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A NEW LIGHT

THE RENAISSANCE

A NEW LIGHT ON
THE RENAISSANCE

DISPLAYED IN CONTEMPORARY
EMBLEMS : BY HAROLD BAYLEY

ILLUSTRATED

WITH REPRODUCTIONS

OF NUMEROUS EMBLEMS

LONDON: J.M.DENT ®> CO: MCMIX

ALDINE HOUSE: BEDFORD STREET

MY WIFE

" It is a truth perpetually, that accumulated facts lying in disorder begin
to assume some order if an hypothesis is thrown among them."

— HERBERT SPENCER.

"What does a 'proof mean? A proof means destroying the isolation
of an observed fact or experience by linking it on with all pre-existent knowledge ;
it means the bringing it into its place in the system of knowledge ; and it affords
the same sort of gratification as finding the right place for a queer-shaped piece in
a puzzle map." — Sir OLIVER LODGE.

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION ... I

CHAPTER I
PAPERMAKING AND THE ALBIGENSES .... 9

CHAPTER II
RELIGIOUS EMBLEMS ...... 14

CHAPTER III
EMBLEMS OF THE DEITY . . . . .23

CHAPTER IV

EMBLEMS OF PERSECUTION AND PREACHING . . .36

CHAPTER V
ROMAUNT EMBLEMS ...... 55

CHAPTER VI

" THE PHILOSOPHER'S GOLD " . . . .82

CHAPTER VII

THE KABBALAH ....... 96

vii

viii NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

CHAPTER VIII

PAGE

THE INVENTION OF PRINTING . . . . .Ill

CHAPTER IX
PRINTERS' DEVICES . . . . . .121

CHAPTER X

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS . . . .149

CHAPTER XI

TRICKS OF OBSCURITY . . . . .181

CHAPTER XII
THE RENAISSANCE . ..... 197

CONCLUSION . . . . . . .214

NOTES ........ 233

APPENDIX ....... 262

INDEX ........ 265

INTRODUCTION

MY aim in these pages has been to lay before the
general reader certain remarkable facts relating
especially to mediaeval papermaking and print-
ing, but possessing an interest to the world at large.

The early history of Printing has engaged an enormous
amount of attention, and rightly so, for Printing was the
handmaid to the New Learning, and the means by which
the Reformation was accomplished. The epic of Paper-
making remains, however, yet to be written, and my
investigations have been sufficient to show that when
finished it will be a chronicle of deep and enduring
interest.

From the time of the Middle Ages papermakers had a
custom of branding into almost every sheet of their paper
certain peculiar designs. With modifications and additions
these curious and complicated watermarks were employed
in common throughout Europe, and some have survived
to the present day. They form an unbroken chain of
ocular evidence stretching from about 1282 to the time
when to all intents machinery superseded the older fashioned
method of making paper by hand. No other industry can
show such phenomena as the multiplicity of its trade signs,
the persistent survival of ancient religious symbols, and the
singular, if not unique, custom of the same devices being
used in common by rival manufacturers. Underlying
these facts are problems which neither bibliographers nor

2 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

present day papermakers have hitherto been able to solve.
Several writers have recognised the emblematic character
of papermarks, but no l serious attempt has been made to
explain the meaning of the multifarious marks or to account
satisfactorily for their employment.

The study and comparison of many thousands of
mediaeval watermarks enables me to assert with confidence
that not only are they emblematic of ideas current at
different periods, but that they convey a coherent and
romantic story. Briefly this is as follows :—

In the Dark Ages there existed in the South of France
a premature civilisation far in advance of that in the rest
of Europe. Among the arts and industries that flourished
in Provence and the surrounding districts, papermaking
was one of the foremost. Not only was this district the
cradle of European papermaking, but for many centuries
it remained the centre of the industry.

The freedom and prosperity of Provence attracted large
numbers of persecuted Jews and heretics who took refuge
there, and by their industry and intellect augmented the
power and influence of the country. So deeply, indeed,
did heresy enter into the politics of Provence, that in 1209
the Church of Rome considered it necessary to launch a
crusade against the infected district. During a period of
twenty years, the land underwent a barbarous purging.
Its towns and villages were sacked, and the heretical
inhabitants either extirpated or driven into perpetual exile.
Those who escaped carried with them a passionate affection
for their destroyed Fatherland, and an undying hatred
against the tyranny of the Church of Rome.

It will be shown that from the appearance of the first

1 Except one valuable work to which I shall allude later.

INTRODUCTION 3

known watermark in 1282 these mysterious marks are speak-
ing broadly the traditional emblems of Provence. From the
fact that fundamentally the same designs were employed
all over Europe, we can deduce the inference that Proven9al
refugees carried their art throughout Europe, just in the
same way as at a later period and under somewhat similar
circumstances the persecuted Huguenots carried new in-
dustries into strange countries. It will also be shown that
the same code which unlocks the obscurities of papermarks
elucidates the problems of printer's marks, and evidence will
be brought forward that papermakers and printers were
originally in close touch with each other, held similar views,
and were associated in identical aims.

It may be objected that emblem reading is an inexact
science, and that an ingenious mind can froth up an im-
posing superstructure upon an unsubstantial basis. To avoid
this danger, I have, as far as possible, consulted contemporary
symbolists such as Durandus of Provence, and Valerian,
whose vast Hieroglyphicorum was published at Leyden in
1624. The interpretations put forward are therefore not
airy suppositions, but the unquestionable sense that certain
emblems were once understood to convey. In order that the
narrative may be not burdened and disjointed by footnotes,
all references have been relegated to the end of the book.
In cases where I have presumed to add up 2 and 2,
the resultant 4 has been clearly indicated as my own
calculation.

From the time when History first emerges from the
Unknown, it is clear that Allegory has played a vital and pre-
eminent part in human thought. Of Indian and Egyptian
symbolism it is unnecessary to speak beyond noting that
many of the emblems employed by papermakers are

4 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

traceable to these and other sources equally remote. A
fact too little appreciated at the present day is the vast
extent to which emblems and emblematic literature engaged
the attention of mediaeval Europe. Allegory, as says Pro-
fessor Courthope, gradually produced a kind of intellectual
atmosphere necessary to the life of the Middle Ages. It is,
as will be demonstrated, a key that not only enables us
to unclasp hitherto sealed writings, but to unravel a long
series of hitherto mysterious papermarks and printers'
marks. That mediaeval artisans should systematically
have scaled the heights of Allegory will be surprising to
not a few ; nevertheless, it will be remembered that — to
mention but two conspicuous instances — Hans Sachs, the
famous poet of Nuremburg, and Jacob Bohme, the equally
well-known mystic philosopher, both practised the humble
trade of cobblers. Indeed it is abundantly clear that
mediaeval craftsmen were adepts in the art of symbolism.
Papermakers and printers alike took up a venerable
thread, and, by weaving it into their workmanship,
enshrined thereby their traditions and their aspirations.
Papermarks and printers' ornaments are thus intellectual
heirlooms that not only crystallise many beautiful ideas,
but are historical documents throwing unexpected side-
lights on the obscurity of the Middle Ages. From them
it is clear that the scattered civilisation of Provence reunited
in secrecy, and that in the course of time it reimposed its
influence upon Europe. That this is no exaggeration will
be conceded by those who realise the momentous sway
exercised over European politics by the wandering and
influential Troubadours. For centuries the Troubadours
of Provence filled the role now occupied by the Press.
Roving throughout Europe, they kept aflame the hatred

INTRODUCTION 5

against Rome and the love of Art and Literature that
was traditional to the Midi. Nothing is more astonishing
than the influence which must have been exercised over
the minds of mediaeval craftsmen by the cycle of Romances
sown and disseminated by the Troubadours. The
evidence is scattered in the thousand forms of papermarks
illustrating the St Grail, the Romaunt of the Rose, and
other heretical legends. The fact that these watermarked
designs were constantly modified and embellished with new
emblems, is sufficient to prove that the men who made the
changes were conscious of the symbolism underlying them,
and that this existed not merely as a dead tradition, but
was a virile and persistent force.

The crusade of 1 209 by which Provence was so cruelly
purged, was followed during the successive centuries by
others equally ruthless. From her inception the Church of
Rome was vexed by manifold forms of heresy, and was
almost perpetually at war with her opponents. The names
by which these were known varied at various epochs, but
the contending forces remained more or less identical.
" These heretic foxes " as one of the Popes acutely re-
marked, " have different faces, but they all hang together
by the tails." In England we called them Lollards, and
passed the statute De Hteretico comburendo for their ex-
tinction. It will be borne in mind that the heretical sects,
which, to quote an ecclesiastical expression, infected Europe
like a leprosy, flourished almost solely among the artisan
classes. When France expelled the Huguenots she cut
herself off from the most industrious and most valuable of
her children. The motto of the persecuted Waldenses is
said to have been Laborare est orare^ and historians are
agreed that the phrase " Work is prayer " truly summed

6 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

up their character. There is therefore nothing surprising
that papermaking and printing should alike have fallen
largely, if not solely, into heretical hands.

The evidence from trade-marks proves that it did so,
and it proves also the reality of what several writers have
surmised, i.e. that there existed a secret league against the
encroachments of the Church of Rome. " Meiners," says
Hallam, " has gone so far as to suppose a real confederacy
to have been formed by the friends of truth and learning
through Germany and France to support Reuchlin against
the mendicant orders, and to overthrow by means of this
controversy l the embattled legions of ignorance."

Now the chronicles of papermaking, and of her
younger sister printing, form the epic of this 300 year
warfare between Light and Darkness. For centuries the
artisan classes maintained a resistance against the abuses of
authority, which cannot but excite our awe and astonish-
ment. Hounded from country to country, the persecuted
heretics conformed outwardly to their surroundings, but
cherished in secrecy a plan for the disenthralment of
Thought, which as opportunities offered, was carried per-
sistently into effect. While on the one hand they were at
constant warfare with the official custodians of Christianity,
they exemplified in themselves the ethics of Christ Himself,
and of primitive Christianity.

It is supposed that what we call the Renaissance
was the natural growth of the human intellect and its
inevitable clashing with the tyranny of Ecclesiasticism.
On the contrary, it will be seen that the Renaissance was
organised and fostered for some centuries before it became

1 The particular controversy of which Hallam is speaking, will be dealt with in
due course.

INTRODUCTION 7

manifest. It is beyond my scope to attempt anything in
the nature of a history of the Renaissance, my aim being
rather to point out the footprints left by the humanists who
made it, footprints that have been overlooked because
hitherto their significance has not been understood.

From G. A. BOCKLER'S "Theatrum Machinarum," Folio, Nuremberg, 1662.

CHAPTER I

PAPERMAKING AND THE ALBIGENSES

PAPERMARKS being objects that are somewhat
off the everyday track of knowledge, it may be
of interest to describe briefly the ancient method
of their production.

In the illustration below, the man standing at the tub,

1586. (From The Boot : Bouchot. By permission
of Messrs H. Grevel & Co.)

or " vat " as it is technically called, is the papermaker. The
object in his hands is a wire tray with wooden rims. This
implement is known as a " mould." The papermaker dips

io NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

it into his vat of paper pulp, picks up a thin layer, gives
the mould a twist to interlace the fibres, and the result
when pressed and dried is a sheet of paper.

A watermark is a device produced by fastening the
desired design in strong wire on to the bottom of the
mould. The pulp takes the impress of this projecting wire
and the result remains visible in the finished sheet.

At the present day, watermarks, consisting usually of
the name of the papermaker, accompanied in some cases
by a distinctive device, serve as trade-marks. One of the
many peculiarities about ancient marks is the fact that the
same devices with trifling variations were used simul-
taneously by hundreds of different mills all over Europe.
The mark of a Bull's Head, for instance, had an immense
vogue for more than two hundred years. The " Pot "
mark was popular for upwards of three centuries, and the
" Fleur de lys," which is still in use to-day, can claim an
even more venerable ancestry.

There has recently been published in Geneva a
Dictionary of Watermarks l containing 1 6, 1 1 2 facsimiles
of various designs employed from about the year 1282
until 1600. Monsieur Briquet's monumental work repre-
sents the last word on papermarks viewed simply as
trade-marks. The purpose underlying the employment of
particular designs has hitherto remained an enigma, and
Monsieur Briquet makes no new attempt to solve it.
' We shall," he says, " leave on one side the numerous
problems that arise as to the significance and employment
of papermarks. Conjectures are worthless unless one can

1 Lei Filigranes : Dictionnaire Hittorique dcs Marques du Papier des leur
Apparition vert 1282 jus qu en 1600. C. M. Briquet, 4 vols. folio. London,
B. Quaritch.

PAPERMAKING AND THE ALBIGENSES n

confirm them with historic support." Unexcelled as a
catalogue of facts, M. Briquet's work remains, therefore,
professedly no more than a bald chronicle of unexplained
designs. In his introductory chapter the author does me
the honour to discuss at some length the proposition which
I maintained in a magazine article some years ago, that
watermarks (whatever trade purpose they may subsequently
have served), were originally EMBLEMS, and as such
possessed very definite meanings that beckon to us for
solution. M. Briquet concedes that many of the subjects
employed are capable of bearing symbolic interpretation,
but he maintains that it rests with me to prove that it was
because of these meanings that the marks became customary.

I accept this challenge, and will endeavour to show that
at the vivifying touch of symbolism, M. Briquet's 16,112
skeletons assume flesh, and become animated with a human
interest.

The history of early papermaking is meagre and
inadequate. The Art is believed to have been introduced
into Europe either from the East by returning Crusaders,
or from the Moors, perhaps through Spain or Sicily.

It is a fact, the significance of which has hitherto been
unnoted, that the early papermaking districts were precisely
those that were strongholds of the heretical sects known as
the Albigenses. The word " Albigenses " is a term applied
loosely to the various pre-Reformation reformers whose
strongholds stretched from Northern Spain across the
southern provinces of France to Lombardy and Tuscany.
In Spain and France they were known as Albigenses from
Albi the name of one of their prominent towns. In the
Alpine provinces they were called Waldenses, from Peter
Waldo, one of their most conspicuous members. In Italy,

12 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

History alludes to them under the terms Cathari or
Patarini.

The character of these sectarians was one of the most
remarkable in the record of civilisation. It was the actual
practice of New Testament precepts, indeed, the Waldenses
claimed to be the direct descendants of the early Christians,
many of whom it is supposed fled into the Alpine valleys
to escape the persecutions of Nero and Diocletian. Their
aim was the curtailment of the Papal authority and the
promotion of a purer Gospel. The wealth of the Catholic
clergy, their greed for temporal power, and other abuses of
the times were the objects of assiduous denunciation by the
Albigenses, who maintained that they alone possessed the
true secret of Christianity, having had it handed down to
them traditionally from the times of the Apostles.

The Albigenses were greatly beloved by their neigh-
bours. Their industry, morality, and general sweetness
of character, led to their being known proverbially as " the
good people." Their Italian name " Cathari " is from a
Greek root signifying " the pure ones." The keynote of
the Albigensian character was industry, and it is said
that the axiom "Work is Prayer" had its origin among
them.

It is noteworthy that among the roll of mediaeval paper-
makers, we find names which epitomise the Albigensian

FIG. i. — Papermark, 1767.

character of " Good people " ; such, for instance, as Le
Bon, Bon, Bonamour, Bonfoy, Dieuayde, Diodati (the

PAPERMAKING AND THE ALBIGENSES 13

Gift of God) and Sauveur. The Monsieur C. LE BON,
who made paper in 1767, may reasonably be regarded as a
descendant of the original " Good people."

In the seventeenth century there was a large trade in
paper done at the French town now known as Dieulouard.
Paper emanating thence was watermarked in a variety of
forms, such as DUAULEGEAD, DULEGARD, DUAULEGEARD.
In his Literary History of the Waldenses^ Montet comments
upon the continual variation in orthography which was a
Waldensian characteristic, instancing : NUIT, NOYT, NOIT ;
EYSEMPLE, ESEMPLE, EXEMPLE, and other examples. Now
the old name for Dieulouard was Dieu le garde, a term the
origin of which is not known, and it is, I think, evident,
putting together the three facts of paper-making, varied
orthography, and the characteristic " God Guard It," that
the town of Dieulouard was originally a little Albigensian
colony of papermakers.

There is another fact that — to deal at present with
purely external evidence — seems to associate the Albigenses
with paper-making. In Italy they were known not only
as Cathari, the pure ones, but as " Patarini." This is said
to have been derived from pate s a word meaning old linen.
There was a street in Milan called Pataria or the rag
market, where the Cathari congregated so conspicuously,
that they were dubbed ' Patarini.' It is difficult to under-
stand why the rag markets were proverbially so popular
with them, unless they met there for the purpose of buying
their raw material for papermaking, i.e. rags.

But the evidence from watermarks lifts conjecture into
certainty, and demonstrates that it was unquestionably
among " the pure ones " and " the good people " that
papermaking first flourished in Europe.

CHAPTER II

RELIGIOUS EMBLEMS

AN ever-present dream of the Albigenses was to bring
in the Millennium. Their method to this end
was firstly the reformation of their own souls, and
secondly the rendering of affectionate help to their neigh-
bours. At times their aspirations took a more ambitious
flight. The third of the Crusades — that with which Scott
deals in The Talisman — is said to have covered a deeply
laid scheme aided by the Templars and the Troubadours,
to set up a purified rival to the Church of Rome with
headquarters at Jerusalem.

One of the earliest watermarks yet discovered is a globe
surmounted by the Cross.1 In Figs. 2 and 3, we have
further emblems of the universal reign of Love and
Concord.

FIG. 2. — iSth century. FJG. 3. — i8th century.

It will be observed from the dates under each facsimile,
that extensive periods of time were covered by similar

1 This emblem has persisted until the present day, and may be seen at the
summit of Fig. 408 (p. 217)* which is a facsimile of the modern mark in foolscap
writing papers.

RELIGIOUS EMBLEMS

emblems. These dates do not denote the first or the last
appearance, but refer simply to the examples here repro-
duced. It may be stated roughly that every design found
in watermarks was used in common by many different
papermakers in localities thousands of miles apart, and
(subject to variations and recombinations of the same
elements) for many hundreds of years.

FIGS. 4, 5, and 6. — I5th century.

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are Unicorns. This animal was
essentially, I think, the emblem of the Cathari, the pure
ones. It was the symbol of Purity and Strength, and is
often represented in company with a Virgin holding a
dove. Basil Valentine, the Alchemist (r. 1400), tells
us in The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony^ that the
Unicorn was so intensely pure, that it repelled things
noxious. He recommends the experiment of forming a

1 6 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

circle with a strip of Unicorn's flesh, and placing therein, say,
a spider. He assures us the spider will be unable to escape
from its pure environment. In Reusner's Emblems (1581)
the unicorn is made the ensign for the motto " Faith
undefiled victorious."

FIG. 7. — 1 4th century.

FIG. 8. — 1 4th century.

FIG. 9. — 1699.

FIG. 10. — I5th century.

Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are stags, again, I think, emblems of
the Pure Ones. The stag was the symbol of solitude and
purity of life. It was also regarded as a type of religious
aspiration, probably from the passage in the Psalms " Like
as the Hart panteth for the waterbrooks." There was an
old belief that the stag, though a timorous creature, had a
ruthless antipathy to snakes, which it laboured to destroy ;
hence it came to be regarded as an apt emblem of the
Christian fighting against evils. It was sometimes regarded
as a symbol of Eternity. The palm branches in Fig. 9

typify Victory. In Fig. 7 will be seen the Cross — evidence
that some sacred meaning underlay the employment of this
stag design.

FIG. ii. — 1399

Fig. 1 1 represents the Vera Icony or True Image. The
legend runs that the Saviour on the way to Calvary was
met by the woman Berenice. Filled with compassion, she
wiped His face with her kerchief, which miraculously
retained an imprint of the Divine features. Whereupon
Berenice was re-christened St. Veronica — an anagram of
Vera Icon.

FIG. 12. — i5th century. FIG. 13. — 1477.

Fig. 12 is manifestly a saint or an angel, and Fig. 13
a scallop-shell emblem of a pilgrim. The reader will recall
Sir Walter Raleigh's lines : —

" Give me my scallop-shell of quiet,
My staff of faith to walk upon,
My scrip of joy, immortal diet,
My bottle of salvation,

18 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

My gown of glory, hope's true gage ;
And thus Fll take my pilgrimage.

My soul, like quiet palmer,

Travelleth towards the land of heaven ;
Over the silver mountains,
Where spring the nectar fountains."

Figs. 14, 15, 1 6 and 17 are Jacob's ladders. The
Albigenses regarded this ladder as a symbol of virtues and

FIG. 14. — 1509.

FIG. 15. — 1400.

FIG. 1 6. — 1506.

FIG. 17 — 1511.

good works, by the practice of which Earth is brought
into close touch with Heaven. In their literature they

RELIGIOUS EMBLEMS

19
" Fear

refer generally to a ladder of thirty steps, the first
of the Lord," the second " Charity," and so forth.

In Fig. 14 observe the angel standing at the ladder's
summit.

FIG. 18. — 1419.

Fig. 1 8 represents the sacred TAU, the symbol of sal-
vation, and the mark of election mentioned in Ezekiel —
" Go through the midst of the city and set a mark (Tau)
upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and that cry for
all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof."
The Tau entwined by a serpent was the symbol of
regeneration and salvation.

FIG. 20. — I5th century. FIG. n. — i$th century.

Fig. 20 is the sacred Y of Pythagoras. This denotes
the branching roads of Vice and Virtue. To every man
there arrives a time when it is incumbent upon him to
choose the one or other of these roads. In old woodcuts

20 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

the Y is to be found with a celestial crown suspended from
the right arm, and symbols of damnation from the other.

Figs. 22 to 26 are representatives of an immense class
of watermark. The hand was, I think, primarily the

FIG. 13 — 1 5th century. FIG. 24. — i5th century.

FIG. 24A.— 1573.

FIG. 25 — 1549.

FIG. 26. — I5th century.

emblem of labour, of the axiom Laborare est orare ;
when marked with a heart of loving labour. When as in
figure 26 the third and fourth fingers are bent downwards,
it was the sign of Benediction.

" It behoveth man," says a twelfth century writer, " to
have a candlestick that he may shine with good works."

RELIGIOUS EMBLEMS 21

In Fig. 27 we have such a candlestick which " by
its good example inflameth others." " How far,"
says Shakespeare, " that little candle throws his beams !
So shines a good deed in a naughty world."

The character of the Albigenses was a combination
of unflagging industry, cold common sense
and ardent mysticism. They were, as we
shall see, the greatest practical exponents of the
art of Allegory that modern civilisation has
seen. There was not a single dogma that they
did not spiritualise. To them, God was a
Spirit to be worshipped only in spirit. They
attributed to the scriptures a fourfold interpreta-
tion, the Historic, the Allegoric, the Tropologic,
and the Anagogic. For the edification of the simple
minded, the historic face-value was sufficient ; by the more
spiritual among them the allegoric was valued ; the third
and fourth stages of interpretation were to be trod by
the higher and the highest minds alone. Throughout
Albigensian literature we are brought face to face with
their adherence to the Paulician dictum " The Letter killeth,
but the Spirit giveth life." In Figs. 28 to 30 we see symbols
of this teaching. The scissors or snuffers are reminders
that the flame of spiritual truth burns brighter when snuffed
of the letter. I should hesitate to make this assertion except
by the authority of Durandus, whose words are translated by
his latest editors as follows : " The snuffers or scissors for
trimming the lamps are the divine words by which men
amputate the legal title of the Law, and reveal the shining
Spirit."

Durandus was a Provencal bishop (r. 1300). His
Rationale Divinorum Officiorum, from which I shall draw

22 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

constantly hereafter, was the first l work of an uninspired
author that was issued from the printing press; evidence
sufficiently striking of the high estimation in which it was held.
Durandus is obviously a Latinised form of Durand, a name
conspicuous in Albigensian literature, and to be seen in water-

FIG. 28. — 1496. FIG. 29. — 1450. FIG. 30. — 1476.

mark Fig. 211 (p. 76). The Rationale is a typical example
of the Albigensian method not only of interpreting scripture,
but of fitting every material object, to the minutest detail,
with spiritual meanings. All things, Durandus tells us,
be full of divine significations and mysteries, and overflow
with a celestial sweetness ; if so be that men be diligent in
the study of them, and know how to draw honey from the
rock, and oil from the hardest stone.

1 See note, p. 237.

CHAPTER III

EMBLEMS OF THE DEITY

THE Albigensian idea of God (as far as I under-
stand it) was as follows. The Father they
regarded as All-Wise and All-Good, but not as
All-powerful ; otherwise He would not have permitted the
existence of evil. Matter they regarded as the creation
of some opposing Evil Principle, and the creation of the
human race as a catastrophe by which immortal souls
were imprisoned in flesh cages.

The God of Goodness they regarded as a Trinity, and
as nothing foul could flow from such a Source, they
attributed to Him no responsibility for the sorry scheme of
human affairs, but considered it their duty to live so wholly
in the spirit, that mundane affairs lost their power to vex.

Christ they considered to be the Saviour of the world,
the Redeemer of the souls in prison, and the highest of the
angels. The Holy Spirit ranked third in their Celestial
Hierarchy, and it was the joy of the redeemed to dwell for
ever in the contemplation of His ineffable beauty.

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception was re-
jected as an error contrary to good sense and the laws of
Nature. The expression " Son of God " was interpreted
allegorically as meaning the soul of man regenerated by
the Holy Spirit, and Beloved of God the Father. Many
of the Albigenses believed Christ to have had no human

existence, but to have been the Personification of the abstract
qualities of TRUTH. This class doubtless interpreted Mary
as Marc^ the unfathomable sea of the Spirit.

The designs here grouped together are emblems of these
ideas, which% as will be recognised, were strongly reminiscent
of Gnosticism.

The serpent in Figs. 3 1 and 3 1 A was, according to the most
ancient imagery, the emblem of the hidden or unrevealed

FIG. 31 — 1745.

FIG. 31 A. — (reTersed) 1751.

FIG 32. — 1 8th century.

Deity, God the Father. According to ancient philosophy
the figure Three represents Time — past, present, to come.
The serpent twisted into the form of a 3 should denote,
therefore, the eternity of God the Father, the ever-existent
" I AM." In every age and creed, says Balzac, the number
Three has represented God ; that is to say, Matter, Force,

EMBLEMS OF THE DEITY

and Result. The serpent in the form of a circle is another
illustration of the same idea, the circle being the emblem of
universality or Omnipresence, and (for the reason that it
offers no solution of continuity) likewise of Eternity.

Figs. 31 and 32 are representations of an idea very
popular in Eastern architecture, and among the Guild of
Cathedral Builders known as the Comacine Masters. These
designs of tracery without beginning and without an end
were known in Lombardy as Solomon's Knots. They
were a representation of the inscrutability of the Divine
Being. Surrounded by a circle they would denote the
Eternal Inscrutability. It will be observed that Fig. 34 is
traced in the form of a cross, and that Fig. 36 is an in-
genious adaptation of the symbol known as the fylfot
which has been looped up at the extremities. The early
Christians understood the fylfot as a symbol of Christ
the Corner Stone, but its origin is vastly anterior to
Christianity.

FIG. 33- — »7*h century.

FJG. 34.— 1434.

FJG. 35.— 1318.

FJO. 36. — 1317.

Within Fig. 37 and at the head of Fig. 124 (see p. 49)
will be observed the number 4. By the Ancients the Uni-
verse was regarded as a living arithmetic in its development,

26 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

and a realised geometry in its repose. They accepted num-
bers as the best representations of the laws of harmony
that everywhere prevail. The figure 4 was held sacred
as the emblem of moral justice and Divine
equity, on account of its forming the perfect
square, none of the bounding lines of a
square exceeding the others by a single point in
length. All the powers and symphonies of
spiritual and physical nature, it was believed, lay inscribed
within a perfect square, hence the figure 4 was employed
to express the ineffable Name of an otherwise unexpressible
Deity. I include here some examples of watermarked

FIG. 37— 15 85.

Fio. 38 — 1476.

FIG. 39. — 1476.

FIG. 40." — 1489.

FIG. 41.— 1357. FIG. 42.— 1359.

scales. The scales typified eternal equilibrium which is the
necessity of a Universe of Harmony and exact Justice.

EMBLEMS OF THE DEITY 27

Fig. 43 is obviously the Lamb of God.

Fig. 44 is a pelican, the emblem of Self-Sacrifice. It
was supposed, owing to a red spot at the tip of the bill, that
the pelican pierced its breast in order to feed its young ones
with its life blood. Hence Dante refers to the Saviour as
" nostro Pelicano."

FIG. 43. — i5th century. FIG. 44. — i$th (?) century.

FIG. 45. — 1470. FIG. 46. — 1 6th century.

Fig. 45 represents the Sun of Righteousness risen with
healing in His wings, and Fig. 46 the Bright and Morning
Star. The monogram I H S really stood for the word
IHSOUS, but the later and more attractive idea that it implied
(!)ESUS (H)OMINUM (S)ALVATOR has almost superseded the
original notion.

Fig. 48, the fish, was a favourite emblem among the
Christians in the Catacombs. When it was discovered that
the letters in the Greek word for a fish were the initials of
the phrase, " Jesus Christ the Son of God the Saviour," the
fish symbol at once sprang into use.

The anchors, as seen in Figs. 49 to 52, are emblems of
Christ as a Refuge and a very present Help in trouble.

FIG. 48. — 1314.

FIG. 47. — »7th century.

The letters I C presumably stand for Jesus Christus.

FIG. 49.
1 7th century.

FIG. 50.
1 5th century.

FIG. 51.
i 5th century.

FIG. 5*.
1 5th century.

Figs. 53 to 59 represent the True Vine.

FIG. 53—1440.

FIG. 54.
th century.

FIG. 55.
1 7th century.

In the centre of Fig. 5yA will be observed the labarum
forming the first letters of the word Christos. The cross is
the Greek letter Chi (x) and the P the Greek letter R (f\

EMBLEMS OF THE DEITY

The letters I C, which appear over Figs. 56 and 57, stand
probably for Jesus Christus.

FIG. 56. — i8th century. FIG. 57 — i8th century. iyth century.

Fig. 58 shews a dove, the emblem of the Holy Spirit.
The frequency of this device has led to a
certain paper being known technically as
Colombier.

In Figs. 59, 60, and 61 the Spirit is
represented as descending with outstretched
wings. Where, as in Figs. 60 and 61, it is
upon a heart, sanctified by the mark of the
cross, the intention is evidently a pictorial
representation of the prayer, " Cleanse the
thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of
Thy Holy Spirit." Further emblems of
the Holy Spirit will be discussed later.

The Trinity was symbolised by three circles, "that
Trinitie and Unitie," to quote an old writer, " which this

FIG. 5yA. — 1640.

FIG. 58. — 1767.

FIG. 59.— 1751.

globous triangle in a mortall immortall figure represents."
In Fig. 62 the sign is shown surrounded by a flaming halo,

30 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

and in Fig. 63 surrounded by an olive wreath. The olive
branch is still universally accepted as the emblem of Peace.
Fig. 63 was adopted as the Arms of Lombardy, a province

f 1
1-

-a.Vivimvv uiv

FIG. 60. — 1736.

FIG. 61 — i8th century.

which has always been identified with Albigensianism in
its various forms. Frequently the three circles were ranged
on the top of each other. In this case they may, I think,

Fin. 62. — 1594-

FIG. 63- — "697.

be read upwards as representing the Holy Spirit, Jesus
Christ, and the Father. The symbols within these circles
vary incessantly.

Another form in which the Trinity was expressed was
that of the clover leaf or trefoil ; but the favourite emblem
was a Fleur de lys. In Fig. 81 it will be observed
encircled by a blazing halo. On Fig. 82 the initials I S
stand in all probability for Jesus Salvator.

The three triangles pointing downwards on to a heart,
as in Fig. I , are obviously, I think, also a Trinity emblem.

EMBLEMS OF THE DEITY 31

Speaking generally, every emblem representing the
Trinity served also as a symbol of man's Soul for the reason
that Man is said to have been made in God's image. In his
work on Dante, published in Paris in 1 854, Eugene Aroux,
who writes from the orthodox Catholic standpoint, com-
plains that mysticism was none other than the arrogant
dream which aspires to convert men into gods. In this,
as in most other respects, Aroux's conclusions are probably
correct. The mystics undoubtedly believed that Man was
a potential God. As already stated, they accepted the
expression " Son of God " as meaning the Soul of man
regenerated by the Holy Spirit. In Figs. 85 and 86, the
six-pointed Star, we have a favourite emblem, not only of
Christ in His Divine and human aspect, but of Man's
regenerated soul. It is said that "the Souls of the Righteous
shall shine like Stars," and our English Massinger expresses
the idea more fully as follows : —

" As you have

A Soul moulded from Heaven and do desire
To have it made a Star there, make the means
Of your ascent to that Celestial height
Virtue winged with brave action. They draw near
The nature and the essence of the Gods
Who imitate their Goodness."

It is, I think, obvious how the star came to be accepted
as a Soul symbol. If we take two equilateral triangles,

V and A , regarding the first as the Divine Trinity

stooping downwards, and the second as the little Trinity
of Man's Soul reaching upward, and if we then gradually
blend these together until they completely embrace thus

32 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

FIG. 64.

FIG. 65.

FIG. 67.

FIG. 68.

FIG. 71.

and \%th centuries.

FIG. 72.

EMBLEMS OF THE DEITY

FIG. 73.

FIG. 74.

FIG. 75.

Fio. 76.

FIG. 77.

FIG. 78.

FIG. 79.

I fth and I tth centuries.

34 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

, we see that at the moment of perfect fusion the star
has become self-formed.

" OM MANI PADME HUM, The Sunrise comes !
The dewdrop slips into the shining Sea."

Fio. 81. — 1677.

FIG. 83.— 1745.

Fio. 84—1777 (?).

Observe how in Figs. 56 and 57 the designers have
combined point to point, two hearts in lieu of triangles,

EMBLEMS OF THE DEITY

and how in Fig. 88 Francesco Polleri merged into his
emblem the Risen Sun, the six-rayed Star, and the circle of
Eternity.

FIG. 85.— 1381.

Fro. 87.— 1381.

FRANCESCO

POLLERI

FIG. 88 — lyth (1) century.

CHAPTER IV

EMBLEMS OF PERSECUTION AND PREACHING

IN the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which may be
justly described as an epoch of religious revolution, the
headquarters of heresy were in the South of France,
more especially in the provinces of Languedoc and Provence.
The flourishing cities of Languedoc, which carried on a
world-wide trade in soap, felt, jewelry, and paper, attracted
by their prosperity and freedom large numbers of exiled
Jews and heretics, who took refuge there and tended to
augment the prosperity and intelligence of the Provencals.
In many respects the civilisation of the Provencals was in
advance of that of their European contemporaries. In this
district originated the Troubadours, of whom we shall speak
later ; also that singular religious fraternity known as the
Bridge Builders, a body that did much by its labours and
example towards improving the highways of mediaeval
Europe. The Provencals were cultured and liberal,
combining the power to think with the inclination and
ability to execute. Among them flourished hospitals and
asylums. The higher classes prided themselves upon their
courtesy, studying as fine arts banquet giving, dress, and
deportment. As a school of rationalism and etiquette,
Provence was the academy of Europe, and as such attracted
a constant influx of immigrants and travellers.

The culture, mysticism, and rationalism of these pro-

EMBLEMS OF PERSECUTION & PREACHING 37

vinces, which were then under the government of Count
Raymond of Toulouse, attracted the jealousy and suspicion
of the Church of Rome, which demanded the extirpation of
the heretics.

The Catholic clergy were the objects of supreme dislike ;
so acute was the hatred felt for them that, when charged
with anything unusually mean or atrocious, a Provencal
would reply, " I do such a thing ! Do you take me for a
priest ? " It was only in disguise that the clergy dared
show themselves in public.

Hence the Church of Rome regarded the Provencals
with an unfavourable eye, and in 1209 (under the pretext
of avenging the murder of a Papal legate who had been
commissioned as an inquisitor to extirpate heresy) Pope
Innocent III. launched a crusade against the hapless district.
For upwards of twenty years the Albigenses maintained a
heroic resistance against the Papal forces. The period forms a
tragic record of religious fanaticism, bloodthirsty barbarity,
the ruthless massacre of whole towns and villages, of
churches knee deep in the blood of unarmed women and
children, of spoliation, depravity, cynicism, inhumanity,
and finally a pitiful silence and desolation. At the sack of
Beziers 20,000, or as some say 40,000, of its inhabitants
were put to the sword. On inquiry being put to the Abbot
of Citeaux as to how the soldiers were to distinguish
between Catholic and heretic, the memorable reply was
made : " Kill them all, God will know His own."

On the conclusion of "Peace" in 1229 the survivors
were handed over to the tender zeal of the Dominicans,
and the Inquisition. The persuasive functions of these
bodies were such that, as History curtly records, the name
of the Albigenses from the middle of the thirteenth

century gradually disappears, and " they soon became
extinct."

The record of the Waldenses is even more tragic than
that of their fellow-sufferers. They were anathematised
in 1184 and again in 1215. In 1194 they were evicted
from Aragon as being likely to sully the Catholic purity
of Spain. There is reason to believe that on the occasion
of this exodus (the forerunner of many others) they brought
away with them the knowledge of papermaking, an art
that for many years had flourished among their fellow-
citizens the Moors. In 1209-1229 the Waldenses became
involved in the destruction which overtook the Albigenses.
Even their virtues were urged against them as being likely
to lure others to their way of thinking. They were
therefore punished "with a just cruelty without pity."
To offer hospitality to a Waldensian was a capital offence.
Gregory IX., by a Papal Bull of 1291, went further, by
declaring the children of those who gave them asylum
infamous to the second generation. At any time a Vaudois
might recant and enter the Romish fold, in which case he
was pardoned, but his tongue was torn out lest it uttered
blasphemy in the future. In 1316 we find them being
burnt at Toulouse. During the years 1336-1346 they
were "seriously harassed." In 1393 the Inquisition burnt
150 of them in one day at Grenoble. In 1432 and later
years we again hear of persecution. In 1475 and 1488
Innocent VIII. launched nefarious crusades against them.
Their valleys were ravaged by fire and sword, their pastors
were burnt, and the poor fugitives smoked to death in
caves where they had endeavoured to take refuge. Yet,
says History, " all the terrors of fire and sword and torture
could not tear them from their faith."

In 1545 Francis I. burnt twenty-two of their villages,
and massacred 4000 persons, as many more being driven
into exile.

In 1655 persecution broke out again with such ferocious
and obscene brutality, that details cannot be given. It was
on this occasion that Milton wrote : —

" Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ;
Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old,

When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones.

Forget not : in thy book record their groans
Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold
Slain by the bloody Piemontese, that rolled

Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans

The vales redoubled to the hills, and they

To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow
O'er all the Italian fields, where still doth sway

The triple Tyrant ; that from these may grow
A hundredfold, who, having learnt thy way,
Early may fly the Babylonian woe."

The story of the Cathari is embraced in the preceding
outline. We are told they were gradually rooted out by
the Inquisition, and that after the first half of the fourteenth
century they " disappear from history."

The facts that I now bring forward seem, how-
ever, to prove that although persecution had the effect
of scattering the sufferers, they tenaciously clung to their
cherished tenets and traditions, conforming outwardly to
the religions of the countries in which they took refuge.
It is obvious that papermaking being an art in which
they were proficient, they would employ it as a means
of livelihood, in the same way as their unfortunate
Huguenot successors carried their crafts with them after
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. I think that the

40 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

obscure course of papermaking in Europe marks the track
of Albigensian exiles, small bands of whom penetrated to
England, and to the remotest parts of the Continent. The
custom of watermarking is not found in oriental papers,
but only in those of Europe.

It seems to have been a happy thought on the part of
the papermakers to flash signals of hope and encouragement
to their fellow-exiles in far distant countries, serving at the
same time as an incentive to faith and godliness in them-
selves. Quarks' definition of an emblem as " a silent
parable " is here peculiarly applicable, for if my surmises be
correct, every ream turned out by these pious papermakers
contained some five hundred heretical tracts, each of which
ran its course under the unsuspecting nose of Orthodoxy.

FIG. 89. — 1 5th century.

FIG. 90.— 1454.

FIG. 91 — 1320.

Figs. 89 to 94 are apparently emblems of persecution.
The editors of Durandus state that the sword represents
the instrument of martyrdom. The executioner's axe sur-
mounted by the cross evidently has the same signification.

Fig. 94 represents a tool I do not recognise. Possibly it
was an instrument of torture. The heart struck through by
an arrow and a sword evidently typifies suffering.

EMBLEMS OF PERSECUTION & PREACHING 41

The wing in Fig. 96 seems to have been an emblem of
the Gospel. According to Durandus, the origin of eagle
lecterns in churches is the passage, " He came flying upon

FIG. 9*.— 1349.

FIG. 93 — 1354.

FIG. 94 — 1333.

the wings of the winds." Or the wing may possibly bear
the interpretation put upon it by Shakespeare, " Ignorance
is the curse of God, knowledge the wing wherewith we fly
to Heaven." This beautiful little emblem may, I think,

FIG. 95 — 1576.

FIG. 96. — 1473-

be read either as the Gospel wounded and proscribed by
the Church of Rome, or knowledge struck down in its
upward flight by the arrow of Orthodoxy. Similar in
tenor are the ideas underlying the two keys shown in Figs.
97 to i oo. Milton makes one of gold, the key of Heaven ;
the other of iron, the key of the prison in which the

wicked teachers are to be bound who " have taken away
the key of knowledge, yet entered not in themselves."

" The hungry sheep look up and are not fed

Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw
Daily devours apace and nothing said."

FIG. 97._ 1463.

FIG. 98. — 1 5th century.

FIG. 99.
i8th century.

FIG. 100.
I4th (?) century.

To the single key Durandus refers thus : " I, William,
by the alone tender mercy of God, Bishop of the Holy
Church which is in Mende,1 will knock diligently at the

1 A city in France.

EMBLEMS OF PERSECUTION & PREACHING 43

door, if so be that ' the key of David ' will open unto me :
that the King may bring me to His Treasury, and shew
unto me the Heavenly pattern."

FIG. 1 01. — 1 5th century.

FIG. 102. — 1427.

It will be observed that the hand in Fig. 102 is bounded
by the trefoil. It evidently signifies the Hand of God.
The key itself was, I imagine, the Spirit that unlocks the
Letter.

The hand (see Figs. 22 to 26) among other significa-
tions denoted Faith, Fealty, Allegiance, and Alliance; it
was pre-eminently a symbol of faith given or kept.

The sacred number 4 which occurs so constantly in
watermarks was regarded by the ancient mystics as a most
binding and solemn oath. One of the meanings attributed
to the rose (see Figs. 217 to 226) was secrecy, whence our
modern expression sub rosa. This flower was dedicated
to the God of Silence, and was the emblem of reserve and
faithfulness.

In view of the frequent employment of these symbols
as papermarks, one is led to the conclusion that the scattered
Albigenses constituted among themselves a form of secret
society ; indeed, such a conclusion is obvious, as the open
avowal of their tenets invariably brought down upon them

44 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

an avalanche ot tribulation. From Figs. 103, 104, and 105
we get interesting sidelights on their modus operandi. The

FIG. 103. — 1560. FIG. 104 — 1551. FIG. 105. — 1578.

hedgehog, from its habit of rolling itself into a ball at the
approach of an enemy, was regarded as the emblem of
fortifying oneself against danger and of seizing opportunities.
The bear, according to Valerian's vast Hieroglypbicorum,
was considered as the symbol of mores occulti or concealed
habits, because bears first taught men the advantages of
dwelling securely in caves. They also hibernated during
the long night of winter, living upon their own fat, and
returning to life as soon as circumstances became sufficiently
favourable. It is indubitable that many thoughtful men
during the perilous Dark Ages regarded themselves as
lurkers in solitary caves. The idea is exactly conveyed
in the title given to an alchemical treatise entitled
" Zoroaster's Cave, or the Philosophers' Intellectual Echo
to One Another from their Cells."

I am convinced that papermarks were but one among
many means by which the philosophers " echoed to one
another" and intercommunicated. It is stated by Schmidt
in his Histoire des Catbares that the Albigenses had secret
signs of recognition, and that they formed among them-
selves a complete system of Church Government, all the

EMBLEMS OF PERSECUTION & PREACHING 45

offices of which were secretly but efficiently exercised. This
spiritual Communion its members regarded as the only true
and Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit, and it was pro-
pagated by many and extraordinary means. Enthusiastic
missionaries carried its secrets from province to province,
and made converts not only by the purity of their lives, but
by their claims to ability to solve the deepest problems of
philosophy. This mystic Church, whose so-called members
claimed to receive daily visitations from their Invisible
Chief the Holy Spirit, numbered innumerable preachers
supervised by a hierarchy of twelve disciples and sixty-four
bishops. By some historians it is said to have been
governed by a supreme Chief or Pope, but Schmidt re-
marks that whether this was so or not is a problem most
difficult to solve. The appearance of a Pope in watermark
(Fig. 1 06) answers, I think, the question finally in the
affirmative. The reality of this Heretical
Church is generally admitted by historians.
In his History of the Inquisition oj the Middle
Ages^ Lea states that the heretics were "visited
every two years by the travelling pastors or
barbcs, who came in pairs ; an elder known as
the reggitore, and a younger, the coadjutor e, ~~7I0. 106.
journeying with some pretence of occupation, I5th centufy-
finding in every city the secret band of believers whom
it was their mission to comfort and keep steadfast in the
faith. Everywhere they met friends acquainted with
their secret passwords, and in spite of ecclesiastical
vigilance there existed throughout Italy a subterranean
network of heresy disguised under outward conformity."
The Heretical Church was divided roughly into two
groups — credentcs, the believers, and perfecti, the perfect

46 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

ones. The first condition for the exercise of the ministry
was moral perfection and absolute purity. The mission of
the perfccti was to conduct the credentes into spiritual safety,
preparing them for the reception of the Holy Spirit. In
order to be able to impart the Holy Spirit to others, it was
deemed essential to acquire it oneself by spotless living.

No risks deterred the Perfect Ones from their prosely-
tising efforts. It is stated by Schmidt that their zeal was
incredible, and that they would cross seas and continents in
the hope to converting one single soul to their tenets. In
the year 1240 it was estimated that 4000 Albigensian
Perfect Ones were scouring Europe under various disguises,
such as troubadours, pedlars, and merchants. " We lead,"
writes one of them, " a life hard and wandering. We fly
from town to town like sheep among wolves. We suffer
persecution like the Apostles and Martyrs, yet our life is
holy and austere. It is spent in prayers and abstinence,
and in works which nothing can interrupt. But these
things are not difficult, for we are no longer of this world."

I quote from another Perfect One :—

" We endure many evils and make a hard penance, but
we know that the entry into Paradise is difficult, and that
we must pay for it the price of our flesh and blood."

This quotation furnishes a complete key to the meaning
of " Bull's Head " emblems, of which some typical speci-
mens are reproduced herewith. They all represent Per
ardua ad astra (" Through hardships to the stars "). I do
not explain each of these marks in detail, but the reader
may do so for himself with the knowledge that the ox was
emblematic of Patience and Strength. It was regarded as a
type of all those who bore the yoke and laboured in silence
for the good of others. From these virtues arose, or de-

EMBLEMS OF PERSECUTION & PREACHING 47

Fio. 107.

FIG. 108.

FIG. 109.

FIG. no.

FIG. in.

FIG. 112.

FIG. 113. FIG. 114. FIG. 115.

EMBLEMS OF Per ardua ad astra (i5th and 1 6th centuries).

48 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

FIG. 116.

Fio. 117 — 1400.

FIG. 1 1 8.

FIG. 1*0.
EMBLEMS OF Per ardua ad attra (i5th and i6th centuries).

EMBLEMS OF PERSECUTION & PREACHING 49

FIG. 121.

FIG. 122.

FIG. 123.

FIG. 124. — 1530.

pended, according to the fancy of the emblem designer, the
Cross of Salvation, the Crown of Celestial Victory, the
Tau of Regeneration, the Serpent of healing, the Fleur de
Lys or Flower of Light, the mystic Rose of Paradise, and
the Star of Nirvana.

The Albigenses were very perfect exponents of Patience.
Sufferance was the badge of all their tribe, and with the
experiences of Job they must have shared a melancholy
sympathy. It is recorded by a contemporary as an instance
of Albigensian knowledge of the Scriptures, that a peasant
could recite from memory the entire Book of Job.

Among the Little Flowers of St Francis of Assisi
we find the sentiment, " He that with firm humility and
patience doth suffer and endure tribulation through his
burning love for God will soon attain unto high graces and
virtue, arid will be lord of this world and will have an

50 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

earnest of the glorious world to come." In Fig. 1 25, which
is classed by Mons. Briquet among other examples of
watermarked crowns, will be observed the phrase MANET
ULTIMA CCELO (" It is awaiting me in the highest Heaven ").

FIG. H4A.

Fio. 125. — 1584.

FIG. 126. — 1516.

FIG. 127. — i5th century.

Figs. 126 and 127 are swans. The swan "is a perfect
embleme and pattern to us that our death ought to be cheerful
and life not so deare unto us as it is." Socrates declared that
good men ought to imitate swans, who, perceiving by a secret
instinct what gain there was in death, die singing with
joy.

Figs. 128 to 131 are bells, and I cannot do better than
let Durandus explain them in his own words. " By their
sound," he says, " the faithful may be mutually cheered on
towards their reward that the devotion of the Faith may be
increased in them. Just as the watchmen in a camp rouse

EMBLEMS OF PERSECUTION & PREACHING 51

one another by trumpets, so do the ministers of the Church
excite each other by the sound of bells to watch the livelong
night."

" Again," he continues, " Bells do signify preachers who
ought after the likeness of a Bell to exhort the faith-

FIG. 118. — 1446.

FIG. 119. — i5th century.

own

FIG. 130 — 1700.

FIG. 131.— 1557.

ful unto faith. The hardness of the metal signifieth
fortitude in the mind of the preacher. The clapper or
iron which by striking on either side maketh the sound,
doth denote the tongue of the preacher, the which with the
adornment of learning doth cause both Testaments to
resound. The striking of the Bell denoteth that a
preacher ought first of all to strike at the vices in himself
for correction, and then advance to blame those of others.
The link by which the clapper is joined or bound unto the
bell, is moderation," etc. etc., and so he goes on expounding
in detail the wood of the frame, the pegs, the iron clamps,

the rope, and the action of bell -ringing. The ringer
when pulling downwards " understandeth the Scripture
according to the Letter which killeth ; he is drawn upwards
when he expoundeth the same according to the Spirit."

I have quoted Durandus at some length, as a specimen
of the extraordinary manner in which the mystics spiritual-
ised everything material. The same writer makes some
additional remarks about a second and smaller type of
bell, which he terms a squilla. To this word his editors
add a footnote that they conceive that " the sort of a bell
here meant is a kind of handbell formed out of a hollow
ball of metal furnished with a slit for the sound, and with
a loose pellet inside. This answers to the squilla in shape,
and utters a very shrill sound."

Evidently Figs. 132 and 133 represent the squilla which,

FIG. 132. FIG. 133.

according to Durandus, " by its sharp sound signifieth
Paul preaching acutely." It is worthy of note that in
some districts the Albigenses were known as " Poblicans,"
which is said to have been a corruption of Paulicians. Their
fondness for the Paulician doctrine " The Letter killeth "
curiously associates them with this little squilla of acute
Paulician preaching.

While Durandus is discussing the larger sized or
ordinary bell, he notes that the rope from which it hung
is composed of three strands, representing the Trinity of
Scripture, namely, History, Allegory, and Morality. The

EMBLEMS OF PERSECUTION & PREACHING 53

reader will observe the little symbol of his Trinity, which
almost invariably surmounts Bell emblems.

An older document than the Rationale of Durandus
is The Mystical Mirror of the Church, by Hugo de
Sancto Victor. From this I draw the following interpreta-
tion of Figs. 134 and 136: "The cock representeth preachers.

FIG. 134.— 1380. FIG. 135. — 1380.

FIG. 136. — i8th century.

For the cock in the deep watches of the night divideth the
hours thereof with his song ; he arouseth the sleepers ; he
fore-telleth the approach of day, but first he stirreth up
himself to crow by the striking of his wings. Behold ye
these things mystically, for not one is there without
meaning. The sleepers be the children of this world
lying in sins. The cock is the company of preachers
which do preach sharply, do stir up the sleepers to cast
away the works of darkness, crying " Woe to the sleepers !
Awake thou that sleepest ! "

This author proceeds, like Durandus, to the extremest
limits of detailed interpretation.

In Figs. 137 and 138 I think we have pictures of the
Perfect Ones preaching. Observe over Fig. 137 the Tau
sign of him who cries over the abominations of the city.

Fro. 137—1570.

FIG. 139. — 1419.

FIG. 138. — 1436.

FIG. 140.— 1541.

FIG. 141 — 1547.

Fig. 141 is presumably the Angel of the Annunciation
holding a lily. Fig. 139 is, I surmise, a defective attempt
at the same subject ; if not, I should interpret it as a Perfect
One preaching acutely with his right arm, while holding
in his left hand the white flower of a blameless life.

CHAPTER V

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS

IN their crusade against the abuses of the Church of
Rome, the Albigenses found ardent auxiliaries among
their fellow countrymen, the Troubadours. It is
almost impossible to overestimate the influence exercised by
these all-powerful minstrels. Wandering from town to town
and castle to castle, their lyrics swayed the minds of not their
own countrymen alone, but of all Europe from sovereign to
peasant. Few things could resist their ridicule, and no
memories were beyond their power to perpetuate.

When, iti 1209-1226, the Church of Rome devastated
the Albigensian provinces, the home of the Troubadours
was demolished, its laws and customs were reversed, and its
language was proscribed and extinguished. But this
transmutation of a beautiful and peaceful country into a
wild desert sown with unburied corpses, recoiled disastrously
upon the perpetrators of the wrong. The expatriated
Troubadours found for themselves asylums in all parts of
Europe, where they kept alive the story of Romish
barbarity, and added perpetual fuel to the smouldering fires
of heresy.

Not only were Troubadours the constant attendants
on learned princes, but they were the confidantes and
companions of learned men. Their profession embraced
the callings of poet, musician, chronicler, litterateur, and

56 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

theologian. It is remarkable to find what a large number
of princes and representatives of noble families forsook
their stations and enrolled themselves in the Troubadour
ranks. Among them occur such names as Richard Cceur
de Lion, Alphonse II. of Aragon, and the Counts of
Poitou, Provence, and Toulouse. The courtly and poetic
Troubadours prepared the youth of both sexes for society,
and drew up rules for their guidance. We find them giving
advice such as the following : — " Shun the companionship
of fools, impertinents, or meddlers, lest you pass for the
same. Never indulge in buffoonery, scandals, deceit, or
falsehood. Be frank, generous, and brave ; be obliging
and kind ; study neatness in your dress, and let elegance
of fashion make up for plainness of material. Never allow
a seam to remain ripped and gaping; it is worse than a
rent : the first shows ill-breeding, the last only poverty,
which is by far the lesser evil of the two. There is no
great merit in dressing well if you have the means : but
a display of neatness and taste on a small income is a sure
token of superiority of spirit," etc. etc.

Referring to the refining influence of the Troubadours,
J. F. Rowbotham writes : " Before the rise of the
troubadours, and the humanizing effect of their songs, and
the contagious influence of their refined pleasures, these
same castles which gave so ready a welcome to them and
their courtly train, were often the morose homes of rapine
and semi-barbarism. To suppress the excesses of in-
dividuals and to effect a change in the general character of
an era, the only effectual means is the slow creation of a
public opinion favourable to the new ideas. It should
seem that nothing is so conducive towards influencing
public opinion as the existence of an art such as that of the

troubadours, which could infuse itself at every turn into the
most unguarded moments of private life, and which was
devoted to the encouragement of blitheness and gaiety. It
was carried on by those who professed it, not in any spirit
of self-seeking, but with the most chivalrous and ideal aims.
And when the noblest and wealthiest men in the land go
so far that they can consecrate their talents and their
possessions to the pursuit of a high ideal, we need not be
surprised if the rudeness and ferocity of their neighbours
and friends is mitigated and subdued, even if it be not
totally extinguished."

Rowbotham, commenting upon their " unfortunate
attitude towards the Church," i.e. the intellectual contempt
which they displayed towards the Papacy, observes : " We
must bear in mind in studying the history of the trouba-
dours that this spirit, which was so strongly pronounced in
the first of their race, was in a manner common more or
less to all. Whether it were a secret unbelief or a spirit of
social rebellion engendered by luxury and looseness of life,
certain it is that the troubadours throughout their history
will generally be found to constitute the anti-clerical
party."

Aroux is emphatic in his assertion that the Troubadours 1

1 Under the term "Troubadour" I include the kindred order of Jesters.
" As to the Jesters," says Aroux — " properly so named Jesters of song, of sayings, of
romance, as they were called — they must be distinguished from the mimic-jesters,
that is to say from the mountebanks and buffoons. The clerical jesters were, as has
already been said, evangelical ministers, still subject to the preliminary discipline of
the priesthood. Holding the rank of deacons in the sectarian church, they were
with regard to the pastors to whom they were attached in a position analogous to
that of squires to knights, and it is under this title that they figure in the romances.
If distinguished Troubadours are spoken of, and among others Giraud de Borneil,
as always accompanied by two jesters, it is unquestionable that these Troubadours
were Albigensian Bishops, whose dignity and functions required the assistance of

58 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

were Albigensian heretics, and that it was under the
disguise of Jongleurs' hoods that the Albigensian pastors
visited their scattered flocks, and insinuated their proscribed
doctrines.

The sentiments of the Troubadours towards the official
custodians of Christianity may be judged from the following
passage : — " Rome that sink of corruption ; I know that
I shall be blamed for speaking against it, but I cannot hold
my peace. It does not amaze me that the whole world is
enveloped in sin, for I know how carefully, how earnestly,
how incessantly, how widely you have sown the seeds of
war and corruption. Blinded as you are, you shear your
flock even to the skin ! With the Holy Spirit to aid I
will stop your mouth. Rome more perfidious than all the
Greeks, blind leader of the blind ! Disregarding the rules
laid down by Heaven, you sell absolution for money, you
load your shoulders with a burden that will sink you down
to the pit. Your principles are abominable, your habits
are treacherous. God confound you Rome ! " And so
the poet goes on, mingling his accusations with fearful
imprecations, and comforting himself with the conviction
that the power of Rome was declining, and its reign nearly
at an end.
\ "Tt appears reasonable," says the cautious Heckethorn,

two deacons." Again, says Aroux: " Nothing was more common in the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries in the countries of the Provencal tongue to see knights,
castellans, canons, clerics become Troubadours or simple Jesters."

" The Jongleurs," says J. F. Rowbotham, " acted, if we may so express it,
the same part which is played by publishers at the present day. The expression is
not ours, but Petrarch's, who, in alluding to the functions of the jongleur in one of
his Letters to Boccaccio, explicitly introduces this comparison. He deduces their
similarity to publishers, and compares the parallel condition of a work when it had
been recited by a jongleur to admiring crowds and when it had been issued in print
or manuscript by a publisher and sold to admiring purchasers."

ROM AUNT EMBLEMS

" to consider the Troubadours as the originators of that
vast conspiracy directed against the Church of Rome ; the
champions of a revolt which had not for its guide and
object material interests and vulgar ambitions, but a religion
and a polity of Love."

The evidence from watermarks confirms the presump-
tion that the Troubadours did indeed form a link in that

FIG. 142. — 1681.

FIG. 143. — 1683.

FIG. 144. — 1655.

long chain of rational mysticism which the Papacy from its
earliest days made such frantic but ineffectual efforts to break.

60 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

There were four degrees of Troubadours, but the
Romaunt of the Rose divides them into four and three,
producing the mystic number seven. Observe at the bases
of Figs. 142, 143, and 144 this figure of four and three.
Observe too, how every watermarked figure of a Troubadour
is distinguished by a kind of pigtail in the form of a cross,
doubtless the badge of his degree. The different styles of
Troubadour literature are classified by some writers into
seven divisions : the Gallant, the Historical, the Didactic, the
Satirical, the Theological, the Mystical, and the Hermetic.
Whether these corresponded to the seven grades or no, I
cannot tell, but the supposition seems probable.

The Troubadours were conspicuous as Pilgrims of
Love, Fideles cP Amour^ and Knights Errant in the service
of a mysterious Lady, whom they exalt under various
names, such as Star, Flower, Light, Rose, and Flower of
Flowers. This service of Love was described as an " art "
and a "science," their "gat s avoir" their "gat science"
and there is no doubt whatever that under a well-recognised
erotic jargon matters and ideas of great moment were com-
municated to the scattered fideles. As was pointed out
seventy years ago by Gabriele Rossetti, many little love
poems which we are in the habit of regarding to-day as
amatory trifles are in reality works of a recondite character,
which enshrine doctrines traditionally handed down from
past ages. The Troubadours made very little effort to
dissemble the patent fact. " Thou can'st go," says one of
them, addressing his own love poem, " whither thou wilt :
I have dressed thee so well that thou will be understood
by those endowed with intelligence : of others thou need'st
not be concerned." Again we find them deprecating the
necessity for their obscure mannerisms. " Let none blame

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS

me," says Gavaudin, " for selecting a cloudy style of
writing, or at least, let them reserve their censure until
they are capable of sifting the wheat that lies therein from
the chaff."

Figs. 145 and 146 are representations of the mystic Lady
who was so persistently besought to cast down the Roman

FIG. 145. — 1587.

FIG. 146.— 1584.

She-Wolf, and to crush the Pontifical serpent. The in-
terpretation placed upon this symbol seems to have varied
considerably in detail, but very little in essence. Dante,
the Herald of the Renaissance, and, according to Aroux,
a great fountain of Heresy and a leader of the Albigensian
Church, writes : " I say and affirm that the lady of whom
I was enamoured after my first love was the most beautiful
and most pure daughter of the Emperor of the Universe
to whom Pythagoras gave the name Philosophy."

In the same strain wrote Giordano Bruno : " I am
displeased with the bulk of mankind ; I hate the vulgar
rout ; I despise the authority of the multitude, and am
enamoured with one particular Lady. *Tis for her that I am
free in servitude, content in pain, rich in necessity and alive in

62 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

death. . . . Hence it is even for my passion for this beauty
that, as being weary, I draw not back my feet from the
difficult road, nor, as being lazy, hang down my hands
from the work that is before me : I turn not my shoulders
as grown desperate, to the enemy that contends with me,
nor, as dazzled divert my eyes from the divine object. . . .
'Tis for the love of True Wisdom and by the studious
admiration for this Mistress that I fatigue, that I disquiet,
that I torment myself."

The moon upon her forehead identifies our lady in
papermark as Diana, the Moon Goddess, worshipped among
the Greeks as Artemis the pure and spotless one. The
mediaeval cult of the Virgin SOPHIA passed through many
remarkable phases. It is curious to find among some
thinkers the idea that one of the Persons of the Trinity
was a Woman. In watermarks of a later period we find
the allegorical Virgin has been placed in an oval, doubtless
in allusion to the so-called Mundane Egg of the philo-
sophers. The Ephesian Temple of Diana was, I am told,
constructed in the form of an oval, and the frequent use
of the Egg as a symbol leads one to the suspicion that the
mediaeval philosophers knew something about Evolution.
" Our reading shews," says Rutherford, " that much more
was known to the few 600 or 700 years ago, than modern
savants are inclined to think. Strange and startling
glimpses of this knowledge flicker over the pages of the
poets and romancists of the Middle Ages."

In addition to their function as Pilgrims of Love, the
Troubadours were the Fathers and exponents of the mystic
Chivalry which flourished during the dark ages, and was
employed as an effective engine against the abuses of
Feudalism and religious despotism. Troubadours were in

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS 63

effect the shuttles by which was woven over the face of
Europe the marvellous fabric of Romantic Mysticism,
comprising the Romances of the Round Table, King
Charlemagne and his Peers, the Legends of the St.
Grail and the Romaunt of the Rose. These vast cycles
of mystic literature, written and declaimed by the
Troubadours, spread like wildfire over Europe, and were
translated into many languages. They served as heretical
Scriptures, from which were drawn lessons of encouragement
and morality. It is curious to note that the Round Table
of King Arthur numbered Twelve Knights, that in the
cycle of Charlemagne we encounter the Twelve peers of
France, that Peter Waldo, from whom the Waldenses took
their name, launched nis crusade by means of "12 Poor
Men of Lyons" — facts all pointing significantly to the
Twelve Disciples of Jesus Christ and the Twelve Disciples
of the Hierarchy of the Albigensian Church. The oldest
and best of the Charlemagne Romances is the Song of
Roland, the power and dignity of which modern French
scholars vie with one another in extolling. Roland was a
pseudo-historical hero, whose exploits formed an exhaustless
theme of interest. The story is obviously an allegory.
Heckethorn states that the powerful voice of the furious
Roland, which made breaches in the granite rocks of the
mountains, was a representation of the Albigensian Heresy,
which had found its way into Spain, thus anticipating the
saying of Louis XIV., "There are no longer any Pyrenees."
Aroux is of this same opinion, and he adds the important
information that the great Horn upon which Roland
waked the echoes was regarded as the symbol of Albigensian
preaching.

Figs. 147 to 153 represent the Horn of Roland, and in

64 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

FIG. 147.— 1370. Fro. 148.— 1378.

FIG. 149 — 1435.

FIG. 150 — 1488. FIG. 151 — i7th century. FIG. 152.— 1441.

FIG. 153. — 1 8th century.

FIG. 154. — 1586 and 1650.

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS 65

Fig. 1 54 we have a portrait of the Hero himself, " and
straightway has he raised the horn to his mouth. Firmly
has he grasped it and sounded it with vigour. Lofty are
the hills and very loud the echo, and the sound can be
heard full fifteen leagues away. And the Emperor Charles
has heard it and all his host of vassals ; and the King
spake : ' our men are giving battle.' But Ganelon said, ' Had
another man said this it had seemed a fearful falsehood.'
With pain and great endeavour has Roland sounded his
horn, and the bright blood is streaming from his mouth,
and both his temples has he broken in the endeavour.
But exceedingly great and loud is the noise, and Charles
has heard it as he passed across the border; and Naimes
the Duke has heard it, and now the Frenchmen listen."

We have already seen that the Bell was regarded as a
symbol of preaching. Exceedingly significant is the fact
that the great bell which had swung for centuries in the
belfry of the free city of Ghent was known as " Roland."
This great bell was the special object of the Burghers'
affection. " It seemed," says Motley, " as if it were a
living historical personage endowed with the human
powers and passions which it had so long directed and
inflamed."

On the subjection of Ghent the great bell " Roland " was
condemned and sentenced to immediate removal ! Its iron
tongue was said to have been capable of bringing 80,000
fighting men to the city banner.

But the Song of Roland is thrown into comparative
obscurity by the multitudinous legends of the St Grail.
The general development of the stories which cluster round
this precious Talisman may be summed up as the gradual
transformation of Oriental and Celtic myths into a legend

66 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

saturated with Christian mysticism. Mr Alfred Nutt, who
is perhaps our greatest authority upon Folk-lore, observes
that the Grail Romances are " disconcertingly unorthodox,"
claiming an origin so illustrious that " if seriously
maintained " they would have been most unwelcome to
the chief Ecclesiastical authority of Christendom. He
points out that they set up a kind of uncanonical Church,
claiming to excel the official Church of Christendom. " Is
it," he asks, " too rash a conjecture that the Grail romances
reveal in part early attempts to claim for the knightly
priesthood a position and sanction equal if not superior to
those of the regular priesthood ? "

The evidence of papermarks appears to prove that
Mr Nutt's conjecture is well founded, and that the Grail
Romances (amounting, it is said, to a bulk equal to that
of the Encyclopedia Eritannicd] were nothing less than the
Scriptures of the Albigensian Church.

Just as before the elimination of the uncanonical writers
the world possessed innumerable Gospels relating to Jesus
Christ, so do we find multitudinous versions of the Gospel
of the St Grail. The Legend was regarded with the
highest reverence ; indeed, its authorship was confidently
ascribed to Jesus Christ. " All these wonders," says
Helinandus, " are true, as Christ Himself wrote the Book
of the Holy Grail and save it naught else but the Lord's
Prayer and the judgment on the woman taken in adultery."
The precise meaning of the Saint Grail, or Holy Chalice, is
as obscure and indefinable as that of the Philosopher's Stone,
but a strong and unexpected beam of light is cast upon the
subject by papermarks, which, as will be seen, illustrate
multitudinous phases of the Legend.

In pre-Christian times, the St Grail appears as a

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS 67

Talisman of increase and plenty. Taliesin ben Beirdd, the
famous poet, says : " This vessel inspires poetic genius, gives
wisdom, discovers the knowledge of futurity, the mysteries
of the world, the whole treasure of human sciences." The
Rev. S. Baring-Gould points out that this vessel of the
liquor of wisdom held a most prominent place in British
mythology. Taliesin, in the description of his initiation into
the mysteries of the vase, cries out, " I have lost my speech ! "
because on all who had been admitted to the privileges of
full membership, secrecy was imposed. This initiation was
regarded as a new birth, and those who had once become
members were regarded as elect, regenerate, separate from
the rest of mankind, who lay in darkness and ignorance.

The salient features of the Legend, as reconstructed by
the Troubadours on a Christian basis, are as follows : —

The St Grail was the cup used by Christ at the Last
Supper. It was employed by Joseph of Arimathea to catch
the blood that flowed from the wounded side of the
crucified Saviour. Subsequently it was taken to Heaven
until such a time as a line of Tieroes could be found on
Earth worthy to be entrusted with its guardianship. The
Knights of the Grail fulfilling the requisite conditions, the
sacred vessel, with the name Graal blazoned upon it, was
left behind on Earth by a band of spirits as they winged
their way to their celestial abode. The Holy Chalice was
delivered to "Titurel, " at whose birth an angel had
announced that God had chosen him to be a Defender of
the Faith.

Bergmann, in his essay on the St Grail, observes that
it was the symbol of grace and salvation. It was : but the
testimony from papermarks proves further that it was held
sacred as a symbol of the celestial influence personified

68 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

by the term Holy Spirit — the very essence of the Mystic
Universal Church.

The Legend tells that when the precious Talisman was
entrusted to Earth, it was deposited in a lordly castle built
for its reception. Bergmann notes that its guardians, the
Templars, although Christians, rather resemble an associa-
tion formed without the pale of the Church than a
Catholic community.

Some writers situate the Castle-Temple on a mountain
in the midst of a thick wood, " symbolic," says Bergmann,
"of moral elevation and sanctity." Figs. 155 to 158 are re-
presentations of this castle. At the base of Fig. 1 55 note the
sacred " 4," and on the summit observe three semi-circles.
These three objects, used in varying forms, see Figs. 159
to 164 (they were, I believe, the Arms of Bohemia),
denoted the three Mounts, Sinai, Moriah, and Calvary.
From Sinai, the Law was given; on Moriah, Solomon
built his Temple ; and on Calvary, Christ suffered. They
were regarded as the emblem of moral elevation and high
thinking, a representation of the Silver Mountains whence
spring the Nectar fountains. Observe that from Figs. 158
and 159 arise the same happy issues as those depicted
emanating from the Bull's Head on p. 48, Fig. 116.
The object above Fig. 157 is evidently a variant of the
Tau.

The warfare waged by the Grail Knights against the
enemies of the Holy Vase was regarded as a symbol of the
perpetual struggle which every Christian ought to maintain
against his own evil propensities. We find everywhere as
supreme an insistence upon purity as a necessity among
Grail Knights as among Albigensian perfecti and pastors.
A single unclean thought was reputed sufficient to deprive

JUUS

FIG. 155. — 1566.

FIG. i58.-i473.

Fio. 161. — 1471.

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS

FIG. 157. — 1440.

FIG. 1 60.
15th century.

rfh

FIG. 1 6 1.
ijth century.

FIG. 163.
1 5th century.

FIG. 156. — 1459.

FIG. 159.
I5th century.

nOn

Fio. 164.
1438.

70 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

the Knight of the Grail of the joys and privileges attached
to its service.

In Figs. 165 to 213 we have a series of designs em-
bodying the manifold phases of the Grail cult. Many of
these emblems it is beyond my ability to decipher, but others
are sufficiently simple to understand.

In Figs. 165 and 166 the Dove of the Holy Spirit is
resting on the sacred vessel, and the body of the Grail is
decorated with seven pearls, clearly an emblem of the words :

" Thou the anointing Spirit art
Who dost Thy sevenfold gifts impart."

According to the Parziva! of Wolfram von Eschen-
bach, the Grail yielded all manner of food and drink, its
powers being sustained by a Dove which every Good
Friday laid a Host upon it. Another version of the
allegory relates that Joseph, having been miraculously de-
livered from prison, was exiled in company with the sister
of Veronica, who had with her a Vera Icon, and passed into
Britain, the promised Land, with a large following. When
short of food, Joseph prayed for the Grail ; it was sent, and
the company had bread and wine and meat in plenty.

In cases where we find the Grail watermarks piled high
with grapes, it is obvious they represent the celestial food,
typified by the giant bunch of grapes, which Caleb and
Joshua brought away from the land of Canaan as a sign
of the milk and honey reported to be overflowing there.

In Figs. 208 to 2 13 the symbols rise to supremely beauti-
ful heights. Observe that these complicated marks form
the outlines of sacramental cups. The upper portions,
consisting of Fleurs de Lys, Roses, Stars, and pearls of
Heavenly Wisdom, symbolise the Celestial Regions. From

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS

FIG. 165.— 1599.

FIG. 1 66.— 1600.

FIG. 167.

FIG. 168.

FIG. 169.
1 5th century.

FIG. 170.
1 5th century.

FIG. 171.
I5th century.

FIG. 173.
1 7th century.

FIG. 174.
1 7th century.

FIG. 175.
1 7th century.

FIG. 176.
»7th century.

72 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Fio. 177.
1628.

FIG. 178.
1628.

FIG. 179.
16x8.

Fio. 1 80
1628.

FIG. 181.
1 7th century.

FIG. 182.
I7th century.

FIG. 183.
1 7th century.

FIG. 184.
X7th century.

FIG. 185.
17th century.

FIG. 1 86.
x 7th century.

FIG. 187.
1 7th century.

Fio. 188.
I7th century.

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS

FIG. 189.— 1344. FIG. 190.— 1324. Fio. 191. — 1605.

Fio. 19* 1605. FIG. 193. — 1605. Fio. 194. — 1605.

74 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

FIG. 195. — 1605.

FIG. 196 — 1605. FIG. 197. — 1605.

FIG. 198. — 1605. FIG. 199. — 1605. FIG. zoo. — 1605.

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS

FIG. 201.— 1605. FIG. 202.— 1605. FIG. 203.— 1605. FJG. 204.— 1605.

FIG. 205.
i 7th century.

FIG. 206.
1 7th century.

FIG. 207.
i 7th century.

FIG. 208.— i7th century.

FIG. 209. — 17th century.

76 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

TXT

Fio. zxo. — lyth century.

FIG. in. — ijth century.

Fio. nz.— I7th century.

FIG. 213. — i yth century.

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS 77

these descends and ascends a chain of links ; each link an
S. This collar of SS, which is referred to in Shakespeare's
Henry F7//., denotes the Holy Spirit ; the links reading
either in groups of three, when they denote the exclamation
S(anc(us) S(anctus) S(ancfus) \ or in groups of two, when
they imply S(anctus) S(piritus).1 The Maltese Cross of

Fio. 214. — i yth century.

eight points was the symbol of the Eight Beatitudes.
Within the enclosure of the Spiritual chain will be observed
two fishes and five 2 circles, probably a representation of the
miraculous five loaves and two small fishes with which
Christ fed the multitude. It will be observed that in some
cases a solitary fish is depicted. The explanation is to be
found in the Romance of the Grand St Grail, one of the
longest and latest in the cycle. Alain's fishing is described,
and how having caught a fish that suffices to feed all the
company, he is called the Rich Fisher, a title borne after
him by all the Grail keepers.

Beneath Figs. 208 and 209 may be seen the phrase,
" May God protect it," the " it," being without doubt the
Spiritual Church of the Grail.

On reviewing the various attributes of the St Grail, its
qualities of producing food to the taste of every partaker,
and its abilities to cause heretofore desert lands to blossom

1 In Fig. 214 the designer has formed the chain into a bunch of grapes.

2 The exceptional appearance of six loaves, I am unable at present to explain.

78 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

into fruit and beauty, it is abundantly clear that we are face
to face with an emblem of the Spirit which giveth life, in
contradistinction to the Letter which killeth. Hence it is
only a step further to recognise the employment of the
sacred light-containing cup as an Emblem of MAN himself,
the so-called Temple of the Holy Spirit. It will be re-
membered that the members of the Albigensian Church
claimed to receive daily visitations from their Great In-
visible Chief, the Holy Spirit. In Figs. 60 and 61 we saw
this idea illustrated by the descent of the Dove with out-
stretched wings upon the human heart. The double SS
when employed as handles to the sacramental vessels of the
Church, and to be seen so frequently in these Grail paper-
marks, denoted the presence of the Sanctus Spiritus^ or
Pure Wisdom.

Passing from the Legends of the Grail to the famous
Romaunt of the Rose, we again find ourselves face to face
with an heretical allegory. Aroux states that not only was
this work, which had an immense vogue, a scarcely veiled
satire against the Court of Rome, but it was the very
apotheosis of the sectarian philosophy. The tale relates
how a " Lover " arrives at a delicious garden enclosured by
a lofty wall. Within this orchard of Love are rare and
lovely plants, without are all the vices. In the centre of
the mystic garden grew a Rose (see p. 133). The celestial
music of the birds within this Paradise can only be likened
to a siren's song. As Chaucer puts it : —

"It semede a place espirituel.
For never yitt sich melodye
Was herd of man."

The music was : —

"... wonder lyk to be
Song of mermaydens of the see

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS 79

That for her syngyng is so clere.
Though we mermaydens clepe hem here
In English as in cure usaunce
Men clepe hem sereyns in Fraunce."

In Figs. 215 and 216 we see a symbol of this heavenly
music. Observe the significant Cross and the Rose. It is
stated in Mackenzie's Royal Masonic Cyclop a dia that
the Rose was " a symbol of immortality. The rose was

FIG. 215.— 1433. FIG. si6. — 1489.

afterwards applied to signify Christ, and a rose resting on a
cross typified the Soter on the cross or the secret of
immortality." There is a silver Rose in the Paradise
figured by the Brahmans. In the centre of the silver Rose
the Deity is said to have had His permanent residence.
Similarly Dante figures the supreme central Heaven as an
effulgent Rose and Flower of Light, " brighter than a
million suns, immaculate, inaccessible, vast, fiery with
magnificence and surrounding God as if with a million
veils."

As translated by Gary, Dante's words are : —

" How wide the leaves,
Extended to their utmost, of this rose,
Whose lowest step embosoms such a space
Of ample radiance ! Yet, nor amplitude
Nor height impeded, but my view with ease

8o NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Took in the full dimensions of that joy.
Near or remote, what there avails, where God
Immediate rules, and Nature, awed, suspends
Her sway ? Into the yellow of the rose
Perennial, which, in bright expansiveness,
Lays forth its gradual blooming, redolent
Of praises to the never-wintering sun,
As one, who fain would speak yet holds his peace,
Beatrice led me ; and, " Behold," she said,
This fair assemblage ; stoles of snowy white,
How numberless. The city, where we dwell,
Behold how vast ; and these our seats so throng'd,
Few now are wanting here.

In fashion, as a snow white rose, lay then
Before my view the saintly multitude."

In Figs. 224 and 225 it will be observed that in the
centre of the Rose perennial are emblems of the Divine.

ROMAUNT EMBLEMS

FIG. 217.
1 7th century.

FIG. 218.
t7th century.

FIG. 219.
I7th century.

FIG. 220.
1 7th century.

ovspr

FIG. 121.
1 7th century.

FIG. 223.
1 7th century.

FIG. 224. — I4th century.

FIG. 225.— 1387.

FIG. 226. — 1436.

CHAPTER VI

"THE PHILOSOPHER'S GOLD"

NOT only were the Albigenses exponents of pure Christianity,
but they were devoted apostles of Education. They would
have endorsed Meredith's dictum that Culture is half-way
to Heaven. Among their earliest documents (circa 1 1 oo)
are an anthology of philosophic sentences entitled Li Parlar
de li Pbilosopbes et Doctoro, and a catechism of instruction
for children. They maintained night schools where in
secrecy was taught the art of reading. Berard comments
upon what he terms a fact unique in the history of the
Middle Ages, namely that every Vaudois possessed a rudi-
mentary education. The entire New and many portions of
the Old Testament were committed to memory. The first
printed French Bible was that issued by the Vaudois in
I532(?), and it was they who first translated from Latin into
the vernacular the Lives of the Saints. In their combat
against clerical ignorance and intolerance, and as producers
and exponents of belles lettres, the Troubadours were
among the earliest assertors of Intellect. Provence was,
in effect, the cradle of the Renaissance, a land of intel-
lectual light whose rays spread over the whole of Europe.
" If these heretics," laments Berard, " had only been able to
continue their active propaganda ; if they had not fallen in
shoals under the executioner's axe, what an incalculable gain
to civilisation!" But though crushed and scattered, the

THE PHILOSOPHER'S GOLD"

civilisation of Provence continued to exist for subsequent
centuries, stealthily yet surely imposing its manners on its
neighbours.

Fig. 227 represents what is commonly known as a
Catherine Wheel, by the teeth of which St Catherine
nearly suffered martyrdom (A.D. 309). The legend runs
that fifty pagan philosophers were let loose upon this
suffering virgin, with the intent to pervert her from
Christianity. Her winning eloquence, however, was so
effective that the philosophers themselves were the con-
verts; whereupon, says the legend, St Catherine became
" the patroness of philosophers and learned schools."

FIG. 227.
1428.

FIG. 228.
1 5th century.

FIG. 229.
i6th century.

FIG. 231.
I5th century.

The emblems on p. 61 prove that papermakers were
lovers of the Virgin SOPHIA, and these wheel emblems of
St Catherine identify their designers as philosophers and
" a learned school."

84 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

In Fig. 230 the acorns represent slow growing strength.
The Star flower presumably symbolised that blossoming
fertility which was associated with the Sangraal.

The mediaeval mystics regarded as inseparable la bontl
et la sagesse : they drew no line between Science and
Religion, and in Fig. 229 we have a symbol of this
combination of goodness and wisdom. The conjunction
of goodness and beauty was symbolised by a jewelled ring,
as shown in Figs. 233 and 234. Green reproduces this

FIG. 233.— 1479.

FIG. 135. — 1 5th century.

FIG. 136.

ring emblem from Corrozet's Hecatomgraphie (1540) with
the motto, " Beauty the companion of goodness." He
thus translates the verse which accompanies it : —

" As for the precious stone,

The ring of gold is coined,
So beauty in its grace

Should be to goodness joined."

"THE PHILOSOPHER'S GOLD" 85

By the Old Masters, St. Catherine is oftentimes depicted
with a wheel in the second form of Fig. 235. This
particular mark is of singular interest, being that used by
the first recorded English papermaker, John Tate of
Hertford. Many Albigenses found an asylum in this
country, and with them they evidently brought — as did
their Huguenot successors of a later century — the knowledge
and practice of papermaking. English History knew them
under the name of Lollards, to whose scholarly and prolific
leader, John Wycliffe, we are indebted for the first English
translation of the Bible.

As we have seen, many of the Albigensian thinkers
veiled their philosophic notions in the garments of allegory
and romance. Just as they spiritualised chivalry, so
they infused their mystic teaching into that other great
feature of mediaeval Europe, Alchemy. There were,
of course, great chemists in the Middle Ages, but the
majority of printed treatises on Alchemy are palpably
religious essays in disguise. Title-pages such as The New
Pearl of Great Price, A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby,
An Easy Introduction to the Philosopher's Gold, and so
forth, are alone sufficient to arouse this suspicion ; but the
matter is placed beyond doubt by the assertions of the
Alchemists themselves. The allegorical character of Alchemy
is reiterated with pathetic insistence. " Do not blindly be-
lieve these and similar assertions of Basilius," his annotator
warns us, " but keep your eyes wide open." " Whatever
we read," says Cornelius Agrippa, "about the irresistible
powers of the Magic Art, or the wonderful sights of the
astrologers, will be found to be fables and lies as soon as
we take those things in their external and literal meaning.
Their external forms cover internal truths, and he who

86 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

desires to see those truths must be in possession of the
Divine light of Reason, which is in possession of very few."

" Let me entreat you," says Combachius in his Epistle
to the Reader , " to take notice that when you find any
mention made of heaven, earth, soul, spirits, or our heaven,
etc., these are not meant the celestial heaven or natural
earth, but terms used by the philosophers to obscure their
sayings from the wicked."

" I would have the courteous reader be here admonished,"
says Sendivogius, " that he understand my writings, not
so much from the outside of my words as from the
possibility of nature; lest afterwards he bewail his time,
pains, and cost all spent in vain."

" The philosophers," one writer tells us, " ever discourse
in parables and figures." " Let the studious reader," says
another, " have a care of the manifold significance of
words, for by deceitful windings and doubtful, yea,
contrary speeches (as it would seem), philosophers unfold
their mysteries with a desire of concealing and hiding the
truth from the unworthy."

Yet notwithstanding these emphatic warnings, the
Alchemists have been dismissed by History as charlatans
and impostors, as either dupes or knaves, and they stand
condemned for the " mystical trash " that they are
alleged to have let loose upon Europe. Hallam is con-
spicuous in his denunciation of " that unworthy innovator "
Paracelsus. He tells us that Agrippa had drunk deep at
"the turbid streams of Cabalistic philosophy," that his
system was the " mere creed of magical imposture," and
that in general influence the Alchemistical theories were
more pernicious than the technical pedantry of the Schools.

It must be admitted that the mannerisms of Alchemy

"THE PHILOSOPHERS GOLD' 87

are exasperating to a degree. We are informed by one
writer that the Sages " set pen to paper for the express
purpose of concealing their meaning. The sense of a whole
passage is often hopelessly obscured by the addition or
omission of one little word ; for instance, the addition of
the word ' not ' in the wrong place." Another author
unblushingly observes that " the Sages are in the habit of
using words which may convey either a true or a false
impression ; the former to their own disciples and
children ; the latter to the ignorant, the foolish, and the
unworthy."

In their endeavour to prevent their works being
thumbed by the inimical or the illiterate, mediaeval
philosophers took extraordinary precautions. " The cause
of this concealment among all wise men," says Roger
Bacon, " is the contempt and neglect of the secrets of
wisdom by the vulgar sort, who know not how to use
those things that are most excellent. Or if they do
conceive any worthy thing, it is altogether by chance and
fortune, and they do exceedingly abuse that their know-
ledge to the great damage and hurt of many men, yea,
even of whole societies ; so that he is worse than mad that
publisheth any secret, unless he conceal it from the multi-
tude, and in such wise deliver it that even the studious and
learned shall hardly understand it."

Happily the Sages are not always in this pessimistic
and unpromising mood. At times they are compara-
tively jocund, and jibe gently at us for our peevishness
and want of patience. " Our books," confesses one of
the writers, " are full of obscurity : philosophers write
horrid metaphors and riddles to those who are not upon
a sure foundation, which, like to a running stream, will

88 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

carry them down headlong into error and despair, from
which they can never escape till they so far understand our
writings as to discern the subject matter of our secrets,
which being known, the rest is not so hard."

The professed object of Alchemy was the quest of an
undefined and undefmable Something wherein was supposed
to be contained all the powers and potencies of Life, and
whatever makes Life worth living. The names given to
this mysterious Something were as many and various as
the properties it was alleged to possess. We find it
described as the Elixir of Life, the Water of Life, the
Universal Medicine, the Philosopher's Stone, the Stone of
Wisdom, the Essence, the One Thing, the Heavenly Balm,
the Divine Water, the Virgin Water, the Carbuncle of the
Sun, the Phcenix, and many other names.

Just as purity of thought and living were the first
essentials to the quest of the St. Grail, so do we find purity
and prayer set down as a sine qua non for Alchemical
aspirants. " First," as says Basil Valentine, " there should
be the vocation of God flowing from the depth of a pure
and sincere heart, and a conscience which should be free
from all ambition, hypocrisy and vice ; that, when a man
appears before the Throne of Grace, to regain the health of
his body, he may come with a conscience weeded of all
tares, and be changed into a pure temple of God cleansed of
all that defiles" The words italicised were expressed as
we have endeavoured to show by the symbol of the St.
Grail, and it is significant to find that in the version of
Wolfram von Eschenbach the St. Grail is represented not
as a vessel but a Stone.

It is not unreasonable to conclude, therefore, that the
Quest of the St. Grail and the Quest of the Philosopher's

"THE PHILOSOPHER'S GOLD" 89

Stone were interchangeable terms expressing identically the
same intellectual ideas.

Conversely we find the Alchemists referring to "our
true secret vessel and the Garden of the Sages." " The
philosophers," says Flammel, "have a garden where the
sun as well morning as evening remains with a most sweet
dew without ceasing, with which it is moistened ; whose
earth brings forth trees and fruits which are transplanted
thither, which also receive nourishment from the pleasant
meadows. And this is done daily: and there they are
corroborated and quickened without ever fading."

Here the allegory saute aux yeuxy and it is clear that
the Garden of the Sages, and the Orchard of the Rose, are
synonymous terms. According to the author of Alchemy
and the Alchemists, the Rose was the symbol of the
philosophic gold, and it is sufficiently obvious that the real
aim of Alchemy was the transmutation, not of lead into
gold, but of the baser metals of Man's soul into the
Gold of Virtue. The Alchemists themselves assert
this as plainly as they dared. " Our Art," says one,
" only arrogates to itself the power of developing
through the removal of all defects and superfluities, the
golden nature which the baser metals possess." Again,
another affirms, " the elements are to be so conjoined that
the nobler and fuller life may be produced." The means
by which this Magnum Opus is to be accomplished are
thus expressed by Paracelsus, " To grasp the invisible
elements, to attract them by their material correspondences,
to control, purify, and transform them by the living power
of the Spirit — this is true Alchemy."

As Mr Pattison Muir correctly says, " These say-
ings read like sentences in a forgotten tongue. We are

90 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

in a different world. There is nothing even remotely
resembling what one finds in a modern book on chemistry."
The humour of the situation lies in our British method of
employing a Professor of modern Chemistry to edit treatises
which belong to an entirely different category — to the
world of Mysticism. The forgotten tongue in which these
treatises are written, is a lost language of Symbolism, an
Art forced into use by the persecution to which all free
thought was then exposed. This language was called by the
Alchemists their Lingua magica, Lingua Angelorum, and
sometimes Lingua ipsius Ternarii Sancti. " This tongue,"
writes the author si An Easy Introduction to the Philosopher's
Gold^ " is not only absolutely necessary and wisely fitted
to veil Nature's secrets from the unworthy and prophane,
but is also bravely proportioned to the intellectual imagina-
tions of man." It was evolved from the belief that the
material universe is nothing but a manifestation of a
spiritual counterpart whence it derives its existence. " The
sages," says Michael Sendivogius, "have been taught by
God that this natural world is only an image and material
copy of the heavenly and spiritual pattern ; that the very
existence of this world is based upon the reality of its
heavenly archetype."

The symbolic language employed by papermakers was
a consistent code based, as has been seen, upon the char-
acteristics of the objects employed. This same simple and
coherent system was, as we shall show, also utilised by
printers ; but the symbols employed by the Alchemists seem
unhappily to have been selected by the arbitrary choice of
each writer who left readers to puzzle out the meaning as
best they could. The difficulty of unravelling an Alchemist's
true purport is therefore immensely increased. The

"THE PHILOSOPHER'S GOLD" 91

mysterious " agent " by which the gold of the Philosophers
was to be produced, has as many names as the Stone itself;
and it is hardly a subject for surprise that the Grand
Arcanum of the Sages was by many of their contemporaries
ridiculed as an elaborate hoax. Frequently we are told
that the Agent was Mercury — but not the ordinary
Mercury. " Supplement your common Mercury with the
inward fire which it needs, and you will soon get rid of
all superfluous dross." Speaking generally, it will be
found that by whatever term the Agent is named, it is
merely a synonym for that elusive and indefinable faculty
in the mind called " Conscience." Sometimes the Agent
is Love. " Love is of a transmuting and transform-
ing nature. The great effect of Love is to turn all things
into its own nature, which is all goodness, sweetness and
perfection. Where it meets with a barren and heathy
desert, it transmutes it into a Paradise of Delight ; yea, it
changeth evil into good, and all imperfection into perfection.
It is the Divine Stone, the White Stone with the name
written on it which no one knows but he who hath it.
In a word it is the Divine Nature, it is God Himself,
whose essential property it is to assimilate all things with
Himself, by means of this Divine Elixir whose trans-
forming power and efficacy nothing can withstand." We
are told that it is quite possible for poor men to manu-
facture the Philosopher's Stone, and that he who has once
obtained the right Augmentum, has met with the infallible
Verity, the incorruptible Tincture, "yea, with an infinite
Treasure, and needs the help of no other Instructor." The
Alchemists distinguish significantly between common Gold
and " Our Gold," between Mercury and the " Mercury of
the Philosophers," Sulphur and the " heavenly Sulphur of

92 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

him whose eyes are opened." Frequently the expressions
are so plain as to compel the commonest dullard to divine
their meaning. " Oh foolishness ! Oh blindness of mind ! "
ejaculates one writer, " can common salt be the Soap of the
Philosopher ? Can common Saturn ever become our
ponderous Ruby Star, our Red Fixed Eagle, our Red
Fixed Sulphur of Sol, or our Fixed Salamander ever living
in the Fire ? "

Again, says Basil Valentine, " Alas, if men only had
eyes to see and ears to hear, not merely what I say, but
to understand the secret meaning, they would no longer
drink those turbid and unwholesome potions, but would
hasten hither and receive the limpid water of the well of
life. It is my design to show that those great doctors
who think themselves wise, are very fools, while my book
may make many foolish and unlearned persons the
depositaries of true wisdom. All men, who are real lovers
of knowledge and humbly seek after it by day and by
night, are herewith cordially invited to listen to my
teaching, to pore over my book with the greatest care,
and thereby obtain the desire of their hearts. Their
gratitude will, after my death, raise me from the grave
and render my name immortal."

The Editor of the Latin edition of Valentine's
Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, published at Amsterdam
in 1685, observes that "At the time when Basilius wrote,
the ignorance of certain physicians [of the soul, i.e. the
clergy ?] was so great that they administered as medicines
many poisons [mental ?] in their raw and unpurified state,
and ignorantly proscribed the means by which the
Alchemists rendered them truly salutary to the human
system. Against these pseudo doctors [of Divinity?]

-THE PHILOSOPHER'S GOLD" 93

honest Basilius and his friends were wont to inveigh with
the greatest sharpness [preached acutely ?]. But in this
imperfect world truth is not necessarily victorious, and
though the Alchemists had the better cause, their
opponents had the advantage of numbers." Just as
the Perfecti were hounded from town to town, so the
Alchemists were chivied relentlessly over the face of
Europe. Allusions to their brutal and sanguinary
surroundings are of constant occurrence. " I dare affirm,"
says one, "that I do possess more riches than the whole
known world is worth, but cannot make use thereof
because of the snares of knaves." Clearly he is re-
ferring to the Treasure of Heaven, for he continues, "I
disdain, I loathe, this idolising of gold and silver by the
price and vanity whereof the pomp and vanities of the
world are celebrated. Ah, filthy evil ! ah, vain nothing-
ness ! Believe ye that I conceal these things out of envy ?
No, surely, for I protest to thee that I grieve from the
very bottom of my soul that we are driven, as it were,
like outcasts from the face of the Lord throughout the
earth. We travel through many nations just like vaga-
bonds, and dare not take upon ourselves the care of a
family, neither do we possess any fixed habitation. And
although we possess all things, yet can we use but a few.
What, therefore, are we happy in, excepting speculation
and meditation only. Many do believe (that are strangers
to the art) that if they should enjoy it they would do such
and such things ; so also even we did formerly believe,
but being grown more wary by the hazard we have run,
we have chosen a more secret method. For whosoever
hath once escaped imminent peril of his life, he will, believe
me, become more wise for the time to come."

94 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Although the preceding extracts make it evident that
many religious men employed the terminology of Alchemy
in a transfigured and spiritual sense, it is equally certain
that many Alchemists pursued chemical experiment for its
own sake, and some seem to have acquired extraordinary
powers. " I am of opinion from the evidence in hand,"
affirms the scholarly and judicious A. E. Waite, " that
metallic transmutations did occur in the past." This is, how-
ever, a branch of the subject into which it is unnecessary to
digress. The ethical Alchemists deprecate " that ungodly
and accursed goldmaking which hath gotten so much the
upper hand." " The Alchemists," says van Suchten, " I
understand not here," he flings off with a fine scorn, " those
sots who promise riches to others yet are themselves
beggars." Again, speaking of false Alchemists and their
fruitless toil, he says : " I answer that this noble art requires
a sound man; all these have been sick. They have had
the gold sickness 'which hath darkened their senses^ so that
they could not understand the terms which the wise men
use in the description of the Art ; seeking only with hot
desire that which they shall never find. But what is to be
found, that they seek not; therefore they work in vain.
Who is to be blamed, the Art or the artist, that they
understand nothing ? Alchemy is a pure and uncorrupted
Virgin [see Figs. 145 and 146]; she casts off the sensual
man, and will have an intellectual one ; of whom at present
I see but few."

I have allowed these Alchemistical philosophers to state
their case as far as possible in their own language. To
have paraphrased it would not only have impaired its charm,
but have weakened its power to convince. The Muse of
History has, I am persuaded, judged them superficially and

"THE PHILOSOPHER'S GOLD" 95

with egregious unfairness. " Instead of useful work, " says
a leading Encyclopaedia, " they compiled mystical trash into
books, and fathered them on Hermes, Aristotle, Albertus
Magnus, Paracelsus, and other really great men. Their
language is a farrago of mystical metaphors. Those who
had attained full insight into the arcana of the science were
called Wise ; those who were only striving after the light
were Philosophers ; while the ordinary practisers of the art
were called Adepts. ... It is from this degenerate and
effete school that the prevailing notion of Alchemy is derived
— a notion which is unjust to the really meritorious Alchemists
who paved the way for genuine chemistry." Whether
or no these sentiments represent the final verdict of History
remains to be seen. For my part, I prefer to accept these
old philosophers at their own estimation of each other,
which is expressed in the following dedication from The
Triumphal Chariot of Alchemy : —

TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS
VENERABLE, SAINTLY AND BLESSED

MEN

ADEPTS OF THE TRUE PHILOSOPHY

LOVERS OF VIRTUE

LORDS OF FORTUNE

DESPISERS OF THE WORLD

WHOSE LIFE IS HOLINESS IN HOLINESS

KNOWLEDGE IN KNOWLEDGE

AND WHOSE WORK CONSISTS IN THE

RELIEVING OF THE SICK

AND POOR

CHAPTER VII

THE KABBALAH

THE most remarkable of the many philosophers who
adopted the terminology of Alchemy, was perhaps that
marvellous shoemaker, Jacob Bohme, or as sometimes spelt
Behmen. In his Lives of the Alchemistical Philosophers,
Mr A. E. Waite writes : " The publication of the writings
of Jacob Bohme caused the Alchemists who were his con-
temporaries to fear that their art could not much longer
remain a secret, and that the mystic vase in particular would
be shortly revealed to all. This vase was the VAS INSIGNE
ELECTIONIS, namely MAN, who is the only all-containing
subject, and who alone has need to be investigated for the
eventual discovery of all."

FIG. 237. — 1 8th century.

In Fig. 237 we have the VAS PHILOSOPHORUM, with

the word VAS beneath.

THE KABBALAH 97

The lettering which occurs so generally on watermarks
forms a highly interesting branch of the study. It is a
comparatively easy matter to distinguish between the names
or initials of the manufacturers and those supplementary
inscriptions which in many cases form an essential portion
of the emblem. For instance, in the facsimile on p. 35,
which represents a complete sheet of paper, " FRANCESCO
POLLERI," is manifestly the name of the maker, the word
" LIBERT AS " (a daring watchword for those days), and the
letters "SAD P," presumably bearing some additional
signification. Again in Fig. 82 the letters "I S " may
reasonably be assumed to stand for J(ESUS) S(ALVATOR), the
two letters underneath the design denoting the manu-
facturer. To distinguish correctly between these two
classes of lettering requires a certain amount of care. A
great variety of manufacturer's initials is to be expected,
in any case among French marks, as by an Ordinance
passed in 1582 every Master papermaker was compelled to
identify his own products by watermarking into each sheet
either his full name or the initials of his Christian and
surname. It appears to have been customary for a great
number of small papermills to cluster together in the same
neighbourhood, presumably where good water existed.
In many cases these little mills seem to have possessed
but one vat, and to have been run by only three or four
individuals, sometimes not more than the members of one
family. Their output was apparently collected by factors,
who rarely troubled to keep separate the different makings ;
hence it is a common occurrence to meet with thirty or forty
different papermarks in a single volume. The St. Grail
was a favourite device among the papermakers of Auvergne.
In the year 1567 there existed in this district twenty-seven

98 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

papermills. In 1577 no less than fifty small mills were
destroyed, as they formed a hindrance to military operations.
In 1717, within the same area, fifty-seven mills were re-
corded as working, forty-two as disused and empty, and
twenty as being in ruins.

It is probable, therefore, that many of the initials on
St. Grail papermarks represent merely the Christian and
surnames of the makers ; but not necessarily so in all cases.
In Fig. 172, for example, the lettering is obviously the
sacred monogram, and beneath Figs. 208 and 209 we have
the phrase " May God protect it."

As has already been noted, the religious and intellectual
freedom of Provence attracted thither large numbers of
persecuted Jews. One of the reasons for the nefarious
Albigensian crusade was that the district harboured
" Jews, Mohammedans, Infidels and Heretics." There is
little reason to doubt that the fires of persecution fused
Jew and Heretic into a fellowship of sympathy and
philosophy.

Now the more spiritually-minded among the Jews
cherished a secret system of Theology and Metaphysics,
which was known as the Kabbalah, Qabalah, or Cabala,
words derived from the root QBL, meaning "to receive."
Just as the Albigensian creed was a revolt against the
formalism and materialism of Roman Catholicism, so the
Jewish Kabbalah sprang from weariness of the dead letter,
and represented a reaction against the petrified Judaism of
the Rabbis. It became, we are told, " a means of handing
down from one generation to another hidden truths, religious
notions, secrets of nature, ideas of cosmogony and facts of
History in a form which was unintelligible to the uninitiated ;
and the revealing of the secrets and the methods of inter-

THE KABBALAH 99

pretation were veiled in mystery and only to be approached
through Religion."

The resemblance between certain features of the Kabbalah
and the Christian Trinity induced some Jews to turn
Christians, and made many speculative Christians favour-
ably inclined towards the Kabbalah. The great Reuchlin is
a conspicuous example of the many keen minds, such as
Picus of Mirandola, "justly called the Phoenix of his age,"
which became converts to cabbalistic teaching. From
whatever point it may be viewed, the Kabbalah is seen to
be of profound importance. It is a link with literatures
which are greater than itself, and entered, especially during
the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, very deeply into
the thought of Europe. According to Mr Waite, it was
responsible for much of the strange tissue of symbolism and
ceremonial that made up the Magic of the Middle Ages,
and at a later period " it sought to transform Alchemy."

The points of contact between the Kabbalah and the
Albigensian Church of the Holy Spirit are therefore so
numerous that the two systems may be said at times to
merge completely into one another.

Among the arts of the Kabbalah was one known as
notaricon. This consisted of constructing phrases, each
letter of which formed the initial letter of a word. For
instance, the name HIRAM was read by the mystics as
meaning H(OMO) J(ESUS) R(EDEMPTOR) A(NI) M(ARUM) :
others applied the meaning H(OMO) J(ESUS) A(LTISSIMUS)
M(UNDI) : others again added a C to the Hiram in order to
make it CH(RISTUS) J(ESUS), etc. Our everyday word
AMEN is a survival of a Kabbalistic phrase, and in modern
Freemasonary are to be found further survivals. I am told
that the sacred TAU is read by Masons to mean T(HE)

ioo NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

A(UTHOR) (OF THE) U(NIVERSE). Dr Oliver mentions the
letters STOTA as signifying S(upremo) T(otius) O(rbis)
T(errarum) A(rchitecto). Another term employed to
denote the Deity is TGAOTU, which is resolvable into the simple
phrase T(HE) G(REAT) A(UTHOR) O(F) T(HE) U(NIVERSE).

Dante made frequent use of this Kabbalistic system of
notaricon, concealing beneath outwardly simple words
meanings which were perfectly well understood by his
fellow conspirators. " How ingenious," exclaims Gabriele
Rossetti, " were the mystic writers with their double inter-
pretations ! Who would ever guess that those two words
THAJU and BICE contain a sense so dangerous ? In every
sectarian work we find examples of combined letters such as
TnAyu and BICE the initials of so many words which convey
important meanings. The sacred word SHI is divided into
its elements and becomes three. The initial letters are the
Sacred Word. Dante made use of such initials not only in
his BICE and his EL, but we will here bring forward some
which he wrote in common with coeval authors belonging
to the secret school." Rossetti then cites the combinations
TAL and ALTRI.

It is obvious that many papermarked inscriptions are
kindred concoctions conveying similarly occult meanings.

FIG. Z37A. — 1736. FIG. 138. — 1665.

Many of them consist simply of initials divided by hearts,
such as Figs. 237 A and 238. No papermakers ever bore
such surnames as Ico, or HIPI, or PHO, or MIOVSPI. Com-

THE KABBALAH

101

mencing from solitary initials we find phrases being gradually
built up such as follows : —

PHO. PHOMO

1C.

ICO. ICONARD

RC. RCONARD.

IRQ.

I ROD.

MIO.

MIOVSPI

HIPI

PEHIEH

RCONCANSIN

We see from the initial letter herewith that the twisted
pillars were the emblem of Piety and Justice. It is there-
fore perhaps permissible to read the inscription PEHIEH as
P(ietate) E(t) I(usticia) H(omo) E(st) H(ierosolymitanus).

FIG. 239.
th century.

|<3 PEHIEH)

FIG. 240.
i6th century (?).

FIG. 141. — Initial.
Paris, 1671.

By Piety and Justice Man becomes an inhabitant of the
New Jerusalem.1 The transposition of the H and I is, I
think, justifiable, for the reason that the practice of
anagrammatising was one of the arts of the Kabbalah

1 I was told by the late Dr Wm. Krisch that the letters H. P. might be read
Hierosolyma peto = I seek the New Jerusalem. The word Hierosolymitanus, i.e. a
hierosolymite, or inhabitant of the sacred Jerusalem, is used by St Augustine. See
Murray's New English Dictionary.

102 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

FIG. 243. — 1469.

FIG. 244. — 1461.

FIG. 245.— 1395. FIG. 246. — 1440. FIG 247.— 1548.

FIG 248.— 1411. FIG. 249.— 1526. FIG. 250 1587.

THE KABBALAH

10.

FIG. 151. — 1403.

FIG. 255. — 1471.

FIG. 152—1385. FIG. 253.— 1578. FIG. 254--1546.

040

olo

FIG. 257. — 1406.

FIG. 258. — 1408.

known under the term Tbemura. In Fig. 242 we have a
rude but unmistakable figure of Justice holding her sword
and balance. Piety and justice were also
among the meanings attributed to the
Fleur-de-Lys. The Lily, according to
Dr Mackey, " is the symbol of divinity,
of purity, and abundance, and of a love
142.— 15 75. most complete in perfection, charity, and
benediction, . . . hence the Lily's three
leaves in the arms of France meaneth PIETY, JUSTICE, and
CHARITY."

Important meanings were attached by the Kabbalah
not only to numbers — such as the sacred " 4 " — but to the
various letters of the alphabet singly and in combination.

The significance of the letter Y has already been noted.
G was regarded as a synonym of the Hebrew Yod, and
implied the Architect of the Universe. The letter P stood
for P boded, the Redeemer. D was the symbol of growth
and expansion. But by far the most sacred of all letters
was M, which was regarded as both feminine and masculine.
It was made to symbolise water, the great Deep, and
stands as a glyph for the waves, thus /w . In Figs.
251 to 255 we have papermarks of this sacred M. In its
ordinary aspect this was an emblem of the Virgin Mary,
but the Virgin Mary undoubtedly symbolised Mare^ the
cleansing and ever pure Sea ; whence arose the Catholic
saying that the Ave of Mary reverses the curse of Eva.
Observe how in Fig. 256 the designer has surrounded his
two swords with the Mundane Egg, at the head of which
is the Trinity. Observe the wavy line of the Spirit
descending until it forms S S whence it arises. Lest
we should misunderstand this wavy line, the artist has

THE KABBALAH 105

tacked on an identifying M. In Figs. 257 and 258 the
designer has ingeniously combined the M of Mare and the
Tail of Salvation.

Beneath Fig. 259 herewith will be noticed a curious
inscription, of which the final portion reads LE GARD. As

FIG. 156. — iyth century. FIG. 259. — 1640.

we have met elsewhere with the phrase DIEU LE GARD, the
thought at once arises that the Kabbalistic >W is
another mode of expressing DIEU. It is, I think, un-
questionably a monogram of the letters A U M, the U being
written as was then customary V, and the M being
extended into the glyph /\A/ = /\v/w. The second
A is probably to enable the mystic phrase to be read
backwards and forwards. In Faust 'us , Marlowe refers to
" Jehovah's Name, forward and backward anagram-
matiz'd."

Now the three letters A U M denoting Creation,
Conservation, and Transformation constituted a mystic
word standing for the unutterable Name of the Creator.
It is to be found in the doctrines and ceremonial of other
nations, as well as among the Jews. It is said to have
been used as a password in the Egyptian Mysteries. In

106 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

the Rites of Hindoostan it was bestowed upon the aspirant
under the triliteral form ,.-, ,, at the completion of his

initiation, and then only by whispering it in his ear.

The complicated mark under which the phrase
Aumlegard occurs is generally to be found in sheets of
paper watermarked with a St. Grail, and is apparently
a symbolic representation of the method by which Man
may become regenerate, and hence a Temple of the Holy
Spirit. The two emblems are complementary to each
other, and epitomise the Hermetic Art. The Alchemists
held there was a duality in Man. " Our art," said they,
" is to compound two principles." " If they are united,"
says Ripley in his Compound of Alchemy, " they will
certainly operate one upon the other, and alter and change
each other from thing to thing, and from state to state,
until all come to one Nature and Substance Regenerate,
which is a new Heavenly Body. . . . Thus they who sow in
tears shall reap in joy, and he who goeth forth mourning
and carrying precious seed shall -return with an abundance
of increase, with their hands filled with sheaves and their
mouths with the praises of the Lord."

Under the veiling terms, " sun and moon," " active and
passive," " agent and patient," and hundreds of other
similar expressions, the mediaeval philosophers indicated
this twofold character, and remind us of the ancient saying
that Man is a charioteer driving a light and a dark horse.
Swedenborg expressed the same duality by the terms
" Will " and " Understanding," by the reconcilement of
which man becomes an angel. In Freemasonry the same
idea seems to be conveyed by the two Pillars of the Porch,
i.e. the twin natures that stand in the threshold of the

THE KABBALAH

107

temple of man's soul. It was taught by a school of
philosophers that the Mediator, the only means of AT-ONE-
MENT between the dual and conflicting principles of man, was
Christ — the personification of the SPIRIT OF TRUTH. Thus
the anonymous editor of an edition of the works of Fenelon,
issued in 1723, writes: "It is in this double purification

Fro. 260. — i yth century.

FIG. 261. — 1640.

Fio. 263 — 1641.

FIG. 264.
1 7th century.

FIG. 265.
1 7th century.

of the understanding and of the will that the interior life
consists, and it is God alone that can operate by His
action, immediate and central. It is He alone as Light
and Love that can dispel the darkness of our souls and fix
the agitations of our hearts." The watermarks herewith
are perfect emblems of this AT-ONE-MENT. The two
pillars or principles, it will be observed, are in every case

io8 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

connected to each other by symbols of the Divine, either
the Grapes, i.e. the True Vine, the Trefoil of the Trinity,
or by initials that denote the Deity. We are told that
C typified " the Omnipotent and Eternal Author of the
Universe, having neither beginning nor ending. It also
calls to our remembrance the grand and awful Hereafter
or Futurity, where we hope to enjoy endless bliss and
everlasting life."

A and B formed the word AB, which signified God the
Father ; A and L formed the syllable AL, which signified

FIG. 266 — i7th century.

FIG. 267. — 1641.

FIG. 268 — 1636.

FIG. 269. — i yth century.

FJG. 270. — 1 7th century.

The Word; LB meant Spirit, and BAL meant Lord.
By various combinations of A, B, C, and L, the Kabbalists
formed sentences reading Father-Lord, Word-Lord, Spirit-

THE KABBALAH 109

Lord, and so forth. " By three" says the author of Alchemy
and the Alchemists, " they add to the two principles a third
as the tie pf the two, which is really the one, which, with
the two, makes their trinity of principles, 3 in i."

The letter R in Fig. 262 may, I think, safely be read
as R(edemptor). The large A's supporting the grapes in
Figs. 260, 269 and 270 are probably Alphas. Whether
the curly bases to these emblems are intended to represent
Omegas is not so apparent.

It should be borne in mind that emblems were always
intended as Thought stimulators. Each designer took a
delight in expressing his own ideas, either by modifying
or elaborating the designs of his co-workers. Quarles'
definition of an emblem as a silent parable may be accepted
as excellent, but it follows that each parable — some
of them are compact essays in Philosophy — requires
close study and most guarded interpretation. Doubtless
these emblems of the AT-ONE-MENT contain deeper
meanings than any I have been able to suggest, but I
think the following verses, written sometime prior to 1677,
practically sum up their teaching.

A STRING OF PEARLS

God's spirit falls on me like dewdrops on a rose,

If I but like a rose my heart to Him unclose ;

The soul wherein God dwells — what church can holier be ?

Becomes a walking tent of heavenly majesty.

Lo ! in the silent night a child to God is born,

And all is brought again that ere was lost or lorn ;

Could but thy soul, O man, become a silent night,

God would once more be born in thee and set all things right.

no NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Ye know GOD but as Lord, hence Lord His name with ye ;
I feel Him but as LOVE, hence Love His name with me !
How far from here to heaven ? Not very far, my friend ;
A single hearty step will all thy journey end.

Though Christ a thousand times in Bethlehem be born,
If He's not born in thee, thy soul is all forlorn j
The Cross on Golgotha will never save thy soul ;
The Cross in thine own heart alone can make thee whole.

Christ rose not from the dead, Christ is still in the grave,
If thou for whom He died art still of sin the slave.
Hold there ! Where runnest thou ? Know Heaven is in thee
Seekest thou for God elsewhere, His face thou'lt never see.

In all eternity no love can be so sweet
As where man's heart with God in unison doth beat.
Whate'er thou lovest, man, that, too, become thou must ;
Good if thou lovest good — dust if thou lovest dust.

Ah ! would the heart be but a manger for the birth,
God would once more become a little child on earth '
Immeasurable is the Highest ; who but knows it ?
And yet a human heart can perfectly enclose it !

CHAPTER VIII

THE INVENTION OF PRINTING

IT is remarkable that the early History of Printing is
wrapped in an obscurity almost as profound as that
enveloping Papermaking. Four centuries of keen
research have not enabled Historians to determine with any
certainty either the date of its invention, the country where it
was first practised, or the name of the first printer. That
printing — the most epoch-making of all the industrial Arts
— should have been thus suddenly and mysteriously sprung
upon Europe without a hint as to its origin, is evidence
that the inventor or introducer was sufficiently self-
sacrificing to put forward no claim for recognition — a
claim which by means of his own new born art he might
so easily have maintained.

In my remaining chapters, I design to show that
certainly many of the mediaeval printers were Albigensian
in their principles, and that in all probability the obscurity
that surrounds them is due to the reticence and self-
sacrifice inculcated by their philosophy. Like Fenelon
they seem to have adopted the maxim " Love to be
unknown," and like Sir Thomas Browne they made a
total adieu to the world, not caring for a monument,
history, or epitaph, not so much as the memory of their
names to be found anywhere but in the universal Register
of God.

ii2 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

It will be borne in mind that Papermaking is nearly
200 years older than Printing, and that it was almost
entirely in the hands of the industrious Albigenses seems
to be clearly indicated. As makers of paper the Albigenses
must necessarily have come into close relations with the
men who used and bought paper from them, and there is
therefore nothing surprising or irrational in the suggestion
that printers were deeply tinctured with Albigensian ideas.

When the Labour-loving and Light-loving heretics were
exiled by successive persecutions, many of them undoubtedly
followed the pre-typographic art of scrivenery. Richard
de Bury in his Philobiblon mentions that " there was
always about us in our halls no small assemblage of
antiquaries, scribes, book-binders, correctors, illuminators, and
generally of all such persons as were qualified to labour in
the service of books." In 1403 there was already formed
in London a Society or Brotherhood of the Craft of
Writers of Text Letter and "those commonly called
Limners," or Illuminators. Unfortunately my opportunities
of examining illuminated MSS. have not been favourable,
but even the few specimens that have come under my
notice reveal many indications of their workmanship in the
form of Albigensian emblems woven into the initials and
borders.

The intermediate stage between engrossing and modern
printing is represented by the so-called Block-books, that
is to say, books printed not from movable types, but
from engraved blocks of wood or metal. It is a signifi-
cant fact that the earliest of all the Block Books was
the Biblia Pauper um or Bible of the Poor, so called
because it was designed for the edification of those who
could not afford the exorbitant prices required for ordinary

manuscript copies. It is not known who was responsible
for the inception of this work, which was reissued later
from Bamberg, Paris and Vienna. Again the unknown
benefactor was superior to praise or fame.

The earliest reference to printing from movable types
occurs in a fifteenth-century document discovered at
Avignon. Therein it appears that a silversmith of Prague
was experimenting in printing at Avignon in 1444, and had
undertaken to cut a set of Hebrew types for a Jew whom
he had previously instructed in the art of printing. No
specimens of his work are known, but the reference is
important in that it associates Hebrew with printing.

At this period Hebrew was a dangerous thing to
handle. When Reuchlin (1455-1522) in his earlier days
lectured upon it, he had to do so in secrecy for fear of the
monks. The Jews, evermore an accursed race, had
crucified Jesus Christ : what could be plainer than that
anyone who dabbled in their language was an outcast and a
heretic ? When Reuchlin pointed out errors in the Vulgate,
derived from mistranslations of the original, and was
rebuked for so doing, he answered in the spirit of Dante
and Galileo, " I revere St Jerome as an Angel ; 1 respect
De Lyra as a Master ; but I adore TRUTH as a God."

The prominence and intellectuality of Reuchlin rendered
him obnoxious to the Church. Moreover, he was a
Kabbalist ; and had taught a Canon of Bamberg how to
discover in a single verse of Exodus the seventy-two
Kabbalistic names of God. If, as the monkish saying went,
every good grammarian was a heretic, how much more a
scholar who smutted himself with such unlawful learning ?

So strong became the clerical feeling against Reuchlin
that a contemptible trap was laid for his undoing. He was

ii4 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

required by the Archbishop of Mainz to express his opinion
on the vital question whether all Hebrew Books, except the
Old Testament, ought not forcibly to be taken from the
Jews and burned P1 Reuchlin's characteristic reply was
" that the Jews' books should not be burned, but that with
reasonable debate they should with God's help be gently
and kindly brought over to our Faith."

New batteries of bigotry were unmasked by this reply.
Behind the Archbishop were seen to be the Order of the
Dominicans, and behind the Dominicans the Inquisition,
with all of whom it became no longer a question of Hebrew
literature, but of bringing Reuchlin to book for his damnable
and pernicious heresies.

It is unnecessary to go into details of the prolonged
struggle that ensued. For six years the controversy was
waged with the extremest bitterness. On the side of
Reuchlin rallied all the poets and scholars of the age,
knowing his cause to be their own. They defended him
in prose and verse, by serious argument and by scath-
ing satire. " Salve Rcuchlinista " became a common form
of address in speech and writing, and says Dr Beard, " The
printers and booksellers were on the same side : the
complaint was made both then and later that the conser-
vative party did not receive fair play from the new art of
printing. It was a struggle to the death, the young men
against the old, the classics against the schoolmen, scholar-
ship against ignorance, light against darkness." In our own
country a similar battle was being fought on a smaller scale.
An Ecclesiastic, preaching at St Paul's Cross, is reported
to have said : " We must root out printing, or printing will
root out us." The mediaeval censorship of the printing

1 On two occasions in History the Talmud was thus confiscated and burned.

THE INVENTION OF PRINTING 115

press arose from the jealousy of the clergy, who opposed the
spread of education, partly because they saw that a little
knowledge was a dangerous thing, but mainly because they
feared their own prestige would suffer. This feeling existed
before the invention of printing, the penalty in this country
for reading scripture in the vernacular being forfeiture by
the offenders and their heirs for ever of land, cattle, body,
life and goods. They were further condemned as Heretics
to God, enemies to the Crown, and most errant traitors to
the land : they were refused right of sanctuary, and if they
persisted in their offence or relapsed after a pardon, were first
hanged for treason against the king, and then burned for
Heresy towards God. Thus the clergy upheld and en-
couraged a censorship of the press.

The first production of Blockbook printing was, as has
been mentioned, a poor man's Bible. The first known book1
printed from movable types was the wonderful specimen
of workmanship known as the " Mazarin " Bible (1455).
" It is," says Hallam, " a very striking circumstance that
the high-minded inventors of this great art [printing] tried
at the very outset so bold a flight as the printing an entire
Bible, and executed it with astonishing success. It was
Minerva leaping on earth in her divine strength, and radiant
armour, ready at the moment of her nativity to subdue and
destroy her enemies." The first " prophane " author who
was honoured by being put into type was William
Durandus of Provence, from whose Rationale printed in

1459 I have so frequently quoted. Although good
grammar was esteemed ecclesiastically as " Heresy," in

1460 the Latin Grammar and Dictionary entitled Catholicon
was published at Maintz. The printer's " note " to this

1 The first known specimen of type printing is a Papal Indulgence.

n6 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

work ran significantly as follows, " By the assistance of
the Most High, at Whose will the tongues of children
become eloquent, and Who often reveals to babes what He
hides from the wise, this renowned book, the Catbolicon^
was printed and perfected in the year of the Incarnation
1460, in the beloved city of Mentz (which belongs to the
illustrious German nation, whom God has consented to prefer
and to raise with such an exalted light of the mind and
free grace, above the other nations of the earth), not by
means of reed, stile, or pen, but by the admirable propor-
tion, harmony, and connection of the punches and types."

Thus the art of printing was from its cradle not only
the Handmaid of practical religion, symbolism, and the New
Learning, but we find it peculiarly identified with Mysticism.
Between the years 1474 and 1500 were issued no less than
eighty editions of The Imitation of Christ^ a work which
according to Dean Milman gathers and concentres in its
pages all that is elevating, passionate and profoundly pious
in all the older mystics. Strangely enough the authorship
of this enormously popular and comparatively modern work
is so obscure that it is still the subject of controversy.

Thomas a Kempis (1379-1471), the author to whom it
is popularly assigned, was one of a fraternity known as
The Brethren of the Common Life, obviously an offshoot
of Albigensianism. The Brethren took no irrevocable
vows, but lived simply and earned their bread " by
teaching children and by copying books."

" The first Brussels press," says Miss Rawlings, " was
established by the Brethren of the Common Life, a com-
munity who had hitherto made a speciality of the production
of manuscript books. At what date they began to print in
Brussels is uncertain, but their first dated book, the Gnoto-

THE INVENTION OF PRINTING 117

so/if os sive speculum consclentitf, is of the year 1476. The
Brethren also had an earlier press at Marienthal, near Mentz,
and subsequently set up others at Rostock, Nuremburg, and
Gouda."

Their services to education are wholly beyond com-
putation. Among their members is to be numbered not
only Thomas a Kempis, but John Wessel (b. 1420), who
wandered as scholar and teacher throughout Europe, and
by his learning and character earned the title of " Lux
Mundi" A pupil of a Kempis was Rudolf Agricola
(d. 1485), "who deserves to be called the restorer of Greek
learning in Germany." Another pupil was Dringenberg,
who in 1450 founded a school which soon numbered 900
pupils, and " was the centre from which the new learning
spread itself along the upper Rhine." Another formed
a similar school at Munster, while yet another had the
supreme glory of tutoring the youthful Erasmus.

Not only were the Albigenses known in German
History as the " Brethren of the Common Life," but we
meet with them under terms such as Hussites, Lollards,
Brethren of the Free Spirit, Homines Intelligently, Francis-
cans (founded by the ex-Troubadour, St Francis of Assisi),
Friends of God ; and Waldenses. So honeycombed was
Europe by these Heretics that it was said a Waldensian
travelling from Antwerp to Rome could sleep every night
at the house of a fellow believer.

In his Hours •with the Mystics, R. A. Vaughan gives
some interesting pen pictures of German mysticism in the
fourteenth century. From his imaginary chronicle of a
Strasburg armourer, I extract the following : —

" It seems but yesterday that he and I were boys to-
gether, taking our reading and writing lessons from that

poor old Waldensian whom my father sheltered in our
house. How we all loved him ! I never saw my father so
troubled at anything as at his death. Our house has been
ever since a refuge for such persecuted wanderers.

" The wrath of Popes, prelates, and inquisitors hath been
especially kindled of late years against sundry communities,
sects, and residues of sects, which are known by the name
of Beghards, Beguines, Lollards, Kathari, Fratficelli, Brethren
of the Free Spirit, etc. Councils, they tell me, have been
held at Cologne, Mayence, and Narbonne, to suppress the
Beghards. Yet their numerous communities in the Nether-
lands and the Rhineland are a blessing to the poor folk, to
whom the hierarchy are a curse. The clergy are jealous of
them. They live single, they work with their hands, they
nurse the sick, they lay out the dead, they lead a well-
ordered and godly life in their Beguinasia, under the
Magister or Magistra ; but they are bound by no vows,
fettered by no harassing minutiae of austerity, and think
the liberty of the Spirit better than monkish servitude.
Some of them have fallen into the notions of those
enthusiastic Franciscans who think the end of the world
at hand, and that we live in, or near, the days of Antichrist.
And no wonder, when the spiritual heads of Christendom
are so unchristian. There are some sturdy beggars who
wander about the country availing themselves of the name
of Beghard to lead an idle life. These I excuse not. They
say some of these Beghards claim the rank of apostles — that
they have subterranean rooms, where both sexes meet to
hear blasphemous preachers announce their equality with
God. Yea, worse charges than these — even of grossest
lewdness — do they bring. I know many of them, both
here and at Cologne, but nothing of this sort have I seen,

THE INVENTION OF PRINTING 119

or credibly heard of. They are the enemies of clerical pomp
and usurpation, and some, I fear, hold strange fantastical
notions, coming I know not whence. But the churchmen
themselves are at fault, and answerable for it all. They
leave the artisans and labourers in besotted ignorance, and
when they do get a solitary religious idea that comes home
to them, ten to one but it presently confounds or overthrows
what little sense they have. Many deeply religious minds
among us, both of laity and clergy, are at heart as indignant
at the crimes of the hierarchy as can be the wildest mob-
leading fanatic who here and there appears for a moment,
haranguing the populace, denouncing the denouncers, and
bidding men fight sin with sin. We who sigh for reform,
who must have more spiritual freedom, have our secret
communications, our meetings now and then for counsel,
our signs and counter-signs. Folks call the Rhineland the
Parsons' Walk — so full is it of the clergy, so enjoyed and
lorded over by them. Verily, it is at least as full of those
hidden ones, who, in various wise which they call heresy,
do worship God without man coming in between.

The tide of the time is with us.1 Our once famous
Godfrey of Strasburg is forgotten. Wolfram von Eschen-
bach is the universal model. His Parziva! and Titurel
live on the lips of the many rhymesters and minstrels who
wander from town to town now, as once they did from
court to court, and castle to castle. It is the religiousness
and the learning of Wolfram that finds favour for him and
countless imitators. This is the good sign I mean. Our
singers have turned preachers. They are practical, after
their fashion. They are a Book of Proverbs, and give us
maxims, riddles, doctrines, science, in their verses. If they
sing of chivalry, it is to satirize chivalry — such knighthood

120 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

as now we have. They are spreading and descending to-
wards the people. Men may have their songs of chivalry
in Spain, where, under the blessed St. lago, good knights
and true have a real crusade against those heathen hounds
the Moors, whom God confound. But here each petty
lord in his castle has nothing to do but quarrel with his
neighbour and oppress all weaker than himself. What to
such men, robbing, drinking, devouring their living with
harlots, are Arthur and the Round Table, or Oliver and
Roland ? So the singers come to us. In good sooth, the
old virtues of knighthood — its truth and honour, its chastity
and courage — are found far more among the citizens than
with the nobles."

Fitiis. Soli Deo honor , & gloria infeculapc-
wlorum.Awen.

FIG. 271. — Tailpiece. iyth century.

CHAPTER IX
PRINTERS' DEVICES

IN his Histoire Litteraire des Vaudois, Montet quotes
from a Waldensian manuscript dated 1192, which
concludes with the words " Laus et gloria Christi Deo
Gr atlas : Amen"

The piety of the early printers manifested itself in a
similar form, and for 200 years we find few printed books
that do not terminate in a doxology such as " Laus Deo"
" Soli Deo Gratia" " Non nobis Domine, non nobis, sed
nomini tuo da gloriam" Sometimes these postscripts
assume a Kabbalistic form, and after the word Finis
are to be seen mere letters such as DOM, LSD, OAMDG, etc.
These are easily resolved into phrases — D(eo) O(ptimo)
M(aximo); L(aus) S(oli) D(eo), and so forth. At times
we find little passages from Scripture thus :

Job xii. 9 — The hand of the Lord hath wrought this.
Psalm cxvi. 1 2 — What shall I render to the Lord ?

In Fig. 271 it will be seen that the printer has added
a woodcut to his doxology. The device of a vase or
basket full of flowers is an ornament frequently em-
ployed not only as a tailpiece, but as a printers' mark.
According to Durandus, " Flowers are portrayed to re-
present the fruits of good works springing from the roots
of virtue." In Montet's Histoire Litteraire^ I find an
Albigensian stating, " It is our duty to gather our works
and offer them to God." Sometimes in lieu of flowers,
we find a dish of fruits, as in Fig. 272.

122 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

" One of the most important and interesting phases in
connection with printers' marks," says Mr W. Roberts, the

FIG. 171. — Tailpiece. 1674.

most recent writer on this subject, " is undoubtedly the
motif of the pictorial embellishments. Both the precise
origin and the object of many marks are now lost to us."
He adds, "We do not propose offering any kind of explana-
tion for these singular marks."

The attitude of Bibliography towards printers' orna-
ments is, we thus see, on a par with its knowledge of paper-
marks, and by suggesting a rational explanation for both
these mysterious forms of craftmanship, I am treading, not
on controversial ground, but peacefully surveying a tract of
research hitherto uncharted.

The current opinion about printers' marks is summed
up by Mr Roberts as follows : " Shorn of all romance and
glamour which seem inevitably to surround every early
phase of typographic art, a printer's device may be described
as nothing more or less than a trademark." Doubtless in
many cases they came to be regarded as trademarks, but the
suggestion that they served no other purpose is unwarranted.
On the contrary, it is clear that in a great many cases
printers' devices were emblems pure and simple. I write,
for instance, with a Histoire Propbane before me, written
by a Mons. L. E. Du PIN, and published at Antwerp in five

PRINTERS' DEVICES 123

volumes by Jean Francois Lucas (1717). The title-pages
of these five volumes each bears a different mark, one of
them reproduced in Fig. 294. Similarly the works of
Fenelon, published in four volumes at Antwerp in 1723
by Henry de la Meule, bear four different emblems on the
title-pages, one of them reproduced in Fig. 299.

Not only do we find printers using a variety of de-
signs in the same books, but identical emblems were used
by different printers. Now a trademark is the immediate
jewel of a craftsman's soul, and I cannot reconcile the em-
ployment in common of certain marks with the theory that
they were " nothing more or less " than trade devices.

There is honour among printers which would veto such
a practice, and the craftsmen we are discussing were ad-
mittedly men of distinguished integrity. Mr Roberts him-
self comments upon their partiality for Scriptural designs.
"It will not be necessary," says he, " to enter deeply into
the motives which induced so many of the old printers to
select their devices, or the illustrations of their marks from
Biblical sources, and it must suffice to say that if the object
is frequently hidden from us to-day the fact of the extent
of their employment cannot be controverted."

Commenting on the frequent use of the Cross, Mr
Roberts quotes the opinion of M. Delalain that this fact
had its origin from printers' " affiliation with a religious
Fraternity." M. Delalain's surmise came very near the truth.

Let us now apply the touch of symbolism to these orna-
ments and see what it yields. In Figs. 273 and 274 we have
an eagle flying from town holding the device " By mov-
ing." Surrounding Fig. 273 are roses which may be read
as the emblem of secrecy, or of the heretical philosophy, or
both combined. It was " by movement " that the Albi-

124 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

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PRINTERS DEVICES 125

genses leavened Europe. " We fly from town to town,"
says the Perfect One quoted on page 46. " We travel
through many nations just like vagabonds," says the
Alchemist quoted on page 93. Peter Waldo became a
wandering exile, and his followers were in some countries
termed " passagenes" on account of their roving proclivities.
It was by wandering and teaching that the typical John
Wessel earned the sobriquet " Lux Mundi"

u In those days," says Vaughan, " almost every great
scholar was also a great traveller. The wanderings of
Agrippa and his theosophic brethren contributed not a little
to the progress and diffusion of occult science. These
errant professors of magic, like those aerial travellers the
insects, carried everywhere with them the pollen of their
mystic Lily, the symbol of theosophy, and sowed the fructify-
ing particles in minds of kindred growth wherever they came."
The Troubadours were beloved vagabonds, knights errant
in the service of the Lady Sophia, but not wandering merely
as the breath of fancy took them. Arrangements seem to
have been made for systematic circuits. " Many shall run to
and fro, and knowledge shall be increased," was a popular
motto frequently employed by authors. Our English scholar,
Joseph Mede, maintained that this increase of knowledge
had been manifested at the beginning of the twelfth century
by the discovery of a new and up to that time unheard-of
principle of interpreting the prophecies relating to Anti-
christ. Instead of a personality, Antichrist was then and
subsequently regarded as the series of Roman pontiffs or
the Papacy — "a deep and subtle corruption which had
usurped the name of Christianity."

Mede based this interpretation on an Albigcnsian
manuscript dated 1120. In 1494 a Waldensian woman

126 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

charged with heresy, testified that her pastor had told her
that there was a small number of people in the world
without whom the world must perish ; that this little
flock had learnt by the commandments of God how to
serve Him, and that they " travelled about the world to
instruct men how they might adore and honour Him, and
to reform the abuses of the Church of Rome." Thus from
whatever point of approach we view Movcndo, the motto
is seen to be identified with heresy.

The Eagle was an emblem of soaring thoughts.
" Some writings," says a philosopher, " have more of the
eagle in them than others." The reader will also recall
the passage where Durandus likens the Gospel to an
eagle because of the words : " He came flying upon the
wings of the wind." " The nature of the eagle," says an
old writer, " is to bend her eyes full into the sunne beams.
So strong is her sighte that she can even see into the great
and glaring sunne." Hence the eagle was regarded as the
bird of Light, and was sometimes used as a symbol of the
Holy Spirit.

FIG. 277. — Device of Joannes
Theodore. Jena, 1670.

FIG. 278. — Device of Abraham
Wolfgang. Amsterdam, 1687.

Figs. 277, 278, and 279 represent a Fox finding honey
in a tree : the motto " By seeking." The stories of how
Reynard the Fox outwitted his traditional enemy Isengrim
the Wolf, were popular in Europe for many centuries. If

PRINTERS' DEVICES

127

we substitute Heresy for Reynard, and Rome for Isengrim, we
can understand why these seemingly childish stories enjoyed
such an immense vogue. " These heretic foxes," percipiently
said Gregory IX., "have different faces, but they all hang
together by the tails."

At the foot of Fig. 280 will be observed a chameleon.
This little reptile, by reason of its colour-changing habits,

FIG. 279. — Device of Robert Roger.
Berlin, 1700.

FIG. 280. — Initial Letter.
London, 1688.

was regarded as the emblem of slyness, dissimulation and
cunning. The honey that is being found by the many-
faced fox of heresy is bien entendu, celestial honey. We

FJO. 281. — Headpiece. London, 1664.

find De Bury apostrophising books as " rocks flowing with
honey, nay, combs of honey, by which the human mind
is nourished." A few lines on he likens them to " vines

128 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

of Engadi." In Fig. 281 we see an angel offering the vine
and honeysuckle — the flower that gathers and suckles its
sweetness from the dew of God's spirit. It is possibly
for the reason that the Albigenses were themselves such
devoted and laborious honey-makers, that Dante figures a
swarm of bees encircling the Rose of Paradise. The
passage is as follows : —

" In fashion, as a snow-white rose, lay then
Before my view the saintly multitude,
Which in His own blood Christ espoused. Meanwhile,
That other host, that soar aloft to gaze
And celebrate his glory, whom they love,
Hover'd around ; and, like a troop of bees,
Amid the vernal sweets alighting now,
Now, clustering where their fragrant labour glows,
Flew downward to the mighty flower, or rose
From the redundant petals, streaming back
Unto the steadfast dwelling of their joy.
Faces they had of flame, and wings of gold :
The rest was whiter than the driven snow :
And, as they flitted down into the flower,
From range to range, fanning their plumy loins,
Whisper'd the peace and ardour, which they won
From that soft winnowing. Shadow none, the vast
Interposition of such numerous flight
Cast, from above, upon the flower, or view
Obstructed aught. For, through the universe,
Wherever merited, celestial light
Glides freely, and no obstacle prevents."

Among the little animals which figure prominently
among printers' marks, one of the most popular was the
squirrel. We learn that " when the squirrel is hunted she
cannot be driven to the ground, unlesse extremitie of
faintnesse cause her to do so through an unwilling com-
pulsion, for such is the stately mind of this little beast that
while her limbes and strength lasteth she tarrieth and

PRINTERS' DEVICES

129

saveth herself in the tops of tall trees, disdaining to come
down for every harm or hurt which she feeleth : knowing,
indeed, her greatest danger to rest below amongst the dogs
and busie hunters. From whence may be gathered a
perfect pattern for us, to be secured from all the wiles and
hungrie chasings of the treacherous devil : namely, that we
keep above in the loftie palaces of heavenlie meditations,
for there is small securitie in things on earth ; and greatest
ought to be our fear of danger, when we leave to look and
think of heaven."

Figs. 282 and 283 represent a squirrel cracking nuts.
Speaking of books, De Bury says, " Most men incon-
siderately fling away the nut before they have broken the

Fio. 282. — Tailpiece.
London, 1719.

Fio. 183.— Tailpiece.
Cologne, 1708.

Fio. 284. — Headpiece. London, 1641.

shell and reached the kernel." What De Bury means by
"kernel" is made clear by the translator of Diodati's
Pious and Learned Annotations upon the Holy Bible
(1664). This anonymous writer observes that "the

130 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

written word of God — I mean not the shell or outside of
a bare literal sense (there is more in it), but the inside and
kernel of a true spiritual meaning therein comprised — is a
masse of infinite delights."

It is obvious that the squirrel (" the little animal which
gladly hides itself") was used by printers as an emblem of
cracking away the outward husk of the Letter and feeding
on the Spirit, another mode of expressing the lesson that
papermakers conveyed by their snuffers.

Around Fig. 282 will be noticed the rose of secret
heresy, the lily of pure life, and the olive of peace.

It will be remembered that the Albigenses considered
that the Hereafter would be enriched by the contemplation

FIG. 185. — 1521.

FIG. 186. — 1464.

FIG. 291. — 1596.

of the ineffable loveliness of the Holy Spirit. The
iridescent beauty of its plumage led to the peacock being
accepted as an emblem of the Holy Spirit. In Figs. 285
to 289 we see some of the uses to which printers and paper-
makers applied this emblem. In Eastern mythology Sara-
isvati, the goddess of sacred or secret knowledge, is usually
depicted as riding on a peacock. The eyes on the feathers

PRINTERS' DEVICES

FIG. 287. — Headpiece. London, 1642.

FIG. 188. — Initial. London, 1620.

FIG. 289. — Tailpiece.
Paris, 1650.

FIG 290. — Tailpiece.
London, 1721.

132 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

of the bird's tail symbolised the sleepless eyes that see all
things. To one who had the ambition to advance in sacred
knowledge, they were a reminder that he must have the
hundred eyes of Argus to see and comprehend all things.
As the Alchemist warned us : " Do not believe what
Basilius here says, but keep your eyes wide open."

Mrs. G. F. Watts describes the peacock as the bird of
Hope, the hope of immortality, " chosen because the poetic
teachers who fixed our symbols saw that those wonderful
blue eyes, surrounded by rays shining with the colour of
light, were cast every year, and renewed again, and yet
again ; possibly, too, because they saw the blind blue eye
looked ever upwards to the heavens while it was trailed
along the earth."

In Fig. 285 (a papermark) the peacock evidently sym-
bolised the highest attainment of the glorified human soul,
what the mystic would express as the
height of Contemplation, the bliss of
Union, or the attainment of Ecstasy.
The supposed incorruptibility of pea-
cock's flesh led to this bird being
occasionally considered as an emblem of
the resurrection. But the more popular
FIG. 29iA — initial. symbol of resurrection was the phoenix,

London, i7th century. . , . .

mythically supposed to be reborn out
of its own funeral pyre. The phoenix, says Mr. Wigston,
was an allegorical bird of time signifying rebirth and
resurrection out of its own ashes. It is shewn in
Fig. 291.

In the middle of Fig. 287 we have the St. Grail. In
Fig. 291 we see it used as an initial letter, and in Fig. 292
it forms the centre to a design obviously illustrating the

PRINTERS' DEVICES

'33

Romaunt of the Rose. Observe the " Orchard of Love
peopled with novel plants."

" Haut fut le mur et tous quarree 1'enceinte benie."

FIG. 391. — Tailpiece. " Salmanticz," 1655.

Figs. 293 and 294 shew modes of employing the Dove
of the Holy Spirit as a symbol. In Fig. 295 we have the

FIG. 293. — Headpiece. London, 1717.

Fleur-de-lys ; in Fig. 296 the sacred Tau, and in Fig. 297
the heart flaming with the love of charity, each emblem
surrounded by a halo.

134

It will not have escaped the reader's notice that the symbols
we are considering stretch in an unbroken chain from the

FIG. 294. — Device. Antwerp, 1717.

FIG. 195. — Device.
London, 1638.

FIG. 196. — Initial.
London, I7th century.

Fio. 197. — Device.
London, 1640.

FIQ, 298. — Papermark.
1 8th century.

dark ages to modern Europe, and that the Reformation
seems to have had little or no influence upon their employ-
ment. It is stated by historians that of the manifold
heresies flourishing in the twilight of the Middle Ages,

PRINTERS' DEVICES 135

some died of inanition, the others merged their identity
in the great wave of the Reformation. The torch of
Luther undoubtedly set ablaze many long smouldering fires,
but the actions of the Lutheran leaders must quickly have
undeceived the Albigensian Church had it cherished a
supposition that the long-looked-for sunrise was at hand.
Events quickly proved that far from liberating thought
from the tyranny of Dogma, the Reformation was merely an
exchange of gaolers, and that in many respects gaoler No. 2
was as brutal and forbidding as gaoler No. I. Though
Lutherism never produced a Torquemada, the atrocities of
witch-hunting ran the Inquisition very close. The devilry
that burnt Servetus was the same that murdered Huss,
Bruno, Galileo and Vanini, and the annals of Protestantism
are stained as red pro rata as those of Roman Catholicism.
Lutherism has left its footprints all over England in the
form of abbey ruins. With an unhallowed hand it made
a clean sweep of imagery and symbolism, substituting in
place of them the materialism that is recoiling with such
deadly force upon the churches of to-day. The Reforma-
tion did indeed break one yoke, but merely to impose another.
" We are obliged to confess," says Dr Beard, " that
especially in Germany * it soon parted company with free
learning, that it turned its back upon culture, that it
lost itself in a maze of arid theological controversy, that
it held out no hand to awakening science."

Far from " extending help " it did its utmost to stamp
out all studies except those relating to its own dogmas.
Luther went so far as to say that when once the Bible was
in all men's hands, there would be an end of human book-
writing : God's word would be enough. Fanatics were
found to assert that Philosophy was an invention of the

136 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Devil, and that what approved itself to natural reason could
not be theologically true. Beza, not satisfied with adminis-
tering the just judgments of God on the wicked " (i.e. those
who ventured to dissent from the grim theology of Calvin),
denounced liberty of conscience as " a diabolical dogma."
Luther termed schoolmen " locusts, caterpillars, frogs, and
lice." Reason he characterised as the " Arch Whore," and
the " Devil's Bride " ; Aristotle was a " Prince of Dark-
ness," " horrid impostor," " public and professed liar, beast
and twice execrable."

Hess was eager to dissuade Melancthon from teaching
Greek which he contemptuously termed " a childish lecture,"
yet Hess had fears " lest we Germans should become more
barbarous than ever we were by reason of the decline of
Letters brought about by our Theology." This decline
was so marked that the booksellers declared that, previous
to the advent of Lutherism, they were able to sell 3000
volumes in less time than was subsequently required to
sell 600.

Although Luther himself was an advocate for education,
it is clear that there was only too much justification for the
saying of Erasmus, " Wherever Lutherism reigns there good
letters perish."

In 1522 Melancthon alludes to the signal folly of those
" who at the present day think that piety consists only in the
contempt of all good letters, of all ancient erudition," and a
little later we find him writing to a correspondent that
unless he and men like him defend and foster letters, a
Scythian barbarism or something worse must settle upon
Germany.

What was feared seems to have happened. " Listen
to the Papists," says Luther, " the sole argument they use

PRINTERS' DEVICES 137

against us is that no good result has come of my doctrine.
And in fact, scarce did I begin to preach my Gospel before
the country burst into frightful revolt ; schisms and sects
tore the Church ; everywhere honesty, morality, and good
order fell to ruin ; everyone thought to live independently
and conduct himself after his own fancy and caprices and
pleasure as though the reign of the Gospel drew with it
the suppression of all law, right and discipline. Licence
and all kinds of vice and turpitudes are carried in all con-
ditions to an extent they never were before. In those days
there was some observance of duty, the people especially
were decorous, but now like a wild horse without reign
and bridle, without constraint or decency, they rush on the
accomplishment of their grossest lusts."

To the eyes of the judicious, the Reformation must
therefore have appeared but a horrible abortion. In the
darkness that surrounded them — as they themselves tell
us — they languished like flies in winter. Quarles, our
English emblem writer, well expresses the fears and aspira-
tions of his fellows; addressing Phosphorus, the Morning
Star, he writes : —

" Will't ne'er be morning ? Will that promised light
Ne'er break, and clear those clouds of night ?
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day,

Whose conqu'ring ray

May chase these fogs ; sweet Phosphor, bring the day.
How long ! How long shall these benighted eyes

Languish in shades, like feeble flies
Expecting spring ? How long shall darkness soil

The face of earth, and thus beguile
Our souls of sprightful action ? When, when will day

Begin to dawn, whose new-born ray
May gild the weathercocks of our devotion,
And give our unsoul'd souls new motion ?

138 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Sweet Phosphor, bring the day ;

Thy light will fray
These horrid mists ; sweet Phosphor, bring the day.

Alas ! my light in vain expecting eyes

Can find no objects, but what rise
From this poor mortal blaze, a dying spark

Of Vulcan's forge, whose flames are dark,
A dang'rous, dull blue-burning light,

As melancholy as the night :
Here's all the suns that glister in the sphere

Of earth : Ah me ! what comforts here ?
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day ;

Haste, haste away
Heav'n's loit'ring lamp ; sweet Phosphor, bring the day.

Blow, Ignorance : O thou, whose idle knee

Rocks earth into a lethargy,
And with thy sooty fingers has benight

The world's fair cheeks, blow, blow thy spite :
Since thou hast puft our greater taper j do

Puff on, and out the lesser too j
If e'er that breath-exiled flame return,

Thou hast not blown, as it will burn :
Sweet Phosphor, bring the day ;

Light will repay
The wrongs of night ; sweet Phosphor, bring the day."

It is unnecessary to qualify this and succeeding quota-
tions from English poets. English and continental
literature were so inextricably connected that — even after
the disuse of Latin — they may be said to have formed an
ideal Republic. *' I am impressed," says Mr. Sidney Lee,
" by the proofs I am accumulating of the closeness of the
relations between Elizabethan literary effort and that of
contemporary France and Italy; and of the community
of literary taste and feeling, which almost rendered literary
Europe at the end of the sixteenth century a single
Commonwealth of Letters."

PRINTERS' DEVICES 139

For centuries the poets and philosophers had been at
loggerheads with the clergy. The irreconcilable intensity
of feeling may be judged from the words of Erasmus.
" There is," he writes, " a wretched class of men of low
degree, yet full of malice — not less dingy, nor less filthy,
nor less vile than beetles, who, nevertheless, by a certain
obstinate malignity of disposition though they can never
do good to any mortal become frequently troublesome to
the great. They frighten by their ugliness, they molest
by their noise, they offend by their stench ; they buzz
round us, they cling to us, they lie in ambush for us, so
that it is often better to be on enmity with powerful men
than to attack these beetles whom it is a disgrace ever to
overcome and whom no one can either shake off or en-
counter without some pollution." In similar tone wrote
Luther, " not a man but feels disgust when he sees or hears
a clergyman approaching." Dr. Beard says that the monks
unanimously called their opponents " the poets " and that
the phrase became a term of contempt in clerical circles.
He adds, " It was a hopeless struggle : not only the
conflict of darkness with light, but between combatants
on the one side stupidly and ludicrously ignorant, on the
other equipped with the best learning of the age. . . .
Argument was hardly possible: the poets despised the
verbal subtleties of the scholastic theologians, while on
the other hand the schoolmen blinked like owls in sun-
shine in the light of the new learning."

But the philosophers, whose footprints we are tracking,
were not content to sit down and wail their woes ; they
were desperately hard at work dissipating the horrid mists.

Fig. 299 is an emblem of the Titanic struggle that
was waged down the centuries by the thinkers so slyly

140 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

and insidiously that only the results of their labours have
hitherto been recognised or chronicled.

The cock was, as we have seen, the awakener of sleep-
ing minds. In a letter to the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford
Giordano Bruno (at one period of his life a corrector of
proofs for the press) styles himself, among other titles,

FIG. 299. — Device. Antwerp, 17*3.

" The awakener of sleeping minds." But the cock was
used also with a deeper symbolism. There is a Chinese
legend that in the far away Happy Island of the Eastern
Ocean is situated the Tree of Life. Upon the topmost
branches sits a golden cock, whose function it is to awaken
the glorious sun which (in dispelling darkness) is held to
disperse the evil spirits of night. These spirits, so the
Chinese think, abhor the truth of the Sun's light and shrink
back into the darkness of Hell. When the golden cock
begins his song " all the cocks in the world are thus stirred
up and begin to crow."

It is clear that the Albigenses were acquainted inter
alia with this legend, just as they were familiar with the
Eastern idea that the Deity dwelt in the heart of a celestial
rose. It is interesting, moreover, to find that our English

PRINTERS' DEVICES 141

poets were equally cognizant of the fable. In Hamlet
Shakespeare says : —

" The cock that is the trumpet to the morn
Doth with his lofty and shrill sounding throat
Awake the God of Day."

In Cornelia Kyd refers to : —

" The cheerful cock, the sad nights comforter
Waiting upon the rising of the Sun."

Similar passages occur in the writings of Edmund
Spenser, and George Peele.

Milton in a sublime prayer on behalf of England
writes : " Thou therefore, that sittest in light and glory
unapproachable, Parent of Angels and men ; look upon this
thy poor and almost spent and expiring land ; leave her not
a prey to these importunate wolves, that wait and think
long till they devour thy tender flock; these wild boars
that have broken into the vineyard, and left the print of
their polluting hoofs on the souls of Thy servants. O let
them not bring about their vile designs, that stand now at
the entrance of the bottomless pit, expecting the watchword
to open and let out those dreadful locusts and scorpions, to
re-involve us in that pitchy cloud of infernal darkness,
where we shall never see the Sun of thy Truth again, never
hope for the cheerful dawny never more hear the Bird of
Morning sing."

Constant allusions to the Coming Sunrise are to be met
with. We find the anonymous author of Fa ma Fraternitatis,
R.C. (1614-1616) writing: "Although now through the
sorrowful fall into Sin this excellent jewel Wisdom hath
been lost and mere darkness and ignorance is come into the
world, yet notwithstanding . . . blessed Aurora will now

142

begin to appear who after the passing away of the dark
night of Saturn ... is a forerunner of pleasant Phoebus
who with her clear and glistening beams brings forth that
blessed day long wished for of many . . . according to the
doctrine of our forefathers, and ancient wise men." In an
anonymous pamphlet entitled Confess to Fraternitatis, R.C.
(1614) we find a similar prophecy of the Dawn for which
so many were indefatigably working. " Now there remains
that in a short and swiftly approaching time . . . the
world shall have slept away the intoxication of her poisoned
and stupefying chalice, and with an open heart, bare head,
and naked feet, shall merrily and joyfully go forth to meet
the Sun rising in the morning." The same anonymous
writer " confesses " that " many high intelligences by their
'writings will be a great furtherance unto this Reformation
which is to come," and " sooner shall the stones rise up and
offer their service than there shall be any want of executors
of God's counsel."

In Fig 299, then, we have an expressive emblem of
Chanticleer ringing his midnight peal to entertain the
Morn that is rising behind him.

Before quitting this subject, it may be as well to point
out as an instance of the cleavage between Poesy and
Ecclesiasticism that — in England at any rate — the cock
was regarded with disfavour by the Church as a sort of
Devil's messenger from his crowing after Peter's denial.
Throwing at cocks with a stick was a Shrove Tuesday pas-
time, which was enjoyed by many divines as a pious exercise.
The mode in which the papermakers symbolised the spread
of light is seen in Fig. 300, a spreading Fleur-de-lys budding
in every direction. From the IS to be seen in Fig. 82,
it is clear that the Fleur-de-lys symbolised Christ the Spirit

PRINTERS' DEVICES

and Light of the World shining amid the darkness that
comprehended It not. The Fleur-de-lys was sacred to

FIG. 300. — Papermark. i7th century.

Lux ; thus we find it sometimes alluded to as the flower de
Luce. It was the symbol par excellence of papermakers,
and typified the mental light they were the means of spread-

Fio. 301. — Papermark. i7th century.

ing. It is a significant fact that the motto of the Waldenses
of Piedmont was Lux lucet in tenebris — " The Light shines
in darkness."

In its attempt " to expel from the world all those things
which darken human knowledge" the mystical church of
the Holy Spirit had in hand a task in comparison with
which the labours of Hercules were child's play.

144 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

It was perfectly well realised that ages must transpire
before the harvest could be reaped, a knowledge that was

FIG. 301. — Device. Paris, 1701.

expressed by emblems such as Fig. 302. The palm is the
slowest growing of trees, yet as the motto states : "In time
it will bear fruit." Almost everywhere we find snails
introduced implying " Slow but Sure."
An Elizabethan poet writes : —

" The slowest snail in time we see
Doth creep and climb aloft"

FIG. 303. — Tailpiece.
Paris, 1650.

FIG. 304.
Papermark, 1478.

FIG. 305. — Tailpiece.
London, 1717.

FIG. 306. — Initial.
Geneva (?), i7th century.

This policy of Slow but Sure was expressed by the motto

PRINTERS' DEVICES

Fes tin a Lente^ " Make haste slowly." In Fig. 307 the anchor
denotes slowness, the dolphin speed. " I can surely affirm,"
said Aldus, " that I have as my constant companions the
dolphin and the anchor. I have accomplished much by
holding fast and much by pressing on." This same idea was
also conveyed by a crab and a butterfly. The author of
Signes de nos Pensees (Paris 1717) says that a butterfly and
a crayfish indicated make haste slowly. The snail, the
crayfish, and the crab were evidently interchangeable
symbols expressive of the same idea. In Fig. 3 1 2 it will be

FIG. 308.
Papermark,

FIG. 307. — Device. Geneva, 1618.

seen that the artist has introduced the snail and butterfly
among his flowers. The word matura, mature things,
indicates that hastening slowly produces mature works.
These workers consciously and deliberately laid great bases
for eternity.

We find the Albigensian maxim, " To work is to pray,"

146 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

modified into various forms, such as Plantin's "By labour and
constancy" ; Fig. 313, " For thou shalt labour" ; Fig. 366,

Fio. 309. — Device. Leyden,
1640.

FIG. 310.
Papennark, 1440.

FIG. 311.
Papermark, 1549.

" Sow without doubting," and so forth. The love of peace
and concord was inculcated by emblems such as Fig. 314," By

FIG. 312. — Tailpiece. London, 1712.

peace, plenty — by wisdom, peace," " By concord small
things become great," " Charitas," " Non Solus," and
similar phrases.

PRINTERS' DEVICES

147

In Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers Green tells us
that " the gallant ship courageously handled and with high

FIG. 313. — Device. London, 1683.

Fir,. 314. — Device. London, 1605.

Fio. 315. — Device. Amsterdam, 1716.

soul of perseverance and fearlessness guided through adverse
waves has for long ages been the type of brave men and
brave women struggling against difficulties."

In Fig. 318 we see this ship of man's soul steering hope-
fully for the City of the Sun. " Follow no man. There
is nothing in the world of any value but the Divine light —

148 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

follow it." " I applaud your devotion to Philosophy,"
wrote Plotinus, A.D. 260 ; "I rejoice to hear that your soul
has set sail, like the returning Ulysses for its native land
— that glorious, that only real country — the world of unseen
truth."

FIG. 318. — Derice. Cologne, 175*.

In Figs. 316 and 317 we have the papermarks of two
long-forgotten pilgrims — Ships that passed in the Night.
" Of all who have sailed the seas of life, no men have
experienced a range of vicissitude more wide than has
fallen to the lot of some among the mystics. Theirs have
been the dazzling heights; the lowest depths also have
been theirs. Their solitary vessels have been swept into
the frozen North, where the ice of a great despair has closed
about them like the ribs of death, and through a long soul's
winter they have lain hidden in cold and darkness, as some
belated swallow in the cleft of a rock."

FIG. 316. — Papermark.
1 5th and i6th centuries.

FIG. 317.— Papermark.
1 5th and i6th centuries.

CHAPTER X

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS

I HAVE in my possession a roughly classified collection of
Head- and Tail-pieces, among which maybe seen many
examples of prints of identical blocks, employed by
" rival " printers. In these days it is a simple matter by the
aid of the electrotype process to make manifold reproductions
of any desired woodblock, but in olden times such methods
were unknown. Stereotyping was invented in 1725, but
the details being crude and the process new, there was
much opposition, and it was not until the early part of the
nineteenth century that it was generally adopted. Electro-
typing was not introduced until 1836 or about that period.
The Head-piece used over the dedication of Watss*
translation of The Advancement of Learning, produced
at Oxford in 1640, was used six years previously by a
London printer as the Head-piece to Book IV. of Moses
and Aaron. There is a blemish in each of the prints con-
clusively proving that both were impressions from the
same block. How came it to be transferred from London
to Oxford ? I have before me impressions from a block
that was at Amsterdam in 1687, at Paris in 1697, and
back again at the Hague in 1720. Similar instances of
migration can be multiplied indefinitely. The 1720
edition of Pope's Iliad, "printed by W. Hunter for
Bernard Lintott," contains a very curious design, see

149

150 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Fig. 348. In the previous year it was employed in Boer-
haaves' Method of Studying Physick, " printed by H. P.
for C. Rivington."

If we compare the three folio editions of Shakespeare's
Plays, we are confronted at once with further instances of
the same problem. The first folio (1623) is "printed by
Isaac Jaggard and Ed. Blount " ; the second (1632) is
"printed by Thos. Cotes for Robert Allot"; the third
(1664) is "printed for P. C." Thomas Cotes, the printer
of the second folio uses at least eight blocks (including an
initial letter) that were employed nine years previously by
Jaggard. The printer of the third folio uses at least three
blocks that were employed by Thomas Cotes thirty-two
years earlier. A writer in The Library, discussing an
edition of a certain disputed work, observed recently, " But
supposing for the sake of argument that some printer had
wished to reprint the work, should we expect to find him
in possession of exactly similar type to that used twenty
or thirty years previously and of exactly the same initial
letters, head-and tail-pieces and ornaments as those used
by Wolfe in 1559 ? I think this highly improbable."

It is a course wildly improbable, yet such transferences
unquestionably took place, and the only theory that will
satisfactorily explain the facts is either that printers were
on the friendliest terms or that book ornaments were
not the property of any particular printer, but were trans-
ferred by some association engaged in the propagation
of knowledge. Whether either or both of these suggestions
are correct does not affect the interest that per se the
designs possess.

In Fig. 319 we have the pelican of Self-sacrifice.

In Fig. 320 we see the stag emblem of solitude, shyness,

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 151

thirst for truth, and animosity towards serpents. The bat
shewn in Fig. 321, according to Valerian, was the emblem

FJG. 319. — Headpiece. Paris, 1675.

FIG. 320. — Headpiece. Leyden, 1640.

[Fio. 311. — Headpiece, London, 1635.

of "mutual offices," "justice," and " lucifuga" by which
term we may understand that shyness of the light of
publicity which was so extraordinary a characteristic of
past publishing. I estimate the proportion of books issued
anonymously must be quite 70 per cent. ; if we add those
published modestly under the cover of pseudonyms or
initials, we might say 80 per cent. ; and if to these were
added posthumous publications, which for the first time
saw the light of print many years after their alleged

152 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

5.
1

153

154 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

author's death^ the figures would, I am convinced, be even
more astonishing.

In Figs. 322 and 323 we have a good example of another
peculiarity of old bookmaking. Here the identical block
has not been transferred from London to Madrid, but the
design has been carefully and minutely copied. The
fidelity of the detail, not merely in this particular instance,
but also in many others, makes one surmise that "even
unto the points and pricks here are to be found great
mysteries."

The bear so frequently to be seen sitting out the
long winter of its discontent was, as already stated, the
emblem of " hidden manners " (mores occult'i] because of
its hibernating and cave dwelling habits. The bear and
the bat seem therefore to have conveyed similar ideas.

To the same group we may probably add the squirrel
and the rabbit. The timidity, fecundity, and burrowing
habits of the rabbit rendered it a very apt symbol of its
employers.

The hound, as in Figs. 326, 327 and 328, was the emblem
of the pursuit of knowledge. According to Valerian, it

FIG. 326. — Headpiece. London, 1721.

meant philosophia communicata. Constant references to
the pursuit and communication of knowledge are to be
found in the literature of the period. It is a metaphor
that was constantly employed by Francis Bacon. "Arts

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 155

and Sciences," says he, "hunt after their works." In
this " hunting and hounding of nature," this " hunt of Pan
or learned experience," the " hunters after knowledge " hunt
not for fame, but are "sagacious in hunting out works
dealing with experiments." The editor of Campanella's

FIG. 317.— Headpiece. Paris, 1605.

FIG. 3Z9.
Papermark, 1385.

FIG. 318. — Headline. London, 1634.

works expresses the same sentiments. " We pursue," says
he, " the same ends seeing we tread the same footsteps in
tracing and as it were hounding nature by sense and
experience." Ben Jonson by a slight twist of the metaphor
gives us that traditional combination of la bonte et la
sages se : —

" Turn hunters then
Again

But not of men
Follow His ample
And just example.

That hates all chase of malice and of blood
And studies only ways of good
To keep soft peace in breath.
Men should not hunt mankind to death
But strike the enemy of man ;

Kill vices if you can
They are your wildest beasts,
And when they thickest fall you make the Gods true feasts."

156 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

A type of dog that figures very prominently in water-
mark, is the greyhound. A reference to this symbol is made
several times by Dante, but his meaning is so obscure that
commentators have been completely baffled. In Hell
the poet refers to an allegorical monster ravenous and
unruly that blocked his way and continued her accursed
depredations : —

" Until that greyhound come who shall destroy
Her with sharp pain. He will not life support
By earth or its base metals but by love
Wisdom and Virtue . . .
He with incessant chase, through every town
Shall worry, until he to Hell at length
Restore her, thence by Envy first let loose."

Observe the aspect of worry and incessant chase in Figs. 331
and 332, and observe too how these greyhound emblems

FIG. 330 — Papermark, 1380.

Fio. 331. — Papermark, 1363.

FIG. 332. — Papermark, 1440.

FJG. 333. — Papermark, 1414.

are all distinguished by the little bell signifying "acute
preaching." In Purgatory Dante refers again to this

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 157

subject, this time characterising the hell-born monster
as a " Wolf" — the wolf being a customary synonym for
the tyranny of the Court of Rome —

" Accurst be thou

Inveterate wolf ! whose gorge ingluts more prey
Than every beast beside, yet is not filPd
So bottomless thy maw ! — Ye spheres of Heaven !
. . . When is the day
Of his appearing, for whom Fate reserves
To chase her hence ? "

Mr. Edmund A. Gardner, commenting upon this passage,
observes that this prophecy of the Veltro or greyhound, the

FIG. 334. — Papermark, 1387. FIG. 335. — Papermark, 1477.

Coming Deliverer, is one of the insoluble problems of the
Divina Commedia. The earliest commentators did not
recognise any specific individual under this imagery, but
supposed the prophecy to refer either to the second coming
of Christ or to the advent of some heroic personage
(preferably an Emperor or a Pope), who should renovate
the world and bring back the golden age. The millennium
was, as we know, the ever-present dream of the mystics,
and the appearance of these belled watermarks is presump-
tive evidence that the greyhound that was eventually to

158 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

destroy the monster Ignorance was nothing more or less
than an emblem of persistent and energetic education.

From hunting it is merely a step to Pan the God of
Hunters. The great god Pan is figured in a variety of
forms, and we find him appearing in tail-pieces, head-pieces
and initials. It was a reproach cast constantly at the poets
and philosophers that they were Pantheists, i.e. that they
regarded Nature as Divine, and every human soul as a
germ of God. Aroux charges Dante with Pantheism.
Paracelsus, Bruno, Vanini, and Spinoza were outspoken
pantheists, and the mystic philosophy of Jacob Bohme is
permeated with the same system of thought. The
Alchemists were pantheists. They characterised man as a
microcosm or world in miniature made in the image of
God — the Macrocosm or greater universe.

It is unnecessary to digress into a discussion on
Pantheism. Briefly it may be described as the antithesis of
Atheism. The Mystics refused to circumscribe their ideas
of the Unknowable within the limits of a human form.
They never maintained that everything was God, but
recognised books in the running brooks, sermons in stones
and Go(p]d in everything.

Everywhere in the maze of Nature they discerned the
varied expression of one all-embracing and eternal Life or
Power.

" Before beginning, and without an end
As space eternal and as surety sure
Is fixed a Power Divine which moves to good
Only its laws endure.

Out of the dark it wrought the heart of man
Out of dull shells the pheasants pencilled neck

Ever at toil it brings to loveliness,
All ancient wrath and wreck."

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 159

FIG. 336. — Headpiece, 1674.

FIG. 337. — Initial. Cambridge, 1642.

Fio. 338 — Initial. i6th century (?).

Fio. 339. — Headpiece. Paris, 1 7th century.

Fio. 341. — Tailpiece.
Paris, 1605.

Fio. 340. — Tailpiece.
Leyden, 1638.

FIG. 342 — Tailpiece.
Paris, 1717.

160 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

FIG. 343. — Tailpiece. i6th and i7th centuries.

Fio. 344. — Tailpiece. i6th and ijth centuries.

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 161

The heretics, as we have already seen, were charged
with cherishing the arrogant and impious notion that man's
soul might be developed into a god — its dross refined and
its baser metals transmuted into gold. This was indeed the
idea of the pantheists.

" Each hath such lordship as the loftiest ones,

Nay, for with Powers above, around, below,
As with all flesh and whatsoever lives
Act maketh joy and woe.

Higher than Indras ye may lift your lot
And sink it lower than the worm or gnat,

The end of many myriad lives is this
The end of myriads that."

The word Pantheism was not employed until 1707,
but the ideas underlying the fable of Pan " the noblest of
antiquity " are as ancient as recorded thought. Not only
were they symbolised by the figure of Pan, but we find them
expressed under the symbol of Artemis.

FIG. 345. — Headpiece. Geneva, 1634.

In Fig. 345 we see the spotless one, the intrepid and
unwearied huntress, setting forth upon her quest. Among
the Arcadians Artemis was worshipped with the symbol of
a bear ; the boar sent by her is said to have been " a
symbol of the awakening every spring of the hunting
season after the sleep of winter."

The boar emblem of the coming Dawn is shewn here-
with in the form of papermark and printer's headline. The

1 62 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Greek Artemis is identical with the Roman Diana, and
the Egyptian Is is. Although a spotless virgin, she is also

Fio. 346. — Papermark, 1491.

Fio. 347. — Headline. London, 1738.

represented as the many-breasted personification of the
fructifying powers of Nature. In Fig. 349 we see her thus,

FIG. 349. — Tailpiece. Leyden, 1688.

with the horns of the new moon upon her forehead — a
bright and imperial crest implying the divine flower of

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 163

the future and the dawn of more genuine truth. The
numberless false dawns which were hailed by the poets

FIG. 348. — Headpiece. London, 1710.

and philosophers never deterred them from keeping open
wide in expectation the eastward windows of their souls.
Jacob Bohme's first work was characteristically entitled :
" Aurora the Day-spring, or Dawning of the Day in the
East or Morning Redness in the Rising of the Sun "
(1575-1624).

We have seen how passionately Dante and Giordano
Bruno hailed their mystic saint Sophia. Richard de Bury
in his Pbilibiblon tells us that the love of books is the same
thing as the love of wisdom. He continues : " Now this
love is called by the Greek word Philosophy, the whole
virtue of which no created intelligence can comprehend ;
for she is believed to be the mother of all good things."
In the headpieces herewith, we have this idea expressed by
the cornucopias, and in the baskets of fruit and flowers
springing from the Virgin's head.

The Italian philosopher Vanini had his tongue torn out
and his body burnt at the stake for his noxious heresies.
Among other evidence put in against him, was the alleged
impiety that he had dared to style Nature " the Queen of
the Universe." Owen in his Sceptics of the Italian Re-
naissance tells us that Vanini in his fervent passion was

164 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

" half inclined to deify Nature." He adds': " Her cultus
was the only instrument of freedom for thinking men that

FIG. 350. — Tailpiece. Paris, ijth century.

Fio. 351. — Headpiece. London, 1605.

could be opposed to the degrading superstitions of the time.
He shared with Bruno the Lucretian conviction that
the Divine mission of nature was to emancipate men from
the thraldom of sacerdotalism and religious tyranny. His
Dialogues were an attempt to inculcate this truth."

But there was really nothing either new or heretical in
this widespread cult of the Virgin Sophia. " If a man
commit himself unto her," say Ecclesiasticus, " he shall

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 165

inherit her, and his generation shall hold her in possession.
For at the first she will walk with him by crooked ways,
and bring fear and dread upon him and torment him with
her discipline until she may trust his soul and try him by
her laws. Then will she return the straight way unto him
and comfort him, and shew him her secrets. But if he go
wrong she will forsake him, and give him over, to his own

ruin.'*

Referring to this same divinity Solomon says : " I
loved her and sought her out from my youth ; I desired to
make her my spouse, and I was a lover of her beauty."

We have here the key that unlocks nearly all the
mysterious love poetry of the Middle Ages. When we
find Petrarch sonneteering in his extreme old age apparently
to a married woman whose husband was then living, do we
not observe the incongruity, especially when he likens
his lady to no less a Being than the Son of God ?

Chaucer, the friend of Wycliffe and intimate of
contemporary Italian scholars, in a poem to his really
nameless lady, has used, in order to designate her purity,
the figurative French name Blanche ; whereupon editors
have gravely concluded that he was referring to the wife
of John of Gaunt, whose name, it appears, was Blanche !

Commentators who have endeavoured, more or less in
vain, to identify the Beatrices, Lauras, Cynthias, Phyllises,
Phoebes, Ideas, Licias, and Elizabeths of the sonneteers
may be referred to the Troubadour Hugo de Brunet.
" If I be asked," says he, " to whom my songs are
addressed, I keep it a secret. I pretend to such a one, but
it is nothing of the kind" The divine object of all this
seemingly erotic literature was the elusive, wayward,
exacting, bitter-sweet, and many-sided mistress whose

166 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

essence was expressed in that inscription of Isis : " I am all
that hath been, is, or shall be ; and no mortal has lifted
my veil."

If anyone doubt that the Beatrice who conducted
Dante into the heart of the Celestial Rose was aught else
than the spirit of truth, let him turn to that enigma, the
Vita Nuova. We are there told that " Beatrice " was nine
years of age when Dante first met her. He remarks :
" Many times the number nine hath appeared among the
preceding words whereby it appeareth that it is not without
reason." He then says that he will assign the reason " why
this number was so friendly to her," and explains that
three being the root of nine Beatrice was accompanied by
the number nine to give to understand that she was a nine,
that is a miracle whose root is the wondrous Trinity alone.
Then he gives us permission to speculate a little by adding :
" Perchance a more subtle person might see in it a yet
more subtle reason."

Now the number Nine is equivalent to the Hebrew
word for Truth. It is unnecessary to enter here into the
Kabbalistic system known as gemantria^ by means of
which numbers represented words. It is sufficient to point
out that the Hebrew word for Truth comes from a root
signifying strength — that which could not be moved. The
letters of the word are equivalent to the mysterious number
nine. When multiplied that figure invariably gives figures
so true to each other that when added together they again
prove the figure nine : thus twice nine are eighteen, thrice
nine are twenty-seven, and so on.

Among our Elizabethan sonneteers — notably Spenser
and Drayton — we find a similar word playing upon the
number nine.

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 167

One of the lesser known Elizabethans — Richard Smith
— dedicates his sonnet sequence Diana "Unto Her Majesties
Sacred Honourable Maids." It is obvious that it was not
the Mary Fittons or the Bessie Throckmortons of the
period who were in the poet's mind, for in his Dedication
he leads off : —

" Eternal Twins that conquer Death and Time
Perpetual advocates in Heaven and Earth,
Fair, chaste, immaculate and all divine,
Glorious alone before the first man's birth."

Passages such as this must surely, to say the least of it,
arouse some disquietude in the mind of the merely
materialistic critic ? It is probable that much of the poetic
adulation of Queen Elizabeth was lavished with a mental
reservation in favour of a less material mistress, was, in
fact, religious ecstasy towards that mystic Elizabeth of
whom we catch a glimpse in Spenser.

" The third my Love, my life's last ornament,
By whom my spirit out of dust was raised,
To speak her praise and glory excellent
Of all alive most worthy to be praised.
Ye three Elizabeths for ever live
That three such graces did unto me give."

Elizabeth, or Elsbeth, is presumably akin to Beth-el,
and that as we are told, is "none other than the House of
God." Some interpret the name as signifying " one who
worships God." It is noteworthy that the last syllable of
Titurel, the leader of the Grail Knights, was derived from
his mystic mother Elizabel. Tannhaiiser was redeemed by
an Elizabeth. Elizabeth Tudor has, I feel certain, no more
interest in much of the poetry assumed to have been
addressed to her than she has in the New Jerusalem of

1 68 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

the Apocalypse. The Virgin Queen who ruled over the
hearts of the poets was their Alma Mater the Spotless
Artemis. The Fortunate Islands where she held sway
were not Great Britain and Ireland, but that happy island
in a faraway ocean which we recognise as El Dorado
or Utopia, or Arcadia, or the City of the Sun, or The New
Atlantis, or Nova Solyma, or Avalon, or The Garden of
the Sages, or The Land of Roses. Here is an account of
that Island translated by Gary from the seventeenth century
French of Heriot de Borderie : —

" There is an isle

Full, as they say, of good things ; — fruits and trees
And pleasant verdure ; a very master-piece
Of nature's ; where the men immortally
Live, following all delights and pleasures. There
Is not, nor ever hath been, Winter's cold
Or Summer's heat, the season still the same, —
One gracious Spring, where all, e'en those worst used
By fortune, are content. Earth willingly
Pours out her blessing : the words " thine " and " mine "
Are not known 'mongst them : all is common, free
From pain and jealous grudging. Reason rules,
Not fantasy : every one knows well
What he would ask of other : every one
What to command : thus everyone hath that
Which he doth ask ; what is commanded, does.
This island hath the name of Fortunate ;
And, as they tell, is governed by a Queen
Well-spoken and discreet, and therewithal
So beautiful, that, with one single beam
Of her great beauty, all the country round
Is rendered shining. When she sees arrive
(As there are many so exceeding curious
They have no fear of danger 'fore their eyes)
Those who come suing to her, and aspire
After the happiness which she to each
Doth promise in her city, she doth make

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 169

The strangers come together ; and forthwith,

Ere she consenteth to retain them there,

Sends for a certain season all to sleep.

When they have slept so much as there is need,

Then wake they them again, and summon them

Into her presence. There awaits them not

Excuse or caution j speech however bland,

Or importunity of cries. Each bears

That on his forehead written visibly,

Whereof he hath been dreaming. They whose dreams

Have been of birds and hounds, are straight dismissed;

And at her royal mandate led away,

To dwell thenceforward with such beasts as these.

He who hath dreamed of sconces broken, war,

And turmoil, and sedition, glory won,

And highest feats achieved, is, in like guise,

An exile from her court ; whilst one whose brow

Is pale, and dead, and withered, showing care

Of pelf and riches, she no less denies

To be his queen and mistress. None, in brief,

Reserves she of the dreamers in her isle,

Save him, that, when awakened he returns,

Betrayeth tokens that of her rare beauty

His dreams have been. So great delight hath she

In being and in seeming beautiful,

Such dreamer is right welcome to her isle.

All this is held a fable : but who first
Made and recited it hath, in this fable,
Shadowed a Truth."

To return to our woodblocks. In Fig. 349 two birds
may be seen pecking at fruit. These are evidently the
Alchemist's " Doves of Diana." What was implied by the
phrase I do not know, but the emblem was extremely
popular. The " Peace and Plenty " inscribed on Fig. 313
may possibly have been its meaning. Flowers and foliage
all have their special significations, but it is unnecessary to go

1 70 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

into them in detail. The plant that looks like a Love
Lies Bleeding, is the fabulous amaranth of the poets, and

Fio. 352. — Tailpiece.
Paris, 1718.

FIG. 353. — Tailpiece.
London, 1716.

FIG. 354. — Tailpiece.
London, 1716.

FIG. 355. — Tailpiece.
London, 1727.

was the emblem of immortality. " Three kinds of most
beautiful flowers," says one of the Alchemists, " are to be
sought and may be found in the Garden of the Wise:
damask coloured violets [Love ?], the milk white Lily
[purity ?], and the immortal amaranthus. Not far from the
fountain at the entrance, fresh Violets do first salute three
which being watered by streams from the great golden
river, put on the most delicate colour of the dark sapphire ;
the Sun will give thee signs. Thou must not sever such
precious flowers from their root until thou makest the Stone ;
but the fresh ones cropped off have more juice and tincture ;
and then pick them carefully with a gentle and discreet
hand ; if fates frown not, they will easily follow, and one
flower being plucked, the other golden one will not be

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 171

wanting. Let the Lily and the Amaranth succeed with
greater care and labour."

Fio. 356. — Tailpiece. Paris, ijth century.

The birds of paradise in Figs. 357, 324 and 325 are
probably like the peacock, emblems of the Holy Spirit.
This then newly-discovered bird was alleged by travellers to

Fio. 357. — Headpiece. London, 1683.

have no legs, but to live perpetually in the we feeding upon
deiv.

The dolphin was the Arms of the Province of

172 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 173

174 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Dauphiny where there were more Waldenses gathered
than in the whole of Europe elsewhere. The origin of
the emblem I do not know. Combined with an anchor
it denoted Make Haste Slowly, but this emblem is also
said to denote a seaport or the sea. I surmise that what
it originally denoted was the spiritual sea — i.e. the all-
cleansing and infinite Spirit.

Hanging inconspicuously in the centres of Figs. 358 to
362 will be observed a bunch of Fish. In his Clef de la
Comedie Antic atholique de Dante Alighieri, Aroux states
that Fish were regarded as " a celestial sign, symbolic of
the profound discretion recommended in the Mysteries."
The real work of the world has almost invariably been
accomplished by non-advertising men. " To the silent He
sendeth his Angels to hold speech with them, but the
babblers He driveth into the wilderness."

The serpent by reason of sloughing its skin, was
regarded as the emblem of regeneration. It was also the
symbol of Healing and of Immortality. It encircles the
image of most of the ancient sanitary and hygienic gods,
and in the Egyptian Mysteries the cup of Health was
entwined by Serpents. Observe how in Fig. 363 the symbol
is twisted into a double S, and how in Fig. 365 the artist
has introduced a third S so as to form the acclamations
Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus, in both cases associating the Holy
Spirit with its healing influence. Fig. 363 forms a veritable
treatise in Philosophy. Note the lamps of traditional
knowledge, the crab and butterfly, the amaranth, the
dolphin, the olive branches, and the two pillars of Will
and Understanding.

The two cherubs I do not understand; they are
perhaps the Eternal Twins to which Richard Smith refers.

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 175

The figure in the centre is obviously Philosophy. " Awake,
my harp," says the psalmist, and the stringed instrument

Fio. 363. — Headpiece. London, 1649.

upon which Philosophy is playing is evidently the human
soul.

The Theorbos on the left and right had the same
meaning, vide Francis Quarles, who writes in Emblems
Divine and Moral: —

" Rouse thee, my soul, and drain thee from the dregs
Of vulgar thoughts ; screw up the heightened pegs
Of thy sublime Theorbo four notes higher,
And high'r yet, that so the shrill-mouth'd choir
Of swift-winged seraphims may come and join,
And make the concert more than half divine."

The two figures playing upon the Theorbos probably
denote Poesy and Music, those two handmaidens by whose
help Philosophy " may more sweetly insinuate itself."

"The Philosopher," says Philip Sidney, "teacheth,
but he teacheth obscurely, so as the learned only can
understand him; that is to say he teacheth them that are
already taught. But the poet is the food for the tenderest
stomach ; the poet is indeed the right popular philo-
sopher . . . He beginneth not with obscure definitions

i;6 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

which must blur the margin with interpretations and load
the memory with doubtfulness, but he cometh to you with

Fia. 364. — Initial. London, i7th century.

words set in delightful proportion either accompanied with
or prepared for the well enchanting skill of Music ; and
with a tale, forsooth, he cometh unto you with a tale
which holdeth children from play and old men from the
chimney corner, and pretending no more doth intend the
winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue ; even as
the child is often brought to like most wholesome things
by hiding them in such other as have a pleasant taste."

After deploring the poor esteem in which Poetry was
held by his contemporaries, Sidney continues : " They that
with quiet judgments, will look a little deeper into it,
shall find the end and working of it such as being rightly
applied deserveth not to be scourged out of the Church
of God."

Now the Church of the Holy Spirit did not scourge
out Poesy ; on the contrary, Poesy and Song were main
methods by which it worked. The Troubadours — and we
must include among these the Trouveres, the Minnesingers,
the Skalds, and the various other forms that the calling

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 177

assumed in the different parts of Europe — were the greatest
swayers of men's minds the world has ever seen. As the
Troubadours died out, the stage gradually assumed their
functions : the actors and dramatists of the seventeenth
century were the inheritors of the Jester traditions of the
earlier period. Motley comments upon the enormous
influence exercised by the fifteenth, sixteenth and
seventeenth century dramatic associations known as
Guilds of Rhetoric. Those popular clubs for the manu-
facture of poetry and the drama, shared with the pulpit
the only power which then existed of moving the passions
or directing the opinions of the people. They were, says
Motley, eminently liberal in their tendencies. The authors
and actors were mostly artisans and tradesmen " belonging
to the class out of which proceeded the early victims (of the
Inquisition) and the later soldiers of the Reformation."
Their bold farces and truculent satires were influential in
spreading among the people a detestation of Ecclesiastical
abuses. Every effort was made to suppress these "per-
ambulating dramas," but without success. "There was
at that time," wrote a correspondent of Sir Thomas
Gresham, "syche playes (of Reteryke) played that hath
cost many a 1,000 men's lyves, for in these playes was the
Word of God first opened in thys country. Weche playes
were and are forbidden moche more strictly than any of
the bookes of Martin Luther." At times the Rhetoricians
were employed as mouthpieces by greater minds. We find
Philip of Spain being notified that a particularly biting
satire came from the pen of one Renard " although for the
sake of deception the Rhetoric comedian had been employed."
The anonymous author of The Arte of English Poesy
(Puttenham ?) observes that theatres were built in the form

i;8 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

of a musical bow thus x"~^ the auditorium answering to the
wood, and the stage to the catgut. Speaking of the theatre,
Bacon says that it was carefully watched by the ancients
that it might improve mankind in virtue ; " indeed," he
adds, " many wise men have thought it to the mind as the
bow to the fiddle."

It is therefore, I think, reasonable to assume that the
means by which Philosophy, Poesy and Music are in Fig.
363 drawing melody from men's souls, and playing upon
the human mind, is the poetic drama of which the true
authorship has formed so fertile a field of inquiry.
Shakespeare himself was the greatest of the world's
Troubadours. " Invest me in my motley," says he.
" Give me leave, and I will through and through cleanse
the foul body of the infected world."

" In serious jest and jesting seriousness," says Marston,
" I strive to scourge polluting beastliness."

" There has been more by us in some one play laughed
into wit and virtue," says the author of The Muses' Looking
Glass, "than hath been by twenty tedious lectures," a
sentiment endorsed by Massinger, who claims that : —

" Actors may put in for as large a share
As all the sects of the philosophers.
They with cold precepts, perhaps seldom read
Deliver what an honourable thing
The Active virtue is. But does that fire
The blood, or swell the veins with emulation
To be both good and great, equal to that
Which is presented on our theatres ? "

Geo. Peele utters the aspiration : —

" Then help Divine Adonai to conduct
Upon the wings of my well-tempered verse
The hearers' minds above the towers of Heaven."

THE TRANSFERENCE OF WOODBLOCKS 179

Massinger in truly Albigensian vein writes : " Prosper
thou Great Existence my endeavours as they religiously are
undertaken and distant equally from servile gain."

I have analysed elsewhere the Elizabethan Drama and
its educational purpose.1 It is instructive to note that
in many cases the same pious book ornaments were
used on play books as on the Holy Bible, no distinction
being maintained between works sacred or profane.2 Fig.
281, for instance, may be seen in the first folio of Ben
Jonson's Works, and the doxology Deo Optimo Maximo is
to be found at the end of Marston's plays.

The Goats seen in Fig. 365 were the emblems of Tragedy,
a word derived from the goat skins worn by actors. " High
and excellent Tragedy," says Sidney, " openeth the greatest
wounds and sheweth forth the ulcers that are covered with
tissue." It " maketh Kings fear to be tyrants and tyrants
to manifest their tyrannical humours." He continues :
" I conjure you all that have had the evil luck to read
this ink-wasting toy of mine, even in the name of the
Nine Muses, no more to scorn the sacred mysteries of
poesy; no more to laugh at the name of poets, as
though they were next inheritors to fools : no more to
jest at the reverend title of ' a rhymer ' ; but to be-
lieve, with Aristotle, that they were the ancient treasurers
of the Grecian's divinity; to believe, with Bembus, that

1 The Shakespeare Symphony, Chapman and Hall, Ltd.

2 Herein they anticipated Mr Harold Begbie's recent proposition that there is
no such thing ai secular education : " A man who has found joy in learning knows
that every good book is religious, and would not exclude from the Infinity of his
Maker a theory of Euclid or a page in Biology. He knows that learning has an
altar ; every fresh fact he gathers to his brain is a swelling chord in the canticle of
his soul's pleasure ; and every advance he makes in knowledge is a nearer approach to
the Holy of Holies ; his religion is Truth and his ritual is research. He use*
learning as an avenue of approach to the God of Truth."

i8o NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

they were the first bringers in of all civility; to believe,
with Scaliger, that no philosopher's precepts can sooner
make an honest man than the reading of Virgil ; to believe,
with Clauserus, the translator of Cornutus, that it pleased
the heavenly deity by Hesiod and Homer, under the veil
of fables, to give us all knowledge, logic, rhetoric, philo-
sophy natural and moral, and ' quid non ? ' — to believe,
with me, that there are many mysteries contained in poetry
which of purpose were written darkly, lest by profane wits
it should be abused."

Fio. 365. — Tailpiece. Geneva, i6a8.

CHAPTER XI

TRICKS OF OBSCURITY

THERE remains for consideration a further form of
printer's ornament known technically as " flowers."
These diminutive designs were frequently set up in
rows at the commencement of a new chapter, section or
division. In 1771 a standard writer on the art of printing
deplored that even then " flowers " were falling into disuse,
owing to workmen being insufficiently paid for their "painful
application."

When we examine the early specimens of printers'
flowers, it is evident they are as pregnant with interest as
are watermarks and woodblocks.

One of the most ancient " flower " ornaments is the
acorn as shown in Fig. 369. This form is so admirable as a
design that it is still in frequent use by modern printers.
We have already seen that the acorn was employed as a
watermark (p. 83), and the suggestion has been offered
that it symbolised slow growing strength. We have also
seen that the early printers were persistent and indomitable
sowers. They went forth mourning and carrying their
precious seed, leaving their sheaves as a heritage to the
future. " It is enough for me," said a typical philosopher,
" that I have sowen unto posterity, and the Immortal God."
Some idea of the amount of sowing that took place
may be formed by the knowledge that within less than

iSt

1 82 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

fifty years from its invention, 40,000 works in editions of
500 copies, or nearly 20,000,000 volumes, were scattered
from the printing press.

Speaking of the rise of printing, Motley observes that
at the very epoch when tyranny was most swiftly ripening

FIG. 366. — Device. Basle, 1738.

a weapon was secretly being forged more potent in the
great struggle for freedom than any that the wit or hand
of man had ever devised or wielded. " The contest," he
continues, " was at first favourable to the cause of arbitrary
power ; but little seeds were silently germinating, which in
the progress of their development were one day to under-
mine the foundations of Tyranny, and to overshadow the
world."

FIG. 367. — Cambridge, 1710.

FIG. 368. — Cambridge, 1720.

The early printers were quick to foresee this
momentous issue of their art, and it is therefore not due

TRICKS OF OBSCURITY

183

to chance that we find the acorn, that silent and slowly
germinating little seed, scattered all over their pages. They

&&&&

FIG. 369. — London, 1617.

FIG. 370. — London, 1656.

Fin. 371 — London, 1656.

were strewers of sweetness and Light , and almost as frequent
as the acorn is the fleur-de-lys, the emblem of light, the light
flower, the flower de luce, the oriflamme, the golden flame.

FIG. 371. — Papermark.
1 7th century.

FIG. 373.— Paris, 1647.

FIG. 374. — London, 1644.

' 375 to 383 represent different forms of St. Grail,
from which will be seen springing sometimes the fleur-de-lys,
sometimes the golden flame, sometimes the Lily of purity,
and sometimes the rose.

184 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

The ultimate Holy Vessel is, as we have said, the
purified heart of man, and if Figs. 380 and 383 be examined
under a magnifier, it will be seen that the bodies of the

FIG. 375. — London, ifth century.

"fc^^'fr , „,

rSc)pS«)C>S<<)p«2« rX

?$9$&W %

L JE. I

FIG. 376. — London, 1655.

FIG. 377. — London, 1709.

FIG. 378. — London, 1709.

FIG. 379. — London, 1709.

vases are in reality small hearts. It will also be seen that
hearts (sometimes flaming with the love of charity) form the
centres to Figs. 369, 393 and 394a. In Fig. 384 they appear
as a tailpiece. The forms of old printers' " flowers " are
so many and diverse, that it is impossible to do justice

TRICKS OF OBSCURITY

185

to them within the short limits of a chapter. I therefore
reproduce no more than a few representative examples.

FIG. 380. — Oxford, 1641.

FIG. i%i.—Ibid. (enlarged to twice its natural size).

^ .A. A A .Jh. A A A Jk. „ .A. j«^

Fio. 38*. — London, 1674.

t-j ^y til

FIG. 383. — London, 1711.

Fio. 384.— Tailpiece.
London, 1719.

Fra 3gs._
«. Flower " Tailpiece.
Paris, 1769.

The S. S. of the Sanctus Spiritus will be seen on most
of the St. Grails in the form of handles. It also occurs
alone, as in Fig. 386.

186 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

In Fig. 387 we have the "vines of Engadi "; in Fig. 389
the trefoil, in Fig. 390 angel amoretti, and in Fig. 391 the

SSSSSSSSSSS'SSSSSSSSSSSSSs

Fio. 386. — Paris, 1713.

'S'WW>$

FIG. 387.— Paris, 1680.

FIG. 388.— Paris, 1680.

!8?!!tf!»****»**»» ******

$*{««*** ******************** ******

FIG. 389. — London, 1723.

FIG. 390. — Paris, 1711.

FIG. 39OA. — Paris, 1717.

FIG. 392. — London, 1726.

flaming sun. In Fig. 392 we have a row of churches (the
Church of the Holy Grail ?), and in Fig. 393 a design
which looks as though it might represent the three Mounts,

TRICKS OF OBSCURITY

187

a favourite emblem among the papermakers. It is probable
that many of these complicated flowers were something
more than purposeless designs, but I am unwilling to
weaken the case by putting forward mere speculations.

In many of these flower illustrations will be observed
curious irregularities. The technical law of printers' flowers

Fio. 393. — London, 1658.

FIG. 394. — London, 1658.

FIG. 394A. — London, 1658.

is that they shall be regular. Luckombe writes: "The
use of flowers is not confined to ornaments over head pages
only, but they serve also, each sort by itself, upon several
other occasions." He goes on to say, " Flowers being cast
to the usual bodies of letters their size should be proportion-
able to the face of the characters: since it would be as
wrong to use great primer flowers with long primer letters,
as it is improper to embolden the look of great primer by

1 88 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

long primer flowers." In my illustrations it will be
observed that almost every law of regularity has been

a&'A*K£RA3B*

FIGS. 395, 396, and 397. — London, 17*1.

FIGS. 398 and 399. — London (?), i7th century.

FIG. 400.— Paris, 1687.

[fjfcgjFSsT

:Mm&

EXCOLLECTIONIB. ANT. AUGUSTINI,

ARCH1EPISCOPI TARRACONENSIS,
NOMINA OMNIUM PONT1FICUM

ROMANORUM

FIGS. 401 and 402. — Cologne, 1682.

outraged. Note how upright bars and stops of various
kinds have been interpolated ; observe how here and there

TRICKS OF OBSCURITY

189

flowers are inserted upside down, or endways. In Fig. 405
they are seen wandering perpendicularly up the side of a

FIG. 403. — London, 1705.

PIG. 405. — Headpiece. London, 1716.

FIG. 406. — Tailpiece. Paris, 1692.

woodblock, and in Fig. 406 a flower and four colons have
been inserted into a hollow space in the centre of a
tailpiece.

The obvious and superficial explanation to these various

190 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

peculiarities is " carelessness," but I can realise the con-
temptuous and grim smile with which the shades of certain
old printers would greet this suggestion. " It would,"
says Luckombe, " be generous in gentlemen to examine
the circumstances that may have occasioned an error before
they pronounce it a typographical one."

Frankly, I do not believe these flower irregularities are
due in any respect to errors, but that, on the contrary, they
are indications of, and clues to, secret matter concealed in
the text by various systems of cipher. In some cases
" flowers " probably constitute a cipher in themselves. Figs.
395, 396, and 397, which are typical of forty or fifty rows
from the same volume, are too conspicuously different to
be due to printers' errors. Figs. 368 and 369 are from a
magnificent work in three volumes printed in 1720 at the
University Press of Cambridge. The present representatives
of this body would, I am convinced, repudiate with
contempt the suggestion that their predecessors ran short
of type, and therefore interpolated notes of interrogation.
The early printers were proverbially very painstaking.
They frequently stopped the machining of a work in order
to correct typographical errors. The artistic probity of
Plantin impelled him to submit the proofs of his books to
strangers with the offer of a reward for errors indicated,
and the Etiennes adopted the same system. Yet notwith-
standing this traditional carefulness, one is puzzled at the
frequent appearance of what is at first sight the most
palpable carelessness ; such, for example, as mispagination,
mixture of types, woodblocks printed upside down, and
inexplicable italicisation of unimportant words and phrases.

The suggestion that these varied peculiarities are evidence
not of slovenliness or paucity of type, but that early printed

TRICKS OF OBSCURITY 191

books were largely employed as vehicles for cipher, is not
so fanciful as to many it may at first appear. The early
printers were not only themselves learned, but they
surrounded themselves with men whose minds shone out
like stars in comparison with the surrounding darkness.
Among this school cipher writing was regarded as a fine
art. Few realise what an extraordinary mass of Cipher
literature arose in the sixteenth century. Those who are
interested in the archadogical side of the subject may refer
to the writings of Palatine (1540), Bellaso (1553), or
Glanburg (1560). The unjaded appetite may next enjoy
a short course of Porta, Trithemius, Cardanus, Walchius,
Bibliander, Schottus, Selenus, Hugo, Niveron, Caspi,
Tridenci, Comiers, La Fin, Dalgarno, BuxtorfF, Wolfgang
and Falconer. Even then it is open to the curious to
browse upon Eidel, Soro, Amman, Breitkampt, Conradus,
De Baines, Lucatello, Kircher, and not a few others. The
extent of this literature proves that the subject interested a
far wider public than the restricted circle of statesmen and
diplomatists. Hitchcock expresses his conviction that
among the writings of the Alchemists a vast mass of
unexplored cipher literature is awaiting discovery. Gabriele
Rossetti in his Disquisitions on the Anti-Papal Spirit
•which produced the Reformation ; its secret influence on
the literature of Europe in General and of Italy in
particular (i 834), is equally emphatic. " I have wandered,"
says he, " through the vast field of my country's literature,
and have explored the many gardens which adorn it. I
saw that they were redolent not only of flowers delightful
to the eye, but of sweet and nutritious fruits. I discovered
that treasures beyond all price were buried under the
enchanted ground whereon I was treading, and I beheld

i92 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

the muses there presiding over all that is most recondite in
philosophy, mysterious in politics, and inaccessible in mystic
theology."

" How often and perseveringly," he continues, " has
the midnight lamp been trimmed by the learned inquirer in
his eagerness to decipher and explain the hieroglyphics of
the Egyptian School ! . . . Under our own eyes lie
monuments of hieroglyphic figures, not less valuable because
entire, but passed coldly by, unprized because unknown.
Were they but rightly interpreted, we should behold a new
world rising before us, a world containing things not
belonging to men of other manners or other climes, but to
ourselves ; things most important and useful, which would
reveal to us the undiscovered causes of many a great effect,
and assure us of the truth of the following arguments " : —

" The greater number of those literary productions which
we have hitherto been in the habit of considering in the
light of amusing trifles, or amatory rhymes, or as wild
visions of the romantic, or heavy treatises by the dull
scholar, are in reality works which enclose recondite
doctrines and secret rites, an inheritance bequeathed by
remote ages ; and, what may to many appear mere fantastic
fables, are a series of historical facts expressed in ciphers
which preserve the remembrance of the secret actions of our
fathers."

" The obscurity which not unfrequently involves these
works was studiously and purposely contrived ; and if it
have never yet been cleared away (and Dante's Commedia
is the first proof of this) no blame should be attributed to
those who might have dispersed it : the difficulties of the
time, and the dangers which encompassed them, were
sufficient to deter them from so doing. The most learned

TRICKS OF OBSCURITY 193

men and authors of various ages and countries were pupils
of this mysterious school, and never losing sight of their
one grand object, they were constantly on the alert to bring
persons of talent and genius to their way of thinking, and
to render them co-operators in their bold projects. There
can be no doubt that the present state of civilisation in
Europe is in a great measure an effect of this school . . .
which worked to free mankind from the tyranny of priest-
hood as well as from monarchical despotism."

If, as is strongly to be suspected, the flower
irregularities indicated are indeed outward and visible
signs of inward invisible ciphers, it would prove that
the mediaeval sages followed the ancient precedent of
Pythagoras. We are told that when the disciples of this
philosopher were capable of receiving his secret instructions,
they were taught the use of ciphers and hieroglyphic
writing ; that they could correspond with each other from
the most distant regions in unknown characters ; and that
by signs and words which they had received they could
discover those who had been educated in the Pythagorean
school.

It is practically a certainty that some similar system
existed among the scattered and persecuted Albigenses.
It is known that Adam Weishaupt (1748-1834), the
founder of a sect of Illuminati who set themselves "to
combat ignorance, superstition and tyranny," adopted a
numerical cipher. Weishaupt's cipher was obviously an
adaptation of the Kabbalistic system of Gemantria, whereby
numbers represented letters and words, and by means of
which abstruse problems were promulgated.

But I am convinced that the philosophers in their
employment of cipher were actuated by a motive deeper

194 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

than the convenience of being able to echo to one another
from their cells. " What road," asks Paracelsus, " should
the philosophers follow ? " and he answers : " That exactly
which was followed by the great Architect of the Universe
in the creation of the world."

" We neither dedicate nor raise a capitol or pyramid
to the pride of man," says the author of the Novum
Qrganum, " but rear a holy Temple in his mind on the
model of the Universe, 'which model, therefore, >we imitate"
The Instauratio Magna is divided into six partitions
corresponding to the six days of creation. It was, I am
persuaded, the aim of the sages to "woorke as God
woorkes," and their publications were as far as possible
modelled upon their favourite simile the Book of Nature.

Robert Boyle, one of the earliest members of the Royal
Society, comments upon the fact that " the Book of Nature
is to an ordinary gazer and a naturalist like a rare book
of hieroglyphics to a child and a philosopher. The one
is sufficiently pleased with the oddness and variety of the
curious pictures that adorn it, whereas the other is not
only delighted with those outward objects, that gratifie his
sense, but receives a much higher satisfaction in admiring
the knowledge of the author, and in rinding out and en-
riching himself with those abstruse and veiled truths
dexterously hinted in them."

The time is, I trust, coming when bibliographers will
tire of being sufficiently pleased with the odd " trade-
marks " to be found in old volumes, and will pursue those
dexterously veiled hieroglyphics to their truer issues.

" A booke," says an unknown writer, " is an un-
wrought lump of metall. You see not th' rich shine of
it beneath sundry thin coats that obscure it." Just as the

TRICKS OF OBSCURITY 195

Book of God contains within its protecting shell a kernel
of more spiritual truth, so, I think it will be found, do
many of the productions of the Albigensian philosophers.

It will be remembered that a favourite motto was
" Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall be
increased." The complete verse from Daniel (chap, xii.,
v. 4) runs : " But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and
seal the book even to the time of the end. Many shall run,"
etc. It is possible that we have here a mystical motive
for concealing or closing up words by a system of ciphers.

Whether or not coherent sentences lie concealed, it
cannot be questioned that words and names were frequently
buried under the protective veils of anagrams, etc. To
the modern mind anagrams are savourless, but for many
centuries they were deemed to be intellectual salt, and
were sometimes regarded with a mystic veneration. " Not-
withstanding the sour sort of critics," says Camden in his
Remaines Concerning Britaine^ "good anagrams yield a
delightful comfort and pleasant motion in honest minds."
How high a place anagrams held in men's estimation may
be measured by the fact that Louis XIII. appointed a
Provencal to be his royal anagrammatist, and granted him
a salary of 12,000 livres.

Not only was anagrammatising an essential Provencal
art, but it was one of the branches of the Kabbalah known
as Tbemura. Roger Bacon published the constituents of
gunpowder under the veil of an anagram, and in a similar
manner Galileo announced his discovery that Venus had
phases like the moon. The reputed author "James
Hasolle" is found on scrutiny to resolve into "Elias
Ashmole" — "the greatest virtuoso and curioso that was
ever known or read of in England before his time."

i96 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

The three first editions of Camden's Remaines were
published anonymously, yet the learned author secreted his
name within them under the phrases Dum ilia evincam and
Nil malum cui Deay both of which mottoes will be found to
be perfect anagrams of " William Camden"

" The Glory of God," says Bacon, " is to conceal a thing,
but the glory of the king is to find it out ; as if according
to the innocent play of children, the Divine Majesty took
delight to hide his works to the end to have them found
out ; and as if kings could not obtain a greater honour than
to be God's playfellow in that game."

It is a fascinating study to watch these intellectual
giants at play.

CHAPTER XII

THE RENAISSANCE

OF past literary phases, one which the modern mind
is least able to comprehend, is the obscurity and
cautiousness of mediaeval authors. Everywhere
more or less do we find the inculcation of what superficially
appears to be mere selfish reticence. Especially was this
conspicuous among the Alchemistical Philosophers.

" Be thou in a place secret, by thyself alone
That no man see or hear what thou shalt say or done,
Trust not thy friend too much wheresoe'er thou go
For he thou trustest best sometyme may be thy foe."

Norton cautions the reader to let no one know of his
undertakings but his good angel and himself.

" When man disputed of colours of the rose.
He would not speak, but kept himself full close."

In order that one may better appreciate the perils
surrounding the colours of the rose (i.e. the various shades of
heretical opinion ?) it is desirable here to set down a brief
abstract of the conditions amid which the sages worked.
There were no inducements to publish knowledge : on the
contrary, excellent reasons against doing so.

It is not within my scope to discuss the horrors of
religious persecution except so far as they affect the sup-
pression of learning. Unhappily, it has ever been those
who have laboured most zealously to instruct humanity that

'97

198 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

have most suffered from its brutishness. The thirteenth
century crusade against the Albigenses though nominally
directed against Heresy, was in effect an effort on the part
of Bigotry to stamp out a civilisation that it neither
understood nor tolerated. De Montfort and the rabble by
which the Romish Church accomplished its design, were
absolved from sins from the time of their baptism to the
present. They were also absolved from the payment of all
debts even though they had sworn to pay them.

Happily, it is difficult for us moderns to realise the
conditions of mediaeval existence. The official Church was
a source whence flowed not truth and purity, but a steady
stream of corruption. Of this the evidence is to be found
not in the invectives of her enemies, but among the writings
of her most gifted sons. Gerson himself declares " The
Court of Rome has invented a thousand Church services to
make money, but few indeed have been made for the sake
of virtue only. We hear much from morning to night in
that Court of armies and lands and towns and money, but
we seldom or never hear of chastity, justice, fidelity and
morality ; so that that court which was formerly spiritual,
has now become worldly, devilish, tyrannical and worse
than any secular one."

Men beheld criminal wars carried on by means of
unblushing simony. It was taught that an error in doctrine
was more offensive to God than a crime. The blatant
impudence of the traffic in absolutions exceeds belief.
Every crime " even to the rape of God's mother if that
were possible" had its authorised tariff payable at Rome.
Thus poisoning was absolved for eleven ducats and six livres
tournois. Incest was priced at thirty-six livres and three
ducats. Perjury at seven livres, three carlines. Murder (if

THE RENAISSANCE 199

not by poison) was less expensive. For one ducat, four
livres, eight carlines a son might purchase the privilege of
parricide, and so through the whole calendar of crimes.

Outside the pale of this so-called " Church " was certain
and eternal damnation. For centuries the axiom Extra
ecclesiam nulla salus was the source of unutterable woe to
humanity. The custodians of Christianity unhesitatingly
burnt their fellow-men in the persuasion that better a few
temporal pangs than the eternal anguish of Hell fire. The
end justified^ the means, and no means howsoever appalling
were neglected that might force back into the fold the
misguided members of those " new, reprobate and damnable
sects " which proceeding from their father the foul fiend
had spread like a leprosy over the face of Europe.

Among the first and ''last victims of the Inquisition were
those "accursed vermin" the Albigenses. The Bull of
Pope Innocent VIII., granted in 1487 for the extirpation of
the Waldenses, exhibits no solicitude for the heretic, but
rather a fear lest the true believer should be smutted by
contact. The inquisitor " no doubt endued with learning
and fervent zeal for the salvation of souls " is enjoined to
exterminate and disperse " certain sons of iniquity, followers
of that abominable and pernicious sect of malignant men
who are called the poor people of Lyons or the Waldenses.'*
He is to tread these venomous adders under foot, all their
moveable and unmoveable goods may be lawfully seized and
given away by anybody whatsoever, and those who assist
in the pious work are granted plenary indulgence and
remission of all sins.

The Inquisition's roll of victims will, of course, never
be accurately gauged. In the brief eighteen years of
Torquemada's administration 10,220 individuals were

200 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

burned alive, and 97,321 punished with infamy, confiscation
of property or perpetual imprisonment. What was implied
by infamy may be gathered from the following formula —
a priestly anathema held ever in readiness to blast the
troublesome and perverse : "In the name of the Father,
the Son, the Holy Ghost, the blessed Virgin Mary, John
the Baptist, Peter and Paul, and all other Saints in Heaven,
do we curse and cut off from our Communion him who
has thus rebelled against us. May the curse strike him in
his house, barn, bed, field, path, city, castle. May he be
cursed in battle, accursed in praying, in speaking, in silence,
in eating, in drinking, in sleeping. May he be accursed in
his taste, hearing, smell, and all his senses. May the curse
blast his eyes, head, and his body, from his crown to the
souls of his feet. I conjure you, Devil, and all your imps,
that you take no rest till you have brought him to eternal
shame ; till he is destroyed by drowning or hanging, till he
is torn to pieces by wild beasts, or consumed by fire. Let
his children become orphans, his wife a widow. I
command you, Devil, and all your imps, that even as I now
blow out these torches, you do immediately extinguish the
light of his eyes. So be it — so be it ; Amen. Amen."
The records of the Dark Ages are grim, but those of
modern Europe run them close. In 1561 occurred the
butchery of St Bartholomew's Eve. " I agree to the
scheme," cried Charles IX., provided not one Huguenot be
left alive in France to reproach me with the deed." The
news of the portentous crime was received at Rome with
a joy beyond description. A medal was struck to
commemorate the event, and the Pope accompanied by his
Cardinals rendered a solemn Te Deum for this crowning
mercy vouchsafed to the Church,

THE RENAISSANCE 201

But the aspirations of Rome were still unsatisfied. In
1568 the Holy Office condemned every man, woman, and
child of the heretical Netherlands to the scaffold. From
this universal doom involving three millions of innocent
and industrious people only a few persons specially named
were exempt. " The sooner these noxious plants are
extirpated from the earth," wrote Philip II., "the less fear
there is that a fresh crop will spring up." " I desire, " he
continued, in his instructions to Alva, " that if you have
not already disembarrassed the world of them you will do
it immediately, and inform me thereof, for I see no reason
why it should be delayed."

The efforts made by Roman Catholicism to disembarrass
the world of its most intellectual and industrious
citizens, would be inconceivable were they not indubitably
attested. The storms burst with traditional violence
upon the Waldenses in 1655 and again in 1686.
Men, women and children were massacred by methods so
horrible that the foulest imagination cannot compass their
reality. " If all the tyrants of all times and ages were alive
again," exclaimed Cromwell's envoy to the Duke of Savoy,
" certainly they would be ashamed when they should find
that they had contrived nothing in comparison with these
things that might be reputed barbarous and inhuman. In
the meantime the angels are surprised with horror, men
are amazed, Heaven itself seems to be astonished with the
cries of dying men, and the very earth to blush with the
gore blood of so many innocent persons."

In 1815 Dr Gilly, an English traveller, visited the
Waldensian valleys which for upwards of 700 years had
been haunted by the terrors of persecution. He narrates
an interesting conversation with an aged Waldensian

202 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

pastor. " Remember," said this old man with conscious
and becoming pride, " remember that you are indebted to
us for your emancipation from Papal thraldom. We led
the way. We stood in the front rank and against us the
first thunderbolts of Rome were fulminated. The baying
of the bloodhounds of the Inquisition was heard in our
valleys before you knew its name. They hunted down
some of our ancestors and pursued others from glen to glen
and over rock and mountain, till they obliged them to take
refuge in foreign countries."

Inns were forbidden to receive heretical guests. It was
illegal for schools to admit children, almshouses paupers,
and graveyards dead bodies unless furnished with satisfactory
proofs of orthodoxy. Births, deaths, and marriages could
only occur with validity under the aegis of the Catholic
Church. As far as Ecclesiasticism could exclude him the
heretic was outside the pale of humanity.

The Inquisition was defined by the biographer of that
baneful monarch Philip II. as a " heavenly remedy, a
guardian angel of Paradise, a lion's den in which Daniel and
other just men could sustain no injury, but in which
perverse sinners were torn to pieces." In reality it was the
most demoniacal engine ever evolved from Hell. It taught
the natives of South America to shudder at the name of
Christianity. The fear of it froze the greater part of
Europe into a seeming orthodoxy. It was an organisation
whose acts were above all law or question. Its methods
were reduced to a horrible simplicity — arrest on suspicion,
torture, death. It condemned not deeds but thoughts. Its
spies and familiars lurked unsuspected, and its tentacles
extended into every man's household. The merest straws
were construed into crimes ; on the word of some ignoble

THE RENAISSANCE 203

informer suspects were at any moment liable to be dragged
from their homes and hurried without trial into the maw of
the Holy office, whence they rarely emerged.

But the aspect of persecution that mainly concerns us,
is Authority's attitude towards Knowledge. The monks
were inveterate destroyers of books. They were in-
defatigable in erasing the works of ancient authors in order
to transcribe upon the obliterated vellum their own fabulous
productions. Pope Gregory VII. burnt the priceless
library of the Palatine Apollo in order that the attention of
the clergy might be confined to the Holy Scriptures. In
1569 12,000 copies of the Talmud were burnt publicly at
Cremona. Cornelius Agrippa was compelled to fly, merely
for having displayed a few elementary philosophical experi-
ments. He was regarded as an object of such horror that
the people fled, leaving the streets empty at his approach.

The writings of Roger Bacon were so effectually
suppressed by his superiors that they were not printed
until 1733. Poesy was held to be the inspiration of the
devil. One of the Dominicans was notorious for perse-
cuting all verse makers whose powers he attributed to
heresy and magic.

Whatever may have been the original excellences of
the Romish system, it is undeniable that at the period
immediately prior to the Reformation it had become a base
and merciless tyranny over the conscience and freedom
of Europe. The clergy were men of fierce passions and
low instincts. They were justly regarded as fanatical
obscurantists whose energies were devoted not to the
advancement of morality and learning, but to the perpetua-
tion of a benighted ignorance and an almost inconceivable
bigotry. At their hands Philosophy and Theology had

204 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

become degraded and brutalised to a degree almost impos-
sible to credit.

The sledge hammer of Luther, notwithstanding that it
nearly caused the disintegration of the Romish Church,
brought, as we have seen, little if any relief to the claims of
philosophy. The human mind knows nothing of sudden
changes or violent jumps and the conditions of modern
Europe differed little from those of the Dark Ages. What-
ever may have been the points of discord between Lutherism
and Rome, both parties were united in their persecution of
philosophy. The Jesuits sent to proscribe Lutherism from
Bohemia, converted that flourishing kingdom into a desert.
They struck one fatal blow by condemning and destroying
the entire national literature. Similarly on the other hand,
we find our English Puritans making great bonfires of
everything Popish, and piously glorying in their depreda-
tions. The Reformation, therefore, did little to free thought
and odium tbeologicum remained an ever present incubus.

Francis I. signed Letters Patent for the suppression of
printing. In 1624 an edict was promulgated in Paris
which forbade any attack on the System of Aristotle under
pain of death. The philosopher Ramus, for traversing
some of Aristotle's dicta, was cited as an enemy of religion,
a disturber of the public peace, and a corruptor of the
minds of youth.

Copernicus (1473-1543) waited thirty years before he
dared make public his discovery that the sun was the centre
of our universe. Happily he died a few hours after the
publication of his book, hence this "upstart astrologer,"
this " fool who wishes to reverse the entire science of
astronomy " — these were Luther's terms — escaped the
deathly clutch of the Inquisition. For espousing the

THE RENAISSANCE 205

heresy of Copernicus, Giordano Bruno was burned in 1600.
On hearing his doom, he uttered the memorable words,
" You have greater fear in pronouncing this sentence than
I have in receiving it." Vanini (1585-1619) on being led
forth from his prison to the hurdle for execution exclaimed :
" Let us go, let us go joyfully to die as becomes a
philosopher." Before being burned, his tongue was torn
out. In the words of an unsympathising onlooker
" Vanini was ordered to put forth his sacrilegious tongue
for the knife. He refused : it was necessary to employ
pincers to draw it forth, and when the execution's instrument
seized and cut it off, never was heard a more horrible cry.
One might have thought that he heard the bellowing of an
ox which was being slaughtered." There is fitness in thus
allowing bigotry to record in its own terms its own doings.

For declaring that the earth revolved, Galileo was
martyred in 1642. "Are these then my judges?" he
exclaimed, on retiring from the Inquisitors whose ignorance
astonished him. The priest who perused the posthumous
manuscripts of this great philosopher, destroyed such as
in bis judgment were not fit to be known to the world.

Descartes (1596-1650) was horribly persecuted in
Holland. He was accused of Atheism and narrowly
escaped being burned on an eminence favourably situated
for observation by the Seven Provinces.

Such being the average fate of Europe's intellectual
giants, what was the lot of the smaller luminaries, the
nonentities of whom History takes no account ? They fell
like the unnumbered leaves in an autumn gale.

The efforts of Rome to disembarrass the world of its
thinkers, naturally were felt most heavily by authors,
printers, and booksellers. For the slightest infraction, real

206 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

or supposed, of religious or political propriety, the stationer
suffered. The fate of one Bartholomew Hector — a poor
glowworm whose name I am happy to recover from
oblivion — was probably typical of a thousand others equally
grim. Hector was a stationer and was burned for some
unknown reason in 1555. He "died with admirable
constancy, and edified the assistants and standers-by in
such manner that he drew tears from their eyes."

The efforts of authority having failed to extinguish
printing, there remained the expedient of muzzling. Clerical
inquisitors were appointed at Madrid, Rome, Naples, Lisbon,
and elsewhere. License to publish was refused to all works
except those certified under the official Imprimatur as being
innocuous. Unhappily, the ecclesiastical sages who sat in
inquisition were frequently in vigorous disagreement among
themselves. Some had a keener sense of heresy than others.
The chief Inquisitor of the Netherlands lived to see his own
writings proscribed by the Licenser at Rome, and the
Inquisitor at Naples was so displeased with the Spanish
Index that he maintained it had never been printed at
Madrid. There was no concord among the Inquisitors,
and the incrimination of one was followed by the retaliation
of another. The Bishop of Saltzburg having asserted the
existence of the Antipodes was declared a heretic by the
Archbishop of Mentz. The books on cipher writing of
Abbot Trithemius were condemned to the fire as works
"full of diabolical mysteries." An ambiguous sentence,
or even a word was sometimes sufficient to damn or
indefinitely delay publications.

Two lists of condemned writings were compiled. The
simple Index set forth those books that were never under
any circumstances to be opened. The Index Expurgatorius

THE RENAISSANCE 207

indicated works that might be perused after they have
undergone a purification by the removal of obnoxious
passages. " Expurgation " caused louder complaints than
out and out prohibition, as by the omission or interpolation
of passages, writers were made to say or unsay exactly
what the Inquisitors wished. As Milton complained, the
system " raked through the entrails of many an old good
author with a violation worse than any could be offered
to his tomb."

The ineptitudes of the Licensers were incredible.
Malebranche was unable to get an approbation for his
Research after Truth^ because the Inquisitors were unable
to understand it. It was eventually approved as a work
on Geometry. A book on Trigonometry was condemned
as heretical because the Trinity, a forbidden subject of
discussion, was assumed to be included in Trigonometry.
A treatise on the " Destruction of Insects " was believed
to be a covert allusion to the Jesuits, and was accordingly
disallowed.

Nani's History of Venice was permitted because it
" contained nothing against princes" Raleigh's History
of the World was condemned for being " too saucy in
censuring the acts of Kings."

James I. proscribed Buchanan's History^ and everyone
was ordered to bring his copy " to be perusit and purgit
of the offensive and extraordinare materis." In free
England, literature was equally afflicted. The function
of Church and State seems to have been to pounce down
at every possible opportunity, and the rare chance seems to
have been for a writer to escape their grip. Unseen snares
lay around not only religion and politics, but almost every
conceivable subject, and nothing was allowed to be

208 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

published that could by any possibility injure the
interests of anybody powerful enough to retaliate. The
censorious attitude of the authorities caused professional
" informers " to spring into existence. The malicious
activity of this class was a constant menace to authors.
The simplest expressions were construed as bearing sinister
meanings. " Let me but name bread," complains Nash,
" and they will interpret it to be the town of Breda in
the Low Countreys."

These " decipherers " as they were called, made it their
trade to interpret names as disguises for great personages
thereby libelled. No interpretation seems to have been
too far-fetched to involve the writer in trouble. The
phrase from Piers Penniles : — " I pray you, how might
I call you ? " was interpreted into a covert attack by Nash
upon one of themselves whose name happened to be
" Howe." Nicholas Breton did not exaggerate when he
wrote : —

" Who doth not find it by experience
That points and commas oftentimes misread
Endanger oft the harmless writer's head."

The punishments inflicted upon writers unable to prove
their innocence were shameful in their severity. If suspects
refused to confess the order ran : " You shall by authority
hereof put them to torture in Bridewell, and by the
extremity thereof . . . draw them to discover their
knowledge." The rack and the scavenger's daughter were
used for the torturing of Alexander Briant to extort con-
fession about a secret printing press.

The dangers of authorship were so great and the
rewards of literature so remote, that it is not surprising
to meet with the enquiry, " who is likely to have any

THE RENAISSANCE 209

courage to study ? seeinge insteede of honour and preference
dishonour and hindrance recompensed for a reward of
learning."

To those capable of judging the state of the human
species, Thought was Pain. As Sismondi says most men
in France, Germany, England, and Spain who felt them-
selves to be endued with the capability of forming ideas
"either smothered them, not to aggravate the pain of
thoughts, or directed them solely in speculations the farthest
from real life."

The Advancement of Learning brought no honour to
Bacon from his own countrymen. It was cashiered as an
heretical and impertinent piece, and was placed on the
Index Librorum Prohibitorum. Bishop Goodman said
that he would have written some reply to it if he " durst
have printed it." It is unnecessary to give a list of
English writers who suffered from the baneful effects of
Government repression as such a scroll would include the
names of practically all our great writers until the con-
cluding years of the seventeenth century.

The illegality of unorthodox books continued on the
Continent for many years later. Any study trenching
upon the domain of dogma entailed very perilous risks.

The anatomist Vesale was doomed to a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem for the expiation of his impiety of prying into
the secrets of the human body, and his works were burnt.
Monsieur de Laragnais was imprisoned for having read a
paper in favour of inoculation before an assembly of the
Academy in Paris. His vain defence was that by his
advocacy he hoped to preserve to France the lives of
fifty thousand persons who died annually of smallpox. The
Faculty of Theology in Paris burnt the books of the

210 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

geologists, banished their authors and compelled the
naturalist Buffon to retract as "contrary to the creed of
the Church " the heretical assertion that mountains and
valleys had been produced by the action of the sea.

Voltaire among other projects for benefitting France,
wished to make known to his countrymen the discoveries
of Newton, but the authorities interposed and forbad it.
In Spain even until 1788 if not later, the despotism of the
Universities prohibited Newton and modern philosophy.
The Encyclopaedia designed by Diderot to summarise
all branches of science and art, was first discouraged and
afterwards prohibited by the French Government.

Similar instances might be indefinitely multiplied, and if
such were the conditions centuries after the so-called Renais-
sance, what must they have been before that event ? What
precisely are we to understand by the term Renaissance ? It
is defined by J. A. Symonds as having been a com-
prehensive movement of the European intellect and will
towards self-emancipation and towards reassertion of the
natural rights of reason and the senses." To fix a definite
date for the beginning, the development, or the consumma-
tion of the movement is impossible although the term is
generally understood to mark the transition from the swamp
of mediaeval ignorance to the comparative joyousness of
the last three centuries. How comes it that what was
admittedly a revolt against the barren dogmatism of
Theology has been designated by a term so essentially re-
ligious as " Renaissance " or Re-Birth ? According to John
Addington Symonds it is a word that has " recently "
come into use. The New English Dictionary assigns its

1 I have italicised these words to point the analogy between this definition and
the pillar emblems illustrated on pp. 107 and 108.

THE RENAISSANCE 211

first appearance as an English term to the years 1840 or
1845, but I imagine that in France and Italy the expres-
sion is of much older standing. Indeed, I fancy that it
was given to the movement by the men who themselves
were making it. The Rev. S. Baring-Gould states that the
initiation into the mysteries of the St. Grail " was regarded
as a NEW BIRTH, and those who had once become members
were regarded as elect, regenerate, separate from the rest of
mankind, who lay in darkness and ignorance.'*

Jacob Bohme the mystic cobbler leads off in Chapter I
of De Mysterio Magno with the words : " If we would
understand what the NEW BIRTH is and how it is brought
to pass, then we must first know what Man is."

The judicious Hitchcock, who derived his opinions
from the study of upwards of 200 works on Alchemy,
sums up his conclusions as to the Alchemist's real object by
saying he could liken it to nothing more expressive than
the experience known in religion as The NEW BIRTH.

Wise men under the masks of Poesy, Mysticism, and
Alchemy were thus for centuries working out the regenera-
tion of Europe. These scientists of the Soul by the quiet
force of perseverance gradually and imperceptibly trans-
formed the jungle of the human heart into a garden of the
rose ; to a great extent they succeeded in their unseen
efforts to transmute the clay of humanity into worthier
elements. The Renaissance was not the inevitable clash of
the human spirit growing unconsciously into conflict with the
rigid and outworn Theology of Rome. There are many
countries in Europe to-day whose condition negatives the
notion that such a struggle was in any sense u inevitable.'*
No : the Renaissance or re-birth of humanity was the effect
of a scheme deliberately designed and artistically contrived

212 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

by the prophetic and more nobly gifted minds of past ages.
It was not an untended wild flower, but rather a plant rare
and exotic, cherished by centuries of blood and tears.
" They wish," cried an opponent of the Inquisition, " that
we should meet these hungry wolves with remonstrances,
using gentle words while they are burning and cutting of
heads. Be it so then. Let us take the pen, let them take
the sword. For them deeds, for us words. We shall weep,
they will laugh. The Lord be praised for all ; but I
cannot write this without tears."

In this pathetic utterance of 300 years ago, is expressed
the spirit that had even then existed, suffered, and achieved
for a previous five centuries ; probably much longer.
" For the last 450 years," declared a writer in 1624, " there
have been (especially in Europe) a great number in diverse
kingdoms and countries which have made profession of a
religion altogether conformable to the Word of God . . .
having mourned under the darkness of Antichrist wherein
they shined like precious stones in a dunghill, and roses
among the thorns. They seemed to the world but as
abject men, but God beheld them as His Children, and
gave them eyes to see and ears to hear, and a heart to
understand the Truth." " It is wonderful," continues this
same writer, " that they saw so clearly in those times of
darkness more gross than that of Egypt."

Gradually and almost imperceptibly, the Light of
the Renaissance crept up and spread over the face of

Europe :

" Lo ! in the East

Flamed the first fires of beauteous day, poured forth
Through fleeting folds of Night's black drapery.
High in the widening blue the herald-star
Faded to paler silver as there shot

THE RENAISSANCE

Brighter and brightest bars of rosy gleam

Across the grey. Far off the shadowy hills

Saw the great Sun, before the world was 'ware,

And donned their crowns of crimson ; flower by flower

Felt the warm breath of Morn and 'gan unfold

Their tender lids. Over the spangled grass

Swept the swift footsteps of the lovely Light

Turning the tears of night to joyous gems,

Decking the earth with radiance, 'broidering

The sinking storm-clouds with a golden fringe.

Yea ! and so holy was the influence
Of that high Dawn which came with victory
That, far and near, in homes of men there spread
An unknown peace. The slayer hid his knife ;
The robber laid his plunder back ; the schrofF
Counted full tale of coins ; all evil hearts
Grew gentle, kind hearts gentler, as the balm
Of that divinest Daybreak lightened Earth."

213

FIG. 407. — Tailpiece. Geneva, 1776.

CONCLUSION

THE facts now outlined represent the result of some
ten years' research. I should hesitate to commit
them to print were it not that each new source of
information serves but to verify and expand my conclusions.
The area of inquiry has been wide ; indeed, so wide that
the specialist in every subject may feel inclined to dub me
" uneducated." Unhappily, one cannot cover more than a
certain amount of reading within a given compass ; I can
only wish that my limitations had been less rigid, but that
happily 1 may be the means of putting others better equipped
upon the trail.

The evidence now accumulated is not a chain of which
the value can be destroyed by the breaking of a single link ;
it is a cable of many and well woven strands sufficiently
strong to withstand mere negation or the dull supposition
that it may be due to " chance." Trivialities such as
" trademarks " have naturally been deemed unworthy of
serious attention, yet, as has been shown, they constitute a
sequence of historical documents whose authenticity cannot
be impeached. These documents exist in untold millions
among the libraries and bookshops of the world. In the
dust of old volumes may be read the aspirations and the
sufferings of the men who made them — actions which
after the lapse of centuries smell sweet and blossom in
the dust. Some years ago a leading periodical rebuked
me for attributing any meaning or importance to paper-

214

CONCLUSION 215

marks. " They took very curious shapes? it conceded, but
the explanation of this was that " in all probability the
•workmen varied them for their own amusement (!)."

The story as I have endeavoured to interpret it may be
wrong in some of its details ; its poetic fragrance has
certainly been much impaired by its transit through my
matter of fact English mind, but in its broad issues it
conveys, I am convinced, a fair outline of the truth.

The evidence of papermarks leaves no loop to hang a
doubt on that the early manufacture of paper was almost
if not entirely in the hands of anti-Ecclesiastics. It is of
course not infrequent to find old papers in which no water-
mark occurs, and occasionally one comes across what is
apparently a purely Catholic emblem. Facts such as these
are exceptions to be expected ; they do not disturb the main
conclusions.

Books free from watermarks are as a rule equally free
from printer's ornaments. It is a reasonable and natural
inference that Albigensian printers obtained their paper
supplies from makers who shared their sentiments which
were expressed in similar emblems.

It is worthy of note that many terms of modern
publishing are directly derived from ancient watermarks.
The Crown 8-yo, that figures so constantly in booksellers'
catalogues, arises from the celestial crown of the paper-
makers. The St. Grail has been corrupted into " pot "
with its multiples double and quad pot. The Horn of
Roland — although it is to be found centuries before the
introduction of any post — has been erroneously assumed to
represent a post-horn, whence the terms large and small
post. The Holy Dove survives in the name Colombier,
and the Troubadours — those mediaeval Fools who grew

216 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

wise through pity — have become a household word in the
name Foolscap.

It may be objected that Troubadours and Fools were
distinct classes. I refer the sceptic to Les Mysteres de la
Chevalerie^ E. Aroux, Paris, 1858, and to a scholarly
little work by Mrs Cooper-Oakley entitled Traces of a
Hidden Tradition in Masonry and Medieval Mysticism^
London, 1900. There was also an interesting article on
the Guild Fools of Mediaeval France in the June 1907
issue of Broad Views. " Pray Heaven," says the writer,
" I had some of these ' splendid fools ' with their ' wicked
wit ' among my ancestors ; men with an irrepressible spirit
of humour, ' fellows of infinite jest,' who considered it their
duty to be happy in themselves, and to endeavour to make
others so, and who lashed with their caustic speech alike the
prelate and the priest, the king and the courtier. For the
first duty, the first privilege that devolved on the Fool
when he became an ' innocent ' in the eyes of the Law, was
to tell the truth ! The Guild Fool as such was a mysterious
character who appeared in dramatic guilds, chiefly in
Mediaeval France. These Guilds resembled somewhat the
literary and dramatic clubs of our own day, but within and
behind them was seen a definite moral aim working strongly
for the uplifting of public ideals. We find also a certain
collusion between the members of them, which seems to
suggest some stronger bond than any merely literary club
would give."

" The Fool's duty was to help in the liberating of
humanity as he had himself been liberated from all dogmas,
forms, and human tyranny, and from the tutelage of priests.
For the first step upon the mystic road made a man
centuries ago, as it does to-day, an iconoclast. A man must

CONCLUSION

217

learn to break up his idols, the idols of his own brain, the
idols of his own heart. His is the freedom of a heart
dedicated to one alone. And the name of the one far-off
and invisible Mistress that the Fool of the Middle Ages
dreamt of as he walked in the garden at night apart from
the crowd of the rich and ignorant, which he had been
convulsing with his wit — her name was TRUTH."

Upwards of a century ago, the symbol of the Fool gave
place in this country to the watermark below. Since then

Modern

FIG. 408.

practically every sheet of foolscap made in England has
borne this mark, and the reader will probably see it in the
next sheet of writing paper he examines. The paper-
makers' " Britannia " of to-day is in reality the same divinity
who was figured centuries ago with the crescent of the Dawn
upon her forehead.

It is unnecessary to digress into the story of Britannia's
birth and parentage. It will be noticed that as she appears in

218 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

papermark, she is encircled by the ellipse, or Mundane Egg
of the Philosophers, surmounted by a celestial crown. In
one hand she holds the trefoil (originally it was often an
olive branch), in the other a diamond-tipped spear. At her
feet flow the waters of the Holy Spirit.

Many of the curious marks that are to-day in con-
ventional use by the makers of handmade papers (serving
to designate certain sizes) are survivals of long-ago-disused
designs. Thus for instance in Fig. 409 may be traced clear
reminiscences of the head, eyes and horns of a Bull.

FIG.

. — 1722,

Modern

FIG. 409.

It might reasonably be supposed that a Trade
clinging thus conservatively to its traditions would possess
some knowledge of the romantic cause to which these are
traceable. It happens that I am associated with a firm
whose records go back for upwards of one hundred and
twenty years. Yet strange as it may seem, neither my

CONCLUSION 219

partners nor myself have the slightest inkling of any
traditions or knowledge existing on this subject, nor have
I been able to trace such in any other directions.

Circumstances naturally bring me into close contact
with Printing, and among printers and publishers I have
many friends. Here again, however, no traditions as to
the great role played by Printing in the past seem to have
survived. There exists, however, a curious organisation
called " The Chapel." The Chapel is a kind of club that
exists among the workpeople of the more important printing
offices. The Head of each " Chapel " is termed the Father
of the Chapel. Within my own memory, the older work-
men of my firm commenced the day's proceedings with a
prayer meeting.

Making every allowance for apathy and the modern
spirit of Commercialism, it seems hardly possible to credit
that the memory of such momentous doings should have
entirely vapoured away into oblivion. I have sometimes
wondered whether by chance I have stumbled upon one
of the tracks of Freemasonry. Masonic emblems are,
however, a class distinct from those here dealt with. The
geometrical symbols of Freemasonry, so frequently to be
seen in continental churches, are also to be found in
printer's marks and on the title-pages of books, but I
have not now considered them. My reading of Masonic
history leads me to conclude that it was not until the seven-
teenth or eighteenth centuries that modern Masonry came into
existence. Moreover, it is difficult to believe that, assuming
the possession of a correct knowledge, masonic writers
would suffer the wrong, and sometimes infamous, misinter-
pretations that have been placed by the world on — say
the Alchemistical Philosophers, the Renaissance, Elizabethan

poetry, and other equally ill-judged subjects. They might
consider it impolitic to disclose the true facts, but they are
not called upon to mock their avowed mistress, Truth.

A second and more likely source of information, and
that to which one naturally turns, are those survivors of
Albigensianism still known as the Waldenses. At the first
opportunity it is my intention to visit the valleys of this
wonderful little people, and glean what information can be
gathered. The narrative of Dr Gilly, who travelled
among them in 1825, is extremely touching: "Much as
I was prejudiced in favour of this extraordinary race, before
I became personally acquainted with their character, that
acquaintance has increased my admiration of them. If
innocence and pure religion can be said to reign anywhere,
it is here ; and all my inquiries and researches have had
the effect of bringing the firm conviction to my mind, that
they are one of those favoured people, whom the arm of
the Almighty has providentially shielded, for purposes best
known to His inscrutable wisdom. Their morals correspond
with their faith ; and their lives and conversation testify
that the doctrines they profess are those of the truth ; for
nothing short of a firm persuasion, that they are burning
and shining lights, which are not to be put out, could have
given them courage and perseverance, sufficient to withstand
the temptations, to which their spiritual integrity has been
exposed, or to resist the strong hand which has been lifted
up against them for more than ten centuries. I had
opportunities of observing the conduct of individuals of this
little community, at different times, and under various
circumstances, at home and abroad, in the transactions of
business, and the kindly courtesies of life, and in their
hours of devotion and festivity, and I am impressed with

CONCLUSION 221

the belief that there is nothing exaggerated, either in the
favourable representations made by their own historians, or
in the eulogies of strangers."

The Waldenses, says Dr Gilly, were the first to expose
the abuses of the Romish Church. " They were the first
who engaged to cleanse this Augean stable of corruption :
and if we had records that would enable us to follow step
by step through their bold and arduous undertaking, we
should be able to exhibit one of the most glorious pictures
of human perseverance that was ever displayed."

With all humility I submit that papermarks and
printer's ornaments are unquestionable records of Waldensian
activity, and that here is to be found unrolled that marvellous
picture of perseverance which Dr Gilly anticipated.

" We will await with patience the appointed time," l
is an expression that was heard constantly by Dr Gilly,
and he understood it as possibly an allusion to the part
which the Waldenses have borne, and expect to bear, in the
grand scheme for the propagation of true Christianity
among mankind.

It is quite conceivable that these extraordinary people
possess traditional records, but that it is out of keeping with
their principles to disclose their own accomplishments.
Their Christianity seems to have been unworldly in its
purity. The story of their sufferings and persecutions —
horrors too monstrous for description — almost too vast to be
believed, are depicted in detail in Leger's very scarce work
published in 1655. " That volume," said a Waldensian to
Dr Gilly, " I never saw until I was twenty-four years of
age, although it was in my father's and grandfather's
possession ; nor have I ever permitted either of my own

1 This is reminiscent of "the time of the end," see p. 195.

222 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

children to open a page of it. // is one of our principles
not to say or do anything 'which shall have the effect of
exasperating the minds of our youth against their Roman
Catholic brethren"

Charity such as this is more than capable of the decision,
' The Light is here ; the past is done with, and what
matters the part we have played ? '

But momentous though the role and deep the footprints
of this great-minded little people, the heretical Church of the
Holy Grail was something more than pure Waldensianism.
It was a broader and more significant stream. Rising in
the dim East, its manifold windings may be traced throughout
the Dark Ages. Its waters were unquestionably fed by
Waldensian streamlets which mingled ebbing and flowing
with other tributaries. I doubt whether the influence
exercised by the Romaunt of the Rose or the Song of Roland
can be referred solely to Waldensianism. The Legends of
the St. Grail had an Eastern origin : so too Alchemy. It
is said by some historians that the fearful vengeance that
fell upon the Templars was due to their adherence to the
Grail Church. There was too, I imagine, no great
sympathy between the oriental subtleties of the Kabbalah
and the austere tenets of Peter Waldo.

If I were a believer in the theory of reincarnation, the
spirit of a Troubadour Grail Knight reappeared, I should
say, in the person of Richard Wagner. The philosophy of
Wagner was a remarkable blend of Catholic and Protestant,
Christian and Buddhist ideas ; it was curiously similar in
this respect to the philosophy displayed in papermarks and
woodblocks. Wagner appreciated that the highest and
most potent mode of playing upon Humanity's heartstrings
was by a combination of Music, Poetry and Stage-craft.

CONCLUSION 223

His themes centre around the mystery of the St. Grail
and kindred myths. In his Mastersingers (the next inheritors
of the Minnesingers or Troubadours) he gives us Hans
Sachs, the historic cobbler-poet. In Sachs we see a repre-
sentative of the unnumbered paper-poets, printer-poets and
other artisans who combined work with aspiration. Sachs
was a typical Son of the Dawn, one of those whom Bacon
terms Filii Aurora^ men " full of towardness and hope."
Listen to the exultant hymn in which he pours out his
soul to Luther and the Reformation : —

" Awake ! Awake ! The day is near
And from the leafy hedge I hear
The love-enchanted nightingale
Whose song resounds through hill and dale :
The night to westward sinks away,
Out of the East appears the Day.
The darkling veil of clouds is drawn
And bright with scarlet burns the Dawn."

But more remarkable is the " Prize Song " placed by
Wagner in the mouth of the aspiring youth who carries off
the Mastersingers' laurels. Translated by Mr F. Corder
it reads : —

" Morning was gleaming with roseate light,
The air was filled
With scent distilled
Where, beauty beaming,
Past all dreaming,
A garden did invite.
Wherein, beneath a wondrous tree

With fruit superbly laden,
In blissful love-dream I could see

The rare and tender maiden,
Whose charms, beyond all price,
Entranced by heart —
Eve, in Paradise.

224 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

" Evening was darkling, and night closed around ;
By rugged way
My feet did stray
Towards a mountain
Where & fountain
Enslaved me with its sound ;
And there beneath a laurel tree,
With starlight glinting under,
In waking vision greeted me
A sweet and solemn wonder ;
She dropped on me the fountain's dews,

That woman fair —
Parnassus' glorious Muse.

" Thrice happy day,
To which my poet's trance gave place !
That Paradise of which I dreamed,
In radiance new before my face

Glorified lay.
To point out the path the laughing brooklet streamed :

She stood beside me

Who shall my bride be,

The fairest sight earth e'er gave,

My Muse, to whom I bow,

So angel-sweet and grave,

I woo her boldly now :

Before the world remaining,

My might of music gaining

Parnassus and Paradise ! "

Observe how in these lines is concentrated much of the
mythology we have been considering. Walter "pretends to"
Eva, the daughter of Pogner, but the Eva who dwelt in the
Orchard of the Rose, the love pilgrim, the mountain, the
fountain, the dew, the woman fair and the bride, all these
are as purely allegorical as the Song of Solomon.

I have glanced thus briefly at the art of Richard
Wagner, because in that direction only is recognisable any
appreciation of the verities underlying mediaeval romance.

CONCLUSION 225

As for Printing and Papermaking, the sordid claw of Com-
petition has so torn and rent the exquisite fabric in which
these trades were once adorned that nothing now remains
but some few neglected shreds and patches.

In the Edinburgh Review of July 1906, there appeared
a very able article on French Illuminism. The writer
states "that at the opening of the eighteenth century there
survived all over Europe legends of secret societies that
had existed for the pursuit of mystical philosophy.
/" Speaking generally," says he, " their interest did not
lie in the region of politics or polemics, but in that of
study, experiment and speculation; and their chief care
was the, preservation and elucidation of ancient hermetic
and traditional secrets." Their teaching was theosophic
and moral (the morals of mysticism are nearly always clean
and sweet) ; their method was to develop the somnolent
divine, faculties in humanity, and to lead man into a closer
relation with the invisible. Their objective was Liberty —
the freedom of the soul from its own passions and the
liberation of mankind from the tyranny of temporal
powers. The word LIBERT AS watermarked on p. 35 was
a dangerous motto in those days. The efforts of authority
to disembarrass the world of its thinkers were directed
even more bitterly against political dreamers. " The forget-
fulness by vassals," wrote Don John of Austria to his
kinsman Philip II. of Spain, "is so dangerous that all
princes and potentates, even those at the moment exempt
from trouble, should assist in preparing the remedy in order
that their subjects may not take it into their heads to do
the like, liberty being a contagious disease, which goes on
infecting orfe neighbour after another, if the cure be not
promptly applied."

226 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

What we call the Renaissance was merely the fruiting
of a plant whose cult had been the cherished work of
centuries. Persecution forced its guardians into strange
shifts and mysterious modes of intercommunication.
Enveloped by the spies and familiars of the Inquisition,
those responsible for the Renaissance were driven to play
their great game in profound secrecy. Men of deep ends,
they trod deep ways. They may be recognised flitting
across the stage of History in the guises inter alia of
Romanticists, Troubadours, Pilgrims of Love, Templars,
Alchemists, and Illuminati.

It should be of great interest to us to look back into
the centuries, and see the strange methods to which men
were compelled to resort for the simple privilege of living
and thinking honestly. Changing frequently their tactics
they deviated never from their aims. The machinery they
devised was so subtle that we may, if we will, catch across
the ages, the cry, the whisper, and the smile, which con-
temporary tyranny had no instrument keen enough to
detect or firm enough to suppress.

It is amazing the risks they ran, but the tangible
evidence of "pagan" emblems, such as Diana (p. 61), are
too obvious for us to question those risks. On the other
hand, it is surprising how in the face of forces so numerous,
so subtle, and so persevering, the Church of Rome was able
to maintain her stability.

In that Titanic struggle nothing is more surprising
than the strength and duration of the influence exercised
by the mediaeval romances. Upon deliberate consideration
my judgment is that a concealed instruction and allegory
was originally intended in many of these ancient fables.
As Bacon continues in the Wisdom of the Ancients : " I

CONCLUSION 227

receive them not as the product of the age or invention
of the poets, but as sacred relics. Gentle whispers and
the breath of better times that from the traditions of more
ancient nations came at length into the flutes and trumpets
of the Greeks."

For " Greeks " we may substitute " French " ; indeed
all the evidence tends to the conclusion that France, and not
Italy, was the nursing mother of the Renaissance. The word
romance originally designated a story written in roman^
i.e. eleventh or twelfth century French instead of Latin.
The "Song of Roland," the Legends of the St. Grail
and the Romaunt of the Rose were French. The
beautiful culture of Provence which at first permeated
Southern Europe, and eventually the whole continent,
with a perfume of poetry and gentle living, was
essentially French. J. A. Symonds remarks^ that the
Albigensian dissenters from the Catholic Church opposed
the phalanxes of Orthodoxy with but " frail, imaginative
weapons." Were he to turn to the Industrial aspect of
Albigensianism, Symonds would confirm my conclusion
that these poetic heretics were as great in deeds as in dreams.
Their character was, as M. Berard states in Les Vaudois,
" a strange combination of ardent mysticism, cold reason, and
valiant courage at labour." That we English are indebted
to French sources for the art of papermaking, is manifest
from the fact that even to-day French terms such as
retree, couch rolls (from coucber\ demy, colombier, etc,
are in use among us. The Province of Auvergne claims to
have been the cradle of European papermaking. Certainly
it was a flourishing centre of the industry for many
centuries. The Troubadours were French. The Guilds
of Rhetoric existed " chiefly in mediaeval France," whence

228 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

they permeated Europe. The first poetical impulse of the
cultured classes in Italy " came to Italy from Provence"
The Battlefield of Freedom was mainly the unhappy
Netherlands where for upwards of one hundred years the
people maintained an heroic struggle against the subtle and
remorseless powers of Spain. The revolt entered " not
through the Augsburg but the Huguenot gate. The fiery
field-preachers from the South of France first inflamed the
excitable hearts of the kindred population of the South
western Netherlands."

The writer on Illuminism from whom I have already
quoted states that " In France it [Illuminism] was epitomised.
From Avignon, Lyons and other citadels of Freedom there
flashed," says he, " through the grey night of feudalism,
the watchfires of great hope tended by those priests of
progress who though unable to lift the veil that shrouds
the destiny of man and the end of worlds, by faith
were empowered to dedicate the future to the Unknown
God."

In studying the philosophy of papermarks and woodcuts,
I have often mentally debated whether it was " Christian."
In the narrow sense of modern Christianity it certainly was
not. Aroux states that Dante conceived the audacious
project of employing Ecclesiastical symbols to convey his
Platonic teaching. Schmidt asserts that the Cathari did not
accept Jesus Christ literally^ but that they employed the
dogmas of Christianity as emblems of a deeper philosophy,
adopting merely what suited their own purposes. " Far
from being a Christian philosophy, " says he, " the system
of the Cathari was linked to the metaphysical speculations of
paganism."

This, however, is an aspect of the subject that it is

CONCLUSION 229

unnecessary for me to consider. I entrust it to students of
the New Theology with the comment of Ecclesiastes, "Is
there a thing whereof men say, See this is New ? It hath
been already in the ages which were before us."

I am not without hope that the clergy may come
forward and assist in the unravelling of the many problems
still awaiting solution. To them this is a subject fraught
with a vital importance. We shall hear less of the
failure of Christianity if it be proved — as it can — that the
moral progress of Europe has been due to a highly intel-
lectual form of Christianity ; and it will infuse new
confidence and hope into those who view with disquietude
the present position of the churches. The so-called church-
less spirit of the age is due not to ill-will, nor to intellectual
apathy, but rather to the superficial materialism of the
Christianity seen around.

The irrigation system of the Church is excellent, but its
reservoirs are running dry. If it is to refill them, it must
be by the appreciation of the truths underlying symbolism,
and by the distinction between matters of fact and matters
of allegory. " Theologians," says Emerson, " think it a
pretty air castle to _talk of the spiritual meaning of a ship,
or a cloud, of a city, or a contract ; but the highest minds
of the world have never ceased to explore the double mean-
ing, or shall I say the quadruple, or the centuple, or much
more manifold meaning of every sensuous fact."

"Allegory," says Bacon, "is like a casket in which the
most precious things of science are wont to be laid up."
Equally true is it that " even to this day if any man would
let new light in upon the human understanding, and
conquer prejudice without raising contests, animosities,
opposition, or disturbance, he must still go in the same path,

230 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

and have recourse to the like method of allegory, metaphor,
and allusion."

It is not to be feared that the realisation that many
portions of the Old and New Testament are allegorical will
result in any real loss of Faith. Faith survives, but as
Christie Murray says, the form dies when faith has parted
from it. " A thousand creeds have perished, and at the
fall of each there has gone up an exceeding bitter cry that
faith has flown and has left the world without a comforter,
and even whilst the clamour rises the new faith stands
there to smile its promise, loftier, lovelier, nobler than of
old."

As trustees of our national Cathedrals, there is yet an
additional reason why the clergy should scientifically
investigate symbolism — particularly the symbolism of the
thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. To the Cathedral
Builders sculpture was not mere ornament, but the expres-
sion of their Theosophy. As Leader Scott points out:
" The very ; smallest tracery had a meaning ; every leaf,
every rudely carved animal spoke in mystic language of
some great truth in religion." This writer argues with
great acumen the existence of a Masonic Guild traceable to
the Comacine Masters. The headquarters of this Guild
were Lombardy, of which the arms are to be seen in water-
mark on p. 30. The symbols used by these architects of
Lombardy are, speaking generally, the same as those
employed by their fellow Lombardian papermakers. Not
only the ornamentation of churches, but their general form
were largely, if not entirely, governed by Symbolism. It is
from The Symbolism of the Churches by Durandus the Pro-
ven^al, that I have quoted so largely in the preceding pages.
" History," says Sismondi, " has no true importance,

CONCLUSION 231

but as it contains a moral lesson. It should be explored
not for scenes of carnage, but for instructions in the
government of mankind." To the Ethnologist and the
Psychologist, the story I have disinterred will, I am in
hopes, be of some value. The Church of the Holy Grail
has broken the conditions which once fettered her, but her
enemies, though now less material, are still ruthless and
'malignant. To contend with them successfully, the Church
of the Future must cancel the unwarrantable distinction
between " secular " and " sacred," and must re-enlist her
old-time emissaries the Musicians, the Dramatists, the
Novelists, the Painters, and the Poets.

FINIS

health be with you :
may you fare well !
(Papermark. Toulouse, 1561*)

SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS

The facts now presented tend to prove that —

1. From their first appearance in 1282, until the latter half of the

eighteenth century, the curious designs inserted into paper
in the form of watermarks constitute a coherent and un-
broken chain of emblems*

2. That these emblems are Thought-fossils or Thought-crystals,

in which lie enshrined the aspirations and traditions of the
numerous mystic and puritanic sects by which Europe was
overrun in the Middle Ages.

3. Hence that these papermarks are historical documents of

high importance, throwing light not only on the evolution
of European thought, but upon many obscure problems of
the past.

4. Watermarks denote that papermaking was an art introduced

into Europe, and fostered there by the pre-Reformation
Protestant sects known in France as the Albigenses and
Waldenses, and in Italy as the Cathari or Patarini.

5. That these heresies, though nominally stamped out by the

Papacy, existed secretly for many centuries subsequent to
their disappearance from the sight of History.

6. The embellishments used by printers in the Middle Ages

are emblems similar to those used by papermakers, and ex-
plicable by a similar code of interpretation.

7. The awakening known as the Renaissance was the direct

result of an influence deliberately and traditionally exercised
by papermakers, printers, cobblers, and other artisans.

8. The nursing mother of the Renaissance and consequently

of the Reformation was not, as hitherto assumed, Italy, but
the Provencal district of France.

These are novel and subversive propositions, but I have confidence
that History will eventually accept them.

HAROLD BAYLEY.

NOTES AND REFERENCES

p. 2. Papermarks Emblematic. In his Principia Typographica
S. L. Sotheby conjectured that watermarks were
dictated by the nature of the books in which they
are found. "I venture to assert," he writes, "that
until after, or probably the close of, the XVth century
there are no marks in paper which may be said to
apply individually to the maker of the paper." The
first writer to appreciate the significance of water-
marks was Mrs. Henry Pott, who published her
conclusions in Francis Bacon and his Secret Society
(Chicago, 1891), a book containing many valuable
facts and suggestions.

,, 4. Prof. Courthope. Cf. A History of English Poetry, ii.
344-347. In An Introduction to the Literature of Europe
Hallam observes : " This scheme of allegorical inter-
pretation began among the earliest fathers, and spread
with perpetual expansion through the Middle Ages.
The Reformation swept most of it away"(i. 204).

,, 5. Laborare est orare. Cf. Les Vaudois. Alex. Berard,
Lyons, 1892, p. 106.

„ 6. Papermaking and Heresy. M. Briquet mentions that in
the seventeenth century the Province of Angoumois
was pre-eminent for its papermaking. He states : "The
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes dealt a severe blow
to this industry. Most of the paper merchants who
had succeeded in concentrating the business into their
own hands were Dutch or English, all Protestants.
Their departure from the kingdom, by depriving the
master papermakers not only of the capital they needed,
but of the extended business relations requisite for
distribution, paralyzed the manufacture." It is said that
papermaking gave employment to a million work-

»33

234 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

people in Angoumois. " This working population,"
says M. Briquet, "formed a distinct class. The workers
constituted corporations, and followed traditions and
regulations that were transmitted from father to son.
They did not willingly admit strangers within their
ranks, and, closely united among themselves, they often,
in some measure, dictated terms to their patrons "
(Les Filigranes, iv. 690, 691).

In Histoire des Papeteries a la cuve (T Arches et
d'Archettes (Paris, 1904) M. Henri Onfroy throws
some valuable sidelights on the secret organisation of
the papermakers' guilds. " One is struck," says he,
" by the general spirit of insubordination that from all
time has animated papermaking workmen. Collaborating
in the propagation of the written thought which during
the iStb century was the great destructive agent of the
state of affairs up till then respected, it would seem that
the papermaking workmen had a knowledge of the social
upheavals which were about to occur, and of which they
were the obscure auxiliaries. All the documents that con-
cern their history reveal numerous facts which demon-
strate the opinionativeness and turbulence of their
claims" (p. 36).

I was unacquainted with this passage until the fore-
going pages were in print. It is gratifying to find
external testimony to a state of affairs which I had
already deduced from internal evidence.

p. 7. The ornament is a papermark from Sir Francis Bacon
and his Secret Society. The author gives no date or
reference.

,, 8. This print is reproduced by the courtesy of Mr. Lewis
Evans.

,, 10. Les Filigranes. The University of Geneva has conferred
upon M. C. M. Briquet the distinction of Docteur es
Lettres, honoris causa, in recognition of the eminent
service rendered to History, Archaeology, and Ethnology
by the publication of Les Filigranes. Unhappily the
twenty-five years spent on its preparation has cost the
author the use of his eyesight. On glancing over my

NOTES AND REFERENCES 235

references to M. Briquet's monumental work I find them
inadequately expressive of the respect and admiration
it demands. I therefore take the present opportunity
of recording my profound appreciation and gratitude.
M. Briquet's work is a classic that must eventually
be found in every library of any importance.

p. 13. Montet. Cf. Histoire Litter aire des Vaudois. Ed. Montet,

Paris, 1885, p. 13.
Dieulouard. Cf. Nouveau Dictionnaire de Geographic Uni-

verselle. Saint Martin, Paris, 1884.

Pates = u Patois meridionam signifiant vieux tinge" Cf.
Histoire des Cathares ou Albigeois. C. Schmidt, Geneva,

1849, "• 279-

In The Empire and the Papacy T. F. Tout, M.A.

says : "The Paterini were known as the ragpickers and
' the ragbags ' " (p. 115).

„ 14. Illustrations. Except where otherwise stated these are
from examples in my own collection. The watermarks
are reduced to one-half their actual size. The printers'
ornaments ZXQ facsimiles .

The following are the abbreviations employed : —
B. = Les Filigranes. C. M. Briquet, Geneva, 1 907.
S. = Principia Typographica. S. L. Sotheby, Lond.

1858.

J. = Essai sur la gravure. Jansen, Paris, 1808.
M.M. = Etouk sur les Filigranes. Midoux, E., et Matton,

A., Paris, 1868.

P. = Francis Bacon and his Secret Society. Mrs. Pott,
Chicago, 1891.

„ 14. Figs. 2 and 3. From Note sur la Papeterie d'duvergne.
M. Cohendy, Clermont, 1862.

,, „ Heart. According to Dionysius the Areopagite — a
writer whose works "swayed the whole of mediaeval
Christianity more than any other book except the
New Testament itself" — the heart is "a symbol of
the Godlike life dispersing its own life-giving power to
the objects of its forethought, as beseems the good."
By French papermakers the heart (generally accentuated

236 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

by an additional symbol) was often employed in lieu of
the full stop. The curious triangle of C. Lebon may
possibly be an expression of Quarles' sentiment :

" The whole round world is not enough to fill
The heart's three corners, but it craveth still ;
Only the Trinity that made it can
Suffice the vast triangled heart of man."

CAW,

i A''

)

French Papermarks, i8th century.

p. 15. Figs. 4, 5, and 6 (S.).

Unicorn. Cf. The Triumphal Chariot of Alchemy. Lond.
1893, P- 59- Symbolism in Christian Art. F. E.
Hulme. Lond. 1892, p. 178. Shakespeare and the
Emblem Writers. H. Green, Lond. 1870, p. 371.
The unicorn was used as a watermark in Venice so late
as 1778.

„ 16. Figs. 7 and 8 (M.M.) ; 10 (S.).

Stag. Cf. Symbolism in Christian Art, p. 176.

„ 17. Figs, n, 12, and 13 (M.M.).
„ 1 8. Figs. 14-17 (B.).

Fig. 1 8 (M.M.).

The Tau Cross, surrounded by a crown, may sometimes
be seen decorating English churches. " The cross as
an emblem of regeneration was first adopted by the

NOTES AND REFERENCES 237

Egyptians, who expressed the several increases of the
Nile (by whose fertilising inundations the soil was
regenerated) by a column marked with several crosses.
They hung it as a talisman around the necks of their
children and sick people. It was sometimes represented
in an abridged form by the letter T." Histoire du
del. Pluche. Cf. A Lexicon of Freemasonry. A. G.
Mackey, p. 78.

Ladder. In the Mithraic rites at the Christian era the
Ladder was used as a type of the means whereby the
soul's ascent was made through the various grades to
the celestial spheres.

p. 20. Figs. 22 (P.) ; 23, 24 (M.M.) ; 25 (B.) ; 26 (S.).

„ 21. Fig. 27 (B.).

Candlestick. Cf. The Symbolism of Churches and Church

Ornaments. Durandus, Lond. 1906, p. 34.
Scissors. Ibid., p. 54.

„ 22. Durandus first printed. I made this statement on the
authority of the editors of Durandus, but Mr. Peddie,
of the Blades Library — to whom I am indebted for
many courtesies — points out that it's accuracy is rather
doubtful. The first edition of Durandus was in 1459,
and in 1457 one or two small things were issued other
than Psalters or Bibles.

„ 24. Serpent. Cf. Isis Unveiled. H. P. Blavatsky, i. 147.
Balzac. Cf. Quest of the Absolute.

„ 25. Figs. 34, 35, and 36 (B.).

Knot Cross. Mrs. G. F, Watts alludes, in The Word in
the Pattern, to the " beautiful knot often found upon
Celtic crosses where the cord traces four hearts inter-
laced so as to give at the same time the sign of the
cross, sacrificing love ; love not for one, but for all,
even to the four quarters of the Earth — Divine Love,
sacrificing, suffering, dying, to give spiritual life "

(P- 13)-
Fylfot Knot. Mrs. Watts states that the Sanscrit name

for the central cross here shown has in it the root

238 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

words " to be " and " well " ; a sign of beneficence
indicating that " the maze of life may bewilder, but
the path of light runs through it : 'It is well ' is the
name of the path, and the key to life eternal is in the
strange labyrinth for those whom ' God leadeth '
(p. 15). Cf. The Migration of Symbols, Count Goblet
d'Alviella, and Symbolism of the East and West, Murray-
Aynsley.

p. 26. Figure Four. Almost all the peoples of antiquity possessed
a name for Deity consisting of four letters. Thus :

Assyrian ADAD

Egyptian AMUN

Persian SYRE or SIRE

Greek (TH)EOS

Latin DEUS

German GOTT

French DIEU

Turkish ESAR

Arabian ALLH

Cf. Numbers : Their Occult Power and Mystic Virtue,

W. Wynn Westcott, London, 1890, p. 22; Isis

Unveiled, i. 9.

Scales. Cf. Isis Unveiled, ii. 457.
Figs- 37, 38, 39, 40 (B.) ; 41, 42 (S.).
„ 27. Pelican. In St. Saviour's Church, Reading, there is a

Pelican lectern.
Figs. 43, 45, 46 (S.) ; 44 (M.M.).

„ 28. Figs. 48, 53 (B0; 50,51,52 (s.)-

„ 29. Fig. 59 (P.). " Old writer " = Purchas. Cf. Microcosmos,
Lond. 1619.

„ 30. Fig. 62 (B.).

,,31. Trinity = Man. The Lollards designated human beings
as " second Trinity s." Cf. Lollardy and the Reformation.
Dr. J. Gairdner, Lond. 1908, i. 12, 48.

Aroux. Cf. Dante; Heretique, Revolutionnaire, et Socialiste.
Paris, 1854, p. 94.

Massinger. Emperor of the East, i. 2.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 239

p. 34. Star. Cf. Microcosmos. Purchas, Lond. 1619. "The
mind is not divided from the essence of God, but
connexed thereto as light to the body of the Sun. . . .
Fixing her eye on God, it is filled with Divine power
and makes the body like to a shining starre " (p. 569).
Om Mani, etc. These are the concluding lines of Sir
Edwin Arnold's Light of Asia.

„ 35- Fig- 85 (JO J 86 (B.) ; 87 (S.).

„ 36. The Provencals. Cf. The Troubadours : their Loves and

their Lyrics. J. Rutherford, Lond. 1873, pp. 3, 12,

and 44.

„ 37. Kill them all. This memorable principle was again
urged in 1602, when the descendants of the Moors
were evicted from Spain — to the number of 2 millions
of men, women, and children. According to Buckle:

"The Archbishop of Valencia thought that children
under seven years of age need not share in the general
banishment, but might, without danger to the faith, be
separated from their parents, and kept in Spain. To
this the Archbishop of Toledo strongly objected. He
was unwilling, he said, to run the risk of pure Christian
blood being polluted by infidels ; and he declared that
sooner than leave one of these unbelievers to corrupt
the land, he would have the whole of them — men,
women, and children — at once put to the sword. That
they should all be slain, instead of being banished, was
the desire of a powerful party in the Church, who
thought that such signal punishment would work good
by striking terror into the heretics of every nation.
Bleda, the celebrated Dominican, one of the most
influential men of his time, wished to have this done,
and to be done thoroughly. He said that, for the sake
of example, every Morisco in Spain should have his
throat cut, because it was impossible to tell which of
them were Christians at heart, and it was enough to
leave the matter to God, who knew his own, and who
would reward in the next world those who were really
Catholics" (History of Civilisation, ii. 395 [World's
Classics]).

240 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

p. 37. Count Raymond. Hallam mentions the existence in the
Tower of London of a letter from one of the Counts of
Toulouse, circa 1216, "upon very strong paper." I
have examined at the Record Office the document pre-
sumably that to which Hallam refers. It is only about
four inches square, and being pasted into a guardbook,
the watermark, if any, is not apparent.

„ 38. Moors and paper-making. It is said that the first manu-
facture of rag-paper in Europe was in Spain. In 1154
there was a mill at Jativa, and soon after traces of
papermaking are found in Italy, France, and Germany.
As 1194 was the date when the Albigenses were
evicted from Aragon, it seems not improbable that it
was they who brought the art into Christian Europe.
Among early papermarks is a human head, which
Sotheby characterises as " a Moor's head." If it really
be a Moor's head, this would be presumptive evidence
that the art was derived from the Moors and that a
tradition of the fact had survived.

„ 38. Waldenses. Cf. Les Vaudois. Alex. Berard, Lyons,
1892. Luther's Forerunners: the bloody rage of that
great Antichrist of Rome declared at large in the History
of the Waldenses and Albigenses, translated out of the
French by Samson Lennard, Lond. 1624. Narrative
of an Excursion to the mountains of Piedmont and
researches among the Vaudois or Waldenses. W. S.
Gilly, M.A., Lond. 1825. Histoire des Cathares ou
Albigeois. C. Schmidt, Geneva, 1849. Histoire
Litter air e des Vaudois. Ed. Montet, 1885. The
Waldensian MSS. J. H. Todd, 1865. Also articles
"Waldenses," "Albigenses," and "Cathari" in
Chambers' Encyclopedia.

„ 40. Figs. 89(M.M.); 90,91 (B.).
,,41. Shakespeare. Cf. 2 Hy. VI, IV. vii.

Figs. 92-96 (B.).
,, 42. Milton. Cf. Lycidas.

Figs. 97, 98, 100 (B.).

NOTES AND REFERENCES 241

p. 43. Figs. 101 (B.); 102 (S.).

Hand. Cf. Principia Typ. Sotheby, iii. 54. Dr. Mackey
states : " The right hand has in all ages been deemed
an important symbol to represent the virtue of Fidelity.
Among the ancients the right hand and fidelity to an
obligation were almost indeed synonymous terms "
(Lexicon of Freemasonry, p. 290).

Count Goblet dAlviella mentions, in The Migration
of Symbols, that " the hand uplifted towards the sky
is an oft-repeated image on the ex voto of Carthage,
and even at the present time it is figured on native
houses in Palestine and Morocco to ward off evil spirits
from the dwellers therein" (p. 27).
Four. Cf. Isis Unveiled, i. 9.

„ 44. Figs. 103-105 (B.).

Bears. Cf. Hieroglyphicorum, Lib. viii., p. 80.
Schmidt, i. 54.

,, 45. Fig. 106 (S.). Lea, ii. 268, 269, extracted from Traces
of a Hidden Tradition in Masonry and Mediaval
Mysticism. Mrs. T. Cooper-Oakley, Lond. 1900.

,, 46. Perfect!. The quotations are from Schmidt, ii. 94, 166.
Ox. Cf. Symbolism in Christian Art. F. E. Hulme, Lond.
p. 177. "The Image of the Ox," says Dionysius,
"denotes the strong and the mature, turning up the intel-
lectual furrows for the reception of the heavenly and
productive showers ; and the Horns, the guarding and
indomitable" (The Heavenly Hierarchy, sect. viii.).

„ 47. Figs. 107-115 (B.).

„ 48. Figs. 1 17 (P.); n6, 1 18-124 (B.).

„ 50. Figs. 125, 126 (B.); 127 (S.).

Swan. Cf. Speculum Mundi. John Swan, Lond. 1635.
Nat. Hist. Lore and Legend. F. E. Hulme, Lond.
1895, p. 229. "With regard to the Swan it is
worthy of note that Ortrud was unaware of its sacred
character when she transformed Gottfried (God's
peace). Last year in the Glyptotek at Munich we
found a piece of sculpture entitled, ' Eros with a

242 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Swan.' This is the only instance we have come across
in which the Greek prototype of the Knights of the
Swan is associated with the bird of Wisdom, as it is
called in the Eastern Scriptures. It is but one more
proof of what Wagner so truly terms ' the grand con-
cordance of all genuine myth ' ' (Parsifal, Lohengrin,
and the Legend of the Holy Grail. Cleather & Crump,
Lond. 1904, p. 90).

p. 51. Figs. 128, 131 (B.); 129 (M.M). Bells. In The
Golden Legend Longfellow thus touches upon the
symbolism of Bells :

" For the bells themselves are the best of preachers ;
Their brazen lips are learned teachers,
From their pulpits of stone in the upper air,
Sounding aloft without crack or flaw,
Shriller than trumpets under the Law,
Now a sermon, and now a prayer.
The clangorous hammer is the tongue,
This way, that way beaten and swung,
That from Mouth of Brass, as from Mouth of Gold,
May be taught the Testaments, New and Old.
And above it the great cross-beam of wood
Representeth the Holy Rood,
Upon which, like the bell, our hopes are hung.
And the wheel wherewith it is swayed and rung
Is the mind of man that round and round
Sways and maketh the tongue to sound !
And the rope, with its twisted cordage three,
Denoteth the Scriptural Trinity
Of Morals, and Symbols, and History ;
And the upward and downward motions show
That we touch upon matters high and low ;
And the constant change and transmutation,
Of action and of contemplation,
Downward the Scripture brought from on high,
Upward, exalted again to the sky :
Downward the literal interpretation,
Upward the Vision of Mystery ! "

,,52. Bells and the Trinity of Scripture. Of the 258 Bell
watermarks illustrated by Briquet, 239 are distin-
guished by a triplex ornament at the head. Observe
how the Fleur de lys is employed over Fig. 130; also
the three circles over the small Bell, Fig. 131.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 243

p. 53. Figs. 132-134 (B.); 135 (SO-
„ 54- Figs. 137-141 (B.).

u 55-57- Troubadours. Cf. Dante, etc. E. Aroux, Paris, 1854.
The Troubadours : their Loves and Lyrics. }. Ruther-
ford, Lond. 1873. Choix des Poesies originates des
Troubadours. M. Raynouard, Paris 1817. The
Troubadours. F. Hueffer, 1878. The Troubadours
and Courts of Love. J. F. Rowbotham, Lond. 1895.
Traces of a Hidden Tradition. Cooper-Oakley, Lond.
1900. Les Mysteres de la Chevalerie. E. Aroux,
Paris, 1858.

,,58. Heckethorn, C. W. Cf. The Secret Societies of all Ages and
Countries. Lond. 1897, i. 144.

,, 59. Foolscap. The emblem of a jester making merry with
cap and bells may be seen carved in Berne Cathedral.
During the early days of the revolt of the United
Provinces against the tyranny of Philip II. of Spain,
Motley tells us that the retainers of the house of
Egmont suddenly surprised Brussels by appearing in a
livery, upon each sleeve of which was embroidered a
fool's cap and bells. The emblem was aimed at
Cardinal Granvelle, and was intended, says Motley, to
remind the arrogant priest that a Brutus, as in the
olden time, might be found lurking in the costume of
the fool. This livery caught the popular fancy, and
spread so rapidly among all classes of the people that
the supply of frieze cloth in Brabant became exhausted.
The pressure of the authorities eventually succeeded in
getting the obnoxious emblem withdrawn.

,, 60. Rossetti. Cf. A Disquisition on the Anti-papal Spirit that

produced the Reformation. Lond. 1834, ii. [95.
"Thou can'st go." Cf. Dante. Aroux, p. 28.

„ 6 1. Gavaudin. Cf. Rutherford, p. 44.

Diana. Figs. 145 and 146 (B.). M. Briquet comments
upon this mark: "It is difficult to say what this
woman represents. Is she wearing a crown or a curly
headdress? On what is she seated? Whatever it

244 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

may be, the mark seems to have originated in Lorraine,

and to have become more or less common in that

region" (ii. 412).
Dante, Cf. Convivio, ii. 16.
Bruno. Cf. Remarks upon Alchemy and the Alchemists.

E. A. Hitchcock, New York, 1865, p. 197.

p. 62. Rutherford, p. 44.

„ 63. Heckethorn, i. 149.

Aroux. "Roland est porteur d'un cor au son puissant,
figure de la predication sectaire." Cf. Dante, p. 463.

„ 64. Figs. 147-150 (B.); 152 (S.).

Horn. I am inclined to think that in some cases the horn
depicts the " Horn of Salvation."

„ 65. Song of Roland. Cf. Translation by Jessie Crosland.

Lond. 1907, p. 89.

Bell "Roland." Cf. History of Dutch Republic. J. L.
Motley (Everyman's Library), i. 63, 66.

„ 66. Nutt. Cf. Legends of the Holy Grail. Lond. 1902,

pp. 48, 49.
Helinandus. Ibid., p. 28.

„ 67. Baring-Gould. Cf. Curious Myths of the Middle Ages,
pp. 617-624 (quoted from Mrs. Cooper-Oakley).

,, 67. Bergmann (F. G.). The San Graal. Lond. 1870,
pp. 12-28.

„ 69. Figs. 155-158, 160-162, 164 (B.); 159, 163 (S.).

„ 71. Figs. 165-168 (B.); 169-171 (M.M.).

Crescent Moon. According to Mrs. G. F. Watts, "In
early Christian symbolism the crescent moon was the
symbol of heaven." This is perhaps the explanation of
the frequent appearance of a crescent at the summit of
St. Grail watermarks. Cf. Figs. 172, 174, 176, 183, etc.
See also p. 32.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 245

Five rays. An immense number of St. Grails are decorated
by 5 rays, thus : —

Dr. Wynn Westcott states that " Light is referred to
the number 5," but 5 has so many meanings that it
is dangerous to select any special one among them.
The contents of the Holy Vessel were said to be pure
light, and the Fleur de lys seen in Figs. 175 and 182
doubtless symbolised this. In Figs. 185 and 186 the
objects at the summit appear to be flames. Figs. 191-
204 are all taken from a single book — Greenham's
Works , 1605. They are reproduced in their natural size.
In Hora Mystica (Lond. 1908) Miss Gregory quotes
an extract from u Hermes Trismegistus " : " Having
filled a great Cup, of this He sent down giving a herald
and commanded him to proclaim to the hearts of men
these things : Baptize thyself who is able into this the
Cup, which is believing that thou shalt return to Him
Who hath sent down the Cup. As many then as
understood the proclamation and were baptized with
The Mind these partook of the knowledge and became
perfect men, having received the Mind. . . . This
then is the science of the Mind, the inspection of divine
things and the recognition of The God — the Cup being
Divine."

The 5 rays shown in the figure herewith may
perhaps symbolise the 5 transformations of the Graal.
These, says Mr. Waite, " are analogous to the 5 natures
of man." I don't quite understand what are these
" 5 natures," but possibly the reader may.

p. 78. SS Handles. Cf. Isis Unveiled, ii. 449.

p. 77. A Fish. "The symbolic fish upon the table conveyed
to the warden the title of Rich Fisher, and it is in this
sense — that is to say, for the same reason — that the
Saints become Fishers of Men " (Hidden Church of Holy
Graal, Waite, p. 497).

„ 78. Romaunt of Rose. Cf. Dante, p. 83. In his Clef de la
Comedie anti-Catholique (Paris, 1856) Aroux states that
the Rose signified " UEglise Albigeoise et sa doctrine la
St. Grail, le vase parfait ou le Temple transfer me en fleur
mystique ; de la, I' immense vogue du roman de Guillaume
de Lor is " (p. 31).
Chaucer. R. of R., lines 674-684.

„ 79. Figs. 215, 216 (B.).

Rose. In The Fairy Queen Spenser refers to " that daintie
Rose "—

" Eternal God in His Almighty powre
To make ensample of His heavenly Grace
In Paradize whylome did plant this flowre."

(Book III. Canto v.)

„ 80. Dante. Cf. Paradiso, xxx. and xxxi.

„ 82. Li parlar. Cf. Luther's Forerunners. Lennard, Lond.
1624, p. 44.

Lollardry and Education. Dr. J. Gairdner tells us that the
Lollards " formed illicit conventicles, kept schools, wrote
books, and held disputations " (Lollardy and the Reforma-
tion, i. 47).

First French Bible. Cf. Berard, pp. 121, 165. The date
given by Berard is obviously wrong. The British
Museum has editions of [1510?] 1521, 1530, 1531.

„ 83. St. Catherine. Cf. Chambers' Encyclopedia, art. St. C.

Figs. 227, 228, 229 (S.) ; 230 (B.); 231, 232 (M.M.).

„ 84. Figs. 233, 234 (B.); 236 (S.).

Tates mark. Fig. 235 is reproduced from an essay by
Mr. Lewis Evans. Mr. Evans now informs me that his
reproduction was inaccurate, and that Tates mark was
a star within a double circle.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 247

p. 85. Basilius. Cf. Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, p. 42.

Agrippa. Cf. In the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.
F. Hartmann, M.D., Lond. 1890, pp. 36, 37.

,, 86. Combachius. Cf. Alchemy and the Alchemists, p. 182.
Sendivogius. Ibid., p. 182.
another. Ibid., p. 180.
Hallam. Cf. Introduction to Literature of Europe, \.

„ 87. concealing. Cf. The Story of Alchemy. M.M. Pattison-

Muir, Lond. 1902, p. 36.
horrid metaphors. Cf. Alchemy and the Alchemists, p. 237.

„ 88. Valentine. Cf. Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, p. 13.
St. Grail - stone. Cf. Nutt, p. 14.

,, 89. Flammel. Cf. Alchemy and the Alchemists.

"Our art," says one. Cf. Story of Alchemy, p. 32.
another. Ibid., p. 30.
Paracelsus. Ibid., p. 14.

„ 90. Sendivogius. Cf. Story of Alchemy, p. 29.
,,91. Agent Love. Cf. Alchemy and the Alchemists.

,, 92. Oh, foolishness. Ibid., p. 174.

Valentine. Cf. Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, pp. 33, 51.

,, 93. I dare affirm. Cf. Alchemy and the Alchemists, p. 29.

„ 94. Waite. Cf. Lives of the Alchemistical Philosophers, p. 33.
van Suchten. Cf. Alchemy and the Alchemists, pp. 100,
101.

,, 95. Encyclopaedia. Cf. Chambers, art. "Alchemy."

„ 96. Waite, p. 14.

,,97. Ordinance, 1582. Cf. Briquet, i. 9.

„ 98. QBL, "a means," etc. Cf. Numbers. Wynn Westcott,
p. 12.

,, 99. Reuchlin. uHe believed that by treading in the footsteps
of the Cabbalah he should ascend from symbol to
symbol, from form to form, till he should reach that
last and purest form which rules the empire of mind,

and in which human mutability approaches to the
Immutable and Divine " (History of Reformation in
Germany. Ranke, Lond. 1905, p. 136).

Picus. Cf. Introduction to Literature of Europe. Hallam,
i. 209.

Waite. Cf. Doctrine and Literature of the Kabalah.

Hiram. Cf. De Quincey, Essay on Rosicrucianism.

Amen. "The word 'Amen' is from AMN, the initials
of ' Adonai melekh namen,' meaning ' The Lord and
faithful King'" (Numbers. Wynn Westcott, p. 13).

p. 100. Stota. Cf. Golden Remains of Early Masonic Writers.

Dr. Oliver, Lond. 1847, ii. 180.
Tgaotu. Cf. Christ the Spirit. E. A. Hitchcock, New

York, 1874, i. 413.
Rossetti. Cf. Disquisition, ii. 228, 229.

„ 101. Fig. 240 (P.).

„ 102, 103. Figs. 243, 244, 245, 247, 249 (S.); all others (B.).

„ 104. Fig. 242 (B.).

Mackey. Cf. Lexicon of Freemasonry, p. 195.

G. Cf. Early Hist, and Antiquities of Freemasonry.
G. F. Fort, Phila. 1875, p. 484.

Phoded and D. Cf. Francis Bacon and his Secret Society.
Pott, pp. 306, 403.

P. I am inclined to think that P. sometimes stood for
Pax.

D. Mrs. Pott says : " Di was a term for the Deity, from
which we have Day (Dai)." Fig. 249 is sometimes to
be found rising from a Bull's Head. I think that
sometimes, as for instance when it appears upon a
hand in Fig. 250, D. may simply have stood for Deo
= For God.

M. Cf. Secret Doctrine. H. P. Blavatsky, i. 384.

„ 105. Aum. Cf. Lexicon of Freemasonry, p. 228. Isis
Unveiled, ii. 31.

„ 1 06. "Our art." Cf. Alchemy and the Alchemists, p. 158.
Ripley. Ibid., p. 243.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 249

p. 108. C. AB. L. Cf. The Text Book of Freemasonry, anon.,

P- 237-
„ 1 09. By three, p. 1 6.

„ in. Love to be unknown. I was quite unaware when writing
this sentence that " Love to be unknown " was the
alpha of A Kempis' Alphabet of Instructions to his
novices. His words are, " Love to be unknown, and
to be accounted for nothing ; for this is more healthful
and more useful to thee than to be applauded of men."
Kettlewell states that this was thoroughly received
among the Brothers of the Common Life, and that " the
words ama nesciri had become proverbial among them."
Just as the Lollards in England and the Waldenses in
France were responsible for the founding of schools
and the translation of Scripture into the vernacular, so
in Rhineland do we find the Brethren of the Common
Life contending warmly for a translation of the Bible
into the German tongue. "They not only afforded
facilities of education to the labouring class in opening
and supporting schools of rudimentary instruction, but
they sought to advance the cause of learning among
the better class " (cf. Thomas a Kempis and the Brothers
of Common Life. Rev. S. Kettlewell, M.A., Lond.
1885).

„ 112. 1403. Cf. The Story of Books. G. B. Rawlings, Lond.
1901, p. 51.

,, 114. Dr. Beard. Cf. The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century
in its Relation to Modern Thought and Knowledge.
C. Beard, B.A., Lond. 1897, p. 59.
St. Paul's Cross. Cf. Story of Books, p. 55. I. D'Israeli
attributes practically the same words to Cardinal Wolsey.
He adds : " This great statesman, at this early period,
had taken into view its [Printing's] remote consequences.
Lord Herbert has curiously assigned to the cardinal his
ideas as addressed to the pope : — ' This new invention of
printing has produced various effects of which your
holiness cannot be ignorant. If it has restored books
and learning, it has also been the occasion of those sects

25o NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

and schisms which daily appear. Men begin to call in
question the present faith and tenets of the church ;
and the laity read the Scriptures, and pray in their
vulgar tongue. Were this suffered the common people
might come to believe that there was not so much use
of the clergy. If men were persuaded that they could
make their own way to God, and in their ordinary
language as well as Latin, the authority of the Mass
would fall, which would be very prejudicious to our
ecclesiastical orders. The mysteries of religion must
be kept in the hands of priests — the secret and arcanum
of church government. Nothing remains more to be
done than to prevent further apostasy. For this
purpose, since printing could not be put down, it were
best to set up learning against learning ; and, by intro-
ducing able persons to dispute, to suspend the laity
between fears and controversies. Since printing cannot
be put down, it may still be made useful.' Thus, the
statesman, who could not by a single blow annihilate
this monster of all schism, would have wrestled with it
with a statesman's policy," cf. Amenities of Literature,
art. "The War against Books."

p. 115. penalty. Cf. Story of Books, p. 55, and Curiosities of

Literature, I. D'Israeli, ii. 19.

Hallam. Introduction to Literature of England, i. 156.
Durandus. Cf. Introduction to Symbolism of Churches.

„ 1 1 6. Brussels Press. Cf. Story of Books, p. 117.

„ 117. Wessel, etc. Cf. Dr. Beard, p. 47.

Franciscans. " Francis taught his disciples to find their
strength in prayer, but no religious meditations were
to be excuses for idleness. Everyone who joined his
brotherhood must work. The brother who knew no
trade must learn one, for it was part of his simple
creed that to labour was to pray " (<S/. Francis of Assist.
Frances E. Cooke, p. 34). " The reason why the Popes
took such severe action against them has been found in
the fact that their assertion of the duty of poverty
implied a censure upon the licentious and prodigal life

NOTES AND REFERENCES 251

of the Papal court ; but in truth their doctrines were
connected with various theological tenets which were
directed against the very existence of the hierarchy,
tenets which foretold the downfall of the existing
system and the substitution of a purer and more
spiritual order of things. Visionaries these men doubt-
less were ; but they lived in an age which was only too
ready to carry theories into practice, and in practice
their spiritualism proved the vigorous ally of Ghibellin-
ism " (Wy cliff 'e and Movements for Reform. R. L. Poole,
M.A., Lond. 1902, p. 24).

Some idea of the enormously beneficent influence of
the Franciscans may be gathered from the fact that no
less than 124,000 of them fell victims to their zeal in
tending the victims of the Black Death.
St. Francis a Troubadour. Cf. Der heilige Frandskus
von Assisi, ein Troubadour. J. Gorres, Strasburg, 1826.

p. 1 18. Frat/icelli, etc. Vaughan notes :

Concerning these sects, see Ullmann, Reformatory, vor der Reformation, vol. ii.
pp. 1-18. The fullest account is given of them in a masterly Latin treatise by
Mosheim, De Beghardis et Beguinabus. He enters at length into the discussion of
their name and origin ; details the various charges brought against them, and gives
the bulls and acts issued for their suppression. See especially the circular of John
Ochsenstein, Bishop of Strasburg, cap. iv. § xi. p. 255.

p. 119. Tide with us. Vaughan notes :

Authority for these statements concerning the literature of the period will be
found in Gervinus, Geschichte der poetischen National- Liter atur tier Deutscben, part vi.
§§ i, 2, 5-

p. 120. Vaughan, i. pp. 184-186.

,, 121. Printers' Devices. The bibliography of Printing amounts
to the bewildering total of between six and seven
thousand titles. On the subject of printers' marks,
cf. Thesaurus Symbolorum ac emblematum, Friderici Roth-
scholtzii, Nuremburg, 1730. Marques Typographiques,
L.-C. Silvestre, Paris, 1868. Die Buchermarken, Stras-
burg, 1892; Zurich, 1895; Basle, 1895; Frankfurt
and Mayence, 1896; Cologne, 1898. Marques Typo-
graphiques des Jmprhneurs and Libraires Anversois.

252 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Antwerp, 1883. Early Dutch, German, and English

Printers' Marks. ]. P. Berjeau, Lond. 1866-69.

Had space permitted I should have reproduced the

following subjects : —
Snake on Tau Cross.
Heart and Rose. Motto, "In the prudent heart wisdom

dwells."
Crowned Hearts. Motto, "A humble and a contrite

heart God will not despise."
Sun shining on Plant being watered. Motto, " Until the

things desired come."
Swan and Cross.

Two Pillars. Motto, "Piety and Justice."
Sower. Motto, " His art in God."
Clasped Hands and Heart. Motto, "By concord small

things grow : by discord great things decay."
Fruit Tree. Motto, " Fruit grows little by little."
Device. Motto, " Possess your souls in patience."
Crowned Star. Motto, "Stars point out the way to

kings."

Pandora. Motto, " Hope alone remained."
Joshua and Caleb carrying Grapes.
Arrow and Serpent. Motto, " Make haste slowly."
Child riding on Eagle. Motto, " My hope is in God."
Cock. Motto, "The vigilant custodian of things."
Transfixed Heart, clasped Hands, and Thorns. Motto,

" Out of hardships come peace and love/'

p. 121. Montet. p. 67.

It is our duty. Ibid., p. 98.

„ 122. W. Roberts. Cf. Printers' Marks. Lond. 1893, p. 3.

„ 125. Waldo. Mrs Cooper-Oakley says Waldo was a Trouba-
dour. Cf. Traces, p. 121.

Vaughan. Cf. Hours with the Mystics, p. 66.

Antichrist. Cf. The Waldensian MSS. J. H. Todd,
1865, p. vi.

Waldensian woman. Cf. Luther's Forerunners, 1624,
Book II., ch. iii., p. 38.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 253

p. 126. a philosopher = Francis Bacon.

Eagle. Cf. Nat. Hist. Lore and Legend. F. E. Hulme,
p. 224. Also The Word in the Pattern. Mrs. G. F.
Watts.

" The representation of the Eagle," says Dionysius,
"denotes the kingly, and soaring, and swift in flight,
and quickness in search of the nourishment which makes

strong, and wariness, and agility, and cleverness; and
the unimpeded, straight, and unflinching gaze towards
the bounteous and brilliant splendour of the Divine
rays of the Sun, with the robust extension of the visual
powers" (The Heavenly Hierarchy, sect. viii.). The
Eagle when two-headed is the emblem of Omnipotence.
There is reason to suppose it originally represented a
mythical Eastern bird — the monstrous and all-powerful
roc.

„ 127. chameleon. Cf. Hieroglyphica Valeriani.

De Bury. Philobiblon. Lond. 1903, pp. 12, 13.

,. 128. Dante. Paradiso, c. xxxi.

Squirrel. Cf. Nat. Hist. Lore and Legend, p. 174.

„ 129. De Bury. Philobiblon, p. 83.

„ 130. Figs. 285-291 (B.).

Sara-isvati. Cf. Is is Unveiled, ii. 409.

254 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

p. 132. Watts. Word in the Pattern.

Phoenix. Cf. A New Study of Shakespeare. Lond. anon.

,, 135. witch mania. "For two centuries and a half ... an
epidemic terror seized upon the nations. France, Italy,
Germany, England, Scotland and the far north suc-
cessively ran mad. ... In many cities of Germany the
average number of executions for this pretended crime
was six hundred annually, or two every day." Thou-
sands upon thousands of women, children, and animals
fell victims. Cf. Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular
Delusions. Chas. Mackay, Lond. 1869, ii. 102.

Dr. Beard. Cf. Ref. of 1 6th Cent., p. 298.

Fanatics. Cf. Beard, p. 292.

„ 136. Luther and schoolmen. Cf. Pioneers of Evolution. Ed.

Clodd, Lond. 1897, p. 80.
Booksellers. Cf. Beard, pp. 339, 341.

„ 137. grossest lusts. Cf. The Lost and Hostile Gospels.
S. Baring-Gould, Lond. 1874.

>> 138. Quarles. Cf. Emblems : Moral and Divine.
S. Lee. Letter to The Athenaum.

,, 139. Erasmus. Cf. Hallam's Intro., \. 289.

Luther. Cf. History of Reformation. J. H. M. D'Aubigne,
Glasgow, 1845, '• 56- "

„ 1 40. Bruno. Cf. Skeptics of the Italian Renaissance. J. Owen,
Lond. 1893.

„ 141. Fama Fraternitatis. Cf. The Real History of the
Rosicrucians. A. E. Waite, Lond. 1887.

„ 142. Confessio. Ibid.

Cockshying. Cf. The England of Shakespeare. E. Goadby,
Lond. 1 88 1.

143. Fleur de luce, Lux. Cf. The Rosicrucians: their Rites

and Mysteries. Hargrave- Jennings, Lond., chap. viii.
Lux lucet. Cf. Gilly's Narrative, p. 257.

144. Eliz. poet. Robt. Greene, Arbasto.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 255

P- H5- Fig- 3°8 (S-); 3IO> 311 (B0-

„ 148. Ship. A ship also "typified the Holy Church of

Christ."

Plotinus. This and following quotation is from
Vaughan's Hours with the Mystics, pp. 78 and 262.

., 150. The Library. No. 9.

Transference of Woodcuts. Mr. A. W. Pollard has a
chapter on this subject in his Old Picture Books, Lond.
1 902. " Despite some efforts to prove the contrary, there
can," says he, "be little doubt that the use of taking
cliches of woodcuts, or of cuts engraved on soft metal
treated in the same way as wood, was quite unknown
during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries" (p. 73).

,, 151. Anonymity. One reason for this practice was probably
the same idea as that expressed upon his deathbed by
the great mystic, John Tauler. " He begged him to
make a little book of it, but enjoined him to conceal
both their names, for the work was not theirs, but
God's, who wrought through them. They were simply
unworthy sinners " (John Tauler, The Friend of God.
W. P. Swainson, p. 22). This mystic notion of the
rights of authorship doubtless accounts for the apparently
unprincipled way in which writers "borrowed" from
each other without acknowledgment. Huss published
some of Wycliffe's works as though they were his own,
and other instances are abundant (cf. The Shakespeare
Symphony).

,, 153. Mr. A. W. Pollard traces one block of this design from
1585 to 1670, and has "no doubt that its original
appearance was even earlier " (p. 75).

,, 155. Bacon. Cf. Adv. of Lear., 1640, p. 116; also Wisdom

of Ancients (Pan).

Campanella. Cf. Adv. of Lear. Oxford, 1640, Intro-
ductory "Judgments upon the Lo. Verulam."
Jonson. Cf. Time Vindicated.

„ 156. Hell, c. i.

„ 157. Purgatory, c. xx.

256 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

p. 158. Pan. Possibly the prayer of Socrates was expressed in
some of these Pan emblems: "Beloved Pan, and oh!
ye diviner ones who are about this place, grant that I
may be good in my inner nature ; and that what I have
of external things may be consonant with those inner
things. May I deem the wise to be the only truly
rich. And let me have only so much of gold as a
provident man might enjoy and use."
Gardner. Cf. The Vision of Dante Alighieri (Everyman's
Library), p. 4.

,, 158 and 161. verses. These are from Arnold's Light of Asia.
„ 1 6 1. Boar. Cf. Encyclopedia Britannica, art. "Artemis."

„ 163. Owen, p. 383.

Blanche. Cf. Colin Clout Explained. E. A. Hitchcock,
New York, 1865, p. 152.

„ 165. Laura, etc. D'Israeli observes of the Troubadours that
though libertines in their verse they were " so refined
and chaste in their manners that few husbands were
alarmed at the enthusiastic language they addressed to
their wives. . . . Love and its grosser passion were
clearly distinguished from each other in their singular
intercourse with their 'Dames.' The object of their
mind was separated from the object of their senses;
the virtuous lady to whom they vowed their hearts was
in their language styled ' la dame de ses pensees,' a very
distinct being from their other mistress ! Such was the
platonic chimera that charmed in the age of chivalry ;
the Laura of Petrarch might have been no other than
the lady of his thoughts " (Curiosities of Literature,

i- 445)-
„ 167. Spenser. Sonnet, 74.

„ 1 68. Heriot de Borderie. Quoted from Hitchcock's Colin
Clout, p. 1 1 .

„ 169. Doves of Diana. In The Cathedral Builders Leader Scott
refers to " the entirely Christian emblem of two doves
pecking at a vase in which are heavenly flowers "
(p. 80). She does not explain its meaning. This

NOTES AND REFERENCES 257

emblem has been found on a Liege coin dated 1348.
Count Goblet d Alviella states that its origin " must be
sought for in the symbolism of the worship paid in
Asia Minor to the great Goddess of Nature venerated
by the Phoenician population under the name of
Astarte. The Doves played a prominent part in this
worship either as personification of the Goddess, or as
sacred birds reared in the Temple." It will be remem-
bered that Jesus scourged the dove sellers out of the
Temple of Jerusalem.

p. 170. Garden of the Wise. Cf. Alchemy and the Alchemists,
P- 159-

„ 171. Bird of Paradise. Cf. Nat. Hist. Lore and Legend.
F. E. Hulme, p. 209.

,, 172 and 173. Fish, etc. It will be noticed how these head-
pieces are composed of the same symbols. The bunch
of Fish is so undecorative that the most sceptical must
accept the suggestion that it had a symbolic meaning.

„ 174. Aroux, p. 31.

Serpent. Cf. Is is Unveiled, i. 157.

„ 175. Quarles. Cf. "Invocation."

Sidney. Cf. Defense of Poesie.

,, 177. Motley. Cf. Dutch Republic, i. 86, 299, 300; iii. 194,
294.

,, 178. Bacon. Adv. of Lear., book ii., chap. 13.
Shakespeare. As Ton Like It, II. vii.
Marston. Satyres.
Massinger. Roman Actor, i. 3.
Peele. David and Bathsheba.

„ 179. Massinger. Renegado.

Goat was also the symbol of fecundity.
Sidney. Defense of Poesie.

,, 1 8 1 . " Standard writer " = Luckombe. Cf. History of Printing.
Philosopher = Bacon. Cf. Adv. of Lear., book ix.

258

p. 182. Motley. Dutch Republic, i. 48.

,, 191. cipher literature. Cf. Cryptography. F. E. Hulme, Lond.
Rossetti. Dedication and vol. ii., pp. 195-197.

,, 194. Paracelsus. Cf. In the Pronaos of the Temple. F. Hart-

mann, Lond. 1890.
Novum Organum, book i., aph. cxx.
Boyle. Cf. Natural Philosophy. Lond. 1664.

„ 195. Provencal. Cf. Anagrams and Echo Verses. I. D 'Israeli.

,, 196. Ciphers and printing. Even in modern times printing
has been employed as a vehicle for anti-papal cipher
writing. "Before the union of Italy more than one
attempt was secretly made to turn official papers and
notes to propagandic uses. A custom-house regulation
form was so spaced by the compositor that the initial
words in every line, if read consecutively, were a
declaration against the Papal claim to govern Rome "
(Caxton Magazine).
Camden anagrams. Cf. Baconiana, 1904, p. 41.

„ 1 97. Norton. Cf. Curiosities of Literature.

„ 198. Gerson. Cf. The Reformers before the Reformation.

E. de Bonnechose, Edin. 1844, p. 42.
Rape, poisoning, etc. Cf. Dutch Republic, i. 73, 76.

,, 199. Bull of 1487. Cf. Narrative of an Excursion to the
Mountains of Piemont. W. S. Gilly, M.A., Lond. 1825,
App. No. 8.

,, 200. Torquemada and anathema. Cf. Dutch Republic, i. 71,
279.

„ 201. Netherlands. Ibid., ii. 127, 320.

Cromwell's Envoy. Cf. Gilly's Narrative, 227.

„ 202. Inquisition. The audacity of the Inquisition went so far
as to send a deputation to examine the orthodoxy of
Pope Innocent XI. Even the tiara was not sufficient to
shield from suspicions of heresy.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 259

p. 203. 1733. Cf. Social England. H. D. Traill, Lond. 1903,

ii. 102.
Dominican. Cf. Curiosities of Literature.

„ 204. Francis I. Cf. Skeptics of the French Renaissance.
J. Owen.

„ 205. Vanini. Cf. Skeptics of the Italian Renaissance
J. Owen.

„ 206. Hector. Cf. Luther's Forerunners.

Licensers. Cf. Curiosities of Literature.

„ 208. Informers. Cf. The Library. No. 30, vol. viii.

„ 209. Sismondi. Cf. History of the Italian Republics.
Bacon. Cf. Advice to his Son. F. Osborn, Lond.

„ 210. Buffon. Cf. Pioneers of Evolution. E. Clodd, Lond.

Voltaire, Diderot. Cf. History of Civilisation. Buckle.
Symonds. Cf. art. "Renaissance," Encyclopedia
Britannica.

„ 211. Baring-Gould. Cf. Curious Myths of Middle Ages.
Hitchcock. Cf. Alchemy and the Alchemists.

„ 212. "They wish." Cf. Dutch Republic, i. 412.
1624 writer. Cf. Luther s Forerunners.

„ 213. Lo! in the East. These lines are from Sir E. Arnold's
Light of Asia.

„ 219. Chapel. Mr. C. T. Jacobi of The Chiswick Press has
some notes on this subject in Gesta Typographica,
Lond.

Geometrical Symbols. It is significant that these curious
marks are most abundant in the tombs of the churches
in anti- Catholic Holland. Articles on the subject may
be found in The Journal of the British Archaeological
Association, vol. xlix., 1893, PP* 45'54 5 vo^ !•> J^94?
pp. 40-44; and Notes and Queries, ser. 8, vol. ix.,
p. 409. But the only writer on the subject who
displays more than the merest superficial knowledge is

i6o NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

G. F. Fort. In his Historical Treatise on Early Builders'
Marks (Philadelphia, 1885), he states, "Of infinite
variety and multiplied application were the marks in
social domestic life during the period under considera-
tion. Families of lesser grade than the nobility adopted
certain figures as symbols of race distinction in lieu of
heraldry, and not infrequently had them carved on their
houses, on sills, lintels, beams, etc." They were also
worn as rings and seals. "Customs of this kind were
in such great popularity and so closely identified with
secret societies that synods of the church issued decrees
against wearing them" (p. 90). "The circle occurs
many times, and was doubtless carried up from pagan
cosmogony, in which it symbolises the universe and
divine puissance. In Christianity it portrayed Eternity "
(p. 91). "A quadrate in both Christian and poly-
theistic dogmas typified the world and nature, such as
the four quarters of the earth, four elements, four
seasons of the year, and, distinct from the triangle,
symbolised Christian Divinity" (p. 91).

p. 223. Awake ! Quoted from Mr. Filson Young's The Wagner
Stories.

„ 227. Auvergne. Cf. Note sur la Papeterie d'Auvergne.
Cohendy.

„ 228. Italy from Provence. Cf. The Tuscan Republics. B. Duffy,

P- 255-
Huguenot gate. Cf. Motley, i. 226.

Aroux. Cf. Dante, p. 31.

Schmidt. Cf. Hist, des Cathares, \. 33; ii. 5, 169.

„ 229. New Theology. It is worthy of note that the teachings
of Thomas a Kempis and the Brethren of the Common
Life were dubbed "The New Devotion."
Clergy. On inquiry at the S.P.C.K. I am told the
Church of England has practically no literature on
Symbolism.

,. 229. Bacon. Cf. Introduction, Wisdom of Ancients.

NOTES AND REFERENCES 261

p. 230. C. Murray. Cf. Guesses at Truths (Faith).

Leader Scott. Cf. The Cathedral Builders.

Valete = Fare you well, or Health be with you. Had I
met with this mark earlier I should have included it on
p. 40 as proof of my surmise that papermarks served
frequently as signals of hope and encouragement. The
nameless designer of "Valete," by his combination of
the Fleur de Lys and the heart evidently implies that
love and light will enable us to fare well. Probably,
too, the rude square in which he has enclosed his
kindly benediction is a sermonette to rule our lives
upon the square.

APPENDIX

SINCE this book was in print there has been published The
Hidden Church of the Holy Graal, its Legends and Symbolism con-
sidered in their Affinity with certain Mysteries of Initiation and other
Traces of a Secret Tradition in Christian Times, by Arthur Edward
Waite (London). The title of this work sufficiently indicates
its contents. "If," says Mr. Waite, "there were custodians of a
Secret Tradition at any time during the Christian centuries, there
arises the inevitable question: Who were these i mysterious
wardens, and also where were they? Can we learn anything
about them? What was this strange power or influence working
within the Church ? " . And he answers that " within the Church
Militant there had been always a little body which had pursued
a peculiar path and had travelled a great distance, making no
obvious sign. We are faced, however, by the apparent problem
of two schools which seem to bear testimony in conflict, and there
is the witness to both in the Graal literature. The first is that
of spiritual alchemy, . . . the second is the testimony of Kabalism
and Masonry." While, on the one hand, the existence of a
traditional secret Church is an irresistible inference, Mr. Waite
confesses thaj on the historical side this organisation is " the
shadow of an hypothesis at best." This work will, I trust, pro-
vide Mr. Waite with some of his missing documentary evidence,
and it will partially answer his preliminary query. It is impos-
sible to question that the men who designed the beautiful and
complicated Graal emblems were among the Wardens of its
Mysteries, nor should it be a surprise to find these high-minded
priests of progress among the producers of Literature.

Mr. Waite writes with a strong Roman Catholic bias.
" When," says he, " we have considered all the crazes and
heresies, all the pure, primitive, and unadulterated Christianities,
being only human, and therefore disposed to gratitude, it is
difficult not to thank God for Popery." His opinion, however,
upon the heretical phase of the problem is disqualified by his

363

APPENDIX 263

own words: "If I have any view on the subject — and honestly I
have next to none — they [the Albigensians] were perhaps the
Protestants of their period, dealing in poisonous nostrums of
pure doctrine, simple faith, Bible Christianity, and they circulated
uncorrupted interpretations of the Word of God — all horrors of
that spurious simplicity which takes the wayfaring man into
the first pit. We who know that omnia exeunt in mysterium have
recited long ago our Asperge, and have turned aside from such
blasphemous follies " [!].

Yet Mr. Waite writes of the San Graal legends: "These
quests are mirrors of spiritual chivalry, mirrors of perfection,
pageants of the mystic life. They are the teaching of the Church
spiritualised, if I may be pardoned such a term, and they offer in
romance form a presentation of the soul's chronicle." Mr. Waite
is perfectly entitled to thank God for Popery, but he must be
well aware that Popery and the mystics were in constant collision
with each other, and that the Court of Rome did not encourage
the " spiritualisation " of its teaching. • It was indeed this
spiritualisation of dogmas, such as Transubstantiation and The
Immaculate Conception, that indicated Heresy, and if, as Mr.
Waite affirms, the San Graal legends are the teachings of the
Church spiritualised, I fail to see how at the same time they can
be "among the most Catholic of Literature, and that reformations
have nothing therein " (p. 46). The truth probably is that the
better elements of the Church were perpetually striving in secrecy
to remove its abuses. One must draw a hard and fast line
between the manifold beauties of Catholic belief and the amazing
corruptions of Popery. Unhappily for mankind the Inquisition
was the tool of the latter.

"We must believe the evidence of our senses rather than
arguments, and believe arguments if they agree with the
phenomena. " — Aristotle.

INDEX

A, 1 08

Acorn, 182

Advancement of Learning, 209

Agrippa, Cornelius, 85, 86, 125, 203

Albigenses, passim

Alchemy, chap. vi. et passim

Allegory, 21

Allegory and the Reformation, 233

Alphonse II., 56

"ALTRI," 100

" Ama nesciri" 249

" Amen" 99, 248

Amoretti, 186

Anchor, 28

Anchor and Dolphin, 145

Angel, 17

Angel of the Annunciation, 54

Anonymity, 151, 255

Antichrist, 125

Argus, Hundred eyes of, 132

Aristotle, 136, 263

Arnold, Sir E., see Light of Asia

Aroux, E., 31, 57, 58, 61, 63, 78, 158,

174, 216

Arte of English Poesy, 177
Artemis, 161-62
Arthur, King, 120
Ashmole, Eiias, 195
Atonement, 107

Aurora, the Day Spring, 141, 163
Avignon, early printing at, 113
AVM, 105
Axe, 40

B, 108

Bacon, Francis, 178, 181, 194, 196, 223,

226, 229

Bacon, Roger, 87, 195, 203
Balzac, Honore, 24
Baring-Gould, Rev. S., 67, 211
Basket, 120, 122, 146
Bat, 151

Bear, 44, 152, 161
Beard, Dr C., 114, 135, 139
Beatrice, 165, 166
Bees, 128

Begbie, Mr Harold, 179

Beghards, 118

Beguines, 118

Bell, 50, 51,53,65,242

Benediction, 20

Berard, A., 82, 227

Bergmann, F. G., 67, 68

Beza, 136

Beziers, sack of, 37

Biblia pauperum, 112

" Bice," 100

Birds of Paradise, 153, 171

Blanche, 165

Blavatsky, H. P., 237, 241, 245, 248

Block-books, 112

Bohme, Jacob, 4, 96, 158, 163, 211

Bon, C. Le, 12, 13, 236

Borderie, Heriot de, 168

Borneil, Giraud de, 57

Boyle, Robt., 194

Brahmans Rose of Paradise, 79

Brethren of the Common Life, 116, 249,

260

Breton, Nicholas, 208
Bridge Builders, 36

Briquet, C. M., 10, n, 50, 234 et passim
Britannia, 217
Broad Views, 216
Browne, Sir Thomas, in
Bruno, Giordano, 61, 135, 140, 158, 163,

164, 205

Buckle, T. H., 239
Buffon, 210

Bull's Head, 10, 46, 68, 218
Bury, Richard de, 129, 163
Butterfly, 144, 145, 146

C, 1 08

Caduceus, 147

Calvin, 136

Camden, on anagrams, 195, 196

Candlestick, 20, 21

Castle, 68

Cathari, 12, 13, 15, 39, 118

Cathedral Builders, Guild of, 25

Catherine Wheel, 83

266 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Catholicon, 116

Chambers' Encyclopedia, 95

Chameleon, 127

Chapel, 219, 259

Charity, 104

Charlemagne, King, 63

Chaucer, 78, 165

Cherubs, 174

Chivalry, 62

Christ, 107

Church of Rome, 37 et passim

Ciphers, 258

Circle, 25, 260

Circles, Three, 29, 30

Circles, three semi-, 68

Citeaux, Abbot of, 37

Clef de la Comedie Anticatholique de

Dante A lighten, see Aroux
Clover-leaf, 30
Cock, 53, 140, 142
Colombier, origin of, 29
Comacine Masters, 25
Combachius, 86
Compound of Alchemy, 106
Confessio Fraternitatis, R. C., 142
Cooper-Oakley, Mrs, 216 et passim
Copernicus, 204
Cornelia, 141
Corrozet, 84
Courthope, Prof., 4, 233
Crab, 145
Crayfish, 145
Crescent Moon, 244
Cross, 17, 25, 28, 49, 123
Cross, Maltese, 77
Crown, 49, 50
Cyphers, 190, 191, 258

D, 102, 104, 248

Dante, 27, 31, 61, 79, 100, 128, 156, 157,

163, 166, 228
Dauphin ey, Arms of, 171
Dawn, 161
" Decipherers," 208
Defense of Poesie, 179
Delalain, M., 123
De Mysterio Magno, 211
Descartes, 205
Dialogues of Vanini, 164
Diana, 61, 62, 94, 162, 167, see Artemis
Diderot, 210
"Dz'eu Ic garde" 13, 75
Dieulouard, 13, 235
Diodati, 129
Dionysius the Areopagite, 235, 253

Dolphin, 171
DOM, 121

Dominicans, The, 37
Dove, 29, 70, 78, 133
Doves of Diana, 169, 256
Doxologies, 121
Drayton, Michael, 166
Durandus, William, 3, 21, 22, 40, 41, 42,
50, 51,52,53-115, 121, 126,237

EAGLE, 126, 253

Edict of Nantes, 39, 233

Edinburgh Review, 225

Electrotyping, 149

Elizabeth, Queen, 167

Emblems, Divine and Moral, Quarles,

175

Emblems, Reusner's, 16
Encyclopedia Britannica, 66
Erasmus, 136, 139

Eschenbach, Wolfram von, 70, 88, 119
Essai sur la gravure, Jansen, 235
Eternity, circle of, 35
Etude sur les Filigranes, Midoux et

Matton, 235

Europe, regeneration of, 211, 212
Evans, Mr Lewis, 234, 246

FAMA FRATERNITATIS, R. C., 141

Faustus, 105

Fenelon, Archbishop, 107, in, 123

Fideles d Amour, 60

Filigranes, Les, see Briquet

"First Folio," 150

Fish, 27, 174, 246

Five Rays, 245

Flammel, Nicholas, 89

Fleurde Lys, 10, 30, 49, 70, 104, 133, 142,

143, 183
Flowers, 121
Foolscap, 243
Fort, G. F., 248, 260
Fortunate Islands, The, 168
Four, 25, 26, 43, 68, 260
Fox, 126

France, cradle of Renaissance, 227
Francis I., 39
Francis Bacon and his Secret Society,

233, 235

Franciscans, 117, 250
Fratricelli, 251
Freemasonry, 106, 219
Fylfot, 25
Fylfot knot, 25, 237

INDEX

267

G., 104

Galileo, 135, 195, 205

Geometrical Symbols, 259

Gerson, on Papal Corruption, 198

Ghent, Subjection of, 65

Gilly, Dr Win., 201

Gnosticism, 24

Gnotosolitos, 117

Goat, 179, 257

Goodman, Bishop, 209

Green, Hy., see Shakespeare and the

Emblem Writers
Gregoiy IX., Pope, 38
Greyhound, 156
Guild Fools, 216
Guild of Text-writers, 112
Guilds of Rhetoric, 177
Gutenburg, 115

HALLAM, Henry, 6, 86, 115, 233,

240

Hamlet, 141

Hand, 20, 43, 102, 103, 241
Heart, 235
Hecatomgraphie, 84
Heckethorn, C.W., 58, 63
Hedgehog, 42
Helinandus, 66
Henry VIII., 77
Heretical Church, 45 et passim
Hess, 136
Hidden Church of the Holy Graal, 246,

262, 263
Hieroglyphica Valeriani, 3, 44,

IS'

HIRAM, 99

Histoire des Cathares, see Schmidt
Histoire des Papeteries, 234
History of English Poetry, 233
History of the Inquisition of the Middle

Ages, Lea, H. C, 45
History of Reformation in Germany,

Ranke, 248

Hitchcock, E. A., 191, 211 et passim
Holland, 259

Homines Intelligentice, 117
Honey, 127
Honeysuckle, 127
Horn, 63, 244
Hound, 154,155

Hours with the Mystics, 117, 148
Huguenots, 39
Hulme, F. E., 16, 241, 257
Huss, 135
Hussites, 117

I. C., 28, 29

I. H. S., 27

I. S., 30

Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 206,

209

Innocent III., Pope, 37
Innocent VIII., 38
Inquisition, The, 37, 38, 39, 135, 199,

202, 258

I sis Unveiled, 237, 241, 245
d'Israeli, I., 250, 256, 259

JACOB'S ladders, 18
Jongleurs, The, 58
Jonson, Ben, 155

KABBALAH, 98-110, 193, 195, 247

a Kempis, Thomas, 116, 117, 249

Key, 42

Keys, 41

King Arthur, 63

King Charlemagne and his Peers, 63

Knot, cross, 25, 237

Krisch, Dr Wm., 101

Kyd, Thomas, 141

L, 1 08

L. S. D., 121

Laborare est orare, 20, 145, 233, 250

Ladder, 18, 237

Lamb of God, 27

Languedoc, 36

Laragnais, de, 209

Laura, 256

Lea, H. C., 45

Lee, Mr Sydney, 138

Liberty, 97, 225

Library, The, 150

Licensers, 206

Light of Asia, 34, 158

Lily, 130

Little Flowers of St Francis, 49

Lollards, 5, 85, 117, 238, 246

Louis XIV., 63

Love Lies Bleeding, 170

"Love to be unknown," in, 249

Luckombe, E., 187

Luther, 135, 136, 139

" Lux lucet in tenebris? 143

M, 103, 104
Mare, 104

268 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Mackey, Dr, 104

" Manet Ultima Ccelo? 50

" Many shall run to and fro," 195

Marlowe, C, 105

Marston, John, 178

Mary, 24

Massinger, Philip, 31, 178

"Matura," 145

Mazarin Bible, 115

Mede, Joseph, 125

Melancthon, 136

Millennium, emblems of, 14, 157

Milton,' 39, 41, 141, 207

Minnesingers, 176

Montet, Edouard, 13, 121

Moors, 38, 239, 240

Motley, J. L., 65, 177, 182, 198, 200, 201,

212, 243, 260
Mottoes (printers'), 252
Mounts, Three, 68
" Movendo? 124
Mundane Egg, 104, 218
Murray, Dr J., 101
Murray, D. Christie, 230
The Muses' Looking-Glass, 178
Mysteres de la Chevalerie, 216
The Mystical Mirror of the Church, 53

NERO, 12

Netherlands, 201

New English Dictionary, 101, 210

Newton, 210

Nine, 166

Norton, 197

Notaricon, 99

Nutt, Mr Alfred, 66

OLIVE, 30, 130

Oliver, Dr, 100

Omnipresence, circle emblem of, 25

Onfroy, H., 234

Owen, Rev. J., 163

Ox, 46, 241, see Bull's Head

P., 102, 104, 248

Palm, 1 6, 144

Pan, 155, 158, 161, 256

Pantheism, 158, 161

Papal absolution, 198

Papal curse, 200

Papermaking, 9, u, 97, 233, 234

Papermakers' workmen, 234

Paracelsus, 89, 158, 194

Parzi-ual, 70, 119

Pataria, 13

Paterini, 12, 235

Pattison-Muir, Mr M. M., 89

Peace and Plenty, 169

Peacock, 130-132

Pearls, 70

Peele, George, 141, 178

PEHIEH, 101

Pelican, 27, 150, 238

" Per ardua ad astra" 46

Perfect Ones, 46, 54

Petrarch, 165

Philobiblon, 112, 127, 163

Philosophers, Emblem of, 83

Philosopher's Stone, 66

Philosophy, 163, 174, 175

" Philosophy communicated," 1 54

Phosphorus, 137

Picus, John, 99

Piety and Justice, 101, 104

Pillars of the Porch, 106

Pious and Learned Annotations upon the

Holy Bible, 129
Plotinus, 148
Poblicans, 52
Pollard, Mr A. W., 255
Polleri, Francesco, 35, 97
Poole, R. L., 251
Pope, watermark of, 45
Pott, Mrs Henry, 233
Principia Typographica, 233, 235
Printers' Devices, 251
Printer? Marks, see Roberts, W.
Printers' flowers, 1 8 \ et seq.
Printing, 111-120, 182, 190, 204 et

passim

Provence, 36, 227, 228 et passim
Pythagoras, 19, 61, 193

QUARLES, Francis, 40, 109, 137, 175,
"236

R, 107

Rabbit, 154

Raleigh, Sir Walter, 17

Ramus, 204

Rawlings, Miss Gertrude, 116

Raymond, Count of Toulouse, 37

Reformation, The, 135, 137

Renaissance, The, 6, 7, 210, 212

Reuchlin, 6, 99, 113, 247

Reusner, 16

Reynard the Fox, 126

INDEX

269

Richard Cceur de Lion, 56

Ring, 84

Ripley, G., 106

Rise of the Dutch Republic, see Motley

Roberts, W., 122

Roland, 63, 65, 120, 215

Romances of the Round Table, 63

Romaunt of the Rose, 5, 60, 63, 78, 133

Rome, Church of, 5, 14 et passim

Rose, 43, 49, 70, 79, 80, 81, 103, 109-30,

1 66, 246

Rossetti, Gabriele, 60, 100, 191
Rowbotham, J. F., 56, 57, 58
Royal Masonic Cyclopadia, 79
Rudolf Agricola, 117
Rutherford, John, 62

SACHS, HANS, 4, 223

St Bartholomew's Eve, 200

St Francis of Assisi, 49, 117, 251

St Grail, 5, 10, 47, 65, 67, 71-78, 97, 98

132, 183, 215, 245
Sanctus Spiritus, 78
Sara-isvati, 130
Scales, 26

Sceptics of the Italian Renaissance, 163
Schmidt, C., 44, 45, 46
Scissors, 21, 22
Scott, Leader, 230
Scott, Walter, 14
Sendivogius, Michael, 86, 90
" Serere ne dubites" 182, 252
Serpent, 19, 24, 25, 49, 174
Servetus, 135

Shakespeare, 21, 41, 77, 141, 178
Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers, 1 47
Shell, 17
SHI, loo

Ship, 147, 148, 255
Sidney, Philip, 175, 176
Signes de nos P ensues, 145
Sismondi, J. C. L. de, 209, 230
Skalds, 176

Smith, Richard, 167, 174
Snail, 144, 146
Snuffers, 21, 22
Socrates, 50
Solomon, 165
Solomon's knots, 25
Song of Roland, 63
Sophia, 163, 164
Sotheby, S. L., 233 et passim
Spenser, Edmund, 141, 166, 167
Spinoza, 158
Spirit, 29, 174

Squilla, see Bell, 52

Squirrel, 128, 129, 130

SS., 77, 78, 185

Stag, 16, 150

Star, 27, 31, 35, 49, 70, 239

Stereotyping, 149

STOTA, 100

String of Pearls, 109

Sun, 27, 35

Swan, 50, 241

Swedenborg, E., 106

Sword, 40

Symonds, J. A., 210, 227

Syren, 79

T, 103

TAL, loo

Taliesin ben Beirdd, 67

Talisman, The, 14

Talmud, The, 114, 203

Tannhduser, 167

Tate, John, first English papermaker, 85

TAU, 19, 49, 54, 68, 99, 133, 236

Tauler, John, 255

Templars, 14

THA7U, 100

Themura, 104
Theorbo, 175
Three, 24, 109
Three Mounts, 102, 186
Titurel, 67, 119, 167
Torquemada, 135

Traces of a Hidden Tradition in Masonry
and Mediceval Mysticism, 2 1 6 et passim
Trefoil, 30, 108, 186
Triangle, 30, 31, 236
Trinity, 29, 31, 236, 238
Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, The,

15
Troubadours, 4, 5, 14, 36, 55-64, 67, 125,

165, 176,215,216,243,256
Trouveres, 176
Truth, 1 66
Twelve, 63

UNICORN, 15, 16, 236
Universities, Despotism of, 210

VALENTINE, BASIL, 15, 85, 88, 92, 95

Valerian, Peter, 3, 44, 151

" Valete," 261

Vanini, 135, 158, 163, 205

Vas insigne electionis, 96

270 NEW LIGHT ON THE RENAISSANCE

Vaughan, R. A., see Hours with the

Mystics

Vera Icon, 17, 70
Vesale, 209
Vine, 28, 108, 128, 186
Vita Nuova, 166
Voltaire, 210

WAGNER, R., 222

Waite, Mr A. E., 94, 96, 99, 262, 263

Waldenses, The, 5, n, 12-13, 38,63, 117-

i9» 143, 174, 199-201, 220, 240
Waldo, Peter, 1 1, 63
Watermarks, 3, 15, 40, 228, 231, 261 et

passim
Watts, Mrs G. F., 132, 237

Weishaupt, Adam, 193

Wessel, John, 117

Wigston, Mr W. F. C., 132

Will and Understanding, 106

Wing, 41

Witch mania, 254

Wolf, 126, 157

Wolsey, Cardinal, 249

Wycliffe, John, 85, 165

Wynn-Westcott, Dr, 238, 245, 247

Y, 19, 20, 102

ZOROASTER'S CAVE, 44

TUKNBULL AND SPEAR3, FKINTKES, EDINBCEGH

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ETHICS OF
THE ELIZABETHAN DRAMA

CONTENTS

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AND METAPHOR — XIV. TRAITS AND IDIOSYNCRASIES.

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