lllljlTUTES OF ^^' ^•■'General History ANDREWli D P 21 A56lDfi Southern Branch of the University of California Los Angeles Form L 1 D This book is DUE on the last date stamped below MAY 2 5 195SI Form L 9-.")m-7,"28 BRIEF INSTITUTES OF GENERAL HISTORY Being a Companion Volume to the Author's ' Brief Insti- tutes OF our Constitutional History English and American' BY E. BENJAMIN ANDREWS D.D. LL.D. President of Brown University Sixtl) 'EUtion BOSTON SILVER, BURDETT & COMPANY 1900 Copyright, 1887 By E. Benjamin Andrews p AS t -Cr Cr- DEDICATED TO FRIEDRICH JODL Dr. Phil. Professor in the University of Prag By his friend THE AUTHOR KpciTTov yap irov (TfiiKpov ev rj iroXv ixr] txavw? Trepavai. Plato, Theaetetus, c. 31. NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION This new edition of the Institutes is precisely the same as the first except that in it a number of errors have been corrected. The author cannot sufficiently thank the many learned gentlemen who have used or examined the book, for the favorable manner in which they have mentioned it. He is especially indebted to Dr. Edward G. Bourne, of Yale University, for valuable information, enabling him to make more accurate statements at several important points. May is, 1888. PREFACE In historical as in other instruction nothing can supply the place of the living teacher, but the teacher may have helps, and a prime one of these this book aspires to be. With such an aim it has been made synthetic in method, articulate, progressive, unitary. It forms a precipitate rather than an outline, being to history at large what the spinal cord is to the nervous system or the Gulf Stream to the Atlantic. All unimportant details it ignores, treats the most im- portant in notes, and studiously renders prominent the rationale of historical movement. The work does not offer matter for rote reci- tation in the old fashion, but blazes through the jungle of the ages a course along which the instructor can guide his class much as he lists. It may serve as a mere volume for reference, as a companion and resumi to independent lectures, or as the basis of comments from topic to topic. A special feature of the plan it embodies is the encouragement and facilitation of collateral reading. At the head of every Chapter and of nearly every paragraph are named, among many, a number of Histories which can be consulted in any well appointed library, the paragraph-headings commonly aiding readiest reference by citing chapter, section or page. Students so unfortu- nate as to be cut off from side-lights of this character will find valu- able illumination upon each Chapter in the corresponding portion of Fishers Outlines. While the eleven Chapters constitute a compact, orderly and rounded whole, less advanced pupils may omit the First, those well versed in classical times the Third. General, though not the finest, unity will be preserved if a beginning be made with the Fourth. Of the later the Seventh can be passed with the least loss. Far better than sheer omission is the discussion of an entire Chapter in one or two exercises, pupils, with this in view, preparing each an abstract of its salient points. As the course can be abridged, so it VI PREFACE can be indefinitely elongated and enriched by devoting hours to essays, abstracts or special studies upon peculiarly weighty by-topics. In connection with many of these ample literature is for this very purpose listed in notes. Although primarily designed for the class- room, the Institutes will, it is hoped, be found also the best sort of a manual for general readers in history. They are preeminently adapted to aid university students engaged in special historical in- vestigation yet wishing fuller grasp upon the main course of human events. The bibliographies are believed to contain most of the available gold. Some less precious metal is indeed added, but, we trust, exceedingly little pinchbeck. Should it at first strike any reader that we have rendered Louis XIV and Frederic the (ireat insufficiently conspicuous, let him reflect that those monarchs were after all not prominent epoch-makers in the actual causal order of history. English events, except where vitally affecting continental, have been purposely disregarded, because English history logically ought to be, as in America it usually is, taught by itself. In con- sulting Histories in the preparation of these pages the author has sought those acknowledged to be of the highest ability and trust- worthiness. He of course does not pretend to have composed from the sources in the strict sense of that phrase, but he has, so to speak, steadied himself upon these all the way, and has taken special re- course to them in most cases of dissidence in the views of recog- nized secondary authorities. That he has nowhere interpreted ill, nowhere distorted the true perspective, he dares not hope, but prays critics to remember the bulk of the material which he has had to canvass, and the extraordinary difficulties attending such viaximum in »iitii?no presentation. He will be grateful for all criticisms, and particularly solicits notification of any out-and-out errors which may be met with. WiLBRAHAM, MaSS., August 4, i887> CONTENTS FACES Preface ...v Table of Contents vii Bibliography to Chapter I xii CHAPTER I HISTORY AND THE STUDY OF HISTORY. The Word History - History Oijjective — History Subjective — Civilization— Historical Method— Method for the Data— For Investigation — For Histori- cal Exposition — Is History a Science? — Objections — Another Objection — The Chief Objection — Thoughts toward a Different View — History a Science — Closer Conception — Positivist Notion of History — Is there a Philosophy of History ? — Agnosticism — Our Conclusion — Bearings of this Conception of History — \'alue of Historical Study — Mode of Work — The Partition of History . 1-23 Bibliography to Chapter II 24 CHAPTER II THE OLD EAST. Juventus Mundi - The Oldest History — Its Bear- ers—Eastward the Course of Empire — Diversity and Unity — Egypt — The Old Kingdom — The New Kingdom— Assyria and Babylon — India — Government — Intelligence — Writing — Art — Industrial Condition — Rehgion — The Mosaic Faith — Morality — Contribution to the West ....... 25-60 BiBLIOGKArHY TO ClIAITER HI 62 CIIAPrER HI THE CLASSICAL PERIOD. Characterof Classical Culture — Greece: Exaltation of Mind — Organized Intelligence — Philosophy — Art — PoHtical Ideas— Propagation of these Elements — Rome : Genius CONTENTS PAGBS and Place in History — Political Universality and Absolutism — The Latin Language — Roman Law — Stoicism — The Municipium — The Imperial Organization — Rise of Christianity — Its Influence — Early Church Organization — Rise of tiie Papacy —Theological Controversy — Other Influence of the Church . . . 63-96 Bibliography to Chapter IV 98 CHAPTER IV THE DISSOLUTION OF ROME. Signification and Significance- Moral Decadence —The Influence of the Church — Death of the Military Spirit — Poverty — Occult Influences— Lack of Unity — The Primitive Germans — Their Culture —Their Constitution — Their Military System — Their Religion — The Mixture— Disparity and Conflict — Constitutional Results — The Culmination — The Beginnings of France— Rise of the Carolingian House— Breach of West with East — Papal Alliance with the Franks . . 99-133 Bibliography to Chapter V 134 CHAPTER V THE MEDI/EVAL ROMAN EMPIRE OF THE WEST. The Ecclesi- astical Unity of Europe — Carolus Imperator— His Government — His Relations with the Church— His Aid to Culture and Letters — The Empire after Karl — Otho the Great— The Empire and the German Kingdom— The Extent of the Empire — The Dukes — The Counts— Empire and Church — (Gregory Ilildebrand — The Church and Feudalism— To Canossa — The Concordat of Worms, II22— Guelph and Ghibelline — Frederic I — Frederic II — Fall of the Hohenstaufen ^35-^73 Bibliography to Chapter VI 174 CHAPTER VI FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY. Feudalism defined — Its Modifications— Its Causes — Common Theory of Origin- Roth's View — Waitz's— Tenures of Land — Society — I'eudalism Victorious — Capetian Reaction — Feudalism how far a System — CONTENTS PAGES Defects and Merits — German Feudalism — Italian — English — Communes and the Third Estate — Suger and Philip Augustus — Saint Louis — Philip the Fair — Monarchy Supreme . . 175-214 Bibliography to Chapter VII 216 CHAPTER VII ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES. Arabia before Mohammed - Mo- hammed — His Doctrine — Mohammedan Conquest — The Causes — Spain and France — The East — The Civilization of Islam — Its Decline — Jerusalem — The Crusades: Occasion and Meaning — The First Crusade — The Second and Third — The Fourth — The Remaining Eastern Crusades — The Crusades in the West — Re- sults of the Crusades : Intellectual and Social — Ecclesiastical — Political — The Same 217-255 Bibliography to Chapter VIII 256 CHAPTER VIII RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION. Genius of the Renaissance - Its Antecedents — Its Dawn — Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio — Flor- ence — Dark Side of the Renaissance — Renaissance Literature — Art — Architecture and Sculpture — Painting — The Renaissance European — The Renaissance beyond Italy — The New Ideas — Condition of the Church — Reformers before the Reformation — Germany : Religious State — Political State — Spread of the Ref- ormation — Political Intervention and Settlement — Ecclesiastical Settlement 257-300 Bibliography to Chapter IX 302 CHAPTER IX THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. General Cause and Character - The Augsburg Settlement — The Ditliculty Aggravated— 111 Success of Protestantism — Special Motives for Intervention — Union and League — Contest for Jlilich-Cleve — Bohemia's Royal Charter — War Begun: Periods — Attitude of Europe — Bohemian Phase — Palatinate Phase — Danish Phase : Waldstein — Waldstein's Pol- CONTENTS PACES icy — Gustavus Adolphus — The Swedish Phases — The Peace of Westphalia — Germany after the Peace — Political Outcome for France — Religious Outcome 303-344 Bibliography to Chapter X 346 CHAPTER X THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. The Newest Political History - Importance of the French Revolution — Monarchy — Nobility — Clergy — The Third Estate — Economics — Thought — Approach of Crisis — States-General and Constituent Assembly — Revolution Begun — The Constitution— Political Grouping— Political Forces and Currents — March of the Republic — King and Emigrants — Europe and the Republic— The Rise of Napoleon— His Down- fall — Results 347-393 Bibliography to Chapter XI 394 CHAPTER XI PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE. Prussia in German History- Old Brandenburg — Its Rise to Statehood — The Great Elector — The First Two Kings — Frederic the Great — Napoleon's Heel — Resurrection —The Continental Gerrymander of 1815 — Metter- nichismus — 1830 — The Mirage of '48 — Sequel — Prussia's last Genuflection — A Spinal Column — Crash of the Old Bund — Birth of a New — From Bund to Empire — De Bello Gallico — New Ger- many and New Europe 395-440 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY TO CHAPTER I Lotze, Mikrokosmus** B. VII [trans., Scribner and Welford]. Flint, Philos. of H. in France and Germany.* Shedd, Lect. on the Philos. of H. Freeman, Hist'l Essays, I Ser., i; Methods of Hist'l Study.** Stubbs, Medieval and Modern 11.,** i-v. Froude, Short Studies, I Ser., i, II Ser., at end. Buckle, H. of Civilization in Eng.* Bisset, Essays on Hist'l Truth.* Bunsen, God in H. Smith [Goldwin], On the Study of H. Atkinson, H. and the Study of H. Ranke, Universal H.,* I. Kings- ley [in Roman and Teuton], Limits of Exact Science as app. to H. Adam, Theories of H.** Morison, ' History' [in Encyc. Brit.]. Lewis [Sir G. C], Credibility of Early Roman H. Hegel, Phil, of H.* [Bohn]. Schlegel, do. [also in Bohn]. Augustine, City of God. Spencer, Study of Sociology. Draper, H. of the Intell. Develop't of Europe. Arnold, Introd. Lect. on Mod. H. Thornton [in Old-fashioned Ethics, etc.]. His- tory's Scientific Pretensions. Comte, Pos. Philos., B. VI. Mill, Logic,* B. VI. Voltaire, ' Hisioire,^ in Diet, philos., (Euvres, vol. 41. Droysen, Grundriss der Historik** [last ed., 1882]. Rhomberg, Erhebung d. Gesck. zum Range einer Wissenschaft* [1883]. RochoU, Philosophie d. Gesch.* [1878]. Lorenz, Geschichtswissenscha/(** u.s.w. [Berlin, 1886]. Maurenbrecher, Ueber die Auf^abe d. historischen Forschung. Gervinus, Gmndziige d. Ilistorik. Floto, Ueber historische Kritik. Rlimelin, Reden u. Aufsatze* I Ser., R. i; II Ser., R. v. Herder, Ideen zur Philosophie d. Gesch. d. Menschheit. v. Humboldt [W.], Die Auf- gabe des Geschichtschreibers* \^Abhandlungen d. Berl. Akademie, l820-'l]. Bernheim, Methodik der Geschichtsforschung [1880]. Ranke, zur A'rit. neuerer Geschichtschreiber* [1824. IVerke, Bd. 34]. Michelet, System der Phil, als exacter Wissenschaft, Theil iv. Bossuet, Discours sur Vhist. universelle. Montesquieu, Esprit des lois. Prevost-Paradol, Essai sur rhist. universelle [1875]. Sismondi, Hist, de la chute de Vempire romain [ch. i is on the nature of h.]. Odysse-Barot, Philos. de Vhist. Laurent, Atiides sur Vhist. dc Vhumanitc** [18 vols., results seen in last]. Vico, Principi di una scienza nuova [vol. iv of Ferrari's ed. of Wks. Milano, 1836. On Vico's views, Flint's 'Vico,' in Philosophical Classics Series, Edinb., i! • denotes special, ** preeminent serviceableness. So in all the following bibliographic*. CHAPTER I HISTORY AND THE STUDY OF HISTORY § I The Word History Rocholl, Einleitung. The term history has both an objective and a sub- jective signification, — events in themselves, and man's apprehension of events. The distinction is important. ^ This appHcation of 'objective' and 'subjective' must not be confused with the other, of correctness and arbi- trariness in alleged historical results. 1 Yet except Rocholl no writer to our knowledge mentions it. It is history in its objective sense which Lotze discusses in Mikrokosmtis, VII, while history subjective is Bacon's theme in de augmentis. Droysen, His- torik, uses the term in both senses, as indeed is very common, the best writers passing from one to the other apparently without noticing the change. § 2 History Objective Arnold, Inaugural Lect. Lotze, Mikrokosmus, VII. History spans but a brief portion of the past. To brute existence succeeds human, at first little reflective, determined mostly from without. Thought, inventive- ness, migration, bring diversity, which becomes, like self-consciousness, a main trait of our species. It re- lates to both place and time. Races and peoples result. 2 HISTORY Civilization has its centres ; these shift unceasingly, now eastward, now westward ; and crises occur at which the advance of thousands of years is lost. Ruling ideas change, the form of culture being successively Egyptian, Asiatic, Greek, Roman, Teutonic. Cities, empires, rise, fall. Conquerors sweep through the earth, subdue all, then lose all, and are perhaps themselves forgotten. Meantime no chaos : causality is pervasive, and ages together show progress, however general and slow. Such is history hi se} ^ Of course even history objective is history conceived, hence not out of relatijn to our apprehension. So in any field we can think of the daU of a science before, or separate from, the existence of the science. § 3 History Subjective Arnold, ^& M.%1. Weber, IVeltgeschichte, \, 12. Rawlinsoft, Manual. Flint, Philosophy of Hist., 583 sqq. An a posteriori and tentative definition of history sub- jective would make it the orderly knowledge of things in time, as Physics, in the large sense, is the knowledge of things in space. A closer definition, still revealing no inner law, results from the further restriction of his- tory to (i) man, (2) his earthly career, (3) ages and local- ities marked by some degree of self-consciousness on his part,^ (4) his life in society,^ (5) c()mj)aratively main events in the thus determined compass, (6) these events in their genetic and causal relations. ' Subjective history manifestly cannot antedate objective. This, Schlei- cher begins with speech. Hegel denies history in the true sense to India and China and makes it commence with Persia, the first empire that passed away. Curtius agrees with Hegel as to Egypt. .Sismondi says: ' History only arises with civilization. .So long as man struggles with physical needs STUDY OF HISTORY 3 he concentrates all his attention upon the present. He has no past, no memories, no history.' ^ Mommsen: 'The doings and dealings, the thoughts and imaginings, of the individual, however strongly they may reflect the characteristics of the national mind, form no part of history.' Cf. Arnold, Inaugural Lec- ture, where he points out that history arises only when a considerable group of men unite in a common interest. La psychologie n'envisage que I'individu, et elle V envisage d''une maniire abstraite, absolue, com?ne un sujei permanent et toitjours identique a lui-meme ; aux yeux de la critique, la conscience se fait dans Vhutnanite comme dans Vindividu; elle a son histoire. Le grand pr ogres de la critique a etc de substituer la cate- goric du devenir h la categoric de Vetre, la conception du relatif h la con- ception de rabsolu, le mouvernent h IHnwiobilite. Renan, Averroes et faverroisnie. § 4 Civilization Goldwtn Smith, Study of Hist. Flint, Introduction. Lecky, Hist, of European Morals, I. Fiske, Destiny of Man, chaps, xi, xii, xiii. Guizot, Civilization in Europe, Lect. I. A conception auxiliary to that of history, derived from certain of the above elements, is civilization.^ A nation is regarded civilized in proportion as therein, at once and harmoniously, (i) morality is widespread and rational, (2) the same is true of religion, (3) intelligence prevails, both intensive and extensive, (4) social organization is complete, (5) the means of wealth are abundant and well distributed, (6) government asserts itself to the point of highest helpfulness to general, without hindering indi- vidual, development, (7) art is cultivated, refinement and taste general, (8) in all these respects society occupies an attitude of progress.^ 1 Honegger, Ktilturgeschichte, T, § I, complains with cause of the little which has been accomplished toward a definition of civilization (^Ktiltur). Guizot reduces it to progressive melioration in the condition of both society and the individual. W. von Humboldt, Ueher die Kawi- sprache, etc., I, distinguishes civilization as relatively external, from Kultur 4 HISTORY and Bildung, more internal, almost as if that could be perfect without these. Seebohm, Reformation, 5, makes it a political conception: 'the art of living together in civil society.' Cf. § 15, n. I. ^ On the idea of progress, and the various forms it has assumed in con- temporary science, Caro, in Revue des deux Mondes, 15 Oct., 1873. Cf. § 17. n- 3- § 5 Historical Method Froude, Short Studies, II ser., at end. Freeman, Methods. Droysen, Historik. Rhomberg, Erhebung. Logically first among the many important problems which inhere in the conceptions presented by the above paragraphs, is the question how and how far subjective history can be brought into agreement with objective, in other words, how far the knowable of man's past can become known. To answer this question is the task of historical method, a science by itself.^ Historical, like all work, to be most successful, must proceed in an orderly way. The mind applies its categories to any matter of knowledge only gradually. History in the most objective sense is not at once data for a science of history, supposing such a science possible ; and the data for such a science would fall far short of being the completed science. The science of historical method discusses method for the data and the investigation of history, and for the presentation of historical results.^ 1 Even those who deny that there can be a science of history admit the existence of a science of historical investigation. Notice, esp., Froude, as above. 2 Note the logical order of our matter. Having defined as it were from the outside both history and civiii/ation, we pass to examine the science of method, that science by which alone historical truth can be ascertained. Upon learning what this is able to accomplish, we arc in condition to test the questions concerning history itself as basis for science and philosophy. study of history 5 § 6 Method for the Data Droysen, Historik, §§ 45 sqq. The aim of this is so to lay out the fields, classes, etc., of data to be examined, and to present such modes of treating them, as shall insure their most facile and per- fect investigation. Method here can, of course, be more or less exhaustive. Thorough method would subject the data to both static and dynamic analysis. By the static, the categories of space and time would first be applied. Then, within any given compass thus defined, the com- plex of historical material could be so dissected as to exhibit men's acts and, to some extent, their aims and impulses, also such social institutions as church, state, property, money, and the like, as relatively isolated phe- nomena. By the dynamic, causal connections would be brought to view, the movement of history descried, events traced to their proximate, and as far as possible, to their ultimate, causes, and the entire life of man on earth reduced to a certain unity. ^ * The purpose of this paragraph is to suggest the sort of plan which the successful historical investigator must have in mind before he begins his work. Droysen has nearly the same purpose in speaking of: i materials, a) pieces of nature stamped with man's impress, as inventions, also brutes domesticated and trained, b) man's own development into nations and races, c) social formations, ^) political do.; ii forms, a) natural partner- ships, as family, neighborhood, tribe, b) ideal do., as speech, the arts, sciences, religions, c) practical do., as government, justice, property; iii agents, which are human beings, i.e., subjects of will; iv ends, teleo- logical view of history : all ends converging to one, and this undiscoven able by investigation. 6 HISTORY § 7 For Investigation Freeman, Methods. Droysen, §§ 19 sqq. Lenormant, praef. to Hisioire anciennt de I 'Oritnt. Stubbs, MeJiaeval and Mod. Hist., i-v inc. Historical investigation embraces three processes : I Discovery, which, through questioning, comparison, combination and hypothesis, brings to light sources,^ viz. : {a) remains, {b) sources in the narrower sense, (f) monuments. 2 Criticism^ whose problem is to de^ termine the real relation borne by these pieces of the past to the original life-scene, inquires into their {a) gen- uineness, (p) changes of form, {c) probativeness in rela- tion to their profession,^ {d) probativeness in relation to the investigator's need. 3 Interpretation, whose task is truthfully and as completely as possible to re-create from those now understood pieces of the past the origi- nal life-scene, handles {a) the mere facts attested by the evidence, {b) their conditions, {c) the psychological pro- cesses which were their immediate causes and their im- mediate results, {d) the great thoughts dominating these processes. 1 Rernains or remnants are real pieces of the past which were never intended as records \in meinoriam rerum'\. They may be things bearing human stamp, as papers, books, roads, atjueducts, mounds, or customs or thoughts that have been handed down. A language is a remnant. Sources, in the specific sense, consist of histories, chronicles, traditions, and what- ever was originally intended in memoriam rerum. These sources may be contemporary or secondary. Monuments combine both the above charac- ters, l)eing remnants which at the same time were intended to conserve memories of persons, things or events. Such are literal monuments, like the pyramids, most works of art, coins, medals, landmarks, coats of arms, names, titles. — Droysen. On use of inscriptions as sources, Hicks, Manual of Greek Ilist'l Inscriptions [Clarendon Tr., 1882]. On making history from ••Miguage, Max MUllcr, Science of Lang., 235; Chips, II, 251; Contemp. STUDY OF HISTORY 7 Rev., Oct., 1882. Also Mommsen, Rome, I, 37 sqq. The early Indo- Europeans had all our domestic animals except the cat, but we cannot prove them agricultural as we can the Greco-Romans. They had the family, also gold and nearly all our other metals. Rawlinson gives instead of the above tripartite division of sources a bipartite, into ' records ' and ' antiquities.' Freeman and Stubbs justly emphasize the absolute indis- pensableness to truthful historical writing of acquaintance with the sources. Bisset, Essay i, shows that criticism is, if possible, even more indispen- sable. An historian, like Froude or Hume, may work from the original sources, yet construct fables. Many documents carefully preserved as authorities contemporary with the events they profess to describe are known to have been composed to conceal instead of revealing the truth. 2 Such questions as, What were the author's opportunities for knowing? What his bias? What the bias of his times? Was the thing possible in- trinsically? possible under the circumstances? As to myths, it will not do to trim off that which is incredible and accept the rest. The incredible may be the most or the only valuable part. § 8 For Historical Exposition Rhomberg, VI. Droysen, §§ 87 sqq. Historical exposition must regard first of all, truth and perspective, the latter in the two elements of times ^ and proportion. Further : i In respect to its general form, historical exposition may be either analytic or syn- thetic, and analytic exposition may either {a) follow the course of the original investigation, {b) ask a question and test various answers, progressively approaching the true, or {c) state a fact and trace its several implications. 2 Its subject-matter may be very various ; as a life, the operation of some historical cause or congeries of them, the career of an institution, one or more, a conflict of elements, the social culture ^ of a people or period. 3 Its main aim may be to interest, to instruct or to dem- onstrate.^ 4 Its style may be more simply didactic or 8 HISTORY more rhetorical. Fine style in historical writing is not, as is often assumed, incompatible with fidelity to fact. 5 According to the degree and mode in which he deals with causes [dynamics], the writer will be a chronicler, a pragmatist or a philosophic historian.* ^ I.e., contemporary events must be so exhibited, and non-contemporary so — an important and difficult thing. 2 Kulturgeschichte need not be unscientific, though too much of it has been, treating of matters destitute of bearing on the progress of civiUzation. Hence its too great unpopularity with scientific historians. Jodl, KuUur- geschichtschreibung, Halle, 1878. 3 Ilistoria scribitur ad narrandum non ad probandum, says Quintil- ian. This was true of Livy and most ancient historians. Moderns care more for objective fact and for social evolution. Morison, ' History,' in Encyc. Brit., speaks of a ' rhetorical ' [ancient] and a ' sociological * [modern] school of historical composition. He allies Macaulay with the rhetorical. But Thucydides and Tacitus are patterns of critical historical writing. * Gervinus, Grundziige der Historik. On pragmatism and philosophy In history, Seeley and Birrell, Contemp. Rev., June, 1885. S. conceives history as a philosophy; B., as a pageant. Cf Hint, Phil, of Hist, in Prance and Germany, 222. True history is no mere account of ' bare fact ' to the exclusion of construction. The meaning, the bearing, of facts is the main thing. Also not every fact of the past is of import for history, e.g., that Karl Great, according to Einhard, had bright eyes. Had Einhard written ' blue eyes,' as Luden, ' for patriotism's sake,' makes him read, it would have been the registry of a significant historical fact. § 9 Is History a Science? KingsUy [in Roman and Teuton], Limits of Exact Science as App. to Hist. Froude, Short Studies, I, i. (7<;/(/7ti/« 5w«//A, Study of Hist. ;?//?/, Ixigic, I?. VI. Rumtlin, Reden und Au/s'dtze, II, 118 sqq. Thornton, Old-fashioned Ethics, ii. While no one questions that history admits the appli- cation of scientific methods, and yields solid and orderly knowledge, including numberless instructive and useful generalizations, thus forming one of the most important STUDY OF HISTORY 9 fields for human study, its character as science in any proper sense, has been earnestly denied. Objectors evidently do not merely mean either (i) that history is necessarily an inexact science,^ or (2) that it is, as yet, imperfectly developed.^ They intend to assert that a proper science of history is impossible in the nature of the case. The impossibility is variously grounded. ^ Like ethics, e.g. 2 Like the science of the tides or of medicine. On tide*, Sir Wm. Thompson before the British Association, Aug. 24, 1882. § 10 Objections See last §. Westmin. Rev., Jan., 1881. The alleged impossibility has been based upon defect or difficulty in man's means of knowledge. Writers have urged : i That we know past and even contemporary events only very uncertainly and inadequately. 2 That history being an infinite progress yet not moving in cycles, must need infinite time clearly to reveal its law.^ There is much weight to both assertions. Especially touching the first, there are many great historical events as to which the impossibility of arriving at the exact truth is proverbial. 2 But difficulties nearly the same in kind with these pertain to every science.^ 1 Rocholl: ' History shows us neither beginning nor end' (386). Rii- melin : ' the laws of human development will be locked up to scientific knowledge still for unmeasured stretches.' — Reden u. Aiifs'dtze, I, 29. Floto was more or less of a pessimist. Ficker is a virtuoso in Diplomatik, so is Sickel; but they differ toto ccelo as to the value of certain sources. So Gaedeke and Bresslau upon the Casket Letters of Mary Stuart. - We know naught of Hannibal but through his deadly foes. Nor of David Leslie, who fought the battle of Dunbar against Cromwell. Bisset lO HISTORY ably exhibits this difficulty. See, csp., Essay i. Of Mirabeau's speech to the messenger of Louis XVI, refusing to dissolve the Constituent Assem- bly, there are three different versions, variant and in part contradictory, all from ear-witnesses. — Ducoudray, Hist. Contetnporaine, 94. At what moment, or hour, did Bliicher arrive at Waterloo? Die Zeiten der Ver- gangenheit, says Goethe, sind nns ein Buck mil sieben Siegeln. With G. this was no poetic fancy but a fixed conviction. Of past times and peoples we have no statistics. But general knowledge is yet knowledge, within its limits as valuable as any. 3 We certainly get in history no such cycles or totalities of fact or development as we do in botany, e.g., where we can mark the birth and death of plants. Also, in history, the lield of objective data is ever grow- ing, as well as the perfection of our mental grasp upon the data. But in neither of these particulars is history worse off than astronomy. Least of all can a positivist urge objection (2), as to him all sciences are in flux. In a sense he is right. In every one data 're multiplying, or at least our knowledge of data is increasing. The history of the sciences bids us expect that after a hundred years few of them will wear the same face as now. They are sciences notwithstanding. There would be a science of botany if each plant lived a million years. § II Another Objection Schopenhauer, IVelt als IVille, etc., I, § 51, II, Kap. 38. Riimelin, as at § 9. 3 Schopenhauer and Riimehn deny scientific charac- ter to history because of what they assume to be the permanent and necessary relationship of its object-matter to our intelligence. They judg-e that in consequence of this relationship all historical generalizations, instead of being, like those of veritable science, legislative for instances and cases, are, at least so far as we can ever know, more or less, if not entirely, subjective, related to the actual facts much as are mathematically calculated probabilities.^ But 'any facts are fitted in themselves to be a subject of science, which follow one another according to constant laws, although those laws may not STUDY OF HISTORY II have been discovered nor even be discoverable by our existing resources.' ^ These authors therefore only prove history an incomplete or at worst an inexact science. 1 WTiat Schopenhauer says amounts only to the truism that sense- phenomena, as such, are not matter for thought. But — what FHnt in his criticism overlooks ^ the great pessimist largely corrects himself be- fore ending his discussion, by admitting the possibility of a thought-gxas^ upon historic fact which shall be truly objective. Schopenhauer, like Goethe, places history in analogy with travels, anecdotes, etc., — interesting and not destitute of value, but nothing more. Riimelin conceives it rather as Knies and Roscher regard political economy. Both seem to harbor the vicious notion that there is no science but exact science. - Mill, Logic, B. VI, iii. An imperfect science is one susceptible of becoming exact, but not yet completely wrought out; an inexact, one to the full construction of which our present powers are inadequate. § 12 The Chief Objection Froude, Short Studies, I, i. Adams, Manual, Int. Schlegel, Philos. of Hist., 390 sqq. 4 The most serious objection of all, urged by Froude with many others, relates to the objcct-viattcr of his- tory. It is that, man's will being free, human actions always involve an incalculable element.^ But {a) this would, at most, only prove imperfection in the science,^ and {b) cannot effect even so much save through the inadmissible conception of freedom as arbitrariness.^ ^ ' If it is free to man to choose what he will do or not do, there is no adequate science of him. If there is a science of him, there is no free choice' [Froude]. Yet Froude, most illogically, shifts the ground of his objection when he adds : ' If we had the whole case before us, . . . some such theory as Mr. Buckle's might possibly turn out to be true.' "^ Because unnumbered events which go to make up history are con- fessedly under law. Lotze in VII, i, of Mikrokosmits, has laid stress on this. Ibid., ii, ' The irregular will of the individual is always restricted in its jiction by universal conditions not subject to arbitrarj' will.' 12 HISTORY ' Freedom and action under law are not contradictory conceptions as Froude and Thornton allege. Nothing could be more thoroughly the sub- ject of scientihc knowledge than the behavior of a perfectly rational being. It is because men are but partially rational and free that our limited intelli- gence has difficulty in forecasting their deeds. Even Lotze's masterly dis- cussion seems infected with the confusion of free with arbitrary will. So I^normant and RUmelin. RUmelin keenly notices how vain it is to regard the great masses of historic fact as wholly under law unless each human volition is so. § 13 Thoughts toward a Different View Mill as at S 0- 1 The term 'science' is very inclusive.* 2 A body of facts may constitute a science in spite of large lacuncB among them and exceeding perplexities concerning them. 3 The admitted applicability of scientific methods to history argues a scientific character in history. 4 The application of such methods in modern historical study has produced immense and invaluable results. 5 Sev- eral commonly acknowledged sciences are in a sense embraced in history.^ ^ Much dissidence of view would instantly disappear were disputants to begin by seeking a common definition of this term. 2 Political economy, ethnology, politics. Scientific philology is also very dependent on history. So is scientific law. § 14 History a Science lifiU 05 at § 9. Comte, Positive Philosophy, VI. Draper, i. Rhomberg it, at \ 5. Knowledge becomes science in proportion to its com- pleteness.^ Since, data being gathered, order or organi- ''ation is the source of this completeness, knowledge is cience in the degree in which it can be subjected to STUDY OF HISTORY 1 3 method and law, and so rendered comprehensible and certain. Under this test history must surely be as- signed the rank of a science, though confessedly inexact and as yet but partially wrought out. As illustrating the order traceable in the historical field, take : i The laws of progress in general, and of progress by rhyth- mic contrast and opposition. ^ 2 The scope of predic- tion in history, often wrongly exalted to the place of sole criterion.^ 3 The possibility of referring historical movement to certain springs, as {a) ideas of right,* {b) personal initiative, {c) the spirit of an age or period, {d) the spirit of a people.^ ^ Wissenschaft is that which schafft Wissen ; i.e., Wissen is its result. Wissen is, to be sure, also its cause. 2 Such rhythm Hegel takes as the law of history, and the facts support him in a marvellous manner. It is, however, only a formal law, like the general law of progress. It reveals no causes. 8 Comte : ' Scientific prevision of phenomena the test of true science' So Froude : ' When we talk of science we mean something which can fore- see as well as explain.' Cf. Rocholl, 383 sq. Account for it as one will, or not at all, human actions are subject to prophecy to a vastly greater extent than is usually supposed. * Bisset's first essay proves, against Buckle and Comte, that moral forces, at least in many great crises of civilization, have been more decisive than intellectual. ^ Cf. also Comte's presentation, in various chapters, of what he terms social dynamics. Wherever men have advanced at all, it has been by steps and stages nearly the same in the different races and ages. § 15 Closer Conception See last §. History may be characterized as part of Anthropology, as the science of humanity viewed upon its spiritual side and in course of evolution. Its inner nature is 14 HISTORY hence determined by that of man, and mainly in four particulars, viz. : (i) as spiritual and social, (2) as sus- ceptible to weal, (3) as moral, (4) as progressive. By synthesis of these points history will be found to secure not only its limits but also a veritable unity. Observe : I That no special history is identical with history, which latter is the r^suni^ and end of all special histo- ries.^ 2 That the greatly varying importance of special histories is determined according to the above four criteria. 3 That history can be presented by single writers or works, only in pieces. ^ Freeman, v. Treitschke, and to a great extent ArnO; ^ unduly identify history with political history; Augustine, Bossuet, anc I'res. Edwards, with religious. Better Guizot : history relates to man ' in all the careers where man's activity displays itself. There is unity in the life of a people and in the life of the race as in an individual life, but as his entire environ- ment and all the spheres of his work combine to form the character of a man, which is one and identical, so there is to the history of a people a unity based upon the variety of its entire existence.' And Bacon : ' Civil history in general has three special kinds, sacred, civil and literary, the last of which being left out, the history of the world appears, like the statue of Polyphemus, without its eye, the part that best shows the life and spirit of the person.' It is easy, as Draper does, and perhaps Guizot, to carry too far the analogy between individual and social life. Nations do not seem to grow old or decay from any intrinsic necessity. See Lotze, Mikrokosmiis, VII, iii. Cf. Renan, ante, § 3, n. 2. Guizot notes well that society makes its political institutions instead of being made hy them, so that political history must go out of itself to know itself. Sismnndi, on the contrary, declares that ' government is the first cause of the character of peoples ' [pref. to Italian Republics], STUDY OF HISTORY IS § i6 PosiTivisT Notion of History Fiske, Cosmic Philos., Pt. II, xvii. Draper, i. Buckle, I. If history is thus justified in claiming scientific status, Comte and Buckle expound this status too summarily. To them, history is part of nature, amenable to, and explicable by, law, in the same sense as nature at large. Acknowledging the, at present, great imperfection of history, and also the special difificulty here attending investigation owing to the little scope offered to experi- ment, they still expect such perfection of the science as will subject human events to the most accurate predic- tion. The Positive Philosophy has done eminent ser- vices to history, as elsewhere,^ but from its point of view, we believe, the real genius of the science cannot possibly be discovered. Man, as to what is truly char- acteristic of him, is not a product of nature, but of spirit ; and spirit, while not lawless, is subtle, mysteri- ous, deep, mainly operating by categories far more refined and complex than confront us in the sciences of space and time.^ ^ The great merit of positivism is to have bred love of truth as well as a far more patient study of actual facts than once prevailed. Not the exact sciences alone are thus indebted to it, but even theology. This, not- withstanding the ludicrous apriorism and blunders which Bisset has fast- ened upon Comte. * Lotze, Mikrokosmus, VII, i, iii. § 17 Is THERE A Philosophy of History? See references at §§ 10, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 17. Adam, ch. i. This is a different and a far deeper question, though nearly always confused with the preceding.^ We agree l6 HISTORY with Buckle that ' the actions of men and thp,retr»rc of societies' are 'governed by fixed lavvs/^ and are not ' the result either of chance or of [arbitrary] superhuman interference ; ' also with the almost universal opinion that history, taken as a whole, has been a progress materially, intellectually and morally.^ Whence so grand and imposing a cosmical order? ^ The propriety of this distinction is obvious. Thus the positivists, strongest champions of a science of history, in denying the possibility of knowing uUimate fact deny that of a philosophy of history. See next §. Ernst Laas is the only positivist who sees that positivism is precluded by its principles from making a genuine generalization. 2 Adam excellently shows that the denial of chance is not the denial of an ultimate and supreme Will. See also Lotze, Mikrokosmus, VII, i. ^ Many question the certainty of the continuance of this. So Roscher, Rumelin, and even Lotze. Scepticism here proceeds largely from Malthus, and there is nothing successfully to oppose to it except hope of the moral amelioration of men. Hard to frame an entirely satisfactory conception of progress. Cf. § 4, n. 2. Its best criterion is the elevation of the stand- ard by which men judge their own moral life. — Rumelin. Progress, says Herder, lies in the tendency to humanity, in the advancing strength of those powers which exalt man above the brute, the intellectual, moral, and religious impulses. See also Froude, Short Studies, II ser. : ' On Progress.' RochoU, 390, thinks no philosophy of history possible that is not based on grounds other than the mere teachings of history, e.g., on faith or on metaphysics. Rumelin maintains that although history shows 'no natural laws, expressing a must, an infallible joining of discoverable conditions and results,' yet 'an increasing victory of mind over nature can be character- ized not indeed as a demonstralilc causal law, but as an indubitable actual result of the history of our race thus far.' § 18 Agnosticism Spenctr, First Principles. It is now in fashion to meet the above question in an agnostic spirit. Such as find no science of history STUDY OF HISTORY 1/ should, a fortiori, admit no philosophy, which is usually, though not always, the case.^ Many believe in a science, but reject all philosophy, of history. The agnostic party has a Positivist or Kantian ^ and an Eclectic section, the former denying all possibility of knowing ultimate causes, or things /;/ se. The Eclectics, who include many professed believers in final cause, refer more to the limits of man's cognitive powers, yet often speak as if regarding the innermost reality of the universe incognizable by any intelligence. So, most commonly, in describing freedom and the sway of per- sonal initiative in history. To this agnostic theory, whatever its form, the reply is : Its assertion of our ignorance, as an account of man's present powers and attainments, is, in general, very just. Practically, at present, the facts are much as stated. But to predicate of any historical matter a final and strictly necessary unknowableness, whether the difficulty be placed in the object or in the faculty of knowledge, involves in prin> ciple a scepticism fatal to all science. ^ Schlegel, W. von Humboldt, Augustine, Bossuet, and Shedd erect an inscrutable Providence into a principle of history. They thus, by faith, secure in a way a philosophy of history, but the limitation which they assign to our intelligence makes a deep science thereof impossible. Lenor- mant loudly proclaims himself a disciple of Bossuet. ^ The positivist and the Kantian view at this point are practically one. § 19 Our Conclusion Arnold, Appendix to Inaugural Lect. Lolze, Mikrokosmus, VII, ii. Laurent, Etudtt, last vol. Not overlooking the defects of teleological theories as often applied, we still hold that, if thorough, a telcologi- 1 8 HISTORY cal view of history can, and that no other can, answer all the demands of reason. Such conviction by no means rests merely upon the order, progress and moral bent observable in history itself. The commonest logi- cal processes applied in natural science, unless arbi- trarily arrested, force thought down and back to the assumption of a Supreme Mind, eternal Abode of reason, as basis of the phenomenal world. ^ From such a Being it were inconceivable that the universe should issue as a chaos, heaved forth by blind push. It, and history as the evolution of its spiritual side, must pos- sess, and internally, the properties of order, system, purpose. Nor can we rationally confine these proper- ties in time, or to main and special events. ' Through the ages, one increasing purpose runs.' Equally strong considerations assure us that this purpose is moral.^ 1 All work in natural science presupposes that nature, however deep we burrow, is knowable. This must mean that it exists, or else consists, in intellectual categories, and this, that nature's very penetralia are subject to cognition. Whose? 2 ' One lesson, and only one, history may be said to repeat with distinct- ness: that the world is built somehow on moral foundations; that, in Ihe long run, it is well with the good; in the long run, it is ill with the wicked.' — Froude. § 20 Bearings of this Conception of History Lotze, Mikrokosmus, VII, iii. It at once illustrates and confirms this thought of his- tory to observe that through it several important subsid- iary historical questions are either solved or alleviated. Thus : I Man's nature being spiritual, and its evolution a progress toward a moral goal, theories of his physical STUDY OF HISTORY I9 origin and unity cease to be vital. ^ 2 The universe being one, large influence upon man of his environment is to be expected and freely admitted. ^ 3 Apparent pauses in human progress may be interpreted as ele- ments in a rhythm. 4 Great men, playing, indeed, a weighty historical role, are effects as well as causes.^ 5 Valuable light is shed on the question between opti- mism and pessimism.'* 1 Cf. Ch. II, § I. Lotze, Mikrokosmus, VII, iv. 2 But Buckle and writers of his class have exaggerated this. Situa- tion did much to determine the early civilization of Greece, yet why were Italy, Spain and Britain so backward? The correct statement is ' that neither the Greeks in any other land nor any other people in Greece could have been what the Greeks in Greece actually were.' — Freeman. Human development requires occasioning causes, but it is humanity's distinctive task to create for itself the world wherein it is to find its highest enjoy- ments. — Lotze. ' That eternally blue heaven which laughs above Ionia has now for two centuries renounced those miraculous effects which it must have exerted once, and the havens and bays of the Phoenician coast have almost as long been inviting commerce and navigation in vain.' — Riimelin. Rich soil, easy means of communication and some rigor of climate, ' arous- ing wants without making the satisfaction of them very dififlcult,' seem to have been the main natural determinants of early civilization. Neither frigid nor torrid zone originated civilization or tolerates it now in any fine form. Interesting how railroads and telegraphs have rendered civilization unprecedentedly independent of water-ways. China, India, Egj'pt, Mex- ico, Babylonia, were wondrously fertile. Herodotus dared not tell the extent of the Babylonian millet yield lest he should be disbelieved. Europe has I mile of coast to t^}, square miles of territory; America I : 69; Austra- lia I : 73; Asia i : 105; Africa i : 152. — Honegger. ^ ' The study of history is the survey of events as related to great men.' — Grimm, Michelangelo, ch. ii. — No individual can guide his age without sulwerving its tendencies or its wants, yet ' those mighty men who through inventive genius or ol^stinate constancy of will have had a decided influ- ence on the course of history are by no means merely the offspring and outcome of their age.' — Lotze. So W. James, Atlantic Mo., Oct., 1880, takes individual initiative in history as practically an inscrutable cause. 20 HISTORY Carlyle was of the same view. On the other hand, in agreenaent with Comte, Spencer, Stud, of Sociol., ch. ii. : ' Before the great man can re- make his society his society must make him. So that all those changes of which he is the proximate initiator have their chief cause in the genera- tions he descends from.' Lotze notices that great religions in particular always attach to a founder. * Any non-teleok)gical or materialistic view of history must be pessi- mistic if logically carried out. Cf. Ch. II, § i6. Unitarian Rev., 1885, 545 sq- § 21 Value of Historical Study Adams, Manual, Int. If the above is or approximates the correct notion of history, the earnest study of this, with however many dis- couragements beset, cannot but be profitable. It is so, in fact, upon any view. No science, no department of knowledge, can be thoroughly understood except in the light of its historical genesis and growth. ^ Further, all right historical study tends to be : i A prime aid to culture, breadth of view and of sympathy. ^ 2 A first- rate general discipline in reasoning of the practical kind most needed in the affairs of life. 3 An indispensable special preparation for the worthy handling of great questions in any of the sciences relating to man. Chief among the discouragements referred to are the uncer- tainty and indefiniteness of data, and the inexhaustible- ness of the field. ^ ^ L'histoire, en effet, est la forme nkcessaire de la science de tout ce qui est soumis attx lots de la vie ckangeante et successive. La science des langues c^est riiistoire des langues; la science des lilleraturcs et dcs philoso- phies, c'est riiistoire des litleratures et des philosophies. Kenan, Averroes et raverroisme. 2 'There is a book which youth may use to grow old, and the old to become young : history.' K. S. Zacharia, quoted by Roscher. '^ Hisset, Essays on Historical Truth. Freeman, Methods of Historical Study, ii. study of history 21 § 22 Mode of Work Adams, Manual, 28 sq. Freemaji, Methods. Stubbs, Med. and Mod. Hist., ir, r. Hall [Editor], Methods of Teaching Hist, [contains excellent bibliography]. For success in this course the first requisite is diU- gence. Another is to remember that subjects, not tasks, are to be mastered. In historical reading thoughtfulness is more important than bulk.^ Well-written small vol- umes upon historical subjects abound, helpful in utiliz- ing time.^ Of larger works read, and by all means purchase, only the best. Memory of main dates in modern history is important, but dates alone are not history. So of abridgments, conspectus, historical tables and the like : they are valuable auxiliaries, but in no sense substitutes for histories proper.^ Ploetz's Epi- tome is the best conspectus, and should be in every student's hands. Fisher's Outlines is the best univer- sal history in our language. Adams's Manual, with the bibliographies at the heads of our Chapters, will name sufficient literature. Another aid, quite indispensable to correct historical knowledge, is Geography, constant reference to which should attend all historical reading;. Freeman's Historical Geography is the best work extant in this regard, though its maps are for Europe only. Labberton's is the only historical atlas which covers the entire historical field. It is excellent.'* Serviceable, though less directly, is also all acquaintance with Eth- nology, Philology, Political Economy, Politics, Statistics, Physical Geography, Art, Numismatics.^ ^ Bacon's apothegm : ' Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are tu t)e tasted, others to be swallowed, and 22 HISTORY some few to be chewed and digested.' Hobbes used to say ' that if he had read as much as other men he should have continued still as ignorant as other men.' ■■^ Epochs of Hist., Ep. of Ecclesiastical I list., American Statesmen Ser., American Commonwealth Ser., Harper's Half-Hour Scr. and Handy Ser., New Plutarch Ser., The Story of the Nations. Hist'l novels may here be mentioned, and those of the best sort, like Scott's, George Eliot's Romola and Charles Reade's Cloister and Hearth, recommended. Those by Ebers, Dahn, Ilausrath and Eckstein are valuable but less masterly, tending far more to assign modern thoughts and feelings to antique characters. ^ 'How index-learning turns no student pale. Yet holds the eel of knowledge by the tail.' * For notice of other atlases, Adams, Manual, 68. Halsey's Genealogi- cal and Chronological Chart is very serviceable. ^ On the studies au.\iliary to history, P'reeman, Methods, i, § 23 The Partition of History Freeman, Methods, Inaug. and i. lilominsoi, Rome, ch i. Stubbs, Med. and Mod. Hist., iv. Zeller, Greek I'hilos., Int., iv. History objective is continuous, knowing no periods or breaks,^ but in the study and exposition of history divisions are practically a necessity, owing to the finite- ness of our mental powers. They should be as little artificial as possible. A highly convenient primary sundering is into ancient and modern history, the turn- ing-point being 375 a.d., the beginning of the fatal barbarian irruption into the Roman Empire, which sup- plied the last essential ingredient of present western civilization. The most facile cleavage of ancient his- tory is ethnological. That of modern is chronological, into periods : I, from the beginning of the barbarian movement to the discovery of America, 375-1492; H, from the discovery of America to the Declaration of American Independence, 1492-1776; HI, from the Dec- STUDY OF HISTORY 23 laration of Independence to the present time. Mem- orable points in I : the Hegira of Mohammed, 622 ; the Battle of Poitiers, 732 ; the Roman coronation of Karl the Great, 800 ; the Treaty of Verdun, 843 ; the termini of the Crusades, 1096, 1270. In II: Luther's excommu- nication, 1520; the Peace of Westphalia, 1648 ; the ter- juini of the English Commonwealth, 1649, 1660; the English Revolution of 1688; the Seven Years' War, 1 756-1 763. In III : the Launching of the present Con- stitution of the United States, 1789; the Outbreak of the French Revolution, 1789; the Vienna Congress, 1815; the American War, 1861-1865 ; the Battle of Sedan, 1870; the Establishment of the present French Republic, 1870, and of the German Empire, 1871. 1 So Freeman, also Zeller, as above. For grounds contra, Mommsen and Stubbs, as above. Certainly one may point out great sui generis reaches of history, and decisive turning-points. Such were, 1492, the coronation of Otho the Great in 962, and the raising of the siege of Vienna by Sobieski in 1683. Coptic chronology dates everything from 284 a.d., 'year of the martyrs' to Diocletian's persecution. Ranke, Weltgesch., Theil iv, emphasizes 602 a.d., when the powerful Emperor Maurice suc- cumbed to his troops and to the city of Constantinople, revolutionizing everything in the Orient, estranging the Balkan peninsula by peace with the Avars [604], recognizing the independence of Lombard Italy and emancipating old Rome from the new. Sismondi makes much of the year 1000 A.D., when men gave up the idea of bringing all humanity into one monarchy, which Dagobert, the Caliphs, Karl Great and Otho Great had attempted. He dates modern history from 1000. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY TO CHAPTER II Ploetz, Epitome of Universal H.** Sayce [latest and best brief account in English], Ancient Empires of the East. Maspero, Histoire ancieiine des peupUs de r Orient.** Osborn, Ancient Egypt in the L't of Mod. Discovery. Mommsen, H. of Rome, Vol. I. Fisher, Outlines of Universal H. Myers, Outlines of Ancient H. Rawlinson, Manual of Ancient H.*; Origin of Nations; Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World [Chaldea, Assyria, Babylon, Media, Persia — 4 vols., also 3] ; Sixth Great Oriental M. [Parthia] ; Seventh do. [New Persian Empire] ; Anc. Eg., 2 vols. Duncker, H. of Antiquity, 6 vols, [the ablest single authority extant]. 'L.cnorma.nX., Hisioire ancienne de /'Or/Vw/,** 4 vols, [there is an abrege'] ; Beginnings of H. L. and Chevalier, Manual of Ancient H., 2 vols. Diimichen [in Onckcn's ser.], Geschichte des alien Aegyptens.** Lehmann, Gesch. d. alien Indiens ** [also in Oncken. The works of this ser. are all of value]. Smith [P.], II. of the World from Earliest T. to Eall of Western Empire, 3 vols. Ranke, Universal H.,* I. ' Egypt,' ' Babylonia,' ' Persia,' ' China,' ' India,' ' Phoenicia,' and ' Israel,' in the Encyclopaedia Britannica [all articles of the highest ability]. Smith [G.], Assyria. Sayce, Babylonia. Birch, Egypt. Vaux, Persia. [The 4 by Soc. for Promoting Christian Knowl. Less accurate, ' Egypt,' ' Assyria,' ' Persia,' ' Chaldea,' ' Greece,' ' Rome,' and ' Carthage,' in Story of the Nations Ser.] Ebers, Egypt, 2 vols. Wilkinson, Ancient Egyp- tians, 3 vols. Brugsch, II. of Egypt under the Pharaohs,* 2 vols. Daven- port-Adams, Eg. Past and Pres. Williams, Middle Kingdom [China], 2 vols. Perrot and Chipiez, H. of Ancient Art ** [Chaldea and As- syria, 2 vols., Egypt, 2 vols.]. Menard, Histoire des anciennes peuples de P Orient. De Lanoyc, Ramses the Great.* Maine, Anc't Law*; Early H. of Institutions*; Village Communities. Fontane, Histoire Uni- verselle [16 vols. ' Vedic India,' 'The Iranians,' 'The Egypts,' and 'The Asiatics 'are the first four]. Oldenberg, Buddha.** Mariette, //^;v^^ de V histoire d^ Egypt [best account in any one vol.]. 'Records of the Past ' ** [Eng. tr. of Ass'n and Eg'n documents. London. Bagster. II vols.]. Niebuhr, V'orlr'dge ueber alte Geschichte [tr., London, 1852]. Grote, Greece, Pt. II, xvi-xxi, inc. Heeren, Ilist'l Researches, I-III. On Prehistoric Timks: Baldwin, Prehistoric Nations. Lubbock, Prehistoric T.; Origin of Civilization. Tylor, Primitive Culture; An- thropology; Early History of Mankind. De Mortillet, Prehistoriqtie. Dumontier, Les stations de Vhornme prchisloriijue. Honegger, Kultur- ^eschichte* I. Bray, Anthropology. Joly, Man before Metals. Pack- ard, in Gately's World's Progress. Peschel, Races of Man.* De Nadaillac, Prehistoric America. Keary, Dawn of H.; Primitive Belief. CHAPTER II THE OLD EAST § I JUVENTUS MUNDI Lubbock, Prehist. Times, ch. xii. Lotze. Mikrokosmus, VII, iii. Lyell, Geol. Evid. of the Antiq. of Man. Honegger, Kulturgeschichte, I, 153 sqq. Cf. also his Kate- chismui d. Kulturgesch. Ranke, Weltgesch. I, 30 sq. Keary, Dawn of Hist. Four topics in Anthropology have been much dis- cussed : the antiquity ^ of the human race, its unity in essence, its unity in geographical origin,^ and its earliest intellectual condition. Upon the last two points there is still great disagreement, some authorities maintaining, others denying, that the cradle of the race was single ; some, again, affirming that the earliest human ages were an intellectual decline ; others, that they formed an as- cent from an intellectual condition much like that of brutes. Respecting the other two heads there is, and can be, little doubt, viz. : that humanity is one in essence and nature, and that its life upon our planet, in at least some of its branches, reaches an immense antiquity. The general intellectual progress of mankind is equally certain so far as regards the historical ages. In the main, to the extent of present knowledge concerning primitive man, history abuts upon Natural History.^ Pleistocene man is matter only for the latter science, which is as good as true of many peoples in every age, and even at present. Distinguish then the periods 26 THE OLD EAST (i) of man's Natural History, (2) between the begin- ning of objective and of subjective history, (3) after the rise of subjective history, which as a rule reaches back in case of any given people, to the date of the oldest contemporary written sources relating to that people, in some instances a little further.* ^ Anthropologists vary from 8000 to 300,000 years in estimates of this. There is no doubt that man appeared in Europe and America before the close of the glacial period. Astronomers [CroU, Geikie] put this 80,000- 100,000 years ago; geologists so low as 8000, 10,000, or 15,000 years. Dr. L. E. Hicks places man's advent not later than the beginning of the Champlain period, at least 20,000 years ago, and thinks it may have been earlier, at least in Asia and Western North America, where the genus pos- sibly arrived sooner than on either Atlantic shore. Grant Allen believes that man was present in miocene time, and Pres. Warren [Paradise Found] seems to agree with him. A.'s evidence is that numberless artiticially chipped flints lie in miocene deposits. Boyd Dawkins admits this, but views the flints as the work of apes. lie makes the river drift or pleis- tocene the oldest man yet proved to have existed, but thinks some of his remains pre-glacial. Both Dawkins and Evans deny that any miocene human fossils have been authenticated either in Italy, as argued by Cap- ellini, or in America, as maintained by Whitney. De Nadaillac agrees with D. & E. Best general discussion is still Lycll [3d ed. Lond., 1883]. Cf. also Internat. Rev., Sep. 1882; Nation, 1883, p. 300; ' B. C. Y.,' Re- mote Antiq. of Man not Proven [Lond., 1882]. 2 Lenormant, Hist, ancienne, I, discusses this most fully. He is a pro- nounced monogenesist, as are Peschel, Sayce, and Rawlinson [Manual, 5]. Reinsch too, who, however, locates the cradle in Central Africa. The boldest polygenesist is a writer in No. 17 of ^ AudamV for 1875. He believes in eight cradles, — Chinese-Japanese, Indian-Malay, Iranian- Semitic, Egj'ptian, European, .\rabic, Aztec, and Peruvian. — Rocholl, 379. Lotze, Mik. VII, iv, shows how slight the moral consequence of this ques- tion. Maspero, 132, says all early tradition points to a single cradle. Cf. on this, § 5, n. 2. Kant in one place pronounces for monogenesis, in another thinks it scarcely consonant with nature's usual care: 'The first man would drown himself in the first pool he saw.' Anthropologie, Th. T, E. THE OLD EAST 2/. 3 Ritter beautifully names animals man's older brothers. I.e., so far back as we can distinctly trace, primitive man led but an animal life. Mining and incipient manufacturing, villages and government might antedate moral life and so belong to man's Natural H. rather than to history. Ch. I, § 3. ' Hardly disputable that our civilization must have grown up from simple and indigenous beginnings along the path of a gradual and much interrupted development.' — Lotze. There is, however, as yet, no scientific proof that man was evolved from the ape, even physically, the oldest skulls known indicating higher intelligence than those of some races now existent. ' The evolutionist is right as to the method of progress, but the believer in special creations is right as to the cause of progress. God is the author of all life changes, but he has chosen to produce them by the continuous action of natural forces. Terrestrial life is both an evolution and a crea- tion.' Hicks. * Being traced, that is, by means of archaeology and philolog)'; but contemporary written sources alone can assure a connected account. — Mommsen, Rome, I, i; Max MUller, Contemp. Rev., Oct., 1882; .Free- man, Sketch of Eur. H., 31. Lepsius hails it as the distinctive supe- riority of Egyptian history, that its contemporary sources, not yet half explored, are so complete. Cf. Lenormant, Hist, anc, praf. vii. Sallust had seen native histories of Carthage, which have since perished. § 2 The Oldest History Mahaffy, Prolegomena to Anc. Hist. Lenormant, praef. to Hist. anc. The study of history is no longer permitted to begin with Greece and Rome.^ Ancient civilization, it has been found, had much solidarity.^ From the newest investigations, oriental history appears almost as closely bound up with classical as this is with modern. What was once mere suspicion of such continuity, thanks to men like Champollion and Rawlinson,^ has become cer- tainty. In many lines the connection has been traced, as Greek and Etruscan "* art to Nineveh. Deciphered hieroglyphics and wedge-characters^ disclose a new world. Forty centuries of Egyptian life and deeds. 28 THE OLD EAST mostly unknown before, now lie open to the light, Egyp- tian affairs, like those of a modern state, may be studied from original and contemporary documents. The nature and development of Egyptian art and religion can be scanned to the details. Of Assyria the resurrection has been about equally complete, throwing the most valu- able and unexpected light upon the Bible and upon the entire march of Asiatic and early European civilization. ^ Freeman, Rede Lect., Oxford Inaug., and elsewhere, insists strongly and well on the unity of all history, yet inconsistently seems willing to take European history as a whole by itself. This involves tne same essen- tial error against which he is so loud, of sharp division between ancient and modern. 2 Especially cannot Jewish history be understood alone. * Many relig- ' ious ideas and stories commonly regarded especially Jewish are found on Babylonian clay tablets. The Sabbath, name and all, is Babylonian.' — Fried. Delitzsch. Max Miiller adm. no doubt that by Solomon's time even India was in communication with Palestine. Sanscrit words occur in O. T. Solomon's judgment regarding the child claimed by «^wo mothers is current in India. — Contemp. Rev., Oct., 1882. M. assures us that many other similar accounts are common to India and the Wc^t. as that of the ass in the lion's skin, in Plato's Cratylus. Solomon's Song could almost have been borrowed, so close the resemblance, from the F!gyptian love- songs rendered by Maspero in the yournal osiatique, Janvier, 1883. The whole of Asia, including China, was almost one land. ' Champollion le yeune, so called to distinguish him from Champollion Figeac, his elder brother, also an F'gyptologist of mark. The Rawlinson named is Sir Henry, not Professor George, the author of the Manual and other works mentioned in the biljliography. * Mommsen inclines to minimize Asiatic influence in early Italian civ- ilization, and thinks it was exerted altogether through Greece. * Hieroglyphics, Egypt; wedge-characters, Assyria. Wiedemann says that we can trace consecutively the march of Egjptian history from be- tween 4000 and 3000 B.C., that of Mesopotamia, not quite so thoroughly, owing to the greater difficulty of the Keilschrift, from the eighteenth cen- . tury. Maspero: 'In a few years Egyptologists will decipher the historic and literary texts in their hands with as much certitude as Latinists read THE OLD EAST 29 Cicero or Titus Livy.' ' One could, from the accounts gathered in the tombs, reconstruct the royal almanac of Khufu's court down to its minut- est details.' Of Assyria : ' In less than thirty years [from the discovery of Nineveh by Botta in 1846] a new world of unknown tongues and peoples has opened itself to study, while thirty centuries of history have come forth from the tombs and reappeared in the blaze of day.' § 3 Its Bearers Loize, Mik., VII, v. Freeman, Hist'l Geog., ch. 5, § 3. The historical nations of antiquity were very few, including, besides Greece and Rome, merely China and India with the members of the later Persian empire, viz.. Babylonia, Assyria, Phoenicia, Lydia, Israel, and Egypt. Of these lands mark that : i They formed the theatre of history's most stupendous military move- ments and conquests.^ 2 All their peoples save the Chinese, were Caucasians ^ ; these, Mongolians. 3 Among the Caucasians the Hamite family earliest developed culture and empire, then the Semites,^ third the Aryans, the last finally playing by far the most important part. 4 Each of the ancient civilized nations was favored not only by great agricultural and mineral resources, but in particular by rare facilities for com- merce, while on the other hand some non-historic peoples of those times enjoyed these natural advan- tages in as high a degree as they.* 5 China and India, the eastern section of the old historic world, were the special home of stationary institutions ; western civilization was even then distinguished for life and movement.^ ^ Those of Chedorlaomer, Ninus, Semiramis, Tiglath-pilezer, Assurbani- pal, Ramses II, Cyrus, Cambyses, Alexander, Omar, Haroun, Mahmoud, 30 THE OLD EAST Jenghis Khan, Tamerlane, Godfrey de Bouillon, Saladin. One might add Napoleon and Mehemet Ali. ■■^ The oldest known inhabitants of the Euphrates Valley were partly Turanian [non-Caucasian], in part Ilamitic [Lower Tigris Valley], in part Semitic [Assur]. But few Turanian traits remained at the time whence their connected history can be traced, unless with Oppert we regard the basis of the Assyrian language Turanian. Cf. § 9. This early eminence of the Turanian stock seems to have been destined to be its last. 8 Hommel, Die Semitischen V'olker u. Sprachen. 2 Bde. Hamites first, i.e., in Egypt and Babylonia; then the Semites, viz., the Lydians and also, substantially, the Assyrians and Babylonians during the period of their great history. Aryans last, i.e., the Persians, Greeks, and Romans. 'It is a growing conviction of ethnologists and philologists that the jirimi- tive home of the white-skinned population which first spoke the languages of the Aryan family, was in the neighborhood of the Baltic, and that this population still survives in its purest form in the southern parts of Sweden and Norway.' — Sayce. The old Eg)'ptians, from whom the modern Copts have come, appear to have been of the same stock as the Iberians and Etruscans and the present Basques and Berbers. This, to be sure, is still sub judice. F. W. Newman's Libyan Vocabulary [Lond., 1882] shows all the present languages of No. Africa to be closely related to the Semitic. It is certain, at any rate, that the Etruscan was no branch of Aryan speech. Pauli, Etrusk. Forschtntgen, pt. iii. The Semites [of Assyria-Babylon] led civilization from the 13th cent. B.C. to the 7th and even the 6th. They then yielded to the Aryans, though never ceasing to be active, and at length, after Mohammed, placed themselves at the head again. Subse- quently to this occurred the renaissance of Mongol [non-Caucasian] power under Jenghis Khan [1206 A.D., and later] and Tamerlane [c. 1402]. ■• See Gryzanowski's comparison [N. A. Rev., Oct., 1871] of Sardinia with Sicily, showing that everything but man has favored Sardinia. — James, Atlantic Mo., Oct., 1880; Gordon, Climate in Relation to Org. Nature [Vic. Inst. Ser.]. Notice upon the map of ancient V.g. how civilization clung to the Nile. But large parts of Arabia were conditioned as favorably for civilization as any in the world, without producing it. ' Klemm divides peoples into active and passive. Guizot, unjustly, ranks Egypt no less than India as passive, an estimate less and less possi- ble as Egypt's genius becomes known. But if Egypt was less sluggish than India, it was more so than Assyria, Phoenicia or Greece. the old east 3 1 § 4 Eastward the Course of Empire Honegger, Kiilturgesch. I, 53 sqq. While viewed at any given moment ancient civiliza- tion increases in brilliancy from east to west, the chron- ological progress of its origination is rather from west to east.^ Egypt possesses a high civilization at least twelve centuries before our earliest record of a Chinese emperor. Babylon is a centre of light while the fathers of the Hindoos still tend their flocks in Iran. The Hindoos too must have carried an advanced culture with them down the Indus, the Sanscrit having been a perfect literary language by 1500 B.C. Yet the Vedas are not the oldest literature. One part of the Egyptian papyrus ' Priss6 ' ^ hails from before 3000, and hiero- glyphic writing itself is older than history. This papy- rus is an ethical document. The peoples^ from whom sprung the Chaldeans in Babylonia had. a theology, a regular law-code and the rudiments of writing. The earliest certified pieces of Chinese literature scarcely reach further back than the thirteenth century. In Egypt, again, under dynasty iii, sq early as 2800 at least, not only agriculture and very many difficult mechanic arts but even several of the fine arts were in an amazingly forward state, implying high intelligence and thorough social organization.* The great Sphinx of Ghizeh and the temple near it quite antedate history, and are the oldest creations of man.^ Scientific astron- omy goes back in Egypt at least to 2782,^ in Babylon to 2234, in China only to the twelfth century. 1 Some earliest historical dates are, approximately : for Egypt, 3892; for Babylon, 2500; for China, 2400 (less certain than the others); Abra- 32 THE OLD EAST ham. 2000; for oldest Vedic literature, 1600; Moses, also arrival of Hin- doos at the Ganges, 1300; for Assyria, 1200; for Phtenicia, 1050; first Olympiad, 776; Roma condita, 753 [Varro], 752 [Cato]; for Lydia, 724; for Persia, 558; Buddha, 550. No connected Biblical chronology earlier than King Saul, about iioo. The date given for Eg. is Lepsius's and is quite within bounds. Boeckh says 5700 ; Mariette, 5004; Benloew, 4500; Lenormant, ' more than 4000.' Oppert says : ' not 40 but 70 centuries look down from the pyramids ' ; Maspero : ' 5000 years between dates of our earliest and our latest Egypt'n documents.' In giving so high figures Lenormant, Mariette, and Maspero seem to follow Manetho, whom German writers discredit mainly on a priori grounds. — Len. //isi. anc, II, 71 ; cf § 6. These dates resemble little enough those from Kohlrausch's tables which all the schoolboys of Europe had to give thirty years ago : creation, 3484 B.C.; deluge, 2328; Noah's sons, 1656, etc. The Jewish calendar pretends to reckon from the creation of the world, which it places 3760 years and 3 months B.C. Most partisans of the Samaritan text of the O. T. put Christ's birth in the 4305th year of the world; the LXX in the 5270th or the 5873d, according to mode of reckoning. The fact is that the Bible does not determine primordial human chronology or assign any date for the creation of man. So Rawlinson [G.] and, most emphatically, Lenor- mant [who was a devout Catholic] Hist, anc, I, 7, 209 sqq. On Abrahani'i date, Zeitschr. fUr Volksivirtichafi, etc., XXIII, 2, 141, which puts his death in 2037 B.C. As date for Moses, Poole and Rawlinson say 1652, Bunsen and Lepsius 1320. Ilonegger believes that safe chronology regard- ing China does not reach beyond the 8th or 9th cent. B.C. Objective Pha'nician h. probably goes back at least to 2000 B.C., but we cannot fix dates there anterior to 1050. The Tyrian priests dated their city from 2750. — Maspero, 192. The Homeric poetns in their present form are not older than 850. Ranke makes Pheidon [d. 660] founder of the naval power of Argos, the earliest historical character of Greece. The Hera- cleidae, the heroes of the Spartan-Messenian war and even Lycurgus he regards as sagenhaft. Nor will he concede that any Roman date is strictly historical till the Gallic invasion, 364 a. v. c, 389 B.C. Weltgesch., II, 8, n. ^ This hoary document, now in the Bihliothcque Nationale at Paris, was composed, its oldest part under Snefru of dynasty iii, the rest under dynasty v. Our copy is perha])S contemporary but certainly not later than dynasty xii. — Lenormant; Maspero, 85. It is the oldest book in the world. 8 Maspero, 139; cf. 146 sqq. Lenorm., Hist, anc, I, 363. * In the grotto-tomljs of Benihassan, dating from Snefru of 'ptians applied ' stupid ' in the same way. ' Aryans ' looked upon themselves as ' the excellent.' The Chinese dubbed their empire ' central ' and ' celes- tial.' Israel viewed itself as the elect of God. The very word ' slave,' which acquired its modern meaning from the large numbers of the Slavic race reduced to slavery, originally meant ' glorious.' •^ Carthage was an aristocracy, and guarded in the most sedulous man- ner against a dangerous degree of individual power. It brought this spirit from Phoenicia, yet it seems that the little confederated city-states here allowed some political power to popular assemblies. Perhaps the geni- siasts at Carthage too were popularly elected. — Mommsen, Rome, II, 23 sq(]. The immediate Phoenician colonies were free, but not those of Car- thage. — Ranke, IFe/(!;rsc/i, Th. I, xii. ^ Max Miiller, Buddhist Charity, No. Am. Rev., Vol. 140. § 12 Intelligence Kaegi, Rigveda. Lenormani, IT, ii, §§ 2, 3; iii, §§ 3, 5. lifax Miiller, Introd. to Sacred Books of the East. ' Records of the Past.' The intensive intelligence of Antiquity we shall scarcely overestimate. Deep philosophy nearly every- where underlies the popular religion.' Literature abounds, in India early, in Egypt very early. But for the frailty of the tablets bearing it, Assyrian could hardly be less voluminous. Under the xiith Egyptian dynasty literature is a profession by itself.^ Many pieces out of these primeval letters betray keen reflec- tion. -"^ The proverbs of Papyrus ' Prisse ' recall Solo- mon's.'* Certain Vedic hymns and chapters from the Egyptian classics are worthy of any age.^ Egyptians and Chaldeans both made careful astronomical obser- vations, which are still of value." The great pyramids exactly face the points of compass. The same mathe- matical precision marks the arrangement of Assyrian THE OLD EAST 47 temples. From Assyria has come the oldest human institution, the week, with its days, hours and min- utes.^ Chaldean knowledge of square numbers,'' frac- tional as well as integral, seems to be older than Nine- veh. Chaldean priests understood the precession of the equinoxes and reckoned it with great, though not abso- lute, precision. They acquainted India with grammar and the zodiac, its signs, minutes and seconds ; India them with algebra and the decimal notation. Nearly all the fine as well as the mechanic arts proceeded from these ancient men, and in some of them they produced effects never equalled since. China discovered gun- powder, the compass,^ and a kind of printing ; India, steel-making ; Babylon, enamelling and encaustic paint- ing. Extensively, intelligence so early was incompa- rably inferior to modern, yet it was considerably diffused. 1 See § i6. 2 See § 15, n. i. Doubtless many Assyrian records have perished with the artificial stone on which they were written. ^ ' A good man is not envious, but well disposed to another even while ill-treated by him; like the sandal-tree, which, even when felling, imparts to the axe its aroma.' — Hindoo poem. ' Let not sin after sin, hard to con- quer, overcome us. Let sin and lust depart.' — Rigveda. ' The rebellious sees knowledge in ignorance, virtues in vices; what sages know to be death, that to him is life day by day.' Papyrus Prisse. * ' Good luck makes every place good; a little check may suffice to cast down a very great man. Felicitous speech excels for lustre the emerald that slaves' hands find among pebbles. The wise man receives satisfaction from what he knows; his heart is in the right place, pleasant are his lips.' Papyrus Prisse, oldest part. Cf last n.; Lenorm., Hist, am., II, ii, 2 and 3; Mahaffy, Prolegomena, Pt. ii. ^ For point, sense or even beauty, nothing yet translated from the Vedas can compare with our best pieces from Old Egypt. '' Sixty was a favorite factor and divisor with these priests, for the rea- son, Max MUller thinks, that it is the greatest multiple-number. How 48 THE OLD EAST permanent ! ' The French Revolution destroyed all else but the dials of our watches.' " Here is a copy, in Arabic figures, of a table which Loftus found at Senkereh in 1854: — SQUARES. ' SOSSES. UNITS. SQUARES. ' SOSSES. UNITS. 51^ = = 43 + 21 562 . = 52 + 16 52^ = = 45 + 4 572 . - 54 + 9 53-^ = . 46 + 49 582 . = 56 4- 4 54'^ = = 48 4- 36 59- = = 58 + I 55'^ = = 50 4- 25 6o2 = = 60 A ' boss' was 60 units. The table reads: the square of 51 is equal to 43 ' sosses ' [43 times 60] plus 21 units, etc. ' Quite similar tables exist upon the times for the rising of Venus, Jupiter and Mars, as well as cal- endars of the phases of the moon from day to day for the entire month. They had determined the moon's mean daily course, and succeeded, by knowledge of a continuous series of 223 of its changes, in predicting its eclipses. The earliest which we know to have beeif computed by them is that of March 30, 721 B.C., and their reckoning varies but a few minutes from ours. Sun-eclipses they did not predict but most carefully observed, e.g., those of July 2, 930, and July 13, 809, B.C.' — Mlirdter, GescA. Baby- loniens u. Assyriens. They knew and reduced to practice one of the chief elements of the metric system, — that of deriving all measures of length, superficies, solids and weight to one and the same linear unit. Mommsen, Rome, I, 273, is of opinion that the Babylonian blending of the duodeci- mal and the decimal notation arose from notice of solar along with lunar months. Ten solar cycles would nearly equal twelve lunar. Geometry of a primitive kind was familiar to the Egyptians. Also see § 4, n. 6. * See Humboldt, Cosmos, Vol. H, for the main facts in the h. of the compass. The oldest bridge of which there is record spanned the Euphra- tes at Babybn. The Egyptians were great in anatomy and medicine. the old east 49 § 13 Writing Maspero, On. XM. T^y/or, Anthrop., ch. vii. 'Hieroglyphics' in Encyc. Brit. Carl Abel, Linguistic Essays, ix and x. Isaac Taylor, The Alphabet. Mahaffy, Proleg., 103 sqq. Writing everywhere began with pictures.^ Its stages were, (i) ideography direct, (2) ideography ^ symboHc, (3) phonography syllabic, (4) phonography alphabetic, alphabetic writing as we have it now. Ideographic symbols are either simple or complex. The simple may be formed through synecdoche, metonymy, meta- phor or enigma. Complex are combinations of simple. Ideography was a very inadequate means of expressing thought. Syllabic phonography arose through associat- ing the ideogram with the sound, or congeries of sounds, constituting the name of its object.^ Ideographic values of characters passed into sound-values. With monosyl- labic languages this ended the process, but some polysyl- labic ones found means to represent each several syllable by itself. This was effected by attaching the character for a whole word to its first syllable alone. The Assy- rian cuneiform script represents this syllabic stage. The next step consisted in decomposing syllables and find- ing signs for each vowel and consonant. The Egyptian writing — hieroglyphic, hieratic, or demotic, according as it was less or more cursive and abridged — employed together ideograms, and both syllabic and alphabetic phonograms. The Phoenicians perfected rather than invented alphabetic writing, as their alphabet was de- rived from the cursive Egyptian.* From the Phoenician have sprung all the other alphabets in the world.^ * True of the German runes, which at first were not letters at all. * Ideography direct would be illustrated by writing the picture of an 50 THE OLD EAST ox for the idea of ox; id. symbolic by using the same picture, or the picture of an elephant, to denote strength. This would also illustrate the vietottymic formation of simple symbols, as would also any picturing of cause for effect : the sun or a lamp, for light, etc. Synecdoche presents a part for the whole, as the head for the entire animal. Metaphor is used when the figure of an eagle is sketched to denote royalty. Enigma is the same as metaphor, save that the resemblance, instead of being natural, subsists only in and through some mystic Egyptian belief. 2 In phonography the mind leaves out of account the thitig represented by the sign, passing directly, through association, from sign to sound, a process which rebus poorly imitates. So far the Egj'ptians had gone. The Phoenicians went further, and [e.g.] instead of sketching a donkey or donkey's head or ear to spell ' donkey,' used some one of these signs to spell ' don,' and [we will say] the picture of a key for the other syllable, ' key.' Alphabetic writing was reached when the first sign had become still further specialized so as to signify only ' d,' other signs being used for ' o ' and the remaining letters. Cuneiform writing would seem to have been an invention hardly less wonderful, sq early, than alphabetic. See Schrader, Keilinschriften u. d. Alte Testament, in which Professor Haupt has an excursus on the cuneiform story of the deluge. * Probably through the Hycsos. See § 7, n. 9. The Semites did not introduce vowels. This was done independently of one another by the Greeks and the Hindoos. ' In every letter we trace lies the mummy of an Egyptian hieruglyphic' '' On derivation of the alphabets of India from Babylon, Burnell, in Academy, June 17, 1882. Writing from right to left, as in Hebrew, is not the oldest fashion. The Papyrus Prisse reads as English, which seems to have been the earliest, yielding here and there to the ' boustropliedon ' form, from right to left and then back, as in ploughing, the left-handed being a remnant of this. § 14 Art Perrot and Chipiez, Ancient Art. Winckelmann, do. Ra7ulinson, Man., 27 sqq. Rassam, Babylonian Cities. Mitchell, Anc. Sculpture, i-viii. Ancient art had four independent centres ^ of origi- nation, Egypt, Chaldea, India, and Cliina. Chinese art is ancient but unimportant. Hindoo, consisting of architecture only, arose later and was remarkable THE OLD EAST 5 1 merely for the bizarre and gigantic character of its products.^ Egyptian art, existing only to serve religion, not for its own sake, could not attain modern measures of perfection. Here, as in all the most ancient seats of art, painting and sculpture were subordinate to archi- tecture. Mechanical details had been thoroughly mas- tered, as appears from the number and the good preser- vation of remains. Colors are bright and pillars solid after fifty centuries. There were two periods, a realistic, and a later one in which art wrought with canons and models of its own.^ The thoughts of immensity and repose rule in both. Chaldean art is more practical.* As to architecture, note the materials,^ the terrace, the story-tower. The Assyrians prosecuted painting but little,^ and chiefly to aid the relief of statues. In encaustic painting the Babylonians greatly excelled. In sculpture alone did Assyria surpass Babylon. The Assyrian sculptors were realists, * the Dutchmen of antiquity.' In reproducing inanimate forms they have never been outdone, in that of animal, hardly equalled. In perspective they failed, unwilling to sacrifice any one projection to another. To the genius of Assyrian engravers in stone we are indebted for the preservation of the people's literature. The Persians, like the Jews and Phoenicians, copied Assyrian sculpture, as they did Assyrian writing. Persian architecture imitated the Hindoo more. ' On the derivation of classical art from the East, see § 19. 2 But wood-carving early attained excellence in both China and India. The Hindoos, one has said, had no genius but patience. Equally true of the Chinese. 8 The naturalistic period was under tlic Old Kingdom, the independent 52 THE OLD EAST development under the New. In this, extraordinary skill was attained in subordinating the natural in animal forms to the ideal. The lions from Gebel Barkal in the British Museum are thought to be the finest extant examples of the idealization of animal forms. * The greatest structures in the Euphrates Valley were for defence, like city walls of colossal height and width, or for aid in observing the heavens, as the terraces and those towers with several stories each. Alexander found at Babylon a Belus-temple, eight stories high. The oldest Egyptian writing is a tribute of homage to the immortal soul; one of the oldest cuneiform documents is a business contract. Walls of Assyrian buildings were thick but hollow, serving economy and guarding admirably against extremes of heat and cold. ^ Brick or artificial stone, sun-dried or burned. From Nineveh south- ward the land contained no natural stone. The Babylonian bricks were far superior to the Assyrian. Each brick had on its umler side as laid in the wall a legend, which, in public buildings, contained the name of the king reigning at the time of construction. If all the bricks in a dis> covered wall bear the same legend, the wall is known to be original, not made of bricks from an earlier time. Some pillars and roofs were of wood, but the Mesopotamians knew and used the principles of vaulting and arching. Wooden pillars were occasionally gilded or silvered. Assyrian art-development was at its finest in the 7th century B.C., under Sargon, Sennacherib and Sardanapalus VI. " Painting is the department of antique art of which our knowledge is most defective. § 15 Industrial Condition Huet, Continerce et Navigation des anciens, i-xv. Raiulinson, Man., 29 sqq., 80 sqq> Grote, II, xix. Osgood, Prehistoric Commerce, Baptist Quar. Rev., 1885. By B.C. 1000 in all the great centres of civilization, in Egypt ^ far earlier, society was thoroughly organized industrially. Wealth and luxury abounded. Division of labor prevailed. Agriculture and the industrial arts were everywhere extremely well advanced. Egypt and Babylonia contained each an elaborate system of canals for irrigation. Weaving, iron-working and most other ordinary forms of skilled labor were carried on in all THE OLD EAST 53 civilized lands. ^ Commerce thrived. Babylon was a city of merchants.^ Phoenician sails whitened the Per- sian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and even the Atlantic coasts of Africa and Europe."* Tin from Cornwall and the Scilly Isles was exchanged for the gold of Ophir and the silks of India. Immense cara- vans for inland commerce connected the Mediterranean with the Euphrates and Tigris, and these with the Indus ^ and with China. Yet in spite of this enormous productive activity, the bulk of the population, immense in each land, was in deep poverty, caused partly by tyranny, partly by ignorance and disregard of economic laws. Eminent evils economically were (i) slavery, (2) caste, (3) the idleness and prodigality of the upper classes, (4) wars, gigantic, perpetual, truceless, annihi- lating capital as well as men. ^ See Lenorm., II, 123 sqq., also ]\Iaspero, 123, for the document from the time of dynasty xii, wherein a scrilje, urging his son to tal^e up the same calling, enumerates the infelicities attaching to each of the several trades. ■■^ See § 12. It is believed that the Egyptian linen-manufacture has for quality never been surpassed. ^ Curious and useful animals were imported thither from the remotest lands. Both silver and gold were used as money, at the value-relation of 13 or 13 • 5 to I. The Chaldean account of the flood calls the ark a ship and gives it a pilot. •^ So far as known only Phcenician or Carthaginian ships visited the Scilly Islands, but the Greeks of Marseilles oi)tained tin thence overland. The Ph(i'nicians had founded Gades [modern Cadiz] before the dawn of Greek history. The plants for the incense so common in Egypt must have come from as far at least as the mouth of the Red Sea. Also the cassia, cmnamon and sweet calamus required for the holy anointing oil of the Mosaic law [Exodus x.\x] were not obtainable nearer than Ceylon or India. — Osgood. * Either northward, by the Khyber Pass, or southward, by the Bolan. The route to China left Northern Persia. All along this, and westward, 54 THE OLD EAST south of the Caspian and Black Seas even to the extreme west of Europe have been found antique specimens of jade, which must have come in prehistoric times from China or Burma, where are the only known mines of this stone in the world. — Osgood. The Old Persians were the first to use a postal or a telegraph [by signs] system. They also had topographi- cal maps and magnificent roads, with sign-posts and wayside inns. § i6 Religion Konier Williams, Relig. of Zoroaster, Nineteenth Century, Vol. IX. Hoare, Relig. of Anc. Egj'ptians, ibid., Vol. IV. ' Religions,' in Encyc. Uril. [names the best lilera* ture]. Kawlinsoii, Religions of the Ancient World. Cairii, Faiths of the World. BAjfs Davids, Origin and Development of Religious Belief. Keary, Primitive Belief. Asia is the land of religion, as Europe of politics. All antiquity save China was priest-ridden. Learning was a purely priestly affair. Nearly every ancient religion was a popular polytheism with an underlying monism,^ either theistic or atheistic. Thoughtful per- sons conceived sun, animal or idol, as a mere symbol or manifestation of Deity, the ignorant as Deity itself. The most common such symbol was the sun,^ and worship of the sun, or of light, was almost universal. Coupled with the sun-god was usually some deification of the renewing, generating, fructifying principle in nature. The world was expounded more as an emana- tion than as a creation proper.^ The tendency was to separate religion from morality. Zoroastrianism, often considered a dualistic system, was in fact the best heathen specimen of theistic monism,'* as Buddhism was of atheistic. Zoroaster, thinking of God as Liglit, is naturally an optimist ; Buddha, judging the First Cause to be unknowable and dark, cannot but champion pcssi mism.''' Confucianism, more ethical than theological, declares for neither of these views ; the Egyptian reli- gion in different species of its utterances, for both.*^ THE OLD EAST 55 ^ Monism is any doctrine which derives the world ultimately from some single principle. 2 See ' Religions ' in Encyc. Brit. 8 I.e., a creation out of nothing. Note the difference between the idea of emanation, lower forms of being ever proceeding from higher, and the modern notion of evolution, according to which higher forms issue from lower. * The evil principle was not conceived as coeternal with the good. * Ultimate being, the causa sui and the first cause of all other being, must inevitably furnish the standard for judging the worth of all finite existences. If spirit, consciousness, personality, is regarded as first cause, then life, the increase of our powers, our development in reason, will seem good and desirable. If on the contrary the central essence of the universe is unconscious, thought-life and the growth of personality in gen- eral cannot but appear evil and deplorable. 6 Monotheism and belief in immortality were basal elements in the Eg)'ptian faith, both clearly visible already in the ' Prisse'; but the Eg)ptian animal-cult and deep regard for the human body most naturally connect themselves with the East-Asiatic view that normal being is the reverse of spiritual. Cats, dogs, cows, crocodiles and other animals were worshipped. Herodotus declares that at a fire the Egyptians were more anxious to save the cats than to quench the flames. He takes [II, 123] belief in immor- tality and in transmigration to have originated in Egypt. § 17 The Mosaic Faith Isaiah, ch. xli, xliv. Psalm cxv. Jerevtiah, x. Old Testament, passim. Lotze, Mik., VII, v. With all contemporary religions, that of Israel stood in marvellous contrast, — spiritual, yet exoteric and pop- ular. Here, by the eighth century B.C., common people are emphatic monotheists, and their faith tolerates no pantheistic or polytheistic phasis.^ Theirs is one God at surface as at basis, a spirit, free from subdivision, sex, or confusion with his universe. Idols cannot help men conceive him. Nature is his work, through crea- tion, not emanation ; its laws, forms of his eternal voli- 56 THE OLD EAST tion. The thunder is his voice, the sunshine his smile, the hail-storm the stroke of his awful rod ; but these never assume independent potency. Jehovah has no second, has no equal. He is personal, moral, knowable. 'Clouds and darkness' are 'round about him,' but * he clothes himself with light,' and 'justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne.' Thus the religion is ethical and optimistic, and contains the germ of a rational doctrine of immortality. ^ 1 That the oldest parts of the Old Testament contain forms of expres- sion indicative of the lingering influence of nature-religion, even increases our wonder at the perfect monotheism of the prophets. Cf. Duhm, Theo- logie der Propheten. * All this in the way indicated at last §, n. 5. § 18 Morality Hegel, Philos. of Hist., 117 sqq., 154 sqq. Flint, do., in France and Germany, Int. Lenortnant, praef. to Hist. anc. I A generic, vital defect in ancient morality was its external, mechanical character. Instead of being cog- nized and obeyed as rational, moral law was viewed as be- ing merely imposed upon the agent by foreign authority.^ Herein Buddhism is no exception, the ' peace ' it pro- claimed having nowise the character of moral Tightness.* 2 Another lack was non-recognition of mankind's unity .^ Hence, {a) caste : in India an iron system, in Egypt less rigid, elsewhere only incipient, {b) terrible cruelty in war and toward slaves and prisoners. In this the Assyrians were the worst. On the contrary, early Buddhism, to which all praise, antagonized this entire spirit of caste and scparatcness. 3 Non-belief in hiunan unity forbade the thought of human progress, which was THE OLD EAST 57 also, like optimism at large, hindered by dimness in the conception of divine unity.* Man perfectible, history purposive, humanity a single thing including all epochs, races, and classes, — such ideas were wholly unknown to paganism, and are due almost solely to the gospel. 4 Antiquity failed to regard the human individual as of independent worth. Hence polygamy, low estimate of woman, infanticide, prodigious slaughter in wars and the oppression and passivity of the multitude. In the old Orient, literature has no word of freedom, life little moral heroism or struggle. 1 Lotze, Mik., VII, v. Max Miiller, Contemp. Rev., November, 1882, defends the Hindoos as truthful, much as has been alleged to the contrary. 2 See C. H. Dall, Unitarian Rev., 1882. 8 Lotze, Mih., VII, iv. The thought of two radically different kinds of men, (pvxLKoi and Trvev/xaTiKoi, which figures so largely in Gnostic and even Christian Alexandrian writings, seems to have been the residuum of Egyp- tian caste-sentiment. * So far as belief in a single Supreme Being was wanting, unity would not be assigned to the world or to mankind; and belief in progress for the genus could not possibly arise while the universe was thought of as mani- fold, or men as constituting various kinds. § 19 Contribution to the West Groie, Pt. 11, ii, HI, xxi. Curtius, I, ii. Zeller, Greek Philos., Int., ch. ii. K. F. Herrmann, Kulturgesch. d. Griechen u. Riinier, 39 sqq. Milckhii/er, Anfdnge d. Kunst in Griechenland. Max Miiller, Contemp. Rev., Oct., 1882. It is obvious that the East must have been to a great extent the instructor of Greece and Rome.^ Such in- fluence would naturally be in the main impalpable, leav- ing no registry in specific institutions. Yet much that is specific can be traced, especially at two periods, the beginning and the close of Greek life. Old Attic reli- gion and social structure show Egyptian traits. The 58 THE OLD EAST Grecian calendar was of Egyptian origin. Pythagoras, Thales, Solon, Democritus and Plato learned of P-gyp- tian priests.^ The earliest Greek coins were Lydian,^ weights and measures Babylonian. The Greeks became acquainted with navigation, also with several of their deities, from the Phoenicians.^ Still another source of their religion was Phrygia, whose language too, greatly resembled Greek. The alphabets of the Greeks and of the Italian peoples originated in the Phoenician, their art in the Assyrian. 'The Assyrian influence spread throughout Asia Minor, the Mediterranean Isles and Greece. The first Greek sculpture received its inspira- tion, precepts and models from the Assyrian school. Through colonists and commerce the same tradition passed from Asia Minor, Phoenicia and Carthage into Italy, where it served as basis for the development of the Etruscan civilization, which furnished to that of Rome the elements of its primitive grandeur.'^ As to the second of the periods named, all later Greek phil- osophy had a distinct oriental cast.^ New-Platonism originated in Alexandria, under Asiatic influence, and was more than a century old before it flourished at Athens. ^ This in no sense compromises Greek originality. ' It is no less a fact of history that the Greeks derived conceptions from India, Syria and Egypt than that the Greek conceptions are peculiar to themselves and those others alien.' — Megel. The greatest mere classical historians slight the East, needing to be corrected by Duncker and Lenormant. At this point Grote can learn from Thirlwall. Thiersch, Epochen d. bildenJen A'tinst untcr den Griechen, l8i6 sqq., argued strongest for ?'g\'ptian and Phfunician inf. on early Greek art; K. O. Miiller, Ilandb. d. Archacologie, strongest against. The text might also mention the historical, geographical, ethnological and other knowledge which came to Greece in conseq. of Alexander's cam- paigns, and so enriches Aristotle's writings. THE OLD EAST 59 ' Democritus and Plato probably visited Egypt; perhaps Pythagoras too, but this is more doubtful. Plato learned much ihere, but his myths rather than his philosophy. Curtius agrees with Grote in somewhat mini- mizing Egyptian influence in Greece, neither one basing aught upon the traditions touching Cecrops and Danaus, or upon the statements of Herod- otus II, identifying Demeter with Isis, and so on. Little as we can im- plicitly trust Herodotus when off the track of his personal explorations, the advance of Egyptology renders most of his representations in this matter increasingly credible. Cf. § 3. For latest criticism of Herodotus, Sayce, pref. to Anc't Empires of East. There was virtual caste in early Athens. — Rawlinson, Man., 120. Athena and Neith were perhaps the same. Notice that Eastern Greece had the earliest and always the richest civilization. 8 Lydia and Persia alone among nations west of the Indus coined money in high antiquity. They applied Babylonian monetary ideas. In the talent of 60 minae and the mina of 60 shekels we see the Babylonian sexagesimal principle. The shekel was, in Greek, the stater or the Daric. The word ' mna ' is of Chaldean origin. Through Pheidon of Argos, who introduced weights and measures in Greece and was the first Greek to coin money, this Asiatic norm of weights and measures passed to Greece, known there as the Eginetan, because the earliest Greek coins were struck in Egina. The Euboean system, prevalent in Athens and the Ionian cities, was made up in the same way as the Eginetan. Both were in use in the Persian Empire, as well as in Greece. Eginetan measures were to Eubcean or old Attic as 6 to 5, to Solon's or later Attic as 5 to 3. — Boeckh, Metrologische Untersuchimgen. Pheidon usurped the presidency of the Olympian games in the 28th Olympiad, not in the 8th, as Pausanias, VI, 22, 2, has till recently been read. He must have flourished about 7cx>-66o B.C. * Aphrodite, Artemis, Poseidon, also Heracles. Melcart, god of Tyre, is Melicertes [Palaemon], deified on the Corinthian Isthmus. He was son of Ino, daughter of Cadmus, the bringer of letters to Greece. ^ Lenormant. Cf. Grote III, xix; Mommsen, I, xv. Thus are to be explained those monuments and that luxury and wealth of the Etruscan cities which so long whetted the fierce greed of the Romans. The very name 'Italy' is probably Phcenician, as is ' Salamis,' founded by Phre- nicians. The Romans learned arching and vaulting from the Etruscans, who probably derived them from Eg>'pt through Phoenicia and Carthage. Mommsen, however, traces them from Italy to Greece. It is generally conceded that Grecian art owed little to Eg}'pt directly, but much more to Assyria. 60 THE OLD EAST * Helping that tendency to mysticism and mythologizing which Groto says, III, xxi, ruined so many speculative minds among the Greeks. Mys- ticism and theosophy were main traits of New-Platonism. The same east- ern influence appeared in the ^Tithras-worship, which pervaded the Roman empire. It was known even in Britain, carried thither by Roman soldiers. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY TO CHAPTER III i Greece: Grote, H. of Greece,** 4th ed. [best] 10 vols., 1872. Cur- tius, do.,* 5 vols. Duncker, H. of Greece,** 4 vols. [Abbott's ir.]. Zeller, Philos. of the Greeks. Ranke, Univ. II., I. Cox, II. of Greece [to consist of 4 vols.]. Felton, Greece Anc. and Mod. Hertzberg [in Oncken], Hellas u. Rom. Mitford and Thirlwall, still good on many topics, ii Rome: Mommsen, II. of Rome** [including Bk. VIII]. Merivale, H. of the Romans under the Emp.** [to Marc Aurelius]. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Rom. Emp.** [These three standard works cover, in the order given, the entire reach of Roman hist.] Ranke, IVcltgesch* Theile II, III, IV. Duruy II. of Rome ** [16 vols., — costly, yet invaluable as a presentation of Roman civilization and life]. Curteis, Rom. Emp. from Theodosius to Charles Great. [Student's Series contains, in single vols., Merivale's Gen. W. of Rome, Liddell's Rome, and Gib- bon.] Sismondi, Hist, de la chute de V empire romain* 2 vols. Thierry [Amedce], Taileau de V empire romain.** Schiller, Gesch. d. r'dm, Kaiserzeit [II is to d. of Diocletian]. Nitzsch, Gesch. d. r'dm. Reptiblik. Peter, Rdmische Gesch., 3 Bde. Cutts, Constantinc the Great. Burck- hardt, Times of do.* Gregorovius, der A'aiser Hadrian. Arnold, Rom. Provincial Administration to Constantinc. Niebuhr, H. of Rome, also his Lectures on do. to Fall of West. Emp. Madvig, Verfassung u. Verwaltung d. r'dm. Staates,* 2 Bde. Marquardt-Mommsen, Rdmische Alterthiimer.** Lange, do. '^iW&ms, Droit puldic roi/iain.* iii CHRIS- TIANITY : Schaff, H. of the Christ. Ch.;* Creeds of Ch't'ndom. Neander, II. of Christ. Relig. and Ch., I, II ; Planting and Training of the Christ. Ch. Merivale, Conversion of the Rom. Emp.** Hase, II. of the Christ. Ch.** Mosheim, Commentaries on the II. of Ch'ty dg. First 325 Vrs.** Mil- man, n. of Latin Ch'ty.** Lea, Studies in Ch. H.* Dale, Synod of Elvira, etc. Smith, The Ch. in Roman (Jaul. Northcote, Roman Cata- combs. Gwatkin, Studies of Arianism. De Broglie, Veglise et V empire romain au iv siecle [from catholic point of view], 6 vols. Rothe, An- fdnge d. christlichen Kirche. Pressens6, Early Years of Ch'ty, 4 vols. Hatch, Organization of the Early Christ. Churches.* Hefele, M. of Coun- cils** [2d. ed. of original, 1873 sqq., 7 vols.]. 'Primers of Christian Literature' [ed. by Prof. Fisher]. Allen, Early Ch'ty. Lecky, II. of European Morals, I. [The latest and ablest Ch. Histories are Gieseler's Lehrbuch, Brieger and Harnack's ed., Kurtz, 9th ed., 3 vols., and Hase's Lectures, 3 vols.] iv Gkm;k.\i.: Freeman, Hist'l Gcog., chaps, ii, iii; ("hief Periods of European II.** Lotze, Mikrokosmus,** Bk. VII. v. Bosworth-Smith, Carthage and the Carthaginians. Convenient vols, have appeared in the Epochs of Anc. H. Ser., also in the Story of the Nations Ser. CHAPTER III THE CLASSICAL PERIOD § I Character of Classical Culture Lotze, Mikrokosmus, VII, v. The civilization sketched in the preceding Chapter seemed fated not to pass a certain grade of develop- ment. For this and other reasons its influence upon modern times, however real, has been, save that of the Jewish religion, indirect and inappreciable. The cul- ture of Greece and Rome, on the other hand, had supreme genius for growth and movement, foreordaining it to en- dure and to rule the future. Through these immortal peoples civilization reached a totally new character : a loftier level, a richer diversity. In particular, Art, Phi- losophy, Administration, Law and Religion assumed during the classical period, forms which almost promised to be final. As cooperating to give character to this new order of ages we may distinguish four groups of elements : Oriental,^ Grecian, Roman, Christian. Bar- ring the German, these are the sole storehouses out of which the modern thought-world hr.s received its stock. ^ For the debt of the classical age to the Orient, see Ch. II, § 19. 64 the classical period § 2 Greece : Exaltation of Mind Freeman, Chief Periods, . sq. Hcgcl, I hilos. of Hist., Pt. II. Schlegel, do., ch. viii Ranke, U'eltgesch., Theil I, vii. ZelUr, Greek Philos., Int. The leading characteristics of the Greeks, their chief glory, lending a wholly matchless excellence to their history and literature as culture-studies, were fearless inquisitiveness and intense devotion to ideals. To them thought was greater than things. Here at length ulti mate being no less than visible nature is regarded know- able. If the world is viewed as constituting an objective and steadfast order, thinking is not awed and dismayed by It as in Asia. Brutes no longer receive worship, either as deities or as symbols of them. The ancient Pelasgi, so early, like the Germans and Persians, adored the su- preme God without images or temples. In Greece, in- dividuality,^ moral life and rtruggle rise into prominence : great statesmen, orators, generals, fine, strong, personal characters, tower above the multitude. No other na- tional career has ever been so brief and brilliant at once. 'Absolute despotism, human sacrifices, polygamy, de- liberate mutilation of the person as a punishment, and the selling of children into slavery, existed in some part or other of the brrbarian world, but are not found in any city of Greece in historical times.' To this noble race belonged the first examples in history, of states at the same time civilized and free.^ Greece prized the individual man, exalting him duly as against nature, if not yet enough as against the state. ' The Greeks like the Gerrpans tended to individualism, the Romans to union. It was their individualistic spirit, become unduly developed, which made Greece the prey, first of Maccdon, then of Rome. Mommscn, Rome. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 6$ I, ch. ii, at end, instructively discusses the differences between the Greek and the Roman nature, so striking in view of the fact that the two peoples were originally one. 2 The 'Eternal Eastern Question,' Europe against Asia: spirit, man, against nature, force, numl^ers, which still agitates the Balkan Peninsula, was, it is not fanciful to say, the subject of the Trojan War. It recurred in the Persian Wars, the Punic Wars, the Crusades, at Eepanto, at Inkerman. Cf. Freeman, as above, Lect. I, and Contemp. Rev., May, 1884. § 3 Organized Intelligence Lotze, as at § I. Adam Smith, Weahh of Nations, V, i. Merivale, ch. xxii. In Greece thought first assumed system, struck deep roots, began to grasp problems with consciousness. ^ At no other time has the human mind come so near the exertion of its supreme energy as in Attica during and just after the age of Pericles.^ Later too, as the politi- cal power of Athens waned, her supremacy in the re- public of letters waxed for centuries more and more per- fect and conspicuous.^ Among the Greeks, general literature, history, oratory, the drama, in a word the world's settled intellectual hfe, had their beginnings. So of systematic education, schools,* etc. : the Romans received these from Greece, and we, through the middle age, from them. Even in Rome's brightest day all her best literature and intellectual activity took their shape and inspiration in great degree from Hellas. Each suc- ceeding age, our own included, has been under a similar debt.^ 1 ' However much knowledge, skill and wisdom, as shown in maxims, earlier nations may have had and employed in the regulation of social relations and in systematic art, the thought of seeking out the very grounds and bases of our judgment of things, and of combining them demonstra- tively and deductively in a system of truths, the foundation, in fact, of science, will forever remain the glory of the Greeks.' — Lotze. 66 THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 2 Aeschylus [525-456], Sophocles [496-405], Euripides [480-406], Aristophanes [444-380], Herodotus [4S4-424], Thucydides [471-39^]. Phidias [490-432], Ictinus, Callicrates, Mnesicles [these three coiitemp. with Pericles], Polygnotus [contcmp. with Phidias], Socrates [469-399], Zeno, Anaxagoras, Protagoras, Plato [429-347]. We prefer still, with Ranke, against Freeman, to latinize Greek names. 3 Thus the early bishops of Rome were for three centuries mainly of Greek extraction. Their church, and most of the other churches in the West were Greek religious colonies, their language, organization, writers, scriptures and liturgy being Greek. — Milman, Lat. Ch'ty, Vol. I, 54. Novatian, about 250, is the first Roman clergyman known to have written in Latin, though possibly Victor, al)out 200, may have done so. * For the propagation of systematic education from the classic to the middle age we owe hardly less to Boethius [470-574] and Cassiodorus [480-575] at the court of Theodoric than to Alcuin and his colleagues at that of Karl the Great. Cf. Ch. V, § 9. 5 ' If their language is dead, yet the literature it enshrines is rammed with life as perhaps no other writing, except Shakespeare's. . . . Oblivion looks in the face of the Grecian Muse only to forget her errand.' — Lowell. § 4 Philosophy Zeller, as at § 2. Ueberiveg, Hist, of Philos., I. Schulze, Philos. der Renaissance. Hefele, Councils, I. This as an orderly discipline owes its very birth to the Greeks, to their daring quest for truth mentioned above. The evolution of Greek metaphysical thinking comprises three movements, (i) the materialistic, T\vaXQ.'i>} Heraclitus, Empedocles, Democritus, (2) the idealistic or Eleatic-Socratic, culminating in Platonism, (3) the Aristotelian, a combination, in a way the reconciliation, of the first two. If in its moral aspect we classify New- Platonism as oriental, Greek ethical philosophizing re- duces to Stoicism and Epicureanism, two antagonistic doctrines still at war to-day. These great schools long outla.stcd Greece. Erom the time of the Antonincs till THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 6^ silenced by Justinian's edict,^ 529, an unbroken line of philosophers : Platonists, Peripatetics, Stoics and Epi- cureans, taught in Athens at public cost. The influ- ence of their doctrines was absorbed rather than de- stroyed by the prevalence of Christianity. Stoicism spread westward, passing into Roman law and Christian life ; Platonism, tinged now with theosophy, loved the East, affecting Christian doctrine and discussion more. Three great conceptions peculiar to Platonism are pres- ent in the Nicene creed.^ In the middle age, Aristotle, as ' the philosopher,' exercised prodigious and incredible influence,* lessened toward the Renaissance by the ris- ing popularity of Plato. Even now, no deep philoso- pheme can be thoroughly handled without recurring to the thoughts of these incomparable masters. 1 Not an accident that Greek materialism had its origin and chief seat in Asia. Cf. § 3. 2 Proclus, 412-483 A.D., lived and taught at Athens. His pupils, Isidorus, Damascius and Simplicius were the last ancient public teachers of heathen philosophy. When Justinian, lusting for the revenues, closed the Athenian schools, they fled to Persia, subsequently returning, but never teaching again. All three died in obscurity. — Gibbon, IV, io8 sqq. ^ Arius used Plato's world-soul as schema for the Logos or second person of the Trinity; Athanasius, Plato's supreme ' Good.' The Sabellian undertone of the creed echoes the attribute-hypostasizing utterances of New-Platonism, so often heard in Philo. Cf. Gibbon, II, 215 sqq.; Bright, Notes on Canons of First Four Geh'l Councils; also Richey, Nicene Creed and the Filioque. The Greek fathers freely referred to Plato as an author- ity on the Trinity, the two natures of Christ and the unity of mankind. Justin Martyr calls Plato a Christian. Athenagoras sees in the doctrines of the philosophers and especially of Plato, the activity of the divine Logos. Augustine admits that the New-Platonists, though without revelation, possess the doctrine of the Trinity. * When the Jesuit, Scheiner, contemporary with Galileo in observing the spots on the sun, made known his discovery to his provincial superior, 68 THE CLASSICAL PERIOD the latter refused to believe in the spots or even to look through the telescope, saying that he had read Aristotle through many times without finding aught like what Scheiner mentioned. This distemper Hcbbes called ' Aristotelity.' — Bisset, Essays on Hist'l Truth, 79. § 5 Art Reber, Hist, of Ancient Art, do. of Medioeval Art. IVoltmann and Woerntann, Hist, of Painting. Overbeck, Gesch. d. grieschischen Plastik. Perrot and Chipiet, Ancient Art. 'Archaeology' in Encyc. Brit. Mitchell, Ancient Sculpture, x-xxxvi. The Greeks surpassed all other peoples in the keen- ness and discipline of their sense of beauty. This was a radical trait, one of those through which they have most influenced subsequent ages. All classical art was essentially Greek, whether originating in Rome, Magna Graecia or Etruria, though early Etruscan betrays marked oriental influence. No proper Roman school or Chris- tian school ever rose.^ Under Augustus, under Ha- drian even, few other than Greek artists wrought, none but Greek models and traditions were followed. While in Painting we have no easel pictures, and from the greatest artists no works whatever, innumerable mosaics, wall decorations, vases, etc.,^ where imitators have end- lessly repeated the old masterpieces, justify the fame of Polygnotus, Zeuxis, Apelles and the rest. Leading characteristics of this old painting were {a) beauty of forms, especially of human, {b) diversity of subject, (f) fineness and grandeur of conception, {d) economy and simplicity of means in producing intended effects, {e) poverty in execution relatively to excellence of con- ception. Doubtless the last is truer of extant speci- mens than of their originals. In the other departments of antique art we are more fortunate, possessing the THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 69 richest variety and number of original specimens, evi- dently from the best, some of them as yet unsurpassed if not absolutely perfect.^ All that Greek Sculpture, in comparison, e.g., with Michel Angelo's, lost in power through negligence of anatomy, it gained in grace by diligent and practised notice of living forms. The great Greek styles of Architectitre, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, have never been superseded or improved. Along with changes in minor elements, the principles, proportions and general form of all fine buildings since, Gothic in- cluded, have reproduced the classic tradition. Even de- parture from the antique in details, taste has twice, at the Renaissance and again at the close of the last cen- tury, emphatically condemned, commanding return to classic models. 1 On the lack of art taste in the Romans proper, Friedlander, Siiiengesch. Roms, Th. II, 103, III, 105 sq. The same author has also a brochure, Ueber den Kunstsinn der R'dmer in der Kaiserzeit, which evoked a reply ■with similar title from K. F. Hermann, defending the Romans. But in Hermann's Kulturgesch. aVr Griechen u. Router, 126 and 154, Roman taste is characterized nearly as unfavorably as by Friedlander. Tacitus, dial, de oratt., c. 10: Ut semel vidit, transit et contenttis est, ut si picturam aliquam statuatnve vidisset. Cf. Cicero, de legg., II, ii, 4. Consul L. Mummius, having conquered Corinth, 14S or 147 B.C., in forwarding the pictures and statues to Rome, told the sailors that if they lost or damaged any, they would have to replace them with others of equal value. The Basilica may be accounted a Roman product. The Arch and Dome, though importations (Ch. II, § 9, n. 5), received development and per- fection at Rome. Nero's new Rome, after the great fire of a.d. 64, was built in the most perfect Greek fashion, as had been, indeed, all the public structures reared since the accession of Augustus.' Cf. Merivale, liii. The Antinous-cycle of representations comes nearer than aught else in plastic art to being of Roman origination. It arose in Hadrian's time. The finest Antinous is in the Capitoline Museum. In all the Christian Sri for cen- turies God and Christ were figured with Apollo's head. On art at Rome, Mitchell, xxxiv-xxxvi. 70 THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 2 Preserved with Pompeii, and elsewhere. The best Pompeian pieces are now in the Naples Museum. ^ Not only in sculpture and architecture, but also in drawing, the Greeks quite equalled the moderns. They did little in music. § 6 Political Ideas Freeman, Comparative Politics; Hist, of Federal Government, I. Lecky, Rationalism in Europe, II, 218 sqq. //i'frfw. Politics of Anc. Greece, ch. ix. hIontesquieu,^yix\X of the Laws. May, Democracy in Europe, I, ii-v. The Greeks are our earliest instructors in politics, with their notions of which they have impressed man- kind in four ways : i Through great statesmen and law- givers. Thus the twelve tables of Roman law and the Servian Constitution ^ were drawn up after study of Grecian models and maxims, ii Through the political writings of philosophers, chief of which, Plato's Repub- lic and Aristotle's Politics.^ iii Through their actual forms of government.^ Greece furnished the types of nearly all the governmental polities which have had place since : i Royalty, {a) the old-Aryan or heroic, of Homeric times, (I?) the more absolute Macedonian, (c) the effete or nominal Spartan. 2 Aristocracy, (a) more oligarchical, Sparta, (/-') more democratic, Athens. 3 Federations, (a) with single supreme head, the Athenian supremacy, the Spartan, the Theban, the Macedonian, — such leagues sometimes free, sometimes forced, (d) on a footing of equality, the Achaean and Aetolian Leagues.^ iv Through the history of the ip- teraction, vicissitudes and destinies of these differently constituted states and confederacies.- Ik'sides these legitimate polities, tyranny showed itself in Greece, now for good, now for evil.^ Evoked in part by this was that zeal for freedom, so strong and general in the Hel- THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 7I lenic race, which burns in the orations of Demosthenes, As individual tyranny fostered this spirit, the tyranny of states over states bred patriotism, not identical with the other sentiment, yet nearer to it then than now, since Antiquity made more of civil than of personal liberty.^ ^ Mommsen, I, 14I, 364. Ortolan's and Heron's doubt as to Greek influence upon the xii Tables seems ill founded. 2 See the pol. writings of Algernon Sidney, Locke and Montesquieu. Hobbes, Leviathan, xxix : ' And as to rebellion, in particular against monarchy, one of the most frequent causes of it is the reading of the books of policy and the histories of the ancient Greeks and Romans.' The tirade continues at some length. ^ Grote, Pt. II, ix. Compare Grote's fervor for Grecian democracy with the coolness of Mitford and Curtius. * Freeman, Fed. Gov't, has the most satisfactory account of these Leagues. Cf. Smith's Greece, ch. xlvi; Thirhvall, Ixi [Achaean], Ixiii [Aetolian] ; Tozer, ' Greece,' sec. ii, in Encyc. Brit. ^ Grote, as at n. 3. Aristotle, Politics, V, i-v. Philip did not think of conquering Greece, as Alexander conquered Persia. He sought merely a Macedonian headship, like that which Epaminondas had procured for Thebes. — Droysen, Gesch. Alexanders, I, i. « Cf. § 9. § 7 Propagation of these Elements Mommsen, Rome, I, x. Freeman, Chief Periods, 13 sqq. Droysen, Gesch. Alex- anders lies Crossen. Groie, xxii sqq. [colonies], xciv [Alexander]. Williams, Life of Alexander the Great. Thirlwall, Iv. Hellenic civilization forced itself upon the world partly by its sheer superiority, by the mental domi- nance,^ natural and acquired, of its bearers, partly by colonization ^ and conquest. The Greeks were adepts in colonization, planting miniature Greek common- wealths on every shore, nearly every island, of the Mediterranean, and on the Euxine, early surpassing in •J2 THE CLASSICAL PERIOD this their teachers and rivals, the Phoenicians. Many of these remote regions equalled the mother land in cul- ture, outdid her in wealth. A still broader and more fruitful dissemination of Greek ideas attended the con- quering march of Alexander.^ The importance of his conquests was even greater than their magnitude would imply. His empire soon crumbled, but the civilization by him introduced remained, and, in Egypt and West Asia at least, effected tremendous changes. The seeds of civilization early sent by these lands to Greece were now paid for in the matured fruit. Asia was hellenized.'* Alexandria long rivalled, then excelled, Athens as a focus of Hellenism. From here, not to speak of other influences, a new Judaism went forth, everywhere pro- foundly modifying the old, providentially preparing for Christianity. Also, at these oriental schools of Greek thought, not at Athens, were trained the great theo- logians, who outlined Christian doctrine for all time. ^ Thus Macedon, Epirus and Acarnania, which even as late as Thucy- dides's time were practically in barbaric rudeness, at length fully assume the Greek spirit and culture. So Rome and Italy fell under Greek influ- ence, and'to an extent the whole empire. With this should be remembered what Greece did \.o save civilization in a trying crisis. 'No enlightened man can think of the battles of Marathon and Salamis without perceiving their important consequence to the race at large.' — Condorcet, quoted by Comte. ''■ Curtius, Die Gr. ah Meisler d. Colonization, Deutsche Rundschau, June, 1883. 3 Grote, xciv, doulitless correctly, denies that this was any part of Alexander's intention. * In this dissemination of Greek culture Islam but carried further the work of the Diadochi. — Kugler, Crusades, 19, the classical period 75 § 8 Rome : Genius and Place in History Schlegtl, Philos. of Hist. Hegel, do., Pt. III. Lotze, as at § i. Freeman, Chid Periods, i-iii; Contemp. Rev., May, 1884. Mommsen, I, ii, iii, v. Milman, vol. vii, 174. Rome forms the centre of European history.^ Built out of older nations and absorbing their civilization — all civilization, whether Greek, Christian or other, could at length be called Roman — it broke up into the vari- ous European states, discharging thither the intellectual stores gathered from its own mighty life and from its incorporation of other commonwealths. In studying the Roman people one is struck by the preponderance in them of moral and practical over theoretical and scien- tific interests.^ Action, achievement, and, as means to these, order, system, law, forms, not attention to ideas or ideals as such, mark the Roman nature.^ Hence the Roman genius for organization, government, discipline, military performance ^ and conquest ; hence the Roman family, army, law, religion, church, the firmly centralized ecclesiastical polity of the middle age, and the domi- nance even till now of legal conceptions in European and American theology.^ 1 'The centre of our studies, the goal of our thoughts, the point to which all paths lead and the point from which all paths start again, is to be found in Rome and her abiding power.' — Freeman. He calls this great truth the ' groundwork of all sound historic teaching,' and continu- ally, though none too often, repeats it. ' He who ends his work in 476 and he who begins his work in 476 can neither of them ever understand in its fulness the abiding life of Rome; neither can fully grasp the depth and power of that truest of all sayings which speaks of Rome as the Eternal City.' As the rise of Rome was central in history, the Second Punic War was central in the rise of Rome. 2 ' Greece lived from hand to mouth, passionately pursuing immediate eijds, while the Romans were guided by a wider view, embracing the 74 THE CLASSICAL PERIOD future. . . . Greece still lives, though without any striking influence on the conditions of our lives, but countless present social and political ar- rangements and a great part of our mental life may be traced back along unbroken tradition to Rome.' — Lotze. 3 Milman, Lat. Ch'ty, Vol. I, 27. Heeren, Pol. Discourses, 118, notices that the peninsula of Italy never gave birth to any theory, either in Roman times or since. On the other hand, as Adam Smith, Wealth of Na., V, i, keenly observed, no state in Greece ever developed law into a science, as did the Romans. * There seems to have been a continuous military tradition as to tactics, strategy, and the whole art of war, from Caesar and Trajan to Napoleon and von Moltke. Far more important among our unnoticed inheritances from Rome is the holding of land in severalty, as propritim, instead of that community-holding which prevailed among our German ancestors and even at primitive Rome itself. 6 Fisher, Discussions in Hist, and Theol., 47 sqq. § 9 Political Universality and Absolutism Freetnan, as at § 8. Thierry, Tableau. Jung, Romanische Landscha/ten d. rom. Reichs. The great eastern empires, caring and doing nothing for subjects, received no loyalty and fell before the first resolute foe. Three battles annihilated Persia. To the Greek states their own subjects were loyal enough, but conquered peoples they did not win. Rome both se- cured from her own citizens a better than Greek patri- otism, and incorporated as well as conquered the world. The necessary unity of the world-empire, and the neces- sary perpetuity of the city of Rome as centre of such empire, became axiomatic ideas, living on, tenacious, in- eradicable, quite through the middle age.^ Thus is to be explained the surprising respect had for Rome by all the barbarians, even in her decline.'^ This result is the more wonderful in that it was not liberty as now con- ceived which Rome bestowed. All ancient states were THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 75 absolute, assuming to dominate every department of in- dividual life, the state regarding itself the end and aim of the individual's existence.^ This idea, advocated by Plato, Sparta relentlessly carried out. Rome too, both in very early times and under the empire, made of citi- zens almost slaves to the state. So widely enforced and so debasing did this condition become in the later years of the old empire, that at length it apparently quenched all wish for a freer civil condition. The no- tion of absolute government became embodied in Roman public law, whence we see it in later times so asserting itself in France, in the mediaeval empire and in the church as to give their main character to whole periods of history.^ 1 Graf, Roma nella niemoria e nelle imaginazione del medio evo [2 v., Turin, 1883]. Cf. Voigt, IViederbelebting d. klassischen Alter tiniins, I, 2, and Dante's De Monarc/iia. TertuUian, so early, had written that Rome would last as long as the world. 2 Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, ch. iii. ' Rome ' ceased to mean a city. It meant the Roman world. Rome stood for civilization. The invaders, Attila excepted, had no wish to destroy. They were awed. Alaric thought the eastern emperor a divinity. Odoacer, at liberty to do so, shrunk from assuming the crown that he had jostled from Romulus Augustulus's head. 8 ' It was not from any consciousness of his individual dignity or of the dignity of humanity that the citizen of the victorious repul)lic repelled in- sult or injury; but to inflict stripes upon him was to insult the majestic city, to put fetters upon his limbs was to bind limbs that ought always to be free for the service of the state.' — Greene, View of American Revolu- tion, 109. Cf. Taine, Contemp. Rev., Oct., 1884, 507 sq. * The reference is especially to the days of Frederic Barbarossa in the empire, and of St. Louis and Philip the Fair in France. The canon law, which made the great popes so bold, was partly a reproduction, partly an imitation, of the civil. See Chaps. V and VI, and Guizot's Essai on the Roman municipal system. "^^ the classical period § 10 The Latin Language Milman, index, 'Latin language." //y John XXIII, who added a third coronet in 141 1. ^ This influence and power were vast long before Ch'ty became the state religion, but greater, of course, after. Thus, when the Donatists appeal to Constantine, he turns the matter over at once to Pope Miltiades. — de Broglie, I, ii. ^ Any bishop condemned by a jirovincial council might appeal to the Roman bishop. If the latter thought a new trial deserved, he referred the case to a council in another province. Sardica [which was not a general council at all] gave him only tliis right to order a new tri.il, not that of final judgment. ^ As Constantine's theory of the church was one with Dante's [§ 15, n. 5], THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 93 Augustine's was the early form of Gregory VII's [Ch. V, § 12]. The state is nothing, save for the church. The emperor must serve the church. If he refuses, he is no better than a great robber. * Represented esp. by Ambrose, 340-397; Jerome, 340-420; and Au- gustine, 354-430. These men repudiated Rome's jural primacy, but by their greatness, coupled with their insistence upon the church's unity and supremacy, they mightily aided Rome in securing such. Intellectually in- dependent, the West felt no lack when the East drew off, and in the West no church could vie with that of Rome for first place. Carthage might have thought of this but for Vandal ravages. Indeed, pressed by the Arian and heathen Teutons, the churches of Gaul, Spain and Africa were fain to crave help from Rome, instead of defying her. And by this time Rome meant the church of Rome. Cf. Chapter IV, § 19. § 19 Theological Controversy Milman, bks. i-iii. Gibbon, xx, xxi, xlvii. Sheldon, Hist, of Christian Doctrine. Hagenbach, do. Shedd, do. Meander, Church Hist., II. In no way more than through this has the early church shaped modern thinking. The head subjects of difference were three, mainly affecting, the first two the West, the third the East : i Grace and Free-will. Pelagius declared man's will free after, Augustine, en- slaved through, Adam's fall. Pelagius thought grace only an aid to, Augustine, the cause of, all holy human volition. Augustine was victorious at the time though final orthodoxy much modified his views, ii The A^a- ture of the CImrch. I The Novatianists mercilessly ex- cluded penitent lapsi} 2 The Donatists, an African sect, conditioned valid priestly functioning upon per- sonal worthiness in the priest. They waged against the catholics a long, truceless and bloody war. iii TJie Nature of Christ, i WitJiin himself. Nestorius, sharp- ly sundering human from divine, gave Christ a double personality. P2utychcs and the Monophysites,^ the lat- 94 THE CLASSICAL PERIOD ter a sect long powerful in the East, went to the oppo- site extreme, losing his humanity in his divinity. 2 In relation to the Father. Alotiarchiaiiism was a professed special defence of God's unity, having many variant phases, all of which agreed in the subordination of the Son.^ Substantially the same heresy though far more definite, earnest and influential, shaking Christendom to its base, was Arianisvi, esteeming Christ a creature, yet in virtue of his higher nature, superhuman, creator of the world and worthy of divine worship. The con- trary view, making Christ's higher nature eternal, un- create and in the fullest sense divine, entered the creed at Nicaea, 325, yet like Athanasius its indomitable de- fender, had to wait and fight long for general recogni- tion as from God.* ^ Those, that is, who had in some way made terms with the persecuting authorities, as by surrendering the sacred scriptures, burning incense to the emperor, or sacrificing to the heathen gods. Cf. § 15, n. 8. Novatian was a presbyter at Rome, whence his doctrine spread to all parts of the church. Novatianists refused communion with catholic Christians, and rebaptized converts from them. Severe as they were they did not deny to the lapsed hope of mercy in another life. Substantially the same idea of the true church as a holy community [wa^apoi] inspired the Donatists. The catholic party, on the other hand, took a broad church attitude. ■^ Eutyches was condemned by the Council of Chalcedon, 451. His followers were especially numerous in Egypt. They were wont to call Mary the mother of God, and to say that God suffered on the cross [patri- passianism]. This shocked Nestorius as veritable heathenism. Cyril of Alexandria took up arms against Nestorius, virtually denying Christ's human nature. He won the Roman bishop by making Nestorius's view appear Pelagian. Monothelitism in the 7th century, teaching that Christ possessed two natures but only a single will, was an attempt to mediate in this controversy. ^ Sabellianisni was the most pojiular form of this heresy. Advocates of fiofopx'a, or the singleness of the divine essence, admitted the divinity and uncre.itedncss of Christ's higher nature, but denied its separate personality befi.re his human birth. THE CLASSICAL PERIOD 95 * For a century and more it was doubtful whether Arianism would not become accepted as orthodoxy. Several emperors were Arians. The tragic story of * AthanasiHS contra mundnm ' may be read in any of the Church Histories. Cf. J. H. Newman, Arians of the 4th Century. § 20 Other Influence of the Church Gibbon, as at § 19. Lea [Studies in Ch. Hist.], ' Benefit of Clergy,' ' Rise of Temporal Power,' and ' Excommunication.' Milman, III, v. Highly noteworthy was the church's function in (i) producing great men/ (2) importing monachism,^ (3) enforcing clerical celibacy,^ (4) enacting creeds and discipline,* (5) perpetuating elements of heathenism.^ Further, the church assumed momentous relations with the empire. It drew emperors into its quarrels, invok- ing the civil arm against heretics, thus painfully sub- jecting itself to the secular power. Emperors listened to appeals from bishops' courts, held councils, at which they or their delegates presided, and gave to conciliar decrees the force of imperial laws. Imperial influence in deciding what was orthodoxy, and in appointing to ecclesiastical offices induced, especially in the East, great servility in the higher clergy. In return church invaded state. The right of asylum passed from a few temples to all churches, dreadfully interfering with jus- tice. The clergy as a class became by far the strongest power in the empire. They could discipline exalted wrong-doers who defied civil process. They regulated legislation and practice in respect to marriage, divorce and bequests. No civil court could try a clerk.^ The bishop everywhere administered the wealth, often im- mense, of his church, practically as if his own. In the new kingdoms he was the superior, associate and ad- g6 THE CLASSICAL PERIOD viser of the victors, the advocate and friend of the van- quished. As defensor, a civil officer, he stood for Rome long after all other visible elements of the old society had vanished. This double character made him incal- culably influential in conserving Roman laws and cus- toms during their stormy passage into the life of the new states of the West. ^ Ecclesiastical promotion took the place of secular as an object of ambition. Besides Ambrose, Jerome and Augustine, those living wholly or partly in the 5th century alone would make a long list. Chrysostom, Innocent I, Pelagius, Nestorius, Leo I, Gregory of Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa and Hilary were all extraordinary men. 2 Gibbon, ch. xxxvii, gives an excellent account. Cf. Milman, III, iv. For an exhaustive treatment of Monasticism, Montalembert, Monks of the West, 7 vols. 3 See Ch. V, the contest for this on the part of Ilildebrand. He probably had the laity on his side. Clerical opposition was in some localities overborne in Hildebrand's favor by public opinion. — Frcitag, Bilder aus d. d. Vergangenheit, I, 519; Lea, Sacerdotal Celibacy. * Creeds mostly grew up in the East; discipline and organization were the care of the West. Few now have any notion of the extent to which Roman ecclesiastical organization abides even in the most ultra-Protestant churches of to-day. ^ Priests sometimes called flamens, heathen festivals turned into Chris- tian, incense burned and votive offerings made in churches, etc. See Fisher, Discussions in Hist, and Theol., 34 sqq.; Milman, III, i. So the papacy itself. ' If a man consider the original of this great ecclesiastical dominion, he will easily perceive that the papacy is no other than the ghost of the deceased Roman Empire, sitting crowned upon the grave thereof.' — Hobbes, Leviathan, pt. iv, xlvii. ^ Purely ecclesiastical causes, of course, came before l)ish()ps' courts alone. Clergymen took civil litigations to bishops' court as a regular thing (irst under Justinian. In criminal cases clerks were held to appear in the civil court, until Valentinian III, 452, gave the plaintiff option between civil and ecclesiastical. Justinian sent certain clerical cases to each. Heraclius, 623, closed civil courts to clergymen altogether. Pishops were of course responsible to emi)erors, yet rarely was one condemned without the 'guilty' of a council. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY TO CHAPTER IV Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, lo Books. Gibbon, De- cline and Fall.** Milman, Latin Christianity.** Hodgkin, Italy & Her Invaders,** 2 v. Sheppard, Fall of Rome and Rise of New Nation- alities** [much the best single vol. on the suhj.]. Bryce, Holy Roman Empire, i, ii. Kingsley, Roman &Teuton. Dahn [in Oncken], Urgeschich. d. i^'frmanischen u. roinanischen V'olker, 2 v. Smyth, Lect. on Mod. IL, I. Guizot, \\. of Civilization in France,** I-III; do. in Europe ; Essais sur Phist. de France* [1823]. Duruy, Moyen Age* Liv. I. Stille, Studies in Mediaev. H.,* i, ii. Ozanam, H. of Civilization in Vth Cent.,* 2 v. de Coulanges, Institutions polit. de I'ancienne France,** Pt. I. Leo, Gesch. d. Mittelalters, I. Kaufmann, Deutsche Gesch.,** 2 v. Lecky, European Morals, 2 v. Sartorius, Italic sous les Goths. Fauriel, Hist, de la Gaule vieridionale. Montesquieu, Grandeur & Declension of Rom. Emp. Late Rome. — Mommsen, IL of Rome, Bk. VIII. Hertzberg [in Oncken], Gesch. d. rdmischen Kaiserzeit ;* Gesch. Griechenlands unter d. Herrsch. d. Roiner,* 3 v.; Gesch- der Byzantiner u. d. osmanischen Reiches.* Ranke, Weltgesch.,* Th. IV. Thierry [Am.], Hist, roinaine aux iv et v Si^cles;* Tableau de Vcmp. roin., Liv. vi. The Early Germans. — Tacitus, Germania.** Arnold, Ansiedelun- gen u. Wander ungen deutscher Sldtnme ; Deutsche i'rzeit;* Fr'dnkische Zeit, i, ii. Stubbs, Constl. II. of Eng., i-iii [excellent brief account]. Nitzsch, Gesch. d. d. Volkes,* I. v. Sybel, Entstehuiig d. d. Koiiigthums.* Waitz, D. I'erfassungsgesch,** I. Sohm, .lltdeulsche Keichs- u. Gcrichtsv'- fassung,** I. Wietersheim, Vdlkcr-coauderungoi, 2 v. [Dahn's ed., 1881, is best. See at eiui of vol. ii for an invaluable and nearly exhaustive list of the authorities for this Chapter, both original and secondary]. Lewis, H. of Germany. Dahn, Konige d. Gernianen ; Fclicitas [the latter a novel]. Ozanam, Les Ger mains avant le Christianisine.* V. Maurer, Gesch. d. Ma rkenverfassung ; Dorfverfassung [2 v.] ; Staedte- verfassuiig [4 v.]. Ross, Early II. of Land-holding among the Germans. Giesebrecht, Gesch. d. deutschen A'aiscrzcit, Bk. I. Church, Beg. of Mid. Ages [I:j). of IL Scr.]. 'The Conversion of the West'* [5 v., Soc. for Prom. Chtn. Knowl.]. Martin, //. «a«, IV, ix-xi. SiiVU, iii. Duruy, \, v. Ar>io//iissi used the simple and direct methods of securing justice prevalent in the king's personal court, of which in fact they were an extension, while ii) in the local courts themselves certain select-men, called scabini, were appointed judges, whose official duty it was always to be present at the stated assizes. They supplanted for judicial purposes the popular local assemblies, which, though still appointed to meet three times a year, were in something the same desuetude as the national. § 4 His Relations with the Church Bryce, ch. v. Milman, V, i. Guizot, xxvii. Nitzsch, as at § 2. Lehuirou, chaps, ix, X. Karl was pope as well as emperor.^ His policy was to reform the church and to unify it around Rome as centre, yet keeping it, including the pope as its supreme official, subject to himself. Full of theocratic ideas and lacking clear conception of the state as possessing legiti- mate function independently of the church, he still as- signed to the state the higher place. The state he con- sidered bound to further the ends of the church — thus OF THE WEST I4I each of Karl's campaigns was a crusade — yet church property and office were to be administered as belonging to the state. Karl considered his care as well the doc- trine and life of the clergy as external ecclesiastical affairs. He exhorts the pope to a godly walk, opposes him in doctrinal matters, provides for no appeal to him even by ecclesiastics, takes the responsibility against him of placing ^ filioqiie ' ^ in the creed. He forces both incumbent and intending clergy to diligent study, pro- vides for preaching in the vernacular,'^ insists that even the laity know the paternoster^ and the creed and un- derstand the main Christian doctrines.^ He improved the discipline and efficiency of monasteries and had some success in subordinating them to the bishops. In a word, Karl faithfully set forward the unfinished task of Boniface. This even more than he wished or was aware. The church seemed docile, yet its conviction of its relation to the state, so different from Karl's, was already a part of its life, and the new forces wherewith his efforts had quickened it, it was destined to employ to the full in realizing that conception at the expense of his.^ ^ He was in his time more or less seriously called ' episcopus episcopo- rum,' the title which TertuUian was the first to apply to the bishop of Rome. Einhard adverts to Karl's assiduous perusal of Augustine's City of God. 2 See Ch. IV, § 19, n. 2, Bryce, 64; Milman, vol. ii, 500; Richey, Nicene Creed and the Filioque. ^ Karl's time was a great epoch in the history of preaching. Every bishop was to have a number of sermons translated from the distinguished fathers into the language of the people, to be preached as postils by the ignorant priests. * Under penalty of whipping. But as enforcement had to be left to church authorities, this part of the law amounted to little. Bishops could 142 THE MEDI/EVAL ROMAN EMPIRE for certain offences inflict stripes on their clergy. Karl also enacted a law against work on Sunday. ' The emperor must have had in all this a genuinely Christian aim. He ordered his missi to ask bishops and abbots exactly what they meant by renouncing the world, and by what signs they told him who renounced from him who did not. ' Is it that he does not bear arms and is not pul)licly married? Does he renounce the world who toils each day, no matter by what means, to increase his possessions, now promising the beatitudes of heaven, now threatening the pains of hell?' Cf. the oath [Bryce, 65] which Karl made all his subjects swear to him after his crown- ing as emperor. In painful contrast with this healthy spirit is Einhard's recital of the ike/i! by his servants, of the bones and dust of two saints, Marcellinus and Peter Martyr, in Rome. The servants, themselves in holy orders, after fasting and prayer for divine aid, burglariously enter the sacred tomb, break open the great stone coffin, snatch the strange plunder and away acros.i the Alps. It was in 827. Einhard, directed by a vision, bestowed the reliques at Muhlheim, whose name thence became changed into Seligenstadt. ^ Cf. §§12 sqq.; Milman, vol. ii, 484 sqq., 507 sqq. Thus we see the pseudo-Isidorian decretals taking form soon after Karl's decease. — Milman, vol. iii, 58 sqq. Ranke, Weltgesch. VII, ch. v, is on these de- cretals. They contain pieces as old as the ist century, and increase grad- ually in number, till by the middle of the 9th nearly the whole body is present, though there are additions after this. The leading ideas are purity of life in clergy, supremacy of church over state. Their genuine- ness was suspected only from the 14th century and disproved early in the 1 6th by their numberless anachronisms. § 5 His Aid to Culture and Letters Cuizoi, xxii, xxiii. Mitllinger, Schools of Charles Great. Einhard, as at § 2. Mon, nier, Alcuin. Loreitz, Lebcn Alcuins. Milmaii, vol. ii, 508 sq. Hallam, Lit. o1 Europe, I, i. Wattenbach, Geichichisguellen, I, 105 sqq. Himself scarcely able to write, the emperor was cause of a most powerful impulse to the intellectual life of his time. The studies which Italy and England had in the seventh and eighth centuries preserved from an earlier age and themselves sedulously pursued, which Colum- OF THE WEST I43 ban and Boniface had introduced in France and Ger- many, he helped to a vigorous Hfe and influence, re- garding effort of this kind his duty to both people and church. The spirit of York and Monte Casino filled the Frankish cloisters. Savans from every land were called to court, as Einhard, Paulus Diaconus, Alcuin of York, Peter of Pisa. The court school,^ directed by Alcuin and attended by Karl with his children, became a centre of letters for the realm, its pupils, made abbots and bishops, founding copies of it everywhere. Text- books were composed, classics and fathers translated, annotated, learned by heart. For the times, culture was not narrow. Einhard was historian, literator, architect. History, poetry,^ astronomy and theology were ardently cultivated. On multitudes of questions, especially in theology and ethics, earnest discussions were had, formal treatises composed. Many studied critically, thought deeply. Scotus Erigena and Gottschalk^ were born of Karl's age. In this intellectual movement the great monarch participated personally. The healthy reaction in favor of classical study, though originally due to English influence, he earnestly patronized. In two points his interposition was positive and direct, viz., in aid (i) toward rendering German a literary speech,* {2) toward deepening and intensifying in the Germans the conceptions of the Christian religion. 1 This is a great epoch in the history of education also. Karl's daughters as well as his sons attended the schola palatina, all pursuing the same studies. 2 Much of the poetry is rhyme, jmtting it almost beyond doubt that rhyme was not of Moorish or Arabian origin. Hallam [Lit. of Eur., vol. i, 32] thinks Muratori, Gray and Turner have proved that rHu^^d Latin verse was in use from the end of the 4th century. 144 THE MEDIiEVAL ROMAN EMPIRE ^ John Scotus Erigena lived in the 9th century, and was the chief in- tellectual light of the miildle age. He knew Greek, placed reason above authority, and taught a philosophy verging toward pantheism. Though a Briton he passed most of his active life at the court of Charles the Bald, dying about 880. Gottschalk was also a 9th century light, dying in 868. His fame rests upon his advocacy, costing him his life, of the predestina- tion-doctrine taught by St. Augustine [Ch. HI, § 19]- In one point he went beyond Augustine, viz., in teaching predestination to damnation as well as to salvation. On both these men, Guizot, xxviii, xxix. * He made the first attempt at a German grammar, gave German names to the winds and months and collected those old German hero-songs, ' which, having passed through the Latin verse of the monks, came forth at length as the Nibelungen and the Heldenbuch.' For Karl's influence in germanizing religious thought, see last §. For the aiytbs concerning him, Bulfinch, Legends of Charlemagne. Reckoning from the Christian era now begins, also the opening of the year at Christmas instead of March i, which had been the custom of the Franks. January I did not begin the year till the i6th century. § 6 The Empire after Karl Guizot, xxiv. Bryce, passim Giesebrecht, bks. iii-v. Schulte, Anhang IV. Nitzsch, bd. i, 226 to end. The empire thus renewed became an mtegral part of the world's order, lasting nominally at least, till 1806, and through its fortunes lending main content and in- terest to European history for many centuries, till it was obscured by the growth of kingdoms within its own bosom and outlying. Notice five periods . i The Caro- Ihigian-Italian, to Otho the Great, 962.^ Marked de- pression supervenes, the empire surrendermg its vigor, almost its life. ii The Saxaji-Franconia?/., to Henry ^ IV, 1056. Renewal comes. The emperor's supremacy over the pope is asserted, admitted anci maintained. The new prosperity continued long : Henry HI, 1039- '56, saw the empire at its loftiest eminence, iii The OF THE WEST I45 Hohensta7ifcn, to the Interregnum of 1254- '73. The supremacy spoken of is asserted but not admitted or maintained.^ Here fall the crusades, also the terrible struggles of Henry IV, Frederic I and II with the papacy, which now, under Hildebrand and Innocent III, puts in practice those absolutist principles which have been developing since Augustine and Leo the Great, iv The Earlier-Hapsbiirg, to the Reformation, 1520. The emperor is fully subject to the pope, yet still possessing considerable though declining power. To this decline the Renaissance greatly contributed. V TJie Latcr-Hapsbnrg,'^ to Francis II's abdication, 1806. The empire is much of this time little more than a name. 1 This is the date of his coronation as emperor. He became king in 936. V. Sybel connects this terrible anarchy with the then universal belief that the end of the world would come about the year 1000. On this period, see § 7. "^ We end the period here, with Henry HI, as a natural turning-point, but of course Henry IV and Henry V also belonged to the great Franco- nian or Salian house, Conrad HI, 1138-1152, being the first Hohenstaufen or Swabian emperor. Frederic I, the Barbarossa, was Conrad's nephew. ^ It came nearest to being maintained under Frederic I, ii52-'90, but even he had to recede. See § i8. * After the Great Interregnum, all the emperors were of the Hapsburg house except Henry VII [Bavaria] and Francis I [Lorraine], husband of Maria Theresa. Joseph II and Leopold II, their sons, and Francis II, their grandson, are to be sure usually reckoned to the house of Lorraine, buv were, through Maria Theresa, of Hapsburg blood. 140 the mediaeval roman empire § 7 Otho the Great Bryce,v\,ix. MiimaH,y, esp. xi. Secreian, Feodah'ii', go sq. Prutz,\, 11. Ranke, lFeii£-esc/i., Yl, ch. xv. Lekuerou, ch. xi. Powerfully as Karl the Great's reign has affected all political evolution since,^ the age immediately following his was one of deplorable reaction, of anarchy worse than that to which he had succeeded in setting term, a profound night, wherein, though present, the princi- ples of order for a moment realized by him eluded men's grasp and gaze. None of his successors were his peers, the earliest the least so. Henry the Fowler, 919-36, was the first to remind of him. Europe now in the utmost political distraction : West Francia permanently separate from East,^ neither one a unity even by itself, onsets by Saracens, Avars and Normans so incessant and terrific that the empire hardly survives. Several German kings forego the imperial dignity, still a larger number disgrace it. Henry the Fowler having brought a good degree of order to the German kingdom, his greater son, Otho, 936-'73, not only completes this work but crosses the Alps to claim and receive the Caesars' crown, 962. In effect Otho created the empire anew as truly as Karl, though his act was far less decisive theoretically. Constitutionally considered his empire only continued Karl's, whose programme Otho exactly pursued in all its main features : conquest, enforce- ment of order, mastery and direction of the church. The papacy, grown weak and base,^ he dominated and purified. 1 The ideal which Karl had realized for an instant never completely passed from view. The formal unity uf the political world was not kept OF THE WEST 147 up, that of the ecclesiastical lost much of its perfection. Yet but for the immortal Carolingian, without that half-century of glory and relative order which he gave to the West, and of which the living memory was always retained, who can say whether Europe and the whole world with it would not have been re-entombed in that savage state, defying history and the negation of civilization, which for six or seven centuiis after the lapse of old Rome continually seemed about to begin? — Secretan. 2 West Francia was France, East Francia Germany. They had been tending apart ever since the treaty of Verdun, 843. Only for the years 884-'7 Charles the Fat, son of Louis the German, grandson of Louis the Pious and great-grandson of Karl Great, united all the old Frankish empire under his rule. The Diet of Tribur, 887, deposed him as faineant. The midland between the central part of the Lotharingia laid out at Verdun, nearly coinciding with the Elsass-Lothringen of to- day, has lieen an object of contention between France and Germany ever since. Elsass-Lothringen forms now a single ' Reichsland^ not Reichs- lande [still less ReiiJislanJei', as Bryce writes — bad German as well as mistaken political geography]. ^ Le., during the times of Popes Sergius and John X, when the pros- titutes Theodora and her two daughters, Theodora and Marozia, disposed of Civc- papal cap [not tiara till 1048] as they listed. — Milman, vol iii, 158 sqq. § 8 The Empire and the German Kingdom Bryce, viii, xii ; ibid. 452 sqq. ScJiulte, 201 sqq. Waitz, III, 221 sqq. Through precedent coupled with the prestige and power of German kings, not otherwise, the Roman em- pire from the imperial coronation of Otho the Great, 962, became attached to, almost identified with, the German kingdom. The kings as such came to be styled kings of the Romans, the empire a German empire,^ the latter the more naturally as the empire remained longest effi- cient in Germany. That the emperor should be a Ger- man king was from this date thought constitutionally necessary,^ though several earlier emperors had lacked this character. The relation between empire and king- 148 THE MEDI.EVAL ROMAN EMPIRE dom was never exactly determined, for many centu- ries scarcely considered. Imperial sovereignty and the king's feudal sovereignty, so different in nature, hence reacted upon and greatly modified each other, producing among others these weighty consequences : i The Ro- man law became law for the German land. 2 The em- pire remained elective. The rise of the electoral college is obscure. The earliest German kings were, we have seen, chosen in popular assembly. By degrees the number fell off, only the foremost imperial vassals at length remaining. The Golden Bull ^ of Emperor Charles IV, 1356, limited membership in the college to the Archbishops of Mayence, Treves and Cologne,* with the Duke of Saxony, Margrave of Brandenburg, King of Bohemia and Count Palatine of the Rhine.^ 3 The Ger- man king, often absent, always distracted with imperial cares, gradually became unable to assert himself as king. His subalterns, as princes, dukes, electors, some of them at length as kings, waxed independent, while his royal office waned to a shadow. The same suffered also from the humiliation of the imperial power by the popes. 1 But this was never its proper title. Strictly it was the Roman or Holy Roman Empire. Although Francis 11, in abdicating its throne, called the old empire the German Empire, strictly there was never a 'German Empire' or a 'German Emperor ' till 1871. Now both exist. Coins of Erederic I [e.g.] bear the legend, Frederic DEI Gra Rumanor. Impertor Augs. 2 Apostolica sedes ilium in imperatorem Jebeat coronare qui rite fuerit coronalus in regent, wrote Innocent III. But one could be chosen king, and so emperor, who was not a German, as Richard, Earl of Corn- wall, and Alphonso of Castile [§ 20, n. 3]. 8 An edict, called ' bull ' from the bulla or seal upon it, composed in this case of gold. OF THE WEST I49 * In German, Mainz, Trier and Koln. These prelates were imperial chancellors for Germany, Burgundy and Italy respectively. The bull made the first the convener of the college and Frankfort instead of Aix-la- Chapelle [Aachen] the place of meeting, which it remained henceforth. Duruy, 507 sqq., has a fine brief account of this bull. ^ Saxony also held the honorary office of Marshal, Brandenburg that of Chamberlain, Bohemia that of Cup-bearer, the Palatinate that of Seneschal. The college in its oldest form had the mere right of praetaxation or official nomination On this, Bryce, 229 sqq.; Harnack, (/. Kwfiirsten- koll. bis zur Mitte d. xiv Jahrh., and Quidde, Entslehung d. Kitrfiirsten- kollegiutns. By this bull the duke and the count were to be regents in case of interregnum. The Palatinate lost its electorship by its revolt from the emperor in the Thirty Years' War [Ch. IX], the honor passing to Bavaria. The peace of Westphalia renewed it for the Palatinate, thus increasing the number of electors to eight. In 1692 the Duke of Hannover was made a ninth elector. The number fell to eight again in 1777, when, by the extinction of the Bavarian line, the Palatine countship and the dukeship of Bavana became again united in one man as they had been under Ludwig I and Otho II, the Illustrious, of the great Wittelsbach house. Otho I, von Wittelsbach, was invested with the duchy of Bavaria in 1 1 83 by Frederic Barbarossa, when it escheated to the empire through the treason of Henr)' the Lion. Ludwig I, son, succeeded Otho I in Bavaria in 1231, having already possessed the Palatinate since 1214, when he received it from. Emperor Frederic II. Otho the Illustrious, dying in 1253, left the Palatinate, with the electorship, to his elder son, Ludwig the Severe, [Lower] Bavaria to his younger, Henry. From this time till the Diet of Regensburg, 1623, no electorate attaches to Bavaria. — Weber, Wellgesch., I, 833. § 9 The Extent of the Empire Bryce, ch. xii, and Appendix C. Schulte, Anhang\. The jurisdiction of the empire had, at any given time, different degrees, and each of these varied with periods. The great emperors like their Roman predecessors, em- phasizing theory but falsifying fact, called themselves lords of the world. ^ Parts of Frisia [Holland] and Switz- erland, nominally in the empire, were always as good 150 THE MEDIiliVAL ROMAN EMPIRE as independent. Otho the Great lost Ncustria, gained by conquests to the north and east. The emperor was efficient sovereign only in Germany, which, however, included Elsass-Lothringen and part of Flanders. Bur- gundy, though an imperial land,'-^ was much more inde- pendent. After Frederic Barbarossa, owing to the growth of vassals' power, some portion of Germany itself was nearly always in revolt. Lower Italy held to the East till the Norman Conquest,^ ioi6-'57. After this though claimed by the empire it never properly forms part thereof. The kingdom of Lombardy, over which he was in theory king as well as emperor, obeyed the emperor only as compelled, which, through the strength of its cities and the support of the popes, it could rarely be.'* Besides the lands mentioned, there were : i Vassal principalities outside the German king- dom, as Denmark, Hungary and Poland, acknowledging the emperor's sovereignty over them and, save when judging it safe to refuse, furnishing troops and tribute. 2 Principalities strictly sovereign and independent, as Spain and England, recognizing the emperor's superi- ority, yet only in comity. That such were regarded as in some sense members of the empire is shown by the occasional election of emperors from them.^ 3 Princi- palities such as Iceland, Lithuania, Venice and the eastern empire which declined even this. France may be said to have passed on the death of Otho I,*^ from the first of these classes to the second, as did, later, the states into which Germany itself broke up.'^ ' Karl Great spoke of himself as ' ruling the kingdoms of the earth,' Frederic I of himself as 'lord of the world.' The Emperor Sigismund on his death-bed gave command that his l)ody sliould lie some days in state OF THE WEST I5I ^to assure all men that the lord of the whole world was dead.' The elec- tors told Frederic III : ' We have chosen your grace as head protector and governor of all Christendom.' "^ Bryce, 455. Notice that the kingship of Italy or Lombardy was as different as possible from the imperatorship, and that ' King of the Romans,' first applied by Henry III to his son, Henry IV, meant simply ' King Elect,' being a title analogous to ' Prince of Wales,' or ' Prince of Asturias,' except dependence on election. A ' king of the Romans ' on his predecessor's decease immediately succeeded to the German throne without new election or coronation. To avoid the journey to Rome to receive the imperial crown Maximilian I, 1493-15 19, obtained the pope's permission to use still another title, that of ' Emperor Elect,' so as to begin functioning as emperor at once upon succeeding to kingship. Ferdinand I, l556-'64, and his successors assumed this style as of right, no emperor after Frederic III, i440-'93, ever being crowned at Rome, though Charles V, '5'9~'5^' ^^'^^ crowned emperor at Bologna. ^ For the conquest of southern Italy by the Normans and the manner of its subjection to the pope, Duruy, 262 sqq,; Raumer, Hohenstaufen, I, Beilage i; Weber, Weltgesch., I, 609 sqq.; Palomes, Storia de li Nor- manni in Sicilia [Palermo, 1883]; Delarc, Les Normands en Italie 1883]. On its relation to the empire, §§ 19, 20. 4 See §§ 17-20. 5 See last §, n. 2; Bryce, 143. ^ This Otho, the Great, was the last emperor to whom France ever acknowledged allegiance. "^ The parallel between these and France is not perfect, in that they, although at length in effect sovereign, always acknowledged a species of subordination to the empire, which France did not. § 10 The Dukes Schtdte, 185 sqq, 144-287. Secretan, Feodalite, 144 sqq. The rise of subordinate states, threatening and finally annulling the consequence of the empire, due partly to dukes' exercise of patronage, partly to their wealth, partly to royal favor, begins with the re-exaltation of the ducal office,^ soon after Karl the Great's death. In Germany the new duchies assume a quasi-national char- 152 THE MEDIiEVAL ROMAN EMPIRE acter, including and dominating each its group of coun« ties. Properly and usually, yV/r/V^/V//^^ did not belong to dukes as dukes but to the counts, who, in their char- acter as judges, held directly from the king. Yet a duke would often have ' rights of count over several of his counties. Till Frederic I, Barbnrossa, 1152-90, there are nine regular duchies, of which Saxony, Bava- ria, Swabia, Franconia and Lotharingia, the most im- portant, betray in many respects the marks of separate states. Dukes (i) succeed to the functions of missi dominici yet without being at any time mere officers, (2) become hereditary, (3) appear as incipient kingSj ruling 'by God's grace,' ^ commanding the Heerbann, collecting royal revenues, holding highest courts, also diets which all the inferior dignitaries attend. Mar- graves, counts palatine and simple courts also became hereditary, and after the second reduction of the ducal power under the Hohenstaufen, more and more inde- pendent.* The other Filrstcn : the landgraves, Frcihcr- rc7i, archbishops, bishops and prince-abbots, followed the same upward course. All came in time to possess county, ducal and regalian ^ rights and the right of hav- ing lords as their vassals. Old exemptions ^ relating to their territories were removed, new ones forbidden, supreme jurisdiction allowed them, dwellers upon their territory as such, made their subjects. ^ Duruy, 214 sq., also § 3, above, and Sickel, IVesen d. Volksherzog- thums, in v. Sybel's Zeitschrift, 1884, I left 6. ■^ Here used in the technical sense of the Roman law, meaning the right to deliver formal judicial sentences. 8 This was then, as it is now, the usual phrase to denote sovereignty. When the Fursten [n. 3] were confessed to be rulers 'by God's grace,' the tmpire had become a mere presidency over sovereign states, which in all OF THE WEST 153 its later years it was. Some assumed this style before others, those, i.e., farthest from the royal seat and power. * A Furst was any vassal holding his estates, with right of Heerbann and of count, immediately from the emperor. In Latin he was named princeps, in French, prince, yet neither word has the definiteness of ' Fiirst^ since both, like our word * prince^ answer to the German 'Prinz,^ as well as to Fiirst. So 'Furst Bismarck,^ but ' the Kronprinz? Weaken- ing of the dukes gave the inferior FUrsten all the freer scope to rise, and some of these became quite as hostile to the central power as the great dukes had been. On the humiliation of the dukes, see § i8. ^ I.e., royal rights, chief among which were coining money and levy- ing tolls. ^ Estates within duchies, margraviats, or count-districts, which had been given in fief to favorites of the emperor and made independent of the surrounding jurisdiction. Some of these were secular, others ecclesias- tical. Sometimes a princeling of this sort would be subject to duke but independent of count. The Franconian emperors made such exemptions, especially the ecclesiastical, systematically, to weaken their great feuda- tories. — Duruy, 272. § II The Counts Same auth. as at last §. ' Count ' or ' Graf ' was originally a generic name for royal office. Karl the Great had counts palatine, counts of marches, travelling counts.^ By a more special, also early, application already noticed,^ the word signified the head of a district or canton,^ an officer charged primarily with jurisdiction but also with military com- mand. In the long evolution of the office, especially in the dissipation through exemptions ecclesiastical and other, of the cantonal system of administration, varie- ties of counts became still more numerous. The change exalted some of them but depressed the most. The palatinate was in nearly all cases lost in other dignities, although the Count Palatine of the Rhine became the first lay dignitary in the empire and an imperial vicar.* 154 THE MEDI/EVAL ROMAN EMPIRE Margraves maintained their early rank, about ducal, those of Austria and Brandenburg even surpassed the ducal rank. Landgraves were counts in the interior of the empire, with the same rank as margraves but less power. A few other counts extended their jurisdiction over several counties. Among counts of the lower or- der, such as the vassals of dukes, of ecclesiastical Fiirsten or of the higher counts, were burggraves,^ ruling towns and fortified chateaux, with jurisdiction direct from the emperor but subject in military things to duke, mar- grave or other immediate lord. The ecclesiastical Fiir- sten referred to were archbishops, bishops and high abbots. 1 Pfalzgrafen, Markgrafen, Sendgrafen. ^ In German, ' Gau.'' 2 At Ch. IV, § 15, n. 2. * See § 8, n. 4. ^ The Hohenzollern were once mere burggraves of Nuremberg. Cf. § 17, n. 4. Secretan connects '(Iraf with ^ greifcn.'' § 12 PImpire and Church Bryce, ch. x. Milman, bk. vii. Gregorovius, vol. vi, 20 sqq. Pruiz, HI. The centuries next succeeding Karl the Great de- veloped two radically antagonistic theories concerning the nature of the empire. The state-church theory though already centuries old we find most formally set forth in Dante's Dc MotiarcJiia. Dante seeks to prove that (i) rule over the world belongs of right to the Ro- man people and through them to tlie emperor,^ (2) such an empire is indispensable to the weal of human society, (3) the emperor's authority is directly from God, not from or through the pope. According to this conccj)- tion, borrowed from the idea of the church, as this had been from the original notion of Rome's rulership and OF THE WEST I 55 office on earth, the empire was the one indispensable, responsible mediator of humanity's corporate interests, itself a revelation of the Divine Spirit, the church being simply the empire's organ for the empire's own moral and spiritual work.^ It was conceived as incapable of cessation, as unbroken from Augustus and as thus ante- rior and superior to Christianity, which it had taken up into itself. Many great minds, especially after, in the twelfth century, the study of Roman law was renewed, passionately espoused this view, nowise staggering at the palpable failure of both emperors and empire to con- form to the ideal. The papal or church-state theory, originating in Augustine's City of God,^ mightily fur- thered by the false-Isidorian decretals and slowly work- ing its way first to the consciousness of the church, then into the formulae of canon law, was in principle exactly the reverse of the above. It made the church supreme, God's sole institute and agent for working human wel- fare, the state only its functionary. It nowise set the state aside : so long as docile, exalted it rather. Yet in practice the empire could not but be degraded by its prevalence. Civil power was denounced as worldly, originating in sin, no more comparable with spiritual than body with soul. ^ He explictly makes the whole earth the emperor's realm and every mortal his subject, denominating Henry VH rex mundi as well as minister del. This strange treatise adduces arguments promiscuously from Homer, Aristotle, Juvenal, Ovid, Lucan, and the Psalms. The author evidently regards it a telling point when he notices that scripture denominates as ' the fulness of times ' the epoch of our Lord's advent, i.e., the period im- mediately succeeding the accession of Augustus and the establishment of the empire. Book W l)egins : ' WTiy do the heathen rage?' [Ps. H] as applicable to the Guelphs. Book HI contains a refutation of the sun- 156 THE MEDI.liVAL ROMAN EMPIRE moon analogy [n. 3, below] in the observation that the moon is visible even in an eclipse of the sun. Observe that the state-church arrangement involves much more than the mere support of a given form of religion by the state, as in England to-day. 2 It was thus a 'holy empire,' an edict of Henry VII commanding as a • divine precept ' that ' every soul be subject to the Roman sovereign,' on whose sway * the order of the whole world reposes.' 3 Ch. Ill, § 15, n. 5. This theory is best set forth by Thomas Aquinas. On the decretals, § 4, n. 6. Innocent III wrote: 'The Creator has fixed in the firmament of the Church universal two dignities. The greater, the papacy, governs souls as the sun by day. The less, the empire, governs bodies as the moon by night.' He locates both in the Church. The great question was, as Duruy puts it, ' who, the heir of St. Peter or the heir of Augustus and Charlemagne, shall remain master of the world?' § 13 Gregory Hildebrand Mil fan, bk. vii. Giesebrecht, bks. vi, vii. Prutz, III. Smith, Church dg. Mid. Ages, vol. ii. iSowrffw, Life of Gregory VII. Rankc, Weltgesch.,W\. Z,frt, Sac- erdotal Celibacy. Geffcken, Church and State, i. Ibach, Kampf ziuischen Papst- thuin u. Konigthum, etc. [1884]. Villeinain and G/rbrer as in bibliog. Decisive clash between these two theories, both so exalting unity, the principle for which the middle age had a passion, was inevitable. The papal was first con- ceived in its full reach and majesty by Hildebrand,^ whom events conspired with his own matchless will, skill and daring, to aid in realizing it. History shows no more astounding transition than the upward leap of papal power at the death of Henry HI, a movement of which Hildebrand was soul. In his favor were (i) his long relation to the papacy, covering several pontificates before his own,^ (2) the new purity, dignity and power brought to the papacy by German popes under Henry III,^ (3) Henry IV's youth and vices, (4) tlie insul)ordi- nation of Henry's Saxon subjects,'* (5) Italian hatred of the empire, longing and brave effort for freedom, OF THE WEST I57 (6) papal alliance with the Norman and Tuscan princi- palities.^ Tuscany especially, was an indispensable aid. Hildebrand's central purpose, as shown by the order of events in the struggle,^ was not to exalt the papacy but to reform the clergy. Worldliness, concubinage, simony, was universal. Henry's mistresses wore jewels from the church's caskets. Each valuable church dig- nity was sold to the highest bidder. Benedict IX'^ bartered the papal office itself. Leo IX found that thorough reform at once would leave Rome without a priest. As indispensable to the needed radical change, Hildebrand resolved to make the entire clergy responsi- ble in all respects to an independent pope, totally abol- ishing the lay investiture of clerks.^ In withstanding this, Henry was supported by an anti-reform party among the clergy throughout Europe, also by most of the powerful nobles of Rome and Lombardy. The same great Roman families^ who had cursed Henry III allied themselves ardently with his son to annihilate Hildebrand. 1 Hildebrand was a carpenter's son. Gregorovius, judging by the name, thinks him to have been of Lombard [Teutonic] stock. We have the autographs ' Yldibrandus ' and ' HcUebrandus^ as well as the con- temporary spellings ' Ildebrandus ' and ' Oldeprandus^ H.'s pontificate extended from April 22, 1073 to May 25, 1085. 2 He was chaplain to Gregory VI, i045-'6, went to Germany with Clement H, '46-'8, and came back to Rome with Leo IX, '48-'54. Under Stephen IX, '57-'8, he was Archdeacon. He had been Chancellor or Sec- retary of State to five difterent popes. Cf. Neander, III, 380 sqq. ' Although the refurming popes hitherto had come from Germany, the Abbey of Cluny [Clugni] in France was now the centre of the reform party in the church. Hildebrand had been educated there, and from there came, after him. Popes Urban II, loSj-'yg, inspirer of the First Crusadfi, and Paschal II, 1099-1118. 158 THE MEDIAEVAL ROMAN EMPIRE * This is discussed by Bruno, de bello Saxonico [n. 6, below]. 5 The popes had held the suzerainty over Norman Italy since Leo IX, 1048-'54, to whom, after having concjuered him in arms, they yet surren- dered as vassals [§ 9, n. 3]. Beatrice, heiress of Tuscany, herself a devoted papist, married for second husl)and Godfrey of Lothringen [Lorraine], who was a rebel against imperial authority and hence a natural ally of Gregory. Godfrey's son married Mathilda, Beatrice's daughter, perpetuating the friendliness of Tuscany to the holy see. Mathilda willed thereto her entire lands, amounting to a quarter of Italy. It was partly a fief of the empire, partly allodial [Ch. VI, § 4, n. 5]. •^ He attacks clerical vices first [§ 15]. Had he wished power he would have cemented the clergy to himself before assailing Henry. On this controversy of so thrilling interest the chief original sources are : For Henry, against Gregory: Benno [cardinal]. Vita Hildebrandi [bitter and indecent]; Benzo [bishop of Alba], Panegyriciis in Imp. Henricum IV ; Waltram [bp. of Naumburg], Liber de unitate ecclesiae conservanda ; . Sigebert of Gembloux, Chronicon, and other writings ; Epis/ola cttjtts- dam, by an unknown writer, upon Gregory's too severe procedure against married priests; Vita Henrici IV [of unknown authorship]. FoR Gregory, against Henry : Bruno, de bello Saxonico [the most passion- ate of all] ; Bernold, Chronicon ; Bardo, Vita Anselmi [Anselm was bishop of Lucca, nephew and successor of Alexander II, and one of Grego- ry's intimates. Bardo incorporates much from Anselm's own pen] ; Placi- dus [prior of Nonantola], I.iber de honor e ecclesiae ; Bonizo [bp. of Sutri], Liber ad amicum. [For a fuller notice, see Wattenbach, II, 167 sqq.; also Giesebrecht, III and IV. Bruno and the Vita Ilenrici exist in Pertz's hand-edition, very cheap and convenient. Nearly all are in his Monumenta. Cf. in Rev. d. d. Mondes, Ap. & Mai, 1873.] ^ On this base pope, 'more childish than Caligula, as wicked as Elaga- balus,' Milman, vol. iii, 229 sqq., Gregorovius, IV, 75 sqq. * That is, the investiture of the bishops, archbishops and abbots of the empire, even with the ring and staff, those symbols of spiritual office, was till Hildebrand the act of the emperor, a layman. " These aristocrats with the cities in the north had made the strength of the Guelph j)arty in Italy [§ 17]. Out of hatred to Hildebrand they now turn Ghibelline. A few Roman nobles, however, favor the pope. Had clerical marriage or concubinage been permitted, church offices would have become hereditary in these and such families, and feudalism would have cursed the church as it did civil life. Not likely that Gregory or any of the popes who aided the cities were animated by zeal fo/ freedom or for a united Italy. of the west 159 § 14 The Church and Feudalism Hallam, ch. vii, pt. i. Schulte, 125 sqq., 188. Mihnan, vol. ii, 484 sqq. Nitzsch, bd. ii, 16-58. The eleventh century saw church and clergy like the rest of society, in the toils of the feudal system. One- fifth of France, one-third of Germany was ecclesiastical land, ruled, subject to the monarch alone, by arch- bishops, bishops and abbots, who had become invested with rights of duke and of count, and exercised these as suzerains over the entire population of their domains. In their secular character these church officials were usually represented by lay advocates, who bore to them the relation sometimes of patrons, more sometimes of regular vassals.^ The emperor himself was patron of numberless abbeys, as he was suzerain of all arch- bishops and bishops, whom he invested not only with ring and staff but as his liege men in the ordinary tem- poral fashion. Controlling their religious influence among the people through their temporal dependence on him, he used the bishops as his chief support against insubordinate dukes. Apart from this, such was then the lack of clear distinction between spiritual and tem- poral authority and between feudal and proper political sovereignty, that the execution of Gregory's programme must have threatened the very existence of civil society. It would have erected innumerable scattered fragments taken from all the European states into a single ecclesi- astical state subject to Rome.^ 1 Many were vassals in form, patrons in fact, much the relation now held by Austria to Turkey in respect to Bosnia and Herzegovina. See Happ, De advocatia ecclesiastica [Bonn, 1870]. A fief could be l60 THE MEDIAEVAL ROMAN EMPIRE accepted from an ecclesiastic without disgrace by a powerful count or duke who would have disdained the same from his lay neighbor. The four great honorary officers of the emperor: marshal, seneschal, etc., filled corresponding posts in the chapter of the bishop of Bamberg. The prince- Abbey of Fulda had as its vassals the Archduke of Austria, the Dukes of Bavaria and Saxony, the Landgraves of Thuringia and Hesse, with a crowd of counts and several imperial cities, as Frankfort and Muhlhausen. The emperor even, held the seigniory of Wimpfen as a fief of the diocese of Worms. — Secretan. ^ Milman, bk. vii, chaps, i, iii. § 15 To Canossa Milman, VII, ii. Prutz, III. Hefele, in Tubinger Quartahchr., 1861. Lta [in Studies], ' Excommunication.' Raumer, bk. ii. Nitzsch, bd. ii, 59-112. Hildebrand, the greatest mind and shrewdest poHti- cian of his age, proceeded with combined boldness and skill. Laws already existing against the great clerical vices he enforced with unprecedented rigor, incurring hostility in a way and to a degree speaking for the purity of his aim. His first revolutionary act was the emancipation of papal elections.^ The emperors, es- pecially Henry HI, had insisted on having decisive voice in these. An adroitly worded decree^ of Nicholas II, 1059, made a college of cardinals plenipotentiary for this business, the emperor to have the right even of confirmation only as a personal concession. Further fine diplomacy coupled with good fortune, procured the election and confirmation, under this new law, of Alex- ander II as pope. The bitter strife over this election^ seems to have decided Hildebrand. Himself elected pope and securely confirmed, he issues the renowned decree of 1075, abrogating lay investiture. Even after this for a time, king is submissive, pope gracious. Soon OF THE WEST l6l the mood of both changes, and Hildebrand summons Henry, guilty among much else of sheltering deposed bishops, to Rome to answer for his sins. To the king's idle pretence of deposing him '^ Hildebrand replies with a bull excommunicating Henry and placing his kingdom under interdict. The king was doomed. Staunchest friends deserted him with loathing. The Diet of Tribur, October, 1076, legislating for the realm, reduced him to the estate of a private man and resolved to elect a new king if the next February 25th found Henry unabsolved. Crossing the Alps at the risk of his life and hastening to Canossa the lord of the empire prostrates himself an abject penitent before the Vicar of Christ, who at last deigns to grant him absolution.^ 1 On the mode, original and modern, of electing pope, Fisher, Discus- sions, 141 sqq. The pope, as bishop of the Roman church, which he still remains, was like all bishops for centuries elected popularly. Karl, Otho and all the really powerful emperors interfered more or less with this free Roman election, confidently naming candidates as they did for ordinary bishoprics. The cardinals, who still remain as by the decree of 1059, the electors, are the presbyters and deacons of the Roman church with the bishops of the suburban churches offshoots of the Roman. All, wherever resident, are thus officials of that church. The full college numbers 70 : viz. 6 bishops, 50 priests, 14 deacons. The pope appoints them. So far as he is a temporal sovereign they are temporal princes, yet their office is mainly ecclesiastical, and involves vast fields of church administration aside from electing pope. In this their most solemn function they are to give the preference to candidates from the Roman church itself. Cardi- nals did not at first wear purple, nor did the custom of shutting them up in conclave to elect the pope arise till Gregory X, i27i-'76. ■■' The cardinal bishops were to have the initiative, but must secure the consent of the cardinal priests and deacons. ' Applause ' was expected from the laity as of course, and the election was to ' save the honor and reverence due to Henry, now king, future emperor.' Under this rule Hildebrand's own election was confirmed by Henry IV himself, but it was the last intervention of the kind tliat ever occurred. See Gregorovius, voL iv 112 sqq l62 THE MEDLEVAL ROMAN EMPIRE ' Some German and Loml)ar(l prelates who favored clerical marriage [nearly every clergyman in the Milan diocese diil] asseml)led in Ijasle, annulled Alexander's election after it had occurred, and chose C'adalous, bishop of Parma, as Honorius II, in his stead. How the party of Gregory and Alexander felt toward Honorius is evinced by Peter Uemiani, who denounces Honorius as ' waster of the church, root of sin, devil's herald, apostle of Antichrist, an arrow from Satan's bow, the shipwreck of all purity, the man of dung, the dung of the century, fodder for hell, an abominable, wriggling worm.' Benzo in turn wrote of Alexander : ' Sed Prandelli Asinandcr, asinus haereticus, ' Congregavit Patarinos ex viis ei se/>ibns, ' Et repUvit totam terrain urticis el vepribus.' ' Patarini ' meant ' ragamuffins.' * The form was gone through at Henry's instance by a synod at Worms in 1076, Henry feeling strong now through his great victory over the Saxons at Langensalza, June 9, 1075. His letter conveying the decree, after accusing the pope of numberless and nameless crimes, ended : ' We, Henry, by the grace of God king, with all the bishops of our realm, com- mand thee, Down, down.' Gregory's anathema ran as follows : ' St. Peter, Prince of the Aj^ostles, incline Thine ear unto us and hear us. Thy servant, whom from childhood Thou hast nourished and protected even to this day against the ungodly. Thou and my Lady the Mother of God, and Thy Brother, St. Paul, — prove to me that Thy holy Roman Church hath drawn me against my will to its rudder, and that I have not risen up like a robber to Thy seat. Rather would I have been a pilgrim my whole life long than have snatched to myself Thy chair on account of temporal glory and a worldly mind. And therefore do I believe it to proceed from Thy grace and not from my action, when it pleased and pleaseth Thee that the Christian people specially entrusted to Thee should hearken to me in virtue of the mediatorship entrusted to me; and through Thy intercession hath power been sent me from God to bind and to loose on earth and in heaven. Trusting in this, I, in the name of Almighty God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, interdict to King Henry, son of Emperor Henry, the government of the entire German and Italian realm. Because with unheard-of pride he hath lifted himself up against Thy Church, 1 absolve all Christians from the bond of their oath to him, and forbid them to serve him any longer as king. For it is fitting that he who will touch the dignity of Thy Church should lose his own. And since he hath dis- dained to obey like a Christian and hath not returned to God \Vh()m he deserted, but on the contrary hath been communing w ith the excommuni- OF THE WEST 1 63 cate, and by his striving to rend the Church hath separated himself from her, so 1 bind him in Thy stead with the bond of the anathema, that all people may know and feel that Thou art Peter, and that upon this Rock the Son of the Living God hath built his Church, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.' ^ Hefele strips off the exaggerations with which this memorable trans- action is commonly recounted. Henry did not wait at the castle door * three days and nights,' nor even three days, but a few hours each day. Not in the snow but under cover. Not ' en chemise ' [Michelet] or ' clad only in the thin, white linen dress of the penitent' [Milman], but in a penitent's shirt over other clothing. Nor did the pope postpone audience in order to show his power and humble the king, but because he had solemnly referred Henry's case to Augsburg, whither himself was now journeying to meet Henry and the German princes together, and feared to adjudicate it in Italy. He at last so far relented as to absolve the king but did not restore the kingdom. As to penance, many a king and emperor had done it: Otho IH, Henry II, even Otho I. Henry III and, later, St. Louis, suffered themselves to be publicly flogged. In view of Waltram's silence touching it, Hefele discredits the famous * hostia-scene,' in which Gregory is said to have prayed to he, if guilty, stricken dead as he ate the wafer, and to have vainly challenged Henry to the same ordeal. § 16 The Concordat of Worms, 1122 Milman, \\\,\n-v,Vl\\,i-m. Giesebrec hi, hV.sui. f/e/e/e, zs at § xs- Raumer, bk. ii. Ditruy, ch. xvii. Prutz, III, v. Nitzsch, bd. ii, 113-156. From the crushing blow received at Canossa the em- pire never recovered either absolutely or in comparison with the papacy. In the desperate war that ensued, Henry IV ^ and Henry V with their rival popes both scored brilliant victories over the papists with their rival emperors, but these were not permanent. If Hilde- brand expired as an exile at Salerno,^ his successors in- herited his spirit and policy. Urban II excommunicated Philip^ I of France. Henry IV died a beggar, under the ban, which Gregory had renewed in 1080. Calixtus 164 THE MEDIAEVAL ROMAN EMPIRE II sat as a court of last resort for kings.* The crusades, now beginning, enormously increased papal power.^ By the Concordat of Worms, 1122, Henry V, who at his imperial coronation had seemed not less absolute than his grandfather,^ after passing ten years excommunicate, bowing to Calixtus, gave up investiture by ring and staff, condemned simony and consented to the canonical election and free consecration of bishops. On the other hand the outcome for the papacy fell far short of the majestic world-monarchy which the great Hildebrand had planned." Ecclesiastics were still to acquire their principalities ^ and all temporal rights at the touch of the royal sceptre, and faithfully to fulfil to the emperor every obligation incident to their secular status. ' The interdict was never removed and the ban was pronounced afresh in 1080; yet Henry fully reconquered the headship of Ciermany, vantjuish- ing Rudolf, who had been chosen against him, subdued his Italiau kingdom though less thoroughly, created Antipope Clement III, who crowned him emperor, and even became master of Rome. His papal foes ruined him at last by procuring the rebellion of his sons, first Conrad, then Henry [V]. Friendless, even hungry, he was left to beg in vain place in the choir of the church of the Virgin in Spires, founded by himself. He had been dead five years ere his body was allowed rest in consecrated earth. 2 His last words, * I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, there- fore I die in exile,' betray at once the man's conscious integrity and his egotism. ^ For the uncanonical divorce of his own wife and the seduction of another man's. * At Rheims, IU9, where Louis the Fat, of France, complained of Henry I of England for lack of allegiance as Duke of Norniandy and for various other faults, not one of them of an ecclesiastical nature. fi See last § but one in Ch. VH. * With the enthusiastic and nearly entire allegiance of Germany and Italy he visited Rome and forced T'aschal II to crown him emperor. We notice that excommunication shook his authority far less than it had his father's. OF THE WEST 1 65 ' See Milman, bk. vii, chaps, i, iii. * Except such as might have been conferred by the papacy itself; foi the papacy had large temporalities to bestow in dilTerent lands, over and above its spiritual offices. § 17 GUELPH AND GhIBELLINE Hallam, ch. v. Duruy, ch. xviii. Giesebrecht, vol. iv. Raunier, I, ii, 4 and 5. Nitzsch, bd. ii, 161-286. May, Democracy in Europe, ch. vii. Popes found willing and mighty helpers in the great imperial vassals, bent on independence and enlarged possessions. Under Henry IV and his son, 1056-1125, Swabia was often in revolt, Saxony almost continuously. Lothar III, 1125-37, by allying himself with Henry the Proud,^ of the Guelph family of Bavarian dukes, and investing him with Saxony also, enrages Swabia, which, in Conrad III, 1138-52, of the brilliant Hohenstau fen or Ghibelline ^ line, next fills the imperial throne. Henry, inheriting from Lothar the papal fief of Tus- cany ^ and thus lord from the Tiber to the Baltic, rebels against Conrad and is put to the ban, yet only with utmost difficulty stripped of his duchies. His son, Henry the Lion, recovers these indeed, but narrowed and degraded. Saxony by the loss of Brandenburg,* Bavaria by that of Austria.^ Lombard cities always made common cause with German rebels, as popes with both, the entire party of the empire's foes thus formed coming to be called ' Guelphs,' * Ghibellines ' in like manner specifying all the empire's friends, Italian as well as German. The names, used in Germany to this day,^ had strongest life in Italy, where they became the watchwords respectively of independence from Ger- many and of subjection thereto.^ 1 66 THE MEDIyEVAL ROMAN EMPIRE ^ Henry the Proud had married Lothar's daughter and expected almost of course to be chosen emperor, as would have occurred had not the I'iirsten been jealous of his already enormous power. 2 ' Guelph ' and ' Ghibelline ' are the italianized forms of ' Welf ' and ' Waiblingcn.' The latter are usually [the view is now contested] thought to have been first used as party words at the battle of Weinsberg, 1140 [//?if IVelf! Hie Waibling !\ where Count Welf, brother of Henry the Proud [died 1 139], commanded against Duke Frederic of Swabia [Iloh- enstaufen], whose seat was the castle of Waiblingen. The Brunswick or Hanoverian line of English monarchs are descended from Henry Proud, through Henry the Lion, Otho IV, and Otho ' the Infant.' 8 Including all the estates willed by Mathilda to the holy see, as the duchy of Spoleto and the marches of Ancona, Bologna, Parma, Piacenza, and a few minor tracts. Cf. § 12, n. 5. ^ The Mark of Brandenburg was carved from the old duchy of Saxony in 1 142 and given to Albert the Bear as an immediate tief of the empire. He added to it the land between the Elbe and Oder mouths. His heirs retained the estate till 1320, when it passed to the house of Bavaria. Afterwards Luxemburg held it. In 141 7 Emperor Sigismund sold it to rhe Hohenzollern, fathers of the present reigning house of Prussia, of which kingdom it formed the germ. ^ Gertrude, widow of Henry Proud, married Henry Jasomirgott [so named from his incessant oath, Ja, so mir Gott helfe'\, margrave of Austria, who thus became seized of Bavaria. Frederic Barljarossa restored this duchy to Henry the Lion, pacifying Jasomirgott by ackiing Styria to his margraviat and erecting the whole into the independent duchy of Austria, with special privileges. The particular history of Austria as well as of Prussia begins now. Otho I had made it a margraviat [Ostmark] 955, in favor of the Babenberg family, who held it till 1246. It then passed in succession to Frederic II and to the houses of I'aden, Bohemia and IIapsl)urg [1282], the last still holding it, though in the female or Lorraine line since 1740 [§ 6, n. 4]. ** For the foes and the friends of the present German empire. Thus the royal house of Hannover arc Guelphs politically and not by blood alone. ^ While the Italian republics were under the presidency of Charles d'Anjou, of Naples [see last § of this Ch.] ' Ghibelline ' named the foes of this presidency, the friends of liberty. Sismondi, Rep. It., ch. xxii. OF THE WEST I 67 § 18 Frederic I Oilman, VIII, vii. Dttruy, 275 sqq. Giesebrecht, bk. x. Prutz, IV. Tosii, Storia della lega lombarda [1886]. SisJiiondzy I, viii, ix. Nitzsch, bd. ii, last ch. Raumer, bk. iv. After the concordat of 1122 the quarrel slumbered. Lothar had by explicit word and by humiliating deed ^ confessed himself pope's vassal. It proved a truce only. The powerful Frederic Barbarossa, 1152-90, swore to restore the empire to its old eminence over the pope and Italy, his chief spur to such assumption being the new study of Roman law. Imperial rights as ex- pounded from Justinian by the jurisconsults of Bologna, Frederic ascribed without modification to himself.^ This Italian policy, justifiable only technically, led him to outrageous tyranny and cruelty. What gives peculiar interest to this contest is the brilliant action of those republics which now dotted the Italian peninsula from the Alps to Benevento, restoring to a brief and beau- tiful life the ruins of the Roman municipal regime.^ The great modern struggle for liberty now begins, curiously identified in this its earliest stage with that of papal ambition. Adrian IV and Alexander III, with better reason, advanced claims identical with Hilde- brand's as well as in the same proud tone. Alexander, suzerain of Sicily, Naples, and Tuscany, recognized by the kings of France and England and supported by the iron battalions of the Lombard League, overbore even the arms and energy of Frederic. Escaping with bare life from the battle-field of Legnano, 11 76, the emperor, sacrificing his own pope, submits to Alexander.^ By the Treaty of Constance,^ ii 83, the pope was again 1 68 THE MEDI/EVAL ROMAN EMPIRE recognized as the suzerain of Tuscany, and practical independence granted to the republics, the emperor re- taining the mere right to confirm their consuls and to maintain in each a court of appeal for certain causes. But what Frederic lost in Italy he gained in his German kingdom, by the new and firm authority which his divis- ion and new disposition of the great duchies gave to his government there. Henry the Lion, for desertion before Legnano and subsequent treason, was dispos- sessed, save of Brunswick and Liineburg, Bavaria pass- ing to Otho von Wittelsbach,^ Bernard, son of Albert the Bear, becoming duke of Saxony, which had lost Westphalia to the archbishopric of Cologne. 1 He had held Pope Innocent II's stirrup for him to mount, understood to be a menial service. 2 He also caused certain of his own edicts to be incorporated in the corpus iuris civilis. 8 Duruy, 274. Each had its consuls: Milan, 12, Genoa 6, Florence 4, Pisa 6, etc., usually with both executive and judicial powers. Generally also a sort of senate [credenza] assisted them. But the popular assembly was sovereign legislature as well as court of last resort. Under Arnold of Brescia, for a brief time from 1144, Rome formed such a republic. Fred- eric put down this Roman republic, delivering Arnold to Pope Adrian IV to be burned, but was so severe that Adrian soon turned against him.— Milman, VIII, vi. Cf. Ch. IV, § 20, n. 3. * They met in San Marco, Venice. Schnorr has a cartoon of the scene. It may be seen in the Dresden Johanneum, also in the Ducal Palace at Venice. Cf. Childe Harold, hist'l n. 4. ^ The magna charta of the Italian republics. See Duruy, 279. * Cf. § 8, n. 5. This re-arrangement propped the emperor's power only temporarily however. The increased number of the immediate vas- sals, though they were feebler, placed the central authority in even greater danger than before. Cf. § 20, n. 6. OF THE WEST 169 § 19 Frederic II Oliphant, Frederic II. Milman, bks. ix, x. Duruy, 282 sqq. Sismondi, II, v-xi, Freeman, Historical Essays, iii ser. Nitzsch, bd. iii, 10-100. Pruiz, V. Rau- mer, vol. iii. Hoefftr, Kaiser Friedrich II [a pamphlet]. The great struggle had still a third period, the most confused and terrific as well as the most decisive of all. Henry VI, by marriage with the Norman Princess Con- stantia of Naples, virtually incorporated the kingdom of the Two Sicilies ^ with the empire, traversing the policy of the holy see and endangering its independence. The papacy was now at high meridian, Innocent III in both claim and fact king of kings. ^ In order to sepa- rate Italy from the empire, under the bold pretence of examining and crowning emperors if worthy or rejecting them if unworthy, he raised to the throne the Guelph, Otho IV, against the Ghibelline Philip. But when Otho defied him, and, ignoring the Treaty of Constance, claimed suzerainty over Tuscany and Naples, Innocent deposed him in favor of Frederic II. It was stipulated that the latter should cede his hereditary kingdom of the Sicilies to his son. Frederic, in the arts of politics brilliant pupil of Innocent himself, found means to evade this, keeping his lands united and encircling Rome with imperial domains. To break this wall, pope must crush emperor. Excuses were ready. Besides mockery of pope's claim to world-suzerainty, Gregory IX charged ^ upon Frederic rebellion and breach of trust as papal fief-holder of the Sicilies, alliance with Saracens, neglect of vow in not earlier embarking as crusader, contempt of ecclesiastical discipline, and infidelity. Frederic's two bloody but triumphant campaigns, (i) to I^O THE MEUI/EVAL ROMAN EMPIRE the Peace of San Germano, 1230, and (2) to Gregory's death, 1241, added splendid fame as a soldier to the re- nown which this wonder of the world already possessed as poet, philosopher and theologian. In (i) he entirely reduced the great North Italian revolt which Gregory had instigated during Frederic's crusade,* in (2) a re- bellion of his own son allied with the new Lombard League. Gregory died in despair. The papacy was throttled and for a moment quivered as in death-throes. 1 I.e., Naples and Sicily. Henry VI was Frederic Barbarossa's son, Frederic II's father. Lower Italy was thus virtually brought into the empire, though never constitutionally. Mark the confusion. As resident and bishop of Rome the pope was a subject [if not fief-holder] of the empire. On the other hand, as possessor of Naples and Sicily, inheriting from the Norman kings there, Frederic was of course the pope's vassal, besides being what every Christian monarch professed to be, subject to the pope as Christ's vicar and in that sense world-suzerain. 2 Schulte, 205; Duruy, 280, 385; Croighton, I, 19 sqq. Innocent III was the pope who, to discipline King John of England, authorized rhilip Augustus of France to invade John's kingdom, and who, when John had basely submitted, sought to annul the Great Charter. ^ Nearly all these indictments were as true as some of them were grave. From the point of view of the then orthodoxy Frederic was cer- tainly an infidel. He was alleged and believed to have expressed the sen- timent that the world had been deceived by three impostors, Moses, Christ and Mohammed. Frederic II alone of all the imperial line Dante leaves in hell. — Inferno, x, 119. Yet he put forth edict after edict against here- tics and asseverated his orthodoxy to the last. It would, indeed, seem that his first excommunication, for not persisting in the crusading-voyage which he had begun, was unjust. He was driven back by a tempest, him- self and men ill. The pope's main hostility to Frederic was political, Springing from the determination to keep the Sicilies separate from the empire, contrary to Frederic's will. Hence Gregory would not desert the Lombard League. ■• Frederic did at length go as crusader [Ch. VII, § 15] only to be balked at every turn by tlic pope's minions. Matthew of Paris says that the Templars of the Holy Land made overtures to the sultan of Egypt to OF THE WEST I/I betray Frederic to him, but that the Mohammedan ruler refused partner- ship in such treachery. He and Frederic became warm friends, and the cession of Jerusalem was by him. It grieved the knights that the Musul- mans were allowed to retain a mosque on the site of Solomon's temple, with the privileges of living and visiting in Jerusalem and being tried there by judges of their own. Antioch, with Tripoli and its other depend- encies, had not been included in the ten years' truce. Frederic had to crown himself king of Jerusalem [his seventh crown], as no ecclesiastic would perform the ceremony. Returning, Frederic found his son and the powerful Lombard League in revolt, and conquered both in the great vic- tory of Corte Nuova, 1237. Gregory now fought him with redoubled energy. To win sympathy in Europe he called a council at the Lateran in Rome for 1241. A naval victory over the Genoese at Meloria in that year threw nearly all the delegates [proceeding by sea] into the emperor's hands. The aged Gregory died from this reverse. § 20 Fall of the Hohenstaufen Hallam, ch. iii. Duruy, 284 sqq. Milmait, X, iv, v. Bryce, xiii. Frutz, V. Free- man. Historical Essays [i ser.] xi. Nitzsch, bd. iii, 101-139. Rautner, vol. iii. Suddenly fortune changed. From Gregory's death to his own in 1250, incessant reverse whelmed Frederic. Treason was all about him. Thrice excommunicate, deserted by old friends, Christian kings either against him or too listless to aid,^ even his genius, quenchless energy and Saracen^ supports were vain. He indeed fought with vigor to the last, dying unconquercd. Still was it already clear, such was now the moral weight of the papal office and the horror of Frederic as an un- believer, that Innocent IV, the new pope, even in exile as he was, must finally prevail. The result was assured and greatly hastened by the emperor's death. The Guelphs at last rose to the ascendant. From this mo- ment the empire declined in significance.^ Conrad IV, who held it till his death, 12541 was the last Caesar 172 THE MEDl.EVAL ROMAN EMPIRE of the Swabian line, the race itself presently dying out. Conradin, his son, who had gone to help his uncle. King Manfred, in Naples against Charles d'Anjou, the pope's newly chosen vassal there, perished on the scaffold in 1268. Italy and Burgundy lost, the empire retained after the Interregnum only the vocation, without the ancient power, of a German kingdom. The house of France * now succeeds to the preponderance of the em- perors, and with it the church, mighty through its rev- enues, arrogant from the rising study of canon law,^ will next have to struggle. 1 The intelligent laity in all Europe sympathized to a great extent with Frederie. So devoted a churchman as St. Louis expostulated with Inno- cent IV for his high assumption. For a strong resolution of the French barons in the same sense, Martin, Hist, de France, IV, 209 sq. Robert d'Artois, St. Louis's brother, refused the imperial crown offered him by Gregory IX, reproaching this pontiff with the wish to trample all mon- archs under his feet. Yet Charles d'Anjou accepted the Sicilies. 2 It was only by the aid of Saracens, who of course cared nothing for the pope's interdict, that Frederic was enabled to hold out so long. His resort to such allies naturally enraged popes all the more, as calculated to open the way for those infidels to a permanent footing in Christendom. ^ Cf. § 6. The interregnum is sometimes reckoned from Frederic's d., sometimes from Conrad's. Some writers end it in 1257, with the election of Richard of Cornwall, but as neither he nor his rival, Alphonso of Castile, ever reigned, we protract the interregnum to the election of Rudolf, 1273. See Bryce, 212. Not only was the interregnum itself a dreadful time, but so close an approach to out and out independence had been yielded by Frederic II to his great German vassals that it was hence- forth impossible for even great men, being emperors, to wield the power of a Barbarossa, a Henry the Black or an Otho. * See later §§ of next Ch. Monarchy was now becoming emphatically dominant in France itself, just as it was losing its hold in the empire. In addition to this the passing of Naples and Sicily under French rule could not but lend distinction to the French name and increase French influence in world-affairs. Jealousy resulted. Peter III of Aragon, who had mar- OF THE WEST 173 ried Constantia, Manfred's daughter, recovers Sicily, occasioning the 'Sicilian Vespers' Mar. 30, 1282. See Duruy, 479; Sismondi, Rep It., ch. xxii; Amari, H. of the W. of the Sic. Vespers, 3 v.; Martin, IV, 319 sqq. The Sicilians had unanimously favored Conradin and for that reason were oppressed by the French. Michael Palaeologus, eastern emperor, aided Peter with money, knowing that Charles had designs on his realm. Even Pope Nicholas III, i277-'8i, had been in the league against Charles. Nearly every Frenchman in Sicily was massacred. From Peter's conquest till 1295 Sicily was connected directly with Aragon, thence till 1410 under domestic monarchs of the Aragon house, then again under Aragon [Ferdinand the Just], whose King Alphonso V conquers Naples in 1442, thus again uniting Naples with Sicily. At his death, 1458, they were parted, his brother John becoming king of Aragon and Sicily, while his natural son, Ferdinand, assumed the crown of Naples, his line going out at the new French conquest by Louis XII of France in 1501. Ferdinand the Catholic's conquest of Naples, 1505, brought Naples afresh under the same rule with Sicily, as they remained till 1707. Soon after this, in the W. of the Spanish Succession, Austria secured possession of both, ceding Sicily to Savoy in 1713. Spain conquered the Island once more in 17 18, uniting it with Naples in 1720. In 1735, Don Carlos, younger son of the Bourbon Philip V of Spain, was crowned king of the Two Sicilies, his line reigning, except during the French occupation [1806-15: Joseph Bonaparte King of Naples 2 years, Murat 7] till 1861, when Sicily became part of the present kingdom of Italy. ^ Canon law began to have its present form, as a special system and study, separate from the civil, in the time of Gregory IX. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY TO CHAPTER VI ' Feudalism ' and ' France ' in Encyc. Brit. The Student's France. Hallam, Milman, Duruy, Guizot [Civ. in Europe, iv, and Civ. in Fr., 2d Course, are, with Hallam, ch. ii, the best lit. in Eng. on feudalism], Stille, Maitland, Michelet and Prutz as in last Bibliog. Secretan, Essai sur la feodalile ** [best single work on feudalism]. Roth, Bene- ficiiihvesen ; ** Feudalitat u. Un/erthanenverband.** Lehuerou, In- stitulions RIerovingiennes ; do. Carolingiennes. Giraud, Droit fran<;ais an iiioycn age, 2 v. Perreciot, Prrsciiitts et terrcs dans Us Gaules, 3 v. Desmaze, Parlement de Paris. Bancroft [Jane M.], Parliament of Paris, etc. [dissertation]. Kitchin, H. of Fr., bks. iii, iv. Sismondi, Hist, des Franfais, 2 v. Masson, St. Louis and the 13th Century [Ep. of Fr. H.], Stubbs, Const'l H. of Eng., esp. ch. ix. De Coulanges, Institutions polilqiies de lancienne Fr. ; Etudes sur qtielqucs prohUmes d'hist. ; f.es origines du regime feodal \_Rev. d. d. Mondes, 1872, 1874]. Luchaire, Hist, des institutions de Fr., etc. [under first 4 Capetians], 2 v. Flach, Les origines de Pancienne Fr., le regime seigneurial [ix & x cent. : vol. i, 1886]. Deloche, la trustis et Vantrustion royal sous les deux pre- mieres races.** Clark, II. of Knighthood, 2 v. Mills, do. of Chivalry, 2 V. Pardessus, Z rium, common for church lands [n. 4], emphyteusis [§4, n. 3], and ceit- sive. Tributary land under the last tenure differed little from a benefice, and ' censives ' were often described and treated as benefices which paid rent, with or without service. 2 ' Antrustion ' was only a special name for a member of the king's comitatus. Comites of the great nobles, each of whom, as well as the king, had his comitatus, were designated by some other title, as fideles or leudes. Allods were most common in the old Burgundian and Visigothic kingdoms, where the barbarians divided among themselves vast private lands. — Sec- retan, 398. 3 This was the sole difference between these lands and the tributary. Louis le Debonaire made out a list of the monasteries which ' owed gifts^ showing that these were after all a virtual tax. But these, and the sup- plies, transportation, and even military service demanded of allodial holders, were remains of the regime of a public power and were not thought of as feudal in nature. Even ecclesiastical lands were not exempt from these burdens. Such allodial obligations were naturally little insisted on when royalty was at nadir. * The church at first held allodially, but might let lands by either of the tenures mentioned in n. I. ^ So much so that in Charles the Bald's time the name ' allod ' was given to fiefs or benefices. At a later date a precisely contrary diction comes to prevail, and the few remaining allods are called, in Germany, 'fiefs of the sun' \^Sonnenlehen\, in France, ^ franc -fiefs.'' St. Louis's Es- tablishments conceive the king as God's fief-holder. Martin, IV, 307. § 8 Society Blanqut, ch. xiii. Hallant, ch. ii, pt. ii. Secretati, 185-276. Society fell into classes much, but not exactly, in agreement with varieties of relation to land. Next above slaves, pure serfs of the glebe, ^ belonging partly to the old population, partly to the new, stood a considerable class of freedmcn, differing in degree of liberty accord- ing to mode of emancipation, royal, ecclesiastical or by charter,^ but never absolutely free. The old Roman FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY 187 order of curials or simple freemen, momentarily re- enforced at the invasion, by Franks not in the comitatus- relation, soon perished,^ its members driven by the stress of the times and also by law to the act of commenda- tion. Freeman like freedman must have patron. Con- sequently, as allodial holders grew few, the great bulk of society came to be composed of such as held in some of its manifold forms the relation of vassals. These were multiplied by the same influences as beneficiary lands. Many and most diverse social conditions were thus in one way and another under feudal contract : all ranks from serf to king, royal beneficiaries and ducal, beneficiaries of land, of office,'^ of service. Great office- fief-holders vied in power with the mightiest allodial lords. Vassals ^ had vassals. Mere personal vassalage even to the king was not hereditary, and involved no exceptional right save that of extra Wehrgeld. A new nobility indeed rose in this period, but it grew out of land. The clergy, feudal too, and the sole bond be- tween classes and nationalities, still formed an order by itself. All its members were revered, the higher power- ful almost beyond limit. The character of bishops and abbots as antrustions, if it dulled, did not kill, their popular sympathies, while it incalculably enhanced their ability to shield and help the weak. The church antago- nized the spirit of caste by both its preaching and its polity. A serf might become bishop or even pope. ^ Servi ierrae included coloni as well as slaves proper, difference be- tween them being now very slight. Cf. Ch. IV, § 6, n. 2, also Guizot, Civ. in Fr., Lect. vii, and Leo, Mittelalter, vol. i, 22 sqq., for the manner in which peasants were reduced toward slavery. The approach of coloni to veritable slavery after the invasions was due in part not to their degrada- 1 88 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY tion but to the fact that German slavery was milder than Roman. See Duruy, 234; Thierry, Tiers A/at, ch. i; Choiseul-Daillecourt, Inf. lies Croisades, sec. i. 2 Cf. the Roman modes of manumission in Justinian's time : Institutes, bk. i, 5. Each freedman had to have his patron. If the solemnity of emancipation occurred before the king, he would be the patron; if before the church, the church; if by the master's written document, he. 2 They were degraded or prevented from rising by the causes exhibited at Ch. IV, §§ 5, 6, and notes. Texts from the transition period still call ' free ' peasants who have commended themselves. In the 9th century a man with- out land could not testify against a free man, but could aid him as compurga- tor. The thought was that testifying was part of judging. Secretan, 193. * As, e.g., those about the palace and the king's person. The terms 'fief and 'benefice' at first applied only to land, but gradually came to designate also all sorts of functions, immunities, and honors. The system was, as already said, based on land, but parts of it were at some remove from the basis. For the power of the constable of France, Guizot, Civ. in Fr., vol. iv, 13 sq. On bailiffs, seneschals, and prevots, § 16, n. 4. ^ The word 'baron' had several senses, the generic, of ' freeman,' the intermediate, in which it meant ' feudal seignior in general ' as in the phrase ' the barons of France,' and the specific, ' immediate seigniors,' barons par excellence. Synonyme for the last sense was ' sire^ The sires formed l)ut a small class of all who could be called barons. 'Seignior' and 'suzerain' bore a common meaning, being alike applicable to all who had vassals. Obviously the same man might be in different relations both vassal and suzerain or seignior. Rear vassals or ' va-vassals ' were vassals of vassals. Investiture was the formal act, usually with ceremony [§ 13, n. i], by which a suzerain conferred upon his vassal the possession of land. It was preceded by the act of homage, also, when they were sepa- rated, by that of fidelity. 6 I.e., antrustions and other personal vassals did not, as such, form a nobility. § 9 Feudali.sm Victorious Guitot, Civilization in France, xxiv and xxv. Duruy, 172 sqq. Secretan, 8a-iio. llallam, ch. ii.,pt. i. Student's France, bk. iii. Free instittitions, Prankish as well as Roman, ^ per- ished in early Merovincjian times, and in the contest now joined between royalty and aristocracy, everything FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY 189 conspired to aid the latter. Martell found royal offices already viewed not as mobile, hitherto the case, but as ranks and property, and in process of becoming heredi- tary. So soon as the marvellously centralized though merely personal government of Karl the Great was past, these tendencies swept all before them. It is noticea- ble that the chief agents of decentralization were pre- cisely the functionaries nominally representing the cen- tral government itself. To explain these results it is not sufficient, though necessary, to recall general causes. Also we must look beyond the weakness of later Caro- lingians and the size of their empire, i The practice of hereditary office, first obtaining the force of law, made itself law. 2 The very excellence of Karl's gov- ernment aided the disintegrating process by the respect it procured for the officers supposed to represent it.^ 3 Their immense private ownership and numerous vas- sals in the districts they administered, inducing con- fusion between their two kinds of power, caused the separate legal characters of these to be ignored and forgotten. 4 Unprecedented attacks of Avars, Nor- mans and Saracens forced kings to appeal to their great feudatories for aid, to be had only by concessions. Castles now built against Normans enabled their insub- ordinate possessors to defy kings. A similar process affected subordinate principalities. Princes, pressed by private wars for greater aid from vassals, were com- pelled to yield them larger privileges. 5 Ecclesiastical assumption, asserting the pope's right to judge royal acts and even depose kings, while helpful to freedom in the first instance, wrought mightily to the pulling down of central power. IQO FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY ^ Cf. Ch. IV, §§ 5, 14, 15 [esp. n. 3]. From Roman institutions all but the form of freedom had departed before the 5th century, but the municipium may be said to have retained the form. 2 ' It is found that when an official appointed by a powerful government acts upon the lower constitution of a primitive society, he crushes down all other classes anm any superior. The capitularies of 192 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY Charles the Simple, early in the loth century, were the last utterances of properly public legislation. § 1 1 Feudalism How far a System (7«<'rar(/, as in bibliog. Secretan,\g$-2T,o. Duruy, 262 sqq. Guizot, 2d coarse, iv,y. Feudalism, to be stuclicd at its most perfect stage, has to be seized while the Capetian family is in mid-struggle. Earlier the system is not developed, later when mon- archy has become an essential part of it it turns political, ceases to be feudal. So soon as military service to the state is established, and the rights of all, with the duties of all, even of the highest lords themselves, are pro- nounced upon and enforced by a central and supreme authority, essential feudalism is no longer present. At its apogee feudalism presents a confederation of petty sovereigns, despots, with arbitrary and absolute power over their subjects, very loosely united by a certain com- munity of interest and by at least theoretical allegiance to the same king. Each of these princes forms the apex to a hierarchy of ranks, two of them, under seigniors^ and knights, free like himself, the third, or rotnricrs^ in actual serfdom though in part nominally free. Duties and rights subsisted only between proximate ranks, the theoretical freedom of a low vassal to appeal to his suzerain of the second degree being rarely used, more rarely of avail. All administrative and judicial offices, all public employments, privileges of every kind had assumed the character of fiefs. Yet the system of feu- dalism was even now by no means perfect. There were still allodial proprietors outside it, some cities especially in South France retained franchises,^ degrees of free- dom in the rotourier class were various. A prince might FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY I93 infeud himself to his peer, or infeucl that peer's vassal, or both. Cases occurred of princes that were vassals of their own vassals. Even the king of France was for certain lands a vassal to his own subjects. Fidelity, at first perfectly distinct from homage, had become insep- arably merged therewith.* Such confusion inevitably wrought extensive blending of ranks, and aided royalty by making evident and felt the need of a new govern^ mental organization. ^ Or rear vassals. A knight might or might not hold a land-fief. If he did, he was in the feudal hierarchy of course. But even if he did not pos- sess land, he was ' the man ' of him who had dubbed him knight. For the nature of this ceremony, so similar to the ancient Teutonic rite of receiving a new comes by a chief, see Secretan, 209; Guizot, Civ. in Fr., vol. iv, 20 sqq. Secretan, 210 sq., against Guizot, believes knighthood to be of Spanish-Arabian origin. He derives ' galant' from the Celtic '■ galawti ' = brave. Vassals of one and the same degree of infeudation might of course differ much in the extent and character of their fiefs. There were among the rear vassals, counts and viscounts as well as mere seigniors. Bishops and abbots as temporal potentates also held this relation. Sub-infeudation did not require the suzerain's consent. Also, in spite of the salic law : de terra salica in mulierem nulla portio transit sed hoc virilis sexus acquirit, many females in France inherited fiefs, and in Germany female heirs always did so as against males more remote in blood. In Brittany this usage originated the term ' homesse ' as title for a female vassal. The salic law referred in fact only to allodial estates, not to fiefs, least of all to the royal succession, as pleaded by Philip VI of Valois, in 1328, against Edward III of England [liallam, ch. i, pt. i]. As to the word 'salic,' Guerard has as good as proved that it is from 'sala,' the seignior's Aouse, terra salica meaning the 'home estate.' So Grimm, Eichhorn and Mittermeyer, but not Guizot, who holds to the old view connecting 'salic' with ' saP = the sea, and the ' Salian ' Franks. But salic land is much oftener mentioned in connection with other peoples than with the Salian Franks. It may have meant the entire estate or merely so much as had not been let out to coloni. Secretan, 405, takes it to include the whole, like the haereditas aviatica of the Ripuarian Franks. Cf. Ilallani, note iii to ch. ii; Martin, vol. iv, bk. xxviii [a very full and able discussion]. 194 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY 2 Immediately after the invasion there was a class of Teutonic pool the ////, parallel and similar to the coloni, both these being superior ta slaves. By the nth century liti and coloni are no longer distinguished, and the difference between them and slaves has become slight. This partly by elevation of the slaves. They are now serfs, bound to the soil, rather than mere personal chattels as once. This betterment came mostly through the influence of the church [ch. iii, § i6, n. 3], partly by the opera- tion of the Roman law rule partus seqiiitur vctitrem in determining per- sons' status as bond or free. Women oftener than men married beneath them. ' Villains ' were in regular feudal times on nearly the same level with serfs, but the name usually denotes non-agricultural roturiers, as the people about the castle, villa or village. Villains are thus more closely related than serfs to the bourgeois, town-folk, or third estate. Cf. Guizut, Lect. vii, viii, 2d course. ' Roturier ' is, according to Du Cange, from rup- tuarius = a peasant, and this from agrum rumpere, to break the soil. 3 Were not, that is, subject to any neighboring feudal lord but to the king alone; i.e., in effect independent. Notice how Roman law influences there kept feudalism from attaining the power in South France which it had in North. Not only allods still remained, but there were waste lands, theoretically the king's, practically >-es nullius. * For the relation of fealty, or fidelity, to homage, § i, n. I; also § 8, n. 5. For the kindred di>tinction between a 'justice '-hef and a fief proper or land-fief, Secretan, 437 sqq. § 12 Defects and Merits Guizot, ad course, iv. Duruy, 237 sqq. Hallam, ch. ii, pt. ii. As a form of government, feudalism was about the worst possible. Its principle of subordination could not be enforced : disquiet, wars, insecurity were terrible and continual. What order the system did succeed in evok- ing was more dearly bought than under other types of despotism. The little but officious sovereign, so near, perpetually reminded his subjects of their condition, while their paucity delivered him from the necessity of governing by general rules. Personal government here developed its least worthy species, the prince depending FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY I95 on force instead of law, ignorant, wilful and cut off by the system from all natural or competent advisers. Nor were these evils, as in many historical despotisms, as- suaged by a stately mechanism or an evident high mis- sion of the government, suggesting divine ordination. It cannot be said that feudalism inherited all these ills : it aggravated most that it received, engendered new from its own bosom. But we may admit that it ; i In efforts toward public order had society and the times against it.^ 2 Somewhat ameliorated the condition of mere serfs.^ 3 Through its aristocratic form of tenure, favored the subjugation of lands and the introduction of improved agricultural methods more than a freer system could then have done.^ 4 Greatly furthered sentiments of chivalry, such as honor, fealty to superiors and the exaltation of woman.* 5 Was a main source of the ideas of self-dependence, personal dignity and regard for personal liberty,^ as these appear in modern govern- ments and life. 6 Greatly aided through its cultivation, direct and indirect, of these ideas, to effect first the birth then the enfranchisement of that third estate^ which the Roman empire had annihilated and by the aid of which alone the Capetian kings were enabled to recreate government in the proper political sense, public and centralized. ' Cf. §3. 2 Feudalism herein merely concurred with other causes, religion and the growth of men's knowledge of men. It acted partly by the promi- nence it gave to the principle of land, making the slave an adscriptus glebae [§ 8, n. i] instead of a personal chattel, and partly by its continual exhibition of free men contending for their freedom as a precious thing. 8 So Inama-Sternegg, also Maine, V. C, 162. Possessors of land en- forced drainage, clearing and the like. 196 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY * Weber, IVeltgesch., I, 757; Symonds, Age of the Despots, vii; Hallam, ch. ii; Duruy, 239 sqq.; Secrelan, 210 sqq. Feudal law, herein according with both Roman law and Teutonic custom, kept woman under tutelage, yet treating her less and less as a chattel. The estal)lishments of Nor- mandy alone among feudal codes declare that ' no woman has response in a laic court.' The nobles, forced to be much at home, cultivated and came to enjoy the society of their wives and children. In turn this devel- oped female character. But much was now doing aside from feudalism or chivalry to ennoble the individual and to heighten esteem for woman. In the latter regard, worship of the Virgin had great effect. Throughout these rude centuries the church stood nobly, on the whole, for freedom. Serfs became priests, might mount the papal throne itself. ^ All feudal life displayed these. Even feudalism's worst evils, its anarchy and private wars, had thus their saving aspect. See Kitchin, vol. I, bk. iii, ch. iv, also Mills and Clark, as in bibliog. « See § 16. § 13 German Feudalism Secretan, 142-170. Schulte, Reicks- u. Rechtsgesch., 144-287. This differed considerably from French. It was far less homogeneous, embracing three forms of subordina- tion which remained to the last legally distinct, here mentioned in an order exactly the reverse of that of their origination : i LcJinnxht, public feudalism or feu- dalism proper.^ Strictly the terms fcudiDU, vassal and LclmsDiann relate to this alone. Here we have a con- tract truly feudal, and a system somewhat like the French. 2 ScJuitr^rccJit, quasi-feudalism, the relation be- tween the freeman too poor to equip a horse for war, and the duke or count whom he paid to represent him. This sort of arrangement began under Henry the Fowler^ during the Avar wars, and made itself perma- nent. 3 Hofrccht, or private feudalism, the continuation of the old comitatus-rclation. Vassals of this species, called ministerials, were of very various conditions, form FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY I97 ing two great classes, the non-military, who fell to the rank of serfs or half-serfs, and the military, who were free, and many of whom became knights, superior in rank to men under Schutzrecht. Indeed the distinction between military ministerials and vassals proper grew to be in time mostly nominal. But even the public feudalism of Germany had features of strong contrast with the French. The great immediate fief-holders here never bore to the king, which was finally the case in France, the same relation as vassals upon the royal domains. Other peculiarities of the institution in Ger- many were the legal and regular manner of its introduc- tion and its connection with royalty. Here royalty in- troduced feudalism, and was, as to its power, annihilated by the same, while in France feudalism introduced a royal line at whose hands itself perished. Note too the late origin of German feudalism proper, at the close of the Carolingian period. ^ German feudal law allowed various forms of investiture, correspond- ing to the various symbols which stood for the different classes of fiefs. Lay fiefs of the first class [immediate] were symbolized by the flag \^Fahne'\ and hence called Fahnlehen, ecclesiastical liefs of this class by the sceptre, lay rear-fiefs by the gauntlet, ecclesiastical by the key. — Secre- tan, 311. 2 See Ch. V, § 7. 8 A fief under Hofrecht was called s. ' Dienstleken* ont under Lehn- recht a *■ Re-chtslehen^ a rear-fief an ' After lehen ' [Latin, ' sttbfeudum ']. § 14 Italian Secreian, 171-185. Hallam, ch. i, pt. i, ch. iii. Duruy, ch. xxix. Ifeier, If^eit- gesch., I, 699 sqq. Symonds, Age of the Despots. Burckhardt, Renaissance in Italy, pt. I. In Italy ^ feudalism had no special internal peculiarity but suffered decided modifications from other institu- 198 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY tions, viz. the church and the communes. The con- quest by Karl the Great changed Italian feudalism in no essential, except to give extraordinary place in it to immunities and honors, which the Franks introduced here just as they were turning hereditary. By eccle- siastical immunities especially, Otho I sought to coun- tervail and humble the Italian counts in their struggle for independence. The power thus obtained by bishops in and about their towns, while it was the germ of municipal liberties, soon raised up a new class of tyrants and rebels, more dangerous to imperial pretensions than the first. Hence we see in Italy the rare spectacle of emperors earnestly strengthening their lay vassals^ as a check to the capitaiii or heads of the great episcopal families. Conrad the Salian and his son, Henry III, went farthest in this policy. Cities too were now favored as against the bishops, both by the emperor and by feudal nobles. The might of the communes, thus fostered first under episcopal preeminence then by imperial and feudal patronage, became at the open- ing of the Hohenstaufen period invincible. They quite eclipse in splendor and power all but a few of the feu- dal aristocrats, many of whom seek alliances with them. Numerous cities of the twelfth century, having acquired the corpora sancta of their bishops, swayed territories larger than counties. Several made other cities tribu- tary. Many on the other hand accepted the protection and the rule of neighboring barons. The communes were hence as impotent as feudalism to give Italy a governmental system. Destitute of union except so long as forced to this by imperial persecution, those which secured their liberties were not able to guard FEUDALISM AND THE FRENXH MONARCHY 1 99 them, and fell prey to tyrants, who, however, were not feudal.^ No other land in feudal times promised free- dom as did Italy, none has enjoyed it so little. 1 By Italy here North Italy is of course meant : in the South feudalism had much more of its Norman completeness. Cf. §§ i, 2. 2 Making them hereditary, e.g. ^ But pure upstarts, like those of ancient Greece. See Burckhardt, Renaissance, and Symonds, Age of the Despots, esp. ch. ii. A few, how- ever, rose in part by the aid of real or alleged feudal right, or of imperial office, and were hence somewhat more tolerable than the lawless condot- tieri like Guarnieri, whose corslet bore the legend : ' Enemy of God, of Pity and of Mercy '; or Doge Agnello of Pisa, whose servants waited oa him on their knees; or Giangaleazzo of Milan, who quartered 5000 boar- hounds on his peasants; or his son, Giovan Maria, who used hounds for his bodyguard, feeding them no flesh but human, which he enjoyed seeing them tear from living subjects. § 15 English Stubbs, chaps, i-vii; cf. his Select Charters, pt. i. Hallam, ch. viii. Gneist, Eng. Constitution, ch. i. Freeman, Growth of do., 740 sqq. ; Norman Conquest, ch. iii. Green, H. of Eng. People, bk. ii. The Normans found England already in process of becoming feudal. The old system ^ of holding lands community-wise had been introduced by the Saxons into England only in part. The folclands^ and the common holdings of Saxon townships were traces of it, but the rule was individual possession. This gravitated toward feudalism through the influence of the comitatus. As in early France, victorious leaders parcelled out con- quered districts among their followers, to which addi- tions from the folclands were made from time to time to reward old retainers or win new. Only, in Saxon England, the tie between landholders and their supe- riors was to the very Conquest at bottom personal in- stead of properly feudal. The landholder owned his 200 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY land in fee simple, his debt of military service being re- sult of ownership, not condition of usufruct. The land- less were obliged to have patrons but might elect and change these. Of course the distinction between this and a feudal system was not obvious, and several things increased the resemblance : i Unity of the kingdom in- stituted at once a perfect hierarchy of relations, from the king downward to all recipients of folcland and their dependents. 2 Every possessor of folcland had juris- diction throughout his territory. 3 Commendation by allodial holders was frequent, especially during the Danish wars. 4 ' Heriots ' resembled reliefs.^ Yet in spite of these feudal features the essence of feudalism, at least as to central tenure of land, was not yet present. It came only with the Conquest. Vast numbers of Norman landholders were then substituted for Saxon, and in all other cases the above relations speedily came to be construed silently according to Norman feudal law, England being saved from the thorough-going feudal system of Normandy only by the sturdy and enlightened royal ambition of the Conqueror and his successors, which preserved the Norman-English kingship as an efficient central power, public, not feudal, in character.* 1 See Ch. IV' , § 9, n. 2. * I.e.. public lands, the very name indicating that commons and waste patches belnged to the folk, not to the ting. 3 For the nature of the 'relief,' § 4, n. i. The heriot, like the relief, was some piece of property or symbol thereof sent from among the effects of a deceased vassal to that vassal's lord, but with the difference that the heriot looked to the past, as a restoration of loaned property, while the relief regarded the future, iieing n. sort of fee in a suit for re-grant of land. Heriots purported to proceed from dead vassals, reliefs from the heirs of such. FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY 20I * The Norman-English feudal constitution proceeded, like the German, from the king, instead of being prepared /or him as in France. William and his successors continued to govern by sheriffs and militia, as the Saxon kings had. All landholders of consequence were made their immediate vassals. The fiefs of all the great vassals were assigned in numerous widely separated pieces and localities. Rear vassals, like their suzerains had to swear allegiance to king directly. The new line became kings theoretically not by conquest but as heirs of Edward, hence as kings of Saxons, of the whole people, not merely of their Norman fief-holders. Under this plea they were able to conserve whatever of Saxon things favored royal power as against the barons. In the sequel, this adroit fiction told powerfully for English liberty. See the author's Inst, of Constitutional Hist., I, §§ 9 sqq. § i6 Communes and the Third Estate Rev. kistoriqtte , xxi, 91 sqq. Guizot, Civilization in Europe, vii [2d course, xvi-xix]. May, Democracy in Europe, chaps, vii, xii-xviii. Blanc, Revolution Franqaise, Liv. II, i. During the long wrestle of the French king with his barons rose a third power, the people, destined to final victory over both. It began and for six hundred years served as an ally of monarchy. By the twelfth century numerous French communes, having from their oppres- sion learned to love and defend liberty, were after strug- gles long and brave, at last free, with elective officers, high justice^ and their own legislation. To insure them- selves against their old feudal masters they sought rec- ognition and charters from the king on condition of assisting him in war. It was by their contingents that Philip Augustus conquered at Bouvines.^ Their aid was at length so decisive that the lords too were glad to purchase it by larger grants of liberty and immunity.^ But the communes, which soon sank in significance, opposed feudalism less in this direct manner than as cradles of a new and incalculable social force, the third 202 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY estate. The cities that had aided the king to his inde- pendence'* he might rob wholly or partly of theirs, still the burgher spirit remained and increased. Most royal officers, as bailiffs, seneschals and pr6v6ts,were burghers, whose numbers and power as well as many of their spe- cific acts wrought to exalt their class and depress aris- tocracy. All secular, especially all legal,^ learning, all technical skill, business enterprise and administrative talent, all great wealth that was mobile, and in particu- lar all earnest national feeling*^ belonged to the third estate. It thus became the leading force in France's political progress, aiding monarchy to first place as against feudalism, then turning against the two, now united to fight it, and thenceforth never lowering its hand till constitutional government was attained^ ^ The communes, more strictly so-called, were the towns Mans [the first] Cambrai, Beauvais, Laon, Amiens, Rheims, Etampes, V^zelay, and a few others, which forcibly wrested their liberty from lords' grasp, high justice and all, while boroughs or villes de bourgeoisie were towns which obtained in a pacific way concessions mostly short of high justice. For- mally less free than communes, they succeeded better in retaining what freedom they had. Most boroughs were of medieval origin, but the borough franchise is found to have belonged to many cities, like Paris and Orleans, which, though ancient, seem not to have kept up, as did Marseilles, Aries, Nismes, Narbonne and Toulouse, the Roman municipal regime [Ch. Ill, § 13, n. 4]. Every commune had what was called high justice, i.e., could inflict the severest fines and penalties. Some of the boroughs had this haute justice, others only the tuoycnne or the basse, ac- cording to the terms of their charters. Feudal lords likewise had the haute, moyenne or basse, according to their rank. 2 In 1 214, over the formidable allied armies of King John of England and the Emperor Otho IV. Contingents from 16 French towns fought under Philip's banners. His opponents also had burgher forces from most of the Flemish cities. To this battle, which humbled John, England is in- debted for the Great Charter. feudalism' and the FRENCH MONARCHY 2CT, 8 It became the policy of many great feudatories to attract peasants to their lands by forming villages with special privileges. See Duruy, 340, the charter given by Count Henri of Troyes to his Villeneuve. The charter was commonly accompanied by a code of laws, ' customs,' for the inhabitants. Giraud, appendix to vol. i, has an interesting collection of these charters and codes : for Strassburg, Bigorre, Sindelsberg, Soest, Nieuport, Medebach, Montpellier, Carcasonne, Martel, Albi, Furnes, Tou- louse and Freiburg in Breisgau. * There were of course many ancillary causes of this Capetian triumph over feudal aristocracy. The foremost were (i) the intrinsic weakness of feudalism itself, (2) the length of the reigns of most Capetian kings, (3) the study oi Roman law, (4) frequent choice by vassals of the king as arliiter in their quarrels, (5) the favor of the Galilean clergy, partly out of fear of the king, partly out of love and loyalty, (6) the crusades, impoverishing aristocracy, deranging its constitution and disseminating new ideas, and (7) the creation of an order of royal officers in the proper, non-feudal sense, thoroughly in the interests of the crown : those bailiffs, seneschals and prevots mentioned in the text. * Bailiffs ' was the name of these missi dominici [for such they essentially were] in North France, 'seneschals' in the South. Prevots were officers of a lower grade, admin- istrative and judicial in function, confined to the provinces directly pos- sessed by the descendants of Hugh Capet. Most of the king's immediate feudatories, following his example, created bailiffs, or seneschals, and pre- vots each for his own territory. As one great fief after another became incorporated in the royal domain the local legal and administrative ma- chinery hence adjusted itself easily to the general. Bastard d'Estang, ch. iii. ^ Jurists especially were third estate men. They carried over to the king of France the ascriptions of authority which the Roman law couples with the emperor. St. Louis permitted cities of South France to use Roman law as their municipal law. 8 From about 1214, date of the battle of Bouvines, not before, we may speak of ' France ' as a political unity, and can detect an incipient enthu- siasm for France as a nation [see next §]. Aristocrats have often had loyally, rarely strong patriotism. This is emphatically a popular virtue. ' Cf. Ch. X, passim, esp. § 6. 204 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY § 17 SuGER AND Philip Augustus Haliam, ch. i, pt. i. Guizot, 2d course, xiii. Kitchin, vol. i, bk. iti, chaps, v, vi, vii. Milman, IX, iv. Martin, vols, iii, iv. While the Capctians pursued from an early period a political policy, their progress consisted for long mainly in the increase of their feudal power and territory. It was slight at best. In spite of the acquisition of Bur- gundy by Robert, Philip I, 1060-1108, excommunicated by the pope ^ and at war with William the Conqueror, saw the new royalty at its nadir, the duchy of F'rance, which was the substance and almost the whole of his kingdom, reduced to five counties, between which inso- lent lords disputed his passage. From this time the course is upward.^ That march of political monarchy in France, ending in the absolutism of Louis XIV, which made the king the sole judge, administrator and legislator in the land, began with Louis the Fat, 1108— 'ly. This able monarch attacked insubordinate nobles with energy and success, introducing the principle of his statesmanlike minister Suger,^ that the royal power was to be viewed and used as an organ of public order and justice. This was henceforth a settled doctrine of the house. Philip Augustus acted upon it in a far larger and bolder way still. He refused to do homage for any of his fiefs whatever,^ attacked by the qiiaran- taine-le-roy^ the right of private war, and roused the spirit and pride of nationality by successful opposition to the nation's foes in the great victory of Bouvines, where French patriotism figured for the first time in history.^ Further, by combined fortune, fraud, force and diplomacy, Philip wrested from John the possession FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY 20$ of Normandy and the suzerainty of Bretagne, Poitou, Maine, Touraine and Anjou," results the more remark- able as, shortly before, English power in France, so predominant, seemed on the point of absorbing the French kingdom entire. Lastly, without taking part in the crusade against the Albigenses, he inaugurated the movement whereby that crusade was to result ^ under Saint Louis, in the addition to the royal domains, which apart from this Philip had doubled, of the whole vast territories of the Counts of Toulouse. 1 See Ch. V, § i6, n. 3. Philip was ten years under the ban and then submitted. Papal intervention in this case was honorable and its eft'ect beneficial. William the Conqueror corrupted Philip's feudatories by offer- ing them lands across channel, and Philip revenged himself by stirring Robert, William's son, to revolt. 2 Interesting to notice how in the succession of Capetians able kings alternated with faineants. To Philip I succeeds Louis the Fat, one of whose best-deserved titles was ' the wide-awake.' Louis VII came next [ii37-'8o], with equal propriety dubbed 'the foolish.' It was he who lost above 50,000 men for naught in the second crusade, and who, by the divorce of his first queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, alienated that province with Poitou to England, whose soon-to-be King Henry II married Eleanor in six weeks from her divorce. Suger opposed this divorce in vain. Philip Augustus, France's next monarch [1180-1223J, was one of her very greatest, a worthy successor of Charlemagne, but Louis VIII [i223-'267 was wholly insignificant, leaving ' no glory save that of having been the son of Philip Augustus, the husband of Blanche of Castile, and the father of St. Louis.' Philip the Bold [layo-'Ss] and Philip the Fair [1285- 1314] show the same alternation, and so in some degree do the next pair, Louis X [1314-16] and Philip V [i3i6-'22]. The line ends with Charles IV [i322-'28]. At his death rose the great question whether or not the succession should be governed by the Salic law [§ 11, n. i], Edward III of England, Philip Fair's grandson, claiming as next of kin, though in female line, against Philip of Valois, who succeeded as Philip VI, being nearest in the male line. ^ Suger's was an interesting life. He and Louis [the Fat] were brought 206 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY up together, the prince with the chanty boy, in the monastery of St. Denis, where they grew to l^e warm friends. When Louis in i io8 became king, he took his old intimate for his minister. * As all his Capetian predecessors had had to do for sof»e fiefs. Philip's refusal was an assumption of a pronounced superiority in kind, of the king over all, even the greatest, of those landholders hitherto esteemed his peers. ^ 'The king's forty days,' an enforced truce for that length of time between a murder, e.g., and the taking of private vengeance, which the times were as yet too rude to forbid entirely. Yet the interval often led to adjudication by regular legal methods. Choiseul-Daillecourt, Inf. des Croisades, n. 99. ® See § 16, n. 2. " Arthur Plantagenet [duke of Brittany, and so Philip's vassal], son of Geoflrey, John's elder brother, wished to wrest England from Jolin. Philip permitted French knights to join the expedition. But on April 3, 1203, Arthur was assassinated, by John's own hand according to Guizot, at any rate through his agency. See Freeman, Norm. Conq., ch. xxvii. Philip summons John as his vassal for Normandy to answer for this felony, and on his non-appearance declares that immense fief forfeited to the crown of France. Bretagne, which had been a sub-fief to Normandy, becomes an immediate fief of France, carrying with it Poitou, Maine, Touraine and Anjou, which had subjected themselves to Arthur on Richard's death. On the rise of the French power of the English kings, Duruy, 376. Cf. Green's map, IL of Eng. People, vol. i, p. 160 [Shorter H., p. 100]. * Martin, vol. iv, 348. The settlement of 1229, at the close of the ter- rible Albigensian Crusade [Ch. VII, § 16], was to the effect that Ray- mond VII, the new Count of Toulouse, should give up all lower Languedoc to France at once, hold the remainder of the Toulouse possessions during his life, and make them at death the dowry of his only daughter, \X\q fiancee of Alphonso, Philip's third son. The Capetian house thus became for the first time dominant in the South. Philip Augustus did not live to see the arrangement of 1229, yet it resulted from his astute planning. Observe that the Capetian power marched forward by i) increasing the lands im- mediately belonging to the duchy of France, and ii) reducing the peers of France, or crown vassals, to a subjection practically as complete as that of the vassals of France, the legal difference of these two species of subjection being at length lost from view. The evolution had gone far even under Philip Augustus, whom we find treating crown vassals as if they had be- longed to his French duchy, forcing them to defer to him, hitherto regarded their peer, as their liege suzerain. Heeren, Pol. IVcrke, II, 166 sq. FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY 20/ § i8 Saint Louis Hasson, St. Louis and the 13th century. Martin, vol. v. Milman, XI, i. Kitchin, vol. i, bk. iii, ch. viii. Guizot, 2d course, xiv. Saint Louis, 1 226-' 70, was a brave, a sagacious and, at home, a successful captain,^ yet of his vast territorial acquisitions the sword was much less the instrument than happy negotiations and alliances. His mightiest engine in uplifting his kingdom was after all the tran- scendent excellence of his character. With little of the folly then so commonly attaching to preeminent devo- tion, he was a man of the most pronounced religious conviction and life, in righteousness the light of his time, another Aurelius, a better Charlemagne, richly meriting his title of ' Saint.' Abroad he exalted France, being repeatedly chosen arbiter of disputes concerning other rulers,^ at home he sanctified royalty, the tendency ever after him being to view the king as of necessity the embodiment and source of justice. Thus the royal jurisdiction acquired a prestige and steadiness hitherto unknown. Louis was politic as well as good and brave. More feudal in spirit than his grandfather, less inclined to open breach with the old system, he used meas- ures far more fatal to it than any of those of Philip Augustus. His abolition throughout the royal domains proper, of judicial combats,^ was an innovation veritably revolutionary. He also dared to legislate for the do- mains of his vassals, to call burghers into his council and to broaden the right of appeal from feudal to royal courts as well as the class of causes which these alone could try. Every freeman might now if he would, be tried before the kincr's bailiff if not before the kins: him- 208 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY self. The new rigor and frequency of royal assizes in^ sisted upon by this just ruler brought about the momen- tous change of the king's court and the court of peers into the Parliament of Paris.* In this, the ignorance of the feudal judges unfitting them to handle the now necessary evidence and laws, especially the Roman, more and more pressing into use, plebeian jurisconsults were introduced to aid them. The judiciary became affair of the third estate. Thus, the lawyers as well as the law which they mainly administered being favorable to the king, the entire course of feudal as of royal justice was under his influence and made to minister to his ends.^ 1 For his ill success as a crusader, see Ch. VII, § 15. St. Louis pushed conquests at home by no means as far as he might easily have done but for his conscientious and pacific temper. He labored less to extend than to unify and consolidate his realm, to establish order and diffuse and deepen the national spirit. Under him monarchy has become essential to the feudal system, it being now a maxim that the whole lay jurisdiction ema- nates from the king. Hence feudalism from this time rapidly declines [§ i ij. 2 Most memorable was his intervention between Henry III of England, and his barons. He decided favorably to the English monarchy, yet ex- pressly saving the Great Charter and England's traditional liberties, beau- tifully exhorting withal, ' that the king of England and his barons do mutually forgive each other, that they do forget all the resentments that may exist between them in consefjuence of the matters submitted to our arbitration, and that henceforth they do refrain reciprocally from any of- fence and injury on account of the same.' The appeals of Henry and of the barons and Louis's response are all given in full in Stubbs, Select Charters, 406 sqq. Freeman, Norman Conquest, vol. i. 52, makes Alfred the greatest of all human rulers and .St. Louis next. But Louis could not wholly transcend his age. His 'establishments ' condemn heretics to death. He sanctioned the Inquisition, and his confidence in the miraculous power of saints' relics was unbounded, causing him often to be imposed upon by vendors. ^ By feudal law doubtful cases were often decided by various sorts ol ordeals. The defendant must plunge his arm in boiling svater and with' FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY 2O9 k ftw it unharmed, walk upon burning coals receiving no injury, or float in U e water with his arms tied. Plaintiff and defendant often fought to djcide guilt, or a suitor regularly condemned might quash his sentence by a successful duel — judicial combat — with each judge who had declared against him, a custom which made might sole determinant of right. Louis's law abrogating this barbarous practice, though meant at first only for his own domain, Philip Fair applied little by little in the remotest districts of France. See Martin, vol. iv, 290 sqq., 303, 311 sqq. Martin, from the origin of the word ' gage ' in the phrase ' gage of battle ' [gage = pledge : the challenger leaving a pledge with the judges] considers the custom as of Celtic not less than of German origin. * Martin, vol. iv. 294; Thierry, Tiers Etat, I, ii; Bancroft and Des- maze, as in bibliog. ; Secretan, 500 sqq. The origin of the Parliament of Paris is uncertain and has occasioned much controversy. The most recent investigations derive it not from the ancient national assemblies [Ch. IV, § I5> 1. 3] but from the king's council, i.e., his feudal court. This in turn had grown up from a blending of i) the old feudal court of the duchy of France, such as all the great vassals had, with ii) the court of peers, which Philip Augustus assembled in 1203 for the condemnation of John. We read little of the latter court save on this memorable occasion, for the reason that it pertained to royalty, which till now had for centuries been in abeyance; but the court cannot have been created now. We regard it as in some sort related to the ancient national assemblies. The king's council grew into the Parliament of Paris by assuming certain attributions, anti-feudal in nature, from the royal chamber, to which the king's bailiffs and seneschals rendered their accounts. This famous Parliament [several similar ones subsequently existed in various parts of France], whose history is traceable from this time to the Revolution, was mainly noi a legislature but a court, yet with administrative and even legislative functions [Ch. X, § 9], division of these powers not being yet thought necessary. The new royal and Romanic judicial system killed out in France the jury-element present in old feudal justice, — this at precisely the time when the jury was becoming a great power in England. See Stubbs, Constitutional History, ch. xiii. ^ In keeping with this was the new definiteness imported even into feudal law by St. Louis's famous ' establishments.' This same king under- mined papal power as truly and as unwittingly as he did feudal. His ' pragmatic sanction ' contained the principles of Gallicanism, subordinating church to state and setting firm limits to papal power in Frnnce. 'The ecclesiastical supremacy built up by a hero, crumbled under the strokes of a saint.' — Martin, IV, 310; Bastard d'Estang, ch. v. 210 feudalism and the french monarchy § 19 Philip the Fair Martin, vols, iv-vi. Hallam, ch. vii, pt. ii. Duruy, 400 sqq. Milman, XI, viii sqq, XII. Tosti, Storia di Bonifazio I'lll e di suoi tempi, 2 v. Kitchin, vol. i, bk. iii, ch. X. Guizot, 2d course, xv. This energetic monarch, 1285-13 14, continued Saint Louis's poUcy, but in a different spirit, less feudal, less religious, far less just.^ The age of crusades and of religious fanaticism was past, that of politics come. Philip was the 'lawyers' king,' the spirit of the pan- dects ^ swaying all his acts. Not without desire of con- quest or success therein,^ he labored chiefly to make his monarchy absolute. He (i) gets into his hands the coinage of money,* hitherto partaken by most of the great lords, (2) renders himself independent of his vas- sals by employing hired soldiers ^ and (3) secures the favor of the third estate by summoning their delegates to the states-general.^ This was in 1302, when Pope Boniface VIII excommunicated Philip for taxing the clergy. Influenced by the new study of canon law, this haughty pope renewed all the assumptions of Greg- ory VII and Innocent III.'' But times had changed and excommunication no longer inspired the old terror. Un- popular as was Philip through the rigor and exactions of his rule, the pope proved more so. The Inquisition and the wealth and insatiable pecuniary demands of the clergy with the dissoluteness of the lives of many among them had alienated the popular heart. The bull cicricis laicos^ forbidding all ecclesiastics to pay tribute unless permitted by Rome, awakened the more hostility from the limitation which Saint Louis had already put to papal authority in Prance, and although the charges of FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY 211 misconduct which the aiiscjilta fill brought against Philip were mostly true, the latter found not only the states, general but the solid nation at his back against the pope. Boniface, defeated, died, and with him, so far as its power was concerned, his theory of the papacy. 'The drama of Anagni is to be set against the drama of Canossa.'^ With the papacy fell its chief supporters in France, the Templars. The king's attack upon these, witnesses in the strongest manner to the power royalty had now attained, since they were numerous and wealthy, related to all the aristocracy of Europe, and nowise clearly guilty of the charges brought against them.^*^ 1 Martin, IV, 392, well sets forth how despicable Philip Fair's govern- ment was. Had it not been a means to something better than itself it would appear even less tolerable than feudalism. We are in doubt whether to approve his motives in attacking the Inquisition, forbidding clerks to practise in civil courts or any but manifest heretics to be imprisoned on religious grounds. 2 SeeCh. Ill, § 11, esp. n. 5. 3 He took Guyenne from Edward I of England, and conquered all Flanders except Ghent. Flanders was then the richest land in Europe. He inherited his father's war with Aragon, in which he was less successful, though retaining Navarre. * Saint Louis had wrought at this problem but had succeeded only in imparting a measure of honesty to the seignorial coinage without getting rid of this. Our present word 'seigniorage' to denote the amount by which a piece's real value falls below its face value attests the manner in whicli feudal ' seigniors ' turned coining to their own advantage. The practice of Philip was no better. See Martin, IV, 426. ^ The beginning in France of standing armies. ^ An assembly of the barons, chief ecclesiastics and deputies of com- munes, 2 or 3 from each, 'to deliberate on certain affairs concerning in the highest degree king, kingdom, church and all and sundry.' Its prototype was the ancient national assembly, now so long in desuetude, yet this of April 10, 1302, was a fresh beginning, and is justly reckoned as the first states-general in French history. Had the feudal aristocrats been wise 212 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY they would, as they then could, have prevented this influential precedent of summoning burghers. ' See Ch. V, §§ 13 sqq. ® These papal bulls are usually, as here, named by their opening words. On Saint Louis's attitude to the papal power in France, see last §, n. 5. In the Jilt am sanctum Boniface even exceeded in assumption his famous predecessors named. I, he said, am emperor and king in being pope. He was the pontiff who founded the University of Rome, mainly to ad- vance the claims and widen the knowledge of canon law. See Creighton, Papacy during Reformation, Int.; Voigt, Wicderbelebiing d. kl. Alter- thiims, II, 44. ® Martin. Wm. of Nogaret, a bright but pliant emissary of Philip, went to Anagni where Boniface was sojourning, and, allying himself with Sciarra Colonna, the pope's deadliest enemy, and bribing the militia of Anagni, secured Boniface's person. Colonna even smote the pontiff, 86 years of age, with his ironed gauntlet, which must have been a con- cause of his death. See Duruy, 410. The popes now became creatures of French kings. Omitting Benedict XI, the first [reigning but 7 or 8 months], Boniface's 7 immediate successors resided at Avignon [papal territory indeed from 1348-1791 yet within and subject to France], and the western church was as subservient to France as the eastern of old to the emperor. Creighton, I, 22 sq., shows how this enslavement pro- ceeded from the introduction of Anjou into Naples [Ch. V, last § and notes], the precise arrangement which popes supposed would set them free. ^^ On the suppression of the Templars, see Michelet, France, vol. iii; Milman, XII, i, ii, v; Werner, Templars in Cyprus [a poem]. § 20 Monarchy Supreme Duruy, Temps Moderxes, ch. ii. Kirk, Hist, of Charles the Bold. Commines, Memoirs [of Louis XL Charles VHI and Charles the Bold]. Student's France, bk. iv. Kitchin, vol. ii. bk. i. At Philip the Fair's death in 13 14 the French mon- archy stood forth as a victorious national and political power, past all serious danger.^ Even the desperate feudal reaction under Charles VII and Louis XI,^ 1422- '83, was unavailing. If the Hundred Years' War,'' 1339- 1453, weakened the monarchy absolutely, it precisely as FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY 213 in England much strengthened it relatively to all the feudal elements of society. Many old aristocratic fami- lies were ruined, standing armies were introduced, for- eign war had deepened and quickened national feeling. The end of the fifteenth century saw feudal opposition to royalty practically dead, France one state and people with but one law for all. The monarchy after Louis XI was theoretically as well as practically absolute, the states-general at Tours in 1484 propounding the maxim that *all justice emanates from the king.' Francis I could confirm his ordinances by the ^ car tel est notre bon plaisi)\ and the descendants of those lords before whom early Capetians had trembled learned to beg as a distinguished honor the privilege of passing the king his food at dinner or his night-robe when he retired. Two errors must here be avoided, that of supposing the whole of feudalism to have vanished with its power against the king,* and that of regarding this victory by monarchy immediately a victory for freedom.^ To a great extent it was the reverse. Kings protected com- munal liberties only while the communes were of aid in fighting aristocracy. The aristocracy, once humbled, found the king ever its trusty ally against the third estate, which in the great Revolution had to overthrow both together. 1 Philip Augustus was the last prospective French king to be crowned during a father's lifetime, as had been thought the necessary course among the earlier Capetians and in the empire [Ch. V, § 9, n. 2]. Philip the Bold's coronation was delayed months after Saint Louis's death. 2 Duruy and Kirk, as above. To Louis XI at his accession, 1461, the outlook was indeed forbidding. The aristocracy made its last great light for supremacy in the so-called I.igue Jti hien public, formed by 500 princes or lords and headed by the famous Charles the Bold, or Rash, duke of 214 FEUDALISM AND THE FRENCH MONARCHY Burgundy. The latter's domains about equalled Louis's in size [see Bryce, Ajipendix A], and he was bent on enlarging them into a vast kingdom con- terminous with that which the Treaty of Verdun, 843, had given to Lothar [Ch. V, § 7, n. 2], a plan necessitating his seizure of Switzerland. He was encouraged rather than aided against Louis by Edward IV of Eng- land, now in mid-struggle against Lancaster. But Charles, falling out with Emperor Frederic IH, besieges Neuss, then attacks the Swiss, giving Louis leisure to subdue all his other turbulent vassals. Charles's fall in the battle of Nancy, against the Swiss, Jan. 5, 1477, left the French king absolute master. It must be remembered that Charles the Bold was duke and vassal of France only in respect to the southwestern section of his territories, i.e., the northwestern part of the ancient kingdom of Bur- gundy, joined to France by Clovis's sons [Ch. IV, § 17], now the depart- ments of Cbte-iV Or, Yonne and Nievre, and that for Franche-Contte, nearly the present department of Haute Saoue, he was a count and a vassal of the empire. For his power in the Netherlands also, and the complex manner of its rise, see Freeman, Hist'l Geog., 300 sqq. Duruy sums up Louis's work at T. M. p. 25. Cf. Michelet [Eng.], bk. xi, ch. ii, Martin, vols, viii, ix, and Willert, Reign of Louis XI. The year of Louis's death, 1483, witnessed the birth of Luther and of Rabelais. ^ The neatest account of this war from the French side is Duruy, Moyen Age, ch. xxvii. Read also Student's France, bk. iv, and Kitchin, bk. iv [in vol. i]. * The League and the Fronde of Huguenot days were in large part feudal phenomena. See later sections of Ch. IX, also Ch. X, §§ 3-5. ^ Even the new civil law was nearly as faulty through its subtleties as the feudal had been through irregularity. Michelet, int. to vol. vii, seems to conceive the victory of monarchy as a downright curse, worse than feudalism. This is too severe. Interesting to mark how in Norman Eng- land, where the barons were fewer and more united than in France yet the king more advantageously placed from the first, neither party was ever in condition to slight the commons, and liberty strode forward early and strongly. Ch. IX, § 18, n. I. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY TO CHAPTER VII Islam: Duruy, Moyen Age, Livres II, VII. Oilman, Saracens [Story of Nations Ser.]. Guizot, II. of France, I. Gibbon,** Chaps. L-LXX. Milman,* L. C, IV, i, ii. ' Mohammedanism,' * in Encyc. Brit., and in Lalor's Cyclopaedia. Draper, Int'l Develop't of Eur., xi, xiii, xvi. Muir, Early Caliphate; Rise and Decline of Islam. Neale, H. of Islam, 2 v. Ockley [in Bohn], H. of the Saracens. Bosworth-Smith, Mohammed and Mohammedanism [Roy. Inst. Lectures]. Stobart, Islam and its Founder, v. Ranke, Weltgesch* Th. V. Hertzberg, Gesch. d. Byzan- tiner u. d. osmanischen Reichs. Arnold, Islam, its Character and Rel. to Ch'ty. Ali Malmi [a native of India], L. and Teachings of Mohammed [an apology]. Dozy, Essai stir I' hist. d. Islamisme. Weil, Mohammed : Leben u. Lehre ; Gesch. d. islam. V'dlher ; Gesch. der Khalifen, 5 v. Sprenger, Leben u. Lehre Mohammed's** 3 v. [the best]. Freeman, H. and Conq. of Saracens.** Kremer, Gesch. d. herrschenden Ldeen d. Lslams. Fairbairn, Policy of Islam [Contemp. Rev., Dec. 1882]. La Jonquiere, Hist, de Vempire Ottoman dcpuis les origines, etc. Miiller [in Oncken], Lslam im Morgen- u. Abendland** [i vol. out]. Hughes, Dictionary of Islam [.Scribner]. The Cki'sadks : 'Crusades,' in Encyc. Brit., and in Lalor's Cyclopivdia. Cox, Crusades* [Ep.of Hist.]. Michaud, H. of Crusades, 3 v. [last ed. 1840]. Mills, do., 2 v. Michelet, France, vol. ii. Kugler [in Oncken], Gesch. d. Kreitzziige** [the ablest: see ch. i, n., for literature]. Wilken, do., 7 v. [i8o7-'32]. v. Sybel, Gesch. d. ersten Kreuzzuges** ; Kl. hist. Schriften [several essays]; Ii. and Lit. of the Crusades.** Poole, ' Egypt,' in Encyc. Brit. Funk, Gemiclde aus dem Zeitalter d. K r e uzziige ** 3 v. Prutz, Kulturgcsch. d. Zeitalter d. Kreuzziige [1883]. Henne-am-Rhyn, Kiilturgesch. d. Kreuzziige [1884]. Raumer, Hohciistaufen* 6 v. Choiseul-Daillecourt, /,'/«- fluence des Croisadcs.** Heeren \^IIist. IVerkf, //], Folgen d. Kreuz- ziige.* [The 2 vvks. last named shared the French Institute prize in 1808.] Heyd, Ln'ontchandcl im Mittclalter** 2 v. Finlay, II. of (jreece,** 7 v. Hopf, Gesch. Griechenlands** [in Ersch u. Cruber's Encyclopadie]. Scott [Sir W.], Count Robert of Paris. Stephen, Lect. on H. of Fr., vi and vii. [The works of Giesebrecht and Hertzberg mentioned in bibliogg. to Chaps. IV and V contain valuable matter on hist, of Crusades.] CHAPTER VII ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES § I Arabia before Mohammed Gibbon, ch. 1. Sale's Koran, prelim. Disc, i. Mihnayt, IV, i. Kreel, Vorislatn. Flugel, Gesch. d. Araber. Duruy, ch. vi. ' Arabia,' in Encyc. Brit. To the Teutons, Slavs and Huns setting forth for the bouleversement of the world, succeeded the Arabs. Upon these remote nomads in their isolated home the great classic peoples and ages had scarcely exerted any influence.^ Of the conquerors : Alexander, the Ptole- mies, Pompey, Augustus, Trajan, who meditated Ara- bian conquest, the last alone gained foothold in the land, and he only in Petraea.^ The seventh century found the Arabs as they were earlier and are now, in a state of nature rather than of culture, intelligent though more imaginative than deep, warlike, living in clans, without ability or desire for strong or central govern- ment. Chronicles and myths were their only history, Sabianism ^ their dominant religion. Mecca with its Caaba* was already a national sanctuary, the centre of a sort of fetish cult, whose exact nature is unknown. Judaism was present, some tribes having embraced it. The Bible existed in Arabic and was respected. Chris- tians, mostly heretics, as Ebionitcs,^ Arians, Nestorians, Monophysites, had sought refuge there and disseminated 2l8 ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES their doctrines with more or less success. It resulted that monotheism had secured wide sway, and that among the more thoughtful, idolatry was less a convic- tion than a habit. 1 See Horace, Odes, I, xxix. III, xxiv, to the effect that the kings of Sabaea had never yet been conquered and that their immense weahh was yet ' intact.' The very expedition to which Horace refers in the earlier passage cited, i.e., that of Aelius Callus in B.C. 24, under Augustus, was an entire as well as a very costly failure. Alexander the Great intended to invade Arabia but died before executing his purpose. 2 The triangular piece of territory between the two branches of the Red Sea. ^ Star-worship, originally derived from Babylon, but in Mohammed's time modified by Christian elements. See Sale's Discourse, section i. The Sabians were tolerated by Mohammed on paying tribute, and were known in later centuries as the Christians of St. John the Baptist. * Gibbon, ch. 1, has a good description of this very ancient temple. When it was purified by Mohammed of its 360 idols, one of these was found to be a Byzantine image of the Virgin, the infant Christ in her arms. — Duruy, Moyen Age, 95. Duruy believes that part of the early Chris- tian influences in Arabia were from Abyssinia. The Abyssinians were Christians, and had conquered S. W. Arabia [Yemen] in 525 A.D. ^ The Ebionites were those numerous primitive Christians who, while accepting Christ, still held to all the Jewish observances. The other sects named are briefly described at Ch. Ill, § 19. Cf. Hagenbach, H. of Doc- trines, index, and Sale's Disc, ii. § 2 Mohammed Milman, IV, i. Draper, xi. Wellhausen, Muhanuned in Medina [Lit. Centralblatt, 44, 1882]. Irving, Mahomet and his Successors. ' Mohammedanism,' in Encyc. Brit. Mohammed originated much, l)ut less than is com- monly supposed. Among the world's great men he is the hardest to judge fairly, — not an impostor, nor a mere fanatic, yet fanatical, politic, selfish and unscrupu- ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 2I9 lous while deeply religious, nervous, given to visions, perhaps mentally deranged.^ His early history is little known.^ He was of noble blood, handsome, eloquent. He had travelled much, meeting both Christians and Jews, unfortunately learning of Jesus mostly from apoc- ryphal^ sources, and of Judaism from the Talmud.* The great, inspiring idea which he obtained hence, lift- ing him above his people's superstition and making him master of their hearts and wills, was the unity of God. ' There is no god but God, and Mohammed is his prophet.' ^ Forced in consequence of his attack on idolatry to flee from Mecca, his temper grows harder, his ambition and methods more worldly, his teaching less spiritual. Tangible and base rewards are promised to believers, who now multiply more rapidly and appeal to the sword.^ 1 He is said to have been subject to epileptic fits. 2 Mohammed belonged to the Koreisch tribe or sept, and to the Hashim family. The tribe claimed descent from Ishmael. The Hashims had charge of the Caaba. The family tie all Arabians held sacred. Family rivalry caused in great part the sectarian quarrels among Mohammedans. See § 4, and notes. * I.e., those multitudinous second and third century writings about Christ and early Christianity composed in imitation of the New Testament documents. See 'Apocrypha' and 'Canon' in Encyc. Brit., Hilgenfeld, Nov. Test, extra Canonem Recepttim, and Hone, N. T. Apocrypha. * The Talmud is a collection of Jewish traditions, authoritatively [in Jews' view] illustrating and complementing the Old Testament. It has two parts, the Mischna, which is the original tradition proper, and the Gemara, or later comments of various Rabbis upon the Mischna. The whole was for long orally transmitted, but the Mischna began to be re- duced to writing about 200 A.D. ^ See Koran, ch. xxxv and passim. ^ Bestmann, Anfange d. katholischen Christenthums u. d. Islami [Nordlingen, 1884]. 220 islam and the crusades § 3 His Doctrine Draper, xl. Sale, Koran, with prelim. Disc, iii-vii. Kreel, Ueher dm Koran. Sayoits, Jesus Christ d'apres Mohammed, etc. Noldecke, Gesch. d. Korant. Weil, Historisch- kritische Enleitung in den Koran. This is learned from two sources : i Al Koran, a code both civil and religious, alleged by Mohammed to have been revealed to him from God. It is a mixture of meaningless rhapsody with much good moral and relig- ious matter from Bible ^ and Talmud. Noticeable is its decided exaltation of the female sex. 2 The Sunna, or oral tradition, which was committed to writing long after the prophet's death. This is rejected by the Shiites. Mohammed was a severe monotheist. He regarded Jesus,^ as he did Moses, a prophet true and great, but only human. The worship of him as divine, like adoration of images, he thought damnable sin. He made much of faith, the very word ' vioslem ' or ' miisul- maii' meaning 'believer,' and ^ islam' 'surrender to Al- lah,' but still more of works, prayers, ablutions, fasts, temperance, benevolence, pilgrimages to Mecca, which remained the national sanctuary, fighting and braving death for the faith. The last he set forth as par excel- lence meritorious. Divine predestination was empha- sized and exhibited as absolute, and solemn judgment declared in store for men, as well as resurrection of the body and eternal retribution. It was urged that no true believer could be lost, no unbeliever saved. ^ The Koran's ever-recurring reminders of (iod's mercy have a distinct Biblical ring. So its rules concerning females and orphans much resemlile those of the Mosaic law. Daughters are to inherit half as much as sons. Husbands must possess authority but are enjoined to use this with tender- ness. Monogamy is recommended as pleasing to God, as is the manumis- ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 221 sion of slaves, and in no case is a man to have more than four wives at once [ch, iv]. Mohammed's command also did away with the old Arab custom of burying infants alive. 2 Mohammed to the last denied his own ability to work miracles al- though admitting that Jesus possessed such. He admits also the miracu- lous birth of Jesus [ch. xix]. Gibbon [vol. v, io8, ed. Milm.] will have it that the doctrine of the immaculate conception is from the Koran, § 4 Mohammedan Conquest Milman, IV, ii. Duruy, ch. vi. Sale's Disc, viii. Gibbon, l-Iii. Kugler, ch. I. The new faith spread with incredible speed.^ Mo- hammed died master of Mecca, prophet, priest and king to practically the whole of Arabia. Yet himself only initiated the enormous conquests which illustrate his name. In less than a century, spite of their mutual contests,^ constant, fierce, extensive, Islam's armies, of- fering everywhere the alternatives, ' Koran, tribute or the sword,' ^ had conquered more than half the known world: westward, Africa, Spain, South France and the main Mediterranean isles ; eastward, Persia to beyond the Indus ; northward, all Asiatic Rome except Asia Minor. Scourges of East Rome, as the Goths and Vandals once were of West, they repeatedly beset the very gates of Constantinople. Rome itself narrowly escaped falling into their hands.^ For a century Chris- tianity trembled for its existence. * 571, Mohammed born. 622, Hegira, July 16. 630, Mecca taken. 632, Mohammed dies. Abu-Bekr Caliph, of Sunnites; Shiites recognize AH. All Arabia Mohammedan. 634-'44, Omar Caliph and Emir. Conquest of the East, including Persia, also of Egypt. 222 ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 644-56, Othman Caliph. Further conquest in North Africa. 656-'6i, All Caliph, opposed and put to death by Sunnites, who come to power in the 661-750, (?////;«'(7(/ dynasty, hereditary, ruling from Damascus. 707, Africa conquered to the Atlantic. The Moors. 711, Battle of Xeres de la Frontera : Moors wrest Spain from the Visigoths. [This battle really on the ]Viuii flefra.'] 732, Battle of Poitiers. Maitell. Greatest reach of Mohammedan sway. 750-1258, Abbassids of Bagdad supplant the Ommiads in Asia. Ab> durrahman escapes to Spain and founds the 756-1031, Ommiad Caliphate of Cordova. Abdurrahman, Almanzor. 935, The Emir al Oiitra secures the temporal power at Bagdad, the Caliph retaining only the spiritual. 968, Fatimite Caliphs in Africa. 2 The schism between Shiites and Sunnites grew into that between strict and liberal Mohammedans in general. The Shiites wished to keep the Caliph's office in Mohammed's family. Abu-Bekr had been M.'s father-in-law, Fatima was his daughter, Ali his son-in-law, Fatima's hus- band, Abbas M.'s great-grandson. Fatimites, Alides and Abbassids were therefore Mohammedans of a straiter type than Othman and the Ommiads, the latter representing more the Koreisch tribe, who had first driven the prophet from Mecca, hating the Hashims [§ 2, n. 2], ignoring the family principle, using wine, etc. They were bitterly opposed by the Arabian Mohammedans, whether in Arabia or about Babylon, where many immi- grants from the mother-land had settled. At last the family of Abbas, under the black banner of Abul- Abbas [Gibbon, lii], took up the cause of Ali, whom Moawiah, the first Ommiad Caliph, had assassinated, and won the caliphate for themselves and for the family principle again in 750. Of the Ommiads [white banner] all were slain but Abdurrahman, who escaped to Spain. As Damascus had been the Ommiad capital Bagdad became that of the Abbassids. After Abul-Abbas, Almanzor the Victo- rious, 754-'75, Ilaroun Alraschid, or the Just, 786-S09, and Almamun, 8i3-'33, were the great Aljbassid Caliphs. The same zeal for legitimacy gave to the Fatimites, professing descent from Fatima and Ali, the ascend- ency in Africa. This quarrel has come down to our own time, the Turks being liberals, the Mohammedans of Egypt and the Soudan orthodox, heirs of the Fatimite faith and zeal. This is understood to have been at the bottom of the rebellion headed by El Mahdi in the Soudan and Arabi Bey in Egypt against the Turks [whom the English aided] in l882-'83. ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 22$ ' This meant that peoples must either accept Islam, retain their faith at the price of such tribute as pleased the Caliphs, or be exterminated. Notice how soon the religion of Mohammed ceased to be an Arabian affair, becoming ecumenical, held, proclaimed and enforced by Persians, Turks, Copts, Moors, Goths, etc. By the middle of the 8th century the proportion of real Arabian population in these out-lying realms began visibly to decrease. Even earlier Arabia had ceased to send out troops, its inhabitants tending back to the Bedouin life. * See Milman, V, iii. § 5 The Causes Milman, vol. ii, 113, 163 sqq. Duruy, 97 sqq. Sale's Disc, ii. For this gigantic revolution history is at a loss fully to account. The main secret of it, beyond question, lay not in numbers, but in a certain wonderful inspira- tion which, at this particular juncture, transformed the Arabian people, due to (i) the truth in their religion, especially its central idea, divine unity, ^ (2) the enthu- siasm and skill of leaders, notably Mohammed, Amrou, Chaled and Omar, {3) the new sense of national unity, (4) hope of rewards, both temporal and eternal,^ (5) fatal- ism. ^ 'Woe,' preached Mohammed, 'to the Musulman who hugs his hearth rather than go fight. Death he cannot shun, for the term of life is fixed. Fear the heat of combats } Hell is hotter ! Flee } Paradise is before you, hell's flames behind.' Also, Islam found Rome and Persia weak. Both these empires were large : in each, provinces lay remote from the capital, difficult to administer. All Rome's Asiatic and African subjects were disaffected politically, theologically.'* The Coptic and all the African Christians welcomed, if they did not invite, the invaders. Worst, the corruption of eastern Christianity had now rendered it spiritless, as unworthy 224 ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES as it was unable, successfully to oppose this new and dreadful foe.^ 1 It can hardly be doubted that the early Musulmans held a purer monotheism than the eastern Christians of their time. They were also the peers of those Christians in all elements of conduct and character. Their aggressive belief encouraged and may have originated iconoclasm [Ch. IV, § 19]. An imaginative race just opening its mind to the conceptions of unity and moral order in the universe could not but find them infinitely stimulating. '■^ Many even of the latter were not of the most spiritual nature. How- ever, one cannot in fairness to the prophet interpret his sensuous pictures of the future state so coarsely as his Christian critics have usually done. 8 Nor did the prophet in urging this, fall, as all the logic-books imply, into fallacy. It is strictly true that if the term of one's life is fixed one will die at that limit 7vhatn>er he does or omits. Nor are urging and ex- hortation unreasonable under the hypothesis named, as they may be among the fated conditions to the fated result. Cf. Cicero, de fata, xii and xiii, Schopenhauer, Welt als IVille, I, 356. * See Montesquieu, Grandeur and Decadence of the Roman Empire, chaps, xxi, xxii. * Milman, vol. i, 24, Michelet, France, bk. iv, ch. iii. § 6 Spain and France Hallam, ch. iv. Cipp^e, Arabian Conquest of Spain. I'iadot, Mores d'Espagnt. Irving, Conquest of Spain. Incorporating the Berbers or Moors,^ the Saracens crossed into Spain, invited by the Gothic traitor, Count Julian, and enraged by the aid which the Visigoths had furnished to their Byzantine foes in Africa. The Goths now held practically the entire peninsula,^ having ab- sorbed the Sueves and driven the Byzantines from the coast. The state had acquired still further strength by becoming catholic,^ yet proved far weaker than it seemed. I Its elective * character caused numerous bitter fac- tions and left the nation practically without a head. ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 22$ 2 The poor and the Jews, oppressed, hailed and helped the Saracens as their deliverers. 3 Owing to the long peace that had prevailed arms and military discipline had been laid aside, battlements and strongholds razed. 4 The clergy was powerful and overbearing. The Council of Toledo had become a national parliament, wherein, despite the presence of lay members, bishops were omnipotent, hating, hated, and at best poor ad- visers for time of war. Of the order and character of events in this revolution we know little. From their costly but complete victory at Becca the Moors pressed rapidly northward. In eight years they had subdued the whole Gothic realm except the little kingdom of Asturias.^ The crisis for Christianity when, in 720, they passed the Pyrenees, was not then appreciated. The Prankish kingdom was distracted by internal feuds, selfish and temporary, not Christian, interests ruled the hour. Eudo of Aquitaine was left to oppose the Sara- cens ten years alone, and to be crushed by them. Mar- tell himself assisting, before Martell would draw sword against the common foe. The victory of Poitiers,^ 732, that so solemn moment in history, was due less to the devotion of Christians than to the dissensions of their enemy. After raging seven days it was a drawn battle, although the Moors retired next night, Poitiers remain- ing the northern term of their march. The Franks required seven years to cut their way again to the Pyrenees, Septimania'' obeyed the Crescent till 759, the brilliant career of the Caliphate of Cordova now began. 1 These peoples were a mixture, not yet complete, of Carthaginian, Roman and Greek with old-Mauretaiiian racial elements. See Chenier, Recherches kistoricjues sur les Maures, 3 v. The first Moorish landing in 226 ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES Spain was in May, 711, the decisive 3 days' battle near the Wadi Becca occurring the next July. The general who headed the invasion was Tarik, from whom Gibraltar took its name [Gibel-al Tarik = ' Tarik's promon- tory']. Dahn, Konige d. Germanen, V, 227, throws some doubt upon Julian's treason. ■^ See Ch. IV, §1, and n. 5. Justinian had recovered certain Spanish coast-towns from the Visigoths. They were all now Gothic again. The Sueves had been swallowed up in 585. 8 The conversion took place under King Reccared, 586-601, but the Spanish church seems never to have been fully obeilient to Rome till the iron discipline of Pope Innocent III, I198-1216, forced it to be. See Milman, IX, vi. Catholic position was advantageous on the whole, but the lingering sympathy for Arianism was among the causes of weakness. * At the time of the invasions the principles of heredity and election in the kingship both prevailed in the German nations. The Franks developed the former, the Visigoths the latter. ^ This principality, locked in between the Pyrenees and the sea, was at no time in Musulman hands. See § 16, also ' Asturias ' in Encyc. Brit. Asturias was the germ whence first Leon then Castile developed. The heir-apparent to the Spanish throne has been since 1388 called the Prince [or Princess] of Asturias, — at present a mere honorary title though for centuries much more than this. ^ Or Tours. The battle occurred on a plain between Tours and Poi- tiers but nearer the latter. Our accounts of affairs at that time betray no sign that Christians were aware of it as a crisis for their faith. See the excellent discussion by Kaufmann, Deutsche Geschichte, II, 225 sqq. ^ Septimania was the belt of coast-land from the Pyrenees nearly or quite to the western mouth of the Rhone. With these statements com- pare Ch. V, §§ 2, 3, and notes, also Milman, vol. iii, 84. During the entire 9th century no point on the Mediterranean was safe from Moslem attack. Sicily passed to the crescent about 850. § 7 The East Gibbon, xxxii, li-liii. Duriiy, ch.ips. vi, vii. IVeber, ll^eltgcsck., I, 556 sqq. Persia yielded to Islam as readily as Spain, far more so than Africa. Its reward came with Abbassid victory,^ which was essentially a resurrection of the old Persian Empire,^ with a new religion and with Arab chiefs for ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 22/ kings. East Rome proved to be Islam's sturdiest foe.^ Statements of its weakness during this period have usually been much exaggerated. Its strength in ex- tremity is rather the striking and inexplicable fact. Emperor Heraclius had indeed been forced,^ so early as 638, to abandon greater Asia, and some of his suc- cessors 5 paid tribute, but two terrible Ommiad sieges by both land and sea, seven years, 672-'9, and again two years, 717-19, were pressed against Constantinople in vain. So of eight invasions by the great Haroun Alraschid, 786-809. Severe winters, the ability and valor of emperors and their generals, the newly in- vented Greek fire, and Byzantine skill in military de- fence equalling that of the old Romans, enabled the city to defy the art, desperation and countless hordes ^ with which the Musulmans attacked. Note too, that Cor- dova now aided eastern Christendom, as Abbassids did western. Haroun and Karl the Great were firm allies.'^ These Christian victories were far more important than that of Poitiers.^ Islam, bold and strong through con- quest, brought its supreme energy and resources to the onset. Had it succeeded, Europe was lost. If the Saracens, a maritime power since the first caliph, 647, long kept the advantage at sea, Nicephorus Phocas, 963-9, recovered Crete and Antioch, and John Zimi- sces, 969-'76, marched conquering to Bagdad and the Tigris. It seems as if but for the Turks ^ Rome might have won back all her old domains. ^ See § 4, n. 2. It was the purpose of the Sasanian line of Persian kings to bring their empire back to the limits and the glory which it had in the days of Cyrus and Xerxes. Shapur [Sapor] I, the second of the line, took the Emperor Valerian prisoner in 257, and Julian lost his life. 228 ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES June 26, 363, fighting against Shapur II near Ctesiphon. Khosrau [Chos- roes] I, 'the Just,' 53i-'79 A.u., brought the Sasanian kingdom to its greatest extent and renown, ruling from the Mediterranean to the Indus. Khosrau II, 590-628, took Jerusalem in June, 614, and, according to tradition, carried the true cross into captivity. It was sent back, and on Sept. 14, 629, a date which the Feast of the Elevation of the Holy Cross still commemorates, the emperor Heraclius, who had re-conquered most of Roman Asia, solemnly set it up again in Jerusalem. Immediately after this reverse and partly in consequence thereof, Persia experienced dreadful internal contentions and civil wars, from which it was still suffering when the Moslem invasion came. Best history in English of these events is in * Persia,' Encyc. Brit. 2 Einhard, Vita Karoli, c. 16, calls Haroun Alraschid ' king of the Persians.' ' ' We apply very freely the words decay, decline, fall, to the Roman empire of the 4th and 5th centuries, and effete is the standing epithet of its eastern division, even when the mighty Macedonian dynasty goes forth conquering and to conquer from the foot of Ararat to the foot of .-Etna. The abiding life of the eastern empire still seems to be to many minds the hardest of lessons.' — Freeman, Contemp. Rev., May, 1884. Even Alexius, at the time of the first crusade, who could vanquish the Normans, annihilate the Patzinaks and keep well at bay the Turks, was no weakling. See Kugler, pp. 12, 13. * This brave emperor had no sooner recovered his eastern realms from the Persian than they were again wrested from him by the Musulman armies. By 702 the wave of Musulman conquest had reached China. In 711 the same caliph ruled in Spain and in Scinde. * Irene, 78c)-'97, and Nicephorus, 8o2-'i3. They had to send the tribute in coins bearing the image of Ilaroun himself, to whom it was sent. ® The caliph Solyman in 717 commanded against Constantinople an army of 120,000 men and a navy of 1800 sail. Haroun's army in 806 numbered 135,000 mercenaries besides a vast host of volunteers, all schooled in the best military science. ^ At Karl's imperial coronation in 800, he, according to Einhard, re- ceived from Haroun the keys of the Holy Sepulchre, besides vestcs el aromata el cetcras oricutalium tcrraruin opes, and other ingentia dona, including an elephant. — Vita Karoli, c. 16. * This crisis being second in importance for Christianity only to the raising of the siege of \'ienna in 1683 by John Sobieski. Not till after ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 229 that, says Kugler, ' did fear of the crescent's arms gradually subside in Europe's heart.' For Nicephorus Phocas and Zimisces, Gibbon, xlviii, lii ad fin. 9 See § lo. § 8 The Civilization of Islam Gibbon, lii. Duruy, no, 122. Milnian, vol. ii, 171. Draper, xiii. Renan, Avey- roes et I'averroisme. Lane, Arabian Society in the Middle Ages. Weber, Welt- gesch. I, 557 sqq. From the hellenism now pervading the East,^ the Arabs derived a new intellectual life and zeal, by which they considerably aided to advance the world's civiliza- tion. In the early middle age Spain, not Constanti- nople, was the main medium of classical light to central Europe. Literature, philosophy, arts, sciences flour- ished in all Musulman capitals before Christian Europe emerged from barbarism.^ So did architecture, music and arabesque work, but neither sculpture nor painting. I We seem to be indebted to Mohammedan poets for several forms of verse if not for rhyme.^ However, in literature at large, Islam's scholars, so patient and curi- ous, did little more than copy, comment and transmit. Study did not set them free. The peoples who obeyed the prophet were apparently incapable of attaining cul- ture, literary or other, in its finest forms. Greek was as good as unknown even to their learned, oratory and belles-lettres they neglected, their history was wholly un- critical. 2 Of philosophers the Arabians cultivated Aristotle alone, and only through Arabic translations of Syriac ones. In this department also, Avicenna and Averroes aside, there was little originality though great industry. It was in Arabic-Latin versions that Aris- totle,^ Theophrastus and the other great Greeks whom 230 ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES they knew, were first introduced to Christian savans. 3 The Arabian thinkers were especially creative in science, and in astronomy, geography, medicine and surgery they led the world.^ The observatory of Samar- cand long antedated the earliest in Europe. Arabian astronomers calculated the length of the earth's great circle, the obliquity of the ecliptic, the precession of the equinoxes, and perfected algebra and the Arabic notation, knowledge of both which they probably de- rived from Alexandria. 4 The Arabians, famous invent- ors, gave the world paper, which doubled the value of printing when that came, arabesque decoration, the source of so many modern forms of ornamentation, dis- tillation, a large number of medicines, and many novel- ties in arms, agriculture and business. They are be- lieved to have introduced the ogive ^ from West Asia, and gunpowder and the compass from China. 1 See Ch. Ill, § 7. 2 See Ch. VIII, § 3. » See Ch. V, § 5, n. 2. * Except the Karityopiai and the itepl epfijivdai, which existed in a Latin translation by Boethius directly from the original. ^ Draper, xiii, is best on this. Cf. Gibbon and Duruy, as above, and Choiseul-Daillecourt, i6l sq. The French chambre des comptes did not adopt Arabic figures till the 17th century. Michelet. ^ The pointed arch of Gothic architecture. This origin of it is how- ever not established. On the compass, Humboldt, Cosmos, vol. ii. Chess, Gibbon avers, came from Persia to Greece. In arms both offensive and defensive the Moslems patterned after the Romans, whom they rivalled in the use of them. On a march their army fortitied its camp each night. The art of besieging they well understood and had all the devices and gear therefor. They used, with little success to be sure, engineers in fire- proof clothing, drilled to fight the Greek fire, also bows and arrows, spears, lances, greaves, helmets and coats of mail. Infantry formed their main arm, though their cavalry was choice, efficient and doubly paid. Camels furnished them the best means of transportation then known, giving the crescent's armies in this respect great advantage over the Roman. Their ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 23I order of battle was the parallelogram with a longer side facing toward the foe. Usually it awaited the hostile charge, then rushed forward with fury. The above applies best to the military system of Haroun Alraschid and his distinguished son, Almamun, — to the forces which East Rome was called to encounter. Gibbon, Hi, discusses the Greek fire. On the whole topic, Jahn, Gesch. d. Kriegswesens [with Atlas, illustrating modes of offcMce and defence from earliest times]. § 9 Its Decline Palmer t Haroun Alraschid [N. Plutarch Ser.]. Duruy, ch. vii. Gibbon, lil. Caliphs often ruled well and in government too Islam contributed somewhat to civilization. ^ Spain especially, attained under the crescent unprecedented civil as well as economical weal. Yet their form of government was vicious, unstable through absolutism, caliphs being to- tally unlimited despots. However, the imposing empire of Islam owed its fall not to despotism alone but also to its size and to the lassitude and factions born of its wealth and success.^ i Spain, then Africa, revolts, and we see Abbassids, Ommiads and Fatimites in deadly mutual war, severally pretending to the entire world-cali- phate. 2 Each of these dissolves into a number of still smaller states,^ at first vassal, then really, at last nomi' nally, independent. 3 Abbassid sovereignty is seized by the Turkish royal guard, who dispose of the throne at pleasure. 4 The caliph, hitherto supreme temporally as well as spiritually, is now forced to cede the temporal headship to his vizier, later called the Emir al Onwa^ Between this and nearly contemporaneous European history mark several instructive parallels : The offices of vizier and maior domus were similar in origin, nature, development and issue. In the same particulars the 232 ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES Turkish Guard of Bagdad, the African at Cordova and the Mamelukes ^ of Cairo resembled the praetorians of old Rome, the Normans and the Isaurians at Constanti- nople. Both Karl the Great ^ and Haroun divided their empires among several sons. In each case one son soon secured all, and in each the empire underwent the same process of dismemberment. ^ E.g., Amrou introduced in Egypt direct taxation. In Spain under the Onimiads, Christians retained freedom of worship, their own laws and judges, and held councils by the authority of the caliphs. The tribute demanded of them was not extortionate. The Jews of Spain now fared far better than under the Visigoths. Abdurrahman I [755], Hescham I [787], Abdurrahman II [822], and Alhakem II [961] were wise rulers, protectors of letters and concerned for the weal of their subjects in all regards. Duruy, 121. - Scarcely credible are the accounts of the extent to which taxes, tribute and booty had piled up wealth at Bagdad, for instance. The regular state income of the Abbassid Caliph approached $100,000,000 yearly. There were prodigious private fortunes as well. Poets, artists, savans, the entire cul- ture of the hellenized East streamed to that golden capital. There came, as in ancient Rome, love of ease, effeminacy, dislike for the stern life which had made the old Moslems irresistible. The thoughtful saw too that most of the wars were purely personal. Apathy resulted quickest in Persia, where the people had accepted Islam easiest. For 100 years native Arabs were the leaders and the kernel of all Moslem armies, but more and more mercenaries were introduced, and even slave-soldiers. Motassem, the eighth Abbassid caliph, dying in 842, had commanded an army of 70,000 Mameluke slaves. 8 Thus in Spain the racial groups in the army of the original invasion, whose mutual jealousies alone gave Martell the victory at Poitiers, seem never to have become fully harmonized. The arrival of the Ommiad Abdurrahman [§ 4, notes i, 2] occasioned a fierce civil war. He soon secured the throne of Cordova and ruled in considerable quiet, though hardly a year free from rebellions. In 777 three of his chiefs appeared in Karl the Great's Diet at Paderborn to secure his intervention against their roaster. Abdurrahman held his own, and his son, Ilescham I, took the » fensive, crossing the Pyrenees and plundering far and wide, but making ISLAM AND THE CRUSADES 233 no permanent conquest. Even he however, and all his successors, had the quelling of insurrections for a constant task, which greatly lightened the Christian conquest [§ 16, n. 3]. On the disruption of the Abbassid power, see § 10, and on the whole process, Gibbon and Duruy as above. * ' Prince of princes.' The term vizier continued in use also. The sultans had their viziers. ' These were a body-guard of Turkish slaves, who rose to power over their masters and became the rulers of Egypt. Their successors still held the land at Napoleon's arrival in 1798. 6 But see Ch. V, § 3, n. 2. § 10 Jerusalem Gibbon, Ivii. Sybel, Gesch. d. ersten Kreuzzuges, 157 s^ be given. ' ^ 1 Justinian's Novella 81 ordained the manumission of all slaves who, masters permitting, had well performed military service. No such law, so far as known, was made by popes in reference to serf-crusaders, their permission to enlist apparently resting on general consent. To serfs on church lands, as church property could be alienated in no ordinary man- ner, the crusades opened practically the sole door to liberty. 2 Many communes had charters which guaranteed the franchise of fugitive serfs resident therein unless reclaimed within a certain time. Hosts of serfs became free thus who had left their masters on pretence of cru- sading. Vagabonds were no longer as heretofore presupposed to be serfs and held to prove the contrary. 2 The same wave of right sentiment swept over England, where the machinery of representation, long known in local work, now secured ap- plication in national affairs. In his writ to the prelates for the first com- plete English parliament, 1295, Edward I says: 'As the most righteous law, established by the provident circumspection of the sacred princes, exhorts and ordains that that which touches all should be approved by all, it is very evident that common dangers must be met by measures concocted in common.' Stubbs, vol. ii, 128. The sentence italicized is from Jus- tinian's Code, title 56, law 5, — a proverb often met with in mediaeval writers. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY TO CHAPTER VIII Renaissance: Symonds, Ren. in Italy,** 7 v. [including the 2 v. on the Catholic Reaction. These 7 v. best lit. in Eng. on the Ren.]; Int. to Study of Dante; ' Renaissance' in Encyc. Brit, [good lit.]. Burckhardt, Civilization of the Period of the Ren. in It.,** 2 v. Voigt, i JaJirh. d. //uinanismus ; ** Wiederhelebting d. kl. Alterthtiim:** 2 v. Grimm, Michael Angclo,** 2 v. Crowe, Tizian, 2 v. Northcote, do., 2 v. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Raphael,** 2 v. [cf. their Histories of Painting, in No. It., 2 v., in It., 3 v.]. Geiger [in Oncken], Ren. u. Humanis- mus.** Sismondi, Hist, de la Ren. en It., 2 v.; Lit. of the So. of Eu- rope, 2 V. Draper, Int'l Development of Europe. Milman, L. C, vols. vii and viii. Miintz, Precurseurs de la Ren. ; * Raphael, vie, a'uvre et temps ; * Ren. en It. et en Fr. h Pepoqite de CharLs VIII.* Hallam, Lit. of Europe, 4 v. Froude [Short Studies, I], *T. of Erasmus and Luther.' Reuter, Gesch. d. Aiifkldrung im Mittelalter.** Vico, Italia e V Europa dopo il secolo xv [Wks., I, ed. Ferrari]. Michelet, Hist, de France, vol. vii. Ronard, Re7t. en Italie. Schulze, Pliilos. d. Ren., 2 v. Ranke, Sainmtl. Werke, vols, xxxiii, xxxiv, xl. Ziller, Italie et la Ren. Tira- boschi, Letteratura Italiana, vols, vii-x. Pater, Renaissance. Hase, Kirchengesch. [loth ed.]. [Geo. Eliot's Romola, Bulwer's Rienzi, Stein's Count Erbach, Geo. Taylor's Clytia, and Ch Reade's Cloister and Hearth, are good novels to illustrate this Ch. Samson, Low & Co. publish brief biogg. of the great artists.] REFORMATION : Fisher, Reformation* [with lit.]. Martin, Hist, de France, vol. x. Michelet, do., vol. viii; Abrege on Temps modernes. Robertson, Charles V,** 3 V, or 2. Henne, Charles-Quint, 10 v. [in 5]. Seebohm, Prot. Revo- lution [Ep. of H. Ser.]. Hausser, Period of the Reformation,* 2 v. or i. Creighton, Papacy dg. Reformation * [2 v. out, iii and iv. in pr.]. Ranke, Popes, 3 v.; Ref. in Germany,** 3 v.; Franzosische Gesch. in XVI u. XVII Jahrh., 5 v.; Hist, of the Lat. and Teutonic Na., 1494-1514 [Bohn]. Kdstlin, L. of Luther.* Michelet, do. [Bohn]. Kuhn, Luther, sa vie et son ccnvrc,** 3 v. Griin, Knlttirgcsch. d. XVI jfahrh. Schaff, Ch. History, vol. vi. Gieseler, do., vol. iv. Guizot, Civ. in Eur., xii. Villers, Ess. on the Sp. and Inf. of the Ref. Janssen, Gesch. d. deiitschen Volkcs,** vols, ii, iii. Freitag, Hilder, II. [The standard ed. of Luther's Wks. is Knaacke's, under government supervision. Nie. meyer of Halle pub. cheap odd. of the main original doc. of XVI and XVII cent. See also Schilling's excellent Quellcubuch. For. lit. on Luther, Bullet, of Mercantile Lib., Philad., Oct. I, 1883]. CHAPTER VIII RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION § I Genius of the Renaissance Symonds, Age of Despots, i, also last ch. Voigt, Wiederbelebung, Int. During the fifteenth century a change as subtle and indefinable as it was significant came over the spirit of European society. Without sharp break with the past, involving no strictly new creation, ^ no sudden or un- heralded revolution of ideas, gradually rose an altered mode of viewing man, the world, life, far less theologi- cal than the old, less respectful to tradition, more con- fident in man's powers and future, in fine, laic and human.^ Renewed study of classical antiquity was sign and instrument rather than essence of the new move- ment. If men looked back, it was mostly to clear their vision to look and walk forward. The new thinking, if marked by temporary unbelief, and more given than the old to human and secular things, was not essentially irreligious, if less scholastic, not less profound. Vaster conceptions of the field of truth were born.^ It was felt that no problem had been absolutely settled, and that the human faculties, fettered or discouraged or else ap- plied to inane inquiries, had as yet scarcely given a hint of the productive activity possible to them.* Hence, fresh, courageous, successful effort to see what man might be, do, know. Modern history, in the narrower 258 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION sense, now begins. ' The history of the Renaissance,' says Symonds, ' is the history of the attainment of self- conscious freedom by the human spirit, manifested in the European races.' 1 Even in art, in painting itself, no absolute beginning was made. Voigt, Wiederbelehung, I, 4, 379. The Renaissance grew necessarily out of existing conditions. 2 Bezold, Hist. Zeitschr., vol. xlix, 194. A similar change followed the advent of Grecian culture in Asia [with Alexander] and at Rome [Voigt, I, 4]. Michelet's neat dictum, adopted by Symonds [Despots, 16] and Burckhardt, makes the Renaissance ' the discovery of the world and of man.' We add : ' and of their close relationship.' Theology had exalted man, but as candidate for another world. Humanism, in the vein of the cultivated Greeks and Romans, was geo-centric, glorying in the earthly- human. ' During the middle ages,' says Symonds, ' man had lived envel- oped in a cowl. He had not seen the beauty of the world, or had seen it only to cross himself and turn aside and tell his beads and pray. Like St. Bernard, travelling along the shores of the Lake Leman, and noticing neither the azure of the waters nor the luxuriance of the vines nor the radiance of the mountains with their robe of sun and snow, but bending a thought-burdened face over the neck of his mule, even like this monk, humanity had passed, a careful pilgrim, intent on the terrors of sin, death and judgment, along the highways of the world, and had not known that they were sightworthy or that life is a l^lessing. Beauty is a snare, pleas- ure a sin, the world a fleeting show, man fallen and lost, death the only certainty, hell everlasting, heaven hard to win, — these were the fixed ideas of the ascetic, mediaeval church. The Renaissance shattered them by rending the thick veil which they had drawn between the mind of man and the outer world, and flashing the light of reality upon the darkened places of his own nature.' ^ .See § 13. St. Bernard, arguing against Abelard and his nominalism, evidently thought it the quintessence of fatuity to pretend to advance a new idea. ' Who are you to make an improvement in thought? Tell us, pray, what that truth is which has made its epiphany to you iiut to no one before. For my part I hearken to the prophets, the apostles and the gospel, and were, an angel to come from heaven to teach us the contrary, anathema upon him ! ' Identifying, as so many another bigot has done, the truth with his own ap]irehension thereof. RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 259 * How Petrarch, e.g., felt toward scholasticism, Voigt, I, 71. Michelet, Int. to vol. \\\, passim, expresses a still worse judgment. He calls 1200 the saddest year in history. See, esp., notes to his §§ iii and iv. The 13th century was the time when the Albigenses and the Waldenses were annihilated for their beliefs, the Inquisition set up and individuality crushed out. After Roger Bacon zeal in light-seeking lessened greatly. Michelet does not believe that writers have sufficiently noted this reaction. Hettner, e.g., takes 1300 as the tertninus a quo of the Renaissance. § 2 Its Antecedents Hallam, Lit., pt. i, ch. i. Burckhardt, III, i. Michelet, Int. Reuter, Reli'g. Auf- klarung im Mittelalter. Voigt, Int. Memory and love of classical culture, at no time ut- terly so, were yet during the full middle age, practically dead. Boethius was the last man whom they powerfully affected.^ The church viewed ancient art and letters as hopelessly bound up with heathenism. Old manuscripts were lost or forgotten, the noblest works of antique art suffered to perish or be lost in rubbish.^ Heathen tem- ples were defaced or pulled down : ^ the Roman forum, its precious buildings levelled beneath feet of earth, became a cow-pasture. Latin grew corrupt, at last scarcely reminding of its origin. At the same time with this, slavish reverence for ecclesiastical authority was working to prevent all originality, aggression, cour- age in thinking.* The light kindled by Karl the Great and Alcuin shone neither far nor long.^ The fine intel- lectual life of the Hohenstaufen period, brilliant rather than strong, was likewise a temporary phenomenon.^ Study of Roman law, momentous in its way, could not revive the civilization whence that law sprung. Scho- lasticism in the thirteenth century, with its worship and imperfect'^ understanding of Aristotle, had a still less 26o RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION favorable tendency. If it created mental strength, dis- cipline and restlessness that were seeds of rich promise, it buried these seeds deep. With all its profound and true thoughts, dogmatism, formalism, narrowness,^ ab- straction were its most obtrusive and influential char- acteristics. ^ Not excepting Alcuin [Ch. V, § 5] or even Cassiodorus, Boethius's contemporary. Cassiodorus, aboait 4S0-575, and Boethius, about 470-524, were influential in every way, but especially in the history of education, because of their agency in preserving the continuity of classical pcedagogics into that of the middle age. Boethius prepared, mainly translating them from the Greek, treatises on Geometry according to Euclid, Music ace. to the Pythagoreans, Arithmetic ace. to Nicomachus, Mechanics ace. to Archimedes, Astronomy ace. to Ptolemy, Grammar and Rhetoric and Dialectics ace. to Aristotle. He called these the seven liberal arts. As such they were made the subject of Cassiodorus's able work, de septem dis- ciplinis, much and usefully read in the middle ages. Weber, IVeltgesch., 516 sq. 2 The middle age had next to no love of literature for its own sake. Too much credit has been given the monks for preserving the classics. Benvenuto d' Imola went once to Monte Casino and found there the rarest manuscripts lying helter-skelter in a chamber without lock or key or even doors. Of many the monks had cut out the finest parchment to make breviaries and psalters for sale. If this here, what not at Fulda, Cluny or St. Gall? A complete codex of Quinctilian was at St. (iall liter- ally unearthed from the dirt, a fuller Cicero at Lodi. When in 1816 Niebuhr discovered in the Verona Cathedral library the precious copy of Caius's Institutes, the old text was everywhere bedimmed and in places made irrecoverable forever by being written over with epistles of St. Jerome. Just how or how far classical letters and interest perished in the early middle age no one" knows. There are Mss. of some of the great Latin classics dating from every century in what are called the dark ages, and there were always a few who loved to read them. Most, however, were more in Jerome's state of mind, who dreamed that for reading Cicero he was cited to Christ's bar and scourged till he vowed never to con secular books again. ' Affntiris," said Christ on Jerome's calling himself a Chris- tian, ^Ciceronianus es, non Christianus, ubi enim thesaurus tuus ibi et cot iuum.' RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 26I ^ Passing from view by sheer carelessness, not unavoidably as in Pom- peii. Recovery is not complete even now. See Century Magazine, Feb., 18S7 The Pantheon was nearly spoiled by conversion into a church. Pope Urban VIII pulled off the under covering of its portico, the most remarkable metallic work of antiquity, for cannon metal. There were 450,000 lbs. of bronze. * The inquisitors deemed it a sufficient condemnation of Galileo that his views contradicted Aquinas and Aristotle [Ch. Ill, § 4, n. 4]. Not ' ke?-zHstellen' anything, says Schulze neatly, did the mediaeval doctors regard their task, but only ' darzustellen^ ^ Einhard, though bright [Ch. V, § 5], was but an imitator — of Sue- tonius, as were Widukind and Adam of Bremen of Sallust. The classical literature known to these and later mediaevals did not inspire them. They did not regret antiquity, as Petrarch did, for example. ^ See the references at Ch. VII, § 17, n. 7. Bezold declares that under the Hohenstaufen German culture was in advance of Italian. Miintz places Frederic II [Ch. V, § 19] at the head of the precursors of the Renaissance. Michelet assigns this place to Joachim of Flora [§ 15]. " Mediaeval knowledge of Aristotle was long nearly all at second, third or fourth hand. The Arabians of Spain, Europe's earliest schoolmasters in his philosophy [Ueberweg, H. of Philos., § 96], used Arabic transla- tions of Syriac translations. Even Averroes had only a Hebrew transla- tion of a commentary made on the basis of an Arabic translation of a Syriac translation of the Greek text. Kenan, Averroes et raverrotsme, 39. Cf. § 14, 4, and note. " Aquinas, prince of the schoolmen, believed in two kinds of weather, natural, made by God, and artificial, made by wicked men. Riehl. Cf. Weber, I, 730, Duruy, Moyeit Age, 359 sqq., Cousin, Ess. on the Philoso- phie scholaUiijue. It was very crafty, thinks Michelet, for the church to give men liberty of formal thought. To have forbidden all thinking would have dangerously stimulated thinking. Cf. § li, n. 3. § 3 Its Dawn Sismondi, Lit. of So. Europe, chaps, ii, iii. Weber, Weltgesch., I, 89 sqq. Voigt, Wiederbelebung, I, 89 sqq. Renan, Averroes et Vaverroisme. Choiseul-Daillf court. Inf. des Croisades, sec. 4. Schulze, Philos. d. Renaissance, I. The intellectual darkness of Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries first broke in Arabian Spain, whither, 262 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION with Mohammedan conquest, had pressed, as we have seen, the old culture of the east Mediterranean lands, taken up and for a time seduously fostered by Islam. ^ Through students from the North thronging their schools, the Arabians, both as free investigators and as editors and expounders of the classics, became the teachers of Europe.^ A most happy outcome of the crusades was the quickened and enlarged intercourse of western with Greek and Arabian savans. The Greek language now began to be known,^ Aristotle learned at first hand. Schools and studies flourished everywhere, national literatures had birth. Bologna and Oxford had each its group of students by 1150. The Universities of Paris and Salamanca date from 1 200, the former often numbering 15,000 pupils, sometimes more. Many other universities were active before 1300.^ Intelligence grew more independent as well as broader : the clergy lost their monopoly of learning. Abelard, 1 097-1 142, Al- bertus Magnus, 1 193-1280, and Roger Bacon, 1214-94, were worthy prophets^ of the Renaissance, unless in- deed we date the Renaissance itself from their days. The first dared to break with the traditional, dogmatic realism and to assert the rights of reason. The others preached and introduced inductive, apostcriori scientific procedure in a spirit worthy of Stuart Mill. Among his three sources of knowledge, above authority and reasoning, Roger Bacon places experience^ as the term of all speculation and as the queen of the sciences, 'alone able to certify and crown their results.' ^ Ch. VII, §§ 8, 17. Renan is of opinion that the deepest spirit of Islam was after all not friendly to Aristotle or to philosophy proper by whomsoever taught. Christian teachers too dreaded the Stagirite at first. RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 26;^ Dinanto's work, 1209, the earliest visibly to employ A.'s principles in doc- trinal construction, was condemned, as were the physical and metaphysical writings of the philosopher himself. In 1231 the Univ. of Paris forbids reading on these subjects till further orders, in 1251 it permits a limited number of lectures on them, a hundred years later it proclaims Aristotle Christ's forerunner in natural things as John Baptist in spiritual. In thus dispelling the fear of Aristotle and of philosophy Aquinas was the most influential. His summa or text-book, instead of being a summa theologica as such had usually been named, was a summa philosophica de veritate catholica. Schulze. 2 So in De Monarckia Dante refers familiarly as well as favorably to Averroes [=lbn Raschid: about 1120-98, i.e., nearly covering the 12th century]. 2 For centuries Greek was almost unknown in the West. In Sicily and Calabria, e.g., in the cloisters of St. Basil at Rossano, hellenic studies were never laid aside, at least till late in the 13th century. Paul us Diaco- nus at Karl Great's court, Scotus Erigena [d. 880] and Roger Bacon could read Greek, but neither Gerbert, Abelard, John of Salisbury [lllo-'8o], the most learned man of his time, nor Aquinas, the doctor angelicus. After Karl Great Greek apparently ceased to be in the West a regular branch of learning, and was known only to a few clergymen and gram- marians, more in Ireland than elsewhere. Nor is any writer till Richard de Bury, about 1350, known to have expressed regret at ignorance of this tongue. Till a late period but two of Aristotle's treatises were known to northern scholars [Ch. VI, § 8]. Abelard had no others, though Gilbertus Porretanus [d. 1154] knew both the Analytics, and John of Salisbury the whole Organon. The Arabians gave to Europe [i 250-1 3CXD] A.'s physical and metaphysical books, all in their wretched, circuitous translations [§ 2, n. 7]. First not far from 1220 Robert Grostete, 1 175-1255, bp. of Lin- coln, caused a translation of A. to be made directly from the Greek. Plato, till the very morning of the Renaissance, was less known still, represented only by the Timoeus in an incomplete translation, and ignored by eccle- siastical writers. As to Homer, Dante cites him, but like Homer's seven friends in Italy whom Petrarch counted up, must have read him in trans- lation alone. Dante praises Hebrew likewise, of course without under- standing it. See on all this, Hallam, Lit., pt. i, ch. ii. * For the universities of Italy, Tiralioschi, V, iii. The most ancient and illustrious besides that of Paris were Montpellier and Orleans in France, Oxford and Cambridge in England, Bologna [often with 10,000 students], Naples, Padua and Rome in Italy, Salamanca in Spain, and 264 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION Coimbra in Portugal, all founded before 1300. The oldest in the German empire [Janssen, vol. i] was Prague, 1348, then Heidelberg in 1386, Cologne 1388 and Erfurt 1392 [both now extinct], WUrzburg 1403, Leip- zig 1409, Rostock 1419, Louvain 1436, Greifswald 1454, Freiburg in Breisgau 1456, Basel 1460, Ingolstadt [now Munich] 1472, Tiibingen 1477, Wittenberg [now Halle] 1502, Frankfort on the Oder [now Breslau], 1506, Marburg 1527, Strassburg 1538. ^ On these men, see Whewell, II. of Ind. Sciences, bk. xii, ch. vii, Milman, vol. viii, 257 sqq., Michelet, Int., Schulze, I, Weber, I, 806 sqq. Porphyry's Isagoge to Aristotle's Categories [called the quinqiie voccs^ the chief philosophical text-book of the middle age, had already set forth the conflict between Plato and Aristotle upon the nature of universals or gen- eral ideas. Both regarded universals as realia [Realism], only to Plato they were ante rem, transcendent, separable from things, while Aristotle viewed them as only in re, the types and immanent forces of things. Abelard sided with Aristotle but stopped short of the extreme Nominalism of Roscellinus. See Ueberweg, H. of Pliilos., §§ 90-94. Duns Scotus and Wm. of Occham however recurred to the 12th century iMommalisls, Roscel- linus, Eric of Auxerre and Raimbert of Lille, making universals to be not realia either ante rem or in re, but only tiomina, ana hence of course post rem. § 4 Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio^ Symonds, Revival of Learning, i, ii. Gibbon, Ixx. Milman, vol. viii, 338 sqq. Tira- boschi, vol. vi, ch. ii. Geiger, I, i-iii. Hettiier, ' Petrarch u. Boccaccio' Deutsche Rundschau, vol. ii, 1875. Sismondi, Lit. of So. Europe, chaps, ix, x, xi. Burck- hardt. III, ii, iv, IV, iv. Voigt, bk. i. These three men may with much greater propriety be regarded as heralds of the brighter time. All re- ceived much inspiration from classical letters, which they knew and used well enough to propagate their enthusiasm therefor as a rich legacy to the men of the full Renaissance. To Boccaccio especially was due new interest in Greek.^ His style became a model in prose as did Petrarch's in poetry and ]:)rose both. Dante had already given fixity to Italian, ^ which was thus the earliest among modern languages to assume a national RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 265 character. But Dante's greatness is far more than lit- erary. He is philosopher, divine, historian, publicist. His immortal poem, the Divine Comedy,^ in style as unique as in contents it is often difficult, sets forth the entire body of mediaeval ideas, on theology, philosophy, natural science, astronomy, history, politics, antiquity. Heaven, hell and purgatory as well as earth are here ransacked, and the simplest of the matters brought to view, made to reveal deep meanings. Here not less than in the poet's De MonarcJiia we have his political creed. As Beatrice, personification of purity and love, thus representing a spiritual church, guides through paradise, so Vergil, panegyrist of strong earthly empire and emphasizing the deserts of such as oppose this, is made to conduct through hell.^ Yet Dante does not thrust forward political or any philosophy, or theology even, to the lessening of poetic power. In fact litera- ture can boast not more than two poems comparable with the Divine Comedy.^ 1 Dante lived fr. 1263-1321, Petrarch i304-'74, Boccaccio i3i3-'75. 2 He tells us in his Genealogy of the Gods how he toiled to get Leonzio Pilato to settle at Florence, kept him for years in his own house, managed to procure classical manuscripts from Greece to read with him and at last saw a Greek professorship established for him in the Tuscan capital. Pilato [§5, n. 3] was a failure and remained but three years. Boccaccio and Petrarch seem to have been his only pupils and they did little. Petrarch kissed his Homer but could not read it. With so incompetent a teacher their zeal cooled instead of spreading. Not Italians but north- erners, like Agricola, Reuchlin, Erasmus, Budicus and the Stephani, were the mighty hellenists of the Renaissance. Burckhardt, vol. ii, 272 sq. Ariosto knew no Greek and had to ask Bembo to name him a good Greek tutor for his son. ^ What Ennius did for the Latin and Luther with his Bible for the High German Dante accomplished for Italian. Of the many dialects 266 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION existing before, he fixed the Florentine as the Italian of letters. This momentous result was accidental. He meant, and actually begun, to write his poem in Latin, starting off in Vergilian style and measure : ' UUima regna cano^ etc. Bembo regretted that he did not persevere. * The Divine Comedy, ' This poem of the earth and air, This mediaeval miracle of song ' (Longfellow^, although taking little hold of Italy on first appearing [Michelet, 78, 165] quickly assumed a headship in literature, which it still maintains. Boc- caccio wrote a commentary on it, so early, and even his was not the earliest, but Grazio di Bologna's. 'The reading of Dante,' wrote Mr. Gladstone, Dec. 20, 1882, 'is not only a pleasure, an effort, a lesson; it is a strong discipline of the heart, the intellect, the man. In the school of Dante I have learned a very great part of that mental provision, small as it may be, with which I have made the journey of human life until nearly 73 years old. He who serves Dante serves Italy, Christianity and the world.' Yet all Dante's philosophy and theology are mediiieval. Vergil, whom he continually styles ' our divine poet,' cannot guide in Paradise, he says, ' since he who has never known the law of the Lord cannot attain the seats of the blessed.' Avicenna and Averroes, with Horace, Lucan, and it would seem nearly all the famous heathen, not having been baptized, he leaves in limbo. Also, as de Rossi points out, neither Dante nor Petrarch cares aught for the art of antiquity. ^ Inferno [canto xxxiv] has both Brutus and Cassias in hell. It puts no emperor there save Frederic II [canto x]. Dante lies buried at Ravenna, but Santa Croce in his native Florence holds a memorial tablet to him. • The Iliad and the Paradise Lost. § 5 Florence Symonds, Rev. of Learning, iv, v, vi. Gibbon, Ixvi. Capponi, Storia della rep. di Firenze. Roscoe, Lorenzo dei Medici, 2 v. Reuinont, do. Villari, Savonarola and his Times, 2 v. Geiger, I, vi, x. The fifteenth century took up the spirit of the four- teenth, extending and intensifying it. Florence became intellectually what she already was politically, a second Athens.^ By 1400 some ten thousand Florentine chil* RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 267 dren could read, nearly six hundred were studying logic and Latin. ^ Boccaccio's influence had drawn Leonzio Pilato thither from Venice and created for him the first Italian professorship of Greek.^ Other Greek teachers came. Greek manuscripts were imported, learned By- zantines visited Florence, young Florentines went to study at Constantinople. The Medici^ were not less zealous in aid of learning and culture than in business and their conduct of the state. With Poggio, who took the lead, vied Niccoli,^ Bruni, Traversari, Ficino, Valla and Poliziano in the discovery, interpretation and pub- lication of ancient writings. The neglected treasures of Monte Casino, Cluny, St. Gall, Fulda were brought to the light.^ Ancient philosophy was studied without theological prejudice and from the sources : how suc- cessfully, Raphael's School of Athens, later, shows.''' Platonic Academies essayed to reconstruct Christian doctrine for the new age.^ From Florence this Renais- sance-spirit spread through Italy. At the courts of Naples and the Lombard tyrants as well as in the great republican centres, Siena, Venice, Genoa, men pored over the immortal classics, striving through reconstruc- tion of the great past to create for themselves a more worthy present. By Poggio and his circle, by popes like Nicholas V,^ Julius II and Leo X, the Holy See itself was brought under the same all-dominating influence. From Italy it passed to the rest of Europe, even Hun- gary and Poland. The power of mediaeval traditions and views of life, of mediaeval ecclesiasticism, was broken forever, 1 A favorite thought with PoHziano and Poggio : ' Athens not dead but transferred to Florence.' — Voigt, I, 372, II, 107. Cf. Ileltner, as at § 4, 268 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMAilON p. 241. Only, as Grimm says, Athens had ten great men to Florence's one. Florence was the very poorest of the large Italian cities in antique monuments and ruins. In classical times it was an insignificant place. Symonds likens Venice to Sparta, as Florence to Athens. 2 The figures are from Villani. ^ Cf. § 4, n. I. Greek was the great innovation now, the Latin classics having never been quite unknown at the Italian capitals. Pilato, not a native Hellene, any more than Barlaamo [Voigt, II, 108 sqq.], had small Greek and no good Latin. He derived 'AxtAAeiJs from alpha privative and XiX Tiraboschi, IX, vii. § lo Painting Milman, XIV, ix. Grimm, M. Angelo, ch. xii. Syntonds, Cath. Reaction, ch. xiii. The new Italian painting soared highest, unquestion- ably outdoing the Greek. Cimabue,^ who astonished the world by painting a Madonna as a real and beautiful woman, led in point of time, his pupil Giotto, Ruskin's idol, coming next. Massaccio,^ another mighty pre- Raphaelite, advanced not a little upon his predecessors in mastery of light, shade, color and drapery. He made subjects live, breathe, speak. For delineating spiritual beauty Fra Angelico is unequalled. Michel Angelo's great paintings^ in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, awful in conception, miracles of execution, are among the chief glories of art creation. But Raphael is the foremost painter of all the ages, his Sistine Madonna standing in unapproachable excellence upon the topmost pinnacle of art. He is as prolific as he is consummate, yet in neither respect so wonderful as in his restless effort toward an ever-advancing ideal. Tizian, Paolo Veronese, Lionardo da Vinci and Coreggio, contem- porary with the two preceding, were artists, any one of whom would have appeared a miracle to a less brilliant age. If the seventeenth century betrays some decline in strength, originality and morality, Guido Reni and Carlo Dolci at least keep on high the sense of beauty, Dolci's Corsini Madonna being in this quite without a rival. 278 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 1 Cimabue 1240-1302, Giotto 1276-1337, Massaccio i40i-'28, da Vinci 1452-1 5 19, Fra Angelico 1474-1563, Michel Angelo 1475-1564, Titian 1477-1576, Raphael 1483-1520, Correggio 1494-1534, Paul of Verona i52S-'88, Guido Reni 1575-1642, Carlo Dolci i6i6-'86. 2 To both Massaccio in his frescoes in the Carmine, Florence, and Cimabue in his so human Madonna of S. Maria Novella, the problem is to represent saintliness without giving to the figure the cold and stiff ap- pearance characteristic of the Byzantine style. Each solves it, but M. much better than C. ^ 'Michel, piu che moriale, aitgel divino^ [Ariosto], said he was no painter and painted under protest. His painting is not confined to the Sistine Chapel. He has a Conversion of Paul and a Crucifixion of Peter in the Paulina Chapel of the Vatican. He also painted the Madonna under the Cross for Vittoria Colonna, and, in his early years, — his only easel picture, — the Holy Family in the Tribuna of the Uffi/.i, Florence. The Last Judgment, Sistine Chapel, is his most lauded work with the brush. Ruskin says that, other things equal, it requires higher art to paint a large than a small picture. § 1 1 The Renaissance European S^ywtfni/i, Despots, i. A^a/Za/K, Lit., pt. i, ch. ii. \'oigt,]\'iederbelebunf;,\r\\.. Tira- boschi, V, iii, VII, iv. Ruge [in Oncken], Zeitalter d. Entdeckungen. Prowe, Nicol'dus Copernicus. Not surprising that Italy saw the dawn of the new age and, in some respects, its fullest day. Italy was the chief heir of the classical world, ^ the chief centre of mediaeval civilization. It was also the earliest land to accjuire wealth, that indispensable prerequisite to leisure for thought and .study. Here too feudalism was feeble,^ liberty first had birth. Here almo.st alone in the middle age was liberty enjoyed. Lastly the whole mediaeval history of Italy, so stormy and changeful, was calculated to nurse individuality, inventiveness, daring. It thus became possible for Italy to bear the brunt of the Renaissance struggle, doing in this a work without RENAISSANXE AND REFORMATION 2/9 which no subsequent progress could have been made. Yet the Renaissance was not confined to Italy. It was European. All Western humanity now started up to put away childish things. Thought, renouncing pre- scription and mere formal work,^ was set free for effort in a hundred new directions. The telescope, already known to the Arabs, Roger Bacon described to Europe in 1250. The compass was brought to light in 1302, linen paper and gunpowder about 1320. Printing triumphs in 1438, and in less than a century Vergil, Homer, Aristotle and Plato appear in noble editions. America is discovered in 1492, the Cape rounded in 1497. Copernicus* re-thinks the solar system in 1507, proves the revolution of the earth in 1530. Savonarola closes the fifteenth century, Luther opens the sixteenth, which, going out, leaves behind Boehme, Bacon, Grotius, Hobbes and Descartes.^ In this same period feudalism gave way and absolute monarchy rose in France, Spain, England, Austria and Turkey.^ Equally mistaken is it to derive the Renaissance causally from any external event, as the fall of Constantinople and the consequent hegira of Greek scholars ' to Italy, although several of the above-named effects unquestionably became causes in time. Thus, printing incalculably spread and stimu- lated intelligence, and the influence of Columbus and Copernicus reached philosophy and theology. God and his universe were seen to be greater than men had dreamed. The time-honored, ever-ready explanations of things no longer sufficed. Far-reaching questions pressed for answer. One could ask whether man, whether this world, were really the centre of the divine plan. 28o RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION * Voigt notices that Italy not only bridged the way from classical to ecclesiastical Rome, but alst) led in the reverse movement from ecclesiasti- cism to antiquity. In Italy paganism in fact never died. 2 Ch. VI, § 14. ' Formal work, the mind exerting its powers on premises already given by revelation, merely deducing and unfolding the contents thereof [formal logic], instead of discovering actually new truth [real logic]. Mental hunger began after the truth itself, cognition of realities objectively and in se, as distinct from mere subjective and external apprehension. Cf. § 13. * Vernacular name Koppernigk. He was a Pole, born at Thorn, in Prussia, 1473, and died in 1543. His work did not appear till 1543. 5 On these philosophers we must refer to Ueberweg and the other ■Histories of Philosophy. Symonds's ch. ix, in Catholic Reaction, is on Giordano Bruno. He lived 1550-1600. ^ For the significance of this, Ch. IV, § 16. Merging the state in the king and the church in the pope ushered in the last ^e of feudalism, and formed the prelude to that drama of liberty wherein Renaissance was the first act. Reformation the second and Revolution the third, and which we nations of the present are still evolving in establishing the democratic idea. — Symonds, Despots, 9. ' Their advent of course had its effect, but it was relatively slight. The Greek comers were mainly unlearned men. The state of Greek letters at Constantinople, 1400-1500, is even now very imperfectly known. Greek was certainly cultivated there, and old Greek manuscripts were as plentiful there as old Latin ones in and near Rome. Classical Greek had not be- come a dead language. The stability of the court and of schools aided literature. Monks, clergy, schoolmasters and isolated savans preserved precious old writings, as in the West. Xenophon, Strabo, Plutarch and Arrian were continually copied and read. Chrysolaras, George of Trebi- zond, Theodore of Gaza, Bessarion and Laskaris were critical scholars and bid some peers, but not many, — Voigt, II, 102 sqq, § 12 The Renaissance beyond Italy '^eiger, bk. ii. Hallani, Lit., pt.' i. L'ubke, Renaissance in Deutschland. Bezold, ' Conrad Celtis', Hist. Zeitschr., 1883. Weber, II, 21 sqq. Janssen, vol. ii, bk. i. The Renaissance assumed consequence beyond the .'Vlps only toward the end of the fifteenth century.' RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 28 1 France felt Italy soonest and most. Italian artists^ and literators visited that land, Charles VIII's soldiers carried home the spirit of the country they overran/^ The sixteenth century produced several French artists of high rank,^ none, however, reaching the perfection of the Dutch painters, the brothers van Eyck, in the pre- ceding. Hans Holbein the Younger was the first non- Italian to do this, his Darmstadt^ Madonna belonging among the very small number of consummate master- pieces. The works of Diirer,^ Rubens, Rembrandt and van Dyck still delight all beholders. In Germany and in the North generally, the inspiration begotten of the Renaissance tended more to study, thought and reform than to art. Universities were founded and filled, clubs of humanists formed, breadth of view cultivated, an astounding mass of learning acquired. Reuchlin," Eras- mus, von Hutten and Melancthon were foremost in these activities, and to them in more than one respect, the modern world owes an immeasurable debt. They fought obscurants, discovered aijd verified manuscripts, corrected texts, made commentaries. Erasmus was the first modern to edit the Greek New Testament : there is scarcely a prominent Greek or Latin classic which Melancthon did not expound. 1 There were no literary products of value north of the Alps in the 15th century save those of Comniines and Sir John Fortescue. 2 Leonardo da Vinci, Andrea del Sarto and Benvenuto Cellini each spent some time at Francis Fs court. Laskaris went from Florence to Paris, helped to form the royal library of Fontainebleau and to introduce Greek into the University of Paris. ^ On this monarch's Italian expedition, Symonds, Despots, ch. ix. It was from 1493-98, he taking Naples in 1495, but holding it only a few months. 282 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION * Goujon and Pilon have been called the fathers of French sculpture. The former was killed in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. ^ Subject and treatment are the same as those of his Madonna in the Dresden Gallery, but critics regard the Darmstadt exemplar the older. ^ Grimm, ' Albrecht DUrer ' in his vol. of translated essays, and Zahn, Dilrer''s Kiinstlchre u. Stin Vcr/iiil/niss ztir Ren., Leipzig, 1866. '' Geiger, bk. ii, has a ch. [v] on Universities; vi is on Learned Socie- ties, ix on Reuchlin, x on Erasmus, xi on vun Hutten. Hettiier makes Hans Sachs the greatest humanist of them all. On editing Mss., Symonds, Despots, 245 sqq. Machiavelli was contemporary with Luther. Reuchlin lived 1455-1522, Erasmus 1467-1536, Luthkr Nov. 10, 1483-Feb. 18, 1546, V. Hutten 1488-1523, Melancthon 1497-1560. § 13 The New Ideas Draper, ch. xx. Kiililer, ' Staatslc/ire d. Re/or maioren,' in Jahrb. f. deutsche Theol., 1874. The depth of this great movement should be appre ciated as well as its breadth. Leading tendencies which marked it, slow and irregular in asserting themselves, may be indicated as follows : i A better thought ^ came to prevail of God, as not fickle or vindictive but rational, law-loving and benign. Men's consciences became freer, worship more spiritual, religious devotion less a slavish service, less a thing of form and ceremony. 2 Life was viewed more as something besides probation, as having legitimate interests of its own. This world too, men felt, was meant to be enjoyed. Man was looked on less as a merely religious being, as simply an instru- ment for God's glory in the old sense, and religion more as a personal instead of a collective concern. In gene- ral, individualism 2 replaced the mcdian'al spirit, so dominant before, of ecclesiasticism, of class, guild, fia- ternity. 3 Larger belief in the prevalence of law and order in the universe, along with the discovered falsity RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 283 of many old beliefs, brought the entire scholastic method of truth-seeking into disrepute, and substituted for it the more rational and fruitful one of observation, experi- ment, induction. An age of criticism came, wherein thought refused to limit itself to formal^ exercise or to allow its field to be prescribed. The content of truth, revealed or other, had to be examined. Theology began perforce to be scientific. 1 Largely due to the new study of Platonism, which, from the middle of the 15th century, supplanted that of the Aristotelian philosophy. Pico of Mirandola denounces A. as foe to Christianity and exalts Plato as its saviour. Pletho was main source of this change. At last in the i6th century Peter Ramus could begin a dissertation before the University of Paris by declaring every proposition in Aristotle false, and Nicolaus Tau- rellus, counterpole of Aquinas, could call Aristotle and reason contradic- tory opposites. 2 Not at all an accident that the captain of the Reformation, Luther, was a Nominalist instead of a Realist. Cf. § 3, n. 5. " §ii,n. 3. § 14 Condition of the Church Milman, bk. xiii. Symonds, Despots, vi-viii; Catholic Reaction, vi, vii. Ranke, Popes, bk. i, ch. ii. Jansseii, vol. ii. Creighton, vol. i. Klilpfel, ' Schiu'dbische Bund,' Hist. Taschenbuch, jSSi. Amid such ideas and currents of feeling it was im- possible that the church should be reverenced and valued as before. Various special causes aided the depreciation of her, turning it in many quarters into contempt and hatred. i The great schism ^ of the West, 1 378-141 7, two rival popes, seven years of the time three, with credentials of apparently equal validity, thundering excommunications at each other. 2 Dissi- dence of view during and after the Councils of Pisa, 1409, and Constance, 1414-18, on the question^ whether 284 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION or not pope was superior to council. 3 The Inquisi- tion,^ organized by Innocent III and extensively used against the Albigenses, but always unpopular with the masses, especially in Germany. 4 The discovery that Aquinas had many wise misinterpreted^ Aristotle, also the prevalence of Averroistic views on several important questions, notably that of immortality.^ 5 The chill which zeal for the positive^ element in Christianity received from the ardent study of the classics. 6 The contrast of the poverty of even the royal laity with the wealth of ecclesiastical institutions and the exorbitant demands on their behalf urged by greedy and assuming churchmen. 7 Most serious of all, the moral corrup- tion' in ecclesiastical circles, especially in Italy. Popes practiced open concubinage and simony, and in govern- ing the church, purely in their own interest, made free use of poison and the dagger. Prelates who had paid high for places were butchered that these might be sold again. The worst was under Alexander VI ^ : his court was a den of fiends, embracing an assassin-in-chief, a professional poison-mixer, a numerous harem. The moral gangrene spread to monasteries, nunneries, laic life. Bastards were too common to bear stigma, the words ' honor ' and ' virtue ' lost their old meanings, morality sunk to a level lower than Epicurean. 1 Milman, as above, presents the causes. It was a quarrel between the Italian and the Ultramontane, mainly French, faction of the church. Against Urban VI, Italian, who was elected Ap. i8, 1378, Clement VII, a German, was elected on the 20th of the next Sept. Urban died Oct. 15, 1389, and Boniface IX was instantly chosen in his stead. Clement VII died Sept. 16, 1394, Benedict XIII being elected at Avignon the 28th of same month, in his stead. Boniface IV died Oct. i, 1404, Innocent VII became his successor the 12th. Innocent died Nov. 6, 1406, succeeded on RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 285 Nov. 30th, same year, by Gregory XII. Both Gregory XII and Benedict XIII lose obedience and are deposed by the Council of Pisa, June 5, 1409, when, June 26, Alexander V is elected, followed, on his death, by John XXIII, elected May 25, 1410. Gregory and Benedict refusing to abdi- cate, there are now three popes, until Oddo Colonna is elected Martin V by the Council of Constance, Nov. 11, 1417. On all this, Creighton, bk. i, Gibbon, Ixx. 2 The catholic doctrine, unquestionably so since the Vatican Council, 1870, is of course that pope is superior. On this account Pisa is not reck- oned as a Council of the church, it not having been convened by a pope. 8 Ch. VII, § 16. Cf. Symonds, Despots, 333 sqq., Weber, I, 737. The first agent of the Inquisition in Germany was put to death, and several others later. * Roger Bacon reproached Aquinas and Albert the Great with teaching Aristotle as boys, without knowing him. Duns Scotus called Aristotle as taught, nothing but an ' aristotelizing Thomas.' This conviction grew, and led to the sundering of theology from philosophy, the latter henceforth only ancillary. Modern criticism confirms these opinions, proving that his mediaeval expositors ascribed to A. opinions of Arabian glossators and other Peripatetics, and grossly falsified him to make him orthodox. Miche- let, 49, Lange, H. of Materialism, bk. i, sec. ii. Thus Albert the Great, Aquinas and Duns Scotus agree in referring to Aristotle a conception of cause which he never entertained. ^ Averroes had denied personal immortality, at least in the usual sense, maintaining that only mind or spirit in general would survive bodily death. He believed this tenet Aristotelian. * ' Positive ' as opposed to ' moral ' : the positive behests of Christianity being those, as observance of Sunday and of the sacraments, which natural reason would never indicate. "^ The saints of the North found at Rome all the commandments turned into the one : ' Geld her ! ' — Hase. Boiardo [a churchman] wrote : — ' 'Tis said by some that by and by the good Pope and his prelates will reform their ways. I tell you that a turnip has no blood, Nor sick folk health, nor can you hope to raise Syrup from vinegar to sauce your food. The church will be reformed when summer days Come without gadflies; when a butcher's store Has neither bones nor dogs about the door.' See Symonds, Appendix to vol. ii of Lit. See ibid., for Lutheran senti- ments of Italian poets in Leo X's age. 286 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION * ' Pope Alexander VI [Borgia] played during his whole life a game of deception. Never did a person so often break his word or pay less regard to his engagements.' — Machiavelli, Prince, ch. xviii. Caesar often did his father's and his own assassin-work. He would go about Rome in the night with a squad of ruffians, and next morning a half-dozen bodies of murdered men would attest their diligence. His device was aut Casar aut nihil. For such as the Borgias did not dare or care to take off in this way they had a white, pleasant-tasting powder to poison withal, killing gradually. The father died, and the son almost, from accidentally drinking wine which they had drugged with this powder for use in removing a cardinal. Michelet, 214, also chaps, vi, vii. On Lucrezia Borgia, § 7, n. 3. Beside Gregrovius's work apologizing for her, see an apology for the whole family: Les proch des Borgia, which the Rev. historique, Mai-Juin, 1883, calls good for nothing. * Vertii ' had come to mean merely ' ability,' espe- cially 'cunning,' and ' onore^ 'repute,' as in the Prince, /awm. See Symonds, Despots, ch. on Machiavelli. There is awful satire in the Decameron, First Day, Second Novel, about the Jew Abraham, converted to Christianity through a visit to Rome. He reasoned that a religion able to live in spite of such utter godlessness in its highest places must be of God. Cf. Symonds, Despots, 424 sqc]., Grimm, M. A., ch. ii. From Michelet, Int. [vol. vii], citing Rigaud, the 13th century seems to have been in France as bad as the 15th. § 15 Reformers before the Reformation Ullmann. Reformers before the Reformation. Gillett, L. and Times of Hiiss, 2 v. Jortin, Erasmus. Drtunniond, do. Madden, Savonarola, 2 v. Jcdari, Jean de Gerson. While these disorders were for the most part not caused by the Renaissance, which they long antedated, it called fresh attention to them, rendering more serious an opposition^ to the church, or to its administration, which had been wanting in no age. This opposition was partly practical, insisting on reform of morals with- out attacking the frame of the church, and criticising ecclesiastical powers only so far as they withstood this, and partly theoretical, aimed at the very constitution of RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 287 the church. The theoretical critics were of very various stripes, from pure independents to such as merely wished to subject the pope to new guaranties of fidelity to duty. Doctrine save as involved in polity did not enter into these controversies, even the most licentious popes being scrupulously orthodox.^ To the first of the above classes belongs Savonarola of Florence, whose difficulty with the church was complicated by politics,^ and in the main, Hus of Bohemia, burned at Constance. To the second: i The Albigenses and Waldenses, objects of crusade and Inquisition,^ and to counteract whose influ- ence the great preaching orders, the Dominicans and Franciscans, had been organized. 2 Abbot Joachim of Flora,^ with his ' Eternal Gospel,' which proclaimed in essence a new, churchless dispensation, of spiritual men, free through the Holy Ghost, even from the law of Christ. 3 John Wyclif,^ the first English reformer, who declared the papacy to be the poison of the church, the pope, however good personally. Antichrist by virtue of his claim to rule the universal church. 4 A large party of devoted churchmen strongly represented at the Councils of Pisa'' and Constance, who opposed papal absolutism and wished to subject the pope entirely to the authority of general councils. 1 It is thus impossible to understand the Reformation save as offspring and phase of the Renaissance. See Geffcken, in Church and State. But best is Rossmann, Betrachtungen iiber d. Zeitalter d. Rcf. [has important Beilageti\. Janssen in like manner deduces the Reformation from what was before. 2 Except possibly Leo X, who was charged with averroism [§ 14, n. 5] upon the doctrine of immortality. ' See auth. at § 5. Also Grimm, M. A., ch. iii, Michelet, ch. v, Symonds, Despots, ch. viii, and Appendix A. to Machiavelli's Prince. 288 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION Savonarola was the inflexil)le foe of the Medici's misrule, which he greatly helped to end, and after Lorenzo's death, Piero's deposition and the de- parture of Charles VIII, he was for a time lawgiver to the city. But the combined opposition of Pope Alexander VI, the Medici faction in Flor- ence and the despots of other cities at last overwhelmed him. On Hus, Milman, XIII, viii, ix, Creighton, bk. ii, chaps, iv, v. * Ch. VII, § i6, n. 2; Milman, IX, viii. ^ Michelet, Int., 72 ; Renan, Joachim de Flore, in Rev. des deux Mondes, 1866; Muller, Joachim von Floris, in Herzog-Plitt's Realencyc. Joachim's evangel proclaimed a new freedom, to be introduced by the Holy Ghost, which should set free from the law of Christ, as Christ had set free from that of Moses. He spoke of the Spirit, the inner light, in much the manner of the early modern Friends. John of Parma said to the Cordeliers : Doctrina Joachimi excellit doctrinam Christi. 6 Milman, XIII, vi. ■^ On these Councils, Creighton, I, vi, vii, II. Ill is on the Council of Basel. § 16 Germany: Religious State Janssen, vols, i, ii. Ullmann, as at § 15. Hase, ch. vi. Germany was the land where for special reason^ this spirit of ecclesiastical rebellion was strongest. Real piety and morality had here their chief seat. The Bible was common and in the vernacular,^ preaching likewise, much of which was evangelical and earnest. The work of Tauler^ and of the Friends of God had taken lasting effect. John Wessel ^ had proclaimed up and down the Rhine valley nearly the same doctrines which Luther was about to advocate with such success. Von Wesel and von Goch had been influential in the same direction. Italian vice was near enough to be known, not familiar enough to be popular. The spirit and beliefs of Hus* had lived on, nourished by the memory of his holy life, of his brave and unjust death. With all this was joined that Teutonic individualism^ and love of RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 289 independence, which, partly good, partly evil, have made Germany even to our day, a theatre of political disorder. It is noticeable that the sixteenth century found feudal- ism powerful in Germany alone.^ Once, mostly loyal to the emperor, the Germans had abhorred the pope as his foe, and this feeling still existed. Now princes, striving for sovereignty" of their own, hated Rome as having become the empire's natural mate and helper. This animus infected the people and large numbers of the clergy. ^ There were 17 German translations of the Bible [not merely edi- tions] before Luther's: 14 High German, 3 Low. Surgant's AlanuaU Curatoriim, 1506, warns preachers to distinguish before their hearers be- tween the sense and the letter of scripture, because the people, women as well as men, have the Bible in their own tongue and will read the portions for the day before coming to church. It is no fiction or hyperbole when Sebastian Brant begins his Narrensckiff, 1494 [ed. Zarncke] : — ' All land synt jetz voll heiliger gschrift, Und was der selen heil antrif/t, Bibel, der heiligen Voter ler, Und ander der gleichen Biicher mer. In mass das ich ser ivunder hab Das Nyemant bessert sick darab.' The editor of the Cologne Bible, i470-'8o, presupposing that the learned will still use the Latin scriptures, exhorts that all Christians read the new translation, attending to the sense thereof. The Liibeck Bible, 1494, con- tains the same injunction. Proofs of this kind exist in abundance. Yet Luther expressly says : ' When I was 20 years old I had never yet seen a Bible and supposed there were no other gospels and epistles than those in the postils.' In explanation it has been noticed that Luther was brought up in a very rude part of Germany, Mansfeld in Thiiringen, even Leipzig being named in 1497 ^ barhara tellus. But before ending his 20th year he had been a year at Magdeburg and taken his Bachelor's degree at Erfurt. If it is true that he had then never seen a Bible it must have been his own fault. See Janssen, vol. ii, 67 sq., cf. vol. i [12th ed.], 54. 2 John Tauler, 1290-1361,^ niightv mystic perfectionist and preacher, to whose mode of viewing Christianity Luther was greatly indebted. He 290 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION did not defy or break with the church, yet minimized its office. On the Friends of God, Mihnan, vol. viii, 399. They too were mystics, more ultra than Tauler was at first, but under the influence of their leader, Nicholas of Bisle, he joined them. The Friends were still in existence in Luther's day, ' if not organized yet maintaining visibly if not publicly their succession of apostolic holiness.' 3 Hase, § 264. Wessel [d. 1489] proclaimed tnie religion independent of church forms, forgiveness by God alone, scripture, ' God's ablireviated word,' as sole source of faith. Goch laid stress on saving faith as neces- sarily issuing in good works. Wesel emphasized predestination and made light of papal power. He was imprisoned [1479] and forced to recant, dying in prison, 1481. Luther taught very little if aught in which these men and their numerous fellow-believers all over Germany had not antici- pated him. Wesel had been professor in Erfurt, Luther's own alma mater. 4 See § 15, n. 3. Hase, §§ 262 sq. « ch. VI, § 13. ^ Ch. VI, § 3 and n. I. ' Bryce, xvii, xviii. § 17 Political State Symonds, Catholic Reaction, ch. i. Robertson, Charles V, bks. i, ii. Ranke, Ref. in Germany, bk. i; Popes, bk. i, ch. iii. Geiger, II, ii. Janssert, vol. i, bk. iv, vol. ii,esp. 3i3-'i6. Ulhiiaun, Kaiser Maximilian I. Mignet,Rivalite de Franqois 1 et de Charles V, 2 v. Putter, German Empire, bk. iv. Germany began the sixteenth century in extreme political distraction. Victory there of feudal aristocracy over central power, the precise reverse of contemporary development in France, had left the emperor the mere head of a loose confederation, with very slight actual power. The Fursten, hereditary and practically sover- eign, were seeking to subdue the cities and all nobles within their territories, holding of the emperor. So great the anarchy, the Diet^ of 1495 ordained toward the reform and greater efficiency of the empire (i) a general tax for its legitimate needs, (2) universal and perpetual end to wars between the states, aggrieved rulers to recur to (3) the imperial chamber^ or supreme RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 29 1 court of the empire, never popular with emperors be- cause its members were appointed by the estates. To balance it the aulic council, created in 1501 as an Aus- trian affair, gradually assumed imperial functions. In 1500 the empire was divided into six administrative circles, made ten in 15 12, a Fiirst, with army, in charge of each, to insure the execution of laws. The empire's foreign relations were still more troubled, commanding Maximilian's and Charles's constant attention, i Turk- ish wars ^ threatened Austria chiefly and directly but involved the whole empire, ii Partly imperial, partly Austrian interests led Maximilian into costly leagues,* (i) to drive Charles VIII from Naples, 1495, (2) that of Cambray, 1508, to strip Venice of her main-land posses- sions, and (3) 'the Holy,' so called, 15 11, to expel the French from Milan and all Italy, iii Disastrous to the empire was the enmity to the Hapsburgs because of their immense hereditary sway:^ Austria, Burgundy, the Netherlands, Spain, Naples and Sicily, America, to all which Ferdinand's marriage added Bohemia and Hungary. France, surrounded, must have been Haps- burg's foe, even had Charles not been elected emperor over Francis I, his rival. 1 The first Diet under Maximilian I [1493-1519]. His predecessor, Frederic III [i440-'93], had resisted these innovations as imperilling im- perial power. Maximilian, 'the Penniless,' yielded, hoping to realize from the new tax, called the ' common penny.' 2 With president, appointed by emperor, and adsessores, by the diet. The diet consisted of the electors, the other FUrsten, and the delegates of the free cities. The chamber would thus certainly be against the emperor on any question between him and diet or FUrsten. The seat of the chamber [till 1693: afterwards always Wetzlar] was Spires, and the slow- ness of its proceedings, unmatched even in England's chancery, led to the proverb : Spirae lites spirant et >ion exspirant. 292 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION ^ After taking Constantinople the Turks continued to advance toward the heart of Europe till 1683, when they were forced to retire from Vienna. At this date Ottoman power encompassed the entire Hlack Sea. * He was allied in (i) with Venice, Pope Alexander VI, Milan and Ferdinand of Aragon, his aim to check French power; in (2) with Pope Julius II [1503-'! 3], Louis XII of France, who was Maximilian's vassal for the Milan duchy, and Ferdinand : motive, to punish Venice for alli- ance with Turks and take back the cities it had wrested from Romagna; in (3) with JuHus, Venice, Ferdinand, Henry VIII of England, and the Swiss : motive, to carry out Julius IPs notion that ' the barbarians must be banished from Italy.' 6 Maximilian of Austria, Emperor 1493-1519. Mary of Burgundy. Ferdinand of Aragon. Isabella of Castile. 1 1 Philip Fair of Austria. 1 1 Joanna. 1 1 Charles (I of Spain) Emperor isig-'sS. V, Ferdinand I, Emperor i558-'64. Charles V inherited the Austrian crown lands and the Netherlands from his father. United Spain, with A'apLs, Sicily, and America from his maternal grandfather. To the empire he came of course by election. Of Austria he committed first the administration, then the possession, to his brother Ferdinand, who also succeeded him in the empire. Austria had acquired this great power by marriage, of Maximilian I with Mary of Bur- gundy, of their son with Joanna, and of Ferdinand. Hence the lines: — Bella gerant alii, tu felix Austria nube, Namque Mars aliis dai tibi regna Venus. § 18 Spread of the Reformation' "Janssen, vol. iii, blc. i. IVeber, ii, 39 sqq. Griin, as in bibliog. Ranke, Ref. in Germany, bk. i, iii, Luther had at first no thought of breaking with the church but was drawn to the step gradually, by force of circumstances rather than of set purpose. A year after RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 293 arraigning Tetzel he appeals ^ to the pope, holds an equally docile attitude in conference with Miltitz in 15 19, reverently addresses Leo again in 15 19 and 1520, seems not averse to peace even at the colloquy of Regensburg^ so late as 1541. The Augsburg Confes- sion disclaimed all purpose of framing a new church. But his outcry against Tetzel's shameless* traffic had voiced a popular feeling stronger than he thought, and after his bold stand at Worms he found himself at the head of a movement for which times were ripe, bearing him on in spite of himself. The intelligence and moral earnestness which speedily sided with him, soon com- manded the people. Before the Reformation was half a century old, notwithstanding its foes and its excesses, the Peasants' War^ and the Miinster anarchy, fully ninety per cent, of the Germans had embraced it. Meantime a more radical revolt against Latin Chris- tianity had been spreading in Switzerland, led by Zvvingli.^ Checked for a time by his death, this south- ern protestantism assumed double vigor under Calvin. From Geneva, its centre, went forth zealous preachers in all directions, fearless of death, bent on the salvation of souls. Besides French Switzerland, Holland and Scotland were won for Calvinism, England and France almost. ^ 1483, Luther born. 1508, Professor at Wittenberg, 151 7, Theses against Tetzel. 1 5 18, Zwingli begins in Zurich. 1520, June 15, Luther excommunicated, by the bull exsurge domine. 1521, Diet of Worms, Luther under imperial ban, to Wartburg, begins tr. of liible. l524-'5, Peasants' War. 1525, League of Dessau, Catholic Fursten. 294 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 1526, I Diet of Spires, liberty but no propagandism : League of Torgau, Lutheran Fuisten. 1529, II Diet of Spires, Edict of Worms to be rigorously executed: Lutherans /ri^to/, hence ' Protestants.' 1530, Diet of Augsburg: Melancthon presents Augsburg Confession, without effect; new opinions to be suppressed. 1531, League of Smalcald, Protestant FUrsten and cities. 1532, Peace of Nlirnberg : Augsburg decree rescinded: Protestants to have liberty till Council. i534-'5, Anarchy in Munster. 1536, Calvin begins at Geneva. l545-'63, Council of Trent. 1546, Luther dies, Feb. 18. 1 546-' 7, Smalcaldic War. 1547, Battle of Miihlberg: Wittenberg taken by Charles V. 1552, Maurice joins Protestants, being already in league with Henry II : Treaty of Passau, Protestants free till next Diet. 1553, Battle of Sievershausen : Maurice beats Albert of Brandenburg- Culmbach but is mortally wounded. 1555, Peace of Augsburg. 2 Janssen, vol. ii, 71 sqq. Luther was at Rome in 15 10. Whatever his impressions then it was long before he thought of deserting the church. March 3, 15 19, he protests to the pope before God and all creatures that he has never intended to attack the Roman church. In F"eb., same year, he averred that no cause, no sort of sin or evil therein, was or could be so important as to justify one in leaving the church. In the Leipzig dis- putation of this year he admitted that the Hussites had done wrong in separating from the church. In 1520 he writes: ' To Leo the Tenth, the all-holiest in God the Father, Pope at Rome, all blessedness in Christ Jesus,' stating that he wishes well both to Leo and to the Roman Chair, and prays for both ' with all his powers.' Yet he had expressed to Si)ala- tin, March 13, 1519, his uncertainty whether the pope was Antichrist or Antichrist's apostle, and in the letter of 1520 he appeals to Leo if it is ' not true that nothing exists under the wide heaven more ugly, poisonous or hateful than the Roman court. For it far surpasses the vice of the Turks, insomuch that although Rome was once a gate of heaven it is now a much wider opened mouth of hell, such a mouth, alas, through God's wrath, that no one can shut it.' He expects Leo's thanks for this plain- ness of speech, and will recant nothing. RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 295 * Where the emperor and Contarini, papal legate, met Bucer and Melancthon half-way. But the protestant Fiirsten enjoyed freedom and did not propose to gird on again their old bonds to church and empire. * According to Luther, Tetzel preached: I 'That the red cross on the indulgences, with the pope's seal, was just as powerful as the cross of Christ. 2 That he, Tetzel, had grace and power as great as St. Peter would have if present. 3 That in heaven he would not take second place to Peter, for he with his indulgences had saved more souls than Peter by preaching. 4 That just as soon as a piece of money put into the chest for a soul in purgatory touched and jingled on the bottom the soul escaped to heaven. 5 That the grace of indulgence was precisely the grace through which man is reconciled to God. 6 That it was not necessary to have penitence or pain or do penance for the sin if one purchased the indul- gence.' From Tetzel's explanation of indulgences later, Janssen doubts his preaching thus, but Myconius confirms Luther. ^ This rising of the oppressed and starving poor to wrest their rights from the nobles was, of course, only occasioned by Luther's revolt, but his enemies charged him with causing it. To clear himself he became the most merciless opponent of the Peasants' movement. He was also held responsible for the wild views and plans of the Munster fanatics, who, though holding much valuable truth, proposed to suppress not only the papal system but all temporal rule, setting up forthwith the kingdom of God on earth. * On Zwingli and Calvin, Janssen, vol. iii, bks. i, v; Freemantle, Church and Democracy at Geneva, Contemp. Rev., Aug., 1882; Coligny and Failure of Fr. Reformation [in New Plut. Ser.]. Under Catherine dei Medici France was on the point of going over to Protestantism, nobility and merchant classes especially. Margaret of Valois, Francis Ps sister, was a Huguenot. See Green, England, vol. ii, 337. § 19 Political Intervention and Settlement Ranke, Ref. in Germany, bks. i, vi. yanssen, vol. iii, bk. ii. Robertson, Charles V, bks. ix, X. Heeren, Pol. Conseqq. of the Reformation. Much as the Reformation owes to Luther, one of his- tory's greatest figures and forces, he was voice to it rather than cause, and by his narrowness ^ and indiscre- tion even did not a little to hinder it. But his breach 296 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION with the humanists was a help, rendering the movement popular at the same time that it had solid intellectual basis in himself and Mclancthon. The half aristocratic character of the Reformation in France, where it allied itself with descendants of the old feudal aristocrats, was the chief source of its failure" there. The Reformation found decisive support in the political world, without which it must have failed or been indefinitely delayed. This proceeded from : i All tendencies in the empire hostile to either it or the church. 2 All princes or nobles dissatisfied for any reason with either. 3 The interregnum before the election of Charles V, which made vicar Frederic the Wise,^ Luther's firmest sup- porter. 4 Charles's character as a foreigner, ^ the same consideration as to Ferdinand causing his election 'King of the Romans,' to multiply the protestant princes. 5 French and Turkish^ attacks. 6 Direct alliance and aid of the French kings Francis I and Henry II, who, while burning protestants at home, succored them be- yond the Rhine. Once at peace with his foreign foes, Charles, consummate captain,^ found no difficulty in overrunning Germany in the Smalcaldic war, but the treason ^ of Maurice of Saxony speedily restored victory to the protestant side, and irrevocably sundered church as well as empire into two confessions. By the Peace of Augsburg, 1555, in spite of the pope's opposition, this division took legal form. Princes and free cities that held the Augsburg Confession were to have equal imperial rights with catholic estates. No other form of protestantism was recognized. The ins rcformaudi'^ might be everywiierc exercised : cuius regio, cius rcligio, but dissenters were free to emigrate. RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 29/ * He and Zwingli held a disputation at Marburg on the nature of the Lord's supper [§ 20, n. i]. Luther insisted on taking the words 'this is my body' literally, in catholic fashion; Zwingli interpreted them sym- bolically: 'this means my body.' Despite their disagreement Zwingli held out the hand of fellowship. Luther refused it, saying, ' Ye are of a different spirit.' Yet Bucer induced the Zwinglian cities to join the Smal- caldic League. Janssen is not over-severe in accusing Luther of too easily identifying his view with God's truth, though Luther often enough pro- fesses fallibility. The humanists, Erasmus, Reuchlin, Albrecht Diirer, at first encouraged Luther, but could not go the length of rupturing the world's ecclesiastical unity. Not strange. They foresaw the ' Caesaro- papismus ' [Ch. IX, § 4] to which the reform movement must lead, and deemed religion safer in an ecumenical church under an elective head than in so many national churches each under an irresponsible head. Men who argued so Luther regarded God's enemies. 2 The pope, fearing the power Charles would have if elected, secretly favored Francis, and did his best to bring Frederic to his view as likely to hold the balance of power among the electors. This was Miltitz's mis- sion [§ 18], and explains his kindly attitude toward Luther. In M.'s conference with Luther he admits the shameless abuse of indulgences, which Janssen now seeks to cover, and promises that it shall be stopped. * The same has kept Hapsburg rulers unpopular in Germany ever since, and cultivated the hatred against Austria as a non-German land which led to the war of 1866. See v. Treitschke, Deutsche Gesch. im XIX Jahrh. I, 4 sq. * Yet the army to beat back Solyman the Magnificent in 1531 was made up partly of protestants, and Luther himself gave it a good send-oflf in a fiery sermon against the Turks. Francis I formed alliance with Soly- man to aid against Charles. Reviled therefor, he replied, ' When wolves attack my sheep, I shall employ dogs to defend them.' ^ Equally consummate in the cabinet, — one of history's great men. Nor was he by any means the catholic bigot most protestants suppose. On the contrary catholics accused him of favoring and even patronizing heretics. Green, England, II, 204 sqq. Cf. Weber, II, 33. As they stood Above Luther's grave in Wittenberg the duke of Alva was for pulling up and burning the corpse. ' I war not with the dead but with the living,* said the emperor. He attacks the League of Cognac, though headed by Pope Clement VII, Francis, Venice, Sforza of Milan and Henry VIII its other members, and his army under the Constable de Bourbon, who had deserted Francis for Charles, takes Rome and imprisons the pope. Many 298 RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION protestants were in this army also. Hostilities were ended by the Ladies' Peace of Cambray, 1529 [Charles's aunt, Margaret of Austria, and Fran- cis's mother, Louise of Savoy]. ^ He had aided the emperor in the campaign against the protestants and in return had been installed elector of Saxony in John Frederic's place. But no sooner has Miihlberg made Charles master of Cermany than Maurice turns against the emperor, allies himself with Henry H of France and becomes head champion of the protestant cause. "^ Freedom of faith after all only for FUrsten, and of these for none but Lutherans. Every Fiiist could force his subjects to conform to his faith or leave his land. Lutherans were little less hostile to Calvinists [Re- formed] than catholics were. A stone built into a house in Wittenberg bears the legend from Reformation times : ' Gottes Wort, Lutheri Schrift, Des Papstes und Calvini Gift.' As little did Calvinists or Calvin himself concede to others the freedom of belief which all protestants demanded from the pope. The Genevan leader approved the burning of Servetus, as ' a pious and memorable ex- ample for all posterity.' On the indefiniteness of the Augsburg Treaty and the consequent misunderstandings, leading to the 30 Years' War, see opening §§ of next Chapter. § 20 Ecclesiastical Settlement JfVi^r, II, 52 sqq. ^a^f«/5rtc/z, H. of Doctrine, IVth Period. Schaff, and Gieseler, as in bibliog. ^ I Doctrine. The protestants proposed to take script- ure alone as authority, casting aside tradition, patristic opinion and conciliar decrees. The Lutherans wished to reject only the scripturally forbidden, Calvinists everything which scripture does not command. Liv- ing faith was proclaimed to be the only soul-saving act, works valueless except as springing from this. Both wings, though Calvinists with far the more stress, referred faith for origin, in Augustine's manner, to divine predestination. As to the nature of the eucha- RENAISSANCE AND REFORMATION 290 rist, the only recognized sacrament save baptism, while all renounced transubstantiation/ Luther taught consub- stantiation, Zwingli symbolism, Calvin a spiritual real presence which he regarded something more than a mere product of symbolism. Worship of Mary and of angels was denounced as sin. 2 Polity. The protes- tants rejected the pope's primacy and the entire papal system as such, including canon law and clerical celi- bacy. Both sections agreed in giving up apostolic suc- cession and in subjecting the clergy like other citizens to civil authority,^ but while the Lutherans retained a modified episcopacy and linked the church closely with civil power, the Reformed organized presbyteries, which were to be autonomous. 3 Worship. Mass ^ in Latin was replaced by service in the vernacular, wherein preaching was prominent, especially among the Re- formed, who also retained fewer forms and less set liturgy. The laity communed in both kinds, church music came into new favor, the Reformed using psalms, Lutherans hymns as well. In general, the Lutheran liturgy was the more joyous, speaking more of God's fatherhood and love, the Reformed more solemn, dwell- ing upon God's judgeship, justice and wrath. The last difference affected the entire spirit of the two parties, their views of life and their moral walk. 1 The view that the bread and wine, after their consecration at com- munion, areas to substance, the flesh and blood of the Redeemer, although retaining their former accidents. Consubstantiation differed from this catholic view only in supposing i/ie old substance also to remain with the new. ^ 'The success of the Reformation, positively and negatively, turned chiefly upon the cooperation of three great deeds : rediscovery of classical antiquity by the humanists, rehabilitation of the pure gospel by the re- 300 RENAISSANCE AA'U REFORMATION formers, and lastly, supplanting the worldly-spiritual aristocracy of the later middle age by the, where possible, national, but at any rate modern, state.' — Roscher, Gesch. d. A^ationaLrk. in Deutschland, 32. ^ The Lutherans set aside, in their view, not the mass itself \^Messe\ but the sacrifice of the mass. Hagenbach, II, 310. Here as elsewhere they wished merely to get rid of abuses and lay bare the old gospel and polity. Lutherans love to be called ' evangelical,' not ' protestant,' even to-day. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY TO CHAPTER IX Germany: Gindely, Gesch. d. 30 j'dkii^en Krieges** [the ablest: IV ends the Bohemian phase]; H. of the 30 Yrs. \V.,** 2 v. [tr. from an original briefer than the preceding]. Gardiner, 30 Yrs. W.** [in Ep. of H.: best single vol. on the subj.]; Prince Charles and the Spanish Mar- riage, 2 V. Schiller, 30 Yrs. W. [cf. his Piccolomini, IVallenstein's Tod, and IV.' s Lager]. Raumer, XVIth and XVIIth Cent.,** 2 v. Hausser, Gesch. d. rheinischen P/alz, 2 v; Period of the Ref.,** II [see for lit.]. Droysen, Bernfun-d v. IVeimar, 2 v.; Gustav Adolph** 2 v. Gfrdrer, do. Garnet, Gust. Adolphus [New Plut. Ser.]. Harte, do., 2 v. Stevens, L. and T. of do.* Topelius, T. of do. yitho\di,jojahriger Krieg, 2 v. Villermont, Ernest de Mansfcldt, 2 v. Utterodt, Ernest, Grafzu Mans- feld. Klopp, Tilly im jo jahr. Krieg, 2 v. Smyth, Lect. on Mod. H., I, xiii. Hallwich, IVallenstcin^s Ende ; Gestultcn aus IV.^s Lager; T/iurn. Ranke, Gesch. Wallensteins ; Popes, bks. ii sqq.; D. Gesch. vom Religionsfrieden bis zum jo jdhrigen Kr. [vol. iv. in Werke\ Frei- tag, Bilder, III. Hurter, Gesch. Kaiser Ferdinands II, 4 v. Janssen, Gesch. d. deutschen Volkes, vols, iii sqq.; Resultate neiicrer Forschh. ilber 30 jahr. Kr. \_Tiib. Quar-Schr., 1861]. Piitter, German empire, vol. ii. France : Ranke, Civil W. and Monarchy in Fr., XVI and XVII Cent., 2 V. Martin, France, vols, xi-xiii. Michelet, do., vols, ix-xii. Cheruel, Fr. sous le niinist'ere de Mazarin, 3 v. Perkins, Fr. under Richelieu and Mazarin, 2 v. Baird, Rise of the Huguenots,** 2 v.; The Hug. and Henry of Navarre,** 2 v. de Felice, //. des protestants de Fr. Rob- son, Richelieu. Haag, France protestante, 9 v. Masson, Huguenots. Kitchin, France, bks. iii, iv. Student's France, bk. vi. [For other wks. on France in 17th century, see Adams, Manual, 315 sqq.] General: Heeren, Pol. Conseqq. of the Reformation. Villers, Essay on the Spirit and Influence of the Reformation. Symonds, Catholic Reaction, 2 v. Sterling- Maxwell, Don John of Austria. Motley, John of Barneveld,** 2 v.; Dutch Republic, 3 v.; United Netherlands, 4 v. Zwiedeneck- SUdenhorst, Politik d. Venedig wdhrend d. jo jdhrigen Kr., vol. i, 1882. CHAPTER IX THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR § I General Cause and Character Gardiner, ch. i. Treitschke, D. Gesch. itn XIX Jahrh., I, i. Heeren, as in bibliog. H'dusser, ch. xxx. Of that unity in European society so dear^ to the middle age the Reformation had about destroyed all real remnant, ruptured even the form. But men would not give up the idea, or the hope that it might again be realized. The Peace of Augsburg had established as legal a religious confession other than catholic, but its so unsatisfactory basis of agreement, toleration to rulers alone, rendered it a truce rather than a peace. In less than seventy-five years the faith of Luther had to enter upon a fresh struggle for life, protestant Europe against catholic, fiercer and longer than the first, which for a quarter of a century threatened to subjugate all Ger- many once more to pope and emperor. Now again appears even more painfully than at the Reformation, German inaptitude for political organization, the deteri- oration of the imperial constitution, the feebleness and nominal character of imperial power. The diet,'^ lack- ing a popular element, could not feel or voice the real spirit of the nation. The people and their instituted authorities were at feud, a majority of them at least, 304 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR allied with a minority of the princes against a majority of the princes supported by the emperor. The consti- tution offered no means of reconciliation. ^ Which explains why so many most excellent men, like Erasmus and Sir Thomas More, clung to the ancient church in spite of their admission that it needed reforming in head and members. The formal unity of Christendom seemed to them essential to any real unity or power among Christians. Their scruple is more readily seen to be natural when we re- member that till the Peace of Westphalia, 1648, church and empire com- prised the sole European system and the only means for enforcing inter- national obligations. Cf. Ch. VIII, § 19, n. I. '^ The diet consisted of 3 regular colleges, i) the electors, ii) the other Fiirsten, iii) the representatives of the free cities. For its irregular mem- bers and its constitution after the Peace of Westphalia, see § 18. On the general subject, Bryce, 316 and v. Schulte, 312. The electorates even in the free cities were narrow corporations. § 2 The Augsburg Settlement Kitchin, bk. iii. Gardiner, ch. i. Weber, H, 77. Mebold, ch. i. Klopp, Abschn. \. This had been forced by sheer weariness of war and was nowise duly considered, i From the cuius regio eius r^ligio had followed exceeding hardship to both catholics and Lutherans, still more to Calvinists, no prince of the empire having embraced this confession till 1559,^ then but one, no others till 1582. 2 The rescrvatum ecclesiasticuvi, relating to archbishops, bishops and abbots holding immediately of the empire, that no one of these on becoming protestant should retain his preferment, church property or subjects, was a mere imperial law^ and had never been agreed to by the Lutherans. 3 While the Peace decreed the status quo as to the properties^ already secularized by protes- tant princes, the vital question whether secularization THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 3O5 could go forward thereafter had never been decided. From the protestant insistence that they abandon the lands secularized before the Treaty of Passau, catholics naturally assumed the negative. Protestant lords on the other hand, from their right to fix their subjects' faith, argued that they might dispose of all ecclesiastical property within their territories and had acted upon this conclusion. Whatever understanding was had at Augs- burg seems to have been in the direction of the catholic view : the wishes and interests of the majority of the people involved favored the protestant. 1 The Count Palatine turned Calvinist in 1559, the Archbishop of Cologne in 1582, the Margrave of Brandenburg and the Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel in 1604. By the letter of the Augsburg Convention, doch sollen alle andere \_Fursten\, so ohgemeldeten beiden Religionen nicht ankdngig, in diesem Frieden nicht gemeinet, sondern gantzlich ausge- schlossen sein [ § 4], Calvinists in these localities were no better off after than before the conversion of their Fursten. In fact, however, the latter were too powerful to be interfered with. Contrary to Weber's implication this Peace did not, like that of Westphalia, guarantee toleration to subjects dissenting from their Furst's faith. 2 The entire Treaty is in form an imperial rescript, but the section [5] containing this reservatum is phrased differently from the rest, basing it not on the diet's vote but in Krafft hochgedachter Horn. Kayserl. Afaj. gegebenen Vollmacht und Heimstellung. 3 Subordinate properties, that is, monasteries, nunneries and church lands which ecclesiastics held not from the emperor but from some Furst. The ' secularization ' in question had meant in many cases mere appropria- tion by the FUrst for his own profit, in others, the rule perhaps, devotion to the support of universities and schools. 306 the thirty years* war § 3 The Difficulty Aggravated Motley, Dutch Republic; United Netherlands. Prescott, Philip II. Symonds,scA.\. Baunigarten, V'or d. Bartholomaiis-Macht. White, M. of St. B.Trtholoraew. Ranke, Popes, bk. ii. Philippson, Contre-rivolution religieuse au XVI' Siecle. Allen, in Unitarian Rev., 1883. Michelet, vol. ix. Meantime many developments increasing hostility between the camps, invited new trial of strength, i Rise of the Society of Jesus, 1540. Its principle abso- lute, unquestioning obedience to ecclesiastical authority, its model of Christian life Saint Francis, its method of work control of education and thinking in the influential classes, this organization became at once a great power in Christendom. 1 Trent, so soon, feels this, and its decrees, summarily anathematizing all protestant beliefs, evince the spirit of the new papal militia. 2 Reform within the catholic church.^ This largely from the Jesuits, spurred thereto by protestantism, yet so de- cided, real and moral was the betterment that many good men might deny to the Lutheran revolt all further raison d'etre. 3 The massacres of Vassy, 1562, and St. Bartholomew, 1572.^ In the latter, inhuman beyond conception, yet approved by the pope, at least twenty- five thousand French protestants, by some estimates not less than one hundred thousand, were butchered for their faith. Nothing could have smitten harder than this terrible deed upon the wedge that was forcing Christendom in two. 4 Persecution of protestants in the Netherlands by Spanish kings,* 1 568-1609. The policy of Charles V to make his Lowland provinces catholic and separate them from the empire, pursued with less skill by his successors, led to persistent rebel- lion, which all the craft, force and hellish cruelties of THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 307 the Philips and their agents could not quell. Impos- sible that the cost in blood and torture, of protestant victories in this struggle should ever have been for- gotten. ^ By 1618 there were even in Germany no less than 13,000 Jesuits. At the opening of the Council at Trent many catholic theologians showed a conciliatory temper, but were speedily silenced by the uncompromising ardor of the Jesuits. - Philippson, as above, points out how, in the 1 6th century, Rome suc- ceeded in not only opposing a solid dike to the waves of protestantism but in actually beating them back and recovering a large part of the inundated land, especially in southern and western Germany. He handles i) the rise of the Jesuits, ii) the reestablishment of the Roman Inquisition, and iii) the Council of Trent. The Roman church owes a great debt to the protestant revolt for its own continued life and power. '^ Masson, Huguenots, 49. Duke Francois de Guise was proceeding from Joinville to Paris with a company of retainers. As he passed through Vassy on Sunday, March i, some Huguenots were assembled in a barn for worship. His followers commenced jeering, there was a tumult, the duke was wounded, his soldiers rushed upon the congregation sword in hand and cut down above 60 of them, wounding over 200 others. On St. Bar- tholomew, Baumgarten is the very best. He critically expounds the ante- cedent history. Cf. Hausser, ch. xxvii, Besant's Coligny, Michelet's France, IX, xxi-xxvi, Baird's Rise of the Huguenots, 2 v, and Smiles's Huguenots. * Prescott and Motley narrate these in exfenso. Cf. Hausser, chaps, xxii sqq. and Sterling-Maxwell's Don John. Egmont, Wm. the Silent, Maurice of Orange, antl John of Barneveld were the great history-makers in this protracted struggle. It is said that in Netherlands alone during the 18 years of Torquemada's administration 10,220 persons were burned, 197,327 buried alive, drowned, imprisoned for life or reduced to beggary. Charles V on relinquishing his power, 1556, gives Spain and its colonies, also Franche-Comte, Naples, Milan and the 17 Netherland provinces to his son Philip II [i556-'98], these last thus though still de iure in the empire, made the dependencies of Spain. This relation, not religious difference, began the war. Open feud first rose over i) presence of Span- ish troops, and ii) power bestowed upon Philip's favorite, Granvella, arch- bishop of Mechelin, caidinal and primate over the whole church of the Netherlands. Protestantism meantime growing rapidly, here Calvinistic 308 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR more than Lutheran, connected itself with the opposition to Granvella and the Spaniards, and beft)re the recall of cardinal and troops had gathered fatal momentum. Concessions now were worse than futile. In 1567 Philip resorts to force, using: i The Duke of Alva, till 1573: bloody and absolute rule, \Vm. the Silent and over 100,000 of his fellow-subjects emi- grate, Egmont and Hoorn die as traitors, crushing and lawless taxation ruins business, driving the Dutch to sea as pirates, origin of their naval and commercial greatness, ii Kequesens,\}\\ 1576: milder measures but with the same aim, to subjugate politically and religiously, iii Don John of Austria [victor at Lepanto in 1571], till 1578: mutiny of Spanish sol- diers and their teirible ravages in Flanders and Brabant evoke the ' pacifi- cation of Ghent,' 1576, all the provinces agreeing to lay aside religious dilTerences and unite to drive out the Spaniards, iv Alexander Farnese [of Parma, Philip's greatest general], till 1589: Union of Utrecht [1579], consisting of the 7 northern, mainly German and protestant, provinces: Holland, Zealand, Utrecht, Guelders, Groningen, Friesland and Overyssel, declaring independence of Spain, 1581, under Wm. the Silent as Stadt- holder. These provinces [Holland], aided by England [Sir Philip Sidney] and Philip IPs war with that power [the Armada], also by Henry IV of France, maintained their independence until the Peace of Westphalia decreed it in 1648 and Spain at last recognized it in 1657. Philip's ac- quisition of Portugal in 1581 enabled the Dutch to attack him in the Por- tuguese Indies, enterprise which carried Dutch commerce round the globe : Dutch E. India Co. founded 1602, Java 1611, Batavia 1619. The southern provinces [Belgium] were fully subjugated, remained Spanish till the Peace of Utrecht, 1 7 13, and then passed, the portions ceded to France by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1668, with the rest, to Austria, which re- tained them till the French Revolution. Schiller, Abfall d. Verein. Nieder- lande. § 4 III Success of Protestantism Ranke, Popes, bk. vii. Gardiner, ch. i. H'dusser, ch. xxx. Lodge, Mod. Europe, ch. x. The Peace of Augsburg was followed by an unprece- dentedly disgraceful period of German history. The anti-catholic party, far from showing aught of construc- tive genius or wish, seemed at first hopelessly anarchic. I Politically. Protestants were not united, petty gov- THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 3O9 ernments being mad with rivalry, each bent on self- aggrandizement no less than of old. Only external pressure or stimulus, and this but rarely, could force the champions of the new faith to present a solid front to foes. The Hanseatic cities ^ feared neighboring lords and looked to the emperor for protection, as they did for intervention in favor of foreign trade. Spirit and energy were wanting. Gustavus Adolphus was the only protestant chief who betrayed any sense of having a cause. 2 Doctrinally. Sects sprung up in such multitude and fought so bitterly that it was hard not to condemn the primary schism whence all came, and natural to sigh for a central doctrinal authority. Subscribers and non-subscribers to the Formula of Con- cord^ gnashed teeth at each other; both at Calvinists, Calvinists at both. Melancthon longed to die to escape the implacable quarrels of theologians.^ 3 Ecclesias- tically. The two reforming communions did not carry out or even understand the precious and far-reaching principle which they had professedly espoused, denying one another the very liberty of conscience which they had deserted Rome for refusing them. Like intoler- ance swayed the subdivisions of each. Also that author- ity in matters of faith which the pope had been cursed for arrogating, they yielded to secular rulers,* ignorant and often godless. From these three sources of con- fusion resulted a state of affairs so hopeless and threat- ening that many protestants were aghast, while emperor and pope may actually have felt it at once obligatory and possible to reassert the church's ancient sway. ^ Those belonging to the Hanseatic League, a federation of certain commercial and maritime cities between the Elbe and the Baltic, dating 310 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR from ^bout 1260. Luheck was its capital, Hamburg always a prominent memi.er. From 1350 over 90 cities belonged to the League, between Esthoiiia and the Scheld-mouth, its field all northern Europe, its purposes mutual defence, security of the routes of commerce whether by land or water, winning and keeping privileges to trade, and the dispatch of all those matters now pertaining to private international law. ^ Between the strict Lutherans and the Philipists or followers of [Philip] Melancthon, these being charged with leaning toward Calvin, although Melancthon's peculiar views, modifying the predestination doctrine and depreciating the Old Testament, were in the oppiisite direction. The Formula was subscribed in 1580 by 96 Lutheran lords, but not by all of either party, thus making tiiree sects of Lutherans instead of two. ^ Frederic V's woes in Bohemia and desertion Ijy the other protestant electors he owed largely to his Calvinism. It was stiff indeed. Even after Gustavus had won back the Palatinate, Frederic would not give free- dom of worship to Lutherans there. And the Lutherans ! Hohenegg, theologian to the Saxon court, said : ' For it is as plain as that the sun shines at noon that Calvinism reeks with frightful blasphemy, error and mischief and is diametrically opposed to God's holy revealed word. To take up arms for the Calvinists is nothing else than to serve under the originator of Calvinism, the devil. We ought to give our lives for our brethren, but the Calvinists are not our brethren. We ought to love our enemies: the Calvinists are not c«r enemies but God's,' [llausser]. Chan- cellor Crell lor attempting to introduce Calvinism into Saxony was impris- oned ten yeai^ and then beheaded on charge of high treason. ' It was owing to this spirit that the struggling protestants of France were denied the indispensable support of the most powerful sect of their brethren in Germany, and that Lutheranism and Calvinism, reluctant to act together even in the most deadly crisis of the 30 Years' War, were nearly crushed one after the other under the iron heel of Austria' [Tultle]. * There had never been a formal establishment of religion in Christen- dom before. Practically there had been, particularly when the empire was young and strong, yet it had rested hitherto rather upon general consent than upon express provision of law. Hceren, Pol. Conseqq., 61 sqq. Catholics bitterly reproached protestants with having splintered the church, giving it some hundreds of heads for one, all of them secular instead of ipiritual. Janssen, vol. ii, 85. the thirty years war 3ii § 5 Special Motives for Intervention Same auth. as at § 4. Janssen, vol. iii. IVeier, II, 187. Several considerations in addition to all the above inclined the emperor to interfere. Most of the constant political tumult, revolt, defiance of law and order ^ since the Reformation opened had either grown visibly out of protestantism or connected itself therewith. The schism was the triumph of the feudal and divisive spirit, death to imperial or any central authority, and had brought persecution to numberless faithful sons of the ancient church. In particular : i Some two hundred monasteries had been seized since the Peace of Augs- burg, as to four of which legal decision had been rendered against protestant possession. The emperor construed this decision as a principle covering all such cases, and so acted wherever he had power. Thus when, in 1582, the Elector-Archbishop of Cologne,^ Duke of Westphalia, became a Calvinist, Spanish troops drove him from his lands, which with his see and dignity passed to a catholic. 2 Eight great northern bishoprics had been brought under protestant rule by what was alleged ^ to be an evasive interpretation of the reservatum ecclesiasticum, to the effect that, if tJie chapter coiicurrcd, though not otherwise, a bishop, on changing confession, viight retain his place and property. Protestants, long a majority of the population, bade fair to secure a majority in the diet as well. The last two points formed the real occasion of the Thirty Years' War, the catholics standing on, or nearest, the techni- cal right of the case, the protestants on the logic of 312 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR events and the desires of the people. The catholic pro- gramme could have been carried through only by forci- bly re-converting hosts of protestants. ^ Such as the Peasants' War and the anarchy at MUnster. 2 This case, concerning as it did an entire Fiirstenthum, was not a parallel to cases of mere monasteries and nunneries, but it was analogous, as that of a Fiirst proceeding to protestantize communities and church properties catholic at the Peace of Augsburg. Nor was it parallel to the instances cited under 2, since the archbishop had acted against the oppo- sition of his chapter. The new incumbent was a brother to Maximilian of Bavaria. ^ Not justly. The language of the reservatum [§ 5, Tr. of Augsburg] clearly presupposes that in the instances to which it relates the chapters remain catholic, commanding these to proceed to the election of a new • archbishop, bishop, prelate or other officer of spiritual estate,' as the case might be. § 6 Union and League Gardiner, ch. i, sec. 4. Hausser, ch. xxxi. Weber, II, i88. Riiter, Gesch. d. deutschen Union. Villerniont, ch. iv. A most vexatious case of catholic aggression, under pretence, perhaps according to the letter, of law, was that of Donauworth. This Lutheran imperial city, whence all catholics save members of a certain monas- tery had been excluded under the C7iuis rcgio, was put to the ban of the empire in 1607, for disturbance to an illegal procession by the monks. Duke Maximilian of Bavaria, appointed to execute the sentence, on the ground that these had been seized since Passau,^ restored their churches to the catholics, quartered soldiers on inhabitants persisting in Lutheranism, and joined the city to his duchy. In consequence of this high-handed procedure 2 and of Archduke Ferdinand's cruelty to prot- estants in Styria,^ a ' Union ' ■* of protestant princes and THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 313 cities was formed in 1608, Frederic IV of the Palatinate its head, to prevent further infringements of the Augs- burg constitution. The Union did not mention defence of faith as among its objects. Next year the catholic princes, mostly ecclesiastics,^ created their * League,' headed by Maximilian, a WittclsbacJier^ like Frederic, to maintain imperial laws and to protect the catholic relig- ion. The Union expected aid from France,'^ the League from Spain. The League was united, ably led, fired with ecclesiastical zeal. Maximilian indeed had political aims and a political mind, but he too had been educated^ and inspired by the Jesuits. Mark that League, not empire, is now the church's champion. Probably the League even so early meditated the status quo oi 1555. The Union on the contrary was divided and without enthusiasm, Calvinists and Lutherans lack- ing mutual confidence, the northern Lutherans, headed by John George ^ of Saxony, who envied Frederic, hold- ing aloof altogether and urging compromise. It was further against the Union, that Christian of Anhalt at least had designs against the integrity of the empire, and that the contention of several protestants in the Diet of 1608 against the right of the majority to bind in cases of taxation or religion, threatened anarchy, and was construed as masking a plan for wholesale attacks on the church, 1 See § 2, also § 5, n. 3. 2 Understood to be against emperor Rudolph's will. Even this severe ruler was charged, like his father, emperor Maximilian II, with too great tenderness toward protestants. " Soon to become emperor Ferdinand II. He was a grandson of emperor Ferdinand I. Naturally superstitious, and educated by Jesuits 314 THE THIRTY YEARS XVAR at Graz and at the Ingolstadt [now Munich] University, he felt toward protestants and all heretics exactly as his kinsman, Philip II of Spain, had felt. He preferred, he said, to beg or even be cut in pieces rather than submit to them. 'Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee?' he loved to repeat, 'and am not I grieved with those that rise up against Thee? I hate them with perfect hatred.' It was most true. He had taken a sol- emn vow to drive, at the risk of his life, all sects and errors from the lands he inherited. He daily spent from two to three hours in prayer and pious meditation. After a long morning prayer he would listen to two masses, attend divine service in the afternoon, devote a set time to the examination of his conscience, and close with an evening prayer. On a Sunday or a feast day he always heard two sermons. His sole literary activity con- sisted in the perusal of pious books. Gindely, ch. i. The great Kepler, hitherto resident in Graz, was among the protestants exiled by Ferdinand's fiery bigotry. * Besides Frederic, Christian of Anhalt and the Landgrave of Hessen- Kassel were the Calvinist leaders. WUrttemberg, Bade-Durlach and Neu- burg were the chief Lutheran states. Fifteen imperial cities were mem- bers, of which Strassburg, Ulm and Niirnberg were the foremost. ^ The three ecclesiastical electors of Mainz, Trier and Koln, and the bishops of Wiirzburg, Salzburg, Regensburg, Augsburg and Passau. 6 On the famous House of Wittelsbach, Ch. V, § 8, n. 5, Weber, I, 699, 709. ^ Henry IV of France, for some time before his assassination on May 14, 16 10, had been meditating a more or less formal European system, which, had his thought been carried out, would have prevented the 30 Years' War. The three religious confessions as well as the different forms of secular polity, the empire, royalties hereditary, royalties elective, and republics, were all to be equally legitimate, trade and navigation to be free, no two emperors ever to be elected in succession from the same house, the hereditary possessions of Austria to be circumscribed, and any trespass by one nation upon another to be redressed by the might of all. This seems to have been the first emergence of the policy removing the political surveillance of Christendom from church and empire, of the notion of a European concert such as has attended to the weightiest matters of international interest since. The conception influenced Riche- lieu's policy and the immortal work of Grotius, and got itself to a great ex- tent realized in the Treaty of Westphalia [§ 17]. See Ilausser, ch. xxix, and Gindely's Rudolph H, ch. iii. THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 315 ' At Ingolstadt, with archduke Ferdinand [n. 3]. On the character of these two men, Gindely, chaps, i, iv, v. ^ This was John George I, i6ii-'56, nephew of Maurice [Ch. VIII, § 19]. Saxony had also the electors John George II, i656-'8o, III, 1680- '91, and IV, i69i-'94. All of them sympathized too much with Austria. Weber, II, 76. § 7 Contest for Julich-Cleve Ranke, Popes, bk. vii, ch. i. IVeber, H, 188. Tuttle, H. of Prussia, ch. iv. Gardiner, 21 sq. Motley, Bameveld, chaps, i, v, vi. In 1609, the male line of the yulich-Cleve ducal house becoming extinct,^ its immense territories were claimed by both the Elector of Brandenburg and the Count Palatine of Neuburg, representing the nearest female heirs. As the laws of the house forbade its lands to be divided, Brandenburg and Neuburg, the estates of the lands concurring, had agreed^ to possess in com- mon, but Emperor Rudolph II, supported by the League and by Spain,^ declared the fief escheated and sent Archduke Leopold to seize it by the aid of Spanish troops. France, now under Henry IV firmly allied with the Union,* also England and Holland, dis- patched troops to oppose, retaking the fortress of Jiilich. The ensuing truce between League and Union was ruptured by the Count Palatine's quarrel^ with the Elector, the former joining the catholics and the League, the latter the Calvinists and the Union. The resulting war, wherein Spain again supports the League, the United Netherlands the Union, continues till the Treaty of Xantcn,^ 1614. Final division was indeed only arrived at in 1666, when Brandenburg, and so Prussia, receiving Cleve, Mark and Ravensberg,' first set firm foot in Western Germany. 3l6 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 1 Duke William, i539-'92, had two daughters, Mary Eleanor and Anna, and a son John William. He left a will that should John William die childless, as he did in 1609, the duchy should go to Mary Eleanor's heirs, or if she had none, to Anna's. Mary Eleanor had no sons but her daughter had married John Sigismund, elector of Brandenburg. Anna married Philip Ludwig, count palatine of Neuburg, and had a son, Wolf- gang William. The letter of the will favored Brandenburg, the usual preference in law and usage of male heirs favored Neul)urg. ^ By the convention of Dortmund, 1609. The estates of any Fiirsten- thutn were the prelates, knights and cities, v. Schulte, 253. ^ In the year 1609 Spain effected a truce with the Netherlands for 12 years, and was hence at liberty to turn her arms in other directions. * France sent troops to the Union's aid even after Henry IV's death in the year 1610. ^ It had been partly arranged that the young count, Wolfgang Wil- liam, should marry his cousin, elector John Sigismund's daughter, but count and elector fell out, the latter striking the former smartly on the cheek. ^ This might have been definitive but for the immediate outbreak of the 30 Years' War, ripping up this and all such engagements and offering each side the hope of gaining all. Another temporary bargain was patched up at Diisseldorf in 1629. This matter even the great date of 1648 failed to see settled. Cleve was a duchy, Mark and Ravensberg both counties. ^ Jiilich and Berg with the city of Diisseldorf were confirmed to Neu- burg. Neuburg proper was a small territory between Regensburg and Niirnberg in what is now northern Bavaria. § 8 Bohemia's Royal Charter Gardiner, ch. ii. Gindely, Rudolph II; 30 Yrs. W., I, iii; Gesch, d. Bomisch. Majest'dtsbrie/es. Meantime affairs at the other extremity of the empire assumed a threatening aspect. Through the policy, most liberal, of the enlightened Emperor Maximilian 11,^ the hereditary Hapsburg territories,^ of Austria, Styria, Carinthia and Carniola, had become very strong- holds of i)rotestantism. In all these lands the burghers and nobles had espoused the Reformation almost en THE THIRTY YEARs' WAR 31/ masse.^ Tyrol alone clung to the old faith. In Hun- gary and the realms of the Bohemian crown, where Hapsburg archdukes had ruled as kings/ a majority of the people and almost all the nobles had also, partly from memory of Hus, renounced Catholicism. Emperor Rudolph II, king of Bohemia, less tolerant than his father, had yet been forced in order to retain the loyalty of his Bohemian subjects, to grant a charter in 1609 assuring to every person free choice between the cath- olic and the Bohemian-protestant confession.^ The right to build churches^ was hereby bestowed not universally but only on some fourteen hundred nobles and forty-two towns. On the royal domains alone was this right conferred upon the people themselves. The question whether in this matter ecclesiastical should be treated as royal domains was not decided.'^ The pro- testants of Braunau built a church on the land of the Abbot of Braunau, those of Klostergrab on the land of the Archbishop of Prag. Mathias, having become king, in 161 1 declared this illegal. Perhaps legiti- mately, but when he compelled protestants to catholic services on his own domains, and made them subject to the catholic clergy, the royal charter was plainly a dead letter. Protestants began to prepare for the worst. 1 From Maximilian I [1493-15 19], the succession of emperors was [i] his grandson Charles V, i5i9-'58, [ii] C.'s brother Ferdinand I, 1558-64, [iii] F.'s son Maximilian II, 1564-76, [iv] M.'s son Rudolph II, 1576- i6i2, [v] R.'s brother Mathias, i6i2-'i9, [vi] M.'s cousin and adopted son Ferdinand II, i6i9-'37, [vii] F.'s son Ferdinand III, i637-'58. Maxi- milian II married his cousin, daughter of Charles V, and had 15 children. Ferdinand II was the son of the 13th son of Ferdinand I. 2 These were little more than administrative divisions, and did not annul the single sovereignty of the head of the Hapsburg house. 3l8 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR ^ Emphatically disproving Macaulay's easy generalization, making prot- estantism Teutonic and Catholicism after the Refoiniatiun non-Teutonic or Romanic. These provinces were the most strongly Romanic parts of the then empire. Cf. § ii, below, and Hausser, eh. xxxi, Maximilian II was half a protestant, giving the new faith its start. His successors, its foes, killed it out. * On the relation of Bohemia and Hungary to Austria, Freeman, Hist'l Geog., 324 sqq. Bohemia was a member of the empire, Hungary not. Bohemia had previously been under the Austrian crown for a brief time, viz., from about 1440 to 1457, but the relation was permanently estab- lished only on the marriage of Ferdinand, soon-to-be emperor Ferd. II, with Anna, sister of the deceased king Ludwig of Hungary and Bohemia, who fell in the battle of Mohacs, 1526, against the Turks. The dependent lands of Lusatia, Silesia and Moravia passed at the same time. Excepting the brief rule of P'rederic [§ ll] and the revolution-time of i848-'9, Hun- gary and Bohemia have ever since obeyed the Hapsburg sceptre. It must be said, however, that Hapsburg was during and long after Ferdinand's day obliged to share Hungary partly with the Turks, partly with Hunga- rian rivals. ' Hussite, called ' utraquist ' from its gift to the laity of the communion in both kinds: sub utraque specie. Gindely, ch. iii. Nearly all Bohe- mian protestants belonged to this confession, being neither Lutherans nor Calvinists. ^ Hausser, II, 86, mistakenly states that the permission was universal, which Gindely, ch. i, disproves. ' Gindely [large original], vol. i, ch. ii, best discusses this. The prot- estants interpreted the constitution as including ecclesiastical lands among royal. Another ominous fact was the administration of the land by a board of seven Siatthalter, of whom four were catholics. § 9 War Begun : Periods /?a«A^, Popes, bk. vii, ch. ii. Gardiner, <:^.\\. I ':7lermont, ch. V. Gt'ndely, I, i, ii. Motley, BarnevelJ, ch. xiii. The throne of Bohemia had originally been elective, and the estates endured, e.xpecting soon, on Mathias's death, to choose a protestant king, either the T^lector Palatinate or the Elector of Saxony. But before a THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 319 Bohemian diet called in 1617, the emperor's lawyers maintained 1 that Mathias's election was exceptional, and partly by specious argument, partly by intimidation, brought the estates to renounce their right of electing a king, and to accept Archduke Ferdinand as their king by hereditary rigJit. Such a coup d'etat was rendered easier in that Ferdinand, bigoted catholic though he was, accepted the royal charter. Bohemia's golden time for opposing Austria was thus lost. The Kloster- grab church was soon levelled and protestants excluded from that in Braunau. Revolt seemed the only prot- estant road to freedom. On May 23, 16 18, occurred the famous 'defenstration'^ of the emperor's represen- tatives in Prag. By this act the protestant leaders in Bohemia proclaimed defiance and invoked war — a war which raged from Alps to Baltic and from Moravia to the Atlantic, a war which, while especially devastating and impoverishing all Germany, involved, the first war in all history to do this, every country of Europe. The years from 161 8 to 1648 naturally fall into two main periods, divided by the Edict of Restitution, 1629, the diplomatic intervention of France and the armed of Sweden, 1630. In the first period, predominantly re- ligious, marked by imperial triumph and ended by the subjugation of all Germany, were three phases (i) the Bohemian, to the battle of White Mountain, 1620, (2) the Pa/atijiate, to the Danish intervention, 1625, (3) the Da?iish. In the second or Swedish-French period, almost solely political, which sees the decline of impe- rial power, arc also three phases, (4) a victorious and {5) a disastrous Swedish, separated by the death of Gusta- 320 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR vus Adolphus, November, 1632, the last ending with the Treaty of Prag, 1635, which virtually renewed the Edict of Restitution, and (6) tJic pJiasc of armed French inter- vention, extending to the end of the war, 1648. 1 Gindely, ch. i, sec. 3, admits that all the Hapsburg accessions to the Bohemian crown except that of Mathias alone had been by way of accept- ing \^a>i>if/ufieu'\, not of electing, but notices that this last had as good a right, so far as it went, to become an authoritative ]irecedent as had that of Ferdinand I in 1526. That election was the ancient way all seem to have conceded. 2 The Statthalter Martinitz and Slawata and the Secretary Fabricius were thrown from the windows of the Prag Castle, the ' good old Bohe- mian custom ' for inflicting capital punishment. They fell nearly 60 feet, yet, by a miracle as catholics believed, not one was killed or greatly harmed. § 10 Attitude of Europe Gindely, I, iv. Ranke, Popes, bk. vii, ch. iii. Villertnont, ch. xiv. Gardiner, ch. iii, sec. 3, ch. iv, sec. 4; Prince Charles and the Spanish Marriage. Hallam, Const'l Hist., on reign of Charles I. Motley, Barnevcld. His noble subjects being hostile to Eerdinand, elected emperor in 1619,^ so that no Austrian power was at hand to be mistaken for imperial, we see best at the opening of this war how low imperial authority had sunk. Eerdinand was thrown for resources entirely upon free-will offerings. Spain was his chief support. Philip III, now in fear of death and feeling the whole honor and fortune of his house to be involved in the emperor's success, sent enormous subsidies.^ Other earnest allies of the emperor were the pope, the League,*'' the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the King of Poland, the last two his brothers-in-law. Even Karl Emanuel of Savoy, at first reckoned, and inclined to be, a prot- estant, so soon as disappointed in his hope of election THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 321 to the Bohemian crown, offered his services to Ferdi- nand,* as did John George of Saxony while still profess- ing fullest devotion to protestant principles. The motive to these alliances even where least selfish, was not loyalty or political duty, but either religion, friend- ship, policy, or hatred to some member of the Union. Louis XIII, Bourbon though he was, swayed by his clergy, acted at first, strange to say, favorably to Haps- burg interests.^ He would allow France to mediate, but not to oppose the emperor. Even Richelieu tried to pacify Hungary. The neutrality of England, whence Frederic V of the Palatinate hoped so much, was still more remarkable. At length a thoroughly protestant nation, the English almost to a man wished to support the revolt, especially as Frederic, now its head, was son- in-law to their king. But James I, infatuated with the thought of a Spanish alliance, feeling the gravity of Frederic's course, which much resembled the individ- ualism and 'fist-right' of the dark ages, and offended at his rash openness to Bohemian advances, would not send a shilling or a man to aid the Bohemian cause.^ Trifling assistance came from Silesia and Lusatia, sympathy from Denmark and Sweden. Holland' was the only ally on whom the rebels could depend. ^ On the imbroglio at this election, Hausser, II, 98 sqq. * Yet with his ministers, Khevenhiller, Ferdinand's ambassador, labored long in vain and went so far as to threaten peace with protestants, cession of Bohemia and Hungary, Austria to recoup itself with a piece of the Spanish Netherlands. 'Look out for your neck, speaking so,' said Aliaga, Philip's confessor. ' I will gladly die for my master,' replied Khevenhiller, ' but not exchange with you, for your place in hell will be lower than Luther's or Calvin's.' * Maximilian of Bavaria its leader and most earnest member, earnest 322 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR to be sure not for strictly imperial interests [§ 13] but for Catholicism. The duke had beforehand the emperor's promise of the palatinate elector- ship in case Frederic accepted the Bohemian election, and of whatever palatinate territory should be conquered in the war. Gindely, ch. iv, sec. 3. But for this promise the war might have ended in 1623. The pope sent subsidies to both emperor and League — strange direction for money to take! * But they were not accepted. Ferdinand did not know how far Karl Emanuel had gone with the protestants, but suspected. * Yet in 1622 he made peace with the Huguenots, in 1623 sent money to German protestants, in 1624 called Richelieu to his councils, which very soon involved resumption of France's traditional anti-IIapsl)urg policy. Ranke is uncertain whether or not the great cardinal cherished his anti- Hapsburg purpose at first. '' The utmost which James could be induced to do was to promise Frederic ;^25,ooo for defence of the Palatinate and to mediate a loan for him from the king of Denmark, his brother-in-law. Private parties in England sent ;^i 3,000 as a further loan. The young electress Elizabeth, Frederic's wife and James I's daughter, was the mother of Rupert, the famous cavalier in the campaigns against Cromwell in England, where he fought for his uncle, Charles I. Me was born just iiefore the battle of White Mountain [next §]. It was through this Elizabeth that the English royal house of Hannover descended from James I. ■^ Elector Frederic V was, through his mother, the grandson of William of Orange. § 1 1 Bohemian Phase of the War Ranke, as at § 9. Gardiner, chaps, ii, iii. Gindely, I, v, vi [cf. his large original, vol. iii]. H'dusser, ch. xxxii. This began with victory. Moravia, Silesia, Hungary and the Austrian estates aid, and the imperiahsts are driven within the gates of Vienna. But this success resulted ill, leading the rebels to underestimate the mag- nitude of the contest begun. By electing Frederic king they not only invited the emperor's uttermost efforts for vengeance, but alienated friends. Their THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 323 army, too small, unpaid, irregularly recruited, poorly equipped and disciplined, lapsed into a mob. The new king,^ young, rash, fickle and without energy, brought his kingdom neither internal betterment nor foreign allies. His chief advisers disagreed.^ The Union, about passive all along, dissolved in 1621. On the other hand defeat roused Ferdinand to incredible exertion. Mustering a considerable^ army, Spanish and Saxon, with that of the League, he breaks the siege of Vienna, pushes back Mansfield and Thurn, and in the battle of White Mountain,* 1620, forces Bohemia to sue for peace. The king barely escapes, the charter is declared null, Bohemia loses all vestige of independence. Protestant- ism was so totally suppressed that the country continues to this day more catholic than Rome.^ Twenty-seven leaders in the rebellion were beheaded and an equal number spared the same fate only by flight. Seven hundred and twenty-eight nobles suffered total confisca- tion of property, thirty thousand families left the land and the entire population that had sympathized with the rising was reduced to beggary. ^ He was but 23 years old, and although pawning some jewels to secure funds for the war, showed little zeal on the whole. He was too Calvinistic and strict, insisted that crucifixes, pictures and the like be re- moved from churches, etc. Elizabeth too was no favorite while in Prag. A contemporary poet sang of Frederic : ' O Ueber Priez, tnciH gut Gesell, Lassfahren diese Kron ! Bereitet ist dir schon die Hell Zu einem gewhseti Lohn. Denn welcher sich erhiihen ihut, F'dllt tie/ in deti Abgrund; Ihm ivird vergolten sein llochvtuth Wol in der Hellen Schlund.' * Anhalt, ivTansfield and Thurn. They did not act in concert. Thus Mansfield was nc' present at White Mountain but engaged in the siege of 324 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR Pilsen, the chief Bohemian city that adhered to the imperial cause. Gindely, ch. v, at end, alleges that at this time Mansfield was making overtures to League and emperor to accept him into their service. He demanded 400,000 gulden and full amnesty. ^ All the military operations of the opening war were on a petty scale. Schlick crossed the Austrian border with 4000 men. Mansfield captured Pilsen with but 1800. At White Mountain the protestants had 13,000, the catholics together 24,000. * As the armies faced each other just prior to this battle the men of each amused themselves by calling those of the other names : ' heretics,' * rebels,' ' countrymen,' ' buffoons ' in one direction, ' papists,' ' robbers,' ' incendiaries,' etc., in the other. ' Hogs ' was an epithet constantly ap- plied to the Bavarians, and not by the enemy alone. Maximilian asked his court jester how he thought the battle would go. ' Just as at cards,' he replied, ' the so'a [then the name for the ace] will take the kitig,'' i.e., the Bavarians would beat the sham king of Bohemia. The Bohemians tried to engage the Turks in their cause, — without success. ^ On these terrible proceedings, Gindely, ch. vi, and Reuss, La destruc- Hon du protestantisme en Bohhue, Strassburg, 1867. The Bohemian Brethren, same as the modern Moravians, were driven out at once, the Lutherans a little later. Anabaptists were treated with especial cruelty. The Gneisenau family, from whom sprung the Gneisenau of Ligny and Waterloo fame [Ch. X, § 19], was among the emigrants. At the begin- ning of this war in the Bohemian county of Glatz not a single catholic church remained, all having gone over to protestantism. When Frederic the Great marched into the county some 125 years later the population was catholic to a man, and in the middle of it stood proudly the Pilgrim Church of Albendorf as a monument to the catholic victory of White Mountain. — Treitschke, D. Gesch. in XIX Jahrh., I, 11. Some estates of banished owners were wholly confiscated, some only in part, the residue to be paid by the government. Payment was made in coins worth only )^ their face, which were then declared no longer a tender except at their real value. The emperor wished to use the same inhumanity in Lusatia, conquered by John George, as in Bohemia, desisting only when that slug- gish prince, much to his credit, threatened active enmity. Tilly is believed to have been purposely slow after the battle, to give protestants opportunity for flight. the thirty years war 325 § 12 Palatinate Phase Ranke, as at § 9. Gardiner, ch. iii. Gindely, I, vii [large original, vol. iv.] Frederic was, without trial, stripped of his lands and his electoral dignity and put to the ban of the empire, 1 62 1, his fellow-electors of Saxony and Brandenburg protesting yet declining to make common cause with him.i A slight lull in hostilities was effected by the strong wish of Spain, exhausted and impoverished^ through her long struggle in the Netherlands, of which for her this new war was the continuation. But, a con- ference at Brussels toward peace, 1622, having failed owing to the inability of either side to suggest other than temporizing plans, war began afresh, Tilly and Spain on one side, against Mansfield, Christian of Brunswick, the Burggrave of Bade-Durlach and the English General Vere. These last, dividing^ in the face of Tilly, that unmatched strategist defeated one by one : reverses which Mansfield's subsequent slight success against the Spaniards^ could not retrieve. Meantime the Diet of Regensburg, 1623,^ against the will of Saxony and Brandenburg and the solemn pro- test of Spain's ambassador,^ sanctions the spoliation of Frederic and bestows his electorship'^ with the High Palatinate upon Maximilian of Bavaria, Spain retain- ing the Rhenish. The whole Palatinate was forcibly brought back to Catholicism, Lusatia passed to Saxony.® ^ His rash act had frightened them. Saxony opposed him also because should he recover Bohemia he would be too contiguous and too powerful, aside from his having two electoral votes, a thing unheard of. The Agree- ment of Muhlhausen also greatly quieted these electors, League and em- peror promising that no protestant Furst holding secularized property should be disturbed so long as loyal to the empire. 326 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 2 Contrary to common opinion Spain was never a wealthy land. See Roscher, Pol. Economy, I, i8i. By this time it was far from powerful in any respect. 3 Partly because they could not agree, partly the better to support their armies on plunder. Vere was left in charge of Heidelberg, Mannheim and Frankenthal. Tilly vanquishes the others, Bade-Durlach at Wimpfen, Brunswick at Ilochst, then returns to dislodge Vere. Frederic now dis- misses Mansfield and Brunswick, who turn freebooters. Both make their way to Holland, where they are strong enough to force the Spaniards to raise the siege of Bergen-op-Zoom. They then enter and ravage West- phalia. Tilly, unable to drive them out, invades the Lower Saxon Circle, to induce the wavering protestant princes there to side with the empire against those marauders. * The 1 2-year truce of Spain with the Netherlands agreed to in 1609 was now over, and hostilities had begun again. The operations of that war are mainly indistinguishable from those of the 30 Years' War at large. * It had convened on Nov. 22 of the preceding year. Hausser will not call this or any other ' meeting of the princes' a ' diet,' till 1640. s Spain objected partly out of regard for James I, partly from fear that so violent a measure would indefinitely prolong the war. ■^ On the history of the electorships, Ch. V, § 8, n. 5. The High Pala- tinate was in what is now northern Bavaria, roughly coincident with the triangle formed by the cities of Regensburg, NUrnberg and Eger. The Lower was the land on both sides of the Rhine about Heidelberg, reach- ing from Wimpfen on the eastern side nearly to Trier on the western, and northward on the left bank of the river to beyond the Main-mouth. Three-fourths of it were west of the Rhine. Protestants who would not recant were banished. Elector Frederic V died Nov. 17, 1632, eleven days after Gustavus Adolphus. Elizabeth lived 30 years from this time in the Hague, then in England till her death in 1662. 8 To pay for John George's aid to the emperor. § 13 Danish Phase: Waldstein Gardiner, chaps, iv-vii. Gindely, I, viii, ix. Hausser, ch. xxxiii. The protestant rulers were now thoroughly alarmed,^ and King Christian IV of Denmark, who as Duke of Holstein was a Fiirst of the empire, partly perhaps out THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 32/ of fear 2 that Gustavus Adolphus would do this, put himself forward as the armed champion of protestantism against emperor and League. Receiving money from Richelieu and promises from England and Holland he crosses the Elbe in 1625 and for one campaign can defy Tilly. But a helper far mightier than Christian had meantime enlisted on the emperor's side, — Waldstein,^ whose rise was the greatest event in the war thus far, giving Ferdinand an army of his own. Hitherto he had not had this, Tilly being in the service of Maxi- milian and the League, who, notice, in reality cared for the empire little more than did the protestant chiefs themselves. With one stroke Waldstein* crushes Mansfield at Dessau, 1626, so that he reappears no more, then rushes to the defeat already begun by Tilly, of Christian, who is forced to the Peace of Liibeck, 1629, and to abstain henceforth from the quarrel.^ In the same year 1629 follows the Edict of Restitution^ the protestants to restore all ecclesiastical property taken since Augsburg and only the adherents of the Augsburg confession to have free exercise of religion. This terrible decree was executed in its own stern spirit, partly by Tilly, partly by Waldstein, now Duke of Mecklenburg and Admiral of the Baltic, holding North Germany with a hundred thousand men. 1 If the emperor could so summarily dispose of one protestant state he might of another. Besides, in the vain peace negotiations of 1626 Ferdi- nand and Maximilian would no longer hold out the Muhlhausen promise [§ 12, n. i] to guarantee secularized bishoprics in present hands on con- dition of loyalty. 2 Droysen believes this to have been a strong motive, which Gardiner doubts. Brandenburg and Sweden were negotiating. Christian would of course belong in the Lower Saxon Circle, where Tilly's presence was a 328 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR burden and a threat. Charles I of England promised Christian moricy but could not get parliament to vote it. The Danish king called this the cause of his defeat. A small amount was actually raised by Charles's unconstitutional forced loan, and Sir Charles Morgan sent to Christian's aid with four or five thousand men, not enough to alter the result. ^ Albrecht von ' Waldstein ' [according to Gindely and Oncken the original form of the name. Hist. Zeitschr. Jnhrg. 1883, 562] was born in 1583 at Hermanic in Bohemia of a Utraquist [§ 8, n. 5] family, and early orphaned. He received education first at the Jesuit school in Olmiitz, then in Altdorf, then in Padua, where mathematics and military studies engaged him. He travelled much in the empire and abroad. For ser- vices against Venice in 161 7 Ferdinand made him colonel and count. Enormously rich by both inheritance and marriage he purchased a vast number of the estates confiscated in Bohemia after 1620. He maintained a more than royal pomp and state. Defence of the emperor from the Hungarians made him a Furst of the empire as duke of Friedland, 1624. Waldstein began life among protestants but became catholic, William the Silent started as a catholic but turned protestant On the question of Waldstein's guilt, § 16, n. 5. * With 50,000 men, recruited in the most irregular and illegal manner. Mansfield, the soldier of fortune, flees with a puny force through Silesia to Hungary, hoping for an alliance with Bethlen Gabor, head of the Hun- garian protestant revolt- Coldly received he pushes on to Venice, where sickness seizes him and he retires to a village of Bosnia to die. ^ Later, i643-'6, Christian even aided the imperialists, envious of the Swedes. 6 Hausser, H, 123 sqq.; Gardiner, ch.vii. The edict was carried through in Swabia, Franconia, Westphalia and Lower Saxony. Khevenhiller [§ 10, n. 2] believed Richelieu to be the real inspirer of this edict, as well as of the dismissal of Waldstein, later. The catholic victory was complete, except at Stralsund, which, succored from Sweden, Waldstein could not take, and 'every electoral prince, every petty vassal, neutral or belligerent, awaited in anxious suspense the aanouncement of Ferdinand's terms' [Tutde]. THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 329 § 14 Waldstein's Policy Ranke, Gesch. WalUnsteins. Gindely, II, i. Gardiner as at § xj. Schilling, Quellenbuch, 127. While Waldstein brought to the emperor indepen. dence and sweeping victory, his intervention and policy, under the circumstances, prepared ultimate defeat by alienating the League from imperial interests, i Wald- stein wished only to punish breach of imperial law and constitution,! the League to annihilate protestantism. 2 He forced catholics to help support his army, which the League opposed. 3 He proposed to turn over all lands confiscated in the Lower Saxon Circle to George of Liineburg, a Lutheran general in his army : the ecclesiastical Elector of Mainz claimed a part. 4 His abstractly most rational but at the same time most im- practicable and fatal idea was to recover sovereignty and public power in the empire entirely to the emperor, humbling and subordinating the nobility as had been done in France and England. This thought, along with Waldstein's unexpected triumphs, led Ferdinand, fancy- ing himself another Charles V or Karl the Great, into foolish and wholly illegal measures. He raised money without the diet's sanction, put the dukes of Mecklen- burg ^ to ban without process, invested one of his sons with four bishoprics, gave to Jesuits instead of its orig- inal possessors most of the property wrested from prot- estants. 1 He used to say, 'The devil and hell-fire take the priests ' [Hausser]. 2 They were restored to their regular standing and estates by the diet of Regensburg in 1630. 330 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR § 15 GusTAvus Adolphus Mebold, \o\.ii. Droysen, Bertthard v. Weimar, \>\i.\. Gardiner^ ch. iv, sec. 5, ch. vii. Gindely, II, ii. This great king, who had long been waiting ^ to strike a blow on the protestant side, now saw his opportunity. France was renewing against the empire her old pre- tensions in Italy and had already taken some towns. If the emperor did not yield here Richelieu was certain to support Gustavus. Those protestant chiefs who in- clined to be loyal to the emperor and to fear Gustavus as a foreigner, would still side with the latter unless the Edict of Restitution were modified. At this great crisis^ Ferdinand yielded to his zeal for the church and gave up the last chance which ever presented itself to make the Holy Roman Empire a unit and a power. To his protestant subjects he would concede nothing save the dismission of Waldstein, which the catholics also demanded, while with France he negotiated so ill that Richelieu became an active supporter of Gustavus. Outlook for both parties was now totally changed : Waldstein idle, even the League suspecting the em- peror. Saxony at last as well as Brandenburg in arms against him. The protestants on the other hand were for the first time united, led by the ablest captain alive, backed by French money and the diplomacy^ of Riche- lieu. In that rich galaxy of great ^ men which illus- trates the Thirty Years' War, Gustavus Adolphus is the principal star. Gustavus rex, wrote Cardinal Ca- raffa,^ cui parent Sueeia nulliivi, Europa paucos dedit. His policy — he the first protestant leader to have one THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 331 — was positive and constructive, aiming at (i) the dominion of the Baltic Sea, (2) a corpus evangelicorum, to be realized if necessary by creating a protestant em- pire, and (3) the use of Richelieu to the furtherance of protestantism instead of allowing the wily cardinal, as he wished to do and finally did, merely to aggrandize France at Germany's expense. In war the general before whom both Tilly and Waldstein preferred to retreat was even greater than in diplomacy, worthy of the rank assigned him by Napoleon as the foremost captain of all history. He invented a more efificient order of battle for both infantry and cavalry, at the same time making artillery so light as to march and manoeuvre with a speed never previously attained. Be- fore his soldiers, moral, conscientious, the best disci- plined in Europe, adoring and obeying him and using his tactics, the hireling armies of that age could not stand a moment. 1 Concurrent motives were i) to avenge the dukes of Mecklenburg, his relatives, ii) to revenge the refusal of his mediation at the Peace of LUbeck, iii) to defeat plans to make the empire a Baltic power, and iv) to pay back Austria for aiding Poland against Sweden [n. 2]. For the just antecedent Swedish history, Hausser, II, 131 sqq. Gustavus inherited from his father three wars, i) with Denmark, neither party being victo- rious, ii) with Russia, Sweden securing the entire Baltic coast of that country, and iii) with Poland, lasting till 1629, ending with the recogni- tion of Sweden's claim to the whole Baltic coast opposite Poland, and the cession of considerable tracts besides. The Polish king, Sigisinund, was Gustavus's nephew, but as a catholic and the brother-in-law of the em- peror, he had received active aid from the latter in the war. Promised 1,200,000 livres annually by Richelieu Gustavus lands in Pomerania in 1630, just as Richelieu, leading his army in person, has become master of Savoy and orders an advance on Saluzzo. At first only the Mecklenburg dukes and a few other lords join him. The hesitation of Saxony and Brandenburg, yet hoping for fair terms from Ferdinand, loses Magdeburg 332 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR to the protestants, its commandant burning it to prevent its falling into imperialist hands. This decides the wavering electors. Gardiner, 130 sqq., Tuttle's Prussia, ch. iv. - The greatest crisis of the 17th century [Gindely II, 419]- Turning point was the diet of Regensburg, 1630, where Maximilian, acting for the League, succeeded in getting Waldstein dismissed and in preventing the election of the emperor's son as king of the Romans [Ch. V, § 9, n. 2]. Richelieu's hand was in all this. Eggenberg, Ferdinand's minister, urged conciliation of Saxony and Brandenburg at all hazards, but Jesuit influ- ence was against this. See Fagniez \_J?ev. hist., Jan. -Feb., 1885], Pire yoseph h la diete de Ratisbon, 1630. Even Breitenfeld did not change a whit the Jesuits' determination to carry through the edict everywhere. ^ He created a fleet to harass Spain, treated with Holland, Switzerland, Mantua and Parma in the same interest, and planned to stir up revolts in Portugal and Catalonia. •* Besides the Swedish king himself, Richelieu, Mazarin, Oxenstierna, and the generals Waldstein [§ 13, n. 3], Tilly, Bernhard, Mansfield, Tors- tenson, Wrangel, Guebriant, Baner, Horn, Cond6 and Turenne. Gardiner depreciates Conde, idolizes Turenne. ^ The papal nuncio who superintended the re-conversion of Bohemia and the Palatinate. For the greatness and deeds of Gustavus Adolphus we must refer to the numberless lives and accounts of him. The best are named in the bibliog. Hausser, II, 152 sqq„ is a good brief discussion of the man, his character, career, tactics, etc. Cf. Gindely, II, Appendix. Grotius's de iure belli ac pacis appeared in 1625 and Gustavus was wont to carry it with him and sleep with it for pillow. On his use of artillery, • Artillery,' in Encyc. Brit. § 16 The Swedish Phases Gardintr, ch. viii, ix. Gindely, il, iii-ix, xi. Hausser, pt. ix. Tuttle, Prussia, ch. iv. Hurler, IVallenstein^s 4 letzte Lebensjahre. I The instant the two northern electors, so dilatory, join him, Gustavus rushes against Tilly, whom he totally defeats at Breitenfeld, the ' Naseby of Germany,' 163 1. Then, while the Saxons march on Vienna, he sweeps Francnnia, the Palatinate and the great ecclesi- astical princedoms,^ and having separated Spaniards THE TtiiKTY l^ffARS' WAR 333 from imperialists, returns against the latter, opens Bavaria by seizing Donauworth, forces the Lech in a battle^ where the great Tilly is mortally wounded, and enters Munich in April, 1632. Ferdinand, trembling in expectation of the Swedes and Saxons at Vienna, restores Waldstein, making him virtually dictator of the empire. Hastily collecting an army Waldstein chases the Saxons from Bohemia, then volts to strike Gustavus. The two terrible chiefs face each other six weeks at Niirnberg, when Waldstein retreats to Saxony, the Swede close behind. In the battle of Liitzen, 1632, Gtislavns AdolpJins falls ^ Pappenheim too, Waldstein's foremost lieutenant, yet victory declares for the Swedes, commanded by Bernhard of Weimar. 2 Dissensions between the Swedes and the Germans* render the vic- tory useless and the imperialists assume the offensive. The Swedish Chancellor Oxenstierna, now the political head of the protestants, is disliked by Bernhard, the greatest remaining general. Notwithstanding the loss of Waldstein,^ whom through well-grounded jealousy Ferdinand lets be assassinated, the imperialists win the terrible battle of Nordlingen,^ 1634, which divides the Swedes, discourages the Germans and reinstates the catholics in all the South. The Peace of Prag,^ 1635, gives up the Edict of Restitution though only for the Lutherans and in the North, reconciles Saxony and Brandenburg to the emperor and turns them against the Swedes. The protestants are now again disunited and without heart, their cause once more at nadir. At this point the war quite loses its confessional and religious character and is henceforth political, a mere 334 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR continuation of the eternal feud between France and Austria. ^ Called ' Priests' Lane,' including Wiirzburg, Bamberg, Fulda, Cologne, Trier, Mainz, Worms, Speyer. * It was at Rain, where the Lech joins the Danube. Tilly was 73 years old. ^ Hi5 last words, ' the world for others.' For this battle, Gardiner, ch. viii, sec. 6. See also in Herm. Merivale's Historical Studies, IL Wald- stein had about 18,000 men to Gustavus's 20,000. * On this phase of the war, Droysen, Bernhard von Weimar, passim. In 1633 Sweden formed the League of Heilbronn with the circles of Swahia, Franconia, Upper and Lower Rhine. Hausser, II, 208, Gardi- ner, 167. ^ On Waldstein, besides the works named in the bibliog., see Gardiner, ch. ix; Winter, in Nord u. Slid, Mch., 1883, on W.'s Fall; Hausser, II, 213. As to his guilt, see Gindely, Int. Old writers think him a traitor. So Schiller, although he could wish that the proofs were stronger. P'orster accounts him innocent, unless just at the end when he thought the em- peror about to remove him. Dr. Hallwich, the most voluminous writer on the subject, holds the same view. Dr. Schebeck clears him entirely. Ranke thinks him technically guilty, yet honest in his effort to bring catho- lics and protestants together. Gindely is impressed that the great leader was guilty, but bids us wait till he has published his material. ^ Gardiner, ch. ix, sec. 5, Droysen, Bernhard v. Weimar, bk. iv. The killed amounted to 12,000, prisoners, among them General Horn, to 6000. The emperor's son, P'erdinand, subsecjuently Ferdinand III, commanded the imperialists. Defeated, the protestant army divided, Bernhard retreat- ing to the Rhine, the Swedes to Pomerania. ^ This renewed the status quo of 1627, thus saving to protestantism most of the northern bishoprics but leaving I Iail)ersta(lt, the Palatinate and the lands included in the League of Ileilhronn [n. 4] in catholic hands. Brandenburg, coolly and nominally Calvinistic, was to be treated as Lutheran. the thirty years war 335 § 17 The Peace of Westphalia Gardiner, chaps, x, xi. Gindely, II, x. Bryce, xix. Perkins, as in bibliog. Ranke, Civil W. and Monarchy in Fr., vol. i. Tuttle, Prussia, ch. iv. The remainder of the war, its French phase,^ is replete with interest but as political less within our theme. Richelieu's policy, fully successful, was in general to humble Hapsburg, in particular to extend France to the Rhine and obstruct Spain's road ^ to the Netherlands. As means to these ends he would (i) outwit Oxen- stierna, the able guardian of Sweden's interests, (2) support and use the great German and Swedish war- riors, yet (3) prevent any of these from becoming so powerful as to crush the emperor or oppose France. Both parties seeing themselves becoming mere tools for building France, thought of peace. With this motive wrought the indescribable poverty and distress of every kind induced by the war.^ The ecclesiastical provisions of the Peace (i) confirmed the agreement of Augsburg including the cuius regio clause, except that save under the Austrian crown alone personal confession and house worship were to be free, (2) placed Calvinists on the same footing* with the other two confessions, and (3) fixed as protestant all principalities and ecclesiastical property that had been so on January i, 1624, except in the Palatinate, where 161 8 was to be the normal year. Its political provisions involved (i) the immense enlargement of France,^ (2) indemnity in imperial money and territory to Sweden,^ (3) the de iure severance of the United Netherlands and Switzerland from the em- pire and of the Netherlands also from Spain, {4) the extension of several German principalities, mainly at 336 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR the church's expense, (5) the confirmation to Bavaria of the Upper Palatinate with the old electorship, a new, eighth, electorship being created for the Lower, (6) sovereignty for all Fiirstcfi, involving the right to con- clude treaties with each other and with foreign powers, though not against the empire, and (7) the duty of France and Sweden as guarantors.'^ ^ The elector of Trier having placed himself under France's protection, his lands are seized by Spain, to aid whom riccoloniini, in 1636, pierces Picardy with 18,000 men and threatens Paris, even Richelieu proposing to fall Ijack upon the Loire. But the French rally, and with Bernhard's aid beat back both Spaniards and imperialists. In 1637 the French fleet destroys a Spanish and ravages the coasts of Naples and Sicily. But the main victory of this year, the turning-point in this phase of the war, was Bernhard's at Rheinfeld, where he captures Worth, the imperialist gen- eral, and carries Old Breisach by assault. On his death, soon after, his troops come under French pay and command. In 1640 France wrests Artois and Arras from the catholic Netherlands, in '4i;-'2 ejects the Span- iards from Savoy, invades Catalonia, takes Perpignan and makes Rous- sillon French, as it has since remained. Meantime Baner, a second Gus- tavus, reenforced from Sweden, sets forth from Pomerania, defeats the imperialists at Wittstock in '36, at Chemnitz in '39, penetrates Bohemia and with Guebriant's aid takes Regensburg in '41, diet and all, Ferdinand III [Ferd. II d. in '37] hardly escaping. Baner dies, but the paralytic, Torstenson, surprises Europe by his rapid and brilliant victories at Glogau, Schweidnitz and Breitenfeld in 1642, as does Guebriant by his at Wolfen- biittel in '41 and Kempten in '42. In France, Conde begins his great list of victories by defeating the Spaniards at Rocroi in '43, driving them from the land, and setting free French troops under Turenne to aid Guebriant in So. Germany. Conde and Turenne triumph over Mercy at Freiburg in Breisgau, '44, and take Philipsburg, Worms and Mainz, clearing the Rhine of imperialists. In this same year '44, Torstenson, who had re- treated from Moravia before Gallas, volts, smites Gallas at Juterbogk in Brandenburg, another imperial army at Jankowitz, '45, liesieges Briinn, menaces Vienna, and bids Turenne meet him on the Danube. The latter is beaten by Mercy at Marienthal, '45, but with ("onde's aid wins, same year, the second battle of Nordlingen, after which, uniting with Wrangel, THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 337 forstenson's successor, winning victory upon victory, he sweeps Bavaria and moves upon Vienna. ^ Which had always lain through the Rhone and Rhine valleys, in Spanish or Austrian hands. 2 Gindely, vol. ii, ch. xi, Weber, II, 211 sq., Hausser, II, 276 sq. Ger- many is said to have lost in this war two-thirds its population. The inhab- itants of Augsburg fell from 90,000 to 6000. With many northern towns it fared worse still. Dudik computed that the war destroyed 1976 castles, 1629 towns and 18,310 villages. German manufactures and commerce, till now extraordinarily prosperous since the Reformation, this war so nearly annihilated that they have never recovered. The Hanseatic League [§ 4, n. i] soon embraced Liibeck, Hamburg and Bremen alone, besides which only Frankfort and Leipzig had much trade. The roads of com- merce were unsafe. Money was scarce. The wealthy had removed to other lands, as the Augsburg merchant princes, Fugger and Welser, to Antwerp, and when quiet returned business had established its centres abroad. Destruction of property was worse even than that of life. Schiller, in Wallenstein's Lager, gives a good picture of the barbarism prevalent in the army. Ferdinand III was more inclined to peace with protestants than was his father. He had long been ready to concede all that they wanted but refused French and Swedish intervention. The Swedish vic- tory at Prag [the war ending exactly where it began] decided him. Nego- tiations were proposed in 1641, opened in '43. The catholic plenipoten- tiaries met at Miinster, the protestant at Osnabriick, both in Westphalia. Encouraged by the war of the Fronde in France Spain refuses to accede to this peace till 1657. The other states sign, Oct. 24, 1648. * Not strictly, since the emperor, for aught that appeared in the instru- ment, must still always be a catholic. Treitschke, p. 9. ^ See § 19. 6 5,000,000 Thaler, and the lands about the Oder, Weser and Elbe mouths, including hither and most of farther Pomerania, Stettin and its district, RUgen, Wismar, and the secularized bishoprics of Bremen and Werden. All these possessions being still in the empire, Sweden was to have on their account three voices in the diet. Weber, II, 209 sq. ' IVas kostet unser Fried'? O, luie viel Zeit und Jahre! Was kostet unser Fried'' > O, wie viel Graue Haare! Was kostet unser Fried '? O, wie viel Strouie Blut! Was kostet unser Fried'? O. wie viel Tounen Gut! Ergotzt er auch daTiir und lohnt so viel V'eriiden? Ja. — Went? Frag' Echo drum.— Wem meint sie wohl? — \Echo:\ Den Schwedtn' 338 THE THIRTY YEARS* WAR '' The Westphalia congress was the file leader of all the subsequent European congresses. Nothing really like it hail ever occurred before since the Aniphictyonic Council. It introduced into Europe the general political system which still prevails. With it, too, the present great body of positive international law began its growth. Grotius had published in 1622, and the congress as it were enacted his book into an international statute. From this congress, further, date stated diplomatic relations, legations, embassies, etc., between governments. It is a massive ganglion in the nerve-system of history, § 18 Germany after the Peace Treitschke , D. Gesch. im XIX Jahrh., I, i. Hanser, Deutschland nach dem JO- jahrigen Kr. Bryce, xix. Gardiner, ch. xi. Lewis, chaps, xviii, xix. Thus feudalism had ripened its fruit. ^ The emperor still invested his vassals in old fashion, sitting and cov- ered, still posed as supreme judge. The herald continued at coronations to brandish the imperial sword toward each of the four winds as a sign that all Christendom obeyed the double eagle, to number Lombardy and Tus- cany as imperial fiefs, to speak of chancellors for Ger- many, Italy and Burgundy, and at diets to summon the estates of Nomeny, Bisance and other forgotten lands to vote. But these were now the most idle of forms. Unity and power gone, the empire was hardly even a confed- eracy, no common treasury, no means of coercion. Diet ^ was as helpless as emperor, its feeble deeds like his, subject to dictation by foreign courts. The individual states alone retained energy, which however, they dis- played in petty ^ instead of patriotic ways. Few were the rulers who did not either ignore or fatally misunder- stand public interests. Ministers of Fiirsten took pen- sions from abroad. Each of the 329 separate domains had its own absolute monarch * with his separate court, THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 339 army, coinage and taxes. German national feeling died out.^ Austria, with whicli imperial interests and ideas were bound up, grew constantly less German as its power in and by itself increased. Other non-German states, Denmark, Sweden, England, Poland and France, were mixed up with imperial affairs. French influence, speech and letters displaced Spanish and for long no fine literature was composed in German. German his- tory from the Peace of Westphalia to the French Rev- olution presents barely a single grand character, not one noble enterprise. ^ ' In France the feudal head absorbed all the powers of the state and left to the aristocracy only a few privileges, odious indeed but politically worthless. In England the mediaaval system expanded into a constitu- tional monarchy, where the oligarchy was still strong but the commons had won the full recognition of equal civil rights. In Germany everything was taken from the sovereign and nothing given to the people' [Bryce]. Cf. Chaps. V, § lo, VI, § 20, n. 4. 2 Full diet mustered 240 votes, of which temporal Fiirsten had loi, ecclesiastical 72, free cities 61, counts and Freiherren together 4, the united prelates not Fiirsten 2. Members of the diet [aside from the delegates of cities] were not necessarily immediate vassals of the emperor though most of them held this lelation. The Standschaft might belong to a dig- nitary possessing no land at all. Till the 17th century the emperor's word was enough to invest such a one with it. See Schulte, 312 sq. Many free cities now lost their independence and their importance. •' This littleness took effect in every department of life and thought. The free and creative spirit which ruled literature and theology while Luther and Melancthon were on high gave way to dogmatism and servile reverence for authority and for the letter which killeth. Orthodoxy be- came a greater word than truth. The reaction was an equally irrational ' rationalism.' Culture went back five centuries. Art perished as if Gen- seric or Attila had marched tiirough the land. ' In all ranks life was meaner, poorer, harder than it had been at the beginning of the century ' [Gardiner]. * The ' estates '-legislatures everywhere renounced function or else dis- appeared entirely. About ^1,(^00 sq. miles of German land belonged to 340 THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR states of which no one embraced more than 2080. Popular wit ridiculed the stocking-knitting soldiery of the Cologne state, as well as the grim warriors of the bishop of Hildesheim, whose hats bore the legend, 'Grant peace, O Lord, in our days ' [Treitschke]. * The idea of nationality was linked with that of the empire, now uni- versally regarded an Austrian affair, and between Austria and Germany proper no sympathy could exist. Vet Austria by its own extraordinary power and by the aid of the ecclesiastical principalities, especially Mainz, never found it difficult to retain the hegemony. Frederic the Great boasted that he ignored German and could write French as well as Voltaire. § 19 Political Outcome for France Freer, Reign of Henry IV. Kitchin, bk. iv. Perkins, and Heeren, as in bibliog. Bryce, xix. Lodge, Mod. Europe, ch. xi. The Thirty Years' War was as epochal in French as in German poHtical history but in a different way. While it annihilated German national unity and power it cemented the French nation more firmly and made France supreme in Europe.^ To France's struggle of king with feudalism succeeded that between catholic and protestant. The Reformation here, allying itself mostly with nobles,^ the learned and the wealthy, never became popular as in Germany. Hence, powerful as it for a long time was, it was never enough so to triumph. Yet it availed to bring a long succession of civil wars, with their horrid train of anarchy, poverty and oblivion of national interests, evils upon which Spain ^ and Eng- land flourished. Efficient relief first came from the accession, character and sagacity of Henry IV, who through his hold on both parties and by chasing the Spaniards from the land, greatly drew the nation together. Civil wars ceased, economic prosperity re- turned, Henry could meditate a European league* against the Hapsburgs with France its centre. Seiz- THE THIRTY YEARS WAR 34 1 ing, partly creating, this war for opportunity, Richelieu took up Henry's plan and work, with the advantage that as cardinal he could not be suspected of sympathy with protestants, while as aiding their cause abroad he could more freely modify those privileges of theirs under the Edict of Nantes * which hindered national solidity and strength. So through Richelieu's adroitness the war yielded France (i) more decided courage, ambition and internal consolidation, (2) territory : Pignerol and other points in Savoy, full sovereignty ^ over Metz, Toul, Verdun, and Alsace Upper and Lower ^ with the ad- ministration of the free cities therein, Breisach beyond the Rhine and the right to garrison Philipsburg, (3) practical preponderance over Austria in the empire itself, through its delegation '' in the diet, its guarantor- ship of the Peace and its frequent calls to mediate between German states. It is thus clear that the power at home and in Europe of Louis XIV's monarchy had its springs in Henry IV, Richelieu and the Thirty Years' War. 1 So that from this time France instead of Hapsburg was the power continually feared as endangering the European balance. Ch. X, § 3. ^ In France so early as 1561 there were 2000 Huguenot churches. ScaHger, Casaubon and the Stephani were protestant scholars. Besides Antoine, K'g of Navarre, and his son Henry IV of France, Conde and Coligny were among the protestant leaders. Political disaffection would often drive great men into the protestant ranks, and such infected to some extent the whole communion with their restlessness and turbulence. It was Richelieu's policy to buy up the Huguenot chiefs with titles and mili- tary positions, so as to unite France. 8 See Baird's Huguenots and Henry of Navarre, James's Henry IV, Freer as above, and Motley's works. * See § 6, n. 7. ' See next §. 342 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR ^ Hitherto, though under French control since in 1552 Henry H seized them in the Smalcaldic war [Ch. VIII, § 19], these bishoprics had recog- nized the sovereignty of the empire. The emperor had invested their Furst-bishops, imperial eagles had been struck at Metz, and cases had been appealed from their courts to the imperial chamber. " How these districts came into Austria's hands, see Ch. VI, § 20, n. 2, and Ch. VIII, § 17, last n. The free cities were Hagenau, Kolmar, Schlettstadt, Weissenburg, Landau, Kaisersberg, Obernheim, Rossheim, Munster and Thliriiigheim. They were still to remain free and to retain a relation to the empire, yet not exactly as fiefs [n. 8]. In a word, only what was Austria's now passed to France. Strassburg and the district just around it remained in the empire till seized, wholly without warrant, by Louis XIV in 1681. The duchy of Lorraine, except the now isolated French lands of Metz, Toul and Verdun, remained imperial till 1766. On this cf. Freeman's Atlas, plates xxvi, xxvii, xxxiii. The Breisach ceded was Old Breisach, in southern Baden. Philipsburg was in northern Baden. ^ Ambassadors rather than members in ordinary. France did not ac- knowledge the vassal-relation to the empire for any part of the territory now acquired, and the language of § 73 in the Treaty all but cedes full sovereignty over the 10 cities as well as over the rest. § 20 Religious Outcome Lewi's, Bryce, and Gardiner as at § 17. Lane, and Baird as in bibliog. All the Histories of Louis XIV and his Times. On the other hand the war did much less xOr France than for Germany toward solving the great European question of the century, how far religious liberty is con- sistent with the integrity of states. Since the idea of an establishment of religion was then universal, hardly^ any one yet conceiving the possibility of a solid govern- ment based on confessional neutrality, desire for national unity could not but antagonize religious toleration. It was felt that innovators in religious belief must of neces- sity be traitors. Germanv had done the utmost that the ideas of the age could brook, in fi.xing the geograph- THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR 343 ical boundaries of the warring faiths, with the right of aggressive dissenters to migrate. Within the princi- pality even in Germany there was nothing worthy the name of religious freedom. The Edict of Nantes,^ 1598, which only enlarged and confirmed Henry Ill's agreement of 1576, proceeded upon the same idea as the Peaces of Augsburg and Westphalia, not general im- munity to religious dissent but protestant independence in certain fixed localities. Calvinism, intensely political always, scarcely more tolerant than its foe, formed a France within France. Such iniperia in iviperio^ were certain not to be permanently tolerated in this land, where the spirit of nationality * was so much mightier than beyond the Rhine. Not pure cruelty or bigotry therefore, but in part ideas of political policy dictated those heinous measures of Louis XIV against the Huguenots, which culminated in the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 1685. But by this course, France, like Germany though in a different direction, effected merely a change of evils, buying political unity at the cost of free thought and confession — ultimately the disastrous effects were political too, reaching the very foundations of the state — while Germany received her measure of religious liberty by diminishing her already too little political strength and centralization. ^ John Ernest of Saxe-Weimar was the first German to suggest the quieting of the fatherland by proclaiming universal toleration. Elector George William of Brandenburg in 1631 expressed the wish that 'at least the private exercise of religion ' should be free to all. The turn of the phrase indicates that he was meditating more. 1631 was the year of Roger Williams's settlement in Salem, the German elector's thought doubt- less already stirring in his mind, as in Vane's, and in Lord Baltimore's, who wrought it into Maryland's constitution of 1639. Gindely, II, 105 and 344 THE THIRTY YEARS WAR n., also n. 2, below. In Roger Williams the idea took in a few years the larger and tiner form of an out and out non-confessional state. ^ By this, nobles possessing high justice [Ch. VI, § i6, n. i] had full liberty of worship. So in given cities and places had all citizens, but not in episcopal cities, in Paris or within a circle of five miles around, or at the king's court. Calvinists could hold public office, even sit in the Parlia- ments of Paris, Toulouse, Grenoble and Bordeaux. The edict put in effect, so far, the principle of toleration which chancellor I'Hopital, i505-'73, had announced, — in vain so far as concerned his time. But men could not forget it. It not only blessed France while the edict prevailed but outlived the revocation, grew, and inspired the writings of the i8th cen- tury and the beneficent acts of the French Revolution. 8 Huguenots had their own institutions of learning and political assem- blies, their towns special protestant garrisons, not of royal troops. They were suspected of aiming at entire independence from France. Their strength and strongholds were in Languedoc, making catholics fear a new Albigensian revolt. * This is why the sieges of Rochelle and Stralsund terminated so differ- ently, the French city succumbing, the German successfully defying the central power. Rochelle made a desperate defence, the inhabitants ■ being reduced to a diet of skins and boiled parchments. The aged duchess of Rohan lived three months on horseflesh. More than half the population died, only 154 men-at-arms remaining. With this city fell the Huguenot power. Yet neither Richelieu nor Mazarin thought of revoking the edict of Nantes, a criminal blunder reserved for Louis XIV, who had Philip IPs blood in his veins. 'When your Majesty called me to his councils I can truly say that the Huguenots divided the state with you. The nobles conducted themselves as if they were not subjects, and the governors of provinces as if they were independent sovereigns. Foreign alliances were despised, private interests preferred to public, and the dig- nity of your Majesty so abased that it could hardly be recognized. I promised your Majesty to use all my industry and power to ruin the Huguenot party, lower the pride of the nobles, lead all subjects to their duty and to restore the country's name among foreign nations.' — Riche- lieu's Ttslament politique, pt. i, cb. i. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY TO CHAPTER X Morris, Fr. Revolution [Ep. of II.: App. to Am. ed. has very fine bibliog.]. Ducoudray, Hist, de Fr., et h. conteniporaitie.* Student's France, bk. vii. Adams, Democracy and Mon. in Fr.** Harrison, Histories of the Fr. Rev.** [No. Am. Rev., 1883, vol. 137]. v. Sybel, Fr. Rev.,* 3 v. Taine, Ancient Regime;** Revolution,** 3 V. Stephens, Fr. Rev.,** [i v. out]. Blanc, Hist, de la Rev. Fraufaise, 12 v. Thiers, do., 10 V. [tr. in 2]. Mignet,** do., 2 v. [I3ohn, I v. : best single fairly full account]. Michelet, do., 9 v. [also in Bohn]; Preeis de la Rev. [best brief account to Robespierre's d.]. Van Laun, Fr. Revolutionary Epoch,** 2 V. Burke, Reflections on the Fr. Rev. Lecky, England in the XVIIIth Cent. [6 V. out], vol. v. Alison, II. of Europe, First Series, 1789-1815 [there is an abridge't]. Biedermann, Deutsihland iin Xl'////eit yahrh. [vol. iv, 1882]. Carlyle, Fr. Rev. Smyth, Lect. on do. Hausser, rA-.f^A. d.fr. Rev.* Niebuhr, Gesch. d. Zeilallers d. Rev. Lamartine, Giron- dists [in Bohn], 3 v. Fyffe, Mod. Europe, de Tocqueville, J'aticien regime et la Rev. Kitchin, Fr., vol. iii. Gardiner, Fr. Rev. [FIp. of Mod. H.]. Mill, Observations on the Fr. Rev. [in Dissertations, vol. i]. Janet, Philosophie de la Rev. fran^aise. v. Noorden, Furopdische Gesch. im XVniten Jahrh., 3 v. Schlosser, II. of the XVIIIth Century, etc., 8 v. Martin, Fr. depttis ijSg jusipi'h nos jours**, 3 v. Guizot, Civ. in Europe, xiv. v. Raumer, Gesch. Frankreiclis von. d. fr. Rev., 1740- '95. Oncken, Zeitalter d. Rev., d. Kaissereichs u. d. Befreiungskriege, I, V. Treitschke, Aufsaetze, vol. iii. Laurent, Droit des gens, vols, xiii and xiv. Barruel, Memoirs of Jacolnnism, 4 v. Croker, Fr. Rev. Baum- garten, Gesch. Spaniens, 3 v. Seeley. I., and Times of Stein, 3 v. Tol- stoi, War and Peace.** Dickens, Tale of Two Cities. Weir, Hist'l Basis of Mod. Europe. CHAPTER X THE FRENCH REVOLUTION The Newest Political History Maine, Popular Government. Bancroft, U. S., vol. vi [last ed.], 472 sqq. Contemp. Rev., Nov., 1884, 650 sqq. Harrison, as in bibliog. Bryce, 435 sqq. The political history of the last hundred years betrays four leading tendencies : i A constitutional. Abso- lutism, which till the American Revolution ^ was univer- sal and supreme, has gradually given way, no longer existing in any state of first rank. Monarchy has been dispensed with by many peoples even as to its form, others retain its form only, in the rest its old power is gone. Civilized lands are now ruled in unprece- dented measure for the people as well as more and more by the people. Serfs and slaves ^ have been freed, suf- frage enormously extended. 2 A centralizing.^ This movement is less general than the above, being mainly confined to the United States, Germany and Italy, though manifested also in the foreign conquests of England, France and Chili, but scarcely less rational or beneficial, since modern means of communication im- mensely facilitate the unifying of large and widely separated bodies of men, 3 A race-national. This, which, observe, in some cases antagonizes^ the last, appears in the new prominence assumed by the element 348 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION of blood-relationship in determining the boundaries of states. The nation political inclines more to coincide with the nation as thing of race. Here too, next after Ireland, Germany and Italy best illustrate, and this not only by their recent but also by their prospective his- tory. The German empire bids fair in the end to em- brace German Austria, as Italy Italian, Elsass-Lothrin- gcn strives ^ to be French again. 4 A non-confes- sional.^ Men have been coming to view religion more clearly as separable from politics, to see that various religious faiths can dwell harmoniously under the same constitution. Witness especially France, England and America. In Germany, Austria, Italy and Spain the idea is equally active, though for various reasons not yet so victorious. ^ Before this event not a constitution in the sense of the word now usual, existed. At present, only the Czar and the Sultan rule in the old fashion, and even they are forced by public opinion local and ecumenical, diligently to consult the popular weal. ^ Of civilized lands only Spanish America and Brazil retain slavery, and in both laws exist which are rapidly working its extirpation. Nearly all the emancipation edicts and statutes of modern times have been uttered since the opening of the French Revolution. Roscher, Pol. Economy, I, 224. 3 Including i) the enlargement of the territories ruled from a single centre, and ii) the strengthening of the central authorities in nations. Steam and telegraphic communication have aided this tendency. Rail- ways and telegraphs explain why our generation has witnessed the rise in Germany of the first solid central government in all history. But for them the United States could not be permanently and strongly ruled as a single nation, and the victory of central government in the Civil War would have been in vain. * Tendency 2 would have maintained Austrian lordship in Italy, keeps Elsass-Lothringen German, and urges .Vustiia and Russia tn ajipropriate the Balkan peninsula. Tendency 3 has nearly expelled Austria from Italy THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 349 and promises to do so entirely. Which will prevail over Elsass-Lothringen remains to be seen. Of course 2 prompts France to get, as Germany to keep, these districts, yet 3 is the force which will recover them to France if this ever occurs. Tendency 3 shows itself in new attention to languages. Magyar has become the official and literary tongue in Hungary, Tscheck is acquiring like dignity in Bohemia, Servian in Servia, Bulgarian in Bul- garia and Roumelia, Roumanian in Roumania, Polish in Galicia. 6 Cf. Ch. IX, § 20. § 2 Importance of the French Revolution Morley, Voltaire, also his Rousseau. Taine, Ancient Regime. Sybel, bk. L Harrison, as in bibliog. Van Laun, ch. i. This new and strongly marked historical period began for Europe with the French Revolution, an event epochal almost without parallel. Whatever opinion be held of its character^ in other respects, no one can question the importance of this Revolution in shaping political ideas and affairs since. Its significance does not lie in the mere facts that France, from a condition of abject weakness which made her the scorn of Europe, suddenly roused, changed her form of government, and in so few years forced a continent to her feet, her em- pire surpassing Charlemagne's in size, recalling that of Augustus. It resides rather in the irresistible will first revealed in all this against monarchical, feudal and ecclesiastical oppression and unreason, against a de- cayed, inefficient and inexpressibly burdensome public system. It was passion for a rational public order, educated and developed, in part perversely, by a series of able and trenchant French writers,^ and fired to frenzy by Bourbon tyranny, stupidity and immorality, that was the proximate cause of the brilliant deeds referred to, as well as in turn their most lasting and benign result. 350 THE FREN'CH REVOLUTION Only from this its central character can the French Revolution be justly judged. If it is viewed thus its errors and excesses may be explained and partly con- doned, as the inevitable friction generated in producing a great and worthy piece of work against fearful resis- tance. To know the remoter causes of this gigantic social upheaval, glance at the condition of society^ in France under the dying regime. 1 Janet, Philos. de la Rev. Fraufaise, Harrison, as above. One hears and reads still the most divergent views not only of the Revolution but also of its leading characters. Compare, for example, Taine's and Stephens's [the two newest writers] view of Marat. Michelet, Morley and Blanc are the least compromising defenders of the Revolution, though of course criticising much that attended it. Many who inveigh against it really accuse only its excesses, horrible indeed. But there are able writers, like Taine and Sir Henry Maine, evidently not believing in government by the people, who reprobate the Revolution itself, believing that what- ever good it may have brought could have been attained without it. For a criticism of Taine's position, Rev. historiqiie, Jan.-P'eb., 1885, 118 sqq. In this hostile mode of viewing the great movement Burke's Reflections led the way, swayed too much in their judgment of it as a whole by the fate of the unfortunate lady who had so impressed the author when in France. 'It is now 16 or 17 years,' he says, 'since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never lighted on this orb, which she scarcely seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in, glittering like the morning star, full of life and splendor and joy. Oh ! what a revolution ! and what an heart must I have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall ! ' Similarly Sir James Mackintosh's Vindiciae Gallicae introduced the appre- ciative criticism of the Revolution, whose freshest note Frederic Harrison has sounded in saying: 'The history of our entire 19th century is precisely the history of all the work which the Revolution did leave. The Revolu- tion was a creating force even more than it was a destroying force; it was an inexhaustible source of fertile influences; it not only cleared the ground of the old society liut it manifested all the elements of the new society. Truly we may call the Revolution the crisis of modern reconstruction : — THE Fi?ENCH REVOLUTrON 351 "When ?rance in wrath her giant limbs upreared, And with that oath which smote air, earth anJ sea. Stamped her strong foot and said she would be free." ' 2 Those, among others, mentioned in § 8. 3 The very best brief discussion is Ducoudray, ch. i, drawn in consid- erable part from Taine, Ancien Regime. Read also Taine himself, and Buckle, H. of Civ. in Eng., vol. i, chaps, viii-xiv. § 3 Monarchy Bancroft, U. S., vol. v, 264 sqq. Mom's, i. Came, Louis XIV and L. XV. Philipp- son [in Oncken], Zeitalter Lud^vigs XIV. Buckle, Civ. in England, ch. xiv. Poole, Huguenots of the Dispersion. Kitchin, bks. v and vi. Blanc, bk. ii, ch. vi. Michelet, France, vols, xiii-xv. Martin, do., vols, xiv, xv. Burke, Reflections, pt. i, § 2. Lodge, Mod. Europe, ch. xiii. Though Louis XIV's tyranny in other things must at last have brought down his power from the dizzy height it attained through his earHest wars,^ it is signifi- cant that decline first became pronounced after he had revoked the Edict of Nantes, 1685. From this act, setting 'at naught all the rights consecrated by edicts and by the long patience of those protestants whom Mazarin had called the faithful flock,' came dire results, partly internal, partly external. The reformers by hun- dreds of thousands carried ^ into England, Holland and Brandenburg their industries, skill, capital and bitter resentments. Protestant rulers, indignant, opened their doors, feeling themselves insulted, as well as menaced in respect to their faith and the stability of their thrones. By the next two wars, France, fighting her own sons,^ and fatally feeling the swords of William of Orange, Marlborough and Prince Eugene, was left 'exhausted, gasping, at wits' end for men and money. Absolutism had obtained from national pride the last possible exer- tions, but had played itself out in the struggle.' So 352 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION long as Louis XIV lived, such was his personal force, such the memory of his deeds, that the monarchy re- tained appearance of considerable solidity. Not so in Louis XV's reign,* decadent throughout in conse- quence of his vices, impotence and subservience to every faction. Depraved women directed the state, to foolish alliances and fatal wars. Immense territory^ was lost. Frederic the Great laughed at the thought that France could effect aught by protesting against the partition of Poland.^ At home, nothing was done to unify the people, interest them in the government or develop national resources, but everything tended mightily in the contrary direction. In such ruin was France at the accession of the well-meaning Louis XVI," that, had this monarch been a second Richelieu instead of the cipher he was, his effort to preserve the old monarchy must have proved about equally vain. 1 The first, the war of ' devolution,' i667-'8, secured him [Ch. IX, § 3, n. 4, end] 12 fortified places on the Belgian frontier, including Lille and Tournay. In this Louis was maintaining the claim of his wife as daughter of Philip IV of Spain by a first marriage, to inherit against a son by a second. The second war, i672-'8, was against Holland, aided by the empire; England, Sweden and some German states allying themselves with Louis. The ensuing Peace of Nymwegen, 1678, gives Louis nothing from Holland, hut P'ranche Comte and 12 new Belgian towns from Spain, and Freiburg from the empire. The process of 'reunion' was this. I-'rench courts decided what the last four Peaces had given France, and the king executed the decisions with troops. Under this slim sanction Louis seized Strassburg, and occupied Luxemburg, Treves and Lothringen, the empire being too weak to oppose. His third war, l688-'97, for alleged possessions in the Palatinate, roused all Europe against him, England too, under \Vm. HI, its king from 1689, and not only yielded him nothing, but cost him the first loss of French territory since Richelieu, viz., Pigncrol and all the possessions which ' reunion ' h.nd taken from the empire. This, as King William's VV., extended to America. L.'s fourth war, I70l-'l4, THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 353 over the Spanish succession, the Queen Anne's W. of American hist., weakened France the most fatally. The question was whether the grand- son of Louis or the son of Emperor Leopold I should be king of Spain on the death of the childless King Charles IL The French prince took pos- session. To maintain the European balance of power, i.e. avert the threat of union between France and Spain under one crown, England and Holland went to war for the Austrian claimant. Twice Louis was ready to make peace but the allies proffered too severe terms. Meantime, the Austrian candidate having become emperor by the death of his father and older brother, the interest of the balance of power favors the French occupant, who is confirmed as Philip V of Spain, the coalition against him breaking down. But while the P. of Utrecht, 171 3, gives Spain to Philip, it con- veys the dependencies of Spain : the Netherlands, Milan, Naples and Sardinia, to Austria, and ordains that the crowns of Spain and France shall never be united, as they never have been. Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy were Louis's great military antagonists in this war. Blenheim, Ramillies, Malplaquet and Oudenarde the famous battles. Von Noorden, Europaische Gesch. im XVIII Jahrh., Abth. I, is the great auth. on this war ^ Cf. Poole, H. of the Huguenots of the Dispersion. 8 A regiment of French refugees, led by Schomberg, fought at the battle of the Boyne, July i, 1690, against James H, whom Louis XIV's troops were supporting. The like occurred on many another field here and there in Europe. * 1715-1774, the Regency of the Duke of Orleans lasting till 1723. L. XV was great-grandson to Louis XIV, the son of an older brother of Philip V of Spain [n. i]. Pressed by his minister to attend to affairs of the state he would retort, ' Bah, the crazy old machine will last out my time and my successors must look out for themselves.' ' Unhappy man, there as thou turiiest in dull agony on thy bed of weariness, what a thought is thine! Purgatory and Ilelllire, now all too possible, in the prospect: In the retrospect, — alas, what thing didst thou do that were not better undone? what mortal didst thou generously help? what sorrow hadst thou mercy on? Do the 500,000 ghosts who sank shamefully on so many battle-fields from Rossbach to Quebec, that thy Harlot might take revenge for an epigram, — crowd round thee in this hour? Thy foul Harem; the curses of mothers, the tears and infamy of daughters? Miserable man! thou hast done evil as thou couldst : thy whole existence seems one hideous abortion and mistake of Nature.' — Carlyle. 5 All French America, by the French and Indian War, i756-'63, a 354 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION phase of the 7 Yrs. War in Europe. Ninety-live per cent of France's ter- ritory in India also went to England by this war, founding England's power in that country. Louis XV had failed in two wars before this one, i) i733-'5, to keep his Polish father-in-law, Stanislaus Lesczinski, on the Polish throne, ii) the W. over the Austrian succession, i740-'8, in which he sided with Karl Albert of Bavaria against Maria Theresa. Cf. Ch. XI, § 6, n. I. ® The first of the three partitions, that of 1772, between Russia, Prussia and Austria. Russia and Prussia made a new division, 1793, and all three powers again in 1795, the last appropriating Poland entire. ^ Louis XVI was L. XV's grandson. Louis the Dauphin died before his father, leaving several children, of whom Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X became kings. Who was Louis XVII? The young son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, abused to death [1795], at 10 yrs. of age by his revolutionary keepers. § 4 Nobility Taine. Ancient ReRime, bk. i. Sybel, 'der alte Staat u. Rev. in Fr.' in Kl. hist. Schr., vol. iii. Do?u'ol, La Ri-v. fr. et la fiodalite. Monarchy in France had thrust feudalism from first place but had no wise destroyed it.^ At a hundred points it was as oppressive in the eighteenth century as ever. Immense estates were the rule. Of the twenty- seven million inhabitants of France in 1789, nobility comprised but eighty-three thousand, yet one-fifth of the land was in their hands.^ They appointed to all offices and emoluments on their domains ; all confis- cated property, also all to which owners or heirs were wanting, abandoned estates, etc., fell to them. Almost as extensively as of old, the lord owned the land. Even the royal domains encompassed by his, were themselves virtually his. Of rivers not navigable, islands, fish, wrecks, etc., he was sole proprietor. For purposes of hunting, even the private enclosures of others, if in his jurisdiction, had to be opened at his word. His game THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 355 could eat vassals' crops with impunity, vassals' grain must be ground at his mill, for a toll of one-sixth, one- sixth the price of land sold went to him, and so on. Besides, large numbers of nobles were heavily pen- sioned at public expense. But worst was that neither state nor people got the slightest return for all this.^ Nobles enjoyed almost total exemption from taxation ; as a class they were ignorant and entirely unpatriotic ; most, neglecting their lands and local duties, idled away their time at court or in town, caring nothing for their tenants save to bleed them. Yet, insolent and burden- some in equal degree, the more worthless they became the more stoutly did they insist on their full feudal rights over and against the people. 1 Ch. VI, § 20. 2 I.e., 3^^ of the population owned ^ of the land. The clergy and nobles had | of all the land, the nobles alone 3, the clergy alone ^. 8 V. Sybel, vol. i, 24 sqq., Taine, Ancient Regime, bk. ii. § 5 Clergy Sybel, bk. i, ch. i, bk. ii, ch. iii. Taine, Ancient Regime, bk i. Morris, i. Ducoudray, 46 sqq. Burke, Reflections, pt. i, § i. Though nearly half the soil in France belonged to the church, this was but a part of the immense wealth wherewith the piety of twelve centuries had endowed it. The main income went to seven or eight hundred abbots,^ a hundred and thirty-one bishops and arch- bishops. These exalted clergymen, mostly from noble families, were quite as selfish, useless and tyrannical as their relatives not in orders. As a rule each abbot took two-thirds the revenue of his foundation, leaving the monks to starve upon the rest. Bishops spent their 35^ THE FRENCH REVOLUTION incomes in extravagance if not in rioting, farming their lands to heartless agents, who screwed from the hapless tenants their uttermost sou. Many a powdered ecclesi- astic kept an establishment, which, with its palace, plate and equipages, could vie in splendor with Versailles \tself. The Chateau de Savcrtic, residence of Cardinal de Rohan, Bishop of Strassburg, whose kitchen utensils were of solid silver, had seven hundred beds, a hundred and eighty horses were in its stalls.^ Under these clerical magnates, so worldly and haughty, crouched the great horde of parish priests, living on the scantiest pit- tance that would sustain life, and striving, disinterest- edly in the main, to minister to the people's spiritual welfare. Hardest for these faithful souls was not the meagreness of their own support, but the sight of the irremediable poverty around them and the necessity put upon them by their superiors, whom they dared not disobey, of perpetually wringing the mites from their already poverty-stricken parishioners.^ 1 There were also some 280 nunneries. The exact number of these religious houses is not known. Not all the abbots were so selfish, some sharing their incomes. There were convents occupied by 4 or 5 monks each, which enjoyed froiia 30 to 40 thousand livres apiece yearly [tiie livrc — about -j'j a pd. sterling] without bestowing a farthing in charity. Ducoudray, 43. "^ This gentleman was also abbot of Noirmoutiers and Saint- Waast, and pocketed 7 or 8 hundred thousand livres of rent. It was he who was so unfortunately involved in the necklace affair with Marie ,\ntoinette. See Carlyle's Essay, and Blanc, vol. ii, ch. ii. Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, realized 678,000 livres of revenue, i.e., nearly /"52,I54. Some ecclesias- tics fared less sumptuously, and a great part of the iniquity lay in this. Cardinal Fleury was at first bishop of Frejus, and so poor that, it is said, be used to entitle himself 'bishop by the divine wrath.' • Read Voltaire, ' The Country Vicar,' in Dictionnaire philosophique. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 357 § 6 The Third Estate' Doniol, Hist, des classes rurales. Dareste, H. des classes agricoUs. Taint, Ancient Regime, bk. v. Young, Travels in France, i787-'9. This comprised the body of the population, including what is now sometimes called the 'fourth estate.' The moral and financial hope of France lay in the middle class, third estate in the narrower sense : lawyers, pro- fessors, physicians, business men. Of late, partly through John Law's ^ costly demonstration of the power of credit, this portion of society had acquired greater riches than ever. From plebeian millionnaires almost alone could kings and princes borrow. As France's best financiers, also out of interest in the state, heavily their debtor, these men became students of politics and, so far as permitted, active therein. Outdoing the nobility in culture and intelligence as well as in ready wealth, always in requisition for those public tasks which required special training, skill and versatility, they naturally chafed under the discriminations, social and in respect to political power and burdens, made against them. 'What,' asked Sieyes,^ *is the third estate } Everything. What has it been till now } Nothing. What does it ask for.-* To become some- thing.' But the poor fourth estate had the most to complain of. Nine-tenths of the population possessed no property, in some provinces even serfdom lingered yet. The poverty of all was terrible. Oats, buckwheat, bran, formed the entire diet of many thousands, in mountainous parts whole communities lived on chest- nuts, while pork and goat-flesh were rare delicacies, to be 358 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION tasted by the most favored perhaps at Christmas. Houses were thatched and without windows, floors of earth. Multitudes went barefoot in midwinter. Bread riots were continual. Frequent famines filled cities with beggars: in 1753 over eight hundred died of cold and hunger in Paris alone* Intellectually the masses fared no better, ignorant parish priests being their sole instructors. ^ The French Revolution was the victory of the third estate. Cf. Ch. VI, § 16, and the lit. there named, esp. Cluizot and Blanc. - A Scotchman who secured permission of the Regent in 1 716 to open his Royal Bank of France, and to issue paper money to ten times the amount of the public debt. The Bank had a lively discounting business, the monopoly of tobacco and of the Louisiana trade [succeeding to the Mississippi Co.], the rights of the old East India Co. and the handling of all national taxes. Shares were in enormous demand, rising from the par, j^500, to ;^i 8,000 apiece. The notes were better than gold, and their abundance, raising prices, diffused everywhere the appearance of pros- perity. Failure came of course, the ' Mississippi Bubble,' as it was called, bursting, but this abuse of credit taught France a good lesson touch- ing its use. Lalor's Cyclopaedia, vol. i, 230, ii, 737, Blanc, vol. i, bk. i^ ch. vii. 3 In his famous pamphlet on the Third Estate. It did for the Fr. Revolution what Tom Paine's Common Sense did for the American. * And the nobility, how unfeeling ! Duchess de Polignac was amazed that people were so clamorous for bread when nice cakes were to be had for four sous each. § 7 Economics Sybel, bk. ii, ch. iii. Blanc, vol. iii, ch. i. Young, as at § 6. The above evils were largely referrible to an alto- gether vicious and irrational economic system, public and private. The Bourbon kings would hear nothing of thrift,^ let public power be shamefully abused for the promotion of class interests. i In every department THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 359 of the state's service offices were sold, numberless ones being created on purpose to be sold. They were often made hereditary, often carried with them patents of nobility and valuable immunities. 2 The incidence of taxes, even apart from the sweeping and unjust exemp- tions above noted, was as bad as it could be : still wox'se if possible, the method of collection, viz., the old Roman one of farming. 3 Guilds and corporations of the most arbitrary and tyrannical sort, created and nourished upon the monstrous principle of Henry III, 'the king alone can grant the right to labor,' fettered commerce in a thousand ways. Abolished by Turgot in 1776, they speedily rose anew to a more vigorous power for mis- chief than before. 4 All manner of restrictive laws upon trade wrought in the same direction. So-called protective tariffs were laid, upon domestic imports from province to province, as well as upon foreign. Salt^ had to be bought of government, at double or treble its value, a given amount for a family whether needed or not. New inventions, new methods of industry were spurned. 5 These and other abuses depressed agri- culture the most. One fourth of the arable land in France lay untilled, the agricultural system was still that of the tenth century. Roads were few and wretched. Laws forbade the export of agricultural produce. Neither landlord nor tenant was interested in maintaining fertility of soil. The whole policy of government toward the rural population was such as to discourage industry and economy. Taxes were of about every conceivable nature, collected with a greed as of harpies. Trifles like door-latches were attached by tax- 360 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION agents, and mites seized that had been gotten by beg- ging. The peasant with bread must eat it in secret or be additionally taxed as getting too rich. 1 See Ad. Vuitry, in Rev. d. deux Mondes, Dec, 1883, 748 sqq., Stephens, II, xii. To build the water-works for Versailles 20,000 men toiled 2 years. During the 5 peaceful years after the war with Holland the grand monarqtie increased his annual public expenses 545 million livres, while the annual net income was only 463 million, adding to the debt 82 million yearly. This deficit went on swelling. Cf. § 9, also Blanc, vol. i, bk. iii, ch. iii. v. Sybel, vol. i, 30 sqq., emphasizes a topic often overlooked, the economic benefits flowing to France from the Revolution. 2 This salt burden was called the gahelle. At least 7 lbs. of salt per per- son a year must be bought, besides extra for any general purpose, as cur- ing meat. Prices of salt varied with provinces, from 8 to 32 shillings a lb. Smuggling was universal. There were 10,000 culprits yearly for infraction of the gabelle, 500 hung and 500 sent to the galleys. Cf. Van Laun, I, 31 sq. ' In Normandy one could each day see wretches who had no bread, seized, sold, and executed for not buying salt.' — Ducoudray. § 8 Thought Taine, Ancient Regime, bks. iii, iv. MorUy, Voltaire, also his Rousseau. Grimm [in essays], ' Fr. and Voltaire,' ' V. and Frederic Great.' Blanc, vol. i, bk. iii, chaps, i, ii, vol. iii, ch. ii. Martin, as at § 3. Rousseau, Conirdt social [vol. 10 of Wks. in Eng.]. Protestantism was still illegal in France, the church outwardly one. Yet a most vigorous spirit of protest everywhere prevailed, against whatever stood upon mere authority or tradition, partly religious, caused, among much else, by the manifest failure of Christianity, as the church administered it, to liberate men's souls or purify their lives, and partly intellcctiTal, a stronger love for nature, science, the present life, than the church approved. Revelation was discarded, reason declared the supreme guide. Along with these ideas went a new, more liberal mode of political thinking, proceeding from THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 361 the great writings of Montesquieu,^ admirer of the Eng- lish constitution. Also France was now reaping the fruit of that still more negative bent of thought intro- duced by Locke's 2 philosophy, from the first ardently studied here, with especial attention to its materialistic bearings. Condillac set aside reflection as a source of ideas, Helvetius^ reduced virtue to egoistic hedonism. La Mettrie and Maupertius, the latter in the famous Systhne de la nature, advanced a materialism coarser yet, decrying belief in God, freedom and a soul sepa- rable from the body, as baseless and mischievous vagaries. Voltaire's unbelief, deism,* and at first Dide- rot's, was more moderate, yet the Encyclopedie^ their organ, seemed to reason away ' law from the state, free- dom from morality, spirit and God from nature.'^ But the philosopheme most influential now, this too in part a heritage from Locke, partly also from Hobbes though originally from the Stoicism incarnate in the Roman law, was the conception of a 'law of nature.' It domi- nated Rousseau's writings. The ideas of a state of human nature " anterior to society, of society as a con- tract, and of the natural rights of man, were phases of if. The new economic doctrine of Physiocracy^ it permeated completely. Embodying deep and inspiring truth ^ it blinded men to its radical falsity. And even the good thinking of the period was too abstract and apriori, morbidly reliant on formulae, theories and * victorious analysis.' ^^ ^ The years of the declining monarchy were rich years for thought in all spheres. Montesquieu, 1689-1755, in his Spirit of the Laws, weighs the advantages of all the different forms of government, with the view of displaying the superiority of constitutionalism. The work greatly influ- 362 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION enced Mirabeau and all the moderates of the Revolution. For the inf. of English thought on French, see Buckle, Civ. in Eng., vol. i, ch. xii. - From the fundamental Lockian principle, nihil est in intellcctu quod non ftterit in sensu, Condillac, 1715-80, logically and correctly deduced pure sensationalism in philosophy, causally deriving our intellectual powers and stores, in a word, our entire inner life, from sense-activity. Locke's English pupils have sought to deny the legitimacy of this deduction, but without success. Plainly, however, Locke did not himself see this mate- rialistic implication of his theory, failing to distinguish clearly between sense as the cause of knowledge and sense as the occasion or condition of knowledge. Leibnitz's Nouveaux Essais and esp. Kant's Critique of the Pure Reason correct Locke at this point, demonstrating the total power- lessness of sense to give aught more than the crude matter of knowledge, whose form, or character as knowledge, proceeds entirely from the action of mind. 8 Helvetius, I7I5-'7I, followed the thought of Condillac into its ethical bearings, making virtue to consist solely in pleasure, in such conduct as shall yield to the individual subject in question the utmost satisfaction [not necessarily low gratification]. * The doctrine which admits a personal First Cause but denies revela- tion and miracle. ^ In 28 vols., prepared on purpose to discuss all the great matters of human interest in the light of the new ideas. Diderot, l7i2-'83, was editor-in-chief. He revised all the articles and wrote many. D'Alembert, 1 71 7-83, the great mathematician and physicist, was the next most im- portant contributor. Voltaire, Rousseau, Grimm, Dumarsais, d'llolbach and Jancourt each wrote more or less. ^ Yet the negative and destructive in this tendency stopped far short of what might have been predicted from the execrable abuses prevalent in both state and church, conditions which should temper our judgment even of such then existing skepticism as we cannot after all excuse. Two par- ties urged ideas which were visionary indeed, yet in a sense constructive : i) The Physiocrats, wishing in whatever efficient mode, to free the indi- ridual from the terrible tyrannies and limitations besetting him. ii) The Socialists, intent more on mere change of rulers, government by the peo- ple. Voltaire spoke for those, Rousseau and his disciple Robespierre for these. ^ Hobbes's Leviathan is the classic for this doctrine, a doctrine which ajipears also in Locke, and in some form in all the i^jlitical philoso])!)!/.- iiig of the 17th and i8th centuries. It inspired the English Revolution THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 363 of 1688 and the American Revolution, as it did the French. Even Burke uses it while in effect seeking to refute it. 8 For this, see ' Physiocrates ' in Lalor's Cyclopaedia, and Blanqui, H. of Pol. Economy. ^ There is a sound sense in which one may speak of a ' state of nature ' and of man's ' natural rights,' viz., that which makes these expressions synonymous respectively with ' rational condition ' and ' liberties accordant with the general good.' However convenient in popular exposition some- times to contrast nature and culture [or civilization], the two are in no wise antagonistic, the truly cultivated man being even more than the savage in a state of nature. Cf. Maine, Anc. Law, iv, Voltaire, * Za loi naturelle^ [Oeuvres vol. xii], ^Droits des hommes^ \^Dict. philos, Oeuvres xxix], 'Nature^ [ib. xlii]. 1'^ Carlyle's favorite phrase for this pedantry or ' philosophism.' § 9 Approach of Crisis Carlyle, vol. i. Stephens, I, iii, xii. Herm. Merivale, in Hist'l studies, ' Precursors of the Fr. Rev.' Blanc, vol. ii. Several influences more specific than the above were at work in various ways toward a revolutionary result. I Frequent issue of lettres de cachet} by which persons obnoxious to the king were imprisoned in the Bastille without trial. 2 Increasing use of lits de Justice,"^ whereby the king nullified the ^;/(?«'-legislative power of the Parliament of Paris to ' enregister ' or to refuse enregistry. 3 Fickleness and general weakness of Louis XVI, who, sincerely desiring reform and the people's good, through lack of firmness and of a policy lent ear now to one party, now to another. 4 Distrust and dislike of Marie Antionette as Austrian and as sus- pected of using her influence in France to the advan- tage of Austria. 5 Hunger and enforced idleness,^ rendering the populace, especially in Paris, desperate, 9.nd open to the plots of demagogues like the Duke of 364 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION Orleans. 6 Successful revolution in America,* which the French had aided, bringing back much of its spirit. 7 Frightful public debt and increase of yearly deficit, financial trouble^ that reached back to Louis XIV's extravagance and costly wars. After the American campaign the arrears equalled nearly half the yearly revenue. In 1787 a deficit of 198 million francs, credit being exhausted, placed the state at the verge of bank- ruptcy. Various schemes of reform had been moved, the most radical among them being that of Turgot, Louis XVI's earliest and greatest minister. He intro- duced free trade, better modes of raising taxes, and a broader participation in political rights. Opposition was instant, fierce, universal, and after an administra- tion of about eighteen months, Turgot was dismissed, a martyr to the aiicicn regime, nearly all his innovations collapsing at once. Necker, less radical, brought to the government credit rather than real financial betterment, yet introduced enough of Turgot's policy to invoke upon himself Turgot's fate. Calonne began with prodi- gality, struck perforce into the path of his predecessors and fell like them. 1 Sealed warrants of arrest, proof against all habeas corpus proceed- ings. It is said that one keeper had received 50,000 of these. Under Louis XIV and L. XV the Bastille was crowded [§ 11, n. i]. See ' Cachet, Lettres de^ in Lalor's Cyclopaedia. The famous man in the iron mask was among these state prisoners, — probably [yet no one knows] count Ercolo Matthioli, of Mantua, who had deceived Louis XIV in a secret treaty. lie died after 24 years of imprisonment, Louis commanding his face to be mangled that his identity might never i)e made out. 2 Bastard d'Estang, Parlermnts de France, I, xii, also, same topic, Voltaire, Oeuvres, xlii. Cf. ante, Ch. VI, § 18, n. 4, and Ducoudray, 22 sqq. On the abasement of this Parliament now, v. Sybel, vol. i, 508. • See § 6, also Taine, Revolution, bk. i. The duke of Orleans was the THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 365 father of Louis Philippe, who was made king of the French in 1 830. He was Louis XVI's cousin, although voting in the Convention for the latter's execution. He was also a bitter enemy to Marie Antoinette. His nickname, Philip Egalite, was from his incessant protestation of regard for equality. Spite of this the Convention suspected him of aiming at the crown, imprisoned him April 8, 1793, and guillotined him the next Novem- ber. His nature was weak, and schemers used him in working their ends. He is beheved to have instigated the mob of Oct. 5, 6, 1789, to leave Paris and attack the Versailles palace. Stephens, I, vii. Mirabeau and Lafayette have been charged with this, but unjustly. * Rosenthal, America and France, Bancroft, U. S., vol. vi, 32 sqq. This tremendous influence of America was exerted by the common sol- diery, military and naval officers like Lafayette and Rochambeau, travellers like Chastellux, Brissot de Warville, Mazzei, and most of all by the Ameri- can thinkers, Barlow, Paine, Jefferson and Franklin. Franklin impressed his ideas upon all classes, learned and common people, the sober and the frivolous alike. The quaintness of his dress and manners, his sagacity and good sense, his calm firmness and high principles evoked universal admiration. Everything became i la Franklin : snuff-boxes, stoves, dishes, ornaments, furniture. Franklin's portrait was in every house. Pres. A. D. White summarizes the American influences as i) familiarity with the notion of revolution, ii) impartation of strength to French ideas of liberty, iii) practical shape given to the conception of equality, iv) prac- tical combination of liberty and equality into republican and democratic institutions, and v) an ideal of republican manhood [Washington, Frank- lin]. 'Borne over the Atlantic to the closing ear of Louis [XV], King by the grace of God, what sounds are these; muffled-ominous, new in our centuries? Boston Harbour is black with unexpected tea; behold a Pennsylvania Congress gather; and ere long, on Bunker Hill, De.mocracy announcing, in rifle volleys death-winged, under her Star Banner, to the tune of Yankee-doodle-doo, that she is born, and, whirlwind-like, will envelope the whole world.' — Carlyle. " Blanc, vol. ii, ch. v, Lalor's Cyclopedia, vol. ii, 737, Ducoudray, ii. Turgot, who, Malesherbes said, 'had Bacon's head and THopital's heart,' like so many other reformers, too little considered how slowly genuine reforms have to move. Adam Smith often met Turgot and learned much from him. Turgot proposed abolition of exemptions, a land tax, and the general application of physiocratic ideas [' Physiocrates ' in Lalor]. The queen was the bitterest foe to all retrenchment : she did not wish Louis to ' play the bourgeois^ as economizing was styled. 366 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION § 10 States-General and Constituent Assembly 7Vj/«^, Rev.,bk. ii. Stephens, \,\,'\i. Aforris,\i. Ducoudray, u, Hi. Aubrey-l'i'let, Etats-generaux avant tySQt '« R(V. d. d. Mondcs, Jan., 1883. MicheUt, Pricis, ch. i. Blanc, vol. ii, chaps, vi-viii, vol. iii, chaps, iii, iv. The Parliament of Paris, declining to enregister edicts for a stamp tax and equality of impost, appealed in 1787 to 'the Nation, represented by the States-General,' as alone competent to grant the king the extraordinary subsidies now needed to save the state. Herein the magistrates voiced a feeling, little definite, still strong and universal in France, that this ancient assembly, hailing from the days of Philip the Fair, and formerly ^ wont to be convoked at every specially critical turn in national affairs, was the sole power on earth able to cure the land's appalling ills. Necker, recalled in 1788, finding the treasury totally empty, fell in with this con- viction and among his first acts induced the king to decree a session of the states-general to convene early in 1789. Each province was to forward with its depu- ties a list of complaints and instructions. France rung with discussions of abuses and of plans for remedy. Men felt that the era of popular liberty was dawning. Two capital questions were the most hotly debated, whether the third estate should have double represen- tation, and whether voting should be by estates or by heads. The former Louis decided affirmatively,^ the latter, left to the assembly itself, occupied and dis- tracted all the earlier sittings, nobles and clergy insist- ing upon voting by estates.^ This scheme, which would have insured perpetuity to all the old abuses, the third nobly resisted. Their first decisive step, the inaugural THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 367 act of the French Revolution, came on June 17, when, nobles and most clergy oostinate, king fickle as ever, they, arrogating supremacy hi the state to their con- stituency, the people,^ declared themselves the National Assembly, calling upon the other estates to join them. These were soon forced to yield. In this triumph Sieyes led, his more radical, democratic, ideas now steadily gaining in ascendancy over the tremendous influence ^ and more conservative, royalist liberalism of of Mirabeau. The Assembly assumed the title ' Con- stituent,' taking oath not to separate till France had a constitution. The king's command to disperse, to return to action by estates, though coupled with largest concessions on other points, was heard unheeded, Mira- beau replying : 'We shall yield only to bayonets.' 1 The last previous meeting had been in 1614, in the reign of Louis XIII. Richelieu was then a member. On the various states-general assemblies that had been held, Thierry, Tiers Etat, vol. i, also, vol. ii, Appendix ii. On the Parliament of Paris now, Ducoudray, 23. ^ Which of course amounted to nothing unless the other were settled so as to make numbers count. It was like the king to be decided when this would cost him nothing, shirking when decision required sacrifice. ^ There were I145 deputies in all: 270 nobles, 291 clergymen, 584 from the third estate. Had voting by estates prevailed, the delegates of the third would have been powerless except in debate, and this would have amounted to little upon any serious issue. * Thus recurring to the most ancient constitution of the Prankish state. See Ch. IV, §§ 9, 10. Except the Declaration of American Independence it was the most decisive political step ever taken by any body of men. ^ Decrue, Les iJees politiques de Miraheau, Kev. historique, XXII and XXIII. Cf. Stephens, vol. i, chaps, xi, xiv. Mirabeau was the colossus of those reformers who believed in a constitutional monarchy. He is Mr. Stephens's hero of the opening revolution, 'the one man who showed himself a statesman.' Mirabeau was also a majestic orator and an able financier. But Sieyes was more bold, aggressive, crafty. From Necker, Stephens strips most of his glory as a statesman, but justly. 368 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION § II Revolution Begun Taine, Rev., bk. i. Sybel, bk. i, ch. ii. Cherist, Chute de Vancien rigime, i787-'9. Stephens, 1, v, Michelet, Precis, ch. ii. Carlyle, vol. i, bks. v-vii. On the king's reactionary dismissal of Necker, July II, and his call of Breteuil, steps intended to overawe the Assembly and the demagogues at Paris, the im- measurable slumbering hatred against privileged classes all instantly burst forth. In Paris the mob swept every- thing before it. The army, even the royal guard, refuses to attack the people, the national guard proves little more efficient. The mob captures and destroys the Bastille,^ July 14. The king succumbs and will recall Necker. Influenced by La Fayette and Bailly, who wished to defeat the Duke of Orleans's purpose to make himself king, Louis appears in Paris to express to the people his acquiescence in the Assembly and in reform. TJie government now passes to the Assembly. Order could not be created at once. 'The revolt in Paris had produced a general explosion through the whole of France, by which, in a few days, the old political system was destroyed forever. In all the provinces without one exception, the estates, the local magistrates, the civic corporations, the peasants and the proletaries rose in arms. Royal intcndants were nowhere to be seen, the parliaments wished to be altogether forgotten, the old courts of law vanished without leaving a trace.' Civic guards were every- where formed to repress riot, armed from royal maga- zines. In Caen salt-tax offices were gutted, collectors barely spared. Similar deeds occurred in every prov- THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 369 ince. Custom-houses were razed, nobles and unpopular officers of government hung, castles burned, monas- teries pillaged, all reminders of the old system expunged. The Assembly, regarding it the sole road to order, hastened to do away with obnoxious institutions by law, in which work the liberal minority of nobles was honor- ably forward. ' Serfdom, feudal jurisdiction, manorial ground-rents, tithes, game laws, saleable offices, fees, clerical robing dues, municipal and provincial privileges, privileges of rank, exemptions from taxes, plurality of offices and livings — all were swept away in breathless haste in one night.' 1 A prison, built during Charles V's reign, l364-'8o, and enlarged by his successor. Prisoners were usually not ordinary felons, but men of mark whom some person in power wished to be rid of, victims of court intrigue or of feuds in high families. They were lodged here by lettres de cachet [§ 9, n. i], which were sometimes bought from the king's minister with money. § 12 The Constitution Stephens, I, ix, x. Michelet, Precis, chaps, iii, iv. Morris, iii. Taine, Revolution, bk. ii, ch. iii. Burke, Reflections, pt. ii. The programme for this was the Assembly's famous Declaration of the Rights of Man, proclaiming the sovereignty of the people, the admissibility of all citi- zens to public employments without distinction of birth or faith, the freedom of worship, work and the press, the equality of all citizens before the law and in respect to taxation, the absolute authority of the law as the expression of the general will, the protection by it of each citizen's liberty, property and rights, and the full responsibility of the executive power. The constitution 370 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION proceeded to reconstruct fundamentally the entire pub- lic system of France in accord with these sentiments of 'liberty, equality, fraternity.* By the provisions of this instrument, the old historic provinces of France yielded to departments,^ these subdividing into districts, these into rural cantons and municipalities or communes. Suffrage was not universal but limited to 'active citi- zens,' such as paid a tax at least equal to three days' labor. Voters were to elect electors, who should choose deputies to the Assembly, heads of departments, dis- tricts and cantons,^ judges, even bishops and priests. The judicial system was also reformed and juries intro- duced for criminal cases.^ The Assembly was made monacameral and given sole initiative, its 745 members to be renewed by biennial elections. Civil marriage was ordained, also the free exercise of religion for prot- estants and Jews, as well as equality of these with others in all civil privileges. The lands of the church were sold,^ a ' civil constitution of the clergy ' ^ enacted, monastic vows and most ecclesiastical orders done away. These ecclesiastical innovations, cursed by the pope, evoked from the clergy obstinate opposition, the first decided check which the Revolution had encountered, greater even than was occasioned by the accompanying abolition of nobility. Most remarkable, under this new constitution the king became the mere instrument of the people's sovereignty, the executor of the Assembly's edicts, his influence in legislation about null, limited to a suspensive veto for two Assemblies.^ The system had place for a king but no need of one. 1 83 departments, 574 districts, 4730 cantons. Venaissin, added to France in 1791, formed the 84th department, that of Vaucluse [about THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 3/1 Avignon]. The departments of the Rhone and the Loire, separated later, then formed but one. That of Tarn-et-Gaionne was created in i8oS, making 86. The annexation of Nice and of Savoy in 1859 raised the number to 89, the loss of Alsace-Lorraine in 1871 reduced it to 86 again. Division into departments had been thought of before for the provincial assemblies, and Ile-de-France had been divided, into 12 departments, smaller of course than those of 1790. This departmental division is found also in most of the regulations of 1787 for the organization of provinces, and the name everywhere serves to designate a fraction intermediate be- tween the province and the electoral district. The name arrondissement [at present applied. to the district] appears also at the same epoch as des- ignating a suljdivision of the department. Ducoudray, 107. ^ But communes were to be governed by councils elected directly by the ' active citizens,' the primary electors. ' Though not in civil, where questions of law and questions of fact could not be kept apart. There was to be a criminal court for each de partment, a civil for each district, justices of the peace for each canton, and a supreme court of appeal or cassation, last resort on questions of law. The arrangement to elect judges instead of their appointment by the king sprung from wish totally to separate judicial, administrative and legislative functions. * The assembly ceded the lands to the communes, then issued bonds ['assignats'] payable by the communes and secured by the lands, selling these assignats in open market or directly paying off with them holders of the state debt. Assignats were usually in denominations of 100 francs [$20] but some were smaller. They bore no interest and were made a legal-tender currency. This led to over-issue, and this to depreciation. Blanc, l>k. xiv, ch. iii. ^ The new constitution made every department a diocese. The bishops were divided into 10 groups, at the head of each of which stood a metro- politan bishop. No bishop was to be confirmed by the pope, canonical investiture proceeding in each case from the metropolitan. The system was quite analogous to that of the Kirk of Scotland. As to ritual and doctrine priests who took the constitutional oath were left to themselves. Many of them kept the old forms, but most married and moditied their behefs, so that, after Robespierre [§ 15], when churches were re-dedicated to Christian worship, virtual protestantism predominated, usually under the name of old Catholicism. But for Napoleon's concordat with Pius VII, France might have become a protestant country. Stephens, I, x. 1'J2 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION '' I.e., for four years, each Assembly like each of our Congresses exist- ing two years. Strictly, as it could only postpone, it was not a veto at all. § 13 Political Grouping Taine, bk. iv. Michelet, Pricis, ch. v. Blanc, vol. v, ch. v, also bk. vii. ' Camille Desmoulins,' Westminster Rev., July, 1882. Stephens, I, iv, viii. Success in revolution rendered political thought active, heated and energetic beyond all precedent. The issue between the old order and the new gave way to that between monarchy and republicanism, then this to strife between moderate and extreme republican factions. Of clubs ^ there were : i TJic Fcuillants? constitutional monarchists, La Fayette and Bailly at head. 2 The Jacobins, republicans, of every stripe, in- cluding first or last all the great revolutionists. This club had branches throughout France, was the acknowl- edged and efficient organ of the party, creator of public opinion, with more power than the legislature itself. For months at a time it was the de facto sovereign of France. 3 TJie Corddicrs^ anarchists, nihilists, red republicans, led by Danton at first, then by Hebert. Of parties the Legislative Assembly, which succeeded the Constituent, was divided into : i TJie Extreme Right, greatly attached to the king yet loyal to the constitution. 2 The Right, men from the middle ranks of society, moderate royalists, friends of the constitu- tion but inclined to ally themselves with the old privi- leged classes and hostile to popular rule. The leader of these was La Fayette. Both Right and Extreme Right were Feuillantists. 3 The Ceutre, consisting of timid and insignificant^ members and usually voting with THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 373 4 TJie Left, the Girondists,^ who were earnest republi- cans, devoted to the Revolution even at the expense of the constitution, opposed to privilege and favoring popu- lar government yet insisting that this be strong and regular. Here stood Roland, Vergniaud, Brissot, Con- dorcet and many other of the ablest and best men. 5 The Extreme Left or 'Mountain,'^ ultra-republicans, approaching nihilism, made up of a few Cordeliers with the increasing number of extreme Jacobins. Under the Convention the Feuillants disappeared and deadly struggle was joined between Gironde and Mountain. As it advanced four marked types of republicanism shaped themselves, representea respectively by Roland, pure Girondist, Danton, now become relatively conserv- ative, Robespierre, socialist yet believer in public order, and Llebert, downright nihilist. In the terrible war of these factions for supremacy, the Gironde fell first, then Hebert and his colleagues at the other extreme, last Danton, leaving Robespierre victor, dictator of France. ^ Taking their names from the convents in whose halls they had their respective headquarters. The Jacobin centre was the old convent on rue St. Honor e, the Cordelier-convent stood on the left bank of the Seine, and what is left of it serves as laljoratory for the faculty of medicine of the University. The enclosure of the Feuillant-convent occupied the space now lying between rue St. Honore and the terrace of the Tuileries garden, still known as the Terrasse des Feuillants. The buildings were destroyed in 1804 to make place for the rue de Rivoli. Ducoudray, 126. Adequate treatment of these clubs would have to be dynamic, as, like all else in France then, they were in constant movement as to spirit and tendencies. '^ These were till July, 1791, a branch of the Jacobins, seceding [under the influence of the eloquent Barnave] because more conservative than the main body. The original organization began in 1789 as royalist, sup- porting Philippe Egalite [§ 9, n. 3], Louis Philijipe being for a time door-keeper of the Paris chapter. On the growth of the Jacobins, Taine, 374 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION bk. iv, ch. ii. There was a club at Marseilles by the end of '89, one in each large town by the middle of '90, in August of this year, 60, 3 months later 100, in March of '91, 229, in August nearly 400. Recruits rapidly multiplied after the Feuillant secession, July, '91 : in 2 months 600 new clubs, by the end of Septeni!)er these amount to 1000, in June, '92, to 1200, at the abolition of monarchy, Sept. 21, '92, to 26,000. Yet Taine is of opinion that the total enrolment at no time exceeded 300,000. It was their discipline which made them so powerful. ^ These too, at first, a mere sect, exceptionally radical, of the Jacobins. Danton believed in using terror to save the country, but when this was attained favored moderation. Desmoulins's Old Cordelier was the able exponent of Dantonist views now, against Hebert and his ruffians, repre- senting the new or advanced Cordeliers. But Danton and his set were infidels and free and easy as to conduct, while Robespierre was a sincere deist and affected purity and even austerity in morals. Stephens calls Danton ' the great practical statesman of the second period of the Revolu- tion, the one great man who perceived the necessity for a strong govern- ment to re-establish order.' * Hence nicknamed ' Plain,' 'Swamp,' ' Belly,' ' Flats.' ^ So called because their chief representatives were from the Gironde department. Taine sees little more good in these men than in their mur- derers. Madame Roland is to him nothing but a vain and self-deluded creature. * Named from their high seats in the Legislative Assembly. The Mountain comprised the last three republican factions mentioned, Robes- pierre as well as Danton and llel)ert. On Robespierre's treachery to Danton, v. Sybel, vol. iii, 296. He uses D. to help make way with Hebert, then sentences Danton as well. He rides out with D. after signing the decree for his execution. On Robespierre's religious belief, same as Vol- taire's, see V. Sybel, vol. iii, 271, 279, and Lewes, L. of Robespierre. By long effort he persuaded a majority of the Jacobins to declare for belief in God and providence. On his death, Blanc, vol. xi, ch. vU. § 14 Political Forces and Currents Taine, bk. iv. Sybtl, bks. iii, iv, viii, ch. iv. Van Laun, vol. i, end. Blanc, vols. x,xL The Gironde was able, eloquent, patriotic, and had a majority in the Assembly, but was ' unable to appre- THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 375 hend the fearful nature of the crisis, too full of vanity and exclusive party-spirit, and too fastidious to strike hands with the vigorous and stormy Danton,' the only man who could have helped it to popular power. * The Mountain represented the suffering populace, eager, defiant, weary of negotiation, suspicious of treason at every point, and zealously determined to push the prin- ciples of the Revolution to their limits, ready for war, come what might, quite honest and narrow, a very dangerous and powerful party.' ^ The Mountain won swift victory, but in order to this, had to yield in dis- graceful degree, a necessity which both Danton and Robespierre inwardly regretted, to the terrible nihilistic rage of Hebert and his Parisian mob, arch enemies of order, who viewed the Revolution merely as the appointed opportunity to plunder the rich. The influ- ence of these Nihilists on the course of events before Hebert's fall was as immense as it was baneful. Their method, persistently used and about always successful, was brow-beating in debate, and, this failing, intimida- tion through murder, riot and robbery. The odious secret Committee of Public Safety,^ whose Reign of Terror so long dictated France's destinies, took orders mostly from them. The more moderate leaders them- selves had fatally little idea^ of the nature of free insti- tutions and, mere theorists as they too nearly were, still less of the means to the attainment of them. ' O Liberty,' said Madame Roland from her scaffold, 'what crimes men commit in thy name ! ' 1 Kitchin. The Mountain and the ' Commune ' were not the same, except in spirit, the latter being only a Parisian affair. Strictly it was the city of Paris governmentally considered, though the term is often made 370 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION to convey'a bad sense, as if denoting partly or exclusively the mob. 'Com munism ' is an economic title and has no connection with ' Commune.' The Terror commenced June i, 1793, ivhen Assembly surrendered to Cotri' mime, giving up by a sort of Priile's Purge, 80 of its Girondist members. - This Committee was created April 6, 1793, composed of 9 members, Danton, Cambon and Barrere the chief. In June St. Just, St. Andre, Couthon, Robespierre and Carnot were added. A Revolutionary Tribunal, or Star Chamber, was jilso erected, of which the Com. of Public Safety had charge, and this duplex arrangement extended to every Commune in France. Girondists wished to trust royalist plotters like other criminals to the ordinary processes of law, but Mountain and Commune would not. Using this summary procedure ultra revolutionists were enabled to secure membership or influence in the Tribunal and wreak vengeance on whom they would. But when schism broke out among the fire-eaters themselves their fine devices proved happily efficacious enginery for their own over- throw. On Paris as the Workshop of the Rev., Stephens, I, iv. •* ' The Constituent Assembly deliberately refused to consider man as he really was, and persisted in seeing nothing in him but the abstract being created in books. Consequently, with the blindness and obstinacy characteristic of a speculative surgeon, it destroyed in the society sub- milted to its scalpel and to its theories not only the tumors, the enlarge- ments and the inflamed parts of the organs but also the organs themselves, and even the vital governing centres around which the cells arrange them- selves to recomjiose an injured organ.' Taine. His arraignment of the Legislative Assembly, republican, is correspondingly severer. § 15 March of the Republic^ Michelei, Precis, chaps, ix, xi, xiv sqq. Morris, iii-vii. Blanc, vol. iv, bk. iv, ch. vi, bk. V, vol. V, bk. vi, bks. viii sqq. i The Legislative Assembly? 1 79 1 - ' 792. The Gironde, furni-shing the ministry, directed affairs at first, intent upon vigorous war^ against the emigrants and their alHes. Ill success in the Belgian campaign, France being invaded and Paris threatened, overthrows the ministry, whereupon, the king calling Feuillants once more to office, the horrors of August lo, 1792, ensue THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 377 Priests are massacred, the king is suspended and im- prisoned and all power thrown into radical hands. The Jacobins are now on high, Marat calling loudly for traitors' heads, Danton for ^ de Vaudace, de Vaudace, encore de Vaiidace' against the invaders. This inspiring cry checks the tide of defeat, Dumouriez being victor at Valmy on September 20th. Next day assembles, ii The National Convention,^ 1 792-1 795, which at its first session proclaims France a republic. Radicalism goes mad with this victory. King, Queen, and Duke of Orleans are executed, as well as many Feuillants and even Girondists. The Terror.^ Woe now to any one venturing so much as to whisper of moderation. Chris- tianity is proscribed, the worship of Reason ordained, commerce paralyzed by the excess of assignats. Civil war rages in la Vendee. A new calendar^ and a new con- stitution '^ are devised. Saint-Just and Couthon with and under Robespierre form a 'triumvirate,' ruling France with worse than Bourbon arbitrariness and cruelty. Reaction : Robespierre falls,^ anarchy is checked, even the Mountain becomes conservative, Dantonists and the Gironde gradually return to power. The 'Thermido- rians ' close the Jacobin clubs, open churches and seek to restore public tranquillity, now threatened mainly by royalists again. With the constitution of 1795, the year III, comes in the moderate government of iii The Directory, 1795 to end of 1799. Task, to guard the Republic from anarchists, now desperate, and, harder yet, from the monarchists, who were daily increasing and, as represented in both Councils and at length in the Directory itself, more hopeful and insolent. These 3/8 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION extremists aside, there was general apathy as to politics and wish for peace at any price. Spite of the Direc- tory's best efforts^ internal disorder was terrible and constitutional rule impossible. The coup iV ^tat had to be used, first against royalists, then against republicans. The press throttled, all Europe threatening, France sighed for rest and prepared to return, with the Con- sulate, to absolutism. * 1789, States-general meet, May 5; sertnent dujeu de pa tone, June 20; destruction of the Bastille, July 14. i789-'9i, Constituent Asslmbly. 1 791, Mirabeau dies. 1791-92, Legislativ^e Assembly. 1792, War with Austria and Prussia; abolition of monarchy, Sept. 21. i792-'95, National Convention. 1793, King executed Jan. 21, queen Oct. 16, Com. of Public Safety begins Ap. 6. I793-'4, Robespierre and the Terror. 1794, Robespierre executed July 27 [the 9th of Thermidor, hence 'Thermidorians ' as name of those who take him ofT). 1795, The Dauphin [Louis XVII] dies June 8; Napoleon quells the Babeuf mob in Paris, Oct. 5. 2 The Constituent had most unfortunately passed a self-denying ordi- nance which forbade any of its memliers to sit in this. Also no one who had been a member of the legislature within two years could serve as king's minister. ^ Which the Mountain opposed, to distract ministry and king, and when, after defeat in the field, Louis exchanged obnoxious ministers for those still more obnoxious, riot and blood resulted. Among the most vio- lent insurgents were 500 young soldiers from Marseilles, recently come to Paris. P'rom them the Marseillaise, whose refrain : Aux arms, citoyens/ Formez vos batallonsi Marchotts! Marchons! quun satig impitr abrieuve nos sillons. * In this sat Tom Paine, the quondam American pamphleteer. The Englishman, Dr. Priestly, was elected but declined serving. Paine voted nay on the question of executing Louis. * On the Terror, June i, I7y3-July 27, 1794, see Ternaux, Hist, de la THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 379 Terreur, Taine, bk. iv, chaps, xi, xii, bks. v sqq., Blanc, vols, x, xi, ch. iv. Pitt was, and by many still is, believed to have instigated these excesses in order to make revolution odious, v. Sybel doubts. The victims to the Tenor during its 420 awful days are computed at 4000, at least 900 being women and children. ® 1792 was the year I, and it began on Sept. 22, the autumnal equinox and the day after the abolition of monarchy. The three months, of 30 days each, next following this date were Vendhniaire [vintage-month], Brumaire [fog-month], Frimaire [frost-month]. The next three, begin- ning 90 days later, were Nivose [snow-month], Pluvibse [rain-month], Ventose [wind-month]. The next three, beginning 180 days from Sept. 22, were Germinal [bloom-month], Floreal [flower-month], Prairial [meadow-month]. The last three, beginning 270 days from Sept. 22, "W&XG Afessidor [harvest-month], Thermidor, [hot-month], />-?/f//a'i3r [fruit- month]. This calendar has been Englished thus: 1st quarter. Wheezy, Sneezy, Freezy; 2nd quarter, Slippy, Drippy, Nippy; 3d quarter. Showery, Flowery, Bowery; 4th quarter, Wheaty, Heaty, Sweety. Three 'decades' a month took the place of the four weeks, and in each the days were to be Primidi, Duodi, Tiidi, Quartidi, Quintidi, Sexiidi, Septidi, Octidi, Nonidi, and Decadi. Every Decadi was to be a day of rest. The five supplementary days to fill out the year were called sans-cullotides. ^ Rotteck and Welcker's Staatslexicon, s. v. ' Frankreich,' has a good brief account of these revolutionary constitutions. There are many col- lections of the texts. This second constitution never went into effect. The third one, that of the year III, introduced an executive Directory of 5 members, and a Legislature consisting of a Senate or Council of 250 Elders with power of revision, and a lower Council of 500 with Initiative, % of both Councils to be elected from the members of the Convention. It was this limitation which occasioned the Babeuf riot of Oct. 5, 1795, put down by Napoleon. Fleury, Babeuf et le Socialisme, Stephens I, vii. * Blanc, vol. xi, ch. vii, bk. xiii. ^ Improving the finances by substituting for the assignats [§ 12, n. 4], • mandats ' [each one of which formed a direct title to a given, limited quantity of land], suppressing Babeuf on the one hand and royalist ris- ings on the other, and winning glorious and unprecedented victories in foreign war [§§ 17, 18]. 380 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION § 16 King and Emigrants Michelei, Pricis, chaps, vi-ix. Sarah Tytler, Marie Antoinette. Goiver, Last days of do. ^j'^e"/, Correspondence of do. [Kl. h. Schr., II]. Arneth,Brie/'wechs€l det M. Antoinette. Early in the struggle most nobles, shorn of privileges and distinction and feeling no longer under obligation to France, 'emigratecl.' Not content with this many of them exerted themselves to secure an invasion of France by foreigners to restore the monarchy. By this, in the eyes of France and under strict construction of the law in fact, they became traitors.^ Should the king side with these as urged by his queen, brothers and court,^ or with France ? For long, under Mira- beau's^ influence, he pursued, honestly we can scarcely doubt, the latter course, accepting the constitution and repeatedly swearing the civic oath. Had he possessed ability and decision as well as honesty and kindly feel- ing, he might possibly have kept at the head of the move- ment, prevented reform from becoming revolution, and erected in France a sound constitutional monarchy. To such a work Louis XVI was unequal. The Assembly's high tone, and especially its severe measures toward the clergy, embittered him and inclined him more and more, despite constant indecision, which was, doubt- less wrongly, construed as hypocrisy, to cast in his lot with the emigrants. He corresponded with them, attempted flight* to their camp, and invoked aid from the monarchs'^ of Europe, all which was regarded at Paris as treason. Special incitements to severe pro- ce(hire against him were (i) his numerous vetoes^ of the Assembly's decrees, (2) his dismissal of the Girondist THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 38 1 ministry, Roland, Dumouriez and their colleagues, (3) the attitude of Marie Antionette,'^ known to have a con- stant understanding with emigrants and hostile courts, (4) conventions between the sovereigns of Austria and Prussia looking toward intervention in French affairs, and (5) the actual invasion of France by the Duke of Brunswick with an army of foreigners and traitors. Repulse of this army emboldened the republicans to proclaim defiance of Europe by summoning the king to trial. Six hundred and eighty-three out of the seven hundred and twenty-one voices in the Convention de- clared him guilty, but the death sentence passed by a majority of only one.^ ^ Because by international law a nation's identity or personality does not change with its form of government. The king and many of the emi- grants could not have fully appreciated this. Woolsey, International Law, has good discussions of the international-legal questions connected with the Revolution. 2 Court and royal family early and almost entirely went over to the emigrants. ^ Mirabeau, dying in 1791, was the last man able to influence the king in the right direction. He was in the better condition to do this in that his own temper in his last days was less radical than in '89. Had he lived things might have proceeded more happily. See Stephens, I, xiv. * Carlyle has a powerful description of this attempt, vol. ii, bk. iv [Tauchnitz ed.]. Cf. Stephens, I, xv. ^ From those of Germany, Prussia, Russia, England and Sweden. This after accepting the constitution. He requested them to keep his invitation secret, yet assured them that they would be warring not with the nation but with a faction. ® The king's veto power had been placed in the constitution against great opposition, and the rabiile regarded his use of it malfeasance in office if not downright treason. They dubbed him Monsieur Veto, and sang: 'Monsieur Veto avail promii D'etre fidile i sa patrie, Mais il y a tnanqiie Ntfaisons plus cartit' 382 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION ' She in a similar way was called Madame Veto: 'Madame I'eto ava it promts De /aire egorger tout I'aris, Mais son coup n tiiatiqiti, GrAce a nos cannoniers.' 8 The Girondists earnestly sought to save Citizen Capet, as he was now known, Vergniaud making on his behalf an impassioned plea. Tlie ver- dict was procured by the influence of the mob. The minority were for banishment or imprisonment. King and queen were both very brave and firm at the last. Marie Antoinette, sentenced, and asked if she had aught to say, replied: ' I was a queen, — ye took my crown; a wife, — ye slew my husband; a mother, — ye robbed from me my children. Naught is left me but my blood : take it and end my agony as quickly as ye can.' Madame Elizabeth, the king's sister, was also executed. All power in the state now passes from Gironde to Mountain, at the same time that both a civil and a foreign war impend [preceding §]. § 17 Europe and the Republic Morris, vii-xi. Sore/, L' Europe et la Rev. Franqaise. Michelet, Pricis, chaps, ix, xi-xiii. Blanc, vol. iv, bk. iv, ch. i, bks. vii, x. Most Other nations were from the beginning hostile to the new movement in France. Abuses similar to those which had there evoked rebellion were general, and holders of privilege everywhere feared overthrow should the revolt spread. In the execution of Louis, monarchs felt themselves at once insulted, defied and threatened. It was worse when, in face of that inter- national law which the Legislative Assembly had rebuked the powers for disregarding, new France, constituting itself a propaganda of democracy, set out to establish this over all Europe. Emperor Leopold 11,^ brother of Marie Antoinette, by his circular of July 6, 1791, so- licited a declaration on the part of other sovereigns that they would defend Louis from the Assembly. The king of Prussia joined him in repeating this invitation, THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 383 from Pillnitz in August of the same year, and the next February these rulers, in spite of Louis's public assur- ance that he accepted the constitution, removing all semblance of just pretext for intervention, formed a league to impose upon France the old government by force. The pacific Leopold died on March i, 1792, and his son Francis was more aggressive. Austria's ulti- matum in April was of the nature of a command to France to reinstate privilege and to restore the church lands. Prussia soon joins Austria, Sardinia arms.^ France becomes indignant, and Louis, in the hands of his Girondist ministry, cannot but declare war (April 20, 1792). The republican campaign of 1792 begins unfavorably but ends with enormous victories, which leave Belgium and most of the empire left of the Rhine in French hands. Other governments had thus far held back, but this startling enlargement of French and of republican sway, and especially the fate of the king, rouses all Europe,^ with armies comprising 200,000 men, to attack the Republic. Even England now draws the sword, Pitt at last yielding to the growing conservative clamor, becoming till his death soul as well as brain to the allied foes of France. During most of 1793 the Republic is unfortunate, still this year too ends with sweeping successes.* Gigantic armies are equipped, led by marshals like Pichegru, Moreau, Jourdain and Hoche. The winter of i794-'5 sees Holland con- quered* and the entire left bank of the Rhine from Basle made French. Tuscany wills peace early in 1795, Prussia^ next, Spain soon after. England, Austria and Sardinia yet remain firm, but Napoleon's astounding 384 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION Italian campaigns of \y()6-y*^ quiet Sardinia and force Austria to the Peace of Campo Formio, October 17, 1797, thus extending the dominion of the Republic over all Northern and Central Italy. Pitt too seeks peace but the Directory declines. 1 Emperors Joseph II and Leopold II were both sons of Maria Theresa, brothers of Marie Antoinette. Leopold died, Mch. i, 1792, when Francis, his son, nephew of the French queen, became king of Hungary and Bohemia, to be elected emperor the following July 3. More rash, he issued in April, 1792, his ultimatum, demanding the sia/us quo of June 23, 1789, i.e., the abolition of the constitution and the revocation of all that the Constituent had done. Fyffe, I, i. 2 But this is not commonly reckoned as one of the regular coalitions against France. Prussia as usual did Austria's bidding. Cf. Ch. XI, §§ 9 sqq. 3 Except Sweden and Denmark : the first European Coalition. Pitt had at the outset tried to keep England from taking part in the war. The English have been the foremost European nation to insist upon a people's right to change its form of government at pleasure, unhindered by its neighbors, — a principle of international law less firmly settled in 1792 than now. But it was a principle even then. The coalition had to seek its formal justification for opposing France in the doctrine of the balance of power. * Thanks to Carnot's inspiring genius, carrying through the general levy, organizing the troops and selecting leaders. Fyffe, I, ii. ^ The work of Pichegru, who thus accomplished what Louis XIV in his time could not. Holland becomes the Batavian Republic, 1795- 1806. The other republics soon existing under the presidency of the French were i) the Helvetic, in Switzerland, fr. 1798, ii) the Ligurian : Sardinia and Cienoa, fr. 1797, iii) the Cisalpine: Milan, Modeiia, Ferrar.T, Bi)li»gna, Romagna, etc., fr. 1797, iv) the Roman, Rome, fr. 1798, v) the Partheno- paic, Naples, fr. 1799. 6 The Peace of Basel [liasle], April, 1795. " The victories of Millessimo, Montenotte, Lodi, Castiglione, Areola, Rivoli, and Tagliamento. By this Peace of Campo P'ormio Austria ceded to France Belgium, the last of the lands she had received by the marriage of Mary of lUirgundy with Maximilian I. See Cli. VlII, § 17, Ch. IX, § 3, n. 4, Fyffe, I, iii. the french revolution 385 § 18 The Rise of Napoleon ^ Fyffe, vol. i. Laii/rey, Napoleon I. Seeley, do. Rojies, The First Napoleon. Thiers, Consulate and Empire. Fauriel, Last Days of the Consulate. His first campaigns in Italy rendered Napoleon vir- tually dictator of France, giving him an overwhelming popularity, which even his wild and disastrous Egyptian expedition, leaving the Republic's conquests of previous years to be mostly lost, did not diminish. The not difficult coup d'etat of i8th Brumaire on his return, made him First Consul and paved his way to the impe- rial throne. This promotion of Napoleon, with the reactionary, absolutist changes of constitution which it involved, may be referred to the : i Universal political unrest in France, cry for government that should be strong and stable. 2 Increasing weakness, selfishness, tyranny of the Directory. 3 Unspent will of the French, satisfiable only through Napoleon, to take vengeance upon Europe for having first meddled with France's affairs. 4 Still vigorous hatred of Bour- bonism and love of freedom, most of his subjects view- ing Napoleon even when emperor, as the general ^ of the Republic, and either not noticing his despotism or condoning it as but a temporary means to liberty. 5 Great organizing ability of Napoleon in civil things, in time source to the nation of extraordinary benefits, such as firm government, financial surplus, a thing before unknown, educational and judicial reforms, recon- struction of the church, and adornment of Paris. It is to his credit that Napoleon furthered as well as so fully used the new social vigor which abolition of privilege and the promotion of the third estate had brought the 385 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION French people. His rule at its worst was incomparably superior to that of the Bourbons. 6 Unmatched career of stupendous victories, lifting France to the headship of Furope. These victories were due mainly to Napo- leon's transcendent military genius, partly to the belief that he represented liberalism, partly to favoring con- ditions in Europe. Fxcept Wellington and Archduke Charles — and neither of these was what Nelson was upon the sea — Napoleon's military antagonists were not commanders of the highest order. Of statesmen he feared Pitt and Stein alone. Pitt was continually opposed at home, at length supplanted in mid-struggle by a weaker premier, who hastened to make peace. Jealousy and discord prevailed among the continen- tal rulers. Hatred of Austria and of the old empire told powerfully for P'rance. The Confederation of the Rhine,^ Napoleon's most obedient servant, long fur- nished a large part of his best troops. Prussia after a first harmless dash held aloof, meanly trading with France at Germany's expense, till Austria was ruined, then rushed to battle all unprepared, to be crippled for nought. 1 i796-'7, Napoleon's first Italian campaign. I798[May]-'9[Oct.], his Egyptian expedition. 1798, Battle of the Nile, May. •799) Secund Coalition against France: by Austria, Gt. Britain, Russia, Naples, Turkey; year of constant defeat for France; Coup d'etat Nov. 9 \_Brumaire l8th], NAPOLEON FlKST Consul. 1800, Napoleon's ' forty days' campaign ' in Italy; Battles of Mareng» and Hohetilinden. 1801, Peace of Liinh'ille, with Austria. 1802, Peace of .Imicns, with Gt. Britain; NaI'OLEON CONSUL FOB Life, August. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 387 1804, Napoleon Emperor, May. 1805, Third Coalition, Great Britain, Austria, Russia, Sweden; Ulm taken, Austerlitz won. Peace of Presburg, with Austria; Battle of Trafalgar, Oct. [' England expects every man to do his duty ']. 1806, Confederation of the Rhine formed; end of the Holy Roman Empire ; Fourth Coalition, Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, Saxony; Battles of "jfena and Auerstddt, Oct.; Prussia crushed; the Berlin Decree. 1807, Battle of Eylau, Feb., bloodiest of all Napoleon's victories; Peace of Tilsit, July, with Prussia and Russia; the Milan Decree, Nov. 1809, Fifth Coalition, Gt. Britain and Austria; Napoleon defeated by Archduke Charles at Aspern and Essling, May, but victor at Wagram, July; Peace of Vienna, Oct. 1810, Napoleon at the Acme of his Power. 181 1, King of Rome born, Mch. 20. See further, § 19, n. i. 2 Not wholly an error. That Napoleon was selfish and ambitious, unworthy of comparison with Washington, and that many of his deeds after he became powerful were indescribably atrocious is most true. ' Lanfrey, again, in our day has finally demolished the Napoleonic legend, and has torn the mask from the most astounding imposter and unques- tionably the biggest liar in modern history, and by his clear and cutting evidence has reduced to its real proportions that orgy of blood and arro- gance — the European tyranny of Bonaparte.' Harrison. Still it must be admitted that Napoleon's spirit and actions were eminently liberal as con- trasted with those of the Bourbons and of European courts in general. Had it been otherwise they would easily have made and kept peace with him. Ropes sets Napoleon's character in a very correct historical light. Seeley is less just, not unwilling but unable to forget that he is English. He even attacks the world's estimate of Napoleon as a general. On this point Ropes is as conclusive as he is interesting. His battle-maps, the best we have ever seen, make Napoleon's tactics clear as day. ^ This began with Mainz, Bavaria, Wiirttemberg, Baden, Hessen-Darm- stadt, Berg, and Nassau. Later all the (jerman Fursten belonged, except Austria, Prussia, Brunswick and Electoral Hesse. The Confederation sprung far more from dislike of Austria and Prussia than from coercion by Napoleon. See Ch. IX, § 18. Half Napoleon's soldiers in Spain in 1809 were Germans, and 200,000 or more of those he led into Russia in 1 81 2. South Germany has ever since been much attached to France. 388 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION § 19 His Downfall* Fyffe, I, viii-xi. Sybel, in Kl. h. Schr., I, Erhebung Europas gegen Nap. I. Saint' Atnand, Memoirs of Nap. and Marie Louise. Warteiibiirg, Nap. als Feldherr, a V. Forsyth, Nap. at St. Helena, 3 v. Gardiner, Quatre-Bras, Ligny and Water- loo. Vaulabelle, Waterloo-Ligny. Lecky, chaps, xxi, xxii. I With increase of dominion Napoleon lost whatever desire may have inspired his earlier conquests to make them further the real interests of the conquered, giv- ing way to a mere vulgar lust for power. France was stretched over half Europe, most of the rest in vassal- age. These subject nations had to fill the emperor's coffers, fight his battles. He made his a family of kings,^ set up and pulled down thrones at his whim, his tyranny goading minions, even relatives, to revolt. 2 This spirit and policy wrought against him worst in England, rendering the solid nation, Whigs now even more than Tories, his deadly foes. Worse when, en- raged by England's mastery of the seas and in despair of humbling her directly, he uttered the famous Berlin Decree,^ forbidding all trade between the continent and British ports. Fruits of this were (i) Britain's attempt to blockade French Europe, (2) the American Non- Intercourse Act, (3) Wellington's long, brilliant and at last victorious fight for Spain,* (4) new and desperate hatred of French sway on the continent, where, in spite of persistent contraband trade, the ' continental system ' immensely increased prices, and (5) the renewed and this time uncompromising hostility of Russia, leading to the crushing Moscow campaign which cost 350,000 men, and depriving the emperor of the to him so important naval aid of Russia and Sweden. 3 But the head continental THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 389 force in the final overthrow of the ' Corsican Sesostris' was Prussia, the chief recipient of his hatred and abuse, which most happily evoked here an entire new national life. Stein's civil and Scharnhorst's military reforms had, under the tyrant's eye yet unnoticed by him, at last raised Prussia to an eminence of power beyond even that attained under Frederic the Great. Forbid- den to keep more than 42,000 men in arms, they drilled first one set, then another, till the entire male popula- tion was army. Fichte preached of freedom, poets like Arndt,^ Korner, Riickert sang. The people as one man willed freedom. Answering the king's appeal ^An mein Vulk,' March 17, 1813, 110,000 men rallied to arms in ten days, 170,000 more by the end of May, whose quality Napoleon tested to his sorrow at Leipzig, Ligny and Waterloo. Wellington had to thank Bliicher for Quatre-Bras, Gneisenau for Waterloo.^ 1 See § 18, n. i. 181 2, Invasion of Russia: Battle of Borodino, Sept. 7; Moscow burned, Sept. 16-19. 1 81 3, Wellington sweeps Spain: Battles of Vittoria and the Pyre- nees, June; in the North, Battles of LUtzen and Bautzen, May; Sixth and Last Coalition, Gt. Britain, Austria, Russia, Prussia, Sweden; Battle of Leipzig, Oct. 16-19. 1814, Allies enter Paris, Mch. 31; First Peace of Paris, W^y Tp; Bourbon Restoration [Louis XVIII]; Congress of Vienna opens, Sept. 1815, The Hundred Days: Waterloo, June 18; Napoleon to St. Helena, Oct. ; Second Peace of Paris, Nov. The defence by Wellington of the Torres Vedras line in Autumn, 1810 [n. 4], against Massena, 'the favored child of victory,' was the turning- point in Napoleon's career. His last decisive victory was before this, at Wagram, July, 1809. Henceforth downward. He no longer had his old skill and promptness in battle. At Borodino victory was in his grasp had he sent in the Guard, as all his lieutenants prayed him to do, Tolstoi, 390 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION War and Peace, gives a most interesting account of this later phase ol Napoleon's campaigning, yet Ropes is best for military information and criticism. 2 Louis in Holland, Jerome in Westphalia, Joseph in Naples first, then in Spain, Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law, taking Naples. Napoleon's own son, the king of Rome and duke of Reichstadt, was acknowledged as Napoleon II by Napoleon III on his own rise to power. On the jVapo- leonitite, Westminster Rev., 1882, Brewer, P'rance, 432. 8 In 1806, Nov. 21. It paper-blockades the British Isles. Another de- cree from Milan, Dec. 17, 1807, declares forfeited all vessels wherever found, proceeding to or from any British port or having submitted to British search or tribute. This was N.'s ' continental system.' British Orders in Council, retorting, declared illicit all commerce with the conti- nent. Our non-intercourse act was a vain attempt to bring both parlies to a better mind by refusing to trade with them till they revoked the obnox- ious regulations. * Portugal defied Napoleon's continental system, evoking his wrath. In conjunction with Spain, he deposeti the house of Braganza, 1807, occu- pying Portugal with 20,000 men. Proceeding also to make Joseph Bona- parte king of Spain, 1808, the tyrant found the entire peninsula in arms against him, backed by Gt. Britain. In early 1809 Napoleon reduces all Spain, Soult forcing back the too small army of Sir John Moore, killed in the battle of CortiiDia, Jan. 16. Sir Arthur Wellesley soon arriving with 20,000 men, beats Soult at Douro, May 12, and J. Bonaparte, Victor and Jourdain at Talavera, July 28. Soon 280,000 French reenforcements arrive, and Wellesley retires to the Torres Vedras line, to defend Portu- gal. Advancing again in 181 1, he pushes Massena from .4/wf;V/rt, May 6 [Beresford beating Soult at Albiiera the l6th], storms Ciudad-Rodiigo, Jan. 19, 181 2, Badajoz, Apr. 7, crushes Marmont at Salamanca, July 22, and enters Madrid, Aug. 12. Vittoria, June 21, 181 3, totally routs the French army and leaves the [now Marquis and even] Duke of Wellington free to cross the Pyrenees. Fyffe, I, viii, ix. 6 ' Our Fatherland, all Germany — Who speak ihe tongue, our sons must be. God give us courage, will and strength To free it in its breadth and length. Join every heart, join every hand, Till Germany's one Fatherland.' — Arndt. In Prussia no one did more to rouse and maintain this stout spirit than Queen Louise, Emperor William's mother. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 39 I 8 Blucher, by fighting at Ligny, saved Wellington's detachment at Quartre-Bras from being overwhelmed. Late in the evening at Ligny, BlUcher fell insensible, supposed dead. The vital question whether to re- treat homeward or so as to join Wellington was decided in favor of the latter course by Gneisenau, B.'s chief of staff. The arrangement defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Cf. Ch. IX, § ii, n. 5, Gardner, as above, Del- briick, Lehen Gneisenaus, 2 v. This Gneisenau had served in America in a regiment of Anspach troops. On this note and the preceding, cf. Ch. XI, § 8, with notes and authorities. Fyffe, I, xi. § 20 Results Adams, Democracy and Monarchy in Fr. Guizot, Memoirs to illust. the H. of my Time, 4 v. Treitschke, ' Freikeit,' in Aufsaetze. Ch. XI \posi\, § 9. The Congress of Vienna and the Second Peace of Paris restored the map of Europe to about the form it had in 1791.^ The number of states was much reduced, chiefly by the disappearance of ecclesiastical principali- ties. The Germanic Confederation took the place of the empire. Prussia was vastly increased in size. Bavaria, Hannover, WUrttemberg and Saxony were made king- doms, the first three enlarged, the last diminished to half its old size. These modifications however scarcely hint at the radical, pervasive and lasting changes which the revolutionary movement effected in the political condition of Europe, not a single element of this escap- ing positive influence therefrom.^ The immediate sequel was indeed an absolutistic reaction,^ in France itself, under Napoleon, the restored Bourbons and the second empire ; also elsewhere in Europe : Metternich, the Holy Alliance,* absolutism, striving for freedom repressed in Germany, Italy and Spain. Yet the spirit of liberty lived on in spite of these efforts to suppress it, increasing in strength and asserting itself more and 392 THE FRENCH REVOLUTION more effectively, in France, under Louis Philippe, the Second Republic and the present Republic, the last two no new creations but adjourned sessions as it were, of the First. Elsewhere in Europe there came oblivion of Metternich and his political ideas, the introduc- tion of constitutions in all the German states, and the rise of the National-Liberal party in Prussia, which has made political unity in Germany at last after so many ages a reality. By arousing and liberalizing Prussia French republicanism may be said to have twice, in 1815 and 1870, slain its worst foe at home, the empire. Nor is the train of causation starting from the French Revolution exhaustively conceived without remembering further the (i) union of Italy under a single govern- ment, for the first time since Justinian,^ (2) growth of liberalism in England, partly out of hatred to Napoleon, partly from correct insight into and true sympathy with the French agitation at its beginning,^ (3) freedom of the Spanish-American republics, (4) rise and life of the Democratic Party and of the Monroe Doctrine" in the United States, (5) Belgium and Greece. ^ See Freeman, liist'l Geography, 229 sqq., Lodge, Mod. Europe, 629 sqq. On the higgling and the littleness displayed at the Congress of Vienna, Ch. XI, § 9 and notes. ^ 'The French Revolution was the work of philosophers, and it was, compared with the English Revolution, a failure, and ended in Q\;sarism, that is, in the government of Hell upon earth.' — Bisset. Bisset, of all men, should admit that it did not f>ii^ in Cxsarism. ' If there is one prin- ciple in all modern history certain,' declares Harrison, 'it is this: That the Revolution did not end with the whiff of grape-shot by which Bonaparte extinguished the dregs of the Convention.' ' It would be easy to show,' he says, ' that the last 50 years of the i8th century was a period more fertile in constructive effort than any similar period of 50 years in the history of mankind.' THE FRENCH REVOLUTION 393 ' Reform became and for a time remained a hateful word all over Europe. Louis XVIli dated the state papers of 1814 as of the ' igih year of our reign.' * Formed in 181 5 between the monarchs of Russia, Austria and Prus- sia, joined later by Louis XVIII, professedly for the maintenance of the Christian religion, though it soon took the form of an absolutist propa- ganda, Metternich's mightiest engine for putting down all liberal move- ments. * Italy even more than Germany took impulse toward freedom and union from French occupancy and the influences connected therewith. ® Fox was prompt to declare his sympathy with the Revolution and be- lieved Pitt's repressive measures to be of dangerous tendency. This lean- ing of his caused coolness between him and Burke when, in 1790, the latter published his Reflections. Many in England hailed the Revolution as a veritable millennium. ' What an eventful period is this! I am thankful that I have lived to see it; I could almost say, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation^ etc. — Ser- mon by Dr. Price, quoted in Burke's Reflections. ■^ Having restored absolutism in Spain, the Holy Alliance contemplated aid to the reinstated monarch in recovering his American fiefs. This called forth President Monroe's 'Doctrine' in his message of 1823, to the effect that we should consider any attempt on the part of the allied mon- archs ' to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as danger- ous to our peace and safety,' and any interposition by them to control the young American republics 'as a manifestation of an unfriendly dis- position to the United States.' See ' Democratic-Republican Party,' and * Monroe Doctrine,' in Lalor's Cyclopaedia. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY TO CHAPTER XI ' Prussia' [see lit.], 'Germany,' and 'Austria,' in Encyc. Brit. Alison, Europe from Fall of Napoleon,** 8 v. Tuttle, Prussia to Fred. Great;** do. under Fred. Great, 2 v. Miiller, Pol. H. of Recent T. Fyffe, H. oi Mod. Europe,* vol. ii. Lodge, Mod. Europe. Duruy, Temps Modrmes* Lewis, II. of Germany. Bryce, chaps, xix, sqq. v. Treitschke, Deutsche Gesch. im XIX yahrh.** [3 v. out] ; Zehii yahre deutscher K'dmpfe. Weir, Ilist'l Basis of Mod. Europe, 1760-1815. Seeley, L. and rimes of Stein,** 2 v. Pertz, Leben d. Min. Freiherrn vom Stein, 2 v. Hausser, D. Gesch. vom Tode Fr. c(. Grossen bis zur Griindung d. d. Bnndes** 4 v. Weber, Weltgeschichte, II. Ranke, Memoirs of Bran- denburg and Hist, of Prussia dg. XVII and XVIII Cent.,** 3 v.; XIl Biicher preussischen Gesch.;** Hardenherg, z^v. Poschinger, /'/'<■/«.?<'« im Bundestag** [^Pub. aus den K. -preussischen Staatsarchiven, vols, xii, xiv, XV, xxiii : Eng. trans, begun]. Ruge, Gesch. unserer Zeit. Busch, Our Chancellor. Flathe [in Oncken], Zeitalter d. Restauration u. Revo- lution,** l8i5-'5i. Lohmeyer, Gesch. von Ost-u.-West- Preussen** [from 1881 on: the standard], Isaacsohn, Gesch. d. preussischen Peam- tenlhums,** 2 v. Fix, Territorial-gesch. d. Brand.-preussisch. Staates** [with maps]. Forster, Neuere u. neueste pr. Gesch. Reimann, jVeuere Gesch. d. pr. Staates. Heinel, Gesch. Preussens. Pierson, Pr. Ge- schichte. Lavisse, Hist, de Prusse. Metternich, Memoirs,* 4 v. Eberty, Gesch. d. preussischen Staates, 7 v. Stenzel, do., 5 v. Cosel, do., 8 V. Droysen, Gesch. d. preussischen Politik, 14 v. [to beginning of 7 Years' W.]; Ahhandluugen zur neueren Gesch.* Lancizolle, Gesch. d. Bildung d. pr. Staates.* Kliipfel, Die deulsche FJnhcitsbestrebungen seit i8i£, 2 v. [All Histories of Germany and of Austria necessarily contain much upon this Ch. The most accessible ones are named in Adams's Manual.J CHAPTER XI PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE § I Prussia in German History Treitschke^ vol. i, 24 sqq. Droysen, Abhandlungen. Sybel, Deutscht Nation u. d. Kaiserreich. Despite the divisive influences which have operated in the nature and the history of the German people, they were manifestly destined for union under a single government, nor was it properly credible even in 1648 that so bright a race would forever continue the prey of France or of the shameful anarchy in which the Thirty Years' War had left Germany.^ Relief required the rise of a political power in resources the peer of France on the one hand and of Austria on the other, yet unlike Austria in being purely and enthusiastically German. Such a state would needs be, like those so efificient politi- cal creations, the Hanseatic League ^ and the Teutonic Order,* a child of the North, where the German nature had lost least of its pristine vigor, and it would go forth to impose its will upon the effete South as had of old the Karlings and the Saxon emperors. The North had carried through the Reformation, defied Rome and crushed Rome's Spanish-Austrian defence. The powers. Saxony, Anhalt, the Palatinate, which then led had indeed since dropped the scepter, but before the end of 396 PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE the seventeenth century another state had grasped it, — Brandenburg, soon to be Prussia, the one ordained to fulfil all the conditions for founding the unity of the Fatherland and introducing a new and glorious era in German annals. 1 Reference to Treitschke unless otherwise indicated is to his Deutsche Geschichtc itn XIX ten yahrhunderte. 2 SeeCh. IX, §§ 17-19. 8 See Ch. IX, § 4, note. 4 See Ch. VII, § 18, n. 5. § 2 Old Brandenburg Tuttle, i, iii. Lodge, Mod. Europe, ch. xvii. Bryce, sup. ch. Carlyle, Frederic Gt., vol. i. Weber, I, 711 sqq. Ranke, Genesis d. pr. Staates; XII liucher, I, i; Memoirs, etc., bk. i. Lancizolle, as in bibliog. Karl the Great had pushed his conquests to the Elbe ^ and established the North Mark, now Altmark.^ Henry the Fowler conquered half or more.of Mittelmark,^ the land between Elbe and Oder, which in the fourth cen- tury, A.D., Germans had vacated and the Slavic Wends occupied. After Henry, notwithstanding a nominal succession of margraves, two centuries are a blank, Mittclmark and much of Altmark losing their German character and becoming Slavic again. Safe Branden- burg history begins with Albert the Bear,* 1139-68, of the famed Ascanian princely line, who in 11 34 receives the Mark, till then mere part of the great Saxon duchy, as an immediate fief of the empire. From 1134 the state passes through : i The Ascanian period, till 1320. Brandenburg, the name from 11 70, is enlarged to the eastward and Neumark organized beyond the Oder, ii The Bavarian or Wittelsbach, to 1371, the Mark h^.v* PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE 397 ing escheated to Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria by the extinction of the Ascanian house. Misrule, war and disorder, Neumark lost for a time to the Poles, yet Brandenburg made an electorate by the Golden Bull in 1356. iii The Luxemburg, to 1415, change this time occurring partly by negotiation, partly by conquest. Misrule and rebellion continue, Neumark sold to the Teutonic Order, iv The Hohenzollern. Elector Sigis- mund having become emperor in 14 10, bargained his dignity and land to Frederic^ of Hohenzollern, the family which to-day rules Brandenburg-Prussia and the new German Empire. Prosperity now, Neumark re-pur- chased, territory acquired in all directions, indivisibility of the Mark decreed in 1473. Protestantism was intro- duced in 1539, and by Elector John Sigismund's mar- riage with the heiress of Preussen, that vast duchy became incorporated with Brandenburg in 1618.^ 1 See Ch. V, § 2. Karl Great founded Halle on the Saale, Magdeburg and BUchen as defenses of his frontier against the Wends. Hamburg sub- sequently replaced Buchen in this office. 2 Alt- Mittel- and Neumark are divisions still in use in Prussia, the first south and west of the Elbe from Magdeburg across to Priegnitz, the second between the Elbe and the Oder, and the third east of the Oder, north and south of the Warthe. 8 On Henry the Fowler, Ch. V, § 7. This victorious campaign of his against the Wends occurred in the winter of 926-'7. ' Brandenburg ' is a modification of the Wendic ' Brannibor,' at first a town on the lower Havel. * So called from the cognizance upon his shield. Cf. Ch. V, § 1 7 and note 4. ^ Frederic VI in the line of the Hohenzollern Burggraves of XUrnberg. He received Brandenburg in return for the influence and money used by him in securing Sigismund's election as emperor. The title ' Hohenzol- lern,' which this family subsequently received and still wears, is from their ancestral seat, on the heights of ZoUern in the Swabian Alps. Emperor 398 PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE William II is the 25th ruler of the line. On the early history of the Hohenzollerns in Brandenburg, Tuttle, iii. 6 See Ch. V, § 17, n. 4, Ch. VII, §§ 16, n. i, 18, n. 5. Preussen was under Polish suzerainty however till the Peace of Oliva, 1660. Cf. § 4, and n. 4. On Preussen's early hist., Ranke, XII Biicher, I, 2, 3, La- visse, 55-145. The original Preussen were not a Teutonic people at all but Lithuanians. ' It is a curious freak of history, not unlike that which has given the British name to the Teutonic and Gallic inhabitants of these [British] islands, that has transferred the name of this vanishing race to the greatest of modern German states.' — Bryce. § 3 Its Rise to Statehood Tuttle, ii-iv. Treitschke, vol. i, 25 sqq. Droysen, Politik, pts. i, ii. Ranke, XII Biicher, \\\ Memoirs, etc., bk. i. /.aHf/zij//*", as in bibliog. It was natural that the Brandenburgers, a composite race Saxon at basis, steeled and sharpened by colonial life, should excel their neighbors in war. Equally natural was their backwardness in civilization,^ whose progress among them had thrice, under Albert the Bear, at the Hohenzollern accession and after the Thirty Years' War, to begin from a dead halt. Still the Mark early developed political ambition and performance. The Ascanians designed a state that should rule the whole North, a thought whose realization the attain- ment of the electorship began. Frederic I led the Fiirsten in demanding reform for empire and church, Albert Achilles in reducing nobles and cities to obedi- ence, thus initiating a bold monarchical policy. End to private wars^ and indivisibility of territory were here ordained earlier than in the empire at large. Govern- ment was indeed feebler after the third Hohenzollern,^ letting nobles and cities grow insolent and Saxony and the Palatinate lead in the Reformation and the Thirty PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE 399 Years' War. Yet the last event fell in precisely the half century which opened Brandenburg's greatness. i Cleve, Mark and Ravensberg^ not only enlarged the state, gave it promising foothold in the West and en- riched and diversified its culture, but as outposts of protestantism toward Spain, France and Rome, rushed it into the vortex of great European politics, ii The adoption of Calvinism as the court religion while the Brandenburgers were Lutheran and many of the new subjects catholic, necessitated here a religious liberty worthy the Reformation, which made Brandenburg henceforth the head protestant state, iii Possession of Preussen, which was secularized church land ^ and out- side the empire,^ rent Brandenburg forever from the papacy and forced it into international relations on its own account. ^ ' Never did the church grow a saint from the sand of these northern marches. Rarely sounded a minnesong at the rude court of the Ascanian margraves. The diligent Cistercians of Lehnin looked more for fame as good farmers than for the crowns of art and learning.' — v. Treitschke. •^ On the imperial peace, Ch. VIII, § 17. In Brandenburg the very first Hohenzollern ordained a Landfrieden. ^ The Iluhenzollern electors of Brandenburg were Frederic I, i4i5-'40; Frederic IT, i440-'70; Albert Achilles, i470-'86; John Cicero, i486-'99; Joachim I, 1499-1535; Joachim II [who introduced Lutheranism], 1535 -'71; John George, i57i-'98; Joachim Frederic, 1598-1608; John Sigis- mund, 1608-19; George William, i6i9-'40; Frederic William, the Great Elector, i640-'88; Frederic III, 1 688-1 701 [announces himself King Frederic I of Prussia in 1701 and rules as such till 1713, still elector no less than before, as were all Prussia's kings till the empire ended, in 1806]. * See Ch. IX, § 7. Cleve had been a duchy, Mark and Ravensberg counties. Note that ' Mark ' is in this case a proper name. Vienna and Madrid regarded themselves defeated when these districts passed to a protestant power, which thus came so near to Cologne, Rome's tower of strength in the empire. 'The young state embraced upon its 24,00a 40O PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE square miles of territory nearly all the contrasts, topographical, ecclesiasti- cal and socio-political, which were tilling the empire with vocal strife. It bestrode the German lands with spread legs like the Colossus of Rhodes, planting its feet upon the threatened marches of the Rhine westward and of the Memel eastward.' — v. Treitschke. This position in West Germany also brought Brandenburg into the important alliance with the House of Orange [Holland] in its war against Louis XIV, i672-'8 [§ 4 and notes]. ® It was a Hohenzollern Grand Master, Albert of Brandenburg, who in 1525 by Luther's advice secularized the territory of the Order, oecoming duke of Prussia under Polish suzerainty. The entire duchy consisted of secularized ecclesiastical land, and was the largest tract of the kind which the church had possessed. Albert was excommunicated and put to the ban of the empire. Incorporation of this estate of course placed Branden- burg forever at feud with Rome. Ch. VI, § 18, n. 5. ^ Many writers seem not to understand that the union of old Preussen with Brandenburg did not bring this territory into the empire. It at no time formed part of the empire. § 4 The Great Elector 7«///^, iv-vii. Lewis, ch. xxi. ^a«Af, Memoirs, etc., bk. i; XII Bucher,\\\. Lavisse, 195-244. Droysen, Politik, III, 2, 3. The new status took, shape in the time, i640-'88, of the justly so called ' Great Elector,' who forms with Frederic II and Bismarck the immortal triumvirate of epoch-makers in Prussian history. Less conscientious or benevolent, he was in war and diplomacy comparable with cither of his kinsmen, Gustavus Adolphus or Fred- eric Henry of Orange.^ Fehibellin^ and Warsaw^ proved him a master in strategy, tactics and valor. His combined assurance and address in the Congress of Westphalia, mean and vacillating as his father's course had been in the War, secured him F"ar Pomerania and the ecclesiastical states of Magdeburg, Gamin, Mindcn and Halberstadt. Fore Pomerania he won splendidly with the sword,'' though forced by the treachery of his PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE 4OI allies to retrocede it subsequently. By playing off Sweden and Poland against each other he made himself over Preussen a fully sovereign prince. Best, he greatly consolidated his straggling realm, which partly excuses his absolutism in roughly displacing rude parliamentary institutions by personal rule. Worthful as well were the new life, the modern and independent German spirit which he infused. He mocked at the empire's effete mediaevalism, single-handed braved Louis XIV, and severely taught his diets and subjects not to look abroad^ for aid. His wise policy in religion exalted Brandenburg as the protestant Holy Land. While each of the other states in the empire made some one con- fession dominant, barely tolerating dissenters, this gave the three an absolute parity," at the same time offering full freedom of faith to all subjects. Religious refugees thronged in, Jews and Bohemian Brethren from the Austrian lands, twenty thousand Huguenots from France. At Frederic the Great's death nearly a third of Prussia's population were descendants of such immi- grants. 1 Very many of the acts of this great man cannot be defended. Tuttle well shows this, rebuking the weak adulation of Prussian panegyrists. But T. does not enough take into account the benefits that arose from unifying the different parts of Prussia, and the importance to this of the elector's absolutist course. Perusal of v. Treitschke and Tuttle together gives a very correct idea. The diets gotten rid of by the elector were not of a popular nature and the weal of the people was furthered rather than lessened by their fate. 2 Gustavus was his uncle, Frederic Henry his great-uncle and his father- in-law. William III of England was his second cousin and also nephew to his first queen, Louise of Orange. On his death-bed the Great Elector planned with William the campaign to England which \\as to make him king the next year. The Great Elector should, in estimates of his spirit as 402 PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE a ruler, be credited with this crusade against absolutism. He fought abso- lutism too in Louis XIV. 3 In 1675, during Louis XIV's war with Holland [Ch. X, § 2, n.], the Swedes, allies of Louis, invaded Brandenburg. The elector hastened from the Rhine, where he commanded the allies, routed the Swedes in this battle, against great odds, and rapidly wrested from them every foot of the land which the P. of Westphalia [Ch. IX, § 17] had left them, including Stettin, the 'virgin' city, never conquered before. Meantime Holland, Spain and the emperor had hastened to make peace [Nymwegen, 1678] with Louis, leaving Brandenburg alone to fight France and Sweden. Hence in the P. of St. Germain, 1679, the elector was forced to give back to Sweden all that he had taken save a small strip on the right Oder-bank. In signing this humiliating treaty he is said to have cried out : Exoriare aliqtiis nostris ex ossibus ultor [Aeneid, IV, 625], which 'ultor' modern Prussians see in Bismarck. The elector showed his usual sagacity in yielding Fore Pomerania instead of letting Louis keep the Prussian Rhine- lands, as it would be easier by and by to displace the Swede than the Frenchman. * In 1656, the decisive battle in the long strife of John Casimir, king of Poland, for the Swedish throne. The elector fought on Sweden's side but refused to follow up the victory. Poland was humbled, and the death in 1660 of the victorious Swedish king, Charles Gustavus, saved Branden- burg from Sweden's vengeance. The Peace of Oliva, 1660, confirmed the elector's full sovereignty in Preussen. * See n. 3. In spite of this loss the realm was nearly trebled in size under John Sigismund and the Great Elector, increasing from 11,440 square miles to 32,208. The Great Elector established Prussian colonies in Africa [short-lived], and a small but efficient navy. * The diet of Preussen sought aid from Poland [declining to recognize the transfer of sovereignty], that of Brandenburg from Austria, that of Cleve from Holland. The elector cowed all of them into submission, the last general diet of Brandenburg being in 1653. He did not formally annihilate them. They were simply ignored and not summoned. On his cruel treatment of Rhode and Kalkstein in Preussen, Tuttle, 189 sqq., has excellent remarks. ' The earliest state in Europe to do this. It was first matter of necessity, then became and has remained a principle of Prussian statecraft. The Huguenots came before and at the revocation of the Nantes edict, 1685. They furnished a large fraction of Prussia's intellectual aristocracy for a century. Brandenburg resounded with the hymn, PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE 4O3 * Dein Volk das sonst im Finstern sast. Von Irrthiitn ganz umgeben, Dasfindet hi'er nun sein Gelass Und darf in Freiheit lebeti' § 5 The First Two Kings Tuttle, vii-xi. Treitschke, vol. i, 35-48. Ranke, Memoirs, etc., bk. u; XII Bucher, IV-VI. Droysen, Poiitik, IV, 1-3. Frederic I and Frederic William I were not attrac- tive characters, the one weak and vain, the other savage, mean and narrow, and neither was inspired with the slightest foregleam of Prussia's destiny. Yet partly through, partly in spite of them the land continued to advance in all the elements of able statehood. Its pro- motion to the rank of a kingdom ^ increased its moral and political weight in Europe. Much territory ^ was acquired, including Stettin and a goodly reach of Baltic coast. Public education was improved, the Academy of Arts and of Sciences^ established, and the intel- lectual movement well begun which was to make Prus- sia instead of the catholic South the German centre for art and letters. In particular : i Prussia's hegemony in the corpus evangelicoriim was emphasized and con- firmed by her bold and constant opposition to Louis XIV, and by Frederic William's welcome to the Salz- burg exiles'* with intervention on their behalf. 2 Her military establishment was enlarged and improved, the splendid corps left by the Great Elector having slowly but surely grown to be the best disciplined and every way most formidable body of troops in Europe outside of France.^ 3 More significant than all was the inner political strength which the state had acquired. The government if absolute was paternal. The Mercantile 404 PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE System^ had been introduced and allodial substituted for the feudal "' tenure of land. A Prussian feeling verg- ing toward enthusiasm had percolated through the remotest sections of the population. Prussia was more and more thought of at home and abroad as no longer a member of the empire but as its peer.^ Economy kept its exchequer well filled, and an exact and laborious administration ^ was founding the unrivalled fame which the Prussian civil service still enjoys. ^ In 1 701, Elector Frederic III becoming King Frederic I. He lived and ruled till 1 713. The succession of Prussian monarchs since has l)een : Frederic William I, l7i3-'40; Frederic II [the Great], i740-'86; Fred- eric William II, l786-'97; Frederic William III, 1797-1840; Fred. Wm. IV, '40-'6i ; Wm. I, '6i-'88; Fred. Ill, '88;* Wm. II, '88-. Pope ignored the change to kingdom and the papal state-calendar a hundred years later knew only margraves of Brandenljurg. The Sa.\on elector became king of Poland, 1697, but had to turn catholic therefor. This made the king of Prussia more visibly the foremost protestant magnate. 2 Frederic I obtained Quedlinburg, Tecklenburg, Mors and Lingen in West Germany, and Neufchatel in Switzerland. Prussia was now about at Bavaria's, Saxony's or Hannover's level of power. Frederic Wm. I secured a part of Guelders [Holland] at the Peace of Utrecht, 1 71 3, and at that of Stockholm, 1720, Fore Pomerania to the River Peene, with Stettin and the islands Usedom and Wollin. ^ The Academy of Arts, 1696, the Acad, of Sciences, Leibnitz at its head, in 1700. Frederic I and still more his Queen, Sophie Charlotte, truly befriended these institutions for higher culture. Not so Frederic Wm. I, who was a boor. Yet he was the monarch who first made elemen- tary education compulsory in Prussia. * Driven from the Salzburg district by the cruelty of the catholic arch- bishop. Baron Firmian, 1 73 1. Nearly the same inhumanity was used as in Bohemia in i620-'2i [Ch. IX, § li]. The king of Prussia very boldly expostulated, at the same time offering the exiles all facilities for settlement in his lands. Tuttle, 411 sqq. Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea has im- mortalized this pathetic history, as Longfellow's Evangeline has that of the French exodus from the Basin of Minns. ' 'They had held Eugene's right on the day of Blenheim, had looked • From March 9 to June 15, whc-n lie died. PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE 4O5 destruction calmly in the face at Cassano, had stormed over and over again the deadly trenches of Malplaquet, had indeed campaigned all over Europe in the service of foreign states.' — Tuttle. 6 Of which Colbert, the great minister of Louis XIV, was the foremost champion. The central ideas of the system were (i) to discourage im- ports, making each land as far as possible dependent on its own resources alone, and (ii) to export only for money, and in all ways to provide the country with the greatest possible hoard of money. Incidental to (i) was the furtherance of home manufactures. On this see Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, bk. iv. ■^ See Ch. VI, § 7, Tuttle, 391 sq. This left the feudal system exactly as before except as to the relations between the king and his immediate vassals. The same change occurred in England under Charles II. * Under Frederic I Prussia was still the humble, dutiful servant of Austria and the empire. The rivalry of the two states begins under Fred. Wm. II. He had learned of Austria's treachery and charged his son to avenge him. For this purpose he left him a well-filled treasury and an army of 85,000 men. Prussia was then not higher than the I2th European state in population or territory, yet 4th in military power. Frederic the Great secured the privilege de non appellando, freeing Prussia from all connection with imperial courts. ^ v. Treitschke believes that no statesman of modern times. Napoleon I and Freiherr von Stein aside, has equalled Frederic William I as an organizer. § 6 Frederic the Great Z;7«?V, chaps, xxii, xxiii. Car/j'/*', Frederic the Gt. yi/affl«/rt_)', Essay on do. Duruy, Tevips tilodi-rnes, ch xv. Trei'si like, vol. i, 49-70. Ranke, Memoirs, etc., bks. iiisqq.; X II Bucher,'^\\ ii\(\. Droysen, Politik,V ii\i\. Tuiile,Pr. under F. Gn. Now came to the throne a genius, who saw as no Hohenzollern before, the vanity of the old empire, the hypocrisy and despotism of Austria, the irrepressible conflict between it and Prussia, the latter's mission ulti- mately to form the Fatherland anew, and the certainty that force would be required to accomplish this. Fred- eric's life-work, fully successful, was to enlarge and exalt Prussia and to secure to her full place and recog- 406 PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE nition among the great powers.^ Important incidental results of it were: i The initial humiliation^ of Aus- tria. 2 Strength to freedom of religious confession still menaced by Rome. Parity of faiths in the empire must have remained a myth so long as only Austria and France contested the supremacy. Frederic was thus the Maccabseus-^ of protestantism, his victories filling pope and Jesuits with despair. 3 Preparation for a more worthy central government in Germany by and by. Frederic deemed it as yet too early to crush the empire, but wished to germanize and reform it, by transferring its crown to Bavaria^ and incorporating its smallest states with the larger and efficient ones. In this he failed, through the craft of Austria and the might of conservative, particularist and ecclesiastical prejudice. But he made Germany ashamed of its petty govern- ments and of foreign domination. He shook confidence in Austria, increased it in simple Dcntschtluivi. In his wars Frederic represented the German national con- sciousness. He fought for German interests, not for foreign. His miraculous victories were deeds of Ger- man valor, and stimulated the national pride to its depths. Mainly to this was due the sense of German national unity which has shaped all European history since, and also the incomparable intellectual revival which raised up Kant, Klopstock, Lessing, Herder, Goethe and Schiller. Another benign influence of this memorable reign was that it lifted the level of life at all German courts, inspiring rulers with new sense of duty, new regard for the public weal.^ Austria itself was regenerated by it. PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE 40/ ^ Silesia was the only teriitory secured to Prussia by his wars, but dur- ing the reign east Friesland, part of Mansfeld, West-Preussen, except Danzig and Thorn, and the so-called Netz-district of Poland proper became Prussian, the last two being added by the first partition of Poland, 1772. We have no space for a full account of Frederic's wars but must refer to Carlyle, Oncken, Zeitalter Fried, d. Grossen, 2 v.. Wolf, Oesterreich un- ter M. Theresia, etc., Arneth, Gesch. Maria Theresias, lO v., Due de Broglie, Fred. II and Maria Theresa, 2 v., Droysen, Abhandlungen, Bieder- mann, Deutschland im xviiiten yahrh., Raumer, Contributions to H., vol. ii, Duncker, Aus. d. Zeit Fr. d. Grossen u. Fr. IVms. III. Schafer, Gesch. d. 7 jahr. Krieges, 2 v., is the standard on the 7 Years' W. Griinhagen of Breslau, an able pupil of Droysen, has written on the First Silesian W., and is writing on the Second. With the above may be consulted Koser, Fr. d. Grosse als Kronprinz, Oncken, Beitrdge zu neueren Gesch., and V. Sybel's Zeitschrift for 1859 and 1886. Cf. also Adams, Manual, 273 sq. Frederic began the First Silesian W., 1 740-'2, upon his own account, but after the League of Nymphenburg against Austria, May, 1741, on the part of France, Spain, Bavaria, Saxony and Prussia, it lapses into the general W. of the Austrian Succession, to break emperor Charles VI's Pragmatic Sanction, honor the Salic law, and place Charles Albert of Bavaria against Maria Theresa in possession of the Austrian crown. In 1742 Frederic recedes from this alliance and makes peace with Maria Theresa on condition of retaining Silesia, but seeing Austria victorious and allying herself with Sardinia and Saxony, he in 1746 joins France and Bavaria again and begins the Second Silesian W., i744-'5, against Austria, Saxony, England and Holland, another phase of the W. for the Austrian Succession. This question is, however, settled by Charles Albert's death in Jan., 1745, and in Dec. Prussia concludes with Austria the Peace of Dresden, still retaining Silesia. The other powers fight till the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748. Maria Theresa had no intention even now of per- manently relinquishing her lost provinces, yearly gathering resources and forming alliances for a fresh struggle, which came in the terrible Seven Years' War, oftener called by the Prussians the Third Silesian, i756-'63. In 1755 Austria had succeeded in entirely isolating Frederic, but in June of that year the French and English in America opened hostilities [French and Indian War, i755-'63], which withdrew England from the French- Austrian-Russian alliance into one with Frederic. It aided him compara- tively little. In 1757 Austria, France, Russia and Sweden even arranged to partition Prussia. Notwithstanding niiiacles of generalship and valor by Frederic, his officers and his men, on fields like Rossbach, Leuthen and 408 PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE Minden, they must have succumbed but for the death of Elizabeth of Russia, which transferred the forces of that nation [Peter III] to Prussia's side. The Peace of Ilubertsburg, Feb. 15, 1763, closed Frederic's great military career, though he took part in the nearly bloodless war over the Bavarian Succession, i778-'9. 2 A century earlier north Germany required 30 years to beat Austria with France's and Sweden's aid. Now Frederic almost alone did it thrice in succession, occupying in all less than half that time. Had both sides been alone, the weakness of Austria in the comparison would have been more apparent still. Of the 850,000 men computed to have perished in the 7 Yrs.' W., about 180,000 fell in Prussia's service, and her population decreased in these years by half a million. * So was he named by English dissenters. The pope on his side sent a consecrated hat and sword to the Austrian Marshal Daun, who had acci- dentally beaten Frederic once at Hochkirch. * See n. i. This was Frederic's hope in taking part in the War for the Austrian Succession. Austria's spirit had not changed since the 30 Years' War. She still fought for Rome, still summoned hordes of foreigners to shed protestant and German blood on imperial soil. Yet how fully he conceived Prussia's German mission as this later unfolded, or deserves credit for truly German patriotism, is matter of doubt. Prussian writers probably overestimate his merit in this regard; Bryce, 406 sq., underesti- mates it rather. ^ Frederic the Great's absolutism is not for a moment to be compared with the unqualified selfishness of a Louis XV. It was a prime maxim with him that government exists only for the good of the governed, that the monarch is only the foremost servant of the state. This view spread to his adorers, the princes and princelings of the empire. Joseph II, who succeeded Maria Theresa in Austria, was an enthusiastic imitator of the great Prussian, introducing benellcent reforms of all sorts in church and state, to which Austria's tenacity of life against Napoleon was greatly owing. Strange to say, some of the best ideas of the French Revolution itself proceeded from Frederic the Great. PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE 4O9 § 7 Napoleon's Heel ^/WM, ch. xxiv. Treitschke, bk. i, 2. Weber, II, 496-516. Sortl, 'Decadence de la Prusse apres Fred. IP, Rev. des deux Mondes, Jan., 1883. Ranke, An- sprung, u. Beginn d. Rev.-Kriege, 1791, '2; Hardenberg, bks. i-iii. Seeley, Stein, pt. ii. Segur, Hist., etc., of Reign of Fred. Wm. II, 3 v. But for the present the rest of Germany partook these benefits more than Prussia, which even before Frederic's death began to decline. The wars had left it in dis- tressing poverty, which the Mercantilism ^ persisted in by the king increased faster than his Spartan economy diminished it. In administration he was not his father's peer. Even the army fell off in organization and morale. If defects in the judiciary were reformed, evils equally important were neglected in other fields. The aristoc- racy was petted, the serfs not freed. Government was too paternal, too personal. Wont to supervise every- thing himself the king created no power of initiative or automatism in state or officials. Worst, his successor, Frederic William II, was a pigmy, during whose years upon the throne the very foundations fixed by the Great Frederic were undermined, Prussian national pride laid low, the lead surrendered again to Austria. There was failure in diplomacy .^ Cant in religion was rewarded,^ candor persecuted. The last two partitions ^ of Poland were against Prussia's and the world's conscience, and troubled the realm with a refractory ethnic element, both Slavic and catholic. When the French Revolution opened everything favored^ the complete subjection of Austria to Prussia, but the precious chance was lost. Fierce as the king was to quash the French Republic, one dash of its raw army forced him to peace, with the 4IO PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE loss of trans-Rhenish Prussia entire. In all its dealings with Napoleon till the merited fate came, the Berlin court showed indolence, indecision, insincerity. And so far as Frederic William III, stripped of half his lands and mulcted a half billion francs, at last excelled his father he owed it to patriotic goading by Stein and the people.^ 1 See § 5. n. 6. 2 By Austria, e.g., at the Congress of Reichenbach, 1790, where Leo- pold II artfully led Frederic \Vm. to give up promising schemes of acqui- sition in the Austrian Netherlands [Belgium] in return for a barren promise that Austria would push its Turkish conquests- no further. Fred. \Vm. wasted money in a foolish campaign against Holland in 1797. How stupid too his zeal for Polish land, his ready relaxation of grip upon his beautiful trans- Rhenish domains ! The 10 yrs. from the P. of Basel, 1795, are among the darkest in Prussian history : economy, order, justice gone from the administration, army weakened by ill discipline and a disaffected Polish element, treasury exhausted, no patriotism among upper classes. 8 Wollner, Frederic Wm.'s minister, devoted to reaction in theology, uttered an edict in 1 788, abrogating the freedom of thought and the press so perfect under the great Frederic, commanding the clergy whether believing them or not, to propound the ancient doctrines approved at court, under penalty of deposition or worse. This law was set aside in the next reign. * The first partition, under Frederic the Great, 1772 [Ch. X, § 3, n. 6] gave Prussia land and [German] population which naturally belonged to her, and was thus relatively justilied. Not so the second and third. But the internal disorders of Poland furnished a fair excuse even for these. ^ The Revolution would end France's alHance with Austria, the latter's troops were engaged in a far campaign against the Turks, the Czarina was in close treaty with Prussia. Nor would attack then upon Austria neces- sarily have weakened, it might greatly have strengthened, Germany's position in face of Napoleon subsequently, v. Treitschke, vol. i, 109. ^ Just so Bryce, 409 sq. PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE 4II § 8 Resurrection Levis, chaps, xxvii-xxx. Ranke, Hardenberg, bk. iv. Treiisckke, bk. i, 2-5. Weber, II, 541-61. Ducoudray, Hist. Contemporaine, 196-400. Weir, ch. v. Pertz, Stein. Seeley, do. In the process of isolating, tantalizing and grinding Prussia Napoleon was as adroit as the Berlin court was duU.^ Yet the very brilliancy of this success begot his defeat at last. In Prussia as nowhere else his sway was pure, crushing burden, his purpose to enslave trans- parent, and as he could not here kill out the German and national spirit, irresistible reaction resulted. Prus- sia, chief sufferer, not Austria, became the leader in Germany's redemption, thus gaining incalculable and permanent vantage as the centre of DeiitscJitJiuvi. The years from 1806 to 18 12 are morally the grandest in all Prussian history. The efficient organizers of the revi- val were Stein and Scharnhorst, two of the patriotic Germans who had flocked to Prussia from other states.^ Stein, believing that domestic bondage must be ended before the foreign could be, set out to rebuild socially from the bottom. The serfs were freed, nobles' privi- leges and many monopolies abolished, self-government restored to cities, the trades removed from guild-domi- nation.' Public burdens, distributed more justly, were borne more cheerfully. Scharnhorst reformed the army in like manner, putting into it native Prussians* only, to be treated humanely and honorably, with arms and drill simple and efficient. His plan of filling and drill- ing the permitted quota and then emptying it to give place to more recruits,^ turned the whole male popula- tion into trained soldiery, wherein merit and service, 412 PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE not social position, secured promotion. In these and other ways inspired patriotism came to pervade clergy, universities, schools^ and literature, as well as the masses of the people. For years restrained only with difficulty, after Vittoria and Napoleon's retreat from Moscow the awful zeal for freedom burst all bonds. Led by men like Blucher, Gneisenau, Yorck'' and Biilow Prussia's soldiers sought the front on every battle-field, fighting like tigers. Their spirit was contagious, and the oppressor crossed the Rhine chased by huge armies from states which yesterday acquiesced or even gloried in French rule as a blessing. ^ Partly her own pride, partly Napoleon's management led Prussia to take so mean and crooked a course that other nations were offended at her. Her fall awoke little pity. Too ready to go Austria's ways before the war, now in the hour of woe to all Germany, alliance with Vienna was shunned as deadly. Had Prussia cooperated in the Austerlitz campaign, 1805, Napoleon might have been crushed. Not even the high-handed seizure of Hannover by the French in 1803 could rouse the sleepy Frederic Wm. in. In 1805 he even accepted from Napoleon the Hannover so recently plucked from England, his ally. Erection of the Rhein-Bund and the restoration of Hannover to Eng. awoke him, yet without duly arousing him. Tilsit stripped him of all his kingdom west of the Elbe and also of all the Poland acquired by the second and third partitions. Cf. Bryce, 407 sq. 2 Stein was a Nassauer, Scharnhorst a Hannoverian. Besides these, Blucher and Fichte of the men influential in Prussia at this crisis were from outside. Scharnhorst was wounded May 2, 181 3, in the battle near Liitzen, yet continued active and made his wound fatal, June 28. ^ Under the Great Elector most towns gave up the subsidy-system of paying taxes, granting him a permanent excise. This made him independ- ent. As nobles and prelates still paid the Bede {^Bitte, ' request '] or subsidy, sympathy between them and the burghers died out. Royal tax- officers became the main officials of towns. Nobles paid their taxes by grinding their serfs. In 1807 Stein promulgated an edict abolishing serf- dom, and also the legal distinction of classes, establishing freedom of ex- PRUSSIA AND THE NEW EMPIRE 4I3 change in land and free choice of occupation by all. In 1808 he issued another, restoring self-government to the cities, only the head official of each to be appointed by king, from three nominees presented by the citizens. Stein's reforms, so far as they went, were almost exactly those of the opening French Revolution [Ch. X, §§ 11, 12J. He based his acceptance of office on the condition that there should be no more an irresponsible cabinet, but responsible ministers, to counsel the king and be his executive agents. His intention was ultimately to give Prussia Eng- land's parliamentary system, but his work was cut short. A letter of his [Seeley, pt. iv, ch. v] betraying his wish to rid Germany of the French yoke reached Napoleon, and, to relieve Prussia from a conflict which would then have been premature, he gave up his place as Prussian minis- ter, Nov. 24, 1808, fleeing first to Austria, then to Russia. Napoleon in a sounding manifesto denounced to the world ' a man by the name of Stein ' as a stirrer of revolt against the French empire. It was Stein who induced Czar Alexander, when Russia was invaded, to ignore Napoleon's offers to negotiate. Hardenberg took up Stein's reforms in 1810, giving each peasant the fee simple of part of the estate to which he had belonged. Seeley's Stein, pts. iii-v. * I.e., as private soldiers, the system of employing mercenaries being abandoned. ^ See Ch. X, § 19, Seeley's Stein, pt. iv, ch. iv. ^ The educational reforms of Wm. v. Humboldt had established the Prussian school system on its present basis, and in 1809 the University of Berlin was founded. " On Bliicher and Gneisenau, Ch. X, § 19 and n. 6. Droysen has an able Life of Vorck \^Leben d. Feldmarschalh Grafen York von lVartenbnr