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Hallam 

History  of  Europe  during  the 

middle  ages 

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History  of  Europe  during  the 
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TIMOTHY  DWIGHI  D.D.  LLD. 
RICHARD  HENRY5TODDARD 
AOTHVR  RICHMOND  MARSH,  AB. 
PAVLVAN  DYKE.D.D. 
ALBERT  ELLERY  BERCH 

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CLARENCE  COOK  ••  ART  EDITOR. 


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CHOICE   EXAMPLES   OF  BOOK   ILLUMINATION. 

Fac-siiniks    Irom  Illunihuited  Manuscripts  und   Illustrated   Books 
of  Early  Date. 


K-rAtiR    OF  AN  ARAIUC  MA 

I  hit,  plait-  KS  re-produced  from  the  small  folio  edition  of  tho  Hayatu  "l-Ilaiwart 
1   D.imiri,  wrutrn  and  illummntod,  probably  in  Cairn  about  A, I).  T4cx>. 


HISTORY  OF  EUROPE 

DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


WITH  A  SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION  BY 
ARTHUR   RICHMOND   MARSH,   A.B, 

PROFESSOR    OF    COMPARATIVE    LITERATURE 
AT  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 


REVISED  EDITION 


VOLUME  III 


3. 

I 


HENRY  HALLAM 


COPYRIGHT,  1899, 
BY  THE  COLONIAL  PRESS. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PACING  PAGE 

TITLE-PAGE  OF  AN  ARABIC  MANUSCRIPT    . 
Fac-simile  Llluimnation  of  the  Fourteenth  Century 


WlUIBLM  AND  LUDWIC,   DUKES  OF  BAVARIA         .  .     48 

Fuc-simile  of  Vimting  and  Engraving  in  the  Sixteenth  Century 


BOOK  IX. 
SOCIETY  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


BOOK    IX 

ON  THE  STATE  OF  SOCIETY  IN  EUROPE   DUR- 
ING THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

PART   I. 

Introduction — Decline  of  Literature  in  the  latter  Period  of  the  Roman 
Empire — Its  Causes — Corruption  of  the  Latin  Language — Means  by 
which  it  was  effected — Formation  of  new  Languages — General  Ig- 
norance of  the  Dark  Ages — Scarcity  of  Books — Causes  that  pre- 
vented the  total  Extinction  of  Learning — Prevalence  of  Superstition 
and  Fanaticism — General  Corruption  of  Religion — Monasteries — 
Their  Effect  s-^Pilgrimages — Love  of  Field  Sports — State  of  Agricult- 
ure— of  Internal  and  Foreign  Trade  down  to  the  End  of  the  Elev- 
enth Century — Improvement  of  Europe  dated  from  that  Age. 

It  has  been  the  object  of  every  preceding  chapter  of  this 
work,  either  to  trace  the  civil  revolutions  of  states  during  the 
period  of  the  middle  ages,  or  to  investigate,  with  rather  more 
minute  attention,  their  political  institutions.^  There  remains 
a  large  tract  to  be  explored,  if  we  would  complete  the  circle 
of  historical  information,  and  give  to  our  knowledge  that  co- 
piousness and  clear  perception  which  arise  from  comprehend- 
ing a  subject  under  numerous  relations.  The  philosophy  of 
history  embraces  far  more  than  the  wars  and  treaties,  the  fac- 
tions and  cabals  of  common  political  narration ;  it  extends 
to  whatever  illustrates  the  character  of  the  human  species  in 
a  particular  period,  to  their  reasonings  and  sentiments,  their 
arts  and  industry.  Nor  is  this  comprehensive  survey  merely 
interesting  to  the  speculative  philosopher ;  without  it  the  states- 
man would  form  very  erroneous  estimates  of  events,  and  find 
himself  constantly  misled  in  any  analogical  application  of  them 
to  present  circumstances.  Nor  is  it  an  uncommon  source  of 

a  The  subject  of  the  present  chapter.  Literature  in  the  Fifteenth,  Sixteenth, 
so  far  as  it  relates  to  the  condition  of  and  Seventeenth  Centuries.  Some 
literature  in  the  middle  ages,  has  been  things  will  be  found  in  it  more  exactly 
ai*ain  treated  by  me  in  the  first  and  stated,  others  newly  supplied  from  re- 
second  chapters  of  a  work,  published  in  cent  sources. 
1836,  the  Introduction  to  the  History  of 


4  HALLAM 

error  to  neglect  the  general  signs  of  the  times,  and  to  deduce 
a  prognostic  from  some  partial  coincidence  with  past  events, 
where  a  more  enlarged  comparison  of  all  the  fact  that  ought 
to  enter  into  the  combination  would  destroy  the  whole  parallel. 
The  philosophical  student,  however,  will  not  follow  the  anti- 
quary into  his  minute  details;  and  though  it  is  hard  to  say 
what  may  not  supply  matter  for  a  reflecting  mind,  there  is 
always  some  danger  of  losing  sight  of  grand  objecjts  in  histor- 
ical disquisition,  by  too  laborious  a  research  into  trifles.  I 
may  possibly  be  thought  to  furnish,  in  some  instances,  an  ex- 
ample of  the  error  I  condemn.  But  in  the  choice  and  disposi- 
tion of  topics  to  which  the  present  chapter  relates,  some  have 
been  omitted  on  account  of  their  comparative  insignificance, 
and  others  on  account  of  their  want  of  connection  with  the 
leading  subject.  Even  of  those  treated  I  can  only  undertake 
to  give  a  transient  view ;  and  must  bespeak  the  reader's  candor 
to  remember  that  passages  which,  separately  taken,  may  often 
appear  superficial,  are  but  parts  of  the  context  of  a  single 
chapter,  as  the  chapter  itself  is  of  an  entire  work. 

The  Middle  Ages,  according  to  the  division  I  have  adopted, 
comprise  about  one  thousand  years,  from  the  invasion  of 
France  by  Clovis  to  that  of  Naples  by  Charles  VIII.  This 
period,  considered  as  to  the  state  of  society,  has  been  esteemed 
dark  through  ignorance,  and  barbarous  through  poverty  and 
want  of  refinement.  And  although  this  character  is  much  less 
applicable  to  the  last  two  centuries  of  the  period  than  to  those 
which  preceded  its  commencement,  yet  we  cannot  expect  to 
feel,  in  respect  of  ages  at  best  imperfectly  civilized  and  slowly 
progressive,  that  interest  which  attends  a  more  perfect  develop- 
ment of  human  capacities,  and  more  brilliant  advances  in  im- 
provement. The  first  moiety  indeed  of  these  ten  ages  is  almost 
absolutely  barren,  and  presents  little  but  a  catalogue  of  evils. 
The  subversion  of  the  Roman  empire,  and  devastation  of  its 
provinces,  by  barbarous  nations,  either  immediately  preceded, 
or  were  coincident  with  the  commencement  of  the  middle  pe- 
riod. We  begin  in  darkness  and  calamity;  and  though  the 
shadows  grow  fainter  as  we  advance,  yet  we  are  to  break  off 
our  pursuit  as  the  morning  breathes  upon  us,  and  the  twilight 
reddens  into  the  lustre  of  day. 

No  circumstance  is  so  prominent  on  the  first  survey  of  so- 
ciety during  the  earlier  centuries  of  this  period  as  the  depth 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  5 

of  ignorance  in  which  it  was  immersed ;  and  as  from  this,  more 
than  any  single  cause,  the  moral  and  social  evils  which  those 
ages  experienced  appear  to  have  been  derived  and  perpetuated, 
it  deserves  to  occupy  the  first  place  in  the  arrangement  of 
our  present  subject.  We  must  not  altogether  ascribe  the  ruin 
of  literature  to  the  barbarian  destroyers  of  the  Roman  empire. 
So  gradual,  and,  apparently,  so  irretrievable  a  decay  had  long 
before  spread  over  all  liberal  studies,  that  it  is  impossible  to 
pronounce  whether  they  would  not  have  been  almost  equally 
extinguished  if  the  august  throne  of  the  Caesars  had  been  left 
to  moulder  by  its  intrinsic  weakness.  Under  the  paternal  sov- 
ereignty of  Marcus  Aurelius  the  approaching  declension  of 
learning  might  be  scarcely  perceptible  to  an  incurious  observer. 
There  was  much  indeed  to  distinguish  his  times  from  those  of 
Augustus ;  much  lost  in  originality  of  genius,  in  correctness 
of  taste,  in  the  masterly  conception  and  consummate  finish  ot 
art,  in  purity  of  the  Latin,  and  even  of  the  Greek  language. 
But  there  were  men  who  made  the  age  famous,  grave  lawyers, 
judicious  historians,  wise  philosophers ;  the  name  of  learning 
was  honorable,  its  professors  were  encouraged ;  and  along  the 
vast  surface  of  the  Roman  empire  there  was  perhaps  a  greater 
number  whose  minds  were  cultivated  by  intellectual  disci- 
pline than  under  the  more  brilliant  reign  of  the  first  emperor. 
It  is  not,  I  think,  very  easy  to  give  a  perfectly  satisfactory 
solution  of  the  rapid  downfall  of  literature  between  the  ages 
of  Antonine  and  of  Diocletian.  Perhaps  the  prosperous  con- 
dition of  the  empire  from  Trajan  to  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  the 
patronage  which  those  good  princes  bestowed  on  letters,  gave 
an  artificial  health  to  them  for  a  moment,  and  suspended  the 
operation  of  a  disease  which  had  already  begun  to  undermine 
their  vigor.  Perhaps  the  intellectual  energies  of  mankind  can 
never  remain  stationary ;  and  a  nation  that  ceases  to  produce 
original  and  inventive  minds,  born  to  advance  the  landmarks 
of  knowledge  or  skill,  will  recede  from  step  to  step,  till  it  loses 
even  the  secondary  merits  of  imitation  and  industry.  During 
the  third  century,  not  only  there  were  no  great  writers,  but 
even  few  names  of  indifferent  writers  have  been  recovered  by 
the  diligence  of  modern  inquiry .&  Law  neglected,  philosophy 

b  The  authors  of  Histoire  Litteraire  de  authority;    two  of  whom  are  now  lost- 
la  France,  t.  i.,  can  only  find  three  writ-  In  the  preceding  century  the  number 
ers  of  Gaul,  no  inconsiderable  part  of  was  considerably  greater, 
the  Roman  Empire,  mentioned  upon  any 


6  HALLAM 

perverted  till  it  became  contemptible,  history  nearly  silent,  the 
Latin  tongue  growing  rapidly  barbarous,  poetry  rarely  and 
feebly  attempted,  art  more  and  more  vitiated ;  such  were  the 
symptoms  by  which  the  age  previous  to  Constantine  announced 
the  decline  of  the  human  intellect.  If  we  cannot  fully  account 
for  this  unhappy  change,  as  I  have  observed,  we  must,  however, 
assign  much  weight  to  the  degradation  of  Rome  and  Italy  in 
the  system  of  Severus  and  his  successors,  to  the  admission  of 
barbarians  into  the  military  and  even  civil  dignities  of  the 
empire,  to  the  discouraging  influence  of  provincial  and  illit- 
erate sovereigns,  and  to  the  calamities  which  followed  for  half 
a  century  the  first  invasion  of  the  Goths  and  the  defeat  of 
Decius.  To  this  sickly  condition  of  literature  the  fourth  cen- 
tury supplied  no  permanent  remedy.  If  under  the  house  of 
Constantine  the  Roman  world  suffered  rather  less  from  civil 
warfare  or  barbarous  invasions  than  in  the  preceding  age,  yet 
every  other  cause  of  decline  just  enumerated  prevailed  with 
aggravated  force ;  and  the  fourth  century  set  in  storms,  suffi- 
ciently destructive  in  themselves,  and  ominous  of  those  calam- 
ities which  humbled  the  majesty  of  Rome  at  the  commence- 
ment of  the  ensuing  period,  and  overwhelmed  the  Western 
Empire  in  absolute  and  final  ruin  before  its  termination. 

The  diffusion  of  literature  is  perfectly  distinguishable  from 
its  advancement ;  and  whatever  obscurity  we  may  find  in  ex- 
plaining the  variations  of  the  one,  there  are  a  few  simple  causes 
which  seem  to  account  for  the  other.  Knowledge  will  be  spread 
over  the  surface  of  a  nation  in  proportion  to  the  facilities  of 
education ;  to  the  free  circulation  of  books ;  to  the  emoluments 
and  distinctions  which  literary  attainments  are  found  to  pro- 
duce; and  still  more  to  the  reward  which  they  meet  in  the 
general  respect  and  applause  of  society.  This  cheering  incite- 
ment, the  genial  sunshine  of  approbation,  has  at  all  times  pro- 
moted the  cultivation  of  literature  in  small  republics  rather  than 
large  empires,  and  in  cities  compared  with  the  country.  If 
these  are  the  sources  which  nourish  literature,  we  should  nat- 
urally expect  that  they  must  have  become  scanty  or  dry  when 
learning  languishes  or  expires.  Accordingly,  in  the  later  ages 
of  the  Roman  empire  a  general  indifference  towards  the  culti- 
vation of  letters  became  the  characteristic  of  its  inhabitants. 
Laws  were  indeed  enacted  by  Constantine,  Julian,  Theodosius, 
and  other  emperors,  for  the  encouragement  of  learned  men 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  7 

and  the  promotion  of  liberal  education.  But  these  laws,  which 
would  not  perhaps  have  been  thought  necessary  in  better  times, 
were  unavailing  to  counteract  the  lethargy  of  ignorance  in 
which  even  the  native  citizens  of  the  empire  were  contented 
to  repose.  This  alienation  of  men  from  their  national  literature 
may  doubtless  be  imputed  in  some  measure  to  its  own  de- 
merits. A  jargon  of  mystical  philosophy,  half  fanaticism  and 
half  imposture,  a  barren  and  inflated  eloquence,  a  frivolous 
philology,  were  not  among  those  charms  of  wisdom  by  which 
man  is  to  be  diverted  from  pleasure  or  aroused  from  indolence. 

In  this  temper  of  the  public  mind  there  was  little  probabil- 
ity that  new  compositions  of  excellence  would  be  produced, 
and  much  doubt  whether  the  old  would  be  preserved.  Since 
the  invention  of  printing,  the  absolute  extinction  of  any  con- 
siderable work  seems  a  danger  too  improbable  for  apprehen- 
sion. The  press  pours  forth  in  a  few  days  a  thousand  vol- 
umes, which,  scattered  like  seeds  in  the  air  over  the  republic 
of  Europe,  could  hardly  be  destroyed  without  the  extirpation 
of  its  inhabitants.  But  in  the  times  of  antiquity  manuscripts 
were  copied  with  cost,  labor,  and  delay;  and  if  the  diffusion 
of  knowledge  be  measured  by  the  multiplication  of  books,  no 
unfair  standard,  the  most  golden  ages  of  ancient  learning  could 
never  bear  the  least  comparison  with  the  last  three  centuries. 
The  destruction  of  a  few  libraries  by  accidental  fire,  the  deso- 
lation of  a  few  provinces  by  unsparing  and  illiterate  barba- 
rians, might  annihilate  every  vestige  of  an  author,  or  leave  a 
few  scattered  copies,  which,  from  the  public  indifference,  there 
was  no  inducement  to  multiply,  exposed  to  similar  casualties 
in  succeeding  times. 

We  are  warranted  by  good  authorities  to  assign  as  a  col- 
lateral cause  of  this  irretrievable  revolution  the  neglect  of 
heathen  literature  by  the  Christian  church.  I  am  not  versed 
enough  in  ecclesiastical  writers  to  estimate  the  degree  of  this 
neglect ;  nor  am  I  disposed  to  deny  that  the  mischief  was  be- 
yond recovery  before  the  accession  of  Constantine.  From 
the  primitive  ages,  however,  it  seems  that  a  dislike  of  pagan 
learning  was  pretty  general  among  Christians.  Many  of  the 
fathers  undoubtedly  were  accomplished  in  liberal  studies,  and 
we  are  indebted  to  them  for  valuable  fragments  of  authors 
whom  we  have  lost.  But  the  literary  character  of  the  church 
is  not  to  be  measured  by  that  of  its  more  illustrious  leaders. 


8  HALLAM 

Proscribed  and  persecuted,  the  early  Christians  had  not  per- 
haps access  to  the  public  schools,  nor  inclination  to  studies 
which  seemed,  very  excusably,  uncongenial  to  the  character 
of  their  profession.  Their  prejudices,  however,  survived  the 
establishment  of  Christianity.  The  fourth  council  of  Carthage 
in  398  prohibited  the  reading  of  secular  books  by  bishops. 
Jerome  plainly  condemns  the  study  of  them  except  for  pious 
ends.  All  physical  science  especially  was  held  in  avowed  con- 
tempt, as  inconsistent  with  revealed  truths.  Nor  do  there 
appear  to  have  been  any  canons  made  in  favor  of  learning, 
or  any  restriction  on  the  ordination  of  persons  absolutely  il- 
literates There  was  indeed  abundance  of  what  is  called  theo- 
logical learning  displayed  in  the  controversies  of  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries ;  and  those  who  admire  such  disputations 
may  consider  the  principal  champions  in  them  as  contributing 
to  the  glory,  or  at  least  retarding  the  decline,  of  literature.  But 
I  believe  rather  that  polemical  disputes  will  be  found  not  only 
to  corrupt  the  genuine  spirit  of  religion,  but  to  degrade  and 
contract  the  faculties.  What  keenness  and  subtlety  these  may 
sometimes  acquire  by  such  exercise  is  more  like  that  worldly 
shrewdness  we  see  in  men  whose  trade  it  is  to  outwit  their 
neighbors  than  the  clear  and  calm  discrimination  of  philos- 
ophy. However  this  may  be,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the 
controversies  agitated  in  the  church  during  these  two  centuries 
must  have  diverted  studious  minds  from  profane  literature,  and 
narrowed  more  and  more  the  circle  of  that  knowledge  which 
they  were  desirous  to  attain. 

The  torrent  of  irrational  superstitions  which  carried  all  be- 
fore it  in  the  fifth  century,  and  the  progress  of  ascetic  enthu- 
siasm, had  an  influence  still  more  decidedly  inimical  to  learning. 
I  cannot  indeed  conceive  any  state  of  society  more  adverse 
to  the  intellectual  improvement  of  mankind  than  one  which 
admitted  of  no  middle  line  between  gross  dissoluteness  and 
fanatical  mortification. 

An  equable  tone  of  public  morals,  social  and  humane, 
verging  neither  to  voluptuousness  nor  austerity,  seems  the 
most  adapted  to  genius,  or  at  least  to  letters,  as  it  is  to  indi- 
vidual comfort  and  national  prosperity.  After  the  introduc- 

cMosheim,   Cent.  4.    Tiraboschi   en-  ops  3n  the  general  councils  of  Ephe- 

deavors  to  elevate  higher  the  learning  of  sus  and  Chalcedon  could  not  write  their 

the  early  Christians,  t.  ii.  p.  328.    Jortin,  names.     Remarks  on  Ecclesiast,     Hist, 

however,  asserts  that  many  of  the  bish-  vol.  ii.  p.  417, 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  9 

tion  of  monkery  and  its  unsocial  theory  of  duties,  the  serious 
and  reflecting  part  of  mankind,  on  whom  science  most  relies, 
were  turned  to  habits  which,  in  the  most  favorable  view,  could 
not  quicken  the  intellectual  energies ;  and  it  might  be  a  diffi- 
cult question  whether  the  cultivators  and  admirers  of  useful 
literature  were  less  likely  to  be  found  among  the  profligate 
citizens  of  Rome  and  their  barbarian  conquerors  or  the  melan- 
choly recluses  of  the  wilderness. 

Such  therefore  was  the  state  of  learning  before  the  subver- 
sion of  the  Western  Empire.  And  we  may  form  some  notion 
how  little  probability  there  was  of  its  producing  any  excel- 
lent fruits,  even  if  that  revolution  had  never  occurred,  by  con- 
sidering what  took  place  in  Greece  during  the  subsequent  ages ; 
where,  although  there  was  some  attention  shown  to  preserve 
the  best  monuments  of  antiquity,  and  diligence  in  compiling 
from  them,  yet  no  one  original  writer  of  any  superior  merit 
arose,  and  learning,  though  plunged  but  for  a  short  period 
into  mere  darkness,  may  be  said  to  have  languished  in  a  middle 
region  of  twilight  for  the  greater  part  of  a  thousand  years. 

But  not  to  delay  ourselves  in  this  speculation,  the  final  settle- 
ment of  barbarous  nations  in  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Italy  consum- 
mated the  ruin  of  literature.  Their  first  irruptions  were  uni- 
formly attended  with  devastation ;  and  if  some  of  the  Gothic 
kings,  after  their  establishment,  proved  humane  and  civilized 
sovereigns,  yet  the  nation  gloried  in  its  original  rudeness,  and 
viewed  with  no  unreasonable  disdain  arts  which  had  neither 
preserved  their  cultivators  from  corruption  nor  raised  them 
from  servitude.  Theodoric,  the  most  famous  of  the  Ostrogoth 
kings  in  Italy,  could  not  write  his  name,  and  is  said  to  have 
restrained  his  countrymen  from  attending  those  schools  of 
learning  by  which  he,  or  rather  perhaps  his  minister  Cassio- 
dorus,  endeavored  to  revive  the  studies  of  his  Italian  subjects. 
Scarcely  one  of  the  barbarians,  so  long  as  they  continued  un- 
confused  with  the  native  inhabitants,  acquired  the  slightest 
tincture  of  letters ;  and  the  praise  of  equal  ignorance  was  soon 
aspired  to  and  attained  by  the  entire  mass  of  the  Roman  laity. 
They,  however,  could  hardly  have  divested  themselves  so  com- 
pletely of  all  acquaintance  with  even  the  elements  of  learning, 
if  the  language  in  which  books  were  written  had  not  ceased  to 
be  their  natural  dialect.  This  remarkable  change  in  the  speech 
of  France,  Spain,  and  Italy  is  most  intimately  connected  with 


I0  HALLAM 

the  extinction  of  learning;  and  there  is  enough  of  obscurity  as 
well  as  of  interest  in  the  subject  to  deserve  some  discussion. 

It  is  obvious,  on  the  most  cursory  view  of  the  French  and 
Spanish  languages,  that  they,  as  well  as  the  Italian,  are  derived 
from  one  common  source,  the  Latin.  That  must  therefore 
have  been  at  some  period,  and  certainly  not  since  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  barbarous  nations  in  Spain  and  Gaul,  substi- 
tuted in  ordinary  use  for  the  original  dialects  of  those  countries 
which  are  generally  supposed  to  have  been  Celtic,  not  essen- 
tially differing  from  those  which  are  spoken  in  Wales  and  Ire- 
land. Rome,  says  Augustin,  imposed  not  only  her  yoke,  but 
her  language,  upon  conquered  nations.  The  success  of  such 
an  attempt  is  indeed  very  remarkable.  Though  it  is  the  natural 
effect  of  conquest,  or  even  of  commercial  intercourse,  to  ingraft 
fresh  words  and  foreign  idioms  on  the  stock  of  the  original 
language,  yet  the  entire  disuse  of  the  latter,  and  adoption  of 
one  radically  different,  scarcely  takes  place  in  the  lapse  of  a 
far  longer  period  than  that  of  the  Roman  dominion  in  Gaul. 
Thus,  in  part  of  Brittany  the  people  speak  a  language  which 
has  perhaps  sustained  no  essential  alteration  from  the  revolu- 
tion of  two  thousand  years ;  and  we  know  how  steadily  an- 
other Celtic  dialect  has  kept  its  ground  in  Wales,  notwith- 
standing English  laws  and  governments,  and  the  long  line  of 
contiguous  frontier  which  brings  the  natives  of  that  princi- 
pality into  contact  with  Englishmen.  Nor  did  the  Romans 
ever  establish  their  language  (I  know  not  whether  they  wished 
to  do  so)  in  this  island,  as  we  perceive  by  that  stubborn  British 
tongue  which  has  survived  two  conquests.** 

In  Gaul  and  in  Spain,  however,  they  did  succeed,  as  the 
present  state  of  the  French  and  peninsular  languages  renders 
undeniable,  though  by  gradual  changes,  and  not,  as  the  Ben- 
edictine authors  of  the  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la  France  seem 
to  imagine,  by  a  sudden  and  arbitrary  innovations  This  is 
neither  possible  in  itself,  nor  agreeable  to  the  testimony  of 

d  Gibbon  roundly  asserts  that    "  the  least  color  to  Gibbon's  assertion  is  one 

language  of  Virgil  and  Cicero,  though  in  which  Agricola  is  said  to  .have  en- 

with  some  inevitable  mixture  of  cornip-  couraged  the  children  of  British  chief- 

tion,  was  so  universally  adopted  in  Afri-  tains  to  acquire  a  taste  for  liberal  stud- 

ca,  Spain,  Gaul,  Great  Britain,  and  Pan-  ies,  and  to  have  succeeded  so  much  by 

nonia,  that  the  faint  traces  of  the  Punic  judicious  commendation  of  their  auili- 

or  Celtic  idioms  were  preserved  only  in  ties,   ut   qui  inodo  linguam   Romanara 

the  mountains  or  among  the  peasants.'*  abnuebant,  eloquentiam  concupiscerent, 

Decline  and   Fall,  vol.   i.   p.   60,    (8vo.  (c.  21.)     This,  it  is  sufficiently  obvious, 

edit.)    For  Britain  he  quotes  Tacitus's  is  very  different  from  the  national  adop- 

Life  of  Agricola  as  his  voucher.    But  the  tion  of  Latin  as  a  mother-tongue, 
only  passage  in  this  work  that  gives  the          e  T.  vii.  preface. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  u 

Irenseus,  Bishop  of  Lyons  at  the  end  of  the  second  century, 
who  laments  the  necessity  of  learning  Celtic.^  But  although 
the  inhabitants  of  these  provinces  came  at  length  to  make  use 
of  Latin  so  completely  as  their  mother-tongue  that  few  ves- 
tiges of  their  original  Celtic  could  perhaps  be  discovered  in 
their  common  speech,  it  does  not  follow  that  they  spoke  with 
the  pure  pronunciation  of  Italians,  far  less  with  that  conformity 
to  the  written  sounds  which  we  assume  to  be  essential  to  the 
expression  of  Latin  words. 

It  appears  to  be  taken  for  granted  that  the  Romans  pro- 
nounced their  language  as  we  do  at  present,  so  far  at  least  as 
the  enunciation  of  all  the  consonants,  however  we  may  admit 
our  deviations  from  the  classical  standard  in  propriety  of  sounds 
and  in  measure  of  time.  Yet  the  example  of  our  own  language, 
and  of  French,  might  show  us  that  orthography  may  become 
a  very  inadequate  representative  of  pronunciation.  It  is  indeed 
capable  of  proof  that  in  the  purest  ages  of  Latinity  some  varia- 
tion existed  between  these  two.  Those  numerous  changes  in 
spelling  which  distinguish  the  same  words  in  the  poetry  of 
Ennius  and  of  Virgil  are  best  explained  by  the  supposition  of 
their  being  accommodated  to  the  current  pronunciation. 
Harsh  combinations  of  letters,  softened  down  through  deli- 
cacy of  ear  or  rapidity  of  utterance,  gradually  lost  their  place  in 
the  written  language.  Thus  exfregit  and  adrogavit  assumed 
a  form  representing  their  more  liquid  sound;  and  auctor  was 
latterly  spelled  autor,  which  has  been  followed  in  French  and 
Italian.  Autor  was  probably  so  pronounced  at  all  times ;  and 
the  orthography  was  afterwards  corrected  or  corrupted,  which- 
ever we  please  to  say,  according  to  the  sound.  We  have  the 
best  authority  to  assert  that  the  final  m  was  very  faintly  pro- 
nounced, rather  it  seems  as  a  rest  and  short  interval  between 
two  syllables  than  an  articulate  letter;  nor  indeed  can  we 
conceive  upon  what  other  ground  it  was  subject  to  elision  be- 
fore a  vowel  in  verse,  since  we  cannot  suppose  that  the  nice 
ears  of  Rome  would  have  submitted  to  a  capricious  rule  of 
poetry  for  which  Greece  presented  no  analogy .g 

f  It  appears,  by  a  passage  quoted  from  am  si  scribitur,  tamen  parum  exprimi- 

the   digest  by   M.   Bonamy,   Mem.   de  tur,   ut  Multum  ille,   et   Quantum  erat: 

1'Acad.  des  Inscriptions,  t.  xxiv.  p.  589,  adeo    ut   pene    cujusdam    novae    liters 

that  Celtic  was  spoken  in  Gaul,  or  at  sonum  reddat.     Neque  enim  eximitnr, 

least  parts  of  it,  as  well  as  Punic  in  sed  obscuratur,  et  tantum  aliqua  inter 

Africa.  duos   vocales   velut   nota    est,    ne    ipsae 

gAtque  eadem  ilia  litera,  quoties  ul-  coeant.    Quintilian,  Institut.  1.  ix.  c.  4* 

tima  est,  et  vocalem  verbi  sequentis  ita  p.  585,  edit.  Capperonier. 
contipgit,  ut  in  earn  transire  possit,  eti- 


I2  HALLAM 

A  decisive  proof,  in  my  opinion,  of  the  deviation  which  took 
place,  through  the  rapidity  of  ordinary  elocution,  from  the 
strict  laws  of  enunciation,  may  be  found  in  the  metre  of  Ter- 
ence. His  verses,  which  are  absolutely  refractory  to  the  com- 
mon laws  of  prosody,  may  be  readily  scanned  by  the  applica- 
tion of  this  principle.  Thus,  in  the  first  act  of  the  Heauton- 
timorumenos,  a  part  selected  at  random,  I  have  found :  I.  Vow- 
els contracted  or  dropped  so  as  to  shorten  the  word  by  a  syl- 
lable; in  ra,  via,  diutius,  ei,  solius,  earn,  unius,  suam,  divitias, 
senex,  voluptatem  illius,  semel.  II.  The  proceleusmatic  foot, 
or  four  short  syllables,  instead  of  the  dactyl;  seen.  i.  v.  59, 
73,  76,  88,  109 ;  seen.  ii.  v.  36.  III.  The  elision  of  s  in  words 
ending  with  us  or  is  short,  and  sometimes  even  of  the  whole 
syllable,  before  the  next  word  beginning  with  a  vowel;  in 
seen.  i.  v.  30,  81,  98,  101,  116,  119;  seen.  ii.  v.  28.  IV.  The 
first  syllable  of  ilk  is  repeatedly  shortened,  and  indeed  nothing 
is  more  usual  in  Terence  than  this  license ;  whence  we  may  col- 
lect how  ready  this  word  was  for  abbreviation  into  the  French 
and  Italian  articles.  V.  THe  last  letter  of  apud  is  cut  off, 
seen.  i.  v.  120;  and  seen.  ii.  v.  8.  VI.  Hodie  is  used  as  a 
pyrrhichius,  in  seen.  ii.  v.  ii.  VII.  Lastly,  there  is  a  clear 
instance  of  a  short  syllable,  the  antepenultimate  of  impulerim, 
lengthened  on  account  of  the  accent  at  the  ii3th  verse  of  the 
first  scene. 

These  licenses  are  in  all  probability  chiefly  colloquial,  and 
would  not  have  been  adopted  in  public  harangues,  to  which 
the  precepts  of  rhetorical  writers  commonly  relate.  But  if  the 
more  elegant  language  of  the  Romans,  since  such  we  must 
suppose  to  have  been  copied  by  Terence  for  his  higher  char- 
acters, differed  so  much  in  ordinary  discourse  from  their  or- 
thography, it  is  probable  that  the  vulgar  went  into  much 
greater  deviations.  The  popular  pronunciation  errs  generally, 
we  might  say  perhaps  invariably,  by  abbreviation  of  words, 
and  by  liquefying  consonants,  as  is  natural  to  the  rapidity  of 
colloquial  speech.^  It  is  by  their  knowledge  of  orthography 

u  ft  The  following  passage  of  Quintilian  saria   verborum   explanatio,    ita   omnea 

is  an  evidence  both  of  the  omission  of  computare  et  velut  adnumerare  literas, 

harsh  or  superfluous  letters  by  the  best  molestum  et  odiosum. — Nam  et  vocal es 

speakers,  and  of  the  corrupt  abbrevia-  frequentissime  coeunt,  et  consonantium 

tions  usual   with  the  worst.     Dilucida  quaedam   insequente   vocali   dissimulan- 

vero  erit  pronunciatio  primum,  si  verba  tur;     utriusque    exemplum    posuimus; 

tota    exegerit,    quorum    pars    devorari,  Multum   ille    et  terris.     Vitatur    etiam 

pars  destrtui  solet,  plerisque   extremas  duriorum    inter     se    congressus    unde 

syllabas  non  proferentibus,  dum  priorum  pellexit  et  collegit,  et  quse  alio  loco  dicta 

labas  non  proferentibus,   dnm   priorun?  sunt.  1.  ii.  c.  3,  p.  696. 
sono  indulgent.    Ut  est  autem  neces- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  13 

and  etymology  that  the  more  educated  part  of  the  community 
is  preserved  from  these  corrupt  modes  of  pronunciation.  There 
is  always  therefore  a  standard  by  which  common  speech  may 
be  rectified ;  and  in  proportion  to  the  diffusion  of  knowledge 
and  politeness  the  deviations  from  it  will  be  more  slight  and 
gradual.  But  in  distant  provinces,  and  especially  where  the 
language  itself  is  but  of  recent  introduction,  many  more 
changes  may  be  expected  to  occur.  Even  in  France  and  Eng- 
land there  are  provincial  dialects,  which,  if  written  with  all 
their  anomalies  of  pronunciation  as  well  as  idiom,  would  seem 
strangely  out  of  unison  with  the  regular  language;  and  in 
Italy,  as  is  well  known,  the  varieties  of  dialect  are  still  more 
striking.  Now,  in  an  advancing  state  of  society,  and  especially 
with  such  a  vigorous  political  circulation  as  we  experience  In 
England,  language  will  constantly  approximate  to  uniformity, 
as  provincial  expressions  are  more  and  more  rejected  for  in- 
correctness or  inelegance.  But,  where  literature  is  on  the  de- 
cline, and  public  misfortunes  contract  the  circle  of  those  who 
are  solicitous  about  refinement,  as  in  the  last  ages  of  the  Ro- 
man empire,  there  will  be  no  longer  any  definite  standard  of 
living  speech,  nor  any  general  desire  to  conform  to  it  if  one 
could  be  found ;  and  thus  the  vicious  corruptions  of  the  vulgar 
will  entirely  predominate.  The  niceties  of  ancient  idiom  will 
be  totally  lost,  while  new  idioms  will  be  formed  out  of  viola- 
tions of  grammar  sanctioned  by  usage,  which,  among  a  civil- 
ized people,  would  have  been  proscribed  at  their  appearance. 

Such  appears  to  have  been  the  progress  of  corruption  in 
the  Latin  language.  The  adoption  of  words  from  the  Teu- 
tonic dialects  of  the  barbarians,  which  took  place  very  freely, 
would  not  of  itself  have  destroyed  the  character  of  that  lan- 
guage, though  it  sullied  its  purity.  The  worst  Law  Latin  of 
the  middle  ages  is  still  Latin,  if  its  barbarous  terms  have  been 
bent  to  the  regular  inflections.  It  is  possible,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  write  whole  pages  of  Italian,  wherein  every  word  shall  be 
of  unequivocal  Latin  derivation,  though  the  character  and 
personality,  if  I  may  so  say,  of  the  language  be  entirely  dis- 
similar. But,  as  I  conceive,  the  loss  of  literature  took  away 
the  only  check  upon  arbitrary  pronunciation  and  upon  erro- 
neous grammar.  Each  people  innovated  through  caprice,  imi- 
tation of  their  neighbors,  or  some  of  those  indescribable  causes 
which  dispose  the  organs  of  different  nations  to  different 


I4  H  ALLAH 

sounds.  The  French  melted  down  the  middle  consonants ;  the 
Italians  omitted  the  final.  Corruptions  arising  out  of  igno- 
rance were  mingled  with  those  of  pronunciation.  It  would 
have  been  marvellous  if  illiterate  and  semi-barbarous  provin- 
cials had  preserved  that  delicate  precision  in  using  the  inflec- 
tions of  tenses  which  our  best  scholars  do  not  clearly  attain. 
The  common  speech  of  any  people  whose  language  is  highly 
complicated  will  be  full  of  solecisms.  The  French  inflections 
are  not  comparable  in  number  or  delicacy  to  the  Latin,  and  yet 
the  vulgar  confuse  their  most  ordinary  forms. 

But,  in  all  probability,  the  variation  of  these  derivative  lan- 
guages from  popular  Latin  has  been  considerably  less  than  it 
appears.  In  the  purest  ages  of  Latinity  the  citizens  of  Rome 
itself  made  use  of  many  terms  which  we  deem  barbarous,  and 
of  many  idioms  which  we  should  reject  as  modern.  That 
highly  complicated  grammar,  which  the  best  writers  employed, 
was  too  elliptical  and  obscure,  too  deficient  in  the  connecting 
parts  of  speech,  for  general  use.  We  cannot  indeed  ascertain 
in  what  degree  the  vulgar  Latin  differed  from  that  of  Cicero 
or  Seneca.  It  would  be  highly  absurd  to  imagine,  as  some  are 
said  to  have  done,  that  modern  Italian  was  spoken  at  Rome 
under  Augustus.*  But  I  believe  it  may  be  asserted  not  only 
that  much  the  greater  part  of  those  words  in  the  present  lan- 
guage of  Italy  which  strike  us  as  incapable  of  a  Latin  etymology 
are  in  fact  derived  from  those  current  in  the  Augustan  age,  but 
that  very  many  phrases  which  offended  nicer  ears  prevailed 
in  the  same  vernacular  speech,  and  have  passed  from  thence 
into  the  modern  French  and  Italian.  Such,  for  example,  was 
the  frequent  use  of  prepositions  to  indicate  a  relation  between 
two  parts  of  a  sentence  which  a  classical  writer  would  have 
made  to  depend  on  mere  inflection./ 

From  the  difficulty  of  retaining  a  right  discrimination  of 
tense  seems  to  have  proceeded  the  active  auxiliary  verb.  It 
is  possible  that  this  was  borrowed  from  the  Teutonic  lan- 

*Tiraboschi  (Storia  dell.  Lett.  Ital.  schoolboy  would  have  told  him.  This 
t.  iii.  preface,  p.  v.)  imputes  this  para-  essay,  which  by  some  accident  had  es- 
dox  to  Bembo  and  Quadrio;but  I  can  caped  any  notice  till  I  had  nearly  fin- 
hardly  believe  that  either  of  them  could  ished  the  observations  in  my  text,  con- 
maintain  it  in  a  literal  sense.  tains,  I  think,  the  best  view  that  I  have 

j  M.  Bonamy,  in  an  essay  printed  in  seen    of   the    process    of   transition    by 

Mem.  de  1'Academie  des  Inscriptions,  t.  which  Latin  was  changed  into  French 

xxiv.,   has   produced  several   proofs   of  and  Italian.    Add,  however,  the  preface 

this  from  the  classical  writers  on  agri-  to  Tiraboschi's  third  volume  and  the 

culture  and  other  arts,  though  some  of  thirty-second  dissertation  of  Muratori. 
his  instances  are  not  in  point,  as  any 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  15 

guages  of  the  barbarians,  and  accommodated  both  by  them 
and  by  the  natives  to  words  of  Latin  origin.  The  passive 
auxiliary  is  obtained  by  a  very  ready  resolution  of  any  tense 
in  that  mood,  and  has  not  been  altogether  dispensed  with  even 
in  Greek,  while  in  Latin  it  is  used  much  more  frequently.  It 
is  not  quite  so  easy  to  perceive  the  propriety  of  the  active  habeo 
or  teneo,  one  or  both  of  which  all  modern  languages  have 
adopted  as  their  auxiliaries  in  conjugating  the  verb.  But  in 
some  instances  this  analysis  is  not  improper;  and  it  may  be 
supposed  that  nations,  careless  of  etymology  or  correctness, 
applied  the  same  verb  by  a  rude  analogy  to  cases  where  it  ought 
not  strictly  to  have  been  employed.^ 

Next  to  the  changes  founded  on  pronunciation  and  to  the 
substitution  of  auxiliary  verbs  for  inflections,  the  usage  of  the 
definite  and  indefinite  articles  in  nouns  appears  the  most  con- 
siderable step  in  the  transmutation  of  Latin  into  its  derivative 
languages.  None  but  Latin,  I  believe,  has  ever  wanted  this 
part  of  speech ;  and  the  defect  to  which  custom  reconciled  the 
Romans  would  be  an  insuperable  stumbling-block  to  nations 
who  were  to  translate  their  original  idiom  into  that  language. 
A  coarse  expedient  of  applying  umis,  ipse,  or  ille  to  the  pur- 
poses of  an  article  might  perhaps  be  no  unfrequent  vulgarism 
of  the  provincials ;  and  after  the  Teutonic  tribes  brought  in 
their  own  grammar,  it  was  natural  that  a  corruption  should 
become  universal,  which  in  fact  supplied  a  real  and  essential 
deficiency. 

That  the  quantity  of  Latin  syllables  is  neglected,  or  rather 
lost,  in  modern  pronunciation,  seems  to  be  generally  admitted. 
Whether,  indeed,  the  ancient  Romans,  in  their  ordinary  speak- 
ing, distinguished  the  measure  of  syllables1  with  such  uniform 
musical  accuracy  as  we  imagine,  giving  a  certain  time  to  those 
termed  long,  and  exactly  half  that  duration  to  the  short,  might 
very  reasonably  be  questioned ;  though  this  was  probably  done, 
or  attempted  to  be  done,  by  every  reader  of  poetry.  Certainly, 
however,  the  laws  of  quantity  were  forgotten,  and  an  accentual 
pronunciation  came  to  predominate,  before  Latin  had  ceased 
to  be  a  living  language.  A  Christian  writer  named  Commodi- 
anus,  who  lived  before  the  end  of  the  third  century  according 
to  some,  or,  as  others  think,  in  the  reign  of  Constantine,  has 

k  See  Lanzi,  Saggio  della  Lingua  Etrusca,  t.  i.  c.  431;  Mem.  de  1'Acad. 
des  Inscrip.  t.  xxiv.  p.  632. 


t6  HALLAM 

left  us  a  philological  curiosity,  in  a  series  of  attacks  on  the 
pagan  superstitions,  composed  in  what  are  meant  to  be  verses, 
regulated  by  accent  instead  of  quantity,  exactly  as  we  read 
Virgil  at  present* 

It  is  not  improbable  that  Commodianus  may  have  written 
in  Africa,  the  province  in  which  more  than  any  the  purity  of 
Latin  was  debased.  At  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  St. 
Augustin  assailed  his  old  enemies,  the  Donatists,  with  nearly 
the  same  arms  that  Commodianus  had  wielded  against  heathen- 
ism. But  as  the  refined  and  various  music  of  hexameters  was 
unlikely  to  be  relished  by  the  vulgar,  he  prudently  adopted 
a  different  measure.^  All  the  nations  of  Europe  seem  to  love 
the  trochaic  verse ;  it  was  frequent  on  the  Greek  and  Roman 
stage ;  it  is  more  common  than  any  other  in  the  popular  poetry 
of  modern  languages.  This  proceeds  from  its  simplicity,  its 
liveliness,  and  its  ready  accommodation  to  dancing  and  music. 
In  St.  Austin's  poem  he  united  to  a  trochaic  measure  the  novel 
attraction  of  rhyme. 

As  Africa  must  have  lost  all  regard  to  the  rules  of  measure 
in  the  fourth  century,  so  it  appears  that  Gaul  was  not  more 
correct  in  the  next  two  ages.  A  poem  addressed  by  Auspicius 
Bishop  of  Toul  to  Count  Arbogastes,  of  earlier  date  probably 
than  the  invasion  of  Clovis,  is  written  with  no  regard  to  quan- 

l  No  description  can  give  so  adequate  exceedingly  corrupt,  and  I  should  not 
a  notion  of  this  extraordinary  perform-  despair  of  seeing  a  truly  critical  editor, 
ance  as  a  short  specimen.     Take  the  unscrupulous  as  his  fraternity  are  apt  to 
introductory  lines;    which  really,   pre-  be,  improve  his  lines  into  unblemished 
judices  of  education  apart,  are  by  no  hexameters.    Till  this  time  arrives,  how- 
means  inharmonious:—  ever,  we  must  consider  him  either  as 
Praefatio  nostra  viam  erranti  demon-  utterly  ignorant  of  metrical  distinctions, 
strat,  or  at  least  as  aware  that  the  populace 
Respectumque   bonum,    cum   venerit  whom    he   addressed    did    not    observe 
saaculi  meta,  them    in    speaking.      Commodianus    is 
JEternurn  fieri,  quod  discredunt  inscia  published  by  Dawes  at  the  end  of  his 
corda.  edition  of  Minucius  Felix.    Some  spe- 
Ego  similiter  erravi  tempore  multo,  cimens   are   quoted   in  Harris's   Philo- 
Fana  prosequendo,  parentibus  insciis  logical  Inquiries. 

ipsis.  m  Archaeologia,  vol.  xiv.  p.  188.     The 

Abstuli  me  tandem  inde,  legendo  de  following  are  the  first  lines:— 

lege.  Abundantia  peccatorum   solet  fratres 

Testificor  Dominum,  doleo,  prohl  ci-  conturbare; 

vica  turba  Propter  hoc   Dominus   noster  voluit 

Inscia  quod  perdit,  pergens  deos  quae-  nos  praemonere, 

rere  vanos.  Comparans  regnum  coelorum  reticulo 

Ob  ea  perdoctus  ignoros  instruo  ve-  misso  in  mare, 

rum.  Congreganti     multos     pisces,     omne 

Commodianus,  however,  did  not  keep  genus  hinc  et  inde, 

up  this  excellence  in  every  part.    Some  Quos  cum  traxissent  ad  Httus,  tune 

of  his  lines  are  not  reducible  to  any  pro-  cceperunt  separare, 

nunciation,  without  the  summary  rules  Bonos    in    vasa    miserunt,     reliquos 

of  Procrtistes;    as  for  instance —  malos  in  mare. 

Paratus  ad  enulas,  et  refugiscere  prae-  This  trash  is  much  below  the  level  of 

cepta:   or,  Capillos  inficitis,  oculos  full-  Augustin;  but  it  could  not  have  been 

gine  relinrtis.  later  than  his  age. 
It  must  be  owned  that  this  text  is 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  17 

tity.w  The  bishop  by  whom  this  was  composed  is  mentioned 
by  his  contemporaries  as  a  man  of  learning.  Probably  he  did 
not  choose  to  perplex  the  barbarian  to  whom  he  was  writing  (for 
Arbogastes  is  plainly  a  barbarous  name)  by  legitimate  Roman 
metre.  In  the  next  century  Gregory  of  Tours  informs  us  that 
Chilperic  attempted  to  write  Latin  verses ;  but  the  lines  could 
not  be  reconciled  to  any  division  of  feet ;  his  ignorance  having 
confounded  long  and  short  syllables  together.*?  Now  Chilperic 
must  have  learned  to  speak  Latin  like  other  kings  of  the  Franks, 
and  was  a  smatterer  in  several  kinds  of  literature.  If  Chilperic 
therefore  was  not  master  of  these  distinctions,  we  may  conclude 
that  the  bishops  and  other  Romans  with  whom  he  conversed 
did  not  observe  them ;  and  that  his  blunders  in  versification 
arose  from  ignorance  of  rules,  which,  however  fit  to  be  pre- 
served in  poetry,  were  entirely  obsolete  in  the  living  Latin  of 
his  age.  Indeed  the  frequency  of  false  quantities  in  the  poets 
even  of  the  fifth,  but  much  more  of  the  sixth  century,  is  pal- 
pable. Fortunatus  is  quite  full  of  them.  This  seems  a  decisive 
proof  that  the  ancient  pronunciation  was  lost.  Avitus  tells 
us  that  few  preserved  the  proper  measure  of  syllables  in  sing- 
ing. Yet  he  was  Bishop  of  Vienne,  where  a  purer  pronuncia- 
tion might  be  expected  thari  in  the  remoter  parts  of  Gaul./1 

Defective,  however,  as  it  had  become  in  respect  of  pronun- 
ciation, Latin  was  still  spoken  in  France  during  the  sixth  and 
seventh  centuries.  We  have  compositions  in  that  time/  in- 
tended for  the  people,  in  grammatical  language.  A  song  is 
still  extant  ift  rhyme  and  loose  accentual  measure,  written  upon 
a  victory  of  Clotaire  II.  over  the  Saxons  in  622,  and  obviously 
intended  for  circulation  ainong  the  people.a  Fortunatus  says, 
in  his  Life  of  St.  Aubin  of  Angers,  that  he  should  take  care 


cqmiti                                              ,  probable  that  the  poetry  of  Avitus  be- 

Auspicius,    qui    diligo,    salutem    dico  longs  to  the  fifth  centiiry,  thotf&h  riot 

plurimam.            .  very  far  from  its  termination.     He  was 

Magnas     ccelesti     DoJHme     fepeftdo  the   correspondent   of   Sidonius  Apolli- 

cof  de  gratiats  naris,  who  died  in  48&  and  we  fciay  pre- 

bd  te  Ttillerisi  pfoxime"  magrium  in  stime  his  poetry;  to  have  been  written 

trtbe  vidimus.  rather  early  in  life. 

Mtlltis    me    tuis    aftibus    laetificabas  q  One  Stanza  erf  this  song  will  suffice 

atfitea,  to  show  that  the  Latin  language"  was 

S<id  nune  fecisti  mafcirrto"  me  exultsre  yet  unchanged: 

gaudio.  De  Cloiario  est  canere  rege  France- 

&  Chilperictis  fex    .    .    .    -    .    confecit  rum, 

dttios  libtos,  Quorum  veSlctilJ  debiles  rml-  Qui  ivi  pugnalre  curt  gente  Saxonum, 

lis  fcedibus  subgistere  pOSsunt:    in  qui-  Quam     graviter     provenissef     missis 

bus,  diim  non  iritellig-ebat,  pro  longis  Saxonum, 

syllabas  breves  jydsuif,  ft  prd  brevibtls  Si  rton  fuisset  inclitus  Faro  de  gente 

longas  statuebat.    1.  vi.  c.  46.  Burgundionum. 

VOL.  III.— 2 


1 8  H  ALLAH 

not  to  use  any  expression  unintelligible  to  the  people.**  Baude- 
mind,  in  the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  declares,  in  his  Life 
of  St.  Amand,  that  he  writes  in  a  rustic  and  vulgar  style,  that 
the  reader  may  be  excited  to  imitations  Not  that  these  legends 
were  actually  perused  by  the  populace,  for  the  very  art  of 
reading  was  confined  to  a  few.  But  they  were  read  publicly 
in  the  churches,  and  probably  with  a  pronunciation  accommo- 
dated to  the  corruptions  of  ordinary  language.  Still  the  Latin 
syntax  must  have  been  tolerably  understood;  and  we  may 
therefore  say  that  Latin  had'  not  ceased  to  be  a  living  language, 
in  Gaul  at  least,  before  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh  century. 
Faults  indeed  against  the  rules  of  grammar,  as  well  as  unusual 
idioms,  perpetually  occur  in  the  best  writers  of  the  Merovin- 
gian period,  such  as  Gregory  of  Tours ;  while  charters  drawn 
up  by  less  expert  scholars  deviate  much  further  from  purity.* 
The  corrupt  provincial  idiom  became  gradually  more  and 
more  dissimilar  to  grammatical  Latin;  and  the  lingua  Ro- 
mana  rustica,  as  the  vulgar  patois  (to  borrow  a  word  that  I 
cannot  well  translate)  had  been  called,  acquired  a  distinct 
character  as  a  new  language  in  the  eighth  century,"  Latin 
orthography,  which  had  been  hitherto  pretty  well  maintained 
in  books,  though  not  always  in  charters,  gave  way  to  a  new 
spelling,  conformably  to  the  current  pronunciation.  Thus  we 
find  lui,  for  illius,  in  the  Formularies  of  Marculfus ;  and  Tu 
lo  juva  in  a  liturgy  of  Charlemagne's  age,  for  Tu  ilium  juva. 
When  this  barrier  was  once  broken  down,  such  a  deluge  of 
innovation  poured  in  that  all  the  characteristics  of  Latin  were 
effaced  in  writing  as  well  as  speaking,  and  the  existence  of  a 
new  language  became  undeniable.  In  a  council  held  at  Tours 
in  813  the  bishops  are  ordered  to  have  certain  homilies  of  the 
fathers  translated  into  the  rustic  Roman,  as  well  as  the  German 
tongues  After  this  it  is  unnecessary  to  multiply  proofs  of  the 
change  which  Latin  had  undergone. 

r  Praecavendum  est,  ne  ad  aures  oo-  ing.  It  is  familiarly  known  that  illit- 

puli  minus  aliquid  intelligible  profe-  erate  persons  understand  a  more  oor- 

ratur.  Me"m.  de  1'Acad.  t.  xvii.  p.  712.  rect  language  than  they  use  themselves ; 

j  Rustico  et  plebeio  sermone  propter  so  that  the  corruption  of  Latin  might 

sxemplum  et  imitationem.  Id.  ibid.  have  gone  to  a  considerable  length 

*  Hist  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  iii.  p.  among  the  people,  while  sermons  were 

preached,  and  tolerably  comprehended, 


in  a  purer  grammar. 

p.  485-  v  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Insc.  t.  xvii. 

«  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  vii.  See  two  memoirs  in  this  volume  by  du 

pp.  12.    The  editors  say  that  it  is  men-  Clos  and  le  Bceuf,  especially  the  latter, 

tioned  by  name  even  in  the  seventh  cen-  as  well  as  that  already  mentioned  in  t. 

tury,  which  is  very  natural,  as  the  cor-  xxiv.  p.  582,  by  M.  Bonamy. 
ruption  of  Latin  had  then  become  strik- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  19 

In  Italy  the  progressive  corruptions  of  the  Latin  language 
were  analogous  to  those  which  occurred  in  France,  though  we 
do  not  find  in  writings  any  unequivocal  specimens  of  a  new 
formation  at  so  early  a  period.  But  the  old  inscriptions,  even 
of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  are  full  of  solecisms  and  cor- 
rupt orthography.  In  legal  instruments  under  the  Lombard 
kings  the  Latin  inflections  are  indeed  used,  but  with  so  little 
regard  to  propriety  that  it  is  obvious  the  writers  had  not  the 
slightest  tincture  of  grammatical  knowledge.  This  observation 
extends  to  a  very  large  proportion  of  such  documents  down 
to  the  twelfth  century,  and  is  as  applicable  to  France  and  Spain 
as  it  is  to  Italy.  In  these  charters  the  peculiar  characteristics 
of  Italian  orthography  and  grammar  frequently  appear.  Thus 
we  find,  in  the  eighth  century,  diveatis  for  debeatis,  da  for  de 
in  the  ablative,  avendi  for  habendi,  dava  for  dabat,  cedo  a  deo, 
and  ad  ecclesia,  among  many  similar  corruptions.^  Latin  was 
so  changed,  it  is  said  by  a  writer  of  Charlemagne's  age,  that 
scarcely  any  part  of  it  was  popularly  known.  Italy  indeed  had 
suffered  more  than  France  itself  by  invasion,  and  was  reduced 
to  a  lower  state  of  barbarism,  though  probably,  from  the 
greater  distinctness  of  pronunciation  habitual  to  the  Italians, 
they  lost  less  of  their  original  language  than  the  French.  I 
do  not  find,  however,  in  the  writers  who  have  treated  this 
subject,  any  express  evidence  of  a  vulgar  language  distinct 
from  Latin  earlier  than  the  close  of  the  tenth  century,  when 
it  is  said  in  the  epitaph  of  Pope  Gregory  V1.,  who  died  in  999, 
that  he  instructed  the  people  in  three  dialects — the  Prankish 
or  German,  the  vulgar,  and  the  Latin.-** 

When  Latin  had  thus  ceased  to  be  a  living  language,  the 
whole  treasury  of  knowledge  was  locked  up  from  the  eyes  of 
the  people.  The  few  who  might  have  imbibed  a  taste  for  liter- 
ature, if  books  had  been  accessible  to  them,  were  reduced  to 
abandon  pursuits  that  could  only  be  cultivated  through  a  kind 
of  education  not  easily  within  their  reach.  Schools,  confined 
to  cathedrals  and  monasteries,  and  exclusively  designed  for  the 
purposes  of  religion,  afforded  no  encouragement  or  opportu- 
nities to  the  laity y  The  worst  effect  was,  that,  as  the  newly 

•so  Muratori,  Dissert,  i.  and  xliii.  y  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t. 

x  Usus    Francisca,    vulgari,    et    voce       vi.  p.  20.    Muratori,  Dissert,  xliii. 

Latin*, 

Instituit  populos  eloquio  tripici. 
Fontanini  delr  Eloquenza  Italiana,  p. 
15.    Muratori,  Dissert,  xxxii. 


20  HALLAM 

formed  languages  were  hardly  made  use  of  in  writing,  Latin 
being  still  preserved  in  all  legal  instruments  and  public  corre- 
spondence, the  very  use  of  letters,  as  well  as  of  books,  was 
forgotten.  For  many  centuries,  to  sum  up  the  account  of 
ignorance  in  a  word,  it  was  rare  for  a  layman,  of  whatever 
rank,  to  know  how  to  sign  his  name.*  Their  charters,  till  the 
use  of  seals  became  general,  were  subscribed  with  the  mark 
of  the  cross.  Still  more  extraordinary  it  was  to  find  one  who 
had  any  tincture  of  learning.  Even  admitting  every  indistinct 
commendation  of  a  monkish  biographer  (with  whom  a  knowl- 
edge of  church-music  would  pass  for  literature  a),  we  could 
make  out  a  very  short  list  of  scholars.  None  certainly  were 
more  distinguished  as  such  than  Charlemagne  and  Alfred.  But 
the  former,  unless  we  reject  a  very  plain  testimony,  was  incap- 
able of  writing ;  b  and  Alfred  found  difficulty  in  making  a  trans- 
lation from  the  pastoral  instruction  of  St.  Gregory,  on  account 
of  his  imperfect  knowledge  of  Latins 

Whatever  mention,  therefore,  we  find  of  learning  and  the 
learned  during  these  dark  ages,  must  be  understood  to  relate 
only  to  such  as  were  within  the  pale  of  clergy,  which  indeed 
was  pretty  extensive,  and  comprehended  many  who  did  not 

s  Nouveau  Traite  de  Diplomatique,  t.  serts  himself  to  have  been  the  author  of 

ii.  p.  419.    This  became,  the  editors  say,  the  Libri  Carolmi,  and  is  said  by  some 

much  less  unusual  about  the  end  of  the  to  have  composed  verses*    Hist.  Litt.  de 

thirteenth  century;  a  pretty  late  period!  la  France,  hi.  37.    But  did  not  Henry 

A  few  signatures  to  deeds  appear  in  the  VIII.    claim    a    book    against    Luther, 

fourteenth   century;     m  the  next  they  which  was  not  written  by  himself?    Qui 

are  more  frequent.    Ibid.    The  emperor  facit  per  alium,  factt  per  set  is  in  all  cases 

Frederic    Barbarossa    could    not    read  a  royal  prerogative.    Elven  if  the  book 

(Struvius,   Corpus  Hist.    German,  t.   i.  were  Charlemagne's  owrty  might  he  not 

P-  377).  nor  Jonn  King  of  Bohemia  in  have  dictated  it?    I  have  been  informed 

the   middle   of  the  fourteenth   century  that  therg  is  a  manuscript   at   Vienna 

(Sismondi,  t.  v.  p.  205),  nor  Philip  the  with   autograph   notes   of   Charlemagne 

Hardy,   King  of  France,  although  the  in  the  margin.    But  is  there  sufficient 

son  of  St.  Louis.    (Velly,  t.  vi.  p.  426.)  evidence    of    their    genuineness?      The 

a  Louis  IV-  King  of  France,  laugh-  great  difficulty  is  to  get  over  the  words 
ing  at  Fulk,  Count  of  Anjou,  who  sang  which  I  have  quoted  from  Eginhard. 
anthems  among  the  choristers  of  Tours,  M.  Ampere  ingeniously  conjectures 
received  the  following  pithy  epistle  from  that  the  passage  does  not  relate  to  sirn- 
his  learned  vassal:  Noveritis,  domines  pie,  common  writing,  but  to  calligraphy; 
quod  rex  illiteratus  est  asinus  coronatus.  the  art  of  delineating  characters  m  a 
Gesta  Comitum  Andegavensmm.  In  the  beautiful  manner,  practised  by  the  copy- 
same  book,  Geoffrey,  father  of  our  ists,  and  of  which  a  contemporaneous 
Henry  II.,  is  said  to  be  optime  literatus;  specimen  may  be  seert  in  the  well-known 
which  perhaps  imports  little  mote  learti-  Bible  of  the  British  Museum.  Yet  it 
in^^ran  hls  ar*cestor  Fulk  posse_ssed.  must  be  remembered  that  Charlemagne's 

b  The  passage  in  Egmhard,  which  lias  early  life  passed  in  the  depths  of  igno- 

occasioned  so  much  dispute,  speaks  for  ranee;  and  Eginhard  gives  a  fair  reason 

itself:    Tentabat  et  scnbere,  tabulasqne  why  he  failed  in  acquiring  the  art  of 

ct   cpdicillos   ad   hoc   in   lecticula   sub  writing,  that  he  began  too  late.    Fm- 

cervicalibus     circumferre    solebat,     ut,  gers  of  fifty  are  not  made  for  a  new 

emgjaadi*  Hteris  assuef aceret ;    sled  pa-  skill,    tt  is  not,  of  course,  implied  by 

rum  prtJfedere  successit  labof  pneposte-  the  words  that  he  could  riot  write  his 

rus  ac  ser6  inchpatus.  own  name;  but  that  he  did  not  acquire 

Many  are  still  unwilling  to   believe  such  &  facility  as  he  desited.    [1848.] 

that  Charlemagne  could  not  write.    M,  c  Spelniftn,  Vit,  Alfred.    Append. 
Ampere  observes  that  the  emperor  as- 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  21 

exercise  the  offices  of  religious  ministry.  But  even  the  clergy 
were,  for  a  long  period,  not  very  materially  superior,  as  a  body, 
to  the  uninstructed  laity.  A  cloud  of  ignorance  overspread 
the  whole  face  of  the  church,  hardly  broken  by  a  few  glimmer- 
ing lights,  who  owe  much  of  their  distinction  to  the  surround- 
ing darkness.  In  the  sixth  century  the  best  writers  in  Latin 
were  scarcely  read ;  d  and  perhaps  from  the  middle  of  this  age 
to  the  eleventh  there  was,  in  a  general  view  of  literature,  little 
difference  to  be  discerned.  If  we  look  more  accurately,  there 
will  appear  certain  gradual  shades  of  twilight  on  each  side  of 
the  greatest  obscurity.  France  reached  her  lowest  point  about 
the  beginning  of  the  eighth  century ;  but  England  was  at  that 
time  more  respectable,  and  did  not  fall  into  complete  degrada- 
tion till  the  middle  of  the  ninth.  There  could  be  nothing  more 
deplorable  than  the  state  of  letters  in  Italy  and  in  England 
during  the  succeeding  century ;  but  France  cannot  be  denied 
to  have  been  uniformly,  though  very  slowly,  progressive  from 
the  time  of  Charlemagne.* 

Of  this  prevailing  ignorance  it  is  easy  to  produce  abundant 
testimony.  Contracts  were  made  verbally,  for  want  of  notaries 
capable  of  drawing  up  charters ;  and  these,  when  written,  were 
frequently  barbarous  and  ungrarnmatical  to  an  incredible  de- 
gree. For  some  considerable  intervals  scarcely  any  monument 
of  literature  has  been  preserved,  except  a  few  jejune  chronicles, 
the  vilest  legends  of  saints,  or  verses  equally  destitute  of  spirit 
and  metre.  In  almost  every  council  the  ignorance  of  the  clergy 
forms  a  subject  for  reproach.  It  is  asserted  by  one  held  in 
992  that  scarcely  a  single  person  was  to  be  found  in  Rome 
itself  who  knew  the  first  elements  of  letters/  Not  one  priest 
of  a  thousand  in  Spain,  about  the  age  of  Charlemagne,  could 
address  a  common  letter  of  salutation  to  another.^  In  Eng- 

d  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  iii.  middle  of  the  last  century,  are  reprinted, 

p.  5,  [Note  I.] 

e  These  four  dark  centuries  the  Tiraboschi,  Storia  della  Letteratura, 
eighth,  ninth,  tenth,  and  eleventh*  oc-  t.  iii.,  and  Muratori's  forty-third  Disser- 
cupy  five  large  quarto  volumes  of  the  tation  are  good  authorities  for  the  con- 
Literary  History  of  France,  by  the  dition  of  letters  in  Italy;  but  I  cannot 
fathers  of  St.  Maur.  But  the  most  use-  easily  give  references  to  all  the  books 
ful  part  will  be  found  in  the  general  which  I  have  consulted, 
view  at  the  commencement  of  each  vol-  f  Tiraboschi,  t.  HI.  p,  198. 
ume;  the  remainder  is  taken  up  with  g  Mabillon,  De  Re  Diplomatica,  p.  5$. 
biographies,  into  which  a  reader  may  The  reason  alleged,  indeed,  is  that  they 
dive  at  random,  and  sometimes  bring  were  wholly  occupied  with  studying 
up  ?.  curious  fact.  I  may  refer  also  to  Arabic,  in  order  to  carry  on  a  contro- 
the  i4th  volume  of  Leber,  Collections  versy  with  the  Saracens  But,  as  this  is 
Relatives  a  1'Histoire  de  France,  where  not  very  credible,  we  may  rest  with  the 
some  learned  dissertations  by  the  Abbes  main  fact  that  they  could  wnte  no  Latin. 
Lebeuf  and  Goujet,  a  little  before  the 


22  HALL  AM 

land,  Alfred  declares  that  he  could  not  recollect  a  single  priest 
south  of  the  Thames  (the  most  civilized  part  of  England),  at 
the  time  of  his  accession,  who  understood  the  ordinary  prayers, 
or  could  translate  Latin  into  his  mother-tongue./*  Nor  was  this 
better  in  the  time  of  Dunstan,  when,  it  is  said,  none  of  the  clergy 
knew  how  to  write  or  translate  a  Latin  letters  The  homilies 
which  they  preached  were  compiled  for  their  use  by  some  bish- 
ops from  former  works  of  the  same  kind,  or  the  writings  of  the 
fathers. 

This  universal  ignorance  was  rendered  unavoidable,  among 
other  causes,  by  the  scarcity  of  books,  which  could  only  be 
procured  at  an  immense  price.  From  the  conquest  of  Alex- 
andria by  the  Saracens  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century, 
when  the  Egyptian  papyrus  almost  ceased  to  be  imported  into 
Europe,  to  the  close  of  the  eleventh,  about  which  time  the  art 
of  making  paper  from  cotton  rags  seems  to  have  been  intro- 
duced, there  were  no  materials  for  writing  except  parchment, 
a  substance  too  expensive  to  be  readily  spared  for  mere  pur- 
poses of  literature.;  Hence  an  unfortunate  practice  gained 
ground,  of  erasing  a  manuscript  in  order  to  substitute  another 

h  Spelman,  Vit,   Alfred.  Append.  The  sented  to  Abbot  Turketul  in  the  tenth 

whole  drift  of  Alfred's  preface  to  this  century  by  a  king  of  France,  and  was, 

translation  is  to  defend  the  expediency  I  make  no  doubt,  of  Arabian  or  Greek 

of  rendering  the  books  into  English,  on  manufacture. 

account    of   the    general    ignorance    of  ;  Parchment  was  so  scarce  that  none 

Latin.    The   zeal    which    this    excellent  could   be   procured   about    1120   for   an 

prince  shows  for  literature  is  delightful.  illuminated  copy  of  the  Bible.    Warton  f 

Let  us  endeavor,  he  says,  that  all  the  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  Dissert.  IL    I 

English  youth,    especially  the  children  suppose    the    deficiency    was    of    skins 

of  those  who  are  free-born,  and  can  ed-  beautiful  enough  for  this  purpose;    it 

ucate  them,  may  learn  to  read  English  cannot    be    meant    that    there   was   no 

before  they  take  to  any   employment.  parchment  for  legal  instruments. 

Afterwards  such  as  please  may  be  in-  Manuscripts  written   on   papyrus,   as 

structed  in   Latin.    Before  the  Danish  may  be  supposed  from  the  fragility  of 

invasion,  indeed,  he  tells  us,  churches  the  material,  as  well  as  the  difficulty  of 

were   well   furnished  with   books;     but  procuring  it,  are  of  extreme  rarity.  That 

the  priests  got  little  good  from  them,  in  the  British  Museum,  being  a  charter 

being    written    in    a   foreign    language  to  a  church  at  Ravenna,   m  57*,   is  in 

which  they  could  not  understand.  every  respect  the  most  curious;  and  in- 

i  Mabillon,  De  Re  Diplomatic*,  p  55.  deed  both  Mabillon  and  Muratqn  seem 
Ordericus  Vitahs,  a  more  candid  judge  never  to  have  seen  anything  written  on 
of  our  unfortunate  ancestors  than  other  papyrus,  though  they  trace  its  occasion- 
contemporary  annalists,  says  that  the  al  use  down  to  the  eleventh  or  twelfth 
English  were,  at  the  Conquest,  rude  and  centuries.  Mabillon,  De.  Re  Diploma- 
almost  illiterate,  which  he  ascribes  to  tica,  1.  u.;  Muraton,  Antichita  Italiane, 
the  Danish  invasion.  Du  Chesne,  Hist.  Dissert,  xliii.  p.  602.,  But  the  authors 
Norm.  Script,  p.  518.  However,  Ingul-  of  the  Nouveau  Traite  de  Diplomatique 
fus  tells  us  that  the  library  of  Croyland  speak  of  several  manuscripts  on  this 
contained  above  three  hundred  volumes,  material  as  extant  in  France  and  Italy, 
till  the  unfortunate  fire  that  destroyed  t.  i.  p.  493-  .  .  ,  . .  , 
that  abbey  in  1091.  Gale,  XV.  Scrip-  As  to  the  general  scarcity  and  high 
tores,  t.  i.  93.  Such  a  library  was  very  price  of  books  in  the  middle  ages,  Rob- 
extraordinary  in  the  eleventh  century,  ertson  (Introduction  to  Hist,  Charles 
and  could  not  have  been  equalled  for  V.  note  x.),  and  Warton  in  the  above- 
some  ages  afterwards.  Ingulfus  men-  cited  dissertation,  not  to  quote  authors 
tions  at  the  same  time  a  nadir,  as  he  less  accessible,  have  collected  some  ol 
calls  it,  or  planetarium,  executed  in  the  leading  facts;  to  whom  I  refer  the 
various  metals.  This  had  been  pre-  reader. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  23 

on  the  same  skin.  This  occasioned  the  loss  of  many  ancient 
authors,  who  have  made  way  for  the  legends  of  saints,  or  other 
ecclesiastical  rubbish. 

If  we  would  listen  to  some  literary  historians,  we  should 
believe  that  the  darkest  ages  contained  many  individuals,  not 
only  distinguished  among  their  contemporaries,  but  positively 
eminent  for  abilities  and  knowledge.  A  proneness  to  extol 
every  monk  of  whose  production  a  few  letters  or  a  devotional 
treatise  survives,  every  bishop  of  whom  it  is  related  that  he 
composed  homilies,  runs  through  the  laborious  work  of  the 
Benedictines  of  St.  Maur,  the  Literary  History  of  France,  and, 
in  a  less  degree,  is  observable  even  in  Tiraboschi,  and  in  most 
books  of  this  class.  Bede,  Alcuin,  Hincmar,  Raban,  and  a 
number  of  inferior  names,  become  real  giants  of  learning  in 
their  uncritical  panegyrics.  But  one  might  justly  say  that 
ignorance  is  the  smallest  defect  of  the  writers  of  these  dark 
ages.  Several  of  them  were  tolerably  acquainted  with  books  ; 
but  that  wherein  they  are  uniformly  deficient  is  original  argu- 
ment or  expression.  Almost  every  one  is  a  compiler  of  scraps 
from  the  fathers,  or  from  such  semi-classical  authors  as  Boe- 
thius,  Cassiodorus,  or  Martianus  Capella.fe  Indeed  I  am  not 
aware  that  there  appeared  more  than  two  really  considerable 
men  in  the  republic  of  letters  from  the  sixth  to  the  middle  of 
the  eleventh  century — John,  surnamed  Scotus  or  Erigena,  a 
native  of  Ireland ;  and  Gerbert,  who  became  pope  by  the  name 
of  Silvester  II. :  the  first  endowed  with  a  bold  and  acute  meta- 
physical genius ;  the  second  excellent,  for  the  time  when  he 
lived,  in  mathematical  science  and  mechanical  inventions.* 

k  Lest  I  should  seem  to  have  spoken  question  whether  he  can  be  reckoned 

too  peremptorily,  I  wish  it  to  be  under-  an  original  writer;  those  who  have  at- 

stood  that  I  pretend  to  hardly  any  direct  tended  most  to  his  treatise  De  Divisione 

acquaintance  with  these  writers,  and  Naturae,  the  most  abstruse  of  his  works, 

found  my  censure  on  the  authority  of  consider  it  as  the  development  of  an 

others,  chiefly  indeed  on  the  admissions  oriental  philosophy,  acquired  during  his 

of  these  who  are  too  disposed  to  fall  residence  in  Greece,  and  nearly  coin- 

into  a  strain  of  panegyric.  See  Histoire  ciding  with  some  of  the  later  Platonism 

Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  iv.  p.  281  et  of  the  Alexandrian  school,  but  with  a 

alibi.  more  unequivocal  tendency  to  panthe- 

/  John  Scotus,  who,  it  is  almost  need-  ism.  This  manifests  itself  in  some  ex- 
less  to  say,  must  not  be  confounded  with  tracts  which  have  latterly  been  made 
the  still  more  famous  metaphysician  from  the  treatise  De  Divisione  Naturae; 
Duns  Scotus,  lived  under  Charles  the  but  though  Scotus  had  not  the  reputa- 
Bald,  in  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century.  tion  of  unblemished  orthodoxy,  the  drift 
It  admits  of  no  doubt  that  John  Scotus  of  his  philosophy  was  not  understood  in 
was,  in  a  literary  and  philosophical  that  barbarous  period.  He  might,  in- 
sense,  the  most  remarkable  man  of  the  deed,  have  excited  censure  by  his  in- 
dark  ages;  no  one  else  had  his  bold-  trepid  preference  of  reason  to  ^authority, 
ness,  his  subtlety  in  threading  the  laby-  "  Authority,"  he  says,  "  springs  from 
rinths  of  metaphysical  speculations,  reason,  not  reason  from  authority— true 
which,  in  the  west  of  Europe,  had  been  reason  needs  not  be  confirmed  by  any 
utterly  disregarded.  But  it  is  another  authority."  "  La  veritable  importance 


24  HALLAM 

If  it  be  demanded  by  what  cause  it  happened  that  a  few 
sparks  of  ancient  learning  survived  throughout  this  long  win- 
ter, we  can  only  ascribe  their  preservation  to  the  establishment 
of  Christianity.  Religion  alone  made  a  bridge,  as  it  were,  across 
the  chaos,  and  has  linked  the  two  periods  of  ancient  and  modern 
civilization.  Without  this  connecting  principle,  Europe  might 
indeed  have  awakened  to  intellectual  pursuits,  and  the  genius 
of  recent  times  needed  not  to  be  invigorated  by  the  imitation  of 
antiquity.  But  the  memory  of  Greece  and  Rome  would  have 
been  feebly  preserved  by  tradition,  and  the  monuments  of  those 
nations  might  have  excited,  on  the  return  of  civilization,  that 
vague  sentiment  of  speculation  and  wonder  with  which  men 
now  contemplate  Persepolis  or  the  Pyramids.  It  is  not,  how- 
ever, from  religion  simply  that  we  have  derived  this  advan- 
tage, but  from  religion  as  it  was  modified  in  the  dark  ages. 
Such  is  the  complex  reciprocation  of  good  and  evil  in  the  dis- 
pensations of  Providence,  that  we  may  assert,  with  only  an 
apparent  paradox,  that,  had  religion  been  more  pure,  it  would 
have  been  less  permanent,  and  that  Christianity  has  been  pre- 
served by  means  of  its  corruptions.  The  sole  hope  for  lit- 
erature depended  on  the  Latin  language;  and  I  do  not  see 
why  that  should  not  have  been  lost,  if  three  circumstances  in 
the  prevailing  religious  system,  all  of  which  we  are  justly 
accustomed  to  disapprove,  had  not  conspired  to  maintain  it  — 
the  papal  supremacy,  the  monastic  institutions,  and  the  use  of 
a  Latin  liturgy,  i.  A  continual  intercourse  was  kept  tip,  in 
consequence  of  the  first,  between  Rome  and  the  several  na- 
tions of  Europe;  her  laws  were  received  by  the  bishops,  her 
legates  presided  in  councils  ;  so  that  a  common  language  was 
as  necessary  in  the  church  as  it  is  at  present  in  the  diplo- 
matic relations  of  kingdoms.  2.  Throughout  the  whole  course 
of  the  middle  ages  there  was  no  learning,  and  very  little  regu-* 
larity  of  manners,  among  the  parochial  clergy.  Almost  every 

historique,"  says  Ampere,  "  de  Scot  Kri-  seconde.  En  un  mot,  par  ses  kh'e%  Scot 

gene  nest  done  pas  dans  aes  opinions;  ftriffdne  est  encore  un  philoMouh*   d<* 

celles-ci  n'ont  d'autre  Intent  qwe  lewr  I'aatiuuitl   Grecque  et   par  IMnuJpcnd- 

date  et  le   lieu   oi\   elles  apparajasent.  anee  hai4t«mcnt  accuse*  de  son  point  de 

Sans  a0ut$,  ilt  est  piquant  et  Bizarre  de  yue  philofophiqve*  »  wt  <W  ««  d^van- 

vojr  cea  opinions  orientates  et  akxan-  cter  4«  1«  philosophic  modcrne."    Hist. 

gjr  an  JXe  sijicle,  &  Paris,  A  Litt  iii,  146. 


dirmej  gm-gjr  an  JXe  sijicle,  &  Paris,  A  Litt  iii,  146. 

la  CQW  de  Charles  Je  Chauve;  mais  ce  Silvester  IT.  died  in  1003,     Whether 

qwi  n'e^t;  B&9  sewlenient  piquant  et  bi-  he  ilrst  brovght  the  Arabic  numeration 

z^rre,   ce   q«i   ipteresjae   le   developpC"  into   Europe,   as   has   been   commonly 

ment.de  T^spnt  humain,  c'e§t  que  la  s^id,  »eem9  uncertain;  it  was  «t  l«*»st 

qyesti^n  atf  et^  pos6e?  de$  lors,  si  nettc-  not  rnvgh  practised  for  some  centuries 

ment  entre  Vautoritt  et  la  ralaon,  «t  91  fltcr  his  death. 
^nergiquement  resolute  en  favenr  de  la 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  25 

distinguished  man  was  either  the  member  of  a  chapter  or  of 
a  convent.  The  monasteries  were  subjected  to  strict  rules  of 
discipline,  and  held  out,  at  the  worst,  more  opportunities  for 
study  than  the  secular  clergy  possessed,  and  fewer  for  worldly 
dissipations.  But  their  most  important  service  was  as  secure 
repositories  for  books.  All  our  manuscripts  have  been  pre- 
served in  this  manner,  and  could  hardly  have  descended  to  us 
by  any  other  channel ;  at  least  there  were  intervals  when  I  do 
not  conceive  that  any  royal  or  private  libraries  existed.^ 
3.  Monasteries,  however,  would  probably  have  contributed 
very  little  towards  the  preservation  of  learning,  if  the  Scriptures 
and  the  liturgy  had  been  translated  out  of  Latin  when  that  lan- 
guage ceased  to  be  intelligible.  Every  rational  principle  of 
religious  worship  called  for  such  a  change ;  but  it  would  have 
been  made  at  the  expense  of  posterity.  One  might  presume, 
if  such  refined  conjectures  were  consistent  with  historical  cau- 
tion, that  the  more  learned  and  sagacious  ecclesiastics  of  those 
times,  deploring  the  gradual  corruption  of  the  Latin  tongue, 
and  the  danger  of  its  absolute  extinction,  were  induced  to  main- 
tain it  as  a  sacred  language,  and  the  depository,  as  it  were, 
of  that  truth  and  that  science  which  would  be  lost  in  the  bar- 
barous dialects  of  the  vulgar.  But  a  simpler  explanation  is 
found  in  the  radical  dislike  of  innovation  which  is  natural  to 
an  established  clergy.  Nor  did  they  want  as  good  pretexts,  on 
the  ground  of  convenience,  as  are  commonly  alleged  by  the 
opponents  of  reform,  They  were  habituated  to  the  Latin  words 
of  the  church-service,  which  had  become,  by  this  association, 
the  readiest  instruments  of  devotion,  and  with  the  majesty  of 

m  Charlemagne  had  a  library  at  Aix-  mentioned?    The    Rhetoric    of    Cicero 

la-Chapelle,    -which   he?    direqtcd   to    be  was   probably  the   spurious   books   Ad 

sold  at  his  death  for  the  benefit  of  the  Herennium.    But   other   libraries   must 

poor.    His  son  Louis  is  said  to  have  have   been   somewhat   better  furnished 

collected  some  books.    But  this  rather  than  this;  else  the  Latin  authors  would 

confirms,  on  the  whole,  my  supposition  have  been  still  less  known  in  the  ninth 

that,  in  some  periods,  no  royal  or  pri-  century  than  they  actually  were, 

vate  libraries  existed,  since  there  were  In  the  gradual  progress  of  learning,  a 

not  always  princes  or  nobles  with  the  very  small  number  of  princes  thought  it 

spirit  of  Charlemagne,   or   even  Louis  honorable  to  collect  books.  Perhaps  no 

the  Debonair.  earlier  instance  can  be  mentioned  than 

"  We  possess  a  catalogue,"  aaya  M-  that  of  a  most  respectable  man,  William 
Ampere  (quoting  d'Achery's  Spicilegi-  III.,  Duke  of  Guienne,  in  the  first  part 
urn,  ii,  310),  "  of  the  library  in  the  abW  of  the  eleventh  century.  Fuit  dux  iste, 
of  St.  Kiquier,  written  in  831;  it  con-  says  a  contemporary  writer,  a  puerjtia 
sj$t3  of  %$$  volumes,  some  containing  doptus  literis,  et  satis  notitjam  Scrip- 
several  works.  Christian  writers  are  in  turarum  habuit;  liborum  copiam  m 
gnat  majority;  but  w«i  ftnd  also  the  palatfa  suo  servavit;  et  si  forte  a  f re- 
Eclogues  of  Virgil,  the  Rhetoric  of  quentia  causarum  et  tumultu  vacaret, 
Cicero,  the  History  of  Homer,  that  is,  lectioni  per  selpsum  operam  dabat  low- 
the  works  ascribed  to  Dictys  and  onbus  noctibus  elucubrans  in  hbns 
Dares,"  Ampere,  iii.  236.  Can  any-  donee  sommo  vinceretur.  Kec.  des 
thing  be  lower  than  this,  If  nothing  is  Hist  x.  155. 
omitted  more  valuable  than  what  is 


26  H  ALLAH 

which  the  Romance  jargon  could  bear  no  comparison.  Their 
musical  chants  were  adapted  to  these  sounds,  and  their  hymns 
depended,  for  metrical  effect,  on  the  marked  accents  and 
powerful  rhymes  which  the  Latin  language  affords.  The  vul- 
gate  Latin  of  the  Bible  was  still  more  venerable.  It  was  like 
a  copy  of  a  lost  original ;  and  a  copy  attested  by  one  of  the 
most  eminent  fathers,  and  by  the  general  consent  of  the  church. 
These  are  certainly  no  adequate  excuses  for  keeping  the  people 
in  ignorance ;  and  the  gross  corruption  of  the  middle  ages  h 
in  a  great  degree  assignable  to  this  policy.  But  learning,  and 
consequently  religion,  have  eventually  derived  from  it  the  ut- 
most advantage. 

In  the  shadows  of  this  universal  ignorance,  a  thousand  super- 
stitions, like  foul  animals  of  night,  were  propagated  and  nour- 
ished. It  would  be  very  unsatisfactory  to  exhibit  a  few  speci- 
mens of  this  odious  brood,  when  the  real  character  of  those 
times  is  only  to  be  judged  by  their  accumulated  multitude.  In 
every  age  it  would  be  easy  to  select  proofs  of  irrational  super- 
stition, which,  separately  considered,  seem  to  degrade  mankind 
from  its  level  in  the  creation ;  and  perhaps  the  contemporaries 
of  Swedenborg  and  Southcote  have  no  right  to  look  very  con- 
temptuously upon  the  fanaticism  of  their  ancestors.  There  are 
many  books  from  which  a  sufficient  number  of  instances  may 
be  collected  to  show  the  absurdity  and  ignorance  of  the  middle 
ages  in  this  respect.  I  shall  only  mention  two,  as  affording 
more  general  evidence  than  any  local  or  obscure  superstition. 
In  the  tenth  century  an  opinion  prevailed  everywhere  that  the 
end  of  the  world  was  approaching.  Many  charters  begin  with 
these  words,  "  As  the  world  is  now  drawing  to  its  close/'  An 
army  marching  under  the  Emperor  Otho  L  was  so  terrified  by 
an  eclipse  of  the  sun,  which  it  conceived  to  announce  this  con- 
summation, as  to  disperse  hastily  on  all  sides.  As  this  notion 
seems  to  have  been  founded  on  some  confused  theory  of  the 
millenium,  it  naturally  died  away  when  the  seasons  proceeded 
in  the  eleventh  century  with  their  usual  regularity .«  A  far  more 
remarkable  and  permanent  superstition  was  the  appeal  to 
Heaven  in  judicial  controversies,  whether  through  the  means 
of  combat  or  of  ordeal.  The  principle  of  these  was  the  same ; 
but  in  the  former  it  was  mingled  with  feelings  independent  of 

n  Robertson,    Introduction    to    Hist,       Allemands,  t.  ii.  p.  380;  Hist  LitteVair* 
Charles  V.  note  13;   Schmidt.  Hist,  des       de  la  France,  t.  vi. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  27 

religion — the  natural  dictates  of  resentment  in  a  brave  man  un- 
justly accused,  and  the  sympathy  of  a  warlike  people  with  the 
display  of  skill  and  intrepidity.  These,  in  course  of  time,  almost 
obliterated  the  primary  character  of  judicial  combat,  and  ulti- 
mately changed  it  into  the  modern  duel,  in  which  assuredly 
there  is  no  mixture  of  superstitions  But,  in  the  various  tests 
of  innocence  which  were  called  ordeals,  this  stood  undisguised 
and  unqualified.  It  is  not  necessary  to  describe  what  is  so  well 
known — the  ceremonies  of  trial  by  handling  hot  iron,  by  plung- 
ing the  arm  into  boiling  fluids,  by  floating  or  sinking  in  cold 
water,  or  by  swallowing  a  piece  of  consecrated  bread.  It  is  ob- 
servable that,  as  the  interference  of  Heaven  was  relied  upon 
as  a  matter  of  course,  it  seems  to  have  been  reckoned  nearly 
indifferent  whether  such  a  test  was  adopted  as  must,  humanly 
considered,  absolve  all  the  guilty,  or  one  that  must  convict  all 
the  innocent.  The  ordeals  of  hot  iron  or  water  were,  however, 
more  commonly  used ;  and  it  has  been  a  perplexing  question 
by  what  dexterity  these  tremendous  proofs  were  eluded.  They 
seem  at  least  to  have  placed  the  decision  of  all  judicial  contro- 
versies in  the  hands  of  the  clergy,  who  must  have  known  the 
secret,  whatever  that  might  be,  of  satisfying  the  spectators  that 
an  accused  person  had  held  a  mass  of  burning  iron  with  impu- 
nity. For  several  centuries  this  mode  of  investigation  was  in 
great  repute,  though  not  without  opposition  from  some  emi- 
nent bishops.  It  does  discredit  to  the  memory  of  Charlemagne 
that  he  was  one  of  its  warmest  advocates .£  But  the  judicial 
combat,  which  indeed  might  be  reckoned  one  species  of  ordeal, 

o  Duelling,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  p  Baluzii  Capitularia,  p.  444-     It  was 

word,  exclusive  of  casual  frays  and  sin-  prohibited  by  Louis  the   Debonair;    a 

gle  combat  during  war,  was  unknown  man,  as  I  have  noticed  in  another  place, 

before  the  sixteenth  century.     But  we  not    inferior,    as    a    legislator,    to    his 

find  one  anecdote  which  seems  to  illus-  father.     Ibid.  p.   668.     "  The  spirit  of 

trate    its   derivation   from   the    judicial  party,"  says  a  late  writer,  "has  often 

combat.    The  dukes  of  Lancaster  and  accused  the  church  of  having  devised 

Brunswick,    having    some    differences,  these  barbarous  methods  of  discovering 

agreed  to  decide  them  by  duel  before  truth— the  duel  and  the  ordeal;  nothing 

John  King  of  France.     The  lists  were  can  be  more  unjust.     Neither, one  nor 

prepared  with  the  solemnity  of  a  real  the  other  is  derived  from  Christianity; 

trial  by  battle;    but  the  king  interfered  they  existed  long  before  in  the.German- 

to  prevent  the  engagement.     Villaret,  ic  usages."    Ampere,  Hist.  Litt.  de  la 

t.  ix,  p.  71.    The  barbarous  practice  ot  France,    iii.    180.     Anyone    must    have 

wearing  swords  as  a  part  of  domestic  been  very  ignorant  who  attributed  the 

dress,  which  tended  very  much  to  the  invention  of  ordeals  to  the  church.    But 

frequency   of   duelling,    was  not  intro-  during  the  dark  ages  they  were  always 

duced  till  the  latter  part  of  the  i$th  cen-  sanctioned.     Agobard,  .from  whom  M. 

tury.    I  can  only  find  one  print  in  Mont-  Ampere  gives  a  quotation,  in  the  reign 

faucon's    Monuments    of    the    French  of  Louis  the  Debonair  wrote  strongly 

monarchy  where  a  sword  is  worn  with-  against  them;    but  this  was  the  remon- 

out  armor  before  the  reign  of  Charles  strance  of  a   superior  man   in  an  age 

VIII.:    though  a  few,  as  early  as  the  that  was  ill-inclined  to  hear  him. 
reign  of  Charles  VI.,  have  short  dag- 
gers in  their  girdles.    The  exception  is 
a  figure  of  Charles  VII.  t.  Hi.  pi.  47- 


28  HALLAM 

gradually  put  an  end  to  the  rest ;  and  as  the  church  acquired 
better  notions  of  law,  and  a  code  of  her  own,  she  strenuously 
exerted  herself  against  all  these  barbarous  superstitions^ 

But  the  religious  ignorance  of  the  middle  ages  sometimes 
burst  out  in  ebullitions  of  epidemical  enthusiasm,  more  remark- 
able than  these  superstitious  usages,  though  proceeding  in  fact 
from  similar  causes.  For  enthusiasm  is  little  else  than  super- 
stition put  in  motion,  and  is  equally  founded  on  a  strong  con- 
viction of  supernatural  agency  without  any  just  conceptions 
of  its  nature.  Nor  has  any  denomination  of  Christians  pn> 
duced,  or  even  sanctioned,  more  fanaticism  than  the  church  of 
Rome.  These  epidemical  frenzies,  however,  to  which  I  am  al- 
luding, were  merely  tumultuous,  though  certainly  fostered  by 
the  creed  of  perpetual  miracles  which  the  clergy  inculcated,  and 
drawing  a  legitimate  precedent  for  religious  insurrection  from 
the  crusades.  For  these,  among  other  evil  consequences,  seem 
to  have  principally  excited  a  wild  fanaticism  that  did  not  sleep 
for  several  centuries.^ 

The  first  conspicuous  appearance  of  it  was  in  the  reign  of 
Philip  Augustus,  when  the  mercenary  troops,  dismissed  from 
the  pay  of  that  prince  and  of  Henry  II.,  committed  the  greatest 
outrages  in  the  south  of  France.  One  Durancl,  a  carpenter, 
deluded  it  is  said  by  a  contrived  appearance  of  the  Virgin,  put 
himself  at  the  head  of  an  army  of  the  populace,  in  order  to  de- 
stroy these  marauders.  His  followers  were  styled  Brethren  of 
the  White  Caps,  from  the  linen  coverings  of  their  heads.  They 
bound  themselves  not  to  play  at  dice  nor  frequent  taverns, 
to  wear  no  affected  clothing,  to  avoid  perjury  and  vain  swear- 

g  Ordeals  were  not  actually  abolished  known,  that  protect  the  akin  to  a  ear* 

in  France,  notwithstanding  the  law  of  tarn  degree  against  the   effect   of   fire. 

Louis  above-mentioned,  so  hite  as  the  This  phenomenon  would  paaa  for  mi* 

eleventh  century  (Bouquet,  t.  xi,  p.  430),  raculous,  and  form  the  basis  of  thos* 

nor  in  England  till  the  reign  of  Henry  exaggerated  stories  in  monkish  bookn. 

III.     Some    of   the    stones    we    read,  r  The  most  singular  ^effect  of  thin  cm- 

wherein  accused  persons   have  passed  sad  ing   spirit   was   witnessed    in    un, 

triumphantly     through     these     severe  when  a  multitude,  amounting,  at*  some 

proofs,  are  perplexing  enough ;  and  per-  say,  to  90,000,  chiefly  composed  of  chil- 

haps  it  is  safer,  as  well  as  easier,  to  drew,  and  commanded  by  a  child*  set 

deny  than  to  explain  them.    For  exam-  out  for  the  purpose  of  recovering  the 

pie,  a  writer  in  the  Archaeologia  (vol.  Holy  Land.    They  came  for  the  must 

xv.  p.  172)  has  shown  that  Emma,  Queen  part  from  Germany,  and  reached  Genoa 

of  Edward  the  Confessor,  did  not  per*  without  harm,     lJut,  finding  there  an 

form  her  trial  1>y  (stepping  between,  as  obstacle  which  their  imp«*mct  knowl- 

Blackstone  imagines,  but  upon  nine  red-  edge  of  geography  had  not  anticipated, 

hot  ploughshares.     But  he  seems  not  they  soon  dispersed  in  various  dirt-c- 

aware  that  the  whole  story  is  unsup*  tians.    Thirty  thousand  arrived  at  Mar* 

ported  by  any  contemporary  or  even  settles,  whera  part  were  murdered,  part 

respectable  testimony.    A  similar  anec-  probably  starved,  and  the  rest  sold  to 

dote  is  related  of  Cunegunda,  wife  of  the  Saracens.    Anna.li  di  Mu 


imony.    A  sirml 

of  Cunegunda, 

lenry  II,,  whicl 


uwbc.    13    rciausu    u*    ^uuvjguuua,    yvuo    ui  Miff   £>fueti*i;u«*      rvnrmn   ui    Wiwrxiiiuri*  A>JH« 

the  emperor  Henry  II,,  which  proba-  unjVelly,  Hist,  de  France,  t  iv«  p. 

bly  gave  rise  to  that  of  Emma.    There  ao6. 
are,  however,  medicaments,  as  is  well 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES 


29 


ing.  After  some  successes  over  the  plunderers,  they  went  so 
far  as  to  forbid  the  lords  to  take  any  dues  from  their  vassals, 
on  pain  of  incurring  the  indignation  of  the  brotherhood.  It 
may  easily  be  imagined  that  they  were  soon  entirely  discom- 
fited, so  that  no  one  dared  to  own  that  he  had  belonged  to 
them.-s 

During  the  captivity  of  St.  Louis  in  Egypt,  a  more  exten- 
sive and  terrible  ferment  broke  out  in  Flanders,  and  spread 
from  thence  over  great  part  of  France.  An  impostor  declared 
himself  commissioned  by  the  Virgin  to  preach  a  crusade,  not 
to  the  rich  and  noble,  who  for  their  pride  had  been  rejected 
of  God,  but  the  poor.  His  disciples  were  called  Pastoureaux, 
the  simplicity  of  shepherds  having  exposed  them  more  readily 
to  this  delusion.  In  a  short  time  they  were  swelled  by  the 
confluence  of  abundant  streams  to  a  moving  mass  of  a  hundred 
thousand  men,  divided  into  companies,  with  banners  bearing 
a  cross  and  a  lamb,  and  commanded  by  the  impostor's  lieuten- 
ants. He  assumed  a  priestly  character,  preaching,  absolving, 
annulling  marriages,  'At  Amiens,  Bourges,  Orleans,  and  Paris 
itself,  he  was  received  as  a  divine  prophet.  Even  the  regent 
Blanche,  for  a  time,  was  led  away  by  the  popular  tide.  His 
main  topic  was  reproach  of  the  clergy  for  their  idleness  and 
corruption — a  theme  well  adapted  to  the  ears  of  the  people,  who 
had  long  been  uttering  similar  strains  of  complaint.  In  some 
towns  his  followers  massacred  the  priests  and  plundered  the 
monasteries.  The  government  at  length  began  to  exert  itself; 
and  the  public  sentiment  turning  against  the  authors  of  so 
much  confusion,  this  rabble  was  put  to  the  sword  or  dissi- 
pated.* Seventy  years  afterwards  an  insurrection,  almost  ex- 
actly parallel  to  this,  burst  out  under  the  same  pretence  of 
a  crusade.  These  insurgents,  too,  bore  the  name  of  Pastou- 
reaux, and  their  short  career  was  distinguished  by  a  general 
massacre  of  the  Jews.** 

But  though  the  contagion  of  fanaticism  spreads  much  more 
rapidly  among  the  populace,  and  in  modern  times  is  almost 
entirely  confined  to  it,  there  were  examples,  in  the  middle  ages, 
of  an  epidemical  religious  lunacy,  from  which  no  class  was 
exempt.  One  of  these  occurred  about  the  year  1260,  when 

$  Velly.  t.  iii.  p.  295;  Dti  Cange,  v.  «  Velly,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  viii.  p.  99. 

Capuciati.  The  contmuator  of  Nangis  says,  sicut 

t  Vclly,  Hist  de  France,  t.  v,  p.  y;  furnus  sufoitd  evanuit  tota  ilia  commotio. 

Du  Cange,  v.  PastorelH.  Spicilegium,  t,  iii.  p.  77. 


3o  HALLAM 

a  multitude  of  every  rank,  age,  and  sex,  marching  two  by  two 
in  procession  along  the  streets  and  public  roads,  mingled  groans 
and  dolorous  hymns  with  the  sound  of  leathern  scourges  which 
they  exercised  upon  their  naked  backs.  From  this  mark  of 
penitence,  which,  as  it  bears  at  least  all  the  appearance  of  sin- 
cerity, is  not  uncommon  in  the  church  of  Rome,  they  acquired 
the  name  of  Flagellants.  Their  career  began,  it  is  said,  at 
Perugia,  whence  they  spread  over  the  rest  of  Italy,  and  into 
Germany  and  Poland-  As  this  spontaneous  fanaticism  met 
with  no  encouragement  from  the  church,  and  was  prudently 
discountenanced  by  the  civil  magistrate,  it  died  away  in  a  very 
short  time.*'  But  it  is  more  surprising  that,  after  almost  a 
century  and  a  half  of  continual  improvement  and  illumination, 
another  irruption  of  popular  extravagance  burst  out  under  cir- 
cumstances exceedingly  similar.^  €t  In  the  month  of  August, 
J399/J  says  a  contemporary  historian,  "  there  appeared  all  over 
Italy  a  description  of  persons,  called  Bianchi,  from  the  white 
linen  vestment  that  they  wore.  They  passed  from  province 
to  province,  and  from  city  to  city,  crying  out  Miscricordia  I 
with  their  faces  covered  and  bent  towards  the  ground,  and 
bearing  before  them  a  great  crucifix.  Their  constant  song 
was,  Stabat  Mater  dolorosa.  This  lasted  three  months;  and 
whoever  did  not  attend  their  procession  was  reputed  a  heretic."* 
Almost  every  Italian  writer  of  the  time  takes  notice  of  these 
Bianchi  ;  and  Muratori  ascribes  a  remarkable  reformation  of 
manners  (though  certainly  a  very  transient  one)  to  their  influ- 
ences Nor  were  they  confined  to  Italy,  though  no  such  meri- 
torious exertions  are  imputed  to  them  in  other  countries,  In 
France  their  practice  of  covering  the  face  gave  such  oppor- 
tunity to  crimes  as  to  be  prohibited  by  the  government  ;  *  and 
we  have  an  act  on  the  rolls  of  the  first  parliament  of  Henry  IV\> 
forbidding  anyone,  "  under  pain  of  forfeiting  all  his  worth,  to 
receive  the  new  sect  in  white  clothes,  pretending  to  great 
sanctity,"  which  had  recently  appeared  in  foreign  parts/1  <* 


y,  t.  v,  p,  379;    Du  Cange,  v.  common   among   individuals*  that    we 

Verberatio,  cannot  be  surprised  at  their  sometime* 

w  Something  of  a  similar  kind  is  men-  becoming  in  a  manner  national.    Azft- 

tioned  by,  G.   Villani,   under  the  year  rius,  a  chronicler  of  Milan*  after  de- 

13x0,    1.  viii.  c.  122.  scribing  the  almost  incredible  dtasolute- 

*  Annal.  Mediolan  m  Murat.  Script.  ness  of  Pavia,  gives  an  account  of  an 

Rer.  Ital.  t.  xvi.  p.  832;  G.  Stella.  Ann.  instantaneous  reformation  -wrought  by 

Genuens.  t.  xvii.  p.  107$:   Chron.  Foro-  the  preaching  of  a  certain  friar,    Thi* 

hviense,   t.  .xix.   p.   874;    Ann    Bonin-  was  about  1350.    Script.  Rer.  Ital  t,  xvi. 

contn,  t.  xxi,  p.  79.  p.  375. 

y  Dissert.  75.    Sudden  transitions  from  g  villaret,  t.  xii.  p.  327. 

profligate  to  austere  manners  were  so  a  Rot,  Parl,  v,  iii.  p,  438. 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  31 

The  devotion  of  the  multitude  was  wrought  to  this  feverish 
height  by  the  prevailing  system  of  the  clergy.  In  that  singular 
polytheism,  which  had  been  grafted  on  Christianity,  nothing 
was  so  conspicuous  as  the  belief  of  perpetual  miracles — if  in- 
deed those  could  properly  be  termed  miracles  which,  by  their 
constant  recurrence,  even  upon  trifling  occasions,  might  seem 
within  the  ordinary  dispensations  of  Providence.  These  super- 
stitions arose  in  what  are  called  primitive  times,  and  are  cer- 
tainly no  part  of  popery,  if  in  that  word  we  include  any  especial 
reference  to  the  Roman  see.  But  successive  ages  of  ignorance 
swelled  the  delusion  to  such  an  enormous  pitch,  that  it  was 
as  difficult  to  trace,  we  may  say  without  exaggeration,  the  real 
religion  of  the  Gospel  in  the  popular  belief  of  the  laity,  as  the 
real  history  of  Charlemagne  in  the  romance  of  Turpin.  It  must 
not  be  supposed  that  these  absurdities  were  produced,  as  well 
as  nourished,  by  ignorance.  In  most  cases  they  were  the  work 
of  deliberate  imposture.  Every  cathedral  or  monastery  had 
its  tutelar  saint,  and  every  saint  his  legend,  fabricated  in  order 
to  enrich  the  churches  under  his  protection,  by  exaggerating 
his  virtues,  his  miracles,  and  consequently  his  power  of  serving 
those  who  paid  liberally  for  his  patronage.fr  Many  of  those 
saints  were  imaginary  persons ;  sometimes  a  blundered  inscrip- 
tion added  a  name  to  the  calendar,  and  sometimes,  it  is  said, 
a  heathen  god  was  surprised  at  the  company  to  which  he  was 
introduced,  and  the  rites  with  which  he  was  honored.^ 

It  would  not  be  consonant  to  the  nature  of  the  present  work 
to  dwell  upon  the  erroneousness  of  this  religion ;  but  its  effect 
upon  the  moral  and  intellectual  character  of  mankind  was  so 
prominent,  that  no  one  can  take  a  philosophical  view  of  the 
middle  ages  without  attending  more  than  is  at  present  fash- 
ionable to  their  ecclesiastical  history.  That  the  exclusive  wor- 
ship of  saints,  under  the  guidance  of  an  artful  though  illiterate 
priesthood,  degraded  the  understanding  and  begot  a  stupid 
credulity  and  fanaticism,  is  sufficiently  evident.  But  it  was 
also  so  managed  as  to  loosen  the  bonds  of  religion  and  pervert 
the  standard  of  morality.  If  these  inhabitants  of  heaven  had 
been  represented  as  stern  avengers,  accepting  no  slight  atone- 
ment for  heavy  offences,  and  prompt  to  interpose  their  control 

&  This  is  confessed  by  the  authors  of  c  Middleton's  Letter  from  Rome.    If 

Histoire  Litte*raire  de  la  France,  t.  ii.  p.  some  of  our  eloquent  countryman's  po- 

tand  indeed  by  many  Catholic  writers.  sitions  should  be  disputed,  there  are  still 

need  not  quote  Mosheim,  who  more  abundant  Catholic  testimonies  that  im- 

than  confirms  every  word  of  my  text.  aginary  saints  have  been  canonized. 


32  HALLAM 

over  natural  events  for  the  detection  and  punishment  of  guilt, 
the  creed,  however  impossible  to  be  reconciled  with  experi- 
ence, might  have  proved  a  salutary  check  upon  a  rude  people, 
and  would  at  least  have  had  the  only  palliation  that  can  be 
offered  for  a  religious  imposture,  its  political  expediency.  In 
the  legends  of  those  times,  on  the  contrary,  they  appeared  only 
as  perpetual  intercessors,  so  good-natured  and  so  powerful, 
that  a  sinner  was  more  emphatically  foolish  than  he  is  usually 
represented  if  he  failed  to  secure  himself  against  any  bad  con- 
sequences. For  a  little  attention  to  the  saints,  and  especially 
to  the  Virgin,  with  clue  liberality  to  their  servants,  had  saved, 
he  would  be  told,  so  many  of  the  most  atrocious  delinquents, 
that  he  might  equitably  presume  upon  similar  luck  in  his  own 
case, 

This  monstrous  superstition  grew  to  its  height  in  the  twelfth 
century.  For  the  advance  that  learning  then  niacle  was  by 
no  means  sufficient  to  counteract  the  vast  increase  of  monas- 
teries, and  the  opportunities  which  the  greater  cultivation  of 
modern  languages  afforded  for  the  diffusion  of  legendary  tales. 
It  was  now,  too,  that  the  veneration  paid  to  the  Virgin,  in  early 
times  very  great,  rose  to  an  almost  exclusive  idolatry.  It  is 
difficult  to  conceive  the  stupid  absurdity  and  the  disgusting 
profaneness  of  those  stories  which  were  invented  by  the  monks 
to  do  her  honor.  A  few  examples  have  been  thrown  into  a 


d  Le  Grand  d'Aussy  has  given  its,  in  Cologne,  lived  a  monk  perfectly  disso- 

the  fifth  volume  of  his  Fabliaux,  several  lute   and   irreligious,    but   very   devout 

of    the    religious    tales    by    which    the  towards  the  Apostle.    Unluckily  he  died 

monks  endeavored  to  withdraw  the  peo-  suddenly     without     confession.      The 

pie   from    romances   of   chivalry.      The  fiends  came  as  usual  lo  seize  hi«  soul 

following    specimens    will    abundantly  St.  Peter,  vexed  at  losing  so  faithful  a 

confirm  my  assertions,  which  may  per-  votary,  besought  God  to  admit  the  monk 

haps  appear  harsh  and  extravagant  to  into  Paradise*    His  prayer  -was  refunedj 

the  reader.  and  though  the  whole  body  of  saints. 

There  was  a  man  whose  occupation  apostles,  angels,  and  martyrs  joined  at 

was  highway  robbery;   but  whenever  he  his  request  to  make  interest,  it  was  of 

set  out  on  any  such  expedition,  he  was  no  avail,    in  thiff  extremity  he"  had  rf« 

careful  to  address  a  prayer  to  the  Virgin.  course  to  the  Mother  of  (5od-    "  t«*nir 

Taken  at  last,  he  was  sentenced  to  be  lady,"  he  said,  "my  monk  ift  fo«t   if 

hanged.    While  the  cord  was  round  his  you  do  not  interfere  for  him;   but  what 

neck  he  made  his  usual  prayer,  nor  was  is  impossible  for  us  will  be  but  sport  to 

it  ineffectual.    The  Virgin  supported  his  you,  if  you  please  to  assist  us,     Your 

feet  "  with  her  white  hands/'  and  thus  Son,  if, you  but  apeak  a  word,  must  yield, 

kept  him  alive  two  clays,  to  the  no  small  since  it  is  in  your  power  to  command 

surprise   of   the   executi9ner,   who   at-  *-'—  "     ****•    **•-—-    >j*    J 
tempted   to    complete    his    work    with 

strokes  of  a  sword.     But  the  same  in-        ,. ,  „,  _„._ 

visible  hand  turned  aside  the  weapon,  given  the  precept,  Honor  thy  father  and 

aftd  tne  executioner  was  compelled  to  thy  mother,   no   sooner   saw   his   own 

release  his  victim,  acknowledging  the  parent  approach  than  he  rose  to  receive 

miracle.    The  thief  retired  into  a  men-  her;    ana  taking  her  by  the  hand  in* 

astery,  which  is  always  the  termination  quired  her  wishes,    The  rest  may  be 

of  these  deliverances.      M      .  easily  conjectured*    Compare  the  gross 

At  the  monastery  of  St.  Peter,  near  stupidity,  or  rather  the  atrocious  im- 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES 


33 


Whether  the  superstition  of  these  dark  ages  had  actually 
passed  that  point  when  it  becomes  more  injurious  to  public 
morals  and  the  welfare  of  society  than  the  entire  absence  of  all 
religious  notions  is  a  very  complex  question,  upon  which  I 
would  by  no  means  pronounce  an  affirmative  decision.*  A 
salutary  influence,  breathed  from  the  spirit  of  a  more  genuine 
religion,  often  displayed  itself  among  the  corruptions  of  a  de- 
generate superstition.  In  the  original  principles  of  monastic 
orders,  and  the  rules  by  which  they  ought  at  least  to  have  been 
governed,  there  was  a  character  of  meekness,  self-denial,  and 
charity  that  could  not  wholly  be  effaced.  These  virtues,  rather 
than  justice  and  veracity,  were  inculcated  by  the  religious  ethics 
of  the  middle  ages ;  and  in  the  relief  of  indigence  it  may,  upon 
the  whole,  be  asserted  that  the  monks  did  not  fall  short  of 
their  profession/  This  eleemosynary  spirit  indeed  remarkably 


piety  of  this  tale,  with  the  pure  theism 
of  the  Arabian  Nights,  and  judge 
whether  the  Deity  was  better  wor- 
shipped at  Cologne  or  at  Bagdad. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  multiply  instances 
of  this  kind.  In  one  tale  the  Virgin 
takes  the  shape  of  a  nun,  who  had 
eloped  from  the  convent,  and  performs 
her  duties  ten  years,  till,  tired  of  a  liber- 
tine life,  she  returns  unsuspected.  This 
was  in  consideration  of  her  having  never 
omitted  to  say  an  Ave  as  she  passed  the 
Virgin's  image.  In  another,  a  gentle- 
man, in  love  -with  a  handsome  widow, 
consents,  at  the  instigation  of  a  sorcerer, 
to  renounce  God  and  the  saints,  but 
cannot  be  persuaded  to  give  up  the 
Virgin,  well  knowing  that  if  he  kept 
her  his  friend  he  should  obtain  pardon 
through  her  means.  Accordingly  she 
inspired  his  mistress  with  so  much  pas- 
sion that  he  married  her  within  a  few 

These  tales,  it  may  be  said,  were  the 
production  of  ignorant  men,  and  circu- 
lated among  the  populace.  Certainly 
they  would  Tiave  excited  contempt  and 
indignation  in  the  more  enlightened 
clergy.  But  I  am  concerned  with  the 
general  character  of  religious  notion*! 
among  the  people:  and  tor  this  it  is 
better  to  take  such  popular  composi- 
tions, adapted  to  what  the  laity  already 
believed,  than  the  writings  of  compara- 
tively learned  and  reflecting  men.  How- 
ever, stories  of  the  same  cast  are  fre- 
quent in  the  monkish  historians,  Mat- 
thew Paris,  one  of  the  most  respectable 
of  that  class,  and  no  friend  to  the  covet- 
ousness  or  relaxed  lives  of  the  priest- 
hood, tells  tis  of  a  knight  who  was  on 
the  point  of  being  damned  for  frequent- 
ing tournaments,  but  saved  by  a  dona- 
tion he  had  formerly  made  to  the  Vir- 
gin* P.  ago. 

e  This  hesitation  about  so  important  a 
question  is  what  I  would  by  no  means 
repeat.  Beyond  every  doubt,  the  evils 

Vot,  III,— 3 


of  superstition  in  the  middle  ages, 
though  separately  considered  very  seri- 
ous, are  not  to  be  weighed  against  Hie 
benefits  of  the  religion  with  which  they 
were  so  mingled.  The  fashion  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  among  Protestants 
especially,  was  to  exaggerate  the  crimes 
and  follies  of  mediaeval  ages — perhaps 
1  have  fallen  into  it  a  little  too  much; 
in  the  present,  we  seem  more  in  danger 
of  extenuating  them.  We  still  want  an 
inflexible  impartiality  in  all  that  borders 
on  ecclesiastical  history,  which,  I  be- 
lieve, has  never  been  displayed  ^on  an 
extensive  scale.  A  more  captivating 
book  can  hardly  be  named  than  the 
Mores  Cathohci  of  Mr,  Digby;  and  it 
contains  certainly  a  great  deal  of  truth ; 
but  the  general  effect  is  that  of  a  mirage, 
which  confuses  and  deludes  the  sight. 
If  those  "  ages  of  faith  "  were  as  noble, 
as  pure,  as  full  of  human  kindness,  as 
he  has  delineated  them,  we  have  had  a 
bad  exchange  in  the  centuries  since  the 
Reformation.  And  those  who  gaze  at 
Mr.  Digby's  enchantments  will  do  well 
to  consider  how  they  can  better  escape 
this  consequence  than  he  has  done.  Dr. 
Maitland's  Letters  on  the  Dark  Ages, 
and  a  great  deal  more  that  comes  from 
the  pseudo-Anglican  or  Anglo-Catholic 
press,  converge  to  the  same  end;  a 
strong  sympathy  with  the  mediaeval 
church,  a  great  indulgence  to  its  errors, 
and  indeed  a  reluctance  to  admit  them, 
with  a  corresponding  estrangement 
from  all  that  has  passed  in  the  last  three 
centuries.  [1848.] 

/.I  am  inclined  to  acquiesce  in  this 
general  opinion;  yet  an  account  of  ex- 
penses at  Bolton  Abbey,  about  the  reign 
of  Edward  II,,  published  in  Whitaker's 
History  of  Craven,  p,  51,  makes  a  very 
scanty  show  of  almsgiving  in  this  opu- 
lent monastery,  Much,  however,  was 
no  doubt  given  in  victuals.  But  it  is  a 
strange  error  to  conceive  that  English 
monasteries  before  the  dissolution  fed 


34 


HALLAM 


distinguishes  both  Christianity  and  Mohammedanism  from  the 
moral  systems  of  Greece  and  Rome,  which  were  very  deficient 
in  general  humanity  and  sympathy  with  suffering.  Nor  do  we 
find  in  any  single  instance  during  ancient  times,  if  I  mistake 
not,  those  public  institutions  for  the  alleviation  of  human  mis- 
eries which  have  long  been  scattered  over  every  part  of  Europe. 
The  virtues  of  the  monks  assumed  a  still  higher  character  when 
they  stood  forward  as  protectors  of  the  oppressed,  By  an 
established  law,  founded  on  very  ancient  superstition,  the  pre- 
cincts of  a  church  afforded  sanctuary  to  accused  persons.  Un- 
der a  due  administration  of  justice  this  privilege  would  have 
been  simply  and  constantly  mischievous,  as  we  properly  con- 
sider  it  to  be  in  those  countries  where  it  still  subsists.  But  in 
the  rapine  and  tumult  of  the  middle  ages  the  right  of  sanctuary 
might  as  often  be  a  shield  to  innocence  as  an  immunity  to 
crime.  We  can  hardly  regret,  in  reflecting  on  the  desolating 
violence  which  prevailed,  that  there  should  have  been  some 
green  spots  in  the  wilderness  where  the  feeble  and  the  perse- 
cuted could  find  refuge.  How  must  this  right  have  enhanced 
the  veneration  for  religious  institutions!  How  gladly  must 
the  victims  of  internal  warfare  have  turned  their  eyes  from 
the  baronial  castle,  the  dread  and  scourge  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, to  those  venerable  walls  within  which  not  even  the  clamor 
of  arms  could  be  heard  to  disturb  the  chant  of  holy  men  and  the 
sacred  service  of  the  altar!  The  protection  of  the  sanctuary 
was  never  withheld.  A  son  of  Chilperic  King  of  France  having 
fled  to  that  of  Tours,  his  father  threatened  to  ravage  all  the 
lands  of  the  church  unless  they  gave  him  up.  Gregory  the 
historian,  bishop  of  the  city,  replied  in  the  name  of  his  clergy 
that  Christians  could  not  be  guilty  of  an  act  unheard  of  among 
pagans.  The  king  was  as  good  as  his  word,  and  did  not  spare 
the  estate  of  the  church,  but  dared  not  infringe  its  privileges. 
He  had  indeed  previously  addressed  a  letter  to  St.  Martin, 
which  was  laid  on  his  tomb  in  the  church,  requesting  permis- 
sion to  take  away  his  son  by  force ;  but  the  honest  saint  re- 
turned no  answers 

the  indigent  part  of  the  nation,  and  To  religious  that  have  no  ruthe  though 

gave  that  general  relief  which  the  poor-  it  raine  on  their  aitltres; 

laws  are  intended  to  afford.  In  many  places  there  the  parsons  be 

Piers  Plowman  is  indeed  a  satirist;  thcmself  at  ease, 

but  he  plainly  charges  the  monks  with  Of  the  poor  they  have  no  pitte  and  that 
want  of  charity.  is  their  poor  charitie. 

Little  had  lordes  to  do  to  give  landes          g  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t  I* 
from  their  heires  p,  374, 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  35 

The  virtues  indeed,  or  supposed  virtues,  which  had  induced 
a  credulous  generation  to  enrich  so  many  of  the  monastic  or- 
ders, were  not  long  preserved.  We  must  reject,  in  the  excess 
of  our  candor,  all  testimonies  that  the  middle  ages  present, 
from  the  solemn  declaration  of  councils  and  reports  of  judicial 
inquiry  to  the  casual  evidence  of  common  fame  in  the  ballad 
or  romance,  if  we  would  extenuate  the  general  corruption  of 
those  institutions.  In  vain  new  rules  of  discipline  were  de- 
vised, or  the  old  corrected  by  reforms.  Many  of  their  worst 
vices  grew  so  naturally  out  of  their  mode  of  life,  that  a  stricter 
discipline  could  have  no  tendency  to  extirpate  them.  Such 
were  the  frauds  I  have  already  noticed,  and  the  whole  scheme 
of  hypocritical  austerities.  Their  extreme  licentiousness  was 
sometimes  hardly  concealed  by  the  cowl  of  sanctity.  I  know 
not  by  what  right  we  should  disbelieve  the  reports  of  the  visi- 
tation under  Henry  VIII.,  entering  as  they  do  into  a  multitude 
of  specific  charges  both  probable  in  their  nature  and  conso- 
nant to  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the  world./i  Doubtless,  there 
were  many  communities,  as  well  as  individuals,  to  whom  none 
of  these  reproaches  would  apply.  In  the  very  best  view,  how- 
ever, that  can  be  taken  of  monasteries,  their  existence  is  deeply 
injurious  to  the  general  morals  of  a  nation.  They  withdraw 
men  of  pure  conduct  and  conscientious  principles  from  the 
exercise  of  social  duties,  and  leave  the  common  mass  of  human 
vice  more  unmixed.  Such  men  are  always  inclined  to  form 
schemes  of  ascetic  perfection,  which  can  only  be  fulfilled  in 
retirement ;  but  in  the  strict  rules  of  monastic  life,  and  under 
the  influence  of  a  grovelling  superstition,  their  virtue  lost  all  its 
usefulness.  They  fell  implicitly  in  the  snares  of  crafty 
priests,  who  made  submission  to  the  church  not  only  the  con- 
dition but  the  measure  of  all  praise.  "  He  is  a  good  Christian," 
says  Eligius,  a  saint  of  the  seventh  century,  "  who  comes  fre- 
quently to  church;  who  presents  an  oblation  that  it  may  be 
offered  to  God  on  the  altar;  who  does  not  taste  the  fruits  of 
his  land  till  he  has  consecrated  a  part  of  them  to  God ;  who 

h  See  Fosbrooke's  British  Monachitfm  lasciyorum  et  impudicorum  juvenum  ad 

(vol.  i.  p,  12? ,  and  vol.  ii.  p.  8)  for  a  Kbidines  explendas  receptacula?  ut  idem 

farrago  of  evidence  against  the  monks.  sit  hodie  puellam  velare,  quod  et  pub- 

Cleniangis,  a  French  theologian  of  con-  lice  ad  scortandum  exponere.    William 

siderable  eminence  at  the  beginning  of  Prynne,  from  whose  records  (vol.  ii.  p. 

the  fifteenth  century,  speaks  of  nunner-  229)  I  have  taken  this  passage,  quotes  it 

ies  in  the  following  terms;— Quid  aliud  on  occasion  of  a  charter  of  King  John, 

sunt  hoc  tempore  puellarum  monasteria,  banishing  thirty  nuns   of   Ambresbury 

nisi   quDedam  non  dico   Dei  sanctuaria,  into    different    convents,    propter    vitae 

sed  Veneris   execranda  proslibula,   sed  suse  turpitudinem. 


HALLAM 


can  repeat  the  Creed  or  the  Lord's  Prayer*  Redeem  your 
souls  from  punishment  while  it  is  in  your  power  ;  offer  pres- 
ents and  tithes  to  churches,  light  candles  in  holy  places,  as 
much  as  you  can  afford,  come  more  frequently  to  church,  im- 
plore the  protection  of  the  saints  ;  for,  if  you  observe  these 
things,  you  may  come  with  security  at  the  day  of  judgment 
to  say,  Give  unto  us,  Lord,  for  we  have  given  unto  thcc."  * 

With  such  a  definition  of  the  Christian  character,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  any  fraud  and  injustice  became  honorable  when 
it  contributed  to  the  riches  of  the  clergy  and  glory  of  their 
order.  Their  frauds,  however,  were  less  atrocious  than  the 
savage  bigotry  with  which  they  maintained  their  own  system 
and  infected  the  laity.  In  Saxony,  Poland,  Lithuania,  and  the 
countries  on  the  Baltic  Sea,  a  sanguinary  persecution  extir- 
pated the  original  idolatry.  The  Jews  were  everywhere  the 
objects  of  popular  insult  and  oppression,  frequently  of  a  gen- 
eral massacre,  though  protected,  it  must  be  confessed,  by  the 
laws  of  the  church,  as  well  as  in  general  by  temporal  princes,/ 
Of  the  crusades  it  is  only  necessary  to  repeat  that  they  began 
in  a  tremendous  eruption  of  fanaticism,  and  ceased  only  be- 
cause that  spirit  could  not  be  constantly  kept  alive,  A  similar 


f  Mosheim,  cent,  vii.  c,  3.  Robertson 
has  quoted  thte  passage^  to  whom  per- 
haps I  am  Immediately  indebted  for  it. 
Hist,  Charles  V.,  vol.  1.  note  it. 

I  leave  this  passage  as  it  stood  in 
former  editions.  But  it  is  due  to  justice 
that  this  extract  from  Eligius  should 
never  be  quoted  in  future,  as  the  trans- 
lator of  Mosheim  has  induced  Robert- 
son and  many  others,  as  well  as  myself, 
to  do.  Dr.  Lmgard  has  pointed  out  that 
it  is  a  very  imperfect  representation  of 
what  Eliffius  has  written;  for  though  ho 
has  dwelled  ort  these  devotional  prac- 
tices as  parts  of  the  definition  of  a  good 
Christian,  he  certainly  adds  a  great  deal 
more  to  which  no  one  could  object. 
Yet  no  one  is,  in  fact,  to  blame  for  this 
misrepresentation,  which*  being  con- 
tained in  popular  books,  has  gone  forth 
so  widely*  Mosheim,  as  will  appear  on 
referring  to  him,  did  not  quote  the  pas- 
sage as  containing  a  complete  defini- 
tion of  the  Christian  character.  His 
translator,  Machine,  mistook  this,  and 
wrote,  in  consequence,  the  severe  note 
which  Robertson  has  copied,  I  have 

§tfi6  whole  passage  in  d'Achery'a 
ilegium  (vol.  v.  p,  £t3,  4to.  edit*)* 
can  testify  that  Dr,  Liflgard  is  per- 
y  correct.    Upon  thtf  whole,  thift  fa 
A  striking  proof  how  dangerous  it  is  to 
take   any   authorities   at    second-hand. 
*~Note  to  Fourth  Edition.   Much  clamor 
has  been  made  about  the  mistake  of 
Madame*  which  was  innocent  and  not 
unnatural,     It    had    been    commented 


upon,  particularly  by  Dr.  Arnold,  afi  a 
proof  olE  the  risk  we  run  of  misrepre- 
senting1 authors  by  quoting  them  «t 
second-hand*  And  this  is  perfectly  true, 
and  ought  to  be  constantly  remembered. 
But.  so  long  as  we  acknowledge  the*  im- 
mediate source  of  our  quotation,  no  cen- 
sure is  due,  since  in  works  of  commit  r- 
able  extent  this  use  of  secondary  au- 
thorities is  absolutely  indispensable,  not 
to  mention  the  frequent  difficulty  ot 
procuring  access  to  original  authors. 
£1848.] 

/Mr.  Turner  has  collected  many  cu* 
rious  facts  relative  to  1lie  condition  of 
the  Tews,  especially  In  ICnglnnd.  Hint* 
of  England,  vol.  ii.  p.  os.  Others  may 
be  found  dispensed  in  Velly's  iljutory  of 
France;  and  mrvny  in  the  Spanish  writ- 
ers, Mari&na.and  /Jurita*  The  following 
are  from,  Vaissette*$  History  of  Lnnfttu'* 
doc.  It  was  the  custom  at  Toulouse  to 
give  a  blow  on  the  face  to  a  Jew  every 
Easter;  this  was  commuted  in  the 
twelfth  century  for  a  tribute.  T.  ii,  p. 
131.  At  Beziera  another  URin^e  pre- 
vailed* that  of  attacking  the  JVw«' 
houses  with  atones  from  Palm  Sunday 
to  Easter.  No  other  weapon  wag  to  he 
usedj  but  it  generally  produced  blood- 
shed, The  populace  were  regularly  in- 
stigated to  the  assault  by  a  sermon  from 
the  bishop-  At  length  &  prelate  witter 
than  the  rest  abolished  this  ancient 
practice  but  not  without  receiving  a 
good  sum  from  the  Jews.  P.  485* 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  37 

influence  produced  the  devastation  of  Languedoc,  the  stakes 
and  scaffolds  of  the  Inquisition,  and  rooted  in  the  religious 
theory  of  Europe  those  maxims  of  intolerance  which  it  has  so 
slowly,  and  still  perhaps  so  imperfectly,  renounced. 

From  no  other  cause  are  the  dictates  of  sound  reason  and 
the  moral  sense  of  mankind  more  confused  than  by  this  nar- 
row theological  bigotry,  For  as  it  must  often  happen  that 
men  to  whom  the  arrogance  of  a  prevailing  faction  imputes 
religious  error  are  exemplary  for  their  performance  of  moral 
duties,  these  virtues  gradually  cease  to  make  their  proper  im- 
pression, and  are  depreciated  by  the  rigidly  orthodox  as  of 
little  value  in  comparison  with  just  opinions  in  speculative 
points.  On  the  other  hand,  vices  are  forgiven  to  those  who 
are  zealous  in  the  faith,  I  speak  too  gently,  and  with  a  view 
to  later  times ;  in  treating  of  the  dark  ages  it  would  be  more 
correct  to  say  that,  crimes  were  commended.  Thus  Gregory 
of  Tours,  a  saint  of  the  church,  after,  relating  a  most  atrocious 
story  of  Clovis — the  murder  of  a  prince  whom  he  had  previously 
instigated  to  parricide — continues  the  sentence :  "  For  God 
daily  subdued  his  enemies  to  his  hand,  and  increased  his  king- 
dom; because  he  walked  before  him  in  uprightness,  and  did 
what  was  pleasing  in  his  eyes/'  k 

It  is  a  frequent  complaint  of  ecclesiastical  writers  that  the 
rigorous  penances  imposed  by  the  primitive  canons  upon  de- 
linquents were  commuted  in  a  laxer  state  of  discipline  for  less 
severe  atonements,  and  ultimately  indeed  for  money^  We 
must  not,  however,  regret  that  the  clergy  should  have  lost  the 
power  of  compelling  men  to  abstain  fifteen  years  from  eating 
meat,  or  to  stand  exposed  to  public  derision  at  the  gates  of  a 
church.  Such  implicit  submissiveness  coulcl  only  have  pro- 
duced superstition  and  hypocrisy  among  the  laity,  and  pre- 
pared the  road  for  a  tyranny  not  less  oppressive  than  that  of 

A  Greg.  Tur,  I,  n,  c.  40.  Of  Theode-  cheat  him  of  an  estate,  which  Is  told 
bert,  grandson  of  Clovis,  the  same  his-  with  much  approbation.  Gale,  Script, 
torian  says,  Magnum  fie  et  in  oinni  1»oja-  Anglic,  t,  i,  p.  441-  Walter  de  Heming- 
jtate  pra'cijmum  reddidit.  In  the  nejct  ford  recounts  with  excessive  delight  the 
paragraph  w«  find  a  story  of  his  having  well-known  story  of  the  Jews  who  were 
two  wives,  and  looking  so  tenderly  on  persuaded  by  the  captain  of  their  vessel 
the  daughter  «f  one  ol  them,  that  her  to  walk  on  the  sands  at  low  water,  till 
mother  tossed  her  over  a  bridge  into  the  the  rising  tide  drowned  them;  and  adds 
river.  L.  iii,  c.  25.  This  indeed  is  a  that  the  captain  was  both  pardoned  and 
trifle  to  the  passage  in  the  text  There  rewarded  for  it  by  the  king',,  gratiam 
are  continual  proofs  of  immorality  in  the  proineruit  et  prsermum.  This  is  a  mis- 
monkish  historians.  In  the  history  of  take,  inasmuch  as  he  was  hanged;  but 
Ramsey  Abbey,  one  of  our  best  docu-  it  exhibits  the  character  of  the  historian, 
ments  for  Anglo-Saxon  times,  we  have  Hemmgford,  p.  21. 
an  anecdote  of  a  bishop  who  tnade  a  /  Fleury,  Troisieme  Discours  sur 
Danish  nobleman  drunk,  that  he  might  1'Histoire  Ecclesiastique. 


33  HALLAM 

India  or  ancient  Egypt.  Indeed  the  two  earliest  instances  of 
ecclesiastical  interference  with  the  rights  of  sovereigns — name- 
ly, the  deposition  of  Wamba  in  Spain  and  that  of  Louis  the 
Debonair — were  founded  upon  this  austere  system  of  penitence. 
But  it  is  true  that  a  repentance  redeemed  by  money  or  per- 
formed by  a  substitute  could  have  no  salutary  effect  on  the 
sinner ;  and  some  of  the  modes  of  atonement  which  the  church 
most  approved  were  particularly  hostile  to  public  morals.  None 
was  so  usual  as  pilgrimage,  whether  to  Jerusalem  or  Rome, 
which  were  the  great  objects  of  devotion;  or  to  the  shrine  of 
some  national  saint — a  James  of  Compostclla,  a  David,  or  a 
Thomas  a  Becket.  This  licensed  vagrancy  was  naturally  pro- 
ductive of  dissoluteness,  especially  among  the  women.  Our 
English  ladies,  in  their  zeal  to  obtain  the  spiritual  treasures 
of  Rome,  are  said  to  have  relaxed  the  necessary  caution  about 
one  that  was  in  their  own  custody .m  There  is  a  capitulary  of 
Charlemagne  directed  against  itinerant  penitents,  who  prob- 
ably considered  the  iron  chain  around  their  necks  an  expiation 
of  future  as  well  as  past  offences.^ 

The  crusades  may  be  considered  as  martial  pilgrimages  on 
an  enormous  scale,  and  their  influence  upon  general  morality 
seems  to  have  been  altogether  pernicious.  Those  who  served 
under  the  cross  would  not  indeed  have  lived  very  virtuously 
at  home;  but  the  confidence  in  their  own  merits,  which  the 
principle  of  such  expeditions  inspired,  must  have  aggravated 
the  ferocity  and  dissoluteness  of  their  ancient  habits.  Several 
historians  attest  the  depravation  of  morals  which  existed  both 
among  the  crusaders  and  in  the  states  formed  out  of  their  con- 
quests.o 

While  religion  had  thus  lost  almost  every  quality  that  ren- 
ders it  conducive  to  the  good  order  of  society,  the  control  of 
human  law  was  still  less  efficacious.  But  this  part  of  my  sub- 
ject has  been  anticipated  in  other  passages  of  the  present  work  ; 
and  I  shall  only  glance  at  the  want  of  regular  subordination, 
which  rendered  legislative  and  judicial  edicts  a  dead  letter,  and 
at  the  incessant  private  warfare,  rendered  legitimate  by  the 
usages  of  most  continental  nations.  Such  hostilities,  conducted 

m  Henry,  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ii.  c.  turn  et  capitals  crimen  commiserint,  *n 

7-  uno  loco  permaneant  laborantes  et  »er- 

rt  Du   Cange:  v.   Peregrinatio.     Non  vientes  ct  poenitentiam  agentes,  aecun- 

smantur  vagart  isti  nudi  cum  ferro,  qui  dum  quod  canonic^  iis  impositum  sit. 

dicunt  se  data  posnitcntia  ire  vagantes.  o  T.   de   Vitriaco.   in   Gent*   Dei   per 

Melius  videtur,  tit  si  aliquod  inconsue-  Francos,  t»  i,;   Villani,  1.  vii«  c.  144, 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES 


39 


as  they  must  usually  have  been  with  injustice  and  cruelty,  could 
not  fail  to  produce  a  degree  of  rapacious  ferocity  in  the  general 
disposition  of  a  people.  And  this  certainly  was  among  the 
characteristics  of  every  nation  for  many  centuries. 

It  is  easy  to  infer  the  degradation  of  society  during  the  dark 
ages  from  the  state  of  religion  and  police.  Certainly  there  are 
a  few  great  landmarks  of  moral  distinctions  so  deeply  fixed  in 
human  nature,  that  no  degree  of  rudeness  can  destroy,  nor  even 
any  superstition  remove  them.  Wherever  an  extreme  corrup- 
tion has  in  any  particular  society  defaced  these  sacred  arche- 
types that  are  given  to  guide  and  correct  the  sentiments  of 
mankind,  it  is  in  the  course  of  Providence  that  the  society  itself 
should  perish  by  internal  discord  or  the  sword  of  a  conqueror. 
In  the  worst  ages  of  Europe  there  must  have  existed  the  seeds 
of  social  virtues,  of  fidelity,  gratitude,  and  disinterestedness, 
sufficient  at  least  to  preserve  the  public  approbation  of  more 
elevated  principles  than  the  public  conduct  displayed.  With- 
out these  imperishable  elements  there  could  have  been  no  res- 
toration of  the  moral  energies ;  nothing  upon  which  reformed 
faith,  revived  knowledge,  renewed  law,  could  exercise  their 
nourishing  influences.  But  history,  which  reflects  only  the 
more  prominent  features  of  society,  cannot  exhibit  the  virtues 
that  were  scarcely  able  to  struggle  through  the  general  depra- 
vation. I  am  aware  that  a  tone  of  exaggerated  declamation  is 
at  all  times  usual  with  those  who  lament  the  vices  of  their  own 
time;  and  writers  of  the  middle  ages  are  in  abundant  need 
of  allowance  on  this  score.  Nor  is  it  reasonable  to  found  any 
inferences  as  to  the  general  condition  of  society  on  single 
instances  of  crimes,  however  atrocious,  especially  when  com- 
mitted under  the  influence  of  violent  passion.  Such  enormities 
are  the  fruit  of  every  age,  and  none  is  to  be  measured  by  them. 
They  make,  however,  a  strong  impression  at  the  moment,  and 
thus  find  a  place  in  contemporary  annals,  from  which  modern 
writers  are  commonly  glad  to  extract  whatever  may  seem  to 
throw  light  upon  manners.  I  shall,  therefore,  abstain  from 
producing  any  particular  cases  of  dissoluteness  or  cruelty  from 
the  records  of  the  middle  ages,  lest  I  should  weaken  a  general 
proposition  by  offering  an  imperfect  induction  to  support  it, 
and  shall  content  myself  with  observing  that  times  to  which 
men  sometimes  appeal,  as  to  a  golden  period,  were  far  in- 
ferior in  every  moral  comparison  to  those  in  which  we  are 


40  HALLAM 

thrown.^  One  crime,  as  more  universal  and  characteristic  than 
others,  may  be  particularly  noticed.  All  writers  agree  in  the 
prevalence  of  judicial  perjury.  It  seems  to  have  almost  in- 
variably escaped  human  punishment ;  and  the  barriers  of  super- 
stition were  in  this,  as  in  every  other  instance,  too  feeble  to 
prevent  the  commission  of  crimes.  Many  of  the  proofs  by 
ordeal  were  applied  to  witnesses  as  well  as  those  whom  they 
accused;  and  undoubtedly  trial  by  combat  was  preserved  in 
a  considerable  degree  on  account  of  the  difficulty  experienced 
in  securing  a  just  cause  against  the  perjury  of  witnesses.  Rob- 
ert King  of  France,  perceiving  how  frequently  men  forswore 
themselves  upon  the  relics  of  saints,  and  less  shocked  appar- 
ently at  the  crime  than  at  the  sacrilege,  caused  an  empty  reli- 
quary of  crystal  to  be  used,  that  those  who  touched  it  might 
incur  less  guilt  in  fact,  though  not  in  intention.  Such  an 
anecdote  characterizes  both  the  man  and  the  times.? 

The  favorite  diversions  of  the  middle  ages,  in  the  intervals 
of  war,  were  those  of  hunting  and  hawking.  The  former  must 
in  all  countries  be  a  source  of  pleasure ;  but  it  seems  to  have 
been  enjoyed  in  moderation  by  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans. 
With  the  northern  invaders,  however,  it  was  rather  a  predomi- 
nant appetite  than  an  amusement ;  it  was  their  pride  and  their 
ornament,  the  theme  of  their  songs,  the  object  of  their  laxvs, 
and  the  business  of  their  lives.  Falconry,  unknown  as  a  di- 
version to  the  ancients,  became  from  the  fourth  century  an 
equally  delightful  occupations  From  the  Salic  and  other  bar- 
barous codes  of  the  fifth  century  to  the  close  of  the  period  under 
our  review,  every  age  would  furnish  testimony  to  the  ruling 
passion  for  these  two  species  of  chase,  or,  as  they  were  some- 
times called,  the  mysteries  of  woods  and  rivers.  A  knight  ad- 
der the  Lombards  and  the  autwnuenfr 


scription  contain,     mitntr   vciiy,   nor 
Muratori,  Dissert.  23,  are  so  satisfactory 


vmuiuc    is    me    uvau    vuiuj.u<=t    \n.    mo    M.m- 

equal  work.    His  account  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  is  derived  in  a  great  degree  from       ...  "~  ....,..- , 

William  of  Malmesburv,  who  does  not  q  Velly,  Hist,  de  France,  t,  it,  p,  335. 
spare  them.  Their  civil  history,  indeed,  It  has  been  observed,  that  Quid  morw 
and  their  laws,  speak  sufficiently  against  sine  Icaabitf  ?  i*  as  juat  a  question  aj 
the  character  of  that  people.  But  *he  that  of  Horace;  and  that  bad  law*  mi»t 
Normans  had  little  more  to  boast  of  in  produce  bad  morale.  The  strange  prac- 
respect  of  moral  correctness.  Their  lux-  tice  of  requiring  numerous  compurga- 
urious  and  dissolute  habits  are  as  much  tors  to  prove  the  innocence  of  an  no 
noticed  as  their  insolence.  Vid.  Order-  cused  person  had  a  most  olwou*  t«t»- 
icu-s  Vtelis,  p.  to* ;  Johann.  Sarisbu-  dency  to  increase  perjury, 
ri-enaia  Policraticua,  p.  194;  Velly,  Hist.  r  Muratori,  Dissert.  33,  t,  1.  p.  306 
de  France,  t.  iii.  p"  50  The  state  of  (Italian):  .  Bedcman's  H)8t.  of  Inven- 
xnanners  in  France  under  th*  first  two  tions,  vol,  i.  p.  3*9  J  v»e  pnvee  des  Fran- 
races  of  kings,  and  in  Italy  both  tin-  gate,  t.  u.  p.  x. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  41 

dom  stirred  from  his  house  without  a  falcon  on  his  wrist  or 
a  greyhound  that  followed  him.  Thus  are  Harold  and  his 
attendants  represented,  in  the  famous  tapestry  of  Bayeux.  And 
in  the  monuments  of  those  who  died  anywhere  but  on  the  field 
of  battle,  it  is  usual  to  find  the  greyhound  lying  at  their  feet,  or 
the  bird  upon  their  wrists.  Nor  are  the  tombs  of  ladies  with- 
out their  falcon ;  for  this  diversion,  being  of  less  danger  and 
fatigue  than  the  chase,  was  shared  by  the  delicate  sex.J 

It  was  impossible  to  repress  the  eagerness  with  which  the 
clergy,  especially  after  the  barbarians  were  tempted  by  rich 
bishoprics  to  take  upon  them  the  sacred  functions,  rushed  into 
these  secular  amusements.  Prohibitions  of  councils,  however 
frequently  repeated,  produced  little  effect.  In  some  instances 
a  particular  monastery  obtained  a  dispensation.  Thus  that  of 
St.  Denis,  in  774,  represented  to  Charlemagne  that  the  flesh  of 
hunted  animals  was  salutary  for  sick  monks,  and  that  their 
skins  would  serve  to  bind  the  books  in  the  library.*  Reasons 
equally  cogent,  we  may  presume,  could  not  be  wanting  in  every 
other  case.  As  the  bishops  and  abbots  were  perfectly  feudal 
lords,  and  often  did  not  scruple  to  lead  their  vassals  into  the 
field,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that  they  should  debar  them- 
selves of  an  innocent  pastime.  It  was  hardly  such  indeed,  when 
practised  at  the  expense  of  others.  Alexander  III.,  by  a  letter 
to  the  clergy  of  Berkshire,  dispenses  with  their  keeping  the 
archdeacon  in  dogs  and  hawks  during  his  visitations  This 
season  gave  jovial  ecclesiastics  an  opportunity  of  trying  differ- 
ent countries.  An  archbishop  of  York,  in  1321,  seems  to  have 
carried  a  train  of  two  hundred  persons,  who  were  maintained 
at  the  expense  of  the  abbeys  on  his  road,  and  to  have  hunted 
with  a  pack  of  hounds  from  parish  to  parish.**  The  third  Coun- 
cil of  Lateran,  in  1180,  had  prohibited  this  amusement  on  such 
journeys,  and  restricted  bishops  to  a  train  of  forty  or  fifty 
horses.^ 

Though  hunting  had  ceased  to  be  a  necessary  means  of  pro- 
curing food,  it  was  a  very  convenient  resource,  on  which  the 
wholesomeness  and  comfort,  as  well  as  the  luxury,  of  the  table 
depended,  Before  the  natural  pastures  were  improved,  and 
new  kinds  of  fodder  for  cattle  discovered,  it  was  impossible 

*Vie  priv&s  d«e  Framjais,  t.  i.  p.  320;           v  WhitaTcer's  Hist,  of  Craven,  p.  340, 

t.  ii,  p,  n,  and  of  Whalley,  p.  171. 

t  Ibid.  t.  i,  p.  324.  w  Velly,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  m.  p.  239. 
14  Rymer,  t.  i.  p.  61. 


42  HALLAM 

to  maintain  the  summer  stock  during  the  cold  season.  Hence 
a  portion  of  it  was  regularly  slaughtered  and  salted  for  winter 
provision.  We  may  suppose  that,  when  no  alternative  was 
offered  but  these  salted  meats,  even  the  leanest  venison  was 
devoured  with  relish.  There  was  somewhat  more  excuse  there- 
fore for  the  severity  with  which  the  lords  of  forests  and  manors 
preserved  the  beasts  of  chase  than  if  they  had  been  considered 
as  merely  objects  of  sport.  The  laws  relating  to  preservation 
of  game  were  in  every  country  uncommonly  rigorous.  They 
formed  in  England  that  odious  system  of  forest  laws  which 
distinguished  the  tyranny  of  our  Norman  kings.  Capital  pun- 
ishment for  killing  a  stag  or  wild  boar  was  frequent,  and 
perhaps  warranted  by  law,  until  the  charter  of  John.^  The 
French  code  was  less  severe,  but  even  Henry  IV.  enacted  the 
pain  of  death  against  the  repeated  offence  of  chasing  deer 
in  the  royal  forests.  The  privilege  of  hunting  was  reserved 
to  the  nobility  till  the  reign  of  Louis  IX.,  who  extended  it  in 
some  degree  to  persons  of  lower  births 

This  excessive  passion  for  the  sports  of  the  field  produced 
those  evils  which  are  apt  to  result  from  it — a  strenuous  idle- 
ness which  disdained  all  useful  occupations,  and  an  oppres- 
sive spirit  towards  the  peasantry.  The  devastation  committed 
under  the  pretence  of  destroying  wild  animals,  which  had 
been  already  protected  in  their  depredations,  is  noticed  in  seri- 
ous authors,  and  has  also  been  the  topic  of  popular  ballads^ 
What  effect  this  must  have  had  on  agriculture  it  is  easy  to 
conjecture.  The  levelling  of  forests,  the  draining  of  morasses, 
and  the  extirpation  of  mischievous  animals  which  inhabit  them, 
are  the  first  objects  of  man's  labor  in  reclaiming  the  earth  to 
his  use;  and  these  were  forbidden  by  a  landed  aristocracy, 
whose  control  over  the  progress  of  agricultural  improvement 

x  John  of  Salisbury  inveighs  against  i8r.    This  continued  to  be  felt  in  France 

the  game-laws  erf  his  age,  with  an  odd  down  to  the  revolution,  to  which  it  did 

transition  from  the  Gospel  to  the  Pan-  not  perhaps   a  little   contribute.     ($ec 

dects.    Nee  veriti  sunt  hominem  pro  una  Young's  Travels  in  France.)    The  mon- 

pestiola  perdere,  quern  unigenitus  Dei  strous  privilege   of  free-warren    (mon- 

Films  sanguine  redemit  suo.    Quse  ferae  strous,    I    mean,   when   not   originally 

naturae   sunt,   et  de  jure   occupantium  founded  upon  the  property  of  the  soil) 

flunt,  sibi  audet  humana  tementas  vin-  is  recognized  by  our  own  laws;  thought 

dicare,  Sec,    Polycraticow,  p.  18,  in  this  age,  it  Is  not  often  that  a  court 

y  Le  Grand,  Vie  prive>  aes  Francais,  and  jury  will  sustain  its  exercise.    Sir 

t,  i,  p.  3a§.  Walter  Scott's  ballad  of  the  Wild  Hunts- 

a  For  the  injuries  which  this  people  man,  from  a  German  original,  is  well 

sustained  from  the  seigniorial  rights  of  known;    and,  I  believe,  there  are  sev* 

the  chase,  in  the  eleventh  century,  see  eral  others  in  that  country  not  dissimilar 

the  Recueil  des  Historiens,  in  the  valu-  in  subject, 
able  preface  to  the  eleventh  volume,  p. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  43 

was  unlimited,  and  who  had  not  yet  learned  to  sacrifice  their 
pleasures  to  their  avarice. 

These  habits  of  the  rich,  and  the  miserable  servitude  of  those 
who  cultivated  the  land,  rendered  its  fertility  unavailing.  Pre- 
dial servitude  indeed,  in  some  of  its  modifications,  has  always 
been  the  great  bar  to  improvement.  In  the  agricultural  econ- 
omy of  Rome  the  laboring  husbandman,  a  menial  slave  of  some 
wealthy  senator,  had  not  even  that  qualified  interest  in  the  soil 
which  the  tenure  of  villenage  afforded  to  the  peasant  of  feudal 
ages.  Italy,  therefore,  a  country  presenting  many  natural  im- 
pediments, was  but  imperfectly  reduced  into  cultivation  before 
the  irruption  of  the  barbarians.^  That  revolution  destroyed 
agriculture  with  every  other  art,  and  succeeding  calamities 
during  five  or  six  centuries  left  the  finest  regions  of  Europe 
unfruitful  and  desolate.  There  are  but  two  possible  modes  in 
which  the  produce  of  the  earth  can  be  increased ;  one  by  ren- 
dering fresh  land  serviceable,  the  other  by  improving  the  fer- 
tility of  that  which  is  already  cultivated.  The  last  is  only  at- 
tainable by  the  application  of  capital  and  of  skill  to  agriculture, 
neither  of  which  could  be  expected  in  the  ruder  ages  of  society. 
The  former  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  always  practicable  while 
waste  lands  remain;  but  it  was  checked  by  laws  hostile  to 
improvement,  such  as  the  manorial  and  commonable  rights 
in  England,  and  by  the  general  tone  of  manners. 

Till  the  reign  of  Charlemagne  there  were  no  towns  in  Ger- 
many, except  a  few  that  had  been  erected  on  the  Rhine  and 
Danube  by  the  Romans.  A  house  with  its  stables  and  farm- 
buildings,  surrounded  by  a  hedge  or  enclosure,  was  called  a 
court,  or,  as  we  find  it  in  our  law-books,  a  curtilage;  the  toft 
or  homestead  of  a  more  genuine  English  dialect  One  of  these, 
with  the  adjacent  domain  of  arable  fields  and  woods,  had  the 
name  of  a  villa  or  manse.  Several  manses  composed  a  march  ; 
and  several  marches  formed  a  pagus  or  district.^  From  these 

a  Muratori,  Dissert.  21,  This  disser-  homestead  in  a  village,  so  called  from 
tation  contains  ample  evidence  of  the  the  small  tufts  of  maple,  elm,  ash,  and 
wretched  state  of  culture  in  Italy,  at  other  -wood,  with  which  dwelling-houses 
least  in  the  northern  parts,  both  before  were  anciently  overhung.  Even  now  it 
the  irruption  of  the  barbarians,  and  in  is  impossible  to  enter  Craven  without 
a  much  greater  degree,  under  the  Lorn-  being  struck  with  the  insulated  home- 
bard  kings.  steads,  surrounded  by  their  little  garths, 

b  Schmidt.  Hist,  des  Allem.  t.  i.  p.  408.  and  overhung  with  tufts  of  trees.  These 

The  following  passage  seems  to  illna-  are  the  genuine  tofts  and  crofts  of  our 

trate  Schmidt's  account  of  German  vil-  ancestors,  with  the  substitution  only  of 

lages  in  the  ninth  century,  though  re-  stone  for  the  wooden  crocks  and 

lating  to  a  different  age  and  country.  thatched  roofs  of  antiquity  "  Hist,  of 

*'  A  toft/*  says  Dr.  Whitaker,  "  is  a  Craven,  p.  380. 


44  HALLAM 

elements  in  the  progress  of  population  arose  villages  and 
towns.  In  France  undoubtedly  there  were  always  cities  of 
some  importance.  Country  parishes  contained  several  manses 
or  farms  of  arable  lands,  around  a  common  pasture,  where 
everyone  was  bound  by  custom  to  feed  his  cattle.c 

The  condition  even  of  internal  trade  was  hardly  preferable 
to  that  of  agriculture.  There  is  not  a  vestige  perhaps  to  be 
discovered  for  several  centuries  of  any  considerable  manufact- 
ure ;  I  mean,  of  working  up  articles  of  common  utility  to  an 
extent  beyond  what  the  necessities  of  an  adjacent  district  re- 
quired.^ Rich  men  kept  domestic  artisans  among  their  ser- 
vants ;  even  kings,  in  the  ninth  century,  had  their  clothes  made 
by  the  women  upon  their  farms ;  e  but  the  peasantry  must  have 
been  supplied  with  garments  and  implements  of  labor  by  pur- 
chase ;  and  every  town,  it  cannot  be  doubted,  had  its  weaver, 
its  smith,  and  its  currier.  But  there  were  almost  insuperable 
impediments  to  any  extended  traffic—the  insecurity  of  mov- 
able wealth,  and  difficulty  of  accumulating  it ;  the  ignorance 
of  mutual  wants ;  the  peril  of  robbery  in  conveying  merchan- 
dise, and  the  certainty  of  extortion.  In  the  domains  of  every 
lord  a  toll  was  to  be  paid  in  passing  his  bridge,  or  along  his 
highway,  or  at  his  market/  These  customs,  equitable  and 
necessary  in  their  principle,  became  in  practice  oppressive, 
because  they  were  arbitrary,  and  renewed  in  every  petty  terri- 
tory which  the  road  might  intersect.  Several  of  Charlemagne's 
capitularies  repeat  complaints  of  these  exactions,  and  endeavor 
to  abolish  such  tolls  as  were  not  founded  on  prescriptions 
One  of  them  rather  amusingly  illustrates  the  modesty  and 
moderation  of  the  landholders.  It  is  enacted  that  no  one  shall 
be  compelled  to  go  out  of  his  way  in  order  to  pay  toll  at  a 
particular  bridge,  when  he  can  cross  the  river  more  conven- 
iently at  another  placed  These  provisions,  like  most  others  of 
that  age,  were  unlikely  to  produce  much  amendment.  It  was 

c  It  is  laid  down  in  the  Speculum  Sax-  England  and  other  parts.    Tie  quotes  no 
onieum,  a  collection  of  feudal  customs  authority,  but  I  am  satisfied  that  he  hna 
which  prevailed  over  most  of  Germany,  not  advanced  the  fact  gratuitously* 
that  no  one  might  have  a  separate  pas-  e  Schmidt,  t.  i.  $,  411;   t.  ii,  p,  145. 
tur«  for  his  cattle  unless  he  possessed  f  Du  Cange,  Pedarium,  Pontaticum, 
three  mand.     Du  Cange,   v.    Mansu.*.  Telpneum,  Mercatum,  Stallafifium,  Lai- 
There  seem«  to  have  been  a.  price  paid*  tagium,  &c. 
I  suppose  to  the  lord,  for  agistment  in  K  Baluz,  Capit,  p.  621  et  alibi, 
th*  common  pasture.  h  Ut  nullws  cogatur  ad  pontem  ire  fid 

d  The  only  mention  of  a  manufacture,  fluvium    tranaetmdum    propter    teloncl 

as  early  as  the  ninth  or  tenth  centuries*  causa*  ouando  ille  in  alto  loco  compen* 

that  I  remember  to  have  met  with,  is  in  diosins  mud  flumen  transire  potett.  p. 

Schmidt,  t.   ii.  p.   146,   who   says  that  764  «t  alibi, 
cloths  were  exported  from  Friesland  to 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  45 

only  the  milder  species,  however,  of  feudal  lords  who  were 
content  with  the  tribute  of  merchants.  The  more  ravenous 
descended  from  their  fortresses  to  pillage  the  wealthy  travel- 
ler, or  shared  in  the  spoil  of  inferior  plunderers,  whom  they 
both  protected  and  instigated.  Proofs  occur,  even  in  the  later 
periods  of  the  middle  ages,  when  government  had  regained 
its  energy,  and  civilization  had  made  considerable  progress, 
of  public  robberies  systematically  perpetrated  by  men  of  noble 
rank.  In  the  more  savage  times,  before  the  twelfth  century, 
they  were  probably  too  frequent  to  excite  much  attention.  It 
was  a  custom  in  some  places  to  waylay  travellers,  and  not  only 
to  plunder,  but  to  sell  them  as  slaves,  or  compel  them  to  pay 
a  ransom.  Harold  son  of  Godwin,  having  been  wrecked  on 
the  coast  of  Ponthiett,  was  imprisoned  by  the  lord,  says  an 
historian,  according  to  the  custom  of  that  territory.*  Germany 
appears  to  have  been,  upon  the  whole,  the  country  where  down- 
right robbery  was  most  unscrupulously  practised  by  the  great. 
Their  castles,  erected  on  almost  inaccessible  heights  among  the 
woods,  became  the  secure  receptacles  of  predatory  bands,  who 
spread  terror  over  the  country.  From  these  barbarian  lords 
of  the  dark  ages,  as  from  a  living  model,  the  romances  are  said 
to  have  drawn  their  giants  and  other  disloyal  enemies  of  true 
chivalry.  Robbery,  indeed,  is  the  constant  theme  both  of  the 
Capitularies  and  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  laws;  one  has  more 
reason  to  wonder  at  the  intrepid  thirst  of  lucre,  which  induced 
a  very  few  merchants  to  exchange  the  products  of  different 
regions,  than  to  ask  why  no  general  spirit  of  commercial  ac- 
tivity prevailed. 

Under  all  these  circumstances  it  is  obvious  that  very  little 
oriental  commerce  could  have  existed  in  these  western  coun- 
tries of  Europe.  Destitute  as  they  have  been  created,  speaking 
comparatively,  of  natural  productions  fit  for  exportation,  their 
invention  and  industry  are  the  great  resources  from  which  they 
can  supply  the  demands  of  the  East.  Before  any  manufactures 
were  established  in  Europe,  her  commercial  intercourse  with 
Egypt  and  Asia  must  of  necessity  have  been  very  trifling ;  be- 
cause, whatever  inclination  she  might  feel  to  enjoy  the  luxuries 
of  those  genial  regions,  she  wanted  the  means  of  obtaining 
them.  It  is  not  therefore  necessary  to  rest  the  miserable  con- 

i  Eadmer  apud  Rccueil  des  Historiens       ritu  illitis  loci,  a  domino  terra  captivita- 
des  Gaules,  t.  xi.  preface,  p.  192.    Pro       ti  addicitur. 


46  HALLAM 

dition  of  oriental  commerce  upon  the  Saracen  conquests,  be- 
cause the  poverty  of  Europe  is  an  adequate  cause ;  and,  in  fact, 
what  little  traffic  remained  was  carried  on  with  no  material  in- 
convenience through  the  channels  of  Constantinople.  Venice 
took  the  lead  in  trading  with  Greece  and  more  eastern  coun- 
tries.; Amalfi  had  the  second  place  in  the  commerce  of  those 
dark  ages.  These  cities  imported,  besides  natural  productions, 
the  fine  clothes  of  Constantinople ;  yet  as  this  traffic  seems  to 
have  been  illicit,  it  was  not  probably  extensive./"*  Their  exports 
were  gold  and  silver,  by  which,  as  none  was  likely  to  return, 
the  circulating  money  of  Europe  was  probably  less  in  the  elev- 
enth century  than  at  the  subversion  of  the  Roman  empire ; 
furs,  which  were  obtained  from  the  Sclavonian  countries ;  and 
arms,  the  sale  of  which  to  pagans  or  Saracens  was  vainly  pro- 
hibited by  Charlemagne  and  by  the  Holy  SeeJ  A  more  scan- 
dalous traffic,  and  one  that  still  more  fitly  called  for  prohibitory 
laws,  was  carried  on  in  slaves.  It  is  a  humiliating  proof  of  the 
degradation  of  Christendom,  that  the  Venetians  were  reduced 
to  purchase  the  luxuries  of  Asia  by  supplying  the  slave-market 
of  the  Saracens.w  Their  apology  would  perhaps  have  been, 
that  these  were  purchased  from  their  heathen  neighbors ;  but 
a  slave-dealer  was  probably  not  very  inquisitive  as  to  the  faith 
or  origin  of  his  victim.  This  trade  was  not  peculiar  to  Ven- 
ice. In  England  it  was  very  common,  even  after  the  Con- 
quest, to  export  slaves  to  Ireland,  till,  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
IL,  the  Irish  came  to  a  non-importation  agreement,  which 
put  a  stop  to  the  practices 

j  Heeren  has  frequently  referred  to  a  dealer  presuming  to  export  their  fine 

work  published  in  1789,  by  Marini,  en-  clothes  should  he  flopped.     Liutprandi 

titled,  Storia  civille  e  politica  del  Com-  Opera,  p.  155.  edit,  Antwerp,  1640, 

merzio  de' Veneziani,  which  casts  a  new  /Baluz.  Capitul.  p.  775.    One  of  the 

light  upon  the  early  relations  of  Venice  main  advantages  which   the   Christian 

with  the  East.     Of  this  book  I  know  nations  possessed  over  the  Sarnwns  wa» 

nothing;   but  a  memoir  by  de  Guignes,  the  coat  of  mail,  and  other  defensive 

in   the    thirty-seventh    volume    of    the  armor;     so   that   thin   prohibition   was 

Academy  of  Inscriptions,  on  the  com-  founded  upon  very  good  political  rea» 

merce  of  France  with  the  East  before  sons. 

the  crusades,  is  singularly  unproductive;  m  Schmidt,  Hist,  dps  Altem.  t.  if.  p. 

the  fault  of  the  subject,  not  of  the  uu-  146;    Heeren,  aur  Plnfluence  des  Croi»- 

thor,  a^e&  P«  31^'    ^n  Baluze  we  find  a  law 

k  There  is  an  odd  passage  in  Liut-  of  Carloman,  brother  to  Charlemagne: 

prand's  relation  of  his  embassy  from  the  Ut    niancipia    Christiana    paganis   non 

Emperor  Otho  to  Nicephorus  Phocas.  vendantur.    Capltularia,  t.  i.  p«  *SQ,  vide 

The  Greeks  making  a  display  of  their  quoaue,  p.  361. 

dress,  he  told  them  that  in  Lombardy  n  William  of  Malmesbury  accuses  the 

the    common    people    wore    as    good  Anglo-Saxon  nobility  of  selling  their  fe- 

clothes  as  they.    How,  they  said,  can  male  servants,  even  when  pregnant  by 

you  procure  them?    Through  the  vene-  them,  as  slaves  to  foreigners.    P.  xu,   I 

tian  and  Amalfitan  dealers,  he  replied,  hope  there  were   not   many  of  these 

who  gain  their  subsistence  by  selling  Yaricoes;   and  should  not  perhaps  have 

them  to  us.    The  foolish  Greeks  were  given  credit  to  an  historian  rather  pro 

very    angry,    and    declared    that    any  judiced  against  the  English,  if  I  had 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  47 

From  this  state  of  degradation  and  poverty  all  the  coun- 
tries of  Europe  have  recovered,  with  a  progression  in  some 
respects  tolerably  uniform,  in  others  more  unequal ;  and  the 
course  of  their  improvement,  more  gradual  and  less  dependent 
upon  conspicuous  civil  revolutions  than  their  decline,  affords 
one  of  the  most  interesting  subjects  into  which  a  philosophical 
mind  can  inquire.  The  commencement  of  this  restoration  has 
usually  been  dated  from  about  the  close  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury ;  though  it  is  unnecessary  to  observe  that  the  subject  does 
not  admit  of  anything  approximating  to  chronological  accu- 
racy. It  may,  therefore,  be  sometimes  not  improper  to  distin- 
guish the  first  six  of  the  ten  centuries  which  the  present  work 
embraces  under  the  appellation  of  the  dark  ages;  an  epithet 
which  I  do  not  extend  to  the  twelfth  and  three  following.  In 
tracing  the  decline  of  society  from  the  subversion  of  the  Roman 
empire,  we  have  been  led,  not  without  connection,  from  igno- 
rance to  superstition,  from  superstition  to  vice  and  lawlessness, 
and  from  thence  to  general  rudeness  and  poverty.  I  shall 
pursue  an  inverted  order  in  passing  along  the  ascending  scale, 
and  class  the  various  improvements  which  took  place  between 
the  twelfth  and  fifteenth  centuries  under  three  principal  heads, 
as  they  relate  to  the  wealth,  tBe  manners,  or  the  taste  and  learn- 
ing of  Europe.  Different  arrangements  might  probably  be 
suggested,  equally  natural  and  convenient ;  but  in  the  disposi- 
tion of  topics  that  have  not  always  an  unbroken  connection  with 
each  other,  no  method  can  be  prescribed  as  absolutely  more 
scientific  than  the  rest.  That  which  I  have  adopted  appears 
to  me  as  philosophical  and  as  little  liable  to  transitions  as  any 
other. 

not  found  too  much  authority  for  the  selling  their  children  and  other  relations 

general   practice.     In  the  canons  of  a  to  be  slaves  m  Ireland,  without  having 

council  at  London  in  noa  we  read,  Let  even  the  pretext  of  distress  or  famine, 

no    one    from    henceforth    presume    to  till  the  Irish,  in  a  national  synod,  agreed 

carry  on  that  wicked  traffic  by  which  to  emancipate  all  the  English  slaves  in 

men  of  England  have  hitherto  been  sold  the  kingdom.     Id.  p    471.     This  seems 

like  brwtc  animals,     Wilkin's  Concilia,  to  have  been  designed  to  take  away  all 

t.  i.  p,  383.     And  Giraldws  Cambrensis  pretext  for  the  threatened  invasion   of 

says  that  the  English  before  the   Con-  Henry  II.    Lyttelton,  vol.  iii.  p.  70. 
quest   were   generally  in  the   habit  of 


48  HALLAM 


PART    II. 

Progress  of  Commercial  Improvement  in  Germany,  Flanders,  and 
England — in  the  North  of  Europe — in  the  Countries  upon  the 
Mediterranean  Sea — Maritime  Laws — Usury — Banking  Companies — 
Progress  of  Refinement  in  Manners— Domestic  Architecture — Ec- 
clesiastical Architecture— State  of  Agriculture  in  England— Value  of 
Money — Improvement  of  the  Moral  Character  of  Society — its  Causes 
— Police — Changes  in  Religious  Opinion — Various  Sects — Chivalry 
— its  Progress,  Character,  and  Influence— Causes  of  the  Intellectual 
Improvement  of  European  Society — i.  The  Study  of  Civil  Law — 2, 
Institution  of  Universities — their  Celebrity — Scholastic  Philosophy — 
3.  Cultivation  of  Modern  Languages — Provetigal  Poets — Norman 
Poets — French  Prose  Writers — Italian — early  Poets  in  that  Lan- 
guage— Dante — Petrarch — English  Language — its  Progress— Chau- 
cer— 4.  Revival  of  Classical  Learning — Latin  Writers  of  the  Twelfth 
Century — Literature  in  the  Fourteenth  Century — Greek  Literature — 
its  Restoration  in  Italy — Invention  of  Printing. 

The  geographical  position  of  Europe  naturally  divides  its 
maritime  commerce  into  two  principal  regions — one  compre- 
hending those  countries  which  border  on  the  Baltic,  the  Ger- 
man and  the  Atlantic  Oceans ;  another,  those  situated  around 
the  Mediterranean  Sea.  During  the  four  centuries  which  pre- 
ceded the  discovery  of  America,  and  especially  the  two  former 
of  them,  this  separation  was  more  remarkable  than  at  present, 
inasmuch  as  their  intercourse,  either  by  land  or  sea,  was  ex- 
tremely limited.  To  the  first  region  belonged  the  Netherlands, 
the  coasts  of  France,  Germany,  and  Scandinavia,  and  the  mari- 
time districts  of  England.  In  the  second  we  may  class  the 
provinces  of  Valencia  and  Catalonia,  those  of  Provence  and 
Languedoc,  and  the  whole  of  Italy. 

i.  The  former,  or  northern  division,  was  first  animated  by 
the  woollen  manufacture  of  Flanders,  It  is  not  easy  cither 
to  discover  the  early  beginnings  of  this,  or  to  account  for  its 
rapid  advancement.  The  fertility  of  that  province  and  its  fa- 
cilities of  interior  navigation  were  doubtless  necessary  causes ; 
but  there  must  have  been  some  temporary  encouragement  from 
the  personal  character  of  its  sovereigns,  or  other  accidental 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  49 

circumstances.  Several  testimonies  to  the  flourishing  condi- 
tion of  Flemish  manufactures  occur  in  the  twelfth  century,  and 
some  might  perhaps  be  found  even  earlier.a  A  writer  of  the 
thirteenth  asserts  that  all  the  world  was  clothed  from  English 
wool  wrought  in  Flanders.6  This,  indeed,  is  an  exaggerated 
vaunt;  but  the  Flemish  stuffs  were  probably  sold  wherever 
the  sea  or  a  navigable  river  permitted  them  to  be  carried. 
Cologne  was  the  chief  trading  city  upon  the  Rhine;  and  its 
merchants,  who  had  been  considerable  even  under  the  Em- 
peror Henry  IV.,  established  a  factory  at  London  in  1220. 
The  woollen  manufacture,  notwithstanding  frequent  wars  and 
the  impolitic  regulations  of  magistrates/  continued  to  flourish 
in  the  Netherlands  (for  Brabant  and  Hainault  shared  it  in 
some  degree  with  Flanders),  until  England  became  not  only 
capable  of  supplying  her  own  demand,  but  a  rival  in  all  the 
marts  of  Europe.  "  All  Christian  kingdoms,  and  even  the 
Turks  themselves,"  says  an  historian  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
"  lamented  the  desperate  war  between  the  Flemish  cities  and 
their  Count  Louis,  that  broke  out  in  1380.  For  at  that  time 
Flanders  was  a  market  for  the  traders  of  all  the  world.  Mer- 
chants from  seventeen  kingdoms  had  their  settled  domiciles 
at  Bruges,  besides  strangers  from  almost  unknown  countries 
who  repaired  thither."  d  During  this  war,  and  on  all  other 
occasions,  the  weavers  both  of  Ghent  and  Bruges  distinguished 
themselves  by  a  democratical  spirit,  the  consequence,  no  doubt, 
of  their  numbers  and  prosperity.*  Ghent  was  one  of  the  largest 
cities  in  Europe,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  many,  the  best  situated/ 

a  Macphcrson's  Annals  of  Commerce,  d  Terra  marique  mercatura,  rerumque 

vol.  i.  p.  270.    Meyer  ascribes  the  origin  commercia  et   quaestus  peribant.     Non 

of  Flemish  trade  to  Baldwin  Count  of  solum  totius  Europae  mercatores,  verum 

Flanders  in  058,  who  established  mar-  ctiam  ipsi    Turcse  ahwque  sepositae  na- 

kcts  at  Bruges  and  other  cities.     Ex-  tiones  ob  bellum  istud  Flandriae  maeno 

changes  were  in  that  age,  he  says,  chief-  afficiebantur  dolore.    Erat  nempe  Flan- 

ly  effected  by  barter,  little  money  cirnu-  dna  totius  prope  orbis  stabile  mercatori- 

lating  in  Flanders.    Annales  Flandrici,  bus  emporium.    Septemdecim  regnorum 

fol-  18  (edit.  1561).  negotiators  turn  Erugis  sua  certa  hab- 

b  Matthew    weatmonast.    apud    Mac-  uere   domicilia   ac   sedes,   prater  com- 

pherson's  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  i.  plures    incognitas    pajne    gentes    quse 

p.  415.  undiqtte  connuebant.     Meyer,   fol.  205, 

c  Such  regulations  scared  away  those  ad  ann.  1383-                   _ 

Flemish  weavers  who  brought  their  art  e  Meyer ;  .Froissart;    Commes,         _ 

into  England  under  Edward  III.    Mac-  f  It  .contained,  according  to  Ludovico 

pherson,  pp.  467,  494,  546.    Several  years  Guicciardmi,  35.000  houses,  and  the  cir- 

later  the  magistrates  of  Ghent  are  said  cuit  of  its  walls  was  45,%>  Roman  feet, 

by  Meyer  (Annalea  Flandrici,  fol,  156)  to  Description  des  Pais  Bas,  p.  350,   &c. 

have    imposed    a   tax-  on    every   loom.  (edit,  ifiog).    Part  of  this  enclosure  was 

Though  the  seditious  spirit  of  the  Weav-  not    built    upon.      The    population,  of 

era'  Company  had  perhaps  justly  pro-  Ghent  is  reckoned  by  Guicciardim  at 

voked  them,  such  a  tax  on  their  staple  70,000,  but  m  his  time  it  had  greatly 

manufacture  was  a  piece  of  madness,  declined.    It  is  certainly,  however,  much 

when  English  goods  were  just  coming  exaggerated  by  earlier  historians. .  And 

into  competition.  I  entertain  some  doubt  as  to  Guicciar- 

VOL,   III,— 4 


50  HALLAM 

But  Bruges,  though  in  circuit  but  half  the  former,  was  more 
splendid  in  its  buildings,  and  the  seat  of  far  more  trade ;  being 
the  great  staple  both  for  Mediterranean  and  northern  merchan- 
dise.*? Antwerp,  which  early  in  the  sixteenth  century  drew 
away  a  large  part  of  this  commerce  from  Bruges,  was  not  con- 
siderable in  the  preceding  ages ;  nor  were  the  towns  of  Zealand 
and  Holland  much  noted  except  for  their  fisheries,  though 
those  provinces  acquired  in  the  fifteenth  century  some  share 
of  the  woollen  manufacture. 

For  the  first  two  centuries  after  the  Conquest  our  English 
towns,  as  has  been  observed  in  a  different  place,  made  some 
forward  steps  towards  improvement,  though  still  very  inferior 
to  those  of  the  continent.  Their  commerce  was  almost  con- 
fined to  the  exportation  of  wool,  the  great  staple  commodity 
of  England,  upon  which,  more  than  any  other,  in  its  raw  or 
manufactured  state,  our  wealth  has  been  founded-  A  woollen 
manufacture,  however,  indisputably  existed  under  Henry  IL  ;  A 
it  is  noticed  in  regulations  of  Richard  I. ;  and  by  the  importa- 
tion of  woad  under  John  it  may  be  inferred  to  have  still  flour- 
ished. The  disturbances  of  the  next  reign,  perhaps,  or  the 
rapid  elevation  of  the  Flemish  towns,  retarded  its  growth, 
though  a  remarkable  law  was  passed  by  the  Oxford  parliament 
in  1261,  prohibiting  the  export  of  wool  and  the  importation  of 
cloth.  This,  while  it  shows  the  deference  paid  by  the  discon- 
tented barons,  who  predominated  in  that  parliament,  to  their 
confederates  the  burghers,  was  evidently  too  premature  to  be 
enforced.  We  may  infer  from  it,  however,  that  cloths  were 
made  at  home,  though  not  sufficiently  for  the  people's  con- 
sumption.* 

Prohibitions  of  the  same  nature,  though  with  a  different 
object,  were  frequently  imposed  on  the  trade  between  England 
and  Flanders  by  Edward  I.  ancl  his  son.  As  their  political 

dim's  estimate  of  the  number  of  houses.  as  early  as  this  reign  at  Worsted*  a  vil- 

If  at  least  he  was  accurate,  more  than  lag^e  in  that  county,  and  immortalized 

half  of  the  city  must  since  have  been  its  name  by  their  manufacture.    It  soon 

demolished     or     become     uninhabited,  reached  Norwich,  though  not  conspic- 

which  its  present  appearance  does  not  uous  till  the  reign  of  Edward  I.    Hiat, 

indicate;    for  Ghent,  though  not  very  of  Norfolk,  vol.  ii.    Macpherson  speaks 

flourishing,  by  no  means  presents  the  of  it  for  the  first  time  in  1327.    There 

decay  and  dilapidation  of  several  Italian  were  several  guilds  of  weavers  in  the 

towns*  time  of  Henry  II.    Lyttelton,  vol.  ii, 

£  Guicclardmi,  p.  362;    Mem.  de  Co-  p.  174. 

mines,  1.  v,  c.  17;   Meyer,  fol.  354;  Mac-          i  Macpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce* 

phersort's  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol,  i.  vol.  i,  p,  412,  from  Walter  Hemingford, 

pp.  647,  651.  I  am  considerably  indebted  to  this  labo- 

h  Blomefield,  the  historian  of  Norfolk,  rious  and  useful  publication,  which  haa 

thinks  that  a  colony  of  Flemings  settled  superseded  that  of  Anderson, 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  51 

connections  fluctuated,  these  princes  gave  full  liberty  and  set- 
tlement to  the  Flemish  merchants,  or  banished  them  at  once 
from  the  country./  Nothing  could  be  more  injurious  to  Eng- 
land than  this  arbitrary  vacillation.  The  Flemings  were  in 
every  respect  our  natural  allies ;  but  besides  those  connections 
with  France,  the  constant  enemy  of  Flanders,  into  which  both 
the  Edwards  occasionally  fell,  a  mutual  alienation  had  been 
produced  by  the  trade  of  the  former  people  with  Scotland,  a 
trade  too  lucrative  to  be  resigned  at  the  King  of  England's 
request^  An  early  instance  of  that  conflicting  selfishness  of 
belligerents  and  neutrals,  which  was  destined  to  aggravate  the 
animosities  and  misfortunes  of  our  own  time.* 

A  more  prosperous  era  began  with  Edward  III.,  the  father, 
as  he  may  almost  be  called,  of  English  commerce,  a  title  not 
indeed  more  glorious,  but  by  which  he  may  perhaps  claim  more 
of  our  gratitude  than  as  the  hero  of  Crecy.  In  1331  he  took 
advantage  of  discontents  among  the  manufacturers  of  Flan- 
ders to  invite  them  as  settlers  into  his  dominions.^  They 
brought  the  finer  manufacture  of  woollen  cloths,  which  had 
been  unknown  in  England.  The  discontents  alluded  to  re- 
sulted from  the  monopolizing  spirit  of  their  corporations,  who 
oppressed  all  artisans  without  the  pale  of  their  community. 
The  history  of  corporations  brings  home  to  our  minds  one  car- 
dinal truth,  that  political  institutions  have  very  frequently  but 
a  relative  and  temporary  usefulness,  and  that  what  forwarded 
improvement  during  one  part  of  its  course  may  prove  to  it  in 
time  a  most  pernicious  obstacle.  Corporations  in  England, 
we  may  be  sure,  wanted  nothing  of  their  usual  character ;  and 
it  cost  Edward  no  little  trouble  to  protect  his  colonists  from 
the  selfishness  and  from  the  blind  nationality  of  the  vulgar.^ 
The  emigration  of  Flemish  weavers  into  England  continued 
during  this  reign,  and  we  find  it  mentioned,  at  intervals,  for 
more  than  a  century. 

Commerce  now  became,  next  to  liberty,  the  leading  object 

/  Rymer,  t,  ii.  pp,  32,  50,  737,  949,  965;  they  should  feed  on  fat  beef  and  mutton, 

t  ill.  pp.  533,  1106,  et  alibi.  till    nothing  but   their   fulness    should 

fclbid.  p.  750.    A  Flemish  factory  was  stint  their  stomachs;   their  beds  should 

established     at    Berwick    about     1286.  be  good,  and  their  bedfellows  better, 

Macpherson.  seeing  the  richest  yeomen  in  .England 

I  In  1295  Edward  T.  made  masters  of  would  not  disdain  to  marry  their  dau$h- 

neutral  ships  in  English  ports  find  secu-  ters  unto  them,  and  such  the  English 

rity  not  to  trade  with  France.    Rymer,  beauties  that  the  most  envious  foreign- 

t.  ii.  p,  679.  ers    could    not    but    commend    them. 

m  Ibid.  t.  iv.  p.  491,  &c.    Fuller  draws  Fuller's    Church    History,    quoted    in 

a     notable     picture     of     the     induce-  Blomefield's  Hist,  of  Norfolk, 

ments  held  out  to  the  Flemings.   "  Here  n  Rymer,  t.  v.  pp.  137,  43<>»  S4o. 


52  HALLAM 

of  parliament.  For  the  greater  part  of  our  statutes  from  the 
accession  of  Edward  III.  bear  relation  to  this  subject;  not 
always  well  advised,  or  liberal,  or  consistent,  but  by  no  means 
worse  in  those  respects  than  such  as  have  been  enacted  in 
subsequent  ages.  The  occupation  of  a  merchant  became  hon- 
orable ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  natural  jealousy  of  the  two 
classes,  he  was  placed,  in  some  measure,  on  a  footing  with 
landed  proprietors.  By  the  statute  of  apparel,  in  37  Edw.  III., 
merchants  and  artificers  who  had  five  hundred  pounds  value 
in  goods  and  chattels  might  use  the  same  dress  as  squires  of 
one  hundred  pounds  a  year.  And  those  who  were  worth  more 
than  this  might  dress  like  men  of  double  that  estate.  Wool 
was  still  the  principal  article  of  export  and  source  of  revenue. 
Subsidies  granted  by  every  parliament  upon  this  article  were, 
on  account  of  the  scarcity  of  money,  commonly  taken  in  kind. 
To  prevent  evasion  of  this  duty  seems  to  have  been  the  prin- 
ciple of  those  multifarious  regulations  which  fix  the  staple,  or 
market  for  wool,  in  certain  towns,  either  in  England,  or,  more 
commonly,  on  the  continent.  To  these  all  wool  was  to  be 
carried,  and  the  tax  was  there  collected.  It  is  not  easy,  how- 
ever, to  comprehend  the  drift  of  all  the  provisions  relating 
to  the  staple,  many  of  which  tend  to  benefit  foreign  at  the 
expense  of  English  merchants.  By  degrees  the  exportation  of 
woollen  cloths  increased  so  as  to  diminish  that  of  the  raw 
material,  but  the  latter  was  not  absolutely  prohibited  during 
the  period  under  review  \o  although  some  restrictions  were 
imposed  upon  it  by  Edward  IV.  For  a  much  earlier  statute, 
in  the  nth  of  Edward  III.,  making  the  exportation  of  wool 
a  capital  felony,  was  in  its  terms  provisional,  until  it  should 
be  otherwise  ordered  by  the  council;  and  the  king  almost 
immediately  set  it  aside./* 

o  In  1409  woollen  cloths  formed  great  we  had  no  staple  mnntifactttrcfi  in  the 

part  of  our  exports,  and  were  extensive-  ages  when  the  common  law  was  formed, 

ly  used  over  Spain  and  Ttaly.  And  m  and  that  the  export  of  wool  was  almost 

1449,  English  cloths  having  been  prohib-  the  only  means  by  which  this  country 

ited  by  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  it  wns  procured  silver,  or  any  other  article  of 

enacted  that,  until  lie  should  repeal  this  which  it  stood  in  need,  from  the  conti- 

ordinance,  no  merchandise  of  his  do-  nent.  In  fact,  the  landholders  were  K> 

minions  should  be  admitted  into  En#-  far  from  neglecting  this  source  of  their 

land,  37  H.  VI.  c,  i.  The  system  of  wealth,  that  a  minimum  was  fixed  upon 

prohibiting  the  import  of  foreign  it,  by  a  statute  of  1343  (repealed  indeed 

wrought  goods  was  acted  upon  very  ex-  the  next  year,  18  E.  It  I.  c.  3),  below 

tensivdy  in  Edward  IV. 'a  reign.  which  price  it  was  not  to  be  sold;  from 

p  Stat.  u  E.  III.  c,  T.  Blackstone  a  laudable  apprehension,  as  it  seems, 

says  that  transporting  wool  out  of  the  that  foreigners  were  getting  it  too  cheap* 

kingdom,  to  the  detriment  of  our  staple  And  this  was  revived  in  the  3*d  of  H. 

manufacture,  was  forbidden  at  common  VI.,  though  the  act  is  not  printed  among 

law  (vol.  iv.  c.  19),  not  recollecting  that  the  statutes.  Rot.  Parl.  t  v.  p,  275. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  53 

A  manufacturing  district,  as  we  see  in  our  own  country, 
sends  out,  as  it  were,  suckers  into  all  its  neighborhood.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  woollen  manufacture  spread  from  Flanders  along 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine  and  into  the  northern  provinces  of 
France.?  I  am  not,  however,  prepared  to  trace  its  history  in 
these  regions.  In  Germany  the  privileges  conceded  by  Henry 
V.  to  the  free  cities,  and  especially  to  their  artisans,  gave  a  soul 
to  industry ;  though  the  central  parts  of  the  empire  were,  for 
many  reasons,  very  ill-calculated  for  commercial  enterprise 
during  the  middle  ages.r  But  the  French  towns  were  never 
so  much  emancipated  from  arbitrary  power  as  those  of  Ger- 
many or  Flanders ;  and  the  evils  of  exorbitant  taxation,  with 
those  produced  by  the  English  wars,  conspired  to  retard  the 
advance  of  manufactures  in  France.  That  of  linen  made  some 
little  progress ;  but  this  work  was  still,  perhaps,  chiefly  con- 
fined to  the  labor  of  female  servants.-? 

The  manufactures  of  Flanders  and  England  found  a  mar- 
ket, not  only  in  these  adjacent  countries,  but  in  a  part  of  Eu- 
rope which  for  many  ages  had  only  been  known  enough  to  be 
dreaded.  In  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century  a  native  of 
Bremen,  and  a  writer  much  superior  to  most  others  of  his 
time,  was  almost  entirely  ignorant  of  the  geography  of  the 
Baltic ;  doubting  whether  anyone  had  reached  Russia  by  that 
sea,  and  reckoning  Esthonia  and  Courland  among  its  islands.* 
But  in  one  hundred  years  more  the  maritime  regions  of  Meck- 
lenberg  and  Pomerania,  inhabited  by  a  tribe  of  heathen  Scla- 

The  exportation  of  sheep  was  prohibited  was  tolerably  fair.  Macpherson,  p.  506. 
in  1338— Rymer,  t.  v.  p.  36;  and  by  act  The  best  horses  had  been  very  dear  in 
of  Parliament  in  1425—3  H.  VT.  c,  s.  England,  being  imported  from  Spain 
But  this  did  not  prevent  our  importing  and  Italy.  Ibid, 
the  wool  of  a  foreign,  country,,  to  our  q  Schmidt,  t.  iv.  p.  18. 
own  loss.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  r  Considerable  woollen  manufactures 
English  wool  was  superior  to  any  other  appear  to  have  existed  in  Picardy  about 
for  fineness  during  these  ages.  Henry  1315.  Macpherson  ad  annum.  Cap- 
II.,  in  his  patent  to  the  Weavers'  Com-  many,  t.  iii.  part  2,  p.  151. 
pany,  directs  that,  if  any  weaver  rnin-  $  The  sheriffs  of  Wiltshire  and  Sussex 
gled  Spanish  wool  with  English,  it  are  directed  in  1258  to  purchase  for  the 
should  be  burned  by  the  lord  mayor.  king  1,000  ells  of  fine  linen,  linese  telae 
Macpherson,  p.  383.  An  English  flock  pulchrse  et  delicate.  This  Macpherson 
transported  into  Spain  about  1348  is  supposes  to  be  of  domestic  manufacture, 
said  to  have  been  the  source  of  the  fine  which,  however,  is  not  demonstrable. 
Spanish  wool.  Ibid;  p.  539.  But  the  Linen  was  made  at  that  time  in  Flan- 
superiority  of  English  wool,  even  as  ders;  and  as  late  as  141^  the  fine  linen 
late  as  1438,  is  proved  by  the  laws  of  used  in  England  was  imported  from 
Barcelona  forbidding  its  adulteration.  France  and  the  Low  Countries.  Mac- 
P,  654-  Another  exportation  of  English  pherson,  from  Rymer,  t.  ix.  p.  334. 
sheep  to  Spain  took  place  about  1403,  in  velly's  history  is  defective  in  giving  no 
consequence  of  a  commercial  treaty.  account  of  the  French  commerce  and 
Rymer,  t.  xi,  p.  534  et  alibi.  In  return,  manufactures,  or  at  least  none  that  is 
Spain  supplied  England  with  horses,  at  all  satisfactory. 

of  which  was  reckoned  the  *  Adam  Bremensis,  de  Situ  Daniae,  p. 

irope;    so  that  the  exchange  13.    (Elzevir  edit) 


54 


HALLAM 


vonians,  were  subdued  by  some  German  princes ;  and  the  Teu- 
tonic Order  some  time  afterwards,  having  conquered  Prussia, 
extended  a  line  of  at  least  comparative  civilization  as  far  as  the 
Gulf  of  Finland.  The  first  town  erected  on  the  coasts  of  the 
Baltic  was  Lubeck,  which  owes  its  foundation  to  Adolphus 
Count  of  Holstein,  in  1140.  After  several  vicissitudes  it  be- 
came independent  of  any  sovereign  but  the  emperor  in  the 
thirteenth  century.  Hamburg  and  Bremen,  upon  the  other 
side  of  the  Cimbric  peninsula,  emulated  the  prosperity  of  Lu- 
beck ;  the  former  city  purchased  independence  of  its  bishop  in 
1225.  A  colony  from  Bremen  founded  Riga  in  Livonia  about 
1 162.  The  city  of  Dantzic  grew  into  importance  about  the  end 
of  the  following  century.  Konigsberg  was  founded  by  Ottocar 
King  of  Bohemia  in  the  same  age. 

But  the  real  importance  of  these  cities  is  to  be  dated  from 
their  famous  union  into  the  Hanseatic  confederacy.  The 
origin  of  this  is  rather  obscure,  but  it  may  certainly  be  nearly 
referred  in  point  of  time  to  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury,** and  accounted  for  by  the  necessity  of  mutual  defence, 
which  piracy  by  sea  and  pillage  by  land  had  taught  the  mer- 
chants of  Germany.  The  nobles  endeavored  to  obstruct  the 
formation  of  this  league,  which  indeed  was  in  great  measure 
designed  to  withstand  their  exactions.  It  powerfully  main- 
tained the  influence  which  the  free  imperial  cities  were  at  this 
time  acquiring.  Eighty  of  the  most  considerable  places  con- 
stituted the  Hanseatic  confederacy,  divided  into  four  colleges, 
whereof  Lubeck,  Cologne,  Brunswick,  and  Dantzic  were  the 
leading  towns,  Lubeck  held  the  chief  rank,  and  became,  as  it 
were,  the  patriarchal  see  of  the  league;  whose  province  it 
was  to  preside  in  all  general  discussions  for  mercantile,  polit- 
ical, or  military  purposes,  and  to  carry  them  into  execution. 
The  league  had  four  principal  factories  in  foreign  parts,  at 
London,  Bruges,  Bergen,  and  Novogorocl ;  endowed  by  the 
sovereigns  of  those  cities  with  considerable  privileges,  to  which 
every  merchant  belonging  to  a  Hanseatic  town  was  entitled,*' 
In  England  the  German  guildhall  or  factory  was  established 
by  concession  of  Henry  III. ;  and  in  later  periods  the  Hanse 
traders  were  favored  above  many  others  in  the  capricious  vacil- 

u  Schmidt,  t.  iv.  p.  8.     Macpherson,  v  Ffefffel,  t.  i.  p,  143;    Schmidt,  t.  5v. 

p.   392,     The  latter  writer  thinks  they  p,  18;    t.  v.  p.  512;    Macpherson's  An- 

were  not  known  by  the  name  of  Hanse  nals,  vol.  i.  p.  693. 
so  early. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES 


55 


lations  of  our  mercantile  policy.^  The  English  had  also  their 
factories  on  the  Baltic  coast  as  far  as  Prussia  and  in  the  do- 
minions of  Denmark.* 

This  opening  of  a  northern  market  powerfully  accelerated 
the  growth  of  our  own  commercial  opulence,  especially  after 
the  woollen  manufacture  had  begun  to  thrive.  From  about 
the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  we  find  continual  evi- 
dences of  a  rapid  increase  in  wealth.  Thus,  in  1363,  Picard, 
who  had  been  lord  mayor  some  years  before,  entertained  Ed- 
ward III.  and  the  Black  Prince,  the  kings  of  France,  Scotland, 
and  Cyprus,  with  many  of  the  nobility,  at  his  own  house  in  the 
Vintry,  and  presented  them  with  handsome  gifts.^  Philpot, 
another  eminent  citizen  in  Richard  II. 's  time,  when  the  trade 
of  England  was  considerably  annoyed  by  privateers,  hired 
1 ,000  armed  men,  and  despatched  them  to  sea,  where  they 
took  fifteen  Spanish  vessels  with  their  prizes.-  We  find  Rich- 
ard obtaining  a  great  deal  from  private  merchants  and  trading 
towns.  In  1379  he  got  5,ooo/.  from  London,  1,000  marks  from 
Bristol,  and  in  proportion  from  smaller  places.  In  1386  Lon- 
don gave  4,ooo/,  more,  and  10,000  marks  in  1397.0  The  latter 
sum  was  obtained  also  for  the  coronation  of  Henry  VL&  Nor 
were  the  contributions  of  individuals  contemptible,  consider- 
ing the  high  value  of  money.  Hinde,  a  citizen  of  London,  lent 
to  Henry  IV.  2,oooJ.  in  1407,  and  Whittington  one-half  of  that 
sum.  The  merchants  of  the  staple  advanced  4,oooZ.  at  the  same 
time.c  Our  commerce  continued  to  be  regularly  and  rapidly 
progressive  during  the  fifteenth  century.  The  famous  Can- 
ynges  of  Bristol,  under  Henry  VI-  and  Edward  IV.,  had  ships 
of  900  tons  burden.d  The  trade  and  even  the  internal  wealth 
of  England  reached  so  much  higher  a  pitch  in  the  reign  of  the 
last-mentioned  king  than  at  any  former  period,  that  we  may 
perceive  the  wars  of  York  and  Lancaster  to  have  produced 
no  very  serious  effect  on  national  prosperity.  Some  battles 
were  doubtless  sanguinary ;  but  the  loss  of  lives  in  battle  is 
soon  repaired  by  a  flourishing  nation;  and  the  devastation 
occasioned  by  armies  was  both  partial  and  transitory. 

A  commercial  intercourse  between  these  northern  and  south- 

or  Macpherson,  vol.  i  passim.  a  Rymer,  t.  vii.  pp,  210,  341;  t.  viii. 

#Rymer,  t  viii.  p.  360-         „  pp,%i-j   *  * 

y  Macpherson  (who  quotes  Stow),  p.          Z>Tbid.  t.  x;-p.  461. 
415  c  Ibid.  t.  vm.  p.  488. 

j'Walsingham,  p.  an.  d  Macpherson,  p.  667. 


S6  HALLAM 

ern  regions  of  Europe  began  about  the  early  part  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  or;  at  most,  a  little  sooner.  Until,  indeed,  the 
use  of  the  magnet  was  thoroughly  understood,  and  a  competent 
skill  in  marine  architecture,  as  well  as  navigation,  acquired,  the 
Italian  merchants  were  scarce  likely  to  attempt  a  voyage  peril- 
ous in  itself  and  rendered  more  formidable  by  the  imaginary 
difficulties  which  had  been  supposed  to  attend  an  expedition 
beyond  the  straits  of  Hercules.  But  the  English,  accustomed 
to  their  own  rough  seas,  were  always  more  intrepid,  and  prob- 
ably more  skilful  navigators.  Though  it  was  extremely  rare, 
even  in  the  fifteenth  century,  for  an  English  trading  vessel  to 
appear  in  the  Mediterranean,*?  yet  a  famous  military  armament, 
that  destined  for  the  crusade  of  Richard  I.,  displayed  at  a  very 
early  time  the  seamanship  of  our  countrymen.  In  the  reign  of 
Edward  II.  we  find  mention  in  Rymer's  collection  of  Genoese 
ships  trading  to  Flanders  and  England.  His  son  was  very 
solicitous  to  preserve  the  friendship  of  that  opulent  republic ; 
and  it  is  by  his  letters  to  his  senate,  or  by  royal  orders  restoring 
ships  unjustly  seized,  that  we  come  by  a  knowledge  of  those 
facts  which  historians  neglect  to  relate.  Pisa  shared  a  little  in 
this  traffic,  and  Venice  more  considerably;  but  Genoa  was 
beyond  all  competition  at  the  head  of  Italian  commerce  in  these 
seas  during  the  fourteenth  century.  In  the  next  her  general 
decline  left  it  more  open  to  her  rival;  but  I  doubt  whether 
Venice  ever  maintained  so  strong  a  connection  with  England 
Through  London  and  Bruges,  their  chief  station  in  Flanders, 
the  merchants  of  Italy  and  Spain  transported  oriental  produce 
to  the  farthest  parts  of  the  north.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Baltic 
coast  were  stimulated  by  the  desire  of  precious  luxuries  which 

e  Richard  III.»  in  1485,  appointed  a  tcrs  of  reprisal  against  nil  Genoese  prop- 
Florentine  merchant  to  be  English  con-  erty.  Rymcr,  t.  via.  pp.  7*7,  773.  Though 
sul  at  Pisa,  on  the  ground  that  some  of  it  is  not  perhaps  evident  that  the  vessels 
his  subjects  intended  to  trade  to  Italy.  were  English,  the  circumstances  render 
Macpherson,  p.  705,  from  Rymer.  Per-  it  highly  probable.  The  bad  JMCCOHS, 
haps  we  cannot  positively  prove  the  however,  of  this  attempt*  might  prevent 
existence  of  a  Mediterranean  trade  at  its  imitation.  A  Greek  author  about  the 
an  earlier  time:  and  even  this  inatru-  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century  rook- 
ment  is  not  conclusive.  But  a  consider-  ons  the  lyyAijj/ot  among  the  nations  who 
a«ble  presumption  arises  from  two  docu-  traded  to  a  port  in  the  Archipelago, 
ments  in  Rymer,  of  the  year  1412,  which  Gibbon,  vol.  xii.  p.  52,  But  these  enu- 
inform  us  of  a  great  shipment  of  wool  merations  are  generally  swelled  by  van- 
and  other  goods  made  by  some  mer-  ity  or  the  love  of  exaggeration;  and  a 
chants  of  London  for  the  MeditenM-  few  English  sailors  on  board  a  foreign 
nean,  tinder  supercargoes,  whom,  it  be-  vessel  would  justify  the  assertion.  Ben* 
ing  a  new  undertaking,  the  king  ex-  jamin  of  Tudela,  a  Jewish  traveller,  pre« 
pressly  recommended  to  the  Genoese  tends  that  the  port  of  Alexandria,  about 
republic.  But  that  people,  impelled  u6o,  contained  vessels  not  only  from 
probably  by  commercial  jealousy,,  sewed  England,  but  from  Rtmia,  and  even 
the  vessels  and  their  cargoes;  which  in-  Cracow*  Harris's*  Voyagee,  vol.  i.  p, 
d viced  the  king  to  grant  the  owners  let-  554. 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES 


57 


they  had  never  known;  and  these  wants,  though  selfish  and 
frivolous,  are  the  means  by  which  nations  acquire  civilization, 
and  the  earth  is  rendered  fruitful  of  its  produce.  As  the  car- 
riers of  this  trade  the  Hanseatic  merchants  resident  in  Eng- 
land and  Flanders  derived  profits  through  which  eventually 
of  course  those  countries  were  enriched.  It  seems  that  the 
Italian  vessels  unloaded  at  the  marts  of  London  or  Bruges, 
and  that  such  parts  of  their  cargoes  as  were  intended  for  a 
more  northern  trade  came  there  into  the  hands  of  the  Ger- 
man merchants.  In  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.  England  carried 
on  a  pretty  extensive  traffic  with  the  countries  around  the 
Mediterranean,  for  whose  commodities  her  wool  and  woollen 
cloths  enabled  her  to  pay. 

The  commerce  of  the  southern  division,  though  it  did  not, 
I  think,  produce  more  extensively  beneficial  effects  upon  the 
progress  of  society,  was  both  earlier  and  more  splendid  than 
that  of  England  and  the  neighboring  countries.  Besides  Ven- 
ice, which  has  been  mentioned  already,  Amalfi  kept  up  the  com- 
mercial intercourse  of  Christendom  with  the  Saracen  countries 
before  the  first  crusade/  It  was  the  singular  fate  of  this  city 
to  have  filled  up  the  interval  between  two  periods  of  civiliza- 
tion, in  neither  of  which  she  was  destined  to  be  distinguished. 
Scarcely  known  before  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  Arnalfi  ran 
a  brilliant  career,  as  a  free  and  trading  republic,  which  was 
checked  by  the  arms  of  a  conqueror  in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth. 
Since  her  subjugation  by  Roger  King  of  Sicily,  the  name  of 
a  people  who  for  a  while  connected  Europe  with  Asia  has 
hardly  been  repeated,  except  for  two  discoveries  falsely  im- 
puted to  them,  those  of  the  Pandects  and  of  the  compass. 

fThe  Amalfitans  are  thus  described  [There  must  be,  I  suspect,  some  exag- 

by  William  of  Apulia,  apud  Muratori,  Deration  about  the  commerce  and  opu- 

Dissert.  30.  fence  of  Amalfi,  in  the  only  aj?e  when 

she  possessed  any  at  all.    The  city  could 

Urbs  hnec  dives  opum,  populoque  re-  never  have  been  considerable,  as  we  may 

ferta  videtur,  judge    from    its    position    immediately 

Nulla  magis  locuples  argento,  vesti-  under  a  steep  mountain;    and  what  is 

bus,  auro.  still  more  material,   has  a  very  small 

Partibus  innumeris  ac  plurimus  urbe  port.   According  to  our  notions  of  trade, 

moratur  she  could  never  have  enjoyed  much;  the 

Nauta,  maris  ccekque  vias  aperire  pe-  lines  quoted  from  William  of  Apulia  are 

ritus.  to  be  taken  as  a  poet's  panegyric.    It  is 

Hue  *t  Alexandri  diversa  feruntur  ah  of  course  a  question  of  degree;    Amalfi 

urbe.  was  no  doubt  a  commercial  republic  to 

Regis  ct  Antiochi.    Hfcc  [etiam?]  freta  the  extent  of  her  capacity;    but  those 

plurima  transit  who  have  ever  been  on  the  coast  must 

Hie  Arabes,  Indi,  Siculi  noscuntur,  et  be   aware   how   limited   that   was.     At 

Afri.  present  she  has,  T  believe,  no  foreign 

Hzec  gens  est  totum  prope  nobilitata  trade  at  all.    1848.] 

per  orbem, 
Et  mercanda  ferens,  et  amans  mercata 

referre. 


S8  HALLAM 

But  the  decline  of  Amalfi  was  amply  compensated  to  the  rest 
of  Italy  by  the  constant  elevation  of  Pisa,  Genoa,  and  Venice 
in  the  twelfth  and  ensuing  ages.  The  crusades  led  immediately 
to  this  growing  prosperity  of  the  commercial  cities.  Besides 
the  profit  accruing  from  so  many  naval  armaments  which  they 
supplied,  and  the  continual  passage  of  private  adventurers  in 
their  vessels,  they  were  enabled  to  open  a  more  extensive 
channel  of  oriental  traffic  than  had  hitherto  been  known. 
These  three  Italian  republics  enjoyed  immunities  in  the  Chris- 
tian principalities  of  Syria;  possessing  separate  quarters  in 
Acre,  Tripoli,  and  other  cities,  where  they  were  governed  by 
their  own  laws  and  magistrates.  Though  the  progress  of  com- 
merce must,  from  the  condition  of  European  industry,  have 
been  slow,  it  was  uninterrupted;  and  the  settlements  in  Pal- 
estine were  becoming  important  as  factories,  a  use  of  which 
Godfrey  and  Urban  little  dreamed,  when  they  were  lost  through 
the  guilt  and  imprudence  of  their  inhabitants .£  Villani  la- 
ments the  injury  sustained  by  commerce  in  consequence  of 
the  capture  of  Acre,  "  situated,  as  it  was,  on  the  coast  of  the 
Mediterranean,  in  the  centre  of  Syria,  and,  as  we  might  say, 
of  the  habitable  world,  a  haven  for  all  merchandise,  both  from 
the  East  and  the  West,  which  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  fre- 
quented for  this  trade."  h  But  the  loss  was  soon  retrieved,  not 
perhaps  by  Pisa  and  Genoa,  but  by  Venice,  who  formed  con- 
nections with  the  Saracen  governments,  and  maintained  her 
commercial  intercourse  with  Syria  and  Egypt  by  their  license, 
though  subject  probably  to  heavy  exactions.  Sanuto,  a  Vene- 
tian author  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  has  left 
a  curious  account  of  the  Levant  trade  which  his  countrymen 
carried  on  at  that  time.  Their  imports  it  is  easy  to  guess,  and 
it  appears  that  timber,  brass,  tin,  and  lead,  as  well  as  the  pre- 
cious metals,  were  exported  to  Alexandria,  besides  oil,  saffron, 
and  some  of  the  productions  of  Italy,  and  even  wool  and  wool* 
len  cloths.*  The  European  side  of  the  account  had  therefore 
become  respectable. 

The  commercial  cities  enjoyed  as  great  privileges  at  Con- 
stantinople as  in  Syria,  and  they  bore  an  eminent  part  in  the 
vicissitudes  of  the  Eastern  empire.  After  the  capture  of  Con- 

S  The  inhabitants  of  Acre  were  noted,  aration,  the  city  was  besieged  and  taken 

San  age  not  very  pure,  for  the  excess  by  storm.    Muraton,  ad  ann.    Gibbon, 

their  vices.    In  1291  they  plundered  c.  59. 

some  of  the  subjects  of  a  neighboring  h  Villani,  1.  vii.  c.  144. 

Mohammedan  prmce,  and,  refusing  rep-  i  Maepfcerson,  p.  490. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES 


59 


stantinople  by  the  Latin  crusaders,  the  Venetians,  having  been 
concerned  in  that  conquest,  became,  of  course,  the  favored 
traders  under  the  new  dynasty  ;  possessing  their  own  district 
in  the  city,  with  their  magistrate  or  podesta,  appointed  at  Ven- 
ice, and  subject  to  the  parent  republic.  When  the  Greeks 
recovered  the  seat  of  their  empire,  the  Genoese,  who,  from 
jealousy  of  their  rivals,  had  contributed  to  that  revolution, 
obtained  similar  immunities.  This  powerful  and  enterprising 
state,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  sometimes  the  ally,  sometimes 
the  enemy,  of  the  Byzantine  court,  maintained  its  independent 
settlement  at  Pera.  From  thence  she  spread  her  sails  into  the 
Euxine,  and,  planting  a  colony  at  Caffa  in  the  Crimea,  extended 
a  line  of  commerce  with  the  interior  regions  of  Asia,  which 
even  the  skill  and  spirit  of  our  own  times  has  not  yet  been  able 
to  revive.; 

The  French  provinces  which  border  on  the  Mediterranean 
Sea  partook  in  the  advantages  which  it  offered.  Not  only 
Marseilles,  whose  trade  had  continued  in  a  certain  degree 
throughout  the  worst  ages,  but  Narbonne,  Nismes,  and  espe- 
cially Montpelier,  were  distinguished  for  commercial  pros- 
perity.^ A  still  greater  activity  prevailed  in  Catalonia.  From 
the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  (for  we  need  not  trace 
the  rudiments  of  its  history)  Barcelona  began  to  emulate  the 
Italian  cities  in  both  the  branches  of  naval  energy,  war  and 
commerce.  Engaged  in  frequent  and  severe  hostilities  with 
Genoa,  and  sometimes  with  Constantinople,  while  their  vessels 
traded  to  every  part  of  the  Mediterranean,  and  even  of  the 
English  Channel,  the  Catalans  might  justly  be  reckoned  among 
the  first  of  maritime  nations.  The  commerce  of  Barcelona 


j  Capmany,    Memonas   Historicas,   t.  letters,  to  have  possessed  some  of  the 

iii.  preface,  p.   u;    and  part  2,  p.   131.  trade  through  Tartary.    In  a  letter  wnt- 

IJis  authority  is  Balducci  Pegalotti,   a  ten  from  Venice,  after  extolling  in  too 

Florentine  writer  upon  commerce  about  rhetorical  a  manner  the  commerce   of 

*3V°i  whose  work  I  have  never  seen.    It  that  republic,  he  mentions  a  particular 

appears  from  RaMucci  that  the  route  to  ship  that  had  just  sailed  for  the  Black 

China  was  from  Asoph  to  Astrakan,  and  Sea.    Et  ipsa  quidem  Tanaim  it  visura, 

thence,   by  a   variety  of  places  which  nostri  enim  maris  navigatfo  non  ultra 

cannot  be  found  in  modern  maps,  to  tendrtur;  eorum  vero  aliqui,   quos  hsec 

Cambalu,   probably   Pekm,   the   capital  fert.  illic  iter  [instituent]  earn  egressuri, 

city  of  China,  which  he  describes  as  be-  nee  antea   substituri,    quam   Gange    et 

ing   one   hundred   miles   in   circumfer-  Caucaso  superato,  ad  Indos  atque  ex- 

ence.     The  journey  was  of  rather  more  tremos  Seres  et  Orientalem  perveniatur 

than  eight  months,  going  and  return-  Oceanum.      En    quo    ardens    et    inex- 

ing;   and  he  assures  us  it  was  perfectly  plebilis  habendi  sitis  hominum  mentes 

secure,  not  only  for  caravans,  but  for  a  rapit  !  Petrarca  Opera,  Senil.  1.  ii.  ep.  3, 

single  traveller  with  a  couple  of  inter-  p.  760  edit.  1581. 

preters  and  a  servant.     The  Venetians  k  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  iii.  p.  531  5  .  t. 

nad  also   a   settlement  in  f  the   Crimea,  iy.  p.  517.    Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscrip- 

and  appear,  by  a  passage  in  Petrarch's  tions,  t.  xxxvii. 


60  HALLAM 

has  never  since  attained  so  great  a  height  as  in  the  fifteenth 
century.^ 

The  introduction  of  a  silk  manufacture  at  Palermo,  by  Kogcr 
Guiscard  in  1148,  gave  perhaps  the  earliest  impulse  to  the 
industry  of  Italy.  Nearly  about  the  same  time  the  Genoese 
plundered  two  Moorish  cities  of  Spain,  from  which  they  derived 
the  same  art.  In  the  next  age  this  became  a  staple  manufacture 
of  the  Lombard  and  Tuscan  republics,  and  the  cultivation  of 
mulberries  was  enforced  by  their  laws.w  Woollen  stuffs, 
though  the  trade  was  perhaps  less  conspicuous  than  that  of 
Flanders,  and  though  many  of  the  coarser  kinds  were  imported 
from  thence,  employed  a  multitude  of  workmen  in  Italy,  Cata- 
lonia, and  the  south  of  France."  Among  the  trading  com- 
panies into  which  the  middling  ranks  were  distributed,  those 
concerned  in  silk  and  woollens  were  most  numerous  and  hon- 
orable.o 

A  property  of  a  natural  substance,  long  overlooked  even 
though  it  attracted  observation  by  a  different  peculiarity,  has 
influenced  by  its  accidental  discovery  the  fortunes  of  mankind 
more  than  all  the  deductions  of  philosophy.  It  is,  perhaps, 
impossible  to  ascertain  the  epoch  when  the  polarity  of  the 
magnet  was  first  known  in  Europe.  The  common  opinion, 
which  ascribes  its  discovery  to  a  citizen  of  Amalfi  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  is  undoubtedly  erroneous.  Guiot  cle  Provins, 
a  French  poet,  who  lived  about  the  year  1200,  01%  at  the  latest 
under  St.  Louis,  describes  it  in  the  most  unequivocal  language. 
James  de  Vitry,  a  bishop  in  Palestine,  before  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  Guide  Guinizzelli,  an  Italian  poet  of  the 
same  time,  are  equally  explicit.  The  French,  as  well  as  Ital- 
ians, claim  the  discovery  as  their  own ;  but  whether  it  were 
clue  to  either  of  these  nations,  or  rather  learned  from  their 
intercourse  with  the  Saracens,  is  not  easily  to  be  ascertained./* 

I  Capmany,    Metnorias    Historians   de  &c. ;    and  Vaissette  that  of  Carcassonne 

Barcelona,  t.  i.  part  2.    See  particularly  and  its  vicinity— -Ilist.  de  Lang,  t.  iv,  i>. 

p.  36.            t  517. 

*«  Muratori,  Dissert.  30.  !Denina,  "Rivo-  o  None  were  admitted  to  the  rank  of 

luzione  d'ltaha,  1.  xiv.  c.  it.    The  lattrr  burgesses  in  the  town  of  Arapron  who 

writer   is    of    opinion    that    mulberries  used  any  manual  trade,  with  the  excrt>- 

were  not  cultivated  as  an  important  ob-  tion  of  dealers  in  fine  cloths.    The  wool- 

5ect  till  after  1300,  nor  even  to  any  great  len  manufacture  of  Spain  did  not  at  any 

extent  till  after  1500;  the  Italian  maim-  time  become  a  considerable  article  of 

facturera  buying  most  of  their  silk  from  export,   nor  even  supply  the   internal 

Spam  or  the  Levant.  consumption,    as    Oapmany    has    well 

nThe   history  of  Italian  states,   and  shown.    Memoriae  TTiqtoricas,  t.  iii,  p. 

especially  Florence,  will  speak  for  the  325    et    seq.,    and    Edinburgh    Review, 

first    country;     Capmany    attests    the  vol.  x. 

woollen    manufacture   of   the   second—  p  Boucher,   the   French   translator   of 

Mem.  Hist,  ae  Bared,  t.  i.  part  3,  p.  7,  II  Consolato  del  Mare,  says  that  Edrissi, 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  61 

For  some  time,  perhaps,  even  this  wonderful  improvement  in 
the  art  of  navigation  might  not  be  universally  adopted  by 
vessels  sailing  within  the  Mediterranean,  and  accustomed  to 
their  old  system  of  observations.  But  when  it  became  more 
established,  it  naturally  inspired  a  more  fearless  spirit  of  ad- 
venture. It  was  not,  as  has  been  mentioned,  till  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fourteenth  century  that  the  Genoese  and  other 
nations  around  that  inland  sea  steered  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean 
towards  England  and  Flanders.  This  intercourse  with  the 
northern  countries  enlivened  their  trade  with  the  Levant  by 
the  exchange  of  productions  which  Spain  and  Italy  do  not 
supply,  and  enriched  the  merchants  by  means  of  whose  capital 
the  exports  of  London  and  of  Alexandria  were  conveyed  into 
each  other's  harbors. 

The  usual  risks  of  navigation,  and  those  incident  to  commer- 
cial adventure,  produce  a  variety  of  questions  in  every  system 
of  jurisprudence,  which,  though  always  to  be  determined,  as 
far  as  possible,  by  principles  of  natural  justice,  must  in  many 
cases  depend  upon  established  customs.  These  customs  of 
maritime  law  were  anciently  reduced  into  a  code  by  the  Rho- 
dians,  and  the  Roman  emperors  preserved  or  reformed  the  con- 
stitutions of  that  republic.  It  would  be  hard  to  say  how  far 
the  tradition  of  this  early  jurisprudence  survived  the  decline 
of  commerce  in  the  darker  ages ;  but  after  it  began  to  recover 
itself,  necessity  suggested,  or  recollection  prompted,  a  scheme 

a  Saracen  geographer  who  lived  about  tury;  and  puts  an  end  altogether  to  the 
iioo,  gives  an  account,  though  in  a  con-  pretensions  of  Flavio  Gioja,  if  such  a 
fused  manner,  of  the  polarity  of  the  person  ever  existed  See  also  Mac- 
magnet.  T.  it.  p.  280.  However,  the  lines  pherson's  Annals,  pp.  364  and  418.  It  is 
of  Guiot  de  Provins  are  decisive.  These  provoking  to  find  an  historian  like  Rob- 
are  quoted  m  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  ertson  asserting,  without  hesitation, 
France,  t.  ix.  p.  199;  Mem.  de  1'Acad  that  this  citizen  of  Amalfi  was  the  in- 
des  Inscript.  t.  xxi.  p.  102;  and  several  venter  of  the  compass,  and  thus  ac- 
other  works.  Guinizzelli  has  the  follow-  crediting  an  error  which  had  already 
ing  passage,  in  a  canzone  quoted  by  been  detected. 

Gmguene,  Hist.  Litteraire  de  1'Itahe,  t.  It   is    a   singular    circumstance,    and 

i.  p.  413. —  only  to  be  explained  by  the  obstinacy 

with  which  men  are  apt  to  reject  im- 

Tn  quelle  parti  sotto  tramontana,  provement,    that    the    magnetic    neeclle 

Sono  li  monti  della  calamita,  was  not  generally  adopted  in  navigation. 

Che  dan  virtute  air  acre  till  very  long  after  the  discovery  of  its 

Di  trarre  il  ferro;    ma  perche  lontana,  properties,  and  even  after  their  peculiar 

Vole  cli  simil  pietra  aver  aita,  importance   had   been   perceived.     The 

A  far  la  adoperare,  writers  of  the  thirteenth   century,  who 

E  dirizxsar  lo  ago  in  vcr  la  stclla.  mention  the  polarity  of  the  needle,  men- 
tion also  its  use  in  navigation;   yet  Cap- 

We  cannot  be  diverted,  by  the  nonsensi-  many  has  found  no  distinct  proof  of  its 

cal  theory  these  lines  contain,  from  per-  employment  till  1403,  and  does  not  be- 

ceiving   the   positive   testimony   of   the  lieve  that  it  was   frequently   on   board 

last  verse  to  the  poet's  knowledge  of  Mediterranean  ships  at  the  latter  nart 

the  polarity  of  the  magnet.     But  if  any  of  the  preceding  age.     Memorias  His- 

doubt  could  remain,  Tiraboschi  (t.  iv.  toricas,  t.  iii.  p.  70.     Perhaps,  however, 

p.    171)    has   fully    established,   from   a  he  has  inferred  too  much  from  his  neg* 

series  of  passages,  that  this  phenomenon  ative  proof;  and  this  subject  seems  open 

was  well  known  in  the  thirteenth  ccn-  to  further  inquiry. 


62  HALLAM 

of  regulations  resembling  in  some  degree,  but  much  more  en- 
larged than  those  of  antiquity.  This  was  formed  into  a  written 
code,  II  Consolato  del  Mare,  not  much  earlier,  probably,  than 
the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century;  and  its  promulgation 
seems  rather  to  have  proceeded  from  the  citizens  of  Barcelona 
than  from  those  of  Pisa  or  Venice,  who  have  also  claimed  to 
be  the  first  legislators  of  the  sea.4  Besides  regulations  simply 
mercantile,  this  system  has  defined  the  mutual  rights  of  neutral 
and  belligerent  vessels,  and  thus  laid  the  basis  of  the  positive 
law  of  nations  in  its  most  important  and  disputed  cases.  The 
King  of  France  and  Count  of  Provence  solemnly  acceded  to 
this  maritime  code,  which  hence  acquired  a  binding  force  with- 
in the  Mediterranean  Sea ;  and  in  most  respects  the  law  mer- 
chant of  Europe  is  at  present  conformable  to  its  provisions. 
A  set  of  regulations,  chiefly  borrowed  from  the  Consolato, 
was  compiled  in  France  under  the  reign  of  Louis  IX.,  and 
prevailed  in  their  own  country.  These  have  been  denominated 
the  laws  of  Oleron,  from  an  idle  story  that  they  were  enacted 
by  Richard  L,  while  his  expedition  to  the  Holy  Land  lay -at 
anchor  in  that  islands  Nor  was  the  north  without  its  peculiar 
code  of  maritime  jurisprudence ;  namely,  the  Ordinances  of 
Wisbuy,  a  town  in  the  isle  of  Gothland,  principally  compiled 
from  those  of  Oleron,  before  the  year  1400,  by  which  the  Baltic 
traders  were  governed..? 

There  was  abundant  reason  for  establishing  among  mari- 
time nations  some  theory  of  mutual  rights,  and  for  securing 
the  redress  of  injuries,  as  far  as  possible,  by  means  of  ac- 
knowledged tribunals.  In  that  state  of  barbarous  anarchy 

(I  Boucher  supposes  it  to  have  been  were  reduced  into  their  present  form, 

compiled  at  Barcelona  about  900;    but  these  laws  were  certainly  the  ancient 

his  reasonings  are  inconclusive,  t.  i,  p.  and  established  usages  of  the  Metlitcr- 

7,3 ;    and  indeed  Barcelona  at  that  time  ranean  states;   and  Pisa  may  very  prob- 

was  little,  if  at  all,  better  than  a  fishing-  ably  have  taken  a  great  share  in  first 

town.    Some  arguments  might  be  drawn  practising  what  a  century  or  two  after- 

in  favor  of  Pisa  from  the  expressions  wards   was  rendered   more    precise   at 

of  Henry  tV.'s  charter  granted  to  that  Barcelona. 

city  in   jo8r:     Consuetitames,,  quas  ha-  r  Macpherson,  p.  358..    Boucher  iup- 

bent  de  mari,  sic  iis  obscrvabimus  si  cut  poses   them  to   be  registers  of  actual 

illorum  est  consuetudo.    Muratori,  D;s-  decisions. 

scrt.  45-  Giannone  seems  to  think  the  $  I  have  only  the  authority  of  Bou- 
collection  was  compiled  about  the  rei#n  cher  for  referring  the  Ordinances  of 
of  Louis  IX.  1,  xju  c.  6.  Capmany,  the  Wisbuy  to  the  year  1400,  Beckman  to- 
last  Spanish  editor,  whose  authority  amines  them  to  be  older  than  those  of 
ought  perhaps  to  outweigh  every  other,  Oleron.  But  Wisbuy  -was  not  enclosed 
asserts  and  seems  to  prove  them  to  have  by  a  wall  till  1288,  a  proof  that  it  could 
been  enacted  by  the  mercantile  magis-  not  have  been  previously  a  town  of  much 
trates  of  Barcelona,  under  the  reign  of  importance.  It  flourished  chiefly  in  the 
James  the  Conqueror  which  is  much  first  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and 
the  same  period.  Codteo  de  las  Cost-  was  at  that  time  an  independent  repub- 
timbres  Maritimas  de  Barcelona,  Mad-  lie,  but  fell  under  the  yoke  of  Denmark 
rid,  1791.  But,  by  whatever  nation  they  before  the  end  of  the  same  age. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  63 

which  so  long  resisted  the  coercive  authority  of  civil  magis- 
trates, the  sea  held  out  even  more  temptation  and  more  im- 
punity than  the  land ;  and  when  the  laws  had  regained  their 
sovereignty,  and  neither  robbery  nor  private  warfare  was  any 
longer  tolerated,  there  remained  that  great  common  of  man- 
kind, unclaimed  by  any  king,  and  the  liberty  of  the  sea  was 
another  name  for  the  security  of  plunderers.  A  pirate,  in  a 
well-armed  quick-sailing  vessel,  must  feel,  I  suppose,  the  en- 
joyments of  his  exemption  from  control  more  exquisitely  than 
any  other  freebooter;  and  darting  along  the  bosom  of  the 
ocean,  under  the  impartial  radiance  of 'the  heavens,  may  deride 
the  dark  concealments  and  hurried  flights  of  the  forest  robber. 
His  occupation  is,  indeed,  extinguished  by  the  civilization  of 
later  ages,  or  confined  to  distant  climates.  But  in  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  centuries,  a  rich  vessel  was  never  secure 
from  attack;  and  neither  restitution  nor  punishment  of  the 
criminals  was  to  be  obtained  from  governments  who  some- 
times feared  the  plunderer  and  sometimes  connived  at  the  of- 
fence.* Mere  piracy,  however,  was  not  the  only  danger,  The 
maritime  towns  of  Flanders,  France,  and  England,  like  the  free 
republics  of  Italy,  prosecuted  their  own  quarrels  by  arms,  with- 
out asking  the  leave  of  their  respective  sovereigns.  This  prac- 
tice, exactly  analogous  to  that  of  private  war  in  the  feudal  sys- 
tem, more  than  once  involved  the  kings  of  France  and  Eng- 
land in  hostility."  But  where  the  quarrel  did  not  proceed  to 
such  a  length  as  absolutely  to  engage  two  opposite  towns, 
a  modification  of  this  ancient  right  of  revenge  formed  part  of 
the  regular  law  of  nations,  under  the  name  of  reprisals.  Who- 
ever was  plundered  or  injured  by  the  inhabitant  of  another 
town  obtained  authority  from  his  own  magistrates  to  seize  the 
property  of  any  other  person  belonging  to  it,  until  his  loss 
should  be  compensated.  This  law  of  reprisal  was  not  confined 
to  maritime  places ;  it  prevailed  in  Lombardy,  and  probably 
in  the  German  cities.  Thus,  if  a  citizen  of  Modena  was  robbed 
by  a  Bolognese,  he  complained  to  the  magistrates  of  the  former 

t  Hugh  Despenser   seized   a  Genoese  the  instruments  In  Rymer  in  proof  of 

vessel  valued  at  14,300  marks,  for  which  these  conflicts*  and  of  those  with  the 

no  restitution  was  ever  made.    Rym.  t.  mariners    of    Norway    and    Denmark, 

iv.  p.  701.    Macpherson,  A.D.  1336.  Sometimes  mutual  envy  produced  frays 

u  The  Cinque  Ports  and  other  trading  between  different  English  towns.    Thus, 

towns  of  England  were  in  a  constant  '         ~     At--    «'-•— *--••— s -* 

state   of   hostility   with   their   opposite 

neighbors  during  the  reigns  of  Edward  . 

I.  and  II.    One  might  quote  almost  half  Macpherson. 


64  HALLAM 

city,  who  represented  the  case  to  those  of  Bologna,  demanding 
redress.  If  this  were  not  immediately  granted,  letters  of  re- 
prisals were  issued  to  plunder  the  territory  of  Bologna  till  the 
injured  party  should  be  reimbursed  by  sale  of  the  spoils  In 
the  laws  of  Marseilles  it  is  declared,  "  If  a  foreigner  take  any- 
thing from  a  citizen  of  Marseilles,  and  he  who  has  jurisdiction 
over  the  said  debtor  or  unjust  taker  docs  not  cause  right  to  be 
done  in  the  same,  the  rector  or  consuls,  at  the  petition  of  the 
said  citizen,  shall  grant  him  reprisals  upon  all  the  goods  of  the 
said  debtor  or  unjust  taker,  and  also  upon  the  goods  of  others 
who  are  under  the  jurisdiction  of  him  who  ought  to  do  justice, 
and  would  not,  to  the  said  citizen  of  Marseilles/'  w  Edward 
III.  remonstrates,  in  an  instrument  published  by  Rymer, 
against  letters  of  marque  granted  by  the  King  of  Aragon  to 
one  Berengcr  de  la  Tone,  who  had  been  robbed  by  an  English 
pirate  of  2,ooo/.,  alleging  that,  inasmuch  as  he  had  always  been 
ready  to  give  redress  to  the  party,  it  seemed  to  his  counsellors 
that  there  was  no  just  cause  for  reprisals  upon  the  king's  or 
his  subjects'  property.*  This  passage  is  so  far  curious  as  it 
asserts  the  existence  of  a  customary  law  of  nations,  the  knowl- 
edge of  which  was  already  a  sort  of  learning.  Sir  E.  Coke 
speaks  of  this  right  of  private  reprisals  as  if  it  still  existed ;  y 
and,  in  fact,  there  are  instances  of  granting  such  letters  as  late 
as  the  reign  of  Charles  1. 

A  practice,  founded  on  the  same  principles  as  reprisal,  though 
rather  less  violent,  was  that  of  attaching  the  goods  or  persons 
of  resident  foreigners  for  the  debts  of  their  countrymen.  This 
indeed,  in  England,  was  not  confined  to  foreigners  until  the 
statute  of  Westminster  I  a  23,  which  enacts  that  "  no  stranger 
who  is  of  this  realm  shall  be  distrained  in  any  town  or  market 
for  a  debt  wherein  he  is  neither  principal  nor  surety."  Henry 
III.  had  previously  granted  a  charter  to  the  burgesses  of  Lu- 
beck,  that  they  should  "  not  be  arrested  for  the  debt  of  any  of 
their  countrymen,  unless  the  magistrates  of  Lubeck  neglected 
to  compel  payment,"  a  But  by  a  variety  of  grants  from  Ed- 
ward II.  the  privileges  of  English  subjects  under  the  statute 

vMuratorit  Dissert.  53,  tral  goods  on  board  an  enemy's  vessel 

w  Du  Cange,  voc.  Laudum,  claimed  by  the  owners,  and  a  legal  dis- 

*  Rvmer,  t,  iv,  p.  576.  Videtur  »a-  tinction  taken  in  favor  of  the  captora, 

plentibus  et  peritis,  quod  causa,  de  jure,  t.  vi.  p.  14. 

non  subfuit  marcham  seu  repnsaliam  in  y  27  E.  III.  stat.  ii.  c,  17.  a  Inst,  p. 

npstris,  seu  subdrtorum  nostrorum,  bo-  205, 

nis  concedendi.    See  too  a  case  of  neu-  e  Rymer,  t.  i,  p.  839. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  65 

of  Westminster  were  extended  to  most  foreign  nations.a  This 
unjust  responsibility  had  not  been  confined  to  civil  cases.  One 
of  a  company  of  Italian  merchants,  the  Spini,  having  killed 
a  man,  the  officers  of  justice  seized  the  bodies  and  effects  of 
all  the  rest.& 

If  under  all  these  obstacles,  whether  created  by  barbarous 
manners,  by  national  prejudice,  or  by  the  fraudulent  and  ar- 
bitrary measures  of  princes,  the  merchants  of  different  coun- 
tries became  so  opulent  as  almost  to  rival  the  ancient  nobility, 
it  must  be  ascribed  to  the  greatness  of  their  commercial  profits. 
The  trading  companies  possessed  either  a  positive  or  a  virtual 
monopoly,  and  held  the  keys  of  those  eastern  regions,  for  the 
luxuries  of  which  the  progressive  refinement  of  manners  pro- 
duced an  increasing  demand.  It  is  not  easy  to  determine  the 
average  rate  of  profit ;  c  but  we  know  that  the  interest  of  money 
was  exceedingly  high  throughout  the  middle  ages.  At  Verona, 
in  1228,  it  was  fixed  by  law  at  twelve  and  a  half  per  cent. ;  at 
Modena,  in  1270,  it  seems  to  have  been  as  high  as  twenty.^ 
The  republic  of  Genoa,  towards  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, when  Italy  had  grown  wealthy,  paid  only  from  seven  to 
ten  per  cent,  to  her  creditors.*  But  in  France  and  England 
the  rate  was  far  more  oppressive.  An  ordinance  of  Philip  the 
Fair,  in  1311,  allows  twenty  per  cent,  after  the  first  year  of  the 
loan/  Under  Henry  III.,  according  to  Matthew  Paris,  the 
debtor  paid  ten  per  cent,  every  two  months  ;g  but  this  is 
absolutely  incredible  as  a  general  practice.  This  was  not 
merely  owing  to  scarcity  of  money,  but  to  the  discouragement 
which  a  strange  prejudice  opposed  to  one  of  the  most  useful 
and  legitimate  branches  of  commerce.  Usury,  or  lending 
money  for  profit,  was  treated  as  a  crime  by  the  theologians  of 
the  middle  ages ;  and  though  the  superstition  has  been  eradi- 
cated, some  part  of  the  prejudice  remains  in  our  legislation. 
This  trade  in  money,  and  indeed  a  great  part  of  inland  trade 
in  general,  had  originally  fallen  to  the  Jews,  who  were  noted 

a  Rymer,  t,  iii.   pp.   458,   647p   678,   et  made  by  Venice  on  her  mercantile  capi- 

infra.    See   too    the    ordinances   of   the  tal  is  reckoned  at  forty  per  cent, 

staple,  in  27  Edw.   Ill ,  which  confirm  d  Muratori,  Dissert.  16. 

this  among  other  privileges,  and  contain  e  Bizam,  Hist.  Genuens.  p.  797.    The 

manifold   evidence  of  the  regard   paid  rate  of  disccmnt  on  bills,  which  may  not 

to  commerce  in  that  reign.  have  exactly  corresponded  to  the  aver- 

&  Ibid,    t.    ii.    j>.    891.    Madox,    Hist.  age  annual  interest  of  money,  was  ten 

Exchequer,  c.  xxii.  s.  7.  per   cent,    at   Barcelona  in   1435.     Cap- 

c  In    the   remarkable    speech    of    the  many,  t.  i.  p.  209. 

Doge     Mocenigo,     quoted    in    another  /  Du  Cange,  v    Usura. 

place,  vol.  i.  p.  383,  the  annual  profits  g  Muraton,  Diss.  16. 

VOL.   III.— 5 


66  HALLAM 

for  their  usury  so  early  as  the  sixth  century.^  For  several  sub- 
sequent ages  they  continued  to  employ  their  capital  and  in- 
dustry to  the  same  advantage,  with  little  molestation  from  the 
clergy,  who  always  tolerated  their  avowed  and  national  infi- 
delity, and  often  with  some  encouragement  from  princes.  In 
the  twelfth  century  we  find  them  not  only  possessed  of  landed 
property  in  Languedoc,  and  cultivating  the  studies  of  medicine 
and  Rabbinical  literature  in  their  own  academy  at  Montpelicr, 
under  the  protection  of  the  Count  of  Toulouse,  but  invested 
with  civil  offices.^  Raymond  Roger,  Viscount  of  Carcasonne, 
directs  a  writ  "  to  his  bailiffs,  Christian  and  Jewish.";  It  was 
one  of  the  conditions  imposed  by  the  church  on  the  Count  of 
Toulouse,  that  he  should  allow  no  Jews  to  possess  magistracy 
in  his  dominions./?  But  in  Spain  they  were  placed  by  some  of 
the  municipal  laws  on  the  footing  of  Christians,  with  respect 
to  the  composition  for  their  lives,  and  seem  in  no  other  Eu- 
ropean country  to  have  been  so  numerous  or  considerable.' 
The  diligence  and  expertness  of  this  people  in  all  pecuniary 
dealings  recommended  them  to  princes  who  were  solicitous 
about  the  improvement  of  their  revenue.  We  find  an  article 
in  the  general  charter  of  privileges  granted  by  Peter  III.  of 
Aragon,  in  1283,  that  no  Jew  should  hold  the  office  of  a  bayle 
or  judge.  And  two  kings  of  Castile,  Alonzo  XL  and  Peter 
the  Cruel,  incurred  much  odium  by  employing  Jewish  minis- 
ters in  their  treasury.  But,  in  other  parts  of  Europe,  their  con- 
dition had,  before  that  time,  begun  to  change  for  the  worse — 
partly  from  the  fanatical  spirit  of  the  crusades,  which  prompted 
the  populace  to  massacre,  and  partly  from  the  jealousy  which 
their  opulence  excited.  Kings,  in  order  to  gain  money  and 
popularity  at  once,  abolished  the  debts  due  to  the  children 
of  Israel,  except  a  part  which  they  retained  as  the  price  of  their 
bounty.  One  is  at  a  loss  to  conceive  the  process  of  reasoning 
in  an  ordinance  of  St.  Louis,  where,  "  for  the  salvation  of  his 
own  soul  and  those  of  his  ancestors,  he  releases  to  all  Chris- 
tians a  third  part  of  what  was  owing  by  them  to  Jews."w  Not 
content  with  such  edicts,  the  kings  of  France  sometimes  ban- 
ished the  whole  nation  from  their  dominions,  seizing  their 
effects  at  the  same  time ;  and  a  season  of  alternative  severity 

fc  Greg,  Turon,  1.  iv.  I  Marina,  Ensayo  Historico-Critico,  p. 

tHist.  de  Languedoc,  t  ii.  p.  517;    t.        143, 

iii.  p.  531.  nt  Martenne  Thesaurus  Anecdotorum, 

( Id.  t.  iii.  p.  i2t.  t  i.  p.  984. 
*  Id,  t.  m.  p.  163. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  67 

and  toleration  continued  till,  under  Charles  VI.,  they  were 
expelled  from  the  kingdom,  where  they  never  possessed  any 
legal  settlement  until  long  afterwards."  They  were  expelled 
from  England  under  Edward  L,  and  never  obtained  any  legal 
permission  to  reside  till  the  time  of  Cromwell.  This  decline 
of  the  Jews  was  owing  to  the  transference  of  their  trade  in 
money  to  other  hands.  In  the  early  part  of  the  thirteenth 
century  the  merchants  of  Lombardy  and  of  the  south  of  Franceo 
took  up  the  business  of  remitting  money  by  bills  of  exchange  P 
and  of  making  profit  upon  loans.  The  utility  of  this  was  found 
so  great,  especially  by  the  Italian  clergy,  who  thus  in  an  easy 
manner  drew  the  income  of  their  transalpine  benefices,  that 
in  spite  of  much  obloquy,  the  Lombard  usurers  established 
themselves  in  every  country,  and  the  general  progress  of  com- 
merce wore  off  the  bigotry  that  had. obstructed  their  reception. 
A  distinction  was  made  between  moderate  and  exorbitant  in- 
terest ;  and  though  the  casuists  did  not  acquiesce  in  this  legal 
regulation,  yet  it  satisfied,  even  in  superstitious  times,  the  con- 
sciences of  provident  traders.?  The  Italian  bankers  were  fre- 
quently allowed  to  farm  the  customs  in  England,  as  a  security 
perhaps  for  loans  which  were  not  very  punctually  repaid.*'  In 

n  Velly,  t.  iv.  p.  136.  tions  au  Droit  Ecclesiastique,   t.  ii.  p. 

o  The  city  of  Cahors,  in  Quercy,  the  129,  has  shown  the  subterfuges  to  which 

modern    department    of   the    Lot,    pro-  men  had  recourse  in  order  to  evade  this 

duced  a  tribe   of   money-dealers.     The  prohibition.     It   is  an   unhappy  truth, 

Caursini  are  almost  as  often  noticed  as  that  great  part  of  the  attention  devoted 

the  Lombards.     See  the  article  in  Du  to  the  best  of  sciences,  ethics  and  juris- 

Cange.   In  Lombardy,  Asti,  a  city  of  prudence,  has  been  employed  to  weaken 

no   great   note   in   other  respects,  was  principles  that  ought  never  to  have  been 

famous  for  the  same  department  of  com-  acknowledged, 

merce.  One  species  of  usury,  and  that  of  the 

p  There  were  three  species  of  paper  highest  importance  to  commerce,  was 

credit  in  the  dealings  of  merchants:    i.  always  permitted,  on  account  of  the  risk 

General  letters  of  credit,  not  directed  to  that  attended  it.     This  -was  marine  in- 

any  one,  which  are  not  uncommon  in  surance,  which  could  not  have  existed, 

the  Levant:   2.  Orders  to  pay  money  to  until  money  was  considered,  in  itself,  as 

a    particular    person:     3.    Bills    of    ex-  a  source  of  profit.    The  earliest  regula- 

change  regularly  negotiable.     Boucher,  tions  on  the  subject  of  insurance  are 

t.  ii.  p.  6ai.    Instances  of  the  first  are  those-  of   Barcelona   in    1433;    but   the 

mentioned  by  Macpherson  about  1200,  practice    was,    of    course,    earlier   than 

§.  367.     The  second  species  was  intro-  these,    though   not  of  great   antiquity, 

uced   by  the   Jews,   about   1183    (Cap-  It  is  not  mentioned  in  the  Consolato  del 

many,  t.  i.  p.  297) ;  but  it  may  be  doubt-  Mare,  nor  in  any  of  the  Hanseatic  laws 

ful  whether  the  last  stage  of  the  progress  of   the  fourteenth   century.      Beckman, 

was  reached  nearly  so  soon.    An  instru-  vol.  i.  p.  388.    This  author,  not  being 

ment  in  Rymer,  however,  of  the  year  aware  of  the  Barcelonese  laws  on  this 

1364  (t.  vi.  p.  495),  mentions  literse  cam-  subject    published    by    Capmany,    sup- 

bitoriae,  which  seem  to  have  been  ne-  poses    the    first    provisions    regulating 

gotiable  bills;    and  by  1400  they  were  marine  assurance  to  have  been  made  at 

drawn  in  sets,  and  worded  exactly  as  at  Florence  in  1523. 

present.    Macpherson,  p.  614,  and  Beck-  r  Macpherson,  p.  487,  et  alibi.     They 

man,  History  of  Inventions,  vol.  iii.  p.  had  probably  excellent  bargains:  in  1329 

430,  give  from  Capmany  an  actual  prec-  the  Bardi  farmed  all  the  customs  in  Eng- 

edent  of  a  bill  dated  in  1404.  land  for  20*.  a  day.    But  in  1282  the  cus- 

q  Usury  was  looked  upon  with  horror  toms  had  produced   8,41 1/.,   and  half  a 

by  our  English  divines  long  after  the  century    ol    great    improvement    had 

Reformation.      Fleury,    in    his    Institu-  elapsed. 


68  HALLAM 

1345  the  JEJardi  at  Florence,  the  greatest  company  in  Italy, 
became  bankrupt,  Edward  111.  owing  them,  in  principal  and 
interest,  900,000  gold  florins.  Another,  the  Pcruzzi,  failed  at 
the  same  time,  being  creditors  to  Edward  for  600,000  llorins. 
The  King  of  Sicily  owed  100,000  llorins  to  each  of  these  bank- 
ers. Their  failure  involved,  of  course,  a  multitude  of  Floren- 
tine citizens,  and  was  a  heavy  misfortune  to  the  states 

The  earliest  bank  of  deposit,  instituted  for  the  accommoda- 
tion of  private  merchants,  is  said  to  have  been  that  of  Barce- 
lona, in  1401  .*  The  banks  of  Venice  and  Genoa  were  of  a  dif- 
ferent description.  Although  the  former  of  these  two  has  the 
advantage  of  greater  antiquity,  having  been  formed,  as  we  are 
told,  in  the  twelfth  century,  yet  its  early  history  is  not  so  clear 
as  that  of  Genoa,  nor  its  political  importance  so  remarkable, 
however  similar  might  be  its  origin.**  During  the  wafs  of 
Genoa  in  the  fourteenth  century,  she  had  borrowed  large  sums 
of  private  citizens,  to  whom  the  revenues  were  pledged  for 
repayment.  The  republic  of  Florence  had  set  a  recent,  though 
not  a  very  encouraging  example  of  a  public  loan,  to  defray  the 
expense  of  her  war  against  Mastino  clella  Scala,  in  1336.  The 
chief  mercantile  firms,  as  well  as  individual  citizens,  furnished 
money  on  an  assignment  of  the  taxes,  receiving  fifteen  per 
Cent,  interest,  which  appears  to  have  been  above  the  rate  of 
private  usury.z'  The  state  was  not  unreasonably  considered 
a  Worse  debtor  than  some  of  her  citizens,  for  in  a  few  year^ 
these  loans  were  consolidated  into  a  general  fund,  or  montc, 
with  some  deduction  from  the  capital  and  a  great  diminution 
of  interest  ;  so  that  an  original  debt  of  one  hundred  florins 
sold  only  for  twenty-five.w  But  I  have  not  found  that  these 
creditors  formed  at  Florence  a  corporate  body,  or  took  any 
part,  as  such,  in  the  affairs  of  the  republic.  The  case  was 
different  at  Genoa.  As  a  security,  at  least,  for  their  interest, 
the  subscribers  to  public  loans  were  permitted  to  receive  the 
produce  of  the  taxes  by  their  own  collectors,  paying  the  ex- 
cess into  the  treasury.  The  number  and  distinct  classes  of 
these  subscribers  becoming  at  length  inconvenient,  they  were 
formed,  about  the  year  1407,  into  a  single  corporation,  called 


,  t  atil.  c.  55,  87.     He  calts  «  M«cph«raon,   IK   941,  from   Sfttmto, 

thfcse   two    baHikinfe-b<)tises    the    piliztfs  The  bank  of  Ventefe  ta  referred  to  1171. 

which  sustained  great  part  of  the  com-  v  G.  Villam,  1.  xi.  c.  49. 

tn^rce  of  Christcndortt.  w  Matt.  Villani,  p.  227  (iti  MuratoH, 

t  Capmany,  t,  i.  p.  213.  Script.  Rer*  Ital,  t.  xiv,) 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  69 

the  bank  of  St.  George,  which  was  from  that  time  the  sole 
national  creditor  and  mortgagee.  The  government  of  this  was 
intrusted  to  eight  protectors.  It  soon  became  almost  inde- 
pendent of  the  state,  Every  senator,  on  his  admission,  swore 
to  maintain  the  privileges  of  the  bank,  which  were  confirmed 
by  the  pope,  and  even  by  the  emperor.  The  bank  interposed 
its  advice  in  every  measure  of  government,  and  generally,  as  is 
admitted,  to  jthe  public  advantage.  It  equipped  armaments  at 
its  own  expense,  one  of  which  subdued  the  island  of  Corsica ; 
and  this  acquisition,  like  those  of  our  great  Indian  corporation, 
was  long  subject  to  a  company  of  merchants,  without  any  in- 
terference of  the  mother  country.* 

The  increasing  wealth  of  Europe,  whether  derived  from 
internal  improvement  or  foreign  commerce,  displayed  itself 
in  more  expensive  consumption,  and  greater  refinements  of 
domestic  life.  But  these  -effects  were  for  a  long  time  very 
gradual,  each  generation  making  a  few  steps  in  the  progress, 
which  are  hardly  discernible  except  by  an  attentive  inquirer. 
It  is  not  till  the  latter  half  of  the  thirteenth  century  that  an 
accelerated  impulse  appears  to  be  given  to  society.  The  just 
government  and  suppression  of  disorder  under  St.  Louis,  and 
the  peaceful  temper  of  his  brother  Alfonso,  Count  of  Toulouse 
and  Poitou,  gave  France  leisure  to  avail  herself  of  her  admirable 
fertility.  England,  that  to  a  soil  not  greatly  inferior  to  that  of 
France  united  the  inestimable  advantage  of  an  insular  posi- 
tion, and  was  invigorated,  above  all,  by  her  free  constitution 
and  the  steady  industriousness  of  her  people,  rose  with  a  pretty 
uniform  motion  from  the  time  of  Edward  L  Italy,  though  the 
better  days  of  freedom  had  passed  away  in  most  of  her  repub- 
lics, made  a  rapid  transition  from  simplicity  to  refinement. 
"  In  those  times,"  says  a  writer  about  the  year  1300,  speaking 
of  the  age  of  Frederic  II.,  "  the  manners  of  the  Italians  were 
rude.  A  man  and  his  wife  ate  off  the  same  plate.  There  was 
no  wooden-handled  knives,  nor  more  than  one  or  two  drinking 
cups  in  a  house.  Candles  of  wax  or  tallow  were  unknown ;  a 
servant  held  a  torch  during  supper.  The  clothes  of  men  were 
of  leather  unlined :  scarcely  any  gold  or  silver  was  seen  on  their 
dress.  The  common  people  ate  flesh  but  three  times  a  week, 
and  kept  their  cold  meat  for  supper.  Many  did  not  drink  wine 

*Bizairri,  Hist.  Genuens.  P.  797  (Antwerp,  1579);  Machiavelli,  Storia 
Florentina,  1.  viii. 


70  HALLAM 

in  summer.  A  small  stock  of  corn  seemed  riches.  The  por- 
tions of  women  were  small ;  their  dress,  even  after  marriage, 
was  simple.  The  pride  of  men  was  to  be  well  provided  with 
arms  and  horses ;  that  of  the  nobility  to  have  lofty  towers,  of 
which  all  the  cities  in  Italy  were  full.  But  now  frugality  has 
been  changed  for  sumptuousness ;  everything  exquisite  is 
sought  after  in  dress ;  gold,  silver,  pearls,  silks,  and  rich  furs. 
Foreign  wines  and  rich  meats  are  required.  Hence  usury, 
rapine,  fraud,  tyranny/'  &c.y  This  passage  is  supported  by 
other  testimonies  nearly  of  the  same  time.  The  conquest  of 
Naples  by  Charles  of  Anjou  in  1266  seems  to  have  been  the 
epoch  of  increasing  luxury  throughout  Italy.  His  Provencal 
knights  with  their  plumed  helmets  and  golden  collars,  the 
chariot  of  his  queen  covered  with  blue  velvet  and  sprinkled 
with  lilies  of  gold,  astonished  the  citizens  of  Naples.-  Prov- 
ence had  enjoyed  a  long  tranquillity,  the  natural  source  of 
luxurious  magnificence ;  and  Italy,  now  liberated  from  the  yoke 
of  the  empire,  soon  reaped  the  same  fruit  of  a  condition  more 
easy  and  peaceful  than  had  been  her  lot  for  several  ages.  Dante 
speaks  of  the  change  of  manners  at  Florence  from  simplicity 
and  virtue  to  refinement  and  dissoluteness,  in  terms  very  nearly 
similar  to  those  quoted  above.0 

Throughout  the  fourteenth  century  there  continued  to  be  a 
rapid  but  steady  progression  in  England  of  what  we  may  de- 
nominate elegance,  improvement,  or  luxury;  and  if  this  was 
for  a  time  suspended  in  France,  it  must  be  ascribed  to  the  un- 
usual calamities  which  befell  that  country  under  Philip  of 
Valois  and  his  son.  Just  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  Eng- 
lish wars  an  excessive  fondness  for  dress  is  said  to  have  dis- 
tinguished not  only  the  higher  ranks,  but  the  burghers,  whose 

y  Ricobaldus    Ferrarensis,   apud   Mu-  s  Murat.  Dissert.  23. 

rat.    Dissert.    33;     Francisc.    Pippinus,  a  Bellincion  Berti  vid' io  andar  cinto 

ibidem.     Muratori  endeavors  to  exten-  Di  cuqjo  e  d*  osso,  e  venir  dallo  spec- 

uate  the  authority  of  this  passage,  on  chio 

account  of  some  more  ancient  writers  La  donna  sua  senza  '1  viso  dipinto, 

who  complain   of   the  luxury  of  their  E  vidi  quel  di  Nerli,  e  quel  del  Vec- 

times,  and  of  some  particular  instances  chio 

of  magnificence  and  expense.    But  Ri-  Esser  contenti  alia  pelle  scoverta, 

cobaldi  alludes,  as  Muratori  himself  ad-  E  sue  donne  al  fuso  ed  al  pennechio. 

mits,  to  the  mode  of  living  in  the  mid-  Paradis.  canto  xv* 

die  ranks,  and  not  to  that  of  courts,  See  too  the  rest  of  this  canto.    But 

which  in  all  ages  might  occasionally  dis-  this  is  put  in  the  mouth  of  Cacciaguicla, 

play  considerable  splendor.    I  see  noth-  the  poet's  ancestor,  who  lived  in  the  for- 

mg  to  weaken  so  explicit  a  testimony  mer  half  of  the  twelfth  century.    The 

of  a  contemporary,  wnich  in  fact  is  con-  change,  however,  was  probably  subse- 

firmed  by  many  writers  of  the  next  age,  quent  to  1230,  when  the  times  of  wealth 

who,  according  to  the  practice  of  Italian  and  turbulence  began  at  Florence, 
chroniclers,  have  copied  it  as  their  own. 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  71 

foolish  emulation  at  least  indicates  their  easy  circumstances.^ 
Modes  of  dress  hardly  perhaps  deserve  our  notice  on  their 
own  account;  yet  so  far  as  their  universal  prevalence  was  a 
symptom  of  diffused  wealth,  we  should  not  overlook  either 
the  invectives  bestowed  by  the  clergy  on  the  fantastic  extrava- 
gances of  fashion,  or  the  sumptuary  laws  by  which  it  was  en- 
deavored to  restrain  them. 

The  principle  of  sumptuary  laws  was  partly  derived  from 
the  small  republics  of  antiquity,  which  might  perhaps  require 
that  security  for  public  spirit  and  equal  rights — partly  from 
the  austere  and  injudicious  theory  of  religion  disseminated  by 
the  clergy.  These  prejudices  united  to  render  all  increase  of 
general  comforts  odious  under  the  name  of  luxury ;  and  a  third 
motive  more  powerful  than  either,  the  jealousy  with  which  the 
great  regard  anything  like  imitation  in  those  beneath  them, 
co-operated  to  produce  a  sort  of  restrictive  code  in  the  laws 
of  Europe.  Some  of  these  regulations  are  more  ancient ;  but 
the  chief  part  were  enacted,  both  in  France  and  England,  dur- 
ing the  fourteenth  century,  extending  to  expenses  of  the  table 
as  well  as  apparel.  The  first  statute  of  this  description  in  our 
own  country  was,  however,  repealed  the  next  year ;  c  and  sub- 
sequent provisions  were  entirely  disregarded  by  a  nation  which 
valued  liberty  and  commerce  too  much  to  obey  laws  conceived 
in  a  spirit  hostile  to  both.  Laws  indeed  designed  by  those 
governments  to  restrain  the  extravagance  of  their  subjects  may 
well  justify  the  severe  indignation  which  Adam  Smith  has 
poured  upon  all  such  interference  with  private  expenditure. 
The  kings  of  France  and  England  were  undoubtedly  more 
egregious  spendthrifts  than  any  others  in  their  dominions ;  and 
contributed  far  more  by  their  love  of  pageantry  to  excite  a 
taste  for  dissipation  in  their  people  than  by  their  ordinances 
to  repress  it. 

Mussus,  an  historian  of  Placentia,  has  left  a  pretty  copious 
account  of  the  prevailing  manners  among  his  countrymen  about 
1388,  and  expressly  contrasts  their  more  luxurious  living  with 

b  Velly,  t.  xiii.  p.  352.  The  second  passed  in  this  and  the  ensuing  reign, 

continuator  of  Nangis  vehemently  in-  In  France,  there  were  sumptuary  laws 

veighs  against  the  long  beards  and  short  as  old  as  Charlemagne,  prohibiting  or 

breeches  of  his  age;  after  the  introduc-  taxing  the  use  of  furs;  but  the  first  ex- 

tion  of  which  novelties,  he  judiciously  tensive  regulation  was  under  Philip  the 

observes,  the  French  were  much  more  Fair.  Vefiy,  t.  vii.  p.  64;  t.  xi.  p.  190. 

disposed  to  run  away  from  their  enemies  These  attempts  to  restrain  what  cannot 

than  before.  Spicilegium,  t.  iii.  p.  105.  be  restrained  continued  even  down  to 

c  37  E.  III.  Rep.  38  E.  III.  Several  1700.  De  la  Mare,  TraitS  de  la  Police,  t, 

other  statutes  of  a  similar  nature  were  i.  1.  iii. 


72  HALLAM 

the  style  of  their  ancestors  seventy  years  before,  when,  as  we 
have  seen,  they  had  already  made  considerable  steps  towards 
refinement.  This  passage  is  highly  interesting,  because  it 
shows  the  regular  tenor  of  domestic  economy  in  an  Italian  city 
rather  than  a  mere  display  of  individual  magnificence,  as  in 
most  of  the  facts  collected  by  our  own  and  the  French  anti- 
quaries. But  it  is  much  too  long  for  insertion  in  this  placed 
No  other  country,  perhaps,  could  exhibit  so  fair  a  picture  of 
middle  life:  in  France  the  burghers,  and  even  the  inferior 
gentry,  were  for  the  most  part  in  a  state  of  poverty  at  this 
period,  which  they  concealed  by  an  affectation  of  ornament ; 
while  our  English  yeomanry  and  tradesmen  were  more  anxious 
to  invigorate  their  bodies  by  a  generous  diet  than  to  dwell  in 
well-furnished  houses,  or  to  find  comfort  in  cleanliness  ami 
elegance.*  The  German  cities,  however,  had  acquired  with 
liberty  the  spirit  of  improvement  and  industry.  From  the  time 
that  Henry  V.  admitted  their  artisans  to  the  privileges  of  free 
burghers  they  became  more  and  more  prosperous ;  f  while  the 
steadiness  and  frugality  of  the  German  character  compensated 
for  some  disadvantages  arising  out  of  their  inland  situation. 
Spire,  Nuremberg,  Ratisbon,  and  Augsburg  were  not  indeed 
like  the  rich  markets  of  London  and  Bruges,  nor  could  their 
burghers  rival  the  princely  merchants  of  Italy ;  but  they  en- 
joyed the  blessings  of  competence  diffused  over  a  large  class 
of  industrious  freemen,  and  in  the  fifteenth  century  one  of  the 
politest  Italians  could  extol  their  splendid  and  well-furnished 
dwellings,  their  rich  apparel,  their  easy  and  affluent  mode  of 
living,  the  security  of  their  rights  and  just  equality  of  their 
laws.£ 


d  Muratori,    Antichitd    Italiane,    Difi-  profect6  usquam  gentium  tnntu  libertas 

•sort,  as,  t.  i, jx  325,  cat,  quanta  fruuntnr  hujuscemodi  civi- 

e  "  These  English,"  snid  the  Spaniards  tatcs,     Nam  pqpuli  qiioa  Itnli   vocant 

who  came  over  with  Philip  II.,  "  have  liboros,    hi    potiKsimum    acrviunt,    sive 

their  houses  made  of  sticks  and  dirt,  Veneitias  inspectes,  sive  Florentiam  aut 

fotit  they  fare  commonly  so  well  as  the  Crcnns,  in  quibus  civea,  prater  paucuA 

king1*"    Harrison's  Description  of  Brit-  qui  reliquos  ducunt,  loco  mancipiorum 

am,  prefixed  to  Holingshea,  vol.  i,  p.  315  habentur.    Cum  nee  rebus  suis  uti,  lit 

(edit.  1807).  libet,  v«el  fari  qiue  velint,  et  gravisshtuB 

/  Pfeffel,  t,  i.  p.  2Q3.  opprinumttir  pecuniarum  exactionibua. 

gj^Gneas  Sylvius,  de  Moribus  Germa-  Apud  Germanos  omnia  Ireta  sunt,  oninia 

Borttm.  n  This   treatise  is  an   amplified  jttcttnda;     nemo    auia    privatur    bonis: 

panegyric  upon  Crermany,  and  contains  Salvo  caique  aua  hareditas  est,  nulli 

several  curious  passages:  they  must  be  nisi  nocenti  majtfstrattis  nocent.     Nee 

talcen  perhaps  with  some  allowance;  for  apucl   eoa  factiones   stctit   apud   Italaa 

the  tflrift  of  the  whole  is  to  persuade  the  urbcs   grassantnr.     Sunt   autem   supra 

Germans,  that  so  rich  and  noble  a  cotm-  rentum  dvitates  hie  libertsrte  *rtaetxt«9. 

try  couW  afford  a  little  money  for  fhe  P.  1058. 

poor  pope.    Civitates  quas  vocant  libe-  In  another  part  of  his  work  (p.  710) 

ran,  cum  Imperatori  soltim  subjiciuntur,  lie'  gives  a  specious  'account  pf  Vienna, 

cujus  jugum  est  instar  libertatis;    nee  The  houses,  lie  says,  had  glass  windows 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  73 

No  chapter  in  the  history  of  national  manners  would  illus- 
trate 50  well,  if  duly  executed,  the  progress  of  social  life  as 
that  dedicated  to  domestic  architecture.  The  fashions  of  dress 
and  of  amusements  are  generally  capricious  and  irreducible  to 
rule ;  but  every  change  in  the  dwellings  of  mankind,  from  the 
rudest  wooden  cabin  to  the  stately  mansion,  has  been  dictated 
by  some  principle  of  convenience,  neatness,  comfort,  or  mag- 
nificence. Yet  this  most  interesting  field  of  research  has  been 
less  beaten  by  our  antiquaries  than  others  comparatively  bar- 
ren. I  do  not  pretend  to  a  complete  knowledge  of  what  has 
been  written  by  these  learned  inquirers ;  but  I  can  only  name 
one  book  in  which  the  civil  architecture  of  our  ancestors  has 
been  sketched,  loosely  indeed,  but  with  a  superior  hand,  and 
another  in  which  it  is  partially  noticed.  I  mean  by  the  first 
a  chapter  in  the  Appendix  to  Dr.  Whitaker's  History  of  Whal- 
ley ;  and  by  the  second  Mr.  King's  Essays  on  Ancient  Castles 
in  the  Archaeologia.*  Of  these  I  shall  make  free  use  in  the 
following  paragraphs. 

The  most  ancient  buildings  which  we  can  trace  in  this 
island,  after  the  departure  of  the  Romans,  were  circular  towers 
of  no  great  size,  whereof  many  remain  in  Scotland,  erected 
either  on  a  natural  eminence  or  on  an  artificial  mound  of  earth. 
Such  are  Conisborough  Castle  in  Yorkshire  and  Castleton  in 
Derbyshire,  built,  perhaps,  according  to  Mr.  King,  before  the 
Conquest.*  To  the  lower  chambers  of  those  gloomy  keeps 
there  was  no  admission  of  light  or  air  except  through  long 

a-nd  iron  doors.  Fenestrae  undique  byshire,  p.  ccxxxvi.  Mr.  King  had  sat- 
vitrese  perlucent,  et  ostia  plerumque  isfied  himself  that  it  was  built  during 
ferrea,  la*,  doasiitous  rntilta  <t  niunda  the  Heptarchy,  and  even  before  the  coo- 
sxipellex.  Altse  domus  magnificseque  version  of  the  Saxons  to  Christianity; 
visuntur.  Unum  id  dedecori  *st,  quod  but  in  this  he  gave  the  reins,  as  usual, 
tecta  plerumque  tigno  contegunt,  pauca  to  his  imagination,  which  as  much  ex- 
latere.  Csetera  aedificia  muro  lapideo  ceeded  his  learning,  as  the  latter  did  his 
consistunt.  Pictse  domus  et  exterius  et  judgment.  Conisborough  should  seem, 
interius  splendent.  Civitatis  populus  toy  the  name,  to  have  been  a  joyal  r«si- 
50,000  communicantiu'm  creditur.  I  sup-  dence,  which  it  certainly  never  was  after 
pose  this  gives  ait  least  double  for  the  the  Conquest  But  if  the  engravings 
total  population.  He  proceeds  to  rep-  of  the  decorative  parts  in  the  Archse- 
resent  the  manners  of  the  city  in  a  1e®s  ologia,  vol.  vi.  p.  244,  are  not  remark- 
favorable  point  of  view,  charging  the  ably  inaccurate,  the  architecture  is  too 

-«A — j.1.   _!„«. — .,  — j  in — i.:-: —  eflegatut  for  the  Danes,  mucto  more  for 

unconverted   Saxons.     Both   these 
are  enclosed  by  ,a  icourt  or  bal- 

,„. „_  - -„  ,    _—        nth  a  forti£ed  entrance,  like  those 

the  love  of  amplification  in  so  rhetorical  erected  by  the  Normans. 

a  writer  as  JEneas  Sylvius  weakens  the  [No  doubt  is  now  entertained  but  that 

value   of   his  testimony,   on   whichever  Conisborough  was  built  late  in  the  Nor- 

sjde  it  is  given.  man    period.      Mr.    King's    authority, 

h  Vols,  iv,  and  vi.  which  i  followed  for  want  of  a  better,  is 

t'Mr.   Lysons  refers  Castleton  to  the  by    no    means    to    be    depended    upon, 

age  of  William  the  Conqueror,  but  with-  1848.] 
out  giving  any  reasons,    Lysons's  Der- 


^4  HALLAM 

narrow  loop-holes  and  an  aperture  in  the  roof.  Regular  win- 
dows were  made  in  the  upper  apartments.  Were  it  not  for  the 
vast  thickness  of  the  walls,  and  some  marks  of  attention  both 
to  convenience  and  decoration  in  these  structures,  we  might 
be  induced  to  consider  them  as  rather  intended  for  security 
during  the  transient  inroad  of  an  enemy  than  for  a  chieftain's 
usual  residence.  They  bear  a  close  resemblance,  except  by 
their  circular  form  and  more  insulated  situation,  to  the  peels, 
or  square  towers  of  three  or  four  stories,  which  are  still  found 
contiguous  to  ancient  mansion-houses,  themselves  far  more 
ancient,  in  the  northern  counties,;'  and  seem  to  have  been  de- 
signed for  places  of  refuge. 

In  course  of  time,  the  barons  who  owned  these  castles  began 
to  covet  a  more  comfortable  dwelling.  The  keep  was  either 
much  enlarged,  or  altogether  relinquished  as  a  place  of  resi- 
dence except  in  time  of  siege ;  while  more  convenient  apart- 
ments were  sometimes  erected  in  the  tower  of  entrance,  over 
the  great  gateway,  which  led  to  the  inner  ballium  or  court-yard. 
Thus  at  Tunbridge  Castle,  this  part  of  which  is  referred  by 
Mr.  King  to  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  there  was 
a  room,  twenty-eight  feet  by  sixteen,  on  each  side  of  the  gate- 
way ;  another  above  of  the  same  dimensions,  with  an  inter- 
mediate room  over  the  entrance ;  and  one  large  apartment  on 
the  second  floor  occupying  the  whole  space,  and  intended  for 
state.  The  windows  in  this  class  of  castles  were  still  little  better 
than  loop-holes  on  the  basement  story,  but  in  the  upper  rooms 
often  large  and  beautifully  ornamented,  though  always  looking 
inwards  to  the  court,  Edward  I.  introduced  a  more  splendid 
and  convenient  style  of  castles,  containing  many  habitable 
towers,  with  communicating  apartments.  Conway  and  Car- 
narvon will  be  familiar  examples.  The  next  innovation  was 
the  castle-palace — of  which  Windsor,  if  not  quite  the  earliest, 
is  the  most  magnificent  instance.  Alnwick,  Naworth,  Hare- 
wood,  Spofforth,  Kenilworth,  and  Warwick,  were  all  built 
upon  this  scheme  during  the  fourteenth  century,  but  subse- 
quent enlargements  have  rendered  caution  necessary  to  distin- 
guish their  original  remains.  "  The  odd  mixture/'  says  Mr. 
King,  "  of  convenience  and  magnificence  with  cautious  de- 
signs for  protection  and  defence,  and  with  the  inconveniences 
of  the  former  confined  plan  of  a  close  fortress,  is  very  striking," 

/Whitaker's  Hist,   of  Whalley;    Lysons's  Cumberland,  p.  ccvi. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  75 

The  provisions  for  defence  became  now,  however,  little  more 
than  nugatory ;  large  arched  windows,  like  those  of  cathedrals, 
were  introduced  into  halls,  and  this  change  in  architecture 
manifestly  bears  witness  to  the  cessation  of  baronial  wars  and 
the  increasing  love  of  splendor  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III. 

To  these  succeeded  the  castellated  houses  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  such  as  Herstmonceux  in  Sussex,  Haddon  Hall  in 
Derbyshire,  and  the  older  part  of  Knowle  in  Kent.A  They 
resembled  fortified  castles  in  their  strong  gateways,  their  tur- 
rets and  battlements,  to  erect  which  a  royal  license  was  neces- 
sary; but  their  defensive  strength  could  only  have  availed 
against  a  sudden  affray  or  attempt  at  forcible  dispossession. 
They  were  always  built  round  one  or  two  court-yards,  the 
circumference  of  the  first,  when  they  were  two,  being  occu- 
pied by  the  offices  and  servants'  rooms,  that  of  the  second 
by  the  state-apartments.  Regular  quadrangular  houses,  not 
castellated,  were  sometimes  built  during  the  same  age,  and 
under  Henry  VII.  became  universal  in  the  superior  style  of 
domestic  architecture.*  The  quadrangular  form,  as  well  from 
security  and  convenience  as  from  imitation  of  conventual 
houses,  which  were  always  constructed  upon  that  model,  was 
generally  preferred — even  where  the  dwelling-house,  as  indeed 
was  usual,  only  took  up  one  side  of  the  enclosure,  and  the 
remaining  three  contained  the  offices,  stables,  and  farm-build- 
ings, with  walls  of  communication.  Several  very  old  parson- 
ages appear  to  have  been  built  in  this  manner.^  It  is,  how- 
ever, not  very  easy  to  discover  any  large  fragments  of  houses 
inhabited  by  the  gentry  before  the  reign,  at  soonest,  of  Edward 
III.,  or  even  to  trace  them  by  engravings  in  the  older  topo- 
graphical works,  not  only  from  the  dilapidations  of  time,  but 
because  very  few  considerable  mansions  had  been  erected  by 
that  class.  A  great  part  of  England  affords  no  stone  fit  for 
building,  and  the  vast  though  unfortunately  not  inexhaustible 
resources  of  her  oak  forests  were  easily  applied  to  less  durable 
and  magnificent  structures.  A  frame  of  massive  timber,  inde- 
pendent of  walls  and  resembling  the  inverted  hull  of  a  large 
ship,  formed  the  skeleton,  as  it  were,  of  an  ancient  hall — the 
principal  beams  springing  from  the  ground  naturally  curved, 

feThe  ruins  of  Herstmonceux  are,  I        Haddon   Hall  5s  of  the   fifteenth   cen- 
believe,  tolerably  authentic  remains  of       tury. 
Henry  VI/s  age,  but  only  a  part   of  /  ArchaeoloRia,  vol.  vi. 

m  Blomefield's  Norfolk,  vol.  hi.  p,  242. 


76  HALLAM 

ancl  forming  a  Gothic  arch  overhead.  The  intervals  of  these 
were  filled  up  with  horizontal  planks ;  but  in  the  earlier  build- 
ings, at  least  in  some  districts,  no  part  of  the  walls  was  of 
stone."  Stone  houses  are,  however,  mentioned  as  belonging 
to  citizens  of  London,  even  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II  \o  and, 
though  not  often  perhaps  regularly  hewn  stones,  yet  those  scat- 
tered over  the  soil  or  dug  from  flint  quarries,  bound  together 
with  a  very  strong  and  durable  cement,  were  employed  in  the 
construction  of  manorial  houses,  especially  in  the  western  coun- 
ties and  other  parts  where  that  material  is  easily  procured./' 
Gradually  even  hi  timber  buildings  the  intervals  of  the  main 
beams,  which  now  became  perpendicular,  not  throwing  off 
their  curved  springers  till  they  reached  a  considerable  height, 
were  occupied  by  stone  walls,  or  where  stone  was  expensive, 
by  mortar  or  plaster,  intersected  by  horizontal  or  diagonal 
beams,  grooved  into  the  principal  piers.ff  This  mode  of  build- 
ing continued  for  a  long  time,  and  is  still  familiar  to  our  eyes 
in  the  older  streets  of  the  metropolis  and  other  towns,  and 
in  many  parts  of  the  country .r  Early  in  the  fourteenth  century 
the  art  of  building  with  brick,  which  had  been  lost  since  the 
Roman  dominion,  was  introduced  probably  from  Flanders. 
Though  several  edifices  of  that  age  arc  constructed  with  this 
material,  it  did  not  come  into  general  use  till  the  reign  of  Henry 
VI.J  Many  considerable  houses  as  well  as  public  buildings 
were  erected  with  bricks  during  his  reign  and  that  of  Edward 
IV.,  chiefly  in  the  eastern  counties,  where  the  deficiency  of 
stone  was  most  experienced.  Few,  if  any,  brick  mansion- 
houses  of  the  fifteenth  century  exist,  except  in  a  dilapidated 
state ;  but  Queen's  College  ancl  Clare  Hall  at  Cambridge,  and 
part  of  Eton  College,  are  subsisting  witnesses  to  the  durability 
of  the  material  as  it  was  then  employed. 

It  is  an  error  to  suppose  that  the  English  gentry  were  lodged 
in  stately  or  even  in  well-sized  houses.  Generally  speaking, 
their  dwellings  were  almost  as  inferior  to  those  of  their  de- 
scendants in  capacity  as  they  were  in  convenience,  The  usual 

n  Whitaker's  Hist,  of  Whalley.  yet,  and  for  the  most  part,  of  strong 

o  Lytteltoiu  t.  iv.  p.  130.  timber,    m   framing   whereof   our   car* 

J>  Harrison  says,  that  few  of  the  houses  penters  have  been  and  are  worthily  pre- 

pi  tfye  co*n*nonality,   except  here   and  fared  before  ttoose  of  like  science  ajnojig 

there  in  the  west  country  towns,  were  all  other  nations,    Howbeit  such  as  ar* 

made  of  stone.    P.  314,    This  wa$  about  lately  buildecl  are  either  of  brick  or  hard 

ig7o.  stone,  or  both."    P.  316. 
q  Hist  of  Whalley.  $  Archwologia,  vol.  i,  p,  143 ;   vol.  iv. 

r  "  The  ancient  manors  and  bou&ep  of  p.  pi. 
our  gentlemen,"   says  Harrison,  "are 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES 


77 


arrangement  consisted  of  an  entrance-passage  running  through 
the  house,  with  a  hall  on  one  side,  a  parlor  beyond,  and  one  or 
two  chambers  above,  and  on  the  opposite  side,  a  kitchen,  pantry, 
and  other  offices.*  Such  was  the  ordinary  manor-house  of  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  as  appears  not  only  from  the 
documents  and  engravings,  but  as  to  the  latter  period,  from  the 
buildings  themselves,  sometimes,  though  not  very  frequently, 
occupied  by  families  of  consideration,  more  often  converted  in- 
to farm-houses  or  distinct  tenements.  Larger  structures  were 
erected  by  men  of  great  estates  during  the  reigns  of  Henry  IV. 
and  Edward  IV. ;  but  very  few  can  be  traced  higher ;  and 
such  has  been  the  effect  of  time,  still  more  through  the  advance 
or  decline  of  families  and  the  progress  of  architectural  im- 
provement, than  the  natural  decay  of  these  buildings,  that  I 
should  conceive  it  difficult  to  name  a  house  in  England,  still 
inhabited  by  a  gentleman  arid  not  belonging  to  the  order  of 
castles,  the  principal  apartments  of  which  are  older  than  the 
reign  of  Henry  VII.  The  instances  at  least  must  be  extremely 
few." 

France  by  no  means  appears  to  have  made  a  greater  prog- 
ress than  our  own  country  in  domestic  architecture.  Except 
fortified  castles,  I  do  not  find  in  the  work  of  a  very  miscellane- 
ous but  apparently  diligent  writer^  any  considerable  dwellings 
mentioned  before  the  reign  of  Charles  VII.,  and  very  few  of 
so  early  a  date.**/  Jacques  Ccetff,  a  famous  merchant  unjustly 
persecuted  by  that  prince,  had  a  handsome  house  at  Paris,  as 
well  as  another  at  Bourges.*  It  is  obvious  that  the  long  calam- 

t  Hist,  of  Whalley.    In  Strutt's  View  Gaillpn  in  the  department  of  Etire  by 

of  Manners  we   have  an   inventory   of  Cardinal  Amboise;    both  at  the  begin- 

furmture  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Richard  ning  of  the  sixteenth  century.     These 

Fefrnor,  ancestor  of  the  Earl  of  Pom-  are  now  considered,  in  their  ruins,  as 

fret,    at   Easton   in   Northamptonshire,  among    the    most    andertt    houses    in 

and  another  in  that  of  Sir  Adrian  Fos-  France.     A   work   by   Ducerceau    (Les 

kewe.    Both  these  houses  appear  to  have  plus  excellens  Batimens  de  France,  1607) 

beet*   of  the   dimensions   and   arrange-  gives    accurate     engravings     of    thirty 

ment  mentioned.  houses;  but  with  one  or  two  exceptions, 

to  Single  rooms,  windows,   door-ways,  they  seem  all  to  have  been  built  in  the 

&c,,  of  an  earlier  date  may  perhaps  not  sixteenth  century.     Even  in  that  age, 

unfrequently   be   found;     but   such   in-  defence  was  naturally  an  object  in  con- 

stancesf  are  always  to  be  verified  by  thefr  structing  a  French  mansion-house ;  and 

intrinsic  evidence,  not  by  the  tradition  where  defence  is  to  be  regarded,  splen- 

of  the  place.    [Note  II.}  dor  and   convenience   must   give  way. 

v  Melanges  tirds  d'une  grande  bibli-  The  name  of  chateau  was  not  retained 

otheque,  par  M.  de  Patilmy,  t.  in.   ct  without  meaning. 

xxxt     It   is   to  be  regretted  that   Le  x  Melanges  tires,  &c.  t.  ill.    For  the 

Grand   d'Aussy   never   completed   that  prosperity    and    downfall    of    Jacques 

part    of   his    Vie   priv<5e    des   Francois  Cceur,  see  Villaret,  t.  xvi.  p.  n;    but 

which  was  to  have  comprehended  the  more  especially  Me*m.  de  1'Acad.  des  In- 

history   of   civil   architecture.     Villaret  script,  t.  xx,  p.  509.     His  mansion  at 

has  slightly  noticed  its  state  about  1380.  Bourges  still  exists,  and  is  well  knowfi 

t.  ii.  p.  141.  to  the  curious  in  architectural  antiquity. 

w  Chenonceaux  in  Touraine  was  built  In   former   editions   I   have   mentioned 

by   a   nephew   of    Chancellor    Duprat;  a  house  of  Jacques  Cceur  at  Beaumont- 


7 8  HALLAM 

itics  which  France  endured  before  the  expulsion  of  the  Eng- 
lish must  have  retarded  this  eminent  branch  of  national  im- 
provement. 

Even  in  Italy,  where  from  the  size  of  her  cities  and  social' 
refinements  of  her  inhabitants,  greater  elegance  and  splendor 
in  building  were  justly  to  be  expected,  the  domestic  architect- 
ure of  the  middle  ages  did  not  attain  any  perfection.  In  several 
towns  the  houses  were  covered  with  thatch,  and  suffered  con- 
sequently from  destructive  fires.  Costanzo,  a  Neapolitan  his- 
torian near  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century,  remarks  the  change 
of  manners  that  had  occurred  since  the  reign  of  Joanna  II. 
one  hundred  and  fifty  years  before.  The  great  families  under 
the  queen  expended  all  their  wealth  on  their  retainers,  and 
placed  their  chief  pride  in  bringing  them  into  the  field.  They 
were  ill  lodged,  not  sumptuously  clothed,  nor  luxurious  in  their 
tables.  The  house  of  Caracciolo,  high  steward  of  that  princess, 
one  of  the  most  powerful  subjects  that  ever  existed,  having 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  persons  incomparably  below  his  sta- 
tion, had  been  enlarged  by  them,  as  insufficient  for  their  ac- 
commodation.y  If  such  were  the  case  in  the  city  of  Naples 
so  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century,  we  may  guess 
how  mean  were  the  habitations  in  less  polished  parts  of  Europe. 

The  two  most  essential  improvements  in  architecture  dur- 
ing this  period,  one  of  which  had  been  missed  by  the  sagacity 
of  Greece  and  Rome,  were  chimneys  and  glass  windows.  Noth- 
ing apparently  can  be  more  simple  than  the  former;  yet  the 
wisdom  of  ancient  times  had  been  content  to  let  the  smoke  es- 
cape by  an  aperture  in  the  centre  of  the  roof ;  and  a  discovery, 
of  which  Vitruvius  had  not  a  glimpse,  was  made,  perhaps  in 
this  country,  by  some  forgotten  semi-barbarian.  About  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  use  of  chimneys  is  dis- 
tinctly mentioned  in  England  and  in  Italy ;  but  they  are  found 
in  several  of  our  castles  which  bear  a  much  older  date.#  This 

sur-Oise;  but  this  was  probably  by  mis-  chimney  "  in  which  rich  men  usually 

take,  as  I  do  not  recollect,  nor  can  find,  dined.  But  in  the  account-book  of  Bol- 

any  authority  for  it  ton  Abbey,  under  the  year  1311,  there  is 

y  Giannone,  1st.  di  Napoli,  t.  iii.  p.  a  charge  pro  faciendo  camtno  in  the  rec- 

a8o.  tory-house  of  Gargrave.  Whitaker's 

*  Muraton,  Antich,  Ital  Dissert.  25,  Hist,  of  Craven,  p.  331.  This  may,  I 

p.  390,  Beckman,  in  his  History  of  Tn-  think,  have  been  only  an  Iron  stove  or 

ventions,  vol.  i.,  a  work  of  very  great  fire-pan;  though  Dr.  W.  without  hea- 

research,  cannot  trace  any  explicit  men-  itation  translates  it  a  chimney.  How- 

tion  of  chimneys  beyond  the  writings  ever,  Mr,  King,  in  his  observations  on 

of  John  VUlani,  wherein,  however,  they  ancient  castles,  Archaeol.  vol.  vi.,  and 

are  not  noticed  as  a  new  invention.  Mr.  Strutt,  in  his  View  ot  Manners,  vol. 

PT<TS  Plowman,  a  few  years  later  than  i,,  describe  chimneys  in  castles  of  a  very 

Villani,  speaks  of  a  "  chambre  with  a  old  construction.  That  at  Conisbor- 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES 


79 


country  seems  to  have  lost  very  early  the  art  of  making  glass, 
which  was  preserved  in  France,  whence  artificers  were  brought 
into  England  to  furnish  the  windows  in  some  new  churches  in 
the  seventh  century.o  It  is  said  that  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III. 
a  few  ecclesiastical  buildings  had  glazed  windows.^  Suger, 
however,  a  century  before,  had  adorned  his  great  work,  the 
abbey  of  St.  Denis,  with  windows,  not  only  glazed  but  painted  ;c 
and  I  presume  that  other  churches  of  the  same  class,  both  in 
France  and  England,  especially  after  the  lancet-shaped  win- 
dow had  yielded  to  one  of  ampler  dimensions,  were  generally 
decorated  in  a  similar  manner.  Yet  glass  is  said  not  to  have 
been  employed  in  the  domestic  architecture  of  France  before 
the  fourteenth  century  ;d  and  its  introduction  into  England 
was  probably  by  no  means  earlier.  Nor  indeed  did  it  come 
into  general  use  during  the  period  of  the  middle  ages.  Glazed 
windows  were  considered  as  movable  furniture,  and  probably 
bore  a  high  price.  When  the  earls  of  Northumberland,  as  late 
as  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  left  Alnwick  Castle,  the  windows  were 
taken  out  of  their  frames,  and  carefully  laid  by.e 

But  if  the  domestic  buildings  of  the  fifteenth  century  would 
not  seem  very  spacious  or  convenient  at  present,  far  less  would 
this  luxurious  generation  be  content  with  their  internal  ac- 
commodations. A  gentleman's  house  containing  three  or  four 
beds  was  extraordinarily  well  provided;  few  probably  had 

ough  in  .Yorkshire  is  peculiarly  worthy  fourteenth  century  they  are  frequently 
of  attention,  and  carries  back  this  im-  very  short."  Glossary  of  Ancient  Archi- 
portant  invention  to  a  remote  antiquity.  tecture,  p.  100,  edit.  1845.  It  is  said,  too, 
In  a  recent  work  of  some  reputation,  here  that  chimneys  were  seldom  used  in 
it  is  said : — "  There  does  not  appear  to  halls  till  near  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
be  any  evidence  of  the  use  of  chimney-  century;  the  smoke  took  its  course,  if 
shafts  in  England  prior  to  the  twelfth  it  pleased,  through  a  hole  in  the  roof, 
century.  In  Rochester  Castle,  which  is  Chimneys  are  still  more  modern  in 
in  all  probability  the  work  of  William  France;  and  seem,  according  to  Paul- 
Cerbyl,  about  1130,  there  are  complete  my,  to  have  come  into  common  use 
fireplaces  with  semicircular  backs,  and  since  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
a  shaft  in  each  jamb,  supporting  a  semi-  tury.  Jadis  nos  peres  ^n'avoient  qu'un 
circular  arch  over  the  opening,  and  that  unique  chauffoir,  qui  etoit  commun  a 
is  enriched  with  the  zigzag  moulding;  tpute  une  famille,  et  quelquefois  a  phi- 
some  of  these  project  slightly  from  the  sieurs.  T.  iii.  p.  133.  In  another  place, 
wall;  the  flues,  however,  go  only  a  few  however,  he  says:  II  parait  que  les 
feet  up  in  the  thickness  of  the  wall,  and  tuyaux  de  chemme6s  e"taient  deja  tres 
are  then  turned  out  at  the  back,  the  en  usage  en  France,  t.  xxxi.  p.  232. 
apertures  being  small,  oblong  holes.  At  a  Du  Cange,  v.  Vitreae;  Bentham's 
the  castle,  Hedingham,  Essex,  which  is  History  of  Ely,  p.  22.  • 
of  about  the  same  date,  there  are  fire-  b  Matt.  Paris;  vitae  Abbatum  St.  Alb. 
places  and  chimneys  of  a  similar  kind.  122. 

A  few  years  later,  the  improvement  of  c  Recueil  des  Hist.  t.  xii.  p.  IOT. 

carrying  the  flue  up  the  whole  height  of  d  Paulmy,  t.  iii.  p.  132.    Villaret,  t.  xi. 

the  wall  appears;   as  at  Christ  Church,  p.  141.    Macpherson,  p.  679. 

Hants;    the  keep  at  Newcastle;    Sher-  e  Northumberland    Household    Book, 

borne  Castle.  &c.    The  early  chimney-  preface,  p.  16.     Bishop  Percy  says,  on 

shafts  are  of  considerable  height,   and  the  authority  of  Harrison,  that  glass  was 

similar;     afterwards    they    assumed    a  not   commonly   used   in   the    reign   of 

great  variety  of  forms,  and  during  the  Henry  VIII. 


So  HALLAM 

more  than  two.  The  walls  were  commonly  bare,  without  wain- 
scot or  even  plaster ;  except  that  some  great  houses  were  fur- 
nished with  hangings,  and  that  perhaps  hardly  so  soon  as  the 
reign  of  Edward  IV.  It  is  unnecessary  to  acid,  that  neither 
libraries  of  books  nor  pictures  could  have  found  a  place  among 
furniture.  Silver  plate  was  very  rare,  and  hardly  used  for  the 
table.  A  few  inventories  of  fuiniture  that  still  remain  exhibit 
a  miserable  deficiency/  And  this  was  incomparably  greater 
in  private  gentlemen's  houses  than  among  citizens,  and  espe- 
cially foreign  merchants.  We  have  an  inventory  of  the  goods 
belonging  to  Contarini,  a  rich  Venetian  trader,  at  his  house  in 
St  Botolph's  Lane,  A.D.  1481.  There  appear  to  have  been  no 
less  than  ten  beds,  and  glass  windows  are  especially  noticed 
as  movable  furniture.  No  mention  however  is  made  of  chairs 
or  looking-glasses,^  If  we  compare  this  account,  however  tri- 
fling in  our  estimation,  with  a  similar  inventory  of  furniture 
in  Skipton  Castle,  the  great  honor  of  the  earls  of  Cumberland, 
and  among  the  most  splendid  mansions  of  the  north,  not  at 
the  same  period,  for  I  have  not  found  any  inventory  of  a  noble- 
man's furniture  so  ancient,  but  in  1572,  after  almost  a  century 
of  continual  improvement,  we  shall  be  astonished  at  the  in- 
ferior provision  of  the  baronial  residence.  There  were  not 
more  than  seven  or  eight  beds  iti  this  great  castle;  nor  had 
any  of  the  chambers  either  chairs,  glasses,  or  carpets.*  It  is 

/  See  some  curious  valuations  of  fur-  whole  a  great  deal  of  furniture  for  those 

niture  and  stock  in  trade  at  Colchester  times ;   mttch  more  than  I  have  seen  in 

in  1296  and:  1301.    JEden's  Introduct.  to  afjy  other  inventory.    His  plate  is  valued 

State  of  the  Poor,  pp.  ao  and  23,  from  at  04/.j    his  jewels  at  as/.;    his  funeral 

the  Rolls  of  Parliament.    A  carpenter's  expenses  come  to  73*.  6s.  8<f.    I*.  119. 
stock  was  valued  at  a  shilling,  and  con-          h  Whitaker's  Hist    of  Craven,  p.  289. 

sisted  of  five  tools.     Other  tradesmen  A  better  notion  of  the  accommodations 

were  almost  as  poor;    but  a  tanner's  usual  in  the  rnnk  immediately  below 

stodcv  if  there  is  no  mistake,  was  worth  may  be  collected  from  two  inventories 

gl.   ?s.   iod.,  more  than  ten  times  any  published  hy  Stratt,  one  of  Mr.    Ftrr* 

other.     Tanners  -were  principal  trades-  mar's  houses  at  Easton,  the  other  Sir 

men,  the  chief  part  of  dress  being  made  Adrian  Foskewe's.     T   have  mentioned 

of    leather.     A    few    silver    cups    and  the  size  of  these  gentlemen's  Umtfles  aT» 

spoons  are  the  only  articles  of  plate;  ready.    Ifl  the  former,  the  parlor  had 

and  as  the  former  are  valued  but  at  one  wainscot,  a  table,  and  a  few  chairs;  the 

or  two  shillings,  they  had,  I  suppose,  chambers  above  had  two  be»t  bed,**,  and 

but  a  little  silver  on  the  rim.  there  was  one  servant's  bed;    but  the 

g  Nicholl's  Illustrations,  p,  no,  In  inferior  servants  had  only  mattresses  on 
this  work,  among  several  interesting  the  floor.  The  best  chambers  had  win- 
facts  of  the  same  class,  we  have  another  clow,  shutters,  and  curtains,  Mr,  Fer- 
inventory  of  the  goods  of  **  John  Port,  mor,  being:  a  m«f chant,  was  probably 
late  the  king's  servant,"  who  died  about  better  stipplied  than  the  neighboring 
1524:  he  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  gentry.  His  plate,  however,  consisted 
some  consideration  and  probably  a  mer-  only  of  sixteen  spoons,  and  a  j>w  goblets 
thant.  The  house  consisted  of  a  hall,  and  ale  pots.  Sir  Adrian  Foskewe's 
parlor,  buttery,  and  kitchen,  with  two  opulence  appears  to  have  been  greater; 
chambers,  and  one  smaller,  oft  the  floor  ht  had  a  service  of  silver  plate,  and  his 
above*  a  rtapery,  of  linen  room,  and  parlor  was  furnished  with  hangings, 
three  garrets,  besides  a  shop,  Which  was  This  was  in  7530,*  it  is  not  to  be  irnag- 
probably  detached.  There  were  five  ined  that  a  knight  of  the  shire  a  hun- 
bedsteads  in  the  house,  and  ort  the  drtd  years  before  would  have  rivalled 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  81 

in  this  sense,  probably,  that  we  must  understand  ^Eneas  Syl- 
vius, if  he  meant  anything  more  than  to  express  a  traveller's 
discontent,  when  he  declares  that  the  kings  of  Scotland  would 
rejoice  to  be  as  well  lodged  as  the  second  class  of  citizens  at 
Nuremberg.*  Few  burghers  of  that  town  had  mansions,  I  pre- 
sume, equal  to  the  palaces  of  Dumferlin  or  Stirling,  but  it  is  not 
unlikely  that  they  were  better  furnished. 

In  the  construction  of  farm-houses  and  cottages,  especially 
the  latter,  there  have  probably  been  fewer  changes ;  and  those 
it  would  be  more  difficult  to  follow.  No  building  of  this  class 
can  be  supposed  to  exist  of  the  antiquity  to  which  the  present 
work  is  confined ;  and  I  do  not  know  that  we  have  any  docu- 
ment as  to  the  inferior  architecture  of  England,  so  valuable  as 
one  which  M.  de  Paulmy  has  quoted  for  that  of  France,  though 
perhaps  more  strictly  applicable  to  Italy,  an  illuminated  manu- 
script of  the  fourteenth  century,  being  a  translation  of  Cres- 
cefltio's  work  on  agriculture,  illustrating  the  customs,  and, 
among  other  things,  the  habitations  of  the  agricultural  class. 
According  to  Paulmy,  there  is  no  other  difference  between  an 
ancient  and  a  modern  farm-house  than  arises  from  the  intro- 
duction of  tiled  roofs./  In  the  original  works  of  Crescefitio, 
a  native  of  Bologna,  who  composed  this  treatise  on  rural  affairs 
about  the  year  1300,  an  Italian  farm-house,  when  built  at  least 
according  to  his  plan,  appears  to  have  been  commodious  both 
in  size  and  arrangement.^  Cottages  in  England  seem  to  have 
generally  consisted  of  a  single  room  without  division  of  stories. 
Chimneys  were  unknown  in  such  dwellings  till  the  early  part 
of  Elizabeth's  reign,  when  a  very  rapid  and  sensible  improve- 
ment took  place  in  the  comforts  of  our  yeomanry  and  cot- 
tagers.^ 

It  must  be  remembered  that  I  have  introduced  this  disad- 
vantageous representation  of  civil  architecture,  as  a  proof  of 
general  poverty  and  backwardness  in  the  refinements  of  life. 

even  this  scanty  provision  of  movables.  edition  contains   many  course  wooden 

Strutt's  View  of   Manners,   vol.   Hi,   p.  cuts  possibly  taken  from  the  illumina- 

63.     These  details,  trifling  as  they  may  tions  which  Paulmy  found  in  his  manu- 

appear,     are     absolutely    necessary     in  script. 

order  to  give  an  idea  with  some  pre-  I  Harrison's  account  of  England,  pre- 
cision of  a  state  of  national  wealth  so  fixed  to  Hollingshed's  m  Chronicles, 
totally  different  from  the  present.  Chimneys  were  not  used  in  the  farrn- 

*  Cuperent     tarn     egregie     Scotorum  houses    of    Cheshire    till    within    forty 

reges     quam     mediocres     Nuremberg!*"  years  of  the  publication  of  King's  Vale- 

cives      habitare.        /En.      Sylv.      apud  royal  (1656);    the  fire  was  in  the  midst 

Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allem.  t.  v.  p.  510.  of  the  house,  against  a  hob  of  clay,  and 

j  T    iii.  p    127.  the   oxen   lived   under   the   same   roof. 

k  Crescentius  in   Commodum   Rurali-  Whitalcer's  Craven,  p.  334. 
um.    (Lovaniae,  absque  anno.)    This  old 

VOL,  III.— 6 


82  MALLAM 

Considered  in  its  higher  departments,  that  art  is  the  principal 
boast  of  the  middle  ages.  The  common  buildings,  especially 
those  of  a  public  kind,  were  constructed  with  skill  and  atten- 
tion to  durability.  The  castellated  style  displays  these  qualities 
in  great  perfection ;  the  means  are  well  adapted  to  their  ob- 
jects, and  its  imposing  grandeur,  though  chiefly  resulting  no 
doubt  from  massiveness  and  historical  association,  sometimes 
indicates  a  degree  of  architectural  genius  in  the  conception. 
But  the  most  remarkable  works  of  this  art  are  the  religious 
edifices  erected  in  the  twelfth  and  three  following  centuries. 
These  structures,  uniting  sublimity  in  general  composition  with 
the  beauties  of  variety  and  form,  intricacy  of  parts,  skilful  or 
at  least  fortunate  effects  of  shadow  and  light,  and  in  some  in- 
tances  with  extraordinary  mechanical  science,  are  naturally 
apt  to  lead  those  antiquaries  who  are  most  conversant  with  them 
into  too  partial  estimates  of  the  times  wherein  they  were  found- 
ed. They  certainly  are  accustomed  to  behold  the  fairest  side 
of  the  picture.  It  was  the  favorite  and  most  honorable  employ- 
ment of  ecclesiastical  wealth,  to  erect,  to  enlarge,  to  repair,  to 
decorate  cathedral  and  conventual  churches.  An  immense  cap- 
ital must  have  been  expended  upon  these  buildings  in  England 
between  the  Conquest  and  the  Reformation.  And  it  is  pleasing 
to  observe  how  the  seeds  of  genius,  hidden  as  it  were  under 
the  frost  of  that  dreary  winter,  began  to  bud  in  the  first  sunshine 
of  encouragement.  In  the  darkest  period  of  the  middle  ages, 
especially  after  the  Scandinavian  incursions  into  France  and 
England,  ecclesiastical  architecture,  though  always  far  more 
advanced  than  any  other  art,  bespoke  the  rudeness  and  poverty 
of  the  times.  It  began  towards  the  latter  part  of  the  eleventh 
century,  when  tranquillity,  at  least  as  to  former  enemies,  was 
restored,  and  some  degree  of  learning  reappeared,  to  assume 
a  more  noble  appearance.  The  Anglo-Norman  cathedrals  were 
perhaps  as  much  distinguished  above  other  works  of  man  in 
their  own  age,  as  the  more  splendid  edifices  of  a  later  period, 
The  science  manifested  in  them  is  not,  however,  very  great ; 
and  their  style,  though  by  no  means  destitute  of  lesser  beauties, 
is  upon  the  whole  an  awkward  imitation  of  Roman  architec- 
ture, or  perhaps  more  immediately  of  the  Saracenic  buildings 
in  Spain  and  those  of  the  lower  Greek  empire,"*  But  about 

m  The  Saracenic  architecture  was  once  occur,  I  believe,  in  any  Moorish  build- 
conceived  to  have  been  the  parent  of  the  ings;  while  the  great  mosque  of  Cordo- 
Gothic,  But  the  pointed  arch  does  not  va,  built  in  the  eighth  century,  rcscm- 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES 


the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  this  manner  began  to  give 
place  to  what  is  improperly  denominated  the  Gothic  archi- 
tecture ; «  of  which  the  pointed  arch,  formed  by  the  segments 
of  two  intersecting  semicircles  of  equal  radius  and  described 
about  a  common  diameter,  has  generally  been  deemed  the 
essential  characteristic.  We  are  not  concerned  at  present  to 
inquire  whether  this  style  originated  in  France  or  Germany, 
Italy  or  England,  since  it  was  certainly  almost  simultaneous 
in  all  these  countries ;  o  nor  from  what  source  it  was  derived 


bles,  except  by  its  superior  beauty  and 
magnificence,  one  of  our  oldest  cathe- 
drals: the  nave  of  Gloucester,  for  ex- 
ample, or  Durham.  Even  the  vaulting 
is  similar,  and  seems  to  indicate  some 
imitation,  though  perhaps  of  a  common 
model.  Compare  Archaeologia,  vol. 
xvii.  plate  i  and  2,  with  Murphy's  Ara- 
bian Antiquities,  plate  5.  The  pillars 
indeed  at  Cordova  are  of  the  Corinthian 
order,  perfectly  executed,  if  we  may 
trust  the  engraving,  and  the  work,  I 
presume,  of  Christian  architects;  while 
those  of  our  Anglo-Norman  cathedrals 
are  generally  an  imitation  of  the  Tuscan 
shaft,  the  builders  not  venturing  to  trust 
their  roofs  to  a  more  slender  support, 
though  Corinthian  foliage  is  common  in 
the  capitals,  especially  those  of  smaller 
ornamental  columns.  In  fact,  the  Ro- 
man architecture  is  universally  ac- 
knowledged to  have  produced  what  we 
call  the  Saxon  or  Norman;  but  it  is 
remarkable  that  it  should  have  been 
adopted,  with  no  variation  but  that  of 
the  singular  horseshoe  arch,  by  the 
Moors  of  Spain. 

The  Gothic,  or  pointed  arch,  though 
very  uncommon  in  the  genuine  Sara- 
cenic of  Spain  and  the  Levant,  may  be 
found  in  some  prints  from  Eastern 
buildings;  and  is  particularly  striking 
in  the  facade  of  the  great  mosque  at 
Lucknow,  in  Salt's  designs  for  Lord 
Valentia's  Travels.  The  pointed  arch 
buildings  in  the  Holy  Land  have  all 
been  traced  to  the  age  of  the  Crusades. 
Some  arches,  if  they  deserve  the  name, 
that  have  been  referred  to  this  class, 
are  not  pointed  by  their  construction, 
but  rendered  such  by  cutting  off  and 
hollowing  the  projections  of  horizontal 
stones. 

•»  Gibbon  has  asserted,  what  might 
justify  this  appellation,  that  "  the  im- 
age of  Theodoric's  palace  at  Verona, 
still  extant  on  a  coin,  represents  the  old- 
est and  most  authentic  model  of  Gothic 
architecture,"  vol.  vii.  p.  33.  For  this 
he  refers  to  Maffei,  Verona  Illustrata, 
p.  31,  where  we  find  an  engraving,  not 
indeed  of  a  coin,  but  of  a  seal;  the 
building  represented  on  which  is  in  a 
totally  dissimilar  style.  The  following 
passages  in  Cassiodorus,  for  which  I  am 
indebted  to  M.  Ginguene",  Hist.  Litte>. 
de  1'Italie,  t.  i.  p.  55,  would  be  more  to 
the  purpose:  Quid  dicamus  columna- 
rum  junceam  proceritatem?  moles  illas 
sublimissiraas  fabricarum  quasi  quibus- 


dam  erectis  hastilibus  contineri.  These 
columns  of  reedy  slenderness,  so  well 
described  by  juncea  proceritas,  are  said 
to  be  found  in  the  cathedral  of  Mont- 
real in  Sicily,  built  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury. Knight's  Principles  of  Taste,  p. 
162.  m  They  are  not,  however,  sufficient  to 
justify  the  deomination  of  Gothic,  which 
is  usually  confined  to  the  pointed  arch 
style. 

oThe  famous  Abbot  Suger,  minister 
of  Louis  VI.,  rebuilt  St.  Denis  about 
1140.  The  cathedral  of  Laon  is  said  to 
have  been  dedicated  in  1114.  Hist.  Lit- 
teraire  de  la  France,  t.  ix.  p.  220.  I  do 
not  know  in  what  style  the  latter  of 
these  churches  is  built,  but  the  former 
is,  or  rather  was,  Gothic.  Notre  Dame 
at  Paris  was  begun  soon  after  the  mid- 
dle of  the  twelfth  century,  and  cpm- 
pleted  under  St.  Louis.  Melanges  tires 
•  d'une  grande  bibliotheque,  t.  xxxi.  p. 
108.  In  England,  the  earliest  specimen 
I  have  seen  of  pointed  arches  is  in  a 
print  of  St.  Botolph's  Priory  at  Col- 
chester, said  by  Strutt  to  have  been 
built  in  i  no.  View  of  Manners,  vol.  i. 
plate  30.  These  are  apertures  formed 
by  excavating  the  space  contained  by 
the  intersection  of  semicircular,  or  Sax- 
on arches;  which  are  perpetually  dis- 
posed, by  way  of  ornament,  on  the  outer 
as  well  as  inner  surface  of  old  churches, 
so  as  to  cut  each  other,  and  conse- 
quently to  produce  the  figure  of  a 
Gothic  arch;  and  if  there  is  no  mistake 
in  the  date,  they  are  probably  among 
the  most  ancient  of  that  style  in  Eu- 
rope. Those  of  the  church  of  St.  Cross 
near  Winchester  are  of  the  reign  of 
Stephen;  and  generally  speaking,  the 
pointed  style,  especially  in  vaulting, 
the  most  important  object  in  the  con- 
struction of  a  building,  is  not  consid- 
ered as  older  than  Henry  II.  The  nave 
of  Canterbury  cathedral,  of  the  erection 
of  which  by  a  French  architect  about 
1176  we  have  a  full  account  in  Gervase 
(Twysden,  Decem  Scriptores,  vol.  1289), 
and  the  Temple  church,  dedicated  in 
1183,  are  the  most  ancient  English  build- 
ings together  in  the  Gothic  manner. 

The  subject  of  ecclesiastical  architec- 
ture in  the  middle  ages  has  been  so 
fully  discussed  by  intelligent  and  ob- 
servant writers  since  these  pages  were 
first  published,  that  they  require  some 
correction.  The  oriental  theory  for  the 
origin  of  the  pointed  architecture, 
though  not  given  up,  has  not  generally 


84  HALLAM 

— a  question  of  no  small  difficulty.  I  would  only  venture  to 
remark,  that,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  origin  of  the 
pointed  arch,  for  which  there  is  more  than  one  mode  of  ac- 
counting, we  must  perceive  a  very  oriental  character  in  the  vast 
profusion  of  ornament,  especially  on  the  exterior  surface, 
which  is  as  distinguishing  a  mark  of  Gothic  buildings  as  their 
arches,  and  contributes  in  an  eminent  degree  both  to  their 
beauties  and  to  their  defects.  This  indeed  is  rather  applicable 
to  the  later  than  the  earlier  stage  of  architecture,  and  rather 
to  continental  than  English  churches.  Amiens  is  in  a  far  more 
florid  style  than  Salisbury,  though  a  contemporary  structure. 
The  Gothic  species  of  architecture  is  thought  by  most  to  have 
reached  its  perfection,  considered  as  an  object  of  taste,  by  the 
middle  or  perhaps  the  close  of  the  fourteenth  century,  or  at  least 
to  have  lost  something  of  its  excellence  by  the  corresponding 
part  of  the  next  age ;  an  effect  of  its  early  and  rapid  cultivation, 
since  arts  appear  to  have,  like  individuals,  their  natural  prog- 
ress and  decay.  The  mechanical  execution,  however,  continued 
to  improve,  and  is  so  far  beyond  the  apparent  intellectual  pow- 
ers of  those  times  that  some  have  ascribed  the  principal  ecclesi- 
astical structures  to  the  fraternity  of  freemasons,  depositaries 
of  a  concealed  and  traditionary  science.  There  is  probably 
some  ground  for  this  opinion ;  and  the  earlier  archives  of  that 
mysterious  association,  if  they  existed,  might  illustrate  the 
progress  of  Gothic  architecture,  and  perhaps  reveal  its  origin. 
The  remarkable  change  into  this  new  style,  that  was  almost 
contemporaneous  in  every  part  of  Europe,  cannot  be  explained 
by  any  local  circumstances,  or  the  capricious  taste  of  a  single 
nation./' 

stood  its  ground;  there  seems  more  stance  will  be  found*  I  think,  in  the 
reason  to  believe  that  it  was  first  adopt-  crypt  of  St  Denis,  near  Pans,  which, 
ed  in  Germany,  as  Mr.  Hope  has  shown;  however,  is  not  so  old.  The  writings  of 
but  at  first  in  single  arches,  not  in  The  Hope,  Rickman,  Whewcll,  and  Willis 
construction  of  the  entire  building.  are  prominent  among  many  that  have 
The  circular  and  pointed  forma,  in-  thrown  light  on  this  subject.  The 
stead  of  one  having-  at  once  supplanted  beauty  and  magnificence  of  th*  painted 
the  other,  were  concurrent  in  the  same  style  is  acknowledged  on  all  sides ;  per- 
building,  through  Germany,  Italy,  and  haps  the  imitation  of  it  has  been  too 
Switzerland,  for  some  centuries.  I  will  servile,  and  with  too  much  forgetful- 
just  add  to  the  instances  mentioned  by  ness  of  some  very  important  changes  in 
Mr,  Hope  and  others,  and  which  every  our  religious  aspect  rendering  that  sim- 
traveller  may  corroborate,  one  not  very  ply  ornamental  which  was  once  directed 
well  known,  perhaps  as  early  as  any,—  to  a  great  object,  [1848.] 
the  crypt  of  the  cathedral  at  Basle,  built  p  The  curious  subject  of  freemasonry 
under  the  reign  of  the  Emperor  Henry  has  unfortunately  been  treated  only  by 


II.,  near  the  commencement  of  the  panegyrists  or  calumniators,  both  equal- 
eleventh  century,  where  two  pointed  ly  mendacious.  I  do  not  wish  to  pry 
with  three  circular  arches  stand  togeth-  into  the  mysteries  of  the  craft;  but  it 


er,  evidently  from  want  of  space  enough  would  be  interesting1  to  know  more  of 
to  preserve  the  same  breadth  with  tne  their  history  during  the  period  when 
necessary  height.  The  same  circum-  they  werje  literally  architects.  They  are 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  85 

It  would  be  a  pleasing  task  to  trace  with  satisfactory  exact- 
ness the  slow  and  almost  perhaps  insensible  progress  of  agri- 
culture and  internal  improvement  during  the  latter  period  of 
the  middle  ages.  But  no  diligence  could  recover  the  unrecord- 
ed history  of  a  single  village;  though  considerable  attention 
has  of  late  been  paid  to  this  interesting  subject  by  those  anti- 
quaries who,  though  sometimes  affecting  to  despise  the  lights 
of  modern  philosophy,  are  unconsciously  guided  by  their  efful- 
gence. I  have  already  adverted  to  the  wretched  condition  of 
agriculture  during  the  prevalence  of  feudal  tenures,  as  well  as 
before  their  general  establishments  Yet  even  in  the  least  civ- 
ilized ages,  there  were  not  wanting  partial  encouragements  to 
cultivation,  and  the  ameliorating  principle  of  human  industry 
struggled  against  destructive  revolutions  and  barbarous  dis- 
order. The  devastation  of  war  from  the  fifth  to  the  eleventh 
century  rendered  land  the  least  costly  of  all  gifts,  though  it 
must  ever  be  the  most  truly  valuable  and  permanent.  Many 
of  the  grants  to  monasteries,  which  strike  us  as  enormous,  were 
of  districts  absolutely  wasted,  which  would  probably  have  been 
reclaimed  by  no  other  means.  We  owe  the  agricultural  resto- 
ration of  great  part  of  Europe  to  the  monks.  They  chose,  for 
the  sake  of  retirement,  secluded  regions,  which  they  cultivated 
with  the  labor  of  their  hands s  Several  charters  are  extant, 

charged  by  an  act  of  parliament,  3  H.  tracts  of  forest  ground  stagnating  with 
VI.  c.  i.,  with  fixing  the  price  of  their  bog  or  darkened  by  native  woods,  where 
labor  in  their  annual  chapters,  contrary  the  wild  ox,  the  roe,  the  stag,  and  the 
to  the  statute  of  laborers,  and  such  wolf,  had  scarcely  learned  the  suprem- 
chapters  are  consequently  prohibited.  acy  of  man,  when,  directing  his  view  to 
This  is  their  first  persecution ;  they  have  the  intermediate  spaces,  to  the  windings 
since  undergone  others,  and  are  perhaps  of  the  valleys,  or  the  expanse  of  plains 
reserved  for  still  more.  It  is  remark-  beneath,  he  could  only  have  distin- 
able,  that  masons  were  never  legally  in-  guished  a  few  insulated  patches  of  cul- 
corporated,  like  other  traders;  their  ture,  each  encircling  a  village  of 
bond  of  union  being  stronger  than  any  wretched  cabins,  among  which  would 
charter.  The  article  Masonry  in  tbe  still  be  remarked  one  rude  mansion  of 
Encyclopaedia  Britannica  is  worth  read-  wood,  scarcely  equal  in  comfort  to  a 
ing.  modern  cottage,  yet  then  rising  proudly 
q  I  cannot  resist  the  pleasure  of  tran-  eminent  above  the  rest,  where  the  Sax- 
scribing  a  lively  and  eloquent  passage  on  lord,  surrounded  by  his  faithful 
from  Dr.  Whitaker.  "  Could  a  curious  cotarii,  enjoyed  a  rude  and  solitary  In- 
observer  of  the  present  day  carry  him-  dependence,  owning  no  superior  but  his 
self  nine  or  ten  centuries  back,  and  sovereign."  Hist  of  Whalley,  p.  133. 
ranging  the  summit  of  Pendle  survey  About  a  fourteenth  part  of  this  pariah 
the  forked  vale  of  Calder  on  one  side,  of  Whalley  was  cultivated  at  the  time 
and  the  bolder  margins  of  Kibble  and  of  Domesday.  This  proportion, m  how- 
l-ladder on  the  other,  instead  of  popu-  ever,  would  by  no  means  hold  in  the 
lous  towns  and  villages,  the  castle,  the  counties  south  of  Trent, 
old  tower-built  house,  the  elegant  mod-  r  "  Of  the  Anglo-Saxon  husbandry  we 
ern  mansion,  the  artificial  plantation,  may  remark,"  says  Mr.  Turner,  "  that 
the  inclosed  park  and  pleasure  ground:  Domesday  Survey  gives  us  some  indica- 
instead  of  uninterrupted  inclosures  tion  that  the  cultivation  of  the  church 
which  have  driven  sterility  almost  to  lands  was  much  superior  to  that  of  any 
the  summit  of  the  fells,  how  great  must  other  order  of  society.  They  have  much 
then  have  been  the  contrast,  when  rang-  less  wood  upon  them,  and  less  common 
ing  either  at  a  distance,  or  immediately  of  pasture:  and  what  they  had  appears 
beneath,  his  eye  must  have  caught  vast  often  in  smaller  and  more  irregular 


86 


HALLAM 


granted  to  convents,  and  sometimes  to  laymen,  of  lands  which 
they  had  recovered  from  a  desert  condition,  after  the  ravages 
of  the  Saracens.-?  Some  districts  were  allotted  to  a  body  of 
Spanish  colonists,  who  emigrated,  in  the  reign  of  Louis  the 
Debonair,  to  live  under  a  Christian  sovereign,'  Nor  is  this 
the  only  instance  of  agricultural  colonies.  Charlemagne  trans- 
planted part  of  his  conquered  Saxons  into  Flanders,  a  country 
at  that  time  almost  unpeopled;  and  at  a  much  later  period, 
there  was  a  remarkable  reflux  from  the  same  country,  or  rather 
from  Holland  to  the  coasts  of  the  Baltic  Sea.  In  the  twelfth 
century,  great  numbers  of  Dutch  colonists  settled  along  the 
whole  line  between  the  Ems  and  the  Vistula.  They  obtained 
grants  of  uncultivated  land  on  condition  of  fixed  rents,  and 
were  governed  by  their  own  laws  under  magistrates  of  their 
own  election.** 


pieces,  while  their  meadow  was  more 
abundant,  and  in  more  numerous  dis- 
tributions." Hist,  of  Anglo-Saxons,  vol. 
ii.  p.  167. 

It  was  the  glory  of  St.  Benedict's  re- 
form, to  have  substituted  bodily  labor 
for  the  supine  indolence  of  oriental  as- 
ceticism. In  the  East  :t  was  more  diffi- 
cult to  succeed  in  such  an  endeavor, 
though  it  had  been  made.  "  The  Bene- 
dictines have  been,"  says  Guizot,  "  the 
great  clearers  of  land  in  Europe.  A  col- 
ony, a  little  swarm  of  monks,  settled  in 
places  nearly  uncultivated,  often  in  the 
midst  of  a  pagan  population,  in  Ger- 
many, for  example,  or  in  Brittany; there 
at  once  missionaries  and  laborers,  they 
accomplish  their  double  service  through 
peril  and  fatitrue."  Civilis.  en  France, 
JLecon  14.  Ine  northeastern  parts  of 
France,  as  far  as  the  Lower  Seine,  were 
reduced  into  cultivation  by  the  disciples 
of  St.  Columban,  in  the  sixth  and  sev- 
enth centuries.  The  proofs  of  this  are 
in  Mabillon's  Acta  Santorum  Ord. 
Bened.  See  M£m.  de  1'Acad.  des 
Sciences  Morales  et  Politiques,  iii.  708. 

Guizot  has  appreciated  the  rule  of  St, 
Benedict  with  that  candid  and  favorable 
spirit  which  he  always  has  brought  to 
the  history  of  the  church:  anxious,  as 
it  seems,  not  only  to  escape  the  imputa- 
tion of  Protestant  prejudices  by  others, 
but  to  combat  them  in  his  own  mind; 
and  aware,  also,  that  the  partial  misrep- 
resentations of  Voltaire  had  sunk  into 
the  minds  of  many  who  were  listening 
to  his  lectures.  Compared  with  the 
writers  of  the  eighteenth  century,  who 
were  too  much  alienated  by  the  faults  of 
the  clergy  to  acknowledge  any  redeem- 
ing virtues,  or  even  with  Sismondi,  who, 
coming  in  a  moment  of  reaction,  feared 
the  returning  influence  of  mediaeval 
prejudices,  Guizot  stands  forward  as  an 
equitable  and  indulgent  arbitrator.  Jn 
this  spirit  he  says  ofthe  rule  of  St.  Ben- 
edict—La pensee  morale  et  la  discipline 


ge'nerale  en  sent  seVercs;  mais  dans  le 
detail  de  la  vie  elle  est  humaine  et  mod- 
eYe"e;  plus  humaine,  plus  modcree  quc 
les  lois  barbarcs,  quo  les  mceurs  gcncr- 
ales  du  temps;  et  je  ne  doute  pas  que 
les  freres,  renfermds  dans  I'inte'rieur 
d'un  monastery,  n'y  fussent  gouvcrn^s 
par  une  autorite,  a  tout  prendre,  et  ph« 
raisonnable,  et  d'une  rnnniere  moina 
dure  qu'ils  ne  1'eussent  et<5  dans  la  so- 
cie*te  civile, 

j  Thus,  in  Marca  Hispanka.  Appen- 
dix, p  770,  we  have  a  grant  from  Lo- 
thaire  I.  in  834,  to  a  person  and  his 
brother  of  lands  which  their  father,  ab 
eremo  in  Septimania  trahens,  had  pos- 
sessed by  a  charter  of  Charlemagne. 
See,  too,  p,  773,  and  t other  places.  "Du 
Canffe,  v.  Eremus,  gives  also  a  few  in- 
stances. 

t  Du  Cange,  v,  Aprisio,  Bahn-e,  Ca- 
pitularia,  t.  i.  p,  549.  They  were  per- 
mitted to  decide  petty  suits  among 
themselves,  but  for  more  important 
matters  were  to  repair  to  the  county- 
court.  A  liberal  policy  runs  through 
the  whole  charter.  See  more  on  the 
same  subject,  id.  p.  560. 

u  1  owe  this  fact  to  M.  Heeren,  Essai 
sur  1'Influcnce  des  Croisacles,  p.  326, 
An  inundation  in  their  own  country  is 
supposed  to  have  immediately  produced 
this  emigration;  but  it  was  probnbly 
successive,  and  connected  with  political 
as  well  as  physical  causes  of  greater 
permanence.  The  first  instrument  in 
which  they  are  mentioned  is  a  grant 
from  the  Bishop  of  Hamburgh  in  no& 
This  colony  has  affected  the  local  us- 
ages, as  well  as  the  denominations  of 
things  and  places  along  the  northern 
coast  of  Germany.  It  must  be  pre- 
sumed  that  a  large  proportion  of  the 
emigrants  were  diverted  from  agricul- 
ture to  people  the  commercial  cities 
which  grew  up  in  the  twelfth  century 
upon  that  coast 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  87 

There  cannot  be  a  more  striking  proof  of  the  low  condition 
of  English  agriculture  in  the  eleventh  century  than  is  exhib- 
ited by  Domesday  Book.  Though  almost  all  England  had 
been  partially  cultivated,  and  we  find  nearly  the  same  manors, 
except  in  the  north,  which  exist  at  present,  yet  the  value  and 
extent  of  cultivated  ground  are  inconceivably  small.  With 
every  allowance  for  the  inaccuracies  and  partialities  of  those 
by  whom  that  famous  survey  was  completed,^  we  are  lost  in 
amazement  at  the  constant  recurrence  of  two  or  three  carucates 
in  demesne,  with  other  lands  occupied  by  ten  or  a  dozen  vil- 
leins, valued  altogether  at  forty  shillings,  as  the  return  of  a 
manor,  which  now  would  yield  a  competent  income  to  a  gentle- 
man. If  Domesday  Book  can  be  considered  as  even  approach- 
ing to  accuracy  in  respect  of  these  estimates,  agriculture  must 
certainly  have  made  a  very  material  progress  in  the  four  suc- 
ceeding centuries.  This,  however,  is  rendered  probable  by 
other  documents.  Ingulfus,  Abbot  of  Croyland  under  the  Con- 
queror, supplies  an  early  and  interesting  evidence  of  improve- 
ments Richard  de  Rules,  Lord  of  Deeping,  he  tells  us,  being 
fond  of  agriculture,  obtained  permisison  from  the  abbey  to 
inclose  a  large  portion  of  marsh  for  the  purpose  of  separate 
pasture,  excluding  the  Welland  by  a  strong  dike,  upon  which 
he  erected  a  town,  and  rendering  those  stagnant  fens  a  garden 
of  Eden.*  In  .imitation  of  this  spirited  cultivator,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Spalding  and  some  neighboring  villages  by  a  common 
resolution  divided  their  marshes  amongst  them ;  when  some 
converting  them  to  tillage,  some  reserving  them  for  meadow, 
others  leaving  them  in  pasture,  they  found  a  rich  soil  for  every 
purpose.  The  abbey  of  Croyland  and  villages  in  that  neigh- 
borhood followed  this  example.^  This  early  instance  of  pa- 
rochial inclosure  is  not  to  be  overlooked  in  the  history  of  social 
progress.  By  the  statute  of  Merton,  in  the  2Oth  of  Henry  III., 
the  lord  is  permitted  to  approve,  that  is,  to  inclose  the  waste 

v  Ingulfus  tells  us  that  the  comtnis-  it  was  as  general  and  conclusive  as  the 

sioners     were   pious    enough    to    favor  last  judgment  will  be. 

Croyland,  returning  its  possessions  in-  a/This    of   course   is    subject   to   the 

accurately,    both    as    to    measurement  doubt  as  to  the  authenticity  of  Ingul- 

and  value;    non  ad  verum  pretium,  nee  fus. 

ad  verum  spatium  nostrum  monasterium  x  i  Gale,  XV.  Script,  p.  77. 

Hbrabant  misericorditer,  praecaventes  in  31  Communi  plebiscite  viritim  inter  se 

futurum  regis  exactionibus.     P.   79.     I  diviserunt,    et    quidam    suas    portiones 

may  just  observe  by  the  way  that  In-  agricolantes,  quidam  ad  fcenum  conser- 

gulfus  gives  the  plain  meaning  of  the  vantes,   quidam  ut  prius  ad  pastguram 

word   Domesday,  which  has  been  dis-  suorum    animalium,    separaliter    jacere 

puted.    The  book  was  so  called,  he  says,  permittentes,  terrain  pinguem  et  uber,- 

pro   sua   generalitate  omnia  tenement  a  em  raperejunt.    P.  94. 
totius  terr?e  integre  qontinente;   that  is, 


83  HALLAM ' 

lands  of  his  manor,  provided  he  leave  sufficient  common  of 
pasture  for  the  freeholders.  Higden,  a  writer  who  lived  about 
the  time  of  Richard  II.,  says,  in  reference  to  the  number  of 
hydes  and  vills  of  England  at  the  Conquest,  that  by  clearing 
of  woods,  and  ploughing  up  wastes,  there  were  many  more  of 
each  in  Ins  age  than  formerly.*  And  it  might  be  easily  pre- 
sumed, independently  of  proof,  that  woods  were  cleared, 
marshes  drained,  and  wastes  brought  into  tillage,  during  the 
long  period  that  the  house  of  Plantagenet  sat  on  the  throne. 
From  manorial  surveys  indeed  and  similar  instruments,  it  ap- 
pears that  in  some  places  there  was  nearly  as  much  ground 
cultivated  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  as  at  the  present  day. 
The  condition  of  different  counties,  however,  was  very  far  from 
being  alike,  and  in  general  the  northern  and  western  parts  of 
England  were  the  most  backward.^ 

The  culture  of  arable  land  was  very  imperfect.  Fleta  re- 
marks, in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  or  IL,  that  unless  an  acre 
yielded  more  than  six  bushels  of  corn,  the  farmer  would  be 
a  loser,  and  the  land  yield  no  rent.fc  And  Sir  John  Cullum, 
from  very  minute  accounts,  has  calculated  that  nine  or  ten 
bushels  were  a  full  average  crop  on  an  acre  of  wheat.  An 
amazing  excess  of  tillage  accompanied,  and  partly,  I  suppose, 
produced  this  imperfect  cultivation.  In  Hawsted,  for  example, 
under  Edward  L,  there  were  thirteen  or  fourteen  hundred 
acres  of  arable,  and  only  forty-five  of  meadow  ground  A 
similar  disproportion  occurs  almost  invariably  in  every  account 
we  possess.^  This  seems  inconsistent  with  the  low  price  of 
cattle.  But  we  must  recollect  that  the  common  pasture,  often 
the  most  extensive  part  of  a  manor,  is  not  included,  at  least 
by  any  specific  measurement,  in  these  surveys.  The  rent  of 
land  differed  of  course  materially ;  sixpence  an  acre  seems  to 
have  been  about  the  average  for  arable  land  in  the  thirteenth 
century,^  though  meadow  was  at  double  or  treble  that  sum. 
But  the  landlords  were  naturally  solicitous  to  augment  a  rev- 
enue that  became  more  and  more  inadequate  to  their  luxuries, 

x  l  Gale,  XV.  Script,  p.  soi.  &  L,  ii.  c.  8.                       _       ,    ^ 

a  A  good  deal  of  information  upon  the  c  Cullum,  pp,  too,  asp.     Eden's  State 

former  state  of  agriculture  will  he  found  of  Poor,  &c.,  p,  48.    Whrtaker's  Craven, 

in     Cullum's     History     of     Hawsted.  pp.  45,  336. 

Blomefield's  Norfolk  is  in  this  respect  #  I  mier  this  from  a  number  of  pas- 

among  the  most  valuable  of  our  local  sages  in  Blomefield.    Cullum,  ana  other 

histories.     Sir  Frederic   Eden,   in  the  writers.    Hearne  gays,  that  an  acre  was 

first  part  of  his  excellent  worle  on  the  often   called    Solidata   terrse?     because 

poor,  has  collected  several  Interesting  the  yearly  rent  of  one  on  the  best  land 

facte,  was  a  shilling,   Lib.  Nig.  Scacc.  p.  31, 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  89 

They  grew  attentive  to  agricultural  concerns,  and  perceived 
that  a  high  rate  of  produce,  against  which  their  less  enlight- 
ened ancestors  had  been  used  to  clamor,  would  bring  much 
more  into  their  coffers  than  it  took  away.  The  exportation 
of  corn  had  been  absolutely  prohibited.  But  the  statute  of  the 
I5th  Henry  VI.  c.  2,  reciting  that  "on  this  account,  farmers 
and  others  who  use  husbandry,  cannot  sell  their  corn  but  at 
a  low  price,  to  the  great  damage  of  the  realm/'  permits  it  to  be 
sent  anywhere  but  to  the  king's  enemies,  so  long  as  the  quarter 
of  wheat  shall  not  exceed  6^.  8d.  in  value,  or  that  of  barley  3^. 

The  price  of  wool  was  fixed  in  the  thirty-second  year  of 
the  same  reign  at  a  minimum,  below  which  no  person  was 
suffered  to  buy  it,  though  he  might  give  more ;  e  a  provision 
neither  wise  nor  equitable,  but  obviously  suggested  by  the 
same  motive.  Whether  the  rents  of  land  were  augmented  in 
any  degree  through  these  measures,  I  have  not  perceived; 
their  great  risk  took  place  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.,  or 
rather  afterwards. f  The  usual  price  of  land  under  Edward 
IV.  seems  to  have  been  ten  years'  purchaser 

It  may  easily  be  presumed  that  an  English  writer  can  fur- 
nish very  little  information  as  to  the  state  of  agriculture  in 
foreign  countries.  In  such  works  relating  to  France  as  have 
fallen  within  my  reach,  I  have  found  nothing  satisfactory,  and 
cannot  pretend  to  determine,  whether  the  natural  tendency 
of  mankind  to  ameliorate  their  condition  had  a  greater  influ- 
ence in  promoting  agriculture,  or  the  vices  inherent  in  the 
actual  order  of  society,  and  those  public  misfortunes  to  which 
that  kingdom  was  exposed,  in  retarding  it.^  The  state  of  Italy 
was  far  different ;  the  rich  Lombard  plains,  still  more  fertilized 
by  irrigation,  became  a  garden,  and  agriculture  seems  to  have 
reached  the  excellence  which  it  still  retains.  The  constant 
warfare  indeed  of  neighboring  cities  is  not  very  favorable  to 
industry;  and  upon  this  account  we  might  incline  to  place 
the  greatest  territorial  improvement  of  Lombardy  at  an  era 
rather  posterior  to  that  of  her  republican  government;  but 
from  this  it  primarily  sprung;  and  without  the  subjugation 

e  Rot,  Parl.  vol.  v.  p.  275.  a  year.     It  is   not  surprising  that  he 

f  A  passage  m  Bishop  Latimer's  ser-  lived  as  plentifully  as  his  son  describes, 
mons,  too  often  quoted  to  require  repe-  g  Ryuier,  t.  xii  p.  204. 

tition,  shows  that  land  was  much  under-  h  Velly  and  Villaret  scarcely  mention 

let  about  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  cen-  this  subject;    and  Le  Grand  merely  tells 

tury.     His  father,  he  says,  kept  half  a  us  that  it  was  entirely  neglected;    but 

dozen  husbandmen,  and  milked  thirty  the  details  of  such  an  art,  even  in  its 

s,  on  a  farm  of  three  or  four  pounds  state  of  neglect,  might  be  interesting, 


90  HALLAM 

of  the  feudal  aristocracy,  and  that  perpetual  demand  upon 
the  fertility  of  the  earth  which  an  increasing  population  of 
citizens  produced,  the  valley  of  the  Po  would  not  have  yielded 
more  to  human  labor  than  it  had  done  for  several  preceding 
centuries.*  Though  Lombardy  was  extremely  populous  in  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  she  exported  large  quan- 
tities of  corn.;  The  very  curious  treatise  of  Crescentius  ex- 
hibits the  full  details  of  Italian  husbandry  about  1300,  and 
might  afford  an  interesting  comparison  to  those  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  its  present  state.  That  state  indeed  in  many 
parts  of  Italy  displays  no  symptoms  of  decline.  But  whatever 
mysterious  influence  of  soil  or  climate  has  scattered  the  seeds 
of  death  on  the  western  regions  of  Tuscany  had  not  mani- 
fested itself  in  the  middle  ages.  Among  uninhabitable  plains, 
the  traveller  is  struck  by  the  ruins  of  innumerable  castles  and 
villages,  monuments  of  a  time  when  pestilence  was  either 
unfelt,  or  had  at  least  not  forbade  the  residence  of  mankind. 
Volterra,  whose  deserted  walls  look  down  upon  that  tainted 
solitude,  was  once  a  small  but  free  republic;  Siena,  round 
whom,  though  less  depopulated,  the  malignant  influence  hov- 
ers, was  once  almost  the  rival  of  Florence.  So  melancholy  and 
apparently  irresistible  a  decline  of  culture  and  population 
through  physical  causes,  as  seems  to  have  gradually  over- 
spread that  portion  of  Italy,  has  not  perhaps  been  experienced 
in  any  other  part  of  Europe  unless  we  except  Iceland. 

The  Italians  of  the  fourteenth  century  seem  to  have  paid 
some  attention  to  an  art,  of  which,  both  as  related  to  culti- 
vation and  to  architecture,  our  own  forefathers  were  almost 
entirely  ignorant.  Crescentius  dilates  upon  horticulture,  and 
gives  a  pretty  long  list  of  herbs  both  esculent  and  medicinal.^ 
His  notions  about  the  ornamental  department  are  rather  be- 
yond what  we  should  expect,  and  I  do  not  know  that  his  scheme 
of  a  flower-garden  could  be  much  amended.  His  general  ar- 
rangements, which  are  minutely  detailed  with  evident  fondness 
for  the  subject,  would  of  course  appear  too  formal  at  present ; 
yet  less  so  than  those  of  subsequent  times;  and  though  ac- 
quainted with  what  is  called  the  topiary  art,  that  of  training 
or  cutting  trees  into  regular  figures,  he  does  not  seem  to  run 
into  its  extravagance.  Regular  gardens,  according  to  Paulmy, 
were  not  made  in  France  till  the  sixteenth  or  even  seventeenth 

i,  Muratori,  pissert.  21,  j  Dcnina,  1.  xi.  c.  7.  £  Ibid-  I.  vj, 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  9I 

century ;  I  yet  one  is  said  to  have  existed  at  the  Louvre,  of 
much  older  construction.™  England,  I  believe,  had  nothing 
of  the  ornamental  kind,  unless  it  were  some  trees  regularly 
disposed  in  the  orchard  of  a  monastery.  Even  the  common 
horticultural  art  for  culinary  purposes,  though  not  entirely 
neglected,  since  the  produce  of  gardens  is  sometimes  men- 
tioned in  ancient  deeds,  had  not  been  cultivated  with  much 
attention.**  The  esculent  vegetables  now  most  in  use  were 
introduced  in  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  and  some  sorts  a  great 
deal  later. 

I  should  leave  this  slight  survey  of  economical  history  still 
more  imperfect,  were  I  to  make  no  observation  on  the  relative 
values  of  money.  Without  something  like  precision  in  our 
notions  upon  this  subject,  every  statistical  inquiry  becomes  a 
source  of  confusion  and  error.  But  considerable  difficulties 
attend  the  discussion.  These  arise  principally  from  two  causes ; 
the  inaccuracy  or  partial  representations  of  historical  writers, 
on  whom  we  are  accustomed  too  implicitly  to  rely,  and  the 
change  of  manners,  which  renders  a  certain  command  over 
articles  of  purchase  less  adequate  to  our  wants  than  it  was 
in  former  ages. 

The  first  of  these  difficulties  is  capable  of  being  removed  by 
a  circumspect  use  of  authorities.  When  this  part  of  statistical 
history  began  to  excite  attention,  which  was  hardly  perhaps 
before  the  publication  of  Bishop  Fleetwood's  Chronicon  Pre- 
ciosum,  so  few  authentic  documents  had  been  published  with 
respect  to  prices,  that  inquirers  were  glad  to  have  recourse 
to  historians,  even  when  not  contemporary,  for  such  facts  as 
they  had  thought  fit  to  record.  But  these  historians  were 
sometimes  too  distant  from  the  times  concerning  which  they 
wrote,  and  too  careless  in  their  general  character,  to  merit 
much  regard ;  and  even  when  contemporary,  were  often  credu- 
lous, remote  from  the  concerns  of  the  world,  and,  at  the  best, 
more  apt  to  register  some  extraordinary  phenomenon  of  scarc- 
ity or  cheapness,  than  the  average  rate  of  pecuniary  dealings. 
The  one  ought,  in  my  opinion,  to  be  absolutely  rejected  as 
testimonies,  the  other  to  be  sparingly  and  diffidently  admitted.** 

/T.  iii.  p.  145;  t.  xxxi.  p.  258.  would,  I  think,  have  acted  better,,  by 
m  De  la  Mare,  Trait6  de  la  Police,  t.  omitting  all  references  to  mere  histo- 
iii.  p.  380.  rians,   and  relying  entirely  on  regular 
n  Eden's  State  of  Poor,  vol.  i.  p.  51.  documents.    I  do  not,  however,  include 
oSir  F.  Eden,  whose  table  of  prices,  local  histories,  such  as  the  Annals  of 
though  capable  of  some  improvement,  Dtmstaple,  when  they  record  the,  mar- 
is  perhaps  the  best  that  has  appeared,  ket-prices  of  their  neighborhood,  in  re- 


92  HALLAM 

For  it  is  no  longer  necessary  to  lean  upon  such  uncertain  wit- 
nesses. During  the  last  century  a  very  laudable  industry  has 
been  shown  by  antiquaries  in  the  publication  of  account-books 
belonging  to  private  persons,  registers  of  expenses  in  convents, 
returns  of  markets,  valuations  of  goods,  tavern-bills,  and  in 
short  every  document,  however  trifling  in  itself,  by  which  this 
important  subject  can  be  illustrated.  A  sufficient  number  of 
such  authorities,  proving  the  ordinary  tenor  of  prices  rather 
than  any  remarkable  deviations  from  it,  are  the  true  basis  of  a 
table,  by  which  all  changes  in  the  value  of  money  should  be 
measured.  I  have  little  doubt  but  that  such  a  table  might  be 
constructed  from  the  data  we  possess  with  tolerable  exactness, 
sufficient  at  least  to  supersede  one  often  quoted  by  political 
economists,  but  which  appears  to  be  founded  upon  very  super- 
ficial and  erroneous  inquiries./* 

It  is  by  no  means  required  that  I  should  here  offer  such 
a  table  of  values,  which,  as  to  every  country  except  Eng- 
land, I  have  no  means  of  constructing,  and  which,  even  as  to 
England,  would  be  subject  to  many  difficulties.^  .But  a  reader 
unaccustomed  to  these  investigations  ought  to  have  sonic  as- 
sistance in  comparing  the  prices  of  ancient  times  with  those 
of  his  own.  I  will  therefore,  without  attempting  to  ascend 
very  high,  for  we  have  really  no  sufficient  data  as  to  the  period 

spect  of  which  the  book  last  mentioned  Transact,  for  1798,  p.  196)  is  strangly 
is  almost  in  the  nature  of  a  register.  incompatible  with  every  result  to  which 
Dr.  Whitaker  remarks  the  inexactness  my  own  reading  has  led  me.  It  is  the 
of  Stowe,  who  says  that  wheat  sold  in  hasty  attempt  of  a  man  accustomed  to 
London,  AD.  1514,  at  aoj,  a  quarter:  different  studies;  and  one  can  neither 
whereas  it  appears  to  have  been  at  9$.  pardon  the  presumption  of  obtruding 
in  Lancashire,  where  it  was  always  such  a  slovenly  performance  on  n  sub- 
dearer  than  in  the  metropolis,  Hist  of  ject  where  the  utmost  diligence  was  re- 
Whalley,  p.  97.  It  is  an  odd  mistake,  quired,  nor  the  affectation  with  which 
into  which  Sir  F.  Eden  has  fallen,  when  he  apologizes  for  "  descending  from  the 
he  asserts  and  argues  on  the  supposi-  dignity  of  philosophy." 
tion,  that  the  price  of  wheat  fluctuated  ^tfM.  Guerard,  editor  of  "  Paris  sous 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  from  w,  to  Philippe  le  Bel,"  in  the  Documens 
61,  8.s.  a  quarter,  vol.  i.  p.  18.  Cer-  Inedits  (1841,  p.  365),  after  a  compari- 
tainly,  if  any  chronicler  had  mentioned  son  of  the  prices  of  corn,  concludes  that 
such  a  price  as  the  latter,  equivalent  to  the  value  of  silver  has  declined,  since 
iso/.  at  present,  we  should  either  sup-  that  reign,  in  the  ratio  of  five  to  one. 
pose  that  his  text  was  corrupt,  or  re-  This  ia  much  lews  than  we  allow  in  Hng- 
Ject  it  as  an  absurd  exaggeration.  But,  land.  M.  Leber  (M£m,  de  1'Acad.  des 
in  fact,  the  author  has,  through  haste,  Inscript  Nouvelle  Serie,  xiv.  230)  cal- 
xnistaken  6*.  8d.  for  61.  8$.,  as  will  ap-  culates  the  power  of  silver  under 
pear  by  referring  to  his  own  table  of  Charlemagne,  compared  with  the  prea- 
prices,  where  it  is  set  down  rightly.  It  ent  day,  to  have  been  as  nearly  eleven  to 
is  observed  by  Mr.  Macphersqn,  a  very  one,  It  fell  afterwards  to  eight,  and 
competent  judge,  that  the  arithmetical  continued  to  sink  during  the  middle 
statements  of  the  best  historians  of  the  ages;  the  average  of  prices  during  the 
middle  ages  are  seldom  correct,  owing  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  tak- 
partly  to  their  neglect  of  examination,  ing  corn  as  the  standard,  was  six  to 
and  partly  to  blunders  of  transcribers*  one;  the  comparison  is  of  course  only 
Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  i.  p.  423-  for  France.  This  is  an  interesting; 
p  The  table  of  comparative  values  by  paper,  and  contains  tables  worthy  ol 
Sir  George  Shuckburgh  (Philosoph,  being  consulted. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  93 

immediately  subsequent  to  the  Conquest,  much  less  that  which 
preceded,  endeavor  at  a  sort  of  approximation  for  the  thirteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries.  In  the  reigns  of  Henry  III.  and  Ed- 
ward I.,  previously  to  the  first  debasement  of  the  coin  by  the 
latter  in  1301,  the  ordinary  price  of  a  quarter  of  wheat  appears 
to  have  been  about  four  shillings,  and  that  of  barley  and  oats 
in  proportion.  A  sheep  was  rather  sold  high  at  a  shilling,  an 
ox  might  be  reckoned  at  ten  or  twelve.*"  The  value  of  cattle 
is,  of  course,  dependent  upon  their  breed  and  condition,  and 
we  have  unluckily  no  early  account  of  butcher's  meat;  but 
we  can  hardly  take  a  less  multiple  than  about  thirty  for  animal 
food  and  eighteen  or  twenty  for  corn,  in  order  to  bring  the 
prices  of  the  thirteenth  century  to  a  level  with  those  of  the 
present  day.-y  Combining  the  two,  and  setting  the  comparative 
dearness  of  cloth  against  the  cheapness  of  fuel  and  many  other 
articles,  we  may  perhaps  consider  any  given  sum  under  Henry 
III.  and  Edward  I.  as  equivalent  in  general  command  over 
commodities  to  about  twenty-four  or  twenty-five  times  their 
nominal  value  at  present.  Under  Henry  VI.  the  coin  had  lost 
one-third  of  its  weight  in  silver,  which  caused  a  proportional 
increase  of  money  prices ;  t  but,  so  far  as  I  can  perceive,  there 
had  been  no  diminution  in  the  value  of  that  metal.  We  have 
not  much  information  as  to  the  fertility  of  the  mines  which 

r  Blomefield's  History  of  Norfolk,  and  by  this  debasement  of  the  coin  in 
Sir  J.  Cullum's  of  Hawsted,  furnish  France;  but  the  more  gradual  enhance- 
several  pieces  even  at  this  early  period.  nient  of  nominal  prices  in  England 
Most  of  them  are  collected  by  Sir  F.  seems  to  have  prevented  any  strong 
Eden.  Fleta  reckons  4^.  the  average  manifestations  of  a  similar  spirit  at  the 
price  of  a  quarter  of  wheat  in  his  time.  successive  reductions  in  value  which 
i.  ii.  c.  84.  This  writer  has  a  digression  the  coin  experienced  from  the  year  1300. 
on  agriculture,  whence,  however,  less  is  The  connection,  however,  between  corn- 
to  be  collected  than  we  should  expect.  modities  and  silver  was  well  under- 

sThe  fluctuations  of  price  have  im-  stood,  Wykes,  an  annalist  of  Edward 

fortunately  been  so  great  of  late  years,  I.'s  age,  tells  us  that  the  Jews  clipped 

that  it  is  almost  as  difficult  to  determine  our  coin,  till  it  retained  hardly  half  its 

one  side  of  our  equation  as  the  other.  due  weight,  the  effect  of  which  was  a 

Any  reader,  however,  has  it  in  his  power  general  enhancement  of  prices  and  de- 

to  correct  my  proportions,  and  adopt  a  cline  of  foreign  trade:  Mercatores 

greater  or  less  multiple,  according  to  transmarini  cum  mercimoniis  suis  reg- 

his  own  estimate  of  current  prices,  or  num  Angliae  minus  solito  frequenta- 

the  changes  that  may  take  place  from  bant;  necnon  quod  omnimoda  venalium 

the  time  when  this  is  written.  [1816.]  genera  incomparabiliter  solito  fuerunt 

1 1  have  sometimes  been  surprised  at  cariora.  2  Gale,  XV.  Script,  p.  107. 
the  facility  with  which  prices  adjusted  Another  chronicler  of  the  same  age 
themselves  to  the  quantity  of  silver  con-  complains  of  bad  foreign  money,  at- 
tained in  the  current  coin,  in  ages  loyed  with  copper;  nee  erat  in  quatuor 
which  appear  too  ignorant  and  too  little  aut  quinque  ex  iis  pondus  unius  denarii 

commercial  for  the  application  of  this  argentii Eratque  pessimum 

mercantile  principle.  But  the  extensive  saecttlum  pro  tali  xnoneta,  et  fiebant 

dealings  of  the  Jewish  and  Lombard  commtrtationes  plurimse  in  emptione  et 

usurers,  who  had  many  debtors  in  al-  venditione  rerum.  Edward,  as  the  his- 

most  all  parts  of  the  country,  would  of  torian  informs  us,  bought  in  this  bad 

itself  introduce  a  knowledge  that  silver,  money  at  a  rate  below  its  value,  in  or- 

not  its  stamp,  was  the  measure  of  value.  der  to  make  a  profit:  and  fined  some 

I  have  mentioned  in  another  place  (vol.  persons  who  interfered  with  his  traffic. 

i.  p.  211)  the  heavy  discontents  excited  W.  Hemingford,  ad  ann.  1299. 


94 


HALLAM 


supplied  Europe  during  the  middle  ages;  but  it  is  probable 
that  the  drain  of  silver  towards  the  East,  joined  to  the  ostenta- 
tious splendor  of  courts,  might  fully  absorb  the  usual  produce. 
By  the  statute  15  H,  VI.,  c.  2,  the  price  up  to  which  wheat 
might  be  exported  is  fixed  at  6s.  8d.,  a  point  no  doubt  above 
the  average ;  and  the  private  documents  of  that  period,  which 
are  sufficiently  numerous,  lead  to  a  similar  result**  Sixteen 
will  be  a  proper  multiple  when  we  would  bring  the  general 
value  of  money  in  this  reign  to  our  present  standard.^ 
[1816.] 

But  after  ascertaining  the  proportional  values  of  money  at 
different  periods  by  a  comparison  of  the  prices  in  several  of 
the  chief  articles  of  expenditure,  which  is  the  only  fair  pro- 
cess, we  shall  sometimes  be  surprised  at  incidental  facts  of 
this  class  which  seem  irreducible  to  any  rule.  These  diffi- 
culties arise  not  so  much  from  the  relative  scarcity  of  partic- 
ular commodities,  which  it  is  for  the  most  part  easy  to  ex- 
plain, as  from  the  change  in  manners  and  in  the  usual  mode 
of  living.  We  have  reached  in  this  age  so  high  a  pitch  of 
luxury  that  we  can  hardly  believe  or  comprehend  the  frugality 
of  ancient  times ;  and  have  in  general  formed  mistaken  no- 
tions as  to  the  habits  of  expenditure  which  then  prevailed. 
Accustomed  to  judge  of  feudal  and  chivalrous  ages  by  works 
of  fiction,  or  by  historians  who  embellished  their  writings  with 
accounts  of  occasional  festivals  and  tournaments,  and  some- 
times inattentive  enough  to  transfer  the  manners  of  the  sev- 
enteenth to  the  fourteenth  century,  we  are  not  at  all  aware  of 
the  usual  simplicity  with  which  the  gentry  lived  under  Ed- 
ward I.  or  even  Henry  VI.  They  drank  little  wine ;  they  had 

«  These  will  chiefly  be  found  in  Sir  F. 
Eden's  table  of  prices;  the  following 
may  be  added  from  the  account-book 
of  a  convent  between  1415  and  1425. 
Wheat  varied  from  4$.  to  6s.— barley  from 
35.  ad  to  45.  iod.— oats  from  M.  8rf.  to 
aj.  4^. — oxen  from  12$.  to  i6s. — sheep 
from  is.  zd.  to  is.  qd. — butter  %d.  per 
Ib. — eggs  twenty-five  for  id. — cheese 
W.  per  Ib.  Lansdowne  MSS.,  vol.  i. 
No.  28  and  29.  These  prices  do  not 
always  agree  with  those  given  in  other 
documents  of  equal  authority  in  the 
same  period;  but  the  value  of  provisions 
varied  in  different  counties,  and  still 
more  so  in  different  seasons  of  the  year. 

v  I  insert  the  following:  comparative 
table  of  English  money  from  Sir  Fred- 
erick Eden.  The  unit,  or  present  value 
refers  of  course  to  that  of  the  shilling 
before  the  last  coinage,  which  reduced 


Value  of  pound 
sterling1,  pres- 

Pwpor- 

ent  money. 

' 

~£    s.    4 

Conquest,       1066. 

a    r8    ij 

a.  006 

38  E.  I.,         1300. 
xSE.m.,      1344, 

ao  E.  in.,    1346. 

*'* 

xx    8 

9.871 

B,O33 
3,583 

37  E.  Itl.,      x3S3. 

6    6 

9-3a5 

xsH.  IV.,      14*3. 

x$    9 

a.  937 

4  E.  IV.,      1464. 
I8H.VIU,,   x$*7. 
34H.VIH,,  xs43. 

XX     0 

7    6£ 
3    3* 

*'*4* 

x,x63 

36H.VIH,,   1545- 
37H.VUI.,   154*. 

"i's* 

0.698 
0.466 

SE.VL,      1551. 
6E.  VL,       1553. 

28 

o.a^a 

1-028 

x  Mary,        1553  . 
a  Elizabeth,  1560  . 

Si* 

1,024 
x.033 

43  Elizabeth,  1601. 

• 

o    o 

x.ooo 

THE    MIDDLE    AGES 


95 


no  foreign  luxuries ;  they  rarely  or  never  kept  male  servants 
except  for  husbandry ;  their  horses,  as  we  may  guess  by  the 
price,  were  indifferent;  they  seldom  travelled  beyond  their 
county.  And  even  their  hospitality  must  have  been  greatly 
limited,  if  the  value  of  manors  were  really  no  greater  than 
we  find  it  in  many  surveys.  Twenty-four  seems  a  sufficient 
multiple  when  we  would  raise  a  sum  mentioned  by  a  writer 
under  Edward  I.  to  the  same  real  value  expressed  in  our  pres- 
ent money,  but  an  income  of  lol.  or  2oL  was  reckoned  a  com- 
petent estate  for  a  gentleman;  at  least  the  lord  of  a  single 
manor  would  seldom  have  enjoyed  more.  A  knight  who 
possessed  iso/.  per  annum  passed  for  extremely  rich.w  Yet 
this  was  not  equal  in  command  over  commodities  to  4,ooo/. 
at  present.  But  this  income  was  comparatively  free  from  tax- 
ation, and  its  expenditure  lightened  by  the  services  of  his  vil- 
leins. Such  a  person,  however,  must  have  been  among  the 
most  opulent  of  country  gentlemen.  Sir  John  Fortescue  speaks 
of  five  pounds  a  year  as  "  a  fair  living  for  a  yeoman,"  a  class 
of  whom  he  is  not  at  all  inclined  to  dimmish  the  importance.* 
So,  when  Sir  William  Drury,  one  of  the  richest  men  in  Suf- 
folk, bequeaths  in  1493  fifty  marks  to  each  of  his  daughters, 
we  must  not  imagine  that  this  was  of  greater  value  than  four 
or  five  hundred  pounds  at  this  day,  but  remark  the  family  pride 
and  want  of  ready  money  which  induced  country  gentlemen 
to  leave  their  younger  children  in  poverty .y  Or,  if  we  read 
that  the  expense  of  a  scholar  at  the  university  in  1514  was  but 
five  pounds  annually,  we  should  err  in  supposing  that  he  had 
the  liberal  accommodation  which  the  present  age  deems  in- 
dispensable, but  consider  how  much  could  be  afforded  for 
about  sixty  pounds,  which  will  be  not  far  from  the  proportion. 
And  what  would  a  modern  lawyer  say  to  the  following  entry 
in  the  churchwarden's  accounts^  of  St.  Margaret,  Westminster, 
for  1476:  "Also  paid  to  Roger  Fylpott,  learned  in  the  law, 
for  his  counsel  giving,  y.  8d.,  with  fourpence  for  his  dinner  "? 

w  Macph arson's  Annals,  p.  424,  from  pay.    Paston  Letters,  vol.  i.  p.  84.   What 

Matt.  Paris.  way  shall  we  make  this  commensurate 

x  Difference  of  Limited  and  Absolute  to  the  present  value  of  money?    But  an 

Monarchy,  p.  133.  ingenious  friend  suggested,  what  I  do 

y  Hist,  of  Hawsted,  p.  141.  not  question  is  the  case,  that  this  was 

*  Nicholls's  Illustrations,  p.  2.     One  one  or  many  letters  addressed  to  the 

fact  of  this  class  did,  I  own,  stagger  me.  adherents  of  Warwick,  in  order  to  raise 

The  great  Earl  of  Warwick  writes  to  a  by   their   contributions    a    considerable 

private  gentleman,  Sir  Thomas  Tuden-  sum.    It  is  curious,  in  this  light,  as  an 

ham,  begging  the  loan  of  ten  or  twenty  illustration  of  manners. 
pounds  to  make  up  a  sum  he  had  to 


96  HALLAM 

Though  fifteen  times  the  fee  might  not  seem  altogether  inade- 
quate at  present,  five  shillings  would  hardly  furnish  the  table 
of  a  barrister,  even  if  the  fastidiousness  of  our  manners  would 
admit  of  his  accepting  such  a  dole.  But  this  fastidiousness, 
which  considers  certain  kinds  of  remuneration  degrading  to 
a  man  of  liberal  condition,  did  not  prevail  in  those  simple  ages. 
It  would  seem  rather  strange  that  a  young  lady  should  learn 
needlework  and  good  breeding  in  a  family  of  superior  rank, 
paying  for  her  board ;  yet  such  was  the  laudable  custom  of  the 
fifteenth  and  even  sixteenth  centuries,  as  we  perceive  by  the 
Paston  Letters,  and  even  later  authorities.^ 

There  is  one  very  unpleasing  remark  which  everyone  who 
attends  to  the  subject  of  prices  will  be  induced  to  make,  that 
the  laboring  classes,  especially  those  engaged  in  agriculture, 
were  better  provided  with  the  means  of  subsistence  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  III.  or  of  Henry  VI.  than  they  are  at  present.  In 
the  fourteenth  century  Sir  John  Cullum  observes  a  harvest 
man  had  fourpence  a  day,  which  enabled  him  in  a  week  to 
buy  a  comb  of  wheat ;  but  to  buy  a  comb  of  wheat  a  man  must 
now  (1/84)  work  ten  or  twelve  days.&  So,  under  Henry  VI., 
if  meat  was  at  a  farthing  and  a  half  the  pound,  which  I  suppose 
was  about  the  truth,  a  laborer  earning  threepence  a  clay,  or 
eighteen-pence  in  the  week,  could  buy  a  bushel  of  wheat  at 
six  shillings  the  quarter,  and  twenty-four  pounds  of  meat  for 
his  family.  A  laborer  at  present,  earning  twelve  shillings  a 
week,  can  only  buy  half  a  bushel  of  wheat  at  eighty  shillings 
the  quarter,  and  twelve  pounds  of  meat  at  seven-pence.^  Sev- 

a  Paston  Letters,  vol.  i.  p.  324;  Cul-  middle  of  that  of  Henry  VI.,  he  could 
lum's  Hawstcd,  p,  182.  purchase  nearly  a  peck;  and  from 
b  Hist,  of  Hawsted,  p.  238.  thence  to  the  end  of  the  century,  nearly 
c  Mr,  Malthus  observes  on  this,  that  I  two  pecks.  At  the  time  when  the  pas- 
"  have  overlooked  the  distinction  be-  aage  in  the  text  was  written  ti8i6],  the 
tween  the  reigns  of  Edward  III.  and  laborer  could  rarely  have  purchased 
Henry  VIII.  (perhaps  a  misprint  for  more  than  a  peck  with  a  day's  labor, 
VI.),  with  regard  to  the  state  of  the  and  frequently  a  good  deal  less.  In 
laboring  classes.  The  two  periods  ap-  some  parts  of  England  this  is  the  case 
pear  to  have  been  essentially  different  at  present  [1846];  but  m  many  counties 
in  this  respect."  Principles  of  Politi-  the  real  wages  of  agricultural  laborers 
cal  Economy,  p.  293,  ist  edit,  He  con-  are  considerably  higher  than  at  that 
ceives  that  the  earnings  of  the  laborer  time,  though  not  by  any  means  so  high 
in  corn  were  unusually  low  in  the  latter  as,  according  to  Maltltua  himsdf,  they 
years  of  Edward  III.,  which  appears  to  were  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth 
have  been  effected  by  the  statute  of  century.  The  excessive  fluctuations  in 
laborers  (25  E.  III.),  immediately  after  the  pnce  of  corn,  even  taking  averages 
the  great  pestilence  of  1350,  though  that  of  a  long  term  of  years,  which  we  find 
mortality  ought,  in  the  natural  course  through  the  middle  ages,  and  indeed 
of  things,  to  have  considerably  raised  much  later,  account  more  than  any 
the  real  wages  of  labor.  The  result  of  other  assignable  cause  for  those  in  real 
his  researches  is  that,  in  the  reign  of  wages  of  labor,  which  do  not  regulate 
Edward  III.,  the  laborer  could  not  pur-  themselves  very  promptly  by  that  stand- 
chase  half  a  peck  of  wheat  with  a  day's  ard,  especially  when  coercive  measures 
labor;  from  that  of  Richard  II.  to  the  are  adopted  to  restrain  them. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  97 

eral  acts  of  parliament  regulate  the  wages  that  might  be  paid 
to  laborers  of  different  kinds.  Thus  the  statute  of  laborers  in 
1350  fixed  the  wages  of  reapers  during  harvest  at  threepence 
a  day  without  diet,  equal  to  five  shillings  at  present ;  that  of 
23  H.  VI.,  c.  12,  in  1444,  fixed  the  reapers7  wages  at  five-pence 
and  those  of  common  workmen  in  building  at  3^d.,  equal  to 
6s.  8d.  and  43.  80?.;  that  of  n  H.  VIL,  c.  22,  in  1496,  leaves 
the  wages  of  laborers  in  harvest  as  before,  but  rather  increases 
those  of  ordinary  workmen.  The  yearly  wages  of  a  chief  hind 
or  shepherd  by  the  act  of  1444  were  il  4^.,  equivalent  to  about 
2O/,,  those  of  a  common  servant  in  husbandry  185.  4^.,  with 
meat  and  drink ;  they  were  somewhat  augmented  by  the  stat- 
ute of  1496. d  Yet,  although  these  wages  are  regulated  as  a 
maximum  by  acts  of  parliament,  which  may  naturally  be  sup- 
posed to  have  had  a  view  rather  towards  diminishing  than 
enhancing  the  current  rate,  I  am  not  fully  convinced  that  they 
were  not  rather  beyond  it;  private  accounts  at  least  do  not 
always  correspond  with  these  statutable  prices.*  And  it  is  nec- 
essary to  remember  that  the  uncertainty  of  employment,  nat- 
ural to  so  imperfect  a  state  of  husbandry,  must  have  diminished 
the  laborers'  means  of  subsistence.  Extreme  dearth,  not  more 
owing  to  adverse  seasons  than  to  improvident  consumption, 
was  frequently  endured.^  But  after  every  allowance  of  this 
kind  I  should  find  it  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that,  how- 
ever the  laborer  has  derived  benefit  from  the  cheapness  of  man- 
ufactured commodities  and  from  many  inventions  of  common 
utility,  he  is  much  inferior  in  ability  to  support  a  family  to  his 
ancestors  three  or  four  centuries  ago.  I  know  not  why  some 
have  supposed  that  meat  was  a  luxury  seldom  obtained  by  the 
laborer.  Doubtless  he  could  not  have  procured  as  much  as  he 
pleased.  But,  from  the  greater  cheapness  of  cattle,  as  com- 
pared with  corn,  it  seems  to  follow  that  a  more  considerable 
portion  of  his  ordinary  diet  consisted  of  animal  food  than  at 
present.  It  was  remarked  by  Sir  John  Fortescue  that  the  Eng- 

d  See  these  rates  more  at  length  in  materially   above   the    average   rate    of 

Eden's  State  of  the  Poor,  vol.  i.  p.  32,  agricultural  labor,  is  less  so  than  some 

&c.  of  the  statutes  would  lead  us  to  expect. 

e  In   the  Archaeoloina,   vol.   xviii.    p.  Other  facts  may  be  found  of  a  similar 

381,  we  have  a  bailiff's  account  of  ex-  nature, 

penses  in  1387,  where  it  appears  that  a  f  See  that  singular  book,  m  P lers 
ploughman  had  sixpence  a  week,  an4  Ploughman's  Vision,  p.  145  (Whitaker  s 
fi>e  shillings  a  year,  with  an  allowance  edition),  for  the  different  modes  of  liv- 
bf  diet:  which  seems  to  have  been  only  ing  before  and  after  harvest.  The  pas- 
pottage.  These  wages  are  certainly  not  sage  may  be  found  in  Elhs's  Specimens, 
more  than  fifteen  shillings  a  week  in  vol.  i.  p.  151. 
present  value  [1816] ;  which,  though 

VOL.  III.— 7 


98  HALLAM 

lish  lived  far  more  upon  animal  diet  than  their  rivals  the  French ; 
and  it  was  natural  to  ascribe  their  superior  strength  and  cour- 
age to  this  causes  I  should  feel  much  satisfaction  in  being 
convinced  that  no  deterioration  in  the  state  of  the  laboring 
classes  has  really  taken  place ;  yet  it  cannot,  I  think,  appear 
extraordinary  to  those  who  reflect,  that  the  whole  population 
of  England  in  the  year  1377  did  not  much  exceed  2,300,000 
souls,  about  one-fifth  of  the  results  upon  the  last  enumeration, 
an  increase  with  which  that  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth  cannot 
be  supposed  to  have  kept  an  even  pace> 

The  second  head  to  which  I  referred,  the  improvements  of 
European  society  in  the  latter  period  of  the  middle  ages,  com- 
prehends several  changes,  not  always  connected  with  each 
other,  which  contributed  to  inspire  a  more  elevated  tone  of 
moral  sentiment,  or  at  least  to  restrain  the  commission  of 
crimes.  But  the  general  effect  of  these  upon  the  human  char- 
acter is  neither  so  distinctly  to  be  traced,  nor  can  it  be  ar- 
ranged with  so  much  attention  to  chronology,  as  the  progress 
of  commercial  wealth  or  of  the  arts  that  depend  upon  it.  We 
cannot  from  any  past  experience  indulge  the  pleasing  vision 
of  a  constant  and  parallel  relation  between  the  moral  and  intel- 
lectual energies,  the  virtues  and  the  civilization  of  mankind. 
Nor  is  any  problem  connected  with  philosophical  history  more 
difficult  than  to  compare  the  relative  characters  of  different 
generations,  especially  if  we  include  a  large  geographical  sur- 
face in  our  estimate.  Refinement  has  its  evils  as  well  as  bar- 
barism ;  the  virtues  that  elevate  a  nation  in  one  century  pass 
in  the  next  to  a  different  region ;  vice  changes  its  form  without 
losing  its  essence ;  the  marked  features  of  individual  character 
stand  out  in  relief  from  the  surface  of  history,  and  mislead  our 
judgment  as  to  the  general  course  of  manners ;  while  political 
revolutions  and  a  bad  constitution  of  government  may  always 
undermine  or  subvert  the  improvements  to  which  more  favor- 
able circumstances  have  contributed.  In  comparing1,  therefore, 
the  fifteenth  with  the  twelfth  century,  no  one  would  deny  the 

g  Fortescue's  Difference  between  Abs.  occasionally  referred,  Mr,  EUis's  Sped- 

and  Lim.  Monarchy,  p.  19.  The  pas-  mens  of  English  poetry,  vol.  i,  chap,  13, 

sages  in  Fortescue,  which  bear  on  his  contain  a  short  digression,  but  from 

favorite  theme,  the  liberty  and  conse-  well  selected  materials,  on  the  private 

guent  happiness  of  the  English,  are  very  life  of  the  English  in  the  middling  and 

important,  and  triumphantly  refute  lower  ranks  about  the  fifteenth  century, 

those  superficial  writers  who  would  [I  leave  the  foregoing  pages  with  little 

make  us  believe  that  they  were  a  set  alteration,  but  they  may  probably  con- 

of  beggarly  slaves.  tain  expressions  which  I  would  not  now 

h  Besides  the  books  to  which  X  have  adopt.    1850.] 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES 


99 


vast  increase  of  navigation  and  manufactures,  the  superior  re- 
finement of  manners,  the  greater  diffusion  of  literature.  But 
should  I  assert  that  man  had  raised  himself  in  the  latter  period 
above  the  moral  degradation  of  a  more  barbarous  age,  I  might 
be  met  by  the  question  whether  history  bears  witness  to  any 
greater  excesses  of  rapine  and  inhumanity  than  in  the  wars 
of  France  and  England  under  Charles  VII.,  or  whether  the 
rough  patriotism  and  fervid  passions  of  the  Lombards  in  the 
twelfth  century  were  not  better  than  the  systematic  treachery 
of  their  servile  descendants  three  hundred  years  afterwards. 
The  proposition  must  therefore  be  greatly  limited ;  yet  we  can 
scarcely  hesitate  to  admit,  upon  a  comprehensive  view,  that 
there  were  several  changes  during  the  last  four  of  the  middle 
ages,  which  must  naturally  have  tended  to  produce,  and  some 
of  which  did  unequivocally  produce,  a  meliorating  effect,  with- 
in the  sphere  of  their  operation,  upon  the  moral  character  of 
society. 

The  first  and  perhaps  the  most  important  of  these,  was  the 
gradual  elevation  of  those  whom  unjust  systems  of  polity  had 
long  depressed ;  of  the  people  itself,  as  opposed  to  the  small 
number  of  rich  and  noble,  by  the  abolition  or  desuetude  of 
domestic  and  predial  servitude,  and  by  the  privileges  extended 
to  corporate  towns.  The  condition  of  slavery  is  indeed  per- 
fectly consistent  with  the  observance  of  moral  obligations ;  yet 
reason  and  experience  will  justify  the  sentence  of  Homer,  that 
he  who  loses  his  liberty  loses  half  his  virtue.  Those  who  have 
acquired,  or  may  hope  to  acquire,  property  of  their  own,  are 
most  likely  to  respect  that  of  others ;  those  whom  law  protects 
as  a  parent  are  most  willing  to  yield  her  a  filial  obedience; 
those  who  have  much  to  gain  by  the  good-will  of  their  fellow- 
citizens  are  most  interested  in  the  preservation  of  an  honorable 
character.  I  have  been  led,  in  different  parts  of  the  present 
work,  to  consider  these  great  revolutions  in  the  order  of  society 
under  other  relations  than  that  of  their  moral  efficacy ;  and  it 
will  therefore  be  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  them ;  especially 
as  this  efficacy  is  indeterminate,  though  I  think  unquestionable, 
and  rather  to  be  inferred  from  general  reflections  than  capable 
of  much  illustration  by  specific  facts. 

We  may  reckon  in  the  next  place  among  the  causes  of  moral 
improvement,  a  more  regular  administration  of  justice  accord- 
ing to  fixed  laws,  and  a  more  effectual  police.  Whether  the 


loo  HALLAM 

courts  of  judicature  were  guided  by  the  feudal  customs  or  the 
Roman  law,  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  resolve  litigated  ques- 
tions with  precision  and  uniformity.  Hence  a  more  distinct 
theory  of  justice  and  good  faith  was  gradually  apprehended  ; 
and  the  moral  sentiments  of  mankind  were  corrected,  as  on 
such  subjects  they  often  require  to  be,  by  clearer  and  better 
grounded  inferences  of  reasoning.  Again,  though  it  cannot 
be  said  that  lawless  rapine  was  perfectly  restrained  even  at  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  a  sensible  amendment  has  been 
everywhere  experienced.  Private  warfare,  the  licensed  rob- 
bery of  feudal  manners,  had  been  subjected  to  so  many  mortifi- 
cations by  the  kings  of  France,  and  especially  by  St.  Louis, 
that  it  can  hardly  be  traced  beyond  the  fourteenth  century. 
In  Germany  and  Spain  it  lasted  longer ;  but  the  various  asso- 
ciations for  maintaining  tranquillity  in  the  former  country  had 
considerably  diminished  its  violence  before  the  great  national 
measure  of  public  peace  adopted  under  Maximilian.*  Acts  of 
outrage  committed  by  powerful  men  became  less  frequent  as 
the  executive  government  acquired  more  strength  to  chastise 
them.  We  read  that  St.  Louis,  the  best  of  French  kings,  im- 
posed a  fine  upon  the  Lord  of  Vernon  for  permitting  a  merchant 
to  be  robbed  in  his  territory  between  sunrise  and  sunset.  For 
by  the  customary  law,  though  in  general  ill  observed,  the  lord 
was  bound  to  keep  the  roads  free  from  depredators  in  the 
daytiine,  in  consideration  of  the  toll  he  received  from  pas- 
sengers.; The  same  prince  was  with  difficulty  prevented  from 
passing  a  capital  sentence  on  Enguerrand  de  Coucy,  a  baron 
of  France,  for  a  murder.^  Charles  the  Fair  actually  put  to 
death  a  nobleman  of  Languedoc  for  a  series  of  robberies,  not- 
withstanding the  intercession  of  the  provincial  nobility.*  The 

*  Besides  the  German  historians,  see  1255-    Tli*  institutions  of  Louis  IX.  and 

Du  Gange,  v.  Ganerbium,  for  the  con-  his  successors  relating  to  police  form  a 

federacies  in  the  empire,  and  Herman-  part,  though  rather  a  smaller  part  than 

datum  for  those  in  Castile.    These  ap-  we  should  expect  from  the  title,  of  an 

pear  to  have  been  merely  voluntary  as-  Immense  work,  replete  with  miscelltme- 

sedations,    and    perhaps    directed    as  cms   information,    oy   Dclamare,    Traite 

much  towards  the  prevention   of  rob-  de  la  Police,  4  vols.  in  ( folio.    A  sketch 

bery  as  of  what  is  strictly  called  pri-  of  them  may  be  found  in  Velly,  t.  v.  p. 

vate  war.     But  no  man  can  easily  dis-  34P>  t.  xviii,  p.  437- 

tinguish  offensive  war  from  robbery  ex-  ft  Velly,  t,  v.  p.  162,  where  this  mo 

cept  by  its  scale;  and  where  this  was  so  dent  is  told  in  an  interesting  manner 

considerably  reduced,  the  two  modes  of  from  William  de  Nangis,     BoulamvU-* 

injury    almost    coincide.      In    Aragon,  tiers  has  taken  an  extraordinary  view  of 

there  was  a  distinct  Jnstitutipn  for  the  the  king's  behavior.    Hist,  de  1'Ancien 

maintenance  of  peace,  the  kingdom  be-  Gouvernement,  t,  ii,  p.  ad.    In  his  eyes 

ing  (divided  into  unions  or  juntaf ,  with  princes  and  plebeians  were  made  to  be 

a   chief  officer  called   Supraiunctarius,  the  slaves  of  a  feudal  aristocracy, 

at  their  fiead.    Pu  Can«re,  y.  Juncta.  /Velly,  t.  viii,  p.  133. 

j  Renault,    Abrfige"    Chronol,    £    Tan. 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  101 

towns  established  a  police  of  their  own  for  internal  security, 
and  rendered  themselves  formidable  to  neighboring  plunderers. 
Finally,  though  not  before  the  reign  of  Louis  XL,  an  armed 
force  was  established  for  the  preservation  of  police.^  Various 
means  were  adopted  in  England  to  prevent  robberies,  which 
indeed  were  not  so  frequently  perpetrated  as  they  were  on  the 
continent  by  men  of  high  condition.  None  of  these  perhaps 
had  so  much  efficacy  as  the  frequent  sessions  of  judges  under 
commissions  of  gaol  delivery.  But  the  spirit  of  this  country 
has  never  brooked  that  coercive  police  which  cannot  exist  with- 
out breaking  in  upon  personal  liberty  by  irksome  regulations, 
and  discretionary  exercise  of  power;  the  sure  instrument  of 
tyranny,  which  renders  civil  privileges  at  once  nugatory  and 
insecure,  and  by  which  we  should  dearly  purchase  some  real 
benefits  connected  with  its  slavish  discipline. 

I  have  some  difficulty  in  adverting  to  another  source  of  moral 
improvement  during  this  period,  the  growth  of  religious  opin- 
ions adverse  to  those  of  the  established  church,  both  on  account 
of  its  great  obscurity,  and  because  many  of  these  heresies  were 
mixed  up  with  an  excessive  fanaticism.  But  they  fixed  them- 
selves so  deeply  in  the  hearts  of  the  inferior  and  more  numerous 
classes,  they  bore,  generally  speaking,  so  immediate  a  relation 
to  the  state  of  manners,  and  they  illustrate  so  much  that  more 
visible  and  eminent  revolution  which  ultimately  rose  out  of 
them  in  the  sixteenth  century,  that  I  must  reckon  these  among 
the  most  interesting  phenomena  in  the  progress  of  European 
society. 

Many  ages  elapsed,  during  which  no  remarkable  instance 
occurs  of  a  popular  deviation  from  the  prescribed  line  of  belief ; 
and  pious  Catholics  consoled  themselves  by  reflecting  that 
their  forefathers,  in  those  times  of  ignorance,  slept  at  least  the 
sleep  of  orthodoxy,  and  that  their  darkness  was  interrupted 
by  no  false  lights  of  human  reasoning.**  But  from  the  twelfth 
century  this  can  no  longer  be  their  boast.  An  inundation  of 
heresy  broke  in  that  age  upon  the  church*  which  no  persecution 
was  able  thoroughly  to  repress,  till  it  finally  overspread  half 
the  surface  of  Europe.  Of  this  religious  innovation  we  must 
seek  the  commencement  in  a  different  part  of  the  globe.  The 
Manicheans  afford  an  eminent  example  of  that  durable  attach- 
ment to  a  traditional  creed,  which  so  many  atlcient  sects,  espe- 

m  Velly,  xviii.  p.  437.       »  Fleury  ame  Discours  sur  VHiat.  Eccles. 


102  HALLAM 

daily  in  the  East,  have  cherished  through  the  vicissitudes  of 
ages,  in  spite  of  persecution  and  contempt.  Their  plausible 
and  widely  extended  system  had  been  in  early  times  connected 
with  the  name  of  Christianity,  however  incompatible  with  its 
doctrines  and  its  history.  After  a  pretty  long  obscurity,  the 
Manichean  theory  revived  with  some  modification  in  the  west- 
ern parts  of  Armenia,  and  was  propagated  in  the  eighth  and 
ninth  centuries  by  a  sect  denominated  Paulicians.  Their  tenets 
arc  not  to  be  collected  with  absolute  certainty  from  the  mouths 
of  their  adversaries,  and  no  apology  of  their  own  survives. 
There  seems,  however,  to  be  sufficient  evidence  that  the  Pauli- 
cians, though  professing  to  acknowledge  and  even  to  study  the 
apostolical  writings,  ascribed  the  creation  of  the  world  to  an 
evil  deity,  whom  they  supposed  also  to  be  the  author  of  the 
Jewish  law,  and  consequently  rejected  all  the  Old  Testament. 
Believing,  with  the  ancient  Gnostics,  that  our  Saviour  was 
clothed  on  earth  with  an  impassive  celestial  body,  they  denied 
the  reality  of  his  death  and  resurrections  These  errors  ex- 
posed them  to  a  long  and  cruel  persecution,  during  which  a 
colony  of  exiles  was  planted  by  one  of  the  Greek  emperors  in 
Bulgaria./*  From  this  settlement  they  silently  promulgated 
their  Manichean  creed  over  the  western  regions  of  Christen- 
dom. A  large  part  of  the  commerce  of  those  countries  with 
Constantinople  was  carried  on  for  several  centuries  by  the 

oThe  most  authentic  account  of  the  from    heaven.     3.   They    rejected    the 

Paulicians  is  found  in  a  little  treatise  of  Lord's  Supper.    4.  And  the  adoration  of 

Petrus  Siculus,  who  lived  about  870,  un-  the  cross,    5.  They  denied  the  authority 

der  Basil  the  Macedonian.  He  had  been  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  admitted  the 

employed  on  an  embassy  to  Tephrica,  New,  except  the  epistles  of  St.   Peter, 

the  principal  town  of  these  heretics,  so  and,  perhaps,  the  Apocalypse.    6.  They 

that  he  might  easily  be  well  informed-  did    not    acknowledge    the    order    of 

and,  though  he  is  sufficiently  bigoted,  I  priests. 

do  not  see  any  reason  to  question  the  There  seems  every  reason  to  suppose 

general  truth  of  his  testimony,  especial-  that    the    Pauliciana,    notwithstanding 

ly  as  it  tallies  so  well  with  what  we  learn  their  mistakes,  were  endowed  with  sin- 

of  the  predecessors  and  successors  of  the  cere  and  zealous  piety*  and  studious  of 

Paulicians,    They  had  rejected  several  the    Scriptures.     A    Pauhcian    woman 

of  the  Manichean  doctrines,  those,  I  be-  asked  a  young  man  if  he  had  read  the 

lieve,   which   were   borrowed  from  the  Gosepls:  he  replied   that  laymen  wore 

Oriental,  Gnostic,  and  Cabbalistic  phi-  not  permitted  to  do  so,  but  only  the 

losophy   of   emanation;     and   therefore  clergy:   WK fi$e<nw  fiftiv  TO"?  KovntKow  o&<n 

readily    condemned    Mane!1*,    irpodtfpiu?  TO.VT*  Awtyw'woxa*',  <rl  /utfy  TCHS  trfp«vcri /atJvois 

avalcjULarlftvort    MrfvTjra.      But    they    re-  p-  57.    A  curious  proof  that  the  Script- 

...    • j    *_• «j._i     L , t : Ji -< „_.»....  * .t«j_i »  -  ii_  ^  /•* "  n_ 


tained  his  capital  errors,  so  far  as  re-  ures  were  already  forbidden  in  the  Greek 
garded  the  principle  of  dualism,  which  church,  which  I  am  inclined  to  he- 
be  had  taken  from  Zerdush's  religion,  lieve,  notwithstanding  the  leniency  with 
and  the  consequences  he  had  derived  which  Protestant  writers  have  treated 
from  it.  Petrus  Siculus  .enumerates  six  it,  was  always  more  corrupt  and  more 
Paulician  heresies,  i.  They  maintained  intolerant  than  the  Latin. 
the  existence  of  two  deities,  the  one  p  Gibbon,  c.  54.  This  chapter  of  the 
evil,  and  the  creator  of  this  world;  the  historian  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  upon 
other  good,  called  irarfyj  iirovpdvw.  the  the  Paulicians  appears  to  be  accurate, 
author  of  that  which  is  to  come.  ».  They  as  well  as  luminous,  and  is  at  least  far 
refused  to  worship  the  Virgin,  and  en-  superior  to  any  modern  work  on  the 
serted  that  Christ  brought  his  body  subject. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES 


channel  of  the  Danube.  This  opened  an  immediate  intercourse 
with  the  Paulicians,  who  may  be  traced  up  that  river  through 
Hungary  and  Bavaria,  or  sometimes  taking  the  route  of  Lom- 
bardy  and  Switzerland  and  Frances  In  the  last  country,  and 
especially  in  its  southern  and  eastern  provinces,  they  became 
conspicuous  under  a  variety  of  names;  such  as  Catharists, 
Picards,  Paterins,  but  above  all,  Albigenses.  It  is  beyond  a 
doubt  that  many  of  these  sectaries  owed  their  origin  to  the 
Paulicians ;  the  appellation  of  Bulgarians  was  distinctively  be- 
stowed upon  them ;  and,  according  to  some  writers,  they  ac- 
knowledged a  primate  or  patriarch  resident  in  that  country.^ 
The  tenets  ascribed  to  them  by  all  contemporary  authorities 
coincide  so  remarkably  with  those  held  by  the  Paulicians,  and 
in  earlier  times  by  the  Manicheans,  that  I  do  not  see  how  we 
can  reasonably  deny  what  is  confirmed  by  separate  and  un- 
contradicted  testimonies,  and  contains  no  intrinsic  want  of 
probability.^ 

q  It  is  generally  agreed,  that  the  Man- 
Bulgaria  did  not  penetrate 


icheans  from  Bu 

into  the  west  of  Europe  before  the  year 
1000 ;  and  they  seem  to  have  been  in 
small  numbers  till  about  1140.  We  find 
them,  however,  early  in  the  eleventh 
century.  Under  the  reign  of  Robert  in 
100?  several  heretics  were  burned  at  Or- 
leans for  tenets  -which  are  represented 
as  Manichean.  Velly,  t.  ii.  p.  307. 
These  are  said  to  have  been  imported 
from  Italy;  m  and  the  heresy  began  to 
strike  root  in  that  country  about  the 
same  time.  Muratori,  Dissert.  60  (An- 
tichita  Italiane.  t.  iii.  p.  304).  The 
Italian  Manicheans  were  generally- 
called  Paterini,  the  meaning  of  which 
word  has  never  been  explained.  We 
find  few  traces  of  them  in  France  at 
this  time;  but  about  the  beginning  of 
the  twelfth  century,  Guibert,  Bishop  of 
Spissons,  describes  the  heretics  of  that 
city,  who  denied  the  reality  of  the 
death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ, 
and  rejected  the  sacraments.  Hist.  Lit- 
teraire  de  la  France,  t.  x.  p.  451,  before 
the  middle  of  that  age,  the  Cathari, 
Henricians,  Petrobussians,  and  others 
appear,  and  the  new  opinions  attracted 
universal  notice.  Some  of  these  sec- 
taries, however,^  were  not  Manicheans. 
Mosheim,  vol.  iii.  p.  116. 

The  acts  of  the  inquisition  of  Tou- 
louse, published m by  Limborch,  from  an 
ancient  manuscript,  contain  many  addi- 
tional proofs  that  the  Albigenses  held 
the  Manichean  doctrine.  Limborch 
himself  will  guide  the  reader  to  the 
principal  passages,  p.  30.  In  fact,  the 
proof  of  Manicheism  among  the  her- 
etics of  the  twelfth  century  is  so  strong 
("for  I  have  confined  myself  to  those  of 
Languedoc,  and  could  easily  have 
brought  other  testimony  as  to  the  Cath- 
ari) that  I  should  never  have  thought 


of  arguing  the  point  but  for  the  con- 
fidence of  some  modern  ecclesiastical 
writers.— What  can  we  think  of  one 
who  says,  "  It  was  not  unusual  to  stig- 
matize new  sects  with  the  odious  name 
of  Manichees,  though  I  know  no  evi- 
dence that  there  were  any  real  remains 
of  that  ancient  sect  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury "  ?  Milner's  History  of  the 
Church,  vol.  iii.  p.  380.  Though  this 
writer  was  by  no  means  learned  enough 
for  the  task  he  undertook,  he  could  not 
be  ignorant  of  facts  related  by  Mosheim 
and  other  common  historians. 

I  will  only  add,  in  order  to  obviate 
cavilling,  that  I  use  the  word  Albi- 
genses for  the  Manichean  sects,  without 
pretending  to  assert  that  their  doctrines 
prevailed  more  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Albi  than  elsewhere.  The  main  posi- 
tion is,  that  a  large  part  of  the  Langue- 
docian  heretics  against  whom  the  cru- 
sade was  directed  had  imbibed  the  Pau- 
Hcian  opinions.  If  anyone  chooses 
rather  to  call  them  Catharists,  it  will  not 
be  material. 

r  M.  Paris,  p.  267.  (A.T>.  1223.)  Circa 
dies  istos,  haeretici  Albigenses  constitu- 
erunt  sibi  Antipapam  in  finibus  Bulga- 
rorum,  Croatia  et  Dalmatise  nomine 
BartholomjEum,  &c.  We  are  assured  by 
good  authorities  that  Bosnia  was  full  of 
Manicheans  and  Arians  as  late  a<>  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  ^Eneas 
Sylvius,  p.  407;  Spondanus,  ad  an. 
1460:  Mosheim. 

s  There  has  been  so  prevalent  a  dis- 
position among  English  divines  to  vin- 
dicate not  only  the  morals  and  sincer- 
ity, but  the  orthodoxy  of  these  Albi- 
genses, that  I  deem  it  necessary  to  con- 
firm what  I  have  said  in  the  text  by 
some  authorities,  especially  as  few 
readers  have  it  in  their  power  to  ex- 
amine this  very  obscure  subject.  Pe- 


104 


HALLAM 


But  though  the  derivation  of  these  heretics  called  Albigeitses 
from  Bulgaria  is  sufficiently  proved,  it  is  by  no  means  to  be 
concluded  that  all  who  incurred  the  same  imputation  either 
derived  their  faith  from  the  same  country,  or  had  adopted  the 
Manichean  theory  of  the  Paulicians.  From  the  very  invectives 
of  their  enemies,  and  the  acts  of  the  Inquisition,  it  is  manifest 
that  almost  every  shade  of  heterodoxy  was  found  among  these 
dissidents,  till  it  vanished  in  a  simple  protestation  against  the 
wealth  and  tyranny  of  the  clergy.  Those  who  were  absolutely 
free  from  any  taint  of  Manicheism  are  properly  called  Wai- 

trus  Monachus,  a  Cistercian  monk,  who 
wrote  a  history  of  the  crusades  against 
the  Albigenses,  gives  an  account  of  the 
tenets  maintained  by  the  different  he- 
ictical  sects.  Many  of  them  asserted 
two  principles  or  creative  beings:  a 
good  one  for  things  invisible,  an  evil 
one  for  things  visible;  the  former  au- 
thor of  the  New  Testament,  the  latter 
of  the  Old.  Novum  Testamentum  be- 
nigno  deo,  yetus  vero  maligno  attribue- 
bant;  et  illud  omnmo  repudiabant, 
prater  quasdam  auctoritates,  qua;  de 
Veteri  Testamento  Novo  sunt  msertsej 
quas  ob  Novi  reverentiam  Testament! 
recipere  dignum  asstimabant.  A  vast 
number  of  strange  errors  are  imputed 
to  them,  most  of  which  are  not  men- 
tioned by  Alanus,  a  more  dispassionate 
writer.  Du  Chesne,  Scrjptores  Fran- 
corurn,  t.  v.  p.  556.  This  Alanus  de 
Insulis,  whose  treatise  against  heretics, 


written  about  1200,  was  published  by 
Masson  at  Lyons,  in  1612,  has  left,  I 
think,  conclusive  evidence  of  the  Mani- 
cheism of  the  Albigenses.  He  states 
their  argument  upon  every  disputed 
point  as  fairly  as  possible,  though  his 
refutation  is  of  course  more  at  length. 
It  appears  that  great  discrepancies  of 
opinion  existed  among  these  heretics, 
but  the  general  tenor  of  their  doctrines 
is  evidently  Manichean.  Aiunt  haeretici 
temporis  nostn  quod  duo  sunt  principia 
rerum,  pnndpium  lucis  et  prmcipium 
tenebrarum,  &c.  This  opinion,  strange 
as  we  may  think  it,  was  supported  by 
Scriptural  texts;  so  insufficient  is  a 
mere  acquaintance  with  the  sacred  writ- 
ing to  secure  unlearned  and  prejudiced 
minds  from  the  wildest  perversions  of 
their  meaning.  Some  denied  the  real- 
ity of  Christ  s  body;  other  his  being 
the  Son  of  God;  many  the  resurrectiort 
of  the  body:  some  even  of  a  ftiture 
state.  They  asserted  in  general  the 
Mosaic  law  to  have  proceeded  from  the 
devil,  proving  this  by  the  crimes  cdm- 
mitted  during  its  dispensation,  and  by 
the  words  of  St.  Paul,  "  the  law  en- 
tered that  sin  might  abound."  They 
rejected  infant  baptism,  but  were  di- 
vided as  to  the  reason;  some  saying 
that  infants  could  not  sin,  and  did  not 
need  baptism;  others,  that  they  cottld 
not  be  saved  without  faith,  &nd  conse- 
quently that  it  wast  useless.  They  held 
sin  after  baptism  to  be  irreims$ible.  It 


does  not  appear  that  they  rejected  either 
of  the  sacraments.  They  laid  great 
stress  upon  the  imposition  of  hands, 
which  seems  lo  have  been  their  dis- 
tinctive rite. 

One  circumstance,  which  both  Alanus 
and  Robertus  Monachus  mention,  and 
which  other  authorities  confirm,  Ls  their 
division  into  two  classes;  the  Perfect 
and  the  Credentes,  or  Consolati,  both 
of  which  appellations  are  used.  The 
former  abstained  from  animal  food,  and 
from  marriage,  and  led  in  every  respoct 
an  austere  life.  The  latter  were  a  kind 
of  lay  brethren,  living  in  a  secular  man- 
ner. This  distinction  is  thoroughly 
Manichean,  and  leaves  no  doubt  as  to 
the  origin  of  the  Albigenses.  See  Beau- 
sobre,  Tlist.  du  Mamcheisme,  t.  ii,  p. 
762  and  777.  This  candid  writer  repre- 
sents the  early  Manichean*?  as  a  harm- 
less and  austere  set  of  enthusiasts,  ex- 
actly what  the  Paulicians  and  Albigen- 
ses  appear  to  have  been  in  succeeding 
ages.  As  many  calumnies  were  vented 
against  one  as  the  other. 

The  lontf  battle  as  to  the  Manicheism 
of  the  Albigensinn  sectaries  has  been 
renewed  since  the  publication  of  this 
work,  by  Dr.  Maitland  on  one  side,  and 
Mr.  Faber  and  Dr.  Gilly  on  the  other; 
and  it  is  not  likely  to  reach  a  tennJna* 
tion;  being  conducted  by  one  party 
with  far  less  regard  to  the  weight  of  evi- 
dence than  to  the  bearing  it  may  have 
on  the  theological  hypotheses  of  the 
writers,  I  have  seen  no  reason  for  al- 
tering what  is  said  in  the  text. 

The  chief  strength  of  the  argument 
seems  top  me  to  lie  in  the  independent 
testimonies  as  to  the  MamcheLsm  of  the 
Paulicians,  in  Petrus  8icuhi8  and  Pho- 
tiua,  on  the  other  hand,  and  as  to  that 
of  the  Lanoruedocian  heretics  in  the 
Latin  writers  of  the  twelfth  and  thir- 
teenth centuries  on  the  other;  the  con- 
nection of  the  two  „  sects  through  Bui- 

but 

T _____  _„  w  unac- 
quainted wi'th  the  f  of  mer.  It  is'certain 
that  the  probability  of  general  truth  \n 
these  concurrent  testimonies  is  greatly 
enhanced  by  their  independence.  And 
it  will  be  found  that  those  who  deny 
any  tinge  of  Manicheism  in  the  Albi- 
genses, are  equally  confident  as  to  the 
orthodoxy  of  the  Paulicians.  [1848.] 


neciion   QI   iiie  wvp  sects  uiruuftu   jc 
garia  being  established  by  history, 
the  fatter  class  of  writers  being  ut 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES 


105 


denses;  a  name  perpetually  confounded  in  later  times  with 
that  of  Albigenses,  but  distinguishing  a  sect  probably  of  sep- 
arate origin,  and  at  least  of  different  tenets.  These,  according 
to  the  majority  of  writers,  took  their  appellation  from  Peter 
Waldo,  a  merchant  of  Lyons,  the  parent,  about  the  year  1160, 
of  a  congregation  of  seceders  from  the  church,  who  spread 
very  rapidly  over  France  and  Germany.*  According  to  others, 
the  original  Waldenses  were  a  race  of  uncorrupted  shepherds, 
who  in  the  valleys  of  the  Alps  had  shaken  off,  or  perhaps  never 
learned,  the  system  of  superstition  on  which  the  Catholic  church 
depended  for  its  ascendency.  I  am  not  certain  whether  their 
Existence  can  be  distinctly  traced  beyond  the  preaching  of 
Waldo,  but  it  is  well  known  that  the  proper  seat  of  the  Wal- 
denses or  Vaudois  has  long  continued  to  be  in  certain  valleys 
of  Piedmont.  These  pious  and  innocent  sectaries,  of  whom 
the  very  monkish  historians  speak  well,  appear  to  have  nearly 


t  The  contemporary  writers  seem  uni- 
formly to  represent  Waldo  as  the 
founder  of  the  Waldehses ;  and  1  am 
not  aware  that  they  refer  the  locality  of 
that  sect  to  the  valleys  of  Piedmont, 
between  Exiles  and  Pignerol  (see 
Legcr's  map),  which  have  so  long  been 
distinguished  as  the  native  country  of 
the  Vaudois.  In  the  acts  of  the  In- 
quisition, we  find  Waldenses,  sive  pau- 
peres  de  Lugduno,  used  as  equivalent 
terms;  and  it  can  hardly  be  doubted 
that  the  poor  men  of  Lyons  were  the 
disciples  of  Waldo.  Alanus,  the  second 
book  of  whose  treatise  against  heretics 
Is  an  attack  upon  the  watdenses,  ex- 
pressly derives  them  from  Waldo.  Pe- 
trus  Monachus  does  the  same.  These 
seem  strong  authorities,  as  it  is  not 
easy  to  perceive  what  advantage  they 
could  derive  from  misrepresentation. 
It  has  been,  however,  a  position  zeal- 
ously maintained  by  some  modern  writ- 
ers of  respectable  name,  that  the  people 
of  the  valleys  had  preserved  a  pure  faith 
for  several  ages  before  the  appearance 
of  Waldo.  I  have  read  what  is  ad- 
vanced on  this  head  by  Leger  (His- 
toire  des  Eglises  Vaudoises)  and  by 
Allix  (Remarks  on  the  Ecclesiastical 
History  of  the  Churches  of  Piedmont), 
but  without  finding  any  sufficient  proof 
for  this  supposition,  which  nevertheless 
is  not  to  be  rejected  as  absolutely  im- 
probable. Their  best  argument  is  de- 
duced from  an  ancient  poem  called  La 
Noble  Loicori,  ah  original  manuscript 
of  which  is  in  the  public  library  of  Cam- 
bridge, and  another  in  that  of  Geneva. 
This  poem  is  alleged  to  bear  date  in 
noo,  more  than  half  a  century  before 
the  appearance  of  Waldo.  But  the 
lines  that  contain  the  date  are  loosely 
expressed,  and  mdy  very  well  suit  with 
any  epoch  before  the  termination  of 
the  twelfth  century. 


Ben  ha  mil  et  cent  ans  compli  entier- 
ament, 

Che  fu  scritta  loro  que  sen  al  derier 
temp 

Eleven  hundred  years  are  now  gone 
and  past, 

Since  thus  it  was  written;  These  times 
are  thr  last. 

See  Literature  of  Europe  in 
iSth,  l6th,  and  i?th  Centuries, 
chap,  i,  sec.  33. 

I  have  found,  however,  a  passage  in  a 
late  work,  which  remarkably  illustrates 
the  antiquity  of  Alpine  Protestantism,  if 
we  may  depend  on  the  date  it  assigns 
to  the  quotation.  Mr.  Planta's  History 
of  Switzerland,  p.  93,  4to  edit.,  contains 
the  following  note* — •  A  curious  pas- 
sage, singularly  descriptive  of  the  char- 
acter of  the  Swiss,  has  lately  been  dis- 
covered in  a  MS.  chronicle  of  the  Ab- 
bey of  CorVey.  which  appears  to  have 
been  written  about  the  beginning  of  the 
twelfth  century.  Religionem  nostrum, 
et  omniu'm  Latitiae  ecclesiae  Christiano- 
rum  fidem,  laici  ex  Suavia,  Suicla,  et 
Bavaria  humiliare  vqluerunt;  homines 
sedticti  ab  antiqua  progenie  aimplicium 
hominum,  qui  Alpes  et  vicmiam  habi- 
tant,  et  semper  amant  antiqua.  In  Sua- 
vidm,  Bavarian*  fct  Italiam  borealem 
ssepe  intrant  illorum  (ex  Suicia)  merca- 
tores,  qui  biblia  ediscunt  memoriter,  et 
ritus  ecclesiae  aversantur,  quos  cretlurtt 
esse  novos.  Noltmt  imagines  venerari, 
reliquias  sanctorum  aversantitr,  olera 
comedunt,  rare-  masticantes  carnerri,  .alii 
nitnc|uarrt,  Appellarnus  eos  idcirco 
Mamchseos.  Horum  quldam  ab  Huri- 
garja  ad  eos  convenertmt,  &c."  It  is 
a  pity  that  the  dttotation  has  been 
broken  off,  as  it  might  have  illustrated 
the  connection  of  the  Bulgarians  with 
these  sectaries. 


io6 


HALLAM 


resembled  the  modern  Moravians.  They  had  ministers  of  their 
own  appointment,  and  denied  the  lawfulness  of  oaths  and  of 
capital  punishment.  In  other  respects  their  opinions  probably 
were  not  far  removed  from  those  usually  called  Protestant. 
A  simplicity  of  dress,  and  especially  the  use  of  wooden  sandals, 
was  affected  by  this  people." 

I  have  already  had  occasion  to  relate  the  severe  persecu- 
tion which  nearly  exterminated  the  Albigenses  of  Languedoc 
at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  involved  the  counts  of 
Toulouse  in  their  ruin.  The  Catharists,  a  fraternity  of  the  same 
Paulician  origin,  more  dispersed  than  the  Albigenses,  had 
previously  sustained  a  similar  trial.  Their  belief  was  certainly 
a  compound  of  strange  errors  with  truth ;  but  it  was  attended 
by  qualities  of  a  far  superior  lustre  to  orthodoxy,  by  a  sincerity, 
a  piety,  and  a  self-devotion  that  almost  purified  the  age  in 
which  they  lived.*'  It  is  always  important  to  perceive  that 


«  The  Waldenses  were  always  consid- 
ered as  much  less  erroneous  in  their 
tents  than  the  Albigenses,  or  Mani- 
cheans.  Erant  prseterea  alii  hoeretici, 
says  Robert  Monachus  in  the  passage 
above  quoted,  qui  Waldenses  diceban- 
tur,  a  ojiodam.  Waldio  nomine  Lugdu- 
nensi.  Hi  quidem  mali  erant,  sed  com- 
paratione  aliorum  haereticorum  longe 
minus  perversi;  in  multis  enim  nobis- 
cum  conveniebant,  in  quibusdam  dis- 
sentiebant.  The  only  faults  he  seems 
to  impute  to  them  are  the  denial  of  the 
lawfulness  of  oaths  and  capital  punish- 
ment, and  the  wearing:  wooden  shoes. 
By  this  peculiarity  of  wooden  sandals 
(sabots)  they  got  the  name  of  Sabbatati 
or  Insabbatati.  (Du  Cange.)  William 
du  Puy,  another  historian  of  the  same 
time,  makes  a  similar  distinction.  Erant 
quidarn  Anani,  quidam  Manichaei,  qui- 
dam etiarn  Waldenses  sive  Lugdunenses 
qui  licet  inter  se  dissidentes,  omnes 
tarnen  in  animarum  perniciem  contra 
fid  em  Catholicam  conspirabant ;  et  illi 
quidem  Waldenses  contra  alios  acutis- 
sime  disputant.  Du  Chesne,  t.  v.  p. 
666.  Alanus,  in  his  second  book,  where 
he  treats  of  the  Waldenses,  charges 
them  principally  with  disregarding  the 
authority  of  the  church  and  preaching 
without  a  regular  mission.  It  is  evi- 
dent, however,  from  the  acts  of  the  In- 
quisition, that  they  denied  the  exist- 
ence of  purgatory;  and  I  should  sup- 
pose that,  even  at  that  time,  they  had 
thrown  off  most  of  the  popish  system 
of  doctrine,  which  is  so  nearly  connect- 
ed with  clerical  wealth  and  power.  The 
difference  made  in  these  records  be- 
tween the  Waldenses  and  the  Mani- 
chean  sects  shows  that  the  imputations 
cast  upon  the  latter  were  not  indiscrim- 
inate calumnies.  See  Limborch,  p.  aoi 
and  328. 

The  History  of  Languedoc,  by  Vais- 


sette  and  Vich.,  contains  a  very  good 
account  of  the  sectaries  in  that  country ; 
but  I  have  not  immediate  access  to  the 
book.  I  believe  that  proof  will  be 
found  of  the  distinction  between  the 
Waldenses  and  Albigenses  in  t.  iii.  p. 
446,  But  I  am  satisfied  that  no  one  who 
has  looked  at  the  original  authorities 
will  dispute  the  proposition.  These 
Benedictine  historians  represent  the 
Henricians,  an  early  set  of  reformers, 
condemned  by  the  council  of  Lombez, 
in  1165,  as  Manichees.  Mosheim  con- 
siders them  as  of  the  Vaudois  school. 
They  appeared  some  time  before  Waldo. 

v  The  general  testimony  of  their  ene- 
mies to  the  purity  of  morals  among  the 
Languedocian  and  Lyonese  sectaries  is 
abundantly  sufficient.  One  Regnier, 
who  had  lived  amon$  them,  and  became 
afterwards  an  inquisitor,  does  them  Jus- 
tice in  this  respect.  See  Turner's  His- 
tory of  England  for  several  other  proofs 
of  this.  It  must  be  confessed  that  the 
Catharists  are  not  free  from  the  im- 
putation of  promiscuous  licentiousness. 
But  whether  this  was  a  mere  calumny, 
or  partly  founded  upon  truth,  I  cannot 
determine.  Their  prototypes,  the  an- 
cient Gnostics,  are  said  to  have  been 
divided  into  two  parties,  the  austere 
and  the  relaxed;  both  condemning 
marriage  for  opposite  reasons,  Alanus, 
in  the  book  above  quoted,  seems  to 
have  taken  up  several  vulgar  prejudices 
against  the  Cathari.  He  gives  an  ety- 
mology of  their  name  a  catto;  quia 
osculantur  posteriora  catti;  in  cuius 
specie,  ut  amnt,  appareret  iis  Lucifer, 
p,  146.  This  notable  charge  was  brought 
afterwards  against  the  Templars. 

As  to  the  Waldenses,  their  innocence 
is  out  of  all  doubt.  No  book  can  be 
written  in  a  more  edifying  manner  than 
La  Noble  Loicon,  of  which  large  ex- 
tracts are  given  by  Leger,  in  his  His- 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  107 

these  high  moral  excellences  have  no  necessary  connection 
with  speculative  truths;  and  upon  this  account  I  have  been 
more  disposed  to  state  explicitly  the  real  Manicheism  of  the 
Albigenses;  especially  as  Protestant  writers,  considering  all 
the  enemies  of  Rome  as  their  friends,  have  been  apt  to  place 
the  opinions  of  these  sectaries  in  a  very  false  light.  In  the 
course  of  time,  undoubtedly,  the  system  of  their  Paulician 
teachers  would  have  yielded,  if  the  inquisitors  had  admitted 
the  experiment,  to  a  more  accurate  study  of  the  Scriptures, 
and  to  the  knowledge  which  they  would  have  imbibed  from 
the  church  itself.  And,  in  fact,  we  find  that  the  peculiar  tenets 
of  Manicheism  died  away  after  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, although  a  spirit  of  dissent  from  the  established  creed 
broke  out  in  abundant  instances  during  the  two  subsequent 
ages. 

We  are  in  general  deprived  of  explicit  testimonies  in  trac- 
ing the  revolutions  of  popular  opinion.  Much  must  therefore 
be  left  to  conjecture;  but  I  am  inclined  to  attribute  a  very 
extensive  effect  to  the  preaching  of  these  heretics.  They  ap- 
pear in  various  countries  nearly  during  the  same  period,  in 
Spain,  Lombardy,  Germany,  Flanders,  and  England,  as  well 
as  France.  Thirty  unhappy  persons,  convicted  of  denying  the 
sacraments,  are  said  to  have  perished  at  Oxford  by  cold  and 
famine  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  In  every  country  the  new 
sects  appear  to  have  spread  chiefly  among  the  lower  people, 
which,  while  it  accounts  for  the  imperfect  notice  of  historians, 
indicates  a  more  substantial  influence  upon  the  moral  condition 
of  society  than  the  conversion  of  a  few  nobles  or  ecclesiastics.^ 

toire    des     Eglises    Vaudoises.      Four  turies.    Besides  Mosheim,  who  has  paid 

lines  are  quoted  by  Voltaire  (Hist.  Uni-  considerable  attention  to  the  subject,  I 

verselle,  c.  69),   as   a  specimen  of  the  would    mention    some    articles    in    Dn 

Provencal    language,    though    they   be-  Cange  which  supply  gleanings;   namely, 

long  rather  to  the  patois  of  the  valleys.  Beghardi,    Bulgari,    Lollardi,    Paterini, 

But  as  he  has  not  copied  them  rightly,  Picardi,  Pifli,  Populicani. 

and   as   they  illustrate   the   subject   of  Upon  the  subject  of  the  Waldenses 

this  note,  I  shall  repeat  them  here  from  and  Albigenses  generally,  I  have  bor- 

Leger,  p.  28.  rowed   some  light   from   Mr.   Turner's 

Que  sel  se  troba  alcun  bon  que  vollia  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.  pp.  377,  393- 

amar  Dio  e  temer  Teshu  Xrist,  This    learned    writer    has    seen    some 

Que  non  vollia  maudire,  ni  jura,  ni  books  that  have  not  falten  into  my  way; 

mentir,  and  I  am  indebted  to  him  for  a  knowl- 

Ni  avoutrar,   ni  aucire,  ni  penre  de  edge  of  Alanus's  treatise,  which  I  have 

Tautruy,  since  read.    At  the  same  time  I  must 

Ni  venjar  se  de  li  sio  ennemie,  observe,  that  Mr.  Turner  has  not  per- 

Illi  dison  quel  es  Vaudes  e  degne  de  ceived  the  essential  distinction  between 

murir.  the  two  leading  sects. 

wit  would  be  difficult  to  specify  all  The  name  of  Albigenses  does  not  fre* 

the  dispersed   authorities  which   attest  quently  occur  after  the  middle  of  the 

the  existence  of  the  sects  derived  from  thirteenth  century;   but  the  Waldenses, 

the   Waldenses   and   Paulicians   in   the  or    sects    bearing    that    denomination, 

twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth  cen-  were  dispersed  over  Europe.    As  a  terra 


lo8  H  ALLAH 

But  even  where  men  did  not  absolutely  enlist  under  the 
banners  of  any  new  sect,  they  were  stimulated  by  the  temper 
of  their  age  to  a  more  zealous  and  independent  discussion  of 
their  religious  system.  A  curious  illustration  of  this  is  fur- 
nished by  one  of  the  letters  of  Innocent  III.  He  had  been 
informed  by  the  Bishop  of  Metz,  as  he  states  to  the  clergy 
of  the  diocese,  that  no  small  multitude  of  laymen  and  women, 
having  procured  a  translation  of  the  gospels,  epistles  of  St. 
Paul,  the  psalter,  Job,  and  other  books  of  Scripture,  to  be 
made  for  them  into  French,  meet  in  secret  conventicles  to 
hear  them  read,  and  preach  to  each  other,  avoiding  the  com- 
pany of  those  who  do  not  join  in  their  devotion,  and  having 
been  reprimanded  for  this  by  some  of  their  parish  priestsi 
have  withstood  them,  alleging  reasons  from  the  Scriptures, 
why  they  should  not  be  so  forbidden.  Some  of  them  too 
deride  the  ignorance  of  their  ministers,  and  maintain  that  their 
own  books  teach  them  more  than  they  can  learn  from  the 
pulpit,  and  that  they  can  express  it  better.  Although  the  de- 
sire of  reading  the  Scriptures,  Innocent  proceeds,  is  rather 
praiseworthy  than  reprehensible,  yet  they  are  to  be  blamed 
for  frequenting  secret  assemblies,  for  usurping  the  office  of 
preaching,  deriding  their  own  ministers,  and  scorning  the  com- 
pany of  such  as  do  not  concur  in  their  novelties.  He  presses 
the  bishop  and  chapter  to  discover  the  author  of  this  transla- 
tion, which  could  not  have  been  made  without  a  knowledge  of 
letters,  and  what  were  his  intentions,  and  what  degree  of  ortho- 

of  different  reproach  was  derived  from  that  many  were  accused  for  the  sake  of 

the  word  Bulgarian,  so  vaudcric,  or  the  their    possessions,    which    were    confis- 

profession   of "  the   Vandois,   was  some-  cated  to   the   use    of   the   church.     At 

times   applied   to   witchcraft.     Thus   in  length  the  Duke  of  flurgimdy  interfered, 

the  proceeding's   of  the  Chambre  Bru-  and  put  a  stop  to  the  persecutions.    The 

lante  at  Arras,  irt  1459,  against  persons  whole  narrative  in   Du  Clercq  is  inter- 

accused  of  sorcery,  their  crime  is  de-  esting,  as  a  curious   document   of  the 

nominated    vawterte.      The    fullest    ac-  tyranny  of  bigots,   and   of  the   facility 

count  of  this  remarkable  story  is  found  with  which  it  Is  turned  to  private  ends, 

in  the  Memoirs  of  Du  Clercq,  first  pub-  To  return  to  the  Walrtensea:  the  priti- 

lished  in  the  general  collection  of  His-  cipal  course  of  their  emigration  is  said 

toriral  Memoirs,  t.  ix.  pp.  530,  471-    It  to  have  been  into  Bohemia,  where,  in 

exhibits    a    complete    parallel    to    the  the   fifteenth    century,    the    name    was 

events  that  happened  in  1682  at  Salem  borne  by  one  of  the  seceding1  sects,    By 

in  New  England,    A  few  obscure  per-  their  profession  of  faith,  presented  to 

sons  were  accused  of  vaudcrle^  or  witch-  Ladislaus   Postrmrmts.   it  appears   that 

crait.    After  their  condemnation,  which  tney  acknowledged  tne   corporal  pres- 

was   founded   on    confessions   obtained  ence  in  the  eucharist,  but  rejected  pur- 

by    torture,    and    afterwards    retracted,  gatory  and  other  Roman  doctrines,   See 

attt  epidemical  contagion  of  superstitious  it  in  the  Fasciculus  Rerum  expetenda- 

dread  was  diffused  all  around.     Num-  rum    et   fugiendarum,    a   collection    of 

b^irs  were  arrested,  burned  alive  by  or-  treatises   illustrating  the  origin  of  the 

8er  of  a  tribunal  instituted  for  thfe  de-  Reformation,    originally    published    at 

tectton  of  this  offence^  or  detained  hi  Cpldgne  in  1535,  and  reprinted  at  Lon- 

prisonj    so   that    no   person   in   Arras  don  in  1600. 
thought  himself  safe.    It  was  believed 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES 


109 


doxy  and  respect  for  the  Holy  See  those  who  used  it  possessed. 
This  letter  of  Innocent  III.,  however,  considering  the  nature 
of  the  man,  is  sufficiently  temperate  and  conciliatory.  It  seems 
not  to  have  answered  its  end ;  for  in  another  letter  he  complains 
that  some  members  of  this  little  association  continued  refrac- 
tory and  refused  to  obey  either  the  bishop  or  the  pope.-*- 

In  the  eighth  and  ninth  centuries,  when  the  Vulgate  had 
ceased  to  be  generally  intelligible,  there  is  no  reason  to  sus- 
pect any  intention  in  the  church  to  deprive  the  laity  of  the 
Scriptures.  Translations  were  freely  made  into  the  vernac- 
ular languages,  and  perhaps  read  in  churches,  although  the 
acts  of  saints  were  generally  deemed  more  instructive.  Louis 
the  Debonair  is  said  to  have  caused  a  German  version  of  the 
New  Testament  to  be  made.  Otfrid,  in  the  same  century,  ren- 
dered the  gospels,  or  rather  abridged  them,  into  German  verse. 
This  work  is  still  extant,  and  is  in  several  respects  an  object 
of  curiosity .y  In  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  century  we  find  trans- 
lations of  the  Psalms,  Job,  Kings,  and  the  Maccabees  into 
French.**  But  after  the  diffusion  of  heretical  opinions,  or,  what 
was  much  the  same  thing,  of  free  inquiry,  it  became  expedient 
to  secure  the  orthodox  faith  from  lawless  interpretation.  Ac- 
cordingly, the  council  of  Toulouse  in  1229  prohibited  the  laity 
from  possessing  the  Scriptures ;  and  this  precaution  was  fre- 
quently repeated  upon  subsequent  occasions.^ 

The  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth  cen- 
turies teems  with  new  sectaries  and  schismatics,  various  in  their 

x  Opera  Innocent.  III.  pp,  468,  537.  A  "  The  numerous  versions  and  para- 
translation  of  the  Bible  had  been  made  phrases  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
by  direction  of  Peter  Waldo ;  but  wheth-  made  those  books  known  to  the  laity 
er  this  used  in  Lorraine  was  the  same,  and  more  familiar  to  the  clergy, 
does  not  appear.  Metz  was  full  of  the  We  have  seen  a  little  above,  that  the 
Vaudois,  as  we  find  by  other  author!-  laity  were  not  permitted  by  the  Greek 
ties.  Church  of  the  ninth  century,  and  prob- 

y  Schilteri  Thesaurus  Antiq,  Teuton!-  ably  before,  to  read  the  Scriptures,  even 

corum.  in  the  original.    This  shows  how  much 

8  Me"m.    de  1'Acad.    des    Inscript.    t.  more   honest   and   pious   the    Western 

xvii.  p.  720.  Church  was  before  she  became  corrupt- 

0The  Anglo-Saxon  versions  are   de-  ed  by  ambition  and  by  the  captivating 

serving   of   particular  remark.     It  has  hope  of  keeping  the  laity  in  servitude 

been  said  that  our  church  maintained  by   means  of  ignorance.     The   transla- 

the  privilege  of  having  part  of  the  daily  tion  of  the  four  Books  of  Kings  into 

service  In  the  mother  tongue.    "  Even  French  has  been  published  in  the  Col- 

the  mass  itself,"  says  Lappenberg,  "  was  lection  de  Documens  Inedtts,  1841.    It 

not  read  entirely  in  Latin.'*     Hist,   of  is  iij  a  northern  dialect,   but  the  age 

England,  vol.  i.  p.  202.    This,  however,  seems    not    satisfactorily    ascertained; 

is  denied  by  Lingard,  whose  authority  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century  is  the 

is  probably   superior.     Hist,    of  Ang.«  earliest    date    that    can    be    assigned. 

Sax.  Church,  i.  307.    But  he  allows  that  Translations  into  the  Provencal  by  the 

the   Epistle  and   Gospel  were  read   in  Waldensian  or  other  heretics  were  made 

English,    which   implies   an   authorised  in  the  twelfth;    several  manuscripts  of 

translation.     And  we  may  adopt  in  a  them   are   in   existence,    and    one   has 

great    measure    Lappenberg's    proposi-  been  published  by  Dr.  Gilly.     [1848.3 
tion,  which  follows  the  above  passage: 


no  HALLAM 

aberrations  of  opinion,  but  all  concurring  in  detestation  of  the 
established  church.^  They  endured  severe  persecutions  with 
a  sincerity  and  firmness  which  in  any  cause  ought  to  command 
respect.  But  in  general  we  find  an  extravagant  fanaticism 
among  them  ;  and  I  do  not  know  how  to  look  for  any  amelior- 
ation of  society  from  the  Franciscan  seceders,  who  quibbled 
about  the  property  of  things  consumed  by  use,  or  from  the 
mystical  visionaries  of  different  appellations,  whose  moral  prac- 
tice was  sometimes  more  than  equivocal.  Those  who  feel  any 
curiosity  about  such  subjects,  which  are  by  no  means  unim- 
portant, as  they  illustrate  the  history  of  the  human  mind,  will 
find  them  treated  very  fully  by  Mosheim.  But  the  original 
sources  of  information  are  not  always  accessible  in  this  coun- 
try, and  the  research  would  perhaps  be  more  fatiguing  than 
profitable. 

I  shall,  for  an  opposite  reason,  pass  lightly  over  the  great 
revolution  in  religious  opinion  wrought  in  England  by  Wic- 
liffe,  which  will  generally  be  familiar  to  the  reader  from  our 
common  historians.  Nor  am  I  concerned  to  treat  of  theo- 
logical inquiries,  or  to  write  a  history  of  the  church.  Con- 
sidered in  its  effects  upon  manners,  the  sole  point  which  these 
pages  have  in  view,  the  preaching  of  this  new  sect  certainly 
produced  an  extensive  reformation.  But  their  virtues  were  by 
no  means  free  from  some  unsocial  qualities,  in  which,  as  well 
as  in  their  superior  attributes,  the  Lollards  bear  a  very  close 
resemblance  to  the  Puritans  of  Elizabeth's  reign ;  a  moroseness 
that  proscribed  all  cheerful  amusements,  an  uncharitable  malig- 
nity that  made  no  distinction  in  condemning  the  established 
clergy,  and  a  narrow  prejudice  that  applied  the  rules  of  the 
Jewish  law  to  modern  institutions.*  Some  of  their  principles 

b  The  application  of  the  visions  of  the  those  who  derive  all  morality  from  rev 

Apocalypse  to  the  corruptions  of  Rome,  elation, 

has  commonly  been  said  to  have  been  This  prreat  man  fell  afterwards  under 
first  made  by  the  Franciscan  seceders.  the  displeasure  of  the  church  for  prop- 
But  it  may  be  traced,  higher,  and  is  re-  ositions,  not  indeed  heretical,  but  re- 
markably pointed  out  by  Dante.  pugnant  to  her  scheme  of  spiritual 
Di  voi  pastor  s*  accorse  '1  Vangelista,  P.ow«r.  He  asserted,  indirectly,  the 
Quando  colei,  chi  siede sovra *  acque,  r  &htf  °f.  private  judgment,  and  wrote  on 

ISittaSiggii  cS  'ealft  hd  ft  vista?    '  SS^gSdi  -5feS  ™l»  fcS^pSS 

Inferno,  cant.  xix.  *ave   much   offence.     In  fact,    Pecoclc 

iuicn  u,  umt.  K1«.  w«ns  to  have  hoped  that  his  acute  rea- 

c  Walsingham,  £.  238 ;  Lewis's  Life  of  soning  would  convince  the  people,  with- 

Pecock,  p.  65.    Bishop  Pecock's  answer  out  requiring:  an  Implicit  faith.    But  he 

to  the  Lollards  of  his  time  contains  pas-  greatly  misunderstood  the  principle  of 

sagjes  well  worthy  of  looker,  both  for  an  infallible  church.     Lewis's  Life  of 

weight  of  matter  and  dignity  of  style,  Pecock   does  justice  to  his   character, 

setting  forth  the  necessity  and  impor-  which,  I  need  not  say,  is  unfairly  rep- 

tance  of  "  the  moral  law  of  kinde,  or  resented  by  such  historians  as  Collier, 

moral   philosophic,"    in   opposition   to  and  such  antiquaries  as  Thomas  Hearne. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  m 

were  far  more  dangerous  to  the  good  order  of  society,  and 
cannot  justly  be  ascribed  to  the  Puritans,  though  they  grew 
afterwards  out  of  the  same  soil.  Such  was  the  notion,  which 
is  imputed  also  to  the  Albigenses,  that  civil  magistrates  lose 
their  right  to  govern  by  committing  sin,  or,  as  it  was  quaintly 
expressed  in  the  seventeenth  century,  that  dominion  is  founded 
in  grace.  These  extravagances,  however,  do  not  belong  to  the 
learned  and  politic  Wicliffe,  however  they  might  be  adopted 
by  some  of  his  enthusiastic  disciples.^  Fostered  by  the  gen- 
eral ill-will  towards  the  church,  his  principles  made  vast  prog- 
ress in  England,  and,  unlike  those  of  earlier  sectaries,  were 
embraced  by  men  of  rank  and  civil  influence.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  check  they  sustained  by  the  sanguinary  law  of  Henry 
IV.,  it  is  highly  probable  that  multitudes  secretly  cherished 
them  down  to  the  era  of  the  Reformation. 

From  England  the  spirit  of  religious  innovation  was  propa- 
gated into  Bohemia ;  for  though  John  Huss  was  very  far  from 
embracing  all  the  doctrinal  system  of  Wicliffe,  it  is  manifest 
that  his  zeal  had  been  quickened  by  the  writings  of  that  re- 
formers Inferior  to  the  Englishman  in  ability,  but  exciting 
greater  attention  by  his  constancy  and  sufferings,  as  well  as 
by  the  memorable  war  which  his  ashes  kindled,  the  Bohemian 
martyr  was  even  more  eminently  the  precursor  of  the  Refor- 
mation. But  still  regarding  these  dissensions  merely  in  a  tem- 
poral light,  I  cannot  assign  any  beneficial  effect  to  the  schism 
of  the  Hussites,  at  least  in  its  immediate  results,  and  in  the 
country  where  it  appeared.  Though  some  degree  of  sympathy 
with  their  cause  is  inspired  by  resentment  at  the  ill  faith  of 
their  adversaries,  and  by  the  associations  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  we  cannot  estimate  the  Taborites  and  other  sectaries 
of  that  description  but  as  ferocious  and  desperate  fanatics/ 
Perhaps  beyond  the  confines  of  Bohemia  more  substantial  good 
may  have  been  produced  by  the  influence  of  its  reformation, 
and  a  better  tone  of  morals  inspired  into  Germany.  But  I 

d  Lewis's  Life  of  Wicliffe,  p.  115;  Len-  chief.    j.hese  were  maintained  by  Huss 

fant,  Hist,  du  Concile  de  Constance,  t.  i.  (id.  p,  328),  though  not  perhaps  so  crude- 

p.  213.  ly  as  by  Luther.    Everything  relative  to 

e  Huss  does  not  appear  to  have  reject-  the  history  and  doctrines  of  Huss  and 

ed  any  of  the  peculiar  tenets  of  popery,  his  followers  will  be  found  in  Lenfant's 

Lenfant,    p.    414.     He    embraced,    like  three  works   on   the  councils  of  Pisa» 

Wicliffe,   the   predestinarian   system  of  Constance,  and  Basle. 

Augustin.    without   pausing   at  any   of  f  Lenfant,    Hist,    de   la    Guerre    des 

those   inferences,   apparently  deducible  Hussites    et     du    Concile    de    Basle; 

from  it,  which,  in  the  heads  of  enthusi-  Schmidt  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  v. 
asts,  may  produce  such  extensive  mis- 


112  H  ALLAH 

must  again  repeat  that  upon  this  obscure  and  ambiguous  sub- 
ject I  assert  nothing  definitely,  and  little  with  confidence.  The 
tendencies  of  religious  dissent  in  the  four  ages  before  the  Refor- 
mation appear  to  have  generally  conducted  towards  the  moral 
improvement  of  mankind ;  and  facts  of  this  nature  occupy  a 
far  greater  space  in  a  philosophical  view  of  society  during  that 
period,  than  we  might  at  first  imagine ;  but  everyone  who  is 
disposed  to  prosecute  this  inquiry  will  assign  their  character 
according  to  the  result  of  his  own  investigations. 

But  the  best  school  of  moral  discipline  which  the  middle  ages 
afforded  was  the  institution  of  chivalry.  There  is  something 
perhaps  to  allow  for  the  partiality  of  modern  writers  upon  this 
interesting  subject;  yet  our  most  sceptical  criticism  must  as- 
sign a  decisive  influence  to  this  great  source  of  human  improve- 
ment. The  more  deeply  it  is  considered,  the  more  we  shall 
become  sensible  of  its  importance. 

There  are,  if  I  may  so  say,  three  powerful  spirits  which  have 
from  time  to  time  moved  over  the  face  of  the  waters,  and  given 
a  predominant  impulse  to  the  moral  sentiments  and  energies 
of  mankind.  These  are  the  spirits  of  liberty,  of  religion,  and 
of  honor.  It  was  the  principal  business  of  chivalry  to  animate 
and  cherish  the  last  of  these  three.  And  whatever  high  mag- 
nanimous energy  the  love  of  liberty  or  religious  zeal  has 
ever  imparted  was  equalled  by  the  exquisite  sense  of  honor 
which  this  institution  preserved. 

It  appears  probable  that  the  custom  of  receiving  arms  at  the 
age  of  manhood  with  some  solemnity  was  of  immemorial  an- 
tiquity among  the  nations  that  overthrew  the  Roman  empire. 
For  it  is  mentioned  by  Tacitus  to  have  prevailed  among  their 
German  ancestors ;  and  his  expressions  might  have  been  used 
with  no  great  variation  to  describe  the  actual  ceremonies  of 
knighthoods  There  was  even  in  that  remote  age  a  sort  of  pub- 
lic trial  as  to  the  fitness  of  the  candidate,  which,  though  perhaps 
confined  to  his  bodily  strength  and  activity,  might  be  the  germ 
of  that  refined  investigation  which  was  thought  necessary  in 
the  perfect  stage  of  chivalry.  Proofs,  though  rare  and  inci- 
dental, might  be  adduced  to  show  that  in  the  time  of  Charle- 
magne, g,nd  even  earlier,  the  sons  of  tjionarchs  at  least  did  not 

fNihil  neque  publics  neque  private  vel  propinquus,  scuto  frameaque  juven* 

nisi  armati  agunt.    Sed  arma  sumere  em   ornant;     base   apud    eos    toga,    hie 

nan  ante  cuiquam  moris,  qiiam  civjtas  primus  ju vent ae  honos;   ante  hoc  damns 

suffertnruxn  prob^verit.     Twni  ia   ipso  pars    videntur,    mox    reipublicae,      De 

concilio,  vel  principum  aliquis,  vel  pater,  Moribus  German,  c.  13. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  113 

assume  manly  arms  without  a  regular  investiture.  And  in  the 
eleventh  century  it  is  evident  that  this  was  a  general  practiced 
This  ceremony,  however,  would  perhaps  of  itself  have  done 
little  towards  forming  that  intrinsic  principle  which  character- 
ized the  genuine  chivalry.  But  in  the  reign  of  Charlemagne 
we  find  a  military  distinction  that  appears,  in  fact  as  well  as 
in  name,  to  have  given  birth  to  that  institution.  Certain  feudal 
tenants,  and  I  suppose  also  allodial  proprietors,  were  bound 
to  serve  on  horseback,  equipped  with  the  coat  of  mail.  These 
were  called  Caballarii,  from  which  the  word  chevaliers  is  an 
obvious  corruption.*  But  he  who  fought  on  horseback,  and 
had  been  invested  with  peculiar  arms  in  a  solemn  manner, 
wanted  nothing  more  to  render  him  a  knight.  Chivalry  there- 
fore may,  in  a  general  sense,  be  referred  to  the  age  of  Charle- 
magne. We  may,  however,  go  further,  and  observe  that  these 
distinctive  advantages  above  ordinary  combatants  were  prob- 
ably the  sources  of  that  remarkable  valor  and  that  keen  thirst 
for  glory,  which  became  the  essential  attributes  of  a  knightly 
character.  For  confidence  in  our  skill  and  strength  is  the 
usual  foundation  of  courage;  it  is  by  feeling  ourselves  able 
to  surmount  common  dangers,  that  we  become  adventurous 
enough  to  encounter  those  of  a  more  extraordinary  nature,  and 
to  which  more  glory  is  attached.  The  reputation  of  superior 
personal  prowess,  so  difficult  to  be  attained  in  the  course  of 
modern  warfare,  and  so  liable  to  erroneous  representations, 
was  always  within  the  reach  of  the  stoutest  knight,  and  was 
founded  on  claims  which  could  be  measured  with  much  ac- 
curacy. Such  is  the  subordination  and  mutual  dependence 
in  a  modern  army,  that  every  man  must  be  content  to  divide 
his  glory  with  his  comrades,  his  general,  or  his  soldiers.  But 
the  soul  of  chivalry  was  individual  honor,  coveted  in  so  entire 
and  absolute  a  perfection  that  it  must  not  be  shared  with  an 
army  or  a  nation.  Most  of  the  virtues  it  inspired  were  what 
we  may  call  independent,  as  opposed  to  those  which  are  founded 
upon  social  relations.  The  knights-errant  of  romance  perform 
their  best  exploits  from  the  love  of  renown,  or  from  a  sort  of 
abstract  sense  of  justice,  rather  than  from  any  solicitude  to 

It  William    of    Malmesbury    says    that  Du  Canoe's  Glossary,  v.  Arma,  and  in 

Alfred  conferred  knighthood  on  Athel-  his  22d  dissertation  on  Joinville.  > 

stan,  donatum  chlamyde  coccinea,  gem-  «'  Comites  et  vassalli  nostn  qui  bene- 

mato  balteo,  ense  Saxonico  cum  vapina  ficia  habere  noscuntur,  et  caballarn  om- 

aureS.    1.  ii.  c.  6.    St.  Palaye  (MSmoires  nes  ad  placitum  nostrum  veniant  bene 

sur  la  Chevalerie,  p.  2)  mentions  other  preparati.     Capitulana,  A.D.  807,  in  Jtfa- 

instances;    which  may  also  be  found  in  luze,  t.  i.  p.  460. 

VOL.  III.— 8 


n4  HALLAM 

promote  the  happiness  of  mankind.  If  these  springs  of  action 
are  less  generally  beneficial,  they  are,  however,  more  connected 
with  elevation  of  character  than  the  systematical  prudence  of 
men  accustomed  to  social  life.  This  solitary  and  independent 
spirit  of  chivalry,  dwelling,  as  it  were,  upon  a  rock,  and  disdain- 
ing injustice  or  falsehood  from  a  consciousness  of  internal  dig- 
nity, without  any  calculation  of  their  consequences,  is  not  unlike 
what  we  sometimes  read  of  Arabian  chiefs  or  the  North  Amer- 
ican Indians.;  These  nations,  so  widely  remote  from  each 
other,  seem  to  partake  of  that  moral  energy,  which,  among 
European  nations  far  remote  from  both  of  them,  was  excited 
by  the  spirit  of  chivalry.  But  the  most  beautiful  picture  that 
was  ever  portrayed  of  this  character  is  the  Achilles  of  Homer, 
the  representative  of  chivalry  in  its  most  general  form,  with 
all  its  sincerity  and  unyielding  rectitude,  all  its  courtesies  and 
munificence.  Calmly  indifferent  to  the  cause  in  which  he  is 
engaged,  and  contemplating  with  a  serious  and  unshaken  look 
the  premature  death  that  awaits  him,  his  heart  only  beats  for 
glory  and  friendship.  To  this  sublime  character,  bating  that 
imaginary  completion  by  which  the  creations  of  the  poet,  like 
those  of  the  sculptor,  transcend  all  single  works  of  nature, 
there  were  probably  many  parallels  in  the  ages  of  chivalry; 
especially  before  a  set  education  and  the  refinements  of  society 
had  altered  a  little  the  natural  unadulterated  warrior  of  a  ruder 
period.  One  illustrious  example  from  this  earlier  age  is  the 
Cid  Ruy  Diaz,  whose  history  has  fortunately  been  preserved 
much  at  length  in  several  chronicles  of  ancient  date  and  in  one 
valuable  poem ;  and  though  I  will  not  say  that  the  Spanish 
hero  is  altogether  a  counterpart  of  Achilles  in  gracefulness  and 
urbanity,  yet  was  he  inferior  to  none  that  ever  lived  in  frank- 
ness, honor,  and  magnanimity,^ 

/We   must   take  for  this   the   more  siotis,  their  talents,  their  virtues,  their 

favorable  representations  of  the  Indian  vices,  or  the  waste  of  their  heroism, 

nations,      A    deteriorating    intercourse  The  two  principal  persons  m  the  Ihftd, 

with  Europeans,  or  a  race  of  European  if  I  may  digress  into  the  observation, 

extraction  has  tended  to  efface  those  appear   to    me   representatives    of    the 

virtues  which  possibly  were  rather  ex-  heroic    character    in    its    two    leading 

aggerated  by  earlier  writers.  varieties;    of  the  energy  which  has  its 

k  Since  this  passage  was  written,   I  sole   principle  of  action  within   itself, 

have  found   a  parallel   drawn   by  Mr.  and  of  that  which ,  borrows  tts  impulse 

Sharon  Turner,  in  his  valuable  History  from  external  relations:  of  the  spmt  of 

of  England,  between  Achilles  and  Rich-  honor,  in  short,  and  of  patriotism,.   As 

ard  Ccsur  de  Lion;    the  superior  just-  every   sentiment    of    Achilles    is    mde- 

nesa  of  which  I  readily  acknowledge.  pendent  and  self-supported,  so  those  of 

The  real  hero  does  not  indeed  excite  Hector  all  bear  reference  to  his  kindred 

so  much  interest  in  me  as  the  poetical;  and  his  country.    The  ardor  of  the  one 

but  the  marks  of  resemblance  are  very  might  have  been  extinguished  for  want 

striking,  whether  we  consider  their  pas-  of  nourishment  in  Thessaly;    but  that 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  115 

In  the  first  state  of  chivalry,  it  was  closely  connected  with 
the  military  service  of  fiefs.  The  Caballarii  in  the  Capitularies, 
the  Milites  of  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  were  land- 
holders who  followed  their  lord  or  sovereign  into  the  field.  A 
certain  value  of  land  was  termed  in  England  a  knight's  fee,  or 
in  Normandy  feudum  loricae,  fief  de  haubert,  from  the  coat  oi 
mail  which  it  entitled  and  required  the  tenant  to  wear ;  a  mil- 
itary tenure  was  said  to  be  by  service  in  chivalry.  To  serve 
as  knights,  mounted  and  equipped,  was  the  common  duty  of 
vassals ;  it  implied  no  personal  merit,  it  gave  of  itself  a  claim 
to  no  civil  privileges.  But  this  knight-service  founded  upon 
a  feudal  obligation  is  to  be  carefully  distinguished  from  that 
superior  chivalry,  in  which  all  was  independent  and  voluntary. 
The  latter,  in  fact,  could  hardly  flourish  in  its  full  perfection 
till  the  military  service  of  feudal  tenure  began  to  decline; 
namely,  in  the  thirteenth  century.  The  origin  of  this  per- 
sonal chivalry  I  should  incline  to  refer  to  the  ancient  usage 
of  voluntary  commendation,  which  I  have  mentioned  in  a 
former  chapter.  Men  commended  themselves,  that  is,  did 
homage  and  professed  attachment  to  a  prince  or  lord;  gen- 
erally indeed  for  protection  or  the  hope  of  reward,  but  some- 
times probably  for  the  sake  of  distinguishing  themselves  in  his 
quarrels.  When  they  received  pay,  which  must  have  been  the 
usual  case,  they  were  literally  his  soldiers,  or  stipendiary  troops. 
Those  who  could  afford  to  exert  their  valor  without  recom- 
pense were  like  the  knights  of  whom  we  read  in  romance,  who 
served  a  foreign  master  through  love,  or  thirst  of  glory,  or  grat- 
itude. The  extreme  poverty  of  the  lower  nobility,  arising  from 
the  subdivision  of  fiefs,  and  the  politic  generosity  of  rich  lords, 
made  this  connection  as  strong  as  that  of  territorial  indepen- 
dence. A  younger  brother,  leaving  the  paternal  estate,  in  which 
he  took  a  slender  share,  might  look  to  wealth  and  dignity  in  the 
service  of  a  powerful  count.  Knighthood,  which  he  could  not 
claim  as  his  legal  right,  became  the  object  of  his  chief  ambition. 
It  raised  him  in  the  scale  of  society,  equalling  him  in  dress,  in 
arms,  and  in  title,  to  the  rich  landholders,  As  it  was  due  to  his 

of  the  other  rnfcht,  we  fancy,  have  never  rather    compare     the    two     characters 

been   kindled   but   for  the   dangers    of  throughout  the  Iliad.     So  wonderfully 

Troy.     Peace   could   have   brought   no  were  those  two  great,  springs  of  human 

delight  to  the  one  but  from  the  memory  sympathy  variously  interesting  accord- 

of  war:    war  had  no  alleviation  to  the  mj?  to  the  diversity  of  our  tempers,  first 

other  but  from   the  images   of  peace.  touched  by  that  ancient  patriarch,  . 

Compare,  for  example,  the  two  speeches,  s..^?'  ceu  tont®  perenm, 

beginning  II.  Z.  441,  and  II.  II.  49J    or  Vatum  Pienis  ora  ngantur  aquis 


n6  HALLAM 

merit,  it  did  much  more  than  equal  him  to  those  who  had  no 
pretensions  but  from  wealth;  and  the  territorial  knights  be- 
came by  degrees  ashamed  of  assuming  the  title  till  they  could 
challenge  it  by  real  desert. 

This  class  of  noble  and  gallant  cavaliers  serving  commonly 
for  pay,  but  on  the  most  honorable  footing,  became  far  more 
numerous  through  the  crusades ;  a  great  epoch  in  the  history 
of  European  society.  In  these  wars,  as  all  feudal  service  was 
out  of  the  question,  it  was  necessary  for  the  richer  barons  to 
take  into  their  pay  as  many  knights  as  they  could  afford  to 
maintain ;  speculating,  so  far  as  such  motives  operated,  on  an 
influence  with  the  leaders  of  the  expedition,  and  on  a  share  of 
plunder,  proportioned  to  the  number  of  their  followers.  Dur- 
ing the  period  of  the  crusades,  we  find  the  institution  of  chiv- 
alry acquire  its  full  vigor  as  an  order  of  personal  nobility ;  and 
its  original  connection  with  feudal  tenure,  if  not  altogether 
effaced,  became  in  a  great  measure  forgotten  in  the  splendor 
and  dignity  of  the  new  form  which  it  wore. 

The  crusaders,  however,  changed  in  more  than  one  respect 
the  character  of  chivalry.  Before  that  epoch  it  appears  to  have 
had  no  particular  reference  to  religion.  Ingulfus  indeed  tells 
us  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  preceded  the  ceremony  of  investi- 
ture by  a  confession  of  their  sins,  and  other  pious  rites,  and 
they  received  the  order  at  the  hands  of  a  priest,  instead  of  a 
knight.  But  this  was  derided  by  the  Normans  as  effeminacy, 
and  seems  to  have  proceeded  from  the  extreme  devotion  of 
the  English  before  the  Conquest.'  We  can  hardly  perceive 
indeed  why  the  assumption  of  arms  to  be  used  in  butchering 
mankind  should  be  treated  as  a  religious  ceremony.  The 
clergy,  to  do  them  justice,  constantly  opposed  the  private  wars 
in  which  the  courage  of  those  ages  wasted  itself ;  and  all  blood- 
shed was  subject  in  strictness  to  a  canonical  penance.  But  the 
purposes  for  which  men  bore  arms  in  a  crusade  so  sanctified 
their  use,  that  chivalry  acquired  the  character  as  much  of  a 
religious  as  a  military  institution.  For  many  centuries,  the 
recovery  of  the  Holy  Land  was  constantly  at  the  heart  of  a 
brave  and  superstitious  nobilitv;  and  every  knight  was  sup- 
posed at  his  creation  to  pledge  himself,  as  occasion  should 
arise,  to  that  cause.  Meanwhile,  the  defence  of  God's  law 

/Ingulfus, t in  Gale,  XV.  Scriptores,  t.  which  looks  as  if  the  ceremony  was  not 
i.  p.  70.  William  Rufus,  however*  was  absolutely  repugnant  to  the  Norman 
knighted  by  Archbishop  Lamranc,  practice. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  117 

against  infidels  was  his  primary  and  standing  duty.  A  knight, 
whenever  present  at  mass,  held  the  point  of  his  sword  before 
him  while  the  gospel  was  read,  to  signify  his  readiness  to  sup- 
port it.  Writers  of  the  middle  ages  compare  the  knightly  to 
the  priestly  character  in  an  elaborate  parallel,  and  the  investi- 
ture of  the  one  was  supposed  analogous  to  the  ordination  of 
the  other.  The  ceremonies  upon  this  occasion  were  almost 
wholly  religious.  The  candidate  passed  nights  in  prayer  among 
priests  in  a  church;  he  received  the  sacraments;  he  entered 
into  a  bath,  and  was  clad  with  a  white  robe,  in  allusion  to  the 
presumed  purification  of  his  life;  his  sword  was  solemnly 
blessed ;  everything,  in  short,  was  contrived  to  identify  his  new 
condition  with  the  defence  of  religion,  or  at  least  of  the  church.* 
To  this  strong  tincture  of  religion  which  entered  into  the 
composition  of  chivalry  from  the  twelfth  century,  was  added 
another  ingredient  equally  distinguishing.  A  great  respect  for 
the  female  sex  had  always  been  a  remarkable  characteristic  of 
the  Northern  nations.  The  German  women  were  high-spirited 
and  virtuous ;  qualities  which  might  be  causes  or  consequences 
of  the  veneration  with  which  they  were  regarded.  I  am  not 
sure  that  we  could  trace  very  minutely  the  condition  of  women 
for  the  period  between  the  subversion  of  the  Roman  empire 
and  the  first  crusade ;  but  apparently  man  did  not  grossly  abuse 
his  superiority ;  and  in  point  of  civil  rights,  and  even  as  to  the 
inheritance  of  property,  the  two  sexes  were  placed  perhaps  as 
nearly  on  a  level  as  the  nature  of  such  warlike  societies  would 
admit.  There  seems,  however,  to  have  been  more  roughness 
in  the  social  intercourse  between  the  sexes  than  we  find  in 
later  periods.  The  spirit  of  gallantry  which  became  so  ani- 
mating a  principle  of  chivalry,  must  be  ascribed  to  the  progres- 
sive refinement  of  society  during  the  twelfth  and  two  succeed- 
ing centuries.  In  a  rude  state  of  manners,  as  among  the  lower 
people  in  all  ages,  woman  has  not  full  scope  to  display  those 
fascinating  graces,  by  which  nature  has  designed  to  counter- 
balance the  strength  and  energy  of  mankind.  Even  where 
those  jealous  customs  that  degrade  alike  the  two  sexes  have 
not  prevailed,  her  lot  is  domestic  seclusion ;  nor  is  she  fit  to 
share  in  the  boisterous  pastimes  of  drunken  merriment  to  which 

*  Du  Cange  v.  Miles,  and  ssd  Disser-  of  other  chivalrous  principles,  will  be 
tation  on  Joiirville,  St.  Palaye,  Mem.  found  in  1'Ordene  de  Chevalerie,  a  long 
sur  la  Chevalerie,  part  ii.  A  curious  metrical  romance  published  in  Bar- 
original  illustration  of  this,  as  well  as  bazan*  Fabliaux,  t.  i.  p.  59  (edit.  1808), 


n8  HALLAM 

the  intercourse  of  an  unpolished  people  is  confined.  But  as  a 
taste  for  the  more  elegant  enjoyments  of  wealth  arises,  a  taste 
which  it  is  always  her  policy  and  her  delight  to  nourish,  she 
obtains  an  ascendency  at  first  in  the  lighter  hour,  and  from 
thence  in  the  serious  occupations  of  life.  She  chases,  or  brings 
into  subjection,  the  god  of  wine,  a  victory  which  might  seem 
more  ignoble  were  it  less  difficult,  and  calls  in  the  aid  of  divin- 
ities more  propitious  to  her  ambition.  The  love  of  becoming 
ornament  is  not  perhaps  to  be  regarded  in  the  light  of  vanity ; 
it  is  rather  an  instinct  which  woman  has  received  from  nature 
to  give  effect  to  those  charms  that  are  her  defence ;  and  when 
commerce  began  to  minister  more  effectually  to  the  wants  of 
luxury,  the  rich  furs  of  the  North,  the  gay  silks  of  Asia,  the 
wrought  gold  of  domestic  manufacture,  illumined  the  halls  of 
chivalry,  and  cast,  as  if  by  the  spell  of  enchantment,  that  in- 
effable grace  over  beauty  which  the  choice  and  arrangement 
of  clress  is  calculated  to  bestow.  Courtesy  had  always  been  the 
proper  attribute  of  knighthood ;  protection  of  the  weak  is  legit- 
imate duty ;  but  these  were  heightened  to  a  pitch  of  enthusiasm 
when  woman  became  their  object.  There  was  little  jealousy 
shown  in  the  treatment  of  that  sex,  at  least  in  France,  the 
fountain  of  chivalry ;  they  were  present  at  festivals,  at  tourna- 
ments, and  sat  promiscuously  in  the  halls  of  their  castle.  The 
romance  of  Perceforest  (and  romances  have  always  been 
deemed  good  witnesses  as  to  manners)  tells  of  a  feast  where 
eight  hundred  knights  had  each  of  them  a  lady  eating  off  his 
plate.w  For  to  eat  off  the  same  plate  was  a  usual  mark  of 
gallantry  or  friendship. 

Next  therefore,  or  even  equal  to  devotion,  stood  gallantry 
among  the  principles  of  knighthood.  But  all  comparison  be- 
tween the  two  was  saved  by  blending  them  together.  The  love 
of  God  and  the  ladies  was  enjoined  as  a  single  duty.  He  who 
was  faithful  and  true  to  his  mistress  was  held  sure  of  salvation 
in  the  theology  of  castles  though  not  of  cloisters.w  Froissart 
announces  that  he  had  undertaken  a  collection  of  amorous 
poetry  with  the  help  of  God  and  of  love ;  and  Boccaccio  returns 
thanks  to  each  for  their  assistance  in  the  Decameron.  The 


wY  eut  huit  cens  chevaliers  se*ant  &  knight   had   eaten  off   her   plate, 

table;  et  si  n'y  eust  celui  qui  n'eust  une  Grand,  t^  i.  p.  ag.  m  tr 
dame  ou  ui             "                .       .- .     -  —  »•*-.  .• 

Launcelot    ....   ,        „„., „_    

troubled  with  a  jealous  husband,  conv  laye's  w.ciuv»«a  uum  m*.  *«**. 

plains  that  it  was  a  long  time  since  a  in  1759,  which  is  not  the  best. 


et  si  n  y  eust  celui  qm  n  eust  tme  urand,  t.  i.  p.  24, 

ou  tme  pucelle  i  son  fccuelle.    In  n  Le  Grand  Fabliaux,  t.   iii.   p.  438; 

;elot   du  Lac,   a   lady,   who   was  St.  Palaye,  t.  i,  p.  41.    I  quote  St.  Pa- 

ed  with  a  jealous  husband,  corti-  laye's  Me1  moires  from  the  first  edition 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES 


119 


laws  sometimes  united  in  this  general  homage  to  the  fair. 
"  We  will,"  says  James  II.  of  Aragon,  "  that  every  man, 
whether  knight  or  no,  who  shall  be  in  company  with  a  lady, 
pass  safe  and  unmolested,  unless  he  be  guilty  of  murder/'  o 
Louis  II.,  Duke  of  Bourbon,  instituting  the  order  of  the  Golden 
Shield,  enjoins  his  knights  to  honor  above  all  the  ladies,  and 
not  to  permit  anyone  to  slander  them,  "  because  from  them 
after  God  comes  all  the  honor  that  men  can  acquire."  P 

The  gallantry  of  those  ages,  which  was  very  often  adulter- 
ous, had  certainly  no  right  to  profane  the  name  of  religion; 
but  its  union  with  valor  was  at  least  more  natural,  and  became 
so  intimate,  that  the  same  word  has  served  to  express  both 
qualities.  In  the  French  and  English  wars  especially,  the 
knights  of  each  country  brought  to  that  serious  conflict  the 
spirit  of  romantic  attachment  which  had  been  cherished  in  the 
hours  of  peace.  They  fought  at  Poitiers  or  Verneuil  as  they 
had  fought  at  tournaments,  bearing  over  their  armor  scarfs 
and  devices  as  the  livery  of  their  mistresses,  and  asserting  the 
paramount  beauty  of  her  they  served  in  vaunting  challenges 
towards  the  enemy.  Thus  in  the  middle  of  a  skirmish  at  Cher- 
bourg, the  squadrons  remained  motionless,  while  one  knight 
challenged  to  a  single  combat  the  most  amorous  of  the  adver- 
saries. Such  a  defiance  was  soon  accepted,  and  the  battle  only 
recommenced  when  one  of  the  champions  had  lost  his  life  for 
his  love.0  In  the  first  campaign  of  Edward's  war  some  young 
English  knights  wore  a  covering  over  one  eye,  vowing,  for 
the  sake  of  their  ladies,  never  to  see  with  both  till  they  should 
have  signalized  their  prowess  in  the  fields  These  extrava- 
gances of  chivalry  are  so  common  that  they  form  part  of  its 
general  character,  and  prove  how  far  a  course  of  action  which 
depends  upon  the  impulses  of  sentiment  may  come  to  deviate 
from  common-sense. 

It  cannot  be  presumed  that  this  enthusiastic  veneration,  this 
devotedness  in  life  and  death,  were  wasted  upon  ungrateful 
natures.  The  goddesses  of  that  idolatry  knew  too  well  the 
value  of  their  worshippers.  There  has  seldom  been  such  ada- 
mant about  the  female  heart,  as  can  resist  the  highest  renown 
for  valor  and  courtesy,  united  with  the  steadiest  fidelity-  "  He 

o  Statuimus,  quod  omnis  homo,   sive  p  Le  Grand,  t.  i.  p.  120;  St.  Palaye,  t.  i. 

miles  sive  ahus  qui  iverit  cum  domma  pp.  13,   *34,   221;  Fabliaux,   Romances, 

gfenerosa,  salvus  sit  atque  securus,  nisi  etc.,  passim, 

fuerit  homicida.    De  Marca,  Marca  His-  q  St.  Palaye,  p.  222. 

panica,  p.  1428.  *  Froissart,  p.  33- 


130  HALLAM 

loved,"  says  Froissart  of  Eustace  d'Auberthicourt,  '*  and  after- 
wards married  Lady  Isabel,  daughter  of  the  Count  of  Juliers. 
This  lady  too  loved  Lord  Eustace  for  the  great  exploits  in 
arms  which  she  heard  told  of  him,  and  she  sent  him  horses  and 
loving  letters,  which  made  the  said  Lord  Eustace  more  bold 
than  before,  and  he  wrought  such  feats  of  chivalry,  that  all  in 
his  company  were  gainers."  •*  It  were  to  be  wislaed  that  the 
sympathy  of  love  and  valor  had  always  been  as  honorable. 
But  the  morals  of  chivalry,  we  cannot  deny,  were  not  pure. 
In  the  amusing  fictions  which  seem  to  have  been  the  only  pop- 
ular reading  of  the  middle  ages,  there  reigns  a  licentious  spirit, 
not  of  that  slighter  kind  which  is  usual  in  such  compositions, 
but  indicating  a  general  dissoluteness  in  the  intercourse  of  the 
sexes.  This  has  often  been  noticed  of  Boccaccio  and  the  early 
Italian  novelists ;  but  it  equally  characterized  the  tales  and  ro- 
mances of  France,  whether  metrical  or  in  prose,  and  all  the 
poetry  of  the  Troubadours.*  The  violation  of  marriage  vows 
passes  in  them  for  an  incontestable  privilege  of  the  brave  and 
the  fair;  and  an  accomplished  knight  seems  to  have  enjoyed 
as  undoubted  prerogatives,  by  general  consent  of  opinion,  as 
were  claimed  by  the  brilliant  courtiers  of  Louis  XV. 

But  neither  that  emulous  valor  which  chivalry  excited,  nor 
the  religion  and  gallantry  which  were  its  animating  principles, 
alloyed  as  the  latter  were  by  the  corruption  of  those  ages,  could 
have  rendered  its  institution  materially  conducive  to  the  moral 
improvement  of  society.  There  were,  however,  excellences 
of  a  very  high  class  which  it  equally  encouraged.  In  the  books 
professedly  written  to  lay  down  the  duties  of  knighthood,  they 
appear  to  spread  over  the  whole  compass  of  human  obliga- 
tions. But  these,  like  other  books  of  morality,  strain  their 
schemes  of  perfection  far  beyond  the  actual  practice  of  man- 
kind. A  juster  estimate  of  chivalrous  manners  is  to  be  de- 
duced from  romances.  Yet  in  these,  as  in  all  similar  fictions, 
there  must  be  a  few  ideal  touches  beyond  the  simple  truth  of 
character;  and  the  picture  can  only  be  interesting  when  it 
ceases  to  present  images  of  mediocrity  or  striking  imperfection. 
But  they  referred  their  models  of  fictitious  heroism  to  the 
existing  standard  of  moral  approbation;  a  rule,  which,  if  it 

s  St.  Palaye,  p.  268.  Millot,  Hist,  des  Troubadours,  passim ; 

*  The  romances  will  speak  for  them-  and  from  Sismondi,  Litterature  du  Midi, 

selves;  and  the  character  of  the  Pro-  t»  i.  p.  179,  &c.  See  too  St.  Palaye,  t 

vengal  morality  may  be  collected  from  ii.  pp.  62  and  68. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  121 

generally  falls  short  of  what  reason  and  religion  prescribe,  is 
always  beyond  the  average  tenor  of  human  conduct.  From 
these  and  from  history  itself  we  may  infer  the  tendency  of 
chivalry  to  elevate  and  purify  the  moral  feelings.  Three  virtues 
may  particularly  be  noticed  as  essential  in  the  estimation  of 
mankind  to  the  character  of  a  knight ;  loyalty,  courtesy,  and 
munificence. 

The  first  of  these  in  its  original  sense  may  be  defined,  fidelity 
to  engagements ;  whether  actual  promises,  or  such  tacit  obli- 
gations as  bound  a  vassal  to  his  lord  and  a  subject  to  his  prince. 
It  was  applied  also,  and  in  the  utmost  strictness,  to  the  fidelity 
of  a  lover  towards  the  lady  he  served.  Breach  of  faith,  and 
especially  of  an  express  promise,  was  held  a  disgrace  that  no 
valor  could  redeem.  False,  perjured,  disloyal,  recreant,  were 
the  epithets  which  he  must  be  compelled  to  endure  who  had 
swerved  from  a  plighted  engagement  even  towards  an  enemy. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  striking  changes  produced  by  chivalry. 
Treachery,  the  usual  vice  of  savage  as  well  as  corrupt  nations, 
became  infamous  during  the  vigor  of  that  discipline.  As  per- 
sonal rather  than  national  feelings  actuated  its  heroes,  they 
never  felt  that  hatred,  much  less  that  fear  of  their  enemies,  which 
blind  men  to  the  heinousness  of  ill  faith.  In  the  wars  of  Ed- 
ward III.,  originating  in  no  real  animosity,  the  spirit  of  honor- 
able as  well  as  courteous  behavior  towards  the  foe  seems  to 
have  arrived  at  its  highest  point.  Though  avarice  may  have 
been  the  primary  motive  of  ransoming  prisoners  instead  of 
putting  them  to  death,  their  permission  to  return  home  on  the 
word  of  honor  in  order  to  procure  the  stipulated  sum — an  in- 
dulgence never  refused — could  only  be  founded  on  experienced 
confidence  in  the  principles  of  chivalry." 

A  knight  was  unfit  to  remain  a  member  of  the  order  if  he 
violated  his  faith ;  he  was  ill  acquainted  with  its  duties  if  he 
proved  wanting  in  courtesy,  This  word  expressed  the  most 
highly  refined  good  breeding,  founded  less  upon  a  knowledge 
of  ceremonious  politeness,  though  this  was  not  to  be  omitted, 
than  on  the  spontaneous  modesty,  self-denial,  and  respect  for 
others,  which  ought  to  spring  from  his  heart.  Besides  the 
grace  which  this  beautiful  virtue  threw  over  the  habits  of  social 
life,  it  softened  down  the  natural  roughness  of  war,  and  grad- 
ually introduced  that  indulgent  treatment  of  prisoners  which 

«  St.  Palaye,  part  ii. 


I22  HALLAM 

was  almost  unknown  to  antiquity.  Instances  of  this  kind  are 
continual  in  the  later  period  of  the  middle  ages.  An  Italian 
writer  blames  the  soldier  who  wounded  Eccelin,  the  famous 
tyrant  of  Padua,  after  he  was  taken.  "  He  deserved,"  says  he, 
"  no  praise,  but  rather  the  greatest  infamy  for  his  baseness; 
since  it  is  as  vile  an  act  to  wound  a  prisoner,  whether  noble 
or  otherwise,,  as  to  strike  a  dead  body."  v  Considering  the 
crimes  of  Eccelin,  this  sentiment  is  a  remarkable  proof  of  gen- 
erosity. The  behavior  of  Edward  III.  to  Eustace  de  Ribau* 
mont,  after  the  capture  of  Calais,  and  that,  still  more  exquisitely 
beautiful,  of  the  Black  Prince  to  his  royal  prisoner  at  Poitiers, 
are  such  eminent  instances  of  chivalrous  virtue,  that  I  ornit  to 
repeat  them  only  because  they  are  so  well  known.  Those  great 
princes  too  might  be  imagined  to  have  soared  far  above  the 
ordinary  track  of  mankind.  But  in  truth,  the  knights  who  sur- 
rounded them  and  imitated  their  excellences,  were  only  inferior 
in  opportunities  of  displaying  the  same  virtue.  After  the  battle 
of  Poitiers,  u  the  English  and  Gascon  knights/*  says  Froissart, 
4<  having  entertained  their  prisoners,  went  home  each  of  them 
with  the  knights  or  squires  he  had  taken,  whom  he  then  ques- 
tioned upon  their  honor  what  ransom  they  could  pay  without 
inconvenience,  and  easily  gave  them  credit ;  and  it  was  com- 
mon for  men  to  say,  that  they  would  not  straiten  any  knight 
or  squire  so  that  he  should  not  live  well  and  keep  up  his  honor.**' 
Liberality,  indeed,  and  disdain  of  money,  might  be  reckoned, 
as  I  have  said,  among  the  essential  virtues  of  chivalry.  All 
the  romances  inculcate  the  duty  of  scattering  their  wealth  with 
profusion,  especially  towards  minstrels,  pilgrims,  and  the  poorer 
members  of  their  own  order.  The  last,  who  were  pretty  nu- 
merous, had  a  constant  right  to  succor  from  the  opulent ;  the 
castle  of  every  lord,  who  respected  the  ties  of  knighthood,  was 
open  with  more  than  usual  hospitality  to  the  traveller  whose 
armor  announced  his  dignity,  though  it  might  also  conceal 
his  poverty.* 

V  Non    laudem    meruit,    sed    summae  x  St.  Palaye,  part  iv.  pp.  313,  367,  &c. 

potius  opprobrium  vititatis;    nam  idem  Le  Grand,  Fabliaux,  t.  i.  pp.  115,  io>.    It 

f acinus  est  puiandum  captum  nobilem  was  the  custom  in  Great  Britain  (says 

vel  ipnobilem  offendere,  vcl  fenre,  quam  the  romance  of  Perceforest,  speaking  of 

§ladio  cfcdere  cadaver.    Rolandinus,  in  course   in   an   imaginary   history)    that 

cript.  Ker,  Ital.  t.  viii.  p,  «i.  noblemen  and  ladies  placed  a  helmet  on 

f  wFroissart,  1.  i,  c.  161,    He  remarks  the  highest  point  of  their  castles,  as  a 

m  another  place  that  all  English  and  sign  that  all  persons  of  feuch  rank  trav- 

French  gentlemen  treat  their  prisoners  clungr  that  road  might  boldly  enter  their 

well:  not  so  the  Germans,  who  put  them  houses  like  their  own.     St.  Palaye,  p. 

in    tetters,    m    order    to    extort    more  367. 
money,  c.  136. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES 


123 


Valor,  loyalty,  courtesy,  munificence,  formed  collectively  the 
character  of  an  accomplished  knight,  so  far  as  was  displayed 
in  the  ordinary  tenor  of  his  life,  reflecting  these  virtues  as  an 
unsullied  mirror.  Yet  something  more  was  required  for  the 
perfect  idea  of  chivalry,  and  enjoined  by  its  principles;  an 
active  sense  of  justice,  an  ardent  indignation  against  wrong,  a 
determination  of  courage  at  its  best  end,  the  prevention  or 
redress  of  injury.  It  grew  up  as  a  salutary  antidote  in  the 
midst  of  poisons,  while  scarce  any  law  but  that  of  the  strongest 
obtained  regard,  and  the  rights  of  territorial  property,  which 
are  only  rights  as  they  conduce  to  general  good,  became  the 
means  of  general  oppression.  The  real  condition  of  society,  it 
has  sometimes  been  thought,  might  suggest  stories  of  knight- 
errantry,  which  were  wrought  up  into  the  popular  romances 
of  the  middle  ages.  A  baron,  abusing  the  advantage  of  an  inac- 
cessible castle  in  the  fastnesses  of  the  Black  Forest  or  the  Alps, 
to  pillage  the  neighborhood  and  confine  travellers  in  his  dun- 
geon, though  neither  a  giant  nor  a  Saracen,  was  a  monster  not 
less  formidable,  and  could  perhaps  as  little  be  destroyed  without 
the  aid  of  disinterested  bravery.  Knight-errantry,  indeed,  as 
a  profession,  cannot  rationally  be  conceived  to  have  had  any 
existence  beyond  the  precincts  of  romance.  Yet  there  seems 
no  improbability  in  supposing  that  a  knight,  journeying 
through  uncivilized  regions  in  his  way  to  the  Holy  Land,  or  to 
the  court  of  a  foreign  sovereign,  might  find  himself  engaged 
in  adventures  not  very  dissimilar  to  those  which  are  the  theme 
of  romance.  We  cannot  indeed  expect  to  find  any  historical 
evidence  of  such  incidents. 

The  characteristic  virtues  of  chivalry  bear  so  much  resem- 
blance to  those  which  eastern  writers  of  the  same  period  extol, 
that  I  am  little  disposed  to  suspect  Europe  of  having  derived 
some  improvement  from  imitation  of  Asia.  Though  the  cru- 
sades began  in  abhorrence  of  infidels,  this  sentiment  wore  off 
in  some  degree  before  their  cessation ;  and  the  regular  inter- 
course of  commerce,  sometimes  of  alliance,  between  the  Chris- 
tians of  Palestine  and  the  Saracens,  must  have  removed  part 
of  the  prejudice,  while  experience  of  their  enemy's  courage  and 
generosity  in  war  would  with  those  gallant  knights  serve  to 
lighten  the  remainder.  The  romancers  expatiate  with  pleasure 
on  the  merits  of  Saladin,  who  actually  received  the  honor  of 
knighthood  from  Hugh  of  Tabaria,  his  prisoner.  An  ancient 


X24  HALLAM 

poem,  entitled  the  Order  of  Chivalry,  is  founded  upon  this 
story,  and  contains  a  circumstantial  account  of  the  ceremonies, 
as  well  as  duties,  which  the  institution  required.^  One  or  two 
other  instances  of  a  similar  kind  bear  witness  to  the  veneration 
in  which  the  name  of  knight  was  held  among  the  eastern  na- 
tions. And  certainly  the  Mohammedan  chieftains  were  for  the 
most  part  abundantly  qualified  to  fulfil  the  duties  of  European 
chivalry.  Their  manners  had  been  polished  and  courteous, 
while  the  western  kingdoms  were  comparatively  barbarous. 

The  principles  of  chivalry  were  not,  I  think,  naturally  pro- 
ductive of  many  evils.  For  it  is  unjust  to  class  those  acts  of 
oppression  or  disorder  among  the  abuses  of  knighthood,  which 
were  committed  in  spite  of  its  regulations,  and  were  only  pre- 
vented by  them  from  becoming  more  extensive.  The  license  of 
times  so  imperfectly  civilized  could  not  be  expected  to  yield 
to  institutions,  which,  like  those  of  religion,  fell  prodigiously 
short  in  their  practical  result  of  the  reformation  which  they 
were  designed  to  work.  Man's  guilt  and  frailty  have  never 
admitted  more  than  a  partial  corrective.  But  some  bad  con- 
sequences may  be  more  fairly  ascribed  to  the  very  nature  of 
chivalry.  I  have  already  mentioned  the  dissoluteness  which 
almost  unavoidably  resulted  from  the  prevailing  tone  of  gal- 
lantry. And  yet  we  sometimes  find  in  the  writings  of  those 
times  a  spirit  of  pure  but  exaggerated  sentiment;  and  the 
most  fanciful  refinements  of  passion  are  mingled  by  the  same 
poets  with  the  coarsest  immorality.  An  undue  thirst  for  mil- 
itary renown  was  another  fault  that  chivalry  must  have  nour- 
ished ;  and  the  love  of  war,  sufficiently  pernicious  in  any  shape, 
was  more  founded,  as  I  have  observed,  on  personal  feelings 
of  honor,  and  less  on  public  spirit,  than  in  the  citizens  of  free 
states.  A  third  reproach  may  be  made  to  the  character  of 
knighthood,  that  it  widened  the  separation  between  the  differ- 
ent classes  of  society,  and  confirmed  that  aristocratical  spirit 
of  high  birth,  by  which  the  large  mass  of  mankind  were  kept 
in  unjust  degradation.  Compare  the  generosity  of  Edward  III. 
towards  Eustace  de  Ribaumont  at  the  siege  of  Calais  with  the 
harshness  of  his  conduct  towards  the  citizens.  This  may  be 
illustrated  by  a  story  from  Joinville,  who  was  himself  imbued 
with  the  full  spirit  of  chivalry,  and  felt  like  the  best  and  bravest 
of  his  age.  He  is  speaking  of  Henry  Count  of  Champagne, 

y  Fabliaux  de  Barbasan,  t.  i. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  125 

who  acquired,  says  he,  very  deservedly,  the  surname  of  Liberal, 
and  adduces  the  following  proof  of  it.  A  poor  knight  implored 
of  him  on  his  knees  one  day  as  much  money  as  would  serve 
to  marry  his  two  daughters.  One  Arthault  de  Nogent,  a  rich 
burgess,  willing  to  rid  the  count  of  this  importunity,  but  rather 
awkward,  we  must  own,  in  the  turn  of  his  argument,  said  to 
the  petitioner :  My  lord  has  already  given  away  so  much  that 
he  has  nothing  left.  Sir  Villain,  replied  Henry,  turning  round 
to  him,  you  do  not  speak  truth  in  saying  that  I  have  nothing 
left  to  give,  when  I  have  got  yourself.  Here,  Sir  Knight,  I 
give  you  this  man  and  warrant  your  possession  of  him.  Then, 
says  Joinville,  the  poor  knight  was  not  at  all  confounded,  but 
seized  hold  of  the  burgess  fast  by  the  collar,  and  told  him  he 
should  not  go  till  he  had  ransomed  himself.  And  in  the  end 
he  was  forced  to  pay  a  ransom  of  five  hundred  pounds.  The 
simple-minded  writer  who  brings  this  evidence  of  the  Count  of 
Champagne's  liberality  is  not  at  all  struck  with  the  facility  of 
a  virtue  that  is  exercised  at  the  cost  of  others. & 

There  is  perhaps  enough  in  the  nature  of  this  institution  and 
its  congeniality  to  the  habits  of  a  warlike  generation  to  account 
for  the  respect  in  which  it  was  held  throughout  Europe.  But 
several  collateral  circumstances  served  to  invigorate  its  spirit. 
Besides  the  powerful  efficacy  with  which  the  poetry  and  ro- 
mance of  the  middle  ages  stimulated  those  susceptible  minds 
which  were  alive  to  no  other  literature,  we  may  enumerate 
four  distinct  causes  tending  to  the  promotion  of  chivalry. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  regular  scheme  of  education,  ac- 
cording to  which  the  sons  of  gentlemen  from  the  age  of  seven 
years  were  brought  up  in  the  castles  of  superior  lords,  where 
they  at  once  learned  the  whole  discipline  of  their  future  pro- 
fession, and  imbibed  its  emulous  and  enthusiastic  spirit.  This 
was  an  inestimable  advantage  to  the  poorer  nobility,  who  could 
hardly  otherwise  have  given  their  children  the  accomplish- 
ments of  their  station.  From  seven  to  fourteen  these  boys 
were  called  pages  or  varlets ;  at  fourteen  they  bore  the  name 
of  esquire.  They  were  instructed  in  the  management  of  arms, 
in  the  art  of  horsemanship,  in  exercises  of  strength  and  activity. 
They  became  accustomed  to  obedience  and  courteous  demean- 
or, serving  their  lord  or  lady  in  offices  which  had  not  yet  be- 
come derogatory  to  honorable  birth,  and  striving  to  please 

s  Joinville  in  Collection  des  Memoires,  t.  i.  p.  43- 


126  HALLAM 

visitors,  and  especially  ladies,  at  the  ball  or  banquet.  Thus 
placed  in  the  centre  of  all  that  could  awaken  their  imaginations, 
the  creed  of  chivalrous  gallantry,  superstition,  or  honor  must 
have  made  indelible  impressions.  Panting  for  the  glory  which 
neither  their  strength  nor  the  established  rules  permitted  them 
to  anticipate,  the  young  scions  of  chivalry  attended  their  mas- 
ters to  the  tournament,  and  even  to  the  battle,  and  riveted  with 
a  sigh  the  armor  they  were  forbidden  to  wear.o 

It  was  the  constant  policy  of  sovereigns  to  encourage  this 
institution,  which  furnished  them  with  faithful  supports,  and 
counteracted  the  independent  spirit  of  feudal  tenure.  Hence 
they  displayed  a  lavish  magnificence  in  festivals  and  tourna- 
ments, which  may  be  reckoned  a  second  means  of  keeping  up 
the  tone  of  chivalrous  feeling.  The  kings  of  France  and  Eng- 
land held  solemn  or  plenary  courts  at  the  great  festivals,  or 
at  other  times,  where  the  name  of  knight  was  always  a  title  to 
admittance  ;  and  the  mask  of  chivalry,  if  I  may  use  the  ex- 
pression, was  acted  in  pageants  and  ceremonies  fantastical 
enough  in  our  apprehension,  but  well  calculated  for  those 
heated  understandings.  Here  the  peacock  and  the  pheasant, 
birds  of  high  fame  and  romance,  received  the  homage  of  all 
true  knights.^  The  most  singular  festival  of  this  kind  was  that 
celebrated  by  Philip  Duke  of  Burgundy,  in  1453.  In  the  midst 
of  the  banquet  a  pageant  was  introduced,  representing  the 
calamitous  state  of  religion  in  consequence  of  the  recent  capture 
of  Constantinople.  This  was  followed  by  the  appearance  of  a 
pheasant,  which  was  laid  before  the  duke,  and  to  which  the 
knights  present  addressed  their  vows  to  undertake  a  crusade, 
in  the  following  very  characteristic  preamble  :  I  swear  before 
God  my  Creator  in  the  first  place,  and  the  glorious  Virgin  his 
mother,  and  next  before  the  ladies  and  the  pheasants  Tourna- 
ments were  a  still  more  powerful  incentive  lo  emulation.  These 
may  be  considered  to  have  arisen  about  the  middle  of  the  elev- 
enth century;  for  though  every  martial  people  have  found 
diversion  in  representing  the  image  of  war,  yet  the  name  of 
tournaments,  and  the  laws  that  regulated  them,  cannot  be 
traced  any  higher.**  Every  scenic  performance  of  modern 


?§*•  Pjrtayc*  part  i.  writers  to  have  invented  tournaments; 

oPii  Cangre,  stne  Dissertation  sur  which  must  of  course  be  understood  in 

JoinviUe.  St.  Palaye,  t.  i,  pp.  87,  n8.  a  limited  sense.  The  Germans  ascribe 

Le<?r*5^  *•  *•  p/  '4-  them  to  Henry  the  Fowler;  but  this, 

cSt.  Palaye,  t.  i.  p.  191,  according1  to  Du  Cange,  is  on  no  au- 

d  Godfrey  de  Prewlty,  a  French  thority.  ome  Dissertation  sur  Joinville. 
knight,  is  said  by  several  contemporary 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  127 

times  must  be  tame  in  comparison  of  these  animating  combats. 
At  a  tournament,  the  space  enclosed  within  the  lists  was  sur- 
rounded by  sovereign  princes  and  their  noblest  barons,  by 
knights  of  established  renown,  and  all  that  rank  and  beauty 
had  most  distinguished  among  the  fair.  Covered  with  steel, 
and  known  only  by  their  emblazoned  shield  or  by  the  favors 
of  their  mistresses,  a  still  prouder  bearing,  the  combatants 
rushed  forward  to  a  strife  without  enmity,  but  not  without 
danger.  Though  their  weapons  were  pointless,  and  sometimes 
only  of  wood,  though  they  were  bound  by  the  laws  of  tourna- 
ments to  strike  only  upon  the  strong  armor  of  the  trunk,  or, 
as  it  was  called,  between  the  four  limbs,  those  impetuous  con- 
flicts often  terminated  in  wounds  and  death.  The  church  ut- 
tered her  excommunications  in  vain  against  so  wanton  an  ex- 
posure to  peril ;  but  it  was  more  easy  for  her  to  excite  than  to 
restrain  that  martial  enthusiasm.  Victory  in  a  tournament  was 
little  less  glorious,  and  perhaps  at  the  moment  more  exquisitely 
felt,  than  in  the  field ;  since  no  battle  could  assemble  such  wit- 
nesses of  valor.  "  Honor  to  the  sons  of  the  brave,"  resounded 
amidst  the  din  of  martial  music  from  the  lips  of  the  minstrels, 
as  the  conqueror  advanced  to  receive  the  prize  from  his  queen 
or  his  mistress;  while  the  surrounding  multitude  acknowl- 
edged in  his  prowess  of  that  day  an  augury  of  triumphs  that 
might  in  more  serious  contests  be  blended  with  those  of  his 
country.* 

Both  honorary  and  substantial  privileges  belonged  to  the 
condition  of  knighthood,  and  had  of  course  a  material  ten- 
dency to  preserve  its  credit.  A  knight  was  distinguished 
abroad  by  his  crested  helmet,  his  weighty  armor,  whether  of 
mail  or  plate,  bearing  his  heraldic  coat,  by  his  gilded  spurs, 
his  horse  barded  with  iron,  or  clothed  in  housing  of  gold ;  at 
home,  by  richer  silks  and  more  costly  furs  than  were  permitted 
to  squires,  and  by  the  appropriated  color  of  scarlet.  He  was 
addressed  by  titles  of  more  respect/  Many  civil  offices,  by 
rule  or  usage,  were  confined  to  his  order.  But  perhaps  its  chief 
privilege  was  to  form  one  distinct  class  of  nobility  extending 
itself  throughout  great  part  of  Europe,  and  almost  independent, 
as  to  its  rights  and  dignities,  of  any  particular  sovereign.  Who- 

eSt.  Palaye,  part  ii,  and  part  iii.  au  jFRi.  Palaye,  part  iv.    Selden's  Titles 

commencement.     Du  Canpe,  Dissert    6  of  Honor,  p.  806,    There  was  not,  bow- 

and  7:   and  Glossary,  v.  Torneamenlum.  ever,  so  much  distinction  in  England 

Le  Grand,  Fabliaux,  t,  i.  p.  184.  as  in  France. . 


128 


HALLAM 


ever  had  been  legitimately  dubbed  a  knight  in  one  country 
became,  as  it  were,  a  citizen  of  universal  chivalry,  and  might 
assume  most  of  its  privileges  in  any  other.  Nor  did  he  require 
the  act  of  a  sovereign  to  be  thus  distinguished.  It  was  a  funda- 
mental principle  that  any  knight  might  confer  the  order ;  re- 
sponsible only  in  his  own  reputation  if  he  used  lightly  so  high 
a  prerogative.  But  as  all  the  distinctions  of  rank  might  have 
been  confounded,  if  this  right  had  been  without  limit,  it  was  an 
equally  fundamental  rule,  that  it  could  only  be  exercised  in 
favor  of  gentlemen.^ 

The  privileges  annexed  to  chivalry  were  of  peculiar  advan- 
tage to  the  vavassors,  or  inferior  gentry,  as  they  tended  to 
counterbalance  the  influence  which  territorial  wealth  threw 
into  the  scale  of  their  feudal  suzerains.  Knighthood  brought 
these  two  classes  nearly  to  a  level ;  and  it  is  owing  perhaps 
in  no  small  degree  to  this  institution  that  the  lower  nobility 
saved  themselves,  notwithstanding  their  poverty,  from  being 
confounded  with  the  common  people. 


g  St.  Palaye,  vol.  i.  p,  70,  has  forgotten 
to  make  this  distinction.  It  is,  however, 
capable  of  abundant  proof.  Gunther,  in 
his  poem  called  Ligunnus,  observes  of 
the  Milanese  republic: 

Quoslibet  ex  humili  vulgo,  quod  Gallia 
fcedum 

Judicat,  accingi  gladio  concedit  eques- 

tri. 

Otho  of  Frisingen  expresses  the  same 
in  prose.  It  is  said*  in  the  Establish- 
ments of  St.  Louis,  that  if  any  one  not 


off  his  spurs  on  a  dunghill,  c.  130.  The 
Count  de  Nevers,  having  knighted  a 
person  who  was  not  noble  ex  parte 
patcrna,  was  fined  in  the  king's  court. 
The  king,  however  (Philip  III.),  con- 
firmed the  knighthood.  Daniel,  Hist, 
de  la  Milice  Frangoise,  p.  98.  Fuit  prop- 
ositum  (says  a  passage  quoted  by  Dan- 
iel) contra  comitem  Flandriensem,  quod 
non  poterat,  nee  debebat  facere  de  vil- 
lano  militem,  sine  auctoritate  regis. 
ibid,  Statuimus,  says  James  T.  of 
Aragon,  in  1234,  ut  nullus  facial  militem 
nisi  fihum  rnihtis.  Marca  Hispanica,  p. 
1428.  Selden,  Titles  of  Honor,  p.  592, 
produces  other  evidence  to  the  same 
effect.  And  the  Emperor  Sigismund 
having  conferred  knighthood,  during  his 
stay  in  Paris  in  14,1:5,  on  a  person  incom- 
petent to  receive  it  for  want  of  nobility, 
the  French  were  indignant  at  his  con- 
duct, as  an  assumption,  of  sovereignty. 
Villaret,  t.  xiii.  p.  397,  We  are  told, 
however,  by  Giannone,  1.  xx,  c.  a,  that 
nobility  was  not  in  fact  required  tor  re- 
ceiving chivalry  at  Naples,  though  it 
was  in  France. 
The  privilege  of  every  knight  to  as- 


sociate qualified  persons  to  the  order  at 
his  pleasure,  lasted  very  lonpj  in  France, 
certainly  down  to  the  English  wars  of 
Charles  VII.  (Monstrelet,  part  ii,  folio 
50),  and,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  down 
to  the  time  of  Francis  I.  But  in  Eng- 
land, where  the  spirit  of  independence 
did  not  prevail  so  much  among  the  no- 
bility, it  soon  ceased.  Selden  mentions 
one  remarkable  instance  in  a  writ  of 
the  29th  year  of  Henry  III.  summoning 
tenants  in  capite  to  come  and  receive 
knighthood  from  the  king,  ad  recipien- 
dum  a  nobis  arma  militaria;  and  ten- 
ants of  mesne  lords  to  be  knighted,  by 
whomsoever  they  pleased,  ad  recipien- 
dum  arma  de  quibuscunque  voluennt. 
Titles  of  Honor,  p.  792.  But  soon  after 
this  time,  it  became  an  established  prin- 
ciple of  our  law  that  no  subject  can 
confer  knighthood  except  by  the  king's 
authority.  Thus  Edward  III.  grants  to 
a  burgess  of  Lyndia  in  Guienne  {t  know 
not  what  place  this*  is)  the  privilege  of 
receiving  that  rank  at  the  hands  of  any 
knight,  his  want  of  noble  birth  notwith- 
standing. Rymer,  t.  v.  p,  623*  It  seems, 
however,  that  a  different  law  obtained 
in  some  places.  Twenty-three  of  the 
chief  inhabitants  of  Beaucaire,  partly 
knights,  partly  burgesses,  certified  in 
1298,  that  the  immemorial  usage  of  Beau- 
caire and  of  Provence  had  been,  for 
burgesses  to  receive  knighthood  at  the 
hands  of  noblemen,  without  the  prince's 
permission.  Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Lan- 
guedoc,  t.  iii,  p.  530,  Burgesses  in  the 
great  commercial  towns,  were  consid- 
ered as  of  a  superior  class  to  the  ro- 
turiers,  and  possessed  a  kind  of  derni- 
nobility.  Charles  V.  appears  to  have 
conceded  a  similar  indulgence  to  the 
citizens  of  Paris,  Villaret,  t.  x.  p,  248. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  129 

Lastly,  the  customs  of  chivalry  were  maintained  by  their 
connection  with  military  service.  After  armies,  which  we  may 
call  comparatively  regular,  had  superseded  in  a  great  degree 
the  feudal  militia,  princes  were  anxious  to  bid  high  for  the 
service  of  knights,  the  best-equipped  and  bravest  warriors  of 
the  time,  on  whose  prowess  the  fate  of  battles  was  for  a  long 
period  justly  supposed  to  depend.  War  brought  into  relief  the 
generous  virtues  of  chivalry,  and  gave  lustre  to  its  distinctive 
privileges.  The  rank  was  sought  with  enthusiastic  emulation 
through  heroic  achievements,  to  which,  rather  than  to  a  mere 
wealth  and  station,  it  was  considered  to  belong.  In  the  wars 
of  France  and  England,  by  far  the  most  splendid  period  of  this 
institution,  a  promotion  of  knights  followed  every  success, 
besides  the  innumerable  cases  where  the  same  honor  rewarded 
individual  bravery.^  It  may  here  be  mentioned  that  an  hon- 
orary distinction  was  made  between  knights-bannerets  and 
bachelors.*  The  former  were  the  richest  and  best  accompanied. 
No  man  could  properly  be  a  banneret  unless  he  possessed  a  cer- 
tain estate,  and  could  bring  a  certain  number  of  lances  into  the 
field./  His  distinguishing  mark  was  the  square  banner,  carried 
by  a  squire  at  the  point  of  his  lance ;  while  the  knight-bachelor 
had  only  the  coronet  or  pointed  pendant.  When  a  banneret 
was  created,  the  general  cut  off  this  pendant  to  render  the 
banner  square.^  But  this  distinction,  however  it  elevated  the 
banneret,  gave  him  no  claim  to  military  command,  except  over 
his  own  dependents  or  men-at-arms.  Chandos  was  still  a 
knight-bachelor  when  he  led  part  of  the  Prince  of  Wales's  army 
into  Spain.  He  first  raised  his  banner  at  the  battle  of  Nava- 
rette ;  and  the  narration  that  Froissart  gives  of  the  ceremony 

7xSt.  Palaye,  part  Hi.  passim.  cient;     and    it    appears    that,    in    fact, 

t  The  word  bachelor  has  been  some-  knights-banneret  often  did  not  bring  so 

times  derived  from  bas  chevalier;  in  op-  many. 

position  to  banneret.     But  this  cannot  k  Ibid.    Olivier  de  la  Marche  (Collec- 

fce  right.    We  do  not  find  any  authority  tion  des  Memoires,  t.  viii.  p.  337)  gives 

for  the  expression  bas  chevalier,  nor  any  a  particular  example  of  this;   and  makes 

equivalent   in   Latin,   baccalaureus   cer-  a  distinction  between  the  bachelor,  ere- 

tamly  not  suggesting  that  sense;   and  it  ated  a  banneret  on  account  of  his  estate, 

is  strange  that  the  corruption  should  ob-  and  the  hereditary  banneret,  who  took 

literate  every  trace  of  the  original  term.  a  public  opportunity  of  requesting  the 

Bachelor  is  a  very  old  word,  and  is  used  sovereign  to  unfold  his  family  banner 

in  early  French  poetry  for  a  young  man,  which  he  had  before  borne  wound  round 

as  bachelette  is  for  a  girl.     So  also  in  his  lance.     The  first  was   said  relever 

Chaucer:  banniere;    the   second,   entrer   en  ban- 

"  A  yohge  Squire,  niere.    This  difference  is  more  fully  ex- 

A  lover,  and  a  lusty  bachelor."  plained  by  Daniel,   Hist,   de  la  Mihce 

;  Du    Cange,    Dissertation    9me    sur  Franchise,    p.    116.      Chandos  s    banner 

Joinville.    The  number  of  men-at-arms,  was  unfolded,  not  cut,  at  Navarette.    We 

whom  a  banneret  ought  to  command,  read    sometimes    of    esquire-bannerets, 

was  properly  fifty.     But  Olivier  de  la  that  is,   of   bannerets   by  descent,   not 

Marche  speaks  of  twenty-five  as   suffi-  yet  knighted. 

VOL.   III.— Q 


j  3o  H  ALLAH 

will  illustrate  the  manners  of  chivalry  and  the  character  of  that 
admirable  hero,  the  conqueror  of  Du  Guesclin  and  pride  of 
English  chivalry,  whose  fame  with  posterity  has  been  a  little 
overshadowed  by  his  master's  laurel's./  What  seems  more 
extraordinary  is,  that  mere  squires  had  frequently  the  com- 
mand over  knights.  Proofs  of  this  are  almost  continual  in 
Froissart.  But  the  vast  estimation  in  which  men  held  the 
dignity  of  knighthood  led  them  sometimes  to  defer  it  for  great 
part  of  their  lives,  in  hope  of  signalizing  their  investiture  by 
some  eminent  exploit. 

These  appear  to  have  the  chief  means  of  nourishing  the 
principles  of  chivalry  among  the  nobility  of  Europe.  But  not- 
withstanding all  encouragerpent,  it  underwent  the  usual  des- 
tiny of  human  institutions.  St.  Palayc,  to  whom  we  are  in- 
debted for  so  vivid  a  picture  of  ancient  manners,  ascribes  the 
decline  of  chivalry  in  France  to  the  profusion  with  which  the 
order  was  lavished  under  Charles  VI.,  to  the  establishment  of 
the  companies  of  ordonnance  by  Charles  VII.,  and  to  the  ex- 
tension of  knightly  honors  to  lawyers,  and  other  men  of  civil 
occupation,  by  Francis  I.w  But  the  real  principle  of  decay 
was  something  different  from  these  three  subordinate  circum- 
stances, unless  so  far  as  it  may  bear  some  relation  to  the  second. 
It  was  the  invention  of  gunpowder  that  eventually  overthrew 
chivalry.  From  the  time  when  the  use  pf  fire-arms  became 
tolerably  perfect  the  weapons  of  former  warfare  lost  their  effi- 
cacy, and  physical  force  was  reduced  to  a  very  subordinate 
place  in  the  accomplishments  of  a  soldier.  The  advantages  of 
a  disciplined  infantry  became  more  sensible ;  and  the  lancers, 
who  continued  till  almost  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century 
to  charge  in  a  long  line,  felt  the  punishment  of  their  presump- 
tion and  irjdisqpline.  Eyen  in  the  wars  of  Edward  1IL,  the 
disadvantageous  tactics  of  chivalry  must  have  been  perceptible ; 
Ijut  the  military  art  had  not  been  sufficiently  studied  to  over- 
cpr#e  the  prejudices  of  men  eager  for  individual  distinction. 
Tournaments  became  less  frequent ;  and,  after  the  fatal  acci- 
4ent  of  Henry  II,,  were  entirely  discontinued  in  France.  Not- 
withstanding the  convulsions  of  the  religious  wars,  the  six- 
teejjth  century  wp.s  more  tranquil  than  #ny  that  had  preceded ; 
3pd  thus  a  large  part  of  the  nobility  passed  tjiefr  lives  in  pacific 
habits,  aiid  if  they  assuroe4  the  factors  of  tfjivfdry,  forgot  their 

I  Froissart,  part  I  c.  44*.  ttM&n.  wr  fr  Ch$valerie,  part  v. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  131 

natural  connection  with  military  prowess.  This  is  for  more 
applicable  to  England,  where,  except  from  the  reign  qf  Edward 
III.  to  that  of  Henry  VI.,  chivalry,  as  a  military  institution, 
seems  not  to  have  found  a  very  congenial  soil.»  To  these  cir- 
cumstances, immediately  affecting  the  military  conclitioij  of 
nations,  we  must  add  the  progress  of  reason  and  literature, 
which  made  ignorance  discreditable  even  in  a  soldier,  and  ex- 
posed the  follies  of  romance  to  a  ridicule  which  they  were  very 
ill  calculated  to  endure. 

The  spirit  of  chivalry  left  behind  it  a  more  valuable  sue- 
cessar.  The  character  of  knight  gradually  subsided  in  that  of 
gentleman;  and  the  one  distinguishes  European  society  in  the 
sixteenth  sind  seventeenth  centuries,  as  much  as  the  other  did 
in  the  preceding  ages.  A  jealous  sense  of  honor,  less  romantic, 
but  equally  elevated,  a  ceremonious  gallantry  and  politeness, 
a  strictness  in  devotional  observances,  a  high  pride  of  birth  and 
feeling  of  independence  upon  any  sovereign  for  the  dignity  it 
gave,  a  sympathy  for  martial  honor,  though  more  subdued  by 
civil  habits,  are  the  lineaments  which  prove  an  indisputable 
descent.  The  cavaliers  of  Charles  I.  were  genuiije  successors 
of  Edward's  knights;  and  the  resemblance  is  much  more  strik- 
ing, if  we  ascend  to  the  civil  wars  of  the  League.  Time  has 
effaced  much  also  of  this  gentlemanly,  as  it  did  before  of  the 
chivalrous  character.  From  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeejith 
century  its  vigor  ancj  purity  have  undergone  a  tacit  dec^y,  ^nd 
yielded,  perhaps,  in  every  country,  to  increasing  commercial 
wealth,  more  diffused  instruction,  the  spirit  of  general  liberty 
in  some,  and  of  servile  obsequiousness  in  others,  the  modes  of 
life  in  great  cities,  and  the  levelling  of  customs  of  social  inter- 
course.0 

«The    prerogative    exercised    by    the  among  us,  nor  did  any  nation  produce 

king's   of  England   of  compelling   men  more  admirable  specimens  of  its  excel- 

sufhciently  qualified  in  point  of  estate  lences. 

to  take  on  them  the  hol}or  of  knight-  I   am  not  minutely,  acquainted  with 

hood    was    inconsistent    with    the    true  the  state  of  chivalry  in  Sprain,  where  it 

spirit  of  chivalry.    This  began,  accord-  seems  to  have  flourished  considerably, 

ing  to  Lord  Lyttelton,  under  Henry  III.  Italy,   except  in   Naples,   and   perhaps 

Hist,  of  Henry  II.  vol.  ii.  p.  238.     In-  Piedmont,  displayed  'little  of  its  spirit; 

dependency    of    this,    several    causes  which  neither  suited  the  free  republics 

tended   to  render  England  less  under  of  the  twelfth  "and  thirteenth,  nor  the 

the    influence   of   chivalrous    principles  jealous  tyrannies  of  the  follpwing  cen- 

than  France  or  Germany;    such  as,  her  turies.    Yet  even  here  we  find  enough 

comparatively  peaceful  state,  the  smaller  to  furnish  I/furatori  witty  materials  for 

share  she  took  in  the  crusades,  her  in-  his  sad  Dissertation, 

feriority  in  romances  of  knight-errantry,  o  Tne  well-known  Memoirs  of  St.  Fa- 

but  abdve  all,  the  democratical  character  laye  are  the  best  repository  of  interest- 

qf  her  laws  and  government.    Still  this  ing  and  illustrative  facts  respecting  chlv- 

is  only  to  be  understood  relatively  to  alty.     Possibly  he  may  have  relied   a 

the  two  other  countries  above  named;  little  too  much  on  romances,  whose  pict- 

for  chivalry  was  always  in  high  repute  ures    will    naturally    be    overcharged. 


13* 


HALLAM 


It  is  now  time  to  pass  to  a  very  different  subject.  The  third 
head  under  which  I  classed  the  improvements  of  society  during 
the  four  last  centuries  of  the  middle  ages  was  that  of  literature. 
But  I  must  apprise  the  reader  not  to  expect  any  general  view 
of  literary  history,  even  in  the  most  abbreviated  manner.  Such 
an  epitome  would  not  only  be  necessarily  superficial,  but  for- 
eign in  many  of  its  details  to  the  purposes  of  this  chapter, 
which,  attempting  to  develop  the  circumstances  that  gave  a 
new  complexion  to  society,  considers  literature  only  so  far  as 
it  exercised  a  general  and  powerful  influence.  The  private  re- 
searches, therefore,  of  a  single  scholar,  unproductive  of  any 
material  effect  in  his  generation,  ought  not  to  arrest  us,  nor 
indeed  would  a  series  of  biographical  notices,  into  which  liter- 
ary history  is  apt  to  fall,  be  very  instructive  to  a  philosophical 
inquirer.  But  I  have  still  a  more  decisive  reason  against  taking 


Froissart  himself  has  somewhat  of  this 
partial  tendency,  and  the  manners  of 
chivalrous  times  do  not  make  so  fair  an 
appearance  in  Monslrelet.  In  the  Me- 
moirs of  La  Tremouille  (Collect,  des 
M&rn,  t.  xiv.  p.  169),  we  have  perhaps 
the  earliest  delineation  from  the  life  of 
those  severe  and  stately  virtues  in  high- 
born ladies,  of  which  our  own  country 
furnishes  so  many  examples  in  the  six- 
teenth and  seventeenth  centuries,  and 
which  were  derived  from  the  influence 
of  chivalrous  principles.  And  those  of 
Bayard  in  the  same  collection  (t.  xiv. 
and  xv.)  are  a  beautiful  exhibition  of 
the  best  effects  of  that  discipline. 

It  appears  to  me  that  M.  Guizot,  to 
whose  judgment  I  owe  all  deference,  has 
dwelt  rather  too  much  on  the  feudal 
character  of  chivalry.  Hist,  de  la  Civili- 
sation en  France,  L*econ  36.  Hence  he 
treats  the  institution  as  in  its  decline 
during  the  fourteenth  century,  when,  if 
we  can  trust  either  Froissart  or  the  ro- 
mancers, it  was  at  its  height.  Certainly, 
if  mere  knighthood  was  of  right  both  in 
England  and  the  north  of  France,  a  ter- 
ritorial dignity,  which  bore  with  it  no 
actual  presumption  of  merit,  it  was 
sometimes  also  conferred  on  a  more  hon- 
orable principle.  It  was  not  every 
knight  who  possessed  a  fief,  nor  in  prac- 
tice did  every  possessor  of  a  fief  re- 
ceive knighthood. 

Guizot  justly  remarks,  as  Sismondi  has 
done,  the  disparity  between  the  lives  of 
most  knights  and  the  theory  of  chival- 
rous rectitude.  But  the  same  has  been 
seentin  religion,  and  can  be  no  reproach 
to  either  principle.  Partout  la  pense*e 
morale  des  hommes  s'e*le"ve  et  aspire 
fort  au  dessus  de  leur  vie*  Et  garde? 
vous  de  croire  que  parce  qu'eue  ne 
gouvernait  pas  imm£diatement  les  ac- 
tions, parce  que  la  pratique  de'montait 
sans  cesse  et  estrangement  la  the"orie, 
rinfluence  de  la  theorie  fut  nulle  et 
sans  valeur.  C'est  beaucoup  que  le 


•JL 
hi 


jugement  des  hommes  sur  les  actions 
humaines;  tot  ou  tard  il  devient  ef- 
ficace. 

It  may  be  thought  by  many  severe 
judges,  that  I  have  overvalued  the  effi- 
cacy of  chivalrous  sentiments  in  ele- 
vating the  moral  character  of  the  middle 
ages.  But  1  do  not  see  ground  for  with- 
drawing or  modifying  any  sentence. 
The  comparison  is  never  to  be  made 
with  an  ideal  standard,  or  even  with  one 
which  a  purer  religion  and  a  more  lib- 
eral organization  of  society  may  have 
rendered  effectual,  but  with  the  condi- 
tion of  a  country  where  neither  the  .sen- 
timents of  honor  nor  those  of  right  pre- 
vail. And  it  seems  to  me  that  I  have 
not  veiled  the  deficiencies  and  the  vices 
of  chivalry  any  more  than  its  beneficial 
tendencies. 

A  very  fascinating  picture  of  chival- 
rous manners  has  been  drawn  by  a 
writer  of  considerable  reading,  and  still 
more  considerable  ability,  Mr.  Kenelm 
Digby,  in  his  Broad  Stone  of  Honor, 
The  bravery,  the  courteousness,  the  mu- 
nificence, above  all,  the  deeply  religious 
character  of  knighthood  and  its  rever- 
ence for  the  church,  naturally  took  hold 
of  a  heart  so  susceptible  of  these  emo- 
tions, and  a  fancy  so  quick  to  embody 
them.  St.  Palaye  himself  is  a  less  en- 
thusiastic eulogist  of  chivalry,  because 
he  has  seen  it  more  on  the  side  of  mere 
romance,  and  been  less  penetrated  with 
the  conviction  of  its  moral  excellence. 
But  the  progress  of  still  deeper  impres- 
sion seems  to  have  moderated  the  ardor 
of  Mr.  Digby's  admiration  for  the  his- 
torical character  of  knighthood;  he  has 
discovered  enough  of  human  alloy  to 
render  unqualified  praise  hardly  fitting, 
in  his  judgment,  for  a  Christian  writer: 
and  in  the  Mores  Catholic!,  the  second 
work  of  this  amiable  and  gifted  man,  the 
colors  in  which  chivalry  appears  are  by 
no  means  so  brilliant.  [1848.} 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  133 

a  large  range  of  literary  history  into  the  compass  of  this  work, 
founded  on  the  many  contributions  which  have  been  made 
within  the  last  forty  years  in  that  department,  some  of  them 
even  since  the  commencement  of  my  own  labor./*  These  have 
diffused  so  general  an  acquaintance  with  the  literature  of  the 
middle  ages,  that  I  must,  in  treating  the  subject,  either  compile 
secondary  information  from  well-known  books,  or  enter  upon 
a  vast  field  of  reading,  with  little  hope  of  improving  upon  what 
has  been  already  said,  or  even  acquiring  credit  for  original  re- 
search. I  shall,  therefore,  confine  myself  to  four  points :  the 
study  of  civil  law ;  the  institution  of  universities ;  the  applica- 
tion of  modern  languages  to  literature,  and  especially  to  poetry  ; 
and  the  revival  of  ancient  learning. 

The  Roman  law  had  been  nominally  preserved  ever  since 
the  destruction  of  the  empire ;  and  a  great  portion  of  the  in- 
habitants of  France  and  Spain,  as  well  as  Italy,  were  governed 
by  its  provisions.  But  this  was  a  mere  compilation  from  the 
Theodosian  code ;  which  itself  contained  only  the  more  recent 
laws  promulgated  after  the  establishment  of  Christianity,  with 
some  fragments  from  earlier  collections.  It  was  made  by  order 
of  Alaric  King  of  the  Visigoths  about  the  year  500,  and  it  is 
frequently  confounded  with  the  Theodosian  code  by  writers 
of  the  dark  ages.2  The  code  of  Justinian,  reduced  into  system 
after  the  separation  of  the  two  former  countries  from  the  Greek 
empire,  never  obtained  any  authority  in  them;  nor  was  it 
received  in  the  part  of  Italy  subject  to  the  Lombards.  But  that 
this  body  of  laws  was  absolutely  unknown  in  the  West  during 
any  period  seems  to  have  been  too  hastily  supposed.  Some 
of  the  more  eminent  ecclesiastics,  as  Hincmar  and  Ivon  of 
Chartres,  occasionally  refer  to  it,  and  bear  witness  to  the  regard 
which  the  Roman  church  had  uniformly  paid  to  its  decisions.?- 

The  revival  of  the  study  of  jurisprudence,  as  derived  from 
the  laws  of  Justinian,  has  generally  been  ascribed  to  the  dis- 

f>  Four  very  recent  publications  (not  [A  subsequent  work  of  my  own,  Intro- 
to  mention  that  of  Buhle  on  modern  duction  to  the  History  of  Literature  in 
philosophy)  enter  much  at  large  into  the  the  isth,  i6th,  and  i7th  Centuries,  con- 
middle  literature;  those  of  M.  Ginguene  tains,  in  the  first  and  second  chapters, 
and  M.  Sismondi,  the  history  of  Eng-  some  additional  illustrations  of  the  ante- 
land  by  Mr.  Sharon  Turner,  and  the  cedent  pteriod,  to  which  the  reader  may 
Literary  History  of  the  Middle  Ages  by  be  referred,  as  complementary  to  these 
Mr.  Berington.  All  of  these  contain  pages.  1848.]  m 
more  or  less  useful  information  and  ju-  q  Heineccius,  Hist.  Juris  German,  c. 
dicious  remarks;  but  that  of  Ginguene  a.  i$. 

is  among  the  most  learned  and  impor-  r  Giannone,  I.  iv.  c.  6.    Selden,  ad  Fie- 

tant  works  of  this  century.     I  have  no  tarn,  p.  1071. 
hesitation  to  prefer  it,  as  far  as  its  sub- 
jects extend,  to  Tiraboschi. 


134 


HALLAM 


covery  made  of  a  copy  of  the  Pandects  at  Amalfi,  in  1 135,  when 
that  city  was  taken  by  the  Pisans.  This  fact,  though  not  im- 
probable, seems  not  to  rest  upon  sufficient  evidence.-*  But  its 
truth  is  the  less  tnaterial,  as  it  appears  to  be  unequivocally 
proved  that  the  study  of  Justinian's  system  had  recommenced 
before  that  era.  Early  in  the  twelfth  century  a  professor  named 
Irnerius  t  opened  a  school  of  civil  law  at  Bologna,  where  he 
commented,  if  not  on  the  Pandects,  yet  on  the  Other  books, 
the  Institutes  and  Code,  which  were  sufficient  to  teach  the 
principles  and  ihspire  the  love  of  that  comprehensive  juris- 
prudence. The  study  of  law,  having  thus  revived,  made  a  sur- 
prising progress ;  within  fifty  years  Lombardy  was  full  of  law- 
yers, on  whom  Frederic  Barbarossa  and  Alexander  III.,  so 
hostile  in  every  other  respect,  conspired  to  shower  honors  and 
privileges.  The  schools  of  Bologna  were  pre-eminent  through- 
out this  century  for  legal  learning.  There  seem  also  to  have 
been  seminaries  at  Modena  and  Mantua;  nor  was  any  con- 
siderable city  without  distinguished  civilians.  In  the  next  age 
they  became  still  more  numerous,  and  their  professors  more 
conspicuous,  and  universities  arose  at  Naples,  Padua,  and  other 
places,  where  the  Roman  law  was  the  object  of  peculiar  regards 
There  is  apparently  great  justice  in  the  opinion  of  Tira- 
boschi,  that  by  acquiring  internal  freedom  and  the  right  of 
determining  controversies  by  magistrates  of  their  own  elec- 
tion, the  Italian  cities  were  led  to  require  a  more  extensive 
and  accurate  code  of  written  laws  than  they  had  hitherto  pos- 
sessed. These  municipal  judges  were  chosen  from  among  thfe 
citizens,  and  the  succession  to  offices  was  usually  so  rapid, 
that  almost  every  freeman  might  expect  in  his  turn  to  par- 
take in  the  public  government,  and  consequently  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice.  The  latter  had  always  indeed  bfeen 
exercised  in  the  sight  of  the  people  by  the  count  and  his 
assessors  under  the  Lombard  and  Carlovingian  sovereigns  j 
but  the  laws  were  rude,  the  proceedings  tumultuary,  and  the 
decisions  perverted  by  violence.  The  spirit  of  liberty  begot  a 
stronger  sense  of  right ;  and  right,  it  was  soon  perceived,  could 
only  be  secured  by  a  common  standard.  Magistrates  holding1 
temporary  offices,  and  little  elevated  irl  those  sitnplfe  titnes  above 

s  Tiraboschi,  t.  iii.  p.  359.    Ginguen6,  and  occasionally  omitted;  especially  in 

Hist.  Litt.  de  1'Italie,  t.  i.  p.  153.  Latinizihg*  for  the  sake  of  euphony  of 

*  Irncrms  is  sometimes  called  Gtiarne*  purity. 

rius;  sometimes  Warnerius:  the  German  «  Tiraboschl,  t.  iv.  p.  38;  t.  v.  p.  55, 
W  is  changed  into  Gu  by  the  Italians, 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  i3S 

the  citizens  among  whom  they  were  to  return,  could  only  sat- 
isfy the  suitors,  and  those  who  surrounded  their  tribunal,  by 
proving  the  conformity  of  their  sentences  to  acknowledged 
authorities.  And  the  practice  of  alleging  reasons  in  giving 
judgment  would  of  itself  introduce  some  uniformity  of  decision 
and  sortie  adherence  to  great  rules  of  justice  in  the  most  arbi- 
trary tribunals ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  those  of  a  free  coun- 
try lose  part  of  their  title  to  respect,  and  of  their  tendency  to 
maintain  right,  whenever,  either  in  civil  or  criminal  questions^ 
the  mere  sentence  of  a  judge  is  pronounced  without  explana- 
tion of  its  motives. 

The  fame  of  this  renovated  jurisprudence  spread  very  rap- 
idly from  Italy  over  Other  parts  of  Europe.  Students  flocked 
frotn  all  parts  of  Bologna ;  and  some  eminent  masters  of  that 
school  repeated  its'  lessons  in  distant  countries.  One  of  these, 
Placentintis,  explained  the  Digest  at  Mofttpelier  before  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  century ;  and  the  collection  of  Justinian  soon 
tame  to  supersede  the  Theodosian  code  in  the  dominions  of 
TouloUse.*'  Its  study  continued  to  flourish  in  the  universities 
of  both  these  cities;  and  hente  the  Roman  law,  as  it  is  ex- 
hibited in  the  system  of  Jiistinian,  became  the  rule  of  all  tri- 
bunals in  the  southern  provinces  of  France.  Its  authority  in 
Spain  is  eqtially  great,  of  at  least  is  only  disputed  by  that  of 
the  canonists ;  w  and  it  forms  the  acknowledged  basis  of  de- 
cision in  all  the  Geirtnanic  tribunals,  sparingly  modified  by  the 
ancient  feudal  customaries,  which  the  jurists  of  the  empife 
reduce  within  nairdw  bounds.*  In  the  northern  parts  of 
France,  where  the  legal  standard  was  sotight  in  local  customs, 
the  civil  law  met  natufally  with  less  regard.  But  the  code  of 
St.  Lotus  boffoWs  from  that  treasury  many  of  its  provisions, 
and  it  was  constantly  Cited  in  leadings  before  the  parliament  of 
Paris,  either  as  obligatory  by  way  of  authority,  or  at  least  as 
Written  wisdom,  tb  which  great  deference  was  shown. y  Yet 
its  study  was  long  prohibited  in  the  university  of  Paris,  from 

A  T)  toraboschi,  i  v.    Vaissette,  Hist,  dfe  decided  (i>  fe.  in  1674)*  whether  the  Ro- 

LiariguedocJ,  t.  ii.  p.  517;  t.  iii.  p.  $2};  i.  man  law  was  the  common  law  in  the 

V.  f>.  504.  pays    coiitumiers,    as    to   those    points 

W  Duck,  de  XJsii  Juris  Civilifc,  1.  ii.  S.  wherein  their  local  customs  were  silent. 

6.  And,  if  1  understand  Denisart  (Diction- 

x  Idem,  1.  ii.  2.  naire  des  Decisions  art.  Droit-e'crit),  the 

•y  Duck,  1.  ii.  c.  J,  s.  30,  31.  ,  Fleuftf,  affirmative    prevailed.     It    is    plain    at 

Hist,  du  t)roit  Francois,  p.  £4  (prefixed  legist  by  the  Causes  Celebres,  that  ap.peal 

to  Artfou,   Institutions  au  Droit  Fran-  was  continually  made  to  the  principle's 

cois,  edit.  1787)*  says  that  it  was  a  gfe'at  of   trie    civil   law   in   the   argument  df 

question  among  lawyers,  and  still  un-  Parisian  advocates. 


HALLAM 

a  disposition  of  the  popes  to  establish  exclusively  their  decre- 
tals, though  the  prohibition  was  silently  disregarded.-? 

As  early  as  the  reign  of  Stephen,  Vacarius,  a  lawyer  of 
Bologna,  taught  at  Oxford  with  great  success ;  but  the  stu- 
dents of  scholastic  theology  opposed  themselves,  from  some 
unexplained  reason,  to  this  new  jurisprudence,  and  his  lectures 
were  interdicted/*  About  the  time  of  Henry  III.  and  Edward 
I.  the  civil  law  acquired  some  credit  in  England;  but  a  system 
entirely  incompatible  with  it  had  established  itself  in  our  courts 
of  justice ;  and  the  Roman  jurisprudence  was  not  only  soon 
rejected,  but  became  obnoxious.&  Everywhere,  however,  the 
clergy  combined  its  study  with  that  of  their  own  canons ;  it 
was  a  maxim  that  every  canonist  must  be  a  civilian,  and  that 
no  one  could  be  a  good  civilian  unless  he  were  also  a  canonist. 
In  all  universities,  degrees  are  granted  in  both  laws  conjointly ; 
and  in  all  courts  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  the  authority  of 
Justinian  is  cited,  when  that  of  Gregory  or  Clement  is  wanting.^ 

I  should  earn  little  gratitude  for  rny  obscure  diligence,  were 
I  to  dwell  on  the  forgotten  teachers  of  a  science  that  attracts 
so  few.  These  elder  professors  of  Roman  jurisprudence  are 
infected,  as  we  are  told,  with  the  faults  and  ignorance  of  their 
time ;  failing  in  the  exposition  of  ancient  law  through  incorrect- 
ness of  manuscripts  and  want  of  subsidiary  learning,  or  per- 
verting their  sense  through  the  verbal  subtleties  of  scholastic 
philosophy.  It  appears  that,  even  a  hundred  years  since,  neither 
Azzo  and  Accursius,  the  principal  civilians  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  nor  Bartolus  and  Baldus,  the  more  conspicuous  lu- 
minaries of  the  next  age,  nor  the  later  writings  of  Accolti, 
Fulgosius,  and  Panormitanus,  were  greatly  regarded  as  au- 
thorities ;  unless  it  were  in  Spain,  where  improvement  is  al- 
ways odious,  and  the  name  of  Bartolus  inspired  absolute  defer- 
ence.^ In  the  sixteenth  century,  Alciatus  and  the  greater  Cu- 
jacius  became,  as  it  were,  the  founders  of  a  new  and  more 

*  Crevier,  Hist,  de  rUniversite"  de  Pa-  borrowed  from  the  civilians,  as  all  ad- 

ris,  t,  i.  p.  316;  t.  ii.  p.  275.  mit,  our  common  law  may  have  indi- 

a  Tohan.   Salisburiensis,   apud  Selden  rectly  received  greater  modification  from 

ad  Fletam,  p.  1082.  that  influence,  than  its  professors  were 

b  Selden,  ubi  supra,  pp.  1095-1104.   This  ready  to  acknowledge,  or  even  than  they 

passage  is  worthy   of  attention.     Yet.  knew.   A  full  view  of  this  subject  is  still, 

notwithstanding   Selden's   authority,    I  I  think,  a  desideratum  in  the  history  of 

am  not  satisfied  that  he  has  not  extenti-  English  law,  which  it  would  illustrate 

ated  the  effect  of  Bracton's  predilection  in  a  very  interesting  manner, 

for  the  maxims  of  Roman  jurisprudence,  c  Duck,  De  Usu  Juris  Civtlis,  J.  i.  c.  87. 

No  early  lawyer  has  contributed  so  much  d  Gravma,    Origmes  Juris   Civitis,  p. 

to  form  our  own  system  as  Bracton;  and  196. 
if  his  definitions  and  rules  are  sometimes 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  137 

enlightened  academy  of  civil  law,  from  which  the  latter  jurists 
derived  their  lessons.  The  laws  of  Justinian,  stripped  of  their 
impurer  alloy,  and  of  the  tedious  glosses  of  their  commentators, 
will  form  the  basis  of  other  systems,  and  mingling,  as  we  may 
hope,  with  the  new  institutions  of  philosophical  legislators, 
continue  to  influence  the  social  relations  of  mankind,  long  after 
their  direct  authority  shall  have  been  abrogated.  The  ruins  of 
ancient  Rome  supplied  the  materials  of  a  new  city ;  and  the 
fragments  of  her  law,  which  have  already  been  wrought  into 
the  recent  codes  of  France  and  Prussia,  will  probably,  under 
other  names,  guide  far  distant  generations  by  the  sagacity  of 
Modestinus  and  Ulpian.* 

The  establishment  of  public  schools  in  France  is  owing  to 
Charlemagne.  At  his  accession,  we  are  assured  that  no  means 
of  obtaining  a  learned  education  existed  in  his  dominions ;  f 
and  in  order  to  restore  in  some  degree  the  spirit  of  letters,  he 
was  compelled  to  invite  strangers  from  countries  where  learn- 
ing was  not  so  thoroughly  extinguished.  Alcuin  of  England, 
Clement  of  Ireland,  Theodulf  of  Germany,  were  the  true  Pala- 
dins who  repaired  to  his  court.  With  the  help  of  these  he  re- 
vived a  few  sparks  of  diligence,  and  established  schools  in 
different  cities  of  his  empire ;  nor  was  he  ashamed  to  be  the 
disciple  of  that  in  his  own  palace  under  the  care  of  Alcuin.g 

e  Those  who  feel  some  curiosity  about       lium  artium.    Monachus  Engolismensis, 
the  civilians  of  the  middle  ages  will  find       apud  Launoy,  De  Scholis  per  occiden- 


a  concise  and  elegant  account  in  Gravi-  tern  instauratis,  p.  5.  See  too  Histoire 
na,  De  Origine  Juris  Civilis,  pp.  166-206.  Litteraire^  de  la  France,  t.  iv.  f  p.  i. 
(Lips.  1708.)  Tiraboschi  contains  per-  "  Studia  liberalium  artium  "  in  this  pas- 


haps  more  information;  but  his  prolix-  sage,  must  be  understood  to  exclude 
ity  is  very  wearisome.  t  Besides  this  literature,  commonly  so  called,  but  not 
fault,  it  is  evident  that  Tiraboschi  knew  a  certain  measure  of  very  ordinary  in- 
very  little  of  law,  and  had  not  read  the  struction.  For  there  were  episcopal  and 
civilians  of  whom  he  treats;  whereas  conventual  schools  in  the  seventh  and 
Gravina  discusses  their  merits  not  only  eighth  centuries,  even  in  France,  espe- 
with  legal  knowledge,  but  with  an  acute-  cially  Aquitaine;  we  need  hardly  repeat 
ness  ofcriticism  which,  to  say  the  truth,  that  in  England,  the  former  of  these 
Tiraboschi  never  shows  except  on  a  date  ages  produced  Bede  and  Theodore,  and 
or  a  name.  the  men  trained  under  them;  the  Lives 

[The   civil   lawyers   of   the   mediaeval  of  the  Saints  also  lead  us  to  take  with 

period  are  not  at  all  forgotten  on  the  some  limitation  the  absolute  denial  of 

continent,  as  the  great  work  of  Savigny,  liberal  studies  before  Charlemagne.    See 

History  of  Roman  Law  in  the  Middle  Guizot,  Hist,  de  la  Civilis,  en  France, 

Ages,  sufficiently  proves.     It  is  certain  Legon  16;   and  Ampere,  Hist.  Litt.  de  la 

that  the  civil  law  must  always  be  studied  France,  lii.  p.  4-    But,  perhaps,  philol- 

in   Europe,   nor   ought  the   new   codes  ogy,  logic,  philosophy,  and  even  theol- 

to    supersede    it,    seeing    they    are    in  ogy  were  not  taught,  as  sciences,  in  any 

great  measure  derived  from  its  fountain;  of  the  French  schools  of  these  two  cen- 

though  I  have  heard  that  it  is  less  re-  tunes;    and   consequently  those    estab- 

garded  in  France  than  formerly.    In  my  lished  by  Charlemagne  justly  make  an 

earlier  editions  I  depreciated  the  study  epoch. 

of  the  civil  law  too  much,  and  with  too  $  Id.  Ibid.  There  was  a  sort  of  liter- 
exclusive  an  attention  to  English  no-  ary  club  among  them,  where  the  mem- 
tions.]  bers  assumed  ancient  t  names.  Charle- 

f  Ante   ipsum   dominum   Carolum  re-  magne  was  called  David;    Alcuin,  Hor- 

gem  in  Gallia  nullum  fuit  studium  libera-  ace;  another,  Dametas,  &c. 


I38  HALLAM 

His  two  next  successors,  Louis  the  Debonair  and  Charles  the 
Bald,  were  also  encouragers  of  letters;  and  the  schools  of 
Lyons,  Fulda,  Corvcy,  Rheims,  and  some  other  cities,  might 
be  said  to  flourish  in  the  ninth  century .&  In  these  were  taught 
the  trivium  and  quadrivium,  a  long-established  division  of  sci- 
ences: the  first  comprehending  grammar,  or  what  we  now 
call  philology,  logic,  and  rhetoric;  the  second,  music,  arith- 
metic, geometry,  and  astronomy.*  But  in  those  ages  scarcely 
anybody  mastered  the  latter  four ;  and  to  be  perfect  in  the 
three  former  was  exceedingly  rare.  All  those  studies,  how- 
ever, were  referred  to  theology,  and  that  in  the  narrowest 
manner ;  music,  for  example,  being  reduced  to  church  chant- 
ing, and  astronomy  to  the  calculation  of  Easter./  Alcuin  was, 
in  his  old  age,  against  reading  the  poets ;  k  and  this  discour- 
agement of  secular  learning  was  very  general ;  though  some, 
as  for  instance  Raban,  permitted  a  slight  tincture  of  it,  as 
subsidiary  to  religious  instruction.* 

About  the  latter  part  of  the  eleventh  century  a  greater  ardor 
for  intellectual  pursuits  began  to  show  itself  in  Europe,  which 
in  the  twelfth  broke  out  into  a  flame.  This  was  manifested  in 
the  numbers  who  repaired  to  the  public  academies  or  schools 
of  philosophy;  None  of  these  grew  so  early  into  reputation 
as  that  of  Paris,  This  cannot  indeed*  as  has  been  vainly  pre- 
tended, trace  its  pedigree  to  Charlemagne.  The  first  who  is 
said  to  have  read  lectures  at  Paris  was  Remigius  of  Auxcrrc, 
about  the  year  900.'"  For  the  two  next  centuries  the  history 
of  this  school  is  very  obscure ;  and  it  would  be  hard  to  prove 
an  unbroken  continuity,  or  at  least  a  dependence  and  connec- 
tion of  its  professors.  In  the  year  noo  we  find  William  of 
Ctianipeaux  teaching  logic,  imd  apparently  some  higher  parts 
of  philosophy,  with  much  credit.  But  this  preceptor  was 
eclipsed  by  his  disciple,  afterwards  his  rival  and  adversary, 
Peter  Abelard,  to  whose  brilliant  and  hardy  genius  the  tmi- 
vfersity  of  Paris  appears  to  be  indebted  for  its  rapid  advance- 
ment* Abelard  was  almost  the  first  who  awakened  mankind 
in  the  ages  of  darkness  to  a  sympathy  with  intellectual  excel- 
lence. His  bold  theories,  not  the  less  attractive  perhaps  for 

k  Oevler,  Hlsi  de  rUfliversitl  dfc"  Pa- 
'        "    p.  *8. 

,    r „ „„,..„  tttfc~&a«Fchfef'bf  thb'eitthednaTdhobTat 

turf.    Brittle  W,  HUtafta  Criticd  Philo-  Fulda,  in  the  ninth  century. 

terAi*,  f.  m.  a,  ieM.  m  GteViefj  &  66. 
/Schmidt,  Hisl.  d£s  Alteftianaa,  t,  il 


ft  Hist.  Littetaire,  p.  317,  &c,  k , 

« This  division  of  the  sciences  IB  aa-  rid,  t  I.  P.     .    ^ 

crlliedtoSt,  Augustin;  and  we  certainly  I  Brttfeket.  t.  1U,  p;  6*3.    Raban  Mau- 

?«id  it  established  edrly  in  thfe  siafeth  cen-       tttfi  -    '    * ' '      *     *  " 

JL^jFi.        f*  .TTTj'iT  '      •*>•**  j  r '•*»».     **t.  •««_*.  j     -r**  «i  _  "r-T  t 


P.    126, 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  139 

treading  upoil  the  bbuttds  of  heresy,  his  imprudent  vanity,  that 
scbrned  the  regularly  acquired  reputation  of  older  men,  allured 
a  multitude  of  disciples>  Who  would  never  have  listefied  to  an 
ordinary  teacher.  It  is  said  that  twenty  cardinals  arid  fifty 
bishops  had  been  among  his  hearers.^  Even  in  the  wilderness, 
where  he  haLd  erected  the  monastery  of  Paraclete,  he  was  stir- 
founded  by  enthusiastic  admirers,  relinquishing  the  luxuries, 
if  so  they  might  be  called^  of  Paris,  for  the  coarse  living  arid 
imperfect  accommodation  Which  that  retirement  could  affdrd.0 
But  the  whole  of  Abelard's  life  was  the  shipwreck  of  genius ; 
arid  of  genius,  both  the  source  of  his  own  calamities  and  Un- 
serviceable to  posterity.  There  are  few  lives  of  literary  fnen 
rtiore  interesting  or  more  diversified  by  success  and  adversity, 
by  glory  and  humiliation,  by  the  admiration  of  mankind  and 
this  persecution  of  enemies ;  nor  from  which,  I  may  add,  friof 6 
impressive  lessons  of  mbral  prudence  may  be  derived./*  Oiief 
of  Abelard's  pupils  was  Peter  Lombard,  afterwards  archbishop 
of  Paris,  and  author  of  a  work  called  the  Book  of  Sentences, 
which  obtained  the  highest  authority  among  the  scholastic 
disputants.  The  resort  of  students  to  Paris  became  continu- 
ally greater ;  they  appear,  before  the  year  1 169,  to  have  beefi 
divided  into  nations ;  q  and  probably  they  had  an  elected  rector 
and  volttntary  rules  of  discipline  about  the  same  time.  This, 
however,  is  riot  decisively  proved ;  but  in  the  last  year  of  the 
twelfth  century  thfey  obtained  their  earliest  charter  from  Philip 
Augustus.*" 

The  opinion  which  ascribes  the  foundation  of  the  universi- 
ty of  Oxford  to  Alfred,  if  it  cannot  be  maintained  as  a  truth, 
contains  no  intrinsic  marks  of  error.  Ihgulfus,  Abbot  of  Croy- 
land,  in  the  fearlieist  authentic  passage  that  can  be  adduced  to 
this  pointy  declares  that  he  Was  sent  froin  Westfninster  to  the 

nCrevier,    p,    i;t;     Brucker,   p.   677;  those   of   France,    PicardyNormandyt 

Tiraboschl,  t.  Hi,  p.  275.  and  England.     These  had  distinct  suf- 

o  Brucker,  p.  750.  frames  in  the  affairs  of  the  uriiversity, 

p  A  great  interest  has  been  revived  in  and  consequently,  when  united,  outnurn- 

France  for  the  philosophy,  As  well  as  the  bered  the  three  higher  faculties  of  theol- 

personal  hi$tory  of  Abelard,  by  the  pub-  ogy,  law,  and  medicine.    In  1169,  Henry 

fication  of  his  philosophical  Writings,  in  II.  of  Englahd  offers  to  refer  his  dis- 

1836,  under  so  eminent  an  editor  as,  M-  pute  with  Becket  to  the  provinces  of  the 

Cousin,  and  by  thfe  excellent  work  of  M.  school  of  Pans. 

de  Remusat,  in  1845*  with  the  title  Abe-  r  Crevier;  t.  i.  p.  270.     The  first  stat- 

lard*  containing  a  copious  account  both  ute    regulating    the    discipline    of    the 

of  the  life  and  writings  Of  that  inost  re-  university  was  *iven  by  Robert  de  Cour- 

rnarkable  man*  the  father,  perhaps,  of  con,  legate  of  Horiorius  III.,  in  1215,  id. 

the  theory  as  to  the  nature  of  universal  p.  236. 

ideas,  now  so  generally  kndwn  by  the  *  No  one  probably  would  choose  to  f  e- 

name  oi  tconceptualism.  ly  .ofi  a  passage  found,   iri,  one   manu- 

d  flic  tacu'lty  of  arts  in  the  university  script  of  Assenus,  which  has  all  appeir- 

of  Paris  was  divided  into  four  nations;  anee  of  an  interpolation.    It  is  evident 


I4o  HALLAM 

school  at  Oxford  where  he  learned  Aristotle,  with  the  first  and 
second  books  of  Tully's  Rhetoric.*  Since  a  school  for  dialectics 
and  rhetoric  subsisted  at  Oxford,  a  town  of  but  middling  size 
and  not  the  seat  of  a  bishop,  we  are  naturally  led  to  refer  its 
foundation  to  one  of  our  kings,  and  none  who  had  reigned  after 
Alfred  appears  likely  to  have  manifested  such  zeal  for  learning. 
However,  it  is  evident  that  the  school  of  Oxford  was  frequented 
under  Edward  the  Confessor.  There  follows  an  interval  of 
above  a  century,  during  which  we  have,  I  believe,  no  contem- 
porary evidence  of  its  continuance.  But  in  the  reign  of  Stephen, 
Vacarius  read  lectures  there  upon  civil  law ;  and  it  is  reasonable 
to  suppose  that  a  foreigner  would  not  have  chosen  that  city,  if 
he  had  not  found  a  seminary  of  learning  already  established. 
It  was  probably  inconsiderable,  and  might  have  been  inter- 
rupted during  some  part  of  the  preceding  century .w  In  the 
reign  of  Henry  II.,  or  at  least  of  Richard  I.,  Oxford  became 
a  very  flourishing  university,  and  in  1201,  according  to  Wood, 
contained  3,000  scholars.^  The  earliest  charters  were  granted 
by  John. 

If  it  were  necessary  to  construe  the  word  university  in  the 
strict  sense  of  a  legal  incorporation,  Bologna  might  lay  claim 
to  a  higher  antiquity  than  either  Paris  or  Oxford.  There  are 
a  few  vestiges  of  studies  pursued  in  that  city  even  in  the  elev- 
enth century ;  w  but  early  in  the  next  the  revival  of  the  Roman 
jurisprudence,  as  has  been  already  noticed,  brought  a  throng 

from  an  anecdote  in  Wood's  History  of  riousness  of  the  continuation  ascribed 

Oxford,  vol.  i,  p.  23  (Gutch's  edition),  to  Peter  of  Blois,  in  which  the  passage 

that  Camden  did  not  believe  in  the  au-  about  Averroes  throws  doubt  upon  the 

thenticity   of   this   passage,   though   he  whole,     I  have,  in  the  Introduction  to 

thought  proper  to  insert  it  in  the  Bri-  the  History  of  Literature,  retracted  the 

tannia.  degree  of  credence  here  given  to  the 

1 1  Gale,  p.  75.    The  mention  of  Aris-  foundation  of  the  university  of  Oxford 

totle  at  so  early  a  period  might  seem  to  by  Alfred.    If  Ingulfus  is  not  genuine, 

throw  some  suspicion  on  this  passage.  we  have  no  proof  of  its  existence  as  a 

But  it  is  impossible  to  detach  it  from  the  school  of  learning  before  the  middle  of 

context;   and  the  works  of  Aristotle  in-  the  twelfth  century.! 

tended  by  Ingulfus  were  translations  of  u  It  may  be  remarked,  that  John  of 

parts  of  his  Logic  by  Boethius  and  Vic-  Salisbury,  who  wrote  in  the  first  years 

torin.    Brucker,  p.  678.    A  passage  in-  of  Henry  I.'s  reign,  since  his  Polycra* 

deed  in  Peter  of  Blois's  continuation  of  ticon  is  dedicated  to  Becket,  before  he 

Ingulfus.  where  the  study  of  Averroes  is  became  archbishop,  makes  no  mention 

said  to  nave  taken  place  at  Cambridge  of  Oxford,   which   he   would   probably 

some  years  before  he  was  born,  is  of  a  have  done  if  it  had  been  an  eminent  seat 

different  complexion,  and  must  of  course  of  learning  at  that  time, 

be  rejected  as  spurious.    In  the  Gesta  v  Wood's  Hist,  and  Antiguities  of  Ox- 

Comitum  Andegavensium  Fulk,  Count  ford,  p.   177.    The  Benedictines  of  St. 

of  Anjou,  who  lived  about  020,  is  said  to  Maur  say,  that  there  was  an  eminent 

have  been  skilled  Aristotelicis  et  Cice-  school  of  canon  law  at  Oxford  about  the 

ronjanis  ratiocinationibus,  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  to  which 

[The  authenticity  of  Ingulfus  has  been  many    students    repaired    from    Paris, 

called  in  question,  not  only  by  Sir  Fran-  Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  t*  ix.  p.  216. 

cis  Palgrave,  but  by  Mr.  Wright.    Biogr.  w  Tiraboschi,  t.   in.  p.  259,  et  alibi. 


Liter.,    Anglo-Norman    Period,    p.    29.       Muratori,  Dissert.  43. 
And  this  implies,  apparently,  the  spu- 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  141 

of  scholars  round  the  chairs  of  its  professors.  Frederic  Barba- 
rossa  in  1158,  by  his  authentic,  or  rescript,  entitled  Habita, 
took  these  under  his  protection,  and  permitted  them  to  be  tried 
in  civil  suits  by  their  own  judges.  This  exemption  from  the 
ordinary  tribunals,  and  even  from  those  of  the  church,  was 
naturally  coveted  by  other  academies ;  it  was  granted  to  the 
university  of  Paris  by  its  earliest  charter  from  Philip  Augustus, 
and  to  Oxford  by  John.  From  this  time  the  golden  age  of 
universities  commenced;  and  it  is  hard  to  say  whether  they 
were  favored  more  by  their  sovereigns  or  by  the  see  of  Rome. 
Their  history  indeed  is  full  of  struggles  with  the  municipal 
authorities,  and  with  the  bishops  of  their  several  cities,  wherein 
they  were  sometimes  the  aggressors,  and  generally  the  conquer- 
ors. From  all  parts  of  Europe  students  resorted  to  these  re- 
nowned seats  of  learning  with  an  eagerness  for  instruction 
which  may  astonish  those  who  reflect  how  little  of  what  we 
now  deem  useful  could  be  imparted.  At  Oxford,  under  Henry 
III.,  it  is  said  that  there  were  30,000  scholars  ;  an  exaggeration 
which  seems  to  imply  that  the  real  number  was  very  great.* 
A  respectable  contemporary  writer  asserts  that  there  were  full 
10,000  at  Bologna  about  the  same  time.?  I  have  not  observed 
any  numerical  statement  as  to  Paris  during  this  age ;  but  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  more  frequented  than  any  other. 
At  the  death  of  Charles  VII.,  in  1453,  it  'IS  sa-id  to  have  con- 
tained 25,000  students.^  In  the  thirteenth  century  other  uni- 
versities sprang  up  in  different  countries ;  Padua  and  Naples 
under  the  patronage  of  Frederic  II.,  a  zealous  and  useful  friend 
to  letters,**  Toulouse  and  Montpelier,  Cambridge  and  Sala- 
manca.&  Orleans,  which  had  long  been  distinguished  as  a 

x  "  But  among  these,"  says  Anthony 
Wood,  "  a  company  of  varlets,  who  pre- 
tended to  be  scholars,  shuffle  themselves  

in,  and  did  act  much  villany  in  the  uni-  a    great   part   of    its    buildings    on    the 

versity   by  thieving,   whoring,   quarrel-  southern  bank  of  the  Seine  to  the  uni- 

ling,  &c.     They  lived  under  no   disci-  versity.    The  students  are  said  to  have 

plme,  neither  had  they  tutors;    but  only  been  about  12,000  before  1480.     Crevier, 

for    fashion's    sake    would     sometimes  t.  iv.  p.  410. 

thrust  themselves  into  the  schools  at  or-  a  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.  pp.  43  and  46. 

dinary  lectures,  and  when  they  went  to  6  The    earliest    authentic    mention    of 

perform  any  mischief,  then  would  they  Cambridge  as  a  place  of  learning,  if  I 

be    accounted    scholars,    that    so    they  mistake  not,  is  in  Matthew  Paris,  who 

might  free  themselves  from  the  juris-  informs  us  that   in   1209,   John   having 

diction  of  the  burghers."    P.  206.    If  we  caused   three    clerks    of    Oxford    to    be 

allow  three  varlets  to  one  scholar,  the  hanged    on    suspicion  of    murder,    the 

university  will  still  have  been  very  fully  whole  body  of  scholars  left  that  city,  and 

frequented  by  the  latter.  emigrated,  some  to  Cambridge,  some  to 

y  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.  p.  47.  Azarius,  Reading,  in  order  to  carry  on  their  stud- 
about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  cen-  ies  (p.  igx,  edit.  1684).  But  it  may  be 
tury.  says  the  number  was  about  13,000  conjectured  with  some  probability,  that 
in  his  time.  Muratori,  Script.  Her.  Ital.  they  were  led  to  a  town  so  distant  as 
t.  xvi,  p.  325.  Cambridge  by  the  previous  establish- 


I42  HALLAM 

school  of  civil  law,  received  the  privileges  of  incorporation  early 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  Angers  before  the  expiration 
of  the  same  age.e  Prague,  the  earliest  and  most  eminent  of 
German  universities,  was  founded  in  1350;  a  secession  from 
thence  of  Saxon  students,  in  consequence  of  the  nationality 
of  the  Bohemians  and  the  Hussite  schism,  gave  rise  to  that 
of  Leipsic.d  The  fifteenth  century  produced  several  new  aca- 
demical foundations  in  France  and  Spain. 

A  large  proportion  of  scholars  in  most  of  those  institutions 
were  drawn  by  the  love  of  science  from  foreign  countries.  The 
chief  universities  had  their  own  particular  departments  of  ex- 
cellence. Paris  was  unrivalled  for  scholastic  theology;  Bo- 
logna and  Orleans,  and  afterwards  Bourges,  for  jurisprudence ; 
Montpelier  for  medicine.  Though  national  prejudices,  as  in 
the  case  of  Prague,  sometimes  interfered  with  this  free  resort 
of  foreigners  to  places  of  education,  it  was  in  general  a  wise 
policy  of  government,  as  well  as  of  the  universities  themselves, 
to  encourage  it.  The  thirty-fifth  article  of  the  peace  of  Bretigni 
provides  for  the  restoration  of  former  privileges  to  students 
respectively  in  the  French  and  English  universities.*?  Various 
letters  patent  will  be  found  in  Rymer's  collection,  securing  to 
Scottish  as  well  as  French  natives  a  safe  passage  to  their  place 
of  education.  The  English  nation,  including  however  the 
Flemings  and  Germans/  had  a  separate  vote  in  the  faculty  of 
arts  at  Paris.  But  foreign  students  were  not,  I  believe,  so 
numerous  in  the  English  academies. 

If  endowments  and  privileges  are  the  means  of  quickening 
a  zeal  for  letters,  they  were  liberally  bestowed  in  the  last  three 
of  the  middle  ages.  Crevier  enumerates  fifteen  colleges  found- 
ed in  the  university  of  P?iris  during  the  thirteenth  century, 
besides  one  or  two  of  a  stil}  earlier  d$te.  Two  only,  or  at  most 
three,  existed  in  that  age  at  Oxford,  and  but  one  at  Cambridge, 
In  the  next  two  centuries  these  universities  could  bqast,  as 
everyone  knows,  of  miany  splendid  founcjatiqps,  though  much 
exceeded  in  number  by  those  of  P^ris.  Considered  as  ecclesi- 
'  astical  institutions  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  universities  ob- 
t^ined,  according  to  the  spirit  of  their  age,  an  exclusive  cojf- 

ment  of  academical  instruction  in  that          c  Crevier,  Hist,  de  rtJniycrsite'  de  Pa- 
place.    The  incorporation  of  Cambridge       ris,  t.  ii.  p,  216;  t.  iij.  p.  140. 
is  in  1231  (is  Hen.  III.),  so  that  there  is          d  Heffel,    Aorta*    Chronqlogique    de 
no  great  difference  in  thfe  legal  ahtiq-       I 'Hist.  44e'l?AlIefaagne,  pp.  550/607. 
uittf  of  "our  two  universities.     *  «  Kyiner,  t.  vi.  p.'  293. ' 

/  Crevier,  t.  ii*  p.  398* 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  143 

nizance  of  civil  or  criminal  suits  affecting  their  members.  This 
jurisdiction  was,  however,  local  as  well  as  personal,  and  in 
reality  encroached  on  the  regular  police  of  their  cities.  At 
Paris  the  privilege  turned  to  a  flagrant  abuse,  and  gave  rise 
to  many  scandalous  contentions.^  Still  more  valuable  advan- 
tages were  those  relating  to  ecclesiastical  preferments,  of  which 
a  large  proportion  was  reserved  in  France  to  academical  grad- 
uates. Something  of  the  same  sort,  though  less  extensive, 
may  still  be  traced  in  the  rules  respecting  plurality  of  benefices 
in  our  English  church. 

This  remarkable  and  almost  sudden  transition  from  a  total 
indifference  to  all  intellectual  pursuits  cannot  be  ascribed  per- 
haps to  any  general  causes.  The  restoration  of  the  civil,  and 
the  formation  of  the  canon  law,  were  indeed  eminently  con- 
ducive to  it,  and  a  large  proportion  of  scholars  in  most  uni- 
versities confined  themselves  to  jurisprudence.  But  the  chief 
attraction  to  the  studious  was  the  new  scholastic  philosophy. 
The  love  of  contention,  especially  with  such  arms  as  tjie  art 
of  dialectics  supplies  to  an  acute  understanding,  is  natural 
enough  to  mankind.  That  of  speculating  upon  the  mysterious 
questions  of  metaphysics  and  theology  is  not  less  so.  These 
disputes  and  speculations,  however,  appear  to  have  excited 
little  interest  till,  after  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century, 
Rosceliji,  a  professor  of  logic,  revived  the  old  question  of  the 
Grecian  schools  respecting  universal  ideas,  the  reality  of  which 
he  denied.  This  kindled  a  spirit  of  metaphysical  discussion, 
which  Lanfranc  and  Anselm,  successively  archbishops  of  Can- 
terbury, kept  alive ;  and  in  the  next  century  Abelard  and  Peter 
Lombard,  especially  the  latter,  completed  the  scholastic  system 
of  philosophizing.  The  logic  of  Aristotle  seems  to  have  been 
partly  known  in  the  eleventh  century,  although  that  of  Augus- 
tin  was  perhaps  in  higher  estimation ;  &  in  the  twelfth  it  ob- 
tained more  decisive  influence.  His  metaphysics,  to  which  the 
logic  might  be  considered  as  preparatory,  were  introduced 
through  translations  from  the  Arabic,  and  perhaps  also  from 
the  Greek,  early  in  the  ensuing  century.**  This  work,  con- 
demned at  first  by  the  decrees  of  popes  and  councils  on  account 

g  Crevier  and  Villaret,  passim.  sures  Brucker  for  the  contrary  opinion. 

h  Brucker,  Hist.  CritJ  Philosophise,  t.  Buhle,  however  (Hist,  de  la  Philosophic 

Hi.  p.  678.  '  *  Moderne,  t.  i.  p.  696),  appears  to  agree 

*  Id.  Ibid.  Tiraboschi  conceives  that  with  Brucker.  It  is  almost  certain  that 

the  translations  of  Aristotle  made  by  versions  were  made  from  the  Arabic 

command  of  Frederic  II.  were  directly  Aristotle;  which  itself  was  not  imme- 

from  the  Greek,  t.  iv.  p.  145 ;  and  cen-  diately  taken  from  the  Greek,  but  from  a 


144  HALLAM 

of  its  supposed  tendency  to  atheism,  acquired  by  degrees  an 
influence,  to  which  even  popes  and  councils  were  obliged  to 
yield.  The  Mendicant  Friars,  established  throughout  Europe 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  greatly  contributed  to  promote  the 
Aristotelian  philosophy  ;  and  its  final  reception  into  the  ortho- 
dox system  of  the  church  may  chiefly  be  ascribed  to  Thomas 
Aquinas,  the  boast  of  the  Dominican  order,  and  certainly  the 
most  distinguished  metaphysician  of  the  middle  ages.  His 
authority  silenced  all  scruples  as  to  that  of  Aristotle,  and  the 
two  philosophers  were  treated  with  equally  implicit  deference 
by  the  later  schoolmen.; 

This  scholastic  philosophy,  so  famous  for  several  ages,  has 
since  passed  away  and  been  forgotten.  The  history  of  liter- 
ature, like  that  of  empire,  is  full  of  revolutions.  Our  public 
libraries  are  cemeteries  of  departed  reputation,  and  the  dust 
accumulating  upon  their  untouched  volumes  speaks  as  forci- 
bly as  the  grass  that  waves  over  the  ruins  of  Babylon.  Few, 
very  few,  for  a  hundred  years  past,  have  broken  the  repose 
of  the  immense  works  of  the  schoolmen.  None  perhaps  in 
our  own  country  have  acquainted  themselves  particularly  with 
their  contents.  Leibnitz,  however,  expressed  a  wish  that  some 
one  conversant  with  modern  philosophy  would  undertake  to 
extract  the  scattered  particles  of  gold  which  may  be  hidden  in 
their  abandoned  mines.  This  wish  had  been  at  length  partially 
fulfilled  by  three  or  four  of  those  industrious  students  and  keen 
metaphysicians  who  do  honor  to  modern  Germany.  But  most 
of  their  works  are  unknown  to  me  except  by  repute,  and  as  they 
all  appear  to  be  formed  on  a  very  extensive  plan,  I  doubt 

Syriac  medium.     Ginguene",  Hist  Litt.  clearness  and  precision  than  anything  I 

de  PItahe,  t,  i,  p,  219  (on  the  authority  have  seen  from  the  schoolmen.    Al  Gnzel 

of  M.  Langl£s).  died  in   1126,   and   consequently  might 

It  was  not  only  a  knowledge  of  Aris-  have  suggested  this  theory  to  Abelard, 

totle  that  the  scholastics  of  Europe  de-  which,  however,  is  not  probable.    Tur« 

rived  from  the  Arabic  language.     His  ner's  Hist,  of  Kngl.  vol.  i.  p.  513. 

writings  had  produced  in  the  flourishing  3  Bruckcr,    Hist.    Crit.      Philosophise, 

Mohammedan  kingdoms  a  vast  number  t.  in.    I  have  found  no  bettor  guide  than 

of  commentators,  and  of  metaphysicians  B  nicker.    But  he  confesses  himself  not 

trained  in  the  same  school.     Of  these  to  have  read  the  original  writings  of  the 

Averroes,  a  native  of  Cordova,  who  died  scholastics;    an  admission  which  every 

early  in  the  thirteenth  century,  was  the  reader  will  perceive  to  be  quite  neces- 

most  eminent.    It  would  he  curious  to  sary.    Consequently,  he  gives  us  rather 

examine  more  minutely  than  has  hither-  a    verbose    declamation    against    their 

to  been  done  the  original  writings  of  philosophy  than  any  clear  view  of  its 

these  famous  men,  which  no  doubt  have  character.    Of  the  valuable  works  lately 

suffered  in  translation,    A  passage  from  published  in  Germany  on  the  history  of 

Al  Gazel,  which  Mr.  Turner  has  ren*  philosophy,  I  have  only  seen  that  of 

Buhle,  which  did  not  fall  into  my  hands 


,  , 

advantage  of  a  double  remove  from  the       till  I  had  nearly  written  these  pages. 
author's  words,  appears  to  state  the  ar-       Tiedemann  and  Tennemann  are,  I  be- 
gument  in  favor  of  that  class  of  Nomi-       lieve,  still  untranslated. 
nalists,  called  Conceptualists,  with  more 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  145 

whether  even  those  laborious  men  could  afford  adequate  time 
for  this  ungrateful  research.  Yet  we  cannot  pretend  to  deny 
that  Roscelin,  Anselm,  Abelard,  Peter  Lombard,  Albertus 
Magnus,  Thomas  Aquinas,  Duns  Scotus,  and  Gckham,  were 
men  of  acute  and  even  profound  understandings,  the  giants  of 
their  own  generation-  Even  with  the  slight  knowledge  we 
possess  of  their  tenets,  there  appear  through  the  cloud  of  re- 
pulsive technical  barbarisms  rays  of  metaphysical  genius  which 
this  age  ought  not  to  despise.  Thus  in  the  works  of  Anselm 
is  found  the  celebrated  argument  of  Descartes  for  the  exist- 
ence of  a  Deity,  deduced  from  the  idea  of  an  infinitely  perfect 
being.  One  great  object  that  most  of  the  schoolmen  had  in 
view  was,  to  establish  the  principles  of  natural  theology  by 
abstract  reasoning.  This  reasoning  was  doubtless  liable  to 
great  difficulties.  But  a  modern  writer,  who  seems  tolerably 
acquainted  with  the  subject,  assures  us  that  it  would  be  difficult 
to  mention  any  theoretical  argument  to  prove  the  divine  attri- 
butes, or  any  objection  capable  of  being  raised  against  the 
proof,  which  we  do  not  find  in  some  of  the  scholastic  philos- 
ophers.^ The  most  celebrated  subjects  of  discussion,  and 
those  on  which  this  class  of  reasoners  were  most  divided, 
were  the  reality  of  universal  ideas,  considered  as  extrinsic  to 
the  human  mind  and  the  freedom  of  will.  These  have  not 
ceased  to  occupy  the  thoughts  of  metaphysicians.* 

But  all  discovery  of  truth  by  means  of  these  controversies 
was  rendered  hopeless  by  two  insurmountable  obstacles,  the 

k  Buhle,  Hist,  de  la  Philos.  Moderne,  Mr.  Coleridge,  and  the  Edinburgh  Re- 
t.  i.  p.  733.  This  author  raises  upon  the  viewer.  Still  I  cannot  bring  myself  to 
ttfhole  A  favorable  notion  of  Anselrn  and  think  that  there  are  four  more  irf  this 
Aquinas;  but  he  hardly  notices  any  country  who  can  say  the  same.  Cer- 
other.  tain  portions,  however,  of  his  Writings 
I  Mr.  Turner  has  with  his  character-  are  still  read  in  the  course  of  instruc- 
istic  spirit  of  enterprise  examined  some  tiott  of  some  Catholic  universities, 
of  the  writings  of  our  chief  English  [I  leave  this  passage  as  it  was  written 
schoolmen,  Dttns  Steottts  and  Ockham-  about  1814*  But  it  must  be  owrted 
(Hist,  of  Eng.  vol.  i ),  and  even  given  us  with  regard  to  the  schoolmen,  as  well  as 
some  extracts  from  them.  They  seem  the  jurists,  that  I  at  that  time  under- 
to  me  very  frivolous,  so  far  as  I  can  col-  rated,  or  at  least  did  not  anticipate,  the 
lect  their  meaning.  Ockham  in  par-  attention  which  their  works  have  at- 
ticular  falls  very  short  of  what  I  had  ex-  tracted  in  modern  Europe,  and  that  the 
pected ;  arid  his  nominalism1  is  strangely  passage  in  the  texts  is  more  applicable  to 
different  from  that  of  Berkeley.  We  the  philosophy  of  the  eighteenth  century 
can  hardly  reckon  a  man  in  the  right,  than  of  the  present.  For  several  years 
who  is  so  by  accident,  and  through  so-  past  the  metaphysicians  of  Germany 
phistical  reasoning.  However,  a  well-  and  France  have  brushed  the  dust  fro-m 
known  article  in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  the  scholastic  volumes;  Tfirmemann 
No,  liii'  p-  204,  gives,  from  Tennernann,  and  Buhle,  Degerando,  but  more  than 
a  more  favorable  account  of  Ockham.  all  Cousin  and  Remusat,  in  their  excel- 
Perhaps  I  may  have  imagined  the  lent  labors  on  Abelard,  have  restored 
scholastics  to  be  more  forgotten  than  the  mediaeval  philosophy  to  a  place  in 
they  really  are.  Within  a  short  time  1  transcendental  metaphysics,  which,  dur- 
have  met  with  four  living  English  writ-  ing  the  prevalence  of  the  Cartesian 
ers  who  have  read  parts  of  Thomas  school,  and  those  derived  from  it,  had 
Aquinas :  Mr.  Turner,  Mr.  Beririgton,  been  refused.  1848  ] 

VOL.  III.— 10 


I46  HALLAM 

authority  of  Aristotle  and  that  of  the  church.  Wherever  obse- 
quious reverence  is  substituted  for  bold  inquiry,  truth,  if  she 
is  not  already  at  hand,  will  never  be  attained.  The  scholastics 
did  not  understand  Aristotle,  whose  original  writings  they 
could  not  read ;  w  but  his  name  was  received  with  implicit 
faith.  They  learned  his  peculiar  nomenclature,  and  fancied 
that  he  had  given  them  realities.  The  authority  of  the  church 
did  them  still  more  harm.  It  has  been  said,  and  probably  with 
much  truth,  that  their  metaphysics  were  injurious  to  their  the- 
ology. But  I  must  observe  in  return  that  their  theology  was 
equally  injurious  to  their  metaphysics.  Their  disputes  con- 
tinually turned  upon  questions  either  involving  absurdity  and 
contradiction,  or  at  best  inscrutable  by  human  comprehension. 
Those  who  assert  the  greatest  antiquity  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
doctrine  as  to  the  real  presence,  allow  that  both  the  word  and 
the  definition  of  transubstantiation  are  owing  to  the  scholastic 
writers.  Their  subtleties  were  not  always  so  well  received. 
They  reasoned  at  imminent  peril  of  being  charged  with  heresy, 
which  Roscelin,  Abelard,  Lombard,  and  Ockharn  did  not  es- 
cape. In  the  virulent  factions  that  arose  out  of  their  metaphys- 
ical quarrels,  either  party  was  eager  to  expose  its  adversary 
to  detraction  and  persecution.  The  Nominalists  were  accused, 
one  hardly  sees  why,  with  reducing,  like  Sabellius,  the  persons 
of  the  Trinity  to  modal  distinctions.  The  Realists,  with  more 
pretence,  incurred  the  imputation  of  holding  a  language  that 
savored  of  atheism."-  In  the  controversy  which  the  Domini- 
cans and  Franciscans,  disciples  respectively  of  Thomas  Aquinas 
and  Duns  Scotus,  maintained  about  grace  and  free-will,  it  was 
of  course  still  more  easy  to  deal  in  mutual  reproaches  of  hetero- 
doxy. But  the  schoolmen  were  in  general  prudent  enough 
not  to  defy  the  censures  of  the  church;  and  the  popes,  in 
return  for  the  support  they  gave  to  all  exorbitant  pretensions 
of  the  Holy  See,  connived  at  this  factious  wrangling,  which 
threatened  no  serious  mischief,  as  it  did  not  proceed  from  any 

m  Roger  Bacon,  by  far  the  truest  phi-  rest  make  egregious  errors  in  both  re- 

losopher  of  the  middle  ages,  complains  spects.    And  there  is  so  much  misappre- 

of  the  ignorance  of  Aristotle's  transla-  hension  and  obscurity  in  the  Aristote* 

tors.      Every    translator,    he    observes,  Han  writings  as  thus  translated,  that  no 

ought  to  understand  his  author's  sub-  one  understands  them.    Opus  Majus,  p, 

Ject,  and  the  two  languages  from  which  45. 

and  into  which  he  is  to  render  the  work.  n  Brucker,  pp.  733,  gta.  Mr.  Turner 
But  none  hitherto,  except  Boethius,  have  has  fallen  into  some  confusion  as  to  this 
sufficiently  known  the  languages;  nor  point,  and  supposes  the  nominalist  sys« 
has  one,  except  Robert  Grosstete  (the  tern  to  have  nad  a  pantheistical  ten- 
famous  bishop  of  Lincoln),  had  a  com-  dency,  not  clearly  apprehending  its 
petent  acquaintance  with  science.  The  characteristics,  p.  512. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  147 

independent  spirit  of  research.  Yet  with  all  their  apparent 
conformity  to  the  received  creed,  there  was,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected  from  the  circumstances,  a  great  deal  of  real  deviation 
from  orthodoxy,  and  even  of  infidelity.  The  scholastic  mode 
of  dispute,  admitting  of  no  termination  and  producing  no  con- 
viction, was  the  sure  cause  of  scepticism;  and  the  system  of 
Aristotle,  especially  with  the  commentaries  of  Averroes,  bore 
an  aspect  very  unfavorable  to  natural  religions  The  Aristo- 
telian philosophy,  even  in  the  hands  of  the  Master,  was  like 
a  barren  tree  that  conceals  its  want  of  fruit  by  profusion  of 
leaves.  But  the  scholastic  ontology  was  much  worse,  What 
could  be  more  trifling  than  disquisitions  about  the  nature  of 
angels,  their  modes  of  operation,  their  means  of  conversing, 
or  (for  these  were  distinguished)  the  morning  and  evening 
state  of  their  understandings  ?  P  Into  such  follies  the  school- 
men appear  to  have  launched,  partly  because  there  was  less 
danger  of  running  against  a  heresy  in  a  matter  where  the 
church  had  defined  so  little — partly  from  their  presumption, 
which  disdained  all  inquiries  into  the  human  mind,  as  merely 
a  part  of  physics — and  in  no  small  degree  through  a  spirit  of 
mystical  fanaticism,  derived  from  the  oriental  philosophy  and 
the  later  Platonists,  which  blended  itself  with  the  cold-blooded 
technicalities  of  the  Aristotelian  schooU  But  this  unproduc- 

o  Petrarch  gives  a  curious  account  of  philosophy  and  religion,  is.  perhaps  the 

the  irreligion  that  prevailed  among  the  most  congenial  to  the  spirit  of  solitary 

learned  at  Venice  and  Padua,  in  con-  speculation,  and  consequently  the  most 

sequence  of  their  unbounded  admiration  extensively  diffused  of  any  which  those 

for  Aristotle  and  Averroes.    One  of  this  high  themes  have  engendered     It  ong- 

school,  conversing  with  him,   after  ex-  mated  no  doubt  in  sublime  conceptions 

pressing  much  contempt  for  the  Apos-  of    divine    omnipotence    and    ubiquity, 

ties  and  Fathers,  exclaimed:   Utinam  tu  But  clearness  of  expression,  or  indeed  of 

Averroim  pati  posses,  ut  videres  quanto  ideas,  being  not  easily  connected  with 

ml  S?s  hisPnugPatoribus  major -«t !*M em.  mysticism   the  language  of ^oaophcrs 

de  Petrarque,  t.  lii.  p.  759.    Tiraboschi,  adopting   the   theory   of   emanation    is 

t   v   c    162  often  hardly  distinguishable  from  that  of 

/>  Brucker,  p   898  the  pantheists.     Brucker,  very  unjustly, 

a  This  mystical  philosophy  appears  to  as    I    imagine    from    the    passages    ne 

have  been  introduced  into  Europe  by  guotes,  accuses  John  Engena  of  panthe- 

John  Seotua,  whom  Buhle  treats  as  the  ism.     Hist.   Crit.    Philos.   p.   620      The 

founder   of   the    scholastic    philosophy;  charge     would,     however,     be     better 

though,  as  it  made  no  sensible  progress  grounded    against    some    whose    style 

for  two  centuries  after  his  time,  it  seems  might  deceive  an  unaccustomed  reader, 

more  natural  to  give  that  credit  to  Ros-  In   fact,  the  philosophy  of   emanation 

S?fn  and  Anselm.     Scotus  or  Erigena,  leads  very  nearly  to  the  doctrme  of  an 

as  he  is  perhaps  more  frequently  called,  universal    substance,   which   begot   the 

took  up,  through  the  medium  of  a  spu-  atheistic  system  of  Spinoza,  and  which 

rious  work,   ascribed  to  Dionysius  the  appears   to   have    revived   with    similar 

ii 


riUUO       WWilJV,      a»'»J.lUV,\A      i,v»      JL^*w»*jriai.v«»a      »••-»  —  r-f --         -—  ,  «        «,J— !« «ie 

Areopadte,     that    remarkable    system  consequences  among  the  ^aphysicians 

which  has  from  time  immemorial  pre-  of  Germany.    How  very  closely  the  Ian- 

vailed    in    some    schools    of   the    &t.  guage   of   this    oriental   Philosophy     or 

wherein  all  external  phenomena,  as  well  even  that  which  regards  the  Deity  as 

as    all    subordinate   intellects,    are   con-  the  soul  of  the  world,  ma7  verge  upon 

sidered  as  emanating  from  the  Supreme  pantheism,  will  be  perceived    (without 

Being,  into  whose  essence  they  are  here-  the  trouble  of  reading  the  first  book  of 

after  to  be  absorbed.    This  system,  re-  Cudworth)   from   two   famous   Passages 

produced   under   various   modificatTons,  of  Virgil  and  Lucan.     Georg.   1.  iv,  v. 

and  combined  with  various  theories  of  219;  and  Pharsaha,  1.  vm.  v.  578. 


148  HALLAM 

tive  waste  of  the  faculties  could  not  last  forever.  Men  dis- 
covered that  they  had  given  their  time  for  the  promise  of  wis- 
dom, and  been  cheated  in  the  bargain.  What  John  of  Salis- 
bury observes  of  the  Parisian  dialecticians  in  his  own  time, 
that,  after  several  years'  absence,  he  found  them  not  a  step 
advanced  and  still  employed  in  urging  and  parrying  the  same 
arguments,  was  equally  applicable  to  the  period  of  centuries, 
After  three  or  four  hundred  years,  the  scholastics  had  not  un- 
tied a  single  knot,  nor  added  one  unequivocal  truth  to  the 
domain  of  philosophy.  As  this  became  more  evident,  the  en- 
thusiasm for  that  kind  of  learning  declined  ;  after  the  middle 
of  the  fourteenth  century  few  distinguished  teachers  arose 
among  the  schoolmen,  and  at  the  revival  of  letters  their  pre- 
tended science  had  no  advocates  left,  but  among  the  prejudiced 
or  ignorant  adherents  of  established  systems.  How  different 
is  the  state  of  genuine  philosophy,  the  zeal  for  which  will  never 
wear  out  by  length  of  time  or  change  of  fashion,  because  the 
inquirer,  unrestrained  by  authority,  is  perpetually  cheered  by 
the  discovery  of  truth  in  researches,  which  the  boundless  riches 
of  nature  seem  to  render  indefinitely  progressive  \r 

Yet,  upon  a  general  consideration,  the  attention  paid  in  the 
universities  to  scholastic  philosophy  may  be  deemed  a  source 
of  improvement  in  the  intellectual  character,  when  we  com- 
pare it  with  the  perfect  ignorance  of  some  preceding  ages. 
Whether  the  same  industry  would  not  have  been  more  profit- 
ably directed  if  the  love  of  metaphysics  had  not  intervened, 
is  another  question.  Philology,  or  the  principles  of  good  taste, 
degenerated  through  the  prevalence  of  school  logic.  The 
Latin  compositions  of  the  twelfth  century  are  better  than  those 
of  the  three  that  followed—  at  least  on  the  northern  side  of  the 
Alps.  I  do  not,  however,  conceive  that  any  real  correctness 
of  taste  or  general  elegance  of  style  was  likely  to  subsist  in  so 
imperfect  a  condition  of  society.  These  qualities  seem  to  re- 
quire a  certain  harmonious  correspondence  in  the  tone  of  man- 
tiers  before  they  can  establish  a  prevalent  influence  over  liter- 
ature. A  more  real  evil  was  the  diverting  of  studious  men 
from  mathematical  science.  Early  in  the  twelfth  century  sev- 
eral persons,  chiefly  English,  had  brought  into  Europe  some 
of  the  Arabian  writings  on  geometry  and  physics*  In  the  thir- 


ris  subject,  as  welt  as  some  others       Literature  of  the  isth,   ifith,  and  *7th 
in  this  part  of  the  present  chapter,  has       Centuries. 
been  touched  in  my  Introduction  to  the 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  I49 

teenth  the  works  of  Euclid  were  commented  upon  by  Cam- 
pano/r  and  Roger  Bacon  was  fully  acquainted  with  them.*  Al- 
gebra, as  far  as  the  Arabians  knew  it,  extending  to  quadratic 
equations,  was  actually  in  the  hands  of  some  Italians  at  the 
commencement  of  the  same  age,  and  preserved  for  almost 
three  hundred  years  as  a  secret,  though  without  any  concep- 
tion of  its  importance.  As  abstract  mathematics  require  no 
collateral  aid,  they  may  reach  the  highest  perfection  in  ages 
of  general  barbarism ;  and  there  seems  to  be  no  reason  why, 
if  the  course  of  study  had  been  directed  that  way,  there  should 
not  have  arisen  a  Newton  or  a  La  Place,  instead  of  an  Aquinas 
or  an  Ockham.  The  knowledge  displayed  by  Roger  Bacon 
and  by  Albertus  Magnus,  even  in  the  mixed  mathematics,  un- 
der every  disadvantage  from  the  imperfection  of  instruments 
and  the  want  of  recorded  experience,  is  sufficient  to  inspire 
us  with  regret  that  their  contemporaries  were  more  inclined 
to  astonishment  than  to  emulation.  These  inquiries  indeed 
were  subject  to  the  ordeal  of  fire,  the  great  purifier  of  books 
and  men ;  for  if  the  metaphysician  stood  a  chance  of  being 
burned  as  a  heretic,  the  natural  philosopher  was  in  not  less 
jeopardy  as  a  magician .« 

A  far  more  substantial  cause  of  intellectual  improvement  was 
the  development  of  those  new  languages  that  sprang  out  of 
the  corruption  of  Latin.  For  three  or  four  centuries  after  what 
was  called  the  Romance  tongue  was  spoken  in  France,  there 
remain  but  few  vestiges  of  its  employment  in  writing ;  though 
we  cannot  draw  an  absolute  inference  from  our  want  of  proof, 

s  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.  p.  150.  trated  by  the  following  passage:  Duo 
t  There  is  a  very  copious  and  sensible  sunt  modi  cognoscendi ;  scilicet  per 
account  of  Roger  Bacon  in  Wood's  His-  argumentum  et  experimentum.  Argu- 
tory  of  Oxford,  vol.  i.  p.  332  (Gutch's  mentum  concludit  et  facit  nas  conclu- 
edition).  I  am  a  little  surprised  that  dere  qujestionem ;  sed  non  certificat 
Anthony  should  have  found  out  Bacon's  neque  remqvet  dubitationem,  ut  quiescat 
merit.  animus  in  intuitu  veritatis,  nisi  earn  in- 
The  resemblance  between  Roger  Ba-  veniat  via  experientia ;  quia  multi  ha- 
con  and  his  greater  namesake  is  very  re-  bent  argumenta  ad  scibilia,  sed  quia  non 
markable,  Whether  Lord  Bacon  ever  habent  experientiam,  negligunt  ea, 
read  the  Opus  Majus,  I  know  not;  but  neque  vitant  nociva  nee  persequuntur 
it  is  singular,  that  his  favorite  quaint  bona.  Si  enim  aliquis  homo,  qui  nun- 
expression,  prerogative  scientiarum,  quam  vidit  ignem,  probavit  per  argu- 
should  be  found  in  that  work,  though  menta  sufficientia  quod  ignis  combunt 
not  used  with  the  same  allusion  to  the  et  laedit  res  et  destruit,  nunquam  prop- 
Roman  cornitia.  And  whoever  reads  ter  hoc  quiesceret  animus  audientis,  nee 
the  sixth  part  of  the  Opus  Majus,  upon  ignem  vitaret  antequam  poneret  manum 
experimental  science,  must  be  struck  vel  rem  combustibilem  ad  ignem,  ut  per 
by  it  as  the  prototype,  in  spirit,  of  the  experientiam  probaret  quod  argument;- 
Novum  Organum.  The  same  sanguine  urn  edocebat;  sed  assumpta  expenentia 
and  sometimes  rash  confidence  in  the  combustionis  certificatur  animus  et 
effect  of  physical  discoveries,  the  same  quiescit  in  £ulgore  yeritatis,  quo  argu- 
fondness  for  experiment,  the  same  pref-  mentum  non  sumcit,  sed  expenentia. 
erence  of  inductive  to  abstract  reason-  P.  446. 

ing,   pervade   both  works.     Roger  Ba-  u  See  the  fate  of   Cecco   d'Ascoli  in 

con's  philosophical  spirit  may  be  illus-  Tiraboschi,  t  v.  p.  174. 


I5o  HALLAM 

and  a  critic  of  much  authority  supposes  translations  to  have 
been  made  into  it  for  religious  purposes  from  the  time  of  Char- 
lemagne.^ During  this  period  the  language  was  split  into  two 
very  separate  dialects,  the  regions  of  which  may  be  considered, 
though  by  no  means  strictly,  as  divided  by  the  Loire,  These 
were  called  the  Langue  d'Oil  and  the  Langue  d'Oc;  or  in 
more  modern  times,  the  French  and  Provencal  dialects.  In 
the  latter  of  these  I  know  of  nothing  which  can  even  by  name 
be  traced  beyond  the  year  noo.  About  that  time  Gregory  de 
Bechada,  a  gentleman  of  Limousin,  recorded  the  memorable 
events  of  the  first  crusade,  then  recent,  in  a  metrical  history 
of  great  length.™  This  poem  has  altogether  perished ;  which, 
considering  the  popularity  of  its  subject,  as  M.  Sismondi  justly 
remarks,  would  probably  not  have  been  the  case  if  it  had  pos- 
sessed any  merit.  But  very  soon  afterwards  a  multitude  of 
poets,  like  a  swarm  of  summer  insects,  appeared  in  the  southern 
provinces  of  France.  These  were  the  celebrated  Troubadours, 
whose  fame  depends  far  less  on  their  positive  excellence  than 
on  the  darkness  of  preceding  ages,  on  the  temporary  sensation 
they  excited,  and  their  permanent  influence  on  the  state  of 
European  poetry.  From  William  Count  of  Poitou,  the  earliest 
troubadour  on  record,  who  died  in  1126,  to  their  extinction, 
about  the  end  of  the  next  century,  there  were  probably  several 
hundred  of  these  versifiers  in  the  language  of  Provence,  though 
not  always  natives  of  France.  Millot  has  published  the  lives  of 
one  hundred  and  forty-two,  besides  the  names  of  many  more 
whose  history  is  unknown ;  and  a  still  greater  number,  it  can- 
not be  doubted,  are  unknown  by  name.  Among1  those  poets 
are  reckoned  a  king  of  England  (Richard  L),  two  of  Aragon, 
one  of  Sicily,  a  dauphin  of  Auvergne,  a  count  of  Foix,  a  prince 
of  Orange,  many  noblemen  and  several  ladies.  One  can 
hardly  pretend  to  account  for  this  sudden  and  transitory  love 
of  verse ;  but  it  is  manifestly  one  symptom  of  the  rapid  im- 
pulse which  the  human  mind  received  in  the  twelfth  century, 
and  contemporaneous  with  the  severer  studies  that  began  to 


Boeuf,  M&m.  de  1'Acad.  des  In-  rum   spatium   super  hoc  optia  operam 

script,  t*  xvii.  p.  711.  dedit.     Ne  ver6  vilcsceret  propter  ver- 

•w  Gregorius,  cognomento  Bechada  de  bum  vulgare,  mm  sine  pneeepto  epls- 

Castro  oe  Turribus,  professione  miles,  copi    Eustorgii,    et    consilio    Gauberti 

subtilissimi    ingenii    vir,    aliquantulum  Normanni,   hoc  opus  ag^ressus  est,     t 

imbutus  Hteris,  homm  gesta  prasliorum  transcribe  this  from  Heeren's  Essai  sur 

materni  lingua  rhythmo  vulgari,  ut  po-  I«$  Croisades,  p.  447;    whose  reference 

pulus  plemter  tntellifferet,  ingens  volu-  is  to  Labbe*,  Bibliotheca  nova  MSS.  t, 

men  decenter  compoauit,  et  ut  vera  et  i{.  p.  396. 
faccta  verba  proferret,  duodecim  anno- 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  151 

flourish  in  the  universities.  It  was  encouraged  by  the  pros- 
perity of  Languedoc  and  Provence,  undisturbed,  comparatively 
with  other  countries,  by  internal  warfare,  and  disposed  by  the 
temper  of  their  inhabitants  to  feel  with  voluptuous  sensibility 
the  charm  of  music  and  amorous  poetry.  But  the  tremendous 
storm  that  fell  upon  Languedoc  in  the  crusade  against  the  Al- 
bigeois  shook  off  the  flowers  of  Proven9al  verse ;  and  the  final 
extinction  of  the  fief  of  Toulouse,  with  the  removal  of  the 
counts  of  Provence  to  Naples,  deprived  the  troubadours  of  their 
most  eminent  patrons.  An  attempt  was  made  in  the  next  cen- 
tury to  revive  them,  by  distributing  prizes  for  the  best  com- 
position in  the  Floral  Games  of  Toulouse,  which  have  some- 
times been  erroneously  referred  to  a  higher  antiquity.-*"  This 
institution  perhaps  still  remains ;  but  even  in  its  earliest  period 
it  did  not  establish  the  name  of  any  Provencal  poet.  Nor  can 
we  deem  these  fantastical  solemnities,  styled  Courts  of  Love, 
where  ridiculous  questions  of  metaphysical  gallantry  were  de- 
bated by  poetical  advocates,  under  the  presidency  and  arbi- 
tration of  certain  ladies,  much  calculated  to  bring  forward  any 
genuine  excellence.  They  illustrate,  however,  what  is  more 
immediately  my  own  object,  the  general  ardor  for  poetry  and 
the  manners  of  those  chivalrous  ages.y 

The  great  reputation  acquired  by  the  troubadours,  and  pane- 
gyrics lavished  on  some  of  them  by  Dante  and  Petrarch,  ex- 
cited a  curiosity  among  literary  men,  which  has  been  a  good 
deal  disappointed  by  further  acquaintance.  An  excellent  French 
antiquary  of  the  last  age,  La  Curne  de  St.  Palaye,  spent  great 
part  of  his  life  in  accumulating  manuscripts  of  Provencal 
poetry,  very  little  of  which  had  ever  been  printed.  Translations 
from  part  of  this  collection,  with  memorials  of  the  writers,  were 
published  by  Millot ;  and  we  certainly  do  not  often  meet  with 
passages  in  his  three  volumes  which  give  us  any  poetical 
pleasures  Some  of  the  original  poems  have  since  been  pub- 
lished, and  the  extracts  made  from  them  by  the  recent  histo- 
rians of  southern  literature  are  rather  superior.  The  trouba- 
dours chiefly  confined  themselves  to  subjects  of  love,  or  rather 
gallantry,  and  to  satires  (sirventes),  which  are  sometimes  keen 

*De  Sade,  Vie  de  Petrarque,  t.  i.  p.  Etat  de  la  Poesie  Francoise,  p.  94-     I 

155.     Sismondi,  Litt.  du  Midi,  t.  i.  p.  have  never  had  patience  to  look  at  the 

agg.  older  writers  who  have  treated  this  tire- 

V  For  the  Courts  of  Love,  see  De  Sade,  some  subject.            . 

Vie   de  Petrarque,   t.  ii.   note   19.     Le  a  Histoire  UttSraire  des  Troubadours, 

Grand,  Fabliaux,  t,  i.  p.  370.    Roquefort,  Paris,  1774- 


IS3  HALLAM 

and  spirited.  No  romances  of  chivalry,  and  hardly  any  tales, 
are  found  among  their  works.  There  seems  a  general  defi- 
ciency of  imagination,  and  especially  of  that  vivid  description 
which  distinguishes  works  of  genius  in  the  rudest  period  of 
society.  In  the  poetry  of  sentiment,  their  favorite  province, 
they  seldom  attain  any  natural  expression,  and  consequently 
produce  no  interest.  I  speak,  of  course,  on  the  presumption 
that  the  best  specimens  have  been  exhibited  by  those  who  have 
undertaken  the  task.  It  must  be  allowed,  however,  that  we 
cannot  judge  of  the  troubadours  at  a  greater  disadvantage  than 
through  the  prose  translations  of  Millot.  Their  poetry  was 
entirely  of  that  class  which  is  allied  to  music,  and  excites  the 
fancy  or  feelings  rather  by  the  power  of  sound  than  any  stitn- 
ulancy  of  imagery  and  passion.  Possessing  a  flexible  and  har- 
monious language,  they  invented  a  variety  of  metrical  ar- 
rangements, perfectly  new  to  the  nations  of  Europe.  The 
Latin  hymns  were  striking,  but  monotonous,  the  metre  of  the 
northern  French  unvaried;  but  in  Provencal  poetry,  almost 
every  length  of  verse,  from  two  syllables  to  twelve,  and  the 
most  intricate  disposition  of  rhymes,  were  at  the  choice  of  the 
troubadour.  The  canzoni,  the  sestine,  all  the  lyric  metres  of 
Italy  and  Spain  were  borrowed  from  his  treasury.  With  such 
a  command  of  poetical  sounds,  it  was  natural  that  he  should 
inspire  delight  into  ears  not  yet  rendered  familiar  to  the  arti- 
fices of  verse;  and  even  now  the  fragments  of  these  ancient 
lays,  quoted  by  M.  Sismondi  and  M.  Ginguene,  seem  to  possess 
a  sort  of  charm  that  has  evaporated  in  translation.  Upon  this 
harmony,  and  upon  the  facility  with  which  mankind  arc  apt 
to  be  deluded  into  an  admiration  of  exaggerated  sentiment  in 
poetry,  they  depended  for  their  influence.  And  however  vapid 
the  songs  of  Provence  may  seem  to  our  apprehensions,  they 
were  undoubtedly  the  source  from  which  poetry  for  many  cen- 
turies derived  a  great  portion  of  its  habitual  languages 
It  has  been  maintained  by  some  antiquaries,  that  the  north- 

<t  Two  very  modern  French  writers,  M.  workr  a  fault  not  imputable  to  himself, 

Ginguene1    (Histoire  Litteraire  d'ltalie,  though    Ritson,   as   I   remember,  calls 

Paris,  i8n)  and  M.  Sismondi  (LitteVa-  him,  in  his  own  polite  style,  **  a  block- 

ture  du  Midi  de  1'Europe,  Paris,  1813),  head,"  it  will  always  be  useful  to  the 

have  revived  the  poetical  history  of  the  inquirer  into  the  manners  and  opinions 

troubadours.    To  them,  still  more  than  of  the  middle  afifes,  from  the  numerous 

to  Millot  and  Tiraboschi,  I  would  ac-  illustrations  it  contains  of  two  general 

knowledge  my  obligations  for  the  little  facts;     the    extreme    dissoluteness    of 

I  have  learned  in  respect  of  this  for-  morals  among  the  higher  ranks,   and 

gotten  school  of  poetry.    Notwithatand-  the  prevailing  animosity  of  all  classes 

mg,  however,  the  heaviness  of  Millot's  against  the  clergy. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  153 

ern  Romance,  or  what  we  properly  call  French,  was  not  formed 
until  the  tenth  century,  the  common  dialect  of  all  France  hav- 
ing previously  resembled  that  of  Languedoc.  This  hypothesis 
may  not  be  indisputable ;  but  the  question  is  not  likely  to  be 
settled,  as  scarcely  any  written  specimens  of  Romance,  even 
of  that  age,  have  survived^  In  the  eleventh  century,  among 
other  more  obscure  productions,  both  in  prose  and  metre,  there 
appears  what,  if  unquestioned  as  to  authenticity,  would  be  a 
valuable  monument  of  this  language ;  the  laws  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  These  are  preserved  in  a  manuscript  of  Ingulfus's 
History  of  Croyland,  a  blank  being  left  in  other  copies  where 
they  should  be  inserted.^  They  are  written  in  an  idiom  so  far 
removed  from  the  Proven£al,  that  one  would  be  disposed  to 
think  the  separation  between  these  two  species  of  Romance 
of  older  standing  than  is  commonly  allowed.  But  it  has  been 
thought  probable  that  these  laws,  which  in  fact  were  nearly 
a  repetition  of  those  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  were  originally 
published  in  Anglo-Saxon,  the  only  language  intelligible  to 
the  people,  and  translated,  at  a  subsequent  period,  by  some 
Norman  monk  into  French.^ 

The  use  of  a  popular  language  became  more  common  after 
the  year  noo.  Translations  of  some  books  of  Scripture  and 
acts  of  saints  were  made  about  that  time,  or  even  earlier,  and 
there  are  French  sermons  of  St.  Bernard,  from  which  extracts 
have  been  published,  in  the  royal  library  at  Paris/  In  1126, 
a  charter  was  granted  by  Louis  VI.  to  the  city  of  Beauvais  in 
French/  Metrical  compositions  are  in  general  the  first  litera- 

*  Hist.  Litt  de  la  France,  t.  vii.  p.  58.  Utcd  from  a  Latin  original;  the  French 
Le  Bceuf,  according  to  these  Benedic-  is  of  the  thirteenth  century.  It  is  now 
tines,  has  published  some  poetical  frag-  doubted  whether  any.  French,  except  a 
ments  of  the  tenth  century;  and  they  fragment  of  a  translation  of  Boethtus,  m 
quote  part  of  a  charter  as  old  as  940  in  verse,  is  extant  of  an  earlier  age  than  the 
Romance.  P.  59.  But  that  antiquary,  twelfth.  Introduction  to  Hist,  of  Lit- 
in  a  memoir  printed  in  the  seventeenth  erat.  30!  edit.  p.  28.] 
volume  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions,  «  Hist.  Litt.  t.  ix..  p.  149;  J^bliaux 
which  throws  more  light  on  the  infancy  par  Barbasan,  yol>  p.  o,  edit  1808; 
of  the  French  language  than  anything  Mem.  de  l'Acad|mie  des  Ingcr.  t.  xv. 
within  my  knowledge,  says  only  that  the  and  xvii.  p.  714,  &c, 
earliest  specimens  of  verse  in  the  royal  f  Mabillon  speaks  of  this  as  the  oldest 
library  are  of  the  eleventh  century  au  French  instrument  he  had  seen.  But  the 
plus i  tarrf,  P.  7*7>  M-  de  Ja  Rue  is  said  Benedictines  quote  some  of  the  eleventh 
to  have  found  some  poems  of  the  elev-  century,.  Hist  Litt.  t.  vii.  p.  S9-  This. 
enth  century  in  the  "British  Museum,  charter  is  supposed  by  the  authors  of 
Roquefort  Etat  de  la  Poesie  Frangoise,  Nouveau  Trait*  de  Diplomatic  to  be 
p,  ao6,  £e  Bceuf '$  fragment  may  be  translated  from  the  Latin,  t.  w.  p.  519- 
found  in  this  work,  P  379?  it  seems  French  charters,  they  say,  are  not  corn- 
nearer  to  the  Provencal  than  the  French  mon  before  the  age  of  Louis  IX.:  and 
dialect  this  is  confirmed  by  those  published 
c  Gale  XV.  Script,  t  i.  p.  88,  in  Martenne's  Thesaurus  Anecdotorurn, 
dRitson's  Dissertation  on  Romance,  which  are  .very  commonly  in  French 
p.  66,  [The  laws  of  William  the  Con-  from  his  reign,  but  hardly  ever  before. 
queror,  published  in  Ingulfus,  ate  trans- 


IS4  HALLAM 

ture  of  a  nation,  and  even  if  no  distinct  proof  could  be  adduced, 
we  might  assume  their  existence  before  the  twelfth  century. 
There  is  however  evidence,  not  to  mention  the  fragments 
printed  by  Le  Boeuf,  of  certain  lives  of  saints  translated  into 
French  verse  by  Thibault  de  Vernon,  a  canon  of  Rouen,  before 
the  middle  of  the  preceding  age.  And  we  are  told  that  Taillefer, 
a  Norman  minstrel,  recited  a  song  or  romance  on  the  deeds  of 
Roland,  before  the  army  of  his  countrymen,  at  the  battle  of 
Hastings  in  1066.  Philip  de  Than,  a  Norman  subject  of  Henry 
L,  seems  to  be  the  earliest  poet  whose  works  as  well  as  name 
have  reached  us,  unless  we  admit  a  French  translation  of  the 
work  of  one  Marbode  upon  precious  stones  to  be  more  an- 
cient.* This  De  Than  wrote  a  set  of  rules  for  computation 
of  time  and  an  account  of  different  calendars.  A  happy  theme 
for  inspiration  without  doubt!  Another  performance  of  the 
same  author  is  a  treatise  on  birds  and  beasts,  dedicated  to 
Adelaide,  queen  of  Henry  I>  But  a  more  famous  votary  of  the 
muses  was  Wace,  a  native  of  Jersey,  who  about  the  beginning 
of  Henry  IL's  reign  turned  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth's  history 
into  French  metre.  Besides  this  poem,  called  le  Brut  d'Angle- 
terre,  he  composed  a  series  of  metrical  histories,  containing  the 
transactions  of  the  dukes  of  Normandy,  from  Rollo,  their  great 
progenitor,  who  gave  name  to  the  Roman  de  Rou,  down  to  his 
own  age.  Other  productions  are  ascribed  to  Wace,  who  was 
at  least  a  prolific  versifier,  and,  if  he  seem  to  deserve  no  higher 
title  at  present,  has  a  claim  to  indulgence,  and  even  to  esteem, 
as  having  far  excelled  his  contemporaries,  without  any  superior 
advantages  of  knowledge.  In  emulation,  however,  of  his  fame, 
several  Norman  writers  addicted  themselves  to  composing 
chronicles,  or  devotional  treatises  in  metre.  The  court  of  our 
Norman  kings  was  to  the  early  poets  in  the  Langue  d'Oil,  what 
those  of  Aries  and  Toulouse  were  to  the  troubadours.  Henry 
I.  was  fond  enough  of  literature  to  obtain  the  surname  of  Beau- 
clerc;  Henry  II.  was  more  indisputably  an  encourager  of 
poetry;  and  Richard  L  has  left  compositions  of  his  own  in 
one  or  other  (for  the  point  is  doubtful)  of  the  two  dialects 
spoken  in  France.* 

g  Ravaliere,  Revol.  de  la  Langue  Fran*       the  former  is  probably  a  translation. 

?sp-  "6>  ^bts  the  a*°  of  *is  trans-  ?&tt#^^ 

h  Arch«ologia,  vols.  xii.  and  xiii.  them   in   the  latter  language,   and  M. 

iMillot  says  that  Richard's  sirventea  Ginguene\  as  well  as  Le  Grand  dAussy, 

(satirical     aon«)     have     appeared     in  considers  Richard  as.a  trouvw. 

French  as  well  as  Provencal^  but  that  [Raynouard  has   since  published,   in 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  155 

If  the  poets  of  Normandy  had  never  gone  beyond  historical 
and  religious  subjects,  they  would  probably  have  had  less  claim 
to  our  attention  than  their  brethren  of  Provence.  But  a  differ- 
ent and  far  more  interesting  species  of  composition  began 
to  be  cultivated  in  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth  century.  With- 
out entering  upon  the  controverted  question  as  to  the  origin 
of  romantic  fictions,  referred  by  one  party  to  the  Scandinavians, 
by  a  second  to  the  Arabs,  by  others  to  the  natives  of  Brittany, 
it  is  manifest  that  the  actual  stories  upon  which  one  early  and 
numerous  class  of  romances  was  founded  are  related  to  the 
traditions  of  the  last  people.  These  are  such  as  turn  upon 
the  fable  of  Arthur  ;  for  though  we  are  not  entitled  to  deny  the 
existence  of  such  a  personage,  his  story  seems  chiefly  the  crea- 
tion of  Celtic  vanity.  Traditions  current  in  Brittany,  though 
probably  derived  from  this  island,  became  the  basis  of  Geoffrey 
of  Monmouth's  Latin  prose,  which,  as  has  been  seen,  was  trans- 
fused into  French  metre  by  Wace./  The  vicinity  of  Normandy 
enabled  its  poets  to  enrich  their  narratives  with  other  Armori- 
can  fictions,  all  relating  to  the  heroes  who  had  surrounded  the 
table  of  the  son  of  Uther.fc  An  equally  imaginary  history  of 
Charlemagne  gave  rise  to  a  new  family  of  romances.  The 
authors  of  these  fictions  were  called  Trouveurs,  a  name  ob- 
viously identical  with  that  of  Troubadours.  But  except  in  hame 
there  was  no  resemblance  between  the  minstrels  of  the  northern 
and  southern  dialects.  The  invention  of  one  class  was  turned 
to  description,  that  of  the  other  to  sentiment  ;  the  first  were 
epic  in  their  form  and  style,  the  latter  almost  always  lyric. 
We  cannot  perhaps  give  a  better  notion  of  their  dissimilitude, 
than  by  saying  that  one  school  produced  Chaucer,  and  the  other 
Petrarch.  Besides  these  romances  of  chivalry,  the  trouveurs 
displayed  their  powers  of  lively  narration  in  comic  tales  or 

Provencal,  the  song  of  Richard  on  his  ner  by  Mr.  Ellis,  in  his  Specimens  of 

captivity,  which  had  several  times  ap-  Early  English  Metrical  Romances. 

peared  in  French.    It  is  not  improbable  k  ^Though  the  stories  oJF  Arthur  were 

that  he  wrote  it  in  both  dialects.    Leroux  not  invented  by  the  English  out  of  jeal- 

de  Lincy,  Chants  Historiques  Francais,  ousy  of  Charlemagne,  it  has  been  ingen- 

vol,   i.   p.   55-     Richard  also   composed  iously  conjectured  and  rendered  highly 

verses  in  the  Poitevin  dialect,  spoken  probable  by  Mr.   Sharon  Turner,  that 

at  that  time  in  Maine  and  Anjou,  which  the  history  by  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth 

sed 


resembles  the  Langue  d'Oc  more  than  was  composed  with  a  political  view  to 

that  of  northern  France,  though,  espe-  display  the  independence  and  dignity  of 

dally  in  the  latter  countries,  it  gave  way  the   British   crown,   and  was   intended, 

not  long  afterwards.    Id.  p.  77.]  consequently,  as  a  counterpoise  to  that 

;  This  derivation  of  the  romantic  sto-  of  Turpin,  which  never  became  popular 

ries  of  Arthur*  which  Le  Grand  d'Aussy  in  England.    It  is  doubtful,  in  my  judg- 

ridiculously  attributes   to  the  jealousy  ment,    whether    Geoffrey    borrowed    so 

entertained  by  the  English  of  the  re-  much  from  Armorican  traditions  as  he 

nown   of   Charlemagne,   is   stated  in  a  pretended.] 
very  perspicuous  and  satisfactory  man- 


I56  H  ALLAH 

fabliaux  (a  name  sometimes  extended  to  "the  higher  romance), 
which  have  aided  the  imagination  of  Boccaccio  and  La  Fon- 
taine. These  compositions  are  certainly  more  entertaining 
than  those  of  the  troubadours ;  but,  contrary  to  what  I  have 
said  of  the  latter,  they  often  gain  by  appearing  in  a  modern 
dress.  Their  versification,  which  doubtless  had  its  charm  when 
listened  to  around  the  hearth  of  an  ancient  castle,  is  very  lan- 
guid and  prosaic,  and  suitable  enough  to  the  tedious  prolixity 
into  which  the  narrative  is  apt  to  fall ;  and  though  we  find  many 
sallies  of  that  arch  and  sprightly  simplicity  which  characterizes 
the  old  language  of  France  as  well  as  England,  it  requires, 
upon  the  whole,  a  factitious  taste  to  relish  these  Norman  tales, 
considered  as  poetry  in  the  higher  sense  of  the  word,  distin- 
guished from  metrical  fiction. 

A  manner  very  different  from  that  of  the  fabliaux  was  adopt- 
ed in  the  Roman  de  la  Rose,  begun  by  William  de  Loris  about 
1250,  and  completed  by  John  de  Meun  half  a  century  later. 
This  poem,  which  contains  about  16,000  lines  in  the  usual  octo- 
syllable verse,  from  which  the  early  French  writers  seldom 
deviated,  is  an  allegorical  vision,  wherein  love  and  the  other 
passions  or  qualities  connected  with  it  pass  over  the  stage,  with- 
out the  intervention,  I  believe,  of  any  less  abstract  personages. 
Though  similar  allegories  were  not  unknown  to  the  ancients, 
and,  which  is  more  to  the  purpose,  may  be  found  in  other  pro- 
ductions of  the  thirteenth  century,  none  had  been  constructed 
so  elaborately  as  that  of  the  Roman  de  la  Rose.  Cold  and 
tedious  as  we  now  consider  this  species  of  poetry,  it  originated 
in  the  creative  power  of  imagination,  and  appealed  to  more 
refined  feeling  than  the  common  metrical  narratives  could  ex- 
cite. This  poem  was  highly  popular  in  the  middle  ages,  and 
became  the  source  of  those  numerous  allegories  which  had  not 
ceased  in  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  French  language  was  employed  in  prose  as  well  as  in 
metre.  Indeed  it  seems  to  have  had  almost  an  exclusive  privi- 
lege in  this  respect.  "  The  language  of  Oil,"  says  Dante,  in 
his  treatise  on  vulgar  speech,  "  prefers  its  claim  to  be  ranked 
above  those  of  Oc  and  Si  (Provengal  and  Italian),  on  the 
ground  that  all  translations  or  compositions  in  prose  have  been 
written  therein,  from  its  greater  facility  and  grace,  such  as  the 
books  compiled  from  the  Trojan  and  Roman  stories,  the  de- 
lightful fables  about  Arthur,  and  many  other  works  of  history 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  157 

and  science."*  I  have  mentioned  already  the  sermons  of  St. 
Bernard  and  translations  from  Scripture.  The  laws  of  the 
kingdom  of  Jerusalem  purport  to  have  been  drawn  up  imme- 
diately after  the  first  crusade,  and  though  their  language  has 
been  materially  altered,  there  seems  no  doubt  that  they  were 
originally  compiled  in  French.^  Besides  some  charters,  there 
are  said  to  have  been  prose  romances  before  the  year  1200.^ 
Early  in  the  next  age  Ville  Hardouin,  seneschal  of  Campagne, 
recorded  the  capture  of  Constantinople  in  the  fourth  crusade, 
an  expedition,  the  glory  and  reward  of  which  he  had  personally 
shared,  and,  as  every  original  work  of  prior  date  has  either 
perished  or  is  of  small  importance,  may  be  deemed  the  father 
of  French  prose.  The  Establishments  of  St.  Louis,  and  the 
law  treatise  of  Beaumanoir,  fill  up  the  interval  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  before  its  conclusion  we  must  suppose  the  excel- 
lent memoirs  of  Joinville  to  have  been  composed,  since  they 
are  dedicated  to  Louis  X.  in  1315,  when  the  author  could 
hardly  be  less  than  ninety  years  of  age.  Without  prosecuting 
any  further  the  history  of  French  literature,  I  will  only  mention 
the  translations  of  Livy  and  Sallust,  made  in  the  reign  and  by 
the  order  of  John,  with  those  of  Csesar,  Suetonius,  Ovid,  and 
parts  of  Cicero,  which  are  due  to  his  successor  Charles  V> 

I  confess  myself  wholly  uninformed  as  to  the  original  forma- 
tion of  the  Spanish  language,  and  as  to  the  epoch  of  its  separa- 
tion into  the  two  principal  dialects  of  Castile  and  Portugal,  or 
Gallicia ;  P  nor  should  I  perhaps  have  alluded  to  the  literature 

I  Prose  e  Rime  di  Dante,  Venez,  1758,  and  Tressan,  the  latter  of  which  is  not 

t,  iv.  p.  261.    Dante's  words,  biblia  cum  worth  much,  a  late  very  extensively  m- 

Trojanorum    Romanoruinque    gestibus  formed  wnter  seems  to  have  put  this 

compilata,  seem  to  bear  no  other  mean-  matter  out  of  doubt,     Roquefort  Fla- 

ing  than  what  I  have  given.    But  there  mericourt,  Etat  de  la  Poesie  Franchise 

may  be  a  doubt  whether  biblia  is  ever  dans  les  isme  et  lame  siecles,  Pans,  1815, 

used  except  for  the  Scriptures:   and  the  p.  147-  «     „ 

Italian  translator  renders  it,  doe  la  bib-  o  ViHaret,  Hist    de  France,  t.  XL  .g. 

hia,  i  fatti  de  i  Trojani,  e  de  i  Romani.  121 ;    De  Sade,  Vie  de  PStrarque,  t.  _m. 

In  this  case  something  is  wrong  in  the  p.  548.     Charles  V.  had  more  learning 

original  Latin,  and  Dante  will  have  al-  than  most  princes  of  his  time.     Chris- 

luded   to   the  translations    of  parts   of  tine  de  Pisan,  a  lady  who  has  written 

Scripture  made  into   French,   as  men-  memoirs,  or  rather  an  eulogy  of  him, 

tioned  in  the  text.  says  that  his  father  le  fist  introdire  en 

w  The  Assises  de  J6rusalem  have  tin-  lettres  moult  suflftsamment,  et  tant  que 

dergone  two  revisions;    one,  in  1350,  by  competemment  entendoit  son  Latin,  et 

order  of  John  dTbelin,  Count  of  Jaffa,  souffiaamment    scavoit    les    regies    de 

and  a  second  in  1360,  by  sixteen  com-  grammaire ;  la  quelle  chose  pleust  a  dieu 

missioners  chosen  by  the  states  of  the  qu'ainsi     fust    accoutumee     entre    les 

kingdom   of    Cyprus,     Their   language  princes.    Collect,  de  Mem.  t.  v.  pp.  103, 

seems  to  be  such  as  might  be  expected  190,  &c.  . 

from  the  time  of  the  former  revision.  p  The  earliest  Spanish  that  I  remem- 

n  Several  prose  romances  were  written  ber  to  have  seen  is  an  instrument  m 

or  translated  from  the  Latin,  about  1170,  Martenne,  Thesaurus  Anecdotorum,   t. 

and   afterwards.     Mr.    Ellis   seems   in-  i.    p.   263;  the   date  of  which  is   1095. 

clined  to  dispute  their  antiquity.     But,  Persons  more  conversant  with  the  an- 

besides  the  authorities  of  La  Ravaliere  tiquities  of  that  country  may  possibly 


158  HALLAM 

of  that  peninsula,  were  it  not  for  a  remarkable  poem  which 
shines  out  among  the  minor  lights  of  those  times.  This  is  a 
metrical  life  of  the  Cid  Ruy  Diaz,  written  in  a  barbarous  style 
and  with  the  rudest  inequality  of  measure,  but  with  a  truly 
Homeric  warmth  and  vivacity  of  delineation.  It  is  much  to  be 
regretted  that  the  author's  name  has  perished;  but  its  date 
has  been  referred  by  some  to  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, while  the  hero's  actions  were  yet  recent,  and  before  the 
taste  of  Spain  had  been  corrupted  by  the  Provencal  trouba- 
dours, whose  extremely  different  manner  would,  if  it  did  not 
pervert  the  poet's  genius,  at  least  have  impeded  his  popularity. 
A  very  competent  judge  has  pronounced  the  poem  of  the  Cid 
to  be  "  decidedly  and  beyond  comparison  the  finest  in  the  Span- 
ish language."  It  is  at  least  superior  to  any  that  was  written 
in  Europe  before  the  appearance  of  Dante.0 

A  strange  obscurity  envelops  the  infancy  of  the  Italian  lan- 
guage. Though  it  is  certain  that  grammatical  Latin  had  ceased 
to  be  employed  in  ordinary  discourse,  at  least  from  the  time  of 
Charlemagne,  we  have  not  a  single  passage  of  undisputed  au- 
thenticity, in  the  current  idiom,  for  nearly  four  centuries  after- 
wards. Though  Italian  phrases  are  mixed  up  in  the  barbarous 
jargon  of  some  charters,  not  an  instrument  is  extant  in  that 
language  before  the  year  1200,  unless  we  may  reckon  one  in 
the  Sardinian  dialect  (which  I  believe  was  rather  Provencal 
than  Italian),  noticed  by  Muratori.r  Nor  is  there  is  a  vestige 
of  Italian  poetry  older  than  a  few  fragments  of  Ciullo  d'Al- 
camo,  a  Sicilian,  who  must  have  written  before  1193,  since  he 
mentions  Saladin  as  then  livings  This  may  strike  us  as  the 
more  remarkable,  when  we  consider  the  political  circumstances 
of  Italy  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries.  From  the  strug- 
gles of  her  spirited  republics  against  the  emperors  and  their 

go  further  back.  Another  of  1101  is  lished  in  1808  by  Mr,  Southev«  at  the 
published  in  Marina's  Teoria  de  las  end  of  his  "  Chronicle  of  the  Cid,"  the 
Cortes,  t.  iii.  p.  i.  It  is  in  a  Vidimus  materials  of  which  it  partly  supplied, 
by  Peter  the  Cruel,  and  cannot,  I  pre-  accompanied  by  an  excellent  version  by 
sume,  have  been  a  translation  from  the  a  gentleman  who  is  distinguished, 
Latin.  Yet  the  editors  of  Nouveau  Tr.  among  many  other  talents,  for  an  un- 
cle Diplom.  mention  a  charter  of  1243,  as  rivalled  felicity  in  expressing  the  pe- 
the  earliest  they  are  acquainted  with  in  culiar  manner  of  authors  whom  he 
the  Spanish  language,  t,  iv.  p,  535.  translates  or  imitates,  M,  Sisrnondi  has 

Charters  in  the  German  language,  ao  given  other  passages  in  the  third  volume 

cording  to  the  same  work,  first  appear  of  his  History  of  Southern  Literature. 

in  the  time  of  the  Emperor  Rodolph,  This  popular  and  elegant  work  contains 

after  1272,  and  became  usual  in  the  next  some  interesting  and  not  very  common 

century.     P.    533.     But   Struvius   men-  information    as    to    the    early    Spanish 

tions  an  instrument  of  1235,  as  the  earli-  poets  in  the  Provencal  dialect,  as  well 

est  in  German.    Corp,  Hist.  Germ.  p.  as  those  who  wrote  in  Castilian. 

457-  f  Dissert.  32, 

q  An  extract  from  this  poem  was  pub-  s  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.  p,  340. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  159 

internal  factions,  we  might,  upon  all  general  reasoning,  antici- 
pate the  early  use  and  vigorous  cultivation  of  their  native  lan- 
guage. Even  if  it  were  not  yet  ripe  for  historians  and  philoso- 
phers, it  is  strange  that  no  poet  should  have  been  inspired  with 
songs  of  triumph  or  invective  by  the  various  fortunes  of  his 
country.  But,  on  the  contrary,  the  poets  of  Lombardy  became 
troubadours,  and  wasted  their  genius  in  Provencal  love  strains 
at  the  courts  of  princes.  The  Milanese  and  other  Lombard 
dialects  were,  indeed,  exceedingly  rude ;  but  this  rudeness  sep- 
arated them  more  decidedly  from  Latin :  nor  is  it  possible  that 
the  Lombards  could  have  employed  that  language  intelligibly 
for  any  public  or  domestic  purpose.  And  indeed  in  the  earliest 
Italian  compositions  that  have  been  published,  the  new  lan- 
guage is  so  thoroughly  formed,  that  it  is  natural  to  infer  a  very 
long  disuse  of  that  from  which  it  was  derived.  The  Sicilians 
claim  the  glory  of  having  first  adapted  their  own  harmonious 
dialect  to  poetry.  Frederic  II.  both  encouraged  their  art  and 
cultivated  it ;  among  the  very  first  essays  of  Italian  verse  we 
find  his  productions  and  those  of  his  chancellor  Piero  delle 
Vigne.  Thus  Italy  was  destined  to  owe  the  beginnings  of  her 
national  literature  to  a  foreigner  and  an  enemy.  These  poems 
are  very  short  and  few;  those  ascribed  to  St.  Francis  about 
the  same  time  are  hardly  distinguishable  from  prose ;  but  after 
the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  Tuscan  poets  awoke 
to  a  sense  of  the  beauties  which  their  native  language,  refined 
from  the  impurities  of  vulgar  speech/  could  display,  and  the 
genius  of  Italian  literature  was  rocked  upon  the  restless  waves 
of  the  Florentine  democracy.  Ricordano  Malespini,  the  first 
historian,  and  nearly  the  first  prose  writer  in  Italian,  left  memo- 
rials of  the  republic  down  to  the  year  1281,  which  was  that  of 
his  death,  and  it  was  continued  by  Giacchetto  Malespini  to 
1286.  These  are  little  inferior  in  purity  of  style  to  the  best 
Tuscan  authors ;  for  it  is  the  singular  fate  of  that  language  to 
have  spared  itself  all  intermediate  stages  of  refinement,  and, 
starting  the  last  in  the  race,  to  have  arrived  almost  instantane- 

t  Dante,  in  his  treatise  De  vulgari  EIo-  .  Allowing  for  the  metaphysical  <£scu- 

quentia,  reckons  fourteen  or  fifteen  dia-  nty  in  which  Dante  chooses  to  envelop 

lects,  spoken  in  different  parts  of  Italy,  the  subject,  this  might  perhaps  be  said 

all  of  which  were  debase^  by  impure  at  present.    The  Florentine  dialect  has 

modes  of  expression.    But  the  "  noble.  its    peculiarities,    which    distinguish    it 

principal,   and    courtly   Italian   idiom/'  from    the     general     Italian     language, 

was  that  which  belonged  to  every  city,  though  these  are  seldom  discerned  bv 

and    seemed    to    belong   to   none,    and  foreigners,  nor  .always  by  natives,  with 

which,  ff  Italy  had  a  coSrt,  would  be  the  whom  Tuscan  is  the  proper  denomma- 

language  of  that  court.    Pp.  274,  277-  tion  of  their  national  tongue. 


i6o  HALLAM 

ously  at  the  goal.  There  is  an  interval  of  not  much  more  than 
half  a  century  between  the  short  fragment  of  Ciullo  d'Alcamo, 
mentioned  above,  and  the  poems  of  Guido  Guinizzelli,  Guitone 
d'Arezzo,  and  Guido  Cavalcante,  which,  in  their  diction  and 
turn  of  thought,  are  sometimes  not  unworthy  of  Petrarch.w 

But  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  age  arose  a  much  greater 
genius,  the  true  father  of  Italian  poetry,  and  the  first  name  in 
the  literature  of  the  middle  ages.  This  was  Dante,  or  Durante 
Alighieri,  born  in  1265,  of  a  respectable  family  at  Florence. 
Attached  to  the  Guelf  party,  which  had  then  obtained  a  final 
ascendency  over  its  rival,  he  might  justly  promise  himself  the 
natural  reward  of  talents  under  a  free  government,  public  trust 
and  the  esteem  of  his  compatriots.  But  the  Guelfs  unhappily 
were  split  into  two  factions,  the  Bianchi  and  the  Neri,  with  the 
former  of  whom,  and,  as  it  proved,  the  unsuccessful  side,  Dante 
was  connected.  In  1300  he  filled  the  office  of  one  of  the  Priori, 
or  chief  magistrates  at  Florence;  and  having  manifested  in 
this,  as  was  alleged,  some  partiality  towards  the  Bianchi,  a 
sentence  of  proscription  passed  against  him  about  two  years 
afterwards,  when  it  became  the  turn  of  the  opposite  faction 
to  triumph.  Banished  from  his  country,  and  baffled  in  several 
efforts  of  his  friends  to  restore  their  fortunes,  he  had  no  re- 
source but  at  the  courts  of  the  Scalas  at  Verona,  and  other 
Italian  princes,  attaching  himself  in  adversity  to  the  Imperial 
interests,  and  tasting,  in  his  own  language,  the  bitterness  of 
another's  breads  In  this  state  of  exile  he  finished,  if  he  did 
not  commence,  his  great  poem,  the  Divine  Comedy;  a  rep- 
resentation of  the  three  kingdoms  of  futurity,  Hell,  Purga- 
tory, and  Paradise,  divided  into  one  hundred  cantos,  and  con- 
taining aboitt  14,000  lines.  He  died  at  Ravenna  in  1321* 

Dante  is  among  the  very  few  who  have  created  the  national 

«" Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.  pp.  309-377.    Gin-  France;  I'autre  pour  chose  qtie  la  par- 

jmene\  vol.  i.  c.   6,     The   style  of  the  leure  en  est  plus  delitalile  et  phis  com- 

Vita  Nttova  ol  Dante,  written  soon  after  niune  a  toutes  eena.    There  is  said  to  be 

the  death  of  his   Beatrice,  which  hap-  a  manuscript  history  of  Venice  down  to 

pened  in  1290,  is  hardly  distinguishable*  1275,  in  the  Florentine  library,  written 

by  a  foreigner,  from  that  of  Machiavet  in  French  by  Martin  da  Canale*  who 

or  Castighone     Yet  so  recent  was  the  says  that  he  has  chosen  that  language, 

adoption  of  this  language,  that  the  cele-  psirceqne  la  Umgut1  francdae  cort  parmi 

brated  master  of  Dante,  Brunetto  Latim,  *e  monde,  et  e.«rt  la  plus  delitable  *  lire 

had  written  his  Tesoro  in  French ;  and  et  a  oir  f(ue  null«f  autre,    Giftgueiii,  vol. 

gives  as  a  reason  for  it.  that  it  was  a  i.  p- 384-                 t  t         „ 

more  agreeable  and  useful  language  than  t>  Tu  proverai  si  (dar*  Cacciagwda  to 

his  own.    Et  se  awcuns  dttnandoit  pour-  him)  come  «a  df  stole 

quoi  chis  Hvre  est  ecris  en  Romans,  II  pan*  altrui,  e  come  d  dtiro  calle 

selon  la  raiaon  de  France*  pour  ch<we  II  scendete  fc  '1  salir  pet  altrwi  scale, 

que  notes  aommes  Ytalien,  jt  diroie  que  Par  ad  is.  cant.  16. 
ch'est  pour  chose  que  nous  sommes  en 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  161 

poetry  of  their  country.  For  notwithstanding  the  polished  ele- 
gance of  some  earlier  Italian  verse,  it  had  been  confined  to 
amorous  sentiment;  and  it  was  yet  to  be  seen  that  the  lan- 
guage could  sustain,  for  a  greater  length  than  any  existing 
poem  except  the  Iliad,  the  varied  style  of  narration,  reasoning, 
and  ornament.  Of  all  writers  he  is  the  most  unquestionably 
original.  Virgil  was  indeed  his  inspiring  genius,  as  he  declares 
himself,  and  as  may  sometimes  be  perceived  in  his  diction ;  but 
his  tone  is  so  peculiar  and  characteristic,  that  few  readers  would 
be  willing  at  first  to  acknowledge  any  resemblance.  He  pos- 
sessed, in  an  extraordinary  degree,  a  command  of  language, 
the  abuse  of  which  led  to  his  obscurity  and  licentious  innova- 
tions. No  poet  ever  excelled  him  in  conciseness,  and  in  the 
rare  talent  of  finishing  his  pictures  by  a  few  bold  touches ;  the 
merit  of  Pindar  in  his  better  hours.  How  prolix  would  the 
stories  of  Francesca  or  of  Ugolino  have  become  in  the  hands 
of  Ariosto,  or  of  Tasso,  or  of  Ovid,  or  of  Spenser !  This  excel- 
lence indeed  is  most  striking  in  the  first  part  of  his  poem.  Hav- 
ing formed  his  plan  so  as  to  give  an  equal  length  to  the  three 
regions  of  his  spiritual  world,  he  found  himself  unable  to  vary 
the  images  of  hope  or  beatitude,  and  the  Paradise  is  a  continual 
accumulation  of  descriptions,  separately  beautiful,  but  uniform 
and  tedious.  Though  images  derived  from  light  and  music  are 
the  most  pleasing,  and  can  be  borne  longer  in  poetry  than  any 
others,  their  sweetness  palls  upon  the  sense  by  frequent  repeti- 
tion, and  we  require  the  intermixture  of  sharper  flavors.  Yet 
there  are  detached  passages  of  great  excellence  in  this  third 
part  of  Dante's  poem ;  and  even  in  the  long  theological  dis- 
cussions which  occupy  the  greater  proportion  of  its  thirty- 
three  cantos,  it  is  impossible  not  to  admire  the  enunciation  of 
abstract  positions  with  remarkable  energy,  conciseness,  and 
sometimes  perspicuity.  The  first  twelve  cantos  of  the  Purga- 
tory are  an  almost  continual  flow  of  soft  and  brilliant  poetry. 
The  last  seven  are  also  very  splendid ;  but  there  is  some  heavi- 
ness in  the  intermediate  parts.  Fame  has  justly  given  the  pref- 
erence to  the  Inferno,  which  displays  throughout  a  more  vig- 
orous and  masterly  conception ;  but  the  mind  of  Dante  cannot 
be  thoroughly  appreciated  without  a  perusal  of  his  entire  poem. 
The  most  forced  and  unnatural  turns,  the  most  barbarous 
licenses  of  idiom,  are  found  in  this  poet,  whose  power  of  ex- 
pression is  at  other  times  so  peculiarly  happy.  His  style  is 
VOL.  Ill— ii 


162  HALLAM 

indeed  generally  free  from  those  conceits  of  thought  which 
discredited  the  other  poets  of  his  country ;  but  no  sense  is  too 
remote  for  a  word  which  he  finds  convenient  for  his  measure 
or  his  rhyme.  It  seems  indeed  as  if  he  never  altered  a  line 
on  account  of  the  necessity  of  rhyme,  but  forced  another,  or 
perhaps  a  third,  into  company  with  it.  For  many  of  his  faults 
no  sufficient  excuse  can  be  made.  But  it  is  candid  to  remem- 
ber, that  Dante,  writing  almost  in  the  infancy  of  a  language, 
which  he  contributed  to  create,  was  not  to  anticipate  that  words 
which  he  borrowed  from  the  Latin,  and  from  the  provincial 
dialects,  would  by  accident,  or  through  the  timidity  of  later 
writers,  lose  their  place  in  the  classical  idiom  of  Italy,  If  Pe- 
trarch, Bembo,  and  a  few  more,  had  not  aimed  rather  at  purity 
than  copiousness,  the  phrases  which  now  appear  barbarous, 
and  are  at  least  obsolete,  might  have  been  fixed  by  use  in 
poetical  language. 

The  great  characteristic  excellence  of  Dante  is  elevation  of 
sentiment,  to  which  his  compressed  diction  and  the  emphatic 
cadences  of  his  measure  admirably  correspond.  We  read  him, 
not  as  an  amusing  poet,  but  as  a  master  of  moral  wisdom,  with 
reverence  and  awe.  Fresh  from  the  deep  and  serious,  though 
somewhat  barren  studies  of  philosophy,  and  schooled  in  the 
severer  discipline  of  experience,  he  has  made  of  his  poem  a 
mirror  of  his  mind  and  life,  the  register  of  his  solicitudes  and 
sorrows,  and  of  the  speculations  in  which  he  sought  to  escape 
their  recollection.  The  banished  magistrate  of  Florence,  the 
disciple  of  Brunetto  Latini,  the  statesman  accustomed  to  trace 
the  varying  fluctuations  of  Italian  faction,  is  forever  before  our 
eyes.  For  this  reason,  even  the  prodigal  display  of  erudition, 
which  in  an  epic  poem  would  be  entirely  misplaced,  increases 
the  respect  we  feel  for  the  poet,  though  it  does  not  tend  to  the 
reader's  gratification.  Except  Milton,  he  is  much  the  most 
learned  of  all  the  great  poets,  and,  relatively  to  his  age,  far 
more  learned  than  Milton.  In  one  so  highly  endowed  by  nat- 
ure, and  so  consummate  by  instruction,  we  may  well  sympa- 
thize with  a  resentment  which  exile  and  poverty  rendered  per- 
petually fresh.  The  heart  of  Dante  was  naturally  sensible,  and 
even  tender ;  his  poetry  is  full  of  simple  comparisons  from  rural 
life ;  and  the  sincerity  of  his  early  passion  for  Beatrice  pierces 
through  the  veil  of  allegory  which  surrounds  her*  But  the 
memory  of  his  injuries  pursues  him  into  the  immensity  of 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  163 

eternal  light;   and,  in  the  company  of  saints  and  angels,  his 
unforgiving  spirit  darkens  at  the  name  of  Florence.^ 

This  great  poem  was  received  in  Italy  with  that  enthusiastic 
admiration  which  attaches  itself  to  works  of  genius  only  in 
ages  too  rude  to  listen  to  the  envy  of  competitors,  or  the  fas- 
tidiousness of  critics.  Almost  every  library  in  that  country  con- 
tains manuscript  copies  of  the  Divine  Comedy,  and  an  account 
of  those  who  have  abridged  or  commented  upon  it  would  swell 
to  a  volume.  It  was  thrice  printed  in  the  year  1472,  and  at 
least  nine  times  within  the  fifteenth  century.  The  city  of  Flor- 
ence in  1373,  with  a  magnanimity  which  almost  redeems  her 
original  injustice,  appointed  a  public  professor  to  read  lectures 
upon  Dante;  and  it  was  hardly  less  honorable  to  the  poet's 
memory  that  the  first  person  selected  for  this  office  was  Boc- 
caccio. The  universities  of  Pisa  and  Piacenza  imitated  this 
example ;  but  it  is  probable  that  Dante's  abstruse  philosophy 
was  often  more  regarded  in  their  chairs  than  his  higher  ex- 
cellences.* Italy  indeed,  and  all  Europe,  had  reason  to  be 
proud  of  such  a  master.  Since  Claudian,  there  had  been  seen 
for  nine  hundred  years  no  considerable  body  of  poetry,  except 
the  Spanish  poem  of  the  Cid,  of  which  no  one  had  heard  be- 
yond the  peninsula,  that  could  be  said  to  pass  mediocrity ;  and 
we  must  go  much  further  back  than  Claudian  to  find  anyone 
capable  of  being  compared  with  Dante.  His  appearance  made 
an  epoch  in  the  intellectual  history  of  modern  nations,  and 
banished  the  discouraging  suspicion  which  long  ages  of  leth- 
argy tended  to  excite,  that  nature  had  exhausted  her  fertility 
in  the  great  poets  of  Greece  and  Rome.  It  was  as  if,  at  some 
of  the  ancient  games,  a  stranger  had  appeared  upon  the  plain, 
and  thrown  his  quoit  among  the  marks  of  former  casts  which 
tradition  had  ascribed  to  the  demigods.  But  the  admiration 
of  Dante,  though  it  gave  a  general  impulse  to  the  human  mind, 
did  not  produce  imitators.  I  am  unaware  at  least  of  any  writer, 
in  whatever  language,  who  can  be  said  to  have  followed  the 
steps  of  Dante :  I  mean  not  so  much  in  his  subject  as  in  the 
character  of  his  genius  and  style.  His  orbit  is  still  all  his  own, 
and  the  track  of  his  wheels  can  never  be  confounded  with  that 
of  a  rival.? 

s*  ™~*v,   F  * w 

he   source  from  which  Dante  de-        have  sufficed.    But 


HALLAM 

In  the  same  year  that  Dante  was  expelled  from  Florence, 
a  notary,  by  name  Petracco,  was  involved  in  a  similar  banish- 
ment. Retired  to  Arczzo,  he  there  became  the  father  of  Francis 
Petrarch.  This  great  man  shared  of  course,  during  his  early 
years,  in  the  adverse  fortune  of  his  family,  which  he  was  in- 
vincibly reluctant  to  restore,  according  to  his  father's  wish,  by 
the  profession  of  jurisprudence.  The  strong  bias  of  nature 
determined  him  to  polite  letters  and  poetry.  These  are  seldom 
the  fountains  of  wealth;  yet  they  would  perhaps  have  been 
such  to  Petrarch,  if  his  temper  could  have  borne  the  sacrifice 
of  liberty  for  any  worldly  acquisitions.  At  the  city  of  Avignon, 
where  his  parents  had  latterly  resided,  his  gracely  appearance 
and  the  reputation  of  his  talents  attracted  one  of  the  Colonna 
family,  then  Bishop  of  Lombes  in  Gascony.  In  him,  and  in 
other  members  of  that  great  house,  never  so  illustrious  as  in 
the  fourteenth  century,  he  experienced  the  union  of  patronage 
and  friendship.  This,  however,  was  not  confined  to  the  Co- 
lonnas.  Unlike  Dante,  no  poet  was  ever  so  liberally  and  sin- 
cerely encouraged  by  the  great ;  nor  did  any  perhaps  ever  carry 
to  that  perilous  intercourse  a  spirit  more  irritably  independent, 
or  more  free  from  interested  adulation.  He  praised  his  friends 
lavishly  because  he  loved  them  ardently ;  but  his  temper  was 
easily  susceptible  of  offence,  and  there  must  have  been  much 
to  tolerate  in  that  restlessness  and  jealousy  of  reputation  which 
is  perhaps  the  inevitable  failing  of  a  poet.#  But  Everything  was 
forgiven  td  a  man  who  was  the  acknowledged  boast  of  his  age 
and  country.  Clement  VI.  conferred  one  or  two  sinecure  bene- 
fices upon  Petrarch,  and  would  probably  have  raised  him  to 
a  bishopric  if  he  had  chosen  to  adopt  the  ecclesiastical  profes- 
sion. But  he  never  took  orders,  the  clerical  tonsure  being  a 
sufficient  qualification  for  holding  canonries.  The  same  pope 

hints  from  the  Tesorctto  of  bis  master  T  have  rend  in  some  modern  book,  tout 
in  philosophical  studies.  Brunette  I.nt-  know  not  where  to  seek  the  pusna^e, 
ini.  Ginguens*,  t.  ii.  p.  8.  that  Petrarch  did  not  intend  to  allude 
9  There  ia  an  unpleasing-  $roof  of  this  to  Dante  in  the  letter  to  Boccaccio 
quality  in  a  letter  to  Boccaccio  on  Dante,  mentioned  above,  but  rather  to  Zanom 
whose  merit  he  rather  disingenuously  Strata,  a  contemporary  Florentine  poet, 
extenuates;  and  whose  popularity  cvi-  whom,  however  forgotten  at  present, 
dently  stung  him  to  the  quick.  De  Sade,  tfte  bad  taste  of  ft  party  in  criticism  pr*»« 
t.  iii.  p,  512.  Yet  we  judge  so  ill  of  our-  ferred  to  himself.  Matteo  Villani  men- 
selves,  that  Ptetrarch  chose  envy  as  ttie  tions  them  together  as  the  two  great  or- 
vice  from  which  of  all  others  b«*  was  naments  of  his  age.  This  conjecture 
most  free.  In  his  dialogue  with  St.  Au-  seems  probable,  for  somfc  e#pre.si!on9 
gustia,  he  says:  Quicquid  libuerit,  dici-  are  not  in  the  least  applicable  to  Dante, 
to;  modo  me  non  accuses  mvidise.  Atia.  But  whichever  was  intended,  the  letter 
Utmam  non  tibi  maplfe  stiperbia  qttarrt  equally  shows  the  irritable  humor  of 
invidin  riocuisset:  nam  hoc  cdrmne,  me  Petrarch. 
judice,  llbet  es.  De  Coittempttt  Mundi, 
edit.  1581,  p.  342* 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES  ^5 

even  afforded  him  the  post  of  apostolical  secretary,  and  this 
was  repeated  by  Innocent  VI.  I  know  not  whether  we  should 
ascribe  to  magnanimity  or  to  a  politic  motive  the  behavior  of 
Clement  VI.  towards  Petrarch,  who  had  pursued  a  course  as 
vexatious  as  possible  to  the  Holy  See.  For  not  only  he  made 
the  residence  of  the  supreme  pontiffs  at  Avignon,  and  the  vices 
of  their  court,  the  topic  of  invectives,  too  well  founded  to  be 
despised,  but  he  had  ostentatiously  put  himself  forward  as  the 
supporter  of  Nicola  di  Rienzi  in  a  project  which  could  evi- 
dently have  no  other  aim  than  to  wrest  the  city  of  Rome 
from  the  temporal  sovereignty  of  its  bishop.  Nor  was  the 
friendship  and  society  of  Petrarch  less  courted  by  the  most 
respectable  Italian  princes;  by  Robert  King  of  Naples,  by 
the  Visconti,  the  Correggi  of  Parma,  the  famous  doge  of  Ven- 
ice, Andrew  Dandolo,  and  the  Carrara  family  of  Padua,  under 
whose  protection  he  spent  the  latter  years  of  his  life.  Stories 
are  related  of  the  respect  shown  to  him  by  men  in  humbler 
stations  which  are  perhaps  still  more  satisfactory  &  But  the 
most  conspicuous  testimony  of  public  esteem  was  bestowed  by 
the  city  of  Rome,  in  his  solemn  coronation  as  laureate  poet  in 
the  Capitol.  This  ceremony  took  place  in  1341 ;  and  it  is  re- 
markable that  Petrarch  had  at  that  time  composed  no  works 
which  could,  in  our  estimation,  give  him  pretensions  to  so 
singular  an  honor. 

The  moral  character  of  Petrarch  was  formed  of  disposi- 
tions peculiarly  calculated  for  a  poet.  An  enthusiast  in  the 
emotions  of  love  and  friendship,  of  glory,  of  patriotism,  of 
religion,  he  gave  the  rein  to  all  their  impulses ;  and  there  is 
not  perhaps  a  page  In  his  Italian  writing  which  does  not  bear 
the  trace  of  one  or  other  of  these  affections.  By  far  the  most 
predominant,  and  that  which  has  given  the  greatest  celebrity 
to  his  name,  is  his  passion  for  Laura,  Twenty  years  of  un- 
requited and  almost  unaspiring  love  were  lightened  by  song ; 
and  the  attachment,  which,  having  long  survived  the  beauty 
of  its  object,&  seems  to  have  at  one  time  nearly  passed  from 

a  A  goldsmith  of  Bergamq,  by  name  with  a  princely  magnificence;   lodged  m 

Henry  Capra,  smitten  witti  an  entnusi-  a   chamber   hung   with   purple,   and   a 

astic  love  of  letters,  ana  of  Petrarch,  splendid  bed  on  which  no  one  before  or 

earnestly  requested  the  honor  of  a  visit  after  him  was  permitted  to  sleep.    Go]d- 

from  the  poet-    The  house  of  this  good  smiths,   as  we  may  judge  by  this   in- 

tradesman  was  full  of  representations  of  stance,  were  opulent  persons;    yet  the 

his  person,  and  of  inscriptions  with  his  friends  of  Petrarch  dissuaded  him  ttotn 

name  and  arms.    No  expense  had  been  the  visit,  as  derogatory  to  his  own  ele- 

spared  in  copying  all  his  works  as  they  vated  station.    De  Sade,  t.  Hi.  p.  406. 

appeared.     He  was  received  by  Capra  0  See  the  beautiful  sonnet,  Erano  i  ca- 


1 66  HALL  AM 

the  heart  to  the  fancy,  was  changed  to  an  intenser  feeling,  and 
to  a  sort  of  celestial  adoration,  by  her  death.  Laura,  be- 
fore the  time  of  Petrarch's  first  accidental  meeting  with  her, 
was  united  in  marriage  with  another;  a  fact  which,  besides 
some  more  particular  evidence,  appears  to  me  deducible  from 
the  whole  tenor  of  his  poetry.^  Such  a  passion  is  undoubt- 
edly not  capable  of  a  moral  defence;  nor  would  I  seek  its 
palliation  so  much  in  the  prevalent  manners  of  his  age,  by 
which  however  the  conduct  of  even  good  men  is  generally 
not  a  little  influenced,  as  in  the  infirmity  of  Petrarch's  char- 
acter, which  induced  him  both  to  obey  and  to  justify  the  emo- 
tions of  his  heart.  The  lady  too,  whose  virtue  and  prudence 
we  are  not  to  question,  seems  to  have  tempered  the  light  and 
shadow  of  her  countenance  so  as  to  preserve  her  admirer  from 
despair,  and  consequently  to  prolong  his  sufferings  and  servi- 
tude. 

The  general  excellences  of  Petrarch  are  his  command  over 
the  music  of  his  native  language,  his  correctness  of  style, 
scarcely  two  or  three  words  that  he  has  used  having  been 
rejected  by  later  writers,  his  exquisite  elegance  of  diction, 
improved  by  the  perpetual  study  of  Virgil;  but,  far  above 
all,  that  tone  of  pure  and  melancholy  sentiment  which  has 
something  in  it  unearthly,  and  forms  a  strong  contrast  to  the 
amatory  poems  of  antiquity.  Most  of  these  are  either  licen- 
tious or  uninteresting ;  and  those  of  Catullus,  a  man  endowed 
by  nature  with  deep  and  serious  sensibility,  and  a  poet,  in  my 
opinion,  of  greater  and  more  varied  genius  than  Petrarch,  are 
contaminated  above  all  the  rest  with  the  most  degrading  gross- 
ness.  Of  this  there  is  not  a  single  instance  in  the  poet  of 
Vaucluse ;  and  his  strains,  diffused  and  admired  as  they  have 
been,  may  have  conferred  a  benefit  that  criticism  cannot  esti- 
mate, in  giving  elevation  and  refinement  to  the  imaginations 
of  youth.  The  great  defect  of  Petrarch  was  his  want  of  strong 
original  conception,  which  prevented  him  from  throwing  off 
the  affected  and  overstrained  manner  of  the  Provencal  trouba- 

pei  d'oro  all*  aura  sparsi.    In  a  famous  leaves  the  matter  open  to  controversy, 

passage  of  his  Confessions,  he  says :  Cor-  De  Sade  contends  that  "  crebris  "  is  less 

pus   illud   egregium   morbis   et   crebris  applicable  to  "  perturbationibus "  than 

partubus    exhaustum,    multum    pristini  to   "  partubus."     I   do   not  know  that 

vigoris  amisit.    Those  who  maintain  the  there  is  much  in  this;    but  I  am  clear 

virginity  of  Laura  are  forced  to  read  that  corpus  exhaustum  partubus  is  much 

perturbationibus,    instead    of   partubus.  the  more  elegant  Latin  expression  of  the 

Two  manuscripts  in  the  royal  library  at  two. 

Paris  have  the  contraction  ptbus,  which  c  [Note  III.] 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  167 

dours,  and  of  the  earlier  Italian  poets.  Among  his  poems  the 
Triumphs  are  perhaps  superior  to  the  Odes,  as  the  latter  are 
to  the  Sonnets ;  and  of  the  latter,  those  written  subsequently 
to  the  death  of  Laura  are  in  general  the  best.  But  that  con- 
strained and  laborious  measure  cannot  equal  the  graceful  flow 
of  the  canzone,  or  the  vigorous  compression  of  the  terza  rima. 
The  Triumphs  have  also  a  claim  to  superiority,  as  the  only  poet- 
ical composition  of  Petrarch  that  extends  to  any  considerable 
length.  They  are  in  some  degree  perhaps  an  imitation  of  the 
dramatic  Mysteries,  and  form  at  least  the  earliest  specimens 
of  a  kind  of  poetry  not  uncommon  in  later  times,  wherein  real 
and  allegorical  personages  are  intermingled  in  a  mask  or  scenic 
representation.^ 

None  of  the  principal  modern  languages  was  so  late  in  its 
formation,  or  in  its  application  to  the  purposes  of  literature, 
as  the  English.  This  arose,  as  is  well  known,  out  of  the  Saxon 
branch  of  the  Great  Teutonic  stock  spoken  in  England  till  after 
the  Conquest.  From  this  mother  dialect  our  English  differs 
less  in  respect  of  etymology,  than  of  syntax,  idiom,  and  flection. 
In  so  gradual  a  transition  as  probably  took  place,  and  one  so 
sparingly  marked  by  any  existing  evidence,  we  cannot  well 
assign  a  definite  origin  to  our  present  language.  The  question 
of  identity  is  almost  as  perplexing  in  languages  as  in  individ- 
uals. But,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  a  version  of  Wace's  poem 
of  Brut,  by  one  Layamon,  a  priest  of  Ernly-upon-Severn, 
exhibits  as  it  were  the  chrysalis  of  the  English  language,  in  a 
very  corrupt  modification  of  the  Anglo-Saxon.*  Very  soon 

rf  [I  leave  this  as  it  stood.     But  my  not  being-  similar  to  that  of  another  in 

own  taste  has  changed.    I  retract  alto-  grammatical    flections.    See     Quarterly 

gether  the  preference  here  given  to  the  Review  for  April,  1848. 

Triumphs  above  the  Canzom,  and  doubt  The  entire  work  of  Layamon  contains 

whether  the  latter  are  superior  to  the  a  small  number  of  words  taken  from  the 

Sonnets.    This  at  least  is  not  the  opin-  French;  about  fifty  in  the  original  text, 

ion  of  Italian  critics,  who  ought  to  be  and  about  forty  more  in  that  of  a  manu- 

the  most  competent.    1848.]  script,  perhaps  half  a  century  later,  and 

e  A  sufficient  extract  from  this  work  very  considerably  altered  in  consequence 
of  Layamon  has  been  published  by  Mr.  of  the  progress  of  our  language.  Many 
Ellis,  in  his  Specimens  of  Early  English  of  these  words  derived  from  the  French 
Poetry,  vol.  i.  p.  61.  This  extract  con-  express  new  ideas,  as  admiral,  astron- 
tains,  he  observes,  no  word  which  we  omy,  baron,  mantel,  &c.  "  The  Ian- 
are  under  the  necessity  of  ascribing  to  a  guage  of  Layamon,"  says  Sir  Frederick 


French  origin.  Madden,    "  belongs    to    that    transition 

[Layamon,  as  is  now  supposed,  wrote  period  in  which  the  groundwork  of  An- 

in  the  reign  of  John.    See  Sir  Frederick  glo-Saxon    phraseology    and    grammar 

Madden's    edition,    and    Mr.    Wright's  still  existed,  although  gradually  yielding 

Biographia  Literaria.    The  best  reason  to  the  influence  of  the  popular  forms  of 

seems  to  be  that  he  speaks  of  Eleanor,  speech.    We  find  in  it,  as  in  the  later 

Queen  of  Henry,  as  then  dead,  which  portion  of  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  marked 

took  place  In  1204,     But  it  requires  a  indications  of  a  tendency  to  adopt  those 

vast  knowledge  of  the  language  to  find  terminations  and  sounds  which  charac- 

a  date  by  the  use  or  disuse  of  particular  terize  a  language  in  a  state  of  change, 

lorms;  the  idiom  of  one  part  of  England  and  which   are  apparent   also   in   some 


1 68  HALLAM 

afterwards  the  new  formation  was  better  developed ;  and  some 
metrical  pieces,  referred  by  critics  to  the  earlier  part  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  differ  but  little  from  our  legitimate  grammar/ 
About  the  beginning  of  Edward  I.'s  reign,  Robert,  a  monk  of 
Gloucester,  composed  a  metrical  chronicle  from  the  history  of 
Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  which  he  continued  to  his  owfi  time. 
This  work,  with  a  similar  chronicle  of  Robert  Manning,  a 
monk  of  Brunne  (Bourne)  in  Lincolnshire,  nearly  thirty  years 
later,  stand  at  the  head  of  our  English  poetry.  The  romance 
of  Sir  Tristrem,  ascribed  to  Thomas  of  Erceldoune,  surnamed 
the  Rhymer,  a  Scottish  minstrel,  has  recently  laid  claim  to 
somewhat  higher  antiquity.g  In  the  fourteenth  century  a  great 
number  of  metrical  romances  were  translated  from  the  French. 
It  requires  no  small  portion  of  indulgence  to  speak  favorably  of 
any  of  these  early  English  productions.  A  poetical  line  may 
no  doubt  occasionally  be  found ;  but  in  general  the  narration 
is  as  heavy  and  prolix  as  the  versification  is  unmusical./*  The 
first  English  writer  who  can  be  read  with  approbation  is  Will- 
iam Langland,  the  author  of  Piers  Plowman's  vision,  a  severe 
satire  upon  the  clergy.  Though  his  measure  is  more  uftcouth 
than  that  of  his  predecessors,  there  is  real  energy  in  his  concep- 
tions, which  he  caught  not  from  the  chimeras  of  knight-er- 
rantry, but  the  actual  manners  and  opinions  of  his  time. 

The  very  slow  progress  of  the  English  language  as  an  instru- 
ment of  literature  is  chiefly  to  be  ascribed  to  the  effects  of  the 
Norman  conquest,  in  degrading  the  native  inhabitants  and 
transferring  all  power  and  riches  to  foreigners.  The  barons, 
without  perhaps  one  exception,  and  a  large  proportion  of  the 
gentry,  were  of  French  descent,  and  preserved  among  them- 
selves the  speech  of  their  fathers.  This  continued  much  longer 

other  branches  of  the  Teutonic  tongue.  Layamon,  combined  with  the  vowel- 
The  use  of  a  as  an  article— the  change  changes,  which  are  numerous  though 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  terminations  a  not  altogether  arbitrary,  will  show  at 
and  ant  into  e  and  en,  as  well  once  the  progress  made  m  two  centuries, 
as  the  disregard  of  inflections  and  gen-  in  departing  from  the  ancient  and  pttrer 
ders— -the  masculine  forms  given  to  grammatical  forms,  as  found  in  Anglo- 
neuter  nouns  in  the  plural— the  neglect  Saxon  manuscripts."  Preface,  p.  xxviii,] 
of  the  feminine  terminations  of  adjec-  f  Warton's  History  of  English  P6etry, 
tives  and  pronouns,  and  confusion  be-  ElHs's  Specimens. 

tween   the    definite    and    indefinite    de-  §  Tfcis  conjecture  of  Scott  has  not  been 

clensions— the  introduction  of  the  prep-  favorably  received  by  later  critics, 

osition  to  before  infinitives,  and  occa-  h  Warton    printed    copious    extracts 

siofaal   use  of  weak   preterits  of  verbs  from  some  of  these.    Ritson  gave  several 

an<J  participles   instead   of   strong— the  of  them  entire  to  the  £ress.    And  Mr. 

constant  recurrence  of  er  for  or  in  the  Ellis  has  adopted  the  only  plan  which 

pltirals  of  Verbs— together  with  the  tin-  could  render  them  palatable,  by  inter- 

certamty  of  the.  rule  for  the  government  mingling  short' bassages,  where  the  ong- 

of    prepositions^-aU     these    variations,  inal  is  rather  above  its  usual  mediocrity, 

more  or  less  visible  in  the  two  texts  of  with  his*  own  lively  analysis. 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  '  Z69 

than  we  should  naturally  have  expected ;  even  after  the  loss 
of  Normandy  had  snapped  the  thread  of  French  connections, 
and  they  began  to  pride  themselves  in  the  name  of  English- 
men, and  in  the  inheritance  of  traditionary  English  privileges. 
Robert  of  Gloucester  has  a  remarkable  passage,  which  proves 
that  in  his  time,  somewhere  about  1290,  the  superior  ranks 
continued  to  use  the  French  languages  Ralph  Higden,  about 
the  early  part  of  Edward  III/s  reign,  though  his  expressions 
do  not  go  the  same  length,  asserts  that  "  gentlemen's  children 
are  taught  to  speak  French  from  the  time  they  are  rocked  in 
their  cradle ;  and  uplandish  (country)  or  inferior  men  will  liken 
themselves  to  gentlemen,  and  learn  with  great  business  for  to 
speak  French,  for  to  be  the  more  told  of.'4  Notwithstanding, 
however,  this  predominance  of  French  among  the  higher  class, 
I  do  not  think  that  some  modern  critics  are  warranted  in  con- 
cluding that  they  were  in  general  ignoiant  of  the  English 
tongue.  Men  living  upon  their  estates  among  their  tenantry, 
whom  they  welcomed  in  their  halls,  and  whose  assistance  they 
were  perpetually  needing  in  war  and  civil  frays,  would  hardly 
have  permitted  such  a  barrier  to  obstruct  their  intercourse. 
For  we  cannot,  at  the  utmost,  presume  that  French  was  so  well 
known  to  the  English  commonalty  in  the  thirteenth  century 
as  English  is  at  present  to  the  same  class  in  Wales  and  the 
Scottish  Highlands*  It  may  be  remarked  also,  that  the  insti- 
tution of  trial  by  jury  must  have  rendered  a  knowledge  of  Eng- 
lish almost  indispensable  to  those  who  administered  justice. 
There  is  a  proclamation  of  Edward  I.  in  Rymer,  where  he  en- 
deavors to  excite  his  subjects  against  the  King  of  France  by 
imputing  to  him  the  intention  of  conquering  the  country  and 
abolishing  the  English  language  (linguam  delere  Atiglicanam), 
and  this  is  frequently  repeated  in  the  proclamations  of  Edward 
IIL;  In  his  time,  or  perhaps  a  little  before,  the  native  lan- 
guage had  become  more  familiar  than  French  in  common  use, 
even  with  the  court  and  nobility.  Hence  the  numerous  trans- 
lations of  metrical  romances,  which  are  chiefly  referred  to  his 
reign.  An  important  change  was  effected  in  1362  by  a  statute, 
which  enacts  that  all  pleas  in  courts  of  justice  shall  be  pleaded, 
debated,  and  judged  in  English.  But  Latin  was  by  this  act 

iThe   evidences   of  this   general   em-  the   fourth    volume    of   his    edition    of 

ployment  and  gradual  disuse  of  French  Chaucer's    Canterbury   Tales;     and  .by 

in  conversation  and  writing  are  collected  Ritson,  in  the  preface  to  his  Metrical 

by  Tyrwhitt,   in   a  dissertation  on  the  Romances,  vol.  i.  p.  70-           . 

ancient   English   language,   prefixed   to  j  Rytner,  t.  v.  p.  490  j   t.  vi.  p.  642,  et 


170 


HALLAM 


to  be  employed  in  drawing  the  record ;  for  there  seems  to  have 
still  continued  a  sort  of  prejudice  against  the  use  of  English 
as  a  written  language.  The  earliest  English  instrument  known 
to  exist  is  said  to  bear  the  date  of  1343^  And  there  are  but  few 
entries  in  our  own  tongue  upon  the  rolls  of  parliament  before 
the  reign  of  Henry  VI.,  after  whose  accession  its  use  becomes 
very  common.*  Sir  John  Mandeville,  about  1356,  may  pass  for 
the  father  of  English  prose,  no  original  work  being  so  ancient 
as  his  Travels.  But  the  translation  of  the  Bible  and  other  writ- 
ings by  Wicliffe,  nearly  thirty  years  afterwards,  taught  us  the 
copiousness  and  energy  of  which  our  native  dialect  was  cap- 
able ;  and  it  was  employed  in  the  fifteenth  century  by  two  writ- 
ers of  distinguished  merit,  Bishop  Pecock  and  Sir  John  For- 
tescue. 

But  the  principal  ornament  of  our  English  literature  was 
Geoffrey  Chaucer,  who,  with  Dante  and  Petrarch,  fills  up  the 
triumvirate  of  great  poets  in  the  middle  ages.  Chaucer  was 
born  in  1328,  and  his  life  extended  to  the  last  year  of  the  four- 
teenth century.  That  rude  and  ignorant  generation  was  not 
likely  to  feel  the  admiration  of  native  genius  as  warmly  as  the 
compatriots  of  Petrarch ;  but  he  enjoyed  the  favor  of  Edward 
III.,  and  still  more  conspicuously  of  John  Duke  of  Lancaster ; 
his  fortunes  were  far  more  prosperous  than  have  usually  been 
the  lot  of  poets ;  and  a  reputation  was  established  beyond  com- 
petition in  his  lifetime,  from  which  no  succeeding  generation 
has  withheld  its  sanction.  I  cannot,  in  my  own  taste,  go  com- 
pletely along  with  the  eulogies  that  some  have  bestowed  upon 
Chaucer,  who  seems  to  me  to  have  wanted  grandeur,  where  he 
is  original,  both  in  conception  and  in  language.  But  in  vivacity 
of  imagination  and  ease  of  expression,  he  is  above  all  poets 
of  the  middle  time,  and  comparable  perhaps  to  the  greatest 
of  those  who  have  followed.  He  invented,  or  rather  intro- 
duced from  France,  and  employed  with  facility  the  regular 
iambic  couplet;  and  though  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that 
he  should  perceive  the  capacities  latent  in  that  measure,  his 
versification,  to  which  he  accommodated  a  very  licentious  and 
arbitrary  pronunciation,  is  uniform  and  harmonious.^  It  is 

*  Ritsoa,  p.  80.    There  is  one  in  Ry-  nent  critic  has  lately  been  controverted 

mer  of  the  year  1385.  by  Dr,  Nott,  who  maintains  the  versifi- 

l  [Note  TV/]  cation  of  Chaucer  to  have  been  wholly 

*wSee  Tyrwhitt's  essay  on  the  language  founded  on  accentual  and  not  syllabic 

and    versification    of    Chaucer,    in    the  regularity.     I  adhere,  however,  to  Tyr- 

fourth  volume  of  his  edition  of  the  Can-  whitt's  doctrine- 

terbury  Tales.    The  opinion  of  this  emi- 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES 


171 


chiefly,  indeed,  as  a  comic  poet,  and  a  minute  observer  of  man- 
ners and  circumstances,  that  Chaucer  excels.  In  serious  and 
moral  poetry  he  is  frequently  languid  and  diffuse;  but  he 
springs  like  Antaeus  from  the  earth,  when  his  subject  changes 
to  coarse  satire,  or  merry  narrative.  Among  his  more  elevated 
compositions,  the  Knight's  Tale  is  abundantly  sufficient  to 
immortalize  Chaucer,  since  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  any- 
where a  story  better  conducted,  or  told  with  more  animation 
and  strength  of  fancy.  The  second  place  may  be  given  to  his 
Troilus  and  Creseide,  a  beautiful  and  interesting  poem,  though 
enfeebled  by  expansion.  But  perhaps  the  most  eminent,  or  at 
any  rate  the  most  characteristic  testimony  to  his  genius  will 
be  found  in  the  prologue  to  his  Canterbury  Tales;  a  work 
entirely  and  exclusively  his  own,  which  can  seldom  be  said  of 
his  poetry,  and  the  vivid  delineations  of  which  perhaps  very 
few  writers  but  Shakspeare  could  have  equalled.  As  the  first 
original  English  poet,  if  we  except  Langland,  as  the  inventor 
of  our  most  approved  measure,  as  an  improver,  though  with 
too  much  innovation,  of  our  language,  and  as  a  faithful  witness 
to  the  manners  of  his  age,  Chaucer  would  deserve  our  rever- 
ence, if  he  had  not  also  intrinsic  claims  for  excellences,  which 
do  not  depend  upon  any  collateral  considerations. 

The  last  circumstance  which  I  shall  mention,  as  having  con- 
tributed to  restore  society  from  the  intellectual  degradation 
into  which  it  had  fallen  during  the  dark  ages,  is  the  revival  of 
classical  learning.  The  Latin  language  indeed,  in  which  all 
legal  instruments  were  drawn  up,  and  of  which  all  ecclesiastics 
availed  themselves  in  their  epistolary  intercourse,  as  well  as 
in  their  more  solemn  proceedings,  had  never  ceased  to  be  fa- 
miliar. Though  many  solecisms  and  barbarous  words  occur 
in  the  writings  of  what  were  called  learned  men,  they  possessed 
a  fluency  of  expression  in  Latin  which  does  not  often  occur 
at  present.  During  the  dark  ages,  however,  properly  so  called, 
or  the  period  from  the  sixth  to  the  eleventh  century,  we  chiefly 
meet  with  quotations  from  the  Vulgate  or  from  theological 
writers.  Nevertheless,  quotations  from  the  Latin  poets  are 
hardly  to  be  called  unusual.  Virgil,  Ovid,  Statius,  and  Hor- 
ace are  brought  forward  by  those  who  aspired  to  some  literary 
reputation,  especially  during  the  better  periods  of  that  long 
twilight,  the  reigns  of  Charlemagne  and  his  son  in  France,  part 
of  the  tenth  century  in  Germany,  and  the  eleventh  in  both. 


1 72  HALLAM 

The  prose  writers  of  Rome  are  not  so  familiar,  but  in  quotations 
we  are  apt  to  find  the  poets  preferred ;  and  it  is  certain  that  a 
few  could  be  named  who  were  not  ignorant  of  Cicero,  Sallust, 
and  Livy.  A  considerable  change  took  place  in  the  course  of 
the  twelfth  century.  The  polite  literature,  as  well  as  the  ab- 
strusef  science  of  antiquity,  became  the  subject  of  cultivation. 
Several  writers  of  that  age,  in  different  parts  of  Europe,  are 
distinguished  more  or  less  for  elegance,  though  not  absolute 
purity  of  Latin  style;  and  for  their  acquaintance  with  those 
ancients,  who  are  its  principal  models.  Such  were  John  of 
Salisbury,  the  acute  and  learned  author  of  the  Polycraticon, 
William  of  Malmesbury,  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  Roger  Hove- 
den,  in  England ;  and  in  foreign  countries,  Otho  of  Frisingen, 
Saxo  Grammaticus,  and  the  best  perhaps  of  all  I  have  named 
as  to  style,  Falcandus,  the  historian  of  Sicily.  In  these  we  meet 
with  frequent  quotations  from  Livy,  Cicero,  Pliny,  and  other 
considerable  writers  of  antiquity.  The  poets  were  now  ad- 
mired and  even  imitated.  All  metrical  Latin  before  the  latter 
part  of  the  twelfth  century,  so  far  as  I  have  seen,  is  of  little 
value ;  but  at  this  time,  and  early  in  the  succeeding  age,  there 
appeared  several  versifiers  who  aspired  to  the  renown  of  follow- 
ing the  steps  of  Virgil  and  Statius  in  epic  poetry.  Joseph  Is- 
canus,  an  Englishman,  seems  to  have  been  the  earliest  of  these ; 
his  poem  on  the  Trojan  war  containing  an  address  to  Henry  II. 
He  wrote  another,  entitled  Antiocheis,  on  the  third  crusade, 
most  of  which  has  perished.  The  wars  of  Frederic  Barbarossa 
were  celebrated  by  Gunther  in  his  Ligurinus;  and  not  long 
afterwards,  Guillelmus  Brito  wrote  the  Philippis,  in  honor  of 
Philip  Augustus,  and  Walter  de  Chatillon  the  Alexandreis, 
taken  from  the  popular  romance  of  Alexander.  None  of  these 
poems,  I  believe,  have  much  intrinsic  merit;  but  their  exist- 
ence is  a  proof  of  taste  that  could  relish,  though  not  of  genius 
that  could  emulate  antiquity.** 

« Warton's   Hist,   of  English   Poetry,  Cceperat  et  vjridi  gremio  juvenescere 

vol.  i.  Dissertation  IT-     Roquefort,  Etat  tellus; 

de    la    Poesie    Fran<;aise   du    douzieme  Cum  Rea  laeta  Jovis  rideret  ad  oscula 

Siecle,  p.  18.    The  following  lines  from  mater, 

the  beginning  of  the  eighth  book  of  the  Cum  jam  post  tergum  Phryxi  vectors 

Philippjs  seern  a  fair,  or  rather  a  favor-  rejicto 

able  specimen  of  these  epics-    But  I  am  Soils  Agenorei  premeret  rota  terga  ju- 

very   superfipially  acquainted  with   any  vend, 

of  ttiem.  The  tragedy  of  Eccerinus  (Eccelin  da 

Solverat  interea   zephyris   melioribus  Romano),    by   Albertmus    Mussatus,    a 

annum                         '  Bacman,'  aha  author  of  a  respectable  his- 

Frigore.  depulso  veris  tepor,  et  reno-  tory,    deserves   some  attention,    as   the 

vari  first  attempt  to  revive  thfe  regular  trag- 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES 


173 


In  the  thirteenth  century  there  seems  to  have  been  some 
decline  of  classical  literature,  in  consequence  probably  of  the 
scholastic  philosophy,  which  was  then  in  its  greatest  vigor; 
at  least  we  do  not  find  so  many  good  writers  as  in  the  preceding 
age.  But  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth,  or  perhaps  a 
little  sooner,  an  ardent  zeal  for  the  restoration  of  ancient  learn- 
ing began  to  display  itself.  The  copying  of  books,  for  some 
ages  slowly  and  sparingly  performed  in  monasteries,  had  al- 
ready become  a  branch  of  trade ;  o  and  their  price  was  conse- 
quently reduced.  Tiraboschi  denies  that  the  invention  of  mak- 
ing paper  from  linen  rags  is  older  than  the  middle  of  that  cen- 
tury ;  and  although  doubts  may  be  justly  entertained  as  to  the 
accuracy  of  this  position,  yet  the  confidence  with  which  so 
eminent  a  scholaradvances  it  is  at  least  a  proof  that  paper  manu- 
scripts of  an  earlier  date  are  very  rare./>  Princes  became  far 
more  attentive  to  literature  when  it  was  no  longer  confined  to 
metaphysical  theology  and  canon  law.  I  have  already  men- 
tioned the  translations  from  classical  authors,  made  by  com- 
mand of  John  and  Charles  V.  of  France.?  These  French  trans- 


edy  It  was  written  soon  after  1300.  The 
language  by  no  means  wants  animation, 
notwithstanding  an  unskilful  conduct  of 
the  fable.  The  Eccerinus  is  printed  in 
the  tenth  volume  of  Muraton's  collec- 
tion. 

o  Booksellers  appear  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  twelfth  century.  Peter  of  Blois 
mentions  a  law-book  which  he  had  pro- 
cured a  cjuodam  publico  mangone  libra- 
rum.  Hist.  Litt<§raire  de  la  France,  t.  ix. 
p.  84.  In  the  thirteenth  century  there 
were  many  copyists  by  occupation  in  the 
Italian  universities.  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv. 
p.  72  The  number  of  these  at  Milan 
before  the  end  of  that  age  is  said  to  have 
been  fifty.  Ibid,  But  a  very  small  pro- 
portion of  their  labor  could  have  been 
devoted  to  purposes  merely  literary.  By 
a  variety  of  ordinances,  the  first  of  which 
bears  date  in  1275,  the  booksellers  of 
Paris  were  subjected  to  the  control  of 
the  university  Crevier,  t.  ii.  pp.  67,  286. 
The  pretext  of  this  was,  lest  erroneous 
copies  should  obtain  circulation.  And 
this  appears  to  have  been  the  original  of 
those  restraints  upon  the  freedom  of 
publication,  which  since  the  invention  of 
printing  have  so  much  retarded  the  dif- 
fusion of  truth  by  means  of  that  great 
instrument. 

p  Tiraboschi,  t.  v,  p.  85.  On  the  con- 
trary side  are  Montfaucon,  Mabillon, 
and  Muratori;  the  latter  of  whom  car- 
ries up  the  invention  of  our  ordinary 
paper  to  the  year  1000.  But  Tiraboschi 
contends  that  the  paper  used  in  manu- 
scripts of  so  early  an  age  was  made 
from  cotton  rags,  and,  apparently  from 
the  inferior  durability  of  that  material, 
not  frequently  employed.  The  editors 
of  Nouveau  Traite  de  Diplomatique  are 


of  the  same  opinion,  and  doubt  the  use 
of  linen  paper  before  the  year  1300.  T. 
i,  pp.  517,  521.  Meerman,  well  known 
as  a  writer  upon  the  antiquities  of  print- 
ing, offered  a  reward  for  the  earliest 
manuscript  upon  linen  paper,  and,  in 
a  treatise  tipon  the  subject,  fixed  the 
date  of  its  invention  between  1270  and 
1300.  But  M.  Schwandner  of  Vienna  is 
said  to  have  found  in  the  imperial  li- 
brary a  small  charter  bearing  the  date 


probably  have  maintained  the  paper  to 
be  made  of  cotton,  which  he  says  it  is 
difficult  to  distinguish.  He  assigns  the 
invention  of  linen  paper  to  Pace  da  Fa- 
bianq  of  Treviso.  But  more  than  one 
Arabian  writer  asserts  the  manufacture 
of  linen  paper  to  have  been  carried  on 
at  Samarcand  early  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury having  been  brought  thither  from 
China.  And  what  is  more  conclusive, 
Casiri  positively  declares  many  manu- 
scripts in  the  Escurial  of  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries  to  be  written  on 
that  substance.  Bibliotheca  Arabico- 
Hispanica,  t,  ii.  p.  9.  This  authority 
appears  much  to  outweigh  the  opinion 
of  Tiraboschi  in  favor  ot  Pace  da  Fabi- 
aho,  who  must  perhaps  take  his  place 
at  the  table  of  fabulous  heroes  with 
Bartholomew  Schwartz  and  Flavio  Gio- 
ja.  But  the  material  point,  that  paper 
was  very  little  known  in  Europe  till  the 
latter  part  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
remains  as  before.  See  Introduction 
to  History  of  Literature,  c.  i.  sec.  58. 

gWarton's  Hist-   of  English  Poetry, 
vol.  ii.  p.  122. 


174 


HALLAM 


lations  diffused  some  acquaintance  with  ancient  history  and 
learning  among  our  own  countrymen.  The  public  libraries  as- 
sumed a  more  respectable  appearance.  Louis  IX.  had  formed 
one  at  Paris,  in  which  it  does  not  appear  that  any  work  of  ele- 
gant literature  was  founds  At  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  only  four  classical  manuscripts  existed  in  this  collec- 
tion ;  of  Cicero,  Ovid,  Lucan,  and  Boethius.J  The  academical 
library  of  Oxford,  in  1300,  consisted  of  a  few  tracts  kept  in 
chests  under  St.  Mary's  church.  That  of  Glastonbury  Abbey, 
in  1240,  contained  four  hundred  volumes,  among  which  were 
Livy,  Sallust,  Lucan,  Virgil,  Claudian,  and  other  ancient  writ- 
ers.* But  no  other,  probably,  of  that  age  was  so  numerous  or 
so  valuable.  Richard  of  Bury,  Chancellor  of  England,  and 
Edward  III.,  spared  no  expense  in  collecting  a  library,  the  first 
perhaps  that  any  private  man  had  formed.  But  the  scarcity 
of  valuable  books  was  still  so  great,  that  he  gave  the  Abbot  of 
St.  Albans  fifty  pounds  weight  of  silver  for  between  thirty  and 
forty  volumes.**  Charles  V.  increased  the  royal  library  at  Paris 
to  nine  hundred  volumes,  which  the  Duke  of  Bedford  pur- 
chased and  transported  to  London.^  His  brother  Humphrey 
Duke  of  Gloucester  presented  the  university  of  Oxford  with 
six  hundred  books,  which  seem  to  have  been  of  extraordinary 
value,  one  hundred  and  twenty  of  them  having  been  estimated 
at  one  thousand  pounds.  This  indeed  was  in  1440,  at  which 
time  such  a  library  would  not  have  been  thought  remarkably 
numerous  beyond  the  Alps,^  but  England  had  made  compar- 
atively little  progress  in  learning.  Germany,  however,  was 
probably  still  less  advanced.  Louis,  Elector  Palatine,  be- 

rVelly,  t.  v.  p.  202;  Crevier,  t.  ii.  p.  characteristics.  By  the  account  books 
36.  of  this  rich  monastery,  about  the  be- 
j  Warton,  vol.  i. ;  Dissert.  II.  ginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  three 
t  Ibid.  books  only  appear  to  have  been  pur- 
«  Ibid  Fifty-eight  books  were  chased  in  forty  years.  One  of  those  was 
transcribed  in  this  abbey  under  one  the  Liber  Sententiarum  of  Peter  Lorn- 
abbot,  about  the  year  1300.  Every  bard,  which  cost  thirty  shillings,  equiv- 
considerable  monastery  had  a  room,  alent  to  near  forty  pounds  at  present, 
called  Scriptorium,  where  this  work  Whitaker's  Hist,  of  Craven,  p.  330. 
was  performed.  More  than  eighty  » Ibid. ;  Villaret,  t.  xi,  p.  117. 
were  transcribed  at  St.  Albans  under  w  Niccolp  Niccoli,  a  private  scholar, 
Whethamstede,  in  the  time  of  Henry  who  contributed  essentially  to  the  res- 
VI.  Ibid.  See  also  Du  Cange  V.  toration  of  ancient  learning,  bequeathed 
Scriptores.  Nevertheless  we  must  re-  a  library  of  eight  hundred  volumes  to 
member,  first,  that  the  far  greater  part  the  republic  of  Florence.  This  Niccoli 
of  these  books  were  mere  monastic  hardly  published  anything  of  his  own; 
trash,  or  at  least  useless  in  our  modern  but  earned  a  well-merited  reputation  by 
apprehension ;  secondly,  that  it  de-  copying  and  correcting  manuscripts, 
pended  upon  the  character  of  the  abbot,  Tiraboschi,  t.  vi.  p.  114;  Shepherd's 
whether  the  scriptorium  should  be  oc-  Poggio,  p.  310.  In  the  preceding  cen- 
cupied  or  not.  Every  head  of  a  mon-  tury,  Colluccio  Salutato  had  procured 
astery  was  not  a  Whethamstede.  Ig-  as  many  as  eight  hundred  volumes, 
norance  and  jollity,  such  as  we  find  in  Ibid.  p.  23.  Roscoe's  Lorenzo  de' 
Bolton  Abbey,  were  their  more  usual  Medici,  p.  55. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  175 

queathed  in  1421  his  library  to  the  university  of  Heidelberg, 
consisting  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-two  volumes.  Eighty-nine 
of  these  related  to  theology,  twelve  to  canon  and  civil  law, 
forty-five  to  medicine,  and  six  to  philosophy.* 

Those  who  first  undertook  to  lay  open  the  stores  of  ancient 
learning  found  incredible  difficulties  from  the  scarcity  of  manu- 
scripts. So  gross  and  supine  was  the  ignorance  of  the  monks, 
within  whose  walls  these  treasures  were  concealed,  that  it  was 
impossible  to  ascertain,  except  by  indefatigable  researches,  the 
extent  of  what  had  been  saved  out  of  the  great  shipwreck  of 
antiquity.  To  this  inquiry  Petrarch  devoted  continual  atten- 
tion. He  spared  no  means  to  preserve  the  remains  of  authors, 
who  were  perishing  from  neglect  and  time.  This  danger  was 
by  no  means  past  in  the  fourteenth  century.  A  treatise  of 
Cicero  upon  Glory,  which  had  been  in  his  possession,  was 
afterwards  irretrievably  lost.?  He  declares  that  he  had  seen 
in  his  youth  the  works  of  Varro ;  but  all  his  endeavors  to  re- 
cover these  and  the  second  Decad  of  Livy  were  fruitless.  He 
found,  however,  Quintilian,  in  1350,  of  which  there  was  no 
copy  in  Italy.^  Boccaccio,  and  a  man  of  less  general  fame, 
Colluccio  Salutato,  were  distinguished  in  the  same  honorable 
task.  The  diligence  of  these  scholars  was  not  confined  to 
searching  for  manuscripts.  Transcribed  by  slovenly  monks, 
or  by  ignorant  persons  who  made  copies  for  sale,  they  required 
the  continual  emendation  of  accurate  critics.^  Though  much 
certainly  was  left  for  the  more  enlightened  sagacity  of  later 
times,  we  owe  the  first  intelligible  text  of  the  Latin  classics 
of  Petrarch,  Poggio,  and  their  contemporary  laborers  in  this 
vineyard  for  a  hundred  years  before  the  invention  of  printing. 

What  Petrarch  began  in  the  fourteenth  century  was  carried 
on  by  a  new  generation  with  unabating  industry.  The  whole 
lives  of  Italian  scholars  in  the  fifteenth  century  were  devoted 
to  the  recovery  of  manuscripts  and  the  revival  of  philology. 
For  this  they  sacrificed  their  native  language,  which  had  made 
s>uch  surprising  shoots  in  the  preceding  age,  and  were  content 
to  trace,  in  humble  reverence,  the  footsteps  of  antiquity.  For 
this  too  they  lost  the  hope  of  permanent  glory,  which  can  never 
remain  with  imitators,  or  such  as  trim  the  lamp  of  ancient  sep- 

x  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t,  v.        was  never  recovered.    De  Sade,  t.  i.  p. 

P"yHe  had  lent  it  to  a  needy  man  of  *  Tiraboschi,  p.  89- 

letters,   who  pawned  the  book,  which  a  Idem,  t,  v.  p.  83;    De  Sade,  t.  i.  p. 


I76  HALL  AM 

ulchres.  No  writer  perhaps  of  the  fifteenth  century,  except 
Politian,  can  aspire  at  present  even  to  the  second  class,  in  a 
just  marshalling  of  literary  reputation.  But  we  owe  them  our 
respect  and  gratitude  for  their  taste  and  diligence.  The  dis- 
covery of  an  unknown  manuscript,  says  Tiraboschi,  was  re- 
garded almost  as  the  conquest  of  a  kingdom.  The  classical 
writers,  he  adds,  were  chiefly  either  found  in  Italy,  or  at  least 
by  Italians ;  they  were  first  amended  and  first  printed  in  Italy, 
and  in  Italy  they  were  first  collected  in  public  libraries.^  This 
is  subject  to  some  exception,  when  fairly  considered;  several 
ancient  authors  were  never  lost,  and  therefore  cannot  be  said 
to  have  been  discovered ;  and  we  know  that  Italy  did  not  al- 
ways anticipate  other  countries  in  classical  printing.  But  her 
superior  merit  is  incontestable.  Poggio  Bracciolini,  who  stands 
perhaps  at  the  head  of  the  restorers  of  learning,  in  the  earlier 
part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  discovered  in  the  monastery  of 
St.  Gall,  among  dirt  and  rubbish  in  a  dungeon  scarcely  fit  for 
condemned  criminals,  as  he  describes  it,  an  entire  copy  of  Quin- 
tilian,  and  part  of  Valerius  Flaccus.  This  was  in  1414 ;  and 
soon  afterwards,  he  rescued  the  poem  of  Silius  Italicus,  and 
twelve  comedies  of  Plautus,  in  addition  to  eight  that  were 
previously  known;  besides  Lucretius,  Columella,  Tertulhan, 
Ammianus  Marcellinus,  and  other  writers  of  inferior  note.c 
A  bishop  of  Lodi  brought  to  light  the  rhetorical  treatises  of 
Cicero.  Not  that  we  must  suppose  these  books  to  have  been 
universally  unknown  before ;  Quintilian,  at  least,  is  quoted  by 
English  writers  much  earlier.  But  so  little  intercourse  pre- 
vailed among  different  countries,  and  the  monks  had  so  little 
acquaintance  with  the  riches  of  their  conventual  libraries,  that 
an  author  might  pass  for  lost  in  Italy,  who  was  familiar  to  a 
few  learned  men  in  other  parts  of  Europe.  To  the  name  of 
Poggio  we  may  add  a  number  of  others,  distinguished  in  this 
memorable  resurrection  of  ancient  literature,  and  united,  not 
always  indeed  by  friendship,  for  their  bitter  animosities  dis- 
grace their  profession,  but  by  a  sort  of  common  sympathy  its 
the  cause  of  learning ;  Filelfo,  Laurentius  Valla,  Niccolo  Nic- 
coli,  Ambrogio  Traversari,  more  commonly  called  II  Camaldo- 
lense.  and  Leonardo  Aretino. 

From  the  subversion  of  the  Western  Empire,  or  at  least  from 

6Tira1>63cH  p.  101.  tife  of  Pogffio,  pp.  iptf,  no?  Roscoe's 

clbid,  t,  vi.   p,   104;  and  Shepherd'?        Lorenzo  de  Medici,  p,  38. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  17; 

the  time  when  Rome  ceased  to  pay  obedience  to  the  exarchs 
of  Ravenna,  the  Greek  language  and  literature  had  been  almost 
entirely  forgotten  within  the  pale  of  the  Latin  church.  A  very 
few  exceptions  might  be  found,  especially  in  the  earlier  period 
of  the  middle  ages,  while  the  eastern  emperors  retained  their 
dominion  over  part  of  Italy.d  Thus  Charlemagne  is  said  to 
have  established  a  school  for  Greek  at  Osnaburg.*?  John  Sco- 
tus  seems  to  have  been  well  acquainted  with  the  language. 
And  Greek  characters  may  occasionally,  though  very  seldom, 
be  found  in  the  writings  of  learned  men ;  such  as  Lanfranc  or 
William  of  Malmesbury/  It  is  said  that  Roger  Bacon  under- 
stood Greek;  and  that  his  eminent  contemporary,  Robert 
Grosstete,  Bishop  of  Lincoln,  had  a  sufficient  intimacy  with  it 
to  translate  a  part  of  Suidas.  Since  Greek  was  spoken  with 
considerable  purity  by  the  noble  and  well  educated  natives  of 
Constantinople,  we  may  wonder  that,  even  as  a  living  lan- 
guage, it  was  not  better  known  by  the  western  nations,  and 
especially  in  so  neighboring  a  nation  as  Italy.  Yet  here  the 
ignorance  was  perhaps  even  more  complete  than  in  France  or 
England.  In  some  parts  indeed  of  Calabria,  which  had  been 
subject  to  the  eastern  empire  till  near  the  year  noo,  the  liturgy 
was  still  performed  in  Greek ;  and  a  considerable  acquaintance 

d  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  ii.  meaning  of  one  John  Sarasin,  an  Eng- 

p.  374,    Tiraboschi,  t.  iii.  p.  124,  et  alibi.  lishman,  because,  says  he,  none  of  our 

Bede  extols  Theodore  Primate  of  Can-  masters    here     (at    Paris)     understand 

terbury  and  Tobias  Bishop  of  Rochester  Greek.     Paris,    indeed,    Crevier   thinks, 

for   their   knowledge   of    Greek.     Hist.  could  not  furnish  any  Greek  scholar  in 

Eccles.  c.  9  and  24.     But  the  former  of  that  a*ge  except  Abelard   and   Heloise, 

these  prelates,  if  not  the  latter,  was  a  and    probably    neither    of    them    knew 

native  of  Greece.  much.     Hist,  de  I'Univers.  de  Paris,  t. 

e  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  iv.  i.  p.  259. 

p.  12.  The  ecclesiastical  language,  it  may  be 

f  Greek    characters    are    found    in    a  9bserved,  was  full  of  Greek  words  Lat- 

charter  of  943,   published  in  Martenne,  inized.      But    this    process    had    taken 

Thesaurus  Anecdot,  t.  i.  p.  74*    The  title  place  before  the  fifth  century;   and  most 

of    a    treatise     ir«pi     Wo-ewv      pepur/uov,  of  them  will  be  found  in  the  Latin  die- 

and  the  word  SCOTOKOS,  occur  in  William  tionaries.    A  Greek  word  -was  now  and 

of  Malmesbury,  and  one  or  two  others  then  borrowed  as  more  _  imposing  than 

in  Lanfranc's  Constitutions.    It  is  said  the    Correspondent    Latin.      Thus    the 

that  a  Greek  psalter  was  written  in  an  English    and     other    kings    sometimes 

abbey   at    Tournay    about    1105.      Hist.  called   themselves    Basileus,    instead    of 

Litt.   de  la  France,  t.  ix.   p,   102.     This  Rex. 

was,  I  should  think,  a  very  rare  in-  It  will  not  be  supposed  that  I  have 
stance  of  a  Greek  manuscript,  sacred  professed  to  enumerate  all  the  persons 
or  profane,  copied  in  the  western  parts  of  whose  acquaintance  with  the  Greek 
of  Europe  before  the  fifteenth  century.  tongue  some  evidence  may  be  found; 
But  a  Greek  psalter  written  in  Latin  nor  have  I  ever  directed  my  attention 
characters  at  Milan  in  the  pth  century  to  the  subject  with  that  view.  Doubt- 
was  sold  some  years  ago  in  London.  less  the  list  might  be  more  than 
John  of  Salisbury  is  said  by  Crevier  to  doubled.  But,  if  ten  times  the  number 
have  known  a  little  Greek,  and  he  sev-  could  be  found,  we  should  still  be  en- 
eral  times  uses  technical  words  in  that  titled  to  say,  that  the  language  was  al- 
language.  Yet  he  could  not  have  been  most  unknown,  and  that  it  could  have 
much  more  learned  than  his  neighbors;  had  no  influence  on  the  condition  of  lit- 
since,  having  found  the  word  oucria  in  erature.  [See  Introduction,  to  Hist,  of 
St.  Ambrose,  he  was  forced  to  ask  the  Literature,  chap.  2,  sec.  7.] 

VOL.  III.— 12 


178  HALLAM 

with  the  language  was  of  course  preserved.  But  for  the  schol- 
ars of  Italy,  Boccaccio  positively  asserts,  that  no  one  under- 
stood so  much  as  the  Greek  characters.^  Nor  is  there  prob- 
ably a  single  line  quoted  from  any  poet  in  that  language  from 
the  sixth  to  the  fourteenth  century. 

The  first  to  lead  the  way  in  restoring  Grecian  learning  in 
Europe  were  the  same  men  who  had  revived  the  kindred  muses 
of  Latium,  Petrarch,  and  Boccaccio.  Barlaam,  a  Calabrian  by 
birth,  during  an  embassy  from  the  court  of  Constantinople  in 
1335,  was  persuaded  to  become  the  preceptor  of  the  former, 
with  whom  he  read  the  works  of  Plato>  Leontius  Pilatus,  a 
native  of  Thessalonica,  was  encouraged  some  years  afterwards 
by  Boccaccio  to  give  public  lectures  upon  Homer  at  Florence.* 
Whatever  might  be  the  share  of  general  attention  that  he  ex- 
cited, he  had  the  honor  of  instructing  both  these  great  Italians 
in  his  native  language.  Neither  of  them  perhaps  reached  an 
advanced  degree  of  proficiency ;  but  they  bathed  their  lips  in 
the  fountain,  and  enjoyed  the  pride  of  being  the  first  who  paid 
the  homage  of  a  new  posterity  to  the  father  of  poetry.  For 
some  time  little  fruit  apparently  resulted  from  their  example; 
but  Italy  had  imbibed  the  desire  of  acquisitions  in  a  new  sphere 
of  knowledge,  which,  after  some  interval,  she  was  abundantly 
able  to  realize.  A  few  years  before  the  termination  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  Emanuel  Chrysoloras,  whom  the  Emperor  John 
Palaeologus  had  previously  sent  into  Italy,  and  even  as  far  as 
England,  upon  one  of  those  unavailing  embassies,  by  which 
the  Byzantine  court  strove  to  obtain  sympathy  and  succor  from 
Europe,  returned  to  Florence  as  a  public  teacher  of  Grecian 
literature./  His  school  was  afterwards  removed  successively 
to  Pavia,  Venice,  and  Rome ;  and  during  nearly  twenty  years 
that  he  taught  in  Italy,  most  of  those  eminent  scholars  whom 
I  have  already  named,  and  who  distinguish  the  first  half  of 
that  century,  derived  from  his  instruction  their  knowledge 
of  the  Greek  tongue.  Some,  not  content  with  being  the  dis- 
ciples of  Chrysoloras,  betook  themselves  to  the  source  of  that 

g  Nemo  est  qui  Graecas  literas  norit;  tainments  in  Greek;  etsi  non  satis 
at  ego  in  hoc  Latmitati  compatior,  quae  plenfc  perteperim,  p^ercepi  tamen  quant- 
sic  otnnino  Grseca  abjecit  studia,  xit  utn  potui;  nee  dubium,  si  pentiansisset 
etiam  non  noscamus  characteres  liter-  homo  ille  vagtts  diutius  penes  nos,  quin 
arum.  Genealogies  Deorum,  apud  Hodi-  plenius  percepissem.  Id.  p.  4. 
uni  de  Grsecis  Illustribus,  p.  3.  /  Hody  places  the  commencement  of 

h  M^m,  de  P4trarque,  t.  i.  p.  407.  Cnrysoloras's  teaching  as  early  as  1391. 

tlbid.    t.    i.    p.    4*4.7;    t.    hi.    p.    634.  p.   3.     But  Tiraboschi,  whose  research 

Hody    cle    Grsecis    Jllust.    p.    2.    Roc-  was  more  precise,  fixes  it  at  the  end  oi 

caccio  speaks  modestly  of  his  own  at-  1396  or  beginning  of  1397,  t.  vii.  p.  126. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  179 

literature  at  Constantinople;  and  returned  to  Italy,  not  only 
with  a  more  accurate  insight  into  the  Greek  idiom  than  they 
could  have  attained  at  home,  but  with  copious  treasures  of 
manuscripts,  few,  if  any,  of  which  probably  existed  previously 
in  Italy,  where  none  had  ability  to  read  or  value  them;  so 
that  the  principal  authors  of  Grecian  antiquity  may  be  con- 
sidered as  brought  to  light  by  these  inquirers,  the  most  cele- 
brated of  whom  are  Guarino  of  Verona,  Aurispa,  and  Filelfo. 
The  second  of  these  brought  home  to  Venice  in  1423  not  less 
than  two  hundred  and  thirty-eight  volumes.^ 

The  fall  of  that  eastern  empire,  which  had  so  long  outlived 
all  other  pretensions  to  respect  that  it  scarcely  retained  that 
founded  upon  its  antiquity,  seems  to  have  been  providentially 
delayed  till  Italy  was  ripe  to  nourish  the  scattered  seeds  of  liter- 
ature that  would  have  perished  a  few  ages  earlier  in  the  com- 
mon catastrophe.  From  the  commencement  of  the  fifteenth 
century  even  the  national  pride  of  Greece  could  not  blind  her 
to  the  signs  of  approaching  ruin.  It  was  no  longer  possible  to 
inspire  the  European  republic,  distracted  by  wars  and  restrained 
by  calculating  policy,  with  the  generous  fanaticism  of  the  cru- 
sades ;  and  at  the  council  of  Florence,  in  1439,  the  court  and 
church  of  Constantinople  had  the  mortification  of  sacrificing 
their  long-cherished  faith,  without  experiencing  any  sensible 
return  of  protection  or  security.  The  learned  Greeks  were 
perhaps  the  first  to  anticipate,  and  certainly  not  the  last  to 
avoid,  their  country's  destruction.  The  council  of  Florence 
brought  many  of  them  into  Italian  connections,  and  held  out 
at  least  a  temporary  accommodation  of  their  conflicting  opin- 
ions. Though  the  Roman  pontiffs  did  nothing,  and  probably 
could  have  done  nothing  effectual,  for  the  empire  of  Constanti- 
nople, they  were  very  ready  to  protect  and  reward  the  learning 
of  individuals.  To  Eugenius  IV.,  to  Nicholas  V.,  to  Pius  II., 
and  some  other  popes  of  this  age,  the  Greek  exiles  were  in- 
debted for  a  patronage  which  they  repaid  by  splendid  services 
in  the  restoration  of  their  native  literature  throughout  Italy. 
Bessarion,  a  disputant  on  the  Greek  side  in  the  council  of  Flor- 
ence, was  well  content  to  renounce  the  doctrine  of  single  pro- 
cession for  a  cardinal's  hat — a  dignity  which  he  deserved  for 
his  learning,  if  not  for  his  pliancy.  Theodore  Gaza,  George  of 
Trebizond,  and  Gemistus  Pletho,  might  equal  Bessarion  in 

k  Tiraboschi,   t.   vi.   p.    102  j   Roscoe's  Lorenzo  de*  Medici,  vol.  u  p.  43. 


i  So  HALLAM 

merit,  though  not  in  honors.  They  all,  however,  experienced 
the  patronage  of  those  admirable  protectors  of  letters,  Nicholas 
V.,  Cosmo  de'  Medici,  or  Alfonso  King  of  Naples.  These  men1 
emigrated  before  the  final  destruction  of  the  Greek  empire; 
Lascaris  and  Musurus,  whose  arrival  in  Italy  was  posterior 
to  that  event,  may  be  deemed  perhaps  still  more  conspicuous  ; 
but  as  the  study  of  the  Greek  language  was  already  restored, 
it  is  unnecessary  to  pursue  the  subject  any  further. 

The  Greeks  had  preserved,  through  the  course  of  the  middle 
ages,  their  share  of  ancient  learning  with  more  fidelity  and 
attention  than  was  shown  in  the  west  of  Europe.  Genius,  in- 
deed, or  any  original  excellence,  could  not  well  exist  along 
with  their  cowardly  despotism,  and  their  contemptible  theol- 
ogy, more  corrupted  by  frivolous  subtleties  than  that  of  the 
Latin  church.  The  spirit  of  persecution,  naturally  allied  to 
despotism  and  bigotry,  had  nearly,  during  one  period,  extin- 
guished the  lamp,  or  at  least  reduced  the  Greeks  to  a  level 
with  the  most  ignorant  nations  of  the  West.  In  the  age  of 
Justinian,  who  expelled  the  last  Platonic  philosophers,  learn- 
ing began  rapidly  to  decline;  in  that  of  Heraclius,  it  had 
reached  a  much  lower  point  of  degradation  ;  and  for  two  cen- 
turies, especially  while  the  worshippers  of  images  were  perse- 
cuted with  unrelenting  intolerance,  there  is  almost  a  blank  in 
the  annals  of  Grecian  literature./  But  about  the  middle  of 
the  ninth  century  it  revived  pretty  suddenly,  and  with  con- 
siderable success.^  Though,  as  I  have  observed,  we  find  in 
very  few  instances  any  original  talent,  yet  it  was  hardly  less 
important  to  have  had  compilers  of  such  erudition  as  Photius, 

I  The   authors  most  conversant  with  m  The  honor  of  restoring  ancient  or 

Byzantine  learning  agree  in  this.  Never-  heathen  literature  is  due  to  the  Caesar 

theless,  there  is  one  manifest  difference  Bardas,  uncle  and  minister  of  Michael 

between  the  Greek  writers  of  the  worst  II.     Cedrenus  speaks  of  it  in  the  fol- 

period,  such  as  the  eighth  century,  and  lowing1  terms  :  ejr«jui<*X>j0>j  ft  ieal  TT)«  efoo  <ro- 

those  who   correspond  to   them  in  the  0iay,  (yv  yap  ex  tr6\\ov  xpovov  irapappW<ra, 

West.      Syncellus,    for    example,    is    of  Kalirpn?'riimSevQ\(a<;xwp-ntra<rariiTS)VKpa.Tov~ 

great  use  in  chronology,  because  he  was  vruv  apyio.  ical  anaOia')  5iotTpi'8a?  ocaem;  T&V 
acquainted  with  many  ancient  histories 
now    no    more. 

nothing   which  , 

compilations     are     consequently     alto-  e/eeii/ou  ai/irjSacnceii'  at  eiricrn^at  tjp£ai>TO.    ... 

gether   unprofitable.     The    eighth   cen-  Hist.   Byzant.   Script.   (Lutet.)  t.  x.  p. 

tury,    the    Saeculum    Iconoclasticum    of  547.     Bardas  found   out  and  promoted 

Cave,  low  as  it  was  in  all  polite  litera-  Photius,   afterwards   patriarch   of   Con- 

ture,  produced  one  man,  John  Damas-  stantinople,  and  equally  famous  in  the 

cenus,  who  has  been  deemed  the  found-  annals  of  the  church  and  of  learning. 

er  of  scholastic  theology,  and  who  at  Gibbon  passes  perhaps  too  rapidly  over 

least  set  the  example  of  that  style  of  the  Byzantine  literature,   chap.   53,    In 

reasoning   in   the   East.     This   person,  this  as  in  many  other  places,  the  mas- 

and  Michael  Psellus,  a  philosopher  of  terly  boldness  and  precision  of  his  out- 

the  eleventh  century,  are  the  only  con-  line,    which    astonish    those   who   have 

siderable  men.  as   original  writers,   in  trodden  parts  of  the  same  field,  are  apt 

the  annals  of  Byzantine  literature.  to  escape  an  uninformed  reader. 


. 

h  many  ancient  histories       rnnvr^nnv  d^opiVd?,  TUP  juep  SXhw  DTD?  ?rep 

.      But    Bede    possessed        «™Y«>  •"?£  &  «ri  rratrwv  en-c^ov  <f>i.\o(TO<£>ia?  KO.T 

we   have   lost;     and   his        aware,  j8a<riA«a  ev  -rii  Mayfavpa  KCLL  oflrw  e£ 

are     consequently     alto-        e/eeii/ou  ai/irjSacnceii'  at  eiricrnat  tai>TO.  K.T.A. 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES 


181 


Suidas,  Eustathius,  and  Tzetzes.  With  these  certainly  the 
Latins  of  the  middle  ages  could  not  place  any  names  in  com- 
parison. They  possessed,  to  an  extent  which  we  cannot  pre- 
cisely appreciate,  many  of  those  poets,  historians,  and  orators 
of  ancient  Greece  whose  loss  we  have  long  regretted  and  must 
continue  to  deem  irretrievable.  Great  havoc,  however,  was 
made  in  the  libraries  of  Constantinople  at  its  capture  by  the 
Latins — an  epoch  from  which  a  rapid  decline  is  to  be  traced 
in  the  literature  of  the  eastern  empire.  Solecisms  and  barba- 
rous terms,  which  sometimes  occur  in  the  old  Byzantine  writers, 
are  said  to  deform  the  style  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies.^ The  Turkish  ravages  and  destruction  of  monasteries 
ensued ;  and  in  the  cheerless  intervals  of  immediate  terror  there 
was  no  longer  any  encouragement  to  preserve  the  monuments 
of  an  expiring  language,  and  of  a  name  that  was  to  lose  its 
place  among  nations.^ 


Jange,    1 

Graecitatis  Medii  Evi.  Anna  Comnena 
quotes  some  popular  lines,  which  seem 
to  be  the  earliest  specimen  extant  of  the 
Romaic  dialect,  or  something  approach- 
ing it,  as  they  observe  no  grammatical 
inflection,  and  bear  about  the  same  re- 
semblance to  ancient  Greek  that  the 
worst  law-charters  of  the  ninth  and 
tenth  centuries  do  to  pure  Latin.  In 
fact,  the  Greek  language  seems  to  have 
declined  much  in  the  same  manner  as 
the  Latin  did,  and  almost  at  as  early  a 
period.  In  the  sixth  century,  Damas- 
cius,  a  Platonic  philosopher,  mentions 
the  old  language  as  distinct  from  that 
which  was  vernacular,  TTJV  apyaiav  yAwr- 
rav  vTrep  TTJV  l&wnjv  n€\erov<n,  Du  Cange, 
ibid.  p.  ii.  It  is  well  known  that  the 
popular,  or  political  verses  of  Tzetzes, 
a  writer  of  the  twelfth  century,  are  ac- 
centual; that  is,  are  to  be  read,  as  the 
modern  Greeks  do,  by  treating  every 
acute  or  circumflex  syllable  as  long, 
without  regard  to  its  original  quantity. 
This  innovation,  which  must  have  pro- 
duced still  greater  confusion  of  metri- 
cal rules  than  it  did  in  Latin,  is  much 
older  than  the  age  of  Tzetzes;  if,  at 
least,  the  editor  of  some  notes  sub- 
joined to  Meursius's  edition  of  the 
Themata  of  Constantine  Porphyrogeni- 
tus  (Lugduni,  1617)  is  right  in  ascrib- 
ing certain  political  verses  to  that  em- 
peror, who  died  in  959.  These  verses 
are  regular  accentual  trochaics.  But  I 
believe  they  have  since  been  given  to 
Constantine  Manasses,  a  writer  of  the 
eleventh  century. 

According  to  the  opinion  of  a  modern 
traveller  (Hobhouse's  Travels  in  Al- 
bania, letter  33)  the  chief  corruptions 
which  distinguished  the  Romaic  from 
its  parent  stock,  especially  the  auxil- 
iary verbs,  are  not  older  than  the  cap- 
ture of  Constantinople  by  Mahomet  II. 
But  it  seems  difficult  to  obtain  any  sat- 


isfactory proof  of  this;  and  the  auxil- 
iary verb  is  so  natural  and  convenient, 
that  the  ancient  Greeks  may  probably, 
in  some  of  their  local  idioms,  have  fall- 
en into  the  use  of  it;  as  Mr.  H.  admits 
they  did  with  respect  to  the  future  aux- 
iliary flrfAoi.  See  some  instances  of  this 
in  Lesbonax,  irepl  tr^/Aa-nov,  ad  finem 
Ammonii,  cura  Valckenaer. 

o  Photius  (I  write  on  the  authority  of 
M.  Heeren)  quotes  Theopompus,  Ar- 
rian's  History  of  Alexander's  Succes- 
sors, and  of  Parthia,  Ctesias,  Agathar- 
cides,  the  whole  of  Diodorus  Siculus, 
Polybius,  and  Dionysius  of  Halicarnas- 
sus,  twenty  lost  orations  of  Demos- 
thenes, almost  two  hundred  of  Lycias, 
sixty-four  of  Isseus,  about  fifty  of  Hy- 
perides.  Heeren  ascribes  the  loss  of 
these  works  altogether  to  the  Latin 
capture  of  Constantinople,  no  writer 
subsequent  to  that  time  having  quoted 
them.  Essai  sur  les  Croisades,  p.  413. 
It  is  difficult,  however,  not  to  suppose 
that  some  part  of  the  destruction  was 
left  for  the  Ottomans  to  perform. 
jflSneas  Sylvius  bemoans,  in  his  speech 
before  the  diet  of  Frankfort,  the  vast 
losses  of  literature  by  the  recent  sub- 
version of  the  Greek  empire.  Quid  de 
libris  dicam,  qui  illic  erant  innumera- 

biles,  nondum  Latinis  cogniti! 

Nunc  ergo,  et  Homero  et^Pindaro  et 
Menandro  et  omnibus  illustriorbus 
poetis,  secunda  tnors  erit.  But  nothing 
can  be  inferred  from  this  declamation, 
except,  perhaps,  that  he  did  not  know 
whether  Menander  still  existed  or  not. 
JEn.  Sylv.  Opera,  p.  715;  also  p.  881. 
Harris's  Philological  Inquiries,  part  ih. 
c.  4.  It  is  a  remarkable  proof,  however, 
of  the  turn  which  Europe,  and  espe- 
cially Italy,  was  taking,  that  a  pope's 
legate  should,  on  a  solemn  occasion, 
descant  so  seriously  on  the  injury  sus- 
tained by  profane  literature. 

An    useful    summary    of    the    lower 


i8a  HALLAM 

That  ardor  for  the  restoration  of  classical  literature  which 
animated  Italy  in  the  first  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  was 
by  no  means  common  to  the  rest  of  Europe.  Neither  England, 
nor  France,  nor  Germany,  seemed  aware  of  the  approaching 
change.  We  are  told  that  learning,  by  which  I  believe  is  only 
meant  the  scholastic  ontology,  had  begun  to  decline  at  Oxford 
from  the  time  of  Edward  III./'  And  the  fifteenth  century,  from 
whatever  cause,  is  particularly  barren  of  writers  in  the  Latin 
language.  The  study  of  Greek  was  only  introduced  by  Grocyn 
and  Linacer  under  Henry  VII.,  and  met  with  violent  opposition 
in  the  university  of  Oxford,  where  the  unlearned  party  styled 
themselves  Trojans,  as  a  pretext  for  abusing  and  insulting  the 
scholars .q  Nor  did  any  classical  work  proceed  from  the  re- 
spectable press  of  Caxton.  France,  at  the  beginning  of  the  fif- 
teenth age,  had  several  eminent  theologians ;  but  the  reigns  of 
Charles  VII.  and  Louis  XL  contributed  far  more  to  her  politi- 
cal than  her  literary  renown.  A  Greek  professor  was  first  ap- 
pointed at  Paris  in  1458,  before  which  time  the  language  had 
not  been  publicly  taught,  and  was  little  understood.^  Much  less 
had  Germany  thrown  off  her  ancient  rudeness.  ^Eneas  Sylvius, 
indeed,  a  deliberate  flatterer,  extols  every  circumstance  in  the 
social  state  of  that  country ;  but  Campano,  the  papal  legate  at 
Ratisbon  in  1471,  exclaims  against  the  barbarism  of  a  nation, 
where  very  few  possessed  any  learning,  none  any  elegance.-* 
Yet  the  progress  of  intellectual  cultivation,  at  least  in  the  two 
former  countries,  was  uniform,  though  silent ;  libraries  became 
more  numerous,  and  books,  after  the  happy  invention  of  paper, 
though  still  very  scarce,  might  be  copied  at  less  expense. 
Many  colleges  were  founded  in  the  English  as  well  as  foreign 
universities  during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries.  Nor 
can  I  pass  over  institutions  that  have  so  eminently  contributed 

Greek  literature,  taken  chiefly  from  the  further  the  pedantic  affectation  of  avoid- 

Bibliotheca  Graeca  of  Fabricius,  will  be  ing    modern    terms     m    his    Latimty. 

found  in  Benngton's  Literary  History  Thus,  in  the  life  of  Braccio  da  Montone 

of  the  Middle  Ages,  Appendix  I.;    and  he  renders   his   meaning   almost   unin- 

one   rather   mqre^  copious    in    Schoell,  telligible  by  excess  of  classical  purity. 

Abrege  de  la  Litterature  Grecque.    (Pa-  Braccio    boasts    se    numquam    diorum 

ris,  1812.)  immortalium   templa   violasse      Troops 

^Wood's  Antiquities  of  Oxford,  vol.  i.  committing  outrages  in  a  city  are  ac- 

p.  537*  cused  virgmes  vestales  incestasse.     In 

q  Roper's  Vita  Mori,  ed.   Hearne,  p.  the  terms  of  treaties  he  employs  the  old 

75-  Roman     forms;     exercitum     trajicito— 

r  Crevier,  t  iv.  p.  243;   see,  too,  p.  $6.  oppida  pontificts  sunto,  &c.     And  with 

j  Incredibilis  t  ingeniorum     barbaries1  a  most  absurd  pedantry,  the  ecclesiasti- 

est;  ^rarissimi  Irteras  norunt,  nulli  ele-  cal  state  is  called  Romanum  imperium, 

gantiatn.      Papiensis    Epistolae,    p.    375?  Camp'ani     Vita     Braccii,     in     Muratori 

Campano's  notion   of   elegance  vras   ri-  Script.  Rer.  Jtal.  t.  xix. 
diculous  enough,    Nobody  ever  carried 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  183 

to  the  literary  reputation  of  this  country,  and  that  still  continue 
to  exercise  so  conspicuous  an  influence  over  her  taste  and 
knowledge,  as  the  two  great  schools  of  grammatical  learning, 
Winchester  and  Eton — the  one  founded  by  William  of  Wyke- 
ham,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  in  1373 ;  the  other  in  1432,  by 
King  Henry  the  Sixth.* 

But  while  the  learned  of  Italy  were  eagerly  exploring  their 
recent  acquisitions  of  manuscripts,  deciphered  with  difficulty 
and  slowly  circulated  from  hand  to  hand,  a  few  obscure  Ger- 
mans had  gradually  perfected  the  most  important  discovery 
recorded  in  the  annals  of  mankind.  The  invention  of  printing, 
so  far  from  being  the  result  of  philosophical  sagacity,  does  not 
appear  to  have  been  suggested  by  any  regard  to  the  higher 
branches  of  literature,  or  to  bear  any  other  relation  than  that 
of  coincidence  to  their  revival  in  Italy.  The  question  why  it 
was  struck  out  at  that  particular  time  must  be  referred  to  that 
disposition  of  unknown  causes  which  we  call  accident.  Two 
or  three  centuries  earlier,  we  cannot  but  acknowledge  the  dis- 
covery would  have  been  almost  equally  acceptable.  But  the 
invention  of  paper  seems  to  have  naturally  preceded  those  of 
engraving  and  printing.  It  is  generally  agreed  that  playing 
cards,  which  have  been  traced  far  back  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, gave  the  first  notion  of  taking  off  impressions  from  en- 
graved figures  upon  wood.  The  second  stage,  or  rather  second 
application  of  this  art,  was  the  representation  of  saints  and 
other  religious  devices,  several  instances  of  which  are  still  ex- 
tant. Some  of  these  are  accompanied  with  an  entire  page  of 
illustrative  text,  cut  into  the  same  wooden  block.  This  process 
is  indeed  far  removed  from  the  invention  that  has  given  im- 
mortality to  the  names  of  Fust,  Schoeffer,  and  Gutenburg,  yet 
it  probably  led  to  the  consideration  of  means  whereby  it  might 
be  rendered  less  operose  and  inconvenient.  Whether  movable 
wooden  characters  were  ever  employed  in  any  entire  work  is 
very  questionable — the  opinion  that  referred  their  use  to  Lau- 
rence Coster,  of  Haarlem,  not  having  stood  the  test  of  more 
accurate  investigation.  They  appear,  however,  in  the  capital 
letters  of  some  early  printed  books.  But  no  expedient  of  this 

t  A  letter  from  Master  William  Pas-  denominate  _  nonsense    verses.      But    j 

ton  at  Eton  (Paston  Letters,  vol.  i.  p.  more  material  observation  is,  that  the 

200)  proves  that  Latin  versification  was  sons  of  country  gentlemen  living  at  a 

tSsfit  there  as  early  as  the  beginning  considerable  distance  were  already  sent 

of  Edward  I V.'s  reign.    It  is  true  that  to  public  schools  for  grammatical  edu- 

the  specimen  he  rather  proudly  exhibits  cation, 
does    not    mflch    differ   from   what   we 


!84  HALLAM 

kind  could  have  fulfilled  the  great  purposes  of  this  invention, 
until  it  was  perfected  by  founding  metal  types  in  a  matrix  or 
mould,  the  essential  characteristic  of  printing,  as  distinguished 
from  other  arts  that  bear  some  analogy  to  it. 

The  first  book  that  issued  from  the  presses  of  Fust  and  his 
associates  at  Mentz  was  an  edition  of  the  Vulgate,  commonly 
called  the  Mazarin  Bible,  a  copy  having  been  discovered  in 
the  library  that  owes  its  name  to  Cardinal  Mazarin  at  Paris. 
This  is  supposed  to  have  been  printed  between  the  years  1450 
and  1455."  In  T457  an  edition  of  the  Psalter  appeared,  and  in 
this  the  invention  was  announced  to  the  world  in  a  boasting 
colophon,  though  certainly  not  unreasonably  bold.*'  Another 
edition  of  the  Psalter,  one  of  an  ecclesiastical  book,  Durand's 
account  of  liturgical  offices,  one  of  the  Constitutions  of  Pope 
Clement  V.,  and  one  of  a  popular  treatise  on  general  science, 
called  the  Catholicon,  filled  up  the  interval  till  1462,  when  the 
second  Mentz  Bible  proceeded  from  the  same  printers.^  This, 
in  the  opinion  of  some,  is  the  earliest  book  in  which  cast  types 
were  employed — those  of  the  Mazarin  Bible  having  been  cut 
with  the  hand.  But  this  is  a  controverted  point.  In  1465  Fust 
and  Schoeffer  published  an  edition  of  Cicero's  Offices,  the  first 
tribute  of  the  new  art  to  polite  literature.  Two  pupils  of  their 
school,  Sweynheim  and  Pannartz,  migrated  the  same  year  into 
Italy,  and  printed  Donatus's  grammar  and  the  works  of  Lac- 
tantius  at  the  monastery  of  Subiaco,  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Rome.*  Venice  had  the  honor  of  extending  her  patronage  to 
John  of  Spira,  the  first  who  applied  the  art  on  an  extensive  scale 
to  the  publication  of  classical  writers.^  Several  Latin  authors 
came  forth  from  his  press  in  1470;  and  during  the  next  ten 
years  a  multitude  of  editions  were  published  in  various  parts 
of  Italy.  Though,  as  we  may  judge  from  their  present  scarc- 
ity, these  editions  were  by  no  means  numerous  in  respect  of 
impressions,  yet,  contrasted  with  the  dilatory  process  of  copy- 
ing manuscripts,  they  were  like  a  new  mechanical  power  in 
machinery,  and  gave  a  wonderfully  accelerated  impulse  to  the 
intellectual  cultivation  of  mankind.  From  the  era  of  these  first 

«  De  Sure,  t.  i.  p.  30.    Several  copies  *  Tiraboschi,  t._  v£.  p.  140. 

of  this  book  have  come  to  light  since  its  y  Sanuto   mentions   an   order   of   the 

discovery.  senate  in  146?,  that  John  of  Spira 

v  Id.,  p.  71.  should  print  the  epistles  of  Tully  and 

wMera.  <le  PAcad.  des  Inscriptions,  Pliny  Jor  five  years,  and  that  no  one 

t.  xiv.  p.  265.    Another  edition  of  the  else  should  do  so.    Script.  Rerum  Ital- 

Bible  is  supposed  to  have  been  printed  ic.  t.  xxii.  p.  1189. 

by  Pfister  at  Bamberg  in  I4S9- 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  185 

editions  proceeding  from  the  Spiras,  Zarot,  Janson,  or  Sweyn- 
heim  and  Pannartz,  literature  must  be  deemed  to  have  alto- 
gether revived  in  Italy.  The  sun  was  now  fully  above  the  hori- 
zon, though  countries  less  fortunately  circumstanced  did  not 
immediately  catch  his  beams;  and  the  restoration  of  ancient 
learning  in  France  and  England  cannot  be  considered  as  by  any 
means  effectual  even  at  the  expiration  of  the  fifteenth  century. 
At  this  point,  however,  I  close  the  present  chapter.  The  last 
twenty  years  of  the  middle  ages,  according  to  the  date  which 
I  have  fixed  for  their  termination  in  treating  of  political  history, 
might  well  invite  me  by  their  brilliancy  to  dwell  upon  that 
golden  morning  of  Italian  literature.  But,  in  the  history  of 
letters,  they  rather  appertain  to  the  modern  than  the  middle 
period;  nor  would  it  become  me  to  trespass  upon  the  ex- 
hausted patience  of  my  readers  by  repeating  what  has  been  so 
often  and  so  recently  told,  the  story  of  art  and  learning,  that 
has  employed  the  comprehensive  research  of  a  Tiraboschi,  a 
Ginguene,  and  a  Roscoe. 


The  Notes  for  Book  IX.    will  be  found  in  this  volume,   beginning 

on  j>age  224. 


HALLAM 


NOTES   TO   BOOK   VIII. 
PART  III. 
NOTE  XVI. 

It  is  rather  a  curious,  speculative  question,  and  such  only,  we  may 
presume,  it  will  long  continue,  whether  bishops  are  entitled,  on  charges 
of  treason  or  felony,  to  a  trial  by  the  peers.  If  this  question  be  con- 
sidered either  theoretically  or  according  to  ancient  authority,  I  think 
the  affirmative  proposition  is  beyond  dispute.  Bishops  were  at  all 
times  members  of  the  great  national  council,  and  fully  equal  to  lay  lords 
in  temporal  power  as  well  as  dignity.  Since  the  Conquest  they  have 
held  their  temporalities  of  the  crown  by  a  baronial  tenure,  which,  if 
there  be  any  consistency  in  law,  must  unequivocally  distinguish  them 
from  commoners — since  any  one  holding  by  barony  might  be  chal- 
lenged on  a  jury,  as  not  being  the  peer  of  the  party  whom  he  was  to 
try.  It  is  true  that  they  take  no  share  in  the  judicial  power  of  the 
house  of  lords  in  cases  of  treason  or  felony;  but  this  is  merely  in  con- 
formity to  those  ecclesiastical  canons  which  prohibited  the  clergy  from 
partaking  in  capital  judgment,  and  they  have  always  withdrawn  from 
the  house  on  such  occasions  under  a  protestation  of  their  right  to  re- 
main. Had  it  not  been  for  this  particularity,  arising  wholly  out  of 
their  own  discipline,  the  question  of  their  peerage  could  never  have 
come  into  dispute.  As  for  the  common  argument  that  they  are  not 
tried  as  peers  because  they  have  no  inheritable  nobility,  I  consider  it  as 
very  frivolous,  since  it  takes  for  granted  the  precise  matter  in  contro- 
versy, that  an  inheritable  nobility  is  necessary  to  the  definition  of  peer- 
age, or  to  its  incidental  privileges. 

If  we  come  to  constitutional  precedents,  by  which,  when  sufficiently 
numerous  and  unexceptionable,  all  questions  of  this  kind  are  ulti- 
mately to  be  determined,  the  weight  of  ancient  authority  seems  to  be 
in  favor  of  the  prelates.  In  the  fifteenth  year  of  Edward  III.  (1340), 
the  king  brought  several  charges  against  Archbishop  Stratford.  He 
came  to  parliament  with  a  declared  intention  of  defending  himself  be- 
fore his  peers.  The  king  insisted  upon  his  answering  in  the  court  of 
exchequer.  Stratford  however  persevered,  and  the  house  of  lords,  by 
the  king's  consent,  appointed  twelve  of  their  number,  bishops,  earls, 
and  barons,  to  report  whether  peers  ought  to  answer  criminal  charges 
in  parliament,  and  not  elsewhere.  This  committee  reported  to  the  king 
in  full  parliament  that  the  peers  of  the  land  ought  nor  to  be  arraigned, 
nor  put  on  trial,  except  in  parliament  and  by  their  peers.  The  arch- 
bishop upon  this  prayed  the  king,  that,  inasmuch  as  he  had  been  no- 
toriously defamed,  he  might  be  arraigned  in  full  parliament  before  the 
peers,  and  there  make  answer;  which  request  the  king  granted.  (Rot. 
ParL  vol.  ii.  p.  127.  Collier's  Eccles.  Hist.  vol.  i.  p.  543-)  The  pro- 
ceedings against  Stratford  went  no  further;  but  I  think  it  impossible 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  187 

not  to  admit  that  his  right  to  trial  as  a  peer  was  fully  recognized  both 
by  the  king  and  lords. 

This  is,  however,  the  latest,  and  perhaps  the  only  instance  of  a  prel- 
ate's obtaining  so  high  a  privilege.  In  the  preceding  reign  of  Edward 
II.,  if  we  can  rely  on  the  account  of  Walsingham  (p.  119),  Adam  Orle- 
ton,  the  factious  Bishop  of  Hereford,  had  first  been  arraigned  before 
the  house  of  lords,  and  subsequently  convicted  by  a  common  jury;  but 
the  transaction  was  of  a  singular  nature,  and  the  king  might  probably 
be  influenced  by  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  a  conviction  from  the  tem- 
poral peers,  of  whom  many  were  disaffected  to  him,  in  a  case  where 
privilege  of  clergy  was  vehemently  claimed.  But  about  1357  a  bishop 
of  Ely,  being  accused  of  harboring  one  guilty  of  murder,  though  he 
demanded  a  trial  by  the  peers,  was  compelled  to  abide  the  verdict  of  a 
jury.  (Collier,  p.  557.)  In  the  jist  of  Edw.  III.  (1358)  the  abbot  of 
Missenden  was  hanged  for  coining.  (2  Inst.  p.  635.)  The  abbot  of 
this  monastery  appears  from  Dugdale  to  have  been  summoned  by  writ 
in  the  4Qth  of  Henry  III.  If  he  actually  held  by  barony,  I  do  not  per- 
ceive any  strong  distinction  between  his  case  and  that  of  a  bishop. 
The  leading  precedent,  however,  and  that  upon  which  lawyers  prin- 
cipally found  their  denial  of  this  privilege  to  the  bishops,  is  the  case  of 
Fisher,  who  was  certainly  tried  before  an  ordinary  jury;  nor  am  I  aware 
that  any  remonstrance  was  made  by  himself,  or  complaint  by  his  friends, 
upon  this  ground.  Cranmer  was  treated  in  the  same  manner;  and  from 
these  two,  being  the  most  recent  precedents,  though  neither  of  them 
in  the  best  of  times,  the  great  plurality  of  law-books  have  drawn  a  con- 
clusion that  bishops  are  not  entitled  to  trial  by  the  temporal  peers. 
Nor  can  there  be  much  doubt  that,  whenever  the  occasion  shall  occur, 
this  will  be  the  decision  of  the  house  of  lords. 

There  are  two  peculiarities,  as  it  may  naturally  appear,  in  the  above- 
mentioned  resolution  of  the  lords  in  Stratford's  case.  The  first  is,  that 
they  claim  to  be  tried,  not  only  before  their  peers,  but  in  parliament. 
And  in  the  case  of  the  Bishop  of  Ely  it  is  said  to  have  been  objected  to 
his  claim  of  trial  by  his  peers,  that  parliament  was  not  then  sitting. 
(Collier,  ubi  sup.)  It  is  most  probable,  therefore,  that  the  court  of  the 
lord  high  steward,  for  the  special  purpose  of  trying  a  peer,  was  of 
more  recent  institution — as  appears  also  from  Sir  E.  Coke's  expres- 
sions. (4  Inst.  p.  58.)  The  second  circumstance  that  may  strike  a 
reader  is,  that  the  lords  assert  their  privilege  in  all  criminal  cases,  not 
distinguishing  misdemeanors  from  treasons  and  felonies.  But  in  this 
they  were  undoubtedly  warranted  by  the  clear  language  of  Magna 
Charta,  which  makes  no  distinction  of  the  kind.  The  practice  of  trying 
a  peer  for  misdemeanors  by  a  jury  of  commoners,  concerning  the 
origin  of  which  I  can  say  nothing,  is  one  of  those  anomalies  which  too 
often  render  our  laws  capricious  and  unreasonable  in  the  eyes  of  im- 
partial men. 

Since  writing  the  above  note  I  have  read  Stillingfleet's  treatise  on 
the  judicial  power  of  the  bishops  in  capital  cases— a"  right  which,  though 
now,  I  think,  abrogated  by  non-claim  and  a  course  of  contrary  prece- 
dents, he  proves  beyond  dispute  to  have  existed  by  the  common  law 
and  constitutions  of  Clarendon,  to  have  been  occasionally  exercised, 
and  to  have  been  only  suspended  by  their  voluntary  act.  In  the  course 
of  this  argument  he'  treats  of  the  peerage  of  the  bishops,  and  produces 
abundant  evidence  from  the  records  of  parliament  that  they  were  styled 
peers,  for  which,  though  convinced  from  general  recollection,  I  had 
not  leisure  or  disposition  to  search.  But  if  any  doubt  should  remain, 
the  statute  25  E.  III.  c.  6,  contains  a  legislative  declaration  of  the 
peerage  of  bishops.  The  whole  subject  is  discussed  with  much  per- 
spicuity and  force  by  Stillingfleet,  who  seems  however  not  to^press  very 
greatly  the  right  of  trial  by  peers,  aware  no  doubt  of  the  weight  of  op- 


i88  HALLAM 

posite  precedents  (Stillingfleet's  Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  820.)  In  one  dis- 
tinction, that  the  bishops  vote  in  their  judicial  functions  as  barons, 
but  in  legislation  as  magnates,  which  Warburton  has  brought  forward 
as  his  own  in  the  Alliance  of  Church  and  State,  Stillingfleet  has  per- 
haps not  taken  the  strongest  ground,  nor  sufficiently  accounted  for 
their  right  of  sitting  in  judgment  on  the  impeachment  of  a  commoner. 
Parliamentary  impeachment,  upon  charges  of  high  public  crimes,  seems 
to  be  the  exercise  of  a  right  inherent  in  the  great  council  of  the  nation, 
some  traces  of  which  appear  even  before  the  Conquest.  (Chron.  Sax. 
pp.  164,  169),  independent  of  and  superseding  that  of  trial  by  peers, 
which,  if  the  2Qth  section  of  Magna  Charta  be  strictly  construed,  is  only 
required  upon  indictments  at  the  king's  suit.  And  this  consideration 
is  of  great  weight  in  the  question,  still  unsettled,  whether  a  commoner 
can  be  tried  by  the  lords  upon  an  impeachment  for  treason. 

The  treatise  of  Stillingfleet  was  written  on  occasion  of  the  objection 
raised  by  the  commons  to  the  bishops  voting  on  the  question  of  Lord 
Danby's  pardon,  which  he  pleaded  in  bar  of  his  impeachment.  Burnet 
seems  to  suppose  that  their  right  to  final  judgment  had  never  been  de- 
fended, and  confounds  judgment  with  sentence.  ^  Mr.  Hargrave,  strange 
to  say,  has  made  a  much  greater  blunder,  and  imagined  that  the  ques- 
tion related  to  their  right  of  voting  on  a  bill  of  attainder,  which  no  one, 
I  believe,  ever  disputed.  (Notes  on  Co.  Litt.  134  b.) 

NOTE   XVII. 

The  constitution  of  parliament  in  this  period,  antecedent  to  the  Great 
Charter,  has  been  minutely  and  scrupulously  investigated  by  the  Lords' 
Committee  on  the  Dignity  of  a  Peer  in  1819.  Two  questions  may  be 
raised  as  to  the  lay  portion  of  the  great  council  of  the  nation  from  the 
Conquest  to  the  reign  of  John: — first,  Did  it  comprise  any  members, 
whether  from  the  counties  or  boroughs,  not  holding  themselves,  nor 
deputed  by  others  holding  in  chief  of  the  crown  by  knight-service  or 
grand  serjeanty?  secondly,  Were  all  such  tenants  in  capite  personally, 
or  in  contemplation  of  law,  assisting,  by  advice  and  suffrage,  in  coun- 
cils held  for  the  purpose  of  laying  on  burdens,  or  for  permanent  and 
important  legislation? 

The  former  of  these  questions  they  readily  determine.  The  com- 
mittee have  discovered  no  proof,  nor  any  likelihood  from  analogy,  that 
the  great  council,  in  these  Norman  reigns,  was  composed  of  any  who 
did^not  hold  in  chief  of  the  crown  by  a  military  tenure,  or  one  in  grand 
serjeanty;  and  they  exclude,  not  only  tenants  in  petty  serjeanty  and 
socage,  but  such  as  held  of  an  escheated  barony,  or,  as  it  was  called, 
de  honore. 

They  found  more  difficulty  in  the  second  question.  It  has  generally 
been  concluded,  and  I  may  have  taken  it  for  granted  in  my  text,  that 
all  military  tenants  in  capite  were  summoned,  or  ought  to  have  been 
summoned,  to  any  great  council  of  the  realm,  whether  for  the  purpose 
of  levying  a  new  tax,  or  any  other  affecting  the  public  weal.  The  com- 
mittee, however,  laudably  cautious  in  drawing  any  positive  inference, 
have  moved  step  by  step  through  this  obscure  path  with  a  circum- 
spection as  honorable  to  themselves  as  it  renders  their  ultimate  judg- 
ment worthy  of  respect. 

"  The  council  of  the  kingdom,  however  composed  (they  are  advert- 
ing to  the  reign  of  Henry  I.),  must  have  been  assembled  by  the  king's 
command;  and  the  king,  therefore,  may  have  assumed  the  power  of 
selecting  the  persons  to  whom  he  addressed  the  command,  especially 
if  the  object  of  assembling  such  a  council  was  not  to  impose  any  burden 
on  any  of  the  subjects  of  the  realm  exempted  from  such  burdens  except 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  189 

by  their  own  free  grants.  Whether  the  king  was  at  this  time  consid- 
ered as  bound  by  any  constitutional  law  to  address  such  command  to 
any  particular  persons,  designated  by  law  as  essential  parts  of  such  an 
assembly  for  all  purposes,  the  committee  have  been  unable  to  ascertain. 
It  has  generally  been  considered  as  the  law  of  the  land  that  the  king 
had  a  right  to  require  the  advice  of  any  of  his  subjects,  and  their  per- 
sonal services,  for  the  general  benefit  of  the  kingdom;  but  as,  by  the 
terms  of  the  charters  of  Henry  and  of  his  father,  no  aid  could  be  re- 
quired of  the  immediate  tenants  of  the  crown  by  military  service,  be- 
yond the  obligation  of  their  respective  tenures,  if  the  crown  had  occa- 
sion for  any  extraordinary  aid  from  those  tenants,  it  must  have  been 
necessary,  according  to  law,  to  assemble  all  persons  so  holding,  to  give 
their  consent  to  the  imposition.  Though  the  numbers  of  such  tenants 
of  the  crown  were  not  originally  very  great,  as  far  as  appears  from 
Domesday,  yet,  if  it  was  necessary  to  convene  all  to  form  a  constitu- 
tional legislative  assembly,  the  distances  of  their  respective  residences, 
and  the  inconvenience  of  assembling  at  one  time,  in  one  spot,  all  those 
who  thus  held  of  the  crown,  and  upon  whom  the  maintenance  of  the 
Conquest  itself  must  for  a  considerable  time  have  importantly  depend- 
ed, must  have  produced  difficulties,  even  in  the  reign  of  the  Con- 
queror; and  the  increase  of  their  numbers  by  subdivisions  of  tenures 
must  have  greatly  increased  the  difficulty  in  the  reign  of  his  son  Henry: 
and  at  length,  in  the  reigns  of  his  successors,  it  must  have  been  almost 
impossible  to  have  convened  such  an  assembly,  except  by  general  sum- 
mons of  the  greater  part  of  the  persons  who  were  to  form  it;  and  unless 
those  who  obeyed  the  summons  could  bind  those  who  did  not,  the 
powers  of  the  assembly  when  convened  must  have  been  very  defective." 
(P.  40.) 

Though  I  do  not  perceive  why  we  should  assume  any  great  subdi- 
vision of  tenures  before  the  statute  of  Quia  Emptores,  in  18  Edw.  L, 
which  prohibited  subinfeudation,  it  is  obvious  that  the  committee  have 
pointed  out  the  inconvenience  of  a  scheme  which  gave  all  tenants  in 
capite  (more  numerous  in  Domesday  than  they  perhaps  were  aware)  a 
right  to  assist  at  great  councils.  Still,  as  it  is  manifest  from  the  early 
charters,  and  explicitly  admitted  by  the  committee,  that  the  king  could 
raise  no  extraordinary  contribution  from  his  immediate  vassals  by  his 
own  authority,  and  as  there  was  no  feudal  subordination  between  one 
of  these  and  another,  however  differing  in  wealth,  it  is  clear  that  they 
were  legally  entitled  to  a  voice,  be  it  through  general  or  special  sum- 
mons, in  the  imposition  of  taxes  which  they  were  to  pay.  It  will  not 
follow  that  they  were  summoned,  or  had  an  acknowledged  right  to  be 
summoned,  on  the  few  other  occasions  when  legislative  measures  were 
in  contemplation,  or  in  the  determinations  taken  by  the  king's  great 
council.  This  can  only  be  inferred  by  presumptive  proof  or  constitu- 
tional analogy. 

The  eleventh  article  of  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  in  1164  de- 
clares that  archbishops,  bishops,  and  all  persons  of  the  realm  who  hold 
of  the  king  in  capite,  possess  their  lands  as  a  barony,  and  are  bound  to 
attend  in  the  judgments  of  the  king's  court  like  other  barons.  It  is 
plain,  from  the  general  tenor  of  these  constitutions,  that  "  universne 
personse  regni  "  must  be  restrained  to  ecclesiastics ;  and  the  only  words 
which  can  be  important  in  the  present  discussion  are  "  sicut  barones 
casteri."  "  It  seems,"  says  the  committee,  "  to  follow  that  all  those 
termed  the  king's  barons  were  tenants  in  chief  of  the  king;  but  it  does 
not  follow  that  all  tenants  in  chief  of  the  king  were  the  king's  barons, 
and  as  such  bound  to  attend  his  court.  They^  might  not  be  bound  to 
attend  unless  they  held  their  lands  of  the  king  in  chief  '  sicut  baroniam,' 
as  expressed  in  this  article  with  respect  to  the  archbishops  and  other 
clergy,"  (P.  44.)  They  conclude,  however,  that  "  upon  the  whole  the 


HALLAM 

Constitutions  of  Clarendon,  if  the  existing  copies  be  correct,  afford 
strong  ground  for  presuming  that  owing  suit  to  the  king's  great  court 
rendered  the  tenant  one  of  the  king's  barons  or  members  of  that  court, 
though  probably  in  general  none  attended  who  were  not  specially  sum- 
moned. It  has  been  already  observed  that  this  would  not  include  all 
the  king's  tenants  in  chief,  and  particularly  those  who  did  not  hold  of 
him  as  of  his  crown,  or  even  to  all  who  did  hold  of  him  as  of  his  crown, 
but  not  by  knight-service  or  grand  serjeanty,  which  were  alone  deemed 
military  and  honorable  tenures;  though,  whether  all  who  held  of  the 
king  as  of  his  crown,  by  knight-service  or  grand  serjeanty,  did  orig- 
inally owe  suit  to  the  king's  court,  or  whether  that  obligation  was  con- 
fined to  persons  holding  by  a  particular  tenure,  called  tenure  per  baroni- 
am,  as  has  been  asserted,  the  Constitutions  of  Clarendon  do  not  assist 
to  ascertain."  (P.  45.)  But  this,  as  they  point  out,  involves  the  ques- 
tion whether  the  Curia  Regis,  mentioned  in  these  constitutions,  was  not 
only  a  judicial  but  a  legislative  assembly,  or  one  competent  to  levy  a 
tax  on  military  tenants,  since  by  the  terms  of  the  charter  of  Henry  L, 
confirmed  by  that  of  Henry  II.,  all  such  tenants  were  clearly  exempted 
from  taxation,  except  by  their  own  consents. 

They  touched  slightly  on  the  reign  of  Richard  I.  with  the  remark 
that  "  the  result  of  all  which  they  have  found  with  respect  to  the  con- 
stitution of  the  legislative  assemblies  of  the  realm  still  leaves  the  sub- 
ject in  great  obscurity."  (P.  49.)  But  it  is  remarkable  that  they  have 
never  alluded  to  the  presence  of  tenants  in  chief,  knights  as  well  as 
barons,  at  the  parliament  of  Northampton  under  Henry  II.  They 
come,  however,  rather  suddenly  to  the  conclusion  that  "the  records 
of  the  reign  of  John  seem  to  give  strong  ground  for  supposing  that  all 
the  king's  tenants  in  ^chief  by  military  tenure,  if  not  all  the  tenants  in 
chief, a  were  at  one  time  deemed  necessary  members  of  the  common 
councils  of  the  realm,  when  summoned  for  extraordinary  purposes,  and 
especially  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  a  grant  of  any  extraordinary 
aid  to  the  king;  and  this  opinion  accords  with  what  has  generally  been 
deemed  originally  the  law  in  France,  or  other  countries  where  what  is 
called  the  feudal  system  of  tenures  has  been  established."  (P.  54.)  It 
cannot  surely  admit  of  a  doubt,  and  has  been  already  affirmed  more 
than  once  by  the  committee,  that  for  an  extraordinary  grant  of  money 
the  consent  of  military  tenants  in  chief  was  required  long  before  the 
reign  of  John.  Nor  was  that  a  reign,  till  the  enactment  of  the  Great 
Charter,  when  any  fresh  extension  of  political  liberty  was  likely  to  have 
become  established.  But  the  difficulty  may  still  remain  with  respect 
to  "  extraordinary  purposes  "  of  another  description. 

They  observe  afterwards  that  "  they  have  found  no  document  before 
the  Great  Charter  of  John  in  which  the  term  '  majores  barones  *  has 
been  used,  though  in  some  subsequent  documents  words  of  apparently 
similar  import  have  been  used.  From  the  instrument  itself  it  might 
be  presumed  that  the  term  '  majores  barones  '  was  then  a  term  in  some 
degree  understood;  and  that  the  distinction  had,  therefore,  an  earlier 
origin,  though  the  committee  have  not  found  the  term  in  any  earlier 
instrument."  (P.  67.)  But  though  the  Dialogue  on  the  Exchequer, 
generally  referred  to  the  reign  of  Henry  II. ,  is  not  an  instrument,  it  is 
a  law-book  of  sufficient  reputation,  and  in  this  we  read — "  Quidam  de 
rege  tenent  in  capite  quse  ad  coronam  pertinent;  baronias  scilicet  ma- 
jores seu  minores."  (Lib.  ii.  cap.  10.)  It  would  be  trifling  to  dispute 
that  the  tenant  of  a  baronia  major  might  be  called  a  bare  major.  And 

a  This  hypothetical  clause  is  some-  serjeanty.  Yet  the  committee,  as  we 
whajt  remarkable.  Grand  serjeanty  is  have  just  seen,  absolutely  exclude  these 
of  course  included  by  parity  under  mill-  from  any  share  In  the  great  councils  of 
tary  service.  But  did  any  hold  of  the  the  Conqueror  and  his  immediate  de- 
king  in  so.cage,  except  upon  his  demesne  scendants. 
lands.  There  might  be  some  by  petty 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  191 

what  could  the  secundes  dignitatis  barones  at  Northampton  have  been 
but  tenants  in  capite  holding  fiefs  by  some  line  or  other  distinguishable 
from  a  superior  class?6 

It  appears,  therefore,  on  the  whole,  that  in  the  judgment  of  the  com- 
mittee, by  no  means  indulgent  in  their  requisition  of  evidence,  or  dis- 
posed to  take  the  more  popular  side,  all  the  military  tenants  in  capite 
were  constitutionally  members  of  the  commune  concilium  of  the  realm 
during  the  Norman  constitution.  This  commune  concilium  the  commit- 
tee distinguish  from  a  magnum  concilium,  though  it  seems  doubtful 
whether  there  were  any  very  definite  line  between  the  two.  But  that 
the  consent  of  these  tenants  was  required  for  taxation  they  repeatedly 
acknowledge.  And  there  appears  sufficient  evidence  that  they  were  oc- 
casionally present  for  other  important  purposes.  It  is,  however,  very 
probable  that  writs  of  summons  were  actually  addressed  only  to  those 
of  distinguished  name,  to  those  resident  near  the  place  of  meeting,  or 
to  the  servants  and  favorites  of  the  crown.  This  seems  to  be  deducible 
from  the  words  in  the  Great  Charter,  which  limit  the  king's  engagement 
to  summon  all  tenants  in  chief,  through  the  sheriff,  to  the  case  of  his 
requiring  an  aid  or  scutage,  and  still  more  from  the  withdrawing  of  this 
promise  in  the  first  year  of  Henry  III.  The  privilege  of  attending  on 
such  occasions,  though  legally  general,  may  never  have  been  generally 
exercised. 

The  committee  seem  to  have  been  perplexed  about  the  word  magnates 
employed  in  several  records  to  express  part  of  those  present  in  great 
councils.  In  general  they  interpret  it,  as  well  as  the  word  proceres,  to 
include  persons  not  distinguished  by  the  name  "  barones " ;  a  word 
which  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  seems  to  have  been  chiefly  used  in  the 
restricted  sense  it  has  latterly  acquired.  Yet  in  one  instance,  a  letter 
addressed  to  the  justiciar  of  Ireland,  i  Hen.  III.,  they  suppose  the 
word  magnates  to  "exclude  those  termed  therein  'alii  quamplurimi ' ; 
and  consequently  to  be  confined  to  prelates,  earls,  and  barons.  This 
may  be  deemed  important  in  the  consideration  of  many  other  instru- 
ments in  which  the  word  magnates  has  been  used  to  express  persons 
constituting  the  '  commune  concilium  regni/  "  But  this  strikes  me  as 
an  erroneous  construction  of  the  letter.  The  words  are  as  follows: — 
"  Convenerunt  apud  Glocestnam  plures  regni  nostri  magnates,  episcopi, 
abbates,  comites,  et  barones,  qui  patri  nostro  viventi  semper  astiterunt 
fideliter  et  devote,  et  alii  quamplurimi;  applaud entibus  clero  et  populo, 
&c.,  publice  fuimus  in  regem  Anglise  inuncti  et  coronati."  (P.  77.) 
I  think  that  magnates  is  a  collective  word,  including  the  "  alii  quam- 
plurimi." It  appears  to  me  that  magnates,  and  perhaps  some  other 
Latin  words,  correspond  to  the  witan  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  express- 
ing the  legislature  in  general,  under  which  were  comprised  those  who 
held  peculiar  dignities,  whether  lay  or  spiritual.  And  upon  the  whole 
we  may  be  led  to  believe  that  the  Norman  great  council  was  essen- 
tially of  the  same  composition  as  the  witenagemot  which  had  pre- 
ceded it;  the  king's  thanes  being  replaced  by  the  barons  of  the  first 
or  second  degree,  who,  whatever  may  have  been  the  distinction  be- 
tween them,  shared  one  common  character,  one  source  of  their  legis- 
lative rights— the  derivation  of  their  lands  as  immediate  fiefs  from  the 
crown. 

&  Mr.  Spence  has  ingeniously  conjee-  constituted  one  of  the  greater  barons 
tured,  observing  that  in  some  passages  mentioned  in  the  Magna  Charta  of  John 
of  Domesday  (he  quotes  two,  but  I  only  and  other  early  Norman  documents;  for, 
find  one)  the  barons  who  held  more  than  by  analogy  to  the  mode  in  which  the  re- 
six  manors  paid  their  relief  directly  to  lief  was  paid,  the  greater  barons  were 
the  icing,  while  those  who  had  six  or  summoned  by  particular  writs,  the  rest 
less  paid  theirs  to  the  sheriff  (York-  by  one  general  summons  through  the 
shire,  298,  b),  that  "  this  may  tend  to  sheriff."  History  of  Equitable  Junsdic- 
solve  the  disputed  question  as  to  what  tion,  p.  40. 


192  HALLAM 

The  result  of  the  whole  inquiry  into  the  constitution  of  parliament 
down  to  the  reign  of  John  seems  to  be — I.  That  the  Norman  kings 
explicitly  renounced  all  prerogative  of  levying  money  on  the  immedi- 
ate military  tenants  of  the  crown,  without  their  consent  given  in  a 
great  council  of  the  realm;  this  immunity  extending  also  to  their  sub- 
tenants and  dependants.  2.  That  all  these  tenants  in  chief  had  a  con- 
stitutional right  to  attend,  and  ought  to  be  summoned;  but  whether 
they  could  attend  without  a  summons  is  not  manifest.  3.  That  the 
summons  was  usually  directed  to  the  higher  barons,  and  to  such  of  a 
second  class  as  the  king  pleased,  many  being  omitted  for  different 
reasons,  though  all  had  a  right  to  it.  4.  That  on  occasions  when 
money  was  not  to  be  demanded,  but  alterations  made  in  the  law,  some 
of  these  second  barons,  or  tenants  in  chief,  were  at  least  occasionally 
summoned,  but  whether  by  strict  right  or  usage  does  not  fully  appear. 

5.  That  the  irregularity  of  passing  many  of  them  over  when  councils 
were  held  for  the  purpose  of  levying  money,  led  to  the  provision  in  the 
Great  Charter  of  John  by  which  the  king  promises  that  they  shall  all 
be  summoned  through  the  sheriff  on  such  occasions;  but  the  promise 
does  not  extend  to  any  other  subject  of  parliamentary  deliberation. 

6.  That  even  this  concession,  though  but  the  recognition  of  a  known 
right,  appeared  so  dangerous  to  some  in  the  government  that  it  was 
withdrawn  in  the  first  charter  of  Henry  III. 

The  charter  of  John,  as  has  just  been  observed,  while  it  removes  all 
doubt,  if  any  could  have  been  entertained,  as  to  the  right  of  every 
military  tenant  in  capite  to  be  summoned  through  the  sheriff,  when  an 
aid  or  scutage  was  to  be  demanded,  will  not  of  itself  establish  their 
right  of  attending  parliament  on  other  occasions.  We  cannot  abso- 
lutely assume  any  to  have  been,  in  a  general  sense,  members  of  the 
legislature  except  the  prelates  and  the  major es  barones.  But  who  were 
these,  and  how  distinguished?  For  distinguished  they  must  now  have 
become,  and  that  by  no  new  provision,  since  none  is  made.  The  right 
of  personal  summons  did  not  constitute  them,  for  it  is  on  majores  baro- 
nes, as  already  a  determinate  rank,  that  the  right  is  conferred.  The 
extent  of  property  afforded  no  definite  criterion;  at  least  some  baro- 
nies, which  appear  to  have  been  of  the  first  class,  comprehended  very 
few  knights*  fees;  yet  it  seems  probable  that  this  was  the  original 
ground  of  distinction. c 

The  charter,  as  renewed  in  the  first  year  of  Henry  III.,  does  not 
only  omit  the  clause  prohibiting  the  imposition  of  aids  and  scutages 
without  consent,  and  providing  for  the  summons  of  all  tenants  in  capite 
before  either  could  be  levied,  but  gives  the  following  reason  for  sus- 
pending this  and  other  articles  of  King  John's  charter: — "  Quia  veto 
qussdam  capitula  in  priori  carta  continebantur,  quse  gravia  et  dubita- 
bilia  videbantur,  sicut  de  scutagiis  et  auxiliis  assideiidis  ....  placuit 
supra-dictis  praelatis  et  magnatibus  ea  esse  in  respectu,  quousque  ple- 
nius  consilium  habuerimus,  et  tune  faciemus  plurissime,  tarn  de  his 
quam  de  aliis  quae  occurrerint  emendanda,  quse  ad  communem  omni- 
um utilitatem  pertinuerint,  et  pacem  et  statum  nostrum  et  regni  nos- 
tri."  This  charter  was  made  but  twenty-four  days  after  the  death  of 
John;  and  we  may  agree  with  the  committee  (p.  77)  in  thinking  it 
extraordinary  that  these  deviations  from  the  charter  of  Runnymede, 
in  such  important  particulars,  have  been  so  little  noticed.  It  is  worthy 
of  consideration  in  what  respects  the  provisions  respecting  the  levying 
of  money  could  have  appeared  grave  and  doubtful.  We  cannot  be- 
lieve that  the  Earl  of  Pembroke,  and  the  other  barons  who  were  with 

c  See  quotation  from  Spence's  Equita-  knights,  which  was  afterwards  reduced 

ble  Jurisdiction,  a  little  above.    The  bar-  to  three.    Nicolas's  Report  of  Claim  to 

ony  of  Berkeley  was  granted  in  i  Ric.  I.,  Barony  of  L'Isle,  Appendix,  p,  318. 
to  "be  holden  by  the   service   of   five 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  193 

the  young  king,  himself  a  child  of  nine  years  old  and  incapable  of 
taking  a  part,  meant  to  abandon  the  constitutional  privilege  of  not  be- 
ing taxed  in  aids  without  their  consent.  But  this  they  might  deem 
sufficiently  provided  for  by  the  charters  of  former  kings  and  by  gen- 
eral usage.  It  is  not,  however,  impossible  that  the  government  de- 
murred to  the  prohibition  of  levying  scutage,  which  stood  on  a  dif- 
ferent footing  from  extraordinary  aids;  for  scutage  appears  to  have 
been  formerly  taken  without  consent  of  the  tenants;  and  in  the  second 
charter  of  Henry  III.  there  is  a  clause  that  it  should  be  taken  as  it  had 
been  in  the  time  of  Henry  II.  This  was  a  certain  payment  for  every 
knight's  fee;  but  if  the  original  provision  of  the  Runnymede  charter 
had  been  maintained,  none  could  have  been  levied  without  consent  of 
parliament. 

It  seems  also  highly  probable  that,  before  the  principle  of  repre- 
sentation had  been  established,  the  greater  barons  looked  with  jeal- 
ousy on  the  equality  of  suffrage  claimed  by  the  inferior  tenants  in 
capite.  That  these  were  constitutionally  members  of  the  great  coun- 
cil, at  least  in  respect  of  taxation,  has  been  sufficiently  shown;  but 
they  had  hitherto  come  in  small  numbers,  likely  to  act  always  in  sub- 
ordination to  the  more  potent  aristocracy.  It  became  another  ques- 
tion whether  they  should  all  be  summoned,  in  their  own  counties,  by  a 
writ  selecting  no  one  through  favor,  and  in  its  terms  compelling  all 
to  obey.  And  this  question  was  less  for  the  crown,  which  might  pos- 
sibly find  its  advantage  in  the  disunion  of  its  tenants,  than  for  the 
barons  themselves.  They  would  naturally  be  jealous  of  a  second  or- 
der, whom  in  their  haughtiness  they  held  much  beneath  them,  yet  by 
whom  they  might  be  outnumbered  in  those  councils  where  they  had 
bearded  the  king.  No  effectual  or  permanent  compromise  could  be 
made  but  by  representation,  and  the  hour  for  representation  was  not 
come. 

NOTE   XVIII. 

The  Lords'  committee,  though  not  very  confidently,  take  the  view 
of  Brady  and  Blackstone,  confining  the  electors  of  knights  to  tenants 
in  capite.  They  admit  that  "  the  subsequent  usage,  and  the  subsequent 
statutes  founded  on  that  usage,  afford  ground  for  supposing  that  in 
the  49th  of  Henry  III.  and  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  the  knights  of 
the  shires  returned  to  parliament  were  electe_d  at  the  county  courts 
and  by  the  suitors  of  those  courts.  If  the  knights  of  the  shires  were 
so  elected  in  the  reigns  of  Henry  III.  and  Edward  L,  it  seems  im- 
portant to  discover,  if  possible,  who  were  the  suitors  of  the  county 
courts  in  these  reigns  "  (p.  149).  The  subject,  they  are  compelled  to 
confess,  after  a  discussion  of  some  length,  remains  involved  in  great 
obscurity,  which  their  industry  has  been  unable  to  disperse.  They 
had,  however,  in  the  earlier  part  of  their  report  (p.  30),  thought  it 
highly  probable  that  the  knights  of  the  shires  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
III.  represented  a  description  of  persons  who  might  in  the  reign  of 
the  Conqueror  have  been  termed  barons.  And  the  general  spirit  of 
their  subsequent  investigation  seems  to  favor  this  result,  though  they 
finally  somewhat  recede  from  it,  and  admit  at  least  that,  before  the 
close  of  Edward  III.'s  reign,  the  elective  franchise  extended  to  free- 
holders. 

The  question,  as  the  committee  have  stated  it,  will  turn  on  the  char- 
acter of  those  who  were  suitors  to  the  county  court.  And,  if  this  may 
be  granted,  I  must  own  that  to  my  apprehension  there  is  no  room  for 
the  hypothesis  that  the  county  court  was  differently  constituted  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  I.  or  of  Edward  III.  from  what  it  was  very  lately, 
and  what  it  was  long  before  those  princes  sat  on  the  throne.  In  the 
VOL.  III.— 13 


i94 


HALLAM 


Anglo-Saxon  period  we  find  this  court  composed  of  thanes,  but  not 
exclusively  of  royal  thanes,  who  were  comparatively  few.  In  the  laws 
of  Henry  I.  we  still  find  sufficient  evidence  that  the  suitors  of  the 
court  were  all  who  held  freehold  lands,  terrarum  dommt;  or,  even  if 
we  please  to  limit  this  to  lords  of  manors,  which  is  not  at  all  probable, 
still  without  distinction  of  a  mesne  or  immediate  tenure.  Vavassors, 
that  is,  mesne  tenants,  are  particularly  mentioned  in  one  enumeration 
of  barons  attending  the  court.  In  some  counties  a  limitation  to  ten- 
ants in  capite  would  have  left  this  important  tribunal  very  deficient  in 
numbers.  And  as  in  all  our  law-books  we  find  the  county  court  com- 
posed of  freeholders,  we  may  reasonably  demand  evidence  of  two 
changes  in  its  constitution,  which  the  adherents  to  the  theory  of  re- 
strained representation  must  combine — one  which  excluded  all  free- 
holders except  those  who  held  immediately  of  the  crown;  another 
which  restored  them.  The  notion  that  the  county  court  was  the 
king's  court  baron  (Report,  p.  150),  and  thus  bore  an  analogy  to  that 
of  the  lord  in  every  manor,  whether  it  rests  on  any  modern  legal  au- 
thority or  not,  seems  delusive.  The  court  baron  was  essentially  a 
feudal  institution;  the  county  court  was  from  a  different  source;  it 
was  old  Teutonic,  and  subsisted  in  this  and  other  countries  before  the 
feudal  jurisdictions  had  taken  root.  It  is  a  serious  error  to  conceive 
that,  because  many  great  alterations  were  introduced  by  the  Normans, 
there  was  nothing  left  of  the  old  system  of  society.0 

It  may,  however,  be  naturally  inquired  why,  if  the  king's  tenants  in 
chief  were  exclusively  members  of  the  national  council  before  the  era 
of  county  representation,  they  did  not  retain  that  privilege;  especially 
if  we  conceive,  as  seems  on  the  whole  probable,  that  the  knights  chosen 
in  38  Henry  III.  were  actually  representatives  of  the  military  tenants 
of  the  crown.  The  answer  might  be  that  these  knights  do  not  appear 
to  have  been  elected  in  the  county  court;  and  when  that  mode  of 
choosing  knights  of  the  shire  was  adopted,  it  was  but  consonant  to 
the  increasing  spirit  of  liberty,  and  to  the  weight  also  of  the  barons, 
whose  tenants  crowded  the  court,  that  no  freeholder  should  be  de- 
barred of  his  equal  suffrage.  But  this  became  the  more  important, 
and  we  might  almost  add  necessary,  when  the  feudal  aids  were  re- 
placed by  subsidies  on  movables;  so  that,  unless  the  mesne  freeholders 
could  vote  at  county  elections,  they  would  have  been  taxed  without 
their  consent  and  placed  in  a  worse  condition  than  ordinary  burgesses. 
This  of  itself  seems  almost  a  decisive  argument  to  prove  that  they  must 
have  joined  in  the  election  of  knights  of  the  shire  after  the  Con- 
firmatio  Chartarum.  If  we  were  to  go  down  so  late  as  Richard  II.,  and 
some  pretend  that  the  mesne  freeholders  did  not  vote  before  the  reign 
of  Henry  IV.,  we  find  Chaucer's  franklin,  a  vavassor,  capable  even  of 
sitting  in  parliament  for  his  shire.  For  I  do  not  think  Chaucer  igno- 
rant of  the  proper  meaning  of  that  word.  And  Allen  says  (Edinb. 
Rev.  xxviii.  145) — "  In  the  earliest  records  of  the  house  of  commons 
we  have  found  many  instances  of  sub-vassals  who  have  represented 
their  counties  in  parliament." 

If,  however,  it  should  be  suggested  that  the  practice  of  admitting 
the  votes  of  mesne  tenants  at  county  elections  may  have  crept  in  by 

c  A  charter  of  Henry  I.,  published  in  divisione  terrarum,  si  est  inter  barones 

the   new   edition   of   Rymer    (i.   p.    12),  meos   dominicos,  tractetur  placitum  in 

fully  confirms  what  is  here  said.   TSciatis  curea  mea.     Et  si  est  inter  vayassores 

quod   concedo  et  praecipio,  ut  a  modo  duorum  dominorum,   tractetur  in  com- 

comitatus  mei  et  htmdreda  in  illis  locis  itatu.     Et  hoc   duello  fiat,   nisi  in  eis 

ct  lisdem  termini's  sedeant,  sicut  seder-  remanserit.      Et    volo    et    praecipio,    ut 

um  in  tempore  regis  Edwardi,  et  non  omnes  de  comitatu  eant  ad  comitatus  et 

ahtcr.    Ego  enim,  quando  voluero,  fa-  hundreda,    sicut   fecenint    in    tempore 

ciam  ea  satis  summoned  propter  mea  regis   Edwardi.     But   it  is   also    easily 

dominica     necessaria     ad     voluntatem  proved  from  the  Leges  Henrici  Primi. 
ineam.    Et  si  modo  exurgat  placitum  de 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  195 

degrees,  partly  by  the  constitutional  principle  of  common  consent, 
partly  on  account  of  the  broad  demarcation  of  tenants  in  capite  by 
knight-service  from  barons,  which  the  separation  of  the  houses  of 
parliament  produced,  thus  tending,  by  diminishing  the  importance  of 
the  former,  to  bring  them  down  to  the  level  of  other  freeholders; 
partly,  also,  through  the  operation  of  the  statute  Quia  Emptores  (18 
Edward  I.),  which,  by  putting  an  end  to  subinfeudation,  created  a 
new  tenant  of  the  crown  upon  every  alienation  of  land,  however  par- 
tial, by  one  who  was  such  already,  and  thus  both  multiplied  their 
numbers  and  lowered  their  dignity;  this  supposition,  though  incom- 
patible with  the  argument  built  on  the  nature  of  the  county  court, 
would  be  sufficient  to  explain  the  facts,  provided  we  do  not  date  the 
establishment  of  the  new  usage  too  low.  The  Lords'  committee  them- 
selves, after  much  wavering,  come  to  the  conclusion  that  "  at  length, 
if  not  always,  two  persons  were  elected  by  all  the  freeholders  of  the 
county,  whether  holding  in  chief  of  the  crown  or  of  others  "  (p.  331). 
This  they  infer  from  the  petitions  of  the  commons  that  the  mesne 
tenants  should  be  charged  with  the  wages  of  knights  of  the  shire; 
since  it  would  not  be  reasonable  to  levy  such  wages  from  those  who 
had  no  voice  in  the  election.  They  ultimately  incline  to  the  hypothesis 
that  the  change  came  in  silently,  favored  by  the  growing  tendency  to 
enlarge  the  basis  of  the  constitution,  and  by  the  operation  of  the 
statute  Quia  Emptores,  which  may  not  have  been  of  inconsiderable  in- 
fluence. It  appears  by  a  petition  in  51  Edward  III.  that  much  con- 
fusion had  arisen  with  respect  to  tenures;  and  it  was  frequently  dis- 
puted whether  lands  were  held  of  the  king  or  of  other  lords.  This 
question  would  often  turn  on  the  date  of  alienation;  and,  in  the  hurry 
of  an  election,  the  bias  being  always  in  favor  of  an  extended  suffrage, 
it  is  to  be  supposed  that  the  sheriff  would  not  reject  a  claim  to  vote 
which  he  had  not  leisure  to  investigate. 


NOTE   XIX. 

It  now  appears  more  probable  to  me  than  it  did  that  some  of  the 
greater  towns,  but  almost  unquestionably  London,  did  enjoy  the  right 
of  electing  magistrates  with  a  certain  jurisdiction  before  the  Conquest. 
The  notion  which  I  found  prevailing  among  the  writers  of  the  last 
century,  that  the  municipal  privileges  of  towns  on  the  continent  were 
merely  derived  from  charters  of  the  twelfth  century,  though  I  was 
aware  of  some  degree  of  limitation  which  it  required,  swayed  me  too 
much  in  estimating  the  condition  of  our  own  burgesses.  And  I  must 
fairly  admit  that  I  have  laid  too  much  stress  on  the  silence  of  Domes- 
day Book;  which,  as  has  been  justly  pointed  out,  does  not  relate  to 
matters  of  internal  government,  unless  when  they  involve  some  rights 
of  property. 

I  do  not  conceive,  nevertheless,  that  the  municipal  government  of 
Anglo-Saxon  boroughs  was  analogous  to  that  generally  established  in 
our  corporations  from  the  reign  of  Henry  II.  and  his  successors.  The 
real  presumption  has  been  acutely  indicated  by  Sir  F.  Palgrave,  arising 
from  the  universal  institution  of  the  court-leet,  which  gave  to  an  alder- 
man, or  otherwise  denominated  officer,  chosen  by  the  suitors,  a  juris- 
diction, in  conjunction  with  themselves  as  a  jury,  over  the  greater  part 
of  civil  disputes  and  criminal  accusations,  as  well  as  general  police, 
that  might  arise  within  the  hundred.  Wherever  the  town  or  borough 
was  too  large  to  be  included  within  a  hundred,  this  would  imply  a  dis- 
tinct jurisdiction,  which  may  of  course  be  called  municipal.  It  would 
be  similar  to  that  which,  till  lately,  existed  in  some  towns — an  elective 
high  bailiff  or  principal  magistrate,  without  a  representative  body  of 


ig6  HALLAM 

aldermen  and  councillors.  But  this  is  more  distinctly  proved  with  re- 
spect to  London,  which,  as  is  well  known,  does  not  appear  in  Domes- 
day, than  as  to  any  other  town.  It  was  divided  into  wards,  answering 
to  hundreds  in  the  county;  each  having  its  own  wardmote,  or  leet, 
under  its  elected  alderman.  "  The  city  of  London,  as  well  within  the 
walls,  as  its  liberties  without  the  walls,  has  been  divided  from  time 
immemorial  into  wards,  bearing  nearly  the  same  relation  to  the  city 
that  the  hundred  anciently  did  to  the  shire.  Each  ward  is  for  certain 
purposes,  a  distinct  jurisdiction.  The  organization  of  the  existing 
municipal  constitution  of  the  city  is2  and  always  has  been,  as  far  as 
can  be  traced,  entirely  founded  upon  the  ward  system."  (Introduction 
to  the  French  Chronicle  of  London. — Camden  Society,  1844.) 

Sir  F.  Palgraye  extends  this  much  further: — "  There  were  certain 
districts  locally  included  within  the  hundreds,  which  nevertheless  con- 
stituted independent  bodies  politic.  The  burgesses,  the  tenants,  the 
resiants  of  the  king's  burghs  and  manors  in  ancient  demesne,  owed 
neither  suit  nor  service  to  the  hundred  leet.  They  attended  at  their 
own  leet,  which  differed  in  no  essential  respect  from  the  leet  of  the 
hundred.  The  principle  of  frank-pledge  required  that  each  friborg 
should  appear  by  its  head  as  its  representative;  and  consequently,  the 
jurymen  of  the  leet  of  the  burgh  or  manor  are  usually  described  under 
the  style  of  the  twelve  chief  pledges.  The  legislative  and  remedial 
assembly  of  the  burgh  or  manor  was  constituted  by  the  meeting  of  the 
heads  of  its  component  parts.  The  portreeve,  constable,  headborough, 
bailiff,  or  other  the  chief  executive  magistrate,  was  elected  or  pre- 
sented by  the  leet  jury.  Offences  against  the  law  were  repressed  by 
their  summary  presentments.  They  who  were  answerable  to  the  com- 
munity for  the  breach  of  the  peace  punished  the  crime.  Responsibility 
and  authority  were  conjoined.  In  their  legislative  capacity  they  bound 
their  fellow-townsmen  by  making  by-laws.  (Edinb.  Rev.  xxxvi.  309.) 
"  Domesday  Book,"  he  says  afterwards,  "  does  not  notice  the  hun- 
dred court,  or  the  county-court;  because  it  was  unnecessary  to  inform 
the  king  or  his  justiciaries  of  the  existence  of  the  tribunals  which  were 
in  constant  action  throughout  all  the  land.  It  was  equally  unnecessary 
to  make  a  return  of  the  leets  which  they  knew  to  be  inherent  in  every 
burgh.  Where  any  special  municipal  jurisdiction  existed,  as  in  Ches- 
ter, Stamford,  and  Lincoln,  then  it  became  necessary  that  the  franchise 
should  be  recorded.  The  twelve  lagemen  in  the  two  latter  burghs 
were  probably  hereditary  aldermen.  In  London  and  in  Canterbury 
aldermen  occasionally  held  their  sokes  by  inheritance  »  The  negative 
evidence  extorted  out  of  Domesday  has,  therefore,  little  weight."  (P. 

313.) 

It  seems,  however,  not  unquestionable  whether  this  representation 
of  an  Anglo-Saxon  and  Anglo-Norman  municipality  is  not  urged 
rather  beyond  the  truth.  The  portreeve  of  London,  their  principal 
magistrate,  appears  to  have  been  appointed  by  the  crown.  It  was  not 
till  1188  that  Henry  Fitzalwyn,  ancestor  of  the  present  Lord  Beau- 
mont^ became  the  first  mayor  of  London.  But  he  also  was  nominated 
by  the  crown,  and  remained  twenty-four  years  in  office.  In  the  same 
year  the  first  sheriffs  are  said  to  have  been  made  (facti).  But  John, 
immediately  after  his  accession  in  1199,  granted  the  citizens  leave  to 
choose  their  own  sheriffs.  And  his  charter  of  1215  permits  them  to 
elect  annually  their  mayor.  (Maitland's  Hist,  of  London,  pp.  74*  76.) 
We  read,  however,  under  the  year  1200,  in  the  ancient  chronicle  lately 

a  See  the  ensuing  part  of  this  note.  than  Norman,  so  that  we  may  presume 

b  This  pedigree  is  elaborately  and  with  the  first  mayor  to  have  been  of  English 

pious  care,  traced  by  Mr   Stapleton,  in  descent;    but  whether  he  were  a  mer- 

his   excellent   introduction   to   the    old  chant,  or  a  landholder  living  in  the  city, 

chronicle   of    London,   already   quoted.  must  be  undecided. 

The  name  Alwyn  appears  rather  Saxon 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  197 

published,  that  twenty-five  of  the  most  discreet  men  of  the  city  were 
chosen  and  sworn  to  advise  for  the  city,  together  with  the  mayor. 
These  were  evidently  different  from  the  aldermen,  and  are  the  original 
common  council  of  the  city.  They  were  perhaps  meant  in  a  later 
entry  (1229): — "  Omnes  aldermanni  et  magnates  civitatis  per  assensum 
universorum  civium,"  who  are  said  to  have  agreed  never  to  permit  a 
sheriff  to  remain  in  office  during  two  consecutive  years, 

The  city  and  liberties  of  London  were  not  wholly  under  the  juris- 
diction of  the  several  wardmotes  and  their  aldermen.  Landholders, 
secular  and  ecclesiastical,  possessed  their  exclusive  sokes,  or  jurisdic- 
tions, in  parts  of  both.  One  of  these  has  left  its  name  to  the  ward  of 
Portsoken.  The  prior  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  in  right  of  this  district, 
ranked  as  an  alderman,  and  held  a  regular  wardmote.  The  wards  of 
Farringdon  are  denominated  from  a  family  of  that  name,  who  held  a 
part  of  them  by  hereditary  right  as  their  territorial  franchise.  These 
sokes  gave  way  so  gradually  before  the  power  of  the  citizens,  with 
whom,  as  may  be  supposed,  a  perpetual  conflict  was  maintained,  that 
there  were  nearly  thirty  of  them  in  the  early  part  of  the  reign  of  Henry 
III.,  and  upwards  of  twenty  in  that  of  Edward  I.  With  the  exception 
of  Portsoken,  they  were  not  commensurate  with  the  city  wards,  and 
we  find  the  juries  of  the  wards,  in  the  third  of  Edward  L,  presenting 
the  sokes  as  liberties  enjoyed  by  private  persons  or  ecclesiastical  cor- 
porations, to  the  detriment  of  the  crown.  But,  though  the  lord  of 
these  sokes  trenched  materially  on  the  exclusive  privileges  of  the  city, 
it  is  remarkable  that,  no  condition  but  inhabitancy  being  required  in 
the  thirteenth  century  for  civic  franchises,  both  they  and  their  tenants 
were  citizens,  having  individually  a  voice  in  municipal  affairs,  Chough 
exempt  from  municipal  jurisdiction.  I  have  taken  most  of  this  para- 
graph from  a  valuable  though  short  notice  of  the  state  of  London  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  published  in  the  fourth  volume  of  the  Archae- 
ological Journal  (p.  273).  m 

The  inference  which  suggests  itself  from  these  facts  is  that  London, 
for  more  than  two  centuries  after  the  Conquest,  was  not  so  exclusively 
a  city  of  traders,  a  democratic  municipality,  as  we  have  been  wont  to 
conceive.  And  as  this  evidently  extends  back  to  the  Anglo-Saxon 
period,  it  both  lessens  the  improbability  that  the  citizens  bore  at  times 
a  part  in  political  affair s,  and  exhibits  them  in  a  new  light,  as  lords 
and  tenants  of  lords,  as  well  as  what  of  course  they  were  in  part,  en- 
gaged in  foreign  and  domestic  commerce.  It  will  strike  every  one, 
in  running  over  the  list  of  mayors  and  sheriffs  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, that  a  large  proportion  of  the  names  are  French;  indicating,  per- 
haps, that  the  territorial  proprietors  whose  sokes  were  intermingled 
with  the  city  had  influence  enough,  through  birth  and  wealth,  to  ob- 
tain an  election.  The  general  polity,  Saxon  and  Norman,  was  aris- 
tocratic; whatever  infusion  there  might  be  of  a  more  popular  scheme 
of  government,  and  much  certainly  there  was,  could  not  resist,  even  if 
resistance  had  been  always  the  people's  desire,  the  joint  predominance 
of  rank,  riches,  military  habits,  and  common  alliance,  which  the  great 
baronage  of  the  realm  enjoyed.  London,  nevertheless,  from  its  popu- 
lousness,  and  the  usual  character  of  cities,  was  the  centre  of  a  demo- 
cratic power,  which,  bursting  at  times  into  precipitate  and  needless 
tumult  easily  repressed  by  force,  kept  on  its  silent  course  till,  near  the 
end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  rights  of  the  citizens  and  burgesses 
in  the  legislature  were  constitutionally  established.  [1848.] 


198  HALLAM 


NOTE  XX. 

If  Fitz-Stephen  rightly  informs  us  that  in  London  there  were  126 
parish  churches,  besides  13  conventual  ones,  we  may  naturally  think 
the  population  much  underrated  at  40,000.  But  the  fashion  of  build- 
ing churches  in  cities  was  so  general,  that  we  cannot  apply  a  standard 
from  modern  times.  Norwich  contained  sixty  parishes. 

Even  under  Henry  II.,  as  we  find  by  Fitz-Stephen,  the  prelates  and 
nobles  had  town  houses.  "  Ad  hsec  pmnes  fere  episcopi,  abbates,  et 
magnates  Anghae,  quasi  cives  et  municipes  sunt  urbis  Lundonise;  sua 
ibi  habentes  aedificia  praeclara;  ubi  se  recipiunt,  ubi  divites  impensas 
faciunt,  ad  concilia,  ad  conventus  celezres  in  urbem  eyocati,  a  domino 
rege  vel  metropohtano  suq,  seu  propnis  tracti  negotiis."  The  eulogy 
of  London  by  this  writer  is  very  curious;  its  citizens  were  thus  early 
distinguished  by  their  good  eating,  to  which  they  added  amusements 
less  congenial  to  later  liverymen,  hawking,  cock-fighting,  and  much 
more.  The  word  cockney  is  not  improbably  derived  from  cocayne,  the 
name  of  an  imaginary  land  of  ease  and  jollity. 

The  city  of  London  within  the  walls  was  not  wholly  built,  many  gar- 
dens and  open  spaces  remaining.  And  the  houses  were  never  more 
than  a  single  story  above  the  ground-floor,  according  to  the  uniform 
type  of  English  dwellings  in  the  twelfth  and  following  centuries.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  liberties  contained  many  inhabitants;  the  streets 
were  narrower  than  since  the  fire  of  1666;  and  the  vast  spaces  now  oc- 
cupied by  warehouses  might  have  been  covered  by  dwelling-houses. 
Forty  thousand,  on  the  whole,  seems  rather  a  low  estimate  for  these 
two  centuries;  but  it  is  impossible  to  go  beyond  the  vaguest  conjecture. 

The  population  of  Paris  in  the  middle  ages  has  been  estimated  with 
as  much  diversity  as  that  of  London,  M.  Dulaure,  on  the  basis  of  the 
taille  in  1313,  reckons  the  inhabitants  at  49,110.0  But  he  seems  to  have 
made  unwarrantable  assumptions  where  his  data  were  deficient  M. 
Guerard,  on  the  other  hand  (Documens  Inedits,  1841),  after  long  cal- 
culations, brings  the  population  of  the  city  in  1292  to  215,861.  This  is 
certainly  very  much  more  than  we  could  assign  to  London,  or  prob- 
ably any  European  city;  and,  in  fact,  his  estimate  goes  on  two  ar- 
bitrary postulates.  The  extent  of  Paris  in  that  age,  which  is  tolerably 
known,  must  be  decisive  against  so  high  a  population.^ 

The  Winton  Domesday,  in  the  possession  of  the  Society  of  Antiqua- 
ries of  London,  furnishes  some  important  information  as  to  that  city, 
which,  as  well  as  London,  does  not  appear  in  the  great  Domesday 
Book.  This  record  is  of  the  reign  of  Henry  I.  Winchester  had  been, 
as  is  well  known,  the  capital  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings.  It  has  been 
observed  that  "  the  opulence  of  the  inhabitants  may  possibly  be  gath- 
ered from  the  frequent  recurrence  of  the  trade  of  goldsmith  in  it,  and 
the  populousness  of  the  town  from  the  enumeration  of  the  streets," 
(Cooper's  Public  Records,  i.  226.)  Of  these  we  find  sixteen.  "  In  the 
petition  from  the  city  of  Winchester  to  King  Henry  VI.  in  1450,  no 
less  than  nine  of  these  streets  are  mentioned  as  having  been  ruined.'7 
As  York  appears  to  have  contained  about  ro,ooo  inhabitants  under  the 
Confessor,  we  may  probably  compute  the  population  of  Winchester  at 
nearly  twice  that  number, 

a  Hist,  de  Paris,  vol.  iii.  p.  231.  gives  double,  which  is  incredible.    Tn 

b  John  of  Troyes  says,  m  1467,  that  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries 

from  sixty  to  eighty  thousand  men  ap-  the  houses  were  still  cottages ;  only  four 

peared    in    arms.     Dulaure    (Hist,    de  streets  were  paved ;  they  were  very  nar- 

Parls,  vol.  iii.  p.  505)  says  this  gives  row  and  dirty,  and  often  inundated  by 

120,000  for  the  whole  population;  but  it  the  Seine.   Ib,  p.  198. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


NOTE  XXL 


199 


The  Lords'  Committee  extenuate  the  presumption  that  either 
knights  or  burgesses  sat  in  any  of  these  parliaments.  The  "  cuncta- 
rum  regm  civitatum  pariter  et  burgorum  potentiores,"  mentioned  by 
Wikes  in  1269  or  1270,  they  suppose  to  have  been  invited  in  order  to 
witness  the  ceremony  of  translating  the  body  of  Edward  the  Confessor 
to  his  tomb  newly  prepared  in  Westminster  Abbey  (p.  161).  It  is 
evident,  indeed,  that  this  assembly  acted  afterwards  as  a  parliament 
in  levying  money.  But  the  burgesses  are  not  mentioned  in  this.  It 
cannot,  nevertheless,  be  presumed  from  the  silence  of  the  historian, 
who  had  previously  informed  us  of  their  presence  at  Westminster,  that 
they  took  no  part.  It  may  be,  perhaps,  more  doubtful  whether  they 
were  chosen  by  their  constituents  or  merely  summoned  as  "potenti- 
orcs." 

The  words  of  the  statute  of  Marlbridge  (51  Hen.  III.),  which  are 
repeated  in  French  by  that  of  Gloucester  (6  Edw.  I.),  do  not  satisfy  the 
committee  that  there  was  any  representation  either  of  counties  or  bor- 
oughs. "  They  rather  import  a  selection  by  the  king  of  the  most  dis- 
creet men  of  every  degree  "  (p.  183).  And  the  statutes  of  13  Edw.  I., 
referring  to  this  of  Gloucester,  assert  it  to  have  been  made  by  the 
king,  "  with  prelates,  earls,  barons,  and  his  council,"  thus  seeming  to 
exclude  what  would  afterwards  have  been  called  the  lower  house.  The 
assembly  of  1271,  described  in  the  Annals  of  Waverley,  "  seems  to  have 
been  an  extraordinary  convention,  warranted  rather  by  the  particular 
circumstances  under  which  the  country  was  placed  than  by  any  con- 
stitutional law  "  (p.  173).  It  was,  however,  a  case  of  representation; 
and  following  several  of  the  like  nature,  at  least  as  far  as  counties  were 
concerned,  would  render  the  principle  familiar.  The  committee  are 
even  unwilling  to  admit  that  "la  communaute  de  la  terre  illocques  sum- 
mons "  in  the  statute  of  Westminster  L,  though  expressly  distinguished 
from  the  prelates,  earls,  and  barons,  appeared  in  consequence  of  elec- 
tion (p.  173).  But,  if  not  elected,  we  cannot  suppose  less  than  that  all 
the  tenants  in  chief,  or  a  large  number  of  them,  were  summoned;  which, 
after  the  experience  of  representation,  was  hardly  a  probable  course. 

The  Lords'  Committee,  I  must  still  incline  to  think,  have  gone  too 
far  when  they  come  to  the  conclusion  that,  on  the  whole  view  of  the 
evidence  collected  on  the  subject,  from  the  49th  of  Hen.  III.  to  the 
iSth  of  Edw.  L,  there  seems  strong-  ground  for  presuming  that,  after 
the  4Qth  of  Hen.  III.,  the  constitution  of  the  legislative  assembly  re- 
turned generally  to  its  old  course;  that  the  writs  issued  in  the  49th  of 
Hen.  IIL,  being  a  novelty,  were  not  afterwards  precisely  followed,  as 
far  as  appears,  in  any  instance;  and  that  the  writs  issued  in  the  nth  of 
Edw.  L,  "  for  assembling  two  conventions,  at  York  and  Northampton, 
of  knights,  citizens,  burgesses,  and  representatives  of  towns,  without 
prelates,  earls,  and  barons,  were  an  extraordinary  measure,  probably 
adopted  for  the  occasion,  and  never  afterwards  followed;  and  that  the 
writs  issued  in  the  iSth  of  Edw.  I.t  for  electing  two  or  three  _knights 
for  each  shire  without  corresponding  writs  for  election  of  citizens  or 
burgesses,  and  not  directly  founded  on  or  conformable  to  the  writs 
issued  in  the  4pth  of  Henry  IIL,  were  probably  adopted  for  a  par- 
ticular purpose,  possibly  to  sanction  one  important  law  [the  statute 
Quia  Emptores],  and  because  the  smaller  tenants  in  chief  of  the  crown 
rarely  attended  the  ordinary  legislative  assemblies  when  summoned, 
or  attended  in  such  small  numbers  that  a  representation  of  them  by 
knights  chosen  for  the  whole  shire  was  deemed  advisable,  to  give 
sanction  to  a  law  materially  affecting  all  the  tenants  in  chief,  and  those 
holding  tinder  them  "  (p.  204). 


2oo  HALLAM 

The  election  of  two  or  three  knights  for  the  parliament  of  i8th  Edw. 
I.,  which  I  have  overlooked  in  my  text,  appears  by  an  entry  on  the 
close  roll  of  that  year,  directed  to  the  sheriff  of  Northumberland;  and 
it  is  proved  from  the  same  roll  that  similar  writs  were  directed  to  all 
the  sheriffs  in  England.  We  do  not  find  that  the  citizens  and  bur- 
gesses were  present  in  this  parliament;  and  it  is  reasonably  con- 
jectured that,  the  object  of  summoning  it  being  to  procure  a  legis- 
lative consent  to  the  statute  Quia  Ewptores,  which  put  an  end  to  the 
subinfeudation  of  lands,  the  towns  were  thought  to  have  little  interest 
in  the  measure.  It  is,  however,  another  early  precedent  for  county 
representation;  and  that  of  22d  of  Edw.  I.  (see  the  writ  in  Report  of 
Committee,  p.  209)  is  more  regular.  We  do  not  find  that  the  citizens 
and  burgesses  were  summoned  to  either  parliament. 

But,  after  the  23d  of  Edward  I.,  the  legislative  constitution  seems 
not  to  have  been  unquestionably  settled,  even  in  the  essential  point  of 
taxation.  The  Confirmation  of  the  Charters,  in  the  25th  year  of  that 
reign,  while  it  contained  a  positive  declaration  that  no  "  aids,  tasks,  or 
prizes  should  be  levied  in  future,  without  assent  of  the  realm,"  was 
made  in  consideration  of  a  grant  made  by  an  assembly  in  which  repre- 
sentatives of  cities  and  boroughs  do  not  appear  to  have  been  present. 
Yet,  though  the  words  of  the  charter  or  statute  are  prospective,  it 
seems  to  have  long  before  been  reckoned  a  clear  right  of  the  subject, 
at  least  by  himself,  not  to  be  taxed  without  his  consent.  A  tallage  on 
royal  towns  and  demesnes,  nevertheless,  was  set  without  authority  of 
parliament  four  years  afterwards.  This  "  seems  to  show,  either  that 
the  king's  right  to  tax  his  demesnes  at  his  pleasure  was  not  intended 
to  be  included  in  the  word  tallage  in  that  statute  [meaning  the  sup- 
posed statute  de  tallagio  non  concedendo],  or  that  the  king  acted  in  con- 
travention of  it.  But  if  the  king's  cities  and  boroughs  were  still  liable 
to  tallage  at  the  will  of  the  crown,  it  may  not  have  been  deemed  incon- 
sistent that  they  should  be  required  to  send  representatives  for  the  pur- 
pose of  granting  a  general  aid  to  be  assessed  on  the  same  cities  and 
boroughs,  together  with  the  rest  of  the  kingdom,  when  such  general 
aid  was  granted,  and  yet  should  be  liable  to  be  tallaged  at  the  will  of 
the  crown  when  no  such  general  aid  was  granted"  (p.  244). 

If  in  these  later  years  of  Edward's  reign  the  king  could  venture  on 
so  strong  a  measure  as  the  imposition  of  a  tallage  without  consent  of 
those  on  whom  it  was  levied,  it  is  less  surprising  that  no  representatives 
of  the  commons  appear  to  have  been  summoned  to  one  parliament,  or 
perhaps  two,  in  his  twenty-seventh  year,  when  some  statutes  were  en- 
acted. But,  as  this  is  merely  inferred  from  the  want  of  any  extant 
writ,  which  is  also  the  case  in  some  parliaments  where,  from  other 
sources,  we  can  trace  the  commons  to  have  been  present,  little  stress 
should  be  laid  upon  it. 

In  the  remarks  which  I  have  offered  in  these  notes  on  the  Report  of 
the  Lords'  Committee,  I  have  generally  abstained  from  repeating  any 
which  Mr.  Allen  brought  forward.  But  the  reader  should  have  re- 
course to  his  learned  criticism  in  the  Edinburgh  Review.  It  will  ap- 
pear that  the  committee  overlooked  not  a  few  important  records,  both 
in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  and  that  of  his  son. 


NOTE   XXII. 

Two  considerable  authorities  have,  since  the  first  publication  of  this 
work,  placed  themselves,  one  very  confidently,  one  much  less  so,  on 
the  side  of  our  older  lawyers  and  in  favor  of  the  antiquity  of  borough 
representation.  Mr.  Allen,  who,  in  his  review  of  my  volumes  (Edinb. 
Rev.  xxx.  169),  observes,  as  to  this  point,—"  We  are  inclined,  in  the 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  201 

main,  to  agree  with  Mr.  Hallam,"  lets  us  know,  two  or  three  years 
afterwards,  that  the  scale  was  tending  the  other  way,  when,  in  his  re- 
view of  the  Report  of  the  Lords'  Committee,  who  give  a  decided 
opinion  that  cities  and  boroughs  were  on  no  occasion  called  upon  to 
assist  at  legislative  meetings  before  the  forty-ninth  of  Henry  III.,  and 
are  much  disposed  to  believe  that  none  were  originally  summoned  to 
parliament,  except  cities  and  boroughs  of  ancient  demesne,  or  in  the 
hands  of  the  king  at  the  time  when  they  received  the  summons,  he 
says, — "  We  are  inclined  to  doubt  the  first  of  these  propositions,  and 
convinced  that  the  latter  is  entirely  erroneous."  (Edinb.  Rev.  xxxv. 
30.)  He  allows,  however,  that  our  kings  had  no  motive  to  summon 
their  cities  and  boroughs  to  the  legislature,  for  the  purpose  of  obtain- 
ing money,  "  this  being  procured  through  the  justices  in  eyre,  or 
special  commissioners;  and  therefore,  if  summoned  at  all,  it  is  prob- 
able that  the  citizens  and  burgesses  were  assembled  on  particular  oc- 
casions only,  when  their  assistance  or  authority  was  wanted  to  confirm 
or  establish  the  measures  in  contemplation  by  the  government."  But 
as  he  alleges  no  proof  that  this  was  ever  done,  and  merely  descants  on 
the  importance  of  London  and  other  cities  both  before  and  after  the 
Conquest,  and  as  such  an  occasional  summons  to  a  great  council,  for 
the  purpose  of  advice,  would  by  no  means  involve  the  necessity  of 
legislative  consent,  we  can  hardly  reckon  this  very  acute  writer  among 
the  positive  advocates  of  a  high  antiquity  for  the  commons  in  parlia- 
ment. 

Sir  Francis  Palgrave  has  taken  much  higher  ground,  and  his  theory, 
in  part  at  least,  would  have  been  hailed  with  applause  by  the  parlia- 
ments of  Charles  I.  According  to  this,  we  are  not  to  look  to  feudal 
principles  for  our  great  councils  of  advice  and  consent.  They  were 
the  aggregate  of  representatives  from  the  courts-leet  of  each  shire  and 
each  borough,  and  elected  by  the  juries  to  present  the  grievances  of 
the  people  and  to  suggest  their  remedies.  The  assembly  summoned  by 
William  the  Conqueror  appears  to  him  not  only,  as  it  did  to  Lord 
Hale,  "a  sufficient  parliament,"  but  a  regular  one;  "proposing  the 
law  and  giving  the  initiation  to  the  bill  which  required  the  king's  con- 
sent." (Ed.  Rev.  xxxvi.  327.)  "  We  cannot,"  he  proceeds,  "  dis- 
cover any  essential  difference  between  the  powers  of  these  juries  and 
the  share  of  the  legislative  authority  which  was  enjoyed  by  the  com- 
mons at  a  period  when  the  constitution  assumed  a  more  tangible  shape 
and  form."  This  is  supported  with  that  copiousness  and  variety  of  il- 
lustration which  distinguish  his ^  theories,  even  when  there  hangs  over 
them  something  not  quite  satisfactory  to  a  rigorous  inquirer,  and 
when  their  absolute  originality  on  a  subject  so  beaten  is  of  itself  rea- 
sonably suspicious.  Thus  we  come  in  a  few  pages  to  the  conclusion 
— "  Certainly  there  is  no  theory  so  improbable,  so  irreconcilable  to 
general  history  or  to  the  peculiar  spirit  of  our  constitution,  _as  the  opin- 
ions which  are  held  by  those  who  deny  the  substantial  antiquity  of  the 
house  of  commons.  No  paradox  is  so  startling  as  the  assumption 
that  the  knights  and  burgesses  who  stole  into  the  great  council  between 
the  close  of  the  reign  of  John  and  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Ed- 
ward should  convert  themselves  at  once  into  the  third  estate  of  the 
realm,  and  stand  before  the  king  and  his  peers  in  possession  of  powers 
and  privileges  which  the  original  branches  of  the  legislature  could 
neither  dispute  nor  withstand  "  (p.  332).  "  It  must  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  researches  of  all  previous  writers  have  been  directed  wholly 
in  furtherance  of  the  opinions  which  have  been  held  respecting  the 
feudal  origin  of  parliament.  No  one  has  considered  it  as  a  common- 
law  court." 

I  do  not  know  that  it  is  necessary  to  believe  in  a  properly  feudal 
origin  of  parliament,  or  that  this  hypothesis  is  generally  received.  The 


202  HALLAM 

great  council  of  the  Norman  kings  was,  as  in  common  with  Sir  F. 
Palgrave  and  many  others  I  believe,  little  else  than  a  continuation  of 
the  witenagemot,  the  immemorial  organ  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  aris- 
tocracy in  their  relation  to  the  king.  It  might  be  composed,  perhaps, 
more  strictly  according  to  feudal  principles;  but  the  royal  thanes  had 
always  been  consenting  parties.  Of  the  representation  of  courts-leet 
we  may  require  better  evidence:  aldermen  of  London,  or  persons  bear- 
ing that  name,  perhaps  as  landowners  rather  than  citizens  (see  a  for- 
mer note),  may  possibly  have  been  occasionally  present;  but  it  is  re- 
markable that  neither  in  historians  nor  records  do  we  find  this  men- 
tioned; that  aldermen,  in  the  municipal  sense,  are  never  enumerated 
among  the  constituents  of  a  witenagemot  or  a  council,  though  they 
must,  on  the  representative  theory,  have  composed  a  large  portion  of 
both.  But,  waiving  this  hypothesis,  which  the  author  seems  not  here 
to  insist  upon,  though  he  returns  to  it  in  the  Rise  and  Progress  of  the 
English  Commonwealth,  why  is  it  "  a  startling  paradox  to  deny  the 
substantial  antiquity  of  the  house  of  commons"?  By  this  I  under- 
stand him  to  mean  that  representatives  from  counties  and  boroughs 
came  regularly,  or  at  least  frequently,  to  the  great  councils  of  Saxon 
and  Norman  kings.  Their  indispensable  consent  in  legislation  I  do 
not  apprehend  him  to  affirm,  but  rather  the  reverse: — "The  supposi- 
tion that  in  any  early  period  the  burgesses  had  a  voice  in  the  solemn 
acts  of  the  legislature  is  untenable."  (Rise  and  Progress,  &c.,  i.  314.) 
But  they  certainly  did,  at  one  time  or  other,  obtain  this  right,  "  or 
convert  themselves,*'  as  he  expresses  it,  "  into  the  third  estate  of  the 
realm  " ;  so  that  upon  any  hypothesis  a  great  constitutional  change  was 
wrought  in  the  powers  of  the  commons.  The  revolutionary  character 
of  Montfort's  parliament  in  the  49th  of  Hen.  III.  would  sufficiently 
account  both  for  the  appearance  of  representatives  from  a  democracy 
so  favorable  to  that  bold  reformer  and  for  the  equality  of  power  with 
which  it  was  probably  designed  to  invest  them.  But  whether  in  the 
more  peaceable  times  of  Edward  I.  the  citizens  or  burgesses  were  recog- 
nized as  essential  parties  to  every  legislative  measure,  may,  as  I  have 
shown,  be  open  to  much  doubt. 

I  cannot  upon  the  whole  overcome  the  argument  from  the  silence 
of  all  historians,  from  the  deficiency  of  all  proof  as  to  any  presence  of 
citizens  and  burgesses,  in  a  representative  character  as  a  house  of  com- 
mons, before  the  49th  year  of  Henry  III.;  because  after  this  time  his- 
torians and  chroniclers  exactly  of  the  same  character  as  the  former, 
or  even  less  copious  and  valuable,  do  not  omit  to  mention  it.  We  are 
accustomed  in  the  sister  kingdoms,  so  to  speak,  of  the  continent, 
founded  on  the  same  Teutonic  original,  to^  argue  against  the  existence 
of  representative  councils,  or  other  institutions,  from  the  same  absence 
of  positive  testimony.  No  one  believes  that  the  three  estates  of  France 
were  called  together  before  the  time  of  Philip  the  Fair.  No  one 
strains  the  representation  of  cities  in  the  cortes  of  Castile  beyond  the 
date  at  which  we  discover  its  existence  by  testimony,  It  is  true  that 
unreasonable  inferences  may  be  made  from  what  is  usually  called 
negative  evidence;  but  how  readily  and  how  often  are  we  deceived  by 
a  reliance  on  testimony!  In  many  instances  the  negative  conclusion 
carries  with  it  a  conviction  equal  to  a  great  mass  of  affirmative  proof. 
And  such  I  reckon  the  inference  from  the  language  of  Roger  Hove- 
den,  of  Matthew  Paris,  and  so  many  more  who  speak  of  councils  and 
parliaments  full  of  prelates  and  nobles,  without  a  syllable  of  the  bur- 
gesses. Either  they  were  absent,  or  they  were  too  insignificant  to  be 
named;  and  in  that  case  it  is  hard  to  perceive  any  motive  for  requiring 
their  attendance. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  203 


NOTE   XXIII. 

A  record,  which  may  be  read  in  Brady's  History  o£  England  (vol.  ii. 
Append,  p.  66)  and  in  Rymer  (t.  iv.  p.  1237),  relative  to  the  proceed- 
ings on  Edward  II.'s  flight  into  Wales  and  subsequent  detention,  re- 
cites that,  "  the  king  having  left  his  kingdom  without  government, 
and  gone  away  with  notorious  enemies  of  the  queen,  prince,  and 
realm,  divers  prelates,  earls,  barons,  and  knights,  then  being  at  Bristol 
in  the  presence  of  the  said  queen  and  duke  (Prince  Edward,  Duke  of 
Cornwall),  by  the  assent  of  the  whole  commonalty  of  the  realm  there 
being,  unanimously  elected  the  said  duke  to  be  guardian  of  the  said 
kingdom;  so  that  the  said  duke  and  guardian  should  rule  and  govern 
the  said  realm  in  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of  the  king  his  father, 
he  being  thus  absent."  But  the  king  being  taken  and  brought  back 
into  England,  the  power  thus  delegated  to  the  guardian  ceased  of 
course;  whereupon  the  Bishop  of  Hereford  was  sent  to  press  the  king 
to  permit  that  the  great  seal,  which  he  had  with  him,  the  prince  having 
only  used  his  private  seal,  should  be  used  in  all  things  that  required  it. 
Accordingly  the  king  sent  the  great  seal  to  the  queen  and  prince.  The 
bishop  is  said  to  have  been  thus  commissioned  to  fetch  the  seal  by  the 
prince  and  queen,  and  by  the  said  prelates  and  peers,  with  the  assent 
of  the  said  commonalty  then  being  at  Hereford.  It  is  plain  that  these 
were  mere  words  of  course;  for  no  parliament  had  been  convoked,  and 
no  proper  representatives  could  have  been  either  at  Bristol  or  Here- 
ford. However,  this  is  a  very  curious  record,  inasmuch  as  it  proves 
the  importance  attached  to  the  forms  of  the  constitution  at  this  period. 

The  Lords'  Committee  dwell  much  on  an  enactment  in  the  parlia- 
ment held  at  York  in  15  Edw.  II.  (1322),  which  they  conceived  to  be 
the  first  express  recognition  of  the  constitutional  powers  of  the  lower 
house.  It  was  there  enacted  that  "  forever  thereafter  all  manner  of 
ordinances  or  provisions  made  by  the  subjects  of  the  king  or  his  heirs, 
by  any  power  or  authority  whatsoever,  concerning  the  royal  power 
of  the  king  or  his  heirs,  or  against  the  estate  of  the  crown,  should  be 
void  and  of  no  avail  or  force  whatsoever;  but  the  matters  to  be  estab- 
lished for  the  estate  of  the  king  and  of  his  heirs,  and  for  the  estate  of 
the  realm  and  of  the  people,  should  be  treated,  accorded,  and  estab- 
lished in  parliament  by  the  king,  and  by  the  assent  of  the  prelates, 
earls,  and  barons,  and  the  commonalty  of  ^the  realm,  according  as  had 
been  before  accustomed.  ^  This  proceeding,  therefore,  declared  the 
legislative  authority  to  reside  only  in  the  king,  with  the  assent  of  the 
prelates,  earls,  and  barons,  and  commons  assembled  in  parliament; 
and  that  every  legislative  act  not  done  by  that  authority  should  be 
deemed  void  and  of  no  effect.  By  whatever  violence  this  statute  may 
have  been  obtained,  it  declared  the  constitutional  law  of  the  realm  on 
this  important  subject."  (P.  282.)  The  violence,  if  resistance  to  the 
usurpation  of  a  subject  is  to  be  called  such,  was  on  the  part  of  the 
king,  who  had  just  sent  the  Earl  of  Lancaster  to  the  scaffold,  and 
the  present  enactment  was  levelled  at  the  ordinances  which  had  been 
forced  upon  the  crown  by  his  faction.  The  lords  ordainers,  neverthe- 
less, had  been  appointed  with  the  consent  of  the  commons,  as  has  been 
mentioned  in  the  text;  so  that  this  provision  in  15  Edward  IL  seems 
rather  to  limit  than  to  enhance  the  supreme  power  of  parliament,  if  it 
were  meant  to  prohibit  any  future  enactment  of  the  same  kind  by  its 
sole  authority.  But  the  statute  is  declaratory  m  its  nature ;  nor  can 
we  any  more  doubt  that  the  legislative  authority  was  reposed  in  the 
king,  lords,  and  commons  before  this  era  than  that  it  was  so  ever  af- 
terwards. Unsteady  as  the  constitutional  usage  had  been  through  the 
reign  of  Edward  I.,  and  willing  as  both  he  and  his  son  may  have  been 


204  HALLAM 

to  prevent  its  complete  establishment,  the  necessity  of  parliamentary 
consent  both  for  levying  money  and  enacting  laws  must  have  become 
an  article  of  the  public  creed  before  his  death.  If  it  be  true  that  even 
after  this  declaratory  statute  laws  were  made  without  the  assent  or 
presence  of  the  commons,  as  the  Lords'  Committee  incline  to  hold 
tpp.  285,  286,  287),  it  was  undeniably  an  irregular  and  unconstitutional 
proceeding;  but  this  can  only  show  that  we  ought  to  be  very  slow  in 
presuming  earlier  proceedings  of  the  same  nature  to  have  been  more 
conformable  to  the  spirit  of  the  existing  constitution.  The  Lords' 
Committee  too  often  reason  from  the  fact  to  the  right,  as  well  as  from 
the  words  to  the  fact;  both  are  fallacious,  and  betray  them  into  some 
vacillation  and  perplexity.  They  do  not,  however,  question,  on  the 
whole,  but  that  a  new  constitution  of  the  legislative  assemblies  of  the 
realm  had  been  introduced  before  the  I5th  year  of  Edward  II.,  and 
that  "  the  practice  had  prevailed  so  long  before  as  to  give  it,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  parliament  then  assembled,  the  force  and  effect  of  a 
custom,  which  the  parliament  declared  should  thereafter  be  considered 
as  established  law."  (P.  293.)  This  appears  to  me  rather  an  inade- 
quate exposition  of  the  public  spirit,  of  the  tendency  towards  enlarg- 
ing the  basis  of  the  constitution,  to  which  the  "  practice  and  custom  " 
owed  its  origin;  but  the  positive  facts  are  truly  stated. 

NOTE   XXIV. 

Writs  are  addressed  in  nth  of  Edw.  II.  "  comitibus,  majoribus  ba- 
ronibus,  et  prselatis,"  whence  the  Lords'  Committee  infer  that  the 
style  used  in  John's  charter  was  still  preserved.  (Report,  p.  277). 
And  though  in  those  times  there  might  be  much  irregularity  in  issuing 
writs  of  summons,  the  term  "  majores  barones"  must  have  had  an 
application  to  definite  persons.  Of  the  irregularity  we  may  judge  by 
the  fact  that  under  Edward  I.  about  eighty  were  generally  summoned; 
under  his  son  never  so  many  as  fifty,  sometimes  less  than  forty,  as  may 
be  seen  in  Dugdale's  Summpnitiones  ad  Parliamentum.  The  com- 
mittee endeavor  to  draw  an  inference  from  this  against  a  subsisting 
right  of  tenure.  But  if  it  is  meant  that  the  king  had  an  acknowledged 
prerogative  of  omitting  any  baron  at  his  discretion,  the  higher  Eng- 
lish nobility  must  have  lost  its  notorious  privileges,  sanctioned  by  long 
usage,  by  the  analogy  of  all  feudal  governments,  and  by  the  charter 
of  John,  which,  though  not  renewed  in  terms,  nor  intended  to  be  re- 
tained in  favor  of  the  lesser  barons,  or  tenants  in  capite,  could  not, 
relatively  to  the  rights  of  the  superior  order,  have  been  designedly 
relinquished. 

The  committee  wish  to  get  rid  of  tenure  as  conferring  a  right  to 
summons;  they  also  strongly  doubt  whether  the  summons  conferred 
an  hereditary  nobility;  but  they  assert  that,  in  the  I5th  of  Edward  III., 
"  those  who  may  have  been  deemed  to  have  been  in  the  reign  of  John 
distinguished  as  majores  barones  by  the  honor  of  a  personal  writ  of  sum- 
mons, or  by  the  extent  and  influence  of  their  property,  from  the  other 
tenants  in  chief  of  the  crown,  were  now  clearly  become,  with  the  earls 
and  the  newly  created  dignity  of  duke,  a  distinct  body  of  men  de- 
nominated peers  of  the  land,  and  having  distinct  personal  rights;  while 
the  other  tenants  in  chief,  whatsoever  their  rights  may  have  been  in 
the  reign  of  John,  sank  into  the  general  mass,"  (P.  314.) 

The  appellation  "  peers  of  the  land  "  is  said  to  occur  for  the  first  time 
in  14  Edward  II.  (p.  281),  and  we  find  them  very  distinctly  in  the  pro- 
ceedings against  Beresford  and  others  at  the  beginning  of  the  next 
reign.  They  were,  of  course,  entitled  to  trial  by  their  own  order.  But 
whether  all  laymen  summoned  by  particular  writs  to  parliament  were 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  205 

at  that  time  considered  as  peers,  and  triable  by  the  rest  as  such,  must 
be  questionable,  unless  we  could  assume  that  the  writ  of  summons 
already  ennobled  the  blood,  which  is  at  least  not  the  opinion  of  the 
committee.  If,  therefore,  the  writ  did  not  constitute  an  hereditary 
peer,  nor  tenure  in  chief  by  barony  give  a  right  to  sit  in  parliament,  we 
should  have  a  difficulty  in  finding  any  determinate  estate  of  nobility  at 
all,  exclusive  of  earls,  who  were,  at  all  times  and  without  exception,  in- 
disputably noble;  an  hypothesis  manifestly  paradoxical,  and  contra- 
dicted by  history  and  law.  If  it  be  said  that  prescription  was  the  only 
title,  this  may  be  so  far  granted  that  the  majores  barones  had  by  pre- 
scription, antecedent  to  any  statute  or  charter,  been  summoned  to 
parliament;  but  this  prescription  would  not  be  broken  by  the  omission, 
through  negligence  or  policy,  of  an  individual  tenant  by  barony  in  a 
few  parliaments.  The  prescription  was  properly  in  favor  of  the  class, 
the  majores  barones  generally,  and  as  to  them  it  was  perfect,  extending 
itself  in  right,  if  not  always  in  fact,  to  every  one  who  came  within  its 
scope. 

In  the  Third  Report  of  the  Lords'  Committee,  apparently  drawn  by 
the  same  hand  as  the  Second,  they  "  conjecture  that  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  commons'  house  of  parliament  as  a  body  by  election,  sep- 
arate and  distinct  from  the  lords,  all  idea  of  a  right  to  a  writ  of  sum- 
mons to  parliament  by  reason  of  tenure  had  ceased,  and  that  the  dig- 
nity of  baron,  if  not  conferred  by  patent,  was  considered  as  derived 
only  from  the  king's  writ  of  summons."  (Third  Report,  p.  226.)  Yet 
they  have  not  only  found  many  cases  of  persons  summoned  by  writ 
several  times  whose  descendants  have  not  been  summoned,  and  hesi- 
tate even  to  approve  the  decision  of  the  house  on  the  Clifton  barony 
in  1673,  when  it  was  determined  that  the  claimant's  ancestor,  by  writ 
of  summons  and  sitting  in  parliament,  was  a  peer,  but  doubt  whether 
"  even  at  this  day  the  doctrine  of  that  case  ought  to  be  considered  as 
generally  applicable,  or  may  be  limited  by  time  and  circumstances/'^ 

(P-  33-) 

It  seems,  with  much  deference  to  more  learned  investigators,  rather 
improbable  that,  either  before  or  after  the  regular  admission  of  the 
knights  and  burgesses  by  representation,  and  consequently  the  con- 
stitution of  a  distinct  lords'  house  of  parliament,  a  writ  of  summons 
could  have  been  lawfully  withheld  at  the  king's  pleasure  from  any  one 
holding  such  lands  by  barony  as  rendered  him  notoriously  one  of  the 
majores  barones.  Nor  will  this  be  much  affected  by  arguments  from 
the  inexpediency  or  supposed  anomaly  of  permitting  the  right  of  sit- 
ting as  a  peer  of  parliament  to  be  transferred  by  alienation.  The 
Lords'  Committee  dwell  at  length  upon  them.  And  it  is  true  that,  in 
our  original  feudal  constitution,  the  fiefs  of  the  crown  could  not  be 
alienated  without  its  consent.  But  when  this  was  obtained,  when  a 
barony  had  passed  by  purchase,  it  would  naturally  draw  with  it,  as  an 
incident  of  tenure,  the  privilege  of  being  summoned  to  parliament,  or, 
in  language  more  accustomed  in  those  times,  the  obligation  of  doing 
suit  and  service  to  the  king  in  his  high  court.  Nor  was  the  alienee, 
doubtless,  to  be  taxed  without  his  own  consent,  any  more  than  another 

a  This    doubt    was    soon    afterwards  been  a  universal  practice.    It  was  held 

changed  into  a  proposition,  strenuously  by  Lord  Redesdale,  that,  at  least  until 

maintained  by  the  supposed  compiler  of  the  statute  of  5  Richard  II.  c.  4,  no  he- 

these  Reports,  Lord  Redesdale,  on  the  reditary  or  even  personal  right  to  the 

claim  to  the  barony  of  L'Isle  in  1829.  peerage  was  created  by  the  writ  of  sum- 

The  ancestor  had  been  called  by  writ  to  mons.    The  house  of  lords  rejected  the 

several  parliaments  of  Edward  III. ;  and  claim,  though  the  language  of  their  reso- 

havmg  only  a  daughter,  the   negative  lution  is  not  conclusive  as  to  the  prin- 

argument  from  the  omission  of  his  pos-  ciple.    The  opinion  of  Lord  R.  has  been 

terity  is  of  little  value;    for  though  the  ably  impugned  by  Sir  Harris  Nicolas,  in 

husbands  of  heiresses  were  frequently  his  Report  of  the  L'Isle  Peerage,  1829. 
summoned,  this  does  not  seem  to  have 


306  HALLAM 

tenant  in  capite.  What  incongruity,  therefore,  is  there  in  the  supposi- 
tion that,  after  tenants  in  fee-simple  acquired  by  statute  the  power  of 
alienation  without  previous  consent  of  the  crown,  the  new  purchaser 
stood  on  the  same  footing  in  all  other  respects  as  before  the  statute? 
It  is  also  much  to  be  observed  that  the  claim  to  a  summons  might  be 
gained  by  some  methods  of  purchase,  using  that  word,  of  course,  in 
the  legal  sense.  Thus  the  husbands  of  heiresses  of  baronies  were  fre- 
quently summoned,  and  sat  as  tenants  by  courtesy  after  the  wife's 
death;  though  it  must  be  owned  that  the  committee  doubt,  in  their 
Third  Report  (p.  47),  whether  tenancy  by  courtesy  of  a  dignity  was 
ever  allowed  as  a  right.  Thus,  too,  every  estate  created  in  tail  male 
was  a  diversion  of  the  inheritance  by  the  owner's  sole  will  from  its 
course  according  to  law.  Yet  in  the  case  of  the  barony  of  Aberga- 
venny,  even  so  late  as  the  reign  of  James  I.,  the  heir  male,  being  in 
seizin  of  the  lands,  was  called  by  writ  as  baron,  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
heir  general.  Surely  this  was  an  authentic  recognition,  not  only  of 
baronial  tenure  as  the  foundation  of  a  right  to  sit  in  parliament,  but  of 
its  alienability  by  the  tenant.^ 

If  it  be  asked  whether  the  posterity  of  a  baron  aliening  the  lands 
which  gave  him  a  right  to  be  summoned  to  the  king's  court  would  be 
entitled  to  the  privileges  of  peerage  by  nobility  of  blood,  it  is  true  that, 
according  to  Collins,  whose  opinion  the  committee  incline  to  follow, 
there  are  instances  of  persons  in  such  circumstances  being  summoned. 
But  this  seems  not  to  prove  anything  to  the  purpose.  The  king,  no 
one  doubts,  from  the  time  of  Edward  L,  used  to  summon  by  writ  many 
who  had  no  baronial  tenure;  and  the  circumstance  of  having  alienated 
a  barony  could  not  render  anyone  incapable  of  attending  parliament 
by  a  different  title.  It  is  very  hard  to  determine  any  question  as  to 
times  of  much  irregularity;  but  it  seems  that  the  posterity  of  one  who 
had  parted  with  his  baronial  lands  would  not,  in  those  early  times,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  remain  noble.  A  right  by  tenure  seems  to  exclude 
a  right  by  blood;  not  necessarily  because  two  collateral  titles  may  co- 
exist, but  in  the  principle  of  the  constitution.  A  feudal  principle  was 
surely  the  more  ancient;  and  what  could  be  more  alien  to  this  than  a 
baron,  a  peer,  an  hereditary  counsellor,  without  a  fief?  Nobility,  that 
is,  gentility  of  birth,  might  be  testified  by  a  pedigree  or  a  bearing;  but 
a  peer  was  to  be  in  arms  for  the  crown,  to  grant  his  own  money  as  well 
as  that  of  others,  to  lead  his  vassals,  to  advise,  to  exhort,  to  restrain 
the  sovereign.  The  new  theory  came  in  by  degrees,  but  in  the  decay 
of  every  feudal  idea;  it  was  the  substitution  of  a  different  pride  of  aris- 
tocracy for  that  of  baronial  wealth  and  power;  a  pride  nourished  by 
heralds,  more  peaceable,  more  indolent,  more  accommodated  to  the 
rules  of  fixed  law  and  vigorous  monarchy.  It  is  difficult  to  trace  the 
progress  of  this  theory,  which  rested  on  nobility  of  blood,  but  yet  so 
remarkably  modified  by  the  original  principle  of  tenure,  that  the  priv- 
ileges of  this  nobility  were  ever  confined  to  the  actual  possessor,  and 
did  not  take  his  kindred  out  of  the  class  of  commoners.  This  suffi- 
ciently demonstrates  that  the  phrase  is,  so  to  say,  catachrestic,  not  used 
in  a  proper  sense;  inasmuch  as  the  actual  seizin  of  the  peerage  as  an 
hereditament,  whether  by  writ  or  by  patent,  is  as  much  requisite  at 
present  for  nobility,  as  the  seizin  of  an  estate  by  barony  was  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  III. 

Tenure  by  barony  appears  to  have  been  recognized  by  the  house  of 
lords  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.,  when  the  earldom  of  Arundel  was 
claimed  as  annexed  to  the  "  castle,  honor,  and  lordship  aforesaid." 

b  The  Lords'  Committee  (Second  Re-  the  Fanes  for  the  particular  barony  in 

port,  p.  436)  endeavor  to  elude  the  force  question;   though  some  satisfaction  was 

of  this  authority ;  but  it  manifestly  ap-  made  to  the  claimant  of  the  latter  fam- 

pears  that  the  Nevilles  were  preferred  to  ily  by  calling  her  to  a  different  peerage. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  207 

The  Lords'  Committee  have  elaborately  disproved  the  allegations  of 
descent  and  tenure,  on  which  this  claim  was  allowed.  (Second  Re- 
port, pp.  406-426.)  But  all  with  which  we  are  concerned  is  the  decision 
of  the  crown  and  of  the  house  in  the  nth  year  of  Henry  VI.,  whether 
it  were  right  or  wrong  as  to  the  particular  facts  of  the  case.  And  here 
we  find  that  the  king,  by  the  advice  and  assent  of  the  lords,  "  consider- 
ing that  Richard  Fitzalan,  &c.,  was  seized  of  the  castle,  honor,  and 
lordship  in  fee,  and  by  reason  of  his  possession  thereof,  without  any 
other  reason  or  creation,  was  Earl  of  Arundel,  and  held  the  name, 
style,  and  honor  of  Earl  of  Arundel,  and  the  place  and  seat  of  Earl  of 
Arundel  in  parliament  and  councils  of  the  king,"  &c.,  admits  him  to 
the  same  seat  and  place  as  his  ancestors,  Earls  of  Arundel,  had  held. 
This  was  long  afterwards  confirmed  by  act  of  parliament  (3  Car.  I.), 
reciting  the  dignity  of  Earl  of  Arundel  to  be  real  and  local,  &c.,  and 
settling  the  title  on  certain  persons  in  tail,  with  provisions  against 
alienation  of  the  castle  and  honor.  This  appears  to  establish  a  tenure 
by  barony  in  Arundel,  as  a  recent  determination  had  done  in  Aber- 
gavenny.  Arundel  was  a  very  peculiar  instance  of  an  earldom  by  ten- 
ure. For  we  cannot  doubt  that  all  earls  were  peers  of  parliament  by 
virtue  of  that  rank,  though,  in  fact,  all  held  extensive  lands  of  the 
crown.  But  in  1669  a  new  doctrine,  which  probably  had  long  been 
floating  among  lawyers  and  in  the  house  of  lords,  was  laid  down  by 
the  king  in  council  on  a  claim  to  the  title  of  Fitzwalter.  The  nature 
of  a  barony  by  tenure  having  been  discussed,  it  was  found  "  to  have 
been  discontinued  for  many  ages,  and  not  in  being  "  (a  proposition  not 
very  tenable,  if  we  look  at  the  Abergavenny  case,  even  setting  aside 
that  of  Arundel  as  peculiar  in  its  character,  and  as  settled  by  statute) ; 
"  and  so  not  fit  to  be  received,  or  to  admit  any  pretence  of  right  to 
succession  thereto."  It  is  fair  to  observe  that  some  eminent  judges 
were  present  on  this  occasion.  The  committee  justly  say  that  "  this 
decision  "  (which,  after  all,  was  not  in  the  house  of  lords)  "  may  per- 
haps be  considered  as  amounting  to  a  solemn  opinion  that,  although 
in  early  times  the  right  to  a  writ  of  summons  to  parliament  as  a  baron 
may  have  been  founded  on  tenure,  a  contrary  practice  had  prevailed  for 
ages,  and  that,  therefore,  it  was  not  to  be  taken  as  then  forming  part 
of  the  constitutional  law  of  the  land."  (P.  446.)  Thus  ended  barony 
by  tenure.  The  final  decision,  for  such  it  has  been  considered,  and 
recent  attempts  to  revive  the  ancient  doctrine  have  been  defeated,  has 
prevented  many  tedious  investigations  of  claims  to  baronial  descent, 
and  of  alienations  in  times  long  past.  For  it  could  not  be  pretended 
that  every  fraction  of  a  barony  gave  a  right  to  summons;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  alienations  of  parcels,  and  descents  to  coparceners,  must 
have  been  common,  and  sometimes  difficult  to  disprove.  It  was  held, 
indeed,  by  some,  that  the  caput  baronia,  or  principal  lordship,  con- 
tained, as  it  were,  the  vital  principle  of  the  peerage,  and  that  its  owner 
was  the  true  baron;  but  this  assumption  seems  uncertain. 

It  is  not  very  easy  to  reconcile  this  peremptory  denial  of  peerage  by 
tenure  with  the  proviso  in  the  recent  statute  taking  away  tenure  by 
knight-service,  and,  inasmuch  as  it  converts  all  tenure  into  socage, 
that  also  by  barony,  "  that  this  act  shall  not  infringe  or  hurt  any  title 
of  honor,  feudal  or  other,  by  which  any  person  hath  or  may  have  right 
to  sit  in  the  lords'  house  of  parliament,  as  to  his  or  their  title  of  honor, 
or  sitting  in  parliament,  and  the  privilege  belonging  to  them  as  peers." 
(Stat.  12  Car.  II.  c.  24,  s.  n.) 

Surely  this  clause  was  designed  to  preserve  the  incident  to  baronial 
tenure,  the  privilege  of  being  summoned  to  parliament,  while  it  de- 
stroyed its  original  root,  the  tenure  itself.  The  privy  council,  in  their 
decision  on  the  Fitzwalter  claim,  did  not  allude  to  this  statute,  prob- 
ably on  account  of  the  above  proviso,  and  seem  to  argue  that,  if  tenure 


2o8  HALLAM 

by  barony  was  no  longer  in  being,  the  privilege  attached  to  it  must 
have  been  extinguished  also.  It  is,  however,  observable  that  tenure 
by  barony  is  not  taken  away  by  the  statute,  except  by  implication.  No 
act  indeed  can  be  more  loosely  drawn  than  this,  which  was  to  change 
essentially  the  condition  of  landed  property  throughput  the  kingdom. 
It  literally  abolishes  all  tenure  in  capite;  though  this  is  the  basis  of  the 
crown's  right  to  escheat,  and  though  lands  in  common  socage,  which 
the  act  with  a  strange  confusion  opposes  to  socage  in  capite,  were  as 
much  holden  of  the  king  or  other  lord  as  those  by  knight-service. 
Whether  it  was  intended  by  the  silence  about  tenure  by  barony  to 
pass  it  over  as  obsolete,  or  this  arose  from  negligence  alone,  it  cannot 
be  doubted  that  the  proviso  preserving  the  right  of  sitting  in  parlia- 
ment by  a  feudal  honor  was  introduced  in  order  to  save  that  privilege, 
as  well  for  Arundel  and  Abergavenny  as  for  any  other  that  might  be 
entitled  to  it.* 

NOTE  XXV. 

The  equitable  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  Chancery  has  been  lately 
traced,  in  some  respects,  though  not  for  the  special  purpose  mentioned 
in  the  text,  higher  than  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  This  great  minister 
of  the  crown,  as  he  was  at  least  from  the  time  of  the  conquest,0  always 
till  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  an  ecclesiastic  of  high  dignity,  and  hon- 
orably distinguished  as  the  keeper  of  the  king's  conscience,  was  pecu- 
liarly intrusted  with  the  duty  of  redressing  the  grievances  of  the  sub- 
ject, both  when  they  sprung  from  misconduct  of  the  government, 
through  its  subordinate  officers,  and  when  the  injury  had  been  in- 
flicted by  powerful  oppressors.  He  seems  generally  to  have  been  the 
chief  or  president  of  the  council,  when  it  exerted  that  jurisdiction 
which  we  have  been  sketching  in  the  text,  and  which  will  be  the  sub- 
ject of  another  note.  But  he  is  more  prominent  when  presiding  in  a 
separate  tribunal  as  a  single  judge. 

The  Court  of  Chancery  is  not  distinctly  to  be  traced  under  Henry 
III.  For  a  passage  in  Matthew  Paris,  who  says  of  Radulfus  de  Nevil 
— "  Erat  regis  fidelissimus  cancellarius,  et  inconcussa  columna  veri- 
tatis,  singulis  sua  jura,  prsecipue  pauperibus,  juste  reddens  et  indilate," 
may  be  construed  of  his  judicial  conduct  in  the  council.  This  province 
naturally,  however,  led  to  a  separation  of  the  two  powers.  And  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  I.  we  find  the  king  sending  certain  of  the  petitions 
addressed  to  him,  praying  extraordinary  remedies,  to  the  chancellor 
and  master  of  the  rolls,  or  to  either  separately,  by  writ  under  the  privy 
seal,  which  was  the  usual  mode  by  which  the  king  delegated  the  exer- 

c  The  continuance  of  barony  by  ten-  king,  by  refusing  to  the  posterity  of 
ure  has  been  controverted  by  Sir  Harris  such  barons  a  writ  of  summons  to  par- 
Nicolas,  in  some  remarks  on  such  a  liament,  might  deprive  them  of  their 
claim  preferred  by  the  present  Earl  Fitz-  nobility,  and  reduce  them  forever  to  the 
harding  while  yet  a  commoner,  in  virtue  rank  of  commoners, 
of  the  possession  of  Berkeley  castle,  a  It  has  been  doubted,  notwithstand- 
published  as  an  Appendix  to  his  Report  ing  the  authority  of  Spelman,  and  some 
of  the  I/Isle  Peerage.  In  the  particular  earlier  but  rather  precarious  testimony, 
case  there  seem  to  have  been  several  whether  the  chancellor  before  the  Con- 
difficulties,  independently  of  the  great  quest  was  any  more  than  a  scribe  or 
one,  that,  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.,  secretary.  Palgrave,  in  the  Quarterly 
barony  by  tenure  had  been  finally  con-  Review,  xxxiv.  291.  The  Anglo-Saxon 
dernned.  But  there  is  surely  a  great  charters,  as  far  as  I  have  observed, 
general  difficulty,  on  the  opposite  side,  never  mention  him  as  a  witness;  which 
in  the  hypothesis  that,  while  it  is  ac-  seems  a  very  strong  circumstance.  In- 
knowledged  that  there  were,  in  the  gulfus,  indeed,  has  given  a  pompous  ac- 
reigns  of  Edward  I.  and  Edward  II.,  count  of  Chancellor  Turketul;  and,  if 
certain  known  persons  holding  by  bar-  the  history  ascribed  to  Ingulfus  be 
ony  and  called  peers  of  the  realm,  it  centime,  the  office  must  have  been  of 
could  have  been  agreeable  to  the  feudal  high  dignity.  Lord  Campbell  assumes 
or  to  the  English  contsitution  that  the  this  in  his  Lives  of  the  Chancellors. 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  209 

cise  of  his  prerogative  to  his  council,  directing  them  to  give  such  rem- 
edy as  should  appear  to  be  consonant  to  honesty  (or  equity,  honestati). 
"  There  is  reason  to  believe,"  says  Mr.  Spence  (Equitable  Jurisdiction, 
P-  335),  "  that  this  was  not  a  novelty."  But  I  do  not  know  upon  what 
grounds  this  is  believed.  Writs,  both  those  of  course  and  others,  is- 
sued from  Chancery  in  the  same  reign.  (Palgrave's  Essay  on  King's 
Council,  p.  15.)  Lord  Campbell  has  given  a  few  specimens  of  petitions 
to  tfie  council,  and  answers  endorsed  upon  them,  in  the  reign  of  Ed- 
ward I.,  communicated  tp  him  by  Mr.  Hardy  from  the  records  of  the 
Tower.  In  all  these  the  petitions  are  referred  to  the  chancellor  for 
justice.  The  entry,  at  least  as  given  by  Lord  Campbell,  is  commonly 
so  short  that  we  cannot  always  determine  whether  the  petition  was  on 
account  of  wrongs  by  the  crown  or  others.  The  following  is  rather 
more  clear  than  the  rest:  (( 18  Edw.  I.  The  king's  tenants  of  Aulton 
complain  that  Adam  Gordon  ejected  them  from  their  pasture,  contrary 
to  the  tenor  of  the  king's  writ.  Resp.  Verdant  partes  coram  cancel- 
lario,  et  ostencjat  ei  Adam  quare  ipsos  ejecit,  et  fiat  iis  justitia."  An- 
other i§  a  petition  concerning  concealment  of  dower,  for  which,  per- 
haps, there  was  no  legal  remedy. 

In  the  reign  of  Edward  II.  the  peculiar  jurisdiction  of  the  chancellor 
was  still  more  distinctly  marked.  "  Frqm  petitions  and  answers  lately 
discovered,  it  appears  that  during  this  reign  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Court  of  Chancery  was  considerably  extended,  as  the  '  consuetudo  can- 
cellariae '  is  often  familiarly  mentioned.  We  find  petitions  referred  to 
the  chancellor  in  his  court,  either  separately,  or  in  conjunction  with 
the  king's  justices,  or  the  king's  Serjeants;  on  disputes  respecting  the 
wardship  of  infants,  partition,  dower,  rent-charges,  tithes,  and  goods 
of  felons.  The  chancellor  was  in  full  possession  of  his  jurisdiction  over 
charities,  and  he  superintended  the  conduct  of  coroners.  Mere 
wrongs,  such  as  malicious  prosecutions  and  trespasses  to  personal 
property,  are  sometimes  the  subject  of  proceedings  before  him;  but  I 
apprehend  that  those  were  cases  where,  from  powerful  combinations 
and  confederacies,  redress  could  not  be  obtained  in  the  courts  of  com- 
mon law."  (Lives  of  Chanc.  vol.  i.  p.  204.) 

Lord  Campbell,  still  with  materials  furnished  by  Mr,  Hardy,  has 
given  not  less  than  thirty-eight  entries  during  the  reign  of  Edward  IJ., 
where  the  petition,  though  sometimes  directed  to  the  council,  is  re- 
ferred to  the  chancellor  for  determination.  One  only  of  these,  so  far 
as  we  can  judge  from  their  very  brief  expression,  implies  anything  of 
an  equitable  jurisdiction.  It  is  again  a  case  of  dower,  arjd;the  claimant 
is  remitted  to  the  Chancery;  "  et  fiat  sibi  ibidem  justitia^  quia  rion  potesj: 
juvari  per  communem  legem  per  breve  de  dote."  This  case  is  in  the 
Rolls  of  Parliament  (i.  340),  and  had  been  previously  mentioned  by 
Mr.  Bruce  in  a  learned  memoir  on  the  Court  of  Star-Chamber. 
(Archseologia,  xxv.  343.)  It  is  difficult  to  say  whether  this  fell  within 
the  modern  rules  of  equity,  but  the  general  principle  is  evidently  the 
same. 

Another  petition  is  from  the  commonalty  of  Suffolk  to  the  council, 
complaining  of  false  indictments  and  presentments  in  courts-leet.  It 
is  answered — "  Si  quis  sequi-voluerit  adversus  falsos  indicatores  et 
procuratores  de  falsis  indictamentjs,  sequatur  in  Cancel!,  et  habebit 
rernedium  consequens."  Several  other  entries  in  this  list  are  illus- 
trative of  the  jurisdiction  appertaining,  in  fact  at  least,  to  the  council 
and  the  chancellor;  and  being  of  so  early  a  reign  form  a  valuable  ac- 
cession to  those  whiph  later  records  h^ve  furnished  to  Sir  Matthew 
Hale  and  pthers. 

The  Court  of  Chancery  began  to  decide  causep  as  a  court  of  equity, 
according  to  Mr.  Hardy,  in  the  reign  of  Edward  IIJ.,  probably  about 
22  Edw.  IJI.  (Introduction  to  Close  Rolls,  p.  28.)  j-ord  Campbell 
VOL.  III. — 14 


HALLAM 

would  carry  this  jurisdiction  higher,  and  the  instances  already  men- 
tioned may  be  sufficient  just  to  prove  that  it  had  begun  to  exist.  It 
certainly  seems  no  unnatural  supposition  that  the  great  principle  of 
doing  justice,  by  which  the  council  and  the  chancellor  professed  to 
guide  their  exercise  of  judicature,  may  have  led  them  to  grant  relief 
in  some  of  those  numerous  instances  where  the  common  law  was  de- 
fective or  its  rules  too  technical  and  unbending.  But,  as  has  been 
observed,  the  actual  entries,  as  far  as  quoted,  do  not  afford  many 
precedents  of  equity.  Mr.  Hardy,  indeed,  suggests  (p.  25)  that  the 
Curia  Regis  in  the  Norman  period  proceeded  on  equitable  principles; 
and  that  this  led  to  the  removal  of  plaints  into  it  from  the  county-court. 
This  is,  perhaps,  not  what  we  should  naturally  presume.  The  subtle 
and  technical  spirit  of  the  Norman  lawyers  is  precisely  that  which 
leads,  in  legal  procedure,  to  definite  and  unbending  rules;  while  in  the 
lower  courts,  where  Anglo-Saxon  thanes  had  ever  judged  by  the  broad 
rules  of  justice,  according  to  the  circumstances  of  the  case,  rather  than 
a  strict  line  of  law  which  did  not  yet  exist,  we  might  expect  to  find  all 
the  uncertainty  and  inconsistency  which  belongs  to  a  system  of  equity, 
until,  as  in  England,  it  has  acquired  by  length  of  time  the  uniformity 
of  law,  but  none  at  least  of  the  technicality  so  characteristic  of  our  Nor- 
man common  law,  and  by  which  the  great  object  of  judicial  proceed- 
ings was  so  continually  defeated.  This,  therefore,  does  not  seem  to 
me  a  probable  cause  of  the  removal  of  suits  from  the  county  court  or 
court-baron  to  those  of  Westminster.  The  true  reason,  as  I  have  ob- 
served in  another  place,  was  the  partiality  of  these  local  tribunals. 
And  the  exprense  of  trying  a  suit  before  the  justices  in  eyre  might  not 
be  very  much  greater  than  in  the  county  court. 

I  conceive,  therefore,  that  the  three  supreme  courts  at  Westminster 
proceeded  upon  those  rules  of  strict  law  which  they  had  chiefly  them- 
selves established;  and  this  from  the  date  of  their  separation  from  the 
original  Curia  Regis.  But  whether  the  king's  council  may  have  given 
more  extensive  remedies  than  the  common  law  afforded,  as  early  at 
least  as  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  is  what  we  are  not  competent,  appar- 
ently, to  affirm  or  deny.  We  are  at  present  only  concerned  with  the 
Court  of  Chancery.  And  it  will  be  interesting  to  quote  the  deliberate 
opinion  of  a  late  distinguished  writer,  who  has  taken  a  different  view 
of  the  subject  from  any  of  his  predecessors. 

"  After  much  deliberation,"  says  Lord  Campbell,  "  I  must  express 
my  clear  conviction  that  the  chancellor's  equitable  jurisdiction  is  as 
indubitable  and  as  ancient  as  his  common-law  jurisdiction,  and  that  it 
may  be  traced  in  a  manner  equally  satisfactory.  The  silence  of  Brae- 
ton,  Glanvil,  Fleta,  and  other  early  judicial  writers,  has  been  strongly 
relied  upon  to  disprove  the  equitable  jurisdiction  of  the  chancellor; 
but  they  as  little  notice  his  common-law  jurisdiction,  most  of  them 
writing  during  the  subsistence  of  the  Aula  Regia;  and  they  all  speak 
of  the  Chancery,  not  as  a  court,  but  merely  as  an  office  for  the  making 
and  sealing  of  writs.  There  are  no  very  early  decisions  of  the  chan- 
cellors on  points  of  law  any  more  than  of  equity,  to  be  found  in  the 
Year-books  or  old  abridgments  ....  By  '  equitable  jurisdiction ' 
must  be  understood  the  extraordinary  interference  of  the  chancellor, 
without  f  common-law  process  or  regard  to  the  common-law  rules  of 
proceeding,  upon  the  petition  of  a  party  grieved  who  was  without  ade- 
quate remedy  in  a  court  of  common  law;  whereupon  the  opposite 
party  was  compelled  to  appear  and  to  be  examined,  either  personally 
or  upon  written  interrogatories:  and  evidence  being  heard  on  both 
sides,  without  the  interposition  of  a  jury,  an  order  was  made  secundum 
tequum  et  bonwn,  which  was  enforced  by  imprisonment.  Such  a  juris- 
diction had  belonged  to  the  Aula  Regia,  and  was  long  exercised  by 
parliament;  and,  when  parliament  was  not  sitting,  by  the  king's  ordi- 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  211 

nary  council.  Upon  the  dissolution  of  the  Aula  Regia  many  petitions, 
which  parliament  or  the  council  could  not  conveniently  dispose  of  were 
referred  to  the  chancellor,  sometimes  with  and  sometimes  without  as- 
sessors. To  avoid  the  circuity  of  applying  to  parliament  or  the  coun- 
cil, the  petition  was  very  soon,  in  many  instances,  addressed  originally 
to  the  chancellor  himself."  (Lives  of  Chancellors,  i.  7.) 

In  the  latter  part  of  Edward  III.'s  long  reign  this  equitable  jurisdic- 
tion had  become,  it  is  likely,  of  such  frequent  exercise,  that  we  may 
consider  the  following  brief  summary  by  Lord  Campbell  as  probable 
by  analogy  and  substantially  true,  if  not  sustained  in  all  respects  by  the 
evidence  that  has  yet  been  brought  to  light: — "  The  jurisdiction  of  the 
Court  of  Chancery  was  now  established  in  all  matters  where  its  own 
officers  were  concerned,  in  petitions  of  right  where  an  injury  was  al- 
leged to  be  done  to  a  subject  by  the  king  or  his  officers  in  relieving 
against  judgments  in  courts  of  law  (Lord  C.  gives  two  instances),  and 
generally  in  cases  of  fraud,  accident,  and  trust."  (P.  291.) 

In  the  reign  of  Richard  II.  the  writ  of  subpoena  was  invented  by  John 
de  Waltham,  master  of  the  rolls;  and  to  this  a  great  importance  seems 
to  have  been  attached  at  the  time,  as  we  may  perceive  by  the  frequent 
complaints  of  the  commons  in  parliament,  and  by  the  traditionary  ab- 
horrence in  which  the  name  of  the  inventor  was  held.  "  In  reality," 
says  Lord  Campbell,  "  he  first  framed  it  in  its  present  form  when  a 
clerk  in  Chancery  in  the  latter  end  of  the  reign  of  Edward  III.; 
but  the  invention  consisted  in  merely  adding  to  the  old  clause, 
Quibusdam  certis  de  causis,  the  words  '  Et  hoc  subpoena  centum  librarum 
nullatenus  omittas '  ;  and  I  am  at  a  loss  to  conceive  how  such  impor- 
tance was  attached  to  it,  or  how  it  was  supposed  to  have  brought  about 
so  complete  a  revolution  in  equitable  proceedings,  for  the  penalty  was 
never  enforced;  and  if  the  party  failed  to  appear,  his  default  was  treated, 
according  to  the  practice  prevailing  in  our  own  time,  as  a  contempt  of 
court,  and  made  the  foundation  of  compulsory  process."  (P.  296.) 

The  C9mmons  in  parliament,  whose  sensitiveness  to  public  griev- 
ances was  by  no  means  accompanied  by  an  equal  sagacity  in  devising 
remedies,  had,  probably  without  intention,  vastly  enhanced  the  power 
of  the  chancellor  by  a  clause  in  a  remedial  act  passed  in  the  thirty- 
sixth  year  of  Edward  III.,  that,  "  If  any  man  that  feeleth  himself  ag- 
grieved contrary  to  any  of  the  articles  above  written,  or  others  con- 
tained in  divers  statutes,  will  come  into  the  Chancery,  or  any  for  him, 
and  thereof  make  his  complaint,  he  shall  presently  there  have  remedy 
by  force  of  the  said  articles  or  statutes,  without  elsewhere  pursuing 
to  have  remedy."  Yet  nothing  could  be  more  obvious  than  that  the 
breach  of  any  statute  was  cognizable  before  the  courts  of  law.  And 
the  mischief  of  permitting  men  to  be  sued  vexatiously  before  the  chan- 
cellor becoming  felt,  a  statute  was  enacted,  thirty  years  indeed  after 
this  time  (17  Ric.  II.  c.  6),  analogous  altogether  to  those  in  the  late 
reign  respecting  the  jurisdiction  of  the  council,  which,  reciting  that 
"  people  be  compelled  to  come  before  the  king's  council,  or  in  the 
Chancery  by  writs  grounded  on  untrue  suggestions,"  provides  that 
"  the  chancellor  for  the  time  being,  presently  after  that  such  sugges- 
tions be  duly  found  and  proved  untrue,  shall  have  power  to  ordain 
and  award  damages,  according  to  his  discretion,  to  him  which  is  so 
troubled  unduly  as  aforesaid."  "  This  remedy,"  Lord  Campbell  justly 
remarks,  "  which  was  referred  to  the  discretion  of  the  chancellor  him- 
self, whose  jurisdiction  was  to  be  controlled,  proved,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected, wholly  ineffectual;  but  it  was  used  as  a  parliamentary  recog- 
nition of  his  jurisdiction,  and  a  pretence  for  refusing  to  establish  any 
other  check  on  it."  (P.  247.) 

A  few  years  before  this  statute  the  commons  had  petitioned  (13  Ric. 
II.,  Rot.  Parl.  iii.  269)  that  the  chancellor  might  make  no  order  against 


212  HALLAM 

the  common  law,  and  that  no  one  should  appear  before  the  chancellor 
where  remedy  was  given  by  the  common  law.  "  This  carries  with  it 
an  admission,"  as  Lord  C.  observes,  "  that  a  power  of  jurisdiction  did 
reside  in  the  chancellor,  so  long  as  he  did  not  determine  against  the 
common  law,  nor  interfere  where  the  common  law  furnished  a  remedy. 
The  king's  answer,  *  that  it  should  continue  as  the  usage  had  been 
heretofore/  clearly  demonstrates  that  such  an  authority,  restrained 
within  due  bounds,  was  recognized  by  the  constitution  of  the  country." 

(P.  305-) 

The  act  of  17  Ric.  II.  seems  to  have  produced  a  greater  regularity  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  court,  and  put  an  end  to  such  hasty  interference, 
on  perhaps  verbal  suggestions,  as  had  given  rise  to  this  remedial  pro- 
vision. From  the  very  year  in  which  the  statute  was  enacted  we  find 
bills  in  Chancery,  and  the  answers  to  them,  regularly  filed;  the  grounds 
of  demanding  relief  appear,  and  the  chancellor  renders  himself  in  every 
instance  responsible  for  the  orders  he  has  issued,  by  thus  showing 
that  they  came  within  his  jurisdiction.  There  are  certainly  many 
among  the  earlier  bills  in  Chancery,  which,  according  to  the  statute 
law  and  the  great  principle  that  they  were  determinable  in  other  courts, 
could  not  have  been  heard;  but  we  are  unable  to  pronounce  how  far 
the  allegation  usually  contained  or  implied,  that  justice  could  not  be 
had  elsewhere,  was  founded  on  the  real  circumstances.  A  calendar  of 
these  early  proceedings  (in  abstract)  is  printed  in  the  Introduction  to 
the  first  volume  of  the  Calendar  of  Chancery  Proceedings  in  the  Reign 
of  Elizabeth,  and  may  also  be  found  in  Cooper's  Public  Records,  i. 

35<5- 

The  struggle,  however,  in  behalf  of  the  common  law  was  not  at  an 
end.  It  is  more  than  probable  that  the  petitions  against  encroach- 
ments of  Chancery,  which  fill  the  rolls  under  Henry  IV.,  Henry  V., 
and  in  the  minority  of  Henry  VI.,  emanated  from  that  numerous  and 
jealous  body  whose  interests  as  well  as  prejudices  were  so  deeply  af- 
fected. Certain  it  is  that  the  commons,  though  now  acknowledging 
an  equitable  jurisdiction,  or  rather  one  more  extensive  than  is  under- 
stood by  the  word  "  equitable,"  in  the  greatest  judicial  officer  of  the 
crown,  did  not  cease  to  remonstrate  against  his  transgression  of  these 
boundaries.  They  succeeded  so  far,  in  1436,  as  to  obtain  a  statute  (15 
Henry  VI.  c.  4)  in  these  words: — "  For  that  divers  persons  have  be- 
fore this  time  been  greatly  vexed  and  grieved  by  writs  of  subpoena, 
purchased  for  matters  determinable  by  the  common  law  of  this  land, 
to  the  great  damage  of  such  persons  so  vexed,  in  suspension  and  im- 
pediment of  the  common  law  as  aforesaid;  Our  lord  the  king  doth 
command  that  the  statutes  thereof  made  shall  be  duly  observed,  ac- 
cording to  the  form  and  effect  of  the  same,  and  that  no  writ  of  subpoena 
be  granted  from  henceforth  until  surety  be  found  to  satisfy  the  party 
so  grieved  and  vexed  for  his  damages  and  expenses,  if  so  be  that  the 
matter  cannot  be  made  good  which  is  contained  in  the  bill."  It  was 
the  intention  of  the  commons,  as  appears  by  the  preamble  of  this  stat- 
ute and  more  fully  by  their  petition  in  Rot.  Parl.  (iv.  101),  that  the 
matters  contained  in  the  bill  on  which  the  subpoena  was  issued  should 
be  not  only  true  in  themselves,  but  such  as  could  not  be  determined  at 
common  law.  But  the  king's  answer  appears  rather  equivocal. 

The  principle  seems  nevertheless  to  have  been  generally  established, 
about  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.,  that  the  Court  of  Chancery  exercises 
merely  a  remedial  jurisdiction,  not  indeed  controllable  by  courts  of 
law,  unless  possibly  in  such  circumstances  as  cannot  be  expected,  but 
bound' by  its  general  responsibility  to  preserve  the  limits  which  ancient 
usage  and  innumerable  precedents  have  imposed.  '  It  was  at  the  end 
of  this  reign,  and  not  in  that  of  Richard  II.,  according  to  the  writer  so 
often  quoted,  that  the  great  enhancement  of  the  chancellor's  authority, 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  213 

by  bringing  feoffments  to  uses  Within  it,  opened  a  ftew  era  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  law.  And  this  the  judges  brought  on  themselves  by  their 
narrow  adherence  to  technical  notions.  They  now  began  to  discover 
this;  and  those  of  Edward  IV.,  as  Lord  Campbell  well  says,  were  "  very 
bold  men,"  having  repealed  the  statute  de  donis  by  their  own  authority 
in  Taltarum's  case— a  stretch  of  judicial  power  beyond  any  that  the 
Court  of  Chancery  had  ventured  upon.  They  were  also  exceedingly 
jealous  of  that  court;  and  m  one  case,  reported  in  the  Year-books  (22 
Edw.  IV.  37),  advised  a  party  to  disobey  an  injunction  from  the  Court 
of  Chancery,  telling  him  that,  if  the  chancellor  committed  him  to  the 
Fleet,  they  would  discharge  the  prisoner  by  habeas  corpus.  (Lord 
Campbell,  p.  394.)  The  case  seems  to  have  been  one  where,  in  modern 
times,  no  injunction  would  have  been  granted,  the  courts  of  law  being 
competent  to  apply  a  remedy. 

NOTE   XXVI. 

This  intricate  subject  has  been  illustrated,  since  the  first  publication 
of  these  volumes,  in  an  Essay  upon  the  original  Authority  of  the 
King's  Council,  by  Sir  Francis  Palgrave  (1834),  written  with  remark- 
able perspicuity  and  freedom  from  diffusiveness.  But  I  do  not  yet  as- 
sent to  the  judgment  of  the  author  as  to  the  legality  of  proceedings 
before  the  council,  which  I  have  represented  as  unconstitutional,  and 
which  certainly  it  was  the  object  of  parliament  to  restrain. 

"  It  seems,"  he  says,  "that  in  the_ reign  of  Henry  III.  the  council 
was  considered  as  a  court  df  peers  within  the  terms  of  MagnaL  Charta; 
and  before  which,  as  a  court  of  original  jurisdiction,  the  rights  of 
tenants  holding  in  capite  or  by  barony  were  to  be  discussed  and  de- 
cided, and  it  unquestionably  exercised  a  direct  jurisdiction  over  all 
the  king's  subjects"  (p.  34).  The  first  volume  of  Close  Rolls,  pub- 
lished by  Mr.  Hardy  since  Sir  F.  Palgrave's^  Essay,  contains  no  in- 
stances of  jurisdiction  exercised  by  the  council  in  the  reign  of  John. 
But  they  begin  immediately  afterwards,  in  the  minority  of  Henry  III.; 
So  that  we  have  not  only  the  fullest  evidence  that  the  council  took  on 
itself  a  coercive  jurisdiction  in  matters  of  law  at  that  time,  but  that  it 
had  not  dotie  So  before;  for  the  Close  Rolls  of  John  are  so  full  as  to 
render  the  negative  argument  satisfactory.  It  will,  of  course,  be  un- 
derstodd  that  I  take  the  facts  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  Hardy  (Intro- 
duction to  Close  Rolls,  vol.  ii.),  whose  diligence  and  accuracy  are  in- 
disputable. Thus  this  exercise  of  judicial  power  began  immediately 
after  the  Great  Charter.  <  And  yet,  if  it  is  to  be  reconciled  with  the 
twenty-ninth  section,  it  is  difficult  to  perceive  in  what  manner  that 
celebrated  provision  for  personal  liberty  against  the  crown,  which  has 
always  been  accounted  the  most  precious  jewel  in  the  whole  coronet, 
the  most  valuable  stipulation  made  at  Runnymede,  and  the  most  en- 
during to  later  times,  could  merit  the  fondness  with  which  it  has  been 
regarded.  "  Non  super  eum  ibimus,  nee  super  eum  mittemus,  nisi  per 
legale  judicium  parium  suorum,  vel  per  legem  terrae."  If  it  is  alleged 
that  the  jurisdiction  of  the  king's  council  was  the  law  of  the  land,  the 
whole  security  falls  to  the  ground  and  leaves  the  grievance  as  it  stood, 
unredressed.  Could  the  judgment  of  the  council  have  been  reckoned, 
as  Sir  F.  Pdlgrave  supposes,  a  "judicium  parium  suorum,"  except 
perhaps  in  the  case  of  tenants  in  chief?  The  word  is  commonly  un- 
derstood of  that  trial  per  pais  which,  in  one  form  or  another,  is  of  im- 
memorial antiquity  in  our  social  institutions. 

u  Though  this  jurisdiction,"  he  proceeds,  "  was  more  frequently 
called  into  action  when  parliament  was  sitting,  still  it  was  no  less 
inherent  in  the  council  at  all  other  times;  arid  until  the  middle  of  the 


2I4  HALLAM 

reign  of  Edward  III.  no  exception  had  ever  been  taken  to  the  form  of 
its  proceedings."  He  subjoins  indeed  in  a  note,  "Unless  the  statute 
of  5  Edw.  III.  c.  9,  may  be  considered  as  an  earlier  testimony  against 
the  authority  of  the  council.  This,  however,  is  by  no  means  clear,  and 
there  is  no  corresponding  petition  in  the  parliament  roll  from  which 
any  further  information  could  be  obtained  "  (p.  34). 

The  irresistible  conclusion  from  this  passage  is,  that  we  have  been 
wholly  mistaken  in  supposing  the  commons  under  Edward  III.  and 
his  successors  to  have  resisted  an  illegal  encroachment  of  power  in  the 
king's  ordinary  council,  while  it  had  in  truth  been  exercising  an  an- 
cient jurisdiction,  never  restrained  by  law  and  never  complained  of  by 
the  subject.  This  would  reverse  our  constitutional  theory  to  no  small 
degree,  and  affect  so  much  the  spirit  of  my  own  pages,  that  I  cannot 
suffer  it  to  pass,  coming  on  an  authority  so  respectable,  without  some 
comment.  But  why  is  it  asserted  that  this  jurisdiction  was  inherent 
in  the  council?  Why  are  we  to  interpret  Magna  Cliarta  otherwise  than 
according  to  the  natural  meaning  of  the  words  and  the  concurrent 
voice  of  parliament?  The  silence  of  the  commons  in  parliament  under 
Edward  II.  as  to  this  grievance  will  hardly  prove  that  it  was  not  felt, 
when  we  consider  how  few  petitions  of  a  public  nature,  during  that 
reign,  are  on  the  rolls.  But  it  may  be  admitted  that  they  were  not  so 
stenuous  in  demanding  redress,  because  the  were  of  comparatively 
recent  origin  as  an  estate  of  parliament,  as  they  became  in  the  _next 
long  reign,  the  most  important,  perhaps,  in  our  early  constitutional 

It  is  doubted  by  Sir  F.  Palgrave  whether  the  statute  of  5  Edw.  III. 
c.  9,  can  be  considered  as  a  testimony  against  the  authority  of  the  coun- 
cil. It  is,  however,  very  natural  so  to  interpret  it,  when  we  look  at  the 
subsequent  statutes  and  petitions  of  the  commons,  directed  for  more 
than  a  century  to  the  same  object.  "  No  man  shall  be  taken,"  says 
Lord  Coke  (2  Inst.  46),  "  that  is,  restrained  of  liberty,  by  petition  or 
suggestion  to  the  king  or  to  his  council,  unless  it  be  by  indictment  or 
presentment  of  good  and  lawful  men,  where  such  deeds  be  done.  This 
branch  and  divers  other  parts  of  this  act  have  been  wholly  explained 
by  divers  act  of  parliament,  &c.,  quoted  in  the  margent."  He  then 
gives  the  titles  of  six  statutes,  the  first  being  this  of  5  Edw.  III.  c.  9- 
But  let  us  suppose  that  the  petition  of  the  commons  in  25  Edw  III. 
demanded  an  innovation  in  law,  as  it  certainly  did  in  long-established 
usage.  And  let  us  admit  what  is  justly  pointed  out  by  Sir  F.  Palgrave, 
that  the  king's  first  answer  to  their  petition  is  not  commensurate  to  its 
request,  and  reserves,  though  it  is  not  quite  easy  to  see  what,  some 
part  of  its  extraordinary  jurisdiction.*  Still  the  statute  itself,  enacted 
on  a  similar  petition  in  a  subsequent  parliament,  is  explicit  that  "  none 
shall  be  taken  by  petition  or  suggestion  to  the  king  or  his  council,  un- 
less it  be  by  indictment  or  presentment"  (in  a  crimmal  charge),  or 

a  The  words  of  the  petition  and  an-  ad  este  use  ces  en  arere."    Rot.  Par.  ii. 

swer  are  the  following: —  228. 

"  Item,  que  nul  franc  homme  ne  soft  It  is  not  easy  to  perceive  what  was  re- 

mys  a  respondre  de  son  frac  tenement,  served  by  the  words     chose  que _  touch e 

ne  de  riens  qui  touche  vie  et  membre,  vie  on  membre;      for  the  council  never 

fyns  ou  redemptions,  par  apposailles  de-  determined  these.    Possibly  it  regarded 

vant  le   conseil   notre   seigneur  le  roi,  accusa^ns  of  treason  or  felony,  which 

ne  devant  ses  ministres  queconques,  si-  they    might    entertain  ,as    an    inquest, 

noun  par  proces  de  ley  de  ces  en  arere  though  they  would  -ultimately  be  tried 

use  »  by  a  jury.    Contempts  are  easily  under- 

"'ll  plest  a  notre  seigneur  le  roi  que  stood;  and  by  excesses  were  meant  riots 

les  leies  de  son  roialme  soient  tenuz  et  and  seditions.    These  political  offences, 

gardez  en  lour  force,  et  que  nul  homme  which  could  not  be  always  sately  tried 

soit  tenu  a  respondre  de  son  fraunk  ten-  in  a  lower  court,  it  was  the  constant 

ement,  sinoun  par  processe  de  ley:  mes  intention  of  fhe  government  to  reserve 

de  chose  que  touche  vie  ou  membre,  for  the  council, 
conlemptz  ou   excesse,   soit  fait   come 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


2I5 


by  writ  original  at  the  common  law"  (in  a  civil  suit),  "nor  shall  be 
put  out  of  his  franchise  of  freehold,  unless  he  have  been  duly  put  to 
answer,  and  forejudged  of  the  same  by  due  course  of  law." 

Lord  Hale  has  quoted  a  remarkable  passage  from  a  Year-book,  not 
long  after  these  statutes  of  25  Edw.  III.  and  28  Edw.  III.,  which,  if  Sir 
F.  Palgrave  had  not  overlooked,  he  would  have  found  not  very  favor- 
able to  his  high  notions  of  the  king's  prerogative  in  council.  "  In  af- 
ter ages,"  says  Hale,  "  the  constant  opinion  and  practice  was  to  dis- 
allow any  reversals  of  judgment  by  the  council,  which  appears  by  the 
notable  case  in  Year-book,  39  Edw.  III.  14."  (Jurisdiction  of  Lords' 
House,  p.  41.)  It  is  indeed  a  notable  case,  wherein  the  chancellor  be- 
fore the  council  reverses  a  judgment  of  a  court  of  law.  "  Mes  les  jus- 
tices ne  pristoient  nul  regard  al  reverser  devant  le  council,  par  ceo  que 
ce  ne  fust  place  ou  jugement  purroit  estre  reverse."  If  the  council 
could  not  exercise  this  jurisdiction  on  appeal,  which  is  not  perhaps 
expressly  taken  away  by  any  statute,  much  less  against  the  language 
of  so  many  statutes  could  they  lawfully  entertain  any  original  suit. 
Such,  however,  were  the  vacillations  of  a.  motley  assembly,  so  steady 
the  perseverance  of  government  in  retaining  its  power,  so  indefinite  the 
limits  of  ancient  usage,  so  loose  the  phrases  of  remedial  statutes,  pass- 
ing sometimes  by  their  generality  the  intentions  of  those  who  enacted 
them,  so  useful,  we  may  add,  and  almost  indispensable,  was  a  portion 
of  those  prerogatives  which  the  crown  exercised  through  the  council 
and  chancery,  that  we  find  soon  afterwards  a  statute  (37  Edw.  III.  c. 
18),  which  recognizes  in  some  measure  those  irregular  proceedings 
before  the  council,  by  providing  only  that  those  who  make  suggestions 
to  the  chancellor  and  great  council,  by  ^  which  men  are  put  in  danger 
against  the  form  of  the  charter,  shall  give  security  for  proving  them. 
This  is  rendered  more  remedial  by  another  act  next  year  (38  Edw.  III. 
c.  9),  which,  however,  leaves  the  liberty  of  making  such  suggestions 
untouched.  The  truth  is,  that  the  act  of  25  Edw.  III.  went  to  anni- 
hilate the  legal  and  equitable  jurisdiction  of  the  Court  of  Chancery — 
the  former  of  which  had  been  long  exercised,  and  the  latter  was  be- 
ginning to  spring  up.  But  the  42  Edw.  III.  c.  3,  which  seems  to  go 
as  far  as  the  former  in  the  enacting  words,  will  be  found,  according  to 
the  preamble,  to  regard  only  criminal  charges. 

Sir  Francis  Palgrave  maintains  that  the  council  never  intermitted 
its  authority,  but  on  the  contrary  "  it  continually  assumed  more  con- 
sistency and  order.  It  is  probable  that  the  long  absences  of  Henry 
V.  from  England  invested  this  body  with  a  greater  degree  of  impor- 
tance. After  every  minority  and  after  every  appointment  of  a  select  or 
extraordinary  council  by  authority  of  the  legislature,  we  find  that  the 
ordinary  council  acquired  a  fresh  impulse  and  further  powers.  Hence 
the  next  reign  constitutes  a  new  era  "  (p.  80).  He  proceeds  to  give 
the  same  passage  which  I  have  quoted  from  Rot.  Parl.  8  Hen.  VI.  vol. 
v.  p.  343,  as  well  as  one  in  an  earlier  parliament  (2  Hen.  VI.  p.  28). 
But  I  had  neglected  to  state  the  whole  case  where  I  mention  the  arti- 
cles settled  in  parliament  for  the  regulation  of  the  council.  In  the  first 
place,  this  was  not  the  king's  ordinary  council,  but  one  specially  ap- 
pointed by  the  lords  in  parliament  for  the  government  of  the  realm 
during  his  minority.  They  consisted  of  certain  lords  spiritual  and 
temporal,  the  chancellor,  the  treasurer,  and  a  few  commoners.  These 
commissioners  delivered  a  schedule  of  provisions  "  for  the  good  and 
the  governance  of  the  land,  which  the  lords  that  be  of  the  king's  coun- 
cil desireth"  (p.  28).  It  does  not  explicitly  appear  that  the  commons 
assented  to  these  provisions ;  but  it  may  be  presumed,  at  least  in  a  legal 
sense,  by  their  being  present  and  by  the  schedule  being  delivered  into 
parliament,  "  baillez  en  meme  le  parlement."  But  in  the  8  Hen.  VI., 
where  the  same  provision  as  to  the  jurisdiction  of  this  extraordinary 


216  HALLAM 

council  is  repeated,  the  articles  are  said,  after  being  approved  by  the 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  to  have  been  read  "  coram  domino  rege 
in  eodem  parliament©,  in  presentia  trium  fegni  statuum  "  (p.  343).  It 
is  always  held  that  what  is  expressly  declared  to  be  done  in  presence 
of  all  the  estates  is  an  act  of  parliament. 

We  find,  therefore,  a  recognition  of  the  principle  which  had  always 
beeti  alleged  in  defence  of  the  ordinary  council  in  this  parliamentary 
confirmation — the  principle  that  breaches  of  the  law,  which  the  law 
could  not,  through  the  weakness  of  its  ministers,  or  corruption,  or  par- 
tiality, sufficiently  repress,  must  be  reserved  for  the  strong  arm  of  royal 
authority.  "  Thus,"  says  Sir  Francis  Palgrave,  "  did  the  council  settle 
and  define  its  principles  and  practice.  A  new  tribunal  was  erected, 
and  one  which  obtained  a  virtual  supremacy  over  the  corrimon  law. 
The  exception  reserved  to  their  '  discretion '  of  interfering  wherever 
their  lordships  felt  top  much  might  oh  one  side,  and  too  much  unmight 
on  the  other,  was  of  itself  sufficient  to  embrace  almost  every  dispute  or 
trial"  (p.  81). 

But,  in  the  first  place,  this  latitude  of  construction  was  not  by  any 
means  what  the  parliamerit  meant  to  allow,  nor  could  it  be  taken,  ex- 
cept by  wilfully  usurping  powers  never  imparted;  and,  secondly,  tt  was 
not  the  ordinary  council  which  was  thus  constituted  during  the  king's 
rriinority;  nor  did  the  jurisdiction  intrusted  to  persons  so  specially 
named  in  parliament  extend  to  the  regular  officers  of  the  crown.  The 
restraining  statutes  were  suspended  for  a  time  in  fslvor  of  a  new  tri- 
bunal. But  I  have  already  observed  that  there  was  always  a  class  of 
cases  precisely  of  the  same  kind  as  those  mentioned  in  the  act  creating 
this  tribunal,  tacitly  excluded  from  the  operation  of  those  statutes, 
wherein  the  coercive  jurisdiction  of  the  king's  ordinary  council  had 
great  convenience,  namely,  where  the  course  of  justice  was  obstructed 
by  riots,  combinations  of  maintenance,  or  overawing  influence.  And 
there  is  no  doubt  that,  down  to  the  final  abolition  of  the  Court  of  Star 
Chamber  (which  was  no  other  thdn  the  consihutn  ordinarium  under  a 
different  name),  these  offences  were  cognizable  in  it,  without  the  regu- 
lar forms  of  the  common  law. 

"  Frdm  the  reigri  of  Edward  IV.  we  dd  not  trace  ariy  further  opposi- 
tion to  the  authority  either  of  the  chancery  or  of  the  council.  These 
courts  had  become  engrafted  on  the  constitution;  and  if  they  excited 
fear  or  jealousy,  there  was  no  one  who  dared  td  complain.  Yet  addi- 
tional parliamentary  sanction  was  not  considered  as  unnecessary  by 
Henry  VII.,  and  in  the  third  year  of  his  reign  an  act  was  passed  for 
giving  the  CoUrt  of  Star  Chamber,  which  had  now  acquired  its  de- 
terminate name,  further  authority  to  punish  divers  misdemeanors." 
(Palgrave,  p.  517.) 

It  is  really  more  than  we  cari  grant  that  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
consiliwm  ordinariuifo  had  been  engrafted  on  the  constitution,  when  the 
statute-book  was  full  of  laws  to  restraiit,  if  not  to  abrogate  it  The 
acts  already  mentioned,  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.,  by  gratitihg  a  terri- 
porary  and  limited  jurisdiction  to  the  council,  demonstrate  that  its 
general  exercise  was  not  acknowledged  by  parliament.  We  can  only 
say  that  it  may  have  continued  without  remoristrance  in  the  reigri  of 
Edward  IV.  I  have  observed  in  the  text  that  the  Rolls  or  Parliament 
under  Edward  IV.  contain  no  complaints  of  grievances.  ^But  it  is  not 
quite  tiianifest  that  the  council  did  exercise  in  that  rei^n  as  much 
jurisdiction  as  it  had  once  done.  Lord  Hale  tells  us  that  "  this  juris- 
diction -  "  -  '  '  .-...- 
sdrne  s 

year,  which  erected  a  new  court,  spmetiriies  improperly  called  the  Court 
of  Star  Chairibei,  seenis  to  havfe  been  prompted  by  a  desire  to  restore, 


THE  MIDDLE  AGES  217 

in  a  new  and  more  legal  form,  a  jurisdiction  which  was  become  almost 
obsolete,  and,  being  m  contradiction  to  acts  of  parliament,  could  not 
well  be  rendered  effective  without  one.c 

We  cannot  but  discover,  throughout  the  learned  and  luminous  Es- 
say on  the  Authority  of  the  King's  Council,  a  strong  tendency  to  repr e- 
sent  its  exercise  as  both  constitutional  and  salutary.  The  former 
epithet  cannot,  I  think,  be  possibly  applicable  in  the  face  of  statute 
law;  for  what  else  determines  our  constitution?  But  it  is  a  problem 
with  some,  whether  the  powers  actually  exerted  by  this  anomalous 
coUrt,  admitting  them  to  have  been,  at  least  latter-ly,  in  contravention 
of  many  statutes,  may  not  have  been  rendered  necessary  by  the  dis- 
orderly condition  of  society  and  the  comparative  impotence  of  the 
common  law.  This  cannot  easily  be  solved  with  the  defective  knowl- 
edge that  we  possess.  Sometimes,  no  doubt,  the  "  might  on  one  side, 
and  unmight  on  the  other,"  as  the  answer  to  a  petition  forcibly  ex- 
presses it,  afforded  a  justification  which,  practically  at  least,  the  com- 
mons themselves  were  content  to  allow.  But  were  these  exceptional 
instances  so  frequent  as  not  to  leave  a  much  greater  number  wherein 
the  legal  ffefriedy  by  suit  before  the  king's  justices  of  assize  might  have 
been  perfectly  effectual?  For  we  are  not  concerned  with  the  old 
county  courts,  which  were  perhaps  turhultuary  and  partial  enough, 
but  with  the  regular  administration,  civil  and  criminal,  before  the 
kiiig's  justices  of  oyer  arid  terinirier  and  of  gaol  delivery.  Had  not 
they,  generally  speaking,  in  the  feign  of  Edward  III.  and  his  suc- 
cessors, such  means  of  enfctrcing  the  execution  of  law  as  left  no  suffi- 
cient pretext  for  recurring  to  an  arbitrary  tribunal?  Liberty,  we  should 
remember,  may  require  the  Sacrifice  of  some  degree  of  security  against 
private  wrong,  which  a  despotic  government,  with  an  unlimited  power 
of  restraint,  can  alone  supply.  If  no  one  were  permitted  to  travel  on 
the  high  road  without  a  license,  or,  as  now  so  usual,  without  a  pass- 
port, if  no  one  could  kee£  arms  without  a  registry,  if  every  one  might 
be  indefinitely  detained  on  suspicion,  the  evil  doers  of  society  would 
be  materially  impeded,  but  at  the  expense,  to  a  certain  degree,  of  every 
man's  freedom  and  enjoyment  Freedom  being  but  a  means  to  the 
greatest  good,  times  might  arisfe  when  it  must  yield  to  the  security  of 
still  higher  blessings;  but  the  immediate  question  is,  whether  such  were 
the  state  9f  society  in  the  fourteenth  arid  fifteenth  centuries,  Now,  that 
it  was  lawless  and  insecure,  comparatively  with  our  own  titties  or  the 
times  of  our  fathers  is  hardly  to  be  disputed.  But  if  it  required  thai 
arbitrary  government  which  the  king's  council  were  anxious  to  main- 
tain, the  representatives  of  the  common's  in  parliament,  knights  and 
bUf  feesses,  not  above  the  law,  and  mUch  interested  in  the  conservation 
of  property,  must  have  coniplained  very  unreasonably  for  more  than  a 
hundred  years.  They  were  apparently  as  well  able  to  < judge  as  our 
writers  can  be;  arid  if  they  reckoned  a  trial  by  jury  nisi  prius  more 
likely,  on  the  whole,  to  insUre  d  just  adjudication  of  a  civil  suit,  than 
one  before  the  great  officers  of  staie  and  other  constituent  members 
of  the  ordinary  couricil,  it  ddes  not  Seem  cleat  to  me  that  we  have  a 
right  to  assert  the  contrary.  This  mode  of  trial  by  jury,  as  has  been 
seen  in  another  place,  had  acquired,  by  the  beginning:  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  ift  its  present  form;  and  considering  the  great  authority  of  the 
judges  of  assize,  it  iriay  not,  probably,  have  given  very  frequent  occa- 
sion for  complaint  of  partiality  or  corrupt  Influence. 

cSee  Constitutional  History  of  England,  vol.  i,  p.  49-    (1842.) 


2lg  HALLAM 


NOTE   XXVII. 

The  learned  author  of  the  Inquiry  into  the  Rise  and  Growth  of  the 
Royal  Prerogative  in  England  has  founded  his  historical  theory  on  the 
confusion  which  he  supposes  to  have  grown  up  between  the  ideal  kmg 
of  the  constitution  and  the  personal  king  on  the  throne.  By  the  for- 
mer he  means  the  personification  of  abstract  principles,  sovereign 
power,  and  absolute  justice,  which  the  law  attributes  to  the  genus  king, 
but  which  flattery  or  other  motives  have  transferred  to  the  possessor  of 
the  crown  for  the  time  being,  and  have  thus  changed  the  Teutonic 
cyning,  the  first  man  of  the  commonwealth,  the  man  of  the  highest 
weregild,  the  man  who  was  so  much  responsible^that  he  might  be  sued 
for  damages  in  his  own  courts  or  deposed  for  misgovernment,  into  the 
sole  irresponsible  person  of  indefeasible  prerogatives,  of  attributes  al- 
most divine,  whom  Bracton  and  a  long  series  of  subsequent  lawyers 
raised  up  to  a  height  far  beyond  the  theory  of  our  early  constitution. 

This  is  supported  with  great  acuteness  and  learning;  nor  is  it  pos- 
sible to  deny  that  the  King  of  England,  as  the  law-books  represent  him, 
is  considerably  different  from  what  we  generally  conceive  an  ancient 
German  chieftain  to  have  been.  Yet  I  doubt  whether  Mr.  Allen  has 
not  laid  too  much  stress  on  this,  and  given  to  ^  the  fictions  of  law  a 
greater  influence  than  they  possessed  in  those  times  to  which  his  in- 
quiry relates;  and  whether,  also,  what  he  calls  the  monarchical  theory 
was  so  much  derived  from  foreign  sources  as  he  apprehends.  We 
have  no  occasion  to  seek,  in  the  systems  of  civilians  or  the  dogmas  of 
churchmen,  what  arose  from  a  deep-seated  principle  of  human  nature. 
A  king  is  a  person;  to  persons  alone  we  attach  the  attributes  of  power 
and  wisdom;  on  persons  we  bestow  pur  affection  or  our  ill-will.  An 
abstraction,  a  politic  idea  of  royalty,  is  convenient  for  lawyers;  it  suits 
the  speculative  reasoner,  but  it  never  can  become  so  familiar  to  a  peo- 
ple, especially  one  too  rude  to  have  listened  to  such  reasoners,  as  the 
simple  image  of  the  king,  the  one  man  whom  we  are  to  love  and  to 
fear.  The  other  idea  is  a  sort  of  monarchical  pantheism,  of  which  the 
vanishing  point  is  a  republic.  And  to  this  the  prevalent  theory,  that 
kings  are  to  reign  but  not  to  govern,  cannot  but  lead.  It  is  a  plausible, 
and  in  the  main,  perhaps,  for  the  times  we  have  reached,  a  necessary 
theory;  but  it  renders  monarchy  ultimately  scarcely  possible.  And 
it  was  neither  the  sentiment  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  nor  of  the  Norman 
baronage;  the  feudal  relation  was  essentially  and  exclusively  personal; 
and  if  we  had  not  enough,  in  a  more  universal  feeling  of  human  nature, 
to  account  for  loyalty,  we  could  not  mistake  its  inevitable  connection 
with  the  fealty  and  homage  of  the  vassal.  The  influence  of  Roman  no- 
tions was  not  inconsiderable  upon  the  continent;  but  they  never  pre- 
vailed very  much  here;  and  though,  after  the  close  alliance  between  the 
church  and  state  established  by  the  Reformation,  the  whole  weight  of 
the  former  was  thrown  into  the  scale  of  the  crown,  the  mediaeval  clergy, 
as  I  have  observed  in  the  text,  were  anything  rather  than  upholders  of 
despotic  power.  _ 

It  may  be  very  true  that,  by  considering  the  monarchy  as  a  merely 
political  institution,  the  scheme  of  prudent  men  to  avoid  confusion, 
and  confer  the  minimum  of  personal  authority  on  the  reigning  prince, 
the  principle  of  his  irresponsibility  seems  to  be  better  maintained.  But 
the  question  to  which  we  are  turning  our  eyes  is  not  a  political  onej  it 
relates  to  the  positive  law  and  positive  sentiments  of  the  English  nation 
in  the  mediaeval  period.  And  here  I  cannot  put  a  few  necessary  fic- 
tions grown  up  in  the  courts,  such  as,  the  king  never  dies,  the  king  can 
do  no  wrong,  the  king  is  everywhere,  against  the  tenor  of  our  consti- 
tutional language,  which  Implies  an  actual  and  active  personality.  Mr, 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  219 

Allen  acknowledges  that  the  act  against  the  Dispensers  under  Edward 
II.,  and  reconfirmed  after  its  repeal,  for  promulgating  the  doctrine  that 
allegiance  had  more  regard  to  the  crown  than  to  the  person  of  the 
king,  'l  seems  to  establish,  as  the  deliberate  opinion  of  the  legislature, 
that  allegiance  is  due  to  the  person  of  the  king  generally,  and  not  mere- 
ly to  his  crown  or  politic  capacity,  so  as  to  be  released  and  destroyed 
by  his  misgovernment  of  the  kingdom  "  (p.  14) ;  which,  he  adds,  is  not 
easily  reconcilable  with  the  deposition  of  Richard  II.  But  that  was 
accomplished  by  force,  with  whatever  formalities  it  may  have  been 
thought  expedient  to  surround  it. 

We  cannot,  however,  infer  from  the  declaration  of  the  legislature, 
that  allegiance  is  due  to  the  king's  person  and  not  to  his  politic  ca- 
pacity, any  such  consequence  as  that  it  is  not,  in  any  possible  case,  to 
be  released  by  his  misgovernment.  This  was  surely  not  in  the  spirit 
of  any  parliament  under  Edward  II.  or  Edward  III.;  and  it  is  precisely 
because  allegiance  is  due  to  the  person,  that,  upon  either  feudal  or 
natural  principles,  it  might  be  cancelled  by  personal  misconduct.  A 
contrary  language  was  undoubtedly  held  under  the  Stuarts;  but  it  was 
not  that  of  the  mediaeval  period. 

The  tenet  of  our  law,  that  all  the  soil  belongs  theoretically  to  the 
king,  is  undoubtedly  an  enormous  fiction,  and  very  repugnant  to  the 
barbaric  theory  preserved  by  the  Saxons,  that  all  unappropriated  land 
belonged  to  the  folk,  and  was  unalienable  without  its  consent.^  It  was, 
however,  but  an  extension  of  the  feudal  tenure  to  the  whole  kingdom, 
and  rested  on  the  personality  of  feudal  homage.  William  established 
it  more  by  his  power  than  by  any  theory  of  lawyers;  though  doubtless 
his  successors  often  found  lawyers  as  ready  to  shape  the  acts  of  power 
into  a  theory  as  if  they  had  originally  projected  them.  And  thus  grew 
up  the  high  schemes  of  prerogative,  which,  for  many  centuries,  were 
in  conflict  with  those  of  liberty.  We  are  not  able,  nevertheless,  to  de- 
fine the  constitutional  authority  of  the  Saxon  kings;  it  was  not  legis- 
lative, nor  was  that  of  William  and  his  successors  ever  such;  it  was 
not  exclusive  of  redress  for  private  wrong,  nor  was  this  ever  the  theory 
of  English  law,  though  the  method  of  remedy  might  not  be  sufficiently 
effective;  yet  it  had  certainly  grown  before  the  Conquest,  with  no  help 
from  Roman  notions,  to  something  very  unlike  that  of  the  German 
kings  in  Tacitus. 

NOTE  XXVIII. 

The  reduction  of  the  free  ceorls  into  villenage,  especially  if  as  gen- 
eral as  is  usually  assumed,  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  innovations 
during  the  Anglo-Norman  period;  and  one  which,  as  far  as  our  pub- 
lished records  extend,  we  cannot  wholly  explain.  Observations  have 
been  made  on  it  by  Mr.  Wright,  in  the  Archseologia  (vol.  xxx.  p.  225). 
After  adverting  to  the  oppression  of  the  peasants  in  Normandy  which 
produced  several  rebellions,  he  proceeds  thus: — "These  feelings  of 
hatred  and  contempt  for  the  peasantry  were  brought  into  our  island  by 
the  Norman  barons  in  the  latter  half  of  the  eleventh  century.  The 
Saxon  laws  and  customs  continued;  but  the  Normans  acted  as  the 
Franks  had  done  towards  the  Roman  coloni;  they  enforced  with  harsh- 
ness the  laws  which  were  in  their  own  favor,  and  gradually  threw  aside, 
or  broke  through,  those  which  were  in  favor  of  the  miserable  serf." 

In  the  Laws  of  Henry  I.  we  find  the  weregild  of  the  twyhinder,  or 
villein,  set  at  200  shillings  in  Wessex,  "  quae  caput  regni  est  et  legum  " 
(c.  70).  But  this  expression  argues  an  Anglo-Saxon  source;  and,  in 
fact,  so  much  in  that  treatise  seems  to  be  copied,  without  regard  to  the 

a  It  has  been  mentioned  in  a  former  folcland  had  acquired  the  appellation 
note,  on  Mr.  Allen's  authority,  that  the  terra  regis  before  the  Conquest. 


220  HALLAM 

change  of  times,  from  old  authorities,  mixed  tip  with  provisions  of  a 
feudal  or  Norman  character,  that  we  hardly  know  how  to  distinguish 
what  belongs  to  each  period.  It  is  far  from  improbable  that  villenage, 
in  the  sense  the  word  afterwards  bore,  that  is,  an  absolutely  servile 
tenure  of  lands,  not  only  without  legal  rights  over  them,  but  with  an 
incapacity  of  acquiring  either  immovable  or  movable  property  against 
the  lord,  may  have  made  considerable  strides  before  the  reign  of  Henry 
Il.fl  But  unless  light  should  be  thrown  on  its  history  by  the  publica- 
tion of  more  records,  it  seems  almost  impossible  to  determine  the  in- 
troduction of  predial  villenage  more  precisely  than  to  say  it  does  not 
appear  in  the  laws  bf  England  at  the  Conquest,  and  it  does  so  in  the 
time  of  Glanvil.  Mr.  Wright's  Memoir  in  the  Archaeologia,  above 
quoted,  contains  some  interesting  matter;  but  he  has  too  much  con- 
founded the  theow,  or  Anglo-Saxon  slave,  with  the  ceorl;  not  even 
mentioning  the  latter,  though  it  is  indisputable  that  villanus  is  the 
equivalent  of  ceorl,  and  servus  of  thcow. 

But  I  suspect  that  we  go  a  great  deal  too  far  in  setting  down  the 
descendants  of  these  ceorls,  that  is,  the  whole  Anglo-Saxon  population 
except  thanes  and  burgesses,  as  almost  universally  to  be  counted  such 
villeins  as  we  read  of  in  our  law-books,  or  in  concluding  that  the  culti- 
vators of  the  land,  even  in  the  thirteenth  century,  were  wholly,  or  at 
least  generally,  servile.  It  is  riot  only  evident  that  small  freeholders 
were  always  numerous,  biit  we  are,  perhaps,  greatly  deceived  in  fancy- 
ing that  the  occupiers  of  villein  tenements  were  usually  villeins.  Terre 
tenants  en  villenage  and  tenants  par  copie,  who  were  undoubtedly  free, 
appear  in  the  early  Year-books,  and  we  know  not  why  they  may  not  al- 
ways have  existed,6  This,  however,  is  a  subject  which  I  am  not  suffi- 
ciently conversant  with  records  to  explore;  it  deserves  the  attention 
of  those  well-infdrmed  and  diligent  antiquaries  whom  we  possess. 
Meantime  it  is  to  be  observed  that  the  lands  occupied  by  villani  or 
bordarii,  according  to  the  Domesday  survey,  were  much  more  exten- 
sive than  the  copyholds  of  the  present  day;  and  making  every  allow- 
ance for  enfranchisements,  we  can  hardly  believe  that  all  these  lands 
being,  in  fact,  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  soil,  were  the  mllenagta  of 


was  of  the  personal  state  of  the  occupant,  was  established  in  England. 

NOTE   XXIX. 

This  identity  of  condition  between  the  villein  regardant  and  in  gross 
appears  to  have  been,  even  lately,  Called  in  question,  and  some  adhere 
to  the  theory  Which  supposes  an  inferiority  In  the  latter.  The  follow- 
ing considerations  will  prove  that  I  have  not  bee'n  mistaken  in  re- 


^  ^  contfended  tnat  the  words  "regardant"  and  "in 

gross  "  indicate  of  themselves  any  specific  difference  between  the  two, 
or  can  mean  anything  but  the  title  by  which  the  villein  was  held;  pre- 

a  A  presumptive  proof  of  this  may  be  rior  villein,  nearly  similar  to  what  Glan- 

drawn  from  a  chapter  in  the  Laws  of  vil  agd  fater  IdW-bobfcs  call  such- 

Henry  I.  c.  81,  where  the  penalty  paya-  &  The  follovirlrie  passage  :  th  the  .  Cjwom- 

ble  by  a  villein  fo*  certain  petty  offences  cle  of  Brakeloija  does  not  mention  any 

is  set  at  thirty  pence;  that  of  a  cotset  at  manumission  of  th  6  ceorl  on  whort  Ab- 

fifteenj  and  of  a  theow  at  six*    The  pas-  bot  Satoson  conferred  a  manor  :-Uiiiim 

sage  is  extremely  obscure;  and  this  pro-  solurti  manepum  carte  sud  i  confirmavit 

portion  of  the  three  classes  of  men  is  al-  cuidam  Anglico  natione,  frbaadscntfOi 

most  the  only  part  that  appears  evident.  de    cujus    fidelitate    plenlus    cphfidebat 

Tne  cotset;  wno  itf  often  mentioned  in  quis  bonus  agri  cola  erat,  et  quia  nescie- 

Domesday,  may  thus  have  been  an  infe-  bat  lo  qui  Galhce.    P,  24. 


THE   MIDDLE  AGES  221 

scriptive  and  territorial  in  one  case,  absolute  in  the  other.  For  the 
proof,  therefore,  of  any  such  difference  we  require  some  ancient  au- 
thority, which  has  not  been  given.  II.  The  villein  regardant  might 
be  severed  from  the  manor,  with  or  without  land,  and  would  then  be- 
come a  villein  in  gross.  If  he  was  sold  as  a  domestic  serf,  he  might, 
perhaps,  be  practically  in  a  lower  condition  than  before,  but  his  legal 
state  was  the  same.  If  he  was  aliened  with  lands,  parcel  of  the  manor, 
as  in  the  case  of  its  descent  to  coparceners  who  made  partition,  he 
would  no  longer  be  regardant,  because  that  implied  a  prescriptive  de- 
pendence on  the  lord,  but  would  occupy  the  same  tenements  and  be  in 
exactly  the  same  position  as  before.  "  Villein  in  gross,"  says  Little- 
ton, "  is  where  a  man  is  seised  of  a  manor  whereunto  a  villein  is  re- 
gardant, and  granteth  the  same  villein  by  deed  to  another;  then  he  is 
a  villein  in  gross,  and  not  regardant."  (Sect.  181.)  III.  The  servitude 
of  all  villeins  was  so  complete  that  we  cannot  conceive  degrees  in  it. 
No  one  could  purchase  lands  or  possess  goods  of  his  own;  we  do  not 
find  that  any  one,  being  strictly  a  villein,  held  by  certain  services;  "  he 
must  have  regard,"  says  Coke,  "  to  that  which  is  commanded  unto 
him;  or,  in  the  words  of  Bracton,  '  a  quo  praestandum  servitium  mcer- 
tum  et  indeterminatum,  ubi  scire  non  poterit  vespere  quod  servitium 
fieri  debet  mane/  "  (Co.  Lit  120,  b.)  How  could  a  villein  in  gross 
be  lower  than  this?  It  is  true  that  the  villein  had  one  inestimable  ad- 
vantage over  the  American  negro,  that  he  was  a  freeman,  except 
relatively _ to  his  lord;  possibly  he  might  be  better  protected  against 
personal  injury;  but  in  his  incapacity  of  acquiring  secure  property,  or 
of  refusing  labor,  he  was  just  on  the  same  footing.  It  may  be  con- 
jectured that  some  villeins  in  gross  were  descended  from  the  servi,  of 
whom  we  find  25,000  enumerated  in  Domesday.  Littleton  says,  "  If  a 
man  and  his  ancestors,  whose  heir  he  is,  have  been  seised  of  a  villein 
and  of  his  ancestors,  as,  of  villeins  in  gross,  time  out  of  memory  of  man, 
these  are  villeins  in  gross."  (Sect.  182.) 

It  has  been  often  asserted  that  villeins  in  gross  seem  not  to  have  been 
a  numerous  class,  and  it  might  not  be  easy  to  adduce  distinct  instances 
of  them  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  though  we  should 
scarcely  infer,  from  the  pains  Littleton  takes  to  describe  them,  that 
none  were  left  in  his  time.  But  gome  may  be  found  in  an  earner  age. 
In  the  ninth  of  John,  William  sued  Ralph  the  priest  for  granting  away 
lands  which  he  held  tp  Canford  priory.  Ralph  pleaded  that  they  were 
his  freehold.  William  replied  that  he  held  them  in  villenage,  and^that 
he  (the  plaintiff)  had  sold  one  of  Ralph's  sisters  for  four  shillings. 
(Blomefield's  Norfolk,  vol.  lii.  p.  860,  4to  edition.)  And  Mr.  Wright 
has  found  in  Madox's  Forirmlare  Angljcanurn  not  less  than  five  in- 
stances of  villeins  sold  with  their  family  apd  chattels,  but  without  land. 
(Archaeologia,  xxx.  228.)  Even  where  they  were  sold  along  with 
land,  unless  it  were  a  manor,  they  would,  as  has  been  observed  before, 
have  been  villeins  in  gross,  I  have,  however,  been  informed  that  in 
valuations  under  escheats  in  the  old  records  a  separate  value  is  never 
put  upon  villeins;  their  alienation  without  the  land  was  apparently  not 
contemplated.  Few  cases  concerning  villeins  iri  gross,  it  has  been 
said,  occur  in  the  Year-books;  but  vjllenage  of  any  kmji  does  not  fur- 
nish a  great  many;  and  in  several  I  do  npt  pprcejve,  in  consulting  the 
report,  that  the  party  can  be  shown  to  have  been  regardant.  One  rea- 
son why  villeins  in  gross  shpuld  have  become  less  and  less  numerous 
was  that  they  could,  for  the  most  part,  only  be  claimed  by  ^howipg  a 
written  grant,  or  by  prescription  through  descent;  so  that,  if  the  title- 
deed  were  lost,  or  the  descent  unprpvecj,  the  villein  Became  free. 

Manumissions  were  often,  no  doubt,  gratuitous;  in  some  cases  pie 
villein  seems  to  have  purchased  his  freedom.  For  though  in  stncf- 
ness,  as  Glanvil  tells  us,  he  could  not  "  libertatem  suam  suis  denarns 


222  HALLAM 

quserere,"  inasmuch  as  all  he  possessed  already  belonged  to  the  lord, 
it  would  have  been  thought  a  meanness  to  insist  on  so  extreme  a  right. 
In  order,  however,  to  make  the  deed  more  secure,  it  was  usual  to  insert 
the  name  of  a  third  person  as  paying  the  consideration-money  for  the 
enfranchisement.  (Archaeologia,  xxx.  228.) 

It  appears  not  by  any  means  improbable  that  regular  money  pay- 
ments, or  other  fixed  liabilities,  were  often  substituted  instead  of  un- 
certain services  for  the  benefit  of  the  lord  as  well  as  the  tenant.  And 
when  these  had  lasted  a  considerable  time  in  any  manor,  the  villenage 
of  the  latter,  without  any  manumission,  would  have  expired  by  desue- 
tude. But,  perhaps,  an  entry  of  his  tenure  on  the  court-roll,  with  a 
copy  given  to  himself,  would  operate  of  itself,  in  construction  of  law, 
as  a  manumission.  This  I  do  not  pretend  to  determine. 

NOTE  XXX. 

The  public  history  of  Europe  in  the  middle  ages  inadequately  repre- 
sents the  popular  sentiment,  or  only  when  it  is  expressed  too  loudly  to 
escape  the  regard  of  writers  intent  sometimes  on  less  important  sub- 
jects. But  when  we  descend  below  the  surface,  a  sullen  murmur  of 
discontent  meets  the  ear,  and  we  perceive  that  mankind  was  not  more 
insensible  to  wrongs  and  sufferings  than  at  present.  Besides  the 
various  outbreakings  of  the  people  in  several  counties,  and  their  com- 
plaints in  parliament,  after  the  commons  obtained  a  representation,  we 
gain  a  conclusive  insight  into  the  spirit  of  the  times  by  their  popular 
poetry.  Two  very  interesting  collections  of  this  kind  have  been  lately 
published  by  the  Camden  Society,  through  the  diligence  of  Mr.  Thomas 
Wright;  one,  the  Poems  attributed  to  Walter  Mapes;  the  other,  the 
Political  Songs  of  England,  from  John  to  Edward  II. 

Mapes  lived  under  Henry  II.,  and  has  long  been  known  as  the  re- 
puted author  of  humorous  Latin  verses;  but  it  seems  much  more  prob- 
able, that  the  far  greater  part  of  the  collection  lately  printed  is  not 
from  his  hand.  They  may  pass,  not  for  the  production  of  a  single 
person,  but  rather  of  a  class,  during  many  years,  or,  in  general  words, 
a  century,  ending  with  the  death  of  Henry  III.  in  1272.  Many  of  them 
are  professedly  written  by  an  imaginary  Golias. 

"  They  are  not  the  expressions  of  hostility  of  one  man  against  an 
order  of  monks,  but  of  the  indignant  patriotism  of  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  the  English  nation  against  the  encroachments  of  civil  and  ec- 
clesiastical tyranny."  (Introduction  to  Poems  ascribed  to  Walter 
Mapes,  p.  21.)  The  poems  in  this  collection  reflect  almost  entirely  on 
the  pope  and  the  higher  clergy.  They  are  all  in  rhyming  Latin,  and 
chiefly,  though  with  exceptions,  in  the  loose  trochaic  metre  called 
Leonine.  The  authors,  therefore,  must  have  been  clerks,  actuated  by 
the  spirit  which,  in  a  church  of  great  inequality  in  its  endowments, 
and  with  a  very  numerous  body  of  poor  clergy,  is  apt  to  gain  strength, 
but  certainly,  as  ecclesiastical  history  bears  witness,  not  one  of  mere 
envious  malignity  towards  the  prelates  and  the  court  of  Rome.  These 
deserved  nothing  better,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  than  biting  satire 
and  indignant  reproof,  and  the  poets  were  willing  enough  to  bestow 
both. 

But  this  popular  poetry  of  the  middle  ages  did  not  confine  itself  to 
the  church.  In  the  collection  entitled  "  Political  Songs  "  we  have  some 
reflecting  on  Henry  III.,  some  on  the  general  administration.  The 
famous  song  on  the  battle  of  Lewes  in  1264  is  the  earliest  in  English; 
but  in  the  reign  of  Edward  I.  several  occur  in  that  language.  Others 
are  in  French  or  in  Latin;  one  complaining  of  the  taxes  is  in  an  odd 
mixture  of  these  two  languages;  which,  indeed,  is  not  without  other 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  223 

examples  in  mediaeval  poetry.  These  Latin  songs  could  not,  of  course, 
have  been  generally  understood.  But  what  the  priests  sung  in  Latin, 
they  said  in  English;  the  lower  clergy  fanned  the  flame,  and  gave  utter- 
ance to  what  others  felt.  It  may,  perhaps,  be  remarked,  as  a  proof  of 
general  sympathy  with  the  democratic  spirit  which  was  then  ferment- 
ing, that  we  have  a  song  of  exultation  on  the  great  defeat  which  Philip 
IV.  had  just  sustained  at  Courtrai,  in  1302,  by  the  burgesses  of  the 
Flemish  cities,  on  whose  liberties  he  had  attempted  to  trample  (p.  187). 
It  is  true  that  Edward  I.  was  on  ill  terms  with  France,  but  the  political 
interests  of  the  king  would  not,  perhaps,  have  dictated  the  popular 
ballad. 

It  was  an  idle  exaggeration  in  him  who  said  that,  if  he  could  make 
the  ballads  of  a  people,  any  one  might  make  their  laws.  Ballads,  like 
the  press,  and  especially  that  portion  of  the  press  which  bears  most 
analogy  to  them,  generally  speaking,  give  vent  to  a  spirit  which  has 
been  at  work  before.  But  they  had,  no  doubt,  an  influence  in  render- 
ing more  determinate,  as  well  as  more  active,  that  resentment  of 
wrong,  that  indignation  at  triumphant  oppression,  that  belief  in  the 
vices  of  the  great,  which,  too  often  for  social  peace  and  their  own 
happiness,  are  cherished  by  the  poor.  In  comparison,  indeed,  with 
the  efficacy  of  the  modern  press,  the  power  of  ballads  is  trifling.  Their 
lively  sprightliness,  the  humorous  tone  of  their  satire,  even  their  metri- 
cal form,  sheathe  the  sting;  and  it  is  only  in  times  when  political  bitter- 
ness is  at  its  height  that  any  considerable  influence  can  be  attached  to 
them,  and  then  it  becomes  undistinguishable  from  more  energetic 
motives.  Those  which  we  read  in  the  collection  above  mentioned  ap- 
pear to  me  rather  the  signs  of  popular  discontent  than  greatly  cal- 
culated to  enhance  it.  In  that  sense  they  are  very  interesting,  and  we 
cannot  but  desire  to  see  the  promised  continuation  to  the  end  of  Rich- 
ard II. 's  reign.a  They  are  said  to  have  become  afterwards  less  fre- 
quent, though  the  wars  of  the  Roses  were  likely  to  bring  them  for- 
ward. 

Some  of  the  political  songs  are  written  in  France,  though  relating  to 
our  kings  John  and  Henry  III.  Deducting  these,  we  have  two  in 
Latin  for  the  former  reign;  seven  in  Latin,  three  in  French  (or  what 
the  editor  calls  Anglo-Norman,  which  is  really  the  same  thing),  one  in 
a  mixture  of  the  two,  and  one  in  English,  for  the  reign  of  Henry  III. 
In  the  reigns  of  Edward  I.  and  Edward  II.  we  have  eight  in  Latin, 
three  in  French,  nine  in  English,  and  four  in  mixed  languages;  a  style 
employed  probably  for  amusement.  It  must  be  observed  that  a  large 
proportion  of  these  songs  contain  panegyric  and  exultation  on  victory 
rather  than  satire;  and  that  of  the  satire  much  is  general,  and  much 
falls  on  the  church;  so  that  the  animadversions  on  the  king  and  the 
nobility  are  not  very  frequent,  though  with  considerable  boldness;  but 
this  is  more  shown  in  the  Latin  than  the  English  poems. 

a  Mr.  Wright  has  given  a  few  speci-  may  reckon  Piers  Plowman  an  instance 

mens  in   Essays  on  the  Literature  and  of  popular  satire,  though  far  superior  to 

Popular  Superstition  of  England  in  the  the  rest. 
Middle  Ages,  vol.  i.  p.  257.    In  fact  we 


224  HALLAM 

NOTES  TO  BOOK  IX. 

NOTE   I. 

A  rapid  decline  of  learning  began  in  the  sixth  century,  of  which 
Gregory  of  Tours  is  both  a  witness  and  an  example.  It  is,  therefore, 
properly  one  of  the  dark  ages,  more  so  by  much  than  the  eleventh, 
which  concludes  them;  since  very  few  were  left  in  the  church  who  pos- 
sessed any  acquaintance  with  classical  authors,  or  who  wrote  with  any 
command  of  the  Latin  language.  Their  studies,  whenever  they  studied 
at  all,  were  almost  exclusively  theological;  and  this  must  be  under- 
stood as  to  the  subsequent  centuries.  By  theological  }s  meant  the 
vulgate  Scriptures  and  some  of  the  Latjn  fathers;  riot,  however,  by 
reasoning  upon  them,  or  doing  much  more  than  introducing  them  as 
authority  in  tr^eir  own  words.  In  the  seventh  century,  and  still  rftore 
at  the  beginning  of  the  eighth,  very  little  even  of  this  remained  in 
France,  where  we  find  hardly  a  name  deserving  of  remembrance  in  a 
literary  sense;  but  Isidore,  and  our  own  Bede,  do  honor  to  Spain  and 
Britain. 

It  may  certainly  be  saj4  for  France  and  Germany,  notwithstanding 
a  partial  interruption  in  the  latter  part  of  the  ninth  and  beginning  of 
the  tenth  century,  that  they  were  gradually  progressive  from  the  time 
of  Charlemagne.  But  then  this  progress  was  so  very  slow,  and  the 
men  in  front  of  it  so  little  capable  of  bearifljg  comparison  with  those  of 
later  times,  considering  their  writings  positively  and  without  indul- 
gence, that  it  is  by  no  means  unjust  to  call  the  centuries  dark  which 
elapsed  between  Charlemagne  and  the  manifest  revival  of  literary  pur- 
suits towards  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  Alcuin,  for  example? 
has  left  us  a  good  deal  of  poetry.  This  is  superior  to  what  we  find  in 
some  other  writers  of  the  obscure  period,  and  indicates  both  a  correct 
ear  and  a  familiarity  with  the  Latin  poets,  especially  Ovid.  Still  his 
verses  are  not  as  goo4  as  those  which  school-boys  of  fourteen  now 
produce,  either  in  poetical  power  or  in  accuracy  of  language  and  metre. 
The  errors  indeed  are  innumerable.  ^AJdhelm,  an  earlier  Anglo-Saxon 
poet,  with  more  imaginative  spirit,  is  further  removed  from  classical 
poetry.  Lupus,  abbot  pf  Ferrieres,  early  in  the  ninth  century,  in  some 
of  his  epistles  writes  tqlerable  Latin,  though  this  is  far  from  being  al- 
ways the  case;  he  is  smittep  with  a  love  of  classical  literature,  quotes 
several  poets  and  prose  writers,  and  is  almost  as  curious  about  little 
points  of  philology  as  an  Italian  scholar  of  the  fifteenth  century.  He 
was  continually  borrowing  books  in  order  to  transcribe  them — a  proof, 
however,  of  their  scarcity  and  of  the  low  condition  of  general  learning, 
which  is  the  chief  point  we  have  to  regard.*  But  his  more  celebrated 
correspondent,  Eginhard,  went  beyond  him.  Both  his  Annals  and  the 
Life  of  Charlemagne  are  very  well  written,  in  a  classical  spirit,  unlike 
the  church  Latin;  though  a  few  words  and  phrases  may  not  be  of  the 
best  age,  I  should  place  Eginhard  above  Alcuin  and  Lupus,  or,  as  far 
as  I  know,  any  other  of  the  Caroline  period, 

The  tenth  century  has  in  all  times  borne  the  worst  name.  Baronius 
calls  it,  in  one  page,  plumbeum,  obscurum,  infelix.  (Annales,  A.D.  900.) 
And  Cave,  who  dubs  all  his  centuries  by  some  epithet,  assigns  ferreum 

a  The  writings  of  Lupus  Servatus,  Gregory  of  Tours,  but  nuite  as  much 
Abbot  of  Ferneres,  were  published  by  inferior  to  Sidonius  Apollmaris.  I  have 
Baluze;  and  a  good  account  of  them  observed  in  Lupus  quotations  from 
will  be  found  in  Ampere's  Hist.  Litt.  Horace,  Virgil,  Martial,  Cicero,  Aulus 
(vol.  iii.  p.  237),  as  well  as  in  older  Gellius,  and  Troprus  Pompeius  (mean- 
works.  He  ia  a  much  better  writer  than  ing  probably  Justin). 


THE    MIDDLE   AGES 


225 


to  the  tenth.  Nevertheless,  there  was  considerably  less  ignorance  in 
France  and  Germany  during  the  latter  part  of  this  age  than  before  the 
reign  of  Charlemagne,  or  even  in  it;  more  glimmerings  of  acquaint- 
ance with  the  Latin  classics  appear;  and  the  schools,  cathedral  and 
conventual,  had  acquired  a  more  regular  and  uninterrupted  scheme  of 
instruction.  The  degraded  condition  of  papal  Rome  has  led  many  to 
treat  this  century  rather  worse  than  it  deserves;  and  indeed  Italy  was 
sunk  very  low  in  ignorance.  As  to  the  eleventh  century,  the  upward 
progress  was  extremely  perceptible.  It  is  commonly  reckoned  among 
the  dark  ages  till  near  its  close;  but  these  phrases  are  of  course  used 
comparatively,  and  because  the  difference  between  that  and  the  twelfth 
was  more  sensible  than  we  find  in  any  two  that  are  consecutive  since 
the  sixth. 

The  state  of  literature  in  England  was  by  no  means  parallel  to  what 
we  find  on  the  continent.  Our  best  age  was  precisely  the  worst  in 
France;  it  was  the  age  of  the  Heptarchy — that  of  Theodore,  Bede,  Aid- 
helm,  Csedmon,  and  Alcuin;  to  whom,  if  Ireland  will  permit  us,  we 
may  desire  to  add  Scotus,  who  came  a  little  afterwards,  but  whose  resi- 
dence in  this  island  at  any  time  appears  an  unauthenticated  tale.  But 
we  know  how  Alfred  speaks  of  the  ignorance  of  the  clergy  in  his  own 
age.  Nor  was  this  much  better  afterwards.  Even  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury, especially  before  the  Conquest,  is  a  very  blank  period  in  the  lit- 
erary annals  of  England.  No  one  can  have  a  conception  how  wretch- 
edly scanty  is  the  list  of  literary  names  from  Alfred  to  the  Conquest, 
who  does  not  look  to  Mr.  Turner's  History  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  or  to 
Mr.  Wright's  Biographia  Literaria. 

There  could  be  no  general  truth  respecting  the  past,  as  it  appeared 
to  me,  more  notorious,  or  more  incapable  of  being  denied  with  any 
plausibility,  than  the  characteristic  ignorance  of  Europe  during  those 
centuries  which  we  commonly  style  the^  Dark  Ages.  A  powerful 
stream,  however,  of  what,  as  to  the  majority  at  least,  I  must  call 
prejudice,  has  been  directed  of  late  years  in  an  opposite  direction. 
The  mediaeval  period,  in  manners,  in  arts,  in  literature,  and  especially 
in  religion,  has  been  regarded  with  unwonted  partiality;  and  this  fa- 
vorable temper  has  been  extended  to  those  ages  which  had  lain  most 
frequently  under  the  ban  of  historical  and  literary  censure. 

A  considerable  impression  has  been  made  on  the  predisposed  by  the 
Letters  on  the  Dark  Ages,  which  we  owe  to  Dr.  Maitland.  Nor  is  this 
by  any  means  surprising;  both  because  the  predisposed  are  soon  con- 
vinced, and  because  the  Letters  are  written  with  great  ability,  accurate 
learning,  a  spirited  and  lively  pen,  and  consequently  with  a  success  in 
skirmishing  warfare  which  many  readily  mistake  for  the  gain  of  a 
pitched  battle.  Dr.  Maitland  is  endowed  with  another  quality,  far 
more  rare  in  historical  controversy,  especially  of  the  ecclesiastical 
kind:  I  believe  him  to  be  of  scrupulous  integrity,  minutely  exact  in  all 
that  he  asserts;  and  indeed  the  wrath  and  asperity,  which  sometimes 
appear  rather  more  than  enough,  are  only  called  out  by  what  he  con- 
ceives to  be  wilful  or  slovenly  misrepresentation.  Had  I,  therefore,  the 
leisure  and  means  of  following  Dr.  Maitland  through  his  quotations,  I 
should  probably  abstain  from  doing  so  from  the  reliance  I  should  place 
on  his  testimony,  both  in  regard  to  his  power  of  discerning  truth  and 
his  desire  to  express  it.  But  I  have  no  call  for  any  examination,  could 
I  institute  it;  since  the  result  of  my  own  reflections  is  that  everything 
which  Dr.  M.  asserts  as  matter  of  fact— I  do  not  say  suggests  in  all 
his  language — may  be  perfectly  true,  without  affecting  the  great  pro- 
position that  the  dark  ages,  those  from  the  sixth  to  the  eleventh,  were 
ages  of  ignorance.  Nor  does  he,  as  far  as  I  collect,  attempt  to  deny 
this  evident  truth;  it  is  merely  his  object  to  prove  that  they  were  less 
ignorant,  less  dark,  and  in  all  points  of  view  less  worthy  of  condemna- 
VOL.  III.— 15 


226  HALLAM 

tion  than  many  suppose.  I  do  not  gainsay  this  position;  being  aware, 
as  I  have  observed  both  in  this  and  in  another  work,  that  the  mere 
ignorance  of  these  ages,  striking  as  it  is  in  comparison  with  earlier 
and  later  times,  has  been  sometimes  exaggerated;  and  that  Europeans, 
and  especially  Christians,  could  not  fall  back  into  the  absolute  bar- 
barism of  the  Esquimaux.  But  what  a  man  of  profound  and  accurate 
learning  puts  forward  with  limitations,  sometimes  expressed,  and  al- 
ways present  to  his  own  mind,  a  heady  and  shallow  retailer  takes  up, 
and  exaggerates  in  conformity  with  his  own  prejudices. 

The  Letters  on  the  Dark  Ages  relate  principally  to  the  theological 
attainments  of  the  clergy  during  that  period,  which  the  author  as- 
sumes, rather  singularly,  to  extend  from  A.D.  800  to  1200;  thus  exclud- 
ing midnight  from  his  definition  of  darkness,  and  replacing  it  by  the 
break  of  day.  And  in  many  respects,  especially  as  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  vulgate  Scriptures  possessed  by  the  better-informed  clergy,  he 
obtains  no  very  difficult  victory  over  those  who  have  imbibed  ex- 
travagant notions,  both  as  to  the  ignorance  of  the  Sacred  Writings  in 
those  times  and  the  desire  to  keep  them  away  from  the  people.  This 
latter  prejudice  is  obviously  derived  from  a  confusion  of  the  subse- 
quent period,  the  centuries  preceding  the  Reformation,  with  those 
which  we  have  immediately  before  us.  But  as  the  word  dark  is  com- 
monly used,  either  in  reference  to  the  body  of  the  laity  or  to  the  gen- 
eral extent  of  liberal  studies  in  the  church,  and  as  it  involves  a  com- 
parison with  prior  or  subsequent  ages,  it  cannot  be  improper  in  such  a 
sense,  even  if  the  manuscripts  of  the  Bible  should  have  been  as  com- 
mon in  monasteries  as  Dr.  Maitland  supposes;  and  yet  his  proofs  seem 
much  too  doubtful  to  sustain  that  hypothesis. 

There  is  a  tendency  to  set  aside  the  verdict  of  the  most  approved 
writers,  which  gives  too  much  of  a  polemical  character,  too  much  of 
the  tone  of  an  advocate  who  fights  every  point,  rather  than  of  a  calm 
arbitrator,  to  the  Letters  on  the  Dark  Ages.  For  it  is  not  Henry,  or 
Jortin,  or  Robertson,  who  are  our  usual  testimonies,  but  their  im- 
mediate masters,  Muratori,  and  Fleury,  and  Tiraboschi,  and  Brucker 
and  the  Benedictine  authors  of  the  Literary  History  of  France,  and 
many  others  in  France,  Italy,  and  Germany.  The  latest  who  has  gone 
over  this  rather  barren  ground,  and  not  inferior  to  any  in  well-applied 
learning,  in  candor  or  good  sense,  is  M.  Ampere,  in  his  Histoire  Lit- 
teraire  de  la  France  avant  le  douzieme  siecle  (3  vols.  Paris,  1840).  No 
one  will  accuse  this  intelligent  writer  of  unduly  depreciating  tue  ages 
which  he  thus  brings  before  us;  and  by  the  perusal  of  his  volumes,  to 
which  Heeren  and  Eichhorn  may  be  added  for  Germany,  we  may  ob- 
tain a  clear  and  correct  outline,  which,  considering  the  shortness  of 
life  compared  with  the  importance  ^of  exact  knowledge  on  such  a  sub- 
ject, will  suffice  for  the  great  majority  of  readers.  I  by  no  means, 
however,  would  exclude  the  Letters  on  the  Dark  Ages,  as  a  spirited 
pleading  for  those  who  have  often  been  condemned  unheard. 

I  shall  conclude  by  remarking  that  one  is  a  little  tempted  to  inquire 
why  so  much  anxiety  is  felt  by  the  advocates  of  the  mediaeval  church  to 
rescue  her  from  the  charge  of  ignorance.  For  this  ignorance  she  was 
not,  generally  speaking,  to  be  blamed.  It  was  no  crime  of  the  clergy 
that  the  Huns  burned  their  churches,  or  the  Normans  pillaged  their 
monasteries.  It  was  not  by  their  means  that  the  Saracens  shut  up  the 
supply  of  papyrus,  and  that  sheepskins  bore  a  great  price.  Europe 
was  altogether  decayed  in  intellectual  character,  partly  in  consequence 
of  the  barbarian  incursions,  partly  of  other  sinister  influences  acting 
long  before  We  certainly  owe  to  the  church  every  spark  of  learning 
which  then  glimmered,  and  which  she  preserved  through  that  dark- 
ness to  rekindle  the  light  of  a  happier  age — Srlftua  irvpks  (rt££Wa 
Meantime,  what  better  apology  than  this  ignorance  can  be  made  by 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  227 

Protestants,  and  I  presume  Dr.  Maitland  is  not  among  those  who  ab- 
jure the  name,  for  the  corruption,  the  superstition,  the  tendency  to 
usurpation,  which  they  at  least  must  impute  to  the  church  of  the  dark 
ages?  Not  that  in  these  respects  it  was  worse  than  in  a  less  obscure 
period;  for  the  reverse  is  true;  but  the  fabric  of  popery  was  raised  upon 
its  foundations  before  the  eleventh  century,  though  not  displayed  in  its 
full  proportions  till  afterwards.  And  there  was  so  much  of  lying 
legend,  so  much  of  fraud  in  the  acquisition  of  property,  that  ecclesi- 
astical historians  have  not  been  loath  to  acknowledge  the  general  ig- 
norance as  a  sort  of  excuse.  [1848.] 


NOTE  II. 

The  account  of  domestic  architecture  given  in  the  text  is  very  super- 
ficial; but  the  subject  still  remains,  comparatively  with  other  portions 
of  mediaeval  antiquity,  but  imperfectly  treated.  The  best  sketch  that 
has  hitherto  been  given  is  in  an  article  with  this  title  in  the  Glossary  of 
Ancient  Architecture  (which  should  be  read  in  an  edition  not  earlier 
than  that  of  1845),  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Twopeny,  whose  attention 
has  long  been  directed  to  the  subject.  "  There  is  ample  evidence  yet 
remaining  of  the  domestic  architecture  in  this  country  during  the 
twelfth  century.  The  ordinary  manor-houses,  and  even  houses  of 
greater  consideration,  appear  to  have  been  generally  built  in  the  form 
of  a  parallelogram,  two  stories  high,<*  the  lower  story  vaulted,  with  no 
internal  communication  between  the  two,  the  upper  story  approached 
by  a  flight  of  steps  on  the  outside;  and  in  that  story  was  sometimes  the 
only  fireplace  in  the  whole  building.  It  is  more  than  probable  that 
this  was  the  usual  style  of  houses  in  the  preceding  century."  Instances 
of  houses  partly  remaining  are  then  given.  We  may  add  to  those 
mentioned  by  Mr.  Twopeny  one,  perhaps  older  than  any,  and  better 
preserved  than  some,  in  his  list.  At  Southampton  is  a  Norman  house, 
perhaps  built  in  the  first  part  of  the  twelfth  century.  It  is  nearly  a 
square,  the  outer  walls  tolerably  perfect;  the  principal  rooms  appear  to 
have  been  on  the  first  (or  upper)  floor;  it  has  in  this  also  a  fireplace  and 
chimney,  and  four  windows  placed  so  as  to  indicate  a  division  into  two 
apartments;  but  there  are  no  lights  below,  nor  any  appearance  of  an 
interior  staircase.  The  sides  are  about  forty  feet  in  length.  Another 
house  of  the  same  age  is  near  to  it,  but  much  worse  preserved.* 

a  This  is  rather  equivocal,  but  it  is  ing-room,  raised  above  the  cellar,  was 

certainly  not  meant  that  there  were  ever  often  of  wood. 

two   floors   above  that  on   the   ground.  b  See  a  full  description  in  the  Archae- 

In  the  review  of  the  "  Chronicles  of  the  ological  Journal,  vol.  iv.  p.  n.     Those 

Mayors  and  Sheriffs,"  published  in  the  who  visit  Southampton  may  seek  this 

Archaeological  Journal  (vol.  iv.  p.  273),  house  near  a  gate  in  the  west  wall*    We 

we  read — "  The  houses  in  London,   of  may   add   to   the    contribution   of    Mr. 

whatever  material,  seem  never  to  have  Twopeny  one  published  in  the  Proceed- 

exceeded  one  story  in  height."    P.  282.)  ings  of  the  Archaeological  Institute^  by 

But,     soon    afterwards— -    The    ground  Mr.  Hudson  Turner,  Nov.  1847-    This  is 

floor  of  the  London  houses  at  this  peri-  chiefly  founded  on  documents,  as  that 

od  was  aptly  enough  called  a  cellar,  the  of  Mr.  Twopeny  is  on  existing  remains, 

upper  story  a  solar."    It  thus  appears  These  give  more  light  where  they  can 

that   the   reviewer   does  not  mean  the  be  found;  but  the  number  is  very  small, 

same   thing   as    Mr.    Twopeny   by   the  Upon  the  whole,    it  may  be   here  ob- 

word  story,  which  the  former  confines  served,   that  we  are  frequently   misled 

to  the  floor  above  that  on  the  ground,  by  works  of  fiction  as  to  the  domestic 

while  the  latter  includes  both.    The  use  condition     of     our     forefathers.       The 

of  language,  as  we  know,  supports,  in  house  of  Cedric  the  Saxon  in  Ivanhoe, 

some    measure,    either    meaning;     but  with  its   distinct  and  numerous  apart- 

perhaps  it  is  more  correct,   and  more  meats,  is  very  unlike  any  that  remain 

common,   to   call   the   first    story   that  or  can  be  traced.    This  is  by  no  means 

which  is  reached  by  a  staircase  from  to  be  censured  in  the  romancer,  whose 

the  ground-floor.     The  solar,  or  sleep-  aim  is  to  delight  by  images  more  splen- 


228  HALL  AM 

The  parallelogram  house,  seldom  containing  more  than  four  rooms, 
with  no  access  frequently  to  the  upper  which  the  family  occupied,  ex- 
cept on  the  outside,  was  gradually  replaced  by  one  on  a  different  type: 
— the  entrance  was  on  the  ground,  the  staircase  within;  a  kitchen  and 
other  offices,  originally  detached,  were  usually  connected  with  the  hall 
by  a  passage  running  through  the  house;  one  or  more  apartments  on 
the  lower  floor  extended  beyond  the  hall;  there  was  seldom  or  never 
a  third  floor  over  the  entire  house,  but  detached  turrets  for  sleeping- 
rooms  rose  at  some  of  the  angles.  This  was  the  typical  form  which 
lasted,  as  we  know,  to  the  age  of  Elizabeth,  or  even  later.  The  supe- 
rior houses  of  this  class  were  sometimes  quadrangular,  that  is,  includ- 
ing a  court-yard,  but  seldom,  perhaps,  with  more  than  one  side  allotted 
to  the  main  dwelling;  offices,  stables,  or  mere  walls  filled  the  other 
three. 

Many  dwellings  erected  in  the  fourteenth  century  may  be  found 
in  England ;  but  neither  of  that  nor  the  next  age  are  there  more  than  a 
very  few,  which  are  still,  in  their  chief  rooms,  inhabited  by  gentry. 
But  houses,  which  by  their  marks  of  decoration,  or  by  external  proof, 
are  ascertained  to  have  been  formerly  occupied  by  good  families, 
though  now  in  the  occupation  of  small  farmers,  and  built  apparently 
from  the  reign  of  the  second  to  that  of  the  fourth  Edward,  are  com- 
mon in  many  countries.  They  generally  bear  the  name  of  court,  hall, 
or  grange,  sometimes  only  the  surname  of  some  ancient  occupant,  and 
very  frequently  have  been  the  residence  of  the  lord  of  the  manor. 

The  most  striking  circumstance  in  the  oldest  houses  is  not  so  much 
their  precautions  for  defence  in  the  outside  staircase,  and  when  that 
was  disused,  the  better  safeguard  against  robbery  in  the  moat  which 
frequently  environed  the  walls,  the  strong  gateway,  the  small  window 
broken  by  mullions,  which  are  no  more  than  we  should  expect  in  the 
times,  as  the  paucity  of  apartments,  so  that  both  sexes,  and  that  even 
in  high  rank,  must  have  occupied  the  same  room.  The  progress  of  a 
regard  to  decency  in  domestic  architecture  has  been  gradual,  and  in 
some  respects  has  been  increasing  up  to  our  own  age.  But  the  mediae- 
val period  shows  little  of  it;  though  in  the  advance  of  wealth,  a  greater 
division  of  apartments  distinguishes  the  houses  of  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries  from  those  of  an  earlier  period. 

The  French  houses  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  were  prob- 
ably much  of  the  same  arrangement  as  the  English;  the  middle  and 
lower  classes  had  but  one  hall  and  one  chamber;  those  superior  to  them 
had  the  solarium  or  upper  floor,  as  with  us.  See  Archaeological  Jour- 
nal (vol.  i.  p.  212),  where  proofs  are  adduced  from  the  fabliaux  of  Bar- 
basan.  [1848.] 

NOTE   III. 

The  Abbe  de  Sade,  in  whose  copious  memoirs  of  the  life  of  Petrarch, 
which  illustrate  in  an  agreeable  though  rather  prolix  manner  the  civil 
and  literary  history  of  Provence  and  Italy  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
endeavored  to  establish  his  own  descent  from  Laura,  as  the  wife  of 
Hughes  de  Sade,  and  born  in  the  family  de  Noves.  This  hypothesis 
has  since  been  received  with  general  acquiescence  by  literary  men; 
and  Tiraboschi  in  particular,  whose  talent  lay  in  these  petty  bio- 
graphical researches,  and  who  had  a  prejudice  against  everything  that 
came  from  France,  seems  to  consider  it  as  decisively  proved.  But  it 
has  been  called  in  question  in  a  modern  publication  by  the  late  Lord 

did  than  truth;    but,   especially  when  of  displaying  it,  there  is  some  danger 

presented    by    one   who    possessed    in  lest  the  reader  should  believe  that  he 

some    respects    a    considerable    knowl-  has  a  faithful  picture  before  him. 
edge  of  antiquity,  and  was  rather  fond 


THE   MIDDLE   AGES  229 

Woodhouselee.  (Essay  on  the  Life  and  Character  of  Petrarch,  1810.) 
I  shall  not  offer  any  opinion  as  to  the  identity  of  Petrarch's  mistress 
with  Laura  de  Sade;  but  the  main  position  of  Lord  W.'s  essay,  that 
Laura  was  an  unmarried  woman,  and  the  object  o£  an  honorable  at- 
tachment in  her  lover,  seems  irreconcilable  with  the  evidence  that  his 
writings  supply,  i.  There  is  no  passage  in  Petrarch,  whether  of  po- 
etry or  prose,  that  alludes  to  the  virgin  character  of  Laura,  or  gives 
her  the  usual  appellations  of  unmarried  women,  puella  in  Latin,  or 
donzella  in  Italian ;  even  in  the  Trionfo  della  Castita,  where  so  obvious 
an  opportunity  occurred.  Yet  this  was  naturally  to  be  expected  from 
so  ethereal  an  imagination  as  that  of  Petrarch,  always  inclined  to  in- 
vest her  with  the^halo  of  celestial  purity.  We  know  how  Milton  took 
hold  of  the  mystical  notions  of  virginity;  notions  more  congenial  to 
the  religion  of  Petrarch  than  his  own: 

Quod  tibi  perpetuus  pudor,  et  sine  labe  juventas 
Fura  fuit,  quod  nulla  tori  libata  voluptas, 
En  etiam  tibi  virginei  servantur  honores. 

Epitaphium  Damonis. 

2.  The  coldness  of  Laura  towards  so  passionate  and  deserving  a  lover, 
if  no  insurmountable  obstacle  intervened  during  his  twenty  years  of 
devotion,  would  be  at  least  a  mark  that  his  attachment  was  misplaced, 
and  show  him  in  rather  a  ridiculous  light.  It  is  not  surprising,  that 
persons  believing  Laura  to  be  unmarried,  as  seems  to  have  been  the 
case  with  the  Italian  commentators,  should  have  thought  his  passion 
affected,  and  little  more  than  poetical.  But  upon  the  contrary  sup- 
position, a  thread  runs  through  the  whole  of  his  poetry,  and  gives  it 
consistency.  A  love  on  the  one  side,  instantaneously  conceived,  and 
retained  by  the  susceptibility  of  a  tender  heart  and  ardent  fancy;  nour- 
ished by  slight  encouragement,  and  seldom  presuming  to  hope  for 
more;  a  mixture  of  prudence  and  coquetry  on  the  other,  kept  within 
bounds  either  by  virtue  or  by  the  want  of  mutual  attachment,  yet  not 
dissatisfied  with  fame  more  brilliant  and  flattery  more  refined  than  had 
ever  before  been  the  lot  of  woman — these  are  surely  pretty  natural  cir- 
cumstances, and  such  as  do  not  render  the  story  less  intelligible.  Un- 
questionably such  a  passion  is  not  innocent.  But  Lord  Woodhouse- 
lee, who  is  so  much  scandalized  at  it,  knew  little,  one  would  think,  of 
the  fourteenth  century.  His  standard  is  taken  not  from  Avignon,  but 
from  Edinburgh,  a  much  better  place,  no  doubt,  and  where  the  moral 
barometer  stands^at  a  very  different  altitude.  In  one  passage  (p.  188) 
he  carries  his  strictness  to  an  excess  of  prudery.  From  all  we  know 
of  the  age  of  Petrarch,  the  only  matter  of  astonishment  is  the  persever- 
ing virtue  of  Laura.  The  troubadours  boast  of  much  better  success 
with  Provencal  ladies.  3.  But  the  following  passage  from  Petrarch's 
dialogues  with  St  Augustin,  the  work,  as  is  well  known,  where  he  most 
unbosoms  himself,  will  leave  no  doubt,  I  think,  that  his  passion  could 
not  have  been  gratified  consistently  with  honor.  At  mulier  ista  Cele- 
bris, quam  tibi'  certissimam  ducem  fingis,  ad  superos  cur  non  hsesi- 
tantem  trepidumque  direxerit,  et  quod  caecis  fieri  solet,  manu  appre- 
hensum  non  tenuit,  quo  et  gradiendum  foret  admonuit?  PETR.  Fecit 
hoc  ilia  quantum  potuit  Quid  enim  aliud  egit,  cum  nullis  mota  preci- 
bus,  nullis  victa  blanditiis,  muliebrem  tenuit  decorem,  et  adversus  suam 
semel  et  meam  aetatem,  adversus  multa  et  varia  quse  flectere  adaman- 
tium  spiritum  debuissent,  inexpugnabilis  et  firma  permansit?  Pro- 
fecto  animus  iste  foemineus  quid  vimm  decuit  admonebat,  praestabatque 
ne  in  sectando  pudicitise  studio,  ut  verbis  utar  Senecae,  aut  exemplum 
aut  convitium  deesset;  postremo  cum  lorifragum  ac  prseci^item  videret, 
deserere  maluit  potius  quam  sequi.  AUGUST:  Turpe  igitur  ahquid 
interdum  voluisti,  quod  supra  negaveras.  At  iste  vulgatus  arnantium, 
vel,  ut  dicam  verius,  amantium  furor  est,  ut  omnibus  mento  dici  possit: 


230  HALLAM 

volo  nolo,  nolo  volo.  Vobis  ipsis  quid  velitis,  aut  nolitis,  ignotum  est. 
PET.  Invitus  in  laqueum  offendi.  Si  quid  tamen  qlim  aliter  forte  vo- 
luissem,  amor  setasque  coegerunt;  nunc  quid  velim  et  cupiam  scio, 
firmavique  jam  tandem  animum  labentem;  contra  autem  ilia  propositi 
tenax  et  semper  una  permansit,  quare  constantiam  fcemineam  quo 
magis  intelligo,  magis  admiror:  idque  sibi  consilium  fuisse,  si  unquam 
debuit,  gaudeo  nunc  et  gratias  ago.  AUG.  Semel  fallenti,  non  facile 
rursus  fides  habenda  est:  tu  prius  mores  atque  habitum,  vitamque  mu- 
tavisti,  quam  animum  mutasse  persuadeas;  mitigatur  forte  si  tuus 
leniturque  ignis,  extinctus  non  est.  Tu  vero  qui  tantum  dilectioni 
tribuis,  non  anirnadvertis,  illam  absolvendo,  quantam  te  ipse  condem- 
nas;  illam  fateri  libet  fuisse  sanctissimam  dum  de  msanum  scelestumque 
fateare. — De  Contemptu  Mundi,  Dialog.  3,  p.  367,  edit.  1581. 


NOTE  IV. 

The  progress  of  our  language  in  proceedings  of  the  legislature  is  so 
well  described  m  the  preface  to  the  authentic  edition  of  Statutes  of  the 
Realm,  published  by  the  Record  Commission,  that  I  shall  transcribe 
the  passage,  which  I  copy  from  Mr.  Cooper's  useful  account  of  the 
Public  Records  (vol.  i.  p.  189)  :— 

"  The  earliest  instance  recorded  of  the  use  of  the  English  language 
in  any  parliamentary  proceeding  is  in  36  Edw.  III.  The  style  of  the 
roll  of  that  year  is  in  French  as  usual,  but  it  is  expressly  stated  that 
the  causes  of  summoning  the  parliament  were  declared  en  Englois: 
and  the  like  circumstance  is  noted  in  37  and  38  Edw.  III.0  In  the  5th 
year  of  Richard  IL,  the  chancellor  is  stated  to  have  made  un  bone  col- 
lation en  Engleys  (introductory,  as  was  then  sometimes  the  usage,  to 
the  commencement  of  business),  though  he  made  use  of  the  common 
French  form  for  opening  the  parliament.  A  petition  from  the  '  Folk 
of  the  Mercerye  of  London/  in  the  loth  year  of  the  same  reign,  is  in 
English;  and  it  appears  also  that  in  the  I7th  year  the  Earl  of  Arundel 
asked  pardon  of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  by  the  award  of  the  King  and 
Lords,  in  their  presence  in  parliament,  in  a  form  of  English  words, 
The  cession  and  renunciation  of  the  crown  by  Richard  II.  is  stated  to 
have  been  read  before  the  estates  of  the  realm  and  the  people  in  West- 
minster Hall,  first  in  Latin  and  afterwards  in  English,  but  it  is  entered 
on  the  parliament  roll  only  in  Latin.  And  the  challenge  of  the  crown 
by  Henry  IV.,  with  his  thanks  after  the  allowance  of  his  title,  in  the 
same  assembly,  are  recorded  in  English,  which  is  termed  his  maternal 
tongue.  So  also  is  the  speech  of  Lord  William  Thyrning,  the  Chief 
Justice  of  the  Common  Pleas,  to  the  late  King  Richard,  announcing  to 
him  the  sentence  of  his  deposition,  and  the  yielding  up,  on  the  part  of 
the  people,  of  their  fealty  and  allegiance.  In  the  6th  year  of  the  reign 
of  Henry  iy.  an  English  answer  is  given  to  a  petition  of  the  Com- 
mons, touching  a  proposed  resumption  of  certain  grants  of  the  crown 
to  the  intent  the  king  might  live  of  his  own.  The  English  language 
afterwards  appears  occasionally,  through  the  reigns  of  Henry  IV.  and 
Henry  V.  In  the  first  and  second  and  subsequent  years  of  Henry  VI., 
the  petitions  or  bills,  and  in  many  cases  the  answers  also,  on  which  the 
statutes  were  afterwards  framed,  are  found  frequently  in  English;  but 
the  statutes  are  entered  on  the  roll  in  French  or  Latin.  From  the  23d 
year  of  Henry  VI.  these  petitions  or  bills  are  almost  universally  in 
English,  as  is  also  sometimes  the  form  of  the  royal  assent;  but  the 
statutes  continued  to  be  enrolled  in  French  or  Latin.  Sometimes  Latin 

a  References  are  given  to  the  Rolls  of  Parliament  throughout  this  extract. 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES  231 

and  French  are  used  in  the  same  statute,*  as  in  8  Hen.  VI.,  27  Hen. 
VI.,  and  39  Hen.  VI.  The  last  statute  wholly  in  Latin  on  record  is 
33  Hen.  VI.  c.  2.  The  statutes  of  Edward  IV.  are  entirely  in  French. 
The  statutes  of  Richard  III.  are  in  many  manuscripts  in  French  in  a 
complete  statute  form;  and  they  were  so  printed  in  his  reign  and  that 
of  his  successor.  In  the  earlier  English  editions  a  translation  was  in- 
serted in  the  same  form;  but  in  several  editions,  since  1618,  they  have 
been  printed  in  English,  in  a  different  form,  agreeing,  so  far  as  relates 
to  the  acts  printed,  with  the  enrolment  in  Chancery  at  the  Chapel  of 
the  Rolls.  The  petitions  and  bills  in  parliament,  during  these  two 
reigns,  are  all  in  English.  The  statutes  of  Henry  VII.  have  always,  it 
is  believed,  been  published  in  English;  but  there  are  manuscripts  con- 
taining the  statutes  of  the  first  two  parliaments,  in  his  first  and  third 
year,  in  French.  From  the  fourth  year  to  the  end  of  his  reign,  and 
from  thence  to  the  present  time,  they  are  universally  in  English." 

b  All  the  acts  passed  in  the  same  ses-        ference    of    language    was    in    separate 
tion   are   legally   one   statute;     the   dif-        chapters  or  acts. 


INDEX 

The  Roman   Numerals  Refer   to   the   Volumes  —  The  Arabic  Figures  to  the  Pages 

of  Each  Volume. 


Abelard  (Peter),  enthusiasm  excited  by 
the  teachings  of,  lii.  138;  his  erratic 
career,  ib. 

Acre,  consequences  to  commerce  by 
the  capture  of,  iii.  58. 

Adorni  and  Fregosi  factions,  disrup- 
tion of  Genoa  by  the,  i.  411. 

Adolphus  of  Nassau  elected  emperor  of 
Germany,  ii.  18. 

Adrian  II.  (pope)  attempts  to  overawe 
Charles  the  Bald,  n.  104. 

Adrian  IV.  (the  only  English  pope), 
insolence  of,  towards  Frederic  Bar- 
barossaj,  ii.  123. 

J33neas  Sylvius  (afterwards  Pius  II.) » 
instance  of  the  political  foresight  of, 
i.  418;  he  abets  the  war  against  the 
Turks,  ii.  70;  he  plays  into  the  hands 
of  the  pope,  175;  he  obtains  the  re- 
peal of  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  177. 

Agriculture,  cause  of  low  state  of,  iii. 
42-84;  superior  cultivation  of  church 
lands,  85;  early  enclosures  and  clear- 
ances, 87;  exportation  of  corn,  how 
limited,  89;  high  state  of  Italian  agri- 
culture, ib. ;  effects  of  pestilence, 
90;  neglect  of  horticulture  in  Eng- 
land, 91. 

Alaric,  tolerance  of,  towards  his  Cath- 
olic subjects,  i.  4,  note  f,  defeated  by 
Clovis,  5;  laws  compiled  by  his  order, 
111.  133'. 

Albert  T.  of  Germany,  ii,  18;  his  rule 
in  Switzerland,  42. 

Albert  II.  succeeds  Sigismund  as  em- 
peror of  Germany,  II  23. 

Albigensian  heresy,  spread  of  the,  i.  26. 

Albizi,  ascendency  in  Florence  regained 
by  the,  i.  412;  Cosmo  de'  Medici  ban- 
ished at  their  instigation,  413 

Alcuin  teaches  Charlemagne,  iii.    137. 

Alexander  II.  (pope),  election  of,  ii- 
122 

Alexander  V.  elected  pope,  ii.  167. 

Alexander  III.  King  of  Scotland,  op- 
position to  papal  domination  by,  ii. 
144. 

Alexius  Comnenus  attacks  the  Turks, 
ii.  61. 

Alfonso  III.  of  Aragon  compelled  to 
apologize  to  his  people,  i.  463. 

Alfonso  V.  of  Aragon  (the  Magnani- 
mous), i.  405;  his  virtues  ana  patron- 
age of  the  arts,  409;  his  love  of  Na- 
ples, 460. 

Alfonso  VII.  of  Castile,  .unwise  division 
of  his  dominions  by,  i.  430 

Alfonso  X.  of  Castile,  scientific  ac- 
quirements and  governmental  defi- 


ciencies of,  i.  432,  433;  his  election  as 
emperor  of  Germany,  ii.  12;  he  ex- 
empts the  clergy  from  civil  jurisdic- 
tion, 151. 

Alfonso  XI.  of  Castile  assassinates  his 
cousin,  i  434. 

Alfred  the  Great,  rescue  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  monarchy  by,  ii,  193;  his  al- 
leged division  of  the  kingdom  into 
counties,  etc.,  201 ,  ascription  of  trial 
by  jury  to  him,  205,  extent  of  his  ac- 
quaintance with  Latin,  ill.  19. 

Aliens  held  liable  for  each  other's  debts, 
iii.  64. 

Allodial  tenure,  characteristics  of,  i.  121, 
122,  and  notes ;  converted  into  feudal 
tenure,  135,  causes  of  the  conversion, 
258;  allodial  proprietors  evidently 
freemen,  261,  262. 

Amadeus  (Duke  of  Saxony),  elected 
pope,  ii.  171. 

Amalfi,  early  commercial  eminence  of, 
iii.  57. 

Amurath  I.f  progresses  of  the  Turkish 
arms  under,  11.  66. 

Amurath  II.,  rout  of  the  Hungarians 
by,  ii.  38;  reunion  of  the  Ottoman 
monarchy  under  him,  68 

Andalusia,  conquest  of,  by  Ferdinand 
III  ,  i.  «o. 

Andrew  of  Hungary  married  to  Joanna 
of  Naples,  i.  402. 

Anglo-Saxons,  divisions  of  England  un- 
der the,  ii.  193;  their  Danish  assail- 
ants, 194;  influence  of  provincial  gov- 
ernors, 196;  constitution  of  the  witen- 
agemot,  200;  administration  of  jus- 
tice, and  divisions  of  land  for  the 
purpose,  201;  hundreds  and  their 
probable  origin,  202;  the  county 
court  and  its  jurisdiction,  203;  trial 
by  jury  and  its  antecedents,  205;  in- 
troduction of  the  law  of  frankpledge. 
209;  responsibilities  and  uses  of  the 
tythings,  212;  probable  existence  of 
feudal  tenures  before  the  Conquest, 
214,  218. 

Aniou  (Louis,  Duke  of),  seizure  of 
Charles  V.'s  treasures  by,  i.  59;  his 
claim  as  regent,  62,  and  note  i)\  his 
attempt  on  the  crown  of  Naples,  and 
deathf  ib. 

Anselm  (Archbishop),  Descartes'  ar- 
gument on  the  Deity  anticipated  by 
him,  iii.  145-  . 

Appanages,    effect  of  the   system   of,    i. 

79* 

Aquinas  (Thomas),  metaphysical  emi- 
nence of,  iii.  144. 


233 


234 


HALLAM 


Aquitaine,  extent  of  the  dominions,  so- 
called,  i.  99. 

Aragon,  bequest  of  the  Templars  by 
Alfonso  I.,  and  reversal  thereof,  i. 
430;  rise  of  the  kingdom  m  political 
importance,  457,  points  of  interest 
in  its  form  of  government,  461;  its 
natural  defects  and  political  advan- 
tages, 462,  463;  the  office  of  justiciary, 
466;  duration  and  responsibilities  of 
the  office,  470;  the  Cortes  of  Aragon, 
472. 

Architecture,  as  illustrative  of  domestic 
progress,  111.  73;  early  houses,  75; 
dwellings  in  France  and  Italy,  77,  78; 
introduction  of  chimneys  and  glass 
windows,  78,  So;  farmhouses  and  cot- 
tages, 81;  ecclesiastical  architecture, 
its  grandeur  and  varieties.  82,  84. 

Anbert  declared  king  of  Aquitaine,  i. 
99 . 

Aristotle,  writings  of,  how  first  known 
in  Europe,  iii.  143;  ignorance  of  his 
translators,  146;  character  of  the  Aris- 
totelian philosophy,  147. 

Armagnac  (Count  of),  opposes  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  i.  65. 

Armagnacs,  rise  of  the  faction  of  the,  i. 
6s;  their  league  with  Henry  IV.  of 
England,  68;  their  defeat  by  the 
Swiss,  ii.  44- 

Armoral  bearings,  general  introduc- 
tion of,  i.  159. 

Armorican  republic,  questionable  exist- 
ence of  the,  i.  3. 

Arundel  (Bishop  and  Archbishop),  re- 
monstrates with  Richard  II.,  ii.  326. 

Arundel  (Earl  of,  temp.  Richard  II.), 
favored  by  the  parliament,  ii.  323;  his 
conduct  as  a  lord  appellant,  330;  his 
breach  with  the  Duke  of  Lancaster, 
332;  his  decapitation,  335. 

Aschaffenburg,   concordats  of,  ii.   175. 

Aulic  council,  powers  of  jurisdiction  of 
the,  ii.  33. 

Auspicus  (Bishop  of  Toul),  character 
of  the  poetry  of,  iii.  16. 

Austrasia,  characteristics  of  the  people 
of,  i.  100,  101. 

Averroes,  tendency  of  the  commentaries 
of,  iii.  147. 

Avignon,  removal  of  the  papal  court 
to?  ii.  158. 

Azmcourt  (battle  of),  i.  67. 

Bacon  (Roger),  a  true  philosopher,  iii. 
146,  note  m\  his  acquaintance  with 
mathematics,  iii.  149, 

Bagdad,  celebrity  of  the  early  khalifs 
of,  ii-  55- 

Bajazet,  military  successes  of,  ii.  67. 

Banks  and  bankers  of  Italy,  iii.  68. 

Barbiano  (Alberic  di),  military  emi- 
nence of,  i.  391;  his  pupils,  398. 

Barcelona,  feudal  submission  to  France 
of  the  counts  of,  i.  10,  note;  its  early 
commercial  eminence,  iii.  59. 

Barons  (in  France),  occasional  as- 
semblages of  the,  i.  185;  consequences 
of  their  non-attendance  at  the  royal 
council,  187,  188;  their  privileges  cur- 
tailed by  Philip  IV.,  190. 

Barristers*  fees  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
iii.  96, 

Bedford  (Duke  of),  regent  for  Henry 
VI.,  i.  69;  his  successes  in  France, 
70;  overthrow  of  his  forces  by  Joan 
of  Arc,  72. 


Belgrade,  siege  and  relief  of,  ii.  39. 

Benedict  XI.  reconciles  Philip  the  Fair 
to  the  holy  see,  ii.  157. 

Benedict  XIII.  elected  pope  by  the 
Avignon  cardinals,  n.  166;  deposed 
by  the  council  of  Pisa,  166,  167. 

Benefices,  grants  of  land  so  called,  i. 
131;  their  character  under  Charle- 
magne and  Louis  the  Debonair,  255; 
character  of  hereditary  benefices,  259. 

Benevolences,  by  whom  first  levied  in 
England,  n.  446. 

Bermudo  III.  (King  of  Leon),  killed  in 
battle,  i.  426. 

Berry  (Duke  of),  appointed  guardian 
of  Charles  VI.,  i.  62. 

Bianchi  and  Nen,  factions  of,  i.  326; 
iii.  1 60. 

Blanchard_  (Alain),  unjustifiable  execu- 
tion of,  i.  76. 

Blanche  of  Castile,  acts  as  regent  dur- 
ing the  minority  of  Louis  IX.,  i.  28. 

Boccaccio,  appointed  to  lecture  on 
Dante,  iii.  163. 

Bocland,  nature  of,  ii.  214. 

Bohemia,  nature  of  its  connection  with 
Germany,  ii.  35. 

Bolingbroke  (Earl  of  Derby  and  Duke 
of  Hereford),  made  lord  appellant,  ii. 
330;  his  quarrel  with  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  337;  his  accession  to  the 
throne,  338. 

Bolognese  law  schools,  iii.   135. 

Boniface  VIII.  suspected  of  fraud  to- 
wards Celestine  V.,  ii.  153;  his  disre- 
gard of  his  bulls  by  Edward  I., 
154;  his  death,  157;  rescindment  ot 
his  bulls,  158;  rejection  of  his  su- 
premacy by  the  English  barons,  163. 

Boniface  IX.  elected  pope,  ii.  166;  his 
traffic  in  benefices,  i6p. 

Braccio  di  Montone,  rivalry  of,  with 
Sforza,  i.  398. 

Bnenne  (Walter  de,  Duke  of  Athens), 
invested  with  extreme  powers  in 
Florence,  i.  349. 

Britany,  origin  of  the  people  of,  i.  88, 
and  note  s\  grant  of  the  duchy  to 
Montfort,  89;  its  annexation  to  the 
crown,  90;  right  of  its  dukes  to  coin 
money,  173. 

Brunehaut,  Queen  of  Austrasia,  i.  7; 
scheme  of  government,  100:  she  falls 
into  the  hands  of  Clotaire  II.  and  is 
sentenced  to  death,  101. 

Buchan  (Earl  of),  made  constable  of 
France,  i.  71. 

Burgesses  of  the  palisades,  origin  of 
the,  ii.  26. 

Burgundians,  Roman  provinces  occu- 
pied by  the,  i.  3;  their  mode  of  di- 
viding conquered  ^provinces,  120. 

Burgundy  (Eudes,  Duke  of),  undertakes 
the  protection  of  his  niece  Jane,  ii. 
42;  he  betrays  her  cause,  ib. 

Burgundy  (Duke  of),  named  guardian 
of  Charles  VI.,  i.  59,*  his  death,  63. 

Burgundy  (John,  Duke  of,  ^Sans- 
peur  "),  assassinates  the  Duke  of  Or- 
leans, i.  64;  obtains  pardon  for  the 
crime,  ib.;  consequence  of  his  recon- 
ciliation with  the  court,  65;  is  assas- 
sinated, 66. 

Burgundy  (Philip,  Duke  of),  allies  him- 
self with  Henry  V.,  i.  68;  splendor  of 
his  court,  82. 

Burgundy  (Charles,  Duke  of),  charac- 


INDEX 


235 


ter  and  ambitious  designs  of,  i.  82:  is 
defeated  and  killed,  85. 
Burgundy  (Mary,  Duchess  of),  defends 
her  rights  against  Louis   XI.,  i.   85, 
and  notes,  86. 

Caballeros  of  Spain,  privileges  enjoyed 
by  the,  i.  429. 

Cahxtms,  tenets  of  the,  ii.  37. 

Cahxtus  II.  (pope),  compromise  ef- 
fected by,  ii.  118. 

Canon  law,  promulgation  of  the,  ii.  131. 

Capet  (Hugh),  usurpation  of  the  French 
throne  by,  i.  17;  state  of  France  at 
his  accession,  23;  period  of  his  as- 
sumption of  regal  power,  107;  degree 
of  authority  exercised  by  his  imme- 
diate descendants,  23,  in. 

Capitularies,  what  they  were,  i.  181. 

Caraccioli,  favorite  of  Joanna  II.  of  Na- 
ples, i.  405. 

Carlovingian  dynasty,  extinction  of 
the,  i.  22. 

Carrara  (Francesco  da),  Verona  seized 
by,  i.  382. 

Carroccio,  the,  i.  385,  and  note  «. 

Castile  and  Leon  united  into  one  king- 
dom, i.  426;  their  subsequent  redivi- 
sion  and  reunion,  430;  composition 
and  character  of  the  cortes  of  Cas- 
tile, the  council  and  its  functions, 
4$2»  4535  violations  of  law  by  the 
kings,  454;  establishment  of  tithes  in 
Castile,  ii.  80,  and  note  w. 

Castruccio,  Castrucani,  success  of,  i. 
333. 

Catalonia,  character  of  the  people  of,  i. 

Catharists,  religious  tenets  held  by  the, 
iii.  196. 

Catholics,  treatment  of  the,  by  their 
Gothic  conquerors,  i.  4,  note  f. 

Cava  (Count  Julian's  daughter),  legend 
of  the  seduction  of,  i.  477. 

Celestme  V.,  fraud  of  Boniface  VIII. 
towards,  ii.  153. 

Charlemagne,  reunion  of  the  Frankish 
empire  under,  i.  ip,  and  note  «;  ex- 
tent of  his  dominions,  n;  his  coro- 
nation as  emperor,  12,  and  note  y; 
his  intellectual  acquirements  and  do- 
mestic improvements,  13,  and  note  a; 
his  vices,  cruelties,  religious  _ edicts, 
ib. ;  state  of  the  people  under  his  rule, 
18;  his  dread  of  the  _  Normans,  19; 
question  of  succession  involved  in  his 
elevation  to  the  imperial  title,  104; 
his  revenue,  how  raised,  174;  pecul- 
iarities of  his  legislative  assemblies, 
180;  his  authority  over  the_  popes,  ii. 
112;  his  agricultural  colonies,  iii.  86; 
public  schools  in  France  due  to  him, 
iii.  137. 

Charles  the  Bald,  share  of  empire  al- 
lotted to,  i.  16,  and  note  j ;  ravages  of 
the  Normans  during  his  reign,  21; 
his  slavish  submission  to  the  church, 
ii.  99- 

Charles  the  Fat,  accession  and  depo- 
sition of,  i.  17;  arrogance  of  Pope  John 
VIII.  towards  him,  ii.  105. 

Charles  the  Simple,  policy  of,  towards 
the  Normans,  i.  21. 

Charles  IV.  (the  Fair),  ascends  the 
throne  pursuant  to  the  Salic  law,  i. 

diaries  V.  (the  Wise),  submits  to  the 
peace  of  Bretigni,  i.  53;  his  summons 


to  Edward  the  Black  Prince,  57;  his 
premature  death  and  character,  59; 
expenses  of  his  household,  61,  note  u\ 
his  conflicts  with  the  States- General, 

Charles  VI.,  accession  of,  i.  59;  defeats 
the  citizens  of  Ghent,  61;  his  seizure 
with  insanity,  63;  his  death,  69;  his 
submission  to  the  remonstrance  of 
the  States-General,  196. 

Charles  VII..  state  of  France  at  the 
accession  of,  i.  70;  his  character  and 
choice  of  favorites,  71;  change 
wrought  in  his  fortunes  by  Joan  of 


Arc,  72,  73 ;  his  connection  with  Agnes 
Sorel,  73,  note  q;  is  reconciled  with 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  74;  reconquers 


the  provinces  ceded  to  the  English 
crown,  75;  his  conduct  relative  to 
the  States-General,  197;  he  enacts  the 
Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Bourges,  ii. 
177- 

Charles  VIII.,  accession  of,  i.  88;  mar- 
ries Anne  of  Brittany,  90;  consolida- 
tion of  the  French  monarchy  under 
his  sway,  90,  91,  note  w;  proceedings 
of  the  States-General  during  his  mi- 
nority, 199. 

Charles  of  Anjou  (I.  of  Naples),  seizure 
of  the  crown  of  Naples  by,  i.  329 

Charles  II.  of  Naples,  war  of  the  Si- 
cilians against,  i.  401. 

Charles  of  Durazzo  (III.  of  Naples), 
403. 

Charles  IV.  of  Germany,  singular  char- 
acter of,  ii.  19-20;  advancement  of 
Bohemia  under  his  rule,  35. 

Charles  Mattel,  conquest  of  the  Sara- 
cens by,  i.  8;  its  object,  10;  his  spolia- 
tion of  the  church,  8x. 

Charles  of  Navarre  (the  Bad),  tumults 
in  France  excited  by,  i.  51. 

Chaucer  (Geoffrey),  character  of  his 
works,  iii.  170,  171. 

Childebert  (son  of  Clovis),  dominions 
allotted  to.  i.  16,  and  note  i. 

Childeric  III.,  deposition  of,  i.  8. 

Chilperic,  guilty  conduct  of  Frede- 
gonde,  the  queen  of,  i.  7;  oppressive 
taxes  levied  oy  him,  101. 

Chivalry  as  a  school  of  moral  discipline, 
iii.  112;  its  original  connection  with 
feudal  service,  xi£;  effect  of  the  cru- 
sades, 116;  licentiousness  incident  to 
chivalry,  119;  virtues  inculcated  by  it, 
120;  education  preparatory  to  knight- 
hood, 127;  tournaments  and  their 
dangers,  128;  causes  of  the  decline  of 
chivalry,  130. 

Christianity,  impetus  given  to  the  for- 
mation of  civic  institutions  by,  i.  103. 

Church,  wealth  of  the,  under  the  em- 
pire, ii.  75;  source  of  its  legitimate 
wealth,  77;  its  religious  extor- 
tions, 78;  liability  of  church  property 
to  spoliation,  81;  extent  of  the 
church's  landed  possessions,  8z,  and 
note  e;  its  participation  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  84;  its  political 
influence,  87;  its  assumption  of  au- 
thority over  the  French  kings,  89; 
obsequiousness  of  England  to  its  pre- 
tentions,  91;  investiture  of  its  bishops 
with  their  temporalities,  110;  liberties 
of  the  Galhcan  church,  ii.  178;  privi- 
leges of  sanctuary,  iii.  33. 

Clan  service  not  based  on  feudality,  5. 
156, 


236 


HALLAM 


Clarence  (Duke  of),  put  to  death  by 
Edward  IV.,  ii.  44> 

Clarendon,  constitutions  of,  ii.  147. 

Clement  IV.,  effect  of  a  bull  promul- 
gated by,  ii.  141. 

Clement  V.  ratifies  Robert's  claim  to 
the  crown  of  Naples,  i.  401;  his  max- 
im relative  to  benefices,  ii.  142;  he 
removes  the  papal  court  to  Avignon, 
159;  his  outrageous  edict  against  Ven- 
ice, 182 

Clement  VII.,  circumstances  relative  to 
his  election  as  pope,  ii.  165. 

Clergy,  ascendency  of  the  (temp. 
Charles  the  Bald),  i.  m;  their  privi- 
leges under  the  feudal  system,  163; 
fighting  prelates,  ib.,  note  b\  their 
participation  in  legislative  proceed- 
ings, 179;  privileges  of  their  tenants, 
257;  bishops  in  Lombardy  and  their 
temporalities,  292,  and  note  t\  share 
of  the  citizens  in  their  election,  293, 
and  note  «;  immense  territorial  pos- 
sessions of  the  clergy,  ii.  81-82,  note  e; 
their  neglect  of  the  rule  of  celibacy, 
101 ;  lax  morality  of  the  English 
clergy,  108-109,  note;  taxation  of 
the  clergy  by  the  kings,  142;  trib- 
ute levied  on  them  by  the  popes,  143; 
their  exemption  from  temporal  juris- 
diction, 145;  effects  of  WichfPs  prin- 
ciples, 174;  spiritual  peers  in  the  Eng- 
lish parliament,  269;  their  qualifica- 
tions, 375 ;  instances  of  their  parlia- 
mentary existence,  387;  right  of  bish- 
ops to  be  tried  by  the  peers,  iii.  186, 
187;  their  ignorance  of  letters,  jii.  ax, 

22. 

Clisson  (Constable  de),  immense  wealth 
amassed  by,  i.  63. 

Clodomir  (son  of  Clovis),  dominions 
allotted  to,  i.  6. 

Clotaire,  portion  of  dominions  allotted 
to,  i.  6;  criminality  of  his  character, 
101. 

Clotaire  II.,  reunion  of  the  French  do- 
minions under,  i.  6. 

Clotilda  converted  her  husband  to 
Christianity,  i.  4. 

Clovis  invades  Gaul  and  defeats  Syag- 
rius.  i.  4,  and  note  d\  defeats  Alaric, 
5;  his  last  exploits  and  _sangumary 
policy,  5,  and  note  h;  division  of  his 
dominions  among  his  sons,  6,  and 
notes;  his  limited  authority,  story  of 
the  vase  of  Soissons,  127;  theory  built 
on  the  story,  248,  249;  crimes  of  him- 
self and  his  grandson,  iii.  37,  and 
note  k. 

Clovis  II.,  accession  of,  i.  102. 

Coining,  extensive  practice  of,  among 
the  French  nobles,  i.  172;  systematic 
adulteration  of  coin  by  the  kings,  176, 
192;  measures  adopted  for  remedying 
tnese  frauds,  177,  note  v. 

Cologne,  antiquity  of  the  municipal  in- 
stitutions or,  i.  277. 

Coloni,  characteristics  and  privileges  of 
the,  i.  263. 

Cotnines  (Philip  de),  characteristic  note 
of  taxation  by,  i,  199. 

Conrad  (Duke  of  Franconia),  elected 
emperor  of  Germany,  ii.  4* 

Conrad  II.  (the  Sahc),  important  edict 
of,  relative  to  feuds,  i.  137,  and  notes. 

Conrad  III.  joins  in  the  second  cru- 
sade, !.(35;  elected  emperor  of  Ger- 
many, ii.  9. 


Conrad  IV.,  accession  of,  i.  316;  his  dif- 
ficulties in  Germany,  ii.  12. 

Conradin  (son  of  Conrad  IV.)  attempts 
to  regain  his  inheritance,  i.  329. 

Constance,  treaty  of,  i.  303. 

Constantine  V.  dethroned  by  his  moth- 
er, i.  103. 

Constantinople,  advantageous  position 
of,  ii.  60;  its  capture  by  the  Latins, 
64;  its  recapture  by  the  Greeks,  65; 
besieged  by  Bajazet,  66,  and  by  Am- 
urath,  68;  its  fall,  69. 

Cordova  taken  from  the  Moors,  i  430; 
its  extent  and  wealth,  431,  note  k. 

Cortes  of  Castile,  original  composition 
of  the,  440;  their  remonstrance  against 
corruption,  442;  control  of  the  Cortes 
over  the  taxes,  444,  445;  their  resolute 
defence  of  their  right,  446,  their  forms 
of  procedure,  448;  their  legislative 
rights  and  attempted  limitations  there- 
on by  the  kings,  448,  451;  their  right 
to  a  voice  in  the  disposal  of  the 
crown,  452. 

Corvinus  (Matthias)  elected  king  of 
Hungary,  ii.  39. 

Council  of  Basle,  enmity  of  the,  to- 
wards the  papal  court,  ii.  170. 

Council  of  Constance  condemns  John 
Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague  to  be 
burned,  ii.  36;  deposes  John  XXIII., 
ii.  167;  tactics  of  the  cardinals,  169. 

Council  of  Frankfort  convoked  by  St. 
Boniface,  ii.  97. 

Council  of  Lyons,  i.  315,  316. 

Council  of  Pisa,  proceedings  at  the,  ii. 
166. 

Cours  plenieres,  character  of  the,  i.  185. 

Courtney  (Archbishop),  despoiled  of 
his  temporalities,  ii  324. 

Crecy,  battle  of,  i.  so. 

Crescentius  put  to  death  by  Otho  III., 
i.  287,  and  note  /. 

Crusades,  origin  of  the,  i.  31;  induce- 
ments offered  to  those  who  joined  in 
them,  33;  crimes  and  miseries  at- 
tendant on  them,  34;  second  crusade, 
ib. ;  its'  failure,  36,  and  notes ;  origin 
of  the  third  crusade,  37;  crusades  of 
St.  Louis  and  their  miserable  ending, 
38. 

Dagobert  I,,  insignificance  of  the  suc- 
cessors of,  i.  7;  nature  of  the  author- 
ity exercised  by  him,  101;  progress  of 
the  arts  in  his  reign,  ib 

Dagobert  II, ,  name  of,  how  restored 
to  history,  i.  97. 

Danes,  England  first  infested  by  the,  i. 
20. 

Dante  Alighieri  expelled  from  Florence, 
i.  326;  characteristics  of  his  great 
poem,  iii.  161,  162. 

Dauphme  annexed  to  the  French  crown, 
i.  91;  its  origin,  ib,,  note  w. 

Defiance,  institution  of  the  right  of.  ii, 
30. 

De  la  Mare  (Peter),  opposes  the  Duke 
of  Lancaster,  ii.  316;  elected  speaker 
of  the  commons,  317, 

Delia  Bella  (Giano),  improves  the  Flor- 
entine constitution,  i.  3465  driven  into 
exile*  347. 

Diet  of  Worms,  important  changes  ef- 
fected by  the.  ii.  30. 

Domestic  life  in  the  middle  ages.  iii. 


INDEX 


237 


Douglas    (Earl  of),   aids   Charles  VII., 

Duelling,   introduction   of   the   practice 

of,  in.  27. 
Du    Guesclin     (Bertrand),   proceeds  to 

Castile,  i.  53;  his  character,  58. 
Dunstan  and  Odo,  and  their  treatment 

of  JEdwy,  ii.  91. 

Ebroin,  exercise  of  supreme  power  by, 

1.    7,    98,    103. 

Eccehn  da  Romano,  tyrannic  exercise 
of  power  by,  i.  313;  pretexts  to  which 
his  infamous  cruelty  gave  birth,  314, 
note  w;  his  fall,  329. 

Edessa,  extent  of  the  principality  of, 
i.  35,  and  note  t. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  popularity  of 
the  laws  of,  ii.  240-264. 

Edward  I.  offends  Philip  IV.  of  France, 
i.  40;  his  brother  Edmund  outwitted 
by  Philip,  ib.;  he  curbs  the  power  of 
clergy,  ii.  150;  his  reign  a  constitu- 
tional epoch,  266. 

Edward  II.  marries  Isabel  of  France, 
i.  41;  he  yields  to  the  pope,  ii.  163. 

Edward  III.  lays  claim  to  the  French 
throne,  i.  45;  his  injustice  shown,  ib. 
and  note  u;  his  policy  prior  to  resort- 
ing to  arms,  ib.;  his  chances  of  suc- 
cess, 47;  attempt  of  the  pope  to  dis- 
suade him  from  the  attempt,  47,  note 
a;  principal  features  in  his  character, 
47;  extent  of  his  resources,  48,  49,  and 
notes;  excellence  of  his  armies,  50* 
and  note;  his  acquisition  after  the 
battles  of  Crecy  and  Poitiers,  50;  his 
alliance  with  Charles  the  Bad,  52;  con- 
ditions of  the  peace  of  Bretigm,  53, 
his  stipulation  relative  to  Aquitaine, 
56,  and  note  «;  his  reverses  and  their 
causes,  58,  59;  his  opposition  to  the 
pope,  ii.  163;  progress  of  parliament 
under  him,  ii.  302-308;  ascendency  of 
Lancaster  and  Alice  Ferrers  over  him, 
ii.  314. 

Edward  the  Black  Prince,  character  of, 
i.  47;  his  victory  at  Poitiers,  50;  cre- 
ated Prince  of  Aquitaine,  56;  his  im- 
politic conduct  in  Guienne,  57;  sum- 
moned before  the  peers  of  France,  ib. 
and  note  r. 

Edward  IV.  accepts  a  pension  from 
Louis  XI.,  i.  81;  Louis  s  reasons  for 
declining  a  visit  from  him,  ib.;  his 
inexcusable  barbarities,  ii.  444. 

England  first  infested  by  the  Banes,  i., 
20;  its  resources  under  Edward  III., 
49,  50;  causes  of  the  success  of  its 
armies,  50,  70;  high  payment  to  its 
men-at-arms,  70,  note  u\  discomfiture 
of  its  troops  by  Joan  of  Arc,  72;  im- 
policy touching  its  relations  with 
France,  74;  deprived  of  its  French 
possessions  by  Charles  VII.,  75;  its 
protest  against  the  exactions  of  the 
church,  ii.  162,  enactment  of  the  stat- 
ute of  prfemunire,  174;  effect  of  Wic- 
hff's  principles,  174;  its  state  at  the 
period  of  Norman  Conquest,  221-222; 
expulsion  of  its  prelates  and  maltreat- 
ment of  its  nobles,  224;  wholesale 
spoliation  of  property,  226;  vastness 
of  the  Norman  estates  explained,  228; 
forest  devastations  and  forest  laws, 
230,  and  notes;  depopulation  of  the 
towns,  231;  establishment  of  feudal 
customs,  232;  preservation  of  public 


peace,  233;  hatred  by  the  English  of 
the  Normans,  235;  nature  of  the  taxes 
then  levied,  236,  note  «;  establishment 
of  Magna  Charta,  243;  outline  of  its 
provisions,  244;  confirmation  thereof 
by  Henry  III.,  245;  limitation  on  the 
royal  prerogative,  251,  and  notes;  in- 
stitution of  the  various  courts  of  law, 
252  >  origin  of  the  common  law,  254; 
character  and  defects  of  the  English 
law,  255. 

English  constitution,  character  of  the, 
ii.  433;  causes  tending  to  its  forma- 
tion, 408;  real  source  of  English  free- 
dom, 411;  feudal  sources  of  constitu- 
tional liberty,  413,  salutary  provisions 
of  Edward  L,  417. 

Eudes  elected  king  by  the  Franks,  i. 
106. 

Eudon  signally  defeats  the  Saracens,  i. 
100 ;  receives  aid  from  Charles  Martel, 
ib 

Eugemus  IV.  (cardinal  Julian),  advises 
Uladislaus  to  break  faith  with  Amu- 
rath,  ii.  38;  its  fatal  consequence,  38; 
his  contest  with  the  councils,  n  170 

Euric,  harsh  treatment  of  his  catholic 
subjects  by,  i.  4,  note  /. 

Famines  in  the  middle  ages,  frequency 
and  extreme  severity  of,  i.  264. 

Felix  V.  (pope),  election  and  superses- 
sion of,  ii.  171. 

Ferdinand  confirmed  in  his  succession 
to  the  crown  of  Naples,  i.  408;  attempt 
of  John  of  Calabria  to  oust  him,  409. 

Ferdinand  I.  of  Aragon,  independence 
of  the  Catalans  towards,  i.  473. 

Ferdinand  II.  of  Aragon  marries  Isa- 
bella of  Castile,  i  438;  Ferdinand  in- 
vested with  the  crown  of  Aragon,  460; 
conquest  of  Granada,  475,  476. 

Ferdinand  III.  of  Castile,  capture  of 
Cordova  by,  i.  430. 

Ferdinand  Iv.  of  Castile,  prevalence  of 
civil  dissensions  in  the  reign  of,  i. 
433»  434;  his  gross  violation  of  justice 
and  remarkable  death,  454. 

Feudal  system,  rise  of  the,  i.  119;  nature 
of  allodial  and  salic  lands,  121,  and 


and  extent,  131;  introduction  of  sub- 
infeudation,  133;  origin  of  feudal  ten- 
ures, ib. ;  custom  of  personal  commen- 
dation, 136;  principle  of  a  feudal  re- 
lation, 138;  m  ceremonies  of  homage, 
fealty,  and  investiture,  140;  military 
service,  its  conditions  and  extent,  141 
and  notes;  feudal  incidents;  origin  of 
reliefs,  143, 143 ;  the  custom  of  frerage  in 
France,  146;  escheats  and  forfeitures, 
147;  limitations  thereof  by  Magna 
Charta,  ib  ;  institution  of  wardships, 
148;  extortionate  and  oppressive  prac- 
tices relative  to  marriages,  149;  fiefs 
of  office,  their  nature  and  variety, 
151;  feudal  law-books,  152;  difference 
between  that  and  the  French  and 
English  systems,  152,  153;  localities 


lish  commoner,  160,  note  u\  condition 
of  the  clergy,  163,  164;  of  the  classes 
below  the  gentry,  164;  assemblies  of 
the  barons,  184;  decline  of  the  feudal 


HALLAM 


system,  210;  its  causes;  increase,  of 
the  domains  of  the  crown,  214,  215; 
rise  of  the  chartered  towns,  216,  221; 
commutation  of  military  service,  223; 
decay  of  feudal  principles,  227;  in- 
fluence of  feudalism  upon  the  insti- 
tutions of  England  and  France,  228; 
the  mundium,  258,  note  fl,  essentials 
of  the  feudal  system,  259;  laxity  of 
feudal  tenures  in  Italy,  291;  question 
of  their  existence  in  England  prior 
to  the  Conquest,  ii.  213-219,  feudalism 
under  the  Normans,  232;  tenure  of 
folkland  and  bo  eland,  214;  abuses  of 
feudal  rights,  400. 

Feuds,  nature  of,  and  derivation  of  the 
words,  i.  237. 

Field  of  March,  origin  of  the  assem- 
blies so  termed,  i.  178;  attended  by 
the  Roman  inhabitants  of  Gaul,  237. 

Fines,  extent  and  singularity  of,  under 
the  Anglo-Norman  kings,  ii.  237; 
Flanders,  fraudulent  conduct  of  Phil- 
ip IV.  towards  the  count  of,  i.  41; 
their  commerce  with  England,  4.9; 
their  rebellion  against  Count  Louis, 
60,  61,  and  notes;  their  insubordina- 
tion, 83;  their  woollen  manufacture, 
iii.  48-49. 

Florence,  curtailment  of  the  power  pf, 
by  Frederic  Barbarossa,  i.  341;  its 
magistracy,  343;  curious  mode  of  elec- 
tion, 344;  the  consiglio  di  popolo,  345; 
defiance  of  law  by  the  nobility, 
346;  rise  of  the  plebeian  aristocracy, 
348;  Walter  de  Brienne  invested  with 
extraordinary  powers,  349;  singular 
ordinances  relative  to  the  nobles,  351; 
machinations  of  the  Guelfs  and  per- 
secutions of  the  Ghibelms,  352,  354, 
and  note  «;  insurrection  of  the  Ciom- 
pi  and  elevation  of  Lando,  365;  res- 
toration of  the  Guelfs,  358;  Pisa 
bought  by  them,  364;  further  disqui- 
etudes in  their  government,  411;  first 
Florentine  voyage  to  Alexandria,  413, 
and  note  k. 

Folkland,  nature  of,  ii.  214. 

Forest  laws  of  the  Anglo-Norman 
kings,  11.  230,  note  .?. 

France,  policy  observed  in  the  terri- 
torial division  of,  i.  6,  note  *;  loss  of 
the  English  possessions  in,  23;  in- 
crease of  the  French  domains,  39,  41; 
its  condition  after  the  battle  of  Poi- 
tiers, 51;  assembly  of  the  States-Gen- 
eral, ib. ;  desolation  of  the  kingdom  by 
famine,  52,  and  note  h;  the  Jacquerie 
insurrection,  53,  and  note  ;;  state  of 
the  country  under  Charles  V.  and  VI., 
58,  59;  under  Charles  VII.,  70,  77; 
consolidations  of  its  dominions,  90; 
its  provincial  government  under  the 
Merovingian  kings,  125;  revenue  of 
its  kings,  how  raised,  174. 

Franks,  territories  occupied  by  the,  i. 
4,  and  note  d;  their  position  under 
Pepin,  100,  101;  increase  of  the  power 
of  their  kings,  128;  serfdom  and  vil- 
lenage  among  them,  365,  168:  o: " 
of  the  Ripuarian  Franks  and  S: 
Franks,  235. 

Frederic  I,  (Frederic  Barbarossa),  third 
crusade  undertaken  by,  i.  37;  com- 
mencement of  his  career  in  Italy,  297; 
league  of  Lombardy  against  him,  300: 
his  defeat  and  fight,  301;  peace  of 
Constance,  302;  his  policy  relative  to 


Sicily,  304;  his  accession  to  the  Ger- 
man throne,  ii,  9;  his  limitation  on 
the  acquisition  of  property  by  the 
clergy,  152. 

Frederic  II.,  position  of,  at  his  acces- 
sion, i.  310;  result  of  his  crusade,  312; 
his  successes  and  defeats,  314,  315;  an- 
imosity of  the  popes  towards  him,  315; 
his  accession  to  the  German  throne, 
ii.  28;  his  deposition,  29. 

Frederic  III.  of  Germany,  character  of 
the  reign  of,  ii.  23;  objects  of  his 
diets,  30-31. 

Freemen,  existence  of,  prior  to  the 
tenth  centry,  i.  261;  consequence  of 
their  marriage  with  serfs,  267. 

Gandia  (Duke  of),  claims  the  throne  of 
Aragon,  i.  458. 

Gaul  invaded  by  Cloyis,  i.  14;  condition 
of  its  Roman  natives,  122;  retention 
of  their  own  laws  by  the  Romans,  237 ; 
their  accession  to  high  offices,  243. 

Genoa,  early  history  of,  i.  364;  victory 
of  her  fleet  over  Pisama,  365;  her 
subsequent  reverses,  367,  368;  her 
government  and  its  various  changes, 
368,  369;  her  first  doge,  371;  frequent 
revolutions  of  her  citizens,  ib. ;  com- 
mercial dealings  of  the  Genoese,  iii. 
^58;  their  money  transactions,  65,  68 

Germany  conquered  by  Charlemagne, 
i.  10 ;  held  by  Louis,  his  grandson, 
16;  Hungarian  assailants,  19;  its  first 
apostles,  102;  political  state  of  an- 
cient Germany,  119;  superior  position 
of  its  rulers  as  compared  with  those 
of  France,  170,  character  of  its  gov- 
ernments, 247,  248;  its  position  at  the 
death  of  Charles  the  Fat,  ii.  3;  par- 
titions of  territory  among  its  princes, 
18-19;  importance  of  its  free  cities,  25; 
the  diet  of  Worms  and  its  results,  30; 
limits  of  the  German  Empire  at  va- 
rious periods,  34. 

Ghent,  populousness  and  impregnabil- 
ity of,  i.  83,  84;  policy  of  its  people 
relative  to  taxation,  84,  note;  its  trad- 
ing eminence,  iii.  49. 

Giovanni  di  Vicenza,  singular  success 
of  the  exhortations  of,  i.  326,  327. 

Gloucester,  Duke  of  (temp.  Richard 
II.),  speaks  for  the  parliament,  ii. 
326,  note  s;  made  lord  appellant,  330; 
his  animosity  towards  the  Duke  of 
Lancaster,  332;  his  murder  and  pos- 
thumous attainder,  334. 

Godfrey  of  Boulogne,  eastern  domains 
assigned  of,  i.  35. 

Granada,  fertility  and  importance  of, 
i.  476. 

Gratian,  character  of  the  Decretum 
compiled  by,  ii.  131. 

Greek  church,  marriage  of  priests  per- 
mitted by  the,  ii.  107. 

Greek  empire,  degeneracy  of  the,  ii.  54; 
revival  of  its  power,  58;  exploits  of 
celebrated  usurpers,  60;  results  of  the 
first  crusade,  61;  sacking  of  the  cap- 
ital, 62-63;  lukewarmness  of  the  west- 
ern Christians,  68;  the  last  of  the  Cae- 
sars, 69. 

Gregory  I.,   character  of,   ii.  94. 

Gregory  II.,  design  of,  for  placing 
Rome  under  Charles  Martel  s  pro- 
tection, i.  103. 

Gregory  VII.,  projection  of  the  cru- 
sades by,  i.  32;  his  obligations  to  the 


INDEX 


239 


Countess  Matilda,  303;  his  ascend- 
ency over  the  clergy,  li.  113;  elected 
pope,  114;  rigorous  humiliation  im- 
posed by  him  on  Henry,  116;  his  ex- 
ile and  death,  117;  his  declaration 
against  investitures,  118. 

Gregory  IX.,  excommunications  of 
Frederic  II.  by,  i.  311,  315;  decretals 
published  by  his  order,  11.  131;  his 
encroachments  on  the  English  church, 
140. 

Gregory  X.,  tax  levied  on  the  church 
by,  li.  144. 

Gregory  XI.  reinstates  the  papal  court 
at  Rome,  ii.  164. 

Gregory  XIII.  elected  and  deposed,  ii. 
166 

Guarmere  (Duke),  systematic  levy  of 
contributions  by,  i.  388. 

Guelfs  and  Ghibelins,  origin  of  the 
rival  factions  of,  i.  308;  characteristics 
of  the  two  parties,  312;  irrationality 
of  the  distinctions,  329;  expulsion  of 
the  Ghibelins  from  Florence,  330;  re- 
vival of  their  party.  333. 

Guienne  seized  by  Philip  IV.,  i.  40;  re- 
stored to  England,  41;  insurrection 
of  its  people  against  Charles  VII.,  77, 
and  note  a. 

Guiscard  (Robert),  territorial  conquests 
of,  i.  290;  he  takes  Leo  IX.  prisoner, 
ib. 

Guiscard  (Roger),  conquers  Sicily,  i. 
290;  he  shelters  Gregory  VII.,  ii.  117; 
he  subjugates  Amain,  ni.  57. 

Hanse   towns,    confederacy   of   the,   iii. 

Hastings,  Lord  (temp.  Edward  IV.), 
receives  bribes  from  Louis  XL,  i.  81. 

Hawk  wood  (Sir  John),  military  renown 
acquired  by,  i.  389. 

Haxey  (Thomas),  surrendered  by  the 
commons  to  the  vengeance  of  Rich- 
ard II.,  ii.  333,  357. 

Henry  II.  of  Castile  rebels  against 
Peter  the  Cruel,  i.  435. 

Henry  III.  of  Castile  marries  John  of 
Gaunt's  daughter,  i.  436. 

Henry  IV.  of  Castile,  despicable  char- 
acter of,  i.  437;  contests  after  his 
death,  438. 

Henry  I  of  England,  extortions  on  the 
church  by,  ii.  142. 

Henry  II.  marries  the  repudiated  wife 
of  Louis  VII.,  i.  24;  opposes  the  tyr- 
anny of  the  church  of  Rome,  ii.  148; 
cause  of  his  dispute  with  Thomas  a 
Becket,  149. 

Henry  III.  allows  Italian  priests  in 
England  benefices,  ii.  140;  provisions 
contained  in  his  charter,  243-244;  his 
perjuries,  246;  his  expensive  foreign 
projects.  248 

Henry  IV.,  policy  and  views  of,  towards 
France,  i  59,  66;  circumstances  at- 
tending his  succession,  ii.  338;  his 
tactics  toward  the  parliament,  340; 
policy  of  the  commons  towards  him, 

Henry  V.,  his  exorbitant  demands  on 
proposing  to  marry  Catharine  of 
France,  i.  67,  and  note  s;  invasion  of 
France  by,  ib.,  and  note  h\  his  nego- 
tiations with  the  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
68;  his  marriage  and  death,  69;  life 
subsidies  granted  to  him,  ii.  344;  im- 


probability  of  his  alleged  dissolute- 
ness, 362. 

Henry  VI.,  parliamentary  policy  during 
the  minority  of,  ii.  353;  state  of  the 
kingdom  during  his  minority,  430; 
provisions  in  consequence  of  his  men- 
tal infirmities,  436,  440. 

Henry  I.  of  France,  extent  of  authority 
exercised  by,  li.  112,  113. 

Henry  III.  of  Germany,  imperial  influ- 
ence extended  by,  ii.  5;  his  judicious 
nomination  of  popes,  112. 

Henry  IV.  ^of  Germany,  primary  cause 
of  the  misfortunes  of,  ii.  6;  zeal  of 
the  cities  in  his  cause.  16;  his  con- 
tests with  Gregory  VII.,  115-116;  ani- 
mosity of  Gregory's  successors  to- 
wards him,  117. 

Henry  V.  of  Germany,  accession  and 
death  of,  ii.  8. 

Henry  VI.  of  Germany  repudiates  ar- 
rangements between  his  predecessors 
andp  the  ^pope,  i.  306;  his  ambitious 
project,  ii.  ii. 

Henry  VII.  oi  Germany  acquires  Bo- 
hemia for  his  son,  ii.  20-  his  opposi- 
tion to  the  papal  power,  159 

Henry  the  Proud,  ancestry  and  posses- 
sions of,  ii.  8. 

Henry  the  Lion  restored  to  his  birth- 
right, ii.  9. 

Hereditary  succession,  how  far  ob- 
served among  the  Franks,  i.  126,  247, 
note  z\  establishment  of  the  principle 
in  England,  257. 

Honorius  III.,  establishment  of  mendi- 
cant orders  by,  ii.  133;  refusal  of  his 
requests  by  France  and  England,  140. 

Hugh  the  Great  of  France  procures  the 
election  of  Louis  IV.,  i.  106,  107. 

Hungarians,  ravages  in  Europe  by  the, 
i.  19;  their  conversion  to  Christianity, 
ii.  37. 

Hungerford  (Sir  Thomas),  elected 
speaker,  ii.  317. 

Hunniades  (John),  heroic  career  of,  ii. 
38-39. 

Huss  (John),  burned  to  death,  ii.  36; 
characteristics  of  his  schism  and  his 
followers,  iii.  in. 

Innocent  III ,  persecution  9f  the  Albi- 
geois  by,  i.  26;  his  ambitious  policy, 
305;  use  made  by  him  of  his  guardian- 
ship of  Frederic  II.,  310;  increase 
of  temporal  authority  under  him,  338; 
his  accession  to  the  papal  chair,  ii. 
124;  his  decrees  and  interdicts,  126; 
his  claim  to  nominate  bishops,  139; 
he  levies  taxes  on  the  clergy,  143. 

Innocent  IV.,  outrageous  proceedings 
of,  against  Frederic  II.,  i.  316;  he 
quarters  Italian  priests  on  England, 
ii.  143;  height  of  papal  tyranny  dur- 
ing his  pontificate,  145. 

Innocent  Vl.,  elected  pope,  ii.  166. 

Irene,  dethronement  of  Constantine  V. 


by,  i.  103. 
[sabe 


Isabel  of  Bavaria  (queen  Of  Charles 
VL),  infamous  conduct  towards  her 
husband,  i.  63;  joins  in  the  treaty 
with  Henry  V.,  69. 

Isabel  of  France  marries  Edward  II. 
of  England,  i.  41. 

Isidore,  publication  of  the  False  De- 
cretals of,  ii.  98. 

Italy  occupied  by  the  Ostrogoths,  i.  3; 
its  subjection  by  the  Lombards,  9; 


240 


HALLAM 


conquests  of  Pepin  and  Charlemagne, 
10 ;  its  king  Bernhard,  14;  its  state  at 
the  end  of  the  ninth  century,  283;  its 
monarchs  Berenger  I.  and  II.,  284, 
285,  and  note  c;  assumption  of  power 
by  Otho  the  Great,  285;  execution  of 
Crescentius  by  Otho  III.,  287;  cause 
of  its  subjection  to  German  princes, 
287,  288;  incursions  and  successes  or 
the  Normans,  291,  292;  accession  of 
Frederic  Barbarossa,  297. 

Jacquerie,  insurrection  of  the,   i.   53. 

James  II.  of  Aragon  renounces  the  Si- 
cilian crown,  i.  401. 

Jane  of  Navarre,  treaty  entered  into  on 
behalf  of,  i.  42. 

Janizaries,  institution  of  the,  ii.  70. 

Jerome  of  Prague  burned  to  death,  ii. 
36. 

Jerusalem,  foundation  of  the  kingdom 
of,  i.  35 ;  its  conquest  by  Saladm,  37; 
restored  to  the  Christians  by  the 
Saracens,  38;  oppressive  system  of 
marriages  there,  under  the  feudal  sys- 
tem, 149. 

Jews,  wealth  amassed  and  persecutions 
endured  by  the,  i.  175;  ordinances 
against  them,  187;  exorbitant  rates 
paid  by  them  in  England,  11.  237;  their 
massacre  by  the  Pastoureaux,  m.  29; 
their  liability  to  maltreatment,  37, 
note  k\  their  early  money  dealings, 
65. 

Joan  of  Arc,  character,  successes,  and 
fate  of,  i.  72,  73;  her  name  and  birth- 
place, 115. 

Joanna  of  Naples  married  to  Andrew 
of  Hungary,  i.  402;  dies  by  violence, 
403. 

Joanna  II.  of  Naples  and  her  favorites, 

John  f.  of  Castile,  accession  of,  i.  436. 

John  II.  of  Castile,  wise  government 
by  the  m  guardians  of,  during  his  in- 
fancy, i.  436. 

John  .(King  of  England),  cited  before 
Philip  Augustus,  i.  25;  singular  fines 
levied  by  him,  ii.  238;  Magna  Charta, 

John  I.  of  France,  birth  and  death  of, 
i.  42. 

John  II  of  France,  character  of,  i.  48; 
talcen  prisoner  at  Poitiers,  51;  sub- 
mits to  the  peace  of  Bretigni,  53;  his 
response  to  the  citizens  or  Rochelle, 


Jo. 


jhn  of 


Procida,  designs  of,  on  Sicily, 


John  VIII.  (pope),  insolence  of,  to- 
wards Charles  the  Fat,  ii.  105. 

John  XXII.  (pope),  claims  supremacy 
over  the  empire,  ii,  159;  he  persecutes 
the  Franciscans,  160. 

John  XXIII.  (pope),  convokes  and  is 
deposed  by  the  council  of  Constance, 
ii.  167. 

Judith  of  Bavaria  marries  Louis  the  De- 
bonair, i.  1 6. 

Justice,  administration  of,  under  Char- 
lemagne, i.  201;  judicial  privileges 
assigned  to  the  owners  of  fiefs,  203; 
trial  by  combat,  204,  205,  and  notes; 
the  Establishments  of  St.  Louis,  207; 
royal  tribunals  and  their  jurisdiction, 
208;  imperial  chamber  of  the  empire, 
ii.  31;  the  six  circles  and  the  Aulic 
council,  33;  character  of  the  king's 


court  in  England,  ii.  251;  functions 
of  the  court  of  exchequer,  252;  estab- 
lishment of  the  court  of  common 
pleas,  253;  origin  of  the  common  law, 
254;  difference  between  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  Anglo-Norman  system  of 


tion,   406;   origin   and  jurisdiction   of 
the  court  of  chancery,  lii.  208,  209. 

King's  council  (England),  jurisdiction 
of  the,  ii.  390. 

Knights  Templars,  institution  of  the  or- 
der of,  i.  37,  question  of  their  guilt  or 
innocence,  112,  113;  their  estates  and 
remarkable  influence  in  Spain,  429. 

Koran,  characteristics  of  the,  ii.  51-53. 

Laborers,  amount  of  wages  paid  to,  iii, 
96,  97- 

Ladislaus  of  Naples,  accession  of,  i.  404. 

Ladislaus  of  Hungary,  defeat  of  the 
partisans  of,  ii.  38;  his  death,  39. 

Lancaster  (Duke  of),  ascendency  of, 
over  Edward  III.,  ii.  314;  cause  of 
his  retirement  from  court,  317;  he 
curries  favor  with  the  commons,  324; 
his  quarrel  with  Arundel  and  Glouces- 
ter, 332;  conduct  of  Richard  II.  on 
his  death,  338. 

Lancastrians  and  Yorkists,  wars  of  the, 
IK  439. 

Lando  (Michel  di),  cause  of  the  eleva- 
tion of,  i.  356. 

Landwehr,   antiquity  of  the,  i.  223,  note  t 

Languages,  difficulty  of  accounting  for 
the  change  of,  i.  235;  principles  de- 
ducible  from  difference  'of  language, 
242. 

Languedoc,  spread  of  the  Albigensian 
heresy  in,  i.  26;  its  cession  to  the 
crown  of  France,  27;  its  provincial 
assembly,  198. 

Latimer  (Lord),  impeached  by  the  com- 
mons, ii.  335. 

Laws,  characteristics  of,  at  certain  pe- 
riods, i.  245;  study  of  the  civil  law, 
iii.  132;  necessity  for  legal  knowledge 
in  medieval  magistrates,  134, 

Learning,  causes  of  the  decline  of,  iii. 
5;  neglect  of  pagan  liteiature  by  the 
early  Christians,  7;  corruption  of  the 
Latin  tongue,  10:  extent  of  Charle- 
magne's and  Alfred's  learning,  20; 
scarcity  of  books,  22;  preservative  ef- 
fects of  religion  on  the  Latin  tongue, 
24;  revival  of  literature,  132;  estab- 
lishment of  public  schools,  137;  spread 
of  the  scholastic  philosophy,  143;  cul- 
tivation of  the  new  language,  149; 
origin  of  the  French  language,  153; 
Norman  tales  and  romances,  155; 
French  prose  writings,  156,  157;  for- 
mation of  the  Spanish  language;  the 
Cid,  157;  rapid  growth  of  the  Italian 
language,  158;  cause  of  the  slow  prog- 
ress of  the  English  language,  167; 
revival  of  classical  learning,  171;  in- 
vention of  paper,  173;  scarcity  and 
dearness  of  books,  174;  revival  of  the 
study  of  Greek,  177;  opposition  to  the 
stiidy  of  Greek  at  Oxford,  182;  first 
books  issued  from  the  press,  184; 
earliest  use  of  the  English  language 
in  public  documents,  iii.  230, 

Legislation    under    the     early    French 


INDEX 


241 


kings,  i.  178;  participation  of  the  peo- 
ple in  legislative  proceedings,  179, 
368;  Charlemagne's  legislative  assem- 
blies, 181;  cessation  of  national  as- 
semblies, 183 ;  the  cours  plemeres,  185 ; 
substitutes  for  legislative  authority, 
186;  general  legislation,  when  first 
practiced,  187,  convocation  of  the 
States-general,  189;  constitution  of 
the  Saxon  witenagemot,  ii.  200;  Anglo- 
Norman  legislation,  239. 

Leo  III.  invests  Charlemagne  with  the 
imperial  insignia,  i.  12;  his  design  of 
marrying  Charlemagne  to  Irene,  103. 

Leo  VIIlT  confers  on  the  emperor  the 
right  of  nominating  popes,  ii.  112. 

Leo  IX.  leads  his  army  in  person,  i. 
290. 

Leon,  foundation  of  the  kingdom  of,  i. 
425. 

Leopold  of  Austria  defeated  by  the 
Swiss,  ii.  41. 

Libraries  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  iii.  173. 

Lollards,  rise  of  the,  hi.   no. 

Lombards,  original  settlement  oi  the, 
i.  9,  note  r\  defeated  by  Pepin  ana 
Charlemagne,  10 ;  position  of  their  Ro- 
man subjects,  245;  progress  of  their 
cities,  291;  democratic  tyranny  of  the 
larger  cities,  296;  siege  and  subju- 
gation of  Milan  by  Frederic  Barba- 
rossa,  298;  league  of  the  Lombard 
cities,  300;  peace  of  Constance,  302; 
their  wars  with  Frederic  II.,  312; 
causes  of  their  success,  317;  internal 
government  of  their  cities,  319;  ar- 
tisan clubs  and  aristocratic  fortifi- 
cations, 324;  inflammatory  nature  of 
private  quarrels  and  their  disastrous 
results,  325. 

Longchamp  (William,  Bishop  of  Ely), 
constitutional  precedent  established 
by  the  banishment  of,  ii.  242. 

London,  early  election  of  the  magis- 
trates of,  iii.  195;  its  extent  and  popu* 

Loria  {Roger  di),  naval  successes  of, 
i.  400. 

Lothaire  (son  of  Louis  the  Debonair), 
associated  in  power  with  his  ^  father, 
i.  15;  cause  of  his  excommunication, 
ii.  101-102. 

Lothaire  (Duke  of  Saxony),  elected  em- 
peror of  Germany,  ii.  8. 

Louis  of  Bavaria.  Emperor  of  Ger- 
many, ii.  20;  his  contest  with  the 
popes,  ii.  159. 

Louis  I.  (the  Debonair)  succeeds  Char- 
lemagne, i.  14;  his  cruelty  to  his 
nephew,  ib. ;  enmity  of  the  clergy 
against  him,  16;  his  attempted  depo- 
sition by  the  bishops,  ii.  90. 

Louis  of  Germany  (son  of  the  above), 
made  king  of  Bavaria  by  His  father, 
i.  itj. 

Louis  II.  (The  Stammerer),  conditions 
exacted  by  the  French  nobles  from, 
i.  106. 

L9Uis  IV.  ("  Outremer  "),  elected  king, 
i.  1 06. 

Louis  V.,  i.  17 

Louis  VI.,  state  of  France  at  the  ac- 
cession of,  i,  23. 

Louis  VII.,  untoward  marriage  of,  and 
its  consequences,  i.  24;  joins  in  the 
second  crusade,  35;  his  submissive- 
ness  to  Rome,  ii.  149. 

VOL,  III.— x6 


Louis  VIII.  opposes  Raymond  of  Tou- 
louse, i.  28;  issues  an  ordinance 
against  the  Jews,  186. 

Louis  IX.  (Saint  Louis),  accession  of,  i. 
28;  undue  influence  exercised  over 
him  by  his  mother,  30;  he  embarks 
in  the  crusades,  31;  his  second  expe- 
dition and  death,  38;  his  Establish- 
ments, 187,  188,  206;  his  open-air  ad- 
ministration of  justice,  206;  the  Prag- 
matic Sanction  and  its  provisions,  ii. 
140;  his  restraint  on  the  church  hold- 
ing land,  152. 

Louis  X.  (Louis  Hutin),  accession  and 
death  of,  i.  42;  his  edict  for  the  abo- 
lition of  serfdom,  169;  he  renounces 
certain  taxes,  191. 

Louis  XL,  accession  of,  i.  78;  bestows 
Normandy  on  his  brother  as  an  ap- 
panage, 79 ;  grants  pension  to  the  Eng- 
lish king  and  his  nobles,  Si;  his  last 
sickness  and  its  terrors,  87,  88;  civic 
liberty  encouraged  by  him,  213;  he 
repeals  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  ii. 
177. 

Louis  of  Hungary  invades  Naples,  i. 
402. 

Louis  of  Anjou  adopted  by  Joanna  of 
Naples,  i.  403. 

Louis  II.  of  Anjou  and  Naples,  acces- 
sion of,  i.  404. 

"Louis  III  of  Anjou  and  Naples  called 
in  by  Joanna  II.,  i.  406. 

Lucius  II.  (Pope),  cause  of  the  death 
of,  i.  338. 

Luna  (Alvaro  de),  influence  exercised 
by,  i.  437. 

Luna  (Antonio  de),  assassinates  the 
Archbishop  of  Saragossa,  i.  459. 

Luna  (Frederic,  Count  of),  claims  the 
throne  of  Aragon,  i.  458. 

Mahomet  II.  attacks  the  Venetians,  i. 
408;  failure  of  his  assault  upon  Bel- 
grade, ii.  39;  he  captures  Constanti- 
nople, 50;  his  European  successes  and 
reverses,  53. 

Manfred,  brave  retention  of  the  impe- 
rial throne  by,  316. 

Marcel  (Magistrate  of  Paris),  why  as- 
sassinated, i.  195. 

March    (Roger,    Earl   of),    opposes   the 


Duke  of  Lancaster,  ii.  316;  his  ex- 
clusion from  the  throne,  339. 

Margaret  of  Anjou  married  to  Henry 
Vf ,  ii.  354- 

Maritime  laws  of  early  times,  iii.  6st 
note  q. 

Martin  (Prince  of  Aragon),  marries  the 


Martin  V.  elected  pope,  ii.  170;  his  con- 
cordat with  England,  174;  rejection 
of  his  concordat  by  France,  177. 

Matilda  (Countess),  bequeaths  her  do- 
minions to  Rome,  I.  305. 

Maximilian  of  Austria  marries  Mary 
of  Burgundy,  i.  86;  ascends  the  Ger- 
man throne,  ii.  28;  extent  of  the  em- 
pire at  his  accession,  33. 

Mayor  of  the  palace,  importance  of  the 
office  of,  i.  7,  98,  99.  129. 

Medici  (Salvestro  de),  proposes  to  mit- 
igate the  seventy  of  the  law  in  Flor- 
ence, i.  355;  rise  of  his  family,  412. 

Mendicant  friars,  first  appearance  of 
the,  ii.  133. 


242 


HALLAM 


Mo 


Merovingian  dynasty,  character  of  the 
times  during  which  it  ruled,  i.  6. 

Milan,  resolute  conduct  of  the  people 
of,  in  the  choice  of  a  bishop,  i.  293, 
note  MJ  its  siege  by  Frederic  I.,  298; 
its  statistics  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, 317;  creation  of  the  duchy  of 
Milan,  335. 

Military  systems  of  the  middle  ages, 
character  of  the  English  troops  at 
Crecy,  Poitiers,  and  Azmcourt,  i.  50, 
70;  disadvantages  of  feudal  obliga- 
tions m  long  campaigns,  222,  223;  ad- 
vantages of  mercenary  troops,  2255 
establishment  of  a  regular  force  by 
Charles  VII.,  227;  military  resources 
of  the  Italian  cities,  384,  385;  eminent 
Italian  generals  and  their  services, 
391;  small  loss  of  life  in  medieval  war- 
fare, 393,  394J  advantages  and  disad- 
vantages f  of  armor,  394;  clumsiness  of 
early  artillery  and  fire-arms,  396,  307; 
introduction  of  gunpowder,  395;  in- 
creased efficiency  of  infantry.,  397. 

Moguls,  ravages  of  the,  ii.  65. 

Mohammed,  advent  of,  ii.  49;  his  knowl- 
edge of  Christianity,  whence  derived, 
51;  martial  spirit  of  his  system,  52 
uonarchy  in  France,  character  of  the, 
i.  184;  means  by  which  it  became  ab- 
solute, 188. 

Monasteries,  cultivation  of  waste  lands 
by,  ii.  77;  their  exemption  from  epis- 
copal control,  100 ;  preservation  of 
books  by  them,  ill.  23;  vices  of  their 
inmates,  36. 

Money,  high  interest  paid  for,  iii.  65; 
banks  of  Italy,  68;  comparative  table 
of  value,  iii.  94,  note  r. 

Montfort  (Simon  de,  Earl  of  Leicester), 
his  writs  of  summons  to  the  towns  of 
England,  ii.  280. 

Montfort  (ally  of  Edward  III.)  obtains 
the  duchy  of  Brittany,  i.  89. 

Moors,  successes  of  the  Spaniards 
against  the,  i.  424.  Cordova  taken 
from  them,  430, 

Mowbray  (Earl  of  Nottingham  and 
Duke  of  Norfolk),  made  lord  appel- 
lant, ii.  330. 

Municipal  institutions  of  the  Roman 
provincial  cities,  i.  270;  the  senatorial 
orders,  272;  municipal  government  of 
the  Franfc  cities,  274;  corporate  towns 
of  Spain,  275;  of  France,  276;  origin  of 
the  French  communes,  277. 

Murder,  gradation  of  fines  levied  as 
punishment  for,  among  the  Franks,  i. 
123,  124;  rates  of  compensation  among 
the  Anglo-Saxons,  ii.  196. 

Naples  subjugated  by  Roger  Guiscard, 
i.  290;  contest  for  its  crown  between 
Manfred  and  Charles  of  Anjou,  329; 
accession  of  Robert,  401;  reign  of 
Louis  II.,  404;  Joanna  II.,  her  vices 
and  her  favorites,  405,  407,  note  y; 
invasion  of  the  kingdom  by  John  of 
Calabria,  409;  Ferdinand  secured  on 
the  throne,  410;  his  odious  rule,  417. 

Navarre,  origin  of  the  kingdom  of,  i. 
425. 

Neustria,  extent  of  the  dominions  so 
termed,  i,  7,  note  n;  its  peculiar  feat- 
ures as  distinguished  from  Austrasia, 

100. 

Nevil  (lord),  impeached  by  the  com- 
mons, ii.  315. 


Nicolas  II.  (pope),  innovations  intro- 
duced by,  ii.  175. 

Nobility,  origin  of,  in  France,  i.  isgf 
130,  and  note  »  157;  privileges  con- 
ferred on  the  class,  160;  characteris- 
tics of  the  early  Frank  nobility,  253, 
255;  excesses  of  the  Florentine  no- 
bility^ 345,  346;  turbulence  of  the 
Spanish  nobles,  4345  contests  of  the 
German  nobles  with  the  cities,  ii.  26; 
source  of  the  influence  of  the  English 
nobility,  n.  414;  German  robber  lords, 
SOS- 
Normans,  piratical  pursuits  of  the,  i.  20; 
their  conversion  and  settlement  in 
France,  21;  terror  excited  by  their 
audacity,  no,  m;  their  incursions 
into  Italy,  289  and  note  /. 

Oaths,  papal  dispensations  from,  i.  137. 

Oleron,  laws  of,  iii.  62. 

Ordeals,  nature  of,  iii.  26,  27;  instance 
of  a  failure  of  the  water  ordeal  and 
its  consequences,  ii.  254,  note  L 

Orleans  (Louis,  Duke  of),  alleged 
amours  of,  with  Queen  Isabel,  i.  63, 
note  x;  his  assassination  and  its  prob- 
able causes,  64. 

Orleans  (Louis,  Duke  of,  afterwards 
Louis  XII.) ,  claims  the  regency  dur- 
ing the  minority  of  Charles  VIII.,  i. 
88;  instigates  the  convocation  of  the 
States- General,  199. 

Ostrogoths,  occupation  of  Italy  by  the, 
i.  3;  annihilation  of  their  dominion,  9; 
Roman  jurisprudence  adopted  by 
them,.  124. 

Otho  I.  (the  Great),  benefits  conferred 
upon  Germany  by,  ii.  4. 

Otho  II.  and  III.  chosen  emperors  of 
Germany,  ii.  4. 

Otho  IV.  aided  by  the  Milanese,  i,  309; 
its  consequences,  ii.  ii;  obtains,  a  dis- 
pensation from  Innocent  III,  ii.  137. 

Ottoman  dynasty,  founded  by  Othman, 
ii.  66;  they  capture  Constantinople, 
69;  institution  of  the  janizaries,  70. 

Palaces  (royal),  why  excluded  from 
Lombard  cities,  i.  296. 

Palestine,  commercial  value  of  the  settle- 
ments in,  iii.  58. 

Pandects,  discovery  of  the,  iii*  133,  134. 

Papal  power,  first  germ  of  the,  ii,  91; 
character  of  Gregory  I.,  iu  94;  convo- 
cation of  the  synod  of  Frankfort  by 
Boniface,  97;  papal  encroachments  on 
the  hierarchy,  ii.  99;  kings  compelled 
to  succumb  to  papal  supremacy,  100; 
further  interference  with  regal  rights 
by  the  popes,  101;  Leo  IX.'s  re- 
formatory efforts,  108;  innovations  of 
Pope  Nicolas  II.,  113;  election  and 
death  of  Alexander  II.,  114;  papal 
opposition  to  investitures,  no,  xx8, 
119;  papal  legates  and  their  functions, 
122;  Alexander  III.  and  Thomas  a 
Becket,  124;  height  of  the  papal  power 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  ii-  130;  es- 
tablishment of  the  mendicant  friars, 
133;  encroachments  on  episcopal  elec- 
tions, 138;  mandats  and  their  abuse, 
140;  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  140;  pre- 
text for  taxing  the  clergy,  142*  I43J 
decline  of  the  papacy,  157;  growing  re- 
sistance to  the  popes,  160;  rapacity 
of  the  Avignon  popes,  161;  independ- 
ent conduct  of  England,  162;  return 


INDEX 


243 


of  the  popes  to  Rome,  163;  effects  of 
the  concordat  of  Aschaffenburg,  176; 
decline  of  papal  influence  in  Italy  and 
its  causes,  181. 

Paper  from  linen,  when  invented,  iii. 
173,  note  p. 

Pans,  seditions  at,  i.  60;  fear  of  the 
Normans,  no;  pppulation  of  the  city 
in  early  times,  ni.  198. 

Parishes,  origin  of,  i.  75. 

Parliament  of  England,  constituent  ele- 
ments of  the,  ii.  269;  county  repre- 
sentation, 277;  knights  of  the  shire, 
how  elected,  278,  282;  first  summoning 
of  towns  to  parliament,  289 ;  division  of 
parliament  into  two  houses,  298;  com- 
plaint of  the  commons  in  1309,  300; 
concurrence  of  both  houses  in  legisla- 
tion made  necessary,  308;  interference 
of  parliament  in  matters  of  war  and 
peace,  313;  protest  of  the  commons 
against  the  lavish  expenditure,  318; 
their  charges  against  the  Earl  of  Suf- 
folk, 325;  submission  of  Richard  to 
their  demands,  328,  329 ;  they  fall  under 
his  displeasure,  332;  necessity  of  de- 
posing Richard,  339;  exclusive  right 
of  taxation  by  the  commons,  340; 
their  first  petition  in  English,  347;  in- 
troduction of  bills,  public  and  private, 
348;  parliamentary  interference  with 
royal  expenditure,  349;  parliamentary 
advice  sought  on  public  affairs,  352; 
infringements  on  liberty  of  speech, 
357;  contested  elections  and  proceed- 
ings thereon,  363,  364;  reluctance  of 
boroughs  to  send  members,  369;  in 
whom  the  right  to  vote  was  vested, 
370,  371;  constitution  of  the  house  of 
lords,  374;  qualification  of  spiritual 
barons,  375. 

Parliament  of  Paris,  constitution  and 
sittings  of  the,  i.  210;  enregistration 
of  royal  decrees  confided  to  it,  212; 
establishment  of  its  independence  by 
Louis  XI.,  213. 

Paschal  II.  (pope),  opposition  to  in- 
vestitures by,  ii.  117,  note  0,  and  117, 
note  o. 

Peers  of  France,  original  constitution 
of  the,  i.  211. 

Pelagius  II.   and  the  bishop   of  Aries, 

Pembroke  (William,  Earl  0"$^  resolute 
defiance  of  Henry  III.  by,  ii.  413. 

People,  state  of  the,  time  of  Charle- 
magne and  his  successors,  i  18,  19; 
their  lawlessness,  iii.  38. 

Pepin  Heristapl,  usurpation  of  supremacy 
by,  i.  8;  his  influence  over  the  des- 
tinies of  France,  100;  he  restores  the 
national  council,  180. 

Pepin  (son  of  Charles  Martel),  deposes 
Childeric  III.,  i.  8;  his  legislative  as- 
semblies, 181. 

Perjury,  _prevalence  of,  in  the  middle 
ages,  iii.  40. 

Peter  the  Great  compared  with  Charle- 
magne, i.  13. 

Peter  the  Cruel,  succession  of  crimes 
perpetrated  by,  i.  434-  _  .  . 

Peter  II.  of  Aragon  surrenders  his 
kingdom  to  the  pope,  ii,  128. 

Peter  III.  of  Aragon  assists  John  of 
Procida,  i.  399. 

Peter  IV.  of  Aragon,  character  and 
reign  of,  i.  457. 

Petrarch  on  the  state  of  France  in  1360, 


i*  53»  note  /;  his  extravagant  views 
relative  to  Rome,  340,  note  o\  his  per- 
sonal characteristics,  iii.  165,  note  a. 

Philip  Augustus,  accession  of,  i.  24; 
joins  in  the  third  crusade,  37;  his  re- 
quest to  an  abbot  relative  to  coinage, 
172;  Gregory's  menaces  towards  him, 
11.  121 ;  his  fear  of  Innocent  III.,  125. 

Philip  III.   (the  Bold),  accession  of, 


_ 

ings  against  his  attacks,  41,  and  note 
fe;  claims  a  right  to  debase  the  coin, 
173,  note  g\  his  motives  in  embodying 
the  deputies  of  towns,  190;  he  taxes 
the  clergy,  ii.  154;  retaliation  of  the 
pope,  156. 

Philip  V.  (the  Long),  assumption  of  the 
regency  of  France  by,  i.  42;  decrees 
the  abolition  of  serfdom,  169. 

Philip  VI.  (of  Valois),  regency  and 
coronation  of,  i.  44;  sketch  of  his 
character,  48;  his  debasement  of  the 
coin,  192. 

Philip  of  Suabia  elected  emperor  of 
Germany,  ii.  ii. 

Piracy,  temptations  to  the  practice  of, 
iii.  62. 

Pisa,  early  naval  and  commercial  im- 
portance of,  i.  361;  her  reverses  and 
sale  to  Florence,  364. 

Pisani  (Vittor),  defeated  by  the  Genoese 
and  imprisoned  by  the  Venetians,  i. 
365. 

Podesta,  peculiarities  of  the  office  of,  i. 
320,  321. 

Podiebrad  (George),  vigorous  rule  of 
Bohemia  by,  ii.  37. 

Poland,  polity  of,  not  based  on  feudality, 
i.  156. 

Pole  (Michael  de  la,  Earl  of  Suffolk), 
succeeds  Scrape  as  chancellor,  ii.  324; 
his  impeachment  and  sentence,  32$. 

Pragmatic  Sanction  of  Bourges,  ii.  50, 
ii.  177. 

Pragmatic  Sanction  of  St.  Louis,  enact- 
ment of  the,  ii.  140,  and  note  m. 

Prices  of  commodities,  iii.  93,  94. 

Printing,  invention  of,  iii.  183. 

Protadius,  oppressive  conduct  of,  i.  09. 

Provence  annexed  to  the  French  do- 
minion, i.  91. 

Public  weal,  origin  of  the  war  of  the, 
i.  76,  77. 

Punishments  amongst  the  Franks  for 
murder,  i.  123,  124,  and  notes  167,  and 
c,  237. 

Rachimburgii,  the,  i.  179;  between  them 
and  the  Scabim,  182,  note  /. 

Ravenaa,  conquest  and  reconquest  of, 
i.  9.  * 

Raymond  VI.  (count  of  Toulouse)^  ex- 
communicated by  Innocent  III.,  i.  26. 

Regencies,  rule  in  France  relative  to, 
i.  62;  instances  of  regencies  in  Eng- 
land and  principles  deducible  there- 
from, ii.  438. 

Religious  sects,  moral  improvement 
accelerated  by  the  growth  of,  iii.  101; 
tenets  of  the  Manicheans  and  Pauli- 
cians,  101,  102,  103;  the  Albigenses  and 
controversies  respecting  them,  104; 
origin  of  the  Waldenses,  105,  106;  con- 
tinued spread  of  heresies,  no;  strict- 
ness of  Lollardism,  no. 


244 


HALLAM 


Revenues  of  the  kings  of  France,  how 
derived,  i  174,  177. 

Richard  I.,  non-success  of  against 
Philip  Augustus,  i.  25;  joins  with 
Philip  in  the  crusades,  37;  his  refusal 
relative  to  the  right  of  private  war, 
174,  note  /;  his  submission  to  the 
pope,  ii.  125;  deposition  of  his  chan- 
cellor, ii.  242;  enactment  of  the  laws 
of  Oleron  imputed  to  him,  iii.  62. 

Richard  II.  losesp  ground  in  France,  i. 
58;  his  coronation,  ii.  317;  his  strug- 
gles with  parliament,  321,  322;  his 
seizure  of  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  and 
other  arbitrary  acts,  334;  necessity  for 
his  deposition,  338;  progress  of  the 
constitution  during  his  reign,  340. 

Richard  (Earl  of  Cornwall),  chosen  em- 
peror of  Germany,  ii.  12. 

Rienzi  (Nicola  di),  sudden  accession  to 
power  of,  i.  339. 

Robert  of  Gloucester  and  other  met- 
rical writers,  iii.  168. 

Robert  of  Naples,  wise  rule  of,  i.  401. 

Rochelle,  patriotism  of  the  citizens  of, 

Rodolph  of  Hapsburg  elected  emperor 
of  Germany,  ii.  17;  his  ascendency  in 
Switzerland,  ii  40. 

Rollo  of  Normandy,  conversion  of,  i.  21. 

Romance  language,  ascendency  in  the 
Frank  dominions  of  the,  i.  108. 

Rome,  subversion  of  the  empire  of,  i.  3; 
partition  of  its  provinces  amongst 
their  conquerors,  120;  its  municipal 
institutions,  270,  271;  internal  state 
in  the  tenth  century,  285,  286;  execu- 
tion of  the  Consul  Crescentius,  287, 
note  f;  schemes  of  Innocent  III.  for 
aggrandizing  the  holy  see,  306,  307; 
increase  of  the  temporal  authority  of 
the  popes,  337;  mutual  animosities  of 
the  nobles,  401;  miscarriage  of  Por- 
caro's  revolutionary  projects,  341. 

Saint  John  of  Jerusalem,  knights  of  i. 

Saint  Pol  (Count  of),  anecdote  of,  i.  76, 
note  w,  anecdote  of  his  distrust  of 
Louis  XI.,  87,  note  g. 

Saints,  great  addition  to  the  calendar 
of,  in  the  time  of  Clovis  and  his  sons, 

Saladin,  conquest  of  Jerusalem  by,  i.  37. 

Salic  lands,  characteristics  of,  i.  121,  122. 

Salic  law,  circumstances  -which  led  to 
the  confirmation  of  the,  i.  42,  45;  date 
of  its  enactment,  235,  236. 

Sancho  the  Great  bestows  Castile  on 
his  second  son,  i.  426. 

Sancho  IV.  assassinates  Don  Lope, 
i.  434. 

Sanctuary,  institution  of  the  privileges 
of,  iii.  34. 

Saracens,  expulsion  of  the,  from  France, 
i.  8,  and  note  o;  their  inroads  upon 
Italy,  19,  and  note  p;  Eudon's  great 
victory  over  them,  100;  they  conquer 
Spain.  424;  mainspring  of  their  hero- 
ism, ii.  52;  their  internal  dissensions, 
ii,  55. 

Saragossa  taken  from  the  Moors,  i.  426. 

Sardinia  conquered  by  the  Pisans,  i.  361. 

Saxons,  obstinate  resistance  to  Charle- 
magne by  the,  i.  10;  true  cause  of  their 
wars  with  the  Franks,  102;  their  early 
kings,  2«!T. 

Scabini,  representative  character  of  the, 
i.  181;  their  functions,  201,  and  note  t. 


Scanderbeg,  protracted  opposition  of 
the  Turks  by,  11.  71. 

Sclavomans,  territories  occupied  by  the. 
i.  19. 

Scotus  (John),  an  exception  to  the  ig- 
norance of  his  times,  iii.  23. 

Scrope  (lord  steward),  answers  to  the 
commons  by,  ii.  319. 

Serfdom  and  villenage,  distinctive  feat- 
ures of,  i.  65,  67. 

Servitude  enforced  upon  the  cultivators 
of  the  soil  in  the  middle  ages,  i.  263, 
264. 

Sforza  Attendolo,  rise  to  distinction  of, 
i.  397. 

Sforza  (Francesco),  powerful  position 
achieved  by,  i.  398;  accession  and  as- 
sassination of  his  son  Galeazzo,  411; 
he  directs  the  French  king's  attention 
towards  Naples,  410. 

Sicily,  conquest  of  by  Roger  Guiscard, 
i.  290;  its  subsequent  fortunes,  304;  its 
rebellion  against  Charles  of  Anjou,  i. 
399;  union  of  Sicily  with  Aragon,  i. 
406. 

Sigismund,  elected  emperor  of  Germany, 
ii.  22,  acquires  the  crown  of  Hungary, 
ii.  37, 

Silvester  II.  (pope),  scientific  acquire- 
ments of,  iii.  23. 

Slavery,  existence  of  in  ancient  times,  i. 
165;  submitted  to  by  the  poor  for  sub- 
sistence' sake,  264;  Venetian  and  Eng- 
lish slave-trading,  iii  46 

Spain,  character  of  the  Visigothic  king- 
doms in,  i.  423;  kingdoms  of  Leon, 
Navarre,  Aragon,  and  Castile,  426; 
non-expulsion  of  the  Moors2  431 ;  Al- 
fonso X.  and  his  shortcomings,  433; 
Peter  the  Cruel,  434;  accession  of  the 
Trastamare  line,  436;  disgrace  and 
execution  of  Alvaro  de  Luna,  436,  437; 
composition  of  the  Cortes,  441. 

Sports  of  the  field,  popularity  of,  iii.  40. 

States-General  of  France,  memorable  re- 
sistance of  taxation  by  the,  i.  60;  con- 
voked by  Philip  IV.,  189,  190;  extent 
of  their  rights  as  to  taxation,  192,  193; 
their  protest  against  the  debasement 
of  the  com,  192;  they  compel  Charles 
VI.  to  revoke  all  illegal  taxes,  196; 
provincial  estates  and  their  jurisdic- 
tion, 198. 

Stratford  (Archbishop),  circumstances 
attending  the  trial  of,  iii.  187. 

Suevi,  part  of  the  Roman  empire  held  by 
the,  i.  3. 

Suffolk  (Duke  of),  impeachment  of,  ii. 
354- 

Sumptuary  laws,  enactment  and  disre- 
gard of,  iii.  71, 

Superstition,  learning  discouraged  by, 
ni.  8;  its  universal  prevalence,  26;  pre- 
tended miracles  and  their  attendant 
evils,  31;  redeeming  features  of  the 
system,  33. 

Swmeford  (Katherine),  proceedings 
relative  to  the  marriage  of,  ii.  332. 

twitzerland,  early  history  of,  ii.  40. 
yagrius,    Roman    provinces    governed 
by,  i.  3. 


Tacituss  general  accuracy  of  the  de- 
scriptions of,  i.  232. 

Taxation,  remarks  on  the  philosophy 
of,  i.  61;  clumsy  substitutes  for  taxes 
in  the  middle  ages,  174;  conditions 
annexed  by  the  States-General  to  a 
grant  of  taxes,  192;  taxes  tinder  the 


INDEX 


245 


Anglo-Norman m  kings,  ii.  g238,  239; 
Philip  de  Comines  on  taxation,  i.  199. 

Tenure  of  land  under  the  Anglo-Saxons 
and  Anglo-Normans,  n.  213,  219. 

Teutonic  knights,  establishment  of  the 
order  of,  i.  37. 

Timur,  conquering  career  of,  ii.  66. 

Tithes,  establishment  of,  11.  79;  origin  of 
lay  impropriators,  82. 

Toledo  taken  from  the  Moors,  i.  426. 

Toulouse,  non-submission  of  the  counts 
of  to  the  kings  of  France,  i.  26. 

Towns  and  cities,  earliest  charters 
granted  to,  i.  126;  privileges  of  in- 
corporated towns,  218;  inaependence 
of  maritime  towns,  221;  chartered 
towns  of  Spain,  427. 

Towns_  of  England,  progress  of  the,  ii. 
282;  incorporation  of  towns  by  charter, 
284;  prosperity  of  the  towns,  286;  par- 
ticipation of  its  citizens  in  constitu- 
tional struggles,  289. 

Trade  and  commerce,  mediaeval  non- 
existence  of,  lii.  44;  home  traffic  m 
slaves,  46;  woollen  manufactures  and 
vacillating  policy  of  the  English  kings 
relative  thereto,  48,  52;  growth  of 
English  commerce,  55;  commercial 
eminence  of  the  Italian  states,  56,  sB; 
invention  of  the  mariner's  compass, 
61;  practice  of  reprisals,  63;  liability 
of  aliens  for  each  other's  debts,  64; 
price  of  corn  and  cattle,  93. 

Trial  by  combat,  ceremonials  attending, 
i.  204,  205. 

Trial  by  jury  and  its  antecedents,  ii. 
204,  205  j  early  modes  of  trial,  172,  174. 

Turks,  Italian  fears  of  the,  i.  410;  tri- 
umphant progress  of  their  arms,  ii.  60; 
their  settlement  under  Othman,  65; 
the  janizaries,  70. 

Tuscany,  league  of  the  cities  of,  i.  307. 

Uladislaus  crowned  king  of  Hungary, 
ii.  38. 

Urban  II.,  encouragement  of  the  cru- 
sades by,  i.  32;  he  succeeds  Gregory 
VII.,  ii.  117- 

Urban  V.  retransfers  the  papal  court 
to  Avignon,  ii.  164. 

Urban  VI.  aids  Charles  of  Durazzo  in 
his  designs  on  Joanna  of  Naples,  i.  403. 

Urgel  (Count  of)  lays  claim  to  the  crown 
of  Aragon,  i.  458. 

Valencia,    constitution  of  the  kingdom 

Valentinian  III.,  authority  of  the  holy 
see  extended  by,  ii.  93. 

Vandals,  portions  of  the  Roman  empire 
possessed  by  the,  i.  3. 

Vase  of  Soissons,  story  of  the,  i.  127. 

Vavassors,  privileges  attaching  to  the 
rank  of,  i  162,  and  note  »~ 

Venice,  conflicts  of,  with  Genoa,  i.  364; 
her  alleged  early  independence,  372; 
her  Dalmatian  and  Levantine  acquisi- 
tions, 373;  her  government,  powers  of 
the  doge,  374,  Marin  Fallen's  treason, 
379;  territorial  acquisitions  of  Venice, 
382;  wars  of  the  republic  with  Ma- 
homet II.,  408. 

Verdun,  treaty  of,  i.  16. 

Vere,  fayoritism  of  Richard  II.  to- 
wards, ii.  325. 

Verona,  seized  by  Francesco  da  Car- 
rara, i.  383. 

Villeins  and  Villenage,  conditions  of 
villeins,  i.  167;  privileges  acquired  by 
them,  168,  169;  their  obligations,  265; 


their  legal  position  in  England,  267; 
villenage  never  established  in  Leon 
and  Castile,  427;  question  of  its  exist- 
ence among  the  Anglo-Saxons,  ii. 
197;  dependence  of  the  villein  on  his 
lord,  419;  merger  of  villeins  into  hired 
laborers,  424;  effects  of  the  anti-poll 
tax  insurrection,  427;  disappearance  of 
villenage,  429. 

Visconti  and  Torriani  families,  rivalry 
of  the,  i.  332;  tyranny  of  Bernabo  Vis- 
conti, i.  359;  Filippo  Viaconti's  acces- 
sion, 384;  his  mistrust  of  Sforza,  399; 
his  alliance  with  Alfonso,  409;  quar- 
rels of  the  family  with  the  popes, 
ii.  159- 

Visigoths,  portions  of  the  Roman  prov- 
inces possessed  by  the,  i.  3;  their 
mode  of  dividing  conquered  provinces, 
120;  difference  between  the  Frank 
monarchy  and  theirs,  i.  423,  424. 

Wages,  futility  of  laws  for  the  regula- 
tion of,  ii.  425. 

Wai  worth  and  Philpot  made  stewards 
of  a  subsidy  (temp.  Richard  II.),  ii. 
318. 

War,  private,  exercise  of  the  right  of, 
i.  173;  its  prevalence  amongst  the 
German  nobles,  ii.  29,  30. 

Warna,  circumstances  which  led  to  the 
battle  of,  ii.  38. 

Warwick  (Earl  of),  popularity  of  the, 
ii.  323  j  made  a  lord  appellant,  330. 

Wenceslaus,  confirmed  in  the  imperial 
succession,  ii.  22. 

Wicliff  (John),  influence  of  the  tenets 
of,  ii.  174,  426,  note  r,  iii.  no,  in. 

William  of  Holland  elected  emperor  of 
Germany,  ii.  12. 

William  the  Conqueror,  separation  of 
the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  tribunals 
by,  ii.  148;  position  of  England  at  i  its 
conquest  by  him,  221;  his  devastating 
clearances  for  forests,  229;  his  feudal 
innovations,  231;  his  preservation  of 
public  peace  and  efforts  to  learn  Eng- 
lish, 233;  tyranny  of  his  government, 
236. 

Winchester,  early  opulence  and  popu- 
lousness  of,  iii.  198. 

Windsor  Castle,  laborers  for  the  erec- 
tion of,  how  procured,  ii.  400. 

Winfrid  (St.  Boniface),  importance  of 
the  ecclesiastical  changes  effected  by, 
ii.  96. 

Winkelned,  the  Swiss  patriot,  heroic 
death  of,  ii.  43. 

Witikind,  acknowledgment  of  Charle- 
magne's authority  by,  i.  xx. 

Witenagemot,  bishops  appointed  by 
the,  ii.  no;  its  characteristics,  ii.  200. 

Women,  legal  position  of  in  Italy  dur- 
ing coverture,  i.  125,  note  v. 

Woollen  manufacture,  established  in 
Flanders,  iii.  48;  export  of  wool  from 
England,  50;  laws  relative  to  the  trade, 

Wykehatn  (bishop  of  Winchester),  in- 
vested with  the  great  seal,  ii.  331. 

York  (Richard,  Duke  of),  appointed 
protector  to  Henry  VI.,  ii.  437. 

Yorkists  and  Lancastrians,  wars  of  the, 
ii.  442- 

Zimisces    (John),    military   exploits   of, 

ii.  60. 
Zisca  (John),  the  blind  hero,  victories 

of  the  Bohemians  under,  i.  397* 


'THE  WORLD'S 
GREAT -CLASSICS 


LIBRARY 
COMM1TTE 


TIMOTHY  DWIGHI  D.D.  LLD. 
RICHARD  HENKY^TODDARD 
ARTHVR  RICHMOND  MARSH.  AB. 
PAVLVAN  DYRE.D.D. 
ALBERT  ELLERY  BERGH 


•  1 LLVSTRATED  •  WITH  •  NE ARLY  TWO- 
•HVNDRED-PHOTOGRAVVRE5  •  ETCH" 
•INGS  COLORED-PLATE5-AND-FVLL- 

•  PAGE-  PORTRAiTS-OF'GREAT-AVTHORS  • 

CLARENCE  COOK  ••  ART  EDITOR. 


•THE  •  COLONIAL-  PR.E55  • 

•  NEW-YORK  =        MDCCCXCIX 


MODERN 
HISTORY 


JULES  MICHELET 

(Translated  from  the  French  by  M.  C.  M.  SIMPSON) 


WITH  A  SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION  BY 
WILLIAM    MACDONALD,  PH.D. 

PROFESSOR   OF   HISTORY   AND   POLITICAL    SCIENCE   AT 
BOWDOIN   COLLEGE 


REVISED  EDITION 


THE 
COLONIAl 


COPYRIGHT,  1899, 
BY  THE  COLONIAL  PRESS 


SPECIAL    INTRODUCTION 

TO  write  the  history  of  modern  Europe  has  been  the 
laudable  ambition  of  many  scholars;  but  to  give  to 
the  story  a  form  at  once  concise  and  illuminating 
has  proved,  in  most  instances,  an  impossible  task.  The 
undertaking,  indeed,  is  not  an  easy  one.  From  whatever 
standpoint  it  may  be  viewed — whether  its  chronological  ex- 
tent, or  its  mass  of  detail,  or  its  balance  of  parts — the  progress 
is  along  a  road  full  of  pitfalls  for  the  unwary,  and  beset 
with  difficulties  even  for  the  most  cautious  and  best  equipped. 
Those  .who  have  essayed  the  work  have  commonly  attained  one 
of  two  results.  They  have  given  us  either  an  orderly  statement 
of  events,  accurate  enough,  of  course,  but  devoid  of  literary  in- 
terest; or  else  an  entertaining  treatment  of  episodes,  brilliant, 
often,  and  important,  but  little  suggestive  of  the  continuity  which 
is,  after  all,  the  great  characteristic  of  history.  Any  one  can 
write  annals;  many  can  write  essays;  few  can  make  the  chief 
things  of  an  historical  period  unfold  before  us  with  a  sure  im- 
pression of  inevitableness.  That  Michelet  should  have  pro- 
duced, in  his  youth,  a  summary  account  of  European  history 
which  is  not  only  better  than  most  of  its  competitors,  but  also 
in  itself  a  work  of  distinction,  is  a  notable  thing  in  modern  his- 
torical writing. 

Born  in  Paris,  August  21,  1798,  Jules  Michelet  had  none  of 
the  advantages  of  social  position  and  pecuniary  resource  which 
have  often  so  much  aided  the  development  of  genius.  His  pa- 
rents, natives,  the  one  of  the  Ardennes,  the  other  of  Picardy,came 
to  Paris  after  the  Reign  of  Terror,  and  set  up,  in  the  choir  of  an 
old  church,  a  printing  office ;  and  it  was  here  that  Michelet  was 
born.  The  hand  of  Napoleon,  however,  bore  heavily  on  news- 
papers and  books,  and  the  family  before  long  came  to  want.  So 
the  young  Jules  learned,  at  a.  tender  age,  the  trade  of  a  printer, 
supplementing  with  his  youthful  efforts  the  labor  of  his  father 

iii 


iv  MICHELET 

and  grandfather,  other  workmen  having  been,  perforce,  dis- 
charged. Such  surroundings  gave  scanty  opportunity  for  edu- 
cation. Michelet  had  lessons  from  an  old  bookseller,  "of  old- 
fashioned  manners,  but  an  ardent  revolutionist/'  and  read 
eagerly  a  few  books,  among  them  the  "Imitation  of  Christ."  To 
the  hard  conditions  and  intellectual  eagerness  of  his  early  years 
we  can  trace  three  characteristics  always  prominent  in  him.  His 
humble  origin,  shown  to  the  last  even  in  the  lines  of  his  face, 
gave  him  a  fundamental  sympathy  with  the  people;  the  old  book- 
seller inspired  him  with  love  for  the  French  Revolution,  to  whose 
history  he  was  later  to  devote  himself;  and  Thomas  a  Kempis 
made  him  religious. 

Thanks  to  the  devotion  and  sacrifices  of  his  parents,  Michelet 
was  enabled  to  enter  the  Lycee  Charlemagne,  where  his  abilities 
soon  won  him  the  favorable  notice  and  welcome  assistance  of 
Villemain,  statesman  and  critic,  and  Leclerc.  Socially,  however, 
his  college  life  was  a  round  of  sadness.  His  fellow  students 
taunted  him  on  his  plebeian  birth  and  his  poverty,  and  sneered 
at  his  efforts  to  raise  himself  in  the  world.  The  harsh  treatment 
drove  him  to  solitude,  and  made  him  seek  companionship  in 
books ;  but  he  seems  not  to  have  lost  faith  in  himself,  nor  to  have 
treasured  ill-feeling  towards  his  associates. 

In  1821  he  passed  his  examination  at  the  university,  and  in 
the  same  year  became  professor  of  history  at  the  college  of  St. 
Barbe.  Three  years  later  he  married,  and  settled  down  to  the 
quiet  life  of  a  student,  writer  and  teacher.  But  the  time  was  a 
stirring  one.  The  reactionary  policy  of  the  government,  fol- 
lowing upon  the  accession  of  Charles  X.  in  1824,  was  forcing 
into  the  liberal  party  many  of  the  foremost  journalists,  teachers, 
and  literary  men  of  France.  Both  within  and  without  France 
intellectual  life  was  vigorous  and  productive.  The  decade  from 
1820  to  1830  was  at  once  the  end  of  one  literary  period  and  the 
beginning  of  another.  It  saw  the  death  of  De  Maistre,  St. 
Simon,  and  Pestalozzi,  of  Hoffman,  Jean  Paul  Richter  and 
Schlegel,  of  Keats,  Byron,  Shelley,  and  Ricardo.  It  saw  also 
the  birth  of  Renan,  George  Eliot,  Spencer,  Tyndall,  Matthew 
Arnold,  Buckle,  Rossetti,  Huxley,  and  George  Meredith.  The 
same  years  saw  the  publication  of  Goethe's  "Wilhelm  Meister," 
and  the  correspondence  of  Goethe  and  Schiller;  of  Heine's 


SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION  v 

"Gedichte,"  "Reisebilder,"  and  "Buch  der  Lieder";  and  of  the 
first  part  of  Comte's  "Positive  Philosophy." 

With  the  political  ferment  of  Paris  ever  in  full  view,  Michelet 
could  hardly  have  helped  becoming,  to  some  degree,  a  politician, 
even  had  he  not  been  so  disposed.  But  he  was  so  disposed,  and 
the  events  taking  place  before  him  drew  a  larger  and  larger  share 
of  his  enthusiastic  attention.  Yet  he  was  first  of  all  a  literary 
man,  happiest  in  his  study  or  his  lecture  room,  expressing  with 
his  marvellously  facile  pen  his  political,  philosophical,  literary, 
and  religious  ideas;  and  he  ceased  to  write  only  when  he  ceased 
to  live. 

Michelet's  first  considerable  work,  and  the  one  in  which  his 
powers  were  first  evident,  was  the  "Summary  of  Modern  His- 
tory," published  in  1827.  In  the  same  year  he  was  appointed 
professor  of  history  and  philosophy  at  the  Ecole  Normale,  a 
position  which  he  held  for  ten  years.  The  revolution  of  1830 
opened  the  way  to  further  advancement,  and  he  became,  by 
favor  of  Guizot,  an  official  in  the  Archives  Nationale,  and,  later, 
a  deputy  professor  in  the  university.  His  "Roman  History/* 
begun  in  1828,  appeared  in  1831,  as  did  also  his  "Introduction 
to  Universal  History."  The  former  essayed  to  awaken,  for 
classical  history,  the  enthusiasm  which  the  works  of  Thierry  and 
Guizot  had  aroused  for  the  study  of  the  middle  ages.  The  latter 
pointed  to  the  revolution  of  1830  as  the  climax  of  the  history  of 
France.  Other  historical  and  critical  writings,  all  the  fruits  of 
extended  research,  followed  rapidly,  including  an  edition  of  the 
select  works  of  Vico,  the  Italian  philosopher;  the  "Memoirs  of 
Luther,"  in  the  form  of  extracts  from  his  writings;  "Les  Ori- 
gines  du  Droit  Frangais ;  "  and  two  volumes,  under  the  title  of 
"  Les  Pieces  de  Proces  des  Templiers,"  for  the  great  "  Collec- 
tion des  Documents  Inedits  relatifs  a  FHistoire  de  France." 

In  1837  Michelet  left  the  Ecole  Normale,  and  the  next  year 
became  professor  of  history  and  moral  philosophy  at  the  Col- 
lege de  France.  No  two  positions  could  have  offered  more 
striking  contrasts.  "Instead  of  a  small  number  of  pupils  to 
whom  he  had  to  teach  positive  facts,  and  a  rigorous  method  in  a 
simple  form,  he  saw  before  him  an  ardent,  impressionable,  en- 
thusiastic crowd,  who  demanded  no  serious  scientific  instruc- 
tion, but  the  momentary  excitement  awakened  by  noble  and 


VI 


MICHELET 


eloquent  words.  The  dudes  of  his  professorship  were  of  a 
vague,  hybrid  nature,  and  seemed  to  justify  a  teaching  that  dealt 
more  with  general  ideas  than  with  facts,  and  gave  greater  prom- 
inence to  daring  syntheses  than  to  the  patient  processes  of  crit- 
icism/' The  new  atmosphere  was  congenial  Never  con- 
sciously distorting  facts,  and  basing  even  his  minor  works  on 
unwearied  investigation,  Michelet,  nevertheless,  soon  came  to 
approach  the  study  of  history  with  certain  prepossessions,  and 
an  unmistakable  expectation  of  finding  what  he  sought.  As 
the  brilliant  expounder  of  a  theory  of  things,  accordingly,  he 
was  well  fitted  to  arouse  enthusiasm  and  provoke  discussion. 

Political  events,  too,  were  favorable.  With  the  ministry  of 
Guizot,  in  October,  1840,  France  ceased  to  be  aggressive,  na- 
tional ideals  and  aspirations  were  less  regarded,  and  opposition 
and  reaction  took  the  place  of  progress.  Torn  and  distracted 
as  France  had  been,  and  delicate  as  were  the  international  rela- 
tions, men  of  liberal  mind  began  to  think  again  of  revolution. 
Alarm  at  the  renewed  activity  of  the  Jesuits  offered  an  occasion ; 
and  upon  that  order  Michelet  and  his  colleague,  Quinet,  began 
a  violent  attack.  The  effect  was  profound.  Michelet's  lecture 
room,  already  well  filled,  was  now  crowded.  The  lectures  on 
the  Jesuits,  published  in  1843,  were  followed  in  1846  by  "  Le 
Peuple,"  in  which  he  "proclaimed  the  sufferings,  aspirations, 
and  hopes  of  the  proletaire  and  the  peasant"  To  teach  the 
youth  of  France  the  true  significance  of  the  revolution  of  1789, 
he  began  a  history  of  it,  issuing  the  first  of  its  seven  volumes  in 
1848. 

But  1848  was  a  year  of  revolution  and  political  upheaval,  and 
the  labors  of  Michelet  began  to  react  to  his  undoing.  The  poet- 
historian  was  also  an  agitator,  and,  consequently,  a  dangerous 
person.  In  1850  he  lost  his  professorship  at  the  College  de 
France,  and,  in  1851,  his  position  in  the  Archives  Nationales.  A 
discussion  of  the  historical  bases  of  morality,  under  the  title  of 
"Le  Pretre,  la  Femme,  et  la  Famille,"  appeared  in  the  latter  year. 
In  1853  He  finished  the  "History  of  the  French  Revolution." 
But  he  refused  to  take  the  oaths  required  by  the  new  empire,  and 
his  public  career  was  at  an  end.  He  had  married  a  second  time, 
and  henceforth  divided  his  time  between  Italy  and  France.  Liv- 
ing henceforth  much  in  the  country,  his  wife  drew  him  to  the 


SPECIAL   INTRODUCTION  vii 

study  of  nature — a  study  which  bore  fruit  in  a  series  of  small 
books,  published  at  intervals  between  1856  and  1868,  in  which 
the  phenomena  of  the  external  world  receive  a  brilliant  poetical 
and  philosophical  interpretation  at  the  hands  of  a  devout  and 
mystical  pantheist.  The  most  remarkable,  perhaps,  of  his  small 
pieces  is  "  La  Sorciere/'  published  in  1862 — "  a  nightmare 
and  nothing  more,  but  a  nightmare  of  the  most  extraordinary 
verisimilitude  and  poetical  power." 

The  great  literary  work  of  his  life,  and  the  one  to  which  his 
innumerable  other  writings  were  either  subordinate  or  supple- 
mentary, was  the  "History  of  France/*  As  an  official  in  the 
public  records  office,  Michelet  had  early  come  to  know  the  vast 
treasures  of  manuscript  and  printed  sources  in  which,  if  any- 
where, the  history  of  France  was  to  be  found;  and  to  the  study 
of  this  documentary  material  he  thenceforth  devoted  himself 
laboriously  and  zealously,  and  with  unflagging  enthusiasm.  The 
first  volume  appeared  in  1833,  the  nineteenth  and  last  in  1867. 
A  monument  of  learning  and  industry,  and  one  of  the  most  brill- 
iant pieces  of  historical  work  ever  written,  it  is,  unfortunately, 
too  erratic  to  be  safe,  and  too  picturesque  to  be  true.  Yet  no 
Frenchman  can  read  it  without  a  kindling  love  for  the  country 
whose  history  is  capable  of  such  idealistic  handling. 

Always  cheerful  rather  than  despondent,  and  led  by  his  study 
of  nature  to  believe  in  the  progress  of  all  nations  towards  perfec- 
tion, Michelet  looked  forward  more  and  more  eagerly  to  the  day 
when  France  should  throw  off  the  burdens  which  had  thus  far 
hindered  her,  and  gain  the  free  and  influential  place  to  which  her 
history  and  her  powers  entitled  her.  Shattered  by  the  revolu- 
tion of  1848,  his  hopes  revived  again  under  the  events  of  1867 
and  1869,  only  to  be  blasted  by  the  dreadful  awakening  of  1870 
-1871.  Unable  to  risk  the  hardships  of  the  siege,  he  withdrew 
from  Paris  to  Italy,  began  a  history  of  the  Nineteenth  Century, 
and  published  three  volumes  of  it  in  as  many  years.  But  his 
hopes  were  dead,  and  his  feeble  body  could  no  longer  endure. 
At  Hyeres,  on  the  ninth  of  February,  1874,  he  died. 

A  friend,  Gabriel  Monod,  has  given  us  a  graceful  description 
of  Michelet's  daily  life  and  personal  characteristics.  He  says : 

"Never  was  life  better  regulated  than  his.  He  was  at  work  at 
six  in  the  morning,  and  remained  shut  up  in  his  study  till  twelve 


viii  MICHELET 

or  one,  without  allowing  any  one  to  disturb  him.  Even  when 
travelling  or  at  the  seaside,  or  in  Switzerland,  he  adhered  reso- 
lutely to  his  accustomed  hours  of  work.  The  afternoon  was 
devoted  to  social  intercourse  and  exercise.  From  four  to  six  he 
was  always  visible  to  his  friends,  and  with  very  rare  exceptions 
retired  to  rest  at  ten  or  half-past,  never  working  at  night.  He 
was  extremely  moderate  in  his  habits,  and  never  took  any  stimu- 
lant but  coffee,  of  which  he  was'  passionately  fond.  He  never 
would  accept  any  dinner  or  evening  engagements.  All  distrac- 
tions which  might  destroy  the  unity  of  life  and  the  harmony  of 
thought  he  systematically  avoided.  That  his  mind  might  be 
completely  free,  he  preferred  that  everything  about  him  should 
remain  stationary.  He  never  allowed  the  cloth  that  covered  his 
writing-table  to  be  changed,  nor  the  old  torn  pasteboard  boxes 
which  held  his  papers  to  be  renewed;  and  his  calm,  peaceable 
character  perfectly  accorded  with  the  regularity  of  his  life.  He 
was  simple  and  affable  in  his  address;  and  his  conversation,  a 
delightful  mixture  of  poetry  and  wit,  never  degenerated  into 
monologue.  The  traditionary  old  French  politeness  distin- 
guished his  manners.  He  treated  all  who  came  to  him,  what- 
ever their  age  or  rank,  with  the  same  regard,  which  with  him 
was  not  mere  empty  formality,  but  felt  by  all  to  spring  from 
genuine  goodness  of  heart  His  dress  was  always  irreproach- 
able. I  see  him  now  seated  in  his  armchair  at  his  evening  recep- 
tion, in  a  close-fitting  frock-coat  on  which  no  speck  of  dust  was 
ever  visible;  his  trousers  strapped  over  his  patent-leather  shoes, 
and  holding  a  white  handkerchief  in  his  hand,  which  was  delicate 
and  nervous  and  well-tended  like  a  woman's." 

Michelef  s  historical  method  is,  in  most  respects,  as  distinctive 
as  his  style.  History  to  him  is  not  merely  the  orderly  succes- 
sion of  events;  it  is  rather  the  unfolding  of  ideas.  Around  and 
within  the  everyday  world  is  another,  a  world  of  intellectual  and 
moral  aspiration  and  conflict,  of  struggle  for  self-realization,  of 
poetic  vision;  and  it  is  this  that  he  loves  most  to  treat  Hence 
his  historical  works  are  no  matter-of-fact  chronicle,  no  plain 
tale  of  battle  and  achievement,  but  brilliant  settings  forth  of  sig- 
nificant and  striking  incidents.  Unable  to  look  upon  anything 
without  idealizing  it,  he  kindled  with  his  lively  imagination  the 
scenes  which  laborious  research  revealed  to  him,  until  they 


SPECIAL   INTRODUCTION  ix 

shone  and  sparkled  with  a  many-colored  light.  His  brilliancy 
was  at  once  his  strength  and  his  weakness.  He  was  the  first  of 
modern  historical  writers  to  make  the  middle  ages  picturesque; 
but  he  could  not  help,  often,  making  events  seem  clearer  than 
they  really  were,  and  his  later  and  more  elaborate  writings, 
though  stimulating  to  the  last  degree,  have  suffered  under  more 
prosaic  examination. 

But  with  the  "Summary  of  Modern  History"  the  case  is  dif- 
ferent. Here  we  have  Michelet  in  his  earlier  manner — a  man- 
ner brilliant,  of  course,  and  extremely  effective,  but  restrained, 
balanced,  and  discriminating.  The  story  of  European  progress, 
from  the  fall  of  Constantinople  before  the  Turks,  in  1453, to  tne 
outbreak  of  the  French  Revolution,  in  1789,  is  told  with  ac- 
curacy and  impartiality,  and  with  generally  just  appraisal  of 
relative  worth  and  importance.  There  is  neither  undue  em- 
phasis on  the  history  of  France,  nor  development  of  a  particular 
thesis  at  the  expense  of  the  general  view.  Written  two  genera- 
tions ago,  when  historical  investigation,  in  the  modern  sense, 
had  scarcely  begun,  it  is  still  one  of  the  best  accounts  of  the 
period  it  covers,  and  needs  singularly  little  correction  in  this  day 
of  critical  learning;  while  it  has  still  to  be  surpassed,  in  point  of 
literary  attractiveness,  by  any  work  of  similar  plan  and  scope. 

WILLIAM  MACDONALD. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

FACING   PACK 

JULES    MlCHELET    (Portrait)   .....        FwntisfUce 
Photogravure  from  an  engraving 

ASSASSINATION  OF  THE  DUKE  OF  GUISE      .          .         .         .64 

Photogravure  from  a  painting 

L'EMINENCE  GRISE       .          .          .          .          .          .         -          .160 

Photogravure  from  a  painting 


MODERN    HISTORY. 
INTRODUCTION. 

In  the  ancient  history  of  Europe  the  scene  is  occupied  alter- 
nately by  two  predominant  nations  or  peoples ;  and  for  the  most 
part  there  is  a  unity  both  of  action  and  interest.  This  unity, 
which  is  less  visible  in  the  middle  ages,  reappears  in  modern  his- 
tory and  manifests  itself  chiefly  in  the  revolutions  of  the  balance 
of  power. 

The  date  which  separates  the  history  of  the  middle  ages  from 
modern  history  cannot  be  assigned  with  precision.  If  we  con- 
sider the  history  of  the  middle  ages  as  ending  with  the  last  inva- 
sion of  the  barbarians  (that  of  the  Turks),  modern  history  will 
include  the  three  centuries  and  a  half  which  separate  the  taking 
of  Constantinople  by  the  Turks  from  the  French  Revolution, 

I453—I789' 

Modern  history  we  may  divide  into  three  great  periods : 

I.  From  the  taking  of  Constantinople  to  Luther's  Reforma- 
tion, 1453—1517. 

II.  From  the  Reformation  to  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia,  1517 
— 1648. 

III.  From  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia  to  the  French  Revolu- 
tion, 1648 — 1789. 

The  system  of  the  balance  of  power,  which  was  coming  into 
existence  during  the  first  period,  took  its  perfect  shape  in  the 
second,  and  was  maintained  in  the  third.  When  viewed  rela- 
tively to  the  balance  of  power,  the  two  latter  periods  fall  into 
five  separate  sub-divisions  of  that  system:  1517 — 1559;  1559 — 
1603;  1603—1648;  1648 — 1715;  1715 — 1789. 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

L  The  great  States  which  are  formed  by  the  successive  falling 
in  of  fiefs  have  a  continuous  tendency  to  swallow  up  smaller 
States,  either  by  way  of  conquest  or  by  marriage. 

I.  Republics  are  absorbed  by  monarchies;  elective  States  by 
hereditary  States.  This  tendency  to  absolute  unity  is  checked 
by  the  balance  of  power. 


2  MICHELET 

2.  Intermarriages  between  sovereigns  introduce  family  con- 
nections and  rivalries  into  European  politics. 

II.  The  tendency  of  Europe  to  conquer  and  civilize  the  rest 
of  the  world.    The  supremacy  of  the  European  States  over  their 
colonies  was  not  shaken  until  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

1.  Importance  of  the  great  maritime  powers.     Commercial 
communication  between  every  quarter  of  the  globe.    (Ancient 
nations  had  communicated  more  often  through  war  than  by 
commerce.) 

2.  Politics,  influenced  in  the  middle  ages  and  up  to  the  end  of 
the  sixteenth  century  by  religious  interests,  became  more  and 
more  subject  in  modern  times  to  those  of  commerce. 

III.  Opposition  between  the  Southern  races  (those  of  a  Latin 
language  and  civilization)  and  the  Northern  races  (those  of  a 
Teutonic  language  and  civilization). 

1.  The  Western  nations  developed  civilization  and  carried  it 
to  the  most  distant  countries. 

2.  The  Eastern  nations  (mostly  of  Sclavonic  origin)  were  for 
a  long  time  occupied  in  protecting  Europe  against  the  bar- 
barians, and  their  progress  in  the  arts  of  peace  was  consequently 
slower. 

3.  The  Scandinavian  nations  of  the  North,  placed  as  they  are 
at  the  furthest  bounds  of  European  civilization,  were  in  much 
the  same  state  as  the  Sclavonic  nations  of  the  East. 


FIRST  PERIOD  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

FROM  THE  TAKING  OF  CONSTANTINOPLE  BY  THE  TURKS 
TO  LUTHER'S  REFORMATION,  1453—1517. 

This  period,  the  border-land  of  the  middle  ages  and  of  modern 
history,  is  less  easily  characterized  than  the  two  following:  the 
events  are  more  complex  in  their  importance,  and  more  difficult 
to  understand  in  their  relation  to  each  other.  Each  State  was 
making  continual  efforts  toward  internal  consolidation  before 
joining  itself  with  neighboring  States.  The  first  attempts  toward 
a  balance  of  power  date  from  the  end  of  this  period. 

The  nations  already  civilized  in  the  middle  ages  were  brought 
into  subjection  by  those  that  had  preserved  the  military  temper 
of  the  age  which  preceded  them;  the  Provencals  by  the  French, 
the  Moors  by  the  Spaniards,  the  Greeks  by  the  Turks,  the  Ital- 
ians by  the  Spaniards  and  the  French. 

Internal  Condition  of  the  Principal  States  among  the  Nations 
of  Teutonic  Origin. — Among  these,  the  only  States  which  were 
subject  to  the  feudal  system,  properly  so  called,  a  free  burgher 
middle-class  (developed  through  the  advance  of  well-being  and 


MODERN  HISTORY  3 

industry)  had  risen  up,  and  supported  the  sovereigns  against  the 
nobles. 

By  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  feudal  system  had 
triumphed  throughout  the  Empire;  in  Castile  it  had  humiliated 
the  kings;  it  continued  to  exist  without  control  in  Portugal 
(which  was  busily  engaged  in  war  and  African  discoveries);  in 
the  three  Northern  kingdoms  (which,  since  the  Union  of  Cal- 
mar,  had  been  the  prey  of  anarchy);  in  England  through  the 
Wars  of  the  Roses;  and  in  Naples  during  the  quarrels  of  the 
houses  of  Aragon  and  Anjou.  But  in  Scotland  and  in  France  it 
was  already  the  object  of  attack  on  the  part  of  the  kings. 
Charles  VII.,  the  conqueror  of  the  English,  prepared  its  down- 
fall by  his  institutions;  and  before  the  end  of  the  century, 
through  the  reigns  of  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  and  Ferdinand 
the  Bastard,  of  John  II.  (of  Portugal),  of  Henry  VIL,  and  Louis 
XL,  the  royal  power  rose  into  supremacy  on  the  ruins  of 
feudalism. 

Three  States  stand  apart  from  this  general  picture.  While 
other  nations  tended  toward  monarchical  unity,  Italy  remained 
divided;  the  power  of  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  reached  its  height 
only  to  crumble  awray;  while  the  military  republic  of  Switzer- 
land rose  into  importance. 

Internal  Condition  of  the  Sclavonic  States. — The  aspect  of  the 
two  great  Sclavonic  nations  presents  a  difference  which  reveals 
to  us  their  destiny.  Russia  became  united,  and  began  to  emerge 
from  barbarism ;  Poland,  while  modifying  her  constitution,  re- 
mained faithful  to  the  anarchical  forms  of  government  prevalent 
during  the  middle  ages. 

Mutual  Relations  of  the  Principal  States  of  East  and  West. — 
The  European  commonwealth  no  longer  possessed  the  unity  of 
impulse  given  to  it  by  religion  in  the  time  of  the  Crusades;  nor 
was  it  yet  clearly  divided  as  it  became  afterward  by  the  Reforma- 
tion. It  was  separated  into  several  groups,  partly  from  their 
geographical  and  partly  from  their  political  connection;  Eng- 
land with  Scotland  and  France;  Aragon  with  Castile  and  Italy; 
Italy  and  Germany  with  every  other  State  (either  directly  or 
indirectly).  Turkey  grouped  itself  with  Hungary;  Hungary 
with  Bohemia  and  Austria;  Poland  formed  the  common  link  be- 
tween the  East  and  the  North,  of  which  she  was  the  preponder- 
ating influence. 

The  three  kingdoms  of  the  North  and  Russia  formed  two 
worlds  apart. 

The  Western  States,  most  of  them  a  prey  to  internal  discord, 
rested  from  foreign  wars.  In  the  North,  Sweden,  which  had 
been  chained  for  sixty  years  to  Denmark,  broke  th^  Union  of 
Calmar;  Russia  emancipated  herself  from  the  Tartars;  the  Teu- 
tonic Order  became  the  vassal  of  Poland.  All  the  Oriental 


4  MICHELET 

States  were  threatened  by  the  Turks,  who,  since  the  taking  of 
Constantinople,  had  no  longer  any  cause  for  apprehension  from 
the  nations  in  their  rear,  and  were  held  in  check  only  by  Hun- 
gary. The  Emperor,  engaged  in  founding  the  greatness  of  his 
dynasty,  and  Germany,  in  repairing  the  disasters  of  civil  and 
religious  wars,  seemed  oblivious  of  danger. 

We  may  set  aside  therefore  the  history  of  the  North  and  the 
East  to  follow  without  interruption  the  revolutions  of  the  West- 
ern States.  We  shall  then  see  both  England  and  Portugal,  and 
in  a  yet  higher  degree  Spain  and  France,  take  an  attitude  of 
imposing  grandeur,  the  result  of  their  conquests  in  recently  dis- 
covered countries,  and  of  the  union  of  the  whole  national  author- 
ity in  the  hands  of  their  kings.  In  Italy  these  new  forces  were 
to  develop  themselves  through  an  obstinate  contest.  We  must 
observe  therefore  the  means  by  which  Italy  was  opened  to  for- 
eigners before  we  enter  upon  the  struggles  of  which  she  became 
the  theatre  in  this  and  the  next  period.^ 


SECOND  PERIOD  OF  MODERN  HISTORY. 

FROM  THE   REFORMATION  TO  THE  TREATY  OF  WEST- 
PHALIA,  1517—1648. 

The  second  period  of  modern  history  opened  with  the  rivalry 
between  Francis  I.,  Charles  V.,  and  Soliman;  above  all,  it  was 
characterized  by  the  Reformation.  The  house  of  Austria,  whose 
colossal  power  could  alone  close  Europe  to  the  Turks,  seemed 
to  have  defended  only  to  enslave  her.  But  Charles  V.  encoun- 
tered a  threefold  barrier.  Francis  L  and  Soliman  opposed  the 
Emperor  from  motives  of  personal  ambition,  and  saved  the  inde- 
pendence of  Europe.  When  Francis  I.  was  exhausted,  Soliman 
supported  him,  and  Charles  met  with  a  new  obstacle  in  the 
League  of  the  German  Protestants.  This  is  the  first  sub-division 
of  the  Reformation  and  the  balance  of  power,  1517 — 1559. 

1559 — 1603.  Second  Sub-division  of  the  Balance  of  Power 
and  of  the  Reformation. — The  Reformation  had  already  spread 
throughout  Europe,  and  especially  in  France,  England,  Scot- 

aThe  limits  of  this  sketch  do  not  al-  fined  to  the  Baltic  (Hanseatic  League) 

low  us  to  trace  the  history  of  civiliza-  and  the  Mediterranean  (Venice,  Genoa, 

tion  in  Europe  simultaneously  with  its  Florence,  Barcelona,  and  Marseilles),  is 

political  history.    We  must  be  satisfied  extended  to  all  seas  by  the  voyages  of 

with  noting  here  its   starting  point  in  Columbus,    of   Gama,    etc.,   and   passes 

the  fifteenth  century.    Rise  of  the  spirit  into  the  hands  of  the  Western  nations 

of  invention  and  discovery.— In  litera-  towards  the  end  of  this  period.— Com- 

ture,  enthusiasm  for  learning  stops  for  merce    by    land:    merchant    towns    of 

some  time  the  development  of  modern  Lombardy,  the  Low  Countries,  and  the 

intellect— Invention  of  printing  [1436—  Free  Towns   of   Germany,    commercial 

i452].—More  frequent  use  of  gunpowder  centres  for  the  North  and  the   South. 

and  of  the  compass.— Discoveries  of  the  —Manufacturing  industry  of  the   same 

Portuguese    and    of    the  m  Spaniards.—  nations,  especially  in  the  Netherlands. 
Maritime    commerce,    until    now    con- 


MODERN  HISTORY  5 

land,  and  the  Low  Countries.  Spain,  the  only  Western  country 
which  remained  closed  to  it,  declared  herself  its  adversary. 
Philip  II.  endeavored  to  bring  Europe  back  to  religious  unity, 
and  to  extend  his  dominion  over  all  the  Western  nations.  Dur- 
ing the  whole  of  the  second  period,  and  especially  during  this 
time,  foreign  and  domestic  wars  went  on  together  in  almost 
every  country. 

1603 — 1648.  Third  Sub-division  of  the  Balance  of  Power 
and  of  the  Reformation. — The  movement  of  the  Reformation 
finally  brought  about  two  simultaneous  but  independent  results : 
a  revolution  which  ended  in  civil  war,  and  a  war  which  assumed 
the  character  of  a  revolution;  or,  rather,  of  a  Civil  War  in  the 
European  commonwealth.  In  England  the  Reformation  tri- 
umphed only  to  divide  against  itself.  In  Germany  it  swept  every 
State  into  the  whirlpool  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  From  this 
chaos  arose  the  system  of  the  balance  of  power,  which  was  to 
continue  during  the  succeeding  period. 

The  Eastern  and  Northern  nations  were  no  longer  foreign  to 
the  Western  system,  as  in  the  preceding  periods.  In  the  first  of 
the  three  periods  which  we  have  mentioned  Turkey  entered  into 
the  balance  of  Europe;  in  the  third,  Sweden  intervened  still  more 
decisively  in  Western  affairs.  In  the  second,  Livonia  brought 
the  Sclavonic  States  into  contact  with  the  Scandinavian,  from 
which  they  had  been  completely  separated  up  to  that  time. 

From  the  commencement  of  this  period  the  sovereigns  held 
united  in  their  own  hands  the  whole  power  of  the  nations  they 
ruled,  and  offered  to  their  subjects  internal  peace  and  distant 
conquests  in  exchange  for  their  privileges.  Commerce  devel- 
oped itself  enormously  in  spite  of  the  system  of  monopoly  whose 
organization  dates  from  this  time. 


THIRD  PERIOD   OF  MODERN   HISTORY. 

FROM  THE   TREATY  OF  WESTPHALIA  TO  THE  FRENCH 
REVOLUTION,  1648—1789. 

In  this  period  the  principal  influence  was  entirely  political;  it 
was  the  maintenance  of  the  system  of  the  balance  of  power. 
The  period  may  be  divided  into  two  parts,  of  about  seventy  years 
each :  one  before  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.,  1648 — 171 5 ;  the  other 
after  it,  from  1715—1789. 

L  1648 — 1715.  Fourth  Sub-division  of  the  Balance  of  Power, 
— At  the  beginning  of  the  third,  as  at  the  beginning  of  the  second 
period,  the  freedom  of  Europe  was  in  danger.  France  occupied 
among  its  States  the  rank  previously  held  by  Spain,  and  wielded 
besides  the  influence  of  a  higher  civilization. 


6  MICHELET 

So  long  as  Louis  XIV.  had  no  other  adversary  than  Spain, 
which  was  already  exhausted,  and  Holland,  which  was  wholly  a 
maritime  power,  he  gave  the  law  to  Europe.  At  length  Eng- 
land, under  a  second  William  of  Orange,  took  up  once  more  the 
part  she  played  in  the  time  of  Elizabeth — that  of  principal  an- 
tagonist of  the  power  which  predominated  on  the  Continent.  In 
concert  with  Holland  she  annihilated  the  pretensions  of  France 
to  the  dominion  of  the  seas.  In  concert  with  Austria  she  drove 
France  back  within  her  natural  limits,  but  was  unable  to  pre- 
vent her  from  establishing  in  Spain  a  branch  of  the  house  of 
Bourbon. 

Sweden  was  the  first  of  the  Northern  powers.  Under  two  vic- 
torious sovereigns,  she  twice  changed  the  face  of  the  North,  but 
she  was  too  weak  to  obtain  a  lasting  supremacy.  Russia  checked 
her,  and  took  a  position  of  superiority  which  she  has  never  lost. 
The  political  system  of  the  North  had  little  connection  with  the 
Southern  States,  save  in  so  far  as  they  were  brought  together  by 
the  ancient  alliance  of  Sweden  with  France. 

IL  1715 — 1789.  Fifth  Sub-division  of  the  Balance  of  Power. 
— The  rise  of  the  new  kingdoms  of  Prussia  and  Sardinia  marked 
the  first  years  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Prussia  became  with 
England  the  arbitress  of  Europe,  while  France  was  enfeebled, 
and  Russia  had  not  yet  attained  her  full  strength. 

In  the  eighteenth  century  there  was  less  disproportion  between 
the  different  powers  than  Europe  had  witnessed  before.  The 
preponderating  nation,  being  insular  and  essentially  maritime, 
had  no  other  interest  on  the  Continent  than  to  maintain  the  sys- 
tem of  balance.  It  was  this  consideration  which  determined  her 
conduct  in  the  three  wars  between  the  Western  States  of  the 
Continent.  Austria,  already  mistress  of  the  greater  part  of  Italy, 
might  have  destroyed  the  balance  of  power;  England,  her  ally, 
allowed  her  to  be  deprived  of  Naples,  which  became  an  inde- 
pendent kingdom.  France  tried  to  annihilate  Austria;  England 
saved  the  existence  of  Austria,  but  permitted  Russia  to  weaken 
her,  and  to  become  her  rival.  Austria  and  France  wanted  to 
annihilate  Prussia;  England  succored  her  as  she  succored  Aus- 
tria, directly  through  subsidies,  and  indirectly  by  her  maritime 
war  with  France. 

On  the  sea  and  in  the  colonies  the  balance  of  power  was  dis- 
turbed by  England.  The  contest  for  the  possession  of  colonies, 
which  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  this  century,  gave  her  an 
opportunity  of  ruining  the  navies  of  France  and  Spain,  and  of 
claiming  a  vexatious  jurisdiction  over  neutrals. 

A  wholly  unexpected  revolution  shook  this  colossal  power  to 
its  foundations.  The  most  important  of  her  colonies  escaped 
ffom  the  grasp  of  England,  but  she  opposed  a  bold  front  to  all 
her  enemies,  she  founded  in  the  East  an  empire  as  vast  as  that 


MODERN  HISTORY  7 

which  she  had  lost  in  the  West,  and  remained  mistress  of  the 
seas. 

Russia  grew  stronger,  both  through  her  internal  development 
and  through  the  anarchy  of  her  neighbors.  She  long  maintained 
a  perpetual  agitation  in  Sweden;  she  plundered  Turkey,  swal- 
lowed up  Poland,  and  advanced  into  Europe.  The  political  sys- 
tem of  the  Northern  States  became  more  and  more  amalgamated 
with  that  of  the  Southern  and  Western  States,  but  it  was  only 
the  revolutions  and  bloody  wars  which  broke  out  at  the  end  of 
the  third  period  which  united  into  one  system  all  the  States  of 
Europe. 


MODERN  HISTORY. 

FIRST  PERIOD,  1453-1517- 


CHAPTER   I. 

ITALY. 
TURKISH   WAR,  1453—1494. 

In  the  midst  of  the  rude  feudalism  which  still  left  its  stamp 
upon  the  fifteenth  century,  Italy  afforded  the  spectacle  of  an 
ancient  civilization.  She  imposed  respect  upon  foreigners  by 
the  time-honored  authority  of  religion  and  by  the  splendor  of 
wealth  and  art.  The  Frenchman  or  German  who  crossed  the 
Alps  admired  in  Lombardy  the  skillful  agriculture  and  the  in- 
numerable canals  which  turned  the  valley  of  the  Po  into  a  large 
garden.  He  saw  Venice  rise  from  the  lagoons,  a  city  of  wonders, 
with  her  marble  palaces  and  her  arsenal,  which  employed  50,000 
men.  From  her  ports  sailed  every  year  3,000  or  4,000  vessels, 
some  bound  for  Oran,  Cadiz,  and  Bruges;  others  for  Egypt  and 
Constantinople.  By  means  of  her  proveditors  Venice  ruled  in 
almost  every  port,  from  the  extremity  of  the  Adriatic  to  that  of 
the  Black  Sea.  Further  on  rose  the  ingenious  Florence,  which, 
though  really  governed  by  Cosmo  or  Lorenzo,  still  believed 
herself  to  be  a  republic.  At  once  princes  and  citizens,  merchants 
and  men  of  letters,  the  Medici  received  by  the  same  vessels 
tissues  from  Alexandria  and  manuscripts  from  Greece.  While 
the  doctrines  of  Plato  were  revived  by  the  labors  of  Ficino, 
Brunelleschi  raised  the  dome  of  Santa  Maria,  in  front  of  which 
Michael  Angelo  wished  his  tomb  to  be  placed.  The  same  en- 
thusiasm for  the  arts  and  for  letters  prevailed  in  the  courts  of 
Milan,  Ferrara,  Mantua,  Urbino,  and  Bologna.  The  Spaniards, 
who  had  conquered  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  imitated  Italian 
manners,  and,  as  the  price  of  a  reconciliation  with  Cosmo  de* 
Medici,  asked  nothing  more  than  a  fine  manuscript  of  Livy. 
Finally,  in  Rome  learning  itself,  in  the  persons  of  Nicholas  V. 
and  Pius  II.,  was  seated  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter.  This  universal 
literary  culture  seems  to  have  softened  manners.  There  were  not 
1,000  mena  killed  in  the  bloodiest  encounter  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. Battles  had  almost  died  into  tournaments. 

An  attentive  observer,  however,  might  easily  perceive  symp- 
toms of  the  decline  of  Italy.  The  apparent  softness  of  manners 

a  Machiavellip  "  Storie  Florentine,"  vol.  vii. 
IX 


12  MICHELET 

proved  nothing  more  than  the  degeneration  of  national  char- 
acter. Although  less  bloody,  wars  were  longer  and  more  ruin- 
ous. The  condottieri  who  marched  through  Italy  were  bodies 
of  undisciplined  troops  always  ready  to  fight  under  their  enemy's 
flag  for  the  least  increase  of  pay ;  war  had  become  a  lucrative 
game  between  thePiccinini  andSforzas.  Every  where  there  were 
petty  tyrants,  praised  by  scholars,  and  detested  by  the  people. 
Letters,  which  were  Italy's  chief  boast,  had  lost  the  originality 
of  the  fourteenth  century;  Filelphus  and  Plotinus  had  succeeded 
to  Dante  and  Petrarch.  Nowhere  had  religion  more  utterly 
passed  out  of  men's  minds.  Nepotism  was  the  curse  of  the 
Church,  and  robbed  her  of  the  reverence  of  foreign  nations.  The 
usurper  of  the  territories  of  the  Holy  See,  the  Condottiere  Sforza, 
dated  his  letters  in  these  words:  "e  Firmiano  nostro  invito  Petro  et 
Paulo."* 

The  expiring  genius  of  Italian  liberty  still  protested  by  fruit- 
less conspiracies.  Po-rcaro,  who  believed  himself  to  have  been 
predicted  in  the  verses  of  Petrarch,  endeavored  to  restore  the 
republican  government  in  Rome.  The  Pazzi  at  Florence,  and 
at  Milan  young  Olgiati  and  two  others,  stabbed  in  church,  re- 
spectively, Guiliano  de'  Medici  and  Galeazzo  Sforza  [1476— 
1499].  They  fancied  in  their  madness  that  the  liberty  of  their 
degenerate  country  hung  upon  the  life  of  a  single  man! 

Two  governments  passed  for  the  wisest  in  Italy,  those  of  Flor- 
ence and  of  Venice.  Lorenzo  dej  Medici  made  the  Florentines 
sing  his  verses,  and  himself  led  through  the  streets  of  the  town 
pedantic  and  sumptuous  masquerades.  He  gave  himself  up 
blindly  to  the  regal  munificence  which  won  the  admiration  of 
men  of  letters,  and  prepared  the  bankruptcy  of  Florences  At 
Venice,  on  the  other  hand,  cold  self-interest  seemed  the  only  law 
followed  by  the  Government.  Neither  favoritism,  nor  caprice, 
nor  prodigality  existed  there.  But  this  iron  Government  could 
last  only  by  drawing  closer  and  closer  together  the  strings  of 
power.  The  tyranny  of  the  Council  of  Ten  was  no  longer 
sufficient;  it  was  necessary  to  create  in  the  very  bosom  of  this 
council  Inquisitors  of  State  [1454].  Their  dictatorship,  if  it  in- 
sured prosperity  in  the  foreign  relations  of  the  State,  dried  up 
the  sources  of  its  internal  prosperity.  From  1423  to  1453,  Venice 
had  added  four  provinces  to  her  territory,  while  her  revenue  had 
diminished  by  more  than  100,000  ducats.  In  vain  $he  attempted 
to  retain  by  sanguinary  measures  the  monopoly  which  was  elud- 
ing her  grasp;  in  vain  the  State-Inquisitors  caused  any  workman 
who  carried  abroad  any  trade  which  was  useful  to  the  republic 
to  be  stabbed  ;d  the  time  was  not  far  off  when  Italy  was  to  lose, 

&  Machlavelli.  book  v.  dDaru,     vol.     vii.     "Pieces    justifi- 

c  Gingnene,  *'  History  of  Italian  Lit-       catives."    "  Statutes  of  the  Inquisition 
erature, '  vol.  iii,  of  State,"  art.  26. 


MODERN    HISTORY  13 

at  once,  her  commerce,  her  wealth,  and  her  independence.  A 
new  invasion  of  barbarians  was  soon  to  snatch  from  her  the 
monopoly  of  commerce  and  art,  and  to  make  them  the  patri- 
mony of  the  world. 

Who  was  to  be  the  conqueror  of  Italy?  The  Turk,  the  French- 
man, or  the  Spaniard?  This  is  what  no  foresight  could  deter- 
mine. The  Popes  and  most  of  the  Italians  dreaded  the  Turks 
above  all.  The  great  Sforza  and  Alfonso  the  Magnanimous 
thought  only  of  closing  Italy  to  the  French,  who  claimed  Naples 
as  the  heritage  of  their  kings,  and  might  claim  Milan.*  Venice, 
believing  herself  in  her  lagoons  to  be  beyond  the  reach  of  a  con- 
queror, treated  indifferently  with  all;  sometimes  sacrificing  to 
secondary  interests  her  honor  and  the  safety  of  Italy. 

Such  was  the  situation  of  Venice  when  she  heard  the  last  cry 
of  distress  from  Constantinople  [1453].  Severed  already  from 
Europe  by  schism  and  by  the  Turks,  this  unhappy  city  saw  be- 
neath her  walls  an  army  of  300,000  barbarians.  At  this  critical 
moment  the  Western  nations,  accustomed  to  the  complaints  of 
the  Greeks,  still  paid  very  little  attention  to  her  danger.  Charles 
VII.  was  finishing  the  expulsion  of  the  English  from  France ; 
Hungary  was  torn  by  civil  war;  the  phlegmatic  Frederick  III. 
was  busy  in  raising  Austria  into  an  archduchy.  Trie  Genoese 
and  the  Venetians,  the  possessors  of  Pera  and  Galata,  were  cal- 
culating their  probable  loss,  instead  of  endeavoring  to  prevent  it. 
Genoa  sent  four  vessels;  Venice  deliberated  whether  she  should 
give  up  her  conquests  in  Italy  in  order  to  preserve  her  colonies 
and  her  commerce/  In  the  midst  of  this  fatal  hesitation,  Italy 
saw  the  fugitives  from  Constantinople  disembarking  on  all  her 
coasts.  Their  tale  filled  Europe  with  shame  and  terror;  they 
lamented  the  change  of  St.  Sophia  into  a  mosque;  the  sack  and 
desolation  of  Constantinople;  the  enslavement  of  more  than 
60,000  Christians;  they  described  the  prodigious  cannons  of 
Mahomet  IL,  and  the  moment,  when  on  awaking,  the  Greeks 
saw  the  galleys  of  the  unbelievers  sailing  across  dry  ground  and 
being  lowered  into  their  harbors.^ 

Europe  was  moved  at  last;  Nicholas  V.  preached  the  Crusade; 
all  the  Italian  States  became  reconciled  at  Lodi  [1454].  In  other 
countries  the  cross  was  taken  up  by  thousands.  At  Lille  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy  presented  at  a  banquet  a  figure  of  the  Church 
in  tears,  and,  in  accordance  with  the  rites  of  chivalry,  swore  by 
God,  by  the  Virgin,  by  the  Ladies,  and  the  Pheasant,  that  he 

e  Sismondi,  "  Italian  Republics,"  vol.  along  planks  which  -were  covered  with 

x.  p.  28.  grease.    See  Cantimier  and  Saaduddin, 

f  Darn,  "  History  of  Venice,"  vol.  ii.  r'  History    of    the    Ottomans,"    manu- 

book   16;    and   "  Pieces  justificatives,"  script  translation  by  Galland,  cited  by 

vol.  viii.  M.  jDaru  in  his  '*  History  of  Venice, 

g  It  is  said  that  the  Sultan  conveyed  second  edition.    **  Pieces  justificatives," 

his  fleet  in  one  night  into  the  harbor  vol.  viii.  pp.  194-6. 
of  Constantinople,  by  sliding  the  ships 


I4  MICHELET 

would  go  and  fight  the  infidels./'  But  this  enthusiasm  lasted 
only  a  short  time.  Nine  days  after  signing  the  Treaty  of  Lodi 
the  Venetians  contracted  another  with  the  Turks.  Charles  VII. 
would  not  allow  the  Crusade  to  be  preached  in  France;  the  Duke 
of  Burgundy  stayed  at  home,  and  the  new  attempt  of  John  of 
Calabria  on  the  kingdom  of  Naples  occupied  the  whole  attention 
of  Italy  [1460—64]- 

The  only  real  champions  of  Christendom  were  the  Hungarian 
Hunniades  and  the  Albanian  Scanderbeg.  The  latter,  whose 
savage  heroism  recalled  the  ages  of  fable,  is  said  to  have  struck 
off  with  a  single  blow  the  head  of  a  wild  bull.  He  had  been  seen, 
like  Alexander,  whose  name  the  Turks  bestowed  on  him,  leaping 
alone  upon  the  walls  of  a  besieged  city.  Ten  years  after  his  death 
the  Turks  divided  his  bones  among  themselves,  believing  that 
they  would  thus  become  invincible.*  To  this  day  the  name  of 
Scanderbeg  is  heard  in  songs  among  the  mountains  of  Epirqs. 

The  other  Soldier  of  Christ,  Hunniades,  the  White  Knight  of 
Wallachia,  the  Devil  of  the  Turks,  checked  their  advance,  while 
Scanderbeg  made  his  diversion  in  their  rear./  When  the  Otto- 
mans attacked  Belgrade,  the  bulwark  of  Hungary,  Hunniades' 
broke  through  the  infidel  army  to  throw  himself  into  the  town, 
repulsed  during  forty  days  its  most  vigorous  assaults,  and  was 
celebrated  as  the  saviour  of  Christendom. 

I456. — His  son,  Matthias  Corvinus,  whom  the  gratitude  of  the 
Hungarians  raised  to  the  throne,  opposed  his  Black  Guard,  the 
first  regular  infantry  this  nation  ever  had,  to  the  janizaries  of 
Mahomet  II.  The  reign  of  Matthias  was  the  culminating  point 
of  Hungarian  glory.  While  he  encountered  in  turn  the  Turks, 
Germans,  and  Poles,  he  founded  in  his  capital  a  university,  two 
academies,  an  observatory,  a  museum  of  antiquities,  and  a 
library,  which  was  at  that  time  the  most  considerable  in  the 
world.fc  This  rival  of  Mahomet  II.  spoke,  as  the  Sultan  did,  sev- 
eral languages ;  like  him,  while  he  preserved  the  barbarous  cus- 
toms of  his  people,  he  loved  letters.  He  is  said  to  have  accepted 
the  offer  made  to  him  by  a  man  to  assassinate  his  father-in-law, 
the  King  of  Bohemia;  but  he  rejected  with  indignation  the  pro- 
posal to  poison  him.  "Against  rny  enemies,"  he  said,  "I  employ 
only  steel."  It  is  to  him  that  the  Hungarians  owed  their  Magna 
Charta  (Decretum  majus,  1485,  see  chap.  iii.).  A  Hungarian 
proverb  proclaims  his  excellence,  "Since  Corvinus,  no  more 


M.  Fetftot.  "  Biographic  Universelle,"  art.  "  Hun- 

iBarlesio,  "  4e  Vita  Georgii  Castri-  niade1'),  as  the  Saracens  had  terrified 

oti  "  1537,  passim.  theirs  with  that  of  Richard  Coeur  de 

/The  first  was  the  title  always  as-  Lion. 

sumed  by  Scanderbeg;  the  second  was  k  Bonfinms,    "  Renjin    Himgancarum 

generally  the  appellation  of  Hunniades  decades,"  1568, 

among  his  contemporaries  (Comines,  I. 


MODERN    HISTORY  15 

justice."  Pope  Pius  II.  and  Venice  allied  themselves  with  this 
great  Prince,  when  their  conquest  of  Servia  and  Bosnia  opened 
for  the  Turks  the  road  to  Italy.  The  Pontiff  was  the  soul  of  the 
Crusade;  he  appointed  Ancona  as  the  place  of  muster  for  all  who 
would  go  with  him  to  fight  the  enemies  of  the  faith.  The  skillful 
secretary  of  the  Council  of  Basle,  the  most  polished  mind,  the 
most  subtle  diplomatist  of  the  age,  became  a  hero  in  the  chair  of 
St.  Peter.  The  great  conception  of  the  salvation  of  Christendom 
seems  to  have  given  him  a  new  soul.*  But  his  strength  was  not 
sufficient.  The  old  man  expired  on  the  shore  in  sight  of  the 
Venetian  galleys  which  were  to  have  carried  him  to  Greece 
[1464]. 

His  successor,  Paul  IL,  abandoned  the  generous  policy  of 
Pius.  He  armed  against  the  heretical  Bohemians  the  son-in-law 
of  their  King,  the  same  Matthias  Corvinus  whose  prowess  ought 
to  have  been  exerted  only  against  the  Turks.  While  the  Chris- 
tians weakened  themselves  in  this  way  by  divisions,  Mahomet  II. 
swore  solemnly,  in  the  mosque  which  had  formerly  been  St. 
Sophia,  the  utter  ruin  of  Christianity.  Venice,  abandoned  by 
her  allies,  lost  the  island  of  Euboea,  or  Negropont,  which  was 
conquered  by  the  Turks  within  sight  of  her  fleet.  In  vain  Paul 
IL  and  Venice  sought  for  allies  as  far  off  as  Persia ;  the  Shah  was 
defeated  by  the  Turks,  and  the  conquest  of  Caffa  and  the  Crimea 
closed  for  a  long  time  all  communication  between  Persia  and 
Europe.  The  Turkish  cavalry  spread  at  last  over  the  Friuli  as 
far  as  the  Piave,  burning  the  crops,  woods,  villages,  and  palaces 
of  the  Venetian  nobles;  the  flames  of  this  conflagration  were 
even  visible  in  the  night  from  Venice  itself. w  The  republic  aban- 
doned the  unequal  struggle,  which  she  had  sustained  unsup- 
ported for  fifteen  years,  sacrificed  Scutari,  and  submitted  to  a 
tribute  [1479]. 

Pope  Sixtus  IV.  and  Ferdinand  King  of  Naples,  who  had 
not  succored  Venice,  accused  her  of  having  betrayed  the  cause 
of  Christendom.  After  favoring  the  conspiracy  of  the  Pazzi, 
and  afterward  making  open  war  upon  the  Medici,  they  turned 
their  restless  policy  against  Venice.  Her  vengeance  was  cruel. 

During  the  siege  of  Rhodes,  which  had  been  undertaken  by 
the  forces  of  Mahomet  IL,  it  was  reported  that  100  Turkish  ves- 
sels, observed  or  rather  escorted  by  the  Venetian  fleet,  had 
crossed  to  the  coast  of  Italy;  that  Otranto  was  already  taken,  and 
the  governor  sawn  in  two.  Terror  was  at  its  height,  and  would 
perhaps  have  been  justified  by  the  result  of  the  invasion,  if  the 
death  of  the  Sultan  had  not  put  a  stop  for  a  time  to  the  course  of 
Mahometan  conquest  [1480—81]. 

I  "  Commentarii  Pii  Secundi  "  [1610],  m  Sisraondi,  "  Italian  Republics,"  vol. 
pp.  300-400.  See  also  his  letters  in  his  xi.  p.  141 ;  from  Sabellico,  an  ocular  wit* 
collected  works. 


ness. 


!6  MICHELET 

It  was  in  this  manner  that  the  Italians  admitted  strangers  into 
their  dissensions.  After  having  brought  in  the  Turks,  the  Vene- 
tian enlisted  in  their  service  young  Rene,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  and 
heir  to  the  rights  which  the  house  of  Anjou  asserted  to  the  King- 
dom of  Naples.  As  far  back  as  the  year  1474,  Sixtus  IV.  had 
called  in  the  Swiss.  These  barbarians  became  accustomed  to 
crossing  the  Alps,  and  recounted  in  their  own  country  on  their 
return  the  wonders  of  beautiful  Italy;  some  celebrated  her  luxury 
and  her  riches,  while  others  praised  her  climate,  her  wine,  and  her 
delicious  fruits.w  It  was  then  that  the  prophetic  voice  of  the 
Dominican  Savonarola  was  heard  in  Florence  announcing  to 
Italy  the  judgments  of  Babylon  and  Nineveh.  "O  Italy!  O 
Rome !  saith  the  Lord,  I  am  about  to  deliver  you  into  the  hands 
of  a  nation  which  shall  blot  you  out  from  among  the  peoples. 
The  barbarians  are  coming  hungry  as  lions.  .  .  .  And  the 
deaths  will  be  so  many  that  the  gravediggers  will  run  about  the 
streets,  crying  'Who  hath  any  dead?'  and  then  one  will  bring  his 
father  and  another  his  son.  .  .  .  O  Rome,  I  repeat  to  thee, 
Repent!  Repent,  O  Venice!  O  Milan \"o 

They  persisted.  The  King  of  Naples  made  prisoners  of  his 
barons,  who  fell  into  the  snare  of  a  perfidious  treaty.  Genoa  re- 
mained a  prey  to  the  factions  of  the  Adorni  and  the  Fregosi. 
Lorenzo  de'  Medici  on  his  deathbed  refused  absolution  on  the 
condition  attached  by  Savonarola,  that  he  should  affranchise 
Florence.  At  Milan,  Ludovico  the  Moor  imprisoned  his  nephew 
and  wanted  for  the  moment  to  poison  him.  Roderigo  Borgia 
assumed  the  tiara  under  the  name  of  Alexander  VI.  The  inevi- 
table moment  had  arrived. 

»  Sec  "  La  tres-joyeuse,  plaisante,  et  simah "  [1544],  in  12°.  "  Predica  Vige- 

rScr&ative  histotre,"  composed  by  the  sima  Prima,"  pp.  211-213.  See  also 

"  loyal  serviteur  du  ban  Chevaher  sans  "  Petri  Martyris  Anglerii  epistol." 

paotir  et  sans  reproche,"  vol.  xv.  of  the  cxxx.,  cxxxi.,  etc.  **  Woe  to  thee, 

"  Collection  of  Memoires,"  pp.  306,  334.  Mother  of  the  Arts,  beautiful  Italy!  " 
385. 

o  Savonarola,      "  Predichc    Quadrage- 


CHAPTER   II. 

WESTERN   EUROPE. 

THE  COUNTRIES  OF  WESTERN  EUROPE  IN  THE  SECOND 
HALF  OF  THE  FOURTEENTH  CENTURY. 

Before  fighting  with  one  another  for  the  possession  of  Italy, 
it  was  necessary  that  the  great  powers  of  the  West  should  emerge 
from  the  anarchy  of  feudalism,  and  concentrate  their  whole  na- 
tional strength  in  the  hands  of  their  kings.  The  triumph  of 
monarchy  over  feudalism  is  the  subject  of  this  chapter.  With 
feudalism  disappeared  the  privileges  and  liberties  of  the  middle 
ages.  Their  liberties  perished,  like  those  of  antiquity,  because 
they  were  privileges.  Social  equality  could  only  be  established 
by  the  triumph  of  monarchy,  a 

The  instruments  of  this  revolution  were  the  clergy  and  the 
lawyers.  The  Church,  recruited  only  through  election  in  the 
midst  of  the  universal  system  of  hereditary  succession  which  was 
established  during  the  middle  ages,  had  often  raised  the  van- 
quished above  the  victors,  the  sons  of  citizens,  and  even  of  serfs, 
above  nobles.  It  was  from  the  Church  that  the  Kings  obtained 
ministers  in  their  last  struggle  against  the  aristocracy.  Duprat, 
Wolsey  and  Ximenes,  although  they  were  cardinals  and  prime 
ministers,  sprang  from  obscure  families.  Ximenes  began  by 
teaching  law  in  his  own  housed  The  Churchmen  and  Legists 
were  imbued  with  the  principles  of  Roman  law,  which  were  far 
more  favorable  than  feudal  customs  to  the  power  of  the  Crown 
and  to  civil  equality. 

This  revolution  took  different  forms  in  different  States.  In 
England  it  was  prepared  and  accelerated  by  a  terrible  war  which 
exterminated  the  nobility:  in  Spain  it  was  complicated  by  the 
struggles  of  religious  belief.  But  there  is  one  characteristic 
which  it  preserved  everywhere:  the  aristocracy,  already  con- 
quered by  the  Crown,  endeavored  to  shake  its  power  by  over- 

a  Equality  made  rapid  progress  at  the  selves    against    the    nobles."      See    Fer- 

very   moment   when   the    political  liber-  reras,  lath  part. 

ties    of    the    middle    ages    disappeared.  b  Gonecius,  fol.  2.    Giannone  remarks 

The  liberties  of  Spain  were  suppressed  that,  under  Ferdinand  the  Bastard,  Ro- 

by  Charles  V.  in  1521;   and  in   1523  the  man  law  got  the  better  of  Lombard  law 

Cortes  of  Castile  permitted  everyone  to  at  Naples,   through  the  influence  of  its 

wear    a     sword,      "  in     order    that     the  Professors,  who  were  at  the  same  time 

Burghers  may  be  able  to  defend  them-  judges  and  advocates  (Ixxviii.  chap,  v.), 

2  I? 


1 8  MICHELET 

turning  the  royal  houses,  in  order  to  substitute  rival  branches  for 
those  in  possession  of  the  throne.  The  means  employed  by  both 
parties  were  odious  and  often  atrocious.  Politics,  in  their  in- 
fancy, hesitated  between  violence  and  perfidy;  as  we  shall  see 
further  on  in  the  deaths  of  the  Earls  of  Douglas,  of  the  Dukes  of 
Braganza  and  of  Viseu,  above  all,  in  those  of  the  Earl  of  Mar  and 
the  Dukes  of  Clarence  and  Guienne. 

Yet  posterity,  deceived  by  success,  has  exaggerated  the  talents 
of  the  Princes  of  this  period  (of  Louis  XL,  Ferdinand  the  Bas- 
tard, Henry  VII.,  Ivan  III.,  etc.).  The  cleverest  of  them  all, 
Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  is  no  better,  in  the  opinion  of  Machia- 
velli,  than  a  fortunate  trickster.  ["Lettres  familieres."  April 
1513— May  1514.] 

Section  I. — France,  1452 — 1494. 

When  the  retirement  of  the  English  permitted  France  to  look 
about  her/  the  laborers,  on  leaving  the  castles  and  fortified 
towns  within  which  war  had  confined  them,  returned  to  find 
their  fields  untilled  and  their  villages  in  ruins.  The  disbanded 
mercenaries  continued  to  infest  the  roads  and  levy  contributions 
on  the  peasants.  The  feudal  lords,  who  had  just  assisted  Charles 
VIL  in  driving  out  the  English,  were  kings  on  their  own  estates  ; 
and  recognized  no  law,  either  human  or  divine.  A  Count  of 
Armagnac,  styling  himself  "Count  by  the  grace  of  god,"  hanged 
the  officers  of  the  Parliament,  married  his  own  sister,  and  beat 
his  confessor  when  he  refused  to  absolve  him.d  For  three  years 
the  brother  of  the  Duke  of  Brittany  was  seen  begging  his  bread 
through  the  bars  of  his  prison,  until  his  brother  caused  him  to  be 
strangled. 

It  was  toward  the  King  that  the  hopes  of  the  unhappy  people 
turned ;  it  was  from  him  that  some  alleviation  of  their  misery  was 
looked  for.  Feudalism,  which  in  the  tenth  century  had  been  the 
salvation  of  Europe,  had  now  become  its  scourge.  After  the 
wars  with  England  this  system  seemed  to  regain  its  former 
strength.  Besides  the  Counts  of  Albret,  of  Foix,  of  Armagnac, 
and  many  other  nobles,  the  houses  of  Burgundy,  Brittany,  and 
Anjou  rivalled  the  royal  house  in  splendor  and  power. 

The  county  of  Provence,  which  had  fallen  by  inheritance  to 
the  house  of  Anjou,  was  a  sort  of  centre  for  the  people  of  the 
South,  as  Flanders  was  for  those  of  the  North;  to  this  rich 
county  its  lords  added  Maine,  Lorraine  and  Anjou,  and  thus 


the  Memoirs   of   Comities;    the   "  His-       It  was  John  V.  who  married  his  sister, 
tory  of  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy,"  by  M. 
de  Barante,  vol.  vii.;  Michelet's  "His- 
tory of  France/* 


MODERN    HISTORY  19 

surrounded  on  all  sides  the  territories  immediately  subject  to  the 
King.  The  spirit  of  ancient  chivalry  seemed  to  have  taken 
refuge  in  this  heroic  family;  the  world  was  filled  with  the  exploits 
and  calamities  of  King  Rene  and  his  children.  While  his  daugh- 
ter, Margaret  of  Anjou,  maintained  in  ten  battles  the  rights  of 
the  Red  Rose,  John  of  Calabria,  his  son,  took  and  lost  the  King- 
dom of  Naples,  and  died  at  the  moment  when  the  enthusiasm  of 
the  Catalans  would  have  lifted  him  to  the  throne  of  Aragon.  But 
its  vast  hopes  and  distant  wars  left  the  house  of  Anjou  powerless 
in  France  itself,  and,  besides  this,  the  character  of  its  head  was 
little  fitted  to  maintain  an  obstinate  struggle  against  the  power 
of  the  Crown.  The  good  Rene,  in  his  latter  years,  employed 
himself  only  in  pastoral  poetry,  painting,  and  astrology.  When 
he  was  told  that  Louis  XL  had  deprived  him  of  Anjou,  he  was 
painting  a  beautiful  gray  pheasant,  and  did  not  interrupt  his 
work. 

The  real  head  of  French  feudalism  was  the  Duke  of  Burgundy. 
This  Prince,  richer  than  any  King  in  Europe,  united  under  his 
rule  French  provinces  and  German  States,  a  numerous  nobility, 
and  the  most  commercial  towns  in  Europe.  Ghent  and  Liege 
could  each  bring  into  the  field  40,000  fighting  men.  But  the 
elements  which  composed  this  great  power  were  too  discordant 
to  harmonize.  The  Dutch  would  not  obey  the  Flemish,  nor  the 
Flemish  the  Burgundians.  An  implacable  hatred  subsisted  be- 
tween the  nobility  in  their  castles  and  the  citizens  of  the  commer- 
cial towns.  These  proud  and  opulent  cities  united  with  the  in- 
dustrial spirit  of  modern  times  the  violence  of  feudal  manners. 
As  soon  as  the  slightest  attempt  was  made  on  the  privileges  of 
Ghent,  the  deans  of  the  trades  tolled  the  bell  of  Roland,  and  set 
up  their  standards  in  the  market-place.  Then  the  Duke  and  his 
nobles  mounted  their  horses,  and  battles  and  bloodshed  were 
sure  to  follow. 

The  King  of  France,  on  the  other  hand,  was  supported  by  the 
towns.  Within  his  immediate  dominions  the  lower  orders  were 
far  better  protected  against  the  nobles.  It  was  a  citizen,  Jacques 
Cceur,  who  lent  him  the  money  for  the  reconquest  of  Normandy. 
Everywhere  the  King  repressed  the  license  of  the  soldiery.  As 
early  as  141 1  he  had  relieved  the  kingdom  from  the  Free  Com- 
panies by  sending  them  against  the  Swiss,  who  made  an  end  of 
them  at  the  battle  of  St.  Jacques.  At  the  same  time  he  founded 
the  Parliament  of  Toulouse,  extended  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
Parliament  of  Paris  in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  and  limited  everywhere  the  privileges  of  private  jus- 
tice claimed  by  the  feudal  lords.  When  they  saw  an  Armagnac 
exiled,  an  Alengon  imprisoned,  and  a  bastard  of  the  house  of 
Bourbon  cast  into  the  river,  the  nobles  understood  that  no  rank 
placed  them  above  the  law.  So  happy  a  revolution  caused  all 


20  MICHELET 

the  innovations  favorable  to  the  power  of  the  monarchy  to  be 
received  without  distrust.  Charles  VII.  created  a  permanent 
army  of  1,500  lances,  instituted  a  militia  of  Free  Archers,  who 
were  to  remain  at  home  and  train  themselves  in  arms  on  Sun- 
days; he  imposed  a  perpetual  tax  on  the  people  without  the 
authorization  of  the  States-General,  and  nobody  murmured 

[1444]. 

The  nobles  themselves  contributed  to  augment  the  power  of 
the  Crown,  which  they  wielded  by  turns.  Those  who  had  no 
influence  over  the  King  intrigued  with  the  Dauphin,  and  excited 
him  against  his  father.  The  face  of  affairs  changed  when 
Charles  VII.  fell  a  victim  to  the  anxieties  caused  by  his  son,  who 
had  retired  into  Burgundy  [1461].  At  the  King's  funeral  Dunois 
proclaimed  to  the  assembled  nobles,  "The  King  our  master  is 
dead;  let  each  one  look  to  his  own  interest." 

Louis  XL  had  nothing  of  the  chivalrous  temper  which  won 
from  the  French  forgiveness  for  the  many  weaknesses  of  Charles 
VIL  He  preferred  negotiation  to  war,  dressed  meanly,  and 
surrounded  himself  with  men  of  low  rank.  He  chose  a 
footman  for  his  herald,  a  barber  as  gentleman  of  the  cham- 
ber, and  called  the  Provost-Marshal  Tristan  his  "gossip." 
In  his  impatience  to  humiliate  the  nobles,  he  dismissed  at 
its  accession  all  the  ministers  of  Charles  VIL;  he  de- 
prived the  nobility  of  all  influence  in  ecclesiastical  elections  by 
abolishing  the  Pragmatic  Sanction;  he  irritated  the  Duke  of 
Brittany  by  endeavoring  to  take  away  from  him  his  sovereign 
rights;  and  the  Count  of  Charolais,  son  of  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, by  repurchasing  the  towns  on  the  Somme,  and  attempt- 
ing to  take  back  from  him  the  gift  of  Normandy.  Finally,  he 
offended  all  the  nobles  by  paying  no  regard  to  their  rights  of 
hunting  and  shooting — the  bitterest  offence,  perhaps,  that  could 
be  offered  to  a  noble  of  the  time.  The  wrath  of  the  nobility  did 
not  burst  out  in  revolt  until  the  weakness  of  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy had  thrown  the  whole  of  his  power  into  the  hands  of  his 
son,  the  Comte  de  Charolais,  so  celebrated  afterward  under  the 
name  of  Charles  the  Bold.  Then  Duke  John  of  Calabria,  the 
Duke  of  Bourbon,  the  Duke  of  Nemours,  the  Count  of  Armag- 
nac,  the  Lord  of  Albret,  the  Count  of  Dunois,  and  many  other 
nobles  leagued  together  "for  the  public  weal"  with  the  Duke  of 
Brittany  and  the  Count  of  Charolais.  They  arranged  their  pro- 
ceedings by  means  of  envoys  who  met  in  the  church  of  Notre- 
Dame  in  Paris,  and  took  as  their  rallying  signal  a  knot  of  red 
silk.  To  this  almost  universal  coalition  of  the  nobles  the  King 
tried  to  oppose  the  towns,  and  .especially  Paris.  He  abolished 
almost  all  the  arbitrary  taxes,  called  together  a  council  of  citizens 
and  members  of  the  Parliament  and  University;  confided  the 
Queen  to  the  charge  of  the  Parisians,  and  ordered  her  confine- 


MODERN    HISTORY  21 

ment  to  take  place  in  the  city — "that  town  which  he  loved  better 
than  any  other  in  the  world?'  There  was  little  unanimity  in  the 
attack  of  the  confederates.  Louis  XL  had  time  to  overpower 
the  Duke  of  Bourbon.  The  Duke  of  Brittany  did  not  join  the 
principal  army  till  after  it  had  encountered  the  royal  forces  in 
the  Battle  of  Montlhery.  War  had  been  so  completely  forgotten 
since  the  expulsion  of  the  English  that,  with  the  exception  of  a 
few  regiments,  the  armies  on  both  sides  fled.*  The  King  then 
commenced  insidious  negotiations,  and  the  imminent  dissolu- 
tion of  the  league  decided  the  confederates  to  treat  at  Conflans 
and  at  St.  Maur  [1465].  The  King  granted  all  their  demands ;  to 
his  brother  he  surrendered  Normandy,  a  province  which  in  itself 
yielded  a  third  of  the  royal  revenue;' to  the  Count  de  Charolais 
the  towns  on  the  Somme;  to  all  the  rest,  fortresses,  lordships,  and 
pensions.  In  order  that  the  public  weal  might  not  be  entirely 
forgotten,  it  was  stipulated,  for  form's  sake,  that  an  Assembly  of 
Notables  should  see  to  it.  The  majority  of  the  other  articles 
were  not  executed  more  seriously  than  this  last;  the  King  took 
advantage  of  the  revolt  of  Liege  and  Dinant  against  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy  to  retake  Normandy;  he  obliged  the  States- General 
of  the  kingdom  (at  Tours  in  1466)  to  annul  the  principal  articles 
of  the  Treaty  of  Conflans,  and  forced  the  Duke  of  Brittany  to 
renounce  the  alliance  of  the  Count  of  Charolais,  who  now  became 
Duke  of  Burgundy. 

Louis  XL,  who  still  hoped  to  appease  even  Charles  of  Bur- 
gundy by  dexterity,  went  himself  to  meet  him  at  Peronne  [1468]. 
He  had  scarcely  arrived  when  the  Duke  heard  of  the  revolt  of 
the  citizens  of  Liege,  a  revolt  excited  by  agents  of  the  King. 
They  had  taken  prisoner  Louis  of  Bourbon,  their  bishop,  had 
massacred  his  archdeacon,  and,  in  horrible  merriment,  had 
tossed  his  limbs  from  one  to  the  other.  The  fury  of  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy  was  so  great  that  for  a  moment  the  King  feared  for 
his  own  life.  Within  the  enclosure  of  the  Castle  of  Peronne  he 
beheld  the  tower  in  which  the  Count  of  Vermandois  had  in 
former  times  murdered  Charles  the  Simple.  He  escaped,  how- 
ever, on  better  terms.  The  Duke  contented  himself  with  forcing 
him  to  confirm  the  Treaty  of  Conflans,  and  with  bringing  him 
before  Liege  to  witness  the  destruction  of  the  town.  The  King 
on  his  return  did  not  fail  to  cause  the  States-General  to  annul  all 
that  he  had  sworn. 

A  more  formidable  confederation  than  that  of  the  Public  Weal 
was  next  formed  against  him.  His  brother,  on  whom  he  had 
just  bestowed  Guienne,  and  the  Dukes  of  Burgundy  and  Brittany 
had  drawn  into  it  most  of  the  nobles  who  had  before  been  faithful 
to  the  King.  They  invited  the  King  of  Aragon,  Juan  II.,  who 
claimed  the  province  of  Roussillon,  and  the  King  of  England, 

?  Comines,  book  !»  chap,  iv. 


22  MICHELET 

Edward  IV.,  brother-in-law  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  who  felt 
the  necessity  of  establishing  his  crown  by  diverting  the  restless 
minds  of  his  subjects  to  foreign  conquests.  The  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy did  not  conceal  the  views  of  the  confederates.  'I  am  so 
fond  of  the  kingdom  of  France,"  he  said,  "that  instead  of  one 
King,  I  would  have  six."  Louis  XI.  could  not  hope  on  this 
occasion  for  the  support  of  the  towns,  which  he  had  ground 
down  with  taxes.  The  death  of  his  brother  could  alone  break  the 
League;  and  his  brother  died.  The  King  received  constant  in- 
formation as  to  the  advance  of  his  brother's  malady;  he  ordered 
public  prayers  for  the  recovery  of  the  Duke  of  Guienne,  and  at 
the  same  time  sent  troops  to  take  possession  of  his  appanage. 
He  stifled  the  law  proceedings  which  began  against  the  monk 
who  was  suspected  of  having  poisoned  the  Prince,  and  ordered 
a  report  to  be  spread  that  the  devil  had  strangled  him  in  prison. 

Once  delivered  from  his  brother,  Louis  XI.  repulsed  Juan  II. 
from  Roussillon,  Charles  the  Bold  from  Picardy,  and  secured  all 
his  enemies  within  the  kingdom/  But  the  greatest  danger  had 
not  yet  passed  away.  The  King  of  England  disembarked  at 
Calais,  claiming  as  usual  "his  kingdom  of  France."  The  English 
nation  had  made  great  exertions  for  this  war.  "The  King,"  says 
Comines,  "had  in  his  army  ten  or  twelve  stout  men  from  London 
and  other  towns;  they  were  among  the  principal  commons  of 
England,  and  had  joined  in  promoting  this  invasion  and  in  rais- 
ing this  powerful  army."  Instead  of  receiving  the  English  on 
their  arrival,  and  guiding  them  through  a  country  where  all  was 
new  to  them,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  had  gone  to  fight  in  Ger- 
many. The  weather,  too,  proved  bad;  although  Edward  "took 
care  to  lodge  in  comfortable  tents  the  commons  who  had  fol- 
lowed him,  it  was  not  the  sort  of  life  they  were  used  to,  and  they 
were  soon  tired  of  it;  they  thought  that  when  once  they  had 
crossed  the  sea  they  would  have  had  a  battle  in  three  days" 
(Comines,  1.  iv.  ch.  xi.).  Louis  found  means  to  induce  the  King 
and  his  favorites  to  accept  presents  and  pensions;  kept  an  open 
table  for  all  the  soldiers,  and  congratulated  himself  on  having 
got  rid  of  an  army  which  came  to  conquer  France,  by  spending  a 
little  money. 

After  this  time  he  had  nothing  more  to  fear  from  Charles  the 
Bold.  This  proud  Prince  had  conceived  the  design  of  re-estab- 
lishing on  a  vaster  scale  the  ancient  kingdom  of  Burgundy  by 
uniting  to  his  own  States,  Lorraine,  Provence,  Dauphine,  and 
Switzerland.  Louis  XL  took  care  not  to  make  him  uneasy;  he 
prolonged  the  truces,  and  allowed  him  "to  go  and  knock  his 

/  Of  the  Duke  of  Alengon  by  impris-  ant   in   many   provinces   of  the    South 

oning  him   [1472] ;    of   King   Rene  by  [1475] ;  and  finally,  of  the  Count  of  Ar- 

depnving  him  of  Anjou  [1474];  of  the  magnac  and  of  Charles  of  Albret  Li473J» 

Duke  of  Bourbon  by  bestowing  Anne  of  the   Duke  of   Nemours  and  of  the 

of   France  upon   his   brother    [i473-743r  Constab'e  of  St.  Pol  [I475-77L  by  caus- 

and  by  nominating  him  as  his  lieuten-  ing  them  all  four  to  be  put  to  death. 


MODERN    HISTORY  23 

head  against  Germany."  In  fact,  on  the  Duke's  attempt  to  force 
the  town  of  Neuss  to  receive  one  of  two  pretenders  to  the  arch- 
bishopric of  Cologne,  all  the  Princes  of  the  empire  came  to  watch 
his  proceedings  with  an  army  of  100,000  men.  He  stuck  to  his 
enterprise  obstinately  for  a  whole  year,  and  left  this  unlucky 
siege  only  to  turn  his  army  against  the  Swiss. 

This  people  of  citizens  and  peasants,  who  had  shaken  off  for 
the  last  two  centuries  the  yoke  of  the  house  of  Austria,  had 
always  been  detested  by  princes  and  nobles.  Louis  XL,  while 
Dauphin,  had  experienced  the  bravery  of  the  Swiss  at  the  battle 
of  St.  Jacques,  where  1,600  of  them  had  chosen  to  die  rather 
than  retreat  before  20,000  men.  Nevertheless,  the  Lord  of 
Hagenbach,  the  governor  appointed  by  the  Duke  of  Burgundy 
in  the  county  of  Ferrette,  tormented  their  allies,  and  did  not  fear 
insulting  the  Swiss  themselves.  "We  will  flay  the  Bear  of 
Berne,"  said  he,  "and  turn  his  skin  into  a  cloak."  The  patience 
of  the  Swiss  was  tired  out;  they  allied  themselves  with  their  old 
enemies,  the  Austrians;  cut  off  Hagenbach's  head,  and  defeated 
the  Burgundians  at  Hericourt.  They  endeavored  to  appease  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy;  and  represented  to  him  that  he  could  gain 
nothing  by  opposing  them.  "There  is  more  gold,"  said  they,  "in 
the  spurs  of  your  knights,  than  you  would  find  in  all  our  can- 
tons." The  Duke  was  inflexible.  He  invaded  Lorraine  and 
Switzerland,  took  Granson  and  drowned  all  the  garrison,  who 
had  surrendered  to  him  on  parole.  The  Swiss  army,  however, 
was  advancing;  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  had  the  imprudence  to 
go  to  meet  it,  and  thus  to  lose  the  advantage  which  the  plain 
gave  to  his  cavalry.  Taking  his  stand  on  the  hill  which  still 
bears  his  name,  he  saw  them  rush  down  from  the  mountains, 
crying  "Granson!  Granson!"  At  the  same  time  two  horns  of 
monstrous  size,  given  formerly  (it  was  said)  to  the  Swiss  by 
Charles  the  Great,  and  which  were  named  the  Bull  of  Uri  and 
the  Cow  of  Unterwalden,  resounded  through  the  valley.  Noth- 
ing could  stop  the  confederates.  The  Burgundians  tried  again 
and  again  without  success  to  break  through  the  forest  of  pikes 
which  advanced  at  a  run.  The  rout  was  soon  complete;  the 
Duke's  camp,  his  guns  and  his  treasures  fell  into  the  conquerors' 
hands.  But  they  were  ignorant  of  the  value  of  their  booty.  The 
large  diamond  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  was  sold  for  a  crown; 
the  money  contained  in  his  treasury  was  divided  without  being 
counted,  and  measured  out  in  hatfuls.  But  Charles  the  Bold 
learned  nothing  by  adversity.  Three  months  afterward  he  again 
attacked  the  Swiss  at  Morat,  and  experienced  a  still  more  bloody 
defeat.  The  conquerors  gave  no  quarter,  and  raised  a  mound 
with  the  bones  of  the  Burgundians.  "Pitiless  as  at  Morat,"  was 
long  a  popular  saying  among  the  Swiss  [1476]-  . 

This  defeat  was  the  ruin  of  Charles  the  Bold.   He  had  drained 


24  MICHELET     ' 

his  good  towns  of  men  and  money;  he  had  kept  his  nobles  for 
two  years  under  arms.  He  fell  into  a  melancholy  which  resem- 
bled madness;  he  let  his  beard  grow,  and  never  changed  his 
clothes.  He  insisted  upon  driving  out  of  Lorraine  the  young 
Rene,  who  had  just  returned  thither.  This  Prince,  who  had 
fought  for  the  Swiss,  who  liked  to  speak  their  tongue  and  some- 
times adopted  their  costume,  soon  saw  them  come  to  his  assist- 
ance. The  Duke  of  Burgundy,  whose  force  was  reduced  to 
3,000  men,  would  not  flee  "before  a  child;"  but  he  had  little  hope 
of  success.  Just  before  the  battle  the  Italian  Campo  Basso,  with 
whom  Louis  XL  had  long  been  bargaining  for  the  life  of  Charles 
the  Bold,  tore  off  the  red  cross,  and  thus  began  the  defeat  of  the 
Burgundians  [1477].  Some  days  afterward  the  body  of  the 
Duke  was  found,  and  carried  with  great  pomp  to  Nancy;  Rene 
sprinkled  it  with  holy  water,  and  taking  the  lifeless  hand,  "Fair 
cousin,"  he  said,  "may  God  receive  your  soul !  You  have  caused 
us  much  evil  and  sorrow!"  But  the  people  would  not  believe  in 
the  death  of  a  Prince  who  had  so  long  been  renowned.  They 
continue  to  assert  that  he  would  soon  come  back;  and,  ten  years 
afterward,  merchants  were  delivering  their  goods  without  pay- 
ment, on  condition  that  they  should  receive  double  the  amount 
on  the  return  of  the  great  Duke  of  Burgundy.  The  fall  of  the 
house  of  Burgundy  established  the  dynasty  of  France.  The  pos- 
sessors of  three  great  fiefs,  Burgundy,  Provence,  and  Brittany, 
having  died  without  male  issue,  the  French  kings  dismembered 
the  first  [1477],  acquired  the  second  by  bequest  [1481],  and  the 
third  by  means  of  a  marriage  [1491]. 

Louis  XL  hoped  to  obtain  the  whole  inheritance  of  Charles 
the  Bold  by  marrying  the  Dauphin  to  his  daughter,  Mary  of 
Burgundy.  But  the  Flemish  States,  who  were  tired  of  obeying 
Frenchmen,  bestowed  the  hand  of  their  sovereign  on  Maxi- 
milian of  Austria,  afterward  Emperor,  and  grandfather  of 
Charles  V.  This  was  the  beginning  of  the  rivalry  between  the 
houses  of  Austria  and  of  France.  In  spite  of  the  defeat  of  the 
French  at  Guinegate,  Louis  XL  remained  master  of  Artois  and 
the  Franche-Comte,  which,  by  the  Treaty  of  Arras  [1461],,  were 
to  form  the  dowry  of  Margaret,  the  Archduke's  daughter,  on  her 
betrothal  to  the  Dauphin  (Charles  VIIL). 

When  Louis  XL  left  the  kingdom  to  his  son,  who  was  still  in 
infancy  [1483],  France,  which  had  suffered  much  in  silence,  at 
length  raised  her  voice.  The  States-General,  assembled  in  1484 
by  the  regent,  Anne  of  Beaujeu,  wished  to  give  its  delegates  the 
chief  influence  in  the  council  of  regency,  to  vote  the  supplies  for 
only  two  years,  at  the  end  of  which  they  would  be  again  assem- 
bled, and  themselves  to  decide  on  the  taxes  which  should  be 
levied.  The  six  nations  into  which  the  States  were  divided  began 
to  draw  together,  and  aimed  at  forming  themselves  into  "pays 


MODERN    HISTORY  25 

fetaf  like  Languedoc  and  Normandy,  when  the  dissolution  of 
the  Assembly  was  proclaimed.  The  regent  continued  the  system 
of  Louis  XL  by  her  firmness  with  regard  to  the  nobles.  She 
overpowered  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  disputed  with  her  the 
regency;  and  annexed  Brittany  to  the  Crown  by  marrying  her 
brother  to  the  heiress  of  that  Duchy  [1491]. 

The  humiliation  to  the  nobles  was  thus  accomplished.  France 
attained  the  unity  which  was  to  render  her  formidable  to  all 
Europe.  To  the  old  servants  of  Louis  XL  succeeded  another 
generation,  young  and  ardent  as  their  new  King.  Impatient  to 
make  good  the  claims  which  he  had  inherited  from  the  house  of 
Anjou^to  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  Charles  VIII.  bought  peace  of 
the  King  of  England,  restored  Roussillon  to  Ferdinand  the 
Catholic,  Artois  and  the  Franche-Comte  to  Maximilian;  and 
thus  without  hesitation  sacrificed  three  of  the  strongest  barriers 
of  France.  The  loss  of  a  few  provinces  signified  little  to  a  sover- 
eign who  looked  on  himself  as  the  future  conqueror  of  the  king- 
dom of  Naples,  and  of  the  empire  of  the  East. 


Section  II,— England  and  Scotland,  1452—1513. 

After  having  been  constantly  beaten  for  a  century  by  the  Eng- 
lish, the  French,  at  last,  had  their  turn.  In  every  campaign  the 
English,  driven  from  town  after  town  by  Dunois  or  Richemont, 
returned  to  their  country  covered  with  shame,  and  indignantly 
accusing  their  generals  and  their  ministers ;  at  one  time  it  was 
the  quarrels  between  the  King's  uncles,  at  another  the  recall  of 
the  Duke  of  York,  which  caused  their  defeat.  To  the  conquerer 
of  Agincourt  had  succeeded  Henry  VI.,  a  boy  whose  innocence 
and  gentleness  were  little  fitted  for  those  troublous  times,  and 
whose  feeble  reason  was  completely  put  to  flight  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  civil  wars.  While  the  annual  revenue  of  the  Crown 
had  fallen  to  ^5,000  sterling,g  many  great  families  had  accumu- 
lated royal  fortunes  by  marriage  and  inheritance.  The  Earl  of 
Warwick  alone,  the  last  and  most  illustrious  example  of  feudal 
hospitality,  maintained  thousands  of  retainers  in  his  household. 
When  he  kept  house  in  London  his  vassals  and  friends  consumed 
six  oxen  at  a  meal.  This  colossal  fortune  was  backed  by  all  the 
talents  of  a  party  leaden  His  courage  had  no  relation  to  the 
chivalrous  ideas  of  honor;  for  this  man,  who  had  been  seen  to 
attack  a  fleet  double  in  numbers  to  his  own,  often  fled  without 
blushing  when  he  saw  his  men  giving  way.  Pitiless  to  the 
nobles,  he  spared  the  people  in  battle.  How  can  we  be  surprised 
therefore  at  his  earning  the  surname  of  King-maker? 

g  See   Hume  and   Lingard,   for   this   time,  and  especially  Gamines,  book  ii|., 


26  MICHELET 

The  Court,  already  feeble  against  men  like  these,  seemed  to 
take  pleasure  in  aggravating  the  discontent  of  the  people.  When 
the  hatred  of  the  English  against  the  French  was  embittered  by 
so  many  reverses,  they  were  given  a  French  Queen.  The  beauti- 
ful Margaret  of  Anjou,  a  daughter  of  King  Rene  of  Provence, 
carried  to  England  the  heroism,  but  none  of  the  gentle  virtues, 
of  her  family.  Henry  purchased  her  hand  by  the  cession  of 
Maine  and  Anjou;  instead  of  receiving  a  dower,  he  bestowed 
one.  Scarcely  a  year  passed  after  this  marriage  when  the  King's 
uncle,  "the  Good  Duke  of  Gloucester,"  whom  the  nation  adored 
because  he  was  always  wishing  for  war,  was  found  dead  in  his 
bed.  Tidings  of  one  misfortune  after  another  arrived  from 
France:  while  still  indignant  at  the  loss  of  Maine  and  Anjo-u,  the 
English  heard  that  Rouen  and  the  whole  of  Normandy  had  been 
taken  by  the  French;  their  army  found  no  resistance  in  Guienne. 
Hardly  a  single  soldier  was  sent  from  England,  not  one  Gov- 
ernor attempted  resistance,  and,  in  August,  1451,  England's  sole 
possession  on  the  Continent  was  the  town  of  Calais. 

The  national  pride,  so  cruelly  humiliated,  began  to  seek  an 
avenger.  All  eyes  were  turned  toward  Richard  of  York,  whose 
rights,  though  long  proscribed,  were  superior  to  those  of  the 
house  of  Lancaster.  The  Nevilles  and  great  numbers  of  the 
nobility  rallied  round  him.  The  Earl  of  Suffolk,  the  Queen's 
favorite,  was  their  first  victim.  Then  an  impostor  stirred  up  the 
men  of  Kent,  always  ready  for  revolt,  led  them  to  London,  and 
cut  off  the  head  of  Lord  Saye,  another  of  Henry's  ministers.  The 
partisans  of  Richard  himself  then  came  in  arms  to  St.  Albans, 
demanding  the  surrender  of  Somerset,  who,  after  having  lost 
Normandy,  had  become  the  chief  minister.  This  was  the  first 
blood  shed  in  a  war  which  was  to  last  thirty  years,  and  which 
cost  the  lives  of  eighty  nobles  and  exterminated  the  ancient 
baronage  of  the  kingdom.  The  Duke  of  York  took  his  King 
prisoner,  carried  him  in  triumph  back  to  London,  and  contented 
himself  with  the  title  of  Protector  [1455].  Margaret  of  Anjou, 
however,  armed  the  Northern  counties,  the  constant  enemies  of 
innovation.  She  was  beaten  at  Northampton.  Henry  fell  once 
more  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies ;  and  the  conqueror,  no  longer 
concealing  his  pretensions,  made  the  Parliament  declare  him 
presumptive  heir  to  the  throne.  He  was  thus  close  to  the  object 
of  his  ambition,  when  he  encountered  near  Wakefield  an  army 
which  the  indefatigable  Margaret  had  again  assembled.  He  ac- 
cepted battle  in  spite  of  the  inferiority  of  his  forces,  was  defeated 
and  slain,  and  his  head,  with  a  paper  crown  upon  it,  was  placed 
upon  the  wall  of  York.  His  son,  hardly  twelve  years  old,  was 
flying  with  his  preceptor,  when  he  was  stopped  on  the  bridge  at 
Wakefield.  The  child  fell  on  his  knees,  incapable  of ^  speaking, 
and  the  tutor  having  named  him,  "Thy  father  killed  mine/'  cried 


"       MODERN    HISTORY  27 

Lord  Clifford,  "and  thou  must  die  likewise,  thou  and  thine/'  and 
he  stabbed  him.  This  barbarous  action  seems  to  have  opened 
an  abyss  between  the  two  parties:  and  from  this  time  every  vic- 
tory was  followed  by  the  execution  of  the  nobles  who  were  taken 
prisoners. 

Then  began  in  a  more  regular  manner  the  struggle  between 
the  White  and  Red  Roses — the  rallying  signs  of  the  houses  of 
York  and  Lancaster.  Warwick  made  the  London  populace 
proclaim  the  son  of  the  Duke  of  York  King,  under  the  name  of 
Edward  IV.  [1461],  Edward,  the  offspring  of  civil  war,  was 
willing  enough  to  shed  blood,  but  he  interested  the  people  on 
account  of  the  misfortunes  of  his  father  and  brother;  he  was  only 
twenty  years  old,  he  loved  pleasure,  and  he  was  the  handsomest 
man  of  his  day.  The  Lancastrian  party  had  in  its  favor  only  its 
long  possession  of  the  throne  and  the  oaths  of  the  people.  When 
the  Queen  drew  the  excited  rabble  of  Northern  peasants,  who 
lived  only  by  plunder,  into  the  South,  London  and  the  rich  ad- 
jacent counties  attached  themselves  to  Edward  as  a  protector. 

Warwick  soon  led  his  young  King  to  meet  Margaret  at  the 
village  of  Towton.  It  was  there  that  during  a  whole  day,  in  a 
heavy  fall  of  snow,  the  two  parties  fought  with  a  fury  which  was 
remarkable  even  in  civil  war.  Warwick,  seeing  his  troops  giving 
way,  killed  his  horse,  and,  kissing  the  cross  formed  by  the  handle 
of  his  sword,  swore  that  he  would  share  the  fate  of  the  meanest  of 
his  soldiers.  The  Lancastrians  were  precipitated  into  the  waters 
of  the  Cock.  Edward  forbade  quarter  to  be  given,  and  38,000 
men  were  drowned  or  massacred.  The  Queen  turned  recklessly 
to  foreign  nations — to  the  French;  she  had  already  delivered 
Berwick  to  the  Scotch;  she  now  passed  into  France,  and  prom- 
ised Louis  XL  to  give  him  Calais  as  a  pledge  in  exchange  for  his 
feeble  and  odious  assistance.  But  the  fleet  which  brought  the 
French  supplies  was  destroyed  by  a  storm;  she  lost  the  battle  of 
Hexham,  and  with  it  her  last  hope  [1463],  The  unfortunate 
Henry  soon  fell  once  more  into  the  hands  of  his  enemies,  and 
the  Queen,  after  passing  through  great  dangers,  at  length 
reached  France  with  her  son. 

After  the  victory  the  spoil  had  to  be  divided.  Warwick  and 
the  other  Nevilles  had  the  principal  share.  But  they  soon  saw 
succeeding  to  their  favor  the  relations  of  Elizabeth  Woodville,  a 
lady  whom  the  imprudent  passion  of  Edward  IV.  had  raised  to 
the' throne.^  The  King-maker  then  thought  only  of  destroying 
his  work;  he  negotiated  with  France,  stirred  up  the  North  of 
England,  drew  into  his  party  even  the  brother  of  the  King,  the 

&A  generally  accepted  tradition  says  Edward   married   Elizabeth    Woodville. 
that     Warwick      was      negotiating     in  This  tradition  is  not  confirmed  by  the 
France  the   marriage   of   the    King   of  testimony   of  the  three  principal   con- 
England  with  Bonne  of  Savoy,   sister-  temporary  historians, 
in-law  of  Louis  XL,  at  the  time  when 


28  MICHELET 

Duke  of  Clarence;  and  became  master  of  Edward's  person.  At 
one  time  there  were  two  Kings  prisoners  in  England.  But  War- 
wick soon  found  himself  obliged  to  fly  with  Clarence,  and  to 
cross  over  to  the  Continent 

York  could  be  overthrown  only  by  the  forces  of  Lancaster. 
Warwick  therefore  made  friends  with  the  very  Margaret  of 
Anjou  who  had  beheaded  his  father,  and  crossed  back  into  Eng- 
land in  the  ships  of  the  King  of  France.  In  vain  Charles  the 
Bold  had  warned  the  indolent  Edward,  in  vain  the  people 
chanted  in  its  ballads  the  name  of  the  banished  Earl,  and  alluded 
in  the  rude  plays  of  that  time  to  his  virtues  and  misfortunes. 
Edward  did  not  awake  until  he  heard  that  Warwick  .was  march- 
ing upon  him  with  upward  of  60,000  men.  Betrayed  by  his  own 
troops  at  Nottingham,  he  fled  so  precipitately  that  he  landed 
almost  alone  in  the  States  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  [1470]. 

While  Henry  VL  issued  from  the  Tower  of  London,  and  the 
King  of  France  was  celebrating  by  public  rejoicings  the  re- 
establishment  of  his  ally,  Clarence,  who  repented  of  having 
labored  for  the  house  of  Lancaster,  recalled  his  brother  to  Eng- 
land. Edward  left  Burgundy  with  supplies  secretly  furnished  to 
him  by  the  Duke,  and  disembarked  at  Ravenspur  on  the  very 
spot  on  which  in  former  times  Henry  IV.  had  landed  to  over- 
throw Richard  II.  He  advanced  without  impediment,  and  de- 
clared by  the  way  that  he  demanded  only  the  inheritance  of  his 
father,  the  duchy  of  York.  He  adopted  the  ostrich  plume*  and 
made  his  followers  cry  "Long  live  King  Henry  1" 

But  as  soon  as  his  army  was  strong  enough  he  threw  down 
the  mask  and  disputed  the  throne  with  the  Lancastrians  in  the 
field  of  Barnet.  The  treachery  of  Clarence,  who  passed  over  to 
his  brother  with  12,000  men,  and  an  error  which  confounded 
the  sun  borne  on  that  day  as  its  badge  by  Edward's  party  with 
the  star  borne  by  the  opposite  side,  caused  the  loss  of  the  battle 
and  the  death  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick.  Margaret,  attacked  be- 
fore she  could  gather  round  her  her  remaining  forces,  was  con- 
quered and  taken  prisoner  with  her  son  at  Tewkesbury,  The 
young  Prince  was  led  to  the  King's  tent.  "Who  made  you  so 
bold  as  to  enter  my  kingdom?"  asked  Edward.  "I  have  come," 
replied  the  Prince,  undauntedly,  "to  defend  my  father's  crown 
and  my  own  inheritance."  Edward  struck  him  angrily  in  the 
face  with  his  gauntlet,  and  his  brothers  Clarence  and  Gloucester, 
or  perhaps  their  followers,  fell  upon  him  and  dispatched  him 
with  their  daggers. 

On  the  same  day  that  Edward  entered  London,  Henry  VI.  is 
said  to  have  perished  in  the  Tower  by  the  hand  of  Gloucester 
himself  [1471].  From  that  moment  the  triumph  of  the  White 
Rose  was  assured — Edward  had  only  his  own  brothers  to  fear. 

i  Borne    by    tfre    followers     of    the    Prince  of  Wales,  son  of  Henry  IV. 


MODERN    HISTORY 


29 


He  anticipated  Clarence  by  putting  him  to  death  on  some  friv- 
olous pretext;  but  Edward  himself  was  poisoned  by  Gloucester, 
if  a  report  current  at  the  time  [1483]  may  be  believed. 

Edward  had  hardly  left  the  throne  to  his  little  son,  Edward 
V.,  when  the  Duke  of  Gloucester  caused  himself  to  be  appointed 
Protector.  The  Queen-mother,  who  knew  too  well  the  sort  of 
protection  which  she  might  expect  from  this  man,  whose  aspect 
alone  filled  her  with  horror,  had  taken  sanctuary  at  Westminster. 
Richard  was  not  stopped  by  the  sacred  character  of  the  place, 
and  she  trembled  while  she  confided  to  him  her  two  sons.  But 
he  could  undertake  nothing  against  them  until  he  had  put  to 
death  their  natural  defenders,  especially  Lord  Hastings,  the  per- 
sonal friend  of  Edward.  Richard  one  day  entered  the  council 
chamber  with  an  easy  jovial  air,  then  suddenly  changing  coun- 
tenance, he  asked:  "What  punishment  do  those  deserve  who 
plot  against  the  life  of  the  Protector?  See  to  what  a  condition 
my  brother's  wife  and  Jane  Shore,  his  mistress,  have  reduced  me 
by  their  incantations  and  witchcraft,"  and  he  laid  bare  his  arm, 
which  had  been  shrivelled  up  from  infancy.  Then,  addressing 
Hastings,  he  said:  "You  are  the  chief  abettor  of  these  people:  I 
swear  by  St.  Paul  that  I  will  not  dine  before  your  head  be 
brought  me!"  He  struck  the  table  with  his  hand:  armed  men 
rushed  in  at  the  signal,  seized  Hastings,  hurried  him  away,  and 
instantly  beheaded  him  on  a  timber  log  which  lay  in  the  court 
of  the  Tower.  The  Parliament  next  declared  the  young  Princes 
bastards  and  sons  of  a  bastard.  A  Doctor  Shaw  preached  to  the 
people  from  his  text,  "Bastards'  slips  shall  not  thrive;";'  a  dozen 
workmen  threw  their  bonnets  into  the  air,  crying:  "God  save 
King  Richard!"  and  he  accepted  the  crown  "in  accordance  with 
the  voice  of  the  people." 

His  nephews  were  smothered  in  the  Tower,  and  long  after- 
ward the  skeletons  of  two  children  were  found  under  the  stair- 
case of  the  prison,  Richard,  however,  was  not  firmly  seated  on 
his  throne.  In  the  depths  of  Brittany  there  lived  a  descendant 
of  the  house  of  Lancaster,  Henry  Tudor,  Earl  of  Richmond, 
whose  right  to  the  crown  was  more  than  doubtful.  Through  his 
grandfather,  Owen  Tudor,  he  ^was  of  Welsh  origin,  and  the 
Welsh  accordingly  supported  his  claim.fe  And  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  Northern  counties,  where  Richard  had  many  par- 
tisans,* all  England  was  waiting  for  Richmond's  coming  to  de- 
clare itself  in  his  favor.  Richard,  not  knowing  whom  to  trust, 
hastened  the  catastrophe  by  advancing  on  Bosworth.  The  two 
armies  were  hardly  in  front  of  each  other  when  he  recognized  in 

/Most  of  this  is  taken  from  Hume,  I  An    error.    The    Northern    counties 

whose  words  I  have  used   when   pos-  were  the  stronghold   of  the  House  of 

sible. — TR.  Lancaster.— TR. 

k  Thierry,  "  Histoire  de  la  Conquete 
d'Angleterre  par  les  Normands,"  vol. 
iv.  p.  153. 


3o  MICHELET 

the  oposite  ranks  the  Stanleys,  whom  he  thought  were  on  his 
own  side.  He  immediately  dashed  forward,  crown  on  head,  and 
crying  "Treachery!  Treachery!"  killed  two  knights  with  his  own 
hand,  overthrew  the  enemy's  standard,  and  cut  his  way  to  his 
rival's  presence;  but  he  was  overpowered  by  numbers.  Lord 
Stanley  tore  off  his  crown  and  placed  it  on  the  head  of  Henry. 
The  naked  body  of  Richard  was  thrown  behind  a  horseman  and 
thus  carried  to  Leicester,  the  head  hanging  on  one  side  and  the 
feet  on  the  other  [1485]. 

Henry  united  the  rights  of  both  houses  by  his  marriage  with 
Elizabeth,  the  daughter  of  Edward  IV.  But  his  reign  was  long 
troubled  by  the  intrigues  of  Edward's  widow  and  of  his  sister, 
the  Dowager-Duchess  of  Burgundy.  In  the  first  place  they  set 
up  against  him  a  young  baker  who  passed  himself  off  as  the  Earl 
of  Warwick,  son  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence.  Henry,  having  de- 
feated the  partisans  of  the  impostor  at  the  battle  of  Stoke,  em- 
ployed him  as  a  turnspit  in  his  kitchen,  and  soon  afterward,  as 
a  reward  for  his  good  conduct,  gave  him  the  post  of  royal  fal- 
coner. 

A  more  formidable  rival  next  rose  up.  This  mysterious  per- 
sonage, who  resembled  Edward  IV.,  assumed  the  name  of  that 
Prince's  second  son.  After  a  solemn  examination,  the  Duchess 
of  Burgundy  recognized  him  as  her  nephew,  and  named  him 
publicly  "The  White  Rose  of  England."  Charles  VIII.  treated 
him  as  King;  James  III.  of  Scotland  gave  him  one  of  his  rela- 
tions in  marriage ;  but  his  attempts  were  not  fortunate.  He  in- 
vaded successively  Ireland,  the  North  of  England,  and  Corn- 
wall, but  was  always  repulsed.  The  inhabitants  of  Cornwall, 
deceived  in  the  expectations  which  they  had  formed  from  the 
accession  of  a  Prince  of  Welsh  extraction,  refused  to  pay  taxes, 
and  swore  that  they  would  die  for  the  pretender.  He  was  never- 
theless taken  prisoner,  and  forced  to  read,  in  Westminster  Hall, 
a  confession  signed  by  his  own  hand.  In  it  he  acknowledged  that 
he  was  born  at  Tournay,  of  Jewish  parents,  and  that  his  name 
was  Perkin  Warbeck.  Another  impostor  having  taken  the  name 
of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  Henry  VII.  resolved  to  terminate  their 
pretensions  by  putting  to  death  the  real  Earl,  the  King-maker's 
grandson,  who  had  been  confined  in  the  Tower  of  London  from 
his  earliest  years,  and  whose  birth  was  his  only  crime. 

Such  was  the  end  of  the  troubles  which  had  cost  England  so 
much  blood.  Who  was  vanquished  in  this  long  struggle? 
Neither  York  nor  Lancaster,  but  the  English  aristocracy,  which 
had  been  decimated  in  battle  and  despoiled  by  proscriptions.  If 
Fortescue  is  to  be  believed,  nearly  a  fifth  of  the  land  of  the  king- 
dom fell  by  confiscation  into  the  hands  of  Henry  VII.  What 
was  still  more  fatal  to  the  power  of  the  nobles,  was  the  law  which 
permitted  them  to  alienate  their  estates  by  cutting  off  the  entails. 


MODERN    HISTORY  31 

The  growing  demands  of  a  luxury  hitherto  unknown  made  them 
take  advantage  greedily  of  this  permission  to  ruin  themselves. 
In  order  to  live  at  the  Court,  they  quitted  the  ancient  castles  in 
which  they  had  reigned  as  sovereigns  ever  since  the  Conquest. 
They  gave  up  the  sumptuous  hospitality  by  which  they  had  so 
long  secured  the  fidelity  of  their  vassals.  The  followers  of  the 
barons  found  their  banqueting  halls  and  the  courts  of  justice 
deserted;  they  abandoned  those  who  had  abandoned  them,  and 
returned  home  King's  men.  The  first  care  of  Henry  VII. 
throughout  his  reign  was  to  accumulate  a  treasure.  Little  con- 
fidence could  be  placed  in  the  future  after  so  many  revolutions. 
Exaction  of  feudal  dues,  redemption  of  feudal  services,  fines, 
confiscations — every  means  seemed  good  to  him  for  attaining  his 
ends.  He  obtained  money  from  his  Parliament  to  make  war  in 
France,  he  obtained  subsidies  from  France  not  to  make  it,  and 
thus  "gained  from  his  subjects  by  war,  and  from  his  enemies  by 
peace  "  (Bacon).  He  endeavored  also  to  support  himself  by 
alliances  with  more  firmly  established  dynasties:  he  gave  his 
daughter  to  the  King  of  Scotland,  and  obtained  the  hand  of  the 
Infanta  of  Spain  for  his  son  [1502 — 1503].  In  his  reign  naviga- 
tion and  manufactures  made  their  first  great  start.  It  was  he 
who  equipped  the  Venetian  Sebastian  Cabot,  who  discovered 
North  America  in  1498.  He  granted  to  several  towns  exemp- 
tion from  the  law  which  forbade  a  father  to  apprentice  his  son 
unless  he  owned  land  to  the  amount  of  twenty  shillings  a  year. 
Thus  at  the  same  moment  when  Henry  VII.  founded  the  abso- 
lute power  of  the  Tudors  through  the  abasement  of  the  nobles, 
we  see  the  beginning  of  the  elevation  of  the  Commons,  who  were 
destined  a  century  and  a  half  afterwards  to  overthrow  the 
Stuarts. 

The  other  kingdom  of  Great  Britain  did  not  attain  equal  order 
and  regularity  until  long  afterwards.  Scotland  contained  many 
more  elements  of  disorder  than  England.  In  the  first  place  the 
mountainous  character  of  the  country  had  given  greater  advan- 
tages to  the  resistance  of  the  conquered  races.  The  sovereignty 
of  the  Lowlanders  over  the  Highlanders,  of  the  Saxons»*  over 
the  Celts,  was  purely  nominal.  The  latter  acknowledged  no 
sovereign  but  the  hereditary  chiefs  of  their  clans.  The  most 
powerful  of  these  chiefs,  the  Lord  of  the  Isles,  or  Earl  of  Ross, 
was,  in  relation  to  the  Kings  of  Scotland,  more  upon  the  footing 
of  a  tributary  ruler  than  on  that  of  a  subject;  he  was  the  secret  or 
declared  friend  of  all  the  King's  enemies,  the  ally  of  England 
against  Scotland,  of  the  Douglases  against  the  Stuarts.  The 
first  Princes  of  this  dynasty  humored  the  mountaineers,  as  they 
were  unable  to  conquer  them;  James  I.  expressly  exempted  them 
from  obedience  to  one  of  his  laws,  "because,"  as  he  said,  "it  is 

m  The   Highlanders  called   the   other  inhabitants  of  Scotland  Saxons. 


32  MICHELET 

their  custom  to  pillage  and  kill  each  other/'w  Thus  the  civiliza- 
tion of  England,  which  was  gradually  penetrating  into  Scotland, 
stopped  short  at  the  Grampians. 

Even  to  the  south  of  these  mountains  the  royal  authority 
found  indefatigable  adversaries  in  the  lords  and  barons,  espe- 
cially in  the  Douglases;  that  heroic  house,  which  from  the  acces- 
sion of  the  Stuarts  had  disputed  with  them  the  crown,  which 
afterwards  had  gone  to  fight  the  English  in  France,  and  had 
brought  back  as  a  trophy  the  title  of  Counts  of  Touraine.  Even 
in  their  own  family  of  the  Stuarts  the  Kings  of  Scotland  found 
rivals;  their  brothers  or  their  cousins,  the  Dukes  of  Albany, 
governed  in  their  name  or  disturbed  them  by  their  ambitious 
pretensions.  To  these  causes  of  trouble  may  be  added  the  un- 
usual occurrence  of  a  succession  of  six  minorities  [1437 — 157&]> 
and  we  shall  understand  why  Scotland  was  the  last  kingdom  to 
emerge  from  the  anarchy  of  the  middle  ages. 

After  their  retirement  from  the  war  in  France  the  struggle 
with  the  Douglases  became  more  severe.  The  Kings  exhibited 
more  violence  than  skill.  Under  James  II.  William  Douglas, 
enticed  by  the  Chancellor  Crichton  into  the  Castle  of  Edinburgh, 
was  put  to  death  there  with  a  mere  mockery  of  justice  [1440]. 
Another  William  Douglas,  the  most  insolent  of  all  who  had 
borne  that  name,  having  been  summoned  by  the  same  Prince  to 
Stirling,  exasperated  him  by  insulting  language  and  was  stabbed 
by  his  hand  [1452].  His  brother,  James  Douglas,  marched 
against  the  King  at  the  head  of  40,000  men,  forced  him  to  fly  to 
the  North,  and  would  have  defeated  him  had  he  not  insulted  the 
Hamiltons,  who  until  that  time  had  been  attached  to  his  family. 
Abandoned  by  his  followers,  Douglas  was  obliged  to  take  refuge 
in  England,  and  the  Wars  of  the  Roses,  at  that  time  just  begin- 
ning, prevented  the  English  from  making  use  of  this  dangerous 
exile  to  disturb  Scotland.  The  Earls  of  Angus,  a  branch  of  the 
house  of  Douglas,  received  their  possessions,  but  were  little  less 
formidable  to  the  Kings.  Soon  afterwards  the  Hamiltons  also 
rose,  and  became,  with  the  Campbells  (Earls  of  Argyle),  the 
most  powerful  of  the  Scottish  nobles  in  the  sixteenth  and  seven- 
teenth centuries. 

Under  James  III.  [1460]  Scotland  extended  herself  to  the 
North  and  South  by  the  acquisition  of  the  Orkneys  and  Berwick; 
while  the  union  of  the  county  of  Ross  to  the  Crown  annihilated 
forever  the  power  of  the  Lord  of  the  Isles.  No  reign,  however, 
had  been  more  disgraceful  than  that  of  James  III.  No  Prince 
ever  shocked  as  James  did  the  ideas  and  habits  of  his  people. 
What  Scotch  laird  would  deign  to  obey  a  King  who  was  always 
shut  up  in  a  fortress,  caring  for  none  of  the  warlike  sports  of  the 


"  History  of  Scotland,        art  to  that  of  Mary  "  [1797],  vol.  i.  p. 
from  the  Accession  of  the  House  of  Stu-       155. 


MODERN    HISTORY 


33 


nobles,  surrounded  by  English  artists,  and  deciding  questions  of 
peace  and  war  by  the  advice  of  a  music-master,  a  mason,  or  a 
tailor?  He  even  forbade  the  nobles  to  appear  in  arms  at  his 
Court,  as  if  he  feared  to  look  upon  a  sword. 

He  might  indeed  have  used  the  affection  of  the  Commons  or 
of  the  clergy  against  the  nobles,  but  he  alienated  both  by  depriv- 
ing the  cities  of  the  election  of  their  aldermen,  and  the  clergy  of 
the  nomination  of  their  dignitaries. 

James  III.,  whose  estimate  of  himself  was  accurate  enough, 
feared  that  his  two  brothers,  the  Duke  of  Albany  and  the  Earl 
of  Mar,  might  try  to  supplant  so  despicable  a  King.  The  pre- 
dictions of  an  astrologer  decided  him  on  confining  them  in  the 
Castle  of  Edinburgh.  Albany  escaped,  and  the  cowardly  King 
thought  to  secure  his  own  safety  by  opening  the  veins  of  his 
younger  brother.  The  favorites  triumphed  ;  the  mason  or  archi- 
tect Cochrane  ventured  to  accept  his  victim's  inheritance,  and 
took  the  title  of  Earl  of  Mar.  Such  was  his  confidence  in  the 
future  that,  on  issuing  some  false  money  for  circulation,  he  ex- 
claimed, "Before  this  money  is  withdrawn  I  shall  be  hanged;" 
and  so  in  fact  he  was.  The  nobles  seized  the  favorites  under  the 
eyes  of  the  King  and  hanged  them  on  Lauder  Bridge.  Some 
time  afterwards  they  attacked  the  King  himself,  and  formed  the 
most  extensive  league  which  had  ever  threatened  the  throne  of 
Scotland  [1488].  James  had  still  on  his  side  the  barons  of  the 
North  and  the  West,  but  he  fled  at  the  first  encounter,  and  fell  off 
his  horse  into  a  stream.  Carried  into  a  neighboring  mill,  he 
asked  for  a  confessor:  the  priest  who  presented  himself  belonged 
to  the  enemy's  party;  he  received  his  confession  and  stabbed 


James  IV.,  whom  the  nobles  raised  to  the  throne  of  his  father, 
had  a  more  successful  reign.  The  barons  obeyed  him  less  as 
their  sovereign  than  as  the  most  brilliant  knight  in  the  kingdom. 
He  completed  the  ruin  of  the  Lord  of  the  Isles  by  uniting  the 
Hebrides  to  the  Crown;  he  established  royal  courts  of  justice 
throughout  the  North  of  the  kingdom.  Neglected  by  France, 
Tames  IV.  allied  himself  with  Henry  VII.,  King  of  England. 
When  Henry  VIII.  invaded  France,  Louis  XII.  called  upon 
Scotland  for  assistance;  and  Anne  of  Brittany  sent  her  ring  to 
the  King,  naming  him  her  knight.  James  would  have  thought 
himself  wanting  in  chivalry  if  he  had  not  assisted  a  suppliant 
Queen.  All  the  nobles  and  barons  of  Scotland  followed  him  on 
this  romantic  expedition.  But  he  wasted  precious  time  near 
Flodden  in  the  castle  of  Lady  Heron,  where  he  remained  as  if 
spell-bound.  Roused  by  the  arrival  of  the  English  army,  he  was 
conquered  in  spite  of  his  bravery,  and  all  his  nobles  were  killed 
with  him  [1513]-  The  loss  of  twelve  Earls,  thirteen  lords,  five 

o  Pinlcerton,  vol.  i.  p.  335- 


34 


MICHELET 


eldest  sons  of  peers,  many  barons,  and  10,000  soldiers  left  the 
exhausted  nation  for  the  remainder  of  the  century  a  prey  to  the 
intrigues  of  France  and  England. 


Section  III. — Spain  and  Portugal,  1454 — 1521 

Spain  was  the  battle-field  of  the  barbarians  of  the  North  and 
South,  of  the  Goths  and  the  Arabs.  Confined  by  the  ocean  in 
the  Spanish  Peninsula,  they  fought  as  if  in  the  lists  throughout 
the  middle  ages.  Thus  the  spirit  of  the  Crusades,  which  agitated 
for  a  time  all  the  other  nations  in  Europe,  became  the  very  basis 
of  the  Spanish  character,  with  its  fierce  intolerance  and  chival- 
rous pride  heightened  by  the  violence  of  African  passions.  For 
Spain  has  much  in  common  with  the  barbarism  of  the  Moors,  in 
spite  of  the  Strait  which  parts  them.  The  races,  the  productions, 
and  even  the  deserts  of  Africa  are  to  be  found  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Strait  of  Gibraltar./'  A  single  battle  gave  Spain  to  the 
Moors,  and  it  took  eight  hundred  years  to  rescue  her  from  them. 

From  the  thirteenth  century  the  Christians  had  got  the  upper 
hand;  in  the  fifteenth  the  Mussulman  population,  concentrated 
in  the  kingdom  of  Granada,  and  with  the  sea  in  their  rear,  could 
draw  back  no  further ;  but  it  was  already  easy  to  see  which  of  the 
two  races  would  attain  mastery  over  Spain.  On  the  Moorish 
side  of  the  border  was  a  nation  of  merchants  collected  in  rich 
cities  rendered  effeminate  by  the  bath  and  the  climate,?  and  of 
peaceable  agriculturists  occupied  in  their  delicious  valleys  with 
the  cultivation  of  mulberry  trees  and  silkworms  ;r  a  lively  and 
ingenious  people  whose  passion  was  for  music  and  dancing,  who 
loved  splendid  dresses,  and  adorned  even  their  tombs.  On  the 
other  side  was  a  silent  people,  attired  in  brown  or  black,  caring 
only  for  war,  and  loving  bloodshed;  a  people  who  left  to  the  Jews 
both  commerce  and  science;  a  race  haughty  and  independent, 
terrible  in  love  and  in  religion.  Every  one  considered  himself 
noble;  the  citizen  boasted  that  his  privilege  came  by  birth  and 
not  by  purchase;  and  even  the  peasant  who  drew  his  sword 
against  the  Moors  felt  his  rank  as  a  Christian. 

These  men  were  no  less  formidable  to  their  kings  than  to  their 
enemies.  For  a  long  time  their  sovereigns  had  been  only,  as  it 
were,  the  first  of  the  barons ;  the  King  of  Aragon  sometimes  went 
to  law  with  his  subjects  before  the  tribunal  of  the  Justiza,  or 
Chief  Justiciar  of  the  Kingdoms  The  spirit  of  resistance 

p  In  some  parts  of  Old  Castile  there  a  Curita,  **  Secunda  parte  de  los  An- 

is  a  proverb,  "  The  lark  who  would  fly  naies  de  la  corone  de  Aragon  "  [1610], 

across  country  must  carry  her  food  with  vol.  iv.  book  xx. 

her."    (Bory   de   St.    Vincent,    "  Itine-  r  Ibid,  vol.  iv.  book  xx.  folio  354.    Go- 

raire,"  p.  281.)     For  the  sterility  and  mecius,   "  de  Rebus  gestis  a  F.  Xime- 

depopulated  state  of  Aragon,  even  in  nes  "  [1569],  in  folio,  p.  60. 

the  middle  ages,  see  Blancas,  quoted  by  $  Hallam. 
Hallam,  vol.  i. 


MODERN    HISTORY  35 

peculiar  to  the  Aragonese  had,  like  the  Castilian  pride,  passed 
into  a  proverb:  "Give  a  nail  to  an  Aragonese  and  he  will  drive  it 
in  with  his  head  instead  of  a  hammer."  Their  oath  of  obedience 
was  haughty  and  threatening:  "We,  who-  individually  are  as 
great  as  you,  and  who  united  are  more  powerful,  make  you  our 
King  on  condition  that  you  secure  our  privileges,  and  if  not, 
not." 

The  Kings  of  Spain,  therefore,  preferred  to  surround  them- 
selves with  the  new  Christians,  as  converted  Jews  and  their  chil- 
dren were  called.  They  found  in  them  more  intelligence  and 
obedience.  The  tolerance  of  the  Moors  had  formerly  attracted 
them  to  Spain,  and,  since  the  year  1400,  more  than  100,000  Jew- 
ish families  had  been  converted.  They  made  themselves  neces- 
sary to  the  Kings  by  their  skill  in  business,  and  by  their  learning 
in  medicine  and  astrology:  it  was  a  Jew  who,  in  1460,  operated 
on  the  King  of  Aragon  for  cataract.  Commerce  was  in  their 
hands;  they  had  drawn,  by  means  of  usury,  all  the  money  in  the 
kingdom  into  their  hands.  They  were  entrusted  by  the  Kings 
with  the  levy  of  taxes.  These  were  so  many  titles  to  the  hatred 
of  the  people.  It  burst  out  several  times  in  a  frightful  manner  in 
the  populous  cities  of  Toledo,  Segovia,  and  Cordova.* 

The  grandees,  who  saw  themselves  gradually  set  aside  by  the 
new  Christians,  and  generally  by  men  of  inferior  rank,  became 
the  enemies  of  the  royal  authority,  which  they  could  not  turn  to 
their  own  advantage.  Those  of  Castile  armed  the  Infant  Don 
Henry  against  his  father,  Juan  II.,  and  succeeded  in  causing  the 
King's  favorite,  Alvaro  de  Luna,  to  be  beheaded.  His  immense 
possessions  were  confiscated,  and,  during  three  days,  a  basin 
placed  on  the  scaffold  by  the  side  of  his  corpse  received  the  alms 
of  those  who  were  willing  to  contribute  to  the  expense  of  his 
burial.w 

When  Henry  IV.  ascended  the  throne  [1454]  he  attempted  to 
shake  off  the  grandees  who  had  supported  him  while  Infant; 
but,  at  the  same  time,  he  irritated  the  towns  by  raising  taxes  on 
his  own  authority,  and  venturing  himself  to  name  the  deputies 
for  the  Cortes.^  He  was,  besides,  degraded  by  his  connivance 
in  the  gallantries  of  the  Queen,  and  by  his  cowardice;  the  Cas- 
tilians  would  not  obey  a  Prince  who  left  his  army  at  the  moment 
of  battle.  The  chief  grandees,  Carillo,  Archbishop  of  Toledo, 
Don  Juan  de  Pacheco,  Marquis  of  Villena,  and  his  brother,  who 
was  Grand  Master  of  the  Orders  of  Santiago  and  Calatrava,  set 
up  against  the  King  his  brother  Don  Alonzo,  who  was  still 
under  age;  declared  illegitimate  the  Infanta,  Donna  Juana,  sup- 
posed to  be  the  child  of  Bertrand  de  la  Cueva,  the  Queen's  lover; 
exposed  upon  a  throne  the  effigy  of  Henry  in  the  plain  of  Avila, 

t  Mariana,  Hv.  xxii.,  xxiii ,  A.D.  1446,  *'$*£.  "Teoria  de  la  Cortes,"  quoted 
1463,  I473-.  ..  by  Hallam. 

«/&<*.,    llV.   XXll.,    A.D.    1451. 


36  MICHELET 

and,  having  stripped  it  of  the  insignia  of  royalty,  overthrew  it 
and  put  Don  Alonzo  in  its  place.  After  an  indecisive  battle 
[Medina  del  Campo,  1465],  the  unfortunate  King,  abandoned 
by  every  one,  wandered  aimlessly  about  his  kingdom,  past  castles 
and  cities  which  closed  their  gates  against  him,  no  one  even  car- 
ing to  arrest  him.  One  night,  after  a  ride  of  eighteen  leagues, 
he  ventured  to  enter  Toledo;  the  tocsin  was  sounded,  he  was 
forced  to  retire,  and  one  of  the  knights  who  had  escorted  him 
refused  even  to  lend  him  a  horse. 

Aragon  and  Navarre  were  not  more  tranquil.  On  the  succes- 
sion of  Juan  II.  to  his  brother  Alfonso  the  Magnanimous  in  the 
kingdoms  of  Aragon  and  Sicily,  he  retained  for  his  own  son, 
Don  Carlos  of  Viana,  the  crown  of  Navarre,  which  the  young 
Prince  inherited  from  his  mother  [1441].  A  stepmother  excited 
the  father  against  his  son  on  behalf  of  his  two  children  by  a  sec- 
ond marriage,  Ferdinand  the  Catholic  and  Leonora  Countess  of 
Foix.  The  eternal  factions  of  Navarre,  the  Beaumonts  and 
Grammonts,  carried  on  their  private  feuds  under  the  names  of 
the  two  Princes.  Twice  the  party  which  had  right  on  its  side 
was  beaten  in  pitched  battle ;  twice  the  indignation  of  Don  Juan's 
subjects  forced  him  to  set  free  the  son  he  had  cast  into  prison. 
Don  Carlos  died  of  poison  or  grief  [1461],  and  his  sister,  Donna 
Bianca,  inherited  his  right.  Her  father  gave  her  up  to  her 
younger  sister,  Leonora,  who  poisoned  her  in  the  castle  of 
Orthez.  Catalonia  had  already  risen ;  horror  of  this  double  mur- 
der excited  men's  minds;  as  the  Catalans  could  not  have  Don 
Carlos  for  a  King,  they  invoked  him  as  a  saint,^  called  succes- 
sively to  their  aid  the  King  of  Castile,  the  Infant  of  Portugal, 
and  John  of  Calabria,  and  did  not  submit  till  after  ten  years  of 
fighting  [I4721- 

While  Juan  II.  was  in  danger  of  losing  Catalonia,  his  son 
Ferdinand  was  winning  Castile.  The  brother  of  Henry  IV,  be- 
ing dead,  the  grandees  held  that  the  right  of  succession  devolved 
on  his  sister  Isabella.  To  support  her  against  the  King,  they 
married  her  to  Ferdinand,  who  after  her  was  the  next  heir  to  the 
throne  [1469].  Henry  IV.  died  soon  after  having  partaken  of  a 
banquet  given  to  him  by  his  reconciled  enemies  [1474].  But,  in 
dying,  he  declared  that  Donna  Juana  was  his  legitimate  child. 
Galicia  and  the  whole  country  from  Toledo  to  Murcia  declared 
in  her  favor.*  Her  uncle,  Alfonso  the  African,  King  of  Portu- 
gal, had  affianced  her,  and  came  with  the  knights  who  had  con- 
quered Arzilja  and  Tangiers  to  support  her  cause.  The  Portu- 
guese and  Castilians  encountered  each  other  at  Toro  [1476]. 
The  former  were  defeated,  and  the  arms  of  Almayda,  which  they 
bore  on  their  standard,  were  hung  up  in  the  cathedral  of  Toledo. 
This  check  was  sufficient  to  discourage  the  Portuguese;  all  the 

w  Curita,  vol.  iv.  book  xx.  folio  97.  x  Mariana,  book  xxiv. 


MODERN  HISTORY  37 

Castilian  nobles  ranged  themselves  on  the  side  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella;  the  crown  of  Castile  was  firmly  settled  on  the  head  of 
the  first,  and  the  death  of  Juan  II.,  who  bequeathed  Aragon  to 
the  latter  [1479],  enabled  them  to  turn  the  whole  force  of  Chris- 
tian Spain  against  the  Moors  of  Granada. 

1481  —  1492.  A  report  was  circulated  among  the  Moors  that 
the  fated  termination  of  their  dominion  in  Spain  had  arrived.^  A 
fakir  disturbed  Granada  with  mournful  predictions,  which  were 
sufficiently  justified  by  the  state  of  the  kingdom.  Already  under 
Henry  IV.  they  had  lost  Gibraltar.  Cities,  strongly  placed,  but 
without  ditches  or  external  fortifications,  and  protected  only  by 
a  thin  wall;  a  brilliant  cavalry  skilled  in  throwing  the  javelin, 
eager  to  charge  and  willing  to  fly  ;  these  were  the  resources  of  the 
people  of  Granada.  Africa  could  not  be  depended  upon  'for  help. 
The  time  was  past  when  the  hordes  of  the  Almohades  and  Almo- 
ravides  could  flood  the  Peninsula.  The  Sultan  of  Egypt  thought 
it  enough  to  send  to  Ferdinand  the  guardian  of  the  Holy  Sepul- 
chre to  plead  for  them:  and  the  fear  of  the  Ottomans  soon 
diverted  his  thoughts  from  these  distant  affairs. 

Although  every  year  the  Christians  and  Moors  ravaged  alter- 
nately each  other's  territories,  burning  the  vines,  olive  and 
orange  trees,  a  singular  agreement  existed  between  them;  the 
peace  was  not  considered  to  be  broken  even  if  one  of  the  two  par- 
ties had  taken  a  town,  provided  it  was  taken  without  declaration 
of  war,  without  banners  or  trumpets,  and  in  less  than  three  days.-s 
The  capture  of  Zahara  in  this  way  by  the  Moors  was  the  pretext 
for  war.  The  Spaniards  invaded  the  kingdom  of  Granada,  en- 
couraged by  their  Queen,  whom  alone  the  Castilians  would  obey, 
In  this  army  were"  already  engaged  the  future  conquerors  of 
Barbary  and  Naples,  Pedro  of  Navarre  and  Gonsalvo  of  Cor- 
dova. In  the  course  of  eleven  years  the  Christians  possessed 
themselves  of  Alhama,  the  bulwark  of  Granada  ;a  took  Malaga, 
the  emporium  of  commerce  between  Spain  and  Africa;  captured 
Baca,  which  was  supposed  to  contain  150,000  inhabitants;  and 
finally,  with  80,000  men,  besieged  Granada  herself. 

The  capital  was  a  prey  to  the  most  furious  dissensions.  Son 
took  arms  against  father,  and  brother  against  brother.  Boabdil 
and  his  uncle  had  shared  the  remains  of  this  expiring  sover- 
eignty, and  the  latter  sold  his  share  to  the  Spaniards  in  exchange 
for  a  rich  province.  There  remained  Boabdil,  who  had  acknowl- 
edged himself  as  the  vassal  of  Ferdinand,  and  who  followed, 
rather  than  directed,  the  stubborn  fury  of  the  people.  The  siege 
lasted  nine  months;  a  Moor  attempted  to  assassinate  Ferdinand 
and  Isabella;  a  fire  destroyed  the  whole  camp  ;  the  Queen,  whom 
nothing  could  dismay,  ordered  a  town  to  be  constructed  in  its 


y  Curita,  vol.  iv.  book  xx.  p.  332-  a  JMd,  p.  314- 

s  Ibid*  p.  314;  Mariana,  book  xxv. 


38  MICHELET 

place,  and  Santa-Fe,  built  in  eighty  days,  showed  the  Mussul- 
mans that  the  siege  would  never  be  raised.**  At  last  the  Moors 
opened  the  gates,  on  the  pledge  that  they  should  retain  judges 
of  their  own  nation  and  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion  [i492l- 

In  the  same  year  Christopher  Columbus  gave  a  new  world  to 
Spain.c 

The  kingdoms  of  Spain  were  now  united,  with  the  exception 
of  Navarre,  which  was  certain  to  become  sooner  or  later  the 
prey  of  the  two  great  monarchies,  between  which  Nature  herself 
appeared  to  destine  her  to  be  divided.  But  these  kingdoms, 
united  only  by  force,  were  not  yet  blended  into  a  single  body. 
The  Castilians  watched  the  Aragonese  with  jealous  eyes;  both 
of  them  regarded  as  enemies  the  Moors  and  Jews  who  lived 
among  them.  Every  city  had  its  franchises,  every  grandee  his 
privileges.  All  these  antipathies  had  to  be  overcome,  all  these 
heterogeneous  forces  harmonized  before  fresh  conquests  could 
be  undertaken.  In  spite  of  the  skill  of  Ferdinand,  in  spite  of  the 
enthusiasm  inspired  by  Isabella,  they  did  not  succeed  in  doing 
this  until  after  thirty  years  of  continual  effort.  The  means  they 
employed  were  as  ruthless  as  the  temper  of  the  people  they  ruled; 
but  their  reward  was  the  empire  of  the  two  worlds  in  the  six- 
teenth century. 

The  Spanish  Cortes,  which  alone  could  legally  resist  the  ag- 
gressions of  the  monarchy,  were  the  most  ancient  assemblies  in 
Europe;  but  these  institutions,  formed  amidst  the  anarchy  of  the 
middle  ages,  had  not  the  organization  which  could  make  them 
lasting.  In  1480  only  seventeen  towns  in  Castile  were  repre- 
sented; in  1520  not  one  deputy  was  sent  by  the  whole  of  Galicia 
to  the  Cortes.^  Those  of  Guadalaxara  alone  represented  400 
boroughs  or  towns.  In  Aragon  it  was  nearly  the  same.  The 
rivalry  between  the  towns  perpetuated  this  abuse;  in  1506  and  in 
1512  the  towns  in  Castile  which  possessed  the  privilege  of  repre- 
sentation rejected  the  claims  of  the  rest*  Thus,  in  order  to  be- 
come master,  Ferdinand  had  only  to  leave  the  field  open  for  rival 
pretensions.  He  obtained  through  the  Holy  Hermandad  of  the 
cities,  and  the  revolt  of  the  vassals,  the  submission  of  the 
grandees;/1  through  the  grandees  that  of  the  cities;  through  the 
Inquisition  the  subjection  of  both.  The  violence  of  the  grandees 
induced  Saragossa  to  allow  him  to  change  her  ancient  municipal 
constitutions  which  she  had  always  defended.  The  organiza- 
tion of  the  Holy  Hermandad,  or  fraternity  of  the  cities  of  Aragon, 
was  impeded  by  the  nobles  whose  private  wars  it  would  have  put 
an  end  to  [1488],  and  the  King  was  obliged  in  the  Cortes  of  1495 

&"P«tri  Martyris  Anglerii  epistolae,"  eHallam,  yol.  I,  from  Mariana. 

«,  91,  etc.    Tte  author  was  an  cye-wt-  fin,  Galicia   alone    he   pulled   down 

ness  of  these  events,  forty-six    castles.    (Hemando    de    Pul- 

c  Epitaph  of  Christopher  Columbus.  gar.) 

d  Sepnfreda,  voU  i.,  book  ii.,  p.  $9- 


MODERN    HISTORY  39 

to  suspend  its  action  for  ten  years ;  but  the  people  of  Saragossa 
were  so  irritated  that  for  a  long  time  the  Justiza  of  Aragon,  who 
refused  to  swear  to  the  Hermandad,  dared  not  enter  the  town.g 
From  this  time  the  Crown  inherited  a  large  share  of  the  people's 
attachment  to  this  magistracy,  which  had  long  been  considered 
as  the  bulwark  of  public  liberty  against  the  encroachment  of 
Kings. 

Nevertheless,  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  would  never  have  ac- 
quired absolute  power  if  the  poverty  of  the  Crown  had  left  them 
at  the  mercy  of  the  Cortes.  They  revoked  on  two  occasions  the 
grants  of  Henry  IV.,  and  those  by  which  they  had  themselves 
purchased  the  obedience  of  the  grandees  [1480 — 1506],  The 
union  of  the  three  Great  Masterships  of  Alcantara,  Calatrava,  and 
Santiago,  which  they  had  the  address  to  induce  the  knights  to 
present  to  them,  gave  them  at  the  same  time  an  army  and  a  very 
large  revenue  [1493 — 1494].  Later  on,  the  kings  of  Spain,  hav- 
ing obtained  from  the  Pope  the  sale  of  bulls  for  the  Crusades 
and  the  presentation  to  bishoprics  [1508 — 1522],  became  the 
richest  sovereigns  in  Europe,  even  before  they  drew  any  consid- 
erable sum  from  America. 

The  Kings  of  Portugal  established  their  power  by  similar 
means.  They  possessed  themselves  of  the  Masterships  of  the 
Orders  of  Avis,  of  Santiago,  and  of  Christ,  in  order  to  make  the 
nobles  dependent  on  them.  In  one  Diet  (at  Evora,  1482)  Juan 
IL,  successor  of  Alfonso  the  African,  revoked  the  grants  of  his 
predecessors,  deprived  the  nobles  of  the  power  of  life  and  death, 
and  placed  their  domains  under  royal  jurisdiction.  The  indig- 
nant nobles  chose  as  their  chief  the  Duke  of  Braganza,  who 
called  in  the  aid  of  the  Castilians ;  the  King  had  him  tried  by  a 
commission,  and  his  head  struck  off.  The  Duke  of  Viseu, 
cousin-german  and  brother-in-law  of  Juan,  conspired  against 
him,  and  the  King  stabbed  him  with  his  own  hand. 

But  what  really  secured  the  triumph  of  absolute  power  in 
Spain  was  the  fact  that  it  rested  on  the  religious  zeal  which  was 
the  national  characteristic  of  Spain.  The  Kings  leagued  them- 
selves with  the  Inquisition,  that  vast  and  powerful  hierarchy,  all 
the  more  terrible  because  it  united  the  steady  force  of  political 
authority  with  the  violence  of  religious  passions.  The  establish- 
ment of  the  Inquisition  encountered  the  greatest  obstacles  on 
the  part  of  the  Aragonese.  Less  in  contact  with  the  Moors  than 
the  Castilians,  they  were  less  embittered  against  them:  the 
greater  number  of  the  members  of  the  Government  of  Aragon 
were  descended  from  Jewish  families.  They  protested  strongly 
against  secret  trials,  and  against  confiscations ;  things  contrary, 
as  they  said,  to  the  "fueros"  of  the  kingdom.  They  even  assas- 
sinated one  Inquisitor  in  the  hope  of  frightening  the  rest  But 

iCurita,  vol.  iv.,  book  xx.,  pp.  251-356. 


40  MICHELET 

the  new  institution  was  too  much  in  harmony  with  the  religious 
ideas  of  the  majority  of  Spaniards  not  to  resist  these  attacks. 
The  title  of  Familiar  of  the  Inquisition,  which  carried  with  it  ex- 
emption from  municipal  charges,  was  so  much  sought  after 
that  in  some  towns  these  privileged  persons  surpassed  in  num- 
ber the  other  inhabitants,  and  the  Cortes  were  obliged  to  inter- 
fered 

After  the  conquest  of  Granada  the  Inquisition  was  no  longer 
satisfied  with  the  persecution  of  individuals.  All  the  Jews  were 
ordered  to  be  converted  or  to  leave  Spain  in  four  months,  and 
forbidden  to  carry  away  gold  or  silver  [1492].  One  hundred 
and  seventy  thousand  families,  forming  a  population  of  800,000 
souls,  sold  their  property  in  a  hurry,  fled  to  Portugal,  Italy, 
Africa,  and  even  to  the  Levant.  At  that  time  a  house  was  given 
in  exchange  for  an  ass,  a  vineyard  fo-r  a  piece  of  linen  or  cloth. 
A  contemporary  tells  us  that  he  saw  a  crowd  of  these  miserable 
beings  disembark  in  Italy,  and  die  of  hunger  near  the  Mole  of 
Genoa,  the  only  quarter  of  the  town  in  which  they  were  allowed 
to  repose  for  a  few  days. 

The  Jews  who  took  refuge  in  Portugal  were  received  there 
only  on  payment  of  eight  golden  crowns  per  head;  besides 
which,  they  were  ordered  to  leave  the  kingdom  within  a  certain 
time  on  pain  of  being  made  slaves,  an  edict  which  was  rigorously 
enforced.  In  spite  of  this,  it  is  said  that  the  first  who  arrived 
wrote  to  their  brothers  in  Spain:  "The  land  is  good,  the  people 
are  idiots;  we  have  fair  chances  here;  you  may  come,  for  every- 
thing will  soon  belong  to  us."  Don  Manuel,  Don  Juan's  suc- 
cessor, set  free  those  who  had  been  enslaved;  but,  In  1496,  he 
ordered  them  to  quit  the  kingdom,  leaving  behind  all  their  chil- 
dren under  the  age  of  fourteen.  The  greater  number  preferred 
to  receive  baptism,  and  in  1507  Don  Manuel  abolished  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  old  and  new  Christians.  The  Inquisition 
was  established  at  Lisbon  in  1526,  and  from  thence  it  spread  to 
India,  where  the  Portuguese  had  landed  in  1498. 

Seven  years  after  the  expulsion  of  the  Jews  [1499 — ISoi]  the 
King  of  Spain  attempted  in  an  equally  violent  manner  to  convert 

h  The  following  inscription   was  put  dium  sumpsit  •  ubi,  post  Judaorum  ac  Sara- 

tip,  shortly  after  the  foundation  of  the  cenorum    expitlswnem    ad    annum    Usque 

Inquisition  in  the  Castle  of  Tfiana,  in  MDXXIVt   Divo   Carolo,    etc.;    regnante, 

a    faubourg    of    Seville :— "  Sanctum    In-  etc.,    Viginti   millia    h&reticorum    et   ultra 

quisitionis     ptftciitm     contra     htsreticorum  nefandtiM    hatfestos    crimert    abjitrarunt; 

pravitatem  in  Hispanuz  reenis  mitiatum  nee  non  hominum  fere  millia  in  suis  hte- 

eit    Hispali    anno    MCCCCLXXX1,    etc.  resibus   obstmatortom  postea   jure   pr&fao 

Generates     inquisitor     primus     fmt     Fr.  igrtibus  tradita  sunt  et  combusta.     Domini 

Thomas  de   Torquemdda.    Faxit  Detts  ut  nostri   imperatoris   sussn    et    impensis    li* 

in  augmentum  fidei  tissue  sceculi  permane*  fentiatttf,   de  In  Cueva  poni  jtttstt,  A*D- 

atf  etc.    Bxsurge.  Domine:  judica  causam  MDXXIV."    It    is    worthy    of    remark 

t#afo*    Capite  nobi*  swipes.**   Another  in*  that  several  Popes,  in  the  beginning  of 

scnotiont  put   tip    itl   1524   by   thd   In-  the   sixteenth  century,    blamed   thd   se- 

qulsitofs  on  their  house  ifl  Seville,  funs:  verity  of  the  Spanish  Inquisition.    'The 

— "  $nno  Domini  MCCCCLXXXl  sacrum  Court  of  Roiri£  wdfe  sit  that  tiina  intdr- 

Inqmsitwnis     officwm     contra     h&reticos  epted  and  mercenary,  rather  than  fanati- 

Judaizantes  ad  fidei  exaltationem  hie  exor*  caL 


MODERN    HISTORY  41 

the  Moors  of  Granada,  who  by  the  terms  of  capitulation  had  been 
guaranteed  the  free  exercise  of  their  religion.  Those  of  the 
Albaycin  (the  most  mountainous  district  of  Granada)  were  the 
first  to  revolt,  and  were  followed  by  the  savage  inhabitants  of  the 
Alpuxarras.  The  Gandules  of  Africa  came  to  their  assistance, 
and  the  King,  having  experienced  the  difficulty  of  reducing 
them,  furnished  vessels  to  those  who  wished  to  cross  over  into 
Africa;  but  the  greater  number  remained,  and  pretended  to  be- 
come Christians.^' 

The  reduction  of  the  Moors  was  followed  by  the  conquest  of 
Naples  [1501—1503]  and  by  the  death  of  Isabella  [1504].  This 
Queen  was  adored  by  the  people  of  Castile,;  whose  character  she 
so  well  represented,  and  whose  independence  she  protected 
against  her  husband.  After  her  death  the  Castilians  had  only 
the  choice  between  foreign  rulers.  They  were  obliged  to  obey- 
either  the  King  of  Aragon,  or  the  Archduke  of  Austria — Philip 
the  Fair,  sovereign  of  the  Netherlands,  who  had  married  Donna 
Juana,  the  daughter  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  heiress  of  the 
kingdom  of  Castile.  Such  was  their  antipathy  for  the  Aragon- 
ese,  and  particularly  for  Ferdinand,  that,  in  spite  of  all  the  in- 
trigues of  the  latter  to  obtain  the  regency,  they  rallied  around  the 
Archduke  as  soon  as  he  arrived  in  Spain.  At  first  the  behavjor 
of  Philip  was  popular:  he  put  a  stop  to  the  violence  of  the  In- 
quisition, which  was  on  the  point  of  exciting  a  general  insurrec- 
tion ;  but  he  dismissed  all  the  corregidors  and  governors  of  the 
towns  to  give  their  places  to  his  Flemish  followers,  and  at  last  he 
wanted  to  shut  up  as  a  maniac  Donna  Juana,  whose  feeble  reason 
had  gone  astray  through  jealousy.  Philip  soon  died  [1506]. 
Nevertheless,  Ferdinand  would  not  even  yet  have  been  able  to 
govern  Castile  if  he  had  not  been  supported  by  the  confessor  and 
minister  of  Isabella,  the  celebrated  Ximenes  of  Cisneros,  Arch- 
bishop of  Toledo. 

The  Castilians,  finding  in  Ximenes  the  heroic  spirit  of  their 
great  Queen,  forgot  that  they  were  obeying  Ferdinand ;  and  the 
latter  years  of  this  Prince  were  marked  by  the  conquests  of  Bar- 
bary  and  Navarre-  The  war  with  the  Moors  did  not  seem  at  an 
end  so  long  as  those  in  Africa,  strengthened  by  a  number  of 
fugitives,  infested  the  coasts  of  Spain,  and  found  a  safe  refuge  in 
the  port  of  Oran,  at  Penon  de  Velez,  and  many  other  fastnesses. 
Ximenes  proposed,  equipped,  and  personally  conducted  an  ex- 

i  Mariana,  "book  xxvii.  loved  and  protected  letters;  she  under- 
]  Isabella  exhibited  the  utmost  cour-  stood  Latin,  while  Ferdinand  could 
age  in  the  vicissitudes  of  her  youth.  scarcely  sign  his  own  name  (Mariana, 
When  Ferdinand  fled  from  Segovia  she  book  xxiii,,  xxv.).  She  equipped,  in 
chose  to  remain  (Mariana,  book  xxiv.) ;  spite  of  his  opposition,  the  fleet  which 
she  insisted  on  holding  Alhama,  at  the  discovered  America;  she  defended  Co- 
gates  of  Granada,  when  her  bravest  offi-  lumbus  when  accused,  consoled  Gort- 
cers  counselled  retreat  (Curita,  book  salvo  of  Cordova  in  his  disgrace,  and 
xx.).  She  consented  with  regret  to  the  ordered  the  unfortunate  natives  of 
establishment  o!  the  Inquisition^  She  America  to  be  free. 


42  MICHELET 

pedition  against  Oran.  The  taking  of  this  town,  which  was  car- 
ried under  his  eyes  by  Pedro  of  Navarre,  led  to  the  fall  of  Tripoli 
and  the  submission  of  Algiers,  Tunis,  and  Tremecen  [1509 — 
1510]. 

Two  years  afterwards,  the  seizure  of  Navarre,  which  was 
taken  by  Ferdinand  from  Jean  d'Albret,  completed  the  union  of 
all  the  kingdoms  of  Spain  [1512].  The  Countess  of  Foix,  Leo- 
nora, had  enjoyed  only  for  a  month  this  throne,  which  she  had 
bought  with  her  sister's  blood.  After  the  death  of  her  son 
Phcebus,  the  hand  of  her  daughter  Catherine,  which  had  been 
demanded  in  vain  for  the  Infant  of  Spain,  was  given  by  the 
French  party  to  Jean  d'Albret,  who  was  invariably  allied  to 
France  through  his  own  dominions  of  Foix,  Perigord,  and  Li- 
moges. As  soon  as  the  two  great  powers  which  were  struggling 
in  Italy  began,  as  it  were,  to  fight  hand-to-hand,  Navarre  found 
herself,  by  the  necessities  of  her  geographical  position,  shared 
between  Ferdinand  and  Louis  XII.  Ximenes  was  eighty  years 
old  when  the  King,  whose  death  was  approaching,  designated 
him  as  regent  until  the  arrival  of  his  grandson,  Charles  of  Austria 
[1516].  In  spite  of  his  age  he  withstood  foreign  and  domestic 
enemies  with  the  same  vigor.  He  prevented  the  French  from 
conquering  Navarre  by  an  expedient  which  was  as  new  as  it  was 
bold:  it  was  by  dismantling  all  the  strong  places  except  Pam- 
peluna,  and  thus  preventing  all  connivance  with  the  invaders. 
At  the  same  time  he  formed  a  national  militia,  and  secured  the 
towns  by  granting  them  permission  to  raise  their  own  taxes 
(Gomecius,  f.  25).  He  revoked  the  concessions  which  the  late 
King  had  made  to  the  grandees.  When  they  came  to  expostu- 
late, and  expressed  doubts  as  to  the  power  which  had  been  con- 
ferred on  him,  Ximenes,  showing  them  from  a  balcony  a  formi- 
dable train  of  artillery,  "Behold,"  he  said,  "my  power!" 

The  Flemish  disgusted  the  Spaniards  as  soon  as  they  arrived. 
First,  they  disgraced  the  expiring  Ximenes,  and  appointed  a 
stranger,  a  young  man  of  twenty,  to  replace  him  in  the  highest 
see  in  the  kingdom.  They  established  a  tariff  of  places,  and,  as 
it  were,  put  Spain  up  to  auction.  Charles  took  the  title  of  King 
without  waiting  for  the  consent  of  the  Cortes.  He  convoked 
those  of  Castile  in  a  remote  corner  of  Galicia,  and,  asking  for  a 
second  subsidy  before  the  first  had  been  paid,  seized  it  by  force 
or  corruption,  and  set  out  to  take  possession  of  the  imperial 
crown  without  caring  whether  he  left  a  revolution  behind  him. 
Toledo  refused  to  attend  his  Cortes,  Segovia  and  Zamora  put 
their  deputies  to  death,  and  such  was  the  horror  that  the  depu- 
ties inspired  that  no  one  was  willing  to  pillage  their  houses  or  to 
soil  their  hands  with  the  wealth  of  the  traitors.  Discontent 
spread  throughout  Spain.  The  whole  of  Castile,  Galicia,  Murcia, 
and  most  of  the  towns  in  Leon  and  Estramadura,  rose  in  arms. 


MODERN    HISTORY  43 

The  revolt  was  no  less  furious  in  Valencia,  but  its  character  was 
different:  the  inhabitants  had  sworn  a  "Hermandad"  against  the 
nobility,  and  Charles,  discontented  with  the  nobles,  was  impru- 
dent enough  to  support  it.  Majorca  imitated  the  example  of 
Valencia,  and  even  wished  to  deliver  herself  to  the  French.  In 
both  kingdoms  the  clothworkers  were  at  the  head  of  the  "Her- 
mandad." 

At  the  outset  the  communeros  of  Castile  took  possession  of 
Tordesillas,  where  the  mother  of  Charles  V.  resided,  and  issued 
their  edicts  in  the  name  of  the  Princess.  But  their  success  lasted 
only  a  short  time.  They  had  demanded  in  their  remonstrances, 
that  the  lands  of  the  nobles  might  be  subjected  to  taxation.  The 
nobles  abandoned  a  party  whose  victory  would  have  been  preju- 
dicial to  their  interests.  The  towns  did  not  even  agree  among 
themselves.  The  old  rivalry  between  Burgos  and  Toledo  awoke ; 
and  the  former  submitted  to  the  King,  who  granted  her  a  free 
market.*?  The  communeros,  thus  divided,  had  no  longer  any  hope 
except  in  the  assistance  of  a  French  army,  which  had  invaded 
Navarre;  but  before  they  could  effect  a  junction  with  it  they  fell 
in  with  the  leaks,  and  were  entirely  routed  [1521].  Don  Juan  de 
Padilla,  the  hero  of  the  revolution,  sought  death  in  the  enemy's 
ranks,  but  he  was  unhorsed,  wounded,  taken  prisoner,  and  be- 
headed on  the  next  day.  Before  his  death  he  sent  to  his  wife, 
Donna  Maria  de  Pacheco,  the  relics  he  wore  round  his  neck,  and 
wrote  his  famous  letter  to  the  town  of  Toledo:  "To  thee,  the 
crown  of  Spain  and  the  light  of  the  world;  to  thee,  who  wert  free 
from  the  time  of  the  Goths,  and  who  hast  shed  thy  blood  to  in- 
sure thy  liberty  and  that  of  the  neighboring  cities;  to  thee,  thy 
lawful  son,  Juan  of  Padilla,  makes  known  that  by  the  blood  of 
his  body  thy  ancient  victories  are  about  to  be  refreshed  and  re- 
newed," etc. 

The  reduction  of  Castile  brought  with  it  that  of  the  kingdom 
of  Valencia  and  of  all  the  revolted  provinces.  But  Charles  V., 
profiting  by  this  lesson,  respected  henceforth  the  pride  of  the 
Spaniards,  affected  to  speak  their  language,  and  resided  chiefly 
among  them,  treating  with  consideration  this  heroic  people  as 
the  instrument  with  which  he  intended  to  subjugate  the  world. 

fe  Sepulveda,  vol.  i.,  p.  53. 

I  Sandoval,  in  fol.  1681,  book  ix.,  sec.  22,  p.  356. 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE  EAST  AND  THE  NORTH. 

GERMANIC  AND  SCANDINAVIAN   STATES   IN  THE  SECOND 
HALF  OF  THE  FIFTEENTH    CENTURY. 

If  we  regard  similarity  of  habits  and  language,  we  must  class 
among  the  Germanic  States  the  Empire,  Switzerland,  the  Low 
Countries,  and  the  three  kingdoms  of  the  North,  even  England 
in  many  respects ;  but  the  political  relations  of  the  Netherlands 
and  England  with  France  have  forced  us  to  relate  the  history  of 
these  powers  in  the  preceding  chapter. 

Germany  is  not  only  the  centre  of  the  Teutonic  system ;  it  is  a 
little  Europe  in  the  midst  of  the  greater,  in  which  the  same  vari- 
eties of  country  and  population  are  represented,  though  with 
less  striking  contrast.  In  the  fifteenth  century  it  included  every 
form  of  government,  from  the  hereditary  or  ^elective  principali- 
ties of  Saxony  and  Cologne  to  the  democracies  of  Uri  and  Un- 
terwalden;  from  the  commercial  oligarchy  of  Lubeck  to  the 
military  aristocracy  of  the  Teutonic  Order. 

This'  singular  body  of  the  Empire,  whose  members  were  so 
heterogeneotis  and  unequal,  and  whose  head  had  so  little  power, 
seemed  always  on  the  point  of  dissolution.  The  cities,  the 
nobles,  the  majority  even  of  the  Princes,  were  almost  strangers 
to  an  Emperor  who  was  chosen  only  by  the  Electors.  And  yet 
comtmtnity  of  origin  and  language  maintained  for  centuries  the 
unity  of  the  Germanic  body :  though  we  must  add  to  these  causes 
the  necessity  for  self-defence,  the  fear  of  the  Turks,  of  Charles  V., 
and  of  Louis  XIV. 

The  Empire  always  remembered  that  it  had  ruled  over 
Europe,  and  recalled  its  rights  from  time  to  time  in  vain  procla- 
mations. The  most  powerful  Prince  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
Charles  the  Bold,  seemed  to  recognize  them  by  soliciting  the 
royal  dignity  from  the  Emperor  Frederick  III.  These  preten- 
sions, though  their  day  had  gone  by,  might  have  become  formi- 
dable after  the  imperial  crown  fell  permanently  into  the  hands  of 
the  house  of  Austria  [  1438] .  Situated  between  Germany,  Italy, 
and  Hungary,  in  the  most  central  part  of  Europe,  Austria  was 
destined  to  become  mistress  of  the  two  latter  countries,  at  least 

44 


MODERN    HISTORY  45 

by  her  consistency  and  obstinacy.  To  these  qualities  she  added 
a  policy,  more  distinguished  by  ability  than  heroism,  which,  by 
means  of  a  succession  of  marriages,  placed  in  the  hands  of 
Austria  prizes  for  which  other  nations  had  in  vain  shed  their 
blood,  and  which  made  her  mistress  of  the  conquerors  as  well  as 
of  their  conquests.  She  thus  acquired  on  one  side  Hungary  and 
Bohemia  [1526],  on  the  other  the  Low  Countries  [1481];  by 
means  of  the  Low  Countries,  Spain,  Naples,  and  America  [1506 
— 1516],  and  through  Spain,  Portugal  and  the  East  Indies 
[1581]- 

Towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  the  imperial  power 
had  fallen  so  low  that  the  Princes  of  the  house  of  Austria  gen- 
erally forgot  that  they  were  Emperors  in  order  to  occupy  them- 
selves exclusively  with  the  interests  of  their  hereditary"  States. 
Nothing  diverted  them  from  this  policy,  which,  sooner  or  later, 
was  destined  to  restore  the  dignity  of  the  imperial  sceptre  in  their 
hands.  Thus  Frederick  III.,  continually  beaten  by  the  Electors 
Palatine  and  the  King  of  Hungary,  shut  his  ears  to  the  cries  of 
Europe,  which  was  alarmed  by  the  progress  of  the  Turks.  But 
he  raised  Austria  into  an  archduchy;  he  linked  the  interests  of 
his  house  with  those  of  the  Papacy  by  sacrificing  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction  of  Augsburg  to  Nicholas  V. ;  he  married  his  son  Maxi- 
milian to  the  heiress  of  the  Low  Countries  [1481].  Maximilian 
himself  became  by  his  caprices  and  poverty  the  laughing  stock 
of  Europe,  as  it  saw  him  hurrying  perpetually  from  Switzerland 
to  the  Low  Countries,  from  Italy  to  Germany,  imprisoned  by  the 
citizens  of  Bruges,  beaten  by  the  Venetians,  and  setting  down 
regularly  his  affronts  in  his  red  book.  But  he  added  to  his 
dominions  by  right  of  inheritance  the  Tyrol,  Goritz,  and  part  of 
Bavaria.  His  son,  Philip  the  Fair,  sovereign  of  the  Low  Coun- 
tries, married  the  heiress  of  Spain  [1496];  and  one  of  his  grand- 
sons (by  the  treaty  of  1515)  was  enabled  to  marry  the  sister  of 
the  King  of  Bohemia  and  Hungary. 

While  the  house  of  Austria  was  thus  preparing  her  future 
greatness,  the  Empire  tried  to  give  fresh  form  to  its  constitution. 
Its  tribunal,  which  was  in  future  to  be  permanent — the  Imperial 
Chamber  [1495] — was  to  put  an  end  to  private  wars  and  substi- 
tute a  state  of  law  for  the  state  of  nature  which  seemed  still  to 
exist  among  the  members  of  the  Germanic  body.  The  division 
into  Circles  was  intended  to  facilitate  the  exercise  of  this  juris- 
diction. A  council  of  regency  was  created  to  control  and  replace 
the  Emperor  [1500],  The  Electors  long  refused  to  enter  into 
this  new  organization.  The  Emperor  opposed  the  Aulic  Council 
to  the  Imperial  Chambers  [1501],  and  these  salutary  institutions 
were  consequently  weakened  from  their  birth. 

This  absence  of  order,  this  want  of  protection,  had  succes- 
sively obliged  the  most  distant  portions  of  the  Empire  to  form 


46  MICHELET 

more  or  less  independent  confederations  or  to  look  for  foreign 
support.  Such  was  the  condition  of  the  Swiss,  of  the  Teutonic 
Order,  of  the  leagues  of  the  Rhine  and  of  Swabia,  and  of  the 
Hanseatic  League. 

The  same  period  saw  the  elevation  of  Switzerland  and  the 
decline  of  the  Teutonic  Order.  The  second  of  these  two  military 
powers,  a  species  of  vanguard  which  the  warlike  spirit  of  Ger- 
many had  pushed  on  into  the  midst  of  the  Sclavonic  peoples,  was 
forced  to  give  up  Prussia,  which  the  Teutonic  knights  had  con- 
quered and  converted  two  centuries  earlier,  to  the  King  of  Po- 
land—(Treaty  of  Thorn,  1466). 

Switzerland,  separated  from  the  Empire  by  the  victory  of 
Morgarten  and  the  league  of  Brunnen,  had  consolidated  her  lib- 
erty by  the  defeat  of  Charles  the  Bold,  which  taught  feudal 
Europe  to  appreciate  the  power  of  infantry.  The  alliance  of  the 
Grisons,  the  accession  of  five  new  cantons  (Fribourg,  Soleure, 
Basle,  Schaffhausen  and  Appenzell,  1481 — 1513),  had  carried 
Switzerland  to  the  summit  of  greatness.  The  citizens  of  Berne, 
the  shepherds  of  Uri,  found  themselves  caressed  by  Popes  and 
courted  by  Kings.  Louis  XL  substituted  Swiss  for  the  free- 
archers  [1480].  In  the  wars  with  Italy  the  best  part  of  the  in- 
fantry of  Charles  VIII.  and  of  Louis  XII.  was  composed  of 
them.  As  soon  as  they  had  crossed  the  Alps,  in  the  train  of  the 
French,  they  were  welcomed  by  the  Pope,  who  opposed  them  to 
the  French  themselves,  and  for  a  short  time  they  reigned  over 
Northern  Italy  in  the  name  of  Maximilian  Sforza.  After  their 
defeat  at  Marignan  [1515]  religious  discords  armed  them  against 
each  other,  and  confined  them  within  their  mountains. 

The  two  commercial  powers  of  Germany  were  not  a  suffi- 
ciently compact  body  to  imitate  the  example  of  Switzerland,  and 
become  independent. 

The  league  of  the  Swedish  and  Swabian  towns  was  composed 
of  rich  cities,  among  which  Nuremburg,  Ratisbon,  Augsburg 
and  Spires  held  the  first  rank.  They  it  was  who  carried  on  the 
principal  commerce  by  land  between  the  North  and  the  South. 
When  it  reached  Cologne,  the  merchandise  they  imported  fell 
into  the  hands  of  the  Hanseatic  towns,  by  whom  it  was  dis- 
tributed throughout  the  North. 

The  Hanseatic  League,  consisting  of  eighty  towns,  occupied 
the  whole  northern  coast  of  Germany,  and  extended  to  the  Low 
Countries.  Until  the  sixteenth  century  it  was  the  ruling  power 
in  the  North.  The  immense  hall  at  Lubeck,  where  the  Hanseatic 
general  assemblies  were  held,  still  attests  the  power  of  these  mer- 
chant princes.  They  had  united  by  means  of  innumerable  canals 
the  ocean,  the  Baltic,  and  most  of  the  rivers  of  Northern  Ger- 
many. But  their  chief  commerce  was  maritime.  The  Hanseatic 
establishments  at  London,  Bruges,  Bergen,  and  Novogorod  were 


MODERN    HISTORY  47 

analogous  in  many  respects  to  the  factories  of  the  Venetians  and 
Genoese  in  the  Levant ;  they  were  a  sort  of  fortresses*  The  clerks 
were  not  allowed  to  marry  in  foreign  countries  for  fear  of  their 
teaching  commerce  and  the  arts  to  the  inhabitants.^  In  some 
counting-houses  they  were  received  only  after  cruel  trials  which 
tested  their  courage.  Commerce  was  still  almost  everywhere 
carried  on  sword  in  hand.  If  the  Hanse  traders  brought  into 
Novogorod  or  London  Flanders  cloth  which  was  too  coarse,  too 
narrow,  or  too  dear,  the  people  rose,  and  often  put  some  of  them 
to  death.  Then  the  merchants  threatened  to  leave  the  town,  and 
the  inhabitants  in  their  alarm  were  willing  to  submit  to  anything. 
The  citizens  of  Bruges  having  killed  some  Hanse  traders,  the 
league,  before  re-establishing  its  counting-houses  in  the  town, 
insisted  that  some  of  the  citizens  should  make  an  ample  apology, 
and  that  others  should  undertake  a  pilgrimage  to  Compostella 
or  Jerusalem.  In  truth,  the  most  terrible  punishment  which  the 
Hanseatic  traders  could  inflict  upon  a  town  was — to  abandon  it 
forever.  A  cessation  of  their  visits  to  Holland  left  its  inhabitants 
without  cloth,  moss,  salt,  and  herrings ;  and  in  all  revolutions  the 
Swedish  peasant  was  on  the  side  of  those  who  furnished  him  with 
salt  and  herrings.  For  this  reason  the  league  exacted  extraor- 
dinary privileges ;  the  greater  number  of  the  maritime  towns  in 
Sweden  allowed  at  least  half  of  their  magistrates  to  be  Hanseatic 
traders. 

Great  as  their  power  was,  however,  it  rested  on  no  solid  foun- 
dation. The  long  line  of  the  Hanseatic  towns,  from  Livonia  to 
the  Low  Countries,  was  everywhere  narrow  and  broken  by  for- 
eign or  hostile  States.  The  towns  composing  it  had  different 
interests  and  unequal  rights:  some  were  allies  of  the  league, 
some  protected  by  it,  others  its  subjects.  Even  the  commerce  on 
which  their  existence  depended  was  precarious.  As  they  had 
neither  agriculture  nor  manufactures,  and  could  only  transport 
and  exchange  foreign  merchandise,  they  depended  upon  a  thou- 
sand natural  or  political  accidents  which  no  sagacity  could  fore- 
see. Thus  the  herring,  which  towards  the  fourteenth  century 
had  quitted  the  coasts  of  Pomerania  for  those  of  Scandinavia, 
began  in  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  "century  to  leave  the  shores 
of  the  Baltic  for  those  of  the  Northern  ocean.  In  the  same  way 
the  submission  of  Novogorod  and  Plescow  to  the  Czar  Ivan  III. 
[1477],  and  the  reduction  of  Bruges  by  the  army  of  the  Empire 
(towards  1489),  closed  to  the  Hanse  Towns  the  two  chief  sources 
of  their  wealth.  At  the  same  time  the  progress  of  public  order 
rendered  the  protection  of  the  Hanseatics  unnecessary  to  many 
of  the  continental  towns,  especially  after  the  constitution  of  the 
Empire  consolidated  itself,  towards  1495.  The  Rhenish  cities 
had  never  chosen  to  join  the  league;  Cologne,  which  had  entered 

a  See  Sartorius  and  Mallet's  "  History  of  the  Hanseatic  League.0 


48  MICHELET 

into  it,  left  it  and  demanded  the  protection  of  Flanders.  The 
Dutch,  whose  commerce  and  industry  had  grown  up  under  the 
protection  of  the  Hanse,  no  longer  required  it  when  they  became 
the  subjects  of  the  powerful  houses  of  Burgundy  and  Austria, 
and  began  to  dispute  with  it  the  monopoly  of  the  Baltic  trade. 
At  once  agriculturists,  merchants,  and  manufacturers,  they  had 
the  advantage  over  a  purely  commercial  power.  To  defend  the 
interests  of  their  traffic  against  these  dangerous  rivals,  the 
Hanseatic  merchants  were  obliged  to  intervene  in  all  the  revolu- 
tions of  the  North. 

Its  priority  in  Christianity  and  civilization,  which  had  passed 
from  Germany  to  Denmark  and  thence  to  Sweden  and  Norway, 
long  gave  Denmark  the  preponderance  over  the  other  two 
States.  The  Swedish  and  Norwegian  bishops  were  the  most 
powerful  nobles  in  these  countries;  and  they  were  equally  de- 
voted to  Denmark.  But  the  Danish  Kings  could  only  maintain 
this  preponderance  by  continued  efforts,  which  made  them  de- 
pendent upon  their  nobles  and  obliged  them  to  make  frequent 
concessions.  These  concessions  could  be  made  only  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  royal  prerogative  and  of  the  freedom  of  the  peasant- 
ry, who  gradually  fell  into  slavery.  In  Sweden,  on  the  contrary, 
the  peasants  lost  little  of  the  ancient  liberty  of  the  Scandina- 
vian nations,  and  even  formed  an  order  in  the  State.  This  dif- 
ference in  the  constitution  explains  the  vigor  with  which  Sweden 
shook  off  the  yoke  of  the  Danes.  The  Norwegians,  either  be- 
cause the  clergy  had  more  influence  there  than  in  Sweden,  or 
that  they  feared  becoming  subjects  to  Sweden,  exhibited  gen- 
erally less  repugnance  towards  the  Danish  supremacy. 

The  famous  Union  of  Calmar,  which  appeared  to  promise  so 
much  glory  and  power  to  the  three  Northern  kingdoms,  had  only 
established  the  yoke  of  the  Danish  Princes,  and  of  the  Germans 
with  whom  they  surrounded  themselves,  over  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way. Both  the  revolution  of  1433,  and  that  of  1521,  began  with 
the  peasants  of  Dalecarlia ;  Engelbrecht  played  the  part  of  Gus- 
tavus  Vasa;  and  the  latter  as  well  as  the  former  was  sustained  by 
the  Hanse  towns,  whose  trade  monopoly  was  opposed  by 
the  King  of  Denmark  (Eric  the  Pomeranian,  nephew  of  Mar- 
garet of  Waldemar)  in  favor  of  the  Dutch.  The  union  was  re- 
stored some  time  afterwards  by  Christopher,  the  Bavarian,  the 
Bark  King,  as  the  Swedes,  who  were  forced  under  his  reign  to 
live  upon  the  bark  of  trees,  called  him.  But  after  his  death 
[1448]  they  turned  out  the  Danes  and  the  Germans,  elected  as 
their  King  Charles  Canutson,  marshal  of  the  kingdom,  and  re- 
fused to  recognize  the  new  King  of  Denmark  and  Norway, 
Christian  the  First  of  the  house  of  Oldenburgh  (the  ancestor, 
through  the  branch  of  Holstein-Gottorp,  of  the  last  Swedish 
dynasty  and  the  reigning  imperial  house  of  Russia).  The  Danes, 


MODERN    HISTORY  49 

strengthened  by  the  acquisition  of  Schleswig  and  Holstein 
[1459],  thrice  restored  their  dominion  over  Sweden,  by  the  help 
of  the  Archbishop  of  Upsala  [1457 — ^S],  and  were  twice  driven 
from  it  by  the  party  of  the  nobility  and  the  people. 

On  the  death  of  Charles  Canutson  in  1470  Sweden  adopted 
successively  as  administrators  three  nobles  of  the  name  of  Sture 
(Sten,  Swante,  and  Sten).  They  rested  their  power  on  the  peas- 
ants, and  called  them  into  the  senate.  They  beat  the  Danes  be- 
fore Stockholm  [1471],  and  took  from  them  the  famous  standard 
of  Danebrog,  which  was,  as  it  were,  the  palladium  of  the  mon- 
archy. They  founded  the  University  of  Upsala  at  the  same  time 
that  the  King  of  Denmark  founded  that  of  Copenhagen  [1477 — 
1478].  In  fact,  if  we  except  only  a  short  period,  during  which 
Sweden  was  obliged  to  recognize  John  II.,  successor  of  Chris- 
tian I.,  they  maintained  her  independence  until  1520. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE  EAST  AND  THE  NORTH. 

TURKISH   AND   SCLAVONIC  STATES   IN   THE    SECOND 
HALF   OF   THE   FIFTEENTH   CENTURY. 

The  conquest  of  the  Greek  Empire  by  the  Ottoman-Turks 
may  be  considered  as  the  last  invasion  of  the  barbarians,  and  the 
close  of  the  middle  ages.  It  was  the  destiny  of  the  nations  of 
Sclavonic  origin,  who  lay  in  the  road  of  the  Asiatic  barbarians, 
to  close  Europe  against  them,  or,  at  least,  to  check  their  advance 
by  powerful  diversions.  Russia,  on  which  the  rage  of  the  Tar- 
tars had  spent  itself  in  the  fourteenth  century,  again  became 
formidable  under  Ivan  III.  [1462].  A  league  of  Hungarians, 
Wallachians  and  Moldavians  covered  Germany  and  Poland, 
which  formed  as  it  were  the  reserve  of  the  Christian  army  against 
the  invasion  of  the  Turks.  Poland,  stronger  than  ever,  had  no 
longer  any  enemies  in  her  rear;  she  had  just  conquered  Prussia, 
and  penetrated  as  far  as  the  Baltic  [1454 — 1466], 

I.  The  rapid  progress  of  Ottoman  conquest  during  the 
fifteenth  century  is  explained  by  the  following  causes: — 

1.  The  fanatical  and  military  spirit  of  the  Turks. 

2.  Their  use  of  regular  troops,  as  opposed  to  the  feudal  militias 
of  the  Europeans  and  to  the  cavalry  of  the  Persians  and  Mame- 
lukes ;  their  institution  of  the  janizaries, 

3.  The  peculiar  position  of  the  enemies  of  Turkey;  in  the 
East  the  religious  and  political  discords  of  Persia,  and  the  feeble 
foundations  of  the  power  of  the  Mamelukes;  in  the  West  the  dis- 
sensions of  Christendom;  Hungary  was  its  bulwark  on  the 
land  side,  Venice  by  sea ;  but  they  were  enfeebled,  the  one  by  the 
ambition  of  the  house  of  Austria,  the  other  by  the  jealousy  of 
Italy  and  of  all  Europe.     The  resistance  of  the  Knights  of 
Rhodes,  and  of  the  the  Princes  of  Albania  was  heroic,but  power 
less. 

We  saw  in  our  first  chapter  Mahomet  II.,  after  succeeding  in 
the  conquest  of  the  Greek  Empire,  fail  against  Hungary,  but  be- 
come master  of  the  sea  and  inspire  all  Christendom  with  terror. 
On  the  accession  of  Bajazet  II.  [1481],  the  parts  changed,  and 
fear  crossed  over  to  the  side  of  the  Sultan.  His  brother  Zizim, 

50 


MODERN    HISTORY  51 

who  had  disputed  the  throne  with  him,  having  taken  refuge  with 
the  Knights  of  Rhodes,  became  in  the  hands  of  the  King  of 
France,  and  afterwards  of  the  Pope,  a  pledge  for  the  safety  of 
the  West  Bajazet  paid  Innocent  VIII.  and  Alexander  VI.  con- 
siderable sums  to  keep  him  prisoner.  This  unpopular  Prince, 
who  had  begun  his  reign  by  putting  to  death  the  Vizier  Achmet, 
the  idol  of  the  janizaries,  and  the  old  general  of  Mahomet  II. , 
was  carried  away  in  spite  of  himself  by  the  military  ardor  of  the 
nation.  The  Turks  turned  their  arms  first  against  the  Mame- 
lukes and  Persians.  Defeated  by  the  former,  at  Issus,  they  pre- 
pared the  ruin  of  their  conquerors  by  depopulating  Circassia, 
whence  the  Mamelukes  recruited  their  numbers.  After  the  death 
of  Zizim,  no  longer  fearing  any  internal  war,  they  attacked  the 
Venetians  in  the  Peloponnesus,  and  threatened  Italy  [1499 — 
1503];  but  Hungary,  Bohemia  and  Poland  came  to  the  rescue, 
and  the  accession  of  the  Sophis  renewed  and  gave  formal  shape 
to  the  political  rivalry  between  the  Persians  and  Turks  [1501]. 
After  this  war  Bajazet  estranged  the  Turks  by  a  peace  of  eight 
years,  desired  to  abdicate  in  favor  of  his  son  Achmet,  and  was 
dethroned  and  put  to  death  by  his  second  son,  Selim.  The  ac- 
cession of  this  new  sovereign,  the  most  cruel  and  warlike  of  all 
the  Sultans,  struck  terror  into  both  the  East  and  West  [1512];  it 
was  doubtful  whether  he  would  fall  first  upon  Persia,  Egypt,  or 
Italy. 

II.  Europe  would  have  had  nothing  to  fear  from  the  Bar- 
barians, if  Hungary  had  been  permanently  united  to  Bohemia, 
and  had  held  them  in  check.  But  Hungary  interfered  both  with 
the  independence  and  the  religion  of  Bohemia.  In  this  way  they 
weakened  each  other,  and  in  the  fifteenth  century  wavered  be- 
tween the  two  Sclavonic  and  German  powers  on  their  borders 
(Poland  and  Austria).  United  under  a  German  Prince  from 
1455  to  I458,  separated  for  a  time  under  national  sovereigns 
(Bohemia  until  1471,  Hungary  until  1490),  they  were  once  more 
united  under  Polish  Princes  until  1526,  at  which  period  they 
passed  definitively  into  the  hands  of  Austria. 

After  the  reign  of  Ladislas  of  Austria,  who  won  so  much  glory 
by  the  exploits  of  John  Hunniades,  George  Podiebrad  obtained 
the  crown  of  Bohemia,  and  Matthias  Corvimjs,  the  son  of  Hun- 
niades, was  elected  King  of  Hungary  [1458],  These  two  Princes 
opposed  successfully  the  chimerical  pretensions  of  the  Emperor 
Frederick  III.  Podiebrad  protected  the  Hussites  and  incurred 
the  enmity  of  the  Popes.  Matthias  victoriously  encountered  the 
Turks  and  obtained  the  favor  pf  Paul  II,,  who  offered  him  the 
crown  of  Podiebrad,  his  father-in-law.  The  latter  opposed  to  the 
hostility  of  Matthias  the  alliance  of  the  King  of  Poland,  whose 
eldest  son,  Ladislas,  he  designated  as  his  successor.  At  the  same 
time,  Casimir,  the  brother  of  JLadislas,  endeavored  to  take  from 


52  MICHELET 

Matthias  the  crown  of  Hungary.  Matthias,  thus  pressed  on  all 
sides,  was  obliged  to  renounce  the  conquest  of  Bohemia,  and 
content  himself  with  the  provinces  of  Moravia,  Silesia,  and  Lu- 
satia,  which  were  to  return  to  Ladislas  if  Matthias  died  first 
[1475—1478]. 

The  King  of  Hungary  compensated  himself  at  the  expense  of 
Austria.  On  the  pretext  that  Frederick  III.  had  refused  to  give 
him  his  daughter,  he  twice  invaded  his  States  and  retained  them 
in  his  possession.  With  this  great  Prince  Christendom  lost  its 
chief  defender,  Hungary  her  conquests  and  her  political  prepon- 
derance [1490].  The  civilization  which  he  had  tried  to  introduce 
into  his  kingdom  was  deferred  for  many  centuries.  We  have 
already  related  what  he  did  for  letters  and  the  arts.  By  his 
Decretom  majiis,  he  regulated  military  discipline,  abolished  judi- 
cial combat,  forbade  his  subjects  to  appear  in  arms  at  fair  or  mar- 
ket, decreed  that  punishment  should  no  longer  be  extended  to 
the  relations  of  culprits,  nor  their  possessions  in  future  be  con- 
fiscated, that  the  King  would  no  longer  seize  all  mines  of  gold,o 
salt,  etc.,  without  compensating  the  proprietor.  Ladislas  (of  Po- 
land) King  of  Bohemia,  having  been  elected  King  of  Hungary, 
was  attacked  by  his  brother  John  Albert,  and  by  Maximilian 
of  Austria,  who  both  pretended  to  that  crown.  He  appeased 
his  brother  by  the  cession  of  Silesia  [1491],  and  Maxi- 
milian by  vesting  in  the  house  of  Austria  the  right  of  succession 
to  the  throne  of  Hungary,  in  case  he  himself  should  die  without 
male  issue.  Under  Ladislas,  and  under  his  son  Louis  IL,  who 
succeeded  him  while  still  a  child,  in  1516,  Hungary  was  ravaged 
with  impunity  by  the  Turks. 

III.  Poland,  united  since  1386  to  Lithuania  by  Ladislas  Jagel- 
lon,  the  first  Prince  of  this  dynasty,  became  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury the  preponderating  power  among  the  Sclavonic  States. 
Protected  on  the  side  of  the  Turks  by  Wallachia,  Moldavia  and 
Transylvania,  the  rival  of  Russia  in  Lithuania,  of  Austria  in 
Hungary  and  Bohemia,  she  disputed  the  possession  of  Prussia 
and  Livonia  with  the  Teutonic  Order.  The  secret  of  her  weak- 
ness was  the  jealousy  of  the  two  nations,  speaking  different  lan- 
guages, which  composed  the  main  body  in  the  State.  The 
Jagellons,  who  were  Lithuanian  Princes,  wished  their  coun- 
try not  to  depend  upon  Polish  laws,  and  to  recover  Podolia. 
The  Poles  reproached  Casimir  IV.  with  passing  the  autumn, 
winter,  and  spring  in  Lithuania.^ 

Under  Casimir,  the  second  son  of  Ladislas  Jagellon  (fifth  of 
the  name),  the  Poles  protected  the  Sclavonians  of  Prussia  against 
the  tyranny  of  the  Teutonic  Knights  and  forced  the  latter  to  sub- 
mit to  the  Treaty  of  Thorn  [1466],  by  means  of  which  they  lost 

a  Bonfinitts,    "  Renim   Hungaricarura          b  Dlugossi,  sive  Longini,    "  Historic 
Decades,"  1568,  in  foL,  p.  649.  Polonicae,"  vol.  ii.  1712,  p.  114-160. 


MODERN    HISTORY  53 

Western  Prussia,  and  became  vassals  of  Poland  for  Eastern 
Prussia.  Who  would  then  have  thought  that  Prussia  would  one 
day  dismember  Poland?  At  the  same  time  the  Poles  gave  a 
King  to  Bohemia  and  to  Hungary  [1471 — 1490].  The  three 
brothers  of  Ladislas,  John  Albert,  Alexander  and  Sigismund  L, 
were  successively  elected  Kings  of  Poland  [1492,  1501,  1506], 
made  war  upon  the  Wallachians  and  Turks,  and  gained  brilliant 
victories  over  the  Russians.  Lithuania,  separated  from  Poland 
on  the  accession  of  John  Albert,  was  definitively  united  to  her  by 
Alexander. 

Towards  1466,  the  continual  wars  necessarily  introduced  a 
representative  government  into  Poland,  but  the  pride  of  the 
nobles,  who  alone  were  represented  by  their  Nuncios,  main- 
tained the  anarchical  forms  of  barbarous  ages;  and  they  con- 
tinued to  exact  a  unanimous  consent  in  their  deliberations  for 
the  enactment  of  a  law.  Even  on  important  occasions  the  Poles 
remained  faithful  to  established  usage,  and,  as  in  the  middle  ages, 
the  numerous  pospolite  were  seen  deliberating  in  the  field  sword 
in  hand. 

IV.  In  the  fifteenth  century  the  Russian  population  was  di- 
vided into  three  classes :  the  Boyards,  descendants  of  the  con- 
querors; the  free  peasants,  who  farmed  for  the  former  and  whose 
state  was  approaching  more  and  more  to  slavery;  and  lastly  the 
serfs. 

The  Grand  Duchy  of  Moscow  was  continually  threatened  by 
enemies:  on  the  west  it  had  the  Lithuanians  and  Livonians,  on 
the  east  the  Tartars  of  the  Golden  Horde  from  Kasan  and  Astra- 
kan;  it  was  hemmed  in  by  the  commercial  republics  of  Novo- 
gorod  and  Plescow,  and  by  the  principalities  of  Tver,  Vereia  and 
Rezan.  To  the  north  of  it  were  savage  and  heathen  countries. 
The  Muscovite  nation,  still  barbarous,  but  attached  at  least  to  a 
fixed  abode,  was  destined  to  absorb  in  time  the  nomadic  tribes 
of  the  Tartars.  As  an  hereditary  State,  the  Grand  Duchy  could 
not  fail  to  prevail,  sooner  or  later,  over  the  elective  States  of  Po- 
land and  Livonia. 

1462 — 1505,  Ivan  III.  He  opposed  to  the  attacks  of  the 
Golden  Horde  an  alliance  with  the  Crimean  Tartars,  to  those  of 
Lithuania  a  league  with  the  Prince  of  Moldavia  and  Wallachia, 
and  again  with  Matthias  Corvinus  and  Maximilian.  He  separated 
Plescow  and  Novogorod,  which  could  only  resist  him  by  making 
common  cause  with  each  other,  gradually  weakened  the  latter 
republic,  took  possession  of  it  in  1477,  and  drained  it  of  its 
strength  by  carrying  off  its  chief  citizens.  Strengthened  by  his 
alliance  with  the  Khan  of  the  Crimea,  he  imposed  a  tribute  on 
the  inhabitants  of  Kasan,  and  refused  that  which  his  predeces- 
sors paid  to  the  Golden  Horde,  which  soon  afterwards  was  de- 
stroyed by  the  Tartars  [1480].  Ivan  united  to  his  dominions 


54  MICHELET 

Tver,  Vereia,  Rostow  and  Yaroslaw.  He  made  war  for  a  long 
time  on  the  Lithuanians;  but  Alexander,  having  united  Lithu- 
ania to  Poland,  allied  himself  with  the  Knights  of  Livonia;  and 
the  Czar,  who,  after  the  destruction  of  the  Golden  Horde,  had 
treated  his  allies  in  Moldavia  and  the  Crimea  with  less  considera- 
tion, lost  his  ascendancy.  He  was  beaten  at  Plescow  by  Plet- 
temberg,  the  Master  of  the  Knights  of  Livonia  [1501],  and  in  the 
very  year  of  his  death  [1505]  Kasan  revolted  against  Russia. 

Ivan  was  the  first  to  take  the  title  of  Czar.  Having  obtained 
from  the  Pope  the  hand  of  Sophia  Palseologus,  who  had  taken 
refuge  in  Rome,  he  inserted  in  his  arms  the  double  eagle  of  the 
Greek  Empire.  He  invited  and  retained  by  force  Greek  and 
Italian  artists.  He  was  the  first  to  assign  fiefs  to  the  Boyards  on 
condition  of  military  service;  he  introduced  order  into  the 
finances,  established  posts,  formed  into  a  code  [1497]  ^e  ancient 
judicial  customs,  and  desired,  though  ineffectually,  to  distribute 
the  lands  of  the  Church  among  the  Boyards.  In  1492  Ivan 
founded  Ivangorod  (on  the  spot  where  St.  Petersburg  was  after- 
wards built),  but  the  victories  of  Plettemberg  shut  against  Rus- 
sia for  two  centuries  all  access  to  the  Baltic. 


CHAPTER  V. 

EARLY  ITALIAN  WARS. 
ITALY  AT  THE  BEGINNING  OF  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY. 

When  in  the  present  day  we  cross  the  Siennese  Maremma  and 
find  there  and  in  other  parts  of  Italy  traces  of  wars  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  we  are  seized  by  an  inexpressible  sadness,  and 
we  curse  the  barbarians  who  caused  all  this  desolation.^  This 
desert  of  the  Maremma  was  made  by  a  general  of  Charles  V. ; 
those  ruins  of  burnt  palaces  are  the  work  of  Francis  L's  Lands- 
knechts.  The  damaged  pictures  of  Giulio  Romano  attest  to  this 
day  that  the  soldiers  of  the  Constable  of  Bourbon  stabled  their 
horses  in  the  Vatican.  Let  us  not,  however,  blame  our  fathers 
too  hastily.  The  wars  in  Italy  were  the  effect  neither  of  a  King's 
nor  a  nation's  caprice.  During  more  than  half  a  century  an  irre- 
sistible impulse  carried  all  the  western,  as  it  had  formerly  carried 
all  the  northern,  nations  over  the  Alps.  The  calamities  were 
almost  as  great,  but  the  result  was  the  same;  the  conquerors 
were  raised  to  the  civilization  of  the  conquered. 

Louis  the  Moor,  alarmed  by  the  threats  of  the  King  of  Naples, 
whose  grand-daughter  had  married  his  nephew,  John  Galeas  (see 
Chapter  I.),  determined  to  support  his  usurped  authority  by  the 
assistance  of  the  French,  but  he  little  knew  what  a  power  he  was 
bringing  into  Italy.  He  was  seized  with  astonishment  and  ter- 
ror when  he  saw  trooping  down  Mount  Ginevra,  in  September, 
1494,  their  formidable  army,  which,  from  the  variety  of  costume, 
arms,  and  language,  seemed  to  comprise  within  its  ranks  every 
nation  in  Europe — French,  Basques,  Bretons,  Swiss,  Germans, 
and  even  Scotch ;  the  invincible  gendarmes,  as  well  as  those  for- 
midable bronze  cannons  which  the  French  had  learned  to  move 
as  easily  as  their  soldiers.  It  introduced  a  new  mode  of  warfare 
into  Italy.  The  old  tactics,  which  sent  one  squadron  after  an- 
other into  battle  were  superseded  at  once  by  the  French  impet- 
uosity and  by  the  cool  bravery  of  the  Swiss.  War  was  no  longer 
a  system  of  tactics.  It  was  to  be  terrible,  inexorable.  The  con- 

a  "  Commentaries  of  Blaise  de  Mont-  ata  et  dans  le  Siennois,"  by  Santi,  trans- 

luc,"    vol.    xxi.    of    the    collection,    p.  lated  into   French   by   Bodard.    Lyons, 

267-8.    See  also  several  books  of  travel  1802,  2  vols.  in  8vo.  vol.  i,  passim, 
and  especially  a  "  Voyage  au  Montami- 

55 


56  MICHELET 

queror  did  not  even  understand  the  prayers  of  the  conquered. 
The  soldiers  of  Charles  VIIL,  full  of  fear  and  hatred  against  a 
country  where  they  expected  to  be  poisoned  at  every  meal,  in- 
variably massacred  all  their  prisoners.^ 

At  the  approach  of  the  French  the  old  governments  of  Italy 
crumbled  away  of  themselves.  Pisa  shook  off  the  yoke  of  the 
Florentines;  Florence  that  of  the  Medicis;  Savonarola  received 
Charles  VIIL  as  "The  Scourge  of  God"  sent  to  punish  the  sins 
of  Italy.  Alexander  VL,  who  till  that  moment  had  been  negotiat- 
ing at  the  same  time  with  the  French,  the  Aragonese,  and  the 
Turks,  heard  with  terror  the  words  "council"  and  "deposition," 
and  hid  himself  in  the  castle  of  St.  Angelo.  He  gave  up  in  terror 
the  brother  of  Bajazet  II.,  whom  Charles  VIIL  wanted  to  use 
for  conquering  the  Empire  of  the  East,  but  before  yielding  him 
up,  he  poisoned  him.  The  new  King  of  Naples,  Alphonso  II., 
had  in  the  meantime  taken  refuge  in  a  convent  in  Sicily,  leaving 
his  kingdom  to  be  defended  by  a  King  of  eighteen  years  old. 
This  young  sovereign,  Ferdinand  II.,  was  abandoned  at  San 
Germano,  and  saw  his  palace  pillaged  by  the  populace  of  Naples, 
who  always  rise  against  those  who  are  beaten.  The  French  sol- 
diers, no  longer  fatiguing  themselves  by  wearing  armor,  con- 
tinued their  pacific  conquests  in  morning-dress,  the  only  trouble 
they  took  was  to  send  their  quartermasters  on  before  to  mark 
out  their  lodgings.*  The  Turks  soon  beheld  the  standard  of  the 
fleur-de-lis  floating  at  Otranto,  and  the  Greeks  purchased 


. 

The  partisans  of  the  house  of  Anjou,  after  having  been  de- 
spoiled and  banished  for  sixty  years,  had  expected  to  share  in  the 
profit  of  the  conquest  under  Charles  VIIL  But  this  Prince, 
caring  little  for  the  services  which  they  had  rendered  to  the 
Kings  of  the  house  of  Provence,  exacted  no  restitution  from  the 
opposite  party.  He  disgusted  all  the  nobility  by  announcing  his 
intention  of  restricting  the  feudal  jurisdiction  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  in  France.*  He  appointed  French  governors  to  all  the 
towns  and  fortresses,  and  thus  induced  several  towns  to  resume 
the  standard  of  Aragon.  At  the  end  of  three  months  the  Neapol- 
itans were  tired  of  the  French  and  the  French  of  Naples;  they 
forgot  their  designs  upon  the  East,  and  were  impatient  to  return 
and  relate  their  brilliant  adventures  to  their  ladies. 

But  an  almost  universal  league  had  formed  itself  against 
Charles  VIIL  He  was  obliged  to  leave  Italy  in  haste  to  escape 
being  imprisoned  in  the  kingdom  which  he  had  come  to  con- 
quer. While  recrossing  the  Apennines  he  encountered  at  For- 
novo  the  army  of  the  confederates,  which  was  40,000  strong, 

b  At  Montefortino,  at  Mont  St.  Jean,          c  Comines,  book  vii.  chap.  xiv. 
at  Rappallo,  Sarzano,  Toscaaella,  For-          dlbid,  chap.  xvu. 
novo,  and  Gaeta.  *  Giannme,  book  xxx.  chap.  i. 


MODERN    HISTORY  57 

while  the  French  numbered  only  9,000.  After  in  vain  demand- 
ing a  passage,  they  forced  one,  and  the  enemy's  army,  which 
tried  to  stop  them,  was  put  to  flight  by  a  few  charges  of  cavalry. 
The  King  then  returned  triumphantly  to  France,  having  justi- 
fied all  his  imprudence  by  a  single  victory. 

The  Italians,  believing  themselves  delivered,  took  Savonarola 
to  task  for  his  unlucky  predictions.  His  party,  that  of  the 
Piagnoni  (penitents)  which  had  freed  and  reformed  Florence, 
found  itself  discredited.  The  friends  of  the  Medicis,  whom  they 
had  violently  attacked,  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  whose  excesses 
Savonarola  had  exposed  with  extreme  boldness,  seized  the  op- 
portunity for  destroying  a  faction  which  had  wearied  out  the 
capricious  enthusiasm  of  the  Florentines.  A  Franciscan  monk, 
wishing,  as  he  said,  to  prove  that  Savonarola  was  an  impostor, 
and  that  he  had  neither  the  gift  of  prophecy  nor  that  of  miracles, 
offered  to  pass  with  him  through  a  burning  fire.  On  the  day 
fixed,  when  the  scaffold  was  raised  for  this  purpose  and  the 
spectators  waiting,  both  parties  made  difficulties,  and  a  heavy 
storm  which  ensued  exasperated  the  people. 

Savonarola  was  arrested,  judged  by  the  delegates  of  the  Pope, 
and  burnt  alive.  When  the  sentence  was  read  to  him  dismiss- 
ing him  from  the  Church,  "from  the  Church  militant,"  he  re- 
plied, hoping  in  future  to  belong  to  the  Church  triumphant 
[1498]. 

Italy  perceived  only  too  soon  the  truth  of  his  prophecies. 

On  the  very  day  of  the  trial  by  fire  Charles  VIII.  expired  at 
Amboise  and  left  his  throne  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  Louis  XII., 
who  joined  to  the  claims  of  his  predecessor  on  Naples  those  of 
his  grandmother,  Valentina  Visconti,  on  Milan.  As  soon  as  his 
marriage  with  the  widow  of  Charles  VII L  had  secured  for  him 
the  possession  of  Brittany,  Louis  invaded  the  Milanese  in  con- 
cert with  the  Venetians.  Both  the  hostile  armies  were  partly 
composed  of  Swiss;  those  who  belonged  to  the  troops  of  Milan 
would  not  fight  against  the  flag  of  their  canton,  which  they  saw 
in  the  army  of  the  King  of  France,  and  abandoned  Duke  Ltido- 
vico.  But  on  their  way  back  to  their  mountains  they  took  pos- 
session of  Bellinzona,  which  Louis  XII.  was  obliged  to  give  up 
to  them,  and  it  became  in  their  hands  the  key  of  Lombardy. 
Having  subdued  the  Milanese,  Louis  XII.,  who  could  not  hope 
to  conquei  the  kingdom  of  Naples  against  the  will  of  the  Span- 
iards, shared  it  with  them  by  means  of  a  secret  treaty.  The  un- 
happy Don  Frederick,  who  reigned  at  that  time,  called  Spain  to 
his  assistance,  and,  when  he  had  opened  his  principal  fortresses 
to  Gonsalvo  of  Cordova,  the  treaty  of  partition  was  disclosed  to 
him  [1501].  This  odious  conquest  was  productive  only  of  war. 
The  two  nations  quarrelled  for  the  proceeds  of  the  tax  raised. on 
the  flocks  and  herds  that  traveled  in  the  spring  from  Apulia  to 


58  MICHELET 

the  Abruzzi;  which  was  the  most  certain  portion  of  the  Neapol- 
itan revenue,  Ferdinand  amused  Louis  XII.  by  a  treaty  until 
he  had  sent  sufficient  reinforcements  to  Gonsalvo,  who  was 
blockaded  in  B arietta.  The  skill  of  the  great  captain  and  the 
discipline  of  the  Spanish  infantry  everywhere  got  the  better  of 
the  brilliant  courage  of  the  French  gendarmes.  The  valor  of 
Louis  d'Ars  and  of  D'Aubigny,  the  exploits  of  Bayard,  who  was 
said  to  have  defended  a  bridge  single-handed  against  an  army, 
could  not  prevent  the  French  from  being  beaten  at  Seminara  and 
Cerignola,  and  from  being  turned  a  second  time  out  of  the  king- 
dom of  Naples  by  their  defeat  at  the  Garigliano  [December, 

Louis  XIL,  however,  was  still  master  of  a  large  portion  of 
Italy;  sovereign  of  the  Milanese  and  lord  of  Genoa,  the  ally  and 
mainstay  of  Florence  and  of  Pope  Alexander  VI./  his  influence 
spread  over  Tuscany,  the  Romagfia  and  the  Roman  States.  The 
death  of  Alexander  VI.  and  the  ruin  of  his  son  were  as  fatal  to 
him  as  the  defeat  of  the  Garigliano.  The  Italian  power  of  the 
Borgias  which  came  between  the  possessions  of  France  and  of 
Spain  was  a  sort  of  vanguard  for  the  Milanese. 

Csesar  Borgia  deserved  to  be  the  ideal  of  Machiavelli,  not  be- 
cause he  was  more  perfidious  than  the  other  Princes  of  his  time 
— Ferdinand  the  Catholic  might  have  disputed  the  palm  of  faith- 
lessness— not  for  having  been  the  assassin  of  his  father  and  the 
lover  of  his  sister — for  he  could  not  surpass  his  father  in  cruelty 
and  depravity — but  for  having  made  crime  into  a  science, 
for  having  set  up  a  school  of  crime  and  given  lessons  in 
it.g  However,  even  the  hero  of  this  system  gave  a  splendid  proof 
of  his  futility  by  his  want  of  success.  Ally  as  he  was  of  Louis 
XIL  and  gonfaloniere  of  the  Church,  he  exhausted,  during  six 
years,  every  sort  of  dissimulation  and  audacity.  He  thought 
that  he  was  working  for  himself;  he  told  Machiavelli  that  he  had 
foreseen  everything;  on  his  father's  death  he  hoped  to  nominate 
a  Pope  by  means  of  eighteen  Spanish  cardinals  appointed  by 
Alexander  VI.;  in  the  Roman  States  he  had  gained  over  the 
smaller  nobles  and  crushed  the  higher;  he  had  exterminated  the 
tyrants  of  Romagna  and  attached  to  himself  the  inhabitants  of 
that  province,  which  breathed  freely  under  his  firm  and  skilful 
administration.  He  had  foreseen  everything  except  the  possi- 
bility of  his  being  incapacitated  by  illness  at  the  death  of  his 
father,  and  this  was  precisely  what  happened.  The  father  and 
son  who  had,  it  is  said,  invited  a  cardinal  to  their  table  in  order 
to  murder  him,  drank  the  poison  which  was  intended  for  him. 

/  Caesar    Borgia    of    France,    by    the  Legation  of  MachiavelK  to  Caesar  Bor- 

grace  of  God,    Duke  of  Romagna  and  gia). 

Valentinois,  etc.    (safe  conduct  of  Oct.  g  Machiavelli   says  somewhere:    "He 

16,  1502).    He  said  to  the  French  Am-  sent  one  &f  his  scholars.    ..."    De 

bassador:   "  The  King  of  France,   our  Moncada,  a  general  of  Charles  V.,  was 

common  master.    .    .  '    (Jan.  to,  1503,  proud  of  having  studied  in  this  school. 


MODERN    HISTORY  59 

"This  man,  who  used  to  be  so  prudent,  seems  to  have  lost  his 
head/'  wrote  Machiavelli  [Nov.  14,  1503].  He  allowed  the  new 
Pope  Julius  to  wrest  from  him  the  surrender  of  all  the  fortresses 
in  his  occupation,  and  afterwards  gave  himself  up  to  Gonsalvo 
of  Cordova,  believing  that  the  word  of  others  was  worth  more 
than  his  own  (letter  of  the  fourth  of  November).  But  Ferdinand 
the  Catholic's  general,  who  said  "that  the  cloth  of  honor  must 
be  of  a  loose  tissue,"  sent  him  to  Spain,  where  he  was  confined 
in  the  citadel  of  Medina  del  Campo. 

Julius  II.  continued  the  conquests  of  Borgia  with  less  personal 
views.  He  wished  to  make  the  Pontifical  State  the  dominating 
state  of  Italy,  to  deliver  the  whole  peninsula  from  the  barbarians 
and  to  make  the  Swiss  the  guardians  of  Italian  liberty.  Employ- 
ing spiritual  and  temporal  arms  by  turns,  the  intrepid  Pontiff 
spent  his  life  in  the  execution  of  these  inconsistent  projects^ for 
the  barbarians  could  be  driven  out  only  by  means  of  Venice: 
and  Venice  had  to  be  lowered  to  raise  the  Church  to  the  rank  of 
the  preponderating  power  in  Italy. 

In  the  first  place  Julius  II.  wanted  to  set  free  his  fellow-coun- 
trymen, the  Genoese,  and  he  encouraged  them  to  revolt  against 
Louis  XIL  The  nobles,  favored  by  the  French  governor,  were 
continually  insulting  the  people ;  they  went  about  armed  with 
daggers  on  which  they  had  engraved  the  words  castiga  villano. 
The  people  revolted  and  set  up  a  dyer  as  Doge.  Louis  XIL 
soon  appeared  under  their  walls  with  a  brilliant  army ;  the  Chev- 
alier Bayard  scaled  without  difficulty  the  mountains  which  cover 
Genoa  and  cried  out  to  them :  "  Listen,  merchants,  defend  your- 
selves with  your  yardarms  and  let  alone  pikes  and  staves  to 
which  you  are  not  accustomed."^  The  King,  who  did  not  like  to 
destroy  such  a  splendid  city,  only  hanged  the  Doge  and  a  few 
others,  burnt  the  charters  of  the  town  and  built  at  the  Lantetna 
a  fortress  which  commanded  the  entrance  into  the  harbor  [1507]- 

The  same  jealousy  between  the  monarchies  and  republics,  as 
well  as  between  nations  which  were  still  poor  and  opulent  indus- 
try, soon  armed  most  of  the  Princes  of  the  West  against  the 
ancient  rival  of  Genoa.  The  government  of  Venice  had  known 
how  to  turn  to  its  own  advantage  the  blunders  and  misfortunes 
of  every  other  power;  it  had  profited  by  the  fall  of  Ludovico  il 
Moro,  by  the  expulsion  of  the  French  from  Napks,  by  the  ruin 
of  Caesar  Borgia.  So  much  excess  excited  the  fear  and  the 
jealousy  of  the  Italian  powers  themselves,  which  ought  to  have 
desired  the  importance  of  Venice.  "Your  lordships,"  Machia- 
velli wrote  to  the  Florentines,  "have  always  told  me  that  it  was 
the  Venetians  who  threatened  the  liberty  of  Italy."*  As  early 

h  Chatnpier,  "  Les  Gcstes,  etisemble  i  Embassy  to  the  Emperor,  February, 
J.M2  duVux  ChevaUe,  Ba^d."  g^  See ^  h^  Embassy  to  tb. 


60  MICHELET 

as  the  year  1503,  M.  de  Chaumont,  viceroy  of  the  Milanese,  said 
to  the  same  ambassador:  "We  shall  contrive  that  the  Venetians 
shall  have  nothing  to  do  in  future  but  busy  themselves  in  their 
fishing;  as  for  the  Swiss,  we  are  sure  of  them3'  [Jan.  22nd].  This 
conspiracy  against  Venice,  which  had  existed  since  1504  (Treaty 
of  Blois),  was  rewarded  in  1508  (League  of  Cambray,  Dec.  loth) 
by  the  imprudence  of  Julius  II.,  who  was  determined  to  recover 
at  all  costs  some  of  the  towns  in  the  Romagna.  The  Pope,  the 
Emperor  and  the  King  of  France  bribed  the  King  of  Hungary 
to  enter  into  their  confederation  by  the  promise  of  restoring  to 
him  Dalmatia  and  Sclavonia.  Every  sovereign,  even  the  Dukes 
of  Savoy  and  Ferrara  and  the  Marquis  of  Mantua,  was  eager  to 
strike  those  whom  they  had  feared  so  long.  The  Venetians  were 
defeated  by  Louis  XII.  in  the  bloody  battle  of  Aignadel  [1509], 
and  the  balls  from  the  French  batteries  reached  the  Lagoons.  In 
this  danger  the  Venetian  senate  did  not  belie  its  reputation  for 
sagacity.  It  declared  that  it  wished  to  spare  its  provinces  the 
evils  of  war,  it  released  them  from  the  oath  of  fealty,  and  prom- 
ised to  indemnify  them  for  their  losses  as  soon  as  peace  was  re- 
stored. Either  from  attachment  to  the  republic  or  from  hatred 
of  the  Germans,  the  peasants  round  Verona  preferred  to  die 
rather  than  to  abjure  St.  Mark  and  cry  "Long  live  the  Em- 
peror!" The  Venetians  beat  the  Marquis  of  Mantua,  retook 
Padua  and  defended  it  against  Maximilian,  who  laid  siege  to  it 
with  100,000  men.  The  King  of  Naples  and  the  Pope,  whose 
pretensions  were  satisfied,  made  peace  with  Venice,  and  Julius 
II.,  who  was  now  only  bent  upon  driving  out  the  barbarians 
from  Italy,  turned  his  impetuous  policy  against  the  French. 

The  projects  of  the  Pope  were  only  too  well  served  by  the  ill- 
conceived  economy  of  Louis  XII.,  who  had  reduced  the  pen- 
sions of  the  Swiss,  and  who  no  longer  permitted  them  to  provi- 
sion themselves  in  Burgundy  and  in  the  Milanese.  The  effects 
of  the  blunder  committed  by  Louis  XL,  who,  by  substituting  a 
mercenary  Swiss  infantry  for  the  free  archers,  had  placed  France 
at  the  mercy  of  foreigners,  were  now  felt.  The  Swiss  had  to  be 
replaced  by  German  Landsknechts,  who  were  recalled  by  the 
Emperor  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  of  Ravenna.  The  Pope,  how- 
ever, had  begun  the  war;  he  invited  the  Swiss  into  Italy  and  in- 
duced Ferdinand,  Venice,  Henry  VIII.,  and  Maximilian  to  enter 
the  Holy  League  against  France  [1511 — 1512].  While  Louis 
XII.,  not  knowing  whether  he  might  without  sin  defend  himself 
against  the  Pope,  was  consulting  learned  doctors  and  assem- 
bling a  council  at  Pisa,  Julius  II.  besieged  the  Mirandola  in  per- 
son, planted  himself,  surrounded  by  his  trembling  cardinals,  un- 
der the  fire  of  the  fortress  and  entered  it  by  the  breach. 

The  brilliant  courage  of  Julius  II.,  and  the  policy  of  his  allies 
were  for  an  instant  disconcerted  by  the  appearance  of  Louis 


MODERN   HISTORY  6l 

XlL's  nephew,  Gaston  de  Foix,  at  the  head  of  the  French  army. 
This  young  man,  of  twenty-two  years  of  age,  arrived  in  Lom- 
bardy,  won  three  victories  in  'three  months  and  died,  leaving  the 
memory  of  the  most  impetuous  general  whom  Italy  had  ever  be- 
held First  he  intimidated  or  gained  over  the  Swiss  and  drove 
them  back  into  their  mountains;  he  raised  the  siege  of  Bologna 
and  penetrated  into  the  town  with  his  army,  favored  by  a  violent 
snow-storm  [Feb.  7th] ;  on  the  eighteenth  he  was  before  Brescia, 
which  had  been  retaken  by  the  Venetians;  on  the  nineteenth  he 
had  carried  the  town  and  on  the  eleventh  of  April  he  died  in  the 
hour  of  victory  at  Ravenna.  In  the  terrible  rapidity  of  his  suc- 
cesses he  spared  neither  his  own  troops  nor  those  he  vanquished. 
Brescia  was  abandoned  for  seven  days  to  the  fury  of  the  soldiers; 
the  conquerors  massacred  15,000  persons — men,  women,  and 
children.  The  Chevalier  Bayard  had  few  imitators. 

Gaston  on  his  return  to  the  Romagna  attacked  Ravenna  to 
force  the  army  of  Spain  and  the  Pope  to  give  battle./  As  soon 
as  the  cannonade  had  begun,  Pedro  of  Navarre,  who  had  formed 
the  Spanish  infantry  and  who  counted  on  it  for  victory,  made  the 
men  lie  on  their  faces  and  wait  with  patience  until  the  balls  had 
destroyed  the  cavalry  on  both  sides.  The  Italian  horse  lost 
patience,  charged,  and  were  broken  by  the  French.  The  Span- 
ish infantry,  after  sustaining  the  battle  with  obstinate  courage, 
slowly  retired.  Gaston,  indignant,  charged  it  with  about 
twenty  men-at-arms  at  his  back,  pierced  its  ranks,  and  met  his 
death  [1512]. 

Henceforth  nothing  succeeded  with  Louis  XII.  The  Sforzas 
were  re-established  in  Milan,  the  Medicis  in  Florence.  The 
King's  army  was  beaten  by  the  Swiss  at  Novara  and  by  the  Eng- 
lish at  Guinegate.  France,  attacked  in  front  by  the  Spaniards 
and  Swiss,  in  the  rear  by  the  English,  saw  her  two  allies,  Scot- 
land and  Navarre,  beaten  or  despoiled  (see  Chapter  II.).  The 
war  had  no  longer  an  object;  the  Swiss  reigned  at  Milan  in  the 
name  of  Maximilian  Sforza ;  France  and  yenice  were  humiliated, 
the  Emperor  exhausted,  Henry  VIII.  discouraged,  and  Ferdi- 
nand satisfied  by  the  conquest  of  Navarre,  which  laid  bare  the 
frontier  of  France.  Louis  XII.  concluded  a  truce  with  Ferdi- 
nand, abjured  the  Council  of  Pisa,  left  the  Milanese  to  Maxi- 
milian Sforza  and  married  the  sister  of  Henry  VIIL  [1514]. 

While  Europe  believed  France  to  be  exhausted,  and,  as  it  were, 
to  have  grown  old  with  Louis  XIL,  she  suddenly  displayed  un- 
expected resources  under  the  young  Francis  I.,  who  succeeded 
him  (Jan.  I,  1515].  The  Swiss,  who  thought  that  they  held  all 
the  passes  of  the  Alps,  heard  with  astonishment  that  the  French 
army  had  defiled  through  the  valley  of  the  Argentiere.  Two 
thousand  five  hundred  lances,  10,000  Basques,  and  22,000  Lands- 

3  See  Bayard's  letter  to  his  uncle,  vol.  xvi.  of  the  "  Collection  of  Memoirs.** 


6s  MICHELET 

knechts  passed  through  a  defile  which  had  never  before  been 
penetrated  except  by  chamois-hunters.  The  French  army  ad- 
vanced as  far  as  Marignan,  negotiating  as  they  marched;  there, 
the  Swiss,  whom  they  thought  they  had  won  over,  fell  upon  the 
French  with  their  pikes,  eighteen  feet  long,  and  their  two-handed 
swords,  without  either  artillery  or  cavalry,  employing  no  mili- 
tary skill,  but  mere  strength  of  body,  marching  right  up  to  the 
batteries,  whose  discharges  swept  away  whole  files,  and  sustain- 
ing more  than  thirty  charges  of  the  great  war  horses,  which  were 
covered  with  steel  like  the  men  who  sat  on  them.  By  the  even- 
ing they  had  succeeded  in  separating  the  divisions  of  the  French 
army.  The  King,  who  had  fought  valiantly,  saw  round  him  only 
a  handful  of  horsemen./?  But  during  the  night  the  French  rallied 
and  the  battle  recommenced  at  daybreak  more  furiously  than 
ever.  At  length  the  Swiss  heard  the  war-cry  of  the  Venetians, 
who  were  allies  of  France,  "Marco !  Marco!''  Believing  that  the 
whole  of  the  Italian  army  was  coming,  they  closed  their  ranks 
and  fell  back  with  such  an  air  of  defiance  that  the  enemy  durst 
not  pursue  them.*  Having  obtained  from  Francis  I.  more  money 
than  Sforza  could  give  them,  they  reappeared  no  more  in  Italy, 
The  Pope  also  treated  with  the  conqueror  and  obtained  from  him 
the  concordat  which  abolished  the  Pragmatic  Sanction,  His 
alliance  with  the  Pope  and  Venice  seemed  to  open  to  Francis  I. 
the  road  to  Naples.  Young  Charles  of  Austria,  sovereign  of  the 
Netherlands,  who  had  just  succeeded  in  Spain  to  his  grandfather, 
Ferdinand  the  Catholic,  was  in  need  of  peace  to  consolidate  this 
vast  inheritance.  But  Francis  I.  enjoyed  his  victory,  instead  of 
pursuing  it.  The  Treaty  of  Noyon  restored  for  a  short  time 
peace  to  Europe,  and  gave  the  two  rivals  time  to  prepare  for  a 
still  more  terrible  war  [1516]. 

k  Fleuranges,  vol.  xvi.  of  the  "  Collec-  hours  on  horseback,  without  eating1  or 

tion  of  Memoirs."  drinking  ...  So  obstinate  and  gruel 

I  Letter  of  Francis  I.  to  his  mother:  a  battle  has  not  been  seen  for  2,000 

"  AH  night  we  sat  on  our  horses  lance  years  .  .  .  and  it  can  no  long-er  be 

in  hand,  helmet  on  head,  and  as  I  was  said  that  the  gendarmes  are  hares  in 

the  nearest  to  the  enemy,  it  was  my  armor,  for  .  .  .  Written  at  the  camp 

duty  to  watch,  that  they  might  not  sur-  of  St.  Brigida,  on  Friday  the  i4th  Sept., 

prise  us  in  the  morning  .  .  .  and  iSiS>"  vol.  xvii.  of  the  "  Collection  of 

believe  me,  madam,  that  we  were  28  Memoirs." 


MODERN  HISTORY. 

SECOND  PERIOD,  1517—1648. 


CHARACTERISTICS   OF   SECOND    PERIOD, 

If  we  consider  only  the  succession  of  wars  and  political  events, 
the  sixteenth  century  is  an  age  of  blood  and  devastation.  It 
opens  with  the  laying  waste  of  Italy  by  the  mercenary  troops  of 
Francis  I.  and  Charles  V.,  with  the  frightful  ravages  of  Soliman, 
who  year  after  year  ravaged  Hungary.  Then  come  those  terri- 
ble religious  struggles  when  war  is  no  longer  waged  between  na- 
tion and  nation,  but  between  town  and  town,  man  and  man,  when 
it  extends  to  the  domestic  hearth  and  rages  even  between  father 
and  son.  If  we  left  off  reading  history  at  this  crisis  we  should 
think  that  Europe  was  about  to  fall  into  profound  barbarism. 
Far  from  this,  however,  the  delicate  flower  of  art  and  of  civiliza- 
tion was  growing  and  developing  amid  the  violent  shocks  which 
threatened  to  destroy  it.  Michael  Angelo  painted  the  Sistine 
Chapel  in  the  year  of  the  battle  of  Ravenna.  Young  Tartaglia 
escaped  mutilated  from  the  sack  of  Brescia  to  restore  the  science 
of  mathematics.^  The  period  when  the  study  of  law  revived — 
the  age  of  L'Hopital  and  Cujas — was  that  of  the  Massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew. 

The  character  of  the  sixteenth  century,  that  which  distin- 
guishes it  fundamentally  from  the  middle  ages,  is  the  power  of 
opinion,  which  at  this  period  became  the  true  ruler  of  the  world. 
Henry  VIII.  dared  not  divorce  Catherine  of  Aragon  until  he  had 
consulted  the  principal  universities  in  Europe.  Charles  V,  en- 
deavored to  prove  his  faith  by  the  persecution  of  the  Moors  while 
his  armies  seized  and  exacted  ransom  from  the  Pope.  Francis  I. 
raised  the  first  scaffold  on  which  the  French  Protestants  suf- 
fered, to  excuse,  in  the  eyes  of  his  subjects  and  in  his  own,  his 
alliance  with  Soliman  and  the  German  Lutherans.  Even  these 
acts  of  intolerance  were  so  much  homage  offered  to  opinion. 
Princes  courted  at  that  time  the  most  unworthy  ministers  of 
fame.  The  Kings  of  France  and  Spain  bid  one  against  another 
for  the  favor  of  Paulus  Jovius  and  of  Aretino. 

While  France  followed  Italy,  though  at  a  distance,  in  the  path 
of  intellectual  and  artistic  development,  two  other  nations  of  pro- 
foundly serious  character  put  aside  arts  and  letters  as  frivolous 
playthings  or  profane  amusements.  The  Spaniards,  a  conquer- 
ing and  political  people,  occupied  in  conquering  and  governing 

a  Daru,  "  History  of  Venice/'  vol.  iii.  p.  358. 


66  MICHELET 

Europe,  rested  in  all  speculative  matters  on  the  authority  of  the 
Church.  While  Spain  inclined  more  and  more  to  political  and 
religious  unity,  Germany,  with  her  anarchical  constitution,  gave 
herself  up  to  the  wildest  license  of  opinion.  France,  placed  be- 
tween them  both,  became  in  the  sixteenth  century  the  principal 
field  of  battle  for  these  two  opposite  tempers,  and  the  even  bal- 
ance between  their  powers  rendered  the  struggle  all  the  more 
violent  and  protracted. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

LEO  X.,   FRANCIS   I.,  AND   CHARLES  V. 
THE    PERIOD    OF    1516—154?- 

However  severely  we  may  judge  Francis  I.  and  Leo  X.,  they 
are  men  of  a  nobler  stamp  than  the  Princes  of  the  preceding  age 
(Alexander  VI.,  James  III.,  etc.);  even  in  their  faults  there  is 
something  great  and  glorious.  It  is  true  that  they  did  not  make 
their  century  what  it  was,  but  they  showed  themselves  to  be 
worthy  of  it.  They  loved  the  arts  and  the  arts  still  plead  for 
them  and  ask  our  forgiveness  for  their  memory.  The  price  of  the 
indulgences,  whose  sale  excited  the  indignation  of  Germany, 
paid  for  the  paintings  in  the  Vatican  and  the  building  of  St. 
Peter's.  The  exactions  of  Duprat  are  forgotten.  The  Im- 
primerie  Royale  and  the  College  de  France  remain. 

Charles  V.  presents  himself  to  us  under  a  severer  aspect,  sur- 
rounded by  his  generals  and  statesmen,  among  whom  were  Lan- 
noy,  Pescaro,  Antonio  de  Leyva  and  many  other  illustrious  cap- 
tains. We  see  him  constantly  traversing  Europe  to  visit  all  the 
scattered  portions  of  his  empire,  speaking  to  each  nation  its  own 
language,  encountering  in  turn  Francis  I.  and  the  Protestants  in 
Germany,  Soliman  and  the  inhabitants  of  Barbary;  he  is  the  real 
successor  of  Charlemagne,  the  defender  of  the  Christian  world. 
Nevertheless,  the  statesman  predominated  in  him  over  the  sol- 
dier. He  presents  the  first  instance  of  a  modern  sovereign; 
Francis  I.  is  little  more  than  a  hero  of  the  middle  ages. 

When  the  empire  became  vacant  by  the  death  of  Maximilian  I. 
[1519],  and  the  Kings  of  France,  Spain,  and  England  demanded 
the  imperial  crown,  the  Electors,  fearing  to  impose  on  themselves 
a  master,  offered  it  to  one  of  their  own  body — Frederick  the 
Wise,  Elector  of  Saxony.  This  Prince,  however,  showed  himself 
worthy  of  his  name  by  inducing  them  to  choose  the  King  of 
Spain.  Of  the  three  candidates  Charles  was  the  most  dangerous 
for  German  freedom,  but  he  also  was  the  most  capable  of  defend- 
ing Germany  against  the  Turks.  Selim  and  Soliman  revived  at 
that  time  the  fear  which  had  been  experienced  by  Europe  in  the 
days  of  Mahomet  II.  The  ruler  of  Spain,  Naples,  and  Austria 
could  alone  close  the  civilized  world  against  the  barbarians  of 
Africa  and  Asia. 

67 


68  MICHELET 

With  their  candidature  for  the  imperial  crown,  burst  forth  the 
inextinguishable  rivalry  between  Francis  I.  and  Charles  V.  The 
former  claimed  Naples  for  himself  and  Navarre  for  Henri  d'Al- 
bret;  the  Emperor  demanded  the  Milanese  as  a  fief  of  the  empire, 
and  the  duchy  of  Burgundy.  Their  resources  were  about  equal. 
If  the  empire  of  Charles  were  more  extensive  the  kingdom  of 
France  was  more  compact.  The  Emperor's  subjects  were  richer, 
but  his  authority  more  circumscribed.  The  reputation  of  the 
French  cavalry  was  not  inferior  to  that  of  the  Spanish  infantry. 
Victory  would  belong  to  the  one  who  should  win  over  the  King 
of  England  to  his  side.  Henry  VIII.  had  reason  to  adopt  as  his 
device:  "Whom  I  defend  is  master."  Both  gave  pensions  to  his 
Prime  Minister,  Cardinal  Wolsey;  they  each  asked  the  hand  of 
his  daughter  Mary,  one  for  the  Dauphin,  the  other  for  himself. 
Francis  I.  obtained  from  him  an  interview  at  Calais,  and,  forget- 
ting that  he  wished  to  gain  his  favor,  eclipsed  him  by  his  elegance 
and  magnificences  Charles  V.,  more  adroit,  had  anticipated 
this  interview  by  visiting  Henry  VIII.  in  England.  He  had 
secured  Wolsey  by  giving  him  hopes  of  the  tiara.  The  negotia- 
tion was  much  easier,  indeed,  for  him  than  for  Francis  I.  Henry 
VIII.  already  owed  the  French  King  a  grudge  for  governing 
Scotland  by  means  of  the  Duke  of  Albany,  his  protege  and  sub- 
ject^ to  the  detriment  of  Margaret,  widow  of  James  IV.  and  sis- 
ter of  the  King  of  England.  By  uniting  with  Charles  V.  he 
stood  a  chance  of  recovering  some  of  the  dominions  which  his 
ancestors  had  formerly  possessed  in  France, 

Everything  succeeded  with  the  Emperor.  He  gained  Leo  X. 
to  his  side,  and  thus  obtained  sufficient  influence  to  raise  his 
tutor,  Adrian  of  Utrecht,  to  the  papacy.  The  French  penetrated 
into  Spain,  but  arrived  too  late  to  aid  the  rising  there  [1521]. 
The  governor  of  the  Milanese,  Lautrec,  who  is  said  to  have  ex- 
iled from  Milan  nearly  half  its  inhabitants,  was  driven  out  of 
Lombardy.  He  met  with  the  same  fate  again  in  the  following 
year;  the  Swiss,  who  were  ill-paid,  asked  either  for  dismissal  or 
battle,  and  allowed  themselves  to  be  beaten  at  La  Bicoque.  The 
money  intended  for  the  troops  had  been  used  for  other  purposes 
by  the  Queen-mother,  who  hated  Lautrec. 

At  the  moment  when  Francis  I.  was  thinking  of  re-entering 
Italy,  an  internal  enemy  threw  France  into  the  utmost  danger. 
Francis  had  given  mortal  offence  to  the  Constable  of  Bourbon, 
one  of  those  who  had  most  contributed  to  the  victory  of  Marig- 
nan,  Charles,  Count  of  Montpensier  and  Dauphin  of  Auvergne, 
held  by  virtue  of  his  wife,  a  grand-daughter  of  Louis  XL,  the 

a  This  assembly  was  called  the  Field  &  Pinkerton,     vol.     ii.     p.     135.     The 

of  the  Coth  of  Gold  .  .  .  in  so  much  regent  himself,  in  his  dispatches  called 
that  many  carried  their  mills,  their  for-  the  King  of  France  "  my  master."  He 
ests,  and  their  fields  on  their  shoulders.  set  far  more  value  on  his  great  posses- 
Martin  du  Bellay,  vol.  xvii.  p.  285.  sions  in  France  than  on  the  regency  of 

Scotland, 


MODERN    HISTORY  69 

duchy  of  Bourbon,  and  the  counties  of  Clermont,  La  Marche  and 
other  domains,  which  made  him  the  first  noble  in  the  kingdom. 
On  the  death  of  his  wife,  the  Queen-mother  Louise  of  Savoy, 
who  had  wanted  to  marry  the  Constable  and  had  been  refused  by 
him,  resolved  to  ruin  him.  She  disputed  with  him  this  rich  in- 
heritance and  obtained  from  her  son  that  the  property  should  be 
provisionally  sequestered.^  Bourbon,  exasperated,  resolved  to 
pass  over  to  the  Emperor  [1523].  Half  a  century  earlier,  revolt 
did  not  mean  disloyalty.  The  most  accomplished  knights  in 
France,  Dunois  and  John  of  Calabria,  had  joined  the  League 
for  the  Public  Weal.  Even  recently  Don  Pedro  de  Giron,  dis- 
pleased with  Charles  V.,  had  declared  to  his  face  that  he  re- 
nounced his  service  and  should  take  the  command  of  the  Com- 
mimeros.d  But  now  it  was  no  question  of  a  revolt  against  the 
King,  such  a  thing  was  impossible  in  France  at  this  time.  It 
was  a  conspiracy  against  the  very  existence  of  France  that  Bour- 
bon was  plotting  with  foreigners.  He  promised  Charles  V.  to 
attack  Burgundy  as  soon  as  Francis  I.  had  crossed  the  Alps,  and 
to  rouse  into  revolt  five  provinces  of  which  he  believed  himself 
master;  the  kingdom  of  Provence  was  to  be  re-established  in  his 
favor,  and  France,  partitioned  between  Spain  and  England, 
would  have  ceased  to  exist  as  a  nation.  He  wras  soon  able  to 
enjoy  the  reverses  of  his  country.  Having  become  general  of 
the  imperial  army,  he  saw  the  French  fly  before  him  at  La 
Biagrasse ;  he  saw  the  Chevalier  Bayard  mortally  wounded  and 
lying  at  the  foot  of  a  tree,  his  face  turned  toward  the  enemy,  and 
he  said  to  the  said  Bayard  that  he  had  great  compassion  for  him 
seeing  him  in  this  state,  in  that  he  had  been  such  a  virtuous 
knight.  The  Captain  Bayard  made  him  this  answer :  "Sir,  you 
need  have  no  pity  for  me,  for  I  die  an  honest  man ;  but  I  have  pity 
on  you,  seeing  you  serve  against  your  Prince,  your  country  and 
your  oath."* 

Bourbon  had  thought  that  on  his  first  appearance  in  France 
his  vassals  would  flock  to  serve  with  him  under  the  foreign 
standard.  But  not  one  came.  The  Imperialists  were  driven 
back  from  the  walls  of  Marseilles,  and  they  saved  their  exhausted 
army  only  by  a  retreat  which  resembled  a  flight.  Instead  of  over- 
powering them  in  Provence,  the  King  chose  to  anticipate  them 
in  Italy. 

In  a  period  of  military  science  and  tactics  Francis  I.  always 
fancied  himself  in  the  age  of  chivalry.  His  point  of  honor  was 
not  to  draw  back  even  in  order  to  conquer.  He  maintained  ob- 
stinately the  siege  of  Pavia  [1525].  He  gave  no  time  to  the  Im- 
perialists who  were  ill-paid  to  disperse  of  themselves.  He  weak- 
ened himself  by  detaching  12,000  men  against  the  kingdom  of 

c  See  the  Constable's  letter  to  Francis          d  Sepulveda,  vol.  i.  p.  79. 
I.  in  the  "  Memoirs  of  Du  Bellay,"  vol.          e  Du  Bellay,  vol.  xvh.  p.  451. 
xvii.  p.  413. 


7o  MICHELET 

Naples.  His  superiority  lay  in  artillery;  he  chose  to  decide  the 
victory,  as  at  Marignan,  by  his  cavalry,  whose  charge  in  front  of 
the  artillery  rendered  it  useless.  The  Swiss  fled,  the  Lands- 
knechts,  with  their  colonel,  the  White  Rose/  were  crushed. 
The  whole  weight  of  the  battle  then  fell  upon  the  King  and  his 
cavalry.  The  old  heroes  of  the  Italian  wars,  La  Palisse  and  La 
Tremouille,  were  struck  down;  the  King  of  Navarre,  Mont- 
morency,  1'Aventurcuxg  and  many  others  were  taken  prisoners. 
Francis  I.  defended  himself  on  foot;  his  horse  had  been  killed 
under  him;  his  armor,  which  we  still  possess,  was  riddled  by 
balls  and  thrusts  of  pike.  Happily  one  of  the  French  nobles  who 
had  followed  Bourbon  caught  sight  of  him  and  saved  him;  but 
he  would  not  yield  to  a  traitor;  he  called  the  Viceroy  of  Naples, 
who  received  his  sword  on  his  knees.  At  night  he  wrote  these 
words  to  his  mother:  "Madam,  all  is  lost  except  honor."& 

Charles  V.  was  well  aware  that  all  was  not  lost;  he  did  not 
exaggerate  his  success;  he  felt  that  France  was  strong  and  en- 
tire, although  she  had  lost  an  army.  He  endeavored  only  to  ob- 
tain from  his  prisoner  an  advantageous  treaty.  Francis  I.  ar- 
rived in  Spain  believing,  from  the  movements  of  his  own  heart, 
that  it  would  be  enough  for  him  to  meet  his  "good  brother"  to 
be  sent  back  honorably  to  his  kingdom.  Such  was  not  the  case. 
The  Emperor  ill-treated  his  prisoner  to  obtain  a  larger  ransom. 
Europe,  however,  manifested  deep  interest  in  the  soldier-king.i 
Erasmus,  who  was  a  subject  of  Charles  V.,  ventured  to  write  to 
him  in  favor  of  his  captive.  The  Spanish  nobles  asked  that  he 
might  be  a  prisoner  on  parole,  offering  themselves  as  sureties. 
It  was  only  at  the  end  of  a  year,  when  Charles  V.  feared  to  lose 
his  prisoner  through  death,  and  Francis  I.  had  abdicated  in 
favor  of  the  Dauphin,  that  the  Emperor  made  up  his  mind  to 
release  him,  after  forcing  him  to  sign  a  shameful  treaty.  The 
King  of  France  renounced  his  pretensions  in  Italy,  promised  to 
acknowledge  the  rights  of  Bourbon,  to  give  up  Burgundy,  to 
yield  his  two  sons  as  hostages,  and  to  ally  himself  by  a  double 
marriage  to  the  family  of  Charles  V.  [1526], 

At  this  price  he  was  free.  But  he  did  not  come  out  whole  from 
this  fatal  prison.  He  left  behind  the  good  faith,  the  heroic  trust 
which,  till  then,  had  been  his  glory.  Already  at  Madrid  he  en- 
tered a  secret  protest  against  the  treaty.  Once  more  King,  it 
was  easy  for  him  to  elude  it.  Henry  VIII.,  alarmed  by  the  vic- 
tory of  Charles  V.,  allied  himself  with  France.  The  Pope, 

/The  Duke  of  Suffolk.  of  Francis  I.  to  the  different  orders  in 

2  The  Marechal  de  Fleuranges.  the  state,  and  the  Act  of  Abdication; 

h  See  the  letter  in  which  Charles  V.  vol.  xxii.  of  the  "  Collection  of 

acquaints  the   Marquis '  of   Denia  with  Memoirs,"  pp.  69,  71,  and  84. 

the  captivity  9f  Francis  I.   (Sandoval,  i  Expression  used  by   Montluc  when 

vol.  i.  book  xiii.  sec.  ii.,  p.  487,  in  fol.,  speaking  to  Francis  I.  himself,  vol.  xxi. 

Antwerp  1581)  that  which  he  wrote  to  p.  6. 

the  Emperor  in  her  son's  behalf;  that 


MODERN    HISTORY  71 

Venice,  Florence,  Genoa,  even  the  Duke  of  Milan,  who,  since  the 
battle  of  Pavia  found  himself  at  the  mercy  of  the  imperial  armies, 
saw  only  liberators  in  the  French.  Francis  L  caused  the  states 
of  Burgundy  to  declare  that  he  had  no  right  to  give  up  any  por- 
tion of  the  French  territory,  and,  when  Charles  V.  claimed  the 
execution  of  the  treaty,  accusing  him  of  breach  of  faith,  he  re- 
plied that  the  Emperor  lied  in  his  throat,  summoned  him  to  mark 
out  the  field,  and  left  him  the  choice  of  arms.; 

While  Europe  was  expecting  a  terrible  war,  Francis  L  was 
thinking  only  of  compromising  his  allies  in  order  to  frighten 
Charles  V.  and  soften  the  conditions  of  the  treaty  of  Madrid. 
Italy  continued  a  prey  to  the  most  hideous  war  which  ever  dis- 
figured humanity;  it  was  less  a  war  than  a  long  torture  inflicted 
by  a  ferocious  soldiery  on  an  unarmed  people.  The  ill-paid 
troops  of  Charles  V.  belonged  neither  to  him  nor  to  any  one 
else — they  commanded  their  own  generals.  For  full  two  months 
Milan  was  abandoned  to  the  cold  barbarity  of  the  Spaniards.  As 
soon  as  it  was  known  in  Germany  that  Italy  was  thus  delivered 
to  pillage,  13,000  or  14,000  Germans  crossed  the  Alps  under 
George  Freundsberg,  a  furious  Lutheran,  who  wore  round  his 
neck  a  gold  chain,  with  which  he  intended,  he  said,  to  strangle 
the  Pope.  Bourbon  and  Leyva  led,  or  rather  followed,  this  army 
of  robbers.  It  was  swelled  on  the  road  by  numbers  of  Italians, 
who  imitated  the  vices  of  the  barbarians,  as  they  could  not  emu- 
late their  courage.  The  army  marched  by  way  of  Ferrara  and 
Bologna;  it  was  on  the  point  of  entering  Tuscany,  and  the  Span- 
iards swore  by  the  glorious  sack  of  Florence^  but  a  stronger 
impulse  drew  the  Germans  towards  Rome,  as  in  former  times  it 
drew  the  Goths,  their  ancestors.  Clement  VII.,  who  had  treated 
with  the  Viceroy  of  Naples,  and  who  nevertheless  saw  the  army 
of  Bourbon  approaching,  endeavored  to  blind  himself,  and  seems 
to  have  been  fascinated  by  the  very  extremity  of  the  danger. 
He  dismissed  his  best  troops  on  the  approach  of  the  Imperialists, 
fancying,  perhaps,  that  Rome  unarmed  would  inspire  them  with 
respect.  On  the  morning  of  May  6, 1527,  Bourbon  commenced 
the  assault.  He  wore  a  white  shirt  over  his  armor,  to  be  more 
conspicuous,  both  to  his  own  troops  and  to  those  of  the  enemy. 
In  such  an  odious  enterprise  success  alone  could  justify  him  in 
his  own  eyes;  perceiving  that  his  German  infantry  supported 
him  feebly,  he  seized  a  ladder,  and  was  scaling  it  when  a  ball 
struck  him  in  the  back ;  he  felt  that  it  was  his  death  blow,  and 
ordered  his  men  to  cover  his  body  with  his  cloak,  and  thus  con- 
ceal his  fall.  His  soldiers  avenged  him  only  too  amply.  Seven 
or  eight  thousand  Romans  were  massacred  on  the  first  day, 
nothing  was  spared,  neither  convents  nor  churches,  nor  even  St. 

j  Bu  Bcllay,  vol.  xviii.  p.  38.  k  Sismondi,  vol.  xv.,  from  the  "  Let- 

tere  de'  principi,"  vol.  ii.  fol.  47. 


7  2  MICHELET 

Peter's  itself;  the  streets  were  filled  with  relics  and  ornaments 
from  the  altars,  which  the  Germans  threw  away  after  having 
torn  off  the  gold  and  silver.  The  Spaniards,  still  more  covetous 
and  cruel,  renewed  every  day,  for  more  than  a  year,  the  most 
frightful  abuses  of  victory;  the  cries  were  constantly  heard  of  the 
unhappy  victims  who  were  made  to  perish  in  tortures  in  order 
to  force  them  to  own  where  they  had  hidden  their  money.  The 
soldiers  left  them  bound  in  their  own  houses,  in  order  to  find 
them  when  they  wanted  to  recommence  torturing  them. 

Indignation  reached  its  height  in  Europe  when  the  sack  of 
Rome  and  the  captivity  of  the  Pontiff  became  known.  Charles 
V.  ordered  prayers  for  the  deliverance  of  the  Pope,  who  was 
more  the  prisoner  of  the  imperial  army  than  of  the  Emperor. 
Francis  I.  thought  the  moment  favorable  for  dispatching  to  Italy 
the  troops  which,  a  few  months  earlier,  would  have  saved  Rome 
and  Milan.  Lautrec  marched  upon  Naples  while  the  imperial 
generals  negotiated  with  their  troops  to  induce  them  to  leave 
Rome;  but  Lautrec,  as  in  the  first  wars,  was  not  supplied  with 
money.  Pestilence  consumed  his  army.  However,  nothing  was 
lost  as  long  as  the  communication  by  sea  with  France  was  pre- 
served. Francis  I.  had  the  imprudence  to  displease  Doria,  the 
Genoese,  the  first  sailor  of  the  time.  "It  seemed,"  says  Montluc, 
"as  if  the  sea  were  afraid  of  that  man."J  The  ransom  of  the  Prince 
of  Orange  had  been  withheld  from  him,  his  ships  were  not  paid, 
an  admiral  of  the  Levant  had  been  named  to  supersede  him. 
Francis  I.  irritated  him  still  more  by  not  respecting  the  privileges 
of  Genoa  and  proposing  to  remove  the  'commerce  of  the  town  to 
Savona.  Instead  of  redressing  these  grievances,  Francis  ordered 
his  arrest.  Doria,  whose  engagement  with  France  had  just  ex- 
pired, passed  over  to  the  Emperor  on  condition  that  his  country 
should  be  independent  and  once  more  rule  over  Liguria. 
Charles  V.  offered  to  acknowledge  him  as  the  sovereign  of 
Genoa,  but  he  preferred  to  be  the  first  citizen  of  a  free  town. 

Both  parties,  however,  wished  for  peace.  Charles  V.  was 
alarmed  by  the  progress  of  the  Reformation  and  the  invasion  of 
the  terrible  Soliman,  who  sat  down  before  Vienna;  Francis  I., 
exhausted,  sought  only  to  secure  his  own  interests  at  the  expense 
of  his  allies.  He  wanted  to  get  back  his  children  and  to  retain 
Burgundy.  Until  the  eve  of  the  treaty  he  protested  to  his  Italian 
allies  that  he  would  not  separate  his  interests  from  theirs.  He 
refused  permission  to  the  Florentines  to  make  a  separate  treaty 
with  the  Emperor,^  and  he  signed  the  Peace  of  Cambray,  by 
which  he  abandoned  them  and  the  Venetians  and  all  his  partisans 
to  the  vengeance  of  Charles  V.  [1529].  This  odious  treaty  for- 
ever banished  the  French  from  Italy.  Henceforth  the  chief 

I  Montluc,  vol.  xx.  p.  370.  M  Guicciardini,  book  xix. 


MODERN    HISTORY  73 

theatre  of  war  was  elsewhere;  in  Savoy,  in  Picardy,  in  the  Low 
Countries,  and  in  Lorraine. 

While  Christendom  was  hoping  for  some  repose,  a  scourge 
unknown  till  then  was  ravaging  the  shores  of  Italy  and  Spain. 
About  this  time  the  Barbarenes  introduced  the  practice  of  white 
slavery.  The  Turks  first  laid  waste  the  countries  which  they 
wanted  to  invade;  it  is  thus  that  they  turned  almost  into  a  desert 
Southern  Hungary  and  the  western  provinces  of  the  old  Greek 
Empire.  The  Tartars  and  the  Barbarenes,  the  forlorn  hope  of 
the  Ottoman  Empire,  seconded  her  in  the  east  and  south  in  this 
system  of  depopulation.  The  Knights  of  Rhodes  whom  Charles 
V.  had  established  in  the  island  of  Malta,  were  not  powerful 
enough  to  sweep  from  the  sea  the  innumerable  vessels  com- 
manded by  Barbarossa,  who  was  the  Dey  of  Tunis  and  Soliman's 
admiral.  Charles  V.  resolved  to  attack  the  pirate  in  his  lair 
[1535].  Five  hundred  ships  bore  into  Africa  an  army  of  30,000 
men,  consisting  in  great  part  of  the  veteran  bands  who  had  been 
engaged  in  the  Italian  wars.  The  Pope  and  the  King  of  Portu- 
gal had  contributed  vessels  to  this  fleet.  Doria  sent  his  galleys, 
and  the  Emperor  joined  in  person  with  the  elite  of  the  Spanish 
nobility.  The  fleet  of  Barbarossa  was  not  strong  enough  to 
resist  the  most  formidable  armament  which  Christendom  had 
directed  against  the  infidels  since  the  Crusades.  The  port  of 
Tunis  was  taken  by  assault,  Tunis  itself  yielded,  and  20,000 
Christians  delivered  from  slavery  and  brought  back  to  their 
homes  at  the  expense  of  the  Emperor,  caused  the  name  of 
Charles  V.  to  be  blessed  throughout  Europe. 

The  conduct  of  Francis  I.  presented  a  sad  contrast.  He  had 
just  declared  his  alliance  with  Soliman  [1534].  He  negotiated 
with  the  German  Protestants  and  with  Henry  VIIL,  who  had 
divorced  the  aunt  of  Charles  V.  and  abandoned  the  Church.  He 
obtained  from  neither  the  assistance  which  he  expected.  Soli- 
man marched  his  janizaries  to  destruction  in  the  boundless  des- 
erts of  Asia.  Henry  VIIL  was  too  much  engaged  at  home  in 
the  religious  revolution  which  he  was  effecting  with  so  much 
violence.  The  German  confederates  of  Smalkeld  could  not  trust 
a  Prince  who  caressed  the  Protestants  in  Dresden  and  burnt 
them  in  Paris,  Nevertheless,  Francis  L  renewed  the  war  by 
invading  Savoy  and  threatening  the  Milanese  [1535]-  The  Duke 
of  Savoy,  alarmed  by  the  pretensions  of  the  mother  of  the  King 
of  France  (Louise  of  Savoy),  had  married  the  sister-in-law  of 
Charles  V.  The  Duke  of  Milan,  accused  by  the  Emperor  of 
treating  with  the  French,  had  tried  to  exculpate  himself  by 
beheading  on  some  foolish  pretext  the  ambassador  of  Francis  I. 
Charles  V.  announced  in  Rome,  in  presence  of  the  envoys  of  all 
Christendom,  that  he  was  sure  of  victory,  and  declared  that  "if 
he  had  no  more  resources  than  his  rival  he  should  go  at  once, 


74 


MICHELET 


with  his  arms  tied  and  a  rope  round  his  neck,  to  throw  himself  at 
his  enemy's  feet  and  ask  for  mercy."  Before  entering  upon  the 
campaign,  he  shared  between  his  officers  the  estates  and  princi- 
pal charges  belonging  to  the  Crown  of  France. 

In  truth,  the  whole  world  thought  that  Francis  I.  was  lost. 
They  were  not  aware  of  the  resources  which  France  contained. 
In  the  year  1533  the  King  had  at  length  decided  on  making  a 
national  infantry  the  main  force  in  the  French  army.  He  remem- 
bered that  the  Swiss  had  caused  the  loss  of  the  battle  of  Bicoque, 
and  perhaps  that  of  Pavia ;  that  the  Landsknechts  had  been  re- 
called by  the  Emperor  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  of  Ravenna.  But 
thus  to  put  arms  into  the  hands  of  the  people  was  considered  a 
great  risk.w  In  an  edict  respecting  field  sports  proclaimed  in 
1517,  Francis  I.  had  forbidden  the  people  to  carry  arms  on  pain 
of  severe  punishment.  Yet  he  resolved  to  create  seven  provin- 
cial legions,  each  6,000  strong  and  taken  from  the  provinces  on 
the  frontiers.  These  troops  had  not  been  much  disciplined  when 
the  armies  of  Charles  V.  entered  simultaneously  Provence, 
Champagne,  and  Picardy.  Francis  I.,  therefore,  not  trusting  to 
their  steadiness,  determined  to  stop  the  enemy  by  opposing  to 
him  a  desert.  All  Provence,  from  the  Alps  to  Marseilles  and 
from  the  sea  to  Dauphine  was  laid  waste  with  inflexible  severity 
by  Marshal  Montmorency;  villages,  farms,  and  mills  were 
burnt,  and  every  appearance  of  culture  destroyed.  The  mar- 
shal, established  in  an  impregnable  camp  between  the  Rhone  and 
the  Durance,  waited  patiently  until  the  Emperor's  army  had 
melted  away  before  Marseilles.  Charles  V.  was  forced  to  retire 
and  to  consent  to  a  truce  in  which  the  Pope  became  the  inter- 
mediary. [Truce  of  Nice,  1538.]  A  month  afterwards  Charles 
and  Francis  met  at  Aigues-Mortes,  and  these  Princes,  who  had 
insulted  each  other  so  grossly,  one  of  whom  accused  the  other 
of  having  poisoned  the  Dauphin,  gave  each  other  every  assur- 
ance of  fraternal  affection. 

The  exhaustion  of  the  two  rivals  was  the  only  real  motive  for 
the  truce.  Although  Charles  V.  had  endeavored  to  gain  over  the 
Cortes  of  Castile  by  authorizing  constant  sessions,  after  the  man- 
ner of  Aragon,  and  by  a  renewal  of  the  laws  excluding  foreigners 
from  employment,  he  had  not  been  able  to  obtain  any  supplies  in 
1527, 1533,  or  1538.  Ghent  had  taken  up  arms  rather  than  pay 
a  new  tax.  The  administration  of  Mexico  was  not  yet  organ- 
ized; Peru  still  belonged  only  to  the  conquerors,  who  ravaged  it 
by  their  civil  wars.  The  Emperor  had  been  obliged  to  sell  a 
great  part  of  the  royal  domains,  he  had  contracted  a  debt  of  seven 

n  "  On  the  first  symptom  of  war  King-  practice  of  war;  though  I  do  not  know 

Francis  equipped  legionaries,  which  was  a  if  this  be  a  good  thing  or  not.    It  gives 

fine  invention,  if  it  had  been  well  car-  rise  to  no  small  disputes;  and  yet  for 

ried  out;  for  it  is  the  true  way  to  have  my  part  I  should  prefer  trusting  to  my 

always  a  good  army  afoot,  as  the  Ro-  own  troops  rather  than  to  strangers."— 

mans  did ;  and  to  keep  the  nation  in  the  Montluc,  vol.  xx.  p.  385. 


MODERN    HISTORY  75 

million  ducats,  and  could  no  longer  borrow  from  any  bank,  even 
at  thirteen  or  fourteen  per  cent.  This  penury  excited,  about  the 
year  1539,  an  almost  universal  mutiny  in  the  armies  of  Charles 
V.  They  mutinied  in  Sicily,  plundered  Lombardy,  and  threat- 
ened to  give  up  the  Goletta  to  Barbarossa.  It  was  necessary  at 
any  price  to  give  them  the  arrears  of  their  pay  and  to  disband 
the  greater  number. 

The  King  of  France  was  equally  embarrassed.  Since  the  ac- 
cession of  Charles  VIII.  the  national  resources  had  developed 
rapidly  in  consequence  of  internal  tranquillity,  but  the  expenses 
were  greatly  in  excess  of  the  resources.  Charles  VII.  had  had 
1,700  men-at-arms.  Francis  I.  had  as  many  as  3,000,  without 
counting  6,000  light  horse  and  often  12,000  or  15,000  Swiss. 
Charles  VII.  raised  less  than  two  million  francs  by  taxes  ;  Louis 
XI.  raised  five,  Francis  I.  nearly  nine.  After  1484  the  Kings  left 
off  assembling  the  States-General  to  meet  their  expenses.^  They 
substituted  for  them  assemblies  of  the  notables  [1526]  and  gen- 
erally raised  money  by  decrees  (ordonnanccs),  which  they  obliged 
the  Parliament  of  Paris  to  register. 

Louis  XII.,  the  Father  of  the  People,  at  first  diminished  the 
taxes  and  put  up  for  sale  the  financial  offices  [1499];  but  he  was 
obliged,  towards  the  end  of  his  reign,  to  increase  the  taxes,  to 
raise  loans,  and  to  alienate  the  royal  domains  [1511  —  1514]. 
Francis  I.  established  new  taxes  [especially  in  1523],  sold  and 
multiplied  judicial  places  [1515,  1522,  1524],  founded  the  first 
perpetual  annuities  upon  the  Hotel  de  Ville,  alienated  the  royal 
domains  [1532  —  1544],  and  finally  established  the  royal  lottery 


e  had  a  sort  of  advantage  over  Charles  V.  in  being  able  to 
ruin  himself  easily.  He  profited  by  it  when  the  Emperor  failed 
in  his  great  expedition  against  Algiers  [1541  —  1542].  Two  years 
before,  Charles  V.,  when  passing  through  France  to  repress  the 
revolt  of  Ghent,  had  amused  the  King  by  promising  the  investi- 
ture of  the  Milanese  to  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  his  second  son. 
The  Duchess  of  Etampes,  who  governed  the  King,  perceiving 
that  his  health  was  failing,  and  fearing  the  hatred  of  Diana  of 
Poitiers,  the  Dauphin's  mistress,  tried  to  procure  for  the  Duke 
of  Orleans  an  independent  position  which  might  afford  her  an 
asylum  on  the  death  of  Francis  I.  To  this  principal  cause  of  the 
war  must  be  added  the  assassination  of  two  French  envoys,  who 
in  crossing  through  Italy  on  their  way  to  the  Court  of  Soliman 
were  killed  in  the  Milanese  by  order  of  the  imperial  government, 
who  wanted  to  seize  their  papers.  Francis  I.  counted  upon  the 
alliance  with  the  Turks  and  on  his  friendship  with  the  Protestant 
Princes  of  Germany,  Denmark,  and  Sweden;  he  had  especially 
attached  to  his  side  William  Duke  of  Cleves,  by  promising  him 

o  Only  once  at  Tours,  in  1506,  and  then  only  to  annul  the  treaty  of  Blois. 


7  6  MICHELET 

the  hand  of  his  niece,  Jeanne  d'Albret,  afterwards  the  mother  of 
Henri  IV.  He  invaded  almost  at  the  same  time  Roussillon, 
Piedmont,  Luxemburg,  Brabant,  and  Flanders.  Soliman  joined 
his  fleet  to  that  of  Francis;  they  bombarded  in  vain  the  castle  of 
Nice.  But  the  sight  of  the  crescent  united  with  the  fleur-de-lis 
set  all  Christendom  against  the  King  of  France.  Even  those 
who  hitherto  had  favored  him  shut  their  eyes  to  the  interests  of 
Europe  and  joined  Charles  V.  The  empire  declared  itself 
against  the  ally  of  Turkey.  The  King  of  England,  reconciled 
to  Charles  V.  since  the  death  of  Catherine  of  Aragon,  took  part 
against  Francis  L,  who  had  given  his  daughter  to  the  King  of 
Scotland.  Henry  VIII.  defeated  James  V.  [1543]-  Charles  V. 
overpowered  the  Duke  of  Cleves  [1453],  and  the  two  sovereigns, 
having  nothing  to  fear  in  their  rear,  united  to  invade  the  king- 
dom of  Francis  L  France,  alone  against  all,  displayed  unex- 
pected vigor;  she  fottght  with  five  armies,  and  surprised  the  con- 
federates by  the  brilliant  victory  of  Cerisoles  (the  infantry  gained 
this  battle  after  the  defeat  of  the  cavalry)./*  Charles  V.,  ill-sup- 
ported by  Henry  VIIL,  and  recalled  by  the  progress  of  Soliman 
in  Hungary,  signed,  at  thirteen  leagues  from  Paris,  a  treaty  by 
which  Francis  resigned  his  claim  to  Naples,  and  Charles  to  Bur- 
gundy; while  the  Duke  of  Orleans  was  promised  the  Milanese 
[1545].  The  Kings  of  France  and  England  soon  afterwards 
made  peace,  and  both  died  in  the  same  year  [1547]. 

The  long  struggle  between  the  two  great  European  powers 
was  far  from  over,  but  it  now  became  complicated  with  religious 
interests,  which  cannot  be  understood  without  comprehending 
the  progress  of  the  Reformation  in  Germany.  We  will  stop  here 
to  look  back  and  examine  the  internal  state  of  France  and  Spain 
during  the  rivalry  between  Francis  I.  and  Charles  V. 

In  Spain,  monarchy  was  advancing  rapidly  towards  the  abso- 
lute power  which  it  had  attained  in  France.  Charles  V.  followed 
the  example  of  his  father,  and  made  several  laws  without  the 
authorization  of  the  Cortes.  In  1538  the  nobles  and  prelates  of 
Castile,  having  rejected  the  general  tax  called  Sisa,  which  would 
have  affected  the  sale  of  commodities  in  detail,  the  King  of  Spain 
ceased  to  convoke  them,  alleging  that  they  had  no  right  to  vote 
taxes  which  they  did  not  pay.  The  Cortes  were  henceforth  com- 
posed only  of  the  thirty-six  deputies  sent  by  the  eighteen  towns 
which  alone  were  represented.  The  nobles  repented  too  late 
having  joined  the  King  to  oppress  the  communeros  in  1521. 

The  progress  made  by  the  power  of  the  Inquisition  in  Spain 
was  all  the  more  rapid  as  Charles  V.  became  more  alarmed  by 
the  agitation  in  Germany,  as  to  the  political  consequences  of  the 
religious  innovations.  The  Inquisition  was  introduced  into  the 
Low  Countries  in  1522;  and  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  obstinate 

p  Montluc,  book  xxi.  p.  31. 


MODERN    HISTORY  77 

resistance  of  the  inhabitants  it  would  have  been  established  in 
Naples  in  1546.  The  right  of  exercising  royal  jurisdiction  was 
for  some  time  withdrawn  from  the  tribunals  of  the  Inquisition 
(in  Spain  1535— 1545.  in  Sicily  1535—1550),  but  was  at  length 
restored  to  them.  From  1539,  the  Chief  Inquisitor  Tabera  gov- 
erned Spain  in  the  absence  of  the  Emperor,  in  the  name  of  the 
Infant,  afterwards  Philip  II. 

The  reign  of  Francis  I.  was  the  culminating  point  of  royalty  in 
France,  until  the  ministry  of  Cardinal  Richelieu.  Francis  began 
by  concentrating  in  his  own  hands  the  powers  of  the  clergy  by 
the  Treaty  of  the  Concordat  [1515],  he  limited  ecclesiastical 
jurisdictions  [1539],  organized  a  system  of  police,^  and  silenced 
the  Parliaments.  That  of  Paris  had  already  been  weakened  un- 
der Charles  VII.  and  Louis  XL  bv  the  creation  of  the  Parlia- 
ments of  Grenoble,  Bordeaux,  and  Dijon  [1451, 1462,  1477];  un- 
der Louis  XII.  by  that  of  the  Parliaments  of  Rouen  and  Aix 
[1499—1501].  During  the  captivity  of  Francis  I.  it  endeavored 
to  regain  some  importance  and  commenced  proceedings  against 
Chancellor  Duprat.  But  the  King,  on  his  return,  forbade  the 
Parliament  to  interfere  henceforth  in  politics  and  deprived  it  fur- 
ther of  influence  by  multiplying  and  selling  parliamentary  em- 
ployments. 

Francis  I.  boasted  of  having  set  the  King  for  the  future  above 
the  law  (hors  de  page).  But  the  growing  agitation  of  men's 
minds,  which  had  been  remarkable  in  this  reign,  foretold  new 
troubles.  The  spirit  of  liberty  was  animating  religion :  one  day 
it  was  to  return  with  double  vigor,  and  reanimate  the  political 
institutions  of  the  country.  At  first  the  reformers  restricted 
themselves  to  attacks  against  the  morals  of  the  clergy.  Of  the 
Colloquies  of  Erasmus,  24,000  copies  were  printed,  but  the  edi- 
tion was  quickly  exhausted.  The  Psalms  translated  by  Marot 
were  soon  sung  to  the  same  airs  as  the  songs  of  the  day,  by  the 
nobles  and  ladies,  while  the  decree  by  which  the  laws  were  in 
future  to  be  written  in  French,  enabled  the  public  to  understand 
and  discuss  political  affairs  [1523 — 1524].  The  Courts  of  Mar- 
guerite of  Navarre,  and  of  the  Duchess  of  Ferrara,  Renee  of 
France,  were  the  rendezvous  of  all  who  shared  the  new  opinions. 
The  utmost  frivolity  and  the  most  profound  fanaticism  met  to- 
gether at  Nerac  in  Marot  and  Calvin.  Francis  I.  at  first  saw 
without  uneasiness  this  intellectual  agitation.  He  had  protected 
the  first  French  Protestants  against  the  clergy  [1523 — 1524].  In 
I534>  when  he  drew  closer  his  alliance  with  the  Protestants  in 
Germany,  he  invited  Melanchthon  to  present  a  conciliatory  pro- 
fession of  faith.  He  had  favored  the  Revolution  of  Geneva, 
which  became  the  hotbed  of  Calvinism  [1535].  After  his  return 
from  Madrid,  however,  he  treated  the  Protestants  in  France  with 

q  Instructions  of  Catherine  de  Medicis  to  her  son. 


78  MICHELET 

greater  severity.  In  1527  and  1534  the  ferment  caused  by  the 
new  doctrines  having  manifested  itself  by  outrages  inflicted  on 
the  holy  images,  and  by  placards  on  the  walls  of  the  Louvre,  sev- 
eral Protestants  were  burnt  over  a  slow  fire  in  presence  of  the 
King  and  the  whole  Court.  In  1535  he  ordered  the  suppression 
of  printing  presses  on  pain  of  the  gallows,  and  on  the  remon- 
strance of  Parliament  he  revoked  this  edict  in  the  same  year  to 
establish  in  its  place  the  censorship.** 

The  end  of  the  reign  of  Francis  I.  was  marked  by  a  frightful 
event.  The  Vaudois,  inhabitants  of  some  inaccessible  valleys  in 
Provence  and  Dauphine,  had  preserved  Arian  doctrines,  and  had 
just  adopted  those  of  Calvin.  The  strong  position  which  they 
occupied  among  the  Alps  gave  rise  to  some  uneasiness.  In  1540 
the  Parliament  of  Aix  ordered  Cabrieres  and  Merindol,  their 
chief  places  of  meeting,  to  be  burnt.  After  the  retreat  of 
Charles  V.  [1545]  the  decree  was  enforced,  in  spite  of  the  repre- 
sentations of  Sadolet,  Bishop  of  Carpentras.  The  President 
d'Oppede,  Guerin,  the  King's  advocate,  and  Captain  Paulin, 
formerly  envoy  from  the  King  in  Turkey,  penetrated  into  the 
valleys,  exterminated  the  inhabitants  with  unheard  of  cruelty, 
and  laid  waste  the  whole  country.  This  atrocious  deed  may  be 
considered  as  one  of  the  principal  causes  of  the  civil  wars  which 
afterwards  took  place. 

r  MSS.   Registers   of  the   Parliaments  of  Paris. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

LUTHER, 

REFORMATION   IN   GERMANY— WAR   WITH   THE   TURKS, 

I5I7—I555- 

All  the  European  States  had  attained  monarchical  unity,  the 
balance  of  power  was  beginning  to  be  established,  when  the  an- 
cient religious  unity  of  the  West  was  broken  by  the  Reforma- 
tion. This  event,  the  greatest  in  modern  times,  except  the 
French  Revolution,  separated  half  Europe  from  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  and  occasioned  most  of  the"  revolutions  and 
wars  which  occurred  up  to  the  Peace  of  Westphalia.  Since  the 
Reformation  Europe  has  been  divided  so  as  to  coincide  with  the 
division  of  race.  The  nations  of  Latin  origin  have  remained 
Catholic.  Protestantism  prevails  among  the  Teutonic,  and  the 
Greek  Church  among  the  Sclavonic  races. 

In  the  first  period  of  the  Reformation  Luther  and  Zwinglius 
were  opposed  to  each  other;  in  the  second  Calvin  and  Socinus. 
Luther  and  Calvin  preserved  some  portion  of  the  ancient  dogma 
and  hierarchy.  ZwingHus  and  Socinus  gradually  reduced  re- 
ligion to  deism.  Pontifical  monarchy  having  been  overthrown 
by  the  aristocratic  system  of  Luther,  the  latter  was  attacked  by 
the  democratic  system  of  Calvin ;  it  was  a  reform  within  a  reform. 
During  the  first  two  periods  some  old  anarchical  sects,  partly 
composed  of  apocalyptical  visionaries,  revived  and  gave  to  the 
Reformation  the  formidable  aspect  of  a  war  against  society ;  they 
were  the  Anabaptists  in  the  first  period,  the  Independents  and 
Levelers  in  the  second. 

The  principle  of  the  Reformation  was  essentially  changing  and 
progressive.  Divided  even  in  its  cradle,  it  spread  throughout 
Europe  under  a  hundred  different  forms.  Repulsed  in  Italy, 
Spain  and  Portugal  [1526],  in  Poland  [1523],  it  established  itself 
in  Bohemia  by  means  of  the  privileges  of  the  Calixtons;  it  was 
supported  in  England  by  the  memory  of  Wycliffe.  It  propor- 
tioned itself  to  every  degree  of  civilization,  and  conformed  to  the 
political  needs  of  each  country.  Democratic  in  Switzerland 
[1523],  aristocratic  in  Denmark  [1527],  it  identified  itself  in 
Sweden  with  the  elevation  of  the  royal  power  [1529],  in  the  em- 
pire with  the  cause  of  German  liberty. 

79 


So  MICHELET 

Section  I. — Origin  of  the  Reformation. 

In  the  memorable  year  1517,  whence  the  beginning  of  the 
Reformation  is  generally  dated,  neither  Europe,  nor  the  Pope, 
nor  even  Luther,  anticipated  this  great  event.  The  Christian 
Princes  were  in  league  against  the  Turks.  Leo  X.  invaded  the 
duchy  of  Urbino  and  carried  to  its  highest  point  the  temporal 
power  of  the  Holy  See.  In  spite  of  the  embarrassment  of  his 
finances,  which  obliged  him  to  sell  indulgences  in  Germany,  and 
to  create  thirty-one  cardinals  at  one  time,  he  lavished  the  rev- 
enues of  the  Church  with  profusion  on  artists  and  learned  men. 
He  even  sent  to  Denmark  and  Sweden  for  memorials  of  North- 
ern history.  He  authorized  by  a  bull  the  sale  of  the  "Orlando 
Furioso,"o  and  accepted  Raphael's  eloquent  letter  on  the  "Res- 
toration of  Antiquities  in  Rome."  In  the  midst  of  these  occupa- 
tions, he  heard  that  a  professor  of  the  new  University  of 
Wittenberg,  called  Martin  Luther,  already  known  as  having,  in 
the  preceding  year,  hazarded  very  bold  opinions  on  matters  of 
faith,  had  just  attacked  the  sale  of  indulgences. 

Leo  X.,  who  corresponded  with  Erasmus,  was  not  alarmed  by 
these  novelties;  he  replied  to  the  accusers  that  Luther  was  a  man 
of  talent,  and  that  the  whole  dispute  was  only  a  monkish  quar- 
rel.& 

The  University  of  Wittenberg,  recently  founded  by  Frederick 
the  Wise,  Elector  of  Saxony,  was  one  of  the  first  in  Germany  in 
which  Platonism  had  triumphed  over  scholastic  philosophy,  and 
in  which  letters  were  taught  as  well  as  law,  theology,  and  phi- 
losophy. Luther  himself  had  first  studied  law;  then  having 
adopted  the  monk's  cowl  in  a  fit  of  religious  enthusiasm,  he  re- 
solved to  search  for  philosophy  in  Plato,  and  for  religion  in  the 
Bible.  But  his  chief  distinction  was  not  so  much  his  vast  knowl- 
edge, as  his  vivid  and  ardent  eloquence,  and  the  ease  (a  power 
unusual  at  that  time)  with  which  he  discussed  religious  and  phil- 
osophical subjects  in  his  mother-tongues  His  impetuous  tem- 
per, when  once  excited,  went  further  than  he  intended.^  He  at- 

a  Published  in  1516.  m  _  diligences,  I  have  understood  that  it 
b  Che  Fra  Martina  aveva  bellissimo  in-  was  only  an  invention  of  the  Papal 
gegno,  e  che  coteste  erano  invidie  fra-  court  to  make  men  lose  their  faith  in 
tesche.  God  and  their  money.  Then  came  Ec- 
c  Bossuet.  cius  and  Emser  with  their  band,  to 
d  Luther,  preface  to  the  "  Captivity  of  teach  me  the  supremacy  and  omnipo- 
Babylon.**  "  Whether  I  will  or  not,  I  tence  of  the  Pope.  I  must  own,  not  to 
am  forced  to  become  every  day  more  appear  ungrateful  to  such  learned  men, 
learned  since  such  celebrated  doctors  that  I  profited  greatly  by  their  writings. 
attack  me,  sometimes  together,  some-  I  had  denied  that  the  Papacy  was  by 
times  separately.  Two  years  ago  I  Divine  right,  but  I  conceded  that  it  was 
wrote  upon  indulgences,  but  I  now  re-  by  human  right.  After  having  heard 
pent  very  much  having  published  that  and  read  the  subtleties  by  means  of 
little  work.  I  was  still  irresolute,  from  which  these  poor  creatures  wished  to 
a  superstitious  reverence  for  the  elevate  their  idol,  I  convinced  myself 
tyranny  of  Rome :  I  thought  then  that  that  the  Papacy  is  the  kingdom  of  Baby- 
indulgences  were  not  to  be  condemned;  Ion  and  the  power  of  Nimrod,  the 
but,  since  that  time,  thanks  to  Sylves-  mighty  hunter. 
ter  and  the  other  defender  of  in- 


MODERN    HISTORY  81 

tacked  first  the  abuse  and  next  the  principle  of  indulgences,  then 
intercession  of  saints,  auricular  confession,  purgatory,  the  celi- 
bacy of  priests,  transubstantiation,  and  finally  the  authority  of 
the  Church  and  the  character  of  her  visible  head.  Pressed  in 
vain  by  the  legate  Caietano  to  retract,  he  appealed  from  the 
legate  to  the  Pope,  and  from  the  Pope  to  a  general  council;  and 
when  the  Pope  had  condemned  him  he  dared  to  retaliate  and 
solemnly  burned  in  the  public  place  of  Wittenberg  the  bull  of 
condemnation  and  the  volumes  of  canon  law  [June  15,  1520]. 

So  bold  a  stroke  filled  Europe  with  astonishment.  The  greater 
number  of  sects  and  heresies  had  grown  up  in  the  shade  and 
would  have  been  happy  to  remain  ignored.  Zwinglius  himself, 
whose  sermons  at  this  time  were  estranging  half  Switzerland 
from  the  authority  of  the  Holy  See,  had  not  proclaimed  himself 
with  this  audacity.*  Something  still  grander  was  looked  for  in 
the  man  who  constituted  himself  judge  of  the  head  of  the  Church. 
Luther  proclaimed  his  courage  and  success  to  be  miraculous. 

It  was,  however,  easy  to  see  how  many  favorable  circum- 
stances encouraged  the  Reformer.  The  pontifical  monarchy, 
which  at  first  had  brought  the  chaos  of  the  middle  ages  in  some 
measure  into  order,  had  been  weakened,  first  by  the  increased 
power  of  the  Crown,  and  secondly  by  that  of  the  civil  govern- 
ment The  scandals  with  which  many  priests  afflicted  the 
Church  mined  every  day  an  edifice  which  was  already  shaken  by 
the  spirit  of  doubt  and  contradiction.  Two  circumstances  coin- 
cided in  determining  its  ruin.  First,  the  invention  of  printing 
gave  to  the  innovators  of  the  fifteenth  century  a  means  of  com- 
munication and  propagation,  the  want  of  which  had  prevented 
those  of  the  middle  ages  from  combining  to  resist  a  power  as 
strongly  organized  as  that  of  the  Church.  Secondly,  the  finan- 
cial embarrassments  of  many  of  the  Princes  convinced  them  be- 
forehand of  any  doctrine  which  placed  the  riches  of  the  clergy  at 
their  disposal.  Europe  presented  at  that  time  a  remarkable  phe- 
nomenon— a  disproportion  between  its  requirements  and  its  re- 
sources— resulting  from  the  recent  elevation  of  a  central  power 
in  each  State.  The  Church  paid  the  deficit.  Several  Catholic 
sovereigns  had  already  obtained  leave  from  the  Holy  See  to  ex- 

e  Zwinglius,  minister  of  Zurich,  began  self  as  mediator  to  the  Swiss ;  the  Cath- 
to  preach  in  1516;  the  cantons  of  Zu-  olic  cantons  would  not  accept  the  pro- 
rich  Basle,  Schaffhausen,  Berne,  and  posed  pacification,  those  of  Zurich  and 
the  allied  towns  of  St.  Gall  and  Mul-  Berne  cut  off  their  supplies.  The 
hausen  embraced  his  doctrine.  Those  Catholics  invaded  the  territory  of  Zurich 
of  Lucerne,  Uri,  Schweitz,  Unterwal-  and  defeated  the  Protestants  in  a  bat- 
den  Ztiff,  Fribourg,  Sol  cure,  and  the  tie  in  which  Zwinglius  was  killed  fight- 
Valais,  remained  faithful  to  the  Catholic  ing  at  the  head  of  his  flock  (battle  of 
religion.  Glarus  and  Appenzell  were  Capel,  1551).  The  Catholics,  ruder, 
divided.  The  inhabitants  of  the  Cath-  more  warhke,  and  less  nch,  were  vic- 
olic  cantons,  democratically  governed  tonous  in  the  beginning,  but  could  not 
and  almost  all  living  out  of  towns,  held  sustain  the  war  as  long  as  the  Protes- 
to  their  ancient  usages,  and  continued  tant  cantons.— Sleidan,  Muller,  "  Hist. 
to  receive  pensions  from  the  King  of  Univ.,"  vol.  4  (see  for  Geneva  the  fol- 
France.  Francis  L  in  vain  offered  him-  lowing  chapter). 


82  MICHELET 

ercise  a  portion  of  its  rights.  The  Princes  of  Northern  Germany, 
whose  independence  was  threatened  by  the  sovereign  of  Mexico 
and  Peru,  found  in  the  secularization  of  the  ecclesiastical  rev- 
enues an  equivalent  for  the  wealth  of  the  Indies. 

The  Reformation  had  already  been  several  times  attempted: 
in  Italy  by  Arnold  of  Brescia,  by  Waldo  in  France,  and  by 
Wycliffe  in  England.  It  was  in  Germany  that  it  was  to  plant 
firmly  its  roots.  The  German  clergy  were  the  richest,  and, 
therefore,  the  most  envied.  The  episcopal  sovereignties  of  the 
empire  were  given  to  cadets  of  great  families,  who  carried  the 
fierce  and  scandalous  manners  of  the  lay  world  into  the  ecclesias- 
tical order.  But  the  most  violent  hatred  was  that  inspired  by  the 
Court  of  Rome — by  the  Italian  clergy — whose  fiscal  ingenuity 
was  exhausting  Germany.  From  the  time  of  the  Roman  empire 
the  eternal  opposition  between  the  North  and  the  South  was,  as  it 
were,  personified  in  Germany  and  Italy.  In  the  middle  ages  the 
struggle  became  organized;  strength  and  dexterity,  violence  and 
policy,  feudal  order  and  the  Catholic  hierarchy,  hereditary  suc- 
cession and  the  principle  of  election,  were  engaged  in  the  quarrels 
of  the  empire  and  the  priesthood;  the  spirit  of  criticism,  on  its 
first  appearance,  preluded  by  personal  attacks  its  aggressions  on 
opinion.  In  the  fifteenth  century  the  Hussites  snatched  some 
concessions  by  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  In  the  sixteenth  the  re- 
lations between  the  Italians  and  Germans  only  increased  the  old 
antipathy.  Continually  led  into  Italy  by  war,  the  men  of  the 
North  were  scandalized  when  they  beheld  the  magnificence  of 
the  Popes,  and  the  pomp  with  which  religion  loves  to  surround 
hers'elf  in  southern  countries.  Their  ignorance  increased  their 
intolerance ;  they  considered  as  profane  all  that  they  did  not  un- 
derstand, and  when  they  recrossed  the  Alps  they  filled  their 
fellow-countrymen  with  horror  by  describing  the  idolatrous 
festivals  of  the  new  Babylon. 

The  state  of  the  public  mind  was  well  known  to  Luther. 
When  he  was  summoned  by  the  Emperor  before  the  Diet  of 
Worms  he  did  not  hesitate  to  appear.  His  friends  reminded 
him  of  the  fate  of  John  Huss.  "I  am  legally  summoned/7  he  re- 
plied, "before  the  Diet  of  Worms;  I  will  go  thither  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord,  should  I  see  conspiring  against  me  as  many  devils 
as  there  are  tiles  on  the  roofs."  Many  of  his  followers  were  de- 
termined at  least  to  accompany  him,  and  he  entered  the  town  es- 
corted by  one  hundred  knights  in  full  armor.  Having  refused 
to  retract,  in  spite  of  the  public  entreaty  and  private  solicitations 
of  the  Princes  and  Electors,  he  was  placed  under  the  ban  of  the 
empire  a  few  days  after  his  departure.  By  this  Charles  V.  de- 
clared himself  against  the  Reformation.  He  was  King  of  Spain; 
he  needed  the  Pope  in  his  dealings  with  Italy;  in  fact,  his  title  of 
Emperor  seemed  to  constitute  him  Defender  of  the  Ancient 


MODERN    HISTORY  83 

Faith.  Similar  motives  worked  upon  Francis  I. ;  the  new  heresy 
was  condemned  by  the  University  of  Paris.  Finally  the  young 
King  of  England,  Henry  VIII.,  who  prided  himself  upon  his 
theological  proficiency,  wrote  a  book  against  Luther.  But  he 
found  ardent  defenders  in  the  Princes  of  Germany,  especially  in 
the  Elector  of  Saxony,  who  seems  to  have  even  urged  him  on. 
This  Prince  had  been  Vicar  of  the  empire  in  the  interregnum, 
and  it  was  during  this  period  that  Luther  had  ventured  on  burn- 
ing the  Papal  bull.  After  the  Diet  of  Worms,  the  Elector  believ- 
ing that  matters  were  not  yet  ripe,  resolved  to  preserve  Luther 
from  the  results  of  his  own  vehemence.  As  he  was  riding 
through  the  Thuringian  forest  on  his  way  home  from  the  Diet 
some  knights  in  masks  carried  him  off  and  concealed  him  in  the 
castle  of  Wartburg.  Confined  for  nearly  a  year  in  this  fortress, 
which  appears  to  command  all  Germany,  the  Reformer  began 
his  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  vulgar  tongue  and  flooded 
Europe  with  his  writings. 

These  theological  pamphlets,  printed  as  soon  as  written,  pene- 
trated into  the  most  distant  provinces;  they  were  read  at  night 
by  every  fireside,  and  the  invisible  preacher  was  heard  all  over 
the  empire.  No  writer  had  ever  so  warmly  sympathized  with 
the  people.  His  violence,  his  buffoonery,  his  apostrophes  to  the 
powers  that  be,  to  the  bishops,  to  the  Pope,  and  to  the  King  of 
England,  whom  he  treated  with  "a  magnificent  contempt  for 
them  and  for  Satan,"  charmed  and  inflamed  Germany,  and  the 
burlesque  part  of  this  popular  drama  made  its  effect  all  the  surer. 
Erasmus  and  Melanchthon,  and  most  of  the  other  divines  for- 
gave Luther  his  intemperance  and  coarseness,  for  the  sake  of 
the  violence  with  which  he  attacked  scholastic  theology. 
Princes  applauded  a  reformation  by  which  they  were  the  gain- 
ers. Luther,  however,  while  he  stirred  up  the  people,  forbade 
the  employment  of  any  other  arm  than  that  of  speech.  "It  was 
the  'Word/  "  he  said,  "that  whilst  I  was  quietly  sleeping,  or 
drinking  my  beer  with  my  dear  Melanchthon,  so  shook  the 
Papacy  as  never  Prince  or  Emperor  had  done  before." 

But  in  vain  he  flattered  himself  that  he  would  be  able  to  re- 
strain passions,  which  had  once  been  excited,  within  the  bounds 
of  abstract  discussion.  Very  soon  more  rigorous  deductions 
were  made  from  his  principles  than  he  intended.  The  Princes 
laid  their  hands  upon  ecclesiastical  property.  Albert  of  Bran- 
denburg, Grand  Master  of  the  Teutonic  Order,  secularized  a 
whole  State;  he  married  the  daughter  of  the  new  King  of  Den- 
mark, and  declared  himself  hereditary  Duke  of  Prussia,  to  be 
held  as  a  fief  of  Poland — a  contagious  example  in  an  empire 
which  was  full  of  ecclesiastical  Princes  who  might  be  tempted 
by  the  bait  of  a  similar  usurpation  [1525]. 

And  yet  this  was  not  the  greatest  danger.    The  lower  classes, 


84  MICHELET 

the  peasants  who  had  so  long  been  slumbering  under  the  weight 
of  feudal  oppression,  heard  the  scholars  and  Princes  talking  of 
liberty  and  enfranchisement,  and  applied  to  themselves  what  was 
not  meant  for  them.  The  memorial  of  the  poor  peasants  of 
Swabia  will  always  remain,  in  its  rude  simplicity,  a  model  of 
courageous  moderation.^  Gradually  the  perpetual  hatred  of  the 
poor  against  the  rich  woke  up  blind  and  furious,  as  in  the  Jac- 
querie, but  already  affecting  form  and  system,  as  in  the  time  of 
the  Levelers.  It  became  complicated  with  all  the  germs  of  re- 
ligious democracy  which  were  supposed  to  have  been  stifled  in 
the  middle  ages.  Lollards,  Beghards,  numbers  of  apocalyptical 
visionaries  arose.  Their  rallying  cry  was  the  necessity  for  a  sec- 
ond baptism,  their  aim  a  terrible  war  against  established  order, 
against  every  species  of  order.  War  against  property  was  pro- 
claimed— it  was  robbery  of  the  poor — and  war  against  science, 
for  it  disturbed  natural  equality  and  tempted  God,  who  revealed 
everything  to  His  saints;  books  and  pictures  were  inventions  of 
the  devil.  The  fiery  Carlostadt  had  already  set  the  example;  he 
ran  from  church  to  church,  breaking  images  and  overthrowing 
altars.  At  Wittenberg,  the  students  burnt  their  books  under 
the  very  eyes  of  Luther.  The  peasants  of  Thuringia,  imitating 
those  of  Swabia,  followed  the  enthusiast  Muncer,  threw  Mul- 
hausen  into  confusion,  called  the  miners  from  Mansfeld  to  take 
arms,  and  tried  to  join  their  comrades  in  Franconia  [1524],  On 
the  Rhine,  in  Alsace  and  Lorraine,  in  the  Tyrol,  in  Carinthia 
and  Styria,  the  people  everywhere  took  up  arms.  Everywhere 
they  deposed  the  magistrates,  seized  the  estates  of  the  nobles, 
made  them  relinquish  their  names  and  dresses,  and  gave  them 
similar  ones  to  their  own.  All  the  Princes,  Catholic  and  Protest- 
ant, opposed  them  in  arms;  they  could  not  stand  a  moment 
against  the  heavy  cavalry  of  the  nobles,  and  they  were  treated 
like  wild  beasts. 

Section  II — Struggles  of  the  Reformation. 

The  secularization  of  Prussia,  and  above  all  the  revolt  of  the 
Anabaptists,  gave  an  extremely  threatening  political  character 
to  the  Reformtion.  The  two  awakened  opinions  became  two 
parties,  two  leagues  (the  Catholic  at  Ratisbon,  1524,  and  at  Des- 
sau; the  Protestant  at  Torgau,  1526).  The  Emperor  watched 
for  the  moment  to  overwhelm  the  one  by  the  other,  and  sub- 
jugate at  the  same  time  the  Catholics  and  Protestants.  He 
thought  that  it  had  come  when  the  victory  of  Payia  placed  his 
rival  in  his  hands.  But  in  the  following  year  a  universal  league 
was  formed  against  him  in  the  West.  The  Pope  and  all  Italy, 

/"Die    Zwoelf    Artikel    der    Bauer-       Bauerkrieg,  and  the  German  works  of 
scnaft."     See    the    end    of    Sartorius,       Luther,  Wittenberg,  1569,  vol.  i.  fol.  64. 


MODERN    HISTORY  85 

and  Henry  VIIL,  his  ally,  declared  war  against  him.  At  the 
same  time  the  election  of  Ferdinand  to  the  throne  of  Bohemia 
and  Hungary,  drew  the  house  of  Austria  into  the  civil  wars  of 
this  kingdom,  laid  bare,  so  to  speak,  Germany,  and  brought  her 
face  to  face  with  Soliman. 

The  progress  of  Ottoman  barbarism,  which  drew  nearer  every 
day,  complicated  alarmingly  the  affairs  of  the  empire.  Sultan 
Selim,  that  rapid  conqueror,  whose  ferocity  caused  even  the 
Turks  to  tremble,  had  just  doubled  the  extent  of  the  dominion 
of  the  Osmanlis.  In  three  springs  the  tiger  had  seized  Syria, 
Egypt,  and  Arabia.  The  brilliant  cavalry  of  the  Mamelukes  had 
perished  at  the  foot  of  his  throne  in  the  enormous  massacre  at 
Cairo.  He  had  sworn  to  conquer  the  "  red-heads,"^  and  after- 
wards to  turn  against  the  Christians  the  whole  strength  of  the 
Mahometan  nations.  A  cancer  dispensed  him  from  keeping  his 
oath.  "In  the  year  926  of  the  Hegira  [1521],  Sultan  Selim  passed 
into  the  eternal  kingdom,  leaving  the  empire  of  the  world  to 
Soliman."^  Soliman  the  Magnificent  buckled  on  his  scimitar 
at  Stamboul  in  the  same  year  that  Charles  V.  received  the  im- 
perial crown  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.  He  began  his  reign  by  the  con- 
quests of  Belgrade  and  of  Rhodes,  on  which  the  power  of  Ma- 
homet II.  had  twice  been  shipwrecked  [1521 — 1522].  The  latter 
victory  secured  to  the  Turks  the  empire  of  the  sea  in  the  eastern 
part  of  the  Mediterranean;  the  former  opened  Hungary  to  them. 
When  they  invaded  that  kingdom,  in  1526,  the  young  King 
Louis  had  not  been  able  to  assemble  more  than  25,000  men 
against  150,000.  The  Hungarians,  who,  according  to  ancient 
usage,  had  struck  off  the  spurs  of  the  bearer  of  the  Virgin's 
standard,*  were  nevertheless  defeated  at  Mohacz.  In  the  confu- 
sion, Louis  was  killed  with  his  general,  Paul  Tomorri,  Bishop 
of  Colocza,  and  many  bishops  who  bore  arms  during  the  con- 
tinual dangers  of  Hungary.  Two  Kings  were  elected  at  the 
same  time,  Ferdinand  of  Austria  and  John  Zapoly  Waiwode  of 
Transylvania.  Zapoly,  obtaining  no  assistance  from  Poland,  ap- 
plied to  the  Turks  themselves.  Ferdinand's  ambassador,  the 
gigantic  Hobordansc,  celebrated  for  having  vanquished,  in  sin- 
gle combat,  one  of  the  most  valiant  pashas,  had  dared  to  brave 
the  Sultan,  and  Soliman  had  sworn  that  if  he  did  not  find  Ferdi- 
nand before  Buda,  he  would  seek  him  out  In  Vienna.  In  the 
month  of  September,  1529,  the  black  line  of  an  innumerable 
army  encircled  the  capital  of  Austria.  Happily  a  number  of 
brave  men,  Germans  and  Spaniards,  had  thrown  themselves  into 
it.  Among  them  were  noticed  Don  Pedro  of  Navarre,  and  the 
Count  of  Salm,  who,  if  the  Germans  may  be  believed,  took  Fran- 
cis I.  prisoner  at  Pavia.  After  twenty  assaults,  in  as  many  days, 

g  The  Persians  are  so  called  by  the          h  Epitaph  of  Selim. 
Turks.  *  Istttanfi,  p.  124-7. 


86  MICHELET 

Soliman  pronounced  an  anathema  against  any  Sultan  who 
should  again  attack  that  fatal  town.  He  left  it  in  the  night,  de- 
stroying the  bridges  behind  him  and  killing  the  prisoners,  and 
on  the  fifth  day  he  had  returned  to  Buda.  His  pride  found  some 
consolation  in  crowning  Zapoly,  who  at  the  same  time  beheld 
from  the  windows  of  the  citadel  of  Pesth  10,000  Hungarians 
carried  off  by  the  Tartars  in  Soliman's  service,  who  had  been 
surprised  in  the  celebration  of  Christmas  festivities,  and  whom 
the  Tartars  drove  before  them  like  sheep./  What  was  Germany 
doing  while  the  Turks  were  crossing  all  the  old  border  lines,  and 
Soliman  was  scattering  his  Tartars  beyond  Vienna?  She  was 
disputing  about  transubstantiation  and  freewill.  Her  most  illus- 
trious warriors  were  sitting  in  the  Diet  and  interrogating  doc- 
tors. Such  was  the  phlegmatic  character  of  this  great  nation, 
and  such  was  its  confidence  in  its  strength  and  its  weight. 

The  war  with  the  Turks  and  that  with  the  French,  the  siege  of 
Rome  and  the  defence  of  Vienna  occupied  Charles  V.  and  his 
brother  so  fully  that  the  Protestants  obtained  tolerance  until  the 
approaching  council.  But  after  the  Peace  of  Cambray,  Charles 
V. — now  that  France  was  humbled,  Italy  enslaved,  and  Soliman 
repulsed — determined  to  sit  in  judgment  in  the  great  case  of  the 
Reformation.  The  two  parties  confronted  each  other  at  Augs- 
burg. The  followers  of  Luther,  designated  by  the  general  name 
of  Protestants,  since  they  protested  against  the  decree  forbidding 
innovations  [at  Spire,  1529],  wished  to  be  distinguished  from  all 
the  other  enemies  of  Rome,  whose  excesses  would  have  dam- 
aged their  cause;  from  the  republican  Zwinglians  of  Switzerland, 
odious  both  to  Princes  and  nobles ;  and,  above  all,  from  the  Ana- 
baptists, proscribed  as  enemies  of  order  and  society.  Their  con- 
fession, softened  by  the  learned  and  conciliatory  Melanchthpn, 
who  threw  himself  with  tears  in  his  eyes  betwen  the  two  parties, 
was  nevertheless  rejected  as  heretical.  They  were  summoned 
to  renounce  their  errors  on  pain  of  being  placed  under  the  ban 
of  the  empire  [Augsburg,  1530].  Charles  V.  seemed  even  ready 
to  use  violence,  and  for  a  short  time  ordered  the  gates  of  Augs- 
burg to  be  closed.  The  Diet  had  scarcely  been  dissolved  when 
the  Protestant  Princes  assembled  at  Smalkeld  and  there  con- 
cluded a  defensive  league  by  means  of  which  they  were  to  form  a 
single  body  [1531].  They  protested  against  the  election  of  Ferdi- 
nand to  the  dignity  of  King  of  the  Romans.  They, settled  their 
contingents;  they  applied  to  the  Kings  of  France,  England,  and 
Denmark,  and  they  held  themselves  ready  for  battle. 

The  Turks  seemed  charged  with  the  task  of  again  bringing 
the  Germans  together.  The  Emperor  heard  that  Soliman  had 
just  entered  Hungary  at  the  head  of  300,000  men,  while  the 
pirate,  Khair-Eddyn  (Barharossa),  who  had  become  Capitan 

/  Istuanfi. 


MODERN    HISTORY  87 

Pasha,  was  joining  the  kingdom  of  Tunis  to  that  of  Algiers,  and 
was  keeping  the  whole  of  the  Mediterranean  in  alarm.  He  has- 
tened to  offer  to  the  Protestants  to  grant  all  their  demands — tol- 
erance, the  preservation  of  secularized  possessions  until  the  ap- 
proaching council,  and  admission  into  the  Imperial  Chamber. 

While  this  negotiation  was  pending,  Soliman  was  stopped  for 
a  month  by  the  Dalmatian  Juritzi  before  a  ruined  fort.  He  at- 
tempted to  make  up  for  the  time  he  had  lost  by  traversing  the 
impracticable  roads  of  Styria,  where  snow  and  ice  had  already 
blocked  the  mountains,  but  the  formidable  aspect  of  Charles  V.'s 
army  decided  him  on  retiring.  Germany,  reunited  by  the  prom- 
ises of  the  Emperor,  had  made  enormous  efforts.  Italian,  Flem- 
ish, Burgundian,  Bohemian  and  Hungarian  troops,  joining  with 
those  of  the  empire,  had  carried  his  army  to  90,000  foot  and 
30,000  horse,  of  whom  a  great  number  were  cased  in  steelfe 
Never  had  an  army  been  so  drawn  from  all  Europe  since  that  of 
Godfrey  or  Bouillon.  The  light  cavalry  of  the  Turks  was  sur- 
rounded and  cut  to  pieces.  The  Sultan  was  not  reassured  until, 
leaving  the  narrow  gorges  of  the  Murr  and  the  Drave,  he  re- 
entered  the  plain  of  Waradin. 

Francis  I.  and  Soliman  took  turns  in  giving  occupation  to 
Charles  V.  The  Sultan,  after  invading  Persia,  went  to  be 
crowned  at  Bagdad;  and  the  Emperor  was  beginning  to  breathe 
(see  the  expedition  to  Tunis  in  the  preceding  chapter),  when  the 
King  of  France  attacked  him  by  attacking  his  ally,  Savoy.  This 
new  war  postponed  for  twelve  years  the  final  rupture  between 
the  Catholics  and  Protestants  of  Germany.  Nevertheless,  the 
interval  did  not  amount  to  a  peace.  In  the  first  place,  Anabap- 
tism  broke  out  again  in  Munster  under  a  more  alarming  form. 
From  the  same  anarchical  disturbances  as  before,  a  strange 
government  emerged,  a  monstrous  mixture  of  demagogy  and 
tyranny.  The  Anabaptists  of  Munster  followed  exclusively  the 
Old  Testament;  as  Jesus  Christ  was  of  the  race  of  David,  His 
kingdom  was  bound  to  assume  the  Judaic  form.  They  recog- 
nized two  prophets  sent  by  God:  David,  and  John  of  Leyden, 
their  chief;  and  two  prophets  sent  by  the  devil,  the  Pope  and 
Luther.  John  of  Leyden  was  a  tailor's  apprentice,  a  brave  and 
cruel  young  man  whom  they  had  taken  for  their  King,  and  who 
was  to  spread  the  kingdom  of  Christ  all  over  the  world.  The 
Princes  prevented  him. 

The  Catholics  and  Protestants,  united  for  an  instant  against 
the  Anabaptists,  became  afterwards  only  the  more  bitter  against 
each  other.  A  general  council  was  constantly  talked  of,  but 
neither  party  seriously  wished  for  it  The  Pope  feared  it,  the 
Protestants  rejected  it  beforehand.  The  council  (assembled  at 
Trent  in  1545)  might  draw  together  the  links  of  the  Catholic 

k  P.  Jovius,  an  ocular  witness. 


88  MICHELET 

hierarchy,  but  could  never  restore  the  unity  of  the  Church.  The 
question  could  be  decided  only  by  arms.  Already  the  Protest- 
ants had  driven  the  Austrians  out  of  Wirtemberg.  They  dis- 
possessed Henry  of  Brunswick,  who  was  executing  in  his  own 
interest  the  decrees  of  the  Imperial  Chamber.  They  encouraged 
the  Archbishop  of  Cologne  to  imitate  the  example  of  Albert  of 
Brandenburg,  a  step  which  would  have  given  them  the  majority 
in  the  Council  of  Electors. 

When  the  war  with  France  had  ended,  Charles  V.  and  his 
brother  treated  with  the  Turks  and  united  themselves  closely 
with  the  Pope  to  destroy  at  once  the  religious  and  political  liber- 
ties of  Germany.  The  Lutherans,  warned  by  the  imprudence  of 
Paul  III.,  who  proclaimed  the  war  as  a  Crusade,  rose  up  under 
the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse  to  the  num- 
ber of  80,000.  Abandoned  by  France,  England,  and  Denmark, 
who  had  excited  them  to  war;  separated  from  the  Swiss  by  their 
horrors  of  the  blasphemies  of  Zwinglius,  they  would  have  been 
sufficiently  strong  if  they  had  remained  united,  but  while  they 
were  pressing  hard  Charles  V.,  who  lay  entrenched  behind  the 
cannons  of  Ingoldstadt,  young  Maurice,  Duke  of  Saxony,  who 
had  secretly  been  treating  with  him,  betrayed  the  Protestant 
cause  and  invaded  the  States  of  his  relative,  the  Elector.  Charles 
V.  had  only  to  overpower  the  scattered  members  of  the  league. 
As  soon  as  the  deaths  of  Henry  VIII.  and  Francis  I.  [January  28 
and  March  31,  1547]  had  deprived  the  Protestants  of  all  hope  of 
assistance,  he  marched  against  the  Elector  of  Saxony  and  de- 
feated him  at  Muhlberg  [twenty-fourth  of  April]. 

The  two  brothers  abused  their  victory.  Charles  V.  caused  the 
Elector  to  be  condemned  to  death  by  a  council  of  Spanish  offi- 
cers, presided  over  by  the  Duke  of  Alva,  and  wrested  from  him 
the  cession  of  his  electorate,  which  he  transferred  to  Maurice. 
He  retained  in  prison  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse,  having  deceived 
him  by  a  cowardly  stratagem,  and  proved  that  he  had  conquered 
neither  for  the  sake  of  the  Catholic  faith  nor  for  that  of  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Empire.  Ferdinand  imitated  his  brother.  From 
1545  he  had  declared  himself  a  feudatory  of  Soliman  for  the 
kingdom  of  Hungary,  reserving  his  whole  strength  for  the 
struggle  against  Bohemia  and  Germany.  He  had  re-established 
the  archbishopric  of  Prague,  which  had  in  old  times  been  so 
formidable  to  the  Hussites,  and  had  declared  himself  hereditary 
sovereign  of  Bohemia.  In  1547  he  endeavored,  without  the 
authorization  of  the  States,  to  raise  an  army  to  attack  the  Luth- 
erans of  Saxony,  who  were  allies  of  the  Bohemians.  This  army 
was  indeed  raised,  but  it  turned  its  arms  against  the  Prince,  who 
had  violated  his  oath.  The  Bohemians  united  in  defence  of  their 
constitution  and  their  mother  tongue.  The  battle  of  Muhlberg 
left  them  at  the  mercy  of  Ferdinand,  who  annulled  their  privi- 
leges. 


MODERN    HISTORY  89 

Hungary  had  equal  reason  to  complain  of  him.  The  fatal . 
struggle  between  Ferdinand  and  Zapoly  had  opened  this  king- 
dom to  the  Turks.  All  the  national  party,  all  who  wished  neither 
to  be  mastered  by  the  Turks  nor  by  the  Austrians,  had  gathered 
round  the  Cardinal  George  Martinuzzi  (Uthuysenitch)  the  guar- 
dian of  the  young  son  of  Zapoly.  This  extraordinary  man,  who 
at  twenty  was  still  gaining  his  bread  by  supplying  with  wood 
the  fires  in  the  royal  palace  at  Buda,  had  become  the  real  ruler 
of  Transylvania.  On  the  Queen-mother's  appealing  to  the 
Turks,  he  treated  with  Ferdinand,  who  at  least  was  a  Christian. 
He  caused  the  war-cry  to  be  raised  in  every  direction,*  assembled 
in  a  few  days  70,000  men  and  carried  at  the  head  of  his  heiduques 
the  town  of  Lippe,  which  the  Austrians  had  not  been  able  to 
recover  from  the  infidels.  These  successes3,  this  popularity, 
alarmed  the  brother  of  Charles  V.  Martinuzzi  had  authorized 
the  Transylvanians  to  restrain  by  force  the  license  of  the  German 
soldiers.  Ferdinand  caused  his  assassination,  but  this  crime 
cost  him  Transylvania.  Zapoly's  son  was  reinstated  there,  and 
the  Austrians  preserved  their  possessions  in  Hungary  only  by 
paying  tribute  to  the  Ottoman  Porte. 

Meanwhile,  Charles  V.  oppressed  Germany  and  threatened 
Europe.  On  the  one  hand,  he  excepted  from  the  alliance  which 
he  proposed  to  the  Swiss,  Basle,  Zurich  and  Schaffhausen, 
which,  he  said,  belonged  to  the  empire.  On  the  other,  he  placed 
under  the  ban  Albert  of  Brandenburg,  who  had  now  become 
feudatory  of  the  King  of  Poland.wt  He  offended  even  Ferdinand 
and  separated  the  interests  of  the  two  branches  of  the  house  of 
Austria  by  endeavoring  to  transfer  from  his  brother  to  his  son 
the  succession  to  the  empire.  He  had  introduced  the  Inquisition 
into  the  Low  Countries.  In  Germany  he  wanted  to  impose  on 
Catholic  and  Protestant  his  Inhalt,  or  Interim,  a  conciliatory 
arrangement  which  united  them  only  on  one  point — hatred  of 
the  Emperor.  The  Interim  was  compared  with  the  institutions 
of  Henry  VIII.,  and  not  without  reason.  The  Emperor  also 
assumed  papal  powers:  when  Maurice  of  Saxony,  the  Land- 
grave's son-in-law,  demanded  his  father-in-law's  liberty,  which 
he  had  sworn  to  preserve,  Charles  V.  declared  that  he  released 
him  from  his  oath.  He  carried  everywhere  in  his  train  the  Land- 
grave and  the  venerable  Elector  of  Saxony,  as  if  triumphing  in 
their  persons  over  the  liberty  of  Germany,  That  ancient  coun- 
try beheld  for  the  first  time  strangers  violating  her  territory  in 
the  name  of  the  Emperor;  it  was  overrun  in  every  direction  by 
Italian  mercenaries  and  fierce  Spaniards,  who  laid  under  con- 
tribution Catholics  and  Protestants,  friends  and  enemies. 

I  Bechet,  "  Histoire  de  Martintisius,"  shouting  the  war-cry  according  to  the 

p.  324     A  man  on  horseback  in  full  ar-  ancient  custom  of  Transylvania, 

mor  and  a  man  on  foot  holding  a  bloody  m  Sleidan,  i,  xxi. 
sword    travelled  all    over    the    country 


9o 


MICHELET 


To  overthrow  this  unjust  power,  which  seemed  to  be  unassail- 
able, was  the  work  of  young  Maurice,  the  principal  instrument 
of  the  victory  of  Charles  V.  The  latter  had  only  transferred  to 
a  more  skilful  Prince  the  electorate  of  Saxony  and  the  leadership 
of  the  German  Protestants.  While  Maurice  found  himself  the 
plaything-  of  the  Emperor,  who  detained  his  father-in-law,  num- 
bers of  little  books  and  caricatures,  in  which  he  was  called  apos- 
tate, traitor,  and  scourge  of  his  country,  circulated  in  Germany." 
Maurice  concealed  his  plans  with  profound  dissimulation.  First 
he  was  obliged  to  raise  an  army  without  alarming  the  Emperor; 
to  do  this,  he  undertook  the  task  of  forcing  Magdeburg  to  sub- 
mit to  the  Interim,  and,  instead  of  attacking  the  town,  joined  its 
troops  to  his  own.  At  the  same  time  he  treated  secretly  with 
the  King  of  France.  The  Emperor,  having  again  refused  to  set 
the  Landgrave  at  liberty,  received  simultaneously  two  mani- 
festoes, one  from  Maurice  in  the  name  of  Germany — pillaged  by 
the  Spaniards  and  insulted  in  the  official  history  of  Louis 
d'Avilajo  the  other,  from  the  King  of  France,  Henri  IL,  who 
called  himself  the  Protector  of  the  Princes  of  the  empire,  and 
who  headed  his  manifesto  with  a  cap  of  liberty  between  two  dag- 
gers./* While  the  French  took  possession  of  the  three  bishop- 
rics, Maurice  advanced  by  long  marches  on  Innspruck  [1552]. 
The  old  Emperor,  who  was  at  that  time  ill,  and  without  troops, 
set  out  at  night  in  pouring  rain  and  had  himself  carried  towards 
the  mountains  of  Carinthia.  If  Maurice  had  not  been  stopped  by 
a  mutiny,  Charles  V.  would  have  fallen  into  the  hands  of  his 
enemy.  He  was  forced  to  submit.  The  Emperor  concluded 
with  the  Protestants  the  truce  of  Passau,  and  the  ill-success  of 
the  war  which  he  sustained  against  France  changed  this  truce 
into  a  definitive  peace  [Augsburg,  1555].  The  Protestants  exer- 
cised freely  their  religion,  preserved  the  ecclesiastical  posses- 
sions which  belonged  to  them  before  1552,  and  were  permitted 
to  sit  in  the  Imperial  Chamber.  This  was  the  first  victory  of 
religious  liberty.  The  spirit  of  free  inquiry,  having  thus  gained 
a  legal  recognition,  henceforth  pursued  its  determined  course  in 
spite  of  obstacles  which  could  not  stop  it.  Further  on  we  shall 
have  to  notice  the  germs  of  war  which  were  concealed  in  this 
peace. 

The  Emperor,  abandoned  by  fortune,  who  loves  not  the  old,g 
abandoned  the  empire  to  his  brother  and  his  kingdoms  to  his 
son,  and  spent  the  remainder  of  his  days  in  the  seclusion  of  San 
Yuste,  The  funeral  which  he  is  said,  though  falsely,  to  have 
caused  to  be  solemnized  during  his  lifetime  wquld  only  have 
been  too  faithful  an  image  of  the  eclipsed  glory  which  he  sur- 
vived. 

n  Sleidan,  i.,  xxiii.  q  Expression  used  by  Charles  V.  him- 

o  Idem,  ix.,  xxiv.  self. 

P  Ibid. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

SPREAD   OF  THE   REFORMATION. 

THE    REFORMATION   IN   ENGLAND  AND    IN  THE   NORTH 
OF   EUROPE. 

Section  I. — England  and  Scotland,  1527 — 1547- 

The  northern  Teutonic  States,  England,  Sweden,  and  Den- 
mark, followed  the  example  of  Germany;  but,  while  they  sepa- 
rated themselves  from  the  Papacy,  these  three  States,  governed 
by  the  aristocratic  spirit,  preserved  in  part  the  Catholic  hier- 
archy. 

The  revolution  effected  by  Henry  VIII.  must  not  be  con- 
founded with  the  national  Reformation  in  England.  The  former 
only  separated  England  from  Rome  and  confiscated  the  power 
and  riches  of  the  Church  to  the  profit  of  the  Crown.  Rather 
political  than  religious,  the  work  of  the  King  and  the  aristocracy, 
it  was  the  finishing  stroke  of  the  absolute  power  with  which  for 
the  last  half-century  the  English  had  been  investing  the  Crown, 
and  which  was  the  result  of  their  hatred  of  the  anarchy  of  the 
Roses.  This  official  reform  had  nothing  in  common  with  that 
which  was  going  on  at  the  same  time  among  the  lower  classes  by 
means  of  the  spontaneous  enthusiasm  excited  by  the  Lutherans, 
Calvinists,  and  Anabaptists,  who  came  over  sea  from  Germany, 
the  Low  Countries  and  Geneva.  The  latter  prevailed  from  the 
first  in  Scotland,  and  in  the  end  conquered  the  former  in  Eng- 
land. 

The  occasion  for  this  royal  and  aristocratic  reformation 
seemed  a  trifling  one;  it  was  in  appearance  only  the  ephemeral 
passion  of  Henry  VIII.  for  Anne  Boleyn,  maid  of  honor  to 
Queen  Catherine  of  Aragon,  the  aunt  of  Charles  V.  After  a 
union  of  twenty  years,  the  King  remembered  that  the  Queen 
had  been  for  a  few  months  the  wife  of  his  brother.  It  was,  in  fact, 
the  moment  when  the  victor  of  Pavia,  disturbing  the  balance  of 
power  in  the  West,  alarmed  Henry  VIII,  as  to  the  success  of  his 
ally,  the  Emperor;  he  passed  over  to  the  side  of  Francis  I.  and 
asked  Clement  VII.  for  a  divorce  from  his  Spanish  Queen.  The 
Pope,  threatened  by  Charles  V.,  tried  in  every  way  to  gain  time; 
after  having  delegated  the  judgment  of  the  case  to  his  legates, 

9* 


92  MICHELET 

he  summoned  it  to  Rome.  The  English  were  not  more  favor- 
able to  the  divorce;  besides  the  interest  inspired  by  Catherine, 
they  feared  lest  a  rupture  with  the  Emperor  should  disturb  their 
trade  with  the  Low  Countries.  They  refused  to  attend  the 
French  markets,  which  the  King  wanted  to  substitute  for  the 
Flemish.  Some  bolder  counsellors,  however,  who  had  suc- 
ceeded the  Cardinal-legate  W°lsey—  Cromwell,  secretary  of 
state,  and  Cranmer,  a  Cambridge  divine,  whom  Henry  made 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury — overcame  his  scruples  by  promis- 
ing to  purchase  the  approbation  of  the  principal  European  uni- 
versities. At  length  the  King's  patience  gave  way,  and  he  re- 
solved to  break  with  the  Papacy.  The  English  clergy  were 
charged  with  having  broken  the  law  by  recognizing  the  dis- 
graced minister  as  legate.  Their  deputies  in  Convocation  ob- 
tained pardon  only  by  making  the  King  a  present  of  £  100,000 
and  by  acknowledging  him  as  the  protector  and  supreme  head 
of  the  English  Church.  On  March  30,  1534,  this  decree,  passed 
as  a  bill  in  both  Houses  of  Parliament,  was  sanctioned  by  the 
King,  and  all  appeal  to  Rome  forbidden.  On  the  twenty-third 
of  the  same  month  Clement  VIIL  decided  against  the  divorce 
by  the  almost  unanimous  advice  of  his  cardinals.  England  was 
thus  separated  from  the  Holy  See. 

This  change,  which  seemed  to  end  the  revolution,  was  only  its 
beginning.  In  the  first  place,  the  King  declared  all  ecclesiastical 
power  suspended;  the  bishops  were  ordered  to  present  petitions 
in  a  month's  time  for  the  restitution  of  their  authority.  The 
monasteries  were  suppressed  and  their  revenues  confiscated  to 
the  Crown.  But  the  King  soon  dissipated  this  wealth ;  he  is  said 
to  have  rewarded  one  of  his  cooks  for  a  good  dish  with  an  estate. 
Surprise  and  indignation  prevailed  throughout  the  country. 
The  poor  no  longer  found  relief  at  the  doors  of  the  monasteries. 
The  nobles  and  country  gentlemen  declared  that  if  the  convents 
were  to  be  suppressed  their  estates  could  not  fall  to  the  Crown, 
but  ought  to  return  to  the  representatives  of  their  founders. 
The  inhabitants  of  the  five  Northern  counties  flew  to  arms  and 
marched  on  London  to  accomplish  what  they  called  the  pilgrim- 
age of  grace;  but  recourse  was  had  to  negotiation;  many  prom- 
ises were  made,  and  when  the  insurgents  dispersed  they  were 
hanged  by  hundreds. 

The  Protestants  who  crowded  at  this  time  into  England, 
thinking  that  they  would  settle  there  under  the  favor  of  this 
reformation,  were  soon  taught  by  Henry  VIII.  that  they  were 
grossly  deceiving  themselves.  For  nothing  on  earth  would  he 
have  given  up  the  title  of  Defender  of  the  Faith,  which  he  had 
earned  by  his  book  against  Luther.  He  maintained,  therefore, 
the  more  important  parts  of  the  ancient  faith  by  his  Bill  of  the 
Six  Articles,  and  persecuted  both  parties  with  impartial  intoler- 


MODERN    HISTORY  93 

ance.  In  1540  Protestants  and  Catholics  were  dragged  from  the 
Tower  to  Smithfield  on  the  same  hurdle;  the  former  were  burned 
as  heretics,  the  latter  hanged  as  traitors  for  having  denied  the 
King's  supremacy. 

The  King,  having  taken  the  place  of  the  Pope  in  every  respect, 
solemnly  proclaimed  his  own  political  and  religious  infallibility: 
he  made  the  Parliament  enact  that  his  proclamations  should  have 
the  same  value  as  of  bills  passed  by  the  two  chambers.  The  most 
alarming  feature  was  that  he  himself  believed  in  his  infallibility 
and  considered  all  his  passionate  caprices  sacred;  of  his  six 
wives,  two  were  repudiated  and  two  beheaded,  on  the  pretext  of 
adultery;  the  sixth  nearly  shared  their  fate  for  professing  Protes- 
tant opinions.  He  treated  his  family  with  sanguinary  and  quar- 
relsome despotism,  and  he  treated  the  whole  nation  as  he  treated 
his  family.  He  commanded  one  translation  of  the  Bible  to  be 
made,  and  forbade  every  other,  yet,  with  the  exception  of  heads 
of  families,  every  person  who  expounded  it  was  subject  to  a 
month's  imprisonment.  He  wrote  himself  two  books  for  the 
religious  instruction  of  the  people  ("The  Institution  and  "The 
Erudition  of  a  Christian  Man")  and  actually  disputed  in  person 
against  innovators.  A  schoolmaster  named  Lambert,  accused 
of  having  denied  the  Real  Presence,  appealed  from  the  Metro- 
politan to  the  Head  of  the  Church;  the  King  argued  against  him, 
and,  after  disputing  for  five  hours,  asked  him  whether  he  would 
yield  or  die.  Lambert  chose  death,  and  he  was  burnt  by  a  slow 
fire.  A  still  stranger  scene  was  the  judgment  of  St.  Thomas 
Becket,  who  died  in  1170.  He  was  cited  to  appear  at  West- 
minster to  answer  the  charge  of  treason,  and,  after  the  ordinary 
thirty  days'  delay  was  condemned  in  default;  his  relics  were 
burnt,  and  his  property,  that  is  to  say  his  shrine  and  the  offer- 
ings which  adorned  it,  were  confiscated  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Crown. 

Henry  VIII.  would  have  liked  to  extend  his  religious  tyranny 
to  Scotland;  but  the  French  party  who  prevailed  there  was  at- 
tached to  the  Catholic  religion,  and  the  whole  nation  held  the 
English  yoke  in  horror.  Speaking  of  the  King  of  England,  Sir 
George  Douglas  wrote:  "Even  the  little  boys  would  throw  stones 
at  him,  the  women  would  break  their  distaffs.  The  whole  nation 
would  die  rather  than  receive  him;  most  of  the  nobles  and  the 
whole  of  the  clergy  are  against  him." 

The  young  Queen  of  Scots  (Mary)  remained  under  the  charge 
of  James  Hamilton,  Earl  of  Arran,  son  of  the  one  we  have 
already  mentioned ;  the  nobles  appointed  him  to  be  her  guardian, 
although  the  will  of  the  late  King  had  designated  Cardinal 
Beaton  as  Regent;  and  Scotland  was  comprehended  in  the  treaty 
concluded  between  England  and  France  in  1546  (see  Chapter 
VIIL).  The  King  of  England  died  a  year  afterwards. 


94 


MICHELET 


During  the  latter  years  of  his  reign,  Henry,  having  spent  the 
prodigious  sums  which  he  had  gained  by  the  suppression  of  the 
monasteries,  obtained  fresh  resources  from  the  servility  of  his 
Parliament.  He  had  disciplined  it  betimes,  and  on  the  least  re- 
sistance he  reprimanded  "those  varlets,  the  commons."  As 
early  as  1543,  that  is,  four  years  afterwards,  he  asked  for  an  enor- 
mous subsidy.  He  dragged  further  sums  out  of  it  on  every 
pretext — tax,  gift,  loan,  alteration  of  the  currency.  At  last  the 
Parliament,  sanctioning  bankruptcy,  abandoned  to  him  all  that 
he  had  borrowed  since  the  thirty-first  year  of  his  reign.  It  was 
pretended  that  before  the  twenty-sixth  year  the  exchequers  re- 
ceipts had  surpassed  the  amount  of  all  the  taxes  imposed  by  his 
predecessors,  and  that  before  his  death  the  sum  had  more  than 
doubled. 

It  was  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII.  that  Wales  was  placed  un- 
der the  regular  administrative  jurisdiction  of  England  and  that 
some  civil  order  was  established  in  Ireland.  Henry  VIII/s 
innovations  were  ill-received  in  that  island  both  by  the  English 
colonists  and  the  natives.  The  government  of  the  country  had 
been  generally  delegated  to  the  great  nobles  of  Ireland,  to  the 
Earls  of  Kildare  or  Ossory,  the  chiefs  of  the  rival  families  of 
Fitzgerald  and  Butler.  Kildare's  young  son,  believing  his  father 
to  have  been  killed  in  London,  presented  himself  before  the  Irish 
Council,  and  declared  war  in  his  own  name  on  Henry  VIII.  King 
of  England;  the  wise  counsels  of  the  Archbishop  of  Armagh 
could  not  prevail  over  the  song  of  an  Irish  bard,  who  in  the 
national  language  excited  the  hero  to  avenge  his  father's  blood. 
His  courage  was  no  match  for  English  discipline :  he  stipulated 
for  a  free  pardon  for  himself  and  his  followers  and  was  beheaded 
in  London.  After  this  and  more  formidable  revolts,  peace  was 
at  last  restored ;  the  Irish  chiefs  themselves  were  forced  to  accept 
peerages  from  the  King  as  the  sign  of  their  subjection.  O'Neil, 
the  most  celebrated  of  them  all,  will  appear  later  under  the  name 
of  the  Earl  of  Tyrone. 


Section  II.— Northern  Europe,  1515 — 1560* 

While  Protestant  Germany  sought  in  political  liberty  a  guar- 
antee for  its  religious  independence,  Denmark  and  Sweden  con- 
firmed a  political  revolution  by  adopting  the  Reformation. 

Christian  II.  had  equally  irritated  the  Danish  nobility,  against 
which  he  protected  the  peasantry;  Sweden,  which  he  deluged 
with  blood  [1520];  and  the  Hanse  Towns,  against  which  he  had 
closed  the  Danish  ports  by  his  prohibitions  [1517].  He  was 
soon  punished  both  for  the  good  and  evil  which  he  had  done. 
Governed  by  the  German  priest  Slagheck,  formerly  a  barber, 


MODERN    HISTORY 


95 


and  by  the  daughter  of  a  Dutch  innkeeper,  he  followed,  but  with 
less  skill,  the  path  which  had  led  the  other  Princes  of  Europe  to 
absolute  power.  He  wanted  to  crush  his  own  nobles  and  to  con- 
quer Sweden.  He  had  hired  troops  in  Germany,  Poland,  and 
Scotland;  he  had  obtained  4,000  men  from  Francis  I.  A  battle 
gave  him  the  mastery  of  Sweden,  which  was  torn  to  pieces  by  the 
quarrel  between  the  young  Sten-Stur,  the  administrator  of  the 
kingdom,  and  Gustave  Troll,  the  Archbishop  of  Upsala.  He 
tried  by  an  ecclesiastical  commission  all  the  bishops  and  senators 
who  had  voted  for  the  deposition  of  Troll.  In  one  day  they  were 
beheaded  and  burned  at  Stockholm  in  the  midst  of  a  nation  in 
tears.  The  gallows  and  the  scaffold  rose  in  every  province  of 
Sweden  through  which  Christian  passed.  He  insulted  the  van- 
quished. He  declared  himself  hereditary  King,  and  proclaimed 
that  he  made  no  knights  in  Sweden,  as  he  owed  the  country  en- 
tirely to  his  own  sword. 

The  young  Gustavus  Vasa,  however,  a  nephew  of  the  old  King 
Charles  Canutson,  succeeded  in  escaping  from  the  prison  in 
which  he  was  detained  by  Christian.  The  men  of  Lubeck,  re- 
garding the  latter  as  the  brother-in-law  of  Charles  V,,  who  was 
the  sovereign  of  their  enemies,  the  Dutch,  and  who  knew  that 
Christian  had  asked  the  Emperor  to  bestow  their  town  upon 
him,  gave  Gustavus  Vasa  a  passage  into  Sweden.  Chased  by 
the  Danes,  Gustavus  fled  from  one  shelter  to  another,  and  was 
on  one  occasion  touched  by  the  lances  of  those  who  sought  him 
while  hidden  in  a  haycock.  The  hiding-places  of  the  Liberator 
are  still  shown  at  Fahlun  and  Ornay.  He  reached  Dalecarlia, 
the  home  of  those  hardy  and  free  peasants  who  have  always  been 
the  first  to  attempt  revolutions  in  Sweden.  He  mixed  with  the 
Dalecarlians  of  Copperberg  (a  country  of  copper  mines),  adopted 
their  costume,  and  entered  the  service  of  one  of  them.  At 
length,  in  the  Christmas  festivities  of  1521,  seizing  the  occasion 
of  the  crowd  collected  by  the  feast-day,  he  harangued  them  in 
the  great  plain  of  Mora.  They  remarked  with  satisfaction  that 
the  North  wind  blew  during  all  the  time  he  spoke;  two  hundred 
of  them  followed  him ;  their  example  drew  the  whole  nation,  and 
at  the  end  of  a  few  months  the  only  possessions  which  the  Danes 
retained  in  Sweden  were  Abo,  Calmar,  and  Stockholm. 

Christian  had  chosen  precisely  this  critical  moment  for  at- 
tempting in  Denmark  a  revolution  capable  of  shaking  the  stead- 
iest throne.  He  published  two  codes  which  excited  against  him 
the  two  most  powerful  orders  in  that  kingdom — the  clergy  and 
the  nobility.  He  suppressed  the  temporal  jurisdiction  of  the 
bishops,  forbade  the  plunder  of  wrecks,  deprived  the  nobles  of 
the  right  to  sell  their  peasants,  and  permitted  the  ill-used  peasant 
to  leave  his  lord's  estate.  The  protection  of  the  peasantry,  which 
had  made  the  Stures  popular  in  Sweden,  effected  the  ruin  of  the 


96  MICHELET 

King  in  Denmark.  The  nobles  and  the  bishops  called  to  the 
throne  his  uncle,  Frederick  Duke  of  Holstein.  Thus  Christian 
lost  both  Denmark  and  Sweden  at  the  same  time. 

After  having  delivered  Sweden  from  the  foreigner,  Gusfcvus 
wrested  her  from  the  bishops.  He  deprived  the  clergy  of  their 
tithes  and  jurisdiction,  encouraged  the  nobles  to  claim  all  the 
ecclesiastical  estates  over  which  they  had  any  right;  finally,  he 
took  from  the  bishops  their  castles  and  strong  places.  By  the 
suppression  of  appeals  to  Rome,  the  Swedish  Church  became  in- 
dependent of  the  Papacy  while  retaining  the  hierarchy  and  most 
of  the  ceremonies  of  the  Catholic  Church  [1529].  It  is  said 
that  the  number  of  estates  or  farms  seized  by  the  King  amounted 
to  13,000.  Having  thus  diminished  the  chief  power  of  the  aris- 
tocracy in  the  persons  of  the  bishops,  he  was  able  to  manage  the 
nobles  more  easily;  he  laid  taxes  without  opposition  on  their 
estates,  and  he  caused  the  crown  to  be  declared  hereditary  in  the 
house  of  Vasa. 

The  Danish  bishops,  although  they  had  contributed  to  the 
Revolution,  were  not  more  fortunate  than  the  Swedish.  It 
turned  entirely  to  the  advantage  of  the  nobles,  who  exacted  from 
Frederick  I.  the  right  of  life  and  death  over  their  peasants.  Luth- 
eranism  was  preached  by  command  of  the  King;  the  States  of 
Odensee  [1527]  decreed  liberty  of  conscience,  abolished  the  celi- 
bacy of  the  priests  and  severed  every  link  between  the  clergy  of 
Denmark  and  the  see  of  Rome. 

The  more  distant  peoples  of  the  North,  less  accessible  to  new 
ideas,  did  not  accept  this  religious  revolution  without  resistance. 
The  Dalecarlians  were  armed  by  their  clergy  against  the  King 
whom  they  themselves  had  set  up.  The  Norwegians  and  the 
Icelanders  considered  the  introduction  of  Protestantism  only  as 
a  new  instance  of  tyranny  on  the  part  of  the  Danes.  Christian  II., 
who  had  taken  refuge  in  the  Low  Countries,  thought  that  he 
might  turn  this  disposition  to  account.  This  man,  who  on  one 
occasion  had  hunted  a  bishop  with  dogs,  now  associated  his 
cause  with  that  of  the  Catholic  religion.  With  the  help  of  sev- 
eral Princes  of  Germany,  of  Charles  V.,  and  of  some  Dutch 
merchants,  he  equipped  a  fleet,  landed  in  Norway,  and  thence 
penetrated  into  Sweden.  The  Hanse  Towns  took  up  arms 
against  the  Dutch  for  supporting  Christian.  Repulsed  and 
forced  to  shut  himself  up  in  Opslo,  he  surrendered  to  the  Danes, 
who  promised  him  liberty,  but  kept  him  a  prisoner  for  twenty- 
nine  years  in  the  dungeon  of  Saenderbourg,  with  a  dwarf  for  his 
sole  companion. 

On  the  death  of  Frederick  I.  [1534]  the  bishops  made  an  effort 
to  postpone  their  imminent  ruin.  They  attempted  to  place  on 
the  throne  the  King's  younger  son,  who  was  only  eight  years 
old,  and  who  was  not  yet  imbued  with  Protestant  ideas,  like  his 


MODERN    HISTORY  97 

elder  brother  Christian  III.;  they  put  forward  that  this  child, 
who  was  born  in  Denmark,  "had  spoken  from  his  cradle  the  lan- 
guage of  the  country,"  while  his  brother  was  considered  as  a 
German.  This  struggle  between  the  clergy  and  the  nobles,  be- 
tween the  Catholic  faith  and  the  new  doctrines,  of  Danish  patriot- 
ism against  foreign  influence,  encouraged  the  ambition  of  Lu- 
beck. That  republic  had  profited  little  by  the  downfall  of  Chris- 
tian II.  Frederick  had  created  trading-guilds,  Gustavus  favored 
the  English.  The  democratic  administration  which  had  replaced 
the  ancient  oligarchy  at  Lubeck  was  animated  more  by  the  spirit 
of  conquest  than  by  that  of  commerce.  Its  new  leaders,  the 
Burgomaster  Wullenwever  and  the  Commandant  Meyer,  for- 
merly a  locksmith,  conceived  the  project  of  repeating  in  a  king- 
dom the  revolution  which  they  had  effected  in  a  town.  They 
resolved  to  conquer  and  dismember  Denmark.  They  confided 
the  management  of  this  revolutionary  war  to  an  illustrious  ad- 
venturer, Count  Christopher,  of  Oldenburg,  who  had  distin- 
guished himself  against  the  Turks;  he  had  nothing  but  his  name 
and  his  sword,  but  he  consoled  himself,  they  say,  for  his  poverty 
by  reading  Homer  in  the  original.  He  penetrated  into  Den- 
mark by  stirring  up  the  lower  classes  in  the  name  of  Christian 
II.,  a  magic  name  which  always  rallied  the  Catholics  and  the 
peasantry.  All  was  deception  in  this  Machiavellian  war;  the 
republicans  of  Lubeck  excited  the  people  with  the  name  of 
Christian  II.  and  thought  only  of  themselves;  their  general 
Christopher  acted  neither  for  the  sake  of  Christian  nor  of  Lu- 
beck, but  in  his  own  interests.  The  calamities  of  this  revolution 
were  so  great  that  the  Count's  war  has  remained  a  proverbial  ex- 
pression in  Denmark.  The  general  consternation  caused  the 
nation  to  rally  round  Christian  III.  The  senate  which  had  re- 
treated into  Jutland,  the  only  province  which  remained  true  to 
it,  called  him  from  his  refuge  in  Holstein;  Gustavus  sent  him 
assistance.  The  young  King  besieged  Lubeck  and  forced  her 
to  recall  her  troops.  The  peasants,  beaten  in  every  direction, 
lost  all  hope  of  liberty.  Christian  IIL  entered  Copenhagen 
after  a  long  siege.  The  senate  arrested  the  bishops,  stripped 
them  of  their  estates,  and  substituted  for  them  superintendents 
charged  with  the  propagation  of  the  evangelical  religion.  Thus 
the  absolute  power  of  the  nobles  was  established  by  the  defeat 
of  the  clergy  and  peasantry.  Christian  III.  declared  the  mon- 
archy elective,  and  promised  to  consult  the  Grand  Master  of  the 
kingdom,  the  chancellor  and  the  marshal,  who  were  to  receive 
all  plaints  against  the  King.  The  Danish  nobility  decided  that 
Norway  was  in  future  to  be  only  a  province.  Protestantism  was 
established  there.  The  powerful  archbishopric  of  Drontheim 
having  become  a  simple  bishopric,  the  old  spirit  of  resistance 
ceased  to  manifest  itself,  with  the  exception  of  the  troubles  ex- 


98  MICHELET 

cited  at  Bergen  by  the  tyranny  of  the  Hanseatic  merchants  and 
the  revolt  of  the  peasants,  who  were  forced  to  work  in  the  mines 
tinder  the  orders  of  the  German  miners. 

Poor  Iceland  amidst  its  snows  and  volcanoes  endeavored  also 
to  resist  the  new  faith  which  was  being  imposed  on  her.  The 
Icelanders  had  the  same  repugnance  for  Danish  domination  as 
the  Danes  had  for  German  influence.  The  Bishops  Augmund 
and  Arneson  resisted  at  the  head  of  their  flocks  until  the  Danes 
beheaded  the  latter.  Arneson  was  not  esteemed  for  the  purity 
of  his  life,  but  he  was  lamented  as  the  man  of  the  people  and  poet 
of  the  nation;  it  is  he  who  in  1528  introduced  printing  into  this 
remote  island.  The  revolution,  both  political  and  religious,  was 
thus  firmly  established  throughout  Denmark,  in  spite  of  a  new 
attempt  on  the  part  of  Charles  V.  in  favor  of  the  Elector  Pala- 
tine, the  husband  of  his  niece,  who  was  a  daughter  of  Christian 
II.  At  length  Christian  III.'s  alliance  with  the  Protestants  of 
Germany  and  Francis  I.  decided  the  Emperor  on  recognizing 
him.  He  obtained  for  his  subjects  in  the  Low  Countries  per- 
mission to  navigate  the  Baltic,  a  last  blow  to  the  Hanseatic 
League,  from  which  it  never  recovered. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

CALVIN. 

THE  RISE  AND  GROWTH  OF  CALVINISM— THE  MASSACRE 
OF  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW,  1555—1572. 

In  its  first  phase  the  Reformation  had  scarcely  done  more  than 
pull  down,  in  its  second  it  endeavored  to  build  up.  At  the  out- 
set it  had  compromised  with  the  civil  authority;  the  Lutheran 
Reformation  had  been  in  many  respects  the  work  of  the  Princes 
to  whom  it  made  the  Church  subservient.  The  lower  classes 
wanted  a  reformation  of  their  own;  they  obtained  one  from 
John  Calvin,  a  French  Protestant,  who  had  taken  refuge  in 
Geneva.  The  first  Reformation  subdued  Northern  Germany, 
the  second  disturbed  France,  the  Low  Countries,  England,  and 
Scotland.  In  every  direction  it  met  with  an  obstinate  enemy  in 
the  power  of  Spain,  which,  however,  it  overcame  everywhere. 

When  Calvin  left  Nerac  for  Geneva  [1535]  he  found  the  town 
delivered  from  its  bishop  and  the  Dukes  of  Savoy,  but  kept  in 
the  most  violent  fermentation  by  the  plots  of  the  Mamelus  (ser- 
viles),  and  by  the  continued  insults  of  the  Confrerie  de  la  Cml- 
Icre  (Brethren  of  the  Spoon).  He  became  its  apostle  and  legis- 
lator [1541 — 1564]  offering  himself  as  mediator  between  the 
"paganism  of  Zwinglius  and  the  papistry  of  Luther."  The 
Church  of  Calvin  was  a  democracy  and  absorbed  the  State.  Cal- 
vinism, like  Catholicism,  held  a  ground  which  was  completely 
independent  of  the  temporal  power. 

The  alliance  between  Berne  and  Fribourg  enabled  the  re- 
former to  preach  from  behind  the  shelter  of  the  Swiss  lances. 
From  his  post  between  Italy,  Switzerland,  and  France,  Calvin 
shook  the  whole  of  Western  Europe.  He  had  neither  the  im- 
petuosity, nor  the  geniality,  nor  the  sense  of  humor  which  dis- 
tinguished Luther.  His  style  was  dry  and  bitter,  but  powerful, 
concise,  and  penetrating.  More  consistent  in  his  writings  than 
in  his  conduct,  he  began  by  demanding  tolerance  from  Francis  I. 
and  ended  by  burning  Servetus. 

The  Vaudois  and  all  the  clever,  restless  population  of  the 
South  of  France,  who,  in  the  middle  ages,  had  been  the  first  to 
try  to  shake  off  the  yoke  of  Rome,  were  the  first  to  rally  round 

99 


I00  MICHELET 

the  new  doctrine.  From  Geneva  and  Navarre  it  spread  to  the 
commercial  town  of  La  Rochelle,  and  thence  to  the,  at  that  time, 
learned  cities  of  the  interior — Poitiers,  Bourges,  and  Orleans; 
it  penetrated  into  the  Low  Countries  and  strengthened  the  bands 
of  Rederikers,  who  overran  the  country  declaiming  against 
abuses.  From  thence  it  crossed  the  sea  and  disturbed  the  vic- 
tory of  Henry  VIII.  over  the  P'ope;  it  mounted  the  throne  of 
England  with  Edward  VI.  [1547],  and  was  carried  into  the  wilds 
of  Scotland  by  John  Knox;  it  stopped  only  at  the  foot  of  the 
mountains,  in  which  the  Highlanders  preserved  the  faith  of  their 
ancestors  together  with  hatred  of  the  Saxon  heretics. 

In  the  beginning  the  meetings  of  the  Calvinists  were  held  in 
secret.  The  first  which  took  place  in  France  were  in  Paris,  in 
the  Rue  St  Jacques  [about  1550];  they  soon  became  frequent. 
The  scaffold  did  not  put  an  end  to  them,  it  was  such  a  happiness 
for  the  people  to  hear  the  word  of  God  in  their  own  language. 
Many  were  attracted  by  curiosity,  others  by  compassion,  some 
even  by  the  danger  itself.  In  1550  there  was  but  one  Reformed 
church  in  France;  in  1561  there  were  more  than  2,000.  Some- 
times they  assembled  in  the  open  fields  in  numbers  amounting  to 
eight  or  ten  thousand ;  the  minister  mounted  a  cart  or  the  stump 
of  a  tree;  the  people  stood  to  windward  that  they  might  hear  him 
better,  and  then  they  all,  men,  women,  and  children,  joined  in 
singing  psalms.  Those  who  had  arms  kept  watch  all  round, 
their  hands  on  their  swords.  Then  there  came  pedlers,  who 
sold  catechisms,  books,  and  pictures  against  the  bishops  and  the 
Pope.0 

They  were  not  long  satisfied  with  these  meetings.  No  less 
intolerant  than  their  persecutors,  they  tried  to  exterminate  what 
they  called  idolatry.  They  began  by  overturning  altars,  burning 
pictures,  and  demolishing  churches.  As  early  as  1561  they 
summoned  the  King  of  France  to  destroy  the  images  of  Jesus 
Christ  and  of  the  saints.^ 

These  were  the  adversaries  whom  Philip  II.  undertook  to 
fight  and  to  annihilate.  They  were  forever  crossing  his  path : 
in  England  they  prevented  his  marrying  Elizabeth  [1558];  in 
France  they  balanced  the  power  of  his  allies,  the  Guises  [1561]; 
in  the  Low  Countries  they  supported  with  their  fanaticism  the 
cause  of  public  liberty.^ 

To  the  cosmopolitan  Charles  V.  had  succeeded  in  Philip  an 
entirely  Castilian  Prince,  who  despised  every  other  language, 

a  Such,  for  example,  as  the  Cardinal  hovered   over    his    head,    blessing   him 

of  Lorraine  with  the  little  Francis  II.  and  saying,  "  This  is  my  beloved  son." 

in  a  sack  trying  to  get  his  head  out  to  "  Memoirs  of  Conde,"  vol.  ii.  656,  and 

breathe  from  time  to  time.    In  the  Low  Schiller's  "  History  of  the  Revolt  in  the 

Countries  they  sold  caricatures  of  Car-  Low  Countries,"  book  ii.  chap.  t. 

dmal  Granvelle,  Philip's  Prime   Minis-  b  "  Memoirs  of  Cond6,"   book  iii.  p* 

ten    sitting    upon   eggs   out    of    which  101. 

bishops  were  creeping,  while  the  devil  c  Especially  after  1563. 


MODERN    HISTORY  xoi 

who  held  in  abhorrence  every  belief  but  his  own,  who  wanted  to 
establish  everywhere  the  regular  Spanish  forms  of  administra- 
tion, legislation,  and  religion.  At  first  he  had  restrained  himself 
in  order  to  marry  Mary  Queen  of  England  [1555],  but  he  had 
not  deceived  the  English,  The  glass  of  beer  which  he  solemnly 
drank  on  landing,  the  sermons  of  his  confessor  on  tolerance  did 
not  procure  for  him  any  popularity.  The  scaffolds  raised  by 
his  wife  made  more  impression.  After  the  death  of  Mary 
[1558]  he  no  longer  dissimulated,  he  introduced  Spanish  troops 
into  the  Low  Countries,  maintained  the  Inquisition  there,  and 
on  his  departure  declared,  as  it  were,  war  to  all  defenders  of  the 
liberty  of  the  country  in  the  person  of  the  Prince  of  Orange.d 
Finally  he  united  with  Henri  II.  against  the  internal  enemies 
who  threatened  both  sovereigns  by  marrying  his  daughter, 
Elizabeth  of  France  [Peace  of  Chateau-Cambresis,  1559].  The 
rejoicings  at  this  ominous  peace  were  marked  by  a  fatal  inci- 
dent. A  tournament  took  place  at  the  very  foot  of  the  Bastille 
in  which  the  Protestant  Anne  Dubourg  was  awaiting  death. 
The  King  was  wounded,  and  the  marriage  was  solemnized  at 
night  during  his  last  moments.* 

Philip  II.,  on  returning  to  his  dominions,  which  he  never  left 
again,  commemorated  his  victory  of  St.  Quentin  by  building 
the  monastery  of  the  Escurial  at  the  cost  of  fifty  million  piastres. 
This  gloomy  edifice,  constructed  entirely  of  granite,  is  seen  from 
seven  leagues  off.  No  sculptures  adorn  its  walls.  Its  sole 
beauty  consists  in  the  boldness  of  the  arches.  It  is  built  in  the 
form  of  a  gridiron.^ 

At  this  period  the  Spanish  mind  had  reached  the  highest  point 
of  religious  excitement  The  rapid  progress  throughout  Europe 
of  the  heretics,  the  victory  which  by  the  Treaty  of  Augsburg 
they  had  gained  over  Charles  V.,  their  violence  against  images 
and  their  outrages  on  the  Host,  which  were  related  to  the 
frightened  Spaniards  by  orthodox  preachers,  had  produced  a 
renewal  of  fervor.  Ignatius  Loyola  had  founded  the  order  of 
Jesuits,  who  were  entirely  devoted  to  the  Holy  See  [1534 — 1540]. 
St.  Theresa  of  Jesus  reformed  the  Carmelite  nuns  and  fired  every 
soul  with  mystic  enthusiasm.  Soon  the  Carmelite  friars  and 
other  mendicant  orders  were  reformed  in  their  turn.  The  In- 
quisition was  permanently  constituted  in  1561.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  the  Moors,  Spain  became  united  as  a  single  man  in  a 
violent  fit  of  horror  of  the  miscreants  and  heretics.  Closely 
united  with  Portugal,  which  was  governed  by  the  Jesuits,  hav- 

d  The  King  on  landing  said  to  the  e  "  Memoirs  of  Vielleville,"  vol.  xxvii. 
Prince  of  Orange,  who  sheltered  him*  p.  417. 

self  behind  the  States,  "  No,  not  the  /  Instrument  of  the  martyrdom  of  St. 
States — but  you,  you,  you!  "  See  Van  Lawrence.  The  battle  of  St.  Quentin 
der  Vyncht,  was  gained  by  the  Spaniards  on  the  day 

consecrated  to  his  memory, 


102  MICHELET 

ing  the  veterans  of  Charles  V.  and  the  treasures  of  two  hemi- 
spheres at  her  disposal,  she  determined  to  force  all  Europe  to 
submit  to  her  religion  and  supremacy. 

The  Protestants,  scattered  over  the  world,  rallied  in  the  name 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  who  offered  shelter  and  protection  to  them. 
In  every  direction  she  encouraged  their  resistance  to  Philip  II. 
and  the  Catholics.  Absolute  in  their  own  dominions,  these  two 
monarchs  acted  abroad  with  all  the  violence  of  two  chiefs  of 
faction.  The  ostentatious  devotion  of  Philip,  the  chivalrous 
spirit  of  Elizabeth's  court,  were  combined  with  a  system  of  in- 
trigue and  corruption.  But  the  victory  could  not  fail  to  be 
Elizabeth's;  the  times  were  on  her  side.  She  ennobled  despot- 
ism by  the  enthusiasm  with  which  she  inspired  her  people. 
Those,  even,  whom  she  persecuted  were,  in  spite  of  everything, 
devoted  to  her.  A  Puritan,  who  was  condemned  to  have  his 
hand  struck  off,  had  scarcely  lost  it,  when  he  waved  his  hat  with 
the  other,  exclaiming  "God  save  the  Queen." 

Thirty  years  were  to  elapse  before  the  two  rivals  encountered 
each  other  face  to  face.  Their  struggle  at  first  went  on  indi- 
rectly in  Scotland,  France,  and  the  Low  Countries. 

It  did  not  last  long  in  Scotland  [1559 — 1567].  Elizabeth's 
rival,  the  fascinating  Mary  Stuart,  widow  at  the  age  of  eighteen 
of  Francis  II.,  found  herself  a  foreigner  in  the  midst  of  her  sub- 
jects, who  detested  in  her  the  Guises,  her  uncles,  the  chiefs  of  the 
Catholic  party  in  France.  Her  barons,  supported  by  England, 
united  with  her  husband,  Lord  Darnley,  and  assassinated  under 
her  eyes  her  favorite,  an  Italian  musician.  Soon  afterwards  the 
house  in  which  Darnley  lay  sick  near  Holyrood  was  blown  up : 
he  was  buried  under  its  ruins,  and  Mary  was  carried  off  and  mar- 
ried by  Lord  Bothwell,  the  principal  author  of  the  crime,  either 
with  her  own  consent  or  in  spite  of  it.  The  Queen  and  the 
barons  accused  each  other  with  mutual  recrimination.  But  Mary 
proved  the  weaker  party  of  the  two.  She  could  find  no  refuge 
except  in  the  dominions  of  her  mortal  enemy  Elizabeth,  who 
kept  her  a  prisoner,  gave  the  guardianship  of  her  little  son  to 
whomsoever  she  pleased,  reigned  over  Scotland  in  his  name,  and 
henceforth  was  able  to  dispute  with  Philip  II.  on  more  equal 
terms. 

It  was  especially  in  France  and  the  Netherlands  that  Elizabeth 
and  Philip  carried  on  their  secret  war.  In  these  two  countries  the 
soul  of  the  Protestant  party  was  William  the  Silent,  Prince  of 
Orange,  and  his  father-in-law,  Admiral  Coligni,  both  of  them 
unfortunate  as  generals,  but  profound  statesmen,  men  of  stub- 
born and  sombre  genius,  animated  by  the  democratic  instincts 
of  Calvinism  in  spite  of  the  blood  of  Nassau  and  Montmorency. 
Colonel-General  of  Infantry  under  Henri  II.,  Coligni  rallied 
round  him  all  the  lesser  nobles.  He  gave  a  republican  organ- 


MODERN    HISTORY  103 

ization  to  La  Rochelle,  while  the  Prince  of  Orange  encouraged 
the  Confederacy  of  the  Beggars  (gueux)  and  laid  the  foundation 
of  a  more  durable  republic. 

The  great  Guise  and  his  brother,  the  Cardinal  of  Lorraine,^ 
governed  France  under  Francis  II.,  the  husband  of  their  niece, 
Mary  Stuart  [1560].  Guise  had  been  the  idol  of  the  people  ever 
since  he  had  taken  Calais  in  eight  days  from  the  English.  But 
he  found  the  finances  of  France  in  utter  disorder.  He  was 
forced  to  take  back  the  alienated  estates  and  to  suppress  the  tax 
for  the  maintenance  of  50,000  men — that  is,  to  disarm  the  gov- 
ernment at  the  moment  when  the  revolution  burst  out.  Thou- 
sands of  petitioners  thronged  Fontainebleu,  and  the  Cardinal  of 
Lorraine,  not  knowing  what  answer  to  give  them,  posted  up  an- 
nouncements that  all  who  had  not  left  the  town  in  twenty-four 
hours  should  be  hanged. 

The  Bourbons,  Antoine  King  of  Navarre  and  Louis  Prince 
of  Conde,  who  did  not  like  seeing  the  management  of  public 
affairs  in  the  hands  of  two  cadets  of  the  house  of  Lorraine,  prof- 
ited by  the  general  discontent.  They  united  with  the  Calvinists, 
with  Coligni,  and  the  English,  who  came  to  negotiate  with  them 
after  nightfall,  at  St.  Denis.  The  Protestants  marched  under 
arms  towards  Amboise  to  take  possession  of  the  King's  person. 
But  they  were  denounced  to  the  Guises,  and  massacred  on  the 
road.  Some  of  them  who  had  been  reserved  for  execution  in 
the  presence  of  the  King  and  the  whole  Court,  dipped  their 
hands  in  the  blood  of  their  already  beheaded  brothers,  and 
raised  them  to  Heaven,  crying  against  those  who  had  betrayed 
them.  This  funereal  scene  appeared  to  bring  misfortune  to  all 
who  witnessed  it,  to  Francis  II.,  to  Mary  Stuart,  to  Guise,  and  to 
the  Chancellor  Olivier,  who,  though  a  Protestant  at  heart,  had 
condemned  them,  and  who  died  of  remorse.^ 

On  the  accession  of  the  little  Charles  IX.,  in  1651,  the  sover- 
eign power  devolved  upon  his  mother,  Catherine  of  Medicis,  but 
she  was  incapable  of  retaining  possession  of  it;  she  only  with- 
held it  for  a  time  from  the  Guises,  the  chiefs  of  the  Catholic  party, 
and  during  this  interval  the  government  remained  suspended 
between  the  two  parties.  It  was  not  for  an  Italian  woman,  with 
the  old  Borgian  policy,  to  hold  the  balance  between  the  deter- 
mined men  who  despised  her:  she  was  not  worthy  of  this  age  of 
conviction,  nor  was  the  age  itself  worthy  of  the  Chancellor 
L'H6pital,i  that  noble  image  of  cool  wisdom,  but  a  wisdom  pow- 
erless against  passion.  Guise  once  more,  as  chief  of  his  party, 
seized  the  power  which  he  had  lost.  The  Court  furnished  him 


pard  de          h  Vielleville,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  425. 
the  ad-          t  The  Chancellor  de  L'Hopital,  "  who 
II.   by       carried    the   fleur-de-lis    in   his   heart," 


g  See  the    "  Memoirs  of  Gaspard  de 
Tavannes  "  for  a  comparison  of  the  r  "" 

vantages  obtained  from   Henri   II.    _         „_ 

the  rival    houses    of   Guise  and  Mont-       See  L'Etoile,  vol.  xlv.  p.  57. 
morency,  vol.  xxiii.  p.  410. 


104  MICHELET- 

with  a  pretext,  by  issuing  the  moderate  decrees  of  St.  Germain 
and  of  January,  and  by  admitting  the  Huguenot  preachers  to 
share  in  a  solemn  discussion  in  the  conference  of  Poissy.  While 
the  Calvinists  were  rising  at  Nimes,  the  Duke  of  Guise  was  pass- 
ing through  Vassy  in  Champagne.  His  followers  quarrelled 
with  some  Huguenots,  who  were  celebrating  divine  service,  and 
massacred  them  [1562],  Civil  war  began.  "Csesar,"  said  the 
Prince  of  Conde,  "has  crossed  the  Rubicon." 

At  the  outset  of  this  terrible  struggle  neither  party  hesitated 
to  invoke  foreign  aid.;  The  old  political  barriers  which  sepa- 
rated nations  fell  before  the  interests  of  religion.  The  Protest- 
ants asked  their  brothers  in  Germany  for  help,  they  gave  up 
Havre  to  the  English,  while  the  Guises  entered  into  a  vast  com- 
bination, formed,  it  was  said,  by  the  King  of  Spain,  to  crush 
Geneva  and  Navarre,  the  two  strongholds  of  heresy;  to  exter- 
minate the  Calvinists  in  France,  and  afterwards  subdue  the 
Lutherans  in  the  empire.^  The  two  parties  assembled  in  every 
direction,  both  animated  by  fierce  enthusiasm.  In  these  first 
armies  there  were  neither  games  of  chance,  nor  blasphemy,  nor 
debauchery;  united  prayer  took  place  morning  and  evening.' 
But  hearts  were  just  as  hard  under  this  holy  exterior,  Montluc 
Governor  of  Guienne  travelled  all  over  his  province  with  execu- 
tioners. "One  could  tell,"  he  says  of  himself,  "which  way  he 
had  passed,  for  the  signs  might  be  seen  on  the  trees  and  roads."™ 
In  Dauphine,  a  Protestant,  the  Baron  des  Adrets,  precipitated 
his  prisoners  from  the  top  of  a  tower  on  to  the  pikes  of  their 
enemies. 

At  first  Guise  was  victorious  at  Dreux;«  he  took  Conde,  the 
Protestant  general,  prisoner,  shared  his  bed  with  him,  and  slept 
soundly  by  the  side  of  his  deadly  enemy.  Orleans,  the  chief 
stronghold  of  the  Huguenots,  was  saved  only  by  the  assassina- 
tion of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  who  was  wounded  by  a  Protestant 
with  a  pistol-shot  from  behind  [1563]. 

The  Queen-mother  having  thus  got  rid  of  a  master,  treated 
with  the  Protestants  [at  Amboise,  1563],  and  found  herself 
obliged  by  the  indignation  of  the  Catholics  to  violate  in  succes- 
sion every  article  in  the  treaty.  Conde  and  Coligni  tried  in  vain 
to  obtain  possession  of  the  young  King;  they  were  defeated  at 
St.  Denis,  but  were  still  powerful  enough  to  dictate  to  the  Court 
the  peace  of  Longjumeau  [1568],  which  was  nicknamed  "boiteusc 
et  mal  assise"  (lame  and  inconclusive);  and  which  confirmed 

«4-ta  rNo?e'    vol>    xx*iv.    P-     123-137.  might  require  them    ....    with   10, 

The  foreigners  opened  thejr  eyes  m  so,  or  30  of  their  friends,  bearing  their 

astonishment,     and     longed     to     enter  arms  concealed,  and  lodging  in  inns  or 

jfn«C£r        •         r   ^     j'»         i     ...  in  the  open  fields,  paying  well." 

k     Memoirs  of   Conde,"    vol.   iii.   p.  m  Montluc,  vol.  xx. 

ax?V     XT             .          .                    <.  _,  nSee  in  the    "Memoirs   of  CondeV' 

J5f       Kie'  1JI;aaa5rV*-  MS'     -Most  5?1'  iv'»  the  acco«nts  of  the  battle  of 

of  the  nobles  determined  on  coming  to  Dreux,  attributed  to  Coligni,  p.  176,  and 

Pans,    imagining    that    their    patrons  to  Fr^ois  de  Guise,  p.  $88, 


MODERN    HISTORY  105 

that  of  Amboise.  An  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  Court  to  seize 
the  two  chiefs  led  to  a  third  war.  With  the  Chancellor  L'Hop- 
ital,  the  councils  of  the  King  lost  all  moderation ;  the  Protestants 
made  La  Rochelle  their  stronghold  instead  of  Orleans;  they 
taxed  themselves  to  pay  their  German  auxiliaries,  who  were  be- 
ing brought  to  them  across  France  by  the  Duke  of  Zweibriicken 
and  the  Prince  of  Orange.  In  spite  of  their  defeat  at  Jarnac 
and  at  Montcontour  [1569],  notwithstanding  the  death  of  Conde 
and  the  wound  of  Coligni,  the  Court  was  forced  to  grant  them  a 
third  peace  [St.  Germain,  1570].  They  were  to  be  free  to  exer- 
cise their  religion  in  two  towns  in  every  province;  they  were 
allowed  to  keep  as  fortresses  La  Rochelle,  Montaubon,  Cognac, 
and  La  Charite.  The  young  King  of  Navarre  was  to  marry  the 
sister  of  Charles  IX.  (Marguerite  de  Valois).  Coligni  was  even 
allowed  to  hope  for  the  command  of  the  contingent  which,  it  was 
said,  the  King  was  to  send  to  help  the  Huguenots  in  the  Low 
Countries.  The  Catholics  were  indignant  with  such  a  humiliat- 
ing treaty  after  four  victories;  the  Protestants  themselves  could 
scarcely  credit  it,  and  accepted  it  only  from  lassitude^  and  the 
far-seeing  expected  some  frightful  catastrophe  to  ensue  from 
this  hostile  peace. 

In  the  Low  Countries  the  situation  was  no  less  alarming. 
Philip  II.  was  incapable  of  understanding  either  liberty,  or  the 
Northern  character,  or  commercial  interest.  All  his  subjects, 
Belgians  and  Batavians,  turned  against  him;  the  Calvinists,  who 
were  persecuted  by  the  Inquisition;  the  nobles,  henceforth  with- 
out the  hope  of  re-establishing  their  fortunes,  which  had  been 
ruined  in  the  service  of  Charles  V. ;  the  clergy,  who  dreaded  the 
reforms  ordered  by  the  Council  of  Trent,  and  the  endowment  of 
new  bishoprics  at  their  expense;  and,  lastly,  all  good  citizens, 
who  beheld  with  indignation  the  introduction  of  Spanish  troops, 
and  the  destruction  of  the  old  liberties  of  the  country.  At  first 
the  opposition  of  the  Flarnands  forced  the  King  to  recall  his  old 
minister,  Cardinal  Granvelle  [1563];  the  highest  nobility  formed 
the  Confederation  of  the  Beggars  (gueux),  and  hung  round  their 
necks  wooden  bowls,  as  a  sign  of  their  union  with  the  people 
[1566].  The  Calvinists  lifted  up  their  heads  in  every  direction, 
printed  more  than  5,000  books  against  the  ancient  Faith,  and  in 
the  provinces  of  Brabant  and  Flanders  alone  pillaged  and  dese- 
crated 400  churches./' 

These  last  excesses  caused  the  measure  to  overflow.  The 
cruel  mind  of  Philip  II.  was  already  hatching  the  most  sinister 
projects;  he  determined  to  pursue  and  to  exterminate  these  terri- 

o  "  The  admiral  said  that  he  would          p  Schiller,  vol.  i.  p«  253,  and  the  be- 
rather  die  than  fall  again  into  such  con-       ginning  of  vol.  ii, 
fusion,  and  see  such  horrors  committed 
before  his  eyes."   La  NoueT  vol.  xxxiv, 
p,  s$jo. 


io6  MICHELET 

ble  enemies  whom  he  encountered  everywhere,  even  in  his  own 
family.  He  included  in  the  same  detestation  both  the  legal  op- 
position of  the  Flemish  nobles,  the  iconoclast  fury  of  the  Calvin- 
ists,  and  the  obstinate  attachment  of  the  poor  Moors  to  the  re- 
ligion, language,  and  costume  of  their  fathers.  But  he  would 
not  act  without  the  sanction  of  the  Church :  he  obtained  from  the 
Inquisition  a  secret  condemnation  of  his  rebels  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tries #  he  even  interrogated  the  most  celebrated  doctors,  among 
others  Oraduy,  professor  of  theology  at  the  University  of  Alcala, 
on  the  measures  he  ought  to  take  with  regard  to  the  Moors. 
Oraduy  replied  with  the  proverb:  "The  fewer  enemies  the  bet- 
ter.'V  The  King,  confirmed  in  his  project  of  vengeance,  swore 
to  give  such  an  example  in  the  persons  of  his  enemies  as  "should 
make  the  ears  of  Christendom  tingle,  even  though  he  should  en- 
danger all  his  dominions."'* 

The  sanguinary  counsels  which  the  court  of  Philip  had  given 
to  France  through  the  Duke  of  Alva,*  he  now  began  to  follow 
without  any  distinction  of  person,  and  with  an  atrocious  inflexi- 
bility. His  son,  Don  Carlos,  talked  of  going  to  place  himself  at 
the  head  of  the  rebels  in  the  Low  Countries;  Philip  caused  the 
physicians  to  hasten  his  death  [1568].  He  established  the  In- 
quisition in  America  [1570].  He  disarmed  on  the  same  day  all 
the  Moors  in  Valencia,  forbade  those  in  Granada  to  use  the  Arab 
language  and  costume,  prohibited  the  bath,  the  Zambras,  the 
Leilas,  and  even  the  green  branches  with  which  these  unhappy 
people  covered  their  tombs ;  while  their  children  above  the  age 
of  five  were  forced  into  schools  to  learn  the  Castilian  language 
and  religion  [1563 — 1568],  At  the  same  time  the  sanguinary 
Duke  of  Alva  marched  from  Italy  into  Flanders  at  the  head  of  an 
army  as  fanatical  as  Spain,  and  as  corrupt  as  Italy .u  On  hear- 
ing of  this  march,  the  Swiss  armed  to  protect  Geneva.  One 
hundred  thousand  persons  imitated  the  Prince  of  Orange,  in 
flying  from  the  Low  Countries.^  On  his  arrival  the  Duke  of 
Alva  established  the  Council  of  Troubles — the  Council  of  Blood, 
as  the  Belgians  called  it — which  was  partly  composed  of  Span- 
iards [1567].  All  who  refused  to  abjure,  all  who  had  been  pres- 
ent at  the  Huguenot  services — even  though  they  were  Catholics 
— all  who  had  tolerated  them,  were  equally  put  to  death.  The 
"gueux"  or  beggars,  as  the  leaders  of  the  resistance  to  Philip's 
despotism  called  themselves,  were  punished  as  severely  as  the 
heretics ;  those  even  who  had  only  solicited  the  recall  of  Gran- 

gMeteren,  fol.  54.  Queen  mother,  Catherine  de'  Medicis, 

r  Ferrera,  vol.  ix.  p.  525.  that  the  head  of  one  salmon  was  worth 

s  Letter  from  the  Spanish  Envoy  in  more  than  the  heads  of  100  frogs. 

Paris,  addressed  to  the  Duchess  of  Par-  u  See  the  details  in  Meteren,  book  iii. 

ma,  regent  of  the  Low  Countries,  quot-  p.  52. 

ed  by  Schiller  in  his  2d  vol.  v"  We  have  done  nothing,"  said 

t  Interview  at  Bayonne,  1566.  The  Granveile,  "  since  the  Silent  One  has 

Duke  of  Alva  was  heard  to  say  to  the  been  allowed  to  escape." 


MODERN    HISTORY  107 

velle  were  sought  out  and  punished.  Count  Egmont,  whose 
victories  at  St.  Quentin  and  Grayelines  had  thrown  a  lustre  over 
the  beginning  of  the  reign  of  Philip  II.,  the  people's  idol  and  one 
of  the  most  loyal  servants  of  the  Crown,  perished  on  the  scaffold. 
The  efforts  of  the  Protestants  of  Germany  and  France,  who  fur- 
nished Louis  of  Nassau,  a  brother  of  the  Prince  of  Orange,  with 
an  army,  were  baffled  by  the  Duke  of  Alva,  and  to  insult  his  vic- 
tims the  more  he  set  up  in  his  citadel  of  Antwerp  a  bronze  statue 
of  himself,  trampling  slaves  under  foot,  and  threatening  the 
town. 

The  same  barbarity  and  the  same  success  attended  Philip  in 
Spain;  he  seized  with  joy  the  opportunity  given  by  the  revolt  of 
the  Moors  to  overpower  that  unhappy  people.  While  he  turned 
his  forces  against  foreigners  he  would  not  leave  any  resistance 
behind  him.  The  rigor  of  oppression  had  restored  some  cour- 
age to  the  Moors.  A  carmine  merchant  belonging  to  the  fam- 
ily of  the  Abencerrages  combined  with  others ;  thick  clouds  of 
smoke  rose  up  from  mountain  to  mountain;  the  red  flag  was 
raised;  even  the  women  armed  themselves  with  long  packing 
needles  to  pierce  the  bellies  of  the  horses;  everywhere  the  priests 
were  massacred.  But  soon  the  Spanish  veterans  arrived.  The 
Moors  received  some  feeble  assistance  from  Algiers,  they  im- 
plored in  vain  for  that  of  the  Sultan  Selim.  Old  men,  children, 
and  supplicating  women  were  massacred  without  mercy.  The 
King  ordered  that  all  above  the  age  of  ten  who  remained  should 
become  slaves  [1571].^ 

The  weak  and  shameful  government  of  France  did  not  choose 
to  be  behindhand.  The  exasperation  of  the  Catholics  had 
reached  its  highest  pitch,  when  on  the  marriage  of  the  King  of 
Navarre  to  Marguerite  of  Valois,  they  beheld  among  them 
those  serious  determined  men  whom  they  had  often  met  upon 
the  battlefield,  and  whose  presence  here  they  look  on  as  a  per- 
sonal disgrace.  They  counted  their  own  numbers,  and  began 
to  throw  sinister  glances  on  their  enemies.  Without  giving  the 
Queen-mother  or  her  sons  the  credit  of  so  deeply  laid  a  plan  and 
such  profound  dissimulation,  we  may  believe  that  the  possibility 
of  such  an  event  as  followed  had  had  some  weight  in  bringing 
about  the  peace  of  St.  Germain.  Such  a  daring  crime,  however, 
would  have  been  too  much  for  their  resolution  if  they  had  not 
feared  for  an  instant  the  influence  of  Coligni  over  the  young 
Charles  IX.  The  King's  mother  and  his  brother,  the  Duke  of 
Anjou,  whom  he  had  begun  to  threaten,  recovered  by  means  of 
intimidation  their  influence  over  a  mind  feeble,  capricious,  and 
verging  on  the  brink  of  madness,  and  made  him  resolve  upon 
the  massacre  of  the  Huguenots,  as  easily  as  he  would  have  or- 
dered that  of  the  principal  Catholics. 

w  Ferrera,  vols.  ix,   and  x.    Cabrera,  1619,  pp.  465-661,  passim. 


io8  MICHELET 

On  August  24,  1572,  about  two  or  three  in  the  morning,  the 
bell  of  St.  Germain  1'Auxerrois  tolled,  and  young  Henry  of 
Guise,  thinking  to  avenge  the  death  of  his  father,  began  the 
massacre  by  murdering  Coligni.  Then  there  was  but  one  cry 
heard:  "Kill!  Kill!"  Most  of  the  Protestants  were  surprised  in 
their  beds.  A  gentleman  was  pursued  with  halberds  into  the 
room  and  even  to  the  bedside  of  the  Queen  of  Navarre.  One 
Catholic  boasted  of  having  ransomed  from  the  massacrcurs 
more  than  thirty  Huguenots  in  order  to  torture  them  at  leisure. 
Charles  IX.  sent  for  his  brother-in-law  and  the  Prince  of  Conde, 
and  said  to  them :  "The  mass  or  death !"  It  is  asserted  that  from 
one  of  the  windows  of  the  Louvre  he  fired  upon  the  Huguenots 
who  were  flying  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  river.  On  the  next 
day  a  thorn  having  flowered  in  the  Cemetery  of  the  Innocents, 
this  pretended  miracle  revived  the  spirit  of  fanaticism,  and  the 
massacre  was  renewed.  The  King,  Queen-mother,  and  the 
whole  Court  went  to  Monfaucon  to  see  the  remains  of  the  Ad- 
miral's body.*  L'Hopital  must  be  added  to  the  victims  of  St. 
Bartholomew;  when  he  heard  the  execrable  news,  he  ordered  his 
doors  to  be  opened  to  the  massacreurs;  and  he  survived  it  only 
six  months,  during  which  he  repeated  constantly:  "Excidat  ilia 
dies  avof'y 

One  fact,  as  horrible  as  the  massacre  itself,  was  the  rejoicing 
which  it  excited.  Medals  were  struck  in  its  honor  at  Rome,  and 
Philip  II.  congratulated  the  Court  of  France.  He  thought  that 
Protestantism  was  conquered.  He  associated  the  day  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  and  the  massacres  ordered  by  the  Duke  of  Alva, 
with  the  glorious  victory  of  Lepanto,  in  which  the  fleets  of  Spain, 
of  the  Pope,  and  of  Venice,  commanded  by  Don  John,  of  Aus- 

x  De  Thou,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  233,  we  knew  not  in  what  direction  or  if  any 
y  Collection  des  MSmoires,"  vol.  one  was  hurt.  Well  I  know  that  the 
xxxvii.,  "  Marguerite  de  Valois/'  49"59»  sound  struck  us  all  three  so  sharply 
and  de  Thou,  230-3;  xxxv.  "  Report  of  that  it  affected  our  senses  and  the  calnv 
the  Marechal  de  Tavannes  to  the  King  ness  of  our  judgment.  We  were  all 
on  the  affairs  of  his  kingdom  after  the  seized  with  terror  and  apprehension  of 
peace  of  St  Germain ;  xlv.  "  1'Etoile,"  the  great  disorders  which  were  then 
73-8;  ist  vol.  of  the  ad  series.  Sully,  about  to  be  committed,  and  to  obviate 
325-246;  see  especially  in  vol.  xliv.  of  the  them  we  sent  suddenly,  and  in  all  dili- 
first  senes  of  the  speech  of  King  Henri  gence,  a  messenger  to  M.  de  Guise  to 
III.  to  a  person  of  honor  and  quality  tell  and  expressly  command  him  on  our 
(Miron,  his  physician),  who  was  with  part  to  return  to  his  lodgings,  and  that 
his  master  at  Cracow,  on  the  causes  and  he  should  take  care  to  do  nothing 
motives  of  the  Massacre  of  St.  Barthoio-  against  the  admiral ;  this  one  command 
mew,  496-510:—  should  have  stopped  all  the  rest.  But 
"  Now,  after  having  rested  only  two  soon  after  the  messenger  returned  and 
hours  in  the  night,  as  soon  as  the  day  told  us  that  M.  de  Guise  had  answered 
began  to  break,  the  King,  the  Queen  him  that  the  command  had  come  too 
my  mother,  and  I  went  to  the  portico  late,  that  the  admiral  was  dead,  and 
of  the  Louvre,  joining-  the  tennis-court,  that  the  execution  was  beginning  all 
and  a  room  which  looks  into  the  lower  over  the  town.  Therefore  we  returned 
courtyard,  to  see  the  beginning  of  the  to  our  first  intentions,  and  soon  after- 
execution.  We  had  not  been  there  wards  we  allowed  the  undertaking  and 
long,  and  were  considering  the  event  the  execution  to  take  its  course.  This, 
and  consequences  of  this  great  under-  sir,  is  the  true  history  of  the  St.  Bar- 
taking,  which,  to  tell  the  truth,  we  had  tholomew,  of  which  the  hearing  hath 
not  until  now  thought  much  about,  troubled  me  much  this  night,'* 
when  we  suddenly  heard  a  pistol-shot; 


MODERN    HISTORY  109 

tria,  the  natural  son  of  Charles  V.,  had  in  the  preceding  year  an- 
nihilated the  Ottoman  fleet.  The  Turks  vanquished  at  sea,  the 
Moors  reduced,  the  heretics  exterminated  in  France  and  the 
Netherlands,  seemed  to  open  to  the  King  of  Spain  the  road  to 
that  universal  monarchy  to  which  his  father  had  aspired  in  vain. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  POWERS  AFTER  THE  RELIGIOUS  WAR. 

CONTINUATION  TO  THE  DEATH  OF  HENRI  IV.,  1572—1610. 

Section  I. — To  the  Peace  of  Vervins,  1572 — 1598. 

King  Charles,  hearing,  on  the  evening  of  the  same  day  and 
all  the  next,  stones  of  the  murders  of  old  men,  women,  and  chil- 
dren which  had  been  committed,  drew  aside  Master  Ambroise 
Pare,  his  first  surgeon,  whom  he  loved  greatly,  although  he  was 
of  the  religion  (that  is  a  Huguenot),  and  said  to  him:  "Ambroise, 
I  know  not  what  has  ailed  me  the  last  two  or  three  days,  but  I 
feel  much  shaken  both  in  mind  and  body,  just  as  if  I  had  a  fever, 
for  it  seems  every  moment,  whether  I  am  waking  or  sleeping, 
that  those  massacred  bodies  are  lifting  up  to  me  their  hideous 
faces  all  covered  with  blood.  I  wish  that  they  had  spared  the 
helpless  and  innocent.''^  He  languished  from  that  time,  and 
eighteen  months  afterwards  was  carried  off  by  a  bloody  flux 

[1574]. 

The  crime  had  been  fruitless.  In  many  towns  the  governors 
refused  to  carry  it  into  effect.  The  Calvinists  threw  themselves 
into  La  Rochelle,  Sancerre,  and  other  fortresses  in  the  South, 
and  defended  themselves  desperately.  The  horror  inspired  by 
the  St.  Bartholomew  gave  them  auxiliaries  by  creating  among 
the  Catholics  a  moderate  party,  the  "Politiques,"  as  they  were 
called.  The  new  King,  Henri  III.,  who  came  back  from  Poland 
to  succeed  his  brother,  was  known  as  one  of  the  authors  of  the 
massacre.  His  own  brother,  the  Duke  of  Alengon,  escaped 
from  the  Court  with  the  young  King  of  Navarre,  and  thus  united 
the  Politiques  and  the  Calvinists. 

In  the  Netherlands  the  tyranny  of  the  Duke  of  Alva  had  met 
with  no  better  success.  As  long  as  he  was  satisfied  with  setting 
up  scaffolds  the  people  were  quiet,  and  saw  the  heads  of  the  most 
illustrious  nobles  fall  without  repugnance.  There  was  but  one 
way  of  inspiring  with  equal  disgust  the  Catholics  and  the  Pro- 
testants, the  nobles  and  the  citizens,  the  Netherlanders  of  North 
and  South,  and  this  was  the  establishment  of  vexatious  taxes, 
and  leaving  the  troops  unpaid  to  prey  upon  the  inhabitants. 

a  Sully,  ist  vol.  of  the  "  Collection  of  Memoirs,"  ^d  series,  p.  245. 
110 


MODERN    HISTORY  in 

The  Duke  of  Alva  did  both.  The  tithe  tax,  which  was  levied 
on  provisions,  caused  the  agents  of  Spanish  taxation  to  interfere 
in  the  most  petty  sales,  in  the  market  and  in  the  shops.  Innu- 
merable fines  and  continual  vexations  irritated  the  whole  popu- 
lation. While  the  shops  were  being  closed  and  the  Duke  of 
Alva  was  hanging  the  shopkeepers  Tor  closing  them,  the  sea- 
beggars  (such  was  the  name  given  to  the  fugitives  who  lived  by 
piracy),  driven  from  the  ports  of  England  by  the  remonstrances 
of  Philip  II.,  took  possession  of  the  fortress  of  Brill  in  Holland 
[1572],  and  opened  the  war  in  that  country,  which  is  intersected 
by  arms  of  the  sea,  by  rivers  and  canals.  Many  towns  drove 
out  the  Spaniards.  Perhaps  there  might  yet  have  been  some 
means  of  pacification,  but  the  Duke  of  Alva  announced  to  the 
first  towns  which  surrendered  that  they  were  to  hope  neither  for 
good  faith  nor  clemency.  At  Rotterdam,  Mechlin,  Zutphen,  and 
Naerden  capitulations  were  violated,  and  the  inhabitants  massa- 
cred. Haarlem,  knowing  what  to  expect,  broke  the  sea-dykes, 
and  sent  ten  Spanish  heads  to  pay  their  tithes.  After  a  memora- 
ble resistance,  the  town  obtained  forgiveness,  and  the  Duke  of 
Alva  included  the  sick  and  wounded  in  the  general  massacre. 
Even  the  Spanish  soldiers  had  some  remorse  for  this  want  of 
faith,  and  to  expiate  it  they  devoted  part  of  the  spoil  to  building 
a  house  for  the  Jesuits  at  Brussels. 

Under  the  successors  of  the  Duke  of  Alva,  the  license  of  the 
Spanish  troops  who  pillaged  Antwerp  forced  the  Walloon  prov- 
inces of  the  Southern  Netherlands  to  rise  up  in  conjunction  with 
those  of  the  North  [1576];  but  this  alliance  could  not  last.  The 
revolution  acquired  solid  strength  and  concentration  in  the 
North  by  means  of  the  Union  of  Utrecht,  which  was  the  founda- 
tion of  the  Republic  of  the  United  Provinces  [1579]-  The  intol- 
erance of  the  Protestants  drove  the  Southern  provinces  back 
under  the  yoke  of  Spain.  The  population  of  the  Northern  Neth- 
erlands, which  was  thoroughly  Protestant  and  German  both  in 
character  and  language,  and  entirely  composed  of  citizens  ad- 
dicted to  maritime  commerce,  attracted  all  the  analogous  ele- 
ments in  the  Southern  provinces;  the  Spaniards  might  recover 
the  towns  and  territory  of  the  Southern  Netherlands,  but  the 
most  industrious  portion  of  the  people  escaped  them. 

The  insurgents  offered  successively  to  submit  to  the  German 
branch  of  the  house  of  Austria,  to  France,  and  to  England.  The 
Archduke  Matthias  gave  them  no  assistance.  Don  John,  the 
brother  and  general  of  Philip  II. ;  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  brother 
of  Henri  III. ;  Leicester,  Elizabeth's  favorite;  one  after  the  other, 
wanted  to  be  sovereigns  of  the  Low  Countries,  and  proved 
themselves  to  be  all  equally  perfidious  [1577,  1582,  1587].  At 
length  the  United  Provinces,  considered  as  a  prey  by  all  to 
whom  they  applied,  determined,  as  they  could  find  no  king,  to 


112 


MICHELET 


remain  a  republic.  The  genius  of  this  new-born  State  was  the 
Prince  of  Orange,  who  abandoning  the  Southern  provinces  to 
the  invincible  Duke  of  Parma,  maintained  the  struggle  by 
statesmanship,  until  a  fanatic,  armed  by  Spain,  assassinated  him 
in  1584. 

While  Philip  was  losing  half  of  the  Netherlands  he  was  gain- 
ing Portugal.  The  young  King  Don  Sebastian  had  thrown 
himself  on  the  coast  of  Africa  with  10,000  men,  in  the  vain  hope 
of  conquering  it  and  penetrating  to  India.  In  the  time  of  the 
Crusades  he  would  have  been  a  hero ;  in  the  sixteenth  century 
he  was  only  an  adventurer.  His  uncle,  Cardinal  Don  Henry, 
who  succeeded  him,  died  soon  afterwards,  and  Philip  II.  seized 
Portugal  in  the  teeth  of  France  and  of  the  Portuguese  them- 
selves [1580]. 

In  France  everything  was  playing  into  his  hands.  The  vacil- 
lation of  Henri  III.  and  that  of  the  Duke  of  Alengon,  who  placed 
himself  at  the  head  of  the  Protestants  in  France  and  afterwards 
of  the  Low  Countries,  had  decided  the  Catholic  party  on  seeking 
for  a  head  outside  of  the  royal  family.  By  the  treaty  of  1576 
the  King  granted  to  the  Calvinists  the  liberty  of  exercising  their 
religion  throughout  the  kingdom  with  the  exception  of  Paris ; 
he  allowed  them  to  share  a  chamber  with  the  Catholics  in  every 
Parliament,  and  gave  them  several  fortified  towns  (Angouleme, 
Niort,  La  Charite,  Bourges,  Sautnur,  and  Mezieres)  in  which 
they  might  keep  a  garrison  paid  by  the  King.  This  treaty 
brought  about  the  formation  of  the  League  [1577].  Its  mem- 
bers swore  to  defend  religion,  to  restore  to  the  provinces  the 
same  rights,  franchises,  and  liberties  which  they  enjoyed  in  the 
time  of  Clovis,  to  take  measures  against  all  who  might  persecute 
the  League  without  a  single  exception,  that  so  they  might  render 
prompt  obedience  and  faithful  service  to  the  chief  whom  they 
should  nominated  The  King  thought  that  he  should  be  master 
of  the  association  by  appointing  himself  its  chief.  He  began  to 
suspect  the  designs  of  the  Duke  of  Guise;  in  the  papers  of  a  law- 
yer who  died  at  Lyons  on  his  way  from  Rome,  a  document  had 
been  found  which  said  that  the  descendants  of  Hugh  Capet  had 
reigned  till  then  illegitimately,  and  by  means  of  an  usurpation 
which  was  accursed  of  God;  and  that  the  throne  belonged  to  the 
Princes  of  Lbrraine,  of  whom  the  Guises  were  a  part,  as  the  real 
posterity  of  Charlemagne.  The  death  of  the  King's  brother  en- 
couraged these  pretensions  [1584].  Henri  III.,  having  no  chil- 
dren, and  the  majority  of  the  Catholics  rejecting  the  sovereignty 
of  the  heretical  Prince  on  whom  the  crown  would  devolve  at  his 
death,  the  Duke  of  Guise  and  the  King  of  Spain,  Henri's 
brother-in-law,  united  to  dethrone  the  King,  leaving  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  spoil  a  future  subject  of  dispute.  It  was  only 

6  First    vol.    of    the    "  Collection    of    Memoirs,"  2d  series,  p.  66. 


MODERN    HISTORY  113 

too  easy  for  them  to  make  him  detested.  The  reverses  of  his 
armies  were  attributed  to  treachery;  the  feeble  Prince  was  at  the 
same  time  beaten  by  the  Protestants  and  accused  by  the  Cath- 
olics. The  victory  of  Coutras,  in  which  the  King  of  Navarre 
distinguished  himself  by  his  valor  and  by  his  clemency  to  the 
vanquished  [1587],  put  the  finishing  stroke  to  the  irritation  of 
the  Catholics.  While  the  League  was  being  organized  in  the 
capital,  Henri  III.,  divided  between  the  cares  of  a  monastic  devo- 
tion and  the  excesses  of  a  disgusting  debauchery,  exhibited  to  the 
whole  of  Paris  his  scandalous  prodigality  and  his  childish  tastes. 
He  spent  1,200,000  francs  on  the  marriage  of  his  favorite  Joy- 
euse,  and  had  not  money  enough  to  pay  a  messenger  to  send  to 
the  Duke  of  Guise  a  letter  on  which  the  safety  of  his  kingdom 
depended.  He  passed  his  time  in  arranging  his  Queen's  ruff 
and  curling  his  own  hair.  He  caused  himself  to  be  nominated 
prior  of  the  brotherhood  of  White  Penitents.  "In  the  begin- 
ning of  November  the  King  posted  on  all  the  churches  of  Paris, 
and  on  the  oratories,  otherwise  called  the  'paradis,'  whither  he 
went  every  day  to  distribute  alms  and  to  pray  with  great  devout- 
ness,  an  announcement  that  he  was  about  to  leave  off  the  shirts 
with  large  plaits,  in  which  he  had  formerly  been  so  curious,  in 
order  to  adopt  those  with  the  collar  turned  back  in  the  Italian 
fashion.  He  generally  went  in  a  coach  with  the  Queen,  his  wife, 
all  over  the  streets  of  Paris,  taking  with  him  little  lapdogs,  and 
having  the  grammar  read  to  him  while  he  learnt  the  declen- 
sions.'^ 

In  this  way  the  crisis  became  imminent  in  France  and  through- 
out the  West  [1585 — 1588].  It  seemed  likely  to  be  favorable  to 
Spain;  the  seizure  of  Antwerp  by  the  Prince  of  Parma,  the  most 
memorable  feat  of  arms  in  the  sixteenth  century,  completed  the 
reduction  of  the  Southern  Netherlands  [1585],  The  King  of 
France  was  obliged  to  surrender  at  discretion  to  the  Guises  in 
the  same  year,  and  the  League  took  Paris  for  its  centre,  an  im- 
mense town  in  which  religious  fanaticism  was  reinforced  by 
democratic  fanaticism  [1588].  But  the  King  of  Navarre,  against 
every  expectation,  resisted  the  whole  united  force  of  the  Cath- 
olics [1586 — 1587].  Elizabeth  gave  an  army  to  the  United 
Provinces  [1585],  and  money  to  the  King  of  Navarre  [1585]; 
she  baffled  every  conspiracy  [1584,  1585,  1586],  and  struck  at 
Spain  and  the  Guises  in  the  person  of  Mary  Stuart. 

For  a  long  time  Elizabeth  had  replied  to  the  solicitations  of 
her  councillors  by  saying:  "Can  I  kill  the  bird  which  has  taken 
refuge  in  my  bosom?"  She  had  accepted  the  embroideries  and 
the  dresses  from  Paris  which  her  prisoner  presented  to  her.  But 
growing  irritation  caused  by  the  great  European  struggle,  the 
fears  constantly  impressed  upon  Elizabeth  for  her  own  life,  the 

c  M  L'Etpile/'  vol.  xlv.  p.  123. 
3 


MICHELET 

mysterious  power  of  the  Jesuit  Parsons,  who  from  the  Continent 
managed  to  stir  up  England  to  revolt,  pushed  the  Queen  to  the 
last  extremities. 

In  spite  of  the  intervention  of  the  Kings  of  France  and  Scot- 
land, Mary  was  condemned  to  death  by  a  commission,  as  guilty 
of  having  conspired  with  foreigners  to  invade  England  and  com- 
pass the  death  of  Elizabeth.  A  room  was  hung  in  black  in 
Fotheringay  Castle;  the  Queen  of  Scots  appeared  at  the  block 
in  her  richest  garments ;  she  consoled  her  weeping  servants,  pro- 
tested her  innocence,  and  pardoned  her  enemies.  Elizabeth 
aggravated  the  horror  of  this  cruel  resolution  by  affected  regrets 
and  hypocritical  denials  [1587]. 

The  death  of  Mary  was  felt  nowhere  more  than  in  France. 
But  who  was  there  to  avenge  it?  Her  brother-in-law,  Henri 
III.,  was  falling  from  the  throne;  her  cousin,  Henri  of  Guise,  was 
hoping  to  reach  it.  "France  was  infatuated  with  that  man,  it 
would  be  too  little  to  say  she  was  in  love  with  him."  Since  his 
victories  over  the  German  troops,  who  crossed  the  border  as 
allies  of  the  King  of  Navarre,  the  people  always  called  him  the 
new  Gideon,  the  new  Maccabseus ;  the  nobles  named  him  "notre 
grand"  (our  great  chief).  He  had  only  to  come  to  Paris  to  be 
her  master;  the  King  forbade  him,  and  still  he  came;  all  the  town 
ran  to  meet  him,  crying:  "Long  live  the  Duke  of  Guise!  Ho- 
sanna  filio  David!"  He  braved  the  King  in  his  palace  of  the 
Louvre,  at  the  head  of  400  noblemen.  From  that  time  the 
house  of  Lorraine  thought  its  cause  was  gained.  The  King  was 
to  be  thrown  into  a  convent;  and  the  Duchess  of  Montpensier, 
sister  of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  exhibited  the  golden  scissors  with 
which  she  intended  to  cut  off  the  hair  of  the  Valois.  Every- 
where the  people  raised  barricades,  disarmed  the  Swiss  whom 
the  King  had  just  called  into  Paris,  and  would  have  massacred 
them  all  had  it  not  been  for  the  Duke.  A  moment's  irresolution 
made  him  lose  everything.  While  he  hesitated  to  attack  the 
Louvre,  the  old  Catherine  of  Medicis  amused  him  by  parleyings, 
and  the  King  escaped  to  Chartres.  In  vain  Guise  attempted  to 
unite  with  the  Parliament.  "It's  a  great  pity,  sir,"  said  the 
President,  Achille  de  Harlai,  to  him,  "when  the  valet  turns  off 
the  master;  for  the  rest  my  soul  belongs  to  God,  my  heart  to  the 
King,  even  if  my  body  be  in  the  power  of  the  wicked." 

The  King,  free,  but  abandoned  by  every  one,  was  obliged  to 
yield;  he  approved  of  all  that  had  been  done,  gave  up  several 
towns  to  the  Duke,  named  him  generalissimo  of  the  kingdom, 
and  convened  the  States-General  at  Blois.  The  Duke  of  Guise 
wanted  a  higher  title;  he  poured  so  many  insults  upon  the  King 
that  he  inspired  the  most  timid  of  men  with  a  bold  resolution, 
that  of  assassination. 

"On  Thursday,  December  22,  1588,  the  Duke  of  Guise,  on 


MODERN    HISTORY 


sitting  down  to  dinner,  found  under  his  napkin  a  note  on  which 
was  written:  'Beware!  they  are  on  the  point  of  playing  you  a 
scurvy  trick.'  After  reading  it,  he  wrote  at  the  bottom ;  he  said : 
They  dare  not/  and  threw  it  under  the  table.  This/  he  said, 
'is  the  ninth  day/  In  spite  of  these  warnings,  he  persisted  in 
attending  the  council;  and  as  he  was  crossing  the  room  in  which 
sat  the  forty-five  gentlemen  in  waiting  he  was  murdered/'^ 

During  this  tragedy,  which  favored  rather  than  impeded  the 
designs  of  Spain,  Philip  II.  undertook  the  conquest  of  England 
and  the  task  of  avenging  Mary  Stuart.  On  June  3,  1588,  the 
most  formidable  armament  that  had  ever  terrified  Christendom 
was  seen  issuing  from  the  mouth  of  the  Tagus:  with  135  vessels 
of  a  size  till  then  unknown,  8,000  sailors,  19,000  soldiers,  the 
flower  of  the  Spanish  nobility,  and  Lope  de  Vega  on  board  to 
sing  its  victories.  The  Spaniards,  intoxicated  with  the  sight,  be- 
stowed on  the  fleet  the  name  of  the  Invincible  Armada.  It  was  to 
join  the  Prince  of  Parma  in  the  Netherlands  and  protect  the 
passage  of  his  32,000  veteran  troops.  The  forest  of  Waes,  in 
Flanders,  had  been  turned  into  transports  for  them.  In  Eng- 
land the  alarm  was  extreme.  Instruments  of  torture  similar  to 
those  which  were  said  to  be  carried  on  board  the  Spanish  fleet 

room  to  the  other  to  the  foot  of  the 
King's  bed,  where  he  fell.  .  .  .  The 
King  was  in  his  closet,  and  asking  them 
if  they  had  finished,  came  out  and 
kicked  the  poor  corpse  in  the  face  just 
as  the  Duke  of  Guise  had  treated  the 
late  admiral.  Strange  to  say,  that  when 
the  King  had  looked  at  him  a  little 
while,  he  said  aloud,  *  Good  God  I  how 
tall  he  is!  He  seems  much  taller  dead 
than  alive!  * 

"  The  Sieur  de  Beaulieu  perceiving 
that  the  body  stirred  a  little,  said:  '  Sir, 
as  it  seems  that  you  still  have  some 
flicker  of  life  left,  ask  forgiveness  of 
God  and  the  King.'  Then  not  being 
able  to  speak,  the  Duke  gave  a  deep 
hoarse  sigh  and  yielded  up  the  ghost, 
and  was  covered  with  a  grey  mantle 
and  a  straw  cross  laid  on  the  top.  For 
two  hours  he  was  left  in  this  fashion, 
and  then  was  given  into  the  hands  of 
the  Sieur  de  Richelieu,  Provost  Mar- 
shal of  France,  who,  by  command  of 
the  King,  had  the  body  burned  by  the 
executioner  in  the  first  chamber  at  the 
bottom,  on  the  right  hand  as  you  enter 
the  castle,  and  afterwards  the  ashes 
thrown  into  the  river." 

Accounts  of  the  deaths  of  MM.  the 
Duke  and  the  Cardinal  de  Guise,  by  the 
Sieur  Miron,  physician  of  the  King 

TT_._     •     TTT          ._j.tT    _    _i        _  r    ,*  te    <-»     «•         .  -     ° 


d  "  On  the  twenty-third,  at  four  in  the 
morning,  the  King  asked  his  valet  de 
chambre  for  the  keys  of  the  little  cells 
which  he  had  prepared  for  the  Capu- 
cines.  He  went  down  and  from  time  to 
time  looked  himself  into  his  room  to 
see  if  the  forty-five  had  arrived,  and  as 
they  came  he  sent  them  up  and  locked 

them  in Soon  after  the 

Duke  of  Guise  was  seated  at  the  coun- 
cil, and  said,  '  I  am  cold,  I  feel  ill,  let  a 
fire  be  lighted ; '  and  addressing  himself 
to  M.  de  Morfontaine.  treasurer  of  the 
privy  purse,  said  '  Monsieur  de  Morfon- 
taine, I  be{*  of  you  to  tell  M.  de  Saint- 
Prix,  the  King's  first  valet  de  chambre, 
that  I  beg  of  him  to  give  me  some  Da- 
rnask  raisins  or  some  conserve  of  roses.' 
The  Duke  put  the  sweatmeats  into  his 
box  and  threw  the  remainder  upon  the 
table.  '  Gentlemen,'  said  he,  *  does 
anybody  wish  for  them?  '  and  he  rose. 
But  when  he  was  only  two  steps  from 
the  door  of  the  old  closet,  he  took  his 
beard  in  his  right  hand,  and  looked 
round  to  see  who  was  following;  his 
arm  was  suddenly  seized  by  the  elder 
Sieur  de  Montsery,  who  was  near  the 
mantelpiece,  and  who  believing  that  the 
Duke  had  fallen  back  in  the  attitude  of 
defence,  struck  him  himself  at  the  same 
time  in  the  breast  with  his  dagger,  ex- 
claiming, '  Ah!  traitor,  thou  shalt  die/ 
And  at  the  same  moment  the  Sieur  des 
Effrenets  seized  him  by  the  legs,  and 
the  Sieur  de  Saint-Malines  stabbed  him 
in  the  back  near  the  throat,  and  the 
Sieur  de  Loignac  with  his  sword  in  the 
loins.  And  although  the  Duke's  sword 
was  entangled  in  his  cloak  and  his  legs 
seized,  he  was  able  (so  powerful  was 
he)  to  drag  them  from  one  end  of  the 


vol.  i.  pp.  100-106. 

On  the  Barricades,  see  the  same 
Memoirs,  and  especially  the  proces 
verbal  of  Nicolas  Poulain,  Provost 
Lieutenant  of  the  Isle  of  France,  vol. 
xv. 


1 1 6  MICHELET 

by  the  Inquisitors  were  exhibited  at  the  doors  of  the  churches. 
The  Queen  appeared  on  horseback  before  her  troops  at  Tilbury, 
and  promised  to  die  for  her  people.  But  the  strength  of  Eng- 
land lay  in  her  fleet.  The  greatest  sailors  of  the  age,  Drake, 
Hawkins,  Frobisher,  were  serving  under  Admiral  Howard.  The 
little  English  ships  harassed  the  Spanish  fleet,  which  had  already 
suffered  much  from  the  elements;  it  was  thrown  into  disorder  by 
their  fire-ships,  while  the  Prince  of  Parma  was  not  able  to  sail 
out  of  the  port  of  Flanders;  and  the  remains  of  this  formidable 
Armada,  driven  by  storms  along  the  coast  of  Scotland  and  Ire- 
land, returned  to  hide  themselves  in  the  harbors  of  Spain. 

The  remainder  of  Elizabeth's  life  was  a  continued  triumph: 
she  baffled  the  attempts  of  Philip  II.  on  Ireland,  and  followed  up 
her  victories  on  all  seas.  The  enthusiasm  of  Europe,  excited  by 
so  much  success,  took  the  most  flattering  of  all  forms  for  a 
woman,  that  of  an  ingenious  gallantry.  The  Queen's  age,  fifty- 
five,  was  forgotten.  Henri  IV.  declared  to  the  English  ambas- 
sador that  he  thought  her  handsomer  than  Gabrielle  d'Estrees. 
Shakespeare  spoke  of  her  as  the  "fair  vestal,  throned  in  the 
West;"  but  no  homage  was  more  grateful  to  her  than  that  of  the 
gifted  Walter  Raleigh  and  the  young  and  brilliant  Earl  of  Essex. 
The  former  made  his  fortune  by  throwing  his  mantle,  the  most 
costly  which  he  then  possessed,  under  the  feet  of  the  Queen, 
who  was  stepping  over  a  dirty  road;  while  Essex  captivated  her 
by  his  heroism.  In  spite  of  her  orders,  he  escaped  from  the 
Court  to  take  part  in  the  Cadiz  expedition;  he  was  the  first  to 
land,  and,  if  he  had  been  listened  to,  Cadiz  might,  perhaps,  have 
remained  in  the  possession  of  England.  His  ingratitude  and 
tragical  end  were  the  only  reverses  which  saddened  the  last  days 
of  Elizabeth. 

Section  II — To  the  Death  of  Henri  IV. 

Philip  II.,  repulsed  by  the  Netherlands  and  England,  turned 
all  his  forces  against  France,  The  brother  of  Guise,  the  Due 
de  Mayenne,  possessed  of  equal  talent,  but  less  popular,  had  not 
sufficient  influence  to  balance  the  gold  and  intrigues  of  Spain. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  death  of  Guise  reached  Paris,  the 
people  put  on  mourning,  and  the  preachers  thundered;  the 
churches  were  hung  with  black,  and  on  the  altars  were  placed 
waxen  images  of  the  King,  which  were  pierced  with  needles. 
Mayenne  was  created  chief  of  the  League;  the  States  placed  the 
Government  in  the  hands  of  forty  persons.  Bussi-Leclerc,  who 
from  a  fencing-master  had  become  governor  of  the  Bastille,  im- 
prisoned there  half  the  Parliament  Henri  III.  had  no  other 
resource  than  to  throw  himself  into  the  arms  of  the  King  of 
Navarre;  and  they  besieged  Paris  together.  They  were  en- 


MODERN    HISTORY  n? 

camping  at  St.  Cloud,  when  a  young  monk  named  Clement 
struck  Henri  III,  with  a  knife  in  the  bowels.  The  Duchess  of 
Montpensier,  sister  of  the  Duke  of  Guise,  who  was  expecting 
this  news  on  the  road,  was  the  first  to  carry  it,  almost  distracted 
with  joy,  to  Paris. 

The  image  of  Clement  was  exhibited  in  the  churches  for  adora- 
tion; his  mother,  a  poor  peasant  from  Burgundy,  came  to  Paris, 
and  a  crowd  went  out  to  meet  her,  crying:  "Blessed  is  the  womb 
that  bore  thee  and  the  paps  which  thou  hast  sucked"  [1589], 

Henri  IV.,  abandoned  for  the  most  part  by  the  Catholics,  was 
soon  severely  pressed  by  Mayenne,  who  made  sure  of  bringing 
him  with  his  hands  and  feet  bound  into  Paris.  Already  win- 
dows were  hired  to  see  him  pass.  But  Mayenne  had  to  do  with 
an  adversary  who  never  slept,  and  "who  wore  out,"  as  the  Prince 
of  Parma  said,  "more  boots  than  slippers."*  He  awaited  May- 
enne near  Arques,  in  Normandy,  and  held  30,000  men  at  bay 
with  3,000.  Then  Henri,  strengthened  by  a  crowd  of  nobles, 
came  in  his  turn  to  attack  Paris,  and  pillaged  the  Faubourg  St. 
Germain.  In  the  following  year  [1590]  he  was  again  victorious 
at  Ivry  on  the  Eure  over  Mayenne  and  the  Spaniards.  His  ad- 
dress to  his  soldiers  before  the  battle  is  well  known.  "My 
friends,  if  you  share  my  fortunes,  I  also  share  yours.  I  will 
either  conquer  or  die.  I  beg  of  you  to  keep  well  in  line,  and,  if 
you  should  lose  your  standards,  rally  round  my  white  plume; 
you  will  always  find  it  in  the  path  of  honor  and  victory!" 
(Perefixe).  From  Ivry  he  came  to  blockade  Paris.  That  un- 
happy town,  a  prey  to  the  violence  of  the  "Sixteen'1  (faction  dcs 
Seize),  and  the  tyranny  of  the  Spanish  soldiers,  was  reduced  by 
famine  to  the  last  extremity;  bread  was  made  of  dead  men's 
bones,  mothers  ate  their  children.  The  Parisians,  oppressed 
by  their  defenders,  found  mercy  only  in  the  Prince  who  was  be- 
sieging them.  He  allowed  a  great  many  useless  mouths  to  pass 
out  "Must  I  then  feed  them?"  said  he.  "Paris  must  not  be- 
come a  graveyard;  I  do  not  want  to  reign  over  the  dead.  I  am 
like  the  real  mother  in  Solomon's  judgment.  I  had  rather  never 
possess  Paris  at  all  than  have  her  torn  in  pieces."  Paris  was  not 
delivered  until  the  arrival  of  the  Prince  of  Parma,  whose  skilful 
manoeuvres  forced  Henri  IV.  to  raise  the  siege,  and  who  then 
fell  back  on  the  Netherlands. 

The  party  of  the  League,  however,  grew  weaker  every  day. 
It  had  been  bound  together  by  hatred  of  the  King;  it  prepared 
its  own  dissolution  by  assassinating  Henri  III.  It  was  divided 
into  two  principal  factions :  that  of  the  Guises,  supported  chiefly 
by  the  nobles  and  the  Parliament,  and  that  of  Spain,  sustained 
by  obscure  demagogues.  The  latter,  concentrated  in  the  larger 

e  *'  Satire     Menippee,"     1713,     p.     49.    The  Duke  of  Mayenne  was  fat,  and  a 
heavy  sleeper. 


nS  MICHELET 

towns,  and  without  military  spirit,  distinguished  itself  by  perse- 
cuting the  magistrates  [1589—1591];  Mayenne  repressed  it,  but 
at  the  same  time  deprived  the  League  of  its  democratic  energy. 
The  Guises,  however,  twice  beaten,  twice  blockaded  in  Paris, 
could  not  maintain  their  position  without  the  help  of  the  very 
Spaniards  whose  agents  they  proscribed.  Dissensions  burst 
out  at  the  meeting  of  the  States- General  in  Paris  [1593],  where 
the  pretensions  of  Philip  II.  were  foiled  by  Mayenne,  but  not  to 
his  own  advantage.  The  League,  virtually  dissolved  from  this 
moment,  lost  its  ground  of  existence  by  the  abjuration,  and  espe- 
cially by  the  absolution,  of  Henri  IV.  [1593— I595L  and  its  prin- 
cipal stronghold  by  the  entry  of  the  King  into  the  capital  [1594]- 
He  forgave  everybody,  and  on  the  same  evening  that  he  entered 
Paris  played  cards  with  Madame  de  Montpensier.  Henceforth 
the  League  was  simply  ridiculous,  and  the  Satire  Menippee 
gave  it  the  last  blow.  Henri  redeemed  his  kingdom  bit  by  bit 
from  the  hands  of  the  nobles,  who  were  dividing  it  among  them- 
selves. 

In  1595  civil  war  made  way  for  foreign  war.  The  King  turned 
the  military  ardor  of  the  nation  against  Spain.  In  the  memora- 
ble year  1598,  Philip  II.  at  length  gave  way;  all  his  projects  had 
failed,  his  resources  were  exhausted,  his  fleet  almost  destroyed. 
He  renounced  his  pretensions  on  France  by  the  Peace  of  Ver- 
vins,  which  he  concluded  with  Henri  [May  2nd],  and  transferred 
the  Netherlands  to  his  daughter  [May  6th].  Elizabeth  and  the 
United  Provinces  were  alarmed  at  Peace  of  Vervins,  and  drew 
closer  together;  but  Henri  IV.  had  perceived  with  more  sagacity 
that  there  was  nothing  more  to  fear  from  Philip  II.,  who  died  on 
the  thirteenth  of  September.  The  King  of  France  terminated 
his  internal  troubles  at  the  same  time  as  his  foreign  wars,  by 
granting  religious  toleration  and  political  guarantees  to  the 
Protestants  (Edict  of  Nantes,  April). 

The  situation  of  the  belligerent  powers  after  these  long  wars 
presented  a  striking  contrast.  The  master  of  the  two  Indies  was 
ruined.  The  exhaustion  of  Spain  only  increased  under  the  reign 
of  the  Cardinal  Duke  of  Lerma  and  the  Duke  of  Olivares, 
favorites  of  Philip  III.  and  Philip  IV.  As  Spain  no  longer  pro- 
duced merchandise  to  exchange  for  the  precious  metals  of 
America,  she  was  no  longer  enriched  by  them.  Of  all  America's 
importations  a  twentieth  part  was  the  most  that  was  manufac- 
tured in  Spain.  At  Seville  the  1,600  looms  which  manufactured 
wool  and  silk  in  1536  were  reduced  in  1621  to  400.  In  one  and 
the  same  year  [1621]  Spain  drove  away  a  million  of  industrious 
subjects  (the  Moors  from  Valencia),  and  was  forced  to  grant  a 
truce  of  twelve  years  to  the  United  Provinces. 

On  the  other  hand,  France,  England,  and  the  United  Prov- 
inces had  grown  rapidly  in  population,  wealth,  and  importance. 


MODERN  HISTORY  119 

From  1595  Philip  IL,  by  closing  the  port  of  Lisbon  against 
the  Dutch,  obliged  them  to  obtain  Eastern  commodities  from 
India,  and  to  found  there  an  empire  on  the  ruins  of  the  Portu- 
guese. The  republic  was  troubled  within  by  the  quarrels  of  the 
Stadholder,  and  of  the  Syndic  (Maurice  of  Orange  and  Barne- 
veldt),  by  the  struggle  between  military  power  and  civil  liberty, 
between  the  war  and  the  peace  parties  (Gomarists  and  Armeni- 
ans) ;  but  the  necessity  for  national  defence  assured  the  victory  to 
the  former  of  the  two  parties.  The  victory  cost  the  venerable 
Barneveldt  his  life;  he  was  beheaded  at  seventy  years  of  age 
[1619]. 

After  the  expiration  of  the  twelve  years'  truce,  the  war  became 
no  longer  a  civil  war,  but  a  regular  strategical  war,  a  school  for 
all  the  soldiers  in  Europe.  The  skill  of  the  Spanish  general,  the 
celebrated  Spinola,  was  balanced  by  that  of  Prince  Frederick 
Henry,  the  brother  and  successor  of  Maurice. 

France,  however,  rose  from  her  ruins  under  Henri  IV.  In 
spite  of  the  foibles  of  this  great  King,  in  spite  even  of  the  blun- 
ders, which  an  attentive  examination  may  discover,  in  his  reign, 
he  nevertheless  deserved  the  title  to  which  he  aspired,  that  of 
Restorer  of  France/  "He  made  every  endeavor  to  embellish 
and  render  prosperous  the  kingdom  he  had  conquered;  he  dis- 
charged superfluous  troops;  in  the  finances  order  succeeded  to 
the  most  odious  system  of  pillage;  he  gradually  paid  all  the  debts 
of  the  Crown,  without  grinding  the  people.  To  this  day  the 
peasants  repeat  his  saying,  that  he  'wanted  each  of  his  subjects 
to  have  a  fowl  in  the  pot  every  Sunday/  a  paternal  sentiment, 
trivially  expressed.  It  was  very  admirable  that,  in  spite  of 
plunder  and  exhaustion,  he  was  able  in  less  than  fifteen  years  to 
diminish  the  burden  of  the  capitation-tax  by  four  millions  of 
francs;  that  all  other  taxes  were  diminished  by  one-half;  and 
that  he  paid  debts  to  the  amount  of  a  hundred  millions  of  francs. 
He  bought  land  to  the  value  of  50,000,000  francs;  all  the  fort- 
resses were  repaired,  the  magazines  and  arsenals  filled,  the  high 

/ "  If  I  wanted  to  gain  the  title  of  my  own  struggles  and  endeavors,  I 
orator,"  he  said  in  the  Assembly  of  have  saved  her  from  being  utterly  lost. 
Notables  at  Rouen,  "I  should  have  Let  f  us  save  her  in  this  hour  of  ruin; 
learnt  by  heart  some  fine  harangue,  and  participate,  O  my  subjects!  a  second 
have  gravely  pronounced  it;  but,  gen-  time  with  me  in  this  glorious  work  as 
tlemen,  my  desires  are  raised  to  much  you  did  the  first  time.  I  have  not  called 
more  glorious  titles,  those  of  Liberator  you  together,  as  my  predecessors  did, 
and  Restorer  of  this  State;  as  a  means  that  you  might  approve  my  intentions; 
to  which  I  have  assembled  you.  You  I  have  assembled  you  to  receive  your 
know,  to  your  sorrow,  as  I  do  to  mine,  counsels,  to  believe  in  them,  and  to  fol- 
that  when  God  called  me  to  this  throne,  low  them — in  short,  to  put  myself  under 
I  found  France  not  only,  as  one  may  your  guardianship;  a  desire  which  is 
say,  in  ruins,  but  almost  lost  to  French-  seldom  experienced  by  kings,  grey- 
men.  By  the  Divine  grace,  by  prayer,  beards,  or  by  conquerors.  But  the  vio- 
by  the  good  counsels  of  such  of  my  lent  love  I  feel  for  my  people,  the  ex- 
subjects  as  do  not  follow  the  profession  treme  desire  that  I  have  to  add  two 
of  arms;  by  the  swords  of  my  brave  and  grand  titles  to  that  of  king,  makes  ev- 
generous  nobles  (among  whom,  faith  of  erything  easy  and  honorable  to  me. 
a  gentleman,  I  do  not  consider  my  My  Chancellor  will  explain  my  wishes 
Princes  as  the  most  distinguished);  by  to  you  in  detail." 


120  MICHELET 

roads  kept  tip :  to  the  eternal  glory  of  Sully  and  of  the  King  who 
dared  to  choose  a  soldier  to  re-establish  the  finances  of  the  em- 
pire, and  who  worked  with  his  minister. 

"Justice  was  reformed,  and,  what  was  much  more  difficult, 
the  two  religions  lived  peaceably  side  by  side,  at  least  in  appear- 
ance. Agriculture  was  encouraged.  'Tillage  and  pasturage/ 
said  Sully,  'these  are  the  two  paps  which  feed  France;  the  real 
mines  and  treasures  of  Peru/  Commerce  and  art,  although 
less  encouraged  by  Sully,  were  still  held  in  honor;  the  manufac- 
ture of  gold  and  silver  stuffs  enriched  Lyons  and  France.  Henri 
established  manufactories  of  high  warp  tapestry  in  wool  and  silk, 
enriched  with  gold ;  small  mirrors  in  the  Venetian  taste  became 
an  article  of  manufacture.  To  him  we  owe  the  introduction  of 
silkworms,  and  the  cultivation  of  mulberry-trees,  in  spite  of  the 
remonstrance  of  Sully.  Henri  IV*  dug  the  canal  of  Briare, 
which  unites  the  Seine  and  the  Loire.  Paris  was  enlarged  and 
embellished;  he  formed  the  Place  Royale,  and  restored  the 
bridges*  The  Faubourg  St.  Germain  was  not  joined  to  the 
town,  it  was  not  paved ;  the  King  undertook  everything.  Under 
him  was  constructed  the  fine  bridge,  on  which  the  people  still 
contemplate  his  statue  with  tenderness.  St.  Germain,  Monceau, 
Fontainebleau,  and  especially  the  Louvre  were  enlarged  and  al- 
most entirely  re-built.  He  gave  apartments  in  the  Louvre,  un- 
der the  long  gallery,  which  was  his  own  work,  to  artists  of  every 
kind,  whom  he  encouraged  as  much  by  his  presence  as  by  re- 
wards. Finally,  he  was  the  real  founder  of  the  Bibliotheque 
Royale.  When  Don  Pedro  of  Toledo  was  sent  by  Philip  III.  as 
ambassador  to  Henri  IV.,  he  could  scarcely  recognize  the  town, 
which  he  had  formerly  seen  so  wretched,  and  so  languishing* 
'It  is  that  the  father  was  absent  at  that  time/  said  Henri;  'now, 
that  he  has  the  charge  of  his  children,  the  family  prospers.' " 
(Voltaire.) 

France  had  become  the  arbiter  of  Europe.  Thanks  to  her 
powerful  intervention,  the  Pope  and  Venice  were  reconciled 
[1607];  Spain  and  the  United  Provinces  at  length  ceased  their 
long  struggle  [Truce  of  1609].  Henri  IV.  was  preparing  to 
humiliate  the  house  of  Austria;  if  we  may  believe  his  minister, 
he  meditated  the  foundation  of  perpetual  peace  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  a  system  of  international  law  for  the  system  of  mere  brute 
force  which  still  governs  the  relations  of  the  nations  of  Europe. 
All  was  ready,  a  numerous  army,  provisions  of  all  kinds,  the 
most  formidable  artillery  in  the  world,  and  forty-two  millions  in 
the  cellars  of  the  Bastille.  The  stroke  of  a  dagger  saved  the 
house  of  Austria.  The  nation  suspected  the  Emperor,  the  King 
of  Spain,  the  Queen  of  France,  the  Duke  of  Epernon,  the  Jesuits 
— all  profited  by  the  crime;  but  it  is  sufficiently  explained  by  the 
fanaticism  which  pursued  throughout  his  reign  a  Prince  who 


MODERN  HISTORY  121 

was  always  suspected  r.f  being  a  Protestant  at  heart,  and  of  wish- 
ing to  make  his  religion  triumphant  in  Europe.  His  assassina- 
tion had  been  attempted  seventeen  times  before  Ravaillac  suc- 
ceeded in  accomplishing  it. 

"On  Friday,  May  14,  1610,  sad  and  fatal  day  for  France,  the 
King,  about  ten  in  the  morning,  went  to  attend  mass  at  the 
Feuillants ;  on  his  return  he  retired  to  his  closet,  where  the  Duke 
of  Vendome,  his  natural  son,  whom  he  greatly  loved,  came  to 
tell  him  that  one  La  Brosse,  an  astrologer,  had  informed  him 
that  the  constellation  under  which  his  Majesty  was  born  threat- 
ened him  that  day  with  a  great  danger ;  therefore,  he  warned  him 
to  be  on  his  guard.  To  which  the  King  replied,  laughing,  to  M. 
de  Vendome:  'La  Brosse  is  an  old  slyboots,  who  wants  your 
money,  and  you  are  a  young  fool  to  believe  him.  Our  days  are 
numbered  by  God.'  And  on  this  the  Duke  of  Vendome  went 
to  warn  the  Queen,  who  entreated  the  King  not  to  leave  the 
Louvre  that  day.  To  whom  lie  made  the  same  answer. 

"After  dinner  the  King  lay  down  on  his  bed  to  rest,  but,  not 
being  able  to  sleep,  he  rose,  full  of  anxious,  melancholy  thoughts, 
and,  after  walking  about  his  room  for  some  time,  threw  himself 
once  more  upon  his  bed.  But,  again,  not  being  able  to.  sleep,  he 
got  up  and  asked  the  officer  of  the  guard  what  o'clock  it  was. 
The  officer  answered  that  it  was  4  o'clock,  and  said :  'Sire,  I  see 
that  your  Majesty  is  sad  and  anxious;  it  would  be  better  to  take 
some  air;  it  would  raise  your  spirits.'  'That  is  well  said/  replied 
the  King.  'Order  my  carriage  to  be  got  ready,  I  will  drive  to 
.the  Arsenal,  to  see  the  Duke  of  Sully,  who  is  unwell,  and  who  is 
to  take  the  bath  to-day/ 

"As  soon  as  the  carnage  was  ready,  he  left  the  Louvre,  accom- 
panied by  the  Duke  of  Montbazon,  and  the  Duke  of  Epernon, 
Marshal  Lavardin,  Roquelaure,  La  Force,  Mirabeau,  and  Lian- 
court,  his  first  equerry.  At  the  same  time  he  charged  the  Sieur 
de  Vitry,  captain  of  his  guard,  to  go  to  the  palace  and  hasten  the 
preparations  which  were  being  made  for  the  entry  of  the  Queen; 
and  ordered  his  guards  to  remain  at  the  Louvre.  So  that  the 
King  was  followed  only  by  a  small  number  of  gentlemen  on 
horseback,  and  some  valets  on  foot.  Unfortunately,  both  doorj 
of  the  carriage  were  open,  because  the  weather  was  fine,  and  the 
King  wished  to  see  the  preparations  which  were  being  made  in 
the  town.  His  carriage,  in  passing  from  the  Rue  St.  Honore 
into  the  Rue  de  la  Ferronerie,  found  on  one  side  a  cart  laden 
with  wine,  and  on  the  other  a  cart  laden  with  hay,  which  caused 
great  embarrassment ;  he  was  forced  to  stop,  because  the  street 
Is  very  narrow  there,  on  account  of  the  shops,  which  are  built 
against  the  wall  of  the  cemetery  of  St  Innocent. 

"During  this  delay  a  great  many  of  the  valets  on  foot  passed 
through  the  cemetery,  that  they  might  run  more  easily,  and 


122  MICHELET 

reach  the  end  of  the  street  before  the  King's  carriage.  Of  the 
only  two  valets  who  remained  beside  the  carriage,  one  had  run 
forward  to  make  way,  and  the  other  was  stooping  to  fasten  his 
garter,  when  a  wretch  come  out  of  hell,  called  Francois  Ravail- 
lac,  a  native  of  Angouleme,  who  had  had  time  during  the  con- 
fusion to  notice  on  which  side  was  the  King,  got  upon  the  wheel 
of  the  carriage,  and,  with  a  knife  sharpened  on  both  sides,  dealt 
him  a  blow  between  the  second  and  third  ribs,  a  little  above  the 
heart,  which  caused  the  King  to  cry:  *I  am  wounded!1  But  the 
wretch,  undaunted,  began  again,  and  struck  him  a  second  time 
in  the  heart,  of  which  the  King  died,  without  having  time  to  do 
more  than  fetch  a  deep  sigh.  This  second  blow  was  followed  by 
a  third,  so  much  did  this  parricide  hate  his  King,  but  this  reached 
only  the  sleeve  of  the  Duke  of  Montbazon. 

"Strange  to  say,  not  one  of  the  gentlemen  in  the  coach  saw 
the  King  struck;  and,  if  this  infernal  monster  had  thrown  away 
his  knife,  no  one  would  have  known  who  had  done  it.  But  he 
remained  on  the  spot,  as  if  to  exhibit  himself,  and  to  boast  of  this 
most  horrible  assassination."^ 

g  "  L'Etoile,"  vol.  xlvih.  pp.  447-450. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  ENGLISH  REVOLUTION. 

TRIAL    OF    CHARLES    AND    ABOLITION    OF    THE 
MONARCHY,     1649- 

When  James  I.  succeeded  to  Elizabeth,  the  long  reign  of  that 
Princess  had  exhausted  the  enthusiasm  and  the  obedience  of  the 
nation.^  The  character  of  the  new  King  was  not  calculated  to 
efface  this  impression,  England  beheld  with  a  jealous  eye  a 
Scottish  King,  surrounded  by  Scotchmen,  belonging,  through 
his  mother,  to  the  house  of  Guise;  more  versed  in  theology  than 
in  politics^  and  turning  pale  at  the  sight  of  a  sword.  Every- 
thing about  him  was  displeasing  to  the  English;  his  imprudent 
declaration  in  favor  of  the  divine  right  of  Kings,  his  project  for 
the  union  of  England  and  Scotland,  and  his  tolerance  towards 
the  Catholics,  who  conspired  against  him  [Gunpowder  Plot, 
1605].  On  the  other  hand,  Scotland  was  not  better  pleased  with 
his  attempt  to  impose  upon  her  the  Anglican  form  of  worship. 
James  I.,  in  the  hands  of  his  favorites,  made  himself  by  his  prodi- 
gality dependent  on  the  Parliament,  which  at  the  same  time  he 
irritated  by  the  contrast  between  his  weakness  and  pretensions. 

Elizabeth's  glory  had  consisted  in  raising  England  in  her  own 
estimation;  the  misfortune  of  the  Stuarts  lay  in  humiliating  her. 
James  gave  up  the  part  which  his  predecessor  had  played  of  the 
enemy  of  Spain  and  chief  of  the  Protestants  in  Europe.  He  did 
not  declare  war  with  Spain  until  1625,  and  then  in  spite  of  his 
own  wishes.  He  married  his  son  to  a  Catholic  Princess  (Henri- 
etta of  France). 

On  the  accession  of  Charles  I.  [1625],  the  King  and  the  people 
did  not  themselves  know  how  strange  they  already  were  to  each 
other.  While  the  monarchical  power  triumphed  on  the  Conti- 
nent, the  Commons  had  acquired  an  importance  in  England 
which  was  irreconcilable  with  the  ancient  form  of  government. 
The  abasement  of  the  nobles  under  the  Tudors,  the  division  of 

a  If  this  chapter  has  any  interest,   it  ject  of  his  book  is  in  general  foreign  to 

owes  it  in  a  great  measure  to  the  works  that  of  this  chapter.     ("  History  of  the 

of  Guizot  and  Villemam,  from  which  I  Revolution  of  1688.) 

have    extracted     and     often    copied.      I  6  Henri     IV.     called     him      "  Maitre 

have  found  also  valuable  information  in  Jacques." 
M.  Mazure's  account,  although  the  sub- 

123 


I24 


MICHELET 


property,  the  sale  of  ecclesiastical  estates,  had  enriched  and  em- 
boldened the  mass  of  the  people  by  teaching  them  their  own 
strength.  They  sought  for  political  guarantees.  The  institu- 
tions which  could  afford  them  already  existed;  they  had  been 
respected  by  the  Tudors,  who  used  them  as  instruments  of  their 
own  despotism.  But  a  mainspring  was  wanted  as  powerful  as 
religion  to  restore  life  to  these  institutions.  The  Presbyterian 
party,  the  enemy  from  the  first  of  the  moderate  Reformation 
which  had  been  brought  about  in  England,  found  the  throne  an 
obstacle  between  itself  and  episcopacy,  so  the  throne  was  at- 
tacked. 

The  first  Parliament  of  Charles  endeavored,  by  stopping  the 
supplies,  to  obtain  the  redressal  of  public  grievances  [1625].  The 
second  accused  as  the  author  of  them  the  King's  favorite,  the 
Duke  of  Buckingham  [1626] .  During  the  session  of  these  two 
Parliaments,  the  unfortunate  wars  with  France  and  Spain  de- 
prived the  Government  of  all  remains  of  popularity,  although 
the  latter  war  had  been  undertaken  for  the  sake  of  the  Protest- 
ants and  the  deliverance  of  La  Rochelle  (defeat  of  Buckingham 
in  the  Isle  of  Rhe,  1627).  The  third  Parliament,  adjourning  all 
discussions,  demanded  in  the  "Petition  of  Right"  an  explicit 
sanction  of  those  public  liberties,  which  were  recognized  sixty 
years  afterwards  in  the  "Declaration  of  Right."  Charles,  find- 
ing all  his  demands  rejected,  made  peace  with  France  and  Spain, 
and  tried  to  govern  without  convoking  a  Parliament  [1630 — 
1638]. 

He  no  longer  expected  to  find  any  resistance.  His  only  diffi- 
culty was  to  reconcile  the  two  parties,  who  were  quarrelling  for 
the  control  of  the  despotism  he  had  set  up,  the  Queen  and  the 
ministers,  the  court  and  the  council.  The  Earl  of  Strafford  and 
Archbishop  Laud,  who  at  least  wanted  to  govern  in  the  general 
interests  of  the  King,  were  hurried  into  a  number  of  violent  and 
vexatious  measures.  Most  commodities  were  burthened  with 
monopolies;  illegal  taxes  were  enforced  by  servile  judges  and 
extraordinary  tribunals;  excessive  punishments  were  inflicted 
for  mere  misdemeanors.  The  government,  ill-supported  by  the 
high  aristocracy,  turned  to  the  Anglican  clergy,  who  gradually 
invaded  the  province  of  civil  power.  The  nonconformists  were 
persecuted.  A  band  of  them  who  could  no  longer  endure  so 
odious  a  government  crossed  over  to  America. 

Public  indignation  burst  forth  on  the  occasion  of  the  trial  of 
John  Hampden,  who  chose  to  be  imprisoned  rather  than  pay  an 
illegal  tax  of  20  shillings.  A  month  after  his  condemnation  the 
Bishop  of  Edinburgh,  having  tried  to  introduce  the  new  Angli- 
can liturgy  in  a  church  of  that  town,  a  frightful  tumult  took 
place;  the  bishop  was  insulted,  and  the  magistrates  driven  off. 
The  Scotch  swore  a  "covenant"  by  which  they  engaged  them- 


MODERN  HISTORY  125 

selves  to  defend  against  all  dangers  the  sovereign,  the  religion, 
the  laws,  and  the  liberties  of  the  country.  Messengers  carried 
the  covenant  from  village  to  village  into  the  most  distant  quar- 
ters of  the  kingdom,  just  as  the  burning  cross  had  been  formerly 
carried  into  the  mountains  to  call  all  the  vassals  of  a  Highland 
chief  to  war.  The  covenanters  asked  for  arms  and  money  from 
Cardinal  Richelieu;  and  the  English  army,  having  refused  to 
fight  against  its  "brothers  in  religion/'  the  King  was  obliged  to 
put  himself  at  the  mercy  of  a  fifth  Parliament  [the  Long  Parlia- 
ment, 1640], 

The  new  assembly,  which  had  so  much  to  avenge,  persecuted 
eagerly  all  the  ministers  of  the  past  tyrant,  or,  as  they  were  called, 
"delinquents,"  especially  Strafford,  who  had  irritated  the  nation 
less  by  his  real  crimes  than  by  the  violence  of  an  imperious  char- 
acter. He  himself  begged  the  King  to  sign  the  bill  for  his  con- 
demnation, and  Charles  had  the  deplorable  weakness  to  consent. 
The  Parliament  took  possession  of  the  government,  directed  the 
expenditure  of  subsidies,  reversed  the  judgments  of  the  tribun- 
als, and  disarmed  the  royal  authority  by  extorting  the  King's 
consent  to  its  own  indissolubility.  A  frightful  massacre  of  the 
Protestants  in  Ireland  gave  Parliament  the  opportunity  of  seiz- 
ing the  military  power;  the  Irish  Catholics  rose  at  this  moment 
in  every  direction  against  the  English  who  were  established 
among  them,  and  put  their  tyrants  to  the  sword  in  the  Queen's 
name,  showing  a  false  commission  from  the  King.  Charles, 
annoyed  past  bearing  by  a  threatening  remonstrance,  repaired 
in  person  to  the  House  of  Commons  to  arrest  five  of  the  mem- 
bers. He  failed  in  this  coup  d'etat,  and  left  London  to  enter  upon 
civil  war  [January  n,  1642].^ 

The  Parliamentary  party  had  the  advantage  in  numbers  and 
enthusiasm;  it  held  the  capital,  the  large  towns,  the  ports,  arid 
the  fleet.  The  King  retained  the  majority  of  the  nobles,  who 
were  more  accustomed  to  arms  than  the  Parliamentary  troops. 
In  the  Northern  and  Western  counties  the  royalists  prevailed; 
the  parliamentarians  in  the  Southern,  the  midland,  and  the  East- 
ern—the richest  and  most  populous.  The  latter  counties,  which 
join  on  each  other,  formed  a  girdle  round  London. 

The  King  soon  marched  on  the  capital,  but  the  indecisive  bat- 
tle of  Edgehill  saved  the  parliamentary  party.  They  had  leisure 
to  organize  themselves.  Colonel  Cromwell  formed,  in  the  East- 
ern counties,  squadrons  of  volunteers,  whose  religious  enthu- 
siasm balanced  the  spirit  of  honor  which  animated  the  royalist 
cavaliers. 

The  Parliament  conquered  again  at  Newbury,  and  united  with 

cThe  Queen  asked  for  an  asylum  in  yrho  leaves  his  place  at  the  table,  loses 

France.      "  Answer    to     the     Queen,"  the    same,"    (Mazure,     Pieces    Justifi- 

wrote  Cardinal  Richelieu  to  the>  French  catives.) 
minister,  "  that  on  these  occasions,  he 


I26  MICHELET 

Scotland  in  a  solemn  covenant  [1643].  The  King's  understand- 
ing with  the  Highlanders  and  the  Irish  Catholics  hastened  this 
unexpected  union  between  two  countries  hitherto  hostile.  It 
was  asserted  that  a  great  many  Irish  Catholics  were  among  the 
troops  recalled  from  that  island  by  the  King;  and  that  even 
women,  armed  with  long  knives  and  savagely  accoutred,  had 
been  seen  in  their  ranks.  The  Long  Parliament  would  receive 
no  letters  from  the  rival  Parliament  which  the  King  assembled 
at  Oxford,  and  it  pushed  on  the  war  with  renewed  vigor.  En- 
thusiasm was  carried  to  such  lengths  by  some  families  that  they 
deprived  themselves  of  a  meal  a  week  and  gave  the  value  of  it  to 
Parliament;  an  ordinance- converted  this  offer  into  a  forced  tax 
on  all  the  inhabitants  of  London  and  its  environs.  Prince 
Rupert,  the  King's  nephew,  was  defeated  at  Marston  Moor  after 
a  desperate  struggle,  by  the  invincible  obstinacy  of  the  "saints" 
of  the  parliamentary  army  and  Cromwell's  soldiers,  who  re- 
ceived upon  the  field  of  battle  the  surname  of  Ironsides.  The 
King  lost  York  and  all  the  North.  The  Queen  escaped  into 
France  [1644], 

At  one  moment  this  disaster  seemed  to  have  been  repaired. 
In  Cornwall  the  King  forced  the  parliamentary  general,  the  Earl 
of  Essex,  to  capitulate.  Bands  of  Irish  soldiers  had  disem- 
barked on  the  coast  of  Scotland,  and  Montrose,  one  of  the 
bravest  of  the  cavaliers,  appearing  suddenly  in  their  camp  in 
Highland  costume,  roused  the  Northern  clans,  gained  two  bat- 
tles, and  scattered  terror  up  to  the  very  walls  of  Edinburgh.  The 
King  marched  on  London;  the  people  shut  their  shops,  prayed, 
and  fasted,  when  suddenly  they  heard  that  Charles  had  been  de- 
feated for  the  second  time  at  Newbury.  The  parliamentary 
troops  did  wonders  in  this  battle;  when  they  saw  the  guns  which 
they  had  formerly  lost  in  Cornwall,  they  flung  themselves  upon 
the  royal  batteries,  seized  their  pieces,  and  brought  them  back 
embracing  them  with  tears  of  joy. 

Misunderstandings  now  broke  out  among  the  conquerors. 
Power  passed  from  the  hands  of  the  Presbyterians  into  those  of 
the  Independents.  The  latter  party  numbered  in  its  ranks  en- 
thusiasts, philosophers,  and  libertines,  but  it  derived  its  unity 
from  one  principle  which  all  of  these  held — that  of  liberty  of  con- 
science. In  spite  of  their  crimes  and  their  visions,  this  principle 
gave  them  the  victory  over  less  energetic  and  consistent  ad- 
versaries. While  the  Presbyterians  thought  that  they  were  pre- 
paring peace  by  useless  negotiations  with  the  King,  the 
Independents  seized  the  management  of  the  war.  Cromwell 
declared  that  the  generals  protracted  it  on  purpose,  and  the 
Parliament,  influenced  either  by  public  spirit  or  the  fear  of  losing 
popularity,  enacted  the  "self-denying  ordinance,"  and  excluded 
its  own  members  from  all  civil  and  military  employment. 


MODERN  HISTORY  127 

Cromwell  found  means,  by  fresh  successes,  of  exempting  him- 
self from  the  general  rule,  and  the  Independents  defeated  the 
royal  army  at  Naseby,  near  Northampton.  The  papers  of  the 
King,  found  after  the  victory  and  read  publicly  in  London, 
proved  that,  in  spite  of  his  protestations,  a  thousand  times  re- 
peated, he  had  invited  foreigners,  and  especially  Irish  Catholics, 
to  his  aid.  At  the  same  time  Montrose,  abandoned  by  the  High- 
landers, who  fled  to  their  homes  with  their  booty,  was  surprised 
and  defeated.  Prince  Rupert,  until  that  time  famous  for  his  im- 
petuous courage,  gave  up  Bristol  on  the  first  summons.  The 
King  wandered  for  a  long  time  from  town  to  town,  and  from 
house  to  house,  continually  changing  his  disguise;  he  halted  for 
a  moment  on  Harrow  hill,  deliberating  whether  he  should  return 
to  his  capital,  which  he  could  see  in  the  distance.  At  length  he 
took  refuge,  more  from  weariness  than  choice,  in  the  Scottish 
camp,  in  which  the  French  minister  had  promised  him  protec- 
tion, but  where  he  soon  found  himself  a  prisoner.  His  hosts 
spared  him  no  humiliation.  A  Scotch  minister  preaching  before 
him  at  Newcastle  gave  out  the  following  psalm  to  be  sung  by 
the  congregation : 

"  Why  dost  thou,  tyrant,  boast  thyself, 
Thy  wicked  deeds  to  praise?  " 

On  which  the  King  stood  up,  and  commenced  singing  the  psalm 
which  begins  with  these  words : 

.    "  Have  mercy,  Lord,  on  me,  I  pray, 
For  men  would  me  devour," 

and,  with  one  consent,  the  whole  congregation  joined  with  him. 
Nevertheless,  the  Scotch,  who  despaired  of  making  him  accept 
the  covenant,  delivered  him  to  the  English,  who  offered  to  pay 
their  war-expenses. 

The  unhappy  Prince  was  no  longer  anything  better  than  an 
instrument,  whose  possession  was  quarrelled  for  by  the  Inde- 
pendents and  Presbyterians  until  they  destroyed  it.  The  mis- 
understanding between  the  Parliament  and  the  army  increased. 
The  King  was  withdrawn  from  the  custody  of  the  parliamentary 
commissioners,  and,  without  any  orders  on  the  part  of  the  com- 
mander-in-chief,  Fairfax,  he  was  carried  oft  by  command  of 
Cromwell  to  the  army. 

A  reaction,  however,  took  place  in  favor  of  the  King.  Bands 
of  citizens  and  apprentices,  of  discharged  officers  and  sailors, 
forced  the  doors  of  Westminster  Hall  and  obliged  the  members 
to  vote  for  the  return  of  the  King.  But  sixty  of  them  took 
refuge  with  the  army,  which  at  once  marched  upon  London. 
Its  entry  into  the  capital  was  the  triumph  of  the  Independents. 
Cromwell,  seeing  the  Presbyterians  eclipsed,  and  fearing  his 


1 2i  8  MICHELET 

own  party,  hesitated  a  moment  whether  he  should  not  work  for 
the  re-establishment  of  the  King.  But,  seeing  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  trust  Charles,  his  views  became  more  ambitious,  and 
he  conceived  the  design  of  withdrawing  the  King  from  the  army 
as  he  had  carried  him  off  from  the  Parliament.  Charles, 
alarmed  by  threatening  notices,  escaped  into  the  Isle  of  Wight, 
where  he  found  himself  at  the  mercy  of  Cromwell. 

The  ruin  of  the  King  sealed  Cromwell's  reconciliation  with  the 
republicans.  He  had  been  obliged  to  repress  in  the  army  the 
anarchical  faction  of  Levellers ;  he  had  seized  one  of  them  in  the 
middle  of  a  regiment,  and  had  at  once  condemned  and  executed 
him  in  the  presence  of  the  army;  but  he  had  taken  care  not  to 
break  forever  with  so  powerful  a  party. 

He  regained  his  influence  over  them  by  beating  the  Scotch, 
whose  army  came  to  assist  in  the  reaction  in  the  King's  favor. 
The  English  Parliament,  frightened  by  a  victory  which  was  so 
rapid  and  likely  to  turn  to  the  advantage  of  the  Independents, 
hastened  once  more  to  negotiate  with  the  King.  While  Charles 
was  disputing  with  its  commissioners  and  loyally  rejecting  the 
means  of  escape  which  his  servants  prepared  for  him,  the  army 
carried  him  off  from  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  purged  the  Parlia- 
ment. Colonel  Pride,  with  a  list  of  the  proscribed  members  in 
his  hand,  stood  at  the  door  of  the  House,  at  the  head  of  two  regi- 
ments, and  excluded  with  violence  those  who  attempted  to  enter. 
Henceforth  the  party  of  the  Independents  was  supreme,  and  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  fanatics  reached  its  height. 

The  King  was  brought  before  a  court  presided  over  by  John 
Bradshaw,  a  cousin  of  Milton.  In  spite  of  the  opposition  of  sev- 
eral members,  among  whom  was  the  young  and  virtuous  Sid- 
ney; in  spite  of  the  remonstrances  of  Charles,  who  maintained 
that  the  House  of  Commons  could  not  exercise  parliamentary 
authority  without  the  concurrence  of  the  King  and  the  peers;  in 
spite  of  the  intervention  of  the  Scotch  commissioners,  and  of  the 
ambassadors  from  the  States-General,  the  King  was  condemned 
to  death.  When  the  charge  was  read  representing  that  Charles 
Stuart  was  brought  there  to  answer  to  an  accusation  of  treason, 
and  other  such  crimes,  presented  against  him  in  the  name  of  the 
people  of  England,  "Not  a  tenth  part  of  them/  cried  a  voice; 
"where  are  the  people?  where  is  their  consent?  Oliver  Crom- 
well is  a  traitor." 

A  thrill  passed  through  the  assembly;  every  eye  was  turned  to 
the  gallery.  "Down  with  the  women,"  cried  Colonel  Axtell;  "Sol- 
diers, fire  upon  them !"  Lady  Fairfax  was  recognized  as  the 
speaker. 

Before,  as  well  as  after,  the  sentence,  the  court  refused  to  hear 
the  King;  he  was  dragged  from  the  chamber  amid  the  insults  of 
the  soldiers,  and  cries  of  "justice!  execution !"  When  the  death- 


MODERN  HISTORY 

warrant  had  to  be  signed,  there  was  great  difficulty  in  collecting 
the  commissioners.  Cromwell,  almost  the  only  one  who  was 
gay,  bold,  and  noisy,  behaved  with  his  usual  buffoonery;  after 
being  the  third  to  sign,  he  splashed  with  ink  the  face  of  Henry 
Martyn,  who  was  sitting  next  to  him,  and  who  at  once  played 
him  a  similar  trick.  At  last  fifty-nine  signatures  were  obtained, 
some  of  the  names  so  ill-written,  either  from  indecision,  or  on 
purpose,  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  decipher  them. 

The  scaffold  had  been  raised  against  a  window  in  Whitehall. 
The  King,  after  blessing  his  children,  walked  firmly  towards 
it,  with  head  erect,  outstepping  the  soldiers  who  guarded 
him.  Many  of  the  bystanders  dipped  their  handkerchiefs 
in  his  blood.  Cromwell  desired  to  see  the  body  after  it 
had  been  placed  in  the  coffin.  He  considered  it  attentively,  and 
raised  the  head  with  his  hand,  as  if  to  make  sure  that  it  was  sev- 
ered from  the  trunk,  observing:  "How  sound  the  body  was,  and 
how  well  made  for  longevity." 

The  House  of  Lords  was  abolished  two  days  afterwards.  A 
great  seal  was  engraved,  with  this  legend:  "In  the  first  year  of 
freedom,  by  God's  blessing,  restored,  1648."^ 

d  Old    style.    This    date    corresponds  with  February  9,  1649. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

THIRTY   YEARS'    WAR. 
THE    LAST  STRUGGLE   OF  THE   REFORMATION,  1618—1648. 

The  Thirty  Years'  War  was  the  last  struggle  which  marked 
the  progress  of  the  Reformation.  This  war,  whose  direction 
and  object  were  equally  undetermined,  may  be  divided  into  four 
distinct  portions,  in  which  the  Elector  Palatine,  Denmark,  Swe- 
den, and  France  played  in  succession  the  principal  part.  It  be- 
came more  and  more  complicated,  until  it  spread  over  the  whole 
of  Europe. 

It  was  prolonged  indefinitely  by  various  causes.  I.  The  inti- 
mate union  between  the  two  branches  of  the  house  of  Austria 
and  of  the  Catholic  party — their  opponents,  on  the  other  hand, 
were  not  homogeneous.  II.  The  inaction  of  England,  the  tardy 
intervention  of  France,  the  poverty  of  Denmark  and  Sweden,  etc. 

The  armies  which  took  part  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War  were  no 
longer  feudal  militias;  they  were  permanent  armies,  although 
their  sovereigns  were  incapable  of  supporting  them.  They  lived 
at  the  expense  of  the  countries  which  they  laid  waste.  The 
ruined  peasant  turned  soldier  and  sold  himself  to  the  first  comer. 
The  war,  as  it  continued,  formed  armies  which  belonged  to  no 
country;  an  immense  military  force  which  spread  over  all  Ger- 
many, and  encouraged  the  most  gigantic  projects  both  in  Princes 
and  private  individuals. 

Germany  once  more  became  the  centre  of  European  politics. 
The  first  struggle  between  the  Reformation  and  the  house  of 
Austria  was  renewed  there  after  an  interval  of  sixty  years. 
Every  power  took  part  in  it. 

The  natural  result  would  have  been  to  alter  the  face  of  all 
Europe;  only  one  important  change,  however,  can  be  perceived: 
France  succeeded  to  the  supremacy  of  the  house  of  Austria;  but 
the  influence  of  the  Reformation  diminished  from  this  period, 
and  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia  introduced  a  new  era. 

Whether  from  fear  of  the  Turks,  or  from  the  personal  modera- 
tion ot  its  Princes,  the  German  branch  of  the  house  of  Austria 
followed,  in  the  latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  a  policy  which 
was  entirely  opposed  to  that  of  Philip  II.  The  tolerance  of 

130 


MODERN  HISTORY  131 

Ferdinand  I.  and  of  Maximilian  II.  favored  the  progress  of 
Protestantism  in  Austria,  Bohemia,  and  Hungary;  Maximilian 
was  even  suspected  of  being  a  Protestant  at  heart  [1555 — 1576]. 
The  feeble  Rudolph  II.,  who  succeeded  him,  possessed  neither 
his  talent  nor  his  moderation.  While  he  shut  himself  up  with 
Tycho  Brahe  to  study  astrology  and  alchemy,  the  Protestants 
of  Hungary,  Austria,  and  Bohemia  made  common  cause.  Ru- 
dolph's brother,  the  Archduke  Matthias,  favored  them,  and 
forced  the  Emperor  to  yield  to  him  Austria  and  Hungary  [1607 
—1609]. 

The  Empire  was  as  much  disturbed  as  the  hereditary  States  of 
the  house  of  Austria.  Aix-la-Chapelle  and  Donauworth,  where 
the  Protestants  were  masters,  were  placed  under  the  ban  of  the 
Empire.  The  Elector-Archbishop  of  Cologne,  who  wished  to 
secularize  his  States,  was  dispossessed.  The  succession  to 
Cleves  and  Juliers,  which  came  into  question  at  this  time,  com- 
plicated still  further  the  situation  of  Germany.  Protestant  and 
Catholic  Princes,  the  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  the  Duke  of  Neu- 
burg,  the  Duke  of  Zweibriicken,  and  others  besides,  pretended 
to  it.  The  Empire  was  split  up  into  two  leagues.  Henry  IV., 
who  favored  the  Protestants,  was  about  to  enter  Germany  and 
take  advantage  of  the  state  of  affairs  to  humiliate  the  house  of 
Austria,  when  he  was  assassinated  [1610].  The  Thirty  Years' 
War  was  none  the  less  terrible  for  being  postponed. 

Matthias,  after  obliging  Rudolph  to  give  up  Bohemia  to  him, 
succeededhim  in  the  Empire  [1612 — 1619], and  also  in  all  the  dif- 
ficulties of  his  position.  The  Spaniards  and  the  Dutch  occupied 
the  duchies  of  Cleves  and  of  Juliers.  The  Bohemians,  led  by  the 
Count  of  Thurn,  rose  in  defence  of  their  religion.  Thurn,  at  the 
head  of  some  deputies  from  the  estates  of  Bohemia,  marched  into 
the  council-chamber,  and  the  four  imperial  commissioners  were 
thrown  into  the  ditch  of  the  castle  of  Prague  [1618].  The  Bo- 
hemians pretended  that  it  was  an  ancient  custom  in  their  coun- 
try to  throw  prevaricating  ministers  out  of  the  window.  They 
raised  troops,  and,  not  choosing  to  recognize  the  pupil  of  the 
Jesuits,  Ferdinand  II.  of  Austria,  as  the  successor  to  Matthias, 
they  gave  their  crown  to  Frederick  V.,  the  Elector  Palatine,  son- 
in-law  of  the  King  of  England  and  nephew  of  the  Stadholder  of 
Holland.  At  the  same  time  the  Hungarians,  equally  rejecting 
Ferdinand,  elected  for  their  King  the  Waiwode  of  Transylvania, 
Bethlem  Gabon  Ferdinand,  besieged  for  a  short  time  in  Vienna 
by  the  Bohemians,  was  supported  by  the  Duke  of  Bavaria,  by 
the  Catholic  League  in  Germany,  and  by  Spain.  Frederick, 
who  was  a  Calvinist,  was  abandoned  by  the  Lutheran  Union; 
while  James  L  of  England,  his  father-in-law,  contented  himself 
with  negotiating  in  his  favor.  Attacked  in  the  very  capital  of 
Bohemia,  he  lost  the  battle  of  Prague  through  his  own  negli- 


I3fc  MICHELET 

gence  or  cowardice.  He  was  dining  quietly  in  the  castle,  while 
his  soldiers  were  dying  for  him  in  the  plain  [1621].  In  spite  of 
the  bravery  of  Mansfeld,  and  other  partisans,  who  ravaged  Ger- 
many in  his  name,  he  was  driven  out  of  the  Palatinate;  the 
Protestant  Union  was  dissolved,  and  the  electoral  dignity  of  the 
Palatine  transferred  to  the  Duke  of  Bavaria. 

Danish  period,  1625 — 1629. — The  States  of  Lower  Saxony, 
threatened  by  the  Emperor  with  a  speedy  restitution  of  the  ec- 
clesiastical property  they  had  confiscated,  called  to  the  assist- 
ance of  Germany  those  Northern  Princes  who  shared  their  re- 
ligious interests.  The  young  King  of  Sweden,  Gustayus 
Adolphus,  was  at  this  time  occupied  by  a  glorious  war  against 
Poland,  the  ally  of  Austria.  The  King  of  Denmark,  Christian 
IV.,  undertook  the  defence  of  Saxony.  In  this  new  war,  Ferdi- 
nand II.  wished  not  to  depend  upon  the  Catholic  League,  of 
which  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  was  chief,  and  whose  troops  were 
commanded  by  the  celebrated  Tilly.  Count  Wallenstein,  an 
officer  of  the  Emperor,  offered  to  raise  an  army  for  him,  if  he 
might  be  allowed  to  carry  it  to  50,000  men.  He  kept  his  word. 
All  the  adventurers  who  wanted  to  live  by  pillage  flocked  round 
him,  and  he  laid  down  the  law  equally  to  the  friends  and  to  the 
enemies  of  the  Emperor.  Christian  IV.  was  beaten  at  Lutter. 
Wallenstein  subdued  Pomerania,  and  received  from  the  Em- 
peror the  possessions  of  the  two  Dukes  of  Mecklenburgh,  and 
the  title  of  General  of  the  Baltic.  If  the  Swedes  had  not  thrown 
some  succors  into  the  fortress,  he  would  have  taken  the  strong 
town  of  Stralsund  [1628].  All  the  North  trembled.  In  order 
to  divide  his  enemies,  the  Emperor  granted  an  humiliating  peace 
to  Denmark  [1629].  He  ordered  the  Protestants  to  restore  all 
the  ecclesiastical  estates  secularized  since  1555.  Then  Wall  en- 
stein's  army  fell  once  more  upon  Germany,  and  trampled  upon 
her  without  restraint;  many  States  were  taxed  with  enormous 
contributions;  the  distress  of  the  inhabitants  was  extreme;  some 
of  them  disinterred  the  dead  to  satisfy  their  hunger;  dead  bodies 
were  found  with  their  mouths  still  full  of  raw  weeds. 

Germany  was  rescued  by  Sweden  and  France.  Cardinal 
Richelieu  freed  the  hands  of  the  Swedes  by  arranging  for  them 
a  peace  with  Poland.  He  disarmed  the  Emperor  by  persuading 
him  that  he  would  not  be  able  to  secure  the  election  of  his  son  as 
King  of  the  Romans,  unless  he  sacrificed  Wallenstein  to  the  re- 
sentment of  Germany.  And  as  soon  as  the  Emperor  was  de- 
prived of  his  best  general,  Gustavus  Adolphus  fell  upon  the  Em- 
pire [1630], 

Ferdinand  II.  at  first  was  not  much  disturbed;  he  said  that  the 
"Snow  King"  would  melt  as  he  penetrated  into  the  South.  As 
yet  the  world  knew  not  the  worth  of  those  men  of  iron — that 
heroic  and  pious  army — as  compared  with  the  mercenary  troops 


MODERN  HISTORY  133 

of  Germany.  A  little  while  after  the  arrival  of  Gustavus,  Tor- 
quato  Conti,  one  of  the  Emperor's  generals,  on  asking  for  a  truce 
on  account  of  the  severe  cold,  received  as  an  answer  from  Gus- 
tavus that  the  Swedes  knew  not  what  winter  meant.  The  con- 
queror's genius  disconcerted  the  German  routine  by  an  impetu- 
ous system  of  tactics,  which  sacrificed  everything  to  the  rapidity 
of  movement,  and  was  prodigal  of  life  in  order  to  shorten  war. 
His  plan  was  to  make  himself  master  of  the  strong  places  along 
the  principal  rivers,  to  render  Sweden  safe  by  closing  the  Baltic 
to  the  Imperialists,  to  detach  all  their  allies,  and  to  surround 
Austria  before  attacking  her.  If  he  had  marched  straight  upon 
Vienna,  Germany  would  have  regarded  him  as  a  foreign  con- 
queror; by  driving  out  the  Imperialists  from  the  Northern  and 
Western  States,  which  they  were  crushing,  he  appeared  in  the 
light  of  a  champion  of  the  Empire  against  the  Emperor.  Tilly, 
who  first  encountered  him,  could  not  stop  the  torrent ;  he  only 
drew  down  the  execration  of  Europe  on  the  armies  of  the  Em- 
pire by  the  sack  of  Magdeburg.  Saxony  and  Brandenburg, 
which  would  have  liked  to  remain  neutral,  were  drawn  into  the 
alliance  with  Gustavus  by  the  rapidity  of  his  victories.  He  de- 
feated Tilly  at  the  bloody  battle  of  Leipsic,  in  1631.  While  the 
Saxons  were  preparing  to  attack  Bohemia,  he  defeated  the  Duke 
of  Lorraine,  penetrated  into  Alsace,  and  subdued  the  electorates 
of  Treves,  Mayence,  and  the  Rhine,  which  Richelieu  would  have 
allowed  to  remain  neutral;  but  Gustavus  would  have  either 
friends  or  enemies.  Finally,  Bavaria  was  invaded  at  the  same 
time  as  Bohemia;  Tilly  died  in  defending  the  line  of  the  Lech, 
and  Austria  was  left  unprotected  on  all  sides. 

Ferdinand  was  then  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  the  proud 
general  whom  he  had  dismissed.  For  a  long  time  Wallenstein 
had  the  Emperor  and  the  Catholics  at  his  feet;  "He  was  too 
happy,"  he  said,  "in  his  retirement."  His  philosophical  mod- 
eration could  only  be  overcome  by  giving  him  power  equal  to 
that  of  the  Emperor. 

At  this  price  he  saved  Bohemia,  and  marched  upon  Nurem- 
berg to  stop  the  progress  of  Gustavus.  It  was  a  grand  spectacle 
for  Europe  to  see  these  two  invincible  generals  encamped  for 
three  months  face  to  face,  hesitating  to  make  use  of  an  oppor- 
tunity which  had  been  so  long  watched  for.  At  length  Wallen- 
stein marched  upon  Saxony,  and  was  joined  near  Liitzen  by  the 
King  of  Sweden.  Gustavus  commenced  the  attack.  After  sev- 
eral charges,  the  King,  deceived  by  the  fog,  threw  himself  in 
front  of  the  enemy's  ranks,  and  fell,  struck  by  two  balls.  The 
Duke  of  Saxe-Lauenburg,  who  afterwards  joined  the  Imperial- 
ists, was  behind  him  at  the  fatal  moment,  and  was  accused  of  his 
death.  The  buff  jerkin  worn  by  the  Swedish  hero  was  sent  to 
Vienna  [1632].  All  Europe  wept  for  Gustavus,  but  perhaps  her 


I34  MICHELET 

tears  were  out  of  place.  He  may  have  died  at  a  moment  which 
was  fortunate  for  his  renown.  He  had  saved  Germany,  and  had 
not  had  time  to  oppress  her.  He  had  not  restored  the  Palatinate 
to  the  despoiled  Elector;  he  intended  Mayence  for  his  Chancel- 
lor, Oxenstierna;  he  had  manifested  a  liking  for  Augsburg, 
which  would  have  become  the  seat  of  a  new  empire. 

While  the  skilful  Oxenstierna  carried  on  the  war,  and  de- 
clared himself  at  Heilbronn  Chief  of  the  League  of  the  circles  of 
Franconia,  Swabia,  and  the  Rhine,  Wallenstein  remained  in 
Bohemia,  in  formidable  inaction.  It  seemed  as  if  Gustavus  had 
been  working  in  the  interests  of  his  rival  when  he  subdued  the 
imperial  party  throughout  Germany.  He  had  served  him  both 
by  his  victories  and  by  his  death.  "Germany,"  said  Wallenstein, 
"could  not  hold  two  such  men  as  we  were."  After  the  death  of 
Gustavus,  he  reigned  alone.  Secluded  in  his  palace  at  Prague, 
with  a  royal  retinue,  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  adventurers  who 
had  attached  themselves  to  his  fortunes,  he  watched  his  oppor- 
tunity. This  terrible  man,  who  never  laughed,  who  addressed 
his  soldiers  only  to  make  their  fortunes  or  pronounce  their 
death-warrant,  commanded  the  attention  of  all  Europe.  The 
King  of  France  called  him  his  cousin,  and  Richelieu  advised  him 
to  make  himself  King  of  Bohemia.  It  was  time  for  the  Emperor 
to  come  to  a  decision — he  chose  that  of  Henry  III.  with  regard 
to  the  Duke  of  Guise.  Wallenstein  was  assassinated  at  Egra, 
and  Ferdinand,  in  memory  of  his  former  services,  ordered  3,000 
masses  to  be  said  for  the  benefit  of  his  soul  [1634]. 

The  Elector  of  Saxony  had,  however,  made  peace  with  the 
Emperor,  and  the  Swedes  were  not  strong  enough  to  maintain 
themselves  unsupported  in  Germany.  France,  in  her  turn,  had 
to  come  down  into  the  field  of  battle. 

French  period,  1635 — 1648. — Richelieu,  who  at  that  time 
governed  France,  had  found  her  abandoned  to  Spanish  influ- 
ence, disturbed  by  the  Princes  and  the  nobles,  by  the  Queen- 
mother,  by  the  Protestants  (Government  of  Mary  of  Medicis, 
nfoo — 1617;  of  the  favorite,  the  Duke  de  Luynes,  1617 — 1621). 
He  adopted  the  system  of  Henri  IV.,  with  this  difference,  that 
he  had  no  anterior  obligation,  no  motive  of  gratitude  to  force 
him  to  keep  terms  with  the  Protestants.  He  took  from  them 
La  Rochelle,  by  throwing  across  the  sea  a  stone  dyke  more  than 
half  a  mile  long,  as  Alexander  did  at  the  siege  of  Tyre;  he  con- 
quered, disarmed,  and,  nevertheless,  reassured  them  [1627 — 
1628]. 

His  next  measures  were  against  the  Princes  and  nobles.  He 
turned  the  mother  and  brother  of  the  King  out  of  France,  and 
struck  off  the  heads  of  a  Marillac  and  a  Montmorency  [1630 — 
1632].  He  had  his  own  prison  in  his  house  at  Ruel,  where  he 
caused  his  enemies  to  be  condemned,  and  afterwards  turned 


MODERN  HISTORY  135 

their  judges  into  ridicule.     There  remained  for  him  only  to  gild 
these  internal  victories  with  the  glory  of  foreign  conquests 

[1635]- 

First  he  purchased  Bernard  of  Weimar,  the  best  pupil  of  Gus- 
tavus  Adolphus,  with  his  army.  He  allied  himself  with  the 
Dutch  to  share  the  Spanish  portion  of  the  Low  Countries,  whilst 
at  the  other  end  of  France  he  set  himself  to  recover  Roussillon ; 
the  alliance  with  the  Duke  of  Savoy  secured  for  him  a  passage 
into  Italy.  France  gained  more  glory  than  solid  advantage  in 
Italy,  for  she  was  herself  invaded  at  this  time  on  the  side  of  the 
Low  Countries.  But  her  allies,  the  Dutch,  destroyed  the  Span- 
ish fleet  in  the  Battle  of  the  Downs  [1639],  Bernard  of  Weimar 
took  the  four  forest  towns  (Waldshut,  Luffemberg,  Seckingen, 
and  Rhineld),  Fribourg,  and  Brisach,  and  gained  four  victories 
beneath  their  walls.  He  forgot  that  he  had  already  sold  his  con- 
quest to  France,  and  was  about  to  make  himself  independent 
when  he  died — as  opportunely  for  Richelieu,  as  Wallenstein  for 
Ferdinand. 

Everything  became  easy  for  the  French  from  the  moment 
that  the  revolt  of  Catalonia  and  Portugal  reduced  Spain  to  a  de- 
fensive war.  The  house  of  Braganza  ascended  the  throne  of 
Portugal  with  the  applause  of  all  Europe  [1640].  The  French, 
already  victorious  in  Italy,  took  Arras  and  Thionville  in  the 
Netherlands.  The  great  Conde  gained  the  battle  of  Rocroy 
five  days  after  the  accession  of  Louis  XIV. ;  a  success  which  re- 
assured France,  deprived  by  death  of  Louis  XIII.  and  Richelieu. 

The  war  had  then  for  the  second  time  changed  its  character. 
To  the  fanaticism  of  Tilly  and  his  master,  Ferdinand  II.;  to 
the  revolutionary  genius  of  Wallenstein  and  Weimar,  had  suc- 
ceeded skilful  tacticians,  such  as  Piccolomini  and  Merci,  gen- 
erals of  the  Emperor,  and  the  pupils  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Ban- 
ner, Torstenson,  and  Wrangel.  As  war  had  become  a  profes- 
sion for  so  many,  peace  became  more  and  more  difficult. 
France,  entirely  occupied  in  securing  her  conquests  of  Lorraine 
and  Alsace,  refused  to  join  Sweden  against  Austria.  At  one 
time  Torstenson  hoped  to  succeed  without  the  assistance  of 
France.  This  paralytic  general,  who  astonished  Europe  with 
the  rapidity  of  his  movements,  had  renewed  the  glory  of  Gus- 
tavus Adolphus  at  Leipsic  [1642];  in  the  Danes  he  had  struck 
down  the  secret  friends  of  the  Emperor;  an  alliance  with  the 
Transylvanians  permitted  him  to  penetrate  at  length  into  Austria 
[1645].  The  defection  of  the  Transylvanians  and  the  death  of 
Torstenson  saved  the  Emperor. 

Negotiations,  however,  had  been  opened  in  1636;  and  the  ac- 
cession of  Ferdinand  III.  to  the  Empire  appeared  likely  to  favor 
them  [1637].  Although  the  intervention  of  the  Pope,  of  Venice, 
and  of  the  Kings  of  Denmark,  Poland,  and  England  had  been 


136  MICHELET 

rejected,  the  preliminaries  of  peace  were  signed  in  1642.  The 
death  of  Richelieu  reawakened  the  hopes  of  the  house  of  Austria, 
and  postponed  the  peace. 

The  victories  of  Conde  at  Fribourg,  Nordingen,  and  Lens 
[1644,  *645,  1648];  that  of  Turenne  and  the  Swedes  at  Som- 
mershausen,  and  finally  the  seizure  of  the  Lesser  Prague  by 
Wrangel  [1648],  had  to  take  place  before  the  Emperor  could 
make  up  his  mind  to  sign  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia,  after  which 
the  war  continued  only  between  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal. 
Its  principal  articles  were  these: 

I.  The  Peace  of  Augsburg  [1555]  was  confirmed,  and  ex- 
tended to  the  Calvinists. 

II.  The  sovereignty  of  the  different  Germanic  States  in  the 
whole  extent  of  their  territory  was  formally  recognized,  as  well 
as  their  rights  in  the  general  diets  of  the  empire.     These  rights 
were  guaranteed,  at  home,  by  the  composition  of  the  Imperial 
Chambers  and  the  Aulic  Council,  which  were  in  future  to  be 
composed   of   equal   numbers   of   Protestants   and    Catholics; 
abroad,  by  the  mediation  of  France  and  Sweden. 

III.  Indemnities  were  granted  to  several  States ;  and,  in  order 
to  discharge  them,  many  ecclesiastical  possessions  were  secular- 
ized.    France  obtained  Alsace,  the  Three  Bishoprics,  Philips- 
burg,  and  Pignerol — the  keys  of  Germany  and  Piedmont.    Swe- 
den, part  of  Pomerania,  Bremen,  Werden,  Wismar,  etc. ;  three 
votes  in  the  diets  of  the  Empire,  and  five  million  crowns.     The 
Elector  of  Brandenburg,  Magdeburg,  Halberstadt,  etc.      Sax- 
ony, Mecklenburg,  and  Hesse-Cassel  were  also  indemnified. 

IV.  Frederick  V.'s  son  recovered  the  lower  Palatinate  of  the 
Rhine  (the  higher  Palatinate  remained  Bavarian)  ;  an  eighth 
Electorate  was  created  in  his  favor. 

V.  The  United  Provinces  were  recognized  as  independent  of 
Spain ;  the  United  Provinces  and  the  Swiss  Cantons  as  inde- 
pendent of  the  German  Empire. 


CHAPTER  XIIL 

THE   FIFTEENTH   CENTURY. 

GENERAL    HISTORICAL    SURVEY    OF    THE    EAST    AND 

NORTH. 

Section  I. — Turkey,  Hungary,  1566 — 1648. 

The  reign  of  Soliman  the  Magnificent  had  been  the  culminat- 
ing point  of  Ottoman  glory.  Under  him  the  Turks  were  as 
formidable  on  land  as  on  sea;  they  entered  into  the  politics  of 
Europe  by  their  alliance  with  France  against  the  house  of  Aus- 
tria. Soliman  endeavored  to  give  a  system  of  legislation  to  his 
people;  he  collected  the  maxims  and  ordinances  of  his  predeces- 
sors, filled  up  their  deficiencies,  and  organized  the  civil  service 
of  the  State.  He  embellished  Constantinople  by  restoring  the 
ancient  aqueduct,  whence  the  water  flows  into  800  fountains ;  he 
founded  the  Mosque  Souleimanieh,  which  contains  four  col- 
leges, a  hospital  for  the  poor,  another  for  the  sick,  and  a  library 
containing  2,000  manuscripts.  The  Turkish  language  was  en- 
nobled by  the  admixture  of  Arabic  and  Persian;  Soliman  him- 
self made  verses  in  both  languages.  In  his  old  age  the  Sultan 
was  entirely  governed  by  his  wife,  Roxelana,  who  induced  him 
to  put  to  death  all  the  children  of  his  first  marriage.  The  Em- 
pire, exhausted  by  war,  seemed  to  grow  old  with  its  Sultan  un- 
der the  influence  of  the  Seraglio.  Soliman  prepared  its  decline 
by  excluding  the  members  of  the  imperial  family  from  all  mili- 
tary commands. 

Under  his  indolent  successor,  Selim  II.  [1566—1574],  the 
Turks  took  Cyprus  from  the  Venetians,  who  were  ill-seconded 
by  Spain ;  but  they  were  defeated  in  the  Gulf  of  Lepanto  by  the 
combined  fleets  of  Philip  II.,  of  Venice,  and  of  the  Pope,  under 
the  command  of  Don  John  of  Austria.  After  this  check,  the 
Turks  owned  that  God,  who  had  given  them  the  empire  of  the 
earth,  had  left  that  of  the  sea  to  the  infidels. 

Under  Amurath  III.,  Mahomet  III.,  and  Achmet  I.  [1574 — 
1617],  the  Turks  kept  up  with  variable  success  long  wars  against 
the  Persians  and  Hungarians.  The  janizaries,  who  had  dis- 
turbed the  reigns  of  these  Princes  with  mutinies,  put  their  suc- 

i37 


138  MICHELET 

cessors,  Mustapha  and  Othoman,  to  death  [1617 — 1623].  The 
Empire  raised  its  head  again  under  the  intrepid  Amurath  IV., 
who  occupied  the  turbulent  spirit  of  the  janizaries  in  foreign 
parts,  took  Bagdad,  and  intervened  in  the  troubles  of  India. 
Under  the  imbecile,  Ibrahim,  the  Turks,  following  the  impulse 
given  to  them  by  Amurath,  took  Candia  from  the  Venetians. 

Hungary. — Since  1562  this  kingdom  had  been  divided  be- 
tween the  house  of  Austria  and  the  Turks.  Continual  wars 
arose  in  consequence  of  this  partition.  The  sovereignty  of 
Transylvania  was  another  cause  of  war  between  Austria  and  the 
Porte.  Hungary  was  not  more  tranquil  at  home.  The  Aus- 
trian Princes,  hoping  to  increase  their  power  by  restoring  uni- 
formity in  religion  to  Hungary,  persecuted  the  Protestants  and 
violated  the  privileges  of  the  nation.  The  Hungarians  rose  un- 
der Rudolph  IL,  Ferdinand  IL,  and  Ferdinand  III.;  and  the 
Princes  of  Transylvania,  Stephen  Botschkai,  Bethlem  Gabor, 
George  Ragocki,  offered  themselves  successively  as  chiefs  to  the 
malcontents.  By  the  pacification  of  Vienna  [1606],  and  of 
Linz  [1645];  by  the  decrees  of  the  diets  of  -S-denbourg  and  of 
Presburg  [1647],  the  Kings  of  Hungary  were  forced  to  grant  the 
public  exercise  of  their  religion  to  the  Protestants,  and  to  respect 
the  national  privileges. 

Section  II.— Poland,  Prussia,  Russia,  1505—1648. 

Poland  overcame  the  Teutonic  Order,  a  German  power  which 
had  pushed  Edward  from  Germany  into  the  midst  of  the 
Sclavonian  States,  and  was  ill-supported  by  the  Emperor;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  she  neglected  to  protect  the  Bohemians  and 
Hungarians  in  their  revolts  against  Austria. 

Close  as  were  the  relations  of  the  two  great  nations  of  Sclav- 
onic orgin  with  each  other,  neither  had  much  to  do  with  the 
Scandinavian  States  before  the  revolutions  in  Livonia  entangled 
them  in  a  common  war,  towards  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. Livonia  then  became  to  the  North  of  Europe  what  the 
Milanese  had  been  to  the  South. 

States  of  Poland  and  Russia  in  the  first  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century, — Accession  of  Wasili  IV.,  Ivanowitch  [1505],  and  of 
Sigismund  I.  [1506],  The  feeble  Wasili  had  the  imprudence  to 
break  with  the  Tartars  of  the  Crimea,  who  had  served  Ivan  III. 
so  well;  he  accomplished  the  subjection  of  Plescof,  and  took 
Smolensk  from  the  Lithuanians,  but  he  was  beaten  by  them  in 
the  same  year[isi4].  He  allied  himself  with  the  Teutonic  Order 
against  the  Poles,  but  could  not  prevent  Prussia  from  submitting 
to  Poland.  The  Grand  Master,  Albert  of  Brandenburg,  em- 
braced Lutheranism  [1525],  and  turned  Prussia  into  a  secular 
state  or  duchy,  which  was  granted  to  him  in  fief  by  Sigismund  I. 


MODERN  HISTORY 


139 


1533. — Accession  of  Ivan  IV.  Wasillewitch  in  Russia;  1548, 
of  Sigismund  IL,  surnamed  Augustus,  in  Poland. 

During  the  minority  of  Ivan  IV.,  the  power  passed  from  the 
hands  of  the  Regent  Helena  into  those  of  several  of  the  nobles, 
who  supplanted  each  other  in  turn  [1547].  Under  the  influence 
of  the  Czarina  Anastasia,  Ivan  IV.  at  first  moderated  the  violence 
of  his  character.  He  completed  the  subjection  of  the  Tartars  by 
the  final  annexation  of  Kasan,  and  by  the  conquest  of  Astrakan 

[1552—1554]- 

1552 — 1583.  War  in  Livonia. — The  Order  of  The  Sword, 
which  had  vanquished  the  Russians  in  1502,  was  independent  of 
the  Teutonic  Order  after  1521.  But  about  this  period  all  the 
Northern  powers  claimed  Livonia.  Ivan  IV.,  having  invaded 
her  in  1558,  the  Grand  Master  Gotthard  Kettler  preferred  to 
unite  her  to  Poland  by  the  Treaty  of  Wilna  [1561],  while  creating 
himself  Duke  of  Courland.  The  King  of  Denmark,  Frederick 
IL,  who  was  master  of  the  island  of  QEsel,  and  of  some  of  the  dis- 
tricts, and  the  King  of  Sweden,  Eric  XIV.,  who  was  invited  by 
the  town  of  Revel  and  the  nobles  of  Esthonia,  took  part  in  this 
war,  which  was  continued  by  land  and  on  sea. 

The  Czar  encountered  two  obstacles  in  his  project  of  con- 
quest—the jealousy  of  the  Russians  against  foreigners,  whom  he 
himself  preferred,  and  the  fear  which  his  cruelty  inspired  in  the 
Livoniatis.  He  trampled  upon  all  his  subjects  belonging  either 
to  the  commercial  classes,  or  to  the  nobility,  who  were  capable 
of  resisting  him  [1570],  and  afterwards  invaded  Livonia  in  the 
name  of  the  King  of  Denmark's  brother  [1575].  But  Poland 
and  Sweden  united  against  the  Czar,  who  made  peace  with  Po- 
land, by  giving  up  to  her  Livonia,  and  concluded  a  truce  with 
Sweden,  which  retained  possession  of  Carilia  [1582 — 1583].  He 
died  in  1584. 

[Code  of  Ivan  IV.,  1550,  containing  a  system  of  all  the  ancient 
laws.  Gratuitous  justice.  All  the  holders  of  lands  subjected  to 
military  service.  Establishment  of  military  pay.  Institution 
of  a  permanent  militia  called  the  Strelitz. — Commerce  with  Tar- 
tary,  Turkey,  and  Lithuania.  The  wars  of  Livonia  and  Lithu- 
ania closing  the  Baltic,  the  Russians  could  communicate  with 
the  rest  of  Europe  only  by  sailing-  round  Sweden,  along  the 
Northern  ocean.  1555,  the  Englishman,  Chancellor,  sent  by 
Queen  Mary  to  discover  a  northern  passage  to  India,  lands  on 
the  spot  on  which  Archangel  was  afterwards  founded.  Regular 
commerce  between  England  and  Russia  until  the  civil  wars  in 
Russia,  1605.  1577 — 1581,  discovery  of  Siberia.] 

The  dynasty  of  the  Jagellons  was  extinguished  in  1572,  by 
the  death  of  Sigismund  Augustus;  that  of  Rurik  in  1598  by  the 
death  of  the  Czar  Fedor  L,  son  and  successor  of  Ivan  IV.  From 
these  two  events  resulted,  directly  or  indirectly,  two  long  and 


I4o  MICHELET 

bloody  wars,  which  again  set  all  the  Northern  powers  at  vari- 
ance; the  object  of  the  one  was  the  succession  of  Sweden;  of  the 
other,  that  of  Russia.  The  former,  which  lasted  sixty-seven 
years  [1593 — 1660],  was  twice  interrupted — first  by  the  latter 
war  [1609—1619],  and  afterwards  by  the  Thirty  Years'  War 
[1629—1655]. 

The  throne  of  Poland  became  purely  elective.  1573— 1575, 
Henri  of  Valois.  He  set  foot  in  the  kingdom  only  to  sign  the 
first  pacta  conventa.  1575 — 1587,  Stephen  Batthori,  Prince  of 
Transylvania.  His  accession  put  off  the  moment  when  Poland 
was  to  lose  her  importance.  He  restrained  his  own  subjects 
[Dantzic  and  Riga,  1578 — 1586];  he  humbled  Russia  and  Den- 
mark [1582—1585].  1587,  Sigismund  III.,  son  of  John  III., 
King  of  Sweden,  elected  King  of  Poland,  found  himself,  on  suc- 
ceeding to  his  father's  crown,  in  a  difficult  position.  Sweden 
was  Protestant;  Poland  Catholic;  and  both  countries  alike  laid 
claim  to  Livonia.  Sigismund's  uncle  (Charles  IX.),  chief  of  the 
Lutheran  party  in  Sweden,  prevailed  over  him  by  policy  [1595], 
as  well  as  by  arms  [1598].  Hence  arose  a  war  between  the  two 
nations,  which  continued  until  they  made  Russia  their  battle- 
field. The  usurpation  of  Boris  Godunow,  and  the  imposture  of 
several  false  claimants,  who  pretended  to  be  heirs  to  the  throne 
of  Moscow,  gave  the  Poles  and  Swedes  hopes  either  of  dismem- 
bering Russia,  or  of  setting  one  of  their  own  Princes  on  her 
throne.  Their  hopes  were  defeated.  A  Russian  [1613 — 1645], 
Michael  Federowitsch,  founded  the  house  of  Romanow  [1616— 
1618];  Russia  ceded  Ingria  and  Russian  Carilia  to  Sweden,  and 
the  territories  of  Smolensko,  of  Tschernigow,  and  of  Nov- 
orogod-Severkvi  to  Poland,  and  lost  all  communication  with  the 
Baltic. 

1620 — 1629.  War  was  renewed  between  Poland  and  Sweden 
until  the  period  when  Gustavus  Adolphus  took  part  in  the  Thirty 
Years'  War.  [1629,  a  truce  of  six  years  prolonged  in  1635,  *or 
twenty-six  years  more.] 

Sigismund  III.  and  his  successor,  Ladislas  VII.  [1632 — 1648], 
sustained  long  wars  against  the  Turks,  the  Russians,  and  the 
Cossacks  of  Ukraine. 

Poland  yielded  to  Sweden  the  position  of  chief  power  in  the 
North;  but  she  preserved  her  superiority  over  Russia,  whose 
development  had  been  retarded  by  civil  war. 

Prussia. — 1563,  Joachim  II.,  Elector  of  Brandenburg,  ob- 
tained from  the  King  of  Poland  the  joint  investiture  of  the  fief 
of  Prussia.  In  1618,  on  the  death  of  the  Prussian  Duke  Albert 
Frederick  (son  of  Albert  of  Brandenburg),  his  son-in-law,  the 
Elector  of  Brandenburg,  John  Sigismund,  succeeded  him  in  his 
duchy.  1614 — 1666,  the  electoral  branch  acquired  likewise  part 
of  the  succession  to  Juliers  through  the  right  of  Anne,  daughter 


MODERN  HISTORY  141 

of  the  Duke  of  Prussia,  Albert  Frederick,  and  wife  of  John  Sigis- 
mund,  Elector  of  Brandenburg.  The  son  of  the  latter,  Fred- 
erick William,  founded  the  real  greatness  of  Prussia. 


Section  III. — Denmark  and  Sweden. 

In  the  sixteenth  century  these  two  States  were  each  a  prey  to 
internal  troubles,  and  carried  on  protracted  wars,  which  devel- 
oped their  energies  and  prepared  them  for  the  Thirty  Years' 
War.  Sweden  was  already  anticipating  the  heroic  part  which 
she  sustained  throughout  the  eighteenth  century. 

The  lassitude  of  Denmark  and  the  internal  troubles  of  Sweden 
brought  to  an  end  in  the  peace  of  Stettin  [1570]  the  long  quarrel 
which  had  continued  between  the  two  kingdoms  ever  since  the 
Union  of  Calmar.  Denmark  was  at  peace  during  the  long 
reigns  of  Frederick  II.  [1559 — 1588],  and  of  Christian  IV.,  until 
the  moment  when  the  latter,  who  was  more  skilful  as  an  admin- 
istrator than  as  a  general,  compromised  the  tranquillity  of  Den- 
mark, by  attacking  Gustavus  Adolphus  [1611 — 1613],  and  tak- 
ing part  in  the  Thirty  Years'  War  [1625]. 

The  unworthy  son  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  Eric  XIV.  [1560],  had 
been  dispossessed  by  his  brother,  John  III.  [1560 — 1592],  who 
undertook  to  re-establish  the  Catholic  religion  in  Sweden. 
John's  son,  Sigismund,  King  of  Sweden  and  Poland,  was  sup- 
planted by  his  uncle,  Charles  IX.  [1604],  father  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

EARLY  DISCOVERIES. 
COLONIES   OF   THE   MODERN   WORLD. 

Section  I — The  Motives  of  Colonization. 

Principal  motives  which  have  induced  modern  nations  to  seek 
new  countries,  and  to  establish  themselves  in  them. — i.  A  war- 
like and  adventurous  spirit — the  desire  of  acquisition  by  means 
of  conquest  or  pillage.  2.  Commercial  spirit — desire  of  acqui- 
sition by  the  legitimate  means  of  trade.  3.  Religious  spirit — 
desire  to  convert  idolatrous  nations  to  the  Christian  faith,  or  to 
escape  from  religious  troubles. 

The  foundations  of  the  principal  modern  colonies  was  due  to 
the  five  nations  of  the  extreme  West,  who  have  successively  ob- 
tained the  empire  of  the  sea;  to  the  Portuguese  and  Spaniards 
(fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries) ;  to  the  Dutch  and  the  French 
(seventeenth  century);  finally,  to  the  English  (seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries).  The  Spanish  colonists  had,  in  the  begin- 
ning, for  their  principal  object,  mining  operations;  the  objects 
of  the  Portuguese  were  commerce,  and  raising  money  by  means 
of  tribute ;  the  Dutch  were  essentially  commercial,  and  the  Eng- 
lish both  commercial  and  and  agricultural. 

The  principal  difference  between  the  ancient  and  modern  col- 
onies is  that  the  ancient  were  united  to  their  mother-country 
only  by  the  ties  of  relationship;  the  modern  are  considered  al- 
ways as  the  offspring  of  their  parent,  who  forbade  them  in  early 
times  any  intercourse  with  foreigners. 

Direct  results  of  the  discoveries  and  establishments  of  modern 
colonies. — Commerce  changed  its  form  and  direction.  Com- 
merce by  sea  was  generally  substituted  for  commerce  by  land; 
the  whole  of  the  trade  of  the  world  passed  from  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean  to  the  Western  coasts.  The  indirect  results  are 
innumerable;  one  of  the  most  remarkable  was  the  development 
of  the  maritime  powers. 

Principal  directions  of  Oriental  commerce  during  the  middle 
ages. — In  the  first  half  of  the  middle  ages  the  Greeks  carried  on 
their  commerce  with  India  through  Egypt,  afterwards  by  the 
Euxine  and  Caspian  seas;  in  the  second  half  the  Italians  carried 
theirs  through  Syria  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  and  afterwards 
through  Egypt. 

143 


MODERN  HISTORY  143 

Crusades. — Expeditions  of  Rubruquis,  of  Marco  Polo,  and 
John  Mandeville,  from  the  eleventh  to  the  fourteenth  century. 
In  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  Spaniards  discov- 
ered the  Canaries. 


Section  II. — Discoveries  of  the  Portuguese,  1412 — 1582. 

It  was  the  destiny  of  the  most  Western  nation  in  Europe  to 
begin  the  series  of  discoveries  which  have  extended  European 
civilization  throughout  the  world.  The  Portuguese,  closely 
pressed  by  the  power  of  Spain,  and  always  at  war  with  the  Moors, 
from  whom  they  had  wrested  their  country,  naturally  turned 
their  ambition  towards  Africa.  After  this  Crusade,  which  lasted 
through  several  centuries,  the  ideas  of  the  conquerors  were  ex- 
tended; they  conceived  the  project  of  seeking  out  new  infidel 
nations  to  convert  and  subdue.  A  thousand  ancient  tales  in- 
flamed their  curiosity,  their  bravery,  and  their  avarice;  they 
longed  to  see  those  mysterious  countries  which  nature  had  filled 
with  monsters,  and  in  which  gold  lay  like  seed  upon  the  ground. 
The  infant  Don  Henry,  the  third  son  of  John  I.,  favored  the  en- 
terprise of  the  nation,  He  passed  his  life  at  Sagra,  near  Cape  St. 
Vincent,  whence,  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  Southern  Seas,  he 
directed  the  adventurous  pilots  who  were  the  first  to  visit  those 
unknown  shores.  Cape  Horn,  fatal  boundary  of  the  ancient 
navigators,  had  already  been  doubled;  beyond  it  they  discovered 
Madeira  [1412 — 1413].  After  doubling  Cape  Bajador  and  Cape 
de  Verde,  they  found  the  Azores  [1448],  and  the  formidable  line, 
where  the  air  was  supposed  to  burn  like  fire,  was  crossed.  When 
they  had  penetrated  beyond  Senegal,  they  saw,  with  astonish- 
ment, that  the  men  who  were  dark  on  the  north  bank  became 
black  on  the  south  side  of  the  river.  When  they  reached  Congo, 
they  found  a  new  heaven  and  new  stars  [1484].  But  the  spirit 
of  enterprise  was  still  more  powerfully  stimulated  by  the  gold 
that  was  discovered  in  Guinea. 

The  stories  of  the  ancient  Phoenicians,  who  pretended  to  have 
sailed  round  Africa,  were  now  no  longer  to  be  despised,  and  men 
hoped  that  by  following  the  same  route  they  might  reach  the 
East  Indies.  While  King  John  II.  sent  two  noblemen  to  India 
by  land  (Covillam  and  Payva),  Bartholomew  Diaz  touched  the 
promontory  at  the  southern  extremity  of  Africa,  and  called  it 
the  Cape  of  Storms;  but  the  King,  henceforth  certain  of  discov- 
ering the  route  to  the  Indies,  surnamed  it  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  [1486]. 

It  was  then  that  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  struck  the 
Portuguese  with  astonishment,  and  redoubled  their  energy.  But 
the  two  nations  might  have  disputed  for  the  empire  of  the  sea, 


144  MICHELET 

recourse  was  therefore  had  to  the  mediation  of  the  Pope.  Alex- 
ander VI.  divided  the  two  New  Worlds — all  that  lay  to  the  east 
of  the  Azores  was  to  belong  to  Portugal;  and  all  that  lay  to  the 
West  was  given  to  Spain.  A  line  was  traced  across  the  globe 
which  marked  the  limits  of  these  reciprocal  rights,  and  was 
called  the  line  of  demarcation.  New  discoveries  soon  displaced 
this  line. 

At  length,  the  King  of  Portugal,  Emmanuel  the  Fortunate, 
gave  the  command  of  a  fleet  to  the  famous  Vasco  da  Gama 
[1497 — 1498],  He  received  from  the  Prince  the  account  of 
Covillam's  expedition;  he  took  with  him  ten  men  who  had  been 
condemned  to  death,  whose  lives  might  be  risked  in  an  emer- 
gency, and  who,  by  their  daring,  might  earn  their  pardon.  He 
spent  a  night  in  prayer  in  the  chapel  of  the  Virgin,  and  partook 
of  the  Holy  Sacrament  on  the  day  before  he  set  out.  The  people 
accompanied  him  in  tears  to  the  shore.  A  splendid  convent  has 
been  founded  on  the  spot  whence  Gama  sailed. 

The  fleet  was  approaching  the  terrible  cape,  when  the  crew, 
frightened  by  the  temptuous  ocean  and  fearing  famine,  revolted 
against  Gama.  Nothing,  however,  could  stop  him ;  he  put  the 
leaders  into  irons,  and,  seizing  the  rudder,  doubled  the  extremity 
of  Africa.  Still  greater  dangers  awaited  him  on  its  eastern 
coast,  which  as  yet  had  been  visited  by  no  European  vessel.  The 
Moors,  to  whom  the  commerce  of  Africa  and  India  belonged, 
laid  traps  for  these  new  comers,  who  came  to  share  their  spoil. 
But  they  were  frightened  by  the  Portuguese  artillery;  and  Gama, 
crossing  the  gulf  of  700  leagues  which  separates  Africa  from 
India,  reached  Calicut  thirteen  months  after  his  departure  from 
Lisbon. 

On  landing  on  these  unknown  shores,  Vasco  forbade  his  men 
to  follow  him,  or  to  come  to  his  rescue,  if  they  learnt  that  he  was 
in  danger.  In  spite  of  the  conspiracies  of  the  Moors,  he  forced 
the  alliance  of  Portugal  on  Zamora. 

A  new  expedition  soon  followed  on  the  heels  of  the  first,  under 
the  orders  of  Alvares  Cabral.  The  admiral  received  a  hat 
blessed  by  the  Pope  from  the  hands  of  the  King.  After  passing 
the  Cape  de  Verde,  he  stood  out  to  sea,  sailed  to  the  West,  and 
saw  a  new,  rich,  and  fertile  land — the  reign  of  eternal  spring;  it 
was  Brazil,  the  nearest  point  to  Africa  of  the  American  Conti- 
nent. There  are  only  thirty  degrees  of  longitude  between  this 
country  and  Mount  Atlas;  it  was  naturally  the  first  to  be  discov- 
ered [1500], 

1501— 1515.— The  ability  of  Cabtel,  of  Gama,  and  of  Almeida 
— the  first  Portuguese  Viceroy  in  India — disconcerted  the  ef- 
forts of  the  Moors,  set  the  natives  at  variance,  and  armed  Cochin 
against  Calicut  and  Cananor.  In  Africa,  Quiloa  and  Sofala  re- 
ceived their  laws  from  the  Europeans.  But  the  principal  founder 


MODERN  HISTORY  143 

of  the  empire  of  the  Portuguese  in  India  was  the  brave  Albu- 
querque; he  took,  at  the  entrance  of  the  Persian  Gulf,  Ormuz, 
the  most  brilliant  and  polished  town  in  Asia  [1507].  The  King 
of  Persia,  on  whom  it  depended,  asked  the  Portuguese  to  pay 
tribute;  Albuquerque  pointed  to  his  cannon-balls  and  grenades: 
"This,"  said  he  to  the  ambassadors,  "is  the  coin  in  which  the 
King  of  Portugal  pays  tribute." 

Venice,  meanwhile,  beheld  the  sources  of  her  wealth  drying 
up ;  for  the  route  by  Alexandria  was  beginning  to  be  neglected. 
The  Sultan  of  Egypt  ceased  to  receive  duty  upon  Eastern  com- 
modities. The  Venetians,  in  league  with  him,  sent  to  Alexan- 
dria planks  for  shipbuilding,  which  were  transported  to  Suez, 
and  thus  enabled  him  to  construct  a  fleet  [1508],  which,  at  first, 
obtained  some  advantages  over  the  Portuguese,  who  were  dis- 
persed; but  it  was  afterwards  beaten,  as  well  as  the  other  expedi- 
tions which  followed  each  other  down  the  Red  Sea.  To  prevent 
fresh  attacks,  Albuquerque  proposed  to  the  King  of  Abyssinia 
to  turn  the  course  of  the  Nile,  a  measure  which  would  have 
changed  Egypt  into  a  desert.  He  made  Goa  the  head-quarters 
of  the  Portuguese  establishment  in  India  [1510],  Their  occu- 
pation of  Malacca  and  Ceylon  gave  the  Portuguese  the  dominion 
over  the  vast  ocean  of  which  the  northern  boundary  is  the  Gulf 
of  Bengal  [1511 — 1518].  But  the  conqueror  died  in  poverty 
and  disgrace  at  Goa,  and  with  him  disappeared  all  justice  and 
humanity  among  the  Portuguese.  Long  after  his  death  the  In- 
dians used  to  visit  the  tomb  of  the  great  Albuquerque,  praying 
to  be  delivered  from  the  oppressions  of  his  successors. 

The  Portuguese,  after  introducing  themselves  into  China  and 
Japan  [1517 — 1542],  kept  for  some  time  the  whole  maritime 
commerce  of  Asia  in  their  hands.  Their  empire  extended  to  the 
coast  of  Guinea,  Melinda,  Mozambique,  and  Sofala;  to  those  of 
the  two  peninsulas  of  India ;  to  Malacca,  Ceylon,  and  the  islands 
of  Sunda.  But  in  all  this  vast  extent  of  country  they  held  only 
a  chain  of  counting-houses  and  fortresses.  The  decline  of  their 
colonies  was  accelerated  by  various  causes;  (i)  the  distance  of 
their  conquests;  (2)  the  scanty  population  of  Portugal,  out  of 
proportion  to  the  extent  of  her  establishments,  for  the  vanity  of 
the  nation  prevented  the  fusion  of  conquerors  and  conquered; 
(3)  the  love  for  plunder,  which  was  soon  substituted  for  the  spirit 
of  commerce;  (4)  disorders  in  the  administration;  (5)  crown 
monopolies;  (6,  and  lastly)  the  Portuguese  were  satisfied  with 
transporting  merchandise  to  Lisbon,  instead  of  distributing  it 
over  Europe.  Sooner  or  later  they  were  to  be  supplanted  by 
more  industrious  rivals. 

Their  decline  was  retarded  by  two  heroes,  Juan  de  Castro 
[1545 — 1548]  and  Ataides  [1568 — 1572].  The  former  had  to 
fight  the  Indians  and  Turks  united.  The  King  of  Cambay  re- 


i46  MICHELET 

ceived  from  Soliman  the  great  engineers,  foundries,  and  all  the 
means  of  European  warfare.  Nevertheless,  Castro  succeeded 
in  delivering  the  citadel  of  Diu,  and  held  a  triumph  at  Goa,  after 
the  fashion  of  the  heroes  of  antiquity.  He  raised  a  loan  in  his 
own  name  from  the  citizens  of  Goa,  and  gave  them  his  mus- 
tachios  in  pledge.  He  expired  in  the  arms  of  St,  Francis  Xavier 
in  1548.  Only  three  reals  were  found  upon  this  man,  who  had 
handled  all  the  treasures  of  India. 

During  the  government  of  Ataides  there  was  a  general  rising 
of  the  Indians  against  the  Portuguese ;  he  faced  them  all  round, 
defeated  the  army  of  the  King  of  Cambay,  100,000  strong;  beat 
Zamora,  and  made  him  swear  to  have  no  more  ships  of  war. 
Even  while  he  was  being  pressed  at  Goa,  he  refused  to  abandon 
his  more  distant  possessions,  and  despatched  the  vessels  which 
carried  every  year  the  tributes  of  India  to  Lisbon. 

After  him  everything  declined  rapidly.  The  division  of  its 
Indian  possessions  into  three  governments  enfeebled  still  more 
the  power  of  Portugal.  After  the  death  of  Sebastian,  and  of  his 
successor,  the  Cardinal  Henry  [1581],  Portuguese  India  shared 
the  fate  of  Portugal,  and  passed  into  the  incompetent  hands  of 
the  Spaniards  [1582],  until  the  Dutch  came  to  relieve  them  from 
the  cares  of  this  vast  empire. 


CHAPTER   XV. 

DISCOVERY   OF   AMERICA. 

CONQUESTS    AND   ESTABLISHMENTS    OF   THE  SPANIARD 
IN    THE    FIFTEENTH    AND    SIXTEENTH    CENTURIES. 

"The  discovery  of  America/'  says  Voltaire,  "is  the  greatest 
event  which  has  ever  taken  place  in  this  world  of  ours,  one-half 
of  which  had  hitherto  been  unknown  to  the  other.  All  that  until 
now  appeared  extraordinary,  seems  to  disappear  before  this  sort 
of  new  creation. 

"Columbus,  struck  by  the  achievements  of  the  Portuguese, 
conceived  that  something  still  greater  might  be  effected,  and, 
from  the  inspection  of  a  map  of  this  hemisphere,  believed  that 
there  must  be  another,  and  that  it  would  be  discovered  by  sailing 
continually  towards  the  West.  His  courage  was  equal  to  his 
ability,  and  it  was  tried  to  the  uttermost  by  the  necessity  of  com- 
bating the  prejudices  of  the  Princes  of  that  time.  His  country, 
Genoa,  treated  him  as  a  visionary,  and  lost  the  only  opportunity 
which  was  offered  her  of  distinction.  Henry  VII.  of  England, 
too  fond  of  money  to  risk  any  in  such  a  noble  undertaking,  would 
not  listen  to  the  brother  of  Columbtts.  Juan  II.,  of  Portugal, 
whose  eyes  were  turned  exclusively  in  the  direction  of  Africa, 
refused  to  listen  to  Columbus.  He  could  not  address  himself  to 
France,  where  the  navy  was  always  neglected,  and  whose  affairs 
were  in  the  greatest  possible  confusion  during  the  minority  of 
Charles  VIIL  The  Emperor  Maximilian  had  neither  harbors 
for  a  fleet,  money  to  equip  one,  nor  sufficient  magnanimity  for 
such  an  enterprise.  Venice  might  have  undertaken  it,  but 
whether  it  was  that  the  aversion  of  the  Genoese  to  the  Venetians 
prevented  Columbus  from  addressing  himself  to  tlie  rival  of  his 
country,  or  that  Venice  could  imagine  nothing  greater  than  her 
commerce  with  Alexandria  and  the  Levant,  the  only  hope  of 
Columbus  was  in  Spain.  However,  it  was  not  until  after  spend- 
ing eight  years  in  solicitations  that  the  Court  of  Isabella  con- 
sented to  accept  the  benefit  which  the  Genoese  citizen  wished  to 
confer  upon  her.  The  Spanish  Court  was  poor ;  the  Prior  Perez 
and  two  merchants  called  Pinzone  were  obliged  to  advance 
17,000  ducats  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  expedition.  Colum- 

147 


I48  MICHELET 

bus  received  a  patent  from  the  Court  and  sailed  at  length  from 
the  port  of  Palos,  in  Andalusia,  with  three  small  vessels  and  the 
empty  title  of  Admiral. 

"From  the  Canaries,  where  he  anchored,  he  took  only  thirty- 
three  days  to  discover  the  first  American  island  [October  12, 
1492];  and  during  this  short  voyage  he  had  to  bear  more  mur- 
murs on  the  part  of  his  crew  than  he  had  borne  refusals  from  the 
sovereigns  of  Europe.  This  island,  about  a  thousand  leagues 
from  the  Canaries,  was  called  San  Salvador;  immediately  after- 
wards he  discovered  the  other  islands,  Lucayes,  Cuba,  and  His- 
panioia,  now  called  St.  Domingo.  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  were 
greatly  surpised  at  seeing  him  return,  seven  months  afterwards, 
with  Americans  from  Hispaniola,  as  well  as  some  of  the  curiosi- 
ties of  the  country,  especially  gold,  with  which  he  presented 
them.  The  King  and  Queen  made  him  sit  down  covered  in 
their  presence,  like  a  grandee  of  Spain;  they  named  him  chief 
Admiral  and  Viceroy  of  the  New  World.  He  was  treated  every- 
where as  an  exceptional  being,  a  man  sent  from  God.  Then 
every  one  wanted  to  share  in  his  enterprise,  to  embark  under  his 
flag.  He  set  sail  again  with  a  fleet  of  seventeen  vessels  [149^] 
He  found  more  new  islands,  the  Antilles  and  Jamaica.  Admira- 
tion had  succeeded  to  distrust  on  the  occasion  of  his  first  voyage; 
but  envy  took  the  place  of  admiration  on  his  return  from  the 
second. 

"He  was  Admiral,  Viceroy,  and  might  add  to  his  titles  that  of 
the  benefactor  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella.  Nevertheless,  the 
judges  who  had  actually  been  sent  with  the  fleet  to  watch  over 
his  conduct  brought  him  back  to  Spain.  The  people,  hearing 
that  Columbus  had  arrived,  ran  to  meet  him  as  the  tutelary 
genius  of  Spain ;  they  dragged  him  from  the  ship.  Columbus 
appeared  with  irons  on  his  feet  and  hands. 

"He  had  been  treated  in  this  way  by  order  of  Fonseca,  Bishop 
of  Burgos,  Superintendent  of  the  Armaments.^  The  ingrati- 
tude displayed  was  as  great  as  his  services.  Isabella  was 
ashamed,  and  endeavored  to  repair  the  affront  as  well  as  she  was 
able ;  but  Columbus  was  kept  at  home  for  four  years,  either  be- 
cause the  Court  was  afraid  of  his  retaining  his  discoveries  for  his 
own  benefit,  or  to  gain  time  for  the  investigation  of  his  conduct. 
At  length,  he  was  sent  back  to  his  New  World  [1498].  It  was 
on  his  third  voyage  that  he  first  sighted  the  Continent,  ten  de- 
grees beyond  the  equator,  and  the  coast  on  which  was  founded 
Carthagena.& 

a  "  Codice  diplomatic©  Colombo  Am-  unfortunate  Columbus  was  refused  shel- 

ericano,  ossia  raccolta  di  document!  in-  ter  in  the  very  port  which  he  had  dis- 

editi,  etc."  Genoa,  1823,  lib.  Iv.  See  in  covered.  He  foundered  upon  the  coast 

the  same  collection  a  letter  from  Co-  of  Jamaica,  and  remained  there  a  year 

lumbus  to  the  Nurse  of  Prince  Juan,  deprived  of  all  assistance;  from  thence 

when  he  returned  a  prisoner  to  Spain,  he  wrote  a  pathetic  letter  to  Ferdinand 

P'^Q?*  , .  .  .  and  Isabella.  He  returned,  exhausted 

bin  his  fourth  voyage  [1301^3]   the 


MODERN  HISTORY  149 

"The  ashes  of  Columbus  are  not  affected  by  the  glorious 
achievement  of  his  life — that  of  doubling  the  works  of  creation; 
but  men  like  to  do  justice  to  the  dead,  either  because  they  flatter 
themselves  that  more  justice  will  be  done  to  the  living,  or  from 
the  natural  love  of  truth.  Amerigo  Vespucci,  a  Florentine  mer- 
chant, enjoyed  the  glory  of  giving  his  name  to  the  new  hemi- 
sphere in  which  he  had  not  an  inch  of  ground.  He  pretended 
to  have  been  the  first  to  discover  the  Continent.  Even  if  it  be 
true  that  this  discovery  was  his,  the  glory  would  not  belong  to 
him;  it  belongs  incontestably  to  the  man  whose  genius  and 
courage  induced  him  to  make  the  first  voyage"  (Voltaire). 

Whilst  our  hardy  navigators  were  continuing  the  work  of 
Columbus,  the  Portuguese  and  English  discovered  North 
America,  and  Bilbao  spied  out  from  the  heights  of  Panama  the 
Southern  Ocean  [1513].  Meanwhile,  the  blind  cupidity  of  the 
Spanish  colonists  was  depopulating  the  Antilles.  These  first  con- 
querors of  the  New  World  were  the  dregs  of  the  Old,  Mere 
adventurers,  impatient  to  go  back  to  their  own  country,  they 
could  not  wait  for  the  slow  returns  of  agriculture  or  industry; 
they  believed  in  no  other  wealth  than  gold.  This  mistake  cost 
America  ten  millions  of  her  inhabitants.  The  feeble,  effeminate 
race,  which  occupied  the  country,  soon  fell  victims  to  excessive 
and  unhealthy  labor.  The  population  of  Hispaniola  was  reduced 
by  1 507  from  i  ,000,000  to  60,000.  In  spite  of  the  benevolent  laws 
of  Isabella;  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Ximenes,  and  the  pathetic 

with  fatigue,  to  Spain,  and  the  intelli-  now  locked  in  with  such  strong  bolts, 

gence   of  the   death   of   his    patroness,  unto  thee.'    And  I,  although  half  dead, 

Isabella,     dealt     him     the    last     blow.  could  hear  everything,  but  could  find 

(1506.)  n°   answer.     I    could    only   bewail   my 

"  Of  what  profit,"  says  he  in  this  let-  faults.    Whoever   it   was   that   was   ad- 

ter,    "have   been  to   me  these  twenty  dressing  me,  concluded  in  these  words: 

years  of  labor,  fatigue,   and  peril?    At  'Be   comforted,   restore   thy  faith;   for 

this  day  I  have  not  so  much  as  a  house  the  tribulations  of  men  are  written  upon 

in  Castile.    If  I  want  to  dine,  sup,  or  stone  and  marble.'    If  it  should  please 

sleep,  my  only  shelter  is  the  inn.    Of-  your  Majesties  to  dp  me  the  favor  to 

tener  than  not  I  have  no  money  to  pay  send  me  a  ship  of  sixty-four  tons  with 

my  expenses If  I  had  not  the  some  biscuits  and  other  provisions,  it 

patience  of  Job,  should  I  not  have  died  would  be  enough  to  carry  me  and  these 

in    despair,   seeing   that   in    such   tern-  poor   people   back    to    Spain.     I    pray 

pestuous  weather,  and  in  the  extremity  your  Majesties  to  have  pity  upon  me. 

of  our  danger,  I  and  my  young  son,  May  Heaven  and  Earth  weep  for  me! 

my  brother  and  my  friends  were  shut  Let  all  who  have  any  charity,  who  love 

out  from  the  very  land  and  port  which  truth  and  justice,  weep  for  me.    I  have 

I  had  won  for  Spain,  and  in  discover-  stayed   here  in   these   Indian    Islands, 

ing  which  I  had  sweated  blood.  isolated,  sick,  in  great  trouble,  expect- 

s  However,  I  climbed  to  the  highest  ing  death  every  day,  surrounded  by  in- 

point  of  the  vessel,  sending  forth  cries  numerable  cruel  savages,  far  from  the 

of  distress  and  calling  the  four  winds  sacraments  of  our  Holy  Mother  Church! 

to  my  assistance;  but  no  answer  came.  I  have  not  one  maravedi  for  a  spiritual 

Exhausted,  I  fell  asleep,  and  I  heard  a  offering!    I  implore  your  Majesties,  if 

voice  full  of  sweetness  and  pity  which  God  permit  me  to  leave  this  place,  to 

pronounced  these  words :  *  O  man  with-  allow  me  to  go  to  Rome  and  to  accom- 

out   sense,   slow   to   believe  and   serve  p}i?h  other  pilgrimages.    May  the  Holy 

thy  God,  how  has  he  not  cared  for  thee  Trinity  ^reserve  the  life  and  power  of 

ever  since  thy  birth  1    What  more  did  your  Majesties — Written  in  the  Indies, 

he    do    for    Moses    or    for    David    his  in  the  island  of  Jamaica— July  7,  1503.' 

servant?    The  Indies,  that  rich  quarter  Letters   from   Columbus,   reprinted   un- 

of  the  globe,  he  has  given  thee  to  be-  der  the   direction  of  Abbe  Morelli  at 

stow  on  whomsoever  thou  pleasest.    He  Bassano,  1860. 
has  given  the  keys  of  the  Ocean,  until 


IS0  MICHELET 

expostulations  of  the  Dominicans,  this  depopulation  extended 
between  the  tropics.  No  one  raised  his  voice  in  favor  of  the 
Americans,  with  more  courage  and  pertinacity,  than  the  cele- 
brated Bartholomew  de  Las  Casas,  Bishop  of  Chiapa  and  pro- 
tector of  the  Indians.  Twice  he  returned  to  Europe  and  sol- 
emnly pleaded  their  cause  before  Charles  V.  It  is  heart-rending 
to  read  in  the  "  Destruycion  de  las  Indias  "  of  the  barbarous 
treatment  endured  by  these  unhappy  natives.^ 

One  does  not  know  whether  most  to  admire  the  daring  of  the 
conquerors  of  America  or  to  detest  their  cruelty.  They  had  dis- 
covered in  four  expeditions  the  coasts  of  Florida,  Yucatan,  and 
Mexico,  when  Fernando  Cortez  sailed  from  the  island  of  Cuba 
to  make  new  explorations  on  the  Continent  [1519]. 

"This  simple  lieutenant  of  the  governor  of  a  newly-discovered 
island,  followed  by  less  than  600  men,  with  only  eighteen  horses, 
and  a  few  field-pieces,  set  off  to  subjugate  the  most  powerful 
State  in  America.  In  the  beginning  he  was  so  fortunate  as  to 
meet  with  a  Spaniard  who  had  been  for  nine  years  a  prisoner  at 
Yucatan,  on  the  road  to  Mexico,  and  who  acted  as  his  in- 
terpreter. Cortez  advanced  along  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  some- 
times caressing  the  natives,  sometimes  making  war  on  them. 
He  found  polished  towns,  where  the  arts  were  held  in 
honor.  The  powerful  republic  of  Tlascala,  which  was  flourish- 
ing under  an  aristocratic  government,  opposed  his  passage;  but 

c  Las  Casas,  "  Brevissima  Relacion  us  now!  we  will  die  now.'— (72.)  A 
de  la  Destruccion  de  las  Indias,"  edi-  Spaniard  who  was  out  shooting  had 
tion  of  Venice,  1643:  "  The  women  were  nothing  to  give  to  his  dogs.  He  met  a 
obliged  to  work  in  the  fields,  the  men  woman  with  a  little  child;  he  took  the 
in  the  mines.  Whole  generations  were  child,  cut  it  in  pieces,  and  gave  it  to 
perishing.  Many  Indians  strangled  the  dogs.— (116.)  I  have  seen  with  my 
themselves.  I  know  one  Spaniard  eyes  Spaniards  cut  off  hands,  noses,  and 
whose  cruelty  induced  more  than  two  ears  from  men  and  women,  with  no 
hundred  Indians  to  kill  themselves."—  other  motive  than  caprice,  in  so  many 
p.  29.  "  There  was  one  of  the  King's  places  and  so  often,  that  it  would  take 
officers  who  had  three  hundred  Indians;  too  long  to  enumerate,  I  have  seen 
at  the  end  of  three  months  only  thirty  them  train  dogs  to  hunt  the  Indians, 
remained.  Three  hundred  more  were  I  have  seen  them  tear  infants  from 
given  to  him;  he  caused  their  deaths.  their  mothers'  breasts  and  throw  them 
More  and  more  were  given  to  him,  till  into  the  air  with  all  their  strength  A 
he  died,  and  the  devil  carried  him  off.  priest  named  Ocagna  took  a  child  out 
—If  it  had  not  been  for  the  Francis-  of  the  fire  into  which  it  had  been 
cans  and  a  wise  tribunal  which  was  thrown;  a  Spaniard  came  by,  tore  it 
established,  Mexico  _  would  have  been  from  his  arms,  and  threw  it  back.  This 
depopulated  like  HispanioJa."— P.  142.  man  died  suddenly  on  the  following 
"  In  Peru  one  Alonzo  Sanchez  met  a  day.  I  decided  that  he  ought  not  to  be 
troop  of  women  with  provisions,  who  buried.— (132.)  I  protest  on  my  con- 
gave  them  to  him  without  attempting  science  and  before  God  that  I  have 
to  run  away;  he  seized  the  food  and  not  exaggerated  the  ten  thousandth 
massacred  the  women. — (58.)  They  dug  part  of  what  has  been  done,  and  is  be- 
ditches,  filled  them  with  stakes  and  ing  done.— (134.)  Finished  at  Valen- 
threw  in  pell-mell  the  Indians  whom  cia,  1542,  December  8."  See  also  the 
they  seized  alive,  old  men,  women  with  work  entitled:  "  Aqtti  se  contiene  una 
child,  little  children,  until  the  ditch  was  disputa  o  controversia  entre  el  obispo 
full—  (61.)  They  dragged  the  Indians  Don  Fray  Bartolome  de  las  Casas, 
after  them  to  forc'e  them  to  fight  against  obispo  que  rue"  de  la  ciudad  real  de 
their  brothers,  and  obliged  them  to  eat  Chiapa,  el  doctor  Ines  de  Sepulveda, 
their  flesh  — (83  )  When  the  Spaniards  chronista  del  emperador  maestro,  sobre 
dragged  them  into  the  mountains  and  que  el  doctor  contendia  one  las  con- 
they  fell  down  exhausted,  they  broke  quistas  de  las  Indias  eran  Hcitas."  Val- 
their  teeth  with  the  handles  of  their  ladolid  1550, 
swords;  and  the  Indians  cried  out  *  Kill 


MODERN  HISTORY 


15* 


the  sight  of  the  horses  and  the  noise  of  the  cannon  were  enough 
to  put  these  ill-armed  multitudes  to  flight.  He  made  as  favor- 
able a  peace  as  he  chose;  6,000  of  his  new  allies  in  Tlascala  ac- 
companied him  on  his  Mexican  expedition.  He  entered  Mexico 
wichout  encountering  any  opposition,  in  spite  of  the  proclama- 
tion of  the  sovereign,  although  that  sovereign  had  thirty  vassals, 
each  of  whom  might  have  appeared  at  the  head  of  100,000  men, 
armed  with  darts  and  sharp  stones,  which  they  used,  instead  of 
steel. 

"The  town  of  Mexico,  built  in  the  midst  of  a  great  lake,  was 
the  finest  monument  of  American  industry;  immense  causeways 
intersected  the  lake,  which  was  covered  with  little  boats  made  of 
bark.  In  the  town  were  spacious  and  convenient  houses  built 
of  stone ;  markets  and  shops  full  of  shining  gold  and  silver  work, 
glazed  earthenware,  cotton  stuffs,  and  tissues  of  feathers,  in  which 
the  most  striking  designs  were  formed,  in  the  brightest  colors. 
Near  the  principal  market  was  a  town-hall,  where  summary  jus- 
tice was  dealt  to  traders.  Several  royal  palaces  belonging  to 
the  Emperor  Montezuma  increased  the  splendor  of  the  town; 
one  of  them  was  surrounded  by  large  gardens,  in  which  only 
medicinal  plants  were  cultivated;  managers  distributed  them 
gratuitously  to  the  sick;  the  King  received  a  report  of  the  suc- 
cess which  followed  their  use,  and  the  doctors  kept  a  register  of 
them  in  their  own  manner,  for  writing  was  unknown.  All  their 
other  magnificence  marked  only  the  development  of  art;  this 
one  denoted  moral  progress.  If  it  were  not  in  human  nature  to 
mingle  good  and  evil,  we  should  be  perplexed  to  reconcile  this 
benevolence  with  the  human  sacrifices  whose  blood  welled  up 
at  Mexico  before  the  idol  Visiliputsli,  the  god  of  armies.  It  is 
said  that  Montezuma's  ambassadors  told  Cortez  that  their  mas- 
ter sacrificed  in  his  wars  nearly  20,000  enemies  every  year,  in  the 
great  temple  at  Mexico.  This  is  a  great  exaggeration ;  we  see 
the  intention  to  excuse  the  injustice  of  Montezuma's  conqueror; 
however,  when  the  Spaniards  entered  the  temple  they  found 
among  its  ornaments  skulls,  hung  as  trophies.  Their  govern- 
ment was,  in  other  respects,  wise  and  humane;  the  education  of 
youth  formed  one  of  its  chief  objects.  There  were  public  schools 
established  for  both  sexes.  We  admire  the  ancient  Egyptians 
for  knowing  that  the  year  consisted  of  about  365  days;  the 
astronomy  of  the  Mexicans  was  equally  advanced.  War  with 
them  was  reduced  to  an  art;  it  is  this  which  gave  them  so  much 
superiority  over  their  neighbors.  A  wise  financial  administra- 
tion maintained  the  greatness  of  this  empire,  which  was  feared 
and  envied  by  its  neighbors. 

"But  the  warlike  animals  oft  which  the  principal  Spaniards 
were  mounted,  the  artificial  thunder  which  they  produced  with 
their  hands,  those  wooden  castles  which  had  carried  them  over 


IS2  MICHELET 

the  ocean,  the  steel  with  which  they  were  covered,  their  marches 
which  were  as  many  victories — all  these  real  subjects  of  admira- 
tion, besides  the  weakness  which  inclines  nations  to  admire, 
caused  Cortez,  when  he  entered  the  town  of  Mexico,  to  be  re- 
ceived by  Montezuma  as  a  master,  and  by  the  people  as  a  god. 
If  a  Spanish  servant  passed  in  the  street,  the  people  fell  on  their 
knees.  It  is  said  that  a  Mexican  cazique  presented  a  Spanish 
captain,  who  was  passing  over  his  land,  with  slaves  and  game. 
'If  thou  art  a  god,'  he  said,  'here  are  men,  eat  them;  if  thou  art  a 
man,  here  is  food,  which  these  slaves  will  prepare  for  thee.f 

"Little  by  little  Montezuma's  courtiers  became  familiar  with 
their  guests,  and  ventured  to  treat  them  as  men.  Some  of  the 
Spaniards  were  at  Vera  Cruz  on  the  road  to  Mexico;  one  of  the 
Emperor's  generals,  who  had  secret  orders,  attacked  them,  and, 
although  his  troops  were  beaten,  three  or  four  of  the  Spaniards 
were  killed;  the  head  of  one  was  even  carried  to  Montezuma. 
Then  Cortez  performed  one  of  the  most  daring  actions  on  rec- 
ord; he  went  to  the  Palace,  followed  by  fifty  Spaniards,  carried 
the  Emperor  a  prisoner  to  the  Spanish  quarters,  forced  him  to 
give  up  those  who  had  attacked  his  men  at  Vera  Cruz,  and 
loaded  the  feet  and  hands  of  the  Emperor  with  irons,  as  a  general 
might  punish  a  common  soldier;  afterwards  he  induced  him  to 
declare  himself  publicly  as  a  vassal  of  Charles  V.  Montezuma 
and  the  principal  personages  of  the  empire  gave  as  the  tribute 
attached  to  their  homage  600,000  marks  of  pure  gold,  with  an 
incredible  amount  of  jewels,  of  gold-work,  and  of  the  most  valu- 
able products  of  the  industry  of  many  centuries.  Cortez  set 
aside  one-fifth  for  his  master,  took  another  fifth  for  himself,  and 
distributed  the  remainder  among  his  soldiers. 

"It  may  be  mentioned  as  one  of  the  most  extraordinary  facts 
in  history,  that,  although  the  conquerors  of  this  New  World 
tried  to  destroy  each  other,  their  conquests  did  not  suffer.  Never 
was  fact  so  contrary  to  probability.  When  Cortez  had  nearly 
subdued  Mexico  with  the  500  men  he  had  remaining,  the  Gov- 
ernor of  Cuba,  Velasquez,  more  offended  by  the  fame  acquired 
by  his  lieutenant,  Cortez,  than  by  his  want  of  submission,  sent  al- 
most all  his  troops,  consisting  of  800  foot,  eighty  well-mounted 
horse,  and  two  small  field-pieces,  to  subdue  Cortez,  take  him 
prisoner,  and  supplant  him  in  his  victories.  Cortez,  having,  on 
the  one  hand,  to  fight  1,000  Spaniards,  and,  on  the  other,  to  re- 
tain the  Continent  in  subjection,  left  eighty  men  to  answer  for 
the  whole  of  Mexico,  and  marched  against  his  countrymen  with 
the  rest  of  his  troops.  He  obtained  the  victory.  The  remain- 
der of  the  army,  which  came  to  destroy  him,  took  service  under 
his  standard,  and  he  returned  with  it  to  Mexico. 

"The  Emperor  was  still  imprisoned  in  his  capital,  guarded  by 
eighty  soldiers.  The  officer  who  commanded  them,  on  a  true 


MODERN  HISTORY  153 

or  false  report  that  the  Mexicans  were  conspiring  to  deliver  their 
master,  had  chosen  the  opportunity  of  a  festival,  during  which 
2,000  of  the  chiefs  were  steeped  in  drink,  to  fall  upon  them  with 
fifty  of  his  men,  massacre  them  and  their  followers,  without  en- 
countering any  resistance,  and  strip  them  of  all  the  jewels,  and 
gold  and  silver  ornaments,  with  which  they  were  covered  for  this 
festivity.  This  crime,  rightly  attributed  by  the  people  to  the 
greed  of  avarice,  at  length  tired  out  their  patience;  and,  when 
Cortez  arrived,  he  found  200,000  Americans  in  arms  against 
eighty  Spaniards  occupied  in  defending  themselves  and  in 
guarding  the  Emperor.  They  implored  Cortez  to  deliver  their 
King;  they  precipitated  themselves  in  numbers  against  the  can- 
non and  the  muskets.  The  Spaniards  grew  tired  of  killing 
them,  and  the  Mexicans  succeeded  each  other  intrepidly.^  Cor- 
tez was  obliged  to  abandon  the  town,  in  which  he  would  have 
been  famished;  but  the  Mexicans  had  broken  up  all  the  roads. 
The  Spaniards  made  bridges  with  the  bodies  of  their  enemies ; 
in  their  bloody  retreat  they  lost  all  the  treasures  which  they  had 
seized  for  Charles  V.,  as  well  as  for  themselves.  Having  won 
the  battle  of  Otumba,  Cortez  prepared  to  lay  siege  to  Mexico. 
He  made  his  soldiers  and  the  Tlascalans,  whom  he  had  with 
him,  construct  nine  vessels,  to  re-enter  the  town  by  the  very 
lake  which  seemed  to  forbid  his  entrance.  The  Mexicans  were 
not  afraid  of  a  naval  combat;  4,000  or  5,000  canoes,  each  con- 
taining two  men,  covered  the  lake  and  attacked  the  nine  ships  of 
Cortez,  on  which  he  had  about  300  men.  These  nine  brigan- 
tines,  armed  with  guns,  soon  overpowered  the  fleet  of  the  enemy. 
Cortez,  with  the  remainder  of  his  troops,  was  fighting  upon  the 
causeways  which  traversed  the  lake.  Seven  or  eight  Spanish 
prisoners  were  sacrificed  in  the  Temple  of  Mexico.  At  length, 
after  renewed  struggles,  the  new  Emperor  was  taken.  It  was 
the  same  Gatimozin  who  became  so  famous  for  his  speech  when 
a  receiver  of  the  King  of  Spain  placed  him  on  burning  coals  to 
discover  in  which  part  of  the  lake  he  had  thrown  his  riches. 
While  his  High  Priest,  condemned  to  the  same  tortures,  uttered 
loud  cries,  Gatimozin  called  out;  'And  I,  am  I  upon  a  bed  of 
roses?'  " 

Cortez  was  absolute  master  of  the  town  of  Mexico  [1521];  all 
the  remainder  fell  with  it  under  the  Spanish  dominion,  as  well  as 
the  adjoining  provinces.  What  was  the  reward  of  the  extraor- 

d "  I  declared  to  them  that  if  they  perish  first."  Hernando  Cortez,  "  His- 
continued  obstinate  I  should  not  stop  toria  de  la  Nueva  Espafia,  par  su  con- 
as  Jong  as  there  remained  any  vestige  quistador."  First  letter  to  Charles  V. 
of  the  town  and  its  inhabitants.  They  October  30,  1520.  "They  asked  me 
answered  that  they  were  all  determined  wherefore  I,  son  of  the  Sun  who 
to  die  in  order  to  finish  with  us,  that  travels  round  the  world  in  twenty-four 
I  might  see  the  terraces,  streets,  and  hours,  was  longer  in  exterminating 
squares  filled  with  men  and  that  they  them,  in  satisfying  their  desire  for 
had  calculated  that  by  sacrificing  death  and  joining  the  God  of  Rest." 
twenty-five  thousand  for  one  we  should  ad  letter. 


154  MICHELET 

dinary  services  of  Cortez?  The  same  that  Columbus  received — 
he  was  persecuted.  Notwithstanding  the  titles  with  which  his 
country  had  decorated  him,  he  met  with  little  consideration,  and 
he  could  scarcely  obtain  an  audience  from  Charles  V.  One  day 
he  penetrated  the  crowd  which  surrounded  the  Emperor's  coach, 
and  got  upon  the  doorstep.  Charles  asked  who  that  man  was! 
"It  is  a  man/'  replied  Cortez,  "who  has  given  you  more  king- 
doms than  your  fathers  left  you  towns." 

The  Spaniards,  however,  sought  new  countries  to  conquer 
and  lay  waste.  Magellan  had  sailed  round  Southern  America, 
crossed  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  was  the  first  to  circumnavi- 
gate the  globe.  But  the  greatest  of  the  American  States  after 
Mexico  remained  to  be  discovered.  One  day  when  the  Span- 
iards were  weighing  some  gold,  an  Indian,  overturning  their 
scales,  told  them  that  in  two  suns'  march  southwards  they  would 
find  a  country  in  which  gold  was  so  plentiful  as  to  serve  for  the 
vilest  usages.  Two  adventurers,  Pizarro  and  Almagro,  one  a 
foundling  and  the  other  a  keeper  of  swine  who  had  turned  sol- 
dier, undertook  the  discovery  and  the  conquest  of  the  vast  coun- 
tries which  the  Spaniards  have  called  by  the  name  of  Peru. 

"From  Cusco  and  the  environs  of  Cape  Capricorn  to  the  Isle 
of  Pearls,  a  single  monarch  ruled  over  about  thirty  degrees ;  he 
was  of  the  race  of  conquerors  called  Incas.  The  first  of  these 
Incas,  who  had  subdued  and  given  laws  to  the  country,  was  sup- 
posed to  be  the  son  of  the  Sun.  The  Peruvians  transmitted  the 
record  of  their  events  to  posterity  by  knots  which  they  placed  on 
cords.  They  had  obelisks  and  regular  gnomons  to  mark  the 
points  of  the  equinox  and  the  solstices.  Their  year  consisted  of 
365  days.  They  had  raised  prodigies  of  architecture,  and  were 
great  in  the  art  of  sculpture.  It  was  the  most  polished  and  in- 
dustrious nation  in  the  New  World. 

"The  Inca  Huescar,  father  of  Atahualpa  the  last  Inca,  under 
whom  the  empire  was  destroyed,  had  greatly  increased  and  em- 
bellished it.  This  Inca,  who  had  conquered  the  whole  of  Quito, 
had  constructed  by  means  of  his  soldiers  and  prisoners  a  high 
road  of  500  leagues  from  Cusco  to  Quito,  through  ravines  which 
had  been  filled  up  and  hills  which  had  been  laid  plain.  Relays 
of  men,  placed  at  each  half  league,  carried  the  orders  of  the 
sovereign  throughout  his  empire.  Such  was  the  administra- 
tion; the  King's  magnificence  is  sufficiently  proved  by  the  fact 
that  when  he  travelled  he  was  carried  upon  a  throne  of  gold 
weighing  25,000  ducats;  the  litter  of  golden  shafts  on  which  the 
throne  rested  was  borne  by  the  first  men  in  the  kingdom. 

"Pizarro  attacked  this  empire  with  250  foot,  sixty  horse,  and 
a  dozen  small  cannon.  He  landed  from  the  Southern  Ocean  in 
the  latitude  of  Quito,  below  the  equator.  Atahualpa,  son  of 
Huescar,  reigned  at  that  time  [1532] ;  he  resided  near  Quito,  sur- 


MODERN  HISTORY  155 

rounded  by  40,000  soldiers,  armed  with  arrows,  and  gold  and 
silver  pikes.  Like  Cortez,  Pizarro  began  by  offering  the  friend- 
ship of  Charles  V.  to  the  Inca.  When  the  army  of  Atahualpa 
and  the  little  Castilian  troop  were  in  each  other's  presence,  the 
Spaniards  endeavored  to  color  their  conduct  with  the  appearance 
of  religion.  A  monk  called  Valverde  approached  the  Inca  with 
an  interpreter,  and,  holding  out  a  Bible,  told  him  that  he  must 
believe  all  that  the  Book  said.  The  Inca  put  it  to  his  ear,  and, 
hearing  nothing,  flung  it  on  the  ground.  This  was  the  sign  of 
battle. 

'The  guns,  horses,  and  steel  arms  made  on  the  Peruvians  the 
same  effect  as  on  the  Mexicans:  they  were  killed  without  resist- 
ance. Atahualpa,  torn  from  his  golden  throne  by  the  conquer- 
ors, was  loaded  with  irons.  To  be  speedily  set  at  liberty,  he 
promised  to  give  them  as  much  gold  as  one  of  the  halls  in  his 
palace  could  contain,  'up  to  the  height  of  his  hand,'  and  he 
raised  his  hand  in  the  air.  Every  Spanish  horse-soldier  had  240 
marks  in  pure  gold;  each  foot-soldier  160.  Ten  times  as  much 
silver  was  shared  in  the  same  proportions.  The  officers  amassed 
immense  treasures ;  and  they  sent  to  Charles  V.  30,000  marks  in 
silver,  3,000  in  unwrought  gold,  and  productions  of  the  industry 
of  the  country  weighing  20,000  marks  in  silver  and  2,000  in  gold. 
The  unfortunate  Atahualpa  was,  notwithstanding,  put  to  death. 

"Diego  of  Almagro  marched  to  Cusco  through  opposing 
multitudes;  he  penetrated  as  far  as  Chili.  Everywhere  posses- 
sion was  taken  in  the  name  of  Charles  V.  Soon  afterwards  dis- 
sensions broke  out  between  the  conquerors,  as  they  had  between 
Velasquez  and  Hernando  Cortez  in  North  America, 

"Almagro  and  the  brothers  of  Pizarro  made  war  upon  each 
other  in  Cusco  itself,  the  capital  of  the  Incas;  all  the  European 
recruits  took  sides,  and  fought  for  the  chief  whom  they  selected. 
They  had  a  bloody  battle  under  the  walls  of  Cusco,  yet  the  Peru- 
vians did  not  venture  to  profit  by  the  weakness  of  their  common 
enemy.  At  length,  Almagro  was  taken  prisoner  and  beheaded 
by  his  rival;  but  soon  afterwards  the  latter  was  assassinated  by 
the  friends  of  his  victim. 

"Already  the  government  of  Spain  was  extending  through- 
out the  New  World;  the  large  provinces  had  their  governors; 
tribunals,  called  audiences,  were  established;  archbishops,  bish- 
ops, tribunals  of  the  Inquisition,  the  whole  ecclesiastical  hier- 
archy was  exercising  its  functions  as  at  Madrid,  when  the  ^  cap- 
tains who  had  conquered  Peru  for  Charles  V.  tried  to  take  it  for 
themselves.  A  son  of  Almagro  caused  himself  to  be  recognized 
as  the  Governor  of  Peru;  but  some  other  Spaniards  preferring 
to  obey  their  sovereign  in  Europe  rather  than  one  of  their  own 
companions,  who  had  become  their  master,  had  him  beheaded 
by  the  executioner."  (Voltaire.) 


156         .  MICHELET 

A  new  civil  war  was  also  suppressed.  Charles  V.,  yielding  at 
length  to  the  representations  of  Las  Casas,  had  guaranteed  the 
personal  liberty  of  the  Indians,  while  he  imposed  tribute  and 
services  upon  them  [1542].  The  Spanish  colonists  took  up  arms 
and  chose  Gonzalo  Pizarro  for  their  chief.  But  the  name  of  the 
King  was  so  much  respected  that  it  was  sufficient  to  send  an  old 
man,  an  inquisitor  (Pedro  de  la  Gasca),  to  restore  order.  He 
rallied  round  him  most  of  the  Spaniards,  overcame  some  by  per- 
suasion, and  others  by  force,  and  secured  the  possession  of  Peru 
to  Spain  [1546], 

Extent  of  the  Spanish  empire  in  America. — If  we  except  Mex- 
ico and  Peru,  Spain  really  possessed  only  the  coasts.  The  na- 
tions in  the  interior  could  only  be  subdued  gradually,  as  they 
were  converted  by  missionaries  and  attached  to  the  soil. 

Discoveries  and  establishments  of  different  kinds. — 1540.  En- 
terprise of  Gonzalo  Pizarro  for  discovering  the  country  to  the 
east  of  the  Andes;  Orellana  sails  round  South  America,  a  voyage 
of  2,000  leagues.  Establishments :  1 527,  province  of  Venezuela ; 
1535,  Buenos  Ayres;  1536,  province  of  Granada;  1540,  San- 
tiago; 1550,  the  Concession;  1555,  Carthagena  and  Porto  Bello; 
1567,  Caracas. 

Administrations. — Political  government:  In  Spain,  Council 
for  India,  and  Court  of  Commerce  and  Justice;  in  America,  two 
Viceroys,  Audiences,  Municipalities,  Caziques,  and  Protectors 
of  the  Indians,  Ecclesiastical  Government  (entirely  dependent 
on  the  King),  Archbishops,  Bishops,  Curates  or  Doctors,  Mis- 
sionaries, Monks. — Inquisition  established  in  1570  by  Philip  II. 

Commercial  administration:  Monopoly.  Privileged  ports:  in 
America,  Vera  Cruz,  Carthagena,  and  Porto  Bello;  in  Europe, 
Seville  (later  on,  Cadiz);  Fleet  and  Galleons.  Agriculture  and 
manufactures  neglected  in  Spain  and  in  America  for  the  sake  of 
mining  operations;  slow  growth  of  the  colonies,  and  ruin  of  the 
metropolis  before  1600.  But  during  the  course  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  enormous  quantity  of  precious  metals  which  Spain 
obtained  from  America  contributed  to  make  her  the  preponder- 
ating power  in  Europe. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

LEARNING   IN   THE   SIXTEENTH    CENTURY. 
INFLUENCE  OF  LEO  X.  AND  FRANCIS  I. 

The  fifteenth  century  was  devoted  to  classical  learning;  en- 
thusiasm for  antiquity  caused  the  road  which  had  been  so  hap- 
pily opened  by  Dante,  Boccaccio,  and  Petrarch  to  be  abandoned. 
In  the  sixteenth  century  the  genius  of  the  moderns  shone  once 
more,  and  was  never  again  extinguished. 

The  progress  of  intellect  at  this  time  presents  two  perfectly 
distinct  movements;  the  former,  favored  by  the  influence  of  Leo 
X.  and  Francis  I.,  was  peculiar  to  Italy  and  France;  the  latter 
was  European.  The  former,  characterized  by  the  progress  of 
literature  and  the  arts,  was  interrupted  in  France  by  civil,  and 
diminished  in  Italy  by  foreign,  wars;  in  the  latter  country  the 
genius  of  literature  was  crushed  under  the  yoke  of  Spain;  but 
the  impulse  given  to  art  was  felt  into  the  middle  of  the  following 
century.  The  second  movement  was  the  development  of  an  en- 
tirely new  spirit  of  doubt  and  inquiry. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  this  spirit  was  checked  partly  by  a 
return  to  religious  belief,  partly  by  a  diversion  in  favor  of  natural 
sciences ;  but  it  reappeared  in  the  eighteenth. 

Section  I. — Literature  and  Art. 

Besides  the  general  causes  which  produced  the  revival  of  let- 
ters, such  as  the  progress  of  security  and  opulence,  the  discovery 
of  the  monuments  of  antiquity,  etc.,  several  special  causes  united 
to  give  new  life  to  literature  in  the  Italy  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
i.  In  consequence  of  the  art  of  printing,  books  became  com- 
mon; 2.  The  people  of  Italy,  haying  no  longer  any  influence  in 
politics,  sought  for  consolation  in  the  pleasures  of  the  intellect; 
3.  A  number  of  Princes,  especially  the  Medici,  encouraged  sci- 
entific men  and  artists;  the  great  writers  profited  less  by  their 
protection. 

Poetry,  with  the  arts,  was  Italy's  chief  glory  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  and  was  distinguished  by  both  genius  and  elegance  in 


I58  MICHELET 

the  first  part  of  this  period.  The  epic  muse  raised  two  immortal 
monuments.  Comedy  and  tragedy  made  some  rather  mediocre 
attempts.  The  most  opposite  styles,  satires  and  pastorals  were 
cultivated.  The  rapid  decline  of  good  taste  is  most  remarkable 
in  the  latter. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Boiardo  1490      Trissino  1550 

Macchiavelli 1529      Tasso   1596 

Ariosto 1533       Guarini   1619 

Eloquence,  that  tardy  offspring  of  literature,  had  not  had  time 
to  form  itself.  But  many  historians  rivalled  the  ancients  in  ex- 
cellence. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Macchiavelli 1529       Paolo  Giovio  1552 

Guicciardini    1540       Baronius   1607 

Bembo  1547 

The  dead  languages  were  cultivated  as  much  as  in  the  preced- 
ing period,  but  this  distinction  is  lost  sight  of  among  so  many 
others. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Pontanas  1503       Sado  Petus   1547 

Aldus  Manutius  1516      Fracastorius 1553 

Johannes  Secundus  1523      J.  C.  Scahger  1558 

Sannazarius  1530      Vida  1563 

A.  J.  Lascaris 1535       Paulus  Manutius  1574 

Bembo  1547      Aldus  Manutius  1597 

Superiority  in  art  was  the  characteristic  feature  of  the  Italy  of 
the  sixteenth  century.  The  ancients  remained  unrivalled  in 
sculpture;  but  the  moderns  equalled  them  in  architecture,  and  in 
painting  probably  surpassed  them.  The  Roman  school  was 
celebrated  for  perfection  in  design;  the  Venetian  for  beauty  of 
color. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Giorgione   1511  Primaticcio 1564 

Bramante   1514  Palladio 1568 

Leonardo  da  Vinci  1518  Tiziano   1576 

Raphael  1520  Paulo  Veronese  1588 

Correggio  1534  Tintoretto 1594 

Parmegiano   1534  Augustino  Carracci 1601 

Giulio  Romano  1546  Caravaggio  1609 

Michael  Angelo  ,.,...  1564  Annibale  Carracci  1609 

Giovanni  of  Udino 1564  Ludovico  Carracci  1610 

France  followed  Italy  at  a  great  distance.  The  historian 
Comines  died  in  1509.  Francis  I.  founded  the  College  de  France 
and  the  Imprimerie  Royale.  He  encouraged  the  poet  Marot 
[1504],  and  the  brothers  du  Bellay  [1543 — 1560],  diplomatists 
and  historians.  His  sister,  Marguerite  of  Navarre  [1549],  her- 
self cultivated  letters.  Francis  I.  honored  Titian,  and  invited 
Primaticcio  and  Leonardo  da  Vinci  to  France.  He  built  Fon- 


MOL  ?RN  HISTORY  159 

tainebleau,  St.  Germain,  and  Chambord,  and  began  the  Louvre. 
Under  him  flourished  Jean  Cousin  [1589],  designer  and  painter; 
Germain  Pilon,  Philibert  de  1'Orme,  Jean  Goujon  [1572],  sculp- 
tors and  architects;  scholars — Budaeus  [1540],  Turnebus  [1563], 
Muretus  [1585];  Henry  Stephens,  the  celebrated  printer;  the 
illustrious  lawyers,  Dumoulin  [1566],  and  Cujas  [1590].  After 
the  reign  of  Francis  L,  the  poet  Ronsard  [1585]  enjoyed  a  short- 
lived fame;  but  Montaigne  [1592],  Amyot  [1593],  and  the  Satire 
Menippee  gave  a  new  character  to  the  French  language. 

Other  countries  were  less  rich  in  illustrious  men.  Germany, 
however,  may  boast  of  her  Luther,  the  poet  shoemaker;  Hans 
Sachs,  and  the  painters,  Albert  Diirer  and  Lucas  Cranach. 
Portugal  and  Spain  had  their  illustrious  writers — Camoens, 
Lope  de  Vega,  and  Cervantes;  Flanders  and  Scotland  their 
scholars  and  historians — Juste  Lipsius  [1616],  and  Buchanan 
[1592].  Of  the  forty-three  universities  founded  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  fourteen  were  founded  by  the  Kings  of  Spain  alone, 
and  ten  of  them  by  Charles  V. 

Section  II — Philosophy  and  Science, 

In  the  preceding  century  philosophy  was  cultivated  only  by 
the  learned.  It  contented  itself  with  attacking  scholastic,  and 
setting  up  Platonic  philosophy  in  its  stead.  Swept  away  gradu- 
ally into  a  more  rapid  current,  it  carried  the  spirit  of  inquiry  into 
every  subject  But  sufficient  observations  had  not  been  made; 
there  was  no  method;  human  intellect  was  searching  at  random. 
Many  men  were  discouraged,  and  afterwards  became  the  most 
audacious  sceptics. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Erasmus   1533'      Montaigne   1592 

Vives  1540    Gordano  Bruno 1600 

Rabelais    IS53       Charron  1603 

Cardan 1576      Boehm  1624 

Telesio   1588      Campanello 1639 

Theoretical  politics  began  with  Macchiavelli ;  but  in  the  com- 
mencement of  the  sixteenth  century  the  Italians  had  not  made 
sufficient  progress  in  this  science  to  find  that  it  was  reconcil- 
able with  morality. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Macchiavelli 1529      Bodin  1596 

Thomas  More 1533 

The  natural  sciences  left  the  fruitless  systems  they  had  hitherto 
accepted  to  follow  the  road  of  observation  and  experience. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Paracelsus    1541  Gessner  1565 

Copernicus  1543  Pare  1592 

Fallopius  1562  Visto    1605 

Vesalius 1564  Van  Helmont  1644 


CHAPTER   XVII. 

THE   REIGN   OF   LOUIS   XIII. 

RICHELIEU'S  INFLUENCE   AND    CHARACTER. 

The  chief  characteristic  of  the  seventeenth  century  is  the 
simultaneous  progress  of  the  monarchy  and  of  the  lower  classes 
(tiers  £tat).  The  progress  of  monarchy  was  twice  suspended 
by  the  minorities  of  Louis  XIII.  and  Louis  XIV.  That  of  the 
tiers  ctat  was  stopped  only  towards  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Louis 
XIV.,  when  the  King,  who  no  longer  feared  the  nobles,  al- 
lowed the  government  to  fall  into  their  hands.  Until  that  time 
all  the  ministers,  Concini,  Luynes,  Richelieu,  Mazarin,  Colbert, 
and  Louvois,  had  been  plebeians,  or,  at  the  most,  belonged  quite 
to  the  inferior  nobility.  A  few  of  the  admirals  and  chief  officers 
in  the  armies  of  Louis  XIV.  came  from  the  very  lowest  ranks  of 
the  people. 

In  the  first  portion  of  this  century  political  action  may  be  said 
to  have  been  negative.  The  object  was  to  destroy  the  obstacles 
to  monarchical  centralization — the  higher  nobles  and  the  Protes- 
tants; this  was  the  work  of  Richelieu.  In  the  second  portion 
there  was  under  Colbert  an  attempt  at  legislative,  and  especially 
at  administrative,  organization.  Manufactures  took  their  rise. 
France  was  active  both  at  home  and  abroad ;  she  fought  as  well 
as  produced.  But  her  productions  did  not  equal  her  consump- 
tion. France  exhausted  herself  in  enlarging  her  territory  by 
means  of  necessary  and  glorious  victories.  Her  interior  pros- 
perity was  retarded  by  the  pressure  of  her  wars  and  conquests, 
and  by  aristocratic  reaction.  The  nobility  seized  upon  the 
power  oHhe  crown,  stood  between  the  King  and  the  people,  and 
communicated  their  own  decrepitude  to  the  monarchy. 

Henri  IV.  found  great  difficulty  in  holding  the  balance  be- 
tween the  Protestants  and  Catholics.  At  the  time  of  his  death 
he  could  no  longer  have  maintained  this  indecision,  he  must 
have  joined  one  of  the  two  parties,  and  he  would  have  chosen  the 
Protestants;  for  the  great  German  war,  which  was  just  begin- 
ning, offered  him  the  magnificent  part  of  chief  of  the  European 
opposition  against  the  house  of  Austria — the  part  which  was 
played  twenty  years  later  by  Gustavus  Adolphus.  After  the 

160 


MODERN  HISTORY  161 

King's  death,  Louis  XIIL,  a  child;  an  Italian  regent,  Marie  de 
Medicis,  and  her  Italian  minister,  Concini,  were  not  able  to  con- 
tinue the  policy  of  Henri  IV.  This  child  and  this  woman  could 
not  mount  on  horseback  and  fight  against  Austria.  As  they 
could  not  oppose,  they  were  obliged  to  make  friends  with  Aus- 
tria. They  could  not  lead  the  nobles  and  Protestants  into  Ger- 
many on  a  Protestant  crusade;  they  were  therefore  obliged  to  try 
to  gain  the  nobles  and  weaken  the  Protestants.  This  policy  of 
Concini's,  justly  blamed  by  the  historians,  is  defended  by  Riche- 
lieu in  one  of  his  writings.  The  nobles  whom  Henri  IV.  had  not 
been  able  to  deprive  of  their  fortresses,  such  as  Conde,  Epernon, 
Bouillon,  and  Longueville,  were  all  in  arms  on  his  death;  they 
demanded  money,  and,  in  order  to  avoid  civil  war,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  give  up  to  them  the  treasure  amassed  by  Henri  IV. 
(twelve  million,  and  not  thirty,  according  to  Richelieu).  They 
next  called  for  the  States-General  [1614]. 

This  assembly  of  the  States,  which  after  all  effected  nothing, 
did  not  answer  the  expectations  of  the  nobles;  it  showed  a  devo- 
tion to  the  monarchy;  and  the  tiers  etat  called  on  the  crown  to 
proclaim  its  independence  of  the  Pope.  The  nobles,  as  they 
could  obtain  nothing  from  the  States-General,  had  recourse  to 
force,  and  allied  themselves  with  the  Protestants  [1615];  a 
strange  alliance  between  old  feudalism  and  the  religious  reforma- 
tion of  the  sixteenth  century !  Concini,  tired  of  middle  courses, 
arrested  the  Prince  of  Conde,  the  chief  of  the  coalition.  This 
daring  step  was  the  beginning  of  a  new  policy;  Concini  had  just 
enlisted  the  services  of  the  young  Richelieu  [1610]. 

A  court  intrigue  overthrew  Concini  for  the  benefit  of  the 
young  Luynes,  the  little  King's  favorite  servant,  who  persuaded 
him  to  emancipate  himself  from  his  mother  and  his  minister 
[1617].  Concini  was  assassinated,  and  his  widow,-  Leonora 
Galigai,  executed  as  a  sorceress.  Their  real  crimes  were  theft 
and  venality.  Luynes  only  continued  the  ministry  of  Concini. 
He  had  one  more  enemy  in  the  Queen  mother,  who  twice  nearly 
brought  on  civil  war.  The  Protestants  became  every  day  more 
formidable.  They  demanded,  arms  in  hand,  the  execution  of 
the  Edict  of  Nantes,  which  allowed  a  republic  to  exist  within  the 
kingdom.  Luynes  pushed  them  to  extremities  by  uniting 
Beam  to  the  crown,  and  declaring  that  in  that  province  the  ec- 
clesiastical property  should  be  restored  to  the  Catholics.  This 
is  precisely  what  the  Emperor  tried  to  do  in  Germany,  and  it  was 
the  principal  cause  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War.  Richelieu  was 
afterwards  more  prudent  in  his  measures.  He  did  not  annoy  the 
Protestants  with  regard  to  their  usurped  possessions;  he  attacked 
only  their  fortresses.  Their  Assembly  at  La  Rochelle,  in  1621, 
published  a  declaration  of  independence,  divided  into  eight  cir- 
cles the  700  reformed  churches  in  France,  regulated  the  levies 

XI 


162  AilCHELfeT 

of  money  and  men — in  a  word,  organized  the  Protestant  Repub- 
lic. They  offered  100,000  crowns  a  month  to  Lesdiguieres  to 
place  himself  at  their  head  and  organize  their  army.  But  the 
old  soldier  would  not  at  eighty  years  of  age  quit  his  little  sover- 
eignty of  Dauphine  to  accept  the  government  of  such  an  undis- 
ciplined party.  Luynes,  who  had  taken  the  command  of  the 
royal  army  and  the  title  of  Constable,  failed  miserably  before 
Montauban,  whither  he  had  led  the  King.  He  died  in  this  cam- 
paign [1621]. 

It  was  only  three  years  afterwards  that  the  Queen  mother  suc- 
ceeded in  introducing  her  creature  Richelieu  into  the  council 
[1624].  The  King  had  an  antipathy  against  this  man,  in  whom 
he  had  a  presentiment  that  he  would  find  a  master.  Richelieu's 
first  thought  was  to  neutralize  England,  the  only  ally  of  the 
Protestants  in  France.  He  did  this  in  two  ways.  On  the  one 
hand,  he  supported  Holland  and  lent  her  money  to  build  ships ; 
on  the  other,  the  marriage  of  the  King  of  England  with  the 
beautiful  Henrietta  of  France,  daughter  of  Henri  IV.,  increased 
the  natural  indecision  of  Charles  L,  and  the  distrust  of  the  Eng- 
lish in  his  government.  The  cardinal  thus  began  by  an  alliance 
with  the  English  and  Dutch  heretics,  and  a  war  against  the  Pope; 
from  this,  we  may  see  how  free  his  policy  was  from  prejudice. 
The  Pope,  who  was  entirely  under  the  influence  of  Spain,  occu- 
pied in  her  favor  the  little  Swiss  canton  of  the  Valteline,  thus 
holding  for  her  the  door  of  the  Alps,  through  which  her  Italian 
possessions  communicated  with  Austria.  Richelieu  hired  Swiss 
troops,  sent  them  against  the  Pope's  army,  and  restored  the 
Valteline  to  the  Orisons ;  but  not  until  he  had  assured  himself  by 
a  decision  of  the  Sorbonne,  that  he  might  do  so  with  a  clear  con- 
science. After  having  beaten  the  Pope,  in  the  following  year 
[1625]  he  conquered  the  Protestants,  who  had  again  taken  up 
arms;  he  subdued  them  and  temporized  with  them,  not  being 
able  as  yet  to  destroy  them.  He  was  embarrassed  in  the  execu- 
tion of  his  great  projects  by  the  most  despicable  intrigues.  The 
young  followers  of  Gaston,  Duke  of  Orleans,  who  were  under 
the  influence  of  women,  stimulated  their  master's  lazy  ambition. 
They  wanted  to  give  him  an  external  support  by  marrying  him 
to  a  foreign  Princess.  Richelieu  at  first  attempted  to  gain  them 
over.  He  gave  a  marshal's  baton  to  Ornano,  Gaston's  gov- 
ernor. This  encouraged  them  still  further,  and  they  plotted 
Richelieu's  death.  The  cardinal  sent  for  their  chief  accomplice, 
Chalais,  but  could  get  nothing  from  him.  Then,  changing 
his  policy,  he  gave  Chalais  up  to  a  commission  of  the  Parliament 
of  Brittany  and  executed  him  [1626].  Gaston,  while  his  friend 
was  being  beheaded,  married,  without  saying  a  word,  Mademoi- 
selle de  Montpensier.  Ornano,  imprisoned  in  the  Bastille,  soon 
afterwards  died  there,  no  doubt  of  poison.  Gaston's  favorites 


MODERN  HISTORY  163 

were  iti  the  habit  of  dying  in  the  Bastille  [Paylaurens,  1635]. 
Such  was  the  policy  of  the  time,  as  we  read  in  the  Machiavelli  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  Gabriel  Naude,  Mazarin's  librarian. 
The  device  of  these  politicians,  as  given  by  Naude,  was  Salus 
populi  suprema  lex  esto.  In  other  respects,  they  agreed  well  in 
the  choice  of  means.  It  was  the  same  doctrine  that  inspired  the 
terrorists  in  1793.  It  seems  to  have  been  followed  by  neither 
remorse  nor  doubt  in  the  mind  of  Richelieu.  As  he  was  expir- 
ing, the  priest  asked  if  he  forgave  his  enemies.  "I  have  never 
had  any,"  he  replied,  "except  those  of  the  State."  At  another 
time  he  uttered  the  following  terrible  words :  "I  never  venture  to 
undertake  anything  without  have  well  reflected  upon  it;  but, 
when  once  I  have  resolved,  I  go  straight  to  my  object;  I  cut 
through  everything;  I  hew  down  everything,  and  afterwards 
cover  all  with  my  red  robe." 

He  did  in  truth  walk  in  a  straight  line  with  a  terrible  inflexi- 
bility. He  suppressed  the  post  of  constable;  that  of  high  ad- 
miral he  took  for  himself,  under  the  name  of  general  superin- 
tendent of  the  navy.  This  title  meant,  from  the  first,  the 
destroyer  of  La  Rochelle.  On  the  pretence  of  economy,  he  or- 
dered the  reduction  of  pensions,  and  the  demolition  of  fortresses. 
The  fortress  of  Protestantism,  La  Rochelle,  was  at  length  at- 
tacked. A  fop  who  governed  the  King  of  England,  the  hand- 
some Buckingham,  had  solemnly  proclaimed  his  love  for  Anne 
of  Austria;  he  was  forbidden  to  enter  the  kingdom  of  France, 
and  he  caused  war  to  be  declared  between  the  two  countries. 
The  English  promised  assistance  to  La  Rochelle;  it  revolted  and 
fell  under  the  claws  of  Richelieu  [1627 — 1628].  Buckingham 
came  with  a  few  thousand  men  to  be  beaten  in  the  Isle  of  Rhe. 
Charles  I.  had  soon  something  else  to  do.  With  the  famous 
"Petition  of  Right"  [1628],  the  English  revolution  began;  and 
Richelieu  was  by  no  means  foreign  to  it.  La  Rochelle,  aban- 
doned by  the  English,  found  herself  divided  from  the  sea  by  a 
prodigious  dyke — the  remains  may  still  be  seen  at  low  tide.  It 
had  taken  more  than  a  year  to  construct;  more  than  once  the  sea 
carried  the  dyke  away — Richelieu  would  not  desist.  The  Am- 
sterdam of  France,  of  which  Coligni  had  intended  to  make  him- 
self the  William  of  Orange,  was  seized  in  the  midst  of  her  waters 
and  enclosed  by  land;  parted  from  her  native  element,  she  did 
nothing  from  this  time  but  waste  away.  Protestantism,  at  least, 
as  a  political  party,  was  killed  with  the  same  blow.  The  war 
still  lingered  in  the  South,  but  the  famous  Duke  of  Rohan  at 
length  came  to  terms. 

After  having  broken  the  Protestant  party  in  France,  Riche- 
lieu conquered  the  Catholic  party  in  Europe;  he  beat  the  Span- 
iards in  the  corner  of  Italy  where  they  had  reigned  ever  since 
Charles  V.  By  means  of  a  sharp,  short  war,  he  cut  the  knot  of 


MICHELET 

the  succession  to  Mantua  and  Montferrat — small  countries,  but 
strong  military  positions.  The  last  duke  had  bequeathed  them 
to  a  French  Prince,  the  Duke  of  Nevers.  The  Savoyards,  forti- 
fied at  Susa,  thought  themselves  impregnable,  and  Richelieu 
himself  believed  them  to  be  so.  The  King,  in  his  own  person, 
carried  this  terrible  barrier  The  Duke  of  Nevers  was  secured, 
France  obtained  an  advanced  post  in  Italy,  and  the  Duke  of 
Savoy  knew  that  the  French  might  march  through  his  domin- 
ions whenever  they  pleased  [1630], 

During  this  splendid  war,  the  Queen  mother,  the  courtiers, 
the  ministers  even,  were  waging  an  underhand  and  cowardly 
opposition  against  Richelieu.  They  thought  that  they  had  de- 
throned him.  He  met  Louis  XIII.,  talked  to  him  for  a  quarter 
of  an  hour,  and  found  himself  master  again.  This  day  was  called 
the  Day  of  the  Dupes.  It  was  a  comedy.  The  cardinal  packed 
up  his  goods  in  the  morning,  and  his  enemies  did  the  same  in  the 
evening.  But  the  play  had  its  tragic  side;  the  cardinal  seized 
the  two  Marillacs,  as  well  as  the  superintendent — both  creatures 
of  his  own,  who  had  turned  against  him.  Without  mentioning 
the  crimes  of  peculation  and  extortion,  so  common  at  this  period, 
they  were  guilty  of  having  endeavored  to  cause  the  failure  of  the 
Italian  war  by  keeping  back  sums  intended  for  its  support.  One 
of  them  was  beheaded.  The  odious  part  of  the  business  was 
that  he  was  tried  by  a  commission  of  his  personal  enemies  in  a 
private  house,  the  palace  of  the  cardinal  himself,  at  Ruel. 

The  Queen-mother,  who  was  more  embarrassing,  was  arrested 
and  intimidated.  She  was  persuaded  to  escape  to  Brussels)  with 
her  son  Gaston.  The  latter,  assisted  by  the  Duke  of  Lorraine, 
whose  daughter  he  had  married  after  the  death  of  his  first  wife, 
collected  a  few  vagabonds,  and  fell  upon  France.  He  had  been 
invited  by  the  nobles,  among  others  by  Montmorency,  the  gov- 
ernor of  Languedoc.  The  nobles  were  determined  this  time  to 
stake  all  on  their  game.  In  order  to  join  Montmorency,  it  was 
necessary  to  march  across  the  whole  kingdom.  Gaston's  ill- 
paid  soldiers  supplied  themselves  by  their  exactions  as  they  went. 
All  the  towns  shut  their  gates  against  these  robbers.  The  en- 
counter took  place  at  Castelnaudry,  and  they  were  beaten  [1632]. 
Gaston  threw  down  his  arms,  and  made  peace  by  giving  up  his 
friends;  he  swore  emphatically  "to  love  the  King's  ministers, 
especially  His  Eminence  the  Cardinal."  Montmorency, 
wounded  and  taken  prisoner,  was  cruelly  beheaded  at  Toulouse. 
The  fate  of  this  last  representative  of  chivalry  and  feudalism  ex- 
cited commiseration.  His  relation,  the  Duke  of  Bouteville, 
father  of  the  celebrated  Luxembourg,  had  been  beheaded  in  1627 
for  fighting  a  duel  When  heads  of  such  importance  were  seen 
to  fall,  the  nobles  began  to  understand  that  the  State  and  the  laws 
were  no  longer  to  be  trifled  with. 


MODERN  HISTORY  165 

The  Thirty  Years'  War  was  raging  at  that  time.  Richelieu 
would  not  take  a  direct  part  in  it  as  long  as  he  had  the  nobles 
on  his  hands.  The  Emperor  had  by  that  time  damaged  the  Prot- 
estant party;  the  Palatine  was  ruined  [1623];  the  King  of  Den- 
mark was  giving  up  the  war  [1629].  The  Catholic  armies  were 
under  the  command  of  their  greatest  generals — the  tactician, 
Tilly,  and  that  demon  of  war,  Wallenstein.  To  give  the  Protes- 
tants a  lift,  to  excite  the  phlegmatic  Germans,  some  external 
movement  was  necessary,  Richelieu  searched  for  an  ally  north- 
ward of  Denmark,  and  summoned  Gustavus  Adolphus  from 
Sweden.  First,  he  relieved  him  from  the  war  with  Poland ;  he 
gave  him  money,  and  negotiated  for  him  an  alliance  with  the 
United  Provinces  and  the  King  of  England.  He  was  skilful 
enough  at  the  same  time  to  persuade  the  Emperor  to  disarm. 
The  Swede,  whose  poverty  was  so  great  that  he  had  more  proba- 
bilities of  gaining  than  losing,  precipitated  himself  into  Ger- 
many, let  loose  all  the  thunders  of  war,  disconcerted  the  famous 
tacticians,  and  beat  them  easily  while  they  were  studying  his 
manoeuvres;  with  one  blow  he  deprived  them  of  the  Rhine  and 
all  the  west  of  Germany.  Richelieu  had  not  foreseen  that  his 
success  would  be  so  rapid.  Fortunately  Gustavus  perished  at 
Liitzen;  happily  for  his  enemies,  his  friends,  and  his  own  glory. 
He  died  pure  and  invincible  [1632]. 

Richelieu  continued  his  subsidies  to  the  Swedes,  closed  France 
on  the  side  of  Germany,  by  confiscating  Lorraine,  and  declared 
war  against  Spain  [1635].  He  thought  that  he  had  subdued 
Austria  so  thoroughly  that  he  might  venture  upon  despoiling 
her.  He  had  bought  the  best  pupil  of  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Ber- 
nard of  Saxe- Weimar.  Nevertheless,  the  war  presented  some 
difficulty  at  first.  The  Imperialists  entered  by  way  of  Bur- 
gundy, and  the  Spaniards  by  Picardy.  They  were  only  thirty 
leagues  from  Paris.  The  inhabitants  were  preparing  to  leave 
the  capital ;  the  minister  himself  seems  to  have  lost  his  head.  The 
Spaniards,  however,  were  repulsed  [1636].  Bernard  of  Weimar 
gained  for  the  benefit  of  France  the  famous  battles  of  Rheinfeld 
and  Brisach.  Brisach  and  Fribourg,  considered  as  impregnable 
fortresses,  were  nevertheless  taken.  The  temptation  was  be- 
coming too  strong  for  Bernard;  he  wished  with  the  money  of 
France  to  create  for  himself  a  little  sovereignty  on  the  other  side 
of  the  Rhine;  his  master,  the  great  Gustavus,  had  not  had  time 
for  this,  nor  had  Bernard.  He  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-six,  very 
opportunely  for  France  and  for  Richelieu  [1639]. 

In  the  following  year  [1640]  the  cardinal  found  means  of  sim- 
plifying the  war.  It  wa$  to  create  more  than  one  civil  war  in 
Spain.  The  East  and  the  West,  Catalonia  and  Portugal,  caught 
fire  at  the  same  time.  The  Catalans  placed  themselves  under 
the  protection  of  France.  Spain  tried  to  imitate  Richelieu  by 


x66  MICHELET 

fostering  for  him  an  embarrassing  civil  war.  She  treated  with 
Gaston  and  the  nobles.  The  Count  of  Soissons,  who  also  rose 
in  revolt,  soon  was  obliged  to  take  refuge  with  the  Spaniards, 
and  was  killed  in  fighting  for  them  at  Sedan  [1641].  The  party 
was  not  discouraged;  and  a  new  conspiracy  was  framed  in  con- 
cert with  Spain.  The  young  Cinq-Mars,  chief  equerry  and 
favorite  of  Louis  XIII.,  threw  himself  into  it  with  the  same 
thoughtlessness  which  ruined  Chalais.  The  discreet  De  Thou, 
son  of  the  historian,  knew  of  the  plot,  and  concealed  it.  The 
King  himself  was  aware  that  his  minister's  life  was  conspired 
against,  Richelieu,  who  was  then  very  ill,  seemed  to  be  hope- 
lessly lost.  He  succeeded,  however,  in  obtaining  a  copy  of  the 
treaty  with  Spain,  and  had  just  time  to  bring  his  enemies  to  jus- 
tice before  his  death.  He  beheaded  Cinq-Mars  and  De  Thou. 
The  Duke  of  Bouillon,  who  already  felt  the  knife  at  his  throat, 
purchased  his  life  by  giving  up  his  town  of  Sedan,  the  hot-bed  of 
all  these  intrigues.  At  the  other  extremity  of  France,  Richelieu 
was  taking  Perpignan  from  Spain.  These  two  strongholds, 
which  cover  France  on  the  north  and  south,  were  the  cardinal's 
legacy  to  the  country.  In  the  same  year  the  great  Richelieu 
died  ' 


MODERN  HISTORY. 

THIRD  PERIOD,  164&-1789. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

LOUIS  XIV. 

TROUBLES  UNDER  MAZARIN.— BEGINNING  OF  COLBERT'S 

MINISTRY. 

First  Division  of  the  Third  Period. — 1648 — 1715. 

The  death  of  Richelieu  was  a  deliverance  for  every  one.  The 
world  began  to  breathe  again.  The  people  composed  song's,  in 
which  the  King  on  his  death-bed  took  part.  His  widow,  Anne 
of  Austria,  became  regent  in  the  name  of  the  young  King  Louis 
XIV.*  who  was  six  years  old.  France,  after  the  deaths  of  Riche- 
lieu and  Louis  XIIL,  found  herself,  as  after  that  of  Henri  IV., 
under  the  soft  hand  of  a  woman  who  could  neither  resist  nor  re- 
tain. "The  French  language,"  says  a  contemporary,  "seemed 
to  consist  of  these  little  words :  'The  Queen  is  so  kind.'  "  The 
Concini  of  this  new  Medicis  was  an  extremely  clever  Italian, 
Cardinal  Mazarin.  His  administration,  as  deplorable  at  home 
as  it  was  glorious  abroad,  was  disturbed  by  the  revolution  of  the 
Fronde,  and  crowned  by  the  two  treaties  of  Westphalia  and  the 
Pyrenees — the  former  of  which  continued  to  be  the  diplomatic 
map  of  Europe  until  the  French  revolution.  Both  the  good 
and  the  evil  of  this  time  were  equally  the  heritage  of  Richelieu. 
He  had  stretched  the  springs  of  government  too  far — they  gave 
way  of  themselves  under  Mazarin.  Richelieu,  who  had  every 
day  to  wage  some  mortal  combat,  supplied  his  finances  by  means 
of  tyrannical  expedients ;  he  devoured  the  present  and  even  the 
future  by  destroying  credit.  Mazarin,  receiving  them  in  this 
condition,  increased  their  disorder  by  allowing  plunder  and 
plundering  himself.  When  he  died  he  left  wealth  to  the  amount 
of  200,000,000.  He  had  too  much  sense,  however,  to  despise 
economy.  On  his  death-bed  he  told  Louis  XIV.  that  he  con- 
sidered that  he  had  discharged  all  his  obligations  to  him  by  giv- 
ing him  Colbert.  Some  of  this  stolen  money  was,  however,  hon- 
orably employed.  He  sent  Gabriel  Naude  all  over  Europe  to 
buy  valuable  books  at  any  price;  in  this  way  he  formed  his  ad- 
mirable Biblioth£que  Mazarine,  and  opened  it  to  the  public. 
This  was  the  first  public  library  in  Paris.  At  the  same  time  he 

169 


I7o  MICHELET 

gave  a  pension  of  1,000  crowns,  which  he  caused  to  be  paid  regu- 
larly, to  Descartes,  who  had  retired  to  Holland. 

The  new  reign  was  inaugurated  by  victories.  The  French 
infantry  took  its  place  in  the  world  for  the  first  time  at  the  battle 
of  Rocroi  [1643].  This  was  much  more  than  a  battle;  it  was  a 
great  social  event.  Cavalry  is  the  aristocratic,  infantry  the  dem- 
ocratic, arm  of  the  service.  The  birth  of  the  infantry  is  that  of 
the  people.  Whenever  the  people  rises  in  importance,  the  in- 
fantry distinguishes  itself.  During  the  century  and  a  half  that 
Spain  had  been  a  nation  the  Spanish  foot-soldier  had  reigned  in 
every  battle-field,  brave  under  fire,  respecting  himself  even  in 
rags,  and  making  the  senor  soldado  respected  everywhere.  He 
was  gloomy,  avaricious,  and  greedy,  ill-paid,  but  patient  while 
waiting  to  plunder  some  fine  town  in  Germany  or  Flanders.  In 
the  time  of  Charles  V.  the  troops  had  sworn  by  the  "sack  of  Flor- 
ence;" they  had  pillaged  Rome,  Antwerp,  and  numberless  towns 
in  the  Low  Countries.  Among  the  Spanish  troops  there  were 
men  of  every  nation,  especially  Italians.  National  character  was 
disappearing,  but  the  army  was  still  sustained  by  its  esprit  de 
corps  and  ancient  honor  when  it  was  demolished  at  the  battle  of 
Rocroi.  The  soldier  who  took  the  place  of  the  Spaniard  was 
the  French  soldier,  the  ideal  soldier — disciplined  impetuosity. 
Although  still  far  from  understanding  the  sentiment  of  patriot- 
ism, he  had  an  ardent  love  for  his  country.  This  dashing  troop 
was  composed  of  sons  of  laborers,  whose  grandfathers  had  been 
engaged  in  the  last  religious  wars.  Those  party  strifes  and  pis- 
tol skirmishes  made  soldiers  of  the  whole  nation;  they  left  tradi- 
tions of  honor  and  bravery  in  families.  The  grandsons  of  these 
combatants  enlisted  and  led  by  a  young  man  of  twenty — the 
great  Conde — broke  through  the  Spanish  lines  at  Rocroi,  cut- 
ting to  pieces  the  veterans  bands  as  gaily  as  their  descendants, 
under  another  young  hero,  crossed  the  bridges  of  Arcola  and 
Lodi. 

From  the  time  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  war  had  been  carried 
on  in  a  freer  spirit.  Less  was  thought  of  material  and  more  of 
moral  strength.  Tactics  had  become,  so  to  speak,  more  spirit- 
ual. As  soon  as  men  felt  the  divine  spark  within  them,  they 
marched  on  without  considering  the  enemy.  They  required 
for  their  leader  a  daring  young  man,  one  who  believed  in  success. 
Conde,  at  Fribourg,  threw  his  baton  into  the  enemy's  ranks;  and 
every  Frenchman  ran  to  pick  it  up. 

Victory  begets  victory.  The  lines  at  Rocroi  once  broken, 
the  barrier  of  Spanish  and  imperial  honor  was  broken  forever. 
In  the  following  year  [1644]  the  skilful  veteran,  Mercy,  allowed 
the  lines  at  Thionville  to  be  carried;  Conde  took  Philipsburg 
and  Mayence,  the  central  position  of  the  Rhine.  Mercy  was 
again  and  completely  beaten  at  Nordlingen  [1645].  In  1646 


MODERN  HISTORY  171 

Conde  took  Dunkirk,  the  key  of  the  Low  Countries,  and  of 
the  Channel.  Finally,  on  August  20,  1648,  he  gained  in  Artois 
the  battle  of  Lens.  The  Treaty  of  Westphalia  was  signed  on 
the  twenty-fourth  of  October.  Conde  had  simplified  the  nego- 
tiations. 

These  five  years  of  unparalleled  success  were  fatal  to  the  good 
sense  of  Conde.  He  never  thought  of  the  soldiers  who  had 
gained  his  victories  for  him;  he  claimed  them  for  himself,  and 
every  one,  it  must  be  owned,  thought  as  he  did.  This  is  what 
made  him  play  in  the  Fronde  the  part  of  a  matamore,  a  stage- 
hero;  and  afterwards,  deceived,  disappointed,  powerless,  and 
ridiculous,  he  lost  his  temper  and  joined  the  enemy;  but  he  was 
beaten  as  soon  as  he  ceased  to  command  Frenchmen. 

This  revolution  broke  out  in  the  very  year  of  the  glorious 
Treaty  of  Westphalia,  which  terminated  the  European  war,  and 
gave  Alsace  to  France.  The  Fronde^  (so  childish  a  war  was 
well  named  after  a  childish  game)  was  no  doubt  comic  in  its  de- 
tails, but  still  more  so  in  its  principle;  it  was,  in  truth,  a  revolt  on 
the  part  of  the  lawyers  against  the  law.  The  Parliament  took  up 
arms  against  the  royal  authority  whence  it  derived  its  power. 
It  seized  on  the  power  of  the  States-General,  and  pretended  to 
be  the  delegate  of  the  nation  which  had  nothing  to  do  with  it.  At 
this  time  the  English  Parliament — a  real  Parliament  in  the  polit- 
ical sense  of  the  word — beheaded  its  King  [1649].  On  ^e  other 
hand,  the  Neapolitan  populace  was  crowning  a  fisherman 
[Masaniello,  1648].  Our  Parliament,  composed  of  lawyers  who 
purchased  their  charges,  had  no  antipathy  to  the  dynasty  or  to 
royalty,  but  only  to  the  royal  authority.  Their  conduct  for  two 
centuries  had  led  to  no  such  anticipations.  During  the  wars  of 
religion  they  had  exhibited  much  timidity  and  docility.  Favor- 
able for  the  most  part  to  the  new  ideas,  they  nevertheless  regis- 
tered the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew. 

Under  Richelieu  they  were  equally  docile;  the  Parliaments 
had  furnished  him  with  commissions  for  his  sanguinary  justice, 
and  nevertheless  had  been  ill-treated,  subjected  to  compulsion, 
and  interdicted  [Paris,  1635;  Rouen,  1640].  At  this  time  they 
hung  their  heads  very  low.  When  they  raised  them  and  found 
them  still  upon  their  shoulders,  and  saw  that  their  master  was 
really  dead,  they  felt  brave  and  spoke  loud.  It  resembled  the 
noisy  outbreak  of  merriment  among  schoolboys  between  the 
lessons  of  two  severe  masters — Richelieu^and  Louis  XIV. — vio- 
lence and  strength. 

In  this  tragi-comedy  the  most  amusing  figures  after  that  of 
the  French  Mars,  as  Conde  was  called,  were  the  chiefs  of  the 
opposite  parties  in  Parliament;  on  the  one  hand,  the  impassable 
President  Mole,  a  simple  bar  of  iron,  who  softened  under  the 

a  A  fronde  is  a  sling  with  which  the  children  in  Paris  used  to  throw  stones* 


172 


MICHELET 


influence  neither  of  men,  nor  of  opinions;  on  the  other  hand, 
restlessness  itself  personified  in  the  coadjutator-archbishop  of 
Paris,  the  famous  Cardinal  de  Retz.  This  petulant  young  man 
had  begun  by  writing  at  seventeen  a  history  of  the  conspiracy  of 
Fiesco ;  afterwards  in  order  to  unite  practice  with  theory,  he  en- 
tered into  a  conspiracy  against  Richelieu.  His  delight  was  to 
hear  himself  called  the  little  Catilina.  When  he  entered  the  Pa- 
risian Senate  he  allowed  a  dagger  to  peep  out  of  his  pocket  As 
he  read  that  Caesar  had  debts,  he  also  had  debts.  Like  Caesar 
he  left  commentaries.  Only  Pharsalus  was  wanting  to  him. 

The  extreme  poverty  of  the  people  admitting  of  no  new  taxes, 
Mazarin  lived  by  means  of  chance  resources  and  vexatious  ex- 
actions. His  superintendent,  Emery,  another  Italian,  having 
cut  off  four  years'  pay  from  the  sovereign  companies  in  ex- 
change for  an  onerous  tax,  he  exempted  the  Parliament.  The 
Parliament  did  not  choose  to  be  alone  exempted,  and  refused  to 
register  the  edict.  It  declared  its  union  with  the  sov- 
ereign companies  and  invited  the  other  Parliaments  'to  agree 
[thirteenth  of  May,  fifteenth  of  June,  1648].  Mazarin  thought 
that  he  struck  -a  great  blow  when  he  arrested  four  coun- 
cillors while  the  Te  Deum  was  being  sung,  and  the  standards 
taken  at  the  battle  of  Lens  were  being  carried  into  Notre  Dame. 
This  was  the  beginning  of  the  insurrection.  Of  the  four  prison- 
ers, the  one  whom  the  people  liked  best  was  an  old  councillor, 
who  pleased  them  by  his  bluntness  and  his  white  hair.  His 
name  was  Broussel.  The  people  crowded  before  his  door.  An 
old  servant  held  forth  to  the  mob.  The  disturbance  spread,  and 
100,000  voices  cried  "Liberty  and  Broussel." 

The  Princes,  the  nobles,  the  Parliament,  and  the  populace 
were  all  of  one  mind,  against  Mazarin.  The  Queen  was  obliged 
to  leave  Paris  with  her  little  son.  They  slept  upon  straw  at  St. 
Germain.  It  was  a  bad  time  for  Kings.  The  Queen  of  Eng- 
land, who  had  taken  refuge  in  Paris,  spent  the  winter  in  bed  for 
want  of  fuel.  Th£  Parliament,  however,  raised  troops,  the  law- 
yers mounted  on  horseback;  every  large  house  furnished  an 
armed  lackey.  Viscount  Turenne,  a  member  of  the  intriguing 
house  of  Bouillon,  believed  the  moment  come  for  recovering 
Sedan,  and  for  a  short  time  became  the  General  of  the  Fronde. 
This  cold,  grave  man  hoped  by  this  means  to  please  Madame  de 
Longueville;  every  general,  every  party  leader,  every  hero  of 
romance  or  history  thought  it  necessary  to  have  a  "dame  de  $e$ 
pensees"  and  to  be  in  love. 

The  Spaniards,  who  took  adavantage  of  this  crisis  [1649]  to 
enter  France,  reconciled  the  two  parties  for  a  short  time  by  fear. 
Conde,  who  until  then  had  remained  faithful  to  the  court, 
thought  that  they  could  not  do  without  him,  and  became  insup- 
portably  exacting.  It  was  then  that  the  name  of  petite  maitres 


MODERN  HISTORY  173 

was  invented  for  him  and  the  young  men  who  surrounded  him. 
He  made  both  parties  bid  for  him  at  the  same  time;  it  was  neces- 
sary to  arrest  him  [1650],  This  was  a  pretext  for  Turenne,  who 
had  just  gone  over  to  the  Spaniards,  and  who  declared  that  he  was 
fighting  for  his  deliverance.  The  Prince's  party,  that  of  the 
Frondeurs,  was  united  and  sustained  by  Spain,  and  Mazarin 
was  forced  to  yield.  He  withdrew  for  a  time  from  France,  and 
let  the  storm  pass  by;  in  the  following  year  he  returned,  gained 
over  Turenne,  and  tried  in  vain  to  carry  the  King  back  to  Paris 
[battle  of  the  Porte  St.  Antoine,  1652]  .  In  one  more  year  both 
parties  were  thoroughly  tired  out,  and  the  Parisians  themselves 
pressed  the  King  to  return  [1653].  The  Frondeurs  crowded 
into  Mazarin's  ante-chamber.  Conde  and  the  Spaniards  were 
beaten  by  the  royal  army,  commanded  by  Turenne.  -  Mazarin, 
allying  himself  without  scruple  with  the  English  republic  under 
Cromwell,  overpowered  the  Spaniards.  Turenne  defeated  them 
in  the  battle  of  the  Dunes  [1658],  which  gave  Dunkirk  to  the 
English,  and  the  Peace  of  the  Pyrenees  to  France  [1659].  The 
Treaty  of  Westphalia  had  guaranteed  to  her  the  barriers  of 
Artois,  Alsace,  and  Roussillon  ;  that  of  the  Pyrenees  gave  her 
Gravelines,  Landrecies,  Thionville,  and  Montmedy  in  addition. 
The  young  King  of  France  married  the  Infanta  with  a  dowry 
of  100,000  crowns,  which  was  never  paid.  The  Infanta  re- 
nounced her  right  of  succession  to  the  crown  of  Spain.  Maz- 
arin did  not  object;  he  foresaw  the  value  of  these  renunciations 


Then  followed  the  most  complete  triumph  of  royalty,  the  most 
perfect  acquiescence  of  a  people  in  the  sovereignty  of  one  man, 
that  had  ever  existed.  Richelieu  had  subdued  the  nobles  and 
the  Protestants;  and  the  Fronde  ruined  the  Parliament  by  show- 
ing what  it  was  worth.  Only  the  King  and  the  people  were  left 
standing  in  France;  the  latter  lived  in  the  former. 

The  young  Louis  XIV.  was  perfectly  suited  for  this  magnifi- 
cent part.  His  cold  and  dignified  countenance  reigned  over 
France  for  fifty  years  with  unimpaired  majesty.  During  the 
first  thirty  years  he  sat  eight  hours  a  day  at  the  council,  reconcil- 
ing business  with  pleasure,  listening,  consulting;  but  deciding 
for  himself.  His  ministers  changed,  or  died;  but  he  remained 
always  the  same,  accomplishing  the  duties,  ceremonies,  and 
festivities  of  royalty  with  the  regularity  of  the  sun,  which  be 
chose  for  his  emblem. 

One  of  the  merits  of  Louis  XIV.  was  that  he  kept  in  office  for 
twenty-two  years  one  of  the  ministers  who  have  done  most  for 
the  glory  of  France  —  Colbert.  He  was  the  grandson  of  a  wool- 
merchant  of  Rheims;  his  character  was  somewhat  stiff  and 
heavy,  but  he  was  full  of  solid  qualities,  active  and  in- 
Ldefatigable.  He  united  the  duties  of  Minister  of  the  Interior,  of 


174  MICHELEt 

Commerce,  of  the  Exchequer,  and  even  of  the  Admiralty,  to 
which  he  appointed  his  son;  the  departments  of  War  and  Justice 
were  all  that  was  wanting  to  make  him  ruler  of  France.  From 
the  year  1666  the  war  office  was  in  the  hands  of  Louvois,  an  ex- 
act, violent,  and  unbending  administrator,  whose  influence  bal- 
anced that  of  Colbert.  Louis  XIV.  seemed  to  stand  between 
them  as  between  his  good  and  his  bad  genius;  together  they 
held  this  illustrious  reign  in  equilibrium. a 

When  Colbert  came  into  office,  in  1661,  the  taxes  amounted  to 
eighty-four  millions,  and  the  King  received  of  them  hardly 
thirty-two.  In  1670,  in  spite  of  wars,  he  had  raised  the  net  rev- 
enue to  seventy  millions,  and  reduced  the  charges  to  twenty-five. 
His  first  financial  operation,  the  reduction  of  interest  on  the  debt, 
gave  a  severe  shock  to  credit.  His  industrial  regulations  -were 
singularly  vexatious  and  tyrannical,  but  his  commercial  views 
were  enlightened.  He  created  chambers  of  commerce,  estab- 
lished free  markets,  made  roads,  and  secured  commerce  on  sea 
by  destroying  the  pirates.  At  the  same  time  he  carried  a  bold 
reform  into  the  civil  service.  He  forbade  sales  or  legacies  to 
religious  bodies. 

He  restricted  the  exemptions  from  taxes  extended  by  the 
nobles  and  citizens  of  free  towns  to  their  farmers,  whom  they 
registered  as  servants.  He  revoked  in  1664  all  the  patents  of 
nobility  granted  since  1630.  He  declared  all  salaried  offices  to 
be  temporary,  so  as  in  time  to  suppress  them. 

Colbert  has  been  reproached  with  encouraging  commerce 
more  than  agriculture.  He,  however,  forbade  the  seizure,  in 
payment  of  taxes,  of  the  beds,  clothes,  horses,  oxen,  and  tools  of 
laborers,  and  took  only  a  fifth  of  their  flocks.  He  maintained 
corn  at  a  low  price,  by  forbidding  exportation.  It  must  be  re- 
membered that,  as  the  greater  portion  of  the  land  was  at  that  time 
in  the  hands  of  the  nobles,  encouragement  to  agriculture  would 
have  benefited  the  people  less  than  the  aristocracy;  commerce 

a  Administration    of    Louis    XIV.—  of  the  bayonet.    Companies   of  grena- 

Finances.— Development      of     national  diers.    Regiment  of  hussars.    Corps  of 

wealth  under  the  Ministry  of  Colbert,  engineers.    Schools  of  artillery.    1688.— 

1661—1683.    Multiplied  regulations.    En-  Militia.    Regular    Commissary    Depart- 

cquragement     given     to     manufactures  ment.    InvaTides,    1693.    Order    of    St. 

(linen,    silk,    tapestry,    mirrors,    etc.),  Louis.    The  army  raised  to  450,000  men. 

1664 — 1680.    Canal  in   Languedoc.     Em-  Legislation.      1667. — Civil      ordinances, 

belli shment  of  Paris,  1698.    Description  1670.    Criminal    ordinance,    1673.    Com- 

of    the    kingdom,    1660.    Obstacles    to  mercial  code,  1685.    Code  noir.— Towards 

trade  in  cereals,  1664-    Reduction  of  in-  1663.   Repression  of  duelling.    Religious 

terest  on  the  National  Debt,  towards  Affairs.— Struggles  of  Jansenism,  which 

1691.    Financial    disorder,     1695.     Poll-  survives  throughout  the  reign  of  Louis 


tax,  1710.  Tithe  and  other  taxes,  1715.  XIV.,  1648—1709.  Port  Royal  des 
The  National  Debt  amounts  to  450,-  Champs,  1661.  Formula  dictated  by 
000,000  francs.  Admiralty.  —  Large  the  French  clergy,  1713.  Bull  Um~ 


Merchant    Navy,    160,000    sailors,    1672. 

100  men-of-war,   1681;  230,   1692.       First 

defeat  at  La  Hogue,      War. — -1666 — 1691.  ***   j.-*o.u^c,   *wy — *uyy.      WWWLIBIH,    ivo^. 

— Ministry   of    Louvois.      Military    Re-  Revocation    of    the    Edict    of    Nantes, 

form.       Uniform,     1667.— Establishment  1701—1704.    Revolt  of  the  Ce"vennes. 

of  studs  for  breeding  horses,  1671.      Use 


MODERN  HISTORY  175 

was  in  the  hands  of  the  middle  class,  which  was  beginning  to 
rise  into  importance. 

This  man,  who  had  risen  from  a  counting-house,  had  a  sense 
of  the  grandeur  of  France.  The  principal  edifices  erected  by 
Louis  XIV.,  his  finest  establishments,  the  observatory,  library, 
and  academies,  all  were  the  work  of  Colbert.  (  He  gave  pen- 
sions to  men  of  letters,  and  to  artists  in  France,  and  even  in  other 
countries.  "There  was  not  one  distinguished  scholar,"  says  a 
contemporary,  "however  far  from  France,  who  was  not  reached 
by  the  King's  munificence."  "Although  the  King  is  not  your 
sovereign,"  Colbert  wrote  to  Isaac  Vossius,  of  Holland,  "he 
chooses  to  be  your  benefactor." 

Such  letters  are  admirable  testimonies.  One  may  add  to 
them  the  Invalides,  Dunkirk,  and  the  canal  which  united  the 
two  seas.  Versailles,  likewise,  may  be  included.  This  pro- 
digious edifice,  with  which  no  country  in  the  world  has  anything 
to  compare,  testifies  to  the  greatness  of  France — united  for  the 
first  time  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Those  wonderful  erec- 
tions of  architecture  and  verdure,  terrace  above  terrace,  and 
fountain  beyond  fountain,  those  ranks  of  bronzes,  marbles,  jets, 
and  cascades  marshalled  on  the  royal  mountain;  from  the  mon- 
sters and  tritons  which  proclaim  at  its  base  the  triumphs  of  the 
Great  King,  to  the  beautiful  antique  statues  which  crown  the 
platform  with  the  tranquil  images  of  the  gods — in  all  this  there 
is  a  grandiose  idea  of  monarchy.  Those  waters  which  rise  and 
fall  with  so  much  grace  and  majesty  express  the  wide  social  cir- 
culation which  then  took  place  for  the  first  time,  power  and 
wealth  flowing  from  the  people  to  the  King,  to  return  from  the 
King  to  the  people.  The  charming  Latona,  who  presides  over 
the  garden,  silences  with  a  few  drops  of  water  the  insolent  clam- 
ors of  the  group  which  surrounds  her;  they  are  transformed  from 
men  into  croaking  frogs — an  emblem  of  royalty  triumphing  over 
the  Fronde. 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

FRANCE  IN  THE   SEVENTEENTH   CENTURY. 
CONTINUATION   OF   THE   REIGN    OF   LOUIS    XIV. 

Strong  and  united,  while  most  of  the  States  of  Europe  were 
growing  weaker,  France  claimed  and  obtained  the  supremacy. 
The  Pope,  having  suffered  the  French  ambassador  to  be  griev- 
ously insulted  and  his  hotel  plundered,  Louis  XIV.  insisted  upon 
the  most  public  reparation.  The  Pope  was  obliged  to  send 
away  his  own  brother,  and  to  raise  a  pyramid  to  perpetuate  his 
humiliation  [1664].  While  he  was  treating  the  spiritual  head  of 
Christendom  so  severely,  he  defended  Christian  interests  by  sea 
and  land;  he  swept  the  sea  of  the  Barbary  pirates  [1664].  He 
sent  to  the  Emperor  Leopold,  who  was  engaged  in  a  war  against 
the  Turks,  some  troops,  who  played  the  most  brilliant  part  in  the 
battle  of  St.  Gotthard. 

Against  whom  did  France  intend  to  exercise  the  strength 
which  she  thus  exhibited?  There  were  only  two  Western  pow- 
ers ;  the  return  of  the  Stuarts  having  rendered  England  insignifi- 
cant. These  powers  were  Spain  and  Holland,  the  conquered 
and  the  conquerors.  Spain  was  still  the  great  ship  whose  prow 
was  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  and  whose  poop  was  in  the  Atlantic; 
but  the  vessel  had  been  dismasted  and  unrigged  and  had  foun- 
dered on  the  coast,  in  the  tempest  of  Protestantism.  A  gale  of 
wind  had  carried  away  her  long-boat  Holland;  another  had  de- 
prived her  of  Portugal  and  uncovered  her  side ;  a  third  had  torn 
away  the  East  Indies.  The  remainder,  vast  and  imposing,  but 
inert  and  motionless,  was  calmly  awaiting  its  destruction. 

On  the  one  hand,  there  was  Holland,  a  little  nation,  but  ob- 
stinate, laborious,  and  taciturn,  and  effecting  many  great  things. 
First  of  all  they  lived,  in  spite  of  the  ocean — this  was  the  first 
miracle;  they  next  salted  their  cheese  and  their  herrings,  and 
transmuted  their  unsavory  barrels  into  barrels  of  gold;  they  then 
made  this  gold  fruitful  by  putting  it  out  to  interest.  Their  gold 
pieces  begot  others.  By  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century 
they  had  taken  as  much  as  they  pleased  of  the  spoils  of  Spain, 
had  deprived  her  of  the  sea  and  of  the  Indies.  The  Spanish 

176 


MODERN  HISTORY  177 

Netherlands  were  declared  in  a  state  of  siege,  by  virtue  of  a 
treaty.  Spain  had  signed  the  closing  of  the  Scheldt  and  the 
ruin  of  Antwerp  [1648],  The  Belgians  were  forbidden  to  sell 
the  produce  of  their  soil. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  West  when  France  attained  the 
summit  of  her  strength.  The  land  still  belonged  to  Spain,  and 
the  sea  to  Holland.  The  work  of  France  in  the  seventeenth 
century  was  to  dismember  the  one  and  enfeeble  the  other.  The 
former  task  was  easier  than  the  latter.  France  had  already  an 
army,  but  not  yet  a  navy.  She  began  therefore  by  Spain.  At 
first  France  allied  herself  apparently  with  Holland  against  Spain 
and  England,  who  were  fighting  for  the  dominion  of  the  sea. 
France  promised  assistance  to  the  Dutch,  but  she  allowed  the 
three  powers  to  damage  each  other's  vessels  and  to  exhaust  their 
fleets  in  some  of  the  most  obstinate  naval  battles  which  had  ever 
been  waged.  Then,  Philip  IV.  being  dead  [  1667] ,  Louis  XIV., 
in  virtue  of  the  civil  law  in  the  Low  Countries,  pretended  that  his 
wife,  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  deceased,  ought  to  succeed  in 
preference  to  the  youngest  son  (right  of  devolution).  She  had, 
indeed,  renounced  the  succession,  but  the  promised  dowry  had 
not  been  paid.  The  French  army  entered  Flanders  in  all  the 
pomp  of  the  new  reign:  Turenne  at  the  head,  the  King,  minis- 
ters, and  ladies  in  the  gilded  court  equipages ;  then  Vauban, 
who,  as  fast  as  they  advanced,  established  himself  in  the  towns 
and  fortified  them.  Flanders  was  taken  in  two  months.  Even  in 
the  winter,  when  war  was  supposed  to  be  suspended  [January, 
1668],  the  troops  defiled  through  Champagne  into  Burgundy, 
and  fell  upon  Franche-Comte.  Spain  had  not  expected  an  at- 
tack. The  authorities  of  the  country  had  been  bought  up  be- 
forehand. It  was  all  over  in  seventeen  days.  The  court  of 
Spain  wrote  in  indignation  to  the  governor  that  the  King  of 
France  should  have  sent  his  lackeys  to  take  the  province,  instead 
of  coming  himself.  This  rapid  success  reconciled  Spain  to  Hol- 
land. The  latter  did  not  care  to  have  the  great  King  for  a 
neighbor.  The  Dutch  began  to  take  an  interest  in  Spain,  to  de- 
fend her,  and  to  unite  in  her  favor  with  England  and  Sweden ; 
the  Dutch  had  the  dexterity  to  induce  England  to  ask  them  to 
form  this  union.  Three  Protestant  nations  took  up  arms  to  de- 
fend Catholic  Spain  against  Catholic  France.  This  curious 
event  shows  how  far  they  already  were  from  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury and  the  religious  wars  [triple  alliance  of  the  Hague,  1668] . 
Louis  XIV.  was  obliged  to  content  himself  with  French  Flan- 
ders, and  to  restore  Franche-Comte. 

Holland  had  protected  Spain  and  forced  France  to  retire.     A 

citizen,  an  alderman  of  Amsterdam,  came  to  warn  the  King,  in 

the  midst  of  his  glory,  to  go  no  further.     Insulting  medals  had 

been  struck.     It  was  said  that  the  chief  alderman  of  Amsterdam 

12 


I78  MICHELET 

had  himself  represented  with  a  sun,  and  this  motto,  In  conspectu 
meo  stetit  sol 

Henceforth  the  struggle  was  between  France  and  Holland. 
The  former  could  not  advance  a  step  without  encountering  the 
latter.  To  begin  with,  the  King  bought,  for  a  sum  down,  the 
alliance  of  England  and  Sweden.  Charles  II. ,  who  had  already 
betrayed  England  by  selling  Mardyck  and  Dunkirk  to  France, 
once  more  sold  the  interests  of  his  country.  The  nation  was 
promised  some  of  the  Dutch  islands,  the  King  money  for  his 
festivities  and  his  mistresses— the  young  and  fascinating  Duch- 
ess of  Orleans,  sister-in-law  of  Louis  XIV.  and  sister  of  Charles 
II.,  negotiating,  in  a  triumphal  visit,  her  brother's  shame.  She 
was  the  princess  who  died  so  young  and  so  lamented,  in  honor  of 
whom  Corneille  and  Racine  each  composed  their  tragedies  of 
"Berenice/'  and  Bossuet  recited  his  famous  funeral  oration. 

The  army  of  Louis  XIV.  had  been  carried  to  180,000  men. 
It  received  its  formidable  organization  from  Louvois.  The 
bayonet,  which  became  such  an  effective  weapon  in  French 
hands,  was  introduced  at  this  period.  The  indefatigable  genius 
of  Colbert  had  created  a  navy.  France,  which  had  formerly 
been  obliged  to  borrow  ships  from  Holland,  had  one  hundred 
vessels  of  her  own  in  1672.  Five  naval  arsenals  were  established 
— Brest,  Rochefort,  Toulon,  Dunkirk,  and  Havre.  ^  Dunkirk 
was  unfortunately  destroyed;  but  Toulon,  and  likewise  Brest — 
with  its  vast  establishment  and  mountains  cut  down  to  make 
room  for  vessels — still  testify  to  the  herculean  efforts  made  at 
that  time  by  France  in  her  perilous  struggle  with  Holland  for 
the  dominion  of  the  ocean. 

Holland  held  the  sea  and  thought  that  she  held  everything. 
The  naval  party  governed,  the  De  Witts  at  the  council,  and  Ruy- 
ter  on  the  waves;  the  De  Witts,  statesmen,  geometricians,  and 
pilots,  were  sworn  enemies  of  the  land-party,  of  the  house  of 
Orange,  and  of  the  Stadholders.  They  seemed  to  forget  that 
Holland  was  connected  with  the  Continent;  they  considered  her 
as  an  island.  The  fortresses  were  falling  into  ruins,  Holland 
had  25,000  worthless  troops,  and  this  when  the  French  frontier 
had  advanced  until  it  almost  touched  her  own. 

Suddenly,  100,000  men  moved  from  France  towards  Holland 
[1672].  "It  was,"  says  Temple,  "a  thunder  clap  in  a  fair  sky." 
They  left  behind  them  Maestricht,  which  they  did  not  care  to 
take;  seized  Guelder,  Utrecht,  and  Over-Yssel;  they  were  four 
leagues  distant  from  Amsterdam.  Nothing  could  save  Holland ; 
her  only  allies,  Spain  and  Brandenburg,  would  not  have  stayed 
the  hand  of  Louis  XIV.  The  conqueror  alone  might  save  her 
by  his  blunders,  and  he  did  so.  Conde  and  Turenne  wished  the 
fortresses  to  be  dismantled;  Louvois  that  they  might  be  gar- 
risoned, the  effect  of  which  was  to  scatter  the  army.  The  King 


MODERN  HISTORY  179 

listened  to  Louvois.  They  trusted  in  stone  walls  to  secure  the 
possession  of  Holland :  thus  Holland  escaped.  In  the  first  mo- 
ment the  amphibious  republic  wanted  to  throw  herself  into  the 
sea  and  embark  with  her  wealth  for  Batavia.  The  war  dimin- 
ished its  fury,  and  she  regained  the  hope  of  resisting  on  land; 
the  people  fell  upon  the  chiefs  of  the  naval  party — the  De  Witts. 
They  were  torn  in  pieces;  and  De  Ruyter  expected  the  same 
fate.  All  the  forces  of  the  republic  were  confided  to  the  young 
William  of  Orange. 

This  general  of  twenty-two,  who  for  his  essay  undertook,  al- 
most without  an  army,  to  make  head  against  the  greatest 
sovereign  in  the  world,  concealed  within  a  feeble,  sickly  body 
the  cold,  hard  obstinacy  of  his  grandfather,  William  the  Taci- 
turn, the  adversary  of  Philip  II.  He  was  a  man  of  bronze, 
strange  to  every  feeling  of  nature  and  humanity.  Brought  up 
by  the  De  Witts,  he  compassed  their  ruin.  Stuart  by  his 
mother's  side,  he  overturned  the  Stuarts;  son-in-law  of  James  II., 
he  dethroned  him,  and  left  the  England  which  he  had  taken  from 
his  own  relations  to  the  objects  of  his  hatred,  the  Princes  of  the 
house  of  Hanover.  He  had  but  one  passion,  but  that  was  over- 
whelming— hatred  of  France.  It  is  said  that  at  the  peace  of 
Nimeguen,  when  he  endeavored  to  surprise  Luxembourg,  he 
was  already  aware  of  the  treaty,  but  he  still  thirsted  for  French 
blood.  He  was  not  more  successful  than  usual.  It  is  a  re- 
markable fact  that  this  great  and  intrepid  general  always  made 
war  in  retreat;  but  his  admirable  retreats  were  as  good  as  vic- 
tories. 

At  first,  in  order  to  defend  Holland,  he  drowned  her;  he 
opened  the  sluices,  while  Ruyter  held  the  sea  by  beating  the 
English  and  French,  and  bringing  his  victorious  fleet  to  anchor 
in  the  inundated  plain  of  Amsterdam.  William  next  armed 
against  France,  Spain,  and  Austria.  He  separated  England 
from  Louis  XIV.  Charles  II.  was  forced  by  his  Parliament  to 
sign  a  peace.  The  Catholic  neighbors  of  Holland,  the  Bishop 
of  Minister,  the  Elector  of  Cologne,  then  Brandenburg;  Den- 
mark, the  Empire,  and  the  whole  of  Europe,  declared  them- 
selves against  Louis  XIV.  [1674]. 

It  was  then  necessary  to  abandon  the  Dutch  fortresses ;  Louis 
was  obliged  to  retreat.  *  As  usual,  compensation  was  made  at  the 
expense  of  Spain.  Louis  XIV.  took  Franche-Comte,  which 
has  continued  to  be  part  of  France.  In  the  Low  Countries, 
Conde,  whose  force  was  the  weaker  by  20,000  men,  challenged 
the  Prince  to  the  furious  battle  of  Senef.  Conde  conquered ;  but 
it  was  a  victory  for  the  Prince  of  Orange  to  have  held  his  ground 
with  no  more  loss  than  was  sustained  by  Conde.  On  the  Rhine, 
Turenne,  who,  according  to  Bonaparte,  became  more  daring  as 
he  grew  older,  held  the  whole  empire  in  check.  Twice  he  saved 


igo  MICHELET 

Alsace ;  twice  he  penetrated  into  Germany.  It  was  then  that,  on 
an  order  from  Louvois,  the  Palatinate  was  ravaged.  The  Pal- 
atine was  secretly  allied  with  the  Emperor ;  Louis  wished  to  leave 
only  a  desert  to  the  Imperialists. 

Turenne,  on  his  return  to  Germany,  was  about  to  strike  a 
decisive  blow,  when  he  was  killed  at  Salzbach  [1675].  Conde's 
infirmities  obliged  him  to  retire  in  the  same  year. 

The  destiny  of  France  was  then  seen  not  to  depend  on  a  single 
man.  The  allies,  who  fancied  her  disarmed  by  the  retirement  of 
the  two  great  generals,  failed  to  break  through  the  frontier  of 
the  Rhine,  and  lost  in  the  Low  Countries  the  towns  of  Conde, 
Bouchain,  Aire,  Valenciennes,  Cambray,  Ghent,  and  Ypres. 
Duquesne,  who  had  been  sent  to  succor  Messina,  in  revolt 
against  Spain,  fought  a  terrible  naval  battle  with  Ruyter  within 
sight  of  Mount  Etna;  the  allies  alone  lost  in  it  twelve  ships,  six 
galleys,  7,000  men,  700  guns,  and,  what  was  worth  all  the  rest, 
Ruyter.  Duquesne  destroyed  their  fleet  in  a  second  battle 
[1677]. 

The  allies  at  that  time  wished  for  peace :  France  and  Holland 
also  were  exhausted.  Colbert  determined  to  resign  if  the  war 
went  on.  The  peace  of  Nimeguen  was  once  more  favorable  to 
France.  She  kept  Franche-Comte  and  twelve  strong  places  in 
the  Netherlands;  she  received  Fribourg  in  exchange  for  Philips- 
burg.  Denmark  and  Brandenburg  restored  what  they  had 
taken  from  Sweden,  the  ally  of  France.  Holland  alone  lost 
nothing,  and  the  great  European  question  remained  unaltered 
[1678]. 

This  was  the  culminating  point  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV. 
Europe  had  risen  against  him  and  he  had  resisted  her  attack;  he 
was  greater  than  ever.  It  was  then  that  he  accepted  the  title  of 
Louis  "the  Great."  The  Duke  of  La  Feuillade  went  still  fur- 
then  He  kept  a  light  burning  before  the  King's  statue,  as  if  on 
an  altar.  It  was  like  the  worship  of  the  Roman  Emperors. 

The  brilliant  literature  of  this  period  is  nothing  but  a  hymn  in 
praise  of  royalty.  The  voice  heard  above  all  others  was  "that  of 
Bossuet.  It  is  thus  that  Bossuet  himself,  in  his  "Discourse  on 
Universal  History,"  describes  the  Kings  of  Egypt  as  praised  in 
the  temples  by  the  priests  in  the  presence  of  their  gods.  The 
first  period  of  the  great  reign,  that  of  Descartes,  of  Port  Royal, 
of  Pascal,  and  Corneille,  did  not  present  the  same  unanimity; 
literature  was  still  animated  by  a  ruder  and  freer  spirit. 

At  the  period  we  have  now  reached  Moliere  had  just  died 
[1673],  Racine  had  completed  "Phedre"  [1677],  La  Fontaine 
was  writing  the  last  six  books  of  his  Fables  [1678],  and  Madame 
de  Sevigne  her  Letters.  Bossuet  was  composing  his  "Knowl- 
edge of  God  and  of  Oneself  and  preparing  the  "Discourse  on 
Universal  History"  [  1681  ] .  The  Abbe  Fenelon,  still  young,  and 


MODERN  HISTORY  181 

only  the  director  of  a  convent  of  young  girls,  was  living  under 
the  patronage  of  Bossuet,  who  fancied  him  his  disciple.  Bos- 
suet  was  the  leader  of  the  triumphal  chorus  of  the  great  century, 
secure  with  regard  both  to  the  past  and  the  future,  between 
Jansenism,  which  was  disappearing,  and  Quietism,  which  had 
not  yet  risen — between  the  austere  Pascal  and  the  mystic  Fene- 
lon.  Cartesianism,  however,  was  being  pushed  to  its  most 
formidable  extremities;  Malebranche  made  the  human  mind  re- 
turn to  God;  and  in  Protestant  Holland,  now  struggling  with 
Catholic  France,  there  was  about  to  open — for  the  absorption 
alike  of  Catholicism,  of  Protestantism,  of  liberty,  of  morality,  of 
religion,  and  of  the  whole  world — the  bottomless  gulf  of  Spinoza. 

Meanwhile,  Louis  XIV.  reigned  over  Europe.  The  proof  of 
sovereignty  is  jurisdiction.  He  chose  that  other  powers  should 
recognize  the  decisions  of  his  Parliaments.  The  court  called 
"Chambres  de  Reunion"  interpreted  the  Treaty  of  Nimeguen  to 
mean  that  with  the  strong  places  the  dependencies  belonging  to 
them  should  be  reunited.  One  of  these  dependencies  was  no 
less  than  Strasburg  [1681],  Obedience  was  delayed;  Louis 
bombarded  Luxembourg  [1684],  He  bombarded  Algiers 
[1683],  Tripoli  [1685];  he  bombarded  Genoa,  and  would  have 
crushed  her  in  her  marble  palaces,  if  the  Doge  had  not  come  to 
Versailles  to  ask  pardon  [1684].  He  bought  Casale,  the  gate  of 
Italy;  he  built  Huninguen,  the  door  of  Switzerland.  He  inter- 
fered in  the  empire;  he  wished  to  make  an  Elector  of  Cologne 
[1689],  In  the  name  of  his  sister-in-law,  the  Duchess  of  Or- 
leans, he  claimed  a  portion  of  the  Palatinate,  invoking  in  this,  as 
in  the  case  of  Flanders,  civil  against  feudal  rights.  The  deci- 
sions of  civil  law  were  sustained  by  force;  Europe  disarmed, 
while  Louis  XIV.  remained  in  arms ;  he  carried  his  fleet  to  230 
ships;  towards  the  end  of  his  reign  his  army  amounted  to  more 
than  400,000  men. 

At  the  same  time  the  monarchy  attained  the  highest  possible 
centralization.  The  two  obstacles,  papal  power  and  Protestant 
opposition,  were  annulled.  In  1673  an  edict  declared  all  the 
bishoprics  in  the  kingdom  subject  to  the  "regale. "a  In  1682 
an  assembly  of  thirty-five  bishops,  of  whom  Bossuet  was  the 
soul,  decided  that  "the  Pope  has  no  authority,  except  in  spiritual 
matters;"  "that  in  these  very  matters  the  General  Councils  are 
superior  to  him,  and  that  his  decisions  are  infallible  only  after 
they  have  been  accepted  by  the  Church."  From  that  time,  the 
Pope  refused  bulls  to  all  the  bishops  and  abbes  appointed  by  the 
King,  so  that  in  1689  there  were  twenty-nine  dioceses  in  France 
without  bishops.  There  was  a  question  of  establishing  a  patri- 
archate. In  1687  the  Pope  wanted  to  abolish  the  right  of 
asylum  enjoyed  by  all  the  ambassadors  in  Rome  for  their  own 

a  In  the  gift  of  the  crown. 


X82  MICHELET 

residences.  Louis  XIV.  alone  stood  out,  and  the  French  am- 
bassador entered  Rome  at  the  head  of  800  men,  and  maintained 
his  privileges  at  the  point  of  the  sword. 

Louis  XIV.  silenced  his  conscience  in  this  matter  by  crushing 
the  Protestants  while  he  humiliated  the  Pope.  Richelieu  had 
destroyed  them  as  a  political  party,  but  he  left  them  their  places 
in  Parliament,  their  synods,  and  a  portion  of  their  interior  or- 
ganization. He  vainly  flattered  himself  that  he  would  overcome 
them  by  persuasion.  Louis  XIV.  tried  money,  and  thought 
that  he  had  made  great  progress  by  this  means;  every  morning 
he  was  told  that  a  new  centre  or  town  had  been  converted;  only 
a  little  vigor  was  requisite,  it  was  said,  to  accomplish  the  unity 
of  the  Church  and  of  France  [Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes, 
1685].  This  was  the  idea  of  most  of  the  great  men  of  the  time, 
particularly  of  Bossuet.  The  employment  of  violence  in  mat- 
ters of  faith,  the  application  of  temporal  evil  to  cure  eternal  evil, 
shocked  nobody.  It  must  be  owned  that  there  still  was  great 
exasperation  against  the  Protestants.  France,  limited  in  her 
victories  by  Holland,  felt  that  there  was  another  Holland  in  her 
bosom,  which,  it  was  said,  rejoiced  over  the  success  of  the  for- 
mer. As  long  as  Colbert  lived  he  protected  them;  excluded 
from  posts  under  government,  they  had  turned  their  activity 
towards  manufactures  and  co'mmerce;  they  no  longer  troubled 
France;  they  enriched  her.  After  Colbert,  Louis  XIV,  was 
governed  by  Louvois,  the  enemy  of  Colbert,  and  by  Madame  de 
Maintenon,  whom  he  secretly  married  towards  1685.  Born  a 
Calvinist,  and  the  grand-daughter  of  the  famous  Theodore 
Agrippa  d'Aubigne,  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Huguenot  opposi- 
tion against  Henri  IV.,  this  discreet  and  judicious  person  had 
abjured  her  creed,  and  wished  to  force  her  fellow-Protestants  to 
do  likewise;  she  had  a  cold  heart,  which  the  privations  of  her 
early  life  seem  to  have  hardened  and  dried  up.  She  had  been 
married  to  the  author  of  "-<Eneid  Travestied" — Scarron  the 
Cripple — before  she  became  the  wife  of  Louis  the  Great.  She 
never  had  a  child ;  she  was  unacquainted  with  maternal  love.  It 
was  she  who  advised  the  most  odious  measure  in  this  persecu- 
tion, to  take  away  children  from  their  parents  in  order  to  convert 
them. 

The  power  of  Louis  XIV.  met  its  boundary  abroad  in  the 
Protestant  opposition  of  Holland.  At  home  he  found  it  in  the 
resistance  of  the  Calvinists.  The  government,  finding  itself  dis- 
obeyed for  the  first  time,  exhibited  a  savage  violence  which  was 
not  natural  to  Louis  XIV.  Vexations  of  every  kind,  confisca- 
tion, the  galleys,  the  wheel,  the  gibbet — every  means  was  em- 
ployed. The  dragoons,  who  were  quartered  in  numbers  upon 
the  Calvinists,  helped  the  missionaries  after  their  fashion.  The 
King  did  not  know  the  tenth  part  of  the  excesses  which  were 


MODERN  HISTORY  183 

committed.  It  was  in  vain  that  exit  from  the  kingdom  was  for- 
bidden, the  possessions  of  the  fugitives  confiscated,  and  those 
who  favored  their  escape  sent  to  the  galleys.  The  State  lost 
200,000  subjects — some  say  500,000.  They  escaped  in  crowds; 
they  established  themselves  in  England,  Holland,  Germany, 
especially  in  Prussia,  and  became  afterwards  the  most  inveterate 
enemies  to  France.  William  of  Orange  charged  the  French 
more  than  once  at  the  head  of  a  French  regiment.  He  owed  his 
success  in  Ireland  in  a  great  measure  to  old  Marshal  Schomberg, 
who  preferred  his  religion  to  his  country.  The  infernal  machine, 
which  nearly  blew  up  St.  Malo  in  1693,  was  invented  by  a 
refugee. 

It  was  just  at  this  time  that  most  of  the  European  powers 
formed  the  Alliance  of  Augsburg  [1686].  Catholics  and  Protes- 
tants, William  and  Innocent  XL,  Sweden  and  Savoy,  Denmark 
and  Austria,  Bavaria,  Saxony,  Brandenburg — all  the  world  com- 
bined against  Louis  XIV.  Among  other  things  he  was  accused 
of  having,  by  his  intelligence  with  the  revolutionists  in  Hungary, 
opened  Germany  to  the  Turks,  and  brought  about  the  frightful 
invasion  from  which  Vienna  was  saved  by  John  Sobieski.  Louis 
XIV.  had  only  the  King  of  England,  James  II.,  on  his  side.  An 
unexpected  revolution  overthrew  James  and  gave  England  to 
William.  The  second  and  last  catastrophe  of  the  Stuarts,  pre- 
pared long  before  by  the  shameful  government  of  Charles  II., 
occurred  under  his  brother's  reign.  James  did  not  imitate  the 
hypocritical  tergiversations  of  Charles ;  he  was  brave,  narrow- 
minded,  and  obstinate;  he  declared  himself  a  Catholic  and  a 
Jesuit  (this  was  the  literal  truth)  ;  he  did  all  he  could  to  insure  a 
fall,  and  he  fell.  His  son-in-law,  William,  was  called  from  Hol- 
land, and  took  his  place  without  striking  a  blow  [1688]. 

Louis  XIV.  gave  James  II.  a  magnificent  reception  and  took 
up  his  cause;  he  challenged  the  whole  of  Europe;  he  declared 
war  on  England,  Holland,  on  the  Empire,  and  on  Spain.  While 
the  French  Calvinists  were  strengthening  the  armies  of  the 
League,  crowds  of  all  nations  came  to  serve  in  the  armies  of 
Louis  XIV.  He  had  regiments  of  Hungarians  and  Irish.  One 
day  that  he  was  complimented  on  the  success  of  the  French 
army,  "Say,  rather,"  he  replied,  "the  army  of  France." 

This  second  period  of  the  reign  of  Louis  XIV.  was  filled  by 
two  Wars  of  Succession :  succession  to  the  English  and  succes- 
sion to  the  Spanish  crown.  The  former  war  was  terminated 
honorably  for  France,  by  the  Treaty  of  Ryswick  [1698] ;  and 
yet  the  result  was  against  her,  for  William  was  recognized.  In 
the  second  war  [terminated  by  the  peaces  of  Utrecht  and 
Rastadt,  1712 — 1714]  France  sustained  the  most  humiliating 
reverses,  and  the  result  was  in  her  favor.  Spain,  secured  to  a 
grandson  of  Louis  XIV.,  was  henceforth  open  to  the  influence 
of  France. 


184  MICHELET 

To  these  results  we  must  add  the  elevation  of  two  secondary 
States,  indispensable  in  future  to  the  balance  of  power  in  Europe 
— Prussia  and  Piedmont — which  may  be  defined  as  German  and 
Italian  resistance.  Prussia,  at  the  same  time  German  and 
Sclavonic,  gradually  absorbed  Northern  Germany,  and  served 
as  a  counterpoise  to  Austria.  The  kingdom  of  Savoy  and  Pied- 
mont guarded  the  Alps  and  closed  them  in  her  Italian  character 
against  France,  and  in  her  French  character  against  Italy. 

One  must  note  beforehand  these  excellent  and  useful  results 
as  a  consolation  for  the  many  reverses  in  store  for  France. 

In  1689  she  gave  a  cruel  defiance  to  Germany.  She  placed  a 
desert  between  herself  and  her  enemies.  The  whole  Palatinate 
was  burned  for  the  second  time — Spires,  Worms,  more  than 
forty  towns  and  villages,  were  fired.  Two  generals  reigned  in 
Flanders  and  in  the  Alps — Luxembourg  and  Catinat;  it  was 
Conde  and  Turenne  over  again.  Luxembourg,  full  of  inspira- 
tion, and  sudden  in  his  movements,  made  war  like  a  fine  gentle- 
man ;  he  was  often  surprised,  but  never  beaten.  After  the  skilful 
battles  of  Fleurus,  Steinkirk,  and  Neerwinden  [1680,  1692, 
1695],  whence  he  carried  away  so  many  standards,  he  was  called 
the  "Upholsterer  of  Notre  Dame."  This  brilliant  general  was 
ill-favored  by  nature.  William  of  Orange  said:  "Shall  I  never 
be  able  to  beat  that  little  hunchback?" 

Catinat  treated  war  as  a  science.  He  was  a  soldier  of  fortune, 
one  of  a  family  of  lawyers ;  he  began  life  as  an  advocate,  and  was 
the  first  instance  of  a  plebeian  general.  He  bore  some  resem- 
blance to  the  generals  of  antiquity.  He  made  his  way  slowly  by 
force  of  merit;  it  was  long  before  he  obtained  a  command,  and  he 
never  was  a  favorite.  He  asked  for  nothing,  received  little,  and 
often  refused.  The  soldiers,  who  liked  his  simplicity  and  good 
nature,  called  him  "Father  Thoughtful"  (le  Ptre  la  Pensec).  The 
court  made  use  of  him  with  regret.  When  he  had  beaten  the 
Duke  of  Savoy  at  Staffarde,  taken  Saluces,  and  forced  the  enemy 
at  Susa  [1690],  Louvois  wrote  to  him:  "Although  you  have 
served  the  King  rather  ill  in  this  campaign,  his  Majesty  is  will- 
ing to  confer  on  you  the  ordinary  gratification."  Catinat  never 
took  offence  at  anything;  he  bore  with  the  same  patience  the 
rough  speeches  of  Louvois,  and  the  hardships  of  the  Alpine  war. 

The  severest  blows  were  dealt  in  Ireland  and  on  sea.  Louis 
XIV.  wanted  to  restore  the  influence  of  France  in  Eng- 
land; he  conveyed  James  to  Ireland;  he  sent  him  one 
reinforcement  after  another,  and  fleet  upon  fleet.  James 
failed.  The  odious  assistance  of  the  French  and  Irish 
confirmed  the  English  in  their  hatred  of  him.  Instead  of  stirring 
up  Scotland,  where  he  was  expected,  he  remained  in  Ireland;  he 
amused  himself  by  sieges,  and  was  beaten  at  the  Boyne.  Louis 
XIV.  was  not  discouraged;  he  gave  James  money  to  arm  and 


MODERN  HISTORY  185 

equip  30,000  men,  and  he  tried  to  send  20,000;  Tourville  and 
d'Estr ees  were  to  escort  them  with  seventy-five  ships.  D'Estrees 
was  delayed  by  the  wind,  and  Tourville  found  himself  with  forty- 
four  vessels  against  eighty-four.  He  asked  the  court  for  orders ; 
Louis  XIV.  believed  in  his  own  good  fortune,  and  ordered  him 
to  force  the  passage.  This  terrible  battle  of  La  Hogue  cost 
France  only  seventeen  ships,  but  the  pride  and  confidence  of  her 
navyperished.  It  was  reduced,  in  1707^0  thirty-five  vessels; and 
revived  only  a  short  time  under  Louis  XVI.  England  may  date 
her  dominion  of  the  seas  from  the  battle  of  La  Hogue  [1692]. 
Louis  XIV.  struck  one  of  his  medals  with  a  figure  of  Neptune 
in  a  menacing  attitude,  and  these  words  of  the  poet,  "Quos  ego." 
The  Dutch  struck  another  with  the  following  legend:  "Maturate 
fugam,  regique  h&c  dicite  vestro:  Non  illi  imperium  pelagi." 

The  terrible  ravages  of  the  Corsairs,  of  such  men  as  John  Bart 
and  Duguay  Trouin,  the  bloody  battle  of  Neerwinden  gained 
by  Luxembourg,  and  the  success  of  Catinat  at  Marsiglia  [1693], 
gradually  disposed  the  allies  to  treat.  The  Duke  of  Savoy  was 
the  first  to  yield.  The  war  was  over  for  him;  all  his  fortresses 
were  in  the  hands  of  the  French.  He  was  offered  them  back 
again,  and  for  his  daughter  the  reversal  of  the  crown  of  France. 
She  was  to  marry  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  the  grandson  of  Louis 
XIV.,  and  heir  to  the  throne.  The  defection  of  Savoy  [1696] 
was  followed  in  time  by  that  of  the  other  allies.  France  kept 
Roussillon,  Artois,  the  Franche-Comte,  and  Strasburg ;  but  she 
recognized  William — in  reality  she  was  beaten  [Peace  of  Rys- 
wick,  1696], 

This  peace  was  no  more  than  a  truce  granted  to  the  sufferings 
of  the  people.  Europe  was  occupied  with  a  great  event;  the 
question  was  no  longer  of  some  province  or  other  of  Spain,  but 
of  the  whole  of  the  Spanish  monarchy,  including  Naples,  the 
Low  Countries,  and  the  Indies.  Charles  V.  extended  himself 
alive  in  his  coffin,  and  was  present  at  his  own  funeral.  Charles 
VL,  the  last  of  his  descendants,  beheld  that  of  the  monarchy. 
This  man,  decrepit,  at  thirty-nine,  governed  by  his  wife,  his 
mother,  and  his  confessor,  under  the  influence  of  all  who  ap- 
proached him,  was  constantly  making  and  unmaking  his  will. 
The  King  of  France,  the  Emperor,  the  Elector  of  Bavaria,  and 
the  Duke  of  Savoy,  all  sons  of  Spanish  Princesses,  were  disput- 
ing his  spoils  beforehand.  Sometimes  the  Bavarian  gained  the 
ascendant,  sometimes  the  Austrian  prince;  sometimes  they 
talked  of  partition.  The  poor  King  saw  it  all,  and  was  indig- 
nant. He  was  determined,  in  spite  of  his  ignorance  and  inde- 
cision, to  guarantee  the  unity  of  the  monarchy  of  Spain.  He 
chose  the  Prince  who  would  be  most  able  to  maintain  this  unity 
— a  grandson  of  Louis  XIV.  He  then  had  the  tombs  in  the 
Escurial  opened,  exhumed  his  father  and  mother  and  his  first 


1 86  MICHELET 

wife,  and  kissed  their  bones.  It  was  not  long  before  he  joined 
them  [1700]. 

Louis  XIV.  accepted  the  legacy  with  all  its  difficulties.  He 
sent  his  second  grandson  to  Spain — the  Duke  of  Anjou,  after- 
wards Philip  V.  On  his  departure  he  addressed  these  words  to 
him:  "The  Pyrenees  have  disappeared."  The  immediate  conse- 
quence was  an  European  war.  At  the  same  time,  in  spite  of  the 
advice  of  his  ministers,  he  decided  on  recognizing  the  son  of 
James  IL  as  Prince  of  Wales,  thus  supporting  simultaneously 
the  succession  to  Spain  and  to  England. 

It  was,  however,  very  late  for  undertaking  such  a  war.  He 
had  reigned  for  fifty-seven  years,  he  had  grown  old  himself,  and 
all  around  him  was  old.  France  seemed  to  have  faded  with  the 
old  age  of  her  King.  One  by  one  his  glories  semed  to  be  van- 
ishing— Colbert  was  dead,  and  Louvois  was  dead  [1682 — 1691]; 
likewise  Arnaud,  Boileau,  Racine,  La  Fontaine,  and  Madame  de 
Sevigne.  Soon  the  grand  voice  of  the  century  (Bossuet)  would 
be  no  more  heard  [1704].  Instead  of  Colbert  and  Louvois, 
France  had  Chamillart,  who  united  their  offices.  Chamillart 
was  governed  by  Madame  de  Maintenon,  and  Madame  de  Main- 
tenon  by  Babbien,  her  old  maidservant  It  was  strange  that 
England  likewise  was  governed  by  a  woman  after  William  and 
Mary — by  Queen  Anne,  the  daughter  of  James  II.  and  grand- 
daughter, through  her  mother,  of  the  historian,  Clarendon;  as 
Madame  de  Maintenon  was  of  Agrippa  d'Aubigne. 

The  government,  although  in  the  hands  of  citizens  recently 
raised  to  the  nobility  (Chamillart,  Le  Tellier,  Pontchartrain, 
etc.),  was  none  the  less  favorable  to  the  nobles.  Prodigiously 
increased  of  late,  standing  aloof  from  commerce  and  manufac- 
tures, scornful  and  incapable,  they  had  invaded  the  ante-cham- 
ber, the  army,  and  especially  the  government  offices.  The  lesser 
nobles  had  their  choice  between  becoming  officers  or  officials. 
There  were  soon  as  many  officers  as  soldiers,  as  many  adminis- 
trators as  administered.  The  great  nobles  bought  regiments 
for  their  little  children,  commanded  armies,  and  allowed  them- 
selves to  be  beaten  at  Cremona  and  Hochstadt 

There  were  at  that  time  at  the  head  of  the  allied  armies  two 
men  who  were  capable  of  taking  advantage  of  all  this,  an  Eng- 
lishman and  a  Frenchman — Marlborough  and  Eugene.  The 
latter,  a  cadet  of  the  house  of  Savoy,  but  son  of  the  Count  of 
Soissons  and  one  of  Mazarin's  nieces,  may  be  called  a  French- 
man. Marlborough,  the  "handsome  Englishman,"  was  cold 
and  acute;  he  had  studied  under  Turenne,  and  gave  back  to 
France  the  lessons  which  he  had  learnt  from  her.  Eugene, 
although  Vendome  called  him  "a  miserable  charlatan/'  was  a 
man  of  extraordinary  tact,  who  cared  little  for  rules,  but  who 
was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  places,  things,  and  people,  and 


MODERN  HISTORY  xSy 

knew  the  strong  and  weak  points  of  the  enemy.  His  most  splen- 
did and  easiest  victories  were  over  the  half-civilized  Ottomans. 
This  gifted  general,  who  always  appeared  at  the  right  moment, 
gained  his  victories  alternately  at  both  ends  of  Europe,  over 
Louis  the  Great  and  over  the  Turks,  and  apparently  saved  both 
liberty  and  Christianity. 

Both  these  generals  had  this  great  advantage  in  war,  that  they 
were  supreme  in  their  own  countries;  in  the  summer  they 
fought,  and  in  the  winter  they  governed  and  negotiated ;  they 
had  carte  blanche,  and  were  not  forced  on  the  eve  of  a  battle  to 
write  to  Versailles  to  obtain  leave  to  conquer. 

In  1701,  Catinat  gave  up  his  command  to  the  magnificent 
Villeroi,  whom  the  Prince  Eugene  seized  in  his  bed  at  Cremona. 
Eugene  gained  nothing  by  this  feat.  Villeroi  was  replaced  by 
Vendome,  a  grandson  of  Henri  IV.,  and  a  thorough  soldier,  al- 
though effeminate  in  his  habits.  Vendome,  like  his  brother,  the 
Grand  Piior,  stayed  in  bed  till  four  in  the  afternoon.  He  was 
one  of  the  youngest  generals  of  Louis  XIV. ;  he  was  only  fifty. 
The  soldiers  adored  him  even  for  his  faults.  There  was  little 
order,  foresight,  or  discipline  in  his  army,  but  much  daring  and 
gaiety.  He  repaired  all  his  blunders  by  his  gallantry. 

Catinat  commanded  in  the  German  campaign,  and  under  him 
was  Villars.  The  latter,  impatient  of  the  prudence  of  his  chief, 
won  rashly  the  battle  of  Friedlingen  [1702]  ;  then  penetrating 
into  Germany,  he  gained  once  more,  in  spite  of  the  Elector  of 
Bavaria,  the  ally  of  Louis  XIV.,  the  battle  of  Hochstadt  [1703] . 
Villars  excited  the  enthusiasm  of  his  soldiers  by  his  bravery,  his 
boasting,  and  his  fine  military  figure.  At  Friedlingen  they  pro- 
claimed him  Marshal  of  France  on  the  field  of  battle. 

The  road  to  Austria  was  just  open  when  they  heard  that  the 
Duke  of  Savoy  had  placed  himself  in  opposition  to  France  and 
Spain — against  his  two  sons-in-law  [1703].  Until  this  move- 
ment, the  allies  had  reaped  no  signal  advantage  over  France, 
notwithstanding  that  she  was  fighting  on  all  her  frontiers  and  at 
home — against  the  world  and  against  herself.  The  Calvinists 
of  the  Cevennes,  exasperated  by  the  clergy  and  by  their  gov- 
ernor, Basville,  had  been  in  arms  ever  since  1702.  Villars  and 
Berwick,  among  other  generals,  were  sent  to  subdue  them.  The 
latter  was  a  Stuart,  a  natural  son  of  James  II.,  and  became  one  of 
the  first  tacticians  of  the  time. 

Villars  was  away  in  Languedoc,  and  Catinat  had  retired,  when 
the  army  in  Germany,  under  Generals  de  Marsin  and  Tallard, 
suffered  at  Hochstadt,  on  the  very  theatre  of  Villars'  victory, 
one  of  the  most  terrible  defeats  ever  experienced  by  France. 
They  had  entered  Germany  incautiously,  and  were  on  the  road 
to  Vienna  when  Marlborough  and  Eugene  cut  them  off.  Their 
disposition  was  so  unskilful  that,  besides  those  who  were  killed, 


1 88  MICHELET 

14,000  men  yielded  without  the  possibility  of  striking  a  blow 
[1704].  Villars  arrived  in  time  to  cover  Lorraine,  while  Ven- 
dome gained  an  advantage  over  Eugene  in  the  bloody  engage- 
ment of  Cassano  [1705].  In  1706  Vendome  was  replaced  in 
Italy  by  La  Feuillade.  France  suffered  two  signal  defeats.  At 
Turin,  Eugene  deprived  her  of  all  her  Italian  possessions;  at 
Rarnillies,  Marlborough  drove  her  out  of  the  Spanish  Nether- 
lands. 

In  1707,  the  Allies  penetrated  into  France  through  Provence; 
in  1708,  through  Flanders  (defeat  of  Oudenarde).  1709  was  a 
terrible  year — first  a  deadly  winter,  followed  by  a  famine.  Want 
was  felt  in  all  directions.  The  King's  servants  were  begging  at 
the  doors  of  Versailles;  Madame  de  Maintenon  ate  black  bread. 
Whole  companies  of  cavalry  deserted,  their  colors  flying,  to  gain 
their  bread  by  plunder.  The  recruiting  officers  had  to  take  men 
by  force.  Taxation  assumed  every  form,  in  order  to  reach  the 
people — the  common  incidents  of  their  lives  were  taxed;  they 
paid  for  being  born  and  for  dying.  The  peasants,  pursued  into 
the  woods  by  the  tax-gatherers,  armed  themselves  and  took  the 
town  of  Castries  by  assault.  The  King  could  no  longer  bor- 
row, even  at  400  per  cent.  Before  the  death  of  Louis  XIV.  the 
debt  reached  nearly  three  billions. 

The  Allies  also  suffered.  England  ruined  herself  in  order  to 
ruin  France.  But  Europe  was  led  by  two  men  who  chose  to 
have  war,  and  the  humiliation  of  Louis  XIV.  was  a  delightful 
sight  to  them.  His  ambassadors  were  answered  only  by  de- 
risive proposals.  He  was  told  that  he  must  undo  his  own  work 
and  dethrone  Philip  V.  He  condescended  even  to  offer  money 
to  the  Allies  to  support  the  war  against  his  grandson.  But  this 
was  not  enough,  they  insisted  upon  his  driving  Philip  out  him- 
self, and  that  a  French  army  should  be  sent  against  a  French 
Prince. 

The  venerable  King  then  declared  that  he  would  put  himself 
at  the  head  of  his  nobles  and  go  to  the  frontier  to  die.  For  the 
first  time  he  turned  to  his  people,  he  took  them  for  his  judges, 
and  rose  by  his  own  humiliation.  The  way  in  which  the  French 
fought  this  year  [1709],  shows  how  national  the  war  had  become. 

On  the  ninth  of  September,  near  the  village  of  Malplaquet,  the 
soldiers,  who  had  had  no  food  for  a  whole  day,  had  just  received 
their  rations ;  they threwtheir  bread  awayin order  to  fight  again. 
Villars  was  carried,  seriously  wounded,  off  the  field;  the  army 
retired  in  good  order,  having  lost  less  than  8,000  men;  the  Allies 
left  15,000  or  20,000  on  the  ground.  In  Spain,  the  throne  of 
Philip  VM  founded  by  Berwick  at  Almanza  [1707],  was  secured 
at  Villaviciosa  by  Vendome  [1710];  he  put  the  young  King  to 
sleep  upon  a  bed  of  standards.  Nevertheless,  the  elevation  of 
the  Archduke  Charles  to  the  imperial  crown  £1711],  caused 


MODERN  HISTORY  189 

Europe  to  fear  the  reunion  of  Spain  to  the  Empire.  It  was  not 
worth  while  to  have  pulled  down  Louis  XIV.  in  order  to  set  up 
a  Charles  V.  England  was  tired  of  spending;  she  saw  Marl- 
borough,  who  had  been  seduced  by  the  Dutch,  fighting  in  their 
interests.  Finally,  the  unexpected  victory  of  Villars  at  Denain 
damaged  the  reputation  of  Prince  Eugene  [1712].  This  terrible 
war,  by  means  of  which  the  Allies  expected  to  dismember 
France,  did  not  deprive  her  of  a  single  province.  [Treaties  of 
Utrecht  and  Rastadt,  1712;  Barrier  Treaty,  1715.] 

She  gave  up  only  a  few  colonies.  She  maintained  the  grand- 
son of  Louis  XIV.  on  the  throne  of  Spain.  The  Spanish  mon- 
archy lost,  it  is  true,  its  possessions  in  Italy  and  the  Low  Coun- 
tries; it  yielded  Sicily  to  the  Duke  of  Savoy,  and  the  Spanish 
Netherlands,  Naples,  and  the  Milanese  to  Austria;  but  it  gained 
by  compression,  by  getting  rid  of  the  distant  possessions  which 
it  could  neither  govern  nor  defend;  the  two  Sicilies  soon,  how- 
ever, were  restored  to  a  branch  of  the  Spanish  Bourbons.  Hol- 
land received  several  strongholds  in  the  Netherlands,  with  the 
obligation  to  defend  them  in  concert  with  Austria.  The  new 
dynasty  was  recognized  in  England,  which  took  possession  of 
Gibraltar  and  Minorca,  thus  securing  a  footing  in  Spain  and  the 
Mediterranean.  She  obtained  for  herself  and  Holland  a  com- 
mercial treaty  which  was  disadvantageous  to  France.  She  ex- 
acted the  demolition  of  Dunkirk,  and  prevented  France  from 
supplying  its  loss  by  the  canal  of  Mardyck.  She  sent,  and  this 
was  the  most  humiliating  part,  an  English  commissioner  to 
watch  lest  France  should  restore  the  ruins  of  Jean  Bart's  town. 
"They  are  setting  to  work  to  demolish  Dunkirk,"  says  a  con- 
temporary; "they  ask  800,000  francs  to  pull  down  only  the  third 
part."  To  this  day  one  cannot  read  without  scorn  and  indigna- 
tion the  pathetic  supplication  addressed  to  the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land by  the  inhabitants. 

Such  was  the  end  of  this  famous  reign.  Louis  XIV.  survived 
only  for  a  short  time  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht  [he  died  in  1715].  In 
the  course  of  a  few  years  he  had  witnessed  the  deaths  of  almost 
all  his  children,  of  the  Dauphin,  of  the  Duke  and  Duchess  of 
Burgundy,  and  of  one  of  their  sons.  In  the  deserted  palace 
there  remained  only  one  old  man,  nearly  eighty,  and  a  child  of 
five  years  of  age.  All  the  great  men  of  the  age  had  gone  before 
him,  a  new  generation  had  sprung  up.  The  ancient  landmarks 
of  society  and  literature  were  about  to  be  moved.  This  period 
of  softness  and  laxity  had  been  anticipated  by  the  mild  quietism 
of  Madame  Guyon,  who  reduced  religion  to  love.  The  clever 
and  eloquent  Massillon  set  aside  dogma  and  spoke  only  of 
morality  in  his  sermons,  and  the  bold  political  ideas  of  Fenelon 
already  belonged  to  the  eighteenth  century . 


CHAPTER   XX. 

EUROPEAN   CULTURE. 

LITERATURE,    SCIENCE,    AND    ART,    IN    THE    REIGN    OF 

LOUIS   XIV. 

The  genius  of  literature  and  art  was  still  shining  in  the  South 
during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  genius  of 
philosophy  and  science  illuminated  the  North,  especially  during 
the  second  half.  France,  placed  between  the  two,  concentrated 
the  rays  of  both,  extended  her  language  over  every  polished 
nation,  and  assumed  in  future  the  lead  in  European  civilization. 

Section  I. — France. 

In  France,  as  in  Italy,  the  great  literary  age  was  preceded 
by  a  period  of  considerable  agitation.  Under  Louis  XIV. 
genius  was  animated  and  encouraged  by  a  monarch  who  was 
the  object  of  national  enthusiasm.  The  religious  spirit  was  at 
this  time  the  chief  inspirer  of  letters.  Catholicism,  in  the  inter- 
val between  the  attacks  of  the  sixteenth  and  eighteenth  centuries, 
animated  its  defenders  with  new  energy.  Another  impulse  was 
likewise  given  to  letters  by  the  social  spirit  natural  to  the  French, 
but  which  requires  well-being  and  security  for  its  development; 
this  tendency  is  the  source  of  the  superiority  of  French  literature 
in  dramatic  poetry,  and  in  all  representations  of  manners.  A 
capital  and  a  court  form  the  best  school  of  criticism  for  literary 
art;  perhaps  it  may  not  be  favorable  to  originality,  but  it  culti- 
vates the  perfection  of  taste  and  style. 

The  seventeenth  century  presents  two  distinct  periods.  In 
France  the  first  period  ends  in  the  year  1661,  when  Louis  XIV. 
began  to  reign  for  himself,  and  to  exercise  some  influence  over 
letters.  The  writers  who  flourished,  or  were  maturing,  in  this 
period,  retained  some  of  the  energy  of  the  sixteenth  century; 
their  speculations  were  more  daring  and  often  more  profound. 
Taste  was  still  the  privilege  of  a  few  men  of  genius.  To  this 
period  belonged  the  painters  Poussin  and  Le  Sueur,  and  a  great 
many  writers — Malherbe,  Racan,  Brebceuf,  Rotrou,  and  the 

190 


MODERN  HISTORY  191 

great  Corneille.  Balzac  and  Voiture,  Sarrazin  and  Mezerai, 
Descartes  and  Pascal,  Cardinal  de  Retz  and  Moliere,  extend 
from  the  first  to  the  second  period. 

Tragedy  first  attained  majesty,  strength,  and  sublimity;  she 
afterwards  added  grace  and  pathos. — Comedy  of  life  and  man- 
ners (genteel  comedy)  unrivalled  by  other  nations  now  arose. 
There  were  three  phases  of  French  comedy :  Profound  philoso- 
phy and  natural  gaiety,  gaiety  without  philosophy,  and  interest 
without  gaiety. — The  opera  rose  to  the  rank  of  literature. 
Didactic  poetry  was  remarkable  for  its  wisdom  and  elegance. 
Satire  was  directed  more  against  foibles  than  vices,  and  espe- 
cially against  literary  absurdities.  Apologues  became  little  dra- 
matic poems.  Lyrical  poetry  flourished  later,  and  exhibited 
more  art  than  passion.  Pastoral  poetry  was  feeble  and  too  in- 
genious. Light,  occasional  verses  had  more  grace  than  force 
in  them. 

Dramatic  Poets. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Rotrou   1630      Th.  Corneille 1709 

Moliere  1673       Regnard 1709 

Pierre  Corneille  1684      Brueys 1723 

Quinault  1688       Campistron 1723 

Racine  1699       Dancourt 1726 

Boursault   1708      Crebillon 1762 

Poets  of  other  kinds. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Malherbe 1628       Racan  1670 

Breboeuf  1661       Benserade   1691 

Madame  Deshoulieres 1694       La  Fare 1713 

La  Fontaine 1695       Chaulieu  1720 

Segrais   1701      J.  B.  Rousseau 1741 

Boileau  1711 

The  eloquence  of  the  bar  was  checked  in  its  development  [Le 
Maistre,  1658;  Patrie,  1681;  Pelisson,  1693].  The  eloquence 
of  the  pulpit  surpassed  the  models  of  antiquity.  Funeral  ora- 
tions reappeared  in  a  form  unknown  to  the  ancients. 

Orators. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Cheminais  1689      Flechier 1710 

Mascaron   1703       Fenelon 1715 

Bourdaloue 1704       Massillon    1743 

Bossuet  1704 

History  was  written  with  stiff  elegance  and  little  regard  to 
truth,  or  else  it  was  valuable  only  for  its  research.  The  "Dis- 
course on  Universal  History"  seems  to  have  opened  a  new  path. 
— Abundant  materials  were  stored  up  in  memoirs  and  in  mer- 


192 


MICHELET 


cantile  correspondence.  Many  other  walks  of  literature  were 
pursued  with  success.  Novels  rivalled  comedy.  In  the  care- 
lessness of  intimate  correspondence  women  attained  the  perfec- 
tion of  familiar  style.  Translation  made  some  progress. 
Finally,  literary  criticism  sprang  into  existence. 

Historians. 


Died  in 

Sarrazin 1654 

Perefixe 1670 

Cardinal  de  Retz 1679 

Mezerai 1683 

Pere  Maimbourg  1686 

Madame  de  Motteville 1689 

Saint  Real 1692 

Varillas  1696 

P.  d'Orleans 1698 


Died  in 

Amelqt  de  la  Houssaie 1706 

Boulainvilliers  1722 

Fleuri 1723 

Rapin  de  Thoiras 1725 

Daniel   1728 

Vertot   1735 

Dubos  1742 

St.  Simon 1753 


Historic  Scholars. 


Died  in 

Th.  Godefroi 1646 

Soimond  165 1 

Petau  1652 

Labbe 1667 

Valois  1676 

Moreri 1680 

Godefroi  1681 

Ducange   1688 

Pagi  1695 


Died  in 

Herbelot  1695 

Tillemont  1698 

Cousin    1707 

Mabillon  1707 

Ruinard  1709 

Baluze  1718 

Basnage    1723 

Le  Clerc  1736 

Montfaucon  1741 


Writers  of  different  kinds. 


Died  in 

Voiture  1648 

Vaugelas 1649 

Balzac   1654 

Du  Ryer 1656 

De  Saci 1684 

Chapelle  1686 

Ant.  Arnaud  1694 

Lancelot   1695 

Madame  de  Sevigne 1696 

Madame  de  la  Fayette 1699 

Bachaumont   1702 

Bouhours 1702 

Perrault 1703 

St.  Evremond  1703 

Fenelon 1715 


Died  in 

Scarron  1660 

D'Ablancourt 1664 

Arnault  d' Andilly 1674 

Le  Bossu  1680 

Tourreil  1715 

Madame  de  Maintenon 1716 

Hamilton  1720 

Dufresni   1724 

La  Motte  Houdard 1731 

Dubos  1742 

Mongault  1747 

Le  Sage 1747 

Madame  de  Lambert 1753 

Fontenelle  1757 


Intellect  received  a  new  impulse  from  the  study  of  meta- 
physics. The  moralists  accumulated  facts  without  trying  to 
establish  a  system  of  moral  science.  The  philosophical  spirit 
began  to  enter  the  domain  of  natural  science.  A  few  sceptics, 
rare  in  this  age,  united  the  sixteenth  with  the  eighteenth  century. 


MODERN  HISTORY  193 

Philosophers, 

Died  in  Died  in 

Descartes    1650  Bayle   1706 

Gassendi  1655  Malebranche    1715 

Pascal  1662  Huet  1721 

La  Motte  le  Vayer 1672  Buffier  1737 

La  Rochefoucauld 1680  Abbe  St.  Pierre 1743 

Nicole    1695  Fontenelle  1757 

La  Bruyere 1696 

Science  was  not  neglected.  Mathematics  was  developed, 
and  geography  first  systematized.  Travels  were  for  the  first 
time  undertaken  for  scientific  purposes. 

Scholars  and  Mathematicians* 

Died  in  Died  in 

Descartes   1650       L'Hopital   1704 

Fermat  1652      Jacques  Bernoulli 1705 

Pascal  1662       Nicolas  Bernouilli 1726 

Pecquet  1674       Jean  Bernouilli 1748 

Rohault  1675 

Geographers  and  Travellers. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Samson  1667       Tournefort  1708 

Bochard  1669       Chardin 1713 

Bernier    1688       De  Tlsle  1726 

Vaillant  1706 

Classical  literature  was  cultivated  as  much  as  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  but  it  was  less  conspicuous. 

Students  of  Classical  Literature, 

Died  in  Died  in 

Saumaise 1653       Jouvenci    1716 

Lef  evre  1672       Madame  Dacier 1722 

Rapin  1687       Dacier   1722 

Furetiere 1688      De  la  Rue 1725 

Menage  1691       De  la  Monnaie 1728 

Santenil 1697       Cardinal  Polignac  1741 

Commire  1702      Brumoi 1742 

Danet 1709 

Although  the  fine  arts  were  not  the  most  striking  features  of 
the  age  of  Louis  XIV.,  they  contributed  to  the  splendor  of  this 
brilliant  period.  Architecture  flourished  exceedingly.  Paint- 
ing, at  first  pursued  with  genius,-  fell  into  a  decline  which  be- 
came still  more  rapid  in  the  following  century, 

Painters. 

Died  In  Died  in 

Le  Sueur 1655       Mignard    1695 

Poussin : 1665       Jouvenet  1717 

Le  Brun  1690       Rigaud  1744 

'3 


1 94  MICHELET 

'Sculptors. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Puget  1695       Coysevox    1720 

Girardon  1715       Coustou 1733 

Architects. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Fr.  Mansard  1666       Claude  Perrault 1703 

Le  Notre 1700      H.  Mansard 1708 

Engravers. 
Died  in  Died  in 

Callot   1635       Audran  1703 

Nanteuil   1678 

Musical  Composer. 
Lulli,  Died  in  1687. 


Section  II. — Other  Countries  of  Europe, 

England,  Italy,  and  Spain  followed  closely  upon  France  in  the 
career  of  letters;  the  two  former,  with  Holland,  preceded  her  in 
science.  In  spite  of  the  rise  of  a  few  men  of  ability,  Germany 
had  not  yet  begun  to  develop.  In  the  first  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  Italy  still  bore  the  palm  in  painting,  with  Flan- 
ders for  her  rival. 

i.  Literature. — The  names  of  Bacon  and  Shakespeare  mark 
the  first  development  of  English  genius,  but  for  a  long  time  the 
religious  wars  put  a  stop  to  intellectual  progress,  although  that 
great  masterpiece,  the  "Paradise  Lost,"  must  be  referred  to  their 
date  [in  spite  of  its  appearing  as  late  as  1669],  Under  Charles  II. 
England  was  under  the  literary,  as  she  was  under  the  political, 
influence  of  France;  and  this  imitative  tendency  manifests  itself 
in  all  the  classical  period  of  English  literature  [from  the  acces- 
sion of  Charles  II.  to  the  death  of  Queen  Anne,  1661 — 1714] . 
In  this  period  England  produced  three  celebrated  poets — Dry- 
den,  Addison,  and  Pope — a  great  many  wits,  and  several  dis- 
tinguished prose  writers. 

English  Poets. 

-,    ,                                               Died  in  Died  m 

Shakespeare 1616       Rochester  1680 

Denham  1666       Butler  1680 

Cowley   1667       Roscommon  1684 

Milton   1674       Otway 1685 

Waller  1687       Prior   1729 

Dryden  1701       Congreve 1729 

£°we  1718      Gay 1732 

Addison 1719       Pope 1744 


MODERN  HISTORY 


English  Prose  Writers. 


195 


Died  in  Died  in 

Clarendon   1694      Addison  1719 

Tillotson  1694       Steele   1729 

Temple  1698       Swift   1745 

Burnet  1715       Bolingbroke  1751 

The  golden  age  of  Italian  literature  was  over.  An  original 
and  profound  thinker  [Vico,  who  died  in  1744]  founded  in 
Naples  the  philosophy  of  history;  some  good  historians  ap- 
peared, but  poetry  was  disfigured  by  affectation. 

Italian  Poets. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Marini  1625       Salvator  Rosa 1673 

Tassoni   1635 

Italian  Historians. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Sarf>i   1625       Bentivoglio  1644 

Davila  1634       Nami  1678 

Spanish  literature  was  prodigiously  fertile  in  philosophers  and 
humorists :  after  the  names  of  Cervantes  and  of  two  great  tragic 
poets,  came  those  of  several  historians. 

Spanish  Authors. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Cervantes   1616       Lope  de  Vega 1635 

Mariana  1624       Solis   1686 

Herrera 1625       Calderone  1687 

2.  Philosophy. — England,  prepared  by  theological  and  polit- 
ical controversies,  opened  new  paths  to  metaphysics  and  political 
science.  Germany  opposed  a  single  man  (Leibnitz)  to  all  the 
English  scholars  and  metaphysicians.  A  Dutchman  (Spinoza) 
systematized  atheism;  another  Dutchman  (Grotius)  gave  a  sci- 
entific form  to  morality,  and  proved  that  society,  as  well  as  indi- 
viduals, should  be  regulated  by  it.  The  new  science,  at  first 
founded  upon  the  classical  system,  was  afterwards  included  in 
philosophy. 

English  Philosophical  and  Political  Writers. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Bacon 1626      Locke 1704 

Hobbes  1679       Shaftesbury 1715 

Sidney  1683.      Clarke   1729 

Cudworth  1688 

Dutch  Philosophical  and  Political  Writers. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Grotius  1645       St.  Gravesande 1742 

Spinoza  1677 


I96  MICHELET 

German  Philosophical  and  Political  Writers. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Puffendorf  ................  1695       Wolf  ......................  1784 

Leibnitz 


3.  Science.  —  Bacon  discovered  its  laws,  and,   as   it  were, 
prophesied  the  great  results  which  might  be  expected,  but  Gali- 
leo and  Newton  were  the  first  to  direct  its  use.     Many  scholars 
and  students  followed  in  the  wake  of  these  extraordinary  men- 

English  Scientific  and  Literary  Men. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Bacon  .....................  1626  The  Gregorys.  .  .  .  1646,  1675,  1708 

Harvey  ....................  1657  Newton  ...................  1726 

Barrow   ...................  1677  Halley  ....................  1741 

Boyle  .....................  1691 

Italian  Scientific  and  Literary  Men. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Aldovrandus  ...............  1615  Borelli  ....................  1679 

Sanctorius,  towards  ........  1636  Viviani  ....................  1703 

Galileo  ....................  1642  Cassini  ....................   1712 

Torricelli  ..................  1647 

Dutch  Scientific  and  Literary  Men. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Huyghens  .................  1702      Boerhaave  .................  1738 

German  and  Danish  Scientific  and  Literary  Men. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Kepler  ....................  1630      Kircher  ...................  1683 

Tycho  Brahe*  ..............  1636      Stahl  ......................  1733 

4.  Antiquarian  Research.  —  It  was  exercised  in  every  possible 
direction.     The  antiquities  of  the  middle  ages  and  of  the  East 
shared  the  labors  of  the  learned,  who,  until  then,  had  been  exclu- 
sively engaged  with  classical  antiquities. 

English  Antiquarians. 
Owen,  Farnaby,  Aster,  Bentley,  Marsham,  Stanley,  Hyde,  Pocock. 

Dutch  and  Flemish  Students  of  Antiquity. 
Barlaeus,  Schrevelius,  Heinsius,  Vossius. 

German  Students  of  Antiquity. 
Frenshemius,  Gronovius,  Morhof,  Fabricius,  Spanheim. 

Italian  Antiquarians. 
Muratori,  etc. 

5.  The  Fine  Arts.  —  In  Italy  the  decline  of  art  followed  that  of 
letters.     Painting  alone  was  an  exception.     It  flourished  in  the 
Lombard  and  Flemish  schools. 


MODERN  HISTORY  197 

Italian  Painters. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Guido 1642      Guercino  1666 

Albano    1647       Salvator  Rosa 1675 

Lanfranco   1647  Bernini    (sculptor,  architect,  and 

Domenichino   1648          painter)    1680 

Flemish  and  Dutch  Painters. 

Died  in  Died  in 

Rubens  1640       Rembrandt  1688 

Vandyke   1641       The  younger  Teniers 1694 

The  elder  Teniers 1649 


CHAPTER   XXI. 

DISSOLUTION   OF   THE    MONARCHY. 

THE  GROWTH   OF   REVOLUTIONARY   IDEAS    IN    FRANCE, 

1715—1789- 

Between  the  reigns  of  Louis  the  Great  and  Napoleon  the 
Great,  France  slid  down  a  rapid  decline,  at  the  foot  of  which  the 
ancient  monarchy,  striking  on  the  people,  was  dashed  to  pieces 
and  gave  place  to  the  principles  on  which  the  existing  political 
system  of  Europe  is  based.  The  central  idea  of  the  eighteenth 
century  consists  in  the  preparation  for  this  great  change.  First 
came  the  literary  and  philosophical  struggle  for  religious  liberty; 
next  the  great  and  bloody  battle  for  political  liberty,  a  victory 
which  proved  ruinous  to  Europe;  and,  lastly,  in  spite  of  a  pass- 
ing reaction,  the  definitive  confirmation  of  civil  equality. 

Whilst  the  body  of  Louis  XIV.  was  being  carried  all  alone  and 
without  ceremony  to  St.  Denis,  the  Duke  of  Orleans  forced  the 
Parliament  to  set  aside  his  will.  The  politics  of  the  regent,  his 
whole  life  and  character,  were  in  opposition  to  the  preceding 
reign.  All  the  ancient  barriers  gave  way;  the  regent  invited 
private  individuals  to  give  their  opinions  on  politics;  he  pro- 
claimed the  maxims  of  Fenelon,  he  printed  Telemachus  at  his 
own  expense,  and  opened  the  royal  library  to  the  public.  The 
farmers  of  the  Revenue,  who  had  grown  fat  upon  the 
troubles  of  France,  were  judged  by  a  Star  Chamber,  fined,  and 
condemned  haphazard.  This  rigorous  treatment  of  the  finan- 
ciers only  added  to  the  popularity  of  the  Duke.  It  was  not 
enough,  however,  to  condemn  them;  it  was  necessary  to  replace 
them  by  some  other  means,  so  as  to  liquidate  the  enormous  debt 
left  by  Louis  XIV.  A  great  enterprise  was  then  attempted ;  a 
Scotch  banker,  named  Law,  who  called  himself  a  disciple  of 
Newton  and  Locke,  came  to  make  the  first  experiment  that 
France  had  seen  on  the  resources  of  credit.  He  opened  a  bank 
and  substituted  paper  money  for  coin.  This  bank  was  converted 
by  the  regent  into  a  royal  bank.  Law  associated  with  this  bank 
the  Mississippi,  or  West  Indian  Company  scheme.  The  regent 

198 


•MODERN  HISTORY 


199 


granted  to  the  company  a  lease  of  the  public  taxes,  in  return  for 
which  the  company  lent  him  1,200,000,000  francs  towards  paying 
the  debts  of  the  State.  The  public  creditors  were  paid  henceforth, 
not  in  cash,  but  in  shares  of  the  Mississippi  Company,  taken  at 
their  present  fabulous  market  price.  Enormous  dividends  were 
paid  on  these,  and  the  anxiety  to  obtain  them  amounted  to  in- 
fatuation. For  the  first  time,  gold  was  at  a  discount,  and  the 
price  of  shares  increased  every  hour.  The  Rue  Quincampoix 
was  thronged ;  men  elbowed  each  other  at  the  doors  of  the  offi- 
ces, where  they  could  exchange  this  inconvenient  metal  for 
paper.  The  regent  was  one  of  the  directors.  The  confidence 
of  the  public,  however,  was  shaken;  this  paper  religion  had  its 
unbelievers ;  it  fell  rapidly;  woe  betided  the  last  holders !  Strange 
metamorphoses  were  seen — the  rich  man  became  poor,  and  the 
poor  rich;  wealth,  which  hitherto  had  been  connected  with  land 
and  was  permanent  in  families,  for  the  first  time  seemed  to  take 
to  itself  wings;  in  future  it  was  to  follow  the  requirements  of 
commerce  and  industry.  A  similar  movement  took  place  all 
over  Europe;  the  inhabitants  detached  themselves,  as  it  were, 
from  the  soil.  Law,  who  disappeared  amidst  the  maledictions 
of  the  nation,  left  behind  him  at  least  this  benefit  [1717 — 1721]. 

The  regent,  in  his  easy  reception  of  new  ideas,  his  interest  in 
science,  and  his  dissolute  manners,  is  one  of  the  types  of  the 
eighteenth  century.  He  maintained  the  bull  unigenitus  for  the 
sake  of  the  Pontiff,  but  he  was  utterly  without  religion.  His 
roue  companions  belonged  to  the  nobility,  but  his  devoted  ad- 
herent, his  minister,  the  real  King  of  France,  was  the  rascally 
Cardinal  Dubois,  the  son  of  an  apothecary  at  Brives-la-Gail- 
larde.  The  natural  ally  of  the  regent  was  England^  which,  un- 
der the  house  of  Hanover,  was  likewise  a  representative  of  mod- 
ern ideas,  as  was  also  the  new  monarchy  of  Prussia  in  Germany. 

The  common  enemy  was  Spain,  at  whose  expense  the  Treaty 
of  Utrecht  had  been  concluded.  Spain  and  France,  whose  rela- 
tionship made  them  all  the  more  hostile,  looked  at  each  other 
with  an  unfriendly  eye.  The  Spanish  minister,  the  intriguing 
Alberoni,  undertook  to  re-establish  the  old  system  throughout 
Europe.  He  wanted  to  restore  to  Spain  all  that  she  had  lost,  to 
give  the  regency  of  France  to  Philip  V.,  and  to  establish  the  Pre- 
tender in  England.  To  effect  this,  Alberoni  hired  the  first  gen- 
eral of  the  time— the  Swedish  King,  Charles  XII.  This  royal 
adventurer  was  to  be  paid  by  Spain  as  Gustavtts  Adolphus  had 
been  by  France.  This  great  proj  ect  failed  everywhere.  Charles 
XII.  was  killed;  the  Pretender  was  beaten.  The  Spanish  am- 
bassador was  found  conspiring  with  the  Duchess  of  Maine,  wife 
of  a  legitimatized  son  of  Louis  XIV.  This  clever  little  Princess 
had  expected  to  change  the  face  of  Europe.  The  memoirs  of  the 
Fronde,  which  had  recently  appeared,  inspired  her  with  emula- 


200  MICHELET 

tion.  The  regent  and  Dubois,  incapable  alike  of  friendship  or 
enmity,  thought  the  whole  affair  so  absurd  that  they  punished 
no  one,  except  some  unfortunate  gentlemen  from  Brittany,  who 
had  put  themselves  forward  [1718].  France,  England,  Holland, 
and  the  Emperor  combined  against  Alberoni,  and  formed  the 
Quadruple  Alliance.  In  1720  Spain  obtained  in  compensation 
Tuscany,  Parma,  and  Placentia;  and  the  Emperor,  after  invest- 
ing Spain  with  these  States,  obliged  the  Duke  of  Savoy  to  ex- 
change Sicily  for  Sardinia.  Europe  was  determined  upon 
peace,  and  was  willing  to  make  any  sacrifice  for  it. 

The  severe  and  unskilful  ministry  of  the  Duke  of  Bourbon, 
who  governed  after  the  death  of  the  regent  [1723 — 1726],  was 
soon  replaced  by  that  of  the  cautious  Fleury,  who  had  formerly 
been  preceptor  to  the  young  King,  and  who  quietly  took  posses- 
sion of  the  King  and  the  kingdom  [1726—1745]-  Louis  XV., 
who  up  to  the  age  of  seven  was  kept  in  leading  strings,  and  until 
twelve  wore  stays,  was  destined  to  be  ruled  all  his  lifetime.  Un- 
der the  timid  and  economical  government  of  the  old  priest, 
France  was  disturbed  only  by  the  papal  bull,  by  the  convulsions 
of  Jansenism,  and  the  agitations  of  the  Parliaments.  France 
slumbered  under  Fleury,  and  had  for  her  ally  England,  who  was 
slumbering  under  Walpole — an  unequal  alliance  from  which 
France  derived  no  kind  of  advantage.  The  French  at  that  time 
were  full  of  admiration  for  England;  they  went  to  study  under 
the  freethinkers  of  Great  Britain,  as  in  ancient  times  the  Greek 
philosophers  sat  under  the  Egyptian  priests.  Voltaire  went 
thither  to  listen  to  Locke  and  Newton,  and  to  gather  materials 
for  his  tragedy  of  "Brutus"  [1730].  Montesquieu,  who  had  be- 
come more  careful  since  the  scandal  created  by  his  brilliant  "Let- 
tres  Persanes"  (published  in  1721),  took  from  England  the  type 
which  he  held  up  for  the  imitation  of  all  nations.  No  attention 
was  paid  to  Germany,  where  Leibnitz  had  died;  nor  to  Italy, 
where  Vico  was  still  living. 

There  were  so  many  inflammable  substances  hidden  beneath 
this  apparent  calm,  that  a  spark  from  the  north  was  enough  to 
set  all  Europe  in  a  blaze. 

Under  the  Duke  of  Bourbon  a  court  intrigue  had  married  the 
King  of  France  to  the  daughter  of  a  landless  Prince,  Stanislas 
Leczinski,  the  knight-errant  whom  Charles  XII.  had  set  up  for  a 
moment  as  King  of  Poland,  and  who  retired  into  France.  On 
the  death  of  Augustus  II.  [1733] ,  the  party  of  Stanislas  revived, 
in  opposition  to  that  of  Augustus  III.,  Elector  of  Saxony  and  son 
of  the  late  King.  Stanislas  obtained  60,000  votes.  Villars  and 
the  old  generals  were  eager  for  war;  they  pretended  that  it  was 
impossible  to  refuse  support  to  the  father-in-law  of  the  King  of 
France.  Fleury  allowed  himself  to  be  persuaded.  His  prepa- 
rations were  not  sufficient  for  success,  but  they  were  enough  to 


MODERN  HISTORY  201 

compromise  France.  He  sent  three  millions  (francs)  and  500 
men  against  50,000  Russians.  A  Frenchman,  Count  de  Plelo, 
ambassador  to  Denmark,  who  happened  to  be  present  when  the 
troops  arrived,  blushed  for  his  country,  placed  himself  at  their 
head,  and  was  killed. 

Spain  had  taken  the  side  of  Stanislas  against  Austria,  which 
sustained  Augustus.  She  made  this  distant  war  in  Poland  a 
pretext  for  recovering  her  Italian  possessions,  and  succeeded  to 
a  certain  extent,  with  the  assistance  of  France.  Whilst  Villars 
was  invading  the  Milanese,  the  Spaniards  recovered  the  Two 
Sicilies,  and  established  there  the  infant  Don  Carlos  [1734 — 
I73Sl-  They  retained  this  conquest  at  the  Treaty  of  Vienna 
[1738].  In  exchange  for  the  throne  of  Poland,  Stanislas  re- 
ceived Lorraine,  which,  on  his  death,  was  to  fall  to  France; 
Francis,  Duke  of  Loraine  and  son-in-law  of  the  Emperor,  and 
husband  of  the  famous  Maria  Theresa,  received  in  its  stead  Tus- 
cany, as  a  fief  of  the  empire.  The  last  of  the  Medicis  having 
died  without  issue,  Fleury  immediately  negotiated  for  the  pur- 
pose of  securing  the  Two  Sicilies  to  the  Spanish  Bourbons,  in 
spite  of  the  jealousy  of  England.  Meanwhile  10,000  Russians 
had  reached  the  Rhine.  It  occurred  to  the  French  for  the  first 
time  that  this  European  Asia  might  stretch  out  her  long  arms  to 
France. 

Although  she  had  grown  old  with  Fleury  and  Villars,  France 
had,  nevertheless,  under  her  octogenarian  minister  and  general, 
acquired  Lorraine.  Spain,  revived  by  the  Bourbons,  had  won 
two  kingdoms  from  Austria.  The  latter,  still  subject  to  the  de- 
scendants of  Charles  V.,  represented  the  ancient  European  sys- 
tem, fated  to  disappear  and  make  way  for  the  modern.  The  Em- 
peror Charles  VI.,  who  was  as  uneasy  as  Charles  IL  of  Spain  in 
1700,  had  made  the  greatest  possible  sacrifices  to  secure  his  pos- 
sessions to  his  daughter,  Maria  Theresa,  wife  of  the  Duke  of 
Lorraine,  now  Duke  of  Tuscany. 

In  the  face  of  old  Austria,  the  youthful  kingdom  of  Prussia 
was  rising  up.  It  was  partly  German,  partly  Sclavonic,  and 
partly  French;  no  other  country  received  so  many  exiles  after 
the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  It  was  the  destiny  of 
Prussia  to  renew  the  old  Saxon  opposition  against  the  Emper- 
ors. This  State,  poor,  and  without  natural  frontiers,  having 
neither  the  canals  of  Holland  nor  the  mountains  of  Savoy  to 
protect  her  against  her  enemies,  nevertheless  grew  in  size  and 
importance,  the  pure  creation  of  war  and  of  policy — of  the 
human  will  triumphing  over  nature.  The  first  King,  William, 
a  hard  and  barbarous  soldier,  who  had  spent  thirty  years  in  sav- 
ing money  and  in  disciplining  his  troops  with  the  lash,  consid- 
ered a  kingdom  in  the  same  light  as  a  regiment  He  was  afraid 
that  his  son  would  not  carry  out  his  plans,  and  he  was  tempted 


202  MICHELET 

to  behead  him,  as  the  Czar  Peter  his  son  Alexis.  This  son,  after- 
wards Frederick  II.,  was  no  favorite  with  a  father  who  valued 
nothing  but  size  and  strength,  who  carried  off  men  of  six  feet, 
wherever  he  could  find  them,  to  compose  regiments  of  giants. 
Young  Frederick  was  short,  with  heavy  shoulders;  he  had  large, 
cold,  and  piercing  eyes — there  was  something  eccentric  about 
him.  He  was  a  wit,  a  musician,  and  a  philosopher;  he  had  de- 
praved and  ridiculous  tastes;  one  of  his  favorite  occupations  was 
writing  French  verses;  he  knew  no  Latin,  and  despised  German; 
he  was  a  pure  logician,  incapable  of  appreciating  either  the 
beauty  of  ancient  art,  or  the  secrets  of  modern  science.  He  had, 
however,  one  quality  by  which  he  earned  the  epithet  of  Great — 
a  strong  will.  He  willed  to  be  a  general;  he  willed  that  Prussia 
should  become  one  of  the  leading  States  in  Europe;  he  willed  to 
be  a  legislator;  he  willed  that  his  deserted  plains  should  be  peo- 
pled. He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  art  of  war,  midway  be- 
tween Turenne  and  Napoleon.  When  the  latter  entered  Berlin 
he  asked  to  see  only  the  tomb  of  Frederick;  he  took  away  his 
sword,  saying:  "This  sword  is  mine  by  right." 

Prussia,  a  new  State,  and  owing  her  most  industrious  citizens 
to  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  was  sooner  or  later  to 
become  the  centre  of  modern  philosophy.  Frederick  II.  under- 
stood the  part  which  he  was  to  play,  and  declared  himself  the 
disciple  of  Voltaire  in  poetry,  as  well  as  philosophy.  This  was  a 
stroke  of  policy;  his  apparently  frivolous  tastes  forwarded  his 
most  deeply  laid  schemes.  The  Emperor  Julian  had  copied 
Marcus  Aurelius;  Frederick  imitated  Julian.  First,  in  honor  of 
the  Antonines,  whom  Voltaire  proposed  to  him  as  models,  he 
wrote  a  sentimentally  virtuous  book  against  Machiavelli.  He 
was  not  yet  a  King.  Voltaire  took  it  all  in  good  faith,  corrected 
the  proofs,  and  enthusiastically  praised  the  royal  author.  He 
promised  a  Titus  to  the  world.  On  his  accession,  Frederick 
tried  to  destroy  the  whole  edition. 

In  the  same  year  the  Emperor  Charles  VI.  died,  and  Frederick 
became  a  King  [1740].  All  the  States  which  had  guaranteed 
the  succession  to  Maria  Theresa  declared  war  upon  her.  The 
moment  seemed  to  have  arrived  for  dismembering  the  great 
body  of  Austria,  and  all  ran  to  be  present  at  the  division.  The 
most  superannuated  rights  were  revived.  Spain  claimed  Bo- 
hemia and  Hungary;  the  King  of  Sardinia,  the  Milanese;  Fred- 
erick, Silesia;  France  asked  for  nothing  but  the  Empire  for  the 
Elector  of  Bavaria,  who  had  been  for  more  than  half  a  century 
a  devoted  adherent  of  the  French  crown.  The  Elector  was 
named  Emperor  without  opposition,  and  at  the  same  time  gen- 
eralissimo of  the  French  forces. 

The  brothers  Belle-Isle,  grandsons  of  Fouquet,  disturbed 
France  with  their  chimerical  projects.  Fleury  made  war  for  the 


MODERN  HISTORY  203 

second  time  against  his  will,  and  for  the  second  time  failed.  The 
French  army,  ill-paid  and  ill-fed,  dispersed  after  gaining  easy 
victories  wherever  it  found  means  of  subsistence.  It  left  Vienna 
on  one  side  and  spread  into  Bohemia.  On  the  other  hand,  Fred- 
erick conquered  at  Molwitz  and  seized  Silesia  [1741]. 

Maria  Theresa  stood  alone;  her  cause  seemed  to  be  lost  She 
was  advanced  in  pregnancy,  and  she  feared  that  she  would  not 
have  one  town  left  in  which  she  might  give  birth  to  her  child. 
But  England  and  Holland  could  not  contemplate  calmly  the  tri- 
umph of  France.  The  peace-loving  Walpole  fell;  subsidies 
were  granted  to  Maria  Theresa,  and  an  English  squadron  im- 
posed neutrality  on  the  King  of  Naples.  The  King  of  Prussia, 
who  had  obtained  all  he  wanted,  made  peace.  The  French 
wasted  themselves  in  Bohemia,  lost  Prague,  and  made  their  way 
back  with  great  difficulty  through  the  snow.  Belle-Isle  con- 
soled himself  by  comparing  himself  with  Xenophon  [1742]. 

The  English  landed  on  the  Continent,  and  at  Dettingen  fell 
into  the  jaws  of  the  French  army,  which  let  them  escape,  and 
afterwards  was  beaten  by  them  [1743].  The  French  troops  were 
driven  back  to  the  other  side  of  the  Rhine,  and  the  unfortunate 
Bavarian  Emperor  left  to  the  vengeance  of  Austria.  This  was 
not  what  the  King  of  Prussia  had  intended.  Maria  Theresa,  in 
her  recovered  strength,  would  have  been  certain  to  retake  Silesia. 
He  sided  with  France  and  Bavaria,  returned  to  the  charge,  en- 
tered Bohemia,  secured  Silesia  in  three  victories,  invaded  Sax- 
ony, and  obliged  Maria  Theresa  and  the  Saxons  to  sign  the 
Treaty  of  Dresden.  After  the  death  of  the  Emperor,  Maria 
Theresa  had  caused  her  husband  to  be  chosen  as  his  successor 
[Francis  L,  1745]. 

The  French,  however,  had  the  advantage  in  Italy.  With  the 
assistance  of  Spain,  Naples,  and  Geneva,  they  established  the 
Infant  Don  Philip  in  the  duchies  of  Milan  and  Parma.  In  the 
Netherlands,  under  Marshal  Saxe,  they  gained  the  battles  of 
Fontenoy  [1745]  and  of  Roucox  [1746].  The  former  celebrated 
engagement  would  have  been  hopelessly  lost  if  an  Irishman — 
Lally — inspired  by  hatred  of  the  English,  had  not  proposed  to 
break  their  line  with  four  guns.  A  skilful  courtier,  the  Duke  of 
Richelieu,  appropriated  the  idea  and  the  glory.  The  Irishman, 
sword  in  hand,  was  the  first  to  break  through  the  English  col- 
umn. In  the  same  year  France  let  loose  upon  England  her  most 
formidable  enemy,  the  Pretender.  The  Scotch  Highlanders  re- 
ceived him,  poured  down  the  mountains  with  irresistible  fury, 
carried  off  the  guns,  and  cut  the  infantry  in  pieces  with  their 
broadswords.  These  successes  ought  to  have  been  supported 
by  France,  but  her  navy  had  been  reduced  to  nothing.  Lally 
obtained  a  few  ships ;  but  the  English  held  the  sea  and  prevented 
the  Scotch  from  receiving  assistance.  They  had  the  advantage 


204  MICHELET 

over  the  Scotch  in  numbers,  resources,  and  in  the  possession  of 
an  excellent  army.  The  Scotch  were  finally  beaten  at  Culloden 
[1745—1746]. 

The  Spaniards  retreated  from  Italy,  and  the  French  were 
driven  out  of  that  country.  They  advanced  in  the  Netherlands. 
England  was  alarmed  for  Holland,  and  re-established  the  Stad- 
holderate.  The  French  victories  in  Holland  had,  at  any  rate, 
the  effect  of  procuring  peace.  She  had  lost  her  ships  and  her 
colonies;  the  Russians  appeared  for  the  second  time  on  the 
Rhine.  The  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  restored  to  France  her 
colonies,  secured  Silesia  to  Prussia,  and  Parma  and  Placentia  to 
the  Spanish  Bourbons.  Against  all  expectation,  Austria  main- 
tained her  position  [1748]. 

France  had  had  a  melancholy  experience  of  her  weakness,  but 
she  was  not  able  to  profit  by  it.  The  government  of  the  old 
priest,  Fleury,  had  been  followed  by  that  of  the  King's  mistress. 
Mademoiselle  Poisson,  Marchioness  of  Pompadour,  reigned 
twenty  years.  Although  of  mean  birth,  she  had  some  patriotic 
ideas.  Her  creature,  the  Comptroller  Machaut,  wanted  to  tax 
the  clergy;  d'Argenson  organized  the  war  department  with  the 
talent  and  integrity  of  Louvois.  In  the  midst  of  the  petty  war- 
fare between  the  Parliament  and  the  clergy,  philosophy  was 
gaining  ground.  Even  within  the  Court  it  had  its  partisans; 
although  the  King  was  opposed  to  the  new  ideas,  he  had  his  own 
little  printing-press,  and  amused  himself  by  printing  the  finan- 
cial theories  of  his  physician,  Quesnay,  who  proposed  a  single 
tax,  to  be  levied  on  the  land.  The  nobility  and  clergy,  who  were 
its  principal  proprietors,  would  at  length  have  been  forced  to 
contribute.  All  these  projects  ended  in  vain  talk;  the  ancient 
corporations  resisted,  and  the  King,  although  courted  by  the 
philosophers,  who  wished  to  strengthen  him  against  the  clergy, 
became  alarmed  at  their  progress.  Voltaire  was  writing  a  gen- 
eral anti-Christian  history  ["Essai  sur  les  Moeurs,"  1786].  The 
new  philosophy  gradually  emerged  from  the  polemical  character 
which  Voltaire  had  given  to  it  In  1748,  the  President  Montes- 
quieu, founder  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Science  at  Bordeaux, 
published,  in  a  somewhat  weak  and  desultory  form,  a  ma- 
terialistic theory  of  legislation  derived  from  the  influence  of 
climate;  such  at  least  is  the  prevailing  idea  in  the  "Esprit  des 
Lois,"  a  book  as  ingenious  and  brilliant  as  it  is  sometimes  pro- 
found. In  1749  the  colossal  "Histoire  Naturelle"  of  Buffon  ap- 
peared, and  in  1751  the  first  volumes  of  the  "Encyclopedic,"  a 
gigantic  work,  containing  the  essence  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
polemical,  dogmatical,  economical,  and  mathematical,  full  of 
irreligion  and  philanthropy,  atheism,  and  pantheism,  by  d'Alem- 
bert  and  Diderot.  The  century  is  described  by  Condillac  in  a 
single  phrase,  the  title  of  his  book,  "A  Treatise  on  Sensation/1 


MODERN  HISTORY  205 

1754.  The  religious  war  was  carried  on  by  Voltaire,  who  had 
just  occupied  a  central  point  of  observation  between  France, 
Switzerland,  and  Germany,  at  the  gates  of  Geneva,  the  strong- 
hold of  the  ancient  Vaudois,  of  Arnold  of  Brescia,  of  Zwingli, 
and  of  Calvin. 

It  was  the  culminating  point  of  the  power  of  Frederick  II. 
Since  his  conquest  of  Silesia  he  had  cast  off  all  reserve.  In  his 
extraordinary  Court  at  Potsdam  this  man  of  wit  and  war  laughed 
at  God,  and  at  his  brother  philosophers  and  sovereigns;  he  ill- 
treated  Voltaire,  the  chief  organ  of  the  new  opinions;  he 
wounded  Kings  and  Queens  with  his  epigrams;  he  believed 
neither  in  the  beauty  of  Madame  de  Pompadour  nor  in  the  poet- 
ical genius  of  the  Abbe  Bernis,  Prime  Minister  of  France.  The 
Empress  thought  the  moment  favorable  for  the  recovery  of 
Silesia;  she  stirred  up  Europe,  especially  the  Queens;  she  per- 
suaded the  Queen  of  Poland  and  the  Empress  of  Russia;  she 
paid  court  to  the  mistress  of  Louis  XV.  The  monstrous  alli- 
ance of  France  with  the  ancient  State  of  Austria  against  a  sover- 
eign who  maintained  the  equilibrium  of  Germany  united  all 
Europe  against  him.  England  alone  supported  him  and  gave 
him  subsidies.  She  was  governed  at  that  time  by  a  gouty  law- 
yer, the  famous  William  Pitt,  afterwards  Lord  Chatham,  who 
raised  himself  by  his  eloquence  and  by  his  hatred  of  the  French. 
England  wanted  two  things;  the  maintenance  of  the  balance  of 
power  in  Europe,  and  the  destruction  of  the  French  and  Spanish 
colonies.  Her  griefs  were  serious — the  Spaniards  had  ill-treated 
her  smugglers,  and  the  French  wanted  to  prevent  her  from  set- 
tling on  their  territory  in  Canada.  In  India,  La  Bourdonnaie 
and  his  successor,  Dupleix,  threatened  to  found  'a  great  empire 
in  the  face  of  the  English.  As  a  declaration  of  war,  the  English 
confiscated  300  French  ships  [1756], 

The  marvel  of  the  war  was  to  see  this  little  kingdom  of  Prus- 
sia, interposed  between  the  huge  powers  of  Austria,  France,  and 
Russia,  run  from  one  to  the  other  and  defy  them  all.  This  was 
the  second  period  of  the  art  of  war.  The  unskilful  adversaries 
of  Frederick  thought  that  he  owed  all  his  success  to  the  precision 
of  the  manoeuvres  of  the  Prussia  soldiers,  to  their  excellent  drill 
and  rapid  firing.  Frederick  had  certainly  carried  the  soldier- 
machine  to  perfection.  This  was  capable  of  imitation — the  Czar 
Peter  III.  and  the  Count  of  St.  Germain  created  military  autom- 
atons by  means  of  the  lash.  But  they  could  not  imitate  the 
quickness  of  his  manoeuvres;  the  happy  arrangement  of  his 
marches,  which  gave  him  great  facility  for  moving  and  concen- 
trating large  masses,  and  directing  them  on  the  weak  points  of 
the  enemy. 

In  this  terrible  chase  given  by  the  large  unwieldy  armies  of 
the  allies  to  the  agile  Prussian,  one  cannot  help  noticing  the 


206  MICHELET 

amusing  circumspection  of  the  Austrian  tacticians  and  the  stupid 
folly  of  the  fine  gentlemen  who  led  the  armies  of  France.  The 
Fabius  of  Austria,  the  sage  and  heavy  Daun,  was  satisfied  with  a 
war  of  positions;  he  could  not  find  encampments  strong  enough 
or  mountains  inaccessible — his  stationary  troops  were  always 
beaten  by  Frederick. 

To  begin  with,  he  freed  himself  from  the  enmity  of  Saxony. 
He  did  not  hurt ;  he  only  disarmed  her.  He  struck  his  next  blow 
in  Bohemia.  Repulsed  by  the  Austrians,  and  abandoned  by  the 
English  army,  which  determined  at  Kloster-seven  to  fight  no 
more;  threatened  by  the  Russians,  who  were  victorious  at 
Joegerndorf,  he  passed  into  Saxony,  and  found  the  French  and 
Imperialists  combined  there.  Prussia  was  surrounded  by  four 
armies.  Frederick  fancied  himself  lost  and  determined  on  sui- 
cide. He  wrote  to  his  sister  and  to  d'Argens,  announcing  his 
intention.  There  was  only  one  thing  which  frightened  him — it 
was,  that,  when  once  he  was  dead,  the  great  distributor  of  glory, 
Voltaire,  might  make  free  with  his  name;  he  wrote  an  epistle  to 
disarm  him ;  so  Julian,  mortally  wounded,  drew  from  his  robe  a 
speech  which  he  had  composed  for  the  occasion.  "Pour  moi," 
said  Frederick, 

"  Pour  moi,  menace  du  naufrage 
Je  dois,  en  affrontant  1'orage, 
Penser,  vivre  et  mourir  en  roi."  a 

Having  written  this  epistle,  he  defeated  the  enemy  at  Rosbach. 
The  Prince  of  Soubise,  who  thought  that  he  fled,  set  off  rashly 
in  pursuit;  then  the  Prussians  unmasked  their  batteries,  killed 
3,000  men,  and  took  7,000  prisoners.  In  the  French  camp  were 
found  an  army  of  cooks,  actors,  hairdressers,  a  number  of  par- 
rots, parasols,  and  huge  cases  of  lavender-water,  etc.  [1757]. 

None  but  a  tactician  could  follow  the  King  of  Prussia  in  this 
series  of  brilliant  and  skilful  battles.  The  Seven  Years'  War, 
however  various  its  incidents,  was  a  political  and  strategical 
war — it  has  not  the  interest  of  the  wars  for  ideas,  the  struggles 
for  religion  and  for  freedom  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  of  our 
own  time. 

The  defeat  of  Rosbach  was  followed  by  another  at  Crevelt,  and 
by  great  reverses  balanced  by  small  advantages;  the  total  ruin 
of  the  French  navy  and  colonies ;  the  English  masters  of  the 
oce,an  and  conquerors  of  India;  the  exhaustion  and  humiliation 
of  old  Europe  in  the  presence  of  young  Prussia.  This  is  the 
history  of  the  Seven  Years'  War.  It  was  terminated  under  the 
ministry  of  the  Duke  of  Choiseul.  This  minister,  who  was  a 
man  of  ability,  believed  that  he  had  made  a  master  stroke  in  ne- 

oAs  for  me,  threatened  by  ship-  storm,  to  think,  live,  and  die  as  be- 
wreck,  it  is  my  duty,  while  I  face  the  comes  a  King. 


MODERN  HISTORY  207 

gotiating  the  Family  Compact  between  the  different  branches  of 
the  house  of  Bourbon  [1761]. 

Amid  the  humiliations  of  the  Seven  Years'  War,  and  by  means 
of  these  very  humiliations,  the  drama  of  the  eighteenth  century 
was  rapidly  advancing  towards  its  catastrophe.  Who  was  the 
loser  in  this  and  the  former  wars?  Not  France,  but  the  nobility, 
whence  alone  the  officers  and  generals  were  taken.  Even  her 
enemies  could  not  deny  the  bravery  of  France  after  the  instances 
of  Ch evert  and  d'Assas;  and  at  the  battle  of  Exiles  the  French 
troops  had  been  seen  scaling  the  Alps  under  grape-shot,  rushing 
into  the  mouth  of  the  cannon,  at  the  moment  of  their  discharge. 
The  only  generals  worthy  of  mention  at  this  time,  Saxe  and 
Broglie,  were  foreigners.  He  who  appropriated  to  himself  the 
glory  of  Fontenoy,  the  great  general  of  the  age,  in  the  opinion  of 
women  and  courtiers,  the  Conqueror  of  Mahon,  the  old  Alci- 
biades  of  the  old  Voltaire — Richelieu — had  proved  sufficiently 
during  the  five  campaigns  of  the  war  how  much  he  deserved  the 
reputation  which  he  had  so  cleverly  obtained.  At  any  rate,  his 
campaigns  were  lucrative;  he  brought  back  money  enough  to 
construct  upon  the  Boulevards  the  elegant  "Pavilion  de  Hano- 
vre." 

Towards  the  end  of  this  shameful  Seven  Years'  War,  during 
which  aristocracy  fell  so  low,  the  great  intellectual  development 
of  democracy  took  place.  It  was  as  if  France  cried  out  to  the 
nations :  "It  is  not  I  who  am  vanquished."  In  1750,  the  son  of  a 
Geneva  watchmaker,  Jean  Jacques  Rousseau,  by  turns  a  vaga- 
bond, a  writer,  and  a  lackey,  had  cursed  science  in  detestation  of 
philosophy  and  the  profession  of  literature — and  then  cursed 
aristocracy  on  account  of  the  degeneracy  of  the  nobility  [1754]. 
His  feverish  energy  burns  in  every  page  of  ther  "Nouvelle 
Heloise"  [1759]-  Naturalism  is  the  theme  of  the  "Emile,"  and 
deism  of  the  "Profession  de  la  Foi  du  Vicaire  Savoyard"  [1762]. 
Finally,  in  the  "Contrat  Social,"  the  three  watchwords  of  the 
revolution  are  traced  in  characters  of  fire.  The  march  of  the 
revolution  was  so  irresistible  that  the  King,  who  trembled  at  its 
approach,  was,  nevertheless,  forced  to  labor  in  its  favor  and  to 
pave  the  way  for  its  advance.  In  1763  he  founded  its  temple, 
the  Pantheon,  which  was  destined  to  receive  Rousseau  and  Vol- 
taire. In  1764  he  abolished  the  Jesuits,  and  in  1771  the  Parlia- 
ment. The  docile  instrument  of  necessity,  he  destroyed  with  a 
careless  hand  all  that  remained  standing  of  the  ruins  of  the  mid- 
dle ages. 

The  Society  of  the  Jesuits,  whose  roots  were  supposed  to  have 
struck  so  deep,  was  overthrown  all  over  Europe  without  a  blow 
being  struck.  The  Templars  had  perished  in  a  similar  manner 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  when  the  system  of  which  they  were  a 
part  had  had  its  day.  The  Jesuits  were  left  at  the  mercy  of  their 


208  MICHELET 

bitter  enemies— the  Parliaments.  But,  just  as  the  ruins  of  Port 
Royal  had  overwhelmed  the  Jesuits,  the  fall  of  the  latter  was 
fatal  to  the  Parliaments.  These  corporations,  carried  away  by 
their  increasing  popularity  and  their  recent  victory,  attempted  to 
strike  out  new  paths.  The  imperfect  balance  of  the  ancient 
monarchy  had  been  kept  by  the  elastic  opposition  of  the  Parlia- 
ments, who  remonstrated,  adjourned,  and,  in  the  end,  yielded 
respectfully.  A  few  bold  and  headstrong  spirits,  among  others 
La  Chalotais,  a  native  of  Brittany,  undertook  to  carry  their 
authority  further.  In  the  trial  of  the  Duke  of  Aiguillon  they  in- 
sisted on  exercising  their  prerogative,  and  they  were  suppressed 
[1771].  The  judges  of  Lally,  of  Galas,  of  Sirven,  and  of  Labarre 
were  not  to  be  the  engines  of  revolution,  still  less  the  cabal  who 
upset  them.  The  witty  Abbe  Terray  and  the  amusing  Chan- 
cellor Maupeou,  friends  of  the  Duke  of  Aiguillon  and  Madame 
du  Barry,  had  not  sufficient  honesty  to  be  allowed  to  do  good. 
Terray,  who  became  Minister  of  Finance,  remedied  their  disorder 
in  a  measure,  but  by  means  of  bankruptcy.  Maupeou  an- 
nounced that  justice  in  future  should  be  gratuitously  adminis- 
tered, and  abolished  the  venality  of  the  old  system,  but  no  one 
would  believe  in  the  disinterested  administration  of  the  creatures 
of  Maupeou.  Every  one  laughed  at  the  idea  of  their  reforma- 
tion; none  so  much  as  themselves.  The  pleadings  of  Beau- 
marchais  were  received  with  inextinguishable  shouts  of  amuse- 
ment. Louis  XV.  read  them,  and  enjoyed  them  as  much  as  his 
subjects.  The  selfish  monarch  saw  more  clearly  than  any  one 
else  the  growing  danger  of  royalty,  but  he  was  right  in  his  sup- 
position, that  it  would  last  his  time.  He  died  in  1774. 

His  unfortunate  successor,  Louis  XVL,  inherited  all  this  con- 
fusion. Sad  forebodings  took  place  on  the  occasion  of  his  mar- 
riage festivities,  when  many  hundreds  of  spectators  were  killed. 
Nevertheless,  the  sight  of  this  virtuous  young  King,  taking  his 
seat  with  his  graceful  consort  upon  the  purified  throne  of  Louis 
XV.,  had  filled  the  country  with  hope,  The  worn-out  society 
had  an  interval  of  happiness,  of  childlike  emotion ;  it  shed  tears, 
admired  itself  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  thought  that  it  had  re- 
gained its  youth.  The  Idyll  came  into  fashion — first  the  senti- 
mentalities of  Florian,  then  the  innocence  of  Gessner,  and,  at 
length,  the  immortal  eclogue  of  Paul  and  Virginia.  The  Queen 
built  for  herself  a  hamlet  and  a  farm  at  Trianon.  Philosophers 
drove  the  plough,  at  least  with  their  pens.  "Choiseul  is  a  laborer 
and  Voltaire  a  farmer."  Every  one  was  interested  in  the  people, 
loved  the  people,  wrote  for  the  people;  philanthropy  was  in 
vogue;  a  little  money  was  spent  in  charity,  and  a  great  deal  in 
magnificent  festivities. 

While  the  higher  classes  were  sincerely  playing  this  senti- 
mental comedy,  the  great  universal  movement  which  was  to 


MODERN  HISTORY 


209 


sweep  away  the  whole  system  was  continuing  its  march.  The 
real  confidant  of  the  public,  the  Figaro  of  Beaumarchais,  be- 
came every  day  more  and  more  bitter;  from  comedy  it  turned  to 
satire;  from  satire  to  tragedy.  The  throne,  the  Parliament,  the 
nobles — all  were  falling  from  weakness ;  a  sort  of  general  intoxi- 
cation prevailed.  Philosophy  itself  went  mad  under  the  con- 
tagion of  Rousseau  and  Gilbert.  There  was  no  longer  any 
belief  or  disbelief  in  religion,  and  yet  society  would  have  liked 
to  believe;  the  strong-minded  went  in  disguise  to  seek  for  faith 
in  the  phantasmagoria  of  Cagliostro  and  the  magnetizing  tub  of 
Mesmer.  All  round  France,  however,  and  unheard  by  her, 
echoed  the  eternal  dialogue  of  rational  scepticism;  the  apparent 
dogmatism  of  Kant  was  answering  the  nihilism  of  Hume,  and, 
above  all,  the  powerful  voice  of  Goethe,  harmonious  and  poet- 
ical, but  immoral  and  egotistical.  France,  excited  and  pre- 
occupied, heard  nothing  of  the  tumult  around  her.  Germany 
was  continuing  the  sceptical  epic,  while  France  was  finishing  the 
social  drama. 

The  serio-comic  espect  of  these  latter  days  of  the  old  system 
is  produced  by  the  contrast  between  great  promise  and  utter  in- 
competence. Incompetence  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  all 
the  ministers  of  the  time.  They  all  promised  everything,  and 
effected  nothing.  M.  de  Choiseul  wanted  to  protect  Poland, 
humiliate  England,  and  raise  France  by  an  European  war,  and 
yet  he  could  not  pay  the  ordinary  expenses;  if  he  had  insisted 
on  his  projects,  the  Parliament  which  supported  him  would  have 
abandoned  him.  Maupeou  and  Terray  suppressed  the  Parlia- 
ment, but  could  not  put  anything  in  its  place;  they  tried  to  re- 
form the  finances,  and  they  depended  upon  the  thieves  of  the 
public  purse.  Under  Louis  XVI.,  the  great,  virtuous,  and 
courageous  Turgot  [1774 — 1776]  proposed  the  true  remedy — 
economy,  and  the  abolition  of  privileges.  But  to  whom  did  he 
make  these  proposals?  To  the  privileged  classes  who  over- 
threw him.  Necessity,  however,  forced  them  to  call  to  their 
assistance  a  skilful  banker,  an  eloquent  foreigner,  a  second,  but 
a  virtuous,  Law.  Necker  promised  wonders ;  he  reassured  all 
classes;  he  did  not  propose  any  fundamental  reform,  he  would 
proceed  gently.  He  inspired  confidence;  he  applied  to  the  pub- 
lic credit  and  obtained  a  loan.  Confidence  and  a  wise  adminis- 
tration were  to  extend  commerce;  commerce  would  develop  re- 
sources. Successive  loans  were  secured  upon  uncertain,  slow, 
and  distant  resources.  Necker  ended  by  throwing  down  his 
cards,  and  returning  to  the  means  proposed  by  Turgot — 
economy  and  equal  taxation.  His  Compte  rendu  was  a  conclu- 
sive avowal  of  his  impotence  [1781]. 

It  must  be  owned  that  Necker  had  to  sustain  a  complicated 
struggle.  Besides  the  home  expenses,  he  was  obliged  to  meet 


2IO 


MICHELET 


those  of  a  war  which  France  was  carrying  on  in  favor  of 
America  [1778-7-1784].  She  was  helping  to  create  a  rival  Eng- 
land in  opposition  to  the  old  country.  Although  America  has 
shown  that  it  has  forgotten  this  war,  the  French  have  never  em- 
ployed their  money  more  wisely.  The  last  naval  victories  of 
France  and  the  creation  of  Cherbourg  could  not  be  over-paid. 
It  was  an  extraordinary  moment  of  confidence  and  enthusiasm. 
France  envied  America  the  possession  of  Franklin;  her  young 
nobles  embarked  in  the  crusade  of  liberty. 

Having  tried  in  vain  the  patriotic  ministers,  Turgot  and 
Necker,  the  King  turned  to  the  Queen  and  the  Court;  he  chose 
ministers  among  the  courtiers.  It  was  impossible  to  have  a 
more  agreeable  minister  than  M.  de  Calonne,  a  more  reassuring 
guide  to  lead  gaily  to  ruin.  When  he  had  exhausted  the  credit 
which  the  wise  government  of  Necker  had  created,  he  was  at  a 
loss  what  next  to  do,  and  he  assembled  the  Notables  [1787],  He 
was  obliged  to  own  to  them  that  the  loans  had  risen  in  a  few 
years  to  1,646,000,000  francs  (£65,840,000),  and  that  there  was 
an  annual  deficit  of  140,000,000.  The  Notables,  who  them- 
selves belonged  to  the  privileged  classes,  gave,  instead  of  money, 
advice  and  accusations.  Brienne,  whom  they  raised  to  the  posi- 
tion of  Calonne,  had  recourse  to  taxation;  the  Parliament  re- 
fused to  register  the  taxes,  and  asked  for  the  States-General ;  in 
other  words,  for  its  own  ruin  and  that  of  the  ancient  monarchy. 

The  philosophers  fell  with  Turgot,  the  bankers  with  Necker, 
and  the  courtiers  with  Calonne  and  Brienne.  The  privileged 
classes  would  not  pay,  and  the  people  could  no  longer  do  so.  In 
the  words  of  an  eminent  historian,  the  States-General  only  de- 
creed a  revolution,  which  had  already  taken  place.  Assembly 
of  the  States-General,  May  5,  1789. 


INDEX 


Achmet  I.,  Sultan,  137. 
Achmet,  Vizier,  his  death,  51. 
Africa,    Portuguese   colonies   in,    144. 
Afgnadel,  battle  of,  60. 
Aix-la-ChapeUe,  peace  of,  204. 
Alberoni,  Julius,    199. 
Albert  of  Brandenburg,  89,  138. 
Albuquerque,    Edward,    144,    145. 
Alexander  of  Poland,  his  wars,  53. 
Alexander  VI.,  pope,  his  assumption  of 

the  tiara,   16;  he  hides  himself  in  the 

castle,  56;  his  death,  58. 
Alfonso  the  African,  king  of  Portugal, 


A?fon 


Lfonso    II.   of   Naples,    his   abdication, 

Almagro,    Diego    de,   and   the   conquest 

of  Peru,  154,  155. 
Alva,  Duke  of,  his  cruelties  in  the  low 

countries,  105,  106,  no,  in. 
Amboise,  treaty  of,  104. 
America,  Portuguese  discoveries  in,  144, 

147,  156. 

Amurath  III.,   Sultan,   his  reign,    137. 
Amurath  IV.,  Sultan,  his  foreign  wars, 

138. 

Anabaptism  proscribed,  86. 
Anne  of  Austria,  169. 
Antoine    of    Navarre    unites    with    the 

Protestants,  103. 
Armada,  the  Invincible,  115. 
Armagnac,  Counts  of,  18. 
Aragonese  proverb,  34- 
Arts,  157-159,  193-196. 

Astracan,  its  conquest  by  Ivan  IV.,  138. 
Atahualpa,  Inca  of  Peru,  155,  156. 
Ataides,  Portuguese  governor  in  India, 

146. 

Augsburg,  alliance  of,  183. 
Augsburg,  peace  of,  90,  136. 
Augustus  III.  of  Poland,  200. 
Austria,  24,  44,  131,  206. 
Austrian  succession,  war  of  the,  202. 
Azores,   discovered  by  the   Portuguese* 

143- 

Bajazet  II.,   Sultan,  51. 
Barbarenes,  73. 
Barbarossa,  72,  73. 
Barnet,  battle  of,  28. 
Barrier  Treaty,   189. 

Batthori,    Stephen,    Prince    of   Transyl- 
vania and  King  of  Poland,  140. 
Bayard,  Chevalier,  59;  his  death,  69. 
Beggars,  105-107. 
Belgrade,   siege  of,   14,  85. 
Bellmzona,  taken  by  the  Swiss,  S7« 
Bernard  of  Weimar,  135,  165. 
Blois,  treaty  of,  60. 
Bohemia  and  Hungary,  51,  131. 
Borgia,  Caesar,  58,  59- 
Bosworth,   battle  of,   30. 
Bourbon,  Constable  of,  68,  69,  71. 


Brazil,  its  discovery,  144. 

Brisach,  battle  of,  165. 

Burgundy,    Duke   of,    his   oath   to   fight 

the  Infidels,    13;   provinces   under  his 

rule,    19. 
Bussi-Leclerc,   governor  of  the   Bastile, 

116. 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  his  discovery  of  North 

America,  31. 

Cabral,  Alvares,  his  discoveries,   144. 
Calmar  Union,  48. 
Calvin,  John,  99,  100. 
Cambrai,  league  of,  60;  peace  of,  72. 
Cappel,  battle  of,  81. 
Casimir    V.     of    Poland,     protects    the 

Prussians,  52. 

Castlenaudry,  battle  of,  164. 
Castro,   Juan   de,    Portuguese   governor 

in  India,  146. 

Catherine  de  Medicis,  103,  107. 
Catherine  of  Aragon,  her  divorce,  91. 
Catinat,  Nicholas,   184,   185,  187. 
Cengnola,  battle  of,  58. 
Chancellor,  the  English  navigator,   139. 
Charles  the   Bold,    Duke   of  Burgundy, 

chief  events  of  his  career,  21,  22,  23,  24. 
Charles     Canutson,     elected     King     of 

Sweden,  48. 
Charles   I.   of  England,   chief   events   of 

his  reign,  124.,  125,  126,  127,  128,  129 
Charles  V.  of  Spain,  chief  events  of  his 

reign,  42,  67,  68,  69,  70,  71,  72,  73,  74, 

75,  76,  77,  78,  82,  86,  87,  88,.  89,  90. 
Charles  VII.  of  France,  chief  events  of 

his  reign,  18,  20. 
Charles  VIII.  of  France,  chief  events  of 


,  24,  25,  55,  56,  57- 
of    France,    his 


his  reig      _,          _,  _,  w. 
Charles    IX.    of    France,    his    minority, 

Charles   IX.    of   Sweden,   his   war  with 

Sigismund  III.,  140. 
Chateau-Cambresis,  peace  of,  101. 
Christian   I.   of  Denmark   and  Norway, 

revolt  of  the  Swedes,  48. 
Christian  II.  of  Denmark,  94,  95. 
Christian  III.  of  Denmark,  97. 
Christian     IV.     of    Denmark,    and    the 

Thirty  Years'  War,    132,   141. 
Christopher  of  Oldenburg,  Count,  raises 

a  revolt  in  Denmark,  97. 
Christopher  of  Sweden,  the  Bark  King, 

48. 
Cinq-Mars,   Marquis  of,   his  revolt  and 

death,   166. 

Circassia  depopulated  by  the  Turks,  51. 
Clarence,  Duke  of,  34. 
Clement  VII.,  71,  72,  92 
Colbert,  John  Baptist,  minister  of  Louis 

XIV.,  173,  174- 

Coligm,  Admiral,   102,   104,   108. 
Colonies,  142,  143-146,  147-156 
Columbus,  Christopher,  147,  148,   149. 


211 


212 


MICHELET 


Concini,  Marshal,  161,  162. 

Conde,  Louis  Prince  of,  103,  104. 

Conde,  Louis  II.,  136,  170,  I7i-i73- 

Condottieri  of  Italy,  12. 

Conflans,  treaty  of,  ai. 

Constantinople,  13. 

Copenhagen  University  founded,  49. 

Cortes,  the  Spanish,  38,  76. 

Cortez,  Fernando,  150- 154 

Corvinus,  Matthias,  of  Hungary,  14,  5*- 

Council  of  Troubles  or  Blood,  106. 

Counts*  War  in  Denmark,  97. 

Coutras,  battle  of,  113. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  126-128,  129. 

Crusade,  of  the  fifteenth  century,  14,  33. 

Cyprus,  its  conquest  by  the  Turks,  137. 

Czar,  first  assumption  of  the  title,  54. 

Decretum  Majus  of  Matthias  Corvinus, 
52. 

Denain,  battle  of,  189. 

Denmark,  47,  48,  9V  95*  97>  W>  *H- 

Dessau,  league  of,  84. 

Dettingen,  battle  of,  203. 

Diaz,  Bartholomew,  Portuguese  navi- 
gator, 143.  .  ,  .  . 

Doria,  the  Genoese  Admiral,  72. 

Douglases  in  Scotland  in  the  fifteenth 

Downs,  battle  of,  135. 

Edgehill,  battle  of,  125. 

Edward  IV-  of  England,  27,  28,  29. 

Edward  V.  of  England,  his  ministry,  29; 

his  death,  29. 

Edmont,  Count,  his  execution,  107. 
Elizabeth  of  England,  102,  113.  "Si  «6. 
Emmanuel  the   Fortunate  of   Portugal, 

and  Vasco  da  Gama,  144. 
England,  25,  26-29,   30,  31,  91,  92,   102, 

116,  123,  124,  125,  *26,  127,  128,  129,  184, 

185,  194,  202,  203. 
Erasmus  and  Luther  80,  83. 
Eric  XIV.  of  Sweden,  139,  141. 
Escurial,  its  erection,  101. 
Essex,    Earl    of,    is   favored  by    Queen 

Elizabeth,  116. 
Eugene,  Prince,  his  capability,  186;  his 

victories,  188. 

Federowitsch,     Michael,     founds     the 

House  of  Romanow,  140. 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of  Spain,  36-39* 


Ferdinand  of  Austria,  85,  88. 
Ferdinand  II.  of  Naples,  his  i 


short  reign, 


Feudalism  superseded  by  monarchy,  17. 

Flanders,  its  invasion  by  Louis  XIV., 
177. 

Fleury,  Cardinal,  his  regency,  200. 

Flodden,  battle  of,  33. 

Florence  in  the  fifteenth  century,  11,  12. 

Foix,   Gaston  de,  60,  6x. 

Fontenoy,  battle  of,  203. 

Fornovo,  battle  of,  56. 

France,  18-20,  21,  22,  23,  24,  25,  67,  68,  69, 
70,  72,  73,  74,  7S,  7$,  77,  78,  99>  ™*>  i°4> 
107,  108,  112-114,  116,  117,  n8,  119-121, 
134,  IS9,  *6o,  161,  162-166,  170,  T7I-I73, 
173-175,  177-iSo,  181,  182,  183,  184  185, 
188,  189,  200,  203,  204,  206,  208, 

Francis  I.  of  France,  61,  02,  07,  68,  69, 
7°»  72,  73,  74,  75,  70,  77..I57,  158.  r 

Francis  II.  of  France,  influence  of  the 
Guises  during  his  reign,  102. 

Frederick  the  Wise,  Elector  of  Saxony, 
his  refusal  of  the  imperial  crown,  67. 


Frederick  I.  of  Denmark,  95,  96. 

Frederick  II.  of  Denmark,  his  war  in 
Livonia,  139. 

Frederick  II.  of  Prussia,  202,  205,  206. 

Frederick   III.    of  Austria,    44,   45,   51. 

Frederick  V.,  Elector  Palatine,  131,  136. 

Free  Companies,  their  end,   19, 

Freundsburg,  George,  German  com- 
mander, 71. 

Friedlmgen,  battles  of,  187,  188. 

Fronde,  insurrection  of  the,  171,  173,  173. 

Gabor,  Bethlem,  Waiwode  of  Transyl- 
vania, 131,  138. 

Gama,  Vasco  da,  his  voyages  and  ad- 
ventures, i43>  144. 

Gaston,  Duke  of  Orleans,  162,  163,  164. 

Gatirnozin,  Emperor  of  Mexico,  153. 

Germanic  States  m  the  fifteenth  century, 

Germany,  reformation  of,  79,  84,  86,  87, 

88,  90,  ^1-136,  159- 
Gloucester,  Duke  of,  28,  29. 
Granada,  its  siege,  38. 
Guinegate,  battle  of,  6t. 
Guise,   Francis,   de  Lorraine,  Duke  of, 

102,  104,  105. 

Guise,  Henry,  Duke  of,  114,  115,  116,  117. 
Gustavus  Adolphus  of  Sweden,  132,  133, 

Gustavus'Vasa  of  Sweden,  94,  95,  96. 

Haarlem,  siege  of,  in. 
Hague,  triple  alliance  of  the,  177. 
Hampden,  John,  his  trial,  1^4. 
Hanseatic  League,  46,  47,  97,  98. 
Hastings,  Lord,  his  execution,  29. 
Henry  of  Portugal,  112,  143. 
Henry  of  Valois,  in  Poland,  140. 
Henry  II.  of  France,  his  manifesto  to 

Charles  V.,  90. 
Henry  III.  of  France,  no,  us,  113,  114, 

US.  117. 
Henry  IV.  of  France,  107,  113,  117,  118, 

119,  120,  121,  122,  161. 
Henry  IV.  of  Spam,  his  troubled  reign, 

36. 

Henry  VI.  of  England,  25,  26-28. 
Henry  VII.  of  England,  29,  30,  31- 
Henry  VIII.  of  England,  60,  61,  67,  68, 
TT7°>  73,  76,82,  91,  92,  93,  94. 
Hencourt,  battle  of,  23. 
Hermandad,   Spanish  fraternity,  38,  42. 
Hesse,  Landgrave  of,  88. 
Hexham,  battle  of,  27. 
Historians  of  the  sixteenth  century,  157, 

Hocnstadt,  battle  of?  187. 
Holland,  temp.  William  II.,  177-180,  205. 
Huescar,  Inca  of  Peru,  iS4>   *5S- 
Hungary,  under  Matthias  Corvinus,  14, 
-is.  S.i,  sa,  8«,  89,  131,  138. 
Hunmades  of  Hungary,  14. 

Iceland,  the  Reformation  in,  96,  97. 

India,  ,144-146. 

Inquisition  jn  Spain,  39,  40,  77,  102* 

Interim  of  Charles  v.,  80,  90. 

Ireland  under  Henry  VIII.,  94,  125. 

Isabella  of  Spain,  36-39,  40,  41. 

Issus,  battle  of,  50,  51. 

Italy,  ir,  12,  13-15,  16,  55-57,  s8»  60,  61, 

Ivan  lit.  01  Russia,  53,  54. 
Ivan  IV.  of  Russia,  138,  139- 
Ivangrod,  founded  by  Ivan.  III.,  53*  54* 
Ivry,  battle  of,  117. 


INDEX 


213 


James  I.  of  England,  his  unpopularity, 

123. 

James  II.  of  England,  183,  184. 
Tames  II.  of  Scotland,  32. 

ames  III.  of  Scotland,  32,  33. 
'ames  IV.  of  Scotland,  33,  34. 
japan,  Portuguese  in,  145. 
Jean  d'Albert,  his  defeat,  42. 
Jesuits,  Order  of  the,  101. 
Jews  in  Spain,  35,  39,  40. 
Joachim   II.    of  Brandenburg,    obtains 

the  fief  of  Prussia,  141. 
John  Albert  of  Poland,  his  wars,  53. 
John  of  Calabria,  his  attempts  on  the 

kingdom  of  Naples,  13,  14,  18,  19. 

Journee  des  Dupes, '  164. 
Juan  II.  of  Aragon,  ai,  22,  35,  36,  37. 
Juan  II.  of  Portugal,  39. 
Juan  II.  of  Spain,  his  son's  rebellion, 

Julius  II.,  Pope,  and  Caesar  Borgia,  58, 
59,  60,  61,  62. 

La  Biagrasse,  battle  of,  69. 

La  Bicocque,  battle  of,  68. 

Ladislas  Jagellon,  unites  Lithuania  to 
Poland,  52. 

Ladislas  of  Poland,  King  of  Bohemia 
and  Hungary,  52. 

Ladislas  VII.  of  Poland,  his  wars,  141. 

La  Hogue,  battle  of,  185. 

Lancaster  and  York,  wars  of,  26-29,  3°> 
3i- 

La  Rochelle,  its  siege,  163,  164. 

Las  Vasas,  Bartholomew  de,  150,  156. 

Lautrec,  governor  of  the  Milanese,  68, 
72. 

League,  the  Catholic,  112,  113,  117. 

Leipsic,  battles  of,  133. 

Leno,  battle  of,  136,  170. 

Leo  X,,  Pope,  67,  79,  80,  81,  92,  93,  137. 

Leonora,  Queen  of  Navarre,  42. 

Lepanto,  battle  of,  108. 

Leyden,  John  of,  chief  of  the  Anabap- 
tists, 87,  88. 

L'Hopital     Chancellor,     his     character, 

Literature  in  the  sixteenth  century,  157- 

159,  180,  191,  196. 

Lithuania,  its  union  with  Poland,  52,  S3- 
Livonia,  war  in,  139. 
Lodi,  treaty  of,  14. 
Longjumeau,  treaty  of,  104. 
Lorraine,  Cardinal  of,  his  influence,  103. 
Louis  of  Hungary,  his  death,  85 
Louis  the  Moor,  how  he  was  aided  by 

the  French,  55- 
Louis  II.  of  Hungary,  52. 
Louis  XI.  of  France,  20,  si,  22,  24. 
Louis  XII.  of  France,  57,  58,  59,  60,  6r, 

62. 

Louis  XIII.  of  France,  161,  162-166,  169. 
Louis  XIV.  of  France,  169,  170,  171,  173- 

175,  177-180,  181,  182,  183,  184,  185,  186, 

187,  188,  189. 

Louis  XV.  of  France,  200,  204,  207,  208. 
Louis  XVI.  of  France,  209,  210. 
Low  Countries,  99,  100,  105,  106,  107,  no, 

ixx,  119,  120. 
Loyola,   Ignatius,  founds  the  order  of 

the  Jesuits,  101. 
Lubeck,  Republic  of,  and  the  Counts' 

War  in  Denmark,  96,  97. 
Ludovico     the    Moor,     imprisons    his 

nephew,  16. 

Luna,  Alvaro  de,  his  death,  35. 
Luther,  Martin,  and  Leo  X.,  80,  81,  83, 

84- 


Lutter,  battle  of,  132. 
Lutzen,  battles  of,  133. 
Luynes,  minister  of  Louis  XIII.,  161. 
Luxembourg,  Duke  of,  his  generalship, 
184. 

Madeira,   its    discovery   by   the   Portu- 
guese, 143. 
Magalhaens,    Ferdinand,    his    voyages, 

Mahomet  II.,  13,  14,  15. 
Mahomet  III.,  Sultan,  his  reign,  138. 
Maine,  Duchess  of,  her  projects,  200. 
Maintenance,  right  of,  its  abolition,  30, 

Mamtenon,   Madame  de,   her  character 

and  influence,  182,  186. 
Malaga,  its  conquest  by  Spain,  37. 
Manuel  of  Portugal,  and  the  Jews,  40. 
Maremma,  its  ruin,  55. 
Margaret  of  Anjou,  25,  26,  27,  28. 
Margaret  of  Valois,  her  marriage,  107. 
Maria   Theresa   of   Hungary,    and   the 

war  of  the  Austrian  Succession,  203. 
Marie  de  Medicis,  her  regency,  161,  164, 

Mangnan,  battle  of,  46,  6r,  62. 

Marlborough,  Duke  of,  his  character, 
186,  iSS. 

Marston  Moor,  battle  of,  126. 

Martinuzzi,  Cardinal  George,  89. 

Mary  I.  of  England,  100,  ror. 

Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  93,  102,  113. 

Matthias  of  Austria.  131. 

Maximilian  II.  of  Austria,  favors  Prot- 
estantism, 131. 

Mayenne,  Due  de,  is  created  chief  of  the 
League,  116. 

Mazarm,  Cardinal,  169,  170,  172. 

Medici,  Giuliano  de,  is  stabbed  in 
church,  12. 

Medici,  Lorenzo  de,  his  regal  munifi- 
cence, 12,  16. 

Medina  del  Campo,  battle  of,  35»  36. 

Mexico,  its  conquest  by  Cortez,  150,  154. 

Mohacz,  battle  of,  85. 

Monarchy  triumphant  over  Feudalism, 
I7»  I59« 

Montesquieu,  Baron  de,  his  admiration 
of  England,  200. 

Montezuma,  Emperor  of  Mexico,  151, 
152. 

Montlheri,  battle  of,  20,  21. 

Montmorency,  Dtike  de,  Governor  of 
Languedoc,  his  revolt  and  execution, 
164. 

Montrose,  Marquis  of,  his  victories, 
126;  his  defeat,  127. 

Moors  in  Spain.  34,  37,  4°*  ™*>  ™& 

Morat,  batttle  of,  23. 

Moscow,  Grand  Duchy  of,  53. 

Muhlberg,  battle  of,  88. 

Nantes,  edict  of,  118,  182. 

Naples,  its  conquest  by  the  Portuguese, 

40* 

Naseby,  battle  of,  127.  . 

Navarre  seized  by  Ferdinand  of  Spam, 

42. 

Neerwinden,  battle  of,  185- 
Neuss,  siege  of,  23. 
Newbury,  battles  of,  126. 
Nice,  truce  of,  74;  its  cession  to  France, 

Nicholas  V.,  Pope,  preaches  the  Cru- 
sade, 13,  14. 

Nimeguen,  peace  of,   180,   181. 
Nordlmgen,  battle  of,  170. 


214 


MICHELET 


Northampton,  battle  of,  2$. 

Norway,  the  Reformation  in,  96,  97, 

Notables,  assembly  of  the,  210. 

Novara,  battles  of,  61. 

Novogorod,  its  submission  to  Ivan  III., 

47»  S3. 
Noyon,  treaty  of,  62. 

Olivier*  Chancellor,  his  death,  and  re- 
morse, 103. 

Orators  of  the  seventeenth  century,  191. 

Orleans,  Duchess  of,  sister-in-law  of 
Louis  XIV,,  177,  181. 

Orleans,  Duke  of,  son  of  Charles  V.,  75. 

Ottoman  conquests  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, 50. 

Padilla,  Juan  de,  revolutionary  hero,  43. 
Painters  of  the  sixteenth  century,   158, 

Palaeologus,  Sophia,  wife  of  Ivan  III., 

Palatinate,  war  of  the,  131. 

Paris,  19,  77,  1 18. 

Parliament,  the  Long,  125,  126. 

Parma,  Prince  of,  113,  113,  117. 

Passau,  truce  of,  90. 

Paul  II.,  Pope,  abandons  the  policy  of 

Pius  II.,   15. 
Pavia,  battle  of,  69,  70. 
Peru,  its  conquest  by  Pizarro,  154, 
Philip    the   Fair  of    Castile,    his   brief 

Philip  *II.   of  Spain,   100,   101,   105,   107, 

no,  in,  112,  115,  116,  118. 
Philip  V.  of  Spain,  leaves  France,  186 
Philosophers  of  the  sixteenth  century, 

159;  in  the  seventeenth  century,   192, 

Piedmont,  rise  of,  174. 
Pius  II.,   Pope,  his  zeal  for  the  Cru- 
sade, 14;  his  death,  15. 
Pizarro,  Francis,  his  conquest  of  Peru, 

154- 
Plescow,  its  submission  to  Ivan  III,, 

48*  54- 
Plettemberg,  Master  of  the  Knights  of 

Livonia,  54. 
Podiebrad,   George,  King  of  Bohemia, 

51. 
Poets  of  the  sixteenth  century,  157,  158; 

in  the  seventeenth  century,  191,  195 
Poland,  52,  53,  138,  139,  140,  141. 
Politicians  of  the  sixteenth  century,  159. 
Pompadour,    Madame   de,    mistress    of 

Louis  XV.,  204. 
Porcare,  endeavors  to  restore  republican 

government,  9. 

Porte  St.  Antoine,  battle  of.  173. 
Portugal,  112. 

Portuguese  colonies,  143-146.  149. 
Pragmatic  Sanction,  its  abolition,  20,  62. 
Prague,  battle  of,  131. 
Printing,  its  invention,  82. 
Protestants,  161,  162,  163. 
Prussia,  53,  138,  141,  184,  201,  202,  203. 
Public  Weal,  Confederacy  of  the,  ai,  ^ 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  how  he  made  his 

fortune,  116. 

Ramillies,  battle  of,  188. 
Rastadt,  peace  of,  183,  189. 
Ratisbon,  league  at,  84. 
gavenna,  battle  of,  60,  61. 
.Reformation  in  France,  77,  78,  79,  80, 

84,  9iA94*  99-   _ 
Rene,  Duke  of  Lorraine,  i§. 


Rene,   King,   exploits  of  his  children, 

Retz,  Cardinal  de,  his  character,  172 

Rhemfield,  battle  of,  163. 

Rhodes,  siege  of,  15;  its  conquest,  85. 

Richard  III,  of  England,  his  accession, 
29;  his  defeat  and  death,  30. 

Richelieu,  Cardinal,  134,  162,  163,  164, 
165,  166. 

Rocroy,  battle  of,  135. 

Rosbach,  battle  of,  206, 

Roses,  wars  of  the,  26,  30,  31. 

Rousseau,  Jean-Jacques,  his  influence, 
207. 

Roxelana,  wife  of  Soliman  the  Magnifi- 
cent, 137. 

Rudolph  II.  of  Austria,  131,  138. 

Russia  in  the  fifteenth  century,  50,  53, 

_  138,.  139,  140. 

Ryswick,  treaty  of,  183,  185. 

St.  Albans,  battle  of,  26. 

St.  Bartholomew,  107-109,  no 

St.  Theresa  of  Jesus  reforms  the  Car- 
melite nuns,  102. 

Santa  Fe,  its  erection  in  eighty  days,  38. 

Savonarola,  16,  55,  56,  57. 

Saxony,  83,  88. 

Saxony,  Maurice,  Duke  of,  88,  89,  90. 

Seanderbeg  of  Albania,  his  savage 
heroism,  14. 

Scandinavian  States  In  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, 47. 

Schleswig,  annexed  to  Denmark,  48. 

Sciences  iti  the  sixteenth  century,  157, 
139;  m  the  seventeenth  century,  193, 

Sclavonic  States  in  the  fifteenth  century, 

50. 

Scotland,  31,  3*,  33.  34,  93,  102. 
Sebastian   of   Portugal,    his   expedition 

to  Africa,  112. 
Selim,  Sultan   50,  84,  8S. 
Selim  II.,  Sultan,  his  reign,  137 
Seminara,  battle  of,  58. 
Seven  Years'  War,  205,  207. 
Sforza,  Galeazzo,  is  stabbed  in  church, 

12. 

Siberia,  its  discovery,  139. 
Sigismund  I.  of  Poland,  53,  138, 
Sigismund  II.  of  Poland,  139. 
Sigismund  III.  of  Poland,  140,  141. 
Smalkald,  League  of,  86. 
Soissons,  Count  of,  his  revolt  and  death, 

166. 
Sohman  the  Magnificent,  75,  85,  86,  87, 

Spam,  33,  34,  35,  36,  37,  38,  40,  42,  43,  67, 
68,  72,  73,  75,  76,  77,  101,  116,  118,  165, 
166,.  185,  189,  199,  200,  201. 

Spanish  discoveries  and  conquests  in 
America,  147-156. 

Stanislas  Leczinski  of  Poland,  201. 

State  inquisitors  of  Venice,  12. 

Stettin,  peace  of,  141. 

Stuart,  Charles  Edward  the  Pretender, 
his  defeat,  203. 

Stures,  their  reign  in  Sweden,  48,  49. 

Swabia,  memorial  of  its  peasants,  84. 

Sweden,  47,  48,  94,  95,  96,  132,  139,  140, 
141. 

Swiss,  their  aid  sought  by  the  Vene- 
tians, 16,  23,  .46,  57,  60,  61. 

Switzerland,  rise  of  its  power,  45,  46. 

Tabera,  Chief  Inquisitor,  governs  Spain, 
Tewkesbury,  battle  of,  28. 


INDEX 


215 


Thirty  Years'  War,  164,  165. 

Thorn,  treaty  of,  53. 

Thunngia,  revolt  of  its  peasants,  84. 

Tilly,   General,   his  defeat  by  Gustavus 

Adolphus,  133. 
Torgau,  League  of,  84. 
Toro,  battle  of,  36. 
Torstenson,     General,    his    career     and 

death,  136. 
Toulouse,  foundation  of  the  Parliament 

of,   19. 

Towton,  battle  of,  27. 
Trent,  council  of,  87. 
Triana,  inscription  at  the  Castle  of,  40. 
Tunis,  taken  by  the  Christians,  73. 
Turenne,  Viscount  de,  172,  180. 
Turkey,  13,  16,  50,  51,  75,  84,  85-88,  137, 

Universities    founded    in   the   sixteenth 

Upsala  University  founded,  49. 

Utrecht,  peace  of,  183. 

Utrecht,  union  of,  in;  treaty  of,  189. 

Vaudois,  the  persecution  of  its  inhab- 
itants, 77,  78. 

Vendome,  Louis  Joseph,  Duke  de,  his 
faults  and  gallantry,  187,  188. 

Venice,  n,   12,   14,   15,   16,  59,  60,  145. 

Versailles,  a  type  of  monarchy,  175. 

Vervins,  peace  of,  118. 

Vespucci,  Amerigo,  gives  his  name  to 
America,  140 

Viana,  Don  Carlos  of,  35,  36. 


Vienna,  its  siege  by  SOL 

Voltaire,  P.  M.  A.,  200,  202. 


Wakefield,  battle  near,  26. 
Wales  un4er  Henry  Vill.,  94. 
Wallenstein,   Count,  his  campaign,   132, 

Warbeck,  Perkin,  the  Pretender,  30,  31. 
Warburg  Castle,   Luther's   concealment 

at,  83. 

Warwick,  Earl  of,  25,  26,  27,  28,  30,  31. 
Wasili  IV.  of  Russia,  138. 
Westphalia,  treaty  of,  136. 
William,  first  King  of  Prussia,  2or. 
William  of  Orange,  grandson  of  William 

the  Silent,   179. 
William  the  Silent,   Prince  of   Orange, 

102,    III,    112. 

Wilna,  treaty  of,  139. 

Wittenberg,    University  of,    81. 

Wolsey,  Cardinal,  his  intrigues  with 
Francis  I.  and  Charles  V.,  68. 

Woodville,  Elizabeth,  Queen  of  Ed- 
ward IV.,  28. 

Worms,  Luther  at,  82. 

Ximenes,  Cardinal,  17,  4**  4?* 

York  and  Lancaster,  wars  of,  26-29,  3°. 

York,  Richard,  Duke  of,  and  the  wars 
of  the  Roses,  26. 

Zapoly,  John,  Waiwode  of  Transylvania, 

Zizi'm,  brother  of  Bajazet,  50,  56. 
Zwinglius,  the  Reformer,  his  doctrines 
in  Switzerland,  8r. 


3482