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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. 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