''.A^ A'-v 
 
 iff*"" ,. *W- 
 
 
 , .^^
 
 P A P E E S 
 
 ox SUBJECTS OF 
 
 ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY, 
 
 EEV. JOHN KENEICK, M.A., F. S. A.
 
 A SELECTION OF PAPEES 
 
 ON SUBJECTS OF 
 
 AROIL^OLOGY AND HISTORY, 
 
 COMMUNICATED TO 
 
 THE YOEKSHIEE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 
 
 BY 
 
 The EEV. JOHN KENEICK, M. A., F. S. A., 
 
 CURATOR OF ANTIQUITIES. 
 
 LONDON : 
 LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN. 
 
 YORK: 
 E. SUNTER, STONEGATE; J. SOTHERAN, COXEYSTREET. 
 
 1864.
 
 The Papers collected in this Volume were communicated to 
 the Yorkshire Philosophical Society, and are now published 
 with their sanction. Some of them were read at their 
 Monthly Meetings ; others were Lectures delivered to more 
 numerous assemblages of the Members. This will explain 
 the variety of subjects to which they refer. They will be 
 found, however, to have one character in common. Their 
 object is rather to excite an interest in Ai'cheeology, by 
 pointing out its relation to History and Literature, than to 
 pursue antiquarian, historical, or literary research into 
 minute detail. The wish expressed in the last Annual 
 Eeport of the Society, that they should be preserved in 
 a permanent form," leads me to hope that this object has 
 been in some measure attained. 
 
 J. K.
 
 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Huge 
 
 1. The Rise, Extension, and Suppression of the 
 
 Order of Knights Templar in Yorkshire . . . I — G8 
 
 2. The Historical Traditions of Pontefract Castle, 
 
 including an Inquiry into the Place and Manner 
 
 of Richard II.'s Death GU— <»'.) 
 
 •3. The Relation of Coins to History, illustrated from 
 Roman Coins discovered at Methal near Warter, 
 and presented to the Yorkshire Philosophical 
 Society by the late Lord Londesborough and 
 W. Rudston Read, Esq 100—127 
 
 4. The Causes of the Destruction of Classical 
 
 Literature 128 — 15G 
 
 5. The History of the Recovery of Classical 
 
 Literature 15G— 181 
 
 «). The Reign of Trajan illustrated bj^ a Monument 
 
 of his reign found in York 182 — 1U7 
 
 7. Roman Waxed Tablets found in Transylvania . . 198 — 21(1 
 
 8. New Year's Day in Ancient Rome 217 — 237
 
 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUrPRESSION OF THE 
 ORDER OF KNIGHTS TEMPLAR^ IN YORKSHIRE, 
 
 Although the special purpose of this paper is 
 to illustrate the history of this celebrated order in 
 reference to our own county, some notice of its 
 origin and organization is necessary in order to 
 explain its peculiar constitution, and the relation 
 in which it stood to that state of European society 
 out of which it arose. 
 
 The characteristic of the order of Templars, as 
 of the kindred order of the Knights of the Hospital, 
 was the combination of religious enthusiasm with 
 military ardour, of monastic discipline with military 
 service. Its institution was the immediate fruit of 
 the Crusade, which had made the Christians masters 
 of the Holy City, and its origin is to be sought in 
 the same feelings, and the same constitution of 
 society, as gave birth to the Crusades themselves. 
 These lay deeper than the ardent zeal of Peter the 
 Hermit, or the outrages of the Turks on pilgrims 
 to the Holy Sepulchre, or the policy of the Popes, 
 desirous to acquire new lands for the domain of the 
 Western Church. The elements of that religious 
 and military excitement, which jointly impelled the 
 people of Europe to throw themselves in such 
 
 1 The title of tlie order varies " Kniglits Templar." I shall in 
 in English writers, — "Knight future call them simply Tem- 
 Templars," " Knights Templars," plars.
 
 2 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 myriads on Asia, were found in the cliaracter and 
 habits which the northern conquerors had brought 
 ■with them, and which civilization had only partially 
 tempered. In the governments which they had 
 founded out of the ruins of the Roman Empire, 
 everything had been military. The possession of 
 landed property, political rights, even the security 
 of personal freedom, depended on the power to use 
 arms. This military spirit had hitherto found occu- 
 pation at home, in aggression or defence ; but in 
 the eleventh century the increasing power of the 
 sovereign, and the general progress of social institu- 
 tions, had greatly lessened the sphere of domestic 
 warfare, while the successive invasions of the bar- 
 barous tribes, which for many centuries kept Europe 
 under arms, had entirely ceased.^ The Crusades 
 were therefore the natural fruit of the military spirit 
 and system of life which had prevailed in Europe, 
 and the limitation of its field of action at home. 
 
 The direction of this spirit to a religious object 
 was also in accordance with the temper of the 
 times. We find Christianity assuming different 
 characters in the countries in which it was embraced, 
 according to the genius and circumstances of the 
 people. The mystical and contemplative Egyptian 
 retired to the Desert of the Thebaid, and introduced, 
 or transplanted from the shores of the Dead Sea, 
 the solitary and monastic life. The intellectual 
 Greek employed the resources of his subtle language 
 and metaphysics, in speculations on the persons 
 
 1 The introduction of Tour- (jais, 3, 110,) is an indication of 
 
 namcnts, which belongs to the the restriction of the sphere of 
 
 same century as the Crusades, private warfare, and the ccssa- 
 
 (see Sismondi Hist, dcs Fran- tion of barbarian inroads.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 3 
 
 and operations of the Godhead, and in framing 
 hypotheses for combining Christian doctrine with 
 heathen philosophy. The warriors of the West, 
 when they heard of their Saviour's sufferings, laid 
 their hands upon their swords, and wished they 
 had been present to rescue liim. They never 
 troubled their practical minds with the refinements 
 of theology, or entertained any question about the 
 evidences of their faith, but they were ready to 
 hazard their lives in battle against a heretic or an 
 infidel. The ardent zeal and military enthusiasm 
 of the western nations were concentrated and in- 
 flamed by corresponding feelings and similar insti- 
 tutions on the part of the Mohammedans, who 
 possessed the Holy Land, and were in constant 
 warfare with the Christians in Spain. They, too, 
 were warriors, believing with all the fervour of 
 ignorance in the divine mission of their prophet, 
 and the sacred duty of projDagating his religion by 
 arms. The Christian and the Mohammedan differed 
 in their notions of Paradise, but they agreed in 
 thinking that the surest road to it was by death in 
 battle with an unbeliever. The hell of one, and 
 the Jehannum of the other, was the certain destiny 
 of him whom they respectively called an infidel or 
 a Giaour. 
 
 The Crusades thus naturally gave rise to the 
 military orders, which united monastic vows and a 
 mode of life partially monastic, with the profession 
 of arms. The state of the newly acquired conquest 
 of the Holy City called for some vigorous exertion. 
 The great leaders had taken possession of their 
 several kingdoms of Antioch, Damascus, and Edessa; 
 
 b2
 
 4 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 the inferior knights had settled themselves comfort- 
 ably in their castles, and the sovereign of Jerusalem 
 had not sufficient military strength alone to protect 
 the pilgrims from the West, or the unarmed popu- 
 lation of his kingdom. The Bedouins ventured from 
 their deserts ; the Seljuk Turks and Egyptians still 
 ravaged the country, and the idle rabble which had 
 accompanied the Crusaders, or been attracted by 
 their conquest, preyed upon the peaceful inhabitants.^ 
 It was impossible to perform the offices of hospitality 
 to the pilgrims, unless they were protected by the 
 strong arm, and the brethren of the earlier institu- 
 tion, the order of St. John Eleemon, Patriarch of 
 Alexandria, (afterwards changed to St. John the 
 Baptist,) whose special office it was to attend upon 
 them, were also knights. They owed their origin to 
 merchants of Amalfi, who resorted to Palestine to 
 vend their goods, and at the same time visited the 
 Holy Sepulchre.^ The conception of a new order, 
 more exclusively military than that of the Hos- 
 pitallers, originated with two French knights, 
 Hugo de Payens (de Paganis) and Grodefroi de St. 
 Omer (Gralfridus de Sancto Audemaro), with whom 
 seven other French knights associated themselves.^ 
 The vow taken by these nine founders of the order 
 was to give themselves to the service of Christ, to 
 live without personal property (sine proprio), and 
 according to the rule of the Canons Kegular, in 
 chastity and obedience, and to guard the public 
 
 1 Wilke Gescliiclite des Tern- " ex infimis Hospitaliorum con- 
 pellieiTcnordens, vol. 1, p. 12. grcgati,"wliic]i cannot have been 
 
 2 Dugdale, 6, 2,798. true of the founders of the order. 
 
 3 Matthew Paris sub an. 1118. Hist. Angl. Script., col. 1008; 
 According to some they were Gnl. Tyri Archiepisc, 12, 7.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 5 
 
 roads. This last was in truth its special duty at its 
 institution. The utility of the order was immedi- 
 ately perceived by King Baldwin II., the patriarch, 
 and the Christian nobility, and Hugo de Payens 
 was dispatched to France, to engage the Pope, the 
 King of France, and, above all, St. Bernard, in 
 their cause. At this time St. Bernard's voice was 
 even more potential in Europe than that of the 
 Pope. From his monastery at Clairvaux he exer- 
 cised an influence, which a few years later (a.d. 1 146) 
 enabled him to rouse the West to a new Crusade ; 
 and the celebrity which he had gained as a reformer 
 of monastic discipline naturally directed the founders 
 of the new order to him, as the fittest man to 
 establish its Eule, and to recommend it to the 
 patronage of the great. To him Baldwin sent a 
 letter by two brothers of the order, Andrew and 
 Gundemar, to bespeak his favour and his influence, 
 and to ask him to frame them such statutes as 
 should combine the religious with the military life. 
 At the same time the two founders of the order, 
 accompanied by several of the brethren, proceeded 
 to Eome to engage the patronage of the Pope, 
 Honorius II. A Council was held at Troyes in 
 Champagne in 1128, at which the order was 
 formally established, and the rules sanctioned which 
 St. Bernard had drawn up. 
 
 In the interval between the time when the 
 foundation of the order was laid at Jerusalem and 
 its recognition by the church, its members had 
 occupied, by the permission of Baldwin II., a part 
 of his palace, supposed to be built on the site of 
 Solomon's Temple. They depended in great measure
 
 6 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 on his bounty for food, clothing, and annour, and 
 their style and title was " pauperes fratres militise 
 J. C.,"^ or " Templi Salomonis," whence the name 
 of Templars. Till they had a church of their own 
 they used the church of the Holy Sepulchre,^ which 
 had been built by the Empress Helena, and was 
 sometimes called Templum Domini. The patriarch 
 of Jerusalem, under whose immediate superintend- 
 ence the Templars were placed, was designated 
 Patriarch of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. 
 Such was Heraclius, who in 1185 dedicated the 
 Temple Church in London, according to an inscrip- 
 tion still to be read there. At their foundation the 
 Templars deserved the title of " Poor Soldiers of 
 Christ." Their whole property appears to have been 
 their arms and horse-furniture, and they had no 
 distinguishing costume. But from the time of the 
 Council of Troyes the order rapidly increased in 
 numbers and wealth. The seed had been dropped 
 into a soil containing the elements of luxuriant 
 growth. 
 
 The Statutes which St. Bernard gave them are 
 
 1 Matthew Paris saj'S, " Adeo Jerusalem, -wlncli liad tliis form. 
 pauperes erant (Hugo et Gode- But with the exception of I-on- 
 iVidus) ut unum tantum equum dou, the Templars do not ai)pear 
 haberent communem, unde eo- to have been connected with any 
 rum sigillo insculpuntur duo of the places in which round 
 equites, uni equo insidentes!" churches remain. Gough, in- 
 Dugdale's editors, 0, 2, 787, say deed, in his additions to Camden 
 this of the Hospitallers. Is there (2, 19), says that Temple Bruere 
 any authentic seal of either with in Leicestershire, and Aislaby 
 such a device ? in Lincolnshire, had round 
 
 2 It is commonly said that the churches, but neither of them 
 round form, still seen in the appears to have been standing 
 Temple Church, London, at in his time. See an Essay by 
 Northampton, Cambridge, and Rev. Geo. I'oolc in Reports of 
 Maplestead, is owing to the ccni- the Church Architectural Soci- 
 nexiou of the Templars with the etics of York, Lincoln, &c., 18&0 
 church of the Holy Sepulchre at — ] , p. 235.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 7 
 
 said to have been founded on the Benedictine rule, 
 but they bear manifest traces of the Cistertian 
 reform, of which he was a zealous patron, so that 
 Bernardine is sometimes used as a synonyme for 
 Cistertian.^ As we have them, however, they indi- 
 cate a somewhat later origin than the time of St. 
 Bernard, but no doubt in all important points they 
 are such as he dictated them to his amanuensis, 
 John of Alamaton. They are curious as exhibiting 
 the methods which it was thought might be effectual, 
 in combining things so incongruous as the monastic 
 and the military life. Every knight was to attend 
 upon the holy offices at the regular hours, but if 
 prevented, he was to say thirteen jjciter-nosters for 
 missing matins, nine for missing vespers, and seven 
 for each of the other hours. A special exemption 
 from matins was made in behalf of those who had 
 been fatigued by military duty, but they were 
 required in this case to chant thirteen prayers. 
 They were not to exhaust their strength by too 
 long standing at prayers ; after the Venite exultemm 
 they might all sit down ; but were required to stand 
 up again at the Gloria Pafrl, at the recitation of 
 the Gospels, the Te Deum, and the Lauds. Holy 
 reading was always to take place at meals in the 
 refectory : flesh was permitted only three times a 
 week, except at Christmas, Easter, and the Feast of 
 the Virgin. Two dishes were allowed on Sunday to 
 the knights and chaplains, but the squires and 
 servants were to be content with one. To preserve 
 equality, the knights were to eat in pairs. After 
 Complin a collation was allowed, it being left to 
 
 1 The Statutes arc given at length by Wilkc, vol. 2, p. 203.
 
 b THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 the discretion of the master to determine, whether 
 water only should be drunk, or a competent portion 
 of tempered wine. The garments of the knights 
 were to be white (it was not till the papacy of 
 Eugenius III., the disciple of St. Bernard, that 
 they assumed the red cross) ; ' those of the inferior 
 members black, or a dark colour. Furs were for- 
 bidden, but lambs' or sheep's skins might be worn 
 in winter. Their clothes were to be of a simple 
 make, so that they might dress and undress them- 
 selves readily. All superfluous ornaments of dress, 
 and boots and shoes curved at the toes,^ were 
 forbidden, as heathenish and abominable, to the 
 knights, and not allowed even to the servants. 
 Hawking and shooting with the bow or cross-bow 
 were prohibited ; no knight was even to go in 
 company with one who carried a hawk. Some 
 other regulations seem more suited to a rather strict 
 boarding- school than an association of warriors. 
 They were not to go into the city without leave, 
 except by night to the Holy Sepulchre, or the 
 stations without the walls. They were to go to 
 bed, " vestiti camisiis et femoralibus," not to sleep 
 two in a bed, except in case of extreme necessity ; 
 a light was to be constantly burning in the dor- 
 mitory ; a pillow, a piece of sacking, and one 
 
 1 Gul. Tyr., 12, 7. 
 
 2 Sect. 24. " De rostris ct laqucis." See Du Cangc, sub voc. 
 From laqneus comes our lace. Tlic rostrum is thus desci'ibcd in a 
 Latin mcdiaival poem, quoted by Du Cange : — 
 
 " Deductior ante 
 
 Pinnula procedit, i)auloque retlexior exit, 
 Et fuRit in loiigum tractumque inclinat acutum." 
 They were forbidden to monks and clergy by several councils and 
 synods. The fashion Kccms to have been introduced from Con- 
 stautinoi:)Ic.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 9 
 
 coverlet, were to suffice for each ; their shirts were 
 to be of linen from Easter to All Saints ; woollen 
 during the winter months. No letters were to be 
 written to or received from parents or relatives, nor 
 any present to be accepted from them, but by per- 
 mission of the Master or Procurator. With these 
 formal regulations many useful precepts for main- 
 taining peace, order, and good will, were mingled, 
 and the knight was specially warned against what 
 might endanger the observance of his most difficult 
 vow. " Fugiat foeminea oscula Christi militia, per 
 qujB Solent homines ssepe periclitari." The prohi- 
 bition extended to a mother or a sister. Altogether 
 St. Bernard shows himself a master of monastic 
 discipline, and had persuaded himself that it might 
 be combined with a military life ; but this lay 
 beyond his exj)erience, and it is not wonderful that 
 his ideal Templar, if he ever existed, very soon 
 degenerated. He endeavoured to persuade the 
 secular knights to exchange into this order, by an 
 epistle, in which he set forth the immense advantage 
 of dying in a religious cause rather than a secular 
 quarrel. The secular knights, he says, are clothed 
 in flowing garments, their dress and armour decor- 
 ated with gold and gems ; they wear long hair, 
 after the manner of women, and make war either 
 to gratify their passions or from the love of aggran- 
 dizement. The Templars, on the contrary, live 
 frugally, make no distinction of persons, never 
 use insolent language or idle jesting, shun field 
 sports, cut their hair short, never comb^ and seldom 
 
 1 This was a Roman military grandes miretur La^lius alas." 
 virtue. " Caput intactum huxo Juvenal, Sat. 14, 194. 
 naresquc pilosas, Aduotct, et
 
 10 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 wash, themselves, trust to steel, and not to gold on 
 their armour for victory, and seek to mount strong 
 and fleet horses, only that they may be effective for 
 battle. (S. Bernardi Oj^era, vol. 1. p. 545.) 
 
 The new institution accorded with the religious 
 and military spirit of the times, and it spread 
 rapidly through the West. Its founders travelled 
 through France, England, and Spain, and found 
 everywhere liberal support. Hugo had an interview 
 with Henry I. in Normandy, whence he passed into 
 England and Scotland, gathering such a number of 
 men to go to Jerusalem, as had not gone " since 
 the days of Pope Urban," in the first Crusade. 
 More than three hundred knights accompanied 
 Hugo de Payens on his return, with an unnumbered 
 crowd of squires and servitors. They found ample 
 occupation for their arms, for the infidels had been 
 gaining ground upon the Christians. There was 
 seldom a battle in which the Templars were not 
 engaged, and in the siege of Damascus they were 
 almost entirely cut off'. The eloquence of St. Bernard 
 produced a second Crusade, conducted by Conrad 
 III. and Louis YII. in 1145. It was unfortunate 
 in its issue. The Christian army was defeated 
 before Damascus, and treachery was imputed to the 
 Templars.^ Historians in general, however, lay the 
 blame upon the barons of Palestine, who were 
 jealous of the Crusaders, though they had come to 
 their assistance. That no such imputation justly 
 rested on the Templars, in the opinion of Christen- 
 dom, is evident from the great increase of their 
 wealth which took place about this time. Roger de 
 
 1 Hist. Angl. Script., a. d. 1147.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 11 
 
 Mowbray, whose name we shall find as the donor 
 of some of their richest endowments in Yorkshire, 
 must have known their character, as he had taken 
 part in the second Crusade.^ In the long contest 
 with the Infidels, the Templars appear to have 
 been the chief strength of the Christian forces. It 
 was their privilege to carry the true cross before 
 the army when it went to battle, as well as the 
 banner with the red cross inscribed on it.^ They 
 occupied the post of danger — the van in advance, 
 the rear in retreat. As they were the flower of the 
 chivalry of Europe, and accomplished in all military 
 exercises, they acted as officers to the troops whom 
 they were enabled to hire by means of the wealth 
 which Christendom poured into their coffers. The 
 footing which they obtained in all the kingdoms of 
 Eui'oj^e, within a century after their establishment, 
 is characteristic of the age. Many a man who felt 
 no vocation to leave his home and fight in Palestine, 
 and yet acknowledged the duty of endeavouring to 
 keep possession of the Holy Sepulchre, would com- 
 promise with his conscience, by giving land or 
 money to the soldiers of Christ. Many a devout 
 lady, who regretted that she could not, like Erminia 
 or Clorinda, mingle in the fray of arms, would 
 jo3^fully endow the gallant knights who were figlit- 
 
 1 Dugdale, Baronage, 1, p. 122. The meaning of the mixture 
 A singular privilege was granted of colours is uncertain. INIay 
 to him and his heirs, that of re- it not have alluded to the origin- 
 leasing a Templar from public al co-operation of the Hospital- 
 penance. Addison, p. 47. lers, whose dress was black, with 
 
 2 Their original banner was the Templars, who wore white ? 
 black and white, and was called Bausen is used in Scotch for a 
 Beauseant, which became their pieljald horse. Sec Jamiesou's 
 war-cry. It was used of piebald Diet. sub. voce. 
 
 horses. Du Cunge, Bauccus.
 
 12 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 ing for tlie recovery of the Holy Land. Many a 
 conscience, touched by gratitude for a mercy received, 
 or remorse for a sin committed, would feel relief in 
 the idea, that the debt to heaven might be paid, or 
 its displeasure averted, by a donation or a bequest 
 to the TemjDlars. The foundation of religious houses 
 went on pari passu with the endowment of the 
 military orders. Rievaulx, Fountains, Bolton, Kirk- 
 stall abbeys,as well as several priories, were founded 
 in Yorkshire in the course of the 12tli century. 
 
 The earliest grants which we find made to the 
 Templars in England are of the reign of Stephen, 
 A. D. 1135 — 1154. He gave them certain manors 
 for the salvation of his own soul, and that of his 
 wife Matilda, and his son Eustace, and his uncle 
 Henry. Matilda herself was also a benefactress to 
 the Templars.^ The house of the order in London 
 was at this time just without Holborn Bars, near 
 Southampton Buildings. Henry II. gave them a 
 site on the Flete (then not a ditch, but a river 
 flowing rurally from Hampstead,) for the construc- 
 tion of a mill, and also the Church of St. Clement 
 Danes. The increase of their wealth led them to 
 erect a splendid house and church on ground which 
 they purchased, extending along the Thames from 
 the Monastery of the Whitefriars as far as Essex 
 -j< Street. Heraclius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, 
 consecrated it in 1185. He visited Europe in 
 consequence of the Christians having suffered a 
 great defeat from Saladin, but returned without 
 accomplishing much by his journey. 
 
 It was probably the visit of Heraclius wdiich led 
 
 1 Dugdalc, Monasticon, 0, 2, p. 838.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMTLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 13 
 
 to a general survey of the lands and rents of tlie 
 order; for it was in 1185 that Jefirey, hy whom 
 this survey was made, undertook the office of Pre- 
 ceptor of the Ballia de Angha, or Master of the 
 Temple. In the organization which the order had 
 now attained, England was divided into a number 
 of balha?, and in every place where they had 
 considerable possessions, they established superin- 
 tendents, called in this counir j preceptors (receivers), 
 in foreign countries more commonly commendatores^ 
 whence commanders and commanderies. The jDre- 
 ceptors in the provinces were subject to the Grand 
 Preceptor or Master of the Temple in London, who 
 both held chapters there at which the provincial 
 preceptors appeared, and also made visitations 
 throughout England. He was in his turn subject 
 to the Grand Master whose residence was at Jeru- 
 salem, but who occasionally held chapters at Paris, 
 w^here the representatives of the order from the 
 kino-doms of the West assembled. The ballise 
 mentioned in this survey are London -, Kent ; 
 AVarwick (which was of great extent, going as far 
 as Launceston) ; Weston, near Stevenage in Hert- 
 fordshire ; Lincolnshire;^ Lindsey ; Widine (South 
 Witham, near Colsterworth, on the borders of 
 Leicestershire) ; and finally, Eborascire, Yorkshire. 
 The great benefactors of the order in this county 
 were the families of De Lacy, De Brus, De Mowbray, ,.< 4^^ 
 De Eoos, De Stuteville, De Courtenay, and Hast- 
 ings, Of the position which they held in the 
 
 1 The tliree-fold division of plars in it. Dugdale's Baronage, 
 this county is indicative of the 1, p. 123, 125. 
 large possessions of the Tern-
 
 14 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 aristocracy of tlie North we may form an idea from 
 the circumstance, that Robert de Brus, Eoger de 
 Mowbray, Robert de Stuteville, and Ilbert de Lacy, 
 were all present in the great battle of the Standard, 
 near North Allerton, fought in Aug. 1138, in which 
 the northern barons defeated David, King of Scots. 
 Robert de Brus possessed Skelton and fifty other 
 lordships in the north Riding, and forty-three in 
 the East and West. It was his son, Adam de Brus, 
 who was so liberal to the Templars ; the father had 
 founded Gruisborough Priory, and been a liberal 
 donor to the Abbey of Whitby, to Middlesburgh, 
 and to St. Mary's at York. The famous Roger de 
 Mowbray, Earl of Northumberland, lost his estates 
 for rebelling against Stephen ; but Nigel Albini, 
 who married his daughter, took his name and his 
 lands. Besides endowing the Templars richly from 
 his Lincolnshire property, he gave them lands at 
 Thorp near Catterick, at Thirsk, and at North 
 Cave. He had been taken prisoner by Saladin in 
 1187, at the same time with Guy de Lusignan, the 
 King of Jerusalem, at the fatal battle of Tiberias, 
 which was followed by the sack of Jerusalem, and 
 having been ransomed by the Templars, he showed 
 his gratitude to the order by the ample donations 
 which he made to them.^ The family of De Roos 
 took their name from Roos in Holderness. Robert, 
 the second lord, the benefactor of the Templars, 
 lived in the reigns of Richard I. and John. He 
 was brother-in-law, and through his wife co-heir, of 
 Walter Espec, the founder of Rievaulx Abbey. 
 He gave them Ribston, Hunsingore, Cattal, and 
 
 1 Dugdale Monasticon, 6, 2, p. 839.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 15 
 
 Walsford. Alan Carpentarius endowed Ribston 
 with lands at Cowtliorpe, where the venerable oak 
 may even then have stood. The De Stutevilles were 
 a very ancient family in Yorkshire, having posses- 
 sions in the East and West Ridings. The forest 
 of Knaresborough belonged to them, and one of 
 them makes a great figure in the history of St. 
 Robert of Knaresborough, whom he first persecuted, 
 and afterwards patronized, in the reign of King 
 John. 
 
 The possessions of the De Lacys extended not 
 only through many parts of England, but into 
 Wales and Ireland. Grilbert, who in the reign of 
 Stephen gave large donations to the Templars, after 
 serving in the Holy Land became himself a knight 
 of the order. His brother, Henry de Lacy, was 
 one of the most powerful nobles of his day, posses- 
 sing seventy-nine knight's fees and a half. The 
 Honour and Castle of Pontefract belonged to the 
 De Lacys, and they had wide lands in its vicinity. 
 Henry gave to the Templars the Church of Kel- 
 lington near Pontefract, and confirmed the donation 
 of Whitkirk and Skelton near Leeds, with New- 
 husum or Nehus as it is called (Temple New^some), 
 originally given by William de Vilers.^ William 
 and Roger de Hastings gave to the Templars the 
 lands of Hurst near Snaith, in the parish of Birkin, 
 which retain the names of Temple Hurst, with 
 the ruins of a preceptory. John de Courtenay 
 
 1 The deed of donation is tris nieas et omnium amicorum 
 
 addressed to Roger, Archbishop meoriun, tarn vivorum quam 
 
 of York, and the motive is stated mortuorum, ut perhennis vita 
 
 to be "pro sahite animaj mere et nobis omnibus donetur." 
 pro animabus patris mci et ma-
 
 10 
 
 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 made a donation of lands at East Hurst, which still 
 bear the name of Hurst Courtenay. 
 
 The following list of their possessions in York- 
 shire has been made out partly from the survey of 
 the different ballia3 in 1185, partly from an enumer- 
 ation by Stillingfleet in 1434, more than a century 
 after the suppression of the order and the trans- 
 ference of their possessions to the Hospitallers.^ 
 From unpublished sources, no doubt, it might be 
 enlarged. 
 
 Stratford 
 
 . Stratforth, or Startfortli, opj)Osite to 
 
 
 Barnard Castle. 
 
 Broctune . 
 
 Brottou. 
 
 Gildale 
 
 . K:ildale. 
 
 Hengelbe . 
 
 Ingleby. 
 
 Hoiikes-^-ell . 
 
 . Hawkswell near Leybnrn. 
 
 Karletun . 
 
 Carlton near Arncliff. 
 
 EiclieraTind . 
 
 . Eiclimond. 
 
 Wiltim 
 
 wnton. 
 
 Careltune 
 
 . Carlton near Stanwick. 
 
 Burgum 
 
 Brough near Catterick. 
 
 Pennel 
 
 . PenliiU.2 
 
 Cutou 
 
 Temple Cowton. 
 
 Stainhow 
 
 . Stangbow near Gruisborougli. 
 
 Langtoim . 
 
 Great Langton. 
 
 Jarum . 
 
 . Yarm. 
 
 Bartune 
 
 Barton St. Mary's near Croft. 
 
 Leibrunne 
 
 . Leyburn. 
 
 Kii-dintune 
 
 Kirklington near Sinderby ( ? ) 
 
 Thimelby 
 
 . Thimbleby. 
 
 Baggabi 
 
 Bagby. 
 
 Jernewic 
 
 . Gervick near Skelton, N. Eiding ( '? ) 
 
 Lundbiuse . 
 
 Lund in the parish of Hawes. 
 
 Torp . 
 
 . Thori? near Bm-niston. 
 
 1 Dugdalo, 0, 2, 830, 8.38. excavated here a few years since, 
 
 2 The remains of an orator^' and a farm is called Temple- 
 belonging to the Temjjlars were Farm.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IxN YORKSHIRE. 
 
 17 
 
 "Watlous 
 
 Seiireby 
 
 Tresc 
 
 Biirnebam 
 
 Aldefeld . 
 
 Lindebi 
 
 Scui'veutune 
 
 Leeming Bridge 
 
 Brunton 
 
 Honetune 
 
 Fleta 
 
 Apeltiiue 
 
 Burel 
 
 Crachall 
 
 Alawartliorpe 
 
 Osegotebi 
 
 Cukewald . 
 
 Kerebi . 
 
 Ampelford 
 
 Staiuegi'ive 
 
 Calvertiine 
 
 Wimbeltune 
 
 Nuningtune 
 
 Healmesley 
 
 Scalletune . 
 
 Haitun . 
 
 Cattun 
 
 Ponteni Belli 
 
 North Cave 
 
 Droitune 
 
 Witliele . 
 
 Baggaflete 
 
 EippKiiham 
 
 Walebi 
 
 CHf . 
 
 Wihetoft 
 
 Faxflete . 
 
 Kelintvme 
 
 Fenwic 
 
 Hyrst . 
 
 Thornton Watlas. 
 
 Sowerby near Thirsk. 
 
 Thirsk. 
 
 Burniston (?) 
 
 Oldfield near Studley. 
 
 Lindrick near Eipon (?) 
 
 8cruton. 
 
 Where Leeming Beck joins Swale. 
 
 Patrick Brompton. 
 
 Ilunton near Patrick Brompton. 
 
 I^'by Pleetham. 
 
 Appleton-on-"Wisk. 
 
 Biu'rell near Bedale. 
 
 Craik-Hall, Bedale. 
 
 Allerthorpe, Bedale. 
 
 Osgodby, near Thirsk. 
 
 Coxwold. 
 
 Cold Ivirby. 
 
 Ampleforth. 
 
 Stonegrave. 
 
 Oawton near Gilling (?) 
 
 Wimbelton near Harum. 
 
 Niinnington. 
 
 Helmsley. 
 
 Scawton. 
 
 Hayton, East Eiding. 
 
 Catton. 
 
 Stamford Bridge. 
 
 North Cave. 
 
 Drewton. 
 
 Whitley. 
 
 Eiplingham near South Cave. 
 
 Waldby. 
 
 CUflf. 
 
 Willetoft near Bubwith. 
 
 Faxfleet. 
 
 Kellington. 
 
 Fenwick near Campsall. 
 
 Temple-Hurst.
 
 18 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 Eibstane . 
 
 
 Cowthorpe 
 Ilunsingore 
 Cattal . 
 
 Still retaining the 
 
 Wetlierbi . 
 
 
 Ilklei . 
 
 
 Neuliusiim . " 
 Newbiggin . . \ 
 
 Temple Newsome. 
 
 Wbitchirclx 
 
 Whitkirk. 
 
 Skeltoni 
 
 
 Wynhill . 
 
 Winmoor. 
 
 Tanner ^ says the Templars had a priory at North 
 Ferriby, founded by Lord de Vesci, which was after- 
 wards converted into a priory of Austin Canons, 
 at the dissolution of the Templars. Mount St. John 
 near Thirsk has sometimes been reckoned among 
 their possessions, but it seems from the first to 
 have belonged to the Hospitallers. Their possessions 
 at York were not splendid. They consisted of the 
 Castle-mills, which existed till very lately, given by 
 E-oger Mowbray ; Henry de Fishergate held them 
 at a rent of twenty marks ; three tofts, which the 
 knights had purchased, for which Silvester paid 
 four shillings ; a toft on the other side of Ouse, for 
 which Walter the Smith paid two shillings ; and 
 divers tenements in Conynge Street, given by 
 Eobert de Eos. They had also lands and a house 
 
 1 In Dugdalc, Monasticon, G, 
 2, p. 841, is a grant from Haii- 
 ■\visia de Granteville of a bovate 
 and toft in Skelton and another 
 in Wynhill, " Ad sustentationem 
 himinariai beata; Mai'ia) in ca- 
 pella cjusdem loci." Skelton 
 adjoins Newsome. 
 
 2 Notitia Monastica, p. 680. I 
 do not find North Ferriby men- 
 tioned in either of the surveys 
 
 of the property of the Templars 
 in Yorkshire. In Dugdale.p. 808, 
 note (° ), a charter of King John 
 is cited, by which he grants to 
 the Templars land at Newland. 
 The text, however, saj-s, " to the 
 Hospitallers," who certainly had 
 a preccptory there. Newland 
 is on the Calder, not far from 
 Normanton.
 
 OP THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 19 
 
 and chapel at Copmanthorpe, where a field still 
 bears the name of Temple-Garth. Westerdale near 
 Guisborough, Etton near Beverley, and Alverthorpe 
 near "Wakefield, are mentioned among the lands 
 transferred from the Templars to the Hospitallers, ' 
 though not included in the above list. 
 
 In looking through the list of the Templars' 
 possessions in Yorkshire, we cannot fail to be struck 
 with the variety and minuteness of the sources of 
 their revenues. Besides carrucates and bovates of 
 land, we find the right of holding markets, advow- 
 sons of churches, and medieties of rectories, multure 
 from wind and water-mills, tributes of poultry, 
 eggs, and swine, services of so many days in the 
 year for ploughing, harrowing, haymaking, sheep- 
 washing and shearing, mending ditches, and leading 
 stones. They enjoyed rights of free warren, fish- 
 eries, and turbaries, and the manorial or baronial 
 prerogatives of sac and soc, and tol and theam, and 
 infangethef and utfangethef, &c. They also enjoyed 
 many valuable immunities. A charter of Henry 
 III.^ grants them exemption from aids, danegeld, 
 and horngeld, with a variety of imposts the precise 
 nature of which it is difficult to ascertain, from 
 stallage and pontage, from all forced labour on 
 royal parks, castles, or palaces, and allows them to 
 take timber freely from their woods, without im- 
 peachment of waste, and to essart (clear) those 
 which they possessed within the limits of the royal 
 forests, without leave of the royal bailiffs. The 
 same charter gives them all waifs and strays on 
 
 1 Larking, Knights Hospital- 2 Dugdale, p. 844. 
 lers in England, p. 141. 
 
 c2
 
 20 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 their lands not followed and claimed, and the goods 
 and chattels which any of their men might have 
 forfeited by crime, and allows them, in case of any 
 of their tenants forfeiting his fee, to take immediate 
 seisin of it, although the king had a right to keep 
 it in his hands for a year and a day. Amerciaments 
 incurred by any of their men, and carried to the 
 exchequer, were to be given up to the Templars. 
 They exercised jurisdiction not only over their own 
 body, but over their tenants, and levied forfeitures. * 
 A document preserved among the records of the 
 Vicars Choral of York Minster ^ shows how desirous 
 they were of extending their jurisdiction, to the 
 exclusion of the ordinary tribunals. It is a bond 
 by which Peter Middleton of Nesfield near Ilkley, 
 who had disputes with the tenants of the Templars 
 in Wharfedale, undertakes, under a penalty of 
 twenty shillings, to be paid towards the fabric of 
 St. Peter's at York, that neither he nor any of his 
 tenants should take proceedings against the Tem- 
 plars in any court, canonical or civil ; that he would 
 not avail himself of any right of a23peal that might 
 be prejudicial to them ; and that if he was injured 
 by any of their tenants, he would bring his cause 
 before their court at Whitkirk. This was an 
 usurpation which might well excite the jealousy of 
 the courts of law. 
 
 The order had been favoured by the Church as 
 
 J Dugdale. " Homines de Ker- of tlie Rev. Mr. Metcalfe, one of 
 
 ebi dicunt quod de omnibus pla- the Minor Canons of York Min- 
 
 citis suis quic non possunt finiri ster. It were to be wished that 
 
 per illos, nisi per fratres, debent these records were given to the 
 
 habere dimidiura forisfactum et public. The bond in question 
 
 fratres dimidium aliud." is printed in full in the Gentle- 
 
 ^ I owe the communication of man's Magazine, Dec. 1857, 
 
 this document to the kindness p. 645.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 21 
 
 well as by the Crown. Alexander III., in 11G2, by 
 his bull, called from its first words Otnne datum 
 ojjtimum (Ep. James i. 17), had enacted that the 
 Grand Master should be chosen by the collective 
 order only, and that he should be already a Templar ; 
 that no Templar should be required to take an 
 oath or do homage or fealty to any ecclesiastical 
 or secular person ; that the order should be free 
 from the payment of tithes, but should be at liberty 
 to accept tithes from clergy or laity with the consent 
 of the bishop. The bishop was to be consulted, but 
 if he refused assent, they might still be taken and 
 retained by the Templars, on the authority of the 
 Holy See. The most important privilege of all was 
 that of receiving clerks and priests into the order, 
 in their principal seat and in their dependencies, 
 provided they were not members of any other order. 
 Thus the cure of souls, and consequently an im- 
 portant means of control, was taken from the secular 
 clergy. Another very important privilege which 
 this bull conferred was, that if the Templars came 
 to any city, castle, or village, in the course of their 
 questing (ad suscipiendas collectas), which was lying 
 under interdict, and in which consequently no 
 divine service could be performed, the Templars' 
 priest, if there were no church of their own, might 
 celebrate mass in one of the churches of the place. 
 This privilege the Templars are said to have grossly 
 abused, and the synod held in the Lateran in 1179 
 made some stringent regulations designed to restrain 
 both them and the Hospitallers, who had shewn a 
 similar disposition to encroach.^ Innocent III., who 
 
 1 Wilkc, 1, I). 82. Gcrvasc iu Script, x. p. 1454.
 
 22 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 made a freer use of the weapon of the interdict and 
 excommunication than any of his predecessors, 
 found himself embarrassed by the privileges which 
 they had granted, and addressed an epistle to the 
 Grand Master^ with the view of correcting the 
 abuses of which the bishops had complained to him. 
 In the same epistle he alleges, that they admitted 
 into their fraternity any who would pay them a few 
 pence annually, and for whom Christian burial 
 might thus be claimed, though they died under 
 interdict, or were persons of immoral lives — 
 adulterers or usurers. In conclusion, he warns the 
 Grand Master, that if a more strict discipline were 
 not maintained and calamity should come upon the 
 order, the fault would be their own.^ Alexander 
 IV. was more favourable to the Templars, and 
 issued various bulls confirming all their privileges. 
 The reign of Henry III., which occupied fifty-six 
 years of the thirteenth century, appears to have 
 been the culmination of the power and wealth of 
 the Templars. We may not be able to rely im- 
 plicitly on the statement, that they possessed nine 
 thousand manors and sixteen thousand lordships ;^ 
 but the enumeration of their possessions in York- 
 shire alone shows how large a portion of landed 
 property they had acquired, and in France they 
 were much richer than in England. Even here the 
 Master of the Temple held his head high among 
 the magnates of the land, and took his place in 
 parliament, like the mitred abbots and priors. 
 
 1 Wilke, 2, p. 240. soon Ml by the hostility of 
 
 2 Clement IV. had warned the bishops and the temporal 
 ihem, that without Ihc protcc- princes. Addison, p. 31)4. 
 
 tion of the Pope they would 3 Mat. Paris, p. G15.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 23 
 
 Amaric de St. Maur was one of the high personages 
 by whose advice King John granted Magna Charta. 
 Yet this same century was full of disasters for them 
 as defenders of the Holy Land. Jerusalem had 
 been retaken in 1244; the Grrand Master and the 
 noblest of the knights had perished in the battle of 
 Gaza; the Crusades had terminated in 1254 with 
 the unsuccessful expedition of St. Louis. At the 
 siege of Saphet in 1200, one hundred and thirty 
 knights and seven hundred and sixty fighting men 
 had been beheaded by the Soldan of Egypt, refusing 
 to renounce their faith. By the capture of Acre in 
 1291, the last stronghold of the Christians in the 
 Holy Land had been taken from them. 
 
 To the end the Templars maintained the character 
 of valiant soldiers of the Cross, and there appears 
 no ground for the imputation which Matthew Paris 
 casts upon tliem,^ that they might have conquered 
 Palestine if they had chosen, but that they pro- 
 longed the war, in order to have a pretext for 
 raising money in Christendom. But their position 
 was invidious ; their privileges encroached on the 
 rights of the church and the prerogatives of the 
 sovereign and feudal chiefs. Henry III., though 
 he had favoured the order, had complained of their 
 wealth and pride. " You prelates and religious," 
 he says to the Grrand Prior of England, "but 
 especially you Templars and Hospitallers, have so 
 many liberties and charters, that your superabun- 
 dant possessions fill you with pride and madness. 
 Those things, therefore, which have been hastily 
 and imprudently granted by our predecessors, must 
 
 1 Matt. Paris, p. 545.
 
 24 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 be prudently and deliberately recalled. I will 
 infringe both this charter and others, which I or 
 my predecessors have rashly granted." The answer 
 of the Grrand Prior is haughty and defiant. " It be 
 far from thee, O King, to utter such an absurd and 
 ungracious word. As long as thou observest justice 
 thou art a King ; when thou infringest justice thou 
 wilt cease to be so."^ The rebuke was just, but 
 both the strength and the pride of the order must 
 have been great, when its chief ventured to hold 
 such language to the sovereign. Though he does 
 not appear to have fulfilled his threat of revoking 
 liis and his predecessors' chai-ters, Henry bore a 
 secret grudge against both Templars and Hospital- 
 lers, and endeavoured to do them mischief^ 
 
 It is not wonderful that distinguished and en- 
 riched as the Templars had been, their hearts should 
 have been lifted up with the pride which goes 
 before a fall. This is imputed to them as a 
 characteristic vice. The anecdote is in all our 
 histories, how Richard I. was advised by a bold 
 preacher to quit himself of his three daughters — 
 his Pride, his Avarice, and his Voluptuousness. 
 " Your advice is good," said the King, " and I 
 give the first to the Templars, the second to the 
 Benedictines, and the third to my Prelates."^ The 
 Templars were not the worst matched of the three. 
 Matthew Paris speaks of the " Templariorum 
 superba religio."'^ Spenser, in his Prothalamion, 
 speaking of the Temple buildings in London, says, 
 
 J Matt. Paris, p. 854. novorcalcs." 
 
 '^ Matt. Paris, «02. " Ex aliis '-^ Hume, cli. 10. 
 
 natis occasionihus Toiniilariis ot 4 Matt. Palis, 5i7. 
 
 llusijitalariis insidias tctciulit
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. XO 
 
 " Where now tlie studious la-vryers have their bowers, 
 There whilome wont the Templar Knights to bide, 
 Till they decayed through pride." 
 
 The profession of arms is one that does not 
 foster a spirit of civil equality ; the feudal system 
 encouraged a contemptuous disregard of the hum- 
 bler classes. But the Templars were the " cream 
 of the cream " of European chivalry, and the esprit 
 de coiys of the order inflamed the pride which 
 chivalry universally inspired. Their pride, however, 
 does not appear to have shown itself in magnificent 
 buildings ; their preceptories, as far as we can 
 judge from the few remains of them, at Temple 
 Swingfield, at Temple Hurst, and elsewhere, were 
 unostentatious. Indeed, as they were only transient 
 occupants of their houses, they were not likely to 
 expend much on their architecture or their ornament. 
 
 ' ' Their chiefest care 
 
 "Was horse to ride and weapon wear."^ 
 
 No doubt wealth produced luxury as well as 
 pride, but it was not confined to the Templars. 
 Could St. Bernard have seen Prior Aymer of Jor- 
 vaulx and Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert, proceeding 
 to the hall of Cedric, he would as little have recog- 
 nized a Cistertian monk in the Prior, as a poor 
 soldier of the cross in the knight. We read of an 
 archdeacon of E,ichmond, who travelled with ninety- 
 seven horses, twenty-one dogs, and three hawks, 
 
 J Pope Clement VI. complains vestibus, vasis aureis et argen- 
 
 of the flospitalleis, that the Hos- teis, et pretiosis aliis ornamentis 
 
 pitals in foreign parts derived utuntur ; aves et canes tenent et 
 
 little benefit fi-om their great nutrinnt venaticos," and si)ent 
 
 wealth ; that they " cquos mag- very little in almsgiving. Jjar- 
 
 uos et pulchros equitant, cibis king, p. Ixix. 
 vacant delectabilibus, pomposis
 
 26 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 and of whom the Prior of Bridlington complains, 
 that coming to a church of which they were the 
 impropriators, he had cost them as much in one 
 hour, as would have kept the whole convent a long 
 time.' 
 
 Of the history of the Templars of Yorkshire, 
 between the time of their establishment and their 
 dissolution, scarcely any records remain. Their 
 profession called them elsewhere, and we have no 
 means of distinguishing them from the general 
 body of soldiers of the cross in Palestine. The 
 inhabitants of the ISTorthern counties have always 
 been remarkable for the qualities which belong to 
 the military character. Their vicinity to the hostile 
 kingdom of Scotland kept these qualities in exercise, 
 producing at the same time a certain rudeness of 
 manners and speech. The Templars could not be 
 founders of families in which ancestral traditions 
 of their exploits might have been preserved, but 
 we may presume that the knights at least belonged 
 to the aristocracy and gentry of the kingdom. Nor 
 have we any detailed account of the manner in 
 which their vast property was administered. Por- 
 tunately a record has been lately brought to light, 
 which gives us a clear insight into the manner in 
 which the Hospitallers managed their affairs,^ and 
 the circumstances of the two orders were so nearly 
 alike, that probably the system of each was the 
 same. Only a small number of the knights resided 
 
 ' Gill Vallis Eboracensis, p. nova, for 1338." Edited by the 
 
 70. Rev. Lambert B. Larking, M.A., 
 
 2 " Tlic Kniglits Hospitallers with an historical Introduction 
 
 in England, being the Report of by John Mitchell Kenible, M.A. 
 
 Prior Philip dc Thamo to the Printed for the Camdcu Society, 
 
 Grand Master, Elyan de Villa- 1857.
 
 or THE KNIGHTS templar in YORKSHIRE. 27 
 
 on the property belonging to the order. Some of 
 the farms were let out to tenants paying rent ; 
 the larger properties were retained in their own 
 hands, and cultivated by their servants and by the 
 cottagers, who were bound to render a specified 
 amount of service in husbandry. A variety of profits 
 from smaller sources, as mills, tolls, fees of the courts 
 which they assumed to hold, tithes of churches of 
 which they were impropriators, fees from those in 
 which they possessed an interest, the produce of 
 quests,^ swelled the amount of the income of the 
 order. From this there were various sums to be 
 deducted, for the maintenance of the establishment, 
 for robes, arms, horse-furniture for the knights, 
 expences of journeys, &c. What remained after the 
 various reprises was paid to the general treasury. 
 The larger properties were managed by the Precep- 
 tors, or the brethren next in rank to them ; the 
 smaller ones by bailiff's, but the Preceptors made 
 periodical visitations. Among the expences of the 
 Hospitallers we find considerable sums paid to 
 lawyers, and even to the judges. The Templars 
 were better able to protect themselves than the 
 Hospitallers, but they too must have had suits to 
 maintain in the King's Courts, and might find it 
 for their interest to stand well with the Bench. 
 
 The commencement of the fourteenth century 
 was marked by an event which precipitated the fall 
 of the Templars. Acre had been taken in 1291. 
 In conjunction with the Hospitallers they fitted 
 out in 1300 an expedition from Cyprus, where they 
 had established themselves after their expulsion 
 
 1 Sec p. 21.
 
 28 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 from Palestine, and took possession of the island of 
 Tortosa.^ But they were unable to hold it against 
 the Soldan, and after losing many men, and leaving 
 some in the hands of the enemy, they returned to 
 Cyprus ; and thus it became manifest, that all 
 chance of recovering Palestine by means of the 
 two military orders was at an end. They might 
 have effected something, at least in checking the 
 conquests of the Turks in the Egean and on the 
 mainland of Grreece, had they been united. The 
 Popes were induced, both by enlightened \T.ews of 
 policy and by the interest of the church, to cling to 
 the hope of recovering the Holy Land, when 
 sovereigns had renounced Crusades ; and with this 
 view they desired to preserve and strengthen the 
 military orders. Gregory X. in 1274 had formed 
 the plan of uniting the Benedictines and Cistertians 
 in one order, the Templars and Hospitallers in 
 another, and abolishing the Mendicants,^ but died 
 before it could be accomplished. Nicholas IV. 
 again attempted this union in 1284 without success. 
 A provincial council was held at York in 1291 to 
 consider this plan, which was again frustrated by 
 the death of the Pope.'' Indeed such had been the 
 jealousy of the orders, and their acts of violence 
 towards each other,^ that friendly co-operation for 
 any length of time was hardly possible. It was 
 proposed to the last Grand Master, Jacques de 
 Molay, that the Templars should join the Hospital- 
 
 1 Wilke, 1, 208, 224. should be observed that this 
 
 2 Wilke, 1, 230. writer is very unfriendly to the 
 
 3 Fasti Eboracenses, by the military orders, especially the 
 E-cv. J. Raine, p. 3;i9, notcj'. Templars. 
 
 ■1 Matthew Paris, p. 987. It
 
 OF THE KMIGIITS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 29 
 
 lers, who had taken possession of Rhodes, which 
 they long rendered the bulwark of Christendom 
 against the Turks ; but the proposal was declined. 
 Its acceptance might have saved the Templars, as 
 it did the Hospitallers. Their office became a 
 sinecure, and a plausible pretext was not wanting 
 for the resumption of possessions and privileges, 
 granted them for a purpose which they had ceased 
 to fulfil. The sovereigns of Europe were begin- 
 ning to free the crown from the checks which had 
 hitherto impeded the growth of prerogative, and 
 the Templars, who formed an almost independent 
 power, an iniperium in 'huperio, would be more 
 obnoxious than ever, when their sphere of action 
 was removed from the East, to the various countries 
 of the West in which they had established them- 
 selves. 
 
 A powerful soldiery never terminated its exist- 
 ence by a peaceful dissolution. The Prsetorian 
 guards, who had so long tyrannized over the 
 Roman emperors and people, were almost exter- 
 minated in the great battle which Constantine 
 fought under the walls of Rome with Maxentius, 
 to whom they adhered. It was easy, therefore, for 
 Constantine to disband them, and distribute them 
 among the frontier stations.^ But it was only by 
 massacre that Peter the Great could disembarrass 
 himself of the Strelitzes, or Sultan Mahmoud of 
 the Janizaries, or Mahmoud Ali of the Mamlooks. 
 The late war with the Sepoys in India illustrates 
 
 1 Jam obliti deliciarum Cirei Danubioque praetendunt. In- 
 Maximi, ct Pompciani theatri, cert. Paneg. Constantini, cap.21. 
 et nobilium lavacrorum, Kheno
 
 30 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPrRESSION 
 
 the truth, that it is only by some great catastrophe 
 that a numerous and powerful military organization 
 can be dissolved. The Templars had not even the 
 consolation of dying with arms in their hands j 
 they were the victims of treachery and chicane. 
 
 Notwithstanding some occasional antagonism, 
 the Popes had hitherto steadily befriended the 
 Templars. But this support was now to be with- 
 drawn, and the Pope to become the instrument of 
 their destruction. Pope Boniface VIII. and Pliilip- 
 le-Bel (TV.) of France had been in bitter hostility ; 
 the death of the Pope was probably produced by 
 chagrin at his arrest at Anagni, by order of Philip. 
 His successor, Benedict XI., died by poison. The 
 conclave of cardinals continued nine months after 
 Benedict's death without being able to unite in the 
 choice of a successor, so violent was the opposition 
 of interests. The long suspense was terminated 
 by the election of the Archbishop of Bourdeaux, 
 who became Clement V. The support of Philip 
 had been gained by a promise on the part of the 
 Archbishop to fulfil six conditions, five of which 
 were specified, and the sixth remained to be made 
 known at the pleasure of the King.^ AVliether, 
 even at this time, Philip had meditated the destruc- 
 tion of the Templars, and in his own mind made it 
 the reserved condition, we do not know, but it is 
 certain that in his proceedings against them he 
 found a ready instrument in Clement. The plan 
 itself was the conception of the King. He was 
 one of the most unscrupulous of sovereigns — in an 
 age when sovereigns generally made their own will 
 
 1 Sismondi Hist, des Fran9ais, 6, 100, quoting Villani, lib. 8, c. 80.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMTLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 31 
 
 the ride of right — cruel, faithless, and avaricious. 
 His conduct towards Boniface had been violent and 
 unjust. He had shown how little regard he had 
 to ■ individual rights, by confiscating the property 
 of the Lombard bankers and threatening them 
 with torture under pretence of their practising 
 usury. Twice he had seized on the property of all 
 the Jews, the second time banishing them from his 
 dominions. Whether the Templars were guilty or 
 not, we can have no hesitation in pronouncing 
 Philip capable of any degree of cruelty and injustice, 
 which might be necessary for the accomplishment 
 of their destruction. 
 
 Clement was proclaimed Pope on the 5th of June, 
 A.D. 1305. On the 14th of September, 1307, Philip, 
 probably after previous communication with him, 
 whom he kept in a kind of honourable captivity at 
 Poictiers, issued circular letters to the governors of 
 all the provinces of his kingdom, commanding 
 them to arrest all the Templars on the 13th of 
 October. The secret appears to have been well 
 kept. At the dawn of day their houses were 
 surrounded, and being wholly unprepared for re- 
 sistance, they were seized and imprisoned, and their 
 goods sequestered and inventoried.^ The Grand 
 Master, Jacques de Molay, had come from Cyprus 
 with some of the knights to attend, on the invita- 
 tion of the King, a conference which was to take 
 place at Poictiers on matters of importance. They 
 were lodged in the Temple at Paris, and were 
 arrested there. On Sunday, October 15, Philip 
 caused an announcement to be made in the chapel 
 
 ^ Sismondi Hist, dcs Francais, 0, 135.
 
 3.:2 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 of the palace, and the other churches of Paris, of 
 the various crimes whicli had caused their arrest. 
 The Pope seems not to have expected such rapid 
 proceedings, and he was offended that the jurisdic- 
 tion, which he thought belonged to himself, should 
 have been handed over to the archbishops, bishops, 
 and inquisitors. The Templars had been always 
 under the protection of the Holy See ; they had 
 immunities which were violated by the proceedings 
 of the King. Clement therefore, by a bull dated 
 October 27, evoked the cause to himself at Poictiers. 
 Subsequently he so far modified his protest, that he 
 only reserved to himself the trial of the Grand 
 Master and the Preceptors. The prisoners were 
 subjected to torture,^ under which many of them 
 expired ; others confessed the crimes laid to their 
 charge, wholly or in part. The testimony against 
 them, on the ground of which their seizure took 
 place, was obtained from two men of infamous lives, 
 and that which was wrung from themselves by 
 torture many of them subsequently retracted. The 
 King appears to have been desirous of shifting 
 from himself the odium of these proceedings, and 
 called together at Tours an assembly of the nobles 
 and third estate, before whom he laid the evidence 
 thus obtained. The accused were not heard in their 
 defence ; the assembly adjudged them to be worthy 
 of death. The university of Paris and the faculty 
 of theology concurred in the sentence. Its execu- 
 tion is thus described by the Florentine historian, 
 
 1 Dr. Tangard (Hist. 3, 472) of the most shocking aud infa- 
 says, " Philip on examination mous practices." He does not 
 obtained from many a confession say " % torture."
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 33 
 
 Villani : ' " The King caused to be erected at Saint 
 Antoine and Saint Denys a large enclosure, sur- 
 rounded by palisades, where fifty-six of the Tem- 
 plars were tied each to a stake, and fire applied 
 first to their feet, then to their legs, burning them 
 by degrees, and giving them notice at the same 
 time, that any one of them, who would acknowledge 
 his error and his sin, should be released from his 
 suffering. Their friends and relations, who sur- 
 rounded them in the midst of their torments, 
 exhorted them to confess, and not suffer such 
 disgraceful martyrdom, but none of them would 
 make confession. On the contrary, in the midst of 
 tears and cries, they protested that they were 
 innocent and faithful Christians ; they called Christ, 
 Holy Mary, and the saints to their aid, and thus 
 burnt and consumed they all expired." 
 
 Such a death renders nugatory the evidence 
 derived from their previously extorted confession. 
 This execution was the act of Philip alone. Sub- 
 sequently, in August 1309, the Pope convoked an 
 assembly of bishops and archbishops, who met at 
 Paris, and before them the Grrand Master, Jacques 
 de Molay, was examined, and the confession which 
 he was alleged to have made was read to him. He 
 altogether denied its truth. Some of the knights 
 repeated their former confession ; others declared 
 that it had been made under promise of pardon or 
 threats of torture. In several places executions of 
 the Templars took place : the order was finally 
 dissolved at Yienne, in a Council which Clement 
 had summoned to meet there in 1312. Great 
 
 ' Sismoiidi, 6, 187.
 
 34 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 diligence had been employed in the meantime, in 
 collecting depositions against the Templars, and 
 extorting confessions by the rack, if they could 
 not otherwise be obtained. The sentence was pro- 
 nounced March 6, by the Pope in a secret consistory,^ 
 not in the character of a judge, or on the authority 
 of the documents in the process, which he had no 
 legal power to do, but by way of decree^ (provisio) 
 and apostolic order. On the 3rd of April a second 
 session of the Council was held ; the Provision 
 was made known to them, the order was formally 
 abolished, and their goods transfeiTed to the Hos- 
 pitallers, " who like wrestlers of the Lord, exposing 
 themselves unceasingly to death for the defence of 
 the faith, incur hea\^ expenses in lands beyond the 
 sea." In the following year the Grand Master and 
 three of the commanders were brought before a 
 commission assembled at Paris. All of them had, 
 in their previous examinations, confessed the crimes 
 imputed to the order. But as soon as their con- 
 fessions w^ere read, the Grrand Master and the 
 commander of Normandy revoked them. The 
 commission would have remanded them, but Philip 
 ordered them to be burnt that evening as relapsed 
 heretics, and they died protesting their innocence. 
 
 1 See the bull in Rymer, II., sou ordinationis Apostolicsc, ir- 
 
 i., p. 5. " Ordincm Domus rofragabili sustulimus sancti- 
 
 Militiiic Templi Jerosolymitani one." 
 
 propter Magistrum et Fratres 2 Provisio, Decrctum. Du 
 errorum et scelerum obscenitati- Cange. The ordinances of the 
 bns, maculis et labe respersos Oxford Parliament, a. d. 1258, 
 (qua) propter tristem et spurci- are called Provisiones by the 
 dam eorum mcmoriam pripscn- historians of the times. Dr. 
 tibus subticcmus) non per mo- Lingard says, " as a measui'e of 
 dum diffinitiva) sententiiv, cum expediency rather than of jus- 
 cam suiter hoc, secundum inqui- tice ; " but there is no mention 
 sitioncs et processus super his of expediency in the bull. " De 
 habitos, non possemus fcrrc dc jure" is not justly but of legal 
 jure, sed per viam provisionis, rhjht.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 35 
 
 The proceedings against the Templars were so 
 contrary to all principles of jurisprudence, that in 
 a purely judicial point of view the evidence against 
 them is worthless. As a question of historical 
 probability, their partial guilt or entire innocence 
 is not so easily settled. To the bull which Clement 
 addressed to the English prelates, commanding 
 them to inquire into the practices of the order, 
 eighty-seven articles of charge are appended.^ The 
 same accusation is repeated in different counts, 
 which may be condensed into the following heads. 
 
 1. That they denied the Divinity of Jesus 
 Christ, said that he had suffered for his own 
 crimes, and had no hope of salvation through 
 him. 
 
 2. That those who entered the order were 
 required to spit ujDon, and in various ways 
 insult, the cross ; and worshipped a cat. 
 
 3. That they did not believe in the sacrament 
 of the altar, and that in the Canon of the Mass 
 their priests omitted the words by which the 
 body of Christ is made. 
 
 4. That they believed the Grrand Master to 
 have the power of giving them absolution. 
 
 5. That their receptions were clandestine, 
 and were accompanied with indecent cere- 
 monies.^ 
 
 G. That they practised and allowed scandal- 
 ous vices. 
 
 7. That they had heads, some with three 
 faces, some with one, some with only a skull, 
 
 I Dugdalc, IMonasticon, 0, 2, 2 " Deosculabantur se in ore, 
 846, &c, in ventre, in iimbilico," &c. 
 
 D 2
 
 3G THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 which images they worshipped as God and 
 their Saviour, the source of their riches and of 
 the productions of the earth, and that they put 
 a girdle round the forehead of the image with 
 which they girded themselves. 
 
 8. That they imprisoned or put to death 
 those who would not conform to the before 
 mentioned practices, and bound all to secrecy 
 by an oath. 
 
 9. That they swore by all means, right or 
 wrong (per fas et nefas), to promote the increase 
 and benefit of the order. ^ 
 
 In regard to the grossest of these imputations, 
 nothing has come to light since the condemnation 
 of the Templars to confirm them, so that they still 
 rest on the original foundation of their own extort- 
 ed confessions; The charge of idolatry was thought 
 to have received confirmation from some discoveries 
 made by the celebrated orientalist, M. Von Hammer, 
 and published by him in his Dissertation " Mysterium 
 Baphometis Revelatum." ^ He thought he had 
 discovered proofs of their practice of idolatry, their 
 Gnostic heresies, and their use of obscene images 
 in their churches. His allegations shook the con- 
 viction of Mr. Hallam, who, in the .28th supple- 
 mentary note to his Middle Ages, wavers and 
 almost inclines to the opinion of the Templars' 
 guilt. On the continent, however, where M. Von 
 
 1 These eiglity-seven counts hospitality. See Wilke, 2,p. 274. 
 
 are found in the bull Faciens 2 Fundgruben des Orients 
 
 misericordiam Domini. In another (Mines of the East), vol. G, 1. 
 
 copy they are expandcid to one Baphomet is a corrupted form 
 
 hundred and twenty thro(;. The of Mahomet, to whom the Tem- 
 
 only important addition is a plars were alleged to do homage, 
 charge of neglecting alms and
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 37 
 
 Hammer thouglit lie had found in sculptures, 
 paintings, and mediaeval objects,' the evidences of 
 their heresies and vicious practices, his proofs are 
 considered arbitrary and fanciful ; and so they are 
 Regarded by Dean Milman, who has fully examined 
 the question in the fifth volume of his History of 
 Latin Christianity. The ninth charge is an adver- 
 sary's invidious statement of a principle of action, 
 which belongs to most incorporated bodies, but is 
 strenuously denied by all. The charge of unsound- 
 ness in the faith has more probability than that of 
 idolatry, and the insulting renunciation of Christi- 
 anity. An under-current of free-thinking on religi- 
 ous siibjects pervades society, while all at the 
 surface appears to be acquiescence and unanimity ; 
 and the more it is denied outward expression 
 by legitimate channels, the more strongly it is 
 manifested in those secret associations, in which 
 men can unbosom themselves without fear. It is 
 not likely, indeed, that warriors, who could neither 
 write nor read, would trouble themselves with the 
 subtilties of Grnosticism ; but they had learned 
 clerks among them who might indulge themselves 
 in heretical speculations which they durst not avow 
 in public, and the layman might ridicule as an 
 absurdity the doctrine which the priest inculcated 
 as a mystery. To us it may seem that men who 
 took the cross and left their homes for a foreig-n 
 land, must have been animated by a spirit of j)iety, 
 
 1 Certain jettons, assigned by Margraves. Manj' cliurclies con- 
 
 Von Hammer to the Templars, tain indecent sculptures, but 
 
 and considered to exhibit their the proof that they belonged 
 
 impiovis symbols, Mr. King exclusively to the Templars 
 
 (Ancient Gems, p. 352) says arc entii-ely fails, 
 the bractcate coins of German
 
 38 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 wliich would keep tliem at the greatest possible 
 distance from everything profane ; but after the 
 first impulse of enthusiasm in the foundation of 
 the order had spent itself, the love of the profession 
 of arms and the dignity of knighthood, the fellow- 
 ship of distinguished men, a share in the possessions 
 of a wealthy order, had probably more to do in 
 recruiting the ranks of the Templars than religious 
 zeal. We may think that pious feeling would be 
 exalted and faith confirmed by residence in 
 
 " Those holy fields 
 
 Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, 
 Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed 
 For our advantage to the bloody cross." 
 
 Henry IV., 1., i. 
 
 But the contrary effect seems to be produced ; the 
 resident views with indifference that which excites 
 the enthusiasm of the pilgrim. The piety of 
 Dr. Johnson might grow warmer amidst the ruins 
 of lona ; the inhabitants care little about St. 
 Columba, or the blessings which his missionaries 
 diffused among the roving barbarians. 
 
 Even the parodies of the services and ceremonies 
 of the church imputed to the Templars, if true, 
 will appear less atrocious, when we consider how 
 irreverently they were sometimes treated by church- 
 men themselves, as in the Feast of the Innocents, 
 or the Feast of Fools, and the mock ceremony of 
 the Boy-Bishop ; ^ or the Feast of the Ass at 
 
 ^ Sec on this subject Gregorie, lendse, quotes an inventory of 
 
 E|iiscopnsPuerorum. There Avas the Cathedral of York, taken iu 
 
 at Salisbuiy a nionvunent to a 1530, in Avhich mention ia made 
 
 boj-bisho]). Du Cango, Ka- of a mitre for tlic boy-bisho]).
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 39 
 
 Beauvais/ where an ass was led in procession to 
 the altar, and an imitation of his bray by the 
 priest was substituted for the Amen at the end of 
 the Mass, the people braying in response. These 
 things were condemned by the Councils of the 
 Church, but they were practised in churches and 
 even in cathedral churches. The public ceremonies 
 of initiation into the order were grave and dignified, 
 but it is said that they were parodied by blas- 
 phemous and indecent proceedings. Some recent 
 extraordinary revelations of courts martial (1S5G) 
 prove what a disposition there is in young military 
 men, to play off coarse practical jokes on new-comers. 
 And if such things are done amidst the refinement 
 of the nineteenth century, what may we not believe 
 of the grosser manners of the thirteenth ? It is 
 very possible that the kiss of reception into the 
 order may have been parodied, in those extraordi- 
 nary oscula before referred to.^ 
 
 That many of the Templars were stained with 
 the licentiousness of the age is by no means 
 improbable. St. Bernard miscalculated the efficacy 
 of vows and discipline, when he endeavoured to 
 exact, from high-spirited youthful warriors, virtues 
 not always easy even to a macerated monk. Gal- 
 lantry was the soul of chivalry, and probably many 
 a Templar regarded his vow as only a prohibition 
 of marriage. Profligacy was but too characteristic 
 
 1 Rigollot,]MonuaiesdesFous, asticai cseremonia; conveniant." 
 
 p. 31 ; Wright, Arclia3ological The idea, however, appears to 
 
 Album ; Du Cange, Festum Asi- have been originally religious, 
 
 ni. He concludes his account of the ass being the representative 
 
 the ceremonies with the words, of that which carried the Virgin 
 
 " Ha3c aegre retulimus, quippe into Egypt. 
 
 quae theatro magis quam ccclesi- 2 See note on p. 35.
 
 40 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 of the age ; it may well have been rife among the 
 Templars, when it had taken such root among 
 ecclesiastics and monks. ^ The enormities imputed, 
 and with apparent justice, to Boniface VIII., 
 equalled or exceeded those which were alleged 
 against the Templars. And if it should be said 
 that they were calumnies in the case of the Pope, 
 it may be replied, that the evidence was less sus- 
 picious than that on which the Templars were 
 condemned. On this point we may do justice to 
 the motives of Philip. He was a monarch of grave 
 character and strict morality, and his horror of the 
 loose lives of the Templars was probably sincere. 
 It was with great difficulty that Clement dissuaded 
 him from insisting that the memory of Boniface 
 should be branded with infamy. The order of the 
 Templars may have been made a scape-goat for the 
 Holy See. 
 
 I am the more inclined to believe that Philip 
 was sincere in his conviction that morality demanded 
 the suppression of the Templars, from the pains 
 which he took to procure its extension to the other 
 kingdoms of Europe. He had no personal interest 
 in their suppression in England, but he wrote to 
 Edward II., charging them with horrible crimes, 
 and sent an agent to enforce his request for their 
 seizure. The proceedings of Edward are remark- 
 able. He wrote in answer to Philip, that he had 
 laid the matter before the Council, but that the 
 charges seemed to them and him incredible. As 
 
 1 The chapter De Vita et lion- gives no flattering picture of tlio 
 estate Clericoruni,\ni\mCo\\siit\ii. inoi'als of the clergy. 
 Syiiod.Wiutou. (Wilkins, 2,2'J6),
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 41 
 
 however some of the scandals were alleged to have 
 occurred in Guienne, an English province, he 
 would summon the Seneschal of Agen to his 
 presence. The result of this interview, which was 
 to- take place at Boulogne,^ is not told us, but he 
 wi'ote on the 4th of December, 1307, to the Kings 
 of Portugal, Castille and Leon, Arragon, and Sicily, 
 exhorting them to allow nothing to be done against 
 those who had exhibited devotion to the church, 
 and defended it in foreign countries, upon mere 
 rumour, without legal conviction.^ To the Pope at 
 the same time he wrote, highly praising the Tem- 
 plars for their good conduct, and exhorting him to 
 institute proceedings by which their conduct might 
 be cleared.^ Meanwhile he so far conformed to the 
 policy of Philip, that in January 1308 * the property 
 of the Templars and the persons of many of them 
 were seized by his orders. His change of feeling 
 towards them had been produced by a letter from 
 the Pope, informing him of the discoveries made 
 by Philip's inquisitions ; he may have also been 
 desirous of courting Philip's favour. For at that 
 time he was on the point of proceeding to Boulogne, 
 to receive the hand of Philip's daughter, Isabella, 
 " the she-wolf of Prance," to whom he owed many 
 of the misfortunes of his life and his horrible death. 
 The bull " Paciens misericordiam," issued from 
 Poictiers on the 12th of August, 1309, in which 
 the Pope relates the measures taken to inquire into 
 the truth of the charges against the Templars, and 
 
 J Rymer, 3, 32, Nov. 2Gtli. applied to tlie three kingdoms, 
 
 2 Rymei-, Dec. 4th. but it was provided that the 
 
 3 Rymer, Dec. 10th. Templars should not be kept 
 * Rymer, 3, 34. The order " in dura et vili prisona."
 
 42 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 to which the eighty-seven articles are appended 
 which had resulted from the investigation, reached 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury in September 1309. 
 He transmitted it, and the accompanying docu- 
 ments, to his suffragans on the 22nd of September, 
 and, in obedience to his mandate, the Bishop of Lon- 
 don forthwith ordered that all the Templars in the 
 city and diocese of London should, on the following 
 Sunday after mass, be cited to appear before him. 
 Two French ecclesiastics had been sent over in the 
 preceding month, appointed by the Pope to preside 
 at the trials. The imprisoned Templars were at 
 the same time ordered to be brought from the 
 Southern Counties to London, from the Midland to 
 Lincoln, and from the Northern to York. The 
 examinations in London produced no evidence in 
 suj^port of the charges contained in the Pope's bull. 
 He was dissatisfied that torture had not been used, 
 and the weak monarch gave way and ordered the 
 application of torture, provided it did not extend 
 to the shedding of blood or mutilation of the 
 body. This power was used ; but besides the rack 
 every method was taken to harass and exhaust the 
 prisoners, so as to drive them to confession. All 
 that could be obtained from them by repeated 
 interrogatories was only hearsay, and the testimony 
 against them, tendered by those who did not belong 
 to the order, came from the most polluted sources. 
 They put in a solemn declaration of their innocence 
 and their orthodoxy, appealed to those among 
 whom they had lived, and declared their readiness 
 to submit to censure and punishment if, in their 
 ignorance, they had said or done anything wrong.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLA.R IN YORKSHIRE. 43 
 
 It is an affecting document, and no one can read it 
 without being convinced, that whatever may have 
 been the levity or the vice of individuals, the order 
 was free from all serious imputation. At length 
 two apostates, Stephen de Stapelbrigg and Thomas 
 de Thoroldby, both serving brothers, were induced 
 to confess to the spitting on the cross, and the 
 denial of the divinity of Christ ; and a chaplain of 
 the order, John de Stoke, deposed, that on his 
 admission into the order by Jacques de Molay, the 
 Grand Master, a crucifix was exhibited to him, and 
 he was told to deny the Saviour who was represent- 
 ed upon it, which he did through fear of death. 
 Hereupon Stapelbrigg and Thoroldsby were brought 
 before the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and having 
 adhered to their confession, and affixed their mark 
 (for they could not read), they received absolution, 
 and were re-admitted into the Church. John de 
 Stoke was absolved and re-admitted in the same 
 way. From the rest no other confession could be 
 obtained, than that they had been guilty in receiv- 
 ing absolution from the Master of the Temple, 
 who, as a layman, had no power to grant it.^ Upon 
 signing a declaration to this effect, along with a 
 vague and general confession, that they could not 
 purge themselves of the heresies set forth under 
 the apostoHc bull, they were reconciled to the 
 
 1 The form in which the Mas- property to himself ; but of the 
 
 ter or his deputy dissolved a sins which they had not coufess- 
 
 Chapter is given in French ed, " pour honte de la chair ou 
 
 amonj^ the examinations of the pour pour de la justice de la 
 
 Scotch Templars (Wilkins, 2, mesoun," he absolved them by 
 
 383). No pardon would be virtue of the power which the 
 
 granted for embezzling the alms Pope had given him. 
 of the house, or keeping any
 
 44 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 Church at the south door of St. Paul's. Many of 
 those confined in the Tower were too feeble or too 
 ill to bear removal, and were absolved and reconciled 
 at St. Mary's Chapel, near the Tower. ^ 
 
 It has been already related (p. 41) that in Janu- 
 ary 1308 orders had been given, that the Templars 
 throughout England should be arrested and their 
 property sequestered. The King had sent a writ 
 to the Sheriff of Yorkshire, Sir John de Creppinge, 
 commanding him to summon twenty-four discreet 
 and faithful knights, to be at York on the morrow 
 of the Purification, the day appointed for the 
 capture of the Templars. In their presence he was 
 to open the sealed orders, in the execution of which 
 they w^ere to assist. The motive of this secrecy is 
 obvious ; it was desirable not only to seize the 
 persons of the Templars, but to prevent conceal- 
 ment or colourable transfer of their property. The 
 order is endorsed with a return of the proceedings. 
 The Templars w^ere placed in custody in various 
 parts of the county. On the 4th of March, 1309, 
 an order in the French language is issued to those 
 who had them in charge in the province of York, 
 to bring them to York, and produce them before 
 the Abbat of Lagny and Sicard de Vaur, the Pope's 
 chaplain and auditor of causes, two of the Com- 
 missioners appointed by the Pope to conduct the 
 inquiry, and allow them to be dealt with according 
 to ecclesiastical law.^ At the same time the King 
 of France addressed a letter to Archbishop Green- 
 
 1 See tlie account of tlio pro- cliap. x. 
 cccdings in London, in Addison, 2 Rymcr, 3, 34, 43, 202.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 45 
 
 field, strongly urging liis co-operation.^ The matter 
 could not be strange to the Archbishop. He had re- 
 ceived consecration from Clement V. at Lyons in the 
 beginning of the year 1307, in which the Templars 
 were arrested throughout France, and the character 
 both of the Pope and Philip must have been well 
 known to him. On the 11th of March, 1309-10, he 
 issued from London his summons to a provincial 
 Council, to meet at York on the 20th of May, 1310. 
 Meanwhile the Ecclesiastical Commissioners had 
 not been idle in preparing evidence for the Council. 
 The Templars, who had been brought together 
 from all the northern counties to York, had under- 
 gone examination from April 27th to the 4tli of 
 May. We are surprised to find that they were 
 only twenty-five in number. Most of their names 
 indicate their Yorkshire origin.^ Among them 
 were the preceptor of Ribston, William de Grafton; 
 the preceptor of Paxfleet, WiUiam de la Penne ; 
 the preceptor of Newsham, Godfrey de Arches, and 
 two priests. William de Grafton, as appears from 
 his examination, had been thirty-two years in the 
 order, having been admitted in London by the 
 Grand Master. Being questioned on the subject of 
 its imputed heresies he replied, that he believed as 
 other men believed, and as to the abnegation of 
 Christ, charged in the articles 73 — 77, he declared 
 that he had never heard of such things. The 
 examination of the Templars in Prance had been 
 
 1 Raiue's Fasti Eboracenses, Clifton, all represent places in 
 p. 371. Yorkshire whence the patron- 
 
 2 The names of Stamford, ymic was derived. See the en- 
 Kerhy, Bellerby, Langton, Rou- tire list in Fasti Eboracenses, 
 cliff, Wylton, Ripon, Thresk, p. 372. 
 
 Shefeld, Eberston, Midelton,
 
 40 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 proceeding, and, by the means already described, 
 (p. 31), confessions of atrocious crimes had been 
 wrung from them. He was reminded of these, but 
 declared that if they had really made them, they 
 had lied. Thomas de Stamford, who had been 
 admitted in Cyprus, deposed that the Grand Pre- 
 ceptor, a knight, or the Visitor, could absolve from 
 the seven deadly sins, if the offender implored 
 mercy from the Chapter and did penance ; and 
 that he needed no absolution from a priest, unless 
 the Preceptor commanded him to consult one.^ 
 The preceptors of Newsham and Paxfleet and 
 several of the knights were examined, touching the 
 ceremonies of initiation and the power of absolution, 
 but nothing of a criminal character was elicited 
 from them. Matter of graver accusation against 
 the Yorkshire Templars had meanwhile been 
 obtained by means of the inquisitorial proceedings 
 carried on in London.^ John de Nassington had 
 said, that Milo de Stapleton and Adam de Ever- 
 ingham had told him, that they had once been 
 invited by the Grrand Preceptor of Yorkshire to a 
 great feast at Temple-Hurst, and that they had 
 been told them (it is not said by whom) that the 
 knights assembled there to worship a calf. John 
 de Eure, Sheriff of Yorkshire, said, that before the 
 seizure of the Templars, and before any scandal 
 
 1 " Interrogatus dc quibus re- Archbishop Greenfield, to the 
 mittuutur ad sacei'dotes, dicit, account of the proceedings in 
 quod de occulto lapsu carnis et Wilkins' Concilia. Mr. Raine 
 dealiisabsolvitsacerdos.quando observes how bitter was the 
 veniunt ad eum, excepta Si- hostility of the Mendicants to 
 monia." Wilkins, 2, p. 372. the Templars. The Templars 
 
 2 Fasti Eboracenscs, p. 371, were the aristocrats, the Mendi- 
 where some important additions cants the plebeians. 
 
 are made, from the Register of
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 47 
 
 respecting them was in circulation, William de la 
 Fenne, preceptor of Westerdale, had been invited 
 to his house, and that after dinner he took a book 
 from his bosom and gave it to the sheriff's lady. 
 She, who must have far surpassed most of her sex 
 in that age, both in letters and theology, found in 
 it a paper containing very heretical propositions 
 concerning Christ and the Christian faith. She 
 handed it to her husband who, when he had read 
 it, questioned the preceptor about its contents, 
 William de la Fenne smiled, and said the man who 
 wrote it was a great ribald, but would not part 
 with the book. William de la Forde, rector of 
 Crofton, swore that a deceased priest of the 
 Augustine order had told him that Patrick de 
 Eippon, a Templar, had revealed to him in con- 
 fession that the knights were guilty of horrid 
 blasphemies and crimes. Being questioned when 
 he had heard these things, he said, in the city of 
 York, since the seizure of the Templars. Eobert 
 de Oteringham, a Minorite, swore, that after return- 
 ing thanks the chaplain of Eibston rebuked the 
 brethren, and told them that the devil would burn 
 them, or words to that effect. The threat was not 
 undeserved, if his subsequent account of the in- 
 decencies committed by them were true. One 
 circumstance deposed to by this witness shows, how 
 ready the enemies of the Templars were to seize on 
 anything, which could be made the ground of 
 accusation against them.^ He had seen at Eibston 
 a crucifix laid upon an altar, and said to a Templar 
 that it was disrespectfully placed, and should be 
 
 J Wilkins, 2, p. 398.
 
 48 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 raised up ; to which the Templar replied, " Put the 
 cross down, and leave it in peace." Twenty years 
 before, when he was at Wetherby, he was told the 
 Grand Preceptor, who happened to be there, did not 
 come to table, because he was preparing an exhibi- 
 tion of some relics which he had brought from the 
 Holy Land. He heard in the night a noise in the 
 chapel, and getting up looked through the keyhole, 
 and saw — a great light from a fire or candle ! Next 
 morning when he asked one of the Templars what 
 saint's festival they had been keeping, he turned 
 very pale and charged him, as he valued his life, 
 not to say a word of what he had seen.^ Such 
 hearsays would never be received in evidence by 
 any court of law, but they contributed their share 
 to bring odium on the Templars, and prej^are their 
 ecclesiastical judges for their condemnation. 
 
 Before the second Council met, the Templars, 
 who in the meantime had been in York Castle, 
 were brought up to the Chapter House ; the 
 previous proceedings and depositions were explained 
 to the audience in their mother tongue, and the 
 Templars put in a paper in the French language, 
 along with certain papal bulls relating to their 
 
 lA story something similar if lie had seen what went on, he 
 was told by Gasper dc Nafferton, must either have entered the 
 who had l)ccn at llibston when order or been put to death. He 
 William de Pocklington was ad- also deposed that a cross, which 
 mittcd by William de Grafton, had been left standinp; the night 
 preceptor of Ribston. The before, was found on the gi"ound. 
 knights had held a meeting in These things excited no suspi- 
 the night with closed doors, cion at the time, but after the in- 
 Some one had bargained with famy of the Templars was made 
 the doorkeeper for two shillings known, the chaplain " concepit 
 to be admitted to the cercmon}^ sinistram suspicionem ex his." 
 but the doorkeeper ha<l not kept Wilkins, 2, 363. 
 his word, and ho was told that
 
 OF THE KNHillTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 49 
 
 order. Being again brouglit up on a subsequent 
 clay, their answers were reduced to writing by the 
 notaries/ and the following Friday was fixed for 
 the final decision. But a further deliberation was 
 found necessary. The Archbishop was at this time 
 probably intending to visit the Nottinghamshire 
 portion of his diocese. He therefore appointed the 
 Council to be held in the conventual church of 
 Blyth ; ^ but changed his mind, and it was actually 
 held at York on the 1st of July. 
 
 The assemblage of churchmen in the Minster on 
 that day must have been very imposing.^ The 
 Archbishop was seated on his tribunal, attended by 
 his Suffragans, the bishops of Durham and Whit- 
 hern (Casa Candida) in Galloway ; the Dean of York 
 and of the prebendal churches of Aukland and Lan- 
 caster ; the Archdeacon of Cleveland, the Chancellor 
 of the church of York, Doctor in Theology ; the 
 Abbats of St. Mary's, York, Kirkstall, Eoclie, Eie- 
 vaulx, Meaux, Fountains, Eufford (Notts.), Furness, 
 Calder, Cokersand, Jorvaulx, St. Agatha (Easby), 
 Egleston, Newminster ; the Priors of Holy Trinity 
 and St. Andrew, York, of St. Oswyth Pontefract, of 
 Drax, Bretton, Guisborough, Newburgh, Malton, 
 Marton, Gronmis (Grosmont ?), Thurgarton, Felse3'e 
 (Felly, Notts.), Mattersey, Blyth, Bridlington, Kirk- 
 holm (Kirkham), Warter, Ellerton ; Thomas de 
 Clifford, John Gower, Philip of Beverley, Doctors 
 in Theology ; the Friars Geffrey of Haxby, a monk 
 
 1 Wilkins, 2, 397. in 1311 have attained the super- 
 
 2 Wilkins, 2, 358. lative beauty which it claims in 
 
 3 The proceedings are said to the well known line " Ut rosa 
 have taken place "in capitulo." phlos phlorum, sic est domus 
 The age of the Chapter-House ista doniorum." 
 
 is uncertain, hut it can hardly
 
 50 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 of Diirlmm, Adam de Lincoln, a Minorite of York, 
 Thomas de Pontefract, of the same order, Richard 
 de Wetwang, an Augustinian of York, Thomas de 
 Midelton, a Friar Preacher ; Nicolas of Oxford, 
 Eichard of Chester, and Pobert of Sancthorpe, 
 Professors of Canon Law. All these personally 
 appeared ; a multitude of ecclesiastical personages 
 were represented by their procurators. 
 
 The Archbishop took for his text Acts iv. 32 : 
 " And the multitude of them that believed was of 
 one heart and of one mind." This unanimity, 
 however, did not at first prevail ; for the Templars 
 having been brought up and afterwards removed, 
 along with all the clergy and laity who had not been 
 summoned to the Council, " great disputation and 
 continued altercation arose between the aforesaid 
 doctors, professors, and dignitaries, upon the reasons 
 and motives touching the business of the Templars 
 and the Templars themselves." Ultimately the 
 business was adjourned to the next day, when a 
 committee was appointed, consisting of doctors and 
 professors of the canon law, and other discreet and 
 learned persons, more fully to treat of and deliberate 
 upon the matter, and report to the Archbishop on the 
 following Monday. When Monday arrived, much 
 further discussion took place, and the Archbishop 
 appointed a committee to draw up a memorial to 
 be presented to the Pope, which was to be laid 
 before the Council on the following Saturday, with 
 liberty to the Templars to controvert it if they 
 thought expedient. On Saturday, the 10th of July, 
 Pobert de Pickering, the Archbishop's Commissary, 
 presiding, the matter was again handled, the Arch-
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 51 
 
 bisliop himself being absent and not appearing at 
 any subsequent stage of the proceedings. A further 
 adjournment took place to Wednesday in the fol- 
 lowing week, the 28th of July. The attendance 
 had at this time much diminished ; only the Bishop 
 of Whithern, the Dean of York, the Chancellor 
 of the Church, the Archdeacon of Cleveland, the 
 Abbats of St. Mary's, Kirkstall, Selby, Jorvaulx, 
 Eoche, Meaux, Coverham, Egleston, Eievaulx, 
 Byland ; the Priors of the Holy Trinity, St. An- 
 drew, Pontefract, and Drax, were present. An 
 adjournment to next day took place, that the absent 
 members might make their appearance. We find, 
 however, no further mention of them. 
 
 On the 29th of July, the twenty-four Templars, 
 with William de Grafton at their head, appeared 
 before the Commissary and the other ecclesiastical 
 dignitaries, and all and singular of them, each for 
 himself confessed and distinctly acknowledged, and 
 that of his own free will, that there had been very 
 scandalous reports concerning them (se vehementer 
 diffamatos fuisse) in regard to the articles contained 
 in the papal bulls, and that they could not clear 
 themselves (de eisdem non posse se purgare), and 
 all and every one on his knees humbly prayed that 
 they might be re-admitted to the Church (statum 
 ecclesise sibi concedi), affirming that they were ready 
 in all things to conform to the orders of the Church 
 respecting the premises. Then each of them, touch- 
 ing the Holy Evangelists, took the following oath 
 in his mother tongue : " I, A. B., detest and abjure 
 on these Holy Evangelists all heresies, and especi- 
 ally those contained in the papal bull, and promise 
 
 £ 2
 
 52 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 in all other matters to keep the Catholic and 
 orthodox faith, which the Holy lloman Church 
 holds, teaches, and preaches. So help me God and 
 these his Evangelists." Having taken this oath, 
 they proceeded immediately to the South door of 
 the Minster, and swore to obey all the commands 
 of the Church. Thereupon the Bishop of Whithern, 
 in his pontifical robes, the Dean and Chancellor of 
 the Church, the Archdeacon of Cleveland, and the 
 Abbat of St. Mary's standing by, absolved them 
 from all the heresies contained in the papal bull, 
 and from all others, and restored them to the 
 Church and to its sacraments. The Templars then 
 returned to the Chapter House, where Eobert de 
 Pickering released them from the King's custody 
 and prison, and admitted them to the custody of 
 the Church. The Council was adjourned to the 
 following day, the 30th of July, and the eleventh 
 of its sitting, when the Commissary pronounced 
 that they should be distributed among the monas- 
 teries of the diocese to perform penance, the mode 
 and form of which should be prescribed by the 
 Archbishop and his colleagues. The Council then 
 adjourned sine die. 
 
 Considering the whole of these proceedings, I 
 can come to no other conclusion, than that the 
 Templars, having the fate of their brethren in 
 France and in the South before their eyes, had 
 consented to that modified confession which their 
 words involve, on condition that their lives should 
 be spared. Its expressions are remarkable. They 
 do not plead guilty to the charges of the papal 
 bull, which they could not have done without
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 53 
 
 accusing themselves of falsehood in their examina- 
 tions ; they only say that they cannot clear them- 
 selves. Their oath of abjuration is not a confession 
 of heresy, any more than the abjuration of the 
 Pretender in an oath of allegiance was a confession 
 of having been a Jacobite. To abjure is to 
 repudiate, not necessarily to renounce, under the 
 sanction of an oath. Mr. Eaine justly observes, 
 that the proceeding was, on the whole, creditable 
 to the northern clergy. The praise of abstaining 
 from torture belongs rather to the civil authorities, 
 in whose custody the prisoners were. 
 
 The distribution of the Templars among the 
 monasteries soon took place. ^ John de Nassington, 
 whose name has been already mentioned as deposing 
 to an idle story against them (p. 46), was appointed 
 their penancer,^ and before a twelvemonth had 
 passed their sentence of excommunication was 
 taken off. This mode of disposing of them is a 
 strong evidence that the archbishop did not beheve 
 the more serious charges against them. If he had 
 thought them to be, in the language of the papal 
 bull, " non tam nefandis quam infandis errorum et 
 scelerum obscenitatibus, maculis et labe respersos," 
 would he have run the risk of corrupting the 
 monasteries of his diocese, by introducing such a 
 mass of pollution into them? Nothing in the 
 conduct of the Templars, while relegated to the 
 monasteries, justified^ the imputations against them. 
 Pensions of four-pence a day were granted to them 
 from their sequestered estates, or from those which 
 
 1 See the particulars in Fasti 2 Fasti, p. 374, note y. 
 Eboracenses, p. 375, note b. 3 Ibid., note d.
 
 54 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 were transferred to the Hospitallers.^ In the south 
 they appear to have fared worse. Many of them 
 put on the garments of laymen ; some married 
 wives ; others wandered about the country in such 
 forlorn guise, letting their beards grow long, that 
 Edward II. had to protect his valet who was going 
 to travel, by special letters, that his long beard 
 might not lead to his being taken for a fugitive 
 Templar.^ 
 
 The Council of Vienne was not sitting, and the 
 formal sentence of annullation had not been pro- 
 nounced, when these proceedings took place at 
 York, but it had been adjourned to the 1st of 
 October, 1311. Archbishop Greenfield had been 
 invited to take a part in it. He proceeded to 
 Vienne in the course of that month, and was 
 treated, as his historian Stubbs informs us, with 
 marked distinction. The proceedings of the Coun- 
 cil on the 22nd of March, 1312, have already been 
 described. Greenfield, who had returned to England, 
 after being present at the formal dissolution of the 
 order pronounced in April of that year, published 
 from Cawood, on the 14th of August, a decree in 
 which he declared it for ever abolished, and forbade 
 anyone, under pain of the greater excommunication, 
 from entering the order, or wearing its habit, or in 
 any way behaving himself as a Templar. That 
 they might not pretend ignorance, the decree was 
 
 1 Larking, p. 137. Jolin do the charges on tlicir revenues 
 
 Hoperton, formerly a Tenipliir, in 1338 are the vadia or annual 
 
 appears as enjoying a corrody, wages, six marks each, of twelve 
 
 i. e., free maintenance, from the Templars, among whom are 
 
 precoptory of Wetherby, then several Yorkshircmen. 
 
 licld by the Hospitallers. Among 2 Addison, p. 579.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 55 
 
 to be published in the Cathedral of York, and all 
 other churches, collegiate, conventual, and parochial, 
 throughout the diocese.^ So ends the history of 
 the order of Templars in Yorkshire.^ 
 
 The records of the Exchequer contain numerous 
 documents relating to the property of the Templars 
 in this county. There are inventories of all the 
 stock and furniture found on their manors of Aller- 
 thorpe, Brompton, Newsome, Whitby, Etton, 
 Westerdale, Wetherby and Sicklinghall, Copman- 
 thorpe, Faxfleet, Foukbrigg (Foulbridge near Yed- 
 dingham), Eibston, Cowton, and Hurst. Specimens 
 of these have been printed from the public records, 
 in the Gentleman's Magazine, 1857, pt. 2, p. 519, 
 including the Castle Mills at York, Copmantliorf)e, 
 Temple Newsome, and Temple Hurst, all of which 
 places were visited and their contents scheduled, if 
 we may believe the date of the return, on a single 
 winter's day, Dec. 1, 1311. These properties had 
 been in the hands of Adam de Hoj)erton, as custo- 
 
 1 Wilkins, Concilia, 2, 401. Franciae, qui propter timorem 
 
 2 It may be interesting to read regis Francite per quern, ut dice- 
 some opinions respecting the batur, totum illud scandalum 
 dissolution of the order. The fuerat, aliud facere non aude- 
 Dominican who passes by the bant." The Scottish historian 
 name of Stubbs, and who pro- Spotiswood says of the Templars, 
 bably wrote soon after the death " The rumour went, that Philip, 
 of Thoresby,( 1373) since he does King of France, to get one of 
 not mention his successor, Arbp. his sons made Kingof Jerusalem 
 Neville, saj^s, " Prsesentibus ip- and possessed of their i-evenues, 
 sis Templariis, et ad omnia eis did labour to have them and 
 objectaper semulos suos respon- their order condemned. But 
 dentibus, quamvis in multis howsoever their destruction was 
 essent accusati nihil tamen in- wrought, all authors testify, that 
 ventum est quod de jure videre- notwithstanding the cruel tor- 
 tur statum illorum annuUare." ments which divers of them 
 Our Yorkshire historian, Walter were put unto, none of the crimes 
 of Hemingbrough, says, " Erant laid to their charge could ever 
 pro ordine Templariorum pr.iela- be made out against them." 
 ti quasi omues, pra^tcr prailatos P. 61.
 
 5G THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 dian, since the seizure of the Templars' goods, and 
 were now delivered over to Alexander de Cave and 
 Robert de Amcotes. The chapel at the Castle Mills 
 appears to have been well furnished with books, 
 vestments, and vessels, and it is noted that the 
 chalice had been valued at a hundred shillings,* 
 when the Templars were seized, but that it was 
 not worth so much. The inventory is most minute, 
 including even a cracked pan, patellam dehilcm. 
 Thence the Commissioners proceeded to Copman- 
 thorpe. The prices of the produce found on the 
 manors may be worth recording; "mixtilis" (mas- 
 lin), 3s. 4d. a quarter; oats, 2s. ; wheat (frumentum), 
 4s. ; peas, 2s. 6d. ; a cart horse (equus carectarius), 
 lis.; a plough horse (affrus pro carucis), 5s.; a 
 plough ox, lOs. ; a cow, 6s. 8d. ; a goose (auca), 3d. 
 From other valuations we learn that the price of 
 a boar was 4s. ; of a sow, 20d. ; of a ewe, 12d. ; 
 of a wether (multo), 15d. ; a lamb, 8d. ; an ass, 3s. 
 The return of stock from Newsome shows the 
 magnitude of the establishment. There were forty- 
 four plough oxen, fourteen plough horses, four 
 hundred and fifty-four sheep, three hundred and 
 thirty-five wethers, one hundred and forty-seven 
 lambs. The tithe of Whitkirk, which was in sheaf, 
 is valued at 50 marks. Temj)le Hurst was inferior 
 to Newsome in live stock, but had a large acreage 
 in crops of grain. In both establishments the 
 
 1 Edward II. was in York in six marks to eight. Edward had 
 the winter of UUl and spring of come to York to meet Gavcston, 
 1312, and by a grant " teste me had retired to Newcastle on the 
 ipso apud Eboracum xxx die approach of the Ivirl of Lancas- 
 Maii anno regni nostri quinto," tor, and returning by sea to Scar- 
 he increas<;d the salary of the borough, had come back to York 
 chaplain at the Castle Mills from in the beginning of May.
 
 OF THE KNIGTITS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 57 
 
 kitchen appears to have been well furnished with 
 pans, pots, frying pans, tripods, mortars, gridirons, 
 pickling tubs, and a brewing apparatus. Temple 
 Hurst, standing near the Aire, had boats and nets 
 for fishing. With the exception of a sacramental 
 cup, which appears in all the valuations, there is 
 no mention of plate. The kitchen at Newsome 
 contained three mazer bowls' (ciphi murrei), valued 
 at 2s. each. All arms and military equipments 
 would no doubt be taken possession of when the 
 Templars were arrested. 
 
 The spoliation of the order had been accomplished 
 by a combination between the Pope and the sove- 
 reigns of Europe, aided by the aristocracy, who 
 hoped to recover what their ancestors had given 
 away. The division of the spoil was not so easy. 
 The Pope would gladly have transferred their 
 property to the Hospitallers, who were now the 
 only military body devoted to the defence of Chris- 
 tendom, and who had raised their reputation by 
 their seizure of the island of Rhodes, and their 
 gallant resistance to the Turks. But it was far 
 from the intention of the secular powers to raise up 
 a second military order, and endow it with the 
 means of becoming troublesome to the state. The 
 selfishness of the sovereigns and the nobles soon 
 betrayed itself. Both Edward II. and Philip of 
 France showed themselves well disposed to have 
 kept the goods of the Templars in their own hands, 
 if the Pope had not interposed and urged them 
 
 1 Of these mazer bowls, see Proceedings of Arcli. Institute, 
 a pajicr by Robert Davies, Esq., York, 18i6, p. 24.. 
 and Albert Way, Esq , in the
 
 58 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 to bestow tlieni on the Hospitallers. The king and 
 the lords of the fees granted to the Templars were 
 very unwilling to yield them to the Hospitallers. 
 The question had been formally proposed to the 
 Council, including the king's justices, whether the 
 lords of the fees or others, wlio had taken possession 
 of the tenements of the Templars, could retain them, 
 " secundum legem terrse et sana conscientia," ac- 
 cording to the law of the land, and with a safe 
 conscience. They answered that they might by 
 the law of the land ; the question of conscience 
 they did not decide. Parhament interposed, and 
 by an Act passed in the 17th year of Edward II. 's 
 reign (1324) ^ it was declared, that inasmuch as the 
 lands had been given for the defence of Christianity 
 against the Saracens and other enemies of Christ, 
 neither the king nor the lords of the fees could 
 hold the Templars' lands, and that no donation or 
 inheritance since the Dissolution could be pleaded. 
 But as the Knights Hospitallers had been instituted 
 for the same pious purposes, it was enacted that 
 they should have the Templars' lands, subject to 
 all the pensions, hospitalities, and obligations, to 
 which they had been subject while held by the 
 Templars. The statute concludes by empowering 
 them to recover anything to which they were 
 entitled. 
 
 This restitution after all was very imperfectly 
 made. The lately published volume of " The Hos- 
 pitallers in England" shows what difficulty they 
 had in getting possession. In 1338, when this 
 Survey was made, they had in Yorkshire AVhitley, 
 
 1 Ruffhead's Statutes at Large, Appendix, p. 23.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 59 
 
 Etton, Foukbrigg, Alvertliorpe, Westerdale and 
 Copmanthorpe, Cowton, Ribston, and Wetherby;' 
 but the rich manors of Temple Hurst and Temple 
 !Newsom, with Faxfleet, Carlton, and Normanton, 
 were in other hands.^ The Crown had appro- 
 priated the Castle Mills at York ; Temple Hurst 
 and Temple Newsome had been given to the Coun- 
 tess of Pembroke, Faxfleet to Ralph Neville, Carl- 
 ton to Hugh le Despencer, Normanton to Lord 
 de Roos. Some of those which were in their hands 
 had probably suffered waste from the lords of the 
 fee, as those in other counties had.^ Aymer de 
 Valence, Earl of Pembroke, held the Temple in 
 London during his Hfe. At his death it was trans- 
 ferred to the Hospitallers, who leased it to the 
 Students of the Law,^ and built themselves the 
 Priory of St. John's, Clerkenwell, the remains of 
 which form the frontispiece to the pages of the 
 immortal Sylvanus Urban. 
 
 To trace the history of the properties once 
 belonging to this order in Yorkshire, requires a 
 knowledge of topography and genealogy to which 
 I make no pretension. By inquiries in all the 
 localities mentioned in their history much know- 
 ledge might yet be obtained. I subjoin to this 
 paper a list made out by Mr. AV. H. Black of all 
 the documents connected with the Suppression, 
 
 1 Larking, p. 212. 3 Larking, p. 133, 172, 183. 
 
 2 Mr. Larking considers "Nor- ■* " And so," saj-s Fuller, "these 
 manton le Vale " to be Temple buildings are turned to better 
 Normanton in Derbyshire ; but purpose, these new Templars 
 I think it more probable that it defending one Christian from 
 is the Yorkshire Normanton, in another, as the old ones defended 
 the vale of the Calder, well Christians from Pagans." 
 known to railway travellers.
 
 GO THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 lately in the Carlton Eide branch of the Public 
 Record Office, and now transferred to the Gleneral 
 Record Office. They may assist in local investiga- 
 tions. If another Joseph Hunter should ever 
 arise, to write the history of the North and East 
 Ridings, as the history of South Yorkshire has 
 been written by him, the descent of the Templars' 
 and Hospitallers' lands will be accurately traced. 
 I sliall only mention the disposal of a few of their 
 principal preceptories. 
 
 Ribston, which was transferred to the Hosj)ital- 
 lers, was granted, when they in their turn were 
 dissolved, to the Duke of Suffolk, and sold by him 
 to Henry Groodricke, brother of Thomas Goodricke, 
 Bishop of Ely and Lord Chancellor in the reign of 
 Edward YI. By the will of the last heir male of 
 the Groodrickes it passed to Sir Erancis Holyoake, 
 and is now in the possession of John Dent, Esq. 
 
 Temple Newsome and Temple Hurst were grant- 
 ed by agreement with the Hospitallers ^ to the 
 Countess of Pembroke for life, and after her death 
 by Edward III. to Sir J. D'Arcy. Plis descendant 
 in the reign of Henry VIII. took part in the 
 Pilgrimage of Grace, and was beheaded in London 
 in 1537. Temple Newsome, having been forfeited 
 to the Crown, was granted by Henry VIII, in 
 1544, to Lord Lennox and the Lady Margaret 
 his wife. Their son, the unfortunate Darnley, was 
 born there. Being again united to the Crown, it 
 was granted by James I. to his cousin, Esme Stuart, 
 second Duke of Lennox and Richmond, who had 
 married the only daughter and heiress of Sir Henry 
 
 1 Thoresby's Duoalus, p. 2:20.
 
 OF THE KXIGIITS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 01 
 
 D'Arcie of Briniliam. His extravagance led to its 
 alienation, and Temple Newsorae became tlie pro- 
 perty of Sir Artliur Ingram, whose father, Hugh 
 Ingram, a native of Thorp-on-the-Hill near Wake- 
 field, was a wealthy London draper. Sir Arthur 
 himself was a person of high consideration, a mem- 
 ber and secretary of the Council of the North, 
 high sheriff of this county, and representative of 
 the city of York in the last parliament of James I. 
 and the two first of Charles I. He built himself a 
 splendid house, with gardens extending to the city 
 wall, near the north-w^est end of the Minster, where 
 Charles I. was lodged in 1642, and of which some 
 remains were to be seen a few years since.* By his 
 marriage with a daugliter of Lord Fairfax of 
 Gilling, and his son's with a daughter of Lord 
 Fauconberg, he became allied to the aristocracy of 
 the county. His second son was rewarded by 
 Charles II. for his adherence to the royal cause, 
 with the Scottish Viscounty of Irwin. By mar- 
 riage with a daughter of the ninth Viscount, 
 Temple Newsome came to the Marquis of Hertford, 
 who took the name of Ingram, and at his son's 
 death to the representative of the family of Meynell, 
 whose ancestor had married the third daughter of 
 the ninth Viscount Irwin. 
 
 Sir Arthur Ingram entirely rebuilt Temple New- 
 some, and though the apartment is still pointed out 
 
 1 Drake, p. 370, 357, 354. 175. York contained other me- 
 
 Cave's Antiquities of York, pi. morials of Sir Arthur. He found- 
 
 xi. The Duke and Duchess of ed by his will the hospital in 
 
 Yorlc took up their abode there Bootham, and gave to the Min- 
 
 in 1 COG, when thej' came into ster three of the chandeliers by 
 
 the north to avoid the plague which the choir used to be 
 
 then raging in London. Drake, lighted.
 
 62 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 ill which Darnley was born, there is no proof that 
 any part of the original honse of the Templars 
 remains. Thoresby^ speaks of a bed, which ap- 
 parently had formed part of the furniture of the 
 former house, inscribed in gold letters, Avant 
 Darnley Jamais Derriere. When Sir Arthur rebuilt 
 the house he placed, according to the pious custom 
 of the times, the following inscription in stone 
 work on the walls. All glory and praise to 
 
 GrOD THE FaTHER, THE SoN, AND THE HoLY GrHOST 
 ON HIGH, PEACE, GOOD WILL TOWARD MEN, HONOUR 
 AND TRUE ALLEGIANCE TO OUR GRACIOUS KiNG, 
 LOVING AFFECTIONS AMONGST HIS SUBJECTS, HEALTH 
 AND PLENTY WITHIN THIS HOUSE. ^ The toWU of 
 
 Leeds still retains traces of the ancient privileges 
 of the Templars of Newsome, some houses, which 
 had belonged to them, being marked with their 
 cross, as a sign of exemption from the obligation 
 to grind at the Soke mill. Timble-Bridge, leading 
 from Leeds to Newsome, is said by Thoresby ^ to 
 be a corruption of Temple-Bridge. Temple Hurst, 
 not having become the residence of any wealthy 
 family, has escaped being modernized, and still re- 
 tains a considerable part of the Templars' buildings. 
 
 J Ducatus Leodiensis, p. 226. to the Templars, but does not 
 
 2 Dr. Whitaker, Loidis and explain the evidence on which 
 
 Elmete, p. 133, speaks mysteri- he relies. 
 
 ously of a cup, found since 3 Ducatus, p. 99. 
 
 Thoresby's time, which he refers
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 63 
 
 APPENDIX OF DOCUMENTS. 
 
 DOCTTMENTS OF THE EEIGN OF EdWARD HE., RELATING TO THE 
 
 Templars of Yorkshire, among the Records of the 
 Eemembrancer of the Exchequer, in the Public 
 Kecord Office, London. 
 
 First, a bundle marked " T. G., 41156," containing several files 
 of documents, and some loose. 
 
 First File. 
 
 No. 1. Writ commanding the Sheriff of Yorkshire to attach 
 all the Templars in his bailiwick, seize all their lands and 
 goods, together with their charters, writings, and muniments, 
 make an inventory thereof, till their lands, keep their bodies in 
 safe custody; and certify the Treasurer and Barons of the 
 Exchequer of his proceedings. (Dated at Byflete, 20th Dec, 
 1 E. 2.) Indorsed with a return of his proceedings. 
 
 No. 2. Indenture on behalf of Sir John de Creppinge, Sheriff 
 of Yorkshire, between Sir John Dayrill and John de Walden, 
 keeper of the manor of Cave, stating all the corn sold at Cave, 
 and the cattle and goods found there. (Wednesday after Epiphany, 
 I E. 2.) 
 
 No. 3. Inventory made in the manor of Alwarthorp. (Same 
 date.) 
 
 No. 4, The like at Penhill. (Same date.) 
 
 No. 5. Brampton. „ 
 
 No. 6. the Chapel of the Templars of York ; " or- 
 naments " and furniture only. (Same date.) 
 
 No. 7. The like at Neusom. „ 
 
 No. 8. AVythele. 
 
 No. 9. Etton. „ 
 
 No. 10. Westerdale. „ 
 
 No. 11. ■ Wetherby and Sikklinghale. (Same date.) 
 
 No. 12. Coiipemanthorpe. (Same date.) 
 
 No. 13. Faxflete. 
 
 No. 14. Foukbrigg, Alnestan(Allerston?),and Wyd- 
 
 dale. (Same date.)
 
 04 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 No. 15. The like at Rybbestan. (Rame date.) 
 
 No. 10. Couton, 01' Teniple-Couton. (Same date.) 
 
 No. 17. Hyrst. (Same date.) 
 
 No. 2 — 17 appear to be Transcripts only. 
 
 Original Inquisition relative to a grant of corrody, claimed by 
 William Const of Ireland, out of the House of the Temple of 
 Hyrst. (Wednesday after Epiphany, 3 E. 2.) 
 
 Extent of Lands, &c., in Westerdale; wapontake of Langbergh. 
 (Sunday after St. Matthew, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 Inquisition taken at Southcouton, relative to lands, &c., there, 
 and at various other places ; also churches.! (Sunday after Ash 
 Wednesday, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 Inquisition rehitive to a rent charge of 10 marks, claimed by 
 the Abbat and Convent of Salley. (Monday after Palm Sundaj'', 
 
 1 E. 2.) 
 
 Inquisition concerning lands holden by various persons, as of 
 the Templars, in Schireburn, Buhner, Rydal, and Thresk. Headed 
 "Foukebring"and"Buckros." (Sunday after St. Matthew, 1 E. 2.) 
 Long. 
 
 Inquisition of Templars' lands, &c., in ?iIanor of " Foukebrigg." 
 (Sabbath after Lent, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 File of orUjlnul documents under seal. 
 
 No. 1. Geoffrey de Cave's acknowledgment of the receipt of 
 moneys, on account of pension granted to him by the Templars. 
 (London, Wednesday before St. Katharine, 2 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 2. Writ to John le Gras, keeper of the Templars' house of 
 Faxttete, directing the said payments. (Westminster, 28th Oct., 
 
 2 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 3. Indenture testifying payment of pension to Robert de 
 Walton, chaplain, at ditTerent times. (2 — 3 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 4. Writ relative to same. (7th May, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 5. Recital of Writ ((ith May, 1 E. 2) and Inquisition 
 thereon taken, relative to a corrody claimed by Robert de Walton. 
 
 Inquisition of Templars' lands at Brampton, within the liberty 
 of Ryi^on. (Monday after Ash Wednesdaj', 1 E. 2.) 
 
 Patent committing to Jolin le Gras the county and castle of 
 York (i. e., shrievalty) ; and the lands, goods, and chattels of the 
 Temjjlars, and of Walter de Langton, Bishop of Lichfield and 
 Coventry, late in custody of John de Creppingge. (Westminster, 
 3rd July, 1 E. 2.) With part of Exchequer Seal attached. 
 
 1 Kirkby-fletham and Donnoum named as appropriated to the Tcm- 
 ( Downholme ? ) are the cliurches plars.
 
 OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPI.AR IN YORKSHIRE. 05 
 
 No. I. Original ludonturc or Inventory of tlie store of the 
 Manor of Brampton. (Sunday after St. Margaret, 2 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 2. Like of Wilbestayn. (Monday before St. Lawrence, 
 2 E. 2.) 
 
 .No. 3. Like (but longer) of Manor of Couton, delivered to 
 Dougal, son of Dual (Me. Dowel) • knight. (29th June 2 E. 2.) 
 
 File of Ten Writs and One Inquisition of various dates, 1 — 2 E. 2, 
 some directing the Sheriff of York, some directing John de Grase, 
 to do various things relative to the Temjjlars and their lands, viz. : 
 
 No. 1. To give 4d. a day to each Templar. 
 
 No. 2. Certifying a special custody of Manor of Brampton. 
 
 Nob. 3, 4. The like of lands in Northdighton, in Manor of 
 Eibstayn. 
 
 Nos. 5, G. The like at Temple Couton. 
 
 No. 7. General Writ for the Sheriff to take all the Templars' 
 lands into his custody, in order to a valuation thereof. (West- 
 minster, 25th June, 2 E. 2.) 
 
 Nos. 8, 9. To pay a corrody to John de Hopton. 
 
 No. 10. To pay a rent charge to the Abbat and Convent of 
 Sallay. 
 
 No. 11. Inquisition on same subject. 
 
 Inquisition relative to the Templars' Water Mills and certain 
 pieces of land in York, Avhich latter were alleged to belong to the 
 Commonalty of the City of York. (Y''ork, Tuesday after Ash 
 Wednesday, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 Roll indorsed " Ebor. Prime extente per Vic." 
 
 No. 1. Inquisition of lands in Naburn, Coupmanthoi-p, Stayn- 
 forde Brigge. (Monday after Ash Wednesday, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 2. Extent headed " Foukebring," relative to lands in 
 Pykering, Oketon (Aughton?), Snachthorpe ( Sancthorpe ? ), 
 Galmeton, Willarby, and several other places, written on the 
 margin, the names of which are damaged and obscure. (Sunday 
 after St. Matthias, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 3. Inquisitions of lands in the waponlakes of Osgotcrosse 
 and Barkeston. (Potterlowe, Sabbath, 2nd Mar., 1 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 4. Fragment of Inquisition relative to Faxllete. 
 
 No. 5. Inquisition of lands, &c., in wapentake of Clarhow; 
 viz., the Church of Hunsingovere, lands in North-Dighton, and 
 various other places, the names of which in the margin are 
 
 1 See No. 5 in next File.
 
 66 THE RISE, EXTENSION, AND SUPPRESSION 
 
 damaged and obscure. (Werreby (Wetherby), Sunday after Ash 
 Wednesday, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 6. Inquisition of lands, &c., in wapentake of * * * 
 and ISIorley, impei-feot, mucli damaged, and obscure, covered with 
 goldbeater's skin for presei'vation on both sides. (Ledes, Sabbath 
 after Ash Wednesday, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 7. Original Writ directing John de Gras to deliver the 
 lands, &c., in North Dighton, within the manor of Ribstan, to 
 Philip de Morteyn. (Westminster, 30th April, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 8. Recital of same Writ and Extent taken thereon. (Sab- 
 bath after St. John ante Port. Lat., 1 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 9. Original Writ directing the Sheriff to deliver to Miles 
 de Stapleton the manor of Temple Hirst and the Templars' lands 
 there, also at Birne, Esthirst, Westhathelsay, Middlehathelsay, 
 the manor of Kelyngton with the church there, the grange of 
 Potterlowe, &c. (Westminster, 3rd April, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 10. Indenture containing a long inventoiy of goods at 
 Temple Hirst, some at Potterlawe, and at Welington (Kelington?), 
 the last imperfect. (Wednesday in Easter week, I E. 2.) 
 
 No. 11. Extent of the manor of Coupmanthorp, and inventory 
 of goods found there. (Mondaj' after inv» of the cross, 1 E. 2.) 
 
 *,* End of the bundle " T. G. 41156." 
 
 Separate Roll marhed " H. C. H. 3399," heing an Indented Roll, 
 tilth Writ annexed. 
 
 No. 1. Original Writ of Privy Seal directing the Sheriff of 
 Yorkshire to deliver to Adam de Hoperton, whom the king had 
 appointed Steward and Keeper of the INIanors of Cave, Alwar- 
 thorpe, Gritelthorp (Grewelthorpe?), Penhulle, Etton, Wetherby, 
 Brompton, Temple Hurst, Neusom, Whittele, Westendalle, 
 Faxflet, Foukebrigge, Alfanewydale, Hurst, Coupmanthorpe, 
 Ribbeston, lands in Northington ( North Otterington ? ) and 
 Couton, Knapeton, Bainton, and Boutercrombo, with all goods 
 and chattels therein, by indenture between them. (Langcle, 15th 
 July, 3 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 2. Indentui'e made accordingly, with great minuteness, 
 and apparently containing the substance of many of the foregoing 
 Records. (Sunday, Feast of St. Laurence, 3 E. 2.) 
 
 FUe of 49 Writs, dec, 5 — 7 Edw. II., marlted ''II. C. II. 6826." 
 Many of them arc obliterated more or less with age or damp. 
 
 * No. 1 . Writ relative to allowances out of Hyrst manor.
 
 OP THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR IN YORKSHIRE. 07 
 
 No. 2. Writ directing wheat and oats, except in manor of 
 Ribbestayn, to be delivcrod to Shcritf of York. 
 
 No. 3. Indenture testifying receipt of such corn. 
 
 *No. 4. Writ of allowance to a chaplain. 
 
 •No. 5. Writ to seize manors of Sutli-Cave and Etton, lately 
 committed to David, Karl of Athol, who adheres to Robert de 
 Brus, the king's enemy. (.'3rd May, 6 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 0. Writ to deliver custody of manor of Witherby to Mar- 
 gery, widow of Duncan de Fiendagh. 
 
 *No. 7. Indentui-e containing inventory of goods at Hirst, &c. 
 (Hirst, 1st Dec, 5 E. 2.) 
 
 *No. 8. Indenture containing inventory of goods at Coupman- 
 thorp. 
 
 *No. 9. Indenture containing inventory of goods at the Mills 
 of York Castle. 
 
 No. 10. Writ to allow pension to John de Skelton. (York, 
 8th Mar., 5 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 1 1 . AVrit to allow pension to Laurencius de Ebor. (Wind- 
 sor, 25th Mar., 6 E. 2.) 
 
 Nos. 12, 13. Two i-eceipts of the same Laurence. 
 
 Nos. 14 — 17. Like writ for Robert de Bardelby, with three 
 of his receipts. 
 
 No. 18. Writ to deliver manor of Faxflete to Joan, widow of 
 Alexander Comyn. (Westminster, I6th Nov , 5 E. 2.) 
 
 Nos. 19, 20. Two receipts for Skelton's pension. 
 
 Nos. 21, 22. Other Writs, on same affair as No. 18. 
 
 Nos. 23, 24. Indentures of delivery of goods at Faxflete. 
 
 No. 25. Indenture of delivery of the manor of Penhill and 
 goods there. 
 
 Nos. 26, 27. Writs for collecting profits of the churches of 
 * ♦ * and * * * (both damaged). 
 
 No. 28. Wiit on the same affair as No. 6. 
 
 Nos. 29, 30, 31, Writ to allow pension to Robert de Walton ; 
 with two of his receipts. 
 
 No. 32. Indenture and inventory of delivery of Wetherby ; as 
 in Writs Nos. 6, 28. 
 
 No. 33. Another Writ on the same subject. 
 
 No. 34. Inquisition relative to a carrucate of land, found to 
 belong to the manor of Wetherbj'. ( * * * after feast of 
 St. William of York, a. d. 1312.) 
 
 No. 35. Indenture of delivery of manor of Wetherby, by Adam 
 de Hoperton, with inventory (damaged). (5 E. 2.) 
 
 No. 36. French letter from David, Earl of Atholle, authorizing 
 
 f2
 
 G8 SUPPRESSION OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR. 
 
 the bearer to take to his use the manors of Ettoun and Cave. 
 (St. James, 5 E. 2.) 
 
 Nos. 37 — 39. Writs for delivery of said manors to David, Earl 
 of Athol, &c. 
 
 No. 40. Receipt for si;ch deliverjs by Andrew le Spenser, bearer 
 of No. 36. (Second week in Lent, 5 E. 2.) 
 
 Nos. 41 — 43. Indentures on such delivoiy, containing in- 
 ventories of goods and store. The last is much damaged. 
 
 No. 44. Writ for delivery of manor of Neusum. 
 
 No. 45. Power of attorney to receive same. (York, 16th Mar., 
 A. D. 1311.) 
 
 No. 46 — 48. Indentures relative to deliveiy of said manor, with 
 inventories of goods, &c. The first and second are much damaged 
 and hardly legible. 
 
 * The documents thus marked are Yamwick near "Kirklington, "now' 
 
 those printed in the Gentleman's depopulated." ^Valbran's Fountain's 
 
 Magazine, 1857. Aobey, p. 255. 
 
 Note on p. 16. Jcmcwic is no doubt
 
 II. 
 
 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE, 
 INCLUDING AN INQUIRY INTO THE PLACE AND 
 MANNER OF RICHARD II. 's DEATH. 
 
 The author of the History of Pontefract (Dr. 
 Boothro3^d) has given in his title page the following 
 sentence, said to be taken from Swift : " I love 
 Pomfret. Why ? 'T is in all our histories ; they 
 are full of Pomfret Castle." The present appear- 
 ance of the place seems scarcely to justify the 
 enthusiasm of the Dean of St. Patrick. The guide 
 to the ruins of the Castle points out the court-yard 
 and other features of the old baronial and regal 
 residence, but the area is occuj)ied by gardens and 
 plantations of liquorice, the produce of which is 
 stored in the dungeons below. 
 
 Yet we need only look into our histories to find 
 that they really are full of Pontefract Castle. We 
 know nothing, indeed, of any fortress there in the 
 Poman times, nor more of Pontefract in the Saxon, 
 than that it was probably called Kii'kby, though 
 that name does not occur in Domesday, where it is 
 supposed to be included in the manor of Tateshalle, 
 in which Ilbert is said to possess four carucates 
 and sixty hurgenses minutos, with cotters, villains, 
 and bordars.^ 
 
 The history of the fortress begins with the 
 Conquest and with Ilbert de Lacy. 
 
 1 Facsimile of Yorkshire Domesday, p. xxxviii.
 
 70 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 The Noniian barons, spoilers living in the midst 
 of those Avhom they had despoiled, could only hope 
 to retain their lands by the same means by which 
 they had acquired them, and everywhere erected 
 castles of such massive architecture, that they could 
 safely defy the attempts of the ousted and oppressed 
 Saxons to recover what they had lost. Kirkby was 
 pointed out by various circumstances, as a proper 
 site for one of these places of strength. The soil 
 around is very fertile ; the hill on which the Castle 
 is built would be nearly unassailable in mediseval 
 warfare, its sides being steep, and its absolute 
 height considerable. Though not upon the Aire,' 
 it is sufficiently near to the Roman road which 
 crosses that river at Castleford, to enable its posses- 
 sors to command this high way to the north and 
 north-west. 
 
 Ilbert de Lacy, to whom the lands fell which 
 constituted the Honour of Pontefract, with one 
 hundred and fifty manors in the West Eiding,^ 
 occupied twelve years in building his Castle, which 
 passed for one of the strongest in the kingdom. 
 The De Lacys are conspicuous among the barons 
 of England in the reigns immediately succeeding 
 the Conquest. John de Lacy was one of those 
 appointed, after the signing of Magna Cliarta, to 
 enforce its execution, Yorkshire and Nottingham- 
 shire being specially assigned to him. He served, 
 too, with great distinction in the Holy Land, and 
 if his epitaph may be believed, was the terror of 
 
 I In Leland's time (Itinerary, posed to have given rise to tlie 
 
 1, p. 40, Hearne's Ed.) a broken name. 
 
 bridge was seen about half a mile 2 Dugdalc, Baronage, 1 , 98. 
 east of Pontefract, which is suii-
 
 OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE. 71 
 
 all the greatest warriors, Christian and Pagan, of 
 his time.^ The last of the family, Henry de Lacy, 
 who died in 1312, was one of the most eminent 
 statesmen of the reigns of Edward I. and 11.,^ and 
 employed by them in various wars and negociations. 
 Having no male heir, his son having been drowned 
 in a well in Denbigh Castle, he had surrendered his 
 lands to the king, who regranted them to him with 
 succession to his daughter, married to Thomas, 
 Earl of Lancaster, who was grandson of Henry III., 
 and cousin to Edward II. In his person the un- 
 precedented number of five earldoms were united, 
 and his wealth and rank of first prince of the 
 blood made him a dangerous antagonist to his 
 feeble sovereign. To strengthen the power of the 
 barons, who aimed at obtaining for their order the 
 control of the administration, Lancaster entered 
 into an unpatriotic alliance with the King of Scots, 
 and came into Yorkshire in the spring of 1322, in 
 the hope of being joined by his Scottish auxiliaries.^ 
 Edward had made a temporary display of vigour, 
 and followed the Earl of Lancaster. A council 
 held at his Castle of Pontefract decided him to 
 march to his own stronghold of Dunstanborough, 
 but his progress to the north was stopped at 
 Boroughbridge, where he was defeated and made 
 
 1 Dugdale, 1, 102.— 
 
 " Gallus et Hispanus, Normannus Brito quoque Danus, 
 Almannus gnarus bello, Lumbardus avarus, 
 Indus et obscenus gentilis, atrox Saraceuus, 
 Etliiopes fusci, Gra;ci, Babylonia, Tusci, 
 Rex et Soldanus omnis, populus que jirofanus 
 Hunc cum cernebaut armatuiu corde tremebaat." 
 
 He was buried in the Abbey of 2 Dugdale, 1, 10-4. 
 
 Stanlaw in Chesbire, afterwards ^ Leland, Collect., 1, 461. 
 
 transferred to Wlialley.
 
 73 TIIK HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 prisoner by the sheriff, Sir Simon Ward, and Sir 
 Andrew Harcla, governor of Carlisle. From Bor- 
 oughbridge he was conveyed by water to York, and 
 thence to Pontefract Castle, which he had recently 
 enlarged and strengtliened. A few years before he 
 had witnessed from its towers the ignominious 
 return of the English from the siege of Berwick, 
 and as the king passed, the Earl of Lancaster, with 
 his followers, uttered contemptuous cries against 
 him. Nemesis claimed her right. He was con- 
 demned in the presence of the king, without being 
 allowed to plead, and led to execution on a hill 
 over against his castle, mounted on a sorry pony, 
 pelted with mud, and taunted. It was probably 
 from his hostility to Edward and his minions, 
 rather than from his own merits, that his memory 
 was cherished by the common people. Pilgrimages 
 were made to his tomb, and miracles said to have 
 been wrought there, and an unsuccessful application 
 was addressed to the Pope for his canonization.^ 
 So great was the resort to his tomb, that the 
 government feared it might lead to an insurrection, 
 and fenced it off.^ 
 
 The proceedings against him were reversed in 
 the first parliament of Edward III., and his lands 
 and honours restored to his brother Henry. The 
 Earls of Lancaster, replaced in possession of Ponte- 
 fract Castle, became again the most powerful of the 
 nobility, and were raised in 1351 to the honour of 
 
 1 Lingard, 3, 460. order in 1822, to prevent anyone 
 
 2 Rymcr, FaHlerii, 3, 026. The approacliing tlie tomb for pur- 
 tomb is said to be ai Fryston, in poses of devotion. Fasti Fjbor- 
 th(> grounds of Lord Houghton, accuses, 405, (I. 
 Ardibishop Melton issued an
 
 OF rONTEFllACT CASTLE. 73 
 
 the dukedom. John of Grhent, third son of Edward 
 III., married Blanche, the daughter of the first 
 duke, and as she had no brother, and survived 
 her only sister, he reunited the whole of the vast 
 estates of the family, including Pontefract Castle. 
 His second wife, Blanche of Castile, who had 
 fled in terror from the south, during Wat Tyler's 
 insurrection in 1381, sought refuge here ; but she 
 was refused admittance by the servants, and 
 was compelled to proceed to Knaresborough. 
 
 The wealth and royal descent of this family 
 made it an object of jealousy to the crown, and not 
 without reason ; for the son of John of Ghent 
 dethroned liichard, the grandson of Edward III., 
 and under the title of Henry IV. assumed his 
 place. At present I only note the fact, among the 
 events associated with Pontefract Castle, that the 
 deposed sovereign was confined, and according to 
 popular opinion murdered, within its walls. The 
 evidence of this opinion will be the subject of 
 inquiry in a later part of this paper. It became 
 thus again the property of the Crown, and deserving 
 from its strength the name of the key of the north, 
 it was the frequent residence of our kings, when 
 the turbulence of their northern subjects, or the 
 incursions of the Scots, summoned them to this 
 part of their dominions. It was from Pontefract^ 
 that Henry IV., in revenge for the participation of 
 Archbishop Scrope and the citizens of York in 
 Northumberland's insurrection, issued in 1405 an 
 order to John Stanley and Roger Leeche to take 
 the city into their own hands, with all its liberties 
 
 > Drake, Eboracum, p. 100, 108.
 
 74 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 and privileges. Eichard II. had greatly favoured 
 York. He removed the courts of justice hither 
 from Westminster in 1392 ; sided with the citizens 
 in theii' disputes with the dean and chapter, and 
 archbishop ; gave a sword and mace to be borne 
 before the Lord Mayor, and erected the city into a 
 county. In the civil wars of the next century York 
 always favoured the white rose. The defeat of 
 Northumberland, and Bardolph's rebellion at Bram- 
 ham in 1408, brought Henry again to Pontefract, 
 and York again felt his displeasure.^ Many of the 
 prisoners taken in the battle of Agincour in 1415, 
 among them Charles, Duke of Orleans, were sent 
 hither for safe custody. James I. of Scotland, who 
 had been taken prisoner on his way to France, was 
 sent to Pontefract by Henry V. to pass a part of 
 his captivity. Edward IV, spent here the night 
 before the battle of Towton, 1461. Lords Eivers 
 and Grray were confined and executed here, by the 
 orders of Eichard III., in 1483. The Tudor 
 sovereigns, Henry VII. and VIII., frequently made 
 Pontefract Castle their residence. 
 
 In that reactionary movement against the Ee- 
 formation, which followed the suppression of the 
 monasteries, and is known as the Pilgrimage of 
 Grace (1536), so well described by Mr. Proude, 
 Eobert Aske, its instigator, obtained possession of 
 Pontefract Castle, by the connivance or inactivity 
 of Lord D'Arcy of Temple Hui'st ; and here, with 
 Lee, Archbishop of York, on the one hand, and 
 Lord D'Arcy on the other, gave audience in the 
 great hall, "with a cruel and inestimable proud 
 
 1 Drake, p. 108.
 
 OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE. 75 
 
 countenance," to the herald of the Earl of Shrews- 
 bury. Within its walls were congregated the 
 representatives of the noblest families of the north, 
 only the Percies, Cliffords, Dacres, and Musgraves 
 having kept aloof, " Such a gathering had not been 
 seen in England, since the grandfathers of these 
 same men fought on Towton Moor."^ In the same 
 great hall assembled on November 27th in that 
 year, the noblemen and gentlemen whom Aske had 
 called together, to give a sort of parliamentary 
 sanction to his rebellion. From Pontefract Castle 
 went forth the deputation of ten knights, each with 
 ten followers, who carried to the Duke of Norfolk 
 at Doncaster the resolutions of the assembly. They 
 amounted to a re-establishment of the monastic 
 system, which Henry had just destroyed. The 
 restitution of the abbey lands, so earnestly desired 
 by the Commons, could not be agreeable to the 
 nobility and gentry who had shared in the spoil. 
 The adherents of the insurrection withdrew or were 
 subdued. Pontefract Castle was occupied by the 
 Duke of Norfolk, and Lord D'Arcy was beheaded 
 on Tower Hill in 1537. 
 
 The bloody scenes which had been enacted in 
 the Castle were ominously present to the mind of 
 Wolsey, as, after his fall, he passed Pontefract on 
 his way from Cawood. " Shall I go there," he 
 exclaimed, " and lie there, and die like a beast ? " 
 and he took up his quarters in the Priory.'^ Though 
 it had ceased to be a place of execution, it still 
 
 1 Froude, History of England, 2 Cavendish, Life of Wolsey, 1, 
 vol. 3, p. 148. Archaeologia, IG, 2'J2. Ed. Singer, 
 p. 330.
 
 70 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 continued to be a state prison, and we find several 
 Scotclimen of rank, wlio had been taken in the 
 battle of Solway Moss in 154.2, committed to 
 Pontefract Castle, under the custody of Sir Henry 
 Savile.' 
 
 As the state of the country, especially after the 
 union of the crowns, became more settled and 
 tranquil, castles, in the original construction of 
 which strength only had been considered, were 
 altered and improved with a view to comfort ; royal 
 fortresses became provincial palaces. In its final 
 enlargement Pontefract Castle comprehended seven 
 acres of ground, and at the commencement of the 
 Civil War, in Charles I.'s reign, it was regarded by 
 the royalists as impregnable. The obstinate resist- 
 ance which it made to the parliamentary forces 
 corresponded with its character. It was only by 
 three sieges, details of which may be found in the 
 recent volume of the Surtees Society (18G0), that 
 it was finally reduced by the parliament in 1G49. 
 The second siege had lasted from March 1644 to 
 July 1645. After the third siege the Grand Jury 
 of Yorkshire petitioned the parliament, that the 
 fortifications should be slighted. This was done, 
 and the historical traditions of the Castle were 
 ended. From this time the history of Pontefract 
 is chiefly to be found in parliamentary elections.^ 
 
 With the exception of the Tower of London, 
 no fortress has witnessed such tragic deeds as 
 Pontefract Castle. It is the special object of this 
 
 1 Boothroyd's Pontefract, p. glc between llie burgage tenants 
 l-i-l. and the reliant householders, 
 
 2 The right of suffrage was who finally established their 
 the subject of protract(;d strug- claim.
 
 OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE. 77 
 
 paper to inquire into tlie evidence of one of these, 
 the most remarkable of all — the death of Richard 
 II. within its walls. The popular belief has been, 
 that he was assassinated by Sir Piers Exton ; 
 historical inquirers have generally rejected this 
 story, but have been divided on the question, 
 whether he died of a broken heart, or perished by 
 voluntary abstinence from food, or by its being 
 withheld from him. Little credence has been given 
 till lately to the rumour, which arose soon after 
 his death, that he had escaped from Pontefract into 
 the Western Isles of Scotland, had been transferred 
 to Stirling, and lived there for nineteen years. 
 Mr. Tytler, however, the able historian of Scotland, 
 has maintained this last opinion in an elaborate 
 argument.^ The subject has been since discussed 
 by Mr. Amyot in the Archseologia, vols. 23 and 
 25, by Lord Dover in an addi*ess to the Eoyal 
 Society of Literature, by Sir James Mackintosh^ 
 and Sir Harris Nicolas, who have all decided against 
 the story of the escape. There is, however, room 
 for a review of the question, and some new evidence 
 has come to light since Mr. Tytler wrote. 
 
 It is unnecessary further to recapitulate the 
 history of Richard's fate, than to mention, that 
 having put himself in the power of Henry he was 
 deposed by the sentence of parliament, and con- 
 veyed first to Leeds Castle,"^ and ultimately to 
 
 ^ Historical Remarks on the Macaulay (Hist. I, 126) adopts 
 
 Death of Richard IT., vol. 3, p. the common account of Rich- 
 
 280 (Ed. 1841) of his Histoiy of ard's violent death in Pontefract 
 
 Scotland. Castle. 
 
 2 Histoi-y of England in Lard- 3 The common histories say, 
 
 ner's Cyclopaedia, i"). 381. Lord Leeds Castle in Kent, but Whit-
 
 78 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 Pontefract, in October 1399. In the first month of 
 1400, a conspiracy was formed for his liberation, 
 but was defeated at Cirencester, and his brothers, 
 the Earls of Kent and Huntingdon, were put to 
 death. A month later Richard died, or was reported 
 to have died, in his prison. A body, said to be his, 
 was brought to London, and lay in state at the 
 Tower or St. Paul's for several days, the face being 
 uncovered from the forehead to the throat. 
 
 Respecting a death which occurred under such 
 circumstances, a variety of rumours were sure to 
 arise. Nothing like a legal inquest took place, and 
 therefore the manner and cause of Richard's death 
 cannot be known with certainty. Creton,^ who 
 wrote a metrical history of his deposition, maintains 
 that it was Maudelein, Richard's chaplain, and 
 much like him, whose body was brought to London, 
 and that when he wrote, Richard was still living 
 in prison. Walsingham says, he died of voluntary 
 abstinence. The manifesto of the Percies charges 
 Henry with the denial of food to his prisoner. 
 Mr. Tytler says, he died at a good old age in 
 Scotland. T!:\iQfact of his death must be established, 
 before we inquire into the manner. The story of 
 
 aker lias slie\vn that tlierc was Hill. Harding's enumeration of 
 in tlie town of Leeds a castle, tlie places of liis imprisonment 
 dependent on Pontefract. It is is in favour of the Yorkshire 
 supposed to have stood on Mill Leeds. 
 
 " The Kyng then sent King Richard to Ledis 
 There to be kept surely in privitie. 
 Fro thens after to Pykcring went he nedes, 
 And to Knavesburgh after led was he ; 
 But to Pauntfi'ate last, where he did die." 
 
 Archaol., 20, p. 205. 
 1 Metrical History of the De- been in the service of the deposed 
 position of King Richard II. king. He wrote in France soon 
 Archseol., 20, 221. Crcton had after Richard's death.
 
 OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE. 79 
 
 the substitution of Maudelein lias gained no credit ; 
 
 the only plausible alternative of death at Pontefract 
 
 is the escape to Scotland. 
 
 • The two authorities on which Mr. Tytler chiefly 
 
 relies are the Scotch historian Bower, the con- 
 
 tinuator of Fordun, and Wyntoun, author of a 
 
 rhyming chronicle, who agree in stating that the 
 
 king was recognized in one of the Western Isles, 
 
 sent to Donald, then Lord of the Isles, and by him 
 
 transferred to the Scottish government, by whom 
 
 he was maintained for many years, till he died in 
 
 Stirling Castle in 1419. These two authors do not 
 
 exactly agree ; for while Bower says that the 
 
 fugitive king was serving as a scullion (vilis lixa) 
 
 in the kitchen of Donald, and was recognized by a 
 
 fool or jester (fatuus quidam), who had once been 
 
 attached to Richard's court, Wyntoun represents 
 
 his discovery as owing to an Irish lady, who had 
 
 known him in Ireland. Wyntoun, too, says that 
 
 he denied being the king. 
 
 " Quhen to her mastere she had this tatJd 
 That man rycht soon he till him cauld, 
 And askit liim gyf it was swa : 
 That he den jit, and said nocht ya." 
 
 And concludes his account by saying — 
 
 ** Quhethir he had been King or nana 
 There was but few that wyst certane." 
 
 He seems, indeed, to have been crazy. 
 
 " As he bare him, like was he 
 Oft half wod (mad) or wyld to be." 
 
 That in spite of his own denial this was the real 
 King Richard is maintained by Mr. Tytler for 
 several reasons. He finds in the Scottish accounts
 
 80 THE HISTOllICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 items of charge for the maintenance of " the King 
 of Enjrland," and it seems to him incredible that 
 an imj^ostor should have been supported " at great 
 expence," at the Scottish court for eleven years. 
 This expence, however, only amounted in the 
 whole to £733 6s. 8d., or about ^GG a year. 
 Never, surely, was a pretender to a crown main- 
 tained, for the annoyance of a hostile neighbour,' 
 at a cheaper rate. Perkin Warbeck, whom Mr. 
 Tytler admits to have been an impostor, took 
 refuge at the court of James IV., and received from 
 him an annual allowance of £1340, besides extra 
 expences. That the fugitive should be called King 
 of England, entered as such in the accounts, 
 buried as such, and recorded as such upon his tomb, 
 was matter of course. Perkin is always called 
 Duke of York in the Scottish accounts, and had 
 he died in Scotland, instead of being hanged at 
 Tyburn, he would, no doubt, have been styled so 
 in his epitaph. 
 
 It is true, that soon after the death of Richard 
 is supposed to have taken place, rumours arose in 
 England that he was still alive. They were of the 
 vaguest kind. At the time of the first conspiracy 
 against Henry, Richard was reported by the con- 
 spirators to have escaped from prison, and to be at 
 Pontefract with 100,000 men.^ Before the battle of 
 Shrewsbury he was said to be at Chester, with a 
 
 1 " Whether true or not, it was manner he essentially weakened, 
 
 no unwise policy in Albany, to the government of Henry." 
 
 abstain from giving a public Tytler, 3, J 27. 
 
 contradiction to the rumour of 2 Tytler, 3, 295, quoting Wal- 
 
 Tlichard's being alive, and at singham and Ottcrburn. 
 times to encourage it, as in this
 
 OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE. 81 
 
 large force. Whether the existence of such rumours, 
 then or subsequently, deserves the weight which 
 Mr. Tytler attaches to them, may be judged by a 
 few parallel cases, in which deaths of eminent 
 persons, occurring with circumstances of mystery 
 and concealment, have been followed by a persever- 
 ing popular belief that they had escaped and were 
 alive, political feeling or policy conspiring with the 
 love of the marvellous. 
 
 There can be no doubt that Cambyses murdered 
 his brother Smerdis by the hands of Prexaspes ; ' 
 but the manner of "his taking off" was doubtful, 
 and when the Magi plotted to free themselves from 
 the Persian yoke, they represented him to have es- 
 caped, and produced a false Smerdis as the true one. 
 Nero had perished in an obscure way,^ and a false 
 Nero actually made his appearance in the succeeding 
 period, whom the Parthian king maintained at his 
 court, as the regent of Scotland did the supposed 
 Richard.^ In Russia in the 16th and 17th centuries, 
 after the assassination of the son of John Basilides, 
 no fewer than six pretenders successively appeared, 
 claiming to be the Demetrius who was said to have 
 been murdered. Sigismund, the king of Poland, sup- 
 ported the claim of one of the pretenders. Baldwin, 
 the Latin Emperor of Constantinople, was made 
 prisoner by the Bulgarians, and was either put to 
 
 1 Herodotus, 3, 80. of Anticlivist. Sulp. Sev. 2, p. 
 
 2 " Nox et iguotum rus fugam 367. Aug. de Civ. Dei 20, 19. 
 Neronis absconderant." Tac. According to the most probable 
 Hist. 3, 68. interpretation, he is the Beast 
 
 3 Tac. Hist. 1, 2. Sueton. of the Apocalypse, the letters of 
 Nero, 57. Zouaras 1, p. 578. his name and title, in Hebrew 
 Dion Cass. 64, 9. The Christ- characters, numerically making 
 ians believed that he would re- up 0G6. 
 
 turn or revive in the charaotor
 
 82 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 dentil or died in captivity. Twenty years after- 
 wards there appeared in Flanders a personage, who 
 announced himself to the Flemings as their count, 
 the escaped Emperor, and in sj^ite of the detection 
 of the impostor, the popular voice remained in his 
 favour.^ Giraldus Cambrensis relates how Harold 
 escaped from the field of Battle, and ended his days 
 in a hermitage, near St. John's Church, Chester. 
 Sebastian of Portugal lost his life at Alcazar, in a 
 battle with the Moors ; yet for a century the belief 
 lingered in the national mind that he would appear 
 and claim his throne. In such cases popular credu- 
 lity is proof against any amount of evidence. The 
 death of the Duke of Monmouth on Tower-hill was 
 a fact as patent and palpable as it could be made. 
 Yet the people of the West fondly believed that he 
 had escaped the axe, by the voluntary sacrifice of 
 one who resembled him, as the English people be- 
 lieved that Maudelein the chaplain of Richard had 
 been substituted for him.^ The peasantry of Au- 
 vergne long refused to believe that Napoleon I. 
 was dead. The Russian Sectaries, who looked upon 
 him as their deliverer, have not yet abandoned the 
 belief that he is living in Turkey and will re- 
 appear.^ Radama II., King of Madagascar, was 
 murdered in 18G3 ; the people believe him to be 
 alive and expect his return.^ 
 
 Mere popular belief therefore, cannot be received 
 as testimony in such cases. Mr. Tytler, however, 
 has graver evidence to produce. Conspiracies, he 
 
 1 Gibbon 11, p. 262. ^ 342. 
 
 2 Macaulay, 2, 208. 4 Revue dcs Deux Moudcs, 
 
 3 Stanley, Eastern Church, p. T. 50, p. 998.
 
 OP PONTEFRACT CASTLE. 83 
 
 says, arose in England in the reign of Henry IV., 
 in which men of rank and fortune hazarded their 
 lives, and these conspiracies were always accom- 
 panied with the assertion that Richard was alive. ^ 
 This would have weight, if they had had no motive 
 to profess a belief which they did not honestly 
 entertain ; but, true or false, a rumour that Richard 
 was alive was a powerful lever with which to over- 
 turn the throne of Henry. Such a belief, however, 
 was not always professed. The manifesto of the 
 Percys in 1403 contained no allusion to Richard's 
 being alive, but charged the king with having 
 starved him to death in Pontefract Castle.^ It may 
 be said, that the news of his escape had not been 
 brought at this time from Scotland. But in 1405 
 Northumberland and Archbishop Scrope make no 
 mention of his being alive in Scotland. Their 
 charge against Henry and his accomplices runs 
 thus : " After they had long kept and imprisoned 
 our lord the King, they took him to the Castle of 
 Pomfret, where shortly, as is commonly reported, 
 they harassed and tormented him (vexaverunt et 
 crucifixerunt) for fifteen days and as many nights, 
 in hunger, thirst, and cold, and at last killed him 
 by a death altogether unknown, but by divine 
 grace no longer to be concealed." This death must 
 have been assassination, for the manifesto goes on 
 to say, " Who will feel ashamed to mutilate a com- 
 mon man's son, when these men were not ashamed 
 
 1 Hist, of Scotland, 3, 304. Christian people — to be put to 
 
 2 ArchiBologia, 10, 1-40. " Thou death in thy Castle of Pounte- 
 didsttraitorovislj' cause the king, fract by hungei', neglect (situ al. 
 thy lord and ours — a thing siti) and cold, during fifteen 
 horrible to be heard of among days." 
 
 G 2
 
 84 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 to mutilate the son of Edward, Prince of Wales ? "' 
 It is evident that great doubt prevailed as to the 
 manner of Richard's death ; of the fact no doubt 
 is expressed. In conclusion the people are exhorted 
 to take up arms on behalf of the Earl of March 
 as their lawful sovereign, which he could not be 
 while Richard lived, being the son of Edward ITI.'s 
 second son Lionel. In a letter to the Duke of 
 Orleans, soon after Scrope's execution, Northumber- 
 land says, indeed, that he had taken up arms " to 
 support the quarrel of King Richard, if alive, 
 and to revenge his death, if he were dead." ^ This 
 may show that some doubt existed, as to whether 
 Richard were not still languishing in prison, as 
 Creton thought when he wrote ; ^ but concludes 
 strongly against the story of an escape to Scotland. 
 Of this, if real, Northumberland could not be 
 ignorant, as he was in alliance with Albany, the 
 Regent of Scotland. 
 
 The conspiracies which troubled the reigns of 
 Henry IV. and V. arose from mixed motives, among 
 which loyalty to Richard II. was probably the 
 weakest. They were the struggles of a powerful 
 aristocracy, already uneasy under the growing as- 
 cendancy of the Crown. In the reigns of weak 
 princes, as Henry III., Edward II., and Richard 
 II., they had been able to make themselves masters 
 of the executive power ; under princes of vigour 
 and ability, as Henry IV. and V., they had reason 
 to fear encroachments of royal prerogative. To 
 
 ' See tlie proclamation in the Pari. 8, 605. 
 Anglia Sacra, 2, 362. ^ See p. 78. 
 
 2 Lingard, 4, 405, quoting Rot.
 
 OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE. 85 
 
 assume that Richard was alive, and profess to take 
 up arms for his restoration, was a more effective 
 means of annoying the ruling sovereign, than to 
 admit his death, and profess to revenge it, and set 
 the true heir on the throne. After Scrope's defeat 
 in 1405, Northumberland fled into Scotland, and 
 earnestly sought an interview with the supposed 
 fugitive king. But as Bower and Buchanan inform 
 us, he would never grant Northumberland an inter- 
 view, " fearing," says the latter, " that his imposture 
 should be detected by one who had known his 
 king so well."^ Northumberland continued to plot 
 against Henry, and lost his life in 1408 in Bardolph's 
 insurrection, but on that occasion it does not 
 appear that he made any profession of belief in 
 Richard's being alive, though rumours of his re- 
 appearance were rife in London.^ We meet with 
 this rumour, but doubtfully and vaguely expressed, 
 in the confession of the Earl of Cambridge, a party 
 to the conspiracy of Grray and Scroop of Masham 
 in 1415, Its object was, if Cambridge's confession 
 has been accurately reported, to proclaim the Earl 
 of March king, provided " yonder man's person 
 which they call King Richard had not been alive, 
 which I wot well he was not alive. "^ The sentence 
 is confused, but it is evident that the rumour of 
 Richard's being alive prevailed, that this belief 
 was to be used to aid the cause of the rebellion, 
 but that Cambridge himself believed Richard to be 
 dead, and his representative an impostor. 
 
 Mr. Tytler lays great stress on Lord Cobham's 
 
 1 Buclianan.lib. 10, Ann. UU. 3 Tytler, 3, 320. 
 
 2 Wiilsingham, p. 370.
 
 80 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 declaration, when called upon to plead in 1417, 
 that he declined the authority of the court, since 
 he could acknowledge no judge among them, so 
 long as his liege lord was alive in Scotland. A 
 man about to suffer death for his religious opinions 
 may be justly considered as sincere in his religious 
 profession ; but the question was respecting a fact, 
 and it does not appear that Lord Cobham had 
 "visited Scotland, and ascertained that his liege 
 lord was alive. Indeed, it was not his part to sift 
 the evidence, on the ground of which he denied 
 the competence of the court before which he was 
 arraigned. 
 
 There is another argument which may seem to 
 have some weight. Why, it is asked, did not 
 Henry compel the Scottish Regent to give up the 
 pretended Richard, that he might at once put an 
 end to the rumours of the true king being alive ? 
 But had he the power to compel his surrender ? 
 He marched into Scotland in 1402, and advanced as 
 far as Leith, but could not even reach Edinburgh, 
 nor does it appear that subsequently he was strong 
 enough to have compelled his surrender, opposed 
 as he would be by all the influence of the French 
 Court, which, though it had no real faith in 
 Richard's being alive, had a strong interest in 
 kee2:)ing up a delusion which weakened the power 
 of England, and delayed the misfortunes which 
 befel France in the next reign. Henry had once 
 entertained the project of a truce, if not a perpetual 
 peace with the Scots, on condition that they should 
 transmit to his presence " ilium futuum se dicenteni 
 regem Ricardum." He is called in the same
 
 OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE. 87 
 
 document " famulus infatuatus," and " ydolum se 
 dicentem regeni Ricardum."^ Why this negotiation 
 had no result does not appear. By all accounts he 
 was little hetter than an imbecile. In the year 
 after the battle of Agincourt, the Duke of Orleans, 
 then a prisoner in Pontefract Castle, formed a plot 
 for the march of the Scottish Regent into England, 
 bringing with him the so-called Richard. In the 
 letter in which Henry announces this plot he 
 designates him as the " mamuet " or puppet of 
 Scotland, and as such the Scotch and French 
 governments appear to have used him. 
 
 These arguments against the story of Richard's 
 escape to Scotland, which had been generally con- 
 sidered decisive by historical inquirers, are thought 
 to have been countervailed by Mr. Williams's 
 work,^ in which Mr. Tytler's opinion is supported 
 by various arguments. The additional evidence 
 which he has produced is contained in two docu- 
 ments, which have come to light from the Treasury 
 of the Exchequer in the Chapter House, West- 
 minster. Towards the end of the year 1403 an 
 extensive conspiracy against Henry IV. was set on 
 foot, in which the Countess of Oxford, the Abbat 
 of St. John's, Colchester, and others were concerned. 
 Essex and Suffolk appear to have been its principal 
 seat, though Glendower and the Earl of Northum- 
 berland were also to have been engaged in it, and 
 a general rendezvous of the confederates was to 
 have taken place at Northampton. Commissioners 
 
 1 Amyot, in Ai-clucologia, vol. Mort de Richait Deux," edited 
 2.3, p. i\n. by Bcnj. Williams, F. S. A. 
 
 ^ " Croni(iuc de la Tiaisoii ct
 
 88 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 were appointed to inquire into the circumstances of 
 tlie plot, and the examinations of John Prittlewell 
 (or Barrow of Prittlewell in Essex), at whose house 
 the Earl of Huntingdon was seized, after the hattle 
 of Cirencester, and Thomas, Abbat of Bileigh, near 
 Maldon, are given by Mr. Williams/ The follow- 
 ing is the substance of Prittlewell's examination. 
 A person named William Blyth,^ in the guise of 
 a knight, sent for him to Bileigh, and told him 
 that he brought him a greeting from his liege lord 
 Eichard, who regretted the trouble to which he 
 had been exposed, especially in the matter of the 
 Earl of Huntingdon his brother, and expressed his 
 hope that Prittlewell was the better for Richard's 
 prayers on his behalf. He further offered to swear 
 by the sacrament of two masses which he and 
 Prittlewell had heard together, that three weeks 
 before Christmas (this was Quadragesima Sunday) 
 he parted from King Richard out of a castle in 
 Scotland, the name of which he had forgotten, 
 where he left him alive and in good health. To 
 which Prittlewell replied, that he believed him not, 
 and that he wist well he was not alive, and could 
 not be alive. On which the other said, that he and 
 one Sir John King, who was Sir Harry Percy's 
 priest, and was killed along with Sir Harry 
 [Hotspur] in the battle [of Shrewsbury], went to 
 Pontefract Castle, and spoke with the priest of the 
 Castle, and with a yeoman of Robert of Waterton, 
 who had the charge of King Richard, and that he 
 and the two j^riests and tlie yeoman led him out of 
 
 1 Appendix to Cronique, p. 209. Blyth,and was probably a North- 
 
 2 He is called also William of umbrian, and agent of the Earl.
 
 OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE. 89 
 
 the Castle, and set him on horseback, and took him 
 to Northumberland, and so to an isle of the sea, 
 where they kept him till they had made a treaty 
 with Scotland, and the council had determined that 
 the Lord Montgomery should have charge of him. 
 He further offered to swear, that he had three 
 letters from Richard, between Christmas and Quad- 
 ragesima Sunday, when this interview took place, 
 and three tokens to Queen Isabella, with which he 
 had been three times to her in France. The queen, 
 he said, had been long at sea, and had suffered so 
 much from it that she had landed with all her 
 horse at Esclus ; and he offered to swear that he 
 would bring him to Queen Isabella or King Richard 
 within fifteen days. Prittlewell concludes his de- 
 position in these words : " My unready wit would 
 not have served me, but that I should have believed 
 much of his matters, had it not been that by the 
 grace of God, / found Mm out in two false lies. 
 First, that he said he was brought up in King 
 Richard's household from a child, and I well knew 
 the contrary ; the other, that he said he was at the 
 battle with Sir Harry Percy, and there Sir Harry 
 Percy made him knight, and no more than him ; 
 and he said that Sir Harry and he were both armed 
 in Sir Harry's coat armour, which I wist well was 
 false, by true men that were at the battle, that saw 
 Sir Harry both quick and dead." 
 
 The evident object of these falsehoods was to 
 gain credit for himself, as intimately acquainted 
 with King Richard, and in confidential relations 
 with the Northumberland family. What security 
 have we that his account of his conducting Richard
 
 90 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 from Pontefract to Scotland was not a third lie, 
 framed for a similar purpose ? 
 
 Another deposition or confession is that of the 
 Abbat of Bileigh, to whom the same person, 
 William Blytli, came on the same errand. To him 
 he represented himself as sent by the Earl of 
 Northumberland, who had given him a great gilded 
 girdle, and had advised him to go as a knight. 
 According to his statement to the Abbat, he had 
 a sealed patent from King Eichard, to be published 
 as soon as it should be known which way the 
 people inclined ; that Richard was coming out of 
 Scotland, and Queen Isabel and the Duke of 
 Orleans from France, and Glendower from Wales ; 
 and all were to meet at Northampton. The Abbat 
 of Colchester, who was implicated in the same 
 plot, had said to the Abbat of Bileigh, that he had 
 sent a man with a ring to Scotland, and told him, 
 if Richard were alive he should come again with 
 the ring. He accordingly returned, and brought 
 word that Richard was alive. Whether he had 
 previously known the king, whether he saw him, 
 what evidence of the fact he brought back, does 
 not appear. A Richard was indeed forthcoming, 
 not the King of England, however, but Thomas 
 Warde of Trumpington,^ who personated him. 
 
 Now if we believe Blyth's account to Prittlewell, 
 Richard was in regular correspondence with himself 
 and his queen, as well as with the malcontents in 
 England. None of these parties, therefore, could 
 have the smallest doubt that he was alive. Let us 
 see how their words and actions accord with the 
 
 J I-ingard, 4, 398.
 
 OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE. 91 
 
 supposition of their possessing such knowledge. 
 Hotspur's priest was the companion oi* Blyth in 
 the enterprise of deUvering Richard from prison, 
 and conducting him to the Western Isles. The 
 escape must have taken place early in a. d. 1400 ; 
 the insurrection of the Percys was in the middle of 
 1403. The priest was at Shrewsbury, and lost his 
 life in the battle. Is it credible, that Hotspur and 
 his father, knowing Richard to have escaped and to 
 be alive in Scotland, instead of calling on the 
 people of England to rally round the standard of 
 their lawful sovereign, should have justified their 
 rebellion by alleging (see p. 83) that Henry had 
 murdered him by cold and hunger in Pontefract 
 Castle ? And again, in Northumberland and Scrope's 
 rebellion in 1405, the design avowed is not to set 
 Richard on the throne again, but to avenge his 
 death. 
 
 If Blyth's tale be true, the French Court and 
 Queen Isabella must have had abundant proof that 
 Richard was alive ; he had carried tokens ^ to her 
 from her husband, and had letters and documents 
 from his hand. Yet the Count de St. Pol, the 
 brother-in-law of Richard, in 1402 sent a herald to 
 Henry, with a message of defiance, in which he 
 
 1 There could be no difficulty to be distributed as tokens from 
 
 in sending tokens from a sup- the captive king, while the Es- 
 
 posed Richard, since his former sex insurrection was hatching, 
 
 chamberlain Serle, according to The leaning of the king and 
 
 his own confession, had used his father, the Duke of Lancas- 
 
 variovis means to persuade peo- ter, towards the principles of 
 
 pie that the king was alive in Wicklifte may have disposed 
 
 Scotland, though he did not these two Abbats and other 
 
 himself believe it. The Count- ecclesiastics to join in an insur- 
 
 css of Oxford had little figures rcction against him. 
 of stags made in silver and gold
 
 92 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 says he is notoriously accused of the death of 
 Richard, and declares that " God knows how it 
 happened." He should incur the indignation of 
 Grod and men if he did not do all in his power to 
 revenge his death. ^ This was two years subsequent 
 to the time of Richard's alleged escape from Ponte- 
 fract. The challenge of the Duke of Orleans, in 
 the same year, is equally distinct in its allegation 
 of murder against Henry. Now if Richard had 
 escaped in disguise and alone from Pontefract, and 
 been accidentally discovered, as the Scotch say, as 
 a scullion in the Western Islands, we could under- 
 stand that the rumour of his death had been 
 superseded, after a considerable interval, by evidence 
 of his being alive in Scotland. But it was not so. 
 He had been conveyed from Pontefract, according 
 to Blytli, by a cavalcade of four persons, who 
 deposited him in Scotland, and who therefore could 
 furnish such proof of his escape as would have 
 precluded all doubt. 
 
 Much stress has been laid upon the circumstance, 
 that Isabella was about to land in England in 
 1403, as a proof that she believed him to be living. 
 Of this the only evidence is the testimony of 
 William Blyth, and it may have been another of 
 his " false leasings." It is not in itself at all 
 incredible, that a French descent was meditated in 
 conjunction with the English rising. But there 
 was a sufficient motive, in the relations between 
 England, France, and Scotland, for co-operation 
 between the two latter ])owers for the overthrow of 
 Henry, without a belief on the part of either that 
 
 ' Moubtrclet, vul. l,p. 55. Jolincs' Ed.
 
 OP PONTEFRACT CASTIJi. 03 
 
 Kicliard was really alive. The councils of France 
 were already distracted by the jealousy of the 
 Dukes of Burgundy and Orleans. The Duke of 
 Burgundy was desirous of amity with England, for 
 the sake of his subjects in Flanders, to whom 
 commerce with Enghmd was essential ; the Duke 
 of Orleans was bent on war ; it was of his own 
 motion, and without the knowledge of the Council 
 of State, that he had sent his defiance to Henry, and 
 equally without their consent, he had instigated 
 the Count de St. Pol to follow up his challenge, 
 by an attack upon the English fleet, and a descent 
 on the islands of the Channel.^ After the death 
 of the Duke of Burgundy he entered into an 
 alliance with Owen Glendower, whom he promised 
 to assist with a fleet and an armed force, and 
 endeavoured to engage the Spaniards to make an 
 attempt on Calais. To ally themselves with France 
 for the annoyance of England was the steady 
 policy of the Scottish sovereigns and statesmen, 
 and at this time they were naturally eager to 
 revenge themselves upon Henry for the defeat 
 which they had suffered the year before at Homil- 
 don Hill. If Isabella really accompanied an expe- 
 dition intended to aid in the English insurrection, 
 it must have been as a measure of state policy, 
 which would be much aided by her apparent beUef 
 that Richard was still alive. ^ 
 
 The detail of Richard's escape from Pontefract 
 in Blyth's narrative may be thought to give it 
 credibility, but if examined it has a contrary effect. 
 
 1 Sismondi.Hist.desFranQais, 2 Archseologia, 20, 427. 
 8, 159.
 
 94 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 The Scotcli historians, the original authorities for 
 his escape, say that he was discovered in the 
 kitchen of the Lord of the Isles, acting as a scullion. 
 But if Blyth's account be true, he had been 
 escorted from Pontefract to the Isles by those who 
 had effected his escape, so that no doubt could be 
 entertained who he was, or whence he came. The 
 passage of such a company through such an extent 
 of country without detection is less credible than 
 the previous supposition, that he had wandered 
 alone and in misery to the Isles, and had there 
 taken menial service with Donald their lord. The 
 disappearance of the prisoner, along with a yeoman 
 of the Castle who had the charge of him, must 
 have been known at the latest in a few hours ; a sin- 
 gle person might have lurked in the woods, or found 
 shelter in cottages, but a company of five persons, 
 one on horseback, could be tracked without difficul- 
 ty. The escape therefore may be pronounced impos- 
 sible, without the complicity of Sir Robert Water- 
 ton. Whatever Imo we may suppose the fugitives 
 to have had, the news of the escape must have been 
 known soon enough for pursuit to have been made, 
 of which there is no trace. Was Henry likely, 
 when he heard his rival had vanished, to satisfy 
 himself with the notion that it would be an easy 
 matter to feign a death in Pontefract Castle, to 
 carry a false Richard in funeral procession to 
 London, to expose him there, and afterwards to 
 inter him ? Surely we should have heard of active 
 measures, if not to arrest the fugitives, at least to 
 take vengeance on those who had allowed or abetted 
 the escape. Of this vengeance Waterton would be
 
 OF rO>'TEFRACT CASTLE. 95 
 
 the first object. Yet so far was lie from incurring 
 Henry's displeasure, that he retained him in his 
 service, and sent him after the battle of Shrews- 
 bury to encounter the Earl of Northumberland. 
 Would so politic a sovereign have treated in this 
 way one who had grossly neglected, if he had not 
 violated, his trust? 
 
 We are brought back, then, to Pontefract Castle 
 as the place of Richard's death ; but how was it 
 effected? The manifesto of Scrope seems to point 
 to some brutal violence, succeeding a period of 
 prolonged torture by privation of food. Fabyan, 
 Hall, and Holinshed give a definite form to the 
 story of assassination, and assign Sir Piers Exton 
 as the executioner. Wolsey's exclamation, before 
 referred to, (p. 75) evidently alludes to death by 
 the blow of a poleaxe, and Shakespeare fixed it for 
 ever in the popular mind. With the instinct of 
 dramatic genius he jDerceived how much more 
 impressive such a catastrophe would be, than death 
 by thirst and hunger. The pictures of Richard's 
 resignation and patience, as he rides into London 
 beside Bolingbroke, or moralizes in his dungeon at 
 Pontefract, are eminently beautiful; but we are 
 glad to find that the fire of valour still lurks in the 
 son of the Black Prince, under the ashes of repent- 
 ance and humiliation, and blazes out at last in an 
 act of vigorous self-defence. We feel that he has 
 died as a King shoidd die. The pen of Dante, or 
 the pencil of Reynolds, may give a powerful interest 
 to death by famine, but what avails for poetry or 
 painting may be wholly unsuited to dramatic action. 
 Besides, Richard's was a solitary prison, and what
 
 90 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 would Ugolino's Tower of Famine have been, 
 without the presence of his sons, whose fate wrings 
 their father's heart, far more than his own bodily 
 suffering ? Grray, on the other hand, wishing to 
 contrast the splendour and promise of Richard's 
 opening life with his miserable death, adopts the 
 story of his perishing by thirst and hunger. 
 
 ** Close by the regal chair, 
 Fell Thirst and Famine scowl 
 A baleful smile upon their baffled guest." 
 
 Shakespeare recurs to the death of Eichard in the 
 second part of Henry IV., where, speaking of 
 Archbishop Scrope, he says, — 
 
 " He 's followed both with body and with mind, 
 And doth enlarge his rising with the blood 
 Of fair Eang Richard, scraped fi'om Pomfret stones." 
 
 He probably speaks metaphorically, and only means 
 that Scrope used the supposed murder of Richard, 
 as a topic to inflame the resentment of the people. 
 At all events, a literal exhibition of the blood 
 would not be regarded by the historical critic as a 
 proof of his having died by violence. Every one 
 who has visited the scenes of memorable trans- 
 actions must have observed, how readily material 
 evidences are supplied in support of the traditions 
 of the place. ^ The post round which Richard fled 
 to escape his murderers, still marked with " cruel 
 hackings and fierce blows," was shown to visitors 
 
 1 It is an ancient practice, was the exhibition at Lavinium 
 
 When Pausanias, the geograph- of the sow, " triginta capitum 
 
 er, visited Sparta, he was shown, fetus enixa" (Ji^neid,3,39l) kept 
 
 hanging from the roof of a tein- in pickle. " Corpus niatris ab 
 
 pie, the egg from which Castor sacerdotibus, quod in salsura 
 
 and Pollux had been hatched, fuerit, demonstratur." Varro, 
 
 3, 1 0, 2. Still more extraordinary R. R., 2, 4, 18.
 
 OF PONTEFRACT CASTLE. 97 
 
 in the 17th century.^ The mspection of Richard's 
 tomb in Westminster Abbey so far discredited the 
 common story, that it showed the skull to be entire, 
 with the exception of a small cleft, produced by the 
 opening of one of the sutures.^ 
 
 If Richard neither escaped to Scotland, nor was 
 assassinated by Sir Piers Exton, there remains only 
 death by hunger to be considered. And this ques- 
 tion again subdivides itself into two, — death by 
 voluntary abstinence from food, or by its being 
 withheld from him by his keepers, Swinburn and 
 Waterton. The former mode rests upon the 
 authority of Walsingham before quoted. He says, 
 that on hearing of the disastrous issue of the 
 attempt made by the Earls of Kent and Salisbury, 
 in the beginning of 1400, to restore him, he deter- 
 mined to end his life by voluntary abstinence from 
 food, and died on St. Valentine's day.'** Thomas of 
 Otterburn, also a contemporary, says, that he had 
 determined to starve himself to death, but repented, 
 and wished to take food ; " the orifice of the 
 stomach, however, having been closed," he was 
 unable to do it, and consequently sunk.* Whether 
 the phrase is medically correct or not, it is quite 
 
 • Archreol., 23, p. 281 ; note G, vol. 1, pt. 2, p. 163, 166, where 
 
 p. 311. maybe seen the leonine inscrip- 
 
 2 Kinj:^ in Archajol., 0, 313. tion on lii.s tomb, — 
 Gough's Sepulchral Monuments, 
 
 Prudens et mundus | Rieardusjure secundus 
 Per fatum victus | jacet hie sub marmore pictus 
 Yerax sermone | fuit et plenus ratione, &c. 
 
 3 Walsinsham's words are, rightwys kyng, Goddes trew 
 "inedia voluntariaut fertur." In knight. And hym in prison put 
 a MS. poem on King Kdward IV. jx-i-ijotuelly, Pyned to deth, alas ! 
 in the Collection of the Society lul pj'teuxly." Journ. of Arch, 
 of Antiquaries, it is said of Assoc, 6, p. 128. 
 
 Henry of Derby, " He toke this 4 Tytler, 3, 292. 
 
 H
 
 98 THE HISTORICAL TRADITIONS 
 
 conceivable that by long abstinence the stomach 
 might be so much weakened, as to render the 
 attempt to take food unavailing. The vacillating 
 character of Richard renders it not improbc\ble, 
 that he might abandon the purpose which he had 
 formed of starving himself to death. Scrope's 
 proclamation and the manifesto of the Percys 
 distinctly charge Henry with keeping his prisoner 
 from food and drink. Harding's expression, that 
 he was " forehungered," is ambiguous, but points 
 to enforced, rather than voluntary starving. 
 
 That Richard was really in a languishing state 
 of health, immediately after his consignment to 
 Pontefract Castle, appears from the minutes of the 
 Council in February 1400.^ The first runs thus : 
 " If Richard, the late king be living, as is supposed, 
 let him be well and securely kept, for the safety of 
 the king and his kingdom." The second is : " It 
 seems expedient to speak to the king, that in case 
 Richard the late king be still living, he be placed 
 in security, according to the desire of the peers of 
 the kingdom ; and if he have departed this life by 
 any kind of death, that he should be shewn openly 
 to the people, in order that they may have know- 
 ledge of it." It should seem from the second 
 minute that the council did not know where Rich- 
 ard was, as they could hardly desire a place of 
 greater security for him than Pontefract Castle, 
 It is singular that in both they should speak 
 doubtfully on such a point as whether Richard was 
 living or not. But intelligence did not reach 
 London from Pontefract in those days so rapidly 
 
 1 Archseologia, 25, 394.
 
 OF I'ONTKFRACT CASTLE. 99 
 
 as in ours, and the treatment of the dethroned king 
 was probably one of those arcana of state, which 
 Henry kept in his own breast. 
 
 We have only presumptions and probabilities, 
 therefore, to guide us, in deciding on Henry's guilt 
 or innocence in the matter of Richard's death. 
 If, on the one side, it may be urged, that the 
 execution of his friends and relatives taken at 
 Cirencester was likely to make him weary of life ; 
 on the other it may be said, that as the object of 
 the conspiracy was to set him at liberty and on the 
 throne, Henry had a powerful motive for immedi- 
 ately putting him to death. He certainly took no 
 means to establish the fact of Eichard's voluntary 
 death. He replied to the charge of the Percys by 
 an army, to the challenge of the Duke of Orleans 
 by an ojBfer of single combat. Henry's personal 
 character would incline me to the belief, that he 
 was not accessary to his predecessor and cousin's 
 death. Our history is black with unquestionable 
 crimes, and we would wish to believe, that Ponte- 
 fract does not share with Berkley and Corfe Castles 
 the bad eminence of having witnessed the murder 
 of a king. Considering Henry as arraigned before 
 the tribunal of History, a Scottish judge would, 
 I think, on the evidence produced, direct the jury 
 to find a verdict of "Libel not proven;" an English 
 judge would advise them to give the culprit the 
 benefit of their doubts ; while both would concur 
 in treating the Scotch alibi as a fiction. 
 
 H 2
 
 III. 
 
 THE RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY, ILLUSTRATED 
 FROM ROMAN COINS DISCOVERED AT METHAL 
 NEAR WARTER, AND PRESENTED TO THE YORK- 
 SHIRE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY BY THE RIGHT 
 HONBLE. THE LORD LONDESBOROUGH AND W. 
 RUDSTON READ, ESQ.' 
 
 It seems due to the donors of the coins to which 
 this paper refers, that they should not be consigned 
 to our cabinets, without an attempt being made 
 to render them subservient to the instruction of 
 our members. It is true that a numismatist would 
 not consider them as of great value ; there is 
 hardly any one among them to which he would 
 affix his R. They are of minute size, of coarse 
 workmanship, of debased metal, and ordinary types. 
 These circumstances, which make the collector view 
 them with indifference, do not prevent their having 
 a great historical interest. The smallness of their 
 intrinsic value, and the rudeness of their execution, 
 is a reflexion of the empoverished times in which 
 they were produced, and the low condition of art. 
 All such objects of antiquity tend to give definite- 
 ness and certainty to our historical conceptions. 
 When we merely read history, its characters pass 
 
 1 See Report of Yorkshire Itinerary, imist have passed noar 
 
 Philosophical Society for 1856. the place of their discovery. See 
 
 The Roman road from Market Newton's Maj) of Roman York- 
 
 Weighton to Millington,probab- shire, 
 ly the Delgovitia of Antoninc's
 
 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 101 
 
 before us, very much like the shadows of a phan- 
 tasmagoria ; but when we see the armour in which 
 the men of fifteen centuries ago fought, tlie house- 
 hold vessels in which they prepared or took their 
 food, and the coins which passed through their 
 hands, we feel that they were realities, and of kin 
 to ourselves. 
 
 The series of coins presented by Lord Londes- 
 borough to the Society, begins with Valerian, 
 includes Gallienus and the period of the so-called 
 Thirty Tyrants, and ends with Aurelian, compre- 
 hending seventeen years, 253 — 270. It may be 
 convenient to exhibit its events in a chronological 
 table. 
 
 A. D. 
 
 253. P. Liclnius Valeriaxus, who commanded tlie Gallic 
 and German legions, is chosen Emperor. He asso- 
 ciates his son, Publius Licinius Gallienus, with 
 himself. 
 
 257. The Goths invade the provinces south of the Danube, 
 
 and Sapor the eastern provinces. 
 
 258. Postnmus elected Emperor by the Gauls. 
 
 260. Valerian defeated and made prisoner near Edessa. 
 
 261. Gallienus sole Emperor. 
 
 265. Postumus killed by his soldiers. 
 
 268. Death of Gallienus and accession of Clauditts Gothictjs. 
 270. Death of Claudius and temporary dominion of QuiN- 
 TiLLUS. Accession of Aueeliax. 
 
 275. Death of Aurelian and accession of Tacitus. 
 
 276. Death of Tacitus and accession of Probus, 
 
 The history of this period has a soi*t of epic unity. 
 The reign of Valerian, with which it opens, exhibits 
 the deepest degradation which the majesty of the 
 Roman Empire ever underwent. The aged emperor 
 was taken prisoner by the Persian king. Sapor,
 
 102 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY, 
 
 who made use of his neck as a footstool from which 
 to mount his horse/ and after his death caused his 
 skin to be stuffed with hay and exhibited in one of 
 the temples.^ During the reign of GaUienus, the 
 dismemberment of the empire seemed imminent ; 
 its frontiers suffered from the invasion of the 
 barbarians, and its interior provinces from insur- 
 rection and civil war. Claudius Gothicus, the 
 successor of GaUienus, repelled the Alemanni from 
 Italy, and drove the Goths from Greece. Aurelian 
 restored the unity of the empire, by putting an end 
 to the power of Tetricus in the west and Zenobia 
 in the east, suppressed the factions of Rome, and 
 surrounded the city with a wall of such circuit and 
 strength, that she seemed secure from the attacks 
 of the barbarians. Coins of Tacitus and Probus, 
 not included in Lord Londesborough's donation, 
 were found in the same hoard, and as the latest 
 marks the earliest date at which the deposit can 
 have been made, we may probably assign it to 
 some time in the reign of Probus, who was assas- 
 sinated by his soldiers in 282 at Belgrade. 
 
 Only three coins of Valerian are found in the pre- 
 sent collection, of which two are partially illegible. 
 His reign was supposed to be going on, while he was 
 a captive in Persia, and coins were struck, and laws 
 promulgated in his name by his son GaUienus, as 
 still being emperor. The chronology of his coinage 
 is therefore hopelessly obscure. He had passed 
 through a long gradation of honours, had been 
 selected by an unanimous vote of the Senate as the 
 worthiest man to fill the high office of Censor, and 
 
 1 Aurel. Victor. '-^ Agatbitis, 4, -r-l
 
 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 103 
 
 when Gallus had been put to death by his soldiers, 
 and the usurper iEmilianus had shared the same 
 fate, Valerian was chosen as the successor of Gallus. 
 He was at the head of the legions of Gaul and 
 Germany, but he appears, a rare distinction in this 
 age, to have owed the throne to his merits, and not 
 to the purchased votes either of the soldiery or the 
 populace. But of his reign we know little, except 
 his defeat and captivity ; the Augustan historian 
 declining to dwell upon his history, as being 
 familiar to those for whom he wrote, and through 
 regret for a fate so unworthy of his virtues. 
 *'Pudet altius virum extollere, qui fatali quadam 
 necessitate superatus est." ^ Valerian has been 
 blamed by Gibbon,^ for associating with himself 
 in the empire his son Gallienus, instead of one of 
 many able generals, who were better qualified to 
 defend it. It is natural to attribute this to the 
 weakness of paternal affection ; but, on the other 
 hand, if Valerian, when he proceeded to the east to 
 attack the Persians, had left a stranger in blood on 
 the throne of the west, the disruption of the empire 
 would have been the certain consequence, Gallienus 
 maintained his allegiance during the captivity of 
 his father, and appears not to have assumed the 
 honours of sole emperor till after his death. 
 
 The misfortunes of the Boman Empire from the 
 captivity of Valerian to the reign of Claudius 
 Gothicus, have been generally attributed to the 
 weakness and vices of his son, Gallienus. The 
 history of this emperor has been derived from two 
 
 1 TrebelliusPollio.Valerianus, '^ Cb. 10, vol. 1, p. -III. 
 c. 3.
 
 104 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 sources, neither of whicli has escaped the imputation 
 of partiality. The Augustan historian TreheUius 
 Pollio, who is by far the fullest in detail, and who 
 gives a most unfavourable view of his character, 
 dedicates his biography to Constantine, who traced 
 his own descent from Claudius Gothicus, whom the 
 soldiers substituted for the son of Gallienus, after 
 the father had been assassinated in the camp before 
 Milan. On the other hand, Zosimus,^ who makes 
 no mention of the frivolous and cruel acts which 
 Trebellius attributes to Gallienus, but describes 
 him as an active and vigorous ruler, being himself 
 a pagan, was hostile to Constantine, by whom 
 Christianity was established.- The character which 
 Gallienus usually bears in history is summed up in 
 the epigrammatic words of Gibbon : " In every art 
 that he attempted, his lively genius enabled him to 
 succeed ; and as his genius was destitute of judg- 
 ment, he attempted every art, except the important 
 ones of war and government. He was a master of 
 several curious but useless sciences, a ready orator, 
 an elegant poet, a skilful gardener, an excellent 
 cook, — and a most contemptible prince."^ We 
 have seen strange reversals of the judgments of 
 history on character, or at least strenuous appeals 
 w^itli the view of obtaining a reversal. Mr. Mitford 
 lias whitewashed Dionysius the Tyrant ; Mr. Grote 
 has exalted Cleon to the rank of a patriot ; Mr. 
 Froude has recoined Henry YIII. into a champion 
 of the civil and religious liberties of England. 
 I am not going to undertake a similar office for 
 
 > I-il). 1, 0. .10 — 40. 3 Dcr.liuc auil Fall, ch. 10, vol. 
 
 Mab. •,', c. -^y. 1,1). 44^>.
 
 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 105 
 
 Gallieiius, or to justify the encomiastic language of 
 his arch at Eome : " Gallieno Clementissimo 
 
 PRINCIPI CUJUS INVICTA VIRTUS SOLA PIETATE SU- 
 
 ITSRATA EST ; " but I think a careful reader of his 
 life in the Augustan History must be struck by 
 the writer's desire to give an unfavourable turn to 
 all his words and actions, if they were in any way 
 doubtful. He admits that he performed many 
 valiant deeds, but says they were outnumbered by 
 disgraceful actions. His valour he calls sudden 
 daring.' He says it was on account of his indolent 
 character that the army did not make him emperor 
 after the captivity of his father, though he was 
 already associated with Valerian in the empire, and 
 therefore no such election was necessary. 
 
 Gallienus seems to have suffered, as others have 
 done, for his quickness in repartee and his pro- 
 pensity to give serious things a ludicrous turn. 
 When told that Egypt had revolted, he replied, 
 " Can't we do without Egyptian linen ? " When 
 Asia was ravaged by the Goths, and was suffering 
 also from earthquakes, he said, " Can't we do with- 
 out their flower of nitre ? " And when Gaul was 
 lost, he smiled and asked, " Shall we be ruined if 
 we get no Atrebatian plaids ? " There may, how- 
 ever, have been policy in thus treating lightly the 
 losses of the empire when others were disheartened 
 by them ; and the true way of judging, whether 
 his laughter was the laughter of a fool or not, is to 
 enquire, whether all ended with a joke. Now in 
 all these cases we find, that Gallienus took measures 
 to repair the losses. His general Theodotus made 
 
 1 Erat iu Gallicuo subita virtutis audacia. Trob. PoUio, c. 8.
 
 106 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 prisoner jEmilianus, wlio bad raised Egypt in 
 revolt, and sent liim in chains to Gallienus. The 
 same Theodotus led an army against Postnmus, 
 who had revolted in Gaul, and Gallienus himself, 
 according to Trebellius, " longo hello tracto per 
 diversas obsidiones ac prselia, rem modo feliciter 
 modo infeliciter gessit." This looks like sometliing 
 more than a " subita virtutis audacia," which is all 
 that Trebellius allows him. The Goths were driven 
 out of Asia by his generals, and if he took a cruel 
 vengeance on Byzantium, we must remember what 
 were the usages of war in those days. The Goths 
 were ravaging lUyricum ; Gallienus marched against 
 them, surprized them, and slew great numbers. 
 This Trebellius calls an accident. A more candid 
 historian would perhaps have said, that it was 
 owing to the rapidity of his movements, and the 
 prudence with which he concealed them.^ In short, 
 I think, however contemptible Gallienus may have 
 been for his vices, he was not a contemptible 
 sovereign. No doubt he was not the man that the 
 age required ; he probably felt it, and, had he 
 known Shakespeare, he might have said with 
 Hamlet : 
 
 " The time is out of joint ; cursed spite 
 That ever I was born to put it right ! " 
 
 His death was that of a soldier. While he was 
 engaged in war with the Goths, Aureolus, with the 
 
 1 Gallienus ut erat nequam et He was called, " loquacem tal- 
 
 pcrditusitaetiam.ubi necessitas pam, litterioncm Grascuui, seg- 
 
 coegisset, velox.fortis.velicmens, nem et timidum et umbratilem." 
 
 crudelis. Treb. PoUio, Hist. Aug. Amm. Marc, 17, 11. Gibbon 
 
 2, 270. Julian was subjected to judges him more favourably 
 
 the same depreciatory comments, than he does Gallienus.
 
 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 107 
 
 Tllyrian legions, revolted and entered Italy. Gal- 
 lienus marched to Milan against him. A false 
 alarm was given at niglit in the camp, planned, 
 according to Zosimus (1, 41), by Heraclianus, that 
 Aureolus was approaching to attack with his army. 
 Gallienus rose hastily from supper, and putting on 
 his armour, and giving the word to his troops to 
 follow, rode, witliout waiting for his body guards, 
 to meet the supposed enemy ; and was killed by 
 a prsefect of the Dalmatian Cavalry. Trebellius,^ 
 though so unfavourable to him, acknowledges that 
 the soldiers broke out into sedition, and complained 
 that they had been robbed of a commander ; 
 " utilem, necessarium, fortem, efficacem ; " and it 
 was only by a bribe of twenty aurei a piece, paid 
 out of the treasures of Gallienus, that they were 
 induced to decree that " Tyrant " should be sub- 
 joined to his name in the Fasti. ^ 
 
 The rise of the Thirty Tyrants is usually 
 connected with his reign, and attributed to his 
 weakness, though some of them, as -^milianus, 
 Ingenuus, and Postumus, had started up before 
 the captivity of Valerian. It is well understood 
 that the word Tyrant, as applied to them, means 
 nothing more than an assumj)tion of imperial 
 power, without the authority of the Senate. Thus 
 on the tomb of the two Victorini at Cologne was 
 inscribed, "Hie duo Victorini Tyranni siti sunt."^ 
 The number of thirty was chosen by the Augustan 
 historian, because a celebrated tyranny at Athens 
 had consisted of that number, and to complete it, 
 
 1 Hist. Aug., 2, 267. 3 Hist. Aug., 2, 2G7. 
 
 ^ Hist. Aug., 2, 230.
 
 108 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 lie acknowledges that lie had included a name or 
 two about which he was uncertain whether the 
 owner had exercised imperial power, and also 
 females, as Victorina and Zenobia, " tyrannesses," 
 " tyrannas aut tyrannidas."^ He himself eulogizes 
 several of them, as men of high merit and military 
 skill. The real number appears to have been 
 nineteen. 
 
 Sir Francis Palgrave, in his Eise and Progress 
 of the English Commonwealth (cli. 11), has given 
 a view of the so-called Tyrants, which is well 
 deserving of attention. He considers them as in 
 no sense usurpers of dominion, but as patriotic 
 men, who seeing that the Empire was in a state of 
 dissolution, and that the central authority was 
 unable to provide for the defence of the provinces, 
 set up independent governments, with the assent 
 of the armies and the people of those provinces, 
 and so preserved them from the invasion of the 
 Barbarians. They were, in short, according to Sir 
 Erancis, the forerunners of the founders of the 
 kingdoms of the west. It is certain that in this 
 age, when the real power of election lay in the 
 armies, and the Senate only ratified the choice of 
 the strongest, it is difficult to draw the line 
 between legitimacy and usurpation. And seeing 
 the controversy which still goes on, about the 
 merits of Caesar, and Cromwell, and the two 
 Napoleons, it would be a hopeless task to analyse 
 the motives of Victorinus, Postumus, and Tetricus, 
 and assign their several proportions to ambition 
 and patriotism. But I think we cannot be wrong 
 
 1 Hist. Aug., 2, 231.
 
 UELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 109 
 
 in rejoicing that their attempts failed. Had the 
 Roman Empire been dismembered at this period, 
 the probability is, that paganism would have con- 
 tinued predominant in the separated portions ; for 
 the power of Constantine, when sole emperor, was 
 barely adequate to the establishment of Christianity. 
 But however this might have been, if they had 
 repelled the Barbarians, which Trebellius (2, 259) 
 says was the effect of the assumption of power by 
 Postumus, and the kingdoms which they formed 
 had become permanent, they would have perpetuated 
 the vices of the Boman Empire. Like slips taken 
 from a blighted and decaying tree, they would 
 have had no healthy vitality. This new life was 
 to be infused by the settlement of the Teutonic 
 nations. What Europe might have been, had the 
 formation of its separate kingdoms preceded that 
 infusion, we may judge from the history of the 
 Byzantine Empire. It escaped for several centuries 
 barbarian conquest, but it only languished on, in a 
 state of decrepitude, while in western Europe a 
 new sera of knowledge and liberty was inaugurated, 
 which proceeded in a course of steady, though 
 slow, development. 
 
 If any portion of the Western Empire could 
 have preserved itself in the age of Gallienus, as an 
 independent monarchy, it would seem to be Gaul ; 
 and if any of the Thirty Tyrants fully correspond- 
 ed with Sir F. Palgrave's description, it would 
 be Postumus, as he is described by Trebellius.^ 
 
 I Vir in bello foi-tissimus, in cupidi, Lolliano agente inter- 
 pace constantissimus, in orani emptus est." Ibid. In this 
 vita gravis, c. 8. Yet with these respect how little has the nation 
 qualities " more illo quo Galli changed ! 
 novarnm roniin semper sunt
 
 110 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 According to liim, he was chosen by the army and 
 the people of Gaul, who had decreed the death of 
 Saloninus, the son of Gallienus, and, during a 
 government of seven years, restored the prosperity 
 of the Gallic nation, and earned their gratitude, by 
 driving out their German invaders. Trebellius, 
 however, confesses that the majority of authors 
 alleged, that Gallienus having entrusted his son 
 to the care of Postumus, Postumus put him to 
 death, and assumed the imperial authority ; Zosimus 
 distinctly asserts this ; nor has Trebellius any 
 evidence to countervail the current belief, except 
 that " ejus non conveniat moribus," it is inconsistent 
 with his character, that he should have committed 
 such a crime. I fear that history, and especially 
 the history of this age, will hardly allow us to 
 push the argument from character so far. But it 
 appears to be quite true, that under Postumus 
 and his successor Tetricus, (the reigns of Lollianus, 
 Victorinus, and Marius in Gaul having been short 
 may be passed over,) Gaul enjoyed a period of 
 internal peace and prosperity, and that its frontiers 
 were not only defended from the invasion of the 
 German nations, but military stations established 
 beyond the Phine. In this age Britain (as, indeed, 
 Spain) usually followed the fortunes of Gaul, either 
 under a legitimate division of the empire, or in 
 cases of usurpation. Of the 1 50,000 troops, whom 
 Albinus, after assuming the purple in Britain, led 
 to encounter Severus at Lyons,^ a large part must 
 have been Gauls and Spaniards ; and after his 
 defeat, Severus put to death great numbers of the 
 
 ' Comp. Dion. Cass., 75, 5.
 
 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. Ill 
 
 chief men of these two countries, as his partizans. 
 Bonosus and Proculus, who assumed the imperial 
 authority at Cologne, claimed to themselves not 
 Gaul only, but Spain and the Britannic Isles ; ' and 
 when Diocletian associated three Ca?sars with 
 himself, Gaul, Spain, and Britain were allotted to 
 Constantine. Indeed, it was impossible that Britain 
 should long be held by a power seated in Rome, if 
 Gaul, which included all the harbours of the 
 Channel, was in hostile hands. We need not be 
 surprised, therefore, that the coins of Postumus, 
 Victorinus, and Tetricus, though Gaul was the 
 chief seat of their authority, should be abundant 
 in Britain, and especially in York and Aldborough, 
 since York was the capital of Britain. Lord 
 Londesborough's donation alone contains 192 of 
 Victorinus and 585 of Tetricus the elder. The 
 great abundance of the coins of Carausius and of 
 Constantine and his family, in York and the neigh- 
 bourhood, may be explained by the same cause. 
 
 When Horsley wrote, no inscribed monument of 
 any of the Thirty Tyrants had been discovered in 
 Britain ; but since then, three have been dug up at 
 Clausentum (Bittern near Southampton) dedicated 
 to Tetricus ; ^ one to Postumus near Brecknock ; ' 
 and to Piavonius Victorinus at Pyle near Swansea.^ 
 
 At Durobriva3 (Caistor near Peterborough) an 
 inscription has been found to Florianus, the half- 
 brother of the Emperor Tacitus, who had proposed 
 him for consul only a short time before his own 
 
 1 Hist. Aug., 2, 071. 1015. 
 
 2 Winchester Congress of 4 Journal of Arch. Assoc, 
 Arch. Assoc., p. IGo. 2, 288. 
 
 3 Archjeol., 4, p. 7. Orelli,
 
 112 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 assassination. Florianus, who assumed the empire 
 on his brother's death, opened liis own veins two 
 months after at Tarsus, on hearing that the legions 
 of Syria were in arms against him. 
 
 No time seems to have been lost in conferring 
 on a new emperor the marks of sovereignty. 
 Lord Londesborough's donation contains coins 
 of Marius, who is said to have reigned only three 
 days. His history is a striking example of the 
 way in which during this period men were raised 
 to the imperial dignity, and of the peril which 
 accompanied it. After Victorinus, LolHanus, and 
 Postumus had been put to death, he was made 
 Imperator. He had been a faher ferrarius, com- 
 monly translated a blacksmith, but his trade 
 appears to have been that of a sword-cutler, though 
 his uncommon muscular strength, which enabled 
 him to stop a waggon in motion with his forefinger, 
 and break a man's head with a blow of two fingers, 
 savours of the smithy. His fate was characteristic. 
 He had insulted a soldier, formerly a workman of 
 his, who, when he stabbed him, told him the sword 
 came from his own manufactory. Nineteen different 
 types appear upon his coins, which are so numerous, 
 considering his short reign, as to have much 
 perplexed numismatists. It is conjectured that he 
 had been already proclaimed emperor in the western 
 part of Gaul, and that the legions on the 'Rhine 
 recognized his authority. The three days of which 
 Trebellius speaks, would then be the interval 
 between this recognition and his assassination.^ 
 QuiNTiLLUS, the brother of Claudius Gothicus is 
 
 J Cobon, Medailles Iinperiales, 5, 7C.
 
 RKT,ATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 1 13 
 
 said to have reigned only seventeen days; we 
 have nine of his coins. They are by no means rare, 
 and they exhibit more than fifty different types. 
 Zosimus ^ makes his reign to have lasted several 
 months. 
 
 Of all the Tyrants, Tetricus was the only one 
 who did not come to a violent end. Claudius 
 GoTHicus during his reign of two years did not 
 molest him, but Aurelian having reconquered the 
 east, marched into Gaul against Tetricus, who still 
 held that province, along with Spain and Britain. 
 The armies met in the plains of Chalons-sur-Marne, 
 and the troops of Tetricus were defeated. Tetricus 
 himself, though he had probably been in secret 
 understanding with Aurelian, was carried in tri- 
 umph with his son, but was afterwards invested by 
 Aurelian with high office. The heads of Aurelian 
 and Tetricus are even found united on the same 
 coin.^ By the victories of Aurelian the unity of 
 the Eoman Empire was for a time restored. 
 
 It is impossible not to be struck with the 
 irregularity of form, the low value, and the general 
 meanness of execution, which characterize this 
 collection. Their irregular outline probably arose 
 from the want of machinery for cutting the disks 
 of an uniform size. From the confusion which 
 prevailed before and after the reign of Valerian, a 
 debasement of the coinage was naturally to be 
 expected. The silver coin of this period is exceed- 
 ingly base, and some of what at first sight appears 
 so is brass, washed with silver or tin. It is not 
 
 1 1, 47. 2 Num. .Tonrnal, U, 49. 
 
 I
 
 114 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 till the reign of Diocletian that good silver re- 
 appears.^ 
 
 One of the first undertakings of Aurelian was to 
 punish those who had been concerned in the 
 debasement, especially of the gold coinage.^ He 
 gives an extraordinary account of this transaction, 
 in a letter to the Consul Ulpius, preserved by the 
 historian Vopiscus.^ Being headed by a slave of 
 the name of Felicissimus, to whom the administra- 
 tion of the mint had been committed, the workmen 
 (monetarii) raised a rebellion in Rome, of so formid- 
 able a character, that they were able to fortify the 
 Ccelian Mount, and it cost the Emperor the lives 
 of 7000 of his troops to put down the insurrection. 
 It seems incredible, that from such a cause such 
 results should flow ; but it must be remembered 
 that Eome abounded with what we call " dangerous 
 classes," ever ready to take part in a faction, and 
 indifierent to the pretext which might afibrd them 
 an opportunity of plunder. Besides, there is nothing 
 about which the mind of the vulgar is more 
 sensitive, than the interference of government with 
 the coinage ; and it might be easy for the guilty 
 parties to persuade the populace, that some fraud 
 upon them was intended. Ireland was nearly thrown 
 into insurrection by the introduction of Wood's 
 half-pence, though it was really a measure beneficial 
 to the community. Coins of small size, called by 
 collectors third brass, of which nearly the whole of 
 the Methall find consists, were not issued from the 
 
 1 Akcnnan, Manual, p. 191. showing how it varied from the 
 
 2 Cohen, 0, 121 : 4, 349. He standard. 
 
 gives a table of the weights of ^ Hist. August., 2, 519. 
 the gold coin under Gallicnus,
 
 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 115 
 
 time of Marcus Aurelius to that of Trajanus Decius, 
 wlio preceded Valerian by about fifteen years. 
 Their abundance, and the scarcity of those of a 
 better class, may be justly considered as a proof of 
 the increasing poverty of the treasury and the 
 people. 
 
 Of the two legible coins of Valerian, one bears, 
 on the reverse, the inscription Oriens Augg., for 
 Augustorum, which must therefore have included 
 his son and associate in the empire, GaUienus.^ It 
 was by the title of Augustus that the partner of 
 the imperial power was designated, that of Caesar, 
 as of inferior dignity, being given to those who 
 had been adopted as heirs.^ The reverse of this 
 coin, and of those generally which have a similar 
 legend, exhibits the Sun under a human form, 
 holding a whip in his hand, or sometimes a globe. 
 From this association with the title Augustus, it 
 follows that Oriens is not to be taken for the East, 
 as when we read Restitutori Orientis on the coins 
 of Gallienus, and with more truth on those of 
 Aurelian, but as equivalent to Sol Oriens, the 
 rising sun. This use of Oriens without a substan- 
 tive seems, in classical times, to have been confined 
 to the poets, as in the well known line of Virgil, — 
 
 "Nos ubi primus equis oriens adflavit anlielis." 
 
 Georg.., 1, 250. 
 
 1 Cohen maintains, in opposi- of Valerian, the coins which, 
 lion to Eckhel, that the younger from the youthful features, Co- 
 Valerian, the brother of Gal- hen attributes to the younger 
 lienus, had the title of Augustus, Valerian. 
 
 and attributes to him some coins ^ Maximianus et Constantius 
 
 with the legend Oriens Augg. Caesares dicti sunt, quasi princi- 
 
 Medailles Imperiales, 4, 493. pumfiliivirietdesignatiaugustjB 
 
 Eckhel refers to Saloninus, the majcstatis heredes. Spartian 
 
 son of Gallienus, and grandson A'U. Verus, c. 2. 
 
 i2
 
 116 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 It was a natural image by which to denote the 
 youthful associate of power. By this use of oriens, 
 as indicating the accession to imperial power, we 
 may confirm the interpretation of a disputed passage 
 in the Panegyric of an uncertain author on Con- 
 stantine : " Tu nobiles Britannias illic oriendo 
 fecisti," whence, as oriundus is commonly used in 
 the sense of " born," the author has been supposed 
 to assert that Constantine was a native of Britain. 
 The army saluted him on his father's death 
 Augustus and Imperator, which is sufficient to 
 justify the panegyrist's use of oriendo, though 
 Galerius refused to acknowledge him as more than 
 Caesar,^ 
 
 In this use of the rising Sun as a type of the 
 accession to imperial power, which we first meet 
 with in the reign of Hadrian,^ but which is very 
 common in the age to which our coins belong, we 
 may perhaps trace the increasing worship of this 
 luminary, which is one of the characteristics of the 
 period. Solar worship:), indeed, appears to lie at the 
 foundation of all the systems of polytheism, but 
 the original conception was overlaid among the 
 Greeks and Romans, by poetical additions and 
 anthropormorphic representations, and Apollo was 
 to them rather the god of poetry and medicine, 
 than the physical sun, though this character was 
 not altogether obscured, Phoebus expressing the 
 bright beams of the sun. But in the East, where 
 poetry and art had not disguised the original 
 
 1 Eburacuin, by tlio Ilev. C. Avith the legend Hadrianus 
 Wellboloved, p. 25. Augustus Cos. TII. 
 
 2 Cohen, Adrien, No. 128 — 0,
 
 EELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 117 
 
 lineaments of mythology, as they had in the West, 
 the distinct worship of the sun in his physical and 
 cosmical character remained. Such was his worship 
 in Rhodes, an Asiatic island. Its chief divinity, to 
 whose honour the celebrated Colossus was raised, is 
 called Helios or Sol, not Apollo. Syria, however, 
 was especially the seat of this solar worship, and 
 when Rome became infected with Syrian manners 
 and ideas, and, according to the complaint of 
 Juvenal (Sat. 3, 62), the Orontes flowed into the 
 Tiber, we perceive the traces of it among the 
 remains of Roman antiquity. The influences tend- 
 ing to the increase of the solar worship became 
 still stronger after the reign of Hadrian. At the 
 commencement of the century to which our coins 
 belong, a high priest of the Syrian solar god 
 Elagabalus had been raised to the empire, under 
 the name of the deity whom he served. Alexander 
 Severus was a Syrian, and as an omen of his future 
 dignity^ the sun, on the day of his birth, had 
 appeared, with a crown of rays, over his father's 
 house. Aurelian was most devoted to the worship 
 of the sun. His mother is said to have been a 
 priestess of the sun, and he erected a splendid 
 temple to this divinity at Rome. 
 
 To the same cause I should attribute the general 
 appearance of the radiated crown, on the heads of 
 the emperors of this period. The original emblem 
 of the imperator was the laurel or bay wreath of 
 victory, and it was the policy of Augustus, and his 
 first successors, to avoid all titles and symbols 
 which savoured of royalty ; if a radiated crown was 
 
 ' Heioclian, 5, 5 — 12.
 
 118 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 allotted to tliem, it was after tlieir death, and as 
 gods, not as sovereigns.' Nero is said to have been 
 the first who assumed it in his lifetime ; it appears 
 also in coins of Caligula, but only such as were 
 struck in Greek cities. Flattery, however, soon 
 extended it, even in Italy, to living emperors. 
 " Horum unum (any one of your great deeds, says 
 Pliny to Trajan, Paneg., c. 52) si prsestitisset alius, 
 illi jam dudum radiatum caput et media inter deos 
 sedes staret," Gallienus wore it in public.^ Whether 
 considered as a mark of deification, or of solar 
 worship, it would be equally offensive to Christians. 
 After the time of Constantine we do not find the 
 figure of the Sun on coins, and the radiated crown 
 is replaced by a diadem of gems. The Sun was 
 not an emblem of the emperor only, but also of 
 Eternity, as appears from several of the coins in 
 this collection.^ 
 
 Although the general execution of these coins is 
 rude, the impression of the imperial head upon 
 some of them is very distinct. The contrast in 
 feature between Valerian and his son Gallienus 
 corresponds well enough with their respective 
 characters. The strong bluff" features of the father 
 indicate the hardy warrior ; the fine and delicate 
 lineaments and elaborately curled beard of the son 
 are characteristic of the man of elegant tastes, to 
 
 J Rasclie Lex. Coroua radi- says Trebellius of Gallienus, 
 
 ata. A coin of Julius Ciiisai* c. 16. 
 
 with a radiated crown is of ^ Por example, No. 5 in 
 
 doubtful authenticity. Morell, Catalogue. Obv., Gallienus 
 
 1, p. 100. It appears on the Adg., with radiated head. Rev., 
 
 licad of Augustus, acconii:)anied ^Eteun. Aug., the Sun standing, 
 
 with Divus. in loft hand a globe. 
 
 2 " liadiatus sa32ie procossit,"
 
 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 119 
 
 whom the cares of empu'e were a burden, and who, 
 though roused occasionally to activity, gladly re- 
 turned to his dilettante pursuits of poetry and 
 gardening. The features of Salonina are not of 
 the Roman cast, and she is said to have been the 
 daughter of a barbarian king ; ^ while the coarse 
 features of Marius, and his brawny neck, agree 
 with the account, that he had worked at the forge 
 before he was an emperor. It is not difficult, again, 
 to trace a family likeness between Quintillus and 
 his brother and predecessor Claudius Grothicus ; 
 but in general it must be acknowledged that we do 
 not know the characters of these short-lived rulers 
 sufficiently, to rely on such comparisons. 
 
 It would be very interesting, if it were practic- 
 able, to assign the numerous coins of Gallienus to 
 their several years, but this can be done only with 
 a few of them. The only certain chronology is 
 derived from the mention of the tribunitial power, 
 which was annually renewed, and but four of this 
 collection have such marks. One is of the third 
 year of tribunitial power, which was also that of 
 his second consulship, though the number of the 
 consulship is not given on our coin. It was in this 
 year (255 a. d.), according to Eckhel, that Valerian, 
 himself intent on the eastern war, committed the 
 European armies to his son, to be employed against 
 
 1 Treb. Poll., Hist. Aug., 2, from wliicli it has been conject- 
 
 250. From the name Chiyso- ured, that she may have been a 
 
 gone, which she bears on Greek Christian, and that this coin was 
 
 coins, she lias been suj^posed to struck after her death. But as 
 
 have been a native of a Greek she hokls the oHve branch, it is 
 
 city in Thrace or Asia. One of more pi'obably that pax is to be 
 
 her coins (Cohen, 4, 464) has the taken in the ordinary sense, 
 singular epigraph, Aug. in Pace,
 
 \'2() RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 the barbarians. The second is of the fourth year 
 of tribunitial power (a. d. 256) and third consulship. 
 Coins of this year, though not ours, give Gallienus 
 the title Germanicus, the indication of warfare at 
 least, if not of victory, in Germany. The third is 
 of the seventh year of tribunitial power (a. d. 259), 
 when Gallienus gained victories on the Rhine and 
 the Main, in memory of which, on one of his coins, 
 he is represented standing in his paludamentum, 
 between two rivers, prostrate on the ground.' The 
 fourth in our collection with a date is of the 
 sixteenth year of tribunitial power, the last of his 
 reign. ^ 
 
 All the rest of the coins in this hoard are what 
 are called ??i/?ui vagi, of uncertain date, but they 
 exhibit some things worthy of remark. The 
 invasion of the barbarians and the insurrections of 
 the Thirty Tyrants were not the only evils under 
 which the empire suffered during the reign of 
 Gallienus ; pestilence, earthquake, and floods alarm- 
 ed the superstitious fears of the people. To appease 
 the gods, the Sibylline books were consulted, and 
 sacrifices offered to Jupiter Salutaris.^ To this 
 
 1 Colien, 4, 403. must have been bj' one of the 
 
 2 Thei-e is a type of the coins Tyrants. The crown of reeds 
 of Gallienus which has much is found on a coin with the usual 
 exei'cised the pen of numisma- obverse, Gallienus (Cohen, 4, 
 tists. The obverse exliibits his 440). Another coin with the 
 head, with the legend Gallien^e inscription Gallien.e August-e, 
 AugusTj15, crowned with reed in- has a wreath of ears of corn 
 stead of laurel. This has been round the head, and on the 
 supposed to be a satire on his reverse Victoria Adgusti. Is 
 effeminacy. On the reverse is this, too, a satire on his govern- 
 the legend Uuique Pax, as a ment as producing famine? The 
 satire on his government, under explanation is not probable, es- 
 which the empire was distracted pecially as the first mentioned 
 by war in every part. If it has coin is of gold. Cohen, 4, 416. 
 been really struck in satire, it ^ Treb.Poll.,Gallicni duo.c. 5.
 
 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 121 
 
 excited state of feeling Eckhel refers the extra- 
 ordinary number of coins with figures of the gods, 
 which were struck in the reign of GaUienus. He 
 gives a list of them, including nearly all the gods 
 of the Pantheon ; our collection contains coins with 
 the figure of Jupiter Conservator, Jupiter Propug- 
 nator, Jupiter Ultor, Neptunus Conservator, Apollo 
 Conservator, Diana Conservatrix, Liber Pater Con- 
 servator, and Mars Pacifer, besides Sol Conservator 
 Augusti. 
 
 The next in our list is Salonina, the wife of 
 GaUienus, who is supposed to have been killed at 
 the same time with her husband, before Milan. 
 The types of her coins have an appropriate 
 character ; the divinities which occur are Vesta, 
 Venus Victrix, Juno, Eegina, and Juno Lucina, 
 with the attributes Pudicitia, Fecunditas,^ ^quitas. 
 Her bust on some of her coins is placed on a figure 
 of the crescent moon. This appears to be another 
 indication of the influence of the oriental worship 
 of the Sun and Moon. The first head of an 
 empress placed in this way is that of Julia Domna, 
 the second wife of Septimus Severus, and grand- 
 aunt of Elagabalus, the high priest of the sun. 
 Tranquillina, the wife of one of the Gordians, 
 and Etruscilla, the wife of Decius, are represented 
 in the same manner. Valeria, the daughter of 
 Diocletian, and wife of Maximianus, is the last 
 empress on whose coins this peculiarity appears. 
 
 One of the coins of Salonina exhibits an inscrip- 
 
 1 Fecunditas (No. 3) has a No. 6, Juno Lucina, sitting, with 
 
 small figure standing near her, a flower in her right hand, and 
 
 and a cornucopia) in her hand, a swathed child in the left. 
 It is connected, no doubt, with
 
 122 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 tion to a goddess wlio will hardly be found in the 
 books of mythology, and may be heard of now for 
 the first time by most of my hearers,-— the goddess 
 Segetia, whose name, derived from seyes, corn, 
 indicates that she presided over the harvest. She 
 was not, however, altogether unknown. Pliny and 
 Macrobius mention her,^ and St. Augustine, in his 
 book De Civitate Dei,^ ridiculing the multiplicity 
 of the heathen deities, observes, that not content 
 with one, they had a goddess Seia to preside over 
 the seed in the earth, Segetia over the standing 
 corn, and Tutilina to protect the barn and the 
 corn-rick. We may wonder why Segetia should 
 have been honoured with a coin, rather than the 
 classic Ceres. But Segetia and her two associates 
 belonged to the old Italic divinities, the Dii Indi- 
 getes, whose worship long preceded that of the 
 Greek Ceres ; they were adored by the Eoman 
 people in the days of their early kings ; their 
 images were placed in the Circus,^ and probably 
 they were celebrated in the songs which the Fratres 
 Arvales chanted, to implore the blessing of the 
 gods and avert rust and mildew from the fields. 
 Why Segetia now appears for the first time on the 
 coinage, it is difficult to say ; perhaps in that 
 general invocation of the gods, which took place in 
 the calamities of Gallienus' reign, this ancient deity 
 may have been brought forward, to avert or remove 
 the visitation of famine. 
 
 The coins of Postumus, who made himself inde- 
 
 J Plin., N. H., 18, 2. Macrob., sia, from messis ; Tutilina, from 
 
 1, 16. Pliny calls her Segesta. tutela. De Spectac, 1, 8. 
 Tcrtullian calls the thi-ee god- '-^ Lib. 4, c. 8. 
 dcsscs, Scssia, from scro ; Mcs- ^ pUn., 18, 2.
 
 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 123 
 
 pendent in Gaul during the reign of Gallienus, are 
 remarkable for the variety of characters in which 
 Hercules appears upon them. We find the Nema?an, 
 the Erymanthian, the Thracian, the Libyan, and 
 other classical names, and two, Hercules Magusa- 
 nus ^ and Hercules Deusoniensis, derived from his 
 local worship in Gaul or Germany. Our collection 
 contains one of the latter, on which the god appears 
 with the attributes of the club and the lion's skin, 
 but without the temple, which is found on some 
 coins with this inscription. Deuso, the town from 
 which the name is derived, is supposed to be Deuz, 
 opposite to Cologne, or Duisburg. As Postumus 
 was engaged in successful wars on the Rhine with 
 the Germans, these coins may have been struck on 
 occasion of some victory gained on this spot. 
 Another inscription peculiar to the coins of Postu- 
 mus and his contemporary Aureolus^ is that of 
 Concordia Equitum. The type is singular in both, 
 — a female with her foot upon the prow of a vessel. 
 Such inscriptions are evidences of the existence of 
 Discord, and belong to times of divided authority 
 and disputed right. We find them only in the 
 decline of the empire. The gold coins of Postu- 
 mus are very finely executed,^ but his third brass, 
 to which class all of this find belong, exhibit no 
 superiority to the rest of the hoard. 
 
 The coins of Victorinus, who was first the 
 colleague and afterwards the successor for a year of 
 
 1 Magusani Herculis fanum 3 A gold medallion of Postu- 
 pagus ScaldifE insulse est, hodic rmis, formerly in tlic Cabinet of 
 Westcappel. Rasche. France, which was stolen and 
 
 2 Cohen, 5, 79, says, there ai-e melted down in 1831, is valued 
 no genuine coins of Aurcolus. by Cohen at 2,500 fr.
 
 124 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 Postumus, present nothing remarkable. Though 
 the coins of Marius, the sword-cutler who succeeded 
 Victorinus, are not very numerous, yet as Rasche 
 reckons up thirty-five different types, it is not very 
 credible that he should have reigned only three 
 days, as the Augustan historian tells us.^ 
 
 The coins of Tetricus the elder are, on the other 
 hand, very numerous, as might be expected, since 
 he retained his power not only during the reign of 
 Claudius Grothicus, but during a considerable part 
 of that of Aurelian. The most remarkable of them 
 is that which is inscribed Consecratio, indicating 
 his apotheosis after death. This posthumous hon- 
 our, which Julius Caesar first enjoyed, was conferred 
 on deceased emperors by the authority of the 
 Senate, and is variously indicated on coins, by an 
 eagle, as the emblem of Jupiter, in the case of an 
 emperor, or a peacock, the bird of Juno, of an 
 emjDress, or an altar, as a symbol of sacrifice, or a 
 thensa, the sacred vehicle in which the images of 
 the gods were carried in procession, or the thunder- 
 bolt of Jupiter, or a Victory, winged, and carrying 
 the soul of the deceased to Olympus. The compli- 
 ment was paid with little discrimination, Claudius, 
 Commodus, Caracalla, Grallienus, having received it, 
 no less than Augustus, Trajan, and the Antonines. 
 Eckhel spoke doubtfully of the consecration of 
 Tetricus,^ but there is one in the Methall find 
 which has his head on the obverse, and on the 
 reverse Consecratio, with the figure of an eagle.^ 
 
 1 Hist. Aug., 2, p. 2G4. 3 The t3'pc is the same as that 
 
 2 Doctrina Num., vol. 7, pt. 2, given by Cohen, Tetricus Pere, 
 p. 457. No. 51.
 
 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 1.25 
 
 The same find contains several Consecrations of 
 Claudius Gothicus, some with the altar, some 
 with the eagle. The practice ceased, of course, 
 with the establishment of Christianity, and few 
 sovereigns have since been advanced to the rank of 
 Saints. 
 
 There is nothing particular to be observed re- 
 specting the coins of Quintillus, the brother, and 
 AuRELiAN, the successor, of Claudius Gothicus. 
 
 Looking over the whole series, which comprehends 
 only seventeen years, one cannot but be struck 
 with the great variety of types, so unlike the 
 monotony of modern coinage. Of the seventy coins 
 of Gallienus in the Methall find, more than half 
 are different, and the whole number of varieties 
 of his coinage, of all sizes and metals, as enumerated 
 by Cohen, amounts to 8G5. If the Romans were 
 inferior to the Greeks in poetical genius, they 
 certainly far surpassed them in fertihty of allegory; 
 indeed a great deal of what is commonly called 
 their religion was nothing but allegory. It is 
 remarkable, however, how little we know in detail 
 of the operations of their mint, — who were their 
 designers, or how their coins were executed. Classi- 
 cal Latinity has no name for the die in which 
 they were struck, and the numismatists have been 
 obliged to use the word matrix as a substitute. 
 Considering the immense number of types, it is 
 remarkable how few of these dies have been found. 
 Moneta, when personified (or the Monetae, repre- 
 senting gold, silver, and brass), holds usually a pair 
 of scales, or a cornucopias, and has either a mass of 
 uncoined metal, or a heap of coins, at her feet.
 
 12G RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 
 
 The denarius of Carisius, a monetary triumvir 
 under Augustus/ exhibits, besides the pileus of 
 Vulcan, an anvil, a hammer, and a pair of tongs, 
 but gives no information as to the die. Caylus 
 (Eec. d' Ant., 1, 284) describes two metallic dies for 
 striking the obverse of coins of the emperor Augus- 
 tus, found at Nismes. The analysis of the metal 
 proved them to be composed of equal portions of 
 copper, zinc, tin, and lead. Their shape is conical, 
 and they appear to have been placed in a collar to 
 preserve their form under the blow of the hammer 
 by which the impression was given. Two others 
 of iron, described by him, represent, one, the 
 obverse of a coin of Constantius Chlorus, the other, 
 the reverse of a coin of Macrinus. The preparation 
 of the die of the higher class of coins must have 
 been the work of first-rate designers. One of these, 
 mentioned by Eckliel, is of brass ; if this was 
 generally the case, as they could not last long, the 
 great variety is naturally accounted for. The prac- 
 tice of casting coins in a mould also prevailed ; a 
 specimen is preserved in the York Museum.^ It is 
 remarkable that none have hitherto been found 
 older than the time of Severus, when the silver 
 coinage began to be debased. Whether these 
 moulds were used by forgers, or by the officers of 
 government for expedition, is a point on which 
 antiquaries are not agreed.^ 
 
 The coins of Valerian, Gallienus, Claudius Goth- 
 icus, Aurelian, who were really Emperors of Rome, 
 
 1 Morell, Tlies. Num., 5, 72. ^ Mr. King, Ancient Gems, p. 
 
 2 Descriptive Account of An- 210, thinks they were not used 
 tiquities, p. 90. by forgers.
 
 RELATION OF COINS TO HISTORY. 127 
 
 would probably be struck there. Gaul had in this 
 age three mints, one at Aries, one at Lyons, and 
 one at Treves ; and Postumus and Tetricus, who 
 were sovereigns in Gaul, would, of course, use them. 
 There is no trace of any mint in Britain at this 
 time. We can hardly believe that Carausius, who 
 maintained himself here so long in an independent 
 dominion, whose coinage is so varied, and one of 
 whose coins exhibits Britannia welcoming him 
 with the words, " Expect ate Veni," had not a 
 mint of his own,^ but we have no positive proof of 
 it. The coins of Constantine, inscribed PLON., 
 are generally referred to a London mint ; and 
 perhaps Londinium, as a great seat of commerce, 
 was better entitled to this distinction than the 
 military capital, Eburacum. The honour of having 
 a special mint, York seems to owe to her North- 
 umbrian Sovereigns.^ 
 
 1 Colien, wlio reckons 276 2 gee a paper by R. Davies, 
 
 types of Carausius, says," Toutes Esq., F. S. A., in Proceedings of 
 
 ses medailles ont ete frappees Yorkshire Pliilosopliical Society, 
 
 en Angleterre." p. 191.
 
 IV. 
 
 THE CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION OF CLASSICAL 
 LITERATURE, 
 
 Although subjects purely literary are not regard- 
 ed as belonging to the province of this Society, the 
 connexion of Literature with History is clearly 
 within its limits. This connexion is of the most 
 intimate kind. The relation of the world in which 
 we live to those of Greece and Kome, has been 
 chiefly determined by the transmission of their 
 literature to our times. Had their books all 
 perished, the material antiquities which might 
 have come down to us, their sculpture and archi- 
 tecture, their coins, their weapons of war, their 
 domestic furniture, would have given us a very 
 imperfect conception of the twelve or fourteen 
 (Centuries which elapsed from Homer to the down- 
 fall of the Western Emj)ire. We might have 
 learnt their stature from their skeletons, their 
 physiognomy from their busts, the outward forms 
 of their religion from the sculptures of their temples, 
 their altars, and their sarcophagi, and the myth- 
 ological emblems on their coins. Their arms and 
 their military roads and works would have shewn 
 us something of their system of offensive and de- 
 fensive warfare ; but the mind of the Greek and 
 Roman people would have escaped us ; for that 
 lives only in books. Nor is it only their own his- 
 tory that would have been lost to us. What should
 
 DESTRUCTION OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 1:29 
 
 we have known of the rest of the ancient world, 
 but for the light reflected upon it from the pages 
 . of the Greek and Roman historians ? The trans- 
 mission of the writings of the great masters of 
 Grrecian thought has made us what we are, in 
 intellectual and moral philosophy, in taste, and 
 even in science. Had the Codes of Roman Law 
 perished in the destruction of the Western Empire, 
 we should have lost the benefit of the long succes- 
 sion of labours, by which the system of Juris- 
 prudence had been perfected. It will, therefore, I 
 hope, be an interesting subject to enquire, what 
 portion of classical literature perished in that great 
 convulsion, what portion escaped, and to what 
 causes its partial recovery is to be attributed. For 
 while there is not one department of ancient litera- 
 ture that has not suffered by the loss of eminent 
 writers, there is hardly one in which the destruction 
 has been total. 
 
 The fortunes of books in ancient times must 
 have depended very much upon those of public 
 libraries. The art of printing has furnished every 
 house in England, inhabited by a family in circum- 
 stances of competence, with a library, comprising, 
 at least, the principal classics of our own language. 
 We cannot conceive of conflagrations, or floods, or 
 civil convulsions, which should destroy every copy 
 of Shakespeare, Milton, or Groldsmith, of Robinson 
 Crusoe or John Bunyan, of Hume's or Gribbon's 
 Histories. Even the burning down of the Bodleian 
 or the British Museum, though it would be mourned 
 over by the bibliographer, whose delight is in rare 
 and unique copies, would scarcely involve the ex-
 
 130 CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 tinction of a single author of any value to posterity. 
 It was far otherwise in ancient times. The 
 Athenians were not a book-learned people. They 
 learnt Homer from the recitations of the rhapsodists ; 
 -^schylus and Sophocles from the theatre ; they 
 heard Pericles and Demosthenes thundering in the 
 agora ; they picked w^ their philosophy in the 
 portico or the garden of Academus. Poly crates of 
 Samos is said to have collected a large library/ but 
 we hear little of libraries at Athens till near the 
 close of her time of independence. There is, indeed, 
 a story, which rests only on late authority,^ that 
 Pisistratus founded a public library at Athens, 
 which was subsequently increased by the Athenian 
 people, and which Xerxes carried away to Persia, 
 whence Seleucus Nicanor, more than a century and 
 a half later, obtained it and restored it to Athens. 
 But I am more inclined to adopt the statement of 
 Strabo,^ who says, that Aristotle was the first 
 collector of a library, to which no doubt the muni- 
 ficence of his royal pupil contributed. This library 
 he left to Theophrastus, his successor at the Lyceum. 
 The Macedonian Kings of Egypt, following the 
 advice of Aristotle, formed libraries strictly public. 
 Their predecessors, the Pharaohs, had set them the 
 example. Osymandyas, according to Diodorus,* 
 collected a large library at Thebes, and inscribed 
 over the door characters signifying "The Repository 
 of Medicine for the Mind." Champollion, in his 
 Letters from Egypt, professes to have found, among 
 
 1 Atlien., ], 8. tain much information concei'n- 
 
 2 Gellius, 6, 17, Lipsius dc ing ancient libraries. 
 Bibliotliecis (Op. 0, p. ll-2;i),an(l 3 Lib. 13, p. WH. Ed. Casaiib. 
 Hosi^inian de Bibliothocis, con- ^ jjist. 1, c. 41.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 131 
 
 the ruins of the Ramesseion, a liall, over the door 
 of whicli was a figure of a goddess, who bears the 
 title of " Mistress of Letters, presiding over the 
 Hall of Books."' The example of the first Ptolemy 
 was followed by his successors. They collected the 
 autograph works of eminent authors, when it was 
 possible to obtain them, or procured copies. The 
 abundance and cheapness of the papyrus in Egypt 
 enabled them to do this, with less expence than 
 must have been incurred by other collectors. The 
 first of these Alexandrian libraries was established 
 in the Brucheium, the quarter of the royal palace 
 where was also the Museum, inhabited by the 
 learned men, who pursued their studies under the 
 patronage of the Ptolemies, and were admitted to 
 their society.^ It is related of Ptolemy Euergetes 
 (III.), that when the Athenians were suffering 
 from a dearth of corn, he would not allow them to 
 be supplied from the granaries of Alexandria, 
 unless they would send him the works of JEschylus, 
 Sophocles, and Euripides, for transcription."^ I am 
 sorry to say that even in those days book-collectors 
 were not strictly conscientious. Ptolemy kept the 
 autographs, and sent back the copies, being content 
 to forfeit the deposit of fifteen talents, by which 
 the Athenians had hoped to secure the return of 
 the originals. 
 
 The increasing number of Jews in Alexandria"* 
 
 1 Lettres d' Egypte, p. 285. relied upon. Monumenti del 
 
 The reader should be informed Culto, p. 85:3. 
 
 that, according to ChanipoUion's 2 Strabo, 18, p. 794. 
 
 colleague, Iloscllini, these let- 3 Galen, Conini. ad Hippocr., 
 
 ters, written for the Parisian lib. 3. 
 
 public, are not always to be ^ Josoph p,ell. .Tud., 2, 18, 7. 
 
 iv 2
 
 132 CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 drew the attention of the founder of the Library, 
 and induced him, it is said, to dispatch an embassy 
 to Jerusalem, requesting that men might be sent 
 to him, competent to translate their Law into 
 Grreek. Accordingly seventy-two were sent, who 
 were shut up in separate cells, and produced an 
 equal number of versions, all agreeing in every 
 single word, — an unanimity which since that time 
 no two translators have ever attained.^ The story 
 savours strongly of Jewish credulity and exaggera- 
 tion ; but it is not improbable that a copy of the 
 Jewish Law in Grreek, may have been placed among 
 the multifarious contents of the Alexandrian library.^ 
 The Brucheium was insufficient to contain them all, 
 and a second library was formed in the Serapeum,^ 
 or temple of Serapis, in one of the suburbs. It 
 was the former which w^as destroyed in the confla- 
 gration kindled by Csesar's soldiers, in the Alex- 
 andrian war. Antony, to gratify Cleopatra,^ in 
 some measure repaired the loss, by transferring 
 hither the library of the kings of Pergamus, 
 amounting to 200,000 volumes. They, too, had 
 
 Apion, 2, 4. Ant., 12, 1, 14, 7, magni iccirco faciebat, quia 
 
 19, 5, 2. They had their own unura Deum colere dicorentur." 
 
 quarter, their own Ethnareh, If TertviUian (Apoloe;eticus, c. 
 
 their own temple, the Oneion, 18) ma.y be believed, the Hebrew 
 
 and formed, in fact, an inde- original was extant in his time 
 
 pendent community. in the Serapeum. 
 
 1 Joseph. Ant., 12, 2. Euseb. 3 Animian. Marcell., 22, 15, 
 Pra3p. Evang., 13, 12. The letter erroneously describes the library 
 of Aristeas, on which the story in the Serapeum as burnt. The 
 rests, is generally admitted to Brucheium adjoined the docks 
 be an Alexandrian forgeiy. and harbour. 
 
 2 Jerome (Qua?st. sup. Trad. * Plut., Vit. M. Antonii, c. 58, 
 Hebr.) assigns a special reason 7. According to Vitruvius (7 
 for Ptolemy's desire to have a ad init) they had preceded the 
 copy of the Hebrew Scriptures. Ptolemies as book collectors. 
 
 " Jud.Tos ille Platonis sectator
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 133 
 
 been book collectors/ and the Ptolemies, through 
 jealousy, had forbidden the exportation of the 
 papyrus. The use of prepared skins {^Kp^t^at) for 
 writing upon, had been immemorial in Asia.' The 
 chronicles of the kingdom of Persia, which Ahasu- 
 erus read on that sleepless night,^ which saved the 
 Jewish people from massacre, were written on this 
 material ; for Ctesias, who wrote a History of 
 Persia, tells us that he had com^^iled it from " royal 
 skins." The name retains the trace of its local 
 origin, for parc/iwe?it is but a corruption of per^a- 
 ment. The Brucheium is said to have numbered 
 700,000 volumes.'^ These figures are startling ; but 
 it must be remembered, that each division of a 
 work, in ancient times, was written on a separate 
 roll (volumen), so that Homer was in forty-eight 
 volumes, Herodotus in nine, and so on. Making 
 allowance for this mode of reckoning, and for 
 possible exaggeration, it will still be probable, that 
 the Alexandrian libraries contained copies of every 
 production of Greek Kterature, published before 
 the conquest of Egypt by the liomans. 
 
 The history of Aristotle's library will shew how 
 early the destruction of classical literature began.* 
 He left it to Theophrastus, his successor at the 
 Lyceum. The books came afterwards by inherit- 
 ance into the hands of illiterate persons at Scepsis, 
 who were apprehensive that they might be seized 
 by the kings of Pergamus, who possessed Scepsis, 
 
 1 Herod., 5, 58. Ti'anq., c. 9, reckons them at 
 
 2 Esther, 6, 1. Ctesias, as 400,000. AmmianusMarcellinus, 
 quoted by Diod., Sic. 2, 32. 22, 16, agrees with Gellius. 
 
 3 Gellius, C, 7. Seneca De * Strabo, 13, p. 009.
 
 131 CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 and to prevent this tliey buried them in a vault, 
 where they experienced the same fate which has 
 befallen many of our public records ; they were 
 rotted by damp, and gnawed by worms. When 
 the danger was passed, they were brought out, and 
 sold for a large sum to Apellicon of Teos, whom 
 Strabo describes as "a lover of books rather than 
 a lover of wisdom." He troubled himself little 
 about the purity of the text, but was anxious to 
 bring his MSS. into a saleable condition, and filled 
 up the gaps without knowledge or judgment. Sylla 
 brought them to Rome, and consigned them to the 
 charge of Tyrannion, a grammarian, and follower 
 of Aristotle, but he allowed them to be copied by 
 booksellers, who employed ignorant scribes, and 
 the transcripts were put in circulation without 
 revision or correction. The reader of Aristotle has 
 often cause to regret that the philosopher was so 
 sparing of his words, and may be excused if he 
 sometimes bestows a malediction on the worms ; 
 but his worst enemy has been the faithless tran- 
 scriber, who has substituted his own words for 
 those of Aristotle, and thus cheated him with a 
 false appearance of meaning.^ There were other 
 sources of loss and corruption. Galen, in the 
 middle of the second century after Christ, speaking 
 particularly of medical books, says that " mauy 
 authors did not publish their works during their 
 lifetime ; so that only one, or at most two, copies 
 existing, they were easily lost ; some also were 
 suppressed by those who wished to claim as novelties 
 
 1 'i'\viuii);4's Tiansluliuu ol' the I'oetic of Aristotle. Prei'., p. 7.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 135 
 
 the discoveries of their predecessors ; and others, 
 again, perished by conflagrations or earthquakes."^ 
 When books were multiplied only by transcrip- 
 "tion, the entire loss of such authors as Gralen refers 
 to was more likely to occur than in modern times. 
 But I believe that at Borne, at least, the lighter 
 kinds of literature were pretty extensively diftused, 
 and that there was not that wide difference in 
 expence which is commonly supposed between a 
 written and a printed copy. Martial, in the 118th 
 Epigram of his first book,^ is addressing an econo- 
 mical friend, Lupercus, who had proposed to send 
 his boy to borrow from Martial a copy of his work, 
 with a promise to return it as soon as read. 
 Martial tells him, that it would be a pity to give 
 the boy the trouble to mount to the garret in which 
 he lived ; that there was a shop kept by Atrectus 
 in the Forum, with posts on each side the door, 
 (the reader of Pope will remember " Lintot's rubric 
 post,") inscribed with the titles of all the Latin 
 poets, and that for five denarii the bookseller would 
 hand him down, from the first or second pigeon- 
 hole (nidus), a copy of Martial "pumice rasum 
 purpuraque cultum," or, as we should say, " hot- 
 pressed and with illuminated letters." Now five 
 denarii would be hardly 3s. 6d. " You will say. The 
 book is not worth so much." " You are a wise man. 
 
 1 Comm. de Nat. Horn., quot- tlie Gospels in the hands of the 
 ed by Villoison, Proleg. Horn., Christians of the second century. 
 p. 37. He has forgotten, I think, the 
 
 2 Professor Norton, (Genuine- low state of learning among 
 ness of the Gospels, 1,31) quot- them, even at a later date, as 
 ing this epigram of Martial, in- indicated by the inscriptions in 
 fers from it the probability that the Catacombs. 
 
 there would be 00,000 copies of
 
 130 CAUSES OP THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 Lupercus." And this was evidently a copy for the 
 drawing room table. On common paper, and with- 
 out iUuminations, the price would probably have 
 been one half less. In the imperial times a library 
 was the fashionable appendage of a wealthy house. 
 Seneca complains (De Tranq., c. 9) that books were 
 bought " non in studium sed in spectaculum," and 
 as the " ca?nationum ornamenta." Pliny had a 
 single bookcase in his Laurentian Villa (Ep. 2, 17), 
 but it contained choice authors, " non legendos sed 
 lectitandos," to be perused and re-perused. 
 
 Books were among the spoils which Roman 
 generals brought from conquered states ; ^milius 
 Paulus from Macedonia, Lucullus from Pontus. 
 In the foundation of public libraries Asinius Pollio ' 
 led the way. Julius Caesar, had he lived, would 
 have founded a library of Greek and Latin books, 
 and placed the celebrated antiquary, Varro, at the 
 head of it.^ Augustus deposited a large collection 
 of Greek and Latin books in the Temple of the 
 Palatine Apollo,'"^ and another in the Portico of 
 Octavia, near the Theatre of Marcellus."* The 
 fashion thus set was followed, and Tiberius ^ and 
 Vespasian both founded libraries, the latter in the 
 Temple of Peace. "^ In the conflagration of the city 
 under Nero the imperial palace on the Palatine 
 was built, and, no doubt, when Tacitus ^ mentions, 
 among the treasures which were destroyed, not 
 
 1 Plin., 35, 3. Isidor. Hisp., ■* Suoton, GraTii., 31. 
 
 6, 4. ^ Gellius, 13, 11). It was used 
 
 2 Sueton. J. C.TBS., c. 44. b}' Vopiscus, Probus, c. 2. 
 
 3 Sueton, Uctav., c. 29; Gram., 6 Gellius, 5, 21. 
 20. Hyj:;inus, his freedraan, was ' Ann., 15, 38. 
 flie liiht libi'iuiaii.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 137 
 
 only "artium decora," but "monumenta ingeni- 
 orum antiqua et incorrupta," lie must mean by the 
 latter, books. The fire which took place when the 
 Yitellians attacked the Capitol was very destructive : 
 Domitian endeavoured to repair the losses caused by 
 it and the fire under Nero, by sending transcribers 
 abroad, and especially to Alexandria, to make copies 
 of the works preserved there. ^ Trajan built a new 
 Forum, and among its public buildings was a 
 library, called from him Bibliotheca Ulpia. The 
 Temple of Hercules at Tivoli was furnished with a 
 library, probably placed there by Hadrian. It 
 contained the works of Aristotle.^ Publius Victor, 
 in his work De Regionibus XJrbis, enumerates 29 
 libraries -in Rome, but the age and even genuine- 
 ness of this work have been called in question by 
 Bunsen and Becker. The younger Gordian, a. d. 
 237, is the last emperor who is said to have founded 
 a library in Rome. It consisted of 62,000 volumes 
 and had been bequeathed by his preceptor Serenus 
 Sammonicus, a wealthy man of letters.^ 
 
 AYe have little information respecting the libra- 
 ries of the provincial towns ; but the emperors, par- 
 ticularly Antoninus Pius, took great pains to difiuse 
 knowledge, by establishing schools of rhetoric, 
 philosophy, Greek and Latin literature, in the great 
 cities. Milan, Lyons, Marseilles, Carthage, were, to 
 speak in modern language, provincial universities.* 
 
 1 Sueton, Dom. 20. To this work of the learned Pro- 
 
 2 Gellius, 19, 5. fessor of Gottingen, Avhose lec- 
 
 3 J. Capitolinus, Gordiauus tures I had the advantage of 
 Junior, c. 18. attending in the M-inter of 1819 
 
 4 See Heeren, Geschichte der — 20, I have to acknowledge 
 Classischen Littcratur, 1, 20. myself much indebted.
 
 13S CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 Their studies could not be carried on without 
 collections of books, and from these, subsequently 
 dispersed and preserved in monasteries, probably 
 many works, recovered at the revival of letters, 
 were derived. When Constantinople was founded, 
 the new capital was not left destitute of public 
 libraries. The jSrst was said to have been founded 
 by Constantius, the son of Constantine the Grreat, 
 but it was much enlarged and enriched by Julian. 
 The historians of the Church have branded him 
 with the name of Apostate ; but he was a zealous 
 patron of letters, and especially industrious in the 
 collection of books. " Some" he says, in one of his 
 Epistles, " are fond of horses, some of birds, some 
 of wild beasts, but from my boyhood I have had a 
 most passionate eagerness for the acquisition of 
 books." ^ His literary tastes, so rare among the 
 emperors since the Antonines, had no doubt some- 
 thing to do with his return to the old religion, 
 under whose influence Greek and Latin literature 
 had been produced. He added his own library to 
 that of Constantius, and together the books amount- 
 ed to 120,000.^ 
 
 From the account which has now been given, it 
 is evident, that had not that great convulsion 
 occurred, which we call the irruption of the Barba- 
 rians, the inheritance of Greek and Eoman learning 
 might have descended to us with little diminution. 
 But such was not the plan of Divine Providence. 
 
 ^ Epist. ad Ecdicium. A li- lance of the people of Antiocli. 
 
 brary which he had formed at Siiidas, Jovianus. Gibbon, c. 24, 
 
 Antioch was destroyed by his note 12H. 
 
 successor Jovian, after it had ^ Zosinius, 2, 11. Themist, 
 
 been much injured by the pctu- 68, 13.
 
 01'' CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 131) 
 
 111 the course of the fifth century Rome was 
 thrice sacked; once by Alaric and his Goths, once 
 by Genseric and his Vandals, and again by Ricimer. 
 The Goths and the Vandals have had the stigma 
 fixed upon them of being the destroyers of ancient 
 literature as well as art. Pope, in a well known 
 line, joins Gothic fire with Papal piety, ^ as authors 
 of the mischief. A fire kindled in a great city 
 burns indiscriminately whatever it meets with ; but 
 books are no special objects of the cupidity of sol- 
 diers, and, indeed, according to Zonaras, the Gothic 
 troops were advised by one of their chiefs to leave the 
 Athenians their books, which, like a true barbarian, 
 he regarded as some of those instruments of luxury, 
 which had corrupted military virtue, and made 
 them an easy prey.^ He would have predicted a 
 speedy decay to a country that had established 
 regimental libraries. The Gothic chiefs remonstrated 
 with Amalasuntha for having the heir of the 
 monarchy placed under a schoolmaster. 
 
 The Lombards, in the sixth century, carried 
 destruction with them in the course of their con- 
 quests. Gregory the Great, who witnessed them, 
 says, they sacked cities, burnt churches, destroyed 
 monasteries, and made countries previously teeming 
 with population, deserts through which wild beasts 
 passed.^ 
 
 From the fifth century to the Revival of Letters 
 it is to the Latin Church that we must look for the 
 preservation of the Latin classics. The allusion 
 
 1 Epistle to Addison. reason. It is given by Zonaras, 
 
 a Gibbon, cli. 10, 1, p. 434. 12, 26. Procop. de Bell. Goth., 
 
 He doubts the truth of the c. 11. 
 
 anecdote, apparently without ^ l>ial., 8, c. 38.
 
 140 CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 in Pope's " papal piety " is to a story found in the 
 Nugae Curialium of Joannes Sarisberiensis, a writer 
 of the twelfth century. Speaking of Gregory the 
 Grreat, who sat on the papal throne from 590 to 
 604, he says, " that it was reported that he burnt 
 the Palatine library, in order that the grace of Grod 
 might have freer scoj^e." ^ The story may be doubt- 
 ful, as Tiraboschi earnestly maintains ; ^ but the 
 animus of Gregory towards, classical literature dis- 
 plays itself very plainly, in a letter which he wrote 
 to Desiderius, Bishop of Yienne, who, he had 
 heard, devoted himself to classical studies, and read 
 heathen poets. ^ " The praises of Jupiter and of 
 Christ cannot go together in the same mouth, and 
 it is for you to consider, what a gross impiety it is 
 for a bishop to repeat, what is unsuitable even for 
 a religious layman." * One who thought thus of 
 classical books was not unlikely to have burnt 
 them, and could not consistently encourage their 
 preservation. His own Latin style is barbarous, 
 and he glories in setting aside the rules of Donatus.^ 
 
 1 2, 26. '• Doctor sanctissimus 3 Ep., 9, 48. Hoeren thinks 
 Gregorius non modo mathesin that what Gregory burnt were 
 jussit ab aula rccedere sad, ut only the books of the Cuiua3an 
 traditur a majoribus, incendio Sibyl, wlxich Augustus, after de- 
 dedit probata) lectionis, Scripta stroying a great many others, 
 Palatinus qua>cumque tenebat carefully preserved in the Tem- 
 ApoUo, in quibus erant pritcipue i)le of the Palatine Apollo. They 
 quit) ca)lcstium mentem et supe- had a narrow escape in a fire in 
 riorum oracula videbantm- ho- the reign of Julian. Amm. 
 minibus revelare." Mathesis is Marc, 28, 3. 
 
 evidently astrology. •* " Quid facit cum psalterio 
 
 2 Stoiia, 3,101 — 113. Another Horatius, cum cvangoliis Maro, 
 imputation upon him is, that he cum apostolis Cicero?" St. Je- 
 suppressed as far as possible, ronie ad Eustochium. In his 
 from pious motives, the works unsaintly days Jerome had made 
 of Cicero and Livy. Bayle, no liimself perfectly acquainted 
 lover of popes, is inclined to with the Latin classics. 
 acquit liim of all the charges. ^ Dedic. Moral, ad Leandrum.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 141 
 
 The northern hive was not the only source from 
 which the destroyers of classical literature issued 
 forth. The seventh century witnessed the rise of 
 Islam, and Alexandria was taken by the Saracens 
 in the first century of the Hejra. I have already 
 mentioned the losses which its great library had 
 sustained in the wars of Caesar and Antony. The 
 Temple of Serapis had been a safeguard to the books 
 which it contained, while the worship of Serapis 
 lasted ; but having lost its sanctity, it became 
 a place of danger. In the 28th chapter of Gibbon's 
 History we have a detailed account of the attack 
 made by the people of Alexandria, headed by their 
 bishop, Theophilus, on the Temple of Serapis, in 
 which the pagans had taken refuge. It was stormed 
 and levelled with the ground, and the library, no 
 doubt, perished in the flames. Alexandria, however, 
 still continued to be a seat of Greek learning, and 
 though its royal libraries had been destroyed, there 
 appears no sufficient ground to doubt, that a great 
 conflagration of books took place, when Amrou, the 
 general of the Caliph Omar, reduced it. The reply 
 of Omar, when consulted as to the fate of the 
 books, " that if they agreed with the Qoraun they 
 were useless, and if they differed from it they were 
 pernicious," seems to me too characteristic to have 
 been invented. When Gibbon wrote, no older 
 authority was known for the story of their destruc- 
 tion and their number, which sufficed to heat the 
 baths of Alexandria for six months, than the 
 Christian bishop Abulpharagius, who lived in the 
 thirteenth century ; it has since been found that 
 Abdollatif, an Egyptian physician of the twelfth
 
 142 CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 century/ gives the same account. After a while 
 fanaticism subsided, and the Caliphs of Bagdad 
 became liberal patrons of literature and science, 
 and this continued to be the character of the 
 Mahommedan rulers, till the Turks introduced a 
 worse barbarism than that of the first followers of 
 the prophet. 
 
 From this time Constantinople must be consider- 
 ed as the City of Refuge for Greek literature. 
 Here it was safe from barbarian hands, but not 
 from fire and earthquake and faction. The capital 
 was the scene of incessant outbreaks, sometimes 
 produced by the rivalry of the greens and blues, 
 the parties of the circus ; sometimes by religious 
 dissensions ; sometimes by political insurrections ; 
 and the populace had the habit, which the Turks 
 seem to have inherited from them, of expressing 
 their ill-humour by setting fire to the city. In one 
 of these, in the reign of Basiliscus, in the fifth 
 century, Julian's library of 120,000 volumes was 
 consumed.^ In the disturbances occasioned by the 
 Iconoclastic controversy, in the eighth century, a 
 public library of many thousand volumes was con- 
 sumed.^ The monks were generally favourable to 
 the use of images ; they were consequently perse- 
 cuted by the Iconoclastic emperors, who destroyed 
 the convents and their contents. 
 
 Yet, as compared with its present state, Greek 
 literature in that age was rich indeed. We have 
 
 J Published by Paulus in call the fact in question, ■\vliicli 
 
 bis Compendium Memorabilium is attested first by Cedrenus 
 
 iEgypti. who lived in the eleventh cen- 
 
 2 Heeren, 1, 35. tury, and was a compiler of little 
 
 3 Heeren, 1, 88, is inclined to judgment.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 143 
 
 the means of forming some idea of its extent, from 
 the Myriohihlon of Photius.^ He is best known by 
 his title of Patriarch of Constantinople, but he 
 began life as Chief Secretary, an office to which 
 judicial functions were attached, and was afterwards 
 Protospatharius, Captain or Colonel of the Life 
 Guards, and ambassador from the Emperor of 
 Constantinople to the court of one of the Caliphs. 
 He was a man of extraordinary vigour of mind, of 
 encyclopa3dical knowledge, and so devoted to read- 
 ing, that he is said to have passed whole nights 
 without sleep.^ Not being disposed to intermit his 
 studies while on his embassy, he carried with him 
 an ample library. He had a brother, Tarasius, to 
 whom he dedicates his Myriobiblon, a collection of 
 extracts and abstracts of the authors which he had 
 read. " Having been appointed," he says, " by the 
 Senate and the Emperor to the Assyrian embassy, 
 I have desired, my dearest brother, to send you 
 abstracts of the books at whose reading you have 
 not been present, both that you might be consoled 
 for my absence, and that you might acquire at least 
 a general knowledge of the authors read in your 
 absence. In number they are 279."^ Gibbon is 
 inclined to doubt whether Photius could have 
 carried such a hbrary witli him. It must, indeed, 
 have been a " load of many camels," but we know 
 from Indian experience, with what a train great 
 
 1 Fabric. Bibl. Gr., 5, 88. ^ Proem, ad fratremTarasiinn. 
 
 2 Nicetas Paphlagon, in Vita From the conclusion it appears 
 Ignatii. Ignatius a\ as the Patii- tliat he had intended his work 
 arch of Constantinople, deposed to include 315 authors, and he 
 by the emperor Michael III. to promises, if he returned from 
 make way for the elevation of his embassy, to continue the 
 Photius. work.
 
 144 CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 men travel in the East.' Nor must we form our 
 idea of what Photius was likely to do, from the 
 outfit of a modern ambassador, setting out for St. 
 Petersburg!! or Vienna, in which we should pro- 
 bably not find 300 volumes of any kind, certainly 
 not such volumes as Photius read, — History, Di- 
 vinity, and Philosophy. They served him, no doubt, 
 for recreation on his journeys, which would be slow, 
 and we know not how long his embassy lasted ; but 
 his diligence is astonishing, the Myriobiblon form- 
 ing, with the Latin translation, a folio volume of 
 1,500 pages. I have introduced the mention of 
 Photius and his embassy, in order to give an idea 
 of what the extent of the Greek classical library 
 w^as in his day. Several authors, Ctesias and Conon,^ 
 are known only by his extracts, and many others 
 were read by him in their integrity, of whom now 
 only portions remain. The history of Diodorus 
 Siculus, which is now imperfect from the fifth book 
 to the eleventh, and from the twentieth to the 
 fortieth, was then complete in forty books, begin- 
 ning with the fabulous times, and ending with 
 Ca3sar's wars in Gaul.^ The same was the case with 
 Polybius, of whose forty books only five are entire, 
 the rest existing in fragments and an Epitome. 
 The Roman History of Dionysius of Halicarnassus 
 was then complete in twenty books ;■* we have only 
 eleven entire, with fragments of the rest, partly 
 preserved in extracts made in the tenth century by 
 
 ' St. Jerome carried witli liim ~ Conon wrote a collection of 
 
 his librarj', wliicli must have fifty mythical narratives, which 
 
 been, at least, as large as that of Photius has condensed. 
 
 Photius, from Rome to Bethlc- -^ Phot., c. 70. 
 
 hem. 4 Phot., c. 83.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 145 
 
 command of tlie Emperor Constantine Porphyro- 
 genitus. Of the twenty-four books of Appian, one 
 half appear to have perished. Theopompus, whom 
 the ancient critics ranked as second in historical 
 merit to Herodotus and Thucydides, was even then 
 imperfect ; five out of fifty-eight books of his 
 History of Philip of Macedon had been long lost,^ 
 or at least were not in the library of Photius. We 
 have lost the whole, not only of this, but of his 
 other historical works. 
 
 Several sections of the Myriobiblon are devoted 
 to the Greek orators,^ among whom Time has made 
 even greater havoc. Thirty-five orations of Anti- 
 phon, with whom the history of Greek oratory 
 begins, of unquestioned genuineness, were then 
 extant ; they are now reduced to fifteen. Of the 
 sixty-five genuine orations of Demosthenes, which 
 Photius read, we have only sixty-one ; we may less 
 regret that only thirty-four have escaped of 233 of 
 Lysias ; eleven of the fifty of Isreus ; one of the 
 fifty -two of Hyperides, and even that is of doubt- 
 ful authenticity.^ 
 
 These figures, however, give us an imperfect idea 
 of the literary treasures which Constantinople con- 
 tained in that age. This was only a portable library. 
 Photius was a man of wealth and a collector, so 
 that, according to the expression of ISTicetas,"* he 
 
 ' Phot., c. 176. cribed by mistake, rather than 
 
 2 Phot., c. 259 — 268. fraud, to those in whose names 
 
 "5 Spurious orations, it appears they were composed. From the 
 
 from Photius, had been fathered same cause spurious orations 
 
 upon almost all the Gi-eek ora- seem to have intruded them- 
 
 tors. Many of them had been selves among the works of Cicero, 
 
 probably exercises and declama- * See p. 143, note 2. 
 tions in schools of rhetoric, as-
 
 146 CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 was inundated with a deluge of books; yet his 
 private library cannot have contained everything. 
 We have other proofs how great our losses have 
 been. The succeeding age at Constantinople, the 
 tenth century after Christ, was that of the Lexico- 
 graphers and Scholiasts, a class of writers who 
 always make their appearance in the evening 
 twilight of letters. We must not, however, allow 
 ourselves to speak ungratefully of them or of the 
 Anthologists. We cannot open a volume of the 
 Attic writers, especially the dramatists, without 
 finding a large appendix of fragments, preserved by 
 the Lexicographers and Scholiasts, not for their 
 beauty, of which they were insensible, but for 
 grammatical or exegetical commentary. We are 
 inclined to envy them the possession of the entire 
 jewels, of which the sparks are so precious. 
 
 The Byzantine sovereigns of the tenth and 
 eleventh centuries were, for the most part, patrons, 
 and some cultivators, of letters.^ Constantine 
 Porphyrogenitus reigned during the first half of 
 the tenth century. With the view of surrounding 
 himself with able men for the discharge of public 
 functions, he took special care that they should be 
 trained in rhetoric and philosophy, then considered 
 as the two great elements of a statesman's education. 
 He made them his companions, encouraged the 
 most promising by pecuniary rewards, and, in due 
 time, advanced them to be judges, senators, and 
 provincial governors. He was a collector of books, 
 which he brought together from aU parts. But he 
 probably was indirectly the cause of the neglect 
 
 1 IToci-Gn, 1, 149.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 147 
 
 and ultimate loss of many of the classic authors, 
 especially of the historians. He says of himself, 
 that having perceived the immense mass of books 
 to be overpowering to the readers, he had caused 
 abridgments to be made of them. The natural 
 consequence of this was, that the bulky originals 
 were neglected for these more compendious forms, 
 and ceased to be transcribed. 
 
 The Lexicographers and Scholiasts, and authors 
 of abridgments and selections, pursued their labours 
 with great diligence during the eleventh century, 
 but all creative genius, and all purity of taste, had 
 vanished from the Eastern Empire. This century 
 produced two female authors, phsenomena more rare 
 in ancient times than in our own ; and both were 
 of imperial rank. One of these was the princess 
 Eudocia, the wife of Constantine XL, and after his 
 death of Eomanus IV. To him she dedicates the 
 work which, with feminine elegance, she calls a 
 Violet Bed (Ionia). It is a mere compilation of 
 mythological stories, with a few biographical anec- 
 dotes. Her violets have been dried in blotting 
 paper, and have lost their native colour and fra- 
 grance.^ The other imperial authoress is better 
 known, the princess Anna Comnena, one of a 
 family which, as long as they retained the throne, 
 were steady patrons of learning. Anna is known 
 not very favourably, to English readers, from the 
 part assigned to her by Sir Walter Scott in Count 
 
 1 In imitation, perhajis, of the den), a collection of extracts 
 Empress, Macarius Chrysocepli- from Greek authors of various 
 alus, archbishop of Philadelphia, ages. See Villoison, Anecd. 
 in the fourteenth century, com- Gr^eca, 2, I — 79. 
 posed his Rhoiionia (Rosegar- 
 
 L 2
 
 148 CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 Robert of Paris, who, as Lockhart confesses, has 
 taken some liberties with her character on very 
 sHght foundation, and has made an unmerciful 
 display of the vanity, pedantry, and bad taste by 
 which her talents were alloyed. Yet among the 
 Byzantine historians she shines as a genius, and if 
 her Alexiad is rather a panegyric than a biography 
 of her father, it is a venial fault in a daughter, who 
 sincerely admired and affectionately loved him. 
 He is the Alexius of the First Crusade, so bitterly 
 complained of by the Latin historians of that 
 expedition, for his faithless conduct towards the 
 warriors who had come to his aid. No doubt he 
 dreaded his auxiliaries, at least as much as he did 
 the Turks, and availed himself of those artifices 
 which are the natural resource of the weak, and 
 which had long been the characteristic of the 
 Bj^zantine Greeks. But we have reason to rejoice 
 that he succeeded in keeping them out of his 
 capital. Walter the Penniless, had he reached Con- 
 stantinople, would have been sorely tempted by 
 the sight of its riches. Godfrey of Bouillon was 
 animated by much purer motives ; but in the train 
 of the best disciplined armies there follows a host, 
 whose only interest in the enterprize is the hope of 
 plunder and license. Their admission within the 
 walls of Constantinople would have exposed its 
 literary treasures, as well as its wealth, to imminent 
 danger. 
 
 That this is no imaginary anticipation is proved 
 by what actually took place in the Fourth, or 
 what is called the Latin Crusade. The two great 
 divisions of the Christian Church had long cherished
 
 or CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 149 
 
 most unchristian feelings towards each other. These 
 feelings had not originated merely in theological 
 differences. " In every age," says Gibbon, " the 
 Greeks were proud of their superiority in profane 
 and religious knowledge ; they had first received 
 the light of Christianity ; they had pronounced the 
 decrees of the seven general councils ; they alone 
 possessed the language of Scripture and philosophy ; 
 nor should the Barbarians of the West, immersed 
 in darkness, presume to argue on the high and 
 mysterious questions of theological science. Those 
 Barbarians despised, in their turn, the restless and 
 subtle levity of the Orientals, the authors of every 
 heresy, and blessed their own simplicity, which 
 was content to hold the tradition of the Apostolic 
 Church." This would be an unsuitable place for 
 entering into theological controversies, much more 
 for attempting to decide them ; but as an historical 
 fact it mnj be mentioned, that since the seventh 
 century the Latin and the Greek Churches had been 
 at variance, respecting the Procession of the Holy 
 Spirit, the Latins attributing a participation in it 
 to the Son, which the Greeks denied. On this 
 question the odium tlieologicum had developed itself, 
 wdth an intensity unusual even in that virulent 
 disease. Each party charged the other with schism, 
 and it would be difficult to say whether a schismatic 
 or an infidel was looked upon with the deeper 
 abhorrence. Their animosity had been carried 
 beyond the limits of the present world, and the 
 popes had solemnly pronounced an anathema on 
 the heterodox, with the usual penalty of eternal 
 perdition. I mention these things, not to reproach
 
 150 CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 the bigotry of the age, but because a knowledge 
 of the reciprocal feelings of the Greeks and Latins 
 is necessary, in order to understand the events of 
 the Fourth Crusade, so eminently pernicious to 
 classical literature.^ 
 
 The family of the Comneni had been dispossessed 
 of the throne, and the quarrels of Isaac Angelus 
 with his brother had occasioned the occupation of 
 Constantinople by Baldwin, Count of Flanders. 
 The conquests of the First Crusade had been in 
 great measure lost. Jerusalem had been taken by 
 Saladin ; the valour of Richard of the Lion Heart 
 had not been able to effect more than the recovery 
 of the sea coast, and a stipulation for undisturbed 
 admission to the Holy Sepulchre. Innocent III. 
 stimulated Christendom to a Fourth Crusade, and 
 an army under Baldwin, Count of Flanders, had 
 already reached Venice, on its way to Palestine, 
 when he was induced to divert his course to Con- 
 stantinople by Alexius, the son of Isaac Angelus, 
 in order to assist his father in regaining the throne 
 of w^hich he had been deprived. At their first 
 entrance the Venetians set fire to a whole quarter 
 of the city; in a subsequent quarrel with some 
 Mahometans their mosch was burnt, and a confla- 
 gration arose which lasted two days and nights, 
 
 ' The antagonism of the and even the hair of his breast 
 
 Churches sliews itself in a lu- was carefully taken oif by a tlc- 
 
 (licrous Avay in the picture which pilatory plaster ; his dress was 
 
 Nicetas draws of the Patriarch tightly fastened to his skin, and 
 
 of Venice, who took possession sewed to his wrists ; he had a 
 
 of the see of Constantino])le ring on his hand, and leather 
 
 after the Latin conquest. "He protectors, divided at the lingers, 
 
 was of middle size, and his upon his hands." De Rignis, c. 1. 
 
 figure that of a fatted hog ; the Shjeves and trowsers were, to 
 
 surface of his face was shorn of the Greeks and Ilomans, marks 
 
 liair, like the rest df that I'ace. of the liiu'buriinis.
 
 or CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 151 
 
 and spread so widely, that a Byzantine historian 
 declares, that all the fires the city had suffered were 
 not to be compared with it. A third fire, accom- 
 panying the sack of the city, began where the 
 second had ended. It was not merely the dwellings 
 of the common people that suffered, but public 
 buildings, churches, convents, and palaces,^ in which 
 the most valuable repositories of books were to be 
 found. The armies of the later Crusaders were 
 made up of the refuse of society in the West ; the 
 pious zeal of the associates of Grodfrey had given 
 place to the mere spirit of adventure ; and no 
 cruelties practised by Christian on infidel, or infidel 
 on Christian, could surpass those which the orthodox 
 Latin inflicted on the schismatic Greek. ^ In addition 
 to this source of hatred, they despised the Byzan- 
 tines as a race of unwarlike penmen, and carried 
 about books, the spoil of their libraries, with reed 
 pens and ink bottles, in derision of their literary 
 occupations.^ To the ravages of fire and barbarism 
 in this war, I think we must attribute the circum- 
 stance that so many works read by Photius in the 
 ninth century, and by the Lexicographers and 
 
 1 The trophies of this pillage which had formed a part of the 
 
 are found in various parts of the imperial cabinet at Constanti- 
 
 West. The Treasury of St. Denis noplc. The head of St. Philip, 
 
 was enriched by a piece of the taken from the Greeks at the 
 
 true cross, some of the "cheveux same time, and brought to Troyes 
 
 de N. S. qu'il ot en sen enfance," by the Grand Almoner of the 
 
 his swaddling clothes, a thorn French army, was deposited in 
 
 from his crown, a jnece of the a reliquaiy in the same church, 
 
 scarlet robe put on him in mock- 2 Njcetas bitterly reproaches 
 
 ery, and a rib and tooth of St. the Latins with committing 
 
 Philip ; all taken bj' Baldwin cruelties on the people of Con- 
 
 from the chapel of the emperor, stantinople, from which " the 
 
 Recueil des Hist, des Gaules, Islimaelites" had abstained when 
 
 3 7, 392. The Treasury of the they took Jerusalem. P. 762. 
 
 Collegiate Church of St. Peter Ed. Bonn. His accounts are 
 
 and St. Stephen at Troyes con- fully borne out by Villchardouin. 
 
 tains (or did contain) agates -^ Nicetas, p. 786.
 
 152 CAUSES 01' THK DESTRUCTION 
 
 Scholiasts, Suiclas, Eustatliius, Tzetzes, in the 
 tenth-, eleventh, and twelfth, had disappeared, 
 before Cxreek literature was brought into the 
 West in the fourteentli. Nothing that occurred 
 in the interval could explain it. The family of 
 the Pala3ologi, the last sovereigns of Constan- 
 tinople, were j^atrons of learning ; we read of none 
 of those destructive conflagrations which have 
 occurred before. The Turks plundered the city, 
 but they did not set it on fire. As many as 120,000 
 volumes were lost to their owners ; but as this 
 statement is accompanied by another, that ten 
 volumes might be purchased for a ducat, we may 
 hope that the capture of Constantinople was the 
 means rather of dispersing the Greek classics than of 
 destroying them.' At all events, the most precious 
 of them had reached Italy, and were there in safety. 
 Before we take leave of this subject we must 
 look back on the state of Latin classical literature 
 in the AVest. The age of devastation and destruc- 
 tion had passed, when the Northern invaders had 
 possessed themselves of the different European 
 kingdoms, though partially renewed by the ravages 
 of the Danes. Classical studies could not be ex- 
 pected to find mucli favour, from a warlike aris- 
 tocracy. Enlightened sovereigns, such as Charle- 
 magne, patronized schools and collected learned 
 men about them, but to the monasteries we chiefly 
 owe the preservation of the Latin classics.^ All 
 
 J Gibbon, chap. 07. conventual library (Lib. 4, 11), 
 
 2 Sidonis ApoUinaris in the speaking of its founder — 
 fifth century thus desoribes a 
 
 Triplex bibliotheoa, quo magistro, 
 
 Romana, Attica, Christiana fulsit 
 
 Quam totam mnnaflins, viienli^ in an'o, 
 
 Sociita biliil iiistitiilionc.
 
 0¥ CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 153 
 
 cliurclimen were not so hostile to heathen literature 
 as St. Gregory. A monk of the abbey of Pomposa, 
 near Ravenna, takes a more candid view of the 
 mixture of heathen and Christian studies. After 
 praising his abbat for his diligence in collecting 
 theological works, he adds, " But captious persons 
 will ask, ' Why does the reverend abbat place 
 heathen authors, histories of tyrants, and such 
 books, among theological works ? ' To these I 
 answer, in the words of the Apostle, ' There are 
 vessels of clay as well as vessels of gold.' By these 
 means the tastes of all are excited to study." ^ The 
 copying of books was one of the occupations of the 
 Benedictine monks, and the founder, at least, did 
 not prohibit the copying of heathen authors. But 
 where we gain a glance into the contents of 
 monastic libraries in the Middle Ages, the later 
 writers much predominate over the classics properly 
 so called, and theology over classics altogether. 
 The poetical description which Alcuin gives of the 
 library founded in York by Archbishop Albert, in 
 the eighth century, has been so frequently quoted, 
 that I will not repeat it, but content myself with 
 observing, that though it begins with a profession 
 that it contained " all that the Itoman world had 
 produced, all that Greece had transmitted to 
 Latium, all the celestial streams of which the 
 Hebrew people had di'unk," when he descends to 
 particulars we hear of Jerome and Hilary, Ambrose 
 and Augustine, Athanasius, Orosius, St. Gregory, 
 and Pope Leo : and it is only after a long enumera- 
 tion that he comes to the 
 
 1 Quoted in Taylor's Trans- Modern times. 
 
 rnissiou of AiK-iciit Buolis to
 
 1 54 CAUSES OF THE DESTRUCTION 
 
 * ' Historici veteres Pompeius, Plinius, ipse 
 Aristoteles acer, rhetor qiioque Tullius ingens." 
 
 Then comes again a long list of the Latin Cliristian 
 poets/ while a single line is given to 
 
 "Maro Yirgilius, Statius, Lucaniis et auctor 
 Artis Grammatica)." 
 
 I must express my doubts, whether the library 
 contained any Hebrew MSS., or any Greek classic, 
 and whether the Aristotle spoken of was not the 
 Latin translation of a part of his works, made by 
 Boethius. Pompeii/ s, too, can hardly have been 
 Trogus Pompeius, the historian of the world, in 
 forty-four books, but the abridgment by Justin, 
 which we still have. Horace, Virgil, Sallust, and 
 Statius, are mentioned as being studied and copied 
 at Paderborn, in North Germany, where a school 
 and convent had been established by Cliarlemagne. 
 The Abbat of Hildesheim, another of these es- 
 tablishments, is recorded to have got together a 
 library consisting both of sacred and philosophical 
 books. But north of the Alps Greek books appear 
 to have been exceedingly rare. One practice of the 
 monks, both of the East and West, was very inju- 
 rious to literature.^ The dearness of parchment led 
 them, especially in the eleventh and twelfth cen- 
 turies, to efface the original w^riting of a MS., and 
 to write over it the life of a saint or a work of one 
 of the Fathers. Such MSS. are called palmpsesfs. 
 A remarkable instance is that of a Paris MS., where 
 
 1 Among these Alcuinus has 1, 730. 
 
 intruded himself, against the 2 Robertson, Chark>s V., lUus- 
 
 sense and the metro, into tlie tration 477. 
 place oiAlcimusm GalcX Script.,
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 155 
 
 a very ancient copy of tlie New Testament lias 
 been effaced, to be supplied by a work of Eplirem 
 the Syrian. Of these palimpsests we shall have to 
 speak again, under the head of the Eecovery of the 
 Classics. 
 
 In the thirteenth century the East and the West 
 of Europe were in a strongly contrasted state. Both 
 had suffered from the enervating effects of the 
 despotic sway of Rome ; but the West had been 
 renovated by the infusion of Teutonic and Scandi- 
 navian blood ; and after struggling through a long 
 period of confusion and darkness, had attained to 
 settled forms of government, in which the spirit of 
 political freedom was working, though as yet with 
 partial and irregular efforts. Learning had never 
 been extinct, but it had been monopolized by 
 ecclesiastics, and philosophy had fallen under the 
 exclusive domain of Aristotle. The Eastern Empire, 
 no doubt, thought itself fortunate in having escaped 
 from conquest ; but its protracted life was only a 
 long disease, ending in a state of mental imbecility. 
 Yet it was reserved by Divine Providence to be the 
 instrument of a mighty change, — to emancipate the 
 mind of the West, — to introduce a purer taste, a 
 spirit of freer thought in religion and philosophy, 
 — to turn science from idle subtleties to the investi- 
 gation of the great Laws of the Universe. In the 
 literature of Greece the East preserved a precious 
 seed. It was indeed like the seed enclosed in the 
 swathings of a mummy ; it was useless, for it had 
 neither air, nor light, nor moisture, nor soil. But 
 in the West a congenial soil was awaiting it. How 
 it was transmitted to this soil, how it germinated
 
 156 HISTORY OF THE RECOVERY 
 
 and grew there, wliat harvests it has produced and 
 yet 2^1'omises to produce, will be subjects of our 
 inquiry in the following Lecture. 
 
 THE RECOVERY OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 We have reached the time when the history of 
 Classical Literature was transferred from Eastern 
 to Western Europe. We must, however, return a 
 little upon our steps, to see what had been taking 
 place here in the period immediately preceding the 
 Capture of Constantinople. 
 
 There never w^as a time when the Latin classics 
 were wholly neglected in the West, though, as we 
 have seen,^ the Christian Fathers held the first 
 place in the mediaeval libraries, and the Christian 
 poets the second. The Abbey and School of Fulda, 
 in Hesse Cassel, was one of the oldest ecclesiastical 
 establishments in North Germany, having been 
 founded by Bonifacius, the Apostle of Germany, in 
 the eighth century, and endowed by Charlemagne, 
 whose leading motive in establishing monasteries 
 was to multiply schools, in which youths might be 
 trained in learning and virtue.^ In the ninth 
 century it enjoyed a high celebrity, being presided 
 over by Eabanus Maurus, a pupil of Alcuin, and a 
 
 1 Page 154. 2 Hospinian de Scliolis, p. 94.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 1 57 
 
 man accomplished in every branch of the learning 
 of that age. To Fulda pupils resorted, not only 
 .from Germany, but from France, and among them 
 was Lupus, who no doubt imbibed from Eabanus, 
 himself one of the best Latin writers of the Middle 
 Ages, that taste for Latin literature, which induced 
 him, when he became Abbat of Ferrieres, to enrich 
 his convent-library with copies of the classics. 
 Twelve monks were regularly employed in tran- 
 scription. There is a large collection of his letters 
 extant, which are not only a proof of his own 
 learning, but show what pains he took to make his 
 classical library complete. One of them is addressed 
 to Pope Benedict III., in which he requests his 
 Holiness to send him copies of Quintilian, of 
 Donatus on Terence, of Sallust, and several of 
 Cicero's works which were not to be obtained in 
 France.^ We must not omit to mention, that in 
 another letter he makes apj)lication for the loan of 
 Quintilian, and a work of St. Jerome, from the 
 Library of York. Paderborn and Hildesheim were 
 hardly inferior to Fulda in the activity with which 
 learning was cultivated, and books, including the 
 Latin classics, collected or transcribed. In the 
 schools of the Benedictines there are said to have 
 been men learned in Hebrew, Greek, and Arabic.^ 
 These efforts for the improvement of libraries 
 and the encouragement of learning were counter- 
 acted in England, as well as in northern France 
 and Germany, by the ravages of the Danes and 
 Northmen. It was not, however, by pagan and 
 barbarous invaders that the Library of York was 
 
 1 Heeren, 1, 139. 2 Hosp. de Schol., u. s.
 
 1 58 HISTORY or THE RECOVERY 
 
 destroyed, but by the Christian and ci^dlized 
 Normans, when the city was set on fire in the 
 northern insurrection. 
 
 Another eminent churchman to whom literature 
 is indebted for exertions to complete and multiply 
 copies of the classics is Grerbert, afterwards Sylvester 
 II., who became Pope in the last year of the tenth 
 century. He was a man of varied talents and 
 astonishing attainments, and has left a name even 
 more remarkable in the history of science than that 
 of literature. His knowledge of astronomy and 
 mathematics, which was so great as to cause him 
 to be taken for a magician, he is said to have learnt 
 from the Arabs in Spain. From his letters he 
 appears not only to have been familiarly acquainted 
 with Sallust and Csesar, Suetonius and Cicero, but 
 to have spared no expence in collecting MSS. and 
 procuring transcrijits. He read the Republic of 
 Cicero,^ so long lost to us, and of which even now 
 we possess only fragments. He had travelled 
 widely, and had friends and correspondents in 
 various parts of Europe, whom he employed in 
 furtherance of his literary projects. The sj^stem 
 of the Church was a bond of union among the 
 remotest parts of European Christendom ; the 
 convents especially kept up a friendly intercourse 
 with each other, which greatly facilitated tlie inter- 
 change of MSS. Italy was naturally much richer 
 in these than France or Germany. In a letter to 
 the Abbat of Tours, to whom he sends a list of the 
 books which he desired to have copied, he writes, 
 
 1 " Comitantur iter tuiim Tul- et in Verrcm." Ep. 87, ad Con- 
 liana opiiscula ct De Rcpublica stantinuin.
 
 or CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 159 
 
 " You know how intent I am on the formation of 
 a library. As I have in past times obtained, at 
 great cost, from Eome and other parts of Italy, 
 from Germany and Belgium, copies of books, being 
 aided by the kindness of my friends, so now allow 
 me to implore the same service from j^ou. The 
 expence of parchment, and what else is necessary, 
 I will thankfully repay to your order." The inter- 
 change of books, however, was not always safe for 
 the lender. Grerbert writes to the monks of an 
 Italian convent, " You keep some books which 
 rightfully belong to our Church, against the laws 
 of Grod and man. If you return them our charity 
 shall return to you with increase ; the unjust 
 detention of the deposit shall be repaid by the 
 punishment you deserve." The example of Sylvester 
 II. does not appear to have been followed by his 
 successors in the eleventh century, who were more • 
 intent on establishing the independence of the 
 spiritual power, than in promoting the cause of 
 literature. A great decline in monastic discipline 
 and learning took place in the century which 
 followed his death, which gave rise to the proverb, 
 " Monacho indoctior." ^ Yet bright streaks began 
 to appear in this century, which shewed the approach 
 of a fuller light. Among these may be reckoned 
 the establishment of a school of law at Bologna, 
 and a school of medicine at Salerno. Jurisprudence 
 and medicine are essentially learned professions. 
 The Civil Law, as taught at Bologna, was derived 
 from ancient Home. In countries where the Civil 
 Law prevails, as in Holland, some eminent critics 
 have been jurisconsults by profession. 
 
 1 Hospinian, u. s.
 
 IGO HISTORY OF THE RECOVERY 
 
 The new study of the scholastic philosophy in 
 the eleventh century, which began with Anselm 
 and Lanfranc at Bee in Normandy, indicates an 
 increased knowledge of Aristotle's writings, pro- 
 bably not derived directly from the Greek. The 
 immediate effects of this study, which was made 
 popular, and established in the Universities, by the 
 Mendicant Friars, were not favourable to classical 
 studies. The style of Aquinas, Scotus, and other 
 Doctors of this school of subtilties, when compared 
 with the Latinity of Lupus and Sylvester, is harsh 
 and rude, and their nomenclature barbarous. But 
 the scholastic philosophy had a most important 
 influence on the progress of free thought. Its object 
 was to combine logic, metaphysics, and theology, 
 into an harmonious system, and the very attempt 
 to do so was an acknowledgment, that reason had 
 a claim to be heard, in matters hitherto decided by 
 Church authority. Grranting that their speculations 
 were unpractical and fanciful, the schoolmen are 
 not to be summarily dismissed, as vain and frivolous 
 disputers. The want of the age, the necessary 
 preliminary of all succeeding progress, was to set 
 the minds of men in motion, and this the school- 
 men effectually did. If they and their disciples 
 sometimes fought with shadows, they at least kept 
 themselves in salutary activity by this exercise, and 
 prevented the faculties from becoming paralyzed by 
 disuse. The very same order of men who, in their 
 capacity of Mendicant Friars, were a chief means 
 of riveting the chains of ecclesiastical authority, as 
 teachers of the scholastic philosophy, prepared the 
 means of breaking them. The state of neglect in
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 101 
 
 which the MSS. of the classics were found in the 
 monasteries, when research for them was set on 
 foot, at a subsequent period has been ascribed 
 with probability to the predominant taste for the 
 scholastic philosophy, and the almost exclusive 
 value set on Aristotle's writings, which were read 
 in translations. Paris, Oxford, and Cambridge, 
 were the chief seats of this system of instruction. 
 We find traces, however, in the thirteenth century, 
 of an increased acquaintance with the Greek lan- 
 guage, the fruit, no doubt, of the Crusades, and of 
 intercourse with the East. Roger Bacon and 
 Michael Scot both appear to have read Aristotle in 
 the original. 
 
 " In the resurrection of learning," says Gibbon, 
 " Italy was the first that cast away her shroud." 
 The long struggle between the Guelphs and the 
 Ghibellines, the partizans respectively of the 
 papal and the imperial power, had led to the 
 emancipation of the principal towns of Tuscany 
 from the power of their Dukes. Pisa, Lucca, Siena, 
 and Florence, had made themselves independent 
 republics. Florence soon distinguished itself above 
 the rest, by the extent of its commerce, the freedom 
 of its constitution, its literary culture, and its 
 eminence in art. The same result, as regards 
 political independence and commercial wealth and 
 activity, had been attained in Northern Italy, 
 though not as regards literature and art, which 
 fixed their home in Florence. 
 
 Of the three great founders of Italian literature, 
 Dante appears to have had no extraordinary attain- 
 ments in classical scholarship. He understood no
 
 163 HISTORY OF THE RECOVERY 
 
 Greek, and tliougli he makes Virgil his guide 
 through the infernal regions, he manifests no great 
 familiarity with his works, or those of the other 
 Latin poets. Perhaps this independence of foreign 
 or extraneous aid may be one reason, why he still 
 towers by force of native genius above his country- 
 men, who in their day enjoyed a much larger share 
 of popularity. It was otherwise with Petrarch. 
 Being endowed by nature with the finest taste for 
 whatever was beautiful and great, he attached him- 
 self enthusiastically, from his earliest years, to the 
 study of the classics, and especially of Cicero.^ He 
 found some of his writings among his father's 
 books, who was a Florentine lawyer. Young 
 Petrarch was one of those 
 
 " Clerks foredoomed their father's soiil to cross, 
 Who pen a stanza when they should engross ; " 
 
 and the relation between them was much the same 
 as between Sir Walter Scott and his father, so 
 pleasantly shadowed out in the two Fairfords in 
 E-edgauntlet. It was the father's aml)ition to see his 
 son in doctorial robes, such robes, we may suppose, 
 as Portia wears, when she comes, as the deputy of 
 old Bellario of Padua, to rescue Antonio from the 
 knife of Shylock. Coming one day suddenly upon 
 him, and finding him reading, not the Pandects or 
 the Digest, but Cicero and Virgil, he flung them 
 into the fire, and they were half burnt before he was 
 prevailed upon, by his son's earnest supplications, 
 to restore them. He had the good sense, however, 
 not further to thwart his son's inclinations. He 
 
 1 Tiruliosclii, 5, 445.
 
 or CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 103 
 
 abandoned the legal profession, and declined that 
 of the Church, that he might devote himself to 
 .letters. 
 
 Though Petrarch's fame now rests on his Italian 
 poetry, his writings in the Latin language are far 
 more numerous, and it was by his " Africa," a Latin 
 epic on the Second Punic War, of which Scipio is 
 the hero, that he hoped to gain immortality. We 
 have to speak of him for his lifelong exertions to 
 recover and preserve copies of the Latin classics. 
 This object he never lost sight of, wherever he went 
 and however he was engaged. " When my friends," 
 says he, " were taking leave of me, and asked me, 
 as friends do, ' Whether they should bring me any- 
 thing on their return,' I used to answer, ' Nothing 
 but the works of Cicero.' And how often did I 
 send entreaties and money, not only throughout 
 Italy, where I was pretty well known, but through 
 Gaul and Germany, and even to Spain and Britain, 
 — nay, strange to say, even into Greece, whence, 
 though I expected Cicero, I got Homer. Whenever 
 I went on a distant journey, if I happened to espy 
 an ancient monastery from a distance, I straitway 
 turned aside thither ; * For who knows,' said I, 
 ' whether I may not find here some of the things 
 of which I am in search.' When I was twenty-five 
 years old, on a hasty journey between Holland and 
 Switzerland, on my arrival at Liege, hearing that 
 there was good store of books there, I stopped 
 and detained my companions, till I could copy an 
 oration of Cicero with my own hands, and a friend 
 another. You will smile to hear that in a barbarian 
 city, [everything North of the Alps was barbarous 
 
 M 2
 
 104 HISTORY OF THE RECOVERY 
 
 to the Italians,] of such goodly size, we had some 
 difficulty in finding- a little ink, and that, too, of 
 the colour of saffron." Petrarch mentions Britain 
 in this extract, as one of the countries from which 
 he endeavoured to obtain MSS. Next to Cicero, 
 Livy was the object of Petrarch's research. From 
 the great bulk of his History, consisting of 140 
 books, it was generally transcribed in decads in the 
 Middle Ages, and of these he possessed the first, 
 third, and fourth. He sought for the second with 
 great assiduity, but it was nowhere to be found, 
 nor has it yet been recovered. 
 
 It is evident that the age in which Petrarch 
 lived was a very critical one for classical literature. 
 Had such a zealous collector arisen fifty years 
 earlier, much might have been saved which is 
 irretrievably lost : had the task been delayed 
 another half century, our losses would have been 
 still greater. It was known to Petrarch, that 
 Cicero's Treatise de Republica had been extant in 
 the Middle Ages, and he long entertained the hope 
 of recovering it, but was at length convinced that 
 it had disappeared.' He had himself a copy of 
 Cicero's De Gfloria, which he lent to his old master, 
 who lived at Avignon, where Petrarch resided for 
 many years. This man pledged the MS., and it 
 has never since been heard of Petrarch had i'ead 
 in his youth a treatise of Varro, " Libri Perum 
 Divinarum et Humanarum ; " when he sought for 
 a copy of it later in life, it was nowhere to be 
 found, nor has it ever re-appeared. It is mortifying 
 to reflect, that these precious remains of antiquity, 
 
 1 Ep. fam., 7, 4.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 1G5 
 
 after liaving passed tlirougli the perils of nine 
 centuries, should have been lost only 100 years 
 .before the invention of printing. 
 
 The friend and younger contemporary of Petrarch, 
 Boccacio, is best known as the first author of classic 
 prose style in Italy, but he rendered good service 
 to ancient literature, by the collection of Greek and 
 Latin authors, especially the former.^ The Greek 
 language had never become wholly extinct in that 
 part of Italy, which, from the number of its Dorian 
 and Ionian colonies, had obtained the name of 
 Magna Graecia. Boccacio brought from Calabria 
 to Florence, Leo Pilatus, the first public teacher of 
 the Greek language in Italy, and maintained him 
 at his own expence. Neither Boccacio nor Petrarch 
 appear to have advanced so far as to read Homer in 
 the original, but Boccacio, by the help of Leo, 
 composed a prose Latin version of both the Iliad 
 and the Odyssey. At his death he bequeathed his 
 library of Greek and Latin books to a convent in 
 Florence. To form such collections became a fashion. 
 Petrarch complains, that some bought books, as 
 others pictures or furniture, for show and not for 
 use, and some in order to sell them again at a 
 higher price. No doubt it was a grievance to poor 
 scholars, that the price of books should be raised, 
 but we know, in the case of antiquities, that the 
 surest incentive to their research and preservation 
 is, the knowledge that there is a good market for 
 them. There was no danger that MSS. of the 
 classics should be used to light fires, when it was 
 known that book collectors and booksellers were 
 
 1 Giuguunc, Hiijt. lit. d'ltalie, o, 13.
 
 IGG HISTORY OF THE RECOVERY 
 
 ready to pay a good price for them. The nego- 
 tiations respecting a reconcihation between the 
 Eastern and Western Chnrches, which the impend- 
 ing danger of the Eastern produced, brought some 
 eminent Greeks to Italy, one of whom, Manuel 
 Chrysoloras, remained there as professor of Greek 
 at Elorence. His lecture rooms were crowded with 
 hearers, to whom he explained the principles of the 
 Greek language, and taught the Greek authors, 
 Homer again leading the way in this resurrection 
 of Greek literature, as he had presided over its 
 birth in his native land.^ 
 
 Before the commencement of the fifteenth century 
 Greek w^as generally taught in all the universities 
 of Italy, and the scarcity of Greek books (for we 
 are still more than half a century from the intro- 
 duction of printing into that country,) caused MSS. 
 to be eagerly sought after, in lands where the 
 Greek language was or had been spoken. The 
 celebrated Francis Filelfo, who had been secretary 
 to the Venetian embassy at Constantinople, and 
 afterwards in the service of the emperor John 
 Palieologus, has given a list of the Greek authors 
 whom he had collected ; they amount to upwards 
 of fifty, and among them are the most illustrious 
 names in Greek literature, — Homer, Pindar, He- 
 rodotus, Thucydides, Euripides, Aristotle, Plato, 
 Demosthenes. He appears to have impoverished 
 himself by the expenditure of large sums in these 
 purchases, but he found munificent patrons in 
 the great men of that age, — Cosmo de Medici, 
 
 1 Sec in Giljbou, cli. (iC, the own feelings, given by one of 
 ontliusiastic d(?sciiption of his the pupils of Chrysoloras.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 1G7 
 
 Visconti, duke of Miltin, Popes Nicolas V. and 
 Pius II. ; and various universities contended for 
 the possession of him as a professor. His restless 
 temper made his life a series of quarrels and changes, 
 and the bitterness of his satire exposed him more 
 than once to the danger of assassination. 
 
 With the name of Filelfo is naturally connected 
 that of Poggio Bracciolini/ as equally ardent in 
 the recovery of MSS. of the classics, though they 
 were bitter enemies, and poured out on each other 
 torrents of the vilest abuse. The circumstances of 
 his life led him chiefly to the repositories of Latin 
 MSS. Like Petrarch, he was the son of a lawyer, 
 and having received a classical education under 
 Manuel Chrysoloras, attracted by his talents the 
 notice of Boniface IX., who appointed him his 
 secretary for apostolic letters, and he remained 
 attached to the papal court, through many successive 
 popedoms. The Council of Constance, held in 1414, 
 gave him an opportunity of examining the library 
 of the Monastery of St. Gal, which is a few leagues 
 distant, and he was rewarded by the discovery of a 
 perfect copy of the Institutions of Quintilian, and 
 a considerable part of the Argonautica of Valerius 
 Flaccus. These precious remains, he tells us, he 
 found buried in rubbish and dust, grievously 
 mutilated, and lying in heaps on the lowest floor 
 of a tower, not fit even to be a prison, in a room 
 without door or window. In several other instances, 
 as in the discovery of a copy of Cicero's oration for 
 Caecina, in a Cluniac monastery at Langrcs, and of 
 
 1 Shoplierd's Life of Poggio p. 28-2, seq. for the life aiul 
 Braccioliui, Tiiabosclii, vol. (i, wiitings of Filelfo.
 
 168 HISTORY or THE RECOVERY 
 
 Frontinus de Aquseductibus, in that of Monte 
 Cassino, the MSS. appear to have been entu-ely 
 neglected, and their value to have been unknown 
 to their possessors ; so that the time was fully 
 come, for the monks to yield their trust to more 
 vigilant and more intelligent guardians. Of the 
 state of learning among the Grerman monks we 
 have an unexceptionable testimony from Trithemius, 
 the learned Abbat of Spanheim, a Benedictine, and 
 himself one of the greatest scholars of the age. 
 " This time [he is speaking of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury] was one in which the monks had entirely 
 abandoned all literary study, and the observance of 
 regular discipline was at an end."^ 
 
 Poggio's duties called him to a great variety of 
 places, and he made special journeys for the purpose 
 of discovering copies of the classics. We have 
 been so long in possession of them, that we can 
 hardly understand the enthusiasm with which each 
 new discovery was hailed. A friend of Poggio 
 writes to him, — " As Camillus, on account of his 
 having rebuilt Rome, was called its second founder, 
 so you may be denominated the second autlior of 
 all those pieces, which are restored to the world 
 by your meritorious exertions. I therefore most 
 earnestly entreat you, not to relax in your laudable 
 designs. Let not the expense discourage you : I 
 will take care to provide the necessary funds. We 
 have now the entire treatise of Quintilian, of which 
 before we had only one-lialf, and that in a very 
 mutilated condition. what a valuable acquisition ! 
 what an unexpected pleasure ! Shall I then behold 
 
 1 C'hronic. llirsuu''. uU ;iuii. loOU.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 1G9 
 
 Quintilian whole and entire, who, even in an im- 
 perfect state, was a source of delight? I entreat 
 you, my dear Poggio, send me the MS. as soon as 
 possible, that I may see him before I dye. When 
 after having delivered him from his long imprison- 
 ment in the dungeons of the barbarians, you 
 transmit him to this country, all the nations of 
 Italy ought to assemble to bid him welcome." 
 Burmann says, Poggio obtained the MS. from the 
 library of St. Gal " honesfo furto" ' AYhere it now 
 is appears uncertain, but the great majority of the 
 MSS. of Quintilian are transcripts from it, made 
 between this time and the invention of printing. 
 The joy of Poggio's friend at the ]3rospect of 
 reading it was not excessive. No ancient author 
 displays more correct taste, more just morality, 
 and sounder notions of practical education than 
 Quintilian, and the publication of his Institutes 
 contributed greatly to the improvement of style. 
 It is to be regretted that, belonging to the silver 
 age of Latinity, he has been almost banished from 
 the modern course of classical reading. 
 
 Besides Quintilian, many other authors, or 
 portions of authors, were recovered by Poggio. 
 Cardinal Beaufort invited him to England, and, 
 after keeping him long in suspense, bestowed on 
 him, though a layman, a small ecclesiastical benefice, 
 — an abuse not uncommon in the Middle Ages. 
 Its amount was not sufficient to retain him in a 
 country so uncongenial to an Italian's feelings. 
 We hear of no classical discoveries or researches 
 made during his residence here. 
 
 ' Pnefatio acl Quiutiliani Instit.
 
 170 HISTORY OF THE RECOVERY 
 
 Filelfo and Poggio had not hesitated to impoverish 
 themselves by their collection of MSS. ; the wealth 
 of the House of Medici enabled them to render the 
 same service to letters, on a much ampler scale. ^ 
 Cosmo, who for thirty years from 1434 was at the 
 head of the Republic of Florence, was an ardent 
 admirer of the Platonic philosophy, which is re- 
 commended to men of taste, by those charms of 
 style, which are so entirely wanting in Aristotle. 
 From the scholars, who formed a kind of Platonic 
 Academy around him, he had imbibed an ardent 
 passion for Greek literature. The foreign agents, 
 w'ho were established for commercial purposes in all 
 the principal cities, had unlimited power to purchase 
 Greek books ; he kept a number of skilful copyists 
 at work, and sent out learned men expressly for the 
 purpose of examining monastic libraries. Aurispa, 
 whom he sent into the East, returned with not 
 lewer than 238 Greek MSS. Their acquisition 
 was facilitated by the distracted state of the Eastern 
 empire, and the dread of the Turks. In such 
 circumstances books are the objects which their 
 possessors most readily agi^ee to part with. His 
 grandson Lorenzo followed in his steps, and being 
 disengaged from commercial pursuits, and less 
 harassed by faction than his grandfather, he was 
 able to devote himself entirely to art and literature. 
 To enlarge and improve the Medicean library 
 founded by Cosmo was an object of almost passion- 
 ate earnestness with him, and he declared himself 
 ready and even desirous, to prove his devotion to 
 this object, by pledging his household furniture, if 
 
 J lloscoc, Lorenzo dc' Modiei, I, MT, 2, GO.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 171 
 
 necessary. Aiigelo Poliziano, one of the most 
 tasteful of Italian scholars, had the charge of the 
 library. By the close of the fifteenth century there 
 remained only a gleaning to reward research after 
 classical authors. Lorenzo sent emissaries to Greece 
 to purchase MSS. there, especially from the mon- 
 asteries on Mount Athos, which was covered with 
 them from top to bottom. Janus Lascaris was 
 returning with 200 Greek MSS., and in his last 
 hours Lorenzo expressed to his friends, Pico of 
 Mirandola and Poliziano, his earnest desire, that 
 he might live long enough to behold them. It was 
 not books alone that Lorenzo collected ; the works 
 of ancient art, which form the treasure of the 
 Florentine Museum, and which, besides their in- 
 trinsic beauty, have afforded valuable materials to 
 critics for the illustration of ancient authors, — the 
 medals, vases, statues, and bas-reliefs, — were chiefly 
 brought together by him. 
 
 Hitherto we have heard little of libraries at 
 Rome, but in the year 1447 Tommaso Sarzano 
 ascended the papal throne, under the title of 
 Nicolas V. His attainments were of an extra- 
 ordinary kind, no branch of science or letters, 
 sacred or profane, was strange to him ; and accord- 
 ing to a contemporary, if you heard him speak on 
 any one, you would suppose he had made that his 
 sole study. ^ It appears to have been his object to 
 make the library of the Vatican, which had been 
 hitherto of small account, a complete repository of 
 
 1 His life has been written at esting memoir of liim by a con- 
 great length by Georgi. Rome, temporary in Muratori Script. 
 174:2. There iy also a very inter- Eer. It., vol. 25.
 
 172 HISTORY OF THE RECOYEllY 
 
 all tlie Greek and Latin writers. The captm-e of 
 Constantinople, which took place during his papacy, 
 afforded him great facilities for enlarging his collec- 
 tions. He kept a staff" of skilful copyists, whom 
 he established in different places, where there were 
 books to be transcribed.' Though he lived only 
 eight years after his election, he had accomplished 
 so much, that the Vatican became the richest in 
 MSS. of all the European libraries. Unfortunately 
 it is also the least accessible, and therefore the least 
 known and used. 
 
 We have now arrived at the epoch of the 
 discovery of printing, which has placed literature 
 beyond the reach of those vicissitudes which we 
 have been describing. By the middle of the fifteenth 
 centiuy, type printing, due probably to Lawrence 
 Costar of Harlem, had been so far improved by 
 Gutenberg, Fust, and Schaiffer, that only minor 
 changes remained to be made. It was no accident 
 that connected the invention of printing with the 
 revival of letters and the increased desire of reading. 
 The new demand, as in other cases, set men's wits 
 to work to devise the means of suppl}^, and from 
 the art of block printing, long known in the East, 
 by various but rapid steps, typography was de- 
 veloped. It was speedily applied in Italy to the 
 classics. In 1472, Virgil was printed at Florence ; 
 and Homer in 1488 : before the end of the century 
 300 books had issued from the Florentine press. 
 The work was carried on by the Juntas, the Aldi, 
 and the Stephens, and before the end of the sixteenth 
 
 • Tirabosclii, f., ji, I, p. r»0, scq. 125.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 173 
 
 century all the classical authors had been repeatedly 
 printed. 
 
 Since the sixteenth century little has been added 
 to the catalogue of the classics. The discovery of 
 an Homeric Hymn (if it be Homer's), made by 
 Matthiii at Moscow, is an exception, and there may 
 be others, but they are of very trifling amount. 
 Often have scholars flattered themselves, that from 
 the Imperial library at Constantinople, or a mon- 
 astery in Sicily, or a convent in Greece, the 
 missing books of Polybius or Diodorus, or the 
 lost decads of Livy, were about to be produced ; 
 but these hopes have proved fallacious. It might 
 seem as if Europe had been so thoroughly ransacked, 
 that there is hardly a corner where it is possible 
 that a classic should be lying hid. But let us not 
 abandon hope. When the Hellenic nation resumes 
 its ancient patrimony, and a Christian sovereign 
 occupies the palace of the Turk, is it improbable 
 that they may find in some of its chambers, a 
 portion of the literary treasures of their forefathers, 
 which has been lying there for centuries, unheeded 
 by its barbarous possessors ? 
 
 It was natural that when the buried cities of the 
 South of Italy, Herculaneum and Pompeii, were 
 discovered in the last century, high hopes should 
 be entertained of valuable additions to classical 
 literature. Nor have these hopes been wholly 
 fallacious. In Herculaneum there was found a 
 number of rolls of papyrus, partially charred by 
 the hot volcanic mud which overwhelmed the town, 
 but still legible, and capable by care and manage- 
 ment of being unrolled and transcribed. This has
 
 174 HISTORY OF THE RECOVERY 
 
 been done, but their contents have not proved of 
 much value. ^ They consist almost entirely of the 
 works of Philodemus, a contemporary of Cicero, 
 and apparently of some local celebrity in the South 
 of Italy, who was an admirer of Epicurus, and had 
 collected his works. One Latin work only was 
 found among the rolls — a poem on the Battle of 
 Actium. In Pompeii, which has furnished such an 
 ample and curious collection to the Museum of 
 Naples, not a single volume has yet been found, 
 the sliower of hot ashes which buried the town 
 having perhaps consumed them ; or as very little 
 money has been found, and as it is evident that 
 after the eruption the inhabitants dug down into 
 their houses, they may have carried off their books. 
 A real accession to the recovered works of the 
 classics has been made by the reading of what are 
 called palimpsest MSS., of which I spoke in my 
 former Lecture. The practice of using writing 
 materials twice over is certainly as old as the time 
 of Cicero, who says in a letter to Trebatius, a 
 lawyer, " I praise your economy in writing on a 
 palimpsest, though I am curious to know what it 
 was that you thought of so little value, that you 
 effaced it in order to write me this letter. Perhaps 
 it was some of your own law papers." This, how- 
 ever, was a palimpsest of papyrus ; of course the 
 more costly material of parchment would be used 
 with similar economy. It was washed and then 
 smoothed with pumice stone. This practice prevailed 
 
 1 See Hayter on Herculaneum on when T was at Naples in 1840, 
 MSS. The process of unrolling but nothing of imiwrtancc has 
 and transcribing was still going been discovered.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 175 
 
 extensively in the Middle Ages.^ Fortunately the 
 process of expunging was not so complete, but that 
 the original characters could be traced by care, and 
 thus valuable fragments of the ancient classics, and 
 later Latin authors, have been discovered. The 
 glory of these discoveries belongs almost exclusively 
 to one man, Angelo Mai, who before his death 
 became head librarian of the Vatican, and had a 
 Cardinal's hat. The Ambrosian library at Milan 
 contained many MSS. which had been brought 
 from the ancient Monastery of Bobio, founded by 
 Columbanus in 642. They had probably been 
 placed there by Gerbert, of whom we have already 
 spoken as a zealous collector of MSS. Mai has 
 related in his preface to the edition of the frag- 
 ments of Cicero's Oration for Scaurus, how this 
 discovery flashed upon him. He was examining a 
 MS. of Sedulius, a Christian poet of the fifth 
 century, one of those whom Alcuin mentions in his 
 lines on Archbishop Albert's library, when he 
 discovered traces of a former writing underneath. 
 Joy almost surprised the abbat out of his pro- 
 fessional proprieties. " Deus immortalis, I 
 suddenly exclaimed, what is it I see ? Behold 
 Cicero, the light of Boman eloquence, buried in 
 undeserved darkness. I recognise the lost orations 
 of Tully." Soon after he discovered considerable 
 remains of the Epistles of Fronto, a correspondent 
 of both the Antonines and of Lucius Verus.^ But 
 his crowning labour was the detection, among the 
 
 1 See p. 154. Palimpsests of ^ Reprinted by Niebuhr with 
 papyrus are in existence. See his owii notes and those of Butt- 
 Mai Prtef. ad Cic. llepub., p. 31. mannandHcindorf,Berlin,1810.
 
 176 HISTORY OF THE RT^COVERY 
 
 palimpsests of the Vatican, of Cicero's Treatise de 
 llepublica, hidden under a commentary by St. 
 Augustine. This is the work which Petrarch had 
 sought without success, but which had been lost to 
 the world since the 12th century, except the Dream 
 of Scipio, which had been preserved in a detached 
 form. Though after all only a fragment of the 
 work, in which Cicero described the constitution of 
 his country, almost at the moment when it was 
 about to fall a victim to the ambition of Caesar and 
 its own corruption, its recovery was most welcome 
 to scholars. Niebuhr was enabled by it to form a 
 more exact conception of the Servian Constitution, 
 than he had been able to attain from other sources.^ 
 Mai has collected fragments of numerous other 
 Greek and Latin authors from palimpsests, which 
 he has published in several 4to volumes. Here 
 then we close the history of the Eecovery of Clas- 
 sical Literature, leaving however a blank page for 
 future additions, of which I by no means despair. 
 
 As the account now stands, what have we lost, 
 what have we saved ? The first muster after a 
 battle or a wreck is a melancholy sight. Many a 
 brave fellow has been buried in the waves, or laid 
 beneath the turf ; the survivors, with scarred and 
 mutilated limbs, exhibit a ghastly spectacle. The 
 first impression, however, usually goes beyond the 
 the actual loss ; stragglers come dropping in ; 
 wounds which seemed mortal are healed by skilful 
 surgery. If gashes still remain, use reconciles us 
 to the sight of them, and from these diminished 
 
 1 Roman History.— " The Centuries," 1, .'57?}. Eng. Tr.
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 177 
 
 numbers, a band effective for service may still be 
 gathered. And so it is when we compare what has 
 been lost with wliat has been preserved of the 
 Greek and Roman classics. Quintilian, in the first 
 chapter of his tenth Book, points out the best 
 authors of either literature, and the comparison of 
 his Kst with what is in our possession will give us 
 an exact measure of our loss. We shall perhaps be 
 surprised to find how little, of first rate excellence, 
 has perished. We have the two immortal works of 
 Homer, and about as much of Hesiod as we could 
 desire. We can bear the loss of the whole race of 
 Cyclic poets, since so much of their mythological 
 history has been preserved to us in prose, and as 
 poets they did not stand high. " Antimachus," 
 says Quintilian, ".is reckoned by the critics to come 
 next after Homer ; " but as he adds the remark, 
 " that there was a long distance between the second 
 and the first," " alindprocvui/i/m esse, Siliud secimdiwi," 
 we may the less regret that his works have been 
 lost. Among the lyric poets, we have only frag- 
 ments of Alcseus and Sappho, Bacchylides and 
 Corinna; but of Pindar, whom Quintilian pronounces 
 to be " decem lyricorum facile princeps," the Cory- 
 phaeus of the band of lyrists, we have four books 
 of odes, no doubt those in which his genius was 
 most fully displayed, as they celebrated the victors 
 in the Grecian games. The havoc in dramatic 
 literature has been great ; seven tragedies alone 
 remain of ninety which ^schylus wrote ; seven 
 only of the still more numerous works of Sophocles ; 
 but we have probably their masterpieces ; and 
 among the nineteen plays of Euripides there are
 
 178 HISTORY OF THE RECOVERY 
 
 several of inferior merit. In the Old Comedy, 
 again, Aristophanes, whom we have, was considered 
 by the ancients themselves as superior to Eupohs 
 and Cratinus, whom we have not. The loss of 
 Menander, Philemon, Diphilus, and the other writers 
 of the New Comedy, is almost a solitary instance 
 of the destruction of a whole class in literature, 
 inadequately represented by their Latin translators 
 and imitators; for Terence, as Julius Caesar's epigram 
 tells us, was but a dimidiafus Menander, wanting the 
 comic power of his original. Herodotus, Thucy- 
 dides, Xenophon, had no rivals in history among 
 those who have been lost. In philosophy we have 
 ample remains of Plato and Aristotle, the two 
 great heads of opposite schools ; the works of the 
 Academics, the Epicureans, and the Stoics, have 
 perished, with the exception of Epictetus ; but 
 none of them were remarkable for st3'le, and we 
 have other means of ascertaining what their doc- 
 trines were. 
 
 The Latin tragedies were translations or imita- 
 tions of the Greek, so that the entire loss of the 
 oldest specimens is only to be regretted in reference 
 to the history of the language. In poetry the 
 Romans could boast of no greater names than 
 Lucretius, CatulliTS, Tibullus, Propertius, Virgil, 
 Plorace, and Ovid ; in history, than Sallust, Ca?sar, 
 Livy, and Tacitus ; and all these are in our classical 
 library. We could greatly have desired an oration 
 or two of Quintus Hortensius, but of his great rival, 
 Cicero, we have such ample specimens as may 
 console us for the loss of several inferior orators — 
 Messala and C»lius, Sulpicius and Trachalus.
 
 OP CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 179 
 
 Every one, according to his own tastes and 
 studies, will fix on some author or class of authors, 
 whom he would specially desire to have saved from 
 the wreck. Wordsworth has said, — 
 
 ** ye who reverently explore 
 The wreck of Herculanean lore, 
 What raptiu'e, coiild ye seize 
 Some Theban fragment, or unrol 
 One precious tender-hearted scroll 
 Of pure Simonides." 
 
 And if, from the nook of an unexplored library, or 
 unexamined palimpsest, a critic could produce a 
 poem of Simonides, at all approaching in purity 
 and tenderness to the song of Danae to her child, 
 so beautifully translated by L. C. J. Denman,^ every 
 man of taste would rejoice in the discovery. Pro- 
 fessor De Morgan again, if he were consulted, 
 might ask for the lost books of the Arithmetic of 
 Diophantus. But the spring of truth and tender- 
 ness is in the heart of man, and gushes forth in 
 poetry in every land and language. We have lost 
 all save a fragment of Simonides ; but we have 
 Burns and Tennyson and Hemans and Longfellow. 
 The truths of science and philosophy are not created 
 by moralists or mathematicians ; they are in the 
 mind and conscience and the reflecting intellect ; 
 they may be temporarily, but never irretrievably, 
 lost. An historical fact, on the contrary, once lost, 
 is lost for ever. I may be allowed, therefore, to 
 say, that the most serious injury which the world 
 has suffered is in the department of ancient his- 
 torical literature. Great has been the destruction 
 in both languages. The predecessors of Herodotus 
 
 1 See Bland's Collections from Greek Anthology. 
 
 N 2
 
 180 HISTORY OF THE RECOVERY 
 
 exist only in a few fragments. The same fate has 
 befallen the successors of Xenophon in Grecian 
 history. The contemporary historians of Alexander's 
 life and actions are wholly lost, and we depend for 
 this most important period on the second-hand 
 evidence of Arrian and Q. Curtius. Little has been 
 spared of what the Greeks wrote to illustrate the 
 countries which they called barbarous. We have 
 not one of their works on Egypt, between Herod- 
 otus in the fifth century b. c, and Diodorus in that 
 of Augustus. The history of Manetho, derived 
 from ancient monuments, has been lost, excej)t a 
 few pages preserved in Eusebius and Josephus. 
 The Persian history of Ctesias we know only by 
 extracts in Photius ; the Lydian history of Xanthus 
 remains in yet more scanty fragments. The Phoe- 
 nicians, from whom the western world derived their 
 alphabet, have reaped little benefit from their 
 invention ; their native historians have entirely 
 perished ; the Greek writers of their history nearly 
 so. Had we the work of Fabius Pictor, or the 
 poetical annals of Ennius and Na;vius, there would 
 be an end of much uncertain hypothesis respecting 
 the early ages of Pome. Had Livy and Polybius 
 been entire, what a blaze of eloquence would the 
 one have shed on the later times of the Republic ; 
 what a philosophic light would the other have 
 thrown upon the history of the wars, which made 
 Rome the mistress of the world ! Tacitus perhaps 
 never lived to write that history of Trajan, which 
 he had reserved for his tranquil old age ; but we 
 have certainly lost ten books of his Annals, and 
 all but a single year of his Histories. "When I
 
 OF CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 181 
 
 think, liad these lost works been preserved, with 
 what ease and security the historical inquirer would 
 have walked, where he must now grope and stumble, 
 I feel more than ever grateful for the invention of 
 printing, which guards us from any similar loss of 
 historical evidence. 
 
 Imperfect, however, as the recovery of classical 
 literature has been, it has wrought a change in the 
 condition of Europe, the effects of which will long 
 continue ; for they are expanding and progressive ; 
 nor have I any fear, that the practical tendencies 
 of our age will cause the neglect of the two noble 
 languages in which that literature is preserved. 
 The result of practical talent is often the acquisition 
 of competence, and even wealth, by those who have 
 gone through the world without a tincture of clas- 
 sical education, and the hasty conclusion is drawn, 
 that Greek and Latin are useless. But their own 
 convictions are different, for we almost invariably 
 find them earnestly procuring for their children the 
 culture which has been denied to themselves. 
 
 Probably the form of classical instruction will 
 change ; in our own recollection it has changed ; 
 it has admitted more of logic into its grammar, 
 more of philosophy into its etymology ; it has 
 confined itself less to words to the exclusion of 
 things, and it has thus taken a higher place in the 
 discipline of the mind. There is, however, in the 
 great writers of Greece and Rome, so much that is 
 admirable in thought and style, that whatever may 
 be the oscillations and excentricities of taste, they 
 can never become obsolete, but will serve as models 
 to future generations, as they have done to the past.
 
 VI. 
 
 THE REIGN OF TRAJAN ILLUSTRATED BY A MONUMENT 
 FOUND IN YORK. 
 
 IMl?- CAESAiJ 
 DIVrNi:'RYA^-FIL-'NERVA 
 TItAIA'NYSAJJG-GI^'RMJ)AC 
 
 PONTIFEX-MAXIMF^'-ri? 
 
 JPOTESTATISXTlIMP-VI P.C 
 
 PER LEG- Villi -HI^P. 
 
 The inscribed Tablet found at the end of 1854, 
 in King's Square, received, at the time of its 
 discovery, from the Curator of Antiquities, the 
 late Rev. C. Wellbeloved, a complete antiq^uarian 
 elucidation ; but it has occurred to me that some 
 additional interest might be given to it by a more 
 historical illustration. I exhibit a copy of it, as 
 restored by him, marking the restorations by 
 inclined capitals. 
 
 Although the reign of Trajan was not short, 
 lasting from a. d. 98 — 117, and was one of the 
 most important, the most happy, and the most 
 glorious which the Roman people enjoyed under 
 their Ca3sars, we are very destitute of literary 
 materials for its history. The Lives of the Caesars 
 by Suetonius end with Domitian. Tacitus had 
 reserved the reigns of Nerva and Trajan as a 
 copious and easy subject for his old age. " Si vita
 
 THE REIGN or TRAJAN. 183 
 
 suppeditet," says he, in the first section of his 
 Histories, " principatum divi Nervse et imperium 
 Trajani, uberiorem securioremque materiam senec- 
 tuti seposui : rara temporum fehcitate ubi sentire 
 quae velis, et quae sentias dicere licet." These words 
 may have been written in the reign of Hadrian, to 
 which they were still applicable, though less so 
 than to Trajan's, at whose deatji, in a. d. 117, 
 Tacitus was fifty-seven years old. But whether he 
 died before the arrival of that old age for which he 
 had reserved the history of Trajan's reign, or was 
 prevented by other circumstances from undertaking 
 it, he appears never to have written it, and we 
 have not to reckon the loss of this, as of so large 
 a portion of the Annals, among the injuries which 
 Latin Literature has suffered from the scythe of 
 time. The Greek history of Dion Cassius might 
 have supplied the deficiency, but, unfortunately, of 
 this portion we have only the Epitome, or Excerpta 
 of Xiphilinus. The Panegyric of Trajan, by Pliny 
 the Younger, is declamatory and vague ; the cor- 
 respondence between him and the Emperor during 
 his Bithynian Administration is very instructive ; 
 but it embraces only a short time, and is limited to 
 local subjects. This scarcity of historical writings 
 gives an increased value to the monuments of 
 Trajan's reign, and they are fortunately numerous 
 and splendid. The bridge over the Danube, which 
 was the wonder of his contemporaries, no longer 
 exists, except in the ruins of its piers ; but the 
 bridge of Alcantara, the harbour of Civita Vecchia, 
 the triumphal arches of Ancona and Beneventum, 
 and the Column at Rome, with numerous smaller
 
 184 THE REIGN OF TRAJAN ILLUSTRATED 
 
 monuments, inscriptions, and coins, attest liis 
 activity, especially in tlie erection of public works 
 and the improvement of the means of communica- 
 tions. He has indeed been ridiculed for his fondness 
 for seeing his own name inscribed on walls, and 
 Constantine is said to have nicknamed him ^^r/r/^- 
 iaria (wall-flower, or, more properly, pellitory,) 
 from this circumstance.^ The reproach comes with 
 a bad grace from Constantine, who plundered 
 Trajan's Arch at Rome, to adorn his own with its 
 bas-reliefs ;^ and certainly antiquaries and historians 
 have cause to rejoice, that he multij^lied the memo- 
 rials of himself in all parts of his empire. Till our 
 inscription was discovered, it was not known that 
 Britain was among the countries so honoured. 
 
 The first of his titles is Gtermanicus. This had 
 been conferred upon him before he became Emperor ; 
 for it happened that on the day of his adoption, at 
 the end of October a. d. 97, letters arrived from 
 Germany, wreathed, as the Roman custom was, 
 with laurel, announcing a victory in Pannonia. 
 Trajan was at that time commander of the army 
 in Germany, but, apparently, was not with the 
 victorious troops, as he is said to have been at 
 Colonia Agrippina (Cologne on the Rhine) when 
 he was adopted by Nerva. Nerva himself took the 
 title of Germanicus on this occasion, which he 
 bears on some of the coins of his short reign,'' and 
 gave it to his adopted son. He is called Imperator 
 for the sixth time, which title he first received, not, 
 
 1 Aurelius Victor Epitome. 41, 2 Nardini, 3G3. 
 0. IL Ammian. MarccUin., 27, 3 Cohen, Nerva, 8'), with Tiib. 
 3, 7. Pot. II.
 
 BY A MONUMENT FOUND IN YORK. 185 
 
 as was usual, by a spontaneous acclamation of the 
 army on tlie field of battle, after a victory, but from 
 Nerva, when he made him his associate in the 
 emi3ire. " Will it be believed," says Pliny, in the 
 ninth section of his Panegyric, " that the son of a 
 man of patrician and consular dignity, and of one 
 who had gained a triumph, who was in command of 
 a very brave, numerous, and devoted army, should 
 have been made Imperator, and not by his army, 
 and that the title of Germanicus should have been 
 sent to him from Pome at the very time when he 
 was commanding in Germany ? Nihil magis a te 
 subjecto auimo factum est, quam quod imperare 
 cepisti." The number which follows Imperator on 
 coins and inscriptions is therefore not a note of the 
 number of years that a Csesar had reigned, but of 
 the number of victories which had procured him 
 this title. In the same way, as Trajan did not take 
 the consulship every year, the number subjoined to 
 Cos. is no evidence of the year of his reign. But 
 the tribunate, being annually renewed, marks the 
 regnal year. It was conferred on Trajan at the 
 same, or nearly the same, time as the title Imperator. 
 " Simul filius, simul Ca3sar, mox imperator et consors 
 tribunitise potestatis. et omnia pariter et statim 
 factus est." (Plin., c. 8.) 
 
 Dacicus appears next in the list of Trajan's 
 titles. It is true it is only in the restored 
 part of the monument, and perhaps those who 
 are not accustomed to the study of inscriptions 
 may look on this as a mere conjecture. But its 
 correctness admits of no doubt. The style and 
 title of imperial and royal personages is a settled
 
 180 THE REIGN OF TRAJAN ILLUSTRATED 
 
 and formulary tiling, and as we have coins and 
 inscriptions in great number, in which the titles 
 Germanicus and Dacicus follow each other, ^ and 
 as the space and symmetry of the stone exactly 
 correspond with the abhre^^ated form Dac, in 
 which this epithet usually appears, and as the date 
 is prior to the time when Trajan assumed the 
 epithet of Parthicus, namely, his nineteenth Tri- 
 bunate,~ a. d, 116, we may safely assume Dacicus 
 to be the missing title. 
 
 The country which the Romans called Dacia 
 answered mainly to the modern Wallachia and 
 Transsylvania, but stretched also into Moldavia and 
 Bessarabia. The banks of the Danube have been, 
 in all ages, the region in which civilization and 
 barbarism have come into collision. Darius crossed 
 that river to conquer the Scythians, whose invasion 
 had laid waste Asia Minor and Syria ; Alexander 
 crossed it to punish the Getse, the same people as 
 the Dacians, or closely allied to them. In the days 
 of Augustus they were a source of alarm to the 
 Roman people ; Virgil reckons it one of the happy 
 features of the rustic's lot, that he gives himself 
 no concern about the " conjurato descendens Dacus 
 ab Istro."^ They were at this time in the state in 
 which a barbarous people of nomadic origin is most 
 formidable to its neighbours ; they had been settled 
 long enough on the frontiers of a civilized people 
 to have improved in the art of war, while they 
 retained all their original fierceness and appetite 
 for conquest. Under their King Decebalus they 
 
 1 Orclli, 785, scq. 3 Gcorg., 2, 497. 
 
 2 Ecklicl, Doctr. Nuiiim. Vctt.
 
 BY A MONUMENT FOUND IN YORK. l87 
 
 had obtained sucli power, that Domitian had agreed 
 to pay them a yearly tribute. Trajan, who had 
 come to Eome from Germany the year after his 
 adoption, remained there till a. d. 101, when he 
 took the command of the army in Pannonia (the 
 modern Austria), and, crossing the Theiss, marched 
 into Transylvania, along the valley of the river 
 Maros, defeated Decebalus, and compelled him to 
 sue for peace. He returned to Eome, enjoyed a 
 triumph, and assumed the title of Dacicus, which 
 first appears on his coins in the year 103, i. e., five 
 years before the date of our inscription.^ In the 
 interval he had earned a still better claim to it. 
 He had scarcely reached Eome from the Danube 
 when Decebalus broke the treaty which he had 
 unwillingly made. Trajan returned to the banks 
 of the Danube, which he crossed a little below the 
 remarkable pass and rapid called " The Iron Gate," 
 and marching into the heart of Transylvania, 
 defeated the Dacians so completely, that their king 
 put himself to death in despair. Trajan enjoyed a 
 second triumph, in the year 106, on his return 
 from this campaign. 
 
 It is the events of these two wars which are 
 represented in the sculptures of Trajan's column 
 at Eome. This celebrated monument, the first 
 example, I believe, of the employment of a detached 
 column, of such magnitude, for the purpose of a 
 memorial, is IIG ft. in height, composed of thii-ty- 
 four blocks, and is covered, from the pedestal to 
 the summit, with a series of bas-reliefs in marble, 
 of a very pure style, and most instructive to the 
 
 1 Ecldicl, pt. 2, vol. 6, p. 4G0.
 
 ISS THE KEIGX OF TRAJAN ILLUSTRATED 
 
 antiquary and tlie historian. They afforded a study 
 for ancient costume and armour to Eaffaelle and 
 his pupils, Giulio Romano and Francesco Polidoro, 
 and they are represented with great accuracy and 
 minuteness by Fabretti in the engraving now 
 exhibited. The good taste of employing a member 
 of architecture evidently designed, as a column is, 
 to be the support of an architrave, as a mere 
 memorial pillar, may be doubted ; the Egy3>tian 
 Obelisk was a better device. It is impossible that 
 a spectator can see with any distinctness beyond 
 the lowest sculptures. I cannot go into any detail 
 respecting the events recorded on the Trajan 
 Column ; they are explained in the marginal re- 
 marks of Fabretti. The pedestal bears the date of 
 the seventeenth tribunate of Trajan, i. e., the year 
 113, so that it was several years in finishing; 
 which is not wonderful, considering the multitude 
 of elaborate sculptures with which it is covered. 
 We are naturally surj)rised to find, that the inscrip- 
 tion on the base contains no reference to the 
 apparent purpose of its erection. It is S. Pop. Rom. 
 Imp. C-es. Divi. Nerv.e. Filio. Trajano. Aug. 
 Germ. Dac. Pont. Max. Trie. Pot. xvii. Cos. vi. 
 
 P. P. AD DECLARANDUM QUANTA ALTITUDINIS MONS 
 
 et locus tantis operibus sit egestus ; the ojiera 
 here spoken of being the Forum of Trajan, with 
 its Basilica, Temple, and other buildings. The 
 base of the Quirinal Hill had been excavated to a 
 depth equalling the heighth of the column, and as 
 a measure of this, not to glorify the emperor, it 
 professes to have been erected. It was originally 
 surmounted by a bronze statue of Trajan. This
 
 BY A MONUMENT FOUND IN YORK. 189 
 
 having jDerished, Sixtus V., a great restorer of the 
 monuments of Eome, replaced it by a similar statue 
 of the chief of the apostles, who, as Eckhel 
 observes, wonders much what he can have to do 
 with the tumult and slaughter of the Dacian War, 
 and the rites and emblems of idolatry. 
 
 The twelfth tribunate of Trajan, including part of 
 the years a. d, 108, 9, is the date of the sculpture or 
 erection of the tablet found in King's Square. Its 
 brevity is tantalizing, for it affords us no means of 
 deciding what the work was, the execution of 
 which it records. From its size and form,^ however, 
 it must have been intended to have been affixed to 
 some building, and a building of considerable 
 magnitude and solidity. The position in which it 
 was found, just beside the line of the Eoman wall 
 of York, where the symmetrical form of the castrum 
 would lead us to look for a gateway, in a site to 
 which tradition has assigned an imperial palace,^ 
 all seem to point to one conclusion. The date of 
 the erection of the E-oman walls of York has 
 hitherto been considered quite uncertain. Will this 
 tablet help us to define it ? 
 
 If we review the history of Roman conquest and 
 settlement in Britain, we shall, I think, be con- 
 vinced, that there is nothing improbable in the 
 supposition of Eburacum having been a walled city 
 in the reign of Trajan, The subjugation of the 
 
 1 In its perfect state it must charters, " Ecclesia S. Trinitatis 
 have been 3 ft. 9 in. long, by 3 ft. in cviria regis." The court of the 
 4 in. deep. The largest letters Saxon and Norman kings would 
 are six inches long, and they are probably be on the site of the 
 all beautifully cut. Roman prsetorium. Drake, Ebor- 
 
 2 Christ Church, near King's acum, p. 319 ; Wellbeloved, Eb- 
 Square, is called in ancient uracum, p. 63.
 
 190 THE REIGN UF TRAJAN ILLUSTRATED 
 
 Brigantes by Agricola took place about a. d. 79 — 
 80, and that York was then established as a Eoman 
 station seems a necessary consequence of its impor- 
 tant central position. This does not necessarily 
 imply its being surrounded with walls ; but we 
 generally find, that wherever a permanent castrum 
 was established, the building of a wall followed, if 
 not immediately, yet at no long interval. Perhaps 
 the progress of Agricola may be considered too 
 rapid, and his conquests, which reached to the foot 
 of the Grampians, too extensive, to allow of his 
 devoting sufficient time to the fortification of the 
 castra which he established ; and York may have 
 been at first surrounded only with ramparts of earth. 
 The profound silence of historians respecting the 
 affairs of Britain under Trajan, who became emperor 
 fourteen years after the recall of Agricola by 
 Domitian, has led to the supposition that this 
 island was entirely neglected by him. Our inscrip- 
 tion proves that this was not the case ; for it is 
 evident that some work worthy of commemoration 
 on a tablet so large and beautiful was performed in 
 York by his command, through the instrumentality 
 of the Ninth Legion, which appears to have been 
 stationed here from the time of Agricola 's return. 
 It had been engaged in his Caledonian campaign, 
 and had suffered severely in a night attack.^ 
 
 That the construction of the walls of York is as 
 old as Trajan's reign, is rendered probable by the 
 very exact correspondence between their structure 
 
 1 Tacitus, Vit. Agric, c. 20. grcssi, inter somnum ct trepida- 
 " Hostes universi nonam legi- iioncm c.icsis vigilibus irruperc." 
 oncm, ut maxime iuvalidani, ad-
 
 BY A MONUMENT FOUND IN YORK. 191 
 
 and a mode of building which we know to have 
 prevailed at that time. Among the letters of Pliny 
 . to Trajan, contained in the tenth book, is one (48) 
 relating to the theatre of Nicaea. The walls had 
 huge cracks in them, and the building threatened 
 to become a ruin. " The architect," says Pliny, " (it 
 is very true he is a rival of the man who began the 
 work) affirms that the walls, though they are 
 22 feet thick, are not adequate to support tlie 
 weight laid upon them, ' quia sine csemento medio 
 farcti, nee testaceo opere prsecincti ; ' because they 
 are filled in without hewn stones in the middle, or 
 having a band of brick work." Now if any one 
 will examine the structure of the remarkable portion 
 of the wall which is preserved in our grounds, he 
 will see, that it is filled in with rubbish, like the 
 wall of the theatre of Nica3a, the ccementa, or squared 
 stones, not going through the wall. But, unlike 
 the Nica}an architect, the builder has strengthened 
 his work by a band of brick, opere testaceo prcBcinxit} 
 This passage has been a source of perplexity to the 
 commentators ; one of them takes camento in the 
 sense of mortar, which it never has in the classics, 
 who always use it of hewn, squared stones ; another 
 supposes the opus testaceum to mean a composition 
 of pounded brick and lime, op)us signinum, which, 
 however suitable for flooring or plaster, could not 
 strengthen a wall, nor could its use be called 
 jjrcpcincfio. 
 
 This mode of building with rows of bricks at 
 
 ' Testa is mox'e commonly of Roman walls are genei'ally 
 used of paving tiles ; but the thin, like tiles. 
 bricks which form the prsecinctio
 
 192 THE REIGN OF TRAJAN ILLUSTRATED 
 
 certain intervals is very general in the Roman 
 remains in the South ; it is seen at Richborough, 
 at Pevensey, at Lymne, at Colchester, London, 
 Verulam, Wroxeter, and generally where there are 
 any remains of Roman walls ; but nowhere, as far 
 as I recollect, north of York, certainly not along 
 the line of Hadrian's Wall, the remains of which 
 are so* considerable, nor in the few specimens of 
 Roman masonry which remain in Scotland. The 
 same structure prevailed in the portion of the wall 
 between the Multangular Tower and Bootham 
 Bar.^ The correspondence between the architecture 
 of our wall and Pliny's description does not indeed 
 prove that they loere built in Trajan's time ; it only 
 proves that they may have been. Nor, again, does 
 the tablet say that the ninth legion built the wall 
 of Eburacum ; but we can hardly believe that a 
 camp with a mere rampart of earth would be 
 honoured by the erection of such a monument as 
 ours. The Romans had received a warning, by the 
 capture of Camalodunum, of the consequences of 
 leaving their towns unwalled. Tacitus, speaking 
 of it, says (Ann. 14, 31), it seemed easy to destroy 
 the colony, " nullis munimentis septam," and ac- 
 cordingly it was destroyed, as were Londinium and 
 Verulamium, then equally defenceless. The ninth 
 legion was on that occasion the chief sufferer. It 
 is probable, however, that, though walled at that 
 time, Eburacum was merely a military station. We 
 have never found within the area of Roman York 
 traces of temples or costly dwelling-houses, such as 
 the south side of the river has furnished. In this 
 
 1 See plato 2 in "Wellbolovcd's Eburacum.
 
 liV A MONUMENT FOUND IN YORK. 1 U3 
 
 respect York is a remarkable contrast to Aldborougli, 
 where all the principal remains of antiquity are 
 •within the walls. York, we know, was made a 
 colony ; and it was probably after that event, and 
 after the whole Brigantian region had been rendered 
 secure by Hadrian's wall, that it became the abode 
 of a considerable civil population, though without 
 ceasing to be the chief military station of the 
 north of Britain. 
 
 In no part of the present circuit of our walls 
 has any monument been found, from which a 
 precise date can be derived ; but Mr. Wellbeloved, 
 in his Eburacum, has given some inscriptions from 
 the Multangular Tower, which contain the name 
 of the Sixth Legion.^ Now there is no reason to 
 suppose that the Multangular Tower is of later 
 erection than the rest of the walls ; at least it 
 appears to be of the same age as the part which 
 adjoins it, since the courses run regularly through 
 from one to the other. The Sixth Legion, we 
 know, did not come to York till the reign of 
 Hadrian, Trajan's successor.'** Had there been any- 
 thing in these inscriptions which indicated that 
 the Sixth Legion had erected the Multangular 
 Tower, we must have given up the claim for an 
 earlier date. But they are not of this kind. Along 
 the line of Hadrian's wall we find inscriptions, 
 recording that such a Cohort of such a Legion 
 built a certain length of it. The inscriptions in 
 
 ' Ebur., p. 59, pi. 7. Mil. Leg. VI. Vict, cum qua ex 
 
 2 It came to York from Ger- Germ, in Bntaii. transiit." See 
 
 many ; Gruter, 457, 2, has a also Orelli, 3186. 
 
 monument to M. Pontius, " Trib
 
 194 THE REIGN OF TRAJAN ILLUSTRATED 
 
 the Multangular Tower convey no sucli intimation ; 
 they are mere scratch in gs on the stone, which may 
 have been made long after its erection. They are 
 in the lower apartment, which was apparently 
 without any natural light. A soldier occupying it 
 would find time nearly as heavy on his hands as a 
 prisoner in the Tower, or in the dungeons of 
 Venice. Under such circumstances a civilian relieves 
 his tedium by handing down his name to posterity 
 on the wall, to which a soldier naturally adds his 
 regiment, or perhaps his commanding officer. The 
 walls of the barracks at Pompeii exhibit such 
 records. And to this I attribute the appearance of 
 the name of L. Antonius PRiEFECTUS Militum, and 
 other military marks on the lower wall of the 
 Multangular Tower. As far as we can judge from 
 the forms of the characters, they are subsequent to 
 the age of Hadrian. 
 
 So meagre are our accounts of the reign of 
 Trajan, that we are almost entirely ignorant of the 
 manner in which the years immediately succeeding 
 his return from the second Dacian War were spent. 
 Tillemont and others, misled by spurious coins and 
 legends,' supposed him to have gone in the year 
 106 into the East, to have gained a victory over 
 
 1 According to the Acts of the propitiovis to hiin in his Daciau 
 
 Martyrdom of Ignatius, (Cotele- Avar, lie accordiiif^ly summoned 
 
 rius P. P. Apost. 2, 1(11,) Trajan tlie bishop Ignatius before his 
 
 came to Antioch in the ninth tribunal, and offered to make 
 
 year of his reign (a. d. lOG), be- liim Ili(jh Priest of Jupiter, and 
 
 ing impressed with the belief, 7mme him Father of the Senate, ii 
 
 that unless he compelled the he would sacrifice to the gods. 
 
 Christians, who had their chief If the story had not l)ecn refuted 
 
 quarter there, to sacrifice to by chronolog}', the absiu'dity of 
 
 idols, he should forfeit the favour the dialogue would have shewn 
 
 of the gods, who had been so its true character.
 
 BY A MONUMENT FOUND IN YORK. 195 
 
 the Partliians, and to liave returned in 107 to 
 Rome. But the more accurate investigations of 
 Eckhel have shown, that no such Eastern expedition 
 took place, and it is probable that this and the 
 following year were spent in Rome. Some military 
 operations of importance, however, must have been 
 undertaken, if not by the Emperor, at least by his 
 lieutenants ; for while on our tablet he is called 
 Imperator for the sixth time, he aj^pears in the year 
 107 on the bridge of Alcantara^ only as Imperator 
 for the fifth time. It may have been given for 
 the conquest of Arabia Petroea by Cornelius Palma.^ 
 We may conclude, therefore, that he was at Rome 
 when he gave the command to execute the work, 
 whatever it was, to which our tablet refers. No 
 one w^ho has read the tenth book of Pliny's Letters, 
 and observed the minute attention which Trajan 
 paid to all the affairs of Bithynia, will be surprised 
 that he should have given directions respecting an 
 erection at York. It was in this interval of peace 
 that he improved the harbour of Ancona, and 
 caused a road to be constructed through the 
 Pontine Marshes, and from Beneventum to Brun- 
 dusium, as well as in other parts of the empire. 
 The Parthian War, under the emperor in person, 
 apj)ears not to have begun till 114, when Chosroes, 
 king of Parthia, entered Armenia, and dispossessed 
 the king, who was an ally of the Romans. He 
 took the command of his armies, crossed the Eu- 
 phrates into Mesopotamia, and, driving out the 
 Parthians from several fortresses which they had 
 occupied, was saluted Parthicus and Imperator 
 
 1 Gruter, 248, 1. 2 Cohen, Trajan, no. 15, 309. 
 
 o 2
 
 196 THE REIGN OF TRAJAN ILLUSTRATED 
 
 VII. by bis army. Tbe Partbians were, bowever, 
 imperfectly subdued, and revolting in tbe year 116, 
 Trajan deposed tbeir king, and placed tbe diadem 
 on tbe bead of Partbamaspates. Tbis event is 
 recorded on a coin in our collection. Trajan never 
 returned from tbis Eastern expedition. He died at 
 Selinns in Cilicia in 117, and bis asbes are said to 
 bave been brougbt to Pome and deposited at tbe 
 base of bis own column.^ 
 
 Tbe most bonourable and interesting of tbe titles 
 of Trajan is tbat of Optimus Princeps, or Op. 
 alone, wbicb does not appear eitber on our tablet 
 or on bis column, but wbicb is found on some of 
 tbe coins in our cabinet. It was early bestowed on 
 him, as we may conclude from tbe words of Pliny, 
 in bis Panegyric, " adoptavit te optimus princeps 
 in suum, senatus in Opt'imi nomen," (c, 88) and no 
 Poman emperor bad borne it before bim, tbougb it 
 was an obvious compliment. " Paratum id quidem 
 et in medio positum, novum tamen," says Pliny. 
 It does not appear, bowever, to bave been incor- 
 porated among bis titles till some years later ; 
 according to tbe observation of tbe discriminating 
 Eckbel, it first appears in coins of a. d. 105, and 
 tben on tbe reverse, and in tbe form S. P. Q. R. 
 Optimo Principi. From tbe year 114 it is trans- 
 ferred to tbe obverse, and occupies tbe middle place 
 between Trajanus and Augustus. Our cabinet 
 contains examples of botb. Tbe epitbet of Pater 
 Patrle, wbicb tbe emperors ordinarily received 
 witb tbeir otber titles, and wbicb was first bestowed 
 on Julius Caesar, Trajan declined till be bad done 
 
 1 Anr. Victor, c. 13.
 
 BY A iMONUMENT FOUND IN YORK. 197 
 
 sometliing to deserve it. " Nomen illud quod alii 
 primo principatus die receperunt, Tu usque eo 
 distulisti donee jam te mereri fatereris " (c. 21). 
 It was not long deferred, as it is found on coins of 
 A. D. 99, when he filled up again the thirty-five 
 tribes of Eome, whose numbers had been much 
 diminished, made five thousand new seats in the 
 Circus, and distributed a congiarium, or largess of 
 corn, wine, and oil, to the people. No emperor 
 ever better deserved the title of Optimus than 
 Trajan. Gibbon, after lamenting that we are 
 reduced to collect his actions from the glimmerings 
 of an abridgement, or the doubtful light of a 
 Panegyric, observes, " There remains, however, one 
 panegyric far removed beyond the suspicion of 
 flattery. Above 250 years after the death of Trajan, 
 the Senate, in pouring out the customary acclama- 
 mations on the accession of a new emperor, wished 
 that he might surpass the felicity of Augustus and 
 the virtue of Trajan." He has received a testimony 
 from a very difierent source. Gregory the Great, 
 smitten with admiration of a humane act of Trajan, 
 is said to have wept for his fate, as a heathen con- 
 demned to everlasting fire, till it was announced to 
 him by revelation that he was liberated from the 
 pains of hell, but on condition that Gregory should 
 never presume to intercede for another infidel. I 
 trust he has been delivered, whether by the inter- 
 cession of St. Gregory, or not. There have been 
 few Christian sovereigns who might not safely say, 
 Sit anima mea cum Trajano.
 
 VII. 
 
 ON ROMAN WAXED TABLETS IN THE CURSIVE CHA- 
 RACTER, FOUND IN TRANSYLVANIA. 
 
 The pliotograplis which I now exhibit have 
 been sent to me by my friend and former pupil, 
 Mr. Paget, the author of a well-known work on 
 Hungary, and now resident in Transylvania. They 
 represent an almost unique class of documents, tlie 
 history of which is very curious. 
 
 No educated person can need to be informed, that 
 it was the custom of the Romans to employ thin 
 tablets of wood, coated with wax, for memoranda, 
 letters, drafts of agreements, first sketches of com- 
 positions and similar purposes. The school-boy, 
 when he reads in Horace, " saepe stylum vertas," ^ is 
 informed, that the Roman stt/lus was a metallic 
 instrument, pointed at one end and broad at the 
 other ; that the pointed end was used for tracing 
 characters on a waxed tablet, the broad end for 
 smoothing the wax and effacing them. Con- 
 sequently, to invert the style was to correct 
 your composition. St. Jerome says of himself, 
 alluding to the care with which he corrected his 
 works, that he always preferred the end of the 
 style which effaced to that which wrote. ^ Every 
 collection of Roman antiquities contains specimens 
 of the stylus, generally in bronze, sometimes in 
 iron ; ^ but till lately no example had been known 
 
 1 Sat., 1, 10, 72. tenet altera ceram. Ovid. Met. 
 
 2 Epist., 51. 0, 521, of Bjblis preparing to 
 •* Dextra tenet fonnni, vacuam write a letter.
 
 ROMAN WAXED TABLETS. 199 
 
 of tlie waxed tablet on which the Romans wrote. 
 Their use continued in the Middle Ages, when the 
 .papjTus had ceased to be a writing material, and 
 linen paper had not been introduced. Charlemagne, 
 according to the testimony of Eginhard,^ used 
 tablets in his abortive attempts to teach himself to 
 write, and a mediaeval German author, Notker, who 
 lived at the end of the ninth century, describes 
 himself as writing with a stylus f^riffelj on a 
 waxed tablet. A stylus has been found in many 
 Frankish graves, (though never in Saxon ^) but not 
 accompanied with the tablets. Specimens of these, 
 however, remain even of a late age. The public 
 library of Geneva contains waxed tablets with the 
 accounts of the steward of Philip le Bel, for the 
 year 1308.'^ That they should not have been found 
 in Herculaneum or Pompeii, buried in volcanic mud 
 and ashes, is not surprising ; but I am not aware 
 that they have been discovered with other remains 
 of Roman antiquity, under circumstances more fa- 
 vourable to their preservation. The mines of Tran- 
 sylvania have in an unexpected manner supplied 
 the deficiency. 
 
 The conquest of Dacia by Trajan, as related 
 in the preceding paper, was followed by Roman 
 colonization.* It became a consular province, and 
 was retained till the reign of Aurelian. It is rich 
 in metals of every kind, except tin, and especially 
 in gold.'"^ The working of the gold mines was 
 carried on in a very systematic manner, Colleges, i. e. 
 
 i Vit. Car. Magn., c. 25. en bois enduites en cire." 
 
 2 ArcliseoL, 37, 111. 4 Eutropius, 6, 6. 
 
 3 Sismondi.Hist.desFranQais, ^ Paget, Hungary and Ti*aus}l- 
 6, 108. "Ccs sont dcs tablcttes, vania, vol. 1, cli. 12, \'6.
 
 200 ROMAN WAXED TABLETS 
 
 incorporated companies, being established in several 
 places. Of these gold mining establishments Abrud- 
 banya in Transylvania appears to have been the 
 chief, and to have borne the name of Anraria. At 
 this day it is the principal mint of Transylvania, 
 where the gold, collected in sand or nuggets from 
 the streams, is coined, as well as what is obtained 
 by more regular mining operations. The neigh- 
 bourhood exhibits inscriptions and remains of the 
 Roman times, and an arched entrance to a gold 
 mine, of the solid construction which characterizes 
 the works of that people.^ 
 
 In a mine at Vorospatak, not far from Abrud- 
 banya, two pieces of a waxed tablet were discovered 
 in 1786, on which letters could be traced, but by 
 injudicious attempts at drying and rubbing they 
 have been so much injured as to be now illegible.^ 
 A more important discovery of the same kind was 
 made in the same district in 1788. In this case 
 there were, it is said, five tablets ; what became of 
 two of them is unknown ; three, which were on deal, 
 came first into the hands of Paul Kovacs and after- 
 ward of Stephen Lazar, who deposited them in the 
 library of the Unitarian College at Clausenburg, of 
 which body he was Superintendent. Here they 
 remained till 1811, when they were claimed by his 
 son, and sold in 1834 by his grandson to a trading 
 antiquary, who again sold them to an eminent 
 collector in 1835, Nicolas Jancovich. \ly him 
 
 1 Massinann, Libellus Aura- 1850, p. 5. A comirmnication to 
 rius, sive Tabulae ceratae. Lips., the Clausenburg Academy in 
 1840, § 214, 215. 1801 by T. H. Fiiialy Clausenb., 
 
 2 Erdy, I)e Tabulis ceratis in 1801, treats of the same subject, 
 Transsilvania repertis. Pest, in the Hungarian language.
 
 FOUND IN TRANSYLVANIA. :2()1 
 
 tliey were sold to the National Museum of Hun- 
 gary, at Pesth. In 1807 three tablets of beech 
 wood are said by the trading antiquary before 
 mentioned, to have been found in a mine at Torocz- 
 ko, and to have come into his hands. These, along 
 with the three of deal before mentioned, were pur- 
 chased by Jancovich and added to the National 
 Museum. He had previously taken both sets with 
 him to Munich, and submitted them to Dr. 
 Massmann, Professor in the University of that city. 
 Up to this time no one had even conjectured, at 
 least with any plausibility, what the import was 
 of eitlier. Massmann, however, pronounced that 
 the three of firwood, found in 1788 and deposited 
 by Kovacs in the library at Clausenburg, were 
 written in Latin and in the cursive character. He 
 published in 1840 the Dissertation before referred 
 to, in which he gave facsimiles of all the tablets, 
 with a version and commentary of those on deal. 
 
 To justify his opinion tliat the character was a 
 cursive form of the Latin, he traces, through 
 known inscriptions, the gradual approximation of 
 the lapidary and uncial to the cursive form. It is 
 evident that a great change would take place, when 
 the alphabet which had been used for inscriptions 
 on brass or marble, came to be used for rapid writing 
 on papyrus or wax. The oldest Latin MS. in exis- 
 tence is the poem before referred to (p. 1 74) on the 
 battle of Actium, and from this to the earliest MS. 
 of the classics which has come down to us, there is 
 an interval of several centuries. The oldest is 
 probably of the fifth century. These are in uncial 
 letters, /. e., capitals, being made no doubt by
 
 202 ROMx^N WAXED TABLETS 
 
 professional copyists. But we cannot doubt that 
 a cursive character was in use, even in the times of 
 the rejDublic. Cicero surely did not carry on his 
 voluminous correspondence in uncial characters. 
 That the leaf of papyrus or the waxed tablet 
 which the Romans used for rapid writing should 
 have perished, is not surprising. In the change 
 from an engraved to a written character some 
 alteration would naturally take place, but this 
 would be small compared with that involved in the 
 formation of a running hand. A comparison of our 
 printed characters with our ordinary writing will 
 suggest what this change would be. Angles 
 would give place to curves ; letters would be 
 joined, to save the loss of time involved in taking 
 off the pen. A corresj)onding change is seen 
 when we compare the Greek character in the 
 papyri of the Ptolemaic times ^ with inscriptions 
 of the same age, though the conversion into a 
 running hand is not so complete in these, as in the 
 waxed tablets. There is the same rounding and 
 joining of the letters, but the characters are more 
 coarse, being made with a reed pen, instead of a 
 stylus. There was a strong antecedent probability 
 that an inscription found in a Transylvanian mine 
 would be in Latin. No other language spoken in 
 that country probably has been reduced to writing 
 till a recent period, and to this day the Wallachian 
 lanjruao'e bears traces of the continuance of Roman 
 dominion for a century and a half. 
 
 1 Bocckli Erldiirung ciner 1821. Peyron Papyri Grseci 
 .^^gj'ptischen Papyrus in Griccli- Regii Taurinensis Musci. Tau- 
 ischcr cursivschrift. Berlin, rini 1826, 1827.
 
 FOUND IN TRANSYLVANIA. 203 
 
 Massmann has pointed out another circumstance 
 connected with the characters in which he supposes 
 •this inscription is written. The reporters (notarii) 
 at Rome had a short-hand,' which from its use or 
 invention by Tiro, the freedman of Cicero, is called 
 Tironian notes. ''^ They have been preserved in 
 MSS. ; they are evidently contractions from a 
 written character, and several of the forms corres- 
 pond with those of the Transylvanian tablets. 
 
 Their external form corresponds with the descrip- 
 tion of them in ancient writings. The fir tablets, 
 which Massmann decyphered and interpreted, form 
 a frijjft/cJi, that is to say, they consist of three 
 leaves, perforated at the side, and fastened together 
 with thread, the remains of which are still visible. 
 They thus formed what Ausonius, in the epigram 
 quoted below, calls "bipatens pugillar," a hand- 
 book with two openings. The outer sides have no 
 writing ; the four inner pages are covered with 
 wax, shrunk and blackened with age, and filled 
 with writing, which in most places is still distinct. 
 Altogether they very much resemble a modern 
 memorandum book with double leaves. 
 
 The document inscribed on these tablets is evi- 
 dently in duplicate. According to Massmann's 
 interpretation, which will afterwards be given in 
 detail, its purport is to declare, on the part of 
 
 ^Martial, Epigr., 14, 208. order to become a clever Notari- 
 " Currant verba licet, manus est us, " scriptor velox cui litera 
 velocior illis, Nondum lingua verbum est," it was necessary to 
 suam, dextra peregit opus." be born under Virgo. 
 From Ausonius, Epig. 130, it 2 gee Gruter, Corp. Inscr., 4, 
 appears that tliey used wax tab- Appendix, Notae Tironis ac Sen- 
 lets. "Tu sensanostri pectoris, eca?. Kopp,TacbygraphiaVeter- 
 Vix dicta jam ccris tenes." Ac- um cxposita et illustrata. 
 cording to Manilius (4, 107), in
 
 204 ROMAN WAXED TABLETS 
 
 Artemidorus, who was the master of a college, or 
 legalized association, consisting of fifty-four persons, 
 formed for the purpose of contributing to funeral 
 expences, that his colleague had not appeared 
 at the college, that there was no money in hand, 
 and that during a certain time, which appears 
 to have been fixed by law, no one had paid a 
 contribution. Consequently notice is given, that 
 no application for burial money could be received. 
 In the Appendix to a little work which I j)ublished 
 on Roman Sepulcral Inscriptions,^ I have given 
 the rules of a Roman Burial Club : this document 
 appears to record a break-up for want of funds. 
 The notice was posted in a sfatio, one of those 
 offices, in which questions of law were answered 
 and legal documents prepared, and where the 
 officers of the revenue transacted their business.^ 
 
 The circumstances of the discovery of these 
 tablets, the gradation traced by Massmann from the 
 uncial to the cursive character, and the connected 
 sense which they afford, as read and interpreted by 
 him, might seem to remove all doubt of their 
 genuine antiquity. Yet some eminent men have 
 pronounced them a forgery. Letronne attacked 
 them in the Journal des Savans of September 1841, 
 immediately after the appearance of Massmann's 
 book. A similar opinion was expressed by Silvestre, 
 the author of the Palajographie Universelle, and 
 supported by his colleague, Champollion Figeac, 
 
 1 Roman Sepulcral Inscrip- In mediaeval Latinity it was used 
 tions, their Relation to Arcliaeo- of an apothecary's or l)ookseller's 
 logy, Language, and Religion, shop; from the latter use comes 
 TiOndon, lHr)8, p. (55. our " Stationer." DuCuuge.s.v. 
 
 2 See Facciolati, s. v. Static.
 
 FOUND IN TRANSYLVANIA. 205 
 
 who says, " Notwithstanding the care the modern 
 inventor has taken to disguise his hand, by imita- 
 ting with much skill the forms of certain letters, 
 such as the e formed by two vertical lines and a 
 and d as found in authentic documents, yet the 
 indications of fraud are evident, the chief of which 
 consists in the separation of the words, of which 
 no example occurs, either in the longest Eoman 
 inscriptions, or in those monuments which are 
 most analogous to them ; in proof of which may 
 be cited the Libellus of Velius Fidius, of the year 
 156 A. D., written in letters slightly rustic, unequal, 
 conjoined, and somewhat approaching the cursive ; 
 a model, unfortunately for the wax tablets, so closely 
 resembling them, as evidently to show the latter 
 to be but disguised copies." 
 
 It is hardly logical to infer that a document is 
 forged, because it closely resembles another unques- 
 tionably genuine, unless the marks of spuriousness 
 are very palpable. The contrary inference is the 
 fair one. There is no reason to suppose that the 
 Libellus of Yelius Fidius could have been known 
 and copied in Transylvania in 1788, when the 
 tablets in question first made their appearance. 
 When it is said that in no Roman monuments is 
 there any separation of the words, Champollion 
 must mean, that where there is a separation it is 
 marked by points, or an equivalent device, as almost 
 any Roman inscription will show. When cursive 
 writing began it was natural that these points, 
 which really answered no purpose, should be 
 dropped, and words be separated only by spaces. 
 And if, with the view of imposing a spurious
 
 HOC) ROMAN WAXED TABLETS 
 
 document on the world, a scholar had taken the 
 pains to consult a genuine monument of the second 
 century, how came he to overlook the want of 
 separation between the words, and thus render his 
 imitation imperfect ? 
 
 It is natural also to ask, with what view was the 
 forgery committed ? Those who bestow labour on 
 spurious antiquities have gain in view. And what 
 labour must the author of this tablet have under- 
 gone ! He must have carefully formed his alphabet 
 by the study of a long series of Roman inscrij^tions, 
 in which the changes of the letters appear. He 
 must have initiated himself into Roman lecral 
 phraseology and antiquities, so as to give his 
 Latin an archaic character and technical propriety. 
 Last of all, he must have prepared a waxed tablet 
 on which he scratched his forged document, and 
 smoked it to the proper hue of antiquity. And 
 what has he gained by his labour ? In no instance 
 of alleged discovery does any price appear to have 
 been paid which could reward him. Those who 
 employ their ingenuity in forgery copy some object, 
 or class of objects, already known and valued — 
 a Grreek or Roman inscription, a unique coin, or 
 gem ; they produce a new work of a classic author, 
 a poem of a mediajval monk, or a MS. play of 
 Shakespear. But the assumed forger of the Tran- 
 sylvanian tablets could look neitlier for glory nor 
 profit from the production of a work in a character 
 and language about which, in 1788, no interest had 
 been excited. 
 
 Letronne and Champollion were not the only 
 palaeographers who suspected the genuineness of
 
 FOUND IN TRANSYLVANIA. 207 
 
 tlie Massmann tablets. Tliey were referred to as 
 of authority, in the article " Tabuhu," of Dr. 
 William Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, and 
 Sir Frederic Madden having seen this notice, in a 
 letter addressed to the Editor of " Notes and 
 Queries " ^ pronounced them to be forgeries, adding, 
 that these very tablets or similar ones, w^ere ofiered 
 to him for purchase several years ago, but were 
 rejected at once. They had been brought to his 
 notice by Mr. Children, then Foreign Secretary to 
 the Eoyal Society, to whom they appear to have 
 been consigned from abroad. Sir Frederic's opinion 
 of their spuriousness was founded very much, as I 
 learn from a letter with which he favoured me, on 
 the recent appearance of the wood in which the 
 tablets were framed. This was in 1830 — 8, and 
 therefore previous to the publication of Mass- 
 mann's dissertation, by which the attention of 
 archaeologists was first called to this subject. 
 
 Subsequent discoveries have shewn that his 
 suspicions were well founded, as regards the tablets 
 offered to him. It has been mentioned that those 
 which were found in 1788 were sold in 1834 to a 
 trading antiquary, Samuel Nemes, and by him to 
 Nicolas Jancovich, from whom they were purchased 
 by the National Hungarian Museum at Pesth. 
 These were on firwood, and they form the triptych 
 which Massmann decyphered and explained. But 
 the antiquary in question had sold at the same time 
 to Jancovich, three other tablets, on beech wood, 
 alleged to have been found in 1807 in a mine at 
 Toroczkd. They are very different from the tablets 
 
 ' See Notes and Queries of July 5, 1856.
 
 208 ROMAN WAXED TABLETS 
 
 Oil firwoocl. The cliaracter used in them is un- 
 known. I am informed by Mr. Paget, that the 
 vendor gave them out to be in Dacian or Hunno- 
 Scythian characters. AVhether he inscribed them 
 at random, or imitated a character really found in 
 the Szekler land, and supposed to be very ancient, 
 is not known. No one professes to have read or 
 interpreted them, and the probability is, that they 
 are a pure invention. Massmann has given a 
 facsimile of these, as well as of the fir tablets, but 
 without professing to explain them. Nemes is 
 said to have been a notorious fabricator of antiqui- 
 ties, and no doubt is entertained by the Hungarian 
 archaeologists, that he forged the beech en tablets. 
 On one of them, a Greek hexameter verse, quoted 
 in the second Alcibiades,^ is inscribed three times, 
 along with, a fragment of prose by Aristobulus. 
 Had these tablets been genuine, we might have 
 supposed that this had been the copy-booh of some 
 school-boy, repeating a sentence as a writing exer- 
 cise.^ But the Greek cliaracter is quite modern, 
 and I can only explain its appearance by supposing 
 that Nemes, in his ignorance of j^alseography, had 
 inscribed it with the design of increasing the 
 interest of the tablet. On the fir tablets there is 
 nothing of the kind. 
 
 Any doubt which may have existed in regard 
 to the genuineness of the Latin tablets must be 
 removed, by the recent discovery of others, photo- 
 
 > Found among the works of stilum in cera ducere, alterius su- 
 
 Plato, but generally admitted pei-posita manu teneri figantur 
 
 not to be his. articuli." A Greek waxed tablet 
 
 2 St. Jerome, giving directions is in the British Museum with 
 
 for the education of Laita, says, an iron stj^lus attached to it. 
 " Cum ceperit trementi manu
 
 FOUND IN TRANSYLVANIA. .201) 
 
 graphic copies of which I hiy before the Society. A 
 museum has lately been established in Clausenburg, 
 to which contributions of antiquities have been 
 made from various quarters, among them some 
 waxed tablets, found in the mines near Veres 
 Patak, in the mountainous district between Hun- 
 gary and Transylvania. One of them, that which 
 is best preserved, was discovered in 1855 by a 
 Wallack miner, and was obtained for the museum 
 without payment. The character is unmistakeably 
 the same as that of Massmann's fir tablets. We 
 have thus, according to the enumeration of Erdy, 
 eight discoveries of waxed tablets, extending over 
 a period of seventy years. ^ All have been made in 
 similar circumstances, in the mines which we know 
 to have been worked by the Romans. The idea of 
 imposture therefore may be dismissed, and I have 
 the authority of Sir Frederic Madden for saying, 
 that he does not now impute forgery to any of the 
 Latin tablets. We may advert to the contents of 
 that which has been decyphered by Massmann, 
 without fear of throwing away our time on a 
 modern invention. A facsimile of one of the pages 
 is given, copied from his work. 
 
 The general purport of the document has been 
 already explained. At full length it runs thus : 
 
 Descripttim et recognitum factum ex libello qui propositus 
 erat Alb. majori ad statione Resculi, in quo scriptum erat id 
 quot (quod) i (infra) s (scriptum est). 
 
 Artemidorus Apolloni (filius) magister collegi Jovis Cerneni 
 et Valerius Niconis (fiKus) et Offas Menofili qusestores Collegi 
 ejusdem posito hoc libello publiee testantur. 
 
 ^ De Tabulis ceratis in Transylvania repertis, p. I — 9. 
 
 r
 
 210 ROMAN WAXED TABLETS 
 
 Ex Collegio s (upra) s (cripto) ubi erant hom (ines) liiii 
 ex eis non phis remasisse [ad] Alb [m-num] quam quot 
 h (omines) xi. 
 
 Julixim Juli (liliiiin) quoque commagistrum sutun ex die 
 magisteri sui non accessisse ad Alburnum neq in collegio 
 seque eis qui prjesentes fuervmt rationem reddedisse ; et si 
 quid eorum (h) abuerat reddidisset sive funeribus et caution- 
 em suam in qua eis caverat recepisset modoque autem neque 
 funeraticiis sufficerent neque loculum (h.) aberet neque quis- 
 quam tarn magno tempore diebus quibus legi continetur 
 convenire voluerint aut conferre funeraticia sive niunera. 
 
 Seque idcu'co per hunc libellum publico testantur ut si 
 quis defunctus fuerit, ne putet se collegium (b) abere aut ab 
 eis aliquem petitionem funeris (la) abitiu'um. 
 
 Propositus Alb. majori v Idus Febr. 
 
 Imp li. AVR. VER. Ill et QVADRATO CS 
 
 Act [um] Alb. majori. 
 
 In English. 
 
 " Copied and revised, made from a notice wliicli 
 had been exhibited at the Greater Alburnum, in 
 the office of Eesculus, in which was written that 
 which is written below. 
 
 " Artemidorus son of ApoUonius, master of the 
 College of Jupiter Cernenus, and Valerius son of 
 Nicon, and Offas the son of Menofilus, qua?stors of 
 the said College, by this notice publicly declare. 
 
 " Of the College aforesaid, in which there were 
 fifty-four men, of them no more remained at Alb- 
 urnum than to the number of eleven. 
 
 "And that Julius, the son of Julius their col- 
 league in the mastership, from the day of his 
 [appointment to the (?)] mastership has not been at 
 Alburnum nor in the College ; and that they had 
 rendered an account to those who were present; 
 and if he had had anything of theirs he had given 
 it back or [had expended it (?)] on funerals, and had
 
 FOUND IN TRANSYLVANIA. 211 
 
 received back the security which he had given to 
 them ; but that now neither were [the funds] 
 sufficient for funeral expenses nor had he a coffin ; 
 and that in so long a time, within the days limited 
 by law, no one had been willing to hold a meeting, 
 or to contribute funeral expences or gifts. 
 
 " And therefore by this notice they publicly 
 declare that if any [member] shall die he must not 
 think that he belongs to the college or that he will 
 have any right of demanding a funeral from them," 
 
 The general purport of this document is clear 
 enough, and it is a strong presumption of its 
 genuineness, that it relates to a subject so little 
 known, as the burial clubs of the Eomans. Albur- 
 num is a place not ascertained in Transylvanian 
 geography ; but there can be no doubt of the 
 correctness of the reading. The phrase with which 
 it begins, "Descriptum et recognitum," is the 
 formula with which an authenticated copy of a 
 document deposited elsewhere is introduced, as in 
 the " Honestse missiones," the certificates of service 
 and good conduct given to the Roman legionaries 
 on their discharge.^ The society or college was 
 under the patronage of Jupiter Cernenus, as that 
 of Lanuvium was established in honour of Diana 
 and Antinous.^ Jupiter had a variety of epithets,^ 
 
 ^ Orelli No. 757, " Descriptum cognitum factum ex commentario 
 
 ET RECOGNITUM EX TABULA iENEA — IN QUO SCRIPTUM ERAT ID QUOD 
 QU^ FIXAEStRoM^ InCaI'ITOLIO INFRA SCRIPTUM EST." 
 
 IN ARA GENTis JuLi^." A decrce 2 Jiomau Sepulcral Inscrip- 
 
 of tlie people of Cisve (Cervetri) tions, u. s. 
 
 corresponds still more closely 3 See a collection of them in 
 
 with this proclamation of Arte- Orelli c. iv. "Jupiter Opt. Max. 
 
 midonis and his colleagues ; ejusque varia cognomina, etiam 
 
 Orelli 3797, *' Descriptum et re peregrina." 
 
 p 2
 
 ■21:1 KO.A[AN WAXED TABLETS 
 
 some derived from places in which he was worship- 
 ped, or in which the Romans found a divinity 
 whom they identified with their own chief deity. 
 As there was at Zerna, in Transylvania, a Roman 
 colony, the name Cernenus probably refers to his 
 worship and temple there. 
 
 The structure of the document is loose, Artemi- 
 dorus sometimes speaking in the singular in his 
 own name, sometimes in the plural in the joint 
 names of himself and his colleagues. There is a 
 ludicrous confusion of phrase in the concluding 
 notice, that the deceased (si quis defunctus fuerit) 
 must not fancy he had a claim on the club. Seque 
 is followed by testantur, instead of testari. The 
 suppression of the aspirate in abere, abiturum, and 
 of the n in remasisse, shows a tendency to Italian 
 forms, which the Latin language early manifested.^ 
 The genitive of the nouns in ixs and ium is always 
 in the contracted form, Apolloni, magisteri, &c. 
 Statione is used for stationem, probably the result 
 of a suppression of the letter m in pronunciation, 
 which led to its elision in verse. The opposite page 
 exhibits a lithographed facsimile of the commence- 
 ment of the document, copied from Massmann's 
 work. It is of the size of the original. In the 
 wooden frame will be observed at b the remains of 
 the twine, with which the three pieces of the 
 triptych were fastened when it was closed. In the 
 case of letters, the string was secured by a seal 
 
 J Roman Sepuloml Insprip- pire, obtained tlie ascendancy 
 
 tions, p. 23. It miglit perhaps over the more poHshed idiom of 
 
 be more correct to say, that these the cultivated classes. See 
 
 were dialectical forms of I^atin, Max Miiller, T,ectures on the 
 
 which, in the decline of the em- Science of Language, p. 56.
 
 1 1 
 
 1 
 
 II II . ) ^ ^ 1 V 
 
 I 
 
 
 . 
 
 II b}^ h£f^^ ^ -^^^T 7 
 
 II -^^ ^ ::y A 7^ '^ r ^ ^-^ 1 
 
 
 
 
 t^m fe^ <2^ -/ i ^ ? o P'<> 
 
 1 
 
 Hi 
 
 |4 Xl$j''^^$9'P^ 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 Efi^ci/.^f f^jr 
 
 
 vjr-^^ Ta f x^j^;^^^^ 
 
 
 ^^ ^ * 6 7 -13 - \^ ^ 
 
 
 1 J M 1 1 1 1 1 1 — LLLL- 

 
 FOUND IN TRANSYLVANIA. 213 
 
 placed upon the knot, which was cut when they 
 were opened.^ The perforations at / and /; were 
 intended for the j)assage of wires to fasten tlie 
 leaves together. These w^ires, of brass or iron, 
 vv^ere still remaining in two of the tablets when 
 they were discovered, much corroded by rust.^ 
 The page here given contains twelve lines, which 
 read respectively as follows : — 
 
 1 . Descrij)tiim et recognitum factum ex libello qui propositus 
 
 2. Erat Alb majori ad statione Eesciili in quo scri2)tum erat 
 
 3. Id quod i. s. est. 
 
 4. Artemidorus ApoUoni magister collegi Jovis Cerneni et 
 
 5. Valerius Niconis et OfFas Menoiili questores collegi ejus 
 
 6. dem Posito hoc libello publice testantur 
 
 7. Ex collegio s. s. ubi erant horn, l.iiii ex eis non plus 
 
 8. Eemasisse ad Alb quam quot h. xi Julium Juli quoque 
 
 9. Commagistruin suuin ex die magisteri sui non accessisse 
 
 10. Ad Alburnum neq in collegio seque eis qvii pre 
 
 11. Sentes fuerunt rationem reddedisse et si quit 
 
 12. Eorum abvierat rededisset sive funeribus. 
 
 The ordinary forms of the Roman lapidary letters 
 and the uncial letters of MSS. will readily be 
 recognized in this cursive writing, allowance being 
 "made for the greater freedom with which characters 
 are traced on wax, and the tendency, in a rapid use of 
 the stylus or pen, to join letters to each other. The 
 chief difference is that the letter e is made by two 
 parallel strokes. This has its origin in the practice 
 of expressing e by a double ii, which we find in 
 numerous inscriptions, not only in the decline of the 
 
 ' Cic. Catalin. 3,5. " Tabcl- et tabellas etlinum." 96, "Cedo 
 
 las proferri jussiraus ; Primum tu ceram etlinum actutum ; age, 
 
 ostendimus Cetliego signuni ; obliga, obsigna eito." Pseudol. 
 
 cognovit; nos linum incidimus ; 1, 1, 40. 
 legimus." Plant. Bacchides 4, 2 Massmann, p. 25, note 2. 
 4, 63. " Effcvcito stiluui, ceram
 
 214 ROiMAN WAXED TABLETS 
 
 empire and in the catacombs, but even at Pompei, 
 e. g., ORNAMiiNTis ; iiT for et BiiNii MiiRiiNTi for 
 hene merenti,^ one stroke is also made occasionally 
 to do duty as part of two letters, in the manner of 
 the ligatures which are so common in Roman 
 inscriptions. With a little practice the character 
 will be found easy to read. 
 
 The document is in duplicate. This repetition 
 has contributed to the success of the decypherer, 
 since the true nature of some characters obliterated 
 in one page has been ascertained from the other.^ 
 The Lucius Aurelius Verus, whose name appears 
 united with that of Quadratus in the date, was 
 the unworthy brother of Marcus Antoninus ; the 
 year was that in which the Quadi and the Marcom- 
 cenni submitted themselves to Eome, The name 
 Quadratus is of frequent occurrence in the Eoman 
 consular fasti. The colleague of Lucius Verus, 
 was T. Numidius Quadratus. 
 
 To return to the photographs which gave oc- 
 casion to this history of the previous discovery 
 of waxed tablets. The originals of them were 
 found in 1855 in the mine of St. Catherine, in the 
 province of Vorospatak, and three of them, which 
 have been placed in the Clausenburg Museum, are 
 represented in Mr. Paget's photographs, and in 
 Erdy's Dissertation. The character in which they 
 are written is precisely the same as that of the 
 Massmann tablets, but they have not been so com- 
 pletely decyphered. They all appear to relate to 
 
 1 Orelli, 4612, and in many double ii. 
 other instances. The Greek >j 2 Massmann, p. 289. 
 is sometimes substituted for the
 
 FOUND IN TRANSYLVANIA. 215 
 
 contracts, and one of them, which bears date of 
 the ]3th day before the Kalends of November 
 (October 20), in the second consulship of Eusticus 
 and Aquilinus (a. d. 162), is a contract for a loan at 
 interest. The oldest date is that of a. d. 139. On 
 one of the pages the seals of seven witnesses stiU 
 remain.^ It is thus given by Mr. Finaly, the 
 keeper of the Museum at Clausenburg, in a Eeport 
 of the year 1801.^ Some blanks have been filled 
 up conjecturally, but of the general purport there 
 can be no doubt. 
 
 Denarios sexsagiw^rt! jiia die petierit probos recte dari fide 
 rogavit Julius Alexrtwder dari fide prom/s?'^ Alexander Caricci 
 et se COS denarios sexaginta qvl supra scripti sunt mutuis niimera- 
 tis accepisse et debere se dixit, et eorujn usuras ex hac die in 
 dies XXXII dari Julio Alexandre ea qua -promisit iide rogavit 
 Julius Alexander dari fide promisit Alexander Caricci. 
 
 Id fide sua esse jussit Titus Primitius doxi sortem supra 
 «criptam cum wsuris jsromissis ji?robe solutis. 
 
 Actum Albunio Majori xiii Kalendas Novembres. 
 Eustico II et Aquiliiio Consulibus. 
 
 Another relates to the purchase of a maiden for 
 205 denarii, warranted to be chaste and not a run- 
 away. Another which is given by Mr. Finaly is an 
 engagement on the part of a workman, who could 
 not write, for labour in the gold mines, from the 
 20th of May to the 13th of November, wdth the 
 stipulation that if he left work without leave he 
 
 1 " And I saw in llie right guage upon the Hungarians, has 
 hand of him that sat on the led to the use of their own in 
 throne a book, written within pubUcations of interest for Euro- 
 and on the back, sealed with pean scholars generally. From 
 seven seals." Rev. 5, 1. this cause I am unable to give 
 
 2 It is to be regretted that a an account of the commentary 
 patriotic reaction against the with which Mr. Finaly has ac- 
 attempt of the Austrian govern- companied his copies of the 
 ment to force the German Ian- inscriptions on the tablets.
 
 210 ROMAN WAXEU TABLETS. 
 
 should pay the contractor an ocf/fssis (eight asse^) 
 a day ; but that if he were obliged to stop working 
 by an influx of water, the contractor was to pay 
 pro rata for the time lost. 
 
 • 
 
 Macrino et Celso Cos. xiii Kal. Juiiias Flavius Secundinus 
 scripsi rogatus a Memmio Asclepi quia se literas scire negavit 
 it quod dixit se locas . . . locavit operas suas opera 
 aurario Aurelio adjutori . . . c. die . . Idus Novem- 
 bres proxsimas . . ptaginta liberisque [laborisque ?] . 
 . . . m per temporje accipere debebit s. as operas sanas 
 va . ntes . . . debebit conduetori s. s. quod si invito 
 conductore . . cedere aut c. ssare voluer . . are debe- 
 bit in dies singulos s. unum ere octus fluor 
 
 impedierit pro rata conputare debeb . . conduct . . 
 tempore peracto mercedem solvendi moram fecerit ead . . 
 . . tenebitur exceptis cessatis tribus. 
 
 Actum Immenoso majori. 
 
 The consulship of M. Pompeius Macrinus and 
 P. Juventius Celsus answers to a. d. 164. 
 
 These recent discoveries add something to our 
 knowledge of Roman Antiquities, but their chief 
 value is that they serve to dissipate any doubts 
 which might remain of the genuineness of the 
 Massmann tablets.
 
 vin. 
 
 NEW year's day in ANCIENT ROME. 
 (Eead Jan. 5tli, 1864.) 
 
 Although we have passed the commencement 
 of our civil year, the first day of our meeting 
 here may be considered as the opening of our 
 philosophical year, and the subject of this paper 
 as not out of season. 
 
 Is there any such thing as a natural commence- 
 ment of the year? Cosmically speaking, there is 
 not. Our Earth moves with varying velocity, 
 through different portions of her orbit, but she 
 never halts even for a second, so that there is no 
 starting point, no goal in her course. But the 
 obliquity of her axis to the plane of her orbit, by
 
 218 NEW year's day 
 
 producing the alternation of tlie seasons, exercises 
 a direct influence on nature and man, and thus 
 four points are fixed in her annual revolution, 
 which have suggested the idea of the beginning 
 or end of a period. These are the solstices and 
 the equinoxes. Accordingly we find, that all these 
 have, by different nations, been fixed upon for the 
 beginning of a new year. The maxima and minima 
 of light and heat, or the equality of their distribu- 
 tion, are so closely connected with man's comfort, 
 that they afford an obvious division of the year. 
 At first, probably, it was only in a vague way, as 
 midwinter and midsummer, spring and autumn, 
 that they were discriminated; but one of the 
 earliest results of astronomical science must have 
 been to fix these periods with approximate accuracy. 
 Tliales is said to have determined the exact solsti- 
 tial and equinoctial points.^ 
 
 The Egyptians, however, the oldest people of 
 whose calendar we have any account, did not begin 
 their year with any one of these four natural 
 points. The first day of their first month, Thotli, 
 was fixed by the heliacal rising of the brilliant star, 
 Sirius or Sothis ; i. c, the time when it is suffi- 
 ciently distant from the Sun to become visible in 
 the morning before sunrise.^ This distance is 
 commonly fixed at 11°, but in the transparent 
 atmosphere of Egypt 10" are said to be sufficient 
 to make Sirius visible."'' This answered in the year 
 139, A. D., to our 20th of July, and so it would do 
 1460 years before, at the commencement of the 
 Sothiac period. And though it would not cor- 
 
 ^ Diogenes Lacrtius, 1, 23. irandbucli dcr Chroiiol., 1, 127. 
 
 2 Ccnsorimis, c. 18, Idclcr, ^ laelcr, I, 129.
 
 IN ANCIENT ROME. 219 
 
 respond through the intermediate period, this day- 
 was reckoned as the commencement of the year. 
 This time too coincides generally with the rise 
 of the Nile, the beginning of the agricultural year 
 to Egypt. 
 
 Upon the whole, the winter solstice, as the com- 
 mencement of increasing light and heat,^ and a 
 season of comparative rest, seems most appropriate 
 to the commencement of the year in temperate 
 climates. 
 
 *' Hiems ignava colono, 
 Frigoribus parto agricolee plerumque fi-uuntur, 
 Mutuaque inter se Iseti convivia curant." 
 
 Virg. Georg., 1, 299. 
 
 On the other hand, the Egyptian kept holiday and 
 feasted in the dog days, his labours being sus- 
 pended by the inundation.^ Another consideration 
 in fixing festival times, such as the commencement 
 of the year, is indicated in Virgil's " parto fruun- 
 tur." A holiday implies a feast, and therefore it 
 must take place when the materials of feasting are 
 abundant. The Jewish Passover had no doubt an 
 historical origin ; but it could not have been kept 
 except in the spring, when lambs and kids are 
 plentiful. So the festivities of Halloween belong 
 by their nature to the time when nuts and apples 
 abound. 
 
 Whether astronomy was part of that " wisdom 
 of the Egyptians in which Moses is said to have 
 been learned" (Acts, 7, 22) we do not know; but 
 there are no traces of such science in the Law, 
 nor indeed till many centuries later, when the 
 Jews became acquainted with the Babylonian 
 
 1 Plutarch, Qufest. Rom., 18. 2 Diod. Sic, 1, 36.
 
 220 NEW year's day 
 
 astronomy. Their own year began about the 
 vernal equinox, like that of the Shemite Arabs and 
 Syrians, its precise time being fixed by the date of 
 their Exodus from Egypt, and the Feast of the 
 Passover. Perhaps before this time it may have 
 begun in autumn ; at least the Feast of Ingather- 
 ing, the close of the vintage, is called (Exod., 23, 
 10) the end (in the original the ouffjoing) of the year. 
 The Persian year began at the vernal equinox. 
 
 Naturally the changes of the moon, which are 
 so much more obvious than the motion of the Sun, 
 were combined with the solstices and the equinoxes _ 
 in fixing the beginning of the year. The Jewish 
 months were lunar, and the year began with the 
 new moon, of Abib, which was also the month of 
 the Exodus. The Greeks, on the other hand, began 
 their year with the first new moon after the sum- 
 mer solstice, and for this there was a good reason. 
 The eleventh day of the moon was the time of the 
 Olympic games, and as all Greece came together to 
 them, it was not only desirable that they should 
 be in midsummer, when the days were longest, 
 but also when, from the moon's age, the nights 
 were light, as the greater part of the visitors to 
 Elis must have cariij)ed out. 
 
 The Roman year is said originally to have begun 
 at the vernal equinox, and to have continued only 
 ten months.^ Ten months was the time during 
 
 1 Exod. 13, 4. : Deut. 16, 1. 
 2 " Tempora digcrcrct quum conditor urbis, in orbe 
 Constituit menses quinquc bis esse suo. 
 Quod satis est utero matris dum prodcat iufans 
 
 Hoc anno statuit tcmporis esse satis. 
 Per totidcm menses a funere conjugis uxoi* 
 Sustinot in vidua tristia signa domo." 
 
 Ovkl Fusil, 1 , 23.
 
 IN ANCIENT ROME. 22 i 
 
 which a widow was expected to wear her weeds, and 
 not to marry again on pain of having to offer a cow 
 in sacrifice. Till the year 153, b. c. (a. u. c. 601) 
 the Consuls entered on their office at the Ides of 
 March, and even when the day had been changed 
 to the Kalends of January, the laurels before their 
 doors were renewed on the former day. The 
 Vestal fire was renewed on that day ; the feast of 
 the god Terminus was at the end of February, and 
 the annual expiation of the sins of the year, and 
 sacrifices in honour of the Manes (called Februa) 
 took place then. These are plain indications of 
 the close of the year, to which may be added that a 
 day was intercalated at the end of February, in the 
 bissextile year, and when the Romans had only a 
 lunar year, an intercalary month. Certainly the 
 names of the months Quintilis, Sextilis, September, 
 &c., seem to imply a calendar in which March was 
 the first. But at the time to which this paper 
 refers, the Roman year had long been fixed to 
 commence on the Kalends of January, and it is 
 the customs of this day in Rome that I propose to 
 illustrate. They are neither the same with our 
 own nor altogether difierent. National customs 
 bear an impress of national character, and hence 
 their variety ; they also take a special character 
 from the climate, soil, traditions, literature, and 
 religion of each country. And yet, with all these 
 causes of variety, there is a remarkable amount of 
 correspondence arising from the uniformity of 
 human nature. 
 
 The two principal sources from which I propose 
 to derive my illustrations are the Fasti of Ovid, and
 
 222 NEW year's day 
 
 an antique terra cotta lamp, a wood-cut of wliicli 
 stands at the head of this paper.^ Ovid's Fasti is a 
 kind of poetical calendar, in which the fasts and 
 festivals, the days sacred to the gods, the astrono- 
 mical phenomena, the historical events belonging 
 to each day in the first six months of the year, are 
 described. It is uncertain whether the poet ever 
 ^vrote the second half; at all events it has not 
 reached us. The name Fasti, which we have 
 borrowed, is derived from the distinction which 
 the Romans made between the Dies fasti, the 
 lucky days on which the Prcotor was permitted 
 fari, to speak, ^. e., pronounce his decrees ; and the 
 nefasti when he must be silent.^ Hence the name 
 became nearly equivalent to Calendar. It was 
 extended to the chronological annals, which were 
 marked by the succession of Consuls and other 
 magistrates, and hence its application to lists of 
 those who have filled high office. The lamp, though 
 of clay, is of very elegant form ; only its upper 
 surface is here represented. As we proceed, we 
 shall find so close a correspondence between its 
 figures and inscription, and Ovid's account of the 
 customs of New Year's Day, that we can hardly 
 doubt that it has been a New Year's Gift in Ancient 
 Home. 
 
 Ovid represents himself as meditating, " sumptis 
 tabellis," on the task which he had undertaken, 
 
 ^ The original is figured in and in Millin's Galcrie Mytholo- 
 Passeii's Luccrnte Fictiles, 1, C, gique, pi. 2, no. 5. 
 
 2 " Ille Nefastus orit per qucm tria verba silcntur; 
 Fastus crit per quern lege licebit agi." 
 
 Fasti, 1, 47. 
 The tria verba were Do, Dico, which the I'riCtor prefaced his 
 Addico, the formulaiy word.s by adjudications.
 
 IN ANCIENT ROME. 223 
 
 wlien the singularity of the form and attributes of 
 Janus, who gave his name to the first month 
 occurs to him, and he asks the god to explain his 
 own form, to which nothing in Greek mythology 
 corresponded; how he alone of all the celestials 
 saw with his double head both what was before 
 and what was behind him, 
 
 " Qiiem tamen esse deiim te dicam, Jane biformis ? 
 Nam tibi par nullimi Graecia numen babet. 
 Ede siniTil causam cur de cselestibus unus 
 
 Sitque quod a tergo, sitque quod ante vides." 
 
 The god appears, holding a stafi" in the right hand 
 and a key in the left ; listens to him graciously, 
 and assigns reasons for his own name and office. 
 They are fanciful, as the reasons generally are, 
 which the Greeks and Homans give for their own 
 mythology; but in this case the nature of the 
 symbols is obvious enough. Placed between two 
 periods of time, one opening and one closing, the 
 double face of Janus is a most appropriate emblem 
 of the New Year. His epithets of Clusius, the 
 shutter, and Patidcius, the opener, express the same 
 thing. The most probable etymology of his name 
 is that which Cicero gives, ^ Eanus from eo or io, is, 
 it to go ; janua being related to io as our gate is to 
 (/o. He is a mere symbol, without personal qualities 
 or history, to which circumstance, no doubt, he 
 owes his blameless reputation; for St. Augustine 
 remarks of him, that he was the only heathen god, 
 
 1 Ab^MH^o nomen est ducium, Dianus, on the authority of 
 
 ex quo transitiones pervia?. Jani Nigidius, a learned antiquary, 
 
 foresque in limine aedium janucR who identified hiui with Apollo, 
 
 nominantur. Cic. N. D., 2, 27. and gave him Diana as the Moon 
 
 Macrobius derives it from for a sister. Saturn, 1, c. 9.
 
 224 NEW year's day 
 
 of whom no scandal was related.^ The meaning 
 of his form being so obvious, we need not, with 
 Sir Wm. Jones, seek his origin in the Indian god 
 Ganesa, or with the learned Vossius, suppose that 
 he represents Noah, looking with one head backward 
 on the antediluvian world, and forward with the 
 other on the postdiluvian, or that he was the 
 same with Javan, whose descendants j)eopled 
 Europe,^ He was one of the old Italian gods, the 
 Dii Indigetes,^ on whom neither poetry nor art had 
 exercised their plastic powers. Ovid, it is true, 
 puts a staff into his right hand, and a key into his 
 left, — one to support his aged steps — for Time is 
 always made an old man, — the other, to denote his 
 office of opening and closing. But these are em- 
 bellishments. The true Janus is a double-headed 
 bust, or a square pillar surmounted with two 
 heads, and it is only on imperial coins that we find 
 him represented with a perfect human figure.* 
 Pliny (34, IG) speaks of figures of Janus, with the 
 fingers disposed in such a way as to express the 
 number 355, the days in a lunar year (Macrobius 
 says, Sat., 1, 9, 3G5) ; and Venerable Bede has writ- 
 ten a treatise on this digital arithmetic (Op. 1, 164) ; 
 but no such figure of Janus has come down to us. 
 
 Ovid then proceeds to ask Janus, why the year 
 has been made to begin in the depth of winter, 
 and not in the more genial season of spring? 
 
 "Die age frigoribus qiiare novus incipit annus 
 Qui melius per ver incipiendiis erat ? " 
 
 J De Jano quidem non milii 2 G.J. Vossius, do Idol., 1, 18. 
 
 facile occunit quidquam, quod ^ Herodian, 1,1'.). 
 
 ad probrum pertincat. De Civ. * Medal of Antoninus Pius. 
 
 Dei, 7, 4. Cohen, 874. Rasche, 3, 2, p. 51 1.
 
 IN ANCIENT ROME. 2.25 
 
 Janus answers that hruma, a contraction of brevima 
 (shortest day), is the last day of the old and first of 
 the new sun, and that Phoibus and the year begin 
 together. " Bruma novi jDrima est veterisque novis- 
 sima solis Principium capiunt Phoebus et annus 
 idem." This is not strictly true of the first of 
 January, which is ten days later than the Avinter 
 solstice, but it is near enough for the Poet's pur- 
 pose. The shortening of the shadow of the gnomon, 
 by which the Eomans were guided, was scarcely 
 perceptible for eight or ten days after the solstice.^ 
 Our Gothic ancestors not only began their years 
 in winter, but reckoned them by winters. In the 
 version of Ulfilas (Luke 2, 42), "And when he 
 was twelve years old " is, " Jah hi the warth 
 twalib wintrus." So the Lindisfarn Gospel, "win- 
 tra tuoelf " 
 
 The poet then proceeds to the customs of the 
 day and their reasons. " Why are the law courts 
 open though it is a holiday ?" " Because, for the 
 sake of a good omen, every one should, on the first 
 day of the year, just handle his tools," a process 
 which in Latin was called delihare. 
 
 " Post ea mirabar ciu' non sine litibus esset 
 Prima dies. Causam percipe, Janus ait. 
 
 Tempora commisi nascentia rebus agendis, 
 Totus ab auspicio ne foret annus iners. 
 
 Quisque siias artes ob idem delibat agendo 
 Nee plus quam solitum testificatur opus." 
 
 This rule seems to have been universal. The 
 farmer on this day did a slight stroke of work in 
 
 1 livdus de Monsibus, 2, 12.
 
 '2:2() NKW Yi: All's dav 
 
 every department of his farm ; the literary man, as 
 we learn from Seneca/ read a little, wrote a little, 
 spoke a little ; the praetor pronounced judgment in 
 some formal matter, but did not exercise his con- 
 tentious jurisdiction, lest the wrangling of the bar 
 should lead to the utterance of ill-omened words. 
 
 ** Prospera lux oritur : lingrds aniraisque favete : 
 
 Nunc dicenda bono sunt bona verba die. 
 
 Lite vacent aures, insanaque protinus absint 
 
 Jiu'gia ; differ opus li\'ida lingua tuum." 
 
 This was so carefully avoided, that on all critical 
 occasions silence was enjoined to prevent its possi- 
 bility, and favere lingua was equivalent to holding 
 your 2^eace. Ill-omened actions were avoided, as 
 well as ill-omened words ; no executions took 
 place, and even Christians were not put to death 
 on the Kalends of January as St. Jerome notices. 
 It was an evil omen, that on the morning of New 
 Year's Day, the Consul Norbanus, who was learning 
 to play on the trumpet, blew a blast of war. 
 The statue of Janus fell down, and in that year 
 Germanicus died (Dion., 59, c. 17). The senate 
 observed the same rule. The new Consuls took 
 possession of their curule chair, or as Ovid expresses 
 it, " the ivory felt a new weight ; " but no import- 
 ant business was commonly entered upon. It was 
 a mark of Cicero's eagerness to denounce the 
 Agrarian Law, proposed by the tribune Eullus, 
 that he delivered an harangue against it, on the 
 Kalends of January, the very day of his entrance 
 upon office. 
 
 1 Ep. 83.
 
 IN ANCIENT ROME. '1:27 
 
 All on this day in Home wore the appearance of 
 festivity. White was the festive colour, and the 
 citizen who could not afford a new toga, at least 
 whitened his old one, to attend the sacrifices in 
 the Capitol. Lydus says, the Consul rode a white 
 horse and offered him to Jupiter.^ This probahly 
 belongs to later times and the worship of the Sun. 
 The Consuls robed in new garments, bordered with 
 purple, went thither, preceded by lictors carrying 
 the new fasces wreathed with laurel. 
 
 " Vestibus intactis Tarpeias itur in arces 
 Et popiilus festo concolor ipse suo est. 
 Jamque novi preeeunt fasces, nova pvirpura fidget 
 Et nova conspicuum pondera sentit ebiir." 
 
 When I was in Rome on New Year's Day, and 
 saw the long procession of Cardinals, clothed in 
 scarlet from head to foot, with scarlet liveries and 
 scarlet harness, going to pay their homage at the 
 Vatican, I could not but recollect the " nova pur- 
 pura fulget " of Ovid, and susjDCct that they had 
 inherited the senatorial purple. After sacrificing 
 in the Capitol, the chief magistrates had an audience 
 of the Emperor, and a kiss was interchanged. The 
 troops also mustered with their ensigns, and both 
 in Rome and the provinces they renewed the mili- 
 tary oath, or sacr amentum} It was a mad freak of 
 Commodus, which cost him his life, instead of ap- 
 pearing in imperial purple on this day, to head a 
 band of gladiators in their professional costume.^ 
 The poet next inquires, " why do we reciprocate 
 
 J De Mens, 4, c. 8. third day from the Kalends, as 
 
 2 Lydus, 4. c. 4. that on which good wishes were 
 
 3 Herodian, 1, 49. Lucian, interchanged. Pkitarch, Yit. 
 Pseudologista, c. 8. speaks of the Ciceronis, c. 2. 
 
 Q 2
 
 228 NEW year's day 
 
 good wishes and cheerful words on this day ? " 
 He does not tell us what the form was, but the 
 monuments supply them. " Annus novus sit tibi 
 FAUSTUS FELIX," or witliout the verb "Annum novum 
 Faustum Felicem Tibi." " May the new year be 
 auspicious and happy to thee ! " Such is the form 
 in which it appears on two tesserse, figured by 
 Caylus, and which no doubt were sent by those 
 w^ho had not the opportunity of uttering their 
 good wishes in person.^ On this lamp it is Anno 
 novo, so that faustum and felior. must be taken as 
 substantives. This question having been answered 
 by saying " omina principiis inesse solent," Ovid 
 asks the meaning of the various gifts which friends 
 present to each other on New Year's Day. " What 
 means the palm, and the wrinkled Carian fig, and 
 the pure honey given in the white jar? " Instead 
 of a jar of honey, as seen on this lamp, a cake 
 made with honey was sometimes given. ^ The 
 gifts presented on this day passed by the general 
 name of strence, a word of doubtful etymology, 
 but which seems originally to have denoted the 
 branch of a sacred evergreen shrub, which con- 
 stituted the simple new year's gift. It survives, 
 in the latter sense, in the Italian strenna and the 
 French etrennes. Janus answers, " the object of 
 giving sweet things is that a flavour of sweet- 
 ness may attend the year through its whole 
 course." We find from Martial, that dates, as 
 well as figs, were given as strence, along with the 
 
 1 Caylus, Recueild'Antiquites 2 Lydus, u. s. The lump of 
 
 4, 28K. Passeri 2, pi. 4, 5. figs is seen beside the head of 
 
 Fabretti, Insci*. Domestical, c. 7, Victory, 
 no. 5.
 
 IN ANCIENT ROME. 229 
 
 branch of tlie palm, the fruit being covered with 
 gold leaf. ' 
 
 "At ciu' la)ta tuis dicuntur verba Kalendis 
 
 Et damus alternas accipiniusque preces ? 
 Turn deus incumbens baculo, quern dextra gerebat 
 
 Omina principiis, inqiiit, inesse solent. 
 Ad primam vocem timidas advertitis aures 
 
 Et primum visam consulit augur avem. 
 Teuipla patent auresque deiim, nee lingua caducas 
 
 Concipit ulla preces, dictaque pondus babent. 
 Desierat Janus ; nee longa silentia feci, 
 
 Sed tetigi verbis ultima verba meis. 
 Quid vult palma sibi, rugosaque carica dixi, 
 
 Et data sub niveo Candida mella cado ? 
 Omen, ait, causa est, ut res sapor ille sequatur 
 
 Et peragat coeptiim dulcis ut annus iter." 
 
 The poet is satisfied with the reason assigned for 
 giving sweets, but goes on to ask, " why is a small 
 piece of money " {stips, whence sfipendium) " also 
 given ? " Janus replies by laughing at Ovid's igno- 
 rance of the character of his own times, in which 
 money was held to be the sweetest of all sweet 
 things ; and he goes on satirically to contrast the 
 simplicity of primitive times (for of course his 
 memory extended to all past ages), when senators 
 fed their own sheep, and slept on straw, with the 
 luxury and venality of the moderns. 
 
 *'Duleia cur dentur video, stipis adjice causam, 
 
 Pars mibi de festo ne labet ulla tuo. 
 Eisit, et ! quam te fallunt tua sa^cida dixit 
 
 Qui stipe mel sumpta dtdcius esse putes. 
 Vix ego Saturno quemquam regnante videbam 
 
 Cujus non animo dulcia lucra forent. 
 
 1 Epigr. 13, 27, Aurea porrigi- solet,a cheap but showy present, 
 tur Jani caryota Kalendis, Sed Comp. 8, 33. 
 taincn hoc nimius pauperis esse
 
 230 NEW YKAll's DAY 
 
 Tempore crevit amor, qyd nunc est summus liabendi ; 
 Vix ultra, quo jam progi'ediatur habet." 
 
 In another lamp, figured by Passeri (1, 5), the head 
 of Janus is surrounded by coins of all kinds. The 
 sfijjs was usually a piece of copper money, and 
 especially one of those of the earliest brass coinage, 
 which exhibited the head of Janus on one side, and 
 the prow of a vessel on the other. ^ The obverse 
 side is seen on the lamp. The Emperors did not 
 disdain these humble offerings. If Augustus was 
 absent on New Year's Day, the stips was deposited 
 in the Capitol, and from the sums received he dedi- 
 cated statues to the gods." Tiberius stood to re- 
 ceive it in person, and returned it fourfold, but con- 
 fined it strictly to the first of January.^ Caligula 
 seems to have revived the practice for the purpose of 
 getting money, though, as Suetonius says, he was 
 literally rolling in gold.'* Our own sovereigns in 
 the Middle Ages received and sometimes exacted 
 New Year's gifts from the courtiers and the citi- 
 zens. Matthew Paris (s. a. 1249) mentions such a 
 demand by Henry III. on the citizens of London. 
 
 Some other objects appear upon the lamp, to 
 which Ovid does not allude. Below the coin are 
 two fruits, perhaps pomegranates, and on the right 
 hand of the Victory a pine-cone. This would not 
 
 1 The prow is said to refer to prow would be appropriate. 
 
 Saturn, wlio, as representing See Inghirami, INIonumenti E- 
 
 Timc, was easily confounded truschi, vol. -S, pi. 1 — 5. 
 
 with .Tanus, and supposed to 2 Suetonius, Octavianus, c. 57. 
 
 typify his arrival by sea in La- 3 Suet. Tib., c. 43. 
 
 tiurn. The Romans seem, how- * Suet. Calig., c. 42. " Sa^pe 
 
 ever, to have borrowed their super inimensos aureorum acer- 
 
 earliest copper money from the vos et nudis jicdibus spatiatus 
 
 Etruscans, to whom as a mari- et toto corpore aliquandiu volu- 
 
 time people, the emblem of the tatus est."
 
 IN ANCIENT ROME. 231 
 
 with US be reckoned among fruits ; but the cone of 
 the stone-pine is sold as such in Italy. It is 
 covered indeed with an impenetrable coat of mail, 
 but the fire opens it, and there are kernels within 
 of a sweet taste, like that of a nut. A curious 
 story is related by Macrobius, respecting this mix 
 2nnea. Vatinius (the same no doubt against whom 
 Cicero delivered a tremendous invective) had been 
 pelted with stones, during an exhibition of gladia- 
 tors, and had persuaded the sediles to make a regu- 
 lation, that only poma, by which soft fruits were 
 meant, should be used as missiles during the per- 
 formances in the arena. For the ancient Romans 
 seem to have used the same licence of pelting dur- 
 ing the games, that the moderns do at the Carnival. 
 Cascellius, a celebrated lawyer, was consulted, as 
 to whether the cone of the pine was a pominii or 
 not, and replied : " If you mean to pelt Vatinius 
 with it, I hold it to be a,pomum."^ 
 
 Hitherto we have been contemplating the po- 
 etical and religious side of New Year's Day in 
 ancient Eome. No doubt, if we could follow the 
 population of the great metropolis through the day, 
 we might find things less edifying. Joannes Lydus, 
 a late writer says, that the Pontiffs, on the author- 
 ity of the Sibylline books, enjoined on the people, 
 the first thing in the morning of the Kalends of 
 January, to take a drink of pure wine, for the 
 avoidance of gout ; ^ but, doubtless, it was not the 
 only cup that was taken during the day. Those 
 who are fond of tracing customs from one country 
 
 ' Miici'obiu.s, Siiluni,, 2. <■. 6. - I/vdus, De Mciisibus, 4, c. f^.
 
 232 NhW YKAu's DAY 
 
 to another, may find a parallel to this in the 
 practice which prevailed, and may still prevail, in 
 Scotland, of going into jour friend's house, on the 
 morning of New Year's Day, with a bottle of 
 w^hisky in your hand, and giving a glass to the 
 inmates before they left their bed. Intoxication, 
 however, has never been the national vice of the 
 Italians, and the allegation of a sanitary reason for 
 taking a cup of pure wine, the first thing in the 
 morning, shows that such an indulgence was not 
 common. The same authority (Lydus, 4, c. 57) 
 prescribed, that on the Kalends of June, a drink of 
 cold water should be taken the first thing in the 
 morning, and that, too, for the very same reason, 
 the avoidance of gout. Whatever may have been 
 the case in the better times of Rome, the festival 
 of the strence seems to have become an occasion of 
 licence. The fathers of the Church are very bitter 
 against it ; for it was connected with idolatrous 
 worship, besides being an occasion of licence 
 and misrule.^ " You are about (says St. Augustine) 
 to engage in the celebration of the strena? after the 
 Pagan manner ; to game and be intoxicated. How 
 can you believe, or hope, or love? They give 
 strena3 ; do you give alms. They are singing 
 loose songs ; do you occupy yourselves with the 
 words of Scripture. They run to the theatre ; do 
 you go to Church. They are intoxicated ; do you 
 fast." Pope Zacharias, in the eighth century, pro- 
 nounced an anathema on those who lighted lamps, 
 
 1 See BingliMin, .\jitiquities of Oii<?., 1, 128. Hospinian, De 
 the Cliristiau Cliureh, 7, 2')7. Origine Festorum. Brand, Pop- 
 MoiitiMiitius (l»it. Moiilagiie). ulnr Antiquities, eh. IG.
 
 IN A.NCIENT ROME. 233 
 
 and prepared feasts on this day, and went about 
 singing and dancing in the streets, a practice of 
 which our waits and carols no doubt preserve a 
 trace. The Feast of the Circumcision was insti- 
 tuted to change the character of the day. Our 
 mummers owe their origin, also, to the disguising, 
 and especially interchange of the garments of the 
 sexes at this season, which was severely condemned 
 by the Synod held in Trullo. The strence became 
 an occasion of extravagance. St. Jerome complains 
 (Comm. Ep. ad Ephes.) that bishops and priests 
 spent on New Year's gifts, the offerings or fines of 
 maidens and widows. But as New Year's Day, in 
 Protestant countries, is not a day of suspension of 
 business, the gifts and the feasting have been anti- 
 cipated by Christmas Day, and little more than 
 good wishes have been left to the Kalends of Jan- 
 uary. In France, on the contrary, it is celebrated 
 by a universal interchange of gifts, and the Jour 
 des etrennes, is one of the liveliest of the year. 
 
 There was one class of persons at Rome, to 
 whom the Kalends of January was anything but 
 a festival. The first day of the month was that 
 on which the creditor could demand his debt with 
 the pawnbroking interest of one per cent, for the 
 month, i. e., 12 per cent, per annum, and the 
 Kalends of January would be doubly dreaded as the 
 first of the year as well as the month. The calen- 
 dar ium was the book in which the usurer inscribed 
 a list of the names of his debtors, and the amount 
 of their debts. "He who has a great calendarium" 
 says Seneca, " is a rich man."^ His own must have 
 
 1 De P.encf., 7, 87, fi.
 
 234 NEW year's day 
 
 been of extraordinary size ; for though a Stoic in 
 theory, and therefore a despiser of riches, he was 
 at Rome, what the Fuggers of Augsburg were in 
 the sixteenth century, wliat the Rothschilds are in 
 the nineteenth, — the great loan-monger of his time. 
 He was reputed to have amassed, in four years, 
 £2,500,000 sterling.^ The rebellion of the Britons 
 under Boadicea was brought about by his harshly 
 and suddenly calling up the loans which he had 
 lent them, to the amount of £330,000.'"^ 
 
 The Roman insolvent debtor was not in so 
 lamentable a condition in the imperial times as 
 under the law of the Twelve Tables, by which his 
 creditors might literally take his body in execution, 
 and make a dividend of it among them if they 
 chose. But the consequences of insolvency were 
 sufficiently serious, to make the approach of the 
 Kalends a gloomy prospect ; for the necvus against 
 whom his creditor had obtained judgment, became 
 in all but name his slave. The Grreeks had no 
 Kalends, but to them the day of dread was the 
 new moon, on which debts were to be discharged. 
 Aristophanes, in The Clouds (739), represents a 
 man, who being deeply in debt, is in sore perplexity 
 at the approach of the new moon. He has heard 
 that Thessalian hags have power by certain incan- 
 tations to draw the moon down from the heavens 
 (carmina vel coelo possunt deducere lunam), and he 
 is in hopes of finding one with a spell sufficiently 
 
 1 " Qviasapientia, quibusphilo- capi. Italiam ct provincias im- 
 
 sophoruin praeceptis, intra quad- mcnso focnore hauriri." Tac, 
 
 riennium ter millies sestcrtium Ann., 13, 42. 
 
 paravisset? Romaj testamciita 2 Dion. Cass., lib. (V2, c. 2. 
 cl orbos, vclut indapjinc oju^
 
 IN ANCIENT ROME. 235 
 
 powerful to bring her into his safe keeping, and so 
 enable him to set his creditors at defiance. 
 
 If a sculptor were to attempt to give appropriate 
 expression to the stony faces of Janus, the head 
 which looks to the future should bear the marks of 
 anxious curiosity ; for such is the feeling with which 
 man enters on a new period of his life. And as 
 no philosophy can relieve him from this uncertainty, 
 he has had recourse to superstition, trying to find 
 a shadow of coming events in the fortuitous circum- 
 stances of the opening year, and, above all, in the 
 phsenomena of the heavens. Trajan chose the first 
 of January for the consecration of a Temple to 
 Fortune, doubtless, in order to make the goddess 
 propitious for the coming year. It was the duty 
 of the Consuls to report to the Emperors on this 
 day, what the auguries declared respecting its 
 character, which depended very much on the day 
 of the week on which New Year's Day fell. They 
 would have given gloomy anticipations of 1864; 
 for if the year begins on a Friday, they held that 
 you may look for a good harvest, but must be 
 prepared for political tumults, burdensome wars, 
 and murders of magistrates.^ 
 
 I have not found traces in the classic authors of 
 any evil augury attaching to a bissextile year (so 
 called because the 24th of February, sixth before 
 the Kalends of March, in Eoman reckoning, was 
 counted twice), but the bissextile day itself was 
 reckoned so unlucky, that Valentinian, having been 
 elected Emperor, would not shew himself in public 
 till after the 24th of February was past. Ammi- 
 anus Marcellinus, who mentions this, says it was 
 
 1 I-ydus, 4, in.
 
 236 NEW year's day 
 
 because he knew that the day had been several times 
 unlucky for Eome, but mentions no particulars. 
 St. Augustine, who was nearly contemporary with 
 Valentinian, complains of the superstitious dread 
 attached to the bissextile year, which must have 
 been prevalent among the Christians of his day, 
 since he rebukes them by the words of St. Paul to 
 the Galatians (4. 10), "Ye observe days, and 
 months, and times, and years." " What folly ! " 
 he exclaims, to say, " I will not plant a vineyard 
 this year, because it is bissextile."^ Dithmar, the 
 Bishop of Merseburg, in the tenth century, alludes to 
 the opinion, and seems himself to have been under 
 its influence.^ Ordericus Vitalis, ^ in a passage 
 kindly pointed out to me by Mr. Eaine, speaking 
 of the year 1 13G, and King Stephen, says, " Hie tu- 
 niultuosus annus vere bisseaiiis fuit et tunc ultimus 
 in ordine concurrentium bissextus cucurrit, sicut 
 vulgo dicitur, bissextus super regem et populum 
 ejus in Normannia et Anglia cecidit." The super- 
 stition must have been very prevalent in the fifteenth 
 century, since Battista Spagnuola, who, under the 
 assumed name of Mantuanus, wrote numerous Latin 
 poems, and one in particular, called Fasti, notices 
 and ridicules it, and maintains that on the contrary, 
 as Time is a good thing, the longer the year the 
 
 better. 
 
 "Felicior iste 
 Judice me credi debet quia longior annus. 
 Scilicet in silvis arbor magis ardua fertur 
 Dignior ; in caulis taurus prsestantior alta 
 Cui cervice magis caput a tellure levatum est." 
 
 1 Epist, 119, Ad Januarium, ■' Duchesne, Hist. Normann. 
 c. 7. Scriptores, 'J05. Compare Liu- 
 
 2 IIosi)inicUi, Dc Oi-igine Fes- gard, 2, p. 200 — 33. 
 loruin. p. 31 .
 
 IN ANCIENT ROME. 237 
 
 It is not easy to ascertain the origin of this 
 ancient superstition. Perhaps it sprang from the 
 feeling, that intercalation was an act of impiety — an 
 interference of man with the laws of the universe. 
 The alteration of the style in England in 1753, we 
 know, was regarded in that light by the common 
 people. Whether a leap-year is still held by them 
 to threaten calamity, except to bachelors, I do not 
 know. Superstitions are tenacious of life and long 
 resist the influence of education. To my present 
 audience, however, I may safely address the old 
 Eoman salutation and wish, "Annus novus sit 
 voBis FAUSTUS FELIX," though 1864 began on a 
 Friday, and though February will have twenty- 
 nine days. Philosophy has shown us, that human 
 destinies are not controlled by the position and 
 aspects of the heavenly bodies, and Eeligion has 
 provided a remedy for undue anxiety respecting 
 the future, by teaching us to look forward to it 
 with trust and resignation. 
 
 W. SOTHERAN, PETERGATE, YORK.
 
 PUBLICATIONS BY 
 THE EEV. JOHN KENEICK. 
 
 ANCIENT EaYPT UNDEE THE PHAEAOHS. 
 
 2 Vols. 8vo. Price 30*. 
 
 PHCENICIA. 1 Vol. 8vo. 
 
 WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIVE PLATES. 
 Price 165. 
 
 T. Fellowes, Liidgate Street. 
 
 EOMAN SEPULCEAL INSCEIPTIONS : 
 
 THEIR RELATION TO ARCHEOLOGY, LANGUAGE, & RELIGION. 
 Price Half-a-Crown. 
 
 London : J. E. Smith, Soho Square. 
 York : R. Sunter atsd J. Sotheran.
 
 nrp DATE DUE 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 HIGHSMITH I 
 
 15- 102 
 
 PR1N1 
 
 rED IN U.S. A
 
 DA670 Y6K3 
 
 Kenrick, John, 1788-1877. 
 A selection of papers on th( 
 subjects of archeology and 
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 AA 001 389 833 3 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CA . RIVERSIDE UBRf RY 
 
 1210 00641 4732
 
 
 [ i 
 
 '' l i 
 
 II