Palatine, <a href="#Page_464">464</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his attempt to introduce Episcopacy into Scotland, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>James II., persecution of the Covenanters by, <a href="#Page_473">473</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;accession of, in England, and his dethronement, <a href="#Page_485">485</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;death of, <a href="#Page_498">498</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>James III., the rebellion in favour of, <a href="#Page_503">503</a>.</li>
+
+<li>James IV. of Scotland married to Margaret of England, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the battle of Flodden, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Jamestown, the first English settlement in America, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jerome, the martyrdom of, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jerusalem, importance given by Christianity to, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the capture and destruction of, <a href="#Page_30">30</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;named Ælia Capitolina by Adrian, <a href="#Page_47">47</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;taken by the Saracens, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;commencement of pilgrimage to, <a href="#Page_260">260</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the capture of, by the Crusaders, <a href="#Page_266">266</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the kingdom of, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Jervis, the victories of, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jesuits, institution and influence of the, <a href="#Page_435">435</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jews, the dispersion of the, <a href="#Page_30">30</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;their rebellion against Adrian, <a href="#Page_46">46</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;crusade against the, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;spoliation of, by Philip le Bel, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Joan of Arc, history of, <a href="#Page_386">386</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;her death, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>John, (of England,) character of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;state of England under, <a href="#Page_294">294</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;excommunication, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_307">307</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;signs Magna Charta, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his attempt to evade the charter, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>John, (of France,) the treatment of, by Edward the Black Prince, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his capture at Poictiers and ransom, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>John XII., Pope, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
+
+<li>John, Duke of Burgundy, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;murders Louis of Orleans, <a href="#Page_362">362</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;assumes the regency, <a href="#Page_363">363</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;rule of, in France, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>John, Bishop of Constantinople, supremacy claimed by, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jovian, the emperor, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Jubilee, the, in 1300, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Julian the Apostate, reign and character of, <a href="#Page_93">93</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Julius II., character of, <a href="#Page_408">408</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;acquisitions from Venice, <a href="#Page_410">410</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;declares war against France, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_410">410</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;impression made on Luther by, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Justinian, efforts of, to recover Italy, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;internal government of, <a href="#Page_134">134</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his law-reforms, <a href="#Page_135">135</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;re-introduction of code of, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Khaled, the lieutenant of Mohammed, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his exploits, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;and death, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Kieff, the kingdom of, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kilmich, murder of Alboin by, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Kingdoms, modern, rise of, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Klodwig or Clovis, accession of, in France, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>. <i>See</i> Clovis.</li>
+
+<li>Knight, position, &amp;c. of the, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Knighthood, decay of, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Lally, Count, the execution of, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Land, grants of, and system these originate, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;defends transubstantiation, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Languedoc, the Albigenses in, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;extirpation of the Albigenses in, <a href="#Page_304">304</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;peace of, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Laud, Archbishop, <a href="#Page_467">467</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;execution of, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Law, the reform of, by Justinian, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Laws, great increase of, in Rome, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Lea, defeat of the Danes at the, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Learning, advancement of, during the eleventh century, <a href="#Page_246">246</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Leo the Iconoclast, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Leo, Pope, Rome saved from Attila by, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Leo X., character of, <a href="#Page_407">407</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;influence of, on the Reformation, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Leuds or Feudatories, the, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;their struggle with the crown, <a href="#Page_150">150</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Libraries, early, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Liege, massacre at, by John the Fearless, <a href="#Page_363">363</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Literature, revival of, with Dante, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_344">344</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the modern, of England, <a href="#Page_345">345</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;slow diffusion of, before printing, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;French, under Louis XIV., <a href="#Page_481">481</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;English, during the eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_506">506</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Lombards, or Longobards, irruption of the, <a href="#Page_129">129</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;character and polity of the, <a href="#Page_131">131</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Long Parliament, the, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Lothaire, son of Louis the Debonnaire, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;emperor, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Louis, origin of name of, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Louis the Debonnaire, reign of, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Louis, son of Louis the Debonnaire, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Louis VII. heads the second Crusade, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;divorces his wife, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Louis VIII., crusade against the Albigenses under, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Louis IX., crusade against the Albigenses under, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;character and reign of, <a href="#Page_311">311</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;seventh Crusade under, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;prisoner and ransomed, <a href="#Page_317">317</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Louis XI., first despotic King of France, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Louis XII., a party to the league of Cambrai, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;war with the Pope, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;expelled from Italy, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Louis XIII., reign of, in France, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Louis XIV., accession of, <a href="#Page_469">469</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;rise of, as the absolute King, <a href="#Page_475">475</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the accession, policy, and reign of, <a href="#Page_479">479</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;private life of, <a href="#Page_482">482</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the revocation or the Edict of Nantes, <a href="#Page_483">483</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his reception, &amp;c. of James II., <a href="#Page_485">485</a>, <a href="#Page_486">486</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his successes in war, <a href="#Page_486">486</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;peace of Ryswick, <a href="#Page_487">487</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the war of the Succession, <a href="#Page_489">489</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the peace of Utrecht, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Louis XVI., the execution of, <a href="#Page_524">524</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_534" id="Page_534">[534]</a></span>
+Louis of Orleans, struggle of, with John of Burgundy, <a href="#Page_361">361</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his murder, <a href="#Page_362">362</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Lower classes, how regarded by the Crusaders, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;character of, and institution of the Jesuits by, <a href="#Page_434">434</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Luitprand, King of Lombardy, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Luther, early life of, <a href="#Page_406">406</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the rise and career of, <a href="#Page_423">423</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;death of, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Lutherans and Calvinists, hatred between, <a href="#Page_460">460</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Luxembourg, the marshal, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the victories of, <a href="#Page_486">486</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Macrinus, the emperor, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Magdeburg, the sack of, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Magna Charta, effects of, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;its conditions, <a href="#Page_308">308</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Magyars, first appearance of the, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mahomet. <i>See</i> Mohammed.</li>
+
+<li>Maid of Norway, the, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Maintenon, Madame de, married to Louis XIV., <a href="#Page_482">482</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Marcus Aurelius, accession and reign of, <a href="#Page_50">50</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Marlborough, the victories of, <a href="#Page_499">499</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Martin V., Pope, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mary, the reign of, in England, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mary of Scotland, policy of Elizabeth toward, <a href="#Page_437">437</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;defence of her execution, <a href="#Page_439">439</a>, <a href="#Page_443">443</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Mary de Medicis, position of, in France, <a href="#Page_475">475</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Matilda, the countess, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Maximilian, the emperor, a party to the league of Cambrai, <a href="#Page_409">409</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;hostilities with the Pope, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;proposed as his successor, <a href="#Page_411">411</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;turns against the French, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;in the pay of Henry VIII., <a href="#Page_418">418</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;and Luther, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Maximian, the emperor, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;abdicates, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Maximin, the accession and reign of, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Maximus, appointment of, <a href="#Page_69">69</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Mayors of the palace, origin of the, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;powers, &amp;c. of the, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Mazarin, the cardinal, the policy, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_479">479</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Mecca, capture of, by Mohammed, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mediterranean, supremacy of Rome over the, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;diminished importance of the, <a href="#Page_413">413</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Meroveg, King of the Franks, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Messalina, the empress, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;her death, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Mexico, conquest of, by the Spaniards, <a href="#Page_404">404</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Michelet, picture of France in the ninth century by, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Middle Ages, commencement of the, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Middle class, destruction of the, under the Roman emperors, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Milan, sack of, by the Franks, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Military spirit, strength of the, in England, <a href="#Page_496">496</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Military strength, the, of ancient Rome and modern Europe, <a href="#Page_56">56</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Minorca ceded to England, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mirandola, Julius II. at siege of, <a href="#Page_410">410</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Mohammed, birth and career of, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;death of, <a href="#Page_159">159</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his successors, <a href="#Page_159">159</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Mohammedanism, commencing struggle of, with Christianity, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;progress of, <a href="#Page_157">157</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;first arrested by battle of Tours, <a href="#Page_179">179</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;resemblances between, and Catholicism, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Monarchical principle, restoration of the, with Pepin, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Monasteries, influence of, on agriculture, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;their intelligence, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_146">146</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;commencement of corruption, <a href="#Page_147">147</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the early English, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;reformation of, by St. Benedict, <a href="#Page_200">200</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of the, during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_221">221</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;number of, in France, <a href="#Page_244">244</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;dissolution of the, in England, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Monks, the early, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;industry, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_142">142</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the early English, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;gluttony, &amp;c. of the, <a href="#Page_274">274</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;degeneracy of in the thirteenth century, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Moors, final loss of Spain by the, <a href="#Page_403">403</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Municipalities, rise of the <a href="#Page_277">277</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;their growing importance, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Murder, fines for, among the Franks, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Music, encouragement of, by Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Nantes, edict of, its revocation, <a href="#Page_483">483</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Napoleon, the rise, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Narses, exploits of, in Italy, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+<li>National debt, the English, its growth, <a href="#Page_493">493</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Navareta, the battle of, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Navies of Modern Europe, the, <a href="#Page_57">57</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Nelson, the victories of, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Netherlands, Alva&rsquo;s cruelties in the, <a href="#Page_441">441</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nero, character and reign of, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nerva, the emperor, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Neustria, kingdom of, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nice, the Council of, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nicea taken by the Crusaders, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nicene creed, the, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nicholas Breakspear becomes pope, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Niger, a candidate for the empire, <a href="#Page_60">60</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nobility, new, originated by Constantine, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;collision between, and the Church, <a href="#Page_153">153</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;policy of Hugh Capet towards the, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;effects of the Crusades on the, <a href="#Page_276">276</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;conditions of Magna Charta regarding the, <a href="#Page_308">308</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;decline of the, <a href="#Page_359">359</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;policy of Richelieu against the, <a href="#Page_476">476</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the French, at the time of the Revolution, <a href="#Page_523">523</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Nogaret, Chancellor of France, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nominalists, rise of the, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Normans, the conquest of England by the, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;feeling against the, in England, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Norman kings, character of the, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Normandy, settlement of the Normans in, <a href="#Page_222">222</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;power of the dukes, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Norsemen, Charlemagne&rsquo;s prescience regarding the, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;progress of the, in the ninth century, <a href="#Page_208">208</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;their invasions of England, <a href="#Page_212">212</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;results of the settlements of the, in France, <a href="#Page_219">219</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;settlement under Rollo, <a href="#Page_222">222</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>North America, the English colonization of, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_535" id="Page_535">[535]</a></span>
+Novellæ of Justinian, the, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Novatian and Cornelius, the schism between, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Novgorod, the kingdom of, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Nunneries, reformation of, by St. Benedict, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;of the twelfth century, the, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Odoacer, King of Italy, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;overthrow of, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Omar, the lieutenant of Mohammed, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;chosen caliph, <a href="#Page_162">162</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;destruction of the Alexandrian library, <a href="#Page_164">164</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his habits, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Orleans, the siege of, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;relieved by Joan of Arc, <a href="#Page_387">387</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Ostrogoths, overthrow of the, in Italy, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Otho, the emperor, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Otho the Great, the emperor, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Padua, destroyed by Attila, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Palos, the return of Columbus to, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Palestine, eagerness for news from, during the Crusades, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pandects of Justinian, the, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pantheism, form of, in the thirteenth century, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Papacy, the, state of, during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;supremacy of, under Hildebrand, <a href="#Page_250">250</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;general subjection to, <a href="#Page_289">289</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;triumphs of, in the thirteenth century, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;diminished consideration of, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;struggle of Philip the Handsome with, <a href="#Page_326">326</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the schism in, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, in the fifteenth century, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Papal supremacy, the, abjured by England, <a href="#Page_430">430</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Paper, first manufacture of, from rags, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Paris, state of, under John the Fearless, <a href="#Page_364">364</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the massacre of St. Bartholomew in, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Parliament, first summoned in England, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;concessions wrung from Edward I. by, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Parliaments, the French, what, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Party libels, prevalence of, under Walpole, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Passau, the treaty of, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Peasantry, the, insurrection of, during fourteenth century, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;state of, during fifteenth century, <a href="#Page_374">374</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the French, before the Revolution, <a href="#Page_521">521</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>People, state of the, under the early emperors, <a href="#Page_34">34</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;conditions of Magna Charta regarding the, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Pepin, accession of, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;crowned king, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Persia, new monarchy of, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;subdued by the Mohammedans, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Pertinax, accession and murder of, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pestilence, frequency of, during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Peter the Hermit, preaches the first Crusade, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Peterborough, Lord, the victories of, in Spain, <a href="#Page_501">501</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Petrarch, the works of, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href="#Page_346">346</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Philip, the emperor, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Philip I. of France, attacks of Hildebrand on, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Philip le Bel, struggle of, with Boniface VIII., <a href="#Page_326">326</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;arrests the latter, <a href="#Page_329">329</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;poisons Benedict XI., <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;secures election of Bernard de Goth, <a href="#Page_331">331</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the persecution of the Templars, <a href="#Page_337">337</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Philip VI., war with Edward III., <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Philip II., accession of, <a href="#Page_432">432</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the Spanish Armada, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Philip of Valois, the victory of, at Cassel, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Philip Augustus, conquest of the English possessions by, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pinkie, the battle of, <a href="#Page_415">415</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pitt, (Lord Chatham,) the ministry of, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Plague of Florence, the, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Plantagenets, character of the, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Plassey, the battle of, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pococke, Admiral, exploits of, in the East, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Poictiers, the battle of, <a href="#Page_356">356</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Poitou, how acquired by England, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Poland, the partition of, <a href="#Page_492">492</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Polemo, a philosopher, anecdote of, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pompeia Plotina, wife of Trajan, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pondicherry, the capture of, by the English, <a href="#Page_516">516</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Poor, relations of the Church to the, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Pope, the claims to supremacy of, <a href="#Page_132">132</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;efforts of the early English monks on behalf of, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his position in the eighth century, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;alliance, &amp;c. between Charles Martel and, <a href="#Page_182">182</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;crowns Pepin, <a href="#Page_183">183</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;supremacy of, after Hildebrand, <a href="#Page_259">259</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the revolt of Arnold of Brescia against, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his supremacy denied by the Albigenses, <a href="#Page_299">299</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;position, &amp;c. of, before the Reformation, <a href="#Page_420">420</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Popes, the, the claims of supremacy by, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;increasing supremacy of, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;increasing pretensions of, <a href="#Page_186">186</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;subservience of, to France, <a href="#Page_342">342</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the rival, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Popular assemblies, early, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Portugal, maritime discoveries of, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;increasing naval power of, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Prætorian Guards, sale of the empire by the, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Printing, influences of, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;discovery of, and its effects, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;growing importance of discovery of, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Probus, the emperor, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his conquests and policy, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Protestantism, influence of, <a href="#Page_402">402</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;establishment of, by treaty of Passau, <a href="#Page_431">431</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;established in England under Elizabeth, <a href="#Page_436">436</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Protestants, the, expelled from France, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Provençal dialect, disappearance of the, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Prussia, rise of, during eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a href="#Page_492">492</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the seven years&rsquo; war, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Puritanism, origin, &amp;c. of, in England, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_536" id="Page_536">[536]</a></span><a href="#Page_456">456</a> <i>et seq.</i>, <a href="#Page_464">464</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;growing tendency to, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Quebec, the battle of, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Raleigh, the naval exploits of, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Ravenna, the Exarch of, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the exarchate of, <a href="#Page_177">177</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;transferred to the Pope, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Raymond of Toulouse, the leader of the Albigenses, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Raymond VII., Count of Toulouse, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;deprived of his possessions, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Realists, rise of the, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rebellion of 1715, the, <a href="#Page_504">504</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;and of 1745, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Reformation, influences of the, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;supreme importance of, <a href="#Page_419">419</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of the Church before it, <a href="#Page_419">419</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the rise of the, <a href="#Page_422">422</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Regner Lodbrog, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Relics, the system of, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;passion for, during the Crusades, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Religion, state of, during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;in the thirteenth century, <a href="#Page_298">298</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;before the reformation, <a href="#Page_422">422</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Republics, the Italian, rise of, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Revolution of 1688, the, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rheims, coronation of Charles VII. at, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Richard C&oelig;ur de Lion, character of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;heads the third Crusade, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Richelieu, Cardinal, <a href="#Page_449">449</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the policy of, and its results, <a href="#Page_476">476</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the death of, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Robert of Normandy, the Crusader, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;loss of Normandy by, <a href="#Page_285">285</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;a prisoner in England, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Robert, son of Hugh Capet, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Robert Guiscard, conquests of, in Italy, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;sack of Rome by, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Rochelle, the capture of, from the Huguenots, <a href="#Page_476">476</a>, <a href="#Page_477">477</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rois fainéants, the <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rollo, settlement of, in Normandy, <a href="#Page_222">222</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;created Duke of Normandy, <a href="#Page_225">225</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Romans, the conquest of England by, and its effects, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;passion of, for gladiatorial shows, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Roman empire, first broken in on by the barbarians, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;its extent and forces, <a href="#Page_56">56</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;compared with modern Europe, <a href="#Page_57">57</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;divided into East and West, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Roman law, reintroduction of, in Europe, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rome, the supremacy of, the characteristic of the first century, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;power of the emperor, <a href="#Page_20">20</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, during the first century, <a href="#Page_35">35</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;increasing weakness of, <a href="#Page_79">79</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;removal of the seat of empire from, <a href="#Page_84">84</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the sack of, by Alaric, <a href="#Page_106">106</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;sacked by the Vandals, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;causes of her fall, <a href="#Page_111">111</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;recovered by Belisarius, <a href="#Page_124">124</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;taken, &amp;c. by Totila, <a href="#Page_125">125</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;supremacy of the Bishop of, <a href="#Page_126">126</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;fallen state of, in the sixth century, <a href="#Page_133">133</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the Bishops of, claim supremacy, <a href="#Page_148">148</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;influence of the unity of, <a href="#Page_184">184</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of during the tenth century, <a href="#Page_235">235</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;sack of, by the Normans, <a href="#Page_258">258</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the Crusaders at, <a href="#Page_262">262</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;Arnold of Brescia in, <a href="#Page_278">278</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;jubilee at, 1300, <a href="#Page_325">325</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;state of, before the Reformation, <a href="#Page_420">420</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;Luther at, <a href="#Page_424">424</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Romish Church, influence of the Jesuits on, <a href="#Page_434">434</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;rejoicings of, on massacre of St. Bartholomew, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Romulus Augustulus, the emperor, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Rosamund, wife of Alboin, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Roses, the wars of the, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;effect of, on the nobility, <a href="#Page_360">360</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Rouen, occupied by the Normans, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;execution of Joan of Arc at, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Royal power, general consolidation of, in the fifteenth century, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Russia, the Danes in, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;rise of, during eighteenth century, <a href="#Page_491">491</a>, <a href="#Page_492">492</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the seven years&rsquo; war, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>St. Bartholomew, the massacre of, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;its effects, <a href="#Page_442">442</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>St. Benedict, industry, &amp;c. inculcated by, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the second, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>St. Bernard on the luxury, &amp;c. of the clergy, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;discussions of, with Abelard, <a href="#Page_281">281</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the second Crusade originated by, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>St. Boniface, coronation of Pepin by, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>.</li>
+
+<li>St. Columba, and Brunehild, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li>
+
+<li>St. Dominic. <i>See</i> Dominic.</li>
+
+<li>St. Francis of Assisi, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>.</li>
+
+<li>St. Louis. <i>See</i> Louis IX.</li>
+
+<li>St. Remi, Clovis baptized by, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sapor, the capture of Valerian by, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;death of Julian in war with, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Saracens, the, the conquests of, <a href="#Page_162">162</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;their defeat by Charles Martel, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_179">179</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;in Spain, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;crusade against, in Italy, <a href="#Page_251">251</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;in Palestine, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Sarmatians, the, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sassanides, dynasty of, <a href="#Page_71">71</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Saxons, feeling of the, towards the Normans in England, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Saxony, the Elector of, and Luther, <a href="#Page_426">426</a>, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Scholastic philosophy, rise of the, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Schools, establishment of, under Charlemagne, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Scotland, state of, in the eighth century, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;resistance to the papacy in, <a href="#Page_314">314</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;Edward I.&rsquo;s attempt on, <a href="#Page_319">319</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the battle of Bannockburn, <a href="#Page_352">352</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the ballads of, <a href="#Page_372">372</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;effects of battle of Flodden in, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>, <a href="#Page_418">418</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;its subsequent state, <a href="#Page_415">415</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;the policy of Elizabeth in, <a href="#Page_437">437</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+<li>&mdash;James&rsquo;s attempt to force Episcopacy on, <a href="#Page_464">464</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;persecution of the Covenanters in, <a href="#Page_473">473</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the Union Act, <a href="#Page_502">502</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the rebellion of 1715, <a href="#Page_504">504</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;and of 1745, <a href="#Page_507">507</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Scotus Erigena, career, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Septimania, power of the Dukes of, <a href="#Page_204">204</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Serfs, conditions of Magna Charta regarding the, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Seven years&rsquo; war, the, <a href="#Page_512">512</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Severus, Alexander, accession and reign of, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>.</li>
+
+<li><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_537" id="Page_537">[537]</a></span>
+Severus, Septimius, accession and reign of, <a href="#Page_60">60</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Sicily, conquest of, by the Normans, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Simon de Montfort, the crusade against the Albigenses under, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Simon de Montfort, summoning of parliament by, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sixtus V., approval of the murder of Henry III. by, <a href="#Page_448">448</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Slaves, state of the, under the Romans, <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_90">90</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Smalcalde, the Protestant league of, <a href="#Page_429">429</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Society, state of, under James I., <a href="#Page_455">455</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Solway Moss, the battle of, <a href="#Page_414">414</a>.</li>
+
+<li>South Sea bubble, the, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Spain, severance of, from the Roman empire, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the Saracens in, <a href="#Page_246">246</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;threatened predominance of, in sixteenth century, <a href="#Page_402">402</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;its increasing importance, <a href="#Page_403">403</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;increasing naval power of, <a href="#Page_412">412</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;consolidation of, in the sixteenth century, <a href="#Page_413">413</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;continued hostilities with, at sea, <a href="#Page_451">451</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the attacks of the buccaneers on her colonies, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Spanish Armada, the, and its defeat, <a href="#Page_444">444</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Spanish Succession, the war of the, <a href="#Page_498">498</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Spurs, the battle of the, at Courtrai, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;at Guinegate, <a href="#Page_418">418</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Staupitz, connection of, with Luther, <a href="#Page_423">423</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Stephen, the wars of, in England, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Stilicho, opposed to Alaric, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his murder, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Strafford, execution of, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Succession, the war of the, <a href="#Page_498">498</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Sulpician, a candidate for the empire, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Supino, betrayal of Anagni by, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Surenus, minister of Trajan, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Surrey, the Earl of, at Flodden, <a href="#Page_416">416</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Switzerland, ingress of French Protestants into, <a href="#Page_484">484</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Sylvester II., Pope, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his character, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_246">246</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Syria, progress of Mohammedanism in, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Talbot, raises the siege of Orleans, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tancho, the invention of bells by, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Taxes, system of collecting, under Constantine, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Taylor, Rowland, the martyr, <a href="#Page_433">433</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tchuda, check of the Saracens at, <a href="#Page_166">166</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Templars, the destruction of the, <a href="#Page_337">337</a> <i>et seq.</i>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the charges against them, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Tetzel, the sale of indulgences by, <a href="#Page_425">425</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Theodora, wife of Justinian, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Theodoric the Goth, at the battle of Châlons, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Theodoric, the reign of, <a href="#Page_119">119</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his supremacy, <a href="#Page_123">123</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;his death, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Theodosius, the emperor, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tiberius, the reign of, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his character, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Tilly, the sack of Magdeburg by, <a href="#Page_466">466</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Timbuctoo, expedition by Englishmen to, <a href="#Page_452">452</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tinchebray, the battle of, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Titus, the reign of, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the siege and capture of Jerusalem, <a href="#Page_30">30</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Torstenson, the victories of, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Totila, King of the Goths, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Toulouse, the Marquises of, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;power of the Dukes of, <a href="#Page_232">232</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the Albigenses in, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Tours, the battle of, <a href="#Page_179">179</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Towns, effect of the Crusades on the, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;increasing power of the, in the fourteenth century, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Trajan, the accession and reign of, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Transubstantiation, doctrine of, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Trebonian, the Justinian code drawn up by, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tripoli, conquered by the Saracens, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Troubadours, attacks on the clergy by the, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Truce of God, the, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Tunis, crusade of Louis IX. against, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Turenne, the victories of, <a href="#Page_478">478</a>, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Union Act, passing of the, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
+
+<li>United States, the revolt of the, <a href="#Page_518">518</a> <i>et seq.</i></li>
+
+<li>Universal church, belief in a, before the Reformation, <a href="#Page_419">419</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Urban II. and the first Crusaders, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Utrecht, thy peace of, <a href="#Page_502">502</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Valens, the emperor, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his defeat and death, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Valentinian, the emperor, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Valerian, the emperor, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Vandals, conquest of Africa by the, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;sack of Rome by the, <a href="#Page_111">111</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;overthrow of the, by Belisarius, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Vasco da Gama, the discovery of the route to India by, <a href="#Page_401">401</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Venaissin, acquisition of, by the Pope, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Venice, rise of, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;power, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_407">407</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;attacked by Julius II., <a href="#Page_408">408</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;league of Cambrai, <a href="#Page_409">409</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;decay of the power of, <a href="#Page_412">412</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Verona destroyed by Attila, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Versailles, Louis XIV. at, <a href="#Page_481">481</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;its cost, <a href="#Page_483">483</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the peace of, <a href="#Page_520">520</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Vespasian, accession of, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Vicenza, taken by Attila, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Vidius Pollio, anecdote of, <a href="#Page_36">36</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Vikinger, the, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Virginia, settlement of, by the English, <a href="#Page_454">454</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Visigoths, settlements of the, in Spain, &amp;c., <a href="#Page_128">128</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Vitellius, the emperor, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Wales, early state of, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wallace, the victories, &amp;c. of, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Walpole, Sir R., the ministry of, <a href="#Page_505">505</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wartburg, seclusion of Luther at, <a href="#Page_428">428</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wealth, influence of the Crusades on, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wellington, the victories of, in India, <a href="#Page_525">525</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wenilon, Bishop of Sens, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wentworth, execution of, <a href="#Page_468">468</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Western Church, severance of the Eastern from, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wickliff, his translation of the Bible, <a href="#Page_342">342</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wickliffites, persecution of the, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li>
+
+<li>William of Normandy, churches, &amp;c. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_538" id="Page_538">[538]</a></span>erected by, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;the conquest of England by, <a href="#Page_253">253</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;character of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>William Rufus, character of, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>.</li>
+
+<li>William III., accession of, in England, <a href="#Page_485">485</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his reign, <a href="#Page_486">486</a></li>
+<li>&mdash;the death of, <a href="#Page_499">499</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Winchester, the Bishop of, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Winifried, the monk, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Witig, King of the Ostrogoths, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>
+<ul class="index">
+<li>&mdash;his overthrow, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+</li>
+
+<li>Wittenagemot, the, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Wolfe, the conquest of Canada by, <a href="#Page_517">517</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Woman, increased respect paid to, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Worms, the Diet of, Luther before, <a href="#Page_427">427</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Yeomanry, rise of, in England, <a href="#Page_431">431</a>.</li>
+
+<li>Yezdegird, King of Persia, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<ul class="index">
+<li>Zorndorf, the battle of, <a href="#Page_513">513</a>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p class="center spaced-above">THE END.</p>
+
+<hr class="chap" />
+</div>
+
+<div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_539" id="Page_539">[539]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="newpage">&ldquo;<i>A great and noble work, rich in information, eloquent and scholarly in style,
+earnestly devout in feeling.</i>&rdquo;&mdash;<span class="smcap">London Literary World.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">D. APPLETON &amp; CO., NEW YORK,</p>
+
+<p class="small center">HAVE JUST PUBLISHED</p>
+
+<p class="ad-title">The Life and Words of Christ.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>By CUNNINGHAM GEIKIE, D.D.</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">With Twelve Engravings on Steel. In 2 vols. Price, $8.00.</p>
+
+<div class="from-container">
+<p><i>From Dr. <span class="smcap">Delitzsch</span>, the Commentator.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;A work of gigantic industry, noble in outward form, of the highest rank in
+its contents, and, what is the chief point, it breathes the spirit of true faith in
+Christ. I have read enough of it to rejoice at such a magnificent creation, and
+especially to wonder at the extent of reading it shows. When I shall have occasion
+to revise my Hebrew New Testament, I hope to get much help from it.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="from-container">
+<p><i>From Bishop <span class="smcap">Beckwith</span>, of Georgia.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;The book is of value not merely to the theological student or student of
+history, but the family. It furnishes information which every one should possess,
+and which thoughtful people will be glad to gain from so agreeable a teacher.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="from-container">
+<p><i>From Dr. <span class="smcap">John Hall</span>.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;The author has aimed at producing book of continuous, easy narrative, in
+which the reader may, as far as possible, see the Saviour of men live and move,
+and may hear the words he utters with the most vivid attainable idea of his circumstances
+and surroundings. The result is a work to which all Christian hearts
+will respond.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="from-container">
+<p><i>From Bishop <span class="smcap">Littlejohn</span>, of Long Island.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;Dr. Geikie has performed his task&mdash;the most difficult in biographical literature&mdash;with
+great ability. His pages evince abundant and accurate learning, and,
+what is of even more consequence, a simple and cordial faith in the Gospel narratives.
+The more the work shall circulate, the more it will be regarded as a most
+valuable addition to a branch of sacred literature which ought in every age to
+absorb the best fruits of sacred scholarship, and to command the highest gifts of
+human genius.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="from-container">
+<p><i>From Rev. Dr. <span class="smcap">Adams</span>, President of the Union Theological Seminary.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;Another invaluable contribution in proof of historical Christianity. It is a
+beautiful specimen of typography, and we anticipate for it an extensive circulation,
+to which it is entitled for its substantial worth, its erudition, its brilliant
+style, and its fervent devotion.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="from-container">
+<p><i>From the Rev. <span class="smcap">W. Lindsay Alexander, D.D., S.T.P.</span>, Edinburgh, Member of
+the Old Testament Company of Revision, Editor of Kitto&rsquo;s &ldquo;Cyclopædia of
+Biblical Literature,&rdquo; etc.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;Dr. Geikie&rsquo;s work is the result of much thought, research, and learning, and
+it is adorned with many literary excellences. It cannot fail to become a standard,
+for its merits are substantial, and its utility great.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="from-container">
+<p><i>From the Rev. Dr. <span class="smcap">Curry</span>.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;A careful examination of Dr. Geikie&rsquo;s work seems to prove, what might before
+have been doubted, that just such a work was needed to meet a real want;
+it successfully indicates its own right to be, by responding to the necessity that
+it discovers.&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_540" id="Page_540">[540]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="ad-title newpage">Dr. Geikie&rsquo;s Life and Words of Christ.</p>
+
+<p class="center">OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;These fresh volumes are marked throughout by a humane and devout spirit.
+The work is sure to make for itself a place in popular literature.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>New York
+Times.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;In Dr. Geikie&rsquo;s volumes the person and works of Christ receive the chief
+attention, of course; but the background is so faithfully and vividly drawn, that
+the reader is given a fresher idea of the central figure.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>New York Independent.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;A monument of industry and a mine of learning. The students of our theological
+colleges, ministers, and others, will find much of the information here
+given of great worth and novelty.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Nonconformist.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;Dr. Geikie&rsquo;s paraphrases are generally most excellent commentaries.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;An encyclopædia upon the life and times of Jesus Christ, but an encyclopædia
+which has an organic unity, pulsating with a true and devout spirituality
+of thought and feeling.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>London Christian World.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;His style is always clear, rising sometimes into majestic beauty. His most
+steady point of view is the relation of Christ to the elevation of the race, and he
+struggles to make clear the amazing richness of Christ&rsquo;s new things&mdash;the profound
+character of his philosophy, and the practical humanity that wells up out
+of these great deeps.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>New York Methodist.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;The &lsquo;Life of Christ&rsquo; may be fitly compared to a diamond with many facets.
+From every point of view, the light that streams forth upon us is beneficent.
+No two observers will probable ever catch precisely the same ray, but, for all
+who look with unclouded eye (whatever their angle of vision may be), there shines
+forth &lsquo;the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.&rsquo; Without disparaging
+in any sense the noble labors of his predecessors, we think Dr. Geikie
+has caught a new ray from the &lsquo;Mountain of Light,&rsquo; and has added a new page to
+our Christology which many will delight to read.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>New York Evangelist.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;The chief merit of Dr. Geikie&rsquo;s volumes lies in the attention paid to the
+surroundings of our Saviour&rsquo;s earthly life; so that the reader is presented with
+a picture of the Jewish people, national characteristics, social customs, and
+religious belief and ritual.</p>
+
+<p>&ldquo;It is with reluctance that we take leave of these splendid volumes, for it is
+an enjoyment to examine and a pleasant duty and privilege to commend them.
+We feel sure we could desire no more valuable and useful addition to Christian
+libraries.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Episcopal Recorder</i> (Philadelphia).</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;If any one desires a reliable and intelligent guide in the study of the Gospel
+history, he cannot, we think, do better than take the graphic pages of Dr. Geikie.
+The American edition is got up most elegantly; the binding is very handsome,
+the paper good, the type large and clear; the engravings and maps are excellent.
+They are, indeed, two beautiful volumes.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Evangelical Churchman</i> (Toronto).</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>&ldquo;Of all that has been written hitherto on that life, nothing seems to us to
+equal in beauty that which we find in the two magnificent volumes before us.
+They bring to view the social conditions in which Jesus made his appearance.
+They give us a vivid portraiture of those who were about him&mdash;both the friends
+and the enemies&mdash;the parties, the customs, the influences that prevailed.&rdquo;&mdash;<i>Episcopal
+Register</i> (Philadelphia).</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="right" style="padding-right:4em;">
+<i>D. APPLETON &amp; CO., Publishers,</i>
+</p>
+<p class="right">
+<span class="smcap">549 &amp; 551 Broadway, New York.</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="transnote">
+<p class="trans-heading">Transcriber&rsquo;s Notes</p>
+<p class="covernote">The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.</p>
+<p>
+Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation
+in the original document have been preserved.
+</p>
+<p class="covernote">
+The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Eighteen Christian Centuries, by James White
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES ***
+
+***** This file should be named 44703-h.htm or 44703-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/7/0/44703/
+
+Produced by Charlene Taylor, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe,
+Norbert Müller and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
+images generously made available by the Digital & Multimedia
+Center, Michigan State University Libraries.)
+
+
+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
+  www.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 1.F.3.  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 MERCHANTABILITY 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 are 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 information page at www.gutenberg.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.  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
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+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 www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+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 checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.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 forty 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:
+
+     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.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/old/44703-h/images/cover.jpg b/old/44703-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6535cf4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44703-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/old/44703.txt b/old/44703.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1bac22e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44703.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,17378 @@
+Project Gutenberg's The Eighteen Christian Centuries, by James White
+
+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 Eighteen Christian Centuries
+
+Author: James White
+
+Release Date: January 18, 2014 [EBook #44703]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Charlene Taylor, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe,
+Norbert Mueller and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
+images generously made available by the Digital & Multimedia
+Center, Michigan State University Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                                  THE
+                     EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES.
+
+
+                                  BY
+                         THE REV. JAMES WHITE,
+                   AUTHOR OF A "HISTORY OF FRANCE."
+
+
+                         With a Copious Index.
+
+
+                  FROM THE SECOND EDINBURGH EDITION.
+
+
+                               NEW YORK:
+                       D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
+                          549 & 551 BROADWAY.
+                                 1878.
+
+
+
+
+                   NOTE BY THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS.
+
+This valuable work, which has been received with much favour in Great
+Britain, is reprinted without abridgment from the second Edinburgh
+edition. The lists of names of remarkable persons in the present issue
+have been somewhat enlarged, and additional dates appended, thereby
+increasing the value of the book.
+
+
+
+
+                               CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+
+
+                            FIRST CENTURY.
+
+  THE BAD EMPERORS                                                   9
+
+
+                            SECOND CENTURY.
+
+  THE GOOD EMPERORS.                                                41
+
+
+                            THIRD CENTURY.
+
+  ANARCHY AND CONFUSION--GROWTH OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.            65
+
+
+                            FOURTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE REMOVAL TO CONSTANTINOPLE--ESTABLISHMENT OF
+  CHRISTIANITY--APOSTASY OF JULIAN--SETTLEMENT OF THE GOTHS.        83
+
+
+                            FIFTH CENTURY.
+
+  END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE--FORMATION OF MODERN STATES--GROWTH
+  OF ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY.                                     105
+
+
+                            SIXTH CENTURY.
+
+  BELISARIUS AND NARSES IN ITALY--SETTLEMENT OF THE
+  LOMBARDS--LAWS OF JUSTINIAN--BIRTH OF MOHAMMED.                  123
+
+
+                           SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+  POWER OF ROME SUPPORTED BY THE MONKS--CONQUESTS OF THE
+  MOHAMMEDANS.                                                     141
+
+
+                            EIGHTH CENTURY.
+
+  TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES--THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE.          171
+
+
+                            NINTH CENTURY.
+
+  DISMEMBERMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE--DANISH INVASION
+  OF ENGLAND--WEAKNESS OF FRANCE--REIGN OF ALFRED.                 193
+
+
+                            TENTH CENTURY.
+
+  DARKNESS AND DESPAIR.                                            219
+
+
+                           ELEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE COMMENCEMENT OF IMPROVEMENT--GREGORY THE SEVENTH--FIRST
+  CRUSADE.                                                         241
+
+
+                           TWELFTH CENTURY.
+
+  ELEVATION OF LEARNING--POWER OF THE CHURCH--THOMAS
+  A-BECKETT.                                                       269
+
+
+                          THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  FIRST CRUSADE AGAINST HERETICS--THE ALBIGENSES--MAGNA
+  CHARTA--EDWARD I.                                                297
+
+
+                          FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  ABOLITION OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLARS--RISE OF MODERN
+  LITERATURES--SCHISM OF THE CHURCH.                               325
+
+
+                          FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  DECLINE OF FEUDALISM--AGINCOURT--JOAN OF ARC--THE
+  PRINTING-PRESS--DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.                            359
+
+
+                          SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE REFORMATION--THE JESUITS--POLICY OF ELIZABETH.               401
+
+
+                         SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  ENGLISH REBELLION AND REVOLUTION--DESPOTISM OF LOUIS THE
+  FOURTEENTH.                                                      447
+
+
+                          EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  INDIA--AMERICA--FRANCE                                           491
+
+
+  INDEX                                                            527
+
+
+
+
+                          FIRST CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+  A.D.
+
+      AUGUSTUS CAESAR.
+
+  14. TIBERIUS.
+
+  37. CAIUS CALIGULA.
+
+  41. CLAUDIUS.
+
+  54. NERO. First Persecution of the Christians.
+
+  68. GALBA.
+
+  69. OTHO.     }
+
+  69. VITELLIUS.}
+
+  69. VESPASIAN.}
+
+  79. TITUS.
+
+  81. DOMITIAN. Second Persecution of the Christians.
+
+  96. NERVA.
+
+  98. TRAJAN.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+LIVY, OVID, TIBULLUS, STRABO, COLUMELLA, QUINTUS CURTIUS, SENECA,
+LUCAN, PETRONIUS, SILIUS ITALICUS, PLINY THE ELDER, MARTIAL,
+QUINCTILIAN, TACITUS.
+
+
+Christian Fathers and Writers.
+
+BARNABAS, CLEMENT OF ROME, HERMAS, IGNATIUS, POLYCARP.
+
+
+
+
+                                  THE
+                     EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE FIRST CENTURY.
+
+                           THE BAD EMPERORS.
+
+
+Nobody disputes the usefulness of History. Many prefer it, even for
+interest and amusement, to the best novels and romances. But the
+extent of time over which it has stretched its range is appalling to
+the most laborious of readers. And as History is growing every day,
+and every nation is engaged in the manufacture of memorable events, it
+is pitiable to contemplate the fate of the historic student a hundred
+years hence. He is not allowed to cut off at one end, in proportion as
+he increases at the other. He is not allowed to forget Marlborough,
+in consideration of his accurate acquaintance with Wellington. His
+knowledge of the career of Napoleon is no excuse for ignorance of
+Julius Caesar. All must be retained--victories, defeats--battles,
+sieges--knights in armour, soldiers in red; the charge at Marathon,
+the struggle at Inkermann--all these things, a thousand other things,
+at first apparently of no importance, but growing larger and larger
+as time develops their effects, till men look back in wonder that
+the acorn escaped their notice which has produced such a majestic
+oak,--a thousand other things still, for a moment rising in apparently
+irresistible power, and dying off apparently without cause, must be
+folded up in niches of the memory, ready to be brought forth when
+needed, and yet room be left for the future. And who can pretend
+to be qualified for so great a work? Most of us confess to rather
+dim recollections of things occurring in our own time,--in our own
+country--in our own parish; and some, contemplating the vast expanse
+of human history, its innumerable windings and perplexing variations,
+are inclined to give it up in despair, and have a sulky sort of
+gratification in determining to know nothing, since they cannot
+know all. All kings, they say, are pretty much alike, and whether
+he is called John in England, or Louis in France, doesn't make much
+difference. Nobles also are as similar as possible, and peoples are
+everywhere the same. Now, this, you see, though it ambitiously pretends
+to be ignorance, is, in fact, something infinitely worse. It is false
+knowledge. It might be very injurious to liberty, to honour, and to
+religion itself, if this wretched idea were to become common, for where
+would be the inducement to noble endeavour? to reform of abuses? to
+purity of life? Kings and nobles and peoples are not everywhere the
+same. They are not even _like_ each other, or like themselves in the
+same land at different periods. They are in a perpetual series, not
+only of change, but of contrast. They are "variable as the sea,"--calm
+and turbulent, brilliant and dark by turns. And it is this which
+gives us the only chance of attaining clearness and distinctness
+in our historic views. It is by dissimilarities that things are
+individualized: now, how pleasant it would be if we could simplify and
+strengthen our recollections of different times, by getting personal
+portraits, as it were, of the various centuries, so as to escape the
+danger of confounding their dress or features. It would be impossible
+in that case to mistake the Spanish hat and feather of the sixteenth
+century for the steel helmet and closed vizor of the fourteenth. We
+should be able, in the same way, to distinguish between the modes of
+thought and principles of action of the early ages, and those of the
+present time. We should be able to point out anachronisms of feeling
+and manners if they occurred in the course of our reading, as well
+as of dress and language. It is surely worth while, therefore, to
+make an attempt to individualize the centuries, not by affixing to
+them any arbitrary marks of one's own, but by taking notice of the
+distinguishing quality they possess, and grouping round that, as a
+centre, the incidents which either produce this characteristic or are
+produced by it. What should we call the present century, for instance?
+We should at once name it the Century of Invention. The great war with
+Napoleon ending in 1815, exciting so many passions, and calling forth
+such energy, was but the natural introduction to the wider efforts and
+amazing progress of the succeeding forty years. Battles and bulletins,
+alliances and quarrels, ceased, but the intellect aroused by the
+struggle dashed into other channels. Commerce spread its humanizing
+influences over hitherto closed and unexplored regions; the steamboat
+and railway began their wondrous career. The lightning was trained
+to be our courier in the electric telegraph, and the sun took our
+likenesses in the daguerreotype. How changed this century is in all its
+attributes and tendencies from its predecessor, let any man judge for
+himself, who compares the reigns of our first Hanoverian kings with
+that of our gracious queen.
+
+In nothing, indeed, is the course of European history so remarkable as
+in the immense differences which intervals of a few years introduce.
+In the old monarchies of Asia, time and the world seem almost to stand
+still. The Indian, the Arab, the Chinese of a thousand years ago, wore
+the same clothes, thought the same thoughts, and led the same life as
+his successor of to-day. But with us the whole character of a people
+is changed in a lifetime. In a few years we are whirled out of all our
+associations. Names perhaps remain unaltered, but the inner life is
+different; modes of living, states of education, religious sentiments,
+great national events, foreign wars, or deep internal struggles--all
+leave such ineffaceable marks on the history of certain periods, that
+their influence can be traced through all the particulars of the time.
+The art of printing can be followed, on its first introduction, into
+the recesses of private life, as well as in the intercourse of nations.
+The Reformation of religion so entirely altered the relations which the
+states of the world bore to each other, that it may be said to have put
+a limit between old history and new, so that human character itself
+received a new development; and actions, both public and private, were
+regulated by principles hitherto unknown.
+
+In one respect all the past centuries are alike,--that they have done
+their part towards the formation of this. We bear the impress, at this
+hour, of the great thoughts and high aspirations, the struggles, and
+even the crimes, of our ancestral ages; and yet they have no greater
+resemblance to the present, except in the unchangeable characteristics
+of human nature itself, than the remotest forefathers in a long line
+of ancestry, whose likenesses hang in the galleries of our hereditary
+nobles, bear to the existing owner of title and estate. The ancestor
+who fought in the wars of the Roses has a very different expression
+and dress from the other ancestor who cheated and lied (politically,
+of course) in the days of the early Georges. Yet from both the present
+proprietor is descended. He retains the somewhat rusty armour on an
+ostentatious nail in the hall, and the somewhat insincere memoirs in a
+secret drawer in the library, and we cannot deny that he is the joint
+production of the courage of the warrior and the duplicity of the
+statesman; anxious to defend what he believes to be the right, like the
+supporter of York or Lancaster--but trammelled by the ties of party,
+like the patriot of Sir Robert Walpole.
+
+If we could affix to each century as characteristic a presentment as
+those portraits do of the steel-clad hero of Towton, or the be-wigged,
+be-buckled courtier of George the Second, our object would be gained.
+We should see a whole history in a glance at a century's face. If
+it were peculiarly marked by nature or accident, so much the more
+easy would it be to recognise the likeness. If the century was a
+warlike, quarrelsome century, and had scars across its brow; if it
+was a learned, plodding century, and wore spectacles on nose; if it
+was a frivolous, gay century, and simpered forever behind bouquets of
+flowers, or tripped on fantastic toe with a jewelled rapier at its
+side, there would be no mistaking the resemblance; there would also be
+no chance of confusing the actions: the legal century would not fight,
+the dancing century would not depose its king.
+
+Taking our stand at the beginning of our era, there are only eighteen
+centuries with which we have to do, and how easily any of us get
+acquainted with the features and expression of eighteen of our friends!
+Not that we know every particular of their birth and education, or can
+enter into the minute parts of their character and feelings; but we
+soon know enough of them to distinguish them from each other. We soon
+can say of which of the eighteen such or such an action or opinion
+is characteristic. We shall not mistake the bold deed or eloquent
+statement of one as proceeding from another.
+
+    "Boastful and rough, your first son is a squire.
+     The next a tradesman, meek, and much a liar:
+     Tom struts a soldier, open, bold, and brave:
+     Will sneaks a scrivener, an exceeding knave.
+     Is he a churchman? then he's fond of power:
+     A Quaker? sly: a Presbyterian? sour:
+     A smart free-thinker? all things in an hour."
+
+Now, though it is impossible to put the characteristics of a whole
+century into such terse and powerful language as this, it cannot be
+doubted that each century, or considerable period, has its prevailing
+Thought,--a thought which it works out in almost all the ramifications
+of its course; which it receives from its predecessor in a totally
+different shape, and passes on to its successor in a still more
+altered form. Else why do we find the faith of one generation the
+ridicule and laughing-stock of the next? How did knighthood rise
+into the heroic regions of chivalry, and then sink in a succeeding
+period into the domain of burlesque? How did aristocracy in one age
+concentrate into kingship in another? And in a third, how did the
+golden ring of sovereignty lose its controlling power, and republics
+take their rise? How did the reverence of Europe settle at one time on
+the sword of Edward the Third, and at another on the periwig of Louis
+the Fourteenth? These and similar inquiries will lead us to the real
+principles and motive forces of a particular age, as they distinguished
+it from other ages. We shall label the centuries, as it were, with
+their characteristic marks, and know where to look for thoughts and
+incidents of a particular class and type.
+
+Let us look at the first century.
+
+Throughout the civilized world there is nothing but Rome. Under
+whatever form of government--under consuls, or triumvirs, or
+dictators--that wonderful city was mistress of the globe. Her internal
+dissensions had not weakened her power. While her streets were running
+with the blood of her citizens, her eagles were flying triumphant in
+Farther Asia and on the Rhine. Her old constitution had finally died
+off almost without a blow, and unconsciously the people, still talking
+of Cato and Brutus, became accustomed to the yoke. For seven-and-twenty
+years they had seen all the power of the state concentrated in one man;
+but the names of the offices of which their ancestors had been so proud
+were retained; and when Octavius, the nephew of the conqueror Julius
+Caesar, placed himself above the law, it was only by uniting in his own
+person all the authority which the law had created. He was consul,
+tribune, praetor, pontifex, imperator,--whatever denomination conferred
+dignity and power; and by the legal exercise of all these trusts he had
+no rival and no check. He was finally presented by the senate with the
+lofty title of Augustus, which henceforth had a mysterious significance
+as the seal of imperial greatness, and his commands were obeyed without
+a murmur from the Tigris to the Tyne. But whilst in the enjoyment of
+this pre-eminence, the Roman emperor was unconscious that in a village
+of Judea, in the lowest rank of life, among the most contemned tribe of
+his dominions, his Master was born. [A.D. 1.] By this event the whole
+current of the world's history was changed. The great became small and
+the small great. Rome itself ceased to be the capital of the world,
+for men's eyes and hearts, when the wonderful story came to be known,
+were turned to Jerusalem. From her, commissioned emissaries were to
+proceed with greater powers than those of Roman praetors or governors.
+From her gates went forth Peter and John to preach the gospel. Down
+her steep streets rode Paul and his companions, breathing anger
+against the Church, and ere they reached Damascus, behold, the eyes
+of the persecutor are blinded with lightning, and his understanding
+illuminated with the same flash; and henceforth he proceeds, in
+lowliness and humility, to convey to others the glad tidings that had
+been revealed to himself. Away in all directions, but all radiating
+from Jerusalem, travelled the messengers of the amazing dispensation.
+Everywhere--in all centuries--in all regions, we shall encounter the
+results of their ministry; and as we watch the swelling of the mighty
+tide, first of Christian faith and then of priestly ambition, which
+overspread the fairest portions of the globe, we shall wonder more
+and more at the apparent powerlessness of its source, and at the vast
+effects for good and evil which it has produced upon mankind.
+
+What were they doing at Rome during the thirty-three years of our
+Saviour's sojourn upon earth? For the first fourteen of them Augustus
+was gathering round him the wits, and poets, and sages, who have made
+his reign immortal. [A.D. 14.] After that date his successor, Tiberius,
+built up by stealthy and slow degrees the most dreadful tyranny the
+world had ever seen,--a tyranny the results of which lasted long after
+the founders of it had expired. For from this period mankind had
+nothing to hope but from the bounty of the emperor. It is humiliating
+to reflect that the history of the world for so long a period consists
+of the deeds and dispositions of the successive rulers of Rome.
+All men, wherever their country, or whatever their position, were
+dependent, in greater or less degree, for their happiness or misery
+on the good or bad temper of an individual man. If he was cruel, as
+so many of them were, he filled the patricians of Rome with fear, and
+terrified the distant inhabitants of Thrace or Gaul. His benevolence,
+on the other hand, was felt at the extremities of the earth. No
+wonder that every one was on the watch for the first glimpse of a new
+emperor's character and disposition. What rejoicings in Italy and
+Greece and Africa, and all through Europe, when a trait of goodness
+was reported! and what a sinking of the heart when the old story was
+renewed, and a monster of cruelty succeeded to a monster of deceit!
+For the fearfullest thing in all the descriptions of Tiberius is the
+duplicity of his behaviour. He withdrew to an island in the sunniest
+part of the Mediterranean, and covered it with gorgeous buildings,
+and supplied it with all the implements of luxury and enjoyment. From
+this magnificent retirement he uttered a whisper, or made a motion
+with his hand, which displaced an Eastern monarch from his throne, or
+doomed a senator to death. He was never seen. He lived in the dreadful
+privacy of some fabled deity, and was only felt at the farthest ends
+of his empire by the unhappiness he occasioned; by his murders, and
+imprisonments, and every species of suffering, men's hearts and minds
+were bowed down beneath this invisible and irresistible oppressor.
+Self-respect was at an end, and liberty was not even wished for. The
+emperor had swallowed up the empire, and there was no authority or
+influence beside. This is the main feature of the first or Imperial
+Century, that, wherever we look, we see but one,--one gorged and
+bloated brutalized man, sitting on the throne of earthly power, and
+all the rest of mankind at his feet. [A.D. 37.] Humanity at its flower
+had culminated into a Tiberius; and when at last he was slain, and the
+world began to breathe, the sorrow was speedily deeper than before, for
+it was found that the Imperial tree had blossomed again, and that its
+fruit was a Caligula.
+
+This was a person with much the same taste for blood as his
+predecessor, but he was more open in the gratification of this
+propensity. He did not wait for trial and sentence,--those dim
+mockeries of justice in which Tiberius sometimes indulged. He had a
+peculiar way of nodding with his head or pointing with his finger,
+and the executioner knew the sign. The man he nodded to died. For the
+more distinguished of the citizens he kept a box,--not of snuff, like
+some monarchs of the present day, but of some strong and instantaneous
+poison. Whoever refused a pinch died as a traitor, and whoever took one
+died of the fatal drug. [A.D. 41.] Even the degenerate Romans could
+not endure this long, and Chaereas, an officer of his guard, put him to
+death, after a sanguinary reign of four years.
+
+Still the hideous catalogue goes on. Claudius, a nephew of Tiberius,
+is forced upon the unwilling senate by the spoilt soldiers of the
+capital, the Praetorian Guards. Colder, duller, more brutal than the
+rest, Claudius perhaps increased the misery of his country by the
+apathy and stupidity of his mind. The other tyrants had some limit
+to their wickedness, for they kept all the powers of the State in
+their own hands, but this man enlisted a countless host of favourites
+and courtiers in his crusade against the happiness of mankind. Badly
+eminent among these was his wife, the infamous Messalina, whose name
+has become a symbol of all that is detestable in the female sex. Some
+people, indeed, in reading the history of this period, shut the book
+with a shudder, and will not believe it true. They prefer to think that
+authors of all lands and positions have agreed to paint a fancy picture
+of depravity and horror, than that such things were. But the facts are
+too well proved to be doubted. We see a dull, unimpassioned, moody
+despot; fond of blood, but too indolent to shed it himself, unless at
+the dictation of his fiendish partner and her friends; so brutalized
+that nothing amazed or disturbed him; so unobservant that, relying on
+his blindness, she went through the ostentatious ceremony of a public
+marriage with one of her paramours during the lifetime, almost under
+the eyes, of her husband; and yet to this frightful combination of
+ferocity and stupidity England owes its subjection to the Roman power,
+and all the blessings which Roman civilization--bringing as it did the
+lessons of Christianity in its train--was calculated to bestow. In the
+forty-fourth year of this century, and the third year of the reign of
+Claudius, Aulus Plautius landed in Britain at the head of a powerful
+army; and the tide of Victory and Settlement never subsided till the
+whole country, as far north as the Solway, submitted to the Eagles.
+The contrast between the central power at Rome, and the officials
+employed at a distance, continued for a long time the most remarkable
+circumstance in the history of the empire. Tiberius, Caligula,
+Claudius, vied with each other in exciting the terror and destroying
+the happiness of the world; but in the remote extremities of their
+command, their generals displayed the courage and virtue of an earlier
+age. They improved as well as conquered. They made roads, and built
+bridges, and cut down woods. They established military stations, which
+soon became centres of education and law. They deepened the Thames,
+and commenced those enormous embankments of the river, to which, in
+fact, London owes its existence, without being aware of the labour
+they bestowed upon the work. If by some misfortune a great fissure
+took place--as has occurred on a small scale once before--in these
+artificial dikes, it would task the greatest skill of modern engineers
+to repair the damage. They superseded the blood-stained ceremonies of
+the Druids with the more refined worship of the heathen deities, making
+Claudius himself a tutelary god, with priest and temple, in the town
+of Colchester; and this, though in our eyes the deification of one of
+the worst of men, was, perhaps, in the estimation of our predecessors,
+only the visible embodiment of settled government and beneficent power.
+But murder and treachery, and unspeakable iniquity, went their way
+as usual in the city of the Caesars. Messalina was put to death, and
+another disgrace to womanhood, in the person of Agrippina, took her
+place beside the phlegmatic tyrant. Thirteen years had passed, when
+the boundary of human patience was attained, and Rome was startled one
+morning with the joyful news that her master was no more. [A.D. 54.]
+The combined cares of his loving spouse and a favourite physician had
+produced this happy result,--the one presenting him with a dish of
+deadly mushrooms, and the other painting his throat for a hoarseness
+with a poisoned feather.
+
+Is there no hope for Rome or for mankind? Is there to be a perpetual
+succession of monster after monster, with no cessation in the dreadful
+line? It would be pleasant to conceal for a minute or two the name of
+the next emperor, that we might point to the glorious prospect now
+opening on the world. But the name has become so descriptive that
+deception is impossible. When the word Nero is said, little more is
+required. But it was not so at first; a brilliant sunrise never had so
+terrible a course, or so dark a setting. We still see in the earlier
+statues which remain of him the fine outline of his face, and can fancy
+what its expression must have been before the qualities of his heart
+had stamped their indelible impression on his features. For the first
+five years of his reign the world seemed lost as much in surprise as in
+admiration. Some of his actions were generous; none of them were cruel
+or revengeful. He was young, and seemed anxious to fulfil the duties of
+his position. But power and flattery had their usual effect. All that
+was good in him was turned into evil. He tortured the noblest of the
+citizens; and degraded the throne to such a degree by the expositions
+he made of himself, sometimes as a musician on the stage, sometimes
+as a charioteer in the arena, that if there had been any Romans left
+they would have despised the tyrant more than they feared him. But
+there were no Romans left. The senators, the knights, the populace,
+vied with each other in submission to his power and encouragement of
+his vices. The rage of the monster, once excited, knew no bounds. He
+burned the city in the mere wantonness of crime, and fixed the blame
+on the unoffending Christians. These, regardless of age or condition
+or sex, he destroyed by every means in his power. He threw young
+maidens into the amphitheatre, where the hungry tigers leapt out upon
+them; he exposed the aged professors of the gospel to fight in single
+combat with the trained murderers of the circus, called the Gladiators;
+and once, in ferocious mockery of human suffering, he enclosed whole
+Christian families in a coating of pitch and other inflammable
+materials, and, setting fire to the covering, pursued his sport all
+night by the light of these living flambeaux. Some of his actions it
+is impossible to name. It will be sufficient to say that at the end of
+thirteen years the purple he disgraced was again reddened with blood.
+Terrified at the opposition that at last rose against him--deserted, of
+course, by the confederates of his wickedness--shrinking with unmanly
+cowardice from a defence which might have put off the evil day, he
+fled and hid himself from his pursuers. Agonized with fear, howling
+with repentant horror, he was indebted to one of his attendants for
+the blow which his own cowardly hand could not administer, and he
+died the basest, lowest, and most pitiless of all the emperors. And
+all those hopes he had disappointed, and all those iniquities he had
+perpetrated, at the age of thirty-two. He was the last of the line
+of Caesar; and if that conqueror had foreseen that in so few years
+after his death the Senate of Rome would have been so debased, and the
+people of Rome so brutalized, he would have pardoned to Brutus the
+precautionary blow which was intended to prevent so great a calamity.
+
+[A.D. 68.]
+
+Galba was elected to fill his place, and was murdered in a few months.
+
+The degraded praetorians then elevated one of the companions of Nero's
+guilty excesses to the throne in the person of Otho, but resistance was
+made to their selection. [A.D. 69.] The forces in Germany nominated
+Vitellius to the supreme authority; and Otho, either a voluptuary tired
+of life, or a craven incapable of exertion, committed suicide to save
+the miseries of civil war. But this calamity was averted by a nobler
+hand. Vitellius had only time to show that, in addition to the usual
+vices of the throne, he was addicted to the animal enjoyments of eating
+and drinking to an almost incredible degree, when he heard a voice from
+the walls of Jerusalem which hurled him from the seat he had so lately
+taken; for the legions engaged in that most memorable of sieges had
+decided on giving the empire of the world to the man who deserved it
+best, and had proclaimed their general, Flavius Vespasian, Imperator
+and Master of Rome.
+
+[A.D. 70.]
+
+Now we will pause, for we have come to the year seventy of this
+century, and a fit breathing-time to look round us and see what
+condition mankind has fallen into within a hundred years of the end of
+the Republic. We leave out of view the great empires of the farther
+East, where battles were won, and dynasties established on the plains
+of Hindostan, and within the Chinese Wall. The extent of our knowledge
+of Oriental affairs is limited to the circumference of the Roman
+power. Following that vast circle, we see it on all sides surrounded by
+tribes and nations who derive their sole illumination from its light,
+for unless the Roman conquests had extended to the confines of those
+barbaric states, we should have known nothing of their existence.
+Beyond that ring of fire it is almost matter of conjecture what must
+have been going on. Yet we learn from the traditions of many peoples,
+and can guess with some accuracy from the occurrences of a later
+period, what was the condition of those "outsiders," and what were
+their feelings and intentions with regard to the civilized portions of
+the world. Bend your eyes in any direction you please, and what names,
+what thoughts, suggest themselves to our minds! We see swarms of wild
+adventurers with wives and cattle traversing with no definite object
+the uncultivated districts beyond the Danube; occasionally pitching
+their tents, or even forming more permanent establishments, around
+the roots of Caucasus and north of the Caspian Sea, where grass was
+more plentiful, and hills or marshes formed an easily defended barrier
+against enemies as uncivilized as themselves. Coming from no certain
+region--that is, forgetting in a few years of wandering the precise
+point from which they set out, pushed forward by the advancing waves
+of great national migrations in their rear--moving onward across the
+upper fields of Europe, but keeping themselves still cautiously from
+actual contact with the Roman limits, from those hordes of homeless,
+lawless savages are derived the most polished and greatest nations
+of the present day. Forming into newer combinations, and taking
+different names, their identity is scarcely to be recognised when,
+three or four centuries after this, they come into the daylight of
+history; but nobody can doubt that, during these preliminary ages,
+they were gathering their power together, hereafter, under the
+impulse of fresh additions, to be hurled like a dammed-up river upon
+the prostrate realm, carrying ruin and destruction in their course,
+but no less certainly than the overflowing Nile leaving the germs of
+future fertility, and enriching with newer vegetation the fields they
+had so ruthlessly submerged. And year by year the mighty mass goes on
+accumulating. The northern plains become peopled no one knows how. The
+vast forests eastward of the Rhine receive new accessions of warriors,
+who rapidly assimilate with the old. United in one common object of
+retaining the wild freedom of their tribe, and the possession of the
+lands they have seized, they have opposed the advance of the Roman
+legions into the uncultivated districts they call their own; they
+have even succeeded in destroying the military forces which guarded
+the Rhine, and have with difficulty been restrained from crossing
+the great river by a strong line of forts and castles, of which the
+remains astonish the traveller of the present day, as, with Murray's
+Guide-Book in his hand, he gazes upon their ruins between Bingen and
+Aix-la-Chapelle.
+
+Repelled by these barriers, they cluster thicker than ever in the woods
+and valleys, to which the Romans have no means of penetrating. Southern
+Gaul submits, and becomes a civilized outpost of the central power; but
+far up in the wild regions of the north, and even to the eastward of
+the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland, the assemblage goes on. Scandinavia
+itself becomes over-crowded by the perpetual arrival of thousands of
+these armed and expatriated families, and sends her teeming populations
+to the east and south. But all these incidents, I must remind you,
+are occurring in darkness. We only know that the desert is becoming
+peopled with crowded millions, and that among them all there floats
+a confused notion of the greatness of the Roman power, the wealth
+of the cities and plains of Italy; and that, clustering in thicker
+swarms on the confines of civil government, the watchful eyes of
+unnumbered savage warriors are fixed on the territories lying rich
+and beautiful within the protection of the Roman name. So the whole
+Roman boundary gets gradually surrounded by barbaric hosts. Their
+trampings may be heard as they marshal their myriads and skirt the
+upper boundaries of Thrace; but as yet no actual conflict has occurred.
+A commotion may become observable among some of the farthest distant
+of the half intimidated of the German tribes; or an enterprising
+Roman settler beyond the frontier, or travelling merchant, who has
+penetrated to the neighbourhood of the Baltic, may bring back amazing
+reports of the fresh accumulations of unknown hordes of strange and
+threatening aspect; but the luxurious public in Rome receive them
+merely as interesting anecdotes to amuse their leisure or gratify their
+curiosity: they have no apprehension of what may be the result of those
+multitudinous arrivals. They do not foresee the gradual drawing closer
+to their outward defences--the struggle to get within their guarded
+lines--the fight that is surely coming between a sated, dull, degraded
+civilization on the one side, and a hungry, bold, ambitious savagery
+on the other. They trust every thing to the dignity of the Eternal
+City, and the watchfulness of the Emperor: for to this, his one idea
+of irresistible power equally for good or evil, the heart of the Roman
+was sure to turn. And for the eleven years of the reigns of Vespasian
+and Titus, the Roman did not appeal for protection against a foreign
+enemy in vain. Rome itself was compensated by shows and buildings--with
+a triumph and an arch--for the degradation in which it was held. But
+praetor and proconsul still pursued their course of oppressing the
+lands committed to their defence; and the subject, stripped of his
+goods, and hopeless of getting his wrongs redressed, had only the
+satisfaction of feeling that the sword he trembled at was in the hand
+of a man and not of an incarnate demon. A poor consolation this when
+the blow was equally fatal. Vespasian, in fact, was fonder of money
+than of blood, and the empire rejoiced in having exchanged the agony of
+being murdered for the luxury of being fleeced. [A.D. 79.] With Titus,
+whom the fond gratitude of his subjects named the Delight of the human
+race, a new age of happiness was about to open on the world; but all
+the old horrors of the Caesars were revived and magnified when he was
+succeeded, after a reign of two years, by his brother, the savage and
+cowardly Domitian. [A.D. 81.] With the exception of the brief period
+between the years 70 and 81, the whole century was spent in suffering
+and inflicting pain. The worst excesses of Nero and Caligula were now
+imitated and surpassed. The bonds of society became rapidly loosened.
+As in a shipwreck, the law of self-preservation was the only rule.
+No man could rely upon his neighbour, or his friend, or his nearest
+of kin. There were spies in every house, and an executioner at every
+door. An unconsidered word maliciously reported, or an accusation
+entirely false, brought death to the rich and great. To the unhappy
+class of men who in other times are called the favourites of fortune,
+because they are born to the possession of great ancestral names and
+hereditary estates, there was no escape from the jealous and avaricious
+hatred of the Emperor. If a patrician of this description lived in the
+splendour befitting his rank--he was currying favour with the mob! If
+he lived retired--he was trying to gain reputation by a pretence of
+giving up the world! If he had great talents--he was dangerous to the
+state! If he was dull and stupid--oh! don't believe it--he was only an
+imitative Brutus, concealing his deep designs under the semblance of
+fatuity! If a man of distinguished birth was rich, it was not a fitting
+condition for a subject--if he was poor, he was likely to be seduced
+into the wildest enterprises. So the prisons were filled by calumny and
+suspicion, and emptied by the executioner. A dreadful century this--the
+worst that ever entered into tale or history; for the memory of former
+glories and comparative freedom was still recent. A man who was sixty
+years old, in the midst of the terrors of Tiberius, had associated
+in his youth with the survivors of the Civil War, with men who had
+embraced Brutus and Cassius; he had seen the mild administration of
+Augustus, and perhaps had supped with Virgil and Horace in the house
+of Maecenas. And now he was tortured till he named a slave or freedman
+of the Emperor his heir, and then executed to expedite the succession.
+There was a hideous jocularity in some of these imperial proceedings,
+which, however, was no laughing-matter at the time. When a senator was
+very wealthy, it was no unusual thing for Tiberius and his successors
+to create themselves the rich man's nearest relations by a decree of
+the Senate. The person so honoured by this graft upon his family tree
+seldom survived the operation many days. The emperor took possession of
+the property as heir-at-law and next of kin; and mourned for his uncle
+or brother--as the case might be--with the most edifying decorum.
+
+But besides giving the general likeness of a period, it is necessary
+to individualize it still further by introducing, in the background of
+the picture, some incident by which it is peculiarly known, as we find
+Nelson generally represented with Trafalgar going on at the horizon,
+and Wellington sitting thoughtful on horseback in the foreground of the
+fire of Waterloo. Now, there cannot be a more distinguishing mark than
+a certain great military achievement which happened in the year 70 of
+this century, and is brought home to us, not only as a great historical
+event in itself, but as the commencement of a new era in human affairs,
+and the completion of a long line of threats and prophecies. This was
+the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. The accounts given us of this
+siege transcend in horror all other records of human sorrow. It was at
+the great annual feast of the Passover, when Jews from all parts of the
+world flocked to the capital of their nation to worship in the Temple,
+which to them was the earthly dwelling-place of Jehovah. The time was
+come, and they did not know it, when God was to be worshipped in spirit
+and in truth. More than a million strangers were resident within the
+walls. There was no room in house or hall for so vast a multitude; so
+they bivouacked in the streets, and lay thick as leaves in the courts
+of the holy place. Suddenly the Roman trumpets blew. The Jews became
+inspired with fanatical hatred of the enemy, and insane confidence that
+some miracle would be wrought for their deliverance. They deliberated,
+and chose for their leaders the wildest and most enthusiastic of the
+crowd. They refused the offers of mercy and reconciliation made to
+them by Titus. They sent back insulting messages to the Roman general,
+and stood expectant on the walls to see the idolatrous legions smitten
+by lightning or swallowed up by an earthquake. But Titus advanced his
+forces and hemmed in the countless multitude of men, and women, and
+children--few able to resist, but all requiring to be fed. Famine and
+pestilence came on; but still the mad fanatics of the Temple determined
+to persevere. They occasionally opened a gate and rushed out with the
+cry of "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" and were slaughtered
+by the unpitying hatred of the Roman soldiers. Their cruelty to
+their prisoners, when they succeeded in carrying off a few of their
+enemies, was great; but the patience of Titus at last gave way, and
+he soon bettered the instruction they gave him in pitilessness and
+blood. He drew a line of circumvallation closer round the city, and
+intercepted every supply; when deserters came over, he crucified them
+all round the trenches; when the worn-out people came forth, imploring
+to be suffered to pass through his ranks, he drove them back, that
+they might increase the scarcity by their lives, or the pestilence
+by adding to the heaps of unburied dead. Dissensions were raging all
+this time among the defenders themselves. They fought in the streets,
+in the houses, and heaped the floor and outcourts of the Temple with
+thousands of the slain. There was no help either from heaven or earth;
+eleven hundred thousand people had died of plague and the sword; and
+the rest were doomed to perish by more lingering torments. Nearest
+relations--sisters, brothers, fathers, wives--all forgot the ties of
+natural affection under this great necessity, and fought for a handful
+of meal, or the possession of some reptile's body if they were lucky
+enough to trace it to its hiding-place; and at last--the crown of all
+horrors--the daughter of Eleazer killed her own child and converted it
+into food. The measure of man's wrong and Heaven's vengeance was now
+full. The daily sacrifice ceased to be offered; voices were audible
+to the popular ear uttering in the Holy of Holies, "Let us go hence."
+The Romans rushed on--climbed over the neglected walls--forced their
+way into the upper Temple, and the gore flowed in streams so rapid and
+so deep that it seemed like a purple river! Large conduits had been
+made for the rapid conveyance away of the blood of bulls and goats
+offered in sacrifice; they all became choked now with the blood of
+the slaughtered people. At last the city was taken; the inhabitants
+were either dead or dying. Many were crushed as they lay expiring in
+the great tramplings of the triumphant Romans; many were recovered by
+food and shelter, and sold into slavery. The Temple and walls were
+levelled with the ground, and not one stone was left upon another. The
+plough passed over where palace and tower had been, and the Jewish
+dispensation was brought to a close.
+
+History in ancient days was as exclusive as the court newsman in ours,
+and never published the movements of anybody below a senator or a
+consul. All the Browns and Smiths were left out of consideration; and
+yet to us who live in the days when those families--with the Joneses
+and Robinsons--form the great majority both in number and influence,
+it would be very interesting to have any certain intelligence of their
+predecessors during the first furies of the Empire. We have but faint
+descriptions even of the aristocracy, but what we hear of them shows,
+more clearly than any thing else, the frightful effect on morals and
+manliness of so uncontrolled a power as was vested in the Caesars, and
+teaches us that the worst of despotisms is that which is established by
+the unholy union of the dregs of the population and the ruling power,
+against the peace and happiness and security of the middle class. You
+see how this combination of tyrant and mob succeeded in crushing all
+the layers of society which lay between them, till there were left
+only two agencies in all the world--the Emperor on his throne, and the
+millions fed by his bounty. The hereditary nobility--the safest bulwark
+of a people and least dangerous support of a throne--were extirpated
+before the end of the century, and impartiality makes us confess that
+they fell by their own fault. As if the restraints of shame had been
+thrown off with the last hope of liberty, the whole population broke
+forth into the most incredible licentiousness. If the luxury of
+Lucullus had offended the common sense of propriety in the later days
+of the republic, there were numbers now who looked back upon his feasts
+as paltry entertainments, and on the wealth of Croesus as poverty. The
+last of the Pompeys, in the time of Caligula, had estates so vast, that
+navigable rivers larger than the Thames performed the whole of their
+course from their fountain-head to the sea without leaving his domain.
+There were spendthrifts in the time of Tiberius who lavished thousands
+of pounds upon a supper. The pillage of the world had fallen into the
+hands of a few favoured families, and their example had introduced a
+prodigality and ostentation unheard of before. No one who regarded
+appearances travelled anywhere without a troop of Numidian horsemen,
+and outriders to clear the way. He was followed by a train of mules
+and sumpter-horses loaded with his vases of crystal--his richly-carved
+cups and dishes of silver and gold. But this profusion had its natural
+result in debt and degradation. The patricians who had been rivals of
+the imperial splendour became dependants on the imperial gifts; and the
+grandson of the conqueror of a kingdom, or the proconsul of the half of
+Asia, sold his ancestral palace, lived for a while on the contemptuous
+bounty of his master, and sank in the next generation into the nameless
+mass. Others, more skilful, preserved or improved their fortunes while
+they rioted in expense. By threats or promises, they prevailed on
+the less powerful to constitute them their heirs; they traded on the
+strength, or talents, or the beauty of their slaves, and lent money
+at such usurious interest that the borrower tried in vain to escape
+the shackles of the law, and ended by becoming the bondsman of the
+kind-hearted gentleman who had induced him to accept the loan.
+
+If these were the habits of the rich, how were the poor treated? The
+free and penniless citizens of the capital were degraded and gratified
+at the same time. The wealthy vied with each other in buying the favour
+of the mob by shows and other entertainments, by gifts of money and
+donations of food. But when these arts failed, and popularity could
+no longer be obtained by merely defraying the expense of a combat of
+gladiators, the descendants of the old patricians--of the men who
+had bought the land on which the Gauls were encamped outside the
+gates of Rome--went down into the arena themselves and fought for
+the public entertainment. Laws indeed were passed even in the reign
+of Tiberius, and renewed at intervals after that time, against this
+shameful degradation, and the stage was interdicted to all who were
+not previously declared infamous by sentence of a court. But all was
+in vain. Ladies of the highest rank, and the loftiest-born of the
+nobility, actually petitioned for a decree of defamation, that they
+might give themselves up undisturbed to their favourite amusement. This
+perhaps added a zest to their enjoyment, and rapturous applauses must
+have hailed the entrance of the beautiful grandchild of Anthony or
+Agrippa, in the character and drapery of a warlike amazon--the louder
+the applause and greater the admiration. Yet in order to gratify them
+with such a sight, she had descended to the level of the convict, and
+received the brand of qualifying disgrace from a legal tribunal. But
+the faint barrier of this useless prohibition was thrown down by the
+policy and example of Domitian. The emperor himself appeared in the
+arena, and all restraint was at an end. Rather, there was a fury of
+emulation to copy so great a model, and "Rome's proud dames, whose
+garments swept the ground," forgot more than ever their rank and
+sex, and were proud, like their lovers and brothers, not merely to
+mount the stage in the lascivious costume of nymph or dryad, but to
+descend into the blood-stained lists of the Coliseum and murder each
+other with sword and spear. There is something strangely horrible in
+this transaction, when we read that it occurred for the first time in
+celebration of the games of Flora--the goddess of flowers and gardens,
+who, in old times, was worshipped under the blossomed apple-trees in
+the little orchards surrounding each cottage within the walls, and was
+propitiated with children's games and chaplets hung upon the boughs.
+But now the loveliest of the noble daughters of the city lay dead upon
+the trampled sand. What was the effect upon the populace of these
+extraordinary shows?
+
+Always stern and cruel, the Roman was now never satisfied unless with
+the spectacle of death. Sometimes in the midst of a play or pantomime
+the fierce lust of blood would seize him, and he would cry out for a
+combat of gladiators or nobles, who instantly obeyed; and after the
+fight was over, and the corpses removed, the play would go on as if
+nothing had occurred. The banners of the empire still continued to bear
+the initial letters of the great words--the Senate and people of Rome.
+We have now, in this rapid survey, seen what both those great names
+have come to--the Senate crawling at the feet of the emperor, and the
+people living on charity and shows. The slaves fared worst of all,
+for they were despised by rich and poor. The sated voluptuary whose
+property they were sometimes found an excitement to his jaded spirits
+by having them tortured in his sight. They were allowed to die of
+starvation when they grew old, unless they were turned to use, as was
+done by one of their possessors, Vidius Pollio, who cast the fattest of
+his domestics into his fish-pond to feed his lampreys. The only other
+classes were the actors and musicians, the dwarfs and the philosophers.
+They contributed by their wit, or their uncouth shape, or their
+oracular sentences, to the amusement of their employers, and were safe.
+They were licensed characters, and could say what they chose, protected
+by the long-drawn countenance of the stoic, or the comic grimaces of
+the buffoon. So early as the time of Nero, the people he tyrannized and
+flattered were not less ruthless than himself. In his cruelty--in his
+vanity--in his frivolity, and his entire devotion to the gratification
+of his passions--he was a true representative of the men over whom he
+ruled. Emperor and subject had even then become fitted for each other,
+and flowers, we are credibly told by the historians, were hung for many
+years upon his tomb.
+
+Humanity itself seemed to be sunk beyond the possibility of
+restoration; but we see now how necessary it was that our nature should
+reach its lowest point of depression to give full force to the great
+reaction which Christianity introduced. Men were slavishly bending at
+the footstool of a despot, trembling for life, bowed down by fear and
+misery, when suddenly it was reported that a great teacher had appeared
+for a while upon earth, and declared that all men were equal in the
+sight of God, for that God was the Father of all. The slave heard this
+in the intervals of his torture--the captive in his dungeon--the widow
+and the orphan. To the poor the gospel, or good news, was preached.
+It was this which made the trembling courtiers of the worst of the
+emperors slip out noiselessly from the palace, and hear from Paul of
+Tarsus or his disciples the new prospect that was opening on mankind.
+It spread quickly among those oppressed and hopeless multitudes. The
+subjection of the Roman empire--its misery and degradation--were only a
+means to an end. The harsher the laws of the tyrant, the more gracious
+seemed the words of Christ. The two masters were plainly set before
+them, which to choose. And who could hesitate? One said, "Tremble!
+suffer! die!" The other said, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and
+heavy laden, and I will give you rest!"
+
+
+
+
+                            SECOND CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       TRAJAN--(_continued._) Third Persecution of the Christians.
+
+  117. ADRIAN. Fourth Persecution of the Christians.
+
+  138. ANTONINUS PIUS.
+
+  161. MARCUS AURELIUS.
+
+  180. COMMODUS.
+
+  193. PERTINAX--DIDIUS, and NIGER--Defeated by
+
+  193. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+PLINY THE YOUNGER, PLUTARCH, SUETONIUS, JUVENAL, ARRIAN, AELIAN,
+PTOLEMY, (Geographer,) APPIAN, EPICTETUS, PAUSANIAS, GALEN,
+(Physician,) ATHENAEUS, TERTULLIAN, JUSTIN MARTYR, TATIAN, IRENAEUS,
+ATHENAGORAS, THEOPHILUS OF ANTIOCH, CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, MARCION,
+(Heretic.)
+
+
+
+
+                          THE SECOND CENTURY.
+
+                          THE GOOD EMPERORS.
+
+
+In looking at the second century, we see a total difference in the
+expression, though the main features continue unchanged. There is still
+the central power at Rome, the same dependence everywhere else; but the
+central power is beneficent and wise. As if tired of the hereditary
+rule of succession which had ended in such a monster as Domitian, the
+world took refuge in a new system of appointing its chiefs, and perhaps
+thought it a recommendation of each successive emperor that he had no
+relationship to the last. We shall accordingly find that, after this
+period, the hereditary principle is excluded. It was remarked that, of
+the twelve first Caesars, only two had died a natural death--for even
+in the case of Augustus the arts of the poisoner were suspected--and
+those two were Vespasian and Titus, men who had no claim to such an
+elevation in right of lofty birth. Birth, indeed, had ceased to be a
+recommendation. All the great names of the Republic had been carefully
+rooted out. Few people were inclined to boast of their ancestry
+when the proof of their pedigree acted as a sentence of death; for
+there was no surer passport to destruction in the times of the early
+emperors than a connection with the Julian line, or descent from a
+historic family. No one, therefore, took the trouble to inquire into
+the genealogy of Nerva, the old and generous man who succeeded the
+monster Domitian. [A.D. 96.] His nomination to the empire elevated him
+at once out of the sphere of these inquiries, for already the same
+superstitious reverence surrounded the name of Augustus which spreads
+its inviolable sanctity on the throne of Eastern monarchs. Whoever sits
+upon that, by whatever title, or however acquired, is the legitimate
+and unquestioned king. No rival, therefore, started up to contest the
+position either of Nerva himself, or of the stranger he nominated to
+succeed him. [A.D. 102.] Men bent in humble acquiescence when they
+knew, in the third year of this century, that their master was named
+Trajan,--that he was a Spaniard by birth, and the best general of Rome.
+For eighty years after that date the empire had rest. Life and property
+were comparatively secure, and society flowed on peaceably in deep
+and well-ascertained channels. A man might have been born at the end
+of the reign of Domitian, and die in extreme old age under the sway
+of the last of the Antonines, and never have known of insecurity or
+oppression--
+
+    "Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
+     Could touch him farther!"
+
+No wonder those agreeable years were considered by the fond gratitude
+of the time, and the unavailing regrets of succeeding generations,
+the golden age of man. Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus
+Aurelius Antoninus--these are still great names, and are everywhere
+recognised as the most wonderful succession of sovereigns the world has
+ever seen. They are still called the "Good Emperors," the "Wise Rulers."
+
+It is easy, indeed, to be good in comparison with Nero, and wise in
+comparison with Claudius; but the effect of the example of those
+infamous tyrants made it doubly difficult to be either good or wise.
+The world had become so accustomed to oppression, that it seemed at
+first surprised at the change that had taken place. The emperors
+had to create a knowledge of justice before their just acts could
+be appreciated. The same opposition other men have experienced in
+introducing bad and cruel measures was roused by their introduction
+of wise and salutary laws. What! no more summary executions, nor
+forfeitures of fortunes, nor banishments to the Danube? All men equal
+before the dread tribunal of the imperial judge? The world was surely
+coming to an end, if the emperor did not now and then poison a senator,
+or stab his brother, or throw half a dozen courtiers to the beasts!
+It is likely enough that some of the younger Romans at first lamented
+those days of unlimited license and perpetual excitement; but in the
+course of time those wilder spirits must have died out, and the world
+gladly acquiesced in an existence of dull security and uninteresting
+peace. By the end of the reign of Trajan the records of the miseries of
+the last century must have been studied as curiosities--as historical
+students now look back on the extravagances and horrors of the French
+Revolution. Fortunately, men could not look forward to the times, more
+pitiable still, when their descendants should fall into greater sorrows
+than had been inflicted on mankind by the worst of the Caesars, and they
+enjoyed their present immunity from suffering without any misgivings
+about the future. But a government which does every thing for a people
+renders it unable to do any thing for itself. The subject stood quietly
+by while the emperor filled all the offices of the State--guarded him,
+fed him, clothed him, treated him like a child, and reduced him at
+last to childlike dependence. An unjust proconsul, instead of being
+supported and encouraged in his exactions, was dismissed from his
+employment and forced to refund his ill-got gains,--the population,
+relieved from their oppressor, saw in his punishment the hand of an
+avenging Providence. The wakeful eye of the governor in Rome saw the
+hostile preparations of a tribe of barbarians beyond the Danube; and
+the legions, crossing the river, dispersed and subdued them before they
+had time to devastate the Roman fields. The peaceful colonist saw, in
+the suddenness of his deliverance, the foresight and benevolence of a
+divinity. No words were powerful enough to convey the sentiments of
+admiration awakened, by such vigour and goodness, in the breast of a
+luxurious and effeminate people; and accordingly, if we look a little
+closely into the personal attributes of the five good emperors, we
+shall see that some part of their glory is due to the exaggerations of
+love and gratitude.
+
+Nerva reigned but sixteen months, and had no time to do more than
+display his kindness of disposition, and to name his successor. This
+was Trajan, a man who was not even a Roman by birth, but who was
+thought by his patron to have retained, in the distant province of
+Spain where he was born, the virtues which had disappeared in the
+centre and capital of the empire. The deficiency of Nerva's character
+had been its softness and want of force. The stern vigilance of Trajan
+made ample amends. He was the best-known soldier of his time, and
+revived once more the terror of the Roman arms. He conquered wherever
+he appeared; but his warlike impetuosity led him too far. He trod in
+the footsteps of Alexander the Great, and advanced farther eastward
+than any of the Roman armies had previously done. But his victories
+were fruitless: he attached no new country permanently to the empire,
+and derives all his glory now from the excellence of his internal
+administration. He began his government by declaring himself as
+subordinate to the laws as the meanest of the people. His wife, Pompeia
+Plotina, was worthy of such a husband, and said, on mounting the steps
+of the palace, that she should descend them unaltered from what she
+was. The emperor visited his friends on terms of equality, and had the
+greatness of mind, generally deficient in absolute princes, to bestow
+his confidence on those who deserved it. Somebody, a member perhaps
+of the old police who had made such fortunes in the time of Domitian
+by alarming the tyrant with stories of plots and assassinations, told
+Trajan one day to beware of his minister, who intended to murder him
+on the first opportunity. "Come again, and tell me all particulars
+to-morrow," said the emperor. In the mean time he went unbidden and
+supped with the accused. He was shaved by his barber--was attended for
+a mock illness by his surgeon--bathed in his bath--and ate his meat
+and drank his wine. On the following day the informer came. "Ah!" said
+Trajan, interrupting him in his accusation of Surenus, "if Surenus had
+wished to kill me, he would have done it last night."
+
+[A.D. 117.]
+
+The emperor died when returning from a distant expedition in the
+East, and Pompeia declared that he had long designated Adrian as his
+successor. This evidence was believed, and Adrian, also a Spaniard by
+birth, and eminent as a military commander, began his reign. Trajan had
+been a general--a conqueror, and had extended for a time the boundaries
+of the Roman power. But Adrian believed the empire was large enough
+already. He withdrew the eagles from the half-subdued provinces, and
+contented himself with the natural limits which it was easy to defend.
+But within those limits his activity was unexampled. He journeyed from
+end to end of his immense domain, and for seventeen years never rested
+in one spot. News did not travel fast in those days--but the emperor
+did. Long before the inhabitants of Syria and Egypt heard that he had
+left Rome on an expedition to Britain, he had rushed through Gaul,
+crossed the Channel, inquired into the proceedings of the government
+officers at York, given orders for a wall to keep out the Caledonians,
+(an attempt which has proved utterly vain at all periods of English
+history, down to the present day,) and suddenly made his appearance
+among the bewildered dwellers in Ephesus or Carthage, to call
+tax-gatherers to order and to inspect the discipline of his troops.
+The master's eye was everywhere, for nobody knew on what point it was
+fixed. And such a master no kingdom has been able to boast of since.
+His talents were universal. He read every thing and forgot nothing.
+He was a musician, a poet, a philosopher. He studied medicine and
+mineralogy, and plead causes like Cicero, and sang like a singer at the
+opera. Perhaps it is difficult to judge impartially of the qualities
+of a Roman emperor. One day he found fault on a point of grammar with
+a learned man of the name of Favorinus. Favorinus could have defended
+himself and justified his language, but continued silent. His friends
+said to him, "Why didn't you answer the emperor's objections?" "Do
+you think," said the sensible grammarian, "I am going to enter into
+disputes with a man who commands thirty legions?" But the greatness
+of Adrian's character is, that he _did_ command those thirty legions.
+He was severe and just; and Roman discipline was never more exact.
+The result of this was shown on the grand scale only once during this
+reign, and that was in the case of the revolted Jews. We have seen the
+state to which their Temple at Jerusalem was reduced by Titus. Fifty
+years had now passed, and the passionate love of the people for their
+native land had congregated them once more within their renovated
+walls, and raised up another temple on the site of the old. They still
+expected the Messiah, for the Messiah to them represented vengeance
+upon the Romans and triumph over the world. An impostor of the name
+of Barcho-chebas led three hundred thousand of them into the field.
+They were mad with national hatred, and inspired with fanatical hope.
+It took three years of desperate effort to quell this sedition; and
+then Adrian had his revenge. The country was laid waste. Fifty towns
+and a thousand villages were sacked and burned. The population, once
+more nearly exhausted by war and famine, furnished slaves, which were
+sold all over the East. Jerusalem itself felt the conqueror's hatred
+most. Its name was blotted out--it was called AElia Capitolina; and,
+with ferocious mockery, over the gate of the new capital of Judea
+was affixed the statue of the unclean beast, the abomination of the
+Israelite. But nothing could keep the Jews from visiting the land of so
+many promises and so much glory. Whenever they had it in their power,
+they crept back from all quarters, if it were only to weep and die amid
+the ruins of their former power.
+
+Trajan and Adrian had now made the world accustomed to justice in its
+rulers; and as far as regards their public conduct, this character
+is not to be denied. Yet in their private relations they were not so
+faultless. Trajan the great and good was a drunkard. To such a pitch
+did he carry this vice, that he gave orders that after a certain hour
+of the day none of his commands were to be obeyed. Adrian was worse: he
+was regardless of life; he put men to death for very small offences. An
+architect was asked how he liked a certain series of statues designed
+by the emperor and ranged in a sitting attitude round a temple which
+he had built. The architect was a humourist, not a courtier. "If the
+goddesses," he said, "take it into their heads to rise, they will never
+be able to get out at the door." A poor criticism, and not a good
+piece of wit, but not bad enough to justify his being beheaded; yet
+the answer cost the poor man his life. As Adrian grew older, he grew
+more reckless of the pain he gave. He had a brother-in-law ninety years
+of age, and there was a grandson of the old man aged eighteen. He had
+them both executed on proof or suspicion of a conspiracy. The popular
+feeling was revolted by the sight of the mingled blood of two sufferers
+so nearly related, at the opposite extremities of life. The old man,
+just before he died, protested his innocence, and uttered a revengeful
+prayer that Adrian might wish to die and find death impossible! This
+imprecation was fulfilled. The emperor was tortured with disease, and
+longed for deliverance in vain. He called round him his physicians, and
+priests, and sorcerers, but they could give him no relief. He begged
+his slaves to kill him, and stabbed himself with a dagger; but in
+spite of all he could not die. Lingering on, and with no cessation of
+his pain, he must have had sad thoughts of the past, and no pleasant
+anticipations of the future, if, as we learn from the verses attributed
+to him, he believed in a future state. His lines still remain, but are
+indebted to Pope, who paraphrased them, for their Christian spirit and
+lofty aspiration:--
+
+    "Vital spark of heavenly flame!
+     Quit, oh, quit this mortal frame!
+     Trembling, hoping, lingering, flying,
+     Oh, the pain, the bliss of dying!
+     Cease, fond nature, cease thy strife,
+     And let me languish into life!
+
+    "Hark! they whisper! angels say,
+     Sister spirit, come away!
+     What is this absorbs me quite,
+     Steals my senses, shuts my sight,
+     Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?
+     Tell me, my soul, can this be death?
+
+    "The world recedes; it disappears!
+     Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears
+       With sounds seraphic ring:
+     Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!
+     O Grave! where is thy victory?
+       O Death! where is thy sting?"
+
+His wish was at last achieved. He died aged sixty-two, having reigned
+twenty-one years. In travelling and building his whole time was spent.
+Temples, theatres, bridges--wherever he went, these evidences of his
+wisdom or magnificence remained. He persecuted the Christians, but
+found persecution a useless proceeding against a sect who gloried in
+martyrdom, and whose martyrdoms were only followed by new conversions.
+He tried what an opposite course of conduct would do, and is said to
+have intended to erect a temple to Jesus Christ. "Take care what you
+do," said one of his counsellors: "if you permit an altar to the God of
+the Christians, those of the other gods will be deserted."
+
+[A.D. 138.]
+
+But now came to supreme authority the good and wise Antoninus Pius, who
+was as blameless in his private conduct as in his public acts. His fame
+extended farther than the Roman arms had ever reached. Distant kings,
+in lands of which the names were scarcely known in the Forum, took him
+as arbiter of their differences. The decision of the great man in Rome
+gave peace on the banks of the Indus. The barbarians themselves on the
+outskirts of his dominions were restrained by respect for a character
+so pure and power so wisely used. An occasional revolt in Britain
+was quelled by his lieutenants--an occasional conspiracy against his
+authority was caused by the discontent which turbulent spirits feel
+when restrained by law. The conspiracies were repressed, and on one
+occasion two of the ringleaders were put to death. The Senate was for
+making further inquiry into the plot. "Let us stop here," said the
+emperor. "I do not wish to find out how many people I have displeased."
+Some stories are told of him, which show how little he affected the
+state of a despotic ruler. A pedantic philosopher at Smyrna, of the
+name of Polemo, returned from a journey at a late hour, and found the
+proconsul of Rome lodged in his house. This proconsul was Antonine,
+who at that time had been appointed to the office by Adrian. Instead
+of being honoured by such a guest, the philosopher stormed and raged,
+and made so much noise, that in the middle of the night the sleepless
+proconsul left the house and found quarters elsewhere. When years
+passed on, and Antonine was on the throne, Polemo had the audacity to
+present himself as an old acquaintance. "Ha! I remember him," said the
+emperor: "let him have a room in the palace, but don't let him leave
+it night or day." The imprisonment was not long, for we find the same
+Polemo hero of another anecdote during this visit to Rome. He hissed
+a performer in the theatre, and stamped and screeched, and made such
+a disturbance that the unfortunate actor had to leave the stage. He
+complained of Polemo to the emperor. "Polemo!" exclaimed Antonine; "he
+forced you off the stage in the middle of the day, but he drove me
+from his house in the middle of the night, and yet I never appealed."
+It would be pleasant if we could learn that Polemo did not get off so
+easily. But the twenty-two years of this reign of mildness and probity
+were brought to a close, and Marcus Aurelius succeeded in 161.
+
+[A.D. 161]
+
+Marcus Aurelius did no dishonour to the discernment of his friend and
+adoptive father Antoninus Pius. Studying philosophy and practising
+self-command, he emulated and surpassed the virtues of the self-denying
+leaders of his sect, and only broke through the rule he imposed
+on himself of clemency and mildness, when he found philosophy in
+danger of being counted a vain deceit, and the active duties of human
+brotherhood preferred to the theoretic rhapsodies on the same subject
+with which his works were filled. Times began to change. Men were
+dissatisfied with the unsubstantial dream of Platonist and Stoic. There
+were symptoms of an approaching alteration in human affairs, which
+perplexed the thoughtful and gave promise of impunity to the bad.
+Perhaps a man who, clothed in the imperial purple, bestowed so much
+study on the intellectual niceties of the Sophists, and endeavoured
+to keep his mind in a fit state for abstract speculation by scourging
+and starving his body, was not so fitted for the approaching crisis
+as a rougher and less contemplative nature would have been. Britain
+was in commotion, there were tumults on the Rhine, and in Armenia the
+Parthians cut the Roman legions to pieces. And scarcely were those
+troubles settled and punished, when a worse calamity befell the Roman
+empire. Its inviolability became a boast of the past. The fearful
+passions for conquest and rapine of the border-barbarians were roused.
+Barbaric cohorts encamped on the fields of Italy, and the hosts of wild
+men from the forests of the North pillaged the heaped-up treasures
+of the garden of the world. The emperor flew to the scene of danger,
+but the fatal word had been said. Italy was accessible from the Alps
+and from the sea; and, though a bloody defeat at Aquileia flung back
+the invaders, disordered and dispirited, over the mountains they had
+descended with such hopes, the struggle was but begun. The barbarians
+felt their power, and the old institutions of Rome were insufficient
+to resist future attacks. But to the aid of the old Roman institutions
+a new institution came, an institution which was destined to repel the
+barbarians by overcoming barbarism itself, and save the dignity of
+Rome by giving it the protection of the Cross. But at present--that
+is, during the reign of the philosophic Marcus Aurelius--a persecution
+raged against the Christians which seemed to render hopeless all
+chance of their success. The mild laws of Trajan and Adrian, and
+the favourable decrees of Antoninus Pius, were set aside by the
+contemptuous enmity of this explorer of the mysterious heights of
+virtue, which occasionally carried him out of sight of the lower but
+more important duties of life. An unsocial tribe the Christians were,
+who rigorously shut their eyes to the beauties of abstract perfection,
+and preferred the plain orders of the gospel to the most ambitious
+periods of the emperor. But the persecution of a sect so small and so
+obscure as the Christian was at that time, is scarcely perceptible as
+a diminution of the sum of human happiness secured to the world by
+the gentleness and equity which regulated all his actions. Here is an
+example of the way in which he treated rebels against his authority.
+An insurrection broke out in Syria and the East, headed by a pretended
+descendant of the patriot Cassius, who had conspired against Julius
+Caesar. The emperor hurried to meet him--some say to resign the empire
+into his hands, to prevent the effusion of blood; but the usurper died
+in an obscure commotion, and nothing was left but to take vengeance
+on his adherents. This is the letter the conqueror wrote to the
+Senate:--"I beseech you, conscript Fathers! not to punish the guilty
+with too much rigour. Let no Senator be put to death. Let the banished
+return to their country. I wish I could give back their lives to those
+who have died in this quarrel. Revenge is unworthy of an emperor. You
+will pardon, therefore, the children of Cassius, his son-in-law, and
+his wife. Pardon, did I say? Ah! what crime have they committed? Let
+them live in safety, let them retain all that Cassius possessed. Let
+them live in whatever place they choose, to be a monument of your
+clemency and mine."
+
+In such hands as these the fortune of mankind was safe. A pity
+that the father's feelings got the better of his judgment in the
+choice of his successor. It is the one blot on his otherwise perfect
+disinterestedness. In dying, with such a monster as Commodus ready
+to leap into his seat, he must have felt how inexpressibly valuable
+his life would be to the Roman people. He perhaps saw the danger to
+which he exposed the world; for he committed his son to the care of
+his wisest counsellors, and begged him to continue the same course of
+government he had pursued. Perhaps he was tired of life, perhaps he
+sought refuge in his self-denying philosophy from the prospect he saw
+before him of a state of perpetual struggle and eventual overthrow.
+When the Tribune came for the last time to ask the watchword of the
+day, "Go to the rising sun," he said; "for me, I am just going to set."
+
+And here the history of the Second Century should close. It is painful
+to go back again to the hideous scenes of anarchy and crime from which
+we have been delivered so long. What must the sage counsellors, the
+chosen companions and equals in age of the Antonines, have thought
+when all at once the face of affairs, which they must have believed
+eternal, was changed?--when the noblest and wisest in the land were
+again thrown heedlessly into the arena without trial?--when spies
+watched every meal, and the ferocious murderer on the throne seemed to
+gloat over the struggles of his victims? Yet, if they had reflected
+on the inevitable course of events, they must have seen that a
+government depending on the character of one man could never be relied
+on. Where, indeed, could any element of security be found? The very
+ground-work of society was overthrown. There was no independent body
+erect amid the general prostration at the footstool of the emperor.
+Local self-government had ceased except in name. All the towns which
+hitherto had been subordinate to Rome, but endowed at the same time
+with privileges which were worth defending, had been absorbed into the
+great whirlpool of imperial centralization, and were admitted to the
+rights of Roman citizenship,--now of little value, since it embraced
+every quarter of the empire. Jupiter and Juno, and the herd of effete
+gods and goddesses, if they had ever held any practical influence
+over the minds of men, had long sunk into contempt, except in so far
+as their rich establishments were defended by persons interested in
+their maintenance, and the processions and gaudy display of a foul and
+meretricious worship were pleasing to the depraved taste of the mob.
+But the religious principle, as a motive of action, or as a point of
+combination, was at an end. Augurs were still appointed, and laughed
+at the uselessness of their office; oracles were still uttered, and
+ridiculed as the offspring of ignorance and imposture; conflicting
+deities fought for pre-eminence, or compromised their differences by an
+amalgamation of their altars, and perhaps a division of their estates.
+It was against this state of society the early Fathers directed their
+warnings and denunciations. The world did certainly lie in darkness,
+and it was indispensable to warn the followers of Christ not to be
+conformed to the fashion of that fleeting time. Some, to escape the
+contagion of this miserable condition, when men were without hope, and
+without even the wretched consolation which a belief in a false god
+would have given them, fled to the wilds and caves. Hermits escaped
+equally the perils of sin and the hostility of the heathen. Believers
+were exhorted to flee from contamination, and some took the words
+in their literal meaning. But not all. Many remained, and fought the
+good fight in the front of the battle, as became the soldiers of the
+cross. In the midst of the anarchy and degradation which characterized
+the last years of the century, a society was surely and steadily
+advancing towards its full development, bound by rules in the midst
+of the helplessness of external law, and combined by strong faith,
+in a world of utter unbelief--an empire within an empire--soon to be
+the only specimen left either of government or mutual obligation, and
+finally to absorb into its fresh and still-spreading organization the
+withered and impotent authority which had at first seen in it its enemy
+and destroyer, and found it at last its refuge and support. Yet at
+this very time the empire had never appeared so strong. By a stroke of
+policy, which the event proved to be injudicious, Marcus Aurelius, in
+the hope of diminishing the number of his enemies, had converted many
+thousands of the barbarians into his subjects. They had settlements
+assigned them within the charmed ring. What they had not been able to
+obtain by the sword was now assured to them by treaty. But the unity of
+the Roman empire by this means was destroyed. Men were admitted within
+the citadel who had no reverence implanted in them from their earliest
+years for the majesty of the Roman name. They saw the riches contained
+in the stronghold, and were only anxious to open the gates to their
+countrymen who were still outside the walls.
+
+But before we enter on the downward course, and since we are now
+arrived at the period of the greatest apparent force and extent of the
+Roman empire, let us see what it consisted of, and what was the real
+amount of its power.
+
+Viewed in comparison with some of the monarchies of the present day,
+neither its extent of territory, nor amount of population, nor number
+of soldiers, is very surprising. The Queen of England reigns over more
+subjects, and commands far mightier fleets and armies, than any of
+the Roman emperors. The empire of Russia is more extensive, and yet
+the historians of a few generations ago are lost in admiration of the
+power of Rome. The whole military force of the empire amounted to four
+hundred and fifty thousand men. The total number of vessels did not
+exceed a thousand. But see what were the advantages Rome possessed in
+the compactness of its territory and the unity of its government. The
+great Mediterranean Sea, peopled and cultivated on both its shores, was
+but a peaceful lake, on which the Roman galley had no enemy to fear,
+and the merchant-ship dreaded nothing but the winds and waves. There
+were no fortresses to be garrisoned on what are now the boundaries of
+jealous or hostile kingdoms. If the great circuit of the Roman State
+could be protected from barbarian inroads, the internal defence of all
+that vast enclosure could be left to the civil power. If the Black Sea
+and the Sea of Azoff could be kept clear of piratical adventurers, the
+broad highway of the Mediterranean was safe. A squadron near Gibraltar,
+a squadron at the Dardanelles, and the tribes which might possibly
+venture in from the ocean--the tribes which, slipping down from the
+Don or the Dnieper, might thread their way through the Hellespont and
+emerge into the Egean--were caught at their first appearance; and when
+the wisdom of the Romans had guarded the mouths of the Danube from the
+descent, in canoe or coracle, of the wild settlers on its upper banks,
+the peace and commerce of the whole empire were secured. With modern
+Europe the case is very different. There are boundaries to be guarded
+which occupy more soldiers than the territories are worth. Lines are
+arbitrarily fixed across the centre of a plain, or along the summit
+of a mountain, which it is a case of war to pass. Belgium defends
+her flats with a hundred thousand men, and the marshes of Holland
+are secured by sixty thousand Dutch. The State of Dessau in Germany,
+threatens its neighbours with fifteen hundred soldiers, while Reuss
+guards its dignity and independence with three hundred infantry and
+fifty horse. But the Great Powers, as they are called, take away from
+the peaceable and remunerative employments of trade or agriculture an
+amount of labour which would be an incalculable increase to the riches
+and happiness of the world. The aggregate soldiery of Europe is upwards
+of five millions of men,--just eleven times the largest calculation
+of the Roman legions. The ships of Europe--to the smaller of which
+the greatest galleys of the ancient world would scarcely serve as
+tenders--amount to 2113. The number of guns they carry, against which
+there is nothing we can take as a measure of value in ancient warfare,
+but which are now the greatest and surest criterions of military power,
+amounts to 45,367. But this does not give so clear a view of the
+alteration in relative power as is yielded by an inspection of some
+of the separate items. Gaul, included within the Rhine, was kept in
+order by six or seven legions. The French empire has on foot an army of
+six hundred and fifty thousand men, and a fleet of four hundred sail.
+Britain, which was garrisoned by thirty thousand men, had, in 1855, an
+army at home and abroad of six hundred and sixty thousand men, and a
+fleet of five hundred and ninety-one ships of war, with an armament of
+seventeen thousand guns. The disjointed States which now constitute the
+Empire of Austria, and which occupied eight legions in their defence,
+are now in possession of an army of six hundred thousand men; and
+Prussia, whose array exceeds half a million of soldiers, was unheard of
+except in the discussions of geographers.[A]
+
+[A.D. 181.]
+
+With the death of the excellent Marcus Aurelius the golden age came to
+a close. Commodus sat on the throne, and renewed the wildest atrocities
+of the previous century. Nero was not more cruel--Domitian was not so
+reckless of human life. He fought in the arena against weakly-armed
+adversaries, and slew them without remorse. He polluted the whole
+city with blood, and made money by selling permissions to murder.
+Thirteen years exhausted the patience of the world, and a justifiable
+assassination put an end to his life. There was an old man of the
+name of Pertinax, originally a nickname derived from his obstinate or
+pertinacious disposition, who now made his appearance on the throne
+and perished in three months. It chanced that a certain rich man of
+the name of Didius was giving a supper the night of the murder to some
+friends. The dishes were rich, and the wine delicious. Inspired by
+the good cheer, the guests said, "Why don't you buy the empire? The
+soldiers have proclaimed that they will give it to the highest bidder."
+Didius knew the amount of his treasure, and was ambitious: he got up
+from table and hurried to the Praetorian camp. On the way he met the
+mutilated body of the murdered Pertinax, dragged through the streets
+with savage exultation. Nothing daunted, he arrived at the soldiers'
+tents. Another had been before him--Sulpician, the father-in-law and
+friend of the late emperor. A bribe had been offered to each soldier,
+so large that they were about to conclude the bargain; but Didius bade
+many sesterces more. The greedy soldiery looked from one to the other,
+and shouted with delight, as each new advance was made. [A.D. 193.] At
+last Sulpician was silent, and Didius had purchased the Roman world at
+the price of upwards of L200 to each soldier of the Praetorian guard. He
+entered the palace in state, and concluded the supper, which had been
+interrupted at his own house, on the viands prepared for Pertinax. But
+the excitement of the auction-room was too pleasant to be left to the
+troops in Rome. Offers were made to the legions in all the provinces,
+and Didius was threatened on every side. Even the distant garrisons of
+Britain named a candidate for the throne; and Claudius Albinus assumed
+the imperial purple, and crossed over into Gaul. More irritated still,
+the army in Syria elected its general, Pescennius Niger, emperor, and
+he prepared to dispute the prize; but quietly, steadily, with stern
+face and unrelenting heart, advancing from province to province,
+keeping his forces in strict subjection, and laying claim to supreme
+authority by the mere strength of his indomitable will, came forward
+Septimius Severus, and both the pretenders saw that their fate was
+sealed. Illyria and Gaul recognised his title at once. Albinus was
+happy to accept from him the subordinate title of Caesar, and to rule as
+his lieutenant. Didius, whose bargain turned out rather ill, besought
+him to be content with half the empire. Severus slew the messengers
+who brought this proposition, and advanced in grim silence. The Senate
+assembled, and, by way of a pleasant reception for the Illyrian chief,
+requested Didius to prepare for death. The executioners found him
+clinging to life with unmanly tenacity, and killed him when he had
+reigned but seventy days. One other competitor remained, the general of
+the Syrian army--the closest friend of Severus, but now separated from
+him by the great temptation of an empire in dispute. This was Niger,
+from whom an obstinate resistance was expected, as he was equally
+famous for his courage and his skill. But fortune was on the side of
+Severus. Niger was conquered after a short struggle, and his head
+presented to the victor. Was Albinus still to live, and approach so
+near the throne as to have the rank of Caesar? Assassins were employed
+to murder him, but he escaped their assault. The treachery of Severus
+brought many supporters to his rival. The Roman armies were ranged
+in hostile camps. Severus again was fortunate, and Albinus, dashing
+towards him to engage in combat, was slain before his eyes. He watched
+his dying agonies for some time, and then forced his horse to trample
+on the corpse. A man of harsh, implacable nature--not so much cruel as
+impenetrable to human feelings, and perhaps forming a just estimate
+of the favourable effect upon his fortunes of a disposition so calm,
+and yet so relentless. The Praetorians found they had appointed their
+master, and put the sword into his hand. He used it without remorse.
+He terrified the boldest with his imperturbable stillness; he summoned
+the seditious soldiery to wait on him at his camp. They were to come
+without arms, without their military dress, almost like suppliants,
+certainly not like the ferocious libertines they had been when they
+had sold the empire at the highest price. "Whoever of you wishes to
+live," said Severus, frowning coldly, "will depart from this, and
+never come within thirty leagues of Rome. Take their horses," he added
+to the other troops who had surrounded the Praetorians, "take their
+accoutrements, and chase them out of my sight." Did the Senate receive
+a milder treatment? On sending them the head of Albinus, he had written
+to the Conscript Fathers alarming them with the most dreadful threats.
+And now the time of execution had come. He made them an oration in
+praise of the proscriptions of Marius and Sylla, and forced them to
+deify the tyrant Commodus, who had hated them all his life. He then
+gave a signal to his train, and the streets ran with blood. All who
+had borne high office, all who were of distinguished birth, all who
+were famous for their wealth or popular with the citizens, were put
+to death. He crossed over to England and repressed a sedition there.
+His son Caracalla accompanied him, and commenced his career of warlike
+ardour and frightful ferocity, which can only be explained on the
+ground of his being mad. He tried even to murder his father, in open
+day, in the sight of the soldiers. He was stealing upon the old man,
+when a cry from the legion made him turn round. His inflexible eye fell
+upon Caracalla--the sword dropped from his unfilial hand--and dreadful
+anticipations of vengeance filled the assembly. The son was pardoned,
+but his accomplices, whether truly or falsely accused, perished by
+cruel deaths. At last the emperor felt his end approach. He summoned
+his sons Caracalla and Geta into his presence, recommended them to live
+in unity, and ended by the advice which has become the standing maxim
+of military despots, "Be generous to the soldiers, and trample on all
+beside."
+
+With this hideous incarnation of unpitying firmness on the
+throne--hopeless of the future, and with dangers accumulating on every
+side, the Second Century came to an end, leaving the amazing contrast
+between its miserable close and the long period of its prosperity by
+which it will be remembered in all succeeding time.
+
+
+
+
+                            THIRD CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+  A.D.
+
+            SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS--(_continued._) Fifth Persecution of the
+              Christians.
+
+  211.      CARACALLA and GETA.
+
+  217.      MACRINUS.
+
+  218.      HELIOGABALUS.
+
+  222.      ALEXANDER SEVERUS.
+
+  235.      MAXIMIN. Sixth Persecution.
+
+  238.      MAXIMUS and BALBINUS
+
+  238.      GORDIAN.
+
+  244.      PHILIP THE ARABIAN.
+
+  249.      DECIUS. Seventh Persecution.
+
+  251.      VIBIUS.
+
+  251.      GALLUS.
+
+  254.      VALERIAN. Eighth Persecution.
+
+  260.      GALLIEN.
+
+  268.      CLAUDIUS THE SECOND.
+
+  270.      AURELIAN. Ninth Persecution.
+
+  275.      TACITUS.
+
+  276.      FLORIAN.
+
+  277.      PROBUS.
+
+  278.      CARUS.
+
+  278.      CARINUS and NUMERIAN.
+
+  284.      DIOCLETIAN and MAXIMIAN. Tenth and Last Persecution.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, DION CASSIUS, ORIGEN, CYPRIAN, PLOTINUS,
+LONGINUS, HIPPOLITUS PORTUENSIS, JULIUS AFRICANUS CELSUS, ORIGEN.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE THIRD CENTURY.
+
+        ANARCHY AND CONFUSION--GROWTH OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
+
+
+We are now in the twelfth year of the Third Century. Septimius Severus
+has died at York, and Caracalla is let loose like a famished tiger
+upon Rome. He invites his brother Geta to meet him to settle some
+family feud in the apartment of their mother, and stabs him in her
+arms. The rest of his reign is worthy of this beginning, and it would
+be fatiguing and perplexing to the memory to record his other acts.
+Fortunately it is not required; nor is it necessary to follow minutely
+the course of his successors. What we require is only a general view of
+the proceedings of this century, and that can be gained without wading
+through all the blood and horrors with which the throne of the world is
+surrounded. Conclusive evidence was obtained in this century that the
+organization of Roman government was defective in securing the first
+necessities of civilized life. When we talk of civilization, we are too
+apt to limit the meaning of the word to its mere embellishments, such
+as arts and sciences; but the true distinction between it and barbarism
+is, that the one presents a state of society under the protection of
+just and well-administered law, and the other is left to the chance
+government of brute force. There was now great wealth in Rome--great
+luxury--a high admiration of painting, poetry, and sculpture--much
+learning, and probably infinite refinement of manners and address. But
+it was not a civilized state. Life was of no value--property was not
+secure. A series of madmen seized supreme authority, and overthrew all
+the distinctions between right and wrong. Murder was legalized, and
+rapine openly encouraged. It is a sort of satisfaction to perceive that
+few of those atrocious malefactors escaped altogether the punishment
+of their crimes. If Caracalla slays his brother and orders a peaceable
+province to be destroyed, there is a Macrinus at hand to put the
+monster to death. [A.D. 218.] But Macrinus, relying on the goodness
+of his intentions, neglects the soldiery, and is supplanted by a boy
+of seventeen--so handsome that he won the admiration of the rudest of
+the legionaries, and so gentle and captivating in his manners that
+he strengthened the effect his beauty had produced. He was priest of
+the Temple of the Sun at Emesa in Phoenicia; and by the arts of
+his grandmother, who was sister to one of the former empresses, and
+the report that she cunningly spread abroad that he was the son of
+their favourite Caracalla, the affection of the dissolute soldiery
+knew no bounds. Macrinus was soon slaughtered, and the long-haired
+priest of Baal seated on the throne of the Caesars, under the name
+of Heliogabalus. As might be expected, the sudden alteration in
+his fortunes was fatal to his character. All the excesses of his
+predecessors were surpassed. His extravagance rapidly exhausted the
+resources of the empire. His floors were spread with gold-dust. His
+dresses, jewels, and golden ornaments were never worn twice, but went
+to his slaves and parasites. He created his grandmother a member
+of the Senate, with rank next after the consuls; and established a
+rival Senate, composed of ladies, presided over by his mother. Their
+jurisdiction was not very hurtful to the State, for it only extended
+to dresses and precedence of ranks, and the etiquette to be observed
+in visiting each other. But the evil dispositions of the emperor were
+shown in other ways. He had a cousin of the name of Alexander, and
+entertained an unbounded jealousy of his popularity with the soldiers.
+Attempts at poison and direct assassination were resorted to in vain.
+The public sympathy began to rise in his favour. The Praetorians
+formally took him under their protection; and when Heliogabalus,
+reckless of their menaces, again attempted the life of Alexander, the
+troops revolted, proclaimed death to the infatuated emperor, and slew
+him and his mother at the same time.
+
+[A.D. 222.]
+
+Alexander was now enthroned--a youth of sixteen; gifted with higher
+qualities than the debased century in which he lived could altogether
+appreciate. But the origin of his noblest sentiments is traced to
+the teaching he had received from his mother, in which the precepts
+of Christianity were not omitted. When he appointed the governor of
+a province, he published his name some time before, and requested
+if any one knew of a disqualification, to have it sent in for his
+consideration. "It is thus the Christians appoint their pastors,"
+he said, "and I will do the same with my representatives." When his
+justice, moderation, and equity were fully recognised, the beauty of
+the quotation, which was continually in his mouth, was admired by all,
+even though they were ignorant of the book it came from: "Do unto
+others as you would that they should do unto you." He trusted the
+wisest of his counsellors, the great legalists of the empire, with the
+introduction of new laws to curb the wickedness of the time. But the
+multiplicity of laws proves the decline of states. In the ancient Rome
+of the kings and earlier consuls, the statutes were contained in forty
+decisions, which were afterwards enlarged into the laws of the Twelve
+Tables, consisting of one hundred and fifty texts. The profligacy of
+some emperors, the vanity of others, had loaded the statute-book with
+an innumerable mass of edicts, senatus-consultums, praetorial rescripts,
+and customary laws. It was impossible to extract order or regularity
+from such a chaos of conflicting rules. The great work was left for
+a later prince; at present we can only praise the goodness of the
+emperor's intention. But Alexander, justly called Severus, from the
+simplicity of his life and manners, has held the throne too long. The
+Praetorians have been thirteen years without the donation consequent on
+a new accession.
+
+Among the favourite leaders selected by Alexander for their military
+qualifications was one Maximin, a Thracian peasant, of whose strength
+and stature incredible things are told. He was upwards of eight feet
+high, could tire down a horse at the gallop on foot, could break its
+leg by a blow of his hand, could overthrow thirty wrestlers without
+drawing breath, and maintained this prodigious force by eating forty
+pounds of meat, and drinking an amphora and a half, or twelve quarts,
+of wine. This giant had the bravery for which his countrymen the
+Goths have always been celebrated. He rose to high rank in the Roman
+service; and when at last nothing seemed to stand between him and the
+throne but his patron and benefactor, ambition blinded him to every
+thing but his own advancement. He murdered the wise and generous
+Alexander, and presented for the first time in history the spectacle
+of a barbarian master of the Roman world. Other emperors had been born
+in distant portions of the empire; an African had trampled on Roman
+greatness in the person of Septimius Severus; a Phoenician priest had
+disgraced the purple in the person of Heliogabalus; Africa, however,
+was a Roman province, and Emesa a Roman town. But here sat the colossal
+representative of the terrible Goths of Thrace, speaking a language
+half Getic, half Latin, which no one could easily understand; fierce,
+haughty, and revengeful, and cherishing a ferocious hatred of the
+subjects who trembled before him--a hatred probably implanted in him
+in his childhood by the patriotic songs with which the warriors of his
+tribe kept alive their enmity and contempt for the Roman name. The
+Roman name had indeed by this time lost all its authority. The army,
+recruited from all parts of the empire, and including a great number
+of barbarians in its ranks, was no longer a bulwark against foreign
+invasion. Maximin, bestowing the chief commands on Pannonians and other
+mercenaries, treated the empire as a conquered country. He seized on
+all the wealth he could discover--melted all the golden statues, as
+valuable from their artistic beauty as for the metal of which they
+were composed--and was threatening an approach to Rome to exterminate
+the Senate and sack the devoted town. In this extremity the Senate
+resumed its long-forgotten power, and named as emperors two men of
+the name of Gordian--father and son--with instructions "to resist the
+enemy." But father and son perished in a few weeks, and still the
+terrible Goth came on. His son, a giant like himself, but beautiful as
+the colossal statue of a young Apollo, shared in all the feelings of
+his father. Terrified at its approaching doom, the Senate once more
+nominated two men to the purple, Maximus and Balbinus: Balbinus, the
+favourite, perhaps, of the aristocracy, by the descent he claimed from
+an illustrious ancestry; while Maximus recommended himself to the now
+perverted taste of the commonalty by having been a carter. Neither was
+popular with the army; and, to please the soldiers, a son or nephew of
+the younger Gordian was associated with them on the throne. But nothing
+could have resisted the infuriated legions of the gigantic Maximin;
+they were marching with wonderful expedition towards their revenge. At
+Aquileia they met an opposition; the town shut its gates and manned its
+walls, for it knew what would be the fate of a city given up to the
+tender mercies of the Goths. Meanwhile the approach of the destroyer
+produced great agitation in Rome. The people rose upon the Praetorians,
+and enlisted the gladiators on their side. Many thousands were slain,
+and at last a peace was made by the intercession of the youthful
+Gordian. Glad of the cessation of this civic tumult, the population
+of Rome betook itself to the theatres and shows. Suddenly, while the
+games were going on, it was announced that the army before Aquileia
+had mutinied and that both the Maximins were slain. [A.D. 235.] All at
+once the amphitheatre was emptied; by an impulse of grateful piety, the
+emperors and people hurried into the temples of the gods, and offered
+up thanks for their deliverance. The wretched people were premature
+in their rejoicing. In less than three months the spoiled Praetorians
+were offended with the precaution taken by the emperors in surrounding
+themselves with German guards. They assaulted the palace, and put
+Maximus and Balbinus to death. Gordian the Third was now sole emperor,
+and the final struggle with the barbarians drew nearer and nearer.
+
+Constantly crossing the frontiers, and willingly received in the Roman
+ranks, the communities who had been long settled on the Roman confines
+were not the utterly uncultivated tribes which their name would seem
+to denote. There was a conterminous civilization which made the two
+peoples scarcely distinguishable at their point of contact, but which
+died off as the distance from the Roman line increased. Thus, an
+original settler on the eastern bank of the Rhine was probably as
+cultivated and intelligent as a Roman colonist on the other side; but
+farther up, at the Weser and the Elbe, the old ferocity and roughness
+remained. Fresh importations from the unknown East were continually
+taking place; the dwellers in the plains of Pannonia, now habituated
+to pasturage and trade, found safety from the hordes which pressed
+upon them from their own original settlements beyond the Caucasus, by
+crossing the boundary river; and by this means the banks were held by
+cognate but hostile peoples, who could, however, easily be reconciled
+by a joint expedition against Rome. New combinations had taken place
+in the interior of the great expanses not included in the Roman
+limits. The Germans were no longer the natural enemies of the empire.
+They furnished many soldiers for its defence, and several chiefs
+to command its forces. But all round the external circuit of those
+half-conciliated tribes rose up vast confederacies of warlike nations.
+There were Cheruski, and Sicambri, and Attuarians, and Bruttuarians,
+and Catti, all regularly enrolled under the name of "Franks," or
+the brave. The Sarmatians or Sclaves performed the same part on the
+northeastern frontier; and we have already seen that the irresistible
+Goths had found their way, one by one, across the boundary, and
+cleared the path for their successors. The old enemies of Rome on the
+extreme east, the Parthians, had fallen under the power of a renovated
+mountain-race, and of a king, who founded the great dynasty of the
+Sassanides, and claimed the restoration of Egypt and Armenia as ancient
+dependencies of the Persian crown. To resist all these, there was, in
+the year 241, only a gentle-tempered youth, dressed in the purple which
+had so lost its original grandeur, and relying for his guidance on
+the wisdom of his tutors, and for his life on the forbearance of the
+Praetorians. The tutors were wise and just, and victory at first gave
+some sort of dignity to the reign of Gordian. [A.D. 244.] The Franks
+were conquered at Mayence; but Gordian, three years after, was murdered
+in the East; and Philip, an Arabian, whose father had been a robber of
+the desert, was acknowledged emperor by senate and army. Treachery,
+ambition, and murder pursued their course. There was no succession to
+the throne. Sometimes one general, luckier or wiser than the rest,
+appeared the sole governor of the State. At other times there were
+numberless rivals all claiming the empire and threatening vengeance
+on their opponents. Yet amidst this tumult of undistinguishable
+pretenders, fortune placed at the head of affairs some of the best
+and greatest men whom the Roman world ever produced. There was
+Valerian, whom all parties agreed in considering the most virtuous and
+enlightened man of his time. [A.D. 253.] Scarcely any opposition was
+made to his promotion; and yet, with all his good qualities, he was the
+man to whom Rome owed the greatest degradation it had yet sustained.
+He was taken prisoner by Sapor, the Persian king, and condemned, with
+other captive monarchs, to draw the car of his conqueror. No offers of
+ransom could deliver the brave and unfortunate prince. He died amid his
+deriding enemies, who hung up his skin as an offering to their gods.
+Then, after some years, in which there were twenty emperors at one
+time, with army drawn up against army, and cities delivered to massacre
+and rapine by all parties in turn, there arose one of the strong minds
+which make themselves felt throughout a whole period, and arrest for a
+while the downward course of states. [A.D. 276.] The emperor Probus,
+son of a man who had originally been a gardener, had distinguished
+himself under Aurelian, the conqueror of Palmyra, and, having survived
+all his competitors, had time to devote himself to the restoration
+of discipline and the introduction of purer laws. His victories over
+the encroaching barbarians were decided, but ineffectual. New myriads
+still pressed forward to take the place of the slain. On one occasion
+he crossed the Rhine in pursuit of the revolted Germans, overtook them
+at the Necker, and killed in battle four hundred thousand men. Nine
+kings threw themselves at the emperor's feet. Many thousand barbarians
+enlisted in the Roman army. Sixty great cities were taken, and made
+offerings of golden crowns. The whole country was laid waste. "There
+was nothing left," he boasted to the Senate, "but bare fields, as if
+they had never been cultivated." So much the worse for the Romans. The
+barbarians looked with keener eyes across the river at the rich lands
+which had never been ravaged, and sent messages to all the tribes
+in the distant forests, that, having no occasion for pruning-hooks,
+they had turned them into swords. But Probus showed a still more
+doubtful policy in other quarters. When he conquered the Vandals
+and Burgundians, he sent their warriors to keep the Caledonians in
+subjection on the Tyne. The Britons he transported to Moesia or Greece.
+What intermixtures of race may have arisen from these transplantations
+it is impossible to say; but the one feeling was common to all the
+barbarians, that Rome was weak and they were strong. He settled a large
+detachment of Franks on the shores of the Black Sea; and of these an
+almost incredible but well-authenticated story is told. They seized or
+built themselves boats. They swept through the Dardanelles, and ravaged
+the isles of Greece. They pursued their piratical career down the
+Mediterranean, passed the pillars of Hercules into the Great Sea, and,
+rounding Spain and France, rowed up the Elbe into the midst of their
+astonished countrymen, who had long given them up for dead. A fatal
+adventure this for the safety of the Roman shores; for there were the
+wild fishermen of Friesland, and the audacious Angles of Schleswig and
+Holstein, who heard of this strange exploit, and saw that no coast was
+too distant to be reached by their oar and sail. But if these forced
+settlements of barbarians on Roman soil were impolitic, the generous
+Probus did not feel their bad effect. His warlike qualities awed his
+foes, and his inflexible justice was appreciated by the hardy warriors
+of the North, who had not yet sunk under the debasing civilization of
+Rome. In Asia his arms were attended with equal success. He subdued the
+Persians, and extended his conquests into Ethiopia and the farthest
+regions of the East, bringing back some of its conquered natives to
+swell the triumph at Rome and terrify the citizens with their strange
+and hideous appearance. But Probus himself must yield to the law
+which regulated the fate of Roman emperors. He died by treachery and
+the sword. All that the empire could do was to join in the epitaph
+pronounced over him by the barbarians, "Here lies the emperor Probus,
+whose life and actions corresponded to his name."
+
+Three or four more fantastic figures, "which the likeness of a kingly
+crown have on," pass before our eyes, and at last we observe the
+powerful and substantial form of Diocletian, and feel once more we
+have to do with a real man. [A.D. 284.] A Druidess, we are told,
+had prophesied that he should attain his highest wish if he killed
+a wild boar. In all his hunting expeditions he was constantly on
+the look-out, spear in hand, for an encounter with the long-tusked
+monster. Unluckily for a man who had offended Diocletian before,
+and who had basely murdered his predecessor, his name was Aper; and
+unluckily, also, _aper_ is Latin for a boar. This fact will perhaps be
+thought to account for the prophecy. It accounts, at all events, for
+its fulfilment; for, the wretched Aper being led before the throne,
+Diocletian descended the steps and plunged a dagger into his chest,
+exclaiming, "I have killed the wild boar of the prediction." This is
+a painful example of how unlucky it is to have a name that can be
+punned upon. Determined to secure the support of what he thought the
+strongest body in the State, he gratified the priests by the severest
+of all the many persecutions to which the Christians had been exposed.
+By way of further showing his adhesion to the old faith, he solemnly
+assumed the name of Jove, and bestowed on his partner on the throne
+the inferior title of Hercules. In spite of these truculent and absurd
+proceedings, Diocletian was not altogether destitute of the softer
+feelings. The friend he associated with him on the throne--dividing
+the empire between them as too large a burden for one to sustain--was
+called Maximian. They had both originally been slaves, and had neither
+of them received a liberal education. Yet they protected the arts, they
+encouraged literature, and were the patrons of modest merit wherever it
+could be found. They each adopted a Caesar, or lieutenant of the empire,
+and hoped that, by a legal division of duties among four, the ambition
+of their generals would be prevented. But the limits of the empire
+were too extended even for the vigilance of them all. In Britain,
+Carausius raised the standard of revolt, giving it the noble name of
+national independence; and, with the instinctive wisdom which has been
+the safeguard of our island ever since, he rested his whole chance of
+success upon his fleet. Invasion was rendered impossible by the care
+with which he guarded the shore, and it is not inconceivable that even
+at that early time the maritime career of Britain might have been begun
+and maintained, if treason, as usual, had not cut short the efforts of
+Carausius, who was soon after murdered by his friend Allectus. The
+subdivision of the empire was a successful experiment as regarded its
+external safety, but within, it was the cause of bitter complaining.
+There were four sumptuous courts to be maintained, and four imperial
+armies to be paid. Taxes rose, and allegiance waxed cold. The Caesars
+were young, and looked probably with an evil eye on the two old men who
+stood between them and the name of emperor. However it may be, after
+many victories and much domestic trouble, Diocletian resolved to lay
+aside the burden of empire and retire into private life. His colleague
+Maximian felt, or affected to feel, the same distaste for power, and
+on the same day they quitted the purple; one at Nicomedia, the other
+at Milan. Diocletian retired to Salona, a town in his native Dalmatia,
+and occupied himself with rural pursuits. He was asked after a while
+to reassume his authority, but he said to the persons who made him the
+request, "I wish you would come to Salona and see the cabbages I have
+planted with my own hands, and after that you would never wish me to
+remount the throne."
+
+The characteristic of this century is its utter confusion and want
+of order. There was no longer the unity even of despotism at Rome to
+make a common centre round which every thing revolved. There were
+tyrants and competitors for power in every quarter of the empire--no
+settled authority, no government or security, left. In the midst of
+this relaxation of every rule of life, grew surely, but unobserved, the
+Christian Church, which drew strength from the very helplessness of the
+civil state, and was forced, in self-defence, to establish a regular
+organization in order to extend to its members the inestimable benefits
+of regularity and law. Under many of the emperors Christianity was
+proscribed; its disciples were put to excruciating deaths, and their
+property confiscated; but at that very time its inner development
+increased and strengthened. The community appointed its teachers, its
+deacons, its office-bearers of every kind; it supported them in their
+endeavours--it yielded to their directions; and in time a certain
+amount of authority was considered to be inherent in the office of
+pastor, which extended beyond the mere expounding of the gospel or
+administration of the sacraments. The chief pastor became the guide,
+perhaps the judge, of the whole flock. While it is absurd, therefore,
+in those disastrous times of weakness and persecution to talk in
+pompous terms of the succession of the Bishops of Rome, and make out
+vain catalogues of lordly prelates who sat on the throne of St. Peter,
+it is incontestable that, from the earliest period, the Christian
+converts held their meetings--by stealth indeed, and under fear of
+detection--and obeyed certain canons of their own constitution. These
+secret associations rapidly spread their ramifications into every
+great city of the empire. When by the friendship, or the fellowship,
+of the emperor, as in the case of the Arabian Philip, a pause was
+given to their fears and sufferings, certain buildings were set apart
+for their religious exercises; and we read, during this century, of
+basilicas, or churches, in Rome and other towns. The subtlety of the
+Greek intellect had already led to endless heresies and the wildest
+departures from the simplicity of the gospel. The Western mind was
+more calm, and better adapted to be the lawgiver of a new order of
+society composed of elements so rough and discordant as the barbarians,
+whose approach was now inevitably foreseen. With its well-defined
+hierarchy--its graduated ranks, and the fitness of the offices for
+the purposes of their creation; with its array of martyrs ready to
+suffer, and clear-headed leaders fitted to command, the Western Church
+could look calmly forward to the time when its organization would
+make it the most powerful, or perhaps the only, body in the State; and
+so early as the middle of this century the seeds of worldly ambition
+developed themselves in a schism, not on a point of doctrine, but on
+the possession of authority. A double nomination had made the anomalous
+appointment of two chief pastors at the same time. Neither would yield,
+and each had his supporters. All were under the ban of the civil power.
+They had recourse to spiritual weapons; and we read, for the first time
+in ecclesiastical history, of mutual excommunications. Novatian--under
+his breath, however, for fear of being thrown to the wild beasts for
+raising a disturbance--thundered his anathemas against Cornelius as an
+intruder, while Cornelius retorted by proclaiming Novatian an impostor,
+as he had not the concurrence of the people in his election. This gives
+us a convincing proof of the popular form of appointing bishops or
+presbyters in those early days, and prepares us for the energy with
+which the electors supported the authority of their favourite priests.
+
+But, while this new internal element was spreading life among the
+decayed institutions of the empire, we have, in this century, the first
+appearance, in great force, of the future conquerors and renovators
+of the body politic from without. It is pleasant to think that the
+centuries cast themselves more and more loose from their connection
+with Rome after this date, and that the barbarians can vindicate
+a separate place in history for themselves. In the first century,
+the bad emperors broke the strength of Rome by their cruelty and
+extravagance. In the second century, the good emperors carried on the
+work of weakening the empire by the softening and enervating effects
+of their gentle and protective policy. The third century unites the
+evil qualities of the other two, for the people were equally rendered
+incapable of defending themselves by the unheard-of atrocities of some
+of the tyrants who oppressed them and the mistaken measures of the
+more benevolent rulers, in committing the guardianship of the citizens
+to the swords of a foreign soldiery, leaving them but the wretched
+alternative of being ravaged and massacred by an irruption of savage
+tribes or pillaged and insulted by those in the emperor's pay.
+
+The empire had long been surrounded by its foes. [A.D. 273.] It will
+suffice to read the long list of captives who were led in triumph
+behind the car of Aurelian when he returned from foreign war, to
+see the fearful array of harsh-sounding names which have afterwards
+been softened into those of great and civilized nations. It is in
+following the course of some of these that we shall see how the
+present distribution of forces in Europe took place, and escape from
+the polluted atmosphere of Imperial Rome. In that memorable triumph
+appeared Goths, Alans, Roxolans, Franks, Sarmatians, Vandals, Allemans,
+Arabs, Indians, Bactrians, Iberians, Saracens, Armenians, Persians,
+Palmyreans, Egyptians, and ten Gothic women dressed in men's apparel
+and fully armed. These were, perhaps, the representatives of a large
+body of female warriors, and are a sign of the recent settlement of the
+tribe to which they belonged. They had not yet given up the habits of
+their march, where all were equally engaged in carrying the property
+and arms of the nation, and where the females encouraged the young men
+of the expedition by witnessing and sometimes sharing their exploits in
+battle.
+
+The triumph of Probus, when only seven years had passed, presents us
+with a list of the same peoples, often conquered but never subdued.
+Their defeats, indeed, had the double effect of showing to them
+their own ability to recruit their forces, and of strengthening the
+degraded people of Rome in the belief of their invincibility. After
+the loss of a battle, the Gothic or Burgundian chief fell back upon
+the confederated tribes in his rear; a portion of his army either
+visited Rome in the character of captives, or enlisted in the ranks of
+the conquerors. In either case, the wealth of the great city and the
+undefended state of the empire were permanently fixed in their minds;
+the populace, on the other hand, had the luxury of a noble show and
+double rations of bread--the more ambitious of the emperors acting
+on the professed maxim that the citizen had no duty but to enjoy the
+goods provided for him by the governing power, and that if he was fed
+by public doles, and amused with public games, the purpose of his life
+was attained. The idlest man was the safest subject. A triumph was,
+therefore, more an instrument of degradation than an encouragement
+to patriotic exertion. The name of Roman citizen was now extended to
+all the inhabitants of the empire. The freeman of York was a Roman
+citizen. Had he any patriotic pride in keeping the soil of Italy
+undivided? The nation had become too diffuse for the exercise of this
+local and combining virtue. The love of country, which in the small
+states of Greece secured the individual's affection to his native city,
+and yet was powerful enough to extend over the whole of the Hellenic
+territories, was lost altogether when it was required to expand itself
+over a region as wide as Europe. It is in this sense that empires fall
+to pieces by their own weight. The Roman power broke up from within.
+Its religion was a source of division, not of union--its mixture of
+nations, and tongues, and usages, lost their cohesion. And nothing was
+left at the end of this century to preserve it from total dissolution,
+but the personal qualities of some great rulers and the memory of its
+former fame.
+
+
+
+
+                            FOURTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+                  A.D.
+
+                  304. GALERIUS and CONSTANTIUS.
+
+                  305. MAXIMIN.
+
+                  306. CONSTANTINE.
+
+                  337. CONSTANTINE II., CONSTANS and
+                       CONSTANTIUS.
+
+                  361. JULIAN THE APOSTATE.
+
+                  363. JOVIAN.
+
+  A.D.    _West._                     A.D.   _East._
+
+  364. VALENTINIAN.                   364. VALENS.
+
+  367. GRATIAN.
+
+  375. VALENTINIAN II.                379. THEODOSIUS.
+
+  395. HONORIUS.                      395. ARCADIUS.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+DONATUS, EUTROPIUS, ST. ATHANASIUS, AUSONIUS, CLAUDIAN, ARNOBIUS,
+(303,) LACTANTIUS, (306,) EUSEBIUS, (315,) ARIUS, (316,) GREGORY
+NAZIANZEN, (320-389,) BASIL THE GREAT, Bishop Of Cesarea, (330-379,)
+AMBROSE, (340-397,) AUGUSTINE (353-429,) THEODORET, (386-457,) MARTIN,
+Bishop of Tours.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE FOURTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE REMOVAL TO CONSTANTINOPLE--ESTABLISHMENT OF
+  CHRISTIANITY--APOSTASY OF JULIAN--SETTLEMENT OF THE GOTHS.
+
+
+As the memory of the old liberties of Rome died out, a nearer approach
+was made to the ostentatious despotisms of the East. Aurelian, in
+270, was the first emperor who encircled his head with a diadem; and
+Diocletian, in 284, formed his court on the model of the most gorgeous
+royalties of Asia. On admission into his presence, the Roman Senator,
+formerly the equal of the ruler, prostrated himself at his feet. Titles
+of the most unmanly adulation were lavished on the fortunate slave or
+herdsman who had risen to supreme power. He was clothed in robes of
+purple and violet, and loaded with an incalculable wealth of jewels
+and gold. It was from deep policy that Diocletian introduced this
+system. Ceremony imposes on the vulgar, and makes intimacy impossible.
+Etiquette is the refuge of failing power, and compensates by external
+show for inherent weakness, as stiffness and formality are the refuge
+of dulness and mediocrity in private life. There was now, therefore,
+seated on the throne, which was shaken by every commotion, a personage
+assuming more majestic rank, and affecting far loftier state and
+dignity, than Augustus had ventured on while the strength of the
+old Republic gave irresistible force to the new empire, or than the
+Antonines had dreamt of when the prosperity of Rome was apparently at
+its height. But there was still some feeling, if not of self-respect,
+at least of resistance to pretension, in the populace and Senators
+of the capital. Diocletian visited Rome but once. He was attacked in
+lampoons, and ridiculed in satirical songs. His colleague established
+his residence in the military post of Milan. We are not, therefore,
+to feel surprised that an Orientalized authority sought its natural
+seat in the land of ancient despotisms, and that many of the emperors
+had cast longing eyes on the beautiful towns of Asia Minor, and even
+on the far-off cities of Mesopotamia, as more congenial localities
+for their barbaric splendours. By a sort of compromise between his
+European origin and Asiatic tastes, the emperor Constantine, after many
+struggles with his competitors, having attained the sole authority,
+transferred the seat of empire from Rome to a city he had built on the
+extreme limits of Europe, and only divided from Asia by a narrow sea.
+All succeeding ages have agreed in extolling the situation of this
+city, called, after its founder, Constantinople, as the finest that
+could have been chosen. All ages, from the day of its erection till the
+hour in which we live, have agreed that it is fitted, in the hands of a
+great and enterprising power, to be the metropolis and arbiter of the
+world; and Constantinople is, therefore, condemned to the melancholy
+fate of being the useless and unappreciated capital of a horde of
+irreclaimable barbarians. To this magnificent city Constantine removed
+the throne in 329, and for nearly a thousand years after that, while
+Rome was sacked in innumerable invasions, and all the capitals of
+Europe were successively occupied by contending armies, Constantinople,
+safe in her two narrow outlets, and rich in her command of the two
+continents, continued unconquered, and even unassailed.
+
+Rome was stripped, that Constantinople might be filled. All the wealth
+of Italy was carried across the AEgean. The Roman Senator was invited
+to remove with his establishment. He found, on arriving at his new
+home, that by a complimentary attention of the emperor, a fac-simile of
+his Roman palace had been prepared for him on the Propontis. The seven
+hills of the new capital responded to the seven hills of the old. There
+were villas for retirement along the smiling shores of the Dardanelles
+or of the Bosphorus, as fine in climate, and perhaps equal in romantic
+beauty, to Baiae or Brundusium. There was a capital, as noble a piece
+of architecture as the one they had left, but without the sanctity
+of its thousand years of existence, or the glory of its unnumbered
+triumphs. One omission was the subject of remark and lamentation. The
+temples were nowhere to be seen. The images of the gods were left at
+Rome in the solitude of their deserted shrines, for Constantine had
+determined that Constantinople should, from its very foundation, be the
+residence of a Christian people. Churches were built, and a priesthood
+appointed. Yet, with the policy which characterized the Church at
+that time, he made as little change as possible in the external
+forms. There is still extant a transfer of certain properties from
+the old establishment to the new. There are contributions of wax for
+the candles, of frankincense and myrrh for the censers, and vestures
+for the officiating priests as before. Only the object of worship is
+changed, and the images of the heathen gods and heroes are replaced
+with statues of the apostles and martyrs.
+
+It is difficult to gather a true idea of this first of the Christian
+emperors from the historians of after-times. The accounts of him by
+contemporary writers are equally conflicting. The favourers of the old
+superstition describe him as a monster of perfidy and cruelty. The
+Church, raised to supremacy by his favour, sees nothing in him but
+the greatest of men--the seer of visions, the visible favourite of
+the Almighty, and the predestined overthrower of the powers of evil.
+The easy credulity of an emancipated people believed whatever the
+flattery of the courtiers invented. His mother Helena made a journey to
+Jerusalem, and was rewarded for the pious pilgrimage by the discovery
+of the True Cross. Chapels and altars were raised upon all the places
+famous in Christian story; relics were collected from all quarters,
+and we are early led to fear that the simplicity of the gospel is
+endangered by its approach to the throne, and that Constantine's object
+was rather to raise and strengthen a hierarchy of ecclesiastical
+supporters than to give full scope to the doctrine of truth. But not
+the less wonderful, not the less by the divine appointment, was this
+unhoped-for triumph of Christianity, that its advancement formed part
+of the ambitious scheme of a worldly and unprincipled conqueror. Rather
+it may be taken as one among the thousand proofs with which history
+presents us, that the greatest blessings to mankind are produced
+irrespective of the character or qualities of the apparent author. A
+warrior is raised in the desert when required to be let loose upon
+a worn-out society as the scourge of God; a blood-stained soldier
+is placed on the throne of the world when the time has come for the
+earthly predominance of the gospel. But neither is Attila to be blamed
+nor Constantine to be praised.
+
+It was the spirit of his system of government to form every society
+on a strictly monarchical model. There was everywhere introduced a
+clearly-defined subordination of ranks and dignities. Diocletian, we
+saw, surrounded the throne with a state and ceremony which kept the
+imperial person sacred from the common gaze. Constantine perfected his
+work by establishing a titled nobility, who were to stand between
+the throne and the people, giving dignity to the one, and impressing
+fresh awe upon the other. In all previous ages it had been the office
+that gave importance to the man. To be a member of the Senate was a
+mark of distinction; a long descent from a great historic name was
+looked on with respect; and the heroic deeds of the thousand years of
+Roman struggle had founded an aristocracy which owed its high position
+either to personal actions or hereditary claims. But now that the
+emperors had so long concentrated in themselves all the great offices
+of the State--now that the bad rulers of the first century had degraded
+the Senate by filling it with their creatures, the good rulers of
+the second century had made it merely the recorder of their decrees,
+and the anarchy of the third century had changed or obliterated its
+functions altogether--there was no way left to the ambitious Roman
+to distinguish himself except by the favour of the emperor. The
+throne became, as it has since continued in all strictly monarchical
+countries, the fountain of honour. It was not the people who could name
+a man to the consulship or appoint him to the command of an army. It
+was not even in the power of the emperor to find offices of dignity
+for all whom he wished to advance. So a method was discovered by which
+vanity or friendship could be gratified, and employment be reserved for
+the deserving at the same time. Instead of endangering an expedition
+against the Parthians by intrusting it to a rich and powerful courtier
+who desired to have the rank of general, the emperor simply named
+him Nobilissimus, or Patricius, or Illustris, and the gratified
+favourite, the "most noble," the "patrician," or the "illustrious,"
+took place with the highest officers of the State. A certain title
+gave him equal rank with the Senator, the judge, or the consul. The
+diversity of these honorary distinctions became very great. There
+were the clarissimi--the perfectissimi--and the egregii--bearing the
+same relative dignity in the court-guide of the fourth century, as the
+dukes, marquises, earls, and viscounts of the peerage-books of the
+present day. But so much did all distinction flow from proximity to the
+throne, that all these high-sounding names owed their value to the fact
+of their being bestowed on the associates of the sovereign. The word
+Count, which is still the title borne by foreign nobles, comes from the
+Latin word which means "companion." There was a Comes, or Companion, of
+the Sacred Couch, or lord chamberlain--the Companion of the Imperial
+Service, or lord high steward--a Companion of the Imperial Stables,
+or lord high constable; through all these dignitaries, step above
+step, the glorious ascent extended, till it ended in the Companion of
+Private Affairs, or confidential secretary. At the head of all, sacred
+and unapproachable, stood the embodied Power of the Roman world, who,
+as he had given titles to all the magnates of his court, heaped also
+a great many on himself. His principal appellation, however, was not
+as in our degenerate days "Majesty," whether "Most Catholic," "Most
+Christian," or "Most Orthodox," but consisted in the rather ambitious
+attribute--eternity. "Your Eternity" was the phrase addressed to some
+miserable individual whose reign was ended in a month. It was proposed
+by this division of the Roman aristocracy to furnish the empire with
+a body for show and a body for use; the latter consisting of the real
+generals of the armies and administrators of the provinces. And with
+this view the two were kept distinct; but military discipline suffered
+by this partition. The generals became discontented when they saw
+wealth and dignities heaped upon the titular nobles of the court; and
+to prevent the danger arising from ill will among the legions on the
+frontier, the emperor withdrew the best of his soldiers from the posts
+where they kept the barbarians in check, and entirely destroyed their
+military spirit by separating them into small bodies and stationing
+them in towns. This exposed the empire to the foreign foes who still
+menaced it from the other side of the boundary, and gave fresh
+settlements in the heart of the country to the thousands of barbarian
+youth who had taken service with the eagles. In every legion there was
+a considerable proportion of this foreign element: in every district
+of the empire, therefore, there were now settled the advanced guards
+of the unavoidable invasion. Men with barbaric names, which the Romans
+could not pronounce, walked about Roman towns dressed in Roman uniforms
+and clothed with Roman titles. There were consulars and patricians in
+Ravenna and Naples, whose fathers had danced the war-dance of defiance
+when beginning their march from the Vistula and the Carpathian range.
+
+All these troops must be supported--all these dignitaries maintained
+in luxury. How was this done? The ordinary revenue of the empire in
+the time of Constantine has been computed at forty millions of our
+money a year. Not a very large amount when you consider the number of
+the population; but this is the sum which reached the treasury. The
+gross amount must have been far larger, and an ingenious machinery was
+invented by which the tax was rigorously collected; and this machinery,
+by a ludicrous perversion of terms, was made to include one of the most
+numerous classes of the artificial nobility created by the imperial
+will. In all the towns of the empire some little remains were still to
+be found of the ancient municipal government, of which practically they
+had long been deprived. There were nominal magistrates still; and among
+these the _Curials_ held a distinguished rank. They were the men who,
+in the days of freedom, had filled the civic dignities of their native
+city--the aldermen, we should perhaps call them, or, more nearly, the
+justices of the peace. They were now ranked with the peerage, but with
+certain duties attached to their elevation which few can have regarded
+in the light of privilege or favour. To qualify them for rank, they
+were bound to be in possession of a certain amount of land. They were,
+therefore, a territorial aristocracy, and never was any territorial
+aristocracy more constantly under the consideration of the government.
+It was the duty of the curials to distribute the tax-papers in their
+district; but, in addition to this, it was unfortunately their duty
+to see that the sum assessed on the town and neighbourhood was paid
+up to the last penny. When there was any deficiency, was the emperor
+to suffer? Were the nobilissimi, the patricii, the egregii, to lose
+their salaries? Oh, no! As long as the now ennobled curial retained
+an acre of his estate, or could raise a mortgage on his house, the
+full amount was extracted. The tax went up to Rome, and the curial,
+if there had been a poor's house in those days, would have gone into
+it--for he was stripped of all. His farm was seized, his cattle were
+escheated; and when the defalcation was very great, himself, his wife
+and children were led into the market and sold as slaves. Nothing so
+rapidly destroyed what might have been the germ of a middle class
+as this legalized spoliation of the smaller landholders. Below this
+rank there was absolutely nothing left of the citizenship of ancient
+times. Artificers and workmen formed themselves into companies; but
+the trades were exercised principally by slaves for the benefit of
+their owners. These slaves formed now by far the greatest part of the
+Roman population, and though their lot had gradually become softened
+as their numbers increased, and the domestic bondsman had little to
+complain of except the greatest of all sorrows, the loss of freedom,
+the position of the rural labourers was still very bad. There were
+some of them slaves in every sense of the word--mere chattels, which
+were not so valuable as horse or dog. But the fate of others was
+so far mitigated that they could not be sold separate from their
+family--that they could not be sold except along with the land; and at
+last glimpses appear of a sort of rent paid for certain portions of the
+lord's estate in full of all other requirements. But this process had
+again to be gone through when many centuries had elapsed, and a new
+state of society had been fully established, and it will be sufficient
+to remind you that in the fourth century, to which we are now come,
+the Roman world consisted of a monarchy where all the greatness and
+magnificence of the empire were concentrated on the emperor and his
+court; that the monarchical system was rapidly pervading the Church;
+and that below these two distinct but connected powers there was no
+people, properly so called--the country was oppressed and ruined, and
+the ancient dignity of Rome transplanted to new and foreign quarters,
+at the sacrifice of all its oldest and most elevating associations.
+The half-depopulated city of Romulus and the Kings--of the Consuls
+and Augustus, looked with ill-disguised hatred and contempt on the
+modern rival which denied her the name of Capital, and while fresh
+from the builder's hand, robbed her of the name of the Eternal City.
+We shall see great events spring from this jealousy of the two towns.
+In the mean time, we shall finish our view of Constantine by recording
+the greatness of his military skill, and merely protest against the
+enrolment in the list of _saints_ of a man who filled his family
+circle with blood--who murdered his wife, his son, and his nephew,
+encouraged the contending factions of the now disputatious Church--gave
+a fallacious support to the orthodox Athanasius, and died after a
+superstitious baptism at the hands of the heretical Arius. [A.D. 337.]
+An unbiassed judgment must pronounce him a great politician, who
+played with both parties as his tools, a Christian from expediency and
+not from conviction. It is a pity that the subserviency of the Greek
+communion has placed him in the number of its holy witnesses, for we
+are told by a historian that when the emperor, after the dreadful
+crimes he had perpetrated, applied at the heathen shrines for expiatory
+rites, the priests of the false gods had truly answered, "there are no
+purifications for such deeds as these." But nothing could be refused
+to the benefactor of the Church. The great ecclesiastical council of
+this age, (325), consisting of three hundred and eighteen bishops,
+and presided over by Constantine in person, gave the Nicene Creed as
+the result of their labours--a creed which is still the symbol of
+Christendom, but which consists more of a condemnation of the heresies
+which were then in the ascendant, than in the plain enunciation
+of the Christian faith. A layman, we are told, an auditor of the
+learned debates in this great assembly, a man of clear and simple
+common sense, met some of the disputants, and addressed them in these
+words:--"Arguers! Christ and his apostles delivered to us, not the art
+of disputation, nor empty eloquence, but a plain and simple rule which
+is maintained by faith and good works." The disputants, we are further
+told, were so struck with this undeniable truth that they acknowledged
+their error at once.
+
+But not yet firm and impregnable were the bulwarks of Christianity.
+[A.D. 360.] While dreaming anchorites in the deserts of Thebais were
+repeating the results of fasting and insanity as the manifestation
+of divine favour, the world was startled from its security by the
+appalling discovery that the emperor himself, the young and vigorous
+Julian, was a follower of the old philosophers, and a worshipper of
+the ancient gods. And a dangerous antagonist he was, even independent
+of his temporal power. His personal character was irreproachable, his
+learning and talent beyond dispute, and his eloquence and dialectic
+skill sharpened and improved by an education in Athens itself. Less
+than forty years had elapsed since Constantine pronounced the sentence
+of banishment on the heathen deities. It was not possible that the
+Christian truth was in every instance received where the old falsehood
+was driven away. We may therefore conclude, without the aid of historic
+evidence, that there must have been innumerable districts--villages
+in far-off valleys, hidden places up among the hills--where the name
+of Christ had not yet penetrated, and all that was known was, that
+the shrine of the local gods was overthrown, and the priests of the
+old ceremonial proscribed. When we remember that the heathen worship
+entered into almost all the changes of the social and family life--that
+its sanction was necessary at the wedding--that its auguries were
+indispensable at births--that it crowned the statue of the household
+god with flowers--that it kept alive the fire upon the altar of the
+emperor--and that it was the guardian of the tombs of the departed, as
+it had been the principal consolation during the funeral rites,--we
+shall perceive that, irrespective of absolute faith in his system of
+belief, the cessation of the priest's office must have been a serious
+calamity. The heathen establishment had been enriched by the piety or
+ostentation of many generations. There must have been still alive many
+who had been turned out of their comfortable temples, many who viewed
+the assumption of Christianity into the State as a political engine
+to strengthen the tyranny under which the nations groaned. We may see
+that self-interest and patriotism may easily have been combined in the
+effort made by the old faith to regain the supremacy it had lost. The
+Emperor Julian endeavoured to lift up the fallen gods. He persecuted
+the Christians, not with fire and sword, but with contempt. He scorned
+and tolerated. He preached moderation, self-denial, and purity of life,
+and practised all these virtues to an extent unknown upon a throne, and
+even then unusual in a bishop's palace.
+
+How those Christian graces, giving a charm and dignity to the
+apostate emperor, must have received a still higher authority from
+the painful contrast they presented to the agitated condition and
+corrupted morals of the Christian Church! Everywhere there was war and
+treachery, and ambition and unbelief. Half the great sees were held
+by Arians, who raved against the orthodox; and the other half were
+held by Athanasius and his followers, who accused their adversaries
+of being "more cruel than the Scythians, and more irreconcilable than
+tigers." At Rome itself there was an orthodox bishop and an Arian
+rival. It is not surprising that Julian, disgusted with the scenes
+presented to him by the mutual rage of the Christian sects, thought
+the surest method of restoring unity to the empire would be to silence
+all the contending parties and reintroduce the peaceful pageantries
+of the old Pantheon. If some of the fanciful annotators of the new
+faith had allegorized the facts of Christianity till they ceased to
+be facts at all, Julian performed the same office for the heathen
+gods. Jupiter and the rest were embodiments of the hidden powers of
+nature. Vulcan was the personification of human skill, and Venus the
+beautiful representative of connubial affection. But men's minds
+were now too sharpened with the contact they had had with the real to
+be satisfied with such fallacies as these. Eloquent teachers arose,
+who separated the eternal truths of revelation from the accessories
+with which they were temporarily combined. Ridicule was retorted on
+the emperor, who had sneered at the Christian services. Who, indeed,
+who had caught the slightest view of the spirituality of Christ's
+kingdom, could abstain from laughing at the laborious heathenism of
+the master of the world? He cut the wood for sacrifice, he slew the
+goat or bull, and, falling down on his knees, puffed with distended
+cheeks the sacred fire. He marched to the temple of Venus between
+two rows of dissolute and drunken worshippers, striving in vain by
+face and attitude to repress the shouts of riotous exultation and the
+jeers of the spectators. Then, wherever he went he was surrounded by
+pythonesses, and augurs, and fortune-tellers, magicians who could work
+miracles, and necromancers who could raise the dead. When he restored
+a statue to its ancient niche, he was rewarded by a shake of its head;
+when he hung up a picture of Thetis or Amphitrite, she winked in sign
+of satisfaction. Where miracles are not believed, the performance of
+them is fatal. But his expenditure of money in honouring the gods was
+more real, and had clearer results. He nearly exhausted the empire by
+the number of beasts he slew. He sent enormous offerings to the shrines
+of Dodona, and Delos, and Delphi. He rebuilt the temples, which time or
+Christian hatred had destroyed; and, by way of giving life to his new
+polity, he condescended to imitate the sect be despised, in its form
+of worship, in its advocacy of charity, peace, and good will, and in
+its institutions of celibacy and retirement, which, indeed, had been
+a portion of heathen virtue before it was admitted into the Christian
+Church. But his affected contempt soon degenerated into persecution.
+He would have no soldiers who did not serve his gods. Many resigned
+their swords. He called the Christians "Galileans," and robbed them
+of their property and despitefully used them, to try the sincerity of
+their faith. "Does not your law command you," he said, "to submit to
+injury, and to renounce your worldly goods? Well, I take possession
+of your riches that your march to heaven may be unencumbered." All
+moderation was now thrown off on both sides. Resistance was made by the
+Christians, and extermination threatened by the emperor. In the midst
+of these contentions he was called eastward to resist the aggression
+of Sapor, the Persian king. An arrow stretched Julian on his couch.
+He called round him his chief philosophers and priests. With them, in
+imitation of Socrates, he entered into deep discussions about the soul.
+[A.D. 363.] Nothing more heroic than his end, or more eloquent than
+his parting discourse. But death did not soften the animosity of his
+foes. The Christians boasted that the arrow was sent by an angel, that
+visions had foretold the persecutor's fall, and that so would perish
+all the enemies of God. The adherents of the emperor in return blamed
+the Galileans as his assassins, and boldly pointed to Athanasius, the
+leader of the Christians, as the culprit. Athanasius would certainly
+not have scrupled to rid the world of such an Agag and Holofernes, but
+it is more probable that the death occurred without either a miracle
+or a murder. The successors of Julian were enemies of the apostate.
+They speedily restored their fellow-believers to the supremacy they
+had lost. A ferocious hymn of exultation by Gregory of Nazianzen
+was chanted far and wide. Cries of joy and execration resounded in
+market-places, and churches, and theatres. The market-places had been
+closed against the Christians, their churches had been interdicted,
+and the theatres shut up, by the overstrained asceticism of the
+deceased. It was perceived that Christianity had taken deeper root
+than the apostate had believed, and henceforth no effort could be
+made to revivify the old superstition. After a nominal election of
+Jovian, the choice of the soldiers fell on two of their favourite
+leaders, Valentinian and Valens, brothers, and sufferers in the late
+persecutions for their faith. Named emperors of the Roman world, they
+came to an amicable division of the empire into East and West. Valens
+remained in Constantinople to guard the frontiers of the Danube and
+the Euphrates; while Valentinian, who saw great clouds darkening over
+Italy and Gaul, fixed his imperial residence in the strong city of
+Milan. The separation took place in 364, and henceforth the stream of
+history flows in two distinct and gradually diverging channels. This
+century has already been marked by the removal of the seat of power
+to Constantinople; by the attempt at the restoration of Paganism by
+Julian; and we have now to dwell for a little on the third and greatest
+incident of all, the invasion of the Goths, and final settlement of
+hostile warriors on the Roman soil.
+
+Names that have retained their sound and established themselves as
+household words in Europe now meet as at every turn. Valentinian is
+engaged in resisting the Saxons. The Britons, the Scots, the Germans,
+are pushing their claims to independence; and in the farther East,
+the persecutions and tyranny of the contemptible Valens are suddenly
+suspended by the news that a people hitherto unheard of had made their
+appearance within an easy march of the boundary, and that universal
+terror had taken possession of the soldiers of the empire. Who were
+those soldiers? We have seen for many years that the policy of the
+emperors had been to introduce the barbarians into the military
+service of the State, and to expose the wasted and helpless inhabitants
+to the rapacity of their tax-gatherers. This system had been carried
+to such a pitch, that it is probable there were none but mercenaries
+of the most varying interests in the Roman ranks. Yet such is the
+effect of discipline, and the pride of military combination, that all
+other feelings gave way before it. The Gothic chief, now invested with
+command in the Roman armies, turned his arms against his countrymen.
+The Albanian, the Saxon, the Briton, elevated to the rank of duke or
+count, looked back on Marius and Caesar as their lineal predecessors in
+opposing and conquering the enemies of Rome. The names of the generals
+and magistrates, accordingly, which we encounter after this date,
+have a strangely barbaric sound. There are Ricimer, and Marcomir, and
+Arbogast--and finally, the name which overtopped and outlived them
+all, the name of Alaric the Goth. Now, the Goths, we have seen, had
+been settled for many generations on the northern side of the Danube.
+Much intercourse must have taken place between the inhabitants of the
+two banks. There must have been trade, and love, and quarrellings,
+and rejoicings. At shorter and shorter intervals the bravest of the
+tribes must have passed over into the Roman territory and joined the
+Legions. Occasionally a timid or despotic emperor would suddenly order
+his armies across, and carry fire and sword into the unsuspecting
+country. But on the whole, the terms on which they lived were not
+hostile, for the ties which united the two peoples were numerous and
+strong. Even the languages in the course of time must have come to be
+mutually intelligible, and we read of Gothic leaders who were excellent
+judges of Homer and seldom travelled without a few chosen books. This
+being the case, what was the consternation of the almost civilized
+Goths in the fertile levels of the present Wallachia and Moldavia to
+hear that an innumerable horde of dreadful savages, calling themselves
+Huns and Magyars, had appeared on the western shore of the Black Sea,
+and spread over the land, destroying, murdering, burning whatever
+lay in their way! Cooped up for an unknown period, it appeared, on
+the northeastern side of the Palus Maeotis, now better known to us
+as the Sea of Azof--living on fish out of the Don, and on the cattle
+of the long steppes which extend across the Volga, these sons of the
+Scythian desert had never been heard of either by the Goths or Romans.
+A hideous people to behold, as the perverted imagination of poet or
+painter could produce. They were low in stature, but broad-shouldered
+and strong. Their wide cheek-bones and small eyes gave them a savage
+and cruel expression, which was increased by their want of nose, for
+the only visible appearance of that indispensable organ consisted of
+two holes sunk into the square expanse of their faces. Fear is not a
+flattering painter, but from these rude descriptions it is easy to
+recognise the Calmuck countenance; and when we add their small horses,
+long spears, and prodigious lightness and activity, we shall see a
+very close resemblance between them and their successors in the same
+district, the Russian Cossacks of the Don. On, on, came the torrent of
+these pitiless, fearless, ugly, dirty, irresistible foes. The Goths,
+terrified at their aspect, and bewildered with the accounts they
+heard of their numbers and mode of warfare, petitioned the emperor to
+give them an asylum on the Roman side. Their prayer was granted on
+condition of depositing their children and arms in Roman hands. They
+had no time to squabble about terms. Every thing was agreed to. Boats
+manned by Roman soldiers were busy, day and night in transporting
+the Gothic exiles to the Roman side. Arms and jewels, and wives and
+children, the furniture of their tents, and idols of their gods, all
+got safely across the guarding river. The Huns, the Alans, and the
+other unsightly hordes who had gathered in the pursuit, came down to
+the bank, and shouted useless defiance and threats of vengeance. The
+broad Danube rolled between; and there rested that night on the Roman
+soil a whole nation, different in interest, in manners and religion,
+from the population they had joined, numbering upwards of a million
+souls, bound together by every thing that constitutes the unity of a
+people. The avarice and injustice of the Roman authorities negatived
+the clause of the agreement that stipulated for the surrender of the
+Gothic arms. To redeem their swords and spears, they parted with
+the silver and gold they had amassed in their predatory incursions
+on the Roman territory. They know that once in possession of their
+weapons they could soon reclaim all they gave--and in no long time
+the attempt was made. Fritigern, the leader of their name, led them
+against the armies of Rome. Insulted at their audacity, the Emperor
+Valens, at the head of three hundred thousand men, met them in the
+plain of Adrianople. The existence of the Gothic people was at stake.
+[A.D. 379.] They fought with desperation and hatred. The emperor was
+defeated, leaving two-thirds of his army on the field of battle.
+Seeking safety in a cottage at the side of the road, he was burned by
+the inexorable pursuers, who, gathering up their broken lines, marched
+steadily through the intervening levels and gazed with enraptured eyes
+on the glittering towers and pinnacles of Constantinople itself. But
+the walls were high and strongly armed. The barbarians were inveigled
+into a negotiation, and mastered by the unequal powers of lying
+at all times characteristic of the Greeks. Fritigern consented to
+withdraw his troops: some were embodied in the levies of the empire,
+and others dispersed in different provinces. Those settled in Thrace
+were faithful to their employers, and resisted their ancient enemies
+the Huns; but the great body of the discontented conquerors were ready
+for fresh assaults on the Roman land. Theodosius, called to the throne
+in 379, succeeded in staving off the evil day; but when the final
+partition of the empire took place between his two sons--Honorius
+and Arcadius--there was nothing to oppose the terrible onset of the
+Goths. [A.D. 394.] At their head was Alaric, the descendant of their
+original chiefs, and himself the bravest of his warriors. He broke
+into Greece, forcing his way through Thermopylae, and devastated the
+native seats of poetry and the arts with fire and sword. The ruler at
+Constantinople heard of his advance with terror, and opposed to him
+the Vandal Stilicho, the greatest of his generals. But the wily Alaric
+declined to fight, and out-manoeuvred his enemies, escaping to the sure
+fastnesses of Epirus, and sat down sullen and discontented, meditating
+further expeditions into richer plains, and already seeing before him
+the prostrate cities of Italy. The terror of Arcadius tried in vain
+to soften his rage, or satisfy his ambition with vain titles, among
+others, that of Count of the Illyrian Border. The spirit of aggression
+was fairly roused. All the Gothic settlers in the Roman territory were
+ready to join their countrymen in one great and combined attack;--and
+with this position of the personages of the drama, the curtain falls on
+the fourth century, while preparations for the great catastrophe are
+going on.
+
+
+
+
+                             FIFTH CENTURY
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+  A.D.   _West._
+
+       HONORIUS--(_cont._)
+
+  424. VALENTINIAN III.
+
+  455. PETRONIUS MAXIMUS.
+
+  455. AVITUS.
+
+  457. MAJORIANUS.
+
+  461. SEVERUS.
+
+  467. ANTHEMIUS.
+
+  472. OLIBIUS.
+
+  473. GLYCERIUS.
+
+  474. JULIUS NEPOS.
+
+  475. AUGUSTULUS ROMULUS.
+
+  A.D.   _East._
+
+       ARCADIUS--(_cont._)
+
+  408. THEODOSIUS II.
+
+  450. MARCIAN.
+
+  457. LEO THE GREAT.
+
+  474. ZENO.
+
+  491. ANASTASIUS.
+
+
+King of the Franks.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  481. CLOVIS.
+
+
+King of Italy.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  489. THEODORIC.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+CHRYSOSTOM, JEROME, AUGUSTINE, PELAGIUS, (405,) SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS,
+PATRICIUS, MACROBIUS, VICENTIUS OF LERINS, (died 450,) CYRIL, BISHOP OF
+ALEXANDRIA, (412-444.)
+
+
+
+
+                          THE FIFTH CENTURY.
+
+  END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE--FORMATION OF MODERN STATES--GROWTH OF
+  ECCLESIASTICAL AUTHORITY.
+
+
+We find the same actors on the stage when the curtain rises again, but
+circumstances have greatly changed. After his escape from Stilicho,
+Alaric had been "lifted on the shield," the wild and picturesque way
+in which the warlike Goths nominated their kings, and henceforth
+was considered the monarch of a separate and independent people, no
+longer the mere leader of a band of predatory barbarians. In this new
+character he entered into treaties with the emperors of Constantinople
+or Rome, and broke them, as if he had already been the sovereign of a
+civilized state.
+
+In 403 he broke up from his secure retreat on the Adriatic, and burst
+into Italy, spreading fire and famine wherever he went. Honorius,
+the Emperor of the West, fled from Milan, and was besieged in Asti
+by the Goths. Here would have ended the imperial dynasty, some years
+before its time, if it had not been for the watchful Stilicho. This
+Vandal chief flew to the rescue of Honorius, repulsed Alaric with
+great slaughter, and delivered his master from his dangerous position.
+The grateful emperor entered Rome in triumph, and for the last time
+the Circus streamed with the blood of beasts and men. [A.D. 408.] He
+retired after this display to the inaccessible marshes of Ravenna, at
+the mouths of the Po, and, secure in that fortress, sent an order to
+have his preserver and benefactor murdered; Stilicho, the only hope
+of Rome, was assassinated, and Alaric once more saw all Italy within
+his grasp. It was not only the Goths who followed Alaric's command. All
+the barbarians, of whatever name or race, who had been transplanted
+either as slaves or soldiers--Alans, Franks, and Germans--rallied
+round the advancing king, for the impolitic Honorius had issued an
+order for the extermination of all the tribes. There were Britons,
+and Saxons, and Suabians. It was an insurrection of all the manly
+elements of society against the indescribable depravation of the
+inhabitants of the Peninsula. The wildest barbarian blushed in the
+midst of his ignorance and rudeness to hear of the manners of the
+highest and most distinguished families in Rome. Nobody could hold out
+a hand to avert the judgment that was about to fall on the devoted
+city. Ambassadors indeed appeared, and bought a short delay at the
+price of many thousand pounds' weight of gold and silver, and of large
+quantities of silk; but these were only additional incitements to the
+cupidity of the invader. Tribe after tribe rose up with fresh fury;
+warriors of every hue and shape, and with every manner of equipment.
+The handsome Goth in his iron cuirass; the Alan with his saddle covered
+with human skin; the German making a hideous sound by shrieking on
+the sharp edge of his shield; and the countryman of Alaric himself
+sounding the "horn of battle," which terrified the Romans with its
+ominous note--all started forward on the march. At the head of each
+detachment rode a band, singing songs of exultation and defiance; and
+the Romans, stupefied with fear, saw these innumerable swarms defile
+towards the Milvian bridge and close up every access to the town.
+There was no corn from Sicily or Africa; a pest raged in every house,
+and hunger reduced the inhabitants to despair. The gates were thrown
+open, and all the pent-up animosity of the desert was poured out upon
+the mistress and corrupter of the world. For six days the city was
+given up to remorseless slaughter and universal pillage. The wealth
+was incalculable. The captives were sold as slaves. The palaces were
+overthrown, and the river choked with carcasses and the treasures of
+art which the barbarians could not appreciate. "The new Babylon," cries
+Bossuet, the great Bishop of Meaux, "rival of the old, swelled out like
+her with her successes, and, triumphing in her pleasures and riches,
+encountered as great a fall." And no man lamented her fate.
+
+[A.D. 410.]
+
+Alaric, who had thus achieved a victory denied to Hannibal and Pyrrhus,
+resolved to push his conquests to the end of Italy. But on his march
+towards the Straits of Sicily, illness overtook him. His life had been
+unlike that of other men, and his burial was to excite the wonder of
+the Bruttians, among whom he died. A large river was turned from its
+course, and in its channel a deep grave was dug and ornamented with
+monumental stone. To this the body of the barbaric king was carried,
+clothed in full armour, and accompanied with some of the richest spoils
+of Rome; and then the stream was turned on again, the prisoners who
+had executed the works were slaughtered to conceal the secret of the
+tomb, and nobody has ever found out where the Gothic king reposes. But
+while the Busentino flowed peaceably on, and guarded the body of the
+conqueror from the revenge of the Romans, new perils were gathering
+round the throne of the Western emperor. As if the duration of the
+empire had been inseparably connected with the capital, the reverence
+of mankind was never bestowed on Milan or Ravenna, in which the court
+was now established, as it had been upon Rome. Britain had already
+thrown off the distant yoke, and submitted to the Saxon invaders.
+Spain had also peaceably accepted the rule of the three kindred tribes
+of Sueves and Alans and Vandals. Gaul itself had given its adhesion
+to the Burgundians (who fixed their seat in the district which still
+bears their name) and offered a feeble resistance to any fresh invader.
+Ataulf, the brother of Alaric, came to the rescue of the empire, and of
+course completed the destruction. He married the sister of Honorius,
+and retained her as a hostage of the emperor's good faith. He promised
+to restore the revolted provinces to their former master, and succeeded
+in overthrowing some competitors who had started up to dispute with
+Ravenna the wrecks of former power. He then forced his way into Spain,
+and the hopes of the degenerate Romans were high. But murder, as usual,
+stopped the career of Ataulf, and all was changed. [A.D. 415.] The
+emperor ratified the possessions which he could not dispute, and in
+the first twenty years of this century three separate kingdoms were
+established in Europe. This was soon followed by a Vandal conquest of
+the shores of Africa, which raised Carthage once more to commercial
+importance, united Sicily, Corsica, and Sardinia to the new-founded
+state, and by the creation of a fleet gained the command of the
+Mediterranean Sea, and threatened Constantinople itself.
+
+With so many provinces not only torn from the empire, but erected into
+hostile kingdoms, nothing was wanting but some new irruption into the
+still dependent territories to put a final end to the Roman name. And a
+new incursion came. In the very involved relations existing between the
+emperors of the East and West, it is difficult to follow the course of
+events with any clearness. While the deluded populace of Constantinople
+were rejoicing in the fall of their Italian rival, they heard with
+amazement, in 441, that a savage potentate, who had pitched his tents
+in the plains of Pannonia and Thrace, and kept round him, for defence
+or conquest, seven hundred thousand of those hideous-featured Huns who
+had spread devastation and terror all over the populations of Asia,
+from the borders of China to the Don, had determined on stretching his
+conquests over the whole world, and merely hesitated with which of the
+doomed empires to begin his career. His name was Attila, or, according
+to its native pronunciation, Etzel; and it soon resounded, louder and
+more terrifying than that of Alaric the Goth. The Emperor of the East
+sent an embassy to this dreadful neighbour, a minute account of which
+remains, and from which we learn the barbaric pomp and ceremony of the
+leader of the Huns, and the perfidy and debasement of the Greeks. An
+attempt was made to poison the redoubtable chief, and he complained
+of the guilty ambassador to the very person who had given him his
+instructions for the deed. Unsatisfied with the result, the Hunnish
+monarch advanced his camp. Constantinople, anxious to ward off the blow
+from itself, descanted to the savage king on the exposed condition and
+ill-defended wealth of the Italian towns. Treachery of another kind
+came to his aid. An offended sister of the emperor sent to Attila her
+ring as a mark of espousal, and he now claimed a portion of the empire
+as the dowry of his bride. When this was refused, he reiterated his old
+claim of satisfaction for the attempt upon his life, and ravaged the
+fields of Belgium and Gaul, in the double character of avenger of an
+insult and claimant of an inheritance. It does not much matter under
+what plea a barbarous chieftain, with six hundred thousand warriors,
+makes a demand. It must be answered sword in hand, or on the knees.
+The newly-established Frankish and Burgundian kings gathered their
+forces in defence of their Christian faith and their recently-acquired
+dominions. Attila retired from Orleans, of which he had commenced the
+siege, and chose for the battle-field, which was to decide the destiny
+of the world, a vast plain not far from Chalons, on the Marne, where
+his cavalry would have room to act, and waited the assault of all the
+forces that France and Italy could collect. The Visigoths prepared
+for the decisive engagement under their king, Theodoric; the Franks
+of the Saal under Meroveg; the Ripuarian Franks, the Saxons, and the
+Burgundians were under leaders of their own. [A.D. 451.] It was a
+fight in which were brought face to face the two conquering races of
+the world, and upon its result it depended whether Europe was to be
+ruled by a dynasty of Calmucks or left to her free progress under her
+Gothic and Teutonic kings. Three hundred thousand corpses marked the
+severity of the struggle, but victory rested with the West. Attila
+retreated from Gaul, and wreaked his vengeance on the Italian cities.
+He destroyed Aquileia, whose terrified inhabitants hid themselves in
+the marshes and lagoons which afterwards bore the palaces of Venice;
+Vicenza, Padua, and Verona were spoiled and burned. Pavia and Milan
+submitted without resistance. On approaching Rome, the venerable
+bishop, Saint Leo, met the devastating Hun, and by the gravity of his
+appearance, the ransom he offered, and perhaps the mystic dignity
+which still rested upon the city whose cause he pleaded, prevailed on
+him to retire. Shortly after, the chief of this brief and terrible
+visitation died in his tent on the banks of the Danube, and left no
+lasting memorial of his irruption except the depopulation his cruelty
+had caused, and the ruin he had spread over some of the fairest regions
+of the earth.
+
+But Rome, spared by the influence of the bishop from the ravage of
+the Huns, could not escape the destroying enmity of Genseric and the
+Vandals. Dashing across from Africa, these furious conquerors destroyed
+for destruction's sake, and affixed the name of Vandalism on whatever
+is harsh and unrefined. For fourteen days the spoilers were at work in
+Rome, and it is only wonderful that after so many plunderings any thing
+worth plundering remained. When the sated Vandals crossed to Carthage
+again, the Gothic and Suevic kings gave the purple to whatever puppet
+they chose. Afraid still to invest themselves with the insignia of
+the Imperial power, they bestowed them or took them away, and at last
+rendered the throne and the crown so contemptible, that when Odoacer
+was proclaimed King of Italy, the phantom assembly which still called
+itself the Roman Senate sent back to Constantinople the tiara and
+purple robe, in sign that the Western Empire had passed away. Zeno, the
+Eastern ruler, retained the ornaments of the departed sovereignty, and
+sent to the Herulean Odoacer the title of "Patrician," sole emblem left
+of the greatness and antiquity of the Roman name. It may be interesting
+to remember that the last who wore the Imperial crown was a youth who
+would probably have escaped the recognition of posterity altogether, if
+he had not, by a sort of cruel mockery of his misfortunes, borne the
+names of Romulus Augustulus--the former recalling the great founder of
+the city, and the latter the first of the Imperial line.
+
+Thus, then, in 476, Rome came to her deserved and terrible end; and
+before we trace the influence of this great event upon the succeeding
+centuries, it will be worth while to devote a few words to the cause of
+its overthrow. These were evidently three--the ineradicable barbarity
+and selfishness of the Roman character, the depravation of manners in
+the capital, and the want of some combining influence to bind all the
+parts of the various empire into a whole. From the earliest incidents
+in the history of Rome, we gather that she was utterly regardless of
+human life or suffering. Her treatment of her vanquished enemies, and
+her laws upon parental authority, upon slaves and debtors, show the
+pitiless disposition of her people. Look at her citizens at any period
+of her career--her populace or her consuls--in the field of battle
+or in the forum, you will always find them the true descendants of
+those blood-stained refugees, who established their den of robbers on
+the seven hills, and pretended they were led by a man who had been
+suckled by a wolf. While conquest was their object, this sanguinary
+disposition enabled them to perform great exploits; but when victory
+had secured to them the blessings of peace and safety, the same thirst
+for excitement continued. They cried out for blood in the amphitheatre,
+and had no pleasure in any display which was not accompanied with pain.
+The rival chief who had perilled their supremacy in the field was led
+in ferocious triumph at the wheel of his conqueror, and beheaded or
+flogged to death at the gate of the Capitol. The wounded gladiator
+looked round the benches of the arena in hopes of seeing the thumbs
+of the spectators turned down--the signal for his life being spared;
+but matrons and maids, the high and the low, looked with unmoved faces
+upon his agonies, and gave the signal for his death without remorse.
+They were the same people, even in their amusements, who gave order for
+the destruction of Numantium and Carthage. But cruelty was not enough.
+They sank into the wildest vices of sensuality, and lost the dignity
+of manhood, and the last feelings of self-respect. Never was a nation
+so easily habituated to slavery. They licked the hand that struck them
+hardest. They hung garlands for a long time on the tomb of Nero. They
+insisted on being revenged on the murderers of Commodus, and frequently
+slew more citizens in broils in the street and quarrels in the theatre,
+than had fought at Cannae or Zama. It might have been hoped that the
+cruelty which characterized the days of their military aggression
+would be softened down when they had become the acknowledged rulers of
+the world. Luxury itself, it might be thought, would be inconsistent
+with the sight of blood. But in this utterly detestable race the two
+extremes of human society seemed to have the same result. The brutal,
+half-clothed savage of an early age conveyed his tastes as well as his
+conquests to the enervated voluptuary of the empire. The virtues, such
+as they were, of that former period--contempt of danger, unfaltering
+resolution, and a certain simplicity of life--had departed, and all the
+bad features were exaggerated. Religion also had disappeared. Even a
+false religion, if sincerely entertained, is a bond of union among all
+who profess its faith. But between Rome and its colonies, and between
+man and man, there was soon no community of belief. The sweltering
+wretches in the Forum sneered at the existence of Bacchus in the midst
+of his mysteries, and imitated the actions of their gods, while they
+laughed at the hypocrisy of priests and augurs, who treated them as
+divine. A cruel, depraved, godless people--these were the Romans who
+had enslaved the world with their arms and corrupted it with their
+civilization. When their capital fell, men felt relieved from a burden
+and shame. The lessons of Christianity had been thrown away on a
+population too gross and too truculent to receive them. Some of gentler
+mould than others had received the Saviour; but to the mass of Romans
+the language of peace and justice, of forgiveness and brotherhood, was
+unknown. It was to be the worthier recipients of a pure and elevating
+faith, that the Goth was called from his wilderness and the German from
+his forest.
+
+But the faith had to be purified itself before it was fitted for the
+reception of the new conquerors of the world. The dissensions of the
+Christian Churches had added only a fresh element of weakness to the
+empire of Rome. There were heretics everywhere, supporting their
+opinions with bigotry and violence--Arians, Sabellians, Montanists, and
+fifty names besides. Torn by these parties, dishonoured by pretended
+conversions, the result of flattery and ambition, the Christian Church
+was further weakened by the effect of wealth and luxury upon its
+chiefs. While contending with rival sects upon some point of discipline
+or doctrine, they made themselves so notorious for the desire of
+riches, and the infamous arts they practised to get themselves
+appointed heirs of the rich members of their congregations, that a
+law was passed making a conveyance in favour of a priest invalid. And
+it is not from Pagan enemies or heretical rivals we learn this--it
+is from the letters still extant of the most honoured Fathers of the
+Church. One of them tells us that the Prefect Pretextatus, alluding
+to the luxury of the Pontiffs, and to the magnificence of their
+apparel, said to Pope Damasus, "Make me Bishop of Rome, and I will
+turn Christian." "Far, then," says a Roman Catholic historian of our
+own day, "from strengthening the Roman world with its virtues, the
+Christian society seemed to have adopted the vices it was its office
+to overcome." But the fall of Roman power was the resurrection of
+Christianity. It had a Resurrection, because it had had a Death, and a
+new world was now prepared for its reception. Its everlasting truths,
+indeed, had been full of life and vigour all through the sad period
+of Roman depravation, but the ground was unfitted for their growth;
+and the great characteristic of this century is not the conquest of
+Rome by Alaric the Goth, or the dreadful assault on Europe by Attila
+the Hun, or the final abolition of the old capital of the world by
+Odoacer the Herulean, but rather the ecclesiastical chaos which spread
+over the earth. The age of martyrs had passed--the philosophers had
+begun their pestiferous tamperings with the facts of revelation--and
+over all rioted and stormed an ambitious and worldly priesthood, who
+hated their opponents with more bitterness than the heathens had
+displayed against the Christians, and ran wild in every species of
+lawlessness and vice. The deserts and caves which used to give retreat
+to meditative worshippers or timid believers, now teemed with thousands
+of furious and fanatical monks, who rushed occasionally into the great
+cities of the empire, and filled their streets with blood and rapine.
+Guided by no less fanatical bishops, they spread murder and terror
+over whole provinces. Alexandria stood in more fear of these professed
+recluses than of an army of hostile soldiers. "There is a race," says
+Eunapius, "called monks--men indeed in form, but hogs in life, who
+practise and allow abominable things. Whoever wears a black robe, and
+is not ashamed of filthy garments, and presents a dirty face to the
+public view, obtains a tyrannical authority." False miracles, absurd
+prophecies, and ludicrous visions were the instruments with which these
+and other impostors established their power. Mad enthusiasts imprisoned
+themselves in dungeons, or exposed themselves on the tops of pillars,
+naked, except by the growth of their tangled hair, and the coating of
+filth upon their persons,--and gained credit among the ignorant for
+self-denial and abnegation of the world.
+
+All the high offices of the Church were so lucrative and honourable as
+to be the object of universal desire.
+
+To be established archbishop of a diocese cost more lives than the
+conquest of a province. When the Christian community needed support
+from without, they had recourse to some rich or powerful individual,
+some general of an army, or governor of a district, and begged him
+to assume the pastoral staff in exchange for his military sword.
+Sometimes the assembled crowd cried out the name of a favourite who
+was not even known to be a Christian, and the mitre was conveyed by
+acclamation to a person who had to undergo the ceremonies of baptism
+and ordination before he could place it on his head. Sometimes the
+exigencies of the congregation required a scholar or an orator for
+its head. It applied to a philosopher to undertake its direction. He
+objected that his philosophy had been declared inconsistent with the
+Christian faith, and his mode of life contrary to Christian precept.
+They forgave him his philosophy, his horses and hounds, his wife and
+children, and constituted him their chief. Age was of no consequence.
+A youth of eighteen has been saluted bishop by a cry which seemed to
+the multitude the direct inspiration of Heaven, and seated in the
+chair of his dignity almost without his knowledge. Once established
+on his episcopal seat, he had no superior. The Roman Bishop had not
+yet asserted his supremacy over the Church. Each prelate was sovereign
+Pontiff of his own see, and his doctrines for a long time regulated the
+doctrines of his flock. Under former bishops, Milan had been Arian,
+under Ambrose it was orthodox, and with a change of master might
+have been Arian again. The emperors had occasionally interfered with
+their authoritative decisions, but generally the dispute was left in
+divided dioceses to be settled by argument, when the rivals' tempers
+allowed such a mode of warfare, but more frequently by armed bands of
+the retainers of the respective creeds, and sometimes by an appeal to
+miracles. But with this century a new spirit of bitterness was let
+loose upon the Church. Councils were held, at which the doctrines of
+the minority were declared dangerous to the State, and the civil power
+was invoked to carry the sentence into effect. In Africa, where the
+great name of Augustin of Hippo admitted no opposition, the Donatists,
+though represented by no less than two hundred and seventy-nine
+prelates, were condemned as heretics, and given over to the persecuting
+sword. But in other quarters the dissidents looked for support to
+the civil power, when it happened to be of their opinion in Church
+affairs. Rome chose Clovis, the politic and energetic Frank, for its
+guardian and protector, and the Arians threw themselves in the same
+way on the support of the Visigoths and Burgundians. A difference of
+faith became a pretext for war. Clovis, who envied his neighbours
+their territories south of the Loire, led an expedition against them,
+crying, "It is shameful to see those Arians in possession of such
+goodly lands!" and everywhere a vast activity was perceptible in
+the Church, because its interests were now connected with those of
+kings and peoples. In earlier times, discussions were carried on on a
+great variety of doctrines which, though widely spread, were not yet
+authoritatively declared to be articles of faith. St. Jerome himself,
+and others, had had to defend their opinions against the attacks of
+various adversaries, who, without ceasing to be considered true members
+of the Church, wrote powerfully against the worship of martyrs and
+their relics; against the miracles professedly wrought at their tombs;
+against fasting, austerities, and celibacy. No appeal was made on
+those occasions either to the Bishop of Rome as head of the Church,
+or to the emperor as head of the State. Now, however, the spirit of
+moderation was banished, and the decrees of councils were considered
+superior to private or even diocesan judgment. Life and freedom of
+discussion were at an end under an enforced and rigid uniformity. But
+the struggle lasted through the century. It was the period of great
+convulsions in the State, and disputations, wranglings, and struggle
+in the Church. How these, in a State tortured by perpetual change,
+and a Church filled with energy and fire, acted upon each other, may
+easily be supposed. The doubtful and unsteady civil government had
+subordinated itself to the turbulent ardour of the perplexed but
+highly-animated Church. After the conquest of Rome, where was the
+barbaric conqueror to look for any guide to internal unity, or any
+relic of the vanished empire by which to connect himself with the past?
+There was only the Church, which was now not only the professed teacher
+of obedience, peace, and holiness, but the only undestroyed institution
+of the State. The old population of Rome had been wasted by the sword,
+and famine, and deportation. The emperors of the West had left the
+scene; the Roman Senate was no more. There was but one authority which
+had any influence on the wretched crowd who had returned to their
+ancient capital, or sought refuge in its ruined palaces or grass-grown
+streets from the pursuit of their foes; and that was the Bishop of
+the Christian congregation--whose palace had been given to him by
+Constantine--who claimed already the inheritance of St. Peter--and who
+carried to the new government either the support of a willing people,
+or the enmity of a seditious mob.
+
+[A.D. 489.]
+
+A new hero came upon the scene in the person of Theodoric, the
+Ostrogoth. Odoacer tried in vain to resist the two hundred thousand
+warriors of this tribe who poured upon Italy in 490, and, after
+a long resistance in Ravenna, yielded the kingdom of Italy to his
+rival. Theodoric, though an Arian, cultivated the good opinion of the
+orthodox, and gained the favour of the Roman Bishop. He had almost a
+superstitious veneration for the dignities of ancient Rome. He treated
+with respect an assembly which called itself the Senate, but did not
+allow his love of antiquity to blind him to the degeneracy of the
+present race. He interdicted arms to all men of Roman blood, and tried
+in vain to prevent his followers from using the appellation "Roman"
+as their bitterest form of contempt. Lands were distributed to his
+followers, and they occupied and improved a full third of Italy. Equal
+laws were provided for both populations, but he forbade the toga and
+the schools to his countrymen, and left the studies and refinements of
+life, and offices of civil dignity, to the native race. The hand that
+holds the pen, he said, becomes unfitted for the sword. But, barbarian
+as he was called, he restored the prosperity which the fairest region
+of the earth had lost under the emperors. Bridges, aqueducts, theatres,
+baths, were repaired; palaces and churches built. Agriculture was
+encouraged, attempts were made to drain the Pontine Marshes; iron-mines
+were worked in Dalmatia, and gold-mines in Bruttium. Large fleets
+protected the coasts of the Mediterranean from pirates and invaders.
+Population increased, taxes were diminished; and a ruler who could
+neither read nor write attracted to his court all the learned men of
+his time. Already the energy of a new and enterprising people was felt
+to the extremities of his dominions. A new race, also, was established
+in Gaul. Klodwig, leader of the Franks, received baptism at the hands
+of St. Remi in 496, and began the great line of French rulers, who,
+passing his name through the softened sound of Clovis, presented, in
+the different families who succeeded him, eighteen kings of the name of
+Louis, as if commemorative of the founder of the monarchy.
+
+In England the petty kingdoms of the Heptarchy were in the course of
+formation, and though, when viewed closely, we seemed a divided and
+even hostile collection of individual tribes, the historian combines
+the separate elements, and tells us that, before the fifth century
+expired, another branch of the barbarians had settled into form and
+order, and that the Anglo-Saxon race had taken possession of its place.
+
+With these newly-founded States rising with fresh vigour from among the
+decayed and festering remains of an older society, we look hopefully
+forward to what the future years will show us.
+
+
+
+
+                            SIXTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Kings of the Franks.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       CLOVIS.--(_cont._)
+
+  511. CHILDEBERT, THIERRY, CLOTAIRE, CLODOMIR.
+
+  559. CLOTAIRE (sole King).
+
+  562. CHARIBERT, GONTRAN, SIGEBERT and CHILDERIC.
+
+  584. CLOTAIRE II., (of Soissons.)
+
+  596. THIERRY II., THEODOBERT, (of Paris and Austrasia.)
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       ANASTASIUS.--(_cont._)
+
+  518. JUSTIN.
+
+  527. JUSTINIAN I.
+
+  565. JUSTIN II.
+
+  578. TIBERIUS II.
+
+  582. MAURICE.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+BOETHIUS, PROCOPIUS, GILDAS, GREGORY OF TOURS, COLUMBA, (520-597,)
+PRISCIAN, COLUMBANUS, BENEDICT, EVAGRIUS, (SCHOLASTICUS,) FULGENTIUS,
+GREGORY THE GREAT.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE SIXTH CENTURY.
+
+  BELISARIUS AND NARSES IN ITALY--SETTLEMENT OF THE LOMBARDS--LAWS OF
+  JUSTINIAN--BIRTH OF MOHAMMED.
+
+
+Theodoric, though not laying claim to universal empire in right of
+his possession of Rome and Italy, exercised a sort of supremacy over
+his contemporaries by his wisdom and power. He also strengthened his
+position by family alliances. His wife was sister of Klodwig or Clovis,
+King of the Franks. He married his own sister to Hunric, King of the
+Vandals, his niece to the Thuringian king. One of his daughters he
+gave to Sigismund, King of the Burgundians, and the other to Alaric
+the Second, King of the Visigoths. Relying on the double influence
+which his relationship and reputation secured to him, he rebuked or
+praised the potentates of Europe as if they had been his children, and
+gave them advice in the various exigencies of their affairs, to which
+they implicitly submitted. He would fain have kept alive what was
+left of the old Roman civilization, and heaped honours on the Senator
+Cassiodorus, one of the last writers of Rome. "We send you this man
+as ambassador," he said to the King of the Burgundians, "that your
+people may no longer pretend to be our equals when they perceive what
+manner of men we have among us." But his rule, though generous, was
+strict. He imprisoned the Bishop of Rome for disobedience of orders
+in a commission he had given him, and repressed discontent and the
+quarrels of the factions with an unsparing hand. But the death of this
+great and wise sovereign showed on what unstable foundations a barbaric
+power is built. Frightful tragedies were enacted in his family. His
+daughter was murdered by her nephew, whom she had associated with her
+in the guardianship of her son. But vengeance overtook the wrong-doer,
+and a strange revolution occurred in the history of the world. The
+emperor reigning at Constantinople was the celebrated Justinian. He
+saw into what a confused condition the affairs of the new conquerors
+of Italy had fallen. Rallying round him all the recollections of the
+past--giving command of his armies to one of the great men who start
+up unexpectedly in the most hopeless periods of history, whose name,
+Belisarius, still continues to be familiar to our ears--and rousing
+the hostile nationalities to come to his aid, he poured into the
+peninsula an army with Roman discipline and the union which community
+of interests affords. [A.D. 535.] In a remarkably short space of time,
+Belisarius achieved the conquest of Italy. The opposing soldiers threw
+down their arms at sight of the well-remembered eagles. The nations
+threw off the supremacy of the Ostrogoths. Belisarius had already
+overthrown the kingdom of the Vandals and restored Africa to the empire
+of the East. He took Naples, and put the inhabitants to the sword.
+He advanced upon Rome, which the Goths deserted at his approach. The
+walls of the great city were restored, and a victory over the fugitives
+at Perugia seemed to secure the whole land to its ancient masters.
+But Witig, the Ostrogoth, gathered courage from despair. He besought
+assistance from the Franks, who had now taken possession of Burgundy;
+and volunteers from all quarters flocked to his standard, for he had
+promised them the spoils of Milan. Milan was immensely rich, and had
+espoused the orthodox faith. The assailants were Arians, and intent on
+plunder. Such destruction had scarcely been seen since the memorable
+slaughter of the Huns at Chalons on the Marne. The Ostrogoths and
+Burgundian Franks broke into the town, and the streets were piled up
+with the corpses of all the inhabitants. There were three hundred
+thousand put to death, and multitudes had died of famine and disease.
+The ferocity was useless, and Belisarius was already on the march;
+Witig was conquered, in open fight, while he was busy besieging Rome;
+Ravenna itself, his capital, was taken, and the Ostrogothic king was
+led in triumph along the streets of Constantinople.
+
+[A.D. 540.]
+
+But the conqueror of the Ostrogoths fell into disfavour at court. He
+was summoned home, and a great man, whom his presence in Italy had kept
+in check, availed himself of his absence. Totila seemed indeed worthy
+to succeed to the empire of his countryman Theodoric. He again peopled
+the utterly exhausted Rome; he restored its buildings, and lived among
+the new-comers himself, encouraging their efforts to give it once more
+the appearance of the capital of the world. But these efforts were
+in vain. There was no possibility of reviving the old fiction of the
+identity of the freshly-imported inhabitants and the countrymen of
+Scipio and Caesar. Only one link was possible between the old state of
+things and the new. It was strange that it was left for the Christian
+Bishop to bridge over the chasm that separated the Rome of the
+Consulship and the Empire from the capital of the Goths. Yet so it was.
+While the short duration of the reigns of the barbaric kings prevented
+the most sanguine from looking forward to the stability of any power
+for the future, the immunity already granted to the clerical order, and
+the sanctuary afforded, in the midst of the wildest excesses of siege
+and storm, by their shrines and churches, had affixed a character of
+inviolability and permanence to the influence of the ecclesiastical
+chief. At Constantinople, the presence of the sovereign, who affected a
+grandeur to which the pretensions to divinity of the Roman emperors had
+been modesty and simplicity, kept the dignity of the Bishop in a very
+secondary place. But at Rome there was no one left to dispute his rank.
+His office claimed a duration of upwards of four hundred years; and
+though at first his predecessors had been fugitives and martyrs, and
+even now his power had no foundation except in the willing obedience
+of the members of his flock, the necessity of his position had forced
+him to extend his claims beyond the mere requirements of his spiritual
+rule. During the ephemeral occupations of the city by Vandals and Huns
+and Ostrogoths, and all the tribes who successively took possession of
+the great capital, he had been recognised as the representative of the
+most influential portion of the inhabitants. As it naturally followed
+that the higher the rank of a ruler or intercessor was, the more likely
+his success would be, the Christians of the orthodox persuasion had
+the wisdom to raise their Bishop as high as they could. He had stood
+between the devoted city and the Huns; he had promised obedience or
+threatened resistance to the Goths, according to the conduct pursued
+with regard to his flock by the conquerors. He had also lent to
+Belisarius all the weight of his authority in restoring the power of
+the emperors, and from this time the Bishop of Rome became a great
+civil as well as ecclesiastical officer. All parties in turn united in
+trying to win him over to their cause--the Arian kings, by kindness
+and forbearance to his adherents; and the orthodox, by increasing the
+rights and privileges of his see. And already the policy of the Roman
+Pontiffs began to take the path it has never deserted since. They
+looked out in all quarters for assistance in their schemes of ambition
+and conquest. Emissaries were despatched into many nations to convert
+them, not from heathenism to Christianity, but from independence to an
+acknowledgment of their subjection to Rome. It was seen already that
+a great spiritual empire might be founded upon the ruins of the old
+Roman world, and spread itself over the perplexed and unstable politics
+of the barbaric tribes. No means, accordingly, were left untried to
+extend the conquests of the spiritual Caesar. When Clovis the Frank was
+converted by the entreaties of his wife from Arianism to the creed
+of the Roman Church, the orthodox bishops of France considered it a
+victory over their enemies, though these enemies were their countrymen
+and neighbours. And from henceforth we find the different confessions
+of faith to have more influence in the setting up or overthrowing of
+kingdoms than the strength of armies or the skill of generals. Narses,
+who was appointed the successor of Belisarius, was a believer in the
+decrees of the Council of Nice. His orthodoxy won him the support of
+all the orthodox Huns and Heruleans and Lombards, who formed an army
+of infuriated missionaries rather than of soldiers, and gained to his
+cause the majority of the Ostrogoths whom it was his task to fight.
+Totila in vain tried to bear up against this invasion. The heretical
+Ostrogoths, expelled from the towns by their orthodox fellow-citizens,
+and ill supported by the inhabitants of the lands they traversed,
+were defeated in several battles; and at last, when the resisting
+forces were reduced to the paltry number of seven thousand men, their
+spirits broken by defeat, and a continuance in Italy made useless by
+the hostile feelings of the population, they applied to Narses for
+some means of saving their lives. He furnished them with vessels,
+which carried them from the lands which, sixty years before, had
+been assigned them by the great Theodoric, and they found an obscure
+termination to so strange and checkered a career, by being lost and
+mingled in the crowded populations of Constantinople. This was in
+553. The Ostrogoths disappear from history. The Visigoths have still
+a settlement at the southwest of France and in the rich regions of
+Spain, but they are isolated by their position, and are divided into
+different branches. The Franks are a great and seemingly well-cemented
+race between the Rhine and the sea. The Burgundians have a form of
+government and code of laws which keep them distinct and powerful.
+There are nations rising into independence in Germany. In England,
+Christianity has formed a bond which practically gives firmness and
+unity to the kingdoms of the Heptarchy; and it might be expected
+that, having seen so many tribes of strange and varying aspect emerge
+from the unknown regions of the East, we should have little to do but
+watch the gradual enlightenment of those various races, and see them
+assuming, by slow degrees, their present respective places; but the
+undiscovered extremities of the earth were again to pour forth a swarm
+of invaders, who plunged Italy back into its old state of barbarism and
+oppression, and established a new people in the midst of its already
+confused and intermixed populations.
+
+Somewhere up between the Aller and the Oder there had been settled,
+from some unknown period, a people of wild and uncultivated habits,
+who had occasionally appeared in small detachments in the various
+gatherings of barbarians who had forced their way into the South.
+Following the irresistible impulse which seems to impel all the
+settlers in the North, they traversed the regions already occupied
+by the Heruleans and the Gepides, and paused, as all previous
+invasions had done, on the outer boundary of the Danube. These were
+the Longobards or Lombards, so called from the spears, _bardi_, with
+which they were armed; and not long they required to wait till a
+favourable opportunity occurred for them to cross the stream. In the
+hurried levies of Narses some of them had offered their services, and
+had been present at the victory over Totila the Goth. They returned,
+in all probability, to their companions, and soon the hearts of
+the whole tribe were set upon the conquest of the beautiful region
+their countrymen had seen. If they hesitated to undertake so long an
+expedition, two incidents occurred which made it indispensable. Flying
+in wild fury and dismay from the face of a pursuing enemy, the Avars,
+themselves a ferocious Asiatic horde which had terrified the Eastern
+Empire, came and joined themselves to the Lombards. With united forces,
+all their tents, and wives and children, their horses and cattle, this
+dreadful alliance began their progress to Italy. The other incident
+was, that in revenge for the injustice of his master, and dreading his
+further malice, Narses himself invited their assistance. Alboin, the
+Lombard king, was chief of the expedition. He had been refused the hand
+of Rosamund, the daughter of Cunimond, chief of the Gepides. He poured
+the combined armies of Lombards and Avars upon the unfortunate tribe,
+slew the king with his own hand, and, according to the inhuman fashion
+of his race, formed his drinking-cup of his enemy's skull. He married
+Rosamund, and pursued his victorious career. He crossed the Julian
+Alps, made himself master of Milan and the dependent territories, and
+was lifted on the shield as King of Italy. At a festival in honour of
+his successes, he forced his favourite wine-goblet into the hands of
+his wife. She recognised the fearful vessel, and shuddered while she
+put her lips to the brim. But hatred took possession of her heart. She
+promised her hand and throne to Kilmich, one of her attendants, if he
+would take vengeance on the tyrant who had offered her so intolerable a
+wrong. The attendant was won by the bride, and slew Alboin. But justice
+pursued the murderers. They were discovered, and fled to Ravenna, where
+the Exarch held his court. Saved thus from human retribution, Rosamund
+brought her fate upon herself. Captivated with the prospect of marrying
+the Exarch, she presented a poisoned cup to Kilmich, now become her
+husband, as he came from the bath. The effect was immediate, and the
+agonies he felt told him too surely the author of his death. [A.D. 575.]
+He just lived long enough to stab the wretched woman with his dagger,
+and this frightful domestic tragedy was brought to a close.
+
+Alboin had divided his dominion into many little states and dukedoms.
+A kind of anarchy succeeded the strong government of the remorseless
+and clear-sighted king, and enemies began to arise in different
+directions. The Franks from the south of France began to cross the
+Alps. The Greek settlements began to menace the Lombards from the
+South. Internal disunion was quelled by the public danger, and
+Antharis, the son of Cleph, was nominated king. To strengthen himself
+against the orthodox Franks, he professed himself a Christian and
+joined the Arian communion. With the aid of his co-religionists
+he repelled the invaders, and had time, in the intervals of their
+assaults, to extend his conquests to the south of the peninsula. There
+he overthrew the settlements which owned the Empire of the East;
+and coming to the extreme end of Italy, the savage ruler pushed his
+war-horse into the water as deep as it would go, and, standing up in
+his stirrups, threw forward his javelin with all his strength, saying,
+"That is the boundary of the Lombard power." Unhappily for the unity
+of that distracted land, the warrior's boast was unfounded, and it
+has continued ever since a prey to discord and division. [A.D. 591.]
+Another kingdom, however, was added to the roll of European states;
+and this was the last settlement permanently made on the old Roman
+territory.
+
+The Lombards were a less civilized horde than any of their
+predecessors. The Ostrogoths had rapidly assimilated themselves to
+the people who surrounded them, but the Lombards looked with haughty
+disdain on the population they had subdued. By portioning the country
+among the chiefs of the expedition, they commenced the first experiment
+on a great scale of what afterwards expanded into the feudal system.
+There were among them, as among the other northern settlers, an
+elective king and an hereditary nobility, owing suit and service to
+their chief, and exacting the same from their dependants; and already
+we see the working of this similarity of constitution in the diffusion
+throughout the whole of Europe of the monarchical and aristocratic
+principle, which is still the characteristic of most of our modern
+states. From this century some authors date the origin of what are
+called the "Middle Ages," forming the great and obscure gulf between
+ancient and modern times. Others, indeed, wish to fix the commencement
+of the Middle Ages at a much earlier date--even so far back as the
+reign of Constantine. They found this inclination on the fact that to
+him we are indebted for the settlement of barbarians within the empire,
+and the institution of a titled nobility dependent on the crown. But
+many things were needed besides these to constitute the state of
+manners and polity which we recognise as those of the Middle Ages,
+and above them all the establishment of the monarchical principle in
+ecclesiastical government, and the recognition of a sovereign priest.
+This was now close at hand, and its approach was heralded by many
+appearances.
+
+How, indeed, could the Church deprive itself of the organization
+which it saw so powerful and so successful in civil affairs? A
+machinery was all ready to produce an exact copy of the forms of
+temporal administration. There were bishops to be analogous to the
+great feudataries of the crown; priests and rectors to represent the
+smaller freeholders dependent on the greater barons; but where was the
+monarch by whom the whole system was to be combined and all the links
+of the great chain held together by a point of central union? The
+want of this had been so felt, that we might naturally have expected
+a claim to universal superiority to have long ere this been made by
+a Pope of Rome, the ancient seat of the temporal power. But with his
+residence perpetually a prey to fresh inroads, a heretical king merely
+granting him toleration and protection, the pretension would have been
+too absurd during the troubles of Italy, and it was not advanced for
+several years. The necessity of the case, however, was such, that a
+voice was heard from another quarter calling for universal obedience,
+and this was uttered by the Patriarch of Constantinople. Rome, we must
+remember, had by this time lost a great portion of her ancient fame.
+It was reserved for this wonderful city to rise again into all her
+former grandeur, by the restoration of learning and the knowledge of
+what she had been. At this period all that was known of her by the
+ignorant barbarians was, that she was a fresh-repaired and half-peopled
+town, which had been sacked and ruined five times within a century,
+that her inhabitants were collected from all parts of the world, and
+that she was liable to a repetition of her former misfortunes. They
+knew nothing of the great men who had raised her to such pre-eminence.
+She had sunk even from being the capital of Italy, and could therefore
+make no intelligible claim to be considered the capital of the world.
+Constantinople, on the other hand, which, by our system of education,
+we are taught to look upon as a very modern creation compared with
+the Rome of the old heroic ages of the kings and consuls, was at that
+period a magnificent metropolis, which had been the seat of government
+for three hundred years. The majesty of the Roman name had transferred
+itself to that new locality, and nothing was more natural than that the
+Patriarch of the city of Constantine, which had been imperial from its
+origin, and had never been defiled by the presence of a Pagan temple,
+should claim for himself and his see a pre-eminence both in power and
+holiness. Accordingly, a demand was made in 588 for the recognition
+throughout the Christian world of the universal headship of the
+bishopric of Constantinople. But at that time there was a bishop of
+Rome, whom his successors have gratefully dignified with the epithet
+of Great, who stood up in defence, not of his own see only, but of all
+the bishoprics in Europe. Gregory published, in answer to the audacious
+claim of the Eastern patriarch, a vigorous protest, in which these
+remarkable words occur:--"This I declare with confidence, that whoso
+designates himself Universal Priest, or, in the pride of his heart,
+consents to be so named--he is the forerunner of Antichrist." It was
+therefore to Rome, on the broad ground of the Christian equality of all
+the chief pastors of the Church, that we owe this solemn declaration
+against the pretensions of the ambitious John of Constantinople.
+
+But Constantinople itself was about to fade from the minds of men.
+Dissatisfied with the opposition to its supremacy, the Eastern Church
+became separated in interest and discipline and doctrine from its
+Western branch. The intercourse between the two was hostile, and in
+a short time nearly ceased. The empire also was so deeply engaged
+in defending its boundaries against the Persians and other enemies
+in Asia, that it took small heed of the proceedings of its late
+dependencies, the newly-founded kingdoms in Europe. It is probable
+that the refined and ostentatious court of Justinian, divided as it
+was into fanatical parties about some of the deepest and some of the
+most unimportant mysteries of the faith, and contending with equal
+bitterness about the charioteers of the amphitheatre according as
+their colours were green or blue, looked with profound contempt on
+the struggles after better government and greater enlightenment of
+the rabble of Franks, and Lombards, and Burgundians, who had settled
+themselves in the distant lands of the West. The interior regulations
+of Justinian formed a strange contrast with the grandeur and success of
+his foreign policy. By his lieutenants Belisarius and Narses, he had
+reconquered the lost inheritance of his predecessors, and held in full
+sovereignty for a while the fertile shores of Africa, rescued from the
+debasing hold of the Vandals; he had cleared Italy of Ostrogoths, Spain
+even had yielded an unwilling obedience, and his name was reverenced in
+the great confederacy of the Germanic peoples who held the lands from
+the Atlantic eastward to Hungary, and from Marseilles to the mouth of
+the Elbe. But his home was the scene of every weakness and wickedness
+that can disgrace the name of man. Kept in slavish submission to his
+wife, he did not see, what all the rest of the world saw, that she
+was the basest of her sex, and a disgrace to the place he gave her.
+Beginning as a dancer at the theatre, she passed through every grade of
+infamy and vice, till the name of Theodora became a synonym for every
+thing vile and shameless. Yet this man, successful in war and politic
+in action, though contemptible in private life, had the genius of a
+legislator, and left a memorial of his abilities which extended its
+influence through all the nations which succeeded to any portion of the
+Roman dominion, and has shaped and modified the jurisprudence of all
+succeeding times. He was not so much a maker of new laws, as a restorer
+and simplifier of the old; and as the efforts of Justinian in this
+direction were one of the great features by which the sixth century is
+distinguished, it will be useful to devote a page or two to explain in
+what his work consisted.
+
+The Roman laws had become so numerous and so contradictory that the
+administration of justice was impossible, even where the judges
+were upright and intelligent. The mere word of an emperor had been
+considered a decree, and legally binding for all future time. No
+lapse of years seems to have brought a law once promulgated into
+desuetude. The people, therefore, groaned under the uncertainty of
+the statutes, which was further increased by the innumerable glosses
+or interpretations put upon them by the lawyers. All the decisions
+which had ever been given by the fifty-four emperors, from Adrian to
+Justinian, were in full force. All the commentaries made upon them by
+advocates and judges, and all the sentences delivered in accordance
+with them, were contained in thousands of volumes; and the result
+was, when Justinian came to the throne in 526, that there was no
+point of law on which any man could be sure. He employed the greatest
+jurisconsults of that time, Trebonian and others, to bring some order
+into the chaos; and such was the diligence of the commissioners,
+that in fourteen months they produced the Justinian Code in twelve
+books, containing a condensation of all previous constitutions.
+[A.D. 527.] In the course of seven years, two hundred laws and fifty
+judgments were added by the emperor himself, and a new edition of the
+Code was published in 534. [A.D. 533.] Under the name of Institutes
+appeared a new manual for the legal students in the great schools of
+Constantinople, Berytus, and Rome, where the principles of Roman law
+are succinctly laid down. The third of his great works was one for the
+completion of which he gave Trebonian and his assessors ten years.
+It is called the Digest or Pandects of Justinian, because in it were
+digested, or put in order in a general collection, the best decisions
+of the courts, and the opinions and treatises of the ablest lawyers.
+All previous codes were ransacked, and two thousand volumes of legal
+argument condensed; and in three years the indefatigable law-reformers
+published their work, wherein three million leading judgments were
+reduced to a hundred and fifty thousand. Future confusion was guarded
+against by a commandment of the emperor abolishing all previous laws
+and making it penal to add note or comment to the collection now
+completed. The sentences delivered by the emperor, after the appearance
+of the Pandects, were published under the name of the Novellae; and
+with this great clearing-out of the Augean stable of ancient law, the
+salutary labours of Trebonian came to a close. In those laws are to be
+seen both the virtues and the vices of their origin. They sprang from
+the wise liberality of a despot, and handle the rights of subjects,
+in their relation to each other, with the equanimity and justice of a
+power immeasurably raised above them all. But the unlimited supremacy
+of the ruler is maintained as the sole foundation for the laws
+themselves. So we see in these collections, and in the spirit which
+they have spread over all the codes which have taken them for their
+model, a combination of humanity and probity in the civil law, with a
+tendency to exalt to a ridiculous excess the authority of the governing
+power.
+
+This has been a century of wonderful revolutions. We have seen the
+kingdom of the Ostrogoths take the lead in Europe under the wise
+government of Theodoric the Great. We have seen it overthrown by
+an army of very small size, consisting of the very forces they had
+so recently triumphed over in every battle; and finally, after the
+victories over them of Belisarius and Narses, we have seen the
+last small remnant of their name removed from Italy altogether and
+eradicated from history for all future time. But, strange as this
+reassertion of the Greek supremacy was, the rapidity of its overthrow
+was stranger still. A new people came upon the stage, and established
+the Lombard power. The empire contracted itself within its former
+narrow bounds, and kept up the phantom of its superiority merely by
+the residence of an Exarch, or provincial governor, at Ravenna. The
+fiction of its power was further maintained by the Emperor's official
+recognition of certain rulers, and his ratification of the election of
+the Roman bishops. But in all essentials the influence had departed
+from Constantinople, and the Western monarchies were separated from the
+East.
+
+In the Northwest, the confederacy of the Franks, which had consolidated
+into one immense and powerful kingdom under Clovis, became separated,
+weakened, and converted into open enemies under his degenerate
+successors.
+
+But as the century drew to a close, a circumstance occurred, far away
+from the scene of all these proceedings, which had a greater influence
+on human affairs than the reconquest of Italy or the establishment
+of France. This was the marriage of a young man in a town of Arabia
+with the widow of his former master. In 564 this young man was born in
+Mecca, where his family had long held the high office of custodiers
+and guardians of the famous Caaba, which was popularly believed to be
+the stone that covered the grave of Abraham. But when he was still a
+child his father died, and he was left to the care of his uncle. The
+simplicity of the Arab character is shown in the way in which the young
+noble was brought up. Abu Taleb initiated him in the science of war
+and the mysteries of commerce. He managed his horse and sword like an
+accomplished cavalier, and followed the caravan as a merchant through
+the desert. Gifted with a high poetical temperament, and soaring above
+the grovelling superstitions of the people surrounding him, he used
+to retire to meditate on the great questions of man's relation to his
+Maker, which the inquiring mind can never avoid. Meditation led to
+excitement. He saw visions and dreamed dreams. He saw great things
+before him, if he could become the leader and lawgiver of his race. But
+he was poor and unknown. His mistress Cadijah saw the aspirations of
+her noble servant, and offered him her hand. He was now at leisure to
+mature the schemes of national regeneration and religious improvement
+which had occupied him so long, and devoted himself more than ever to
+study and contemplation. This was Mohammed, the Prophet of Islam, who
+retired in 594 to perfect his scheme, and whose empire, before many
+years elapsed, extended from India to Spain, and menaced Christianity
+and Europe at the same time from the Pyrenees and the Danube.
+
+
+
+
+                           SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Kings of the Franks.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       THIERRY II. and THEODOBERT II.--(_cont._)
+
+  614. CLOTAIRE III. (sole king.)
+
+  628. DAGOBERT and CHARIBERT.
+
+  638. SIGEBERT and CLOVIS II.
+
+  654. CHILDERIC II.
+
+  679. THIERRY IV.
+
+  692. CLOVIS III. (PEPIN, Mayor.)
+
+  695. CHILDEBERT III. (do.)
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       MAURICE--(_cont._)
+
+  602. PHOCAS.
+
+  611. HERACLIUS.
+
+  641. CONSTANTINE, (and others.)
+
+  642. CONSTANS.
+
+  668. CONSTANTIUS V.
+
+  685. JUSTINIAN II.
+
+  695. LEONTIUS.
+
+  697. TIBERIUS.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+NENNIUS, (620,) BEDE, (674-735,) ALDHELM, ADAMNANUS.
+
+
+
+
+                         THE SEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+  POWER OF ROME SUPPORTED BY THE MONKS--CONQUESTS OF THE MOHAMMEDANS.
+
+
+This, then, is the century during which Mohammedanism and Christianity
+were marshalling their forces--unknown, indeed, to each other, but
+preparing, according to their respective powers, for the period when
+they were to be brought face to face. We shall go eastward, and follow
+the triumphant march of the warriors of the Crescent from Arabia to
+the shores of Africa; but first we shall cast a desponding eye on
+the condition and prospects of the kingdoms of the West. Conquest,
+spoliation, and insecurity had done their work. Wave after wave had
+passed over the surface of the old Roman State, and obliterated almost
+all the landmarks of the ancient time. The towns, to be sure, still
+remained, but stripped of their old magnificence, and thinly peopled
+by the dispossessed inhabitants of the soil, who congregated together
+for mutual support. Trade was carried on, but subject to the exactions,
+and sometimes the open robberies, of the avaricious chieftains who had
+reared their fortresses on the neighbouring heights. Large tracts of
+country lay waste and desolate, or were left to the happy fertility of
+nature in the growth of spontaneous woods. Marshes were formed over
+whole districts, and the cattle picked up an uncertain existence by
+browsing over great expanses of poor and unenclosed land. These flocks
+and herds were guarded by hordes of armed serfs, who camped beside
+them on the fields, and led a life not unlike that of their remote
+ancestors on the steppes of Tartary. A man's wealth was counted by his
+retainers, and there was no supreme authority to keep the dignitaries,
+even of the same tribe, from warring on each other and wasting their
+rival's country with fire and sword. Agriculture, therefore, was in
+the lowest state, and famines, plagues, and other concomitants of
+want were common in all parts of Europe. One beautiful exception must
+be made to this universal neglect of agriculture, in favour of the
+Benedictine monks, established in various parts of Italy and Gaul in
+the course of the preceding century. Religious reverence was a surer
+safeguard to those lowly men than castles or armour could have been.
+No marauder dared to trespass on lands which were under the protection
+of priest and bishop. And these Western recluses, far from imitating
+the slothful uselessness of the Eastern monks, turned their whole
+attention to the cultivation of the soil. In this they bestowed a
+double benefit on their fellow-men, for, in addition to the positive
+improvement of the land, they rescued labour from the opprobrium into
+which it had fallen, and raised it to the dignity of a religious
+duty. Slavery, we have seen, was universally practised in all the
+conquered territories, and as only the slaves were compelled to the
+drudgeries of the field, the work itself borrowed a large portion of
+the degradation of the unhappy beings condemned to it; and robbery,
+pillage, murder, and every crime, were considered far less derogatory
+to the dignity of free Frank or Burgundian than the slightest touch of
+the mattock or spade. How surprised, then, were the haughty countrymen
+and descendants of Clovis or Alboin to see the revered hands from which
+they believed the highest blessings of Heaven to flow, employed in
+the daily labour of digging, planting, sowing, reaping, thrashing,
+grinding, and baking! At first they looked incredulously on. Even
+the monks were disposed to consider it no part of their conventual
+duties. But the founder of their institution wrote to them, "to
+beware of idleness, as the greatest enemy of the soul," and not to
+be uneasy if at any time the cares of the harvest hindered them from
+their formal readings and regulated prayers. "No person is ever more
+usefully employed than when working with his hands or following the
+plough, providing food for the use of man." And the effects of these
+exhortations were rapidly seen. Wherever a monastery was placed, there
+were soon fertile fields all round it, and innumerable stacks of
+corn. Generally chosen with a view to agricultural pursuits, we find
+sites of abbeys at the present day which are the perfect ideal of a
+working farm; for long after the outburst of agricultural energy had
+expired among the monks of St. Benedict, the choice of situation and
+knowledge of different soils descended to the other ecclesiastical
+establishments, and skill in agriculture continued at all times a
+characteristic of the religious orders. What could be more enchanting
+than the position of their monastic homes? Placed on the bank of some
+beautiful river, surrounded on all sides by the low flat lands enriched
+by the neighbouring waters, and protected by swelling hills where
+cattle are easily fed, we are too much in the habit of attributing the
+selection of so admirable a situation to the selfishness of the portly
+abbot. When the traveller has admired the graces of Melrose or of
+Tintern--the description applies equally to almost all the foundations
+of an early date--and has paid due attention to the chasteness of the
+architecture, and beauty of "the long-resounding aisle and fretted
+vault," he sometimes contemplates with a sneer the matchless charm of
+the scenery, and exceeding richness of the haugh or strath in which
+the building stands. "Ah," he says, "they were knowing old gentlemen,
+those monks and priors. They had fish in the river, fat beeves upon
+the meadow, red-deer on the hill, ripe corn on the water-side, a full
+grange at Christmas, and snowy sheep at midsummer." And so they had,
+and deserved them all. The head of that great establishment was not
+wallowing in the fat of the land to the exclusion of envious baron or
+starving churl. He was, in fact, setting them an example which it would
+have been wise in them to follow. He merely chose the situation most
+fitted for his purpose, and bestowed his care on the lands which most
+readily yielded him his reward. It was not necessary for the monks in
+those days to seek out some neglected corner, and to restore it to
+cultivation, as an exercise of their ingenuity and strength. They were
+free to choose from one end of Europe to the other, for the whole of
+it lay useless and comparatively barren. But when these able-bodied
+recluses, if such they may be called, had shown the results of patient
+industry and skill, the peasants, who had seen their labours, or
+occasionally been employed to assist them, were able to convey to their
+lay proprietors or masters the lessons they had received. And at last
+something venerable was thought to reside in the act of farming itself.
+It was so uniformly found an accompaniment of the priestly character,
+that it acquired a portion of its sanctity, and the rude Lombard or
+half-civilized Frank looked with a kind of awe upon waving corn and
+rich clover, as if they were the result of a higher intelligence and
+purer life than he possessed. Even the highest officers in the Church
+were expected to attend to these agricultural conquests. In this
+century we find, that when kings summoned bishops to a council, or an
+archbishop called his brethren to a conference, care was taken to
+fix the time of meeting at a season which did not interfere with the
+labours of the farm. Privileges naturally followed these beneficial
+labours. The kings, in their wondering gratitude, surrounded the
+monasteries with fresh defences against the envy or enmity of the
+neighbouring chiefs. Their lands became places of sanctuary, as the
+altar of the Church had been. Freedmen--that is, persons manumitted
+from slavery, but not yet endowed with property--were everywhere put
+under the protection of the clergy. Immunities were heaped upon them,
+and methods found out of making them a separate and superior race.
+At the Council of Paris, in 613, it was decreed that the priest who
+offended against the common law should be tried by a mixed court of
+priests and laymen. But soon this law, apparently so just, was not
+considered enough, and the trial of ecclesiastics was given over to the
+ecclesiastical tribunals, without the admixture of the civil element.
+Other advantages followed from time to time. The Church was found in
+all the kingdoms to be so useful as the introducer of agriculture, and
+the preserver of what learning had survived the Roman overthrow, that
+the ambitious hierarchy profited by the royal and popular favour. They
+were the most influential, or perhaps it would be more just to say they
+were the only, order in the State. There was a nobility, but it was
+jarring and disunited; there were citizens, but they were powerless
+and depressed; there was a king, but he was but the first of the
+peers, and stood in dignified isolation where he was not subordinate
+to a combination of the others. The clergy, therefore, had no enemy
+or rival to dread, for they had all the constituents of power which
+the other portions of the population wanted. Their property was more
+secure; their lands were better cultivated; they were exempt from many
+of the dangers and burdens to which the lay barons were exposed;
+they were not liable to the risks and losses of private war; they had
+more intelligence than their neighbours, and could summon assistance,
+either in advice, or support, or money, from the farthest extremity
+of Europe. Nothing, indeed, added more, at the commencement of this
+century, to the authority of those great ecclesiastical chieftains,
+than the circumstance that their interests were supported, not only
+by their neighbouring brethren, but by mitred abbot and lordly bishop
+in distant lands. If a prior or his monks found themselves ill used
+on the banks of the Seine, their cause was taken up by all other
+monks and priors wherever they were placed. And the rapidity of their
+intercommunication was extraordinary. Each monastery seems to have had
+a number of active young brethren who traversed the wildest regions
+with letters or messages, and brought back replies, almost with the
+speed and regularity of an established post. A convent on Lebanon was
+informed in a very short time of what had happened in Provence--the
+letter from the Western abbot was read and deliberated on, and an
+answer intrusted to the messenger, who again travelled over the immense
+tract lying between, receiving hospitality at the different religious
+establishments that occurred upon his way, and everywhere treated with
+the kindness of a brother. Monasteries in this way became the centres
+of news as well as of learning, and for many hundred years the only
+people who knew any thing of the state of feeling in foreign nations,
+or had a glimpse of the mutual interests of distant kingdoms, were the
+cowled and gowned individuals who were supposed to have given up the
+world and to be totally immersed in penances and prayers. What could
+Hereweg of the strong hand do against a bishop or abbot, who could tell
+at any hour what were the political designs of conquerors or kings
+in countries which the astonished warrior did not know even by name;
+who retained by traditionary transmission the politeness of manner and
+elegance of accomplishment which had characterized the best period of
+the Roman power, when Christianized noblemen, on being promoted to an
+episcopal see, had retained the delicacies of their former life, and
+wrote love-songs as graceful as those of Catullus, and epigrams neither
+so witty nor so coarse as those of Martial? Intelligence asserted its
+superiority over brute force, and in this century the supremacy of the
+Church received its accomplishment in spite of the depravation of its
+principles. It gained in power and sank in morals. A hundred years of
+its beneficial action had made it so popular and so powerful that it
+fell into temptations, from which poverty or unpopularity would have
+kept it free. The sixth century was the period of its silent services,
+its lower officers endearing themselves by useful labour, and its
+dignitaries distinguishing themselves by learning and zeal. In the
+seventh century the fruit of all those virtues was to be gathered by
+very different hands. Ambitious contests began between the different
+orders composing the gradually rising hierarchy, from the monk in
+his cell to the Bishop of Rome or Constantinople on their pontifical
+thrones. It is very sad, after the view we have taken of the early
+benefits bestowed on many nations by the labours and example of the
+priests and monks, to see in the period we have reached the total
+cessation of life and energy in the Church;--of life and energy, we
+ought to say, in the fulfilment of its duties; for there was no want of
+those qualities in the gratification of its ambition. Forgetful of what
+Gregory had pronounced the chief sign of Antichrist, when he opposed
+the pretension of his rival metropolitan to call himself Universal
+Bishop, the Bishops of Rome were deterred by no considerations of
+humility or religion from establishing their temporal power. Up to this
+time they had humbly received the ratification of their election from
+the Emperors of the East, whose subjects they still remained. But the
+seat of their empire was far off, their power was a tradition of the
+past, and great thoughts came into the hearts of the spiritual chiefs,
+of inroads on the territory of the temporal rulers. In this design they
+looked round for supporters and allies, and with a still more watchful
+eye on the quarters from which opposition was to be feared. The bishops
+as a body had fallen not only into contempt but hatred. One century
+had sufficed to extinguish the elegant scholarship I have mentioned,
+at one time characteristic of the Christian prelates. Ignorance had
+become the badge of all the governors of the Church--ignorance and
+debauchery, and a tyrannical oppression of their inferiors. The wise
+old man in Rome saw what advantage he might derive from this, and
+took the monks under his peculiar protection, relieved them from the
+supervision of the local bishop, and made them immediately dependent on
+himself. By this one stroke he gained the unflinching support of the
+most influential body in Europe. Wherever they went they held forth
+the Pope as the first of earthly powers, and began already, in the
+enthusiasm of their gratitude, to speak of him as something more than
+mortal. To this the illiterate preachers and prelates had nothing to
+reply. They were sunk either in the grossest darkness, or involved in
+the wildest schemes of ambition, bishoprics being even held by laymen,
+and by both priest and laymen used as instruments of advancement and
+wealth. From these the Pontiff on the Tiber, whose weaknesses and vices
+were unknown, and who was held up for invidious contrast with the
+bishops of their acquaintance by the libellous and grateful monks, had
+nothing to fear. He looked to another quarter in the political sky, and
+perceived with satisfaction that the kingly office also had fallen into
+contempt. Having lost the first impulse which carried it triumphantly
+over the dismembered Roman world, and made it a tower of strength in
+the hands of warriors like Theodoric the Goth and Clovis the Frank, it
+had forfeited its influence altogether in the pitiful keeping of the
+bloodthirsty or do-nothing kings who had submitted to the tutelage of
+the Mayors of the Palace.
+
+One of the great supports of the royal influence was the fiction of
+the law by which all lands were supposed to hold of the Crown. As
+in ancient days, in the German or Scythian deserts, the ambitious
+chieftain had presented his favourite with spear or war-horse in token
+of approval, so in the early days of the conquest of Gaul, the leader
+had presented his followers with tracts of land. The war-horse, under
+the old arrangement, died, and the spear became rotten; but the land
+was subject neither to death nor decay. What, then, was to become
+of the warrior's holding when he died? On this question, apparently
+so personal to the barbaric chiefs of the time of Dagobert of Gaul,
+depended the whole course of European history. The kings claimed
+the power of re-entering on the lands in case of the demise of the
+proprietor, or even in case of his rebellion or disobedience. The
+Leud, as he was called--or feudatory, as he would have been named at
+a later time--disputed this, and contended for the perpetuity and
+inalienability of the gift. It is easy to perceive who were the winners
+in this momentous struggle. From the success of the leuds arose the
+feudal system, with limited monarchies and national nobilities. The
+success of the kings would have resulted in despotic thrones and
+enslaved populations. Foremost in the struggle for the royal supremacy
+had been the famous and unprincipled Brunehild, a woman more resembling
+the unnatural creation of a romance than a real character. She had
+succeeded at one time in subordinating the leuds, by exterminating the
+recusants with remorseless cruelty; and her triumph might have been
+final and irrevocable if she had not had the bad luck or impolitic
+hardihood to offend the Church. The Abbot Columba, a holy man from the
+far-distant island of Iona in the Hebrides of Scotland, had ventured to
+upbraid her with her crimes. She banished him from the Abbey of Luxeuil
+with circumstances of peculiar harshness, and there was no hope for her
+more. The leuds she might have overcome singly, for they were disunited
+and scattered; but now there was not a monastery in Europe which did
+not side with her foes. Clotaire, her grandson, marched against her
+at the instigation of priests and leuds combined. She was conquered
+and taken. She was tortured for three days with all the ingenuity of
+hatred, and on the fourth was tied to the tails of four wild horses and
+torn to pieces, though the mother, sister, daughter, of kings, and now
+more than eighty years of age. And this brings us to the institution
+and use of the strange officers we have already named Mayors of the
+Palace.
+
+To aid them in their efforts against the royal assumptions, the leuds
+long ago had elected one of themselves to be domestic adviser of the
+king, and also to command the armies in war. This soon became the
+recognised right of the Mayor of the Palace; and as in that state of
+society the wars were nearly perpetual, and bearers of arms the only
+wielders of power, the person invested with the command was in reality
+the supreme authority in the State. When the king happened to be feeble
+either in body or mind, the mayor supplied his place, without even the
+appearance of inferiority; and when Dagobert, the last active member
+of the Merovingian family, died in 638, his successors were merely the
+nominal holders of the Crown. A new race rose into importance, and
+it will not be very long before we meet the hereditary Mayors of the
+Palace as hereditary Kings of the Franks. Here, then, was the whole of
+Europe heaving with some inevitable change. It will be interesting to
+look at the position of its different parts before they settled into
+their new relations. The constitutions of the various kingdoms were
+very nearly alike at this time. There were popular assemblies in every
+nation. In France they were called the "Fields of May" or of "March,"
+in England the "Wittenagemot," in Spain the "Council of Toledo." These
+meetings consisted of the freemen and landholders and bishops. But it
+was soon found inconvenient for the freemen and smaller proprietors to
+attend, in consequence of the length of the journey and the miserable
+condition of the roads; and the nobles and bishops were the sole
+persons who represented the State. The nobles held a parallel rank
+to each other in all countries, though called by different names. In
+France, a person in possession of any office connected with the court,
+or of lands presented by the Crown, was called a leud or entrustion, a
+count or companion, or vassal. In England he was called a royal thane.
+The lower order of freemen were called herimans, or inferior thanes;
+in Latin _liberi_, or more simply, _boni homines_, good men. Below
+these were the Romans, or old inhabitants of the country; below these,
+the serfs or bondmen attached to the soil; and far down, below them
+all, out of all hope or consideration, the slaves, who were the mere
+chattels of their lords. This, then, was the constitution of European
+society when the Arabian conquests began--at the head of the nation
+the King, at the head of the people the Church; the nobles followed
+according to their birth or power; the freemen, whether citizens
+engaged in the first infant struggles of trade, or occupying a farm,
+came next; and the wretched catalogue was ended by the despoiled serf,
+from whom every thing, even his property in himself, had been taken
+away. There were laws for the protection or restraint of each of these
+orders, and we may gather an idea of the ranks they held in public
+estimation by the following table of the price of blood:--
+
+                                                                 Sols.
+
+  For the murder of a freeman, companion, or leud of the king,
+      killed in his palace by an armed band                      1800
+  A duke--among the Bavarians, a bishop                           960
+  A relation of a duke                                            640
+  The king's leud, a count, a priest, a judge                     600
+  A deacon                                                        500
+  A freeman, of the Salians or Ripuarians                         200
+  A freeman, of the other tribes                                  160
+  The slave--a good workman in gold                               100
+  The man of middle station, a colon, or good workman in silver   100
+  The freedman                                                     80
+  The slave, if a barbarian--that is, of the conquering tribe      55
+  The slave, a workman in iron                                     50
+  The serf of the Church or the king                               45
+  The swineherd                                                    30
+  The slave, among the Bavarians                                   20
+
+Distinctions of dress pointed out still more clearly the difference of
+rank and station. The principal variety, however, was the method of
+wearing the hair. The chieftain among the Franks considered the length
+and profusion of his locks as the mark of his superiority. His broad
+flowing tresses were divided up the middle of his head, and floated
+over his shoulders. They were curled and oiled--not with common butter,
+like some other nations, says an author quoted by Chateaubriand; not
+twisted in little plaits, like those of the Goths, but carefully
+combed out to their full luxuriance. The common soldier, on the other
+hand, wore his hair long in front, but trimmed close behind. They
+swore by their hair as the most sacred of their oaths, and offered
+a tress to the Church on returning from a successful war. From this
+peculiar consideration given to the hair arose the custom, still
+prevalent, of shaving the heads of ecclesiastics. They were the serfs
+of God, and sacrificed their locks in token that they were no longer
+free. When a chief was dishonoured, when a king was degraded, when a
+rival was to be rendered incapable of opposition, he was not, as in
+barbarous countries, put to death: he was merely made bald. No amount
+of popularity, no degree of right, could rouse the people in support of
+a person whose head was bare. When his hair grew again, he might again
+become formidable; but the scissors were always at hand. A tyrannical
+king clipped his enemies' hair, instead of taking off their heads. They
+were condemned to the barber instead of the executioner, and sometimes
+thought the punishment more severe. The sons of Clothilde sent an
+emissary to her, bearing in his hand a sword and a pair of scissors.
+"O queen," he said, "your sons, our masters, wish to know whether you
+will have your grandchildren slain or clipped." The queen paused for a
+moment, and then said, "If my grandchildren are doomed not to mount the
+throne, I would rather have them dead than hairless."
+
+Distinguished thus from the lower orders, the nobility soon found that
+their interests differed from those of the Church. The Church placed
+itself at the head of the democracy in opposition to the overweening
+pretensions of the chiefs. It opened its ranks to the conquered races,
+and invested even the converted serf with dignities which placed him
+above the level of Thane or Count. The head of the Western Church, now
+by general consent recognised in the Bishop of Rome, was not slow to
+see the advantage of his position as leader of a combination in favour
+of the million. The doctrine of the equality of all men in the sight
+of Heaven was easily commuted into a demand of universal submission
+to the Holy See; and so wide was the range given to this claim to
+obedience that it embraced the proudest of the nobles and haughtiest
+of kings. It was a satisfaction to the slave in his dungeon to hear
+that the great man in his castle had been forced to do homage to the
+Church. There was one earthly power to which the oppressed could look
+up with the certainty of support. It was this intimate persuasion in
+the minds of the people which gave such undying vigour to the counsels
+and pretensions of the ecclesiastical power. It was a power sprung from
+the people, and exercised for the benefit of the people. The Popes
+themselves were generally selected from the lowest rank. But what did
+it matter to the man who led the masses of the trampled nations, and
+stood as a shield between them and their tyrants, whether he claimed
+relationship with emperors or slaves? What did it matter, on the other
+hand, to those hoping and trusting multitudes, whether the object of
+their confidence was personally a miracle of goodness and virtue, or a
+monster of sin and cruelty? It was his office to trample on the necks
+of kings and nobles, and bid the captive go free. While he continued
+true to the people, the people were true to him. Monarchs who governed
+mighty nations, and dukes who ruled in provinces the size of kingdoms,
+looked on with surprise at the growth of a power supported apparently
+by no worldly arms, but which penetrated to them through their courts
+and armies. There was no great mind to guide the opposition to its
+claims. The bishops were sunk in ignorance and sloth, and had lost the
+respect of their countrymen. The populations everywhere were divided.
+The succession to the throne was uncertain. The Franks, the leading
+nation, were never for any length of time under one head. Neustria,
+or the Western State, comprising all the land between the Meuse,
+the Loire, and the Mediterranean, Austrasia, or the Eastern State,
+comprising the land between the Rhine, the Meuse, and the Moselle,
+and Burgundy, extending from the Loire to the Alps, were at one time
+united under a common head, and at another held by hostile kings. The
+Visigoths were obscurely quarrelling about points of divinity within
+their barrier of the Pyrenees. England was the battle-field of half a
+dozen little chieftains who called themselves kings; Germany was only
+civilized on its western border. Italy was cut up into many States,
+Lombards looking with suspicion on the Exarchate, which was still
+nominally attached to the Eastern Empire, and Greeks established in the
+South, sighing for the restoration of their power. Over all this chaos
+of contending powers appeared the mitre and crozier of the Pope; always
+at the head of the disaffected people, supported by the monks, who
+felt the tyranny of the bishops as keenly as the commonalty felt the
+injustice of their lords; always threatening vengeance on overweening
+baron or refractory monarch--enhancing his influence with the glory
+of new miracles wrought in his support, and witnessed unblushingly
+by preaching friars, who were the missionaries of papal power;
+concentrating all authority in his hands, and gradually laying the
+foundation for a trampling and domination over mind and body such as
+the world had never seen. From this almost universal prostration before
+the claims of Rome, it is curious to see that the native Irish were
+totally free. With contemptuous independence, they for a long time
+rejected the arrogant assumptions of the successor of St. Peter, and
+were firm in their maintenance of the equality of all the Sees. It was
+from the newly-converted Anglo-Saxons that the chief recruits in the
+campaign against the liberties of the national churches were collected.
+Almost all the names of missionaries on behalf of the Roman pontiff in
+this century have the home-sound in our ears of "Wigbert," "Willibald,"
+"Wernefried," or "Adalbert." But there are no Gaelic patronymics from
+the Churches of Ireland or Wales. They were sisters, they haughtily
+said, not daughters of the Roman See, as the Anglo-Saxon Church had
+been; and dwelt with pride on the antiquity of their conversion before
+the pretensions of the Roman Bishops had been heard of; and thus was
+added one more to the elements of dissension which wasted the strength
+of Europe at the very time when unanimity was most required.
+
+But towards the end of this period the rumours of a new power in the
+East drew men's attention to the defenceless state in which their
+internal disagreements had left them. The monasteries were filled with
+exaggerated reports of the progress of this vast invasion, which not
+only threatened the national existences of Europe, but the Christian
+faith. It was a hostile creed and a destroying enemy. What had the
+Huns been, compared with this new swarm--not of savage warriors turned
+aside with a bribe or won by a prayer, but enthusiasts in what they
+considered a holy cause, flushed with victory, armed and disciplined
+in a style superior to any thing the West could show? We should try to
+enter into the feelings of that distant time, when day by day myriads
+of strange and hitherto unconquerable enemies were reported to be on
+their march.
+
+In the year 621 of the Christian era, Mohammed made his triumphant
+entry into Medina, a great city of Arabia, having been expelled from
+Mecca by the enmity of the Jews and the tribe of Koreish. This entry is
+called the Hegira or Flight, and forms the commencement of the Moslem
+chronology. All their records are dated from this event. The persons
+who accompanied him were few in number--his father-in-law, some of
+his wives, and some of his warriors; but the procession was increased
+by the numerous believers in his prophetship who resided in the town.
+At this place began the public worship inculcated by the leader. The
+worshippers were summoned by a voice sounding from the highest pinnacle
+of the mosque or church, and pronouncing the words which to this hour
+are heard from every minaret in the East:--"God is great! God is great!
+There is no God but God. Mohammed is the apostle of God. Come to
+prayers, come to prayers!" and when the invitation is given at early
+dawn, the declaration is added, "Prayer is better than sleep! prayer is
+better than sleep." These exhortations were not without their intended
+effect. Prayer was uttered by many lips, and sleep was banished from
+many eyes; but the prayers were never thought so effectual as when
+accompanied by sword and lance. Courage and devotedness were now the
+great supports of the faith. Ali, the husband of Fatima the favourite
+daughter of the chief, fought and prayed with the same irresistible
+force. He conquered the unbelieving Jews and Koreishites, cleaving
+armed men from the crown to the chin with one blow, and wielding a
+city gate which eight men could not lift, as a shield. Abou Beker,
+whose daughter was one of the wives of Mohammed, was little inferior
+to Ali; and Mohammed himself saw visions which comforted and inspired
+his followers in the midst of battle, and shouted, "On, on! Fight and
+fear not! The gates of Paradise are under the shade of swords. He will
+assuredly find instant admission who falls fighting for the faith!" It
+was impossible to play the hypocrite in a religion where such strength
+of arm and sharpness of blade were required. Prayers might indeed be
+mechanical, or said for show, but the fighting was a real thing, and,
+as such, prevailed over all the shams which were opposed to it. Looking
+forth already beyond the narrow precincts of his power, Mohammed saw
+in the distance, across the desert, the proud empires of Persia and
+Constantinople. To both he wrote letters demanding their allegiance as
+God's Prophet, and threatening vengeance if they disobeyed. Chosroes,
+the Persian, tore the letter to pieces. "Even so," said Mohammed,
+"shall his kingdom be torn." Heraclius the Greek was more respectful.
+He placed the missive on his pillow, and very naturally fell asleep,
+and thought of it no more. But his descendants were not long of having
+their pillows quite so provocative of repose. The city of Medina
+grew too small to hold the Prophet's followers, and they went forth
+conquering and to conquer. There were Abou Beker the wise, and Omar
+the faithful, and Khaled the brave, and Ali the sword of God. Mecca
+fell before them, and city after city sent in its adhesion to the
+claims of a Prophet who had such dreadful interpreters as these. The
+religion he preached was comparatively true. He destroyed the idols
+of the land, inculcated soberness, chastity, charity, and, by some
+faint transmission of the precepts of the Bible, inculcated brotherly
+love and forgiveness of wrong. But the sword was the true gospel. Its
+light was spread in Syria and all the adjoining territories. People in
+apparently sheltered positions could never be sure for an hour that
+the missionaries of the new faith would not be climbing over their
+walls with shouts of conquest, and giving them the option of conversion
+or death. Power spread in gradually-widening circles, but at the
+centre sad things were going on. Mohammed was getting old. He lost
+his only son. He laid him in the grave with tears and sighs, and made
+his farewell pilgrimage to Mecca. Had he no relentings at the visible
+approach of the end? Was he to go to the grave untouched by all the
+calamities he had brought upon mankind? the blood he had shed, the
+multitudes he had beguiled? He had no touch of remorse for any of these
+things; rather he continued firmer in his course than ever--seemed more
+persuaded of the genuineness of his mission, and uttered prophecies of
+the universal extension of his faith. "When the angels ask thee who
+thou art," he said, as the body of his son was lowered into the tomb,
+"say, God is my Lord, the Prophet of God was my father, and my faith
+was Islam!" Islam continued his own faith till the last. He tottered to
+the mosque where Abou Beker was engaged in leading the prayers of the
+congregation, and addressed the people for the last time. "Every thing
+happens," he said, "according to the will of God, and has its appointed
+time, which is not to be hastened or avoided. My last command to you is
+that you remain united; that you love, honour, and uphold each other;
+that you exhort each other to faith and constancy in belief, and to the
+performance of pious deeds: by these alone men prosper; all else leads
+to destruction." A few days after this there was grief and lamentation
+all over the faithful lands. He died on his sixty-third birthday, in
+the eleventh year of the Hegira, which answers to our year 632.
+
+Great contentions arose among the chief disciples for the succession
+to the leadership of the faithful. Abou Beker was father-in-law of
+the Prophet, and his daughter supported his cause. Omar was also
+father-in-law of the Prophet, and his daughter supported his cause.
+Othman had married two of the daughters of the Prophet, but both were
+dead, and they had left no living child. Ali, the hero of the conquest,
+was cousin-german of the Prophet, and husband of his only surviving
+daughter. Already the practices of a court were perceptible in the
+Emir's tent. The courtiers caballed and quarrelled; but Ayesha, the
+daughter of Abou Beker, had been Mohammed's favourite wife, and her
+influence was the most effectual. How this influence was exercised
+amid the Oriental habits of the time, and the seclusion to which the
+women were subjected, it is difficult to decide; but, after a struggle
+between her and Hafya, the daughter of Omar, the widowed Othman was
+found to have no chance; and only Ali remained, still young and ardent,
+and fittest, to all ordinary judgments, to be the leader of the armies
+of Allah. While consulting with some friends in the tent of Fatima,
+his rivals came to an agreement. In a distant part of the town a
+meeting had been called, and the claims of the different pretenders
+debated. Suddenly Omar walked across to where Abou Beker stood, bent
+lowly before him, and kissed his hand in token of submission, saying,
+"Thou art the oldest companion and most secret friend of the Prophet,
+and art therefore worthy to rule us in his place." The example was
+contagious, and Abou Beker was installed as commander and chief of
+the believers. A resolution was come to at the same time, that any
+attempt at seizing the supremacy against the popular will should be
+punished with death. Ali was constrained to yield, but lived in haughty
+submission till Fatima died. He then rose up in his place, and taking
+his two sons with him, Hassan and Hossein, retired into the inner
+district of Arabia, carrying thus from the camp of the usurping caliph
+the only blood of the Prophetchief which flowed in human veins. Yet
+the spirit of the Prophet animated the whole mass. Energy equal to
+Ali's was exhibited in Khaled. Omar was earnest in the collection
+of all the separated portions of the Koran. Othman was burning to
+spread the new empire over the whole earth; and in this combination
+of courage, ambition, and fanaticism all Arabia found its interest to
+join, and ere a year had elapsed from the death of the Prophet, the
+whole of that peninsula, and all the swart warriors who travelled its
+sandy steppes, had accepted the great watchword of his religion--"There
+is no God but God, and Mohammed is the Prophet of God." Ere another
+year had elapsed the desert had sent forth its swarms. The plains of
+Asia were overflowed. The battle-cry of Zeyd, the general of the army,
+was heard in the great commercial cities of the East, and in the lands
+where the gospel of peace had first been uttered, Emasa and Damascus,
+and on the banks of Jordan. It was natural that the first effort of the
+false should be directed against the true. But not indiscriminate was
+the wrath of Abou Beker against the professors of Christianity. The
+claims of that dispensation were ever treated with respect, but the
+depraved priesthood were held up to contempt. "Destroy not fruit-tree
+nor fertile field on your path," these were the instructions of the
+Caliph to the leaders of the host. "Be just, and spare the feelings of
+the vanquished. Respect all religious persons who live in hermitages or
+convents, and spare their edifices. But should you meet with a class
+of unbelievers of a different kind, who go about with shaven crowns,
+and belong to the synagogue of Satan, be sure you cleave their skulls,
+unless they embrace the true faith or render tribute."
+
+Gentle and merciful, therefore, to the peaceful inhabitants, respectful
+to the gloomy anchorite and industrious monk, but breathing death
+and disgrace against the proud bishop and ambitious presbyter, the
+mighty horde moved on. Syria fell; the Persian monarchy was menaced,
+and its western provinces seized; a Christian kingdom called Hira,
+situated on the confines of Babylonia, was made tributary to Medina;
+and Khaled stood triumphant on the banks of the Euphrates, and sent a
+message to the Great King, commanding him either to receive the faith,
+or atone for his incredulity with half his wealth. The despot's ears
+were unaccustomed to such words, and the fiery deluge went on. At the
+end of the third year, Abou Beker died, and Omar was the successor
+appointed by his will. This was already a departure from the law of
+popular election, but Islam was busy with its conquests far from its
+central home, and accepted the nomination. Khaled's course continued
+westward and eastward, forcing his resistless wedge between the
+exhausted but still majestic empires of the Greeks and Persians. Blow
+after blow resounded as the great march went on. Constantinople, and
+Madayn upon the Tigris, the capitals of Christianity and Mithrism, were
+equally alarmed and equally powerless. Omar, the Caliph--the word means
+the Successor of the Apostle--determined to join the army which was
+encamped against the walls of Jerusalem, and added fresh vigour to the
+assailants by the knowledge that they fought under his eye.
+
+Heraclius, the degenerate inheritor of the throne of Constantine,
+and Yezdegird, the successor of Darius and Xerxes, if they had moved
+towards the seat of war would have been surrounded by all the pomp of
+their exalted stations. Battalions of guards would have encompassed
+their persons, and countless officers of their courts attended their
+progress.
+
+Omar, who saw already the world at his feet, journeyed by slow
+stages on a wretched camel, carrying his provisions hanging from his
+saddle-bow, and slept at night under the shelter of some tree, or on
+the margin of some well. He had but one suit, and that of worsted
+material, and yet his word was law to all those breathless listeners,
+and wherever he placed his foot from that moment became holy ground.
+Jerusalem and Aleppo yielded; Antioch, the chief seat of Grecian
+government, fell into his hands; Tyre and Tripoli submitted to his
+power; and the Saracenic hosts only paused when they reached the border
+of the sea, which they knew washed the fairest shores of Africa and
+Europe. It did not much matter who was in nominal command. Khaled
+died; Amru took his place; and yet the tide went on. The great city of
+Alexandria, which disputed with Constantinople the title of Capital of
+the World, with its almost fabulous wealth, its four thousand palaces,
+and five thousand baths, and four hundred theatres, was twice taken,
+and brought on the submission and conversion of the whole of Egypt.
+Amru in his hours of leisure was devoted to the cultivation of taste
+and genius. In John the Grammarian, a Christian student, he found a
+congenial spirit. Poetry, philosophy, and rhetoric were treated of in
+the conversations of the Arabic conqueror and the monkish scholar. At
+last, in reliance on his literary taste, the priest confided to the
+Moslem that in a certain building in the town there was a library so
+vast that it had no equal on earth either for number or value of the
+manuscripts it contained. This was too important a treasure to be dealt
+with without the express sanction of the Caliph. So the Christian
+legend is, that Omar replied to the announcement of his general,
+"Either what those books contain is in the Koran, or it is not. If it
+is, these volumes are useless; if it is not, they are wicked. Burn
+them." The skins and parchments heated the baths of Alexandria for
+many months, irrecoverable monuments of the past, and an everlasting
+disgrace to the Saracen name. Yet the story has been doubted; at
+least, the extent of the destruction. Rather, it has been supposed,
+the ignorant fanaticism of the illiterate monks, in covering with the
+legends of saints the obliterated lines of the classic authors, has
+been more destructive to the literary treasures of those ancient times
+than the furious zeal of Amru or the bigotry of Omar.
+
+If this great overflow from the desert of Arabia had consisted of
+nothing but armed warriors or destructive fanatics, its course would
+have been as transient as it was terrible. The Gothic invaders who had
+desolated Europe fortunately possessed the flexibility and adaptiveness
+of mind which fitted them for the reception of the purer faith and more
+refined manners of the vanquished races. They mixed with the people who
+submitted to their power, and in a short time adopted their habits and
+religion. Whatever faith they professed in their original seats, seems
+to have worn out in the long course of their immigration. The powers
+they had worshipped in their native wilds were local, and dependent on
+clime and soil. An easy opening, therefore, was left for Christianity
+into hearts where no hostile deity guarded the portal of approach. But
+with the Saracens the case was reversed. Incapable of assimilation with
+any rival belief--jealously exclusive of the commonest intercourse
+with the nations they subdued--unbending, contemptuous to others, and
+carried on by burning enthusiasm in their own cause, and confidence
+in the Prophet they served, there was no possibility of softening or
+elevating them from without. The pomps of religious worship, which
+so awed the wondering tribes of Franks and Lombards, were lost on a
+people who considered all pomp offensive both to God and man. They
+saw the sublimity of simple plainness both in word and life. Their
+caliph lived on rice, and saddled his camel with his own hands. He
+ordered a palace to be burned, which Seyd, who had conquered for
+him the capital of Persia, had built for his occupation. Unsocial,
+bigoted, austere, drinking no wine, accumulating no personal wealth,
+how was the mind of this warrior of the wilderness to be trained to the
+habits of civilized society, or turned aside from the rude instincts
+of destructiveness and domination? But the Arab intellect was subtle
+and active. Mohammedanism, indeed, armed the multitude in an exciting
+cause, and sent them forth like a destroying fire; but there was
+wisdom, policy, refinement, among the chiefs. While they devastated the
+worn-out territories of the Persian, and laid waste his ostentatious
+cities, which had been purposely built in useless places to show the
+power of the king, they founded great towns on sites so adapted for
+the purposes of trade and protection that they continue to the present
+time the emporiums and fortresses of their lands. Balsorah, at the top
+of the Persian Gulf, at the junction of the Tigris and the Euphrates,
+was as wisely selected for the commercial wants of that period as
+Constantinople itself. Bagdad was encouraged, Cufa built and peopled in
+exchange for the gorgeous but unwholesome Madayn, from which Yezdegird
+was driven. Many other towns rose under the protection of the Crescent;
+and by the same impulse which made the Saracens anxious to raise new
+centres of wealth and enterprise in the East, they were excited to the
+most amazing efforts to make themselves masters of the greatest city
+in the world, the seat of arts, of literature, and religion; and they
+pushed forward from river to river, from plain to plain, till, in the
+year 672, they raised their victorious standard in front of the walls
+of Constantinople. Here, however, a new enemy came to the encounter,
+and for the first time scattered dismay among the Moslem ranks. From
+the towers and turrets came down a shower of fire, burning, scorching,
+destroying, wherever it touched. Projected to great distances, and
+wrapping in a moment ship after ship in unextinguishable flames, these
+discharges appeared to the warriors of the Crescent a supernatural
+interference against them. This was the famous Greek fire, of which the
+components are not now known, but it was destructive beyond gunpowder
+itself. Water could not quench it, nor length of time weaken its power.
+For five successive years the assault was renewed by fresh battalions
+of the Saracens, but always with the same result. So, giving up at
+last their attempts against a place guarded by lightning and by the
+unmoved courage of the Greek population, they poured their thousands
+along the northern shores of Africa. Cyrene, the once glorious capital
+of the Pentapolis, in which Carthage saw her rival and Athens her
+superior, yielded to their power. Everywhere high-peaked mosques,
+rising where a short time before the shore had been unoccupied or in
+cities where the Basilicas of Christian worship had been thrown down,
+marked the course of conquest. Carthage received its new lords. Hippo,
+the bishopric of the best of ancient saints, the holy Augustine,
+saw its church supplanted by the temples of the Arabian impostor. A
+check was sustained at Tchuda, where their course was interrupted by
+a combined assault of Christian Greeks and the indigenous Berbers.
+Internal troubles also arrested their career, for there were disputes
+for the succession, and court intrigues and open murders, and all the
+usual accompaniments of a contest for an elective throne. One after
+another, the Caliphs had been murdered, or had died of broken hearts.
+The old race--the "Companions," as they were called, because they had
+been the contemporaries and friends of Mohammed--had died out. Ali,
+after three disappointments, had at last been chosen. His sons Hassan
+and Hossein had been put to death; and it was only in the time of the
+eighth successor, when Abdelmalek had overcome all competition, that
+the unity of the Moslem Empire was restored, and the word given for
+conquest as before. This was in the 77th year of the Hegira, (698 of
+our era,) and an army was let loose upon the great city of Carthage, at
+the same time that movements were again ordered across the limits of
+the Grecian Empire, in Asia, and advances made towards Constantinople.
+Carthage fell--Tripoli was occupied--and now, with their territories
+stretching in unbroken line from Syria along the two thousand miles
+of the southern shore of the great Mediterranean Sea, the conquerors
+rested from their labours for a while, and prepared themselves for
+a dash across the narrow channel, from which the hills of Atlas and
+the summits of Gibraltar are seen at the same time. What has Europe,
+with its divided peoples, its worn-out kings, its indolent Church, and
+exhausted fields, to oppose to this compact phalanx of united blood,
+burning with fanatical faith, submissive to one rule, and supported
+by all the wealth of Asia and Africa; whose fleets sweep the sea, and
+whose myriads are every day increased by the accession of fresh nations
+of Berbers, Mauritanians, and the nameless children of the desert?
+
+This is the hopeless century. Manhood, patriotism, Christianity
+itself, are all at the lowest ebb. But let us turn to the next, and
+see how good is worked out of evil, and acknowledge, as in so many
+instances the historian is obliged to do, that man can form no estimate
+of the future from the plainest present appearances, but that all
+things are in the hands of a higher intelligence than ours.
+
+
+
+
+                            EIGHTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Kings of the Franks.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       CHILDEBERT III.--(_cont._)
+
+  711. DAGOBERT III.}
+
+  716. CHILDERIC.   }  CHARLES MARTEL Mayor.
+
+  720. THIERRY.     }
+
+  742. CHILDERIC III.
+
+  _Carlovingian Line._
+
+  751. PEPIN THE SHORT.
+
+  768. CHARLEMAGNE.
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       TIBERIUS.--(_cont._)
+
+  711. PHILIPPICUS BARDANES.
+
+  713. ANASTASIUS II.
+
+  714. THEODOSIUS III.
+
+  716. LEO THE ISAURIAN.
+
+  741. CONSTANTINE COPRONYMUS.
+
+  775. LEO IV.
+
+  781. CONSTANTINE PORPHYROGENITUS.
+
+  802. NICEPHORUS.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+ALCUIN, (735-804,) BEDE, (674-735,) EGBERT, CLEMENS, DUNGAL, ACCA, JOHN
+DAMASCANUS.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE EIGHTH CENTURY.
+
+  TEMPORAL POWER OF THE POPES--THE EMPIRE OF CHARLEMAGNE.
+
+
+This is indeed a great century, which has Pepin of Heristhal at its
+commencement and Charlemagne at its end. In this period we shall see
+the course of the dissolution of manners and government arrested
+throughout the greater part of Europe, and a new form given to its
+ruling powers. We must remember that up to this time the progress of
+what we now call civilization was very slow; or we may perhaps almost
+say that the extent of civilized territory was smaller than it had been
+at the final breaking up of the Roman Empire four hundred years before.
+England had lost the elevating influences which the residence of Roman
+generals and the presence of disciplined forces had spread from the
+seats of their government. Every occupied position had been a centre
+of life and learning; and we see still, from the discoveries which
+the antiquaries of the present day are continually making, that the
+dwellings of the Praetors and military commanders were constructed in a
+style of luxury and refinement which argues a high state of culture and
+art. All round the circumference of the Romanized portion of Britain
+these head-quarters of order and improvement were fixed; outside of it
+lay the obscure and tumultuous populations of Wales and Scotland; and
+if we trace the situations of the towns with terminations derived from
+_castra_, (a camp,) we shall see, by stretching a line from Winchester
+in the south to Ilchester, thence up to Gloucester, Worcester,
+Wroxeter, and Chester, how carefully the Western Gael were prevented
+from ravaging the peaceful and orderly inhabitants; and, as the same
+precautions were taken to the North against the Picts and Scots, we
+shall easily be able to estimate the effect of those numerous schools
+of life and manners on the country-districts in which they were placed.
+All these establishments had been removed. Barbarism had reasserted her
+ancient reign; and at the century we have now reached, the institution
+which alone could compete in its elevating effect with the old imperial
+subordination, the Christian Church, had not yet established its
+authority except for the benefit of ambitious bishops; and the same
+anarchy reigned in the ecclesiastical body as in the civil orders. The
+eight or nine kingdoms spread over the land were sufficiently powerful
+in their separate nationalities to prevent any unity of feeling among
+the subjects of the different crowns. A prelate of the court of
+Deiria had no point of union with a prelate protected by the kings of
+Wessex. And it was this very incapacity of combination at home, from
+the multiplicity of kings, which led to the astonishing spectacle in
+this century of the efforts of the Anglo-Saxon clergy in behalf of the
+Bishop of Rome in distant countries. In this great struggle to extend
+the power of the Popes, the regular orders particularly distinguished
+themselves. The fact of submitting to convent-rules, of giving up the
+stormy pleasures of independence for the safe placidity of unreasoning
+obedience, is a proof of the desire in many human minds of having
+something to which they can look up, something to obey, in obeying
+which their self-respect may be preserved, even in the act of offering
+up their self-will--a desire which, in civil actions and the atmosphere
+of a court, leads to slavery and every vice, but in a monastery
+conducts to the noblest sacrifices, and fills the pages of history
+with saints and martyrs. The Anglo-Saxon, looking out of his convent,
+saw nothing round him which could give him hope or comfort. Laws were
+unsettled, the various little principalities were either hostile or
+unconnected, there was no great combining authority from which orders
+could be issued with the certainty of being obeyed; and even the
+clergy, thinly scattered, and dependent on the capricious favour or
+exposed to the ignorant animosity of their respective sovereigns, were
+torn into factions, and practically without a chief. But theoretically
+there was the noblest chiefship that ever was dreamed of by ambition.
+The lowly heritage of Peter had expanded into the universal government
+of the Church. In France this claim had not yet been urged; in the
+East it had been contemptuously rejected; in Italy the Lombard kings
+were hostile; in Spain the Visigoths were heretic, and at war among
+themselves; in Germany the gospel had not yet been heard; in Ireland
+the Church was a rival bitterly defensive of its independence; but
+in England, among the earnest, thoughtful Anglo-Saxons, the majestic
+idea of a great family of all the Christian Churches, wherever placed,
+presided over by the Vicar of Christ and receiving laws from his
+hallowed lips, had impressed itself beyond the possibility of being
+effaced. Rome was to them the residence of God's vicegerent upon earth;
+obedience to him was worship, and resistance to his slightest wish
+presumption and impiety. So at the beginning of this century holy men
+left their monasteries in Essex, and Warwickshire, and Devon, and knelt
+at the footstool of the Pope, and swore fealty and submission to the
+Holy See.
+
+It has often been observed that the Papacy differs from other powers in
+the continued vitality of its members long after the life has left it
+at the heart. Rome was weak at the centre, but strong at the extremity
+of its domain. The Emperor of Constantinople looked on the Pope as his
+representative in Church-affairs, ratified his election, and exacted
+tribute on his appointment. The Exarch of Ravenna, representing as he
+did the civil majesty of the successor of the Caesars, looked down on
+him as his subordinate. There was also a duke in Rome whose office it
+was to superintend the proceedings of the bishop, and another officer
+resident in the Grecian court to whom the bishop was responsible
+for the management of his delegated powers. But outside of all this
+depression and subordination, among tribes of half-barbaric blood,
+among dreamy enthusiasts contemplating what seemed to them the simple
+and natural scheme of an earthly judge infallible in wisdom and
+divinely inspired; among bewildered and trampled ecclesiastics, looking
+forth into the night, and seeing, far above all the storms and darkness
+that surrounded them in their own distracted land, a star by which they
+might steer their course, undimmed and unalterable--the Pope of Rome
+was the highest and holiest of created men. No thought is worth any
+thing that continues in barren speculation. Honour, then, to the brave
+monks of England who went forth the missionaries of the Papal kings!
+Better the struggles and dangers of a plunge among the untamed savages
+of Friesland, and the blood-stained forests of the farthest Germany, in
+fulfilment of the office to which they felt themselves called, than the
+lazy, slumbering way of life which had already begun to be considered
+the fulfilment of conventual vows. Soldiers of the Cross were they,
+though fighting for the advancement of an ambitious commander more than
+the success of the larger cause; and we may well exult in the virtues
+which their undoubting faith in the supremacy of the pontiff called
+forth, since it contrasts so nobly with the apathy and indifference to
+all high and self-denying co-operation which characterized the rest of
+the world. We shall see the monk Winifried penetrate, as the Pope's
+minister, into the darkness beyond the Rhine, and emerge, with crozier
+and mitre, as Boniface the Archbishop of Mayence, and converter to the
+Christian faith of great and populous nations which were long the most
+earnest supporters of the rights and pre-eminence of Rome. This is one
+strong characteristic of this century, the increased vigour of the
+Papacy by the efforts of the Anglo-Saxons on its behalf; and now we are
+going to another still stronger characteristic, the further increase of
+its influence by the part it played in the change of dynasty in France.
+
+A strange fortune, which in the old Greek mythologies would have been
+looked on as a fate, overshadowing the blood-stained house of Clovis,
+had befallen his descendants through all their generations for more
+than a hundred years. Feeble in mind, and even degenerated in body,
+the kings of that royal line had been a sight of grief and humiliation
+to their nominal subjects. Married at fifteen, they had all sunk into
+premature old age, or died before they were thirty. Too listless for
+work, and too ignorant for council, they had accepted the restricted
+sphere within which their duties were confined, and showed themselves,
+on solemn occasions, at the festivals of the Church, and other great
+anniversaries, bearing, like their ancestors, the long flowing locks
+which were the natural sign of their crowned supremacy, seated in a
+wagon drawn by oxen, and driven by a wagoner with a goad--a primitive
+relic of vanished times, and as much out of place in Paris in the
+eighth century as the state carriage of the Queen or the Lord-Mayor's
+coach of the present day among ourselves Strange thoughts must have
+passed through the minds of the spectators as they saw the successors
+of the rough leader of the Franks degraded to this condition; but the
+change had been gradual; the public sentiment had become reconciled
+to the apparent uselessness of the highest offices of the State; for
+under another title, and with much inferior rank, there was a man who
+held the reins of government with a hand of iron, and whose power was
+perhaps strengthened by the fiction which called him the servant and
+minister of the _faineant_ or do-nothing king. A succession of men
+arose in the family of the mayors of the palace, as remarkable for
+policy and talent as the representatives of the royal line were for the
+want of these qualities. The origin of their office was conveniently
+forgotten, or converted by the flattery of their dependants into an
+equality with the monarchs. Chosen, they said, by the same elective
+body which nominated the king, they were as much entitled to the
+command of the army and the administration of the law as their nominal
+masters to the possession of the palace and royal name. And when
+for a long period this claim was allowed, who was there to stand up
+in opposition, either legal or forcible, to a man who appointed all
+the judges and commanded all the troops? The office at last became
+hereditary. The successive mayors left their dignity to their sons by
+will; and time might have been slow in bringing power and title into
+harmony with each by giving the name of king to the man who already
+exercised all the kingly power and fulfilled all the kingly duties, if
+Charles Martel, the mayor, had not, in 732, established such claims to
+the gratitude of Europe by his defeat of the Saracens, who were about
+to overrun the whole of Christendom, that it was impossible to refuse
+either to himself or his successor the highest dignity which Europe had
+to bestow. When other rulers and princes were willing to acknowledge
+his superiority, not only in power, but in rank and dignity, it was
+necessary that their submission should be offered, not to a mere
+Major-domo, or chief domestic of a court, but to a free sovereign and
+anointed king. The two most amazing fictions, therefore, which ever
+flourished on the contemptuous forbearance of mankind, were both about
+to expire beneath the breath of reality at this time--the kingship
+of the descendants of Clovis, and the pretensions of the successors
+of Constantine. The Saracens appeared upon the scene, and those
+gibbering and unsubstantial ghosts, as if they scented the morning air,
+immediately disappeared. The Emperors of the East, by a self-deluding
+process, which preserved their dignity and flattered their pride,
+professed still to consider themselves the lords of the Roman Empire,
+and took particular pains to acknowledge the kings and potentates,
+who established themselves in the various portions of it, as their
+representatives and lieutenants. They lost no time in sending the title
+of Patrician and the ensigns of royal rank to the successful founders
+of a new dynasty, and had gained their object if they received the new
+ruler's thanks in return. At Rome, as we have said, they protected the
+bishop, and gave him the investiture of his office. They retained also
+the territories called the Exarchate of Ravenna, but with no power of
+vindicating their authority if it was disputed, or of exacting revenue,
+except what the gratitude of the bishop or the Exarch might induce
+them to present to their patron on their nomination or instalment. A
+long-haired, sad-countenanced, decrepit young man in a wagon drawn by
+oxen, and a vain voluptuary, wrapped in Oriental splendour, without
+influence or wealth, were the representatives at this time of the
+irresistible power of the Frankish warriors, and the glories of Julius
+and Augustus. But the present had its representatives as well as the
+past. Charles Martel had still the Frankish sword at his command; the
+Roman Pontiff had thousands ready to believe and support his claims to
+be the spiritual ruler of the world. Something was required to unite
+them in one vast effort at unity and independence, and this opportunity
+was afforded them by the common danger to which the Saracenic invasion
+exposed equally the civil and ecclesiastical power. Africa, we have
+seen, was fringed along the whole of the Mediterranean border with the
+followers of the Prophet. In one generation the blood of the Arabian
+and Mauritanian deserts became so blended, that no distinction whatever
+existed between the men of Mecca and Medina and the native tribes.
+Where Carthaginian and Roman civilization had never penetrated, the
+faith of Mohammed was accepted as an indigenous growth. Fanaticism
+and ambition sailed across the Channel; and early in this century
+the hot breath of Mohammedanism had dried up the promise of Spain;
+countless warriors crossed to Gibraltar; their losses were supplied
+by the inexhaustible populations from the interior, (the ancestors
+of the Abd-el Kaders and Ben Muzas of modern times,) and, elate with
+hopes of universal conquest, the crowded tents of the Moslem army were
+seen on the northern slopes of the Pyrenees, and presently all the
+plains of Languedoc, and the central fields of France as far up as the
+Loire, were inundated by horse and man. Incredible accounts are given
+of the number and activity of the desert steeds bestrode by these
+turbaned apostles. A march of a hundred miles--a village set on fire,
+and all the males extirpated--strange-looking visages, and wild arrays
+of galloping battalions seen by terrified watchers from the walls of
+Paris itself; then, in the twinkling of an eye, nothing visible but
+the distant dust raised up in their almost unperceived retreat,--these
+were the peculiarities of this new and unheard-of warfare. And while
+these dashes were made from the centre of the invasion, alarming the
+inhabitants at the extremities of the kingdom, the host steadily moved
+on, secured the ground behind it before any fresh advance, and united
+in this way the steadiness of European settlement with the wild fury
+of the original mode of attack. Already the provinces abutting on the
+Pyrenees had owned their power. Gascony up to the Garonne, and the
+Narbonnais nearly to the Rhine, had submitted to the conquerors; but
+when the dispossessed proprietors of Novempopulania and Septimania, as
+those districts were then called, and the powerful Duke of Aquitaine,
+also fled before the advancing armies; when all the churches were
+filled with prayer, and all the towns were in momentary expectation of
+seeing the irresistible horsemen before their walls, patriotism and
+religion combined to call upon all the Franks and all the Christians to
+expel the infidel invader. So Charles, the son of Pepin, whose exploits
+against the Frisons and other barbaric peoples in the North had already
+acquired for him the complimentary name of Martel, or the Hammer, put
+himself at the head of the military forces of the land, and encountered
+the Saracenic myriads on the great plain round Tours. The East and
+West were brought front to front--Christianity and Mohammedanism stood
+face to face for the first time; and it is startling to consider for
+a moment what the result of an Asiatic victory might have been. If
+ever there was a case in which the intervention of Divine Providence
+may be claimed without presumption on the conquering side, it must
+be here, where the truths of revelation and the progress of society
+were dependent on the issue. The two faiths, according to all human
+calculation, had rested their supremacy on their respective champions.
+If Charles and his Franks and Germans were defeated, there was nothing
+to resist the march of the perpetually-increasing numbers of the
+Saracens till they had planted their standards on the pinnacles of
+Rome. The first glow of Christian belief had been exchanged, we have
+seen, for ambitious disputes, or died off in many of the practices of
+superstition. The very man in whom the Christian hope was placed was
+suspected of leaning to the Wodenism of his Northern ancestors, and
+was scarcely bought over to the defence of the Church's faith by a
+permission to pillage the Church's wealth. Mohammedanism, on the other
+hand, was fresh and young. Its promises were clear and tempting--its
+course triumphant, and its doctrines satisfactory equally to the
+pride and the indolence of the human heart. But in the former, though
+unperceived by the warriors at Tours and the prelates at Rome, lay the
+germ of countless blessings--elevating the mind by the discovery of
+its strength at the same moment in which it is abased by the feeling
+of its weakness, and gifted above all with the power of expansion and
+universality; themselves proofs of its divine original, to which no
+false religion can lay the slightest claim. Cultivate the Christian
+mind to the highest--fill it with all knowledge--place round it the
+miracles of science and art--station it in the snows of Iceland or the
+heats of India--Christianity, like the all-girding horizon of the sky,
+widens its circle so as to include the loftiest, and contain within
+its embrace the utmost diversities of human life and speculation. But
+with the Mohammedan, as with other impostures, the range is limited.
+When intellect expands, it bursts the cerement in which it has been
+involved; and with Buddhism, and Mithrism, and Hindooism, it will be
+as it was with Druidism, and the more elegant heathendom of Greece
+and Rome: there will be no safety for them but in the ignorance and
+barbarism of their disciples. On the result of that great day at Tours
+in the year 732, therefore, depended the intellectual improvement and
+civil freedom of the human race. Few particulars are preserved of
+this momentous battle; but the result showed that the light cavalry,
+in which the Saracens excelled, were no match for the firm line of
+the Franks. When confusion once began among the swarthy cavaliers of
+Abderachman, there was no restoration possible. In wild confusion the
+_melee_ was continued; and all that can be said is, that the slaughter
+of upwards of three hundred thousand of these impulsive pilgrims of
+the desert so weakened the Saracenic power in Europe, that in no long
+time their hosts were withdrawn from the soil of Gaul, and guarded
+with difficulty the conquest they had made behind the barrier of the
+Pyrenees. Could the gratitude of Church or State be too generous
+to the man who preserved both from the sword of the destroyer? If
+Charles pillaged a monastery or seized the revenues of a bishopric,
+nobody found any fault. It was almost just that he should have the
+wealth of the cathedral from which he had driven away the mufti and
+muezzin. But monasteries and bishops were still powerful, and did not
+look on the proceedings of Charles the Hammer with the equanimity of
+the unconcerned spectators. They perhaps thought the battle of Tours
+had only given them a choice of spoilers, instead of protection from
+spoliation. In a short time, however, the policy of the sagacious
+leader led him to see the necessity of gaining over the only united
+body in the State. He became a benefactor of the Church, and a staunch
+ally of the Roman bishop. Both had an object to obtain. What the
+phantom king was to Charles, the phantom emperor was to the Pope. If
+there was unison between the two dependants, it would be easy to get
+rid of the two superiors. Presents and compliments were interchanged,
+and moral support trafficked for material aid. Wherever the one sent
+missionaries with the Cross, the other sent warriors to their support.
+The Pontiff bestowed on the Mayor the keys of the sepulchre of St.
+Peter, and the title of Consul and Patrician, and begged him to come to
+his assistance against Luitprand, the Lombard king. But this was far
+too great an exploit to be expected by a simple Bishop, and performed
+by a simple Mayor of the Palace. So the next great thing we meet with
+in this century is the investiture of the Mayor with the title of
+king, and of the Bishop with the sovereignty of Rome and Ravenna. This
+happened in 752. Pepin the Short, as he was unflatteringly called by
+his subjects, succeeded Charles in the government of the Franks. The
+king was Childeric the Third, who lived in complete seclusion and
+cherished his long hair as the only evidence of monarchy left to the
+sons of Clovis. Wars in various regions established the reputation
+of Pepin as the worthy successor of Charles; and by a refinement of
+policy, the crown, the consummation of all his hopes, was reached in
+a manner which deprived it of the appearance of injustice, for it was
+given to him by the hands of saints and popes, and ratified by the
+council of the nation. He had already asked Pope Zachariah, "who had
+the best right to the name of king?--he who had merely the title, or he
+who had the power?" And in answer to this, which was rather a puzzling
+question, our countryman Winifried, in his new character of Boniface
+and archbishop, placed upon his head the golden round, and Might and
+Right were restored to their original combination. But St. Boniface was
+not enough. In two years the Pope himself clambered over the Alps and
+anointed the new monarch with holy oil; and by the same act stripped
+the long hair from the head of the Merovingian puppet, and condemned
+him and his descendants to the privacy of a cloister.
+
+Now then that Pepin is king, let Luitprand, or any other potentate,
+beware how he does injury to the Pope of Rome. Twice the Frank armies
+are moved into Italy in defence of the Holy See; and at last the
+Exarchate is torn from the hands of its Lombard oppressor, and handed
+over in sovereignty to the Spiritual Power. Rome itself is declared
+at the same time the property of the Bishop, and free forever from
+the suzerainty of the Emperors of the East. No wonder the gratitude
+of the Popes has made them call the kings of France the eldest sons
+of the Church. Their donations raised the bishopric to the rank of
+a royal state; yet it has been remarked that the generosity of the
+French monarchs has always been limited to the gift of other people's
+lands. They were extremely liberal in bestowing large tracts of country
+belonging to the Lombard kings or the Byzantine Caesars; but they kept
+a very watchful eye on the possessions of pope and bishop within
+their own domain. They reserved to themselves the usufruct of vacant
+benefices, and the presentations to church and abbey. At almost all
+periods, indeed, of their history, they have seemed to retain a very
+clear remembrance of the position which they held towards the Papacy
+from the beginning, and, while encouraging its arrogance against other
+principalities and powers, have held a very contemptuous language
+towards it themselves.
+
+This, then, is the great characteristic of the present century,
+the restoration of the monarchical principle in the State, and its
+establishment in the Church. During all these wretched centuries, from
+the fall of the Roman Empire, the progress has been towards diffusion
+and separation. Kings rose up here and there, but their kingships were
+local, and, moreover, so recent, that they were little more than the
+first officer or representative of the warriors whose leaders they
+had been. A longing for some higher and remoter influence than this
+had taken possession of the chiefs of all the early invasions, and
+we have seen them (even while engaged in wresting whole districts
+from the sway of the old Roman Empire) accepting with gratitude
+the ensigns of Roman authority. We have seen Gothic kings glorying
+in the name of Senator, and Hunnish savages pacified and contented
+by the title of Praetor or Consul. The world had been accustomed to
+the oneness of Consular no less than Imperial Rome for more than a
+thousand years; for, however the parties might be divided at home, the
+great name of the Eternal City was the sole sound heard in foreign
+lands. The magic letters, the initials of the Senate and People, had
+been the ornament of their banners from the earliest times, and a
+division of power was an idea to which the minds of mankind found it
+difficult to become accustomed. It was better, therefore, to have
+only a fragment of this immemorial unity than the freshness of a new
+authority, however extensive or unquestionable. Vague traditions must
+have come down--magnified by distance and softened by regret--of the
+great days before the purple was torn in two by the transference of
+the seat of power to Constantinople. There were nearly five hundred
+years lying between the periods; and all the poetic spirits of the new
+populations had cast longing, lingering looks behind at the image of
+earthly supremacy presented to them by the existence of an acknowledged
+master of the world. A pedantic sophist, speaking Greek--the language
+of slaves and scholars--wearing the loftiest titles, and yet hemmed
+in within the narrow limits of a single district, assumed to be the
+representative of the universal "Lord of human kind," and called
+himself Emperor of the East and West. The common sense of Goth and
+Saxon, of Frank and Lombard, rebelled against this claim, when they
+saw it urged by a person unable to support it by fleets and armies.
+When, in addition to this want of power, they perceived in this
+century a want of orthodox belief, or even what they considered an
+impious profanity, in the successor of Augustus and Constantine, they
+were still more disinclined to grant even a titular supremacy to the
+Byzantine ruler. Leo, at that time wearing the purple, and zealous for
+the purity of the faith, issued an order for the destruction of the
+marble representations of saints and martyrs which had been used in
+worship; and within the limits of his personal authority his mandate
+was obeyed. But when it reached the West, a furious opposition was made
+to his command. The Pope stood forward as champion of the religious
+veneration of "storied urn and animated bust." The emperor was branded
+with the name of Iconoclast, or the Image-breaker, and the eloquence
+of all the monks in Europe was let loose upon the sacrilegious Caesar.
+Interest, it is to be feared, added fresh energy to their conscientious
+denunciations, for the monks had attracted to themselves a complete
+monopoly of the manufacture of these aids to devotion--and obedience
+to Leo's order would have impoverished the monasteries all over the
+land. A Western emperor, it was at once perceived, would not have been
+so blind to the uses of those holy sculptures, and soon an intense
+desire was manifested throughout the Western nations for an emperor
+of their own. Already they were in possession of a spiritual chief,
+who claimed the inheritance of the Prince of the Apostles, and looked
+down on the Patriarchs of Constantinople as bishops subordinate to his
+throne. Why should not they also have a temporal ruler who should renew
+the old glories of the vanished Empire, and exercise supremacy over
+all the governors of the earth? Why, indeed, should not the first of
+those authorities exert his more than human powers in the production
+of the other? He had converted a Mayor of the Palace into a King of
+the Franks. Could he not go a step further, and convert a King of the
+Franks into an Emperor of the West? With this hope, not yet perhaps
+expressed, but alive in the minds of Pepin and the prelates of France,
+no attempt was made to check the Roman pontiffs in the extravagance
+of their pretensions. Lords of wide domains, rich already in the
+possession of large tracts of country and wealthy establishments
+in other lands, they were raised above all competition in rank and
+influence with any other ecclesiastic; and relying on spiritual
+privileges, and their exemption from active enmity, they were more
+powerful than many of the greatest princes of the time. Everywhere the
+mystic dignity of their office was dwelt upon by their supporters.
+For a long time, as we have seen, their omnipotence was acknowledged
+by the two classes who saw in the use of that spiritual dominion a
+counterpoise to the worldly sceptres by which they were crushed. But
+now the worldly sceptres came to the support of the spiritual dominion.
+Its limit was enlarged, and made to include the regulation of all human
+affairs. [A.D. 768.] It was its office to subdue kings and bind nobles
+in links of iron; and when the son of Pepin, Charles, justly called the
+Great, though travestied by French vanity into the name of Charlemagne,
+sat on the throne of the Franks, and carried his arms and influence
+into the remotest States, it was felt that the hour and the man were
+come; and the Western Empire was formally renewed.
+
+The curious thing is, that this longing for a restoration of the Roman
+Empire, and dwelling on its usefulness and grandeur, were dominant,
+and productive of great events, in populations which had no drop of
+Roman blood in their veins. The last emperor resident in Rome had never
+heard the names of the hordes of savages whose descendants had now
+seized the plains of France and Italy. Yet it seemed as if, with the
+territory of the Roman Empire, they had inherited its traditions and
+hopes. They might be Saxons, or Franks, or Burgundians, or Lombards,
+by national descent, but by residence they were Romans as compared
+with the Greeks in the East,--and by religion they were Romans as
+compared with the Sclaves and Saracens, who pressed on them on the
+North and South. It would not be difficult in this country to find
+the grandchildren of French refugees boasting with patriotic pride of
+the English triumphs at Cressy and Agincourt--or the sons of Scottish
+parents rejoicing in their ancestors' victory under Cromwell at Dunbar;
+and here, in the eighth century, the descendants of Alaric and Clovis
+were patriotically loyal to the memory of the old Empire, and were
+reminded by the victories of Charlemagne of the trophies of Scipio and
+Marius. These victories, indeed, were not, as is so often found to
+be the case, the mere efforts of genius and ambition, with no higher
+object than to augment the conqueror's power or reputation. They were
+systematically pursued with a view to an end. In one advancing tide,
+all things tended to the Imperial throne. Whatever nation felt the
+force of Charlemagne's sword felt also a portion of its humiliation
+lightened when its submission was perceived to be only an advancement
+towards the restoration of the old dominion. It might have been
+degrading to acknowledge the superiority of the son of Pepin--but who
+could offer resistance to the successor of Augustus? So, after thirty
+years of uninterrupted war, with campaigns succeeding each in the most
+distant regions, and all crowned with conquest; after subduing the
+Saxons beyond the Weser, the Lombards as far as Treviso, the Arabs
+under the walls of Saragossa, the Bavarians in the neighbourhood of
+Augsburg, the Sclaves on the Elbe and Oder, the Huns and Avars on the
+Raab and Danube, and the Greeks themselves on the coast of Dalmatia;
+when he looked around and saw no rebellion against his authority,
+but throughout the greater part of his domains a willing submission
+to the centralizing power which rallied all Christian states for the
+defence of Christianity, and all civilized nations for the defence
+of civilization,--nothing more was required than the mere expression
+in definite words of the great thing that had already taken place,
+and Charlemagne, at the extreme end of this century, bent before the
+successor of St. Peter at Rome, and stood up crowned Emperor of the
+West, and champion and chief of Christendom.
+
+[A.D. 786-814.]
+
+The period of Charlemagne is a great date in history; for it is the
+legal and formal termination of an antiquated state of society. It was
+also the introduction to another, totally distinct from itself and from
+its predecessor. It was not barbarism; it was not feudalism; but it
+was the bridge which united the two. By barbarism is meant the uneasy
+state of governments and peoples, where the tribe still predominated
+over the nation; where the Frank or Lombard continued an encamped
+warrior, without reference to the soil; and where his patriotism
+consisted in fidelity to the traditions of his descent, and not to
+the greatness or independence of the land he occupied. In the reign
+of Charlemagne, the land of the Frank became practically, and even
+territorially, France; the district occupied by the Lombards became
+Lombardy. The feeling of property in the soil was added to the ties
+of race and kindred; and at the very time that all the nations of the
+Invasion yielded to the supremacy of one man as emperor, the different
+populations asserted their separate independence of each other, as
+distinct and self-sufficing kingdoms--kingdoms, that is to say, without
+the kings, but in all respects prepared for those individualized
+expressions of their national life. For though Charlemagne, seated in
+his great hall at Aix-la-Chapelle, gave laws to the whole of his vast
+domains, in each country he had assumed to himself nothing more than
+the monarchic power. To the whole empire he was emperor, but to each
+separate people, such as Franks and Lombards, he was simply king. Under
+him there were dukes, counts, viscounts, and other dignitaries, but
+each limited, in function and influence, to the territory to which he
+belonged. A French duke had no pre-eminence in Lombardy, and a Bavarian
+graf had no rank in Italy. Other machinery was at times employed by
+the central power, in the shape of temporary messengers, or even of
+emissaries with a longer tenure of office; but these persons were sent
+for some special purpose, and were more like commissioners appointed
+by the Crown, than possessors of authority inherent in themselves. The
+term of their ambassadorship expired, their salary, or the lands they
+had provisionally held in lieu of salary, reverted to the monarch,
+and they returned to court with no further pretension to power or
+influence than an ambassador in our days when he returns from the
+country to which he is accredited. But when the great local nobility
+found their authority indissolubly connected with their possessions,
+and that ducal or princely privileges were hereditary accompaniments
+of their lands, the foundations of modern feudalism were already laid,
+and the path to national kingship made easy and unavoidable. When
+Charlemagne's empire broke into pieces at his death, we still find, in
+the next century, that each piece was a kingdom. Modern Europe took
+its rise from these fragmentary though complete portions; and whereas
+the breaking-up of the first empire left the world a prey to barbaric
+hordes, and desolation and misery spread over the fairest lands, the
+disruption of the latter empire of Charlemagne left Europe united as
+one whole against Saracen and savage, but separated in itself into many
+well-defined states, regulated in their intercourse by international
+law, and listening with the docility of children to the promises or
+threatenings of the Father of the Universal Church. For with the
+empire of Charlemagne the empire of the Papacy had grown. The temporal
+power was a collection of forces dependent on the life of one man; the
+spiritual power is a principle which is independent of individual aid.
+So over the fragments, as we have said, of the broken empire, rose
+higher than ever the unshaken majesty of Rome. Civil authority had
+shrunk up within local bounds; but the Papacy had expanded beyond the
+limits of time and space, and shook the dreadful keys and clenched the
+two-edged sword which typified its dominion over both earth and heaven.
+
+
+
+
+                            NINTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors.
+
+  A.D.  _West._
+
+  800. CHARLEMAGNE, (crowned by the Pope.)
+
+  814. LOUIS THE DEBONNAIRE.
+
+  840. CHARLES THE BALD.
+
+  877. LOUIS THE STAMMERER.
+
+  879. LOUIS III. and CARLOMAN.
+
+  884. CHARLES THE FAT.
+
+  887. ARNOLD.
+
+  899. LOUIS IV.
+
+  A.D.    _East._
+
+       NICEPHORUS--(_cont_.)
+
+  811. MICHAEL.
+
+  813. LEO THE ARMENIAN.
+
+  821. MICHAEL THE STAMMERER.
+
+  829. THEOPHILUS.
+
+  842. MICHAEL III.
+
+  886. LEO THE PHILOSOPHER.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  887.  EUDES, (Count of Paris.)
+
+  898.  CHARLES THE SIMPLE.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  827.  EGBERT.
+
+  837.  ETHELWOLF.
+
+  857.  ETHELBALD.
+
+  860.  ETHELBERT.
+
+  866.  ETHELRED.
+
+  872.  ALFRED THE GREAT.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+JOHN SCOTUS, (ERIGENA,) HINCMAR, HERIC, (preceded Des Cartes in
+philosophical investigation,) MACARIUS.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE NINTH CENTURY.
+
+  DISMEMBERMENT OF CHARLEMAGNE'S EMPIRE--DANISH INVASION OF
+  ENGLAND--WEAKNESS OF FRANCE--REIGN OF ALFRED.
+
+
+The first year of this century found Charlemagne with the crown of
+the old Empire upon his head, and the most distant parts of the world
+filled with his reputation. As in the case of the first Napoleon, we
+find his antechambers crowded with the fallen rulers of the conquered
+territories, and even with sovereigns of neighbouring countries. Among
+others, two of our Anglo-Saxon princes found their way to the great
+man's court at Aix-la-Chapelle. Eardulf of Northumberland pleaded his
+cause so well with Charlemagne and the Pope, that by their good offices
+he was restored to his states. But a greater man than Eardulf was also
+a visitor and careful student of the vanquisher and lawgiver of the
+Western world. Originally a Prince of Kent, he had been expelled by the
+superior power or arts of Beortrick, King of the West Saxons, and had
+betaken himself for protection, if not for restoration, to the most
+powerful ruler of the time. Whether Egbert joined in his expeditions or
+shared his councils, we do not know, but the history of the Anglo-Saxon
+monarchies at this date (800 to 830) shows us the exact counterpart,
+on our own island, of the actions of Charlemagne on the wider stage
+of continental Europe. Egbert, on the death of Beortrick, obtained
+possession of Wessex, and one by one the separate States of the British
+Heptarchy were subdued; some reduced to entire subjection, others only
+to subordinate rank and the payment of tribute, till, when all things
+were prepared for the change, Egbert proclaimed the unity of Southern
+Britain by assuming the title of Bretwalda, in the same way as his
+prototype had restored the unity of the empire by taking the dignity
+of Emperor. It is pleasant to pause over the period of Charlemagne's
+reign, for it is an isthmus connecting two dark and unsatisfactory
+states of society,--a past of disunion, barbarity, and violence,
+and a future of ignorance, selfishness, and crime. The present was
+not, indeed, exempt from some or all of these characteristics. There
+must have been quarrellings and brutal animosities on the outskirts
+of his domain, where half-converted Franks carried fire and sword,
+in the name of religion, among the still heathen Saxons; there must
+have been insolence and cruelty among the bishops and priests, whose
+education, in the majority of instances, was limited to learning the
+services of the Church by heart. Many laymen, indeed, had seized on the
+temporalities of the sees; and, in return, many bishops had arrogated
+to themselves the warlike privileges and authority of the counts and
+viscounts. But within the radius of Charlemagne's own influence, in his
+family apartments, or in the great Hall of Audience at Aix-la-Chapelle,
+the astonishing sight was presented of a man refreshing himself, after
+the fatigues of policy and war, by converting his house into a college
+for the advancement of learning and science. From all quarters came
+the scholars, and grammarians, and philosophers of the time. Chief
+of these was our countryman, the Anglo-Saxon monk Alcuin, and from
+what remains of his writings we can only regret that, in the infancy
+of that new civilization, his genius, which was undoubtedly great,
+was devoted to trifles of no real importance. Others came to fill up
+that noble company; and it is surely a great relief from the bloody
+records with which we have so long been familiar, to see Charlemagne
+at home, surrounded by sons and daughters, listening to readings and
+translations from Roman authors; entering himself into disquisitions on
+philosophy and antiquities, and acting as president of a select society
+of earnest searchers after information. To put his companions more at
+their ease, he hid the terrors of his crown under an assumed name, and
+only accepted so much of his royal state as his friends assigned to him
+by giving him the name of King David. The best versifier was known as
+Virgil. Alcuin himself was Horace; and Angelbert, who cultivated Greek,
+assumed the proud name of Homer. These literary discussions, however,
+would have had no better effect than refining the court, and making
+the days pass pleasantly; but Charlemagne's object was higher and
+more liberal than this. Whatever monastery he founded or endowed was
+forced to maintain a school as part of its establishment. Alcuin was
+presented with the great Abbey of St. Martin of Tours, which possessed
+on its domain twenty thousand serfs, and therefore made him one of the
+richest land-owners in France. There, at full leisure from worldly
+cares, he composed a vast number of books, of very poor philosophy
+and very incorrect astronomy, and perhaps looked down from his lofty
+eminence of wealth and fame on the humble labours of young Eginhart,
+the secretary of Charlemagne, who has left us a Life of his master,
+infinitely more interesting and useful than all the dissertations of
+the sage. From this great Life we learn many delightful characteristics
+of the great man, his good-heartedness, his love of justice, and
+blind affection for his children. But it is with his public works,
+as acting on this century, that we have now to do. Throughout the
+whole extent of his empire he founded Academies, both for learning
+and for useful occupations. He encouraged the study and practice of
+agriculture and trade. The fine arts found him a munificent patron;
+and though the objects on which the artist's skill was exercised were
+not more exalted than the carving of wooden tables, the moulding of
+metal cups, and the casting of bells, the circumstances of the time
+are to be taken into consideration, and these efforts may be found
+as advanced, for the ninth century, as the works of the sculptors
+and metallurgists of our own day. It is painful to observe that the
+practice of what is now called adulteration was not unknown at that
+early period. There was a monk of the name of Tancho, in the monastery
+of St. Gall, who produced the first bell. Its sound was so sweet and
+solemn, that it was at once adopted as an indispensable portion of the
+ornament of church and chapel, and soon after that, of the religious
+services themselves. Charlemagne, hearing it, and perhaps believing
+that an increased value in the metal would produce a richer tone, sent
+him a sufficient quantity of silver to form a second bell. The monk,
+tempted by the facility of turning the treasure to his own use, brought
+forward another specimen of his skill, but of a mixed and very inferior
+material. What the just and severe emperor might have done, on the
+discovery of the fraud, is not known; but the story ended tragically
+without the intervention of the legal sword. At the first swing of the
+clapper it broke the skull of the dishonest founder, who had apparently
+gone too near to witness the action of the tongue; and the bell was
+thenceforth looked on with veneration, as the discoverer and punisher
+of the unjust manufacturer.
+
+The monks, indeed, seem to have been the most refractory of subjects,
+perhaps because they were already exempted from the ordinary
+punishments. In order to produce uniformity in the services and
+chants of the Church, the emperor sent to Rome for twelve monkish
+musicians, and distributed them in the twelve principal bishoprics of
+his dominions. The twelve musicians would not consent to be musical
+according to order, and made the confusion greater than ever, for each
+of them taught different tunes and a different method. The disappointed
+emperor could only complain to the Pope, and the Pope put the recusant
+psalmodists in prison. But it appears the fate of Charlemagne, as of
+all persons in advance of their age, to be worthy of congratulation
+only for his attempts. The success of many of his undertakings was not
+adequate to the pains bestowed upon them. He held many assemblages,
+both lay and ecclesiastical, during his lengthened reign; he published
+many excellent laws, which soon fell into disuse; he tried many reforms
+of churches and monasteries, which shared the same fortune; he held the
+Popes of Rome and the dignitaries of his empire in perfect submission,
+but professed so much respect for the office of Pontiff and Bishop,
+that, when his own overwhelming superiority was withdrawn, the Church
+rebelled against the State, and claimed dominion over it. His sense
+of justice, as well as the custom of the time, led him to divide his
+states among his sons, which not only insured enmity between them, but
+enfeebled the whole of Christendom. Clouds, indeed, began to gather
+over him some time before his reign was ended. One day he was at a
+city of Narbonese Gaul, looking out upon the Mediterranean Sea. He
+saw some vessels appear before the port. "These," said the courtiers,
+"must be ships from the coast of Africa, Jewish merchantmen, or British
+traders." But Charlemagne, who had leaned a long time against the
+wall of the room in a passion of tears, said, "No! these are not the
+ships of commerce; I know by their lightness of movement. They are
+the galleys of the Norsemen; and, though I know such miserable pirates
+can do me no harm, I cannot help weeping when I think of the miseries
+they will inflict on my descendants and the lands they shall rule." A
+true speech, and just occasion for grief, for the descents of these
+Scandinavian rovers are the great characteristic of this century, by
+which a new power was introduced into Europe, and great changes took
+place in the career of France and England.
+
+It would perhaps be more correct to say that, by this new mixture of
+race and language, France and England were called into existence.
+England, up to this date, had been a collection of contending states;
+France, a tributary portion of a great Germanic empire. Slowly
+stretching northward, the Roman language, modified, of course, by
+local pronunciation, had pushed its way among the original Franks.
+Latin had been for many years the language of Divine Service, and of
+history, and of law. All westward of the Rhine had yielded to those
+influences, and the old Teutonic tongue which Clovis had brought
+with him from Germany had long disappeared, from the Alps up to the
+Channel. [A.D. 814.] When the death of Charlemagne, in 814, had
+relaxed the hold which held all his subordinate states together, the
+diversity of the language of Frenchman and German pointed out, almost
+as clearly as geographical boundaries could have done, the limits of
+the respective nations. From henceforward, identity of speech was to
+be considered a more enduring bond of union than the mere inhabiting
+of the same soil. But other circumstances occurred to favour the
+idea of a separation into well-defined communities; and among these
+the principal was a very long experience of the disadvantages of an
+encumbered and too extensive empire. Even while the sword was held
+by the strong hand of Charlemagne, each portion of his dominions saw
+with dissatisfaction that it depended for its peace and prosperity on
+the peace and prosperity of all the rest, and yet in this peace and
+prosperity it had neither voice nor influence. The inhabitants of the
+banks of the Loire were, therefore, naturally discontented when they
+found their provisions enhanced in price, and their sons called to
+arms, on account of disturbances on the Elbe, or hostilities in the
+south of Italy. These evils of their position were further increased
+when, towards the end of Charlemagne's reign, the outer circuit of
+enemies became more combined and powerful. In proportion as he had
+extended his dominion, he had come into contact with tribes and
+states with whom it was impossible to be on friendly terms. To the
+East, he touched upon the irreclaimable Sclaves and Avars--in the
+South, he came on the settlements of the Italian Greeks--in Spain,
+he rested upon the Saracens of Cordova. It was hard for the secure
+centre of the empire to be destroyed and ruined by the struggles of
+the frontier populations, with which it had no more sympathy in blood
+and language than with the people with whom they fought. Already,
+also, we have seen how local their government had become. They had
+their own dukes and counts, their own bishops and priests to refer to.
+The empire was, in fact, a name, and the land they inhabited the only
+reality with which they were concerned. We shall not be surprised,
+therefore, when we find that universal rebellion took place when Louis
+the Debonnaire, the just and saint-like successor of Charlemagne,
+endeavoured to carry on his father's system. Even his reforms served
+only to show his own unselfishness, and to irritate the grasping and
+avaricious offenders whom it was his object to amend. Bishops were
+stripped of their lay lordships--prevented from wearing sword and
+arms, and even deprived of the military ornament of glittering spurs
+to their heels. The monks and nuns, who had almost universally fallen
+into evil courses, were forcibly reformed by the laws of a second St.
+Benedict, whose regulations were harsh towards the regular orders, but
+useless to the community at large--a sad contrast to the agricultural
+and manly exhortations of the first conventual legislator of that
+name. Nothing turned out well with this simplest and most generous of
+the Carlovingian kings. His virtues, inextricably interlaced as they
+were with the weaknesses of his character, were more injurious to
+himself and his kingdom than less amiable qualities would have been.
+Priest and noble were equally ignorant of the real characteristics
+of a Christian life. When he refunded the exactions of his father,
+and restored the conquests which he considered illegally acquired,
+the universal feeling of astonishment was only lost in the stronger
+sentiment of disdain. An excellent monk in a cell, or judge in a court
+of law, Louis the Debonnaire was the most unfit man of his time to
+keep discordant nationalities in awe. His children were as unnatural
+as those of Lear, whom he resembled in some other respects: for he
+found what little reverence waits upon a discrowned king; and personal
+indignities of the most degrading kind were heaped upon him by those
+whose duty it was to maintain and honour him. Superstition was set
+to work on his enfeebled mind, and twice he did public penance for
+crimes of which he was not guilty; and on the last occasion, stripped
+of his military baldric--the lowest indignity to which a Frankish
+monarch could be subjected--clothed in a hair shirt by the bands of an
+ungrateful bishop, he was led by his triumphant son, Lothaire, through
+the streets of Aix-la-Chapelle. [A.D. 833.] But natural feeling was
+not extinguished in the hearts of the staring populace. They saw in
+the meek emperor's lowly behaviour, and patient endurance of pain and
+insult, an image of that other and holier King who carried his cross up
+the steeps of Jerusalem. They saw him denuded of the symbols of earthly
+power and of military rank, oppressed and wronged--and recognised in
+that down-trodden man a representation of themselves. This sentiment
+spread with the magic force of sympathy and remorse. All the world, we
+are told, left the unnatural son solitary and friendless in the very
+hour of his success; and Louis, too pure-minded himself to perceive
+that it was the virtue of his character which made him hated, persisted
+in pushing on his amendments as if he had the power to carry them
+into effect. He ordered all lands and other goods which the nobles
+had seized from the Church to be restored--a tenderness of conscience
+utterly inexplicable to the marauding baron, who had succeeded by open
+force, and in a fair field, in despoiling the marauding bishop of land
+and tower. It was arming his rival, he thought, with a two-edged sword,
+this silence as to the inroads of the churchman on the property of the
+nobles, and prevention of their just reprisals on the property of the
+prelate, by placing it under the safeguard of religion. The rugged
+warrior kept firm hold of the bishopric or abbey he had secured, and
+the belted bishop reimbursed himself by appropriating the wealth of his
+weaker neighbours.
+
+But Louis was as unfortunate in his testamentary arrangement as in all
+the other regulations of his life. Lothaire was to retain the eastern
+portion of the empire; Charles, his favourite, had France as far as
+the Rhine; while Louis was limited to the distant region of Bavaria.
+[A.D. 840.] And having made this disposition of his power, the meek
+and useless Louis descended into the tomb--a striking example, the
+French historians tell us, of the great historic truth renewed at such
+distant dates, that the villanies and cruelties of a race of kings
+bring misery on the most virtuous of their descendants. All the crimes
+of the three preceding reigns--the violence and disregard of life
+exhibited by Charlemagne himself--found their victim and expiation
+in his meek and gentle-minded son. The harshness of Henry VIII. of
+England, they add, and the despotic claims of James, were visited on
+the personally just and amiable Charles; and they point to the parallel
+case of their own Louis XVI., and see in the sad fortune of that mild
+and guileless sovereign the final doom of the murderous Charles IX.,
+and the voluptuous and hypocritical Louis XIV. But these kings are
+still far off in the darkness of the coming centuries. It is a strange
+sight, in the middle of the ninth century, to see the successor of the
+great Emperor stealing through the confused and chaotic events of that
+wretched period, stripped as it were of sword and crown, but everywhere
+displaying the beauty of pure and simple goodness. He refused to
+condemn his enemies to death. He was only inexorable towards his own
+offences, and sometimes humbled himself for imaginary sins. A protector
+of the Church, a zealous supporter of Rome, it would give additional
+dignity to the act of canonization if the name of Louis the Debonnaire
+were added to the list of Saints.
+
+But we have left the empire which it had taken so long to consolidate,
+now legally divided into three. There is a Charles in possession of the
+western division; a Louis in the farther Germany; and Lothaire, the
+unfilial triumpher at Aix-la-Chapelle, invested with the remainder of
+the Roman world. But Lothaire was not to be satisfied with remainders.
+Once in power, he was determined to recover the empire in its undivided
+state. He was King of Italy; master of Rome and of the Pope; he was
+eldest grandson of Charlemagne, and defied the opposition of his
+brothers. [A.D. 842.] A battle was fought at Fontenay in 842, in which
+these pretensions were overthrown; and the final severance took place
+in the following year between the French and German populations.
+The treaty between the brothers still remains. It is written in
+duplicate--one in a tongue still intelligible to German ears, and the
+other in a Romanized speech, which is nearer the French of the present
+day than the English of Alfred, or even of Edward the Confessor, is to
+ours.
+
+[A.D. 843.]
+
+France, which had hitherto attained that title in right of its
+predominant race, held it henceforth on the double ground of language
+and territory. But there is a curious circumstance connected with the
+partition of the empire, which it may be interesting to remember.
+France, in gaining its name and language, lost its natural boundary of
+the Rhine. Up to this time, the limit of ancient Gaul had continued
+to define the territory of the Western Franks. In rude times, indeed,
+there can be no other divisions than those supplied by nature; but
+now that a tongue was considered a bond of nationality, the French
+were contented to surrender to Lothaire the Emperor a long strip of
+territory, running the whole way up from Italy to the North Sea,
+including both banks of the Rhine, and acting as a wall of partition
+between them and the German-speaking people on the other side,--a great
+price to pay, even for the easiest and most widely-spread language in
+Europe. Yet the most ambitious of Frenchmen would pause before he undid
+the bargain and reacquired the "exulting and abounding river" at the
+sacrifice of his inimitable tongue.
+
+Very confused and uncertain are all the events for a long time after
+this date. We see perpetual attempts made to restore the reality as
+well as the name of the Empire. These battles and competitions of the
+line of Charlemagne are the subject of chronicles and treaties, and
+might impose upon us by the grandeur of their appearance, if we did
+not see, from the incidental facts which come to the surface, how
+unavailing all efforts must be to arrest the dissociation of state
+from state. The principle of dissolution was at work everywhere.
+Kingship itself had fallen into contempt, for the great proprietors
+had been encouraged to exert a kind of personal power in the reign of
+Charlemagne, which contributed to the strength of his well-consolidated
+crown; but when the same individual influence was exercised under the
+nominal supremacy of Louis the Debonnaire or Charles the Bald, it
+proved a humiliating and dangerous contrast to the weakness of the
+throne. A combination of provincial dignitaries could at any time
+outweigh the authority of the king, and sometimes, even singly, the
+owners of extensive estates threw off the very name of subject. They
+claimed their lands as not only hereditary possessions, but endowed
+with all the rights and privileges which their personal offices had
+bestowed. If their commission from the emperor had given them authority
+to judge causes, to raise taxes, or to collect troops, they maintained
+from henceforth that those high powers were inherent in their lands.
+The dukes, therefore, invested their estates with ducal rights,
+independent of the Crown, and left to the holder of the kingly name
+no real authority except in his own domains. Brittany, and Aquitaine,
+and Septimania, withdrew their allegiance from the poor King of
+France. He could not compel the ambitious owners of those duchies to
+recognise his power, and condescended even to treat them as rival and
+acknowledged kings. Then there were other magnates who were not to be
+left mere subjects when dukes had risen to such rank. So the Marquises
+of Toulouse and Gothia, a district of Languedoc, and Auvergne, were
+treated more as equals than as appointed deputies recallable at
+pleasure. But worse enemies of kingly dignity than duke or marquis
+were the ambitious bishops, who looked with uneasy eyes on the rapid
+rise of their rivals the lay nobility. Already the hereditary title of
+those territorial potentates was an accomplished fact; the son of the
+count inherited his father's county. But the general celibacy of the
+clergy fortunately prevented the hereditary transmission of bishopric
+and abbey. To make up for the want of this advantage, they boldly
+determined to assert far higher claims as inherent in their rank than
+marquis or count could aim at. Starting from the universally-conceded
+ground of their right to reprimand and punish any Christian who
+committed sin, they logically carried their pretension to the right
+of deposing kings if they offended the Church. More than fifty years
+had passed since Charlemagne had received the imperial crown from the
+hands of the Pope of Rome. Dates are liable to fall into confusion in
+ignorant times and places, and it was easy to spread a belief that
+the popes had always exercised the power of bestowing the diadem upon
+kings. To support these astounding claims with some certain guarantee,
+and give them the advantage of prescriptive right by a long and
+legitimate possession, certain documents were spread abroad at this
+time, purporting to be a collection by Isidore, a saint of the sixth
+century, of the decretals or judicial sentences of the popes from a
+very early period, asserting the unquestioned spiritual supremacy of
+the Roman See at a date when it was in reality but one of many feeble
+seats of Christian authority; and to equalize its earthly grandeur
+with its religious pretension, the new edition of Isidore contained
+a donation by Constantine himself, in the beginning of the fourth
+century, of the city of Rome and enormous territories in Italy, to
+be held in sovereignty by the successors of St. Peter. These are now
+universally acknowledged to be forgeries and impostures of the grossest
+kind, but at the time they appeared they served the purpose for which
+they were intended, and gave a sanction to the Papal assumptions far
+superior to the rights of any existing crown.
+
+[A.D. 859.]
+
+Charles the Bald was a true son of Louis the Debonnaire in his devotion
+to the Church. When the bishops of his own kingdom, with Wenilon of
+Sens as their leader, offended with some remissness he had temporarily
+shown in advancing their worldly interests, determined to depose
+him from the throne, and called Louis the German to take his place,
+Charles fled and threw himself on the protection of the Pope. And
+when by submission and promises he had been permitted to re-enter
+France, he complained of the conduct of the prelates in language
+which ratified all their claims. "Elected by Wenilon and the other
+bishops, as well as by the lieges of our kingdom, who expressed their
+consent by their acclamations, Wenilon consecrated me king according
+to ecclesiastic tradition, in his own diocese, in the Church of the
+Holy Cross at Orleans. He anointed me with the holy oil; he gave me
+the diadem and royal sceptre, and seated me on the throne. After that
+consecration I could not be removed from the throne, or supplanted
+by any one, at least without being heard and judged by the bishops,
+by whose ministry I was consecrated king. It is they who are as the
+thrones of the Divinity. God reposes upon them, and by them he gives
+forth his judgments. At all times I have been ready to submit to their
+fatherly corrections, to their just castigations, and am ready to
+do so still." What more could the Church require? Its wealth was the
+least of its advantages, though the abbacies and bishoprics were richer
+than dukedoms all over the land. Their temporal power was supported
+by the terrors of their spiritual authority; and kings, princes, and
+people appeared so prone to the grossest excesses of credulity and
+superstition, that it needed little to throw Europe itself at the
+feet of the priesthood, and place sword and sceptre permanently in
+subordination to the crozier. Blindly secure of their position, rioting
+in the riches of the subject land, the bishops probably disregarded, as
+below their notice, the two antagonistic principles which were at work
+at this time in the midst of their own body--the principle of absolute
+submission to authority in articles of faith, and the principle of
+free inquiry into all religious doctrine. The first gave birth to
+the great mystery of transubstantiation, which now first made its
+appearance as an indispensable belief, and was hailed by the laity and
+inferior clergy as a crowning proof of the miraculous powers inherent
+in the Church. The second was equally busy, but was not productive of
+such permanent effects. At the court of Charles the Bald there was a
+society of learned and ingenious men, presided over by the celebrated
+John Scot Erigena, (or native of Ireland,) who had studied the early
+Fathers and the Platonic philosophy, and were inclined to admit human
+reason to some participation in the reception of Christian truths.
+There were therefore discussions on the real presence, and free-will,
+and predestination, which had the usual unsatisfactory termination of
+all questions transcending man's understanding, and only embittered
+their respective adherents without advancing the settlement on either
+side. While these exercitations of talent and dialectic quickness were
+carried on, filling the different dioceses with wonder and perplexity,
+the great body of the people in various countries of Europe were
+recalled to the practical business of life by disputes of a far more
+serious character than the wordy wars of Scotus and his foes. Michelet,
+the most picturesque of the recent historians of France, has given us
+an amazing view of the state of affairs at this time. It is the darkest
+period of the human mind; it is also the most unsettled period of
+human society. Outside of the narrowing limits of peopled Christendom,
+enemies are pressing upon every side. Saxons on the East are laying
+their hands in reverence on the manes of horses, and swearing in the
+name of Odin; Saracens, in the South and West, are gathering once more
+for the triumph of the Prophet; and suddenly France, Germany, Italy,
+and England, are awakened to the presence and possible supremacy of a
+more dreaded invader than either, for the Vikinger, or Norsemen, were
+abroad upon the sea, and all Christendom was exposed to their ravages.
+Wherever a river poured its waters into the ocean, on the coast of
+Narbonne, or Yorkshire, or Calabria, or Friesland, boats, small in
+size, but countless in number, penetrated into the inland towns, and
+disembarked wild and fearless warriors, who seemed inspired by the
+mad fanaticism of some inhuman faith, which made charity and mercy
+a sin. Starting from the islands and rugged mainland of the present
+Denmark and Norway, they swept across the stormy North Sea, shouting
+their hideous songs of glory and defiance, and springing to land when
+they reached their destination with the agility and bloodthirstiness
+of famished wolves. Their business was to carry slaughter and
+destruction wherever they went. They looked with contempt on the lazy
+occupations of the inhabitants of town or farm, and, above all, were
+filled with hatred and disdain of the monks and priests Their leaders
+were warriors and poets. Gliding up noiseless streams, they intoned
+their battle-cry and shouted the great deeds of their ancestors when
+they reached the walls of some secluded monastery, and rejoiced in
+wrapping all its terrified inmates in flames. Bards, soldiers, pirates,
+buccaneers, and heathens, destitute of fear, or pity, or remorse,
+amorous of danger, and skilful in management of ship and weapon, these
+were the most ferocious visitants which Southern Europe had ever seen.
+No storm was sufficient to be a protection against their approach.
+On the crest of the highest waves those frail barks were seen by the
+affrighted dwellers on the shore, careering with all sail set, and
+steering right into their port. All the people on the coast, from
+the Rhine to Bayonne, and from Toulouse to the Grecian Isles, fled
+for protection to the great proprietors of the lands. But the great
+proprietors of the lands were the peaceful priors of stately abbeys,
+and bishops of wealthy sees. Their pretensions had been submitted to
+by kings and nobles; they were the real rulers of France; and even
+in England their authority was very great. Excommunications had been
+their arms against recusant baron and refractory count; but the Danish
+Northmen did not care for bell, book, and candle. The courtly circle of
+scholars and divines could give no aid to the dishoused villagers and
+trembling cities, however ingenious the logic might be which reconciled
+Plato to St. Paul; and Charles the Bald, surprised, no doubt, at the
+inefficacy of prayers and processions, was forced to replace the
+influence in the hands, not which carried the crozier and cross, but
+which curbed the horse and couched the spear. The invasion of the
+Danes was, in fact, the resuscitation of the courage and manliness
+of the nationalities they attacked. Dreadful as the suffering was at
+the time, it was not given to any man then alive to see the future
+benefits contained in the present woe. We, with a calmer view, look
+back upon the whole series of those events, and in the intermixture
+of the new race perceive the elements of greatness and power.
+Priest-ridden, down-trodden populations received a fresh impulse from
+those untamed children of the North; and in the forcible relegation
+of ecclesiastics to the more peaceable offices of their calling, we
+see the first beginning of the gradation of ranks, and separation of
+employments, which gave honourable occupation to the respective leaders
+in Church and State; which limited the clergyman to the unostentatious
+discharge of his professional duties, and left the baron to command his
+warriors and give armed protection to all the dwellers in the land.
+For feudalism, as understood in the Middle Ages, was the inevitable
+result of the relative positions of priest and noble at the time of
+the Norsemen's forays. It was found that the possession of great
+domains had its duties as well as its rights, and the duty of defence
+was the most imperative of all. Men held their grounds, therefore,
+on the obligation of keeping their vassals uninjured by the pirates;
+the bishops were found unable to perform this work, and the territory
+passed away from their keeping. Vast estates, no doubt, still remained
+in their possession, but they were placed in the guardianship of the
+neighbouring chateaux; and though at intervals, in the succeeding
+centuries, we shall see the prelate dressing himself in a coat of mail,
+and rendering in person the military service entailed upon his lands,
+the public feeling rapidly revolted against the incongruity of the
+deed. The steel-clad bishop was looked on with slender respect, and
+was soon found to do more damage to his order, by the contrast between
+his conduct and his profession, than he could possibly gain for it by
+his prowess or skill in war. Feudalism, indeed, or the reciprocal
+obligation of protection and submission, reached its full development
+by the formal deposition of a descendant of Charlemagne, on the express
+ground of his inability to defend his people from the enemies by which
+they were surrounded. [A.D. 879.] A congress of six archbishops, and
+seventeen bishops, was held in the town of Mantela, near Vienne; and
+after consultation with the nobility, they came to the following
+resolution:--"That whereas the great qualities of the old mayors of the
+palace were their only rights to the throne, and Charlemagne, whom all
+willingly obeyed, did not transmit his talents, along with his crown,
+to his posterity, it was right to leave that house." They therefore
+sent an offer of the throne of Burgundy to Boso, Count of the Ardennes,
+with the conditions "that he should be a true patron and defender
+of high and low, accessible and friendly to all, humble before God,
+liberal to the Church, and true to his word."
+
+By this abnegation of temporal weapons, and dependence on the armed
+warrior for their defence, the prelates put themselves at the head
+of the unarmed peoples at the same moment that they exercised their
+spiritual authority over all classes alike. It was useless for them to
+draw the sword themselves, when they regulated every motion of the hand
+by which the sword was held.
+
+While this is the state of affairs on the Continent--while the great
+Empire of Charlemagne is falling to pieces, and the kingly office is
+practically reduced to a mere equality with the other dignities of the
+land--while this disunion in nations and weakness in sovereigns is
+exposing the fairest lands in Europe to the aggressions of enemies on
+every side--let us cast our eyes for a moment on England, and see in
+what condition our ancestors are placed at the middle of this century.
+A most dreadful and alarming condition as ever Old England was in. For
+many years before this, a pirate's boat or two from the North would
+run upon the sand, and send the crews to burn and rob a village on the
+coast of Berwick or Northumberland. Pirates we superciliously call
+them, but that is from a misconception of their point of honour, and of
+the very different estimate they themselves formed of their pursuits
+and character. They were gentleman, perhaps, "of small estate" in some
+outlying district of Denmark or Norway, but endowed with stout arms and
+a great wish to distinguish themselves--if the distinction could be
+accompanied with an increase of their worldly goods. They considered
+the sea their own domain, and whatever was found on it as theirs
+by right of possession. They were, therefore, lords of the manor,
+looking after their rights, their waifs and strays, their flotsams and
+jetsams. They were also persons of a strong religious turn, and united
+the spirit of the missionary to the courage of the warrior and the
+avidity of the conqueror. Odin was still their god, the doors of the
+Walhalla were still open to them after death, and the skulls of their
+enemies were foaming with intoxicating mead. The English were renegades
+from the true faith, a set of drivelling wretches who believed in a
+heaven where there was no beer, and worshipped a god who bade them
+pray for their enemies and bless the very people who used them ill.
+The remaining similarity in the language of the two peoples must have
+added a bitterness to the contemptuous feelings of the unreclaimed
+rovers of the deep; and probably, on their return, these enterprising
+warriors were as proud of the number of priests they had slain, as of
+the more valuable trophies they carried home. Denmark itself, up to
+this time, had been distracted with internal wars. It was only the
+more active spirits who had rushed across from the Sound, and solaced
+themselves, in the intervals of their own campaigns, with an onslaught
+upon an English town. But now the scene was to change. The inroads
+of separate crews were to be exchanged for national invasions.
+[A.D. 838.] Harold of the Fair Hair was seated on an undisputed throne,
+and repressed the outrages of these adventurous warriors by a strong
+and determined will. He stretched his sceptre over all the Scandinavian
+world, and neither the North Sea nor the Baltic were safe places for
+piracy and spoil. One of his countrymen had founded the royal line of
+Russia, and from his capital of Kieff or Novgorod was civilizing, with
+whip and battle-axe, the original hordes which now form the Empire
+of the Czars. Already, from their lurking-places on the shores of
+the Black Sea, the Norwegian predecessors of the men of Odessa and
+Sebastopol were threatening a dash upon Constantinople; while sea-kings
+and jarls, compelled to be quiet and peaceable at home, but backed by
+all the wild populations of the North, anxious for glory, and greedy
+of gold and corn, resolved to reduce England to their obedience, and
+collected an enormous fleet in the quiet recesses of the Baltic,
+withdrawn from the observation of Harold. It seems fated that France is
+always, in some sort or other, to set the fashion to her neighbours.
+We have seen, at the beginning of this century, how England followed
+the example of the Frankish peoples in consolidating itself into one
+dominion. Charlemagne was recognised chief potentate of many states,
+and Egbert was sovereign of all the Saxon lands, from Cornwall to the
+gates of Edinburgh. But the model was copied no less closely in the
+splitting-up of the central authority than in its consolidation. While
+Louis the Debonnaire and Charles the Bald were weakening the throne of
+Charlemagne, the states of Egbert became parcelled out in the same
+way between the descendants of the English king. Ethelwolf was the
+counterpart of Louis, and carried the sceptre in too gentle a hand. He
+still further diminished his authority by yielding to the dissensions
+of his court. Like the Frankish ruler, also, he left portions of his
+territory to his four sons; of whom it will be sufficient for us to
+remember that the youngest was the great Alfred--the foremost name in
+all mediaeval history; and by an injudicious marriage with the daughter
+of Charles the Bald, and his unjust divorce of the mother of all his
+sons, he offended the feelings of the nation, and raised the animosity
+of his children. Ethelbald his son completed the popular discontent
+by marrying his father's widow, the French princess, who had been
+the cause of so much disagreement; and while the people were thus
+alienated, and the guiding hand of a true ruler of men was withdrawn,
+the terrible invasion of Danes and Jutlanders went on. [A.D. 839.] They
+sailed up the Thames and pillaged London. Winchester was given to the
+flames. The whole isle of Thanet was seized and permanently occupied.
+The magic standard, a raven, embroidered by the daughters of the famous
+Regner Lodbrog, (who had been stung to death by serpents in a dungeon
+into which he was thrown by Ella, King of Northumberland,) was carried
+from point to point, and was thought to be the symbol of victory and
+revenge. The offending Northumbrian now felt the wrath of the sons of
+Lodbrog. They landed with a great army, and after a battle, in which
+the chiefs of the English were slain, took the Northumbrian kingdom.
+Nottingham was soon after captured and destroyed. It was no longer a
+mere incursion. The nobles and great families of Denmark came over to
+their new conquest, and stationed themselves in strong fortresses,
+commanding large circles of country, and lived under their Danish
+regulations. The land, to be sure, was not populous at that time, and
+probably the Danish settlements were accomplished without the removal
+of any original occupiers. [A.D. 860.] But the castles they built, and
+the towns which rapidly grew around them, acted as outposts against
+the remaining British kingdoms; and at last, when fleet after fleet
+disembarked their thousands of warlike colonists--when Leicester,
+Lincoln, Stamford, York, and Chester, were all in Danish hands, and
+stretched a line of intrenchments round the lands they considered their
+own--the divided Anglo-Saxons were glad to purchase a cessation of
+hostilities by guaranteeing to them forever the places and territories
+they had secured. And there was now a Danish kingdom enclosed by
+the fragments of the English empire; there were Danish laws and
+customs, a Danish mode of pronunciation, and for a good while a still
+broader gulf of demarcation established between the peoples by their
+diversity in religious faith. [A.D. 872.] But when Alfred attained the
+supreme power--and although respecting the treaties between the Danes
+and English, yet evidently able to defend his countrymen from the
+aggressions of their foreign neighbour--the pacified pirate, tired of
+the sea, and softened by the richer soil and milder climate of his new
+home, began to perceive the very unsatisfactory nature of his ancient
+belief, and rapidly gave his adhesion to the lessons of the gospel.
+Guthrum, the Danish chieftain, became a zealous Christian according to
+his lights, and was baptized with all his subjects. Alfred acted as
+godfather to the neophyte, and restrained the wildest of his followers
+within due bounds. Perhaps, even, he was assisted by his Christianized
+allies in the great and final struggle against Hastings and a new swarm
+of Scandinavian rovers, whose defeat is the concluding act of this
+tumultuous century. Alfred drew up near London, and met the advancing
+hosts on the banks of the river Lea, about twenty miles from town. The
+patient angler in that suburban river seldom thinks what great events
+occurred upon its shore. Great ships--all things are comparative--were
+floating upon its waters, filled with armed Danes. Alfred cut certain
+openings in the banks and lowered the stream, so that the hostile navy
+stranded. Out sprang the Danes, astonished at the interruption to their
+course, and retreated across the country, nor stopped till they had
+placed themselves in inaccessible positions on the Severn. But the
+century came to a close. Opening with the great days of Charlemagne,
+it is right that it should close with the far more glorious reign
+of Alfred the patriot and sage;---a century illuminated at its two
+extremes, but in its middle period dark with disunion and ignorance,
+and not unlikely, unless controlled to higher uses, to give birth to a
+state of more hopeless barbarism than that from which the nations of
+Europe had so recently emerged.
+
+
+
+
+                            TENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       LOUIS IV.--(_cont._)
+
+  911. CONRAD.
+
+  920. HENRY THE FOWLER.
+
+  936. OTHO THE GREAT.
+
+  973. OTHO II.
+
+  983. OTHO III.
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       LEO.--(_cont._)
+
+  911. CONSTANTINE IX.
+
+  915. CONSTANTINE and ROMANUS.
+
+  959. ROMANUS II.
+
+  963. NICEPHORUS PHOCAS.
+
+  969. JOHN ZIMISCES.
+
+  975. BASILIUS AND CONSTANTINE X.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       CHARLES THE SIMPLE.--(_cont._)
+
+  923. RODOLPH.
+
+  936. LOUIS IV., (d'Outremer.)
+
+  954. LOTHAIRE.
+
+  986. LOUIS V., (le Faineant.)
+
+  987. HUGH CAPET, (new Dynasty.)
+
+  996. ROBERT THE WISE.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+       ALFRED.--(_cont._)
+
+  901. EDWARD THE ELDER.
+
+  925. ATHELSTANE.
+
+  941. EDMUND I.
+
+  948. ELDRED.
+
+  955. EDWY.
+
+  959. EDGAR.
+
+  976. EDWARD II.
+
+  978. ETHELRED II.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+SUIDAS, (Lexicographer), GERBERT, ODO, DUNSTAN.
+
+
+
+
+                          THE TENTH CENTURY.
+
+                         DARKNESS AND DESPAIR.
+
+
+The tenth century is always to be remembered as the darkest and most
+debased of all the periods of modern history. It was the midnight of
+the human mind, far out of reach of the faint evening twilight left
+by Roman culture, and further still from the morning brightness of
+the new and higher civilization. If we try to catch any hope of the
+future, we must turn from the oppressed and enervated populations of
+France and Italy to the wild wanderers from the North. By following
+the latter detachment of Norsemen who made their settlements on
+the Seine, we shall see that what seemed the wedge by which the
+compactness of an organized kingdom was to be split up turned out
+to be the strengthening beam by which the whole machinery of legal
+government had been kept together. Romanized Gauls, effeminated
+Franks, Goths, and Burgundians, were found unfitted for the duties
+either of subjects or rulers. They were too ambitious to obey, and
+too ignorant to command. Religion itself had lost its efficacy, for
+the populations had been so fed with false legends, that they had no
+relish for the truths of the gospel, which, indeed, as an instrument
+of instruction, had fallen into complete disuse. Ship-loads of false
+relics, and army-rolls of imaginary saints, were poured out for
+the general veneration. The higher dignitaries of the Church were
+looked on with very different feelings, according to the point of
+view taken of them. When regarded merely as possessors of lands and
+houses, they were loved or hated according to the use they made of
+their power; but at the very time when cruelties and vices made them
+personally the objects of detestation or contempt, the sacredness
+of their official characters remained. Petitions were sent to the
+kings against the prelates being allowed to lead their retainers into
+battle, not entirely from a scruple as to the unlawfulness of such a
+proceeding, but from the more serious consideration that their death
+or capture would be taken as a sign of the vengeance of Heaven, and
+damp the ardour of the party they supported. Churches and cathedrals
+were filled with processionary spectacles, and their altars covered
+with the offerings of the faithful; and yet so brutal were the manners
+of the times, and so small the respect entertained for the individual
+priest, that laymen of the highest rank thought nothing of knocking
+down the dignitaries of the Church with a blow on the head, even while
+solemnly engaged in the offices of devotion. The Roman pontiffs, we
+have seen, did not scruple to avail themselves of the forgeries of
+their enthusiastic supporters to establish their authority on the basis
+of antiquity, and at the middle of this century we should find, if we
+inquired into it, that the sacred city and chair of St. Peter were a
+prey to the most violent passions. Many devout Roman Catholics have
+been, at various periods, so horrified with the condition of their
+chiefs, and of the perverted religion which had arisen from tradition
+and imposture, that they have claimed the mere continued existence of
+the Papacy as a proof of its Divine institution, and a fulfilment of
+the prophecy that "the gates of hell should not prevail against it."
+Yet even in the midst of this corruption and ignorance, there were not
+wanting some redeeming qualities, which soften our feelings towards
+the ecclesiastic power. It was at all times, in its theory, a protest
+against the excesses of mere strength and violence. The doctrines it
+professed to teach were those of kindness and charity; and in the great
+idea of the throned fisherman at Rome, the poorest saw a kingdom which
+was not of this world, and yet to which all the kingdoms of this world
+must bow. Temporal ranks were obliterated when the descendants of kings
+and emperors were seen paying homage to the sons of serfs and workmen.
+The immunity, also, from spoil and slaughter, which to a certain extent
+still adhered to episcopal and abbatial lands, reflected a portion
+of their sanctity on the person of the bishop and abbot. Mysterious
+reverence still hung round the convents, within which such ceaseless
+prayers were said and so many relics exposed, and whither it was also
+known that all the learning and scholarship of the land had fled for
+refuge. The doles at monastery-doors, however objected to by political
+economists, as encouragements of mendicancy and idleness, were viewed
+in a very different light by the starving crowds, who, besides being
+qualified by destitution and hunger for the reception of charitable
+food, had an incontestable right, under the founder's will, to be
+supported by the establishment on whose lands they lived. The abbot
+who neglected to feed the poor was not only an unchristian contemner
+of the precepts of the faith, but ran counter to the legal obligations
+of his place. He was administrator of certain properties left for the
+benefit of persons about whose claims there was no doubt; and when the
+rapacious methods of maintaining their adherents, which were adopted by
+the count and baron, were compared with the baskets of broken victuals,
+and the jugs of foaming beer, which were distributed at the buttery
+of the abbey, the decision was greatly in favour of the spiritual
+chief. His ambling mule, and swift hound, and hooded hawks, were not
+grudged, nor his less defensible occupations seriously inquired into,
+as long as the beef and mutton were not stinted, and the liquor flowed
+in reasonable streams. As to his theological tenets, or knowledge of
+history, either sacred or profane, the highest ecclesiastic was on
+the same level of utter ignorance and indifference with the lowest
+of his serfs. There were no books of controversial divinity in all
+this century. There were no studies exacted from priest or prelate.
+All that was required was an inordinate zeal in the discovery of holy
+relics, and an acquaintance with the unnumbered ceremonies performed
+in the celebration of the service. Morals were in as low a state as
+learning. Debauchery, drunkenness, and uncleanness were the universal
+characteristics both of monk and secular. So it is a satisfaction to
+turn from the wretched spectacle of the decaying and corrupt condition
+of an old society, to the hardier vices of a new and undegenerated
+people. Better the unreasoning vigour of the Normans, and their wild
+trust in Thor and Odin--their spirit of personal independence and pride
+in the manly exercises--than the creeping submission of an uneducated
+population, trampled on by their brutal lay superiors, and cheated out
+of money and labour by the artifices of their priests.
+
+Rollo, the Norman chief, had pushed his unresisted galleys up the
+Seine, and strongly intrenched himself in Rouen, in the first year
+of this century. From this citadel, so admirably selected for his
+purposes, whether of defence or conquest, he spread his expeditions
+on every side. The boats were so light that no shallowness of water
+hindered their progress even to the great valleys where the river was
+still a brook. When impediments were encountered on the way, in the
+form of waterfall, or, more rarely, of bridge or weir, the adventurers
+sprang to shore and carried their vessels along the land. When greater
+booty tempted them, they even crossed long tracts of country, hauling
+their boats along with them, and launching them in some peaceful
+vale far away from the sea. Every islet in the rivers was seized and
+fortified; so that, dotted about over all the beautiful lands between
+the Seine and the borders of Flanders, were stout Norman colonies,
+with all the pillage they had obtained securely guarded in those
+unassailable retreats, and ready to carry their maritime depredations
+wherever a canoe could swim. Their rapidity of locomotion was equal
+to that of the Saracenic hordes who had poured down from the Pyrenees
+in the days of Charles the Hammer. But the Norsemen were of sterner
+stuff than the light chivalry of Abderachman. Where they stopped they
+took root. They found it impossible to carry off all the treasure they
+had seized, and therefore determined to stay beside it. Rouen was at
+first about to be laid waste, but the policy of the bishop preserved it
+from destruction, while the wisdom of the rovers converted it into a
+fortress of the greatest strength. Strong walls were reared all round.
+The beautiful river was guarded night and day by their innumerable
+fleet, and in a short time it was recognised equally by friend and foe
+as the capital and headquarters of a new race. Nor were the Normans
+left entirely to Scandinavia for recruits. The glowing reports of their
+success, which successively arrived at their ancient homes, of course
+inspired the ambitious listeners with an irresistible desire to launch
+forth and share their fortune; but there were not wanting thousands
+of volunteers near at hand. King and duke, bishop and baron, were all
+unable to give protection to the cultivator of the soil and shepherd
+of the flock. These humble sufferers saw their cabins fired, and all
+their victuals destroyed. Rollo was too politic to make it a war of
+extermination against the unresisting inhabitants, and easily opened
+his ranks for their reception. The result was that, in those disastrous
+excursions, shouting the war-cry of Norway, and brandishing the
+pirate's axe, were many of the original Franks and Gauls, allured by
+the double inducement of escaping further injury themselves and taking
+vengeance on their former oppressors. Religious scruples did not stand
+in their way. They gave in their adhesion to the gods of the North, and
+proved themselves true converts to Thor and Odin, by eating the flesh
+of a horse that had been slain in sacrifice. It is perhaps this heathen
+association with horseflesh as an article of food, which has banished
+it from Christian consumption for so long a time. But an effort is
+now made in France to rescue the fattened and roasted steed from the
+obloquy of its first introduction; and the success of the movement
+would be complete if there were no other difficulty to contend against
+than the stigma of its idolatrous origin. Yet the recruits were not
+all on one side, for we read of certain sea-kings who have grown tired
+of their wandering life, and taken service under the kings of France.
+Of these the most famous was Hastings, whom we saw defeated at the end
+of the last century, on the banks of the river Lea. He is old now, and
+so far forgetful of his Scandinavian origin that some French annalists
+claim him as a countryman of their own, and maintain that he was the
+son of a husbandman near Troyes. He is now a great landed lord, Count
+of Chartres, and in high favour with the French king. When Rollo had
+established his forces on the banks of the Eure, one of the tributaries
+of the Seine, the ancient pirate went at the head of an embassy to see
+what the new-comer required. Standing on the farther bank of the little
+river, he raised his voice, and in good Norwegian demanded who they
+were, and who was their lord. "We have no lord!" they said: "we are all
+equal." "And why do you come into this land, and what are you going to
+do?" "We are going to chase away the inhabitants, and make the country
+our home. But who are you, who speak our language so well?" The count
+replied, "Did you never hear of Hastings the famous pirate, who had so
+many ships upon the sea, and did such evil to this realm?" "Of course,"
+replied the Norsemen: "Hastings began well, but has ended poorly."
+"Have you no wish, then," said Hastings, "to submit yourselves to King
+Charles, who offers you land and honours on condition of fealty and
+service?" "Off! off!--we will submit ourselves to no man; and all we
+can take we shall keep, without dependence on any one. Go and tell the
+king so, if you like." Hastings returned from his unsuccessful embassy,
+and the attempt at compromise was soon after followed by a victory of
+Rollo, which decided the fate of the kingdom. The conquerors mounted
+the Seine, and laid siege to Paris; but failing in this, they retraced
+their course to Rouen, and made themselves masters of Bayeux, and of
+other places. Rollo was now raised to supreme command by the voices of
+his followers, and took rank as an independent chief. But he was too
+sagacious a leader to rely entirely on the favour or success of his
+countrymen. He protected the native population, and reconciled them
+to the absence of their ancient masters, by the increased security in
+life and property which his firmness produced. He is said to have hung
+a bracelet of gold in an exposed situation, with no defence but the
+terror of his justice, and no one tried to remove it. He saw, also,
+that however much his power might be dreaded, and his family feared, by
+the great nobility of France with whom he was brought into contact, his
+position as a heathen and isolated settler placed him in an inferior
+situation. The Archbishop of Rouen, who had been his ally in the
+peaceable occupation of the city, was beside him, with many arguments
+in favour of the Christian faith. The time during which the populations
+had been intermixed had smoothed many difficulties on either side.
+[A.D. 911.] The worship of Thor and Odin was felt to be out of place in
+the midst of great cathedrals and wealthy monasteries, and it created
+no surprise when, in a few years, the ambitious Rollo descended from
+his proud independence, did suit and service to his feeble adversary
+Charles the Simple, and retained all his conquests in full property as
+Duke of Normandy and Peer of France.
+
+Already the divinity that hedged a king placed the crown, even when
+destitute of real authority, at an immeasurable height above the
+loftiest of the nobles; and it will be well to preserve this in our
+memory; for to the belief in this mystical dignity of the sovereign,
+the monarchical principle was indebted for its triumph in all the
+states of Europe. No matter how powerless the anointed ruler might
+be--no matter how greatly a combination of vassals, or a single vassal,
+might excel him in men and money--the ineffable supremacy of the sacred
+head was never denied. This strange and ennobling sentiment had not yet
+penetrated the mind of Rollo and his followers, at the great ceremonial
+of his reception as a feudatory of the Crown. He declined to bend
+the knee before his suzerain, but gave him his oath of obedience and
+faith, standing at his full height. When a stickler for court etiquette
+insisted on the final ceremony of kissing the foot of the feudal
+superior, the duke made a sign to one of his piratical attendants to
+go through the form instead of him. Forth stalked the Norseman towards
+the overjoyed Charles, and without stooping his body laid hold of the
+royal boot, and, lifting it with all his strength up to his mouth,
+upset the unfortunate and short-legged monarch on his back, to the
+great consternation of his courtiers, and the hilarious enjoyment of
+his new subjects. But there was henceforth a new element in French
+society. The wanderers were unanimously converted to Christianity, and
+the shores of the whole kingdom perpetually guarded from piratical
+invaders by the contented and warlike countrymen of Hastings and Rollo.
+Normandy and Brittany were the appanage of the new duke, and perhaps
+they were more useful to the French monarch, as the well-governed
+territories of a powerful vassal, than if he had held them in full
+sovereignty in their former disorganized and helpless state. Language
+soon began to exert its combining influence on the peoples thus brought
+into contact, and in a few years the rough Norse gave place to the
+Romanized idiom of the rest of the kingdom, and the descendants of
+Rollo in the next generation required an interpreter if any of their
+relatives came to visit them from Denmark.
+
+But the true characteristic event of this century was the first
+establishment of real feudalism. The hereditary nature of lands and
+tenements had long been recognised; the original granter had long
+surrendered his right to reclaim the property on the death of the
+first possessor. Gradually also, and by sufferance, the offices to
+which, in the stronger periods of royalty, the favoured subjects had
+been promoted for life or a definite time were considered to belong
+to the descendant of the holder. But it was only now, in the weak
+administration of a series of nominal kings, that the rights and
+privileges of a titular nobility were legally recognised, and large
+portions of the monarchy forever conveyed away from the control of
+the Crown. There is a sort of natural feudalism which must always
+exist where there are degrees of power and influence, and which is
+as potent at this moment as in the time we are describing. A man who
+expects a favour owes and performs suit and service to the man who
+has the power of bestowing it. A man with land to let, with money to
+lend, with patronage to exert, is in a sort of way the "superior"
+of him who wants to take the farm, or borrow the money, or get the
+advancement. The obligations of these positions are mutual; and only
+very advanced philosophers in the theory of disunion and ingratitude
+would object to the reciprocal feelings of kindness and attachment
+they naturally produce. In a less settled state of society, such
+as that now existing, or which lately existed, at the Cape of Good
+Hope and in New Zealand, the feudal principle is fresh and vigorous,
+though not recognised under that name, for the peaceful or weak are
+glad to pay deference and respect to the wielder of the protective
+sword. In the tenth century there were customs, but no laws, for laws
+presuppose some external power able to enforce them, and the decay of
+the kingly authority had left the only practical government in the
+hands of the great and powerful. They gave protection in return for
+obedience. But when more closely inquired into, this assumption of
+authority by a nobility or upper class is found to have been purely
+defensive on the part of the lay proprietors, against the advancing
+tide of a spiritual Democracy, which threatened to submerge the whole
+of Europe. Already the bishops and abbots had got possession of nearly
+half the realm of France, and in other countries they were equally
+well provided. Those great officers were the leaders of innumerable
+priests and monks, and owed their dignities to the popular will. The
+Pope himself--a sovereign prince when once placed in the chair of St.
+Peter--was indebted for his exaltation to a plurality of votes of the
+clergy and people of Rome. Election was, in fact, the universal form
+of constituting the rule under which men were to live. But who were
+the electors? The appointment was still nominally in the people, but
+the people were almost entirely under the influence of the clerical
+orders. Mechanics and labourers were the serfs or dependants of the
+rich monasteries, and tillers of the episcopal lands. The citizens
+had not yet risen into wealth or intelligence, and, though subject in
+their persons to the baron whose castle commanded their walls, they
+were still under the guidance of their priests. No middle class existed
+to hold the balance even between the nobility and the Church; and the
+masses of the population were naturally disposed to throw power into
+the hands of persons who sprang, in most instances, from families no
+better than their own, and recommended themselves to popular favour
+by opposition (often just, but always domineering) to the proceedings
+of the lay aristocracy. The labouring serfs, who gave the vote, were
+not much inferior in education or refinement to the ordained serfs who
+canvassed for their favour. Abbacies, priories, bishoprics, parochial
+incumbencies, and all cathedral dignities, were held by a body distinct
+from the feudal gentry, and elevated, mediately or immediately, by
+universal suffrage. If some stop had not been put to the aggressions of
+the priesthood, all the lands in Christendom would have been absorbed
+by its insatiable greed--all the offices of the State would have been
+conveyed to sacerdotal holders; all kings would have been nominated by
+the clerical voice alone, and freedom and progress would never have had
+their birth. The monarchs--though it is almost mockery to call them so
+in England--were waging an unsuccessful war with the pretensions of
+St. Dunstan, who was an embodiment of the pitiless harshness and blind
+ambition of a zealot for ecclesiastic supremacy. In France a succession
+of imbecile rulers, whose characters are clearly enough to be guessed
+from the descriptive epithets which the old chroniclers have attached
+to their names, had left the Crown a prey to all its enemies. What was
+to be expected from a series of governors whose mark in history is
+made by such nicknames as "The Bald," "The Stammerer," "The Fat," and
+finally, without circumlocution, "The Fool"? Everybody tried to get
+as much out of the royal plunder as he could. Bishops got lands and
+churches. Foreign pirates, we have seen, got whole counties at a time,
+and in self-defence the nobility were forced to join in the universal
+spoil. Counties as large as Normandy were retained as rightful
+inheritances, independent of all but nominal adhesion to the throne.
+Smaller properties were kept fast hold of, on the same pretence. And
+by this one step the noble was placed in a position of advantage over
+his rival the encroaching bishop. His power was not the mere creation
+of a vote or the possession of a lifetime. His family had foundations
+on which to build through a long succession of generations. Marriage,
+conquest, gift, and purchase, all tended to the consolidation of his
+influence; and the result was, that, instead of one feeble and decaying
+potentate in the person of the king, to resist the aggressions of an
+absorbing and levelling Church, there were hundreds all over the land,
+democratic enough in regard to their dislike of the supremacy of the
+sovereign, but burning with a deep-seated aristocratic hatred of the
+territorial aggrandizement of the dissolute and low-born clergy. Europe
+was either in this century to be ruled by mailed barons or surpliced
+priests. Sometimes they played into each other's hands. Sometimes
+the warrior overwhelmed an adversary by enlisting on his side the
+sympathies of the Church. Sometimes the Church, in its controversies
+with the Crown, cast itself on the protection of the warrior, but
+more frequently it threw its weight into the scale of the vacillating
+monarch, who could reward it with such munificent donations. But
+those munificent donations were equivalent to aggressions on the
+nobles. There was no use in their trying to check the aggrandizement
+of the clerical power, if the Crown continued its gifts of territory
+and offices to the priests and churches. And at last, when the
+strong-handed barons of France were tired out with the fatuity of
+their effete kings, they gave the last proof of the supremacy they had
+attained, by departing from the line of Charlemagne and placing one
+of themselves upon the throne. Hugh Capet, the chief of the feudal
+nobles, was chosen to wear the crown as delegate and representative of
+the rest. The old Mayors of the Palace had been revived in his family
+for some generations; and when Louis the son of Lothaire died, after a
+twelvemonth's permissive reign, in 987, the warriors and land-owners
+turned instinctively to the strongest and most distinguished member
+of their body to be the guardian of the privileges they had already
+secured. This was an aristocratic movement against the lineal supremacy
+of the Crown, and in reply to the democratic policy of the Church. But
+the Pope was too clear-sighted to lose the chance of attaching another
+champion to the papal chair. [A.D. 987.] He made haste to ratify the
+new nomination to the throne, and pronounced Hugh Capet "King of France
+in right of his great deeds."
+
+Hugh Capet had been first of the feudal nobility; but from thenceforth
+he laboured to be "every inch a king." He tried to please both parties,
+and to humble them at the same time. He did not lavish crown-lands or
+lofty employments on the clergy; he took a new and very economical way
+of attaching them to his cause. He procured his election, it is not
+related by what means, to the highest dignities in the Church, and,
+although not in holy orders, was invested with the abbacies of St.
+Denis and St. Martin's and St. Germain's. The clergy were delighted
+with the increase to the respectability of their order, which had thus
+a king among its office-bearers. The Pope, we have seen, was first to
+declare his legitimacy; the bishops gave him their support, as they
+felt sure that, as a threefold abbot, he must have interests identical
+with their own. He was fortunate, also, in gaining still more venerated
+supporters; for while he was building a splendid tomb at St. Valery,
+the saint of that name appeared to him and said, with larger promise
+than the witches to Banquo, "Thou and thy descendants shall be kings to
+the remotest generations."
+
+With the nobles he proceeded in a different manner. His task, you
+will remember, was to regain the universal submission of the nation;
+and success at first seemed almost hopeless, for his real power,
+like that of the weakest of his immediate predecessors, extended no
+further than his personal holdings. In his fiefs of France proper (the
+small district including Paris) and Burgundy he was all-powerful;
+but in the other principalities and dukedoms he was looked on merely
+as a neighbouring potentate with some shadowy claims of suzerainty,
+with no right of interference in their internal administration. The
+other feudatories under the old monarchy, but who were in reality
+independent sovereigns under the new, were the Dukes of Normandy and
+Flanders, and Aquitaine and Toulouse. These made the six lay peerages
+of the kingdom, and, with the six ecclesiastical chief rulers, made
+the Twelve Peers of France. Of the lay peerages it will be seen that
+Hugh was in possession of two--the best situated and most populous of
+all. The extent of his possessions and the influence of his name were
+excellent starting-points in his efforts to restore the power of the
+Crown; but other things were required, and the first thing he aimed at
+was to place his newly-acquired dignity on the same vantage-ground of
+hereditary succession as his dukedoms had long been. [A.D. 989.] With
+great pomp and solemnity he himself was anointed with the holy oil by
+the hands of the Pope; and he took advantage of the self-satisfied
+security of the other nobles to have the ceremony of a coronation
+performed on his son during his lifetime, and by this arrangement the
+appearance of election was avoided at his death. Its due weight must
+be given to the universal superstition of the time, when we attribute
+such importance to the formal consecration of a king. Externals, in
+that age, were all in all. Something mystic and divine, as we have
+said before, was supposed to reside in the very fact of having the
+crown placed on the head with the sanction and prayers of the Church.
+Opposition to the wearer became not only treason, but impiety; and
+when the same policy was pursued by many generations of Hugh's
+successors, in always procuring the coronation of their heirs before
+their demise, and thus obliterating the remembrance of the elective
+process to which they owed their position, the royal power had the
+vast advantage of hereditary descent added to its unsubstantial but
+never-abandoned claim of paramount authority. The effects of this
+momentous change in the dynasty of one of the great European nations
+were felt in all succeeding centuries. The family connection between
+the house of France and the Empire was dissolved; and the struggle
+between the old condition of society and the rising intelligence of
+the peoples--which is the great characteristic of the Middle Ages--took
+a more defined form than before: aristocracy assumed its perfected
+shape of king and nobility combined for mutual defence on one side,
+and on the other the towns and great masses of the nations striving
+for freedom and privilege under the leadership of the sympathizing and
+democratic Church; for the Church was essentially democratic, in spite
+of the arrogance and grasping spirit of some of its principal leaders.
+From hereditary aristocracy and hereditary royalty it was equally
+excluded; and the celibacy of the clergy has had this good effect,
+if no other: Its members were recruited from the people, and derived
+all their influence from popular support. In Germany the same process
+was going on, though without the crowning consummation of making the
+empire non-elective. [A.D. 962.] Otho, however--worthier of the name
+of Great than many who have borne that ambitious title--succeeded in
+limiting that highest of European dignities to the possessors of the
+German crown, and commenced the connection between Upper Italy and the
+Emperors which still subsists (so uneasily for both parties) under the
+house of Austria.
+
+In England the misery of the population had reached its maximum. The
+immigration of the Norsemen had been succeeded by numberless invasions,
+accompanied with all the horrors of barbarism and religious hatred; for
+the Danes who devastated the shores in this age were as remorselessly
+savage, and as bitterly heathen, as their predecessors a hundred
+years before. No place was safe for the unhappy Christianized Saxons.
+Their sufferings were of the same kind as those of the inhabitants of
+Normandy when Rollo began his ravages. Their priest-ridden kings and
+impoverished nobles could give them no protection. Bribes were paid to
+the assailants, and only brought over increasing and hungrier hordes.
+The land was a prey to wretchedness of every kind, and it was slender
+consolation to the starving and trampled multitudes that all the world
+was suffering to almost the same extent. Saracens were devastating the
+coasts of Italy, and a wild tribe of Sclaves trying to burst through
+the Hungarian frontier. At Rome itself, the capital of intellect
+and religion, such iniquities were perpetrated on every side that
+Protestant authors themselves consent to draw a veil over them for the
+sake of human nature; and in those sketches we require to do nothing
+more than allude to the crimes and wickedness of the papal court as
+one of the features by which the century was marked. Women of high
+rank and infamous character placed the companions of their vices in
+the highest offices of the Church, and seated their sons or paramours
+on the papal throne. Spiritual pretensions rose almost in proportion
+to personal immorality, and the curious spectacle was presented of a
+power losing all respect at home by conduct which the heathen emperors
+of the first century scarcely equalled; of popes alternately dethroning
+and imprisoning each other--sometimes of two popes at a time--always
+dependent for life or influence on the will of the emperor, or whoever
+else might be dominant in Italy--and yet successfully claiming the
+submission and reverence of distant nations as "Bishop of all the
+world" and lineal "successors of the Prince of the Apostles." This
+claim had never been expressly made before, and is perhaps the most
+conclusive proof of the darkness and ignorance of this period. Men were
+too besotted to observe the incongruity between the life and profession
+of those blemishes of the Church, even when by travelling to the seat
+of government they had the opportunity of seeing the Roman pontiff and
+his satellites and patrons. The rest of the world had no means of
+learning the real state of affairs. Education had almost died out among
+the clergy themselves. Nobody else could write or read. Travelling
+monks gave perverted versions, we may believe, of every thing likely to
+be injurious to the interests of the Church; and the result was, that
+everywhere beyond the city-walls the thunder of a Boniface the Seventh,
+or a John the Twelfth, was considered as good thunder as if it had
+issued from the virtuous indignation of St. Paul.
+
+But just as this century drew to a close, various circumstances
+concurred to produce a change in men's minds. It was a
+universally-diffused belief that the world would come to an end when
+a thousand years from the Saviour's birth were expired. The year 999
+was therefore looked upon as the last which any one would see. And if
+ever signs of approaching dissolution were shown in heaven and earth,
+the people of this century might be pardoned for believing that they
+were made visible to them. Even the breaking up of morals and law, and
+the wide deluge of sin which overspread all lands, might be taken as a
+token that mankind were deemed unfit to occupy the earth any more. In
+addition to these appalling symptoms, famines were renewed from year to
+year in still increasing intensity and brought plague and pestilence
+in their train. The land was left untilled, the house unrepaired, the
+right unvindicated; for who could take the useless trouble of ploughing
+or building, or quarrelling about a property, when so few months were
+to put an end to all terrestrial interests? Yet even for the few
+remaining days the multitudes must be fed. Robbers frequented every
+road, entered even into walled towns; and there was no authority left
+to protect the weak, or bring the wrong-doer to punishment. Corn and
+cattle were at length exhausted; and in a great part of the Continent
+the most frightful extremities were endured; and when endurance could
+go no further, the last desperate expedient was resorted to, and human
+flesh was commonly consumed. One man went so far as to expose it for
+sale in a populous market-town. The horror of this open confession of
+their needs was so great, that the man was burned, but more for the
+publicity of his conduct than for its inherent guilt. Despair gave
+a loose to all the passions. Nothing was sacred--nothing safe. Even
+when food might have been had, the vitiated taste made bravado of
+its depravation, and women and children were killed and roasted in
+the madness of the universal fear. Meantime the gentler natures were
+driven to the wildest excesses of fanaticism to find a retreat from
+the impending judgment. Kings and emperors begged at monastery-doors
+to be admitted brethren of the Order. Henry of Germany and Robert of
+France were saints according to the notions of the time, and even now
+deserve the respect of mankind for the simplicity and benevolence of
+their characters. Henry the Emperor succeeded in being admitted as a
+monk, and swore obedience on the hands of the gentle abbot who had
+failed in turning him from his purpose. "Sire," he said at last, "since
+you are under my orders, and have sworn to obey me, I command you to
+go forth and fulfil the duties of the state to which God has called
+you. Go forth, a monk of the Abbey of St. Vanne, but Emperor of the
+West." Robert of France, the son of Hugh Capet, placed himself, robed
+and crowned, among the choristers of St. Denis, and led the musicians
+in singing hymns and psalms of his own composition. Lower men were
+satisfied with sacrificing the marks of their knightly and seignorial
+rank, and placed baldrics and swords on the altars and before the
+images of saints. Some manumitted their serfs, and bestowed large
+sums upon charitable trusts, commencing their disposition with words
+implying the approaching end of all. Crowds of the common people would
+sleep nowhere but in the porches, or at any rate within the shadow,
+of the churches and other holy buildings; and as the day of doom drew
+nearer and nearer, greater efforts were made to appease the wrath of
+Heaven. Peace was proclaimed between all classes of men. From Wednesday
+night till Monday evening of each week there was to be no violence or
+enmity or war in all the land. It was to be a Truce of God; and at
+last, all their strivings after a better state, acknowledgments of
+a depraved condition, and heartfelt longings for something better,
+purer, nobler, received their consummation, when, in the place of the
+unprincipled men who had disgraced Christianity by carrying vice and
+incredulity into the papal chair, there was appointed to the highest of
+ecclesiastical dignities a man worthy of his exaltation; and the good
+and holy Gerbert, the tutor, guide, and friend of Robert of France, was
+appointed Pope in 998, and took the name of Sylvester the Second.
+
+
+
+
+                           ELEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        OTHO III.--(_cont_.)
+
+  1002. HENRY OF BAVARIA.
+
+  1024. CONRAD II.
+
+  1039. HENRY III.
+
+  1056. HENRY IV.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ETHELRED II.--(_cont._)
+
+  1013. SWEYN.                          }
+
+  1015. CANUTE THE GREAT.               }
+
+  1017. EDMUND II.                      } Danes.
+
+  1039. HAROLD and HARDICANUTE.         }
+
+  1042. EDWARD THE CONFESSOR.
+
+  1066. HAROLD, (son of Godwin.)
+
+  1066. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.
+
+  1087. WILLIAM RUFUS.
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        BASILIUS.--(_cont._)
+
+  1028. ROMANUS III.
+
+  1042. EMPRESS ZOE and THEODORA.
+
+  1056. MICHAEL VI.
+
+  1057. ISAAC COMNENUS.
+
+  1059. CONSTANTINE X., (DUCAS.)
+
+  1067. EUDOXIA and CONSTANTINE XI.
+
+  1068. ROMANUS IV., (DIOGENES.)
+
+  1071. MICHAEL.
+
+  1078. { Two princes of the
+
+  1081. { House of the Comneni.
+
+  1081. ALEXIS I.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ROBERT THE WISE.--(_cont._)
+
+  1031. HENRY I.
+
+  1060. PHILIP I.
+
+
+  1096. THE FIRST CRUSADE.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+ANSELM, (1003-1079,) ABELARD, (1079-1142,) BERENGARIUS, ROSCELIN,
+LANFRANC, THEOPHYLACT, (1077.)
+
+
+
+
+                         THE ELEVENTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE COMMENCEMENT OF IMPROVEMENT--GREGORY THE SEVENTH--FIRST CRUSADE.
+
+
+And now came the dreaded or hoped-for year. The awful Thousand had
+at last commenced, and men held their breath to watch what would be
+the result of its arrival. "And he laid hold of the dragon, that old
+serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him for a thousand
+years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set
+a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till
+the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be
+loosed a little season." (Revelation xx. 2, 3.) With this text all
+the pulpits in Christendom had been ringing for a whole generation.
+And not the pulpits only, but the refection-halls of convents, and
+the cottages of the starving peasantry. Into the castle also of the
+noble, we have seen, it had penetrated; and the most abject terror
+pervaded the superstitious, while despair, as in shipwrecked vessels,
+displayed itself amid the masses of the population in rioting and
+insubordination. The spirit of evil for a little season was to be let
+loose upon a sinful world; and when the observer looked round at the
+real condition of the people in all parts of Europe--at the ignorance
+and degradation of the multitude, the cruelty of the lords, and the
+unchristian ambition and unrestrained passions of the clergy--it must
+have puzzled him how to imagine a worse state of things even when the
+chain was loosened from "that old serpent," and the world placed
+unresistingly in his folds. Yet, as if men's minds had now reached
+their lowest point, there was a perpetual rise from the beginning of
+this date. When the first day of the thousand-and-first year shone
+upon the world, it seemed that in all nations the torpor of the past
+was to be thrown off. There were strivings everywhere after a new
+order of things. Coming events cast their shadows a long way before;
+for in the very beginning of this century, when it was reported that
+Jerusalem had been taken by the Saracens, Sylvester uttered the
+memorable words, "Soldiers of Christ, arise and fight for Zion." By
+a combination of all Christian powers for one object, he no doubt
+hoped to put an end to the party quarrels by which Europe was torn
+in pieces. And this great thought must have been germinating in the
+popular heart ever since the speech was spoken; for we shall see at the
+end of the period we are describing how instantaneously the cry for
+a crusade was responded to in all lands. In the mean time, the first
+joy of their deliverance from the expected destruction impelled all
+classes of society in a more honourable and useful path than they had
+ever hitherto trod. As if by universal consent, the first attention
+was paid to the maintenance of the churches, those holy buildings by
+whose virtues the wrath of Heaven had been turned away. In France, and
+Italy, and Germany, the fabrics had in many places been allowed to fall
+into ruin. They were now renovated and ornamented with the costliest
+materials, and with an architectural skill which, if it previously
+existed, had had no room for its display. Stately cathedrals took the
+place of the humble buildings in which the services had been conducted
+before. Every thing was projected on a gigantic scale, with the idea of
+permanence prominently brought forward, now that the threatened end of
+all things was seen to be postponed. The foundations were broad and
+deep, the walls of immense thickness, roofs steep and high to keep off
+the rain and snow, and square buttressed towers to sustain the church
+and furnish it at the same time with military defence. It was a holy
+occupation, and the clergy took a prominent part in the new movement.
+Bishops and monks were the principal members of a confraternity who
+devoted themselves to the science of architecture and founded all their
+works on the exact rules of symmetry and fitness. Artists from Italy,
+where Roman models were everywhere seen, and enthusiastic students from
+the south of France, where the great works of the Empire must have
+exercised an ennobling influence on their taste and fancy, brought
+their tribute of memory or invention to the design. Tall pillars
+supported the elevated vault, instead of the flat roof of former days;
+and gradually an approach was made to what, in after-periods, was
+recognised as the pure Gothic. Here, then, was at last a real science,
+the offspring of the highest aspirations of the human mind. Churches
+rising in rich profusion in all parts of the country were the centres
+of architectural taste. The castle of the noble was no longer to be a
+mere mass of stones huddled on each other, to protect its inmates from
+outward attack. The skill of the learned builder was called in, and on
+picturesque heights, safe from hostile assault by the difficulty of
+approach, rose turret and bartizan, arched gateway and square-flanked
+towers, to add new features to the landscape, and help the march of
+civilization, by showing to that allegorizing age the result, both
+for strength and beauty, of regularity and proportion. For at this
+time allegory, which gave an inner meaning to outward things, was in
+full force. There was no portion of the parish church which had not
+its mystical significance; and no doubt, at the end of this century,
+the architectural meaning of the external alteration of the structure
+was perceived, when the great square tower, which typified resistance
+to worldly aggression, was exchanged for the tall and graceful spire
+which pointed encouragingly to heaven. Occasions were eagerly sought
+for to give employment to the ruling passion. Building went on in all
+quarters. The beginning of this century found eleven hundred and eight
+monasteries in France alone. In the course of a few years she was put
+in possession of three hundred and twenty-six more. [A.D. 1035.] The
+magnificent Abbey of Fontenelle was restored in 1035 by William of
+Normandy; and this same William, whom we shall afterwards see in the
+somewhat different character of Conqueror and devastator of England,
+was the founder and patron of more abbeys and monasteries than any
+other man. Many of them are still erect, to attest the solidity of his
+work; the ruins of the others raise our surprise that they are not
+yet entire--so vast in their extent and gigantic in their materials.
+But the same character of permanence extended to all the works of
+this great builder's[B] hands--the systems of government no less than
+the fabrics of churches. The remains of his feudalism in our country,
+no less than the fragments of his masonry at Bayeux, Fecamp, and St.
+Michael's, attest the cyclopean scale on which his superstructures were
+reared. Nor were these great architectural efforts which characterize
+this period made only on behalf of the clergy. It gives a very narrow
+notion, as Michelet has observed, of the uses and purposes of those
+enormous buildings, to view them merely as places for public worship
+and the other offices of religion. The church in a district was, in
+those days, what a hundred other buildings are required to make up in
+the present. It was the town-hall, the market-place, the concert-room,
+the theatre, the school, the news-room, and the vestry, all in one.
+We are to remember that poverty was almost universal. The cottages in
+which the serfs and even the freemen resided were wretched hovels.
+They had no windows, they were damp and airless, and were merely
+considered the human kennels into which the peasantry retired to sleep.
+In contrast to this miserable den there arose a building vast and
+beautiful, consecrated by religion, ornamented with carving and colour,
+large enough to enable the whole population to wander in its aisles,
+with darker recesses under the shade of pillars, to give opportunity
+for familiar conversation or the enjoyment of the family meal. The
+church was the poor man's palace, where he felt that all the building
+belonged to him and was erected for his use. It was also his castle,
+where no enemy could reach him, and the love and pride which filled his
+heart in contemplating the massive proportions and splendid elevation
+of the glorious fane overflowed towards the officers of the church.
+The priest became glorified in his eyes as the officiating servant in
+that greatest of earthly buildings, and the bishop far outshone the
+dignity of kings when it was known that he had plenary authority over
+many such majestic fabrics. Ascending from the known to the unknown,
+the Pope of Rome, the Bishop of Bishops, shone upon the bewildered mind
+of the peasant with a light reflected from the object round which all
+his veneration had gathered from his earliest days--the scene of all
+the incidents of his life--the hallowed sanctuary into which he had
+been admitted as an infant, and whose vaults should echo to the funeral
+service when he should have died.
+
+But this century was distinguished for an upheaving of the human
+mind, which found its development in other things besides the bursting
+forth of architectural skill. It seemed that the chance of continued
+endurance, vouchsafed to mankind by the rising of the sun on the first
+morning of the eleventh century, gave an impulse to long-pent-up
+thoughts in all the directions of inquiry. The dulness of unquestioning
+undiscriminating belief was disturbed by the freshening breezes of
+dissidence and discussion. The Pope himself, the venerable Sylvester
+the Second, had acquired all the wisdom of the Arabians by attending
+the Mohammedan schools in the royal city of Cordova. There he had
+learned the mysteries of the secret sciences, and the more useful
+knowledge--which he imported into the Christian world--of the Arabic
+numerals. The Saracenic barbarism had long yielded to the blandishments
+of the climate and soil of Spain; and emirs and sultans, in their
+splendid gardens on the Guadalquivir, had been discussing the most
+abstruse or subtle points of philosophy while the professed teachers
+of Christendom were sunk in the depths of ignorance and credulity.
+Sylvester had made such progress in the unlawful learning accessible at
+the head-quarters of the unbelievers, that his simple contemporaries
+could only account for it by supposing he had sold himself to the
+enemy of mankind in exchange for such prodigious information. He was
+accused of the unholy arts of magic and necromancy; and all that
+orthodoxy could do to assert her superiority over such acquirements
+was to spread the report, which was very generally credited, that when
+the years of the compact were expired, the paltering fiend appeared
+in person and carried off his debtor from the midst of the affrighted
+congregation, after a severe logical discussion, in which the father
+of lies had the best of the argument. This was a conclusive proof
+of the danger of all logical acquirements. But as time passed on,
+and the darkness of the tenth century was more and more left behind,
+there arose a race of men who were not terrified by the fate of the
+philosophic Sylvester from cultivating their understandings to the
+highest pitch. Among those there were two who particularly left their
+marks on the genius of the time, and who had the strange fortune also
+of succeeding each other as Archbishops of Canterbury. These were
+Lanfranc and Anselm. [A.D. 1042.] When Lanfranc was still a monk at
+Caen, he had attracted to his prelections more than four thousand
+scholars; and Anselm, while in the same humble rank, raised the schools
+of Bec in Normandy to a great reputation. From these two men, both
+Italians by birth, the Scholastic Philosophy took its rise. The old
+unreasoning assent to the doctrines of Christianity had now new life
+breathed into it by the permitted application of intellect and reason
+to the support of truth. In the darkness and misery of the previous
+century, the deep and mysterious dogma of Transubstantiation had made
+its first authoritative appearance in the Church. Acquiesced in by the
+docile multitude, and accepted by the enthusiastic and imaginative as
+an inexpressible gift of fresh grace to mankind, and a fitting crown
+and consummation of the daily-recurring miracles with which the Mother
+and Witness of the truth proved and maintained her mission, it had been
+attacked by Berenger of Tours, who used all the resources of reason and
+ingenuity to demonstrate its unsoundness. [A.D. 1059.] But Lanfranc
+came to the rescue, and by the exercise of a more vigorous dialectic,
+and the support of the great majority of the clergy, confuted all that
+Berenger advanced, had him stripped of his archdeaconry of Angers and
+other preferments, and left him in such destitution and disfavour
+that the discomfited opponent of the Real Presence was forced to
+read his retractation at Rome, and only expiated the enormity of his
+fault by the rigorous seclusion of the remainder of his life. The
+hopeful feature in this discussion was, that though the influence of
+ecclesiastic power was not left dormant, in the shape of temporal
+ruin and spiritual threats, the exercise of those usual weapons of
+authority was accompanied with attempts at argument and conviction.
+Lanfranc, indeed, in the very writings in which he used his talents
+to confute the heretic, made such use of his reasoning and inductive
+faculties that he nearly fell under the ban of heresy himself. He had
+the boldness to imagine a man left to the exercise of his natural
+powers alone, and bringing observation, argument, and ratiocination
+to the discovery of the Christian dogmas; but he was glad to purchase
+his complete rehabilitation, as champion of the Church, by a work in
+which he admits reason to the subordinate position of a supporter or
+commentator, but by no means a foundation or inseparable constituent of
+an article of the faith. Any thing was better than the blindness and
+ignorance of the previous age; and questions of the purest metaphysics
+were debated with a fire and animosity which could scarcely have been
+excited by the greatest worldly interests. The Nominalists and Realists
+began their wordy and unprofitable war, which after occasional truces
+may at any moment break out, as it has often done before, though it
+would now be confined to the professorial chairs in our universities,
+and not exercise a preponderating influence on the course of human
+affairs. The dispute (as the names of the disputants import) arose
+upon the question as to whether universal ideas were things or only
+the names of things, and on this the internecine contest went on.
+All the subtlety of the old Greek philosophies was introduced into
+the scholasticisms and word-splittings of those useless arguers; and
+vast reputations, which have not yet decayed, were built on this very
+unsubstantial foundation.
+
+It shows how immeasurably the efforts of the intellect, even when
+misapplied, transcend the greatest triumphs of military skill, when we
+perceive that in this age, which was illustrated by the Conquest of
+England, first by the Danes, and then by William, by the marvellous
+rise and triumphant progress of the sons of Tancred of Hauteville, and
+by the startling incidents of the First Crusade,--the central figure
+is a meagre, hard-featured monk, who rises from rank to rank, till
+he governs and tramples on the world under the name of Gregory the
+Seventh. It may seem to some people, who look at the present condition
+of the Romish Church, that too prominent a place is assigned in these
+early centuries to the growth and aggrandizement of the ecclesiastical
+power; but as the object of these pages is to point out what seems
+the main distinguishing feature of each of the periods selected for
+separate notice, it would be unpardonable to pass over the Papacy,
+varying in extent of power and pretension at every period when it
+comes into view, and always impressing a distinct and individualizing
+character on the affairs with which it is concerned. It is the most
+stable, and at the same time the most flexible, of powers. Kingdoms
+and dynasties flourish and decay, and make no permanent mark on the
+succeeding age. The authority of a ruler like Charlemagne or Otho
+rises in a full tide, and, having reached its limits, yields to the
+irresistible ebb. But Roman influence knows no retrocession. Even when
+its pretensions are defeated and its assaults repulsed, it claims as
+_de jure_ what it has lost _de facto_, and, though it were reduced to
+the possession of a single church, would continue to issue its orders
+to the habitable globe.
+
+Like the last descendant of the Great Mogul, who professed to rule over
+Hindostan while his power was limited to the walls of his palace at
+Delhi, the bearer of the Tiara abates no jot of his state and dignity
+when every vestige of his influence has disappeared. While ridiculed
+as a puppet or pitied as a sufferer at home, he arrogates more than
+royal power in regions which have long thrown off his authority, and
+announces his will by the voice of blustering and brazen heralds to a
+deaf and rebellious generation, which looks on him with no more respect
+than the grotesquely-dressed conjurers before a tent-door at a fair.
+But the herald's voice would have been listened to with respect and
+obedience if it had been heard at the Pope's gate in 1073. There had
+never been such a pope before, and never has been such a pope since.
+Others have been arrogant and ambitious, but no one has ever equalled
+Hildebrand in arrogance and ambition. Strength of will, also, has been
+the ruling character of many of the pontiffs, but no one has ever
+equalled Hildebrand in the undying tenacity with which he pursued his
+object. He was like Roland, the hero of Roncesvalles, who even in
+defeat knew how to keep his enemies at a distance by blowing upon his
+horn. When Durandal foiled the vanquished Gregory, he spent his last
+breath in defiant blasts upon his Olifant.
+
+But there were many circumstances which not only rendered the rise
+of such a person possible, but made his progress easy and almost
+unavoidable. First of all, the crusading spirit which commenced with
+this century had introduced a great change in the principles and
+practice of the higher clergy. It is a mistake to suppose that the
+expedition to Jerusalem, under the preaching of Peter the Hermit, which
+took place in 1094, was the earliest manifestation of the aggressive
+spirit of the Christian, as such, against the unbeliever. A holy
+war was proclaimed against the Saracens of Italy at an early date.
+An armed assault upon the Jews, as descendants of the murderers of
+Christ, had taken place in 1080. Even the Norman descent on England was
+considered by the more devout of the Papist followers in the light of
+a crusade against the enemies of the Cross, as the Anglo-Saxons were
+not sufficiently submissive to the commands of Rome. Bishops, we saw,
+were held in a former century to derogate from the sanctity of their
+characters when they fought in person like the other occupants of
+fiefs. But the sacred character which expeditions like those against
+Sicily and Salerno gave to the struggle made a great difference in
+the popular estimate of a prelate's sphere of action. He was now held
+to be strictly in the exercise of his duty when he was slaying an
+infidel with the edge of the sword. He was not considered to be more
+in his place at the head of a procession in honour of a saint than at
+the head of an army of cavaliers destroying the enemies of the faith.
+Warlike skill and personal courage became indispensable in a bishop
+of the Church; and in Germany these qualities were so highly prized,
+that the inhabitants of a diocese in the empire, presided over by a man
+of peace and holiness, succeeded in getting him deposed by the Pope
+on the express ground of his being "placable and far from valiant."
+The epitaph of a popular bishop was, that he was "good priest and
+brave chevalier." The manners and feelings of the camp soon became
+disseminated among the reverend divines, who inculcated Christianity
+with a battle-axe in their hands. They quarrelled with neighbouring
+barons for portions of land. They seized the incomes of churches and
+abbeys. Bishop and baron strove with each other who could get most
+for himself out of the property of the Church. The layman forced his
+serfs to elect his infant son to an abbacy or bishopric, and then
+pillaged the estate and stripped the lower clergy in the minor's name.
+Other abuses followed; and though the strictness of the rule against
+the open marriage of priests had long ceased, and in some places the
+superiority of wedded incumbents had been so recognised that the
+appointment of a pastor was objected to unless he was accompanied by
+a wife--still, the letter of the Church-law, enjoining celibacy on
+all orders of the clergy, had never been so generally neglected as at
+the present time. No attempt was made to conceal the almost universal
+infraction of the rule. Bishops themselves brought forward their wives
+on occasions of state and ceremony, who disputed the place of honour
+with the wives of counts and barons. When strictly inquired into,
+however, these alliances were not allowed to have the effect of regular
+matrimony. They were looked upon merely as a sort of licensed and not
+dishonourable concubinage, and the children resulting from them were
+deprived of the rights of legitimacy. Yet the wealth and influence
+of their parents made their exclusion from the succession to land of
+little consequence. They were enriched sufficiently with the spoil of
+the diocese to be independent of the rights of heirship. This must
+have led, however, to many cases of hardship, when the feudal baron,
+tempted by the riches of the neighbouring see, had laid violent hands
+on the property, and by bribery or force procured his own nomination as
+bishop. The children of any marriage contracted after that time lost
+their inheritance of the barony by the episcopal incapacity of their
+father, and must have added to the general feeling of discontent caused
+by the junction of the two characters. For when the tyrannical lord
+became a prelate, it only added the weapons of ecclesiastic domination
+to the baronial armory of cruelty and extortion. He could now withhold
+all the blessings of the Church, as bishop, unless the last farthing
+were yielded up to his demands as landlord. An appalling state of
+things, when the refractory vassal, who had escaped the sword, could be
+knocked into submission by the crozier, both wielded by the same man.
+The Church, therefore, in its highest offices, had become as mundane
+and ambitious as the nobility. And it must have been evident to a far
+dimmer sight than Hildebrand's, that, as the power and independence
+of the barons had been gained at the expense of the Crown, the wealth
+and possessions of the bishops would weaken their allegiance to the
+Pope. Sprung from the lowest ranks of the people, the grim-hearted monk
+never for a moment was false to his order. He looked on lords and kings
+as tyrants and oppressors, on bishops themselves as lording it over
+God's heritage and requiring to be held down beneath the foot of some
+levelling and irresistible power, which would show them the nothingness
+of rank and station; and for this end he dreamed of a popedom,
+universal in its claims, domineering equally over all conditions of
+men--an incarnation of the fiercest democracy, trampling on the people,
+and of the bitterest republicanism, aiming at more than monarchical
+power. He had the wrath of generations of serfdom rankling in his
+heart, and took a satisfaction, sweetened by revenge, in bringing low
+the haughty looks of the proud. And in these strainings after the
+elevation of the Papacy he was assisted by several powers on which he
+could securely rely.
+
+The Normans, who by a wonderful fortune had made themselves masters of
+England under the guidance of William, were grateful to the Pope for
+the assistance he had given them by prohibiting all opposition to their
+conquest on the part of the English Church. Another branch of Normans
+were still more useful in their support of the papal chair. A body of
+pilgrims to Jerusalem, amounting to only forty men, had started from
+Scandinavia in 1006, and, having landed at Salerno, were turned aside
+from completing their journey by the equally meritorious occupation of
+resisting the Saracens who were besieging the town. They defeated them
+with great slaughter, and were amply rewarded for their prowess with
+goods and gear. News of their gallantry and of their reward reached
+their friends and relations at home. In a few years they were followed
+by swarms of their countrymen, who disposed of their acquisitions in
+Upper Italy to the highest bidder, and were remunerated by grants of
+land in Naples for their exertion on behalf of Sergius the king. But
+in 1037 a fresh body of adventurers proceeded from the neighbourhood
+of Coutances in Normandy, under the command of three brothers of the
+family of Hauteville, to the assistance of the same monarch, and,
+with the usual prudence of the Norman race, when they had chased the
+enemy from the endangered territory, made no scruple of keeping it
+for themselves. Robert, called Guiscard, or the Wise, was the third
+brother, and succeeded to the newly-acquired sovereignty in 1057. In
+a short time he alarmed the Pope with the prospect of so unscrupulous
+and so powerful a neighbour. His Holiness, therefore, demanded the
+assistance of the German Emperor, and boldly took the field. The
+Normans were no whit daunted with the opposition of the Father of
+Christendom, and dashed through all obstacles till they succeeded
+in taking him prisoner. Instead of treating him with harshness, and
+exacting exorbitant ransom, as would have been the action of a less
+sagacious politician, the Norman threw himself on his knees before the
+captive pontiff, bewailed his hard case in being forced to appear so
+contumacious to his spiritual lord and master, and humbly besought
+him to pardon his transgression, and accept the suzerainty of all the
+lands he possessed and of all he should hereafter subdue. [A.D. 1059.]
+It was a delightful surprise to the Pope, who immediately ratified all
+the proceedings of his repentant son, and in a short time was rewarded
+by seeing Apulia and the great island of Sicily held in homage as
+fiefs of St. Peter's chair. From thenceforth the Italian Normans were
+the bulwarks of the papal throne. But, more powerful than the Normans
+of England, and more devoted personally to the popes than the greedy
+adventurers of Apulia, the Countess Matilda was the greatest support
+of all the pretensions of the Holy See. Young and beautiful, the
+holder of the greatest territories in Italy, this lady was the most
+zealous of all the followers of the Pope. Though twice married, she on
+both occasions separated from her husband to throw herself with more
+undivided energy into the interests of the Church. With men and money,
+and all the influence that her position as a princess and her charms as
+a woman could give, the sovereign pontiff had no enemy to fear as long
+as he retained the friendship of his enthusiastic daughter.
+
+[A.D. 1060.]
+
+Hildebrand was the ruling spirit of the papal court, and was laying his
+plans for future action, while the world was still scarcely aware of
+his existence. He began, while only Archdeacon of Rome, by a forcible
+reformation of some of the irregularities which had crept into the
+practice of the clergy, as a preparatory step to making the clergy
+dominant over all the other orders in the State. He gave orders, in the
+name of Stephen the Tenth, for every married priest to be displaced and
+to be separated from his wife. For this end he stirred up the ignorant
+fanaticism of the people, and encouraged them in outrages upon the
+offending clergy, which frequently ended in death. The virtues of the
+cloister had still a great hold on the popular veneration, in spite
+of the notorious vices of the monastic establishments, both male and
+female; and Hildebrand's invectives on the wickedness of marriage,
+and his praises of the sanctity of a single life, were listened to
+with equal admiration. The secular clergy were forced to adopt the
+unsocial and demoralizing principles of their monkish rivals; and
+when all family affections were made sinful, and the feelings of the
+pastor concentrated on the interests of his profession, the popes had
+secured, in the whole body of the Church, the unlimited obedience
+and blind support which had hitherto been the characteristic of the
+monastic orders. With the assistance of the warlike Normans, the
+wealth and influence of the Countess Matilda, the adhesion of the
+Church to his schemes of aggrandizement, he felt it time to assume in
+public the power he had exercised so long in the subordinate position
+of counsellor of the popes; and the monk seated himself on what he
+considered the highest of earthly thrones, and immediately the contest
+between the temporal and spiritual powers began. [A.D. 1073.] The King
+of France (Philip the First) and the Emperor of Germany (Henry the
+Fourth) were both of disreputable life, and offered an easy mark for
+the assaults of the fiery pontiff. He threatened and reprimanded them
+for simony and disobedience, proclaimed his authority over kings and
+princes as a fact which no man could dispute without impiety, and had
+the inward pleasure of seeing the proudest of the nobles, and finally
+the most powerful of the sovereigns, of Europe, forced to obey his
+mandates. The pent-up hatred of his race and profession was gratified
+by the abasement of birth and power.
+
+The struggle with the Empire was on the subject of investiture.
+The successors of Charlemagne had always retained a voice in the
+appointment of the bishops and Church dignitaries in their states;
+they had even frequently nominated to the See of Rome, as to the other
+bishoprics in their dominions. The present wearer of the iron crown
+had displaced three contending popes, who were disturbing the peace
+of the city by their ferocious quarrels, and had appointed others in
+their room. There was no murmur of opposition to their appointment.
+They were pious and venerable men; and of each of them the inscrutable
+Hildebrand had managed to make himself the confidential adviser,
+and in reality the guide and master. Even in his own case he waited
+patiently till he had secured the emperor's legal ratification of his
+election, and then, armed with legitimacy, and burning with smothered
+indignation, he kicked down the ladder by which he had risen, and
+wrote an insulting letter to the emperor, commanding him to abstain
+from simony, and to renounce the right of investiture by the ring and
+cross. These, he maintained, were the signs of spiritual dignity, and
+their bestowal was inherent in the Pope. The time for the message
+was admirably chosen; for Henry was engaged in a hard struggle for
+life and crown with the Saxons and Thuringians, who were in open
+revolt. Henry promised obedience to the pontiff's wish, but when his
+enemies were defeated he withdrew his concession. The Pope thundered
+a sentence of excommunication against him, released his subjects from
+their oath of fealty, and pronounced him deprived of the throne.
+The emperor was not to be left behind in the race of objurgation.
+[A.D. 1076.] He summoned his nobles and prelates to a council at Worms,
+and pronounced sentence of deprivation on the Pope. Then arose such
+a storm against the unfortunate Henry as only religious differences
+can create. His subjects had been oppressed, his nobility insulted,
+his clergy impoverished, and all classes of his people were glad of
+the opportunity of hiding their hatred of his oppressions under the
+cloak of regard for the interests of religion. He was forced to yield;
+and, crossing the Alps in the middle of winter, he presented himself
+at the castle of Canossa. Here the Pope displayed the humbleness and
+generosity of his Christian character, by leaving the wretched man
+three days and nights in the outer court, shivering with cold and
+barefoot, while His Holiness and the Countess Matilda were comfortably
+closeted within. And after this unheard-of degradation, all that could
+be wrung from the hatred of the inexorable monk was a promise that the
+suppliant should be tried with justice, and that, if he succeeded in
+proving his innocence, he should be reinstated on his throne; but if
+he were found guilty, he should be punished with the utmost rigour of
+ecclesiastical law.
+
+Common sense and good feeling were revolted by this unexampled
+insolence. Friends gathered round Henry when the terms of his sentence
+were heard. The Romans themselves, who had hitherto been blindly
+submissive, were indignant at the presumption of their bishop. None
+continued faithful except the imperturbable Countess Matilda. He was
+still to her the representative of divine goodness and superhuman
+power. But her troops were beaten and her money was exhausted in
+the holy quarrel. Robert Guiscard, indeed, came to the rescue, and
+rewarded himself for delivering the Pope by sacking the city of Rome.
+Half the houses were burned, and half the population killed or sold
+as slaves. It was from amidst the desolation his ambition had caused
+that the still-unsubdued Hildebrand was guarded by the Normans to
+the citadel of Salerno, and there he died, issuing his orders and
+curses to his latest hour, and boasting with his last breath that
+"he had loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and that therefore
+he expired in exile." [A.D. 1085.] After this man's throwing off the
+mask of moderation under which his predecessors had veiled their
+claims, the world was no longer left in doubt of the aims and objects
+of the spiritual power. There seems almost a taint of insanity in
+the extravagance of his demands. In the published collection of his
+maxims we see the full extent of the theological tyranny he had in
+view. "There is but one name in the world," we read; "and that is
+the Pope's. He only can use the ornaments of empire. All princes
+ought to kiss his feet. He alone can nominate or displace bishops and
+assemble or dissolve councils. Nobody can judge him. His mere election
+constitutes him a saint. He has never erred, and never shall err in
+time to come. He can depose princes and release subjects from their
+oaths of fidelity." Yet, in spite of the wildness of this language, the
+ignorance of the period was so great, and the relations of European
+nations so hostile, that the most daring of these assumptions found
+supporters either in the superstitious veneration of the peoples or the
+enmity and interests of the princes. The propounder of those amazing
+propositions was apparently defeated, and died disgraced and hated; but
+his successors were careful not to withdraw the most untenable of his
+claims, even while they did not bring them into exercise. They lay in
+an armory, carefully stored and guarded, to be brought out according
+to the exigencies either of the papal chair itself, or of the king
+or emperor who for the moment was in possession of the person of the
+Pope. None of the great potentates of Europe, therefore, was anxious
+to diminish a power which might be employed for his own advantage,
+and all of them by turns encouraged the aggressions of the Papacy,
+with a short-sighted wisdom, to be an instrument of offence against
+their enemies. Little encouragement, indeed, was offered at this time
+to opposition to the spiritual despot. Though Hildebrand had died a
+refugee, it was remarked with pious awe that Henry the Fourth, his
+rival and opponent, was punished in a manner which showed the highest
+displeasure of Heaven. His children, at the instigation of the Pope,
+rebelled against him. He was conquered in battle and taken prisoner by
+his youngest son. [A.D. 1106] He was stripped of all his possessions,
+and at last so destitute and forsaken that he begged for a subchanter's
+place in a village church for the sake of its wretched salary, and
+died in such extremity of want and desolation that hunger shortened
+his days. For five years his body was left without the decencies of
+interment in a cellar in the town of Spires.
+
+But an immense movement was now to take place in the European mind,
+which had the greatest influence on the authority of Rome. [A.D. 1095]
+A crusade against the enemies of the faith was proclaimed in the
+year 1095, and from all parts of Europe a great cry of approval was
+uttered in all tongues, for it hit the right chord in the ferocious and
+superstitious heart of the world; and it was felt that the great battle
+of the Cross and the Crescent was most fitly to be decided forever on
+the soil of the Holy Land.
+
+From the very beginning of this century the thought of armed
+intervention in the affairs of Palestine had been present in the
+general mind. Religious difference had long been ready to take the form
+of open war. As the Church strengthened and settled into more dogmatic
+unity, the desire to convert by force and retain within the fold by
+penalty and proscription had increased. As yet some reluctance was
+felt to put a professing Christian to death on merely a difference
+of doctrine, but with the open gainsayers of the faith no parley
+could be held. Thousands, in addition to their religious animosities,
+had personal injuries to avenge; for pilgrimage to Jerusalem was
+already in full favour, and the weary wayfarers had to complain of the
+hostility of the turbaned possessors of the Holy Sepulchre, and the
+indignities and peril to which they were exposed the moment they came
+within the infidel's domain. Why should the unbelievers be allowed any
+longer to retain the custody of such inherently Christian territories
+as the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemane? Why should
+the unbaptized followers of Mohammed, those children of perdition,
+pollute with hostile feet the sacred ground which had been the
+witness of so many miracles and still furnished so many relics which
+manifested superhuman power? Besides, what was the wealth of other
+cities--their gold and precious jewels--to the store of incalculable
+riches contained in the very stones and woodwork of the metropolis and
+cradle of the faith? Bones of martyrs--garments of saints--nails of the
+cross--thorns of the crown--were all lying ready to be gathered up by
+the faithful priesthood who would lead the expedition. And who could
+be held responsible, in this world or the next, for any sins, however
+grievous, who had washed them out by purifying the floors of Zion with
+the blood of slaughtered Saracens and saying prayers and kneeling
+in contemplation within sight of the Sepulchre itself? So Peter the
+Hermit, an enthusiast who preached a holy war, was listened to as if
+he spake with the tongues of angels. The ravings of his lunacy had a
+prodigious effect on all classes and in all lands; and suddenly there
+was gathered together a confused rabble of pilgrims, armed in every
+variety of fashion--princes and beggars, robbers and adventurers--the
+scum of great cities and the simple-hearted peasantry from distant
+farms--upwards of three hundred thousand in number, all pouring down
+towards the seaports and anxious to cross over to the land where so
+many high hopes were placed. Vast numbers of this multitude found their
+way from France through Italy; and luckily for Urban the Second--the
+fifth in succession from Gregory--they took the opportunity of paying
+a visit to the city of Rome, scarcely less venerable in their eyes
+than Jerusalem itself. They were the soldiers of the Cross, and in
+that character felt bound to pay a more immediate submission to the
+Chief of Christianity than to their native kings. They found the city
+divided between two rivals for the tiara, and, having decided in favour
+of Urban, chased away the anti-pope who was appointed by the Imperial
+choice. Terrified at the accession of such powerful supporters, the
+Germans were withdrawn from Italy, and Urban felt that the claims
+of Hildebrand were not incapable of realization if he could get
+quit of unruly barons and obstinate monarchs by engaging them in a
+distant and ruinous expedition. It needed little to spread the flame
+of fanaticism over the whole of Christendom. The accounts given of
+this first Crusade transcend the wildest imaginings of romance. An
+indiscriminate multitude of all nations and tongues seemed impelled
+by some irresistible impulse towards the East. Ostensibly engaged in
+a religious service, enriched with promises and absolutions from the
+Pope, giving up all their earthly possessions, and filled with the one
+idea of liberating the Holy Land, it might have been expected that the
+sobriety and order of their march would have been characteristic of
+such elevating aspirations. But the infamy of their behaviour, their
+debauchery, irregularity, and dishonesty, have never been equalled
+by the basest and most degraded of mankind. Like a flood they poured
+through the lands of Italy, Bohemia, and Germany, polluting the cities
+with their riotous lives, and poisoning the air with the festering
+corruption of their innumerable dead. They at last found shipping from
+the ports, and presented themselves, drunk with fanatical pride, and
+maddened with the sufferings they had undergone, before the astonished
+people of Constantinople. That enervated and over-civilized population
+looked with disgust on the unruly mass. Of the vast multitudes who had
+started under the guidance of Peter the Hermit, not more than 20,000
+survived; and of these none found their way to the object of their
+search. The Turks, who had by this time obtained the mastery of Asia,
+cut them in pieces when they had left the shelter of Constantinople,
+and Alexis Comnenus, the Grecian emperor, had little hope of aid
+against the Mohammedan invaders from the unruly levies of Europe.
+
+But in the following year a new detachment made their appearance in
+his states. This was the second ban, or crusade of the knights and
+barons. Better regulated in its military organization than the other,
+it presented the same astonishing scenes of debauchery and vice; and
+dividing, for the sake of sustenance, into four armies, and taking four
+different routes, they at length, in greatly-diminished numbers, but
+with unabated hope and energy, presented themselves before the walls
+of Constantinople. This was no mob like their famished and fainting
+predecessors. All the gallant lords of Europe were here, inspired by
+knightly courage and national rivalries to distinguish themselves in
+fight and council. Of these the best-known were Godfrey of Bouillon,
+Baldwyn of Flanders, Robert of Normandy, (William the Conqueror's
+eldest son,) Hugh the Great, Count of Vermandois, and Raymond of St.
+Gilles. Six hundred thousand men had left their homes, with innumerable
+attendants--women, and jugglers, and servants, and workmen of all
+kinds. Tens of thousands perished by the way; others established
+themselves in the cities on their route to keep up the communication;
+and at last the Genoese and Pisan vessels conveyed to the Golden Horn
+the strength of all Europe, the hardy survivors of all the perils of
+that unexampled march--few indeed in number, but burning with zeal and
+bravery. Alexis lost no time in diverting their dangerous strength from
+his own realms. He let them loose upon Nicea, and when it yielded to
+their valour he had the cleverness to outwit the Christian warriors,
+and claimed the city as his possession. On pursuing their course, they
+found themselves, after a victory over the Turks at Dorylaeum, in the
+great Plain of Phrygia. Hunger, thirst, the extremity of heat, and
+the difficulty of the march, brought confusion and dismay into their
+ranks. All the horses died. Knights and chevaliers were seen mounted
+on asses, and even upon oxen; and the baggage was packed upon goats,
+and not unfrequently on swine and dogs. Thirst was fatal to five
+hundred in a single day. Quarrels between the nationalities added to
+these calamities. Lorrains and Italians, the men of Normandy and of
+Provence, were at open feud. And yet, in spite of these drawbacks, the
+great procession advanced. Baldwyn and Tancred succeeded in getting
+possession of the town of Edessa, on the Euphrates, and opened a
+communication with the Christians of Armenia. [A.D. 1098.] The siege
+of Antioch was their next operation, and the luxuries of the soil and
+climate were more fatal to the Crusaders than want and pain had been.
+On the rich banks of the Orontes, and in the groves of Daphne, they
+lost the remains of discipline and self-command and gave themselves
+up to the wildest excesses. But with the winter their enjoyment came
+to an end. Their camp was flooded; they suffered the extremities of
+famine; and when there were no more horses and impure animals to eat,
+they satiated their hunger on the bodies of their slaughtered enemies.
+Help, however, was at hand, or they must have perished to the last man.
+Bohemund corrupted the fidelity of a renegade officer in Antioch, and,
+availing themselves of a dark and stormy night, they scaled the walls
+with ladders, and rushed into the devoted city, shouting the Crusaders'
+war-cry:--"It is the will of God!" and Antioch became a Christian
+princedom. But not without difficulty was this new possession retained.
+The Turks, under the orders of Kerboga, surrounded it with two hundred
+thousand men. There was neither entrance nor exit possible, and the
+worst of their previous sufferings began to be renewed. But Heaven
+came to the rescue. A monk of the name of Peter Bartholomew dreamt
+that under the great altar of the church would be found the spear
+which pierced the Saviour on the cross. The precious weapon rewarded
+their toil in digging, and armed with this the Christian charge was
+irresistible, and the Turks were cut in pieces or dispersed. Instead
+of making straight for Jerusalem, they lingered six months longer in
+Antioch, suffering from plague and the fatigues they had undergone.
+When at last the forward order was given, a remnant, consisting of
+fifty thousand men out of all the original force, began the march. As
+they got nearer the object of their search, and recognised the places
+commemorated in Holy Writ, their enthusiasm knew no bounds. The last
+elevation was at length surmounted, and Jerusalem lay in full view.
+"O blessed Jesus," cries a monk who was present, "when thy Holy City
+was seen, what tears fell from our eyes!" Loud shouts were raised of
+"Jerusalem! Jerusalem! God wills it! God wills it!" They stretched
+out their hands, fell upon their knees, and embraced the consecrated
+ground. But Jerusalem was yet in the hands of the Saracens, and the
+sword must open their way into its sacred bounds. The governor had
+offered to admit the pilgrims within the walls, but in their peaceful
+dress and merely as visitors. This they refused, and determined to
+wrest it from its unbelieving lords. On the 15th of July, 1099, they
+found that their situation was no longer tenable, and that they must
+conquer or give up the siege. The brook Kedron was dried up, the
+sun poured upon them with unendurable heat, their provisions were
+exhausted, and in agonies of despair as well as of military ardour
+they gave the final assault. The struggle was long and doubtful. At
+length the Crusaders triumphed. Tancred and Godfrey were the first to
+leap into the devoted town. Their soldiers followed, and filled every
+street with slaughter. The Mosque of Omar was vigorously defended, and
+an indiscriminate massacre of Mussulmans and Jews filled the whole
+place with blood. In the mosque itself the stream of gore was up to
+the saddle-girths of a horse. The onslaught was occasionally suspended
+for a while, to allow the pious conquerors to go barefoot and unarmed
+to kneel at the Holy Sepulchre; and, this act of worship done, they
+returned to their ruthless occupation, and continued the work of
+extermination for a whole week. The depopulated and reeking town was
+added to the domains of Christendom, and the kingdom of Jerusalem was
+offered to Godfrey of Bouillon. With a modesty befitting the most
+Christian and noble-hearted of the Crusaders, Godfrey contented himself
+with the humbler name of Baron of the Holy Sepulchre; and with three
+hundred knights--which were all that remained to him when that crowning
+victory had set the other survivors at liberty to revisit their native
+lands--he established a standing garrison in the captured city, and
+anxiously awaited reinforcements from the warlike spirits they had left
+at home.
+
+
+
+
+                           TWELFTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        HENRY IV.--(_cont._)
+
+  1106. HENRY V.
+
+  _House of Suabia._
+
+  1138. CONRAD III.
+
+  1152. FREDERICK BARBAROSSA.
+
+  1190. HENRY VI.
+
+  1198. PHILIP and OTHO IV., (of Brunswick.)
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1100. HENRY I.
+
+  1135. STEPHEN.
+
+  1154. HENRY II.
+
+  1189. RICHARD I.
+
+  1199. JOHN.
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ALEXIS I.--(_cont._)
+
+  1118. JOHN.
+
+  1143. MANUEL.
+
+  1183. ANDRONICUS I.
+
+  1185. ISAAC II., (the Angel.)
+
+  1195. ALEXIS III.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+         PHILIP I.--(_cont._)
+
+  1108. LOUIS VI.
+
+  1137. LOUIS VII.
+
+  1180. PHILIP AUGUSTUS.
+
+
+King of Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1165. WILLIAM.
+
+
+  1147. SECOND CRUSADE, led by Louis VII. of France.
+
+  1189. THIRD CRUSADE, led by Frederick Barbarossa, Philip Augustus, and
+          Richard of England.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+BERNARD, (1091-1153,) BECKET, (1119-1170,) EUSTATHIUS, THEODORUS,
+BALSAMON, PETER LOMBARD, WILLIAM OF MALMESBURY, (1096-1143.)
+
+
+
+
+                          THE TWELFTH CENTURY
+
+  ELEVATION OF LEARNING--POWER OF THE CHURCH--THOMAS A-BECKETT.
+
+
+The effect of the first Crusade had been so prodigious that Europe
+was forced to pause to recover from its exhaustion. More than half a
+million had left their homes in 1095; ten thousand are supposed to have
+returned; three hundred were left with Godfrey in the Christian city
+of Jerusalem; and what had become of all the rest? Their bones were
+whitening all the roads that led to the Holy Land; small parties of
+them must have settled in despair or weariness in towns and villages on
+their way; many were sold into slavery by the rapacity of the feudal
+lords whose lands they traversed; and when the madness of the time
+had originated a Crusade of Children, and ninety thousand boys of ten
+or twelve years of age had commenced their journey, singing hymns and
+anthems, and hoping to conquer the infidels with the spiritual arms of
+innocence and prayer, the whole band melted away before they reached
+the coast. Barons, and counts, and bishops, and dukes, all swooped down
+upon the devoted march, and before many weeks' journeying was achieved
+the Crusade was brought to a close. Most of the children had died of
+fatigue or starvation, and the survivors had been seized as legitimate
+prey and sold as slaves.
+
+Meantime the brave and heroic Godfrey--the true hero of the expedition,
+for he elevated the ordinary virtues of knighthood and feudalism into
+the nobler feelings of generosity and romance--gained the object of
+his earthly ambition. Having prayed at the sepulchre, and cleansed
+the temple from the pollution of the unbelievers' presence, wearied
+with all his labours, and feeling that his task was done, he sank
+into deep despondency and died. [A.D. 1100.] Volunteers in small
+numbers had occasionally gone eastward to support the Cross Ambition,
+thoughtlessness, guilt, and fanaticism sent their representatives
+to aid the conqueror of Judea; and his successors found themselves
+strong enough to bid defiance to the Turkish power. They carried all
+their Western ideas along with them. They had their feudal holdings
+and knightly quarrels. The most venerated names in Holy Writ were
+desecrated by unseemly disputes or the most frivolous associations. The
+combination, indeed, of their native habits and their new acquisitions
+might have moved them to laughter, if the men of the twelfth century
+had been awake to the ridiculous. There was a Prince of Galilee,
+a Marquis of Joppa, a Baron of Sidon, a Marquis of Tyre. Our own
+generation has renewed the strange juxtaposition of the East and West
+by the language employed in steamboats and railways. Trains will soon
+cross the Desert with warning whistles and loud jets of steam and
+all the phraseology of an English line. For many years the waters of
+the mysterious Red Sea have been dashed into foam by paddles made in
+Liverpool or Glasgow. But these are visitors of a very different kind
+from Bohemund and Baldwyn. Baldwyn, indeed, seemed less inclined than
+his companions to carry his European training to its full extent. He
+Orientalized himself in a small way, perhaps in imitation of Alexander
+the Great, and, dressed in the long flowing robes of the country,
+he made his attendants serve him with prostrations, and almost with
+worship. He married a daughter of the land, and in other respects
+endeavoured to ingratiate himself with the Saracens by treating them
+with kindness and consideration. The bravery of those warriors of
+the Desert endeared them to the rough-handed barons of the West. It
+was impossible to believe that men with that one pre-eminent virtue
+could be so utterly hateful as they had been represented; and when
+the intercourse between the races became more unrestrained, even the
+religious asperities of the Crusaders became mitigated, they found
+so many points of resemblance between their faiths. There was not an
+honour which the Christian paid to the Virgin which was not yielded
+by the Mohammedan to Fatima. All the doctrines of the Christian creed
+found their counterparts in the professions of the followers of the
+Law. Allah was an incarnation of the Deity; and even the mystery of
+the Trinity was not indistinctly seen in the legend of the three rays
+which darted from the idea of Mohammed in the mind of the Creator.
+While this community of sentiment softened the animosity of the
+crusading leaders towards their enemies, a still greater community of
+suffering and danger softened their feelings towards their followers
+and retainers. In that scarcity of knights and barons, the value of a
+serf's arm or a mechanic's skill was gratefully acknowledged. There had
+been many mutual kindnesses between the two classes all through those
+tedious and blood-stained journeys and desperate fights. A peasant had
+brought water to a wounded lord when he lay fainting on the burning
+soil; a workman had had the revelation of the true crown: they were
+no longer the property and slaves of the noble, who considered them
+beings of a different blood, but fellow-soldiers, fellow-sufferers,
+fellow-Christians. They were not spoken of in the insulting language
+of the West, and called "our thralls," "our slaves," "our bondsmen;"
+at the worst they were called "our poor," and lifted by that word into
+the quality of brothers and men. The precepts of the gospel in favour
+of the humble and suffering were felt for the first time to have an
+application to the men who had toiled on their lands and laboured in
+their workshops, but who were now their support in the shock of battle,
+and companions when the victory was won. Only they were poor; they had
+no lands; they had no arms upon their shields. So Baldwyn gave them
+large tracts of country; and they became vassals and feudatories for
+fertile fields near Jericho and rich farms on the Jordan. They were
+gentlemen by the strength of their own right hands, as the fathers of
+their lords and suzerains had been.
+
+But the amalgamation of race and condition was not carried on in the
+East more surely or more extensively than in the West. The expenses
+of preparing for the pilgrimage had impoverished the richest of the
+lords of the soil. They had been forced to borrow money and to mortgage
+their estates to the burghers of the great commercial towns, which,
+quietly and unobserved, had spread themselves in many parts of France
+and Italy. Genoa had already attained such a height of prosperity that
+she could furnish vessels for the conveyance of half the army of the
+Crusade. In return for her cargoes of knights and fighting-men, she
+brought back the wealth of the East,--silks, and precious stones, and
+spices, and vessels of gold and silver. The necessities of the time
+made the money-holder powerful, and the men who swung the hammer, and
+shaped the sword, and embroidered the banner, and wove the tapestry,
+indispensable. And what hold, except kindness, and privilege, and
+grants of land, had the baron on the skilful smith or the ingenious
+weaver who could carry his skill and energy wherever he chose? Besides,
+the multitudes who had been carried away from the pursuits of industry
+to fall at the siege of Antioch or perish by thirst in the Desert had
+given a greatly-increased value to their fellow-labourers left at
+home. While the castle became deserted, and all the pomp of feudalism
+retreated from its crumbling walls, the village which had grown in
+safety under its protection flourished as much as ever--flourished,
+indeed, so much that it rapidly became a town, and boasted of rich
+citizens who could help to pay off their suzerain's encumbrances
+and present him with an offering on his return. The impoverished
+and grateful noble could do no less, in gratitude for gift and
+contribution, than secure them in the enjoyment of greater franchises
+and privileges than they had possessed before. The Church also gained
+by the diminished number and power of the lords, who had seized upon
+tithe and offering and had looked with disdain and hostility on the
+aggressions of the lower clergy. True to its origin, the Church still
+continued the leader of the people, in opposition to the pretensions
+of the feudal chiefs. It was still a democratic organization for the
+protection of the weak against the powerful; and though we have seen
+that the bishops and other dignitaries frequently assumed the state and
+practised the cruelties of the grasping and illiterate baron, public
+opinion, especially in the North of Europe, was not revolted against
+these instances of priestly domination, for whatever was gained by the
+crozier was lost to the sword. It was even a consolation to the injured
+serf to see the truculent landlord who had oppressed him oppressed in
+his turn by a still more truculent bishop, especially when that bishop
+had sprung from the dregs of the people, and--crown and consummation
+of all--when the Pope, God's vicegerent upon earth, who dethroned
+emperors and made kings hold his stirrup as he mounted his mule, was
+descended from no more distinguished a family than himself. It was
+the effort of the Church, therefore, in all this century, to lower
+the noble and to elevate the poor. To gain popularity, all arts were
+resorted to. The clergy were the showmen and play-actors of the time.
+The only amusement the labourer could aim at was found for him, in rich
+processions and gorgeous ceremony, by the priest. How could any fault
+of the abbot or prelate turn away the affection of the peasant from the
+Church, which was in a peculiar manner his own establishment? Never
+had the drunkenness, the debauchery and personal indulgences of the
+upper ecclesiastics reached such a pitch before. The gluttony of friars
+and monks became proverbial. The community of certain monasteries
+complained of the austerity of their abbots in reducing their ordinary
+dinners from sixteen dishes to thirteen. The great St. Bernard
+describes many of the rulers of the Church as keeping sixty horses in
+their stables, and having so many wines upon their board that it was
+impossible to taste one-half of them. Yet nothing shook the attachment
+of the uneducated commons. Their priest got up dances and concerts
+and miracles for their edification, and had a right to enjoy all the
+luxuries of life. Once freed, therefore, from the watchful enmity
+of lord and king, the Church was well aware that its power would be
+irresistible. The people were devoted to it as their earthly defender
+against their earthly oppressors, the caterer of all their amusements,
+and as their guide in the path to heaven. Gratitude and credulity,
+therefore, were equally engaged in its behalf. And new influences came
+to its support. Romance and wonder gathered round the champions of the
+Faith fighting in the distant regions of the East. Every thing became
+magnified when seen through the medium of ignorance and fanaticism. The
+tales, therefore, strange enough in themselves, which were related by
+pilgrims returning from the Holy Land, and amplified a hundredfold by
+the natural exaggeration of the vulgar, raised higher than ever the
+glory of the Church. The fastings and self-inflicted scourgings of
+holy men, it was believed, effected more than the courage of Godfrey
+or Bohemund; and even of Godfrey it was said that his ascetic life and
+painful penances caused more losses to the enemy than his matchless
+strength and military skill.
+
+It would be delightful if we could place ourselves in the position
+of the breathless crowds at that time listening for the news from
+Palestine. No telegraphic despatch from the Crimea or Hindostan was
+ever waited for with such impatience or received with such emotion. The
+baron summoned the palmer into his hall, and heard the strange history
+of the march to Jerusalem, and the crowning of a Christian king, and
+the creation of a feudal court, with a pang, perhaps, of regret that
+he had not joined the pilgrimage, which might have made him Duke of
+Bethlehem or monarch of Tiberias. But the peasants in their workshops,
+or the whole village assembled in the long aisles of their church, lent
+far more attentive ears to the wayfaring monk who had escaped from
+the prison of the Saracen, and told them of the marvels accomplished
+by the bones of martyrs and apostles which had been revealed to holy
+pilgrims in their dream on the Mount of Olives. Footprints on the
+heights of Calvary, and portions of the manger in Bethlehem, were
+described in awe-struck voice; and when it was announced that in the
+belt of the narrator, enwrapped in a silken scarf,--itself a fabric
+of incalculable worth,--was a hair of an apostle's head, (which their
+lord had purchased for a large sum,) to be deposited upon their altar,
+they must have thought the sacrifices and losses of the Crusade
+amply repaid. And no amount of these sacred articles seemed in the
+least to diminish their importance. The demand was always greatly in
+advance of the supply, however vast it might be. And as the mines of
+California and Australia have hitherto deceived the prophets of evil,
+by having no perceptible effect on the price of the precious metals,
+the incalculable importation of saints' teeth, and holy personages'
+clothes, and fragments of the true Cross, and prickles of the real
+Crown of Thorns, had no depressing effect on the market-value of
+similar commodities with which all Christian Europe was inundated.
+Faith seemed to expand in proportion as relics became plentiful, as
+credit expands on the security of a supply of gold. And as many of
+those articles were actually of as clearly-recognised a pecuniary value
+as houses or lands, and represented in any market or banking-house a
+definite and very considerable sum, it is not too much to say that the
+capital of the West was greatly increased by these acquisitions from
+the East. The cup of onyx, carved in one stone, which was believed
+to have been that in which the wine of the Last Supper was held when
+our Saviour instituted the Communion, was pledged by its owner for an
+enormous sum, and--what is perhaps more strange--was redeemed when the
+term of the loan expired by the repayment of principal and interest.
+The intercourse, therefore, between power and money showed that each
+was indispensable to the other. The baron relaxed his severity, and the
+citizen opened his purse-strings; the Church inculcated the equality
+of all men in presence of the altar; and when the kings perceived what
+merchandise might be made of privileges and exemptions accorded to
+their subjects, and how at one great blow the townsman's squeezable
+riches would be increased and the baron's local influence diminished,
+there was a struggle between all the crowned heads as to which should
+be most favourable to the commons. It was in this century, owing to
+the Crusades, which made the commonalty indispensable and the nobility
+weak, which strengthened the Crown and the Church and made it their
+joint interest to restrain the exactions of the feudal proprietors,
+that the liberties of Europe took their rise in the establishment
+of the third estate. In the county of Flanders, the great towns had
+already made themselves so wealthy and independent that it scarcely
+needed a legal ratification of their franchise to make them free
+cities. But in Italy a step further had been made, and the great word
+Republic, which had been silent for so many years, had again been
+heard, and had taken possession of the general mind. In spite of the
+opposition and the military successes of Roger, the Norman king of
+Sicily, the spirit which animated those great trading communities was
+never subdued. In Venice itself--the greatest and most illustrious of
+those republics, the first founded and last overthrown--the original
+municipal form of government had never been abolished. At all times its
+liberties had been preserved and its laws administered by officers of
+its own choice, and from it proceeded at this time a feeling of social
+equality and an example of commercial prosperity which had a strong
+effect on the nascent freedom of the lower and industrious classes over
+all the world. Genoa was not inferior either in liberty or enterprise
+to any of its rivals. Its fleets traversed the Mediterranean, and,
+being equally ready to fight or to trade, brought wealth and glory
+home from the coasts of Greece and Asia. It is to be observed that the
+first reappearance of self-government was presented in the towns upon
+the coast, whose situation enabled them to compensate for smallness
+of territory by the command of the sea. The shores of Italy and the
+south of France, and the indented sea-line of Flanders, followed in
+this respect the example set in former ages by Greece, and Tyre, and
+Pentapolis, and Carthage. There can be no doubt that the sight of these
+powerful communities, governed by their consuls and legislated for by
+their parliamentary assemblies, must have put new thoughts into the
+heads of the serfs and labourers returning, in vessels furnished by
+citizens like themselves, from the conquest of Cyprus and Jerusalem,
+where the whole harvest of wealth and glory had been reaped by their
+lords. Encouraged by these examples, and by the protection of the King
+of France and Emperor of Germany, the towns in Central and Western
+Europe exerted themselves to emulate the republican cities of the
+South. The nearest approach they could hope to the independence they
+had seen in Pisa or Venice was the possession of the right of electing
+their own magistrates and making their own laws. These privileges, we
+have seen, were insured to them by the helplessness and impoverishment
+of the feudal aristocracy and the countenance of the Church.
+
+But the Church towards the middle of this century found that the
+countenance she had given to liberty in other places was used as an
+argument against herself in the central seat of her power. Rome, the
+city of consuls and tribunes, was carried away by the great idea; and
+under the guidance of Arnold of Brescia, a monk who believed himself
+a Brutus, the standard was again hoisted on the Capitol, displaying
+the magic letters S. P. Q. R., (Senatus Populus que Romanus.) The Pope
+was expelled by the population, the freedom of the city proclaimed,
+the separation of the spiritual and temporal powers pronounced by the
+unanimous voice, the government of priests abolished, and measures
+taken to maintain the authority the citizens had assumed. The banished
+Pope had died while these things were going on, and his successor
+was hunted down the steps of the Capitol, and the revolution was
+accomplished. "Throughout the peninsula," says a German historian,
+"except in the kingdom of Naples, from Rome to the smallest city,
+the republican form prevailed." Every thing had concurred to this
+result,--the force of arms, the rise of commerce, and the glorious
+remembrance of the past. St. Bernard himself acquiesced in the position
+now occupied by the Pope, and he wrote to his scholar Eugenius the
+Third, to "leave the Romans alone, and to exchange the city against
+the world," ("urbem pro orbe mutatam.") But the effervescence of the
+popular will was soon at an end. The fear of republicanism made common
+cause between the Pope and Emperor. Frederick Barbarossa revenged the
+indignities cast on the chair of St. Peter by burning the rebellious
+Arnold and re-establishing the ancient form of government by force. Yet
+the spirit of equality which was thus repressed by violence fermented
+in secret; nor was equality all that was aimed at amid some of the
+swarming seats of population and commerce. We find indeed, from this
+time, that in a great number of instances the original relations
+between the town and baron were reversed: the noble put himself under
+the protection of the municipality, and received its guarantee against
+the assaults or injuries of the prouder and less politic members of his
+class. It was a strange thing to see a feudal lord receive his orders
+from the municipal officers of a country town, and still stranger to
+perceive the low opinion which the courageous and high-fed burghers
+entertained of the pomp and circumstance of the mailed knights of
+whom they had been accustomed to stand in awe. Their ramparts were
+strong, their granaries well filled, their companions stoutly armed;
+and they used to lean over the wall, when a hostile champion summoned
+them to submit to the exactions of a great proprietor, and watch
+the clumsy charger staggering under his heavy armour, with shouts of
+derision. Men who had thus thrown off their hereditary veneration
+for the lords of the soil, and contentedly saw the deposition of
+the Roman Pope by a Roman Senate and People, were not likely to pay
+a blind submission to the spiritual dictation of their priests. In
+the towns, accordingly, a spirit of free inquiry into the mysteries
+of the faith began; and, while country districts still heard with
+awe the impossible wonders of the monkish legends, there were rash
+and daring scholars in several countries, who threw doubt upon the
+plainest statements of Revelation. Of these the best-known is the
+still famous Abelard, whose exertions as a religious inquirer have
+been thrown into the shade by his more interesting character of the
+hero of a love-story. The letters of Eloisa, and the unfortunate issue
+of their affection, have kept their names from the oblivion which has
+fallen upon their metaphysical triumphs. And yet during their lives
+the glory of Abelard did not depend on the passionate eloquence of
+his pupil, but arose from the unequalled sharpness of his intellect
+and his skill in argumentation. Of noble family, the handsomest man
+of his time, wonderfully gifted with talent and accomplishment, he
+was the first instance of a man professing the science of theology
+without being a priest. Wherever he went, thousands of enthusiastic
+scholars surrounded his chair. His eloquence was so fascinating that
+the listener found himself irresistibly carried away by the stream;
+and if an opponent was hardy enough to stand up against him, the
+acuteness of his logic was as infallible as the torrent of his oratory
+had been, and in every combat he carried away the prize. He doubted
+about original sin, and by implication about the atonement, and many
+other articles of the Christian belief. The power and constitution
+of the Church were endangered by the same weapons which assailed the
+groundworks of the faith; and yet in all Europe no sufficient champion
+for truth and orthodoxy could be found. Abelard was triumphant over
+all his gainsayers, till at length Bernard of Clairvaux, who even in
+his lifetime was looked on with the veneration due to a saint, who
+refused an archbishopric, and the popedom itself, took up the gauntlet
+thrown down by the lover of Eloisa, and reduced him to silence by the
+superiority of his reasonings and the threats of a general council. It
+is sufficient to remark the appearance of Abelard in this century, as
+the commencement of a reaction against the dogmatic authority of the
+Church. It was henceforth possible to reason and to inquire; and there
+can be no doubt that Protestantism even in this modified and isolated
+form had a beneficial effect on the establishment it assailed. A new
+armory was required to meet the assaults of dialectic and scholarship.
+Dialecticians and scholars were therefore, henceforth, as much valued
+in the Church as self-flagellating friars and miracle-performing
+saints. The faith was now guarded by a noble array of highly-polished
+intellects, and the very dogma of the total abnegation of the
+understanding at the bidding of the priest was supported by a show
+of reasoning which few other questions had called forth. With the
+enlargement of the clerical sphere of knowledge, refinement in taste
+and sentiment took place. And at this time, as philosophic discussion
+took its rise with Abelard, the ennobling and idealization of woman
+took its birth contemporaneously with the sufferings of Eloisa. Up
+to this period the Church had avowedly looked with disdain on woman,
+as inheriting in a peculiar degree the curse of our first parents,
+because she had been the first to break the law Knightly gallantry,
+indeed, had thought proper to elevate the feminine ideal and clothe
+with imaginary virtues the heroines of its fictitious idolatry. It made
+her the aim and arbiter of all its achievements. The principal seat
+in hall and festival was reserved for the softer sex, which hitherto
+had been considered scarcely worthy of reverence or companionship.
+Perhaps this courtesy to the ladies on the part of knights and nobles
+began in an opposition to the wife-secluding habits of the Orientals
+against whom they fought, as at an earlier date the worship of images
+was certainly maintained by Rome as a protest against the unadorned
+worship of the Saracens. Perhaps it arose from the gradual expansion
+of wealth and the security of life and property, which left time and
+opportunity for the cultivation of the female character. Ladies were
+constituted chiefs of societies of nuns, and were obeyed with implicit
+submission. Large communities of young maidens were presided over by
+widows who were still in the bloom of youth; and so holy and pure
+were these sisterhoods considered, that brotherhoods and monks were
+allowed to occupy the same house, and the sexes were only separated
+from each other, even at night, by an aged abbot sleeping on the
+floor between them. Though this experiment failed, the fact of its
+being tried proved the confidence inspired by the spotlessness of the
+female character. Other things conspired to give a greater dignity to
+what had been called the inferior sex. The death of whole families in
+the Crusade had left the daughters heiresses of immense possessions.
+In every country but France the Crown itself was open to female
+succession, and it was henceforth impossible to affect a superiority
+over a person merely because she was corporeally weak and beautiful,
+who was lady of strong castles and could summon a thousand retainers
+beneath the banners of her house. The very elevation of the women
+with whom they were surrounded--the peeresses, and princesses, and
+even the ladies of lower rank, to whom the voice of the troubadours
+attributed all the virtues under heaven--necessitated in the mind of
+the clergy a corresponding elevation in the character of the queen and
+representative of the female sex, whom they had already worshipped as
+personally without sin and endowed with superhuman power. At this time
+the immaculate conception of the Holy Virgin was first broached as an
+article of belief,--a doctrine which, after being dormant at intervals
+and occasionally blossoming into declaration, has finally received
+its full ratification by the authority of the present Pope,--Pius the
+Ninth. In the twelfth century it was acknowledged and propagated as a
+fresh increase to the glory of the mother of God; but it is now fixed
+forever as indispensable to the salvation of every Christian.
+
+Such, then, are the great features by which to mark this century,--the
+combination of rank with rank caused by the mutual danger of lord and
+serf in the Crusade, the rise of freedom by the commercial activity
+imparted by the same cause to the towns, the elevation of the idea
+of woman, without which no true civilization can take place. These
+are the leading and general characteristics: add to them what we
+have slightly alluded to,--the first specimens of the joyous lays
+and love-sonnets of the young knights returning from Palestine and
+pouring forth their admiration of birth and beauty in the soft
+language of Italy or Languedoc,--the intercourse between distant
+nations, which was indispensable in the combined expeditions against
+the common foe, so that the rough German cavalier gathered lessons
+in manner or accomplishment from the more polished princes of Anjou
+or Aquitaine,--and it will be seen that this was the century of
+awakening mind and softening influences. There were scholars like
+Abelard, introducing the hitherto unknown treasures of the Greek and
+Hebrew tongues, and yet presenting the finest specimens of gay and
+accomplished gentlemen, unmatched in sweetness of voice and mastery
+of the harp; and there were at the other side of the picture saints
+like Bernard of Clairvaux, not relying any longer on visions and the
+traditionary marvels of the past, but displaying the power of an
+acute diplomatist and wide-minded politician in the midst of the most
+extraordinary self-denial and the exercises of a rigorous asceticism,
+which in former ages had been limited to the fanatical and insane. To
+this man's influence was owing the Second Crusade, which occurred in
+1147. [A.D. 1147.] Different from the first, which had been the result
+of popular enthusiasm and dependent for its success on undisciplined
+numbers and religious fury, this was a great European and Christian
+movement, concerted between the sovereigns and ratified by the peoples.
+Kings took the command, and whole nations bestowed their wealth and
+influence on the holy cause. Louis the Seventh of France led all the
+paladins of his land; and Conrad, the German Emperor, collected all
+the forces of the West to give the finishing-blow to the power of the
+Mohammedans and restore the struggling kingdom of Jerusalem. Seventy
+thousand horsemen and two hundred and fifty thousand foot-soldiers were
+the smallest part of the array. Whole districts were depopulated by the
+multitudes of artificers, shopmen, women, children, buffoons, mimics,
+priests, and conjurers who accompanied the march. It looked like one
+of the great movements which convulsed the Roman Empire when Goths
+or Burgundians poured into the land. But the results were nearly the
+same as in the days of Godfrey and Bohemund. Valour and discipline,
+national emulation and knightly skill, were of no avail against climate
+and disease. Again the West astonished the Turks with the impetuosity
+of its courage and the display of its hosts, but lay weakened and
+exhausted when the convulsive effort was past. A million perished in
+the useless struggle. Forty years scarcely sufficed to restore the
+nobility to sufficient power to undertake another suicidal attempt.
+[A.D. 1191.] But in 1191 the Third Crusade departed under the conduct
+of Richard of England, and earned the same glory and unsuccess. The
+century was weakened by those wretched but not fruitless expeditions,
+which, in round numbers, cost two millions of lives, and produced such
+memorable effects on the general state of Europe; yet it will be better
+remembered by us if we direct our attention to some of the incidents
+which have a more direct bearing on our own country. Of these the most
+remarkable is the commencement of the long-continued enmity between
+France and England, of the wars which lasted so many years, which made
+our most eminent politicians at one time believe that the countries
+were natural enemies, incapable of permanent union or even of mutual
+respect; and these took their rise, as most great wars have done,
+from the paltriest causes, and were continued on the most unfounded
+pretences.
+
+Henry the First was the son of William the Conqueror. On the death
+of his brother William Rufus he seized the English crown, though the
+eldest of the family, Robert, was still alive. Robert was fond of
+fighting without the responsibility of command, and delighted to be
+religious without the troubles of a religious life. He therefore joined
+the First Crusade to gratify this double desire, and mortgaged his
+dukedom of Normandy to Henry to supply him with horses and arms and
+enable him to support his dignity as a Christian prince at Jerusalem.
+His dukedom he never could recover, for his extravagances prevented
+him from repayment of the loan. He tried to reconquer it by force,
+but was defeated at the battle of Tinchebray, and was guarded by the
+zealous affection of his brother all the rest of his life in the Tower
+of London. He left a son, who was used as an instrument of assault
+against Henry by the Suzerain of Normandy, Louis the Sixth, King of
+France. Orders were issued to the usurping feudatory to resign his
+possessions into the hands of the rightful heir; but, however obedient
+the Duke of Normandy might profess to be to his liege lord the King of
+France, the King of England held a very different language, and took
+a different estimate of his position. [A.D. 1153.] And in the time of
+the second Henry a change took place in their respective situations
+which seemed to justify the assumptions of the English king. That
+grandson of Henry the First had opposed his liege lord of France by
+arms and arts, and at last by one great master-stroke turned his own
+arms upon his rival and strengthened himself on his spoils. In the
+Second Crusade the scrupulous delicacy of Louis the Seventh of France
+had been revolted by the indiscreet or guilty conduct of Eleanor his
+wife. He repudiated her as unworthy of his throne; and Henry, who had
+no delicacies of conscience when they interfered with his interest,
+offered the rejected Eleanor his hand; for she continued the undoubted
+mistress of Poitou and Guienne. No stain derived from her principles
+or conduct was reflected in the eyes of the ambitious Henry on those
+noble provinces, and from henceforth his Continental possessions far
+exceeded those of his suzerain. The other feudatories, encouraged by
+this example, owned a very modified submission to their nominal head;
+and the inheritors of the throne of the Capets were again reduced to
+the comparative weakness of their predecessors of the Carlovingian
+line. Yet there was one element of vitality of which the feudal barons
+had not deprived the king. A fief, when it lapsed for want of heirs,
+was reattached to the Crown; and in the turmoil and adventure of those
+unsettled times the extinction of a line of warriors and pilgrims was
+not an uncommon event. Even while a family was numerous and healthy the
+uncertain nature of their possession deprived it of half its value,
+for at the end of that gallant line of knights and cavaliers, slain
+as they might be in battle, carried off by the pestilences which were
+usual at that period, or wasted away in journeys to the Holy Land and
+sieges in the heats of Palestine, stood the feudal king, ready to enter
+into undisputed possession of the dukedoms or counties which it had
+cost them so much time and danger to make independent and strong. In
+the case of Normandy or Guienne themselves, Louis might have looked
+without much uneasiness on the building of castles and draining of
+marshes, when he reflected that but a life or two lay between him and
+the enriched and strengthened fief; and when those lives were such
+desperadoes as Richard and such cowards as John, the prospect did
+not seem hopeless of an immediate succession. But the French kings
+were still more fortunate in being opposed to such unamiable rivals
+as the coarse and worldly descendants of the Conqueror. The personal
+characters of those men, however their energy and courage might benefit
+them in actual war, made them feared and hated wherever they were
+known. They were sensual, cruel, and unprincipled to a degree unusual
+even in those ages of rude manners and undeveloped conscience. Their
+personal appearance itself was an index of the ungovernable passions
+within Fat, broad-shouldered, low-statured, red-haired, loud-voiced,
+they were frightful to look upon even in their calmest moods; but
+when the Conqueror stormed, no feeling of ruth or reverence stood in
+his way. When he was refused the daughter of the Count of Boulogne,
+he forced his way into the chamber of the countess, seized her by the
+hair of her head, dragged her round the room, and stamped on her with
+his feet. Robert his son was of the same uninviting exterior. William
+Rufus was little and very stout. Henry the Second was gluttonous and
+debauched. Richard the Lion-Heart was cruel as the animal that gave him
+name; and John was the most debased and contemptible of mankind. A race
+of gentle and truthful men, on the other hand, ennobled the crown of
+France. The kings, from Louis the Debonnaire to Louis the Seventh, or
+Young, were favourites of the Church and champions of the people. The
+harsh and violent nobility despised them, but they were venerated in
+the huts where poor men lie. The very scruple which induced Louis to
+divorce his wife, whose conduct had stained the purity of the Crusade,
+almost repaid the loss of her great estates by the increased love and
+respect of his subjects. [A.D. 1180.] And when the line of pure and
+honourable rulers was for a while interrupted by the appearance, upon a
+throne so long established in equity, of an armed warrior in the person
+of Philip Augustus, it was felt that the sword was at last in the
+hands of an avenger, who was to execute the decrees of Heaven upon the
+enemies whom the moderation, justice, and mercy of his predecessors had
+failed to move.
+
+But before we come to the personal relations of the French and English
+kings we must take a rapid view of one of the great incidents by which
+this century is marked,--an incident which for a long time attracted
+the notice of all Europe, and was productive of very important
+consequences within our own country. Hitherto England had played the
+part of a satellite to the Court of Rome. Previous to the quarrels with
+France, indeed, one great tie between her and the Continental nations
+was the community of their submission to the Pope. Foreigners have at
+all times found wealth and kind treatment here. Germans, Italians,
+Frenchmen, any one who could make interest with the patrons of large
+livings, held rank and honours in the English Church. [A.D. 1154-1159.]
+Little enough, it was felt, was all that could be done in behalf
+of foreign ecclesiastics to repay them for the condescension they
+showed in elevating Nicholas Breakspear, an Anglo-Saxon of St.
+Alban's, to the papal chair. But Nicholas, in taking another name,
+lost his English heart. As Adrian the Fourth, he preferred Rome to
+England, and maintained his authority with as high a hand as any of
+his predecessors. Knights and nobles, and even the higher orders of
+the clergy, were at length discontented with the continual exactions
+of the Holy See; and in 1162 the same battle which had agitated the
+world between Henry the Fourth of Germany and Gregory the Seventh was
+fought out in a still bitterer spirit between Henry the Second of
+England and Thomas a-Beckett. All the story-books of English history
+have told us the romantic incidents of the birth of the ambitious
+priest. It is possible the obscurity of his origin was concealed by his
+contemporaries under the interesting legend, which must have been a
+very early subject for the fancy of the poet and troubadour, of a love
+between a Red-Cross pilgrim and a Saracen emir's daughter. It shows a
+remarkable softening of the ancient hatred to the infidels, that the
+votaress of Mohammed should have been chosen as the mother of a saint.
+But whatever doubt there may arise about the reality of the deserted
+maiden's journey in search of her admirer, and her discovery of his
+abode by the mere reiteration of his name, which is beautifully said
+to be the only word of English she remembered, there is no doubt of
+the early favour which the young Anglo-Saracen attained with the king,
+or of the desire the sagacious Henry entertained to avail himself of
+the great talents which made his favourite delightful as a companion
+and indispensable as a chancellor, in the higher position still of
+Archbishop of Canterbury and Comptroller of the English Church. For
+high pretensions were put forward by the clergy: they insisted upon the
+introduction of the canon laws; they claimed exemption from trial by
+civil process; they were to be placed beyond the reach of the ordinary
+tribunals, and were to be under their own separate rulers, and directly
+subject in life and property to the decrees of Rome.
+
+Henry knew but one man in his dominions able to contend in talent and
+acuteness with the advocates of the Church, and that was his chancellor
+and friend, the gay and generous and affectionate a-Beckett. So one
+day, without giving him much time for preparation, he persuaded him
+to be made a priest, and at the same moment named him Archbishop of
+Canterbury and Primate of all England. Now, he thought, we have a
+champion who will do battle in our cause and stand up for the liberties
+of his native land. But a-Beckett had dressed himself in a hair shirt
+and flogged himself with an iron scourge. He had invited the holiest of
+the priests to favour him with their advice, and had thrown himself on
+his knees on the approach of the most ascetic of the monks and friars.
+All his fine establishments were broken up; his horses were sent away;
+his silver table-services sold; and the new archbishop fasted on bread
+and water and lay on the hard floor. Henry was astonished and uneasy;
+and he had soon very good cause for his uneasiness, for his favourite
+orator, his boon-companion, his gallant chancellor, from whom he had
+expected support and victory, turned against him with the most ruthless
+animosity, and pushed the pretensions of Rome to a pitch they had never
+reached before. Nobody, however he may blame the double-dealing or the
+ambition of a-Beckett, can deny him the praise of personal courage
+in making opposition to the king. The Norman blood was as hot in him
+as in any of his predecessors. When he got into a passion, we are
+told by a contemporary chronicler, his blue eyes became filled with
+blood. In a fit of rage he bit a page's shoulder. A favourite servant
+having contradicted him, he rushed after the man on the stair, and,
+not being able to catch him, gnawed the straw upon the boards. We may
+therefore guess with what feelings the injured Plantagenet received
+the behaviour of his newly-created primate. He stormed and raged,
+terrified the other prelates to join him in his measures for curbing
+the power of the Church, chafed himself for several years against the
+unconquerable firmness of the arrogant archbishop, and finally failed
+in every object he had aimed at. The violence of the king was met
+with the affected resignation of the sufferer; and at last, when the
+impatience of Henry gave encouragement to his followers to put the
+refractory priest to death, the quarrel was lifted out of the ordinary
+category of a dispute between the crown and the crozier: it became a
+combat between a wilful and irreligious tyrant and a martyred saint.
+It requires us to enter into the feelings of the twelfth century to
+be able to understand the issue of this great conflict. In our own
+day the assumptions of a-Beckett, and his claims of exemption from
+the ordinary laws, have no sympathizers among the lovers of progress
+or freedom. But in the time of the second Henry the only chance of
+either, in England, was found under the shelter of the Church. That
+great establishment was still the only protection against the lawless
+violence of the king and nobles. The Norman possessors of the land
+were still an army encamped on hostile soil and levying contributions
+by the law of the strong hand. Disunion had not yet arisen between
+the sovereign and his lords, except as to the division of the spoil.
+The Crusades had not depopulated England to the same extent as some
+of the other countries in Europe; and the wars of the troubled days
+of Stephen and Matilda, though fatal to the prosperity of the land,
+and destructive of many of the nobles on either side, had attracted
+an immense number of high-born and strong-handed adventurers, who
+amply supplied their place. The clergy had been forced to retain their
+original position as leaders of the popular mind, superintendents of
+the interests of their flocks, and teachers and comforters of the
+oppressed: a-Beckett, therefore, was not in their eyes an ambitious
+priest, sacrificing every thing for the elevation of his order. He
+was a champion fighting the battles of the poor against the rich,--a
+ransomer of at least one powerful body in the State from the capricious
+cruelty of Henry and the grasping avarice of the Norman spoliation. The
+down-trodden Saxons received with the transports of gratified revenge
+any humiliation inflicted on the proud aristocracy which had thriven
+on the ruin of their ancestors. The date of the Conquest was not yet
+so distant as to hinder the feeling of personal wrong from mingling in
+the conflict between the races. A man of sixty remembered the story
+told him by his father of his dispossession of holt and field, on
+which the old manor-house had stood since Alfred's days, and which now
+had been converted into a crenelated tower by the foreign conqueror.
+Nor are we to forget, in the midst of the idea of antiquity conveyed
+at the present time by the fact of a person's ancestor having "come
+in with William," that the bitterness of dispossession was increased
+in the eyes of the long-descended Saxon franklin by the lowness of
+his dispossessor's birth. Half the roll-call of the Norman army was
+made up of the humblest names,--barbers and smiths, and tailors and
+valets, and handicraftsmen of all descriptions. And yet, seated in
+his fortified keep, supported by the sixty thousand companions of his
+success, enriched by the fertile harvests of his new domain, this
+upstart adventurer filled the wretched cottages of the land with a
+distressed and starving peasantry; and where were those friendless and
+helpless outcasts to look for succour and consolation? They found them
+in the Church. Their countrymen generally filled the lower offices,
+speaking in good Saxon, and feeling as good Saxons should; while the
+lordly abbot or luxurious bishop kept high state in his monastery or
+palace, and gave orders in Norman French with feelings as foreign as
+his tongue. But a-Beckett was an Englishman; a-Beckett was Archbishop
+of Canterbury, and chief of all the churchmen in the land. To honour
+a-Beckett was to protest against the Conquest; and when the crowning
+glory came, and the crimes of Henry against themselves attained their
+full consummation in the murder of the prelate at the altar,--the
+patriot in his resistance to oppression,--the enthusiasm of the country
+knew no bounds. The penitential pilgrimage which the proudest of the
+Plantagenets made to the tomb of his victim was but small compensation
+for so enormous a wickedness, and for ages the name of a-Beckett was
+a household word at the hearths of the English peasantry, as their
+great representative and deliverer,--only completing the care he took
+of their temporal interests while on earth by the superintendence he
+bestowed on their spiritual benefit now that he was a saint in heaven.
+Curses fell upon the head and heart of the royal murderer, as if by
+a visible retribution. His children rebelled and died; the survivors
+were false and hostile. Richard, who had the one sole virtue of animal
+courage, was incited by his mother to resist his father, and was joined
+in his unnatural rebellion by his brother John, who had no virtue at
+all. His mind, before he died, had lost the energy which kept the
+sceptre steady; and the century went down upon the glory of England,
+which lay like a wreck upon the water, and was stripped gradually, and
+one by one, of all the possessions which had made it great, and even
+the traditions of military power which had made it feared. John was on
+the throne, and the nation in discontent.
+
+
+
+
+                          THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        OTHO, (of Brunswick.)--(_cont._)
+
+  1212. FREDERICK II.
+
+  1247. WILLIAM, (of Holland.)
+
+  1257. RICHARD, (of Cornwall.)
+
+  1257. ALPHONSO, (of Castile.)
+
+  1273. RODOLPH, (of Hapsburg.)
+
+  1291. ADOLPH, (of Nassau.)
+
+  1298. ALBERT I., (of Austria.)
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        PHILIP AUGUSTUS.--(_cont._)
+
+  1223. LOUIS VIII.
+
+  1226. LOUIS IX., (the Fat.)
+
+  1270. PHILIP III., (the Hardy.)
+
+  1285. PHILIP IV., (the Handsome.)
+
+
+Kings of Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        WILLIAM.--(_cont._)
+
+  1214. ALEXANDER II.
+
+  1249. ALEXANDER III.
+
+  1286. MARGARET.
+
+  1291. JOHN BALIOL, deposed 1296.
+
+
+Emperors of Constantinople.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1203. ISAAC.
+
+  1204. ALEXIS IV.
+
+  1204. DUCAS, (Usurper,) dethroned by warriors of Fourth Crusade.
+
+  _Latin Empire._
+
+  1204. BALDWYN, (of Flanders.)
+
+  1206. HENRY, (his brother.)
+
+  1216. PETER, (of Courtney.)
+
+  1219. ROBERT, (his son.)
+
+  1228. JOHN, (of Brienne.)
+
+  1231. BALDWYN.
+
+  _Greek Empire of Nicaea._
+
+  1222. JOHN DUCAS.
+
+  1255. THEODORUS II.
+
+  1261. JOHN LASCARIS--retakes Constantinople.
+
+  1261. MICHAEL.
+
+  1282. ANDRONICUS II.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        JOHN.--(_cont._)
+
+  1216. HENRY III.
+
+  1276. EDWARD I.
+
+
+  1201. FOURTH CRUSADE.
+
+  1217. FIFTH CRUSADE.
+
+  1228. SIXTH CRUSADE.
+
+  1248. SEVENTH CRUSADE.
+
+  1270. EIGHTH AND LAST CRUSADE, by St. Louis against Tunis.
+
+
+Authors.
+
+ROGER BACON, MATTHEW PARIS, ALEXANDER HALES, (Irrefragable Doctor,)
+THOMAS AQUINAS, (the Angelic Doctor.)
+
+
+
+
+                        THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  FIRST CRUSADE AGAINST HERETICS--THE ALBIGENSES--MAGNA CHARTA--
+  EDWARD I.
+
+
+The progress and enlightenment of Europe proceed from this period
+at a constantly-increasing rate. The rise of commercial cities,
+the weakening of the feudal aristocracy, the introduction of the
+learning of the Saracenic schools, and the growth of universities
+for the cultivation of science and language, contributed greatly to
+the result. Another cause used to be assigned for this satisfactory
+advance, in the discovery which had been made in the last century at
+Amalfi, of a copy of the long-forgotten Pandects of Justinian, and the
+reintroduction of the Roman laws, in displacement of the conflicting
+customs and barbarous enactments of the various states; but the fact
+of the continued existence of the Roman Institutes is not now denied,
+though it is probable that the discovery of the Amalfi manuscript may
+have given a fresh impulse to the improvement of the local codes.
+But an increase of mental activity had at first its usual regretable
+accompaniment in the contemporaneous rise of dangerous and unfounded
+opinions. Philosophy, which began with an admiration of the skill and
+learning of Aristotle, ended by enthroning him as the uncontrolled
+master of human reason. Wherever he was studied, all previous standards
+of faith and argument were overthrown. The cleverest intellects of
+the time could find themselves no higher task than to reconcile the
+Christian Scriptures with the decrees of the Stagyrite, for it was
+felt that in the case of an irreconcilable divergence between the
+teaching of Christ and of Aristotle the scholars of Christendom would
+have pronounced in favour of the Greek. A formulary, indeed, was found
+out for the joint reception of both; many statements were declared
+to be "true in philosophy though false in religion," so that the
+most orthodox of Churchmen could receive the doctrines of the Church
+by an act of belief, while he gave his whole affection to Aristotle
+by an act of the understanding. When teachers and preachers tamper
+with the human conscience, the common feelings of honour and fair
+play revolt at the degrading attempt. Men of simple minds, who did
+not profess to understand Aristotle and could not be blinded by the
+subtleties of logic, endeavoured to discover "the more excellent way"
+for themselves, but were bewildered by the novelty of their search
+for Truth. There were mystic dreamers who saw God everywhere and in
+every thing, and counted human nature itself a portion of the Deity,
+or maintained that it was possible for man to attain a share of the
+divine by the practice of virtue. This Pantheism gave rise to numerous
+displays of popular ignorance and impressibility. Messiahs appeared
+in many parts of Europe, and were followed by great multitudes. Some
+enthusiasts taught that a new dispensation was opening upon man; that
+God was the Governor of the world during the Old Testament period;
+that Christ had reigned till now, but that the reign of the Holy
+Spirit was about to commence, and all things would be renewed. Others,
+more hardy, declared their adhesion to the Persian principle of a
+duality of persons in heaven, and revived the old Manichean heresy
+that the spirit of Hatred was represented in the Jewish Scriptures and
+the spirit of Love in the Christian; that the Good god had created
+the soul, and the Evil god the body,--on which were justified the
+sufferings they voluntarily inflicted on the workmanship of Satan, and
+the starvings and flagellations required to bring it into subjection.
+This belief found few followers, and would have died out as rapidly as
+it had arisen; but the malignity of the enemies of any change found it
+convenient to identify those wild enthusiasts with a very different
+class of persons who at this time rose into prominent notice. The rich
+counties of the South of France were always distinguished from the rest
+of the nation by the possession of greater elegance and freedom. The
+old Roman civilization had never entirely deserted the shores of the
+Mediterranean or the valleys of Languedoc and Provence. In Languedoc a
+sect of strange thinkers had given voice to some startling doctrines,
+which at once obtained the general consent. Toulouse was the chief
+encourager of these new beliefs, and in its hostility to Rome was
+supported by its reigning sovereign, Count Raymond VI. This potentate,
+from the position of his States,--abutting upon Barcelona, where the
+Spaniards, who remembered their recent emancipation from the Mohammedan
+yoke, were famous for their tolerance of religious dissent,--and
+deriving the greater portion of his wealth from the trade and industry
+of the Jews and Arabs established in his seaport towns, saw no great
+evil in the principles professed by his people. Those principles,
+indeed, when stripped of the malicious additions of his enemies, were
+not different from the creed of Protestantism at the present time. They
+consisted merely of a complete denial of the sovereignty of the Pope,
+the power of the priesthood, the efficacy of prayers for the dead, and
+the existence of purgatory.
+
+The other princes of the South looked on religion as a mere instrument
+for the advancement of their own interests, and would have imitated
+the greater sovereigns of Europe, several of whom for a very slender
+consideration would have gone openly over to the standard of Mohammed.
+The inhabitants, therefore, of those opulent regions, by the favour of
+Raymond and the indifference of the rest, were left for a long time
+to their own devices, and gave intimation of a strong desire to break
+off their connection with the hierarchy of Rome. And no wonder they
+were tired of their dependence on so grasping and unprincipled a power
+as the Church had proved to them. More depraved and more exacting
+in this district than in any other part of Europe, the clergy had
+contrived to alienate the hearts of the common people without gaining
+the friendship of the nobility. Equally hated by both,--despised for
+their sensuality, and no longer feared for their spiritual power,--the
+priests could offer no resistance to the progress of the new opinions.
+Those opinions were in fact as much due to the vices of the clergy as
+to the convictions of the congregations. Any thing hostile to Rome was
+welcomed by the people. A musical and graceful language had grown up
+in Languedoc, which was universally recognised as the fittest vehicle
+for descriptions of beauty and declarations of love, and had been
+found equally adapted for the declamations of political hatred and
+denunciations of injustice. But now the whole guild of troubadours,
+ceasing to dedicate their muses to ladies' charms or the quarrels
+of princes, poured forth their indignation in innumerable songs on
+their clerical oppressors. The infamies of the whole order--the monks
+black and white, the deacons, the abbots, the bishops, the ordinary
+priests--were now married to immortal verse. Their spoiling of orphans,
+their swindling of widows and wards, their gluttony and drunkenness,
+were chronicled in every township, and were incapable of denial.
+Their dishonesty became proverbial. The simplest peasant, on hearing
+of a scandalous action, was in the habit of saying, "I would rather
+be a priest than be guilty of such a deed." But there were two men
+then alive exactly adapted to meet the exigencies of the time. One
+was a noble Castilian of the name of Dominic Guzman, who had become
+disgusted with the world, and had taken refuge from temptations and
+strife among the brethren of a reformed cathedral in Spain. But
+temptations and strife forced their way into the cells of Asma, and the
+eloquent friar was torn away from his prayers and penances and brought
+prominently forward by the backslidings of the men of Languedoc. The
+saturnine and self-sacrificing Spaniard had no sympathy with the joyous
+proceedings of the princes and merchants of the South. He saw sin in
+their enjoyment even of the gifts of nature,--their gracious air and
+beautiful scenery. How much more when the gayety of their meetings was
+enlivened by interludes throwing ridicule on the pretensions of the
+bishops, by hootings at any ecclesiastic who presented himself in the
+street, and by sneers and loud laughter at the predictions and miracles
+with which the Church resisted their attack! The unbelieving populace
+did not spare the personal dignity of the missionary himself. They
+pelted him with mud, and fixed long tails of straw at the back of his
+robe; they outraged all the feelings of his heart, his Castilian pride,
+his Christian belief, his clerical obedience. There is no denying
+the energy with which he exerted himself to recall those wandering
+sheep to the true fold. His biographer tells us of the successes of
+his eloquence, and of the irresistible effect of the inexhaustible
+fountain of tears with which he inundated his face till they formed
+a river down to his robes. His writings, we are assured, being found
+unanswerable by the heretics, were submitted to the ordeal of fire.
+Twice they resisted the hottest flames which could be raised by
+wood and brimstone, and still without converting the incredulous
+subjects of Count Raymond. His miracles, which were numerous and
+undeniable, also had no effect. Even his prayers, which seem to have
+moved houses and walls, had no efficacy in moving the obdurate hearts
+of the unbelievers; and at last, tired out with their recalcitrancy,
+the dreadful word was spoken. He cursed the men of Languedoc, the
+inhabitants of its towns, the knights and gentlemen who received his
+oratory with insult, and in addition to his own anathemas called in the
+spiritual thunder of the Pope.
+
+This was the other man peculiarly fitted for the work he had to do. His
+cruelty would have done no dishonour to the blood-stained scutcheon of
+Nero, and his ambition transcended that of Gregory the Seventh. His
+name was Innocent the Third. [A.D. 1207.] For one-half of the crimes
+alleged against those heretics, who, from their principal seat in the
+diocese of Albi, were known as Albigenses, he would have turned the
+whole of France into a desert; and when, with greedy ear, he heard the
+denunciations of Dominic, he declared war on the devoted peasants,--war
+on the consenting princes; a holy war--more meritorious than a Crusade
+against the Turks and infidels--where no life was to be spared, and
+where houses and lands were to be the reward of the assailants. All the
+wild spirits of the age were wakened by the call. It was a pilgrimage
+where all expenses were paid, without the danger of the voyage to the
+East or the sword of the Saracen. Foremost among those who hurried
+to this mingled harvest of money and blood, of religious absolution
+and military fame, was the notorious Simon de Montfort, a man fitted
+for the commission of any wickedness requiring a powerful arm and
+unrelenting heart. Forward from all quarters of Europe rushed the
+exterminating emissaries of the Pope and soldiers of Dominic. "You
+shall ravage every field; you shall slay every human being: strike,
+and spare not. The measure of their iniquity is full, and the blessing
+of the Church is on your heads." These words, sung in sweet chorus by
+the Pope and the Monk, were the instructions on which De Montfort was
+prepared to act; and what could the sunny Languedoc, the land of song
+and dance, of olive-yard and vineyard, do to repel this hostile inroad?
+Suddenly all the music of the troubadours was hushed in dreadful
+expectation. Raymond was alarmed, and tried to temporize. [A.D. 1208.]
+Promises were made and explanations given, but without any offer of
+submission to the yoke of Rome: so the infuriated warriors came on,
+burning, slaying, ravaging, in terms of their commission, till Dominic
+himself grew ashamed of such blood-stained missionaries; and when their
+slaughters went on, when they had murdered half the population in cold
+blood, and ridden down the peasantry whom despair had summoned to the
+defence of their houses and properties, the saintly-minded Spaniard
+could no longer honour their hideous butcheries with his presence.
+He contented himself with retiring to a church and praying for the
+good cause with such zeal and animation that De Montfort and eleven
+hundred of his ruffians put to flight a hundred thousand of the armed
+soldiers of the South, who felt themselves overthrown and scattered
+by an invisible power. Yet not even the prayers of Dominic could keep
+the outraged people in unresisting acquiescence. Simon de Montfort was
+expelled from the territories he had usurped, and found a mysterious
+death under the walls of Toulouse in 1218.
+
+[A.D. 1223.]
+
+The old family was restored in the person of Raymond the Seventh, and
+preparations made for defence. But Louis the Eighth of France came to
+the aid of the infuriated Pope. Two hundred thousand men followed in
+the holy campaign. All the atrocities of the former time were renewed
+and surpassed. Town after town yielded, for all the defenders had died.
+Pestilence broke out in the invading force, and Louis himself was
+carried off by fever. Champions, however, were ready in all quarters to
+carry on the glorious cause. Louis the Ninth was now King of France,
+and under the government of his mother, Blanche of Castile, the work
+commenced by her countryman was completed. The final victory of the
+crusaders and punishment of the rebellious were celebrated by the
+introduction of the Inquisition, of which the ferocious Dominic was
+the presiding spirit. The fire of persecution under his holy stirrings
+burnt up what the sword of the destroyer had left, and from that time
+the voice of rejoicing was heard no more in Languedoc: her freedom of
+thought and elegance of sentiment were equally crushed into silence
+by the heel of persecution. The "gay science" perished utterly; the
+very language in which the sonnets of knight and troubadour had been
+composed died away from the literatures of the earth; and Rome rejoiced
+in the destruction of poetry and the restoration of obedience. This is
+a very mark-worthy incident in the thirteenth century, as it is the
+first experiment, on a great scale, which the Church made to retain her
+supremacy by force of arms. The pagan and infidel, the denier of Christ
+and the enemies of his teaching, had hitherto been the objects of the
+wrath of Christendom. This is the first instance in which a difference
+of opinion between Christians themselves had been the ground for
+wholesale extermination; for those unfortunate Albigenses acknowledged
+the divinity of the Saviour and professed to be his disciples. It
+is the crowning proof of the totally-secularized nature of the
+established faith. Its weapons were no longer argument and proof, or
+even persuasion and promise. The horse up to his fetlocks in blood, the
+sword waved in the air, the trampling of marshalled thousands, were
+henceforth the supports of the religion of love and charity; and fires
+glowing in every market-place and dungeons gaping in every episcopal
+castle were henceforth the true expositors of the truth as it is in
+Jesus. Fires, indeed, and dungeons, were required to compensate for the
+incompleteness, as it appeared to the truly orthodox, of the vengeance
+inflicted on the rebels. The Abbot of Citeaux, who gave his spiritual
+and corporeal aid to the assault on Beziers, was for a moment made
+uneasy by the difficulty his men experienced in distinguishing between
+the heretics and believers at the storm of the town. At last he got
+out of the difficulty by saying, "Slay them all! The Lord will know
+his own." The same benevolent dignitary, when he wrote an account of
+his achievement to the Pope, lamented that he had only been able to
+cut the throats of twenty thousand. And Gregory the Ninth would have
+been better pleased if it had been twice the number. "His vast revenge
+had stomach for them all," and already a quarter of a million of the
+population were the victims of his anger. Every thing had prospered
+to his hand. Raymond was despoiled of the greater portion of his
+estates, the voice of opposition was hushed, the castles of the nobles
+confiscated to the Church; and yet, when the treaty of Meaux, in 1229,
+by which the war was concluded, came to be considered, it was perceived
+that the pacification of Languedoc turned not so much to the profit of
+Rome as of the rapidly-coalescing monarchy of France.
+
+Long before this, in 1204, Philip Augustus had found little difficulty
+in tearing the continental possessions of the English crown, except
+Guienne, from the trembling hands of John. The possession of Normandy
+had already made France a maritime power; and now, by the acquisition
+of the Narbonnais and Maguelonne from Raymond the Seventh, she not
+only extended her limits to the Mediterranean, but, by the extinction
+of two such vassals as the Count of Toulouse and the Duke of Normandy,
+incalculably strengthened the royal crown. Extinguished, indeed, was
+the power of Toulouse; for by the same treaty the unfortunate Raymond
+bought his peace with Rome by bestowing the county of Venaissin and
+half of Avignon on the Holy See. These sacrifices relieved him from the
+sentence of excommunication, and made him the best-loved son of the
+Church, and the poorest prince in Christendom.
+
+While monarchy was making such strides in France, a counterbalancing
+power was formed in England by the combination of the nobility and
+the rise of the House of Commons. The story of Magna Charta is so
+well known that it will be sufficient to recall some of its principal
+incidents, which could not with propriety be omitted in an account of
+the important events of the thirteenth century. No event, indeed, of
+equal importance occurred in any other country of Europe. However more
+startling a crusade or a victory might be at the time, the results of
+no single incident have ever been so enduring or so wide-spread as
+those of the meeting of the barons at Runnymede and the summoning of
+the burgesses to Parliament.
+
+The whole reign of John (1199-1216) is a tale of wickedness and
+degradation. Richard of the Lion-Heart had been cruel and unprincipled;
+but the sharpness of his sword threw a sort of respectability over
+the worst portions of his character. His practical talents, also, and
+the romantic incidents of his life, his confinement, and even of his
+death, lifted him out of the ordinary category of brutal and selfish
+kings and converted a very ferocious warrior into a popular hero. But
+John was hateful and contemptible in an equal degree. He deserted his
+father, he deceived his brother, he murdered his nephew, he oppressed
+his people. He had the pride that made enemies, and wanted the courage
+to fight them. A knight without truth, a king without justice, a
+Christian without faith,--all classes rebelled against him. Innocent
+the Third scented from afar the advantage he might obtain from a
+monarch whose nobility despised him and who was hated by his people.
+And when John got up a quarrel about the nomination of an archbishop
+to Canterbury, the Pope soon saw that though Langton was no a-Beckett,
+still less was John a Henry the Second. A sentence of excommunication
+was launched at the coward's head, and the crown of England offered to
+Philip Augustus of France. Philip Augustus had the modesty to refuse
+the splendid bribe, and contented himself with aiding to weaken a
+throne he did not feel inclined to fill. It is characteristic of John,
+that in the agonies of his fear, and of his desire to gain support
+against his people, he hesitated between invoking the assistance of the
+Miramolin of Morocco and the Pope of Rome. As good Mussulman with the
+one as Christian with the other, he finally decided on Innocent, and
+signed a solemn declaration of submission, making public resignation
+of the crowns of England and Ireland "to the Apostles Peter and
+Paul, to Innocent and his legitimate successors;" and, aided by the
+blessings of these new masters, and by the enforced neutrality of
+France, he was enabled to defeat his indignant nobles, and force them
+for two years to wear the same chains of submission to Rome which
+weighed upon himself. But in 1215 the patience of noble and peasant,
+of bishop and priest, was utterly exhausted. [A.D. 1215.] John fled
+on the first outburst of the collected storm, and thought himself
+fortunate in stopping its violence by signing the Great Charter,
+the written ratification of the liberties which had been conferred
+by some of his predecessors, but whose chief authority was in the
+traditions and customs of the land. This was not an overthrow of an
+old constitution and the substitution of a new and different code, but
+merely a formal recognition of the great and fundamental principles
+on which only government can be carried on,--security of person and
+property, and the just administration of equitable laws. All orders in
+the State were comprehended in this national agreement. The Church was
+delivered from the exactions of the king, and left to an undisturbed
+intercourse on spiritual matters with her spiritual head. She was to
+have perfect freedom of election to vacant benefices, and the king's
+rapacity was guarded against by a clause reducing any fine he might
+impose on an ecclesiastic to an accordance with his professional
+income, and not with the extent of his lay possessions. The barons,
+of course, took equal care of their own interests as they had shown
+for those of the Church. They corrected many abuses from which they
+suffered, in respect to their feudal obligations. They regulated the
+fines and quit-rents on succession to their fiefs, the management of
+crown wards, and the marriage of heiresses and widows. They insisted
+also on the assemblage of a council of the great and lesser barons,
+to consult for the general weal, and put some check on the disposal
+of their lands by their tenants, in order to keep their vassals from
+impoverishment and their military organization unimpaired. But when
+church and aristocracy were thus protected from the tyranny of the
+king, were the interests of the great mass of the people neglected?
+This has sometimes been argued against the legislators of Runnymede,
+but very unjustly; for as much attention was paid to the liberties
+and immunities of the municipal corporations and of ordinary subjects
+as to those of the prelates and lords. Every person had the right to
+dispose of his property by will. No arbitrary tolls could be exacted of
+merchants. All men might enter or leave the kingdom without restraint.
+The courts of law were no longer to be stationary at Westminster, to
+which complainants from Northumberland or Cornwall never could make
+their way, but were to travel about, bringing justice to every man's
+door. They were to be open to every one, and justice was to be neither
+"sold, refused, nor delayed." Circuits were to be held every year. No
+man was to be put on his trial from mere rumour, but on the evidence
+of lawful witnesses. No sentence could be passed on a freeman except
+by his peers in jury assembled. No fine could be imposed so exorbitant
+as to ruin the culprit. But the bishops and clergy, the nobility and
+their vassals, the corporations and freemen, were not the main bodies
+of the State; and the framers of Magna Charta have been blamed for
+neglecting the great majority of the population, which consisted of
+serfs or villeins. This accusation is, however, not true, even with
+respect to the words of the Charter; for it is expressly provided that
+the carts and working-implements of that class of the people shall
+not be seizable in satisfaction of a fine; and in its intention the
+accusation is more untenable still; for although the reformers of 1215
+had no design of granting new privileges to any hitherto-unprivileged
+order and their work was limited to the legal re-establishment of
+privileges which John had attempted to overthrow, the large and
+liberal spirit of their declarations is shown by the notice they take
+of the hitherto-unconsidered classes. For the protection accorded to
+their ploughs and carts, which are specifically named in the Charter,
+ratified at once their right to hold property,--the first condition of
+personal freedom and independence,--and, by an analogy of reasoning,
+restrained their more immediate masters from tyranny and injustice. It
+could not be long before a man secured by the national voice in the
+possession of one species of property extended his rights over every
+thing else. If the law guaranteed him the plough he held, the cart he
+drove, the spade he plied, why not the house he occupied, the little
+field he cultivated? And if the poorest freeman walked abroad in the
+pride of independence, because the baron could no longer insult him,
+or the priest oppress him, or the king himself strip him of land and
+gear, how could he deny the same blessings to his neighbour, the rustic
+labourer, who was already master of cart and plough and was probably
+richer and better fed than himself?
+
+But a firmer barrier against the encroachments of kings and nobles
+than the written words of Magna Charta was still required, and people
+were not long in seeing how little to be trusted are legal forms when
+the contracting parties are disposed to evade their obligations. John
+indeed attempted, in the very year that saw his signature to the
+Charter, to expunge his name from the obligatory deed by the plenary
+power of the Pope. Innocent had no scruple in giving permission to
+his English vassal to break the oath and swerve from his engagement.
+But the English spirit was not so broken as the king's, and the
+barons took the management of the country into their own hands. When
+the experience of a few years of Henry the Third had shown them that
+there was no improvement on the personal character of his predecessor,
+they took effectual measures for the protection of all classes of the
+people. Henry began his inglorious reign in 1216, and ended it in
+1272. In those fifty-six years great changes took place, but all in an
+upward direction, out of the darkness and unimpressionable stolidity
+of previous ages. The dawn of a more intellectual period seemed at
+hand, and already the ghosts of ignorance and oppression began to scent
+the morning air. In 1264 an example was set by England which it would
+have been well if all the other Western lands had followed, for by the
+institution of a true House of Commons it laid the foundation for the
+only possible liberal and improvable government,--the only government
+which can derive its strength from the consent of the governed
+legitimately expressed, and vary in its action and spirit with the
+changes in the general mind. In cases of error or temporary delusion,
+there is always left the most admirable machinery for retracing its
+steps and rectifying what is wrong. In cases of universal approval and
+unanimous exertion, there is no power, however skilfully wielded by
+autocrats or despots, which can compare with the combined energy of a
+whole and undivided people.
+
+[A.D. 1226-1270.]
+
+The contemporary of this Henry on the throne of France was the gentle
+and honest Louis the Ninth. If those epithets do not sound so high as
+the usual phraseology applied to kings, we are to consider how rare are
+the examples either of honesty or gentleness among the rulers of that
+time, and how difficult it was to possess or exercise those virtues.
+But this gentle and honest king, who was scarcely raised in rank when
+the Church had canonized him as a saint, achieved as great successes
+by the mere strength of his character as other monarchs had done by
+fire and sword. His love of justice enabled him to extend the royal
+power over his contending vassals, who chose him as umpire of their
+quarrels and continued to submit to him as their chief. He heard
+the complaints of the lower orders of his people in person, sitting,
+like the kings of the East, under the shade of a tree, and delivering
+judgment solely on the merits of the case. His undoubted zeal on behalf
+of his religion permitted him, without the accusation of heresy, to
+put boundaries to the aggressions of the Church. He resisted its more
+violent claims, and gave liberty to ecclesiastics as well as laymen,
+who were equally interested in the curtailment of the Papal power. He
+granted a great number of municipal charters, and published certain
+Establishments, as they were called, which were improvements on the old
+customs of the realm and were in a great measure founded on the Roman
+law. The spirit of the time was popular progress; and both in France
+and England great advances were made; deliberative national assemblies
+took their rise,--in France, under the conscientious monarch, with the
+full aid and influence of the royal authority, in England, under the
+feeble and selfish Henry, by the necessity of gaining the aid of the
+Commons against the Crown to the outraged and insulted nobility. In
+both nations these assemblies bore for a long time very distinguishable
+marks of their origin. The Parliaments of France, sprung from the
+royal will, were little else than the recorders of the decrees of the
+monarch; while the Parliaments of England, remembering their popular
+origin, have always had a feeling of independence, and a tendency to
+make rather hard bargains with our kings. Even before this time the
+Great Council had occasionally opposed the exactions of the Crown; but
+when the falsehood and avarice of Henry III. had excited the popular
+odium, the barons of 1263, in noble emulation of their predecessors
+of 1215, had risen in defence of the nation's liberties, and the last
+hand was put to the building up of our present constitution, by the
+summoning, "to consult on public affairs," of certain burgesses from
+the towns, in addition to the prelates, knights, and freeholders
+who had hitherto constituted the parliamentary body. But those
+barons and tenants-in-chief attended in their own right, and were
+altogether independent of the principle of election and representation.
+[A.D. 1265.] The summons issued by Simon de Montfort (son of the
+truculent hero of the Albigensian crusade, and brother-in-law of Henry)
+invested with new privileges the already-enfranchised boroughs. From
+this time the representatives of the Commons are always mentioned in
+the history of parliaments; and although this proceeding of De Montfort
+was only intended to strengthen his hands against his enemies, and,
+after his temporary object was gained, was not designed to have any
+further effect on the constitutional progress of our country, still,
+the principle had been adopted, the example was set, and the right to
+be represented in Parliament became one of the most valued privileges
+of the enfranchised commons.
+
+It is observable that this increase of civil freedom in the various
+countries of Europe was almost in exact proportion to the diminution
+of ecclesiastical power. It is equally observable that the weakening
+of the priestly influence rapidly followed the infamous excesses
+into which its intolerance and pride had hurried the princes and
+other supporters of its claims. Never, indeed, had it appeared in so
+palmy and flourishing a state as in the course of this century; and
+yet the downward journey was begun. The devastation it carried into
+Languedoc, and the depopulation of all those sunny regions near the
+Mediterranean Sea--the crusades against the Saracens in Asia, to which
+it sent the strength of Europe, and against the Moors in Africa, to
+which it impelled the most obedient, and also, when his religious
+passions were roused, the most relentless, of the Church's sons,
+no other than St. Louis--and the submission of the Patriarchates of
+Jerusalem and Alexandria to the Romish See--these and other victories
+of the Church were succeeded, before the century closed, by a manifest
+though silent insurrection against its spiritual domination. There
+were many reasons for this. The inferior though still dignified clergy
+in the different nations were alienated by the excessive exactions
+of their foreign head. In France the submissive St. Louis was forced
+to become the guardian of the privileges and income of the Gallican
+Church. In England the number of Italian incumbents exceeded that of
+the English-born; and in a few years the Pope managed to draw from the
+Church and State an amount equal to fifteen millions of our present
+coin. In Scotland, poorer and more proud, the king united himself to
+his clergy and nobles, and would not permit the Romish exactors to
+enter his dominions. The avarice and venality of Rome were repulsive
+equally to priest and layman. The strong support, also, which hitherto
+had arisen to the Holy See from the innumerable monks and friars,
+could no longer be furnished by the depressed and vitiated communities
+whom the coarsest of the common people despised for their sensuality
+and vice. In earlier times the worldly pretensions of the secular
+clergy were put to shame by the poverty and self-denial of the regular
+orders. Their ascetic retirement, and fastings, and scourgings, had
+recommended them to the peasantry round their monasteries, by the
+contrast their peaceful lives presented to the pomp and self-indulgence
+of bishops and priests. But now the character of the two classes was
+greatly changed. The parson of the parish, when he was not an Italian
+absentee, was an English clergyman, whose interests and feelings were
+all in unison with those of his flock; the monks were an army of
+mercenary marauders in the service of a foreign prince, advocating his
+most unpopular demands and living in the ostentatious disregard of all
+their vows. Even the lowest class of all, the thralls and villeins,
+were not so much as before in favour of their tonsured brothers, who
+had escaped the labours of the field by taking refuge in the abbey;
+for Magna Charta had given the same protection against oppression to
+themselves, and the enfranchisement of the boroughs had put power
+into the hands of citizens and freemen, who would not be so apt to
+abuse it as the martial baron or mitred prelate had been. The same
+principles were at work in France; and when the newly-established
+Franciscans and Dominicans were pointed to as restoring the purity and
+abnegation of the monks of old, the time for belief in those virtues
+being inherent, or even possible, in a cloister, was past, and little
+effect was produced in favour of Rome by the bloodthirsty brotherhood
+of the ferocious St. Dominic or the more amiable professions of the
+half-witted St. Francis of Assisi. [A.D. 1272.] The tide, indeed,
+had so completely turned after the commencement of the reign of
+Edward the First, that the Churchmen, both in England and France,
+preferred being taxed by their own Sovereign to being subjected to
+the arbitrary exactions of the Pope. Edward gave them no exemption
+from the obligation to support the expenses of the State in common
+with all the other holders of property, and pressed, indeed, rather
+more heavily upon the prelates and rich clergy than on the rest of the
+contributors, as if to drive to a decision the question, to which of
+the potentates--the Pope or the sovereign--tribute was lawfully due.
+When this object was gained, a bull was let loose upon the sacrilegious
+monarch by Boniface the Eighth, which positively forbids any member
+of the priesthood to contribute to the national exchequer on any
+occasion or emergency whatever. But the king made very light of the
+papal authority when it stood between him and the revenues of his
+crown, and the national clergy submitted to be taxed like other men.
+In France the same discussion led to the same result. The Gallican and
+English Churches asserted their liberties in a way which must have been
+peculiarly gratifying to the kings,--namely, by subsidies to the Crown,
+and disobedience to the fulminations of the Pope.
+
+But no surer proof of the increased wisdom of mankind can be given
+than the termination of the Crusades. Perhaps, indeed, it was found
+that religious excitement could be combined with warlike distinction
+by assaults on the unbelieving or disobedient at home. There seemed
+little use in traversing the sea and toiling through the deserts of
+Syria, when the same heavenly rewards were held out for a campaign
+against the inhabitants of Languedoc and the valleys of the Alps.
+Clearer views also of the political effect of those distant expeditions
+in strengthening the hands of the Pope, who, as spiritual head of
+Christendom, was _ex officio_ commander of the crusading armies, must
+no doubt have occurred to the various potentates who found themselves
+compelled to aid the very authority from whose arrogance they suffered
+so much. The exhaustion of riches and decrease of population were
+equally strong reasons for repose. But none of all these considerations
+had the least effect on the simple and credulous mind of Louis the
+Ninth. Resisting as he did the interference of the Pope in his
+character of King of France, no one could yield more devoted submission
+to the commands of the Holy Father when uttered to him in his character
+of Christian knight. At an early age he vowed himself to the sacred
+cause, and in the year 1248 the seventh and last crusade to the Holy
+Land took its way from Aigues-Mortes and Marseilles, under the guidance
+of the youthful King and the Princes of France. Disastrous to a more
+pitiful degree than any of its predecessors, this expedition began its
+course in Egypt by the conquest of Damietta, and from thenceforth sank
+from misery to misery, till the army, surprised by the inundations
+of the Nile, and hemmed in by the triumphant Mussulmans, surrendered
+its arms, and the nobility of France, with its king at its head,
+found itself the prisoner of Almohadam. An insurrection in a short
+time deprived their conqueror of life and crown, and a treaty for the
+payment of a great ransom set the captives free. Ashamed, perhaps,
+to return to his own country, sighing for the crown of martyrdom,
+zealous at all events for the privileges of a pilgrim, Louis betook
+himself to Palestine, and, as he was bound by the convention not
+to attack Jerusalem, he wasted four years in uselessly rebuilding
+the fortifications of Ptolemais, and Sidon, and Jaffa, and only
+embarked on his homeward voyage when the death of his mother and the
+discontent of his subjects necessitated his return. [A.D. 1254.] After
+an absence of six years, the enfeebled and exhausted king sat once more
+in the chair of judgment, and gained all hearts by his generosity
+and truth. Yet the old fire was not extinct. His oath was binding
+still, and in 1270, girt with many a baron bold, and accompanied by
+his brother, Charles of Anjou, and the gay Prince Edward of England,
+he fixed the red cross upon his shoulder and led his army to the
+sea-shore. The ships were all ready, but the destination of the war was
+changed. A new power had established itself at Tunis, more hostile to
+Christianity than the Moslem of Egypt, and nearer at hand. In an evil
+hour the King was persuaded to attack the Tunisian Caliph. He landed
+at Carthage, and besieged the capital of the new dominion. But Tunis
+witnessed the death of its besieger, for Louis, worn out with fatigue
+and broken with disappointment, was stricken by a contagious malady,
+and expired with the courage of a hero and the pious resignation of a
+Christian. With him the crusading spirit vanished from every heart.
+All the Christian armies were withdrawn. The Knights-Hospitallers,
+the Templars, the Teutonic Order, passed over to Cyprus, and left the
+hallowed spots of sacred story to be profaned by the footsteps of the
+Infidel. Asia and Europe henceforth pursued their separate courses; and
+it was left to the present day to startle the nations of both quarters
+of the world with the spectacle of a war about the possession of the
+Holy Places.
+
+The century which has the slaughter of the Albigenses, the Magna
+Charta, the rise of the Commons, the termination of the Crusades, to
+distinguish it, will not need other features to be pointed out in
+order to abide in our memories. Yet the reign of Edward the First,
+the greatest of our early kings, must be dwelt on a little longer, as
+it would not be fair to omit the personal merits of a man who united
+the virtues of a legislator to those of a warrior. Whether it was
+the prompting of ambition, or a far-sighted policy, which led him to
+attempt the conquest of Scotland, we need not stop to inquire. It
+might have satisfied the longings both of policy and ambition if he
+had succeeded in creating a compact and irresistible Great Britain
+out of England harassed and Scotland insecure. And if, contented with
+his undivided kingdom, he had devoted himself uninterruptedly to the
+introduction and consolidation of excellent laws, and had extended the
+ameliorations he introduced in England to the northern portion of his
+dominions, he would have earned a wider fame than the sword has given
+him, and would have been received with blessings as the Justinian of
+the whole island, instead of establishing a rankling hatred in the
+bosoms of one of the cognate peoples which it took many centuries to
+allay, if, indeed, it is altogether obliterated at the present time;
+for there are not wanting enthusiastic Scotchmen who show considerable
+wrath when treating of his assumptions of superiority over their
+country and his interference with their national affairs.
+
+Edward's sister had been the wife of Alexander the Third of Scotland.
+Two sons of that marriage had died, and the only other child, a
+daughter, had married Eric the Norwegian. In Margaret, the daughter of
+this king, the Scottish succession lay, and when her grandfather died
+in 1290, the Scottish states sent a squadron to bring the young queen
+home, and great preparations were made for the reception of the "Maid
+of Norway." But the Maid of Norway was weak in health; the voyage was
+tempestuous and long; and weary and exhausted she landed on one of the
+Orkney Islands, and in a short time a rumour went round the land that
+the hope of Scotland was dead. Edward was among the first to learn
+the melancholy news. He determined to assert his rights, and began
+by trying to extend the feudal homage which several of the Scottish
+kings had rendered for lands held in England, over the Scottish crown
+itself. When the various competitors for the vacant throne submitted
+their pretensions to his decision he made their acknowledgment of
+his supremacy an indispensable condition. Out of the three chief
+candidates he fixed on John Baliol, who, in addition to the most legal
+title, had perhaps the equal recommendation of being the feeblest
+personal character. Robert Bruce and Hastings, the other candidates,
+submitted to their disappointment, and Baliol became the mere viceroy
+of the English king. He obeyed a summons to Westminster as a vassal
+of Edward, to answer for his conduct, and was treated with disdain.
+[A.D. 1293.] But the Scottish barons had more spirit than their king.
+They forced him to resist the pretensions of his overbearing patron,
+and for the first time, in 1295, began the long connection between
+France and Scotland by a treaty concluded between the French monarch
+and the twelve Guardians of Scotland, to whom Baliol had delegated his
+authority before retiring forever to more peaceful scenes. From this
+time we find that, whenever war was declared by France on England,
+Scotland was let loose on it to distract its attention, in the same way
+as, whenever war was declared upon France, the hostility of Flanders
+was roused against its neighbour. But the benefits bestowed by England
+on her Low Country ally were far greater than any advantage which
+France could offer to Scotland. Facilities of trade and favourable
+tariffs bound the men of Ghent and Bruges to the interests of Edward.
+But the friendship of France was limited to a few bribes and the loan
+of a few soldiers. Scotland, therefore, became impoverished by her
+alliance, while Flanders grew fat on the liberality of her powerful
+friend. England itself derived no small benefit both from the hostility
+of Scotland and the alliance of the Flemings. When the Northern army
+was strong, and the King was hard pressed by the great Wallace, the
+sagacious Parliament exacted concessions and immunities from its
+imperious lord before it came liberally to his aid; and whenever we
+read in one page of a check to the arms of Edward, we read in the next
+of an enlargement of the popular rights. When the first glow of the
+apparent conquest of Scotland was past, and the nation was seen rising
+under the Knight of Elderslie after it had been deserted by its natural
+leaders, the lords and barons,--and, later, when in 1297 he gained a
+great victory over the English at Stirling,--the English Parliament
+lost no time in availing themselves of the defeat, and sent over to the
+king, who was at the moment in Flanders menacing the flanks of France,
+a parchment for his signature, containing the most ample ratification
+of their power of granting or withholding the supplies. It was on
+the 10th of October, 1297, that this important document was signed;
+and, satisfied with this assurance of their privileges, the "nobles,
+knights of the shire, and burgesses of England in parliament assembled"
+voted the necessary funds to enable their sovereign lord to punish his
+rebels in Scotland. Perhaps these contests between the sister countries
+deepened the patriotic feeling of each, and prepared them, at a later
+day, to throw their separate and even hostile triumphs into the united
+stock, so that, as Charles Knight says in his admirable "Popular
+History," "the Englishman who now reads of the deeds of Wallace and
+Bruce, or hears the stirring words of one of the noblest lyrics of
+any tongue, feels that the call to 'lay the proud usurper low' is one
+which stirs his blood as much as that of the born Scotsman; for the
+small distinctions of locality have vanished, and the great universal
+sympathies for the brave and the oppressed stay not to ask whether the
+battle for freedom was fought on the banks of the Thames or of the
+Forth. The mightiest schemes of despotism speedily perish. The union
+of nations is accomplished only by a slow but secure establishment of
+mutual interests and equal rights."
+
+
+
+
+                          FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ALBERT.--(_cont._)
+
+  1308. HENRY VII., (of Luxemburg.)
+
+  1314. LOUIS IV., (of Bavaria).                 } Rival
+
+  1314. FREDERICK III., (of Austria,) died 1330. } Emperors
+
+  1347. CHARLES IV., (of Luxemburg.)
+
+  1378. WENCESLAS, (of Bohemia.)
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        PHILIP IV.--(_cont._)
+
+  1314. LOUIS X., (Hutin.)
+
+  1316. PHILIP V., (the Long.)
+
+  1322. CHARLES IV., (the Handsome.)
+
+  1328. PHILIP VI.
+
+  1350. JOHN II., (the Good.)
+
+  1364. CHARLES V., (the Wise.)
+
+  1380. CHARLES VI., (the Beloved.)
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ANDRONICUS II.--(_cont._)
+
+  1332. ANDRONICUS III.
+
+  1341. JOHN PALAEOLOGUS.
+
+  1347. JOHN CANTACUZENUS.
+
+  1355. JOHN PALAEOLOGUS, (restored.)
+
+  1391. MANUEL PALAEOLOGUS.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        EDWARD I.--(_cont._)
+
+  1307. EDWARD II.
+
+  1327. EDWARD III.
+
+  1377. RICHARD II.
+
+  1399. HENRY IV.
+
+
+Kings of Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1306. ROBERT BRUCE
+
+  1329. DAVID II.
+
+  1371. ROBERT II.
+
+  1390. ROBERT III.
+
+
+  1311. Suppression of the Knights Templars.
+
+  1343. Cannon first used.
+
+  1370. John Huss born.
+
+  1383. Bible first translated into a vulgar tongue, (Wickliff's.)
+
+
+Authors.
+
+DANTE, PETRARCH, BOCCACCIO, CHAUCER, FROISSART, JOHN DUNS SCOTUS,
+BRADWARDINE, WILLIAM OCCAM, WICKLIFF.
+
+
+
+
+                        THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  ABOLITION OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLARS--RISE OF MODERN
+  LITERATURES--SCHISM OF THE CHURCH.
+
+
+In the year 1300 a jubilee was celebrated at Rome, when remission of
+sins and other spiritual indulgences were offered to all visitors by
+the liberal hand of Pope Boniface the Eighth. And for the thirty days
+of the solemn ceremonial, the crowds who poured in from all parts
+of Europe, and pursued their way from church to church and kissed
+with reverential lips the relics of the saints and martyrs, gave an
+appearance of strength and universality to the Roman Church which had
+long departed from it. Yet the downward course had been so slow, and
+each defection or defeat had been so covered from observation in a
+cloud of magnificent boasts, that the real weakness of the Papacy was
+only known to the wise and politic. Even in the splendours and apparent
+triumph of the jubilee processions it was perceived by the eyes of
+hostile statesmen that the day of faith was past.
+
+Dante, the great poet of Italy, was there, piercing with his Ithuriel
+spear the false forms under which the spiritual tyranny concealed
+itself. Countless multitudes deployed before him without blinding him
+for a moment to the unreality of all he saw. Others were there, not
+deriving their conclusions, like Dante, from the intuitive insight
+into truth with which the highest imaginations are gifted, but from
+the calmer premises of reason and observation. Even while the paeans
+were loudest and the triumph at its height, thoughts were entering
+into many hearts which had never been harboured before, but which in
+no long space bore their fruits, not only in opposition to the actual
+proceedings of Rome, but in undisguised contempt and ridicule of all
+its claims. Boniface himself, however, was ignorant of all these
+secret feelings. He was now past eighty years of age, and burning with
+a wilder personal ambition and more presumptuous ostentation than
+would have been pardonable at twenty. He appeared in the processions
+of the jubilee, dressed in the robes of the Empire, with two swords,
+and the globe of sovereignty carried before him. A herald cried,
+at the same time, "Peter, behold thy successor! Christ, behold thy
+vicar upon earth!" But the high looks of the proud were soon to be
+brought low. The King of France at that time was Philip the Handsome,
+the most unprincipled and obstinate of men, who stuck at no baseness
+or atrocity to gain his ends,--who debased the Crown, pillaged the
+Church, oppressed the people, tortured the Jews, and impoverished the
+nobility,--a self-willed, strong-handed, evil-hearted despot, and
+glowing with an intense desire to humble and spoil the Holy Father
+himself. If he could get the Pope to be his tax-gatherer, and, instead
+of emptying the land of all its wealth for the benefit of the Roman
+exchequer, pour Roman, German, English, European contributions into his
+private treasury, the object of his life would be gained. His coffers
+would be overflowing, and his principal opponent disgraced. A wonderful
+and apparently impossible scheme, but which nevertheless succeeded. The
+combatants at first seemed very equally matched. When Boniface made an
+extravagant demand, Philip sent him a contemptuous reply. When Boniface
+turned for alliances to the Emperor or to England, Philip threw himself
+on the sympathy of his lords and the inhabitants of the towns; for
+the parts formerly played by Pope and King were now reversed. The
+Papacy, instead of recurring to the people and strengthening itself
+by contact with the masses who had looked to the Church as their
+natural guard from the aggressions of their lords, now had recourse
+to the more dangerous expedient of exciting one sovereign against
+another, and weakened its power as much by concessions to its friends
+as by the hostility of its foes. The king, on the other hand, flung
+himself on the support of his subjects, including both the Church and
+Parliament, and thus raised a feeling of national independence which
+was more fatal to Roman preponderance than the most active personal
+enmity could have been. Accordingly, we find Boniface offending the
+population of France by his intemperate attacks on the worst of kings,
+and that worst of kings attracting the admiration of his people by
+standing up for the dignity of the Crown against the presumption of the
+Pope. The fact of this national spirit is shown by the very curious
+circumstance that while Philip and his advisers, in their quarrels
+with Boniface, kept within the bounds of respectful language in the
+letters they actually sent to Rome, other answers were disseminated
+among the people as having been forwarded to the Pope, outraging all
+the feelings of courtesy and respect. It was like the conduct of the
+Chinese mandarins, who publish vainglorious and triumphant bulletins
+among their people, while they write in very different language to
+the enemy at their gates. Thus, in reply to a very insulting brief of
+Boniface, beginning, "Ausculta, fili," (Listen, son,) and containing
+a catalogue of all his complaints against the French king, Philip
+published a version of it, omitting all the verbiage in which the
+insolent meaning was involved, and accompanied it in the same way with
+a copy of the unadorned eloquence which constituted his reply. In this
+he descended to very plain speaking. "Philip," he says, "by the grace
+of God, King of the French, to Boniface, calling himself Pope, little
+or no salutation. Be it known to your Fatuity that we are subject in
+temporals to no man alive; that the collation of churches and vacant
+prebends is inherent in our Crown; that their 'fruits' belong to us;
+that all presentations made or to be made by us are valid; that we
+will maintain our presentees in possession of them with all our power;
+and that we hold for fools and idiots whosoever believes otherwise."
+This strange address received the support of the great majority of
+the nation, and was meant as a translation into the vulgar tongue of
+the real intentions of the irritated monarch, which were concealed
+in the letter really despatched in a mist of polite circumlocutions.
+Boniface perceived the animus of his foe, but bore himself as loftily
+as ever. When a meeting of the barons, held in the Louvre, had appealed
+to a General Council and had passed a vote of condemnation against
+the Pope as guilty of many crimes, not exclusive of heresy itself, he
+answered, haughtily, that the summoning of a council was a prerogative
+of the Pope, and that already the King had incurred the danger of
+excommunication for the steps he had taken against the Holy Chair. To
+prevent the publication of the sentence, which might have been made a
+powerful weapon against France in the hands of Albert of Germany or
+Edward of England, it was necessary to give notice of an appeal to a
+General Council into the hands of the Pope in person. He had retired
+to Anagni, his native town, where he found himself more secure among
+his friends and relations than in the capital of his See. Colonna, a
+discontented Roman and sworn enemy of Boniface, and Supino, a military
+adventurer, whom Philip bought over with a bribe of ten thousand
+florins, introduced Nogaret, the French chancellor and chief adviser of
+the king, into Anagni, with cries from their armed attendants of "Death
+to the Pope!" "Long live the King of France!" The cardinals fled in
+dismay. The inhabitants, not being able to prevent their visitors from
+pillaging the shops, joined them in that occupation, and every thing
+was in confusion. The Pope was in despair. His own nephew had abandoned
+his cause and made terms for himself. Accounts vary as to his behaviour
+in these extremities. Perhaps they are all true at different periods of
+the scene. At first, overwhelmed with the treachery of his friends, he
+is said to have burst into tears. Then he gathered his ancient courage,
+and, when commanded to abdicate, offered his neck to the assailants;
+and at last, to strike them with awe, or at least to die with dignity,
+he bore on his shoulders the mantle of St. Peter, placed the crown of
+Constantine on his head, and grasped the keys and cross in his hands.
+Colonna, they say, struck him on the cheek with his iron gauntlet till
+the blood came. Let us hope that this is an invention of the enemy; for
+the Pope was eighty-six years old, and Colonna was a Roman soldier.
+There is always a tendency to elevate the sufferer in the cause we
+favour, by the introduction of ennobling circumstances. In this and
+other instances of the same kind there is the further temptation in
+orthodox historians to make the most they can of the martyrdom of
+one of their chiefs, and in a peculiar manner to glorify the wrongs
+of their hero by their resemblance to the sufferings of Christ. But
+the rest of the story is melancholy enough without the aggravation of
+personal pain. The pontiff abstained from food for three whole days.
+He consumed his grief in secret, and was only relieved at last from
+fears of the dagger or poison by an insurrection of the people. They
+fell upon the French escort when they perceived how weak it was, and
+carried the Pope into the market-place. He said, "Good people, you have
+seen how our enemies have spoiled me of my goods. Behold me as poor as
+Job. I tell you truly, I have nothing to eat or drink. If there is any
+good woman who will charitably bestow on me a little bread and wine, or
+even a little water, I will give her God's blessing and mine. Whoever
+will bring me the smallest thing in this my necessity, I will give him
+remission of all his sins." All the people cried, "Long live the Holy
+Father!" They ran and brought him bread and wine, and any thing they
+had. Everybody would enter and speak to him, just as to any other of
+the poor. In a short time after this he proceeded to Rome, and felt
+once more in safety. But his heart was tortured by anger and a thirst
+for vengeance. He became insane; and when he tried to escape from the
+restraints his state demanded, and found his way barred by the Orsini,
+his insanity became madness. He foamed at the mouth and ground his
+teeth when he was spoken to. He repelled the offers of his friends with
+curses and violence, and died without the sacraments or consolations of
+the Church. [A.D. 1303.] The people remembered the prophecy made of him
+by his predecessor Celestin:--"You mounted like a fox; you will reign
+like a lion; you will die like a dog."
+
+But the degradation of the papal chair was not yet complete, and Philip
+was far from satisfied. Merely to have harassed to death an old man
+of eighty-six was not sufficient for a monarch who wanted a servant
+in the Pope more than a victim. To try his power over Benedict the
+Eleventh, the successor of Boniface, he began a process in the Roman
+court against the memory of his late antagonist. Benedict replied by
+an anathema in general terms on the murderers of Boniface, and all
+Philip's crimes and schemings seemed of no avail. But one day the
+sister of a religious order presented His Holiness with a basket of
+figs, and in a short time the pontifical throne was vacant.
+
+Now was the time for the triumph of the king. He had devoted much
+time and money to win over a number of cardinals to his cause, and
+obtained a promise under their hands and seals that they would vote
+for whatever candidate he chose to name. He was not long in fixing on
+a certain Bernard de Goth, Archbishop of Bordeaux, the most greedy
+and unprincipled of the prelates of France, and appointed a meeting
+with him to settle the terms of a bargain. They met in a forest, they
+heard mass together, and took mutual oaths of secrecy, and then the
+business began. "See, archbishop," said the king: "I have it in my
+power to make you Pope if I choose; and if you promise me six favours
+which I will ask of you, I will assure you that dignity, and give you
+evidence of the truth of what I say." So saying, he showed the letters
+and delegation of both the electoral colleges. The archbishop, filled
+with covetousness, and seeing at once how entirely the popedom depended
+on the king, threw himself trembling with joy at Philip's feet. "My
+lord," he said, "I now perceive you love me more than any man alive,
+and that you render me good for evil. It is for you to command,--for
+me to obey; and I shall always be ready to do so." The king lifted
+him up, kissed him on the mouth, and said to him, "The six special
+favours I have to ask of you are these. First, that you will reconcile
+me entirely with the Church, and get me pardoned for my misdeed in
+arresting Pope Boniface. Second, that you will give the communion to
+me and all my supporters. Third, that you will give me tithes of the
+clergy of my realm for five years, to supply the expenses of the war
+in Flanders. Fourth, that you will destroy and annul the memory of
+Boniface the Eighth. Fifth, that you will give the dignity of Cardinal
+to Messer Jacopo, and Messer Piero de la Colonna, along with certain
+others of my friends. As for the sixth favour and promise, I reserve
+it for the proper time and place, for it is a great and secret thing."
+The archbishop promised all by oath on the Corpus Domini, and gave his
+brother and two nephews as hostages. The king, on the other hand, made
+oath to have him elected Pope.
+
+[A.D. 1305.]
+
+His Holiness Clement the Fifth was therefore the thrall and servant of
+Philip le Bel. No office was too lowly, or sacrifice too large, for
+the grateful pontiff. He carried his subserviency so far as to cross
+the Alps and receive the wages of his obedience, the papal tiara, at
+Lyons. He became in fact a citizen of France, and subject of the crown.
+He delivered over the clergy to the relentless hands of the king. He
+gave him tithes of all their livings; and as the Count of Flanders
+owed money to Philip which he had no means of paying, the generosity
+of the Pope came to the rescue, and he gave the tithes of the Flemish
+clergy to the bankrupt count in order to enable him to pay his debt to
+the exacting monarch. But the gift of these taxes was not a transfer
+from the Pope to the king or count: His Holiness did not reduce his
+own demands in consideration of the subsidies given to those powers.
+He completed, indeed, the ruin the royal tax-gatherers began; for he
+travelled in more than imperial state from end to end of France, and
+ate bishop and abbot, and prior and prebendary, out of house and home.
+Wherever he rested for a night or two, the land became impoverished;
+and all this wealth was poured into the lap of a certain Brunissende
+de Perigord, who cost the Church, it was popularly said, more than
+the Holy Land. But the capacity of Christian contribution was soon
+exhausted; and yet the interminable avarice of Pope and King went on.
+The honourable pair hit upon an excellent expedient, and the Jews were
+offered as a fresh pasture for the unimpaired appetite of the Father
+of Christendom and the eldest son of the Church. Philip hated their
+religion, but seems to have had a great respect for the accuracy of
+their proceedings in trade. So, to gratify the first, he stripped
+them of all they had, and, to prove the second, confiscated the money
+he found entered in their books as lent on interest to Christians.
+He was found to be a far more difficult creditor to deal with than
+the original lenders had been, and many a baron and needy knight had
+to refund to Philip the sums, with interest at twenty per cent.,
+which they might have held indefinitely from the sons of Abraham and
+repudiated in an access of religious fervour at last.
+
+But worse calamities were hanging over the heads of knights and barons
+than the avarice of Philip and the dishonesty of Clement. Knighthood
+itself, and feudalism, were about to die,--knighthood, which had
+offered at all events an ideal of nobleness and virtue, and feudalism,
+which had replaced the expiring civilization of Rome founded on the
+centralization of power in one man's hands, and the degradation of all
+the rest, with a new form of society which derived its vitality from
+independent action and individual self-respect. It was by a still wider
+expansion of power and influence that feudalism was to be superseded.
+Other elements besides the possession of land were to come into the
+constitution of the new state of human affairs. The man henceforth
+was not to be the mere representative of so many acres of ground. His
+individuality was to be still further defined, and learning, wealth,
+knowledge, arts, and sciences were from this time forth to have as
+much weight in the commonwealth as the hoisted pennon and strong-armed
+followers of the steel-clad warrior.
+
+    "The old order changeth, giving place to new,
+     Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
+
+We have already seen the prosperity of the towns, and have even heard
+the contemptuous laughter with which the high-fed burghers of Ghent
+or Bruges received the caracollings of their ponderous suzerain as,
+armed _cap-a-pied_, he rode up to their impregnable walls. Not less
+barricaded than the contemptuous city behind the steel fortifications
+with which he protected his person, the knight had nothing to fear so
+long as he bestrode his war-horse and managed to get breath enough
+through the openings of his cross-barred visor. He was as safe in his
+iron coating as a turtle in its shell; but he was nearly as unwieldy as
+he was safe. When galloping forward against a line of infantry, nothing
+could resist his weight. With heavy mace or sweeping sword he cleared
+his ground on either side, and the unarmoured adversary had no means
+of repelling his assault. A hundred knights, therefore, we may readily
+believe, very often have put their thousands or tens of thousands to
+flight. We read, indeed, of immense slaughters of the common people,
+accompanied with the loss of one single knight; and this must be
+attributed to the perfection which the armourer's art had attained,
+by which no opening for arrow or spear-point was left in the whole
+suit. But military instruments had for some time been invented, which,
+by projecting large stones with enormous force, flattened the solid
+cuirass or crushed the glittering helm. Once get the stunned or wounded
+warrior on the ground, there was no further danger to be apprehended.
+He lay in his iron prison unable to get up, unable to breathe, and
+with the additional misfortune of being so admirably protected that his
+enemies had difficulty in putting him out of his pain. This, however,
+was counterbalanced by the ample time he possessed, during their futile
+efforts to reach a vital part, to bargain for his life; and this was
+another element in the safety of knightly war. A ransom could at all
+times preserve his throat, whereas the disabled foot-soldier was
+pierced with relentless point or trodden down by the infuriated horse.
+The knight's position, therefore, was more like that of a fighter
+behind walls, only that he carried his wall with him wherever he went,
+and even when a breach was made could stop up the gap with a sum of
+money. Nobody had ever believed it possible for footmen to stand up
+against a charge of cavalry. No manoeuvres were learned like the hollow
+squares of modern times, which, at Waterloo and elsewhere, have stood
+unmoved against the best swordsmen of the world. But once, at the
+beginning of this century, in 1302, a dreadful event happened, which
+gave a different view of the capabilities of determined infantry in
+making head against their assailants, and commenced the lesson of the
+resistibility of mounted warriors which was completed by Bannockburn in
+Scotland, and Crecy and Poictiers.
+
+The dreadful event was the entire overthrow of the knights and
+gentlemen of France by the citizens of a Flemish manufacturing town
+at the battle of Courtrai. Impetuous valour, and contempt for smiths
+and weavers, blinded the fiery nobles. They rushed forward with loose
+bridles, and, as they had disdained to reconnoitre the scene of the
+display, they fell headlong, one after another, horse and plume,
+sword and spur, into one enormous ditch which lay between them and
+their enemies. On they came, an avalanche of steel and horseflesh,
+and floundered into the muddy hole. Hundreds, thousands, unable to
+check their steeds, or afraid to appear irresolute, or goggling in
+vain through the deep holes left for their eyes, fell, struggled,
+writhed, and choked, till the ditch was filled with trampled knights
+and tumbling horses, and the burghers on the opposite bank beat in the
+helmets of those who tried to climb up, with jagged clubs, and hacked
+their naked heads. And when the whole army was annihilated, and the
+spoils were gathered, it was found there were princes and lords in
+almost incredible numbers, and four thousand golden spurs to mark the
+extent of the knightly slaughter and give name to the engagement. It
+is called the Battle of the Spurs,--for a nobler cause than another
+engagement of the same name, which we shall meet with in a future
+century, and which derived its appellation from the fact that spurs
+were more in requisition than swords.
+
+Philip was at this moment in the middle of his quarrel with Boniface.
+He determined to compensate himself for the loss he had sustained
+in military fame at Courtrai by fiercer exactions on his clergy and
+bitterer enmity to the Pope. We have seen how he pursued the wretched
+Boniface to the grave, and persisted in trying to force the obsequious
+Clement to blacken his memory after he was dead. Clement was unwilling
+to expose the vices and crimes of his predecessor, and yet he had given
+a promise in that strange meeting in the forest to work his master's
+will; he was also resident in France, and knew how unscrupulous his
+protector was. Philip availed himself of the discredit brought on
+knighthood by the loss of all those golden spurs, and compounded for
+leaving the deceased pontiff alone, by exacting the consent of Clement
+to his assault on the order of the Templars, the wealthiest institution
+in the world, who held thousands of the best manors in France, and
+whose spoils would make him the richest king in Christendom. Yet the
+Templars were no contemptible foes. In number they were but fourteen
+thousand, but their castles were over all the land; they were every
+one of them of noble blood, and strong in the relationship of all the
+great houses in Europe. If they had united with their brethren, the
+Knights Hospitallers, no sovereign could have resisted their demands;
+but, fortunately for Philip, they were rivals to the death, and gave no
+assistance to each other when oppressed. Both, in fact, had outlived
+the causes of their institution, and had forfeited the respect of the
+masses of the people by their ostentatious abnegation of all the rules
+by which they professed to be bound. Poverty, chastity, and brotherly
+kindness were the sworn duties of the most rich, sensual, and unpitying
+society which ever lived. When Richard of England was dying, he made an
+imaginary will, and said, "I leave my avarice to the Citeaux, my luxury
+to the Grey Friars, and my pride to the Templars." And the Templars
+took possession of the bequest. When driven from the Holy Land, they
+settled in all the Christian kingdoms from Denmark to the south of
+Italy, and everywhere presented the same spectacle of selfishness and
+debauchery. In Paris they had got possession of a tract of ground
+equal to one-third of the whole city, and had covered it with towers
+and battlements, and within the unapproachable fortress lived a life
+of the most luxurious self-indulgence. Strange rumours got abroad
+of the unholy rites with which their initiations were accompanied.
+Their receptions into the order were so mysterious and sacred that
+an interloper (if it had been the King of France) would have been
+put to death for his intrusion. Frightful stories were told of their
+blasphemies and hideous ceremonials. Reports came even from over the
+sea, that while in Jerusalem they had conformed to the Mohammedan faith
+and had exchanged visits and friendly offices with the chiefs of the
+unbelievers. Against so dark and haughty an association it was easy to
+stir up the popular dislike. Nobody could take their part, they lived
+so entirely to themselves and shunned sympathy and society with so cold
+a disdain. They were men of religious vows without the humility of that
+condition, so they were hated by the nobles, who looked on priests
+as their natural inferiors; they were nobles without the individual
+riches of the barons and counts, and they were hated by the priests,
+who were at all times the foes of the aristocracy. Hated, therefore, by
+priest and noble, their policy would have been to make friends of the
+lower orders, rising citizens, and the great masses of the people. But
+they saw no necessity for altering their lofty course. They bore right
+onward in their haughty disregard of all the rest of the world, and
+were condemned by the universal feeling before any definite accusation
+was raised against them.
+
+Clement yielded a faint consent to the proceedings of Philip, and that
+honourable champion of the faith gave full loose to his covetousness
+and hatred. First of all he prayed meekly for admission as a brother
+of the order. He would wear the red cross upon his shoulder and obey
+their godly laws. If he had obtained his object, he would have procured
+the grand-mastership for himself and disposed of their wealth at his
+own discretion. The order might have survived, but their possessions
+would have been Philip's. They perhaps perceived his aim, and declined
+to admit him into their ranks. A rejected candidate soon changes his
+opinion of the former object of his ambition. He now reversed his plan,
+and declared they were unworthy, not only to wallow in the wealth and
+splendour of their commanderies, but to live in a Christian land. He
+said they were guilty of all the crimes and enormities by which human
+nature was ever disgraced. James de Molay, the grand-master, and all
+the knights of the order throughout France, were seized and thrown into
+prison. Letters were written to all other kings and princes, inciting
+them to similar conduct, and denouncing the doomed fraternity in the
+harshest terms. The promise of the spoil was tempting to the European
+sovereigns, but all of them resisted the inducement, or at least took
+gentler methods of attaining the same end. But Philip was as much
+pleased with the pursuit as with the catching of the game. He summoned
+a council of the realm, and obtained at the same time a commission
+of inquiry from the Pope. With these two courts to back him, it was
+impossible to fail. The knights were kept in noisome dungeons. They
+were scantily fed, and tormented with alternate promises and threats.
+When physically weak and mentally depressed, they were tortured in
+their secret cells, and under the pressure of fear and desperation
+confessed to whatever was laid to their charge. Relieved from their
+torments for a moment, they retracted their confessions; but the
+written words remained. [A.D. 1312.] And in one day, before the public
+had been prepared for such extremity of wrong, fifty-four of these
+Christian soldiers--now old, and fallen from their high estate--were
+publicly burned in the place of execution, and no further limit was
+placed to the rapacity of the king. Still the odious process crept on
+with the appearance of law, for already the forms of perverted justice
+were found safer and more certain than either sword or fagot; and at
+last, in 1314, the ruined brotherhood were allowed to join themselves
+to other fraternities. The name of Templar was blotted out from the
+knightly roll-call of all Europe; and in every nation, in England and
+Scotland particularly, the order was despoiled of all its possessions.
+Clement, however, was furious at seeing the moderation of rulers like
+Edward II., who merely stripped the Templars of their houses and lands,
+and did not dabble, as his patron Philip had done, in their blood,
+and rebuked them in angry missives for their coldness in the cause of
+religion.
+
+Now, early in this century, a Pope had been personally ill used, and
+his successor had become the pensioner and prisoner of one of the
+basest of kings; a glorious brotherhood of Christian knights had been
+shamelessly and bloodily destroyed. Was there no outcry from outraged
+piety?--no burst of indignation against the perpetrator of so foul a
+wrong? Pity was at last excited by the sufferings and humiliations
+of the brothers of the Temple; but pity is not a feeling on which
+knighthood can depend for vitality or strength. Perhaps, indeed, the
+sympathy raised for the sad ending of that once-dreaded institution
+was more fatal to its revival, and more injurious to the credit of
+all surviving chivalry, than the greatest amount of odium would have
+been. Speculative discussions were held about the guilt or innocence
+of the Templars, but the worst of their crimes was the crime of being
+weak. If they had continued united and strong, nobody would have heard
+of the excesses laid to their charge. Passing over the impossible
+accusations brought against them by ignorance and hatred, the offence
+they were charged with which raised the greatest indignation, and was
+least capable of disproof, was that in their reception into the order
+they spat upon the crucifix and trampled on the sign of our salvation.
+Nothing can be plainer than that this, at the first formation of the
+order, had been a symbol, which in the course of years had lost its
+significance. At first introduced as an emblem of Peter's denial and
+of worldly disbelief, to be exchanged, when once they were clothed
+with the Crusader's mantle, for unflinching service and undoubting
+Faith,--a passage from death unto life,--it had been retained long
+after its intention had been forgotten; and nothing is so striking as
+the confession of some of the younger knights, of the reluctance, the
+shame and trembling, with which, at the request of their superior, they
+had gone through the repulsive ceremony. This is one of the dangers of
+a symbolic service. The symbol supersedes the fact. The imitation of
+Peter becomes a falling away from Christ. But a century before this
+time, who can doubt that all Christendom would have rushed to the
+rescue of the Pope if he had been seized in his own city and maltreated
+as Boniface had been, and that every gentleman in Europe would have
+drawn sword in behalf of the noble Templars?
+
+But papacy, feudalism, and knighthood, as they had risen and flourished
+together, were enveloped in the same fall. The society of the Dark
+Ages had been perfect in its symmetry and compactness. Kings were but
+feudal leaders and chiefs in their own domains. Knighthood was but the
+countenance which feudalism turned to its enemies, while hospitality,
+protection, and alliance were its offerings to its friends. Over all,
+representative of the heavenly power which cared for the helpless
+multitudes, the serfs and villeins, those who had no other friend,--the
+Church extended its sheltering arms to the lowest of the low. Feudalism
+could take care of itself; knighthood made itself feared; but the
+multitudes could only listen and be obedient. All, therefore, who
+had no sword, and no broad acres, were natural subjects of the Pope.
+But with the rise of the masses the relations between them and the
+Church became changed. It was found that during the last two hundred
+years, since the awakening of mercantile enterprise by the Crusades
+and the commingling of the population in those wild and yet elevating
+expeditions, by the progress of the arts, by the privileges wrung
+from king and noble by flourishing towns or purchased from them with
+sterling coin, by the deterioration in the morals of priest and baron,
+and the rise in personal importance of burghers, who could fight like
+those of Courtrai or raise armies like those of Pisa and Genoa,--that
+the state of society had gradually been changed; that the commons were
+well able to defend their own interest; that the feudal proprietor had
+lost his relative rank; that the knight was no longer irresistible
+as a warrior; and that the Pope had become one of the most worldly
+and least scrupulous of rulers. Far from being the friend of the
+unprotected, the Church was the subject of all the ballads of every
+nation, wherein its exactions and debaucheries were sung at village
+fairs and conned over in chimney-corners. Cannon were first used in
+this century at the siege of Algesiras in 1343; and with the first
+discharge knighthood fell forever from the saddle. The Bible was first
+translated into a national tongue,[C] and Popery fell forever from its
+unopposed dominion. How, indeed, even without this incident, could the
+Papacy have retained its power? From 1305 till 1376 the wearers of the
+tiara were the mere puppets of the Kings of France. They lived in a
+nominal freedom at Avignon, but the college of electors was in the pay
+of the French sovereign, and the Pope was the creature of his hands.
+This was fatal to the notion of his independence. But a heavier blow
+was struck at the unity of the papal power when a double election, in
+1378, established two supreme chiefs, one exacting the obedience of
+the faithful from his palace on the banks of the Rhone, and the other
+advancing the same claim from the banks of the Tiber. From this time
+the choice of the chief pontiff became a political struggle between
+the principal kings. There were French and German, and even English,
+parties in the conclave, and bribes were as freely administered as
+at a contested election or on a dubious question in the time of Sir
+Robert Walpole. Family interest also, from this time, had more effect
+on the policy of the Popes than the ambition to extend their spiritual
+authority. They sacrificed some portion of their claims to insure
+the elevation of their relations. Alliances were made, not for the
+benefit of the Roman chair, but for some kinsman's establishment in a
+principality. Dukedoms became appanages of the papal name, and every
+new Pope left the mark of his beneficence in the riches and influence
+of the favourite nephew whom he had invested with sovereign rank.
+Italy became filled with new dynasties created by these means, and the
+politics of the papal court became complicated by this diversity of
+motive and influence. Yet feudalism struggled on in spite of cannon and
+the rise of the middle orders; and Popery struggled on in spite of the
+spread of information and the diffusion of wealth and freedom. For some
+time, indeed, the decline of both those institutions was hidden by a
+factitious brilliancy reflected on them by other causes. The increase
+of refinement gave rise to feelings of romance, which were unknown in
+the days of darkness and suffering through which Europe had passed. A
+reverence for antiquity softened the harsher features by which they
+had been actually distinguished, and knighthood became subtilized into
+chivalry. [A.D. 1350.] As the hard and uninviting reality retreated
+into the past, the imagination clothed it in enchanting hues; and at
+the very time when the bowmen and yeomanry of England had shown at
+Crecy how unfounded were the "boast of heraldry, the pomp of power,"
+Edward III. had instituted the Order of the Garter,--a transmutation
+as it were of the rude shocks of knighthood into carpet pacings in the
+gilded halls of a palace; as in a former age the returned Crusaders
+had supplied the want of the pride and circumstance of the real
+charge against the Saracen by introducing the bloodless imitation
+of it afforded by the tournament. In the same way the personal
+disqualification of the Pope was supplied by an elevation of the ideal
+of his place and office. Religion became poetry and sentiment; and
+though henceforth the reigning pontiff was treated with the harshness
+and sometimes the contempt his personal character deserved, his
+throne was still acknowledged as the loftiest of earthly thrones. The
+plaything of the present was nevertheless an idol and representative
+of the past; and kings who drove him from his home, or locked him up
+in their prisons, pretended to tremble at his anger, and received his
+letters on their knees.
+
+It must have been evident to any far-seeing observer that some great
+change was in progress during the whole of this century, not so much
+from the results of Courtrai, or Crecy, or Poictiers, or the migration
+of the Pope to Avignon, or the increasing riches of the trading and
+manufacturing towns, as from the great uprising of the human mind
+which was shown by the almost simultaneous appearance of such stars
+of literature as Dante, and Petrarch, and Boccaccio, and our English
+Chaucer. I suppose no single century since has been in possession of
+four such men. Great geniuses, indeed, and great discoveries, seem
+to come in crops, as if a certain period had been fixed for their
+bursting into flower; and we find the same grand ideas engaging
+the intellects of men widely dispersed, so that a novelty in art or
+science is generally disputed between contending nations. But this
+synchronous development of power is symptomatic of some wide-spread
+tendency, which alters the ordinary course of affairs; and we see in
+the Canterbury Tales the dawning of the Reformation; in Shakspeare
+and Bacon the inauguration of a new order of government and manners;
+in Locke and Milton a still further liberation from the chains of a
+worn-out philosophy; in Watt, and Fulton, and Cartwright, we see the
+spread of civilization and power. In Walter Scott and Wordsworth, and
+the wonderful galaxy of literary stars who illuminated the beginning
+of this century, we see Waterloo and Peace, a widening of national
+sympathies, and the opening of a great future career to all the
+nations of the world. For nothing is so true an index of the state
+and prospects of a people as the healthfulness and honest taste of
+its literature. It was in this sense that Fletcher of Saltoun said,
+(or quoted,) "Give me the making of the ballads of a people, and I
+don't care who makes the laws." While we have such pure and wholesome
+literature as is furnished us by Hallam, and Macaulay, and Alison, by
+Tennyson, Dickens, Thackeray, and the rest, philosophy like Hamilton's,
+and science like Herschel's and Faraday's, we have no cause to look
+forward with doubt or apprehension.
+
+  "Naught shall make us rue
+   If England to herself do rest but true."
+
+But those pioneers of the Fourteenth Century had dangers and
+difficulties to encounter from which their successors have been free.
+It is a very different thing for authors to write for the applause of
+an appreciating public, and for them to create an appreciating public
+for themselves. Their audience must at first have been hostile.
+First, the critical and scholarly part of the world was offended with
+the bad taste of writing in the modern languages at all. Secondly,
+the pitch at which they struck the national note was too high for the
+ears of the vulgar. A correct and dignified use of the spoken tongue,
+the conveyance, in ordinary and familiar words, of lofty or poetical
+thoughts, filled both those classes with surprise. To the scholar it
+seemed good materials enveloped in a very unworthy covering. To "the
+general" it seemed an attempt to deprive them of their vernacular
+phrases and bring bad grammar and coarse expressions into disrepute.
+Petrarch was so conscious of this that he speaks apologetically of his
+sonnets in Italian, and founds his hope of future fame on his Latin
+verses. But more important than the poems of Dante and Chaucer, or
+the prose of Boccaccio, was the introduction of the new literature
+represented by Froissart. Hitherto chronicles had for the most part
+consisted of the record of such wandering rumours as reached a
+monastery or were gathered in the religious pilgrimages of holy men.
+Mingled, even the best of them, with the credulity of inexperienced
+and simple minds, their effect was lost on the contemporary generation
+by the isolation of the writers. Nobody beyond the convent-walls knew
+what the learned historians of the establishment had been doing. Their
+writings were not brought out into the light of universal day, and a
+knowledge of European society gathered point by point, by comparing,
+analyzing, and contrasting the various statements contained in those
+dispersed repositories. But at this time there came into notice the
+most inquiring, enterprising, picturesque, and entertaining chronicler
+that had ever appeared since Herodotus read the result of his personal
+travels and sagacious inquiries to the assembled multitudes of Greece.
+
+John Froissart, called by the courtesy of the time Sir John, in honour
+of his being priest and chaplain, devoted a long life to the collection
+of the fullest and most trustworthy accounts of all the events and
+personages characteristic of his time. From 1326, when his labours
+commenced, to 1400, when his active pen stood still, nothing happened
+in any part of Europe that the Paul Pry of the period did not rush
+off to verify on the spot. If he heard of an assemblage of knights
+going on at the extremities of France or in the centre of Germany,
+of a tournament at Bordeaux, a court gala in Scotland, or a marriage
+festival at Milan, his travels began,--whether in the humble guise of a
+solitary horseman with his portmanteau behind his saddle and a single
+greyhound at his heels, as he jogged wearily across the Border, till
+he finally arrived in Edinburgh, or in his grander style of equipment,
+gallant steed, with hackney led beside him, and four dogs of high
+race gambolling round his horse, as he made his dignified journey
+from Ferrara to Rome. Wherever life was to be seen and painted, the
+indefatigable Froissart was to be found. Whatever he had gathered up on
+former expeditions, whatever he learned on his present tour, down it
+went in his own exquisite language, with his own poetical impression
+of the pomps and pageantries he beheld; and when at the end of his
+journey he reached the court of prince or potentate, no higher treat
+could be offered to the "noble lords and ladies bright" than to form a
+glittering circle round the enchanting chronicler and listen to what
+he had written. From palace to palace, from castle to castle, the
+unwearied "picker-up of unconsidered trifles" (which, however, were
+neither trifles nor unconsidered, when their true value became known,
+as giving life and reality to the annals of a whole period) pursued
+his happy way, certain of a friendly reception when he arrived, and
+certain of not losing his time by negligence or blindness on the
+road. If he overtakes a stately cavalier, attended by squires and
+men-at-arms, he enters into conversation, drawing out the experiences
+of the venerable warrior by relating to him all he knew of things and
+persons in which he took an interest. And when they put up at some
+hostelry on the road, and while the gallant knight was sound asleep
+on his straw-stuffed couch, and his followers were wallowing amid the
+rushes on the parlour floor, Froissart was busy with pen and note-book,
+scoring down all the old gentleman had told him, all the fights he had
+been present at, and the secret history (if any) of the councils of
+priests and kings. In this way knights in distant parts of the world
+became known to each other. The same voice which described to Douglas
+at Dalkeith the exploits of the Prince of Wales sounded the praises of
+Douglas in the ears of the Black Prince at Bordeaux. A community of
+sentiment was produced between the upper ranks of all nations by this
+common register of their acts and feelings; and knighthood received its
+most ennobling consummation in these imperishable descriptions, at the
+very time when its political and military influence came to a close.
+Froissart's Chronicles are the epitaph of feudalism, written indeed
+while it was yet alive, but while its strength was only the convulsive
+energy of approaching death. The standard of knightly virtue became
+raised in proportion as knightly power decayed. In the same way as the
+increased civilization and elevating influences of the time clothed
+the Church in colours borrowed from the past, while its real influence
+was seriously impaired, the expiring embers of knighthood occasionally
+flashed up into something higher; and in this century we read of Du
+Guesclin of France, Walter Manny and Edward the Third of England, and
+many others, who illustrated the order with qualifications it had
+never possessed in its palmiest state.
+
+Courtrai was fought and Amadis de Gaul written almost at the same
+time. Let us therefore mark, as a characteristic of the period we have
+reached, the decay of knighthood, or feudalism in its armour of proof,
+and the growth at the same time of a sense of honour and generosity,
+which contrasted strangely in its softened and sentimentalized
+refinement with the harshness and cruelty which still clung to the
+ordinary affairs of life. Thus the young conqueror of Poictiers led his
+captive John into London with the respectful attention of a grateful
+subject to a crowned king. He waited on him at table, and made him
+forget the humiliation of defeat and the griefs of imprisonment in
+the sympathy and reverence with which he was everywhere surrounded.
+This same prince was regardless of human life or suffering where the
+theatrical show of magnanimity was not within his reach, bloodthirsty
+and tyrannical, and is declared by the chronicler himself to be of "a
+high, overbearing spirit, and cruel in his hatred." It shows, however,
+what an advance had already been made in the influence of public
+opinion, when we read how generally the treatment of the noble captive,
+John of France, was appreciated. In former ages, and even at present in
+nations of a lower state of feelings, the kind treatment of a fallen
+enemy, or the sparing of a helpless population, would be attributed
+to weakness or fear. Chivalry, which was an attempt to amalgamate the
+Christian virtues with the rougher requirements of the feudal code,
+taught the duty of being pitiful as well as brave. And though at this
+period that feeling only existed between knight and knight, and was not
+yet extended to their treatment of the common herd, the principle was
+asserted that war could be carried on without personal animosity, and
+that courage, endurance, and the other knightly qualities were to be
+admired as much in an enemy as a friend.
+
+There was, however, another reason for this besides the natural
+admiration which great deeds are sure to call forth in natures capable
+of performing them; and that was, that Europe was divided into petty
+sovereignties, too weak to maintain their independence without foreign
+aid, too proud to submit to another government, and trusting to the
+support their money or influence could procure. In all countries,
+therefore, there existed bodies of mercenary soldiers--or Free Lances,
+as they were called--claiming the dignity and rank of knights and
+noblemen, who never knew whether the men they were fighting to-day
+might not be their comrades and followers to-morrow. In Italy, always a
+country of divisions and enmities, there were armed combatants secured
+on either side. Unconnected with the country they defended by any ties
+of kindred or allegiance, they found themselves opposed to a body,
+perhaps of their countrymen, certainly of their former companions; and,
+except so much as was required to earn their pay and preserve their
+reputation, they did nothing that might be injurious to their temporary
+foes. Battles accordingly were fought where feats of horsemanship
+and dexterity at their weapons were shown; where rushes were made
+into the vacant space between the armies by contending warriors, and
+horse and man acquitted themselves with the acclamations, and almost
+with the safety, of a charge in the amphitheatre at Astley's. But no
+blood was spilt, no life was taken; and a long summer day has seen a
+confused melee going on between the hired combatants of two cities or
+principalities, without a single casualty more serious than a cavalier
+thrown from his horse and unable to rise from the weight and tightness
+of his armour. Fights of this kind could scarcely be considered in
+earnest, and we are not surprised to find that the burden and heat of
+an engagement was thrown upon the light-armed foot: we gather, indeed,
+towards the end of Froissart's Chronicles, that while the cavaliers
+persisted in endeavouring to distinguish their individual prowess, as
+at the battle of Navareta in Spain, and got into confusion in their
+eagerness of assault, "the sharpness of the English arrows began to be
+felt," and the fate of the battle depended on the unflinching line and
+impregnable solidity of the archers and foot-soldiers. These latter
+took a deeper interest in the result than the more showy performers,
+and were not carried away by the vanities of personal display.
+
+Look at the year 1300, with the jubilee of Boniface going on. Look
+at 1400, with the death of Chaucer and Froissart, and the enthroning
+of Henry the Fourth, and what an amount of incident, of change and
+improvement, has been crowded into the space! The rise of national
+literatures, the softening of feudalism, the decline of Church
+power,--these--illustrated by Dante and Chaucer, by the alteration
+in the art of war, and above all, perhaps, by the translation of the
+Bible into the vulgar tongue--were not only the fruits gained for the
+present, but the promise of greater things to come. There will be
+occasional backslidings after this time, but the onward progress is
+steady and irresistible: the regressions are but the reflux waves in
+an advancing tide, caused by the very force and vitality of the great
+sea beyond. And after this view of some of the main features of the
+century, we shall take a very cursory glance at some of the principal
+events on which the portraiture is founded.
+
+It is a bad sign of the early part of this period that our great
+landmarks are still battles and invasions. [A.D. 1314.] After
+Courtrai in 1302, where the nobility rushed blindfold into a natural
+ditch, we come upon Bannockburn in 1314, where Edward the Second,
+not comprehending the aim of his more politic father,--whose object
+was to counterpoise the growing power of the French monarchy by
+consolidating his influence at home,--had marched rather to revenge
+his outraged dignity than to establish his denied authority, and
+was signally defeated by Robert Bruce. Is it not possible that the
+stratagem by which the English chivalry suffered so much by means
+of the pits dug for their reception in the space in front of the
+Scottish lines was borrowed from Courtrai,--art supplying in that dry
+plain near Stirling what nature had furnished to the marshy Brabant?
+However this may be, the same fatal result ensued. Pennon and standard,
+waving plume and flashing sword, disappeared in those yawning gulfs,
+and at the present hour very rusty spurs and fragments of broken
+helmets are dug from beneath the soil to mark the greatness and the
+quality of the slaughter. Meantime, in compact phalanx--protected by
+the knights and gentlemen on the flanks, but left to its own free
+action--the Scottish array bore on. Strong spear and sharp sword did
+the rest, and the English army, shorn of its cavalry, disheartened by
+the loss of its leaders, and finally deserted by its pusillanimous
+king, retreated in confusion, and all hope of retaining the country
+by the right of conquest was forever laid aside. Poor Edward had,
+in appalling consciousness of his own imperfections, applied to the
+Pope for permission to rub himself with an ointment that would make
+him brave. Either the Pope refused his consent or the ointment failed
+of its purpose. Nothing could rouse a brave thought in the heart of
+the fallen Plantagenet. Sir Giles de Argentine might have been more
+effectual than all the unguents in the world. He led the king by the
+bridle till he saw him in a place of safety. He then stopped his horse
+and said, "It has never been my custom to fly, and here I must take my
+fortune." Saying this, he put spurs to his horse, and, crying out, "An
+Argentine!" charged the squadron of Edward Bruce, and was borne down by
+the force of the Scottish spears. The fugitive king galloped in terror
+to the castle of Dunbar, and shipped off by sea to Berwick.
+
+The next battle is so strongly corroborative of the failing supremacy
+of heavy armour, and the rising importance of the well-trained
+citizens, that it is worth mention, although at first sight it
+seems to controvert both these statements; for it was a fight in
+which certain courageous burghers were mercilessly exterminated by
+gorgeously-caparisoned knights. [A.D. 1328.] The townsmen of Bruges and
+Ypres had grown so proud and pugnacious that in 1328 they advanced to
+Cassel to do battle with the young King of France, Philip of Valois,
+at the head of all his chivalry. There was a vast amount of mutual
+contempt in the two armies. The leader of the bold Flemings, who
+was known as Little Jack, entered the enemy's camp in disguise, and
+found young lords in splendid gowns proceeding from point to point,
+gossiping, visiting, and interchanging their invitations. Making his
+way back, he ordered a charge at once. The rush was nearly successful,
+and was only checked within a few yards of the royal tent. But the
+check was tremendous. The bloated burghers, filled with pride and
+gorged with wealth, had thought proper to ensconce their unwieldy
+persons in cuirasses as brilliant and embarrassing as the armour of the
+knights. The knights, however, were on horseback, and the embattled
+townsfolk were on foot. Great was the slaughter, useless the attempt
+to escape, and thirteen thousand were overborne and smothered. Ten
+thousand more were executed by some form of law, and the Bourgeoisie
+taught to rely for its safety on its agility and compactness, and not
+on "helm or hauberk's twisted mail."
+
+The crop of battles grows rich and plentiful, for Edward the Third and
+Philip of Valois are rival kings and warriors, and may be taken as
+the representatives of the two states of society which were brought
+at this time face to face. For Edward, though as true a knight as
+Amadis himself in his own person, in policy was a favourer of the new
+ideas. When the war broke out, Philip behaved as if no change had taken
+place in the seat of power and the world had still continued divided
+between the lords and their armed retainers. He threw himself for
+support on the military service of his tenants and the aristocratic
+spirit of his nobles. Edward, wiser but less romantic, turned for
+assistance to the Commons of England,--bought over their good will and
+copious contributions by privileges granted to their trades,--invited
+skilled workmen over from Flanders, which, with the freest spirit in
+Europe, was under the least improved of the feudal governments,--and
+established woollen-works at York, fustian-works at Norwich, serges
+at Colchester, and kerseys in Devonshire. Mills were whirling round
+in all the counties, and ships coming in untaxed at every harbour.
+Fortunately, as is always the case in this country, it was seen that
+the success of one class of the people was beneficial to every other
+class. The baron got more rent for his land and better cloth for his
+apparel by the prosperity of his manufacturing neighbours. Money was
+voted readily in support of a king who entered into alliance with their
+best customers, the men of Ghent and Bruges; and at the head of all
+the levies which the parliament's liberality enabled him to raise were
+the knights and gentlemen of England, totally freed now from any bias
+towards the French or prejudice against the Saxon; for they spoke the
+English tongue, dressed in English broadcloth, sang English ballads,
+and astonished the men of Gascony and Guienne with the vehemence of
+their unmistakably English oaths. Yet some of them held lands in feudal
+subjection to the French king. Flanders itself confessed the same
+sovereignty; and men of delicate consciences might feel uneasy if they
+lifted the sword against their liege lord. To soothe their scruples,
+James Van Arteveldt, the Brewer of Ghent, suggested to Edward the
+propriety of his assuming the title of King of France. The rebellious
+freeholders would then be in their duty in supporting their liege's
+claims. So Edward, founding upon the birth of his mother, the daughter
+of the last King, Philip le Bel,--who was excluded by the Salic law, or
+at least by French custom, from the throne,--made claim to the crown
+of St. Louis, and transmitted the barren title to all his successors
+till the reign of George the Fourth. As if in right of his property
+on both sides of the Channel, Edward converted it into his exclusive
+domain. [A.D. 1340.] He so entirely exterminated the navy of France,
+and impressed that chivalrous nation with the danger of the seas by
+the victory of Helvoet Sluys, that for several centuries the command
+of the strait was left undisputed to England. Philip had endeavoured
+to obtain the mastery of it with a fleet of a hundred and fifty ships,
+mounted by forty thousand men. The Genoese had furnished an auxiliary
+squadron, and also a commander-in-chief, of the name of Barbavara. But
+the French admiral was a civilian of the name of Bahuchet, who thought
+the safest plan was the best, and kept his whole force huddled up in
+the commodious harbour. Edward collected a fleet of scarcely inferior
+strength, and fell upon the enemy as they lay within the port. It
+was in fact a fight on the land, for they ranged so close that they
+almost touched each other, and the gallant Bahuchet preserved himself
+from sea-sickness at the expense of all their lives. For the English
+archers made an incredible havoc on their crowded decks, and the
+pike-men boarded with irresistible power. Twenty thousand were slain
+in that fearful _melee_; and Edward, to show how sincere he was in
+his claim upon the throne of France, hanged the unfortunate Bahuchet
+as a traitor. The man deserved his fate as a coward: so we need not
+waste much sympathy on the manner of his death. This success with his
+ships was soon followed by the better-known victory of Crecy, 1346,
+and the capture of Calais. [A.D. 1356.] In ten years afterwards, the
+crowning triumph of Poictiers completed the destruction of the military
+power of France, by a slaughter nearly as great as that at Sluys and
+Crecy. In addition to the loss of lives in these three engagements,
+amounting to upwards of ninety thousand men, we are to consider the
+impoverishment of the country by the exorbitant ransoms claimed for
+the release of prisoners. John, the French king, was valued at three
+million crowns of gold,--an immense sum, which it would have exhausted
+the kingdom to raise; and, in addition to those destructive fights and
+crushing exactions, France was further weakened by the insurrection of
+the peasantry and the frightful massacres by which it was put down. If
+to these causes of weakness we add the depopulation produced by the
+unequalled pestilence, called the Plague of Florence, which spread all
+over the world, and in the space of a year carried off nearly a third
+of the inhabitants of Europe, we shall be justified in believing that
+France was reduced to the lowest condition she has ever reached, and
+that only the dotage of Edward, the death of the Black Prince, and
+the accession of a king like Richard II., saved that noble country
+from being, for a while at least, tributary and subordinate to her
+island-conqueror.
+
+
+
+
+                          FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1400. RUPERT.
+
+  1410. JOSSUS.
+
+  1410. SIGISMUND.
+
+  _House of Austria._
+
+  1438. ALBERT II.
+
+  1440. FREDERICK IV.
+
+  1493. MAXIMILIAN I.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1399. HENRY IV.
+
+  1413. HENRY V.
+
+  1422. HENRY VI.
+
+  1461. EDWARD IV.
+
+  1483. EDWARD V.
+
+  1483. RICHARD III.
+
+  1485. HENRY VII.
+
+
+Kings of Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ROBERT III.--(_cont._)
+
+  1406. JAMES I.
+
+  1437. JAMES II.
+
+  1460. JAMES III.
+
+  1488. JAMES IV.
+
+
+Emperors of the East.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        MANUEL PALAEOLOGUS.--(_cont._)
+
+  1425. JOHN PALAEOLOGUS II.
+
+  1448. CONSTANTINE XIII., (PALAEOLOGUS.)
+
+  1453. Capture of Constantinople by the Turks, and
+        close of the Eastern Empire.
+
+
+Sultans of Turkey.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1451. MOHAMMED II.
+
+  1481. BAJAZET II.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        CHARLES VI.--(_cont._)
+
+  1422. CHARLES VII.
+
+  1461. LOUIS XI.
+
+  1483. CHARLES VIII.
+
+  1498. LOUIS XII.
+
+
+Kings of Spain.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1479. Union of the Kingdom under FERDINAND and ISABELLA.
+
+
+  1452. INVENTION OF PRINTING.
+
+  1455. WARS OF THE ROSES BEGIN.
+
+  1483. LUTHER BORN.
+
+  1492. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
+
+
+Eminent Men.
+
+JOHN HUSS, (1370-1415,) XIMINES
+
+
+
+
+                         THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
+
+  DECLINE OF FEUDALISM--AGINCOURT--JOAN OF ARC--THE
+  PRINTING-PRESS--DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.
+
+
+The whole period from the twelfth to the fifteenth century has
+generally been considered so unvarying in its details, one century
+so like another, that it has been thought sufficient to class them
+all under the general name of the Middle Ages. Old Monteil, indeed,
+the author of "The French People of Various Conditions," declines to
+individualize any age during that lengthened epoch, for "feudalism,"
+he says, "is as little capable of change as the castles with which it
+studded the land." But a closer inspection does by no means justify
+this declaration. From time to time we have seen what great changes
+have taken place. The external walls of the baronial residence may
+continue the same, but vast alterations have occurred within. The rooms
+have got a more modern air; the moat has begun to be dried up, and
+turned into a bowling-green; the tilt-yard is occasionally converted
+into a garden; and, in short, in all the civilized countries of Europe
+the life of society has accumulated at the heart. Power is diffused
+from the courts of kings; and instead of the spirit of independence
+and opposition to the royal authority which characterized former
+centuries, we find the courtiers' arts more prevalent now than the
+pride of local grandeur. The great vassals of the Crown are no longer
+the rivals of their nominal superior, but submissively receive his
+awards, or endeavour to obtain the sanction of his name to exactions
+which they would formerly have practised in their own. Monarchy, in
+fact, becomes the spirit of the age, and nobility sinks willingly
+into the subordinate rank. This itself was a great blow to the feudal
+system, for the essence of that organized society was equality among
+its members, united to subordination of conventional rank,--a strange
+and beautiful style of feeling between the highest and the lowest
+of that manly brotherhood, which made the simple chevalier equal to
+the king as touching their common knighthood,--of which we have at
+the present time the modernized form in the feeling which makes the
+loftiest in the land recognise an equal and a friend in the person
+of an untitled gentleman. But this latter was to be the result of
+the equalizing effect of education and character. In the fifteenth
+century, feudalism, represented by the great proprietors, was about
+to expire, as it had already perished in the decay of its armed and
+mailed representatives in the field of battle. By no lower hand than
+its own could the nobility be overthrown either in France or England.
+The accident of a feeble king in both countries was the occasion of
+an internecine struggle,--not, as it would have been in the tenth
+century, for the possession of the crown, but for the custody of the
+wearer of it. The insanity of Charles VI. almost exterminated the
+lords of France; the weakness of Henry VI. and the Wars of the Roses
+produced the same result in England. It seemed as if in both countries
+an epidemic madness had burst out among the nobility, which drove them
+to their destruction. Wildly contending with each other, neglecting and
+oppressing the common people, the lords and barons were unconscious of
+the silent advances of a power which was about to overshadow them all.
+And, as if to drive away from them the sympathy which their fathers
+had known how to excite among the lower classes by their kindness and
+protection, they seemed determined to obliterate every vestige of
+respect which might cling to their ancient possessions and historic
+names, by the most unheard-of cruelty and falsehood in their treatment
+of each other.
+
+The leader of one of the parties which divided France was John, son of
+Philip the Hardy, prince of the blood royal and Duke of Burgundy. The
+leader of the other party was Louis of Orleans, brother of the demented
+king, and the gayest cavalier and most accomplished gentleman of his
+time. The Burgundian had many advantages in his contest for the reins
+of government. The wealth and population of the Low Countries made him
+as powerful as any of the princes of Europe, and he could at all times
+secure the alliance of England to the most nefarious of his schemes by
+the bribe of a treaty of trade and navigation. He accordingly brought
+his great possessions in Flanders to the aid of his French ambition,
+and secured the almost equally important assistance of the University
+of Paris, by giving in his adhesion to the Pope it had chosen and
+denying the authority of the Pope of his rival Orleans. Orleans had
+also offended the irritable population of Paris by making his vows,
+on some solemn occasion, by the bones of St. Denis which adorned the
+shrine of the town called after his name,--whereas it was well known to
+every Parisian that the real bones of the patron of France were those
+which were so religiously preserved in the treasury of Notre Dame. The
+clergy of the two altars took up the quarrel, and as much hostility
+was created by the rival relics of St. Denis and Paris as by the rival
+pontiffs of Avignon and Rome. Thus the Church, which in earlier times
+had been a bond of unity, was one of the chief causes of dissension;
+and the result in a few years was seen in the attempt made by France
+to shake off, as much as possible, the supremacy of both the divided
+Popes, as it managed to shake off entirely the yoke of the divided
+nobility.
+
+Quarrels and reconciliations among the princes, feasts and festivals
+among the peerage, and the most relentless treatment of the citizens,
+were the distinguishing marks of the opening of this century. Isabella
+of Bavaria, the shameless wife of the hapless Charles, added a great
+feature of infamy to the state of manners at the time, by the openness
+of her profligacy, and her neglect of all the duties of wife and queen.
+Rioting with the thoughtless Orleans, while her husband was left to the
+misery of his situation, unwashed, unshorn, and clothed in rags and
+filth, the abandoned woman roused every manly heart in all the land
+against the cause she aided. Relying on this national disgust, the wily
+Burgundian waited his opportunity, and revenged his private wrongs
+by what he afterwards called the patriotic dagger of an assassin.
+[A.D. 1407.] On the night of the 23d of December, 1407, the gay and
+handsome Louis was lured by a false message from the queen's quarters
+to a distant part of the town, and was walking in his satin mantle,
+twirling his glove in his hand, and humming the burden of a song, when
+he was set on by ten or twelve of the adherents of his enemy, stabbed,
+and beaten long after he lay dead on the pavement, and was then left
+motionless and uncared-for under the shade of the high house-walls of
+the Vieille Rue du Temple.
+
+Public conscience was not very acute at that time; and, although no
+man for a moment doubted the hand that had guided the blow, the Duke
+of Burgundy was allowed to attend the funeral of his murdered cousin,
+and to hold the pall in the procession, and to weep louder than any
+as the coffin was lowered into the vault. But the common feelings of
+humanity were roused at last. People remembered the handsome, kindly,
+merry-hearted Orleans thus suddenly struck low, and the ominous looks
+of the Parisians warned the powerful Burgundy that it was time to take
+his hypocrisy and his tears out of the sight of honest men. He slipped
+out of the city, and betook himself to his Flemish states. But the helm
+was now without a steersman; and, while all were looking for a guide
+out of the confusion into which the appalling incident had brought the
+realm, the guilty duke himself, armed _cap-a-pie_, and surrounded by a
+body-guard which silenced all opposition, made his solemn entry into
+the town, and fixed on the door of his hotel the emblematic ornament of
+two spears, one sharp at the point as if for immediate battle, and one
+blunted and guarded as if for a friendly joust. Eloquence is never long
+absent when power is in want of an oration. A great meeting was held,
+in which, by many brilliant arguments and incontrovertible examples
+from holy writ and other histories, John Petit proved, to the entire
+satisfaction of everybody who did not wish to be slaughtered on the
+spot, that the doing to death of the Duke of Orleans was a good deed,
+and that the doer was entitled to the thanks of a grateful country. The
+thanks were accordingly given, and the murderer was at the height of
+his ambition. As a warning to the worthy citizens of what they had to
+expect if they rebelled against his authority, he took the opportunity
+of hurrying northward to his states, where the men of Liege were in
+revolt, and, having broken their ill-formed squares, committed such
+slaughter upon them as only the madness of fear and hatred could have
+suggested. Dripping with the blood of twenty-four thousand artisans,
+he returned to Paris, where the citizens were hushed into silence,
+and perhaps admiration, by the terrors of his appearance. They called
+him John the Fearless,--a noble title, most inadequately acquired;
+but, in spite of their flattery and their submission, he did not feel
+secure without the presence of his faithful subjects. He therefore
+summoned his Flemings and Burgundians to share his triumphs, and a
+loose was given to all their desires. They pillaged, burned, and
+destroyed as if in an enemy's country, encamping outside the walls,
+and giving evident indications of an intention to force their way into
+the streets. But the sight of gore, though terrifying at first, sets
+the tamest of animals wild. The Parisians smelt the bloody odour and
+made ready for the fray. The formidable incorporation of the Butchers
+rose knife in hand, and at the command of their governor prepared to
+preserve the peace of the city. Burgundians and Orleanists were equally
+to be feared, and by a curious coincidence both those parties were
+at the gate; for the Count of Armagnac, father-in-law of the orphan
+Duke of Orleans, had assumed the leadership of the party, and had
+come up to Paris at the head of his infuriated Gascons and the men of
+Languedoc. North and South were again ranged in hostile ranks, and
+inside the walls there was a reign of terror and an amount of misery
+never equalled till that second reign of terror which is still the
+darkest spot in the memory of old men yet alive. No man could put faith
+in his neighbour. The murder of the Duke of Orleans had dissolved all
+confidence in the word of princes. One half of France was ready to draw
+against the other. Each half was anxious for support, from whatever
+quarter it came, and to gain the destruction of their rivals would
+sacrifice the interests of the nation.
+
+But the same spirit of disunion and extirpation of ancient landmarks
+was at work in England. The accession of Henry the Fourth was not
+effected without the opposition of the adherents of the former king
+and of the supporters, on general principles, of the legitimate line.
+There were treasons, and plots, and pitiless executions. The feudal
+chiefs were no longer the compact body which could give laws both to
+King and Parliament, but ranged themselves in opposite camps and waited
+for the spoils of the vanquished side. The clergy unanimously came to
+the aid of the usurper on his faithful promise to exempt them from
+taxation; and, by thus throwing their own proportion of the public
+burdens on the body of the people, they sundered the alliance which
+had always hitherto subsisted between the Church and the lower class.
+Another bribe was held out to the clerical order for its support to
+the unlineal crown by the surrender to their vengeance of any heretics
+they could discover. [A.D. 1401.] In the second year of this reign,
+accordingly, we find a law enabling the priests to burn, "on some
+high and conspicuous piece of ground," any who dissented from their
+faith. This is the first legal sanction in England to the logic of
+flame and fagot. How dreadfully this permission was used, we shall see
+ere many years elapse. In the mean time, it is worth while to remark
+that in proportion as the Church lost in popularity and affection it
+gained in legal privilege. While it was strong it did not need to be
+cruel; and if it had continued its care of the poor and helpless, it
+would have been able to leave Wickliff to his dissertations on its
+doctrinal errors undisturbed. A Church which is found to be nationally
+beneficial, and which endears itself to its adherents by the practical
+graces of Christianity, will never be overthrown, or even weakened, by
+any theoretical defects in its creeds or formularies. It was perhaps,
+therefore, a fortunate circumstance that the Church of Rome had
+departed as much by this time from the path of honesty and usefulness
+as from the simplicity of gospel truth. The Bible might have been
+looked at in vain, even in Wickliff's translation, if its meanings had
+not been rendered plain by the lives and principles of the clergy.
+Henry the Fifth, feeling the same necessity of clerical support which
+had thrown his father into the hands of the Church, left nothing
+untried to attach it to his cause. All the opposition which had been
+offered to its claims had hitherto been confined to men of low rank,
+and generally to members of its own body. Wickliff himself had been
+but a country vicar, and had been unnoticed and despised in his small
+parsonage at Lutterworth. But three-and-twenty years after he was
+dead, his name was celebrated far and wide as the enemy of constituted
+authority and a heretic of the most dangerous kind. His guilt consisted
+in nothing whatever but in having translated the Bible into English;
+but the fact of his having done so was patent to all. No witnesses were
+required. The bones of the old man were dug up from their resting-place
+in the quiet churchyard in Leicestershire, carried ignominiously to
+Oxford, and burned amid the howls and acclamations of an infuriated
+mob of priests and doctors. This was in 1409. But, in his character of
+heretic and unbeliever, Wickliff had high associates in this same year;
+for the General Council sitting at Pisa declared the two Popes--of
+Avignon and Rome--who still continued to divide the Christian world, to
+be "heretics, perjurers, and schismatics."
+
+Europe, indeed, was ripe for change in almost all the relations both
+of Church and State. There would seem no close connection between
+Bohemia and England; yet in a very short time the doctrines of Wickliff
+penetrated to Prague. There Huss and Jerome preached against the
+enormities and contradictions of the Romish system, and bitterly
+paid for their presumption in the fires of Constance before many
+years had passed. But in England the effects of the new revelation
+of the hidden gospel had been stronger than even at Prague. Public
+opinion, however, divided itself into two very different channels; and
+while the whole nation listened with open ear to the denunciations
+rising everywhere against the corruption, pride, and sensuality of
+the priesthood, it rushed at the same time into the wildest excesses
+of cruelty against the opponents of any of the doctrinal errors or
+superstitious beliefs in which it had been brought up. In the same
+year in which several persons were burnt in Smithfield as supporters
+of Wickliff and the Bible, the Parliament sent up addresses to the
+Crown, advising the king to seize the temporalities of the Church,
+and to apply the riches wasted on luxurious monks and nuns to the
+payment of his soldiers. Henry the Fifth adroitly availed himself of
+the double direction in which the popular feeling ran. He gained over
+the priesthood by exterminating the opponents of their ceremonies
+and faith, and rewarded himself by occasionally confiscating the
+revenues of a dozen or two of the more notorious monasteries. In 1417
+a heavier sacrifice was demanded of him than his mere presence at the
+burning of a plebeian heretic like John Badby, whose execution he had
+attended at Smithfield in 1410. He was required to give up into the
+hands of the Church the great and noble Oldcastle, Lord Cobham. The
+Church, as if to mark its triumph, did not examine the accused on
+any point connected with civil or political affairs. It questioned
+him solely on his religious beliefs; and as it found him unconvinced
+of the necessity of confession to a priest, of pilgrimages to the
+shrines of saints, of the worship of images, and of the doctrine of
+transubstantiation, it delivered him over to the secular arm, and
+the stout old soldier was taken to St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, and
+suspended, by an iron chain round his body, above a fire, to die by
+the slowest and most painful of deaths. But, in this yielding up of a
+nobleman to the vengeance of the priesthood, Henry had a double motive:
+he terrified the proudest of the barons, and attached to himself the
+other bodies in the State. The people were still profoundly ignorant,
+and looked on the innovators as the enemies both of God and man. And
+nothing but this can account for the astonishing spectacle presented
+by Europe at this date. The Church torn by contending factions--three
+Popes at one time--and council arrayed against council; every nation
+disgusted with its own priesthood, and enthusiasm bursting out in
+the general confusion into the wildest excesses of fanaticism and
+vice,--and yet a total incapacity in any country of devising means of
+amendment. Great efforts were made, by wise and holy men within the
+Church itself, to shake off the impediments to its development and
+increase. Reclamations were made, more in sorrow than in anger, against
+the universal depravation of morals and beliefs. The Popes were not
+unmoved with these complaints, and gave credence to the forebodings
+of evil which rose from every heart. Yet the network of custom, the
+authority of tradition, and the unchangeableness of Roman policy
+marred every effort at self-reformation. An opening was apparently
+made for the introduction of improvement, by the declaration of the
+supremacy of general councils, and the cessation of the great schism
+of the West on the nomination of Martin the Fifth to the undisputed
+chair. [A.D. 1429.] But the force of circumstances was irresistible.
+Cardinals who approved of the declaration while members of the council
+repudiated its acts when, by good fortune, they succeeded to the
+tiara; and one of them even ventured the astounding statement that
+in his character of AEneas Sylvius, and approver of the decree of
+Basle, he was guilty of damnable sin, but was possessed of immaculate
+virtue in the character of Paul the Second. It was obvious that this
+unnatural state of things could not last. An establishment conscious of
+its defects, but unable to throw them off, and finally forced to the
+awful necessity of defending them by the foulest and most unpardonable
+means, might have read the inevitable result in every page of history.
+But worse remained behind. There sat upon the chair of St. Peter, in
+the year 1492, the most depraved and wicked of mankind. No earthly
+ruler had equalled him in profligacy and the coarser vices of cruelty
+and oppression since the death of the Roman Nero. This was a man of
+the name of Borgia, who fixed his infamous mark on the annals of the
+Papacy as Alexander the Sixth. While this bloodthirsty ruffian was at
+the summit of sacerdotal power--this poisoner of his friends, this
+polluter of his family circle with unimaginable crimes--as the visible
+representative upon earth of the Church of Christ, what hope could
+there be of amendment in the lower orders of the clergy, or continuance
+of men's belief in the popish claims? Long before this, in 1442, the
+falsehood of the pretended donation of Constantine, on which the Popes
+founded their territorial rights, was triumphantly proved by the
+learned Valla; and at the end of the century the reverence of mankind
+for the successor of the Prince of the Apostles was exposed to a trial
+which the authenticity of all the documents in the world could not
+have successfully stood, in the personal conduct of the Pope and his
+familiars.
+
+While this was the general state of Europe in the fifteenth century
+as regards the position of the clergy, high and low, the Church,
+in all countries, threw itself on the protection of the kings. By
+the middle, or towards the end, of this period, there was no other
+patronage to which they could have recourse. The nobility in France
+and England were practically eradicated. All confidence between baron
+and baron was at an end, and all belief in knightly faith and honour
+in the other classes of the people. As if the time for a new state
+of society was arrived, and instruments were required to clear the
+way for the approaching form, the nobility and gentry of England
+first were effectual in overthrowing their noble brethren in France,
+and then, with infuriate bitterness, turned their swords upon each
+other. The most rememberable general characteristic of this century is
+the consolidation of royal power. The king becomes despotic because
+the great nobility is overthrown and the Church stripped of its
+authority. Tired of hoping for aid from their ancient protector, the
+lowest classes cast their eyes of helplessness to the throne instead
+of to the crozier. They see in the reigning sovereign an ideal of
+personified Power. All other ideals with which the masses of the people
+have deluded themselves have passed away. The Church is stripped of
+the charm which its lofty claims and former kindness gave it. It is
+detected for the thing it is,--a corporation for the grinding of the
+poor and the support of tyranny and wrong. The nobility is stripped
+also of the glitter which covered its harsh outlines with the glow
+of Christian qualifications. It is found to be selfish, faithless,
+untrustworthy, and divided against itself. To the king, then, as the
+last refuge of the unfortunate, as the embodied State, a combination,
+in his own person, of the manly virtues of the knight with the
+Christian tenderness of the priest, the public transfers all the
+romantic confidence it had lavished on the other two. And, as if to
+prove that this idea came to its completeness without reference to
+the actual holder of sovereign authority, we find that in France the
+first really despotic king was Louis the Eleventh, and in England the
+first king by divine right was Henry the Seventh. Two more unchivalrous
+personages never disgraced the three-legged stool of a scrivener. Yet
+they sat almost simultaneously on two of earth's proudest thrones.
+
+No century had ever witnessed so great a change in manners and
+position as this. In others we have seen a gradual widening-out of
+thought and tendencies, all, however, subdued by the universal shadow
+in which every thing was carried on. But in this the progress was
+by a sudden leap from darkness into light. In ancient times Europe
+was held together by certain communities of interest and feeling, of
+which the chief undoubtedly was the centralization of the spiritual
+power in Rome. At the Papal Court all the nations were represented,
+and Stockholm and Saragossa were brought into contact by their common
+dependence on the successor of St. Peter. The courtly festivals which
+invited a knight of Scotland to cross blunted spears in a glittering
+tournament with a knight of Sicily in the court of an emperor of
+Germany was another bond of union between remotest regions; and in
+the fourteenth century the indefatigable Froissart, as we remarked,
+conveyed a knowledge of one nation to another in the entertaining
+chapters with which he delighted the listeners in the different
+palaces where he set up his rest. But all these lights, it will be
+observed, illumined only the hill-tops, and left the valleys still
+obscure. Ambitious Churchmen encountered their brethren of all
+kindreds and tongues in the court of the Vatican; tiltings were only
+for the high-born and rich, and Froissart himself poured forth his
+treasures only for the delight of lords and ladies. The ballads of
+the common people, on the other hand, had had a strongly disuniting
+effect. The songs which charmed the peasant were directed against the
+exacting priest and oppressive noble. In England they were generally
+pointed against the Norman baron, with whose harshness and pride
+were contrasted the kindness and liberality of Robin Hood and his
+peers. The French ballads were hostile to the English invader; the
+Scottish poems were commemorative of the heroism of Wallace and the
+cruelties of the Southern hordes. Literatures were thus condemned
+to be hostile, because they were not lofty enough to overlook the
+boundaries of the narrow circles in which they moved. By slow and
+toilsome process books were multiplied,--carefully copied in legible
+hand, and then chained up, like inestimable jewels, in monastery or
+palace, as too valuable to be left at large. A king's library was
+talked of as a wonder when it contained six or seven hundred volumes.
+The writings of controversialists were passed from hand to hand, and
+the publication of a volume was generally achieved by its being read
+aloud at the refectory-table of the college and then discussed, in
+angry disputations, in the University Hall. Not one man in five hundred
+could read, if the book had been written in the plainest text; and at
+length the running hand was so indistinct as to be not much plainer
+than hieroglyphics. The discoveries, therefore, of one age had all to
+be discovered over again in the next. Roger Bacon, the English monk,
+in the eleventh century, was acquainted with gunpowder, and had clear
+intimations of many of the other inventions of more recent times.
+But what was the use of all his genius? He could only write down his
+triumph in a book; the book was carefully arranged on the shelf of
+his monastery; clever men of his own society may have carried the
+report of his doings to the neighbouring establishments; but time
+passed on, those clever men died out, the book on the monastery shelf
+was gradually covered with dust, and Roger Bacon became a conjurer in
+popular estimation, who foretold future events and took counsel from
+a supernatural brazen head. But in this century the art of printing
+was discovered and perfected. A thousand copies now darted off in
+all directions, cheap enough to be bought by the classes below the
+highest, portable enough to be carried about the person to the most
+distant lands, and in a type so large and clear that a very little
+instruction would enable the most illiterate to master its contents.
+Here was the lever that lifted the century at its first appearance
+into the light of modern civilization. And it came at the very nick of
+time. Men's minds were disturbed on many subjects; for old unreasoning
+obedience to authority had passed away. Who was to guide them in their
+future voyage? Isolated works would no longer be of any use. Great
+scholars and acute dialecticians had been tried and found wanting. They
+only acted on the highly-educated class; and now it was the people
+in mass--the worker, the shopkeeper, the farmer, the merchant--who
+were anxious to be informed; and what could a monk in a cell, or
+even Chaucer with his harp in hand, do for the edification of such
+a countless host? People would no longer be fed on the dry crust of
+Aristotelianism or be satisfied with the intellectual jugglery of the
+Schoolmen. Rome had lost its guiding hand, and its restraining sword
+was also found of no avail. Some rest was to be found for the minds
+which had felt the old foundation slip away from them; and in this
+century, thus pining for light, thus thrusting forward eager hands to
+be warmed at the first ray of a new-risen sun, there were terrible
+displays of the aberrations of zeal without knowledge.
+
+Almost within hearing of the first motion of the press, incalculable
+numbers of enthusiasts revived the exploded sect of the Flagellants of
+former centuries, and perambulated Europe, plying the whip upon their
+naked backs and declaring that the whole of religion consisted in the
+use of the scourge. Others, more crazy still, pronounced the use of
+clothes to be evidence of an unconverted nature, and returned to the
+nakedness of our first parents as proof of their restoration to a state
+of innocence. Mortality lost all its terrors in this earnest search
+for something more than the ordinary ministrations of the faith could
+bestow; and in France and England the hideous spectacles called the
+Dance of Death were frequent. In these, under the banner of a grinning
+skeleton, the population danced with frantic violence, shouting,
+shrieking, in the exultation of the time,--a scene where the joyous
+appearance of the occupation contrasted shockingly with the awful place
+in which the orgies were held, for the catacombs of Paris, filled with
+the bones and carcasses of many generations, were the chosen site for
+these frightful exhibitions. Like the unnatural gayety that reigned in
+the same city when the guillotine had filled every family with terror
+or grief, they were but an abnormal development of the sentiment of
+despair. People danced the Dance of Death, because life had lost its
+charm. Life had lost its security in the two most powerful nations
+of the time. England was shaken with contending factions, and France
+exhausted and hopeless of restoration. [A.D. 1451.] The peasantry in
+both were trampled on without remorse. Jack Cade led up his famishing
+thousands to lay their sufferings before the throne. They asked
+for nothing but a slight relaxation of the burdens that oppressed
+them, and were condemned without mercy to the sword and gallows. The
+French "Jacques Bonhomme" was even in a worse condition. There was
+no controlling power on the throne to guard him from the tyrannies
+of a hundred petty superiors. The Church of his country was as much
+conquered by the Church of England as its soil by the English arms.
+A cardinal, bloated and bloody, dominated both London and Paris, and
+sent his commands from the Palace at Winchester, which were obeyed by
+both nations. [A.D. 1452.] [A.D. 1483.] [A.D. 1492.] And all this on
+the very eve of the introduction of the perfected printing-press, the
+birth of Luther, and the discovery of America! From the beginning of
+the century till government became assured by the accession of Henry
+VII. and Louis XI., the whole of Europe was unsettled and apparently on
+the verge of dissolution. In the absence of the controlling power of
+the Sovereign, each little baron asserted his own right and privileges,
+and aimed perhaps at the restoration of his feudal independence, when
+the spirit of feudalism had passed away. The nobility, even if it had
+been united, was not now numerous enough to present a ruling body to
+the State. It became despised as soon as it was seen to be powerless;
+and at last, in sheer exhaustion, the people, the churches, and the
+peerage of the two proudest nations in the world lay down helpless and
+unresisting at the footstool of the only authority likely to protect
+them from each other or themselves. When we think of the fifteenth
+century, let us remember it as the period when mankind grew tired
+of the establishments of all former ages, when feudalism resigned
+its sword into the hands of monarchy, and when the last days of the
+expiring state of society were distinguished by the withdrawal of the
+death-grasp by France and England from each other's throats, and the
+establishment of respectful if not friendly sentiments between them.
+By the year 1451, there was not one of all the conquests of the Edwards
+and Henrys left to the English except Calais. If that miserable relic
+had also been restored, it would have prevented many a heart-burning
+between the nations, and advanced, perhaps by centuries, the happy time
+when each can look across the narrow channel which divides them without
+a wish save for the glory and prosperity of the other.
+
+It is like going back to the time of the Crusades to turn our eyes
+from the end of this century to the beginning, so great and essential
+is the change that has taken place. Yet it is necessary, having given
+the general view of the condition of affairs, to descend to certain
+particulars by which the progress of the history may be more vividly
+defined. And of these the principal are the battle of Agincourt, the
+relief of Orleans, the invention of Guttenberg, and the achievement
+of Columbus. These are fixed on, not for their own intrinsic merits,
+but for the great results they produced. Agincourt unfeudalized
+France; Joan of Arc restored man's faith in human virtue and divine
+superintendence; printing preserved forever the conquests of the human
+intellect; and the discovery of America opened a new world to the
+energies of mankind.
+
+We must return to the state of France when the Duke of Orleans was so
+treacherously slain by the ferocious Duke of Burgundy in 1407. For a
+time the crime was successful in establishing the murderer's power,
+and the Burgundians were strengthened by obtaining the custody of the
+imbecile king, Charles the Sixth, and the support of his infamous
+consort, Isabeau of Bavaria. But authority so obtained could not be
+kept without plunging into greater excesses. So the populace were let
+loose, and no man's life was safe. In self-defence--burning with
+hatred of the slayer of his son-in-law and betrayer of his country--the
+Count of Armagnac denounced the dominant party. [A.D. 1411.] Burgundy
+threw himself into the arms of England, and was only outbidden in his
+offers of submission by the Armagnacs in the following year. Each party
+in turn promised to support the English king in all his claims, and
+before he set foot in France he already found himself in possession
+of the kingdom. [A.D. 1413.] Many strong places in the South were
+surrendered to him as pledges of the fidelity of his supporters. The
+whole land was the prey of faction and party hate. The Church had
+repudiated both Pope and Council; the towns were in insurrection in
+every street; and Henry the Fifth was only twenty-six years of age,
+full of courage and ambition, supported by the love and gratitude of
+the national Church, and anxious to glorify the usurpation of his
+family by a restoration of the triumphs of Cressy and Poictiers. He
+therefore sent an embassy to France, demanding his recognition by
+all the States as king, though he modestly waived the royal title
+till its present holder should be no more. He declared also that he
+would not be content without the hand of Catharine, the French king's
+daughter, with Normandy and other counties for her dowry; and when
+these reasonable conditions, as he had anticipated, were rejected,
+and all his preparations were completed, he threw off the mask of
+negotiation, and sailed from Southampton with an army of six thousand
+men-at-arms and twenty-four thousand archers. A beautiful sight it
+must have been that day in September, 1415, when the enormous convoy
+sailed or rowed down the placid Southampton water. Sails of various
+colours, and streamers waving from every mast, must have given it the
+appearance of an immense regatta; and while all France was on the watch
+for the point of attack, and Calais was universally regarded as the
+natural landing-place for an English army, the great flotilla pursued
+its course past the Isle of Wight, and struck out for the opposite
+coast, filling up the mouth of the Seine with innumerable vessels,
+and casting anchor off the town of Harfleur. Prayers for its success
+ascended from every parish in England; for the clergy looked on the
+youthful king as their champion against all their enemies,--against
+the Pope, who claimed their tithes, against the itinerant monks, who
+denied and resisted their authority, and against the nobles, who envied
+them their wealth and territories. And no wonder; for at this time the
+ecclesiastical possessions included more than the half of England.
+Of fifty-three thousand knightly holdings on the national register,
+twenty-eight thousand belonged to mother Church! Prayers also for its
+success were uttered in the workshops and markets. People were tired
+of the long inaction of Richard the Second's time, and longed for the
+stirring incidents they had heard their fathers speak of when the Black
+Prince was making the "Mounseers" fly. For by this time a stout feeling
+of mutual hatred had given vigour to the quarrel between the nations.
+Parliament had voted unexampled supplies, and "all the youth of England
+was afire."
+
+Meantime the siege of Harfleur dragged its slow length along.
+Succours were expected by the gallant garrison, but succour never
+came. Proclamations had indeed been issued, summoning the _ban_ and
+_arriere ban_ of France, and knights were assembling from all quarters
+to take part in the unavoidable engagement. But the counsels at
+head-quarters were divided. The masses of the people were not hearty
+in the cause, and the men of Harfleur, at the end of the fifth week
+of their resistance, sent to say they would surrender "if they were
+not relieved by a great army in two days." "Take four," said Henry,
+wishing nothing more than a decisive action under the very walls. But
+the time rapidly passed, and Harfleur was once more an English town.
+Henry might look round and triumph in the possession of streets and
+houses; but that was all, for his usual barbarity had banished the
+inhabitants. The richer citizens were put to ransom; all the rest were
+driven from the place,--not quite naked, nor quite penniless, for one
+petticoat was left to each woman, and one farthing in ready money.
+Generosity to the vulgar vanquished was not yet understood, either
+as a Christian duty or a stroke of policy. But courage, not unmixed
+with braggadocio, was still the character of the time. The English had
+lost many men from sickness during the siege. No blow had been boldly
+struck in open field, and a war without a battle, however successful
+in its results, would have been thought no better than a tournament.
+All the remaining chivalry of France was now collected under its chiefs
+and princes, and Henry determined to try what mettle they were of. He
+published a proclamation that he and his English would march across
+the country from Harfleur to Calais in spite of all opposition; and,
+as the expedition would occupy eight days at least, he felt sure that
+some attempt would be made to revenge so cutting an insult. He might
+easily have sent his forces, in detachments, by sea, for there was not
+a French flag upon all the Channel; but trumpets were sounded one day,
+swords drawn, cheers no doubt heartily uttered, by an enthusiastic
+array of fifteen thousand men, and the dangerous march began. It
+was the month of October, the time of the vintage: there was plenty
+of wine; and a French author makes the characteristic remark, "with
+plenty of wine the English soldier could go to the end of the world."
+When the English soldier, on this occasion, had got through the eight
+days' provisions with which he started, instead of finding himself at
+Calais, he was only advanced as far as Amiens, with the worst part of
+the journey before him. The fords of the Somme were said to be guarded;
+spies came over in the disguise of deserters, and told the king that
+all the land was up in arms, that the princes were all united, and that
+two hundred thousand men were hemming them hopelessly round. In the
+midst of these bad news, however, a ray of light broke in. A villager
+pointed out a marsh, by crossing which they could reach a ford in
+the stream. They traversed the marsh without hesitation, waded with
+difficulty through morass and water, and, behold! they were safe on the
+other side. The road was now clear, they thought, for Calais; and they
+pushed cheerily on. But, more dangerous than the marsh, more impassable
+than the river, the vast army of France blocked up their way. Closing
+across a narrow valley which lay between the castle of Agincourt and
+the village of Tramecourt, sixty thousand knights, gentlemen, and
+man-at-arms stood like a wall of steel. There were all the great names
+there of all the provinces,--Dukes of Lorraine, and Bar, and Bourbon,
+Princes of Orleans and Berri, and many more. Henry by this time had but
+twelve thousand men. He found he had miscalculated his movements, and
+was unwilling to sacrifice his army to the point of honour. He offered
+to resign the title of King of France and to surrender his recent
+conquest at Harfleur. But the princes were resolved not to negotiate,
+but to revenge. Henry then said to the prisoners he was leading in his
+train, "Gentlemen, go till this affair is settled. If your captors
+survive, present yourselves at Calais." His forces were soon arranged.
+Archers had ceased to be the mere appendages to a line of battle: they
+now constituted almost all the English army. All the night before they
+had been busy in preparation. They had furbished up their arms, and
+put now cords to their bows, and sharpened the stakes they carried to
+ward off the attack of cavalry. At early dawn they had confessed to the
+priest; and all the time no noise had been heard. Henry had ordered
+silence throughout the camp on pain of the severest penalties,--loss
+of his horse to a gentleman, and of his right ear to a common soldier.
+[A.D. 1415.] The 23d of October was the great, the important day. Henry
+put a noble helmet on his head, surmounted by a golden crown, sprang
+on his little gray hackney, encouraged his men with a few manly words,
+reminding them of Old England and how constantly they had conquered the
+French, and led them to a field where the grass was still green, and
+which the rains had not converted into mud; for the weather had long
+been unpropitious. And here the heroic little army expected the attack.
+But the enemy were in no condition to make an advance. Seated all night
+on their enormous war-horses, the heavy-armed cavaliers had sunk the
+unfortunate animals up to their knees in the adhesive soil. Old Thomas
+of Erpingham, seeing the decisive moment, completed the marshalling of
+the English as soon as possible, and, throwing his baton in the air,
+cried, "Now, Strike!" A great hurrah was the answer to this order; but
+still the French line continued unmoved. If it had been turned into
+stone it could not have been more inactive. Ranged thirty-two deep,
+and fixed to the spot they stood on, buried up in armour, and crowded
+in the narrow space, the knights could offer no resistance to the
+attack of their nimble and lightly-armed foes. A flight of ten thousand
+arrows poured upon the vast mass, and saddles became empty without a
+blow. There came, indeed, two great charges of horse from the flank
+of the French array; but the inevitable shaft found entrance through
+their coats of mail, and very few survived. Of these the greater part
+rushed, blind and wounded, back among their own men, crashing upon the
+still spell-bound line and throwing it into inextricable confusion.
+Horse and man rolled over in the dirt, struggling and shrieking in an
+undistinguishable mass. Meanwhile the archers, throwing aside their
+stakes and seizing the hatchets hanging round their necks, advanced
+at a run,--poured blows without cessation on casque and shield,
+completing the destruction among the crowded multitudes which their
+own disorder had begun; and, as the same cause which hindered their
+advance prevented their retreat, they sat the hopeless victims of
+a false position, and were slaughtered without an attempt made to
+resist or fly. The fate of the second line was nearly the same. Henry,
+forcing his way with sword and axe through the living barrier of horse
+and cavalier, led his compact array to the glittering body beyond.
+There the _melee_ became more animated, and prowess was shown upon
+either side. But the rear-guard, warned by previous experience, took
+flight before the middle lines were pierced, and Henry saw himself
+victor with very trifling loss, and only encumbered with the number
+of the slain, and still more with the multitude of prisoners. Almost
+all the surviving noblemen had surrendered their swords. They knew
+too well the fate of wounded or disarmed gentlemen even among their
+countrymen, and trusted rather to the generosity of the conqueror than
+the mercy of their own people. Alas that we must again confess that
+Henry was ignorant of the name of generosity! Alarmed for a moment at
+the threatening aspect of some of the fugitives who had resumed their
+ranks, he gave the pitiless word that every prisoner was to be slain.
+Not a soldier would lift his hand against his captive,--from the double
+motive of tenderness and cupidity. To tell an "archer good" to murder
+a great baron, the captive of his bow and spear, was to tell him to
+resign a ransom which would make him rich for life. But Henry was not
+to be balked. He appointed two hundred men to be executioners of his
+command; and thousands of the young and gay were slaughtered in cold
+blood. Was it hideous policy which thus led Henry to weaken his enemy's
+cause by diminishing the number of its knightly defenders, or was it
+really the result of the fear of being overcome? Whichever it was, the
+effect was the same. Ten thousand of the gentlemen of France were the
+sufferers on that day,--a whole generation of the rich and high-born
+swept away at one blow! It would have taken a long time in the course
+of nature to supply their place; but nature was not allowed to have
+her way. Wars and dissensions interfered with her restorative efforts.
+Six-and-thirty years were yet to be spent in mutual destruction, or in
+struggles against the English name; and when France was again left free
+from foreign occupation, when French chivalry again wished to assume
+the chief rule in human affairs, it was found that chivalry was out of
+place; a new state of things had arisen in Europe; the greatest exploit
+which had been known in their national annals had been performed by a
+woman; and knighthood had so lost its manliness that, when prosperity
+and population had again made France a powerful kingdom, the silk-clad
+courtiers of an unwarlike monarch thought it good taste to sneer at the
+relief of Orleans and the mission of Joan of Arc!
+
+Six years after Agincourt, the English conqueror and the wretched
+phantom of kingship called Charles the Sixth descended to their
+graves. [A.D. 1421.] Military honour and patriotism seemed utterly at
+an end among the French population, and our Henry the Sixth, the son of
+the man of Agincourt, succeeded in the great object of English ambition
+and was recognised from the Channel to the Loire as King of France. In
+the Southern provinces a spark of the old French gallantry was still
+unextinguished, but it showed itself in the gay unconcern with which
+the Dauphin, now Charles the Seventh, bore all the reverses of fortune,
+and consoled himself for the loss of the noblest crown in Europe by the
+enjoyments of love and festivity. Perhaps he saw that the whirligig
+of time would bring about its revenges, and that the curse of envious
+faction would vex the councils of the conquerors as it had ruined the
+fortunes of the subdued. The warriors of Henry still remained, but,
+without the controlling hand, they could direct their efforts to no
+common object. The uncles of the youthful king speedily quarrelled.
+The gallant Bedford was opposed by the treacherous Glo'ster, and both
+were dominated and supplanted by the haughty prelate, the Cardinal
+Bishop of Winchester. Offence was soon taken at the presumption of the
+English soldiery. Religious animosities supervened. The Churches of
+England and France had both made successful endeavours to establish a
+considerable amount of national independence, and the French bishops,
+who had withdrawn themselves from the absolutism of Rome, were little
+inclined to become subordinate to Winchester and Canterbury. A court
+gradually gathered round the Dauphin, which inspired him with more
+manly thoughts. His feasts and tournaments were suspended, and, with
+his hand on the hilt of his sword, he watched the proceedings of the
+English. These proceedings were uniformly successful when restricted
+to the operations of war. They defeated the men of Gascony and the
+reinforcements sent over by the Scotch. They held a firm grasp of Paris
+and all the strong places of the North, and cast down the gauntlet to
+the rest of France by laying siege to the beautiful city of Orleans in
+the winter of 1428. [A.D. 1428.] Once in possession of the Loire, they
+would be able at their leisure to extend their conquests southward; and
+all the loyal throughout the country took up the challenge and resolved
+on the defence of the beleaguered town. The English must have begun by
+this time to despise their enemy; for, in spite of the greatness of
+the stake, they undertook the siege with a force of less than three
+thousand men. To make up for the deficiency in numbers, they raised
+twelve large bastions all round the walls, exhausting the troops by
+the labour and finding it impossible to garrison them adequately when
+they were finished. It seems that Sebastopol was not the first occasion
+on which our soldiers were overworked. To surround a city of several
+thousand inhabitants, strongly garrisoned, and with an open country
+at its back for the supply of provisions, would have required a large
+and well-directed force. But the moral effects of Agincourt, and even
+of Cressy and Poictiers, were not yet obliterated. Public spirit was
+dead, and very few entertained a hope of saving the doomed place.
+Statesmen, politicians, and warriors, all calculated the chances of
+success and decided against the cause of France. But in the true heart
+of the common people far better feelings survived. They were neither
+statesmen, nor politicians, nor warriors; but they were loyal and
+devoted Frenchmen, and put their trust in God.
+
+A peasant-girl, eighteen years of age, born and bred in a little
+village called Domremy, in Lorraine, was famous for her religious
+faith and simplicity of character. Her name was Joan d'Arc,--a dreamy
+enthusiast, believing with full heart all the legends of saints and
+miracles with which the neighbourhood was full. She rested, also, with
+a sort of romantic interest on the personal fortunes of the young
+discrowned king, who had been unjustly excluded by foreigners from his
+rights and was now about to lose the best of his remaining possessions.
+She walked in the woods and heard voices telling her to be up and
+doing. She went to pray in the dim old church, and had glorious visions
+of angels who smiled upon her. One time she saw a presence with a
+countenance like the sun, and wings upon his shoulders, who said, "Go,
+Joan, to the help of the King of France." But she answered, "My lord,
+I cannot ride, nor command men-at-arms." The voice replied, "Go to M.
+de Baudricourt at Vaucouleurs: he will take thee to the king. Saint
+Catharine and Saint Marguerite will come to thy assistance." There was
+no voluntary deception here. The girl lived in a world of her own, and
+peopled it out of the fulness of her heart. She went to Vaucouleurs:
+she saw M. de Baudricourt. He took her to Poictiers, where the Dauphin
+resided, and when she was led into the glittering ring an attempt was
+made to deceive her by representing another as the prince; but she
+went straight up to the Dauphin and said to him, "Gentle Dauphin, my
+name is Joan the Maid. The King of Heaven sends to you, through me,
+that you shall be anointed and crowned at Rheims, and you shall be
+lieutenant of the King of Heaven, who is King of France." All the court
+was moved,--the more pure-minded, with sympathy for the girl, the more
+experienced, with the use that might be made of her enthusiasm to rouse
+the nation. Both parties conspired to aid Joan in her design; and,
+clothed in white armour, mounted on a war-horse, holding the banner of
+France in her hand, and waited on by knights and pages, she set forth
+on her way to Orleans. It was like a religious procession all the way.
+She prayed at all the shrines, and was blest by the clergy, and held on
+her path undismayed with all the dangers that occurred at every step.
+At length, on the 30th of April, she made her entry into Orleans. Her
+coming had long been expected; and, now that it had really happened,
+people looked back at the difficulties of the route and thought the
+whole march a miracle. Meantime Joan knelt and gave thanks in the great
+church, and the true defence of Orleans began. Into the hard-pressed
+city had gathered all the surviving chivalry of France,--Dunois,
+the bastard of Orleans, La Hire, Saintrailles, rough and dissolute
+soldiers, yet all held in awe by the purity and innocence of the
+Maid. With Joan at the head of the column of assault, the English
+intrenchments fell one after another. In spite of wounds and hardships,
+the peasant-girl pushed fearlessly on; the knights and gentlemen
+could not decline to follow where she led the way; and ten days after
+her arrival old Talbot and Falstaff gathered up the fragments of
+their troops and made a precipitate retreat from the scene of their
+discomfiture. But there was not yet rest for the dreamer of Domremy.
+She hurried off to the Dauphin. "Gentle Dauphin," she said, "till you
+are crowned with the old crown and bedewed with the holy oil, you can
+never be King of France. Come with me to Rheims. There shall no enemy
+hurt you on the way." The country through which they had to pass was
+bristling with English castles and swarming with wandering troops. Yet
+the counsel which appeared so hardy was in fact the wisest that could
+be given. The faith in the sanctity of coronations was still strong.
+Whoever was first crowned would in the eye of faith be true king.
+Winchester was bringing over the English claimant. All France would be
+startled at the news that the descendant of St. Louis was beforehand
+with his rival; and the march was successfully made. [July 17, 1429.]
+"Gentle king," said Joan, kneeling after the ceremony, and calling him
+for the first time King,--"Gentle King, Orleans is saved, the true king
+is crowned. My task is done. Farewell." But they would not let her
+leave them so soon. The people crowded round her and blest her wherever
+she appeared. "Oh, the good people of Rheims!" she cried: "when I die
+I should like to be buried here." "When do you think you shall die?"
+inquired the archbishop,--perhaps with a sneer upon his lips. "That I
+know not," she replied: "whenever it pleases God. But, for my own part,
+I wish to go back and keep the sheep with my sister and brothers. They
+will be so glad to see me again!" But this was not to be.
+
+If Talbot and Suffolk had been foiled and vanquished by Dunois and La
+Hire, they would have accepted their defeat as one of the mischances of
+war. A knightly hand ennobles the blow it gives. But to be humbled by
+a woman, a peasant, a prophetess, an impostor,--this was too much for
+the proud stomachs of our steel-clad countrymen. But far worse was it
+in the eyes of our stole-clad ecclesiastics. Apparitions of saints and
+angels vouchsafed to the recalcitrant Church of France!--voices heard
+from heaven denouncing the claims of the English king!--visible glories
+hanging round the head of a simple shepherdess! It was evident to every
+clergyman and monk and bishop in England that the woman was a witch or
+a deceiver. And almost all the clergymen in France thought the same;
+and after a while, when the exploit was looked back upon with calmness,
+almost all the soldiers on both sides were of the same opinion. Nobody
+could believe in the exaltation of a pure and enthusiastic mind, making
+its own visions, and performing its own miracles, without a tincture of
+deceit. It was easier and more orthodox to believe in the liquefaction
+of the holy oil and the wonders wrought by the bones of St. Denis: so,
+with a nearly universal assent of both the parties, the humbled English
+and delivered French, the most heroic and most feminine of women was
+handed over to the Church tribunals, and Joan's fate was sealed.
+Unmanly priests, whose law prevented them from having wives, unloving
+bishops, whose law prevented them from having daughters,--how were
+they to judge of the loving heart and trusting tenderness of a girl
+not twenty years of age, standing before them, with modesty not shown
+in blushes but in unabated simplicity of behaviour, telling the tale
+of all her actions as if she were pouring it into the ears of father
+and mother in her own old cottage at home, unconscious, or at least
+regardless, of scowling looks, and misleading questions, directed to
+her by those predetermined murderers? No one tried to save her. Charles
+the Seventh, with the oil of Rheims scarcely dried upon his head,
+made no attempt to get her from the hands of her enemies. The process
+took place at Rouen. Magic and heresy were the crimes laid to her
+charge; and as generosity was magic in the eyes of those narrow-souled
+inquisitors, and trust in God was heresy, there was no defence
+possible. Her whole life was a confession. First, she was condemned to
+perpetual imprisonment, and to resume the dress of her sex. Then she
+was exposed to every obloquy and insult which hatred and superstition
+could pour upon her. A gallant "Lord" accompanied the Count de Ligny in
+a visit to her cell. She was chained to a plank by both feet, and kept
+in this attitude night and day. The noble Englishman did honour to
+his rank and country. When Joan said, "I know the English will procure
+my death, in hopes of getting the realm of France; but they could not
+do it, no, if they had a hundred thousand _Goddams_ more than they
+have to-day;" the gallant visitor was so enraged by those depreciating
+remarks, and perhaps at the nickname thus early indicative of the
+national oath, that he drew his dagger, and would have struck her, if
+he had not been hindered by Lord Warwick. Another gentleman, on being
+admitted to her prison, insulted her by the grossness of his behaviour,
+and then overwhelmed her with blows. It was time for Joan to escape her
+tormentors. She put on once more the male apparel which she had thrown
+off, and sentence of death was passed. On the 30th of May, 1431, in the
+old fishmarket of Rouen, the great crime was consummated. [A.D. 1431.]
+The flames mounted very slowly; and when at last they enveloped her
+from the crowd, she was still heard calling on Jesus, and declaring,
+"The voices I heard were of God!--the voices I heard were of God!" The
+age of chivalry was indeed past, and the age of Church-domination was
+also about to expire. The peasant-girl of Domremy wrote the dishonoured
+epitaph of the first in the flame of Rouen, and a citizen of Mentz was
+about to give the other its death-blow with the printing-press.
+
+This is one of the inventions apparently unimportant, by which
+incalculable results have been produced. At first it was intended
+merely to simplify the process of copying the books which were
+already well known. And, if we may trust some of the stories told of
+the earliest specimens of the art, we shall see that there was some
+slight portion of dishonesty mingled with the talent of the Fathers
+of printing. These were Guttenberg of Mentz, and his apprentice or
+partner Faust. [A.D. 1455.] The first of their productions was a
+Latin Bible; and the letters of this impression were such an exact
+imitation of the works of the amanuensis that they passed it off as
+an exquisite specimen of the copyist's art. Faust sold a copy to the
+King of France for seven hundred crowns, and another to the Archbishop
+of Paris for four hundred. The prelate, enchanted with his bargain,
+(for the usual price was several hundred crowns above what he had
+given,) showed it in triumph to the king. The king compared the two,
+and was filled with astonishment. They were identical in every stroke
+and dot. How was it possible for any two scribes, or even for the same
+scribe, to produce so undeniable a fac-simile of his work? The capital
+letters of the edition were of red ink. They inquired still further,
+and found that many other copies had been sold, all precisely alike
+in form and pressure. They came to the conclusion that Faust was a
+wizard and had sold himself to the devil, and that the initials were
+of blood. The Church and State, in this case united in the persons of
+king and archbishop, had the magician apprehended. To save himself
+from the flames, the unhappy Faust had to confess the deceit, and also
+to discover the secret of the art. The whole mystery consisted in
+cutting letters upon movable metal types, and, after rubbing them with
+ink when they were correctly set, imprinting them upon paper by means
+of a screw. A simple expedient, as it appeared to everybody when the
+secret was spread abroad; for there had been seals stamping impressions
+on wax for many generations. Medals and coins had been poured forth
+from the dies of every nation from the dawn of history. In England,
+playing-cards had been produced for several years, with the figures
+impressed on them from wooden blocks; and in 1423 a stamped book,
+with wood engravings, had made its appearance, which now, with many
+treasures of typography, is in the library of Lord Spencer. Even in
+Nineveh, we learn from recent discovery, the dried bricks, while in a
+soft state, had been stamped with those curious-looking inscriptions,
+by a board in which the unsightly letters were set in high relief.
+Wooden letters had also long been known; and yet it was not till 1440
+that Guttenberg bethought him of the process of printing, and only
+after ten or twelve years' labour that he brought his experiments to
+perfection and with one crush of the completed press opened new hopes
+and prospects to the whole family of mankind. But things apparently
+unconnected are brought together for good when the great turning-points
+of human history are attained. There are always pebbles of the brook
+within reach when the warrior-shepherd has taken the sling in his hand.
+Shortly before the invention of printing, a discovery was made without
+which Guttenberg's skill would have been of no avail. This was the
+applicability of linen rags to the manufacture of paper. Parchment, and
+preparations of straw and papyrus, had sufficed for the transcriber and
+author of those unliterary times, but would have been inadequate to
+supply the demand of the new process; and therefore we may say that, as
+gunpowder was essential to the use of artillery, and steam-power for
+the railway-train, linen paper was indispensable to the development of
+the press. And the development was rapid beyond all imagination. In the
+remaining portion of the century, eight thousand five hundred and nine
+books were published, of which the English Caxton and his followers
+supplied one hundred and forty-two,--a small contribution in actual
+numbers, but valuable for the insight it gives us into the favourite
+literature of the time. Among those volumes there are
+
+    "Songs of war for gallant knight,
+     Lays of love for lady bright;"
+
+"The Tale of Troy divine," for scholars; "Tullie, of old age," and
+"of Friendship," and "Virgil's AEneid," for the classical; "Lives of
+Our Ladie and divers Saints," for the religious; and "The Consolation
+of Boethius," for the afflicted. But several editions prove the
+popularity of the Father of English poetry; and we find the "Tales of
+Cauntyrburrie," and the "Book of Fame," and "Troylus and Cresyde, made
+by Geoffrey Chaucer," the great and fitting representatives of the
+native English muse.
+
+We ought to remember, in judging of the paucity of books produced in
+England, that the Wars of the Roses broke out at the very time when
+Guttenberg's labours began. In such a season of struggle and unrest as
+the thirty years of civil strife--for though Mr. Knight, in his very
+interesting sketch of this date,[D] has shown that the period of actual
+and open war was very short, the state of uneasiness and expectation
+must have endured the whole time--there was small encouragement to the
+peaceful triumphs of art or literature. And, moreover, the pride of
+station was revolted by the prospect of the spread of information among
+the classes to whom it had not yet reached. The noble could afford to
+acknowledge his inferiority in learning and research to the priest
+or monk, for it was their trade to be wise and learned, and their
+scholarship was even considered a badge of the lowness of their birth,
+which had given them the primer and psalter instead of the horse and
+sword. But those high-hearted cavaliers could ill brook the notion of
+educated clowns and peasants. And, strange to say, the sentiment was
+shared and exaggerated by the peasants and clowns themselves. Jack
+Cade is represented, by an anachronism of date but with perfect truth
+of character, as profoundly irritated at the invention of printing, and
+the building of a paper-mill, and the introduction of such heathenish
+words as nominatives and adverbs: so that the press began its career
+opposed by the two greatest parties of the State. Yet truth is mighty
+and will prevail. No nobility in Europe gives such contributions to
+the general stock of high and healthy thought as the descendants of
+the men of Towton and Bosworth, and no peasantry values more deeply,
+or would defend more gallantly, the gifts poured upon it by a free
+and sympathizing press. Warwick the King-maker, if he had lived just
+now, would have made speeches in Parliament and had them reported in
+the _Times_, and Jack Cade would have been sent to the reformatory and
+taught to read and write.
+
+But, with the peerages of Europe greatly thinned, with mounted
+feudalism overthrown, with the press rejoicing as a giant to run its
+course, something also was needed in order to make a wider theatre for
+the introduction of the new life of men. Another world lay beyond the
+great waters of the Atlantic. Whispers had been going round the circle
+of earnest inquirers, which gradually grew louder and louder till they
+reached the ears of kings, that great things lay hidden in the awful
+and mysterious solitudes of the ocean; that westward, to balance the
+preponderance of our used-up continent, must be solid land, equal
+in weight and size, so that the uninterrupted waters would conduct
+the adventurous mariner to the farther India by a nearer route than
+Bartholomew Diaz, the Portuguese, had just discovered. [A.D. 1487.]
+This man sailed to the southern extremity of Africa, passed round to
+the east without being aware of his achievement, and penetrated as
+far as Lagoa Bay. But the crew became discontented, and the navigator
+retraced his steps. Alarmed at the commotion of the vast waves of the
+Southern Ocean pouring its floods against the Table Mountain, he had
+retired from further research, and called the southern point of his
+pilgrimage the Cape of Storms. It is now known to us by a happier
+augury as the Cape of Good Hope. But, whether perpetually haunted by
+tempests or not, the truth was discovered that the land ceased at that
+promontory and left an unexplored sea beyond. This was cherished in
+many a heart; for in this century maritime discovery kept pace with
+the other triumphs of mental power. Wherever ship could swim man could
+venture. The Azores had been discovered in 1439 and colonized by the
+Portuguese in 1440. Already in possession of Cape Verd, Madeira, and
+the Canaries, Portugal looked forward to greater discoveries, for these
+were the nurseries of gallant and skilful mariners. But the glory was
+left for another nation,--though, by a strange caprice of fortune, the
+chance of it had been offered to nearly all.
+
+The life of Columbus is more wonderful than a romance. He hawked about
+his notion of the way to India at all the courts of Europe. By birth
+a Genoese, he considered the great ocean the patrimony of any person
+able to seize it. When his services, therefore, were rejected by his
+own country, he offered them successively to Portugal, to Spain, and to
+England. Henry the Seventh was inclined to venture a small sum in the
+lottery of chances; but, while still in negotiation with the brother
+of Columbus, the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, closed with
+the navigator's terms, and on the 3d of August, 1492, the squadron of
+discovery, consisting of a vessel of some size, and two small pinnaces,
+with a crew at most of a hundred persons in all the three, sailed from
+the port of Palos, in Andalusia. Three weeks' constant progress to
+the westward took them far beyond all previous navigation. The men
+became disheartened, discontented, and finally rebellious. Against all,
+Columbus bore up with the self-relying energy of a great mind, but was
+driven to the compromise of promising, if they confided in him for
+three days longer, he would return, if the object of his voyage was
+yet unattained. But by this time his sagacious observation had assured
+him of success. Strange appearances began to be perceived from the
+ship's decks. A carved piece of wood floated past, then a reed newly
+cut, and, best sign of all, a branch with red berries still fresh.
+"From all these symptoms, Columbus was so confident of being near land,
+that on the evening of the 11th of October, after public prayers for
+success, he ordered the sails to be furled, and the ships to lie to,
+keeping strict watch, lest they should be driven ashore in the night.
+During this interval of suspense and expectation no man shut his eyes:
+all kept upon deck, gazing intently towards that quarter where they
+expected to discover the land, which had been so long the object of
+their wishes. About two hours before midnight, Columbus, standing on
+the forecastle, observed a light at a distance, and privately pointed
+it out to Pedro Guttierez, a page of the queen's wardrobe. Guttierez
+perceiving it, and calling to Salcedo, comptroller of the fleet, all
+three saw it in motion, as if it were carried from place to place. A
+little after midnight the joyful sound of '_Land! land!_' was heard
+from the Pinta, which kept always ahead of the other ships. But, having
+been so often deceived by fallacious appearances, every man was now
+become slow of belief, and waited in all the anguish of uncertainty
+and impatience for the return of day. As soon as morning dawned, all
+doubts and fears were dispelled. From every ship an island was seen
+about two leagues to the north, whose flat and verdant fields, well
+stored with wood, and watered with many rivulets, presented the aspect
+of a delightful country. The crew of the Pinta instantly began the _Te
+Deum_ as a hymn of thanksgiving to God, and were joined by those of
+the other ships, with tears of joy and transports of congratulation.
+This office of gratitude to Heaven was followed by an act of justice to
+their commander. They threw themselves at the feet of Columbus, with
+feelings of self-condemnation mingled with reverence. They implored
+him to pardon their ignorance, incredulity, and insolence, which had
+created him so much unceasing disquiet and had so often obstructed the
+prosecution of his well-concerted plan; and, passing in the warmth
+of their admiration from one extreme to another, they now pronounced
+the man whom they had so lately reviled and threatened to be a person
+inspired by Heaven with sagacity and fortitude more than human, in
+order to accomplish a design so far beyond the ideas and conception of
+all former ages."
+
+Many excellent writers have described this wondrous incident, but none
+so well as the historian of America, Dr. Robertson, whose eloquent
+account is borrowed in the preceding lines. The great event occurred on
+Friday, the 12th of October, 1492, and the connection between the two
+worlds began. The place he first landed at was San Salvador, one of the
+Bahamas; and after attaching Cuba and Hispaniola to the Spanish crown,
+and going through imminent perils by land and sea, he achieved his
+glorious return to Palos on the 15th of March, 1493. He brought with
+him some of the natives of the different islands he had discovered,
+and their strange appearance and manners were vouchers for the facts
+he stated. The whole town, when he came into the harbour, was in an
+uproar of delight. "The bells were rung, the cannon fired, Columbus
+was received at landing with royal honours, and all the people, in
+solemn procession, accompanied him and his crew to the church, where
+they returned thanks to Heaven, which had so wonderfully conducted,
+and crowned with success, a voyage of greater length, and of more
+importance, than had been attempted in any former age."[E]
+
+
+
+
+                          SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        MAXIMILIAN I.--(_cont._)
+
+  1519. CHARLES V.,(1st of Spain.)
+
+  1558. FERDINAND I.
+
+  1564. MAXIMILIAN II.
+
+  1576. RODOLPH II.
+
+
+Kings of England.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        HENRY VII.--(_cont._)
+
+  1509. HENRY VIII.
+
+  1547. EDWARD VI.
+
+  1553. MARY.
+
+  1558. ELIZABETH.
+
+
+Kings of Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        JAMES IV. (_cont._)
+
+  1513. JAMES V.
+
+  1542. MARY.
+
+  1567. JAMES VI.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        LOUIS XII.--(_cont._)
+
+  1515. FRANCIS I.
+
+  1547. HENRY II.
+
+  1559. FRANCIS II.
+
+  1560. CHARLES IX.
+
+  1574. HENRY III.
+
+  (_The Bourbons._)
+
+  1589. HENRY IV.
+
+
+Kings of Spain.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1512. FERDINAND V., (the Catholic.)
+
+  1516. CHARLES I., (Emperor of Germany.)
+
+  1556. PHILIP II.
+
+  1598. PHILIP III.
+
+
+Distinguished Men.
+
+LEONARDO DA VINCI, MICHAEL ANGELO, RAFFAELLE, CORREGGIO, TITIAN,
+(Painters,) SIR PHILIP SYDNEY, RALEIGH, SPENSER, SHAKSPEARE,
+(1564-1616,) ARIOSTO, TASSO, LOPE DE VEGA, CALDERON, CERVANTES,
+SCALIGER, (1484-1558,) COPERNICUS, (1473-1543,) KNOX, (1505-1572,)
+CALVIN, (1509-1564,) BEZA, (1519-1605,) BELLARMINE, (1542-1621,) TYCHO
+BRAHE, (1546-1601.)
+
+
+
+
+                        THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  THE REFORMATION--THE JESUITS--POLICY OF ELIZABETH
+
+
+In the last two years of the preceding century the course of maritime
+discovery had been accelerated by fresh success. To balance the glories
+of Columbus in the West, the "regions of the rising sun" had been
+explored by Vasco da Gama, a Portuguese. This great navigator sailed
+back into the harbour of Lisbon on the 16th of September, 1499, with
+the astonishing news that he had doubled the Cape of Storms, which
+had so alarmed Bartholomew Diaz, and established relations of amity
+and commerce with the vast continent of India, having traded with a
+civilized and industrious people at Calicut, a great city on the coast
+of Malabar. Under these reiterated widenings of men's knowledge of the
+globe, the human mind itself expanded. Familiar names meet us from
+henceforth in the most distant quarters of the world. All national
+or domestic history becomes mixed up with elements hitherto unknown.
+The balance of power, which is the new constitution of the European
+States, depends on circumstances and places of the most heterogeneous
+character. A treaty between France and Spain, or between England and
+either, is regulated by events occurring on the Amazon or Ganges.
+The whole world gets more closely connected than ever it was before,
+and we can look back on the proceedings of previous ages as filling
+a very narrow theatre, and regulated by very contracted interests,
+when compared with the universal policies on which public affairs have
+now to rest. At first, however, the great results of these stupendous
+discoveries were naturally not observed. Contemporaries are justly
+accused of magnifying the small affairs of life of which they are
+witnesses; but this observation does not hold good with respect to the
+really momentous incidents of human history. A man who saw Columbus
+return from his voyage, or Guttenberg pulling at his press, could not
+rise to the contemplation of the prodigious consequences of these
+two events. He thought, perhaps, a quarrel between two neighbouring
+potentates, or a battle between France and Spain, the greatest incident
+of his time. His son forgot all about the quarrel; his grandson had
+no recollection of the battle; but widening in a still increasing
+circle, expanding into still more wonderful proportions, were the
+Discovery of America and the Art of Printing,--showing themselves in
+combinations of events and changes of circumstances where they were
+never expected to appear,--the one threatening to overthrow the freedom
+of every State in Europe by the supremacy of the Spanish crown, the
+other in reality preventing the chance of that consummation by raising
+up the indomitable spirit of spiritual liberty. For there now came to
+the aid of national independence the far more elevating feelings of
+religious emancipation. Protestantism was not limited in this century
+to denial of the spiritual authority of popes, but embodied itself also
+in resistance to the political ambition of kings. America might have
+enabled Charles the Fifth to conquer all Europe, if the Reformation had
+not strengthened men's minds with a determination to stand up against
+oppression.
+
+But the commencement of this century gave no intimation of its
+tempestuous course. The first few years saw the peaceable accession to
+the thrones of Spain and France and England of the three sovereigns
+whose contemporaneous reigns, and also whose personal characters,
+had the most preponderating influence on the succeeding current of
+events. We have left Spain for a long time out of these general views
+of a century's condition and special notices of individual incidents
+which affected the condition of the world; for Spain for a long time
+lay obscurely between the ocean and the Pyrenees and carried on wars
+and policies which were limited by its territorial bounds. But, if we
+take a hurried retrospect of the last few years, we shall see that the
+different nations contained in the Peninsula had amalgamated into one
+mighty and strongly-cemented State. [A.D. 1497.] Ferdinand of Aragon,
+by marriage with Isabella of Castile, united the various nationalities
+under one homogeneous government, and by wisdom and magnanimity--the
+wisdom being the man's and the magnanimity the woman's--had rendered
+forever famous the joint reign of husband and wife, had reconciled
+the jarring factions of their respective subjects, and seen with
+the triumphant faith of believers and the satisfaction of sagacious
+rulers the reunion of the last Mohammedan State to the dominion of
+the Cross and of the crown. They watched the long, slow march of the
+Moorish king and his cavaliers as they took their way in poverty and
+despair from the towers and meadows of Granada, which a possession of
+seven hundred years had failed to make their own. This--the conquest
+of Granada--took place in 1491; and 1516 saw the supreme power over
+all united Spain descend on the head of the grandson of Ferdinand and
+Isabella,--inheriting, along with their royal dignity, the cautious
+wisdom of the one and the wider intelligence of the other. In three
+years from that time--it will be easy to remember that Charles's age
+is the same as the century's--he was elected to the Imperial crown,
+so that the greatest dominion ever held by one man since the days of
+Charlemagne now fell to the rule of a youth of nineteen years of age.
+Germany, the Netherlands, Naples, Sicily, and Spain, more than equalled
+the extent and power of Charlemagne's empire. [A.D. 1520.] But ere
+Charles was a year older, vaster dominions than Charlemagne had ever
+dreamt of acknowledged his royal sway; for Montezuma, the Emperor of
+Mexico, whose realm was without appreciable limit either in size or
+wealth, professed himself the subject and servant of the Spanish king.
+
+Henry the Eighth of England had also succeeded at an early age, being
+but eighteen in 1509, when the death of his father, the politic and
+successful founder of the Tudor dynasty, left him with a people silent
+if not quite satisfied, and an exchequer overflowing with what would
+now amount to ten or twelve millions of gold. This treasure had been
+accumulated by the infamous exactions of the late sovereign, who was
+aided in the ignoble service by two men of the names of Empson and
+Dudley. These were spies and informers, not, as in other climes and
+countries, about the religious or political sentiments of the people,
+but about their titles to their estates, the fines they were disposed
+to pay, or the bribes they would advance to the royal extortioner to
+avoid litigation and injustice. Henry had an admirable opportunity
+of showing his hatred of these practices, and availed himself of it
+at once. Before he had been four months on the throne, Empson and
+Dudley were ignominiously hanged; and with safe conscience, after
+this sacrifice at the shrine of legality, he entered into possession
+of the pilfered store. The people applauded the rapid decision of his
+character in both these instances, and scarcely grudged him the money
+when the subordinates were given up to their revenge. They could
+not, indeed, grudge their young king any thing; his manners were so
+open and sincere, his laugh so ready, and his teeth so white; for we
+are not to forget, in compliment to what is facetiously called the
+dignity of history, the immense advantages a ruler gains by the fact
+of being good-looking. Nobody feels inclined to find fault with a
+lad of eighteen, if moderately endowed with health and features; but
+when that lad is eminently handsome, rioting in strength and spirits,
+open in disposition, and, above all, a king, you need not wonder at
+the universal inclination to overlook his faults, to exaggerate his
+virtues, and even, after an interval of two hundred and fifty years, to
+hear the greatest tyrant of our history, and the worst man perhaps of
+his time, talked of by the ordinary title of Bluff King Hal. If he had
+been as ugly and hump-backed as his grand-uncle Richard the Third, he
+would have been detested from the first.
+
+But in the neighbouring land of France there reigned at the same
+time a prince almost as handsome as Henry, and nearly as popular
+with his people, with as little real cause. In 1515, Francis
+the First was twenty years of age, a perfect specimen of manly
+strength,--accomplished in all knightly exercises,--generous and
+magnificent in his intercourse with his nobility,--and the greatest
+_roue_ and debauchee in all the kingdom of France. Here, then, at the
+beginning of the age we have now to examine, were the three mightiest
+sovereigns of Europe, all arriving at their crowns before attaining
+their majority; and with so many years before them, and such powerful
+nations obeying their commands, great prospects for good or evil were
+opening on the world. But in the early years of the century no human
+eye perceived in what direction the future was going to pursue its
+course. People were all watching for the first indication of what was
+to come, and kept their eyes on the courts of Paris and London and
+Madrid; but nobody suspected that the real champions of the time were
+already marshalling their forces in far different situations. There
+was a thoughtful monk in a convent in Germany, and a Spanish soldier
+before the walls of Pampeluna. These were the true movers of men's
+minds, of the great thoughts by which events are created; and their
+names were soon to sound louder than those of Henry or Charles or
+Francis; for one was Martin Luther, the hero of the Reformation, and
+the other was Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. Take note
+of them here as mere accessories to the march of general history: we
+shall return to them again as characteristics of the century on which
+they placed their indelible mark. At this time, in the gay young days
+of the three crowned striplings, these future combatants are totally
+unknown. Brother Martin is singing charming hymns to the Virgin, in a
+voice which it was delightful to hear; and Don Ignacio is also singing
+to his guitar the praises of one of the beautiful maidens of his native
+land. Public opinion was still stagnant with regard to home-affairs,
+in spite of the efforts of the infant press. People, bowed down by the
+claims of implicit obedience exacted from them by the Church, accepted
+with wondering submission the pontificate of such an atrocious murderer
+as Alexander the Sixth; and some even ingeniously founded an argument
+of the divine institution of the Papacy upon its having survived the
+eleven years' desecration of that monster of cruelty and unbelief. Yet
+now it happened by a strange coincidence that the chair of St. Peter
+was to be filled by a gayer and more accomplished ruler than any of the
+earthly thrones we have mentioned. In 1513, Leo the Tenth, the most
+celebrated of the family of the Medicis of Florence, put on the tiara
+at the age of thirty-six, a period of life which was considered as
+youthful for the father of Christendom as even the boyish years of the
+temporal kings. And Leo did not belie the promise of his juvenility.
+None of the dulness of age, or even the caution of maturity, was
+perceived in his public or private conduct. He was a patron of arts
+and sciences, and buffoonery, and infidelity; and it is curious to
+observe how the pretensions of Rome were more shaken by the frivolous
+magnificence of a good-hearted, graceful voluptuary than they had been
+by the crimes of his two immediate predecessors, the truculent Borgia
+and the warlike Julius the Second.
+
+This latter pontiff was intended by nature for a leader of Free Lances,
+to live forever in "the joy of battle," and must have felt a little
+out of his element as the head of the Christian Church. However, he
+rapidly discovered that he was a secular prince as well as a spiritual
+teacher, and cast his eyes in the former capacity with ominous ill will
+on the industrious Republic of Venice. The fishermen and fugitives of
+many centuries before, who had settled among the Adriatic lagoons,
+had risen into the position of princes and treasurers of Europe. By
+their possessions in the East, and their trading-factories established
+along the whole route from India to the Mediterranean, they had made
+themselves the intermediaries between the barbaric pearls and gold,
+the silks and spices, of the Oriental regions, and the requirements
+of the West. Their galleys were daily bringing them the commodities
+of the Levant, which they distributed at an exorbitant profit among
+the nations beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. Mercantile wealth and
+maritime enterprise elevated the taste and confidence of those Venetian
+traffickers, till their whole territory, amid the lifeless waters
+of their canals, was covered with stately palaces, and their fleets
+assumed the dominion of the inland seas. On the mainland they had
+stretched their power over Dalmatia and Trieste, and in their own
+peninsula over Rimini and Ferrara and a great part of the Romagna. Two
+ruling passions agitated the soul of Julius the Second: one was to
+recover whatever territory or influence had once belonged to the Holy
+See; the other was to expel the hated barbarian, whether Frenchman,
+or Swiss, or Austrian, from the soil of Italy. To achieve this last
+object he would sacrifice any thing except the first; and to unite
+the two was difficult. He made his approaches to Venice in a gentle
+manner at first. He asked her to restore the lands she had lately won,
+which he claimed as appendages of his chair, because they had been
+torn unjustly from the original holders by Caesar Borgia, the son of
+Alexander the Infamous; and if she had agreed to this he would no doubt
+have proceeded with his further scheme of banishing all ultramontane
+invaders. But as the commercial council of the great emporium hesitated
+at giving up what they had entered in their books as fairly their
+own, he altered his note in a moment, put on the insignia of his holy
+office, and, denouncing the astonished republic as rebellious and
+ungrateful to Mother Church, he called in the aid of the very French
+whom he was so anxious to get quit of, to execute his judgment upon the
+offending State. Venice was rich, and France at that time was poor and
+at all times is greedy. So preparations were made for an assault with
+the readiness and glee with which a party of freebooters would make a
+descent on the Bank of England. The temptation also was too great to be
+resisted by other kings and princes, who were as hungry for spoil and
+as attached to religion as the French. So in an incredibly short space
+of time the league of Cambrai was joined by Maximilian, the Emperor of
+Germany, and Ferdinand of Spain, and dukes and marquesses of less note.
+There were few of the Southern potentates, indeed, who had not some
+cause of complaint against the haughty Venetians. [A.D. 1508.] Some
+(as the German Maximilian) they had humbled by defeat; others they had
+insulted by their purse-proud insolence; others, again, by superiority
+in commercial skill; and all, by the fact of being wealthy and, as they
+fancied, weak.
+
+Louis the Twelfth of France was first in the field. He conquered at
+Agnadello, and, forcing his way to the shore, alarmed the marble halls
+of the Venetians with the sound of his harmless cannonade. The Pope
+was next, and took possession of the towns he wanted. The Duke of
+Ferrara laid hold of some loose articles in the confusion, and the
+Marquis of Mantua got back some villages which his grandfather had
+lost. Maximilian was disconsolate at not being in time for the general
+pillage, and had to content himself with Padua and Vicenza and Verona.
+Maximilian was a gentleman in difficulties, who has the misfortune to
+be known in history as Max the Penniless. The Venetians sent to tell
+him they were ready to acknowledge his suzerainty as emperor, and to
+pay him a tribute of fifty thousand ducats. The man would have forgiven
+them a hundred times their offences for half the money, and was anxious
+to close with their offer. But they had made no similar proposition
+to the French king, nor to Ferdinand, nor even of a ten-pound note
+to the Mantuan Marquis or the Magnifico of Ferrara. Wherefore they
+all began to hate the emperor. Louis declined to give him any more
+assistance. Julius sent a secret message to the Venetians that Holy
+Church was not inexorable; and Venice, relying on the placability of
+Rome, hung out her flag against her secular foes in prouder defiance
+than ever. She knelt at the feet of the Pope, and allowed him to retain
+his acquisitions in Romagna and elsewhere; and as his first object,
+the enrichment of his domain, was accomplished, he lost no time in
+carrying out the second. [A.D. 1510.] By the fortunate possession
+of an unlimited power of loosing mankind from unpleasant oaths and
+obligations, he astonished his late confederates by publishing a
+sentence releasing the Venetians from the censures of the Church and
+the Allies from the covenants of the Treaty of Cambrai. He then joined
+the pontifical forces to the troops of Venice, and in hot haste made a
+rush upon the French. He bought over Ferdinand of Spain to the cause
+by giving him the investiture of Naples, hired a multitude of Swiss
+mercenaries, and, drawing the sword like a stout man-at-arms as he was,
+he laid siege to Mirandola. In spite of his great age,--he was now past
+seventy,--he performed all the offices of an active general, visited
+the trenches, encouraged his army, and after a two months' bombardment
+disdained to enter the city by the opened gate, but was triumphantly
+carried in military pomp through a breach in the shattered wall. His
+perfidy as a statesman and audacity as a soldier were too much for the
+Emperor and the King of France. [A.D. 1511.] They collected as many
+troops as they could, and threatened to summon a general council; for
+what excommunication as an instrument of offence was to the popes, a
+general council was to the civil power. The French clergy met at Tours,
+and supported the Crown against Julius. The German emperor was still
+more indignant. He published a paper of accusations, in which the
+bitterness of his penniless condition is not concealed. "The enormous
+sums daily extracted from Germany," he says, "are perverted to the
+purposes of luxury or worldly views, instead of being employed for
+the service of God or against the Infidels. So extensive a territory
+has been alienated for the benefit of the Pope that scarcely a florin
+of revenue remains to the Emperor in Italy." Louis and the French
+appeared triumphant in the field; but their triumphs threw them into
+dismay, for their protean adversary, when defeated as temporal prince,
+thundered against them as successor of St. Peter, and taught them that
+their victories were impiety and their acquisitions sacrilege. A hard
+case for Louis, where if he retreated his territories were seized,
+and if he advanced his soul was in danger. The war, which had begun
+as a combination against Venice, was now converted into a holy league
+in defence of Rome. Spaniards came to the rescue; and Henry, the
+youthful champion of England, and all who either thought they loved
+religion or who really hated France, were inspired as if for a crusade.
+[A.D. 1512.] And Maximilian himself, poor and friendless,--how was it
+possible for him to continue obstinately to reject the overtures of the
+Pope, the purse of the Venetians, or the far more tempting whisperings
+of Ferdinand of Aragon, who said to him, "Julius is very old. Would
+it not be possible to win over the cardinals to make your majesty his
+successor?" Such a golden dream had never suggested itself to the
+pauperized emperor before. He swallowed the bait at once. He determined
+to bribe the Sacred College, and, to raise the necessary funds, pawned
+the archducal mantle of Austria to the rich merchants, the Fuggers
+of Antwerp, for a large sum, and wrote to his daughter Margaret,
+"To-morrow I shall send a bishop to the Pope, to conclude an agreement
+with him that I may be appointed his coadjutor and on his death succeed
+to the Papacy, that you may be bound to worship me,--of which I
+shall be very proud." This may appear a rather jocular announcement
+of so serious a design; but there is no doubt that the project was
+entertained. Matters, however, advanced at too rapid a pace for the
+slow calculations of politicians. The French, by a noble victory at
+Ravenna, established their fame as warriors, and roused the fear of
+all the other powers. Maximilian grasped at last the Venetian ducats
+which had been offered him so long before, and turned suddenly against
+his ally. Ferdinand and Henry pressed forward on France itself on the
+side of the Pyrenees. Foot by foot the land of Italy was set free from
+the French invaders, and Julius the Second, dying before the emperor's
+plans were matured, left the tangled web of European politics to be
+unravelled by a younger hand.
+
+We have dwelt on this strange contest, where many sovereign states
+combined to overthrow a colony of traders, and failed in all their
+attempts, because it is the last great appearance that Venice has made
+in the general history of the world. From this time her power rapidly
+decayed. Her galleys lay rotting at their wharves, and the marriage of
+her Doge to the Sea was a symbol without a meaning. The discovery of
+a passage to India by the Cape, which we saw announced to Europe by
+Vasco da Gama in the last year of the late century, was a sentence of
+death to the carriers of the Adriatic. Commerce sought other channels
+and enriched other lands. Wherever the merchant-vessels crowded the
+harbour, whether with the commodities of the East or West, the war-ship
+was sure to follow, and the treasures gained in traffic to be guarded
+by a navy. All the ports of Spain became rallying-places of wealth
+and power in this century. Portugal covered every sea with her guns
+and galleons; Holland rose to dignity and freedom by her heavy-armed
+marine; and England began the career of enterprise and liberty which
+is still typified and assured by the preponderance of her commercial
+and royal fleets. Questions are asked--which the younger among us, who
+may live to see the answer, may amuse themselves by considering--as to
+the chance of Venice recovering her ancient commerce if the pathway of
+Eastern trade be again traced down the Mediterranean, when the Isthmus
+of Suez shall be cut through by a canal or curtailed by a railway.
+In former times the whole civilized world lay like a golden fringe
+round the shores of that one sea, and the nation which predominated
+there, either in wealth or arms, was mistress of the globe. But
+the case is altered now. If the Gates of Hercules were permanently
+closed, the commerce of the world would still go on; and, so far from
+a Mediterranean supremacy indicating a universal pre-eminence, it is
+perhaps worthy of remark that the only Mediterranean nations which have
+in later times been recognised as of first-rate rank in Europe have had
+their principal ports upon the Atlantic and in the Channel.
+
+There is a circumstance which we may observe as characteristic of many
+of the European states at this time,--the desire of combination and
+consolidation at home even more than of foreign conquest. In Spain the
+cessation of the oligarchy of kingships had established a national
+crown. The hopes of recasting the separated and mutilated limbs of
+ancient Latium into a gigantic Italy were rife in that sunny land of
+high resolves and futile acts. In Germany, the official supremacy
+of the emperor was insufficient to prevent the strong definement of
+the corporate nationalities. Holland secured its individuality by
+unheard-of efforts; and in England the great thought took possession
+of the political mind of a union of the whole island. Visions already
+floated before the statesmen on both sides of the Tweed of a Great
+Britain freed from intestine disturbance and guarded by undisputed
+seas. But the general intelligence was not yet sufficiently far
+advanced. [A.D. 1502.] The Scotch were too Scotch and the English too
+English to sink their national differences; and we can only pay homage
+to the wisdom which by a marriage between the royal houses--James
+the Fourth, and Margaret of England--planted the promise which came
+afterwards to maturity in the junction of the crowns in 1603, and the
+indissoluble union of the countries in 1707.
+
+Meantime, the wooing was of the harshest. The last great battle,
+Flodden, that marked the enmity of the kingdoms, was decided in this
+century, and has left a deep and sorrowful impression even to our
+own times. There is not a cottage in Scotland where "The Fight of
+Flodden" is not remembered yet. And its effects were so desolating and
+dispiriting that it may be considered the death-bed to the feeling of
+equality which had hitherto ennobled the weaker nation. From this time
+England held the position of a virtual superior, regulating her conduct
+without much regard to the dignity or self-respect of her neighbour,
+and employing the arts of diplomacy, and the meaner tricks of bribery
+and corruption, only because they were more easy and less expensive
+than the open method of invasion and conquest. "Scotland's shield" was
+indeed broken at Flodden, but her character for courage and honour
+remained. It was the treachery of Solway Moss, and the venality of most
+of the surviving nobility, that were the real causes of her weakness,
+and of the subordinate place which at this time she held in Europe.
+
+Thus the object which in other nations had been gained by a union of
+crowns was attained also in our island by the absence of opposition
+between the peoples. Flodden and Pinkie may therefore be looked upon
+with kindlier eyes if they are regarded as steps to the formation of
+so great a realm. No nation retained its feudal organization so long
+as Scotland, or so completely departed from the original spirit of
+feudalism. Instead of being leaders and protectors of their dependants,
+and attached vassals of the kings, the barons of the North were an
+oligarchy of armed conspirators both against the crown and the people.
+Few of the earlier Stuarts died in peaceful bed; for even those of
+them who escaped the dagger of the assassin were hunted to death by
+the opposition and falsehood of the chiefs. Perpetually engaged in
+plots against the throne or forays against each other, the Scottish
+nobility weakened their country both at home and abroad. Law could
+have no authority where mailed warriors settled everything by the
+sword, and no resistance could be offered to a foreign enemy by men
+so divided among themselves. Down to a period when the other nations
+of Europe were under the rule of legal tribunals, the High Street of
+Edinburgh was the scene of violence and bloodshed between rival lords
+who were too powerful for control by the civil authority. A succession
+of foolishly rash or unwisely lenient sovereigns left this ferocity and
+independence unchecked; and though poetry and patriotism now combine
+to cast a melancholy grace on the defeat at Flodden, from the Roman
+spirit with which the intelligence was received by the population
+of the capital, the unbiassed inquirer must confess that, with the
+exception of the single virtue of personal courage, the Scottish array
+was ennobled by no quality which would have justified its success. It
+was ill commanded, ill disciplined, and ill combined. The nobility, as
+usual, were disaffected to the king and averse to the War. But the
+crown-tenants and commonalty of the Lowlands were always ready for an
+affray with England; and James the Fourth, the most chivalrous of that
+line of chivalrous and unfortunate princes, merrily crossed the Border
+and prepared for feats of arms as if at a tournament. [A.D. 1513.]
+The cautious Earl of Surrey, the leader of the English army, availed
+himself of the knightly prepossessions of his enemy, and sent a herald,
+in all the frippery of tabard and cross, to challenge him to battle
+on a set day, when Lord Thomas Howard would run a tilt with him at
+the head of the English van. James fell into the snare, and regulated
+his movements, in fact, by the direction of his opponent. When, in a
+momentary glimpse of common sense, he established his quarters on the
+side of a hill, from which it would have been impossible to dislodge
+him, Surrey relied on the absurd generosity of his character, and sent
+a message to complain that he had placed himself on ground "more like
+a fortress or a camp than an ordinary battle-field." James pretended
+to despise the taunt, and even to refuse admission to the herald; but
+it worked on his susceptible and fearless nature; for we find that he
+allowed the English to pass through difficult and narrow ways, which
+were commanded by his guns, and when they were fairly marshalled on
+level ground he set fire to his tents and actually descended the hill
+to place himself on equal terms with the foe. Such a beginning had
+the only possible close. Strong arms and sharp swords are excellent
+supports of generalship, but cannot always be a substitute for it.
+Never did the love of fight so inherent in the Scottish character
+display itself more gallantly than on this day. Again and again the
+Scottish earls dashed forward against the English squares. These were
+composed of the steadiest of the pikemen flanked by the wondrous
+archers who had turned so many a tide of battle. Fain would the veteran
+warriors have kept their men in check; fain would the commanders of
+the French auxiliaries have restrained the Scottish advance. But the
+Northern blood was up. Onward they went, in spite of generalship and
+all the rules of discipline, and with a great crash burst upon the wall
+of steel. It was magnificent, as the Frenchmen said at Balaklava, but
+it was not war. Repelled by the recoil of their own impetuous charge,
+they fell into fragments and encumbered the gory plain. Very few fled,
+very few had the opportunity of flying; for the cloth-yard shaft never
+missed its aim. There was no crying for quarter or sparing of the
+flashing blade. Both sides were irritated to madness. James pushed on,
+shouting and waving his bloody sword, and was wounded by an arrow and
+gashed with a ponderous battle-axe when he had forced himself within a
+few paces of Surrey. Darkness was now closing in. The king's death was
+rapidly known, but still the struggle went on. At length the wearied
+armies ceased to kill. The Scotch retreated, and in the dawn of the
+next morning a compact body of them was seen still threatening on the
+side of a distant hill. But the day was lost and won. The chivalry of
+Scotland received a blow from which it never recovered. What Courtrai
+had been to the French, and Granson and Nanci to the Burgundians, and
+Towton and Tewkesbury to the English, the 9th of September, 1513,
+was to the peerage of the North. Thirteen earls were killed, fifteen
+barons, and chiefs and members of all the gentle houses in the land.
+Some were stripped utterly desolate by this appalling slaughter; and
+from many a hall, as well as from humble shieling, rose the burden of
+the tearful ballad, "The flowers o' the forest are a' wedd awa'." There
+were ten thousand slain in the field, the gallant James cut off in
+the prime of strength and manhood, and the sceptre which required the
+grasp of an Edward the First left to be the prize of an unprincipled
+queen-mother, or any ambitious cabal which could conspire to seize it.
+James the Fifth was but a year or two old, and the country discouraged
+and demoralized.
+
+But Henry the Eighth was destined to some other triumphs in this
+fortunate year. First there was the victory which his forces won at
+Guinegate, near Calais, where the French chivalry fled in the most
+ignominious manner, and struck their rowels into their horses' flanks,
+without remembering that they carried swords in their hands. This
+is known in history as the second Battle of the Spurs,--not, as at
+Courtrai, for the number of those knightly emblems taken off the heels
+of the dead, but for the amazing activity they displayed on the heels
+of the living. And, secondly, he could boast that the foremost man
+in Christendom wore his livery and pocketed his pay; for Maximilian
+the Penniless, successor of Charlemagne and Constantine and Augustus,
+enlisted and did good service as an English trooper at a hundred crowns
+a day. Let Henry rejoice in these achievements while he may; for the
+time is drawing near when the old sovereigns of Europe are to be moved
+out of the way and France and Spain are to be governed by younger men
+and more ambitious politicians than himself. Evil times indeed were
+at hand, when it required the strength of youth and wisdom of policy
+to guide the bark not only of separate states, but of settled law and
+Christian civilization. For, however pleasant it may be to trace Henry
+through his home-career and Francis and Charles in their national
+rivalries, we are not to forget that the real interest of this century
+is that it is the century of the Reformation,--a movement before whose
+overwhelming importance the efforts of the greatest individuals sink
+into insignificance,--an upheaving of hidden powers and principles,
+which in truth so altered all former relations between man and man that
+it found the most influential personage in Europe, not in the Apostolic
+Emperor, or the Christian King, or the Defender of the Faith, but in a
+burly friar at Wittenberg, whose name had never been heard before.
+
+Let us see what was the general condition of the Romish Chair before
+the outburst of its enemies at this time. One thing is very observable:
+that its claims to supremacy and obedience were, ostensibly at least,
+almost universally acquiesced in. From Norway to Calabria the theory
+of a Universal Church, divinely founded and divinely sustained, in
+possession of superhuman power and uncommunicated knowledge, governed
+by an infallible chief, and administered by an uninterrupted line
+of priests and bishops, who had given up the vanities of the world,
+satisfier of doubts, and sole instrument of salvation,--this seemed so
+perfect and so natural an organization that it had been accepted from
+time immemorial as incapable of denial. If a voice was heard here and
+there in an Alpine valley or in a scholastic debating-room impugning
+these arrangements or asking proof from history or revelation, the
+civil power was let loose upon the gainsayer, with the general consent
+of orthodox men, and the Vaudois were murdered with sword and spear
+and the inquiring student chained in his monkish cell. The theory and
+organization of the Universal Church were, in fact, never so well
+defined as at the moment when its reign was drawing to a close. Nobody
+doubted that a general Father, clothed in infallible wisdom, and armed
+with powers directly committed to him for the guidance or punishment of
+mankind, was the Heaven-sent arbiter of differences, the rewarder of
+faithful kings, the corrector of unruly nations; and yet the spectacle
+was presented, to the believers in this ideal, of a series of wicked
+and abandoned rulers sitting in Peter's chair, and only imitating the
+apostle in his furiousness and his denial; cardinals depraved and
+worldly beyond the example of temporal princes; a priesthood steeped,
+for the most part, in ignorance and vice, and monks and nuns the
+_opprobria_ of all nations where they were found. Never were claims
+and performances brought into such startling contrast before. The
+Pope was the representative upon earth of the Saviour of men; and he
+poisoned his guests, like Borgia, slew his opponents, like Julius,
+or led the life of an intellectual epicure, like Leo the Tenth. In
+former times the contrariety between doctrine and practice would have
+been slightly known or easily reconciled. Few comparatively visited
+Rome; cardinals were seldom seen; priests were not more ignorant than
+their parishioners, and monks not more wicked than their admirers. All
+believed in the miraculous efficacy of the wares in which even the
+lower order of the clergy dealt, and their rule in country places was
+so lax, their penances so easily performed or commuted, their relations
+with their people so friendly and on such equal terms, that in the
+rural districts the voice of complaint was either unheard or neglected.
+In Italy, the head-quarters of the faith, the excesses of priestly
+rule were the most glaring and wide-spread. Rome itself was always the
+seat of turbulence and disaffection. The lives of professedly holy men
+were known, and the vices of popes and prelates pressed heavily on the
+people, who were the first victims of their avarice or cruelty. But
+the utmost extent of their indignation never reached to a questioning
+of the foundation of the power from which they suffered. An Italian
+crushed to the earth by the extortion of his Church, irritated perhaps
+by the personal wickedness of his director, sought no escape from such
+inflictions in disbelieving either the temporal or spiritual authority
+of his oppressor. Rather he would have looked with savage satisfaction
+on the fagot-fire of any one who hinted that the principles of his
+Church required the slightest amendment; that the absolution of his
+sensual confessor was not altogether indispensable; that the image he
+bowed down to was common wood, or that the relics he worshipped were
+merely dead men's bones. Perhaps, indeed, in those luxurious regions,
+a bare and unadorned worship would not seem to be worship at all. With
+his impassioned mind and glowing fancy, the Spaniard or Italian must
+pour out his whole being on the object of his adoration. He loves his
+patron saint with the warmth of an earthly affection, and thinks he
+undervalues her virtues or her claims if he does not heap her shrine
+with his offerings and address her image with rapture. He must make
+external demonstration of his inward feelings, or nobody will believe
+in their existence. The crouchings and kneelings, therefore, which our
+colder natures stigmatize as idolatry, are to him nothing more than
+the outward manifestation of affection and thankfulness. He does the
+same to his master or his benefactor without degradation in the eyes
+of his countrymen. Without these bowings and genuflections his conduct
+would be thought ungrateful and disrespectful. That this amount of
+warm-hearted sincerity is wasted upon such unworthy objects as his
+saints and relics is greatly to be deplored; but wide allowances must
+be made for peculiarities of situation and disposition; and we should
+remember that whereas in the North a religion of forms and ceremonies
+would be a body without a soul, because there would be no inward
+exaltation answering to the outward manifestation, the Southern heart
+sees a meaning where there is none to us, is conscious of a sense of
+trust and reverence where we only see slavishness and imposture, and
+a feeling of divine consolation and hope in services which to us are
+histrionic and absurd. Religious belief, in the sense of a true and
+undivided faith in the doctrines of Christianity, had no recognised
+existence at the period we have reached. But this absence of religious
+belief was combined, however strange the statement may appear, with
+a most implicit trust in the directions and authority of the Church.
+Sunny skies might have shone forever over the political abasement
+and slightly Christianized paganism of the inhabitants of the two
+peninsulas and the Southeast of Europe, but a cloud was about to rise
+in the North which dimmed them for a time, but which, after it burst
+in purifying thunder, has refreshed and cleared the atmosphere of the
+whole world.
+
+The first book that Guttenberg published in 1451 was the Holy
+Bible,--in the Latin language, to be sure, and after the Vulgate
+edition, but still containing, to those who could gather it, the
+manna of the Word. Two years after that, in 1453, the capture of
+Constantinople by the Turks had scattered the learning of the Greeks
+among all the nations of the West. The universities were soon supplied
+with professors, who displayed the hitherto-unexplored treasures of the
+language of Pericles and Demosthenes. Everywhere a spirit of inquiry
+began to reawaken, but limited as yet to subjects of philosophy and
+antiquity. Christianity, indeed, had so lost its hold on the minds of
+scholars that it was not considered worth inquiring into. It was looked
+on as a fable, and only profitable as an instrument of policy. Erasmus
+was alarmed at the state of feeling in 1516, and expressed his belief
+that, if those Grecian studies were pursued, the ancient deities would
+resume their sway. But the Bible was already reaping its appointed
+harvest. Its voice, lost in the din of speculative philosophies and
+the dissipation of courts, was heard in obscure places, where it never
+had penetrated before. In 1505, Luther was twenty-two years of age. He
+had made himself a scholar by attendance at schools where his poverty
+almost debarred him from appearing. At Eisenach he gained his bread by
+singing at the richer inhabitants' doors. Afterwards he had gone to
+Erfurt, and, tired or afraid of the world, anxious for opportunities
+of self-examination, and dissatisfied with his spiritual state, he
+entered the convent of the Augustines, and in two years more, in 1507,
+became priest and monk. There was an amazing amount of goodness and
+simplicity of life among the brotherhood of this community. Learning
+and devout meditation were encouraged, holy ascetic lives were led, the
+body was kept under with fastings and stripes. A Bible was open to them
+all, but chained to its place in the chapel, and only to be studied
+by standing before the desk on which it lay. All these things were
+insufficient, and Brother Martin was miserable. His companions pitied
+and respected him. Staupitz, a man of great rank in the Church, a sort
+of inspector-general of a large district, visited the convent, and in
+a moment was attracted by the youthful monk. He conversed with him,
+soothed his agitated mind, not with anodynes from the pharmacopoeia of
+the Church, but from the fountain-head of the faith. He painted God as
+the forgiver of sinners, the Father of all men; and Luther took some
+comfort. But, on going away, the kind-hearted Staupitz gave the young
+man a Bible,--a Bible all to himself, his own property, to carry in
+his bosom, to study in his cell. His vocation was at once fixed. The
+Reformer felt his future all before him, like Achilles when he grasped
+the sword and rejected the feminine toys. The books he had taken
+with him into the monastery were Plautus and Virgil; but he studied
+plays and epics no more. Augustin and the Bible supplied their place.
+Hungering for better things than the works of the law,--abstinence,
+prayer-repetitions, scourgings, and all the wearisome routine of
+mechanical devotion,--he dashed boldly into the other extreme, and
+preached free grace,--grace without merit, the great doctrine which is
+called, theologically, "justification by faith alone." This had been
+the main theme of his master Augustin, and Luther now gave it practical
+shape. In 1510 he was sent on some business of his convent to Rome,--to
+Rome, the head-quarters of the Church, the earthly residence of the
+infallible! How holy will be its dwellings, how gracious the words of
+its inhabitants! The German monk saw nothing but sin and infidelity.
+In high places as in low, the taint of corruption was polluting all
+the air. In terror and dismay, he left the city of iniquity within
+a fortnight of his arrival, and hurried back to the peacefulness of
+his convent. "I would not for a hundred thousand florins have missed
+seeing Rome," he said, long afterwards. "I should always have felt
+an uneasy doubt whether I was not, after all, doing injustice to the
+Pope. As it is, I am quite satisfied on the point." The Pope was Julius
+the Second, whose career we followed in the League of Cambrai; and
+we may enter into the surprise of Luther at seeing the Father of the
+Faithful breathing blood and ruin to his rival neighbours. But the
+force of early education was still unimpaired. The Pope was Pope, and
+the devout German thought of him on his knees. But in the year 1517 a
+man of the name of Tetzel, a Dominican of the rudest manners and most
+brazen audacity, appeared in the market-place of Wittenberg, ringing a
+bell, and hawking indulgences from the Holy See to be sold to all the
+faithful. A new Pope was on the throne,--the voluptuous Leo the Tenth.
+He had resolved to carry on the building of the great Church of St.
+Peter, and, having exhausted his funds in riotous living, he sent round
+his emissaries to collect fresh treasures by the sale of these pardons
+for human sin. "Pour in your money," cried Tetzel, "and whatever crimes
+you have committed, or may commit, are forgiven! Pour in your coin,
+and the souls of your friends and relations will fly out of purgatory
+the moment they hear the chink of your dollars at the bottom of the
+box." Luther was Doctor of Divinity, Professor in the University,
+and pastoral visitor of two provinces of the empire. He felt it was
+his duty to interfere. He learned for the first time himself how far
+indulgences were supposed to go, and shuddered at the profanity of the
+notion of their being of any value whatever. On the festival of All
+Saints, in November, 1517, he read a series of propositions against
+them in the great church, and startled all Germany like a thunderbolt
+with a printed sermon on the same subject. The press began its work,
+and people no longer fought in darkness. Nationalities were at an end
+when so wide-embracing a subject was treated by so universal an agent.
+The monk's voice was heard in all lands, even in the walls of Rome, and
+crossed the sea, and came in due time to England. "Tush, tush! 'tis
+a quarrel of monks," said Leo the Tenth; and, with an affectation of
+candour, he remarked, "This Luther writes well: he is a man of fine
+genius."
+
+Gallant young Henry the Eighth thought it a good opportunity to show
+his talent, and meditated an assault on the heretic,--a curious duel
+between a pale recluse and the gayest prince in Christendom. But
+the recluse was none the worse when the book was published, and the
+prince earned from the gratitude of the Pope the name "Defender of
+the Faith," which is still one of the titles of the English crown.
+Penniless Maximilian looked on well pleased, and wrote to a Saxon
+counsellor, "All the popes I have had any thing to do with have been
+rogues and cheats. The game with the priests is beginning. What your
+monk is doing is not to be despised: take care of him. It may happen
+that we shall have need of him." Luther's own prince, the Elector of
+Saxony, was his firm friend, and on one side or other all Europe was
+on the gaze. Leo at last perceived the danger, and summoned the monk
+to Rome. He might as well have yielded in the struggle at once, for
+from Rome he never could have returned alive. He consented, however, to
+appear before the Legate at Augsburg, attended by a strong body-guard
+furnished by the Elector, and held his ground against the threats
+and promises of the Cardinal of Cajeta. But Maximilian carried his
+poverty and disappointment to the grave in 1519; and when Leo saw
+the safe accession of his successor Charles the Fifth, the faithful
+servant of St. Peter, he pushed matters with a higher hand against
+the daring innovator. Brother Martin, however, was unmoved. He would
+not retreat; he even advanced in his course, and wrote to the Pope
+himself an account of the iniquities of Rome. "You have three or four
+cardinals," he says, "of learning and faith; but what are these three
+or four in so vast a crowd of infidels and reprobates? The days of
+Rome are numbered, and the anger of God has been breathed forth upon
+her. She hates councils, she dreads reforms, and will not hear of a
+check being placed on her desperate impiety." This was a dangerous
+man to meet with such devices as bulls and interdicts. Charles
+determined to try harsher measures, and summoned him to appear at
+a Diet of the States held in Worms. The emperor was now twenty-one
+years old. His sceptre stretched over the half of Europe, and across
+the great sea to the golden realm of Mexico. Martin begged a new gown
+from the not very lavish Elector, and went in a sort of chariot to
+the appointed city,--serene and confident, for he had a safe-conduct
+from the emperor and various princes, and trusted in the goodness of
+his cause. [A.D. 1521.] Such a scene never occurred in any age of the
+world as was presented when the assemblage met. All the peers and
+potentates of the German Empire, presided over by the most powerful
+ruler that ever had been known in Europe, were gathered to hear the
+trial and condemnation of a thin, wan-visaged young man, dressed in
+a monk's gown and hood and worn with the fatigues and hazards of his
+recent life. "Yet prophet-like that lone one stood, with dauntless
+words and high," and answered all questions with force and modesty.
+But answers were not what the Diet required, and retractation was
+far from Luther's mind. So the Chancellor of Treves came to him and
+said, "Martin, thou art disobedient to his Imperial Majesty: wherefore
+depart hence under the safe-conduct he has given thee." And the monk
+departed. As he was nearing his destination, and was passing through a
+wood alone, some horsemen seized his person, dressed him in military
+garb, and put on him a false beard. They then mounted him on a led
+horse and rode rapidly away. His friends were anxious about his fate,
+for a dreadful sentence had been uttered against him by the emperor on
+the day when his safe-conduct expired, forbidding any one to sustain
+or shelter him, and ordering all persons to arrest and bring him into
+prison to await the judgment he deserved. People thought he had been
+waylaid and killed, or at all events sent into a dungeon. Meantime he
+was living peaceably and comfortably in the castle of Wartburg, to
+which he had been conveyed in this mysterious manner by his friend the
+Elector,--safe from the machinations of his enemies, and busily engaged
+in his immortal translation of the Bible.
+
+The movement thus communicated by Luther knew no pause nor end.
+It soon ceased to be a merely national excitement caused by local
+circumstances, and became the one great overwhelming question of
+the time. Every thing was brought into its vortex: however distant
+might be its starting-point, to this great central idea it was sure
+to attach itself at last. Involuntarily, unconsciously, unwillingly,
+every government found that the Reformation formed part of its scheme
+and policy. One nation, and one only, had the clear eye and firm
+hand to make it ostensibly, and of its deliberate choice, the guide
+and landmark in its dangerous and finally triumphant career. This
+was England,--not when under the degrading domination of its Henry
+or the heavy hand of its Mary, but under the skilful piloting of the
+great Elizabeth, the first of rulers who seems to have perceived that
+submission to a foreign priest is a political error on the part both
+of kings and subjects, and that occupation by a foreign army is not
+more subversive of freedom and independence than the supremacy of a
+foreign Church. Hitherto England had been nearly divided from the whole
+world, and was merely one of the distant satellites that revolved on
+the outside of the European system, the centre of which was Rome.
+She was now to burn with light of her own. The Continent, indeed,
+at the commencement of the Reformation, seemed almost in a state of
+dissolution. In 1529 disunion had attained such a pitch in the Empire
+that the different princes were ranged on hostile sides. At the Diet
+of Spires, in this year, the name of Protestant had been assumed by
+the opponents of the excesses and errors of the Church of Rome. At
+the same time that the religious unity was thus finally thrown off,
+the Turks were thundering at the Eastern gates of Europe, and Solyman
+of Constantinople laid siege to Vienna. France was exhausted with her
+internal troubles. Spain came to the rescue of the outraged faith, and
+made heresy punishable with death throughout all her dominions. While
+the Netherlands, against which this was directed, was groaning under
+this new infliction, disorder seemed to extend over the solid earth
+itself. There were earthquakes and great storms in many lands. Lisbon
+was shaken into ruins, with a loss of thirty thousand inhabitants; and
+the dykes of Holland were overwhelmed by a prodigious rising of the
+sea, and four hundred thousand people were drowned.
+
+Preparations were made in all quarters for a great and momentous
+struggle: nobody could tell where it would break forth or where it
+would end. And ever and anon Luther's rallying-cry was heard in answer
+to the furious denunciations of cardinals and popes. Interests get
+parcelled out in so many separate portions that it is impossible
+to unravel the state of affairs with any clearness. We shall only
+notice that, in 1531, the famous league of Smalcalde first embodied
+Protestantism in its national and lay constitution by the banding
+together of nine of the sovereign princes of Germany, and eleven free
+cities, in armed defence, if needed, of their religious belief. Where
+is the fiery Henry of England, with his pen or sword? A very changed
+man from what we saw him only thirteen years ago. He has no pen now,
+and his sword is kept for his discontented subjects at home. In 1534,
+King and Lords and Commons, in Parliament assembled, threw off the
+supremacy of Rome, and Henry is at last a king, for his courts hold
+cognizance of all causes within the realm, whether ecclesiastical or
+civil. Everybody knows the steps by which this embodied selfishness
+achieved his emancipation from a dominant Church. It little concerns
+us now, except as a question of historic curiosity, what his motives
+were. Judging from the analogy of all his other actions, we should
+say they were bad; but by some means or other the evil deeds of this
+man were generally productive of benefit to his country. He cast off
+the Pope that he might be freed from a disagreeable wife; but as the
+Pope whom he rejected was the servant of Charles, (the nephew of the
+repudiated queen,) he found that he had freed his kingdom at the same
+time from its degrading vassalage to the puppet of a rival monarch.
+He dissolved the monasteries in England for the purpose of grasping
+their wealth; but the country found he had at the same time delivered
+it from a swarm of idle and mischievous corporations, which in no long
+time would have swallowed up the land. Their revenues were immense,
+and the extent of their domains almost incredible. Before people had
+recovered from their disgust at the hateful motives of their tyrant's
+behaviour, the results of it became apparent in the elevation of the
+finest class of the English population; for the "bold peasantry, their
+country's pride," began to establish their independent holdings on
+the parcelled-out territories of the monks and nuns. Vast tracts of
+ground were thrown open to the competition of lay proprietors. Even the
+poorest was not without hope of becoming an owner of the soil; nay, the
+released estates were so plentiful that in Elizabeth's reign an act was
+passed making it illegal for a man to build a cottage "unless he laid
+four acres of land thereto." The cottager, therefore, became a small
+farmer; and small farmers were the defence of England; and the defence
+of England was the safety of freedom and religion throughout the world.
+There were some hundred thousands of those landed cottagers and smaller
+gentry and great proprietors established by this most respectable
+sacrilege of Henry the Eighth, and for the sake of these excellent
+consequences we forgive him his pride and cruelty and all his faults.
+But Henry's work was done, and in January, 1547, he died. The rivals
+with whom he started on the race of life were still alive; but life was
+getting dark and dreary with both of them. Francis was no longer the
+hero of "The Field of the Cloth-of-Gold," conqueror of Marignano, the
+gallant captive of Pavia, or the winner of all hearts. He was worn out
+with a life of great vicissitudes, and heard with ominous foreboding
+the news of Henry's death. [March 11, 1547.] A fate seemed to unite
+them in all those years of revelry and hate and friendship, and in a
+few weeks the most chivalrous and generous of the Valois followed the
+most tyrannical of the Tudors to the tomb. A year before this, the
+Monk of Wittenberg, now the renowned and married Dr. Martin Luther,
+had left a place vacant which no man could fill; and now of all those
+combatants Charles was the sole survivor. Selfish as Henry, dissolute
+as Francis, obstinate as Martin, his race also was drawing to a close.
+But the play was played out before these chief performers withdrew. All
+Europe had changed its aspect. The England, the France, the Empire, of
+five-and-twenty years before had utterly passed away. New objects were
+filling men's minds, new principles of policy were regulating states.
+Protestantism was an established fact, and the Treaty of Passau in 1552
+gave liberty and equality to the professors of the new faith. Charles
+was sagacious though heartless as a ruler, but an unredeemed bigot as
+an individual man. The necessities of his condition, by which he was
+forced to give toleration to the enemies of the Church, weighed upon
+his heart. A younger hand and bloodier disposition, he thought, were
+needed to regain the ground he had been obliged to yield; and in Philip
+his son he perceived all these requirements fulfilled. When he looked
+round, he saw nothing to give him comfort in his declining years. War
+was going on in Hungary against the still advancing Turks; war was
+raging in Lorraine between his forces and the French; Italy, the land
+of volcanoes, was on the eve of outbreak and anarchy; and, thundering
+out defiance of the Imperial power and the Christian Cross, the guns
+of the Ottoman fleet were heard around the shores of Sicily and up to
+the Bay of Naples. The emperor was faint and weary: his armies were
+scattered and dispirited; his fleets were unequal to their enemy: so in
+1556 he resigned his pompous title of monarch of Spain and the Indies,
+with all their dependencies, to his son, and the empire to his brother
+Ferdinand, who was already King of Hungary and Bohemia and hereditary
+Duke of Austria; and then, with the appearance of resignation, but his
+soul embittered by anger and disappointment, he retired to the Convent
+of St. Just, where he gorged himself into insanity with gluttonies
+which would have disgraced Vitellius, and amused himself by interfering
+in state affairs which he had forsworn, and making watches which
+he could not regulate, and going through the revolting farce of a
+rehearsal of his funeral, with his body in the coffin and the monks of
+the monastery for mourners. Those theatrical lamentations were probably
+as sincere as those which followed his real demise in 1558; for when he
+surrendered the power which made him respected he gave evidence only
+of the qualities which made him disliked.
+
+The Reformation, you remember, is the characteristic of this century.
+We have traced it in Germany to its recognition as a separate and
+liberated faith. In England we are going to see Protestantism
+established and triumphant. But not yet; for we have first to notice
+a period when Protestantism seems at its last hour, when Mary, wife
+of the bigot Philip, and true and honourable daughter of the Church,
+is determined to restore her nation to the Romish chair, or die in
+the holy attempt. We are not going into the minutiae of this dreadful
+time, or to excite your feelings with the accounts of the burnings and
+torturings of the dissenters from the queen's belief. None of us are
+ignorant of the cruelty of those proceedings, or have read unmoved the
+sad recital of the martyrdom of the bishops and of such men as the
+joyous and innocent Rowland Taylor of Hadleigh. Men's hearts did not
+become hardened by these sights. Rather they melted with compassion
+towards the dauntless sufferers; and, though the hush of terror
+kept the masses of the people silent, great thoughts were rising in
+the general mind, and toleration ripened even under the heat of the
+Smithfield fires. Attempts have been made to blacken Mary beyond her
+demerits and to whiten her beyond her deservings. Protestants have
+denied her the virtues she unquestionably possessed,--truthfulness,
+firmness, conscientiousness, and unimpeachable morals. Her panegyrists
+take higher ground, and claim for her the noblest qualifications
+both as queen and woman,--patriotism, love of her people, fulfilment
+of all her duties, and exquisite tenderness of disposition. It will
+be sufficient for us to look at her actions, and we will leave her
+secret sentiments alone. We shall only say that it is very doubtful
+whether the plea of conscientiousness is admissible in such a case.
+If perverted reasoning or previous education has made a Thug feel it
+a point of conscience to put his throttling instrument under a quiet
+traveller's throat, the conscientious belief of the performer that his
+act is for the good of the sufferer's soul will scarcely save him from
+the gallows. On the contrary, a conscientious persistence in what is
+manifestly wrong should be an aggravation of the crime, for it gives
+an appearance of respectability to atrocity, and, when punishment
+overtakes the wrong-doers, makes the Thug an honoured martyr to his
+opinions, instead of a convicted felon for his misdeeds. Let us hope
+that the rights of conscience will never be pleaded in defence of
+cruelty or persecution.
+
+[A.D. 1554.]
+
+The restoration of England to the obedience of the Church, the marriage
+of Mary, the warmest partisan of Popery, with Philip, the fanatical
+oppressor of the reformed,--these must have raised the hopes of
+Rome to an extraordinary pitch. But greater as a support, and more
+reliable than queens or kings, was the Society of the Jesuits, which
+at this time demonstrated its attachment to the Holy See, and devoted
+itself blindly, remorselessly, unquestioning, to the defence of the
+old faith. Having sketched the rise of Luther, a companion-picture
+is required of the fortunes of Ignatius Loyola. We hinted that a
+Biscayan soldier, wounded at the siege of Pampeluna in Spain, divided
+the notice of Europe with the poor Austin Friar of Wittenberg.
+Enthusiasm, rising almost into madness, was no bar, in the case of
+this wonderful Spaniard, to the possession of faculties for government
+and organization which have never been surpassed. Shut out by the
+lameness resulting from his wound from the struggles of worldly and
+soldierly ambition, he gave full way to the mystic exaltation of his
+Southern disposition. He devoted himself as knight and champion to the
+Virgin, heard with contempt and horror of the efforts made to deny the
+omnipotence of the Chair of Rome, and swore to be its defender. Others
+of similar sentiments joined him in his crusade against innovation.
+[A.D. 1540.] A company of self-denying, self-sacrificing men began,
+and, adding to the previous laws of their order a vow of unqualified
+submission to the Pope, they were recognised by a bull, and the Society
+of Jesus became the strongest and most remarkable institution of modern
+times. Through all varieties of fortune, in exile and imprisonment, and
+even in dissolution, their oath of uninquiring, unhesitating obedience
+to the papal command has never been broken. With Protean variety of
+appearance, but unvarying identity of intention, these soldiers of St.
+Peter are as relentless to others, and as regardless of themselves, as
+the body-guard of the old Assassins. No degradation is too servile,
+no place too distant, no action too revolting, for these unreasoning
+instruments of power. Wilfully surrendering the right of judgment and
+the feelings of conscience into the hands of their superior, there
+is no method by law or argument of regulating their conduct. The one
+principle of submission has swallowed up all the rest, and fulfilment
+of that duty ennobles the iniquitous deeds by which it is shown. Other
+societies put a clause, either by words or implication, in their
+promise of obedience, limiting it to things which are just and proper.
+This limit is ostentatiously abrogated by the followers of Loyola. The
+merit of obeying an order to slay an enemy of the Church more than
+compensates for the guilt of the murder. In other orders a homicide is
+looked upon with horror; in this, a Jesuit who kills a heretical king
+by command of his chiefs is venerated as a saint. Against practices
+and feelings like these you can neither reason nor be on your guard.
+In all kingdoms, accordingly, at some time or other, the existence of
+the order has been found inconsistent with the safety of the State,
+and it has been dissolved by the civil power. The moment, however,
+the Church regains its hold, the Jesuits are sure to be restored. The
+alliance, indeed, is indispensable, and the mutual aid of the Order
+and of the Papacy a necessity of their existence. Incorporated in
+1540, the brothers of the Company of Jesus considered the defections
+of the Reformation in a fair way of being compensated when the death
+of our little, cold-hearted, self-willed Edward the Sixth--a Henry
+the Eighth in the bud--left the throne in 1553 to Mary, a Henry the
+Eighth full blown. [A.D. 1558.] When nearly five years of conscientious
+truculence had shown the earnestness of this unhappy woman's belief,
+the accession of Elizabeth inaugurated a new system in this country,
+from which it has never departed since without a perceptible loss
+both of happiness and power. A strictly home and national policy was
+immediately established by this most remarkable of our sovereigns, and
+pursued through good report and evil report, sometimes at the expense
+of her feelings--if she was so little of a Tudor as to have any--of
+tenderness and compassion, sometimes at the expense--and here she was
+Tudor enough to have very acute sensations indeed--of her personal and
+official dignity, but always with the one object of establishing a
+great united and irresistible bulwark against foreign oppression and
+domestic disunion. It shows how powerful was her impression upon the
+course of European history, that her character is as fiercely canvassed
+at this day as in the speech of her contemporaries. Nobody feels as
+if Elizabeth was a personage removed from us by three hundred years.
+We discuss her actions, and even argue about her looks and manners,
+as if she had lived in our own time. And this is the reason why such
+divergent judgments are pronounced on a person who, more than any other
+ruler, united the opinions of her subjects during the whole of her
+long and agitated life. Her acts remain, but her judges are different.
+If we could throw ourselves with the reality of circumstance as well
+as the vividness of feeling into the period in which she moved and
+governed, we should come to truer decisions on the points submitted to
+our view. But if we look with the refinements of the present time, and
+the speculative niceties permissible in questions which have no direct
+bearing on our prosperity and safety, we shall see much to disapprove
+of, which escaped the notice, or even excited the admiration, of the
+people who saw what tremendous arbitraments were on the scale. If we
+were told that a cold-blooded individual had placed on one occasion
+some murderous weapons on a height, and then requested a number of his
+friends to stand before them, while some unsuspecting persons came
+up in that direction, and then, suddenly telling his companions to
+stand on one side, had sent bullets hissing and crashing through the
+gentlemen advancing to him, you would shudder with disgust at such
+atrocious cruelty, till you were told that the cold-blooded individual
+was the Duke of Wellington, and the advancing gentlemen the French
+Old Guard at Waterloo. And in the same way, if we read of Elizabeth
+interfering in Scotland, domineering at home, and bellicose abroad,
+let us inquire, before we condemn, whether she was in her duty during
+those operations,--whether, in fact, she was resisting an assault, or
+capriciously and unjustifiably opening her batteries on the innocent
+and unprepared. Fiery-hearted, strong-handed Scotchmen are ready to
+fight at this time for the immaculate purity and sinless martyrdom of
+their beautiful Mary, and sturdy Englishmen start up with as bold a
+countenance in defence of good Queen Bess. It is not to be doubted
+that a roll-call as numerous as that of Bannockburn or Flodden could
+be mustered on this quarrel of three centuries ago; but the fight is
+needless. The points of view are so different that a verdict can never
+be given on the merits of the two personages principally engaged; but
+we think an unprejudiced examination of the course of Elizabeth's
+policy in Scotland, and her treatment of her rival, will establish
+certain facts which neither party can gainsay.
+
+1st. From this it will result, that, to keep reformed England secure,
+it was indispensable to have reformed Scotland on her side.
+
+2d. That, in order to have Scotland either reformed or on her side, it
+was indispensable to render powerless a popish queen,--a queen who was
+supported as legitimate inheritor of England by the Pope and Philip of
+Spain, and the King and princes of France.
+
+3d. That Elizabeth had a right, by all the laws of self-preservation,
+to sustain by every legal and peaceable means that party in Scotland
+which was _de facto_ the government of the country, and which promised
+to be most useful to the objects she had in view. Those objects have
+already been named,--peace and security for the Protestant religion,
+and the honour and independence of the whole British realm.
+
+To gain these ends, who denies that she bribed and bullied and
+deceived?--that she degraded the Scottish nobles by alternate promises
+and threats, and weakened the Scottish crown by encouraging its
+enemies, both ecclesiastical and civil? In prudishly finding fault
+with these proceedings, we forget the Scotch, French, Spanish, popish,
+emissaries who were let loose upon England; the plots at home, the
+scowling messages from abroad; the excommunications uttered from Rome;
+the massacre of the Protestants gloried in in France, and the vast
+navies and immense armies gathering against the devoted Isle from all
+the coasts and provinces of Spain.
+
+In 1568, after the defeat of the queen's party at Langside, Mary
+threw herself on the pity and protection of Elizabeth, and was kept
+in honourable safety for many years. She did not allow her to collect
+partisans for the recovery of her kingdom, nor to cabal against the
+government which had expelled her. To do so would not have been to
+shelter a fugitive, but to declare war on Scotland. In 1848, Louis
+Philippe, chased by the revolutionists of Paris, came over to England.
+He was kept in honourable retirement. He was not allowed to cabal
+against his former subjects, nor to threaten their policy. To do so
+would not have been to shelter a fugitive, but to declare war on
+France. Even in the case of the earlier Bourbons, we permitted no
+gatherings of forces on their behalf, and did not encourage their
+followers to molest the settled government,--no, not when the throne of
+France was filled by an enemy and we were at deadly war with Napoleon.
+But Mary was put to death. A sad story, and very melancholy to read in
+quiet drawing-rooms with Britannia ruling the waves and keeping all
+danger from our coasts. But in 1804, if Louis the Eighteenth or Charles
+the Tenth, instead of eating the bread of charity in peace, had been
+detected in conspiracy with our enemies, in corresponding with foreign
+emissaries, when a thousand flat-bottomed boats were marshalling for
+our invasion at Boulogne, and Brest and Cherbourg and Toulon were
+crowded with ships and sailors to protect the flotilla, it needs no
+great knowledge of character to pronounce that English William Pitt
+and Scottish Harry Dundas would have had the royal Bourbon's head on
+a block, or his body on Tyburn-tree, in spite of all the romance and
+eloquence in the world.
+
+Mary's guilt or innocence of the charges brought against her in
+her relations with Darnley and Bothwell has nothing to do with the
+treatment she received from Elizabeth. She was not amenable to English
+law for any thing she did in Scotland, nor was she condemned for any
+thing but treasonable practices which it was impossible to deny.
+She certainly owed submission and allegiance to the English crown
+while she lived under its protection. Let us indulge our chivalrous
+generosity, and enjoy delightful poems in defence of an unfortunate and
+beautiful sovereign, by believing that the blots upon her fame were
+the aspersions of malignity and political baseness: the great fact
+remains, that it was an indispensable incident to the security of both
+the kingdoms that she should be deprived of authority, and finally, as
+the storm darkened, and derived all its perils from her conspiracies
+against the State and breaches of the law, that she should be deprived
+of life. Far more sweeping measures were pursued and defended by the
+enemies of Elizabeth abroad. Present forever, like a skeleton at a
+feast, must have been the massacre of St. Bartholomew in the thoughts
+of every Protestant in Europe, and most vividly of all in those of the
+English queen. That great blow was meant to be a warning to heretics
+wherever they were found, and in olden times and more revengeful
+dispositions might have been an excuse for similar atrocity on the
+other side. The Bartholomew massacre and the Armada are the two great
+features of the latter part of this century; and they are both so well
+known that it will be sufficient to recall them in a very few words.
+
+This massacre was no chance-sprung event, like an ordinary popular
+rising, but had been matured for many years. The Council of Trent,
+which met in 1545 and continued its sittings till 1563, had devoted
+those eighteen years to codifying the laws of the Catholic Church. A
+definite, clear, consistent system was established, and acknowledged
+as the religious and ecclesiastical faith of Christendom. Men were not
+now left to a painful gathering of the sentiments and rescripts of
+popes and doctors out of varying and scattered writings. Here were the
+statutes at large, minutely indexed and easy of reference. From these
+many texts could be gathered which justified any method of diffusing
+the true belief or exterminating the false. And accordingly, a short
+time after the close of the Council, an interview took place between
+two personages, of very sinister augury for the Protestant cause.
+Catherine de Medicis and the Duke of Alva met at Bayonne in 1565. In
+this consultation great things were discussed; and it was decided by
+the wickedest woman and harshest man in Europe that government could
+not be safe nor religion honoured unless by the introduction of the
+Inquisition and a general massacre of heretics in every land. A few
+months later saw the ferocious Alva beginning his bloodthirsty career
+in the Netherlands, in which he boasted he had put eighteen thousand
+Hollanders to death on the scaffold in five years. Catherine also
+pondered his lessons in her heart, and when seven years had passed, and
+the Huguenots were still unsubdued, she persuaded her son Charles the
+Ninth that the time was come to establish his kingdom in righteousness
+by the indiscriminate murder of all the Protestants. An occasion was
+found in 1572, when the marriage of Henry of Navarre, afterwards the
+best-loved king of France, with the Princess Margaret de Valois, held
+out a prospect of soothing the religious troubles, and also (which
+suited her designs better) of attracting all the heads of the Huguenot
+cause to Paris. Every thing turned out as she hoped. There had been
+feasts and gayeties, and suspicion had been thoroughly disarmed.
+Suddenly the tocsin was sounded, and the murderers let loose over all
+the town. No plea was received in extenuation of the deadly crime of
+favouring the new opinions. Hospitality, friendship, relationship,
+youth, sex, all were disregarded. The streets were red with blood, and
+the river choked with mutilated bodies. Upwards of seventy thousand
+were butchered in Paris alone, and the metropolitan example was
+followed in other places. The deed was so awful that for a while it
+silenced the whole of Europe. Some doubted, some shuddered; but Rome
+sprang up with a shout of joy when the news was confirmed, and uttered
+prayers of thanksgiving for so great a victory. If it could have been
+possible to put every gainsayer to death everywhere, the triumph would
+have been complete; but there were countries where Catherine's dagger
+could not reach; and whenever her name was heard, and the terrible
+details of the massacre were known, undying hatred of the Church which
+encouraged such iniquity mingled with the feelings of pity and alarm.
+For no one henceforth could feel safe. The Huguenots were under the
+highest protection known to the heart of man. They were guests, and
+they were taken unawares in the midst of the rejoicings of a marriage.
+Rome lost more by the massacre than the Protestants. People looked
+round and saw the butcheries in the Netherlands, the slaughters in
+Paris, the tortures in the Inquisition, and over all, rioting in hopes
+of recovered dominion, supported by his priests and Dominicans, a Pope
+who plainly threatened a repetition of such scenes wherever his power
+was acknowledged. Germany, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, and
+the Northern nations, were lost to the Church of Rome more surely by
+the scaffold and crimes which professed to bring her aid, than by any
+other cause. Elizabeth was now the accepted champion and leader of the
+Protestants, and on her all the malice of the baffled Romanists was
+turned. To weaken, to dethrone or murder the English heretic was the
+praiseworthiest of deeds.
+
+But one great means of distracting England from her onward course was
+now removed. In former days Scotland would have been let loose upon
+her unguarded flanks; but by this time the genius of Knox, running
+parallel with the efforts of the Southern reformers, had raised a
+religious feeling which responded to the English call. Scotland, freed
+from an oppressive priesthood, did manful battle at the side of her
+former enemy. Elizabeth was kept safe by the joint hatred the nations
+entertained to Rome, and, as regarded foreigners, the Union had already
+taken place. On one sure ground, however, those foreigners could still
+build their hopes. Mary, conscientious in her religion, and embittered
+in her dislike, was still alive, to be the rallying-point for every
+discontented cry and to represent the old causes,--the legitimate
+descent and the true faith. The greatest circumspection would have
+been required to keep her conduct from suspicion in these embarrassing
+circumstances. But she was still as thoughtless as in her happier
+days, and exposed herself to legal inquiries by the unguardedness of
+her behaviour. The wise counsellors of Elizabeth saw but one way to
+put an end to all those fears and expectations; and Mary, after due
+trial, was condemned and executed. [A.D. 1587.] Hope was now at an end;
+but revenge remained, and the great Colossus of the Papacy bestirred
+himself to punish the sacrilegious usurper. Philip the Second was
+still the most Catholic of kings. More stern and bigoted than when he
+had tried to restrain the burning zeal of Mary of England, he was
+resolved to restore by force a revolted people to the Chair of St.
+Peter and exact vengeance for the slights and scorns which had rankled
+in his heart from the date of his ill-omened visit. He prepared all
+his forces for the glorious attempt. Nothing could have been devised
+more calculated to bring all English hearts more closely to their
+queen. Every report of a fresh squadron joining the fleets already
+assembled for the invasion called forth more zeal in behalf of the
+reformed Church and the undaunted Elizabeth. Scotland also held some
+vessels ready to assist her sister in this great extremity, and lined
+her shores with Presbyterian spearmen. Community of danger showed more
+clearly than ever that safety lay in combination. Chains, we know, were
+brought over in those missionary galleys, and all the apparatus of
+torture, with smiths to set them to work. But the smiths and the chains
+never made good their landing on British ground. The ships covered all
+the narrow sea; but the wind blew, and they were scattered. It was
+perhaps better, as a warning and a lesson, that the principal cause of
+the Spaniard's disaster was a storm. If it had been fairly inflicted on
+them in open battle, the superior seamanship or numbers or discipline
+of the enemy might have been pleaded. But there must have mingled
+something more depressing than the mere sorrow of defeat when Philip
+received his discomfited admiral with the words, "We cannot blame you
+for what has happened: we cannot struggle against the will of God."
+
+
+
+
+                         SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        HENRY IV.--(_cont._)
+
+  1610. LOUIS XIII.
+
+  1643. LOUIS XIV.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        RODOLPH II.--(_cont._)
+
+  1612. MATTHIAS.
+
+  1619. FERDINAND II.
+
+  1637. FERDINAND III.
+
+  1658. LEOPOLD I.
+
+
+Kings of England and Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        ELIZABETH.--(_cont._)
+
+  (_House of Stuart._)
+
+  1603. JAMES I.
+
+  1625. CHARLES I.
+
+  1649. Commonwealth.
+
+  1660. CHARLES II.
+
+  1685. JAMES II.
+
+  1689. WILLIAM III. and MARY.
+
+
+Kings of Spain.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        PHILIP III.--(_cont._)
+
+  1621. PHILIP IV.
+
+  1665. CHARLES II.
+
+
+Distinguished Men.
+
+BACON, MILTON, LOCKE, CORNEILLE, RACINE, MOLIERE, KEPLER, (1571-1630,)
+BOYLE, (1627-1691,) BOSSUET, (1627-1704,) NEWTON, (1642-1727,)
+BURNET, (1643-1715,) BAYLE, (1647-1706,) CONDE, TURENNE, (1611-1675,)
+MARLBOROUGH, (1650-1722.)
+
+
+
+
+                       THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+  ENGLISH REBELLION AND REVOLUTION--DESPOTISM OF LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH.
+
+
+We are apt to suppose that progress and innovation are so peculiarly
+the features of these latter times that it is only in them that a man
+of more than ordinary length of life has witnessed any remarkable
+change. We meet with men still alive who were acquainted with Franklin
+and Voltaire, who have been presented at the court of Louis the
+Sixteenth and have visited President Pierce at the White House. But
+the period we have now to examine is quite as varied in the contrasts
+presented by the duration of a lifetime as in any other age of the
+world. Of this we shall take a French chronicler as an example,--a
+man who was as greedy of news, and as garrulous in relating it, as
+Froissart himself, but who must take a very inferior rank to that
+prose minstrel of "gentle blood," as he limited his researches
+principally to the scandals which characterized his time. We mean the
+truth-speaking libeller Brantome. [A.D. 1616.] This man died within a
+year or two of Shakspeare, and yet had accompanied Mary to Scotland,
+and given that poetical account of the voyage from Calais, when she
+sat in the stern of the vessel with her eyes fixed on the receding
+shore, and said, "Adieu, France, adieu! I shall never see you more;"
+and again, on the following morning, bending her looks across the
+water when land was no longer to be seen, and exclaiming, "Adieu,
+France! I shall never see you more." The mere comparison of these two
+things--the return of Mary to her native kingdom, torn at that time
+with all the struggles of anarchy and distress, and the death of the
+greatest of earth's poets, rich and honoured, in his well-built house
+at Stratford-on-Avon--suggests a strange contrast between the beginning
+of Brantome's literary career and its close: the events filling up
+the interval are like the scarcely-discernible heavings in a dark
+and tumultuous sea,--a storm perpetually raging, and waves breaking
+upon every shore. In his own country, cruelty and demoralization
+had infected all orders in the State, till murder, and the wildest
+profligacy of manners, were looked on without a shudder. Brantome
+attended the scanty and unregretted funeral of Henry the Third, the
+last of the house of Valois, who was stabbed by the monk Jacques
+Clement for faltering in his allegiance to the Church. A sentence had
+been pronounced at Rome against the miserable king, and the fanatic's
+dagger was ready. Sixtus the Fifth, in full consistory, declared that
+the regicide was "comparable, as regards the salvation of the world,
+to the incarnation and the resurrection, and that the courage of the
+youthful Jacobin surpassed that of Eleazar and Judith." "That Pope,"
+says Chateaubriand, the Catholic historian of France, "had too little
+political conviction, and too much genius, to be sincere in these
+sacrilegious comparisons; but it was of importance to him to encourage
+the fanatics who were ready to murder kings in the name of the papal
+power." Brantome had seen the issuing of a bull containing the same
+penalties against Elizabeth, the death of Mary on the scaffold, and
+the failure of the Armada. After the horrors of the religious wars,
+from the conspiracy of Amboise in 1560 to the publication of the edict
+of toleration given at Nantes in 1598, he had seen the comparatively
+peaceful days of Henry the Fourth, till fanaticism again awoke a
+suspicion of a return to his original Protestant leanings, as shown
+in his opposition to the house of Austria, and Ravaillac renewed the
+meritorious work of Clement in 1610. Last of all, the spectator of all
+these changes saw England and Scotland forever united under one crown,
+and the first rise of the master of the modern policy of Europe, for
+in the year of Brantome's death a young priest was appointed Secretary
+of State in France, whom men soon gazed on with fear and wonder as the
+great Cardinal Richelieu.
+
+In England the alterations were as great and striking. After the
+troubled years from Elizabeth's accession to the Armada, a period of
+rest and progress came. Interests became spread over the whole nation,
+and did not depend so exclusively on the throne. Wisdom and good
+feeling made Elizabeth's crown, in fact, what laws and compacts have
+made her successors',--a constitutional sovereign's. She ascertained
+the sentiments of her people almost without the intervention of
+Parliament, and was more a carrier-through of the national will than
+the originator of absolute decrees. The moral battles of a nation in
+pursuit of some momentous object like religious or political freedom
+bring forth great future crops, as fields are enriched on which
+mighty armies have been engaged. The fertilizing influence extends
+in every direction, far and near. If, therefore, the intellectual
+harvest that followed the final rejection of the Pope and crowning
+defeat of the Spaniard included Shakspeare and Bacon, and a host of
+lesser but still majestic names, we may venture also to remark, on the
+duller and more prosaic side of the question, that in the first year
+of the seventeenth century a patent was issued by which a commercial
+speculation attained a substantive existence, for the East India
+Company was founded, with a stock of seventy-two thousand pounds, and
+a fleet of four vessels took their way from the English harbours, on
+their first voyage to the realm where hereafter their employers, who
+thus began as merchant adventurers, were to rule as kings. The example
+set by these enterprising men was followed by high and low. During
+the previous century people had been too busy with their domestic
+and religious disputes to pay much attention to foreign exploration.
+They were occupied with securing their liberties from the tyranny of
+Henry the Eighth and their lives from the truculence of Mary. Then
+the plots perpetually formed against Elizabeth, by domestic treason
+and foreign levy, kept their attention exclusively on home-affairs.
+But when the State was settled and religion secure, the long-pent-up
+activity of the national mind found vent in distant expeditions. A
+chivalrous contempt of danger, and poetic longing for new adventure,
+mingled with the baser attractions of those maritime wanderings. The
+families of gentle blood in England, instead of sending their sons
+to waste their lives in pursuit of knightly fame in the service of
+foreign states, equipped them for far higher enterprises, and sent
+them forth to gather the riches of unknown lands beyond the sea.
+Romantic rumours were rife in every manor-house of the strange sights
+and inexhaustible wealth to be gained by undaunted seamanship and
+judicious treatment of the natives of yet-unexplored dominions. Spain
+and Portugal had their kingdoms, but the extent of America was great
+enough for all. Islands were everywhere to be found untouched as yet by
+the foot of European; and many a winter's night was spent in talking
+over the possible results of sailing up some of the vast rivers that
+came down like bursting oceans from the far-inland regions to which
+nobody had as yet ascended,--the people and cities that lay upon their
+banks, the gold and jewels that paved the common soil. Towards the
+end of Elizabeth's reign, these imaginings had grown into sufficing
+motives of action, and gentlemen were ready from all the ports of
+the kingdom to sail on their adventurous voyages. In addition to the
+chance those gallant mariners had of realizing their day-dreams by
+the tedious methods of discovery and exploration, there was always
+the prospect of making prize of a galleon of Spain; for at all times,
+however friendly the nations might be in the European waters, a war
+was carried on beyond the Azores. Not altogether lost, therefore,
+was the old knightly spirit of peril-seeking and adventure in those
+commercial and geographical speculations. There were articles of
+merchandise in the hold, gaudy-coloured cloths, and bead ornaments, and
+wretched looking-glasses, besides brass and iron; but all round the
+captain's cabin were arranged swords and pistols, boarding-pikes, and
+other implements of fight. Guns also of larger size peeped out of the
+port-holes, and the crew were chosen as much with a view to warlike
+operations as to the ordinary duties of the ship. The Spaniards had
+made their way into the Pacific, and had established large settlements
+on the shores of Chili and Peru. Scenes which have been reacted at the
+diggings in modern times took place where the Europeans fixed their
+seat, and ships loaded with the precious metals found their way home,
+exposed to all the perils of storm and war. Drake had pounced upon
+several of their galleys and despoiled them of their precious cargo.
+Cavendish, a gentleman of good estate in Suffolk, had followed in his
+wake, and, after forcing his way through the Straits of Magellan, had
+reached the shores of California itself and there captured a Spanish
+vessel freighted with a vast amount of gold. All these adventures of
+the expiring sixteenth century became traditions and ballads of the
+young seventeenth. Raleigh, the most accomplished gentleman of his
+time, gave the glory of his example to the maritime career, and all
+the oceans were alive with British ships. While Raleigh and others of
+the upper class were carrying on a sort of cultivated crusade against
+the monopoly of the Spaniards, others of a less aristocratic position
+were busied in the more regular paths of commerce. We have seen the
+formation of the India Company in 1600. Our competitors, the Dutch,
+fitted out fleets on a larger scale, and established relations of trade
+and friendship with the natives of Polynesia and New Holland, and even
+of Java and India. But the zeal of the public in trading-speculations
+was not only shown in those well-conducted expeditions to lands
+easily accessible and already known: a company was established for
+the purpose of opening out the African trade, and a commercial voyage
+was undertaken to no less a place than Timbuctoo by a gallant pair of
+seamen of the names of Thomson and Jobson. It was not long before these
+efforts at honest international communication, and even the exploits
+of the Drakes and Cavendishes, who acted under commissions from the
+queen, degenerated into lawless piracy and the golden age of the
+Buccaneers. The policy of Spain was complete monopoly in her own hands,
+and a refusal of foreign intercourse worthy of the potentates of China
+and Japan. All access was prohibited to the flags of foreign nations,
+and the natural result followed. Adventurous voyagers made their
+appearance with no flag at all, or with the hideous emblem of a death's
+head emblazoned on their standard, determined to trade peaceably if
+possible, but to trade whether peaceably or not. The Spanish colonists
+were not indisposed to exchange their commodities with those of the
+new-comers, but the law was imperative. The Buccaneers, therefore,
+proceeded to help themselves to what they wanted by force, and at
+length came to consider themselves an organized estate, governed
+by their own laws, and qualified to make treaties like any other
+established and recognised power. Cuba had been nearly depopulated by
+the cruelties and fanaticism of its Spanish masters, and was seized on
+by the Buccaneers. From this rich and beautiful island the pirate-barks
+dashed out upon any Spanish sail which might be leaving the mainland.
+Commanding the Gulf of Mexico, and with the power of crossing the
+Isthmus of Panama by a rapid march, those redoubtable bandits held the
+treasure-lands of the Spaniards in terrible subjection. And up to the
+commencement even of the eighteenth century the frightful spectacle was
+presented of a powerful confederacy of the wildest and most dissolute
+villains in Europe domineering over the most frequented seas in the
+world, and filling peaceful voyagers, and even well-armed men-of-war,
+with alarm by their unsparing cruelty, and atrocities which it curdles
+the blood to think of.
+
+Eastward as far as China, westward to the islands and shores of the
+great Pacific, up the rivers of Africa, and even among the forests of
+New Holland and Tasmania, the swarms of European adventurers succeeded
+each other without cessation. The marvel is, that, with such ceaseless
+activity, any islands, however remote or small, were left for the
+discovery of after-times. But the tide of English emigration rolled
+towards the mainland of North America with a steadier flow than to
+any other quarter. The idea of a northwest passage to India had taken
+possession of men's minds, and hardy seamen had already braved the
+horrors of a polar winter, and set examples of fortitude and patience
+which their successors, from Behrens to Kane, have so nobly followed.
+But the fertile plains of Virginia, and the navigable streams of the
+eastern shore, were more alluring to the peaceful and unenterprising
+settlers, whose object was to find a new home and carry on a
+lucrative trade with the native Indians. In 1607, a colony, properly
+so called,--for it had made provision for permanent settlement, and
+consisted of a hundred and ten persons, male and female,--arrived at
+the mouth of the Chesapeake. The river Powhatan was eagerly explored;
+and at a point sufficiently far up to be secure from sudden attack from
+the sea, and on an isthmus easily defended from native assault, they
+pitched their tents on a spot which was hereafter known as Jamestown
+and is still honoured as the earliest of the American settlements. Our
+neighbour Holland was not behindhand either in trade or colonization,
+and equally with England was excited to fresh efforts by its recovered
+liberty and independence. In all directions of intellectual and
+physical employment those two States went boundingly forward at the
+head of the movement. The absolute monarchies lay lazily by, and
+relied on the inertness of their mass for their defence against those
+active competitors; and Spain, an unwieldy bulk, showed the intimate
+connection there will always exist between liberal institutions at
+home and active progress abroad. The sun never set on the dominions of
+the Spanish crown, but the life of the people was crushed out of them
+by the weight of the Inquisition and despotism. The United Provinces
+and combined Great Britain had shaken off both those petrifying
+institutions, and Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Dutchmen were ploughing
+up every sea, presenting themselves at the courts of strange-coloured
+potentates, in regions whose existence had been unknown a few years
+before, and gradually accustoming the wealth and commerce of the world
+to find their way to London and Amsterdam.
+
+To go from these views of hardihood and enterprise, from the wild
+heaving of unruly vigour which animated the traffickers and tyrants
+of the main, to the peaceful and pedantic domestic reign of James the
+First, shows the two extremes of European character at this time. The
+English people were not more than four millions in number, but they
+were the happiest and most favoured of all the nations. This was indeed
+the time,
+
+                    "Ere England's woes began,
+    When every rood of land maintain'd its man;"
+
+for we have seen how the division of the great monastic properties had
+created a new order in the State. All accounts concur in describing
+the opening of this century as the period of the greatest physical
+prosperity of the body of the people. A great deal of dulness and
+unrefinement there must still have been in the boroughs, where such
+sage officials as Dogberry displayed their pomp and ignorance,--a
+great deal of clownishness and coarseness in country-places, where
+Audreys and Autolycuses were to be found; but among townsmen and
+peasantry there was none of the grinding poverty which a more unequal
+distribution of national wealth creates. There were great Whitsun
+ales, and dancings round the Maypole; feasts on village greens, and a
+spirit of rude and personal independence, which became mellowed into
+manly self-respect when treated with deference by the higher ranks,
+the old hereditary gentry and the retired statesmen of Queen Bess,
+but bristled up in insolence and rebellion when the governing power
+thwarted its wishes, or fanaticism soured it with the bitter waters of
+polemic strife. The sturdy Englishman who doffed his hat to the squire,
+and joined his young lord in sports upon the green, in the beginning
+of James's reign, was the same stout-hearted, strong-willed individual
+who stiffened into Puritanism and contempt of all earthly authorities
+in the unlovely, unloving days of the Rump and Cromwell. Nor should
+we miss the great truth which lies hidden under the rigid forms of
+that period,--that the same noble qualities which characterized the
+happy yeoman and jocund squire of 1620--their earnestness, energy,
+and intensity of home affections--were no less existent in their
+ascetic short-haired descendants of 1650. The brimfulness of life
+which overflowed into expeditions against the Spaniards in Peru, and
+unravellings of the tangled rivers of Africa, and trackings of the wild
+bears among the ice-floes of Hudson's Bay, took a new direction when
+the century reached the middle of its course, and developed itself
+in the stormy discussions of the contending sects and the blood and
+misery of so many battle-fields. How was this great change worked
+on the English mind? How was it that the long-surviving soldier,
+courtier, landholder, of Queen Elizabeth saw his grandson grow up into
+the hard-featured, heavy-browed, keen-sworded Ironside of Oliver? A
+squire who ruined himself in loyal entertainments to King James on his
+larder-and-cellar-emptying journey from Edinburgh to London in 1603 may
+have lived to see his son, and son's son, rejoicing with unholy triumph
+over the victory of Naseby in 1644 and the death of Charles in 1649.
+
+Great causes must have been at work to produce this astonishing
+change, and some of them it will not be difficult to point out.
+Perhaps, indeed, the prosperity we have described may itself have
+contributed to the alteration in the English ways of thought. While
+the nation was trampled on by Henry the Eighth, with property and
+life insecure and poverty universally diffused, or even while it
+was guided by the strong hand of Elizabeth, it had neither power nor
+inclination to examine into its rights. The rights of a starving and
+oppressed population are not very great, even in its own eyes. It is
+the well-fed, law-protected, enterprising citizen who sees the value
+of just and settled government, because the blessings he enjoys depend
+upon its continuance. The mind of the nation had been pauperized along
+with its body by the life of charitable dependence it had led at the
+doors of church and monastery in the olden time. It little mattered
+to a gaping crowd expecting the accustomed dole whether the great man
+in London was a tyrannical king or not. They did not care whether he
+dismissed his Parliaments or cut off the heads of his nobility. They
+still found their "bit and sup," and saw the King, and Parliament, and
+nobility, united in obedience to the Church. But when this debasing
+charity was discontinued, independence came on. The idle hanger-on of
+the religious house became a cottager, and worked on his own land; by
+industry he got capital enough to take some additional acres; and the
+man of the next generation had forgotten the low condition he sprang
+from, and had so sharpened his mind by the theological quarrels of the
+time that he began to be able to comprehend the question of general
+politics. He saw, as every population and potentate in Europe saw with
+equal clearness, that the question of civil freedom was indissolubly
+connected with the relation between Church and State; he perceived
+that the extent of divergence from the old faith regulated in a great
+measure the spirit, and even the constitution, of government where it
+took place,--that adhesion to Rome meant absolutism and dependence,
+that Calvinism had a strong bias towards the republican form, and that
+the Church he had helped to establish was calculated to fill up the
+ground between those two extremes, and be the religious representative
+of a State as liberal as Geneva by its attention to the interests of
+all, and as monarchical as Spain by its loyalty to an hereditary crown.
+Now, the middle ground in great and agitating affairs is always the
+most difficult to maintain. Both sides make it their battle-field,
+and try to win it to themselves; and according as one assailant seems
+on the point of carrying his object, the defender of that disputed
+territory has to lean towards the other. Both parties are offended at
+the apparent inconsistency; and we are therefore not to be surprised if
+we find the Church accused of looking to both the hostile camps in turn.
+
+James was a fatal personage to every cause he undertook to defend. He
+had neither the strength of will of Henry, nor the proud consistency of
+Elizabeth; but he had the arrogance and presumption of both. Questions
+which the wise queen was afraid to touch, and left to the ripening
+influence of time, this blustering arguer dragged into premature
+discussion, stripped them of all their dignity by the frivolousness
+of the treatment he gave them, and disgusted all parties by the
+harshness and rapidity of his partial decisions. Every step he took
+in the quelling of religious dissension by declarations in favour of
+proscription and authority which would have endeared him to Gregory the
+Seventh, he accompanied with some frightful display of his absolutist
+tendencies in civil affairs. The same man who roared down the modest
+claims of a thousand of the clergy who wished some further modification
+of the Book of Common Prayer threw recusant members of Parliament into
+prison, persecuted personal enemies to death, with scarcely a form of
+law, punished refractory towns with loss of franchises and privileges,
+and made open declaration of his unlimited power over the lives and
+properties of all his subjects. People saw this unvarying alliance
+between his polemics and his politics, and began to consider seriously
+whether the comforts their trade and industry had given them could be
+safe under a Church calling itself reformed, but protected by such a
+king. If he was only suspected in England, in his own country he was
+fully known. Dearer to James would have been a hundred bishops and
+cardinals seated in conclave in Holyrood than a Presbyterian Synod
+praying against his policy in the High Kirk. He had even written to
+the Pope with offers of accommodation and reconcilement, and made no
+secret of his individual and official disgust at the levelling ideas
+of those grave followers of Knox and Calvin. Those grave followers
+of Knox and Calvin, however, were not unknown on the south side of
+the Tweed. The intercourse between the countries was not limited to
+the hungry gentry who followed James on his accession. A community of
+interest and feeling united the more serious of the Reformers, and
+visits and correspondence were common between them. But, while a regard
+for their personal freedom and the security of their wealth attracted
+the attention of the English middle class to the proceedings of King
+James, events were going on in foreign lands which had an immense
+effect on the development of the anti-monarchic, anti-episcopal spirit
+at home. These events have not been sufficiently considered in this
+relation, and we have been too much in the habit of looking at our
+English doings in those momentous years,--from the end of James's reign
+to the Restoration,--as if Britain had continued as isolated from her
+Continental neighbours as before the Norman Conquest. But a careful
+comparison of dates and actions will show how intimate the connection
+had become between the European States, and how instantaneously the
+striking of a chord at Prague or Vienna thrilled through the general
+heart in Edinburgh and London.
+
+The Reformation, after achieving its independence and equality at the
+Treaty of Augsburg in 1555, had made great though silent progress.
+Broken off in Germany into two parties, the Lutheran and the Calvinist,
+who hated each other, as usual, in exact proportion to the smallness of
+their difference, the union was still kept up between them as regarded
+their antagonism to the Papists. With all three denominations, the
+religious part of the question had fallen into terrible abeyance. It
+was now looked on by the leaders entirely as a matter of personal
+advancement and political rule. In this pursuit the fanaticism which
+is generally limited to theology took the direction of men's political
+conduct; and there were enthusiasts among all the sects, who saw
+visions, and dreamed dreams, about the succession to thrones and the
+raising of armies, as used to happen in more ancient times about the
+bones of martyrs and the beatification of saints. The great object of
+Protestants and Catholics was to obtain a majority in the college of
+the Prince Electors by whom the Empire was bestowed. This consisted of
+the seven chief potentates of Germany, of whom four were secular,--the
+King of Bohemia, the Count Palatine of the Rhine, the Duke of
+Saxony, and the Marquis of Brandenburg; and three ecclesiastic,--the
+Archbishops of Mentz, Treves, and Cologne. The majority was naturally
+secured to the Romanists by the official adhesion of these last. But it
+chanced that the Elector of Cologne fell violently in love with Agnes
+of Mansfeldt, a canoness of Gerrestein; and having of course studied
+the history of our Henry the Eighth and Anne Boleyn, he determined to
+follow his example, and offered the fair canoness his hand. He was
+unwilling, however, to offer his hand without the Electoral crozier,
+and, by the advice of his friends, and with the promised support
+of many of the Protestant rulers, he retained his ecclesiastical
+dignity and made the beautiful Agnes his wife. This would not have
+been of much consequence in a lower rank, for many of the cathedral
+dignitaries in Cologne and other places had retained their offices
+after changing their faith; but all Germany was awake to the momentous
+nature of this transaction, for it would have conveyed a majority
+of the Electoral voices to the Protestants and opened the throne of
+the empire itself to a Protestant prince. Such, however, was the
+strength at that time of the opposition to Rome, that all the efforts
+of the Catholics would have been ineffectual to prevent this ruinous
+arrangement but for a circumstance which threw division into the
+Protestant camp. Gebhard had adhered to the Calvinistic branch of the
+Reformation, and the Lutherans hated him with a deadlier hatred than
+the Pope himself. With delight they saw him outlawed by the Emperor
+and excommunicated by Rome, his place supplied by a Prince of Bavaria,
+who was elected by the Chapter of Cologne to protect them from their
+apostate archbishop, and the head of the house of Austria strengthened
+by the consolidation of his Electoral allies and the unappeasable
+dissensions of his enemies. While petty interests and the narrowest
+quarrels of sectarianism divided the Protestants, and while the
+Electors and other princes who had adopted their theological opinions
+were doubtful of the political results of religious freedom, and many
+had waxed cold, and others were discontented with the small extent of
+the liberation from ancient trammels they had yet obtained, a very
+different spectacle was presented on the other side. Popes and Jesuits
+were heartily and unhesitatingly at work. "No cold, faint-hearted
+doubtings teased them." Their object was incommoded by no refinements
+or verbal differences; they were determined to assert their old
+supremacy,--to trample out every vestige of resistance to their power;
+and they entered upon the task without scruple or remorse. Ferdinand
+the Emperor, the prop and champion of the Romish cause, was as sincere
+and as unpitying as Dominic. When he had been nominated King Elect of
+Bohemia, in 1598, while yet in his twentieth year, his first thought
+was the future use he might make of his authority in the extermination
+of the Protestant faith. The Jesuits, by whom he was trained from his
+earliest years, never turned out a more hopeful pupil. His ambition
+would have been, if he had had it in his power, to become a follower of
+Loyola himself; but, as he was condemned by fate to the lower office
+of the first of secular princes, he determined to employ all its power
+at the dictation of his teachers. He went a pilgrimage to Loretto,
+and, bowing before the miraculous image of the Virgin, promised to
+reinstate the true Church in its unquestioned supremacy, and bent all
+his thoughts to the fulfilment of his vow. Two-thirds of his subjects
+in his hereditary states were Protestant, but he risked all to attain
+his object. He displaced their clergy, and banished all who would not
+conform. He introduced Catholics from foreign countries to supply the
+waste of population, and sent armed men to destroy the newly-erected
+schools and churches of the hateful heretics. This man was crowned King
+of Bohemia in 1618, and Emperor of Germany in the following year.
+
+The attention of the British public had been particularly directed to
+German interests for the six years preceding this date, by the marriage
+of Frederick, Elector Palatine of the Rhine, with Elizabeth, the
+graceful and accomplished daughter of King James. Frederick was young
+and ambitious, and was endeared to the English people as leader of the
+Protestant cause against the overweening pretensions of the house of
+Austria. That house was still the most powerful in Europe; for though
+the Spanish monarchy was held by another branch, for all the purposes
+of despotism and religion its weight was thrown into the same scale.
+Spanish soldiers, and all the treasures of America, were still at the
+command of the Empire; and perhaps Catholicism was rather strengthened
+than weakened by the adherence of two of the greatest sovereigns in the
+world, instead of having the personal influence of only one, as in the
+reign of Charles the Fifth. All the Elector's movements were followed
+with affectionate interest by the subjects of his father-in-law;
+but James himself disapproved of opposition being offered to the
+wildest excesses of royal prerogative either in himself or any other
+anointed ruler. Besides this, he was particularly hostile to the
+young champion's religious principles, for the latter was attached to
+the Calvinistic or unepiscopal party. [A.D. 1619.] James declined to
+give him any aid in maintaining his right to the crown of Bohemia, to
+which he was elected by the Protestant majority of that kingdom on the
+accession of Ferdinand to the Empire, and managed to show his feelings
+in the most offensive manner, by oppressing such of Frederick's
+co-religionists as he found in any part of his dominions. The advocates
+of peace at any price have praised the behaviour of the king in this
+emergency; but it may be doubted whether an energetic display of
+English power at this time might not have prevented the great and cruel
+reaction against freedom and Protestantism which the victory of the
+bigoted Ferdinand over his neglected competitor introduced. A riot,
+accompanied with violence against the Catholic authorities, was the
+beginning of the troubles in Bohemia; and Ferdinand, as if to explain
+his conduct to the satisfaction of James, published a manifesto,
+which might almost be believed to have been the production of that
+Solomon of the North. "If sovereign power," he says, "emanates from
+God, these atrocious deeds must proceed from the devil, and therefore
+must draw down divine punishment." This logic was unanswerable at
+Whitehall, and the work of extermination went on. Feeble efforts were
+forced upon the unwilling father-in-law; for all the chivalry of
+England was wild with sympathy and admiration of the Bohemian queen.
+Hundreds of gallant gentlemen passed over to swell the Protestant
+ranks; and when they returned and told the tale of all the horrors
+they had seen, the remorseless vengeance of the triumphant Church, and
+all the threatenings with which Rome and the Empire endeavoured to
+terrify the nations which had rebelled against their yoke, Puritanism,
+or resistance to the slightest approach towards Popery either in
+essentials or externals, became patriotism and self-defence; and at
+this very time, while men's minds were inflamed with the descriptions
+of the torturings and executions which followed the battle of Prague in
+1620, and the devastation and depopulation of Bohemia, James took the
+opportunity of forcing the Episcopal form of government on the Scottish
+Presbyterians.
+
+"The greatest matter," he says, in an address to the prelates of
+the reluctant dioceses,--"the greatest matter the Puritans had to
+object against the Church government was, that your proceedings were
+warranted by no law, which now by this last Parliament is cutted
+short. The sword is now put in your hands. Go on, therefore, to use
+it, and let it rest no longer till ye have perfected the service
+trusted to you; or otherwise we must use it both against you and
+them." While the people of both nations were willing to sink their
+polemic differences of Calvinist and Anglican in one great attempt
+to deliver the Protestants in Germany from the power of the house
+of Austria,--while for this purpose they would have voted taxes
+and raised armies with the heartiest good will,--the king's whole
+attention was bestowed on a set of manoeuvres for the obtaining a
+Spanish-Austrian bride for his son. To gain this he would have humbled
+himself to the lowest acts. At a whisper from Madrid, he interfered
+with the German war, to the detriment of his own daughter; and
+England perceived that his ineradicable love of power and hatred of
+freedom had blinded him to national interests and natural affections.
+If we follow the whole career of James, and a great portion of his
+successor's, we shall see the same remarkable coincidence between the
+events in England and abroad,--unpopularity of the king, produced by
+his apparent lukewarmness in the general Protestant cause as much as
+by his arbitrary acts at home. Whatever the nation desired, the king
+opposed. When Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion of the North, began his
+triumphant career in 1630, and re-established the fallen fortunes of
+Protestantism, Charles concluded a dishonourable peace with Spain,
+without a single provision in favour of the Protestants of the German
+States, and allowed the Popish Cardinal Richelieu first to consolidate
+his forces by an unsparing oppression of the Huguenots in France, and
+then to almost compensate for his harshness by a gallant support of the
+Swedish hero in his struggle against the Austrian power.
+
+There was no longer the same content and happiness in the towns
+and country districts as there had been at the commencement of the
+century. Men had looked with contempt and dislike on the proceedings
+of James's court,--his coarse buffoonery, and disgraceful patronage
+of a succession of worthless favourites; and they continued to look,
+not indeed with contempt, but with increased dislike and suspicion,
+on the far purer court and dignified manners of his unfortunate son.
+A French princess, though the daughter of Henry the Fourth, was
+regarded as an evil omen for the continuance of good government or
+religious progress. Her attendants, lay and clerical, were not unjustly
+considered spies, and advisers with interests hostile to the popular
+tendencies. And all this time went on the unlucky coincidences which
+distinguished this reign,--of Catholic cruelties in foreign lands,
+and approaches to the Catholic ceremonial in the reformed Church.
+While Tilly, the remorseless general of the Emperor, was letting loose
+the most ferocious army which ever served under a national standard
+upon the inhabitants of Magdeburg, heaping into the history of that
+miserable assault all the sufferings that "horror e'er conceived or
+fancy feigned,"--and while the echo of that awful butchery, which
+has not yet died out of the German heart, was making sorrowful
+every fireside in what was once merry England,--the king's advisers
+pursued their blind way, torturing their opponents with knife and
+burning-brand upon the pillory, flogging gentlemen nearly to death
+upon the streets, and consecrating churches with an array of surplice,
+and censer, and processions, and organ-blowings, which would have done
+honour to St. Peter's at Rome. People saw a lamentable connection
+between the excesses of Catholic cruelty and the tendency in our sober
+establishment to Catholic traditions, and became fanatical in their
+detestation of the simplest forms.
+
+In ordinary times the wise man considers mere forms as almost below his
+notice; but there are periods when the emblem is of as much importance
+as the thing it typifies. Church ceremonies, and gorgeous robes, and
+magnificent worship, were accepted by both parties as the touchstone
+of their political and religious opinions. Laud pushed aside the
+Archbishop of Glasgow, who stood at Charles's right hand on his visit
+to Scotland in 1633, on the express ground that he had not the orthodox
+fringe upon his habit,--a ridiculous ground for so open an insult, if
+it had not had an inner sense. The Archbishop of Glasgow professed
+himself a moderate Churchman by the plainness of his dress, and Laud
+accepted it as a defiance. Meanwhile the essential insignificance of
+the symbol threw an air of ridicule over the importance attached to it.
+Dull-minded men, who had not the faculty of seeing how deep a question
+may lie in a simple exposition of it, or frivolous men, who could
+not rise to the real earnestness which enveloped those discussions,
+were scandalized at the persistency of Laud in enforcing his fancies,
+and the obstinacy of a great portion of the clergy and people in
+resisting them. But the Puritans, with clearer eyes, saw that a dance,
+according to proclamation, on the village green on Sunday, meant not
+a mere desecration of the Sabbath, but a crusade against the rights
+of conscience and an assertion of arbitrary power. Altars instead of
+communion-tables in churches meant not merely a restoration of the
+Popish belief in the real sacrifice of the mass, but a placing of the
+king above the law, and the abrogation of all liberty. They could not
+at this time persuade the nation of these things. The nation, for the
+most part, saw nothing more than met their bodily eyes; and, in despair
+of escaping the slavery which they saw the success of Ferdinand in
+Germany was likely to spread over Europe, they began the long train of
+voyages to the Western World, which times of suffering and uncertainty
+have continued at intervals to the present day. It is said that
+a vessel was stopped by royal warrant when it was on the point of
+sailing from the Thames with emigrants to America in 1637. On board
+were various persons whose names would probably never have been heard
+of if they had been allowed in peace and safety to pursue their way
+to Boston, but with which in a few years "all England rang from side
+to side." They were Oliver Cromwell, and Hampden, and Haselrig, Lord
+Brook, and Lord Saye.
+
+Affairs had now reached such a crisis that they could no longer
+continue undecided. A Parliament was called in 1640, after an
+unexampled interval of eleven years, and, after a few days' session,
+was angrily dissolved. Another, however, was indispensable in the
+same year, and on the 3d of November the Long Parliament met. The
+long-repressed indignation of the Commons broke forth at once. Laud
+and Wentworth, the principal advisers of the king, were tried and
+executed, and precautions taken, by stringent acts, to prevent a
+recurrence of arbitrary government. Everywhere there seemed a rally
+in favour of the Protestant or liberal cause. The death of Richelieu,
+the destroyer of French freedom, opened a prospect of recovered
+independence to the Huguenots; the victories of Torstenson the
+Swede, worthy successor of Gustavus Adolphus, brought down the pride
+of the Austrian Catholics; and Puritans, Independents, and other
+outraged sects and parties, by the restoration of the Parliament,
+got a terrible instrument of vengeance against their oppressors. A
+dreadful time, when on both sides the forms of law were perverted to
+the most lawless purposes; when peacefully-inclined citizens must
+have been tormented with sad misgivings by the contending claims of
+Parliament and King,--a Parliament correctly constituted and in the
+exercise of its recognised authority, a King with no flaw to his
+title, and professing his willingness to limit himself to the undoubted
+prerogatives of his place. [A.D. 1642.] It was probably a relief to
+the undecided when the arbitrament was removed from the court of
+argument to the field of battle. All the time of that miserable civil
+war, the other states of Europe were in nearly as great confusion as
+ourselves. France was torn to pieces by factions which contended for
+the mantle of the departed cardinal; Germany was traversed from end
+to end by alternately retreating and advancing armies. But still the
+simultaneousness of events abroad and at home is worthy of remark. The
+great fights which decided the quarrel in England were answered by
+victories of the Protestant arms in Germany and the apparent triumph
+of the discontented in France. The young king, Louis the Fourteenth,
+carried from town to town, and disputed between the parties, gave
+little augury of the despotism and injustice of his future throne.
+There were barricades in Paris, and insurrections all over the land.
+But at last, and at the same time, all the combatants in England,
+and France, and Germany--Huguenot, Puritan, Calvinist, Protestant,
+and Papist--were tired out with the length and bitterness of the
+struggle. So in 1648 the long Thirty Years' War was brought to a close
+by the Peace of Westphalia. Kingly power in France was curtailed, the
+house of Austria was humbled; and Charles was carried prisoner to
+Windsor. The Protestants of Germany, by the terms of the peace, were
+replaced in their ancient possessions. They had freedom of worship
+and equality of civil rights secured. A general law preserved them
+from the injustice or aggressions of their local masters; and the
+compromise guaranteed by so many divergent interests, and guarded by
+such equally-divided numbers, has endured to the present time. The
+English conquerors would be contented with no less than their foreign
+friends had obtained. But the blot upon their conduct, the blood
+of the misguided and humbled Charles, hindered the result of their
+wisest deliberations. Moderate men were revolted by the violence of
+the act, and old English loyalty, delivered from the fear of foreign
+or domestic oppression, was awakened by the sad end of a crowned and
+anointed King. [A.D. 1649.] Nothing compensates in an old hereditary
+monarchy for the want of high descent in its ruler. Not all Cromwell's
+vigour and genius, his glory abroad and energetic government at home,
+attracted the veneration of English squires, whose forefathers had
+fought at Crecy, to the grandson of a city knight, or, at most, to the
+descendant of a minister of Henry the Eighth. Charles the Second rose
+before them with the transmitted dignity of a hundred kings. He counted
+back to Scottish monarchs before the Norman Conquest, and traced by
+his mother's side his lineal ancestry up to Charlemagne and Clovis.
+English history presents no instance of the intrusion of an unroyal
+usurper in her list of sovereigns. Cromwell stands forth the solitary
+instance of a man of the people virtually seizing the crown; and the
+ballads and pamphlets of the time show how the comparative humility of
+his birth excited the scorn of his contemporaries. And this feeling was
+not limited to ancient lords and belted cavaliers: it permeated the
+common mind. There was something ennobling for the humblest peasant
+to die for King and Cause; but, however our traditions and the lapse
+of two hundred years may have elevated the conqueror at Worcester and
+Dunbar, we are not to forget that, in the estimation of those who had
+drunk his beer at Huntingdon or listened to his tedious harangues in
+Parliament, there would be neither patriotism nor honour in dying for
+bluff Old Noll. But there were more dangerous enemies to bluff Old Noll
+than the newness of his name. The same cause which had made the nation
+dissatisfied with the arbitrary pretensions of James and Charles was at
+work in making it intolerant of the rule of the usurpers.
+
+The great soldier and politician, who had overthrown an ancient dynasty
+and crushed the seditions of the sects, had increased the commercial
+prosperity of the three kingdoms. Wealth poured in at all the ports,
+and was rapidly diffused over the land; internal improvements kept
+pace with foreign enterprise; and the England which long ago had been
+too rich to be arbitrarily governed was now again too rich to be
+kept in durance by the sour-faced hypocrisies of the Puritans. Those
+lank-haired gentlemen, whose conduct had not quite answered to the
+self-denying proclamations with which they had begun, were no longer
+able to persuade the well-to-do citizen, and the high-waged mechanic,
+and the prosperous farmer, that religion consisted in speaking through
+the nose and forswearing all innocent enjoyment. The great battle
+had been fought, and the fruits of it, they thought, were secure.
+Were people to be debarred from social meetings and merry-makings at
+Christmas, and junketings at fairs, by act of Parliament? Acts of
+Parliament would first have been required strong enough to do away with
+youth and health, and the power of admiring beauty, and the hopes of
+marriage. [A.D. 1641-49.] The troubles had lasted seven or eight years;
+and all through that period, and for some time before, while the thick
+cloud was gathering, all gayety had disappeared from the land. But
+by the middle of Cromwell's time there was a new generation, in the
+first flush of youth,--lads and lasses who had been too young to know
+any thing of the dark days of Laud and Wentworth. They were twenty
+years of age now. Were they to have no cakes and ale because their
+elders were so prodigiously virtuous? They had many years of weary
+restraint and formalism to make up for, and in 1660 the accumulated
+tide of joyousness and delight burst all barriers. A flood of dancing
+and revelry, and utter abandonment to happiness, spread over the
+whole country; and merriest of the dancers, loudest of the revellers,
+happiest of the emancipated, was the young and brilliant king. Never
+since the old times of the Feasts of Fools and the gaudy processions of
+the Carnival had there been such a riotous jubilee as inaugurated the
+Restoration. The reaction against Puritanism carried the nation almost
+beyond Christianity and landed it in heathenism again. The saturnalia
+of Rome were renewed in the banquetings of St. James's. Nothing in
+those first days of relaxation seemed real. King and courtiers and
+cavaliers in courtly palaces, and enthusiastic townsfolk and madly
+loyal husbandmen, seemed like mummers at a play; and it was not till
+the candles were burned out, and the scenes grew dingy, and daylight
+poured upon that ghastly imitation of enjoyment, that England came
+to its sober senses again. Then it saw how false was the parody it
+had been playing. It had not been happy; it had only been drunk; and
+already, while Charles was in the gloss of his recovered crown, the
+second reaction began. Cromwell became respectable by comparison with
+the sensual debauchee who sold the dignity of his country for a little
+present enjoyment and soothed the reproaches of his people with a joke.
+Give us a Man to rule over us, the English said, and not a sayer of
+witty sayings and a juggler with such sleight of hand. And yet the
+example of the court was so contagious, and the fashion of enjoyment
+so wide-spread, that on the surface every thing appeared prosperous
+and happy. The stern realities of the first recusants had been so
+travestied by the exaggerated imitation of their successors that no
+faith was placed in the serious earnestness of man or woman. Frivolity
+was therefore adopted as a mark of sense; and if the popular literature
+of a period is to be accepted as a mirror held up to show the time
+its image, the old English character had undergone a perfect change.
+Thousands flocked every day to the playhouses to listen to dialogues,
+and watch the evolvement of plots, where all the laws of decency and
+honour were held up to ridicule. Comus and his crew, which long ago had
+held their poetic festival in the pure pages of Milton, were let loose,
+without the purity or the poetry, in every family circle. And the worst
+and most disgusting feature of the picture is that those wassailers who
+were thus the missionaries of vice were persecutors for religion. While
+one royal brother was leading the revels at Whitehall, surrounded by
+luxury and immorality as by an atmosphere without which he could not
+live, the other, as luxurious, but more moodily depraved, listened to
+the groans of tortured Covenanters at Holyrood House. Charles and James
+were like the two executioners of Louis the Eleventh: one laughed, and
+the other groaned, but both were pitilessly cruel. A recurrence to the
+dark days of the Sects, the godly wrestlings in prayer of illiterate
+horsemen, and the sincere fanaticism of the Fifth-Monarchy men, would
+have been a change for the better from the filth and foulness of the
+reign of the Merry Monarch and the blood and misery of that of the
+gloomy bigot.
+
+But happier times were almost within view, though still hid behind the
+glare of those orgies of the unclean. From 1660 to 1688 does not seem a
+very long time in the annals of a nation, nor even in the life of one
+of ourselves. Twenty-eight years have elapsed since the Revolution in
+Paris which placed Louis Philippe upon the throne; and the young man of
+twenty at that time is not very old yet. But when men or nations are
+cheated in the object of their hopes, it does not take long to turn
+disappointment into hatred. The Restoration of 1660 was to bring back
+the golden age of the first years of James,--the prosperity without
+the tyranny, the old hereditary rule without its high pretensions,
+the manliness of the English yeoman without his tendency to fanatical
+innovation. And instead of this Arcadia there was nothing to be
+seen but a kingdom without dignity, a king without honesty, and a
+people without independence. England was no longer the arbiter of
+European differences, as in the earlier reigns, nor dominator of all
+the nations, as when the heavy sword of Cromwell was uneasy in its
+sheath. It was not even a second-rate power: its capital had been
+insulted by the Dutch; its monarch was pensioned by the French; its
+religion was threatened by the Pope; the old animosities between
+England and Scotland were unarranged; and the point to be remembered
+in your review of the Seventeenth Century is that in the years from
+the Restoration to the Revolution we had touched the basest string
+of humility. We were neither united at home nor respected abroad. We
+had few ships, little commerce, and no public spirit. France revenged
+Crecy and Poictiers and Agincourt, by dressing our kings in her livery;
+and the degraded monarchs pocketed their wages without feeling their
+humiliation. Therefore, as the highest point we have hitherto stood
+upon was when Elizabeth saw the destruction of the Armada, the lowest
+was undoubtedly that when we submitted to the buffoonery of Charles and
+the bloodthirstiness of James.
+
+But far more remarkable, as a characteristic of this century, than
+the lowering of the rank of England in relation to foreign states,
+is the rise, for the first time in Europe, of a figure hitherto
+unknown,--a true, unshackled, and absolute king, and that in the
+least likely of all positions and in the person of the least likely
+man. This was the appearance on the throne of France of Louis the
+Fourteenth. Other monarchs, both in England and France, had attained
+supreme power,--supreme, but not independent. No one had hitherto been
+irresponsible to some other portions of the State. The strongest of the
+feudal kings was held in check by his nobility,--the greatest of the
+Tudors by Parliament and people. Declarations, indeed, had frequently
+been made that God's anointed were answerable to God alone. But of the
+two loudest of these declaimers, John, who said,--
+
+  "What earthly power to interrogatory
+   Can tax the free breath of a Christian king?"
+
+had shortly after this magnificent oration surrendered his crown to the
+Pope; and James the First, who blustered more fiercely (if possible)
+about his superiority to human law, was glad to bend before his Lords
+and Commons in anticipation of a subsidy, and eat his leek in peace.
+
+But this phenomenon of a king above all other authority occurred, we
+have observed, in the most unlikely country to present so strange a
+sight; for nowhere was a European throne so weak and unstable as the
+throne of the house of Bourbon after the murder of Henry the Fourth.
+The moment that strong hand was withdrawn from the government, all
+classes broke loose. The nobles conspired against the queen, Marie de
+Medicis, who relied upon foreign favourites and irritated the nation to
+madness. Paris rose in insurrection, and tore the wretched Concini,
+her counsellor, whom she had created Marshal D'Ancre, to pieces; and,
+to glut their vengeance still more, the judges condemned his innocent
+wife to be burned as a sorceress. Louis the Thirteenth, the unworthy
+son of the great Henry, rejoiced in these atrocities, which he thought
+freed him from all restraint. But he found it impossible to quell
+the wild passions by which he profited for a while. Civil war raged
+between the court and country factions, and soon became embittered into
+religious animosities. [A.D. 1622.] The sight of a king marching at
+the head of a Catholic army against a portion of his Reformed subjects
+was looked upon by the rapidly-increasing malcontents in England with
+anxious curiosity. For year by year the strange spectacle was unrolled
+before their eyes of what might yet be their fate at home. Perhaps,
+indeed, the success of the royal arms, and the policy of strength and
+firmness introduced by Cardinal Richelieu, may have contributed in no
+slight degree to the measures pursued by Wentworth and Laud in their
+treatment of the English recusants. With an anticipative interest in
+our Hull and Exeter, the Puritans of England looked on the resistance
+made by Rochelle; and we can therefore easily imagine with what
+feelings the future soldiers of Marston Moor received the tidings that
+the Popish cardinal had humbled the capital of the Huguenots by the
+help of fleets furnished to them by Holland and England! Richelieu,
+indeed, knew how to make his enemies weaken each other throughout
+his whole career. [A.D. 1627.] Those enemies were the nobility of
+France, the house of Austria, and the Reformed Faith. When Rochelle
+was attacked the second time, and England pretended to arm for its
+defence, he contrived to win Buckingham, the chief of the expedition,
+to his cause, and procured a letter from King Charles, placing the
+fleet, which apparently went to the support of the Huguenots, at the
+service of the King of France! After a year's siege, and the most
+heroic resistance, Rochelle fell at last, in 1628. And, now that the
+Huguenots were destroyed as a dangerous party, the eyes of the great
+minister were turned against his other foes. He divided the nobles
+into hostile ranks, degraded them by petty annoyances, terrified them
+by unpitying executions of the chiefs of the oldest families, showed
+their weakness by arresting marshals at the head of their armies, and
+during the remaining years of his authority monopolized all the powers
+of the state. To weaken Spain and Austria, we have seen how he assisted
+the Protestants in the Thirty Years' War; to weaken England, which
+was only great when it assumed its place as bulwark and champion of
+the Protestant faith, he encouraged the court in its suicidal policy
+and the oppressed population in resistance. Ever stirring up trouble
+abroad, and ever busy in repressing liberty at home, the ministry of
+Richelieu is the triumph of unprincipled skill. But when he died,
+in 1643, there was no man left to lift up the burden he threw off.
+The king himself, Louis the Thirteenth, as much a puppet as the old
+descendants of Clovis under their Mayors of the Palace, left the throne
+he had nominally filled, vacant in the same year; and the heir to
+the dishonoured crown and exhausted country was a boy of five years
+of age, under the tutelage of an unprincipled mother, and with the
+old hereditary counsellors and props of his throne decimated by the
+scaffold or impoverished by confiscation. The tyranny of Richelieu
+had at least attained something noble by the high-handed insolence
+of all his acts. If people were to be trampled on, it was a kind of
+consolation to them that their oppressor was feared by others as well
+as themselves. But the oppression of the doomed French nation was
+to be continued by a more ignoble hand. The Cardinal Mazarin brought
+every thing into greater confusion than ever. In twenty millions of
+men there will always be great and overmastering spirits, if only an
+opportunity is found for their development; but civil commotion is not
+the element in which greatness lives. All sense of honour disappears
+when conduct is regulated by the shifting motives of party politics.
+[A.D. 1648-1654.] The dissensions of the Fronde, accordingly, produced
+no champion to whom either side could look with unmingled respect.
+The Great Conde and the famous Turenne showed military talent of
+the highest order, but a want of principle and a flighty frivolity
+of character counterbalanced all their virtues. The scenes of those
+six years are like a series of dissolving views, or the changing
+combinations of a kaleidoscope: Conde and Turenne, always on opposite
+sides,--for each changed his party as often as the other; battles
+prepared for by masquerades and theatricals, and celebrated on both
+sides with epigrams and songs; the wildest excesses of debauchery
+and vice practised by both sexes and all ranks in the State;
+archbishops fighting like gladiators and intriguing like the vulgarest
+conspirators; princes imprisoned with a jest, and executions attended
+with cheers and laughter; and over all an Italian ecclesiastic,
+grinning with satisfaction at the increase of his wealth,--caballing,
+cheating, and lying, but keeping a firm grasp of power:--no country was
+ever so split into faction or so denuded of great men.
+
+It seemed, indeed, like a demoniacal caricature of our British
+troubles: no sternness, no reality; love-letters and witty verses
+supplying the place of the Biblical language and awful earnestness of
+the words and deeds of the Covenanters and Independents; the gentlemen
+of France utterly debased and frivolized; religion ridiculed; nothing
+left of the old landmarks; and no Cromwell possible. But, while all
+these elements of confusion were heaving and tumbling in what seemed
+an inextricable chaos, Mazarin, the vainest and most selfish of
+charlatans, died, and the young king, whom he had kept in distressing
+dependence and the profoundest political inactivity, found himself
+delivered from a master and free to choose his path. This was in
+1661. Charles and Louis were equally on their recovered thrones;
+for what exile had been to the one, Mazarin had been to the other.
+[A.D. 1641-1660.] Charles had had the experience of nineteen years and
+of various fortunes to guide him. He had seen many men and cities,
+and he deceived every expectation. Louis had been studiously brought
+up by his mother and her Italian favourite in the abasement of every
+lofty aspiration. He was only encouraged in luxury and vice, and kept
+in such painful vassalage that his shyness and awkwardness revealed
+the absence of self-respect to the very pages of his court; and he,
+no less than Charles, deceived all the expectations that had been
+formed of his career. He found out, as if by intuition, how brightly
+the monarchical principle still burned in the heart of all the French.
+Even in their fights and quarrellings there was a deep reverence
+entertained for the ideal of the throne. The King's name was a tower
+of strength; and when the nation, in the course of the miserable years
+from 1610 to 1661, saw the extinction of nobility, religion, law,
+and almost of civilized society, it caught the first sound that told
+it it still had a king, as an echo from the past assuring it of its
+future. It forgot Louis the Thirteenth and Anne of Austria, and only
+remembered that its monarch was the grandson of Henry the Fourth.
+Nobody remembered that circumstance so vividly as Louis himself; but
+he remembered also that his line went upwards from the Bourbons, and
+included the Saint Louis of the thirteenth century and the renewer
+of the Roman Empire of the ninth. He let the world know, therefore,
+that his title was Most Christian King as well as foremost of European
+powers. He forced Spain to yield him precedence, and, for the first
+time in history, exacted a humiliating apology from the Pope. The world
+is always apt to take a man at his own valuation. Louis, swelling with
+pride, ambitious of fame, and madly fond of power, declared himself the
+greatest, wisest, and most magnificent of men; and everybody believed
+him. Every thing was soon changed throughout the land. Ministers had
+been more powerful than the crown, and had held unlimited authority in
+right of their appointment. A minister was nothing more to Louis than
+a _valet-de-chambre_. He gave him certain work to do, and rewarded him
+if he did it; if he neglected it, he discharged him. At first the few
+relics of the historic names of France, the descendants of the great
+vassals, who carried their heads as lofty as the Capets or Valois,
+looked on with surprise at the new arrangements in camp and court.
+But the people were too happy to escape the oligarchic confederacy
+of those hereditary oppressors to encourage them in their haughty
+disaffection. Before Louis had been three years on the unovershadowed
+throne, the struggle had been fairly entered on by all the orders
+of the State, which should be most slavish in its submission. Rank,
+talent, beauty, science, and military fame all vied with each other in
+their devotion to the king. He would have been more than mortal if he
+had retained his senses unimpaired amid the intoxicating fumes of such
+incense. Success in more important affairs came to the support of his
+personal assumptions. Victories followed his standards everywhere.
+Generals, engineers, and administrators, of abilities hitherto
+unmatched in Europe, sprang up whenever his requirements called them
+forth. Colbert doubled his income without increasing the burdens on his
+people. Turenne, Conde, Luxembourg, and twenty others, led his armies.
+Vauban strengthened his fortifications or conducted his sieges, and
+the dock-yards of Toulon and Brest filled the Mediterranean and the
+Atlantic with his fleets. Poets like Moliere, Corneille, and Racine
+ennobled his stage; while the genius of Bossuet and Fenelon inaugurated
+the restoration of religion. For eight-and-twenty years his fortunes
+knew no ebb. He was the object of all men's hopes and fears, and almost
+of their prayers. Nothing was too great or too minute for his decision.
+He was called on to arbitrate (with the authority of a master) between
+sovereign States, and to regulate a point of precedence between
+the duchesses of his court. Oh, the weary days and nights of that
+uneasy splendour at Versailles! when his steps were watched by hungry
+courtiers, and his bed itself surrounded by applicants for place and
+favour. No galley-slave ever toiled harder at his oar than this monarch
+of all he surveyed at the management of his unruly family. It was the
+day of etiquette and form. The rights of princesses to arm-chairs or
+chairs with only a back were contested with a vigour which might have
+settled the succession to a throne. The rank which entitled to a seat
+in the king's coach or an invitation to Marly was disputed almost with
+bloodshed, and certainly with scandal and bitterness. The depth of
+the bows exacted by a prince of the blood, the number of attendants
+necessary for a legitimated son of La Valliere or Montespan, put the
+whole court into a turmoil of angry parties; and all these important
+points, and fifty more of equal magnitude, were formally submitted
+to the king and decided with a gravity befitting a weightier cause.
+Nothing is more remarkable in the midst of these absurd inanities than
+the great fund of good common sense that is found in all the king's
+judgments. He meditates, and temporizes, and reasons; and only on great
+occasions, such as a quarrel about dignity between the wife of the
+dauphin and the Duchess of Maine, does he put on the terrors of his
+kingly frown and interpose his irresistible command. It would have been
+some consolation to the foreign potentates he bullied or protected--the
+Austrian and Spaniard, or Charles in Whitehall--if they had known what
+a wretched and undignified life their enslaver and insulter lived at
+home. It was whispered, indeed, that he was tremendously hen-pecked
+by Madame de Maintenon, whom he married without having the courage
+to elevate her to the throne; but none of them knew the pettinesses,
+the degradations, and the miseries of his inner circle. They thought,
+perhaps, he was planning some innovation in the order of affairs in
+Europe,--the destruction of a kingdom, or the change of a dynasty. He
+was devoting his deepest cogitations to the arrangement of a quarrel
+between his sons and his daughters-in-law, the invitations to a little
+supper-party in his private room, or the number of steps it was
+necessary to advance at the reception of a petty Italian sovereign.
+The quarrels between his children became more bitter; the little
+supper-parties became more dull. Death came into the gilded chambers,
+and he was growing old and desolate. Still the torturing wheel of
+ceremony went round, and the father, with breaking heart, had to leave
+the chamber of his deceased son, and act the part of a great king, and
+go through the same tedious forms of grandeur and routine which he had
+done before the calamity came. Fancy has never drawn a personage more
+truly pitiable than Louis growing feeble and friendless in the midst
+of all that magnificence and all that heartless crowd. You pardon him
+for retiring for consolation and sympathy to the quiet apartment where
+Madame de Maintenon received him without formality and continued her
+needlework or her reading while he was engaged in council with his
+ministers. He must have known that to all but her he was an Office
+and not a Man. He yearned for somebody that he could trust in and
+consult with, as entering into his thoughts and interests; and that
+calm-blooded, meek-mannered, narrow-hearted woman persuaded him that in
+her he had found all that his heart thirsted for in the desert of his
+royalty. But in that little apartment he was now to find refuge from
+more serious calamities than the falsehood of courtiers or the quarrels
+of women. Even French loyalty was worn out at last. Victories had
+glorified the monarch, but brought poverty and loss to the population.
+Complaints arose in all parts of the country of the excess of taxation,
+the grasping dishonesty of the collectors, the extravagance of the
+court, and even--but this was not openly whispered--the selfishness
+of the king. He had lavished ten millions sterling on the palace and
+gardens of Versailles; he had enriched his sycophants with pensions
+on the Treasury; he had gratified the Church with gorgeous donations,
+and with the far more fatal gift of vengeance upon its opponents.
+The Huguenots were in the peaceful enjoyment of the rights secured
+to them by the Edict of Nantes, granted by Henry the Fourth in 1598.
+But those rights included the right of worshipping God in a different
+manner from the Church, and denying the distinguishing doctrines of
+the Holy Catholic faith. [A.D. 1685.] The Edict of Toleration was
+repealed as a blot on the purity of the throne of the Most Christian
+King. Thousands of the best workmen in France were banished by this
+impolitic proceeding, and Louis thought he had shown his attachment
+to his religion by sending the ingenuity and wealth, and glowing
+animosity, of the most valuable portion of his subjects into other
+lands. Germany calculated that the depopulation caused by his wars was
+more than compensated by the immigration. England could forgive him
+his contemptuous behaviour to her king and Parliament when she saw the
+silk-mills of Spitalfields supplied by the skilled workmen of Lyons.
+Eight hundred thousand people left their homes in consequence of this
+proscription of their religion, and Germany and Switzerland grew rich
+with the stream of fugitives. It is said that only five thousand found
+their way to this country,--enough to set the example of peaceful
+industry and to introduce new methods of manufacture.
+
+But the full benefit of the measures of Louis and Maintenon was
+denied us, by the distrust with which the Protestant exiles looked
+on the accession to our throne of a narrower despot and more bigoted
+persecutor than Louis; for in this same year James the Second succeeded
+Charles. Relying on each other's support, and gratified with the formal
+approval of the repeal of the Edict of Nantes pronounced by the Pope,
+the two champions of Christendom pursued their way,--dismissals from
+office, exclusion from promotion, proscription from worship in France,
+and assaults on the Church, and bloody assizes, in England,--till all
+the nations felt that a great crisis was reached in the fortunes both
+of England and France, and Protestant and Romanist alike looked on
+in expectation of the winding-up of so strange a history. Judicial
+blindness was equally on the eyes of the two potentates chiefly
+interested. James remained inactive while William Prince of Orange,
+the avowed chief of the new opinions, was getting ready his ships and
+army, and congratulated himself on the silence of his people, which
+he thought was the sign of their acquiescence instead of the hush of
+expectation. All the other powers--the Papal Chair included--were
+not sorry to see a counterpoise to the predominance of France; and
+when William appeared in England as the deliverer from Popery and
+oppression, the battle was decided without a blow. [A.D. 1688.] James
+was a fugitive in his turn, and found his way to Versailles. It is
+difficult to believe that any of the blood of Scotland or Navarre
+flowed in the veins of the pusillanimous king. He begged his protector,
+through whose councils he had lost his kingdom, to give it him back
+again; and the opportunity of a theatrical display of grandeur and
+magnanimity was too tempting to be thrown away. Louis promised to
+restore him his crown, as if it were a broken toy. It was a strange
+sight, during the remainder of their lives, to see those two monarchs
+keeping up the dignity of their rank by exaggerations of their former
+state. No mimic stage ever presented a more piteous spectacle of
+poverty and tinsel than the royal pair. Punctilios were observed at
+their meetings and separations, as if a bow more or less were of as
+much consequence as the bestowal or recovery of Great Britain; and
+in the estimation of those professors of manners and deportment a
+breach of etiquette would have been more serious than La Hogue or
+the Boyne. In that wondrous palace of Versailles all things had long
+ceased to be real. Speeches were made for effect, and dresses and
+decorations had become a part of the art of governing, and for some
+years the system seemed to succeed. When the king required to show
+that he was still a conqueror like Alexander the Great, preparations
+were made for his reception at the seat of war, and a pre-arranged
+victory was attached lo his arrival, as Cleopatra wished to fix a
+broiled fish to Anthony's hook. He entered the town of Mons in triumph
+when Luxembourg had secured its fall. He appeared also with unbounded
+applause at the first siege of Namur, and carried in person the news of
+his achievement to Versailles. Every day came couriers hot and tired
+with intelligence of fresh successes. Luxembourg conquered at Fleurus,
+1690; Catinat conquered Savoy, 1691; Luxembourg again, in 1692, had
+gained the great day of Steinkirk, and Nerwinde in 1693. But the tide
+now turned. William the Third was the representative at that time of
+the stubbornness of his new subjects' character, who have always found
+it difficult to see that they were defeated. He was generally forced
+to retire after a vigorously-contested fight; but he was always ready
+to fight again next day, always calm and determined, and as confident
+as ever in the firmness of his men. Reports very different from the
+glorious bulletins of the earlier years of the Great Monarch now came
+pouring in. Namur was retaken, Dieppe and Havre bombarded, all the
+French establishments in India seized by the Dutch, their colony at St.
+Domingo captured by the English, Luxembourg dead, and the whole land
+again, for the second time, exhausted of men and money. It was another
+opportunity for the display of his absolute power. France prayed him
+to grant peace to Europe, and the earthly divinity granted France's
+prayer. Europe itself, which had rebelled against him, accepted the
+pacification it had won by its battles and combinations, as if it were
+a gift from a superior being. [A.D. 1697.] He surrendered his conquests
+with such grandeur, and looked so dignified while he withdrew his
+pretensions, acknowledging the Prince of Orange to be King of England,
+and the King of England to have no claim on the crown he had promised
+to restore to him, that it took some time to perceive that the terms of
+the Peace of Ryswick were proofs of weakness and not of magnanimity.
+But the object of his life had been gained. He had abased every order
+in the State for the aggrandizement of the Crown, and, for the first
+time since the termination of the Roman Empire, had concentrated the
+whole power of a nation into the will of an individual. And this
+strange spectacle of a possessor of unlimited authority over the lives
+and fortunes of all his subjects was presented in an age that had seen
+Charles the First of England brought to the block and James the Second
+driven into exile! The chance of France's peacefully rising again
+from this state of depression into liberty would have been greater if
+Louis, in displacing the other authorities, had not disgraced them. He
+dissolved his Parliament, not with a file of soldiers, like Cromwell
+or Napoleon, but with a riding-whip in his hand. He degraded the
+nobility by making them the satellites of his throne and creatures
+of his favour. He humbled the Church by secularizing its leaders; so
+that Bossuet, bishop and orator as he was, was proud to undertake the
+office of peacemaker between him and Madame de Montespan in one of
+their lovers' quarrels. And the Frenchmen of the next century looked in
+vain for some rallying-point from which to begin their forward course
+towards constitutional improvement. They found nothing but parliaments
+contemned, nobles dishonoured, and priests unchristianized.
+
+
+
+
+                          EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+
+Kings of France.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        LOUIS XIV.--(_cont._)
+
+  1715. LOUIS XV.
+
+  1774. LOUIS XVI.
+
+  1793. LOUIS XVII.
+
+
+Emperors of Germany.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        LEOPOLD I.--(_cont._)
+
+  1705. JOSEPH I.
+
+  1711. CHARLES VI.
+
+  1740. MARIA-THERESA.
+
+  1742. CHARLES VII.
+
+  1745. FRANCIS I.
+
+  1765. JOSEPH II.
+
+  1790. LEOPOLD II.
+
+  1792. FRANCIS II.
+
+
+Kings of England and Scotland.
+
+  A.D.
+
+        WILLIAM III. and MARY.--(_cont._)
+
+  1702. ANNE.
+
+  (_Great Britain_, 1707.)
+
+  1714. GEORGE I.    }
+
+  1727. GEORGE II.   }  House of Hanover.
+
+  1760. GEORGE III.  }
+
+
+Kings of Spain.
+
+  A.D.
+
+  1700. PHILIP V.
+
+  1724. LOUIS I.
+
+  1724. PHILIP V. again.
+
+  1745. FERDINAND VI.
+
+  1759. CHARLES III.
+
+  1788. CHARLES IV.
+
+
+Distinguished Men.
+
+ADDISON, STEELE, SWIFT, POPE, ROBERTSON, HUME, GIBBON, VOLTAIRE,
+ROUSSEAU, LESAGE, MARMONTEL, MONTESQUIEU, FRANKLIN, (1706-1790,)
+JOHNSON, (1709-1784,) GOLDSMITH, (1728-1774,) WOLFE, (1726-1759,)
+WASHINGTON, (1732-1799.)
+
+
+
+
+                        THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY.
+
+                        INDIA--AMERICA--FRANCE.
+
+
+The characteristic feature of this period is constant change on
+the greatest scale. Hitherto changes have occurred in the internal
+government of nations: the monarchic or popular feeling has found its
+expression in the alternate elevation of the Kingly or Parliamentary
+power. But in this most momentous of the centuries, nations themselves
+come into being or disappear. Russia and Prussia for the first time
+play conspicuous parts in the great drama of human affairs. France,
+which begins the century with the despotic Louis the Fourteenth at
+its head, leaves it as a vigorous Republic, with Napoleon Buonaparte
+as its First Consul. The foundations of a British empire were laid in
+India, which before the end of the period more than compensated for the
+loss of that other empire in the West, which is now the United States
+of America. It was the century of the breaking of old traditions,
+and of the introduction of new systems in life and government,--more
+complete in its transformations than the splitting up into hitherto
+unheard-of nationalities of the old Roman world had been; for what Goth
+and Vandal, and Frank and Lombard, were to the political geography
+of Europe in the earlier time, new modes of thought, both religious
+and political, were to the moral constitution of that later date. The
+barbarous invasions of the early centuries were the overflowing of
+rivers by the breaking down of the embankments; the revolutionary
+madness of France was the sudden detachment of an avalanche which
+had been growing unobserved, but which at last a voice or a footstep
+was sufficient to set in motion. In all nations it was a period of
+doubt and uneasiness. Something was about to happen, but nobody
+could say what. The political sleight-of-hand men, who considered
+the safety of the world to depend on the balance of power, where a
+weight must be cast into one scale, exactly sufficient, and not more
+than sufficient, to keep the other in equilibrio, were never so much
+puzzled since the science of balancing began. A vast country, hitherto
+omitted from their calculations, or only considered as a make-weight
+against Sweden or Denmark, suddenly came forward to be a check, and
+sometimes an over-weight, to half the states in Europe. Something had
+therefore to be found to be a counterpoise to the twenty millions of
+men and illimitable dominions of the Russian Czars. This was close at
+the conjurer's hand in Prussia and her Austrian neighbour. Counties
+were added,--populations fitted in,--Silesia given to the one,
+Gallicia added to the other; and at last the whole of Poland, which
+had ceased to be of any importance in its separate existence, was
+cut up into such portions as might be required, with here a fragment
+and there a fragment, till the scales stood pretty even, and the
+three contiguous kingdoms were satisfied with their respective shares
+of infamy and plunder. If you hear, therefore, of robberies upon a
+gigantic scale,--no longer the buccaneering exploits of a few isolated
+adventurers in the Western seas, but of kingdoms deliberately stolen,
+or imperiously taken hold of by the right of the strong hand; of the
+same Titanic magnitude distinguishing almost all other transactions;
+colonies throwing off their allegiance, and swelling out into hostile
+empires, instead of the usual discontent and occasional quarrellings
+between the mother-country and her children; of whole nations breaking
+forth into anarchy, instead of the former local efforts at reformation
+ending in temporary civil strife; of commercial speculations reaching
+the sublime of swindling and credulity, and involving whole populations
+in ruin; and of commercial establishments, on the other hand, vaster
+even in their territorial acquisitions than all the conquests of
+Alexander,--you are to remember that these things can only have
+happened in the Eighteenth Century; the century when the trammels of
+all former experiences were thrown off, and when wealth, power, energy,
+and mental aspirations were pushed to an unexampled excess. This
+exaggerated action of the age is shown in the one great statement which
+nearly comprehends all the rest. The Debt of this country, which at the
+beginning of this century was sixteen millions and a half and tormented
+our forefathers with fears of bankruptcy, had risen at the end of
+it, in the heroic madness of conquest and national pride, to the sum
+of three hundred and eighty millions, without a doubt of our perfect
+competency to sustain the burden.
+
+If the tendency of affairs on the other side of our encircling sea
+was to pull down, to destroy, to modify, and to redistribute, the
+tendency at home was to build up and consolidate; so that in almost
+exact proportion to the wild experiments and frantic strugglings of
+other nations after something new--new principles of government, new
+theories of society--there arose in this country a dogged spirit of
+resistance to all alterations, and a persistence in old paths and
+old opinions. The charms which constitution-mongers saw in untried
+novelties and philosophic systems existed for John Bull only in what
+had stood the wear and tear of hundreds of years. The Prussians,
+Austrians, Americans, and finally the French, were groping after
+vague abstractions; and Frederick the Soldier, and Joseph the
+Philanthropist, and Citizen Franklin, and Lafayette and Mirabeau,
+were each in their own way carried away with the delusion of a golden
+age; but the English statesmen clung rigidly to the realities of
+life,--declared the universal fraternity of nations to be a cry of
+knaves or hypocrites,--and answered all exclamations about the dignity
+of humanity and the sovereignty of the people with "Rule Britannia,"
+and "God save the King." How deeply this sentiment of loyalty and
+traditionary Toryism is seated in the national mind is proved by
+nothing so much as by the dreadful ordeal it had to go through in the
+days of the first two Georges. It certainly was a faith altogether
+independent of external circumstances, which saw the divinity that
+hedges kings in such vulgar, gossiping, and undignified individuals.
+And yet through all the troubled years of their reigns the great
+British heart beat true with loyalty to the throne, though it was
+grieved with the proceedings of the sovereigns; and when the third
+George gave it a man to rally round--as truly native-born as the
+most indigenous of the people, as stubborn, as strong-willed, and as
+determined to resist innovation as the most consistent of the squires
+and most anti-foreign of the citizens--the nation attained a point of
+union which had never been known in all their previous history, and
+looked across the Channel, at the insanity of the perplexed populations
+and the threats of their furious leaders, with a growl of contempt
+and hatred which warned their democrats and incendiaries of the fate
+that awaited them here. There are times in all national annals when
+the narrowest prejudices have an amazing resemblance to the noblest
+virtues. When Hannibal was encamped at the gates of Rome, the bigoted
+old Patricians in the forum carried on their courts of law as usual,
+and would not deduct a farthing from the value of the lands they set
+up for sale, though the besieger was encamped upon them. When a king
+of Sicily offered a great army and fleet for the defence of Greece
+against the Persians, the Athenian ambassador said, "Heaven forefend
+that a man of Athens should serve under a foreign admiral!" The
+Lacedemonian ambassador said the Spartans would put him to death if he
+proposed any man but a Spartan to command their troops; and those very
+prejudiced and narrow-minded patriots were reduced to the necessity of
+exterminating the invaders by themselves. Great Britain, in the year
+1800, was also of opinion that she was equal to all the world,--that
+she could hold her own whatever powers might be gathered against
+her,--and would not have exchanged her Hood, and Jervis, and Nelson,
+for the assistance of all the fleets of Europe.
+
+Nothing seems to die out so rapidly as the memory of martial
+achievements. The military glory of this country is a thing of fits and
+starts. Cressy and Poictiers left us at a pitch of reputation which
+you might have supposed would have lasted for a long time. But in a
+very few years after those victories the English name was a byword of
+reproach. All the conquests of the Edwards were wrenched away, and
+it needed only the short period of the reign of Richard the Second
+to sink the recollection of the imperturbable line and inevitable
+shaft. Henry the Fifth and Agincourt for a moment brought the previous
+triumphs into very vivid remembrance. But civil dissensions between
+York and Lancaster blunted the English sword upon kindred helmets, and
+peaceful Henry the Seventh loaded the subject with intolerable taxes,
+and his son wasted his treasures in feasts and tournaments. The long
+reigns of Elizabeth and James were undistinguished by British armies
+performing any separate achievements on the Continent; and again civil
+war lavished on domestic fields an amount of courage and conduct which
+would have eclipsed all previous actions if exhibited on a wider scene.
+We need not, therefore, be surprised, if, after the astonishing course
+of Louis the Fourteenth's arms, the discomfiture of his adversaries,
+the constant repulses of the English contingent which fought under
+William in Flanders, and at last the quiet, looking so like exhaustion,
+which ushered in the Eighteenth Century, the British forces were
+despised, and we were confessed, in the ludicrous cant which at
+intervals becomes fashionable still, to be not a military nation. How
+this astounding proposition agrees with the fact that we have met in
+battle every single nation, and tribe, and kindred, and tongue, on the
+face of the whole earth, in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and have
+beaten them all; how it further agrees with the fact that no civilized
+power was ever engaged in such constant and multitudinous wars, so that
+there is no month or week in the history of the last two hundred years
+in which it can be said we were not interchanging shot or sabre-stroke
+somewhere or other on the surface of the globe; how, further still,
+the statement is to be reconciled with the fact, perceptible to all
+mankind, that the result of these engagements is an unexampled growth
+of influence and empire,--the acquisition of kingdoms defended by
+millions of warriors in Hindostan, of colonies ten times the extent
+of the conqueror's realm, defended by Montcalm and the armies of
+France,--we must leave to the individuals who make it: the truth being
+that the British people is not only the most military nation the world
+has ever seen, not excepting the Roman, but the most warlike. It is
+impossible to say when these pages may meet the reader's eye; but, at
+whatever time it may be, he has only to look at the "Times" newspaper
+of that morning, and he will see that either in the East or the West,
+in China or the Cape, or the Persian Gulf, or on the Indus, or the
+Irrawaddy, the meteor flag is waved in bloody advance. And this seems
+an indispensable part of the British position. She is so ludicrously
+small upon the map, and so absorbed in speculation, so padded with
+cotton, and so sunk in coal-pits, that it is only constant experience
+of her prowess that keeps the world aware of her power. The other great
+nations can repose upon their size, and their armies of six or seven
+hundred thousand men. Nobody would think France or Russia weak because
+they were inactive. But with us the case is different: we must fight or
+fall.
+
+Twice in the century we are now engaged on, we rose to be first of the
+military states in Europe, and twice, by mere inaction, we sank to the
+rank of Portugal or Naples.
+
+Charles the Second of Spain died in November, 1700,--a person so
+feeble in health and intellect that in a lower state of life he would
+have been put in charge of guardians and debarred from the management
+of his affairs. As he was a king, these duties were performed on
+his behalf by the priests, and the wretched young man--he succeeded
+at three years old--was nothing but the slave and plaything of his
+confessor. Yet, though his existence was of no importance, his decease
+set all Europe in turmoil. By his testament, obtained from him on his
+death-bed, he appointed the grandson of Louis the Fourteenth his heir.
+A previous will had nominated Charles of Austria. A previous treaty
+between Louis and William of England and the States of Holland had
+arranged a partition of the Spanish monarchy for the benefit of the
+contracting parties and the maintenance of the balance of power. But
+now, when a choice was to be made between the wills and the treaty,
+between the balance of power and his personal ambition, the temptation
+was too great for the cupidity of the Grand Monarque. He accepted the
+throne of Spain and the Indies for his grandson Philip of Anjou, and
+sent him over the Pyrenees to take possession of his dignity. The
+stroke was so sudden that people were silent from surprise. A French
+prince at Madrid, at Milan, and Naples, was only the lieutenant in
+those capitals for the French king. The preponderance of the house of
+Bourbon was dangerous to the liberties of Europe, and when the house
+of Bourbon was represented by the haughtiest, and vainest, and most
+insulting of men, the dignity of the remaining sovereigns was offended
+by his ostentatious superiority; and the house of Austria, which in
+the previous century had been the terror of statesmen and princes, was
+turned to as a shelter from its successful rival, and all the world
+prepared to defend the cause of the Austrian Charles. The affairs of
+Europe, which were disturbed by the death of an imbecile king in Spain,
+were further complicated by the death of a still more imbecile king at
+St. Germain's. James the Second brought his strange life to a close in
+1701; and, though the advisers of Louis pointed out the consequence of
+offending England at that particular time by recognising the Prince
+of Wales as inheritor of the English crown, the vanity of the old man
+who could not forego the luxury of having a crowned king among his
+attendants prevailed over his better knowledge, and one day, to the
+amazement of courtiers and council, he gave the royal reception to
+James the Third, and threw down the gauntlet to William and England,
+which they were not slow to take up. William of Orange was not popular
+among his new subjects, and was always looked on as a foreigner.
+Perhaps the memory of Ruyter and Van Tromp was still fresh enough to
+make him additionally disliked because he was a Dutchman. But when it
+was known over the country that the bigoted and insulting despot in
+Paris had nominated a King of England, while the man the nation had
+chosen was still alive in Whitehall, the indignation of all classes was
+roused, and found its expression in loyalty and attachment to their
+deliverer from Popery and persecution. Great exertions were made to
+conduct the war on a scale befitting the importance of the interests
+at stake. Addresses poured in, with declarations of devotion to the
+throne; troops were raised, and taxes voted; and in the midst of these
+preparations, the King, prematurely old, in the fifty-third year of
+his age, died of a fall from his horse at Kensington, in March, 1702,
+and the powers of Europe felt that the best soldier they possessed was
+lost to the cause. Rather it was a fortunate thing for the confederated
+princes that William died at this time; for he never rose to the rank
+of a first-rate commander, and was so ambitious of glory and power that
+he would not have left the way clear for a greater than himself.
+
+This was found in Marlborough. Military science was the characteristic
+of this illustrious general; and no one before his time had ever
+possessed in an equal degree the power of attaching an army to
+its chief, or of regulating his strategic movements by the higher
+consideration of policy and statesmanship. For the first time, in
+English history at least, a march was equivalent to a battle. A
+change of his camp, or even a temporary retreat, was as effectual
+as a victory; and it was seen by the clearer observers of the time
+that a campaign was a game of skill, and not of the mere dash and
+intrepidity which appeal to the vulgar passions of our nature. Not
+so, however, the general public: their idea of war was a succession
+of hard knocks, with enormous lists of the killed and wounded. A
+manoeuvre, without a charge of bayonets at the end of it, was little
+better than cowardice; and complaints were loud and common against
+the inactivity of a man who, by dint of long-prepared combinations,
+compelled the enemy to retreat by a mere shift of position and cleared
+the Low Countries of its invaders without requiring to strike a blow.
+"Let them see how we can fight," cried all the corporations in the
+realm: "anybody can march and pitch his camp." And it is not impossible
+that the foreign populations who had never seen the red-coats, or,
+at most, who had only known them acting as auxiliaries to the Dutch
+and often compelled to retire before the numbers and impetuosity of
+the French, had no expectation of success when they should be fairly
+brought opposite their former antagonists. Friends and foes alike
+were prepared for a renewal of the days of Luxembourg and Turenne.
+In this they were not disappointed; for a pupil of Turenne renewed,
+in a very remarkable manner, the glories of his master. Marlborough
+had served under that great commander, and profited by his lessons.
+He had fifty thousand British soldiers under his undivided command;
+and, to please the grumblers at home and the doubters abroad, he made
+the reign of Anne the most glorious in the English military annals by
+thick-coming fights, still unforgotten, though dimmed by the exploits
+of the more illustrious Wellington. The first of these was Blenheim,
+against the French and Bavarians, in 1704. How different this was from
+the hand-to-hand thrust and parry of ancient times is shown by the
+fate of a strong body of French, who were so posted on this occasion
+that the duke saw they were in his power without requiring to fire a
+gun. He sent his aid-de-camp, Lord Orkney, to them to point out the
+hopelessness of their position; and when he rode up, accompanied by
+a French officer, to act, perhaps, as his interpreter, a shout of
+gratulation broke from the unsuspecting Frenchmen. "Is it a prisoner
+you have brought us?" they asked their countryman. "Alas! no," he
+replies: "Lord Orkney has come from Marlborough to tell you you are
+his prisoners. His lordship offers you your lives." A glance at the
+contending armies confirmed the truth of this appalling communication,
+and the brigade laid down its arms. The tide of victory, once begun,
+knew no ebb till the grandeur of Louis the Fourteenth was overwhelmed.
+Disgraces followed quickly one upon the other,--marshals beaten, towns
+taken, conquests lost, his wealth exhausted, his people discontented,
+and the bravest of his generals hopeless of success. Prince Eugene of
+Savoy, equal to Marlborough in military genius, was more embittered
+against the French monarch, to whom he had offered his services, and
+who had had the folly to reject them. France, on the side of Germany
+and the Low Countries, was pressed upon by the triumphant invaders.
+In Spain, the affairs of the new king were more desperate still.
+Gibraltar was taken in 1704. Lord Peterborough, a wiser Quixote, of
+whose victories it is difficult to say whether they were the result of
+madness or skill, marched through the kingdom at the head of six or
+seven thousand English and conquered wherever he went.
+
+When the war had lasted eight or nine years, the reputation of
+Marlborough and the British arms was at its height. Our fleets were
+masters of the sea, and the Grand Monarque sent humble petitions to
+the opposing powers for peace upon any terms. People tell us that
+Marlborough rejected all overtures which might have deprived him of the
+immense emoluments he received for carrying on the war. [A.D. 1711.]
+Perhaps, also, he was inspired by the love of fame; but, whether
+meanness or ambition was his motive, his warlike propensities were
+finally overcome,--for his wife, the imperious duchess, quarrelled with
+Queen Anne,--the ministry was changed, and the jealousies of Whitehall
+interfered with the campaigns in Flanders. [A.D. 1713.] Marlborough
+was displaced, and a peace patched up, which, under the name of the
+Peace of Utrecht, is quoted as showing what small fruits British
+diplomacy sometimes derives from British valour. Louis the Fourteenth,
+conquered at all points, his kingdom exhausted, and all his reputation
+gone, saw his grandson in possession of the crown which had been the
+original cause of the war, and Great Britain rewarded for all her
+struggles by the empty glory of filling up the harbour of Dunkirk, and
+the scarcely more substantial advantage, as many considered it at the
+time, of retaining Gibraltar, a barren rock, and Minorca, a useless
+island. After this, we find a long period of inaction on the continent
+produce its usual effect. When thirty years had passed without the
+foreign populations having sight of the British grenadiers, they either
+forgot their existence altogether, or had persuaded themselves that
+the new generation had greatly deteriorated from the old.[A.D. 1743.]
+[A.D. 1745.] It needed the victory of Dettingen, and the more glorious
+repulse of Fontenoy, to recall the soldiers of Oudenarde and Malplaquet.
+
+In the interval, amazing things had been going on. Even while the
+career of Marlborough was attended with such glory in arms, a peaceful
+achievement was accomplished of far more importance than all his
+victories. An Act of Union between the two peoples who occupied the
+Isle was passed by both their Parliaments in 1707, and England and
+Scotland disappeared in their separate nationalities, to receive the
+more dignified appellation of the Kingdom of Great Britain. This was
+a statesman's triumph; for the popular feeling on both sides of the
+Tweed was against it. Scotland considered herself sold; and England
+thought she was cheated. Clauses were introduced to preserve, as far
+as possible, the distinctions which each thought it for its honour to
+keep up. National peculiarities exaggerated themselves to prevent the
+chance of being obliterated; and Scotchmen were never as Scotch, nor
+Englishmen ever so English, as at the time when these denominations
+were about to cease. As neighbours, with the mere tie between them of
+being subjects of the same crown, they were on amicable and respectful
+terms. But when the alliance was proposed to be more intimate, their
+interests to be considered identical and the Parliaments to be merged
+in one, both parties took the alarm. "The preponderating number of
+English members would scarcely be affected by the miserable forty-five
+votes reserved for the Scotch representatives," said Caledonia, stern
+and wild. "The compact phalanx of forty-five determined Scotchmen will
+give them the decision of every question brought before Parliament,"
+replied England, with equal fear,--and equal misapprehension, as it
+happily turned out. When eight years had elapsed after this great
+event in our domestic history, with just sufficient experience of
+the new machinery to find out some of its defects, it was put to the
+proof by an incident which might have been fatal to a far longer
+established system of government. This was a rebellion in favour of
+the exiled Stuarts. James the Third, whom we saw recognised by Louis
+the Fourteenth on the death of his father in 1701, made his appearance
+among the Highlanders of the North in 1714, and summoned them to
+support his family claims.
+
+But the memory of his ancestors was too recent. Men of middle age
+remembered James the Second in his tyrannical supremacy at Holyrood.
+The time was not sufficiently remote for romance to have gathered
+round the harsh reality and hidden its repulsive outlines. A few
+months showed the Pretender the hopelessness of his attempt; and the
+tranquillity of the country was considered to be re-established when
+the adherents of the losing cause were visited with the harshest
+penalties. The real result of these vindictive punishments was, that
+they added the spirit of revenge for private wrong to the spirit of
+loyalty to the banished line. Many circumstances concurred to favour
+the defeated candidate, who seemed to require to do nothing but
+bide his time. The throne was no longer held, even under legalized
+usurpation, as the discontented expressed it, by one of the ancient
+blood. [A.D. 1714.] A foreigner, old and stupid, had come over from
+Hanover and claimed the Parliamentary crown, and the few remaining
+links of attachment which kept the high-prerogative men and the Roman
+Catholics inactive in the reign of Queen Anne, the daughter of their
+rightful king, lost all their power over them on the advent of George
+the First, who had to trace up through mother and grandmother till
+he struck into the royal pedigree in the reign of James the First.
+It was thought hard that descent from that champion of monarchic
+authority and hereditary right should be pleaded as a title to a crown
+dependent on the popular choice. As years passed on, the number of
+the discontented was of course increased. Whoever considered himself
+neglected by the intrusive government turned instinctively to the rival
+house. A courtier offended by the brutal manners of the Hanoverian
+rulers looked longingly across the sea to the descendant of his lineal
+kings. The foreign predilections, and still more foreign English,
+of the coarse-minded Georges, made them unpopular with the weak or
+inconsiderate, who did not see that a very inelegant pronunciation
+might be united with a true regard for the interests of their country.
+
+The commercial passions of the nations succeeded to the military
+enthusiasm of the past age, and brought their usual fruits of selfish
+competition and social degradation. Money became the most powerful
+principle of public and private life: Sir Robert Walpole, a man of
+perfect honesty himself, founded his ministry on the avowed disbelief
+of personal honesty among all classes of the people; and there were
+many things which appeared to justify his incredulity. [A.D. 1720.]
+There was the South-Sea Bubble, a swindling speculation, to which
+our own railway-mania is the only parallel, where lords and ladies,
+high ecclesiastics and dignified office-bearers, the highest and the
+lowest, rushed into the wildest excesses of gambling and false play,
+and which caused a greater loss of character and moral integrity than
+even of money to its dupes and framers. There was the acknowledged
+system of rewarding a ministerial vote with notes for five hundred or a
+thousand pounds. There were the party libels of the time, all imputing
+the greatest iniquities to the object of their vituperation, and left
+uncontradicted except by savage proceedings at law or by similar
+insinuations against the other side. There were philosophers like
+Bolingbroke and clergymen like Swift. But let us distinguish between
+the performers on the great scenes of life, the place hunter at St.
+James's, and the great body of the English and Scottish gentry, and
+their still undepraved friends and neighbours, whom it is the fashion
+to involve in the same condemnation of recklessness and dishonour.
+We are to remember that the dregs of the former society were not yet
+cleared away. The generation had been brought up at the feet of the
+professors of morality and religion as they were practised in the days
+of Charles and James, with Congreve and Wycherly for their exponents on
+the stage and Dryden for their poet-laureate.
+
+It seems a characteristic of literature that it becomes pure in
+proportion as it becomes powerful. While it is the mere vehicle for
+amusement or the exercise of wit and fancy, it does not care in what
+degrading quarters its materials are found. But when it feels that
+its voice is influential and its lessons attended to by a wider
+audience, it rises to the height of the great office to which it is
+called, and is dignified because it is conscious of its authority.
+In the incontestable amendment visible in the writings of the period
+of Anne and the Georges, we find a proof that the vices of the busy
+politicians and gambling speculators were not shared by the general
+public. The papers of the _Spectator_ and _Tatler_, the writings of
+Pope and Arbuthnot, were not addressed to a depraved or sensualized
+people, as the works of Rochester and Sedley had been. When we talk,
+therefore, of the Augustan age of Anne, we are to remember that its
+freedom from grossness and immorality is still more remarkable than
+its advance in literary merit, and we are to look on the conduct of
+intriguing directors and bribed members of Parliament as the relics
+of a time about to pass away and to give place to truer ideas of
+commercial honesty and public duty. The country, in spite of coarseness
+of manners and language, was still sound at heart. The jolly squire
+swore at inconvenient seasons and drank beyond what was right, but he
+kept open house to friend and tenant, administered justice to the best
+of his ability, had his children Christianly and virtuously brought up,
+and was a connecting link in his own neighbourhood between the great
+nobles who affected almost a princely state, and the snug merchant in
+the country town, or retired citizen from London, whom he met at the
+weekly club. The glimpses we get of the social status of the country
+gentlemen of Queen Anne make us enamoured of their simple ways and
+patriarchal position. For the argument to be drawn from the character
+and friends of Sir Roger de Coverly and the delightful Lady Lizard and
+her daughters, is that the great British nation was still the home
+of the domestic affections, that the behaviour was pure though the
+grammar was a little faulty, and the ideas modest and becoming though
+the expression might be somewhat unadorned. Hence it was that, when the
+trial came, the heart of all the people turned to the uninviting but
+honest man who filled the British throne. George the Second became a
+hero, because the country was healthy at the core.
+
+A son of the old Pretender, relying on the lax morality of the
+statesmen and the venality of the courtiers, forgot the unshaken
+firmness and dogged love of the right which was yet a living principle
+among the populations of both the nations, and landed in the North of
+Scotland in 1745, to recover the kingdom of his ancestors by force
+of arms. The kingdoms, however, had got entirely out of the habit of
+being recovered by any such means. The law had become so powerful, and
+was so guarded by forms and precedents, that Prince Charles Edward
+would have had a better chance of obtaining his object by an action of
+ejectment, or a suit of recovery, than by the aid of sword and bayonet.
+Everybody knows the main incidents of this romantic campaign,--the
+successful battles which gave the insurgents the apparent command of
+the Lowlands,--the advance into England,--the retreat from Derby,--the
+disasters of the rebel army, and its final extinction at Culloden. But,
+although to us it appears a very serious state of affairs,--a crown
+placed on the arbitrament of war, battles in open field, surprise on
+the part of the Hanoverians, and loud talking on the part of their
+rivals,--the tranquillity of all ranks and in all quarters is the most
+inexplicable thing in the whole proceeding. When the landing was first
+announced, alarm was of course felt, as at a fair when it is reported
+that a tiger has broken loose from the menagerie. But in a little time
+every thing resumed its ordinary appearance. George himself cried,
+"Pooh! pooh! Don't talk to me of such nonsense." His ministers, who
+probably knew the state of public feeling, were equally unconcerned.
+A few troops were brought over from the Continent, to show that force
+was not wanting if the application of it was required. But in other
+respects no one appeared to believe that the assumed fears of the
+disaffected, and the no less assumed exultation of the Jacobites, had
+any foundation in fact. Trade, law, buying and selling, writing and
+publishing, went on exactly as before. The march of the Pretender was
+little attended to, except perhaps in the political circles in London.
+In the great towns it passed almost unheeded. Quiet families within a
+few miles of the invaders' march posted or walked across to see the
+uncouth battalions pass. Their strange appearance furnished subjects of
+conversation for a month; but nowhere does there seem to have been the
+terror of a real state of war,--the anxious waiting for intelligence,
+"the pang, the agony, the doubt:" no one felt uneasy as to the result.
+England had determined to have no more Stuart kings, and Scotland was
+beginning to feel the benefit of the Union, and left the defence of the
+true inheritor to the uninformed, discontented, disunited inhabitants
+of the hills. When the tribes emerged from their mountains, they
+seemed to melt like their winter snows. No squadrons of stout-armed
+cavaliers came to join them from holt and farm, as in the days of the
+Great Rebellion, when the royal flag was raised at Nottingham. Puritans
+and Independents took no heed, and cried no cries about "the sword
+of the Lord and of Gideon." They had turned cutlers at Sheffield and
+fustian-makers at Manchester. The Prince found not only that he created
+no enthusiasm, but no alarm,--a most painful thing for an invading
+chief; and, in fact, when they had reached the great central plains of
+England they felt lost in the immensity of the solitude that surrounded
+them. If they had met enemies they would have fought; if they had found
+friends they would have hoped; but they positively wasted away for lack
+of either confederate or opponent. The expedition disappeared like a
+small river in sand. What was the use of going on? If they reached
+London itself, they would be swallowed up in the vastness of the
+population, and, instead of meeting an army, they would be in danger
+of being taken up by the police. So they reversed their steps. Donald
+had stolen considerably in the course of the foray, and was anxious
+to go and invest his fortune in his native vale. An English guinea--a
+coin hitherto as fabulous as the _Bodach glas_--would pay the rent of
+his holding for twenty years; five pounds would make him a cousin of
+the Laird. But Donald never got back to display the spoils of Carlisle
+or Derby. He loitered by the road, and was stripped of all his booty.
+[A.D. 1746.] He was imprisoned, and hanged, and starved, and beaten,
+and finally, after the strange tragi-comedy of his fight at Falkirk,
+had the good fortune, on that bare expanse of Drummossie Moor, to
+hide some of the ludicrous features of his retreat in the glory of
+a warrior's death. Justice became revenge by its severity after the
+insurrection was quelled. The followers of the Prince were punished
+as traitors; but treason means rebellion against an acknowledged
+government, which extends to its subjects the securities of law.
+These did not exist in the Highlands. All those distant populations
+knew of law was the edge of its sword, not the balance of its scales.
+They saw their chiefs depressed, they remembered the dismal massacre
+of Glencoe in William's time, and the legal massacres of George the
+First's. They spoke another language, were different in blood, and
+manners, and religion, and should have been treated as prisoners of
+war fighting under a legal banner, and not drawn and quartered as
+revolted subjects. It is doubtful if one man in the hundred knew the
+name of the king he was trying to displace, or the position of the
+prince who summoned him to his camp. Poor, gallant, warm-hearted,
+ignorant, trusting Gael! His chieftain told him to follow and slay
+the Saxons, and he required no further instruction. He was not cruel
+or bloodthirsty in his strange advance. He had no personal enmity to
+Scot or Englishman, and, with the simple awe of childhood, soon looked
+with reverence on the proofs of wealth and skill which met him in the
+crowded cities and cultivated plains. He was subdued by the solemn
+cathedrals and grand old gentlemen's seats that studded all the road,
+as some of his ancestors, the ancient Gauls, had been at the sight of
+the Roman civilization. And, for all these causes, the incursion of
+the Jacobites left no lasting bitterness among the British peoples.
+Pity began before long to take the place of opposition; and when all
+was quite secure, and the Highlanders were fairly subdued, and the
+Pretender himself was sunk in sloth and drunkenness, a sort of morbid
+sympathy with the gallant adventurers arose among the new generation.
+Tender and romantic ballads, purporting to be "Laments for Charlie,"
+and declarations of attachment to the "Young Chevalier," were composed
+by comfortable ladies and gentlemen, and sung in polished drawing-rooms
+in Edinburgh and London with immense applause. Macaulay's "Lays of
+Ancient Rome," or Aytoun's "Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers," have as
+much right to be called the contemporary expression of the sacrifice of
+Virginia or the burial of Dundee as the Jacobite songs to be the living
+voice of the Forty-Five. Who was there in the Forty-Five, or Forty-Six,
+or for many years after that date, to write such charming verses? The
+Highlanders themselves knew not a word of English; the blue bonnets
+in Scotland were not addicted to the graces of poetry and music. The
+citizens of England were too busy, the gentlemen of England too little
+concerned in the rising, to immortalize the landing at Kinloch-Moidart
+or the procession to Holyrood. The earliest song which commemorates
+the Pretender's arrival, or laments his fall, was not written within
+twenty years of his attempt. By that time George the Third was on the
+safest throne in Europe, and Great Britain was mistress of the trade of
+India and the illimitable regions of America. It was easy to sing about
+having our "rightful King," when we were in undisputed possession of
+the Ganges and the Hudson and had just planted the British colours on
+Quebec and Montreal.
+
+This rebellion of Forty-Five, therefore, is remarkable as a feature in
+this century, not for the greatness of the interest it excited, but for
+the small effect it had upon either government or people. It showed on
+what firm foundations the liberties and religion of the nations rested,
+that the appearance of armed enemies upon our soil never shook our
+justly-balanced state. The courts sat at Westminster, and the bells
+rang for church. People read Thomson's "Seasons," and wondered at
+Garrick in "Hamlet" at Drury Lane.
+
+Meantime, a great contest was going on abroad, which, after being
+hushed for a while by the peace of 1748, broke out with fiercer
+vehemence than ever in what is called the Seven Years' War.
+[A.D. 1756-1763.] The military hero of this period was Frederick the
+Second of Prussia, by whose genius and skill the kingdom he succeeded
+to--a match for Saxony or Bavaria--rapidly assumed its position as a
+first-rate power. A combination of all the old despotisms was formed
+against him,--not, however, without cause; for a more unprincipled
+remover of his neighbour's landmarks, and despiser of generosity and
+justice, never appeared in history. But when he was pressed on one side
+by Russia and Austria, and on the other by France, and all the little
+German potentates were on the watch to pounce on the unprotected State
+and get their respective shares in the general pillage, Frederick
+placed his life upon the cast, and stood the hazard of the die in
+many tremendous combats, crushed the belligerents one by one, made
+forced marches which caught them unawares, and, though often defeated,
+conducted his retreats so that they yielded him all the fruits of
+victory. In his extremity he sought and found alliances in the most
+unlikely quarters. Though a self-willed despot in his own domains, he
+won the earnest support and liberal subsidies of the freedom-loving
+English; and though a philosopher of the most amazing powers of
+unbelief, he awakened the sympathy of all the religious Protestants in
+our land. All his faults were forgiven--his unchivalrous treatment of
+the heroic _King_ of Hungary, Maria-Theresa, the Empress-Queen, his
+assaults upon her territory, and general faithlessness and ambition--on
+the one strong ground that he opposed Catholics and tyrants, and,
+though irreligious and even scoffing himself, was at the head of a
+true-hearted Protestant people.
+
+It is not unlikely the instincts of a free nation led us at that time
+to throw our moral weight, if nothing more, into the scale against
+the intrusion of a new and untried power which began to take part in
+the conflicts of Europe; for at this period we find the ill-omened
+announcement that the Russians have issued from their deserts a
+hundred thousand strong, and made themselves masters of most of the
+Prussian provinces. [A.D. 1758.] Though defeated in the great battle
+of Zorndorf, they never lost the hope of renewing the march they
+had made eleven years before, when thirty-five thousand of them had
+rested on the Rhine. But Britain was not blind either to the past or
+future. At the head of our affairs was a man whose fame continues as
+fresh at the present hour as in the day of his greatness. William Pitt
+had been a cornet of horse, and even in his youth had attracted the
+admiration and hatred of old Sir Robert Walpole by an eloquence and a
+character which the world has agreed in honouring with the epithet of
+majestic; and when war was again perplexing the nations, and Britain,
+as usual, had sunk to the lowest point in the military estimate of the
+Continent, the Great Commoner, as he was called, took the government
+into his hands, and the glories of the noblest periods of our annals
+were immediately renewed or cast into the shade. Wherever the Great
+Commoner pointed with his finger, success was certain. His fleets
+swept the seas. Howe and Hawke and Boscawen executed his plans. In
+the East he was answered by the congenial energy of Clive, and in the
+West by the heroic bravery of Wolfe. For, though the war in which we
+were now engaged had commenced nominally for European interests, the
+crash of arms between France and England extended to all quarters of
+the world. In India and America equally their troops and policies were
+opposed, and, in fact, the battle of the two nations was fought out
+in those distant realms. Our triumph at Plassey and on the Heights of
+Abraham had an immense reaction on both the peoples at home. And a very
+cursory glance at those regions, from the middle of the century, will
+be a fitting introduction to the crowning event of the period we have
+now reached,--namely, the French Revolution of 1789. The rise of the
+British Empire in the East, no less than the loss of our dominion in
+the West, will be found to contribute to that grand catastrophe, of
+which the results for good and evil will be felt "to the last syllable
+of recorded time."
+
+The first commercial adventure to India was in the bold days of
+Elizabeth, in 1591. In the course of a hundred years from that time
+various companies had been established by royal charter, and a regular
+trade had sprung up. In 1702 all previous charters were consolidated
+into one, and the East India Company began its career. Its beginning
+was very quiet and humble. It was a trader, and nothing more; but
+when it saw a convenient harbour, a favourable landing-place, and
+an industrious population, it bent as lowly as any Oriental slave
+at the footstool of the unsuspecting Rajah, and obtained permission
+to build a storehouse, to widen the wharf, and, finally, to erect a
+small tower, merely for the defence of its property from the dangerous
+inhabitants of the town. The storehouses became barracks, the towers
+became citadels; and by the year 1750 the recognised possessions of
+the inoffensive and unambitious merchants comprised mighty states, and
+were dotted at intervals along the coast from Surat and Bombay on the
+west to Madras and Calcutta on the east and far north. The French also
+had not been idle, and looked out ill pleased, from their domains at
+Pondicherry and Chandernagore, on the widely-diffused settlements and
+stealthy progress of their silent rivals. They might have made as rapid
+progress, and secured as extensive settlements, if they had imitated
+their rivals' stealthiness and silence. But power is nothing in the
+estimation of a Frenchman unless he can wear it like a court suit
+and display it to all the world. The governors, therefore, of their
+factories, obtained honours and ornaments from the native princes. One
+went so far as to forge a gift of almost regal power from the Great
+Mogul, and sat on a musnud, and was addressed with prostration by his
+countrymen and the workmen in the warerooms. Wherever the British
+wormed their way, the French put obstacles in their path. Whether there
+was peace between Paris and London or not, made no difference to the
+rival companies on the Coromandel shore. They were always at war, and
+only cloaked their national hatred under the guise of supporters of
+opposite pretenders to some Indian throne. Great men arose on both
+sides. The climate or policies of Hindostan, which weaken the native
+inhabitant, only call forth the energies and manly virtues of the
+intrusive settler. No kingdom has such a bead-roll of illustrious names
+as the British occupation. That one century of "work and will" has
+called forth more self-reliant heroism and statesmanlike sagacity than
+any period of three times the extent since the Norman Conquest. From
+Clive, the first of the line, to the Lawrences and Havelocks of the
+present day, there has been no pause in the patriotic and chivalrous
+procession. Clive came just at the proper time. A born general, though
+sent out in an humble mercantile situation, he retrieved the affairs of
+his employers and laid the foundation of a new empire for the British
+crown. Calcutta had been seized by a native ruler, instigated by the
+French, in 1756. The British residents, to the number of one hundred
+and forty-six, were packed in a frightful dungeon without a sufficiency
+of light or air, and, after a night which transcends all nights of
+suffering and despair, when the prison-doors were thrown open, but
+twenty-two of the whole number survived. But these were twenty-two
+living witnesses to the tyranny and cruelty of Surajah Dowlat. Clive
+was on his track ere many months had passed. Calcutta was recovered,
+other places were taken, and the battle of Plassey fought. In this
+unparalleled exploit, Clive, with three thousand soldiers, principally
+Sepoys, revenged the victims of the Black Hole, by defeating their
+murderer at the head of sixty thousand men. This was on the 23d of
+June, 1757; and when in that same year the news of the great European
+war between the nations came thundering up the Ganges, the victors
+enlarged their plans. They determined to expel the French from all
+their possessions in the East; and Admiral Pococke and Colonel Coote
+were worthy rivals of the gallant Clive. Great fleets encountered in
+the Indian seas, and victory was always with the British flag. Battles
+took place by land, and uniformly with the same result. Closer and
+closer the invading lines converged upon the French; and at last, in
+1761, Pondicherry, the last remaining of all their establishments, was
+taken, after a vigorous defence, and the French influence was at an
+end in India. These four years, from 1757 to 1761, had been scarcely
+less prolific of distinguished men on the French side than our own. The
+last known of these was Lally Tollendal, a man of a furious courage and
+headstrong disposition, against whom his enemies at home had no ground
+of accusation except his want of success and savageness of manner. Yet
+when he returned, after the loss of Pondicherry and a long imprisonment
+in England, he was attacked with all the vehemence of personal hatred.
+He was tried for betraying the interests of the king, tortured, and
+executed. The prosecution lasted many years, and the public rage seemed
+rather to increase. [A.D. 1766.] Long after peace was concluded
+between France and England, the tragedy of the French expulsion from
+India received its final scene in the death of the unfortunate Count
+Lally.
+
+Quebec and its dependencies, during the same glorious administration,
+were conquered and annexed by Wolfe; and already the throes of the
+great Revolution were felt, though the causes remained obscure. Cut
+off from the money-making regions of Hindostan and the patriarchal
+settlements of Canada, the Frenchman, oppressed at home, had no outlet
+either for his ambition or discontent. The feeling of his misery was
+further aggravated by the sight of British prosperity. The race of
+men called Nabobs, mercantile adventurers who had gone out to India
+poor and came back loaded with almost incredible wealth, brought the
+ostentatious habits of their Oriental experience with them to Europe,
+and offended French and English alike by the tasteless profusion
+of their expense. Money wrung by extortion from native princes was
+lavished without enjoyment by the denationalized _parvenu_. A French
+duke found himself outglittered by the equipage of the over-enriched
+clove-dealer,--and hated him for his presumption. The Frenchman of
+lower rank must have looked on him as the lucky and dishonourable
+rival who had usurped his place, and hated him for the opportunity
+he had possessed of winning all that wealth. Ground to the earth by
+taxes and toil, without a chance of rising in the social scale or
+of escaping from the ever-growing burden of his griefs, the French
+peasant and small farmer must have listened with indignation to the
+accounts of British families of their own rank emerging from a twenty
+years' residence in Madras or Calcutta with more riches than half
+the hereditary nobles. It was therefore with a feeling of unanimous
+satisfaction that all classes of Frenchmen heard, in 1773, that the
+old English colonies in America were filled with disaffection,--that
+Boston had risen in insurrection, and that a spirit of resistance to
+the mother-country was rife in all the provinces.
+
+The quarrel came to a crisis between the Crown and the colonies within
+fourteen years of the conquest of Canada. It seemed as if the British
+had provided themselves with a new territory to compensate for the
+approaching loss of the old; and bitter must have been the reflection
+of the French when they perceived that the loyalty of that recent
+acquisition remained undisturbed throughout the succeeding troubles.
+Taxation, the root of all strength and the cause of all weakness,
+had been pushed to excess, not in the amount of its exaction, but in
+the principle of its imposition; and the British blood had not been
+so colonialized as to submit to what struck the inhabitants of all
+the towns as an unjustifiable exercise of power. The cry at first,
+therefore, was, No tax without representation; but the cry waxed louder
+and took other forms of expression. The cry was despised, whether
+gentle or loud,--then listened to,--then resented. The passions of
+both countries became raised. America would not submit to dictation;
+Britain would not be silenced by threats. Feelings which would have
+found vent at home in angry speeches in Parliament, and riots at a
+new election, took a far more serious shape when existing between
+populations separated indeed by a wide ocean, but identical in most
+of their qualities and aspirations. The king has been blamed. "George
+the Third lost us the colonies by his obstinacy: he would not yield
+an inch of his royal dignity, and behold the United States our rivals
+and enemies,--perhaps some day our conquerors and oppressors!"
+Now, we should remember that the Great Britain of 1774 was a very
+narrow-minded, self-opinionated, pig-headed Great Britain, compared to
+the cosmopolitan, philanthropical, and altogether disinterested Great
+Britain we call it now. If the king had bated his breath for a moment,
+or even spoken respectfully and kindly of the traitors and rebels who
+were firing upon his flags, he would have been the most unpopular man
+in his dominions. Many, no doubt, held aloof, and found excuses for the
+colonists' behaviour; but the influence of those meditative spirits
+was small; their voice was drowned in the chorus of indignation at
+what appeared revolt and mutiny more than resistance to injustice. And
+when other elements came into the question,--when the French monarch,
+ostensibly at peace with Britain, permitted his nobles and generals
+and soldiers to volunteer in the patriot cause,--the sentiments of
+this nation became embittered with its hereditary dislike to its
+ancient foe. We turned them out of India: were they going to turn us
+out of America? We had taken Canada: are they going to take New York?
+We might have offered terms to our own countrymen, made concessions,
+granted exemptions from imperial burdens, or even a share in imperial
+legislation; but with Lafayette haranguing about abstract freedom, and
+all the young counts and marquises of his expedition declaring against
+the House of Lords, the thing was impossible. [A.D. 1778-1780.] War
+was declared upon France, and upon Spain, and upon Holland. We fought
+everywhere, and lavished blood and treasure in this great quarrel.
+And yet the nation had gradually accustomed itself to the new view of
+American wrongs. The Ministry, by going so far in their efforts at
+accommodation, had confessed the original injustice of their cause.
+So we fought with a blunted sword, and hailed even our victories with
+misgivings as to our right to win them. But it was the season of vast
+changes in the political distribution of all the world. Prussia was
+a foremost kingdom. Russia was a European Empire. India had risen
+into a compact dominion under the shield of Britain. Why should not
+America take a substantive place in the great family of nations, and
+play a part hereafter in the old game of statesmen, called the Balance
+of Power? In 1783 this opinion prevailed. France, Spain, and Holland
+sheathed their swords. The Independence of the United States was
+acknowledged at the Peace of Versailles, and everybody believed that
+the struggle against established governments was over.
+
+France seemed elevated by the results of the American War, and Great
+Britain humiliated. Prophecies were frequent about our rapid fall
+and final extinction. Our own orators were, as usual, the loudest in
+confessions of our powerlessness and decay. Our institutions were held
+up to dislike; and if you had believed the speeches and pamphlets
+of discontented patriots, you would have thought we were the most
+spiritless and down-trodden, the most unmerciful and dishonest, nation
+in the world. The whole land was in a fury of self-abasement at the
+degradation brought upon our name and standing by the treachery and
+iniquities of Warren Hastings in India; our European glory was crushed
+by the surrender at Paris. It must be satisfactory to all lovers of
+their country to know that John Bull has no such satisfaction as in
+proving that he is utterly exhausted,--always deceived by his friends,
+always overreached by his enemies, always disappointed in his aims.
+In this self-depreciating spirit he conducts all his wars and all his
+treaties; yet somehow it always happens that he gets what he wanted,
+and the overreaching and deceiving antagonist gives it up. His power is
+over a sixth of the human race, and he began a hundred years ago with
+a population of less than fourteen millions; and all the time he has
+been singing the most doleful ditties of the ill success that always
+attends him,--of his ruinous losses and heart-breaking disappointments.
+The men at the head of affairs in the trying years from the Peace of
+Versailles to 1793 were therefore quite right not to be taken in by
+the querulous lamentations of the nation. We had lost three millions
+of colonists, and gained three million independent customers. We were
+trading to India, and building up and putting down the oldest dynasties
+of Hindostan. Ships and commerce increased in a remarkable degree;
+the losses of the war were compensated by the gains of those peaceful
+pursuits in a very few years; and we were contented to leave to Paris
+the reputation of the gayest city in the world, and to the French the
+reputation of the happiest and best-ruled people. But Paris was the
+wretchedest of towns, and the French the most miserable of peoples.
+When anybody asks us in future what was the cause of the French
+Revolution, we need not waste time to discuss the writings of Voltaire,
+or the unbelief of the clergy, or the immorality of the nobles. We must
+answer at once by naming the one great cause by which all revolutions
+are produced,--over-taxation. The French peasant, sighing for liberty,
+had no higher object than an escape from the intolerable burden of his
+payments. He cared no more for the rights of man, or the happiness
+of the human race, than for the quarrels of Achilles and Agamemnon.
+He wanted to get rid of the "taille," the "corvee," and twenty other
+imposts which robbed him of his last penny. If he had had a chicken
+in his pot, and could do as he liked with his own spade and pick-axe,
+he never would have troubled his head about codes and constitutions.
+But life had become a burden to him. Everybody had turned against him.
+The grand old feudal noble, who would have protected and cherished
+him under the shadow of his castle-wall, was a lord-chamberlain at
+court. The kind old priest, who would have attended to his wants and
+fed him, if required, at the church-door, was dancing attendance
+in the antechamber of a great lady in Paris, or singing improper
+songs at a jolly supper-party at Versailles. There were intendants
+and commissaries visiting his wretched hovel at rapidly-decreasing
+intervals of time, to collect his contributions to the revenue. These
+men farmed the taxes, and squeezed out the last farthing like a Turkish
+pasha. But while the small land-owner--and they were already immensely
+numerous--and the serf--for he was no better--were oppressed by these
+exactions, the gentry were exempt. The seigneur visited his castle for
+a month or two in the year, but it was to embitter the countryman's
+lot by the contrast. His property had many rights, but no duties.
+In ancient times in France, and at all times in England, those two
+qualities went together. Our upper classes lived among their tenants
+and dependants. They had no alleviation of burdens in consequence of
+their wealth, but they took care that their poorer neighbours should
+have alleviation in consequence of their poverty. Cottages had no
+window-tax. The pressure of the public burdens increased with the
+power to bear them. But in France the reverse was the case. Poverty
+paid the money, and wealth and luxury spent it. The evil was too
+deep-rooted to be remedied without pulling up the tree. The wretched
+millions were starving, toiling, despairing, and the thousands were
+rioting in extravagance and show. The same thing occurred in 1789 as
+had occurred in the last glimmer of the Roman civilization in the time
+of Clovis. The Roman Emperor issued edicts for the collection of his
+revenue. Commissioners spread over the land; the miserable Gaul saw
+the last sheaf of his corn torn away, and the last lamb of his flock.
+But when the last property of the poorest was taken away, the imperial
+exchequer could not remain unfilled. You remember the unhappy men
+called Curials,--holders of small estates in the vicinity of towns.
+They were also endowed with rank, and appointed to office. Their office
+was to make up from their own resources, or by extra severity among
+their neighbours, for any deficiency in the sum assessed. Peasant,
+land-owner, curial,--all sank into hopeless misery by the crushing of
+this gold-producing machinery. They looked across the Rhine to Clovis
+and the Franks, and hailed the ferocious warriors as their deliverers
+from an intolerable woe. They could not be worse off by the sword of
+the stranger than by the ledger of the tax-collector. In 1789 the
+system of the old Roman extortion was revived. The village or district
+was made a curial, and became responsible in its aggregate character
+for the individual payments. If the number of payers diminished, the
+increase fell upon the few who were not yet stripped. The Clovis of
+the present day who was to do away with their oppressors, though
+perhaps to immolate themselves, was a Revolution,--a levelling of all
+distinctions, ranks, rights, exemptions, privileges. This was the
+"liberty, equality, fraternity" that were to overflow the worn-out
+world and fertilize it as the Nile does Egypt.
+
+Great pity has naturally been expressed for the nobility (or gentry)
+and clergy of France; but, properly considered, France had at that
+time neither a nobility nor a clergy. A nobility with no status
+independent of the king--with no connection with its estates beyond
+the reception of their rents--with no weight in the legislature; with
+ridiculously exaggerated rank, and ridiculously contracted influence;
+with no interest in local expenditure or voice in public management; a
+gentry, in short, debarred from active life, except as officers of the
+army--shut out by monarchic jealousy from interference in affairs, and
+by the pride of birth from the pursuits of commerce--is not a gentry
+at all. A clergy, in the same way, is a priesthood only in right of
+its belief in the doctrines it professes to hold, and the attention
+it bestows on its parishioners. Except in some few instances, the
+Christianity both of faith and practice had disappeared from France. It
+was time, therefore, that nobility and clergy should also disappear.
+The excesses of the Revolution which broke out in 1789, and reached
+their climax in the murder of the king in 1793, showed the excesses
+of the misgovernment of former years. If there had been one redeeming
+feature of the ancient system, it would have produced its fruits in
+the milder treatment of the victims of the reaction. In one or two
+provinces, indeed, we are told that hereditary attachment still bound
+the people to their superiors, and in those provinces, the philosophic
+chronicler of the fact informs us, the centralizing system had not
+completed its authority. The gentry still performed some of the duties
+of their station, and the priests, of their profession. Everywhere
+else blind hatred, unreasoning hope, and bloody revenge. The century,
+which began with the vainglorious egotism of Louis the Fourteenth
+and the war of the Spanish Succession,--which progressed through the
+British masterdom of India and the self-sustaining republicanism of
+America,--died out in the convulsive strugglings of thirty-one millions
+of souls on the soil of France to breathe a purer political air and
+shake off the trammels which had gradually been riveted upon them for
+three hundred years. Great Britain had preceded them by a century, and
+has ever since shown the bloodless and legal origin of her freedom by
+the bloodless and legal use she has made of it. We emerged from the
+darkness of 1688 with all the great landmarks of our country not only
+erect, but strengthened. We had king, lords, and commons, and a respect
+for law, and veneration for precedents, which led the great Duke of
+Wellington to say, in answer to some question about the chance of a
+British revolution, that "no man could foresee whether such a thing
+might occur or not, but, when it did, he was sure it would be done by
+Act of Parliament."
+
+War with France began in 1793. Our military reputation was at the
+lowest, for Wolfe and Clive had had time to be forgotten; and even
+our navy was looked on without dismay, for the laurels of Howe and
+Boscawen were sere from age. But in the remaining years of the century
+great things were done, and Britannia had the trident firmly in her
+hand. Jervis, and Duncan, and Nelson, were answering with victories at
+sea the triumphs of Napoleon in Italy. And while fame was blowing the
+names of those champions far and wide, a blast came across also from
+India, where Wellesley had begun his wondrous career. [A.D. 1798.]
+Equally matched the belligerents, and equally favoured with mighty
+men of valour to conduct their forces, the feverish energy of the
+newly-emancipated France being met by the healthful vigour of the
+matured and self-respecting Britain, the world was uncertain how the
+great drama would close. But the last year of the century seemed to
+incline the scale to the British side. [A.D. 1799.] Napoleon, after
+a dash at Egypt, had been checked by the guns of Nelson in the great
+battle of the Nile. He secretly withdrew from his dispirited army, and
+made his appearance in Paris as much in the character of a fugitive as
+of a candidate for power. But all the fruits of his former battles had
+been torn from his countrymen in his absence. Italy was delivered from
+their grasp; Russia was pouring her hordes into the South; confusion
+was reigning everywhere, and the fleets of Great Britain were blocking
+up every harbour in France.
+
+Napoleon was created First Consul, and the Century went down upon the
+final preparations of the embittered rivals. Both parties felt now
+that the struggle was for life or death, and "the boldest held his
+breath for a time," when he thought of what awful events the Nineteenth
+Century would be the scene.
+
+
+
+
+                              FOOTNOTES.
+
+
+[A] The following is a carefully compiled table of the forces of
+    Europe in the year 1854-55. Since that time the Russian fleet
+    has been destroyed, but the diminution has been more than
+    counterbalanced by the increased navies of the other powers.
+
+    Military Forces of Europe in 1855.
+
+                        Men.       Ships.      Guns.
+
+  Austria             650,000       102         752
+  Bavaria             239,886       ...         ...
+  Belgium             100,000       ...         ...
+  Denmark              75,169       120         880
+  France              650,000       407      11,773
+  Germany             452,473       ...         ...
+  Great Britain       265,000[1]    591      17,291
+  Greece               10,226        25         143
+  Ionian Isles          3,000         4         ...
+  Modena and Parma      6,302       ...         ...
+  Netherlands          58,647        84       2,000
+  Papal States         11,274       ...         ...
+  Portugal             33,000        44         404
+  Prussia             525,000        50         250
+  Russia              699,000       207       9,000
+  Sardinia             48,088        40         900
+  Sicilies            106,264        29         444
+  Spain                75,000       410        1530
+  Sweden              167,000       ...         ...
+  Switzerland         108,000       ...         ...
+  Tuscany              16,930       ...         ...
+  Turkey              310,970       ...         ...
+                   ----------      ----     -------
+                    4,611,229      2113      45,367[2]
+
+
+[1] Indian army 250,000, and militia 145,000, not included; making
+    a total of 660,000
+
+
+[2] Taking an average of ten men to each gun, the sailors will be
+    453,670; which gives a total of fighting-men, 5,064,899!!!
+
+[B] He was called Le Grand Batisseur.
+
+[C] Wickliff's English Bible, 1383.
+
+[D] Popular History--Henry VI.
+
+[E] Dr. Robertson.
+
+
+
+
+                                INDEX.
+
+
+  Abdelmalek the caliph, 167.
+
+  A-Beckett, the elevation and career of, 290 _et seq._
+
+  Abelard, rise of free inquiry with, 280.
+
+  Abou Beker, the exploits, &c. of, 157, 158
+    --chosen Mohammed's successor, 160
+    --his exploits, 161.
+
+  Absolutism, rise of, in France under Louis XIV., 475 _et seq._
+
+  Abu Taleb, uncle of Mohammed, 138.
+
+  Academies, establishment of, by Charlemagne, 196.
+
+  Adrian, the emperor, accession and reign of, 45 _et seq._
+    --his death, 48.
+
+  Adrian IV., Pope, 289.
+
+  Africa, progress of the Saracens in, 166
+    --trading-company to, 452.
+
+  Agincourt, battle of, 381.
+
+  Agriculture, state of, in seventh century, 142.
+
+  Agrippina, the empress, 22.
+
+  Alans, the, 100.
+
+  Alaric the Goth, first appearance of, 98
+    --hostilities with, 101
+    --sack of Rome, 106
+    --his death and burial, 107.
+
+  Albigenses, tenets, &c. of the, 299
+    --the crusade against them, 302 _et seq._
+
+  Albinus, a candidate for the empire, 60.
+
+  Alboin, King of the Lombards, 129.
+
+  Alcuin at the court of Charlemagne, 194
+    --as Abbot of Tours, 195.
+
+  Aleppo taken by the Saracens, 163.
+
+  Alexander VI., character, &c. of, 389, 406.
+
+  Alexandria, the monks of, 115
+    --taken by the Saracens, and destruction of the library, 163.
+
+  Alexis, the emperor, and the Crusaders, 263.
+
+  Alfred, rise and exploits of, 215.
+
+  Ali becomes caliph, 167
+    --the exploits &c. of, 157, 158, 160.
+
+  Alva, the Duke of, the St. Bartholomew massacre planned with, 441
+    --his cruelties in the Netherlands, 441.
+
+  Amadis de Gaul, the romance of, 349.
+
+  America, the discovery of, 396
+    --growing importance of its discovery, 402
+    --progress of British power in, 517.
+
+  Amru, the Saracen conqueror, 163.
+
+  Anagni, the arrest of Boniface VIII. at, 329.
+
+  Anglican Church, the, under Henry II., 289 _et seq._
+
+  Anglo-Saxons, establishment of the, 120.
+
+  Anne, the literature of the reign of, 506.
+
+  Anselm, learning, &c. of, 247.
+
+  Antharis, conquest of Italy by, 130.
+
+  Antioch, the capture of, by the Crusaders, 264
+    --the battle of, 265.
+
+  Antoninus Pius, the emperor, his character and reign, 49.
+
+  Aquileia, siege of, by Maximin, 70
+    --taken by Attila, 110.
+
+  Aquitaine, power of the Dukes of, 204, 232.
+
+  Arcadius, the emperor, 101.
+
+  Architecture, advancement of, during the eleventh century, 242, 243.
+
+  Argentine, Sir Giles d', death of, 353.
+
+  Arians, enmity between, and the orthodox, 94
+    --quarrels between, and the Athanasians, 117.
+
+  Aristocracy, the Roman, their decay, 32 _et seq._
+
+  Aristotle, supremacy given to, 297.
+
+  Armagnac, the Count of, 364
+    --struggle between, and Burgundy, 377.
+
+  Armies, the modern, of Europe, 57.
+
+  Arnold of Brescia, the revolt of, 278
+    --his death, 279.
+
+  Arteveldt, James Van, 355.
+
+  Asia, stationary condition of, 14.
+
+  Asti, siege of, by Alaric, 105
+
+  Ataulf the Goth, career of, 108.
+
+  Athanasians, division between the, and the Arians, 117.
+
+  Attila the Hun, career of, 109 _et seq._
+
+  Augustin, influence of, on Luther, 424.
+
+  Augustus, the supremacy of, 17
+    --his reign, 18.
+
+  Aulus Plautius, landing of, in England, 21.
+
+  Aurelian, the emperor, 72
+    --his triumph, 79.
+
+  Austrasia, kingdom of, 155.
+
+  Austria, the power of, in the seventeenth century, 463
+    --the seven years' war, 512.
+
+  Auvergne, the Marquises of, 205.
+
+  Avars, junction of the Lombards with the, 129.
+
+  Avignon, acquired by the Pope, 306
+    --the residence of the Popes at, 342.
+
+  Azores, discovery of the, 395.
+
+
+  Bacon, Roger, gunpowder known to, 372.
+
+  Badby, John, martyrdom of, 367.
+
+  Bahuchet, a French admiral, 355.
+
+  Balbinus, appointment of, 69
+    --his death, 70.
+
+  Baldwyn, Count of Flanders, 263
+    --habits of, in the East, 270.
+
+  Baliol, maintained by Edward I., 319.
+
+  Ballads, influence of, on the common people, 372.
+
+  Bannockburn, the battle of, 352.
+
+  Barbarians, first appearance of the, 25
+    --their increased incursions, 51
+    --their continued progress, 71
+    --their increasing strength, 79 _et seq._
+
+  Barbavara, a Genoese admiral, 355.
+
+  Barcho-chebas, the rebellion of the Jews under, 47.
+
+  Bedford, the Duke of, in France, 384.
+
+  Belisarius, exploits of, 124
+    --disgraced, 125.
+
+  Bells, the invention of, 196.
+
+  Benedict. _See_ St. Benedict.
+
+  Benedict XI. poisoned, 331.
+
+  Benedictine monks, industry, &c. of the, 142.
+
+  Berenger, transubstantiation assailed by, 247.
+
+  Bernard de Goth, elevated to the papacy as Clement V., 331 _et seq._
+
+  Beziers, massacre of Albigenses in, 305.
+
+  Bible, Wickliff's translation of the, 342
+    --the first book printed by Guttenberg, 422.
+
+  Bishops, increasing alarm of the, in the ninth century, 205
+    --warlike, of the eleventh century, 251.
+
+  Black Hole of Calcutta, the tragedy of the, 515.
+
+  Blanche, mother of Louis IX., urges the persecution of the
+        Albigenses, 304.
+
+  Blenheim, the battle of, 500.
+
+  Boccaccio, the works of, 344.
+
+  Bohemund, the Crusader, 265.
+
+  Boniface VII., Pope, 236.
+
+  Boniface VIII., bull against Edward I. by, 315
+    --jubilee celebrated by, 325
+    --contest with Philip le Bel, 326 _et seq._
+    --his arrest, 329 _et seq._
+    --his death, 330.
+
+  Boniface, Archbishop of Mayence, 175.
+
+  Books, early value of, 372
+    --multiplied by printing, 373.
+
+  Borgia, elevation of, to the Papacy, 369.
+
+  Brantome, the memoirs of, 447.
+
+  Bribery, prevalence of, under Walpole, 505.
+
+  Brittany, power of the Dukes of, 204
+    --acquired by Rollo the Norman, 226.
+
+  Bruce, the victory of, at Bannockburn, 352.
+
+  Bruges, defeat of the townsmen of, at Cassel, 353.
+
+  Brunehild, cruelties and career of, 150
+    --her death, 150.
+
+  Brunissende de Perigord, mistress of Clement V., 332.
+
+  Buccaneers, rise of the, 452.
+
+  Burghers, increasing importance of the, 279.
+
+  Burgundians, conquest of Gaul by the, 108.
+
+  Burgundy, kingdom of, 155.
+
+  Busentino, burial of Alaric in the, 107.
+
+
+  Cade, the insurrection of, 374.
+
+  Cadijah, wife of Mohammed, 138.
+
+  Calais, taken by Edward III., 356.
+
+  Caligula, the character, &c. of, 19.
+
+  Caliphs, habits of the, 165.
+
+  Calvinists and Lutherans, hatred between, 460.
+
+  Cambrai, the league of, 409 _et seq._
+
+  Canada, the conquest of, by the British, 517.
+
+  Cannon, first employment of, 342.
+
+  Capetian line, commencement of the, 231.
+
+  Caracalla, character of, 62
+    --his accession and reign, 65.
+
+  Carausius, the revolt of, 75.
+
+  Carlovingian line, close of the, 231.
+
+  Carthage, subdued by the Saracens, 166.
+
+  Cassel, the battle of, 353.
+
+  Cassius, the rebellion of, 52.
+
+  Cathedrals, building of, during the eleventh century, 242.
+
+  Catherine de Medicis, the massacre of St. Bartholomew planned by,
+        441.
+
+  Catholicism, resemblances between, and Mohammedanism, 271.
+
+  Cavendish, the naval exploits of, 451.
+
+  Caxton, books printed by, 393.
+
+  Celibacy, priestly, neglect of, during the eleventh century, 252
+    --enforced by Hildebrand, 256.
+
+  Centuries, characters of different, 13, 15, _et seq._
+
+  Chaereas, assassination of Caligula by, 20.
+
+  Chalons, the battle of, 110.
+
+  Change, prevalence of, during eighteenth century, 491.
+
+  Charlemagne, accession and reign of, 186 _et seq._
+    --his conquests, 187
+    --crowned Emperor of the West, 188
+    --his era, 188 _et seq._
+    --his polity, &c., 189
+    --his court, &c., 193, 194 _et seq._
+    --his encouragement of literature, &c., 195 _et seq._
+    --his death, and disruption of his empire, 198, 201 _et seq._
+
+  Charles, son of Louis the Debonnaire, 201
+    --character and reign of, 206.
+
+  Charles the Simple and Rollo the Norman, 225, 226, 227.
+
+  Charles VI., decline of the French nobility under, 360 _et seq._
+    --death of, 384.
+
+  Charles VII., accession of, 384
+    --the Maid of Orleans, 386 _et seq._
+    --his desertion of her, 389.
+
+  Charles IX., the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 442.
+
+  Charles V., the emperor, extent of his dominions, 404
+    --and Luther, 427
+    --close of his career, 431, 432.
+
+  Charles I., unpopularity of, 465
+    --the execution of, 470.
+
+  Charles II., England under, 472 _et seq._
+
+  Charles II. of Spain, death of, and his will, 497.
+
+  Charles Edward, the rising under, 507.
+
+  Charles Martel, the defeat of the Saracens by, 176, 179, _et seq._
+
+  Chatham, the ministry of, 513.
+
+  Chaucer, the works of, 344.
+
+  Childeric III., the last of the Merovingians, 182.
+
+  Chivalry, rise of the orders of, 344
+    --principles inculcated by, 349.
+
+  Chosroes, King of Persia, 158.
+
+  Christ, the birth of and its influence, 17.
+
+  Christian Church, progressive development of the, 76
+    --its organization, 78
+    --corruption of the, 114
+    --divisions in it, 116
+    --persecutions, 118.
+
+  Christians, persecution of the, by Nero, 23
+    --policy of Adrian towards, 49.
+
+  Christianity, influence of, 17
+    --the first effects of, 36
+    --progress of, 55
+    --establishment of, by Constantine, 85
+    --commencing struggle of, with Mohammedanism, 141.
+
+  Church, the privileges conferred on, and its advantages, 145
+    --corruptions, 147, 148
+    --at variance with the nobility, 153
+    --its unity, 155
+    --state of, in England during eighth century, 172, 173
+    --monarchical principle established in the, 183
+    --effects of the Crusades on, 273
+    --increasing pretensions and power of, 206, 207
+    --possessions, &c. of, in France in the tenth century, 228
+    --resistance to it, 230
+    --policy of Hugh Capet, 231
+    --state of, during the tenth century, 219
+    --during the eleventh century, 253
+    --in England under Henry II., 292 _et seq._
+    --conditions of Magna Charta regarding, 308
+    --changed position of, 342
+    --state of, in the fifteenth century, 368 _et seq._
+    --before the Reformation, 419 _et seq._
+
+  Church of England, the, and its influence and tendencies, 457.
+
+  Churches, schism between the Eastern and Western, 133
+    --rebuilding, &c. of the, in the eleventh century, 242
+    --their objects, &c., 244 _et seq._
+
+  Churchmen, warlike, during the eleventh century, 251.
+
+  Citeaux, the Abbot of, 305.
+
+  Claudius, reign and character of, 20
+    --his death, 22.
+
+  Clement V., election of, 331, 332
+    --his rapacity, &c., 332
+    --the persecution of the Templars, 337 _et seq._
+
+  Clergy, the, privileges conferred on, 145
+    --corruption of the higher, 148
+    --increasing claims of, in the ninth century, 204 _et seq._
+    --claims of, in the tenth century, and resistance to them, 229
+    --policy of Hugh Capet, 232
+    --the higher character of, during the twelfth century, 274
+    --character of, in Provence, 300
+    --taxed in England by Edward I., 315
+    --support Henry IV. in England, 365
+    --the French at the time of the Revolution, 523.
+
+  Clive, the exploits of, 515.
+
+  Clotaire, overthrow of Brunehild by, 150.
+
+  Clothilde, anecdote of, 153.
+
+  Clovis, accession of, in France, 119
+    --the descendants of, 175
+    --set aside, 182.
+
+  Cobham, Lord, martyrdom of, 367.
+
+  Colonies, the first English and Dutch, 454.
+
+  Colonna, the arrest of Boniface VIII. by, 329.
+
+  Columbus, the career of, and his discovery of America, 395.
+
+  Commerce, progress of, in England under Elizabeth, 449 _et seq._
+
+  Commodus, accession and character of, 58 _et seq._
+
+  Commons, rise of the, in England, 306
+    --House of, first constituted in England, 311.
+
+  Conde, the Great, 478, 481.
+
+  Conrad, the emperor, heads the second Crusade, 284.
+
+  Conservatism, strength of, in England during eighteenth century, 494.
+
+  Constantine, accession of, and removal to Constantinople, 84
+    --his character, 85
+    --establishes Christianity, 85
+    --his system of government, 86
+    --nobility founded by him, 87
+    --his system of taxation, 89
+    --death, 92.
+
+  Constantinople, removal of the seat of empire to, 84
+    --subordination of the Bishop of, 125
+    --supremacy claimed for the Bishop of, 132, 133
+    --assailed by the Saracens, 166
+    --early subordination of the Popes to, 174
+    --pretensions of the emperors, 176, 177
+    --the Crusaders at, 262, 263
+    --diffusion of learning by capture of, 422.
+
+  Convents, state of the, during the tenth century, 221.
+
+  Coote, Sir Eyre, 516.
+
+  Cornelius and Novatian, the schism between, 78.
+
+  Council of Toledo, the, 151.
+
+  Count, origin of the title of, 88.
+
+  Courtrai, the battle of, 335.
+
+  Covenanters, persecutions of the, in Scotland, 473.
+
+  Crecy, battle of, 356.
+
+  Cromwell, the rise &c. of, 470
+    --England under, 471.
+
+  Crown, position of the, in England and France during the tenth
+        century, 230
+    --new position given to the, under Hugh Capet, 233 _et seq._
+    --its increasing power, 359 _et seq._
+
+  Crusades, first suggestion of the, 242
+    --the first, 260 _et seq._
+    --losses in it, and its effects on Europe, 269
+    --of children, 269
+    --the second, 284
+    --the third, 285
+    --influence of, on the distribution of wealth, &c., 272
+    --end of, 316.
+
+  Crusading spirit, first rise of the, 250
+
+  Cuba, the buccaneers at, 453.
+
+  Culloden, the battle of, 507, 509.
+
+  Cunimond, defeat and death of, 129.
+
+  Curials, the, under the Roman emperors, 90, 523.
+
+  Cyrene, conquest of, by the Saracens, 166.
+
+
+  Dagobert, King, 151.
+
+  Dance of Death, the, 374.
+
+  Danes, the invasions of the, 209, 210
+    --their invasions of England, 212 _et seq._
+    --their settlements, 214, 215
+    --continued incursions into England, 234.
+
+  Dante, the works of, 325, 344.
+
+  Democracy, early alliance of the Church with, 154.
+
+  Dettingen, the battle of, 502.
+
+  Diaz, Bartholomew, discovery of the Cape of Good Hope by, 395.
+
+  Didius, purchase of the empire by, 59
+    --his death, 60.
+
+  Diocletian, accession and reign of, 74
+    --abdicates, 76
+    --system introduced by him, 83.
+
+  Dominic, originates the crusade against the Albigenses, 301 _et seq._
+    --establishment of the Inquisition under, 304.
+
+  Domitian, the reign of, 28, 34.
+
+  Dorylaeum, the battle of, 264.
+
+  Drake, the expeditions of, 451.
+
+  Dress, distinctions from, among the Franks, 152.
+
+  Dudley, the informer, 404.
+
+  Duncan, the victories of, 525.
+
+  Dunois, bastard of Orleans, 387.
+
+  Dutch, the maritime settlements of the, 452.
+
+
+  East India Company, founding of the, 450.
+
+  Eastern Church, schism of the, 133.
+
+  Eastern empire, falling supremacy of the, 185.
+
+  Ecclesiastical power, decay of, in the thirteenth century, 313.
+
+  Edessa, the Crusaders at, 264.
+
+  Education, measures of Charlemagne for, 195.
+
+  Edward I., taxation of the clergy by, 315
+    --character of the reign of, 318
+    --his attempts on Scotland, 319 _et seq._
+
+  Edward II., the defeat of, at Bannockburn, 352.
+
+  Edward III., the Garter instituted by, 344
+    --policy of, his alliance with Flanders, &c., 354 _et seq._
+    --war with France, 355 _et seq._
+    --battles of Helvoet Sluys and Crecy, 355
+    --of Poictiers, 356.
+
+  Edward the Black Prince, his treatment of John, 349
+    --his character, 349
+    --his victory at Poictiers, 356.
+
+  Egbert, subjugation of the Heptarchy by, 193, 194.
+
+  Eginhart, the life of Charlemagne by, 195.
+
+  Egypt, surrender of Louis IX. in, 317.
+
+  Eleanor, wife of Louis VII., 286.
+
+  Elizabeth, policy of, with regard to the Reformation, 428
+    --the policy and measures of, and their results, 436 _et seq._
+    --the Armada, 444
+    --papal bull against, 448
+    --changes in England under, 449.
+
+  Elizabeth, daughter of James I., married to the Elector of Palatine,
+        462.
+
+  Ella, King of Northumberland, 214.
+
+  Eloisa, influence of, 282.
+
+  Empire of the West, restoration of, under Charlemagne, 188.
+
+  Empson, the creature of Henry VII., 404.
+
+  England, conquest of, by the Romans, and its effects, 21
+    --severance of, from the Roman Empire, 107
+    --formation of the Heptarchy in, 120
+    --state of, in the sixth century, 128
+    --divided state of, 155
+    --state of, in the eighth century, 171
+    --the Church and clergy, 172, 173
+    --union of, under Egbert, 193, 194
+    --state of, in the ninth century, 211 _et seq._
+    --the invasions of the Danes, 212
+    --its divided state, 213, 214
+    --settlements of the Danes, 215
+    --rise and career of Alfred, 215
+    --the Church and the Crown in, during the tenth century, 229
+    --state of, during the tenth century, 234
+    --origin of the wars with France, 285 _et seq._
+    --subservience to the papacy in, 289
+    --position of the Church, and feeling towards the Normans, 292
+    --state of, under John, 294
+    --rise of the Commons, &c. in, 306
+    --Magna Charta and its effects, 308 _et seq._
+    --reign of Henry III., 311
+    --supremacy of the papacy in, 314
+    --independence of the Church, 316
+    --the reign of Edward I. in, 318
+    --the battle of Bannockburn, 352
+    --the policy of Edward III., 354
+    --decline of the nobility in, 360
+    --divided state of, on accession of Henry IV., 365
+    --the ballads of, 372
+    --state of, during fifteenth century, 374
+    --loss of her French possessions, 376
+    --conquests of Henry V. in France, 378 _et seq._
+    --accession of Henry VIII., 404
+    --increasing commerce of, 413
+    --first idea of union with Scotland, 414
+    --battle of Flodden, 414
+    --the reformation in, 428
+    --the reign of Mary in, 433
+    --the policy of Elizabeth and its results, 436
+    --progress of, under Elizabeth, 450
+    --the colonization of America by, 454
+    --under James I., 455 _et seq._
+    --state of parties, &c. on accession of Charles I., 465 _et seq._
+    --political and religious parties, 466
+    --the great rebellion, 468
+    --the reaction against Puritanism in, 472
+    --under Charles II., 472
+    --its degraded position, 473
+    --ingress of French Protestants into, 484
+    --reign of James II., 484
+    --William III., 486
+    --state, &c. of, during eighteenth century, 493
+    --state of, under the Georges, 494
+    --is she a military nation? 496
+    --the war of the succession, 498 _et seq._
+    --the peace of Utrecht, 502
+    --the ministry of Walpole, &c., 505
+    --the Pretender in, 509
+    --supports Frederick the Great, 512
+    --the rise of her Indian empire, 514 _et seq._
+    --the revolt of the United States, 518 _et seq._
+    --her progress, 520, 521
+    --her revolution and freedom contrasted with those of France, 525.
+
+  Episcopacy, James's attempt to force, on Scotland, 464.
+
+  Ethelbald, the reign of, 214.
+
+  Ethelwolf, the reign of, 214.
+
+  Etiquette, supremacy of, under Louis XIV., 481.
+
+  Eugene, Prince, 501.
+
+  Eugenius III., Pope, 279.
+
+  Eunapius, character of the early monks by, 115.
+
+  Europe, modern, compared with ancient Rome, 56 _et seq._
+    --state of, in the seventh century, 167
+    --in the eighth, 171
+    --rise of the modern kingdoms of, 190
+    --state of, during the tenth century, 219
+    --effects of the first Crusade on, 269
+    --progressive advances of, 297
+    --state of, during fifteenth century, 375
+    --changed aspect of, in sixteenth century, 431
+    --sensation caused by massacre of St. Bartholomew, 442
+    --changes in, during eighteenth century, 491, 492
+    --the seven years' war, 512.
+
+
+  Famines, frequency of, during the tenth century, 236.
+
+  Faust and the mention of printing, 391.
+
+  Favorinus the Grammarian, anecdote of, 46.
+
+  Ferdinand of Spain, a party to the league of Cambrai, 409
+    --declares war against France, 412.
+
+  Ferdinand, the emperor, character and policy of, 462.
+
+  Ferdinand and Isabella, union of Spain under, 403.
+
+  Feudal organization, long retention of, in Scotland, 415.
+
+  Feudal system, origin of the, 149.
+
+  Feudalism, progress of, in the ninth century, 210
+    --full establishment of, 279
+    --decay of, 333, 341
+    --continued decline of, 359.
+
+  Fields of May or March in France, the, 151.
+
+  Fine arts, encouragement of, by Charlemagne, 196.
+
+  Flagellants, tenets, &c. of the, 374.
+
+  Flanders, power of the Dukes of, 232
+    --rise of the towns of, 277
+    --the alliance of Edward III. with, 354.
+
+  Flodden, battle of, and its effects, 414, 415, _et seq._
+
+  Fontenelle, the abbey of, 244.
+
+  Fontenoy, the battle of, 502.
+
+  France, accession of Clovis in, 119
+    --accession of Pepin to crown of, 183
+    --position of, under Charlemagne, 198
+    --loses the boundary of the Rhine, 203
+    --power of the great nobles, 204
+    --state of, during the tenth century, 219
+    --settlement of Rollo in, 222 _et seq._
+    --possessions of the clergy in, 228
+    --accession of Hugh Capet, 231
+    --his policy, 232 _et seq._
+    --its separation from the empire, 233
+    --monasteries in, 244
+    --origin of the English wars, 285 _et seq._
+    --the kings of, contrasted with the Plantagenets, 288
+    --acquisitions of, in Languedoc, &c., 305
+    --reign of Louis IX. in, 311 _et seq._
+    --the parliaments of, 312
+    --supremacy of the papacy in, 314
+    --degeneracy of the clergy, 315
+    --independence of the church, 316
+    --subserviency of the Popes to, 342
+    --title of King of, assumed by Edward III., 355
+    --depressed state of, at close of fourteenth century, 356
+    --decline, of the nobility in, 360
+    --state of, during fifteenth century, 374, 375
+    --expulsion of the English from, 376
+    --its history during the century, 376
+    --career of Joan of Arc, 386
+    --accession of Francis I., 405
+    --a party to the league of Cambrai, 409
+    --the massacre of St. Bartholomew in, 442
+    --changes witnessed by Brantome in, 448
+    --rise of absolutism under Louis XIV. in, 475 et seq.
+    --policy of Richelieu and reign of Louis XIII., 476 _et seq._
+    --the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 483
+    --changes in, during eighteenth century, 491
+    --contests in India and America with, 513
+    --the policy and overthrow of, in India, 514 _et seq._
+    --depression and discontent before the Revolution, 517
+    --aids the North American colonies, 519
+    --causes of the Revolution, 522
+    --general discontent, 523
+    --the Revolution, 524 _et seq._
+
+  Francis I., accession and character of, 405
+    --death of, 431.
+
+  Franks, tribes composing the, 71
+    --state of the, in the sixth century, 128
+    --institutions, &c. of the, 151
+    --divisions of their kingdom, 155.
+
+  Frederick the Great, the career of, 512.
+
+  Frederick, Elector Palatine, marriage of, to Elizabeth of England,
+        462.
+
+  Frederick Barbarossa, capture, &c. of Rome by, 279.
+
+  Free lances, the rise, &c. of the, 350 _et seq._
+
+  Freedom, rise of, in England, 306 _et seq._
+
+  French ballads, the early, 372.
+
+  French Revolution, the, 524 _et seq._
+
+  Fritigern, defeat of Valens by, 100.
+
+  Froissart, the writings of, and their influence, 347.
+
+  Fronde, the wars of the, 478.
+
+
+  Galba, the emperor, 24.
+
+  Garter, institution of order of, 344.
+
+  Gaul, severance of, from the Roman empire, 108.
+
+  Gebhard, Elector of Cologne, 460.
+
+  Genoa, prosperity of, during the Crusades, 272
+    --greatness of, 277.
+
+  Genseric, sack of Rome by, 111.
+
+  George I. and II., characters of, 494.
+
+  George III., loyalty to, in England, 494
+    --the alleged loss of the United States by his obstinacy, 518.
+
+  Georges, England under the, 494.
+
+  Germans, defeat of the, by Probus, 73.
+
+  Germany, state of, in the sixth century, 128
+    --divided state of, 155
+    --separation between France and the Empire, and reign of Otho the
+        Great, 234
+    --progress, &c. of the Reformation in, 460
+    --ingress of French Huguenots into, 484.
+
+  Geta, murder of, 65.
+
+  Gibraltar, cession of, to England, 501.
+
+  Gladiatorial shows, passion of the Romans for, 34 _et seq._
+
+  Glo'ster, the Duke of, uncle of Henry VI., 384.
+
+  Godfrey of Bouillon, 263
+    --chosen King of Jerusalem, 266
+    --his death, 270.
+
+  Good Hope, Cape of, discovered, 395.
+
+  Gordian, appointed emperor, 69
+    --his reign, 70
+    --his death, 72.
+
+  Goths, first appearance of the, 98
+    --admitted within the empire, 99.
+
+  Gothia, the Marquises of, 205.
+
+  Granada, loss of, by the Moors, 403.
+
+  Great Britain, the union of, 502, _See_ England.
+
+  Great Rebellion, origin and history of the, 467 _et seq._
+
+  Greek fire, the, 166.
+
+  Gregory the Great, Pope, 133.
+
+  Gregory VII., (Hildebrand,) career, &c. of, 249 _et seq._,
+        255 _et seq._ _See_ Hildebrand.
+
+  Gregory IX., persecution of the Albigenses under, 305.
+
+  Guienne, how acquired by England, 286.
+
+  Guinegate, the battle of, 418.
+
+  Gunpowder, influence of discovery of, 342.
+
+  Guthrum, alliance of, with Alfred, 215.
+
+  Guttenberg, the invention of printing by, 390
+    --printing of the Bible by, 422.
+
+
+  Hadrian. _See_ Adrian.
+
+  Hair, distinction from the, among the Franks, 152.
+
+  Harfleur, siege of, by Henry V., 378.
+
+  Harold of the Fair Hair, the reign of, 213.
+
+  Hastings the Dane, defeated by Alfred, 216
+    --enters the service of France, 224.
+
+  Heathenism, Julian's attempt to restore, 95 _et seq._
+
+  Hegira, the, 157.
+
+  Helena, the mother of Constantine, 86.
+
+  Heliogabalus, the reign of, 66.
+
+  Helvoet Sluys, battle of, 355.
+
+  Henrietta Maria, unpopularity of, 466.
+
+  Henry I., acquisition of Normandy by, 285.
+
+  Henry II., claims of, on France, 286
+    --character of, 288
+    --and A-Beckett, 289 _et seq._
+    --his death, 294.
+
+  Henry III., reign of, in England, 311.
+
+  Henry IV., divided state of England under, 365.
+
+  Henry V., persecution of the Lollards under, 365, 366
+    --invasion of France by, 377
+    --captures Harfleur, 378
+    --battle of Agincourt, 381
+    --his death, 384.
+
+  Henry VI. recognised as King of France, 384.
+
+  Henry VII., character, &c. of, 371
+    --treasure accumulated by, and how, 404.
+
+  Henry VIII., accession and character of, 404
+    --declares war against France, 412
+    --triumphs of, in 1513, 418
+    --controversy of, with Luther, 426
+    --throws off the papal supremacy, 430
+    --death of, 431.
+
+  Henry III. of France, the murder of, 448.
+
+  Henry, the emperor, 237.
+
+  Henry IV. of Germany, attacks of Hildebrand on, 256
+    --the struggle between them, 257 _et seq._
+    --the death of, 260.
+
+  Heptarchy, the, 120
+    --subjugation of the, by Egbert, 193, 194.
+
+  Heraclius, Emperor of the East, 158.
+
+  Heresies, various, of the thirteenth century, 298.
+
+  Heretics, first crusade against the, 302 _et seq._
+    --first law against, in England, 365.
+
+  Highlanders, the, in the Forty-Five, 510.
+
+  Hildebrand, the career, &c. of, 249 et seq., 255 _et seq._
+    --his struggle with the emperor, 257 _et seq._
+    --his death, 259.
+
+  Hippo subdued by the Saracens, 166.
+
+  Hira subjugated by the Mohammedans, 162.
+
+  History, uses of, and difficulties of studying it from its extent,
+        11.
+
+  Holland, increasing commerce of, 412
+    --the colonies of, 454.
+
+  Holy Land, the first Crusade to the, 262
+    --and last, 317.
+
+  Honorius, the emperor, 101
+    --besieged by Alaric, 105
+    --murders Stilicho, 106.
+
+  Hugh Capet, accession of, to the French throne, 231
+    --his policy, 232.
+
+  Hugh the Great, Count of Vermandois, 263.
+
+  Huguenots, the, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 483.
+
+  Huns, first appearance of the, 99.
+
+  Huss, the martyrdom of, 367.
+
+
+  Iconoclast emperor, the, 185.
+
+  Images, defence, &c. of, 185 _et seq._
+
+  Immaculate conception, dogma of the, 283.
+
+  India, Vasco da Gama's voyage to, 401
+    --effect of the new route to, on Venice, 412
+    --rise of the British power in, 491, 514 _et seq._
+
+  Indulgences, protest of Luther against, 425.
+
+  Innocent III., originates the crusade against the Albigenses,
+        302 _et seq._
+    --excommunication of John by, 307, 310.
+
+  Innovation, general tendency to, during eighteenth century,
+        493 _et seq._
+
+  Inquiry, commencement of, with Scotus Erigena, 207
+    --rise of, with the Crusades, 280.
+
+  Inquisition, the, established under Dominic, 304.
+
+  Intellect, direction of, in the present century, 13.
+
+  Invention, the present century distinguished by, 13.
+
+  Investiture, claims of Hildebrand regarding, 257 _et seq._
+
+  Irish Church, the early, its state, &c., 156.
+
+  Isabella, queen of Charles VI., profligacy of, 362.
+
+  Italy, ravaged by Attila, 110
+    --irruption of the Lombards into, 129
+    --state of, in seventh century, 141
+    --divided state of, 155
+    --state of, during the tenth Century, 235
+    --conquests of the Normans in, 254
+    --rise of the republics of, 277
+    --state of, before the Reformation, 420.
+
+
+  Jacobite songs, the, 510.
+
+  Jacques de Molay, death of, 339.
+
+  James I., England under, 455
+    --influence of his character, &c., 458
+    --his conduct towards the Elector Palatine, 464
+    --his attempt to introduce Episcopacy into Scotland, 464.
+
+  James II., persecution of the Covenanters by, 473
+    --accession of, in England, and his dethronement, 485
+    --death of, 498.
+
+  James III., the rebellion in favour of, 503.
+
+  James IV. of Scotland married to Margaret of England, 414
+    --the battle of Flodden, 416.
+
+  Jamestown, the first English settlement in America, 454.
+
+  Jerome, the martyrdom of, 367.
+
+  Jerusalem, importance given by Christianity to, 17
+    --the capture and destruction of, 30 _et seq._
+    --named AElia Capitolina by Adrian, 47
+    --taken by the Saracens, 162
+    --commencement of pilgrimage to, 260
+    --the capture of, by the Crusaders, 266
+    --the kingdom of, 266.
+
+  Jervis, the victories of, 525.
+
+  Jesuits, institution and influence of the, 435.
+
+  Jews, the dispersion of the, 30 _et seq._
+    --their rebellion against Adrian, 46
+    --crusade against the, 251
+    --spoliation of, by Philip le Bel, 333.
+
+  Joan of Arc, history of, 386 _et seq._
+    --her death, 390.
+
+  John, (of England,) character of, 288
+    --state of England under, 294
+    --excommunication, &c. of, 307
+    --signs Magna Charta, 308
+    --his attempt to evade the charter, 310.
+
+  John, (of France,) the treatment of, by Edward the Black Prince, 349
+    --his capture at Poictiers and ransom, 356.
+
+  John XII., Pope, 236.
+
+  John, Duke of Burgundy, 361
+    --murders Louis of Orleans, 362
+    --assumes the regency, 363
+    --rule of, in France, 376.
+
+  John, Bishop of Constantinople, supremacy claimed by, 133.
+
+  Jovian, the emperor, 97.
+
+  Jubilee, the, in 1300, 325.
+
+  Julian the Apostate, reign and character of, 93 _et seq._
+
+  Julius II., character of, 408
+    --acquisitions from Venice, 410
+    --declares war against France, &c., 410
+    --impression made on Luther by, 424.
+
+  Justinian, efforts of, to recover Italy, 124
+    --internal government of, 134
+    --his law-reforms, 135 _et seq._
+    --re-introduction of code of, 297.
+
+
+  Khaled, the lieutenant of Mohammed, 158
+    --his exploits, 162
+    --and death, 163.
+
+  Kieff, the kingdom of, 213.
+
+  Kilmich, murder of Alboin by, 130.
+
+  Kingdoms, modern, rise of, 190.
+
+  Klodwig or Clovis, accession of, in France, 119. _See_ Clovis.
+
+  Knight, position, &c. of the, 334, 335.
+
+  Knighthood, decay of, 333, 341.
+
+
+  Lally, Count, the execution of, 516.
+
+  Land, grants of, and system these originate, 149.
+
+  Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, 247
+    --defends transubstantiation, 247.
+
+  Languedoc, the Albigenses in, 299
+    --extirpation of the Albigenses in, 304
+    --peace of, 305.
+
+  Laud, Archbishop, 467
+    --execution of, 468.
+
+  Law, the reform of, by Justinian, 135.
+
+  Laws, great increase of, in Rome, 67.
+
+  Lea, defeat of the Danes at the, 216.
+
+  Learning, advancement of, during the eleventh century, 246 _et seq._
+
+  Leo the Iconoclast, 185.
+
+  Leo, Pope, Rome saved from Attila by, 110.
+
+  Leo X., character of, 407
+    --influence of, on the Reformation, 425.
+
+  Leuds or Feudatories, the, 149
+    --their struggle with the crown, 150 _et seq._
+
+  Libraries, early, 372.
+
+  Liege, massacre at, by John the Fearless, 363.
+
+  Literature, revival of, with Dante, &c., 344
+    --the modern, of England, 345
+    --slow diffusion of, before printing, 372
+    --French, under Louis XIV., 481
+    --English, during the eighteenth century, 506.
+
+  Lombards, or Longobards, irruption of the, 129 _et seq._
+    --character and polity of the, 131 _et seq._
+
+  Long Parliament, the, 468.
+
+  Lothaire, son of Louis the Debonnaire, 201, 202, 203
+    --emperor, 204.
+
+  Louis, origin of name of, 120.
+
+  Louis the Debonnaire, reign of, 200.
+
+  Louis, son of Louis the Debonnaire, 201.
+
+  Louis VII. heads the second Crusade, 284
+    --divorces his wife, 286.
+
+  Louis VIII., crusade against the Albigenses under, 304.
+
+  Louis IX., crusade against the Albigenses under, 304
+    --character and reign of, 311 _et seq._
+    --seventh Crusade under, 317
+    --prisoner and ransomed, 317
+    --his death, 318.
+
+  Louis XI., first despotic King of France, 371.
+
+  Louis XII., a party to the league of Cambrai, 409
+    --war with the Pope, 411
+    --expelled from Italy, 412.
+
+  Louis XIII., reign of, in France, 476.
+
+  Louis XIV., accession of, 469
+    --rise of, as the absolute King, 475 _et seq._
+    --the accession, policy, and reign of, 479
+    --private life of, 482
+    --the revocation or the Edict of Nantes, 483
+    --his reception, &c. of James II., 485, 486
+    --his successes in war, 486
+    --peace of Ryswick, 487
+    --the war of the Succession, 489 _et seq._
+    --the peace of Utrecht, 502.
+
+  Louis XVI., the execution of, 524.
+
+  Louis of Orleans, struggle of, with John of Burgundy, 361
+    --his murder, 362.
+
+  Lower classes, how regarded by the Crusaders, 271.
+
+  Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, 406
+    --character of, and institution of the Jesuits by, 434.
+
+  Luitprand, King of Lombardy, 182, 183.
+
+  Luther, early life of, 406
+    --the rise and career of, 423 _et seq._
+    --death of, 431.
+
+  Lutherans and Calvinists, hatred between, 460.
+
+  Luxembourg, the marshal, 481
+    --the victories of, 486.
+
+
+  Macrinus, the emperor, 66.
+
+  Magdeburg, the sack of, 466.
+
+  Magna Charta, effects of, 306, 308
+    --its conditions, 308 _et seq._
+
+  Magyars, first appearance of the, 99.
+
+  Mahomet. _See_ Mohammed.
+
+  Maid of Norway, the, 319.
+
+  Maintenon, Madame de, married to Louis XIV., 482.
+
+  Marcus Aurelius, accession and reign of, 50 _et seq._
+
+  Marlborough, the victories of, 499 _et seq._
+
+  Martin V., Pope, 368.
+
+  Mary, the reign of, in England, 433.
+
+  Mary of Scotland, policy of Elizabeth toward, 437 _et seq._
+    --defence of her execution, 439, 443.
+
+  Mary de Medicis, position of, in France, 475.
+
+  Matilda, the countess, 255, 258.
+
+  Maximilian, the emperor, a party to the league of Cambrai, 409
+    --hostilities with the Pope, 411
+    --proposed as his successor, 411
+    --turns against the French, 412
+    --in the pay of Henry VIII., 418
+    --and Luther, 426.
+
+  Maximian, the emperor, 75
+    --abdicates, 76.
+
+  Maximin, the accession and reign of, 68.
+
+  Maximus, appointment of, 69
+    --his death, 70.
+
+  Mayors of the palace, origin of the, 150
+    --powers, &c. of the, 176.
+
+  Mazarin, the cardinal, the policy, &c. of, 478
+    --his death, 479.
+
+  Mecca, capture of, by Mohammed, 158.
+
+  Mediterranean, supremacy of Rome over the, 56
+    --diminished importance of the, 413.
+
+  Meroveg, King of the Franks, 110.
+
+  Messalina, the empress, 20
+    --her death, 22.
+
+  Mexico, conquest of, by the Spaniards, 404.
+
+  Michelet, picture of France in the ninth century by, 208.
+
+  Middle Ages, commencement of the, 131.
+
+  Middle class, destruction of the, under the Roman emperors, 90.
+
+  Milan, sack of, by the Franks, &c., 124.
+
+  Military spirit, strength of the, in England, 496.
+
+  Military strength, the, of ancient Rome and modern Europe,
+        56 _et seq._
+
+  Minorca ceded to England, 502.
+
+  Mirandola, Julius II. at siege of, 410.
+
+  Mohammed, birth and career of, 138
+    --death of, 159
+    --his successors, 159 _et seq._
+
+  Mohammedanism, commencing struggle of, with Christianity, 141
+    --progress of, 157 _et seq._
+    --first arrested by battle of Tours, 179
+    --resemblances between, and Catholicism, 271.
+
+  Monarchical principle, restoration of the, with Pepin, 183.
+
+  Monasteries, influence of, on agriculture, 143
+    --their intelligence, &c., 146
+    --commencement of corruption, 147
+    --the early English, 173
+    --reformation of, by St. Benedict, 200
+    --state of the, during the tenth century, 221
+    --number of, in France, 244
+    --dissolution of the, in England, 430.
+
+  Monks, the early, 115
+    --industry, &c. of, 142 _et seq._
+    --the early English, 172, 173
+    --gluttony, &c. of the, 274
+    --degeneracy of in the thirteenth century, 314.
+
+  Moors, final loss of Spain by the, 403.
+
+  Municipalities, rise of the 277
+    --their growing importance, 279.
+
+  Murder, fines for, among the Franks, 152.
+
+  Music, encouragement of, by Charlemagne, 197.
+
+
+  Nantes, edict of, its revocation, 483.
+
+  Napoleon, the rise, &c. of, 525.
+
+  Narses, exploits of, in Italy, 127.
+
+  National debt, the English, its growth, 493.
+
+  Navareta, the battle of, 351.
+
+  Navies of Modern Europe, the, 57 _et seq._
+
+  Nelson, the victories of, 525.
+
+  Netherlands, Alva's cruelties in the, 441.
+
+  Nero, character and reign of, 22.
+
+  Nerva, the emperor, 42, 44.
+
+  Neustria, kingdom of, 155.
+
+  Nice, the Council of, 92.
+
+  Nicea taken by the Crusaders, 264.
+
+  Nicene creed, the, 92.
+
+  Nicholas Breakspear becomes pope, 289.
+
+  Niger, a candidate for the empire, 60.
+
+  Nobility, new, originated by Constantine, 87
+    --collision between, and the Church, 153
+    --policy of Hugh Capet towards the, 232
+    --effects of the Crusades on the, 276
+    --conditions of Magna Charta regarding the, 308
+    --decline of the, 359 _et seq._
+    --policy of Richelieu against the, 476 _et seq._
+    --the French, at the time of the Revolution, 523.
+
+  Nogaret, Chancellor of France, 329.
+
+  Nominalists, rise of the, 248.
+
+  Normans, the conquest of England by the, 253
+    --feeling against the, in England, 292.
+
+  Norman kings, character of the, 288.
+
+  Normandy, settlement of the Normans in, 222 _et seq._
+    --power of the dukes, 232.
+
+  Norsemen, Charlemagne's prescience regarding the, 197
+    --progress of the, in the ninth century, 208
+    --their invasions of England, 212 _et seq._
+    --results of the settlements of the, in France, 219
+    --settlement under Rollo, 222 _et seq._
+
+  North America, the English colonization of, 454.
+
+  Novellae of Justinian, the, 136.
+
+  Novatian and Cornelius, the schism between, 78.
+
+  Novgorod, the kingdom of, 213.
+
+  Nunneries, reformation of, by St. Benedict, 200
+    --of the twelfth century, the, 283.
+
+
+  Odoacer, King of Italy, 111
+    --overthrow of, 118.
+
+  Omar, the lieutenant of Mohammed, 158, 160
+    --chosen caliph, 162
+    --destruction of the Alexandrian library, 164
+    --his habits, 163, 165.
+
+  Orleans, the siege of, 385
+    --relieved by Joan of Arc, 387 _et seq._
+
+  Ostrogoths, overthrow of the, in Italy, 127.
+
+  Otho, the emperor, 24.
+
+  Otho the Great, the emperor, 234.
+
+
+  Padua, destroyed by Attila, 110.
+
+  Palos, the return of Columbus to, 397.
+
+  Palestine, eagerness for news from, during the Crusades, 275.
+
+  Pandects of Justinian, the, 136.
+
+  Pantheism, form of, in the thirteenth century, 298.
+
+  Papacy, the, state of, during the tenth century, 220, 235
+    --supremacy of, under Hildebrand, 250 _et seq._
+    --general subjection to, 289
+    --triumphs of, in the thirteenth century, 314
+    --diminished consideration of, 325
+    --struggle of Philip the Handsome with, 326 _et seq._
+    --the schism in, 342
+    --state of, in the fifteenth century, 369.
+
+  Papal supremacy, the, abjured by England, 430.
+
+  Paper, first manufacture of, from rags, 392.
+
+  Paris, state of, under John the Fearless, 364
+    --the massacre of St. Bartholomew in, 442.
+
+  Parliament, first summoned in England, 313
+    --concessions wrung from Edward I. by, 320.
+
+  Parliaments, the French, what, 312.
+
+  Party libels, prevalence of, under Walpole, 505.
+
+  Passau, the treaty of, 431.
+
+  Peasantry, the, insurrection of, during fourteenth century, 356
+    --state of, during fifteenth century, 374 _et seq._
+    --the French, before the Revolution, 521.
+
+  People, state of the, under the early emperors, 34 _et seq._
+    --conditions of Magna Charta regarding the, 309.
+
+  Pepin, accession of, 182
+    --crowned king, 183.
+
+  Persia, new monarchy of, 71
+    --subdued by the Mohammedans, 165.
+
+  Pertinax, accession and murder of, 59.
+
+  Pestilence, frequency of, during the tenth century, 236.
+
+  Peter the Hermit, preaches the first Crusade, 262.
+
+  Peterborough, Lord, the victories of, in Spain, 501.
+
+  Petrarch, the works of, 344, 346.
+
+  Philip, the emperor, 72.
+
+  Philip I. of France, attacks of Hildebrand on, 256.
+
+  Philip le Bel, struggle of, with Boniface VIII., 326 _et seq._
+    --arrests the latter, 329 _et seq._
+    --poisons Benedict XI., 331
+    --secures election of Bernard de Goth, 331
+    --the persecution of the Templars, 337 _et seq._
+
+  Philip VI., war with Edward III., 355.
+
+  Philip II., accession of, 432
+    --the Spanish Armada, 444.
+
+  Philip of Valois, the victory of, at Cassel, 353.
+
+  Philip Augustus, conquest of the English possessions by, 305.
+
+  Pinkie, the battle of, 415.
+
+  Pitt, (Lord Chatham,) the ministry of, 513.
+
+  Plague of Florence, the, 356.
+
+  Plantagenets, character of the, 288.
+
+  Plassey, the battle of, 513, 516.
+
+  Pococke, Admiral, exploits of, in the East, 516.
+
+  Poictiers, the battle of, 356.
+
+  Poitou, how acquired by England, 286.
+
+  Poland, the partition of, 492.
+
+  Polemo, a philosopher, anecdote of, 50.
+
+  Pompeia Plotina, wife of Trajan, 45.
+
+  Pondicherry, the capture of, by the English, 516.
+
+  Poor, relations of the Church to the, 274.
+
+  Pope, the claims to supremacy of, 132 _et seq._
+    --efforts of the early English monks on behalf of, 172, 173
+    --his position in the eighth century, 174, 175
+    --alliance, &c. between Charles Martel and, 182
+    --crowns Pepin, 183
+    --supremacy of, after Hildebrand, 259
+    --the revolt of Arnold of Brescia against, 278
+    --his supremacy denied by the Albigenses, 299
+    --position, &c. of, before the Reformation, 420.
+
+  Popes, the, the claims of supremacy by, 148
+    --increasing supremacy of, 133
+    --increasing pretensions of, 186, 190
+    --subservience of, to France, 342
+    --the rival, 342.
+
+  Popular assemblies, early, 151.
+
+  Portugal, maritime discoveries of, 395
+    --increasing naval power of, 412.
+
+  Praetorian Guards, sale of the empire by the, 59.
+
+  Printing, influences of, 14
+    --discovery of, and its effects, 373, 391
+    --growing importance of discovery of, 402.
+
+  Probus, the emperor, 72
+    --his conquests and policy, 73.
+
+  Protestantism, influence of, 402
+    --establishment of, by treaty of Passau, 431
+    --established in England under Elizabeth, 436 _et seq._
+
+  Protestants, the, expelled from France, 484.
+
+  Provencal dialect, disappearance of the, 304.
+
+  Prussia, rise of, during eighteenth century, 491, 492
+    --the seven years' war, 512.
+
+  Puritanism, origin, &c. of, in England, 456 _et seq._, 464
+    --growing tendency to, 466.
+
+
+  Quebec, the battle of, 513.
+
+
+  Raleigh, the naval exploits of, 452.
+
+  Ravenna, the Exarch of, 137
+    --the exarchate of, 177
+    --transferred to the Pope, 183.
+
+  Raymond of Toulouse, the leader of the Albigenses, 299.
+
+  Raymond VII., Count of Toulouse, 303
+    --deprived of his possessions, 306.
+
+  Realists, rise of the, 248.
+
+  Rebellion of 1715, the, 504
+    --and of 1745, 507.
+
+  Reformation, influences of the, 14
+    --supreme importance of, 419
+    --state of the Church before it, 419 _et seq._
+    --the rise of the, 422 _et seq._
+
+  Regner Lodbrog, 214.
+
+  Relics, the system of, 262
+    --passion for, during the Crusades, 276.
+
+  Religion, state of, during the tenth century, 219
+    --in the thirteenth century, 298
+    --before the reformation, 422.
+
+  Republics, the Italian, rise of, 277.
+
+  Revolution of 1688, the, 485.
+
+  Rheims, coronation of Charles VII. at, 388.
+
+  Richard Coeur de Lion, character of, 288
+    --heads the third Crusade, 285.
+
+  Richelieu, Cardinal, 449
+    --the policy of, and its results, 476 _et seq._
+    --the death of, 468.
+
+  Robert of Normandy, the Crusader, 263
+    --loss of Normandy by, 285
+    --a prisoner in England, 286.
+
+  Robert, son of Hugh Capet, 237.
+
+  Robert Guiscard, conquests of, in Italy, 254
+    --sack of Rome by, 258.
+
+  Rochelle, the capture of, from the Huguenots, 476, 477.
+
+  Rois faineants, the 175, 176.
+
+  Rollo, settlement of, in Normandy, 222 _et seq._
+    --created Duke of Normandy, 225 _et seq._
+
+  Romans, the conquest of England by, and its effects, 21
+    --passion of, for gladiatorial shows, 34.
+
+  Roman empire, first broken in on by the barbarians, 51
+    --its extent and forces, 56
+    --compared with modern Europe, 57 _et seq._
+    --divided into East and West, 97.
+
+  Roman law, reintroduction of, in Europe, 297.
+
+  Rome, the supremacy of, the characteristic of the first century, 16
+    --power of the emperor, 20
+    --state of, during the first century, 35
+    --increasing weakness of, 79 _et seq._
+    --removal of the seat of empire from, 84
+    --the sack of, by Alaric, 106
+    --sacked by the Vandals, 111
+    --causes of her fall, 111 _et seq._
+    --recovered by Belisarius, 124
+    --taken, &c. by Totila, 125
+    --supremacy of the Bishop of, 126 _et seq._
+    --fallen state of, in the sixth century, 133
+    --the Bishops of, claim supremacy, 148
+    --influence of the unity of, 184
+    --state of during the tenth century, 235
+    --sack of, by the Normans, 258
+    --the Crusaders at, 262
+    --Arnold of Brescia in, 278
+    --jubilee at, 1300, 325
+    --state of, before the Reformation, 420
+    --Luther at, 424.
+
+  Romish Church, influence of the Jesuits on, 434 _et seq._
+    --rejoicings of, on massacre of St. Bartholomew, 442.
+
+  Romulus Augustulus, the emperor, 111.
+
+  Rosamund, wife of Alboin, 129.
+
+  Roses, the wars of the, 393
+    --effect of, on the nobility, 360.
+
+  Rouen, occupied by the Normans, 222
+    --execution of Joan of Arc at, 390.
+
+  Royal power, general consolidation of, in the fifteenth century, 370.
+
+  Russia, the Danes in, 213
+    --rise of, during eighteenth century, 491, 492
+    --the seven years' war, 512.
+
+
+  St. Bartholomew, the massacre of, 442
+    --its effects, 442.
+
+  St. Benedict, industry, &c. inculcated by, 142, 143
+    --the second, 200.
+
+  St. Bernard on the luxury, &c. of the clergy, 274
+    --discussions of, with Abelard, 281
+    --the second Crusade originated by, 284.
+
+  St. Boniface, coronation of Pepin by, 183.
+
+  St. Columba, and Brunehild, 150.
+
+  St. Dominic. _See_ Dominic.
+
+  St. Francis of Assisi, 315.
+
+  St. Louis. _See_ Louis IX.
+
+  St. Remi, Clovis baptized by, 119.
+
+  Sapor, the capture of Valerian by, 72
+    --death of Julian in war with, 96.
+
+  Saracens, the, the conquests of, 162 _et seq._
+    --their defeat by Charles Martel, 176, 179 _et seq._
+    --in Spain, 246
+    --crusade against, in Italy, 251
+    --in Palestine, 270, 271.
+
+  Sarmatians, the, 71.
+
+  Sassanides, dynasty of, 71.
+
+  Saxons, feeling of the, towards the Normans in England, 292.
+
+  Saxony, the Elector of, and Luther, 426, 428.
+
+  Scholastic philosophy, rise of the, 247.
+
+  Schools, establishment of, under Charlemagne, 195.
+
+  Scotland, state of, in the eighth century, 171, 172
+    --resistance to the papacy in, 314
+    --Edward I.'s attempt on, 319 _et seq._
+    --the battle of Bannockburn, 352
+    --the ballads of, 372
+    --effects of battle of Flodden in, 414, 418
+    --its subsequent state, 415 _et seq._
+    --the policy of Elizabeth in, 437 _et seq._
+    --James's attempt to force Episcopacy on, 464
+    --persecution of the Covenanters in, 473
+    --the Union Act, 502
+    --the rebellion of 1715, 504
+    --and of 1745, 507.
+
+  Scotus Erigena, career, &c. of, 207.
+
+  Septimania, power of the Dukes of, 204.
+
+  Serfs, conditions of Magna Charta regarding the, 309.
+
+  Seven years' war, the, 512.
+
+  Severus, Alexander, accession and reign of, 67.
+
+  Severus, Septimius, accession and reign of, 60 _et seq._
+
+  Sicily, conquest of, by the Normans, 255.
+
+  Simon de Montfort, the crusade against the Albigenses under, 302
+    --his death, 303.
+
+  Simon de Montfort, summoning of parliament by, 313.
+
+  Sixtus V., approval of the murder of Henry III. by, 448.
+
+  Slaves, state of the, under the Romans, 35, 90.
+
+  Smalcalde, the Protestant league of, 429.
+
+  Society, state of, under James I., 455.
+
+  Solway Moss, the battle of, 414.
+
+  South Sea bubble, the, 505.
+
+  Spain, severance of, from the Roman empire, 108
+    --the Saracens in, 246
+    --threatened predominance of, in sixteenth century, 402
+    --its increasing importance, 403
+    --increasing naval power of, 412
+    --consolidation of, in the sixteenth century, 413
+    --continued hostilities with, at sea, 451
+    --the attacks of the buccaneers on her colonies, &c., 452.
+
+  Spanish Armada, the, and its defeat, 444.
+
+  Spanish Succession, the war of the, 498 _et seq._
+
+  Spurs, the battle of the, at Courtrai, 336
+    --at Guinegate, 418.
+
+  Staupitz, connection of, with Luther, 423.
+
+  Stephen, the wars of, in England, 292.
+
+  Stilicho, opposed to Alaric, 101, 105
+    --his murder, 106.
+
+  Strafford, execution of, 468.
+
+  Succession, the war of the, 498 _et seq._
+
+  Sulpician, a candidate for the empire, 59.
+
+  Supino, betrayal of Anagni by, 328.
+
+  Surenus, minister of Trajan, 45.
+
+  Surrey, the Earl of, at Flodden, 416.
+
+  Switzerland, ingress of French Protestants into, 484.
+
+  Sylvester II., Pope, 238, 242
+    --his character, &c., 246.
+
+  Syria, progress of Mohammedanism in, 158, 161.
+
+
+  Talbot, raises the siege of Orleans, 387.
+
+  Tancho, the invention of bells by, 196.
+
+  Taxes, system of collecting, under Constantine, 89.
+
+  Taylor, Rowland, the martyr, 433.
+
+  Tchuda, check of the Saracens at, 166.
+
+  Templars, the destruction of the, 337 _et seq._
+    --the charges against them, 340.
+
+  Tetzel, the sale of indulgences by, 425.
+
+  Theodora, wife of Justinian, 134.
+
+  Theodoric the Goth, at the battle of Chalons, 110.
+
+  Theodoric, the reign of, 119
+    --his supremacy, 123
+    --his death, 123.
+
+  Theodosius, the emperor, 101.
+
+  Tiberius, the reign of, 18
+    --his character, 19.
+
+  Tilly, the sack of Magdeburg by, 466.
+
+  Timbuctoo, expedition by Englishmen to, 452.
+
+  Tinchebray, the battle of, 286.
+
+  Titus, the reign of, 28
+    --the siege and capture of Jerusalem, 30 _et seq._
+
+  Torstenson, the victories of, 468.
+
+  Totila, King of the Goths, 125, 127.
+
+  Toulouse, the Marquises of, 205
+    --power of the Dukes of, 232
+    --the Albigenses in, 299.
+
+  Tours, the battle of, 179 _et seq._
+
+  Towns, effect of the Crusades on the, 273, 277
+    --increasing power of the, in the fourteenth century, 334.
+
+  Trajan, the accession and reign of, 42, 44 _et seq._
+
+  Transubstantiation, doctrine of, 247.
+
+  Trebonian, the Justinian code drawn up by, 136.
+
+  Tripoli, conquered by the Saracens, 167.
+
+  Troubadours, attacks on the clergy by the, 300.
+
+  Truce of God, the, 238.
+
+  Tunis, crusade of Louis IX. against, 318.
+
+  Turenne, the victories of, 478, 481.
+
+
+  Union Act, passing of the, 502.
+
+  United States, the revolt of the, 518 _et seq._
+
+  Universal church, belief in a, before the Reformation, 419.
+
+  Urban II. and the first Crusaders, 262.
+
+  Utrecht, thy peace of, 502.
+
+
+  Valens, the emperor, 97
+    --his defeat and death, 100.
+
+  Valentinian, the emperor, 97.
+
+  Valerian, the emperor, 72.
+
+  Vandals, conquest of Africa by the, 108
+    --sack of Rome by the, 111
+    --overthrow of the, by Belisarius, 124.
+
+  Vasco da Gama, the discovery of the route to India by, 401.
+
+  Venaissin, acquisition of, by the Pope, 306.
+
+  Venice, rise of, 277
+    --power, &c. of, 407
+    --attacked by Julius II., 408
+    --league of Cambrai, 409
+    --decay of the power of, 412.
+
+  Verona destroyed by Attila, 110.
+
+  Versailles, Louis XIV. at, 481
+    --its cost, 483
+    --the peace of, 520.
+
+  Vespasian, accession of, 24.
+
+  Vicenza, taken by Attila, 110.
+
+  Vidius Pollio, anecdote of, 36.
+
+  Vikinger, the, 208.
+
+  Virginia, settlement of, by the English, 454.
+
+  Visigoths, settlements of the, in Spain, &c., 128.
+
+  Vitellius, the emperor, 24.
+
+
+  Wales, early state of, 171, 172.
+
+  Wallace, the victories, &c. of, 320.
+
+  Walpole, Sir R., the ministry of, 505.
+
+  Wartburg, seclusion of Luther at, 428.
+
+  Wealth, influence of the Crusades on, 272.
+
+  Wellington, the victories of, in India, 525.
+
+  Wenilon, Bishop of Sens, 206.
+
+  Wentworth, execution of, 468.
+
+  Western Church, severance of the Eastern from, 133.
+
+  Wickliff, his translation of the Bible, 342.
+
+  Wickliffites, persecution of the, 365.
+
+  William of Normandy, churches, &c. erected by, 244
+    --the conquest of England by, 253
+    --character of, 288.
+
+  William Rufus, character of, 288.
+
+  William III., accession of, in England, 485
+    --his reign, 486
+    --the death of, 499.
+
+  Winchester, the Bishop of, 384.
+
+  Winifried, the monk, 175.
+
+  Witig, King of the Ostrogoths, 124
+    --his overthrow, 125.
+
+  Wittenagemot, the, 151.
+
+  Wolfe, the conquest of Canada by, 517.
+
+  Woman, increased respect paid to, 283.
+
+  Worms, the Diet of, Luther before, 427.
+
+
+  Yeomanry, rise of, in England, 431.
+
+  Yezdegird, King of Persia, 162, 165.
+
+
+  Zorndorf, the battle of, 513.
+
+
+
+
+                               THE END.
+
+
+
+
+"_A great and noble work, rich in information, eloquent and scholarly
+in style, earnestly devout in feeling._"--LONDON LITERARY WORLD.
+
+                     D. APPLETON & CO., NEW YORK,
+
+                          HAVE JUST PUBLISHED
+
+                     The Life and Words of Christ.
+
+                     _By CUNNINGHAM GEIKIE, D.D._
+
+
+With Twelve Engravings on Steel. In 2 vols. Price, $8.00.
+
+
+                _From Dr. DELITZSCH, the Commentator._
+
+  "A work of gigantic industry, noble in outward form, of the highest
+  rank in its contents, and, what is the chief point, it breathes the
+  spirit of true faith in Christ. I have read enough of it to rejoice
+  at such a magnificent creation, and especially to wonder at the
+  extent of reading it shows. When I shall have occasion to revise my
+  Hebrew New Testament, I hope to get much help from it."
+
+
+                  _From Bishop BECKWITH, of Georgia._
+
+  "The book is of value not merely to the theological student or
+  student of history, but the family. It furnishes information which
+  every one should possess, and which thoughtful people will be glad to
+  gain from so agreeable a teacher."
+
+
+                         _From Dr. JOHN HALL._
+
+  "The author has aimed at producing book of continuous, easy
+  narrative, in which the reader may, as far as possible, see the
+  Saviour of men live and move, and may hear the words he utters with
+  the most vivid attainable idea of his circumstances and surroundings.
+  The result is a work to which all Christian hearts will respond."
+
+
+               _From Bishop LITTLEJOHN, of Long Island._
+
+  "Dr. Geikie has performed his task--the most difficult in
+  biographical literature--with great ability. His pages evince
+  abundant and accurate learning, and, what is of even more
+  consequence, a simple and cordial faith in the Gospel narratives.
+  The more the work shall circulate, the more it will be regarded as a
+  most valuable addition to a branch of sacred literature which ought
+  in every age to absorb the best fruits of sacred scholarship, and to
+  command the highest gifts of human genius."
+
+
+  _From Rev. Dr. ADAMS, President of the Union Theological Seminary._
+
+  "Another invaluable contribution in proof of historical Christianity.
+  It is a beautiful specimen of typography, and we anticipate for it an
+  extensive circulation, to which it is entitled for its substantial
+  worth, its erudition, its brilliant style, and its fervent devotion."
+
+
+_From the Rev. W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., S.T.P., Edinburgh, Member of
+the Old Testament Company of Revision, Editor of Kitto's "Cyclopaedia of
+Biblical Literature," etc._
+
+  "Dr. Geikie's work is the result of much thought, research, and
+  learning, and it is adorned with many literary excellences. It cannot
+  fail to become a standard, for its merits are substantial, and its
+  utility great."
+
+                      _From the Rev. Dr. CURRY._
+
+  "A careful examination of Dr. Geikie's work seems to prove, what
+  might before have been doubted, that just such a work was needed to
+  meet a real want; it successfully indicates its own right to be, by
+  responding to the necessity that it discovers."
+
+
+                Dr. Geikie's Life and Words of Christ.
+
+                        OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
+
+
+  "These fresh volumes are marked throughout by a humane and devout
+  spirit. The work is sure to make for itself a place in popular
+  literature."--_New York Times._
+
+
+  "In Dr. Geikie's volumes the person and works of Christ receive the
+  chief attention, of course; but the background is so faithfully and
+  vividly drawn, that the reader is given a fresher idea of the central
+  figure."--_New York Independent._
+
+
+  "A monument of industry and a mine of learning. The students of our
+  theological colleges, ministers, and others, will find much of the
+  information here given of great worth and novelty."--_Nonconformist._
+
+
+  "Dr. Geikie's paraphrases are generally most excellent commentaries.
+
+  "An encyclopaedia upon the life and times of Jesus Christ, but an
+  encyclopaedia which has an organic unity, pulsating with a true and
+  devout spirituality of thought and feeling."--_London Christian
+  World._
+
+
+  "His style is always clear, rising sometimes into majestic beauty.
+  His most steady point of view is the relation of Christ to the
+  elevation of the race, and he struggles to make clear the amazing
+  richness of Christ's new things--the profound character of his
+  philosophy, and the practical humanity that wells up out of these
+  great deeps."--_New York Methodist._
+
+
+  "The 'Life of Christ' may be fitly compared to a diamond with many
+  facets. From every point of view, the light that streams forth upon
+  us is beneficent. No two observers will probable ever catch precisely
+  the same ray, but, for all who look with unclouded eye (whatever
+  their angle of vision may be), there shines forth 'the light of the
+  glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' Without disparaging in any
+  sense the noble labors of his predecessors, we think Dr. Geikie has
+  caught a new ray from the 'Mountain of Light,' and has added a new
+  page to our Christology which many will delight to read."--_New York
+  Evangelist._
+
+
+  "The chief merit of Dr. Geikie's volumes lies in the attention paid
+  to the surroundings of our Saviour's earthly life; so that the
+  reader is presented with a picture of the Jewish people, national
+  characteristics, social customs, and religious belief and ritual.
+
+  "It is with reluctance that we take leave of these splendid volumes,
+  for it is an enjoyment to examine and a pleasant duty and privilege
+  to commend them. We feel sure we could desire no more valuable and
+  useful addition to Christian libraries."--_Episcopal Recorder_
+  (Philadelphia).
+
+
+  "If any one desires a reliable and intelligent guide in the study
+  of the Gospel history, he cannot, we think, do better than take the
+  graphic pages of Dr. Geikie. The American edition is got up most
+  elegantly; the binding is very handsome, the paper good, the type
+  large and clear; the engravings and maps are excellent. They are,
+  indeed, two beautiful volumes."--_Evangelical Churchman_ (Toronto).
+
+
+  "Of all that has been written hitherto on that life, nothing seems
+  to us to equal in beauty that which we find in the two magnificent
+  volumes before us. They bring to view the social conditions in which
+  Jesus made his appearance. They give us a vivid portraiture of those
+  who were about him--both the friends and the enemies--the parties,
+  the customs, the influences that prevailed."--_Episcopal Register_
+  (Philadelphia).
+
+
+                                   _D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers,_
+                                          549 & 551 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. Inconsistent
+  spelling and hyphenation in the original document have been
+  preserved. Sidenotes have been enclosed in brackets and moved
+  to the beginning of the respective sentence.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's The Eighteen Christian Centuries, by James White
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EIGHTEEN CHRISTIAN CENTURIES ***
+
+***** This file should be named 44703.txt or 44703.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/7/0/44703/
+
+Produced by Charlene Taylor, Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe,
+Norbert Mueller and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from
+images generously made available by the Digital & Multimedia
+Center, Michigan State University Libraries.)
+
+
+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
+  www.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 1.F.3.  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 MERCHANTABILITY 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 are 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 information page at www.gutenberg.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.  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
+contact links and up to date contact information can be found at the
+Foundation's web site and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact
+
+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 www.gutenberg.org/donate
+
+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 checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:  www.gutenberg.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 forty 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:
+
+     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.
diff --git a/old/44703.zip b/old/44703.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b17e808
--- /dev/null
+++ b/old/44703.zip