GIFT OF -MODERN HISTORY;' FROM THE ra 0f AND THE 0f \t mro UHit int0 n TO THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1854. BY PETER FREDET, D.D. FROFESSOB OF HISTORY IN ST. MART'S COLLEGE, BALTIMORE, AUTHOK OF "ANCntST HISTORT." Historia testis temporum, lui Yerttatie, vita vemoriae, ma^istra vitae, ntmtia vestutatis. Oicer. lib. ii. de Orat. c. ix., n. 36. Eleventh Edition, carefully Revised, Enlarged and Improved. BALTIMORE: PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURPHY & CO. No. 178 MARKET STREET. PITTSBURG....GEORGE QUIGLEY. LONDON....C. DOLMAN, No. 61 NEW BOND STREET. 1855. Kuk-red. *v,ording to the Act of Congress, in the year eighteen hundred and fifty, by JOHN MURPHY A CO., in the Clerk's office of the District Court of Marvlan-1. PREFACE. THE utility of History as a branch of public and private instruction has always been admitted. Cicero calls it "the witness of ages, the torch of truth, the life of memory, the oracle of life, the interpreter of the past," and does not hesitate to say, that "to be ignorant of what has happened before one's birth, is nothing less than to remain in a continual state of childhood." (Cicer. in oral. n. xxxiv). Plu- tarch informs us that Cato the Censor, whose name and eminent qualities reflected so much honor upon the last days of the Roman Republic, composed for his infant son, and, with his own hand, wrote in large characters, a description of remarkable actions taken from the lives of illustrious Romans; in order, said he, that this child might be enabled, from his very infancy, and without leaving the pa- ternal roof, to become acquainted with the great men of his country, and to imitate those ancient models of probity and virtue. History is an immense repository, whence we may, with little la- bor, derive extensive knowledge, and draw many instructive and useful lessons ; nor is there any study (except that of Religion) bet- ter calculated to improve all the faculties of the soul. By its means, the memory is furnished with a multitude of interesting events; the judgment continually improves, from the assiduous attention which is given to objects well deserving of notice ; and experience, so necessary in life, is easily acquired, because we appropriate to ourselves that of others, and become wise at their expense. History conduces also wonderfully to the improvement of the heart : every where it affords moral examples adapted to the different stations and conditions of social life ; every where it presents to our imitation models of courage, of patriotism, probity, disinterestedness, generous sentiments and heroic, actions. Its pages, indeed, are frequently filled with the narrative of various crimes; but these it mentions only to inspire us with horror for them, and to convince every one, that un- ruly passions, besides degrading humanity, generally prove the cause of the subversien of empires, not less than of the ruin of private in- dividuals and families. 17 PREFACE. History gives us another very important instruction, in the continual change and succession of kingdoms and empires. There we behold the all-wise and powerful Providence of God displaying itself in the course of human affairs; sometimes granting to his people good and virtuous rulers ; at other times, permitting political storms to burst forth, wars to rage, and wicked men to reign for the chastisement of nations; then restoring tranquillity, and rendering subservient to his designs, even those events in which our limited reason can per- ceive only the agency of creatures. Thus we are taught to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, to refer every prosperous effect to Him, as its only real and independent cause, and to expect from Him alone a lasting happiness. These advantages are to be found chiefly in Modern History, which extending to many more countries than the history of former ages, presents us with more numerous and remarkable instances of the ef- fects of divine justice upon kings and nations. It likewise abounds, much more than the periods long since past, in heroic deeds, and, in- cluding the times of the Christian era, exhibits a much greater mul- titude of personages worthy of being proposed as models of virtue, than could ever be afforded by the ancient Greeks and Romans. Hence, Modern History, though generally little known, should be considered as peculiarly important and useful: not indeed, as we find it in the works of many recent authors, such as Hume, Gibbon, and others, whose partiality, prejudice, or even irreligion, appears in al- most every page of their works ; but, as it ought to be presented to the reader, in a spirit of candor and impartiality, after a sincere and diligent research on the part of the writer. The present course includes all the time which has elapsed from the coming of Christ, and even from the battle of Actium (B. c. 31), to the age in which we live. Although a shorter duration than this is commonly, though arbitrarily, assigned to Modern History, we have thought proper to refer its beginning to the memorable epoch which is termed in the Scripture the fulness of times, (Ephes. i. 10), and which nearly coincides with the change of the Roman Republic into an Empire after the battle of Actium. Thus, in reckoning from the dispersion of the sons of Noah, and following the division of Sacred History into two chief parts, the Ancient and the New Law, we have a similar and very natural division of the civil history itself into two grand portions, the one before, the other after the coming of Christ; and whilst we take a view of the civilized world during the last eighteen hundred years, we also perceive the connexion which it had with the Christian Church from her foundation. To treat of each nation separately, is not the object of the present work; we are not writing a collection of particular histories, but a PREFACE. V general one: nor, on the other hand, is it our intention to confine our selves, as is too frequently done, to a meagre outline of names, dates and facts, without mentioning their necessary circumstances; but, by selecting from the best historians of the different nations, whatever is most important and worthy of notice, to present, as far as possible, a detailed and connected view of the whole. Nothing more can be reasonably expected from an elementary course of this class : if it omits no essential fact or circumstance, and, at the same time, does not im- pede the progress of the narrative by introducing numberless events of secondary importance, surely nothing more can be desired in this respect, either for instruction or amusement. There is no other means of imparting, in an interesting manner, a sufficient knowledge of History. Should any disadvantage occasionally arise from this plan, it will be compensated by synoptical and chronological tables; and, moreover, facts of an extraordinary nature, or which have been com- monly misrepresented in modern publications, will be illustrated by notes placed in the latter part of the volume. As a conclusion of these preliminary remarks, and an immediate introduction to Modern History, some idea must be given of the po- litical disturbances which so long agitated ancient Rome, and termi- nated in the destruction of the Commonwealth. The Romans, by their invincible patience and constancy during seven hundred years, had conquered almost the whole of the then known world, viz. Italy, Gaul, Spain, Northern Africa, Egypt, Sy- ria, Asia Minor, Greece, Illyria, etc. But, at the same time,, aft kinds of vices were introduced. Love of country, and respect for the laws were gradually superseded by luxury, avarice, intrigues, and an almost universal corruption. Public employments and dig- nities, the emoluments of which had increased, were solicited with extraordinary avidity; ambitious candidates sought only to flatter the people; and generals of the same character strained every nerve to gain the troops over to their party, even resorting to extravagant promises and presents, in order to attain their object. Sylla, having obtained, after his great victories, the Dictatorship for life, proved to the world that Rome could endure a master ; like him, Pompey and Julius Caesar successively rendered themselves all-powerful. The violent death of the latter, who was slain in the Senate, augmented, instead of lessening the evil. There were now three competitors for the supreme power: Antony, Lepidus, and the young Octavius, grand-nephew and adopted son of CaBsar. During their triumvirate, all in Rome who were most remarkable for their courage and their opposition to tyranny, were destroyed : Cicero was put to death; Brutus and Cassius were defeated at Philippi; and with them expired the liberty of tlfe Roman people. VI PREFACE. Octavius and Antony, having removed the feeble Lepidus, made various agreements respecting the division of power; but the young Caesar, more dexterous than his colleague, always found means to obtain the better share, gained the popular favor in Rome, and ra- pidly advanced to the sovereign authority. Antony, in his attempts to repair his losses, engaged in a civil war, which served only to accele- rate his utter ruin : his defeat in the battle of Actium, and his death which followed soon after, left Octavius undisputed master. This memorable event, which took place in the year 722 after the building of Rome, and 31 before the coming of Christ, brings us to the be- ginning of our course of Modern History, which includes eight parts or epochs, in the following order: The first part comprises the time which elapsed from the battle of Actium (B. c. 31), to the accession of Constantine (A. D. 306); in- cluding 337 years. The 2d from the accession of Constantine (A. D. 306), to the fall of the Roman Empire in the West (A. D. 476); 170 years. The 3d from the fall of the Roman empire in the West (A. D. 476), to its revival under Charlemagne (A. D. 800); 324 years. The 4th from the revival of the Western Empire under Charlemagne (A. D. 800), to the beginning of the Crusades, (A. D. 1095); 295 years. The 5th from the beginning of the Crusades (A. D. 1095), to their termination (A. D. 1272); 177 years. The 6th from the end of the Crusades (A. D. 1272), to the discovery of America (A. D. 1492); 220 years. The 7th from the discovery of America (A. D. 1492), to the Treaty of Versailles, or Paris, in which the Independence of the United States was solemnly and universally acknowledged (A. D. 1783); 291 years. The 8th from the Treaty of Paris (A. D. 1783), to A. D 1854; 71 years. Baltimore, September 1854. CONTENTS. PART I. FROM THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM (B. C. 31), TO THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE (A. D. 306). ROMAN EMPIRE, .kj 13 Augustus, .j&t- ib. Tiberius, 23 Caligula, ^ 33 Claudius, / ^* 35 Nenj...^. .WT. 38 Galba Otho Vitellius, ...... 44 Vespasian, 48 Titus, 54 Domitian, 56 i- Nerva Trajan, 59 r Adrian, 61 Antoninus Pius, *. 65 Marcus Aurelius, 68 Commodus Pertinax Didius Julianus, 69 Page Septimius Severus, 70 C aracall a MacrinusHelioga- balus, 77 Alexander Severus, 78 Military Usurpers, 83 Claudius II, 85 Aurelian, 87 Interregnum Tacitus, 90 Probus, ,' f ib. Carus, and his two sons Cari- nus and Numerian, 92 Diocletian and Maximian; af- terwards Constantius Chlorus and Galerius, ib. PART II. FROM THE ACCESSION OF CONSTANTINE (A. D. 306), TO THE DOWNFALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE IN THE WEST (A. D. 476). Pa9 CONTENTS. XI NOTES. Page N'OTE A. Character and Death of Seneca, Lucan, etc., 469 B. The historian Josephus, 470 C. Number of Martyrs, during the general persecutions of the Church, 472 D. Attempt of the emperor Julian to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem, 476 E. Mahomet's pretended miracles, 479 F. Answer of Pope Zachary to a consultation of the French, 480 G. Temporal Dominion of the Pope, 481 H. Popes of the Middle Ages, 483 I. Conquest of Ireland, 486 J. Prosecution and abolition of the Knights-Templars, 489 X. Inquisition, 492 L. Bull of Alexander VI, called the Bull of partition, 494 M. Influence of the Roman Church on the improvement of science. Affair of Galileo. The Calendar, 496 N. Massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, 497 O. Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, , , 499 P. On religious persecution, 502 Tables of contemporary Sovereigns, 509 Chronological table, 521 Table of Authors, 535 MODERN HISTORY. PART I. FROM THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM (B. C. 31), TO THE ACCESSION O9 CON- STANTINE, (A. D. 306). ROMAN EMPIRE. AUGUSTUS. B. c. 31. A. D. 14. ON his return to Rome after the battle of Actium, Octavius, after- wards called Augustus, deliberated whether he should abdicate or retain the almost unlimited power which he possessed. He felt more inclined to the latter measure ; but his mind was a prey to fear and anxiety, when he considered the love of the Roman people for liberty, and the danger to which, by preserving the supreme authority in his own hands, he would be unavoidably exposed. To act the more prudently in a matter of such importance, he caused the alternative to be discussed in his presence by his two dear- est and most trusty friends, Agrippa, a celebrated warrior, and Mae- cenas, a profound politician. Dion Cassius the historian has trans- mitted to us the contradictory advice of these two great men. Agrippa first delivered his opinion, and, though a relative of Augus- tus, and the chief instrument of his victories, openly declared for a generous abdication of the supreme power into the hands of the se- nate and people. He represented the great danger of attempting to govern,"in the capacity of sovereign, men born and raised in a re- public; nor did he fail to insist on the striking precedent of Julius Cscsar, who, a few years before, had been killed in the senate, for hazarding a similar project. 14 MODERN HISTORY. Part i. Maecenas was of a different opinion : to him the scheme of abdi- cation appeared more brilliant than prudent; and he strenuously maintained that it would prove fatal to all parties. Were Augustus to descend to the condition of private life, his death would be sought and easily procured by his enemies; while, on the other hand, con- sidering the violent storms which had lately shaken the republic, and looking over the broad extent of the Roman dominions, it was evi- dent that Rome could no longer subsist without a monarch. Augustus, having patiently heard his friends and thanked them for their advice, determined to follow the opinion of Mrecenas, without entirely rejecting that of Agrippa. He accordingly retained the sove- reign power, but would not assume the title and insignia of a king, contenting himself with the name of imjierator, a title which was frequently given to commanders of armies after a signal victory. His object was to effect a real change, and yet apparently to preserve the ancient form of government. The consuls and other public officers were appointed as regularly as before, and although subordinate and accountable to Augustus, exercised the same functions which they had to perform in the days of the Commonwealth. He also divided the provinces between himself and the Senate, to which body he as- signed the nearest, as being the most peaceable; but reserved for himself such as were more exposed to the attacks of an enemy. He thus concentrated in himself the whole military power, by holding the command of the standing troops, which were stationed in those provinces only that were liable to invasion. Notwithstanding the doubtful character of these measures, the use which Augustus made of his great authority, was truly beneficial to the Romans. te After twenty years continuance," says Velleius Pa- terculus, "the civil contests ended, foreign wars ceased, peace was re-established, hostilities were every where quelled ; vigor was re- stored to the laws, authority to the tribunals The fields were again cultivated; sacred things were respected, and the lives and property of the citizens placed in a state of security."* Nor did Rome and Italy alone reap the fruits of these happy improvements. The several provinces, before distracted by civil wars, or plundered and harassed by the avidity of their governors, now began to re- cover from all those evils, and to enjoy their former prosperity. No sooner did Augustus see his authority well established in tho Capital, than he set out (B. c. 27), to visit the various parts of the empire, Gaul, Spain, Greece, Asia Minor, Syria, etc. Residing in * Finita viccsimo anno bella civilia, sepulta externa, revocata pax, sopitus ubiqu armorum furor; restituta vis legibus, judiciis auctoritas .Re- diit cultus a^ris, sacris honos, securitas hominibus, certa cuique rerum sua- rum possessio. Veil. Paterc. Hist., part. Id. !:S;S: AUGUSTUS. 15 each for some time, he regulated the government, enacted suitable laws, and applied himself particularly to the repression of licentious- ness, which he, although his own conduct was not blameless, justly considered as one of the greatest evils of the state. The progress of science and literature formed one of the principal objects of his attention. Cicero, Sallust and Cornelius Nepos hav- ing been, a short time before, snatched away by death, Augustus en- deavored to repair this loss, by encouraging the genius of others sc as to make them contend sucessfully with the Greek writers in elo- quence and poetry. Such especially were Virgil, Horace, Ovid and Livy; all of whom enjoyed the uninterrupted favor of Augustus, except however the poet Ovid, who, having witnessed some shame- ful disorders in the emperor's family, was, on that account, banished to Tomos, a town of Scythia near the Euxine Sea, where he ended his life the same day on which Livy died at Padua (A. D. 17). Livy left a complete history of Rome, from its foundation to his own time, consisting of 140 books, most of which are lost; yet, the few which have been preserved, are sufficient to place their author in the first rank of historians, particularly for his noble and elegant style. Ho- race died almost suddenly, in the 56th year of his age (B. c. 8). Virgil having gone to Greece, where he expected to procure the proper information and tranquillity necessary for the completion of his ^Eneid, was prevailed upon to return with Augustus to Rome. Although laboring under indisposition, he embarked on the Adriatic; the navigation augmented the violence of his disease, and he expired on his arrival at Brundusium, at the age of 51 years; (B. c. 19). His remains were interred at Naples, and on his tomb was placed the following epitaph composed, it is believed, by himself; it contains, in two verses, the place of his birth, that of his death and burial, and the subjects of his various poems : I sung flocks, tillage, heroes ; Mantua gave Me life, Brundusium death, Naples a grave.* Virgil, not having had time to give the last touch to his principal poem, commanded, just before his death, that it should be cast into the flames; but this rigorous order, happily for literature, was not executed. Augustus, besides preventing its destruction, took care that nothing should be added to the work, a circumstance which ac- counts for the many unfinished verses found in the JEineid. Its au- thor is justly looked upon as the prince of Latin poets. He was moreover skilled in mathematics, geography, natural and moral phi- * Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope; cecini pascua, rura, duces. 16 MODERN HISTORY. Part I( losophy ; and, what is still more admirable, amidst the general esteem in which he was held for his talents, he always preserved a modest deportment; he was plain in his manners, even at court, and pure in his morals, even in the most corrupt of ages. The wisdom of Augustus was like an abundant spring whence happiness flowed without interruption,, spreading itself over every portion of the world and through every class of society. Governing others, as he himself would have wished to be governed, he marked all the years of his reign by numerous acts of a wise and prudent adminis- tration. His behavior towards the senate and the people exhibited a happy mixture of condescension and firmness: when deliberating on public affairs, he was not offended at seeing his opinions strenuously opposed; when inclined to anger, his custom was, either to leave the company for a moment, or, in compliance with an advice which he had received from the philosopher Athenodorus, to repress the feelings of nature, before saying or doing any thing. With regard to the people in general, he was studious to conciliate their favor by public exhibitions and largesses; and the Romans saw, with the ut- most pleasure, not only abundance and security completely restored among them under his government, but their city also wonderfully embellished by his orders and care. According to his own expression, "he found it of brick, and left it of marble:" nor did he however, trespass on the rights of the inhabitants, preferring to leave some works unfinished and imperfect, rather than encroach upon the pro- perty of others. The conduct of Augustus towards particular persons, was equally admirable. He excused the senators from all troublesome ceremonials, and would not suffer them to wait upon him at the palace, in order to condurt him to the senate-house : here he received their compli- ments and returned their salutations, calling them by their names. Nor did he extend this mildness and affability to senators only, or to persons of distinction ; he permitted all to approach him, and was accessible even to the citizens of the lowest classes, receiving their petitions with kindness, and encouraging those whom reverential awe rendered timid and bashful. Very many instances are related of his moderation and clemency towards those who behaved disrespectfully in his regard. The fol- lowing one will suffice. As he was making preparations for a jour- ney, a senator, named Rufus, said at an entertainment: "I wish that Augustus may never come back again ;" and jesting about the number of victims which were usually sacrificed in thanksgiving for the emperor's return, he added that all the oxen and calves entertained the same wish. These words were carefully treasured up by some of the guests. The next day a slave of Rufus reminded his master ;;S:?i: AUGUSTUS. 17 of what he had said when heated with wine, and advised him to go and be the first to declare his fault to the emperor. Rufus followed the advice ; he hastened to the palace, presented himself hefore Au- gustus, and attributing his conduct of< the previous day to a fit of madness, begged him to forgive his foolish temerity. Augustus granted his request. "Caesar," said Rufus, "no one will believe that you have restored me to your friendship, unless you make me a handsome present." The prince granted this also, adding with a smile: " for my own sake, I will take care not to be angry with you in future." However, Augustus did not' always suffer the odious imputations cast upon his character to pass unnoticed : a proper care of his reputation often induced him to repel them, either by discourses de- livered in the senate, or by declarations publicly made in his name. But he was a stranger to revenge. Tiberius, who afterwards suc- ceeded him, and who was of a very different character, having once exhorted him to punish an insult, Augustus replied : " My dear Ti- berius, do not abandon yourself too much to the vivacity of your age, and be not so indignant at those who speak ill of me; it is enough to prevent them from doing us any harm." Who would imagine that a man of such mildness and moderation had, in his youth, shed so much blood, and committed so many cru- elties? This change in Augustus, though springing perhaps from interested views, cannot but appear truly astonishing. Examples may be found of a good natural disposition corrupted by constant prosperity, and especially by unlimited power; but to find, in such circumstances, bad qualities removed, and succeeded by noble and generous feelings, is extremely rare. A government so mild, and possessing so many advantages both for the state and private citizens, excited a genera), esteem and love for its wise regulator. Even when he proposed to the senate, with more policy than sincerity, the resignation of his power, the senators, either through a dread of new evils, or through attachment to his per- son, entreated him to continue in the possession of the supreme authority. He had, or pretended to have the modesty to accept it only for ten years; but it was successively bestowed upon him for ten more, when that term had elapsed. Still more honorable for Augustus was the manner in which he received, in compliance with the desire of the whole nation, the tide of Father of his Country, a title so eminently glorious when truly me- ritod. At first, the people offered it to the emperor by a solemn em- bassy; Augustus having refused, all the inhabitants of Rome insisted, and with unanimous acclamations earnestly begged that it should be accepted. In fine, the senators agreed among themselves to maKe a 18 MODERN HISTORY. Parl last effort ; and one of their number, Messala, in the name of all, addressed Augustus in these terms: "Caesar, the senate together with the Roman people proclaim you the Father of the country." The emperor, moved even to tears, answered: "Senators, having reached the summit of my wishes, what else can I ask of the immortal gods, than that I should always deserve and obtain from you the affectionate sentiments which you have just expressed'?"* This was truly the happiest day of his life. Still, as there are always some discontented persons even under the most moderate governments, Augustus was not secure from secret conspiracies. He showed himself inexorable in the punishment of the first offenders, Ignatius Rufus, Murena and Cepion ; but he pursued a different course in the case of Cinna, a grand-son of Pompey, whose party many persons of high standing had joined. The emperor was informed of the bold design by one of the accomplices, and this infor- mation threw him into the greatest perplexity. ' Must he again shed torrents of blood, or would it be more expedient to forgive ? This alternative was the subject of a conversation between him and his wife Livia, and to the empress is attributed the honor of having in- duced her husband to lean on the side of clemency. His resolution being formed, he sent for Cinna, named in his presence all the con- spirators, whose leader he was, and showed himself perfectly acquainted with the manner, time and place which they had ap- pointed. Cinna was thunderstruck at this unexpected disclosure; but his surprise was still greater when Augustus, after enumerating the benefits he had conferred on him, added: "Cinna, I forgave you once, when you were found in the camp of my enemies; I now par- don you a second time, after you have attempted to be my murderer. Let us become sincere friends, and by our future conduct towards each other, make it doubtful which is greater, my generosity or your gratitude." To this noble language, Augustus joined equally generous pro- ceedings; he nominated Cinna consul for the ensuing year, and gave him many other marks of particular affection. In return, Cinna became the faithful friend of his sovereign, and was ever afterwards inviolably attached to his interests. The emperor derived a still more valuable advantage from his clemency on this occasion ; it completed his popularity in Rome, and from that time., effectually prevented con- spiracies against his person and authority. * Csesar Auguste, senalus consentiens cum populo Romano, te consalutat patrise patrem. Cui lacrymans respondit Augustus his verbis : Compos fac- tus votorum meorum, P. C., quid habeo aliud Deos itnmortales precari, quain ut hunc consensum vestrum ad ultimum vitrc finem m.hi pr rferre hceat? Sueton. in August. I;?. Si AUGUSTUS. 19 The most memorable event during the reign of this prince, was the birth of our Saviour. Augustus unintentionally contributed to the accomplishment of the designs of Heaven on this point : as he had issued a decree that the whole world should be enrolled, every one in his own city, the B. Virgin was obliged to go with St. Joseph from Na- zareth to Bethlehem, a little town of the tribe of Juda.* There, as the Prophet Micheas had foretoldf, the Incarnate Son of God was born and commenced the work of our redemption, about four thousand years after the creation of the world, seven hundred and fifty-three after the building of Rome, and thirty-one after the foundation of the empire. The birth of Christ coincided with the very uncommon circumstance that the temple of Janus was shut; this was the case only during a universal peace. From Romulus to Augustus, an interval of seven hundred years, it had been shut only twice : first, under the reign of IVuma, and a second time, between the first and second Punic wars. The tranquillity which the world now enjoyed, was a figure of that spiritual peace which the Eternal Son of God came to impart to mankind. This tranquillity originated chiefly in the moderation of Augustus; no sooner did he find himself without a competitor in Rome, than his views became wholly pacific. He never undertook a war, except through necessity and when the advantages expected from it far ex- ceeded the loss that might be feared. His usual saying was, that they who, without hesitation, purchase small advantages by running great risks, resemble a man fishing with a golden hook, the value of which far exceeds that of all the fish he may hope to catch. On the same principle, he frequently blamed Alexander for having continu- ally sought to extend his empire by warfare, rather than govern it in peace and watch over its internal prosperity. Still, Augustus was compelled to engage in several wars, most of which became successful through the ability of his generals. The Cantabrians in Spain were defeated by Agrippa. Tiberius repressed the rebels of Dalmatia and Pannonia, subdued the Rhetians in despite of their mountains, and humbled the pride of Maroboduus, a powerful king of the Marcomans; whilst his brother Drusus, a young hero, made four glorious campaigns in the heart of Germany, and extended his conquests as far as the river Elbe. The Roman arms were every where respected : the Parthians returned the prisoners and colors that had been in their possession since the defeat of Crassus (B. c. 53) ; and the nations of India sought, through embassies, the alliance and Criendship of Augustus. These brilliant successes wers followed by a disaster, the more * Luke, ii. 1, 3. etc. \ Micheas, v. 2. 20 MODERN HISTORY. Part [. grievous to the prince and to the people, as it was quite unexpected Q,uintilius Varus, who commanded in Germany five Roman legions (about 25,000 men), and some auxiliary troops, gradually rendered himself odious to the inhabitants by his love of money and his great extortions. His imprudence soon caused his complete overthrow. He obstinately refused to give ear to the warnings which he received of a threatened insurrection, and was even prevailed upon by Arminius, a young German prince whose fidelity he did not suspect, to divide his army into several separate bodies, and to station them' in different quarters. These scattered troops were easily destroyed by the natives, and the revolt became general. At length, the Roman general, aware of his danger, hastened with three legions to subdue the rebels; but he imprudently suffered himself to be blocked up between woods and marshes, and Arminius, with all the forces he could collect, attacked him during the night and amidst the horrors of a violent storm. The Romans fought bravely, but in vain; they were cut to pieces together with their commander and officers, and but very few escaped to carry back the tidings of the defeat (A. D. 9). Never was Augustus so much afflicted at the news of any misfor- tune. When he was apprised of the event, he rent his garments through excess of grief, and was often heard to cry out : " Varus, re- store me my legions:" He feared moreover that the Germans would pursue their victory, invade Italy and attack Rome itself: but the danger was not so great as had been imagined, and the following year, Tiberius easily checked the progress of the enemy. Another source of grief for Augustus m his advanced age, was the misconduct of some of his children and grand-children, whom he was obliged to send into exile. The death of those around him in whom he had placed all his confidence, such as Agrippa and Maece- nas, or whom he expected to be the future support of his throne and family, likewise pressed heavily upon him. Drusus, his step-son, was taken off in the midst of his victorious career : Marcellus, his nephew and son-in-law, died at a premature age; as did also Caius and Lucius Caesar, the emperor's grand-sons, children of Agrippa. Next to Augustus, Agrippa was beyond dispute the first man of his age, great in peace and in war, illustrious in the field and in the cabinet. Sicily, Greece, Germany, Gaul and Spain, were succes- sively the theatres of his military achievements. In time of peace, his mind was ever occupied with grand and noble designs all tending to th public good ; and he has rendered his name immortal by works far surpassing in splendor and magnificence those of any other private individual. Qualified to hold the first rank in a republic, he contented himself with the second under Augustus, who made him his son-in- law, colleague, and intended successor. !;?a: AUGUSTUS. 21 The intimacy of their friendship reflects equal honor on both. Agrippa obtained the favor of Augustus without mean condescension and flattery ; and Augustus, without either distrust or jealousy of Agrippa's conspicuous merit, raised him almost to an equality with himself. After the death of so faithful a friend, he honored his re- mains by magnificent obsequies, at which he himself pronounced the funeral oration, and would not suffer him to be laid in any other tomb than that destined for himself. Maecenas loo, although indolent with regard to his own affairs and person, was an able minister, who joined a superior mind to bene- ficence and modesty. He always endeavored to procure the advan- tage of others, and on the contrary never availed himself of the em- peror's friendship to promote his own interest. To him and to his constant protection were science and literature principally indebted for the high degree of perfection, which they attained under the reign of Augustus. Drusus, as we have already said, conquered a great part of Ger- many. As a Roman, no one surpassed him in noble and gene- rous feelings; as a general, lie was equalled, in that ago, only by Agrippa and by his own son Germanicus. In fine, Marcellus, a young prince possessed of uncommon talents, and still more admirable for his moral virtues, was, in every respect, deserving of his high rank and fortune. He had already acquired gen- eral esteem; he was the hope of the Romans and the pride of his uncle Augustus, when death exhibited in his person a new instance of the frailty of human grandeur. This made Virgil say in the 6th book of his " This youth, the blissful vision of a day, Shall be just shown on earth, and snatched away." Dryden* And again, after alluding to the great hero of the same name, con- spicuous in the second Punic war : " Ah ! couldst thou break through fate's severe decree, A new Marcellus would arise in thee."f These beautiful verses, when first publicly recited, drew tears from all who heard them, and particularly touched Augustus and his sister Octavia, the young prince's mother, who remained inconsolable till death. 'Thus the emperor was compelled to centre, if not all his affection, at least all his expectation in Tiberius. He now chose him for his * Ostendent terris hunc tantum fata, neque ultra Esse sinent. f Heu, miserande puer ! si qua fata aspera rumpas, Tu Marcellus eris. MODERN HISTORY. Parti. colleague and successor, as the only one whom he knew truly capa- ble of upholding the empire. He himself, however, did not entirely withdraw from the cares of the government, a burden always agreeable to his ambition. Even, when his health was declining, his mind continued ever busy and active. At length, whilst travelling through the south of Italy, on his way from Beneventum to Rome, he fell dangerously ill, and could not proceed beyond Nola in Campania. When he saw that the end of his life was near, he ordered a looking- glass to be brought to him, and his hair to be dressed ; then called in his friends, and asked them if they thought he had well played his part in the drama of life. Being answered in the affirmative, he cried out in a Greek verse with which the ancient plays generally termi- nated : " Give me then your applause." Thus, at the age of seventy- six, after reigning forty-five years, he expired on the 19th of August, a month formerly called Sextilis, but to which he had given his name. He was buried at Rome with great pomp, and even divine honors were impiously paid to his memory. Augustus possessed, in an eminent degree, all the qualifications necessary to become the founder of the Roman empire under its present form ; viz. penetrating genius, energy of soul, activity, and above all, a consummate prudence under all possible circumstances. His long administration may be proposed, in most points, as a model of excellent government ; and he himself might be looked upon as one of the best of princes, could we forget that the mild and beneficent Augustus had once been the fierce and cruel Octavius. Hence, the common opinion entertained respecting his public character is, that it would have conduced greatly to the happiness of mankind, if Octavius had never been born, or if Augustus had never died. The census of the Roman citizens was taken several times under his reign. In the beginning, they amounted to four millions and sixty- tkree thousand; towards the end, to four millions one hundred and thirtv-seven thousand, and shortly after, under the emperor Claudius they were found to be nearly seven millions. These numbers com- prised, very probably, not only the inhabitants of Rome, but all per- sons in every part of the empire who had obtained by birth or by special privilege, the right of Roman citizenship,* such as was pos- sessed by St. Paul, a Jew and a native of Tarsus in Cilicia.f To ascertain precisely the population of the city of Rome at that epoch, seems quite impossible ; but from a variety of circumstances, it may be reasonably supposed to have amounted to about two millions. * See Tillemont, Histoire dcs Emperenrs, vol. 1, p. 4, 48, 244. f del. Jpp. xxr 39; and xxn. 25, 26, 27, 28. A. D, 14-57. TIBERIUS. 23 TIBERIUS. A. D. 1437. IMMEDIATELY after the death of Augustus, Tiberius, who had now completed his fifty-fifth year, assumed all the marks of the imperial dignity. He was the son of the empress Li via, by a former mar- riage with Tiberius Nero. His mother, indeed, by her credit and in- fluence, greatly contributed to his elevation, but it was perhaps owing chiefly to his own military and political talents; and these would certainly have fitted him for his high station, had he not chosen to act the part of a vicious and tyrannical prince. Shortly after his accession to the throne, Tiberius began to manifest the perverse inclinations of his heart. Naturally morose and cruel, jealous of any glory acquired by others, he was full of dissimulation, and the more to be dreaded, as he knew how to conceal his anger. It sometimes happened that, whilst he was politely entertaining indivi- duals in his palace, sentence of death was pronounced against them, by his orders, in the public tribunals of Rome. The most trifling faults in matters regarding his government, were visited with the penalties of high-treason. With such a prince it was dangerous to jest. As he had postponed the payment of some legacies bequeathed by Augustus to the Roman people, a wag, who wished to remind him of his obligation, took ad- vantage of a funeral that was passing along the street, approached the bier, and feigning to whisper something in the ear of the dead man, said, in a tone loud enough to be heard by the by-standers : "Pray, remember to tell Augustus that his legacies are not yet paid." The emperor, being informed of this piece of wit, sent for the unfortunate jester, paid him his portion of the legacy, and ordered him to be put to death immediately, saying: "Let him go himself to Augustus, and he will be able to bring him later and better news than that carried by the dead man." The jest however had its desired effect, and the legacies were shortly after paid to the people. Notwithstanding the vices and tyranny of Tiberius, his reign was not altogether inglorious. At home, it exhibited many acts of justice, firmness and munificence; and it was marked abroad by many suc- cessful events, the honor of which belongs partly to Drusus, his son, but chiefly to Germanicus, his nephew, son of the former Drusuijfc On the reception of the first news of the late emperor's death, the legions stationed both in Pannonia and Germany for the defen these countries, openly revolted, demanding from their leaders, with alarming threats, an increase of their pay and an earlier ilischnr from military service. Drusus and other persons of high rank, with a few cohorts, were dispatched to quell the insurrection in Pannonia. 24 MODERN HISTORY. Part I On their arrival, they found every thing in dreadful confusion, which neither the presence of Drusus, nor the reading of his father's letters, was able to remove. He, on the contrary, had the mortification to see his guards and counsellors exposed to the violence of the soldiery, and himself to insulting cries and clamors. The following night seemed to threaten the perpetration of still greater crimes, when, in a clear and serene sky, the moon was beheld suddenly, though gradually, losing its brightness. The overawed soldiers, unacquainted with the cause of the eclipse, considered it as a token of the wrath of Heaven, and of the frightful punishment which awaited their disobedience.* Drusus and his council skilfully availed themselves of this favorable circumstance, and, ordering the leaders of the rebels to be arrested, had them executed on the spot. After this, most of the soldiers speedily returned to the strict rule of military discipline ; the three legions were then separated without much trouble, and sent to distant quarters ; by which measure, the few remaining sparks of rebellion were easily ex- tinguished. Drusus, having thus re-established good order, and deeming his presence no longer necessary, set out for Rome. Germanicus, who held the command in Germany, had many more difficulties to encounter in staying the revolt of his numerous troops. It was only by extraordinary exertions, by subjecting himself to every hardship and even endangering his life, by opportunely exercising severity and lenity, that he was enabled to revive discipline and re- gularity among the legions both of the Upper and Lower Rhine. Passing then from one extreme to the other, the soldiers despatched with their swords all who had been foremost in the rebellion; and afterwards, in order to exercise their valor more properly, they asked to be led against the barbarians. Germanicus readily complied with their desire. He threw a bridge over the Rhine, advanced into the hostile country with a numerous troop of chosen men taken from the legions and the allies, and suddenly attacking the Germans, made a great slaughter of them, whereas, among the Romans, not one sol dier was wounded. An account of this disaster soon reached several of the neighbor- ing tribes. Inflamed with resentment, they took up arms, and post- ing themselves to advantage, surrounded the woods through which the victors were to pass in returning to their camp. After skirmish- ing with the front and the flanks of the army, they fell with their whole strength upon the rear. The light cohorts of the auxiliary troops found themselves unable to sustain the shock, and began to * Noctrm minacem, ct in scelus erupturam fors lenivit: nam luna claro ropentfc crelo visa languescere. Id miles rationis ignarus omen prs?scntium accepit sibi laborem aeternum portendi, etc. Tacitus, jlnnal. lib I, n, XXVITI. D. 1437. TIBERIUS 25 be thrown into confusion; when Germanicus, riding at full speed to one of the legions, cried aloud that the time was now come for them to efface, by a noble exploit, the guilt of the late revolt; "Let them charge with courage, and gain immortal honor." Animated by these words, the legion rushed to the attack, and at the first onset, broke the ranks of the enemy. The barbarians fled to the open plain, where the Romans pursued them with dreadful carnage; from that time, the march was unmolested, and the soldiers went into winter quarters. Tiberius received the intelligence of these events with mingled pleasure and anxiety. That the sedition was at an end, v\ as to him a source of satisfaction; but he feared that the success of Germani- cus would inspire him with the idea of claiming the throne for him- self. This was a groundless suspicion; the young prince, by refusing at the time of the revolt, the empire proffered to him by the muti- nied legions, had just given an incontrovertible proof of his constant fidelity. Still nothing could diminish the secret envy of Tiberius, and he only waited for some opportunity, or rather sought some pre- tence, to recall his nephew to Rome. In the mean time, Germanicus had matured his plan of opera- tions for the ensuing summer. He opened the campaign by a sud- den and successful irruption into the territories near the Rhine. After this, he prepared to march against the main forces of the enemy, then assembled under the command of the same Arminius who had, six years before, obtained a memorable victory over the Romans. Four legions and the cavalry proceeded by land; Germanicus with four other legions embarked on the German Sea, the more easily to reach the mouth of the river Amisia (the Ems). All arrived in duo time at the place of destination, and the whole army marched to- wards the forest where the bones of Varus and his legions were said to lie unhuried. As the Romans were advancing, an awful spectacle met their view and excited in every breast feelings of horror. They saw the ground white with bones, in some places thinly scattered, in others lying in heaps, as the unfortunate soldiers of Varus happened to fall in flight, or in a body resisted to the last. Fragments of javelins and the limbs of horses lay scattered about the fields; human skulls wers seen upon the trunks of trees; in the adjacent woods stood the blood- stained altars on which the tribunes and principal centurions had ben offered up in sacrifice : and near the decaying intrenchments of the Roman camp, was the spot where some, who at first escaped the general massacre, were supposed to have made their last effort, arid perished in the attempt. All were affected at this mournful sight, and with hearts oppressed 3 26 MODERN HISTORY. Part L with grief, buried the remains of their slaughtered countrymen. This duty performed, they pressed forward in pursuit of an enemy whom it was not less difficult to overtake than to conquer; at length, Ger- manicus deeming the opportunity favorable, ordered his cavalry to begin the attack. But Arminius, taking advantage of the defiles and other difficult parts of the country, feigned a retreat to the forest; then suddenly wheeling about, he gave the signal to the troops that lay in ambush in the woods, to rush out against the Romans. The cavalry which had been advancing, and the auxiliary cohorts destined to support it, struck with surprise, were put to flight, and might have been entirely defeated, had not Germanicus come up with the legions in order of battle, and checked the career of the enemy. The armies parted upon equal terms, and retired to winter quarters, not however without the loss of many brave men on the side of the Romans; whilst the survivors were exposed to innumerable hardships, which they overcame only by their fortitude and patience. In all this variety of events, Germanicus invariably displayed the greatest personal courage, extraordinary prudence, and a constant solicitude for the welfare of his troops. His ability in improving every advantage and every occasion of success, was particularly re- markable. When the Germans were to be attacked and driven from same post, he took upon himself the most arduous part of the at- tempt, leaving the easiest duties to his lieutenants, and yet attributing afterwards to their conduct so much of the success, that three of them. Silius, Apronius and Cecina, obtained triumphal honors. He looked upon the soldiers as his children, and treated them with truly paternal kindness. He never uselessly exposed them to dan- gers, nor fought any battle, except when almost certain that he would obtain a considerable advantage. After an engagement, he visited the wounded, consoled them by placing before them the glory of the past and the hope of the future, supplied their wants, and with his own money indemnified those who had suffered any loss in the campaign. So many virtues and amiable qualities greatly endeared Germanicus to his troops, whilst his valor and skill made him formidable to the enemy. The only fault perhaps in his conduct, was the unrelenting and inhu- man rigor with which he carried on the war against the Germans, spreading slaughter far and wide, and laying the whole country waste with fire and sword, without regard to age or sex.* What has already been said of the Germanic war, belongs to the years 14 and 15 of our Lord. To ensure the success of the next campaign, Germanicus determined to have all his troops conveyed by water into the heart of the enemy's country ; by his orders, a * Tacit. Jlnnal, lib. I, n. LI, LVI ; and lib. II, n. xxv. A . D. 14-57. TIBERIUS. 27 fleet consisting of a thousand vessels was fitted out for the intended expedition. They sailed from the eastern channel of the Rhine, pro- ceeded over the lakes, and entering the German Ocean, navigated as far as the river Amisia. There the men disembarked, and the ships were left safe at their moorings. The Romans advanced through the plain, crossed the Visurgis (Weser), and attacked the Germans, who were encamped on the right bank of that river. At the signal given by Germanicus, the infantry began the assault in front; the cavalry, at the same time, charged the flank and rear; both attacks were made with so much vigor, that the barbarians, not- withstanding their natural bravery, were thrown into confusion and driven from all their posts. Yet Arminius performed wonders ; by his voice, by signs, by every means in his power, still endeavoring to sustain the combat. Wounded as he was, and nearly surrounded, he braved every danjfcr, and at length by vigorous exertions, escaped from the field, having previously besmeared his face with his own blood, in order to disguise his person. The enemies were now completely routed. The victory cost the Romans little or no effusion of blood ; but the country, ten miles round, was covered with mangled bodies and the arms of the van- quished. Among the spoils was found a large quantity of fetters, which the Germans, in the anticipation of victory, had destined for the Roman prisoners. The legions, on the field of battle, again pro- claimed Tiberius emperor, and having raised a mound, placed on the top of it a pile of German arms, trophies of their victory, with an an inscription at the base setting forth the names of the conquered nations. To the Germans nothing could be so exasperating as this monu- ment of Roman glory. Inflamed anew with the desire of revenge, they raised fresh troops, and once more resolved to try the hazard of a bat- tle. Their martial spirit was not less than that of the Romans : still, after a fierce and obstinate combat, they were again defeated, and many of them, seeing that further resistance would be fruitless, surrendered at discretion. The summer being now far advanced, Germanicus ordered some of the legions to return by land to winter quarters; he himself sailed with the rest down the river Amisia to the Ocean. The weather was favor- able, and the sea presented no other roughness on its surface, than that occasioned by the stroke of the oars and the rapid motion of a thous- and vessels. But this calm was of short duration. The sky became overcast; a storm of hail burst upon them with sudden fury ; squalls of wind drove the billows in different directions; and the pilot no lonqr-r knew wh:>r rourso to steer. Horses, arms and baggage were arowD overboard in order to lighten the ships; still many of them wure 28 MODERN HISTORY. Part either sunk, or wrecked on distant islands, where the soldiers perished by famine or lived only upon the carcasses of horses cast by the sea upon the beach. At length the storm abated, and the remaining vessels successfully reached the land. Germanicus, almost driven to despair, took every possible care to gather and comfort his troops, and furnish them with new arms and clothes. Having refitted the* fleet, he sent ships to the islands scattered through the German Sea, in search of the soldiers who had been cast away : by these timely efforts most of them were saved. The news of these disasters spreading abroad, the Germans thought of renewing the war; but Germanicus was not slow in counteracting their designs : two or three parties of Roman troops very soon proved to them the frailty of their hopes. According to the account given by the prisoners, there never was seen among the bqf barians more general consternation : they were now forced to confess that the Romans rose superior to adversity, a nation of heroes not to be in any way subdued; and no doubt remained that another summer would terminate the war. But, Tiberius could no longer brook the idea that Germanicus should acquire so much glory in the command of armies, and he ar- dently desired his return. All his letters were to that effect. In them, he remarked that it would be much more expedient to abandon the Germans to their own dissensions, and that it was now high time for their conqueror to return, and enjoy in the capital the glorious rest due to his protracted labors. Germanicus obeyed, though with reluc- tance. His entrance into the city exhibited a magnificent spectacle; and, that nothing might be wanting to the splendor of the occasion, Tiberius ordered money to be distributed among the people and the soldiers, in the name of the young prince. He moreover appointed him his colleague in the consulship for the ensuing year; but these marks of good will, though specious, were by no one thought sincere. It is true, however, that what he had foreseen with regard to the termination of the war, really happened. The different nations of Germany, no longer dreading a foreign power, began, according to the custom of barbarians, to quarrel among themselves. Various bat- tles were fought, in which Arminius, at the head of his countrymen, the Cheruscans, maintained his former glory, and gave to the power of the Marcoman king Maroboduus, a fatal blew from which this prince never recovered. About the same time, letters were received at Rome from another German chieftain, in which he proposed to de- spatch Arminius, provided poison should be sent well prepared for that effect. These letters were read in the senate ; but the proposal was magnanimously rejected, and, in imitation of the noble conduct of ancient generals in similar circumstances, Tiberius answered the Ger- A. D. 1437. TIBERIUS. 29 man prince that it was not by poison and fraud, but by steel and open force that the Romans were accustomed to subdue their enemies. Nevertheless, Arminius did not long survive. When he saw the Roman troops withdrawn from the German territories, and Maroboduus his chief rival fallen, he had the ambition to aim at the sovereign power. The independent spirit of his countrymen turned many of them against him: Arminius fought with various success, and fell at last by the treachery of his own relations; "A man," says Tacitus, "un- doubtedly to be considered as the deliverer of Germany, and with far more honor than generals and kings of former days, as he had not merely to cope with Rome in her infancy, but to struggle against her, now that she had grown into a flourishing and powerful empire. He at- tacked the Romans in the height of their glory, and in his efforts against them, was sometimes victorious, often defeated, yet, in the issue of the war, still unconquered."* He lived only thirty seven years, during twelve of which he commanded the Germanic league; leaving after him a renown very great indeed, but tarnished by his attempt to wrest from his country men that liberty which he and they had so long and so gloriously defended. The death of Arminius lulled the emperor's apprehensions with respect to the Germans, who having lost their hero, did not for a long time excite any dangerous disturbance, but were contented with the peace which the Romans suffered them to enjoy. This was the great object which Tiberius had ardently wished for: he desired nothing so much as to prevent troubles and maintain tranquillity in the empire. Hence, whilst he exercised his tyranny in Rome, Italy and the pro- vinces had comparatively little to suffer under his government. On many occasions, he manifested great zeal for the due administration of justice, and although addicted to many gross vices, endeavored to stem the torrent of general coruption. Acting up to his owix maxirn, that tlte slteep must be sheared, not jluycd, he took great ca e that the subjects of the empire should not be oppressed by excessive taxes, and was attentive to afford speedy assistance to those who experienced unavoidable misfortunes. Thus, when many parts of Asia Minor were laid waste by a tre- mendous earthquake which destroyed in one night twelve celebrated cities (A. r>. 17), the liberality of the emperor was an abundant source of relief to the surviving inhabitants. He granted them a remission of all tribute for five years, and sums of money proportionate to their losses. By this generosity, Tiberius gained great encomiums, and the cities of Asia, to perpetuate its remembrance, struck medals some of which are vet extant. A few years after, all that quarter of the capital on * Tacit. Jlnnal, lib. II, n. LXXXVIII 30 MODERN HISTORY. Part 1, Mount Cselius was destroyed by a conflagration; Tiberius, without waiting to be solicited and petitioned, and without any partiality for the rank of the sufferers, equally indemnified all those whose houses had been burnt; such as had no friend or protector at court, were sent for, and received the sums necessary to rebuild their dwellings. At an- other time, he gave a hundred millions of sesterces (about three mil- lions of dollars), to repair the losses occasioned by a similar accident. These acts of generosity were the more to his honor, as he was very modest in his own buildings. In "fine, there was another kind of public calamity that claimed and drew forth his munificence : the practice of exacting heavy interests, and the want of a good currency, having caused scenes of great distress among the people, he procured a con- siderable fund to be lent out of the imperial treasury, without interest, for three years, on condition that the borrower, for the security of the exchequer, should give a mortgage on lands of double the value. By that seasonable aid public credit was revived. These various examples plainly show, that Tiberius was not so regardless of the miseries of his subjects as some writers assert. Yet, notwithstanding these generous acts, it must be confessed that his character was really perverse and cruel. From his very youth, these defects had appeared; so much so, that his tutor declared him to be a lump of clay moistened with blood. Hence Rome and the patrician families had much to dread and suffer from his suspicious policj : it was even a misfortune to be nearly related to him, and a great part his own family became the unhappy victims of his cruel and jealous temper. German icus, after his triumph, was sent to Asia with great pow- ers from the emperor and the senate, to settle some important busi- ness, and tranquillize many of the provinces in which considerable disturbances had lately been excited. He faithfully executed his commission, and conferred upon those countries innumerable bene- fits, with a courteous dignity which enhanced their value. Every where, his noble and generous conduct attracted equally the praises and the affections of the people. But Cneius Piso, a proud and violent man, had been at the same time appointed by Tiberius governor of Syria, with secret orders, as it was believed, to annoy, oppose and counteract Gcrmanicus in every thing : a commission which, whether given 01 feigned, was I too faithfully performed. For a long time the young prince bore with patience and moderation the affronts and injuries heaped on him by his vile persecutor, and even treated him with generosity ; then an open rupture followed, shortly after wjiich Germanicus fell sick and died at Antioch, under the impression that he ha'd been Doiscned by Piso and his consort Plancina. i.n.14-3?. TIBERIUS. 31 Intense was the grief occasioned throughout the empire by the death of Germanicus. When his disconsolate widow Agrippina carried back in an urn the ashes of her husband, she found the roads covered with people whose tears and sighs told her how deeply they shared in her affliction. But it would be difficult to describe the sorrow evinced in the capital; the day on which the remains of the prince were deposited in the tomb of Augustus, was one of inexpressible mourning. Tiberius himself manifested exteriorly a grief in which his heart probably had no share, and was obliged to abandon Piso to the public indignation. This unhappy man was not it is true, convicted of the crime laid to his charge; but he had COM mitted other crimes deserving the severity of the law. Piso per- ceived his danger: before the trial was concluded, he was found dead in his chamber, with his throat cut, and a sword lying near him on the floor; but whether he had committed suicide, or had been killed by others for fear of what he might disclose, was left uncertain. The other enemies of Germanicus met with little severity; on the oontrnry, his family supplied new victims to the insatiable hatred oi Tiberius. So far did the cruelty of the emperor extend, that he caused Agrippina and her two eldest sons to perish by ill-treatment and starvation. Having a real affection for no one but himself, ho bore with a firmness bordering on insensibility, the death of his own son Drusus, who had been poisoned by the commander of the pra3- torian (imperial) guards. This commander was a certain ^Elius Sejanus, who, gaining the favor of Tiberius, rose from the rank of a simple knight to that of his chief minister. New honors were daily conferred upon him, and in a short time his power was not far inferior to that of Tiberius himself. Not satisfied with this success, he conceived the daring design of opening his way to the throne by the extermination of the imperial family. After Drusus and the sons of Germanicus were removed, he prevailed upon the emperor to retire from Rome for the hake of greater tranquillity, and to intrust the reigns of government lo him, la& tried and faithful minister. But whilst Sejanus, thus far buccessful, was revolving in his mind the last step for the accom- plishment of his designs, his treason was detected; and Tiberius having, by a message, informed the senate of the whole affair, sen- tence of death was pronounced against the traitor and executed without delay. Most of the friends and relations of Sejanus were involved in his ruin. Whilst these painful transactions took place in Rome, Judea was the theatre of most interesting events. For more than three years, our Lord favored it with the public spectacle of his heavenly virtues and the preaching of his Gospel, which he confirmed by manv mi- 32 MODERN HISTORY. Tart L racles; and finally, by his passion and death, he completed the great work of the redemption of mankind (A. D. 33). Three days after, ne rose glorious from the dead; frequently appeared to his disciples, giving them, during forty days, various necessary instructions about the establishment and government of his Church; committed to St. Peter the care of his flock;* commissioned him and the other Apos- tles to go and teach all nations, with the positive promise of his daily assistance till the end of the world ;f and then ascended into hea- ven in their presence. After ten days, the Apostles being all assembled in Jerusalem, the Holy Ghost came down upon them in a visible manner. They im- mediately began to preach with astonishing success. The first two discourses of St. Peter converted eight thousand Jews: many more afterwards became converts; so that, even before the close of Tibe- rius' reign, a numerous Church was already established in Jerusa- lem, whence the light of the Gospel began to diffuse itself in every direction and in every part of the world. These are the only consoling objects which present themselves to our view in the midst of a deluge of crimes; for no age was ever more corrupted. Tiberius, above all, without ceasing to pay some attention to the public weal, every day gave fuller scope to his un- ruly passions, and to his tyrannical cruelties against the first families of the empire. Informations, trials and executions were multiplied, and the most illustrious personages in Rome gradually disappeared, unhappy objects of the hatred of a suspicious and sanguinary prince. Nothing can be imagined more degrading to humanity, than the scenes which marked the last years of his life. No less odious to himself than to others, he retired into the small and at that time delightful island of Caprea, a name which no one ever after remem- bered and pronounced without horror. There he abandoned him- self, for several years, to all the excesses of the most profligate pas sions, his cruellies al \vays keeping pace with his debaucheries. Ai length his constitution was broken, and his strength began to fail. In the hope of finding a more salubrious situation, he left the island of Caprea, and went over to the continent, where, falling very sick at Misenum, a promontory near Naples, he was, on the 16th of March (A. D. 37), seized with a fainting fit, during which many thought him dead. He however recovered his senses: but Macro, the com- mander of the praetorian guard, who had already paid his homage to the presumed successor, gave orders that the old emperor should be smothered with pillows. Thus, in his seventy-eighth year, and * John xxi. 16, 17. f Matth. xxviii. 19 20. ,. D. 37- -41. CALIGULA. 33 the twenty third of his reign, Tiberius perished by the perGdy of his own friends; a treatment of which he himself had been so fre- quently guilty. He did not reach at once the height of wickedness which has justly caused his memory to be held in detestation: Tacitus well observes a striking gradation in his course of vice and tyranny, and accurately defines its different stages. "Tiberius," says he, "was much es- teemed whilst a private man, and as long as he held offices under Augustus. He was artful in feigning virtue, in the beginning of his own reign, until the death of Germanicus and Drusus; his actions were a mixture of good and evil, during the life time of his mother Li- via; detestably cruel, but secret in his debaucheries, while he loved or feared Sejanus; lastly, he abandoned himself to every sort of prolli- gacy, when, freed from all the restraints of fear and shame, he knew and followed no other guide than the bent of his abominable incli- nations."* Phaedrus, the celebrated fabulist, and duintus-Curtius, the elegant historian of Alexander, lived under Tiberius; the poets Persius and Lucan flourished shortly after. CALIGULA. A. D. 3741. ONE of the sons of Germanicus, not only had escaped the ruin in which the rest of his family were involved, but even constantly en- joyed the favor of Tiberius, and became his adopted son. This was Caius, better known by the name of Caligula (from Caliga, a sort of military boot which he had been accustomed to wear, whilst yet a child, in the camp of his father). He succeeded the late emperor without opposition, and even to the great satisfaction of the whole empire ; indeed he seemed at first, by several acts of clemency and beneficence, to deserve this mark of public esteem. He restored many privileges to the people ; delivered innocent and calumniated persons from prison and banishment; abolished arbitrary prosecutions for crimes of state; and evinced so good intentions, that he received from the senate the most flattering honors. But the joy of the Romans was not of long duration, and their hopes of a prosperous government were cruelly deceived. Caligula was taken dangerously ill, and after his recovery, either because he was unwilling any longer to restrain his passions, or because his intellect had been impaired by the violence of the disease, he began * Tacit. Annal. lib.Vl. n. LVI. 34 MODERN HISTORY. Pan to act like a madman, and indulged in every species of injustice, cru- elty and licentiousness. He commenced his extravagant career by spending, in games and foolish entertainments, two billions five hundred millions of sesterces (about sixty-three millions of dollars), in less than one year ; and when the public treasury was drained, he had recourse to the mosl frightful extortions. Daily confiscations, oppressive taxes, rapine, plunder and murder of the wealthiest citizens, wore the means to which Caligula resorted, in order to gather heaps of gold and silver for the indulgence of his uninterrupted extravagance. On one occasion, being at play, he happened to want money. He sent for the public register which contained the names of the property-holders, condemned a certain number of them to death, and said, with a smile, to those with whom he was playing: " How unlucky you are! It has taken you a long time to win a small sum, and in one moment I have won six hundred millions of sesterces (fifteen millions of dollars)." In barbarity Caligula was never surpassed. He wished that the Roman people had but one head, that it might be struck off at a blow. This being impossible, he at least caused many persons to be massa- cred by his soldiers, or thrown into the arena, there to be devoured by wild beasts, their tongues having been previously cut out, to prevent them from complaining. He forced others to kill themselves, among the rest young Tiberius his cousin, and grand-son of the late emperor. Neither rank nor age was exempt from his fury. At a repast with the two consuls, he suddenly burst into a loud laugh : the consuls hav- ing respectfully entreated him to acquaint them with the cause of his extraordinary joy; "I was thinking," he replied, " that it requires but a sign from me, to have both of you killed in an instant." It was his pleasure to see the victims of his monstrous cruelty suffer excru- ciating torments; his delight to make them feel death, and behold their blood flowing and their limbs scattered. The more ferocious and barbarous he was towards men, the more kind and feeling he was towards beasts. He honored his horse, called Incitatits, in every manner he could imagine : he gave him a palace, with guards, servants, a cook, and such other attendants as the happy animal might require in order to entertain his guests with due solemnity. He invited him to his own table, at which he gave him gilded barley to eat, and wine to drink in golden cups. Incitatus was clothed in purple, wore a collar of pearls, and the night before he had to run in the race, sentinels were placed around his palace, to prevent the least noise that might disturb his repose. In fine, Caligula vas accustomed to swear by his horse, and he would have appointed him consul, had he not been prevented by death. His military exploits were not less extravagant. In addition to A D. 41-54. CLAUDIUS. 35 the armies stationed in various parts of the empire, he raised new troops, and went with them and a band of comedians, buffoons, and gladiators, to join the old legions encamped on the banks of the Rhine. Here he found himself at the head of nearly two hundred and fifty thousand men. As the Germans scorned to fight against such a general ; that he might not leave the frontier without some semblance of victory, he contrived a scheme in perfect accordance with his character. A detachment of his own troops was sent to the other side of the Rhine, with secret orders to conceal themselves in a wood. Then Caligula, crossing over at fhe head of the legions, marched against them j the pretended enemy was easily routed, and the emperor returned crowned with laurels. His courage impelled him afterwards to go to the sea-coast facing Great Britain. As soon as he arrived, he drew up the legions along the shore, and having gone up a short Distance in the imperial galley, returned in great haste and gave the signal for battle. The soldiers, with surprise, asked who was their enemy j when Caligula informed them that the enemy was the ocean just conquered by him in their presence, and that they had nothing else to do than collect the shells thrown on the shore, as trophies of this great victory. The better to perpetuate the remembrance of so glorious an event, he laid the foun- dation of a lofty tower, and set out for Rome, in order to give himseli the honors of a triumph. To fill up the measure of his absurdities, he even arrogated to him self divine honors. He had a temple erected to his name, and a statue to which sacrifices were offered. Of the order of sacrificators insti- tuted for this purpose, the principal members were his uncle Claudius, his wife, his horse, and himself. At last it entered into the mind of Caligula that the Jews were a most unhappy people in not acknowledging him as a god; he there- fore resolved to have his statue placed and adored in the temple of Jerusalem. But before he could execute his design, a violent death closed his career of crime and impiety. Cherea, a tribune of the pre- torian guards, stabbed him in the middle of Rome, after he had reigned four, and lived twenty-nine years (A. D. 41). His name is every where recorded as that of the worst of men and a monster of cruelty. CLAUDIUS. A. D. 4154. ON the assassination of Caligula, dreadful confusion followed in Rome. It was the wish of the senate to re-establish the common- 36 MODERN HISTORY. Part wealth; but the praetorians proclaimed Claudius emperor, and the senators were compelled to submit. This Claudius was the brother of Germanicus, and uncle of Call gula ; a man of so weak an intellect and such unconquerable timidity, tkat his mother Antonia, when she met with any silly person, was accustomed to say: "He is as great a fool as my son Claudius. " Such a man was assuredly more in need of being governed, than qualified to govern others; yet, for the greater humiliation of heathen Rome, Almighty God permitted him to hold the sceptre during thir teen years. The most important event of his reign was an invasion of Great Britain, which reduced a considerable part of that country to the, Ro- man power. Hitherto, the Britons had retained their original inde- pendence; but at the instigation of Beric, a British chieftain whom domestic factions had driven from his native land, the emperor com- manded Aulus Plautius to undertake the conquest with four legions and their auxiliaries. It was with great difficulty ihat the troops were induced to engage in the attempt, and go to another world; for such they considered Great Britain: at length they followed their general, crossed the channel, and landed, as it appears, in the county of Kent. The natives, notwithstanding their fright at the first appearance of the invaders, made a gallant resistance; but, overpowered by the well-disciplined troops of the Romans, they soon began to give way, and Plautius, pursuing his advantage, arrived at the mouth of the Thames. No sooner was Claudius informed of the success of his lieutenant, than he set out to take the command in person. He did not, however, stay more than sixteen days in the island : after receiv- ing the submission of the natives in the vicinity, he returned to Rome, where he enjoyed the honors of a magnificent triumph. The Avar nevertheless was not yet ended. Plautius, who was left behind with a powerful army, spent four years more in extending and securing his conquests. Vespasian, an officer whose merit af- terwards raised him to the throne, greatly distinguished himself in that expedition : at the head of a Roman legion and some auxili- aries, he fought thirty battles, took twenty towns, and subdued two of the British nations. Thus, a great part of the country north and south of the Thames, was reduced into a Roman province. Five years after the beginning of the war (A. D. 48), Plautius went to receive, in the capital of the empire, the reward of his services, and was succeeded in Britain by Ostorius Scapula, who not only kept, but even enlarged the conquests of his predecessor. Soon after his arrival, he was suddenly attacked by the Britons bordering on the Roman province, who thought that an extraordinary effort might rid them of their invaders, at a time when the new general was yet un- 41-64. CLAUDIUS. 37 acquainted wjth their manner of w fare and the rigor of their win- ters. Ostorius, sensible how much the reputation of a commander depends on his first success, immediately marched against them, cut to pieces those who resisted, and dispersed the survivors. A second victory, which in a short time followed the first, gave him a decided superiority over the natives. But, the Silures who lived between the Severn and the Irish Sea, were not so easily subdued. Led on by Caractacus, the greatest warrior in the country, they continued to defend their liberty with undaunted courage. Their army, bv the arrival of many allies, be- came very numerous, and so great was their animosity against the Romans, that Ostorius could not without difficulty be induced to give them battle. His troops loudly insisting, and crying out that they were sure of victory, Ostorius looked upon their ardor as a happy presage, nor was he deceived in his expectation. No obstacle could successfully oppose the Roman legions. They crossed a river, en- tered the enemy's intrenchments, and amidst a shower of darts, oc- cupied the heights on which their adversaries had posted themselves. The Silures were entirely defeated. The family of Caractacus fell into the hands of the victors, and the chieftain himself, betrayer! by his own relations, was delivered in chains to the Roman general. This event was celebrated in Rome with great joy. " The fame of Caractacus had already crossed the seas; and the natives of Italy were anxious to behold the man who had braved for nine years the power of Rome. As he passed through the imperial city, he ex- pressed his surprise that men who possessed such palaces at home, should deem it worth their while to fight for the wretched hovels of Britain."*- He appeared in the presence of Claudius with charac- teristic magnanimity, and, whilst the other prisoners bewailed with tears their unhappy fate, he behaved and spoke like a hero. The emperor treated him with kindness, and set him and his family at liberty. The other events of the reign of Claudius are little worthy of no- jice. His government was a mixture of good and evil, from the va- riety of good and evil counsels which he received, and according as he was left to his natural moderation, or controlled by base advisers. In private, he led a contemptible life, and after being infamously dis- honored by Messalina, his first wife, he was poisoned by his second wife Agrippina. This Agrippina, the daughter of Germanicus, was a wicKrd and ambitious princess, who used her utmost endeavors to secure the suc- cession to the throne for Domitius, her son by a former husband, * Lingard's Hist, of Eng. vol. I. A. P. 52. 38 MODERN HISTORY. Part I Having at length prevailed upon Claudius to adopt Domitias, and confer on him the title of Caesar, to the exclusion of his own son Britannicus, she soon effected the object of her wishes, by poisoning the stupid emperor. He died in the 14th year of his reign, the 64th of his life, and the 54th of the Christian era. NERO. A. D. 5468. THE son of Agrippina, on assuming the imperial crown, exchanged his birth-name Domitius for that of Claudius Nero, the name of his adoptive family. He had enjoyed the benefits of a good education under the philosopher Seneca. While controlled by this wise tutor, and by Burrhus, the commander of his guards, a man of great ta- lents and integrity, Nero preserved a show of decency in his pub- lic conduct. Like Tiberius and Caligula, he commenced his reign by performing several laudable acts, took great care to have the city plentifully supplied with every thing needful, and gave considerable pensions to poor senators who could not otherwise support their rank and dignity. On a certain day, when a death-warrant was brought to him to be signed; "I wish," said he, "I had never learned to write." When the senate, on one occasion, had offered him their sincere thanks, he replied: "I shall be happy to receive your thanks, when I truly deserve them." In a word, Nero's actions, in the be- beginning, were characterised by clemency, liberality, kindness, and every thing 1 calculated to win the affections of the people. But his vices could not long brook restraint; his true character appeared in its native deformity, a compound of all that is cruel, in- famous and base. His cruelty first displayed itself in the poisoning of his young brother Britannicus, whose gentle disposition had ex- cited his fears lest he should gain too much upon the favor of the Romans. The poison which perfidious officers administered to the young prince at table, was so violent, that he presently lost the use of his senses, fell upon the floor, and soon expired; whilst Nero, who was present, and scarcely eighteen years old, beheld that awful spec- tacle with the steadiness of a tyrant already hardened in crime. This atrocious deed was but a prelude to another still more hei- nous, the murder of his mother Agrippina. He endeavored first to have her drowned in the sea; but, this plan failing, she was, by his command, slain in a house into which she had retired. After such crimes, nothing, how horrid soever, can appear asto- nishing in the life of such a monster as Nero. He spared neither his 5468. JVERO. 39 first wife, Octavia, whose veins were opened by his orders; nor his second, called Poppea, whom, in a fit of rage, he killed by a blow with his foot: nor his tutor Burrhus, whom, it was believed, he poi- soned, in order to rid himself of his admonitions; nor his preceptor Seneca, who, together with the poet Lucan, being accused of having taken part in some conspiracy against him, was commanded to termi- nate his own existence; a command which both obeyed.* Nero sported with the lives of others, and Rome daily lost her most virtuous and illustrious citizens, the victims of his tyranny. In the mean time, it was necessary to adopt measures for repelling the Parthians from Armenia, which they had lately invaded. Corbulo, a general of well known talents, was sent against them. When he arrived in Syria to take the command of the legions, he found them greatly weakened by idleness and insubordination. His first care was to subject them, as well as the new levies, to the laws of strict disci- pline, and to train them to the hardships of war by constant labor, painful marches or encampments, and other military exercises; by rewards properly bestowed and punishments justly inflicted; but par- ticularly by giving to all the example of unshaken courage in dangers, and unconquerable fortitude in enduring fatigue. As soon as Corbulo could rely on his troops, he led them against the enemy. On their side, the Parthians advanced against him, under the command of Tiridate, a brother to their king Vologeses. Accord- ing to their custom, they moved with rapidity from place to place, and by this wild and desultory warfare, more than by victories, kept the country in constant alarm. Corbulo endeavored, but in vain, to bring them to an engagement: he was obliged to adopt the very plan of the enemy, and dividing his troops into separate bodies, at last suc- ceeded in counteracting all the operations of Tiridate. This however did not suffice to terminate the war, and more decisive measures were resorted to by the Roman general. He pressed for- ward, compelled all the towns and fortresses in his way to surrender and finally arrived before Artaxate, the capital of Armenia: it was taken in one day, and burnt, after sufficient time had been allowed to the inhabitants to save their lives; Tigranocerta, another important city, surrendered without resistance, and was spared by the conquerors. The Parthians, then terrified at the sudden and repeated successes of Corbulo, sued for peace. It was granted, and even Armenia, which had been the chief occasion of this long struggle, was given as a pos- n to Tiridate, on the sole condi-tion that he would lay down his diadem at the fe"et of the emperor's statue in the Roman camp, and afterwards repah to Rome, to receive it again from the emperor hiin- * See note A. 40 MODERN HISTORY. Part l. self. Terms so favorable to his fortune, the Parthian prince readily accepted and faithfully executed. The Romans, on their part, strictly fulfilled their engagements; thus we see that they were still terrible in battle, and moderate after victory. What Corbulo did in Asia, was done in Great Britain by Suetonius Paulinus, another famous general. To him the empire was indebted for the reduction of the isle of Mona, now called Anglesey, where he established a garrison and destroyed the groves used by the natives for their cruel and superstitious rites. But the Britons, availing them- of his absence, formed a powerful league to recover their free- dom, and to throw off a yoke which the insolence and extortions of the Roman soldiers rendered every day more oppressive. The whole province rose in arms; the colonies founded by the conquerors wTi laid waste with fire and sword; London and other municipal towns were pillaged, and their inhabitants slaughtered to the number of seventy thousand persons, all citizens or allies. Suetonius had returned, and was now endeavoring to put down the insurrection. He formed his best troops into one body of about ten thousand men, and determined, notwithstanding the enormous disproportion between this number and that of the insurgents, to at- tack them, and bring on a decisive battle. For this end, he selected a spot encircled with woods, narrow at the entrance, and protected in the rear by a thick forest. In that situation, he had no fear of an ambuscade, and the enemy had no access except in front. The Bri- tons brought into the open plain that lay before them, an immense multitude of warriors (no less than two hundred and thirty thousand, according to Dion Cassius), under the command of dueen Boadicea, a woman of masculine courage. They were already exulting, and so confident of victory, that they had placed their wives upon wagons at the extremity of the plain, to enable them to survey the action, and behold the wonders of British valor. When the signal for battle was given, the Britons seeing the Ro mans silent and motionless in their narrow defile, advanced with ra- pidity, and discharged their darts. At that moment, the legionaries rushed forward in the form of a wedge; the cavalry at the same time bore down upon the enemy, and overpowered all who dared to resist. The Britons betook themselves to flight; but, as a retreat was ex tremely difficult, on account of the wagons which they had placed in the rear, a dreadful slaughter ensued, in which eighty thousand of these unfortunate people are said to have perished ; whereas the Ro- mans lost only lour hundred men. This splendid victory, equal to an) of ancient times, greatly contributed to keep Britain in subjeninri; the more so, as Boadicea, unable to bear the idea of such a <'. A. D. 5468. NERO. 41 survived but a very short time. Still, the country was not entirely subdued until the reign of Domitian. Whilst, at the two extremities of the empire, Corbulo and Sue- tonius maintained its majesty, in Rome it was more and more de- graded by Nero. He plunged without shame into every kind of de- bauchery. He frequently spent the night in running through the streets, in the garb of a slave, accompanied by a band of rioters, with whom he attacked every one that he met, and stole whatever fell in his way. His delight during the day was to drive chariots in the circus, or to act the part of a comedian on the stage : there he danced, sang and played on the lute, compelling the audience to ad- mire him and give him their applause. His daily expenses were enormous : he endeavored to dispel the horror which his crimes excited, by making large donations of lands, houses, gold, silver, jewels and other valuable objects, to the common people; also by having magnificent plays and shows frequently re- peated. Not satisfied with all this, he was fond of exciting surprise by the singularity of his exhibitions, and would often unite at the same time and place, shows of a different and even contrary kinds : for example, a vast sheet of water would, the moment after a sea- fight had been performed on it, be instantly drained, and become a field of battle for land troops and gladiators. Dion Cassius men- tions a certain occasion on which the scene was changed in this manner four times in one day. While Nero thus consulted the gratification of the people, he was still more attentive to his own. Not to mention the extravagant luxury of his table, he built a palace so magnificent, so profusely ornamented with ivory, gold and precious stones, that it received the name of the "golden palace." When it was finished, Nero said that then, for the first time, he had a decent habitation. He hazarded at gaming immense sums of money; never put on the same coat twice j never undertook a journey without taking along with him at least a thousand carriages, with a proportionate number of attendants in costly apparel, drivers splendidly dressed, and mules shod with sil- ver. In fine, he was as fond of his monkey as Caligula had been of his horse; and accordingly, he gave it dwellings in the town and lands in the country, and after its death, buried it with royal pomp. If to this profusion we add his mania for building, we shall easily conceive how the revenues of the whole empire were not sufficient for Nero. As he was determined constantly to follow up his extra- vagant principles, rapine and extortion became his only resource. Towards the end of his reign, so exorbitant were the contributions which he exacted, that not only Italy, but also the provinces, all the parts of the empire, and even the allies, were ruined. 42 MODERN HISTORY. Part r His cruelties were always equal to his other enormities. The blood of illustrious citizens continued, under various pretences, to be spilt in Rome; "At last," says Tacitus, "Nero desired to destroy virtue it- self, by putting to death Barea Soranus and Thrasea Psctus, the two most distinguished and virtuous members of the senate."* Corbulo, as the reward of his great services, received sentence of capital pun- ishment, the execution of which he prevented by killing himself; and Vespasian narrowly escaped the same fate, for having slept whilst the emperor was singing on the stage. It seemed that nothing more was requisite to render Nero an ac- complished monster, than that he should become an incendiary; and such he really became (A. D. 64). To him most historians attribute the famous conflagration which in that year destroyed two-thirds of Rome. It lasted nine days, during which there was nothing to be seen in the city but consternation and despair. Nero, on the con- trary, from the summit of a tower, contemplated with delight the devouring flames, and in a theatrical dress, sang verses on the burn- ing of Troy. Such, at least, was the common report at the time. The town was rebuilt upon a new and more regular plan; but the wretched prince, in order to remove the just suspicion that it had been set on fire by his orders, laid this crime to the charge of the Christians, who, by the apostolic labors of St. Peter and St. Paul, were already very numerous in Rome. As the purity of their lives was a censure on the corruption of the age, and their total separation from pagnn festivities, an occasion of hatred and contempt, Nero thought them fit subjects for public vengeance.f Numbers of them * Tacit. Jlnnal. lib. XVI, n. xxr. f Thus an unjust and atrocious charge gave rise to the first persecution which the Church of Christ had to sutler from the Gentiles. It was fit that her first persecutor should be the same prince who proved an enemy to all virtue. But the example being once set by him, was afterwards too faith- fully imitated, and from this time to the reign of Constantine the Great, the Christians were almost continually vexed and tormented, as well under the good as under the bad emperors. These persecutions were carried on, sometimes by command of the em- perors themselves urged on by ruthless magistrates; sometimes by an in- surrection of the people ; and sometimes by solemn decrees pronounced in the senate, upon the rescripts of princes, or in their presence. Then the persecution was more universal and bloody ; and thus the malice of unbe- lievers, ever inveterately bent on destroying the Church, was excited, from lime to time, to new acts of fury. From these successive outbreaks of vio- lence, ecclesiastical historians reckon ten persecutions under ten emperors. Of all the faithful, the bishops were always the most severely treated ; of all the Churches, the Church of Rome was persecuted with the greatest violence; and thirty Sovereign Ponti/is sealed with their blood that ( which they declared to the whole earth. See Bossuet, Discourse c/ ', part I, ad mm. 60 and 95. A. D. 5468. NERO 43 were arrested, and doomed to suffer the most friglitful torments. Some, wrapped in the skins of wild beasts, were left to be devoured by dogs; others, fixed to a cross, waited in the most cruel agonies, the slow approach of death; others were burned alive, and many, covered with inflammable matter which was set on fire, served as torches during the night in the imperial gardens. In order to enjoy this awful spectacle, Nero went through the avenues in his chariot, in the dress of a charioteer. It was during this persecution that St. Peter and St. Paul suffered martyrdom, the former by the cross, the latter by the sword, both at Rome, and on the same day. Nero had now gone through all the stages of his execrable life. His power was upheld only by terror, and by numerous troops of satellites whom he amply rewarded. At length, all mankind, whose oppressor he was, rose up against him, after Vindex in Gaul and Galba in Spain had given the signal of the general insurrection. The news, disregarded at first by Nero, very soon filled him with terror and rage. It was reported that, in his despair, he wished to send assassins into all the provinces, to kill the governors, the gene- rals of armies and the exiles, to poison the senators at a feast, to set fire to the town in various parts, and at the same time to let loose all the wild beasts kept for the public shows, in order to prevent the in- habitants from extinguishing the flames. He thought afterwards of raising new troops for his defence, or of moving by his tears the compassion of the army; and at length resolved to fly into Egypt. But he had neither time nor power to execute any of his designs. The example of Vindex and Galba was readily followed throughout the empire, and even in the capital itself by the Praetorian guards. The tyrant then retired to a country-house, four miles from Rome, the property of a certain Phaon, one of his freed-men, where he hoped to remain concealed ; but the senate, after having been silent and timid for so long a time, now ordered that he should be sought after, apprehended, and put to an ignominious death. Nero, at the first intelligence of the fatal edict, was struck with terror, and wept both at the approach of his last hour and at the loss of his musical voice. Whilst thus lamenting, he heard the sound of horses' feet, and the noise of the soldiers sent to drag him from his retreat, and already quite near the house; he then wished some of his atten- dants to embolden him, by setting him the example of a voluntary death. As no one was disposed to be so complaisant, he drew a dag- ger, and applying it to his breast; "What a musician," said he, " the world is going to lose !" Still he hesitated : at length, with the nelp of Epaphroditus, liis frcedman, he stabbed himself and expired, in the thirty-first year of his age and the fourteenth of his reign 44 MODERN HISTORY. fart 1 (A. D. 68); the very same day (the eleventh of June) on which he had put his unfortunate wife Octavia to death, six years before. The family of Caesar Augustus became extinct by the death of Nero. St. Augustine assigns to him the first place in the catalogue of wicked emperors ;* an opinion which has been embraced by pos- terity : for, in the common judgment of men, no greater odium can be thrown on any prince, even on a profligate tyrant, than to call him a second Nero. GALBA OTHO VITELLIUS. A. D. 6869. GALBA, that governor of Spain whom we have already mentioned, experienced no difficulty in causing himself to be acknowledged em- peror. He was of noble extraction, venerable for his age, and dis- tinguished for his abilities in inferior employments. But when em- peror, his conduct answered neither the eminence of his dignity, nor the public expectations. On the one hand, his excessive confidence in unworthy friends led him into many faults : on the other, his par- simony and severity provoked the hatred of the soldiers, and their fury rose to such a pitch, that they stabbed him in the middle of Rome, alter lie had reigned seven months. Otho, a dissolute and ambitious man, who had been the chief leader of the conspiracy against Galba, succeeded him upon the throne. Still, he was acknowledged only in the capital and in the neighboring provinces, the legions of Germany, having about the same time, declared their commander Vitellius emperor. The two rivals had recourse to arms in support of their respective claims. Otho was successful in the beginning; but his forces were soon after defeated at Bedriacum, a village near Cremona in Lombardy, and though he had still numerous armies at his disposal, he killed him- self alter a reign of three months : the whole empire now declared for Vitellius. This however was not so much owing to the abilities of Vitellius himself, as to the exertions of his generals and the bravery of his troops. His personal merit consisted chiefly in eating and drinking. He took four abundant and costly meals every day, and all countries and seas were laid under contribution, in order to furnish the most exquisite game and fish for his table. No repast could be offered to him below the value of four bundled thousand sesterces (about ten thousand dollars); so that even the richest citizens were ruined by * De Civil. Dei, lib. V. c. xix. A. D. G8 69. GALBA OTHO VITELLIUS. 45 the expenses which his visit occasioned. Lucius Vitellius, his brother, gave him a dinner in which two thousand fishes and seven thousand birds were served up at table. His guests lost their health in con sequence of this excessive and uninterrupted good cheer, and one of them, called Vibius Priscus, having contracted a disease which dis- pensed him with attending those fatal repasts, congratulated himself, saying : *'I was undone, had I not fallen sick." The sovereign power, thus degraded by so many contemptible princes, at last passed into better hands. The legions of the East, justly indignant at seeing those of the West and the Praetorians in Rome dispose of the empire at their pleasure, olfered the crown to their own general Vespasian, a man of low birth, but of remarkable talents. lie hesitated for a time, fearing the unhappy consequences that might possibly happen ; at length, he yielded to the advice and entreaties of his friends, and was acknowledged emperor by all the eastern provinces. But the main object was to induce the inhabitants of Rome and Italy to declare in his favor. As they continued to side with Vitellius, Vespasian resolved to subdue them by famine, and by stopping the convoys of provisions from Egypt. This was indeed a wise and prudent scheme, though it might have taken a long time to obtain full success; but Antonius Primus, one of Vespasian's gene- rals, rendered it unnecessary, by the bold and decisive measure which he took to decide the quarrel at once. It is interesting to see how, in a lew weeks, this general, full of ardor and activity, arrived from Illyria, surmounted all obstacles in his way, repeatedly defeated the Vitellian force.--, and, pursuing his victorious career, attacked Rome itself, forced an entrance into that capital, and quickly terminated tiie contest by annihilating the party of Vitellius. Primus entered Italy by the north, at the head of the Illyricau legions and some auxiliaries from Mcesia. His march was rapid, and met with little or no resistance, till he reached the neighborhood of Cremona, where he found himself opposed by those same legions of Gei many, whose valor had placed Vitellius on the throne. Two of them formed a sort of van-guard, while six others were yet at a distance. Primus judged that the success of the whole campaign depended on preventing their junction, and fighting them separately. Accordingly, lie took along with him four thousand horses, and leaving orders to the infantry to follow as speedily as possible, he advanced against the two 1- gions. The victory was entirely his work. At the first attack, his soldiers, not expecting so vigorous a resistance, fled in disorder, notwithstanding the efforts of Primus to stop them. Pie appeared . rr tiicre was extreme danger or some gleam of hope, pierced ;,is pike the standard-bearer whom he saw flying, and taking 'he standard in his own hands, turned it towards the enemy. His 40 MODERN HISTORY. Part r. intrepidity changed the fortune of the day. Shame at the thought c f abandoning so brave a general, kept around him about a hundred horsemen, and whilst they sustained the shock, their companions also returned to the field of battle. The Vitellians began to waver, were routed, and retired into the city of Cremona. In the evening, all the forces of Primus were assembled. Animated by their first success, they asked to be led without delay to the attack of the town ; nor could their ardor be checked, until they received in- formation that the six other Vitellian legions had just arrived, and were ready to renew the battle. Primus did not lose one instant: he arrayed his troops, placed the auxiliaries in front; the legions five in number, iu the centre; the cavalry on the wings and rear, and in this order waited for the enemy. The engagi'incMit became general towards nine o'clock at night; and notwithstanding the confusion which darkness necessarily occasioned, was carried on with a fury scarcely to be conceived. Nearly the whole night, the issue was doubtful, though there seemed to be some disadvantage on the side of Primus, whose legions suffered dreadfully from the military engines of their opponents. The light of the rising moon began to turn the bloody contest in his favor. The shadows of bodies were projected towards the Vitellians, who, deceived by the appearance and believing the enemy to be nearer, did not throw theii darts far enough: whereas they themselves were clearly discerned by their foes, who hurled their weapons with unerring aim.* No sooner could Primus distinguish objects, than he went through every rank, animating his troops, and with equal dexterity and suc- cess, he availed himself of the rising of the sun : the soldiers of the third legion, who had served under Corbulo in Asia, saluted it with loud cries, according to the Syriac custom; whence a rumor was spread, and obtained credit among the combatants, probably through a strata- gem of Primus, that great reinforcements had come to his army. The Vitellians began to waver: Primus, perceiving this, pressed them with redoubled vigor, and breaking their ranks by a last effort, put them completely to flight. They were pursued with great slaughter, till they reached the camp that surrounded Cremona. In order to deprive them of this last resource, the victorious army resolved to attack the camp without delay. This, indeed, offered almost insuperable difficulties, as it was defended by a whole army, and well fortified by a ditch, a parapet, * Neutrb inclinaverat fortuna, donee adulta nocte, luna surgens ostenderet acies, falleretque. Sed Flavianis aequior a. tergo: hinc majores equorum vironunque umbrae, et falso, ut in corpora, ictu, tela hostium citra cadebantv Vitdliarii adverse luminc collacento.s, velut ex occulto jaculantibus, inoauU offerebantur. Tacit. Histor. lib. Ill, n. xxm. GALBA. OTHO. VITELLIUS. 47 and powerful engines which threw with violence darts and stones, But nothing could check the ardor of the soldiers of Primus : they ad- vanced towards the intrench men ts with their shields joined and raised over their heads ; here again a fierce combat ensued. The assailants were exposed to an incessant shower of arrows and enormous stones from the Vitellian engines; although wounded, bruised and repulsed, they renewed the attack, mounted upon each other's shoulders, wrested the swords from the hands of their opponents, leaped upon the ram- parts, or broke open the gates, and rushing into the camp, filled it in one moment with mangled bodies and streams of blood. These three victories were the work of twenty-four hours, and the fruit of the most obstinate courage ever displayed by Romans fighting against Romans. The third legion distinguished itself on that occa- sion in a particular manner, and maintained its former glory. But no glory was equal to that acquired by Primus in these actions : he had, as it were, by a single blow, commenced and nearly finished the war, nor could the Vitellians ever regain their former ascendency. The city of Cremona, struck with terror, surrendered to the victors, and having unfortunately done so without previous conditions, was abandoned to plunder and destroyed by fire. All the West began to follow the example of the East, and to declare for Vespasian; so that Rome and a few Italian provinces were all that now remained on the side of Vitellius, and even these but for a short time. After some transactions of minor importance, Primus with his vic- torious troops arrived before the walls of the capital. Here also they were vigorously opposed ; a series of battles which were fought at the gates, afterwards in the streets, and finally in the praetorian camp, cost the lives of fifty thousand persons. In every one of them, the soldiers of Primus conquered their opponents; the Vitellians were driven to their last posts, and, though they still resisted with deter- mined courage, being overpowered by numbers, all fell, with their faces turned towards the enemy. Vitellius, unworthy of so brave soldiers, shut himself up in a lit- ter, and was carried to a house in a distant part of the town, from, which he intended secretly to make his escape and retire into Cam- pania. But either fear and restlessness of mind, or the hope of kind treatment from the conquerors, induced him to return to his palace; he found it changed into a vast solitude, and the apartments closed, all his officers and servants having fled. Weary of wandering about, he concealed himself behind a bed in the porter's room, but was soon discovered by a party of the victorious soldiers. Notwithstanding his entreaties, they led him away with his hands tied behind him, his clothes torn, and a cord about his neck, not one person showing him the least compassion. Nay more, some were so inhuman as to prick 48 MODERX HISTORY. 1'art 1 his chin with their swords, to force him to raise his head and see hi? statues overthrown. He was dragged -in this manner to the common dung-hill, where they put him to death, and then threw his body into the Tiber. He had reigned eight months, reckoning from the death of Otho, who himself had reigned only three: so that the same year (A. D. 69) saw four successive emperors, viz : Galba, who died in Janu- ary, Olho in April, Vitellius in December, and Vespasian who was left sole master before the end of this same month. VESPASIAN. A. D. 6979. THE year following (A. D. 70) was rendered famous by the entire overthow of the Jews, and by the destruction of their nation, city and temple.* From the time when Judea, like so many other countries of the East, after having been subdued by the Romans, was formed into a province of the empire, the Jcw< always bore the yoke with extreme reluctance. Their desire to shake it off, was continually increased by the tyranny and extortions of the Unman governors. Under Flo- rus, the last governor, their patience was completely exhausted, and public animosity being raised to the highest pitch, they rose in arms in the year 66, two years before the death of Nero. Their first endeavors were generally successful. They defeated the Romans, killed many of them, and repulsed Cestius Gallus, the go- vernor of Syria, who had come to the assistance of Florus. But affairs on each side assumed a very different aspect, when Vespasian received from Nero th.e charge of prosecuting the war against the Jews. Under this able general, the Romans quickly recovered their usual superiority. Nearly the whole of Galilee and Judea was sub- dued in two campaigns, and, although the insurgents fought in many places with desperate valor, Vespasian drove them from their posi tions, and approached Jerusalem. He then prepared to lay siege to this capital ; but, being at that time proclaimed emperor, he departed for Egypt, aud left to his son Titus the conduct of the war. Jerusalem, one of the principal cities of the East, was a place of very difficult access. Its high position on two mountains, a double, even treble enclosure of strong walls and towers where the approach was naturally easier, and many other fortification?, would have rendered it unconquerable, had not the obstinacy and blindness of its inhabitants forced, as it were, the justice of God to achieve their ruin. The * See note B. D. 69 7. 180193. COMMODUS succeeded his father on the throne, but followed a very different line of conduct. A monster, rather than a man, he seemed to have no relish but for atrocious deeds of every description. He imitated Nero in his worst and basest inclinations, and surpassed Do- mitian in his cruelties, except that he did not persecute the Christians. After having gone on in this way for many years, his unrelenting thirst for blood at length caused his own death, by inducing the persons of his household to poison and strangle him, on the last day of the year one hundred and ninety^two. On the following day, Pertinax, a venerable man, whose uncom- mon merit amply compensated for the lowness of his extraction, was chosen and unanimously acknowledged emperor. Under him, the paternal and firm administration of Antoninus began to revive. In a very short time, the laws were again put in force, the debts were paid, the public revenues increased without laying new taxes, and power- ful encouragements were given to agriculture, as the surest means of prosperity both for the state and fox private families. In a word, the sound policy of Pertinax, seconded by his ability and experience, promised lasting as well as universal happiness; but these flattering hopes were soon blasted. At the end of three months, the pratorian soldiers incensed at his exertions for the restoration of military discip- line, slew him in his palace (A. D. 193). After this outrage, the rebels were not ashamed to expose the em- pire to sale at public auction. Purchasers were found, and after bid- ding for some time, Didius Julianus, a rich senator, carried the point. 70 MODERN HISTORY. Tart I, by offering twenty-five thousand sesterces (about six hundred and twenty-five dollars) to each praetorian. This shameful transaction drew universal contempt upon Didius. Severus, commander of the Roman troops in Illyria, caused himself to be proclaimed emperor by them, and suddenly departing, crossed the Alps, and made his appearance in Italy, before the news of his march had arrived. As he approached Rome, Didius showed noth- ing but weakness and hesitation. This unfortunate man saw him- self gradually abandoned by the praetorians, betrayed by the Italic co- horts, and condemned by the senate. His death, after a precariou? reign of sixty-six days, delivered Severus from a contemptible rival SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. A. D. 193211. Two other and much more powerful competitors were yet in his way, Clodius Albinus and Pescennius Niger, men of great valor and reputation. Like Severus himself, they were, after the death of Pertinax, proclaimed emperors in their respective governments, Albinus in Great Britain, and Niger in Syria. Severus was deter- mined to destroy them both ; still, not to be engaged at once in two dangerous wars, he made first an agreement with Albinus, by which he granted him a sort of participation in the imperial authori- ty, and prepared to attack Niger. After a short stay in Rome, Severus departed for the East with numerous and well disciplined troops. Niger had on his side the legions of Syria and Asia Minor. From the character, firmness and ability of the two rivals, a war of long duration was anticipated; it was however terminated in a few months by three battles, in which all the troops of Niger were overcome, not by Severus in person, who was then occupied in besieging Byzantium, but by his lieu- tenants. The last battle was fought near the town of Issus in Cili- cia, on the same spot where Alexander the Great formerly gained a splendid victory over the Persians. The victory of Severus was also complete. Niger lost twenty thousand men, and saw no other resource than to retire beyond the Euphrates; but being overtaken in his flight by some cavaliers of the victorious party, he was slain by them, and his head carried to Severus (A. D. 195). The conqueror inflicted heavy penalties on the towns which had embraced the party of his opponent; especially on Antioch, the capital of the Eas'., and on Byzantium, which surrendered to him, only after a long siege and a most obstinate resistance. He deprived the former of its privileges ; the latter he almost entirely destroyed. A. D . 193-211. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. 71 Such private individuals as had been seen most devoted to the same cause, were also treated with great rigor; some suffered capital punishment; others lost their estates, or were condemned to pay enormous taxes. Motives of policy, and the fear of rendering himself too odious, prevented Severus from carrying severity farther. He published an amnesty for the common soldiers, and would not suffer a pompous inscription in honor of Niger to be erased, saying it was rather fit that it should remain, to let the world know what an enemy he had conquered. The main object which he now had in view, was to destroy Albinus, and thus obtain exclusive possession of the throne. Albinus, on his part, was little satisfied with the inferior qualification of Caesar, and seeing- himself supported by a powerful army and a respectable portion ol the Roman senate, he publicly assumed the title of Augustus. This bold step was precisely what Severus desired ; his artful policy made him always endeavor to have appearances on his side, and per- mit his adversary to become the aggressor. He was returning from the East to Rome, when he received information of the open defec- tion of Albinus. Severus did not fail to improve this favorable oppor- tunity of inveighing against his rival, and having him declared a public enemy; from that moment, the two competitors openly marched against each other; Severus from Maesia, and Albinus from Britain. It appears that the intention of Albinus was to penetrate into Italy, and cause himself to be acknowledged in Rome. Severus, fully aware how essential it was for his interests to prevent the execution of any such design, detached some bodies of troops to guard ihe pas- sages of the Alps, and followed with all possible speed, at the head of the main portion of his army. He set the example of invincible fortitude in the greatest fatigues. No difficulty of the roads was able to stop his inarch ; he was bare-headed, disregarded snow and frosts, and both by words and actions, transfused into the breasts of others the ardor with which he himself was animated. He was thus enabled to prevent the entrance of his enemy into Italy, and to come up with him near the city of Lyons in Gaul. The quarrel between these two fierce rivals was now about to be decided. The two armies, including at least one hundred and fifty thousand combatants, were equal in number, in courage, and in the advantages of being headed by their respective emperors. All these circumstances contributed to render the battle terrible, and to leave the victory for a long time doubtful. The left wing of Albinus was broken, and the fugitives were pursued to their camp ; but his right wing obtained at first a considerable advantage. The 72 MODERN HISTORY. Part T . legionary soldiers of whom it was composed, had dug before them a great number of ditches, and covered them over slightly with clay, so artfully that no one could perceive the snare. To draw the ene- my into it, they pretended to be afraid, and hurling their javelins from afar, immediately retreated. The stratagem was successful : the troops of Severus, anxious to come to a close engagement, and despising their adversaries, advanced without any precaution ; but they were stopped at once by an obstacle as formidable as it was unexpected. Coming to the place which was overspread with clay, the earth sunk under their feet, and the whole first line fell into the ditches. As the lines were very close, the second had no time to re- trace their steps, and fell upon the first. Those who followed, ter- rified at this, drew back hastily, and beat down their companions be- hind them ; so that the whole left wing of Severus was thrown into utter confusion. In this extreme danger, Severus, with the imperial guard, flew to the assistance of his disheartened troops. But at first, far from reme- dying the evil, he saw even his praetorian soldiers scattered and cut in pieces, and had a horse killed under him. This served only to animate him the more: rallying some of the fugitives, and putting himself at their head, he fell, sword in hand, upon the enemy, deter- mined to conquer or die. His little troop, animated by his example, hewed down all before them, without distinction of friend or foe. Numbers of fugitives were thus forced to return to the charge; and the conquerors, who, through eagerness, had already broken their ranks in order to pursue their advantage, were now compelled to fight in their own defence. The battle was renewed with fresh fury: but the victory still re- mained doubtful, till Laetus, the commander of the horse of Severus, decided the fate of the day. He had declined engaging in the begin- ning of the fight, perhaps through a perfidious design to let the two emperors destroy each other, in order to set up afterwards for himself. But when he saw that fortune began to declare for Severus, being sensible of the danger to which his unwary inactivity exposed him he fell upon the flank of the enemy, whilst Severus attacked them vigorously in front. Unable any longer to keep their ground, they fled, and took shelter within the city, together with Albinus, who either died of his wounds, or killed himself in despair. By this .com- plete but bloody victory, Severus was left (A. D. 197) without a com- petitor; having, in less than four years, destroyed three emperors, Didius-.Tulianus, Niger and Albinus. He made a terrible use of his prosperity, and showed himself more cruel and inexorable than ever. After Albinus had'expired, his vio- lent enemy spurred his horse on the dead body, which he caused t A. D. 193-211. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. 73 remain exposed until it was devoured by dogs, and sent the head to the senate, with alarming threats against those who had followed the party of that unfortunate general. His wife, children and friends, all those who could be discovered to have been his leading partisans, were put to death. Many towns in Gaul and Spain had to rnoura the loss of their worthiest citizens, especially of such as were rich, in whom their wealth was too frequently their only crime. By means like these, Severus amassed immense treasures, of which he made use chiefly to gain the affection of the soldiery by favors and largesses. His return to Rome with his victorious troops, spread ter- ror through the city, and in a few days forty senators fell victims to his revenge. On this occasion, Severus received a striking lesson from his younger son Geta, who was then only eight years old. The boy, having heard his father declare how he would revenge himself, seemed greatly concerned. In order to quiet his apprehensions, Se- verus said that the persons who had been marked out for death, were enemies, of whom he was going to deliver him. Geta then asked how many there might be of those unfortunate people. Being told the number, he grew still more pensive, and again asked whether these unhappy men had any relations or friends alive ; and, as he was answered that most of them had several; "Alas!" replied he, " there will be then more persons sorry for our victory, than will par- take of our joy." Severus was struck by a remark at once so judicious and humane; but the prefects of his guards urged him to execute the proposed slaughter, and his eldest son, Caracalla, proposed that even the children of their enemies should be put to death with their fathers . Upon which Geta, with a look of indignation, said to him : " Dis- posed as you appear to be to spare the life of none, you would also be capable of killing your own brother." Words evincing extraor dinary sagacity, and which were afterwards too well verified. One of the two prefects of the guards just mentioned, was Plau- tian, a proud and an ambitious man, whose fate was exactly similar to that of Sejanus under Tiberius. Like him, he obtained great in- fluence, which he most shockingly abused, until, by his insolence, he brought about his ruin, and that of his friends and family. In the mean while, the Christians every where acknowledged and faithfully obeyed Severus. For this reason, and also from a mouve of personal gratitude towards one of them who had cured him of a dangerous sickness, the emperor for some time treated them kindly. A mistaken policy induced him afterwards to change his conduct in theirregard. The followers of Christ had multiplied exceedingly, in consequence of the long peace they had enjoyed since the reign of Marrus-Aurelius. The miracles which Almighty God daily wrougnt 7 74 MODERN HISTORY. Tart I. by their hands, and the spectacle of their extraordinary virtue, drew over to them great numbers of proselytes.* " We fill," said Ter- tullian to them at that very time, " your cities, your towns, your senate and your armies ; we leave you only your temples and thea- tres.'^ So rapid an increase threatened the downfall of idolatry. This was probably, together with the clamor of the heathens, the chief consideration which induced Severus to renew the persecution against the Christians. At first, permitting the magistrates to execute the former laws on this subject, he afterwards expressly authorized their conduct by a new edict issued in the tenth year of his reign (A. D. 202). Then the persecution became general, and countless numbers received the crown of martyrdom. The most illustrious of those martyrs were St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, and St. Leonides, the father of Origen who afterwards became so celebrated for his genius and learning. Being at that time but seventeen years old, Origen, in a moving letter, exhorted his father to die courageously for the faith of Christ, and he himself, through the desire of martyrdom, would have gone to present himself before the persecutors, had not his mother compelled him to remain at home by concealing his clothes. The fire of persecution raged for many years throughout the em- pire; but, far from destroying the Church, it served only to purify her, and make her shine with greater lustre. The Christians pre- sented themselves with courage before the tribunals, and viewed with calmness the racks and other instruments prepared for their torture, ready to meet death in its most cruel shapes. The more of them were immolated, the more their number increased ; the sight of these wonderful examples of fortitude, and of the miracles which the Al- mighty was pleased frequently to perform on those occasions, leading many of the spectators, sometimes the very executioners and judges, to embrace the Christian religion. Learning also and eloquence concurred with virtue and miracles in the vindication of Christianity. In order to refute polytheism, the holy priest Clement of Alexandria made deep researches in every These undoubtedly, with the assistance of inward grace, were the only causes of the stupendous diffusion of Christianity; and such persons as have, like Gibbon, attempted to prove the contrary, have proved only the pervcrseness of their own views and scepticism. Nothing short of a con- stant and special interposition of God could have induced men, buried as they were in vice and idolatry, to embrace a religion so contrary to all pas- sions and vices, so destitute of all human support, so violently attacked by all the powers of earth, by calumnies, vexations, tortures and death. Since Christianity was not only unaided, but even opposed by all natural and hu- man causes, most certainly its propagation must be attributed to a cause supernatural and divine. t Tertull. dpolog. c. 37. A. D. 15,3-211. SEPTIMIUS SEVERUS. 75 part of heathen mythology, and successfully used them as mighty weapons against its doctrines. Minutius Felix, a celebrated law- yer at Rome, wrote an excellent dialogue setting forth, with great force of reasoning and purity of style, the absurdities of idolatry and the excellency of the Christian doctrine. But the most powerful work published at that time was the Apologetic of Tertullian, a priest of Carthage: in it, he gave a deadly blow to paganism, by exposing its manifold errors; and victoriously refuted every calumny broached against the Christians, by exhibiting the purity of their lives, their piety towards God, their mutual charity, their love of their enemies, their horror for every vice, their patience and con- stancy in suffering all kinds of torments, even death itself, for the sake of virtue. This was plainly showing the injustice of the perse- cution which they suffered. Notwithstanding these and other acts of tyranny exercised by Severus, he is not to be reckoned among such abominable princes as we have frequently had occasion to mention. With religious fanati- cism and an inflexible spirit of revenge he united many great and laudable qualities, viz., frugality, vigilance, firmness in the govern- ment, prudence in the management of the public revenues, assiduity and equity in the administration of justice, in fine, a wonderful fore- sight and solicitude in providing even for the future wants of the people. When he died, there was in the public granaries a quantity of wheat sufficient to support the inhabitants of the capital for seven years; and all Italy was supplied with oil for five years. The predominant characteristic of that emperor was his activity and warlike spirit, and the most striking feature in his life is to be found in that rapidity of conquests which rendered him almost equal to Julius Caesar. Besides his exploits in civil wars, he made two suc- cessful campaigns against the Parthians and other nations of the East, one after the defeat of Niger, and the other after the ruin of Albinus. In the latter especially, he was so often victorious as to ac- quire the surname of Parthicus Maximus. He failed only in the siege of Atra, a well fortified town near the Tigris, which had also re- pelled Trajan; but he conquered many other towns in Assyria and Mesopotamia ; and in particular, secured to the Romans the posses- sion of the important city of Nisibis, which became the strongest bul- wark of the empire on that frontier. The last expedition of Severus was made in the north of Great Britain against the Caledonians, whom he drove back to their moun- tains. In order to confine them within due limits, and preserve the Roman colonies from subsequent invasion, he raised a wall similar to, but more solid than the intrenchment of Adrian, and, like it, ex- tending from one sea to the other. Some of its ruins are yet to be 76 MODERN HISTORY. Part 1 seen between the Friths of Forth and Clyde, and excite the astonish- ment of the traveller. As he was going one day to conclude a treaty with the barbarians, in presence of both armies, a sudden cry of horror was heard ; Seve rus turned, and beheld his eldest son, Caracalla, in the act of advanc- ing, sword in hand, to stab him from behind. The outcry stopped the arm of the unnatural son, and his father, without uttering a word, resumed the negotiation of the treaty. Having returned to his tent, he sent for Caracalla, and, in the presence of Papinianus and Cursor, his chief attendants, reproached him with his heinous crime. Then presenting him with a drawn sword, he added : "If the desire of reigning impels you to imbrue your hands in the blood of your father, satisfy your desire here, rather than in the sight of all, both friends and enemies." No other punishment did he inflict upon him. But neither the just reproaches nor the paternal indulgence of Severus produced any feeling of re- morse in Caracalla. On the contrary, he persisted in his detestable intention, and, besides requesting some of the physicians of the court to accelerate his father's death, diligently circulated seditious princi- ples among the soldiers; insinuated, for instance, that it was a dis- graceful thing to obey an old man who was infirm, attacked with the gout, and unfit to command them any longer. Reports like these produced a revolt in that portion of the army, the direction of which his too indulgent father had confided to him. Severus, assembling the legions, passed sentence of -capital punishment against the ac- complices of his son, not however against the young prince himself, and even, it appears, granted at this time pardon to all, at their ear- nest entreaties. Then addressing himself to them with a loud voice and a majestic air : " You see now," said he, " that it is the head which governs, and not the feet." Shortly after, he fell dangerously sick in the city of York, and the most painful reflections upon the atrocious conduct of Caracalla preying upon his mind, he felt that his days were drawing to a close. He then called his two sons to his bed-side, and declared his inten- tKm of leaving the empire to be possessed by them both, exhorting them at the same time to mutual forbearance and concord (an advice which became as fruitless as it was necessary) ; he added that, hav- ing found the state in disturbance and confusion, he left it quiet and respected. Some moments before expiring, the emperor cried aloud : " I have been all things, and all things are nothing; and I no where found solid content and happiness." Having ordered the urn which was to contain his ashes to be brought to him, he addressed it in those terms : "Thou wilt contain him for whom the whole earth was too A. D. aii-22.2. CARACALLA MACRINUS, ETC. 77 little." In order to terminate more speedily his acute and increasing pains, he asked, it is said, for poison; but no one being willing to comply with his desire, he took so great a quantity of food that he was suffocated. This happened in his sixty-sixth year, and about the eighteenth of his reign (A. D. 211). He left behind him the reputation, not of a good, but, in many respects, a great monarch, and, next to Trajan, the most warlike of the Roman emperors. Such was the natural activity of his mind, that, even at the last moment of his life, he was asking whether there was any thing to be done, Making due allowance for the peculiarities necessarily occasioned by the difference of time, place and other circumstances, there is not perhaps, in all history, a single prince who so strikingly resembles the great conqueror of our own age, Napoleon Bonaparte. Not that Napoleon was so revengeful and inexorable as Severus ; but we see in both the same active and warlike genius; the same boldness in un- dertaking, and quickness in executing; the same talents and firmness in government; the same ardor for the advancement of their families; and, in fine, the same indifference for the lives of other men, when their own interest and ambitious views were to be promoted. CARACALLA MACRINUS-HELIOGABALUS. A. D. 211. 222 THE death of Severus would have caused little or no regret, had he not been succeeded by so great a monster as his son Caracalla, whose name was derived from a Gallic vestment which he was fond of wearing. He commenced his reign by the murder of his brother Geta, and continued, for six years, through such a course of de- baucheries, cruelties and rapines, which Europe, Syria, and Egypt successively witnessed, as fully to deserve the name of second Cali- gula, which is given him by some historians. He was murdered at the age of twenty-nine years, by Martialis, a centurion, whom he had offended by an act of injustice; but the chief, though secret leader of the plot, was Macrinus, the commander of the imperial guards, whom the cruel emperor had frequently threatened with death. This revolution happened in the year 217, and was quickly followed by another. Macrinus experienced little difficulty in obtaining the place of Cara- calla; but he did not, by his government, conciliate the affection and esteem of the people : on the contrary, he drew upon himself the contempt of the troops, by concluding a disgraceful peace with the Parthian king, and earned their hatred, by refusing them the favors 7* 78 MODERN HISTORY. Parti. which they required. A new revolt broke out in favor of young Bassianus, otherwise called Heliogabalus (from his being a priest of the sun), who now claimed the sceptre as being a relation, by his mother, to the Severian family. Both parties had recourse to arms, and an engagement took place, which proved fatal to Macrinus : he was defeated, overtaken in his flight by the conquerors, and deprived not only of the empire, but also of his life, after a reign of only four- teen months (A. D. 218). All the worst tyrants hitherto mentioned seemed to revive in the person of Heliogabalus. Never was there a more effeminate and des- picable, a more dissolute and wicked prince. Every day added to his extravagances, and increased the public indignation. Sensible of the danger to which he was exposed, and unwilling to receive death from any other hands than his own, he prepared silken strings and golden swords, for the purpose of either strangling himself or cutting his throat, if necessary. Moreover, a tower was built for him, sur- rounded by a pavement of precious stones, in order that, should he be obliged to precipitate himself from the top, he might at least have his head and limbs bruised in a splendid manner. All these silly precautions proved useless. Heliogabalus wns slain in a privy by the soldiers, and the multitude seizing upon his body, dragged it through the streets of Rome, and threw it into the Tiber (A. D. 222). He had reigned nearly four years, and was succeeded by his cousin Alexander Severus, whose reign presents a spectacle as pleasing as that of his predecessor was execrable. ALEXANDER SEVERUS. A. r. 222235. A NATURAL inclination to virtue, fostered by an excellent education, rendered Alexander Severus one, of the most amiable and accom- plished princes mentioned in the annals of the world. Justice, good- ness and generosity were his favorite virtues. He often repeated this maxim, which he had learned from the Christians : do to all men, as you would have all men do to you; he caused it to be engraved on the walls of his palace, and made it the rule of his conduct. He also frequently paid religious homage to our Saviour, whose image he kept in a sort of chapel, together with those of Abraham, Orpheus, and other signal benefactors of humanity. This is indeed a singular col- lection of names; but the fact serves at least to show the happy in- clination of that prince to honor virtue, wherever he found it sincere and active. A. D, 222235. ALEXANDER SEVERUS. 79 Although Alexander was scarcely fourteen years old, when the sovereign power devolved upon him; his administration was truly ad- mirable, almost from the beginning. For this he was partly indebted to the prudence of his mother Mammasa, and to a numerous counsel composed, by her care, of the most virtuous senators, the best officers in the army, and the ablest jurisconsults in the state. Aided by such counsellors, and urged on by his own excellent dispositions, Alexan- der commenced a reign worthy of being proposed as a model to all future sovereigns. The whole empire needed a thorough reformation ; but innumera- ble were the difficulties to be encountered in the attempt. Alexander was not frightened by their number and magnitude, but immediately set about this great work with vigor. Besides degrading and dismis- sing all the iniquitous judges and bad officers appointed' by Helioga- balus, he made an exact review of all the orders of the state, of the senate, the knights, the tribes and the armies, expelling from them all bad and corrupt members. No guilty person was spared. Even the crimes of those connected with the emperor by the ties of con- sanguinity or friendship, met with condign punishment; on such oc- casions, he used to say that the commonwealth was dearer to him than his family. No criminal did he punish with greater severity than governors who oppressed the people, and judges who suffered themselves to be bribed. So great was his abhorrence of these persons, that, when he beheld any of them, he could not restrain his indignation, but was obliged, as Lampridius relates, to throw up bile; and his fingers, by a sort of natural impulse, were directed towards the face of the criminal, as if to tear out his eyes.* Nor did he stop at mere me- naces : great severity was used, in order to repress the abuse. He treated with no less rigor those who made an improper use of the favor which they enjoyed near him, and betrayed his confidence. A certain man, called Vetronius Turinus, who frequently approached the emperor, received from different persons large sums of money, under the false pretence that the benefits of the court were granted through his means; this conduct he called selling smoke. Having been detected in this shameful proceeding, Alexander ordered that he should be tied to a post, about which a fire was made of green wood, so that the smoke might suffocate him ; and a herald cried out during the execution: "The seller of smoke is punished with smoke." An example like this was certainly well calculated to check the evil; but, the more efficaciously to root it out, Alexander directed all his attention to a good choice of governors and of magistrates. None could * Lamprid. in vil. Jllcxandr. Sever. 80 MODERN HISTORY. Part obtain public employments, who had not first merited his esteem and that of the people:* it was even a maxim with him, that they who shunned dignities, were the most worthy of them. He highly approved the custom used in the Christian Church, of publicly proclaiming the names of those who were to be promoted to the priesthood, in order that any objection against them might be made known, and seriously examined. Alexander adopted this plan, declaring beforehand the names of those whom he intended to appoint governors of the pro- vinces. But at the same time, not to excite against them the fury of envy and malice, he insisted that the accusations should be of a se- rious nature and well proved; otherwise, the accusers were punished as vile calumniators. With equity and justice, the young emperor united admirable cle- mency. Being well informed that a senator of illustrious birth, named Ovinius Camillus, had set on foot a plot to raise himself to the sovereign power, Alexander sent for him, thanked him for his willingness to share the troubles annexed to the crown, and began to treat him as his colleague. At that time, a military expedition was to be made against some barbarians who had revolted. Alexander offered the command to Camillus, and, on his refusal, with prudent generosity invited him to partake at least in the glory of the cam- paign. They started together on foot. Camillus, being soon tired, was advised by the emperor to take a horse for the rest of the jour- ney, and afterwards to make use of a carriage. These proceedings, so flattering in appearance, mortified him so much, that he abdicated his honors, and hastily returned to his country seat, where Alexan- der permitted him. to live unmolested. In the conduct of this prince with regard to the troops, prudence and firmness, kindness and severity were admirably blended. He kept them under strict discipline, marched at their head, used the same food and clothing as themselves. However, whilst he required of them an exact performance of their duties, he was affable to all, and paid particular attention that they should not want any thing, especially in time of sickness. By these means, Alexander won the unbounded affection of the soldiers, who considered him as their father and brother, and ob- * Among the virtuous men in whom Alexander chiefly reposed his con- fidence, must be reckoned the celebrated historian Dion Cassius, a native of Nice in Bithynia, and well known at Rome for his manifold merits, which had raised him under the preceding emperors, to various offices of state, even to the consulship. By Alexander Severus he was entrusted with the government of many important provinces, and appointed consul a second time. After having travelled, and collected documents during ten years, he wrote a complete Roman History in eighty books, many of which are en- tirely lost, whilst many others are extant only in extracts and abbreviations A. D. 022-235. ALEXANDER SEVERUS. 81 tained a surprising influence among them, notwithstanding his youth. Once particularly, being surrounded with discontented legionary sol- diers who expressed their displeasure on account of a punishment inflicted on some of their number, he endeavored first to appease their murmurs by exhortations and menaces. As they persisted in their clamors, Alexander said to them, with a tone of indignation : "Citizens, retire, and leave your arms." The astounded legion laid down their arms, took off the military insignia, and retired in silence. But, after having thus vindicated his authority, the emperor, moved by their supplications, received them again into favor, and ever after enjoyed their inviolable fidelity and attachment. Another important object of Alexander's care was the public trea- sury. He managed the revenues of the state with so much wisdom, that he was enabled to reduce the taxes imposed by Heliogabalus, in the proportion of thirty to one; and still, far from abolishing the usual favors granted to the soldiers and the people, he, on the con- trary, seemed continually occupied in bestowing benefits. Liberality regulated by prudence formed one of the most remarkable features in his character. He took particular pleasure in giving to the poor, especially to those who, having a certain rank to support, were des- titute of the means of so doing, and had not fallen into distress through their own fault. In a word, history bears him the glorious testimony, that he never suffered a day to pass without performing some act of humanity. It should not then appear astonishing, that the veneration and love of the Romans for Alexander was carried to a sort of enthusiasm. Whenever he had to depart from Rome on some distant expedition, he was accompanied to a distance by the whole senate and all the people, who manifested by abundant tears, their affection for so good a prince and their grief for his departure , he himself mingling his tears with theirs. When he returned, he could scarcely advance through the streets, on account of the immense multitude of people that surrounded him and cried aloud, with transports of joy : "Rome is happy, since she sees Alexander alive." The chief occasion that made him leave the capital for a time, wns an important event which had just happened in the East. By a sud- den revolution, the Parthian empire, which civil feuds had previously weakened, fell, after a duration of four hundred and fifty years, and the ancient Persian monarchy was re-established by a certain Artax- erxes, son of Sassan, and first king of the dynasty of the Sassanides (A. D. 226). This great change was of no advantage to the Romans, as the Persians gave them, for many centuries, as much trouble at least, as the Parthians had done before. In the very beginning of their new monarchy, they attacked Mesopotamia and Syria with an 82 MODERN HISTORY. Pan army of one hundred and twenty thousand horse, and seven hundred elephants carrying wooden towers, each containing many archers. However, formidable as they were, the Persians could not resist the intrepidity of the Roman legions commanded by their emperor in person ; and, after suffering considerable loss, they were compelled to retire. This is the most probable account given of that expedition, which was no sooner over, than Alexander, upon information of the disturbances excited by the Germans in the West, speedily returned to Rome, where he received the honors of a splendid triumph. At his departure from the East, he left a sufficient number of troops to prevent or repel any subsequent invasions of the enemy. These and other troops employed by Alexander in the Persian war, were not only brave in the field, but likewise so well trained by good dis- cipline, that in their marches and in their whole deportment they ra- ther resembled so many bodies of grave senators : hence every one highly extolled this excellent prince, for the great benefits which he conferred both on the armies and the subjects of the empire. Far more difficult, and terribly fatal in the result, was the attempt to establish the same good order among the legions of Gaul and Ger- many. Alexander had now repaired to those countries, for the pur- pose of driving back the Germans beyond the Rhine, Accustomed as some jf these legions were to disorder and licentiousness, they could not bear the idea of being subjected to the yoke of strict dis- cipline. Wherefore, by the secret direction of Maximin, one of their generals, they attacked the ^oung emperor in his tent; whilst he, perceiving that all resistance would be useless, covered his face with his cloak, and yielded himself an easy victim (A. D. 235). Alexander lived nearly twenty-seven years, and reigned thirteen: a prince, equal, if not superior, to the most renowned among the Ro- man emperors. Trajan, Marcus-Aurelius, and some few others, per- formed perhaps greater exploits, or were more successful in some re- spects: but we should remember that they had reached a more mature age, when they mounted the throne, than Alexander when he was precipitated from it. No greater misfortune could have befallen the empire, than his premature death : it was followed, during fifty years, by so mariy treasons, civil wars and other calamities, that the third century has derived from them the name of iron-age. Of the many emperors who reigned in that period until Diocletian, scarcely one escaped a violent death. As they were generally raised to the throne by the arbitrary choice of the soldiery, we will comprise most of them under the head of Military Usurpers. A. p. 235-268. MILITARY USURPERS. 83 MILITARY- USURPERS. A. D. 235268. As it was not known, at the time of Alexander's death, that Maxi- min had been its chief promoter, the whole army, through esteem for his natural bravery, saluted him emperor.. He was of Gothic extraction, a native of Thrace, and had been a shepherd before enlist- ing among the Roman troops. He possessed an enormous size, be- ing, we are told, about nine feet high, and stout in proportion : nor was his strength less astonishing than his stature. He could, without assistance, move a wagon heavily laden, and with a blow of his fist break the teeth or leg of a horse. Hence he was compared with Milo the Crotonian, Hercules, and Antaeus, those prodigies of strength in pagan antiquity ; like them also he was an extraordinary eater and drinker, requiring, it is said, forty pounds of meat and. seven gallons of wine for his daily allowance. This great bulk of body was accompanied in Maximin with that brutality which is its almost necessary appendage in an uncultivated mind. He was, it is true, an excellent warrior, and gained many bloody victories over the Germans; but we may say without exag- geration that he shed still more blood throughout the empire, by per- secuting the Christians, whom his predecessor had on the contrary favored, and by putting to death numbers of persons, who either knew the meanness of his extraction, or by their eminent merits ex- cited his jealousy and fears. The people also suffered very much from his rapine and extortions. Having, by so many acts of tyranny, provoked universal hatred, Maximin was murdered by his own troops, near Aquileia, after a reign of three years (A. D. 238). Four competitors, whom the senate had opposed to him, viz., the two Gordians in Africa, and Maximus with Balbinus in Rome, also perished about the same time, by the fury of the soldiery. After them, Gordian the younger or the third, reigned six years. His youth and virtuous inclinations, his prosperous government, and great victories over the Persians, made him a living copy of Alexander Severus. He resembled him likewise in his death, being murdered by the orders of Philip, the prefect of his guards (A. D. 244). Philip reigned five years, after which he was slain in battle, whilst endeavoring to repress the revolt of Decius, one of his generals (A. D. 249). He governed with prudence and courage the empire that he had acquired by crime, and was favorable to the Christians. Decius was on the contrary one of the most cruel enemies of Christianity, and the seventh general persecution, of which he was 84 MODERN HISTORY. I'ar' I the author, made an incredible number of martyrs. Nothing else of great importance is known concerning this emperor, except that, having undertaken a war against the Goths, which was at first sue cessful, he afterwards rashly entangled himself in marshy places, was entirely defeated, and perished with his son and nearly his whole army (A. D. 251). Gallus, a Roman general, whose treacherous advice was probably the cause of this disaster, remained in possession of the sovereign power, but kept it only one year and a half. He carried on the per- secution commenced by Decius, and, like him, miserably perished. ^Emilian, w r ho succeeded him, was put to death by his own troops, alter a still shorter reign of four months (A. D. 253.) The imperial dignity was now, by the unanimous consent of all the orders of the state, conferred on Valerian, a venerable senator, who had greatly distinguished himself in inferior employments. He con- tinued to evince great prudence in common and easy affairs ; but for matters of importance, his talents and mind proved inadequate: in the seventh year of his reign he suffered a signal defeat from the Persians, and owing to his own imprudence, was taken prisoner (A. D. 260). King Sapor treated him with the utmost indignity. When he wished to get on horseback or to enter his chariot, he forced the unhappy emperor to bend his body and present his neck as a stirrup. "Whilst riding, he compelled him to run by his side, though loaded with chains. In fine, after several years of the most ignominious and cruel captivity, Valerian was not only put to death, but also flayed, and his skin, painted red, was suspended in a Persian temple, to serve as a lasting monument of the disgrace of the Romans. The heathens wondered at the dreadful fate of Valerian; but the Christians easily perceived in it the hand of God falling heavily upon a prince who, contrary to his own judgment and inclination, had cruelly persecuted them. For, although he knew their fidelity, and was naturally good and moderate, superstition and evil advice in- duced him to command the eighth general persecution. It lasted three years and a half, and was extremely violent, especially in Afri- ca, where, among others, St. Cyprian, archbishop of Carthage, was beheaded ; and in Rome, where the holy deacon St. Lawrence was burnt by a slow fire. Ecclesiastical historians relate of this illustrious martyr, that, when one side of his body was burnt, he himself re- quested that the other side also should be presented to the fire; and adding, after a few moments, that he was now sufficiently roasted, he calmly expired in the midst of his horrid torments. Not Valerian only, but the whole empire, so obstinately bent on shedding the blood of the Christians, had to undergo the punish- ments inflicted by divine justice. Both the capital and the provinces A. D. 268270. CLAUDIUS II. 85 were visited by calamities of every description. Within the space of a few years, not fewer than twenty pretenders* were seen exert- ing themselves to obtain possession of the sovereign power. The frontiers were attacked and the Roman territories invaded by the Per- sians, the Sarmatians, the Germans, the Goths and other barbarians. In fine, earthquakes, famine and pestilence made frightful ravages from one extremity of the empire to the other, and particularly in Rome, where the plague sometimes carried off five thousand persons in one day. These various calamities happened under the reign of Gallienus, an indolent and unworthy prince, who was killed by some of his officers (A. D. 268). So many disasters seemed to indicate the approaching downfall of the empire; but it was saved from destruction, and even restored to its ancient splendor, by a long series of great emperors, the first of whom, according to the order of time, was CLAUDIUS II. A. D. 268270. A HAPPY union of moral, civil and military acquirements, raised Claudius II to an equality of merit with Trajan. He incurred, it is true, the guilt of sharing in the murder of his predecessor; but after- wards, nothing appeared in him but love of justice, true patriotism and heroic magnanimity. Notwithstanding the shortness of his reign, he displayed these princely virtues on several occasions, and, when circumstances required, he did not hesitate to practise them against his own interest. Thus, when a woman came to complain of the wrong she had formerly suffered from a certain officer named Claudius, the emperor, understanding that the allusion was to him- self, did not take offence at the boldness of the complaint, but pre- sently repaired the wrong, and, by so doing, evinced his readiness to sacrifice every selfish feeling to the rule of equity. * The common opinion says thirty, but it is contradicted by facts and by fair calculation : not more than eighteen or twenty of these pretenders can be found in the exact enumeration of them given by the most accurate his- torians, viz., Tillemont, vol. m., note 1 on Gallienus; Cre*vier, Hist, des Emp. Rom. vol. x., p.p.355 and 441. It must also be observed that the name tyrant by which they are commonly designated, is not in its usual accep- tation, equally applicable to all; several of them bavins; been highly com- mendable for their endowments and- moral virtues. This name, as here used, was applied to men who, having assumed the title and power of emperors, died without being acknowledged as such in Koine and by the senate. 8 86 MODERN HISTORY. P2n This excellent prince reigned just long enough to destroy a hostile fleet of two thousand sail, and an army of three hundred and twenty thousand Goths who had invaded Macedonia. He attacked them first near Na'issus, in a battle which lasted long and was obstinately disputed. The Romans gave way in several places ; but at length, a detachment of their troops going round by roads which seemed im- passable, fell upon the rear and ilanks of their enemies : this unex- pected attack decided the victory, and the Goths were forced to re- treat, after having lost fifty thousand men. They rallied however their shattered forces, and hazarded a new battle, which proved as disastrous as the former. Those who escaped, were closely pursued by Claudius ; yet such was the fierceness and valor of the barbarians, that, even in the deplorable condition to which their army was now reduced, they once more rallied, and rendered doubtful the event of the battle. Falling with desperate courage upon the Roman infan- try, they threw it into confusion, cut part of it into pieces, and would probably have completed its destruction, if the horse of Clau- dius, wheeling round, had not compelled their wearied troops to retire. The sad remnant took refuge in the passes of mount Hoemus, and fell victims to famine and disease. In the meanwhile, the Gothic fleet, after scouring the seas, re- turned loaded with booty to Macedonia, in order to rejoin the land army. But that army was already dispersed, and the arrival of the sea- soldiers at that fatal shore, served only to increase the disasters of their nation. The ships, being deprived of their defenders, were easily destroyed ; and the men, unable to penetrate into a country in which every thing opposed them, found themselves compelled to disband and take different directions. Mast of them were slain, or carried off by distempers; so that of this incredible multitude of barbarians, only a few stragglers escaped. After this exploit, one of the greatest ever performed by any Ro- man general or emperor, Claudius was attacked by the plague which had broken out among his troops, and died at Syrmium in Pannonia (A. D. 270). His death caused inexpressible grief among the people, as well "as in the army. No sooner had he expired than the legions of Illyria chose as his successor, Aurelian, one of his bravest gene- rals, who immediately went to Rome to take possession of the sove- reign authority. A. D. 270-275. AURELIAN. 87 AURELIAN. A. D. 270275. THE military feats of Aurelian had been great before, they were still more conspicuous after his accession to the throne. He began by checking the inroads of numerous hordes of Germans, Vandals and other barbarians, who had advanced so far as to invade Italy it- self j then after a short stay in the capital, he departed for the East, where the state of affairs demanded all his attention. A powerful monarchy had been recently founded there by the illus- trious queen Zenobia, a woman of distinguished abilities. Naturally possessed of great talents, she improved them by study and applica- tion ; became perfectly acquainted with history, on which she herself wrote a book; and besides the Syriac, her native tongue, knew also the Egyptian, Greek and Latin languages, which she had learned at the school of the celebrated rhetorician Longinus. After the death of her husband Odenat, prince of Palmyra, who had been a constant friend and useful ally to the Romans, Zenobi-a took advantage of the many calamities of the empire, to invade its fairest provinces in Asia and Africa, and having formed to herself an extensive monarchy, she maintained her independence for five or six years with great honor and success. It was against this princess that Aurelian now directed all his efforts ; one year was sufficient for him to put an end to her prosperity, not- withstanding the many obstacles that he had to surmount. On his way from Rome to the East, he was obliged to fight against numerous bodies of barbarians who pillaged the country ; his progress was also arrested in Asia Minor by some towns, which sided with Zenobia; Tyana, in particular, seemed disposed to offer a vigorous resistance. Aurelian, exasperated at this hindrance, swore in his anger that he would not leave a dog alive in that audacious town; a resolution highly pleasing to the soldiers, who rejoiced beforehand in the hope of obtaining great booty. After the city was taken, the troops en- treated Aurelian to keep his oath. "I have sworn," replied he, "not to leave a dog alive in Tyana: kill, then, if you will, all the dogs, but I forbid you to do any harm to the inhabitants." This generous answer, though it disappointed cupidity, obtained universal applause. In the meanwhile, Zenobia, with numerous troops, had come for- ward to oppose the further progress of Aurelian. After two actions which took place near Antioch, and the result of which was unfa- vorable to her cause, the two armies, amounting each to about seventy thousand men, engaged in a general battle under the walls of Emesa. At the first onset, the Palmyrian cavalry gained a con- 88 MODERN HISTORY. Parti siderable advantage over that of the Romans: being more numerous, and the Romans having made a movement in order to extend their front and prevent themselves from being surrounded, the enemy's horse, which attacked them at that very instant, easily broke their disordered ranks, and put them to flight. But, yielding too much to their ardor, the conquerors caused the rest of their army to lose the fruit of their good fortune, by occupying themselves exclusively in the pursuit of the fugitives. The Roman infantry, whose strength was invincible, seeing the other Palmyrian soldiers deprived of the assistance of their cavalry, made a vigorous attack upon them, and put them in disorder. The cavalry of the Romans, reanimated by the success of this attack, rallied and enabled Aurelian to- gain a de- cisive victory. The enemy had suffered considerable loss. Zenobia, unable to keep the field any longer, shut herself up in Palmyra, her capital, where she was soon besieged by the Romans. Palmyra, a town fa- mous in antiquity, had been founded by Solomon,* and had gra- dually increased in prosperity and wealth, till, under OJenat and Zenobia, it reached a surprising degree of splendor, as its magnificent remains still testify. The situation of that city in the deserts of Sy- ria, between the Roman and Persian dominions, rendered it a very important place; the more so, as it was well fortified, and abundant- ly supplied with troops, arms and engines of war. By these means of defence, Zenobia sustained the siege with a courage proportioned to the vigor of the attack, so as to excite the admiration of Aurelian himself. " Truly incredible," he said in a letter which he then wrote, (t is the quantity of darts and stones which she pours upon us; she does not leave us one moment of rest, day or night." Unhappily for the besieged, bodies of auxiliary troops upon which they relied for assistance, were defeated by Aure- lian, and provisions began to fail in the town. In this extremity, the queen set out during the night, to go and implore the aid of the Per- sians. But the emperor, being informed of her escape, sent a de- tachment of cavalry, which overtook her, and made her prisoner as she was about to cross the Euphrates. She was immediately con- ducted to Aurelian, and appeared before him with an undaunted air; to his question, why she had been so bold as to oppose the emperors of Rome, this witty and skilful princess answered; "You I consider as a real emperor; but Gallienus and such as resembled him, I never thought worthy of that title, nor could I see any reason why I should not maintain my power against them, and refuse to submit to their control." * II Paralip. viu, 4. A. 0. 270275. AURELIAN. 89 On the news of the capture of the queen, Palmyra surrendered, and being well and generously treated by the conqueror, appeared to him a secure conquest. However, the submission of the Palmyrians lasted little longer than the time of his presence among them : after his departure, they revolted and slaughtered the Roman garrison. As soon as the news of this treacherous act reached the emperor on his return to Rome, he hastened back with his victorious troops, took Palmyra a second time, and putting the inhabitants to the sword, reduced the town to a state of desolation equal to its former glory. As for Zenobia, she was led to Rome, and obtained from her con- queror an honorable retreat, where she spent in quiet the remainder of her life. Besides the eastern provinces, Aurelian also recovered Gaul and some other countries of the West, which, from the time of Gallienus, had been either occupied by the barbarians, or formed under their governors into separate states. Most of those exploits were per- formed with surprising rapidity (A. D. 273). Having thus pacified the whole empire, and restored it to its an- cient limits, Aurelian applied himself to establish order in every de- partment of the public administration. He took many excellent measures for that purpose ; but he did not sufficiently curb the vio- lence of his temper which prompted him to acts of cruelty : this inflexible rigor, after causing the death of many, became the occasion of his own ruin. Suspecting Mnestheus, his secretary, of malver- sation, he threatened him with severe punishment ; and it was well known that punishment usually followed his threats. Mnestheus, who probably knew himself to be guilty, resolved to escape the dan- ger by every means in his power, even the most unlawful. For this end, he devised the following horrid plot; counterfeiting the emperor's hand-writing, which he had long practised, he drew up a proscription list of the principal officers of the army, and found means to bring it to their notice. The officers did not suspect the forgery. Alarmed at their supposed danger, they concerted together, and, during the march of the troops whom Aurelian was then leading against the Persians, they fell upon him at a moment when he was accompanied by a small guard, and despatched him with their swords, in the fifth year of his reign and sixty-third of his age. All his murderers were punished, Mnestheus first, and the others sooner or later; and though Aurelian was little regretted by several persons, the people and the army seemed to vie with each other in honoring the memory of a prince who, notwithstanding the short duration of his govern in ent; had rendered highly important services to the empire (A. D. 275). The Christians did not at first experience any particular rigor from Aurelian; he ratJier seemed disposed to treat them according 1o the 8* 90 MODERN HISTORY. Tart I laws oi equity, as he did his other subjects. But his feelings being afterwards, through human considerations, changed in their regard, the ninth general persecution broke out, and though short, mado many martyrs. INTERREGNUM TACITUS. A. D. 275276. THE death of Aurelian gave rise to an event almost unexampled in history, a protracted contest of mutual deference between the army and the senate. During the space of six or eight months, they seve* ral times referred to each other the election of a sovereign ; and, what is still more extraordinary, affairs remained perfectly quiet all that time. At last the senate, yielding to the wishes of the troops, named Taci- tus, one of its own members, a man of great wisdom and experience, and a descendant, so at least he considered himself, of the illustrious historian of the same name. He accepted the dangerous dignity with a reluctance which appeared as unfeigned, as it was reasonable and just; for, notwithstanding the equity of his administration and the success of his exertions against the barbarians, he was after a very short reign, killed by a rebellious soldiery. Some relate how- ever that he died of a fever. PROBUS.* A. D. 276 2S2. THE legions of the East now raised to the throne their commander Probus, a general of uncommon merit, and who, to genuine probity signified by his name, joined a surprising courage and greatness of soul. A prince of this character was peculiarly fitted for the time and circumstances in which he lived. The empire was attacked on all sides by the barbarians : Probus defeated them all, and drove them back beyond the frontiers; the Germans especially felt the invincible strength of his arms, by the heavy losses which he inflicted on their nation. In a single campaign, he destroyed four hundred thousand of them, and those who escaped, were so much intimidated, that, for several years, they did not venture to renew their incursions. * We purposely omit mentioning in the catalogue of Roman emperors, Florianus, a brother of Tacitus, who took the purple and was acknowledged by a considerable portion of the troops, but for some weeks only. The same had also happened, in the beginning of the reign of Aurelian, to Quin- lilltis, a brother of Claudius II. PROBUS. 91 Probus resolved also to check the pride of the Persians, and march ing into the East, stationed his troops upon the mountains of Arme- nia, from which the enemy's country was seen. Here he received ambassadors from the Persian king Varanes ; the audience which they obtained, recalls to mind the plainness and magnanimity of the Romans of ancient times. Probus was seated on the grass, and eat- ing his dinner, which consisted of old peas and salt meat, when the Persian ambassadors arrived in his presence. "I am," said he to them, "the Roman emperor; go, and tell your master, that if he does not, on this very day, bind himself to repair the damage which he has done to the Romans, he will see, before the end of the month, every part of his kingdom laid waste, and as bare as my head is." At the same time, he took off his cap, to let them see his head which was entirely bald. He added that, if they wished to eat, they were welcome to a part of his dinner; if not, they must leave the camp without delay, their commission being executed. The king of Per- sia, alarmed at this news, hastened in person to the camp of the Romans, and concluded the treaty on the conditions laid down by the emperor. Not long after this, Probus, to prevent the soldiers from remaining idle, made them drain a marsh near Syrmium in Pannonia. They revolted, and killed this most excellent emperor, whose loss was seri- ously felt and very justly regretted by the whole empire. For, among all the princes that ever sat upon the throne of the Caesars, it would be difficult to name one superior to Probus. Though always success- ful in war, he had recourse to arms through necessity only, preferring honorable peace to military glory. As moderate perhaps as Marcus- Aurelius, he was more fit for w^ir; as a general, at least equal to Aurelian, he was milder and more gentle in his disposition ; always attentive to the happiness of his subjects ; always engaged in useful undertakings, and in endeavoring to make the labor of his soldiers conducive to the advantages of peace. During his reign, a space of about six years, he built or repaired seventy cities, and formed a great number of excellent generals, several of whom successively be- came emperors after him, viz., Cams, Diocletian, Maximian-Hercu- ies and Constantius-Chlorus. The empire, raised from its declining state by Claudius II and restored to its former glory by Aurelian, attained under Probus its greatest splendor ; and, had not the crime of the soldiers shortened his days, he might have revived the fortunate age of Antoninus or of Augustus. 92 MODERN HISTORY. Part. I. CARUS AND HIS TWO SONS, CARINUS AND NUMERIAN. A. D. 282 2S4. AFTEII the death of Probus in 282, Cams, the commander of the praetorian guard, was judged by the soldiers worthy of filling \U3 place. He reigned sixteen months, during which he found sufficient time to overthrow the Sarmatians in a great battle, and, besides de- feating the Persians also on different occasions, took some of their principal cities, and carried terror into the very heart of their empire. He intended to pursue his advantage further, but was killed, accor- ding to common report, by a thunderbolt, whilst in his tent near the river Tigris. He left two sons, Carinus and Numenan ; the former, a profligate and brutal, the latter, a gentle and learned prince, and so affectionate to his father, that he lost his sight by weeping for the death of Carus. Both seemed to have mounted the throne only to be assas- sinated ; Numerian, by his father-in-law, whilst he was borne in a litter; and Carinus, during a battle, by one of his officers. DIOCLETIAN AND MAXIMIAN; AFTERWARDS CONSTANTIUS-CHLORUS AND GALERIUS. A. r>. 284306. DIOCLETIAN had no share in the murder of his predecessors; but, upon the unanimous choice of the army, he willingly occupied their place, for which his high office in the army seemed to have fitted him. Shortly after his accession, he associated to himself in the go- vernment of the state, Maximian, surnamed Hercules, a greater war- rior than himself, though not so skilful a politician. Both of them sustained, by their victories against the surrounding barbarians, the majesty and reputation of the empire ; Great Britain, however, was severed from it for ten years under the skilful usurper Carausius and his successor Allectus. Bitt the hostile tribes of Pannonia and Germany seemed to be mul- tiplied by their defeats, and meditated new invasions. In order to oppose so many enemies with greater facility arid success, it was resolved by the two emperors, that each one of them should take an assistant, with the inferior title of Ccesar. The choice of Maximinn fell on Constantius-Chlorus, a man still more worthy of esteem fot his equity, wisdom and liberality, than for his noble extraction and great ability in arms. He ruled with admirable prudent the \ A. D. 284-396. DIOCLETIAN, ETC. 93 of the empire allotted to him, namely, Spain, Gaul and Great Bri- tain, which last he reconquered. The barbarians were repulsed by his repeated victories, and the people enjoyed great happiness under his truly paternal government; in return, he possessed the affection of all, as the following anecdote, related by Eusebius, testifies.* Constantius, for fear of distressing his provinces, levied so few taxes, that the treasury was empty. Diocletian, who was of a very different disposition, sent to reprove him for his neglect. Constantius requested the deputies to remain for some days with him, and during that interval, sent notice to the richest inhabitants of the provinces, that he was in want of money ; all hastened to bring their gold and silver to the treasury, which was soon filled. Then Constantius requested the deputies to examine the money, and said to them : " All that you see, has long since been mine ; but I had left it in trust in the hands of my people." He then returned the whole to the owners ; being certain of obtaining the same assistance, whenever he would be in want, and justly persuaded that the safest treasure of a prince is the love of his subjects. The choice which Diocletian made of Galerius for his assistant In the- East, was not so happy. This Galerius had been a cow-herd, and, though he afterwards passed through the usual military grades, he still retained too much of his origin. In his actions as well as in his corpulence, there was much more to inspire aversion and terror, than to conciliate affection and esteem.f His only talent was for war, and even in war he sometimes evinced greater valor than pru- dence: being sent by Diocletian to oppose the Persian king Narses, who threatened Syria with an invasion, he imprudently risked a bat- tle with a small number of troops, and was conquered. The em- peror, who liked nothing so much as prudence, was indignant at a defeat caused by such temerity, and when Galerius returned, wishing to make him feel his displeasure, he let him follow his car a con- siderable way on foot, though vested in purple. Galerius, instead of being discouraged by these affronts, conceived a most ardent desire of effacing the disgrace of his defeat. He suc- ceeded beyond expectation: with a body of twenty-five thousand men, he attacked the Persians in their camp, killed twenty thousand of their numbers, and took a great number of prisoners, with an im- mense booty. Narses, thus deprived of his army and resources by a single blow, sued for peace, which was granted him upon the cession of several provinces (A. r. 297). * Eusebius, in vitil Constant, lib. I. c. 14. f Erat corpus moribus congruens, status celsus, caro ingens, et in hor- rendam magnitudinem diffusa et inflata. Denique et verbis, et actibus. et as- pectu, terrori omnibus ac formidini f\iit.Lactantius,demortepersccut. n. ix. 94 MODERN HISTORY. Part I, If Galerius had been humbled by his defeat, he was not less elated with his victory: he from that time assumed a greater share of autho- rity in the government, and chiefly directed his exertions against the Christian religion. His mother, a peevish woman and much devoted to the worship of her idols, had inspired him with a mortal hatred against the Christians, and he left nothing undone to prevail upou Diocletian to persecute them to death. The emperor, naturally mo- derate, for a long time rejected the cruel proposal. Galerius then had recourse to the calumny formerly made use of by Nero in a similar circumstance; by secret orders and management, he caused the im- perial palace at Nicomedia to be set on fire, laid the odious deed to the charge of the Christians, and the better to show his conviction of their guilt, ran away with apparent fright, saying that he did not like to be burnt by those enemies of both gods and emperors. At length Diocletian yielded, and in the year 303, issued his edicts for the tenth general persecution, the most violent and bloody that the Church ever suffered. Racks and fires, boiling oil and melted lead, sharp stakes and burning pincers, in a word the most acute and* exquisite torments were employed against the worshippers of Christ, and in every age, rank and state of society, innumerable were the victims of that frightful persecution. A particular account of its enormities belongs rather to Ecclesiastical History. It suffices here to say, with Lactantius and Eusebius, both grave, learned and con- temporary historians, that the whole earth, with the exception of Gaul, was a prey to the fury of three wild beasts,* and that it is im- possible to tell how many presented themselves in every city and country, as martyrs in the cause of Christ, f At Nicomedia, where the persecution commenced, persons of every description were put to death : on account of their numbers, whole companies were burned together, while others were cast into the sea or beheaded ; many perished in this manner with their bishop Anthimus. At Tar- sus, Alexandria, Antioch, in Mesopotamia, Pontus, etc., crowds of Christians were likewise tortured in different ways. In Thebai's, it frequently happened, during the course of several years, that from ten to a hundred persons suffered martyrdom together on the same day. A little before, in the north of Italy, six thousand six hundred soldiers, who composed the Theban legion, chose to be butchered by their companions, rather than renounce their faith. In Phrygia, a whole town, inhabited entirely by Christians, was surrounded by a large body of soldiers, who set fire to it, and all the inhabitants were consumed in the flames, whilst invoking the name of our Saviour.J In a word, such was the rage of the persecutors, and such the * Lactant. De Morte Pers. n. xvi. f Euseb. Ecdcs. Hist, lib. viii, c. 4 { See note C. A. D. 284-306. DIOCLETIAN, ETC. 95 quantity of Christian blood spilt by them throughout the empire, that they impiously boasted for a time of having abolished Chris- tianity. But they boasted in vain; the Church of Christ stood, under the sword of persecution, as firm and strong as ever, whereas dreadful calamities began to fall on its persecutors. Diocletian had hitherto reigned with great glory, and with a superiority of political talents that conciliated to him the respect of all his associates in the empire ; but, in the year 304, he lost his health, and various misfortunes harassed him and frequently disturbed his reason. In that state, Galerius advised, or rather compelled him by threats to give up the government, and to quit, together with Maxim- ian, the imperial purple. They did so in 305, and were thus reduced to the condition of private citizens; whilst Constantius-Chlorus and Galerius became emperors, two new Csesars being appointed to fill their vacant places. After his resignation, Diocletian retired to Salona in Dalmatia, his native country, where he lived eight years longer, amusing himself in the culture of a small garden; an occupation which he began to pre- fer to the honors of the throne. But life became burdensome to him, when he learned the destruction of his statues and the triumph of Christianity under Constantine. Lactantius relates* that, seeing himself despised and loaded with disgrace, he was in perpetual un- easiness, and could neither eat nor sleep ; he was heard to sigh and groan continually, frequently shed tears, and threw himself sometimes on his bed, sometimes on the ground. At last excessive grief and starvation, and perhaps poison, carried him off in the sixty-eighth year of his age. The fate of Maximian was not less wretched. He attempted two or three times, but in vain, to resume the sovereign power which he had abdicated, and even to murder his son-in-law, Constantine. Being detected, he hanged himself in despair. The justice of God, however, no where appeared more visible than in the death of Galerius, who had been the most cruel of these bar- barous persecutors. He was attacked with a frightful disease; the same exactly which, in more ancient times, had afflicted the impious kings Antiochus and Herod Agrippa, for having also waged war against God and his servants. f An ulcer corroded and laid open his very bowels. His body became a mass of corruption, and swarmed with vermin : the stench infected, not only his palace, but also the whole neighbDrhood in the city of Sardica, and was intolerable even to his own servants, as Eusebius testifies. :j: His pains were so acute, * DC mort. pp.rsec. n. 42. f 2 Macchab. ix. Act. Apost. xii. | Eccles. Hist. I. vni. c. 16. 96 MODERN HISTORY. Part L as to wring from him the most agonizing cries; nor could any means be devised to alleviate his sufferings : the horrid distemper continued to increase in violence, till at length it put an end to the emperor's life, in the nineteenth year of his reign. Thus did the persecutors of Christianity disappear from the earth, with the evident marks of the wrath of God upon them. As Con- stantius-Chlorus had not imitated their example, so likewise he did not share in their disasters. If he could not easily prevent all acts of violence in the provinces which were under his jurisdiction, he him- self at least never tormented the Christians; on the contrary, he al- ways manifested the most favorable dispositions in their regard. When the bloody edicts of Diocletian were brought to him, he feigned at first to be willing to put them in execution : assembling the Chris- tians of his palace, he told them that they must, in compliance with the imperial orders, renounce either their religion, or their employ- ments and dignities. Some indeed were not ashamed to sacrifice spiritual to temporal interest; but the majority appeared fully disposed to lose every thing on earth for conscience' sake. Then Constantius, disclosing his real sentiments, dismissed the former from his service, saying that persons so attached to their own interests, and so treach- erous to their God, would not be more faithful to their prince. But he kept near his person those who had continued firm in their faith, declaring them worthy to be intrusted with the care of his most im- portant concerns. One thing gave him much uneasiness, namely, the absence of his eldest son, Constantine, who having been long before sent to the court of Diocletian as a hostage for his father's fidelity, was unjustly detained there by Galerius, and charged by this wicked prince with a thousand perilous commissions. Constantius, informed of these continual dangers to which his son was exposed, most urgently so- licited his return; to this, at last, Galerius pretended to consent, by giving the young prince permission to set out on the following day from Nicomedia, yet resolving at the same time, to find some new pretext for delay. But Constantine, aware of the danger, started at night without the knowledge of the treacherous emperor, and travelled with the utmost haste, taking care to kill or disable all the post-horses on his road, to prevent the possibility of his being overtaken. The fol- lowing day, Galerius was transported with rage at the news of his es- cape, and ordered that he should be pursued; both his rage and order were equally abortive: Constantine was already beyond the roach of danger. He joined his father just in time to close the eyes of that excellent prince, who died at York in Great Britain (A. i>. 306). Constantius displayed, in his last moments, the same wisdom and pnulonea A. D. 284-306. DIOCLETIAN, ETC. 97 which had characterised his whole life. Instead of meeting with any of the catastrophes which befel the contemporary princes, he quietly expired in the midst of an affectionate family, having the con- solation to leave behind him a son perfectly worthy of being his suc- cessor, and who was moreover destined by Divine Providence to be the first emperor that should make an open profession of Chris- tianity, and give peace to the Church after three hundred veare of Bufferings. PART II. THE ACCESSION or CONITAKTIKE (A. D. 30< Or THE EOJtAN EMPIRE IJf THE WEfT (A. D. 476) CONST ANTINE THE GREAT. A. D. 306897. POSSESSED of an derated genius, heroic valor, a nobie appear ance, and a generous heart, Constantine seemed, from the beginning, 1 'lalified to reign over the universe. For some yean, however, his authority was confined to Britain, Spain and Gaul : the other provinces were yet under the sway of Galerius and his associates, us and Maxnnin II; to whom must be added the son of Max- imum- Hercules, Maxentius, who had made 'himself master of Rome and of all Italy. Besides this partition of the empire, which necessarily weakened the forces of each emperor, the dominions of Constantine w< most exposed to the inroads of the German tribes, and particularly of the Franks. He engaged in a long struggle against them, and on his part conducted it with great vigor and severity, allowing no order to force them into submission. They were checked for ; and when they began to meditate new attacks, he sent against them his eldest son Crispus, who gained a signal victory, and joyfully d through snow and ice to offer his father the homage of bis first exploit The Franks, after this severe lesson, remained during the whole reign of Constant; He had now to contend with more formidable enemies. Max< n- tiiis, the tyrant of Rome, a prince sullied with every rice had de- : his hostile designs against him, ana' was ready to support them by the force of arms, having one hundred and eighty-eight thousand warriors at his command. Constantine bar] ilf that number, and was moreover obliged to leave a part of his army i. defend its frontiers against the barbarians. Aware of this grea parity of forces, he began to think of obtaining the as^ heaven: the dreadful fate of the persecutors of Christianity i. ready given him some just ideas respecting the true God who *.D. y*~X!7. CO \STANT INK TIIK GREAT. 99 ADI adored; that God he fervently invoked, -nir<-ating him to and the Almighty heard a prayer which Came from Od an upright h'-art. As the empeior was marching with his troopH into Italy, on tain day in UK: afternoon, he saw in the sky, just over the .sun, the A' a lurii:;. , with the following in enption : TOYT12 MKA) IN THIM CONQUER. His army, as wll afl himself, saw the Ipfeniid prodigy, which struck all tin; bchold'-rs with aston iv.hrn'-nt.* Coiistantinc was jnspir'-d to rnakf: a r'-pr<-sfiitation of that cross, and to U86 it 88 a standard in haltlir. ll<- aM-f>/(iin{fly jad; the famous hami'-r -.all-rl Lahuntin, and h< in^ iliu'-. enCQUl hy -vidf-nt marks f;f th<: divine prof-'-.iion, ':on(id-ntly comme/i'-.' d the w:> He i if h"l'>re S'J/:, |.,wn at th" -n t!y, look it hy storm, and th'-n advan--d iovv:ird -. Tumi. lie found then- an army w -o'l oid-r and n-ady to >/iv- him battle; a hody of hors: comp!"i'-ly armed afu-r the manru-r of th: ,''!.. < on Cintinc, who : that these cuirassiers, confined as tj. .nor, could only advance, and that th< on <-ith<-r hackward or to i-iili-r M '-xT'-m'-ly diffi'-ult for them, op<-n<-d : :nd jmiii'-di:il' , . ' clut/s, struck l^th liorses and rid'-rs, and kill"d th'-rn all, without losing a ,'e. Tiie r<-st of the ai/ny of M -jn|)!eu-ly routed. Turjn 'he conqueror with joy; Milan, soon after did the -am", and the whole rountry on the left of the ]% ; f r ,, m Turin to Brescia, willingly accepted hi-, laWi. Hi mildness greatly M rved to facilitate his conqucHts: he was not one j'jeror, v/ho mark li.ejr p/o^ress witfi tenor and <\< .trary, the cities which submitted to him i on to PJ- ! fortune, as they experionced from him nothing hut benevolence and generosity. At IJrescia, he was again opposed by a great hody of liore; but .e|fj-i and retreat/-d towards Verona, where a fresh a ml /us army had been aMembled, by order of Maxenv the command of Porn peianus, a general of great p , jfely crossed the A'lige, did not hesitate to be- ':eshfully repelled all the attacks made to hinder ::fif.ion of the cro---H to Cof.-,t;ir.tif:\\>\<: doubt, by th': concur,-. it h>,:n tfjfl ni'y-jHi of ' ,',n witti hi-. o;tlh. l'Mwh. " . . 28. 100 MODERN HISTORY. Part II his approach. Ruricius fearing that the city would soon be compelled to surrender, secretly withdrew, and raising a new supply of troops returned with them in order to fight Constantine, and force him t abandon the siege. The emperor was, by that means, between th city and an army of enemies coming to attack him in his camp. 1* this perplexing situation, he formed his plan with equal bravery ana judgment, and leaving a part of his troops to continue the siege of Verona, marched with the rest against Ruricius. He had fewer men than his adversary, and was obliged to draw up his whole army in a single line, in order to present a front equal to that of the enemy. But his prudence and valor made him a match for the foe, notwith- standing this disparity of numbers. No sooner had he given the sig nal, than he threw himself into the thickest of the battle, with so little regard for his own safety, that his principal officers thought themselves bound to complain of it after the victory, and to entreat him, with tears in their eyes, not to expose his life so much in future. The battle having commenced late in the evening, lasted until the night was far spent. Ruricius was killed upon the spot ; his army was destroyed or dispersed; and the besieged city, having no longer any hope, surrendered to the conqueror. The neighboring towns follow- ed the example, and the whole country, as far as Rome, submitted to Constantine, who soon appeared at the head of his victorious army, in sight of that capital. Maxentius, who had hitherto remained in Rome, was at last pre- vailed upon to put himself at the head of his remaining legions. He accordingly marched out of the city, and set them in battle array along the Tiber; Constantine, on his side, when he drew near the enemy, arranged his troops as advantageously as possible. During the battle, he displayed his usual skill as a warrior and a general, and was so well seconded by his officers and soldiers, that the nu- merous troops of Maxentius were broken almost at the first onset. Such as resisted, were cut to pieces; the rest endeavored to cross the Tiber, either over a bridge or by swimming; but the bridge being broken by some accident, or by the weight and multitude of the fugi- tives, most of them were drowned, and Maxentius also perished. This happened on the twenty-eighth October (A. D. 312). On the following day, Constantine made his solemn entry into Rome, where he was received with universal applause and exulta- tion, as the deliverer of the empire. In order to transmit to posterity the memory of these great events, a magnificent triumphal arch which is yet extant, was built at the foot of Mount Palatine, near the amphitheatre of Vespasian. A statue also was erected in one of the public places of the city, representing the conqueror with a cross in his hand, and bearing the following inscription, a token of his religious A.D.306-337. CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 101 gratitude : " By this salutary sign, the true mark of courage, I have delivered your city from the yoke of the tyrants, and restored the senate and the people of Rome to their ancient splendor." Constantine made no other use of the great power he had ac- quired by his victory, than to disband the praetorians, whom he reduced to the rank of common soldiers, and to destroy their camp, which had been so frequently, since the reign of Tiberius, the seat of disorder and rebellion. He made no innovation in the govern- ment, magistracy and offices, and abrogated no laws, except such as were useless or unjust, v. g. those against the Christians, which he expressly annulled by a solemn edict. Moreover, he himself began from that time to make an open profession of Christianity, and to build splendid churches in honor of the true God, by whom he had been qp visibly protected. Hence, the same year 312, which beheld the triumph and conversion of Constantine, beheld also the complete triumph of the Christian religion over her enemies, and may be con- sidered as the real epoch of the downfall of idolatry, which, without being persecuted, tottered to its fall, as soon as it was left to its natu- ral weakness. Towards the time when Rome and Italy were delivered from the tyranny of Maxentius, Asia was likewise rescued from her tyrant Maximin II, one of the two Caesars formerly appointed by Galerius, and, like him, one of the most cruel persecutors of the Church of Christ. Blinded by his ambition, he invaded the provinces of Lici- nius, but was conquered, near Byzantium, by a much smaller army than his own. The conquerors pursued him as far as Tarsus in Cilicia, where seeing himself almost in the hands of his enemy, he tried to shorten his life by poison. The poison instead of producing immediate effect, brought on a dreadful disease: he was inwardly burnt, with excruciating tortures : in the excess of his pains, he rolled himself on the ground, and roaring in a frightful manner, dashed his head against the walls with such violence, that his eyes started from their sockets ; a visible punishment of the cruelty with which he had caused the eyes of numbers of Christians to be put out, during the persecution. He expired, after several days of intolerable sufferings, in rage and despair. By his death, Licinius remained sole sovereign in the East. But Licinius himself, although a skilful general, was a cruel and worth- less prince, an enemy to men of learning, and, in his heart, a foe to religion, though to please Constantine, he at first joined with him in publishing edicts in favor of the Christians. Believing himself in- jured by the proposal of his colleague for a new and more adequate division of the empire, he raised armies to oppose the armies of Con- stantine. The two emperors, each at the head of his troops, met 9* 102 MODERN HISTORY. Part . near Cibalis in Pannonia, where they commenced a sharp and well contested battle. It lasted from morning till night ; when at length Constantine's right wing began to obtain a decided advantage, which led in a short time to a complete victory. Licinius finding himself totally defeated, fled to Syrmium, and thence to Adrianople in Thrace, where he hastened to raise new forces, in order to stop the progress of his enemy. Accordingly, another battle was fought near a place named Mardia. Here neither of the parties could claim the victory, nor could either of them be said to have been vanquished, though Licinius suffered more than his adversary j* but their nearly equal losses facilitated an accommodation. Constantine, on account of his previous success and greater actual resources, dictated the terms of the treaty, and obtained a considerable increase of his dominions (A. D. 314). * This treaty, though greatly disadvantageous to Licinius, was not, like most treaties of the same kind, of short duration. It lasted eight years, during which the empire was enabled to recover from the con- tinual shocks and disturbances it had suffered ever since the death of Constantius-Chlorus. But, in the year 323, hostilities were again provoked by Licinius. Constantine, ever quick and active, immediately entered his enemy's territory, and went in search of him, with an army of one hundred and twenty thousand foot and ten thousand horse. The troops of Licinius amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand infantry and fifteen thousand cavalry. He had, besides, a powerful fleet consisting of three hundred and fifty galleys, to which Constantine could only oppose two .hundred galleys, under the command of his son Crispus. The two land armies came in sight of each other near Adrianople, but were still separated by the river Hebrus. Licinius, being advan- tageously posted upon an eminence, kept himself on the defensive. Constantine earnestly desired to attack him, and as the river was an obstacle, his warlike ardor, which could not bear a state of inactivity, made him contrive a stratagem to surprise the enemy. He ordered a quantity of wood to be cut, and cables to be prepared, as if he in- tended to throw a bridge over the Hebrus, and whilst the men of Licinius were trying to impede the progress of this work, Constan- tine, with a small detachment, went higher up the river, to a place where he knew it to be fordable, and crossing it at the head of some horsemen, was soon after followed by his whole army. Licinius, thus unexpectedly attacked, and unable to retreat, was forced to fight. A great part of his troops made but little resistance: they were dis- * This was, during the long reign of Constantine, the only battle in which he was not completely victorious. 0.306-337. CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 103 concerted by the success of the enemy in passing the river, whilst the troops of Constantine were elated with the hope of victory. The event justified the fears of one party, and the expectations of the other. The army of Licinius was completely defeated, and his camp forced and taken; he himself fled with all possible speed to Byzan- tium, leaving thirty-three thousand of his men on the field of battle, the rest having scattered themselves through the neighoring woods and mountains. During the following days, all these vanquished fugitives surrendered, and were kindly received. Constantine pursued Licinius, and blocked him up by land in By- eantium. In the meanwhile, two naval battles were fought on the narrow seas between Europe and Asia, in which Crispus., though much inferior in forces, so well availed himself first of the narrow- ness of the strait, and then of a strong and favorable wind, that the enemy's fleet was almost entirely destroyed. This enabled the vic- torious fleet of Constantine to advance towards Byzantium and to blockade it by sea, as it was already besieged by land. Licinius, aware of the imminent danger that threatened him, fled to Chalcedon on the opposite shore, not despairing of being still able to raise a suf- ficient force to try his fortune again. He was thus far successful in his plan; for we find him at the head of one hundred and thirty thousand men, when his adversary, like- wise crossing the strait, overtook him on the other side. The armies engaged near Chrysopolis, a suburb of Chalcedon ; and Licinius, in spite of all his efforts, experienced a new and signal overthrow. One hundred thousand of his men were either killed or taken prisoners, the rest dispersed, and he himself, seeing his party entirely ruined, consented to surrender (A. D. 323). He obtained leave to retire to Phessalonica, but shortly after was put to death, with his son and his fhief general, either because he meditated new disturbances, or for )ther political reasons on the part of Constantiae, who perhaps did not m this transaction sufficiently consult the natural generosity of Ais heart. The other partisans of Licinius received much better treatment from the conqueror, being left by him in the full possession of theii estates and dignities. This clemency, not less than the perfect ability with which he had conducted the war, subdued to his power all the provinces of the East, and he was now acknowledged, without fur- ther obstaclf, in the whole empire. Being thus free from the occu- pations and tumults of warfare, he applied himself to repair the evils of past disturbances by the advantages of a profound and lasting peace. He enacted a variety of excellent laws, some in favor of poor laborers, children, orphans, widows, prisoners and slaves; others against iniquitous judges and governors, in a word, against all the 104 MODERN HISTORY. Part oppressors of his people. In a rescript which he addressed to all the subjects of the empire, he thus expressed himself: " If any one, of what rank and condition soever he may be, is confident that he can plainly and manifestly prove any injustice done to him by those who exercise authority in my name, let him apply to me personally ; I will myself hear him ; I will take cognizance of the cause ; and if I find his allegations true, I will severely punish the man who shall have deceived me by a false appearance of integrity. So may the Almighty always favor and protect me, and keep the republic safe and flourishing." Such were the admirable views of Constantine with regard to the civil administration. He likewise applied himself with great care to maintain good order among the troops, and his zeal was crowned with success. It is remarkable that in the great number of civil wars in which he was engaged, no sedition, no revolt happened in his ar- mies. He owed the lasting tranquility he enjoyed in this respect, to his great qualities which commanded the esteem and admiration of his officers and soldiers, and to his behavior towards them, which was properly tempered with indulgence and resolution. Like all other great princes of every age and country, Constantine loved and patronized letters. He himself cultivated them, and en- deavored to procure the same advantage to his sons, Crispus, Con- stantine, Constantius and Constans, giving them all an education suitable to their birth, and to the high rank to which* they were des- tined. Besides choosing for them excellent masters in every depart- ment of literature, he himself was their first master, instructing them in Christian piety, in the science of government, and in military ex- ercises. He taught them early the necessity and pleasure of doing good, by employing their tender hands, as soon as they could write, in signing gratuities and rewards. This great and good prince was particularly solicitous to make Christianity flourish. Nothing afforded him more pleasure than to learn its daily progress, and he himself contributed towards its ad- vancement by his exhortation and example. Whilst he gloried in openly professing that holy religion, he invited by an edict all his subjects, without however forcing any one, to renounce their old su perstitions, and embrace the true faith which Almighty God had manifested to the whole world in so signal a manner. The zealous emperor endeavored also by letters to inspire Sapor II, king of Persia, with favorable dispositions towards the Christians of his kingdom ; and not being able to succeed in this, he granted a safe and honorable retreat to those who were compelled to fly from the persecution raging in their country. In fine, it was through his protection that the first general council of the Church was convened and celebrated at Nice, A. D. 306-337. CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 105 in Bithynia (A. D. 325). In this venerable assembly, three hundred and eighteen bishops, together with the legates of Pope St. Sylvester, condemned the Arian heresy with its author Arius, who, contrary to the Scriptures and to the belief of preceding ages, denied the divinity of Christ. Until about that time, Constantine had reigned with such wisdom and happiness as to have rendered himself equal, perhaps superior, to the most accomplished and celebrated princes. But in the last twelve years of his life, he tarnished in some degree the great glory which he had previously acquired. An excessive goodness made him leave unpunished the bad practices of many among the magistrates and other public officers ; this gave rise to a greater number of vexations and miseries among the people. He also too easily gave credit to crafty and hypocritical persons, who abused his confidence, and in- duced him to banish, or exclude from favor, some of the most worthy men of the empire. His greatest fault was towards his own son Crispus, a young prince of uncommon merit; the emperor was so far deceived by an artful calumny, as to believe him guilty of an atrocious design, and, in the first moment of his indignation, caused him to be put to death. He soon perceived the calumny, and se- verely punished its authors j too late however for the unfortunate Crispus, whose hasty execution he could but bitterly lament. Constantine is likewise reproached with some faults in his govern- ment and political views, chiefly with having disunited the empire by the foundation of a second capital. How far this can be just mat- ter of reproach, it is difficult to determine: the emperor's intention seems to have been pure, and worthy of a Christian prince. Wish- ing to make his residence in a place entirely purged from the remains Df idolatry, and being exceedingly pleased with the situation of By- zantium in Thrace, he built on that spot a magnificent city, called from his name Constantinople, and from that time established in it the principal seat of the empire (A. D. 330). The faults of Constantine, though real stains on his memory, must not however destroy the esteem and admiration due to his eminent qualities. Activity, application to affairs, piety and benevolence always shone conspicuous in him.* His alms to the poor and to all * Pagan writers themselves bear testimony to the virtues of Constantine. Libanius asserts (oral. 3d) that he was always engaged in contriving or executing some great design for the public utility. Eutropius, in his Roman hist. lib. x. writes of him thus : " Vir primo imperii tempore optimis principi- bus, ultimo mediis comparandus ; innumerae in eo animi corporisque virtutes claruerunt." The same, in substance, is said by Praxagoras, Aurelius Vic- tor, and others, whose testimonies, not being liable to any charge of party prepossession, are by far preferable to the invectives of the angry Zozimus and of Julian the Apostate, both of them the worthy predecessors of our modern infidels, in thtir hatred against a prince who was the constant pro- tector of Christianity. 106 MODERN HISTORY. Part IL persons in distress, were immense; his inclination to forgive injuries, was wonderful. In a sedition which happened in Egypt, probably at Alexandria, the mutinous populace insulted the statues of the empe- ror ; the courtiers, in order to aggravate the crime of the seditious, represented that their rage had gone so far as to throw stones at the face of their prince, which still bore the marks of so foul an outrage. Upon this, Constantine, with a smile, put his hands to his face, and mildly answered : " I do not feel any hurt;" thus refuting the exagge- rated charge of the courtiers, and reducing them to silence by a mag- nanimous reply which will never be forgotten by posterity. The em- peror acted consistently with his principles. Pitying the frenzy of those who had been guilty of such disrespect, he contented himself with taking proper measures to prevent the like disorders in future. This indulgence and goodness of Constantine for his people, gained him the affection of all; whilst his greatness and glory at- tracted the respect, not only of the Romans, but even of all the neighboring nations. His palace was crowded with ambassadors from the Germans, the Goths, the Sarmatians, the Persians, the In- dians, the Ethiopians, and other distant nations, as different from each other in their features and complexion, as in their dress and or- naments, but all filled with sentiments of deep veneration for the em- peror. According to the difference of their countries and climes, they brought him a great variety of presents, such as crowns of gold, diadems enriched with precious stones, arms of a particular kind, animals unknown in Europe, etc. Constantine graciously re- ceived their presents, and in return made them others of much greater value. Many of these foreigners were so much struck at the splendor of his court, so delighted with his noble and affable beha- vior, and conceived such an esteem for his virtue, in proportion as they became better acquainted with him, that, forgetting their own country, they attached themselves to the service of so great and so excellent a prince. The glory of arms contributed to crown the splendor of his latter years. He had already, during the interval of his wars against Licinius, defeated the Goths and the Sarmatians in many battles ; but, that first lesson not having sufficiently subdued their rettless spirit, upon their renewing the hostilities in the year 332, he again so signally defeated those fierce nations, that they were obliged to sue for peace, and to give hostages. In fine, he showed the same reso- lution against the Persians who had lately attacked Mesopotamia : though much advanced in age, he prepared to inarch against them, and the mere terror of his name, made them retire beyond the Tigris. Shortly after, Constantine fell dangerously ill, and having pre- pared himself for death by an increase of piety, departed this life, on A. D. 337-361. CONSTANTIUS, ETC. 107 the 22d of May (A. D. 337), at the age of nearly sixty-four, after a glorious reign of thirty-one years, the longest since that of Augustus. The splendor of his military, political and religious achievements, gained him the surname of GREAT which posterity has confirmed. No grief was ever more universal, more sincere, and more strongly expressed, than that occasioned by his death. No sooner was the melancholy event made known, than his guards rent their garments, and in the excess of their sorrow, struck their heads and fell to the ground, calling him with lamentable sobs and cries their beloved master, sovereign and father. The tribunes, the centurions, and the soldiers seemed unwilling to survive a prince, whose liberality they had constantly experienced, whose heroic valor they had so fre- quently admired on the field of battle. The inhabitants of Nicomedia ran confusedly through the streets, sighing and weeping; it seemed as if each family had lost the best of parents. In a word, all the em- pire, and Rome itself, which he had left for another residence, were plunged in the deepest affliction ; and so dear to all was the memory of their deceased sovereign, that both the people of this capital, and the many legions scattered through the provinces, unanimously re- solved, without the possibility of common deliberation, to acknow- ledge none as emperors, except the sons of Constantine. CONST ANTIUS AM) HIS BROTHERS COTfSTANTINE II AND CONSTANS. A. D. 337361. THE three brothers divided the empire among themselves, in the fol- lowing manner: Gaul, Britain and Spain were allotted to Constantine, who was the eldest; Italy, Illyria and Africa, to Constans, wno was the youngest ; and the provinces of the East, to Constantius. It might seem that every thing had been settled to their common satisfaction; however, Constantine remained only a short time contented with his department. After several useless complaints, he endeavored to en- croach upon the territories of Constans, but perished in the attempt being slain in ambuscade near Aquileia, (A. D. 340). Constans then seized the estates of the vanquished, and a'dded them to his own. Constantius took no share in the quarrels of his brothers. Being moderate and humane by nature, but weak, suspicious, jealous, even cruel through ambition,* and always surrounded by evil counsellors, who knew how to conceal their wickedness under the mask of vir- tue, he made it his chief occupation to disturb the Church in favor *He is commonly thought to have connived at the murder of his uncles and nearly all his cousins, which, under pretence of zeal, was perpetrated r 108 MODERN HISTORY. PartIL of the Arians, and obstinately to persecute the great St. Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, and the other defenders of the Nicene faith. However, he was also engaged for many years, in opposing the re- peated attacks of the Persians, and this he did with very little ability and success ; yet, the enemy did not gain any decisive advantage, and having three times assaulted the city of Nisibis, was as many times repelled with considerable loss. Another revolution in the West soon attracted the attention of Constantius. In the year 350, his brother Constans fell a victim to a conspiracy artfully contrived by a certain Magnentius, who com- manded some troops in Gaul, and pretended to reign in his place. At the first news of this disastrous event, Constantius hastened from the East to punish the usurper, who, on his side, had made exten- sive preparations to repel the attack. The famous battle of Mursa which cost the lives of sixty thousand men, decided the contest in favor of Constantius. After extraordinary exertions made by both parties, the troops of Magnentius were completely routed, and either destroyed by the cavalry of Constantius, or precipitated into the river Drave. In this distress, Magnentius, seeing himself on the point of falling into the hands of the enemy, cast off the imperial insignia, took the horse and garments of a common soldier, and fled in full speed across the Alps, until he arrived at Aquileia. After a short stay there, he retired to Lyons in Gaul, where he tried the chance of another battle, but was again defeated. At length, finding himself abandoned by his own troops, he put his family to the sword, and then killed himself, after an usurped reign of three years (A. D. 353). Thus all the parts of the empire were again united under the same sovereign. But such * burden was too heavy for Constantius, and he himself being sensible how much he stood in need of an as- sistant, made choice, for this purpose, of his cousin Julian, who had, on account of his tender age, been spared in the massacre of his family. He conferred on him the title of Cassar, and sent him to de- fend the frontiers near the Rnme against the inroads of the Germans. After having freed himself from the cares of war, ne applied more than ever to his favorite occupation of promoting the cause of Arianism. By his orders, the orthodox bishops were driven from their sees, ba- nished, imprisoned, and compelled by threats and ill-treatment to sign ambiguous formulas which might afterwards be made subservient to a confirmation of the heresy. But neither artifice nor violence could make Arianism prevail in the Church, and even in the midst of the by the soldiers in the beginning of his reign. His brothers, on the contrary, do not appear to have in any way participated in the odious and cruel deed, nor was it ever laid to their charge. A. D. 3C1 363. JULIAN. 109 storm, the far greater number of both the pastors and the faithful al- ways closely adhered to the profession of the true faith, as is attested by St. Athanasius,* Sulpitius-Severus,f and others. Whilst Constantius disturbed the whole Christian flock, Julian was discharging his duties and fulfilling .his perilous commission in Gaul '.vilh great success. This prince, who afterwards deserved the sur- name of Jlpostate, at first displayed only great qualities. His princi- pal care was tore-establish good order in the provinces, and discipline in the armies. Attacked by numerous hordes of Alemanni and Franks, he not only delivered the country from their invasion, but entirely defeated seven of their kings in a great bp.Ule near Strasburg, pursued them beyond the Rhine, and subdued them by repeated victories. The emperor became jealous and alarmed at the increasing glory of the young Caesar; and, being moreover attacked anew by the Per- sians, he thought it a proper opportunity to deprive Julian of a con- siderable portion of his troops. Accordingly, some legions were commanded to depart from Gaul into Asia. This order caused gene- ral discontent, both among the soldiers, and the inhabitants who en- treated them not to abandon a country which they had so well de- fended ; at last, the troops revolted, and proclaimed Julian emperor. With real or feigned reluctance, he accepted the title offered him by the soldiers, took the diadem, and not being able to settle his differ- ence with Constantius in a peaceful manner, advanced as far as Sir- mium to fight against that prince, who after all had been his bene- factor as well as sovereign. Fortunately for his cause, the death of Constantius, which happened just at that time (November 361), de- livered him from his perplexing position, and preserved the empire from the horrors of a new civil war. JULIAN. A. D. 361363. JULIAN now proceeded without opposition to Constantinople, where he was immediately acknowledged emperor, as well as in all the provinces. The beginning of his reign was remarkable for the ardor with which he affected to redress the abuses of the late govern- ment; and it cannot be denied that he greatly improved, in a short time, many parts of the civil and military administration. But in this prince, good was always attended with evil. He aimed at noth- ing so much as the restoration of the worship of idols, and the de- * S. Athan. Epist. ad Jovianum Imper. n. 2. f Sulp. Sever, hist. sacr. lib. rr. passim. 110 MODERN HISTORY. Part II. struction of the religion of Christ, which he had already publicly renounced. He pursued this two-fold object with incessant and un- abated activity ; though he endeavored to effect it more by dissimu- lation and artful measures, than by open force and violence. Whilst all favors were lavished on a crowd of miserable sophists and magi- cians by whom he was constantly surrounded, the Christians expe- rienced nothing from him but contempt, vexatious and disgrace. On all occasions he loaded them with insult, and openly violated in their regard the most common laws of equity ; excluding them from the rights of citizens, and from fair trial in the courts of justice; forbid- ding them to teach and to be taught in the schools; not admitting any one to offices of trust and authority ; continually endeavoring to make apostates; and, notwithstanding his feigned moderation, often giving secret orders to put to death those on whom other means of seduc- tion had produced no effect. Julian desired above all things to bring the charge of imposture on the predictions of our Saviour* and of the prophet Danielf concern- ing the entire and irreparable desolation of the temple of Jerusalem. Nearly three hundred years after it had been destroyed under Vespa- sian and Titus, he undertook to raise it from its ruins. Although the Jews had no great share in his affection, he invited them, by a flat- tering letter, to concur in the enterprise ; and, uniting effects with promises, he sent a great number of workmen to Jerusalem, ordered his treasurers to furnish money and every thing necessary for the re- building of the temple, and appointed one of his confidential officers, named Alypius, to enforce the execution of his orders. The news was no sooner spread abroad, than the Jews, elated with joy, flocked from all parts to Jerusalem. Immense quantities of stone, brick, timber and other materials were prepared for the impor- tant work. When every thing was in readiness, the workmen began to clear the ground, to dig up the earth, and to remove the old foun- dations; Jews of all ranks, young and old, women and children, shared in the labor, with so much eargerness, that some made use of silver pickaxes and spades, in honor of the undertaking. St. Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, beheld these mighty preparations without anx- iety. Full of confidence in the divine predictions, he said that the Jews, far from being able to rebuild their temple, would, on the con- trary, fully verify the prophecy of Christ, by entirely removing the former foundations which still subsisted, and thus be instrumental in the literal fulfilment of what our Saviour had foretold, that of all this splendid temple there should not be left a stone upon a stone. The trenches were now open, the new foundations were ready to be laid next morning, and the Jews already began to triumph ; when, * Matt, xxiv, 2. t Dnn. ix, 27. D. 361-4363. JULIAN. Ill during the night, a sudden earthquake destroyed the trenches, over- turned the adjacent buildings, and buried many workmen under the ruins : at the same time, the prodigious heaps of lime, sand and other materials which had been prepared, were scattered by whirl- winds. This first obstacle astonished the Jews, but did not conquer their obstinacy; and they again set to work, under the direction of Alypius. At this moment, from the bowels of the earth, near the foundation, there burst forth a flaming torrent and balls of fire, which dislodged the stones, melted the iron instruments, burned the work- men, and afterwards, running through the place and amidst the mul- titude of spectators, consumed or suffocated the Jews, whom the avenging element singled out with a sort of instinct. This awful prodigy was often repeated, and what showed more and more visibly the supernatural intervention of the divine power, was that the fire reappeared whenever the work was resumed, and ceased only when the attempt was entirely given over. There is not in all history a fact more certain and incontestible than this, as it happened, to use the words of an illustrious historian,* in the presence of the whole world, and was equally attested by Chris- tians, Jews and Gentiles.f Many among the witnesses of this pro- digious event, whether -Jews or Heathens, confessed the divinity of Christ, and asked for baptism. The unhappy Julian, on the contrary, still continued blind and hardened in the midst of so much light, and now directed his principal thoughts to another object. He had been, all this while, making preparations for war, in order to avenge the many insults offered to the empire by Sapor, its inve- terate enemy. This Sapor is famous among the Persian kings, for his warlike disposition, violence and cruelties, during a reign of seventy years : he had lately overrun that part of Mesopotamia which belonged to the Romans, and destroyed the important city of Amide. Julian resolved, not only to drive him from his frontiers, but also to subdue the whole Persian monarchy, and then, like Alexander the Great, to proceed to the conquest of India. With this view, he crossed the Euphrates at the head of sixty five thousand men, and marched through Carra? in Mesopotamia, a spot rendered famous by the defeat of Crassus. He also visited the sepulchre of Gordian III, who had been murdered at the end of a glorious expedition against the same Persians. Thence, the Romans followed the course of the river, taking by storm and firing such cities as offered any resistance; a numerous fleet, loaded with provisions, accompanied the army. * Lebeau. hist, du Bus Empire, ad arm. 3G3. vol. in, p. 264. t See Note D. J12 MODERN HISTORY. Tart JL At a short distance from the royal city of Ctesiphon, Julian dis- covered the vestiges of an ancient canal, which had been dug by the Babylonian kings, to unite the Euphrates and the Tigris, but which was now filled up, and could scarcely be distinguished from the other parts of the plain. The emperor caused it to be cleared, and the fleet following the current of the water, easily passed from the Euphrates into the Tigris. After a short stay, the whole army crossed the Tigris itself, in spite of numerous bands of Persians who, from the other side of the river, vigorously opposed the passage, but who, not being able to resist long the impetuous shock of the Roman legions, were completely routed. The success of the day WHS owing chiefly to the intrepidity, firmness and presence of mind of Julian. He did not however attempt to besiege Ctesiphon, for fear both of spending too much time in this undertaking, and of being himself shut up between that town and a formidable army conducted by Sa- por, which was daily approaching. He then resolved to follow up the Tigris, until he should reach the confines of Armenia; but a spe- cious advice, given him by a Persian deserter whose fidelity he did not suspect, made him again alter his plan. Under the pretence that the fleet would be scarcely able, even with extraordinary exertions, to overcome the rapidity of the current, he gave orders, notwithstanding the objection of the whole army, that the vessels should be set on fire ; he then left the banks of the Tigris, the more quickly to pene- trate into the heart of the enemy's country, and carried his impru- dence so far as to continue for several days in the the way which his perfidious guide pointed out to him, even after the treason was detected. The army first advanced through a rich and fertile country, but soon found itself in the midst of vast plains where every thing had been purposely destroyed and burnt by the Persians. The troops of Sapor then appeared, and, thinking the occasion proper for battle, attacked the Romans. The latter indeed remained victorious ; but they had now to struggle against more dangerous enemies, namely, fatigue, anxiety and famine. The dangers of the march increased every day; and, to complete their misfortune, they lost just at that time the man who alone could have saved them without dishonor, and have repaired his own imprudence by the natural resources of his genius. In a battle fought on the twenty-sixth of June (363), Julian, having exposed himself without a cuirass, had his liver pierced with a dart thrown by an unknown hand. He was carried back to his tent almost senseless, and, notwithstanding the cares of his physicians, expired the following night, at the age of thirty-one, after a reign of nearly two years. According to some, he died with ^.D.363-3G4. JOVIAN. 113 great apparent composure and tranquillity ; but others* relate that, when he felt himself mortally wounded, he threw a handful of his blood towards heaven, uttering these blasphemous words against Christ : " Thou hast conquered, O Galilean ;" and that he likewise upbraided his own gods, charging them with ingratitude in his regard. It would be impossible to give a precise outline of Julian's charac- ter. It was a most singular compound of some good and many bad qualities, moderation and malice, love of justice and blind hatred, courage and temerity. He united a cultivated genius with a bigoted mind ; he was a slave to vanity and credulity, superstitiously attached to the meanest, and perhaps also, after he became a public apostate to the most abominable practices of idolatry : for we are told by some grave authorsf that, besides an incredible number of animals, he like- wise sacrificed human victims, for the purpose of discovering future events by an examination of their palpitating entrails. In a word,- his defects were real, his virtues more apparent than sincere, his talents more brilliant than solid. The only genuine qualities perhaps that Julian possessed, were his intrepidity in war and the talent he had to transform his soldiers into heroes. King Sapor did not cease to tremble for the safety of his crown, till he received the intelligence of the emperor's death. He manifested the greatest joy on being apprized of it, and wished to re- ward the soldier by whom Julian had been wounded; but no one pre- sented himself to receive the recompense. JOVIAN A. D. 363364. MOST distressing was the situation to which the Romans were now reduced in the midst of an hostile country, without food and deprived of their leader. The chief officers assembled to appoint a successor to Julian, and, upon the refusal of Sallust, prefect of the East, Jovian, one of the commanders in the imperial guard, was proclaimed emperor. After a slow and painful march for several days, he concluded with the Persians a disadvantageous treaty of peace; a step deemed neces- sary to save the army from starvation, but disgraceful to the empire, which lost, by this means, five provinces and the best towns of Me- sopotamia. Such was the result of Julian's imprudence and temerity. Although the Romans, in their retreat, were no longer interrupted by the enemy, still they encountered many dangers, especially when they undertook to recross the Tigris; and their march continued difli- * Theodoret, Sozomen, etc. f Especially Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. lib. in, c. 21. 10* 114 MODERN HISTORY. Part II. cult and harassing, until they reached their own territory. Jovian, on his arrival at Antioch, immediately turned his attention to the go- vernment of the state, and the restoration of peace to the Church. He had, even during the storms of the two preceding reigns, always adhered to the orthodox faith, and anxious to maintain it in others, he labored to heal the wounds inflicted by Julian on Christianity in gene- ral, and by Constantius on the Catholics. His excellent intentions and many good qualities, though less dazzling than those of Julian, promised a prosperous reign ; but, having set out from Antioch in the dead of winter, he was found lifeless in his room (February 364), before he could reach Constantinople. The cause of his death was never ascertained ; but the most common opinion is that he inhaled the fumes of charcoal. Jovian had lived thirty-three years, and reigned eight months. VALENTINIAN AND VALENS A. D. 364378. THE army set about a new election, and proclaimed emperor, Va- lentinian, an officer of distinguished merit. His noble size and fea- tures gave him a warlike and majestic appearance; he was renowned for prudence, valor, learning, sincere attachment to religion and great love of justice. Pure in his morals, grave in his deportment, he spoke little, but always with great judgment and natural eloquence. Unhappily, these truly valuable qualities of body and mind were tar- nished in him by some notable defects, such as violence of temper and excessive severity, whence finally arose the painful accident which terminated his life. Valentinian had no sooner assumed the purple, than he associated to himself his brother Valens in the government of the empire. Still, before publicly declaring his intentions, he consulted his chief officers on the subject. All remained silent, except one, who was generous enough to say : " Prince, if you love your family, you may choose your brother; if you love the stale, select the fittest man for so great a dignity." This advice struck the emperor; hoAvever, he persisted in his design, and declared Valens his colleague. He allotted to him the provinces of Asia, with Egypt and Thrace, and kept for himself the other provinces situated in Africa and Europe. Valentinian governed his portion of the empire with vigor and firmness. Making his residence, sometimes in Milan, sometimes in Triers, Paris or Rheims, he was always ready to defend his frontiers, and to repel the attacks of the barbarians posted beyond the Rhine A. r. 364-378. VALENTINIAN AND VALENS. 115 and the Danube. He kept in constant awe the restless tribes of Ger- many, and triumphed over them in every battle. But, whilst his bravery and military science struck terror into the minds of the barbarians, his irascible humor was almost equally dreaded by his own subjects, till in the end it proved fatal to himself. The Q,uadi, a poor and timid nation, having incurred his displeasure, sent ambassadors to appease his anger by an humble apology. Va- lentinian was offended at the mean appearance of the ambassadors, and exclaimed that it was a shame for the empire and the emperor, that he had to treat with such ill-looking people. He spoke with such warmth and passion, that he broke a large blood-vessel, and fell senseless to the ground, his blood gushing forth abundantly from his mouth. A few hours after, he expired in great pain, at the age of fifty-four, after a reign of nearly twelve years (A. n. 375), leaving his sceptre to his sons Gratian and Valentinian II. The East was still under the sway of his brother Valens, a prince of good morals and steadfast in his friendship ; but at the same time indolent, without genius and experience, often suffering his ministers to make a tyrannical use of his authority. He showed.no energy ex- cept in protecting the Aiians and cruelly persecuting the Catholics. But the faith of the latter was successfully defended by the illustrious doctors St. Gregory Nazianzen and his intimate friend St. Basil, archbishop of Csesarea, against whom all the emperor's efforts proved fruitless. With regard to military achievements, Valens, by the skill of his generals and the bravery of his troops, conducted, with considerable success, several campaigns against the Goths, the Persians, and the usurper Procopius, who, after many vicissitudes of fortune, was be- trayed by his own friends, delivered up to the emperor, and behead- ed. But the last expedition of this prince had, through his own fault, a quite different result. Numerous bodies of Huns, a barbarous people from the north of Asia, were at that time driving before them all the tribes whom they met in their devastating course. Two hun- dred thousand Goths, finding themselves more and more harassed by these formidable enemies, asked and obtained of Valens leave to cross the Danube, and to settle in Thrace as subjects or allies. They were followed by other bodies of their countrymen whom it was not pos- sible to keep afar off on the other side of the river; and the Roman officers stationed on the frontier were at the same time so impru- dent and inhuman, as to exasperate by ill-treatment that immense multitude dying with hunger and supplied with arms. They revolt ed against their oppressors, and, being excited both by distress and the desire of revenge, they began to overrun the country and pur every thing to fire and sword. 116 MODERN HISTORY Pan n The generals of Valens endeavored, but too late, to stern this tor- rent. Several bloody battles were fought to no purpose; and the emperor, not satisfied with the result, judged it necessary to repair in person to the field, and put himself at the head of hip troops. This step served only to increase the danger ; for the commander of the Goths, Fritigern, was an able and experienced general; whilst Valens had neither ability nor prudenceW-Instead of waiting for the arrival of his nephew Gratian, who, after gaining a great victory over the Germans, hastened to his assistance, the unwary prince, contrary, to the advice of his best officers, marched with precipitancy and confusion against the enemy; and, with troops harassed by fatigue, commenced near Adrianople a battle more disastrous, it is believed, than any that the Romans had ever fought from the time of their defeat at Cannae by Annibal. Here also they experienced a most signal overthrow, and lost nearly their whole army, with an incredible multitude of chief officers, and the emperor himself, whose body could never be found. According to common report, he was wounded, and carried in that state to a hut, which the Goths, not knowing who was in it, set on fire; and Valens perished in the flames. He had reigned about fifteen, and lived nearly fifty years (A. D. 378). THEODOSIUS I, SURNAMED THE GREAT. GRATIAN AND VALENTINIAN II. 379 395. THE Roman empire had perhaps never been so much exposed to the danger of total ruin, as immediately after the battle of Adriano- ple. Though the Goths were unsuccessful in their attacks upon that and some other towns, they together with the Huns and Alans con- tinued with impunity, to plunder, waste and destroy every thing in Thrace, Illyria and the neighboring provinces. The Suevi, Aleman- ni and Franks were at the same time preparing to invade Gaul, and the provinces of Asia were also threatened with new attacks from the Persians. Gratian, upon whom the whole burden of the gov- ernment devolved by the death of his uncle Valens, was fully aware that he could not by himself repel so many enemies, nor could he as yet derive any assistance from his brother Valentinian, a child seven or eight years of age. Standing in need of more powerful suc- cor, he was candid enough to declare his situation before all the world, and wise enough to choose as his associate the ablest man of the empire, viz : the great Theodosius, with whose name is associ ated the recollection of every civil, religious and military virtue. A D. 379-395. THEODOSIUS THE GREAT. 117 Theodosiu3 was a native of Spain, and son of the celebrated Count Theodosius, who, after having, by his brilliant campaigns under Valentinian I, saved Great Britain and Africa from powerful inva- ders, had lately perished on a scaffold at Carthage, the victim of an atrocious and artful calumny. Previously to this melancholy trans- action, his son had on several occasions, displayed great military talents; but, after the tragical death of his father, he led a retired life in his native country ; until Gratian called him back to court, and offered him the purple, which he at first refused through sincere modesty, but afterwards accepted through a pure motive of obedi- ence. It was agreed among them that he should rule over the East, Gratian reserving the West for himself and his young brother Valentinian. The accesion of Theodosius almost instantaneously changed the desperate state of affairs, and gave a salutary check to the inroads of the barbarians. The Goths were the first who experienced the effects of his indignation and invincible bravery. He obliged them either to surrender, or retire beyond the Danube. The Huns and the Alans were soon compelled to do the same ; the Persians, informed of his rapid exploits, sued for peace ; and, in a few years, the name of Theodosius was respected throughout the world. He availed himself of the tranquillity which followed his victories, to enact several admirable laws, conducive alike to the prosperity of the state at large, to the repression of vice and the advancement of good morals among private individuals, to the security of life and pro- perty, etc. All his legislation breathes, as it were, an ardent love of the public good, of justice and religion, happily blended with a dignified clemency towards those who might possibly offer him personal in- sults, by outrageous language against his person, conduct and go- vernment. "If such persons," said he in one of his rescripts, " act and speak thus through levity, we should disregard their fault; if their conduct proceeds from blindness and folly, we should pity them ; if from ill-will and malice, we should forgive them." His heart was so inclined to benevolence, that, once dismissing several prisoners, he exclaimed: " O that I could restore the dead to life!" Theodosius endeavored likewise during the whole course of his reign, to promote, by wise and prudent means, the advancement of true piety, and of the orthodox faith which he sincerely professed. Arianism, not being able to obtain the least favor from so religious a prince, rapidly dwindled into insignificance. The Macedonian here- ey against the divinity of the Holy Ghost, was solemnly condemned by the second general Council, held under his patronage at Constan- tinople (A. D. 381). In fine, the pious efforts of the emperor gave the deadly blow to heathenism, and his zeal, equally mild and firm, judi- 118 MODERN HISTORY. Part II. cious and constant, was not satisfied until the public worship of idols disappeared from his dominions. The example of Theodosius was in most respects faithfully imi- tated by Gratian, the emperor of the West. This prince, although very young, would perhaps have become equal to his virtuous col- league in glory and wisdom, had it not been for a single defect, which being disregarded, tarnished the lustre of his excellent quali- ties, and brought upon him a terrible disaster. Being excessively fond of hunting, the natural consequence was that he paid little atten- tion to the affairs of his court, where discontent began to prevail, at the sight of the honors and benefits conferred upon strangers. Maxi- mus, one of the chief officers in Great Britain, caused himself to be proclaimed emperor by some of the soldiers; nor did the defection confine itself to that island, but passing over to the continent, it spread among the legions of Gaul with such rapidity, that in a few weeks Gratian saw himself abandoned by nearly all his troops. No other resource was now left him than a precipitate flight ; and even that proved insufficient to save him from the hands of his enemies: he was overtaken at Lyons, and cruelly murdered at the age of twenty- four, after a reign of eight years (A. D. 383). Maximus abstained for a time from pursuing his audacious and ambitious career ; fixing his residence in Triers, he contented himself with reigning over the provinces which Gratian had governed. Still, he was making slow and powerful preparations to oppress young Valentinian in Italy, as he had done his brother in Gaul; but Valen- tinian having received timely warning of the designs of his enemy, fled in full speed to Thessalonica, persuaded that he would find a zealous protector in Theodosius. His hopes were not deceived: Theodosius received him with open arms, and marched with him, at the head of his army, against Maximus, who was coming forward to meet them, with more boldness than prudence. One single and short campaign terminated the contest. The numerous troops of the usurper were conquered in two battles, and he himself being taken prisoner in Aquileia, whither he had retired after the second engage- ment, was led to Theodosius, with his hands tied behind him. At the sight of his captive, the generous conqueror felt inclined to com- passion and forgiveness ; but his officers, less indulgent, led Maxi- mus away, and immediately beheaded him. No search was made after his partisans, and Theodosius added to the dominions of Valen- tinian those of his brother Gratian (A. D. 388). ^ About the same time, he gave to all future generations a most ad- mirable example of clemency. A great sedition having burst forth, in Antioch, the people carried their insolence so far as to break to pieces the statues of the emperor and of his family. Theodosius, A. D. 379-395. THEODOSIUS THE GREAT. 119 justly irritated against an ungrateful city on which he had bestowed many signal favors, sent two commissaries, with orders to punish the leaders of the seditious riot, to deprive Antioch of its privi- leges, and to degrade that proud capital of Syria to the low rank of a simple borough. The arrival of the two commissaries spread terror through the town. The most guilty of the inhabitants were arrested, and put in confinement; however, the sorrowful multitude, together with the clergy, obtained by their supplications and tears, that the punishment should be postponed. The venerable bishop Flavian had already set out for Constantinople, in order to allay, if possible, the indignation of Theodosius. The first time he was introduced before him, he remained at some distance, with his eyes cast down, and observing a mournful silence. The emperor, whose heart was not less afflicted, approached the bishop, and with strong but tender reproaches, expa- tiated on the ingratitude of his countrymen. Flavian, being then emboldened to speak, acknowledged both the enormity of the crime and the justice of any punishment that might be inflicted on its au- thors ; but he afterwards so eloquently described and extolled the ad- vantages of the forgiveness of injuries, that the emperor, unable any longer to restrain his tears, cried out that he willingly pardoned An- tioch, after the example of Christ who had forgiven his very execu- tioners. The pardon was entire, unreserved, and did infinite honor to the clemency of Theodosius. Three years after, on a similar occasion, he appeared to forget his own principles. The populace of Thessalonica, in a tumultuous insurrection, stoned their governor to death : Theodosius, who therK/ resided at Milan, was so indignant at this outrage, that he issued A^ warrant for the soldiery to be let loose on the inhabitants of Thessa- lonica during three hours, and the commission was executed with such fury, that seven thousand persons were put to the sword. No sooner was the holy archbishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, informed of the awful deed, than he declared to the emperor that he could not admit him into the Church, nor to the participation of the sacred mysteries, until he had atoned, by an exemplary penance, for the enormity of the massacre lately committed. Theodosius humbly submitted to the decision of the holy prelate, and remained thus ex- cluded from the Church for eight months, at the end of which time St. Ambrose, moved by his tears and lively repentance, again admit- ted him; on condition, however, that he would ever after, in order to . avoid similar faults, postpone for thirty days the execution even of just sentences of death. Theodosius willingly yielded to the propo- sal, and, by this docility, left it uncertain which is more worthy of 120 MODERN HISTORY. Part II, admiration, the firmness of the archbishop or the piety of the emperor. I This prince was scarcely returned to Constantinople, when a fresh and disastrous revolution, caused by the murder of Valentinian II, obliged him to make a new expedition into the West. That young emperor, trained up to virtue by the instructions and examples of Theodosius, knew already how to conduct himself with great wis- dom, and gave every day greater hopes of a fortunate and glorious reign. Being told that some suspicions, though ill-founded, were entertained concerning his morals, he dismissed without delay the persons whose society might become dangerous for his virtue. He overcame his excessive relish for the games and shows of the circus, by abolishing the games, and causing all the beasts destined for them or for the chase, to be killed on the same day. Although he had found the treasury exhausted, no solicitation of his courtiers could ever in- duce him to augment the taxes. His conduct obtained respect even from the barbarians, and he was endeavoring by every means in liis power to procure abundance and tranquillity to his subjects, when a cruel plot contrived by Arbogastes, the general of his troops, deprived him of the empire and of life, at the age of twenty, after a reign of nine years since the death of Gratian (A. D. 392). Intense was the affliction of Theodosius, when he learned the melancholy fate of this excellent prince, his brother-in-law, his part- ner in the empire, and his sincere friend. Justice, humanity and con- science obliging him to avenge the death of Valentinian and punish the murderers, he spent two years in making adequate preparations for this new expedition, which he justly supposed would be difficult and bloody ; for Arbogastes had a great reputation for skill in war, and a strong party on his side. Still, being of barbarian extraction, he did not dare assume the imperial sceptre himself, but placed it in the hands of a certain Eugenius, a proud, ambitious man, who had been a secretary of the late emperor, and had taken part in his assas- sination. The two armies advanced against each other, the one from Gaul, under the command of the two usurpers, who had the images of the false gods carried before them; the other from Thrace, under the ban- ner of the cross, and commanded by Theodosius in person. They met in the northeast of Italy, at the distance of about thirty miles from Aquileia. Here a general engagement took place, which the importance of the cause, the number and discipline of the troops, the heroic intrepidity of Theodosius and the desperate courage of Ar- bogastes, rendered extremely furious and obstinate. It lasted two days, the first of which, without giving to either party any decisive loss or advantage, beheld a tremendous liavoc of the bravest troops A. D. 7T9-395. THEODOSIUS THE GREAT. 121 of Theodosius. The pious emperor spent the following night in prayer, placing his confidence in God whose cause he supported, more than in all the exertions of his ability and valor. At the dawn of day, he again drew up his army, and, taking his shield and cui- rass, marched out with ardor against the enemy. This was the moment which heaven had chosen, in order to de- clare visibly in his favor. On a sudden, frightful whirlwinds arose, which directed all their violence against the rebels, broke their ranks, and forced their shields from their hands. Their arrows turned against themselves, whilst those of their opponents received addi- tional force from the wind.* Thus exposed, blinded by the dust, and overpowered by the storm, they either fell on the field of battle, or threw themselves, in their flight, into a neighboring river. Arbogas- tes, seeing that all was lost, stabbed himself, and died in rage and de- spair. Eugenius was brought in chains by his own soldiers before Theodosius, who presently condemned him to death; but the generous conqueror pardoned all the others of their party. The slaughter ceased, and the two armies mingled together, exulting with joy, one for its victory, the other for its defeat, and both looking on their pious emperor as really invincible. This memorable battle, which was fought on the 6th of Septem ber (A. D. 394), subjected all the West to Theodosius. He lived but a short time after this glorious triumph over his enemies: continual labors and hardships, especially at the head of armies, had exhausted his constitution, and, after lingering for some weeks, he died in the middle of the following January (A. D. 395), at the age of fifty, after a reign of sixteen years. This was the last reign which saw all the parts of the Roman empire united under the sway of the same sove- reign. At the solemn service performed, according to custom, for his * See Socrates, Eccles. Hist. lib. V, c. 25; Sozomen, lib. VII, c. 24; Orosius, lib. VII, c. 3; Theodoret, lib. v. c. 24; especially St. Augustine, who had learned the fact in question from the very soldiers of Eugenius that had been present at the battle, as he himself relates in these terms : " Milites nobis, qui aderant, retulerunt, extorta sibi esse de manibus quae cumque jaciebantur, cum a Theodosii partibus vehemens ventus iret, et non solum quaecumque in eos jaciebantur concitatissime raperet, veruia etiairi ipsorum tela in eorum corpora retorqueret ;" De Civitate Dei, lib V, c. 26. In fine, the poet Claudian, though a heathen, describes the same thus, in his poem on the third consulship of the young emperor Ho non us: Te propter, gelidis aquilo de monte procellis Obruit adversas acies, revolutaque tela Vertit in auctores, et turbine reppulit hastas. O nimium dilecte Deo, cui fundit ab antris ^Eolus armatas hiemes ; cui militat aether, Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti! n 122 MODERN HISTORY. Part II, departed soul, St. Ambrose delivered the funeral oration in presence of the whole army: after which, his body was transferred to Con- stantinople, and deposited in the Mausoleum of the great Constantine, with whom he shares in the just praises and admiration of posterity. In fact, every public achievement of this emperor would suffice to illustrate a long reign. He restored the majesty of the empire, made ihe people under him constantly happy, and conquered all his ene- mies, who were equally the enemies of the state. He subdued the Goths, drove back the Huns and Sarmatians, kept the Persians in constant awe, overcame two powerful usurpers, checked the Arian and Macedonian heresies, almost completed the destruction of idol- atry without shedding a drop of blood, and published a great num- ber of laws so wise and excellent, as to place him far above the wisest legislators of antiquity. Having nothing in view but the hap- piness of mankind, he commanded by a formal edict, that, on Easter- day, all persons detained in prison, whose dismission would not en- danger the interest and good order of society, should be set at liberty; and it was on this occasion that he added the memorable words al- ready mentioned: "O that I could even raise the dead to life!" In his countenance and all his deportment, Theodosius was digni- fied, but at the same time, cheerful, mild, courteous and affable. He always kept himself free, not only from gross vices, but even from those which most easily find admission to the heart, such as ambition and vain glory ; he never undertook any war, unless through necessity, and though eminently skilled and successful in the command of ar- mies, always blamed the proud spirit of Marius, Sylla, and other such conquerors, whom he said it should be his constant endeavor to re- semble as little as possible. His inclinations were naturally violent, but kept under restraint; and, if he committed any fault contrary to his usual clemency and meekness, he soon repaired it in a manner which did honor to his character. Hence the Holy Fathers, eccle- siastical authors and councils, are unanimous in proposing Theodo- sius as a model for Christian princes. Pagan writers themselves, with the exception of the furious Zozimus, agree in praising his ex- traordinary merit and qualifications; Aurelius Victor, in particular, does not hesitate to represent him as an accomplished hero, far supe- rior to Trajan, whose eminent qualities he possessed without any of his vices. The same historian adds that the virtue of TheodositiB continually increased with his prosperity and victories; a praise which, to every reflecting mind, must appear the most honorable en- comium. A. D. 395-423. HONORIUS, ETC. 123 HONORIUS AND ARCADIUS. A. D. 395423. FROM the death of Theodosius must be dated the final decline of the empire. He had maintained it in its former greatness ; he left it in all its glory to his sons Honorius and Arcadius; but he could not transmit to these young princes his consummate prudence, valor and ability. Their want of talent, resolution and energy left them almost constantly exposed to the insults of barbarians, and to the ambitious intrigues of their own ministers. Arcadius, the elder of the two, was emperor of the East. His reign, which lasted thirteen years, offers nothing remarkable, except the ravages of the Huns in Thrace, and of the Isaurians in Lesser Asia; the power, ambition and miserable death of Rufinus, Eutro- pius and Gainas, who successively supplanted each other at court; and the unjust persecution carried on by jealous enemies against the illustrious St. John Chrysostom, archbishop of Constantinople, who died in exile (A. D. 407), after having filled the whole world with the fame of his golden eloquence. Arcadius died one year after him, and was succeeded by his son Theodosius the younger. The reign of Honorius in the western part of the empire, was longer and still more disastrous than that of his brother Arcadius. Its various calamities originated chiefly in the vacillating conduct of his prime minister Stilico, who, having raised himself to that high station by important services under Theodosius afterwards listened only to the suggestions of his unbounded ambition ; defending or be- traying the state, as best suited his own interest. At first, all things were prosperous under him; he destroyed two numerous armies of Goths and other barbarians who had invaded Italy, one conducted by Alaric, whom he obliged to retreat beyond the Alps (A. D. 402) ; the other commanded by Radagasius, who lost nearly all his troops and was himself slain near Florence (405). Soon ifter this defeat, other hordes of barbarians made a successful irruption into the empire, and crossing the Rhine (406), began to conquer its richest provinces, encouraged, it is believed, by Stilico himself. The design of that ambitious man seems to have been to throw insuperable difficulties in the way of Honorius, in order to undermine his power, if he would not consent to resign his crown. To convince Honorius of the plot contrived by his minister, was no easy task; at length, he opened his eyes, and was so readily seconded by the troops, that the traitor and all his partisans suffered capital punishment, most of them however without the orders of the empe- ror, who endeavored, but in vain, to check the fury of the soldiery. 124 MODERN HISTORY. Part IT. The detection of the intrigues of Stilico did not stop the progress of the Barbarians. Whilst the Alemanni on the one side, and the Burgundians on the other, occupied the territories along the Rhine, the Suevi, Alans and Vandals proceeded farther, and during three successive years plundered the different provinces and cities of Gaul. After this, in 409, they passed over to Spain, where they settled, the Suevi in the north, the Alans in the west, and the Vandals in the south, the eastern part only being left to the Romans. But the most formidable of all the enemies of Rome was Alaric, the leader of the Goths. Driven away some years before, he re-en- tered Italy with an ardent desire of avenging his defeat. Honorius and his court, whose residence was then at Ravenna near the Adri- atic sea, opposed to him only protracted negotiations and ineffectual promises, a mode of defence more calculated to inflame the indigna- tion, than to check the progress of a warlike chieftain. Rome was besieged, and after enduring the horrors of a cruel famine, was taken by surprise and treason during the night. The conqueror gave it up to be plundered by his soldiers, who accordingly spreading them- selves through every quarter of the city, soon produced a scene of general desolation ; many buildings were fired, and a furious tempest served at the same time, to increase the devastation spread by the barbarians (A. D. 410). Thus did Rome lose, in the space of a few hours, that power, splendor and magnificence which had made it, for so mauy ages, the first city in the world. Numbers of its inhabitants fled in all direc- tions, even to the most distant provinces, carrying every where the news of the great catastrophe of which they were the victims. This event was, even in countries the most remote, a subject of deep grief; and the sight of so many illustrious families now reduced to the utmost distress, excited universal commiseration, as St. Augustine and St. Jerome relate.* Still Rome, not having been totally destroyed, continued to subsist, and even repaired in a great measure its losses . but being once debased by the Goths, it became a sort of by-word among other barbarians, and its majesty as capital of the Roman empire, had departed for ever. Alaric did not think proper to retain his conquest, but setting out after a few days, he pursued his march without obstacle towards the southern extremity of Italy. His intention was, to pass over the strait into Sicily, and thence to Africa, where he thought he could obtain a * St. August. De Civ. Dei. lib. I, c. 33 ; St. Jerome, Epist . ad Principi- am, et lib. Ill, in Ezech. They themselves were visited by several of these noble fugitives ; and they showed, by their conduct on this occasion, that the charity which animated their hearts, was not less admirable than the genius and learning which have raised them to the first rank among the doctors of the Church. A. u. 30>-423. HONORIUS, ETC. 125 more desirable and permanent settlement; but a violent storm coun- teracted his measures, and death put an end to all his designs. He was carried off by a violent disease, and left the conduct of the Goths to Ataulphus, his brother-in-law, and the faithful companion of his victorious campaigns. His followers regretted him as the hero of their nation, and the chief author of the great power and influence which they had acquired in western Europe. According to the cus- tom of northern barbarians, of concealing the sepulchres of extraor- dinary men, they changed for a while the course of a small river near Cozenza, and having dug a deep grave in the bed of the channel, deposited there the body of Alaric with many valuable objects, and afterwards made the waters resume their former course. The Goths now returned to the north of Italy, and advanced into Gaul, where they had to encounter many obstacles in their endeavors to effect a settlement : at length, they were permitted by the Romans, under certain conditions, to occupy the provinces contiguous to the Pyrenees. For this advantageous treaty the Gothic nation was indebted chiefly to the abilities of king Vallia, the third successor of Alaric. About this time also, the Romans began to lose their influence in Great Britain. Honorius having recalled from that distant province its legionary troops .whose presence was necessary to repel dangers nearer home, the whole country remained exposed to the inroads of the Picts and Scots, two tribes inhabiting the north of the island. Some troops, it is true, were again sent to assist the Britons and drive back their foes ; but as these succors were granted only for a time, the restless Picts and Scots renewed their depredations with success and perseverance for nearly forty years, so as to render the country as miserable, during that lime, as it had been prosperous under the Romans. To the close of the career of Honorius many writers trace back the beginning of the French monarchy. According to them, the Franks, a powerful German tribe, crossed the Rhine in the year 420 with Pharamond their king, and wrested the north of Gaul from the Ro- mans ; but others believe that their first real settlement upon the Ro- man territories must be referred only to the year 438 or 440, during the reign of King Clodio. Be this as it may, it is certain that in ge- neral the affairs of the empire, during the latter part of the reign of Honorius, wore a more favorable appearance. Several provinces were delivered from the yoke of usurpation and tyranny, and a suc- cessful check was given for a time to the progress of the barbarians. The principal author of these happy changes was Constantius, a man of uncommon ability and virtue which he displayed during ten years by the prudence with which he directed political operations, and by 11* 126 MODERN HISTORY. Parr. IL the glory which he acquired in commanding the armies. As a re- ward for so many services, Honorius, besides giving him his sister Placidia in marriage, conferred on him the title of Augustus, a title which he did not enjoy more than seven months; he received it in February, and died in the following September (A. D. 421). Not long after (in 423,) Honorius himself died at the age of thirty-nine, after a reign of twenty-eight years : a prince, not altogether unworthy of esteem, if we consider his beneficent intentions and private virtues ; but certainly unfit, from his want of resolution and capacity, to govern the state, especially in the calamitous and disorderly times in which he lived. VALENTINIAN III, IN THE WEST; IN THE EAST, THEO- DOSIUS II OR THE YOUNGER. A. D. 424455. THE late emperor having left no children, his crown was, with some difficulty transferred to young Valentinian, his nephew, the son of Placidia and Constantius. This young prince received from his mother a religious education, but profited so little by it, that he is more known in history for his effeminate and dissolute life, than for any active share that he took in the important transactions of his reign. Theodosius the younger still reigned in the East, as he had done since the death of his father Arcadius. During his childhood, the state was governed first by the prefect Anthemius, a man truly de- serving of his high office, which he held six years. This able min- ister repelled foreign invasions, fortified the frontiers, built new walls around Constantinople, and procured for the empire a profound peace. Afterwards, Theodosius being yet too young and inexperi- enced, the governing power was intrusted to his sister Pulcheria, who, though but sixteen years old, already evinced extraordinary prudence and a vigor of mind equal to her piety. At home, she pre- served good order and tranquillity, and at the same time caused the Roman name to be respected abroad. A new war having become necessary against the Persians, all its operations and various cam- paigns were so successfully conducted, that King Varanes V saw iiimself obliged, after many defeats, to consent to a treaty of peace on ihe conditions dictated by the court of Constantinople. Unfortunately, Theodosius did not always act conformably to the views and counsels of his sister, but suffered his mind to be prepos- sessed against her by the intrigues of crafty and ambitious persons, desirous to have a greater share in the government. From that time, the prosperity of the state rapidly declined. Many provinces were A. . -124-455. VALENTINIAN III, ETC. 127 laid waste by the barbarians on different sides, and the honor of the empire was trampled uncler foot by Attila, the fierce king of the Huns, who forced Theodosius to pay him an annual tribute equally onerous and disgraceful. These evils originated in the weakness and indolence of the emperor himself; for, though he possessed the quali- fications of a good scholar, and most of the virtues that can be de- sired in a private man, he knew neither how to govern and command, nor how to choose good ministers and generals. The West from a variety of causes, continued still to be the theatre of more complicated and calamitous events. There existed, at this time, two men whose talents did equal honor to the state, viz., General .ZEtius, and Count Boniface, governor of Africa. The for- mer was justly renowned as a commander and a politician, but so high-minded, that he could not brook the idea of any one being his equal in talents and glory. The latter, as brave and skilful perhaps asuiEtius himself, surpassed him in moderation and disinterestedness; still he had not fortitude enough to submit patiently to great injustice. JEtius, whose design was to ruin Boniface, secretly wrote to him under the mask of friendship, to let him know that he was in great danger; the empress Placidia being now so incensed against him, that, in case of his return to court, his death would inevitably follow. On the other hand, the artful impostor persuaded the empress that Boniface sought to make himself independent in Africa, adding, with great protestations of zeal for her interest, that the only prudent course she could adopt was to recall him without delay, and, should he refuse to obey her order, to treat him as a rebel. Placidia, not suspecting any treachery, followed this advice without further inquiry. Boniface received a summons to leave Africa; but as he himself entertained strong suspicions of the designs of the court, instead of obeying, he raised troops to oppose those sent against him, and thus, by the very means which he selected to prove his inno- cence, became really guilty. Not long after, both he and Placidia discovered the imposture of -ZEtius, but its evil consequences were now irreparable. 'Boniface had already called to his aid and intro- duced into Africa the Vandals of Spain, whom he could not after- wards expel, when he returned to a sense of his duty. These barba- rians, having at their head Genseric, a warlike and sanguinary prince, overran the whole country with the rapidity of a torrent. Those rich and fertile provinces, whose inhabitants had provoked by their cor- ruption and vices the wrath of God, were soon deluged with blood and covered with ashes. The Vandals established in the midst of these ruins of the Roman power, the seat of their own domination, which lasted one hundred and six years (from 428 to 534), when Africa was restored to the empire by the arms of Belisanus. 128 MODERN HISTORY. Tart 1L In the meanwhile,, the empress durst not punish the perfidy of ^Etius^ who was more powerful than herself. All she could do against him was to bestow new dignities and all possible marks of distinction on Count Boniface, with whom she was now perfectly reconciled. This was adding fuel to the flame ; and, as /Etius considered the increase of authority in his rival as derogatory from his own, the two generals took the field in support of their respective pretensions. In the battle that ensued, Boniface was victorious; but his success cost him his life : he received a dangerous wound, of which he died at the expira- tion of three months (A. D. 432). No longer seeing a rival in his way, ^Etius thought of repairing, by glorious services, the disasters which his jealousy had brought upon the state. He, from that time, showed himself an insuperable barrier against all the attacks of foreign enemies, defeated the Goths in the south of Gaul, the Franks in the north, and other barbarians near the frontiers of Germany and Italy. Shortly after these achieve- ments, a new and most furious storm arose from the East, which engaged all his attention and required all the exertions of his courage. Attila, king of the Huns, and leader of an immense multitude of barbarians gathered from the north of Asia and Europe, intended to ransom and plunder the western, as he had done the eastern pro- vinces of the empire. He advanced towards Gaul with an army of five hundred, or, according to some authors, of seven hundred thou- sand men, leaving every where so dreadful marks of his passage, that he was justly called, and called himself the Scourge of God. His very countenance was terrific: he had an enormous head, small and bright eyes, a flat nose, a swarthy complexion, and he appeared, in all his deportment, haughty, fierce and threatening. In the year 451, this terrible conqueror crossed the Rhine, and pene- trated into the heart of Gaul, sacking and burning all the towns in his way. At last, he was stopped before the walls of 'Orleans by a vigorous and lasting resistance. In the meanwhile, ^Etius, who had induced the Visigoths and the Franks to unite with him against the common enemy, was hastening to the relief of the town; he arrived just in time to save it from destruction. The Huns, having broken the gates, were beginning to enter and plunder the city, when ^Etius, coming from the opposite direction, suddenly appeared with his army, and immediately charged the barbarians. Their surprise and terror were equal to the suddenness and violence of the attack. Those who had already lost themselves in the streets, were slain or compelled to fly, whilst Atti'a, foaming with rage, endeavored to rally the fugitives without the city. He then began to retreat towards the Rhine; ^Etius closely followed him at the head of his troops and allies, and overtook him in the vast plains of Chalons in Champaigne. A. D. 424-455. VALENT1NIAN III, ETC. 129 Europe had never beheld two armies so numerous as these in presence of one another ; the army of -ZEtius, it is said, was almost equal to that of Attila. The whole plain,, as far as the eye could reach, being filled with a countless multitude of battalions bristling with iron and brass, exhibited for some moments a most imposing spectacle, which was soon changed into a frightful scene by the fury of the combatants. The king of the Huns animated his troops by word and example; ^Sltius displayed that consummate skill and intrepidity, for which he has been surnamed the last of the Romans. Like him, his soldiers fought with wonderful courage; still, it ap- pears that the Visigoths won, on that famous day, the prize of valor, and had the principal share in the victory. After having broken and routed the enemy's left wing, they fell with such irresistible fury upon the centre of the Huns, that Attila himself was in great dan- ger. Frightened, for the first time in his life, he abandoned to the Romans and their allies the field of battle strewed with one hundred and eighty thousand, some say, nearly three hundred thousand dead bodies. Horrible indeed must the slaughter have been, since, accord- ing to the common report of historians, a little neighboring stream was swelled like a torrent, by the quantity of blood which flowed into its channel. The battle having finished only at dusk, the confederates were not certain of their advantage till the day following. The joy of the vic- tory which they had gained was damped by the consideration of their own loss, and particularly by the death of king Theodoric, who had been killed whilst bravely fighting at the head of his Visigoths. His body was found among heaps of the slain, and buried with great honors on the field of battle. Then ^tius dismissed his allies, in the just hope that the Roman militia would now be sufficient to drive the enemy from Gaul; nor was he disappointed: Attila, though still proud and eager for revenge, removed his camp, and retired beyond the Rhine. No later than the ensuing year (452), this undaunted conqueror reappeared, and revenged himself for the terrible blow he had re- ceived in Gaul, by plundering and laying waste the northern part of Italy. He first laid siege to the important and well fortified city of Aquileia. This celebrated town had, fifty-two years before, repelled the combined efforts of Radagasius and Alaric, and now resisted for three months all the attacks of Attila. The Huns were dispirited, and their leader himself began to think of abandoning the siege, when he perceived storks flying with their little ones from the town into the country. Struck at the circumstance, and skilfully turning it to his advantage, he told his soldiers that, without doubt, the precipitate re- treat of those birds from Aquileia was an omen of the city's impending 130 MODERN HISTORY. Fnrt II ruin. This was enough to revive the courage of the Huns; they renewed the attack with fresh ardor, battered the walls with all their machines, and having made a large breach, rushed into the place with a fury proportioned to the resistance which they had experi- enced. The garrison and inhabitants were either put to the sword or reduced to slavery, and the town was consigned to the flames. This conquest enabled the Huns to advance without obstacle; ^Itius, whose forces were now quite inferior to theirs, did not dare oppose the march of the main body of their troops, but contented himself with cutting in pieces the scouts and exploring detachments. Pouring into the fertile plains of Italy, they destroyed all before them with fire and sword, sacked Milan, destroyed Padua with many other cities, and depopulated entire provinces. The whole country on the left side of the river Po, was one continued scene of carnage and devastation. Such of the inhabitants as had time to avoid this destructive storm, retired into the small islands at the extremity of the Adriatic Gulf, where they laid the foundation of the noble city and republic of Venice. The weak emperor Valentinian was on the point of abandoning Italy, and the Romans, in the utmost terror, expected soon to see the barbarians before their gates. In this general consternation, Pope St. Leo, at the request of the emperor and of the whole city of Rome, went to meet Attila, in hopes of mollifying his rage and preventing his further progress. Avienus, a man of consular dignity, and Trigetius, who had been prefect of Rome, were deputed to accompany him in this embassy. They found the haughty monarch at Ambuleium near Mantua. Contrary to the general expectation, he received the Pope with great honor, and gave him a favorable audience : St. Leo, on his part, ad- dressed the barbarian with so much energy, eloquence and dignity, that he gained the admiration of all, and especially of Attila, who, on his proposal, concluded a treaty of peace with the empire, under the condition of an annual tribute. The king immediately com- manded his army to cease hostilities, and soon after recrossed the Alps, to retire into his own dominions near the Danube ; but, on his way home, he was seized with a violent vomiting of blood, of which he died in 453. The Huns buried him with the same honors and precautions, wherewith the Goths had buried their king Alaric forty- three years before. As to the vast empire which that extraordinary man had founded, it disappeared with him, in consequence of the civil wars that broke out among his children and vassals. JEtius did not outlive him more than one year, being destroyed by an intrigue similar to that, which he himself had formerly used against Count Boniface. A charge of conspiracy having been se- cretly brought against him at court, he was summoned to the palace; A. D. 45^-476. MARCIAN, ETC. 131 he obeyed, and on his arrival, the emperor slew him with a sword. By this crime, the blind and wretched Valentinian deprived his per- son and crown of the only defender whom he might successfully oppose to his numerous enemies. One of his attendants gave him to understand this fully, when, being asked what he thought of the death of ^Etius, he answered that the emperor had cut off his own right hand with the left. A few months after (A. D. 455), Va- lentinian was murdered in the midst of Rome by some discontented officers, the chief of whom was a certain Maximus, who immediate- seized upon the imperial throne. That unhappy prince had lived thirty-six, and reigned about thirty yearsj if he may be said to have reigned, who was almost constantly a slave to the interested will of others as well as to his own passions, which he never controlled. Notwithstanding his vices and the faults of his government, Valen- tinian was regretted by many persons : his widow, Eudoxia, carried her resentment against the murderers so far, as to call the Vandals from Africa to avenge his death. No proposal could be more pleas- ing to that nation always eager for pillage; they hastened to cross the sea with a numerous fleet, and going up the Tiber, entered Rome before the close of the same year 455. At this time, St. Leo was not able to avert the storm, but he succeeded at least in obtaining from Genseric, though an Arian and a violent persecutor of the Catholics in his own kingdom, that the buildings of the city and the lives of the inhabitants should be spared. Accordingly, the Vandals content- ed themselves with taking a certain number of prisoners together with the riches of Rome, and returned to Carthage loaded with booty. MARCIAN. LEO THE THRACIAN, IN THE EAST. LAST PERIOD AND FALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE. 455 476. THEODOSIUS II died in the year 450, of a fall from his horse, at the age of fifty, after a reign of forty- two years. No one was better qualified to succeed him than his sister Pulcheria ; still, as no woman had ever reigned alone in either empire, she married and proclaimed emperor, Marcian, a brave and virtuous officer, who by his merit had raised himself from the condition of a common soldier to a conspicu- ous rank in both the army and the state. No sooner was he acknowledged emperor, than he began to rescue the empire from that state of ignominy arid dejection to which it had been reduced by the barbarians. When Attila, before setting out for his expedition into Gaul, sent to the court of Constantinople to re- 132 MODERN HISTORY. Part n ceive the payment of the annual tribute stipulated by TheoJosius II, Marcian answered the deputies that, reserving gold for his friends, he had nothing but iron and steel for his enemies. Towards his sub- jects he behaved as a true father. Being surrounded by excellent counsellors of his own choice, he devoted with them all his care to restore security and abundance, procure the exact administration of justice, remove unworthy men from public employments, diminish the taxes, check the course of public and private calamities, relieve the poor and distressed, in a word, to bestow benefits on all, as far as prudence and the state of the exchequer permitted. The object that chiefly engaged Marcian's attention was the cause of the true faith, which demanded his cooperation against various enemies in the East. Of late, a succession of violent storms had been raised against it by two opposite heresies, the Nestorian, which denied the unity of person in Christ, and the Eutychian, which at- tacked the distinction of his two natures. The former of these errors, both equally hostile to the mystery of the Incarnation, had been al- ready condemned by the general council of Ephesus, held in 431 ; against the latter, the council of Chalcedon, the fourth of the general councils, was, by the authority of Pope St. Leo, and through the care of Marcian, assembled in 451. Besides renewing the condemnation of the Nestorian, it solemnly proscribed the Eutychian doctrines; and such of the abettors of either as refused to submit, were considered as no longer belonging to the Church of Christ: they henceforth formed separate societies, which are still extant in Asia. Marcian was not less distinguished for his domestic virtues, than for his public conduct. Nothing appeared in him but sincere piety and modesty, beneficence, disinterestedness, and admirable purity of life. His reign, deservedly called the golden age of the Eastern em- pire, was, if not the most conspicuous in every respect, at least the most prosperous and irreprehensible. Unfortunately, it did not last more than six years and five months ; this excellent emperor died in January 457, at the age of sixty-five. Leo, the Thracian, who succeeded him, and reigned about seven- teen years, also shewed great zeal for religion. He was well fitted for the sovereign power, though not so talented or successful as his predecessor. A powerful fleet which he sent against Genseric, was entirely defeated ; but he gained signal victories over the barbarians of the north, and, in general, maintained his dominions in that state of respectability in which they had been left by Marcian. He died in the year 474, and Genseric, that terrible conqueror whom we have often mentioned, followed him to the grave three years later, after having during half a century inflicted on the Romans, in evrry part of their dominions, all the injury in his power. A. D. 455-476. MARCIAtf, ETC. 133 The Western empire was now in the last stage of its existence. After the death of Valentinian III, and of the usurper Maxirnus (A. D. 455), Avitus, a senator of great repute, was acknowledged emperor in their place: still, the greater portion of the authority SOOH fell into the hands of Ricimer, a general of Suevian extraction, who was equally capable of noble deeds and great crimes ; prudent and eloquent, skil- ful and intrepid, but devoid of true honor, fidelity and gratitude, and guided only by his ambition. He might, at three different times, have assumed the purple; but he preferred to confer it on others, whom he raised and afterwards destroyed in the most capricious manner. Within the short space of twenty-one years, no fewer than eight emperors successively appeared and disappeared; viz. Avitus, whose reign commenced in 455. Majorien 457. Libius-Severus 461. Anthemius 467. Olybrius 472. Glycerius 473. Julius-Nepos 474. Romulus-Agustulus 475. Some of these emperors were men of great merit, and, in more fa- vorable circumstances, might have reigned with glory. Majorien es- pecially, and nearly the same might be said of Anthemius, was not less commendable for his moral and mental qualities than for his mili- tary acquirements ; but these two emperors incurred the displeasure of Ricimer, by not leaving the government in his hands, and were put to death by that ambitious and cruel minister. ' Notwithstanding so many revolutions and enormities, Ricimer vigorously repulsed the various foes who were striving to complete the dismemberment of the empire. Death alone put a stop to his career of crimes and victories (A. D. 472). The last emperor of the West, by a singular coincidence, \>ore the names both of the founder of the city (Romulus), and of the founder of the empire of Rome (Augustus); being called Romulus-Augus- tus, or Augustulus (on account of his youth). At that time, the Romans, blended with other nations which continually poured into their territory, had no longer any attachment either for the imperial government, or for emperors who could not defend them against their enemies. Odoacer, king of the Heruli, taking advantage of the apathy of the people, easily overthrew a tottering throne, the fall of \vhich was accelerated by its own weakness. He attacked Augustulus in Ravenna, and, having made himself master of the town, deprived him of the purple, though, through compassion for his age, he spared 134 MODERN HISTORY. ,,. m . his life, and even granted him an honorable retreat near Naples. The conqueror found no greater difficulty in subduing Pavia, Rome, and all Italy, of which he was proclaimed king (A. D. 476). Thus was the Roman empire destroyed in the West, twelve hun- dred and twenty-nine years after the building of Rome, five hundred and seven after the battle of Actium. Its fall, long since prepared by the weakness of many emperors and the despotism of armies, by civil wars and foreign invasions, was scarcely noticed in the world; it dis- appeared without any violent commotion, like a man full of years, who dies of decrepitude. The Eastern empire, being less exposed to foreign attacks, and better defended by its capital and frontiers, sub- sisted yet for many centuries, during which its history is connected with that of nations of more recent origin; but it never attained the power, splendor and wealth, which had distinguished ancient Rome. Amidst so many disturbances and revolutions, religion alone fully maintained her influence and dignity. Far from yielding to the vio lence of the storms which shook the social world to its very centre, she exercised her divine power over the very conquerors of Rome, and, being founded upon an immovable rock by the hand of God himself, she triumphed over them, as she had formerly triumphed over her pagan persecutors. Even at this disastrous and turbulent period, she began to tame and civilize those fierce barbarians who before ac- knowledged no law but that of the sword. Divine Providence seemed to have permitted their irruptions into the Roman provinces for no other view than to destroy, through their means, the last remains of idolatry, and effect their own happy conversion to the laws of the Gospel. On the other hand, the inhabitants of the invaded countries were led to understand, in the midst of their sufferings, that all was not lost for them, but that they would find a sure refuge in the Church of Christ. PART III. FROM THE DOWNFALL OF THE WESTERN EMPIRE (A. D. 476), TO ITS BEVIVAL UNDER CHARLEMAGNE (A. D. 800). FOUNDATION OF THE PRINCIPAL AND MOST CELEBRATED STATES OF EUROPE. FROM the overthrow of the Western empire we may date the foundation of the principal states now extant in Europe. The northern tribes by whose multiplied efforts its entire ruin was effected or accelerated, vied with each other in taking speedy possession of its fairest provinces. The conquests of the Vandals and of the Heruli having been already mentioned, we have to speak at present of the still more successful and celebrated establishment of the Anglo-Saxons in Great Britain, of the Visigoths in Spain, of the Franks in Gaul, and of the Ostrogoths in Italy. I. ANGLO-SAXONS IN GREAT BRITAIN. HENGIST. 449 488. EVER since the time when the Roman troops were totally with- drawn from Great Britain, the Picts and Scots seized every favorable opportunity to renew their inroads. District after district became a scene of devastation, and the misery of the natives increased every day, till finding themselves destitute of all resources at home, they at length resolved to call in as auxiliaries a body of Saxons, who, having sailed from the north of Germany, were then cruising in the channel along the coast in quest of plunder. Adventurers like these could not fail to comply with a request which they justly presumed would turn to their own advantage. For six years (449 -455) they fought the battles of the natives with great fidelity and success. But 136 MODERN HISTORY. Part II L having by this time invited great numbers of their countrymen, to whom the Angles, another German tribe, willingly joined themselves, they excited the jealousy and alarms of the Britons, who refused them an increased supply of provisions. This was the signal for a war which proved most fatal to the liber- ty of the natives. The Anglo-Saxons conquered them in many battles, and began to bring under subjection the country which they had just defended against the Scottish invaders. Their first settle- ment upon the British territory was that of Kent, which the valiant chieftain Hengist gained and secured by a series of bloody victories, from the year 455 to 473, and which, at his death, in 488, he left in a prosperous condition to his son JEsca. The work of conquest was continued after him, and, though the Britons fought with great valor, and sometimes with success, for the independence of their country, their efforts ultimately proved fruitless, and the greater part of the island was subjugated by the Anglo-Saxons, who, changing its name, laws and constitution, established in it seven independent kingdoms, commonly called the Heptarchy. By this conquest, the whole of tlTe country was replunged into the state of barbarism from which it had been rescued by the Ro- mans. It remained in that state until the close of the sixth century, when its conquerors received the light of the Gospel through the pious zeal of St. Augustine and forty other missionaries sent from Rome by Pope St. Gregory the Great. The natives, as soon as they found resistance useless, h>d with their most valuable effects to the hills and forests, to escape from the exterminating sword of the inva- ders. Multitudes found a secure asylum in the craggy and moun tainous districts of the country of Wales, which they henceforth occupied for many centuries. Others, crossing the ocean, landed on the western extremity of Armorica in Gaul, where they made per- manent settlements, and gave to the new tract they inhabited the name of Brittany (Bretagne), which it still retains. II. VISIGOTHS IN SPAIN. EVARIC. A. D. 466484. THE conquests of the Visigoths, or Western Goths, in Spain, were more rapid than those of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain. Their king Evaric, taking advantage of the weakness and continual change of the last Roman emperors, sent a powerful army from the south of Gaul to the nearest provinces beyond the Pyrenees. The success of AD. 4G6-481. VISIGOTHS IN SPAIN, ETC. 13? this expedition was astonishing: the very strongest towns opened their gates, and the natives, defeated in a great battle, abandoned a considerable portion of their country to the enemy. Upon this, Evaric himself arrived at the head of fresh troops; the war was prosecuted with redoubled vigor; nothing could resist his arms, nor impede his progress, and with the exception of a few northern pro- vinces occupied by the Suevians, the whole peninsula submitted to his power (A. D. 473). This warlike prince subdued also the portion of Aquitania not yet in his possession, and many other provinces in Gaul. The name of Evaric was now respected abroad: his court which he established at Bordeaux, beheld ambassadors from all the neighboring nations pay- ing homage to him as to the mightiest monarch of western Europe; and this high reputation he enjoyed until his death. But, besides being a powerful conqueror and the founder of the kingdom of the Visigoths in Spain, Evaric wished also to be the legislator of his people. Until then, the Gothic legislation was very limited, consisting only of some statutes of their kings, which had little authority among them, and were frequently disregarded in prac- tice. Evaric published a collection of those ancient laws, and added to them new regulations peculiarly adapted to the time, place and other circumstances. Well aware that on their faithful observance depended his personal safety as well as the prosperity of the state, he carefully enforced their execution, and thus began to accustom the Visigoths to the duties and practices of social life. Evaric died at Aries in 484, after a glorious reign of eighteen years. His uncommon talent for war and civil administration would have still more entitled him to the praises of posterity, had he not, through ambition, stained his hand with the blood of his brother Theodoric II, and, through sectarian intolerance, treated his Catholic subjects with excessive rigor, he himself being an obstinate Arian. Great however were the civil benefits he bestowed on his own people; the conquest of the peninsula, especially, was so much the more fortunate for the Visigoths, as they were on the point of being expelled from their pos- sessions in Gaul by a still greater conqueror, and of being compelled to confine themselves to their newly acquired and more lasting king- dom of Spain. 12* 138 MODERN HISTORY. Part IIL $ III. FRANKS IN GAUL. CLOVIS. A. D. 481511. This conqueror was Clovis, king of the Franks, who, for the mag- nitude and important consequences of his exploits, is justly considered the real founder of the French monarchy. The Franks were not at first a single nation distinct from all others, but made up of several Ger- man tribes which had, long before, entered into a confederacy for the support of their independence. During the greater part of the fifth century, under four successive kings, they made frequent irruptions into Gaul, and took possession of its northern frontiers ; Clovis, more enterprising, undertook, at the early age of twenty years, to bring it entirely under his power. His first opponent was Syagrius, a brave general, who had formed a small state for himself in the north of Gaul on the ruins of the Ro- man empire. Clovis attacked him near Soissons (A. D. 486), and gained so complete a victory, that Syagrius, being left almost alone in his party, fled for refuge to the court of Alaric II, king of the Visi- goths. Nor could this asylum save him from the hands of his vic- torious enemy. Clovis compelled Alaric, by threats and terrors, to deliver up the unfortunate general whom he put to death, and, by this act of cruel policy, remained in full possession of his territory. After the lapse of some years, the French king was obliged, in con- sequence of a sudden invasion of the Alemanni, to carry his arms to the banks of the Rhine. An obstinate battle was fought at Tolbiac, near Cologne, in which the Franks, almost entirely routed in the be- ginning, remained in the end masters of the field. It was after this unexpected triumph, which Clovis himself attributed to a special pro- tection of the true God whom he had invoked during the contest, that both he and his nation, abandoning the worship of idols, embraced the Christian faith (A. D. 496). During the course of the ensuing years, Clovis, always active and fond of conquests, continued to enlarge his empire. Either by force of arms, or by negotiations and treaties, he obliged the Arborici (inha- bitants of Belgium) to acknowledge him for their king, subdued Ba- varia, and rendered the Burgundians his tributaries. This rapid in- crease of power in the French monarch was a source of uneasiness and alarm for his neighbors, particularly for Alaric, king of the Visi- goths : fearing for his own territory, he raised troops for its defence. Nothing could be more consonant than this with the designs of Clo- vis, as it afforded him an occasion of declaring an open war, and *. i>. 481-^511. FRANKS IN GAUL ETC. 139 striking at once a signal blow. He marched with his usual rapidity, crossed the river Loire, carne up with the army of the Visigoths near Poitiers, and forced them to engage in a general battle (A. D. 507). After a sanguinary contest, victory declared in favor of Clovis. With his own hand he struck Alaric dead ; the Visigoths then fled with all possible speed, their conquerors pursuing them in every direction. In less than two years, Clovis subdued nearly all their possessions between the Loire and the Pyrenees, and thus nearly extinguished their domination in Gaul ; he would even have carried his advantages farther, had not a considerable body of his troops been defeated, near Aries, by those of Theodoric, king of Italy. Still, this defeat did not deprive Clovis of the principal fruit of his labors. He preserved his former conquests, and returning to the north of Gaul, or rather France, as we shall henceforth call it, fixed his residence in Paris. The extraordinary reputation he had gained, being now far spread, and causing a great sensation even at the court of Constantinople, the emperor Anastasius sent him the ornaments of the consulship, as a mark of his esteem and alliance. Unfortunately, Clovis did not preserve his glory pure and entire to the end, but sul lied it by several acts of cruelty against the princes of his own kin- dred, whose estates he wished to invade. He died in 511, at the age of forty-five, after a reign of thirty years, leaving his kingdom to be divided among four sons: a mode of succession which was followed after him on different occasions, and became a source of numberless disasters and civil wars. Although the government of Clovis had been rather military and despotic, it evinced on many points a wise and skilful policy. He did not, barbarian like, expel the natives from the provinces which he subdued, nor deprive them of their liberty and all their property ; he only required that the lands of the country should be divided be- tween them and his followers ; whence it followed that the two nations, living and dwelling together upon the same soil, were soon blended into one people. He also published a code of laws, one of which declared women unfit to inherit such estates as had been ob- tained by arms and conquest ; and this gave rise to the fundamental regulation of the national constitution of France, according to which the French crown never devolved to women.* * That code was called the Salic law, from the tribe of the Salian Frank*. to which Clovis belonged. The article which settled the right of succes- sion, became subsequently, when understood of the succession to the throne, a proverb thus expressed : Le royaume de France ne iombe point en quenouille. 140 MODERN HISTORY. rtrt ri L $ IV. OSTROGOTHS IN ITALY. THEODORIC THE GREAT. (A. D. 493526). CLOVIS, notwithstanding his justly renowned exploits and legisla- tion, was neither the greatest warrior nor the ablest politician of his age, this praise being due rather to Theodoric, king of the eastern Goths or Ostrogoths. 7^is nation, after the dismemberment of Attila's empire, settled first in Pannonia near the Danube, but, being little satisfied with its residence, set out in 489 on an expedition against Italy. Odoacer, who was yet reigning there, did not fail to defend with courage a kingdom which he had now governed, during fourteen years, with great wisdom and glory. Still, victory every where followed the standard of Theodoric : three battles lost by Odoa- cer, and the vigor with which the Goths conducted the siege of the city of Ravenna where he had taken refuge, obliged him to come to an agreement with his conqueror. He was first treated with cor- diality ; till Theodoric, sacrificing justice and humanity to the cruel policy of the times, perfidiously put to death a prince worthy of a better fate (A. D. 493). But, if the Gothic monarch had recourse to so odious a means for the acquisition of a new kingdom, he on the other hand took the wisest and most efficient measures tp secure its possession. One of the most successful was, to enter into a permanent alliance with the neighboring princes. Some of them he compelled to live at peace with him; others he attached to his family and to himself by (he ties of affinity; with others, in fine, he assumed the lone of pa- rental authority, fully justified by his great wisdom and experience. " You are young," he wrote to them, " and stand in need of good advice. Your ambition and imprudent behavior afflict me, and I cannot see with indifference that you are ruled by your passions." He was guided by these wise counsels himself, taking care not to enlarge his dominions by rashly exposing the life of his people or violating the laws of equity. " Let others," said he, ft wage war for the sake of destruction and plunder; as for me, rny intention is, with the help of God, to conquer my enemies in such a manner, that the vanquished may be sorry for not having been before of the number of my subjects." No sooner did Theodoric see his power firmly established in Italy, than he undertook to civilize his people under the benign influence of its climate. He adopted for that purpose the Roman jurispru- dence, which he reduced to one hundred and fifty statutes, well A. D. 493-526. OSTROGOTHS IN ITALY, ETC. 141 calculated, by the prudent rules and judicious maxims with which they abounded, to promote the public utility. He wished the Italians and the Goths, after a new division of the lands, to consider them- selves not only as allies, but even as kinsmen and brothers, being governed upon the same principles and by one who looked upon himself as their common father. The only distinction established between them was, that the carrying of arms and the performance of military duty were reserved to the Goths, whilst civil employ- ments and trades were left to the Romans. During the whole course of his reign, Theodoric proved the impartial benefactor of the two nations, and became equally endeared to both. Though an Arian by birth and education, instead of persecuting the orthodox, like the Vandal kings of Africa, his cotemporaries, he on the contrary favored and protected them; and so firm was his conviction, acquired by experience, of the disinterestedness and charity of the Catholic bishops, that he usually applied to them for the distribution of his alms to the poor and the exercise of his liberality towards the pro- vinces. This great prince knew how to gather around him and select for his counsellors, persons the most conspicuous for their merit and ability, such as Boetius, Cassiodorus, etc. Boetius was a man of consular dignity, of noble feelings and superior genius, which shine forth in all his writings, especially in his five books de Consolation* Pkilosophice. Cassiodorus, who was not less distinguished for his learning and virtue, is proposed chiefly as the model of a zealous, active and disinterested minister of state. After a most laborious life at court, he retired into a pleasant solitude in Calabria, where he de- voted the remainder of his days to study, writing, and religious exer- cises, and died at the age of about one hundred years. Thus was literature, so long after the Augustan age, still culti- vated with great success in Italy ; and, whilst the Franks, the Bur- gundians, and the Visigoths, had scarcely begun to learn the princi- ples of civilization, the court of Theodoric was the centre of learning and politeness. His palace was constantly open to talents and merit. To him Rome was indebted for the rebuilding of its walls and the preservation of its ancient monuments; Ravenna, Pavia and other cities, were also repaired or embellished. He protected every useful enterprise, revived agriculture and commerce, and procured so perfect a security to social intercourse, that neither citizens nor travellers had any thing to fear, either in the towns or in the country. The empire which Theodoric had founded, and which, by im- proving every fair occasion, he almost continually enlarged, was vf-ry extensive. He reigned over Italy, Sicily, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Rhetia, Noricum, and some of the finest provinces of France ana 142 MODERN HISTORY. Part Hi Spain. But his glory, besides being already impaired by the unjust death of King Odoacer, was, like that of Clovis, much diminished by several subsequent acts of cruelty. Old age and infirmity made him suspicious. He listened to the slanders and false accusations oi jealous courtiers against the most respectable men of the state. Cas- siodorus resigned his offices, and left the court : Boetius, and Sym- machus, his father-in-law, suffered capital punishment, without being convicted of any crime, and the holy Pope John I, was thrown into prison, where he died after a painful confinement of several months. Remorse for these acts soon assailed Theodoric. His bitter grief for his late cruelties, produced a melancholy which accelerated his death. Most historians relate that, being one day at table, when a large fish had been served up, he imagined he saw in the dish the head of Symmachusj he withdrew terrified from the table, went to his bed, and expired, a prey to anguish and remorse, at the age of seventy-four years (A. D. 526). He had however sufficient time to proclaim, with the unanimous consent of those around him, his grand-son Athalaric for his successor, under the regency of Amala- sontes, mother of this young prince. The administration of Theodoric was, during thirty years (from 494 to 524), a model of excellent government in almost every respect. Having previously shown to the world what he could do on the field of battle, he appeared, all that time, a modest conqueror, a wise legislator, and a pacific monarch, who knew, by a happy mixture of severity and mildness, how to keep his victorious soldiers within the bounds of strict discipline, and to gain the hearts of his new sub- jects. When Belisarius conquered the Goths, he overthrew the statues of that great prince, but spared his sepulchre. It is yet extant in Ravenna, and attracts, by its elevation, the admiration of travellers. EMPERORS OP CONSTANTINOPLE. JUSTIN I. A. D 518527. WE must now revert to the Eastern empire, which began about this time to make a greater figure in the political world than it had done under its last sovereigns, Basiliscus, Zeno and Anastasius I. After them, Justin, an officer of obscure parentage, but renowned for hie valor, was judged worthy of the throne, at the advanced age of A. p. 518-4>27. JUSTIN i. 143 sixty-eight (A. D. 518). It is remarkable that this emperor knew neither how to read nor write, and still rendered important services to the state, during the nine years of his reign. Having natural talent and a sound mind, which he improved by experience and by asking counsel of other prudent men, he easily perceived the course to be followed in difficult affairs, and always acted with wisdom and equity. He took particular care, on the one hand, to appoint able minis- ters and virtuous magistrates, and, on the other, to afford seasonable relief to his people in their calamities and disasters, which were then uncommonly frequent. But a short time before his elevation, a tre- mendous earthquake had desolated several parts of Illyria. For some days, a chasm immensely deep, about twelve feet wide, and extending to the distance of thirty miles, threw out sparks and flames, and swallowed up trees, rocks and houses. Some years be- fore, a dreadful conflagration had consumed many buildings in Con- stantinople, among others, that which contained the public library consisting of one hundred and twenty thousand volumes. An in- valuable copy of the works of Homer, written in golden letters on the skin of a serpent one hundred and twenty feet long, was lost on this occasion. Again, in the years 525 and 526, similar accidents desolated or destroyed many cities, especially the great city of Antioch, the capi- tal of Syria. About noon of the twenty-ninth of May (526), a sud- den and violent shaking of the ground overthrew the houses in the western part of the town; and, as the earthquake quickly reached the other quarters, nearly all the buildings fell, at the same moment, with a frightful crash. To this first evil, fire added its ravages. A subterraneous furnace, the usual attendant of earthquakes, ignited the very soil; hot cinders were carried up by whirlwinds, and fell after- wards in the form of a fiery rain, which consumed the wood-work of the houses, whilst another fire, rising from the ground, augmented the conflagration. So unexpectedly did all those scourges come upon the inhabitants, that few of them could make their escape into the country ; and this great city, the most populous of the East, became all at once the common sepulchre of two hundred and fifty thousand persons. Most of them were crushed by the falling of the houses, or consumed by the flames ; but others met a fate which almost exceeds belief. Bands of robbers began to commit depredations in the midst of these scenes of destruction and death. Whilst numbers of unfortunate people, covered with bruises and wounds, were running in dismay through the streets and public places in order to avoid impending ruin, they met murderers, who cruelly deprived them of life and took possession 144 MODERN HISTORY. p Bti m . of their fortunes, and who, soon after, were themselves destroyed with their criminal booty. The deplorable spectacle of a city which barbarous conquerors have just taken by storm, would present but a faint idea of the deso- lation of Antioch. Some of the inhabitants, however, had the good fortune to escape from the ruins of their houses, under which they were for a time buried. Twenty or thirty days after, persons yet alive were taken from those sepulchres, where they had lived upon the victuals usually kept in families ; but a far greater number were found dead. This earthquake, the fifth that Antioch suffered since its foun- dation, was the most awful and disastrous. It lasted six days with uninterrupted violence, and during six months was felt at different times ; nor was the ground entirely settled till eighteen months after. The news of these calamitous events pierced the heart of the em- peror with grief. He presently despatched virtuous and trusty men, with considerable sums of money, to repair those cities which had suffered most, and rescue their surviving inhabitants from misery and despair; we are told that, in rebuilding Anlioch alone, he spent fifty millions of livres (ten or twelve millions of dollars). It was in the course of these occupations, so worthy of a sovereign, that Jus- tin closed his useful career (527). A short time before his death, he associated his nephew Justinian in the imperial power, and, by his demise, left this prince in a condition to raise to its proper height the edifice of glory of which he had laid the first foundation. GLORIOUS REIGN OF JUSTINIAN. A. D. 527565. THE reign of Justinian forms an interesting epoch in the history of the Greek empire. The enlarged views of this prince, the union of favorable circumstances, the highly cultivated state of the science of law, and the brilliant successes obtained in different wars, equally contributed to render it glorious. Justinian, on his elevation to the throne, resolved to reconquer the western provinces which formerly belonged to the Romans, and to improve the civil legislation. This latter design he executed with the assistance of the ablest civilians of his age, particularly the famous and learned questor Tribonian. There already existed, it is true, different collections of laws, published under Adrian, Theodosius II, etc.; but all of them were defective. To become well acquainted with the ancient jurisprudence, it was necessary to peruse two thou- sand volumes containing, amidst several wise enactments, many in- accuracies and obscure passages, and oven opposite and contradio JUSTINIAN. 145 tory statutes. Justinian undertook to introduce order into that chaos, by comprising in a work of moderate extent, both the general princi- ples of jurisprudence, and the best laws or judiciary sentences that had been promulgated before his time, during the space of thirteen hundred years. He first ordered a select collection to be made of the imperial sta- tutes, from the beginning of Adrian's reign. By the assiduity of Tribonian and his associates, the work was soon performed, and pub- lished under the name of the New or Justinian Code (A. D. 529). Alter three years more of immense labor, the Digest (Digestum), or Pandects (Pandcctie), appeared in fifty books, containing the most equitable ordinances of ancient legislators with the best decisions of lawyers or civilians, under proper divisions and titles. To render the study of these books easier and more useful, some introduction was ury ; this was also made, and four other books, called Institutes, were promulgated, which not only are the key to the Roman juris- prudent-, but even contain the fundamental principles of all legisla- tion. Of the different parts of the Justinian compilation, it is the best and most admirable. In fine, the emperor revised his Code, pub- lished it again more correctly in 534, and to the ordinances contained in it added a great number of new statutes, the collection of which, under the title novellas, completed what we call the Roman or the Civil Law. Such was the origin of that famous body of laws, which, notwith- standing some imperfections, is the most remarkable that human wisdom ever produced. It was gradually adopted in several coun- tries; and it is moreover from that abundant source of social princi- ples, that the present states of Europe derive the better portion or supply the deficiency of their respective Codes.* * The history and character of the Roman jurisprudence are described with great erudition and sagacity by Chancellor Kent, in the twenty-third locture of his Commentaries. His concluding remarks are these: "The civil law shows the proofs of the highest cultivation and refinement; and no one who peruses it can well avoid the conviction, that it has been the fruitful source of those comprehensive views and solid principles, which have been applied to elevate and adorn the jurisprudence of modern na- tions The whole body of the civil law will excite never failing cu- riosity, and receive the homage of scholars, as a singular monument of wisdom. It fills such a large space in the eye of human reason; it regu- lates so many interests of man as a social and civilized being; it embodies so much thought, reflection, experience and labor; it leads us so far into 1!)<- M-ccspt-s of antiquity, and it has stood so long against the waves and and wcalhers of time, that it is impossible, while engaged in the contempla- tion of the system, not to be struck with some portion of the awe and vene- ration which are felt in the midst of the solitudes of a majestic ruin." Com- mentaries on /au>, 2d edit., vol. I, pp.Ji-tf, 548. 13 146 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. Whilst Justinian was engaged in this important work, he did not forget the other design he had formed; viz., of reconquering the wes- tern provinces of the empire now occupied by the barbarians. Not to be surrounded with enemies on all sides, he ended a long and un- decisive war against the Persians by a solemn treaty of peace, and then directed all his efforts to the conquest of Africa. The Vandals, who were still masters of that country, had very much degenerated from their former courage; and perpetual quarrels among the de- scendants of Genseric contributed to weaken more and more their political strength. One of these dissensions furnished Justinian with an opportunity to send a fleet and an army to Africa, under the com- mand of Belisarius (A. D. 533). This general had already, during the preceding Persian war, begun to display that extraordinary skill in the art of commanding armies, which afterwards rendered him equal to the greatest generals of an- cient Rome. He sailed from Constantinople with five hundred and ninety-two vessels of all dimensions, and, after a long voyage, landed on the shores of Africa, at some distance from Carthage. His troops amounted to scarcely sixteen thousand men; but they were full of ardor, and the general was himself a host. The Vandals, on the contrary, had numerous troops; but their generals were unskilled in war, and showed more valor than prudence: two of them perished in a first battle; the others, with King Gelimer, were put to flight This enabled Belisarius to advance through the country without fur- ther obstacle. Every where he was received as a deliverer by the an- cient inhabitants, especially by those of Carthage: the rigor and bar- barism of the Vandals had long since exasperated their minds ; where- as the mildness of Justinian's general, and the excellent discipline which he maintained in his army, gained him universal confidence and affection. From Carthage, Belisarius went forward in pursuit of Gelimer. Having found him stationed at Tricameron, a place twenty miles distant from Carthage ; with only ten thousand men against one hundred thousand Vandals, he obtained a glorious vic- tory, which rendered him master of the whole surrounding country, of the royal treasures, and even, in a short time of the person of the king (534). This prince had fled from the field of battle to the extremity of Numidia, and there had shut himself up in a town situated on the summit of a high mountain. Belisarius, whose presence was neces- sary at Carthage, sent one of his generals, named Pharas, with a part of the army, to invest that place, and if possible, to take the king prisoner. Accordingly, the town was closely besieged, and, before the expiration of three months, was reduced to the last ex- tremity ; in the meanwhile. Pharaj?'V r ote to Gelimer, and exhorted , D. 5*7-565. JUSTINIAN. 147 him to surrender, with a positive assurance that he would be hono- rably treated by Justinian. The unfortunate prince wept whilst reading the letter, and in his answer to it, after expressing his unwil- lingness to become a captive, requested Pharas to send him a loaf, a sponge and a lute : a loaf, because he had not seen any bread for a long time j a sponge, to wash his wounds ; and a lute, to accompany his voice when singing his misfortunes. Pharas, moved with compassion, granted the request, but still con- tinued, with diligent care, to obstruct all the avenues of the fortress. At length, Gelimer, afraid lest it should be taken by storm, consented to capitulate. He descended from the mountain, and, on the re- peated assurances of an honorable treatment, went with Pharas to Carthage, where he delivered himself into the hands of Belisarius. Thus was Africa again subjected to the Roman power,* and the kingdom of the Vandals destroyed after a duration of one hundred and six years. Belisarius, having provided, as well as he was able, for the security of his conquest, returned to Constantinople, where he received honors proportionate to the greatness of his exploits. He had taken the precaution to make Gelimer embark with him and leave Africa. When this unhappy monarch was solemnly presented to the emperor, in the middle of an immense concourse of people, no sigh, no tear escaped him ; but appearing to be plunged in deep reflection on the present state of his fortune, he several times repeated these words of Scripture : Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.^ Jus- tinian gave him a rich estate in Galatia, where he was permitted to live in quiet with his family. Scarcely had the African provinces been united to the empire, when similar views began to be manifested with respect to Italy. The unjust death inflicted by ungrateful subjects on dueen Amala- sontes, who had been a faithful ally to the court of Constantinople, was for the emperor a favorable pretext for attacking the Goths. In the year 535, the conqueror of Africa, Belisarius, unexpectedly ap- peared in Sicily, at the head of seven thousand five hundred men. With this handful of soldiers that great general knew how to achieve exploits, which others would have found difficult to accomplish with very numerous armies^. After subduing the island, he passed over * The empire of Constantinople retained for many centuries the name of Roman or Eastern, though it is also frequently designated by the appellation of Greek or Lower Empire. t Eccles. i, 2. j This appeared particularly in the year 537, when Belisarius, after taking Rome, was himself besieged in that city by an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men. The siege lasted twelve months and nine days, during which the two parties engaged seventy times, with a great display of valor on each side : but Belisarius, with only the twentieth part of the enemy's 148 MODERN HISTORY. Part IH. to the continent, and either by storm or surprise, by force or capitula- tion, took Naples, Rome, Ravenna, with many other cities, defeated the Goths on several occasions, and finally compelled their king Vitiges to embark, as Gelimer had done, for Constantinople, where the Gothic monarch also received estates and honorable titles from Justinian, as a compensation for the loss of his kingdom (A. D. 540). Still the power of the Goths in Italy was not yet entirely over- thrown. Notwithstanding the fatal blow it had just received, it reco- vered for a time its former strength, and even acquired, after the de- parture of Belisarius, an astonishing superiority, under the conduct of Totila, whom the Goths chose for their leader in 541. Of all the successors of Theodoric the Great, Totila was the only one who perfectly resembled him in prudence, activity, valor, justice and generosity. He conquered the Roman commanders in Italy, as often as he attacked them, and retook Rome in spite of all the exer- tions made by Belisarius after his return (A. D. 546). This great general, left by the emperor without the necessary supplies of ammu- nition and troops, saw his former prosperity decline; after some years of fruitless efforts, he resigned the command of the army, and left to Nurses the honor of terminating the war. Narses was one of those extraordinary men whom Providence pre- pares, as it were, in secret, for the prosperity or the destruction of states. Though a stranger, of small size and mean appearance, he had risen from a slave, to be one of the first officers in the palace of Justinian. The deficiency of regular studies was abundantly supplied in him by a natural and noble eloquence. A quick and sound judgment, a profound and extensive genius, wisdom in con- triving the best plans and activity in executing them, insured the suc- cess of his undertakings. He possessed in an eminent degree all the virtues not incompatible with a certain ambition, above all, generosity and beneficence. As for his talents in war, they only wanted an occasion for their display, and without having been a soldier, he all at once appeared a consummate general. Besides these natural advantages, Narses enjoyed the favor of Jus- tinian, who readily granted him what had been refused to Belisarius, viz: all the troops, money and ammunition requisite to carry on the war with vigor and success. Being thus well provided in every re- spect, he had but to appear in Italy, to check the prosperous fortune of the Goths, and the very first battle which he fought, in the plains of Lentagio, entirely turned the scale in favor of the Romans. In vain did Totila make every effort to maintain the superiority which forces, defeated all their efforts, and finally obliged them to retire. P-o- copius, De Bdlo Go/A.; Lebeau, Hist, du Bas^ empire, vol. ix. b. 44, j>p 395473. *, D. W7-565. JUSTINIAN. 149 he had acquired ; his army was completely defeated, his bravest war- riors were killed, and he himself, heing forced to fly for the first time in his life, died of his wounds a few hours after the battle. Narses immediately sent to Constantinople the news of his victory, together with the cuirass and the crown of Totila ; and Justinian received, in the middle of the senate, these spoils taken from a prince far superior to him in personal merit (A. D. 552). The Goths, although vanquished, and deeply afflicted at the death of their excellent king, did not lose courage, but hastened to give him a worthy successor in the person of Teias, the bravest of his lieutenants. In this arduous post, Teias answered as well as he pos- sibly could the hopes of his nation, and, being unable to save it, strove at least to retard its entire overthrow. He rallied the remains of the Gothic army, and leaving the open country to the victorious troops of Narses, went to occupy a strong position near Mount Vesuvius. The Roman general, at the head of all his forces, pursued him so closely, that the Goths began to suffer considerably from famine. Then, con- sidering the decaying state of their fortune, which was on the point of being utterly lost, these magnanimous and last survivors of a na- tion formerly so flourishing, looked at their swords, and resolved to fight once more, either to conquer by a last effort, or at least to die with glory. No sooner had they come to this determination, than, descending from the heights, they rushed with desperate fury against the enemy : but the resistance was not less vigorous than the attack was violent. The Romans were encouraged by the remembrance of past success, and an implicit confidence in the superior talents of their general: the Goths were animated by despair and by the example of their king, who having taken his post in the first rank, displayed the most heroic courage, and, for the space of four hours, spread among the enemy terror and death. Assailed as he was by a multitude of javelins and arrows, Teias, immovable as a rock, with one hand warded off the weapons, and, with the other, slew as many Romans as came within his reach. At length, unable to bear up his shield, which was pierced with twelve javelins, he asked for another. Whilst he was taking it from the hands of his armor-bearer, and putting off the first, his breast for an instant remained uncovered ; at this very moment, he received a deadly blow; he however continued to fight until he became exhausted, and then fell with his face towards the enemy. The Romans cut off the head of this valiant prince, and exposed it, on the top of a pike, to the gaze of both armies, especially to that of the Goths, in order to throw them into consternation and despair. But the courage of those intrepid warriors, instead of being abated by this melancholy event, was rather increased by the desire of 13* i 150 MODERN HISTORY. PartJIJ , avenging the death of Teias. They therefore continued fighting with great heroism, 'tinti! the darkness of night separated them from the Romans. Both parties spent the night on the field of battle, and, as soon as the dawn appeared, the combat was renewed with the same fury and maintained with the same obstinacy as the day before; nor could Narses put to flight enemies who were few in number, wounded and fatigued, but, at the same time, buoyed up by their excitement, and making their last desperate effort. Giving up the hope of conquering men to whom liberty was dearer than life, he per- mitted them to retire unmolested, on condition that they would never more unsheath their swords against the empire ; after this, he easily achieved the conquest of Italy (A. D. 553). The kingdom of the Ostro- goths thus disappeared for ever, after a short duration of sixty years, during which it had produced three heroes worthy of that name, Theo- doric, Totila and Teias. The authority of Justinian being now ac- knowledged throughout Italy, Narses, by his appointment and in his name, governed the country which he had so gloriously subjugated. Warfare however was not yet entirely at an end, owing to the share that the French took for a long time in these public broils. The successors of Clovis had inherited his warlike spirit, which they all exerted in subduing the little neighboring states: but none among them became as remarkable in this respect, as Theodebertus, king of Austrasia and of a considerable part of Germany. So great was his reputation for ability and valor, that both the Greeks and the Ostro- goths, from the very beginning of their contest, eagerly courted his alliance. He promised it to each nation, but was faithful to neither, his design being to conquer for himself. With this interested view, he crossed the Alps at the head of a powerful army, attacked both parties successively, defeated them, and would probably have re- mained sole master of the disputed regions, had not a contagious distemper, which broke out among his soldiers, obliged him to re- tire with considerable loss (A. r>. 539). After his retreat, though none of those who followed him had pe- rished by the sword of the Romans, Justinian had the ridiculous vanity to assume the title of Francicus, or conqueror of the French. Theodebertus, filled with indignation, resolved to avenge the insult, and by following the course of the Danube, to invade Thrace, and then attack the very capital of the Greek empire. Already great pre- parations were making for this purpose, and the emperor began to tremble in Constantinople, when Theodebertus d>ed in the flower of his age (A. D. 548), and there was none after him skilful or bold enough to execute his projects. It was only towards the end of the Gothic war, that two of hia successor's generals, Leutharis and Bucelin, undertook in their own A. P. 627-565. JUSTINIAN. 151 name the defence of the Goths, who were now deprived of every other resource. They passed across the Alps into I^Y w * m seventy- five thousand warriors, French and Germans. This army, like a fu- rious torrent, overran the whole peninsula, from the northern pro- vinces to the southern extremity of Calabria, sweeping away or de stroying every thing in its impetuous course. Leutharis then desired to secure his booty by returning to the north, but was entirely foiled in his design. Being first defeated by the Romans during his march, he had scarcely reached and recrossed the river Po, when a dreadful pestilence carried him off, with nearly all his soldiers ; a just punishment for the depredations and cruelties which they had com- mitted. In the meanwhile, the army of Bucelin was also in a very per- plexed condition : Narses, unable, in the opening of the campaign, to stop his progress, succeeded at last in famishing his wearied troops; this induced the German chieftain to engage in a general battle, rather than let all his followers die of sickness and starvation. The two armies met near Capua, on the banks of the little river Casilino, from which the bloody fight took its name. Never was there witnessed greater impetuosity on the one side, nor more valiant resistance on the other; nor was there ever a more striking proof the superiority of true courage regulated by discipline, over blind and unrestrained bravery. Although the Romans and their auxiliaries found them- selves at first in great danger, from the violence of the enemy's at- tack, the defeat of the French and Germans was so complete, that, out of thirty thousand, only five men escaped, all the others being slain with their general ; whereas the conquerors, whose number scarcely amounted to eighteen thousand, did not lose more than eighty men. All of them had performed prodigies of valor; but the honor of the day was by every one attributed to Narses, whose pre- sence of mind and superior genius had changed into so glorious a triumph, a combat the beginning of which seemed almost desperate for the Romans (A. D. 554). Shortly after, he cut to pieces another party of French, who were occupying a large portion of the country between the Po and the mountains': so many losses made them aban- don the hope of obtaining a footing in Italy. Whilst the bravest troops and the ablest generals of the empire were thus employed in the West, the Persians had recommenced the war in the East. During many years, their king Chosroes I, sur- named the Great, spread devastation through the rich provinces of Mesopotamia and Syria, burning or sacking the towns, plundering the country, and routing the armies sent for its defence. He several times returned, after his campaigns to Persia with an immense booty, or after having forced Justinian to pay him a heavy tribute. Belisa- 152 MODERN HISTORY. ' Part HI. rius repaired in some degree the dishonor of the Roman arms; but after his deparfWe, when he went to Italy for the second time, it daily increased under other generals; particularly when thirty thousand Ro- mans were defeated by four thousand Persians, and, on another oc- casion, fifty thousand by three thousand only.* At length, a signal vic- tory arid other advantages gained by the troops of Justinian, permitted him to conclude a truce less disgraceful to the empire (A. D. 555). This truce was the more opportune as the state was visited at this period with many other calamities. Earthquakes overthrew several buildings, and pestilence destroyed many of the inhabitants of Con- stantinople; on the other hand, the Huns made a furious irruption into Thrace, and advanced so far as to threaten the capital. Belisa- rius was once more, on this occasion, the glorious defender and the strongest bulwark of the empire. Though scarcely able, on account of old age, to wield a sword, he marched out with a handful of war- riors against the barbarians, and obliged them to retire (559). In return for so many services, the suspicious emperor, deceived by the slanders of the court, and believing Belisarius privy to a late conspiracy, stripped this great man of all his honors, and condemned him to an ignominious confinement which lasted seven months. It is even said and believed by many that his eyes were put out, and that he was reduced to so great a misery, as to beg his bread in the streets of Constantinople. But this seems to be a mere tale, quite unknown to contemporary historians, and founded on no better au- thority than that of John Tzetzes, an injudicious Greek writer of the twelfth century. More ancient authors, as Cedrenus and Theophanes, instead of mentioning any such fact, relate that Belisarius recovered his dignities and the friendship of the emperor. Both of them died shortly after, and in the same year (565). Jus- tinian was in the eighty-fourth year of his life, and the thirty-ninth of a reign which had been more famous abroad than prosperous at home, especially towards its close. The armies now stood in a miserable condition for want of regular pay, and the provinces were groaning under the pressure of heavy taxes, which served only to enrich covetous courtiers, or were spent in purchasing peace from the barbarians. Moreover, the emperor's munificence often degenerated into prodigality ; this being added to an inordinate pas- sion for new buildings, one of the incorrigible defects of Justinian, caused immense sums to be expended, that might have been much better employed. It should also be remarked that, after having amended the Roman legislation, he frequently altered his own laws, or suffered them to * Lebeau, Hist, du Bas. empire, vol. x, pp. 225-228; and vol. xr, 18-22, . and Procop. De Bello Persico. *. D. 565^583, JUSTIN II. TIBERIUS II. 153 be changed by his courtiers and ministers, in accordance with their interests and passions. The same inconstancy, and a weak conde- scension for his haughty and wicked wife Theodora, often betrayed him into wrong and unjust measures, so far as to disgrace his ardent zeal for religion by the violence of his measures, and by his conti- nual attempts to rule and direct the affairs of the Church, whilst he neglected those of the empire. Owing to his imprudence, the fao- tions of the circus excited many disturbances, sometimes even bloody seditions in Constantinople, the emperor's blind partiality for one oif the parties having increased their mutual animosity, which continued under his successors, and proved one of the greatest calamities of that capital. In a word, although Justinian possessed great talents and many virtues, one might reasonably think, from the general tenor of his government, that he was rather an idle spectator of the splendid transactions which occurred during his reign, and that he really did less good than evil to both Church and State. However, it would be unjust to deny that this emperor had noble views, and formed truly glorious designs. The reformation of juris- prudence, the conquest of Italy and Africa, his endeavors to increase the power and splendor of the empire, were certainly undertakings calculated to confer undying honor on any reign. If he did not him- self carry them into execution, his at least was the glory of having contrived the plans, furnished the means, and effected their accom- plishment through the instrumentality of talented individuals whose services Divine Providence placed at his disposal. JUSTIN II. TIBERIUS II. A. r. 565582. AT the death of Justinian, who left no issue, the imperial sceptre passed into the hands of his nephew, Justin II. This prince com- menced his reign with universal applause, having, on the very first day, redressed many grievances, and paid innumerable debts con- tracted by Justinian in his old age. His subsequent conduct was not, it is true, always marked by the same love of law and justice ; still, the emperor displayed it on many other occasions, particularly in the following occurrence, which is well deserving of notice. In order to check fraud and extortion in the capital, Justin ap- pointed for its prefect a magistrate of renowned integrity, who was not less firm in the discharge of his duty, than upright and virtuous. He invested him with unlimited power to punish, without appeal and without hope -of pardon, all criminals, of whatever rank or con- dition; a just, though severe sta'ute, which frightened all iniquitous 154 MODERN HISTORY. Part III. men and extortioners, one only excepted, a proud nobleman, who thought himself above the reach of either divine or human law. A complaint was lodged against this man by a poor widow whom he had robbed of all her property. The prelect, through regard for the Accused, who was a relation to the emperor, wrote to him, and intrust- ing the letter to no one but the injured widow, begged him to indera nil'y her for the wrong she had suffered. The only satisfaction she received, was insult and ill treatment. The prefect, hearing this, was inflamed with indignation, and summoned the offender before his tribunal ; but his new orders were equally despised, and answered only with fresh insults and railleries against botli the judge and the judgment. Instead of appearing, the haughty nobieman went to the palace, where he was invited to dine with a great number of courtiers. No sooner did the prefect know that he was at table with the emperor, than he himself entered the dining-room, and said to Justin: " My lord, if you persist in the resolution which you have manifested of punishing oppression and violence, I also shall continue to fulfil your orders. But if you re- nounce a design so worthy of you, if the worst of men are honored with your favor and admitted to your table, receive my resignation of an office which becomes useless to your subjects, and cannot but be displeasing to yourself. 57 To this noble remonstrance Justin an- swered that he had not changed his mind. " Punish," said he to the prefect, "punish injustice every where j were it even seated with me upon the throne, I would rather descend, to deliver it up to pun- ishment." The virtuous magistrate did not desire more : emboldened by this answer, he presently ordered the culprit to be seized in the midst of the guests, and carried before his tribunal. The widow's complaints were heard, and as that man, before so arrogant, and now speechless and trembling, could not urge any thing in his defence, the prefect caused him to be stripped and beaten with rods, and then to ride upon an ass, with his face turned to the tail, through all the streets of the city; his effects were moreover forfeited for the benefit of the widow. This exemplary chastisement stopped for some time the course of usurpation and extortion. The emperor rewarded the resolute conduct of the prefect by raising him to the rank of a patrician, and confirming him in his charge for the remain- der of his life.* The other qualifications of Justin were not equal to his zeal for the enforcement of the laws and of good order. He was dissolute, * This act of firmness and vigor is by some referred to the reign of Justin I, but more probably belongs to that of Justin II, and to the year 574 or near that time. See Lebeau, Histoirc du Bas empire, vol. xr, pp. 235-237 ; Petavius, Rationarium temporum, vol. i,p. 409. i. . 565-582. JUSTIN II. TIBERIUS II. 155 indolent, pusillanimous, and, at the same time, haughty to excess towards the ambassadors of foreign nations. This unbecoming pride, which his wife Sophia too faithfully imitated, occasioned bloody wars, and caused great losses to the empire. That princess, having long since harbored a deep hatred against Narses, the conqueror, and at that time, the governor of Italy, sent him a spindle and a dis- taff, with a scornful letter, telling him that those articles were more suitable for him than the command of armies and the government of provinces: for which reason she ordered him to depart from Italy, and return to Constantinople, to be employed in the palace. Narses had virtue, firmness and courage, but not to such a degree as patiently to bear so cruel an affront. On the perusal of the letter, his eyes sparkled with wrath, and, in a sarcastic tone : " Go," said he to the messenger, " and tell the empress, that I will cut out for her more work than she desires." He immediately wrote to the na- tion of the Lombards (so called from their long beards), inviting them to come and invade Italy. He soon repented of his treason, and died with the bitter regret of having by that one act, dishonored a life of ninety-five years, the last portion of which had been ennobled by so many glorious achievements.* But this repentance came too late to prevent the evil consequences of his rash step : the Lombards had already set out under the guidance of their King Alboin (568). They crossed the Alps from the north-east, and meeting with little opposition, subdued all that part of the peninsula which received from them the name of Lombardy. Pavia was the capital of this new kingdom. The invaders did not advance far enough, or in sufficient numbers, to take the other chief cities, Rome, Naples, Ravenna, etc.; these therefore continued, for nearly two centuries more, under the power of the emperors of Constantinople, Ravenna being chosen, on account of its advantageous situation, to be the residence of the governors whom they appointed under the title of exarchs. The imprudence of Justin gave rise also to a new war against the Persians, the beginning of which did great injury to the Romans. Whilst the emperor, more ready to threaten than to execute, remained shut up in his palace, Chosroes, ever active and intrepid, unexpect- edly appeared on the frontiers at the head of one hundred and forty thousand men, attacked Mesopotamia and Syria, and with little or no opposition, desolated those rich provinces. The intelligence of these * In this we follow the account commonly given by historians ; still it should be observed, in justification of Narses, that several learned critics deny his having yielded to his resentment and made any proposal to the Lombards about the invasion of Italy ; which invasion, they say, wag undertaken for a variety of other causes. Ste Jinnales du moyeii age, vol. ii r, p. 188. Lebeau, vol. xi, pp.. 178, 179. 156 MODERN HISTORY. Fart HI. disasters threw Justin into such a melancholy as degenerated into real madness, the paroxysms of which became more and more fre- quent. Having fortunately retained his senses sufficiently to feel that he was no longer able to govern without a colleague, he made choice of Tiberius, the commander of his guards, a man universally respected for his prudence and virtue, and intrusted to him the reins of government (A. D. 574). It would have been difficult to make a better choice; and Chosroea soon perceived, to his cost, that the imperial court was now directed by a more vigorous hand. He saw the career of his triumphs and prosperity checked at the battle of Melitine, a town of Lesser Armenia, where he found himself opposed by one hundred and fifty thousand men, Romans and auxiliaries, whom Tiberius had mustered from the different parts of the empire as well as from the surrounding nations. Notwithstanding the exertions of Chosroes during the contest, most of the Persians were put to the sword, or driven into the Euphrates, where they perished. The dejected monarch fled with all haste to the extremities of Persia, and died in grief and despair, after a memo- rable reign of forty-eight years. Whilst Tiberius was thus restoring the honor of the Roman armies, he was not less careful to restore the interior tranquillity of the state. Crimes and extortions were checked by severe laws. The vain magnificence and useless expenses of the imperial court were abolished, and by this wise measure Tiberius enabled himself to support the standing army, diminish the taxes, relieve the wants of divers provinces, and gain the hearts of his subjects, by conferring on them benefits worthy of a great prince. He considered them all as his children, the state as his family, and the sovereign power as a blessing which he must render, as much as possible, common to all, by his equity, kindness and liberality. Amidst these laudable employments, the death of Justin, in 578, left him sole master. As the empress Sophia, by her counsels and influence, had been instrumental in placing him on the throne, she expected that, as she was now a widow, he would marry her, and thus enable her to preserve the title of empress. But Tiberius was already married, a fact of which she was not aware. On the day of his coronation, he made his virtuous wife, Anastasia, suddenly appear in the sight of the people, and crowned her with his own hands, to the extreme joy of all the spectators except Sophia, whose disap- pointment can scarcely be imagined. This ambitious princess, in the violence of her resentment, did all in her power to dethrone a sove- reign to whose elevation she had so much contributed. Tiberius contented himself with depriving 1 her of the great riches which had MAURITIUS. 157 been left at her disposal, and in spite of her intrigues, remained in quiet possession of the throne. He occupied it only four years, and during this short interval, con- stantly displayed virtues equal to his rank. To procure the welfare of his people and maintain the honor of the empire, were now, as they had hitherto been, the constant objects of his solicitude. If, for want of sufficient forces, he could not expel the Lombards from their conquests in Italy, nor prevent the Avari, a Scythian nation, from obtaining a similar settlement in Pannonia ; he at least continued, though desirous of peace, to gain great advantages against the Per- sians, whose new king Hormisdas was obstinately bent on prosecu- ting the war. For these successes, the emperor was chiefly indebted to Mauritius, commander of his armies in the East. Mauritius was a man of great valor and experience, and, with the exception of a certain taint of avarice, still more commendable for the qualities of his heart. Tiberius, whose health was rapidly declining, thought he could do nothing better for the state than to appoint him his successor. This he did in a solemn assembly with universal applause, and died the next day (14th of August, 582), leaving Constantinople in deep affliction for the loss of so excellent an emperor, and yet in the cheer- ing hope of equal prosperity under the new sovereign. MAURITIUS, A. D. 582602 THE triumphs of Mauritius over the Persians had raised him to the throne : in order to maintain his own work, and pursue the course of his victories, he sent numerous armies to the frontiers ; but the misunderstanding of the troops and generals permitted the enemy to regain the superiority in the first campaigns. At length, good order was re-established, and the Persians were conquered in many battles. These defeats, joined to the intolerable pride and cruelty of Hormis- das, roused his subjects against him. He was thrown into a dun- geon, and shortly after, put to death, with the consent of his son Chosroes II, who began to reign in his place. But Chosroes himself was not secure upon a throne lately stained with his father's blood. A considerable portion of the army perse- vered in its rebellion against the royal family, and defeated the troops of the king. In this distress, Chosroes, trusting more to a generous enemy than to disloyal subjects, fled for refuge to the Roman boun- daries, from which he wrote a moving letter to Mauritius, requesting his assistance and protection. Mauritius liberally complied with the 14 158 MODERN HISTORY. Part III request : by his orders, the fugitive monarch was treated in a manner worthy of a sovereign, and moreover supplied with a powerful army, whose exertions enabled him to re-enter his own dominions in tri- umph, to crush the rebels, and regain the undisturbed possession of his kingdom (A. D. 593). In return for these signal benefits, Chosroes yielded to the Romans the territories and cities for which so much blood had been shed and so many battles fought within the last years. A permanent peace was concluded between Persia and the empire ; and thus, instead of meanly fomenting the internal feuds of a powerful and rival state, Mauritius had the honor of bringing them to a happy termination, of replacing an exiled sovereign upon his throne, and of ending, by an act of generosity far more commendable than all his victories, a long and violent struggle which had proved so fatal to both nations. The emperor then directed his attention chiefly to the defence of the northern frontier against the attacks of the Avari. These barba- rians were accustomed to a life of warfare and pillage : frequently victorious and successful in their attempts, sometimes conquered and repulsed, they incessantly renewed their inroads, and spread devas- tation through Mesia, Thrace and other provinces. At last, a mas- terly expedition of Priscus, one of the Roman generals, in 601, almost annihilated their forces, without however destroying their warlike and restless spirit. This brave commander, having resolved to strike a signal blow, crossed the Danube with the intention of attacking the Avari upon their own territories, and immediately sent away the boats, in order to reduce his own soldiers to the necessity of conquering or perishing. This being done, he marched out of his camp, with all his troops drawn up in battle array; and, as it was the custom of the barbarians to fight in separate bodies and in a desultory manner, Priscus divided his army into three square battalions, the better to face the enemy on all sides. He ordered them, moreover, not to use their arrows, but to come to close fight with their pikes and javelins. This first com- bat ended only with the day, and the issue was favorable to the Ro- mans; for, whilst their loss did not amount to more than three hun- dred men, they had killed four thousand of the Avari. The enemy did not appear for two days. On the morning of the 'third, Priscus drew up his army in the same order as before, but, during the contest, gradually extended its wings, so as to enclose the barbarians, who lost nine thousand men on that day. The ten fol- lowing days passed without any new engagement. Priscus, ani- mated by his first success, and seeing the Avari at a stand, went forward to provoke them a third time to battle. Hrny. Their fleet 'also, consisting of about eighteen hundred ships, was utterly destroy- ed, either by the fury of storms, or the violence of the Grecian fire. Only five ships escaped to convey to Syria the news of that frightful disaster (A. D. 718). The emperor of Constantinople at this period, was Leo the Isau- rian, a prince justly renowned for his military skill, which he admira- bly displayed during the siege of his capital. When he had delivered the empire from its enemies, he undertook a war of a very different nature, and much more worthy of a tyrant than of a wise sovereign. Unwilling to comprehend that the veneration of images is only an inferior honor referred to the person whom they represent, he published a s-evere edict against the use of them in churches, as if it were an idolatrous practice j and thus gave.rise to the sect of Icono- clasts, or Image-breakers. In obedience to the emperor's orders, the pictures and images of Christ and of his Saints were destroyed in many places, to the great scandal of the faithful, and not without much blood-shed and innumerable deeds of barbarous cruelty.* One of the most shocking, was the burning of the twelve learned and virtuous libra- rians (whom Leo had not been able to gain over to his party), toge- ther with the public library of Constantinople (A. D. 730). This per- secution was carried on with the same and even greater violence by his successor, Constantine Copronymus, and continued to disturb both Church and State till the year 787, when, in the seventh general council,f the second of Nice, the relative honor paid to images was * See Theophanes' Chronography p. 339 ; Anastasius, in Pap. Grcgor. II; Fleury, Hist. Ecdes. b. 42, n. 5, Lebeau, Hist, du Bas. Emp. b. brilliant qualities which attract the admiration of the world, while they inflict misery on the human race: but he exhibited the interest- ing spectacle of a king negligent of his private interests, and totally devoted to the welfare of his people. To ward off foreign agression and restore the dominion of laws, to preserve peace and promote religion, were the constant objects of his solicitude. He was pious, kind and compassionate, the protector of the weak, and the father of the poor; more willing to give than to receive; more inclined to pardon than to punish, and better pleased to bestow his own revenues in acts of charity, than profit by the labors of his subjects. Edward published a new compilation of the statutes of his Saxon predecessors, among which those favorable to the people held the first rank. Hence they were ever since called the liiws and customs of the good king Edward. This truly good and excellent monarch died in the beginning of the year 1066, and was canonized, about a cen- tury after, by Pope Alexander III. NORMANS IN ENGLAND. WILLIAM THE CONQUEROfc. A. D. 10661087. BY the death of King Edward, England was replunged into the miseries of war. As he had died without issue, the British sceptre was claimed by several competitors, among whom Harold, the chief of the English nobility, and WHliam, duke of Normandy, were the most powerful. Setting aside the question which of the two was more entitled to the throne, both of them were worthy of it by their uncommon qualifications of body and mind, and, what was very sin- gular, each one claimed it in virtue of the late king's will and ap- pointment. Whilst William prepared to prosecute, by arms, his claims or his pretensions, Harold, being already present in the kingdom, was the first proclaimed and acknowledged as its sovereign. But he had the misfortune to be opposed at the same time, not only by a foreign rival, but also by his own brother Tostig, in whom he experienced, for having been accessary to his exile during the preceding reign, a bitter and deadly enemy. Tostig visited Normandy, and arranged a plan of co-operation with the duke : having moreover sent deputies to the northern princes, he succeeded in obtaining the assistance of Hardrada, king of Norway. A gallant army in a fleet of three hun- dred sail, unexpectedly appeared, landed without opposition, and suK- duecl the province of Northumberland with York its capital. HnroM. who was at that time awaiting the threatened descent of the duke of *. c. 1066-1087. NORMANS IN ENGLAND, ETC. 225 Normandy, lost no time in marching against the Norwegians. He overtook them at Stamford Bridge, and completely defeated them in a bloody battle, in which both his perfidious brother and the Norwe- gian monarch were slain. The remnant of the vanquished were compelled to re-embark. Almost simultaneously with this great victory, intelligence arrived that the Normans had just landed on the coast of Sussex. William, having at length completed his vast preparations for the invasion of England, crossed the channel with a fleet of at least nine hundred vessels, which carried an army still more formidable for the valor than for the number of the combatants. The duke set them an ex- ample of wonderful daring. At the very moment of the landing of his troops, happening to fall on the shore, and being afraid lest this should appear to weak minds a bad omen for the success of his enterprise, he cried out with admirable presence of mind : " I take possession of England ; it belongs to me ; I lay hold of it with both hands." At the receipt of the fatal news, Harold mustered his forces, and led them straight forward against the enemy. He had defeated the Norwegians on the 25th of September; on the 14th of the fol- lowing month, he arrived in sight of the Normans, at a place called Senlac, nine miles from Hastings. The next day both armies prepared for battle. Harold posted his troops on the declivity of a hill in one compact body; William mar- shalled his host on the opposite eminence, and arranged with par- ticular care the squadrons of his numerous cavalry, on which he principally rested his hope of success. After the usual discharge of arrows, the Norman knights fiercely advanced against their motion- less opponents. The shock Avas dreadful; but the English at every point opposed a vigorous and successful resistance, and their battle axe was so powerfully wielded, that the aggressors could not prevent their left wing from being thrown into confusion. Even a report was spread that William himself had fallen ; and the whole army was be- ginning to waver, when the duke, riding along the line, exclaimed: " I am still alive, and, with the help of God, I shall gain the victory/' This revived the courage of the Normans, and those among the English who had incautiously pursued the left wing too far, were in- tercepted and cut to pieces. The combat having now recommenced with fresh animosity, Wil- liam had recourse to a stratagem suggested to his mind by his pre- vious success: he ordered a division of his cavalry to feign flight; a considerable number of their opponents pursued them, and were instantly destroyed. This however, did not suffice to decide the bloody contest: the maio-body of the English obstinately maintained their position, and, by always opposing to the Normans a solid uud 226 MODERN HISTORY. Part IV, impenetrable mass, bade defiance to all their efforts. The battle con- tinued in this manner, with doubtful success, from nine in the morn- ing till about sun-set, when Harold, who had, like William, con- stantly animated his troops by word and example, was shot by an arrow which penetrated to the brain. He instantly fell among heaps of the dead, and the knowledge of his fall broke the spirit of the sur- viving English : at dusk they fled in utter confusion, dispersed through the woods, and were pursued, with great slaughter, by their victorious enemy. Such was the ever memorable battle of Hastings, which put an end to the Saxon line of monarchs, and placed the Norman dynasty on the throne of England. On the side of the conquerors, more than one-fourth of their army, which amounted to almost sixty thousand men, were left on the field; the number of the slain among the van- quished, although justly supposed to have been much greater, is un- known: all agree at least in pronouncing the victory of William com- plete and decisive. After refreshing his army by a few days repose, and taking the castle of Dover, he marched straight to London. His unexpected presence spread terror and dismay among the people, the nobility and the clergy, who were there assembled; they however re- ceived him with expressions of congratulation, and made him a ten- der of the crown, which after a short pause he accepted. From the best and most impartial historians, it appears that the plan of William was that of a mild and moderate goverment. The h'rst measures of his reign tended to sooth the feelings and to acquire the esteem of the English. Having, shortly after his coronation, made a tour through the kingdom, he every where scattered benefits around him, and graciously received the submission of his new sub- jects. The privileges of the citizens were rather increased, nor was any change attempted in their laws and customs, unless imperiously required by existing circumstances. It is true that, in order to secure their obedience, he built and garrisoned castles in various parts of the country, and granted valuable rewards to his .Norman followers; but the former step was a precautionary measure which it would be un- reasonable to blame in a conqueror; and the latter transaction ap- pears to have been so far conducted according to the strict rules of justice, as to give to no Englishman any just cause of complaint. These proceedings however displeased the native.-, and William soon perceived that he had gained neither their favor nor confidence. As he had set out in the spring of 1067, to visit his continental do- minions, the English, no longer awed by his presence, thought it a fiappy opportunity to obtain their freedom. Their feelings of aver- sion for a foreign yoke were now highly excited by the imprudence of the governors, whom the Conqueror had left, and who, instead of A. D. 1016-1089. NORMANS IN ITALY. 227 adopting his system of conciliation, arrogantly oppressed the people; national animosity increased, discontent became general, and rebellion seemed every where inevitable. William, being informed of all this, returned to England with a secret determination to crush by severity, a people whom he could not gain by mildness. In fact, from this time forward, he laid a heavy hand upon his English subjects, and treated them with that rigor which he thought the right of conquest justified. He obliged them to extinguish their fires and candles at an early hour (eight o'clock) in the evening, the signal for which was given by a bell called the curfew (caiivre-fcii); nor were they permitted to rekindle their fires till the morning bell, which rang at four o'clock. His policy suffered no Englishman to hold any place of trust. By means of fines, land taxes, banishment, and sometimes capital executions for crimes of state, William had the disposal both of property and honors, and secured in his own hands the whole strength of the nation. If these measures terrified some of the natives, others raised the standard of insurrection in different parts of the kingdom. But nothing could surprise William. His vigilance, firmness and activity discon- certed all the plans, or baffled all the measures of the insurgents ; and his good fortune so constantly prevailed, that every attempt to ruin his power, served only to establish it more firmly. He maintained it with equal success against foreign enemies, the Scots, the Danes and the French. In fine, after having gloriously reigned during forty one years in Normandy, and twenty-one in England, he died in 1087; odious indeed to many, on account of his severity, but still in point of natural talents, of enterprising spirit, of political and military achieve- ments, undoubtedly one of the first princes, and perhaps the most conspicuous sovereign of his age. His posterity, either in the right, or in the female line, has ever since occupied the throne of Great Britain. NORMANS IN ITALY. A. D. 1016-1089. THE subjugation of England was not the only conquest made by the Normans in the eleventh century ; during the same period, other warriors of the same nation equally astonished Europe by their exploits in Italy. A little before the year 1016, forty Normans, returning from a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, happened to stop at Salernum, a maritime town of Campania, at the very time when it was closely besieged by the Saracens. These pilgrims were men of remarkable size, warlike appearance and still greater courage. 228 MODERN HISTORY. Part IV, ing penetrated into the town, they asked for arms and horses, and, making a sudden sally against the besiegers, slew many of them, put the rest to flight, and by a signal victory obliged them to abandon the siege. Both the prince and the inhabitants of Salernurn exceedingly admired their valor, loaded them with presents, and endeavored to retain such useful warriors in tiieir country. But they refused, alleging that they had fought for no other end than the glory of God and the honor of his religion. However, the Italians prevailed upon them to carry to their countrymen different kinds of excellent fruit, as proofs of the fertility of the land, and an inducement to come to Italy. To a warlike and enterprising people, proposals so flattering could not fail to be acceptable. Normans after Normans flocked to the peninsula, and, by defending it against its enemies and invaders, began to acquire in that delightful country rich and honorable settle- ments. Among these fortunate adventurers, there was a whole family of heroes, consisting of the twelve sons of a certain Norman lord, called Tancrede, who, with the help of some hundreds of their countrymen, performed most surprising exploits. Sometimes united with the Lombards and Italians against the Greeks, sometimes with the Greeks against the Saracens, they became a match for all, de- feated numerous armies, took well defended and fortified towns, and subdued extensive provinces. Of these heroic brothers, the most illustrious were: William Iron- arm, who, by incredible exertions of courage, solidly established the Normans in Apulia (A. D. 10 J3); Robert Guiscard, who stripped the Greeks of their last possessions in the same province (1080); and Roger, who expelled the Saracens for ever from Sicily (1089). All these conquered territories formed, when united, a powerful and flourishing state, which lasted upwards of one hundred years. During that interval, the Norman princes who ruled over it, con- tinued to inflict severe losses on the emperors of Constantinople, but were themselves, in the end, obliged to yield to the emperors of Germany. CHIVALRY, PARTICULARLY IN SPAIN. RISE OF THE KINGDOM OF PORTUGAL. A. D. 10451095. THE age which immediately preceded the Crusades, seemed to have been eminently the age of chivalry properly so called. The order of chivalry was composed of Knights-Errant, who rode through all parts of the country, in complete armor, for the purp'ose of redress- A. D. 104S-1095. CHIVALRY,, ETC. 229 ing grievances, and of protecting innocent, weak and afflicted persons, against tyranny and oppression. Their origin may be traced to the reign of Charlemagne, or thereabouts; their decline must be referred to the twelfth century, which gave rise to many Military Orders, of far greater merit and celebrity than private knighthood ; however, during the epoch of which we are now speaking, chivalry, notwith-' standing the abuses that occasionally attended it, proved truly benefi- cial to humanity and social order in Europe, especially when there was question of defending Christians against infidels. Owing to its peculiar state of constant warfare against the Moors, Christian Spain possessed numbers of those generous knights ever ready to shed their blood in the cause of national glory, religion and justice. Among them, the foremost in heroic valor and fortitude was the illustrious Rodriguez Diaz of Bivar, who, during the fifty last years of the eleventh century, did not cease to fight with wonder- ful success the enemies of his country. All Europe continually resounded with the fame of his prowess and repeated triumphs, of the battles he had fought, the victories he had won, the princes he had conquered, the towns he had subdued ; exploits so much the more astonishing, as they were effected entirely by his personal exer- tions, and frequently performed without any assistance from his sovereign. His fame extended even to Asia; and the Mahometan king of Persia sent deputies to the Christian knight of Spain, to con- gratulate him upon his glorious achievements. The name of Cid, or Seid (lord), under which he is known in history as well as poetry, was given him for the first time by the ambassadors of five Moorish chieftains whom he had just defeated in a great battle. It was chiefly with the help of this great warrior that King Al- fonso VI succeeded in the most important and difficult expedition as yet attempted by the Christians against the Moors. This prince cherished an ardent desire to reconquer Toledo, the ancient capital of the Goths, which had been in the power of their enemies for three hundred and seventy-two years, and which contained nearly three hundred thousand inhabitants. No sooner was his intention made known, than, from all parts of Spain and other states of Christendom, multitudes of warriors and knights flocked to the standards of the Spanish monarch, to share with him in this glorious enterprise. The siege was long and perilous, and the defence was not less vigorous than the attack. At length the bravery of the Saracens yielded to the valor of the Christians, and, in the spring of 1085, Toledo, with many other towns, surrendered to Alfonso, who directly made it the capital of his kingdom and the seat of his residence, instead of Bur- gos, the chief city of old Castile. Among the foreign knights who had come to unite thefr efforts 20 230 MODERN HISTORY. PartIV , with those of the Spaniards for the achievement of this great con quest, the most distinguished were Counts Raymond and Henry of Burgundy, of the royal family of the Capetians in France. In every battle, they displayed a valor worthy of their rank, and on every occasion evinced such noble feelings, as to attract general esteem, and particularly that of the Spanish king. In order to secure their subsequent services, Alfonso gave them his daughters in marriage, and loaded them with honors which lime rather increased. The posterity of Raymond inherited the throne of Castile, and occupied it until it passed, by alliance, to the house of Austria, in the begin- ning of the sixteenth century. Henry was invested with extensive power over the more western provinces which had been taken from the Moors, and thus laid the foundation of the Portuguese monarchy, so called from Porto, its first capital (A. D. 1095). This new state, however, did not acquire the title of kingdom, until forty-four years later, when Alphonso Henriquez, the worthy son of Count Henry, having gloriously defeated five Saracen kings on the same day, was himself proclaimed king by his troops on the field of battle. AFFAIR OF INVESTITURES. DURING these civil revolutions in many parts of Christendom, transactions of a different nature engaged the public mind in Ger- many and northern Italy. The custom had been introduced in various places, and particularly throughout the German empire, of putting the newly elected bishops and abbots in possession of their benefices, by giving them the ring and the crosier, the symbols of pastoral authority. As this ceremony, called investiture., seemed to imply the conferring of spiritual jurisdiction by temporal princes, it was, after due examination, justly considered as an encroachment on the rights of the Church. Not content, however, with exercising it, the emperor Henry IV carried on a shameful nnd most scandalous traffic in ecclesiastical dignities, bestowing them, not on worthy can- didates, but on those who offered him .the largest sums of money. Pope Gregory VII inveighed against these crying abuses with ardent zeal and unabated constancy. But both his entreaties and expostu- lations were disregarded; and the wicked emperor, instead of amend- ing his conduct, convened an assembly at Worms, in which, with a body of schismatical associates, he presumed to pass sentence of deposition against the pontiff (A. D. 1076). This outrageous act served only to increase the zeal of Gregory. He not only continued to govern the Church with apostolic vigor, AFFAIR OF INVESTITURES. 231 but even thought that his duty required more than he had hitherto done. With the advice of a numerous council, and taking into con- sideration both the incorrigibleness of Henry and the repeated com- plaints of his oppressed subjects, he excommunicated him, and pro- nounced him fallen from his royal dignity ; at the same time declaring the Germans no longer bound by their former oath of allegiance to him. Singular as the power may appear which Gregory then exer- cised, the general opinion of his contemporaries admitted that such power lay within the sphere of papal jurisdiction, and it was sup- ported by the civil and common jurisprudence of the times.* At the news of the sentence pronounced by the pope, the lords and princes of Germany assembled in great numbers, in order to appoint another emperor in the place of Henry. The distressed monarch perceived the gathering storm, and saw no means of averting it but by a reconciliation with the See of Rome ; he therefore departed in great haste for Italy, fully determined to effect this desired reconcilia- tion on any terms. Gregory had left Rome and advanced as far as Canosse, a castle of Lombardy, on his way to Germany where he was expected by the princes. Henry, in a penitential garb, presented himself before the gates of the castle, humbly begging to be admitted into the presence of the pontiff, acknowledging his guilt, and with every mark of true repentance, expressing his readiness to make all the satisfaction in his power. Gregory, who had more than once experienced the insincerity and inconstancy of the emperor, kept him, by way of trial, in suspense for three days : on the fourth day, he gave him an audience, received his submission, and absolved him on certain conditions. But the repentance of Henry did not last more than fifteen days; having assembled anumerous army, he refused to comply with the terms which he had accepted, and resumed his former course of violence against Church and State. At length the German lords, disgusted with this faithless and wicked monarch, proceeded to the election of another, and chose Rudolph, Duke of Suabia, for their sovereign. Still, Henry remained master of the empire, his competitor having perished * This point has been, from a variety of public and authentic documents, set in the clearest light by the learned and judicious author of a work recently published in Paris, entiled: " Pouvoir du Pape au moyen age." It is like- wise solidly proved by Count de Maistre (Du Pape, livre n, ch. x.) ; by Abb Jager, (in his Introduction to the life of Gregory VII, translated from the German), etc. Nay, it is admitted by many celebrated Protestant writers, such as Leibnitz, De Jure Supremalus, Pseifel, etc. and even by the infidels Bolingbroke and Voltaire. This alone must appear sufficient to vindicate the conduct of Pope Gregory with regard to the emperor Henry IV, and of some of his successors towards other sovereigns of the same stamp See, moreover, Note H. 232 MODERN HISTORY. Part 1V| in a battle near Mersburg, after three years of a disputed succession (A. D. 1080). Elated/ with success, the conqueror marched at the head of his troops into Jtaly, and besieged Rome, which he took after a long siege, more however by bribery than by force of arms. He entered the Lateran palace, and endeavored to cause the excommunicated bishop of Ravenna, Guibert, to be declared pope, under the name of Clement III. In the meantime, Gregory had retreated into the strong castle of St. Angelo, where he remained secure till the arrival of Robert Guiscard, the valiant leader of the Normans, who compelled the emperor to retire with his anti-pope. The lawful pontiff was thus left master of .the city; but, as party violence rendered it either unsafe or unpleasant for him to remain there, he removed first to Mount Cassino, and thence to Salerno, where he was taken danger- ously ill. In his last moments, he uttered these words : " I have loved justice, and hated iniquity; wherefore I die in a strange land;" after which, amidst the prayers and tears of the cardinals and bishops who had gathered around him, he calmly expired, on the 25th of May, 1085. Far different was the end of his violent persecutor. The obstinate perseverance of Henry in the schism kept up a strong opposition against him in Germany; so much so, that his own sons openly revolted, and obliged him to abdicate the crown. The dethroned monarch retired to Liege, where he died shortly after, like the ancient persecutors of the Church, a prey to excessive grief and misery, and an object of indignation to the whole world. He had reigned about fifty years, and during that time, had been present in sixty-two battles, in most of which he was victorious. His exploits, his bravery, and his talents might have ranked him among the greatest emperors of Germany, had he not disgraced himself by his perfidy, and by yield- ing to detestable and unruly passions. The question of investitures was settled after his death; in the year 1122, the emperor Henry V agreed to resign the custom, of giving the ring and the crosier, and this transaction was solemnly confirmed by the first general council of Lateran, in 1123. REMARKS ON THE MIDDLE AGES. TKTTCE OF GOD. THE ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries, are commonly called the middle, and, by a numerous class of writers, the dark ages. To know whether or how far this second appellation is correct, deserves REMARKS ON THE MIDDLE AGES. 233 a particular investigation, and will be the object of the following remarks. In the first place, it must be confessed that, a short time after the reign of Charlemagne, ignorance began anew to make great progress in Europe, especially among nobles, many of whom, being exclu- sively given to the profession of arms, even boasted of their want of instruction and literary knowledge.* But never perhaps were more strenuous efforts made to keep alive the sacred flame of science, and promote the instruction of youth, than were made by the Church at the period of which we are speaking.f Besides smaller schools for children in country parishes, there were in large cities, in monaste- ries, and in episcopal houses, various institutions in which a relish for study and learning was carefully preserved. In these, besides the Holy Scriptures and Christian doctrine, the students could learn what was then termed the seven liberal arts ; Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Geometry, Astronomy and Music. Many schools of this kind are known to have existed in Italy, England, France, Germany, etc. such as those of Rome, Lyons, Paris, York, Oxford, Fuld, Ratisbon, Paderborn,J etc. They did not, it is true, possess men like * Many deeds and legal instruments of those ages are found, which ter- minate thus: "And the aforesaid lord has declared that he did not know how to sign his name, owing to his being a nobleman." f See the decrees of Popes Eugenius II, Leo IV, etc. in the councils of Rome, A. D. 826, 853, etc.; the canons of the councils of Mentz and Cha- lons, A. r. 813; of Paris, 829; of Valence, 855; of Toul, 859, etc: and the statutes of Herard, Archbishop of Tours ; of Riculfus bishop of Sois- sons ; etc. Merely to quote one or two of these decrees ; the council of Toul, in the tenth canon, earnestly entreats princes and recommends to bishops to establish every where public schools, for the teaching of both sacred science and polite literature: and Herard, archbishop of Tours, in his book of synodical regulations, commands his priests to have, as far as they can, schools in their parishes. Not long before, Theodulphe, bishop of Orleans, had expressed himself thus, in the 20th Art. of his 1st Capitular : " Let the priests establish schools in towns and villages for the instruction of children, and not refuse to receive and teach those who are personally addressed to them. But in so doing, let them require no salary, nor accept any thing but what may be voluntarily and charitably offered by the parents." J In Paderbornensi ecclesia publica floruerunt studia, quandb ibi musici fuerunt, et dialectic! enituerunt, rhetorici, clarique grammatici. Ubi mathe- matici claruerunt, et astronomici habebantur, physici atque geometric!. Viguit Horatius, magnusque Virgilius, Sallustius et Statius. Jlpud Tho- massin, Discipl. de VEgl. Part, n, /. i, ch. 99, n. 2 ; vol. n, col. 638. In the same chapter and in other chapters of the same work, the learned Oratorian shows that studies were also very flourishing in the schools of Worms, Paris, Lyons, and still more so in that of Rome, of which he speaks at length, and then says : " Let us conclude that the pontifical palace of Rome was the palace of polite literature, and the sanctuary of ecclesias- tical learning." ch. 100, n. 3. See also on this subject, Digby's Jlgcs of Fuilh, vol. n, part in, <:h. 5 and 6. ' 234 MODERN HISTORY. Part IV. St. Basil and St. John Chrysostora, Fenelon and Bossuet, Newton and Leibnitz ; yet it cannot be denied that they produced many learned writers and eminent scholars, who might have become models for posterity in point of literature and learning, had they enjoyed the number of books and other advantages which we now possess. Whatever may be the diffusion of superficial knowledge at the prt- sent day, it may certainly be doubted whether in point of solid, pro- found and extensive learning, many persons could be found superior to such men as Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres, a writer of the ninth century, in whose treatises and letters all impartial critics aclrnow ledge an immense fund of erudition} or St. Bruuon, archbishop ol Cologne in the tenth century, Avhose biographers relate that then; was no part of Latin and Greek literature, no branch of sacred and profane learning, with which he was not familiar.* The same, or nearly the same, may be said of the following authors, as their own writings testify : Agobardus, archbishop of Lyons, who died in 8-10; Rabanus, archbishop of Mentz, 856; Paschasius Radbertus, a monk, 865; St. Ado, archbishop of Vienna, in France, 875; Anastasius, the Roman librarian, 880; Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, 882; Remigius of Auxerre, a monk, 908; Notker, a monk of St. Gal, 912; Atto, bishop of Vercelli, 960; Flodoardus, a canon in the church of Rheims, 966; Sylvester II, pope, 1003; Abbo, a monk and abbot of Fleury, 1004; Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, 1029; St. Peter Damian, cardinal, 1072; St. Gregory VII, pope, 1085; Lanfrancus, archbishop of Canterbury, 1089; St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian order, 1101 ; St. Anselm, archbishop of Canter- bury, 1108; and many others, equally belonging to the clergy or to religious orders. To speak now of laymen ; although generally less fond of study and less instructed, it ought not to be imagined that they were plunged in a state of barbarism and complete darkness far from it; an atten- tive perusal of the history of the middle ages will rather lead to the conclusion, that, without knowing how to display much elegance in their manners, and to appreciate the flowing periods of Demosthenes and Cicero, they had, in their noble simplicity, as much good sense and judgment with regard to affairs of real importance, as we have in this our age of light, and frequently more than we manifest. They knew how to set a higher value on religion than on temporal concerns, even their own lives ; they knew how to refer their best * Prater Sacras litteras, quidquid historic!, oratores, poetae atque philoso- phi, novum et grande perstrepunt, diligent'issime cum doctoribus cujus- cumque linguae perscrutatus est. Nullum penitus erat stiuliorum liberalium rcnus, in ornni Graeca vel Latina eloqucntia, quod ingenii sui vivacitot'-iu aufugeret. .'Ipud Thomass. lib. cit. c. 99, n. 3. REMARKS ON" THE MIDDLE AGES. 235 achievements in the arts to the honor and service of the Almighty, rather than to the petty motives of selfish gratification and human applause ; they knew, too, how to examine attentively difficult mat- ters, to reason with accuracy, to act with prudence, to succeed in complicated negotiations, and adopt the best course in perplexing cir- cumstances: witness, among others, the emperor Otho I in Ger- many; Kings Alfred, Edgar and Canute in England; Hugh Capet in France; Alfonso III in Spain, and John of Gortz and Luitprand, the ambassadors of Otho I to the courts of Cordova and Constan- tinople. Nor did our ancestors want sagacity and genius for useful discove- ries and improvements, since many of this kind were made during the middle ages. It was at the end of the tenth century, that Gerbert, a monk, afterwards archbishop of Ravenna, and at length pope under the name of Sylvester II, invented clocks with a balance, which con- tinued in use till pendulums began to be employed in 1650. To him also arithmetic was greatly indebted for its progress. About the same time, lanterns, arid paper made of cotton rags, commenced to be used. Towards the year 1022, Guy, a monk of Arezzo in Italy, invented and introduced into the Church singing the gamut, or scale of musical notes, by which a child can learn in a few months, what no person before could learn without several years of study. With regard to mechanical arts, it is enough to read the history of the siege of Jerusalem in 1099, to know what wonderful and complicated machines of every description were constructed by the first crusaders, men consequently of the middle ages. Still, if credit were to be given to certain authors, the inhabitants of western Europe, at the time of which we are speaking, were mere barbarians, compared with the Arabs, to whom alone, we are told, belonged the honor of cultivating letters and the arts and sciences. This notion is altogether false and unjust. The Arabs indeed, whether in the empire of Bagdad or in the kingdom of Cordova, dis- tinguished themselves by a great show of politeness and magnifi- cence, by some happy discoveries, and the brilliant dreams of their imagination ; but that they were superior, in point of solid acquire- ments, to the Christian nations of Europe, it would be difficult to prove, and may be justly doubted.* Their metaphysical science * Even at the time when arts and sciences were in their most flourishing state among the eastern Arabs, namely, under Al-Mamon, the son ana second successor of Aaron-Al-Raschid;*that caliph was himself obliged to acknowledge the superiority of Christian scholars over his subjects. In his own palace, a Greek slave, who had formerly studied mathematics in Con- stantinople, confounded all the doctors and masters of the court. Whilst all present stood a^louishcd, (he slave said that there were many prisons among Ins countrymen more skilful than himself, abova all, u '-i-Haiti I'M- 236 MODERN HISTORY. Part rv , instead of being a source of true learning, was filled up with subtiltiea taken from the categories of Aristotle; their astronomical observa- tions were blended with the ridiculous theories of astrology, and their prejudices against anatomy and surgery greatly impeded the progress of the art of medicine. They did not improve any better in historical composition, which was characterized among them by strange re- marks, a bombastic style, and exaggerated accounts. Hence, the learned author of a recent history of the crusades, does not hesitate to prefer the plain and unaffected narratives of the first crusade, left by some Christian writers of the eleventh century, to the Arabian records of the same epoch. * Another, and a still more striking vindication of the middle ages against the charge of complete darkness, is to be found in the great number of splendid churches that were then built throughout Chris- tendom, many of which still exist ; for, as several learned men have justly remarked, the state of architecture has always been in every country a sure proof of the degree of perfection in which the other arts flourished. Not only was this advantage possessed by England during the reign of the great Alfred, but also by other countries under less favorable circumstances, particularly on the following occasion. A little before the close of the tenth century, an opinion had been entertained by many simple persons, that the world would end with the year 1000, nor had the writings of learned men been able to remove that imaginary fear. But when all saw the eleventh century begin without accident, joy took the place of terror, and the gratitude of the people towards Almighty God prompted them to repair churches, or build new ones still more worthy, by their splen- dor, of being consecrated to his honor. Then, indeed, arose in different parts of Christendom, those Gothic temples, the appearance of which, at once grand, majestic and im- posing, will never be eclipsed by the flimsy elegance of most of our modern edifices. Then were laid in many European cities the foun- dations of those splendid cathedrals, in which we still admire the symmetrical rows of beautiful pillars supporting immense arched roofs, the towering steeples, and a thousand other ornaments: monu- ments the more astonishing and worthy of admiration, as they are found even in many inconsiderable cities, and bear testimony to the grand ideas, as well as to the zeal and piety of our European ancestors. losopher, called Leo, from whom he had received lessons. In fact, as a geometer and an astronomer, Leo had not his equal in the whole empire. The caliph endeavored, but in vain, by the most flattering letters and pro- mises, to bring him over to Bagdad : the Emperor Theophilus would never let him go, nor consent to deprive his own capital of so distinguished a scholar. See Lebeau, Hist, du Bets. Emp. vol. xvi, pp. 441, 446. * Michaut, Hist, dcs Croisades, vol. i, p, 519. REMARKS ON THE MIDDLE AGES. 237 In fine, it was also during the middle ages that, through missiona- ries from Italy, Germany, France, England, etc. northern Europe received the light of the gospel; that the Normans, the Hungarians, the Danes, the Swedes, the Russians, the Lithuanians, the Poles, et3. began at the same time to become Christian and civilized nations. But how could this, we may ask, have been effected by any of their contemporaries, had those contemporaries been themselves mere bar- barians? How could so arduous a task ever have been undertaken and performed, except by men equally zealous and learned, equally possessed of heroic virtues and great mental acquirements? And indeed, that such were the qualifications of the missionaries who subjected these nations to the laws of Christianity, we learn from al] the documents of that period. From this variety of evidence and facts, we are certainly author- ized to conclude, in the first place, that the opinion commonly enter- tained about the middle ages is egregiously wrong, their pretended state of stupidity and barbarism never having had any existence, except in the theories of modern invention: arid secondly, that it is to the Catholic Church, to her popes, bishops and monks, that we stand indebted for the preservation of civilization, literature, arts and sciences in Europe. The complete revival of letters came from the same source, and the progress of ignorance, after having been vigor- ously opposed even in the most difficult times, was at length effec- tually checked (A. D. 1 179 1215), by the decrees of Popes Alexander III and Innocent III, in the third and fourth councils of Lateran , conformably to which decrees, colleges and universities began to spring up in every part of Christendom. Another excellent institution that owed ils existence to the mid- dle ages, and for which humanity was also indebted to the happy influence of religion, was the sacred compact usually termed the Truce of God. From the ninth to the eleventh century,, the feudal system, however beautiful in many of its principles, had been a con- stant source of contentions and wars. Each petty chieftain arrogated to himself an almost unlimited use of force and violence to avenge his wrongs, and pursue his rights whether real or pretended. As, moreover, vassals were obliged to espouse the quarrels of their imme- diate lords, rapine, bloodshed and their attendant miseries were to be seen every where; nor could the most pacific citizens depend on one moment of perfect security, either for their properties or their lives. Religion, by her divine and universally revered authority, was alone capable of raising an efficacious barrier against this torrent of evils. Experience having already shown the impossibility of stem- ming it at once, prudent measures were taken gradually to diminish its violence. Several bishops ordered under penalty of excommuni- 238 MODERN HISTORY. Fart IV, cation, that, every week, during the four days consecrated to the memory of our Saviour's passion, death, burial and resurrection, viz from the afternoon of Wednesday till the morning of the following Monday, whatever might be the cause of strife and quarrel, all private hostilities should cease. Shortly after, the same prohibition was extended to the whole time of Advent and Lent, including seve- ral weeks both after Christmas and after Easter-Sunday. This bene- ficial institution, which originated in France towards the year 1040, was adopted in England, Spain, etc. and was confirmed by several popes and councils : nor must it be thought that it remained a dead letter; its success, on the contrary, was so remarkable, that the pious age in which the experiment was made, hesitated not to attribute it to the interposition of heaven. Thus, by the exertions of ecclesiastical authority, the horrors and calamities of feudal war began to be considerably lessened and abridged. Its ravages were restrained to three days in the week and to certain seasons of the year; during the intervals of peace, there was leisure for passion to cool, for the mind to sicken at a languishing warfare, and for social habits to become more and more deeply rooted. A considerable number of days and weeks afforded security to all, and all, being now shielded by the religious sanction of this sacred compact, could travel abroad, or attend to their domestic affairs, without danger of molestation. Such was the splendid victory which the religion of Christ won over the natural fierceness of the ancient tribes of the north; a victory whose completion was also due to her influence, when the crusades obliged those restless war- riors to turn against the invading hordes of the Saracens and Turks, tiiose weapons which they had hitherto so frequently used against their fellow-Christians. PART V. ROM THK BEGINNING OF THE CRUSADES (A. D. 1095), TO THEIR END (A. D. 1272). ORIGIN AND CAUSES OF THE CRUSADES. WE have now reached the eventful period in which a violent strug- gle took place between two great divisions of the globe, for the pos- session of Jerusalem and Palestine ; when Europe, shaken, as it were, to its foundation, seemed repeatedly to precipitate itself against Asia. The better to fix our attention on so grand and interesting a subject, we will be more than ever careful to say little about contem- porary transactions of merely secondary importance. By Crusades are meant those military expeditions which were set on foot under the banner of the cross, for the purpose of delivering the Holy Land from the oppressive yoke of the Mahometans. Nu- merous and forcible were the motives that ur^ed the nations of Eu- rope to engage in these expeditions. New hordes of barbarians were threatening to invade all Christendom, and required a powerful bar- rier to check their destructive course. The Seljukian Turks had conquered, within a few years, the fairest portions of western Asia; the extent of the Greek empire was more and more reduced by their usurpations; and the emperor Alexius Comnenus, harassed and dis- tressed on every side, eagerly solicited the assistance of the Latins against the common enemy of Christianity. On the other hand, public indignation was roused throughout Eu- rope by the daily recital of the enormities which the Arabs and Turks committed in the Holy Land, and of the cruel treatment which they inflicted on the Christians, whether inhabitants of the country, or travellers and pilgrims who went to Jerusalem. At this period, a lively faith and fervent piety induced multitudes of Christians from all countries to visit the places consecrated by the sufferings of our Redeemer. When, after a thousand dangers and hardships, they ar- rived in Palestine, the gates of Jerusalem were opened only to those who could pay a piece of gold; and, as most of them wore poor, or 240 MODERN HISTORY. Part V. had been plundered on the way, they were obliged to linger in wretchedness around the city for which they had left their native land and every domestic comfort. Many died with hunger, or fell by the sword of the barbarians. In the city itself, they who had been al- lowed to enter it, were exposed, like its Christian inhabitants, to alj sorts of torments and outrages, some being loaded with chains, some forced to draw a car or a plough, and others condemned to an igno- minious death. Such as could escape and return to Europe, did not fail to relate what they had seen and suffered ; and these reports, be- ing widely circulated, excited universal commiseration among the faithful, and prepared their minds for some extraordinary exertion. FIRST CRUSADE. A. D. 10951099. SUCH were the feelings of Christian Europe when a French priest, called Peter, and surnamed the Hermit on account of his retired life, undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Seeing the cruel oppression which weighed down his brethren in Asia, his sensible heart was deeply afflicted; and, after a moving interview with Simeon, the pious patriarch of Jerusalem, he prevailed upon him to write to the pope, and to the princes of Europe, for the purpose of imploring their assistance, offering himself to be his deputy and the bearer of his letters. This measure being readily adopted, Peter set out from Palestine, crossed the seas, and, landing on the Italian coast, hastened to the pope, Urban II. The pontiff received him with kindness, lis- tened to him with emotion, praised his devotedness and zeal; and, as he himself was convinced of the necessity of opposing the alarm- ing progress of the infidels, and of rescuing the eastern Christians from oppression, he commissioned Peter to go forward and preach every where in favor of the speedy deliverance of Jerusalem. The generous hermit was eminently qualified for 'this noble office. Under a poor garb and mean appearance, he possessed an elevated mind, great energy of soul, and heroic sentiments; his pathetic and glowing eloquence readily found its way to the hearts of his hearers. He travelled through Italy, France, and other countries, communi- cating to all by his preaching and his exhortations, the zeal with which he himself was animated. The pope soon followed him, and, after a first council held at Placentia in Italy, appointed, for the final decision, another to be celebrated at Clermont in France, towards the close of the year 1095. The assembly met at the time and place which had been assigned, and, from the great number of bishops, princes, dukes, and other A. D. 10951099. FIRST CRUSADE. 241 distinguished persons who composed it, together with an immense crowd of spectators, it might be considered a general convention of Christendom. Peter the hermit having first spoken with his usual ardor in favor of the holy war, Pope Urban also delivered an eloquent and animated discourse, at the end of which the whole assembly spon- taneously exclaimed: God wills it; God wills it. Most of those who were present, hastened to be enrolled for the sacred expedition. They wore, as a mark of their engagement, a cross made of red stuff, and commonly fastened on the right shoulder; whence, originated the name of Crusaders and Crusade. The same enthusiasm spread rapidly through the other cities and the various states of Christendom. Those who, in the council of Clermont, had listened to the animating voice of the pontiff, on their return to their homes diffused a similar fervor among their country men. Thousands and thousands flocked to the banner of the cross from every part of Europe, particularly from France and Italy where all ranks manifested the greatest eagerness to share in the cru- sade, and, forgetting their private quarrels, began to prepare for their departure into the East. Among the princes who engaged themselves in the holy war at the head of their vassals and subjects, the most illustrious were : Raymond, count of Toulouse; Robert, duke of Normandy, and brother of the king of England ; Hugh-the-Great, count of Vermandois, and brother of the French king; Stephen, count of Blois; Robert, earl of Flanders; Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lorraine, with his two brothers Eus- tace and Baldwin; in fine, Bohemond, prince of Tarentum, with his heroic nephew, Tancred, the very personification of ancient chi- valry. Warriors like these might have conquered the world, had there been stricter discipline and order among their troops, and bettei understanding among themselves; but this could hardly be expected from so many different nations, and from so many princes indepen- dent of each other, and all worthy of the chief command. One of them, however, Godfrey of Bouillon, without being in- vested with the title of commander-in-chief. generally held the first rank in the army, this privilege being the natural consequence of his reputation for unblemished virtue and extraordinary valor. Although he was not, by birth, either the most conspicuous or the most power- ful of the lords who headed the crusade, he brought to the field no fewer than ninety thousand chosen troops, whom the reputation of his uncommon merit had gathered to his standard. The whole num- ber of the crusaders may have amounted, in the beginning, to seven or eight hundred thousand, having among them, as legate of the pope, the celebrated bishop of Puy, Adhemar de Monteil, a prelate equally renowned for his consummate prudence and tender piety. 21 MODERN HISTORY. Part v , At the close of winter, they set out from various points, and ad- \Tanced towards the East in different directions. The first bodies that marched forward, being destitute of discipline, met, with few excep- tions, a disastrous fate. Some of them, as soon as they entered Asia, fell by the swords of the Turks ; others could not even reach the capital of the Greek empire, but were slain, in their march through Hungary and Bulgaria, by the inhabitants, whose attacks they had provoked by their own excesses (A. D. 1096). The principal leaders of the expedition acted with more prudence, and arrived in safety at Constantinople, which had been selected for their general rendezvous. Here they met with an unforeseen obsta- cle. The Greek emperor, who had expected only some bodies of troops to assist him in repelling the Turks, could not see such a mul- titude of warriors covering his empire, and so formidable a force encamped under the very walls of his capital, without apprehending an attack against himself. In his perplexity, he resolved to adopt towards the crusaders a course of dissimulation and craftiness, which it is not easy to reconcile with the usual courage, generosity and other noble qualities of Alexius. He loaded the chiefs with pre- sents, used every means in his power to attach them to his interest, and making them fair promises of powerful aid, gave directions that vessels should be prepared, with the utmost despatch, to convey them across the Bosphorus to the Asiatic coast. The Christian army, consisting of about six hundred thousand men, about one sixth cavalry, directed their march to Nice, the chief city of Bithynia. This town, famous for the reception it formerly gave to the Fathers of two general councils, was now in the power of the Turkish Sultan Kilidgi Arsland, or Soliman the younger; a prince highly commendable for the inexhaustible resources of his genius and the unshaken firmness of his character. At the head of a numerous body of cavalry, he moved forward to protect his capital. Furious and repeated attacks were made against the Christian camp, but, after prodigious efforts, the crusaders remained masters of the field, and bore off the spoils. Soliman himself could not forbear admiring the lion-like courage of the Christian leaders, who, with a thousand lances, would often break and put to flight twenty times that number of Turkish troops. Thus repulsed with great loss, he retired to a distance in order to collect new forces, and attack tho Christians at their departure with greater advantage. The siege was now carried on with unabated vigor, the besiegers and the besieged making use of all the resources that military science had hitherto devised for the attack and defence of fortified places. Besides a double wall and a numerous garrison, the city was pro- tected on one side by large ditches, and on the other, by the lake A. D. 1095-1099. FIRST CRUSADE. 243 Ascanius; but the Christian warriors were not to be stopped or disr pirited by these obstacles. They at length succeeded in preventing all access to the town, even by the lake; and Count Raymond under- mined one of the principal towers. Nice, reduced to the last extremi- ty, was on the point of being stormed, when the flags of the Greek emperor suddenly appeared on the walls, Alexius, by private embas- sies, having prevailed upon the inhabitants to surrender to him rather than to the Franks. This artful conduct highly displeased the cru- saders : still, not to break their treaty with the Greeks, nor be diverted from the main object of their enterprise, they consented to leave the town in the hands of Alexius ; for, they had previously promised him to conquer in his name, and to restore the cities which had formerly belonged to the empire of Constantinople, on condition that he should aid them in the conquest of the Holy Land. As, however, the Greek monarch soon evinced little inclination to fulfil his own promises, the Latin lords thought themselves no longer bound by the treaty. Shortly after the reduction of Nice, they began to occupy the cities of Asia-Minor and Syria, to leave garrisons in them, and appoint governors in their own name. Tarsus and the rest of Cilicia were already in their possession, when Baldwin, the brother of Godfrey led off a detached body of crusaders towards the north, and traversed a long tract of country inhabited entirely by Christians, till he came to the Euphrates. The citizens of Edessa, in Mesopo- tamia, as soon as they heard of his arrival, invited him to take them under his protection. He cheerfully acceded to their request, took possession of the sovereign power among them, and established a principality, which stood until the year 1144, when it was subdued by the famous chieftains Zenghi and Nouradin. A little before the departure of Baldwin, the crusaders were exposed to a greater danger than they had yet encountered. As they were marching in two great divisions, the less numerous body, commanded by Robert of Normandy, Bohemond and Tancred, was suddenly attacked near Dorylseum in Phrygia, by a countless multitude of Turks, Persians and Arabs, who covered all the hills and plains as far as the sight could extend.* Bohemond instantly sent messengers to Godfrey of Bouillon and to the other princes, whom he knew to be near, to inform them of the danger with which he was threatened. In the interim, he drew up his forces as well as the spot permitted, and, at their head, together with Duke Robert and Tancred, exerted all his courage, to resist the shock of the enemy. The battle lasted for many * The number of the Turks and Persians is believed to have amounted to nearly two hundred thousand men, all on horseback ; as to the Arabs, says a contemporary historian who was present at the battle, so great was their multitude, that God alone could count them. 244 MODERN HISTOHY. Pm v . hours; but about noon, the Christians, forced back by the multitude that pressed upon them, and exhausted with heat, thirst and fatigue began to give way before the Saracens, and their defeat seemed inevi- table, when repeated shouts and a cloud of dust rising from behind the hills, announced the arrival of the main body of the crusaders. Godfrey, Hugh-the-Great, and Robert of Flanders, had taken the lead with fifty thousand cavalry; Raymond of Toulouse and Adhe- mar of Puy were following as rapidly as possible with the rest of the army. Each one arrayed his troops, as they came up; and, after the usual cry, "God wills it," all, with levelled lances, advanced against the Turks, who vainly endeavored to maintain the superiority which they had acquired. Unable to bear the charge of the Latin chivalry, the infidels fled in disorder, and abandoned to the Christians their camp with all their provisions and treasures (A. D. 1097). The loss of trie crusaders, after so long and severe a battle, was less than might have been anticipated; only four thousand of them are said to have fallen, and nearly all in the earlier part of the day. The loss of the Turks was far more considerable, as it amounted to upwards of twenty thousand soldiers and three thousand officers, with several of their generals. Those who escaped, spread them- selves, by the orders of Soliman, in large bands over the country, and despairing to defend it any longer, began to waste and destroy every thing in their way. When the crusading armies, after some days of repose, resumed their march, they found themselves obliged to go across large tracts which had been completely ravaged by the enemy. There, in barren plains or narrow defiles, under a scorching sun, and without water to quench their thirst, thousands sunk under the accu- mulated weight of fatigue and sickness, and most of the horses per- ished. Still, the survivors marched on with unshaken resolution, and at length reached a better country. After subduing many towns, and defeating many parties of Turks, they saw themselves in the midst of delightful plains, near the great and well fortified city of Antioch, the capital of Syria. In a council of war held by the leaders, it was thought unsafe to leave so important a place behind them. Accordingly, they resolved to besiege it; an undertaking, which the strength of the ramparts, the valor of the garrison, and the imprudence of the crusaders, ren- dered both tedious and difficult. At first, many of the Christians, delighted with the beauty of the land, spread themselves without precaution through the neighboring plains, where they were sur- prised and slaughtered by the Turks. Others, forgetting their duty and the laws of the Gospel, gave themselves up to many disorders, which God did not delay to punish, want of food during winter, continual rains and other calamities having soon caused the death of *. D . 1035-1099. FIRST CRUSADE. 245 many, and made others repent of their excesses. At length, the united exertions of the princes and clergy put an end to those evils. Abundance returned with the spring; the courage of the troops was revived with the restoration of good order and discipline; and the Moslems were repulsed, whenever they attempted to attack the Christian camp, whether from the town or from the neighboring country. On one occasion, particularly, they were entirely defeated, and, by the vigorous efforts of the Christian knights, experienced sucn slaughter, as to lose twelve of their generals called emirs, and fifteen hundred of their most distinguished warriors, besides a multi- tude of others who were drowned in the river Orontos. Still, Antioch continued to resist with undaunted obstinacy. Every means employed by the crusaders to batter its mighty bulwarks, proved ineffectual; and all their efforts might ultimately have failed, but for the following circumstance. The prince of Tarentum had of late opened a secret correspondence with a Mussulman officer named Phirouz, formerly a Christian, who was invested with the chief com- mand in three of the principal towers that defended Antioch. By splen- did promises, Bohemond succeeded in inducing this officer to deliver them into the hands of the Christians. The plan was concerted be- tween them; the darkness of a stormy night facilitated its execution; and in a few hours the whole army, being introduced into the city, took possession of it on the third of June, 1098. At the break of day, Bohemond planted his banner on one of the highest towers, and was, by common assent, acknowledged sovereign of Antioch and its dependencies, under the title of prince. The joy of the crusaders at this valuable conquest, was in a very short time damped, and changed into distress. They had not yet subdued the citadel, into which a great part of the garrison had re- tired, nor taken measures to procure the necessary supplies of provi- sions, when they saw themselves besieged by an army much more numerous than their own. It consisted of three hundred and sixty thousand men, whom the Persian sultan sent to the relief of Antioch, under the command of Kerboga, prince of Mosul. This general manifested on every occasion the greatest contempt for the crusa- ders; and, having arrived too late to preserve the city from their invasion, he considered them as so many victims reserved for his vengeance. Every thing, at first, seemed to favor his design. After a few days, the crusaders, having consumed all the provisions in Antioch, were exposed to a most dreadful famine, so far as to eat the flesh of horses and camels, afterwards leaves of trees, and boiled leather Such was the excess of their misery, that many of these renowned warriors, even among the barons and knights, after having resolutely 21* 246 MODERN HISTORY. Part V. endured a thousand other hardships, now lost courage, abandoned their colors, and fled from Antioch. Both the strength and resources of those who remained, were exhausted. Several of the chief lords themselves were reduced to absolute beggary, and became completely dependent on the bounty of Godfrey even for their food, till he him- self, having killed his last horse, had nothing more to give. Mourn- ing, consternation and death reigned throughout Antioch, and the whole city seemed destined to become the sepulchre of the Christian soldiers; nor could the princes, either by exertions or entreaties, stimulate them to new combats. In this desperate state of things, the evil suggested its remedy. The crusaders, deprived of all human assistance, placed their hopes in heaven ; and, in the abyss of misery to which they were reduced, they received with the greatest alacrity every token and mark of the return of God's special protection, their warlike enthusiasm being particularly excited, as many authors relate, by the discovery of the lance which had pierced the side of our Saviour. In the meanwhile, Tancred, ever foremost in heroic feelings and actions, pledged him- self with an oath not to turn back from the road to Jerusalem, so long as he should be followed by sixty knights; and the whole army, imi- tating his example, took the same oath. In fine, the unexpected discovery of some provisions in the city increased the confidence and restored the strength of the soldiers of the cross. Their activity, reso- lution, and energy reappeared; they felt in themselves the same intre- pid ardor which they had displayed in former batiles, and loudly asked to be led against the enemy. The princes lost not a moment. The gates of Antioch were thrown open, and early on the morning of the twenty -ninth of June, one hundred thousand emaciated but brave warriors were seen marching out with noble assurance, whilst the banks of the Orontes and the neighboring hills resounded with their usual battle cry, "God wills it; God wills it." Kerboga did not imagine, at first, that the crusaders could entertain the thought of fighting, and believed they were coming to implore his clemency. His illusion having soon vanished, he hastened to draw up his numberless squadrons in battle array, and made several skilful movements for the purpose of surrounding the comparatively small host of the crusaders. The Christians, on their side, with little attention to the ordinary arts of warfare, continued to march on, their courage increasing rather than diminishing; till, having come within bowshot of the Persians, after the clarions and trumpets had sounded, both generals and soldiers rushe-d against the enemy. Then only did Kerboga and his troops perceive what sort of hrroes were Tancred, Godfrey, Hugh-the-Great, the duke of Normandy and A. D. 10951099. FIRST CRUSADE. 247 the earl of Flanders, whose swords flashed with the rapidity of lightning. In proportion as the other chief's arrived, they also threw themselves into the thickest of the battle; and the fight had scarcely lasted one hour, when the infidels began to waver. They endea- vored, but in vain to stop the Christian soldiers by setting the weeds on fire; nothing could damp the enthusiasm of the crusaders: the Persian columns were driven forward, broken and routed with dread- ful slaughter. In vain too did their most courageous warriors attempt to rally upon a hill behind a deep raving; the Christian knights, hur- ried on by almost superhuman valor, followed them across the pre- cipice, and their victorious swords destroyed all who dared wait their approach. The Persians were scattered in every direction through the woods and hollows; and the banks of the Orontes, the mountains, the plains, appeared covered with fugitives abandoning their colors and throwing aside their arms. The haughty Kerboga himself, who had promised the sultan the entire defeat of the Christians, and who had, in anticipation of that event, prepared a great quantity of fetters for his prisoners, fled towards the Euphrates with a few horsemen, leaving a hundred thousand of his bravest soldiers on the field of battle. The loss of the conquerors was ten, or, according to several historians, only four thousand. Immense was the booty in gold, arms, rich vestments, horses, cat- tle and provisions, which the crusaders found in the Persian camp. The whole army, loaded with wealth and rejoicing in their abun- dance, entered once more within the walls of Antioch, and made the air resound with their thanksgivings for the triumph which they had obtained. To the Saracens themselves this victory of the Christians seemed so wonderful, that many were induced, on that account, to abandon the religion of Mahomet. They who defended the citadel of Antioch, struck with astonishment and terror, surrendered, in the very evening of the battle, to Count Raymond who had been left to guard the town; three hundred of them embraced Christianity; and several went through the cities of Syria, every where publishing that the God of the Christians was the only true God. The way towards Jerusalem was now left free; the princes, how- ever, for the sake of granting to their troops a necessary repose, thought proper to postpone their further advance till the next spring. In that interval, a pestilence broke out among the crusaders, sweep- ing off not only thousands of the less cautious multitudes, but also many illustrious knights, and the venerable bishop of Puy, whose noble qualities of mind and heart had given much dignity and strength to the enterprise. Another sad effect of the delay just mentioned, was that it enabled the Egyptian caliph to turn the losses of the Turks to his own profit: driving them from Jerusalem, whilst he 248 MODERN HISTORY Prtrt v amused the leaders of the crusading host with proposals of alliance, he took possession of the Holy City. It was therefore against this new enemy that the Christians had to fight during the last period of the crusade (A. D. 1099). The time appointed for their departure from Antioch at length arrived. They advanced along the fertile coasts of Phoenicia, and then through the desolate lands of Palestine, without finding much resistance; at length, on the seventh of June, Jerusalem lay before their eyes. No one can sufficiently describe the pious transports which, on the appearance of the Holy City, the remembrance of our Saviour's passion and death excited in every bosom, and their feelings of indignation at beholding Jerusalem in the hands of the infidels. The army marched on in haste, driving back some parties of Sara- cens, and almost immediately made so vigorous an assault, that the town would probably have been taken at the first onset, but for want of ladders and other necessary instruments. After many had fallen on each side to no effect, the attack was suspended, and all the ener- gies of the crusaders were employed in constructing wooden towers, catapults, battering rams and other warlike engines. During the fabrication of these machines, a deadly drought afflicted the army. For many days, the soldiers of the cross again experi- enced all the inconveniences of heat and thirst; and their number, already so much diminished by previous plagues, diseases, desertions, battles, and garrisons left in various places, became reduced to about forty thousand, one fourth of whom were unable to fight. The gar- rison alone of Jerusalem was more numerous than the whole army of the crusade; the town too was defended by strong fortifications, and supplied with all things requisite for a long resistance. So many obstacles, instead of abating, seemed rather to increase the ardor of the Christians; and, as soon as the engines were com- pleted, the attack was renewed. Early in the morning of the four- teenth of July, towers, mangonels and battering rams moved all at once against three different parts of the wall, and began to cast a shower of arrows and stones, and to make a breach. Language cannot describe the violence of this first shock. Like the princes, who fought all that day from the platform of their wooden towers, the multitude of the assailants fearlessly braved all kinds of perils; but, in return, the Saracens obstinately opposed them at every point, and, being abundantly furnished with darts, boiling oil, and Grecian fire, spread ruin and dismay among the Christians. Thus passed that whole day in one of the most tremendous encounters that the cmsaders had ever sustained; night came on, and the besiegers re-en- tered their camp, burning with indignation because the city was not taken. A. D. 1095-1099. FIRST CRUSADE. 249 On the following day, a new attempt was made to storm tne city. During the whole morning, thousands of darts were heard continually whizzing through the air; beams and rocks, thrown by the engines, dashed against one another, and fell with a frightful crash upon the assailants. Many of them had already been killed, or received deep wounds at the foot of the ramparts; the others were almost exhausted; whilst the Saracens, on the contrary, seemed to fight with renewed vigor. At that moment, Raymond and Godfrey, though placed at a great distance from each other, suddenly exclaimed that they saw a celestial warrior coming to their assistance, and giving a signal to enter the town. This instantly revived the fainting hopes of the Christians; prodigious efforts were made on all sides; the tower of Godfrey, in spite of a shower of darts and Grecian fire, was rolled forward till it touched the wall ; and, a moveable bridge being let down, two illustrious brothers, Letold and Engelbert of Tournai, immediately sprang upon the battlements. They were followed by the intrepid duke and other knights, who bore down upon the Sara- cens with irresistible force, and rushed after them into the very streets of Jerusalem. Tancred, with the earl of Flanders and the duke of Normandy, imitated their example in another quarter; while Raymond of Toulouse, almost at the same instant, forced his way into the toAvn by scaling the walls. Thus was the Holy City, after exertions of the most heroic fortitude, at length taken by the Christians, on a Friday, at three o'clock in the afternoon; a circumstance which has been carefully noticed, as coinciding with the day and hour in which our Saviour expired on the cross. Most terrible were the first moments of victory. The crusaders, exasperated by their long sufferings and by the obstinate resistance of the Saracens, and being also probably afraid of new dangers, put to the sword nearly all the garrison and inhabitants of Jerusalem. The streets, the mosques and the citadel were filled with blood, and the number of the slain is estimated by many to have been at least seventy thousand. After this bloody scene, the conquerors exhibited a spectacle more consonant to the mild spirit of Christianity. Assuming the robe of penitents, and going up to the holy sepulchre, they bedewed with their tears the spot consecrated by the sufferings and death of our Blessed Redeemer. The princes afterwards directed their attention to the appointment of a king, for the defence and preservation ot Jerusalem ; and the brave, the generous, the virtuous duke of Lor- raine, Godfrey, was chosen by unanimous consent. For the sake of the public good, he modestly acceptod the distinguished task intrusted to him; but constantly refused the diadem and other insignia 250 MODERN HISTORY. Part V of royalty, saying that he would never consent to wear a golden crown, where the Saviour of the world had been crowned with thorns. Scarcely was Godfrey proclaimed king, when certain information arrived of the approach of a powerful army sent by the caliph of Egypt against the crusaders. The new sovereign and his undaunted knights instantly took the determination to meet the foe half-way, which they did with as much alacrity as if they had been going to a feast. After a few days, they met the enemy in the vast plains of Ascalon, near the sea. Notwithstanding the great disparity between the opposite forces, the host of the crusade having been reduced to twenty thousand men, whilst the Egyptians and their allies amounted to about four hundred thousand, the Christians gained, with less dif- ficulty than on any former occasion, a complete victory. In a few moments, and with the loss of but a few soldiers, they strewed the plain with ninety thousand dead bodies of the Egyptian army, and dispersed the rest. The enemy, says a contemporary historian, fell under their swords, as the grass falls in the harvest before the mower j* or, to use the words of a great poet, fled at their approach, as clouds are seen flying through the air, when driven before the northern blast.f The victorious army, after gathering an immense quantity of spoils, returned in triumph to Jerusalem. GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. RETURN OF THE CRUSADERS. SUCH was the result of the first crusade, one of the most heroic enterprises and most brilliant expeditions of all ancient and modern history; one which, notwithstanding the accidental interference of human passions, was sustained by the loftiest and noblest motives that ever animated an army, and was at length brought to a happy issue by prodigies of valor and feats worthy of eternal remembrance. We behold in it a multitude of warriors, knights and prinr.es leaving their country and their homes, their estates and their dignities, for the sake of religion and of humanity. We see them cheerfully ex- posing themselves to all the dangers of a long and distant expedition j * dpud Michaut, Hist, des Croisades, vol. i, pp. 475-76. j- La Palestine enfin, apres tant de ravages, Vit fuir ses ennemis, comme on voit les nuages Dans le vague des airs fuir devant I'Aquilon ; Et des vents du midi la de"vorante haleine N'a consume* qu' a peine Leurs ossemens blanchis dans les champs d'Ascalon. J. B. RousSeau, Ode against the Tiirki. GENERAL VIEW OF THE FIRST CRUSADE. 251 undergoing the fatigues of a painful march, the severity of the wea- ther or the excessive heat of the climate, famine, thirst and conta gious distempers; and still, almost continually fighting against the Turks, the Persians and other foes; frequently too against their own imprudence, and the dangers occasioned by the quarrels of the lea- ders or the want of discipline among the troops. We see them, through the various vicissitudes of the crusade, surmounting all these obstacles, conquering all their enemies, and, at last, bringing their enterprise to a fortunate conclusion. What warlike achievement is more deserving of the admiration of posterity? Nor can it be objected, that the success of the crusaders was owing to their overwhelming numbers; this circumstance proved rather a disadvantage, on account of the difficulty they had to procure a sufficient quantity of provisions in an unknown country. Moreover, their number was soon greatly diminished by desertion, famine, disease and battles; so that, in the end, they were far less numerous than their enemies. It is true, many bodies of fresh troops were successively sent from Europe to their assistance; but none of them arrived, having all been destroyed before reaching Syria, either by starvation, or by the swords of the Turks. Hence, the success of the first crusade could be attributed to no other cause than the he- roic patience, constancy and intrepidity which the crusaders evinced, during three years, not only in a great number of particular combats, but chiefly during the sieges of Nice, Antioch and Jerusalem, and in the great battles at Dorylamm, at the Orontes and at Ascalon, against all the forces of Asia and Africa. After this last victory, which secured their conquests and crowned all their exploits, most of the crusaders thought of returning to Eu- rope. Count Raymond, however, did not proceed farther than Con- stantinople; but being invested by the emperor Alexius with princely jurisdiction over the territory of Laodicea,lie retraced his steps into Syria, to take possession of this new state. Baldwin and Bohemond were already settled in their principalities of Edessa and Antioch. Robert of Flanders and Robert of Normandy reached their European dominions, and were received with great joy by their vassals and sub- jects; but the latter, having imprudently undertaken to dethrone his brother Henry I, king of England, was taken prisoner, and, being unable to recover his liberty, died after many years of severe confine- ment! Peter the Hermit also re-visited his native country, and, retir- ing to a monastery founded by himself, lived sixteen years in the practice of the most edifying virtues. As to Hugh-the-Great and Stephen of Blois, having departed from the East before the end of the crusade, shame and public discontent compelled them to go back to Asia, where they both fell whilst fighting against the infidels. 252 MODERN HISTORY. Parl Vj Among the other knights who returned to France, history has not forgotten two noble twin-brothers, Stephen and Peter of Salviac, whom their own age admired as models of fraternal affection. Peter having taken the cross in the council of Clermont, Stephen, though authorized by many just reasons to remain at home, determined to follow his brother, and to share with him all the perils of the crusade. In battles, they always stood side by side ; and they fought together at the sieges of Nice, Antioch and Jerusalem. A short time after their return from the East, they both died in the same week, and the same sepulchre received their mortal remains; their tomb bears an inscription transmitting to posterity the remembrance of their exploits and of their admirable friendship. KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM. A. D. 10951144. BY the death or departure of most of the crusaders, the new king dom of Jerusalem was left to be supported by the wisdom of Godfrey and the sword of Tancred, with an army of less than three thousand men. Fortunately, this want of forces did not last long; fresh bands of crusaders daily arrived from Europe, and the new sovereign was enabled, not only to defend, but also to enlarge his conquests. He at the same time compiled and published, for the improvement of his rising state, an admirable code of laws, under the title of "Jissises de Jerusalem," and promoted or patronised many establishments equally beneficial to religion and social order, above all, the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, who afterwards became so much renowned as the Knights of Malta.* * Their first origin dated from the year 1043, when certain merchants of the city of Amalphi in the kingdom of Naples, trading in the Levant, ob- tained leave from the Saracen caliph to build a house at Jerusalem for pil- grims, on the condition of paying an annual tribute. Shortly after, they founded in honor of St. John the Baptist, a church and an hospital, from which they took their name; and being exceedingly favored by Godfrey and his successors, they enlarged their benevolent projects, and, besides at- tending the sick and pilgrims with the utmost care and assiduity, bound themselves by a vow to defend all Christians in the Holy Land against the attacks and insults of infidels. By this noble determination, the Hos- pitallers, without ceasing to be a religious, became a military order, and a permanent body of sacred soldiery, which conferred innumerable services on the kings of Jerusalem and on all Christendom. The Knights Templars were instituted in 1118, also at Jerusalem, by some French and Flemish noblemen, for nearly the same purposes as the Knights Hospitallers, but under a plan and rule somewhat different. They uerived their name from the first house which they possessed in the holy city, it being situated near the site of the temple of Solomon. Th* Teu- *. D. 1095-1144. KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM. 253 These numerous achievements were performed by Godfrey within the short space of one year. On his return from a distant expedition, he was seized with a severe illness, and died on the eighteenth of July of the year 1100, leaving behind him so unblemished a reputation of wisdom, courage and virtue, that his name, equally extolled by history and poetry, will ever live in the memory of men, as the brightest ornament of the first crusade. From his earliest years, his father, one of the greatest warriors of that age, taught him, by theory and practice, how to excel in the profession of arms. His mother, a very pious lady, impressed on his tender mind the maxims of our holy faith, which he ever afterwards observed, even at the head of armies, with as much regularity as if he had been in a religious house, always commencing and concluding his enterprises with acts of religion. Free from ambition and other human weaknesses, his views were always perfectly disinterested, his feelings always gene- rous, his morals always pure; and not only did he thus constantly present a perfect model of honor and virtue, but the troops also which he commanded, were, during the whole crusade, distin- guished above all others for their excellent order and discipline Never was there indeed a more admirable model of Christian chi- valry ; nor did fabulous antiquity ever picture to itself so accomplished a hero as Godfrey of Bouillon. He prepared for death with the same piety and fortitude of mind that he had evinced during life; and, in his last moments, recommended to his knights the promotion of the divine glory and the defence of the Holy Land. The Christians, overwhelmed with grief, buried him near the holy sepulchre, the pre- servation of which was so dear to his heart ; and the Saracens them selves shed tears over the tomb of a prince, whom they were obliged to acknowledge, notwithstanding the difference of religion, to have been at once the mildest and the greatest of their sovereigns.* tonic order owed its establishment to some nobles from the cities of Bremen and Lubec, who assisted at the siege of Ptolemais in .1190, and was in- tended for the relief of German pilgrims. There were also three military orders founded in Spain alone, viz. the orders of St. James, Alcantara and Calatrava; and one, that of Avis, in Portugal. * To enable the reader more fully to appreciate the incomparable merit of Godfrey of Bouillon, we may be allowed to adduce, from authentic sources, some particular instances of his wonderful strength, generosity and piety. During the siege of Nice, a certain Turk of gigantic stature signalized himself by the immense slaughter he made of the Christians, throwing upon them large fragments of rocks from the wall. -Godfrey advanced, and shooting an arrow with a vigorous hand, sent the weapon directly tc his heart, and left him dead on the battlement. During the stay of the army in Asia Minor, riding out on horseback in a wood, he saw a huge bear about to kill a poor soldier who was gathering sticks. Regardless of 2-2 254 MODERN HISTORY. Part T. The first successors of Godfrey in the kingdom of Jerusalem, were Baldwin I, his brother, and Baldwin II, his cousin. Both of them prosecuted, with great vigor, the glorious work which he had commenced; and, notwithstanding some defeats, they gained consi- derable advantages over the Saracens. Strong and important cities were successively conquered, and the Christians now possessed in Asia four extensive princedoms, Jerusalem, Antioch, Edessa and Tri- poli. The Greeks too strove continually to recover some of their former possessions in Asia Minor and Syria; and, on many occasions, under their warlike and skilful emperors Alexius and his son, John Corn- nenus, success accompanied their efforts. Had the forces of the empire been at that time united with those of the Latins, the Turks might have been totally expelled from those envied regions. Unfor- tunately, mutual diffidence always kept the two powers at a distance from each other; and, what was more unfortunate still, after the death of Baldwin II in 1131, jealousy, animosity and violent dissen- sions began to arise among the Latin princes themselves. From this time, therefore, the prosperity of the Christian states his own danger, the generous duke rode up, and seizing one of the paws of the ferocious beast with his left hand, with the right plunged his sword into its body to the very hilt. In the field, nothing could resist the edge of his sword ; helmets and cuirasses were broken by" it to pieces. In one of the battles which preceded the capture of Antioch, a Saracen officer of ex- traordinary size and bravery singled him out as the object of attack. God- frey, indignant at such boldness, raised himself in his stirrup, and rushing against his opponent, aimed a blow which cut the Saracen in twain. The upper part of the body fell to the earth ; but the headless trunk, being tied to the saddle, remained on the horse, and was thus carried into Antioch, where the awful sight spread terror and consternation among the Turks. In fine, such was the strength of the duke of Lorraine, that, being once re- quested by some Saracen emirs to display it in their presence, he with one blow, severed the head of a camel from the body. On the other hand, such was his moderation, that he never undertook to vindicate by force mere private rights, or to avenge personal injuries, his sword, he used to remark, being destined to spill the blood, not of Chris- tians, but of infidels, and that, only in unavoidable battles. At the taking of Jerusalem, a success owing chiefly to his intrepid valor, he no sooner saw victory declare in favor of the Christians, than he ceased fighting, laid aside his armor, and hastened to visit the holy sepulchre with the most edi- fying piety; an example which was soon imitated by all the crusaders. Mild and innocent as a lamb in the ordinary course of life, he was like a lion on the field of battle. Whilst the other princes respected him as a perfect model of Christian chivalry, the multitude loved him as the best of fathers ; and his servants being asked, before the election of a king of Je- rusalem, about his private character, could say nothing against him, except that he remained too long in church after the divine offices; in consequence of which, they complained, his dinner frequently grew cold, and bocume almost good for nothing. This was the only fault that could be found in the whole conduct of Godfrey. D. 11451149. SECOND CRUSADE. 255 began to decline in the East. The Moslems scattered through the country took advantage of every new dispute among the conquerors, to harass them with a desultory warfare. At length, Zenghi, sultan of Aleppo and Mosul, attacked, stormed and took Edessa in 1144; after which his son Nouradin, pursuing the same line of policy against the Christians, began to threaten their other possessions in the East. The news of these calamitous events being spread abroad, gave occasion to the SECOND CRUSADE. A. D. 11451149. DEPUTIES had been sent in haste from Syria to Europe, for the purpose of obtaining necessary auxiliaries. Immediately after their arrival, the crusade was preached under the direction of Pope Euge- nius III, by the celebrated abbot of Clairvaux, St. Bernard, whose eloquent exhortations, supported by great miracles, had exactly the same effect which the exertions of Peter the Hermit had produced fifty years before. Such was the excitement produced in France and Germany, that King Louis the Youngef and the emperor Conrad III took the cross, with all the choicest men of both nations, so as to form in a very short time two powerful armies. The Germans alone brought to the field seventy thousand horsemen with coats of mail, besides light cavalry and the infantry. The French host consisted of a hundred thousand warriors. These forces were more than suf- ficient to repair the losses suffered by the Christians in the East, and to foil all the attempts of their enemies; but, such was the perfidy of the Greeks, and the want of discipline among the Latins, that no great enterprise ever failed so completely as the second crusade. Both armies started in the year 1147. The Germans, being the first to reach the neighborhood of Constantinople, began to experi- ence the ill-will of the Greeks, which, it must be confessed, they sometimes provoked by their predatory and disorderly acts. The emperor himself, Manuel Comnenus, is generally charged with having, under the veil of friendship, contrived against them a variety of perfidious practices. This at least is certain, that the crusaders, without experience against cunning, were deprived by the Greek population of their money and of the means of procuring necessary provisions; whilst, on the other hand bodies of soldiers attacked them when marching through narrow defiles. In fine, treacherous or unskilful guides led them through the wild paths of Cappadocig. where they had to endure all the horrors of a cruel famine, and at last saw themselves, surrounded by the Turks. The heavy-armed 256 MODERN HISTORY. Part v . Germans in vain endeavored to reach the Turkish cavalry. All their courage could not protect them against numberless foes, who fled and rallied with surprising quickness, attacked their exhausted squad rons from the tops of the mountains, and harassed them by continual skirmishes. It became absolutely necessary to retreat towards Bithy- nia, under an incessant shower of arrows, every day adding thou- sands to the number of the slain. Conrad himself received two wounds; and when, at length, he reached the city of Nice, he could scarcely gather around him a tenlh part of the knights and soldiers who had followed him from Europe. The French, under the conduct of Louis, had less perhaps to suf- fer from the Greeks, and yet were not less unfortunate than the Germans. Victorious at first on the banks of the Meander, which was crossed in spite of all the efforts of the Turks, they experienced, after a few days, a signal overthrow near the town of Laodicea in Phrygia. This disaster was brought upon the Christian army by the imprudence of a single general. On coming near a steep moun- tain, the commander of the van-guard had received orders from the king to halt on the summit, and there wait for the rest of the army. Disregarding this just command, the incautious man, after accom- plishing the ascent, advanced into the plain on the other side, two or three miles beyond the spot specified : in the mean time, the Turks, who had remarked the terrible mistake, occupied the hill, and thus totally intercepted the two divisions of the crusaders. Such was the perilous position of the French army, when the rear, commanded by the king in person, and as yet unaware of its danger, began to climb the mountain in full security and without any pre- caution against an attack. On a sudden, as they Were toiling up the steep acclivity, a shower of arrows from the top of the hill fell upon them, spreading indescribable confusion and dismay. Numbers were precipitated headlong down the precipice, or killed by the masses of rocks hurled against them; others, who had nearly reached the sum- mit, were forced back by the victorious enemy upon those in the rear. It was in vain that Louis, at the head of his cavalry, endea- vored to protect the infantry, and repel the Turks : the steepness of the ascent, and the fierceness of the foes rendered the contest too un- equal; men and horses fell together, and the king himself was in imminent danger of being killed; but springing upon a rock and leaning against a tree, he defended himself with his trusty sword against several Turks, till, at the approach of night, they withdrew and thus permitted him to rejoin his surviving troops. After these losses, and others which the Greeks and the Turlcs continued to inflict on them, both Louis and Conrad put to sea, in order to reach Palestine. Being arrived at Jerusalem, all the princes D. 1153-1189. GERMANY, ETC. 257 there present were summoned to assemble in counci, ; and it was agreed that, instead of attempting to reconquer Edessa, which had been the original object of the crusade, the Christian forces of Syria, united with the crusaders, should undertake the siege of Damascus (A. D. 1148). The monarchs immediately took the field, approached the town, drove before them the advanced bodies of Saracens, and began the siege with so great a vigor, that all entertained a moral certainty of success. All at once, jealousies and quarrels among the Jords disturbed the Christian camp ; former animosities were revived, and treason being added to all these evils, the siege was finally aban- doned. At length, Conrad and Louis, full of regret and indignation, left the Latin princes of Asia to their own wretched dissensions, and departed for Europe. The ill success of the second crusade spread mourning over all the West, and was felt particularly in France, where loud complaints were lodged against St. Bernard, as the chief promoter of this fatal enterprise. The holy abbot, in a written apology, triumphantly vin- dicated his conduct, showing, with equal modesty and strength of reasoning, that, exactly as the Hebrews of old more than once failed, through their own fault, even in designs approved by God, so also, in the present instance, the blame was to be laid, not on the promo- ter of the crusade, but on the crusaders themselves, on their disorders and want of discipline, which had drawn upon them the avenging justice of the Almighty.* Shortly after (A. D. 1153), St. Bernard departed this life, at the age of sixty-three, having deserved, by his eloquence, sanctity, immense labors for religion, and the excellency of his writings, to be numbered among the most illustrious Fathers of the Church. GERMANY AND ITALY UNDER FREDERIC I (BARBAROS- S A). ENGLAND AND IRELAND UNDER HENRY II (PLAN- TAGENET). A. D. 11531189. CONRAD lived three years after his return from Palestine; at his death in 1152, he left the crown to Frederic Barbarossa, his nephew, a prince of great learning, ability and courage, but proud, haughty and ambitious. Wishing, like the first Roman emperors, to be con- sidered sovereign of the whole world, he made powerful efforts. * Sec St. Bernard himself, De Considerations, lib. ir, c. r, nos. 2, 8; where he adduces the example of the Israelites who died in the desert, and especially that of the eleven tribes defeated by the tribe of Benjamin. Jmlg xx, 1827. 258 MODERN HISTORY. Part Vt during twenty years (1157 1177), to oppress both the See of Rome and the small states of Italy. His wicked attempts to raise a general schism in the Church and to place popes of his own creation in St. Peter's chair, were defeated by the vigor of the lawful pontiff, Alex- ander III, united with the zeal evinced by the other sovereigns of Europe, particularly the kings of England and France (Henry II, Louis VII), in acknowledging Alexander as the only true pope. The exertions of the emperor towards the subjugation of the Italian republics were in the beginning more successful; but the Milanese, whose city he had destroyed, having entered with the neighboring states into a common league to rebuild Milan and repel the violent usurper, he experienced from them a signal overthrow, which en- tirely reduced bis power, and blasted his hopes with regard to the possession of Italy. This state of things induced Frederic to come to a reconciliation with the pope and the Italians, on the conditions which they re- quired, especially that of renouncing the schism and abandoning his hostile demonstrations against the peninsula. The treaty was finally settled at Venice (A. D. 1177), to the satisfaction of all parties, the emperor being now as eager to testify his sincere and perfect submis- sion to the sovereign pontiff, as he had before been in manifesting his opposition. It is not true, that, the pope, as some historians relate, set his foot on the neck of Frederic, and insulted him with these words of the Psalmist : Thou sluilt walk upon the asp and the basilisk : and thou shalt trample underfoot the lion and the dragon* The story, as has been remarked by many Catholic critics,f and acknow- ledged by impartial Protestant historians,^ is not in keeping with the well known meekness and moderation of Alexander III, nor founded on any credible testimony. This pretended humiliation of Frederic is indeed represented in some modern pictures; but who does not know that the liberty of fictions and symbolical representations 13 allowed "to painters as well as to poets?" England, during the same period, was not less agitated than Ger- many and Italy. King Henry I, the last son of -William the Con- queror, having died in 1135, the crown had been subsequently dis- puted by his daughter Matilda and his nephew Stephen of Blois, earl of Boulogne. At last, in order to reconcile the jarring interests of the two parties, it was agreed that, upon the demise of Stephen, * Psalm, xc. 13. t Feller, Diet. Histor., art Mex. in. Natalis Alexander, Hist. Ecd , Sx.ulo xii, c. ii. art. 9. de Mex. in, Baronius, and Hist, de VEgl. Gall ad aim. 1177. * The English authors of Univers. Hist., Paris edit. 1787, book xxv, c iv, reign of Fred. I; or vol. xcvir, p. 190 of the historical part, and p 191, m-tc. A. D. 1153-1189. GERMANY, ETC 259 ihe crown should devolve to Henry, the son of Matilda and of Geof- frey Plantagenet, earl of Anjou, whom she had married after the death of the German emperor Henry V, her first husband. This agreement received its execution in 1154, and Henry Plantagenet ascended the throne of England under the most favorable auspices. He inherited from his father Touraine and Anjou, and from his mother Maine and Normandy. He had also received with his wife Eleanor the provinces of Poitou, Saintonge and Guienne; so that, besides England, a third part of France acknowledged his authority, and though he did homage for his continental territories as a vassal to the French king, he was more powerful than that monarch. The reign of Henry II, like most long reigns, was marked by several important events; among others, by the martyrdom of St. Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, and by the conquest of Ireland. The invincible courage with which the archbishop defended the rights and immunities of the Church against the encroachments of the civil power, excited the animosity of the king, and so provoked the fury of four of his courtiers, that, repairing to Canterbury, they stabbed him in his own cathedral (A. D. 1170). So atrocious a deed raised a general outcry of horror and indignation, not only against the murderers, but also against the king; nor could he otherwise avert the imminent dangers to which he now found himself exposed on all sides, than by submitting to an exemplary penance for the mur- der lately occasioned by his passionate words. Having extricated himself from these difficulties, Henry prosecuted the design which he had long since formed of adding Ireland io his dominions. Until then, this celebrated island, as we said before, had never been conquered, not even by the Danes, although their multi- plied ravages had inflicted a deep wound on religion, morality and civilization. Under the plea of rescuing the Irish from the evils that pervaded their several provinces, the English monarch obtained leave from Pope Adrian IV to enter their country, and skilfully availed him- self of the intestine feuds which divided their sovereigns, to make conquests in Ireland.* The natives, it is true, struggled long and desperately, even sometimes successfully, against the English ; but their disunion and domestic broils prevented them from obtaining any permanent advantage, and Henry succeeded in obtaining a solid footing and extensive settlements upon their territory. From that period, the British monarchs were called "'Lords of Ireland," until 1542, when Henry VIII took the title of king, and Ireland was made a part of the united kingdom. The remainder of Henry's reign was spent in improving the juris- prudence of his kingdom, and in various political and military trans- * See note I. 260 MODERN HISTORY. Part v , actions with foreign princes, during the course of which he generally showed himself an able monarch, a skilful general, and a courageous soldier. His greatest trouble was the disobedient and rebellious con- duct of his sons, whose ingratitude he frequently experienced. So bitter was his grief in consequence of their last revolt, that it is sup- posed to have accelerated his death, which happened in the year 1189. FALL OF THE KINGDOM OF JERUSALEM. A. D. 1187. SINCE the departure of Louis and Conrad from the East, Nouradin, without much difficulty, pursued his conquests in Syria. Even Egypt, which had long been an independent sovereignty, was sub- dued by his generals; and the Christian colonies were more and more closely surrounded by their indefatigable foes. Their danger still increased under Saladin, a Mussulman emir, who succeeded Nouradin in 117G, and who, to the possession of extensive do- minions and an alarming power, joined all the qualifications ne- cessary to complete the ruin of a contiguous and decaying siate. Talents, ambition, activity, valor; sometimes an inflexible severity and rigor; sometimes a wonderful generosity and kindness; every thing, in fine, contributed to make him the greatest hero of Islamism and the most formidable enemy of the Christians. It was in the year 1187, that he wrested from them the possession of Jerusalem and of nearly all Palestine. He first entered the pro- vince of Galilee with Eighty thousand horsemen, and cutting in pieces a body of knights who defended that part of the country, Btormed and captured Tiberias, its capital, but w r as stopped before the citadel. In the meantime the Christian princes held a great council in Jerusalem, to deliberate on the measures to be taken for the preser- vation of the kingdom. Contrary to the advice of the most prudent, it was resolved to march out against Saladin. Accordingly, the troops of the different princes, as well as those of Guy de Lusignan, king of Jerusalem; the knights Hospitallers and Templars; the gar- risons of the towns; in a word, all who could bear arms, were col- lected, and formed an army of fifty thousand men, who immediately ta arched towards Tiberias. The two opposite hosts were soon in sight of each other, and without delay prepared for battle. The whole advantage of position was on the side of the Saracens, who, occupying the summit of the hills, commanded the valleys and defiles through which the Chris tiany had to pass before coming to close contest. These, however, A. D. 1187. FALL OF JERUSALEM. 261 continued to advance amidst a shower of darts and stones. Although the Mussulman cavalry rushed from the hills to oppose their passage, they still preserved their ranks; and, animated by the exhortations of the chiefs and the consciousness of their own danger, withstood unmoved the impetuous attack of the enemy. Saladin himself could not forbear admiring their intrepidity, and confessed, in one of his letters, that the Franks had fought that day with extraordinary valor. But they had more courage than strength ; destitute as they were of food and water, and debilitated by the heat of the day, even the most vigorous among them seemed prostrated by excessive weariness. Night suspended the still dubious conflict. The next day, the Saracens and Franks again mingled in the com- bat; but Saladin, as a skilful general, did not give the signal for bat- tle, till the Christian army began to languish under the rays of the meridian sun. He moreover caused the dry herbs which covered the plain, to be set on fire, so that the Christians were soon encirled by the smoke and flames which reached them on every side. In this extremity, confusion in their ranks became unavoidable; yet they con- tinued intrepid and formidable to their opponents, several of them rushing from among the clouds of smoke into the thickest ranks of the Mussulman forces. The Templars, above all, and the Knights of St. John, by their almost supernatural efforts, would have saved the army, could it possibly have been saved; but the combined exer- tions of courage and despair every where found an insuperable ob- stacle in the multitude of their opponents, and the repeated charges of the Christian warriors served only to diminish their own numbers. At length, entirely overcome with thirst and fatigue, both their char- gers and themselves fell before the Saracefls, who either butchered them on the spot or took them prisoners, together with the king of Jerusalem. A few only escaped, by cutting a passage for themselves through the enemy. Saladin did not neglect to improve the signal victory which he had gained. He directly advanced into the heart of Palestine, took pos- session of many cities and fortresses, and at last laid siege to Jerusa- lem. As this capital was now stript of its defenders, who had just pe- rished in the fatal battle of Tiberias, it could not resist the victorious arms of Saladin. Moreover, the Syriac inhabitants of the city had conspired among themselves to deliver it into the hands of the con- queror. This fact being made known, increased the well-grounded alarms of the Latins, and they hesitated no longer to propose in their own name the surrender of the place, provided honorable conditions should be granted. After some difficulty, Saladin complied with a part of their request; permitting them to retire unmolested, after having required from each person the payment of a certain sum, he 262 MODERN HISTORY. Part V. entered Jerusalem in October, 1187, eighty-eight years after it had been conquered by the heroes of the first crusade. There now re- mained irk the possession of the Latins only three considerable towns in Syria, namely, Antioch, Tyre and Tripoli. THIRD CRUSADE. A. D. 11881194. THE news of the fall of Jerusalem spread consternation through all Christendom. Pope Urban III was so much afflicted, that he died of a broken heart; the western princes, who had seemed before to disregard the danger of the Christian colonies in Asia, now condemned their apathy, and determined to forget their private quarrels for the common interest ot Christianity, (A. D. 1188). Three famous potentates were at that time reigning in Europe: Frederic I, emperor of Germany, Henry II, king of England, both of whom have been already mentioned in a preceding section; and Philip II, surnamed Augustus, king of France, whose abilities raised that nation to a degree of splendor and power which it had not pos- sessed since Charlemagne. Those three illustrious monarchs, toge- ther with the chief lords of their respective states, received the cross from the hands of William, the celebrated historian, and archbishop of Tyre. Statutes were enacted, to maintain good ortler and discipline among the crusaders more successfully than during the foregoing crusades; and, to raise money for the expedition, a council of princes and bishops ordered that every man who did not take the cross, should give the tenth part of his revenue and personal property. This tax, called Saladin's titlte, from the terror which the alarming progress of Saladin inspired, was levied in England and France by royal commissaries. The first who set out for Asia was the emperor Frederic, at the head of one hundred and fifty thousand men. How much might be expected for the success of the crusade from such an army, under a high-spirited prince of consummate skill and valor, may be easily conceived. In fact, the career of the Germans, until the death of Frederic, was but one series of victories. The Greek emperor, Isaac Angelo, who dared to attack them, when they entered his territory, nad the mortification to see his troops routed, his capital in great danger, and himself compelled to supply the conqueror with provisions for several months, and with a sufficient number of vessels to convey the crusaders to the opposite shore in Asia. The Germans continued to advance with uninterrupted success. Although many of them died before reaching Syria, the progress of their D 1188-1194. THIRD CRUSADE. 263 army spread terror abroad. They cut to pieces or drove before them ail the Turkish forces in their way, defeated twice the army of the sultan of Iconium, which consisted of two or three hundred thousand com- batants; and, taking the city itself at the first onset, forced the sultan humbly to sue for peace. Their discipline was equal to their bravery, and from all sides information was conveyed to Saladin of the heroic patience of "the Germans in a painful and harassing march, and of their indomitable valor. If we give credit to some historians, the Mussulman prince was already preparing to retire towards Egypt, when a fatal circumstance unexpectedly delivered him from his most formidable enemy. After crossing Asia Minor and passing the defiles of Mount Tau- rus, Frederic, with his army, was going along a small river, which many believe to be the very same (the Cydnus) in which Alexander- the-Great had well nigh to have perished. The heat of the day was excessive. The emperor, enticed by the coolness and clearness of the water, threw himself into it; but, being suddenly benumbed by the cold, he was taken out of the river in the agonies of death, or, as others say, was carried down by the rapidity of the current, and drowned. His death was more fatal to his army than the loss of a great battle could have been. Many soldiers abandoned the army of the crusade; whilst the others, proceeding towards Palestine in spite of a thousand obstacles, saw their numbers so far diminished by famine, fatigue, distempers and repeated battles, that they were no longer able to con- tend with the hardy troops of Saladin. They therefore went to join the army of King Guy of Lusignan, who, after his deliverance from captivity, had undertaken to besiege the strong town of Acre or Ptole' mais, on the Syrian coast (A. D. 1190). Various incidents had retarded the departure of the French and Eng lish moriarchs. In the interval, Henry II died, and left his place to be filled both on the throne and in the crusade by his son Richard I, surnamed Cceur de Lion. The new sovereign quickly made his last arrangements for the holy war; and, in order to avoid the dangers of a march by land, both he and Philip resolved to convey their armies to Palestine by sea. These two princes were then in the flower of their age, ardent, ambitious, brave and intrepid; but Philip was the greater king, Richard the greater warrior; Philip had, in a greater degree than Richard, qualities which entitle a prince to affection and esteem ; but he was inferior to him in those qualities which excite surprise and admiration. Moreover, the haughtiness and violence of Richard often procured him enemies and led him into unpleasant adventures. Although the two moriarchs had sworn inviolable friendship and 264 MODERN HISTORY. Part v fidelity to each other, contrariety of views and difference of charactei soon introduced jealousies and quarrels between them, which gieatiy impaired the cause of the crusade. Philip arrived first in Palestine, where the siege of Acre, owing to the obstinate resistance of the gar- rison, had already lasted nearly two years, the besiegers being them- selves besieged in their camp by the innumerable troops of Saladin, who, from the neighboring 1 mountains, constantly watched all their motions. Bloody and frequent were the conflicts, and incalculable the losses of both armies on the field of battle; many also were car- ried off by pestilence and famine; but the arrivals of each day sup- plied the losses of the preceding. The landing of Philip diffused new vigor among the crusaders ; military engines were erected, the walls were battered and undermined ; all the preparations were made for the assault; nothing was wanted but the presence of Richard, who had not yet arrived to share in the danger and glory of the attempt. This monarch had sailed from Sicily about three weeks later than Philip, and had moreover been detained in chastising the perfidy of a Greek prince, and in subduing the rich island of Cyprus. He at last reached the Christian camp, and the siege of Acre received from his presence a new impulse. Assaults were repeatedly made; and, although the town held out for some time, it AVES easy to perceive that the resistance could not last much longer. The garrison, seeing their defences ruined, and all the efforts of Saladin insufficient to stop the progress of the siege, consented at last to capitulate, and the Christians took immediate possession of the city (A. D. 1191). Thus ended the siege of Ptolemais, one of the most famous in his- tory; one, during which such exploits were performed by the cru- saders, as might, if well directed, have sufficed for the conquest of all Asia. Although it gave rise to some acts of cruelty and bloody retaliation, it also presented the sight of many acts of politeness and courtesy interchanged by the Latins and the Saracens. In times of truce, the contending nations mingled together in friendship; and at one moment they reciprocated good offices, while at another they met in impetuous and bloody conflict. Saladin was accustomed to send presents of excellent fruit to Kings Richard and Philip, who, in return, sent him jewels and productions of Europe. The joy which the conquest of Ptolemais spread among Christian nations, was soon damped by the news that Philip intended to withdraw from the crusade. No doubt can exist that the health of this monarch had been considerably impaired by a dangerous illness; but his chief motive in returning to Europe, was the disgust he had conceived at the overbearing conduct and passionate temper of Rich- ard, which ever prevented them from cordially co-operating. Under such circumstances, the French king seemed justifiable in retiring 4. D. 11881194. THIRD CRUSADE 265 from the army, on the plausible plea that he would, by so doing, rather advance the cause of the crusade. Accordingly, he took his final determination, and embarked for France, leaving behind him ten thousand men with the duke of Burgundy, to support the king of England. By this retreat of Philip, the chief command devolved solely on Richard. After repairing the fortifications of Acre, he marched out with a considerable force, and, taking the road along the sea-shore, proceeded towards Ascalon, while vessels laden with provisions fol- lowed along the coast. The Saracens pursued the army as it marched, and harassed it by continual skirmishes, which led, how- ever, to no serious consequences. But near Antipatris, at the pas- sage of a river called Arsur, the Christians were suddenly attacked by two or three hundred thousand Moslems, whom Saladin, in order to impede the progress of the crusade, and to avenge the loss of Ptolemais, had assembled from all parts of his empire. Richard, seeing that the battle was unavoidable, desired to make it a decisive one, and forbade his troops to commence fighting until the signal should be given. The crusaders waited for it with impatience; they could bear any thing but the shame of remaining idle in the pre- sence of ari enemy who was vigorously pressing upon them. At length, some of the most intrepid knights, forgetting the king's orders, rushed against the Saracens; and, as others followed their example, in a few moments the engagement became general. So furious was the shock, and so thick the dust which enveloped both armies, that several fell by the swords of their own companions, who mistook them for antagonists. Richard seemed to multiply himself, and to be in every part of the field in which the danger was greatest; and every where the enemy fled at his presence. The other chiefs under him seconded his efforts; and the Mussulmans, unable to stand so impetuous a charge, fled to the mountains, calling the crusaders a nation made of iron, and which could not be broken. In the mean time, the Christians could scarcely believe that they were so soon victorious ; nor were their doubts entirely groundless. Whilst they still occupied the spot on which they had just fought, attending to their wounded companions, the engagement was renewed by a body of twenty thousand Saracens, whom their commander, a nephew of Saladin, had rallied and led back to the charge, but with as little success as before. In fine, just as the conquerors were resuming their march, the enemy, hurried on by fury and despair, again attacked them in the rear. Richard, with only fifteen knights, ran to the spot and again routed the Moslems. Their army, tnus defeated three limes on the same day, at last abandoned the field with the loss of thirty two emirs, and several thousand of their choicest 23 266 MODERN HISTORY. Part v . men. Many more yet might have fallen, had they not found a timely refuge in the neighboring forests. Still, this victory, splendid as it was, procured more glory than real advantage to the crusaders. Yielding to the same sort of remissness which is supposed to have proved fatal to Annibal after the battle of Cannrc, Richard, instead of leading his victorious troops without delay to Jerusalem, wasted his time in repairing the town of Jaffa and the castles of the neighborhood. The Saracens recovered from their terror, and Saladin had sufficient respite to fortify the Holy City in such a manner as to threaten a most vigorous resistance. When afterwards Richard, on two different occasions, approached Jerusa- lem with the intention of besieging it, the difficulty of the attempt, the inconveniences of the climate, the disunion and jealousy of the chief crusaders, and the fears which he entertained for his European dominions, induced him on both occasions to retire. This was a source of much regret and sorrow both to the army and to the king. Whilst many persons loudly murmured against him, and withdrew from his standard, he shared in the common grief, and was indignant at himself. One day, whilst pursuing a party of Saracens as far as the hills that surround Jerusalem, and from which he could see the towers and steeples of the town, he burst into tears, and covered his face with his shield, thinking himself unworthy to contemplate the Holy City which his arms could not rescue from the hands of infidels. Notwithstanding these uncertainties and obstacles, Richard con- tinued to wage a terrible war against the Moslems, and, by splendid feats, to secure the just reputation he already enjoyed of being the greatest warrior of his age. Immediately after the second retreat of the Christians from the neighborhood of Jerusalem, Saladin burst into the city of Jaffa, and, putting to the sword many of the inha- bitants, drove the rest into the citadel, which he besieged. The Eng- lish king had now returned to Acre. At the first intelligence of the event, he sent the bulk of the army by land, while he, taking advan- tage of a favorable wind, set sail with seven gallies, and arrived in time to save the besieged garrison by clearing the town of its invaders. This, however, was not enough for the impetuous courage of Richard. Disdaining to be confined within the walls of the liberated city, he marched out to challenge the Moslems, and was soon attacked by an army three times as numerous as his own ; but inferiority of numbers was of little consequence, when Richard commanded in person. He repelled all the charges of the Mussulman cavalry, put it to flight, and vanquished every champion who dared to wait his approach, among others a valiant emir, whose head, right shoulder and right arm he cut off at one blow. Seeing the brave earl of Essex A. D. 11881194. THIRD CRUSADE. 267 and his companions on the point of being slain or captured, he rushed with his usual courage, scattered the enemy like a whirlwind, and delivered his friends from their peril.* In-fine, he threw himself with, such ardor among the Mussulman squadrons, that for some moments, he disappeared from the sight of his own troops. When he returned, his horse was covered with dust and blood; and he himself bristling with darts fastened in his shield and dress, resembled, according to an ocular witness, a cushion covered with needles. It was thought that Richard, on this occasion, surpassed his for- mer renown. His conduct drew upon him the admiration of the infidels themselves, particularly of Saphadin, the sultan's brother, who, during the very conflict, sent him a present of two Arabian horses. His sight alone filled the Moslems with terror, and made their hair stand erect. When Saladin, after the battle, reproached the Saracen officers for having fled before a single man: "Nobody,'' answered one of them, "can withstand him; his approach is frightful, his shock is irresistible, his feats of arms are superhuman." In fact, Richard, to a mind incapable of fear, added an extraordinary degree of muscular strength, and such was the impression of terror produced by his exploits in Palestine, that, for a century after, his name was used to check the impetuosity of the Saracen horse, and quiet the restlessness of the Saracen child. Still, all these glorious achievements were lost for the crusade. The disunion of the crusaders, which the haughtiness of the English * The readiness of the king to succor his fellow-crusaders in every danger to which they might be exposed, was repaid by their devotedness in defending his life and liberty at the expense of their own. This appeared chiefly during the first sojourn of the Christian troops in the neighborhood of Jaffa. Richard, having one day gone to the chase in a forest, stopped to sleep under a tree, but was suddenly awakened by the cries of those who accompanied him, and who saw a troop of Saracens rapidly advancing to take him prisoner. He quickly mounted his horse, and began to fight with his usual valor; but, being surrounded on all sides, he would certainly have been captured or slain, had not one of his followers, named William of Pra- telles, drawn the attention of the foes to himself, by exclaiming " I am the king; save my life." The king, being thus enabled to make his escape, retired to Jaffa; whilst William, having delivered himself into the hands of the Mussulmans, was conducted to Saladin, who knew how to appreciate BO noble an action, and, instead of punishing his deceit, praised his fidelity. Nor was Richard ungrateful towards the generous knight; in order to res- cue him from captivity, he willingly returned ten of the principal emirs who had been made prisoners in the battle of Antipatris. This interesting event is not mentioned by Lingard; still, it cannot be well doubted, being taken from authentic documents of that epoch, and related by many excellent historians, viz. Michaut, Hist, des Croisades, vol. n, p. 473 Mairnbourg, Hist, des Crois. vol. 11, p. 418; and F. D'Orle"ans, Hist, des Revol. D'Jtnglet,, vol. i, p. 230 : who all refer the fact to the end of the year 1191. * 268 MODERN HISTORY. Pait v monarch contributed much to increase, the jealousy of the other chiefs against him, and, above all, the repeated information which he received of great disturbances taking place in England, made him earnestly desire the conclusion of a treaty of peace, and he repeated- ly proposed it to Saladin. At last, a truce was agreed upon between them for three years and eight months. By it, the Christians were left in possession of the cities of Palestine situated along the coast, and the Saracens kept the other towns with Jerusalem, under con- dition of granting to the pilgrims free access to the holy sepulchre. Such was the result of the third crusade, which had seen the most powerful monarchs, and, as it were, all the forces of Europe righting against those of Asia during three years in succession. It led, indeed, to the surrender of Acre, a town of considerable importance for the Christians : and to the conquest of the island of Cyprus, which Richard gave to Guy of Lusignan, the disappointed king of Jerusa- lem, but it did not recover the Holy City, the real and professed object of the crusade. Splendid and glorious were the personal exploits of Richard; still his vacillating conduct showed that he possessed neither all the talents of a great general, nor that constancy of mind so necessary for the success of any arduous enterprise. The superiority in both these particulars ought certainly to be given to Saladin, who, notwithstanding some defeats, finally remained master of Jerusalem and of the far greater portion of the Holy Land. The English monarch, having nothing more to do in Palestine, sailed from Acre in October, (1192); the inhabitants wept at his departure, nor could he suppress his own emotion. Many and dis- astrous were the adventures which attended his voyage. The vessel in which he sailed being wrecked on the coast of the Adriatic sea, the king resolved to cross Germany incognito and in the guise of a pilgrim, to avoid the snares of his numerous enemies; but even this precaution could not save him from the disasters which he feared. Being recognized at Vienna in Austria, Duke Leopold, whom he had cruelly offended during the siege of Ptolemais, arrested him, and confined him as his prisoner in a strong castle. The royal captive was afterwards delivered into the hands of the German emperor, Henry VI, also his enemy, who kept him in prison, till a large sum of money was sent from England for his ransom. At length, Rich- ard was allowed to pursue his journey without further molestation. At Antwerp, he found his fleet; and, after a few days navigation, landed on the shores of England. The recollection of his recent exploits and misfortunes having obliterated the remembrance of his former faults, he was received with universal joy, after an absence of more than four years (A. D. 1194). A. D. 1195-1193. FOURTH CRUSADE. 269 FOURTH CRUSADE. A. D. 11951198. SALADIN did not long enjoy llie satisfaction of having maintained his superiority in Asia, and particularly in the Holy Land, against the combined efforts of the European princes. One year had scarce- ly elapsed since the conclusion of his treaty with Richard, when death terminated his career. Finding his end approaching, he com- manded the shroud in which his body was to be enveloped, to be carried through the streets, and an emir to cry out with a loud voice: " Behold what Salad in, the mighty conqueror of the East, will carry away with him of all his vast dominions." He died at Damascus (A. D. 1194) a monarch in whose character, although not altogether blameless, humanity and justice were more conspicuous than in any other Mussulman conqueror. The death of this great sultan was followed by civil dissensions among the Moslems, which might have become very detrimental to their power, had the Christians been more united among themselves. The sons of Saladin seized upon such portions of their father's empire as they could obtain; but his brother Saphadin, otherwise called Mak'k Adel, finding himself equally beloved and respected by the soldiers, waged war against these young princes, and took pos- session of the greater part of Syria. This was a favorable opportunity for another crusade. Pope Ce- lestine III exhorted all Christendom to improve it by a generous effort, and to take up arms again in favor of Jerusalem. In England and France, his exhortation failed, as Richard and Philip were now too actively engaged in war against each other, to quit their do- minions; but in Germany, so many persons offered themselves, after the example of the emperor Henry VI, that three armies were quickly assembled for this new expedition. Henry, however, with the most numerous of the three, did not proceed farther than Sicily, where he put an end to the power and race of the Norman sove- reigns. The other two armies reached Palestine, and gained at first great advantages over Saphadin. Unfortunately, new quarrels among the leaders impeded their progress, and the news of the em- peror's death induced them to return to Europe, for the election of his successor (A. D. 1198). Thus the hope which had been enter- tained with regard to the recovery of the Holy Land, was again dis appointed. 270 MODERN HISTORY. Part y. FIFTH CRUSADE. FOUNDATION Of THE LATIN EMPIRE OF CONSTANTINOPLE. A. D. 11991204. ANOTHER crusade soon followed, productive of the most singular and unexpected effects. Although the ill success of the foregoing expeditions had greatly abated the enthusiasm for the holy war, still the fetters of Pope Innocent III and the eloquent exhortations of a zealous priest, called Foulqucs de Neuilly, soon revived in many generous hearts an ardent desire of reconquering Jerusalem. None, it is true, of the crowned heads, owing to their fear of each other, engaged in this new attempt to liberate Palestine; but it was vigor- ously pursued by several Italian and French lords, under the com- mand of Boniface, marquis of Montferrat, and Baldwin, earl of Flanders. These new crusaders determined, as Kings Richard and Philip had formerly done, to convey their armament to Palestine by sea. A treaty was entered into with the republic of Venice, by which the Venetians agreed, not only to supply the crusading army with ves- sels at a stipulated price, but even to share in the enterprise. The fleet was soon ready; but the unexpected departure of several among the barons and knights by a different way, greatly perplexed the others, who, although they melted down their plate, could not make up the sum required. In this distress, the famous doge Henry Dan- dolo opened a new negotiation, and offered, not only to unite with the French in the crusade, but also to wait for the entire payment of their debt till the end of the expedition, provided they would first aid the Venetians in reconquering the city of Zara, in Dalmatia, which had been taken from the republic some time before by the king of Hungary. The offer was accepted, and Zara being vigorously at tacked both by land and sea, surrendered at discretion (A. D. 1202). It now seemed that nothing more could retard the voyage of the crusa- ders ; but just at this juncture, there came from another quarter a re- quest of an extraordinary nature, and promising the happiest results ; this request again diverted them from their former design, and gave a new direction to the operations of the crusade. Isaac, the emperor of Constantinople, had lately been expelled from the throne by his brother Alexius, who moreover deprived him of his sight, and confined him in a prison. Another Alexius, the son of the dethroned monarch, having marie his escape from the hands of the usurper, went through the various countries and courts A. D. 11991204. FIFTH CRUSADE. 271 of Europe, to excite compassion and obtain assistance for his unfor- tunate father. The French and the Venetians had not yet sailed from Zara, when the deputies of that young prince, who were soon followed by himself, arrived in their camp. He promised with an oath, if they would expel the usurper and replace Isaac on the throne, to give two hundred thousand marks of silver, to facilitate the conquest of the Holy Land, to maintain there, during his life, five hundred knights for its defence, and to reestablish among the Greeks the authority of the Roman Pontiff. Notwithstanding the tempting promises and engaging manners of young Alexius, his proposal did not meet the unanimous approbation of the crusaders, many rejecting at once the idea of being again diverted from the main object of their enterprise. Still, the offers were so advantageous in themselves, and seemed moreover so well calculated to further the ultimate result which they wished to obtain, that most of the barons readily accepted them on the terms proposed. Accordingly, the fleet, having on board Prince Alexius, set sail from Zara; and, after a short and prosperous passage, came within sis:ht of Constantinople (A. D. 1203). A siege often days was sufficient to reduce that celebrated capital, After many skirmishes, a general attack was agreed upon by the La- tins, and took place on the seventeenth of July, both by land and sea, the French on the one side, and the Venetians on the other, seeming to rival each other on that day for the prize of undaunted courage. Still, they would perhaps have been overcome by numbers, had not Henry Dandolo set them an example of heroic boldness and intre- pidity. Although at the age of more than eighty years, and almost blind, he ordered, with terrific threats in case of disobedience, that he should be landed, with the great standard of St. Mark before him. In compliance with the command, his vessel was immediately pushed to the shore, close under the walls; the rest of the fleet followed; and, in spite of darts, stones and Grecian fire thrown by the besieged, twenty-five towers were soon in the power of the assailants. After this, Dandolo, without loss of time, flew to the assistance of the French who were opposed by innumerable forces. The Greeks re-- treated; consternation spread through Constantinople; and the usur- per, more terrified than any of the citizens, fled during the night from the town, carrying along with him his treasures and the insig- nia of the imperial dignity. The inhabitants opened their gates to the coQquerors. The old emperor was delivered from his prison, reascended the throne with universal applause, and ratified the promises made by his son to the Latins. But it was an easier task to confirm them by word and writing, than to carry them into execution. The heavy tribute 272 MODERN HISTORY. Part which Isaac and Alexius, in order to pay their debt, were obliged to impose on the citizens; a dreadful conflagration, which raged during eight days in the capital ; and a variety of other incidents, excited public hatred and contempt against the two emperors; whilst the crusaders also were indignant at their delay in carrying out the treaty. The most dangerous of their enemies was a young lord of the court. known under the surname of Murzuphlis, who secretly aspired to the supreme power. Whilst he deceived the sovereigns by an exte- rior show of zeal for their interest, he left nothing untried to incense the multitude both against them and against the Latins. In fine, the unwary princes having fallen victims to his intrigues and perfidy, he was acknowledged emperor in their place, and immediately prepared to oppose the efforts which, he foresaw, the crusaders would make, to punish his crime and avenge the death of those whona they had taken under their protection. In fact, the intelligence of the murder of the young Alexius had no sooner reached their camp, than they determined to proclaim again an open war, and attack the imperial city a second time. They knew well the danger of the attempt, much greater indeed then, from the fury of the Greeks, than it was before; but so little effect had this knowledge on the minds of those intrepid warriors, and so much did they rely on their valor and their swords, and on the protection of heaven, that, even before going to the assault, they agreed among themselves upon the measures to be taken for the preservation and government of their conquest. Not to divide their forces, they conducted the whole expedition by sea, and directed it against one single part of the city. The galleys approached the wall, and made a furious attack, which lasted until three o'clock in the afternoon, with more courage however than suc- cess on the part of the assailants ; for they every where met so deter- mined a resistance, that the multitude of their opponents and the ravages of the Grecian fire compelled those who had landed, to re- turn to their vessels and withdraw to a distance. Still, instead of lo- sing courage, they seemed inspired with redoubled ardor. Three days were spent in repairing the injured machines, and in consulting about a new attempt. The leaders of the army judging that a single ves- sel did not contain a sufficient number of troops to effect a successful assault on any particular spot, it was resolved to join two vessels for each point of attack. On the fourth day (12th of April 1204), the assault was recom- menced, and the conflict carried on during the whole morning with the same animosity as before, and also with some advantage on the side of the Greeks. In an instant, however, the fortune of the day was changed. About noon, a wind arising from the north, made the A. . 1199-1204. FIFTH CRUSADE. 273 vessels approach nearer to the wall; two of them lashed together, called the Pilgrim and the Paradise, were brought close \f> one of the towers, and by means of a moveable bridge, two intrepid warriors, Peter Alberti, a Venetian, and Andrew d'Urboise, a French knight, sprang upon the battlement. The others followed in multitudes j three gates were at the same time broken by the battering rams, and the whole host of the crusaders entered the town, driving before them innumerable troops of soldiers and inhabitants, who fled at theii ap- proach like so many flocks of sheep. One Latin put to flight a hun- dred, or even a thousand Greeks ; and such was the terror which seized the vanquished, that they imagined a French cavalier whom they saw advancing at the head of his troop, to be fifty feet high. The principal contriver of so many evils, Murzuphlis, after some faint efforts to rally his citizens, made his escape from the city during the night. The following day, Constantinople was pillaged ; and, although the Greeks had time to conceal a great part of their most valuable effects, the conquerors collected an immense booty in gold, silver, jewels and other precious articles. Undoubtedly, several acts of vio- lence, notwithstanding the strict prohibitions of the chiefs, were com- mitted by a victorious soldiery; still, implicit credit ought not to be given to the partial and virulent testimony of exasperated Greeks. From other and more impartial accounts, it appears that there was much less actual bloodshed than either the particular circumstances of the victory or the dangerous position of the conquerors might naturally have occasioned; and that many noble arid generous ac- tions were witnessed on that occasion, notwithstanding the cupidity and licentiousness which ever accompany the sacking of a great city. Thus was Constantinople, that proud capital, well fortified and well defended on every side, containing one million of inhabitants and upwards of two hundred thousand fighting men, taken twice, within a short interval, by a handful of warriors whose whole num- ber was at most twenty thousand. In consequence of the agree- ment entered into previously to the first assault, twelve commissaries, six French and six Venetian, proceeded to the election of an emperor. After mature deliberation, their unanimous votes proclaimed for that high dignity, Baldwin, earl of Flanders, who possessed it only one year, and thus completed that resemblance with Godfrey of Bouillon, which he had in every other respect, in valor, ability and virtue. Dandolo, Boniface, and other leaders of the crusade, received pro- portionate and splendid preferments in the newly conquered empire, jis ;i just recompense for their glorious exploits and services ; whilst the survivors of the late reigning families fled to Asia, and founded 274 MODERN HISTORY. Part V. there two new states, which they called the empires of Nice and Trebisonde. It is but natural to presume that such extraordinary and compli- cated events, did not permit the heroes of the fifth crusade to pursue their former project of delivering Jerusalem. They were now too much occupied in defending their new possessions, to think of any other conquest; nor was it even without great difficulty that the Latin empire of Constantinople could subsist for some time. Suc- cessively deprived, by death, of its magnanimous defenders, and surrounded by enemies, it possessed but a precarious existence, and, after a short duration of fifty-seven years, again fell into the power of the Greeks. WARS THROUGHOUT EUROPE. A. D. 12001226. WHILST some French and Italian nobles were dividing among themselves the spoils and the provinces of the Greek empire, the flames of war were kindled throughout the various parts of western Europe. The Christian inhabitants of Spain had, it is true, very little share in the crusades undertaken by the other nations of Chris- tendom ; but they were themselves engaged in a permanent crusade against the Moors, and the whole peninsula was a theatre of almost uninterrupted warfare. During the course of the twelfth century, as well as in the preceding ages, both parties had alternately gained vic- tories and suffered defeats, the loss, however, being more frequently on the side of the Moors. In the beginning of the thirteenth century, the conflict between the two nations assumed a more threatening and formidable aspect than it had done for a long time. The Miramolin (commander-in-chief ) of the Spanish and African Moslems was now making immense preparations, to crush at once all the Christian kingdoms of Spain. The king of Castile, Alfonso IX, who was par- ticularly exposed to the gathering storm, called to his assistance the knights of France and Portugal, together with the kings of Arragon and Navarre (D. Pedro II Sanchez VII), to oppose the common enemy; and Pope Innocent III willingly extended to their army the privileges usually granted to the crusaders. Their combined forces consisted of about one hundred thousand warriors; those of the Miramolin, the most numerous that Spain had ever beheld, amounted to four hundred and fifty thousand combatants, one-third of whom were cavalry. The confederates came in sight of the Moors near a ridge of mountains called Sierra-Morena, which separates Andalusia from A. D. 1200-1228. WARS THROUGHOUT EUROPE. 275 Castile. It was just behind these mountains that Mohammed, the Saracen prince, had encamped his army in a strong position, at the entrance of a vast plain called Navas de Tolosa. When the Chris- tians arrived at the ridge, they found no other way to pass it than a narrow defile occupied by the Moors, in which, according to an expression of the king of Castile, one thousand men could have stopped all the warriors of the world ; fortunately, a peasant of the country discovered to the leaders a safer and easier road, which con- ducted them to the top of the mountain. Mohammed, quite surprised at their sudden appearance, first sent bodies of troops to dispute the spot with them, and aftewards endeavored to bring on a general bat- tie, whilst he justly supposed they had not yet recovered from the fatigues of a long and difficult march. The Christians defeated both his attempts, repelled the skirmishers, and took, during two days, the rest which they needed. On the third day, the sixteenth of July (A. D. 1212), they advanced in good order against the enemy. The Miramolin appeared on a height, surrounded by his bravest troops, and even by a large iron chain, which was to be broken before the assailants could reach his person. The onset and the resistance were equally furious and ob- stinate; and, notwithstanding the prodigies of valor performed by the kings of Castile, Arragon and Navarre, the victory remained uncer- tain nearly the whole day. A last and desperate effort made by the Christian knights spread confusion and terror among the infidels: the intrepid king of Navarre first of all broke the iron chain ; the whole army rushed in, and the Saracens were either cut in pieces or dispersed in every direction. Their haughty sovereign, who had anticipated an easy victory and the conquest of all Christendom, fled in despair, having lost from one to two hundred thousand men, whereas the Christians did not lose more than one hundred and twenty-five in all, and even, according to several grave historians, not more than twenty-five or thirty soldiers.* For this amazing success the conquerors acknowledged themselves indebted to a special inter- ference of God in their favor, and returned Him their solemn thanks on the field of battle. If this great victory did not entirely prostrate, it at least considera- bly weakened the power of the Saracens in Spain. Nearly the whole of this century was for them an uninterrupted series of disas- ters. On one side, the brave and pious king Ferdinand III, of Cas- * See Roderic Tolet. lib. vin; King Alf. Epist. ad Inn. in : Hurter, Hist, du Pape Innocent III, vol. in, pp. 192204; F. D'Orteans, Hist, dcs Eevol. d'Esp. ad ann. 1212; Fleury, Hist. Eccles. b. LXXVII, n. 11 ; Ddsormeaux, Mrege Chronol. de VHist. d'Esp. vol. n, p. 112; in fine, / 't/ircrs. Hist. vol. Lxx,pp. 493 and 656. 276 MODERN HISTORY. Part V tile, took from them Cordova, Seville, and many other important cities; on the other, James I, king of Arragon, subdued the Balearic Isles, with the two kingdoms of Murcia and Valentia, and added ihern to his own dominions. Not less important were the military transactions which the same period witnessed in Germany, France and England. The death of the German emperor Henry VI, at the age of thirty-two years, had left the imperial crown to be disputed by two mighty competitors, Philip, duke of Suabia, and Otho, duke of Saxony. The latter seemed to prevail for a time, but was himself finally obliged to yield the sceptre to young Frederic II, son of the late emperor Henry, and grand-son of Frederic Barbarossa, whom he afterwards imitated and even surpassed in his reputation for ability, his ambition, his pride, his success, and his subsequent disasters. France also and England had been engaged, ever since the third crusade, in a vigorous war against each other. By Richard and Philip Augustus, formerly intimate friends, and now obstinate rivals, the contest was carried on for several years with alternate success; but the death of the lion-hearted king gave the French monarch great advantage. He then conquered Normandy and several other conti- nental provinces of the British crown. John, surnamed Lack-land, the successor of Richard, not having been able to preserve, seemed determined at least to recover his transmarine possessions. For this purpose, and for other causes, a powerful confederacy was formed by him, the emperor of Germany, the count of Boulogne, and the earl of Flanders, against France alone, which was obliged to divide its forces, in order to oppose so many enemies. Part of the troops were sent to the western provinces, where John had effected a land- ing ; his progress, rapid in the beginning, was suddenly arrested by the arrival of Louis, the son of Philip, who even compelled him to retire, with a great loss both of men and baggage. But the final result of the campaign was to be decided in the North. There, after gaining a naval victory against the French fleet, the English forces having landed under the command of the earl of Salisbury, were joined by their allies, and formed with them an army of more than one hundred and fifty thousand men, who hastened to invade the French territory. To this overwhelming multitude Philip could oppose only fifty thousand combatants; but inferiority of numbers was compensated by the devotedness and bravery of his knights, the choicest men of the nation. The two armies metatBouvines,an obscure village between Lille and Tourney. The French took a position which obliged the enemy to face, during the whole engagement, the dust, the wind, and the rays of the sun; which disadvantage greatly contributed to A. D. 12001223. WARS THROUGHOUT EUROPE. 277 his entire defeat. The conflict, however, was long and obstinato, and so furious were the efforts of the combatants, that the chief lead- ers themselves, Philip and Otho, ran great risk of their lives. At last, the army.of the confederates was broken, routed on all sides, and pursued with dreadful slaughter. The emperor made his escape; the other generals were taken prisoners ; and the French king had thus the happiness, not only to save his kingdom from impending ruin, but also to obtain a lasting superiority over all his enemies. (A. D. 1214). The battle of Bouvines having annihilated all the hopes of King John with regard to France, he set sail for England, where a still more disgraceful trial awaited him at his very arrival. The excesses of his passionate temper and dissolute life had previously excited much indignation against him, he now became, in consequence of his late disasters, an object of contempt to his own subjects. The English barons took secret measures to form a powerful league against him, and having succeeded in assembling a large body of men, asked of the king, with threats of a civil* war, the revival of those privileges which Edward the Confessor had 'gran ted to the nation, but which had been more or less disregarded by the generality of his successors. John at first positively refused; afterwards, seeing the numerous forces of the barons, he yielded to thehr request, and e'ven granted more than had been originally asked, by subscribing an authentic act which comprised all his grants, and which, under the name of Magnet Charta, was for centuries looked upon as the basis of the British constitution. ""^XA The king, however, soon appeared dissatisfied- with regulations that had been extorted frtfm his fears, anft hif>rnnrs sur le troisieme tige de VEglise ; Bergier, Diction. Theolog., art, Crvt&ades ; Nonnote, Erreurs de Voltaire, vol. i, cA. xvm. PART VI. THE END OF THE CRUSADES (A. D. 1272), TO THE DISCOVKEY OF AMERICA (A. D.. 1492). ENGLAND, WALES, AND SCOTLAND, UNDER KINGS ED- WARD I AND II. A. D. 12731314. PRINCE Edward, after his return from Palestine, ascended with- out opposition the throne of his ancestors, and occupied it, during thirty-four years, with great, though not unblemished glory. His government was vigorous, but frequently despotic; his exploits were remarkable, but often accompanied with an excessive rigor bordering on cruelty ; on the whole, Edward I deserved the reputation of an able rather than of a good monarch. Naturally ambitious, he resolved to restore to the English crown, by his conquests, its former dignity which had been considerably diminished by the misfortunes and weakness of the two last kings, and he aspired to concentrate in himself the sovereignty of the whole island of Great Britain; nor was he entirely disappointed in his endeavors. " Great Britain, not including Ireland, contained three separate states, viz. the two kingdoms of England and Scotland, and the principality of Wales. This last was at that time under the sway of Llewellyn, a prince who had inherited from his family a deep hatred against the English, and in preceding wars had conquered them in many battles. Contrary to the practice of several of his predecessors, he sternly refused, at the accession of Edward, to do him homage for his do- minions. Edward, thus provoked, seized the opportunity offered him to attack the Welsh; and, declaring open war, invaded their country with superior forces. It was in vain that Llewellyn took refuge among the inaccessible mountains which had, for many ages, defended his ancestors against all the attempts of Roman and Saxon conquerors ; Edward, not less active than vigilant, penetrated into the very heart of the country, and prepared to force the Welsh in their last retreats. Llewellyn, seeing himself destitute of all resources, D. 12731315. 299 consented to make his submission, which however did not last long; .*> withdrew it once more, but was slain in a decisive engagement 'iear the river Wye, and with him expired the independence of Wales (A. D. 1283). This principality was thenceforth united to the Eng- lish crown, and given, as a portion, to the eldest sons of the English monarchs. Shortly after the subjugation of Wales, the affairs of Scotland en- gaged Edward's attention, and gave him hopes of adding that king- dom also to his dominions. There were several competitors for the crown ; the English monarch, to whom the controversy was referred (A. D. 1290), acted first as mediator; but, as new difficulties daily arose among the Scottish lords, he soon began to act the part of a conqueror. Yet, notwithstanding his great exertions and many vic- tories, the conquest never was complete nor secure. During the remainder of his life, the Scots frequently shook off the yoke, and, after his death, which happened in 1307, entirely recovered their national freedom, under the weak reign of his son Edward II. In this protracted war, the most famous champions of Scottish liberty, were William Wallace, who for some time proved a match for all the efforts of ihe English ; and Robert Bruce, who fought the cele- brated battle of Bannock-Burn against King Edward II, and, by a signal victory, secured the independence of Scotland (A. D. 1314). GERMANY UNDER THE EMPEROR RODOLPH OF HAPS BURG.- COMMENCEMENT OF THE HELVETIAN CON- FEDERATION. A. D. 12731315. EVER since the death of Frederic II in 1250, Germany had been in a state of confusion and disorder. The people were oppressed j robberies, and other excesses were daily committed with impunity; public and private wars continued without interruption. In this de- plorable crisis, a man of uncommon prudence, courage and firmness, was indispensably required to check so many evils; such a man was found in Rodolph, count of Hapsburg, from whom sprung the illus- trious family of Austria. Being chosen emperor in 1273, by the unanimous votes of the German princes, he immediately directed all his efforts to the restoration of order and tranquillity. Success at- tended his exertions; and Germany, recovering from her calamities, enjoyed under him a peace to which she had long been a stranger. Still, it. was not in the power of Rodolph to bring back the empire to its former extent and splendor. During the interregnum that pre- ceded his reign, the state had been stripped of important provinces, I 300 MODERN HISTORY. fir .^ two of which, Sicily and Naples, being first subdued and possessed by the French under Charles of Anjou, the brother of St. Louis, suc- cessively passed into the hands of the Arragonian kings, the former in 1282, by the slaughter of the French, an event well known under the name of The Sicilian Vespers, and the latter by conquest, at a subsequent period. Another revolution took place under Albert, the son of Rodolph, in 1308, when Switzerland began to form itself into an independent republic. Until then, Switzerland, formerly called Helvetia, had been a por- tion of the German empire. Its inhabitants, great lovers of their country and of liberty, considered themselves rather under the pro- tection than under the authority of the emperor, and valued their privileges more than life itself. The emperor Albert had the impru- dence to provoke their indignation, by summoning them to become vassals to him as duke of Austria; and he moreover excited their resentment, by appointing as governors over the Helvetian districts three men commonly represented as capable of the most tyrannical excesses. To the summons, the spirited natives returned a peremp- tory refusal, and to the oppression which, it is said, soon began to weigh heavy upon them, they prepared to oppose an undaunted resistance, under the direction of the famous William Tell and some others of their countrymen, remarkable for their eminently indepen- dent and intrepid character. Many historians add that William Tell had been goaded on to vengeance, by the tyrannical command of one of the three governors to shoot an apple from the head of his own son at a distance of a hundred feet; which he did without hurting a hair of the youth. But, whatever may be said of this circumstance, which is by others called in question, and which really wears a ro- mantic appearance, the conspiracy of the Helvetians against a foreign domination was vigorously conducted. They took and destroyed the castles that had been the seat of tyranny, and either put their oppressors to death, or obliged them with their satellites to evacuate the country. All hope of reconciliation between the emperor and the Helvetians was now destroyed. At the first intelligence of the insurrection, Albert prepared to check it by marching in person against those whom he viewed as rebels ; but he was murdered at that very time, on the banks of the river Reuss. The districts of Uri, Underwalden. and Schweitz, availed themselves of the disturbances which followed his death, to strengthen their coalition. It was not long, however, before they saw themselves attacked by a formidable army of Aus- trians under the command of Duke Leopold, a son of the emperor Albert. With full confidence of victory, this prince ventured to penetrate into the heart of Switzerland through a narrow defile called A. D. 1273--1315. GERMANY; ETC. 301 Morgarten, while thirteen hundred men of the district of Schweitz took upon themselves the charge of defending it against that multi- tude of Germans, as formerly three hundred Spartans attempted to stop the Persians in the straits ol Thermopylae. The Helvetians posted themselves on the summits of the surrounding mountains, and, as soon as the Austrians had entered that narrow path, cast upon them enormous fragments of rocks, which destroyed the cavalry and threw the infantry in disorder; then, rushing down with resist- less fury, they cut nearly all the enemy to pieces, whilst they them- selves lost only fourteen men. A little before the battle, fifty men, who had been lately banished Cor misconduct, came and offered to atone for their former delinquen- cies by shedding their blood in defence of their country. However useful their assistance might be to the small army of the Helvetians, it was looked upon as disgraceful, and consequently rejected. No refusal could be more mortifying nor more disparaging than this to the exiles ; but patriotism made them superior to every consideration. When the fight commenced in the valley of Morgarten, this little band attacked the Austrians with undaunted valor, spread terror and destruction wherever they went, and greatly contributed to the victory of their countrymen. What they had just done, inspired them with greater confidence than before; after the battle, they did not hesitate to make their appearance in the camp of the conquerors, and were received by them with every possible mark of gratitude and exultation. The battle of Morgarten was a fatal blow given to the Austrian power in Helvetia, whose inhabitants could now justly hope that their liberty was secure. From that time they formed themselves into a regular confederacy, founded on a few plain and simple prin- ciples. As the struggle ibr independence had taken place particularly in the territory of 8chweitz, and the victory had been gained chiefly by the exertions of the natives, the other districts adopted that name for themselves. At first, they were only three in number; but, in the course of time, the neighboring districts and towns joined the confederacy, and by this union formed the nation of the Swiss: a nation much celebrated for its uprightness and loyalty, till the latter years, when its government has been given up to a reckless spirit of tyranny, injustice, and persecution. 26 302 MODERN HISTORY. Part VL PROSECUTION AND ABOLITION OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLARS. A. D. 13071312. THE Knights Templars, whose institution we mentioned before, had now been in existence for nearly two hundred years. During that time, their devotedness to the cause of Christendom, their heroic valor and exploits against the Saracens, had acquired for their order an extraordinary reputation and immense riches. But wealth and power generated among them a spirit of arrogance and independence, which exasperated both the civil and ecclesiastical authorities. They became proud, intemperate, insolent, and were daily falling into ill repute, when some of their discontented members gave notice to tne French king, Philip the Fair, of still more shocking and heinous crimes committed in the order. The charges were of such a nature, that they at first served only to excite indignation against their authors. It was however thought advisable to make new inquiries, the result of which induced Philip to have all the Templars of his kingdom arrested on the same day, the thirteenth of October (A. D. 1307). A committee which he appointed in Paris, tried one hundred and forty knights, all of whom, except three, acknowledged the justice of the accusation under which they lay ; and not only they, but even the grand-master and chief comman- ders of the Templars twice confirmed the same by their own free and express acknowledgment. In fine, seventy-two others, were exam- ined at Poitiers, and all confessed themselves guilty of the principal crimes laid to their charge. As the persons thus accused belonged to an order which was reli- gious as well as military, Pope Clement V took cognizance of the affair, and conducted it with the most assiduous attention and scru- pulous impartiality. Struck at the unanimity that existed in the accusations, testimonies and free avowals of so many persons, several of whom he liimself had examined, he wrote to all the Christian princes in Europe, that they also might take proper measures against the evil. Every where, the Templars were put under arrest, and courts of inquiry were appointed according to the pope's command, to examine the accusations brought against them. The prisoners were strictly interrogated, especially with regard to the charges of profligacy, apostacy and impiety. Several of them pleaded guilty, and threw themselves on the clemency of their judges; while many others declared themselves innocent, and could not be convicted of any crime. It appears, in fact, that the order was not equally corrupt in all A . D. 1307-1312. PROSECUTION, ETC. 303 places; which fact accounts for the different treatment its several members received in different countries. Many were acquitted, par- ticularly in Germany and Spain ; others were condemned to perpetual or temporary confinement; others, in fine, who were convicted of enormous crimes, and still obstinately asserted their innocence or even retracted their previous free avowal of their guilt, were delivered to the secular power, to be punished according to the rigor of the law. Fifty-nine were burned at the stake in Paris, nine at Senlis, and several others in the south of France. As for the grand-master, James of Molay, and the chief comman- ders, who were kept with him in safe custody at Paris, the pope had reserved to himself the decision of their fate. In virtue of the sen- tence passed against them by the papal commissaries, they were to be punished only by confinement, on condition that they would repeat, in the presence of the people, their former acknowledgment of their guilt. Two of them obeyed and were treated with mildness; but James of Molay and another Ternplar, contrary to public expecta- tion, suddenly exclaimed that their order was innocent and had been calumniated. The papal legates, greatly astonished and perplexed, sent them back into custody, and prepared to deliberate on the strange incident. But the king, highly incensed at the unaccountable con- duct of the knights, would not wait any longer. He directly took the advice of his lay-counsellors, and, on the evening of the same day, caused the two prisoners to be transported to a small island formed by the river Seine, and there to be thrown into the flames. The grand- master displayed, in that awful moment, his characteristic courage, which made a deep impression on the spectators. He is even reported to have, a short time before expiring, summoned Pope Cle- ment to appear within forty days, arid King Philip within the space of one year, before the tribunal of their common and sovereign Judge. But this story seems devoid of proof, being omitted by all the histo- rians of that time, and contradicted by the best critics of more recent date, particularly by Mariana,* F. Brumoy,f Natalis Alexander,:}: etc. As to the order itself, whether it should be abolished or maintained, this was a question to be decided by the pope. For this purpose, and for other important affairs, he convoked a general council to be held at Vienne in France, towards the close of the year 1311. The inquiries about the Templars, and their different trials having now occupied nearly five years, the whole result was laid before the pon- tiff, who communicated it to the prelates of the assembly. That many individuals had been guilty of enormous crimes, could not be * De Rebus Hispania, lib. xv, c. xr. \ Hist, de VEgl. Gallicane, vol. xii, 1. xxxvi, ad ann. 1312. J In Hist Eccles. Sac. xiv, Dissert, x. quest, n, art. r, n. xix. 304 MODERN HISTORY. Part VL doubted ; but there was not equal evidence to implicate the whole order; it was clear, however, that it had greatly degenerated from its orjginal institution, and that far from being now of any utility, it was rather an object of scandal to the Church. When these considerations had been weighed for several months, Clement V came to ihe con- clusion that the order of the Knights Templars could no loriger bt tolerated with any sort of propriety. Accordingly, on the third oi April (A. D. 1312), he published, in presence and with the approba- tion of the council, a bull suppressing the institute, not by way of i judicial sentence, but as a measure of prudence and expediency; and, in order that the riches and properties of the Templars might be stiil preserved for the purposes to which they had been originally destined, they were transferred to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John, who, more faithful to the primitive rules of their noble voca- tion, were still fighting the battles of Christendom against the infidels, from whose hands they had just rescued the island of Rhodes. From this general grant were rxcepted the estates lying within the king- doms of Arragon, Castile and Portugal: these were reserved for the defence of those :ountries against the Moors, who still possessed a considerable part of the Spanish peninsula.* PROGRESS OF THE CHRISTIANS OF SPAIN, AND SIGNAL VICTORIES OVER THE MOORS. A. D. 13121344. THE Christians of Spain were gaining ground almost continually on their enemies; but the Moorish nation, by receiving assistance and supplies from their African brethren, seemed to be a kind of hydra, whose heads re-appeared as fast as they were cut off, and nearly as dangerous as before; their frequent defeats appeared to rouse them to new exertions. Besides these ordinary efforts, extra- ordinary ones were made from time to time, in order to avenge and repair all their losses at or.ce. This, they endeavored to execute par- ticularly in the year 1340, under the conduct of Alboacen, king of Morocco, a prince much renowned for his exploits and conquests among the African tribes. His forces, gathered from every part of Africa, consisted of four hundred thousand infantry, and seventy * The affair of the Knights Templars being very differently represented by various modern authors, we have been careful to consult and follow pMiidos who, from their learning and impartiality, could not lead us astray, and above all, the original documents themselves, so well calculated to r^pel unjust attacks, and correct inaccurate ideas on this important subject. See note J. 4, D. lffl^-1344. CHRISTIANS OF SPAIN, ETC. 305 thousand cavalry, with three hundred and twenty large vessels or galleys to transport them from one shore to the other. Five months were employed in effecting the passage. At the approach of that immense multitude of Moslems, who wero joined by a hundred thousand more from the kingdom of Granada, not only Spain, but all Christendom trembled. Never had so numer- ous an army been raised by any Mahometan prince, not even by those ancient caliphs whose power extended over so many regions of Asia and Africa. The general consternation was increased by the news that the two admirals of Arragon and Castile had been defeated and slain by the Moors, whilst endeavoring to oppose some obstacle to their schemes of invasion. In this imminent danger, nothing but prodigies of energy, activity and courage could save the invaded country ; this was effected by the king of Castile, Alfonso XL Not to leave any possible means untried, he sent deputies to various courts of Europe, in order to obtain vessels, money and troops. He could not, it is true, obtain much, owing chiefly to the obstinate war which had broken out between France and England; still, the king of Portugal, Alfonso IV, marched in person to the proposed expedition with his choicest troops, who, with those of Castile, formed an army of about forty thousand foot and eighteen or twenty thousand horse. Still the con- tending forces were left in the proportion of one Spaniard to ten Sara- cens; but such was the magnanimity, the noble confidence nay, the cheerfulness displayed by the Castilian monarch at the approach of the battle, that the utmost ardor pervaded the whole Christian army, and fully made up for the inferiority of numbers. When the two kings advanced to meet their formidable foe, Alboa- cen was besieging the city of Tarifa, from which the battle has taken its name. He abandoned the siege, and posted his innumerable squadrons near a little river called Salado, where he waited the intended attack. On the twenty-eighth of October, the Christians, after having all participated in the sacred mysteries, crossed the stream, and, in battle array, marched against the Moors. History has recorded few particulars of the battle ; but, how extraordinary must have been the courage displayed by the Portuguese and Casti- liniis, may be collected from the result, which would really be in- credible, were it not corroborated by the most exact historians of Spain, and had not a similar event already happened in the famous battles of Tours (A. D. 732), and Murandal (1212). Here again, in the battle of Tarifa, whilst the Christians hardly suffered any loss (not more than twenty or twenty-five men), from two hundred thou- sand to two hundred and fifty thousand Moors perished on the field of battle, besides a vast multitude of others who were taken prisoners 26 306 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI. with the family of Alboacen. This prince escaped by a precipitate flight from that field so fatal to his glory and power, and the rext night recrossed the strait in a small boat; thus strikingly resembling Xerxes, and presenting another instance of the same haughty pride followed by a complete overthrow, which has rendered the Persian monarch so famous in history. The two victorious kings returned, loaded with laurels, to their respective states. So great was the quantity of coins and other arti- cles of booty collected in the Mahometan camp, and distributed among the troops, that gold suddenly lost one-sixth of its value. Shortly after this, the naval forces of the king of Morocco were destroyed by the combined fleets of Castile, Arragon and Portugal, under the eornmand of the Genoese admiral, Boccanegra; Alfonso himself gained a new victory, in which forty thousand Moslems were slain, and the important city of Algesiras surrendered to that prince in 1344. So many losses greatly advanced the entire ruin of the Moors in Spain ; and it might probably have been effected at that time, had not a long series of intricate dissensions arisen between the Christian sovereigns of the peninsula, which prolonged the tottering existence of their enemies for one hundred and fifty years more. WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND ENGLAND. FROM this period we may date the commencement of that obstinate struggle between France and England, which lasted nearly one hun- dred and twenty years, and, having twice brought the French mo- narchy to the brink of destruction, twice also, by unexpected changes, finally turned to her advantage, and deprived the English of almost all their continental possessions. The importance as well as long continuance of this war, even during its first period only, induces us to relate it under separate titles and sections. I. EDWXRD III OF ENGLAND AND PHILIP VI OF FRANCE. (A. D. 13281350). THE French king Philip IV (the Fair), at his death in 1314, left three sons, Louis, Philip and Charles, all of whom, in the short space of fourteen years, successively ascended the throne, and died without male issue. At the decease of Charles IV, the youngest of the three brothers, two competitors, Edward of England, ana Philip of Valois, claimed the succession; the former as grand-son, by his * D. UB8-1350. EDWARD III AND PHILIP VI. 307 mother Isabella, of Philip IV, and the latter as grand-son, by his father Charles de Valois, of Philip III, the immediate predecessor of Philip IV. It had indeed been decided, in 1316, at the death of Louis X, who left a daughter, that females were, by the fundamental law of the kingdom, excluded from the French throne; but Edward con- tended that, although the sex of his mother might be a disqualification for herself, it could not affect the succession of her son ; Philip, on the contrary, maintained that a mother could not transmit to her issue a right which she never possessed. This important case was brought before the peers and barons of France, who were unanimous in rejecting the pretensions of Edward.* Philip obtained the crown, and securing its possession by a signal victory over the Flemish, summoned the king of England to do him homage for the Dutchy of Guyenne. This homage was a painful task for the English kings; and the high-minded Edward in particular, most reluctantly submitted to the humiliating ceremony. He moreover continued to see with a jealous eye the French crown in the hands of another, and was well disposed to maintain his pretensions to it by an appeal to arms. Accordingly, as soon as the accession of the Flemish to his cause rendered his forces adequate to such a design, he openly declared war against Philip, towards the beginning of the year 1338. Fortune was at first favorable to the French in their exertions against Edward ; but the naval battle of Sluys, in 1340, gave to the English a decided superiority. A powerful fleet of one hundred and twenty large vessels, carrying forty thousand men, had been raised by Philip, to intercept the British monarch on his passage from Eng- land to Flanders. Edward determined to force the passage, and dis- posed his ships, for the combat with such prudence and skill, as to elicit the admiration of the ablest mariners. The battle was obstinate and bloody, and the king himself received a wound, which, however, rather served to increase his natural intrepidity; he skilfully took * That the claims of Edward III to the French throne were unfounded pretensions, can now hardly be denied, and the same has been acknow- fedged by many English historians, v. g. the authors of Univers. Hist. (vol. cviii, pp. 403404) ; J. Reeve in his History of the Church, (vol. n, pp. 144 145) ; the authoress of a well written History of Great Britain and Ireland, printed at Cork in 1815, (vol. i, p. 149) ; etc. Dr. Lingard contents him- self with saying, (vol. iv, p. 30, note) that Edward, in order to prove his claim, was obliged to maintain three principles, which he enumerates; but, by not adding a word in his favor, nor saying that the monarch proved any of the assertions favorable to his cause, he naturally leads the readei to conclude that the claim itself was groundless, and generally considered as such; whereas Philip de Valois, having on his side the text of the law, the judgment. of the peers, and the practice of preceding times, saw his right plainly and unequivocally acknowledged. 308 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI advantage of the wind and tide, and vigorously attacKed the enemy's line, until the timely arrival of the Flemish, his allies, entirely decided the victory in his favor. Nearly all the French vessels were cap- tured, and about twenty-eight thousand men slain or drowned; the loss of the English was comparatively inconsiderable. The battle of Sluys did not, however, terminate the dispute between the tv;o monarchs. The following years beheld a series of new and more or less insignificant expeditions, which produced no other effect than to diminish the resources of both parties, without ending the war. At length, the English king resolved to make an extraordinary effort, and crush his opponent by attaching him in different points at once. Whilst an army, led by the earl of Derby, engaged the attention of the French in Guienne, Edward himself, with other troops, landed on the coasts of Normandy, and rapidly advanceo towards Paris, burning or plundering all the towns in his way. The approach of Philip at the head of an army far superior in numbers to his own, induced him to retrace his steps towards the north ; this he did successfully, though" with great difficulty and danger. He then posted his troops upon a hill near the village of Crecy in Ponthieu, and waited in good order for the arrival of the enemy (A. D. 1346). Shortly after, the French appeared, and, hurried on by their usual impetuosity, immediately commenced the battle, without allowing themselves any time to rest and to dispose their .ranks properly. On the contrary, the English had been taught to regulate valor by disci- pline; so that, being well drilled, well arrayed, and well commanded, they easily overthrew the two first lines of the assailants. King Philip repeatedly strove, but in vain, to rally his forces; at each new charge, he lost the bravest of his attendants, and was finally compelled to abandon the field of battle, which, on the following day, was found covered with more than thirty thousand slain, among whom were eleven princes and twelve hundred knights. The con- querors lost but one esquire, three knights and a few persons of inferior rank. The young prince of Wales, Edward's eldest son, began in this battle to display that courage and ability which afterwards made him so illustrious and successful a general. It was also at Crecy that artillery was for the first time made use of by the Engh'sh; they had four, some say six, pieces of cannon, which greatly contributed to their victory, by the surprise and the terror they spread among the French troops. The victorious monarch lost no time in improving his advantage. With the view of securing for the future an easy entrance into France, he laid siege to the town of Calais, which was defended by John of Vienna, an experienced commander, and supplied with A. . 132S-1350. EDWARD III AND PHILIP VI. 309 every thing necessary for a long resistance. The operations of .Edward were indeed slow in the beginning, but they at length obtained full success ; and Calais, after sustaining a siege of twelve months, and enduring the extremities of a dreadful famine, was obliged to surrender. It was, or seemed to be the conqueror's inten- tion to punish the obstinacy of the townsmen by putting some of them to death. He therefore insisted that six of the chief citizens should come, bare-headed and bare-foot, with ropes about their necks, to present him the keys of the town and castle. This spread con- sternation among the inhabitants; but the gloom was dispelled by a generous patriot, named Eustace of St. Pierre, who offered himself as a devoted victim to appease the anger of the British monarch, and whose example was ^oon followed by five others. They approached the English camp, and, after delivering the keys, the governor pre- sented his sword to Edward, begging rnercy for the citizens. The king appeared inflexible, rejected the intercession of his barons, and even sent for the executioner, when Queen Philippa, who had just arrived from England, threw herself on her knees before her hus- band, and, by tears and supplications, obtained the deliverance of the unfortunate townsmen. Edward then took possession of Calais, which, after expelling the majority of the natives, he repeopled with a colony of his own subjects. It soon became the continental marl for British merchandise, and remained in possession of the English for more than two centuries. While the English monarch was gaining victories upon the conti- nent, the Scots, taking advantage of his absence, invaded the fron- tiers with a numerous army headed by David Bruce, their king, Queen Philippa, who had not yet set out from England, seeing the danger, prepared to repel it by a sudden and vigorous effort. She mustered all the forces that circumstances had left at her disposal, and sent them against the Scottish army, which they met at a place called Nevil's Cross, near Durham. A sharp contest ensued, which soon ended in the total defeat of the Scots. Fifteen thousand of them were cut to pieces; the others were routed, and driven from the field; the king himself was taken prisoner, and conducted with many of his nobles and knights to the tower of London. Thus were the arms of Edward every where successful ; but these advantages had been purchased by enormous expenses, and with the loss, it is said, of fifty thousand Englishmen. This consideration in- duced him to consent to a truce with Philip, who, owing to the de- ranged state of his affairs, had still greater need of a respite than the English monarch. Through the mediation of Pope Clement VI, the truce was concluded between the two kings, at first for a few months, but afterwards for six years. 310 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI No step could have been taken more useful and necessary than this to both nations. Almost immediately after the conclusion of peace France and England were yisiied by a pestilence as general and de- structive as any recorded in history. It had broken out in the centre of Asia, whence it gradually proceeded towards the West, arid pervaded the different countries of Europe. Of the victims of the plague, many expired in the course of six hours, and few lingered more than two or three days. Although it can scarcely be credited, as some have asserted, that the mortality carried off one-half or one third of the human race, we may however judge of its frightful ravages, from the fact that all the cemeteries in London were soon filled, and the number of the dead in the great hospital of Paris amounted to the daily average of five hundred. This awful calamity was generally regarded as a punishment from heaven, and had the happy effect of bringing multitudes of sinners to a sense of their duty. At the same time, the whole continent, from Calabria to the north of Poland, was shaken by a succession of earthquakes. During these occurrence's, King Philip died on the twenty-second of April, 1350, leaving behind him the reputation of a brave, but imprudent, of a tolerably good, but not very talented prince. It was his misfortune to have to contend with so able a monarch as Edward III. Yet, notwithstanding his disasters and losses, France made under his reign the important acquisition of the province of Dauphiny, which was ceded by Humbert II, its last sovereign, under the easy condition that the eldest son of every French king should have the title and name of Dauphin; a condition which was faithfully ad- hered to during five centuries. II. EDWARD III AND JOHN IL A. D. 13501364. PHILIP was succeeded on the throne by his son, John II, formerly called duke of Normandy. The success which this prince had ob- tained in the previous war of Guienne, his experience, and the ma- turity of his age which was about forty years, seemed to promise a much happier reign than that of his, father: quite the contrary how- ever happened; a valor not guided by prudence, plunged the new monarch and his kingdom into an abyss of misfortunes, and prepared new triumphs for England. The truce concluded between Edward and Philip being now ended, hostilities recommenced. The prince of Wales, Edward, also cai.ed the Black Prince (from the color of his arms), opened the campaisn. He set out with his troops from Bordeaux, and laid waste al! the sur- *. . I35a-i364 EDWARD III AND JOHN II. 31] rounding country. The year following (1356), he did the same, and advanced into the very heart of France, destroying the crops, slaugh- tering the cattle, reducing to ashes the farm-houses, towns and vil- lages, and subjecting the natives to all the horrors of war,* until the sudden approach of King John with an army of sixty thousand men admonished him to retire. But it was now to late; he found himself overtaken at Maupertuis, near Poitiers, and all he could do was to occupy a strong position upon an eminence in the midst of vineyards. Could the remembrance of Crecy have checked the presumptuous precipitation of the French, the English prince would not have been able to escape an entire overthrow. His iroops were six or seven times less numerous than those of his opponent; they had scarcely provisions for one day more ; nor could they attempt to leave their camp, without manifest danger of being immediately surrounded. Well aware of the perplexing circumstance, young Edward had re- course to negotiations. He offered to restore his conquests, his booty and his captives, promising moreover not to bear arms against France for the space of seven years. His offers were rejected ; and the French, instead of letting famine force the English to surrender, rushed upon them as an assured prey, with their usual imprudence and tumultuous hurry. The event could not have been more disgraceful for the assailants and disastrous for France. The cavalry, having entangled themselves among the vineyards and hedges with which the spot was covered, were easily overthrown by the English archers : the second line be- gan also to waver, and soon fled with precipitation, thus permitting the Black Prince to advance at the head of his cavalry, and charge with immense advantage the division of infantry commanded by the French king in person. Here the combat grew fierce and obstinate. John, animated by despair, maintained for a while the unequal con- test, and, by the terrible strokes of his battle-axe, slew or wounded those who ventured within his reach. But his strength soon failed him. He was wounded in the face, beaten to the ground, and finally taken prisoner with his youngest son Philip, who, during the engage- ment, had fought like the most hardy warrior to save his father's life. Such was the ever memorable battle of Poitiers, in which a hand- ful of Englishmen defeated the whole chivalry of France, and, be- sides covering the field of battle with five or six thousand slain, took fifteen thousand prisoners. The moderation of young Edward, after so splendid a victory, increased the admiration which his conduct in * See in Dr. Lingard (vol. iv. pp. 136 137) another dreadful instance of the same inhumanity, and the just animadversion of the historian against this cruel manner of waging war, which has left a blot on the memory of the prince of Wales.' 312 MODERN HISTORY. Part Vt battle had inspired. He soothed the affliction of his royal captive, waited on him at table, and in every particular behaved towards him with all possible courtesy and respect. The next morning he con- tinued his march with his army and his prisoners to Bordeaux; and, having concluded a truce for two years with the dauphin Charles, regent of France during the captivity of the king, returned from Guienne to England. He was received in London with extra- ordinary magnificence, which, though apparently intended to honor the French monarch, was easily referred by all to the conqueror of Poitiers. To have taken two kings prisoners at the same time, was certainly a glorious achievement; but mere glory did not satisfy Edward III, who used every means in his power to turn his victories to the best advantage. A considerable tribute to be paid for a certain number of years, was the condition on which the Scottish king obtained his liberty. The adjustment of the rival claims of England and France was infinitely more difficult, the pretensions of Edward being so high and so excessive, as to be unanimously and indignantly rejected by the French government. This refusal however appeared little in accordance with the existing state of affairs, as nothing can be con- ceived more distressing and deplorable than the condition to which that kingdom was now reduced. The mourning, humiliation and losses occasioned by the defeats at Sluys, Crecy and Poitiers; the dauphin left without resources; his authority disregarded; parties and dissensions springing up in several provinces; civil wars raging between the nobles and the peasants, who threw on each other the blame of the national calamities; troops of marauders destroying what had been spared by war and pestilence: every thing contributed to spread desolation over France. In order, as it were, to give the final blow to the tottering monarchy, just at this juncture, the Eng- lish king resolved to renew the war, and, landing in the north, recommenced hostilities with the most numerous and best appointed army that had been raised in England for more than a hundred years. To meet this emergency, the dauphin wisely deviated from the course hitherto followed by the French monarchs. Knowing, from experience, the danger of general engagements with soldiers so in- trepid and hardy as the English, he commanded the leaders of his troops to avoid every kind of battle, and rather to shut themselves up in towns and fortresses, with their supplies of provisions. These measures were perfectly successful. Edward, as he advanced, found a country in which his army could hardly subsist. Having no occa- sion to fight in the open field, he attacked the cities of Rheims and Paris; but he failed in both attempts, and was compelled, in a short A . D. 1364-1380. EDWARD III AND CHARLES V. 313 time, by the scarcity of provisions and the severity of the weather, to retire towards Bretagne. The retreat of the English was like that of vanquished troops endeavoring to escape the pursuit of a victorious enemy. In the neighborhood of Chartres, a frightful storm burst upon their camp. The tents were carried away by the violence of the wind ; and the clouds poured down showers of rain mixed with hail-stones of a prodigious size, which crushed to death men and horses. At the sight of the evils occasioned by his obstinacy and ambition, the king, in a moment of remorse, made a vow not to reject any longer honorable conditions of peace. Accordingly, the negotiations for a treaty were resumed, and it was concluded at Bretigni on terms somewhat less rigorous for France than had been proposed before. Edward consented to renounce his pretensions to the French crown, and to restore a part of his conquests ; still, he kept full possession of several provinces, and demanded a ransom of three million crowns of gold to be paid for the French monarch within the space of six years. These conditions were ratified by both parties, and John was at length liberated (A. D. 13GO). He did not long enjoy his liberty. Notwithstanding his perfect sincerity, which no man ever questioned, he found it an easier mat- ter to promise than to perform, being unable to raise the stipulated sums at the time appointed for each instalment. On this account, and in consequence of other difficulties arising from the treaty of Bretigni, John determined to give himself up again to his conqueror, saying that, "If honor were banished from every other place, it should find an asylum in the breasts of kings." He actually returned to London, where he died after a few weeks, in 1364. III. EDWARD III AND CHARLES V. A. D. 13641380. THE death of John at first made no change in the existing relations between France and England; and the dauphin, now King Charles V, had sufficient time to restore perfect tranquility in his kingdom. The best measure adopted by him for this purpose, was first to deliver his people from a large body of military adventurers, who after having followed the standard of Edward III during the war, sub- sisted, in time of peace, by plundering the French territories. Many fruitless attempts had been made to get rid of those companies of for- midable banditti; at length Charles succeeded, through the means of his celebrated general Du Guesclin, in inducing them to undertake 27 314 MODERN HISTORY. Parl V l. an expedition into Spain, on the ground that their exertions might be extremely useful to that country and to themselves. The kingdom of Castile was then groaning under the tyrannical eway of Don Pedro, son and successor of Alfonso XL That prince, justly surnamed the cruel, on account of his vindictive and ferocious spirit, ascended the throne in 1350, at the age of fifteen, and marked each succeeding year- by dreadful executions, the effect of his ambi- tion, caprice or barbarous profligacy. The most illustrious of his victims was his virtuous queen, Blanche de Bourbon, a French princess, who is believed to have perished by poison. Don Henry, earl of Transtamare, and half-brother to Don Pedro, being exposed to a similar fate, fled to Paris, where he entered into a confederacy with the French court to punish the murderer of Blanche. Accordingly, the bands of adventurers just mentioned, in addition to other bodies of troops under the conduct of Du Guesclin, entered Spain in 13G6, and rapidly marching through the kingdom of Arra- gon, placed Don Henry on the throne of Castile without fighting a battle. It was in vain that Pedro summoned his military tenants; they rejoiced at his distress; and he had no other resource than to throw himself on board a vessel, which carried him safely to Ba- yonne, whence he proceeded to Bordeaux, the capital of the British possessions in France, and the residence of the prince of Wales. The heart of this young prince was moved by the astonishing, though merited, misfortune of Don Pedro. He readily espoused his cause, and, in order to replace him on the throne, led into Castile a gallant army, with which he attacked the enemy near Navarette. After a sharp contest, Don Henry was put to flight, Du Guesclin, was taken prisoner, and Pedro, without further obstacle, again assumed the sceptre. Unfortunately for the Castilian monarch, adversity, instead of im- proving, had rather exasperated his disposition. He soon returned to his former cruel course; and for the benefits bestowed upon him by young Edward, returned nothing but ingratitude, delaying, under various pretences, to make him the necessary indemnification for the expenses of the war. In the mean time, the victorious troops of his allies began to waste away, both through want of provisions and the heat of the climate; and the constitution of the British prince him- self was considerably impaired. Equally indignant and alarmed, Edward abandoned the ungrateful monarch, and returned with his army through the kingdom of Navarre to his own territories. This circumstance permitted Don Henry and Du Guesclin, who had recovered his liberty, to re-enter Spain with fresh troops, in 1368. They defeated Don Pedro in several battles, in one of which he lost fifty thousand Moors, who had enlisted in his service ; and A. D. 1384-1380. EDWARD III AND CHARLES V. 315 they soon closely besieged him in the castle of Montiel. He endeavored to make his escape during the night, but was arrested and brought to the tent of a French officer, where, either through accident or design, he was met by his brother and rival. "They immediately grappled with each other; Pedro threw Henry on the floor, and Henry, in the struggle, despatched his adversary with a poniard." Being thus once more seated on the throne, the new king of Castile showed his gratitude to his benefactor and faithful ally, Charles V, by concluding with him an alliance offensive and defensive, and pro- mising him assistance in vessels and troops, in case of a new war against Edward III. This war occurred very soon ; the subjects of complaint between the two rival nations had been, since the death of John II, continually increasing, and his successor was at length induced to answer the lofty demands of his opponents by a declaration of war. The British possessions in France were entered by hostile armies, whose rapid progress was aided by the disaffection of the natives against a foreign government. Careful to avoid a general batde, the French extended their conquests by capturing towns, and securing them with strong fortresses and garrisons. They had, it is true, to contend against the powerful reinforcements continually sent from England for the defence of her transmarine dominions; but circumstances were now totally changed. While the English mo- narch, now in an advanced age, was leading an indolent life, and the prince of Wales lingering under a disease which he had contracted in Spain, the wisdom of Charles and the activity of Du Guesclin constantly improved their former success. The troops of Sir Robert Knolles, stationed on the borders of Bretagne, were put to flight. A fresh and numerous army, commanded by the duke of Lancaster, was almost entirely destroyed, either by continual skirmishes, or by the fatigues of the march and the inconveniences of the season. In one place, the famous English general Chandos lost his life; in another, the Captal de Buch, one of the best officers in the service of Edward, was taken prisoner; and, in 1372, the British vessels, car- rying supplies to the continent, were all sunk or captured near La Rochelle, by a Spanish fleet which King Henry had, according to his promise, sent to the assistance of the French. By this series of disasters and losses, the English found themselves compelled to ask for a truce, which was granted, and, at short inter- vals, repeatedly prolonged for some years. They were now deprived of nearly all their ancient possessions in France, and of all their late conquests except the town of Calais. In 1376, they sustained an irreparable loss by the death of Edward, prince of Wales, and one year later, the king, his father, followed him to the grave, it the age of sixty-five years, during fifty of which he had occupied the throne. 316 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI. " In personal accomplishments," says Dr. Lingard, " Edward III is said to have been superior; in mental powers, to have been equal to any of his predecessors. More than usual care had been bestowed on his education: and he could not only speak the English and French, but also understand the German and Latin languages. His elocution was graceful; his conversation entertaining; his behavior dignified, but also attractive. To the fashionable amusements of hunt- ing and hawking he was much addicted : but to these he preferred the more warlike exercises of tournament: and his subjects, at the con- clusion of the exhibition, often burst into transports of applause, when they found that the unknown knight, whose prowess they had admired, proved to be their own sovereign. Of his courage as a combatant, and his abilities as a general, the reader will have formed a competent opinion from the preceding pages. The astonishing victories, which cast so much glory on one period of his reign, appear to have dazzled the eyes both of his subjects and of foreigners, who placed him in the first rank of conquerors : but the disasters which clouded the evening of his life, have furnished a proof that his ambition was greater than his judgment. He was at last convinced that the crowns of France and Scotland were beyond his reach; but not till he had exhausted the strength of the nation by a series of gigantic but fruitless efforts. Before his death, all his conquests, with the exception of Calais, had slipped from his grasp : the greater part of his hereditary dominions on the continent, had been torn from him by a rival, whom he formerly despised : and a succession of short and precarious truces was sought and accepted as a boon by the monarch, who in his more fortunate days, had dictated the peace of Bretigni."* Three years after the death of Edward, Charles V, king of France, also died, leaving his kingdom as prosperous and happy, as he had found it destressed and miserable. In the space of sixteen years, he had, by his consummate prudence, checked the calamities and repaired the evils of the two preceding reigns. Instead of rashly exposing his own person in battle, as his father and grand-father had done, he confided the command of his armies to generals equally brave and cautious, and through them waged war with uninterrupted success, he himself directing from his cabinet the chief operations of their campaigns. Nor was his prudence less admirable in his civil, than in his military administration. Good order was re-established in the different branches of government; peace was restored to the capital and the provinces ; offices of trust were filled by men of well known merit and integrity; the king himself gave to all the example * Laniard's History of England., iv,pp. 147149. A. D. 1 300 1396. OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 317 of sincere piety, purity of morals, charity to the poor, and fidelity to the laws of God and of the Church. At his accession to the throne, having found the coffers of the exchequer empty, he replenished them, not by the augmentation of the taxes, which he on the con- trary diminished, hut by a wise administration of the public revenues. It was thus that Charles was enabled to deliver France from powerful invaders; to assist his allies; to make his people happy; to protect the arts, sciences and commerce; to lay the foundation of the famous royal library in Paris ; in a word, constantly to exemplify the truth of his own maxim : ** That kings are happy, only because they have the power of doing good." His subjects bestowed on him the flat- tering epithet of " The Wise," and posterity has always pronounced him one of the greatest kings that ever sat on the throne of France. He was succeeded by his son Charles VI. Richard II, son of the Black Prince, began to reign about the same time, in the place of his grand-father Edward III. RISE OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, AND ITS PROGRESS, TILL THE BATTLE OF NICOPOLIS. A. D. 13001396. WE must now turn our attention to the east of Europe, where a new and formidable enemy began to make his appearance. The fourteenth century beheld the rise and progress of the savage and warlike nation of the Ottomans, who were destined to sweep from the face of the earth the last vestiges of Roman power. Fresh hordes of Turks, eager to walk in the footsteps of their ancestors, were continually pouring from Tartary over the fairest provinces of Asia restless and uncivilized tribes, who hardly knew how to pro- cure the necessaries of life otherwise than by war and pillage. After the fall of the Seljukian Turks of Iconium, these barbarians occupied their possessions in Asia Minor, under the conduct of seven indepen- dent chieftains commonly called emirs. The most skilful and powerful of these chieftains was Othman, from whom the Turks have derived the name of Ottomans. His valor and activity soon enabled him to prevail over the petty princes by whom he was surrounded; he rendered himself master of a great part of Bithynia ; and continued his victorious career for the space of twenty -seven years (A. D. 1300 1326). His plan of aggrandize- ment was successfully followed by Orcan, his son and successor. Whilst the degenerate Greeks were continually weakening themselves by civil dissensions and wars, the well combined forces of the Turks daily increased the extent and strength of their empire. They cap- 318 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI, tured, in a short time, the cities of Prusium, Nicomedia and Nice, and, crossing the strait of Constantinople, began to carry their victo rious arras into Europe. Many important places of Thrace, and even the city of Adrianople, had already fallen into their power, when Orcan died, in 1360. Amurat, who was the third sultan (sovereign) of the Turks, con- solidated the throne his two predecessors had reared, by organiz- ing the intrepid band of the Janizaries, whose number amounted, in different times, from ten to forty thousand ; a body resembling, in al- most every respect, that of the Praetorians at Rome under the empe- rors, and of the Mamelukes in Egypt since the time of Saladin. A regular and gallant troop of cavalry, called Spahis, had already been established by Orcan ; it was subsequently improved by Amurat This monarch, having chosen Adrianople for the seat of his resi- dence, kept, from that city, a watchful eye on the conduct of the neighboring states, in order to turn all their proceedings to his own advantage; for, although he was, we are told, a great admirer of virtue and lover of justice, yet he lost no opportunity to gratify his ambition. Hence his reign, which lasted twenty-nine years (A. D. 1360 1389), was little else than a continual warfare, and was ren- dered famous by thirty-seven victories, the last of which, however, proved more fatal to himself than to his numerous enemies, the Hun garians, Servians, and other nations of eastern Europe, who had united their forces to oppose his progress. After the battle, as he was visiting the plain covered with the dead and dying, a Servian soldier, that lay among the rest, suddenly arose, and with a dagger stabbed the sultan, who expired in two hours, in the midst of his officers. The next sultan, Bajazet I, is well known in history under the surname of Ilderim (lightning); an epithet which he fully deserved by the rapidity of his conquests, and the uncommon quickness with which he continually passed from Europe to Asia, and from Asia to Europe. He assembled and marshalled his forces, separated and re-united them with incredible activity ; he would disappear for a time, and suddenly appear again when he was thought to be at a distance. Still Bajazet sometimes met with enemies no less brave and skilful than himself; and his life presented a constant alternation of brilliant victories and overwhelming defeats. His efforts were at first directed against several petty sovereigns of Armenia and Asia Minor, who were all easily subdued. He then turned his attention to a more powerful and warlike opponent, Ste- phen, prince of Moldavia, who had, two years before, defeated in a great battle the generals of Amurat, the father of Bajazet. Anxious to restore the honor of the Turkish name, Bajazet marched rapidly through the province of Thrace, crossed the Danube and entered the A. D. 130C-1396. OTTOMAN EMPIRE. 319 territory of his enemy, a warrior as eager as himself for the meeting. After a fierce conflict, the Moldavians were routed; and their leader, who was the last to quit the field of battle, fled towards Nols, a for- tified town, where he had left his mother and children. He found the gates closed against him by his mother's command. From the top of the ramparts, this courageous woman upbraided him for his flight, and bade him return, renew the fight, and, if he could not conquer, rather die than survive his defeat. This revived at once the courage and hopes of Stephen; he immediately returned, rallied about twelve thousand men, and rushed upon the Turks who were then engaged in pillaging, with such impetuosity and vigor, that nearly all were cut in pieces ; the imperial tent, with a considerable booty, fell into the power of the Moldavians; and the proud sultan precipitately retired to the extremities of his dominions. He soon reappeared, more fierce and formidable than ever. Thrace, Greece and other provinces were overrun and laid waste by his armies ; and if, for reasons of policy and prudence, he did not yet attack Constantinople, he at least made the suburbs of that city the limits of the Greek empire. The reigning imperial family was treated by him with the utmost contempt. New fortifications having been added to the capital by the emperor John Paleologus, Bajazet was displeased, and sent an order for their demolition, which order Paleologus obeyed. The next emperor Manuel, received from the haughty sultan a command to remain in Constantinople : he complied with the injunction, leaving the city but once, in order to appear at the court of Bajazet, which he did at the risk of his life; for his preservation he was indebted to the generous commiseration of a Turkish officer. He then wrote pressing letters to the Christian sovereigns of Europe, for the purpose of imploring their assistance against the incessant encroachments of the Turks ; and his example was imitated by Sigismond, king of Hungary, who was not less anxious to remove the impending storm from his frontiers. These letters and solicitations had little effect, except in France, which furnished a large number of soldiers and knights under the command of the earl of Nevers, a prince of the royal family. They marched through Bavaria, and joined, near the Danube, the Hun- garians commanded by Sigismond, whose forces then amounted to upwards of a hundred thousand men. When he reviewed them, he is said to have exclaimed, in a transport of confidence and joy, that "if the firmament itself should fall, they might support it with their iances." His hopes, however, were grounded more on appear- ances than on reality ; for, if bravery was the distinguishing charac ter of his followers, discord, jealousy, presumption and licentiousness also reigned among them ; and Bajazet showed greater foresight than 320 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI, Sigismond, when on being informed of these disorders, he said that his enemies would surely provoke against themselves the justice of their God. After some partial engagements, in which the Christians constantly prevailed over the Turks, they commenced a general battle near the city of Nicopolis in Bulgaria (A. D. 1396). When the two armies approached, Sigismond entreated the French to unite prudence with valor against an enemy with whose mode of warfare they were not sufficiently acquainted. The advice was good, but given to no pur- pose, the earl of Nevers and other young lords imagining that it was the intention of Sigismond to deprive them of the honor of beginning the battle. They therefore, without waiting for the Hungarians, rushed on against the first squadrons of the Turks with equal disorder and intrepidity. The enemy pretended to be terrified, and fled; the French pursued them, with full confidence of an easy victory, when, on a sudden, they found themselves not only surrounded by numerous bands of Spahis and Janizaries, whom Bajazet had placed in am- buscade, but also entangled amidst an incredible quantity of stakes which had been purposely planted in order to embarrass their march, so that the Christian cavalry could neither advance nor retire. Resolved at least to sell their lives as dearly as possible, they continued fighting with undaunted valor, and for several hours spread terror and death among the thickest battalions of the Turks. At length, sinking un- der the weight of fatigue, and overpowered by the multitudes of their opponents, they fell, almost all, under the Ottoman sword; the remaining few were taken prisoners. Bajazet immediately led all his forces against the main body of the confederates, put them to flight, and entered their camp, where hi? soldiers found invaluable riches. Sigismond seeing every thing lost, threw himself into a boat, and following the course of the Danube, and then the coasts of the Euxine sea, succeeded, after many adven- tures, in reaching the imperial city of Constantinople, where his ar- rival as a fugitive announced his defeat and spread consternation. All trembled at the approach of the victorious sultan; the Greek capital was more than ever threatened with an attack, and would pro- bably have become an easy prey to the Turks, had not its downfall been delayed by the sudden appearance of another conqueror far superior to Bajazet himself. A. D. IS96-1405. TAMERLANE ; ETC. 321 TAMERLANE AND THE MOGULS. A. D. 13961405. BATTLE OF ANCYRA. 1402. TIMUR, better known by the name of Tamerlane, had been raised, amidst the confusion of civil wars, from the station of a petty sove- reign to the throne of the Moguls and Tartars, in the year 1369. He soon re-established, by his indefatigable activity and courage, the vast empire of Genghis-Kan in Asia. History can scarcely follow him through his gigantic expeditions; and the imagination itself is astounded at the rapidity with which he carried his destructive sword from the centre of Tartary to the borders of Egypt, and from the river Indus to the frozen deserts of Siberia. Such was the man whom Providence destined to crush the pride, and overthrow the power of Bajazet. Historians are not unanimous in explaining the motives which induced these two mighty princes to turn their arms against each other. It is generally supposed that the complaints of the Greek emperor and of the Mussulman princes of Asia, against the encroach- ments of Bajazet, were the chief motive of Tamerlane's conduct on this occasion ; but it might also be sufficiently accounted for by the character of the two rivals. In the opinion of the Tartar monarch, it was neither proper nor possible that the world could be governed by two sovereigns of equal power; nor was the Turkish sultan infe- rior to him in point of ambition. This clearly appears from the scornful and arrogant invectives in which they indulged against each other, before hostilities commenced, and which became the signal of the most bloody catastrophe. Tamerlane set out from the East at the head of his intrepid Tar- tars ; and, as if he had resolved to give Bajazet an idea of the ravages that every where accompanied his armies, he made their march across Armenia and Syria one continued military expedition. These unfortunate countries, so often before the theatre of disastrous war- fare, were again laid waste, their riches seized, their cities destroyed, their inhabitants slaughtered; streams of blood, and towers built with human bodies and skulls, every where marked the passage of the Mogul conqueror. At length, the Tartars directed their course towards the Turkish dominions. Tamerlane marched through Anatolia with eight hun- dred thousand men, whilst Bajazet, on his side, fea-lessly advanced to meet him, at the head of four hundred thousand brave soldiers. These formidable armies came in sight near Ancyra (July 1402,), I 322 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI. and there, through the whole extent of a vast plain, engaged in a conflict more furious and frightful than even imagination can picture. It lasted three days, and cost the lives, according to the lowest calcu- lation, of one hundred and eighty thousand, according to others, of three hundred and forty, or even four hundred thousand of the com- batantf. Victory at last decided in favor of the Tartars. The re- maining Turks were dispersed; and the sultan, after he had fought till the last moment with desperate valor, was surrounded by a host of enemies eager to secure so important a prize, and, in spite of all his efforts, became their prisoner. Not only different, but even contradictory, are the accounts given of the manner in which JBajazet was treated by Tamerlane. The more probable, as being founded on the testimony of most of the his- torians who wrote near that time, is that the Mogul prince received his captive into his own tent with great kindness and regard, and, making him sit by his side on the same carpet, spoke to him in the most consoling terms; but that Bajazet, far from being grateful for this noble and generous reception, evinced no other feeling than that of ferocious haughtiness and impotent rage, which deeply offended his conqueror. To the question put by Tamerlane, " what he would have done, if fortune had been favorable to him?" he answered, " I would have confined you in an iron cage." " Let such, then, be your own mansion," replied Tamerlane. The sentence was enforced, and Bajazet, unable to bear the excess of his misfortune, died one or two years after, some say, of grief and despair, others, of apoplexy. His sons were permitted to divide, or rather to dispute among themselves the wrecks of hi^ empire, and the Mogul conqueror returned to his own dominions. It may not be amiss to describe here more fully the character of this extraordinary prince. By the oriental nations, Tamerlane is assimilated to Alexander-the-Great; and the renowned biographer Feller, in his Historical Dictionary (article Tamerlane), seems to approve of that idea, which he even endeavors to confirm by some examples. The comparison may be true with respect to exploits and military abilities; but, in many other particulars, it is certainly false. Alexander was ambitious, without being naturally cruel; whilst, on the contrary, nothing can be conceived more barbarous than tae manner in which Tamerlane conducted his wars, and treated those who presumed to resist. By his orders, seventy thou- sand persons were inhumanly slaughtered in the capture of Ispahan ; one hundred and twenty thousand in that of Sebaste ; ninety thou- sand in that of Bagdad, which city Was utterly destroyed; and so, proportionally, in other places. In the conquest of India, the natives were hunted like wild beasts, and it is no exaggeration to say that A. D. 1396-1405. TAMERLANE, ETC. 323 millions of them were put to the sword, the multitude of prisoners being moreover so great, that each of the Tartar soldiers had many in his power. On one occasion, Tamerlane caused a hundred thou- sand of those unhappy captives to be slain in the space of an hour; on another, he commanded multitudes of unfortunate people to be crushed under the feet of horses, or to be buried alive; and, besides, he invariably kept up the horrid custom, which we have already men- tioned, of building towers with human skulls, as monuments of his victories.* Never assuredly were there deeds of cruelty so awful and so multiplied, perpetrated either by Alexander-the-Great, or any other conqueror except Tamerlane. It is truly astonishing that the man who could commit such atroci- ties in war, displayed, in the other transactions of his life, justice, generosity and sensibility. Equitable in his judgments, and zealous in the correction of abuses, he was kind towards his relations, atten- tive to the welfare of his troops and careful to reward their services, humane towards all his subjects and desirous of their happiness, particularly towards the close of his career. " I do not wish," he once said to his counsellors, " that the distressed and the poor should cry out for vengeance against me on the day of judgment. I do not wish that any one of my brave soldiers, who have so many times exposed their lives in my service, should have to complain of me and of my ingratitude. I am more sensible of their wants than they are themselves. None of my subjects ought to hesitate to lay his grievances before me; for, my intention is that the world should, under my reign, become a sort of Paradise ; and I know that, when a king is just and beneficent, his kingdom is blessed with prosperity and glory." Such was the language in which Tamerlane expressed the noble feelings of his soul in relation to the government of his people. In point of intellectual faculties, to a sound mind, that distinguished him in council as much as his extraordinary valor distinguished him in battles, he is said to have added a wonderful sagacity, which enabled him to unravel the most hidden intrigues and detect the most artful stratagems of his enemies, whilst his own secrets remained impenetrable. His principle in governing was to secure by unshaken firmness the execution of his orders, and to attend in person to all transactions of consequence. The palaces, mosques, cities, bridges, canals, magnificent roads, colleges, hospitals for the infirm, for tra- * These, and other particulars respecting Tamerlane, may be seen in Umvers. Hist. vol. xivin,pp. 220 468; Anquetil, Precis d'e VHist. Uni- vers. vol. iv, pp. 446 466; Michaut, Hist, des Croisades, vol. v, pp. 289- 292 ; and Ameilhon (the continuator of Lebeau), Hist, du Bas-Empire t vol. xx vr, pp. 362367- I 324 MODERN HISTORY. Pan VI. vellers and for the poor, and many other public buildings and institu tions, which owed to him their existence, would suffice to illustrate the reigns and the lives of several monarchs. Tamerlane preserved, till the end of his days, a robust constitution, great bodily strength, and astonishing fortitude. He disliked flattery, and, instead of being offended by correction and advice, required that the truth, plain and entire, should be spoken to him; the motto on his seal was, " I am candid and sincere." A friend to learning, he frequently read history, and liked to converse with skilful men. In fine, a very extraordinary feature in this mighty sovereign and con- queror, was the singular modesty which he evinced in the midst of his triumphs, not ascribing them to his own exertions and talents, but to the omnipotence of God, who made use of him to chastise nations and to recall them to the path of justice. He believed, as a zealous Mussulman, that he was called to redress grievances, and to exterminate the abettors of all religions contrary to his own ; and we have seen in what an awful manner he complied with this imaginary mission. After the successful -termination of his campaign against the Turks, his advanced age and protracted labors seemed to call for repose; yet, even at that time, he meditated new conquests. In a fresh transport of Mahometan zeal, he determined to attack the Chinese, and for this purpose he set out with two hundred thousand men, in the dead of winter, from Samarcand, his capital city; but, being seized with a violent fever, he expired before he had reached the con- fines of China, in the seventy-first year of his age, and thirty-sixth of his reign (A. D. 1405). His death was soon followed by the divi- sion of his vast empire into many principalities and kingdoms, the most remarkable of which was that of the Moguls in the East Indies, now under the sway of the British government. RENEWAL OF WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. THE condition of England and France was much alike during the latter portion of the fourteenth, but became quite different in the beginning of the fifteenth century. The two young kings, Richard II and Charles VI, showed good intentions, and even, on many occasions, displayed great spirit and courage; but the ambition ol three uncles (in England, the dukes of Lancaster, Gloucester and York and in France, the dukes of Berry, Anjou and Burgundy), A. D. 1413-1422. HENRY V AND CHARLES VI. 325 was for both of them a constant source of misfortunes, and occasioned many disturbances in the two kingdoms. England however suffered less, and not only was the first to reco- ver from her losses, but even quickly reassumed her former ascen- dency and menacing attitude, in consequence of the great internal strength which she acquired under the prosperous reign of Henry IV, first king of the house of Lancaster, who had, in 1399, dethroned and succeeded his cousin Richard II. France, on the contrary, saw her misfortunes increase; especially after Charles VI began to expe- rience frequent fits of insanity. Eacli one of the princes of his family wished to hold the reins of government; their disputes gave rise to a long train of dissensions and animosities which terminated in the murder of several of their number, and daily added to the misery of the whole nation ; nor did England fail to turn these disturbances of France to her own advantage. I. HENRY V AND CHARLES VI. (A. D. 14131422). HENRY V, son and successor of Henry IV, is represented by historians as a prince sagacious in council, skilled in military tactics, and one of the bravest knights of his age. He had, more seriously than any of his predecessors, conceived and matured the design of subduing the French monarchy, which, after the example of Edward III, he affected to claim as his inheritance. Having raised a gallant army, he landed at Harfleur, on the 14th of August 1415, before the French were ready to oppose his invasion. The town was invested; and after a courageous resistance of five weeks, its garrison was obliged to surrender. The siege however had cost Henry many officers and men, and a dysentery soon reduced his forces to nearly half their number; in this situation, unable to adopt offensive measures, he determined to retire to Calais, whence he might safely re-embark for England. But to carry out this resolution was a very difficult task: there were no bridges over the rivers; and an army of one hundred thou- sand French soldiers, five times more numerous than that of their opponents, had been stationed between the English and Calais. At Agincourt, on the 24th of October, Henry saw himself in the very same condition in which Edward III and the prince of Wales had been, the former seventy, the latter sixty years before; and, like them, he gave the world a new proof how much a skilful commander and a few well disciplined troops can effect against a multitude of undis- ciplined warriors. In his camp and army, perfect order was observed, 28 326 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI. and ready obedience paid to the commands of their gallant leader; on the side of his enemies, notwithstanding some wise dispositions of the commander-in-chief, the constable d'Albret, all was confusion, insubordination and temerity. The night previous to the battle was spent by the English in religious exercises ; by the French, who did not suspect the possibility of a defeat, in tumultuous merriment. The result, as might naturally be expected, was the complete triumph ot the former, and the entire overthrow of the latter, twenty-four thou- sand of whom, including the chief leaders and- twelve princes, paid with death or captivity, the forfeit of their rash and presumptuous courage. The conquerors referred with gratitude to Almighty God the honor of so signal and astonishing a victory ; the 113th psalm was sung in thanksgiving after the battle; and it was an edifying spectacle to behold the king and the whole army prostrate themselves at these words of the Royal Prophet, " Not to us , Lord, not to us; but to thy name gi'ue gloi-y." The defeat of Agincourt was still more fatal to France than the disastrous battles of Crecy and Poitiers. The road was now opened into the heart of that kingdom; and Henry V was both too ambitious and too skilful, not to follow up his advantage with incessant ardor. This was his chief and almost exclusive object during the subsequent years, and success crowned his new efforts even beyond expectation. Within a short time, Normandy and the neighboring provinces were subdued; town after town surrendered; Paris itself, the constant theatre of turbulent factions, opened its gates to the conqueror; and King Charles VI, whose mental powers were almost totally pros- trated, was induced to take the English monarch for his son-in-law, and, contrary to the i'undamental rules of inheritance in France, to appoint him his successor. The dauphin Charles, who was heir apparent to the crown, appealed from this illegal disinherison to God and to the sword. After the death of his unfortunate and cruelly misled father, in 1422, he caused himself to be acknowledged sove- reign in all the provinces situated on the south of the river Loire, the others being occupied by the English and their partisans, who called him, through mockery, King of Bourses. The same year witnessed also the premature death of his formidable rival, Henry V, who had not reached his thirty-fifth year. This great prince expired on the last day of August, leaving an infant son, Henry VI, who was crowned king of England and France, under the regency of his two uncles, the dukes of Gloucester and Bedford. 4. D. 1423-1453. HENRY VI AND CHARLES VII. 327 II. HENRY VI AND CHARLES VII. (A. D. 14221453). THE important events just mentioned, and the change of the prin- cipal leaders in each party, though ultimately advantageous to France, did not present at first a favorable prospect for that kingdom. The duke of Bedford, a courageous and skilful prince, was determined to effect its entire subjection, and for a time was so successful, that Charles VII, after several defeats, found himself destitute of money, troops and assistance, having but a few knights who remained true to his cause. His situation became still more perplexing, when the English, always advancing in their course of conquest, laid siege to Orleans, the only town that prevented them from crossing with safety the river Loire, and invading the southern provinces (A. D. 1429). On both sides the siege gave rise to innumerable and wonderful exertions of ability and vigor, the resistance being, on all occasions, proportionate to the attack. As, however, the English received fresh supplies of provisions and troops with greater facility than the gar- rison of the place, its fall was confidently anticipated by them, and the most gloomy apprehensions began to prevail in the councils of the French monarch. Charles himself meditated a retreat into the distant county of Provence; when he unexpectedly, and from an extraordinary source, received assistance which revived his hopes, filled his enemies with dismay, and turned forever the tide of success. In a village, on the borders of Lorraine, lived a country girl named Joan, about seventeen years of age, and of irreproachable character. When the hope of saving Orleans was almost abandoned, she presented herself before the governor of Vaucouleurs, and main- tained, with extraordinary confidence, that she was commissioned by heaven to raise the siege of that place, and to procure the coronation of the king in the city of Rheims. Her tone of conviction and her repeated assurances prevailed upon the governor to send her well guarded to Charles; she met the French court at Chinon in Tou- taine. There, whatever may be said by several recent authors in opposition to the multitude of more ancient documents, every precau- tion was taken to avoid even the possibility of illusion or imposture.* Joan underwent a most rigid examination before a committeeof per- sons eminent for their prudence and learning, and also before the * See Hist, de Joanne d'drc, 12mo ; Hist, de VEgl. Bdraut-Bercastel, vol.. vm, pp. 3135 ; Hist, de I'Egl. Gall., discours sur la Pucelle d' Orleans, at the end of the 16th vol., where the learned author, F. Berthier, adduces innumerable evidences, and upwards of twenty contemporary or almost con- temporary authors, French, Italian, German, etc. in favor of Joan d'Arc and of her claim to a divine mission. I 328 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI. courtiers, and the king himself; and she constantly gave such marks of sagacity, wisdom, and more than human knowledge, as to cause her claims to a supernatural mission to be very generally admitted. She consequently received the complete armor of a knight, and the liberation of Orleans was intrusted to her charge. The first exploit of Joan was her entrance into the besieged city, and her success in conveying a plentiful and much needed supply of provisions to the garrison, at the head of which she then successively attacked and carried the strongest posts of the English. The enemy, dispirited by so many losses, hastily abandoned the siege ; but, being pursued by the heroine, and driven from the towns into which they had retired, they were completely defeated at Patay, with the logs of nearly five thousand men, whilst the French had only one man ot their number killed. Joan had always declared that the object of her mission was two- fold, the liberation of Orleans, and the coronation of the king at Rheims. The first of these objects being accomplished, she now urged the execution of the second ; and, though the attempt was a dangerous one, the intermediate country being in possession of the English or of the Burgundians, their allies, she prevailed upon Charles to place full confidence in her promises; nor \vas he in any way deceived. As soon as he began his march with twelve thousand men, all obstacles disappeared, or were easily overcome; and the citizens of Rheims, having expelled the Burgundian garrison, re- ceived him with the most flattering demonstrations of joy. The coronation was performed in the usual manner. During the ceremony, Joan, in her warlike dress, and with her banner unfurled stood filled with grateful emotions near the altar; when it was over, she threw herself on her knees, declared her mission accomplished, and with tears solicited leave to return to her country-life; but the king being unwilling to lose her services so soon, she, at his request, consented to remain with the army. Her courage indeed was always the same, but success did not follow her exertions so constantly as before. Having undertaken to defend Compiegne as she had done Orleans, and making a sally at the head of some troops, she fell, notwithstanding her heroic efforts, into the hands of the enemy. The shouts of the English and Burgundians announced her fate to the besieged, whom this melancholy news threw into deep affliction; the place however continued to defy the power of the assailants, and the siege was raised by the approach of a French army (A. D. 1430). The unfortunate maid was treated with neglect by her friends, with cruelty by her enemies. Charles, who owed so much to her, does not seem to have made any efforts to rescue her from captivity; but whether he acted thus, because he thought his endeavors would A. o. 1422-1453. HENRY VI AND CHARLES VII. 329 be unavailing, or because he yielded to the jealousy of some of the courtiers and generals against Joan, is uncertain. The English, exasperated hy the repeated defeats and losses she had caused them, resolved to gratify their revenge. For this purpose, nothing, not even the most iniquitous proceeding, was left untried ; and, to the eternal disgrace of the duke of Bedford and of the committee which he had appointed, the awful crimes of sacrilege, bla,sphemy and sorcery were imputed to the heroine who had given constant and undeniable proofs of her piety, as well as innocence and purity of life. Her death was desired; she was executed at the stake as a sor- ceress, in the market-place of Rouen, before an immense concourse of spectators, who could not restrain their tears. Twenty-five years later, her condemnation was reversed by the archbishop of Rheims and the bishops of Paris and Coutances, whom Pope Calixtus III had designated to revise the mock trial. After the most assiduous and minute inquiries, after hearing one hundred and twelve persons of unexceptionable character, dukes, counts, magistrates, etc., who formerly had been witnesses of the superhuman virtues and exploits of Joan d'Arc; they pronounced the first sentence passed against her unjust, wicked and slanderous; and she was solemnly declared inno- cent of all the crimes with which she had been charged by her enemies.* The English had cherished a hope that the death of Joan would * Several writers, and Dr. Lingard himself, who upon this matter seems not to have been sufficiently acquainted with the best sources of informa- tion, have endeavored to explain the marvellous actions of the Maid of Orleans by mere natural causes; ascribing them to enthusiastic excitement, to a deluded imagination, which the French court was careful to put to profit. If, however, we attentively consider that Joan d'Arc, a timid girl, not more than seventeen years of age, and hitherto employed, not in a city, but in the peaceful and modest occupations of a country life, from the moment she appeared in court and at the head of armies, evinced in every thing a surprising wisdom and energy of soul ; that she became, on a sudden, an intrepid warrior and an accomplished commander, whilst she always remained a perfect model of innocence, piety and all Christian virtues ; that her claim to a supernatural mission was, after the severest trials, admitted by persons of every description, by her countrymen and by foreigners, by friends and foes, and even by the greatest enemies of France, whose desire it was to have her conduct attributed to an evil principle; that all she said was found true ; that all she foretold exactly happened in the time, place and other circumstances predicted ; if we attentively consider all -this, we will surely find it difficult, nay, absolutely impossible, not to acknowledge in the authentic story of Joan d'Arc something above the ordinary laws of nature ; not to believe that she really was under the special guidance of heaven, and admit in her public career a display of the power and wis- dom of God, who chooses the weak things of the world that he may confounn. the strong (1 Cor. i, 27), and who, after having humbled France, wished to raise it again by the hands of a woman, as he formerly saved his chosen people through the instrumentality of Deborah, Judith and Esther. 330 MODERN HISTORY. Part incline the balance in their favor; in this they were disappointed. Such was the impulse just given by this heroism to the course of events, that England could no longer arrest the progress of France. Charles took Paris with most of the other places conquered by Henry V, and the British retained the rest, only in virtue of a truce which the two nations concluded in 1444. Thus did Henry VI lose one of the two crowns that he had inherited from his father; whilst the other likewise began to sit lightly on his head, owing to the rise of strong and hostile parties in his own kingdom. During this season of calamity for Great Britain, the state of the French monarchy was considerably improved by the wise adminis- tration of Charles VII. The better to repair past evils and prevent their recurrence, he established several bodies of regular and standing troops, from whose cooperation both he and his successors derived the greatest advantages in upholding the dignity of their crown, re- pelling foreign invaders, and restoring tranquillity in the provinces. Stability and peace every where took the place of disturbances and commotions. The former strength of the nation was restored ; and every thing now conduced to the final overthrow of the English on the continent. in the year 1449, Francis Surienne, a British commander, having been guilty of an infraction of the existing truce, by capturing and plundering the town of Fougeres, the French king availed himself of the opportunity to renew the war with immense advantage. England was involved in domestic dissensions ; and her power abroad had been much weakened by the recent loss of two battles against the Scots. In one year, Charles recovered Normandy with its hun- dred fortresses. A like success attended his arms in the invasion of Guienne; the decisive victories of Fourmigni and Chatillon, the former in the north, the latter in the south of France, secured his conquests ; and the English were driven from every inch of ground they had possessed in that kingdom, with the exception of the city of Calais (A. D. 1453). About this time, Poland, until then comparatively little known, rose in point of civilization, glory and power, to a conspicuous rank among the European states. For this elevation, she was indebted to the government of the Jagellos, who occupied the Polish throne nearly two hundred years, from 1386 to 1572. Germany also flourished at this period under the emperor Sigismond, who reigned from 1410 to 1437. Though unsuccessful in war, that prince governed with honor and ability in time of peace, and was enabled to transmit his ihree crowns of Germany, Bohemia and Hungary to Albert of Aus- tria, his son-in-law; thus laying the foundation of that great power and influence which the house of Austria so long enjoyed in Europe. D. U5a FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 331 FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. A. D. 1453. THE Greek empire, in the mean time, was drawing near to its ex- tinction. The defeat of Bajazet Ilderim by Tamerlane had, it is true, delivered Constantinople from that terrible sultan of the Turks, but not from the Turks themselves, who, in a short time, reappeared on the field of battle, as undaunted and powerful as ever. After the pacific reign of Mahomet I, who died in 1421, Amurat II, his son and successor, renewed hostilities against the Greeks, the Hunga- rians, and other Christian nations in the vicinity of his frontiers. Notwithstanding the losses and defeats which he occasionally sus- tained, he continued to gain ground, and at last gave the deadly blow to the league of his opponents in the famous battle of Varna, in 1444. This battle was more fatal to the cause of Christendom than that of Nicopolis had been, in as much as it opened a wide field to the en- terprising spirit of the Turks, and deprived Constantinople of its last resources. In fine, Mahomet II appeared, the most terrible of all the Turkish sultans. No sooner had he grasped the sceptre left by his father Amurat, than he resolved to snatch the Greek capital from the hands of the reigning emperor, Constantine Paleologus or Dragazes, a prince worthy of better times, but whose heroic exertions could postpone only for a short period the fall of Constantinople. This was the last struggle between a power recently founded, but already the most for- midable in the world, and an ancient monarchy, the glory of which had filled the whole earth, but which now presented nothing but de- generacy and discord. There was not less difference in the character of the two monarchs than in the respective strength and fate of their empires. All ad- mired the virtue and moderation of Paleologus, his prudence in council, his intrepidity on the field of battle, and his unshaken firm- ness in adversity. Mahomet displayed on every occasion a bold and haughty spirit, and a boundless ambition. He was, we are told, a lover of the arts and sciences, and could speak several languages ; but those pacific studies had not curbed his ferocious temper; in war, be spared neither his enemies nor his own soldiers, and frequently peace itself was rendered bloody by the violence of his passions. The last successor of Constantine-the-Great possessed all the virtues of a Christian and magnanimous prince ; the son of Amurat was characterized by all the vices of Mussulman and lawless conqueror. As the siege of Contantinople was to be commenced in the spring of 1453, the preceding winter was actively spent by both parties in 332 MODERN HISTORY. Part V maKing the necessary preparations. Towards the first days of April, the imperial city was surrounded by a fleet of three hundred and twenty vessels, and by a land army of three hundred thousand men, one-third of whom were cavalry. To these formidable forces Con- stantine Paleologus could oppose only a few ships and galleys, and eight or nine thousand warriors, partly Greeks and partly Italians , with whom he had to defend a territory of about twelve miles in cir- cumference. He appointed for their commander-in-chief, Justiniani, a Genoese officer of great experience, distributed them as weli as he possibly could throughout the different posts of the rampart, and re- served for himself one of the points most exposed to the assaults of the enemy. The Turks employed in that siege all the resources of the destruc- tive art of warfare, such as mines dug beneath the walls of the city, rolling towers, battering rams, and a multitude of machines destined to cast stones, darts and arrows. Above all, the use of artillery hav- ing now become general, Mahomet did not fail to supply his troops with this powerful means of attack, and prepared fourteen batteries of enormous cannon, and balls of proportionate size. Some of those pieces of ordnance could send balls of two hundred pounds weight; and one of them in particular, called Basilica, sent a ball weighing upwards of six quintals, to the distance of more than a mile. It re- quired two thousand men and about one hundred and fifty oxen, to remove it from the spot where it was made, to its intended battery. Its interior circumference was nine feet, and its weight thirty or forty thousand pounds. But experience proved that the use of such enor- mous guns produced greater encumbrance and disadvantage than real utility ', this was the case particularly with the famous Basilica, which soon burst with a frightful explosion, and killed, among other persons, its very maker, who was a Hungarian apostate. The Greeks too were abundantly provided with military engines, cannon and Grecian fire, which they used with dreadful effect against the Turks, day and night repelling their assaults, ruining their works, and consigning their machines to the flames. These heroic exertions were owing chiefly to the emperor and his general Justiniani, whose indefatigable activity seemed to multiply their persons and make them present in every place where succor was required. It seemed as if they had communicated their energy and courage to all the soldiers of the garrison. When Mahomet perceived that the exterior fortifications of the town had been almost entirely destroyed by the continual firing of his artillery, he commanded his troops to prepare for an assault His hope of success rested principally on a wooden tower many stories high and full of combatants, which he caused, with all possi- 4, D. 1453. FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 333 ble precaution, to advance towards the wall. Here a fierce conflict took place, which was continued two days with incredible animosity and prodigious efforts on both sides. At length", victory declared in. favcr of the Greeks; the Turks were repelled, and had the mortifica tion to see their wooden tower overthrown and soon reduced to ashes This unexpected result highly exasperated Mahomet, who could not forbear saying that, had thirty thousand prophets foretold so extraor- dinary a disaster, he would not have believed the prediction. A few weeks after this event, a similar disgrace which befell his fleet and which he himself witnessed, threw him into a paroxysm of rage. Four Christian vessels appeared in sight of Constantinople, and, disregarding the great number of the Ottoman ships, fearlessly advanced towards the harbor. The enemy went to obstruct their pas- sage, with full confidence of an easy victory ; but the four frigates opened upon them so terrible and so well-timed a fire, that many of the Turkish vessels were sunk, and others greatly damaged. Mahomet, who had observed the combat from a neighboring hill, descended, foaming with rage, and spurring his horse into the sea, even at the risk of his life, loaded the commanders of his galleys with the most bitter reproaches, and was carried so far by his passion as brutally to strike the admiral with a golden rod which he held in his hand. But all his fury and threats were idle ; the four ships steadily pur- sued their course; and, continuing to disperse his navy, opened foi themselves a free passage to the harbor, where they entered in tri- umph amidst the acclamations of the Greeks, who, from the top of their ramparts, had also been spectators of the combat. It is supposed that the Turks had sent about two hundred vessels against this intrepid flotilla, and, without killing one single Christian, lost no fewer than twelve thousand men.* The besieged had a very great advantage, as long as they kept possession of their excellent harbor; nor could the Ottoman fleet force its entrance, which was obstructed by a line of strong galleys and an enormous chain of iron reaching from shore to shore. To deprive them of this resource, Mahomet conceived the bold design * This event and other similar incidents plainly show the great superiori- ty of the Christians over the Ottomans, in discipline, military science and valor. If the latter were at length successful in overthrowing the Greek empire, this was evidently owing to their vast multitude, and to the con- tinual arrival of reenforcements, rather than to real and well directed bravery. How great the difference between the warriors of the fifth cru- sade and those of Mahomet II ! Here we see three hundred thousand Turks, supplied with a formidable artillery, scarcely able, after a siege of eight weeks, to take Constantinople, whose garrison did not amount to more than eight or nine thousand soldiers; whereas twenty thousand crusaders, in three days, carried it by storm, in spite of the efforts of more than two hundred thousand men, by whom it was defended ! I 334 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI. of transporting by land seventy or eighty of his vessels from the sea into the port. This fact, though it may seem incredible, is related in substance by all the contemporary historians. With regard to its circumstances, it appears that, by dint of men and machines, the vessels were caused to roll through a space of three or four miles over planks thickly covered with grease. As all was done during the night with great celerity, the garrison and inhabitants of (Constan- tinople did not suspect the fatal scheme, until it was too late to prevent its execution. They were surprised and alarmed at seeing the enemy now near their ramparts and their homes, and they attempted, but in vain, to destroy the Turkish vessels, by means of the Grecian fire, which had so often before saved Constantinople. Forty of their most intrepid warriors, who had taken upon themselves this hazard ous enterprise, were basely betrayed, fell into the hands of the Turks, ami paid with their lives for their generous devotedness. The garrison, however, continued to defend itself with admirable vigor, alter the example of the emperor, whose exertions seemed to be the effect of almost superhuman energy. This excellent prince was acting, at the same time, the part of a father, a sovereign, a soldier, and a general; scarcely allowing himself any repose, but continually occupied in encouraging by word and example a pusil- lanimous and ill-disposed people, or sharing with his brave garrison in the fatigues of the siege and the dangers of unceasing combats. During the day, he was foremost in fighting and repelling the enemy; during the night, his chief occupation was to reconcile, to soothe and to relieve by every means in his power, his discontented, distressed, and ungrateful subjects. Thus, without ever deviating from the line of social and Christian virtue, Paleologus displayed a valor and mag- nanimity which made him not only equal, but even superior to the perils which surrounded him; and, whilst he stood almost alone upon the ruins of his falling empire, he still seemed to bid defiance to his implacable foe. As the virtuous emperor could not banish from his mind the sad apprehension that the day of wo was approaching, he resolved to make an additional sacrifice of his personal leelings for the preserva- tion of his people. He offered the sultan the payment of any tribute that might be exacted, provided the possession of the imperial city should be secured to the Greeks; but as Manomet absolutely required the surrender of Constantinople in exchange for some principality, Constantine nobly rejected the degrading proposal, and preferred a glorious death. Mahomet himself was not free from uneasiness with regard to the final result of the war; and he had reason to fear that it might even- tually turn against himself, as his troops, dispirited by their losses A. D. 1433. FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 335 and by the obstinate resistance of the Greeks, loudly called for the cessation of so bloody and perilous a siege. But the undaunted sul tan revived their spirits' by promising them all the treasures of Con- stantinople, should a new attack upon that city prove successful. The assault was to take place on the twenty-ninth of May. At dusk, on the eve of the day appointed, the soldiers were commanded to assemble, each with a lighted torch at the extremity of his lance 01 cimeter ; Mahomet appeared in the midst of them, renewed his pro- mise, and, to render it more sacred, swore by the eternity of God, by four thousand prophets, by the soul of his father Amur at, his own chil- dren, and his sword; upon which all exclaimed: "God is God, and Mahomet is his prophet." When this warlike ceremony was over, the sultan ordered a profound silence to be observed throughout the camp; and nothing then was heard round Constantinople but the low murmurs of an army silently preparing for a terrible and decisive assault. In the imperial city, the garrison was attentively watching from the ramparts all the movements of the Turks. Their repeated shouts had been heard with anxiety and alarm; the terror was increased by the sudden silence which ensued, and the light of innume- rable torches in the camp being reflected by the tops of the towers and by the steeples of churches in the town, rendered still more gloomy, from the contrast, the darkness which covered the other parts of Constantinople. Paleologus assembled his chief warriors, and addressed them in a moving speech, exhorting them to encoun- ter fearlessly the approaching peril. He recommended presence of mind to the officers, obedience to the soldiers, intrepidity to all, and spoke so feelingly as to draw tears from every one of his hearers : they embraced each other as if for the last time'; and, after they had separated, the emperor went to pray and receive communion in the church of St. Sophia. He afterwards visited the imperial palace, gave his orders, and asked pardon of all persons there present for the faults which he might have committed in the government of his people; every one answered only by his sighs and tears. He then went out overwhelmed with affliction, but still generous and intrepid, and mounting on horseback, visited all the ramparts, examined the different posts of the garrison, and finally resumed his own station, the most perilous of all. The last day of the Greek empire had now arrived. At one o'clock in the morning, the clarions resounded in the Turkish camp ; Mahomet gave the signal for the assault, and no fewer than two hundred and sixty thousand soldiers began to storm the city of Con- stantine: at day-break, all the troops on each side were engaged in the conflict. The Turks, animated by their usual wild fanaticism, 336 MODERN HISTORY. Part V I. by the exhortations of Mahomet, by the hope of victory and the expectation of pillage, forced their way, with a sort of phrensy, through guns and pikes ; nor were they deterred either by the difficult access of the breach, or by the sight of their companions falling dead around them whilst endeavoring to scale the wall with ladders Reckless of life, they sought only to reach their opponents, and to strike them down with their murderous weapons, whilst destructive missiles were incessantly thrown from their engines. But, if the shock was furious, the resistance at all points was not less vigorous and obstinate ; if the assailants dealt destruction among the besieged, their own numbers were thinned by death in its most terrible forms. Besides repeated and successful discharges of musketry, the soldiers of the garrison poured upon the thick battalions of the Turks streams of boiling oil, melted wax, and Grecian fire, and from the top of the wall threw rocks and mill-stones, which crushed all that came in their way. A considerable portion of the battlements and several towers having been demolished by the battering rams and artillery, the noble defenders of Constantinople presented themselves as a new rampart, mutfh more difficult to be overthrown than that built of inanimate materials. The emperor fought at their head, and set every one an example of the most intrepid courage : numbers of barbarians were mowed down by the edge of his sword j the very sight of the imperial banner struck terror into the enemy. After a tremendous contest of two hours, Mahomet advanced with the choicest of his troops and a body of ten thousand Janizaries. He appeared in the midst of them with a club in his hand, animating his troops by his fierce countenance, and pointing out to them the parts of the wall which they were to attack. Behind this band stood other bodies of troops destined to support the assailants, to stop those who might be tempted to fly, and force them to return to the charge. The sound of the clarions, the clashing of the swords and cimeters, the discharges of the artillery, the crash of the falling ramparts, all contributed to render the assault a scene of horror more easily ima- gined than described. In this awful tumult, the Janizaries them- selves began to fight with some confusion; and Paleologus, who had perceived the circumstance, was exhorting his brave attendants to make a last and decisive effort, when a fatal accident suddenly changed the aspect of the battle. General Jusme moments more, he main- ju D. 1453. FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. 337 tained the unequal contest, saw his last companions perish by his side, and at length overpowered by numbers, fell among the foremost of the slain. Constantinople was now irretrievably left a prey to wild and bar- barous conquerors. The weak remains of its garrison were dis- persed; Justiniani had retired to a distant spot, where he shortly after expired. Amidst the inconceivable tumult and desolation that reigned every where, the Turks rushed into the city, and, in virtue of the sultan's promise, plundered it during three days. About forty thou- sand of its unfortunate inhabitants were put to the sword, and sixty thousand detained as captives. Among those who had the happiness to escape, many fled to the western parts of Europe, where, having established their residence, they greatly concurred in reviving the fine arts, polite literature, and a relish for the study of oriental languages. Thus, as the Western empire, which had been founded by Augus- tus, expired under Jlugustulus; so the Eastern empire, which had been founded by a Constanline, fell under another Constantine, eleven hundred and twenty-three years after the building of Constantinople. Gradually stripped of its extensive possessions, it had long continued to subsist, at least within the precincts of its capital, like a majestic pillar which supports the last arch of a decaying edifice. It at length disappeared under the repeated attacks of the barbarians, and its downfall afforded to the world a new evidence of this truth, that nothing is unchangeable which has been established by men, and that the works of God alone remain forever. MAHOMET II CONTINUED. As soon as order and tranquillity began to succeed the awful scenes of bloodshed, plunder and destruction, which attended the capture of Constantinople, Mahomet left his camp, and took solemn possession of this unhappy city which his efforts had finally subdued. By evincing a certain moderation towards the vanquished, and adopt- ing some other measures of policy, he succeeded in retaining within the town the sad remnant of its inhabitants, and in supplying the absence of those who had perished ; and from that time, the former capital of the Greek empire became the chief city of the Turkish dominions. The sultan then examined what country he should next add to his vast monarchy, the measure of his ambition being to acknowledge no measure. Unfortunately for the neighboring princes, the long duration of his reign enabled him to attack them all 29 338 MODERN HISTORY. Part in succession. Either by fraud and stratagem, or by violence and open war, he succeeded so far in his mighty schemes of conquest, as to destroy another empire (Trebisonde), subdue twelve kingdoms, and capture more than two hundred cities. Mahornet failed however in his attempt to establish a universal empire, which was the great aim of his ambition. At the time when he assumed the most threatening attitude, Divine Providence had already raised up three great men to check his progress, and save Europe from his destructive sway. I. MAHOMET II AND HUNNIADES. A. D. 14531456. THE first of these was John Corvinus Hunniades, prince of Tran- sylvania and governor of Hungary, who had previously distinguished himself by his many exploits against Amurat II. Although he lost the battle of Varna in 1444, his name continued to be so formi- dable to the infidels, that the Turkish women made use of it to frigh- ten their little children, and the mere rumor of his approach at the head of an army, almost raised the siege of Constantinople. After the fall of that capital, the hopes of Christian Europe chiefly rested upon him, and his sword was in reality its principal defence against tne attacks of Mahomet. Belgrade, a considerable and well fortified town at the confluence of the Danube and of the Save, had been for some time an object of particular envy for the Ottomans. In June (A. D. 1456), it was invested by an army of one hundred and fifty thousand men, whom the sultan led in person, and by a fleet so numerous that the vessels covered the two rivers. The soldiers of the garrison bravely main- tained their position, and, until the middle of July withstood with indomitable valor all the efforts of the assailants; still, the place, thus closely besieged and battered day and night by a formidable artillery, was in imminent danger of being reduced by famine or by storm, when the banners of Hunniades, who was hastening to its assistance, were seen waving upon the summits of the surrounding mountains, and his fleet at the same time appeared sailing down the Danube. This great man did not hesitate, with raw and half disciplined troops, to attack the whole Turkish fleet, which obstructed his passage. The shock was so furious, the resistance so obstinate, and the slaughter so great, that the waters of the Danube seemed changed into blood. At length, the line of the Turks being broken, several of their gallies were captured; the others withdrew; and the conquerors entered the town, amidst the loud acclamations of the inhabitants, who hailed A. D. 1453-1456. MAHOMET AND HUNIVIADES. 339 the arrival of Hunniades among them as a sure sign of their approaching deliverance. Still, the danger was not yet past. The sultan, far from being dispirited, with redoubled energy caused the walls of Belgrade to be BO furiously and so incessantly battered, as to render their further reparation impossible. No sooner was the breach sufficiently wide, than the Turks rushed to the assault, and in order to divide the forces of the besieged, applied ladders to many places at once; they how- ever advanced but little on that day. After having reposed during the night, the attack was renewed with still greater fury than before. In a few moments, so fierce was the conflict, that the combatants were mixed together sometimes upon the breach, sometimes within the town itself, the Christians and the Turks alternately obtaining the advantage. During this long period of awful suspense, Hunniades proved himself both a general and a soldier; throwing himself into the thickest part of the battle, he slew, or wounded and dispersed all within his reach ; while on the side of the Turks, Mahomet was seen in the midst of the Janizaries, venting his anger, animating his troops, and exposing himself to the greatest dangers. It was thus that boldness and the hope of victory, well regulated valor and desperate courage, exhibited the whole day a frightful scene of carnage, and produced a variety of exploits which it would be impossible to enumerate. It will suffice here to mention one of them, which really deserves particular notice. A Hungarian soldier, of common rank, but of heroic sentiments, saw a Turk ascend to the top of a tower, where he began to plant his banner with the view of driving the Christians to despondency. -by making them believe that the city was already taken. Without losing an instant, he hastened after the Turk, and strove to wrest the banner from him; finding himself unable to effect his purpose, he seized the Turk, and, with the strength of despair, dragged him along with himself from the top of the tower, and by his death averted impending ruin from the Christians. At this moment, Kasan, the bravest of the Turks, was struck dead near Mahomet, and the Janizaries began to waver and retire from the bloody conflict. The sultan, by threats and promises, en- deavored but in vain to rally his dispirited soldiers; being himself wounded by an arrow, and having lost the use of his senses, he was carried away from the field of battle, where the slaughter of the Turks continued until the remains of their army escaped by flight. There were found in the camp which they hastily abandoned, about two hundred pieces of heavy artillery, forty colors, and an incredible quantity of ammunition, baggage, splendid tents, and other valuable objects. The battle had lasted, it is said, twenty hours, and was the 340 MODERN HISTORY. Parl VL severest check that the Ottomans received during the long reigu of Mahomet. When the sultan, after having recovered his senses, was informed of the extent of his disaster, he was with difficulty pre- vented from killing himself in despair. Nor was this a transient or momentary impression ; as long as he lived, he could not think of Belgrade, without falling into a paroxysm of madness. Hunniades did not long survive this glorious event; only five weeks later, a violent fever, occasioned by the fatigues of the last campaign and by the infection of the Turkish camp, carried him off on the tenth of September, of the same year 1456. Being attended in his last moments by St. John Capistran, his faithful admirer and friend, whose eloquent exhortations had greatly contributed to the victory of Belgrade, he died, as he had lived, with the pious and noble sentiments of a Christian hero, after having caused himself to be carried to the church for the purposeof receiving the Holy Viati- cum, " it being proper," he said, " that the servant should go to his Lord, rather than that the Lord should come to his servant." The death of this great man, the news of which was rapidly spread, again brought over Europe that gloom which his victory had dispelled. Pope Calixtus III, on being apprized of the sad event, shed an abun- dance of tears; and Mahomet himself is said to have exclaimed in a melancholy tone : " Never was there a greater general in the world; and now that he is dead, there is none whose overthrow could be a sufficient compensation for my defeat." This, however, was not strictly exact; and Mahomet deceived himself, if, besides Matthias Corvinus, who, like his father, inflicted severe defeats on the Turks, he did not look upon Scanderbeg as an opponent worthy of him, and at least equal to Hunniades. II. MAHOMET II AND SCANDERBEG. A. D. 1464-1467. SCANDERBEG, otherwise called Georges Castriot, was king of Al- bania, a rough and mountainous district situated on the eastern coast of the Adriatic sea. In the beginning of his reign (A. r. 1443), he vigorously shook off the yoke laid by the Ottomans on his father and country, and, with a handful of warriors, maintained his position against their innumerable armies during the space of twenty-four years. Amu rat II, who attacked him first, soon experienced the effects of his undaunted valor; and having presumed to besiege Croja, the capital city of Albania, met there, in Scanderbeg who defended it, an. invincible opponent, no armor however strong, no warrior how 4 n. 1464-1467. MAHOMET AND SCANDERBEG. 341 brave soever, being able to resist this hero. During the whole siege, the Turks were continually harassed by sallies and skirmishes con- ducted with equal vigor and ability. Their loss, both before the walls of Croja and during their retreat, was so great, and their defeat so signal and so ignominious, that the grief of Amurat on this occasion is thought to have accelerated his death. The war continued under Mahomet II, who contented himself in the beginning with sending many of his generals against the Alba- nians : but Scanderbeg knew so well how to avail himself of his perfect knowledge of the country, of its mountains and defiles, that he repeatedly routed the Turks, notwithstanding their superior forces. On several of these occasions, they lost from twenty to thirty thou- sand men. At length (towards the year 1464), the sultan determined to go and avenge in person so many defeats: having raised one of those formidable armies with" which he had so often visited the neigh- boring stales, he invaded the Albanian territory at the head of two hundred thousand men. Scanderbeg had not more than a handful of soldiers with him; still, the Turks were again repeatedly defeated, Croja was once more saved from their yoke, and Mahomet was com- pelled to retire with disappointment and shame. The time was now come for Scanderbeg to exchange earthly lau- rels for a heavenly crown, the reward of his piety and of the valor which he displayed in the defence of religion. He was taken dan- gerously ill in the city of Lissa; and, aware that his last hour was approaching, he prepared for it, with his usual magnanimity and fortitude, in the most edifying manner. The last spark of life was about to be extinguished, when information was brought that fifteen thousand Turks had re-entered his territory, and were at a short dis- tance; at this news, he seemed to recover his former strength and warlike ardor, looked for his sword, and giving his orders to the little army which always accompanied him, waited for the result of the battle, until, hearing the glad sounds of victory, he fell back upon his bed and calmly expired, at the age of sixty-three, on the seventeenth of January, 1467. His death proved an irreparable misfortune for his faithful subjects, who, deprived of their invincible leader, could no longer resist the overwhelming forces of the Ottomans. Hence nothing could be more just and proper than the deep and general affliction caused by the loss of this hero; even his charger is said to have shed tears over him, and, by refusing to take his food, to have died of grief three days after his noble and justly lamented master. The Turks themselves, to whom he had been so formidable an. enemy during life, were not the least zealous in honoring his memory. They not only touched his coffin with a kind of religious veneration, but having obtained some parcels of his bones, had them 29* 342 MODERN HISTORY. Part V i enshrined in silver or gold, to be carried in battles, as a sure pledge, they imagined, of safety and victory. There indeed appeared in Scanderbeg something almost above hu- man nature; and it is certain that very few generals have been equal to him in firmness of mind, strength of body, heroic valor and bril- liant success. He gained twenty-two victories over the Ottomans, whilst they were in the height of their power and under the most terrible of their sultans ; and having with his own sword, slain about two thousand of them in different engagements, he was but once slightly wounded. Mahomet, imagining that there was perhaps some- thing marvellous in his cimeter, desired to see it; but not having found the famous weapon what he thought it to be, he returned it with a sort of contempt. "I sent my cimeter to the sultan," said the Al- banian prince, " but not tlje hand which knows how to wield it in battle." Nearly the whole life of Scanderbeg was a series of wonderful ac- tions, the offspring of the noblest feelings. He not only displayed the intrepidity of a warrior, and the talents of a consummate general, but also practised the social and Christian virtues in a high degree of perfection. Most historians represent him as the mildest of men ; and yet, such was the struggle within him, whenever he met with great opposition, that his lower lip would split and bleed ; whence we may conclude that, as he was naturally much inclined to anger, his great mildness must have been the effect of a sublime virtue, and of an extraordinary violence which he offered to himself. This self control, united with the highest degree of military heroism, ought to excite universal admiration for Scanderbeg, and moreover convince every one that the spirit of the true religion, instead of debasing the soul and weakening its energy, as some impious men falsely assert, is, on the contrary, the source of the purest sentiments and noblest actions of which man is capable. Besides the striking examples of Scanderbeg and Hunniades, another evidence of this truth will be seen in the illustrious Peter d'Aubusson, who was also raised up by the Almighty as a rampart to his people, against the invading power of Mahomet. III. MAHOMET AND PETER D'AUBUSSON. A. D. 1476-1481. THE sultan was incensed against the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, for the severe losses which they daily inflicted on his commerce, his navy, and his maritime provinces. The storm was now preparing to burst upon them; and the Grand- Master, Peter *. D. 1476-1481. MAHOMET AND P. D ? AUBUSSOJN r . 343 d'Aubusson, had scarcely completed his preparations to oppose a vigorous resistance, when, in the spring of the year 1480, the island of Rhodes, the principal residence of the order, was attacked by a fleet of one hundred and sixty vessels, and one hundred thousand men destined to fight on land. That powerful armament at once di- rected all its efforts against the capital city of the island, whose walls were, during three months, battered by pieces of ordnance similar to those which had destroyed the ramparts of Constantinople. But all this proved no match for Peter d'Aubusson and his intrepid knights; besides their cannons, they used against the Ottoman artillery a for- midable engine, which by violently hurling enormous stones and fragments of rocks, caused frightful ravages in the camp of the be- siegers. Scarcely a day passed without an assault from the Turks or a sally from the garrison ; and in every engagement the advantage, although without a decisive result, was on the side of the Rhodians. As the wall, however, had been, in many parts, thrown down by the continual firing of the cannon, the commander of the Turkish army, Bashaw Misach Paleologus, a Greek renegado, led his troops to a general assault. He indeed conducted it with great ability and bravery ; but to his great disappointment, the defence was not less vigorous than the attack. The Grand-Master displayed on this oc- casion a presence of mind, a magnanimity and courage seldom equalled, never surpassed. Neither the combined efforts of twelve Janizaries who fell desperately upon him during the conflict, nor ex- cess of fatigue, nor five large wounds which he received, could in- duce him to withdraw for a single moment from the perilous post which his valor had selected. So noble an example inspired his knights with fresh ardor; all seemed transformed into so many un- daunted heroes, anxious to save their magnanimous prince, or to perish with him on the field of battle. After a tremendous fight, the assailants were repulsed at all points from the breach, and leaving several thousand slain around the walls of the city, they fled to their vessels and reembarked in terror arid despair. The Grand-Master, covered with his own blood and with that of his enemies, was conveyed to his palace, where his wounds were dressed. He happily recovered in a short time; and as soon as he was able to walk, repaired to the church to give solemn thanks to the God of hosts for the splendid victory which he had gained. His next care was to bestow rewards on those of his soldiers and knights who had evinced the greatest courage in the time of danger; and, in order to give proper relief to the poor inhabitants of the country, whose property had been laid waste by the Turks, he maintained them until the following harvest, and relieved them for many years from the taxes which they paid before the invasion. It was in those 344 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI. and in the like laudable occupations that P. d'Aubusson spent the re- mainder of his life. When he felt himself attacked by a mortal dis ease, he was not in the least disturbed at the sight of approaching death, bat encountered it on the bed of sickness with the same tran- quillity with which he had so often faced it amidst the greatest perils of war. He died at the age of eighty, justly venerated and esteemed throughout the whole world as one of the most illustrious Grand- Masters of the order of St. John, one of the ablest generals of his age, the delight and pattern of his fellow-knights, the father of the poor, the deliverer of Rhodes, the sword and shield of Christendom, a model as well of sincere piety as of intrepid valor. Far different was the sultan of the Turks. This haughty monarch had been exasperated by the disaster of his army in the island of Rhodes, and in his fury 'he swore vengeance against the Christians. The city of Otranto, on the shore of the Adriatic, being already oc- cupied by his troops, who had taken and plundered it in August 1480, extraordinary preparations were commenced for fresh inva- sions, and new calamities threatened Italy, Rhodes and other states, wheh a violent disease suddenly put an end to both the life and the projects of the Mussulman Attila (A. D. 1481). He had reigned thirty, and lived about fifty-two years. The Turks, on account of his talents and extensive conquests, place him in the first rank of their sovereigns ; Gibbon and Voltaire praise him as a magnanimous prince: but all who know that there is no true greatness without virtue, and are aware of the many acts of insatiable ambition, per- fidiousness and barbarity with which the whole of Mahomet's life was sullied, cannot but consider him as a scourge of humanity and a very monster. Dissensions which arose between his sons, and en- gaged all their attention, left the greater part of Europe in peace for many years. CONTEST OF THE HOUSES OF LANCASTER AND YORK IN ENGLAND. A. D. 14551485 ENGLAND, although not attacked by foreign enemies, still continued in a state of considerable agitation, the causes and progress of which will now be more fully related. King Henry VI was a prince of virtu- ous disposition and inoffensive character, but had always exhibited great weakness of mind in his government, and such a want of resolu- tion as encouraged some of his relatives to endeavor to deprive him of his crown. At their head was Richard, duke of York, the first prince of tiie blood, who, by his mother, stood one degree nearer to A. D. 145^1485. CONTEST, ETC. 345 the throne than the house of Lancaster; he possessed those talents which render the leader of a party extremely dangerous, and exer- cised great influence over the principal nobility of England. Unfortunately, at this time, there existed great discontent against the court, on account of the ill success of the last war in France for the recovery of Guienne. The artful duke was careful to encour- age the public opinion, at first secretly, afterwards more openly, as soon as circumstances permitted him to do so without peril. At length, he raised troops, for the purpose, he said, of reforming the government, and boldly taking the field, defeated the royalists at St. Albans, and took the king prisoner (A. D. 1455). This important prize, still more than the victory itself, served admirably well the ambitious views of Richard, and enabled him, in leaving to his royal captive the insignia of royalty, to assume with impunity the govern- ment of the realm. The battle of St. Albans was the first in that awful and unnatural struggle, which armed the rival houses of Lancasler and York against each other, made Great Britain one extensive theatre of atrocities, was signalized by twelve pitched battles, cost the lives of more than a hundred thousand men with eighty princes of the blood, and almost completely annihilated the ancient nobility of England. It was pro- longed by the obstinate valor of both parties, and by the great ability of their leaders. Besides Duke Richard, the chief commanders of the Yorkists were his son Edward, whose military skill was superior even to that of his father, and, during a certain time, the intrepid earl of Warwick, surnamed the maker and destroyer of kings. The real head of the Lancastrians was queen Margaret, a princess of masculine courage and wonderful constancy, which she displayed in the most distressing circumstances that can perhaps ever befall a queen, a wife and a mother. This fatal and sanguinary contest is well known under the deno- mination of the two roses, from the white rose, the distinctive badge of the house of York, and the red rose, that of the Lancastrian family. Various were the alternations of success; and King Henry VI fre- quently passed from the state of a sovereign to that of a captive, and again changed his prison for the throne. His partisans seemed to prevail in 1460, when, being strongly upheld by the queen, they gained at Wakefield a signal victory against the duke of York, who, with many of his followers, lost his life in the conflict. But this success of the royal cause was not of long duration. Prince Edward not only retrieved the losses and fully repaired the defeat of his party, but even marched to London and caused himself to be proclaimed king without further delay. Returning to the noithern counties, he overtook the Lancastrians near Towton, and completely defeated 346 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI. them, after a most furigus and obstinate conflict, which cost the lives of thirty-eight thousand combatants (A. D. 1461). This battle -was decisive against the royalists. The unfortunate Henry fled to Scotland for refuge; but his queen and his son had to encounter very strange adventures. On one occasion, as the young prince and his mother were crossing a mountainous district, they were surprised by a troop of banditti, who stripped them of their money, jewels and other articles, of value. It is probable that they concealed their quality ; otherwise, such distinguished captives would have been more carefully guarded. The ruffians began to quarrel about the division of the booty; menaces were uttered, and swords drawn; when Margaret, watching her opportunity, grasped her son by the arm, and plunged into the thickest part of the wood." She had not proceeded far, when another robber made his appearance. The queen, with the intrepidity of despair, advanced to meet him, and taking young Edward by the hand, "Friend," she said, "I intrust to you the stin of your king." These words so moved the robber, that he took them both under his protection, and conducted them to a place of safety. How desperate soever the cause of the red rose might now appear, the courage and spirit of Margaret were not yet subdued. Indefati- gable in her exertions, she frequently crossed the sea, in order to obtain foreign assistance, and often re-appeared at the head of her partisans in England. Her hopes were cheered by a temporary- gleam of success, particularly in the year 1470, when, by the secession of the earl of Warwick from the Yorkist to the Lancastrian side, and by the sudden, though momentary flight of King Edward, Henry VI was once more replaced upon the British throne. But no later than the following year 1471, the fatal battles of Barnet and Tewkesbury for ever blasted the fruit of so many efforts. The unfortunate mo- narch again fell into the hands of his implacable enemies, was again recommitted to the tower, and shortly after deprived of life. His royal consort, and his son, then eighteen years of age, being now destitute of all resources, were also taken prisoners. The young prince was immediately led to the conqueror's tent; and, having been asked the reason of his appearance at the head of an army, replied with equal boldness and candor: "To preserve my father's crown and my own inheritance." Edward, enraged at this answer, bru- tally struck him on the face with his gauntlet; and the assistants imitating his barbarity despatched him with their swords. As to Margaret, after having supported to the end the cause of the Lancas- trian family, and having outlived her fortune, her friends, her hus- band and her son, she was ransomed for fifty thousand crowns, and died in France a few years after. A. D. 1479-1492. FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. 347 Edward IV remained in the undisturbed possession of the English crown: but, after his death, which happened in the year 1483, dis- sensions again disturbed the peace of the royal family. Of his two next successors, Edward V, his son, and Richard III, his brother, the former was dethroned, imprisoned and put to death by the latter, a faithless and ferocious prince, who did not long enjoy the fruit of his detestable ambition. Notwithstanding all the precautions of his artful and tyrannical policy, a strong party was formed in favor of another rival, Henry Tudor, earl of Richmond, member of the house of Lan- caster by a collateral and female line. A single battle fought at Bos- worth in the year 1485, decided the important quarrel; Richard lost his life, and the victorious army presently proclaimed his rival king of England under the name of Henry VII. The title of this prince was afterwards confirmed by an act of parliament ; and his marriage with Elizabeth the heiress of the house of York, uniting together the claims of both families, put an end to the protracted feuds of the Plantagenets, and to the civil war which had deluged England with blood during the space of thirty years. FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. FINAL OVERTHROW OF THE MOORS IN SPAIN. A. D. 14791492. AT this period, Isabella, princess of Castile, who succeeded her brother Henry IV on the throne in 1474, married Ferdinand of Arra- gon, who inherited the crown of his father Juan II, in 1479. This marriage permanently cemeated the chief states of Christian Spain in one extensive empire. The Spanish monarchy became thus, almost on a sudden, more respectable and powerful than it had been ever since the flourishing times of the Visigoths. This however was owing less perhaps to the fortunate union of the two crowns in one family, than to the uncommon ability and perfect accord with which Ferdinand and Isabella governed their dominions. By vigorous enactments and still more vigorous measures, they checked the tor- rent of disorders and crimes to which the preceding civil wars had given rise; destroyed the castles and fortresses from which restless lords issued forth to infest all the country round; revoked the grant of gratuities, that exhausted the public treasury ; rescued the people from the oppression of the nobles ; and subjected the nobles them- selves to the control of the royal authority. It was at this epoch (A. D. 1480) that they established in Spain the famous, and, we may add, the so much and yet so little known tribunal of the Inquisition.* * See note K. 348 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI In the mean time, the Moors having, notwithstanding the existing truce, imprudently recommenced hostilities, Isabella and Ferdinand conceived the just and glorious design of annihilating their power in the peninsula. Hitherto, these sworn enemies of the Christian name had maintained themselves in the southern provinces, and, though they had gradually lost an immense portion of their territory, they still remained masters of the flourishing kingdom of Granada, which contained a great number of fortified places and three millions of inhabitants. But the time had now come, when, after a struggle of nearly eight centuries against the Christians, they were to be stripped of their last possession in Spain. The two sovereigns skilfully took advantage of the imprudent step of the Mussulmans and of the bloody factions which l>egan to prevail- among their princes; they declared war against them, and prosecuted it with vigor. During the space of eight years (1482 1490), the different towns and fortresses of the kingdom of Granada fell successively into the hands of the Castilians, and there remained, in 1491, only its capital to be subdued. This was, it is true, a very difficult and perilous attempt. Two mighty fortresses, a thousand towers, walls of prodigious size, and thirty thousand warriors defended that superb capital. But all these obstacles did not deter Ferdinand and Isabella from pursuing their favorite plan with wonderful activity ; and Granada was invested by a gallant army of fifty thousand men, whom the presence of their sovereigns stimulated with unconquerable ardor, patience and con- stancy. In that siege, the Spaniards neither made use of artillery, nor attempted an assault, their only object being to reduce the city by famine, and repel the sallies of the garrison. During six months, the spot between Granada and the Spanish camp was a theatre of almost continual skirmishes, and innumerable exploits were per- formed by the knights of both parties; but never could the Moors bring their opponents to a general engagement. Ferdinand was too prudent to expose the issue of an expedition in which he was nearly certain of success, to the hazard of a battle: he contented himself with protecting his troops by solid entrenchments; and then, to let the Moors fully understand his fixed determination to conquer Gra- nada, he built, at the suggestion of Isabella, in the place of the en- campment, a regular city with its houses and streets, under the name of Santa Fe, a name which it still retains. The inhabitants of Granada, and Boabdil, their king, were driven to despair, when they beheld the unshaken resolution of an enemy who spared neither time, nor expense, nor fatigue, to attain his object. The first pangs of starvation, and the fear of still greater evils in future, induced them to enter into a negotiation with the besiegers. A. D. 1479 -1492. FERDINAND AND ISABELLA. 349 Having obtained a truce for two months,, dunng which no opportu- nity presented itself of averting their impending ruin, they finally consented, under the condition of mild and honorable treatment, to surrender into the hands of the Castilian sovereigns. Isabella and Ferdinand took possession of Granada in the begin ning of the year 1492, after having granted to Boabdil extensive estates and an annual income of fifty thousand ducats in exchange for his kingdom. Notwithstanding these advantages, the unhappy monarch could not leave his capital without shedding a flood of tears; and when he gazed at it for the last time from the summit of a neigh- boring hill, he repeatedly exclaimed : " O splendid city ! O Lord God of hosts! What misfortunes have ever been equal to mine!" Upon which, his mother ironically said to him : " You do well to lament, like a woman, the loss of a kingdom which you did not know how to defend like a man." Being soon disgusted with his new situation, he, after the example of his uncle El Zagal, who had long contended with him for the crown, sold his estates to Ferdi- nand, and passed over to Africa, where, having lived twenty years longer, he was at last killed in a battle fought by the king of Fez against the sovereign of Morocco. The other Moors, besides the king and his attendants, had also, with due proportion, obtained valuable advantages from their new sovereigns. By the treaty of peace, they were allowed either to retire to the African continent with their families and riches, or to stay in the peninsula, with privileges scarcely inferior to those enjoyed by the Spaniards, and such as induced great numbers to remain. Unhappily, the course of time showed their submission not to be very sincere and constant; and experience taught the Spanish go- vernment the necessity of adopting severer measures to check their present, and hinder their future rebellions. In fine, towards the year 1609, some proofs having been obtained that they were planning a general insurrection, they were expelled from the Spanish territories by an edict of King Philip III, those only being excepted who had become sincere Christians, and whose descendants still subsist in the southern districts of Spain. The wonderful abilities of Isabella and Ferdinand had founded on a permanent basis the greatness of the Spanish monarchy ; by the conquest of Granada, it was raised to an eminent degree of splendor; and, within a few years, a variety of other successful events gave it that mighty preponderance, which it enjoyed in Europe during this and the two following reigns. 30 350 MODERN HISTORY. Fart VL. REMARKS ON THE DISCOVERIES MADE DURING THE SIXTH PERIOD OF MODERN HISTORY. BEFORE we leave this period, we will make some remarks on the important discoveries in which it abounds. The celebrated Roger Bacon, an Englishman, who flourished towards the end of the thirteenth century, is said to have prepared the way for the invention of gun powder; but the invention itself is more generally ascribed to Schwartz, a German, who lived at the same time, or shortly after. The use of that composition produced a material change in military tactics, cannon and musketry gradually taking the place of bows, catapults, balisters, battering rams, and other warlike engines. During the course of the fifteenth century, the application of artillery to the different parts of warfare, sieges, naval combats, etc., became general among civili/ed nations; and it is a remarkable fact that, from that time, battles have been less cruel and bloody than they were during the foregoing ages.* * We do not read or hear of any combat having been, ever since the uni- versal adoption of gun-powder, half so bloody as many were before, v g. the battles of Ancyra (A. D. 1402), Tarifa (1340), Murandal (1212), Tours (732), Chalons (451), all which have been mentioned in this his- tory; and, in more remote ages, the battles of Arbela (B. c. 331) and Pla- tea (B. c. 479), said to have cost the lives of nearly three hundred thou- sand Persians ; and particularly the awful fight of the kings of Juda and Israel, Abia and Jeroboam (B. c. 958), in which, according to the unex- ceptionable account of the sacred writer, there fell, on the part of the Is- raelites alone, five hundred thousand men slain or wounded (II Paral. xiii, 17) ; whereas, in the most terrible battles of latter times, v. g. Austerlitz, Jena, Leipzic, Waterloo, the actual loss of the vanquished hardly exceeded thirty or forty thousand. Reason itself, if we reflect ever so little, confirms our assertion concern- ing the great difference to be remarked between recent and ancient battles. It is manifest, all other circumstances being equal, that armies fighting at a distance with cannon and musketry, are not exposed to so shocking a mode of spilling blood, nor to such cruel animosity, nor to such terrible destruc- tion, as when fighting hand to hand with swords, spears and battle-axes For, in the first case, besides the length of time required to fix the bat- teries, and the vast number of shots which miss their object, if either of the two armies begins to suffer too severely, it may, generally speaking, avoid furlher destruction, by retiring beyond the reach of the enemy's guns In the second case, the hostile troops being frequently within the reach of the sword, and, as it were, mingled together, a dreadful slaughter must un- avoidably follow, both during the regular fight, and also after it, owing to the closeness of the pursuit. To these facts and reflections we cannot reasonably oppose the frightful disaster of the French army in Russia (A. D. 1812), because it was the effect of a whole campaign, not of a single battle, and of intense cold, want of food, and the crossing of difficult rivers, more than of the Russian can- REMARKS ON THE DISCOVERIES, ETC. 351 In 1410, painting in oil was invented at Bruges, by John Van- Eyck. To the year 1417 is referred by some the useful invention of making paper from linen rags. A still more important invention was that of the art of printing, the authors of which, according to the more common opinion of learned men, were Faust, Schceffer and Guttemberg, at Mentz, about tne year 1440.* It was soon followed by engraving and etching on copper. Towards 1470 post-horses were established by King Louis XL In fine, the last years of this age were signalized by the discovery of America, and that of the passage of the cape of Good Hope to the East Indies; two events of paramount importance, an account of which belongs to the seventh part of Modern History. non. The only plausible objection perhaps that can be made against our view of the subject, is, that gun-powder being a powerful means of destruc- tion added to those which already existed, must consequently be reckoned a real and very great evil but it should also be remarked that it is rather a means which has superseded others that were more cruel, more bloody, and more dreadfully murderous both in public wars and private quarrels ; aud, since there have always been, and unfortunately always will be quarrels among individuals, and wars among nations, we are authorized to conclude that the invention of gun-powder, instead of being a great misfortune, as is commonly imagined, has been, on the contrary, a real and valuable service rendered to humanity. * The first printers carried their types about in bags, and printed small pamphlets, letters, etc., in noblemen's houses. The first entire book issued from their press, was the Psalter in Latin, printed at Mentz (A. D. 1457), of which there are yet two copies extant, one in the imperial library at Vienna in Austria; th'e other was bought by King Louis XVIII for the sum of 12,000 francs. A complete edition of the Bible in Latin, a copy of which was purchased by the same king for 20,000 francs, came out in two folio vols., also at Mentz (A. D. 1462). From that epoch, the progress of typography was so rapid, that, even before tbe close of the fifteenth cen- tury, a variety of editions of the Bible, and an incredible number of other useful books, were published in the different parts of Europe. It is certain that the art of printing, by removing for ever the evil of the scarcity of books, has been highly conducive to the greater diffusion of religious truth and literary instruction ; but, alas ! it has also become a powerful vehicle of error, incredulity, sophisms, immorality, infamous and slanderous tales, etc.; so apt are men to abuse the very best th>ngs which lie within their reach. Indeed, what can be more deplorable than to see the vast number of irreligious, impious, and scandalous productions of every kind and every size, with which the world is deluged ? However, since the abuse of any good art or object does not detract from its intrinsic value, the application of the art of 'printing to matters of this description cannot be a sufficient motive to inveigh against the art itself, and we ought rather gratefully to consider it as a gift of Divine Providence, intended to be, aa it really has been, one of the chief instruments towards completing the re- vival of science and letters, and securing the triumph of the true religion over error and infidelity. PART VII. THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA (A. D. 1492), TO THE TREATT Of VERSAILLES OR PARIS, IN WHICH THE INDEPENDENCE OF THE U1CI- TED STATES WAS SOLEMNLY AND UNIVERSALLY ACKNOWLEDGED (A. D. 1783). PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS ON AMERICA. IT is a well founded opinion that America was known to some among the nations of antiquity, particularly the Egyptians and Car- thaginians. Besides the mention made by Plato, in his dialogues, and the description ascribed to Solon, of the great island Atlantis, whose existence and identity with the American continent may be called in question; there is in Seneca's Medea a passage showing that the ancients had truly the notion of an extensive portion of the world, which, though separated from them by the ocean, might be dis- covered in aftertimes.* Above all, a very ancient author, who is commonly supposed to be Aristotle, expressly affirms that the Car- thaginians, in one of their maritime excursions, discovered a vast and beautiful land, far beyond the straits of Hercules (Gibraltar) ; but that the senate, for fear of depopulating the republic, forbade other ships to go thither, and endeavored to suppress the notice of the discovery.f Whatever may be said on this point, the population of Americs itself and its descent from the inhabitants of the old world, form no longer a difficulty among learned men, and are satisfactorily ac- counted for in many different ways. * Venient annis secula seris, Quibus oceanus vincula rerum Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus, Tethysque novos detegat orbes, Nee erit terris ultima Thole. Medea, dd. n. f See, on this interesting subject, Univcrs. Hist. vol. xxx. pp. 142 186, and vol. cxiv. p. 5. of the Introduct. to the History of Jlmerica ; also BibU, v engee de Duclot, vol. i, Observations preliminaires ; Dr. Wiseman, Leo tures on the connexion between science and revealed religion* pp. 82 86. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 353 The first is that of a regular and bold navigation, by steering either westward from the coasts of Africa through the Atlantic, like the Carthaginians,' several of whom, according to the ancient author just quoted, remained in the fertile and extensive country which they had discovered or from the northwest of Europe, through Greenland or from the eastern shores of Asia, viz. Japan, by the long and almost uninterrupted series of islands in the Pacific Ocean. This seems particularly to have been the course followed by the ancestors of the Peruvians and Mexicans; for, besides the wise conjectures of Hornius in his work de Origine Gent. American, and the solid proofs adduced by Mr. de Guisgnes in the Hist oi-y of the Huns and Researches on the Chinese navigation; there exists so striking a coincidence of monuments, hieroglyphic figures, strange customs, and arbitrary signs for the computation of time, between the Peruvians and Mexi- cans on one side, and the Egyptians, Thibetans and Moguls on the other, as to leave no doubt with regard to the identical origin of the nations of both continents, and the direction taken by the migratory colonies in their passage from one country to the other. A still easier means of communication between the two continents, was to cross, with boats in summer, and upon the ice in winter, the narrow strait of Behring, which separates North America from the north-east of Asia. That this means was really resorted to, must appear evident to every one from the innumerable marks of resem- blance in color, size, constitution, manners, etc., between the inhabi- tants of the opposite shores of North America and Asia. Not long since, two learned travellers, Steller and Kracheninnikow, proved this truth to a high degree of certainty in the first volume of the His- tory of Kamtschatka. In fine, strong winds and tempests have been also justly reckoned among the very probable causes of the population of America, par- ticularly of the eastern parts of South America. How often, during the course of ages, may not ships have been surprised by storms, and driven from the coasts of Europe or Africa to the American shores'? Nor is this gratuitously supposed; it seems rather to rest on well authenticated facts. When Alvarez Cabral, the Portuguese admiral, was going from Portugal to the East Indies, in the year 1 500, his fleet was hurried by a furious tempest, across the Atlantic, to the coasts of Brazil, of which he took possession in the name of his sovereign ; so that the New World would have become known in consequence of this accident, had it not been discovered eight years before by the genius of Columbus. In 1731, a boat carrying six men was driven in the same direction from the Canary islands to the mouth of the river Orinoco; the men were still alive, although 30* 354 MODERN HISTORY. Part m nearly starved. Is it not reasonable to believe that similar causes may have occasionally produced similar effects in preceding ages? Thus is the population of America in its close connexion with the inhabitants of the old world, easily and in many ways ex- plained. But, like many ancient nations shortly after the deluge, most of the American tribes were, at the time of their discovery, totally uncivilized, the only exception found by the Europeans being that of the empires of Mexico and Peru ; and even this Mexican and Peruvian civilization was, on several accounts, very imperfect, nor can it be traced farther back than three or four centuries. Yet, they had preserved the remembrance of some religious truths, v. g. of the immortality of the soul, and of a deluge which destroyed all mankind, except one family who repeopled the earth. This is a new evidence of the identity of origin that links together all the branches of the human family, and of their descent from one com- mon stock, as the Scripture asserts (Acts, xvii. 26 ; Rom. v. 12; etc.) DISCOVERY OF AMERICA CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. A. D 14921506. THE great man whose life connects the history of the ancient continent with that of the new, Christopher Columbus, was born of a wool -comber, at or near Genoa, probably in 1441. From his child- hood, he manifested a strong propensity for voyages, and, as soon as he was able, indulged it by partaking in the maritime expeditions of the Genoese his countrymen. In this employment, his natural genius acquired that practical knowledge and fertility of resource, that undaunted resolution and vigilant self-command for which he was afterwards so remarkable. Success increased his inclination for a nautical career, and existing circumstances gave it a peculiar direc- tion, which finally led to the discovery of America. About this time the Portuguese endeavored to find out a passage to the East Indies by coasting along the shores of Africa. Though they advanced but slowly, their attempts and their discoveries suggested to the mind of Columbus a still bolder idea: the study of both the ancient and recent geographical maps, together with the knowledge of the sphericity of the earth, led him to believe that, by steering directly to the west, across the Atlantic, one might easily reach the Asiatic continent. This theory included indeed a partial mistake, in as much as Columbus had not formed a correct estimate of the size of our globe, nor of the distance of the eastern extremity of Asia *. D. 1492-1506. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, ETC. 355 from the west of Europe; but the principal idea was not, on that account, less worthy of a great and mighty genius. A variety of circumstances concurred to impress his theory more and more upon his mind. Reeds of an extraordinary size, and such as were said to grow only in India, floated to the Azore islands from the west; pieces of wood carved in an unusual manner, and trees of an unknown species had been lately found drifting from the same quarter; above all, a canoe, driven by westerly winds, had been seen carrying the dead bodies of two men, whose features differed from those of any known race of people. These, and other facts of a like nature, confirmed Columbus in his belief of the existence of undis- covered lands in the west. Having thus formed his theory, he determined to carry it himself into effect; but this required the co-operation of some princely power, and Columbus had the mortification to see his proposal of the noble undertaking rejected, with more or less contempt, by the republic of Genoa and by the court of Portugal, to which he successively applied. Even in Spain, where he met with a reception more farorable to his views, many -years elapsed in a course of fruitless negotiations and repeated disappointments, before obtaining the aid so earnestly desired. Indeed, having already despatched his brother Bartholomew to Eng- land, he himself was on the point of departing from Spain* when, at the representations of some zealous and influential persons, Isabella and Ferdinand at length consented to furnish him with three small vessels, and ninety mariners, who were joined by several private adventurers and servants, making the whole number about one hun- dred and twenty persons. It was with the help of this weak squad- ron, that Columbus undertook to brave the dangers of unknown seas, in order to execute one of the boldest designs ever conceived. On the third of August of the year 1492, having, with his officers and crew, prepared himself by religious exercises for the hazardous undertaking, he sailed from the harbor of Palos in Andalusia, under the royal commission which appointed him admiral of the new seas, and viceroy of the lands he was going to discover. He stopped for some weeks at the Canary islands, to repair his vessels and refresh their crews, and then steered directly west. A gentle breeze blowing from the east, speedily wafted them over a tranquil sea;* so that, at the end of four weeks more, they had come two thousand and two hundred miles. No land however yet appeared; and Co- lumbus had often to struggle against the murmurs and dismay of his companions, who loudly insisted on abandoning the voyage. Some even carried their mutiny so far as to propose in their meetings to throw him into the sea, and spread the report that he had fallen over- board while observing the stars with his astronomical instruments. 356 MODERN HISTORY. Partvir. Columbus, in order to pacify their clamors, had to use consummate prudence; he assured them that they would discover the land within the space of three days. That it was not distant he knew from many certain signs : e. g. birds and fish of such kinds as never go far from the shore, and also green branches, which were seen near the vessels as they advanced. The three days had not elapsed, before land was descried; and, a few hours after, on the twelfth of October, the crews disembarked, to the very great surprise of the harmless natives. The country thus discovered was called by its inhabitants Gwmahani, one of the Bahama islands. It would be difficult to conceive the respect which the Spaniards now manifested for the great man whom they so lately threatened with death; and still more so, to describe the feelings of Columbus himself at the sight of his happy discovery. As a memorial of the termination of those dangers from which he had been rescued, he gave the island the name of San-Salvador, and took possession of it for the Castilian sovereigns. Then again putting to sea, he disco- vered Cuba, and shortly after another extensive and beautiful island called Hayti, an Indian name it has resumed in these latter times, after having been successively called Hispaniola and San- Domingo. Every where, a fertile soil exhibited to the sight of the Spaniards produc- tions and animals unknown in Europe. In some places, gold was so abundant, that valuable pieces of it were easily obtained for little mirrots, small bells, and other trifles given in exchange, the simple and artless natives setting little value on that metal so much prized by other nations. Struck with astonishment at the dress, color and arms of the Spaniards, they took these new guests for so many super- natural beings descended from the sky, and accordingly received them with all imaginable kindness and respect. As Columbus always supposed that their country was the extremity of Eastern India, he gave them the name of Indians; an appellation which, notwithstand- ing the subsequent acknowledgment of the mistake, the aborigines ot the new world have hitherto retained. Columbus now thought of returning to Spain, that he might be th first to impart to the sovereigns the news of his success and discove- ries. One of his vessels having run aground, he used the remains of the wreck, with the consent of the Indians, to build a fort upon the shores of Hayti, and leaving in it forty of his companions, sailed for Europe in January, 1493. In the middle of the ocean the two re- maining vessels were assailed by so furious a tempest, that Colum- bus, abandoning all hope, wrote a hasty account of his voyage, and, having surrounded the paper with a waxed cloth, put the whole in a cask, which he threw into the sea, hoping that the waves might drive it to the land. Happily, this precaution proved unnecessary; t. D. 149a-l506. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA, ETC. 357 the storm abated, and, on the fifteenth of March, Columbus triumph- antly entered the harbor of Palos, from which he had sailed about seven months before. The fortunate admiral proceeded by land to the Spanish court, then at Barcelona; and, as a specimen of his important discoveries, offered to Isabella and Ferdinand a variety of golden ornaments and produc- tions of the new world. The sovereigns, in return, gave him every mark of regard and esteem, and confirmed his title of admiral and viceroy. After their example, the courtiers and lords seemed to vie with each other in bestowing upon him proofs of personal considera- tion. As, however, there are never wanting mean characters, jea- lous of the reputation of others, some persons of this description once publicly told him that, after all, he had not much reason to glory in the discovery of America, some little share of courage and a fortunate chance having been sufficient to bring the attempt to a successful issue. Columbus made no direct reply, but, taking an egg, invited the company to make it stand upon one end. As no one could do this, he struck the egg upon the table, so as to break the end, and left it standing on the broken part, showing, in this simple and plea- sant manner, that the most perplexing things may become the easiest to be done when we are once shown the way, but not before; and that such was exactly the case with regard to the attempt of going in search of unknown lands. The tidings of the great discovery made by Columbus rapidly spread throughout Europe, filling every one with astonishment, and diffu- sing among nations a lively spirit for maritime enterprise. The Span- ish sovereigns lost no time in taking means to secure their new ac- quisitions. A bull was obtained (rom Pope Alexander VI, granting them the investiture of all the land that had been or might be dis- covered in Western India, under the condition of planting and pro- pagating the Catholic faith among the inhabitants. But, lest the dis- coveries of the Spaniards should interfere with those of the Portu- guese, which had likewise been secured by a papal bull, an ideal line was drawn, by order of the pope, from the northern to the southern pole, a hundred degrees west of the Azores. AH land discovered to the west of this line was conceded to the crown of Spain ; all dis- covered in the opposite direction was to belong to Portugal.* In the mean time, great exertions were made in the Spanish ports to fit out a second expedition upon a larger scale. It consisted of seventeen ships, and about fifteen hundred persons, among whom there were laborers and artisans of all kinds intended for the projected colony, and twelve clergymen destined to impart religious instruction * See note L. 358 MODERN HISTORY. Part ViL to the natives. With these, Columbus sailed from Cadiz on the twenty-fifth of September, 1493, and had a favorable passage to Hayti; but his disappointment was very great to find there neither ihe fort which he had built, nor the forty men whom he had left for its defence. During his absence, their tyrannical and oppressive conduct provoked the hostility of the Indian population, who slew them and utterly demolished their fortress. The return of Columbus, his authority, his prudence and modera- tion, might have restored tranquillity in the island ; unfortunately the excellent views which he entertained, instead of being seconded by the zeal, were frequently opposed by the avarice, ambition and de- pravity of many ot his new companions. In spite of his measures, of the orders of the sovereigns, and of the remonstrances of zealous clergymen, the Indians were cruelly oppressed ; and the number of that unfortunate race daily decreased, from war, starvation and ill-treatment. Finding himself involved in difficulties, Columbus returned to Spain in 1495. His arrival at court easily dispelled the clouds which envy and calumny had thrown round his conduct and ad- ministration; but he now saw how much more he would have after- wards to endure from his enemies. It was only after two years of fresh disappointments and tedious expectation, that he succeeded in obtaining a squadron of six vessels for a new voyage. From various considerations, he was induced to steer more to the south than he had ever done before. This course led him to the mouth of the great river Orinoco, where he for the first time beheld the continent, on the first of August (A. D. 1498); a most interesting discovery, of the im- portance of which Columbus himself was little aware at the time, The continual dangers which he had to encounter in those un- known seas, together with a variety of other incidents, obliged him to hasten his return to Hispaniola, where he hoped to enjoy the rest he so much needed, before pursuing the great work of exploring the continent. But, while the admiral was thus undergoing all kinds of hardships for the service of Spain, the party of his enemies obtained the ascen- dency at court. Their charges against his administration were so continual, so artful and so numerous, that the Spanish sovereigns thought it proper to despatch a commissary to Hispaniola, for the purpose of investigating the real state of affairs. This commissary was Francisco de Bobadilla, an intelligent, but at the same time a passionate man. After his arrival at San-Domingo, he acted with so great a partiality, that, while he readily listened to the accusations of the rabble against Columbus, he refused to hear his defence, aud even went so far as to send him in chains to Europe (A. D. 1500). A. D. 1492-1506. DISCOVERY OF AMERICA^ ETC. 359 In Vi\e midst of these outrageous injuries heaped upon his cha- racter and person, Columbus displayed surprising magnanimity. When the vessel on which he embarked, put to sea, the captain, who was a man of feeling, wished to take off the fetters of the un- fortunate admiral; but he never would consent to it, and protested that he was resolved to wear them until they should be removed by the express command of his sovereigns. It is said that he ever after kept those chains hanging in his room, and gave orders that they should be buried with him, as a memorial of the ingratitude which the world returns for eminent services. The arrival of Columbus as a prisoner and a criminal, caused throughout Spain a general burst of indignation against his enemies. The king and queen disavowed the proceedings of Bobadilla, as con- trary to his instructions; they consoled the admiral by a most gracious reception, and promised to reinstate him in all his privileges and dig- nities. This, however, owing both to the untimely death of Isabella, and to the procrastinating policy of Ferdinand, never was effected. After all, temporal and mercenary considerations had but little weight with Columbus; nor could obstacles abate his zeal for useful discove- ries. Having obtained, after some delay, that a few vessels should be again placed at his disposal, he sailed once more from Cadiz, in the spring of 1502, accompanied by his youngest son Fernando, who afterwards wrote his father's life. Never had the admiral to suffer so much as in this his fourth and fast voyage; yet never did he evince more wonderful presence of mind and greater resources of genius. This appeared chiefly in the following occurrence. After a long and perilous cruise on the bois- terous gulfs near the isthmus of Panama, the shattered state of his vessels obliged him, on his return, to run them ashore on the coast of Jamaica, and to remain there for several months. At first, the Indians were eager to supply the Spaniards with provisions, which they exchanged for trifling objects; gradually their ardor subsided, and their useful visits became less and less frequent. The scarcity daily increased in the little camp; and all began to entertain horrible apprehensions of famine, when a most happy idea presented itself to the mind of Columbus. From his knowledge of astronomy, he ascertained that there would be, in three days, a total eclipse of the moon. He therefore sum- moned the principal caciques (Indian chieftains) to a conference, ap- pointing for it the day of the eclipse. When all were assembled, he first reproached them, through his interpreter, with their inhuman in- sensibility, and threatened them with the vengeance of the God of hea- ven, whom the Spaniards adored: as a token of this impending ven- geance, the moon, he said, would refuse its light to them on thai 360 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI I, very night. In fact, the eclipse commenced a few hours after, and struck terror and dismay into the hearts of the Indians. They fell at the feet of Columbus, and entreated him to ask pardon for them of the God of heaven, assuring him that they would thenceforth bring to the Spaniards whatever should be required. He feigned to yield with reluctance to their request, and, shutting himself up for some moments in his cabin, came out to them again, and said, that, under the strict condition of their future fidelity to their promises, he had obtained their pardon from the Almighty; in sign of which they would presently behold the light of the moon. The admiral, before speaking thus to them, had waited for the op- portune moment when the eclipse was about to terminate. The moon began to appear, and soon recovered all its brilliancy, to the inconceivable joy of the Indians, who were scarcely able, from ex- cess of astonishment, to testify their admiration, reverence and grati- tude for Columbus. They hastened to propitiate him with ijii'ts, and, from that time forward, not only supplied the Spaniards with abundance of provisions, but carefully avoided giving them the least displeasure. At last, two vessels arriving from Hispaniola, delivered the admiral with his companions from this perilous kind of exile, and conveyed them to a safer place. As soon as the state of his affairs permitted, he reernbarked for Spain, which, after a passage marked by new adventures, he reached on the 7th of November of the year 1504, with a constitution shattered by so long a series of anxieties, hardships and sufferings. About this time, Columbus lost his constant protectress, Queen Isabella, and, with her, every well founded hope of ever being rein- stated in his former dignities. It was in vain that he had more and more deserved the gratitude of the court by new services and disco- veries; in vain too, that he urged the execution of the royal promise; the politic Ferdinand always deferred, under various pretences: till the admiral, who had led since his return a lingering life, died at Valladolid, at the age of about sixty-five (A. D. 1506). His last suf- ferings were sanctified by his usual resignation, his last moments devoted to all the pious practices of religion, and his last words, those of the Royal Prophet, Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. Psalm xxx, 6. What has been already said of Columbus, clearly shows that he possessed all the characteristics of a truly great man a noble soul, a vast genius for discovery, and a surprising sagacity in finding out expedients and resources in the greatest dangers. His piety was genuine and fervent; his heart, benevolent and generous; and his con- duct, in unison with the feelings of his heart. Instead of ravaging the uewly found countries, like many of his contemporary discoverers. i. D 14-J7-1515. PORTUGUESE SEWLEMENTS. 301 who were intent only on immediate gain, he sought to colonize and cultivate them, to civilize the natives, and subject every thing to the control of law, order and religion. If the noble attempt failed, the whole history of this great man proves that the failure cannot be laid to his charge. When Columbus, by his death, ceased to excite the jealousy of the Spanish court, great honors were paid to his memory ; yet, he never obtained the recompense which he had best deserved, that of giving his name to the New World. His just claims were defeated, in this particular, by Amerigo Vespucci, a native of Florence, who in 1499 visited the same coast of Paria which Columbus had dis- covered in 1498, and publishing a relation of the important fact, as if he had first of all perceived the continent, caused it to be called America. But even admitting the merits of Vespucci, he cannot claim the honor of the discovery ; to him alone it belongs, who was the first to conceive, mature and execute the bold design of crossing an unknown ocean in search of a New World. PORTUGUESE SETTLEMENTS IN ASIA. A. D. 14971515. NUMEROUS expeditions followed the enterprise of Columbus. Most of them started from the harbors of Spain, and were conducted by Spanish adventurers eager to enrich or distinguish themselves by new and important discoveries; but others were also undertaken by foreign nations. About the same time that Columbus and Vespucci descried Terra Firma in the south, the celebrated navigator, Sebastian Cabot, sailing in the service of Henry VII, king of England, discovered and explored the coasts of the northern continent of America. Not long after, Canada and the river St. Lawrence were visited by James Car- tier and other French seamen ; but the Portuguese, by following a different direction, did something still more remarkable. In 1497, Vasco de Gama, sent by Don Emmanuel, king of Portugal, suc- ceeded in doubling the cape of Good Hope, and after a voyage of thirteen months arrived at the fertile shores of East India. During the ensuing years, the Portuguese made, throughout that extensive country, acquisitions and settlements nearly equal in value to those of the Spaniards in the New World. The East Indies had always held a conspicuous rank among the states of the Asiatic continent, and had been looked upon, from the time of the ancient Assyrians, Persians and Greeks, as an important and enviable country. At later periods, India witnessed frequent re- volutions, and was exposed to frightful calamities from the incursions 31 362 MODERN HISTORY. Parf VIL of the Saracen, Tartar and Mogul conquerors. Towards the epoch which now occupies our attention, and during the two following centuries, it comprised many independent states, the most powerful of which, and probably the most opulent in the world, was the empire of Hindostan, abounding in pearls, gold and silver, and enriched both by its commerce and the productions of the soil. Greater resistance was made by the Indians of Asia than by those of America to their European aggressors. It was only after many toils and hardships, after many struggles, battles and persever- ing efforts under the command of intrepid leaders, Gama, Cabral, Pacheco, and Albuquerque, that the Portuguese were enabled to establish settlements all along the Indian coast, at Goa, Cochin, Malacca, etc., and in various islands of the Southern ocean. Nor was their power throughout these countries of long duration, moi:t of their Asiatic possessions being soon wrested from them by tlitr Dutch and English, during the course of the seventeenth century. The Portuguese had also extended their commercial relations to the eastern extremities of Asia, as far as China and Japan. These coun- tries, although hitherto little known to the nations of Europe, were ancient and flourishing empires. The Chinese, particularly, claim a very high antiquity, their nation having been founded about two thousand ye^rs before the coming of our Lord, and governed, since that remote period, by two hundred and forty emperors, of twenty- two different families. Still their history, with respect to the ages preceding the epoch of their great legislator Confucius (towards the year 500 B. c.), is involved in obscurity. China is the most populous empire in the world, containing nearly three hundred millions of inhabitants, and several cities, if not supe- rior, at least equal in extent to the largest among the European and American cities. The established religion is a mixture of theism and idolatry; there are also Mahometans and Jews, though in small numbers. In the seventeenth century, Christianity obtained nurnrr- ous proselytes among the Chinese, under their celebrated emperor Kang-hi; but since that time, the Christians have been always harassed and persecuted with more or less rigor. The northern frontier of this extensive region is protected by a wall twenty-four feet high, thirty or forty feet thick, and fifteen hundred miles long, crossing not only valleys and mountains, but even rivers, over which it passes in the form of bridges. Its gates and towers are almost every where of a colossal size, and defended by numerous troops. It was built two thousand years ago, as a defence against the Tartars, whom it did not however prevent from twice invading and subduing China, first under Genghis-Kan and his sons, and in the seventeenth century. *. D. 1437-1515. PORTUGUESE SETTLEMENTS. 363 The Chinese are generally witty and polite, intelligent and indus- trious, but only to a certain degree; and they are vain-glorious, self- conceited, and excessively prepossessed in favor of their nation. Although great lovers of architecture, mechanics, painting, astro- nomy, natural philosophy, etc., they advance but little in these various departments of the arts and sciences. They could not conceal their surprise and jealousy, when the Jesuit missionaries appeared two hundred years ago in China, at seeing those foreigners much more versed than themselves in all the branches of mathematics and natural history. Even the knowledge and use of the mariner's compass, of printing, of gun-powder and artillery, which they seem to have pos- sessed before our European ancestors, have always been among them in a state of comparative imperfection. Their armies, how numerous soever, scarcely deserve the name of a military force, and their vessels that of a navy; whilst, in point of morality, their inhuman treatment of infants, their want of uprightness towards foreigners, their pride, and other vices, place them far below most other nations. Japan is likewise a civilized and mighty empire, consisting of many islands, not far from the eastern part of Asia. The revenue and* forces of the empire are immense, the former being, it is said, nearly two hundred millions of dollars, the latter amounting, if re- quired, to four hundred thousand infantry and sixty thousand cavalry. The government is absolute and despotic; very little otherwise is known of this nation, owing to the jealousy with which foreigners are excluded. Towards the middle of the sixteenth centu/y, St. Francis Xavier and other zealous missionaries preached the gospel in Japan with such wonderful success, that, half a century later (in 1605), it contained no less than eighteen hundred thousand Christians. Unfortunately, at that time, powerful and profligate princes undertook to destroy this illustrious portion of the Church, and succeeded in the impious at- tempt. A dreadful persecution arose, which shed torrents of Chris- tian blood in various provinces of the empire ; nor did it cease until there remained no more victims to be immolated by the sword of the persecutors. From that epoch, the avenues of Japan have been closed against foreigners, and the Dutch are the only Europeans admitted into one of its harbors for the purposes of trade. \ \ 364 MODERN HISTORY. Part VII DECLINE OF THE ITALIAN REPUBLICS, WARS FOR THE POSSESSION OF ITALY. CARDINAL XIMEJNES. POPE LEO X. A. D. 14941517. THE discovery of America and of the passage of the cape of Good Hope, whilst it proved of the greatest advantage to Spain and Por- tugal, naturally occasioned the decline of the Italian republics. Up to this period, foreign commerce had been mostly in the hands of the Venetians, Genoese, and other maritime nations of Italy, who, from the shores of the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas, communicated with the Red sea through the Isthmus of Suez, anJ thus could carry on trade with all the nations of the East. The two great events just mentioned gave a new direction to the ideas, projects and commerce of the European nations; and Venice, with the other commercial states of the peninsula, saw her traffic decline in proportion as Portu- gal and Spain increased in wealth and power. Another and a still heavier calamity that afflicted Italy at this period, was the almost uninterrupted series of bloody wars in which it was involved during a great number of years. The first occasion of these calamities was the envied possession of the kingdom of Naples. Since 1443, it had been under the princes of the house of Arragon; but the French monarchs looked with a jealous eye at that beautiful country, which had once belonged to princes of their family. King Charles VJII, the successor of Louis XI whose whole reign had been spent in endeavoring to weaken the power of the great vassals of the crown, undertook to reconquer Naples in 1494. He executed his design in the beginning of the following year, but soon lost all his conquests. The Italian princes had now united against him, and, although he gloriously repelled them in the battle of For- novo, the only advantage he derived from this victory was to save the remains of his army, and return without further obstacle to France. A second expedition for the same purpose took place in 1503, under Louis XII, successor of Charles VIII. It was attended wiih similar circumstances and exactly the same result as the first: great success in the beginning, followed by great disasters in the end ; at first, repeated advantages obtained over the Neapolitan army by the French troops, and afterwards their own signal defeats at Cerignola, Garigliano, etc., by the Spanish commander, Gonzales of Cordova, surnamed the great general. A treaty almost entirely to the advan- tage of Spain, was then concluded between the rival powers, and terminated these contests for the kingdom of Naples. A. D. 1*4-1517. DECLINED ETC. 365 But there were not wanting other motives or pretences for renew- ing the war. In 1508, a powerful league was formed at Cambray between the emperor of Germany, the kings of France and Arragon, and some other sovereigns, against the republic of Venice, whose pretensions and conquests had provoked their anger,, or awakened their jealousy. None of the confederates acted with as much vigor as Louis XII, and none derived less advantage from the defeat of the Venetians. His very exploits and his brilliant victory at Agnadel (A. D. 1509), having soon rendered him an object of alarm to the other princes, the league turned against him; and the French, not- withstanding their new and bloody victory at Ravenna, where they lost their young heroic leader, the duke of Nemours (A. D. 1512), were again expelled from Italy. France itself was invaded, on one side by the Swiss, who, having conquered the duke of La Tremoille, at Novara, advanced into Bur- gundy as far as Dijon; on the other, by the emperor Maximilian and Henry VIII, king of England, whose combined armies gained the battle of Guingamp, also called the battle cf Spurs, because in it the French cavalry used their spurs more than their weapons. In fine, the king of Scotland, James IV, an ally of France, was also defeated by the English at Flodden-nVld, where he lost his life in the conflict (A. D. 1513). The conquerors however made but little progress, and Louis happily succeeded in making the,m consent to a truce, which afforded him some respite. He died at this juncture, without male issue, and was succeeded on the throne by his cousin, the earl of Angouleme, who took the name of Francis I. This new monarch, being in the flower of his age, resolved to conduct the war with fresh vigor. He therefore crossed the Alps at the head of a gallant army, and pressed forward till he was attacked by the Swiss near Marignan, on the 13th of September, 1515. These brave highlanders had neither cavalry nor artillery, and yet fought with the most undaunted courage. Notwithstanding the dreadful havoc which the cannon made among them, they repeatedly renewed the charge, and several times were on the point of breaking through the French line. It was only after a furious engagement of two days, and the slaughter of several thousands of them, that the survivors retired from the field. A French general, the marshal of Trivulce, who had been present at seventeen other battles, said that none of them, for the obstinate valor displayed on both sides, could be com- pared with that of Marignan. He consequently called it the battle of giants, under which name it is also known in history. Francis I evinced on that trying occasion a rare intrepidity. He met in person the most vigorous charges made by the Swiss, without ever losing, in so long a conflict, his presence of mind, and his confi- 31* 366 MODERN HISTORY. Part vi 1 dence of success. At last, the timely arrival of the Venetians, hij allies, under the command of their celebrated general Alviano, entirely turned the day in his favor. Great were the i'ruits of this splendid victory for France. Some of her opponents presently desisted from further hostilities; and the Swiss in particular acceded to a treaty of reconciliation with such willingness and sincerity, as to become, from that time, her most faithful ally. King Ferdinand still endeavored, it is true, to protract the war; but, exhausted by mental fatigues and bodily infirmities, he died in the following year (1516), after an almost uninterrupted ca- reer of glory, tarnished, however, on some occasions, by a want of gratitude towards useful men, and of fidelity to his promises. In royal qualities and political achievements he had certainly no equal among the sovereigns of his age, if we except his heroic and vir- tuous consort Isabella, who moreover surpassed him in pure, noble and delicate feelings. The chief personages who contributed most efficaciously with Ferdinand and Isabella to the glory of their reign, were beyond doubt Christopher Columbus, Gonzaies of Cordova, both already noticed in the foregoing pages, and Cardinal Ximeues, archbishop of Toledo, the ablest politician, the most zealous minister of state, the most penetrating genius, in a woid, all things taken into consideration, the greatest man that ever Spain produced. Immense and innumerable were the services which he rendered to the Church, to the state, to his sovereigns and to the people, during the twenty-two years of his episcopal and civil administration (1495 1517). Magnificent, great, generous, the constant protector of merit, virtue and innocence, he conceived and executed projects the best calculated to advance the cause of religion, humanity and learning. To him the Spanish na- tion was indebted for several of her best and most useful establish- ments, and the literary world for the publication of the first Polyglot Bible,* which he, with incredible care and expense, caused to be printed at Alcala, in six folio volumes (A. D. 1515). From this epoch we may date the complete revival of literature and of the arts and sciences. The French king, Francis I, distinguished himself in this respect by his patronage of learning and of learned men. But no one favored their cause and promoted their success, with greater zeal than Pope Leo X, whose name has in consequence been adopted to designate the first part of the sixteenth century con' sidered as a literary age. Endowed with the most exquisite taste, he imparted to all around him that relish for the fine arts, for true elo- * Or, Bible in several languages. There exist three other celebrated Poly- glots: that of Antwerp, A. D. 1572 ; of Paris, 1645; and of London. 1658 .. D. 1517-1529. LUTHER, ETC. 367 quence and poetry, which is the usual forerunner of masterly produc- tions Scholars and artists, roused to uncommon exertions by his signal protection and encouragement, frequently vied with the most elevated geniuses of antiquity, and Italy again beheld, as in the time of the CaBsars, a multitude of her children, Raphael, Michael Angelo, Ariosto, Tasso, Vida, Bembo, Sadolet, etc., astonishing the world, some by their masterpieces of painting and architecture, others by their beautiful poems and various kinds of writing, which we still admire, both for their delicacy and for their pure and elegant style.* LUTHER AND THE REFORMATION. A. D. 15171529. AT the termination of the wars of Italy in 1516, there was a pros pect of a general and lasting peace among Christian nations, when unforeseen events unexpectedly excited anew all the human passions, and carried to a still higher pitch, the disturbances of Europe. The chief and first cause of these fresh commotions, was the religious revolution effected by Luther in Germany. Martin Luther was born in 1483, at Eisleben, a small town of Saxony. After having studied with great success in the Latin schools of Magdeburg and Eisenach, he completed his education in the uni- versity of Erfurt. In the year 1505, he took the degree of Master of Arts, which authorized him to deliver lectures on Physics and the Ethics of Aristotle. But in consequence of an extraordinary eventf which happened to him about this time, and produced a deep impres- sion upon his mind, he formed the design of becoming a religious, and accordingly joined the order of the Augustinians at Erfurt. The life of the young monk (he was then twenty-five years of age) appeared regular, and in many respects edifying. He mani- fested however, in several instances, particularly when he was op- posed or corrected, a warm and irritable disposition. His talents and learning caused his superiors to recommend him to the elector of Saxony, as a professor of divinity in the newly erected university of Witternberg; and when he afterwards began to preach, the vehemence of his discourses, the boldness of his eloquence, and a nervous kind of expression added to a copious flow of words in his mother-tongue, soon acquired for him the reputation of a good preacher. In the year 1517, Pope Leo X having solemnly published indul- gences to be gained by those who, being truly repentant for their * See note M. f The death of one of his companions, who was killed by a thunderbolt at his side, when they were walking together. 308 MODERN HISTORY. Parl vn sins, should contribute by their pious offerings, to the rebuilding of St. Peter's church in Rome, and to the expenses of an intended cru- sade against the Turks, the Augustinians could not see without some jealousy, the publication of these indulgences intrusted by the arch- bishop of Mentz, not to them, as had been usual, but to the Domini- can order; and as it was reported, on the other hand, that great abuses existed in the publication and distribution of these indulgences by the Dominicans, Luther was commissioned by his superiors to preach and write against these abuses. This commission he fulfilled wiih a great deal of warmth; but he did not stop there. In the heat of the dispute, he passed insensibly from abuses which the whole Church condemned with him, to the things abused, and soon began to attack the indulgences themselves; and to maintain his first position, he was gradually led to deny also the efficacy of the sacraments, the invocation of the saints, the sacrifice of the mass, and many other tenets universally admitted in the Church. This bold step produced the greatest excitement all over the Chris- tian world : Luther himself was at first terrified at it. When he began the dispute, it was not his intention to carry it so far, still less to come to an open rupture. He had even expressed his perfect sub- mission to the Roman Pontiff in a letter which he wrote to Leo X, and which he concluded with these remarkable words: "Therefore, most holy father, prostrate at the feet of your Holiness, I place my- self at your disposal, with all that I am and all that I have. Vivify, kill, call, recall, approve, disapprove, as you please; in your voice I will acknowledge the voice of Christ, who presides and speaks in you." But having in the interval gained over a strong party, he no sooner saw his condemnation pronounced in the papal bull of the fifteenth of June (A. D. 1520), than, yielding to his resentment, he suddenly broke asunder all the ties by which he still adhered to the Roman See, openly separated from it, and the better to seal his separation, he publicly burnt the bull in which his opinions had been condemned, together with the decretals of the popes and the writings of Eckius his principal adversary, in the presence of the professors and the students of the university, and an immense concourse of tl,e 'inhabitants of Wittemberg. The die was cast; Luther continued to vent his anger by calling the pope anti-christ, the man of sin, the minister of Satan, and enemy of all good : he used similar expressions, not only against the king of England, Henry VIII, who had written a book in refutation of his tenets, but also against the various universities and Catholic doctors, by whom his doctrine had been unanimously rejected. The vehe- mence of his discourses, his exhortations to shake off the yoke of eac/amental confession, of penitential works, of religious celibacy, A . D. 1519-1529 CHARLES V AND FRANCIS I. 3Gl) and his suggestions to seize upon ecclesiastical property, vastly- increased the number of his followers. No later than the year 1523, the doctrines and practices of the reformation were introduced into Denmark, Sweden, and many other countries of the north of Europe; whilst, on the other hand, Zuinglius, and, shortly after, Calvin, endeavored to effect similar or even greater changes in Switzerland and France, where they met however with more opposition and less success. In 1529, an imperial decree was issued at Spire for the purpose of checking the progress of religious dissensions, and restoring the unity of faith in Germany ; but it had very little effect. The partisans of Luther protested against it, whence came their name of Protestants; they moreover appealed to the sword in support of their pretensions, and commenced a civil war which disturbed nearly the whole reign of the emperor Charles V. These measures were adopted by them the more willingly, as Luther himself had declared that it was lawful, and even necessary, to take up arms in order to defend and propagate the reformation! Thus was completed a revolution, which split the great Christian family in Europe into many separate and opposite communities. Its chief promoter lived long enough to see not only the rise of the other branches of the reformation, but also the subdivision of his own estar> lishment into a multitude of parties. He died in 1546. During the same year, his various tenets, together with those of Zuinglius and Calvin, began to be discussed and subjected to the usual form of Ecclesiastical condemnation in the council of ^Trent, the last of the general councils, first convened in the end of 1545, and, after two interruptions, finally closed in 1563., CHARLES V AND FRANCIS I. A. D. 15191529. ANOTHER cause of the disturbances and evils which afflicted Europe at this unfortunate period, was the obstinate jealousy of two rival and powerful sovereigns. The imperial throne of Germany, left vacant by the death of Maximilian I in 1519, had been simulta- neously claimed by Francis I, king of France, and Charles, archduke of Austria, who had lately succeeded his grand-father Ferdinand on the throne of Spain. The former indeed was a brave and generous prince, but the latter possessed more prudence and skill, and, being- moreover of German extraction, he was easily preferred to his com- petitor. He received the imperial crown at Aix-la-Chapelle, on the twenty-third of October (A. D. 1520). 370 MODERN HISTORY. Pan VI L Francis could not, without deep sorrow, see his hopes disap- pointed; and, imagining himself injured, availed himself of his other pretensions with regard to the kingdoms of Navarre and Naples, to commence hostilities. During the first campaigns, success was almost equally divided between the two parties, till the high-constable de Bourbon, dissatisfied with the French court, and basely abandon- ing the cause of his sovereign and country, went to offer his services to the emperor. Immediately after, the French lost all their posses- sions in Italy, together with the brightest ornament of their chivalry, the illustrious Bayard, surnamed the knight witJumt fear and without reproach. Francis now resolved, in order to repair his losses, to take upon himself the conduct of the war. He crossed the Alps at the head of a fresh army, and marched as far aa^avia which he besieged, the imperial troops under the command of deTBourboTi, hastening at the same time to the relief of the garrison. At their approach, Francis was advised by his ablest officers rather to abandon the siege, than expose his wearied soldiers to an attack from superior forces; but his mind, too much attached to the point of honor, could not brook the idea of retreating before the enemy : he therefore determined to abide the issue of a battle. It seemed, in the beginning, that victory would declare for the French. Their well-conducted artillery mowed down whole ranks of their opponents, when, on a sudden, the imprudent valor of the king destroyed his prospect of success. Anxious to fight with the sword, he rushed forward, and most indiscreetly placed himself be- tween the enemy and his own cannon, which, being thus prevented from firing any longer, of course became useless. This conduct was deservedly followed by a complete overthow. The imperialists, hav- ing nothing more to fear from the French artillery, rallied and fell with fury on the squadron commanded by the king. In a few mo- ments, the scale of fortune was inclined ; Francis saw all his atten- dants fall by his side; and after having fought with the most despe- rate courage, and killed seven of the assailants with his own hand, he was forced to surrender himself a prisoner. Of the French army, one-half had been- destroyed, the remainder evacuated Italy (A. D. 1525). The unhappy monarch was, according to his own request, con- veyed to Madrid, the capital of Spain. He was detained there for several months, and could not rescue himself from his tedious cap- tivity otherwise than by promising the full cession of several pro- vinces, which he either actually possessed, or had hitherto claimed. No sooner was he set at liberty, than he bitterly complained of the A. it. 1520-1532. CHARLES V AND SOLIMAN II. 371 rigor of these conditions, and availed himself of the opposition with, which the treaty met in the council of state, to leave it unexecuted. This conduct could not but highly displease the emperor. The feelings of both parties were thus more exasperated than ever; the war was renewed, and carried on with redoubled violence, espe- cially by the treacherous constable de Bourbon, who, having no funds to pay his army chiefly composed of Lutheran soldiers from Germany, promised, in order to make Pope Clement VII repent of his kind disposition towards France, to enrich them by the pillage of Rome. Accordingly he led his troops to the attack of this capital; and, although he fell by a musket ball as he was mounting a ladder for the assault, the city was taken, and being abandoned for two months to a licentious and infuriated soldiery, suffered more from the German adventurers, than it had formerly done from either the Goths or the Vandals. Still, as neither this nor any other event of the war could be looked upon as a decisive action, both parties became tired of hostilities, and equally desirous of -a speedy accommodation of their differences. This was effected in 1529 by the treaty of Cam- bray, which, although less adverse to the interests of the French monarch than that of Madrid, secured many advantages to the emperor. CHARLES V AND SOLIMAN II.* A. D. 15201532. THE chief motive which had urged Charles V to conclude peace with France, was, that he needed all his troops to defend his heredi- tary dominions against the Turks. The invading spirit of those infidels was still as remarkable as under Mahomet II. Not only had they, within the last years, extended their conquests in Europe and Asia, but even Egypt, the richest country of Africa, was entirely subdued by them in 1517, notwithstanding the brave resistance of its possessors, the Mamelukes. Soliman II, who succeeded his father, Selim I, in 1520, carried still further the glory of the Ottoman name. More fortunate than Mahomet himself, he successfully invaded Hungary ; and Belgrade, no longer protected by the sword of Hunniades, fell, after a siege of six weeks, into the hands of the Turks. Many other towns were successively carried by storm, or obliged to open their gates. After this expedition, the sultan not thinking it advisable, for the * Called Soliman I by several authors, who do not reckon Soliman, the fion of Bajazet I, among the Turkish sultans, owing probably to the short and precarious duration of his reign. 372 MODERX HISTORY. Parf vu . present, to advance farther in that direction, prepared himself for another conquest which he deemed still more important. In 1522, four hundred vessels and two hundred thousand men appeared in sight of Rhodes, and laid siege to the capital of irus island which had now been in the possession of the Knights Hospi- tallers for more than two hundred years. The Grand -Master was Villiers de PIsle Adam, a hero not inferior in any respect to Peter d'Aubusson, but less favored by existing circumstances. The nations of Europe being too actively engaged in the struggle between Cnarles V and Francis I, to send him any assistance, all the forces he could oppose to the multitude of the assailants, consisted merely of five thousand soldiers and six hundred knights. Still, with this handful of warriors, he held out, during six months, against all the efforts or the Janizaries and all the exertions of Soliman, who had now arrived to conduct the siege in person. Such was the valor of these generous defendeis of Rhodes, that, in a general assault, the Turks lost no fewer than twenty thousand, and in other attacks, a proportionate amount of their most intrepid warriors. At the sight of this dreadful slaughter of his troops, the sultan, driven almost to despair, thought of abandoning the siege, when the secret, but fatal advice of an infamous traitor, one of the chief com- manders in the town, encouraged him to stay and redouble his efforts. The treason indeed was detected, and visited almost instant- ly with capital punishment; but it was too late for the liberation of Rhodes, now in great want of ammunition, and almost reduced to the last extremity. Although the knights continued, with their usual heroism, to repel every assault of the enemy, and seemed determined to bury themselves under the ruins of their capital, the inhabitants were not endowed with the same degree of fortitude. Justly dread- ing the horrors of a city carried by storm, they urged with entreaties, and even with threats, the acceptance of an honorable and advan- tageous capitulation offered by Soliman. It had thus "become an indispensable necessity to yield, and all subsequent resistance would have been of no avail; however, the few remaining knights could not leave, without deep regret, the spot which had been the theatre of their exploits. Above all, the depar- ture of the Grand-Master, at his advanced age, for a distant country, was an afflicting scene, which the sultan himself could not witness without compassion. Like the Trojans of old, under the conduct of /Eneas, these noble fugitives, carrying along with them the fortunes and destinies of their Order, wandered for some time over the seas, in search of a hospitable land. After a short stay in Candia, they reached the shores of Italy, where they met with the most consoling and cordial reception, and obtained at length from Charles V the A. D. 1520-1532. CHARLES V AND SOLIMAN II. 373 possession of the small island of Malta, in the middle of the Mediter- ranean sea, a situation well adapted to their religious and military pur- poses. They fortified this new residence, so as to make it, like the former, the bulwark of Christendom and the centre of their exertions against the infidels. The heavy losses which Soliman had sustained in Rhodes, taught him not to be hasty in undertaking any new expedition. He there- fore passed the three or four ensuing years in promoting the interior prosperity of his empire, and securing among his subjects an ade- quate distribution of justice; till a revolt of the Janizaries warned him again, very unhappily for Europe, not to let those restless war- riors live any longer in idleness. Having quelled the sedition, he, for the second time, invaded Hungary, at the head of two hundred thousand men. King Louis II, with only twenty-five or thirty thou- sand soldiers, fearlessly met him in the plains of Mohats, but was, after a sharp contest, overwhelmed by numbers, and lost on the same day his army, his crown, and his life (A. D. 1526). The sultan, no longer opposed in his march, now laid waste the surrounding country, took Buda, an important place, and advancing westward towards Vienna, laid siege to that city, the capital of the Austrian dominions. Fortunately, Vienna was better supplied than Rhodes with troops and provisions: twenty thousand brave soldiers, under the command of the count Palatine and the earl of Salm, composed the garrison, and all of them displayed so undaunted a courage, as finally to com- pel the Turks to retire,- after twenty useless assaults, and the loss of eighty thousand warriors (A. D. 1529). Soliman however did not yet give up his hostile designs against Austria. He reappeared in 1532, with an army of three, some say, five hundred thousand men. Charles V marched against him with thirty thousand horse, and ninety thousand well disciplined infantry, besides prodigious swarms of irregulars. At the sight of these powerful monarchs and of their formidable hosts advancing against each other, all Europe stood in awe and in expectation of a tremen- dous conflict; yet, when the armies approached, instead of a decisive battle, there were only a few skirmishes between the advanced par- ties. Soliman did not think proper to risk a defeat; and, retreating in good order, rather chose to turn his arms against the less warlike nations of Asia. Nor did the emperor undertake to pursue him in this retrograde march, but, being himself satisfied to see the coun- try free from invasion, he disbanded his own forces, and set out from Germany to visit his provinces of Italy, and his kingdom of Spain. 32 374 MODERN HISTORY. CONQUEST OF MEXICO. HERNANDO CORTEZ. A. D. 15191523. WHILST Charles V caused his power to be obeyed or feared ali over Europe, his name was carried to the extremities of the earth by the celebrated Magellan, who was the first to undertake the circum- navigation of the globe; and other intrepid adventurers, about the same time, were subjecting to his sway vast and opulent countries in the New World. Such was, indeed, especially during this period, the heroic spirit, partly religious and partly chivalrous, diffused among the Spaniards, that nothing seemed impossible to their activi- ty, valor and perseverance. This the reader will easily perceive in the impartial and detailed account of the manner in which a few warriors of that magnanimous nation succeeded in conquering the mighty empires of Mexico and Peru, the former in North, the latter in South America. In one of their excursions upon the American continent, the Span- iards were informed that there existed, at no great distance from the coast, a rich and flourishing empire called Mexico. The governor of Cuba, Velasquez, having conceived the design of establishing colonies in that extensive country, fitted out a fleet for that purpose, and placed it under the command of Hernando Cortez, one of his officers, whom he considered as a man equally capable of bringing the most arduous enterprise to" a happy issue; and at the same time incapable of ever aspiring to independence. His conjectures as to the abilities of Cortez were perfectly correct; for it would have been impossible to find an individual possessing more sagacity and pru- dence, more energy and boldness : but, as the sequel will show, he had completely mistaken the turn of his mind and his real cha- racter. Cortez saile^l from Cuba on the tenth of January (A. D. 1519), with eleven small vessels carrying six hundred men, sixteen horses and six pieces of artillery ; not hesitating with this inconsiderable force to undertake the conquest of an empire which exceeded in extent all the European dominions of Spain.* He had not proceeded far, when * Intelligent readers will easily understand that we here make use of the word conquest, only through an anticipated view of the event. The projects of Cortez, as both his words and conduct invariably testified, were wholly humane and pacific. It is true, he provided himself, and that very pru- dently, with means of self-defence and even of warfare, for the case of stern necessity: but he always intended to treat the natives with due mode- ration and kindness, and with a sincere desire of their own grestier good ; nor did he deviate from this rule, until compelled to do so by thr in loinita- ble hostility of the Indians. A. o. 1519-1523. CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 375 Velasquez began to entertain suspicions against the netv general, and wished to revoke his commission ; but it was too late. Cortez, protected not only by the affection of his soldiers, but also, says Solis, by the justice of his cause, continued his voyage, and landing on the continent, caused himself to be proclaimed independent of the gover- nor of Cuba, and accountable to none but the Spanish monarcli for the use of his authority. Immediately after this, he founded the colony of Vera Cruz, and the better to inspire his troops with desperate courage, burnt all his vessels, thus taking from them all hope of return. The undaunted Spaniards began to advance through a populous country towards the Mexican capital, concerning which they had ob- tained new and more ample information. It was then under the sway of Montezuma, a prince who governed with absolute despotism. Many of his subjects and tributaries, especially those at a distance, tired of the yoke that lay heavy upon them, looked upon Cortez as a deliverer, entered into an alliance with him, and supplied him with provisions and every kind of assistance. The republic of Tlas- cala, however, did not follow their example; on the contrary, it pre- pared to repel the strangers by open force. Many battles were fought, in which that people displayed uncommon bravery; but they could not long withstand the arms and tactics of the Europeans. Finding themselves constantly overpowered, the Tlascalans at length consented to treat the Spaniards as friends, and in fact became thence- forth their most faithful and useful allies. They aided Cortez won- derfully in the prosecution of his enterprise, particularly in subduing the great city of Cholula, and inflicting a severe chastisement on its inhabitants for a dreadful conspiracy which had endangered the lives of all the conquerors. In the mean time, Montezuma was endeavoring, by every expe- dient in his power, to impede the progress of the Spaniards; but Cortez overcame all obstacles, and, after a few days, finally came within sight of the vast and populous city of Mexico, which con- tained no fewer than sixty thousand houses with a proportionate number of inhabitants. It was surrounded by a lake, well fortified, and adorned with a great number of temples, palaces, and other pub- lic buildings, evincing a certain degree of civilization. Cortez entered the town, under his assumed quality of ambassador of the Spanish monarch, and was received with great pomp by Montezuma, who lodged him together with the other Spaniards, in one of his palaces. But whilst these things took place in Mexico, an Attack had be&n directed by a Mexican general against the colony of Vera Cruz. No sooner was Cortez informed of all the circumstances of this new act of perfidy than, in order to secure himself against the dangers of his 376 MODERN HISTORY. Part VII situation, he conceived and executed the boldest and most extraor- dinary design of which history makes mention, that of" arresting the emperor himself in open day, and in the very presence of his officers and subjects Taking with him a small band of resolute men, he went to the imperial palace, surrounded Montezuma, and compelled him tc come with them to their residence as a hostage. In that new abode, the astounded monarch agreed to acknowledge himself a vassal of Charles V; and, in consequence of this agreement, delivered into the hands of the Spaniards a large sum ol gold and silver, which Cortez distributed among his officers and soldiers with admirable dis- interestedness and equity. Every thing until now had been successful, and according to the most sanguine wishes of Cortez; but this course of prosperity was soon to meet with new obstacles. On the one hand, the Mexicans began to evince a strong indignation at the long sojourn of their sovereign among foreigners, and at the protracted stay of the Span- iards in Mexico; on the other hand, intelligence was received that the governor of Cuba, Velasquez, had despatched eighteen ships and nine hundred men to attack Cortez as a rebel. This rendered the position of the latter extremely perplexing. Should he remain in Mexico, or march against his new opponents, there was in either case equal danger of losing all the fruit of his past labors. He therefore adopted a middle course, not less daring indeed than the other two, but which offered a greater chance of succeed ing on one side, without losing ground on the other. Leaving one hundred and fifty men in the imperial city under the command of Alvarado, a brave and in- trepid officer, to preserve the advantage he had already obtained; he. set out with about two hundred and fifty others, to meet his hostile and imprudent countrymen. By prodigies of courage and activity, he not only surprised and defeated the nine hundred Spaniards, but even disarmed them all, made Narvaez, their general, prisoner, and taking the vanquished troops of that unskilful commander into his own service, returned in triumph to Mexico. His joy was not of long duration. The open insurrection of the Mexicans, which had commenced during his absence, became gene- ral after his return. The Spaniards were surrounded, and repeatedly attacked in their intrenchments. As, on one occasion, the danger appeared more pressing, Montezuma, made his appearance, in order to quell the sedition; but the unfortunate monarch was struck by a stone thrown by one of the assailants, and expired after three days of great suffering. His death proved fatal to the Spaniards, in whose preservation and welfare he seemed, in the end, to take a sin- cere interest. Under Quetlavacu, his successor, the attacks of the Mexicans were carried on with redoubled fury; and, although thou- .. D. 1516-1883. CONQUEST OF MEXICO, ETC. 377 Bands of them were daily destroyed by the swords and cannons of the Spaniards, others fearlessly rushed forward in crowds to fill up the places of the slain, and to maintain the sanguinary contest. In all these occurrences, Cortez made exertions and displayed a valor which seemed to be almost above nature. OnedaJ%for instance, ne fought, though painfully wounded, during three hours, till he forced the Mexicans to abandon a post from which they considerably annoyed the Spaniards. On another occasion, having driven the as- sailants to a distance, and being entirely occupied in continuing the pursuit, he at length found himself cut off by a' numerous body of enemies from his own troops. In this imminent danger, he endeavored to reach a neighboring street, which he supposed might afford him a greater facility for escape. Scarcely had he advanced in that direc- tion, when he met another party of Mexicans, and saw in the midst of them his intimate friend Duero, whom they were dragging to a temple of idols, to immolate him to their gods. Cortez, forgetful of his own peril, immediately rushed against them, dispersed their troop, and delivered Duero, who was even so fortunate as to find his horse and spear at a small distance. Then the two noble friends riding to- gether, pierced the crowd of their enemies, and safely rejoined their soldiers, who had just completed the defeat of the Mexicans. Cortez always considered this adventure as one of the most fortunate of his life. It became necessary, however, for the present, to abandon Mexico. The requisite preparations for a retreat were made with extraordinary diligence and care; and the Spaniards began their march, a little after midnight, on the first of July, 1520. Silence and obscurity favored them at first; but all their motions had been watched by a vigilant foe, and no sooner had they begun to cross a breach in the causeway, than a shower of darts, arrows and stones assailed them from different sides. Dismay and confusion pervaded their ranks, and the preposterous conduct of many who were intent on preserving their riches, was an additional cause of disasters. This awful night, which justly retained the name of Noche triste, cost the retreating army, several hundred Spanish, and more than a thousand Tlascalan soldiers, with nearly all the horses, treasure, artillery and baggage. Cortez appeared inconsolable, and was seen on the following day, when the troops resumed their march, shedding abundant tears, thus giving a mark of paternal sensibility, that endeared him to his sol- diers, as much as his consummate prudence and valor caused him to be respected. The Spaniards continued their retreat in good order, notwithstand- ing some skirmishes which they had occasionally to repel. It was rather matter of surprise, that they did not meet with more formidable 32* 378 MODERN HISTORY. Part VII attacks; but the sixth day of their march taught them the new schemes contrived by the enemy for their destruction. The Mexican forces had been secretly directed to the valley of Otumba, through which the Spanish troops would be obliged to pass, on their way to Tlascala. When Cortez reached the neighborhood of that spot, the whole valley was already occupied by a hostile force amounting, it is said, to the number of two hundred thousand Indians, who had been collected from different tribes, as appeared from the variety of their banners and ornaments. In the midst of them, the general of the empire appeared* conspicuous, borne upon a splendid litter, from which he gave his orders. He carried in his hands the imperial standard, which was never intrusted to any one but himself, and never unfurled except on the most important occasions. At the sight of this vast multitude of enemies, Cortez fervently implored the divine assistance, and plainly told his followers, that there was no alternative now left them but to conquer or die. His plan was, to open for his troops a passage through the Indians in the narrowest part of the valley, where the confined nature of the spot would more easily render multitudes useless. Accordingly, he disposed his infantry in the form of a column, the files of which were composed alternately of arquebusiers or archers and lancers. As to his cavalry, which terrified the Indians by the mere motion of the horses, it was placed partly in front, to break the first rank of the enemy, and partly in the rear, to prevent them from reuniting. In this order, the Spaniards descended the hill, in order to commence the perilous conflict. The first discharge of the fire-arms was made with such success, that the Mexicans who were facing the Spanish column, had no time to shoot their arrows. They were instantly attacked with swords and pikes, whilst the cavalry pushed forward, and dispersed or crushed all who fell in their way. Considerable advantage was gained by this first onset. Similar charges produced similar results; but so great and obstinate was the bravery of the Indians, that, after the cavalry had forced them to retire, they fearlessly returned to the charge, and regained the ground which they had just lost, the valley of Otumba, in the mean time, resembling a stormy sea agitated by the perpetual motion of its waves. Cortez, who, at the head of the horsemen, was making a terrible slaughter wherever he directed his steps, began to fear that this mode of warfare would finally exhaust the strength of his little army. His uneasiness increased every mo- ment; when he suddenly conceived one of those bold ideas which great danger sometimes suggests, but only in men of uncommon energy of soul. At the sight of the imperial banner waving in the distance, Cortez A. D. 1519-1523. CONQUEST OF MEXICO, ETC. 379 remembered having heard that the fate of battles was considered by the Indians as dependent on its loss or preservation. He immediately called around him his bravest officers, Sandoval, Olid, Alvarado, with some other courageous men, and, at full gallop, forced his pas- sage towards the banner. Whilst his companions were despatching or putting to flight all who had dared to aVait their approach, he him- self attacked the Mexican general, wounded him, and by a powerful stroke of his lance brought him to the ground. As soon as the venerated banner disappeared from the sight of the Mexicans, they lowered the other ensigns, and, throwing down their arms, fled precipitately towards the woods and mountains; so that the valley was in a few moments entirely cleared. .Aware how im- portant it was to complete their dispersion and overthrow, Cortez ordered his men to pursue them. He himself was suffering from the blow of a stone, which had broken his nelmet and made a large con- tusion on his head. Both his orders, and the knowledge that he was wounded, so animated the Spaniards, that, notwithstanding the Dreadful fatigue of the day, their strength seemed to be revived, and t.heir fury to redouble in the pursuit of the enemy. According to the (Spanish authors, twenty thousand Indians perished in this famous battle, which may be justly reckoned the greatest and most glorious ever fought by the Europeans against the aborigines of America.* This brilliant victory removed all obstacles from the way of the Spaniards. A few days after, they safely reached the friendly city of Tlascala, where a kind reception made some compensation for the innumerable hardships which they had hitherto endured, and pre- pared them for new and more decisive efforts against Mexico. The attention of Cortez was constantly directed to the grand object his mind had previously in view; and difficulties rather increased than diminished his courage. Having granted his troops the repose which they needed, and given permission to reembark in the ships of Narvaez to those among his followers who were afraid of another expedition, he devoted all his time and care to the levying of a suffi- cient force. His good fortune, or rather Divine Providence, seconded his efforts beyond his expectation. Bands of brave soldiers , with arms and ammunition, successively came to him from different quar- ters of the Spanish settlements; the sulphur of a neighboring volcano enabled him to provide nearly as much gun powder as might be wanted ; thousands of the Tlascalans and other tribes in the neigh- borhood offered to assist him in the conquest of Mexico: in fine, * The interesting particulars of this battle may be seen in the Spanisl* historian Soils, Canquista de la Nueva Espana, lib. iv, cap. 20; also in the English authors of Univ. Hist. vol. cxiv, pp. 354357; in La Harpe, tfbrege de Vhistoire des voyages, vol. xiv. pp 484 488 ; etc. 380 MODERN HISTORY. Part vn there were found sufficient materials to build as many brigantines, as would be nececessary to secure the command of the lake by which the city was surrounded. When all things were in readiness, Cortez, for the third time, approached the capital of the Mexicans, and commenced the regular operations of a siege. By his command, the attack was made under the direction of Sandoval, Olid and Alvarado, at three different points along three causeways leading to the town. Each of these brave captains had under him thirty or forty thousand Indians, with two hundred Spaniards and two pieces of artillery. Cortez reserved to himself the attempt to gain possession of the lake, as being the object on the attainment of which the success of all their exertions chiefly depended. His penetrating mind having easily perceived that this was the surest way to conquer Mexico, he fitted out for this purpose a flotilla of thirteen brigantines, each of which had, besides sails, twelve Indian rowers, twenty-five Spanish soldiers with a captain at their head, and a piece of ordnance. Cortez selected for himself the swiftest of these vessels, that he might the more easily afford assis- tance wherever it should be needed. The brigantines, disposed in a single line, advanced across the lake towards Mexico. At some distance from the shore, a small island, or rather a large rock, on which was a castle defended by bodies of Indian troops, attracted the notice of the Spanish general. When he drew near, the Mexicans, believing their post to be inaccessible, loaded the Spaniards with insults and threats. Cortez thought that such insolence ought not to go unpunished, especially in the sight of the capital and in the presence of its inhabitants, who were ob- serving from their balconies the movements of the European flotilla. He therefore landed, for a moment, with one hundred and fifty men, and the castle was assaulted at two different points with such vigor and success, that one part of the garrison fell by the sword, and the other was obliged to escape by swimming. This easy triumph gave occasion to another of much greater im- portance. Whilst Cortez and his troops were detained in the island the Mexicans had sufficient time to collect their canoes on the othei side of the lake, to the number of at least four thousand, with which they advanced towards the enemy. This incredible number of boats, the agitation of the waves, the glitter of the arms and ornaments ol the Indians, presented a spectacle at once magnificent and terrific. Cortez however beheld it without the least emotion, and merely con sidered it as a warning to prepare for the combat ; only, in order to oppose a larger front than before to the enemy, he now caused his ships to be drawn up in the form of a crescent. No sooner had he given the signal for the attack, than all the brigantines, urged forward A. D. 151^-1523. CONQUEST OF MEXICO, ETC. 381 at the same time by the oars and by a favorable breeze, bore down upon the Indian boats with irresistible impetuosity, and, notwith- standing the gallant resistance of the Mexican chieftains, threw them into a state of confusion more easily conceived than described. Nor was the result for a moment doubtful, as the arms of the Spaniards, a favorable wind, and the very bulk of their vessels, gave them, from the beginning of the action, a decided superiority. Great numbers of the Indian canoes were broken to pieces by the artillery, sunk by coming in contact with the brigantines, or dashed against one another; the remainder, closely pursued by a victorious enemy, made a narrow escape. This great naval victory made the Spaniards masters of the lake, and considerably hastened the capture of Mexico. The three divi- sions of the land army being now aided by their victorious fleet, gra- dually advanced along the causeways, and proceeded into the very streets of the imperial city, not, however, without terrible obstacles and several bloody conflicts, the Mexicans being occasionally successful in repelling the attacks of the besiegers, and disputing every inch of ground with incredible obstinacy. In these desperate encounters, the Indians were animated by the example of their young and magnani- mous emperor, Guatimozin, who had lately succeeded Quetlavaca, and who left nothing untried to save his country and empire. But the combined efforts of the sovereign and of his subjects served only to place in bolder relief the consummate abilities of the Spanish gene- ral. His measures were so well concerted, and the attack so admira- bly conducted by himself and his officers, that, m spite of every ob- stacle, the three divisions of the army reached the centre of Mexico nearly at the same time. The other parts of the city were soon forced to surrender; and, as the provinces quickly shared the fate, and followed the example of the capital, the capture of Mexico, in August, 1521, may be considered as the real epoch of 'the downfall of the Mexican empire. The siege had lasted three months, and cost the lives of one hundred and fifty thousand Indians. The emperor, with his court and family, had endeavored to escape, but all were taken prisoners. The Spanish soldiery greatly disap- pointed in the amount of treasures which they had expected to obtain in the city, determined, in order to discover them, to put the unfortu- nate Guatimozin and his chief minister to the rack. That prince endured the torture with invincible constancy. Most historians relate that hearing his fellow-sufferer complain, he turned to him and said : "And myself, am 1 on a bed of roses?" Cortez rescued him on this occasion, from the hands of the soldiery ; but Guatimozin being afterwards sensed of treason and conspiracy, was condemned 382 MODERX HISTORY. Part VII and put to death about the year 1523. Thus perished the last empe- ror of Mexico. Cortez himself soon experienced the vicissitudes of fortune. The conquest of an empire at first acquired for him* from Charles V the honorable title of viceroy of the rich and extensive regions which he had subdued, and his indefatigable activity in improving and enlarg- ing his conquests entitled him more and more to honors and rewards. But he was doomed, like Columbus, to be the victim of envy. Twice was he obliged to cross the ocean, in order to vindicate his innocence; and although he defended it with success, he saw his authority gra- dually declining, until, through the influence of his enemies, it dis- appeared entirely. His great services now seemed to be forgotten" the conqueror of Mexico was treated with a sort of indifference by the court of Spain, and could scarcely obtain an audience from his sovereign. It is said that, as he one day made his way through the crowd which surrounded the carriage of the emperor, Charles asked him who he was: "I am," replied Cortez, " the man who gave more provinces to your majesty than you inherited towns from your ancestors." In fine, baffled in all his hopes of recovering his former dignities, he retired to a little town near Seville, where he died at the age of sixty-two years (A. D. 1547). The life of Cortez exhibits a variety of exploits so extraordinary, that, were it not for the testimony of the best historical documents, they would rather appear to exist only in the imagination. The burning of his fleet, after landing on unknown shores; his attack of a powerful empire with a handful of men; the capture of Monte- zuma in the midst of his own capital; the defeat of Narvaez; the victory of Otumba; the siege and conquest of Mexico, with all their circumstances, present a series of truly wonderful events events almost unparalleled in the annals of history. Even amongst the greatest conquerors, few possessed, in as high a degree as Cortez, prudence in counsel, sagacity in his plans and measures, intrepidity in their execution, and energy of soul in the severest trials. The greater were the dangers and hardships to which he was exposed, the more did his courage, presence of mind and military genius appear. To these brilliant qualifications he joined a religious mind; a sincere modesty, which made him think it no disgrace to ask for advice; a constant probity and generosity, which gained him universal confidence and esteem ; in fine, a dignified gravity in his public deportment, and an amiable kindness and decent gaiety in the ordinary course of social and domestic life.* * It would be unjust to charge this hero with certain acts of cruelty com- mitted during the Mexican war. He was perhaps too hasty in consenting, though he did so with reluctance and for fear of worse consequences, to the A. D. 1524-1534. CONQUEST OF PERU, ETC. 383 It is certain then, notwithstanding the attacks of envy and preju- dice, that the conqueror of Mexico was every way deserving of the extraordinary success which attended his arms. If jealousy endea- vored to depreciate his transcendent merit during life, justice openly proclaimed it after his death; and posterity will ever distinguish Hernando Cortez among the many eminent personages of whom Spain so justly boasts, as one of her most conspicuous heroes. CONQUEST OF PERU. FRANCIS PIZARRO. A. D. 15241534. THE same is to be said of the conqueror of Peru, Francis Pizarro, a man whose courage, energy and magnanimity were not inferior to those of Cortez, though he had fewer occasions to display them on the field of battle. Having entered into a compact with Diego de Almagro, another intrepid adventurer, and collected a small band of followers, he sailed, in 1525, from Panama, and began to explore the shores of the Pacific ocean. His first attempts at discovery were attended with little success. A variety of obstacles, contrary winds, distempers, and the like incidents, often impeded his progress, and so dispirited his companions, that nearly the whole crew once aban doned him and returned to Panama, not more than thirteen hardy men consenting to remain with him upon a desert coast, until he should receive a fresh supply of soldiers and provisions. By his persevering efforts, he succeeded, under the sanction of the Spanish government, in collecting a body of about two hundred men, for the beginning of the year 1531. With new ardor he advanced into the very heart of Peru, an extensive monarchy governed by sovereigns called Incas, and the richest country in the world for mines of gold and silver. torture and execution of Guatimozin ; but, whatever may have been the fury of some soldiers, all historians agree in praising the habitual modera- tion and generosity of Cortez. He waged, it is true, a terrible warfare against the Mexicans, but it should be remarked, first, that he did not com- mence hostilities until he had been treacherously and repeatedly attacked by them ; in the second place, that, even in the midst of his victories, he constantly offered them peace, which they refused ; and, in fine, that he had to fight for the noble cause of humanity against enemies not less ferocious than implacable, and addicted to the barbarous custom of immolating hu- man victims, to the number of at least twenty thousand every year. The project of extirpating this monstrous barbarity was, on the principles of the ablest divines and civilians, Suarez, Grotius, etc., sufficient of itself to jus- tify the military expedition of Cortez, and to render it a just and honorable enterprise, 384 MODERN HISTORY. Part VlL The Peruvians were not less awed than the other nations of America, at the sight of men mounted upon formidable animals, and carrying thunder in their hands. The whole country was divided at that time into two hostile parties headed by the late Inca's sons, who had just made an appeal to arms for the decision of their quarrel con- cerning the succession to the throne. Huascar, the elder, was at first victorious: but being afterwards defeated, he fell into the hands of his younger brother, Atabaliba, who committed great cruelties on this occasion. Both princes were anxious to secure the protection of the strangers, and Pizarro did not fail to take advantage of circum- stances so favorable to his views. Without manifesting his real designs, he marched on to meet the usurper, and, after some useless conferences, so vigorously attacked the Peruvian troops, whose number amounted to upwards of thirty thousand men, that four thousand of them were killed, and the others dispersed, without the loss of a single soldier on the side of the Spaniards. The proud monarch was made prisoner, and, being soon tired of his captivity, he offered for his ransom to fill up with pieces and vessels of gold a room twenty- two feet long and seventeen broad, as high as his hand could reach, and double that quantity of silver. The stipulated sum was paid to the Spaniards: still Atabaliba did not recover his liberty; but on cer- tain charges of an odious treason, and also as a punishment for his brother's murder, he was put to death in the year 1533. The two principal cities of Peru, Quito and Cusco, surrendered to the Spaniards, with scarcely any show of resistance (A. D. 1534). The rest of the empire was also subdued in a short time; and, the better to secure its allegiance, Pizarro founded, at a short distance from the sea, the rich and celebrated city of Lima. Unfortunately, obstinate and bloody quarrels began to arise among the conquerors themselves about the partition of their conquest. Pizarro prevailed for a time over the party of his opponents: but, disdaining to give credit to the intelligence of a conspiracy against him, he finally became its victim. On the twenty-sixth of June (A. D. 1541), he was suddenly attacked 111 his palace at Lima, by a crowd of vile assassins, who, in their fury, made the air resound with the cry, away with the tyrant. His friends and servants being either killed or dispersed, he remained alone, without betraying the least sign of fear. Surrounded as he was by murderers, he defended himself with heroic courage, killed some of the assailants, wounded others, and at last, having himself received a mortal wound, fell and expired in the midst of them, whilst recommending his soul to his Creator. Such was the deplorable end of one of the most illustrious con- querors of the New World ; of one, to whose undaunted valor and invincible constancy, Spain was indebted for the subjugation of A. D. 1535-1559. CHARLES V, ETC. 335 the Peruvian empire, and Charles V for the invaluable mines of Po- tosi. After his death, civil wars continued to desolate Peru, until the chief leaders of the first expedition had all disappeared. It was only n 1548 that the virtuous governor Pedro de la Gasca succeeded, by his consummate prudence, in terminating those wars, and in estab- lishing the Spanish government on a permanent basis in that envia- ble country. The Spaniards acquired also, about the same time, the extensive territories of Chili and Paraguay; and the Portuguese pro- fited by their example, to form valuable settlements along the coasts of Brazil. CHARLES V CONTINUED ACCESSION OF PHILIP II, AND FIRST TRANSACTIONS OF HIS REIGN. A. D. 15351559. WHILST the empire of Charles V was thus increasing abroad to an immense extent, that prince continued to astonish Europe by the display of his military and political talents. War having been re- newed between him and Francis I, Charles generally maintained the superiority which he had previously acquired; still, when he at- tempted, in 1536, to invade France at the head of formidable forces, he was compelled to retire with considerable loss. The year before, the emperor had undertaken an expedition into Africa, for the purpose of checking the alarming progress of Barba- rossa, a famous pirate chieftain. Having met him near Tunis, he defeated him in a great battle, took the city and rescued from twenty to thirty thousand Christian slaves. Another expedition of the same kind, directed against Algiers, in 1541, was far from obtaining the same success: dreadful storms both on sea and land destroyed half of the emperor's fleet and army, and obliged him quickly to depart from those perilous shores. So unfortunate a result was so much the more painful to Charles, as he had conceived and followed up the project of conquering Algiers, contrary to the advice of the celebrated admiral Andrew Doria, and other able generals. However, through- out that series of disasters, he evinced such courage, firmness, mag- nanimity, and above all, so tender a solicitude for his distressed* sol- diers, as fully to atone for the partial loss which he sustained in his reputation with regard to prudence and military glory. The same alternation of success and misfortune accompanied him in his wars against the Protestant princes of Germany. He signally defeated them at Mulbert (A. D. 1547), but they recovered from this blow, and continued te give him considerable trouble till the year 1552, when an agreement was ntered into by both parties. 33 386 .MODERN HISTORY. Part VIL After having been thus long the chief potentate of Europe, after having filled the whole world with the fame of liis glorious achieve- ments., this mighty emperor abandoned all earthly grandeur for ;in obscure and private life. He left the imperial dignity to his brother Ferdinand, resigned the Spanish crown with all its appendages and foreign dominions to his son Philip, and retired into a monastery of Hieronymites in Spain (A.. D. 1556). In that peaceful abode he lived two years, dividing his time between spiritual exercises and innocent employments. The manner in which he closed his mortal career was as extraordinary as his life. Stretching himself in a coffin, he caused the funeral rites to be performed, and after the ceremony, re- ared, in a state of deep melancholy, to his apartments, where he was seized with a violent fever, and died on the twenty-first of September, in the fifty-eighth year of his age. His reign, together with that of his grand-father Ferdinand and that of his son Philip, undoubtedly forms the most brilliant part of the history of Spain. The famous rival of Charles, Francis I, had descended before him into the grave : he was succeeded by Henry II, a prince equal to his father as well in bravery as in his determined opposition to the house of Austria. This hostile feeling Henry II had often evinced during the emperor's life ; new causes of excitement urged him to manifest it again in the beginning of Philip's reign. Accordingly, France and Spain continued to be engaged in war against each other under their new sovereigns; and, in consequence of the marriage of Philip II with the English queen Mary, England interfered in favor of the Spanish monarch. In the year 1557, the war assumed a most serious aspect. The confederates, amounting to seventy thousand, under the command of the duke of Savoy, invaded the French territory, and laid siege to St. Quentin, a town of Picardy defended only by a handful of soldiers. The high-constable of Montmorency, at the head of an army of thirty thousand men, undertook to relieve the place, and really succeeded in augmenting the garrison ; but, not having withdrawn in due time from the approaching enemy, he was overtaken by superior forces, and compelled to engage in a very unequal contest. His defeat was en- tire; his cavalry fled; five thousand of the infantry were killed or wounded, whereas the Spaniards did not lose more than eighty men, and several other thousand among the vanquished, together with their chief officers, the constable himself, eighty-eight banners, and and all the artillery and baggage, fell into the hands of the con- querors. The battle of St. Gluentin might have proved the downfall ot the French monarchy, had the conquerors pursued their ad van tage with- out delay. They wasted their time in taking some inconsideraMe A. D. 1509-1588. ENGLAND UNDER THE.TUDORS. 387 towns, until the autumnal rains obliged them to retire beyond the frontier. Henry improved the happy circumstance, by speedily mus- tering new forces, whii^pnabled him, in the very next campaign, not only to stand upon the defensive, but even to attack with suc- cess. The duke of Guise, a general justly renowned for having a few years before compelled the emperor Charles to abandon the siege of Metz, was now placed at the head of the army, with the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. His prudence and valor fully answered the confidence reposed in him. After deceiving the allies by a skilful march, he suddenly appeared before Calais, and attacked it so vigorously, that this famous town, hitherto considered impregnable, was taken after a siege of eight days. It had been du- ring two hundred and ten years in the power of the English, who lost with it their last possession on the continent (A. D. 1558). At the news of this event, so unexpected, and, under existing cir- cumstances, so glorious for France, all nations admired the vigor of her national spirit and the extent of her resources. No later than the ensuing year, a treaty was concluded between Philip and Henry, in virtue of which they restored to each other nearly all their late conquests ; but Calais, with some other places, remained in the pos- session of the French. This loss sustained by the English, naturally leads us to mention the other great transactions both civil and reli- gious which took place in England under the government of the Tudors. ENGLAND UNDER THE TUDORS. A. D. 15091588. AFTER the prosperous reign of the first Tudor, Henry VII, the English sceptre passed in 1509, into the hands of his son, the famous Henry VIII. For the space of about twenty years, the new mo- narch enjoyed a great reputation, and increased the glory of his king- dom, by a wise administration at home, owing chiefly to the abilities of his prime minister, Cardinal Wolsey, and by brilliant success abroad, in his wars against the French and the Scots ; (see above, page 365). A vile passion which he would not restrain, transformed him into a despicable prince and a cruel tyrant. Wishing to repudiate his lawful wife, Catherine of Arragon, for the purpose of contracting another marriage with Anne Boleyn, a lady of his court, he applied to Pope Clement VII to obtain a dispensation ; but it was refused as opposed to the divine law. The dissolute monarch disregarded the refusal; and not content with marrying Anne Boleyn, he, in his anger, abolished the papal jurisdiction in his kingdom, and assumed 388 MODERN HISTORY. Part VII to himself the exercise of all spiritual supremacy oyer the English Church (A. D. 1534). From that time, he made his own will the only rule to be followed in Church and Stale; persecuted both Catholics and Protestants; and spared neither his wives nor his most illustrious subjects, such as Bishop Fisher and Chancellor More, who were put to death for refusing to admit the assumed power, and to obey the wicked orders of the tyrant. This unhappy prince died in 1547. Under his son and successor, young Edward VI, and by the exer- tions of the regent, the duke of Somerset, the Protestant doctrine became the religion of England. Mary, the eldest daughter of Henry VIII, reestablished the Catholic worship in 1554; but, in 1563, it was again discarded by her sister Elizabeth, who founded the Church of England as it now exists. Mary, exasperated by the revolts which disturbed her reign, had treated the Protestants with great rigor; Elizabeth, without having any such cause, treated the Catholics with still greater severity, and. under the influence of unprincipled ministers, began to frame those oppressive statutes which disgraced the English legislation for nearly three centuries, and have in parti- cular weighed so heavily upon Catholic Ireland. Two other events of remarkable importance contributed to render the reign of Elizabeth for ever famous in a double point of view. The first was the death of the queen of Scotland, Mary Stuart, upon a scaffold, in 1587. This unfortunate princess, persecuted with invete- rate hatred by an unnatural brother, and other enemies of her faith, ner authority and her person, had been obliged to seek a refuge in England, where, instead of an asylum, she found a dreary prison. After eighteen years of confinement, she was brought to a trial to which history affords no parallel, and, upon a variety of slanderous and atrocious charges, was condemned to capital punishment, which she suffered at the age of forty-two, with truly Christian fortitude. All Europe shuddered with horror at the crime of her enemies; and Elizabeth endeavored in vain, by affected tears, to wipe away the foul stain for ever imprinted on her own character by this deed of darkness. The other event alluded to, and which, in a political point of view, did great honor to the English queen, was her triumph over all the maritime forces of Spain. Hitherto, she had, by proper and constant encouragement, placed her own navy on a respectable footing. The famous admiral Drake successively attacked the coasts of San Do- mingo, Florida, Peru and Chili, laid waste the Spanish settlements, and each time returned loaded with rich booty. Afterwards, he attacked the coast of Spain itself, and captured or destroyed eighty vessels in the harbor of Cadiz. These attacks were too flagrant and too often repeated, not to pro- A. D. 1560-1571. WAR AGAINST THE TURKS. 389 voke open hostilities from Philip II. After patiently suffering them for a time, he at last determined to take ample revenge, and prepared, at immense expense, a formidable fleet for the invasion and subjuga- tion of England. It was called the Invincible Armada, and consisted of one hundred and fifty enormous vessels, carrying nearly three thousand cannons, with numerous troops and the flower of the Span- ish chivalry. Nothing was spared to secure the success of the expe- dition; England trembled at the approach of this powerful armament: but she was soon relieved from her fears by the intrepidity and skill of her admirals. They carefully shunned a general action, confining themselves to partial engagements, in which they were constantly successful. After the Spaniards had begun to suffer various losses by this mode of warfare, a multitude of incidents aided the exertions of the English, and a series of violent storms completed the defeat of the Armada (A. D. 1588). The loss of the Spaniards in this unhappy expedition was aston- ishing; but it produced not the least effect upon Philip, who received the disastrous intelligence with as much tranquillity as he would have done that of a signal triumph. "I had," said he, f 'sent my fleet to fight against the English, and not against the winds. Let the will of God be done. I thank him that he has given me so many resources to repair this disaster." WAR AGAINST THE TURKS. SIEGE OF MALTA. LOSS 05 CYPRUS. BATTLE OF LEPANTO. A. D. 15601571. WE may now revert to the affairs of the Turks, and to their new efforts against the Christian nations. At the time when Philip II began to rule over Spain, Soliman, the conqueror of Rhodes and Belgrade, was still seated on the throne of Constantinople. A war having arisen between these two mighty sovereigns for the posses- sion of Tripoli in Africa, a great naval battle was fought in 1560, in which the Turks were completely victorious. This success embold- ened Soliman to undertake other conquests ; and resentment urged him to attack once more the knights of St. John, the greatest ene- mies of his power, and to drive them, if possible, from the new resi- d^n^e which the liberality of Charles V had conferred on their Order, Accordingly, an army composed of forty thousand choice troops, under the command of three able generals, Mustapha, Piali and Dra gut, was landed in 1565 on the shores of Malta, and immediately began a siege which, from the uninterrupted vigor of the attack and defence 33* 390 MODERN HISTORY. Pan VII, during the space of four months, may be reckoned the most memo rable event of this kind recorded in history. The number of the knights and soldiers in the whole island did not exceed nine or ten thousand men; but the Grand-Master, John Parisot de la Valette, was a host in himself. This worthy successor of Peter d'Aubusson and Villiers de I'Isle-Adam, had, like them, a mind incapable of fear even amidst the greatest dangers, a wonderful prudence and ability much improved by experience, and an intrepid valor constantly animated by religious and patriotic principles. The plan which he adopted from the beginning of the siege, and which he followed up with unshaken constancy, was to defend, by the most vigorous exertions, every fort, every post, every inch of ground, against all the efforts of the Turks, hoping in this manner so to ha- rass them and diminish their numbers, as finally to compel them to evacuate the island. In consequence of this noble determination, sharp skirmishes daily took place, retarding the progress of the assailants. A little fort, called St. Elme, stopped their whole army for several weeks; nor could they take it except by sacrificing eight thousand of their bravest warriors; which made one of their greatest generals exclaim : "If the son has given us so much trouble, what must we expect from the father!" The garrison of that fort, composed of a few knights and some hundred soldiers, exhibited a spectacle never seen before. They not only repelled the continual assaults of the Janizaries, as long, as succor could be sent to them by the Grand-Master; but, even when all communication was cut off, and when they were reduced to a small band, they continued, though wounded and scarcely able to move, to defend the breach against thousands of assailants. As loss of blood and complete exhaustion did not permit some of them any longer to fight standing and with one hand only, they sat upon chairs and benches, and, wielding their swords with both hands, combated to their last breath. Fort St. Elme was not taken, till after the death of all the knights who had generously devoted themselves to its defence. Still more awful and bloody was the struggle, when directed against the principal forts of the island, and against the town in which most of the knights resided. Desperate courage on the one side, undaunted intrepidity on the other, daily rendered the ram- parts of Malta a theatre of unparalleled feats of arms. The energy of the Grand-Master seemed to have been transfused into the souls of his brave companions, and the valor of the knights to have commu- nicated itself to all the inhabitants; and such was the admiration wmch the spectacle of their noble heroism excited, that all classes of llie people wished to partake in their glorious exploits. Thus, on' A. D. 1560-1571. WAR AGAINST THE TURKS. 391 one occasion, a band of some hundred boys, with their slings, greatly contributed lo repel a furious assault; on another, two sailors con- trived the best measure to defeat one of the most dangerous attacks of the infidels. Persons of every age and condition labored day and night in repairing the walls, or making new intrenchments, without being frightened by the scenes of carnage, and by the sight of th< dead and of the dying. Even females, forgetting their usual timidity went forward to help their fathers, husbands or sons, and fearlessly appearing upon the breach, threw upon the assailants boiling watei and oil, melted pitch, fire-works, and even large stones, which they would not have been able to move in any other circumstance. As to the Grand-Master, besides continually watching every motion of the enemy, and properly directing all the efforts of the besieged, he seemed to multiply himself, in order to be present at every attack. The imminent danger of death, which he braved a thousand times, never caused him any fear or disturbance. Having, in one of the assaults, received a deep wound, he generously disregarded it, and continued fighting until the Turks were repelled. At another time, his nephew, a brave knight, whom he very tenderly loved, was killed at a short distance from him; La Valette contented himself with saying: "To- morrow we shall have time to weep for the loss of my nephew; let us now avenge his death, by forcing our enemies to fly." Being told that Mustapha, the commander-in-chief of the Turks, had sworn to put all the knights to the sword, and preserve the Grand-Master alone, to bring him before the sultan, "I will prevent him from doing that," coolly replied La Valette: "if, contrary to my expectation, the result of the siege should prove fatal to us, rather than suffer myself to be taken prisoner, I would put on the dress of a common soldier, throw myself into the thickest bands of the enemy, and fight until a glorious death should unite me to my brethren." This noble intrepidity, ably seconded by the undaunted courage of the knights, and the Maltese soldiers, could scarcely fail to be crowned at last with full success. Yet, the Turks were not dispirited ; and for a long time they seemed to derive new strength and ardor from their very defeats, their shame at not having hitherto been able to subdue a handful of warriors, making them perform prodigies of ealor. Besides having recourse to the ordinary modes of warfare, they every day invented new engines to annoy the besieged. Some- times, by means of powerful machines, they threw barrels filled with gun-powder and case shot, so prepared as to burst upon the ramparts and spread death among their foes. On other occasions, they pushed forward to the walls wooden towers, from the tops of which their musketeers might, with deadly aim, shoot down every human being that appeared upon the breach. The besieged, on their ^ide vere 392 MODERN HISTORY. Part vn . not idle in their endeavors to prevent the effects of these murderous machines, either destroying them by the brisk fire of their artillery, or even turning them against their very contrivers. It was an awful spectacle to see the fatal barrels, before they had time to burst, hurled back upon the assailants, the wooden towers dashed in pieces, the ladders broken, and numbers of Janizaries crushed to death at the foot of the ramparts. Not only did Mustapha, in these daily conflicts, lose many of his bravest soldiers, he had moreover the most gloomy prospect before him. Instead of reducing the inhabitants of Malta by famine, as he had, for a time, hoped to do, he began to feel the want of provisions and ammunition in his own camp. He moreover supposed the defen- ders of the besieged places to be much more numerous than they really were; and concluding that it was quite useless to continue the attack against the maritime forts, he turned -his efforts against the city called Notable, the capital of the whole* island. Here also his hopes were entirely frustrated. In his perplexity, he resolved to resume the operations of the former siege; when a body of troops, which had been promised by the king of Spain, at length arrived from Sicily. Although it consisted of only seven thousand men, this number was sufficient to raise the siege. Despondency and consternation had already begun to spread among the Turks; panic and despair suc- ceeded ; and, after a single powerless discharge of musketry, they hastily fled to the shore and reembarked for Constantinople. An end was thus put to the harassing and sanguinary conflict. At the arrival of the auxiliary troops and the departure of the enemy, there remained, in the residence of the knights, not more than six hundred men able to bear arms, and even most of that number had received many wounds. The Spanish and Sicilian allies could not refrain from tears at the sight of these truly invincible, but disfigured and emaciated warriors ; their beards and hair were in a dreadful state ; their garments, owing to the length of time that they had not been changed, were falling to pieces, and covered with dust and gore. It was impossible, at such a spectacle, not to mingle lively feelings of compassion with the transports of joy caused by so happy a delive- rance. In order to transmit to posterity an authentic memorial of these surprising events, the small town, around which so many exploits had been achieved, received the appellation of victorious ciVy, which it still retains. A great and truly noble object now occupied the mind of La Va- lette. In consequence of the furious siege just ended, most of the houses and fortifications were destroyed, the cannons were broken to pieces or greatly damaged, the stores and arsenals were without am munition, the coffers without money, the forts without sufficient gar- A. D. 1560-1571. WAR AGAINST THE TURKS. 393 risons, and those parts of the country which :Jad been the theatre of the war, almost without inhabitants; in a word, Malta was in such a state of desolation, that the bravest knights lost all hope of evei see- ing it recover its former prosperity, and expressed a desire that Sicily should be selected as the residence of the Order. But the Grand- Master, who, even in the utmost distress, had never consented to yield any thing, was much less willing now to abandon that glorious soil so well fitted to produce new laurels. All the Christian princes applauded his magnanimous sentiments, and readily assisted him in carrying out his views. Having therefore chosen a favorable spot, ne laid the foundation of a new city, which he destined to become the principal seat of the Order of St. John; and the work was prose- cuted with so much diligence and activity, as to be nearly completed in the space of five years. The city took the name of her illustrious founder, La Valelte, and being protected both by nature and art, was deservedly reputed the strongest place in Europe. The intelligence of his army's defeat threw Soliman into a pa> roxysm of rage; he trampled under foot the letter of his general, and swore vengeance against the Christians. He however thought it prudent not to attack again the heroes of Malta, and rather chose to vent his resentment against the Christian islands of the Archipelago. Afterwards, the indefatigable sultan led his Janizaries, for the fourth time, into Hungary (A. D. 1566). The storm at this period burst upon Sigeth, a small, but well fortified town, whose brave garrison of three thousand men, and its intrepid commander, Count Nicolas Serini, bound themselves by a solemn oath, if they could not conquer, at least to die together in defence of their religion and their country. Never was there a generous promise better and more resolutely ful- filled. For the space of two months, they successfully resisted an army of one hundred and fifty thousand Turks, destroying upwards of thirty thousand of the foremost among the assailants. At last, finding their own number reduced to two hundred and fifty, they threw open the gates of the fortress, and rushed into the midst of the Janizaries, where they all fell whilst fighting with desperate cou- rage; only two soldiers, who were left for dead on the field of battle, afterwards recovered from their wounds. Thus Sigeth fell under the power of the Turks, but not until it had become, as it were, a heap of ruins, without any one left to defend it any longer. Soliman had not the satisfaction to see the end of that destructive siege; his disap- pointment, roused to fury by so obstinate a resistance, brought on an attack of apoplexy, of which he died three days before the last con- flict. As, however, the ultimate result was the consequence of his exertions, rte capture of Sigeth may be justly accounted as one of 394 MODERN HISTORY. Part ViL the exploits, and as the last, but dearly-bought victory of that re- nowned sultan. Although implicit credit should not be given to all the encomiums bestowed on Soliman by the Turkish writers, since various instances of cruelty and restless ambition are found in his life, which are a stain on his memory; still it must be confessed that his reign \\MS, at least, one of the most brilliant and successful of the Ottoman dy- nasty. This prince nearly equalled Charles V, his cotemporary, in activity, prudence and warlike genius. A famous conqueror and a great general in the field, he was also an able politician and a wise legislator at home; he left behind him many useful institutions; he embellished Constantinople, built a powerful navy, protected learn ing, and, by his munificence, justice and liberality, not only secured to his person and goverment the respect of his Mahometan subjects, but even on many occasions was an object of admiration totheChris- stians themselves. Selim II, who succeeded Soliman on the Turkish throne, did no< possess the military qualities of most of his predecessors, and yet suc- cessfully carried on their plan of aggrandizement and conquest Looking with a jealous eye at the rich island of Cyprus, then in the possession of the Venetians, he equipped a numerous fleet and army, in order to bring it under his power. The greater part of the country surrendered without opposition, Nicosia and Famagusta being the only places that ventured to sustain a siege. The former was taken at the expiration of seven weeks; the latter held out four months, during which the Turks lost, it is said, forty thousand men, and were obliged to fire one hundred and fifty thousand cannon balls. They sullied their victory by shocking cruelties, and the defenders of Cy- prus expiated in tortures the guilt of their vigorous resistance. Above all, the resentment of the infidels vented itself on the intrepid comman- der of Famagusta, Marc Antony Bragadino, whose heroism on that occasion will be remembered by the latest posterity. This great man, being, contrary to the terms of the capitulation, cairied into captivity, experienced the most barbarous treatment from the Turkish general, Mustapha, and was finally flayed alive, without betraying the least symptom of pain, but piously reciting the fiftieth psalm, until he ex- pired in the hands of the executioner. This barbarity of the Turks roused the indignation, while their in creasing power excited the fears, of Christendom. To avert the dan ger which threatened at once religion and civilization in Europe, Pope Pius V exerted all his faculties, authority and zeal. He, on one hand, by letters and embassies, procured the conclusion of a powerful league, consisting of his own states, the kingdom of Spain and the republic of Venice; on th? other hand, he endeavored to se- *. D. 1560-1571. WAR AGAINST THE TURKS. 395 cure victory to their cause by fervent supplications, and by ordering the dismissal from the Christian host of all persons whose vices and immorality might provoke the wrath of heaven. This being done, the combined fleet, consisting of about two hundred and forty vessels, under the command of Don Juan of Austria, a half brother to Philip II, went in search of the Turkish fleet, which was still more nume- rous. The belligerent parties came in sight in the gulf of Lepanto; and nearly on the same spot where Augustus and Antony had for- merly contended for the Roman empire, were the Christians and the Mussulmans now about to fight for the possession of Europe. The seventh of October 1571, witnessed one of the most terrible naval battles recorded in history. For several hours the conflict all along the line was awful, and victory uncertain. At length, the per- severing courage of the confederates, the intrepidity of Don Juan and other generals, their superior skill in naval and military tactics, in fine, a strong and favorable breeze which arose just at the beginning of the battle, and carried clouds of smoke towards the Turks, gave the Christians a decisive victory. The fierce Ottomans lost in that memorable action thirty-five thousand soldiers, witli their admiral and chief officers, fifteen thousand Christian slaves, about two hundred and fifty men-of-war and galleys, three hundred and seventy-two large guns, and an immense booty with which their vessels were loaded.* So signal an overthrow every where spread terror and dismay among the Turks, particularly in Constantinople; whereas the vic- tory of the confederates filled the Christian world with exultation. In Rome, Toledo, and other places, it was celebrated with extraor- dinary rejoicings; the Venetians, above all, manifested their enthu- siasm by forbidding any one to mourn for the loss of those who had perished in the glorious conflict. The conquerors, it is true, did not know how to pursue and improve their victory as much as might have been expected; yet, it cannot be denied that its result was of an im- mense advantage, since it proved not only a check to the progress of the Ottomans, but was also die beginning of their decline, at least as a maritime power. * A more detailed account of the battle of Lepanto may be found in Univers. Hist. vol. LX; Mignot, Hist, de V Empire Ottoman (reign of Se- lim n) ; Hist, du Bas-Empire, continuee par Jlmeilhon, vol. xxvn; also in the Eccles. historians, Be*raut-Bercastel, and Fleury, or rather his con- tinuator, ad ann. 1571 ; and Aiban Butler's Life of St. Pius V, under the fifth of May, with the notes. 396 MODERN HISTORY. Part VLI PHILIP II CONTINUED. THE REPUBLIC OF HOLLAND. FRANCE UNDER THE LAST VALOIS AND HENRY IV. GENERAL STATE OF EUROPE IN THE BEGINNING OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. A. D. 15661618. THE prosecution of the Turkish war did not occupy the whole at- tention of Philip II j he was also, during the same period, and for many years after, engaged in a series of hostilities against Holland. That country, which had been dependent on Spain ever since the ac- cession of Charles V, began openly to shake off the yoke in 1566, under the pretence of political and religious tyranny. Neither the severity of the duke of Alva, nor the abilities of Don Juan, nor the he- roic qualities of Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma, could reestab- lish in it the Spanish domination ; and, in spite both of conferences and arms, the republic of Holland, or of the Seven United Provines, was proclaimed in 1581. It rapidly increased during the first part of the following century j and, by uniting an active spirit of trade ami maritime enterprise with great military skill and numerous exploits on land, it acquired such prosperity, wealth and power, as frequently to counterbalance the influence of the mightiest sovereigns of Eu- rope. However, it was not universally acknowledged as a free and independent state before the year 1648, in the treaty of Westphalia. The Spanish monarch was more successful in his expedition against Portugal. Not long before, under the reign of Emmanuel and John III, this kingdom had reached the height of opulence and glory. One single act of imprudence on the part of the young king Don Sebastian, in 1578, caused it not only to fall from the high rank which it held among European nations, but even to lose for a time its independence. Contrary to the advice of his wisest counsellor?, that impetuous monarch obstinately wished to engage in an expedition against some princes in Africa. A battle was fought, in which he displayed surprising valor, but finally met with a complete over- throw: the Portuguese troops were cut to pieces, and he himself disappeared, and was never seen afterwards. As he left no issue, the crown of Portugal was claimed by many competitors, who pre- pared to support their pretensions by recourse to law, or by force of arms ; but Philip of Spain, who was beyond comparison the most powerful of all the aspirants to the throne, overcame his rivals. Por- tugal was subdued in one campaign, and, with its numerous settle- ments in other parts of the globe, remained annexed to the Spanish monarchy during sixty years, viz: from 1580 to 1640, when a sud den and successful revolution restored it to its native princes. A. D. 1568-1618. PHILIP II CONTINUED, ETC. 397 By the addition of Portugal and its appendages to his hereditary dominions, Philip II became the sovereign of the most extensive monarchy that had hitherto existed. Several countries of Europe and Asia, and nearly all the regions of America until then discovered, obeyed his laws ; hence he was used to say, and with truth, that the sun never set on all his dominions at once. Nor was his mind un- equal to the task of regulating so vast and so complicated a machine. He was continually watching over the different provinces of his amazing monarchy, there being no department of the public adminis- tration with which he was not familiarly acquainted, no affair of im- portance to which he did not personally attend, no minister of state, no general of his army, whose public conduct he did not diligently observe, in order to keep all within the bounds of duty. Philip moreover exercised a considerable influence over the other states of Europe, particularly France; he even cherished for a long time the hope of placing one of his children upon the French throne. That kingdom, after the vigorous reign of Henry II, had fallen into a deplorable state under his weak succcessors, Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III, owing chiefly to an almost uninterrupted series of civil wars between the Catholics, who wished to maintain the ancient faith, and the Huguenots or Calvinists, who were anxious to establish their own religious system. The evil was increased, in 1572, by the massacre on St. Bartholomew's day, in which many hundred Protestants were, by an act of cruel retaliation, immolated to the resentment and vengeance of the court.* At the death of Henry III, who fell by the sword of an assassin in 1589, Philip II endeavored, by every means in his power, to exclude the nearest heir, Henry of Bourbon and Navarre, who was a Protestant, from a throne which had always been occupied by Catholic monarchs; bul the many victories of Henry, enhanced by his truly royal qualities, and finally his return to the Catholic Church/}" baffled the projects and frustrated the hopes of the Spanish sovereign. All obstacles were removed in 1595, and the king of Navarre, the head of the Bourbon family, was universally acknowledged king of France undei the name of Henry IV ; a name, notwithstanding the individual frail ties of the monarch, ever to be held in grateful remembrance for the * See note N. | The conversion of Henry IV was not, as the infidel Voltaire presumed to assert, owing to political and interested motives, but the fruit of doctri- nal conferences held in his presence. Having asked the Protestant divines whether he could be saved in the Catholic religion, and being answered in the affirmative, he concluded that it was undoubtedly the safer step to be- come a Catholic. He immediately began to act up to this conclusion ; and from that time, never ceased to evince the most sincere and strong attach- ment to the faith which he had embraced. 34 398 MODERN HISTORY. Part VII return of happiness and prosperity which it secured to this long afflicted kingdom. In the mean time, Philip II, worn down by age, infirmity and toil, was called from this world, and left his immense possessions to his son Philip III. His last moments, amidst the acute pains of a com- plicated disease, more and more manifested that firmness and energy of character which he had so frequently displayed during his long career. He died, after a reign of forty -two years, on the thirteenth of September (A. D. 1598). Five years later, the famous queen of England, Elizabeth, also departed this life, and was succeeded by the son of the unfortunate Mary Stuart, James of Scotland, who was really the nearest heir to the British throne, when the posterity of Henry VIII became extinct by the death of Elizabeth. Being the first who reigned over the united kingdoms of England, Ireland and Scotland, James, on that account, took the title of King of Great Britain. Under these new and pacific sovereigns, Europe, generally speak- ing, enjoyed a profound peace during the first part of the seventeenth century. Still, a violent storm was preparing against the house of Austria, whose preponderance destroyed, in the opinion of many, the necessary equilibrium among the monarchs of Europe. It was the desire of the neighboring princes, and particularly of the French king, to weaken her power, and great preparations were already made for that purpose, when Henry IV fell by the poniard of a base assassin, on the fourteenth of May, in the year 1610. This tragical event delayed for a time the project of the confede- rates, and plunged France into the deepest affliction. At the news of Henry's death, all labor ceased; commerce was interrupted; in the towns, especially in the capital, nothing was heard but sobs and lamentations, and country people were seen to shed torrents of tears, thus testifying their gratitude for the truly paternal affection which the good king had always manifested for this class of his subjects. It was his wish that they could have a fowl to eat every Sunday, and his delight to talk with them about their toils, their profits and losses, and even their smallest concerns. In a word, to promote the happiness of his people may truly be said to have been his predomi- nant passion ; hence we need not wonder that he conciliated to him- self the love of the French nation, and won the admiration of all ages and countries. Even at present, the name of Henry IV reminds every one of a gracious, mild and beneficent king, who rendered himself still more commendable for the generosity of his feelings, than for all his other princely and royal qualities. A. D. 1618-1648. THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. THE THIRTY YEARS WAR. A. D. 16181648. THE intended war against the Austrian family, which had been postponed on account of the death of Henry IV, at length broke out in 1618, and lasted, almost without interruption, during the space of thirty years. Its commencement coincides with the beginning of the reign of Ferdinand II, an emperor whose magnanimity and other virtues won the admiration oven of his enemies. His chief allies were the king of Spain, his relative, the king of Poland, and the duke f Bavaria : the principal among the belligerent powers on the oppo- site side were, at different times, Denmark, Sweden and France. The two first mentioned of these three nations had hitherto been little known, except from their quarrels with each other; but they now began to take an active pan. and to exert a certain influence in the general affairs of Europe. The first manifestation of hostility in this sanguinary contest, was made by the Bohemians, who had revolted against the Austrian domination, and by Christian IV, king of Denmark, who supported them with a powerful army; but both the Danes and Bohemians were entirely overthrown by the imperial troops. In a few cam- paigns, Tilly and Walstein, two distinguished generals, compelled the enemies of Ferdinand II to desist from their hostile designs, and submit to the conditions which he thought proper to impose on them (A. D. 1629). Unfortunately, the victorious emperor refused to comprise Sweden in the treaty of peace. This kingdom was at that time under the sway of Gustavus Adolphus, a young hero, with whose abilities, energy and resources Ferdinand II and his allies were but slightly acquainted. Deeply offended at the refusal, Gustavus immediately prepared to renew the struggle ; and, like another Annibal, resolved to attack his enemies in the centre of their possessions. His very first appearance in the north of Germany, at the head of a brave and well disciplined host, inclined the scale of fortune in his favor. All fled before him, and Tilly, who attempted to stop his progress, was himself, after an obstinate engagement, completely defeated in the plains of Leipzic (A. D. 1631). A second battle was equally unfa- vorable to that great general, who died a few days after of his wounds, having lived, it was said, one year too long for his reputa- tion and glory. Walstein then assumed the chief command, and hastened with fresh troops to oppose Gustavus. The armies again met near the village of Lutzen, and fought with such animosity, that victory was 400 MODERN HISTORY. Part Vll. for a long time doubtful. At length, the Swedes, by uncommon and desperate efforts, remained in possession of the field, but lost their invincible leader, who was slain during the hottest part of the action (A. D. 1632). This accident was more fatal to them, than the defeat of their army would have been. For, although several able com- manders, by order of their senate, continued the war with great vigor, yet they wanted his penetrating genius; and no later than the yeai 1634, the Swedish army was signally overthrown by the imperialists in the battle of Nordlingen. This victory of Ferdinand raised his party again, whereas the loss of eighteen thousand men weakened his opponents to such a degree, that France, their most powerful ally, was obliged, from that time, to take the principal share in the prosecution of the war. The French throne was, at this period, occupied by the son ot Henry IV, Louis XIII, a just, bravo and religious prince, who had given many proofs of great personal courage and of a successful administration. Louis, it is true, did not seem much inclined of him- self to make foreign conquests ; but he possessed in the person of Cardinal Richelieu, a minister of state equally skilled in conceiving mighty plans, and in carrying them into execution. This powerful genius had hitherto rendered very important services to his sovereign and country, by destroying the excessive power of some of the lords, and giving the last blow to the feudal system; by crushing the rest- lessness of the Huguenots, rooting out the seed of new civil wars, and subduing La Rochelle, the principal seat of discontent and rebel- lion ; in fine, by establishing the French academy, and laying the foundation of the glory of the following reign. He had just raised the kingdom to this state of prosperity, when the Swedes experienced that defeat at Nordlingen, which obliged their allies to make greater exertions against the common enemy. Hostilities were now carried on principally between Austria and France. As each nation pos- sessed brave troops and skilful generals, numberless exploits were achieved on both sides; still no decisive action took place for several years, so that neither the emperor Ferdinand II on one hand, nor Louis XIII and Richelieu on the other, lived to see the termination of the war. It continued under Ferdinand III, and during the minority of the young king Louis XIV, who began, at the age of five, a glorious reign which lasted seventy-two years. Its very beginning, in 1643, was marked by a brilliant victory. The duke of Enghien, better known under his subsequent name of the prince of Conde, had been, a short time before, placed at the head of the French army. The first act of his military career was to conquer and destroy, near Ro- croy in Champagne, the formidable Spanish infantry so renowned * *. D. 1625-1660. CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND; ETC. 40] for its discipline and valor ever since the time of King Ferdinand V. This victory, gained by a general scarcely twenty-two years of age, gave France a decided superiority, which the same prince, together with his rival in glory, the marshal of Turenne, strengthened more and more by his subsequent triumphs at Friburg, in 1644, Nordlin- gen, in 1645, and Lens, in 1648. So many victories for one party and losses for the other terminated, towards the close of the year 1648, in the famous treaty of Munster and Osnaburgh, commonly called the treaty of Westphalia. By that treaty, the authority of the emperor was reduced to narrower limits, and by a natural consequence, which the French plenipotentiaries endeavored in vain to avert, the Catholics lost much of their influence in Germany. Holland was formally acknowledged as an independent state, and valuable possessions were acquired to France and Sweden. Thus was peace restored in the greater part of Europe; but, the treaty of Westphalia not having been fully accepted by the Spanish king, Philip IV, who still cherished the hope of retrieving his late defeats, hostilities continued for some years longer between him and France. As to England, she had been, nearly all that time, too deeply engaged at home by dissensions and civil wars, to take any active share in these distant broils of continental Europe. CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND. COMMONWEALTH. RESTORA- TION. A. i>. 16251660. THE whole reign of James I had passed in comparative tranquil- lity;* but this was rather a deceitful peace, and one of those calms which prognosticate a storm. At his death (A. D. 1625), he left to his son Charles I, an empty treasury, a refractory parliament, a kingdom given up to religious disputes and distracted by rival socie- ties, the principal of which were the Episcopalians or Anglicans and the Presbyterians or Puritans. James had always desired to put down the latter of these two parties, but he left the work to be accomplished, * It was under this reis;n that some infuriated persons, nominal Catholics, formed the horrid project, called the gun-powder plot, of blowing up the parliament-house during the session. The plot was detected, and its authors met with condign punishment : unfortunately, several innocent per- sons were involved in their ruin, and prejudice went so far as to throw the blame upon the whole body of Catholics ; as if Catholics at large could be accountable for the conduct of a few desperadoes whose plot they never knew or the code of Catholic principles answerable for a crime which it always condemned and abhorred ! 84* 402 MODERN HISTORY. lart V1L if possible, by hb successor; and when Charles made the attempt, h met with a resistance which proved the cause of his own ruin. An order had been issued for the general adoption of the Anglican doctrine and liturgy even in Scotland. The Puritans, who were numerous and powerful there, boldly opposed the royal decrees, and swore to defend their manner of worship against every attack, from whatever quarter it might proceed. In order to quell the insurrec- tion, Charles marshalled an army, and led it towards the frontiers; still, yielding to his inclination for peace, he consented to come to an agreement with the Scots, though at the risk of diminishing his authority. This act of condescension, instead of dissolving the Scot- tish covenant, seemed rather to give it new strength; and the cove- nanters grew bolder than ever, especially when they saw their cause openly supported by the English parliament, which was still more opposed to the court than themselves. This parliament seemed absolutely resolved to thwart the monarch in all his views, and to strip the crown of its best prerogatives. Charles yielded on many points ; but, finding all his condescension of no avail in reestablishing concord and tranquillity, and moreover, never receiving the necessary subsidies, he had recourse to arms, and summoned around him those who were still attached to his person, his government, or his fortunes. The parliament also raised troops; the exasperation of both parties burst into an open flame, and civil war in every part of the realm was the dire consequence (A. D. 1642). This revolution seemed at first favorable to Charles, who gained in person great advantages, and forced one of the parliamentary armies, under the command of the earl of Essex, to capitulate and surrender. But these successes of the royal cause were counteracted by the loss of the bloody battle of Marston Moor, fought in the north of England (A. D. 1644) ; and, on the fourteenth of June of the ensuing year, the still more fatal battle of Naseby deprived the king of nearly all his resources. Believing that there was no safer way to escape from the lury of his enemies than to take refuge among the Scots, he deter- mined to throw himself upon their loyalty, and to surrender himself into their hands. This was running from one danger into another; the Scottish army (not the nation at large), after a short hesitation, shamefully delivered him to the English parliament for the sum of four hundred thousand pounds. A new party had now arisen in England, very appropriately called the Independents, because in reality they claimed an entire indepen- dence in all matters both civil and religious. At their head were Fairfax and Cromwell, two men famous in the history of those times, the former for his valor and skill in the command of armies,*the A. . 188S-1660. CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND, ETC. 403 latter for his intriguing genius and uncommon talent in every sort of political and military transactions. With a boundless ambition,, which he artfully concealed under the veil of modesty and religious zeal all means, whether just or criminal, were equally good in his sight provided they would promote the object of his designs. In a shou time, his ability raised him to the chief command of the troops, his refined intrigues to the first rank in his party, and his artful ambition to the sovereign power. Cromwell had contributed more than any one to the overthrow of .the royalists in the battles of Marston Moor and Naseby. Possessing, on that account, vast influence in the army, he made himself master of tbe king's person, and, confining him in a prison, defeated all the attempts that were made to set him at liberty. Afterwards, the bold usurper appointed a committee, which he took care to compose of his warmest partisans, for the trial of the royal captive. Charles indeed refused to acknowledge the competency of that tribunal, and answered the absurd charges laid against him by a dignified silence or a smile of contempt; still, the proceedings went on with unusual rapidity: after a mock examination, he was outlawed, condemned to death as if he were a foe to the English nation, and, in fine, exe- cuted in London on the thirtieth of January (A. D. 1649). His most faithful defenders and friends soon experienced the same fate; and England saw with dismay her most distinguished lords perish on the scaffold. On this sanguinary foundation a commonwealth arose in the place of the ancient monarchy, a new constitution was published, and shortly after Cromwell was acknowledged as head of the govern- ment under the title of Protector. In the mean while, great and numerous were the obstacles which he had to encounter every where. No sooner had the intelligence of the king's death spread abroad, than parties were formed in Ire- land, Scotland, and England itself, against the usurpers. A man of ordinary talents would have sunk under these accumulated obstacles; Cromwell overcame them all by his prudence and activity. After giving in charge to some of his generals to quell the insurrection in England, he himself rapidly passed over to Ireland, compelled by the superiority of his forces the inhabitants to submit, and, returning with the same celerity, advanced against the Scots, whom he sur- prised and defeated at Dunbar (A. D. 1650). This overthrow did not prevent Charles, the eldest son of the late monarch, from penetrating into England at the head of fourteen thousand men. But Cromwell closely followed him, met the royalists again near Worcester, and gained over them a complete and decisive victo$r; Charles succeeded, with extreme difficulty, in saving his life, and escaped into France by crossing the channel in a boat. 404 MODERN HISTORY. Part V n Cromwell returned in triumph to London, and thenceforth occu- pied himself in securing the prosperity of the realm by a vigorous and wise administration. Although the government was called a republic, he acted more absolutely than perhaps any English king had ever done, dissolving the parliament whenever it opposed his views and measures. Tranquillity was restored to England; litera- ture, arts and sciences were protected, and useful laws enacted, as well against blasphemy and luxury, as for the maintenance of order and justice. Commerce also was revived, and the navy greatly increased. Whilst he was thus securing the prosperity of his government at home, Cromwell caused it to be also respected abroad. " I wish," said he, " to see the British commonwealth as much honored by other nations, as the Roman republic once was." Accordingly, the English vessels triumphantly swept every sea; haughty conditions were imposed on the rival powers of Europe ; and the Dutch, who alone ventured to question the superiority of the British flag, were soon compelled to respect it in a series of great naval battles, in the last of which they lost their celebrated admiral Van Tromp. Cromwell received still greater honor, in beholding his alliance sought with equal eagerness by France and Spain. Between these two nations, war had already lasted more than twenty years, although of late it had begun to languish, owing to the civil feuds which dis- turbed the minority of Louis XIV and divided the attention of the French court. After some hesitation, the Protector preferred the alliance of France, and afforded the young king such assistance in troops and vessels, as to destroy the equilibrium which had so long protracted the war against Spain. As a compensation for this effi- cient aid, and an indemnity for the expenses incurred, he required that the important city of Dunkirk should be besieged, and the keys delivered into his hands, and that France, moreover, should afford no refuge or protection to the exiled sons of Charles I. In consequence of this treaty, preparations were made for two grand expeditions. A British fleet, under the command of Blake, went in search of the Spanish forces, and gained two victories neaf the shores of Spain and Africa; and Jamaica was also conquered by the English, in whose possession it has since continued. On land, Marshal Turenne, already famous for many glorious campaigns and victories, led his army, composed of French and English troops, to the siege of Dunkirk. The Spaniards, on their side, were not idle ; they approached the French lines for the purpose of raising the siege, but were entirely defeated in the celebrated battle of Dunes, the more honorable to Turenne, as he vanquished at once three able generals, *iz. Don Juan the commander-in-chjef, and also the prince of Conde BRITISH AND FRENCH COLONIES; ETC. 405 and the duke of York, both of whom, discontented with the court oi France, had gone over to the party of the Spaniards (A. D. 1658). Within a few days Dunkirk capitulated, and, according to the previous agreement, was surrendered to the English. Two other vic- tories, and the capture of several other towns, terminated that deci- sive campaign, which was soon followed by the conclusion of peace between Spain and France on terms very advantageous to the latter. The prince of Conde was included in the treaty between the two crowns. Cromwell did not witness the termination of the war, having died a short time before, just when the prosperous issue of his alliance with France had raised him to the zenith of his glory. However, neither in this nor in any other successful scheme had he ever en- joyed real happiness. From the moment in which he was invested with the supreme power to that of his death, his mind labored under a constant dread of assassination ; nor were his numberless precau- tions and multiplied guards able to remove his fears. The nights es- pecially he passed in a most feverish anx-iety, never sleeping twice, or more than twice in succession, in the same chamber, and taking care that, besides the principal door, there should be some other se- cret one for the facility of escape. He died at the age of fifty-nine (A. D. 1658), on the third of September, the anniversary of the vic- tories obtained by him at Worcester and Dunbar, the former seven, the latter eight years before. Almost simultaneously with Cromwell fell the form of government which he had established. Richard, his son, was, it is true, appointed Protector in his place; but, possessing neither the abilities nor the ambition of his father, he soon resigned the office, and the English, being at length tired of so precarious a state of things, agreed to re- call the royal family of the Stuarts. The whole affair, admirably well conducted by General Monk, afterwards called the duke of Al bemarle, was finally accomplished in May 1660, when Charles II was, with universal satisfaction and applause, replaced upon the throne of his ancestors. BRITISH AND FRENCH COLONIES IN NORTH AMERICA. THESE successive changes of government were adopted, without much difficulty, by the numerous settlements which England already possessed in North America. It would have been impossible for these rising colonies, especially at such a distance, efficaciously to re- gist the course of events that took place in the mother-ccHintry ; 406 MODERN HISTORY Part VII. the more so, as many of the emigrants had a long and bloody strug- gle to maintain against the Indians, whom, it must be acknowledged, they rather harshly treated almost from the beginning, and who, in return, frequently opposed with all their might the rise and progress of the English settlements. Notwithstanding these obstacles, the colonies gradually improved, and, at length, by dint of labor, indus- try and courage, became very prosperous. The most remarkable of them were established under the govern ment of the Stuarts, and in the following chronological order: Fir ginia, in 1607, by Episcopalians; New Amsterdam, or New York, in 1614, or thereabouts, by the Dutch; this colony lost the former, and took the tatter name in 1664 or 1665, when it passed under the power of the English; Massachusetts and Boston, in 1620 1630;* Maryland, in 1632 1634, by Catholics, according to the plan of Sir George Calvert, Lord Baltimore, a nobleman of liberal character and distinguished abilities, and under the direction of his sons Cecilius and Leonard Calvert; the city of Baltimore was not however built till a much later period: Pennsylvania and Philadelphia, in 1681 1682, by Quakers, under the celebrated William Penn, to whom that portion of the American territory was ceded by the British court as a reward for the services of Admiral Penn, his father. In these two last States, a system of equity, humanity and meek- ness was adopted with regard to the Indian tribes, which did great honor to the first settlers, and greatly contributed to their rapid in- crease and early prosperity. A still more distinguishing feature of the colony of Maryland is the example of Christian moderation and mildness which she gave to her sister colonies; an example hitherto unknown in the history of America. For, whilst Virginia and New England were dooming, the former to exile, the latter to still harsher treatment, all who dissented from their respective creeds, Lord Balti- more and his associates, without in the least admitting religious in- difference, being themselves sincere Catholics, removed however all idea of religious persecution, and legally recognised, from the begin- ning, that civil freedom of conscience which has since been adopted by the Constitution of the United States. It was also chiefly during the course of the seventeenth century, that the French made regular settlements in those parts of North * Some years later, were founded most of the other New England States Those of Delaware and New Jersey were first settled by Swedes and Dutch, shortly after New York. Lord Clarendon and other English emi- grants commenced, in 1663 1670, the establishment of Carolina; but it was only in 1729 that the country was completely divided into Norih and South Carolina. Georgia was settled in 17321735. The other States of the Union, besides those mentioned above, are of much more recent date. REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. 407 America, which they had previously discovered, particularly in Cana- da. Guam plain, an active and enterprising officer, founded Quebec in 1608 ; and in 1642, Montreal began to rise, and soon after to pros- per under the active care of zealous settlers, and especially of the congregation of the Sulpitians, to whom the whole island was ceded about this time. Louisiana also became one of the French colonies, though somewhat later, New Orleans not having begun to exist be- fore the year 1718. Florida belonged at that time to the Spaniards. SPLENDOR OF THE REIGN OF LOUIS XIV. WHEN the restoration of the Stuarts to the throne of England took place, Louis XIV of France had been king for seventeen years; but, as he fully relied upon the experience of his mother, Anne of Austria, and on the consummate skill of his prime-minister, Cardinal Mazarin, he at first interfered little in the government of his king- kom. However, even at that time, he occasionally evinced such an energy of character, as plainly to indicate what he might effect in a subsequent period. Mazarin died in 1661, and Louis, then twenty- three years old, took the reins of government into his own hands, and never afterwards relinquished them, nor ceased to hold them in a manner suitable to his power and dignity. He soon verified a saying of the deceased cardinal, that there was in him sufficient material to make four kings. Every branch of the public administration assumed under him a grand and majestic as- pect. He settled with precision the extent of power to be exercised by each one of his ministers ; required them to come to an account with him at stated hours; and, whilst he*encouraged them by sincere marks of confidence, carefully observed their proceedings, lest they should abuse their authority. His manner of governing, alike dig- nified and courteous, secured to him the respect of foreigners and the affection of his own people. Military discipline was enforced, the public revenues were managed with prudence and wisdom, and strict order was observed in the courts of justice. Safe and capacious har- bors were in a short time constructed and made ready to receive all kinds of vessels ; the canal of Languedoc, a work not unworthy of the genius of ancient Rome, opened an easy communication between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea, and a powerful navy was equipped, to contend for the empire of the ocean with tne chief maritime forces then in existence. Under this mighty impulse given to every improvement, commerce and industry increased, splendid manufactories arose, which aston- 408 MODERN HISTORY. Part VJ1 ished the world by the beauty and elegance of their productions in porcelain, looking' glasses, tapestry, etc. The academies of sciences, belles-lettres, sculpture and painting, were no sooner established than they issued master-pieces of every description. Architecture dis- played all its magnificence in the palaces of the Louvre and of Ver- sailles. All the fine arts, with the various branches of literature and useful knowledge, were encouraged, enlivened, protected both at home and abroad ; and no fewer than sixty learned men, in the dif- ferent countries of Europe, received from Louis presents and other marks of esteem, with letters no less honorable to the monarch than to themselves. France alone produced at that epoch an incredible multitude of personages highly distinguished for their qualifications ; and the same age which saw with admiration Conde and Turenne, Luxembourg and Villars at the head of armies, Duquesne and Tour- ville in the navy, Louvois and Colbert in the cabinet, beheld also with astonishment the transcendent merit of Bossuet, Fenelon, Bour- daloue, Massillon, Flechier, in sacred eloquence; of Mabillon, Mont- faucon, Thomassin, Petavius, Huet, in sacred learning; of Pascal and Descartes in mathematics and philosophy ; of Lamoignon and d'Aguesseau, in jurisprudence; of Corneille, Racine, Boileau, J. B. Rousseau, Lafontaine, in poetry; etc. In a word, the reign of Louis XIV was, in every respect, the reign of taste and genius; one, during which the capital of France seemed to have become another Rome or Athens, so as to render that age, if not superior, at least equal to the most brilliant ages of antiquity. Hence the name of Louis was respected among the remotest nations of the earth, and ambassadors came from the eastern extremities of Asia to court his alliance and friendship. Nothing however can appear so honorable to the memory of that monarch, as the great zeal which he constantly evinced for the interests of religion. He encouraged and promoted the diffusion of Christianity in the various parts of the world. It was chiefly during his reign, that crowds of pious and learned missionaries set out from France, to preach the gospel in North and South America, in China, Persia, Egypt and other countries, where they rendered invaluable services as well to the Church, as to science and to the cause of humanity. In his own kingdom, he extended the same protection to all good and useful institutions, he checked by severe edicts the practice of duelling and the profanations of the name of God, and also enact- ed various laws for the preservation of good order, tranquillity and justice. As for himself, although his personal conduct was not always irreprehensible, he however always remained strongly attached to religion, always set -the example of modesty in prayer and pro- found respect in church, an4 ultimately atoned for the faults of youth A. xx 1684-1669. WAR OF FLANDERS; ETC. 400 by the practice of solid virtues and the exercises of genuine piety in a more advanced age. With regard to the glory of arms, never perhaps did either France or any other country behold a greater and more brilliant display of military talents than under the reign of Louis XIV. This will be the object of the following sections. WAR OF FLANDERS- OF CANDIA, ETC. A. D. 16641669. THE reader has already noticed the glory and advantages acquired by France in the last war against Spain and Austria. Spain was again humbled, in 1667 1668, by the arms of Louis, and such was the rapidity of his conquests both in Franche-Comte and Flanders, that a confederacy of the neighboring nations was thought necessary to stop his progress. A league was therefore concluded, under the name of the triple alliance, by England, Holland and Sweden, the contracting powers agreeing among themselves to settle the differences of France and Spain upon reasonable terms, capable of reconciling their opposite pretensions. By a subsequent treaty signed at Aix- la-Chapelle, the French monarch was permitted to retain his con- quests in Flanders, and the Spanish king, now Charles II, was con- tented with the restoration of Franche-Comte. In the year preceding the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1667), a simi- lar transaction had taken place at Breda between the English and the Dutch, for the adjustment of their own differences. A new con- test had previously arisen among them, which iaged for some years with great fierceness, much bloodshed, and enormous expense; seve- ral naval battles had been fought, equally obstinate and undecisive; however, the final result was favorable to the English, who obtained from the Dutch, by the treaty of Breda, the unqualified cession of extensive and valuable settlements in America. Louis XIV was not so much engaged in these great concerns of war and peace with his neighbors, as not to take an active share in the interests of more distant nations. In the year 1664, he sent a body of troops to assist the emperor Leopold against a fresh inva- sion of the Turks. This and other succors granted by different princes enabled Montecuculli, the commander-in-chief of the Austrian forces, to fight, near the river Raab, the celebrated battle of St. Go- thard, in which the Turks were entirely defeated, and compelled to postpone their projects of invasion. Four years later, a similar though less successful assistance was sent by the French king to the Venetians, for the defence of the island 35 41 J MODERN HISTORY. Part V l ;: ad ol Candia now vigorously attacked by the same infidels. T siege, or rather blockade of the capital, also called Candia, had already lasted twenty years, when the grand-vizier, Achmet Kiuperly, determined to bring it, by redoubled efforts, to a speedy issue. He himself landed in the island, and closely invested the town with an army no less formidable for its numbers than for its valor and disci- pline. The siege still lasted two years and a half, being thus one of the mst ceL brated in either ancient or modern age*:, for the obsti- na -y of both parlies and the mighty exertions performed on each side. The 1 ' >rmed the place no fewer than (it'ty-six times; and, in the intervals, their artillery, consisting of three hundred cannons, played with such incessant fury, as to make the ramparts of Candia of ruins. The besieged, on their part, fired against their foes upwards of five hundred thousand bombs or bullets, expended fifty thousand barrels of gun -powder, and. ;>ellinp all the assaults of the enemy, made iii. agninst the Turkish intrenchment^. So terrible ami obsiinato a warfare could not fail to beext: desirm live. A'vc.riing to the most moderate ai-nimit, the Turks, before they could lal-. on of < 'aiuli.i, l.ist one hundred and , , and the ( "luiMiaMs, thirty thousan-: . There w all around the city, one spot which had not bevn moistened by the blood of many heroes. But the garrison being now reduced to a handful of men, mostly wounded, or exhausted by their exertions, it appeared evident that the place could hold out no longer; and the Venetian commanders were at length induced to surrender it upon the terms of an honorable capitulation, which Kiuperly granted and faithfully executed (A. D. 1669). In all this, the grand-vizier acted with a moderation that did him no less honor than his manner of conducting and concluding the siege. This great man, still more to be admired as a minister of state than as a general, presently applied to npair in the island the numberless calamities it had suffered from so furious a war, and his efforts aided by the natural salubrity of the climate and the fertility of the soil, were soon attended with complete success. He then returned to Constantinople, whore, under the young sultan Mahomet IV, he continued to govern (he state with prudence and ability until the moment of his death, which happened in 1676. To return to Louis XIV; this monarch was more successful in checking the depredations of the Alrjerine pirates, than he had beca in saving Candia from the arms of the Ottomans. Squadrons which he despatched at different times, obliged those pirates to disappear fora while, and restored security to commerce on the Mediterranean sea. A. D. 1672-1668. WAR OF HOLLAND; ETC. 411 WAR OF HOLLAND AND SUBSEQUENT EVENTS TILL THE LEAGUE OF AUGSBURG. A. D. 16721686. A still greater design engaged at the same time the attention of Louis. The Dutch having of late given him many causes of com- plaint, he resolved to humble their pride and chastise their ingrati- tude. In the year 1672, a well disciplined force of one hundred and ten thousand men, commanded by the king in person, and by Conde and Turenne under him, crossed the Rhine, and overran a great part of Holland with little or no opposition. Their march was so rapid and successful, that, in the space of two months, three of the seven united provinces were subdued, and forty fortified towns captured. The army continuing to advance, and the conqueror refusing to grant peace except on rigorous and humiliating terms, the Dutch, in their despair, came to the determination of opening therr dykes and inundating the country. This bold measure saved them from utter ruin, and the French finding themselves in the midst of waters, were at last compelled to retreat. In the mean while, William, Prince of Orange, who had been just appointed stadtholder of the republic, was using all his efforts to rouse the great European powers against Louis XIV. His exertions easily induced the king of Spain, the emperor of Germany, and the elector of Brandenburg, all of whom were alarmed at the views of the French monarch, to declare in favor of the Dutch ; England alone remained at this time an ally to France, and that for two years only. In 1073, great naval battles were fought in the channel be- tween the fleet of Holland and the combined fleets of England and France, without any considerable advantage for either party. Three other engagements which took place on the Mediterranean sea, were more decisive; in the first, the celebrated Dutch admiral, Ruyter, was worsted by the French under Duquesne; in the second, he lost his life near Messina, a maritime town of Sicily ; and shortly after, his fleet, attacked for the third time, was almost entirely destroyed (A. *>. 1676). Still more important events happened on land, particularly along the frontiers of Germany and Flanders. Franche-Comte now be- came inseparably annexed to the French crown, being a second time subdued by the king, who commanded in person an army on that side. Conde, with another, attacked, near Senef, the united forces of (he allies, surprised their rear, and, before it could receive reinforce- ments, cut it in pieces. He then bore down upon the main body of fheir troops, and, after a sharp engagement, forced them to abandon 412 MODERN HISTORY. Part VII the field of battle. Not satisfied with this, and, like Caesar, accounting nothing to have been done as long as there remained something to do,* the victorious prince pushed forward, and, for the third time, attacked the confederates in a strong position, where all their forces were as- sembled under the command of the Prince of Orange. Here the conflict was most obstinate and bloody, the slaughter on both sides being carried on from ten in the morning till eleven at night, so as to cost the lives of fifteen, some say, twenty-seven thousand combatants. The allies, though not positively defeated, retired first from this melancholy scene of carnage, and perceiving that they were yet too closely followed by the French, withdrew to a greater distance from the frontier (A. D. 1674). Whilst Conde drove his opponents before him in the Netherlands, Turenne, with twenty thousand men, had to oppose, near the Rhine, sixty thousand German troops, who aimed at nothing less than the conquest of Alsace and Lorraine, whence they might after winter, strike terror into the very heart of Kran.-f. The I'Vneu -em nil, who had until then separately defeated the different bodies of thrir army before a junction could be effected by them, now seemed to be fright- ened at the approach of their joint numbers, so superior to his own. He therefore left the banks of the Rhine, and retiring as far as the confines of Lorraine, abandoned the whole province of Alsace to the enemy. This retreat, though admirably well conducted, and achieved without the loss of a single man, seemed contrary to the promise which Turenne had previously made to save the French territory from invasion, and was to every one a subject of astonishment, and the more so as he had, at the same time, countermanded fifteen thousand men who were advancing through Lorraine to reinforce his army. In the mean while, the German troops freely overran all Alsace, choosing the best positions for their winter quarters, and acting with as much security as if they had been in their own native land. This was exactly the opportunity that Turenne wanted for the execution of a design which he had been maturing for two months. Having divided his troops into different bodies, he put them all in motion in the dead of winter, and without disclosing his intention to any per- son in the army, commanded them to march on by different and dif- ficult roads across mountains and defiles, and to meet at *he same time and place, both of which were specified. After a month of separation and painful marches, they found themselves all collected in one spot, with Turenne at their head, not far from the first of the enemy 's posts. * Nil actum credens, qutlm quid superesset agendum. Lucan, lib, ir. I. 657. A, B. 1673-1686. WAR OF HOLLAND, ETC. 413 The chief commanders of the allies refused to believe the first in- formation that was given them of the return of the French ; but their incredulity was soon obliged to yield to the evidence of the tact. Their posts were briskly attacked and obliged to surrender, their scattered troops fell into the hands of the assailants, and those only who had been stationed at a great distance, avoided the snare laid for their destruction. Such as could escape, precipitately retreated to- wards Colmar, where their leaders had appointed the general rendez- vous. Although their number had been- greatly diminished, it still surpassed that of the conquerors; and having, besides, taken a very advaatageous position, they could scarcely believe that the French would attack them in this their last and strongest intrenchment. But Turenne was too skilful either to lose the opportunity of striking a decisive blow, or to forget any thing that might ensure success. No sooner had he arrived in sight of the enemy, than he posted the greater part of his forces just opposite to their front; and he himself, making a wide circuit with some squadrons and regiments, suddenly appeared on their flank. The attack then commenced, and was con- ducted, on the side of the French, with such vigor and skill, that the dispirited imperialists soon began to waver; a general flight ensued, and the sad remnant of their forces availed themselves of the dark- ness of the night to retire to Strasburg, whence, by recrossing the Rhine, they speedily returned to their own territory. This wonderful campaign filled up the measure of Turenne's rcv putation and glory. In hearing its details, not only France, but all Europe was filled with admiration; especially, when from a letter written two months before by the marshal himself to the secretary of state, it became publicly known, that so many encampments and marches, even the movements of the allies and the ultimate result of the expedition had been foreseen and planned in his mind exactly as they happened.* The ensuing year (1675) again beheld Turenne at the head of the French army near the Rhine. He had now to fight against the earl of Montecuculli, an opponent in every way worthy of him on account of his consummate ability and experience. During four successive months, these two great men exhausted against each other all the stratagems and resources of military tactics, without either of them being able, all that time, to surprise his enemy in any faulty or incon- siderate measure. Turenne, however, by his masterly manoeuvres be- gan to obtain some slight advantage, and gradually gaining ground, drove the Germans from station to station, till they reached the village of SalsDach. Here he made his last preparations to give them battle, * See Anquetil, Hist, de France, ad ann. 1674, ard Raguen^t, Histoire d } r unmte de Turenne, p. 249. 414 MODERN HISTORY. Part V il. and was already expressing to those around him his full confidence of victory, when, at the commencement of the cannonade, a bullet struck him dead on the spot (twenty-seventh of July, 1675). The whole army bewailed with bitter tears the loss of that incomparable leader, whose beneficence, generosity and other Christian as well as military virtues, had gained their most devoted affection. His death was equally lamented throughout all France; and Louis, the better to honor his memory, caused him to be buried with extraordinary pomp in the sepulchre of the French kings at St. Denis, a privilege which had been granted to no private individual before, except to Du Gues- clin, in the time of King Charles V. Immediately after the death of Turenne, in order to compensate his loss, if possible, and fill his place in the army, no fewer than eight new marshals were created; but Conde was then in truth the only general capable of following up with success the plan of the deceased hero. He not only stopped the progress of the impeii who had once more invaded Alsace, but obliged them to retire again beyond the Rhine; after which he himself was compelled by the gout to withdraw from the army. Montecuculli also resigned the command of the imperial troops, not judging it worthy of his imputation to fight against newly appointed generals, after he had had the honor of opposing Turenne and Conde. Thus the year of our Lord 1675 closed the military career of three among the chief heroes of modern times; just as the year 183 B. c. terminated that of Anni- bal, Scipio and Philopcemen, three of the most illustrious generals of aittiqitity. Conde and Turenne left behind them skilful disciples in the art of warfare; and Crequi, Luxembourg and others maintained the supe- riority which the French monarch had already acquired. The king himself, with his brother, the duke of Orleans, frequently apj at the head of his armies, and gained so many advantages, that the allies were at length induced to come to a treaty of peace, which they all signed at Nimeguen, on the conditions he had proposed (A. D. 1678 -'79). It was then that the surname of Great was conferred upon Louis, for his manifold triumphs, military and political, over the multitude of his enemies. Even the time of peace was improved by the victorious monarch to consolidate his power at home, and to extend it abroad. He re- voked the privileges which had been granted to the Huguenots by the edict of Nantes in 1598, and which had proved, many times since, an occasion of great disturbances.* Genoa, Tripoli and Algiers having dared tj brave his authority, were so severely bombarded by * See note O. *. D. 168&-1G97. LEAGUE OF AUGSBURG. 415 l '5:s navy, as to leave them no other resource than to send deputies to apologize for their conduct. Nor did he act less vigorously on land igainst Strasburg, then a free town, which had been repeatedly guilty of a breach of faith in his regard; twenty thousand men sud- denly invested it, and in his name took immediate possession of iiiat city, one of the most important in Europe for its position and strength. LEAGUE OF AUGSBURG. A. D. 16861697. REVOLUTION IN ENGLAND. THIS continual increase of power again alarmed the neighboring states, and a new league, destined to check it, was formed at Augs- burg in 1686, by the emperor of Germany, the king of Spain, the republic of Holland, etc. Louis might have found an ally in the king of England, James II, who had lately succeeded his brother Charles II; but James, by granting universal liberty of conscience in his kingdom, and being perhaps too eager in favoring the hitherto op- pressed Catholics whose religion he had embraced, incurred the aver- sion of his other subjects. Seeing himself betrayed and almost univer- s-ally abandoned, whilst his son-in-law, the famous Prince of Orange, advanced to dethrone him, he fled, and sought refuge in France; so that the whole effort of the league of Augsburg, now rendered still more formidable by the accession of England, was directed exclu- sively against the French monarch. The first campaigns produced few important events; but, in 1690, the struggle became most animated in the various provinces which were the theatres of the war. The exiled king having, with a strong armament passed over to Ireland, where the majority of the popula- tion was favorable to his cause, attacked, with more resolution than prudence, the formidable force of. his enemy near the river Boyne. The Irish and French began indeed to fight bravely, but without much order; and victory soon declared in favor of superior numbers aided by valor and discipline. James retreated, and giving up too scon all further hope of success, departed from Ireland, which in a short time was entirely surrendered to the conquerors. Many how- ever of its inhabitants, through a heroic attachment to a dethroned and fugitive prince, followed him into France, which thr y accus- tomed themselves to consider as their own country, and whose battles they fought in subsequent years with such determined valor, that her great monarch bestowed on them the flattering name of Ms Lravc Irish. 416 MODERN HISTORY. Pan VII. Just at the time of the defeat of James in Ireland, an important action look place at sea. Admiral Tourville attacked in the channel, near the Isle of Wight, the combined fleets of England and Holland, 'and, with very trifling loss on his side, burnt or captured fifteen of their vessels. He was not so fortunate two years after (1692). Hav- ing to oppose, off cape La Hogue, ninety or ninety-nine sail under the command of admiral Russel, with only sixty-three, or, as some say, only forty-four ships of the line, he maintained indeed the une- .qual contest for twelve hours, but could not prevent fifteen or seven- teen of his finest vessels from being destroyed by the English. This was a fatal blow to the French navy, of which France at this period was justly proud. England, on the contrary, recovered her maritime preponderance, and every probable hope of James II towards the recovery of his kingdom was extinguished for ever. The defeat of La-Hogue was the only severe check then suffered by the arms of Louis XIV ; the expeditions of his land forces were much more prosperous, and, for the space of several years (1690 ^ 1695), they offered one continued series of victories and conquests. Whilst the king in person took the important places of Mons and Namur in the Netherlands, the dukes of Noailles and Vendome sub- dued a considerable part of the province of Catalonia in Spain; Mar- shal Catinat completely defeated the duke of Savoy at Stafarda and Marsiglia, and conquered nearly all his dominions: in fine, Marshal Luxembourg, by mere superiority of talent, gained the splendid vie tories of Fleurus, Steinkirk and Nerwinde, over the chief army of the confederates, taking from them so great a number of colors, that these trophies, being sent to Paris, and serving to ornament the cathedral, acquired for the victorious general the singular but honora- ble appellation of Taplmer dc Notre- Dame. So many triumphs reflected immense glory on France; but he* very victories, which she did not obtain without great exertions and expense, gradually exhausted her strength, whereas the allies, from their superior numbers, were, like the heads of a hydra, no less pow- erful and formidable after their defeats than they were before. This chiefly appeared at the death of Marshal Luxembourg, whom an at- tack of apoplexy carried off in the beginning of the year 1695.* The confederates availed themselves of his absence from the French army, * At that awful moment, this general, one of the most skilful, active and successful that France ever produced ; who never experienced a defeat, and who filled the world with the renown of his military exploits : this celebrated man, publicly acknowledged the illusion and emptiness of all earthly glory. "Alas!" he exclaimed, "what will my victories avail me at the tribunal of my sovereign Judge? Would to God that I could offer him, instead of so many useless laurels, the merit of a cup of water given to the poor in his name !" ',,0.1700-1715. SUCCESSION OF SPAIN, ETC. 41? co besiege and retake the important city of Namur. Both parties be- ing now tired of the war, nothing of great consequence was performed rjn either side during the ensuing year 1696; France, however, made -a 1697 a new and vigorous effort, which enabled her generals to ob- i .ain some advantages in Catalonia and Flanders. Moreover, her 3 aval squadrons, under the command of Tourville, d'Estrees, Forbin, Duguay-Trouin and John Bart, all of them excellent mariners, -very where annoyed the commerce of the enemy, and bore off im- mense prizes from the maritime towns and colonies of England, Hoi and and Spain. These multiplied losses, and the withdrawing of the duke of Sa roy from the confederacy, at length induced the allied powers to ac- jept of the moderate conditions Louis XIV had for a long time been offering to them. On the twentieth of September (A. D. 1697), '. ireaty of peace was signed at Ryswick, by which the victorious monarch consented to resign nearly all his late conquests, especially ihose made upon the Spanish territories. Many persons found fault '.Vi'.h that great moderation, the secret causes of which they did not uei'ceive; but time soon disclosed the wisdom of the king's mea- sures and the depth of his policy. SUCCESSION OF SPAIN. DEATH OF LOUIS XIV A. D. 17001715. CHARLES II, king of Spain, being about to die without issue, ap- pointed for his heir and successor the duke of Anjou, his grand- aephew by his sister Maria Theresa, and grand-son to Louis XIV. Tlie French court, after mature deliberation, accepted the impor- tani though dangerous inheritance, and the duke was proclaimed, in tlie year 1700, king of Spain, Naples and West Indies, under the name of Philip V. This momentous transaction again excited the jealousy and awakened the fears of Europe, and particularly of the (Jerman emperor, Leopold I, who claimed the same succession for nis second son, the archduke Charles. In the course of two or three years, Holland, England, Prussia, Savoy and Portugal, either from an apprehension that the house of Bourbon might become too power fui. or from a desire of their own aggrandizement, were induced to etn'nrace the party of the emperor. The allies of France and Spain were the electors of Cologne and Bavaria; neutrality was ob- swved only by the Ecclesiastical State, Venice and Switzerland. As rhis was also the time when Charles XII, king of Sweden, en- gaged in an obstinate and bloody contest against Poland and Russia 418 MODERN HISTORY. Part VII. it thus happened that the earliest period of the eighteenth century be- held the blaze of war rekindled throughout nearly all Europe, so as to spread its ravages from the shores of" the Atlantic to the vast plains of Russia, and from Gibraltar to the northern pole. The British king, William III, who had been the principal leader in the two last confederacies against France, was again preparing to take a prominent part in this new league; but he died just in the beginning of the war (A. D. 1702), with the reputation of a skil- ful though rather unfortunate general, of whom it has been said that none perhaps could boast of having lost more battles. His chief qualification was that of a profound politician; and, upon the whole, he proved to be the most successful opponent of Louis XIV. The death of that prince caused, however, no alteration in the plan of the allies; his views were followed up by his sister in-law, Anne, who succeeded him on the throne, and his absence from the army was more than compensated by the duke of Marlborough at the head of the English, and by Prince Eugene of Savoy at the head of the imperial troops. These were the two great generals destined to interrupt the long course of the prosperity of Louis. France, it is true, also possessed at that time skilful and brave commanders, among whom the duke of Vendome and Marshal Vil- lars were conspicuous ; both gained several advantages during the first campaigns: but as they could not be present in every place where their cooperation was needed, the year 1704 witnessed a total change of fortune. Eugene and Marlborough having united their forces, attacked, near the village of Blenheim, the combined armies of the French and Bavarians, commanded by the Elector-Duke and by Marshals Tallard and Marsin. The battle was a decisive one ; the Austriansand English lost indeeed twelve thousand men, but the* French and Bavarians lost about forty thousand, including the slain, wounded and prisoners. The artillery, ammunition, baggage, in a word, every trophy that can distinguish a complete triumph, fell, witn Marshal Tallard, into the hands of the victors. Moreover, the whole electorate of Bavaria became their prize ; and not only were the van- quished driven from the plains of Hochstadt near the Danube to the banks of the Rhine, but even the remnant of that army, which had first spread terror to the gates of the Austrian capital, was obliged to take shelter within the frontiers of France. The conquerors, finding no further obstacle, crossed the Rhine, entered Alsace, and the strong place of Landau surrendered to them before the close of the cam paign; whilst, in a very distant quarter, the English captured also the important fortress of Gibraltar, which has ever since remained 'n their power. Louis XIV possessed in an eminent degree that Christian fortitude A. D. 1700-1715, SUCCESSION OF SPAIN, ETC. 419 which enables the soul to bear misfortunes with composure and re- signation. Although accustomed to victory, he received without dismay the sad intelligence of the ruin of his army at Blenheim, and took the most vigorous steps to check the progress of the allies. Understanding that the duke of Marlborough meant to carry the war, by the river Moselle, into the heart of France, he assembled, on that side, an army of seventy thousand men under Villars, whose conduct was so masterly, that he prevented Marlborough from effect- ing any measure of consequence during the whole of the year 1705. In Italy likewise, the French under Vendome maintained their su- periority against all the efforts both of Prince Eugene and the duke of Savoy. The ensuing year (1706) presented one continued series of defeats and losses for France and Spain. In the peninsula, Philip V saw his fairest provinces conquered by the allies, his very capital invaded, and his rival, the archduke Charles, proclaimed king in his place. In the Netherlands, Marlborough completely defeated Marshal Ville- roi in the battle of Ramillies, which was followed by the reduction of all Brabant and nearly all Spanish Flanders. The sudden over- throw of the French armies in Italy was the finishing stroke of that eventful year, the most singularly disastrous perhaps that France ever experienced. The duke of Vendome having been recalled to oppose Marlborough on the northern frontier, the command of the troops in Piedmont was given to the duke of Orleans, assisted by the duke of La Feuillade and Marshal Marsin, all of them full of zeal and courage, but destitute of the talent and experience of the former general. They were besieging Turin, when Prince Eugene, by a masterly and successful march, arrived from Germany at the head of fresh forces to relieve the town. The French were attacked, and in spite of their courageous resistance, were forced in their in- trenchments. Their loss on the field was dreadful, their defeat entire; and the battle, as disastrous at least as those at Ramillies and Hochs- tadt, made them lose all their conquests in Italy, Never had the arms of the conquering Louis received so severe a check as during this fatal campaign. He made proposals of peace suggested by his situation, and yet could not satisfy the enemies of France, who, elated with past success, expected greater advantages from the continuation than from the cessation of hostilities. His affairs, however, as well as those of Philip V, seemed to take a more favorable turn in 1707, when Marshal Villars defeated the imperialists at Stolhofen, and Marshal Berwick gained, at Almanza in Spain, a splendid victory over the united troops of the English, Dutch and Portuguese. But his return of good fortune did not last long; Philip was again driven from the capital of his kingdom, and obliged to fly 420 MODERN H1STORV. Par VII. before his rr/al: in Flanders, a hundred thousand men, under the dukes of Burgundy and Vendome, were routed at Oudenardeby Eugene and MarlborOugh; and neither that numerous army, nor the heroic exertions of Marshal Bouflers, could prevent the victorious generals from taking. the city of Lille, the strongest bulwark of France m that direction. The dreadful winter of 1709 served to increase the misfortunes of the French nation. Nearly all the fruit trees were frozen, and the harvest having failed, distress and famine became so general as to render it scarcely possible to provide a scanty sustenance for the troops. It was under these trying circumstances that they had to fight against the superior force of the allies at Malplaquet; and yet such was their ardor for the combat, that, although they had spent the day before without eating, they threw away half of the bread which they had just received, in order to rush the sooner against the enemy. The conflict was extremely fierce and bloody, the French especially fighting with desperate courage, till Marshal Villars being dangerously wounded, they began to give way; but although they left the field, their retreat after the battle was so well conducted by Bouflers, that not one man was taken prisoner. This victory of the allies, if vic- tory it may be called, cost them the lives of twenty thousand men; the French, though they retreated, had not lost half that number. The campaign not having been very unfavorable to Louis, he thought he could again without dishonor ask for peace; among other conditions he was required not only to abandon the cause of his grand-son, but even positively to concur in dethroning and expelling him from Spain. At the news of this harsh proposal, the king exclaimed that, since he must have war, he preferred to carry it on against his enemies rather than against his children. The whole nation, equally indignant at the haughtiness of the allies, approved of his generous resolution and appeared ready to sacrifice their pro- perty and their lives for the honor of the kingdom, the glory of their aged monarch, and the support of a just and necessary contest. In conformity with these sentiments, new soldiers enlisted for the army, and money was still found to bear the expenses of the war. Philip V, who had also been reduced to the greatest distress in his disputed kingdom of Spain, displayed the same constancy and obtained the same success. Well aware that his grand-father could not furnish him with troops, he contented himself with asking for the services of the duke of Vendome, a general in whom he placed entire confidence. His hopes were quickly realized : the duke had no sooner arrived in Spain, than soldiers, through esteem for his well- known abilities, flocked to his standard from all sides; in a short time, he had collected an army of thirty thousand men, with whom *, D. 1700-1715. SUCCESSION OF SPAIN, ETC. 421 he retook Madrid, and immediately went in search of the confede- rates, to give them battle. Having overtaken them on the ninth of December (A. D. 1710), he first surprised a body of five thousand English, who were all made prisoners with their general Stanhope, and, on the following day, he gained over the earl of Starenberg the decisive though long disputed victory of Villa Viciosa, which secured the Spanish crown upon the head of Philip. This prince was present in the battle, and fought with great courage; when worn out with fatigue, he slept upon the most glorious bed that a conqueror ever had, a bed made, by order of Vendome, of banners taken from the enemy. Another unexpected event greatly attracted the attention of the politicians of the age. The emperor Joseph I, who in 1705 had succeeded his father Leopold on the German throne, died in 1711, and his brother the archduke, who had so long contended for the sceptre of Spain, became emperor under the name of Charles VI. This entirely changed the prospect of the war; for, had this prince been allowed to reign both over Spain and the empire, that balance of power, for the preservation of which nearly all Europe had arisen against the house of Bourbon, would have been effectually destroyed by the unavoidable preponderance of the house of Austria. Influ- enced by this and other considerations, Great Britain began to listen to overtures of peace from France, and, besides dismissing Marlbo- rough from the command of the army, gradually withdrew her forces from the confederacy. This was an important point; but, as the remaining allies still maintained at the northern frontier a formidable force under the com- mand of Prince Eugene, and kept France in constant danger of inva- sion, much was yet to be feared for that monarchy. The king him- self, with all his firmness, could not conceal his anxiety when Villars took leave of him to go and rejoin the army in Flanders. " Sire," said the marshal with emotion, "this is your last army!" The king answered: "I rely upon your zeal, and upon the bravery of my troops. Go then, and fight the enemy wherever you can find him. If, by some accident, you happen to be conquered, write to me alone: I know the devotedness of my people ; I will raise a hundred thou- sand soldiers more; and we will go together, either to repair all our disasters at once, or bury ourselves under the ruins of the monarchy" (A. D. 1712). This magnanimous design was never put in execution, as it soon became known that Villars, by a skilful and bold attack, had destroyed the army of prince Eugene at Denairi. The different posts of that army being too distant from each other, the French successively assaulted them with equal promptness and success, bore down every obstacle, and, besides destroying the enemy's best troops, took a great 36 422 MODERN HISTORY. Pan vil. number of prisoners, with a prodigious quantity of ordnance, ammu- nition, provisions, etc. This brilliant victory not only saved France from utter ruin, but suddenly gave her a superiority of which it was no longer in the power of her enemies to deprive her, and, being fol- lowed by the rapid conquest of several towns and fortresses, accelerated the conclusion of peace: It was signed at Utrecht, in 1713, by nearly all the belligerent powers, who agreed upon a variety of mutual con- cessions, the principal of which was the solemn recognition of Philip V as king of Spain and of the West Indies. The emperor, his rival, was offered, in compensation for the loss of Spain, several valuable provinces in Italy and the Netherlands; still, of all the allies, he was tne only one who refused the treaty. Hostilities therefore continued for some time longer near the banks of the Rhine, till Villars having gained new and important advantages over Prince Eugene, Charles VI thought it prudent to yield. A treaty was then concluded at Radstad (A. D. 1714) between that prince and France, upon terms substantially the same, yet a little less favorable to him than those which he had rejected at Utrecht. Thus did Louis XIV, after a long series of disasters, secure by his courage and unshaken constancy a peace more glorious than that which he had obtained at Ryswick by the splendid victories of Lux- embourg and Catinat. One year later (1715), this monarch, by far the most conspicuous of his age, ended at the age of sevemy-seven, a magnificent reign of seventy-two years. He had lately seen most of the princes of his family, among others the pupil of the immortal Fenelon, descend before him into the grave; their loss, though most painful to his paternal feelings, he had sustained with his usual firm- ness and Christian magnanimity : the approach of his own death had no greater power to frighten or even disturb his noble soul. Nothing then appeared in him but piety, meekness and resignation. His last moments were those of a truly Christian and great monarch; of one who humbly acknowledges his faults in the hope of obtaining the divine mercy; who willingly leaves all earthly honors because he knows their emptiness, and departs this life even with joy, because he expects a much better and happier one in the heavenly kingdom. DECLINE OF THE TURKS.-A. D. 16831718. WE shall now, after a long interruption, revert to the affairs of the Turks. The battle of Lepanto had long since proved that their progress could be checked ; and the signal defeats they afterwards ex- perienced in Hungary and Poland, were no less calculated to remove A. D. 1683-1718. DECLINE OF THE TURKS. 423 from their minds the notion that all Europe must pass under their sway. Yet, that warlike ardor which had so long animated their troops, still subsisted among them, and, being again stirred up by the conquest of Candia, could not be extinguished by the new losses which they suffered in Poland from the great general Sobieski. The Janizaries loudly called for new combats; and in 1683, Vienna, the capital of Austria, was invested by two hundred thousand men, Turks and Tartars. As there was not in all Germany a force sufficient to op- pose such a host of enemies, the emperor Leopold with his family fled at their- approach; despondency and consternation reigned every where; and, though Vienna possessed a brave garrison, and an excel- lent commander in the earl of Starenberg, the ruin of that city seemed inevitable. In this new danger to which Christendom was exposed, Pope Innocent XI had raised his voice to solicit the succor of Catholic princes and nations, applying chiefly to the great Sobieski, whom numerous exploits and conspicuous virtues had lately raised to the throne of Poland. That hero had several subjects of complaint against Leopold; but, generously sacrificing his resentment to the public good, he hastened at the head of twenty-four thousand war- riors, and joined the imperial troops commanded by the duke of Lor- raine. As soon as this junction was effected, they descended the mountains, and attacked the Turkish camp at three different points. The Turks, seized with a sudden panic, were routed almost without resistance; their spirits had already drooped in consequence of the length of the siege, and the numerous blunders of their general Kara Mustapha ; and now their flight was so precipitate that they left behind them, among other spoils, one hundred thousand tents, three hundred pieces of artillery, and nearly five thousand barrels of gun- powder. The conquerors, not satisfied with the liberation of Vienna and of all Germany, were eager to improve their victory by a warm pursuit of the fugitives. During this expedition, King Sobieski having on one occasion attacked the Turks too hastily, was repulsed with great loss; but he took ample revenge two days after, by cutting in pieces a body of twenty -five thousand men near the banks of the Danube. He then returned to Poland, leaving the conduct of the war to the brave duke of Lorraine, who not only continued to drive the Turks before him, but also made important and extensive conquests. These advantages were secured by a new and brilliant victory gained (A. D. 1687) in the plains of Mohats, the very same spot on which the Austrians and Hungarians had experienced an entire overthrow one hundred and sixty years before. During the following campaigns, until 1698, and also at the re- 424 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI I newal of the war in 1716, the house of Austria, well served all that time by zealous and skilful generals, again defeated the Ottomans in several battles. Their most formidable enemy, during this period, was Prince Eugene of Savoy, who gained over them the decisive victo- ries of Zenta, Peterwaradin and Belgrade. These bloody contests ended in the treaties of Carlowitz (1699) and Passarowitz (1718), both of which showed the enormous losses lately sustained by the Turks, and the incontestable superiority no\v possessed by Christian Europe over their once dreaded and formidable empire. RISE OF PRUSSIA AND RUSSIA. PETER THE GREAT.- CHARLES XII, KING OF SWEDEN. A. D. 16391725. THE rapid decline of the Turks in the scale of power and political importance, coincided with the sudden rise of Prussia and Russia to a high rank among the European nations. Christianity and civili- zation had begun to be introduced into Prussia towards the close of the crusades ; since that time, it had been governed by the Grand- Masters of the Teutonic Order, and then by the princes of the house of Brandenburg, under the title of dukes. In 1701, it arose to the dignity of a kingdom, the title of /ting- being then conferred by the emperor of Germany on the elector of Brandenburg, Frederick I. Prussia became flourishing and powerful during the reign of the next monarch, Frederic William, and still more so under his son and successor, Frederick II, whom we shall see, after a short time, giving a strong and lasting impulse to the general affairs of Europe. Russia is also known to have been governed by a long series of dukes, and of princes called Czars, under whom it remained almost totally uncivilized, until the accession of Peter I, which took place in 1689. This prince, possessed of an active mind and a superior genius, incessantly applied himself to improve the condition of his nation, and to render it conspicuous above the neighboring states. He twice left his dominions, and travelled through different countries, in order to acquire, by experience, a knowledge of the various arts, institutions and practices which it might be useful to introduce among his subjects. Being attacked by conspirators and rebels, he overcame them all, and punished them with inexorable severity. In the year 1699, Peter formed with the kings of Poland anti Den- mark a coalition against Charles XII, king of Sweden, in the hope of wresting some provinces from that young prince, then only in his eighteenth year; but it soon appeared that the allied monarchs had relied too much for success upon his youth. Charles already united the talents of a general with the intrepidity of a warrior. Fired with A. D. I68a-i725. PRUSSIA AND RUSSIA, ETC. 425 indignation, and seconded by his brave Swedes, he successively over- ran Denmark, Saxony and Poland, crossing rivers, capturing towns, defeating armies, and carrying every thing before him. So continual and decisive were his victories, that the king of Denmark was very soon forced to accept such conditions as it pleased Charles.to impose en him; and the king of Poland, who had offered a greater resistance, found himself compelled to resign his crown to Stanislaus Leckzin- ski, whom the conqueror protected.' The exertions of the Swedish hero against the Hussinns were also for a long time extraordinarily successful. He defeated them in several engagements, particularly in the famous battle of Narva, where, with only eight thousand men, he destroyed an army of e-ighty thousand Muscovites, fifty thousand of whom were slain, drowned, or taken prisoners, and the rest dispersed. Having at last advanced too far into Russia, he lost in two h-ours, near Pultawa, the fruit of nine years' success (A. D. 1709). His half-famished and ex- hausted army being overpowered by numbers, experienced a most s'gnul overthrow, and Charles himself, wounded and forced to leave liie field, with difficulty escaped to Bender, a Turkish town in Bes- stiral.ia. There he spent a long time in endeavoring to engage the Ottoman Porte in a war with the Russians. Seeing the little success which attended his efforts, he resolved, after an absence of five years and many adventures worthy of a romantic hero, to return through Germany to Sweden, which he found in a miserable condition, with- out troops, without money, without resources, and attacked on all sides by her numerous enemies. Charles made desperate exertions to defend his kingdom and retrieve his losses, but he did not live to recover his former ascendency, being killed by a musket ball at the siege of Fredericshall, a town of Norway, in 1718. His death was the signal for a general cessation of hostilities ; and Sweden hastened to conclude a peace, disadvantageous indeed, but required by the situation of her affairs. These events allowed the Czar to carry his views of improvement fully into execution. In the course of a few years, Russia beheld with admiration the establishment in her cities, of schools, academies, manufactories, arsenals, and the rapid rise of St. Petersburg, her pre- sent capital. A powerful navy was created; harbors were opened on the Black and Baltic seas, to shelter numerous ships of the line, as v/ell as frigates and merchant vessels; the standing army was trained in all the exercises of military discipline; laws were enacted and measures adopted to amend the defects and polish the manners of the people. A prudent management of the public revenue enabled Peter to accomplish his grand and extensive designs without oppres- sing his subjects. By these noble efforts, occasionally disgraced how' 426 310DERN HISTORY. Part VII ever by acts of cruelty, this prince not only laid the foundation, but also raised the superstructure of Russian greatness, and secured to himself the surname of Great. He died in 1725. WESTERN EUROPE FROM THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV IN 1715 TO THE TREATY OF VIENNA IN 1735. The other leading sovereigns in Europe at this time were: Charles VI in Germany, Philip V in Spain, Louis XV in France under the regency of the duke of Orleans, and in England George I, a prince of the house of Brunswick, who, upon the death of Queen Anne, had been called to the throne in preference to the surviving members of the house of Stuart. Peace continued among these different courts for the space of twenty-five years (1715 1740), except during two very short wars, one in 1718, the other in 1733. Spain under Philip V was governed in the beginning by Cardinal Julius Alberoni, whose bold and vast genius, not satisfied with regu- lating the internal concerns of that kingdom, undertook also to change the whole political system of Europe. His general view was to raise Spain again to the pinnacle of active influence and power; in parti- cular he intended 1. to engage the Russians in a war against Aus- tria, and, through this powerful help, wrest from the emperor's hands that part of Italy which the treaty of Utrecht had allotted to him out of the Spanish possessions. 2. his object was to dethrone the Bri- tish king George I, in favor of the son of James II, called the preten- der; and 3. to transfer the regency of France, during the minority of Louis XV, from the duke of Orleans to the Spanish monarch. Had these projects been successful, Alberoni would have gained a reputation, if not superior, at least equal to that of Ximenes and Richelieu; but all his brilliant schemes were baffled by the vigilance and activity of the interested parties. The quadruple alliance formed by Germany, England, France and Holland against Spain, com- pelled Philip V to adopt views very different from those of his min- ister; the Spanish troops, who had already entered Sicily and Sar- dinia, were obliged to evacuate those islands, and Alberoni fell into disgrace (A. D. 1720). Next came the war for the succession of Poland, in 1733. After the death of Augustus II, Stanislaus Leckzinski, who had already, though for a short time, occupied the Polish throne under the protec- tion of Charles XII, was a second time chosen king. But the emperor Charles VI having, with the help of the Russians, obligee' the Poles to set about a new election, the elector of Saxony nis kins- A .,, 1733-1747 EASTERN EUROPE, ETC. 427 man, was raised to that high dignity under the name of Augustus III, ard Stanislaus, as formerly, was forced to abandon his crown. Louis XV thought himself injured in the person of this prince, who had become his father-in-law, and he determined to be revenged on the emperor. The more surely to effect his purpose, he entered into an alliance, not only with the court of Spain, now almost con- stantly hostile to the house of Austria, but also with the king of Sar- dinia, formerly duke of Savoy, and war was begun at the same time on the German frontier near the Rhine, and in different parts of Italy. Philipsburg was invested by a gallant army under Marshal Berwick, and although this experienced commander was killed by a cannon ball whilst visiting the trenches, the place was taken, notwithstanding the presence of Prince Eugene, who being destitute of the energy of youth, did not dare hazard a battle, to prevent its surrender. The French were not less successful in Italy, where Marshal Villars cio-cd his military career by the capture of Milan, and Marshal Coign y, his successor, gained the bloody victories of Parma and Guastalln. In the south, still more rapid was the progress of the Spaniards under the duke of Montemar and Don Carlos, son of Philip V; they defeated the imperialists in the decisive battle of Bitonto, and, in two campaigns, rendered themselves masters of the kingdom of Naples and of the island of Sicily. Thus vanquished at every point, the emperor intimated a desire of peace, the principal terms of which were arranged at Vienna 1735. By this treaty it was stipulated that Stanislaus, instead of the crown of Poland, should enjoy the duchies of Lorraine and Bar, under the title of king, and that, after his death, these duchies should be for ever annexed to France; that the duke of Lorraine, the emperor's ally, should have Tuscany in exchange for his hereditary dominions; in fine, that, whilst the king of Sardinia would gain some districts in the north of Italy, the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily should be left to the house of Bourbon, in the person of Don Carlos. In consideration of these cessions, Louis XV agreed to restore to the empire his late conquests near the Rhine. EASTERN EUROPE-THAMAS KOULI KAN, OR NADIR SCHAH, THE PERSIAN CONQUEROR, ETC. A. D. 17361747. SCARCELY was this peace negotiated, when a fresh war broke out between the Russians and the Turks, in which Charles VI, owing to nii intimate alliance with Russia, found himself involved. He 428 MODERN HISTORY. Part VII. resolved to attack the Ottomans in the direction of Hungary, while his allies pressed them on the borders of the Black sea; but the im- perial commanders were repeatedly defeated, several important places were lost, and, as little hope remained to retrieve these disasters, the emperor had recourse to the mediation of France for the conclusion of a new treaty. Anne also, the Russian empress, though recently victorious at Choczim, consented, for fear of being deserted by her ally, to a negotiation. The Turks, under circumstances so favorable to them, obtained an advantageous peace; the emperor ceded to them Belgrade with two provinces, and the Czarina agreed to withdraw her troops from the city and territory of Azof, so as to reestablish the limits between the Turkish and Russian empires as they were before the commencement of hostilities (A. D. 1739). That treaty, how glorious soever to the Ottomans, did not long retard their decline; the Russians soon reassumed the ascendency, and even about this time, the Turks were rather unsuccessful in a war which they had against Persia. Having subdued, between the years 1723 and 1733, rich and extensive provinces, their career of success was at length stopped by the famous Nadir Schah, or Thamas Kouli Kan, who, after fighting the battles of his sovereign Schah Thamas against powerful rebels, usurped the Persian throne. He renewed the foreign war which had ceased for a while, and, though defeated three times in succession by Topal Osman, a brave and skilful general, victory declared in his favor on every other occa- sion, and the Turks were compelled to give up what they had lately conquered. After this, Nadir Schah, who seemed to have inherited the enter- prising spirit of Genghis Kan and Tamerlane, turned his arms against the rich empire of Hindostan. With only sixty thousand warriors, he destroyed or dispersed an army of twelve hundred thousand Hin- doos and Moguls, took Delhi, their capital city, and returned with so prodigious a quantity of pearls, gold and silver, that the amount is commonly estimated to have been upwards of a billion of dollais. He did not long enjoy these fruits of his insatiable avidity: not less dreaded by his subjects for his cruelty than by his enemies for his valor, he fell a victim to a conspiracy, and was assassinated in his tent (A. D. 1747). His death was followed by a series of revolutions so bloody and destructive, that the populous city of Ispahan saw, within a few years, the number of its inhabitants reduced from a mil- lion to a few thousand persons, and a long time elapsed before Persia could even begin to recover from her astounding calamities. t. D, 1740-1748. SUCCESSION OF AUSTRIA; ETC. 429 WAR FOR THE SUCCESSION OF AUSTRIA. THE PRETEN- DER IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND. A. D. 17401748. THE death of the emperor Charles VI without male issue, in 1740, threw all Europe again into war. in virtue of a previous agreement called the Pragmatic sanction, and also by the emperor's last will, his hereditary dominions of Austria, Bohemia and Hungary, belonged to his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, who had lately married Francis, duke of Lorraine. Her claims were supported chiefly by England and Holland, but opposed by Spain, Prussia and Saxony, whose sovereigns brought forward different claims to a share in that im- mense inheritance, and especially by the elector of Bavaria, who caused himself to be proclaimed emperor at Frankfort, under the pro- tection of the French armies, and with the name of Charles VII. Every thing at first prospered according to his wishes, and the wishes of his allies; Austria, Bohemia and Silesia were invaded by their troops, so as to oblige Maria Theresa to take refuge in Hungary. She appeared amidst the Hungarian nobles in the city of Presburg, holding her young son, afterwards Joseph II, in her arms, and earnestly recommending him to their fidelity. This affecting scene moved the assembly to tears; all swore to die, if necessary, for their sovereign, Maria Theresa,* and she was instantly supplied with a fresh army zealously devoted to her interests. By a sudden change of fortune, her competitor Charles VII was not only driven from his conquests, but even stripped for a time of his own hereditary domi- nions; he died shortly after at Munich, more of grief than of disease. It might have been expected that his death, and the general acknow- ledgment, on the part of the German princes, of Francis of Lorraine as emperor, would put an end to these bloody quarrels; and in fact, some of the belligerent powers hastened to conclude separate treaties of alliance; but the high pretensions of some others, particularly of Great Britain and of the queen of Hungary, protracted the war for three or four years longer. It was prosecuted with vigor chiefly by the English and French, who thus, from, mere auxiliaries, became the principal actors. Even before the death of Charle? VII, the king of England, George II, had taken the command of the British and allied forces in Ger- many. He was marching forward to join an additional body of auxiliary troops, when, near the village of Dettingen, he saw himself almost surrounded by the enemy, and reduced to a very critical situ- * Moriamur pro rege nostro Marid Theresd,; such was their sudden and i.'nanimous exclamation. 430 MODERN HISTORY Tart VII. ation. In effect, by the masterly manoeuvres of the French genera!, Marshal de Noailles, all supplies were cut off; the neighboring hills were covered with a formidable artillery ; and, had not the duke of Grammont's rash descent from the defiles into the plain with a por- tion of the army, given the allies an opportunity of fighting on equal terms, a surrender, or total destruction would, in all probability, have been the consequence. The French charged, as usual, with impetu- osity ; but the English, animated by the presence of their king and of his son, the duke of Cumberland, received the shock with undaunted valor. After three hours fighting, the assailants were repulsed, having lost five thousand men, killed, wounded and prisoners (A. D. 1743). Two years after, Louis XV and his son, the dauphin, in their turn defeated the army of the allies. The French king, having a large number of excellent troops commanded, under him, by Marshal Saxe, invested Tournay, one of the strongest towns in the Austrian Netherlands, and perhaps the most important place on that frontier. The combined forces of the British, Dutch and Hanoverians, amount- ing to about fifty thousand men under the command of the duke of Cumberland, advanced to its relief, and attacked the French, who had posted themselves on a rising ground in front of the village of Fon- tenoy. The battle began at nine in the morning, and lasted till three in the afternoon, being maintained all that time with equal courage by the two parties. Although the fire from the French batteries was so heavy that it swept off whole ranks at a single discharge, the Bri- tish infantry, in the form of a close column, continued to advance as if they had been invulnerable, and the French began to give way. Marshal Saxe, fearing a total overthrow, sent advice to the king to provide for his safety by a timely retreat; but Louis refused to quit his post, and his firmness contributed to gain the honor of the day. At the suggestion of Marshal Richelieu, a fresh battery was erected just opposite to the front of the English column, at the distance of a few paces only; whilst it played upon them with dreadful execution, the French returned to the charge, and, after seven or eight minutes of heroic efforts on both sides, finally compelled the enemy to retreat, with the loss of twelve or fifteen thousand men. The surrender of Tournay, and of many other fortified towns in the Austrian Flanders, was the fruit of this great victory. + The following years equally exhibited a vicissitude of good and iL success. The French armies experienced signal defeats at Plaisance and Exilles in Italy, but were victorious in the great battles of Rau- coux and Laufeld, which rendered them masters of the Nether- lands. At last, by the skilful movements of Marshal Saxe and Count Lowendhal, they began to penetrate into Holland, carried by A. D. 1740-1748. SUCCESSION OF AUSTRIA, ETC. 431 storm cities and fortresses that were deemed impregnable, and by this rapid success obliged the allied powers to receive the favorable conditions of peace which Louis XV had been offering to them since the year 1744. He made no difficulty to acknowledge Maria Theresa for the lawful heiress of Charles VI, willingly restored his con- quests, and contented himself with securing reasonable advantages for his own allies, saying that he wished to treat of peace, not as a merchant, but as a king. This treaty was signed at Aix-la-Chapelle, in October 1748. Some time before its conclusion, and while the British forces were yet employed on the continent, Charles Edward, the grand-son of James II, the dethroned king of England, undertook to revive the claims of his family by an invasion of that country. He first landed on the shores of Scotland with one single frigate, some ammunition and a few officers. The public assertion of his rights, his promise of a just government, and the brilliant qualities of his person, soon gathered around him a little army, with which he immediately took the field. His first exploits were the capture of Edinburgh and the total overthrow of four thousand Englishmen at Prestonpans; he then proceeded into England, took the city of Carlisle, and advanced as far as Derby, within eighty or ninety miles of London, when the approach of the duke of Cumberland at the head of superior forces obliged him to retreat with some disadvantage, though in good order. The victory of Falkirk, which he gained in January, 1746, revived his hopes; but his subsequent defeat at Culloden blasted them for ever. Being now destitute of money and troops, without any sure asylum, constantly pursued by his enemies, always in danger of fall- ing into their hands, and of ending his career upon a scaffold, want- ing food and garments, wandering from place to place and from cavern to cavern, he exhausted, as it were, all the rigors of misfor- tune, and endured them with so heroic fortitude, as to gain the admi- ration of the whole world. In the midst of his calamities, and although the sum of thirty thou- sand pounds was offered as the reward of his capture, he had the happiness never to be betrayed by any one, not even by the poor who happened to recognize him under his various disguises. As he was once quite exhausted, and almost dying of starvation, he deter- mined to ask some assistance (0 one of his enemies whose house he perceived at a distance, whilst wandering through the country. He went, knocked at the door, and, as soon as the owner appeared: "Behold," said the young prince, "the son of your lawful sovereign, who craves a little bread and some garments. I know you are my enemy ; but on your probity I rely enough to believe that you will not betray my confidence in you, nor take advantage of my extreme 432 MODERN HISTORY. Part Vll, distress." The gentleman, deeply moved at the sight of such mis* fortune united with such magnanimity, bestowed on his guest all the assistance which he needed, and ohserved an inviolable secrecy. In fine, after five months of incredible sufferings, Edward embarked on board a French frigate, and, escaping the sight of the British ves- sels which were cruising along the coast, safely reached the shores of France, whence he had sailed on his adventurous expedition. He afterwards repaired to Rome, where he died at the age of sixty- eight years (A. D. 1788). OLD FRENCH WAR, OTHERWISE CALLED WAR OF HA- NOVER, OR SEVEN YEARS WAR. A. D. 1756 1763. THE boundaries of the French and British possessions in North America not having been sufficiently settled by the treaties of Utrecht and Aix-la-Chapelle, there soon arose complaints of mutual encroach- ments. A fresh negotiation was indeed opened between the courts of London and Versailles, but to no effect; hostilities followed, and alter being carried on for a time without any previous declaration of war, at last came to an open rupture in 1756. This new warfare, which, in a short time extended to all parts of the world, entirely changed, from the beginning, the political aspect of Europe. France and Austria, so long opposed to each other, now united their interests, and were joined by Russia, Sweden nml Saxony. Holland and Spain kept at first a sort of neutrality; >ut the English, besides the superiority of their naval forces, succ in securing to themselves a powerful ally on the continent, Frederic II, king of Prussia, who had already acquired great renown for his ability, and gained many laurels in the preceding conflict of the Austrian succession. The first chances of war were favorable to France in almost every place. The English and their allies were defeated in North America, on the Mediterranean sea, in the island of Minorca, where the sup- posed impregnable fortress of St. Philip, or Fort Mahon, was taken almost at the first onset; and particularly in the north of Germany, where forty thousand men commanded by the duke of Cumberland, experienced such reverses as to be ot^iged at last to capitulate. Nor 'was Frederic II in a better condition. After a transitory success, he had been routed by the Austrians ; his kingdom was ravaged by the Russians and the Swedes, and a French army was marching from another quarter to complete his ruin. In this extremity, his courage and presence of mind did not fail him : he retreated before the French, as if frightened at their approach, and took up at Roshach a .. D. 175&-1763. OLD FRENCH WAR. 433 formidable position. Here, whilst the enemy advanced against him in the hope of a sure and easy triumph, the tents which concealed his army suddenly disappeared, and the Prussians were seen in battle array, between two hills covered with artillery. At this unexpected sight, a panic seized the assailants, and they had scarcely fought a quarter of an hour, when they fled in every direction. This brilliant exploit, which was entirely owing to the genius of Frederic, restored his decaying affairs; it enabled him to repel the imperialists from Silesia, and the French also had to give up their last conquests. The three following campaigns offered a series of battles and a variety of events, which it would be equally tedious and useless to enumerate. The French now maintained their ground well enough in Germany ; but on every part of the ocean, as well as in the East and West Indies, they suffered incredible and irreparable losses. Hitherto, the Marquis of Montcalm had ably and successfully de- fended their Canadian possessions; but, as no fresh supplies could be forwarded to him across the Atlantic, where the English every where prevailed, the number of his troops daily diminished, and it was not in his power to hinder a superior force under general Wolfe from reaching the vicinity of Quebec. In order, if possible, to save that capital, he ventured to give them battle. The disposition of the two armies was masterly, and the action commenced with great resolution on both sides. During the conflict, Wolfe and Montcalm, who had given equal proofs of personal courage, were both mortally wounded; the former died in the enthusiasm of victory, which he saw favoring the English, and the latter with the sad consolation of not having to witness the approaching surrender of Quebec. It took place six days later, and was followed in one year by the reduction of all Canada (A. D. 17591760). The same happened to the French settlements in the East Indies; sooner or later, all fell into the hands of the English. Nor could France put a stop to that astonishing series of disasters; her navy, which had severely suffered during the preceding war, was now in a wretched condition, and though privateers greatly annoyed the British commerce, her weak squadrons were totally inadequate to cope with the imposing forces of England. The only subject of hope that remained was the assistance, if it could be obtained, of the other branches of the Bourbon family, actually reigning in Spain, Naples and Sicily. Louis requested it through his ministers, and the Spanish king, Charles III, generously consented to help him with vessels and troops. A treaty to this effect was framed under the name of family compact; but it was of no advantage to Louis XV, and proved most prejudicial t*his ally. No sooner were the English apprized of the transaction, than they directed their efforts against 434 MODERN HISTORY. Part VIL the Spanish settlements in Asia and America, destroyed their com- merce, and made immense captures. All the resources of France were now exhausted ; one year had been sufficient to baffle the auxiliary measures of Spain ; but England herself was much depressed by the amazing efforts she had made, to obtain the superiority over all her enemies. This weariness of the chief belligerent powers .made all parties desirous of peace (x. D. 1763). Whilst it was concluded at Hubersburg between the Prus- sian monarch and his numerous adversaries; the British, French and Spanish courts signed the treaty of Paris, by which it was agreed that England, upon restoring a few of her conquests, should retain the whole of Canada, and many other valuable possessions. Thus did that mighty nation secure her maritime and commercial prepon- derance; though the time was not far distant, when she was to be deprived, by an unexpected revolution, of her own colonies in North America. ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. A. D. 17641776. THE great accession of power and territory just acquired by Great Britain, had not been gained without enormous expenses, increased taxation, and a rapidly accumulating debt. No sooner were hostilities at an end, than the English ministry made it their chief object to find out new sources of revenue, and devise means for replenishing the treasury. North America opened to their view, so they at least flat- tered themselves, a new and abundant field for levying taxes; and, on motion of Lord Grenville, first commissioner of the treasury, the fa- mous act for imposing stamp duties on the colonies was passed, in 1765, by both houses of the British parliament. This act excited serious alarm among the Americans. Without altogether contesting the power vested in parliament, to make regula- tions for trade, they sternly denied its right to impose direct revenue taxes on them without their own consent. Petitions and remon- strances drawn up in energetic language, were instantly despatched to the government; nor were there wanting in England itself men of remarkable talent and eloquence, as the celebrated William Pitt, earl of Chatham, who strenuously maintained the privileges of the Colonies. All these protests, supported by the measures which the Americans took to prevent the exaction of the stamp duties, suc- ceeded, on the accession of a new British ministry, in procuring the revocation of the obnoxious act (A. r>. 1766). A. D. 17541776. AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 435 The rejoicings which that repeal produced in America, were great and sincere, but still much diminished by a certain decree the parlia- ment issued at the same time, asserting its power to bind the Colo- nies in all cases whatsoever. A variety of particular restrictions fos- tered the spirit of dread and mistrust in American hearts, and subse- quent events revived all former irritation. The scheme of raising a revenue in the colonies was again practically adopted, by imposing duties on tea, glass, paper and painters' colors imported from Great Britain. The colonists opposed these proceedings, which they con- sidered as subversive of their rights and liberties, by a fresh series of petitions, remonstrances and protests, and chiefly by non-importation agreements : nor did their resentment stop there; an immense quan- tity of tea, which had been shipped for Massachusetts, not only was not suffered to land, but was even thrown into the bay by the Bos- tonians. This bold measure formed a new and momentous crisis in the re- lations between America and Great Britain. While in England bills were passed, coercive expedients adopted, and powerful reinforce- ments of vessels and troops despatched against Boston, the American States were not slow in espousing the cause of their sister Colony, in organizing a militia, and procuring, by every means in their power, arms, ammunition and all necessary supplies for the defence of their claims. Still, it was again the lot of the new Englanders to begin the conflict. A party of men having been sent by General Gage, from Boston, to destroy some military stores collected at Con- cord by the provincials, were, on their way back, attacked near Lex- ington, and lost two hundred and seventy-three of their number, whereas the loss of their opponents was only ninety-three. This was the first blood spilled in battle during the American revolution. Two months later (June 1775), a still more memorable action took place at Bunker Hill, or rather Breed's Hill, near Boston, between fifteen hundred New Englanders, and three thousand British regu- lars. The coolness of the provincials at the approach of a veteran force double their number, was astonishing, and the order of General Putnam not to fire till they could distinguish the whites of the ene- my's eyes, was scrupulously obeyed. The regulars were permitted to advance to within about sixty yards, when a deadly fire of small arms was opened upon them with such effect, that whole ranks were mowed down, and the line, wavering for a moment, at last broke, and gave way. They rallied, advanced again, and were again re- pulsed by the same destructive and incessant fire. A third charge, led on by General Clinton, proved more successful, and the provin- cials, who had nearly exhausted their ammunition, were obliged to re- tire; but, although they left the field of battle, they could justly claim. 436 MODERN HISTORY. Part VIL the advantage of victory, their loss being only four hundred and fifty- three, that of the British, one thousand and fifty-four. The spirit displayed by the Americans in these engagements greatly increased their confidence, and urged them to new exertions. In the mean time, a general Congress of the Colonies, represented by their deputies, had met in Philadelphia for the purpose of adopting measures adequate to the important crisis. They voted to raise an army of twenty thousand men, appointed the general officers, and, on motion of Mr. Johnson of Maryland, unanimously chose GEORGE WASHINGTON commander-in-chief of the American forces. The great man who thus already possessed the universal confidence and esteem of his countrymen, accepted the appointment with unfeigned modesty, and immediately took command of the army in the vicinity of Boston. Before his arrival, the scheme of surrounding the royal forces in that city had already been contrived, and was about to be put in execution ; Washington pursued it with such ardor and suc- cess, as to leave them no resource but immediate departure on board their vessels hitherto anchored in the harbor. Accordingly, on the seventeenth of March (A. D. 1776), the British troops, amounting to more than seven thousand men, evacuated the town, which was immediately occupied by the triumphant provincials. Shortly after this, the English having endeavored, first to surprise New York, and then to reduce Charleston by a vigorous attack, were foiled in both attempts. The Americans, it is true, were not more fortunate in their own attempt upon Canada, and rather suf- fered a considerable loss, in the siege of Quebec, which cost the life of General Montgomery, and reduced Colonel Arnold to the neces- sity of retreating; but this unhappy expedition went at least to show the ardor of the colonists even for offensive warfare, whilst all their energies were required to defend themselves against a pow- erful enemy. All these actions however they had performed without renouncing their allegiance to the British crown. There was indeed in the Colo- nies a spirit of open and unflinching resistance to what they unani- mously deemed an invasion of their privileges; but the people and their representatives had, until the close of the year 1775, entertained the hope and expressed the desire of bringing their controversy with. Great Britain to a speeedy and amicable conclusion. Unfortunately for England, her existing ministry had determined to maintain by force the right of taxation and the legislative supremacy of parlia- ment over the Colonies; and the Colonies were equally determined to repel the claim by force. The exasperation of the people in America rose to the highest pitch, when they were informed that measures for fresh hostilities A . D. 1776-17831 WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 437 had been taken by Great Britain against them, so far as to hire mul- titudes of foreign troops for a more vigorous prosecution 01 the war. The public mind, under the constant excitement of sufferings or fears, began to think of adopting a course different from that hitherto pur-- sued. The winter and spring of 1776 were spent in discussions, appeals and publications of every sort, urging the expediency of a total separation from the mother country. The momentous step was taken into serious consideration by Congress, then assembled at Phi- ladelphia and consisting of the representatives of thirteen Colonies, viz. Massachusetts including Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. After long and animated debates, a Declaration of Independence, drawn up by Thomas Jefferson, was unanimously approved on the Fourth of July, a day for ever memorable in the annals of America, and then solemnly proclaimed to the people. In this important instru- ment, the members of Congress, in the name of their constituents, after enumerating their grievances and subjects of complaint against the British government, renounced all allegiance to it, dissolved all political connexion with England, and declared the United Colonies to be free, independent and sovereign states ; at the same time, mutu- ally pledging to each other, for the support of this declaration, " their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor." WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. A. D. 17761783. THE declaration of independence was certainly a point of very high importance for the people of the United Colonies, but to render it an efficient and irrevocable measure, it required all their energies in the open field ; the more so, as the prospect of their affairs at that epoch was by no means encouraging. The British were ready to prosecute the war vigorously by land and sea. Their army consisted of twenty-four thousand of the best troops from Europe, to whom several regiments of Hessian infantry were expected soon to be added, carrying their number to the amount of thirty-five thousand men, under the command of very able generals and experienced officers, and well supplied with every thing necessary for an active and suc- cessful warfare. To resist the attack, and check, if possible, the progress of these combined forces, the American general had under his command troops not only far inferior in numbers, but still more so in military discipline,, and, owing chiefly to the pecuniary embarrassments of the country ill-provided with food, clothing, arms and ammunition. It 37* 438 MODERN HISTORY. Tart VII. required his utmost sagacity and indefatigable efforts to train them to habits of necessary subordination and to a regular manner of fighting, and particularly to retain them in sufficient force under his banners, at a time when the ill-advised practice of short enlistments easily per- mitted them to withdraw from the service. Yet, under these trying circumstances, never did the great mind of Washington, even after many a defeat which neither his courage nor skill could prevent, abandon the hope of ultimate success. Never did Congress, even when surrounded by obstacles, and seeing the cause of independence on the brink of ruin, listen to any proposal of peace, except on the condition of an acknowledgment from England of the freedom of the Colonies. Like the Romans of old, who showed their contempt of the victorious host of Annibal, by selling at a high price the field on which it was encamped near their city, so the leading American patriots, far from suffering themselves to be dejected by the gloomy state of their affairs, constantly expressed their determination to carry on the struggle at all hazards, rather than ever return under British subjection. These lofty hopes and resolutions of Congress, in which a large majority of the people always concurred, were sustained not only by the consciousness of their own energies, but also by a well founded expectation of foreign alliance and succors. In fact, almost from the beginning of the war, the Colonies successfully applied to various places abroad to secure supplies of arms and ammunition ; and, though no foreign state had yet acknowledged their independence, such a number of able officers came over to them from Poland and France, as greatly added to the skill and strength of their armies. In 1778, the successful exertions of the commissioners of Congress, and particularly of the celebrated doctor Franklin, induced the French government openly to declare in favor of the Americans. Public hostilities commenced from that moment between France and Great Britain, and the contest became still more animated, when Spain in 1779, and Holland in 1780, joined in the war against England ; whilst the league, called the ai*med neutrality, was also formed against her interests, by the northern powers of Russia, Sweden and Denmark. To oppose this formidable array of enemies, the English nation, roused by danger to exertions worthy of her opulence and greatness, displayed a spirit truly magnanimous, and astonishing resources Her fleets covered both hemispheres, and her armies every where fought with a valor which challenges unqualified admiration. Still, it was easy to foresee, that, since the English were obliged to divide their forces, however successful they might be in various particular engagements, they would in the end lose the main point at issue, i!ie recovery of their Colonies. It is true, the allied European powers A. o. I77G-1783. WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 439 did not, at least in the beginning, lend to the Colonies so direct and efficient a cooperation as might have been anticipated; yet, it is self- evident that, occupying the immense navies of Great Britain, as well in the East and West Indies, as along the shores of Europe and Africa, they afforded, by thus preventing her from concentrating her energies, an immense advantage to the American cause. The suc- cessful result of the war of independence was, therefore, to be pro- duced, and in fact was achieved in America itself, through a long series of hardships and battles, of disasters and victories. This natu- rally leads us to resume the course of military events, and relate in the order of time, those which immediately followed the declaration oi independence. Two months had not elapsed since that remarkable event, when the Colonies saw with dismay their troops signally defeated in the disastrous battle of Long Island, Washington, unable to cope with the superior forces of the English and Hessians, was obliged to evacuate not only this island, but even, a few days after, the city of New York; nor was this the end of the misfortune. At the approach of a victorious enemy, it became necessary and urgent to abandon the province of New Jersey, and cross with all speed the river Dela- ware. It was truly a dispiriting scene to behold that scanty, desti- tute and diminishing band, scarcely amounting to three thousand, pursued by a triumphant, well disciplined and abundantly supplied army of thirty thousand men. About the same time, an American flotilla on Lake Champlain was entirely destroyed, and the State of Rhode Island conquered by the British. Of all the periods of the revolution, this was the most gloomy and disheartening. It is true, so hopeless a state of things did not last long, and Washington having received reinforcements which made his army amount to about seven thousand, was enabled to raise the drooping spirits of his countrymen by a bold and successful attempt. Observing the scattered and loosely guarded positions of the enemy along the left bank of the Delaware, he recrossed that river on Christ- mas-day, suddenly attacked the Hessian troops at Trenton, and cap- tured about nine hundred men and officers, with the whole artillery and ammunition. Ten days later, he again defeated three regiments at Princeton, and pursuing his advantage, made such skilful ma- noeuvres as to wrest from the enemy almost all their conquests in the Jerseys, and to gain for himself among tacticians in Europe the sur- name of the American Fabius. At the reopening of the campaign in 1777, he was again obliged to retreat before the overwhelming force of the British, and even, in consequence of the unfavorable actions of Brandywine and Germantown, to leave Philadelphia for a lime in the power of the enemy ; yet, he so well conducted his army, so ju- 440 MODERN HISTORY. Pa rt VII. diciously chose the positions for his encampments, that the conque- rors were unable to derive any material advantage from their progress and victories. It was during the course of these expeditions of the commander-in- chief, that the memorable attack of Stony Point took place. The British having fortified this post and manned it with a strong garri- son, Washington, whose camp was not far distant, determined to dislodge them, and despatched for that purpose General Wayne with a detachment of infantry. Wayne arrived near the fort in the even- ing, and, dividing his men into two columns, directed them to assault it at opposite points, and, without firing, to depend entirely upon the bayonet. The attempt, though extremely bold and hazardous, was executed with incredible courage. The assailants forced their way across a morass covered by the tide, and, though exposed to a galling fire of musketry and grape shot, they fearlessly went on, till they met in the middle of the fortress. They lost, it is true, ninety-eight men slain or wounded, and the general himself received a severe wound, whilst leading his column: still, their success was complete; five hundred and forty-three prisoners, fifteen pieces of cannon, the stan- dards, and a large amount of military stores, fell into the hands of the conquerors. This action was considered one of the most brilliant achievements of the war; it merited high encomiums for Wayne and his troops, and Congress ordered a gold medal to be struck in honor of the victory. Not long before this event, and towards the close of the year 1777, the previous losses of the Americans in the north were most advan- tageously repaired. General Burgoyne had undertaken to effect a junction of the British troops from Canada with those stationed at New York, for the purpose of cutting off all communication between the northern and southern States. His march from Quebec and upon the American territory was at first successful and rapid, though it cost him much labor to make the roads passable. The fierce ba f .- tles of Bennington and Stillwater checked this triumphant course, and he was still far from having accomplished his project, when de- sertions and scarcity of provisions increased his embarrassment. A speedy retreat towards the north might perhaps have delivered him from his perilous position; but this last resource was also rendered impossible by the skilful efforts of General Gates to surround him. Burgoyne, thus deprived of all means of escape, opened at Saratoga a negotiation with the American general, and on the seventeenth of October surrendered the remnant of his troops, now reduced from twelve to six thousand, with the whole train of artillery and an im- mense quantity of military stores. The capture of Burgoyne's army was, especially in a moral pomi A. D. 1776-1783. WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 441 of view and as an encouragement, of vital importance to the Ameri- cans. Still, much remained to be done and suffered, before the war could be brought to a close. The chief theatre of hostilities was now transferred, as it were by common consent of the hostile parties, from the northern to the southern States. Here the cause of liberty seemed totally lost for a long time. The capture of Savannah, and the sub- sequent conquest of Georgia by the British in 1779; afterwards, their success in subduing Charleston and South Carolina, with a conside- rable loss of men and artillery on the part of the Americans, in 1780; finally, the signal defeat of General Gates by Lord Cornwallis at Camden, opening a free road to the invasion of North Carolina and Virginia: such was, in the beginning of 1781, the discouraging and almost desperate situation of affairs throughout that extensive part of the American territory. In this extremity, the command of the republican forces just happened to devolve on two men endowed with that courage, activity and perseverance which the emergency re- quired ; men of peculiar and fertile genius, who stimulated the spirits of the patriots, roused them to fresh exertions, and, by a series of gallant actions, not only checked the victorious career of the enemy, but even prepared the way for the final triumph of American Inde- pendence. The first of these prominent personages was General Greene, justly surnamed, for his brilliant achievements, the liberator of the South. Being appointed to succeed Gates after the defeat of Camden, he entered the state of South Carolina with a dispirited and almost destitute army, and found the country in the possession of a mighty foe, intrenched in a long chain of well garrisoned and fortified posts. He successively broke through and captured them, and although several times defeated in the open field, he found so many resources in the energy of his character and the fertility of his genius, that he was always formidable ; nor did he cease to harass his oppo- nents, until he had driven them from their different posts throughout the State into the fortifications of the capital. The victory of General Morgan at Cowpens opened, and the battle of Eutaw Springs won by Greene in person, closed this decisive campaign.* Nearly the same success was obtained in Virginia by Lafayette, who, with only three or four thousand men, many of whom were * As well in this as in other periods and theatres of the war, the officers and soldiers of the Maryland regiment highly distinguished themselves by their intrepid and gallant behavior. None fought more resolutely in the disastrous battles of Long Island and Camden ; and, could victory have been won, their courage would have achieved it on both occasions. See Mar- shall, Life of Washington, vol. i, pp. 346347; Wilson, History of the American Revolution, pp. 160 and 306 ; Frost, History of the United States, pp. 200 and 271. 442 MODERN HISTORY. Part V H. new levies, had to defend the country against the superior numbers and the victorious veterans of Lord Cornwallis now advancing, with full confidence, to the conquest of this important State. The French general, well taught in the school of Washington, so tempered his characteristic ardor with reflection and wariness, manoeuvred with so much prudence and skill, as to baffle the mighty efforts and frustrate the lofty designs of his opponent. Cornwallis, thus constantly disap- pointed, retired towards the coast with all his troops, and at length took a strong position at Yorktown and Gloucester Point, near the mouth of York river. Here the protracted struggle was to be finally decided. No sooner did Washington, who was now actively occupied in the vicinity of New York, receive an exact account of the state of things in Virginia, and of the destination of a powerful French armament for the Chesapeake, than he resolved to turn these advantages to the best account, by capturing the whole army of Cornwallis. This re- quired profound secrecy, a skilful combination of means and a mighty concentration of forces near Yorktown ; but the mind of the com- mander-in-chief was not unequal to the planning of all the parts of that complicated scheme, or to its successful execution. His first care was to conceal his real object from Sir Henry Clinton, who commanded the British army in New York ; and this was easily done by threatening a serious attack on that city. He then, with the French general Rochambeau, marched rapidly through New Jersey and Penn- sylvania, and crossing the Chesapeake on board of vessels prepared for the occasion, effected the reunion of his army with that com- manded by Lafayette on the Virginia side. The combined host amounted to nearly seventeen thousand men, twelve or thirteen thou- sand of whom were regulars, filled with confidence, ardor, enthusiasm, and provided with all the materials necessary for a siege. Moreover, the French fleet, composed of about thirty ships of the line under the command of Count de Grasse, lay anchored at the mouth of York river and the entrance of the Chesapeake, so as to render the escape of Cornwallis impossible by sea, as his retreat was impracticable by land, in presence of the superior forces of the allies. After a council of war held on board the ship La Ville de Paris, the attack on the British was commenced from the land side, in the beginning of October, of the year 1781. On the tenth of the same month, the besiegers opened their batteries with such effect, that the enemy's cannon was silenced for a time, and the shells and red-hot balls, flying over the town, even reached the ships in the harbor. It was in vain that Cornwallis endeavored to retard the progress of the assailants by a vigorous sally, and shortly after to effect his escape by Gloucester Point during the night ; both attempts failed, and no re- A. D. 1776-1783. WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. 443 source was left but unconditional and immediate surrender, which was made on the nineteenth of October: the whole British army, amounting to seven thousand men, yielded themselves as prisoners of war, and delivered to the victorious allies their artillery, military chests, public stores, and the vessels in the harbor. The victory of Yorktown, which was soon followed by the re- covery of Savannah and Charleston, may be justly considered as the virtual termination of the War of Independence. Hostilities, it is true, were" still carried on between the European powers with fierce animosity and unabated vigor; but the signal defeat of the French by Admiral Rodney in the West Indies, and the total failure of the Spaniards at the siege of Gibraltar (A. D. 1782), counterbal- ancing the partial success previously obtained by the two nations, taught them to put an end to the contest. England too, notwith- standing her late triumphs, had no interest to continue it, since she had now lost all rational expectation of ever recovering her colonies. A negotiation was accordingly opened, and commissioners from the interested parties assembled at Paris (or rather Versailles), to settle the terms of a general peace. After long and animated debates, the definitive treaty was finally signed in September (A. D. 1783), by which, besides various advantages of minor importance granted to France and Spain, the Independence of the United States was so- lemnly and universally acknowledged. On the twenty-fifth of November following, the British army and fleet evacuated New York, their last remaining possession on the territory of the United States. General Washington entered the city in triumph, and, after a short stay, took an affecting leave of his officers, and set out for the purpose of resigning his office of commander-in-chief into the hands of Congress, then in session at Annapolis in Maryland. Here, on the twenty-third of December, " In the presence of the representatives of the States, and a large concourse of civil and military officers, foreign agents, and citizens, he delivered his commission with a simple and moving address, in which, after congratulating the country on the successful termination of the war, and recommending the officers and the army to the jus- tice of Congress, he concluded by bidding them an affectionate fare- well. The highest testimony of popular love and admiration fol- lowed him into his retirement; and his return to the domestic shades of Mount Vernon, accompanied by the blessings and plaudits of mil- lions whom he had guided to liberty and safety, was the closing scene of the war of the American Revolution" (Wilson, p. 372). With this interesting event we shall also close the seventh part of Modern History. As there is no peculiar remark to be made on the discoveries of this period, their bare enumeration will find a more proper place at the end of the volume. PART VIII. FROM THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES, OR PARIS, IN WHICH THE INDE- PENDENCE OF THE UNITED STATES WAS SOLEMNLY AND UNIVER- SALLY ACKNOWLEDGED (A. D. 1783), TO THE YEAR OP OUR LORD, 1850. FORMATION OF THE FEDERAL CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. A. D. 17831789. WASHINGTON, FIRST PRESIDENT. IT was not enough for the happiness of the United Colonies to have become free, independent and sovereign States,- a mode of general government was moreover to be established among them- calculated at once to maintain their union, provide for their defence and ensure their prosperity. Experience had already laught, and for some years more continued to teach, that the existing loose con- federation which they had adopted during the war, could by no means effect these purposes. The great difficulties which occurred in disbanding the troops and satisfying their just demands, the want of pecuniary resources in Congress, the absence of a proper system and of uniform rules to carry on foreign commerce, and other simi- lar circumstances, were serious evils, threatening still worse conse- quences for the future, unless checked by a speedy and powerful remedy. Virginia and Maryland had the honor of taking the first efficient steps towards the desired and so much needed measure. Their en- deavors, upheld by the cooperation of several other States, induced Congress to pass a resolution that a committee of delegates, invested with ample powers, should assemble for the purpose of framing a Constitution adapted to the exigencies of the country. The proposed committee, composed of the ablest men in the Union, met at Phila- delphia, in 1787, under the presidency of General Washington : after four months of discussion and labor, the important work was completed, and transmitted by Congress to the several'States for their consideration and acceptance. A. D. 1783-1789. FEDERAL CONSTITUTION, ETC. 445 By the Federal Constitution, the general government is made to consist of three distinct departments, the legislative, executive and judicial. The legislative department consists of a Senate and House of Representatives, collectively called the Congress. The executive is composed of a president, who, together with the vice-president, is chosen for four years by electors from all the States, and of several Subordinate officers appointed by the president. In fine, the judicial power is vested in a supreme court, and in such inferior courts as Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The attribu- tions of each power are defined and regulated; the principal article is that which authorizes Congress to declare war, raise and support armies, provide and maintain a navy, coin money, lay taxes, regulate commerce, and provide in general for the government, welfare and security of the nation. No sooner was the Constitution made known to the public, than it met with earnest opposition from those who thought that it vested too much power in the general government, to the detriment of the individual States. It was also very strongly supported by others; and hence arose the two opposite parties of the federalists and anti-federalists or democrats, which have divided the country ever since. Notwithstanding this contrariety and clashing of views, the Fede ral Constitution was, after some amendments, sooner or later ad- mitted by all the States. The time being near at hand, when the newly framed government was to be carried into operation, Washing- ton was unanimously chosen president; he was inaugurated on the thirtieth of April (A. D. 1789), and, being reelected after the lapse of four years, continued in office until 1797. His public conduct all that time, was marked by the same firmness and integrity which he had displayed at the head of armies. Although some of the mea- sures which he pursued did not meet with universal approbation, he however never lost the esteem and affection of the great body of the people, the general advantages of his administration being too evident and the purity of his motives too well known, to permit any change of the public opinion in his regard. Scarcely had he retired from office to the employments of a private life, when the votes of the nation again appointed him commander-in-chief of a provisional army, raised for the purpose of carrying on war against the leaders of the French revolutionary government. It fortunately happened that hostilities were confined to some private encounters at sea, as the disputes between the two powers were soon amicably adjusted; still, "Washington did not see their termination, having died almost suddenly at Mount Vernon, on the fourteenth of Decem- ber, 1799, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 38 446 MODERN HISTORY. PartVlIl There have been in the world, more powerful geniuses, mightier conquerors than Washington ; yet, if every thing be well considered, if we call to mind the scantiness of his means together with hi? undaunted and successful perseverance, few will be found who me- rited from their contemporaries as high encomiums as the American general did; still fewer who evinced as much magnanimity in the most distressing cases; and none perhaps who, placed in the same or in the like situation, ever equalled him in integrity, disinterestedness and patriotism. In this point of view, Washington seems to stand alone; in this chiefly must he appear to every one an extraordinary man ; a man truly deserving of being for ever called the Father of his country, truly worthy of the eternal gratitude of Americans, whose independence he secured by his military achievements, whose national strength he increased by his political wisdom, and whose prosperity he so successfully promoted by his unabated zeal, and the vast influ- ence of his moral character. FRENCH REVOLUTION A. D. 17891795. WHILE the newly founded republic, of the United States was rapidly rising from embarrassment to wealth and greatness, one of the most ancient and powerful monarchies in Europe crumbled, as it were, in pieces, and disappeared for a time from the rank of civilized nations. France, which had "been so instrumental in assisting the Americans throughout their hardships and difficulties, was now plunged in an abyss of confusion and anarchy unprecedented in the annals of the world. The proximate cause of this frightful revolu- tion is generally supposed to have been the deranged state of the finances, as it could be remedied neither by the measures of a vacil- lating ministry, nor by the personal sacrifices of the virtuous king Louis XVI. To this may be added the desire of imitating the exam- ple of the United Colonies in their struggle for independence; a desire conceived and cherished by those who, expecting to derive profit from a change of government, little considered that the cause of America was widely different from that of France, and that, moreover, the same course which had, from a variety of circumstances, benefited one of these countries, might, on the contrary, produce the most pernicious effects on the other. But the chief, though remote cause of the French revolution, was that spirit of irreligion and infidelity which, from the regency of the duke of Orleans (17151723), had made such a deplorable progress in France. This fatal seed, transplanted from England and Holland A. D. 1789-1795. FRENCH REVOLUTION. 447 to the soil of their neighbors, received there its full growth by the wicked exertions of such men as Voltaire, Diderot and others of the same stamp. During a weak administration, under several faithless ministers, the most violent attacks were directed with impunity against religion and all lawful authority, against the altar and the throne. The contagion rapidly spread from the capital to the provinces; and, although a multitude of excellent writers victoriously refuted the sophisms of incredulity concealed under an elegant style and tne assumed name of philosophy, impious and infamous productions of every description continued to go forth and destroy, in the minds of their incautious readers, the germ of piety, of respect for the laws, and of every virtue. This anti-christian conspiracy was carried on particularly during the latter part of the eighteenth century. Upheld by human pride and passions, it received an additional strength from its union with the Jansenists, a body of sectarians equally hostile to Church and State, who had now existed in France for upwards of a hundred years. Lastly, the evil was rendered in some measure desperate by the expulsion of the Jesuits, that society of men so learned, so zealous, so eminently useful in defending religion, promoting piety, and train- ing up youth in all good, moral and social principles. Thus, throughout a nation hitherto so universally attached to her faith as well as to her sovereigns, numbers of persons permitted themselves to be seduced into a variety of impious systems, and an unboun-ded desire of pernicious innovations. This was unfortunately the spirit which animated most of those who composed, in 1789, the famous assembly of the States-general, convened at Versailles for the purpose of finding out means and. adopting measures conducive to the improvement of the finances. Their first step, at the opening of the session, was to oppose the excellent views of King Louis XVI; and this was soon followed by the still bolder attempt of framing a new constitution for France. The immediate effects of this illegal enactment were, the equally -'illegal seizure of ecclesiastical property, the tender to the clergy of an oath wholly incompatible with the principles of jurisdiction established by Christ in his Church, and finally edicts of persecution against tbose who would refuse to sacrifice their conscience for temporal considerations. Of one hundred and thirty-five bishops, only four took the unlawful oath; and but a comparatively small number of the inferior clergy imitated their example, myriads of others prefer- ring to lose every thing upon earth rather than betray their duty. Most of those who remained thus faithful, were forced to quit the kingdom, and fly for refuge to Italy, Spain. Switzerland. Germany, or even to cross the seas, in order to reach the hospitable shores of 448 MODERN HISTORY. Part VIII England,, Ireland or North America; while others, who stayed in France, were daily exposed to imprisonment and death. By the leaders of the revolution, the nobility were not better treated than the bishops and priests. An immense number of persons, from the most distinguished classes of society, emigrated to a foreign land, for the double purpose of avoiding the evils which threatened them, and of returning with a regular force to chastise the oppressors of their unhappy country. But the storm had already burst with too much violence. After removing the supports of the throne, whom they called the abettors of tyranny, the real tyrants of France, under the successive names of notional, constituent, legislative assembly, and of national convention, exerted their utmost endeavors first in de- grading, and afterwards in demolishing the throne itself. They skil- fully took advantage of the excessive condescension of Louis, gradu- ally to limit his privileges, and of his reluctance in shedding any blood in his defence, to oblige him, by the repeated and atrocious attacks of an infuriated populace, to surrender himself and his family into their hands. This event sealed the fate of the unfortunate monarch. The tigers who thirsted for his blood, Marat, Danton, Robespierre, and others of their party, now the most powerful in the capital, lost no time in procuring his condemnation. It was in vain that Louis, brought before that iniquitous tribunal, easily refuted their absurd charges; in vain too, that eloquent advocates powerfully vindicated his inno- cence : the death of the virtuous king was desired ; capital punishment was decreed; and he met his fate on the twenty-first of January (A. D. 1793), with the magnanimity of a Christian prince and the piety of a martyr.* In the ensuing October, his royal consort, Marie Antoinette, and in May 1794, his angelic sister, Elizabeth, were also led to execution. One year later, the young dauphin, Louis XVII, died in prison of a disease contracted from close confinement, and from the barbarous treatment inflicted on him by the monsters who regarded neither rank nor virtue, neither sex nor age. Of all the members of that unfortunate family whom the revolutionary storm had placed within their reach, the daughter of Louis XVI, after- wards Duchess of Angouleme, was the only one that they did not think proper to sacrifice to their frantic fury. * Every one knows the perfect resignation of Louis XVI to his fate ; the noble tranquillity of his soul, marked by that profound sleep from which his valet-de-chambre was obliged to wake him a few hours before the exe- cution; the pure feelings of heavenly charity expressed in his last will; the glowing fervor with which he received the last succors of religion ; and those sublime words which his confessor (Abbe* Firmont Edgeworth) addressed to him at the foot of the scaffold : " Son of Saint Louis, ascend to heaven!" A. D. 1780-1795. FRENCH REVOLUTION. 449 Massacres of priests and other innocent persons had been already- committed in various quarters of Paris, even before the king's execu- tion; his death seemed to be a signal for fresh and more extensive slaughters. The levelling fury of Robespierre and his accomplices now rapidly reached from the capital to the boundaries of the king- dom. A dark veil of terror and death covered all France; scaffolds were erected in various provinces and in almost every populous city ; new torments were invented against the defenders of religion and monarchy; and, from the year 1792 to 1794, biood continued to flow in every part of this unhappy country. Nor was this enough for the madness and impiety of the demagogues now in possession of the sovereign power in France; whatever appertained to the divine wor- ship, became the peculiar object of their hatred ; sacred things and places were either desecrated or destroyed ; Sundays and festivals abolished ; every mark of Christianity was obliterated ; and instead of the hallowed rites and ceremonies of the Church was substituted the infamous worship of the goddess Reason. Such a state of things could not fail to excite feelings of horror in the breasts of those who had not lost all sense of humanity and religion. Whilst a kind of stupor oppressed all ranks; whilst mil- lions, either destitute of -sufficient energy or deprived of adequate means of resistance, silently wept over the awful scenes of impiety and bloodshed by which they were surrounded : several great cities, Lyons, Toulon, etc., made distinguished efforts to resist the oppres- sors of France, but in vain. The vigor of the national Convention, and the bravery of her armies easily baffled these ill-concerted, though generous exertions, and the result served only to expose their authors to the increased fury of the revolutionary tempest. The conflict between the abettors and the opponents of anarchy was still more remarkable in the western provinces of the kingdom, particularly in Vendee, whose religious and brave inhabitants had unanimously risen up in arms for the support of the ancient faith and government. The astonishing exploits of these heroic country- men more than once caused the reigning impiety to tremble; unfor- tunately, incidents and obstacles beyond their control impeded their progress. Their native land was devoted to all the atrocities of re- venge; the Vendeans fell before an enraged and constantly increasing foe; but it was only after having fought seventeen pitched battles, mostly with success, and destroyed or dispersed nearly three hundred thousand of the best republican troops. In another and more distant quarter, the French emigrants were not idle. Having formed themselves into a regular and gallant force under the command of the prince of Conde, they also evinced in various engagements that brilliant valor which always distinguished 38* * I 450 MODERN HISTORY. Parl V rn the Frencli nobility; but their efforts, not being sufficiently seconded by the foreign powers, proved equally unsuccessful. The Austrians and Prussians, who had first made a rapid advance and gained great advantages over the republicans, suddenly abandoned their enterprise, and, being defeated by General Dumouriez at Valmy and Jemmapes towards the close of 1792, evacuated the French territory. The war however was not ended, but soon recommenced with still greater animosity than before,, when the confederacy against France, first set up by the Austrians and Prussians who, just at that time, received a vast increase of power and territory from the dismember- ment of Poland, was joined by Holland, England, Spain, and after- wards by Russia, which last country the genius of the Empress Ca- therine II, and her recent victories over the Poles and the Turks, had now rendered most powerful. At the sight of this mighty coalition against the newly founded republic, one might naturally have antici- pated her speedy downfall, and it is true that her armies occasionally experienced severe checks and defeats : still, licrs generally were the honors and the advantages of the field ; almost every where, her troops, guided by able generals, won the laurels of victory, and would have thrown imperishable glory round the French name, had they fought for a better cause. Thus, after the defeat of Dumouriez at Nerwinde in 1793, Hoche and Pichegru succeeded in driving the allies beyond the Rhine. Jour- dan overthrew another of their armies near Fleurus, after an obsti- nate and protracted engagement, during which he skilfully made use of balloons to discover all the movements of the enemy (A. D. 1794). Belgium, Holland, and all the left side of the Rhine, being no longer protected by a sufficient number of troops, fell under the power of the victors. Such was, in 1795, the situation of affairs, when a still greater man appeared at the head of the Republican armies, who carried the military glory of France to the highest pitch, and, by a long series of military achievements, cast all preceding adventurers in the shade. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, GENERAL AND CONSUL. A. D. 17961804. NAPOLEON Bonaparte was born at Ajaccio in Corsica, some say, in 1768, but, according to other accounts and his own opinion, on the fifteenth of August, 1769. Having gone successfully through a course of studies in the military school of Brienne, he was appointed an officer in a corps of artillery, and when the French revolution D. 1795-1804. ETC. 451 broke out, warmly espoused and defended its cause. He signalized nimself, in 1793, at the siege of Toulon, whose capture by the repub- licans was owing chiefly to his exertions; and still more so in 1795, when he rendered the national Convention, at the close of its career, victorious over the Parisian populace. For these services rendered to the republic, Bonaparte demanded as a reward, and obtained from the Directory which succeeded the Convention, the chief command of the army in Italy (A. D. 179G). In his very first campaign, he appeared a consummate general. Finding the troops in a state of great destitution and despondency, he first endeavored to animate their courage, and succeeded in infusing his own ardor into their breasts, by pointing out to them the fertile plains of Piedmont as the remuneration of their valor. He then opened that brilliant campaign, in which a bold natural genius, im- proved by a profound study of all the parts of warfare, enabled him to fi^ht with astonishing success against the most experienced generals of the age. His peculiar mode of attacking consisted in precision of movement, concentration of forces and formidable charges upon a determinate point. Having, from the beginning, cut off all commu- nication between the Austrian and Sardinian troops, he gained, in a few weeks, the victories of Montenotte, Millesimo, Hondo vi and Lodi, conquered Lombardy, and laid siege to Mantua, the strongest bulwark of Italy in that quarter. The court of Vienna, sensible of the vast importance of that place, despatched numerous troops under able generals to its assistance; but their efforts were of no avail. One of the Austrian armies, led by the intrepid Wurmser, was signally defeated at Castiglione and Bassano; another, under the command of Alvinzi, was, after an obstinate conflict, driven from its formidable position at Arcola; and another, in fine, experienced a complete overthrow in the decisive battle of Rivoli. Throughout that series of bloody engagements, Bonaparte gave numerous instances of both tactical ability and per- sonal valor. He soon reaped the fruit of his exertions ; Mantua, re- duced to the last extremity, was obliged to surrender, and the French saw themselves undisputed masters of all northern Italy (A. D. 1797). The treaty of Campo Formio, concluded in the same year with Aus- tria, secured this brilliant success ; whilst, in virtue of other agree- ments, an end was put to the independence of the Venetian republic, and enormous contributions were levied on other Italian States in behalf of the conquerors. Bonaparte now thought of undertaking a grand expedition into the East, where he would be placed beyond the reach of any superior command, and enabled to destroy the British power in India. The French Directory, who began to dread his influence in the govern- 452 MODERN HISTORY. PRrt VI/l ment, and were glad to get rid of him in an honorable manner, wil- lingly gave their consent to the projected expedition. Four hundred transports and thirteen ships of the line were assembled in the port of Toulon to convey to Egypt forty thousand warriors, together with a great number of learned men, and all the materials requisite for the conquest, the exploration and the colonization of that distant country. This powerful armament sailed on the twentieth of May (A. D. 1793), and, after taking easy possession of Malta through the treach- ery or pusillanimity of some knights, safely reached the Egyptian shores. The troops were landed, and began the work of conquest by the capture of Alexandria. Their subsequent victory over the Mamelukes in the celebrated battle of the Pyramids, rendered them masters of Cairo and Lower Egypt. But the fleet, under admiral Brueys, was almost entirely destroyed in the bay of Aboukir by the English admiral Nelson; and the land troops themselves were foiled in their attempt upon Acre in Palestine. Moreover, their numbers were daily thinned by distemper or excessive fatigue: and though they performed yet prodigies of valor; though they enlarged their conquests, and gained two other signal victories, the one under Bonaparte, and the other under Kle- ber, his successor in command, they were at length unable to cope successfully with the combined forces of the English and Turks. A capitulation followed, in virtue of which they were not only allowed to return, but even afforded the means of returning to their native country. Their departure from Egypt had been preceded by that of Bona- parte, whom the course of events in France had recalled to Paris. Seeing that his arrival there was greeted with general congratulation and rejoicing, he skilfully availed himself of these favorable disposi- tions, to overturn the unpopular government of the Directory; and, causing a new form of government to be adopted, he was appointed its head and sovereign leader under the title of first consul (A. D. 1799). During his absence, Italy had been the theatre of surprising revo- lutions. The French republicans, not satisfied with their late con- quests, had further indulged their ambition by invading the Ecclesi- astical State, taking possession of Rome, and dragging into exile the unoffending and venerable Pope Pius VI, who soon after died at Valence in France, at the age of eighty-two years. The kings of Naples and Sardinia were likewise driven from their continental do- minions; and the whole peninsula now appeared prostrate at the feet of the French ; when suddenly, at the northern frontier, the hero of Russia, Suwarrow, made his appearance with an Austro-Russian army proud of fighting under such a leader, the irresistible foe of the A. D. J790-1804. NAPOLEON, ETC. 453 Turks and the Poles. One campaign of this great man was suffi- cient to wrest from the French those fair Italian provinces, whicn they had acquired with so much labor and loss of life. General Moreau, who had previously won many laurels on the field of battle, and who now commanded an army of twenty-five thousand men, was forced in his intrenchments at Cassano; Macdonald lost twenty thousand of his soldiers in a very disputed battle near the river Tre- bia; and the entire defeat of another French army at Novi, after twelve hours of an obstinate and bloody conflict, gave a^eath blow to their preponderance in Italy. But the superiority of the Russians was of short duration: it seemed as if Suwarrow had come for no other purpose than to facilitate the election of a new pontiff: no sooner had he prepared the way for it by compelling the revolution- ary troops to evacuate Italy, than, finding himself ill-seconded by the Austrians, he was obliged to retreat across the Alps before the supe- rior force of General Massena; and it was only with the greatest difficulty and by incredible exertions of courage that he succeeded in extricating the sad remnant of his once flourishing and victorious army. The road into the peninsula being thus again opened to the French, Bonaparte did not fail to seize the favorable occasion for the recovery of his former conquests. Treading in the bold steps of Annibal, he fearlessly crossed with his army the most dangerous steeps of the Alps, and in a few weeks reached Marengo, where the Austrians under General Melas occupied a strong position. Here, on the four- teenth of June, 1800, a most obstinate and fierce battle was fought, which lasted from morning till night. Nearly the whole day, the French were on the point of being entirely defeated } but the timely arrival of General Dessaix with his division of fresh troops enabled them at length to gain a signal and decisive victory, which made them once more masters of northern Italy. The success of their arms, about this time, was not less brilliant in Holland, where General Brune obliged the Anglo-Russian army to retire and to evacuate the country ; and in Germany, where Moreau had resumed his former course of conquests. During the whole of this campaign (A. D. 1800), that distinguished general performed ex- ploits at least equal to those of Bonaparte himself. The important victories of Hochstadt and Hohenlinden led him almost to the gates of Vienna; and the Austrian court, destitute of further resources, was obliged to conclude the disadvantageous peace of Luneville, which ceded the whole left bank of the Rhine to the French repub- lic. Prussia, Russia and Spain had already laid down their arms, so that England was left alone to continue the struggle. Her navy, it is true, constantly retained the empire of the seas, capturing the re- maining squadrons and colonies of the French, driving them from 454 MODERN HISTORY. Part VIII. the island of Malta, and severely harassing, near Copenhagen, the fleet of Denmark, which government had become favorable to the interests of France. Still, as these actions, brilliant though they were, did not strike at the continental superiority of Bonaparte, the continuation of the war seemed to be without an object. Negotia- tions were opened, and the two parties agreeing to restore ^.everal of their conquests, the definitive treaty was signed at Amiens, on the twenty-seventh of March, 1802, to the great joy of both the French and English. Bonaparte spent the short interval which elapsed between the ces- sation and the renewal of hostilities, in performing several acts of a vigorous and generally very useful administration. In compliance with a concordate agreed upon between him and Pope Pius VII, he reestablished religious worship in France; reorganized the public instruction; published a civil code; afforded great facilities to com- merce, and greatly embellished Paris with new buildings and monu- ments. But he, at the same time, impaired much his reputation by the rigor with which he prosecuted as guilty of treason the two illustri- ous commanders Moreau and Pichegru, one of whom was sent into exile, and the other was found dead in his prison before the conclu- sion of the trial. Still more odious was the juridical assassination of the Duke d'Enghien, a young and hopeful prince of the Bourbon family, who, contrary to all right, was arrested upon a foreign terri- tory, hurried to Paris, and, after a mock trial, shot during the night in the ditch of the castle of Vincennes. In fine, the measure adopted by the French government to crush entirely the insurrection, which had now lasted twelve years, of the blacks against the whites of San-Domingo, proved likewise the more prejudicial to the first consul's glory, as it was, if not perfidious, at least ungenerous and imprudent. The chief leader of the insurgents being, notwithstand- ing his previous submission, arrested and sent a captive to France, the exasperated blacks completed with fire and sword the destruction of the French colony, and on its bloody ruins began to erect the new republic of Hayti. During all these transactions, Bonaparte was mainly intent on es- tablishing his power on a firmer basis. After causing himself to be named consul for life, with liberty to appoint his successor, he finally resolved to assume the sceptre. Addresses were made by the civil and military bodies, offering him the imperial dignity, which he con- descended to accept. He was crowned emperor of the French, in December 1804, by the pope himself, who, wishing to avoid the fatal consequences of a refusal, went to Paris for that purpose. Spain, Prussia and all the other European powers, except England, acknowledged Napoleon in this new title, to which he soon added the A . D . 1805-1615. NAPOLEON, EMPEROR. 455 appellation of king of Italy; while the successor of Maria Theresa and of Charles V, Francis II, changed also his title of emperor of Germany, into that of emperor of Austria. NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, EMPEROR. A. D. 18051815. SINCE the treaty of Amiens, the two rival cabinets of France and England had frequently expostulated with each other, either concern- ing the execution of the stipulated articles, or about other more or less important matters. Napoleon was particularly offended at the delay of Great Britain in evacuating the island of Malta; the English, on their side, thought they had equal reason to complain of Napoleon's ambitious views and continual increase of power on the continent. War, therefore, was again declared; and for several years the world beheld the singular spectacle of the equally extraordinary success of the French on land, and of the English at sea. It had been, for a long time, the earnest wish of Napoleon, to ob- tain at least a temporary superiority by sea in order to effect a descent upon England, and it was now one of the chief objects of his policy to secure the cooperation of Spain. He succeeded so far in his pro- jects, as to assemble thirty-three ships of the line and seven frigates, under the command of Admirals Villeneuve and' Gravina. The combined fleets sailed from Cadiz on the nineteenth of October (A. D. 1805), and on the twenty-first of the same month, met, off Cape Trafalgar, the British fleet commanded by Nelson. The English ad- miral had no more than twenty-seven sail of the line and four fri- gates; his inferiority in number of men was still more considerable; but it was amply compensated by their superior skill and experience, and by his own unrivalled talents. As Nelson was desirous of battle, and Villeneuve unwilling to avoid it, the hostile fleets were soon engaged. The battle raged du- ring nearly four hours with the greatest fierceness, the ships of the two parties lying quite close to each other, and maintaining their fire at the very muzzles of the cannon ; yet, the superiority of the British seamen was soon made manifest: nineteen of the enemy's vessels were captured with Admiral Villeneuve, and seven others were rendered unserviceable. This was a signal and important vic- tory, as the combined fleet of the French and Spaniards was almost totally destroyed; but it was a victory too dearly bought: for, besides a considerable loss of men on the part of the conquerors themselves, Nelson received a musket ball in the breast, and died two hours after the termination of the battle. His remains were honored with a 456 MODERN HISTORY. Part VIII magnificent public funeral, a just token of gratitude for the eminent services which he had rendered to his country. Whilst the naval forces of France and Spain were annihilated by the great man, who thus died, like Epaminondas, in the moment of victory, Napoleon, after vainly threatening England with an inva- sion, made a decisive campaign against the Austro-Russians, her allies. Having, by a rapid advance, transported his troops into the heart of the enemy's country, he obliged the Austrian general Mack, at Ulm, to~ surrender with thirty or forty thousand men. Shortly after, he entered Vienna, and, pressing forward, soon overtook the army of the confederates, whom he attacked with all his forces near the village of Austerlitz. In this memorable action, which the sol- diers called tJie battle of the three emperors, the superior genius and masterly movements of Napoleon gave him one of the most brilliant victories that the annals of war can present. It was with the greatest difficulty, that, rallying the remains of their routed armies, the two allied sovereigns effected their retreat. The Russian monarch re- tired towards his own dominions, and Francis of Austria was obliged to sign the treaty of Presburg, by which he lost more than twenty thousand square miles of territory, and two millions and a half of his subjects (A. D. 1805). The conqueror resolved, in the ensuing year, to chastise the king of Prussia, who, both before and after the overthrow of the allies at Austerlitz, manifested hostile intentions against France. The battle of Jena (October, 1806), in which the Prussians lost fifty thousand men slain or taken prisoners, sufficed to place Berlin, their capital city, and nearly their whole kingdom at the mercy of the French. Bonaparte then marched a second time against the Russians, and, after the bloody and well contested battle of Eylau, entirely defeated them at Friedland (June, 1807). This series of victories led to the treaty of Tilsit, by which the king of Prussia yielded a great part of his dominions to the victors; 'and both he and the emperor of Rus- sia promised to support the favorite scheme of Napoleon, which aimed at closing the European ports against the vessels of Great Britain, and was on that account named the continental system. About this time also, Bonaparte formed the confederation of the Rhine, or a coalition of German princes favorable to his interests ; and he raised the duchies of Bavaria, Wurtemberg and Saxony to the rank of kingdoms, as a reward for the services which their sove- reigns had, in quality of allies, rendered to the French during the last expeditions. In order to prevent the Danes from imitating their example, the British government compelled them to surrender their whole fleet, consisting of sixteen ships of the line and fifteen frigates, which were all conveyed to England. This haughty proceeding did A . D. 1805-1815. NAPOLEON, EMPEROR. 457 little honor to the character of Great Britain, and, even in i political point of view, was perhaps more unfavorable than really advantageous to her cause, as it provoked against her the indignation and resent- ment of her most powerful ally, the emperor of Russia. War had scarcely ceased in one country, when it commenced in anotjier. The Austrians, desirous to retrieve their recent losses, determined to oppose Napoleon again in the field. They made, for that purpose, truly gigantic exertions, raising their armies to the extraordinary number of five hundred and fifty thousand men; still, in spite of their unyielding courage and of the abilities of their chief commander, Archduke Charles, this new struggle proved fully as disastrous to their arms as any preceding conflict. The French poured with their usual rapidity upon the German provinces, gained four victories within five days, and took Vienna for the second time. Their subsequent repulse at Esling cost them, it is true, thirty thou- sand brave soldiers with the intrepid Marshal Lannes, and exposed them to a complete overthrow ; but the Austrian prince, though pos- sessed of remarkable talents, was not so capable of improving his advantage, as his enemy was of remedying his disaster. By prodi- gious exertions of energy, activity and skill, Napoleon soon found himself in readiness to renew the attack, and, on the sixth of July, the dreadful battle of Wagram was fought, in which it is supposed that three hundred thousand men were engaged, and which terminated in the entire defeat of the Austrians. Their sovereign was compelled once more to sue for peace, nor could he obtain it but by making new concessions of a large extent of territory, and giving his daughter Maria Louisa in marriage to the victorious emperor (A. D. 1809). Napoleon had now reached the summit of power and glory. Hav- ing reared the edifice of his greatness by continual and almost unex- ampled success in war; supported in that high station by formidable armies, excellent generals, and the superiority of his talents; enjoying the satisfaction of having placed his brothers, Louis, Jerome, Joseph, and his brother-in-law, Murat, upon the thrones of Holland, West- phalia, Spain and Naples; his royal and imperial authority seemed to rest on the strongest basis that could be desired. Yet, this powerful conqueror, this mighty sovereign, was destined to experience the utmost severity of fortune, and that too, in a manner so much the more striking, as he began, just at the time of his splendid expedition of Wagram, to dig with his own hands the precipice into which he was soon to fall from his elevated station. Elated with prosperity, and anxious to bring every thing under his control, Napoleon solicited the pope to close his harbors against Bri- tish commerce, and become a party to the war against England and Austria. This, Pius VII positively and constantly refused; being, he 39 458 MODERN HISTORY. Part VIII. answered, the Father of all Christian nations, he could not, consis tently with that character, become the enemy of any one. The em- peror was highly incensed at this courageous refusal, and, in order to gratify his ambition, determined on following a more audacious course. By a decree dated at Vienna, the seventeenth of May, 1809, he declared the Ecclesiastical State annexed to his empire; and, as this unwarrantable proceeding was instantly punished by excommunica- tion, the French troops who had already taken possession of Rome, received an order to send the excellent pontiff into captivity and exile. This outrageous act filled up the measure of Napoleon's blindness and ingratitude, and, by provoking alike the justice of God and the indignation of all sensible men, was undoubtedly the chief among the remote causes of his subsequent downfall. Equally ungrateful towards the Spaniards, his most faithful allies, Bonaparte invaded their country as well as Portugal, and, after hav ing, partly by intrigues, and partly by compulsion, obtained the abdi cation of King Charles IV and of his son Ferdinand, he placed his own brother Joseph upon the Spanish throne. The whole kingdom was overrun, and nearly all its fortified places were surprised or con- quered by different bodies of the French troops under the command of Murat, Ney, Massena, Suchet, Soult, Marmont, etc., and some- times of Napoleon himself. These able commanders, well provided with all things necessary for a vigorous warfare, and almost con- stantly receiving strong reinforcements, gained easy victories over the brave, but astounded and now inexperienced Spaniards. Still, the conquerors did not make such rapid progress without suffering great losses, and occasionally meeting with very serious disasters. Seven- teen thousand of their troops were obliged to surrender at Baylen to -General Castanos ; their subsequent success at Saragossa,' so nobly defended during two months by the heroic Palafox, cost them an immense multitude of their bravest warriors, and they completely failed in the siege of Cadiz. Moreover, in the midst of a magnani- mous people, persons of all classes, of every age and condition, became soldiers for the defence of their liberties and country. Swarms of guerillas or partisans continually harassed the march of the French armies, attacking their separate detachments, intercepting the con- voys, and cutting off the stragglers. The territory was occupied, but the nation was not subdued; and Spain seemed to have become a vast and profound abyss destined to swallow up the numberless troops of Napoleon, in proportion as they made their appearance. Next to this unanimous effort of the Spanish population, nothing contributed more powerfully to rid the country of its invaders, than the efforts of the celebrated Arthur Wellesley, afterwards Duke of Wellington. This great man first signalized himself at the head A. D. 1805-1815. NAPOLEON, EMPEROR. 459 of the troops sent from England to the relief of the Peninsula. Being, after many exploits, appointed commander-in-chief of the Portuguese and Spanish, as he was already of the British forces, he was enabled to display his talent with greater advantage, and vigorously to pursue his former success. Several times he had been compelled to retreat before the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, but he repeatedly regained the ground that had been lost, and after defeating the French at Talavera in 1809, at Busaco in 1810, and at Salamanca in 1812, he finally drove them from Spain by the signal victory of Vittoria (A. D. 1813). Precisely at this time, northern and central Europe, uniting in one general league against Bonaparte, for ever shook off the yoke of his ambition. A little before, in 1812, having declared a new war against the Russians, under the plea that they favored British commerce, he marched into their country with an army of nearly five hundred thousand men, French and allies, perfectly equipped and well disciplined. In the presence of such a host, the most for- midable, it may be said, that the world ever beheld, the enemy, far inferior in numbers, wisely adopted the plan of acting in the defen- sive, and making a stand only in favorable positions. In its retreat, the Russian army laid waste all the country through which the invaders had to pass, and burnt the towns in which they might have found a shelter. Even Moscow, the ancient capital of Russia, which the French at last reached after the bloody victories of Smolensk arid Moscowa, was nobly sacrificed to save the empire; during the very first night after their arrival, the city was simultaneously fired in several parts, and in a short time reduced to a heap of ruins. Thus deprived of winter quarters and of necessary provisions, in the midst of an exasperated enemy who had now collected his forces, Napoleon, after in vain offering peace to the emperor Alexander commenced a retreat on the nineteenth of October. He had not pro- ceeded far, when famine began to rage among his wearied troops ; the Russian army, hovering around them, incessantly harassed and obstructed their march, especially at the crossing of rivers; winter set in with unusual rigor; and the mortality arising from these various causes became so dreadful, that, when the campaign closed (on the thirteenth of December), it was found that upwards of two hundred and fifty thousand men had perished, besides nearly two hundred thousand made prisoners. Thus ended the memorable Russian expedition, the first of Napo- leon's undertakings in which he was completely defeated, and one too the further consequences of which were for him of the most disastrous character. Prussia and Sweden now joined the Russians against the French emperor, and Austria with Bavaria soon imitated their exam- 460 MODERN HISTORY Part VIII. pie. Bonaparte, however, was not yet disposed to descend from his high pretensions, and having, by astonishing exertions, recruited his army to the amount of about two hundred and eighty thousand men, he fearlessly encountered his still more numerous foes in the eventful campaign of Saxony (A. D. 1813). Such was even now the display of his military abilities and the courage of his troops, that he routed the allies at Lutzen, Bautzen and Dresden with great slaughter, yet without any permanent advantage. Their numbers always appeared the same, and seemed rather to be daily increasing. They attacked him again under the walls of Leipsic with three hundred thousand troops and nine hundred field pieces, whilst he could not concentrate on that point more than one hundred and seventy thousand men with seven hundred pieces of artillery. The conflict was one of the most awful during that tremendous war, and such as language cannot describe. During three days, the French maintained their position with undaunted courage, having, it is said, shot from their cannons the enormous number of two hundred and fifty thousand balls; but, on the third day, being abandoned by the Saxons their allies, and overpowered by numbers, they were finally compelled to quit the field, with the dreadful loss of forty thousand men, besides a vast multitude of prisoners taken during the pursuit. Still, the van- quished preserved their usual intrepidity, which they displayed at Hanau, by defeating the Bavarians who had presumed to intercept their retreat. A free passage was thus opened for them to the French frontier; but their conquests in Germany were lost for ever. Napoleon was now deserted by all his allies, and obliged to with stand alone the efforts of the European league formed against him. The beginning of the year 1814 beheld half a million of men, Aus- trians, Russians, Prussians, etc., under their respective sovereigns, rush from all directions upon the French territory. They had pre- viously issued a manifesto declaring their intention both to maintain France in all her rights as a nation, and to crush the military system of her ambitious ruler; a two-fold object which their moderation and their decisive measures soon enabled them to attain. It was to no effect that Napoleon, by new prodigies of activity and courage, de- feated the allies at Brienne, Montereau, Champaubert and Montmi- rail. Having made a better disposition of their forces, they at length moved towards Paris, and arrived near that capital before the French emperor, who was engaged elsewhere, could come to its relief. After a vigorous, though short and hopeless resistance from the heights of Montmartre, terms of capitulation were signed ; and, on the thirty-first of March, the allied sovereigns, with fifty thousand chosen troops, made their solemn entry into Paris, amidst the general and continued plaudits of the inhabitants, who received them, more A, D. 1805-1815. NAPOLEON, EMPEROR. 461 as deliverers than as conquerors. A provisional government was formed, and a decree passed by the Senate, declaring that Napoleon Bonaparte had forfeited the throne. It was also decided that the Bour- bon dynasty should be restored, France, in the mean while, being allowed by the generosity of the allies not only to retain hef ancient limits, but even to receive some augmentation of territory and recover her colonies. As to the fallen emperor, the island of Elba, in the Mediterranean, was allotted to be possessed by him in full sovereignty, with an annual revenue of six millions of francs. The allied monarchs soon left Paris, where Louis XVIII, the brother of Louis XVI, arrived on th"e third of May, 1814, to take possession of his throne. The pope, after five years captivity,. had returned to Rome ; Bonaparte had also departed for his new residence ; and Europe, after so many and so dreadful agitations, began to enjoy a long desired and much needed repose, when the storm again burst upon it with renewed fury. The unexpected news arrived, that the dethroned emperor had escaped from his island and landed on the shores of Provence with an escort of nine hundred men. In fact, he was already on his way to Paris; the troops joined him from all quarters, and, on the twentieth of March, 1815, he triumphantly en- tered the capital, which Louis XVIII had left but a few hours before, in order to reach the northern frontier. The account of Napoleon's return quickly reached the ears of the great European potentates, then assembled at Vienna for the purpose of settling upon a sure basis the affairs of the continent. Surprised and afflicted, but not dismayed, they declared that the ex-emperor of the French, by breaking the last treaty, "had placed himself without the pale of civil and social relations," and pledged themselves not to lay down their arms until he should be deprived of the power of ever again disturbing the tranquillity of the world. Bonaparte, on his side, was not idle in making adequate preparations for the ap- proaching conflict. Having reorganized his army, he rapidly ad- vanced towards the Belgian frontier, in order to attack the English under Wellington, and the Prussians under Blucher, before they could be joined by the Austrians and the Russians. His first opera- tions were prosperous, the allies being obliged to make a retrograde movement, and the Prussians in particular having suffered a severe check in the battle of Ligny. He now directed his main efforts against the English, who had just taken a formidable position near Waterloo; and, on the eighteenth of June of the same year, 1815, was fought the decisive battle on which the peace of Europe and his own fate depended. The two armies, under the command of such wonderful men as Napoleon and Wellington, presented the most imposing and terrific 39* 462 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI [ I appearance: they were nearly equal as well in discipline, valor and fierce national animosity, as in numbers, which amounted to about seventy-five thousand men on each side. How dreadful must have been the conflict between troops of this character, every one may easily conceive. It commenced about noon with a tremendous can- nonade, and was continued many hours with almost frantic fury, the French infantry and cavalry making incessant and desperate charges, which were all met with dauntless courage. Towards seven o'clock in the evening, Bonaparte determined to carry his point by redoubled efforts, ordered, in person, a new powerful attack upon the British line; his celebrated guard resolutely advanced in the form of a double column, but was received with so galling a fire from the enemy's artillery and musketry as to be soon compelled to give way, and had now to sustain in their turn a similar charge from the English. Just at this decisive moment, the Prussians, having by a skilful march deceived Grouchy, who was opposed to them, joined their allies, and opened a, heavy cannonade on the right wing and rear of the French. It was a moment of irretrievable confusion: those brave columns of Napoleon, just before so formidable, now broken and unable to rally, at last fled from that -scene of carnage where they left twenty thousand slain, and, being closely pursued by the Prussians, dispersed in every direction. Truly awful was the loss of the English also in this ever memorable battle, since it amounted to six hundred officers, eleven generals, and fifteen thou- sand men killed and wounded. Still, the victory of the allies was complete; the whole artillery of the vanquished army, consisting of three hundred guns, fell into their hands, and the power of Bonaparte was now prostrated, to rise no more. Wellington, not being opposed in his march, soon appeared with his victorious troops in sight of Paris. That capital was again en- tered and occupied for a time by the confederates; while the remains of the imperial army were obliged to retreat beyond the river Loire. The Bourbons once more recovered their vacillating throne; but France was not so advantageously treated by the allied monarchs as she had been at the time of the first invasion : besides a variety of severe or humiliating measures to which she had to submit, she was con- demned to pay about seven hundred and fifty millions of francs as an indemnification for the expenses of the war. In the mean time, Bonaparte, who had already left Paris, with- drew to Rochefort, a sea-port on the western coast of France, in hopes of being able to effect his passage to America. That port was, however, too closely blockaded by English cruisers, to permit any escape; the emperor, seeing all his attempts to effect his purpose in- effectual, resolved at length to throw himself on the protection of the *. D. 1812-1815. SECOND AMERICAN WAR. 463 British government,, and went on board their ship of the line, the Bellerophon, stationed at a short distance from the shore. It was immediately determined to send him to St. Helena, a remote island in the middle of the Atlantic, as a place where he could be kept in perfect security, without too much confinement or restraint. Here, in the society of a few devoted friends who had chosen to accompany him to the place of his exile, he lived about six years, spending much time and labor in dictating memoirs of his own life. The assistance of a priest and the succors of religion, which he had earnestly begged, consoled his last moments; and the filth of May, 1821, closed the earthly career of that extraordinary man before whom Europe had so long trembled, and who, notwithstanding the sad reverses which clouded the erening of his life, is justly considered the most power- ful genius and the greatest captain of the age. SECOND AMERICAN WAR. A. D. 18121815. ENGLAND was- not yet disengaged from her perilous and gigantic struggle against the emperor of the French, when, by a series of at- tempts on the liberties of maritime commerce, she again provoked the hostility of the Americans. This may be called a political fault so much the greater, as the United States had, during the last years, rapidly increased in population, wealth and power, both from the in- dustry of their inhabitants, the tide of emigration, and the accession of many new states, Louisiana, Kentucky, Ohio, etc., to their con- federacy. New causes of provocation continuing to take place be- tween the ships of the two nations, and the majority of the American people being desirous of war for the redress of their grievances, Con- gress openly declared it on the eighteenth of June, (A. D. 1812). Its commencement was very unfavorable to the arms of the United States, as all attempts then made at the. northern frontier to invade Canada were not only fruitless, but also attended with a considera- ble loss of men and ammunition. However, the spirit of the people was not subdued, nor the army disheartened, and before the close of the year 1813, they began to reap the fruit ot their perseverance by capturing, under the direction of Commodore Perry, the whole Bri- tish fleet on lake Erie, and gaining, under General Harrison, the victory of the Thames, which recovered the posts previously surren- dered to the enemy. Another victory on land near the cataract of Niagara, and the destruction of another British flotilla on lake Cham- plain, gave the Americans a decided superiority in those quarters, al least with regard to the defence and protection of their own territory. 464 MODERN HISTORY. Partvill. Their warlike exertions upon the ocean were ako generally fortu- nate ; so much so, that almost every week brought the tidings of some brilliant capture made, or some splendid exploit achieved by the spirit and intrepidity of American seamen; but success upon the land was more equally divided. Five or six thousand troops under General Ross, having reached the vicinity of Washington, routed the Ameri- can force, amounting to seven or eight thousand men, including militia. The city was abandoned by the president and the heads of departments, and soon after entered by the conquerors, who did not, however, occupy it more than one day. Elated with success, they resolved to undertake also the capture of Baltimore, intending to make this important place their winter quarters. Their landing at North Point, on the eleventh of September, 1814, met with little or no opposition; but their general Ross being killed, on the twelfth, in his advance towards the city, and all the attacks made by his vessels and troops on frort McHenry being bravely repulsed, they were com- pelled to abandon the enterprise. The Engrish turned now their main efforts against the southern States. New Orleans being the principal object of their views, a powerful armament was fitted out for an attack on this opulent city. Fortunately, an able and experienced commander, one already dis- tinguished for his. feats of arms in other parts of the Union, General Jackson, was there to oppose the progress of the enemy. Besides his regular troops and the militia of the neighboring States, he re- quired of every citizen who could bear arms, to take an active part in the military operations on which the safety of all depended. The fortifications were strengthened; an extensive line of works was erected four miles below the town, well furnished with artillery; and, the better to protect his troops from the fire of the assailants, Jackson conceived the happy idea of covering the intrenchments with a great number of cotton bales. In this favorable position, he resolutely de- fied every attack of the enemy. Towards the last days of December, of the year 1814, the English, under the cover of their batteries, made several attempts to carry by storm the fortifications before them ; but they were invariably re- pulsed by the superior fire of the American artillery. The final attack on the main works, was reserved for the eighth of January following. It lasted about one hour and a half, during which the valor of the assailants only served to expose them without adequate defence to the incessant and destructive fire from the cannons and musketry of the besieged; while the breast- works of cotton-bales, which no ball could penetrate, afforded complete protection to their opponents. The British were obliged to retire from the sanguinary conflict with the loss of two thousand six hundred men, wounded, captured or slain, A . D . 1815-1844. GENERAL VIEW ; ETC. 465 including their general Packenham and their chief officers ; whilst the victorious Americans had not lost, in this decisive action, more tnan six killed and seven wounded. The news of this important victory filled the whole country with exultation, and was the closing event of the second American war. Shortly after, intelligence was received from Europe of the peace concluded by the American and English commissioners assembled at Ghent for that purpose. The treaty, already signed by the court of England, was ratified by the President and Senate of the United States in February (A. D. 1815); and thus, in the same year, with the interval of a few months, peace was reestablished in America by the treaty of Ghent, and in Europe by the second fall of Bonaparte. GENERAL VIEW OF THE CIVILIZED WORLD, FROM THE YEAR 1815, TO THE YEAR 1844. CONCLUSION. SINCE the eventful period of the battles of New Orleans and Wa- terloo, most of the civilized nations of the world have been in a state of comparative tranquillity. Fortunately for the rising generation, neither sovereigns nor their subjects seem inclined to indulge any longer that fatal ardor for military glory, which characterized the pre- ceding epochs. The leading powers, whether in America or Europe, appear generally desirous to enjoy in repose the laurels which their respective countries formerly won in the field, and to contend for the palm of national preeminence only by the arts of peaceful and pros- perous industry. To Great Britain, above all, belongs the honor of having arrested the course of the French revolutionary armies and of Napoleon's ambitious career. Notwithstanding the heavy taxes laid on her citi- zens, and the prodigious amount of her national debt, which is about four billions of dollars, she seems to have attained the height of power and political influence, chiefly by the superiority of her naval force. In late years, the world has beheld her successful exertions in protecting the independence of Greece against the Turks, and the Turks themselves against the encroachments of the new Egyptian dynasty; defending her immense possessions in the East and West; chastising the pirates of the Mediterranean; attacking the Chinese, and compelling them to conclude a disadvantageous peace, etc. 4G6 MODERN HISTORY. Part VI1L Among the transactions of her civil government in the same period, the most remarkable is the act of emancipation from civil disabilities and persecuting laws, granted to her Catholic subjects in 1829; au example of moderation and justice highly worthy of a generous nation, yet little valued, and still less imitated by the late king of Prussia, Frederic William III, and much less yet by the Russian autocrat Nicholas, actually reigning.* Like Great Britain, France has continued, after so many agitations and storms, to occupy that high national rank which her advantage- ous position, her vast resources of soil and industry, and the lofty spirit of her people call her to hold among the chief European powers. Neither the clashing of parties, nor the substitution of the Orleans in me place of the Bourbon dynasty, has prevented her from securing additional lustre to the glory of her arms. Not only d'id she amply share with England and Russia in the victory gained at Navarino over the Turks; but the successful expedition of Spain under Louis XVIII, (he still more brilliant conquest of Algiers under Charles X, the siege of Antwerp and the capture of Vera Cruz-under Louis Philip, have again shown to. the world, what, even after the disasters of Napo- leon's last campaigns, can be effected by French valor, skill and dis- cipline. The last named sovereign has long occupied the throne, and, notwithstanding a thousand difficulties, held the reins of go- vernment with such firmness and prudence as to attract the admi- ration even of his enemies. Yet, all his talents and skill have not been able to reconcile together the different political parties into which the French people are divided, nor save his own government from a strong opposition that threatened a new revolution in Franco. (See the next APPENDIX.) Austria, Russia and Prussia, which formerly suffered most from the wars of Bonaparte, have not only repaired their losses, but even acquired, in the final settlement of their claims, a greater extent ol territory. Among the chief European states, Spain has been, and is still the most unfortunate. In consequence of the impolitic mea- sures of King Ferdinand VII, and a variety of other causes, factions and civil wars have continued, almost without interruption, during the last twenty years, to desolate that noble country, the land of chi valry and heroism. Spain, formerly so much celebrated for her national and political strength, so long placed at the head of Euro- pean civilization, has been of late plunged in an abyss of confusion and calamities, the end of which would still appear very improbable, were it not for the providential and recent downfall of the tyran- nical regent Espartero (A. D. 1843). * See note P. A. D. 1815-1844. GENERAL VIEW; ETC. 467 Nor is this deplorable train of internal evils the only misfortune that has befallen the Spaniards during the present century. All their ancient dominions in the New World, except Cuba and Porto Rico, have of late thrown off their allegiance to the mother country, and formed themselves into independent governments, viz. Buenos Ayres, in 1816; Chili, 1818; Peru and Bolivia, 1821-1824; Colombia, towards 1820, divided into three separate states in 1831; Guatimala and Mexico, 1820-1824. All these regions have become so many confederacies or republics from which others have successively sprung up, such as Texas, in 1836, by its total separation from Mexico. But in none of them, perhaps, is the government as yet fairly settled; nor do they assume any flourishing and powerful aspect, approaching in the least to that of the United North American States. Here, notwithstanding some embarrassments which have occa- sionally taken place in the finances, the country has been constantly advancing in population and importance. The number of its inha- bitants is five times greater than it was sixty years since, at the close or the war of independence. Several new states have been added to the Union, whils^ their neighbors, the Texians, have just lately made known their desire of being also annexed to it; agriculture and manufactures are prosperous ; foreign commerce is carried on upon an extensive scale; and there exists, moreover, an immense inland trade, by means of the numerous navigable streams, canals and rail- roads by which the country is intersected. All these advantages, with the extent and resources of the land, the wisdom hitherto dis- played by its chief rulers, and the active, industrious, and enterprising spirit of the people, leave little room to doubt, that the United States are destined to possess a considerable share of influence in the future destinies of the civilized world. (See Appendix, p. 4G9.) But let us always remember, as Bossuet observes,* that this con- nexion of particular causes which destroy empires and establish others in their place, depends upon the secret orders of Divine Pro- vidence. God, from the highest heavens, holds the reins of all the kingdoms of the earth in his hands. When he wishes to make con- querors, he causes terror to march before them, and inspires them and their soldiers with invincible courage; when he intends to make lawgivers, he sends to them his spirit of wisdom and foresight, ena- bling them to prevent the evils that threaten states, and to lay the foundation of public tranquillity. It is thus that God reigns over all nations, according to the rules of his ever unerring justice. Let us speak no more of chance nor of fortune, or speak of them cnly as of names with which we cover our ignorance. What is chance * Discourse on Univers. Hist, part in, last chap. 468 MODERN HISTORY. Part VIIL to our uncertain views, is a concerted design in a higher counsel, that is, in that eternal counsel which comprises all causes and effects in one and the same order. Thus is verified the saying of the Apostle, that, God is the Blessed and only Mighty, the King of kings, and Lord of ton/3 (1 Tim. vi. 15). Blessed, whose peace is unalterable, who sees every thing change, without himself changing, and who effects all changes by an immutable counsel who gives and takes away power; who transfers it from one individual to another, from one dynasty to another, from one people to another, to show that they all hold it by a precarious tenure, and that in Him alone it essentially resides. Thus we have beheld the series of great empires and states which have figured on the theatre of the world during eighteen centuries. While we see them successively appear and disappear, some falling, as it were, of themselves, and others rising in their place, while the Religion of Christ, in the midst of these vicissitudes, invariably main- tains her strength and dignity; we may easily understand where solid greatness exists, and where a prudent man should place his hopes and all his affections. APPENDIX. SINCE the last lines of this history were written, events of consi- derable importance and magnitude have transpired in different parts of the world. On this side of the Atlantic, the annexation of Texas to the American Union, and a subsequent war against Mexico, have added and secured an immense territory to the government of the United States. On the other side, nearly the whole continent of Europe has been shaken by a long series of political storms. Events of this description cannot be properly omitted, and seem to require a few additional pages for the completion of Modern History. ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. MEXICAN WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. A. D. 18451848. THE proposed annexation of Texas to the United States had, for several years, met with little encouragement on the part of the cabinet at Washington. The scheme, however, began to be actively pursued during the latter part of Mr. Tyler's presidency ; yet, on account of new difficulties, it was not carried into effect till 1845, the first year of President Folk's administration. During the course of that year, the terms of annexation were settled by both parties, and Texas was declared a State of the American Union. In virtue of this agreement, the Texans immediately requested Mr. Polk to occupy the principal stations of their country, and to send an army for its defence. This momentous transaction, irrevocably depriving the Mexicans of a vast territory, was not concluded without loud protests on their part ; they naturallv complained of it, through their ministers and ambassadors, as an infringement of their rights. They appealed to the treaty of friendship existing between the two nations, and openly denounced the annexation of Texas, and its occupation by an American force, as a violation of that treaty. So strong, indeed, was this feeling among them, that their executive, under President Herrera, having betrayed a disposition to settle their differences with the American government in a peaceful manner, were suddenly overthrown, to make room for the presidency of General Paredes. Troops were assembled and stationed at the frontier, to the number of about eight thousand, under the command of General Arista. The Americans, on their side, had taken a similar step, and their troops had already advanced to occupy the disputed territory. The 40 470 MODERN niSlORY. Partvni first action that took place between the hostile parties, was a private encounter, in which the Americans lost sixty-three dragoons, killed, wounded, or prisoners. A few days later, a body of Texans Avas also surprised in their camp, and several were slain or wounded. These beginnings seemed very inauspicious to the American cause ; but things wore a quite different aspect when General Taylor, being appointed commander-in-chief for that distant theatre of the war, appeared in person on the field, and was enabled to fight regular battles. This able leader having, after his arrival in the Texan territory, been stationed successively in various places, finally took up his position near the Rio Grande (also called Rio Bravo del Norte), within cannon-shot of the city of Matamoras. He had not however completed his intrenchments, when he was informed that Point Isabel, where he had left a large supply of provisions and ammuni- tion, was seriously threatened by the Mexicans. With the main part of his army, he quickly retraced his steps towards that import- ant point, to prevent it from falling into the hands of the enemy. Having attained his object, and garrisoned the place with new troops, he again set out for Matamoras, and, on the second day of his march (8th of May, 1846), discovered near Palo Alto the Mexi- can forces drawn up in battle-array, and waiting for his approach. Although his force did not exceed two thousand three hundred men, whilst that of the Mexicans amounted, it is believetl, to nearly seven thousand, he did not decline the combat. On the side of the Americans, it was carried on chiefly by artillery, and such was the superiority of their fire that, after an action of about five hours, the enemy's columns were disordered and driven back from their posi- tion.* General Arista retreated during the night, and occupied a new and favorable position at Resaca de la Palma, a few miles distant from Palo Alto. On the following day, as the two hostile armies met again, another engagement immediately ensued. The Mexican artillery commenced the action, and was so well managed that its effects were quite severe on the American lines. It became necessary to dislodge the enemy from the ground which they occupied ; this was done by a succession of skilful movements and vigorous charges. Their artillery were dispersed ; La Vega, one of their best generals, was made prisoner; and their columns, row broken on all sides, were no longer able to bear the well- directed fire continually poured upon them by the American mus- ketry and artillery. They fled from the field with great precipitation, and being warmly pursued, continued their flight till they placed the Rio Grande between themselves and their conquerors. No cowardice, however, no feebleness should be imputed to them. They had behaved and fought well, and they were defeated only because, in the natural course of events, mere courage must yield to at least equal valor aided by superior bodily strength, military skill, science and discipline. " In these engagements," says a well-informed historian, " the * Report of General Taylor, dated May 9th, 1846. A D. 1845-1848. MEXICAN WAR, ETC. 471 commander ef the American forces, General Zachary Taylor, dis- played the utmost coolness and bravery exposing himself in the most dangerous positions, and encouraging his troops by his heroic example. After the battles were ended, his attention to the wounded and the dying, whether friend or foe, evinced that sympathy for suffering humanity, which is ever inseparable from true courage."* To this merited praise, we must add that General Taylor, in hii reports of the campaign, evinced not less modesty in speaking of himself, than sincerity in extolling the bravery of his officers and soldiers . During these operations' of the main body of the army, a de- tachment previously left for the defence of the field-work opposite to Matamoras, equally signalized themselves by their gallant beha- vior. They lost, it is true, their intrepid commander, Major Brown; yet they successfully sustained a severe cannonade and bombardment which continued one hundred and sixty-eight hours, till at length the fort, was relieved, and the siege raised, by the arrival of Taylor's army immediately after the victories of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. So much success obtained within so short a time inspired the Americans not only with great joy and confidence, but also with a violent thirst for new conquests. No longer satisfied with the pos session of Texas, they now prepared to penetrate into the heart of the Mexican territory, particularly as valuable reinforcements had been received, and the effective troops, independently of garrisons left in some places, amounted to nearly seven thousand men, full of hope and courage. They, therefore, were made to advance in thre divisions towards the south, and on the 19th of September, they arrived in sight of Monterey (the capital of New Leon), having met during their march no resistance except from skirmishing parties of Mexican cavalry. Monterey is described by historians as an important place, well fortified both by nature and art. The garrison, under the command of Pedro Ampudia, consisted, it is said, of about seven thousand regular -troops, and two or three thousand irregulars, being con- sequently more numerous than the whole besieging army. Not- withstanding these weighty obstacles, General Taylor thought it possible to carry the city by storm, with the artillery and the bayonet. His hopes were realized. The attack began on the 20th of September, and notwithstanding all the difficulties of a fearful struggle, was renewed during three successive days. The besiegers were occasionally repulsed on some points ; yet many of their corps gained ground, till at length, by dint of efforts and courage, they succeeded not only in carrying the out- ward posts and fortifications, but even in occupying several parts of the city. As the Mexicans, however, had offered a brave resistance, and their artillery in particular had played with terrible effect on the Americans, the final success of the latter was not obtained without * Mansfield, Mexican Wart ch. ii. pp. 38, 39. 472 MODERN HISTORY. Part VIIL considerable loss. The attack of the citadel, if attempted, threatened to cost them the lives of many other brave soldiers. This conside- ration, added to other cogent reasons, induced the commander-in- chief to lend a willing ear to the proposals made, on the 24th of September, by General Ampudia. This officer offered to surrender both the remainder of the town and the citadel, on condition of a favorable and honorable capitulation; the desired terms were granted, and the Mexican troops withdrew from the place with al] the honors of war. The surrender of Monterey opened a large field to the enterpris- ing spirit of the Americans ; within the space of only three months after that event, they subdued a vast extent of country, and occupied the important places of Saltillo, Tampico, and Victoria. Nor was the work of conquest carried on merely in this portion of the Mexican republic. Other expeditions had, in the interim, been set on foot by the cabinet at Washington, for the purpose of detaching from the central government of Mexico its northern and north-western pro- vinces. These expeditions were placed under the command of General Wool, on the one hand, and, on the other, of General Kear- ny, assisted by the intrepid Colonel Doniphan. They did not, at the time, procure any material advantage, yet they also contributed to show forth the extent of American energy and valor, and subdued a very considerable, though almost uninhabited, territory. About the same time, and even before the events just related, similar exploits took place in California. These were achieved by Captain Fremont, an officer equally distinguished for bold enterprise and scientific attainments. With less than two hundred riflemen, he defeated and drove before him all the Mexican parties on his way, and being reinforced by Commodore Stockton, entered the Californian capital in the month of August, 1846. Thus was com- pleted in a short campaign, and almost without bloodshed, the con- quest of California. However surprising these exploits, still greater and more impor- tant achievements continued to be performed by General Taylor. He was now far advanced in his march across the Mexican terri- tory, when he received information of the approach of a hostile force, amounting to at least twenty thousand men. To this great number the American general could hardly oppose five thousand soldiers, as his army had been reduced by the necessity in which he was of sending a very considerable portion of his forces to fight under General Scott, in another seat of the war ; but, as a sort of compensation for this great disparity, he possessed brave and skilful officers, an excellent artillery, and a formidable position, purposely selected by himself, on the heights of Buena Vista. The two armies were in sight of each other on the 22d of Feb- ruary, 1847. The celebrated leader, Santa Anna, then at the head of the Mexican forces, was so confident of victory, that, before com- mencing the attack, he sent a message to General Taylor, summoning him to surrender at discretion. Of course no satisfactory answer waa returned, and the conflict began on the same day, too late however in A.D. 1845-1848. MEXICAN WAR, ETC. 473 the evening, to" produce any serious effect; the decisive action was reserved for the following day, the 23d, a day for ever memorable in the annals of American warfare. The battle lasted from seven in the morning to six in the evening, a circumstance which alone might suffice to show how warmly it was contested. At two different parts of the day, the Mexicans, by their superior numbers, their bravery, and the judicious plan of their commander-in-chiof, obtained a considerable, although only partial and transient advantage. Marching on to the attack with determined vigor, they for a time outflanked the left and even the rear of their opponents, forced some regiments to fall back with great loss and disorder, and, occupying their position, placed the whole American army in imminent peril. But, on the other hand, the heroic calmness of General Taylor, the precision of his orders, their prompt execution, the steady fire of his artillery, which pro- duced dreadful havoc among the dense masses of the assailants, and the stern intrepidity of a large number of his troops, at length won the 4ay, and enabled him to remain in possession of the field.* The Mexicans, thus foiled in their attempt to carry the American position, retreated during the night, having lost, even according to Santa Anna's account, more than fifteen hundred men killed and wounded, whilst the remainder, exposed to painful privations and given up to despondency, scattered themselves in different directions, either following their officers, or altogether abandoning their stand- ards. Hence the issue of the battle of Buena Vista was of immense advantage to the Americans ; it left them absolute masters of the field, secured for them the frontier of the Rio Grande, and whiJst it crowned their exploits on that side, spread terror and dismay through the Mexican nation. The chief operations of war, by orders from the American govern- ment, were now to be carried on in another part of the country. About this time, General Scott, who had hitherto been actively en- gaged in making the necessary arrangements for the troops, arrived from Washington to take in person a still more active share in the prosecution of hostilities. He was not to supersede General Taylor in his particular plan of operations ; yet, he had been appointed to act as commander-in-chief, and to have the conduct of the main expedition against Mexico. General Scott reached by sea the frontiers of the Mexican repub- * The Mexican general, in his report of the battle of Buena Vista, repeat- edly intimates that victory had been on his side ; but these expressions cannot be understood to mean any thing else than the momentary successes which he obtained at different parts of the day. From his own account, the ultimate result was certainly against him. Independently of the disappointment and discontent which characterize his letter, and bespeak the vanquished rather than the victorious general, Santa Anna candidly admits, 1st, that he could not, as he intended, drive the Americans from their last intrenchment, and 2d, that no later than the ensuing night, he was compelled by circumstances to withdraw from the field of battle. Does not this amount to an implicit acknowledgment of failure on his part, and ultimate success to the Americans ? 40* 474 MODERN HISTORY. rartviiL lie. Having collected twelve thousand men, and being provided with every thing necessary for a siege, he landed them without any loss, at a short distance from Vera Cruz. The bombardment of this city began on the 22d of March, 1847, and was continued during four days in succession, with awful activity and terrible effect. All that time, the defence of the Mexicans was spirited and obstinate ; but after the 26th, at the sight of the immense havoc that had been already produced among their people, they at length, in order to avoid entire destruction, resolved to surrender. Two days later, the articles of capitulation were signed. Full protection was secured to the inhabitants ; the honors of war were granted to the garrison : the Mexican troops, under these terms, evacuated the place, and the American flag waved over the city of Vera Cruz and its renowned fortress, the Castle of San Juan d'Ulloa. As soon as the necessary preparation could be made, the victori- ous army advanced into the Mexican territory, in the direction of Jalapa ; but, before they reached this place, a new and formidable obstacle presented itself. It was necessary to cross a ridge of high mountains, and the almost impregnable heights of Cerro Gordo, fortified both by nature and art. Here again stood Santa Anna, ready to oppose their passage. After his repulse at" Buena Vista, this general had rapidly traversed the central provinces with a con- siderable portion of his troops, and now, at the head of fifteen thousand men, sought to defend a position naturally so strong, with batteries and intrenchments. It seemed rashness to assault a position pf this kind ; yet sc urgent was the necessity of an attempt, and so great the confidence of General Scott in the valor of his troops, that the attack was resolved upon for the 18th of April. The orders to the several bodies of the army, and the indications of their intended move- ments, were given with almost prophetic exactness ; and the execu- tion on the part of the officers and soldiers was equally admirable. Those in front were, it is true, compelled, after bravely fighting, to withdraw before- the Mexican batteries ; yet their gallant effort was not altogether lost, as it occupied the enemy's attention on that side. Those in flank, although likewise exposed to a murderous fire of artillery and musketry, ascended the long and difficult slope of Cerro Gordo with the utmost steadiness, reached the breastworks of that fortress, drove the Mexicans from them, planted their colors, and after some minutes more of sharp firing, finished the conquest with the bayonet. This memorable action cost the Americans about two hundred and fifty men killed or wounded, among whom were several officers of distinction. In return for this loss, they had obtained a com- plete triumph ; and so great a quantity of large guns, stands of arms and ammunition, fell into their hands, that they were really embarrassed with the results of victory. The Mexicans, besides, had a great number of slain and wounded, independently of three thousand men that were made prisoners, together with five of their generals. The rest of their troops, eight thousand in number, A. D. 1845-1848. MEXICAN WAR, ETC. 475 always under the command of Santa Anna, fled with precipitation from the scene of havoc, in the direction of Jalapa. The principal effect of the battle and capture of Cerro Gordo, very similar to that which followed the capture of Monterey, was to open for the Americans a free road towards the Mexican capital. They for some weeks advanced into the country with little or no opposition, taking possession, as they went on, of all the castles and towns in their way, among others of the ancient and populous city of Puebla, situated nearly midway between Vera Cruz and Mexico. That city was entered towards the middle of May, 1847, by the first division of the army, under General Worth a brave and skilful officer, who, after having greatly distinguished himself under General Taylor, continued to render signal services under General Scott. Thus, within the short space of two months, the city of Vera Cruz had been compelled to surrender ; the famed Castle of San Juan d'Ulloa was also taken ; the almost impregnable tower of Cerro Gordo was carried by storm ; the town of Jalapa entered ; the strong fortress of Perote captured, and Puebla occupied. Ten thousand Mexicans made prisoners of war, and a vast amount of ammunition; splendid cannon and stands of arms, were the spoils of the victories won by the American troops in a campaign of only eight or nine weeks. History presents but few instances of achieve- ments at the same time so brilliant and so rapid. But the American army itself had undergone severe losses, and its numbers were greatly reduced, not only by death on the field of battle, but also by fatigue, disease, or desertion, and by the depar- ture of several corps, after one year of service. This obliged General Scott to reside for some months in the city of Puebla, in expectation of new reinforcements. When these arrived, and his army was again placed on a respectable footing, he resumed his inarch towards Mexico ; on the 18th of August, his forces, amount- ing to about ten thousand men, were concentrated near San Augus- tine, nine miles south of that capital. On the 20th of August, the Americans attacked all the fortified posts occupied by the enemy in their neighborhood, and notwith- standing the intrenchments, and the numerical superiority of the Mexicans, carried them all with the sword and the bayonet. The well-contested battle of Churubusco, fought in the evening of the same memorable day, completed the success of the previous partial actions. It lasted three hours, with terrible and incessant dis- charges of musketry and artillery from both sides. At last the Americans conquered, and the Mexicans were defeated in every part of the field, with the loss of several thousand men killed, wounded, or prisoners. To prevent further effusion of blood, a temporary negotiation was opened; but as this also failed, General Scott thought it his duty to recommence hostilities as soon as the truce expired. Nevertheless, the bloody scenes of war were now drawing to a close. In spite of new dangers, occasioned both by the nature of tne ground and 476 MODERN HISTORY. FartviiL by various fortifications in the neighborhood and at the entrance of Mexico, the American troops made their advance with but little interruption. This indeed required of them many strenuous efforts, and cost the lives of many brave officers and soldiers, especially in the storming of the formidable defences of Chapultepec, Molino del Hey and Casa de Mata; yet every obstacle yielded to their un- daunted energy, and a series of well-directed and successful attacks, during the space of forty-eight hours, at last made them masters of the great Mexican capital (September, 1847*). The Mexicans had, up to this moment, entertained the hope of driving the American forces from their territory. This hope must now have vanished before the stern evidence of facts. The federal government and General Santa Anna fled; a deputation of the city council was sent to the American leader, and negotiations were organized to treat of peace. The terms, being settled between the commissioners of each party, were forwarded to the government at Washington, and here they underwent some alterations and amend- ments, to which the Mexican congress acceded without much diffi- culty. After the ratification had taken place on their part, " the American commissioners officially informed the secretary of state that the treaty was complete, and on the 19th of June, 1848, two years and two months from the commencement of the war, the American people were formally notified that there was peace be- tween Mexico and the United States."f The war had cost the lives of nearly twenty thousand Ameri- cans, who either fell in battle, or died of excessive fatigue, disease, and other accidents ; whilst the pecuniary expenses amounted to upwards of one hundred and fifty millions of dollars ; to which must be added the sum of fifteen millions of dollars to be paid to the Mexican republic, as an indemnification for their cession and loss of several extensive provinces. It is true that a vast territory has thus been acquired to the United States, and it cannot be denied that a surface of six hundred and thirty thousand square miles, in- cluding Upper California* and New Mexico,is a valuable acquisition; yet, as the greater part of this immense tract of country is' dreary or actually uninhabited, it can scarcely be considered a sufficient compensation for the vast expenditure of money and life, were it not for the prospect of the paramount advantages that may arise from it in future, with regard to commerce and civilization. One great movement has already begun to take place in reference to these newly acquired possessions. Multitudes of emigrants are hurrying westward towards the shores of the Pacific, for the pur- pose of working the golden mines of Upper California. Settlements are made ; the population increases ; the hope of great wealth at- tracts continually the bold adventurer; and that hope, if we believe the common report, is frequently realized, not however without a proportionable amount of misery. * See the official report of the commander-in-chief, General Scott, dated September 18, 1847, from the National Palace of Mexico, f Mansfield, Kexican War, p. 332. A. D. 1848-1850. DISTURBANCES IN EUROPE. 477 Such has been the immediate effect of the Mexican treaty on the minds and conduct of the American people. As for the two dis- tinguished men that acted the chief part in the war, General Scott and General Taylor, they have found a proper reward for their brilliant achievements in the esteem and gratitude of their fellow- citizens. The former enjoys the honor of being considered one of the best generals now in existence, and the latter, besides a similar reputation attached to his name, has been raised to the first dignity of his country, that of President of the United States, the functions of which he began to exercise in the year of our Lord 1849. DISTURBANCES AND REVOLUTIONS IN EUROPE.* A. D. 18481850. WHILE the United States have thus rapidly risen in power and in extent 'of territory, Europe has been given up to a series of political disturbances and revolutions. In various parts of that continent, either discontent under the pressure of misery, or more frequently, a spirit of restlessness and insubordination, and an in- ordinate desire of social changes, have given rise to many violent outbreaks against governments. Independently of several incidents of this kind that occurred in Switzerland, Germany, Prussia, &c., such has been the case particularly with France, the Austrian dominions, and the different states of Italy. For some time previous to the year 1848, the storm was prepar- ing, which subsequently burst on the continent of Europe. It first manifested itself in Paris, the principal and ordinary theatre of revolutions. In consequence of some dictatorial measures taken by King Louis Philip for the security of his crown, the Parisian population rose in immense crowds, and in the short space of a day (the 22d of February, 1848), overthrew his government. It is diffi- cult to conceive any thing more inglorious than the downfall of that monarch, till then reputed one of the ablest sovereigns in the world ; he fled with precipitation, and every symptom of terror, towards the sea-coast, and seized upon the first opportunity to embark for England, where he has ever since continued to reside with his family. * The reader will easily perceive that the revolutionists of Europe are not viewed, throughout our Appendix, in the same favorable light as they are by many persons on this side of the Atlantic. Want of sufficient acquaintance with the real state of things may be pleaded as an excuse for these persons; yet it is surprising that those European Socialists, Red Republicans, &c., should be considered the friends of liberal and free institutions, merely be- cause they have continually in their mouths the names of liberty and repub- licanism, while their real object, generally speaking, is no other than disorder, anarchy, plunder and spoliation ; even frequently assassination and bloodshed j in a word, oppression of others, and for themselves unrestrained license to com- mit every species of evil. This, in fact, is what their conduct and actions have sufficiently given us to understand : " By their fruits you shall know them." 478 MODERN HISTORY. Part vm In the interim, a provisional government was organized in Paris. The chief acts of this transient power were, on the one hand, an enormous increase of taxes, and on the other, the convocation of a national assembly, or congress, to be composed of representatives from all parts of France, and whose capital object would be to frame a new constitution for the country. This was accordingly done, and the session voted for a republican form of government, in which the legislative power should reside in a national assembly, consisting of seven hundred representatives .elected for three years, and the executive power in a president, chosen for four years by a majority of the people. But these regulations did not satisfy a certain class of men, who, under the name of Red Republicans or Socialists, wished to destroy every distinction of rank, every inequality of fortune, and, contrary to all regulations of property, aimed at enriching one-half of the people, and themselves first of all, at the expense of the other half. The abettors of this party resting their hopes much more on con- tinual changes of government than on any regular state of things, prepared to make, in the very centre of Paris, a mighty effort to frustrate the views of the national assembly, bring the city under their own control, and effect a new revolution. Numerous and well-organized forces, a vast amount of guns and ammunition, a well-combined plan of attack, skilful leaders, barri- cades and other fortifications, all contributed to render the Parisian insurrection of June, 1848, one of the most formidable attempts that ever threatened the existence of social order. It required all the devotedness of the well-meaning citizens and troops, all the energy of General Cavaignac and other brave commanders, in fine, threo days of hard fighting and much bloodshed, to suppress entirely this terrible manifestation of the socialist party. Among all the victims of those days, the most conspicuous was M. Affre, archbishop of Paris, who, in his earnest desire to imitate the good shepherd that gives his life for his sheep, fell mortally wounded near a barricade, whilst endeavoring to soothe the feelings of the misguided portion of his flock, and to effect a reconciliation. As if his blood had pos- sessed a secret virtue to remedy the public evils, no serious disturb- ances, although attempts were made to excite new ones, for a long time after occurred in France. Both the executive government, and the far greater portion of the national assembly, have always mani- fested a firm determination to maintain order and tranquillity. The late victory over the insurgents had done great honor to General Ca,vaignac, and raised him high in the esteem of the nation. Hence he appeared as a candidate for the presidency, and with great probability of success ; but the tide of popular favor was seen to take another direction. Whether out of respect for the name of Napoleon, or through the hope of returning to a princely form, of government, Louis Napoleon, a* nephew of the great emperor of Francs, was elected, in December, 1848, president of the French republic. , in many respects, to the disturbances of France, were i.i). 1848-1850. DISTURBANCES IN EUROPE. 479 those which at the same time agitated Germany, and especially the various parts of the Austrian empire. A revolutionary spirit per- raded, to a greater or less extent, Vienna, Prague, and other cities, together with Hungary, Lombardy, and other provinces. So violent indeed was the storm at a certain period; that the Emperor Ferdinand came to the determination of abdicating his crown, and executed his resolution towards the close of the year 1848, in behalf of his nephew, the Archduke Francis Joseph. The court, however, whilst yield- ing something to the exigency of the times, did not sink under the weight of so many difficulties. With a firmness and energy worthy of the Austrian character, the government levied numerous troops, and, by persevering in their efforts, gradually succeeded in sup- pressing the insurrection in all the places and countries just men- tioned. The struggle, it is true, was long and obstinately maintained, "both in Hungary and Northern Italy ; but it merely served, on that account, to make the cause of Austria triumph in a more conspicu- ous and decided manner. The Hungarian insurgents were so often and so signally defeated by the Russians on the one side,, and by the Austrians on the other, that it may be truly said of them that they are now completely prostrate at the feet of these two great powers. - The war in Northern Italy was not less decisive in favor 01 Aus- tria. It seemed at first that the insurgents of Lombardy, aided by the chivalrous king of Sardinia, Charles Albert, would carry every thing before them, and expel for ever those whom they called foreigners from their territory ; but their triumph was very short, a'nd their jov quickly damped by subsequent reverses. Numerous armies of Austrians, pouring in from the Alps, soon restored the imperial power throughout Lombardy, and Charles Albert was not only disappointed in his lofty designs of conquest and aggrandize- ment, but .even taught, by several defeats, to tremble for his own kingdom (A. D. 1848). An armistice, however, was granted him by the conquerors. But as the two parties could not, in the interval, come to a settlement of their differences, preparations were made on both sides for a renewal of hostilities. There now existed a still greater dispropor- tion between them than before, and the king of Sardinia, well aware of it, recommenced the struggle much against his own judg- ment, and compelled, as it were, by the earnest wishes of imprudent counsellors and subjects. The common feeling on the opposite side was quite the reverse ; the armies of Austria, and their able com- mander-in-chief, Marshal Radetski, were animated by the recollec- tion of past success, and marched to the field of battle with an entire confidence of future triumphs. .Raclotski left Milan at the head of forty thousand men, on the 13th of March, 1849, and crossed the Tessino on the 20th, by the bridge at Vigevano. At that place he met with some slight resist- ance from the Picdmontese, but not of such a nature as to impede his progress ; he therefore immediately advanced to Mortara, and, 480 MODERN HISTOEY. Part Tin while with the main body of his troops he went on towards Ver- celli, so disposed his left wing as to intercept one-half of the Pied- montese army. By this sudden and bold advance of their enemy, two of their divisions were separated from the rest, and Charles Albert, who commanded in person the other portion of the Sardinian army, was forced to give battle upon very unequal terms. He had scarcely any artillery, whilst the Austrians had upwards of a hun- dred field pieces, which enabled them to destroy thousands of the Piedmontese with grape-shot; hence the latter were entirely de- feated, and compelled to retire precipitately towards Turin. This battle was fought on the 22d of March, nine days after $he depar- ture of Radetski from Milan. On the following day, the two parties again came in collision near Novara, where the Austrians gained a second victory still more signal and complete than the first. It appears that the Piedmontese made a still greater resistance than in the previous battle, and that their loss was frightful, not being less, it is thought, than fifteen thousand men killed. The sad remnants of their troops were routed in every direction ; Charles Albert himself, after having during the conflict given proofs of the most determined courage, fled into Switzerland, and thence into Spain, not however till he had abdi- cated hjs crown in favor of his son Victor. Such was the result of those dreams of ambition, which had prompted him to believe that he might gain possession of all Northern Italy. Marshal Radetski returned in triumph to Milan, after an absence of only eleven days, during which he had achieved one of the most glorious exploits of modern times. He had skilfully arranged his plans, and kept them so secret that the Piedmontese had no means of discovering them, till it was too late to prevent their own total overthrow. Hence his victory proved a decisive one, and put an end to the war. In August following, a treaty was Concluded be- tween the two states upon terms favorable to Austria, "without, however, derogating from the honor of the Sardinian government. Great disturbances and alarming insurrections had likewise oc- curred in the south of Italy, but all were also suppressed by the vigor and energy of the Neapolitan court. Indeed, the obstinate resistance of several cities, especially in Sicily, (for instance, Catena, Messina and Syracuse), merely served to provoke against them measures of greater severity. Owing to a variety of circumstances, affairs have not been so soon and so easily settled at Rome. Long before this, the enlightened and benevolent pontiff, Pius IX, had taken the lead of all contem- porary sovereigns in granting liberal institutions to his people, and in doing for them whatever could reasonably be attempted for their prosperity and happiness. This beneficence at first excited univer- sal applause and enthusiasm ; when, through the vile intrigues and machinations of his enemies, these just sentiments towards the pope were in a short time superseded by revolt and ingratitude* There is no kind of outrage that was not perpetrated against his paternal authority by these enemies of order and virtue, whether A. D. 1818-1850. DISTURBANCES IN EUROPE. 481 natives of Rome or foreigners, the very dregs of European society. As their only object was to promote their own interest, even at the sacrifice of public and private tranquillity, the most abusive lan- guage, misrepresentations, calumnies, plots and~~assassinations, became at Rome the order of the day. Cowardice, or treason and rebellion, deprived the pope of every means to stop these disorders ; nay, his prime minister, Count Rossi, was publicly murdered, and he himself being attacked and imprisoned, as it were, in his own palace, was more and more exposed to the savage clamors and at- tempts of an infuriated rabble. At length, by the skilful manage- ment of the Bavarian and French ambassadors, he happily escaped from Rome, and travelling in haste, reached Gaeta, in the kingdom of Naples, where he met with the most cordial reception from both the king and the king's family and subjects (November, 1848). The first solemn act performed by the pontiff in his exile, was one of apostolical vigor. No later than the 1st of January, 1849, he excommunicated the usurpers of his power and the oppressors of his people, and, as this measure had little effect on persons that were total strangers to feelings of religion, honor and humanit}^, he appealed, in order to check the course of their impious and pre- datory excesses, to the intervention of the catholic powers. The appeal was readily responded to. While the Austrians, Neapolitans and Spaniards sent bodies of troops to the different provinces of the Ecclesiastical State, to re-establish in them the pope's authority, a French army, having landed at Civita Vccchia, fearlessly proceeded against Rome itself, defended as it was by fortifications, barricades, and, it is said, twenty-eight thousand Socialists, Romans and foreigners. The French met at first a trifling check, which merely taught them to be more cautious in their advance. The skill of General Oudinot and the bravery of his troops soon bore every thing before them, and, by ruining the works and carrying the strongest positions of the enemy, forced the city to an unconditional sur- render, on the 29th of June, 1849. On the 2d of July, the victori- ous general entered it at the head of his army, and immediately proclaimed the restitution of the pontifical government ; yet the pope's return to Rome was still postponed, and did not take place ' till the following April. Such was the state of affairs throughout Europe in the beginning of the year 1850 : what will be the ultimate result of so many dis- turbances and revolutions, no human sagacity can determine. It- has, indeed, fortunately happened, through a special intervention of the Providence of Gocf, moved by the prayers of his people, that, whilst a new and frightful storm was seen gathering on all sides, the president of the French republic, Napoleon, by suddenly con- centrating the ruling power in his hands (1851), has crippled the power of socialism and other discordant parties in France : a mas- terly stroke of policy or coup d'etat, generally applauded by the friends of order, and looked upon as a measure that has saved not only France, but probably several other countries, from the unfa- thomable abyss of evils with which they were threatened. Yet, the 482 MODERN HISTORY. Part VIII. abettors of public disturbances and the members of secret societies arc still much to be feared, if not, perhaps, for their actual endea- vors, at least for their desires, to undermine, where and when they can, as well religion as the existing governments. Besides this, the east of Europe again begins to be the theatre of momentous events. The Russian Czar, Nicholas, proud of his co- lossal power, and ill-concealing his ambition under the plea of pro- tecting the Greek subjects of the Ottoman empire,* is engaged in an open war against the Turks, of which he himself has given the sig- nal, by invading a portion of the Turkish territory. It is true, that the Russians have generally failed in their subsequent attempts, and have even suffered great losses, especially at Giurgevo and before the walls of Silistria ; England, moreover, under Queen Vic- toria, and France, under her watchful ruler, now emperor Napoleon Ill.f, have declared war against the Czar, and united their forces to check his ambitious career: yet, no decisive action has hitherto taken place, and no one can tell (1854) what will be the result of the gigantic preparations already made on each side. All we can say is, that the present war threatens to be a long and slow, as well as most important conflict. * Strange to say, the emperor Nicholas pretends to vindicate the rights of his co-religionists, whom the Turkish government does not persecute, whilst he himself has cruelly oppressed numbers of his unoffending catholic subjects. See the proofs in Catholic Cabinet and Magazine, vol. i. p. 530 ; ii. 496 ; iii. 341 ; v. 46, 224, 278 ; and in Annah of the Pro- payation, Engl. ed. vol. vi. pp. 231 244, etc. f The young duke of Reichstadt, son of the first Napoleon, is sup- posed, under the new dynasty, to have been by right Emperor Napoleon II. NOTES. NOTE A. PAGE 39. CHARACTER AND DEATH OF SENECA, LUCAN, ETC. THIS Seneca, surnamed the Philosopher, to distinguish him from his father Seneca, called the Orator, was a man of great genius and learning. He left a great number of moral treatises, which contain beautiful maxims mingled with many errors, and the style of which, labored and refined, greatly contributed to the decline of good taste and true eloquence in Rome. As to his character, although he was possessed of many moral virtues, his weak connivance at several vices and crimes of Nero, his vanity, his usuries and immense riches, showed that his boasted philosophy consisted more in theory than in practice. In compliance with the orders of Nero, he died by taking poison and opening his veins. The death of Lucan the poet, his nephew, was very similar : in obedi- ence to the same tyrannical orders, he also caused his veins to be opened. After having lost a great quantity of blood, finding his hands and feet grow cold, and the extremities of his body almost dead, whilst, the parts nearer the heart still retained their natural warmth ; he recollected the description he had given in his Pharsalia of a death very like his own, and recited from it the following lines, which were his last words : Scinditur avulsus, nee, sicut vulnere, sanguis , Emicuit lentus : ruptis cadit undique venis. ***** Pars ultima trunci Tradidit in letum vacuos vitalibus artus. At tumidus qua pulmo jacet, qua, viscera fervent, Haeserunt ibi fata diu ; luctataque multum Hac cum parte viri vix omriia membra tulerunt. Lucani Pharsalia, III. * * * * Asunder flies the man. No single wound the gaping rupture seems, Where trickling crimson wells in slender streams ; But from an opening horrible and wide, A thousand vessels pour the bursting tide. Soon from the lower parts the spirits fled, And motionless th' exhausted limbs lay dead, Not so the nobler regions, where the heart And heaving lungs their vital powers exert: There lingering late and long conflicting, life Rose against fate, and still maintained the strife. Driven out at length, unwillingly and slow, She left her mortal house, and sought the shades below. Roive. 484 NOTES. Many others, in tne same corrupt age, either anticipated by a voluntary death, or consented to execute upon themselves the sentence of their con- demnation : and it is worthy of remark, that the frequency of suicide always bears a proportion to the depravity of the time and country in which it is practised, it being one of the basest and most heinous crimes that can be committed. One of the basest, because, far from being a mark of true forti- tude, it is, on the contrary, a sure mark of pusillanimity, and of a mind easily overcome by misfortune ; as Martial the poet has said : " Fortiter ille facit, qui miser esse potest he is truly courageous, who can bear to be unfortunate." One of the most heinous, against God, whose sovereign do- minion over life and death it violates by a bold usurpation ; against society, which it unjustly deprives of its members ; and against the perpetrator himself, whom it consigns to everlasting misery, in exchange for a temporal evil : for such, and no other, must be the result of suicide, not only on the principles of divine revelation, but even on those of reason and natural light Whence Virgil, in his ^Eneid, speaking of the place of torments appointed in Tartarus lor those who have committed suicide, very justly exclaims : ***** Quain vellent aethere in alto, Nunc et pauperiem et duros perferre labores ! JEncid, vi. The whole passage stands thus in Dryden : The next in place, and punishment, are they Who prodigally threw their souls away : Fools, who repining at their wretched state, And loathing anxious life, suborn'd their fate. With late repentance now they would retrieve The bodies they forsook, and wish to live; Their pains and poverty desire to bear, To view the light of heaven, and breathe the vital air. But fate forbids ; the Stygian floods oppose, And, with nine circling streams, the captive soul enclose. Thus the guilt and folly of suicide were acknowledged by the wisest of Pagans ; and" if the contrary opinion was more prevalent among them, it must be ascribed to the depravity of the times, and to that almost universal darkness which an absurd polytheism had spread over the principles of morality; a circumstance this, which renders the admission of suicide among Christians still more unjustifiable. As to the equally criminal and brutal practice of duelling, so common in our days, it was totally unknown to the civilized nations or" antiquity, and originated in the ferocity of those barbarians of Northern Europe, who, in the fifth century, overthrew the Roman empire. NOTE B. PAGE 43 THE HISTORIAN JOSEPH US. NEARLY all that we relate concerning the Jewish war, being taken fron Josephus, it will not be amiss to make "some remarks respecting that great historian ; referring, for a fuller account of his life, to his own writings. Josephus was born of an illustrious Jewish family. From his youth, he appeared still more remarkable for the qualities of his mind than for the NOTES* 485 nobleness of his extraction, and showed so accurate a knowledge of the Mosaic law, that, even at the age of fourteen years, he was consulted on important matters by the doctors themselves. Having, in course of time, acquired more and more credit and authority among his countrymen, he made every effort to prevent them from rebelling against the Romans ; and, when he found his endeavors of no avail, he resolved at least to retard, as long as possible, the. moment of their ruin. He was appointed by them governor of Gallilee, one of the Jewish provinces most exposed, from its position, to the attacks of the enemy. Notwithstanding many obstacles, Josephus, by his ability, prudence and firmness, kept that province in good order for some time; but the approach of a powerful army commanded by Vespasian, compelled him to retire into Jotapat, the best fortified town in the country. Though pursued and be- sieged by the Romans, he defended the town, with astonishing skill and valor during forty-seven days, at the end of which, Jotapat was taken by surprise, and its inhabitants were put to the sword, with the exception of some hundred women and children. Josephus took refuge in a deep cavern, where he concealed himself with forty of his soldiers. Three days after, the place of his retreat having been discovered by the conquerors, he would have immediately intrusted himself to the generosity of Vespasian, had he not been prevented from surrendering by the threats of his companions. These furious men, to avoid falling into the hands of a victorious enemy, resolved to kill themselves with their own swords ; Josephus prevailed on them rather to die by the hands of others, proposing to mem to decide by lot who should be first killed by his companion, who should follow next, and so on to the last : a proposal, after all, not less exceptionable than their first design. They followed it however, till Josephus, most fortunately, remained, with only one man, whom he persuaded to surrender with him to the Romans ; (see Josephus himself, De Bella Judaico, lib. in, c. 7 and 8.) He was kindly treated by Vespasian, and still more so by Titus, who had conceived a great esteem for his merit. He afterwards followed this prince to the siege of Jerusalem, where he repeatedly exhorted his countrymen to imitate his example, and to deserve the clemency of the Romans by an entire submission ; but, far from being successful in the attempt, he was insulted, and, on one occasion even wounded ; he would have been either lain or taken prisoner, had not Titus speedily sent a body of soldiers to his assistance, who succeeded in carrying him back to the camp. After the destruction of Jerusalem, he went with the same prince to Rome, where he continued to be much honored by him and his father Vespasian. It was during his residence in Rome, that Josephus finished his many historical works, which display a talent for narrative, a warmth of imagina- tion and a beauty of style, that have gained for him the surname of the Grecian Livy. The most celebrated of his writings is the "History of the Jewish War," in seven books. It obtained the unqualified approbation of Vespasian, Titus and King Agrippa, who were all perfectly acquainted with the facts there mentioned. Indeed nothing is wanting to render that work both highly interesting and credible. It is the history of a war unparalleled in the annals of nations; a narrative of notorious as well as extraordinary events, written by one who had been an eye-witness, and even one of the chief actors in them : a narrative published at a time, when it could have been easily contradicted by a thousand other vviinesses, had it been deemed at variance with facts far from being thus contradicted, it rret with universal admiration and praise. It is a history, the author of which Almighty God saved by a special pro- tection from" innumerable dangers, that we might have in him an unexcep- tionable witness of the entire fulfilment of the divine phophecies concerning 41* 4SG NOTES. the temple and city of Jerusalem. In a word, it is both an authentic ana admirable record, which, though very favorable to the cause of Christianity, cannot in the least be suspected of partiality for the Christians, since the writer was not a Christian, but a Jew constantly attached to his religion, his nation and his country. NOTE C. PAGE 94. NUMBER OF MARTYRS DURING THE GENERAL PERSECUTIONS OF THE CHURCH. WHAT we have related of the persecutions of the church during the first ages, plainly shows that the multitude of those who were put to death for the cause of the Christian faith, was immense. Still Gibbon, in his ' De- cline and fall of the Roman Empire,' ch. xvi, maintains that the number of martyrs was not considerable, nor their courage astonishing. The follow- ing additional quotations from ancient sources, will show at once, it is hoped, the falsity of his assertions, and the accuracy of our statement. For the sake of brevity, we shall confine our remarks to the first, fifth and tenth persecutions. For the first persecution, besides Tertullian and other ecclesiastical writers, we have the grave and contemporary pagan historian Tacitus, who writes thus : " An immense multitude (inultiludo ingens) of Christians were condemned, not, indeed, upon evidence of their having set the city (of Home) on fire, but rather on account of the hatred of the whole human race. To their sufferings Nero added mockery and derision. Some were covered with the skins of wild beasts, to make dogs devour them ; others were cru- cified ; and many, covered over with inflammable matter, were lighted up, when the day declined, to serve as torches during the night." (Tacit slnnal., lib. xv, n. 44.) With regard to the fifth persecution (which Gibbon modestly calls a mitigated one) , merely to mention the martyrs of Lyons ; Ado of Vienna says in his martyrology (23th of June), that St. Irenaeus, bishop of that city, suil'ercd martyrdom with an exceedingly great multitude. An ancient epitaph, inscribed on a curious mosaic pavement in the great church of St. Irenaeus at Lyons, says that the number of the martyrs who died with him, amounted to the number of nineteen thousand, besides women and children St. Gregory of Tours writes that St. Irenaeus had, in a very short time converted to the Christian faith nearly the whole city of Lyons, and thai with him were butchered almost all the Christians of that populous town; in so much that streams of blood flowed through the streets : Tanta multi- tude* Christianoniinjiigulata est, ut per plaieasjhnnina currerent de sanguine Christiana; (Hist. Franc, lib. i. c. 2!).) St. Eucherius writes on the mar- tyrs of Lyons in the like manner; and Eusebius, speaking in more general terms of the same persecution, says : " When Severus raised a persecution against the Church, there were illustrious testimonies given by the comba- tants of religion in the various churches every where;" (Eccl. Hist. lib. vi c. 1.) So much for the mitigated persecution of Septimius Severus. The same Eusebius relates more at large the tenth persecution, the atrocities of which he had witnessed with his own eyes. To the texts and facts which we have quoted from him, page 94, we will subjoin the following, also taken from his Ecclesiastical History, book VIII, according NOTES. 487 Ch. 6. "Innumerable multitudes were imprisoned in every place, and the dungeons formerly destined for murderers and the vilest criminals, were then filled with bishops, and presbyters (priests), and deacons, readers and exorcists ; so that there was no room left for those condemned for crimes. But, when the former edict was followed by another, in which it was ordered that the prisoners should be permitted to have their liberty if they sacrificed, but persisting, they should be punished with the most excruciating tortures, who could tell the number of those martyrs in every province, and particu- larly in Mauritania, Thebais and Egypt, that suffered death for their religion ? " Ch. S. " In Egypt, thousands, both men and women, and children, de- spising the present life for the sake of our Saviour's doctrine, submitted to death in various shapes. Some, after being tortured with scrapings and the rack, and the most dreadful scourgings, and other innumerable agonies, which one might shudder to hear, were finally committed to the flames ; some were plunged and drowned in the sea; others voluntarily offered their own heads to the executioners ; others died in the midst of their torments, some wasted away by famine, and others again fixed to the cross. Some, indeed, were executed as malefactors usually were ; others, more cruelly, were nailed with the head downwards, and kept alive until they were de- stroyed by starving on the cross itself." Ch. 9. " But it would exceed all power of detail to give an idea of the sufferings and tortures which the Martyrs of Theba'is endured And all these tilings done not only for a few days, or some time, but for a series of whole years. At one time, ten or more ; at another, more than twenty ; at another time, not less than thirty, and even sixty; and again, at another time, a hundred men with their wives and little children were slain in one day, whilst they were condemned to various and varied punishments. We ourselves have observed, \\hen on the spot, many crowded together in one day, some suffering decapitation, some the torments of flames ; so that the murderous weapon was completely blunted, and having lost its edge, broke to pieces; and the executioners themselves, wearied with slaughter, were obliged to relieve one another. Then, also, we were witnesses to the most admirable ardor of mind, and the truly divine energy and. alacrity of those that believed in Christ. For, as soon as the sentence was pronounced against the first, others rushed forward from other parts to the tribunal before the judge, and, most indifferent to the dreadful and multiform tor- tures that awaited them, openly declared that they were Christians." Ch. 12. "In Pontus and other countries of Asia, the martyrs endured torments that are horrible to relate. Some had their fingers pierced with sharp reeds thrust under their nails. Others were roasted by masses of melted lead. . . . Some were suspended by the feet, and a little raised from the ground with their heads downward, were suffocated with the ascending smoke of a gentle fire kindled below. . . .Others were roasted on grates ot fire, not to kill immediately, but torture them with a lingering punishment .... It is impossible to tell the great and incalculable number of those that had their right eye dug out with the sword, and then seared with a red hot iron ; those too, whose left foot was maimed with a searing iron ; after these, those who in different provinces were condemned to the copper mines, not so much for the service, as for the contumely and misery they should en- dure. Many, also, endured conflicts of other kinds, which it wouhl be impossible to detail ; for their noble fortitude surpasses all power of descrip- tion. In this, the magnanimous confessors of Christ that shone conspicuous throughout the whole world, every where struck the beholders with aston- ishment, and presented the obvious proofs of our Saviour's divine interposi- tion in their own persons." 488 JVOTES. Is not all this more than sufficient to overthrow at once the whole system of Gibbon concerning the Christian martyrs ? The sceptical author has himself perceived it very well; and hence his anger against Eusebius. Lactantius has fewer words, but is not less positive than Eusebius on the excessive cruelties and ravages of the persecution of Diocletian. " Though I had," says he, " a hundred mouths and tongues, with an iron breast, it \vould be impossible for me to describe the various and horrid tortures that were inflicted on the guiltless Christians, throughout the provinces of the empire." (De Mode perscc. n. xvi .) Sulpicius Severus, who lived in the same century, though a little later, expresses himself in the same manner on the present subject. The follow- ing are his words, in the 2d book of his Hist. Sacr.: "Under the empire of Diocletian and Maximian, a most rigorous persecution arose, whicn made frightful ravages in the church for ten years in succession. During that period, nearly the w r hole world was stained with the blood of the holy mar-, tyrs. Never was the earth more depopulated by any war, than by this persecution; nor did the church ever obtain a greater triumph, than when it could not be conquered by a continual slaughter which lasted ten years." Dioclctiano ct Maxtnuano impcrantibus, acerbissima perseculio exorta, qua per dccem continues annos plcbem Dei depopulaia est. Qu& tempcstate oitutis fere sacro martyrum cruore orbis infect us eat. . . Nullis umquain magis bcllis mundus exhausins cst : neque major e unquan triumpfio vicimus, quam quiim deccm annorum stragibm vinci non potuimus. There is yet extant a medal of Diocletian with this inscription: "The name of Christians being annihilated;" Nomine Chriitianomin deleto. This indeed was asserting what had never happened; still, what an immense quantity of blood must have been shed, to make the persecutors believe that they had obliterated the Christian name, and destroyed a religion which filled the whole empire ! After such unexceptionable testimonies, which certainly suppose the number of martyrs to have amounted to millions, how ridiculous and absurd r.ir.st the assertions of Gibbon appear, when, besides frequently contradict- ing himself, he maintains : first, that there were not more than fifteen hun- dred or two thousand martyrs in the persecution of Diocletian ; secondly, that their sufferings ought to be ascribed to a cause different from that of religion, and their fortitude to mere human motives, such as pride, ambition and desire of glory; thirdly, that their tortures only existed in-the imagina- tion of the monks of latter ages! Indeed, was Gibbon serious, when writing these things, or did he not rather intend to trifle with his readers? In how deceitful and shameful a manner does he endeavor to answer and oppose the most authentic monuments of antiquity ! 1st. He conceals, omits, alters, or calls in question the strongest passages of ancient historians, which are contrary to his system ; a commodious way indeed to get rid of the most forcible proofs, when they cannot be met with solid argument! 2d. He impeaches the veracity, or at least the accuracy of Tacitus in the passage above quoted, under the pretence that Tacitus had not seen what he relates : as if ocular demonstration were the only means of acquiring the knowledge of facts, and as if Tacitus could not be perfectly acquainted with an event quite notorious in its nature, which happened inllome where ho wrote his Annals, and a few years only before he began to write! But, if the principle be true, that the testimony of the eyes is requisite to know and surely transmit historical events, what credit, we ask, can possibly be given to any part of Gibbon's work, since the facts there recorded, are sup- posed to have happened many centuries before Gibbon vvas born ? What right has an inconsistent and infidel author to claim the least reliance on NOTES. 489 his word, whilst he himself so boldly discredits the testimony of a grave, judicious and renowned historian? 3d. He appeals to the well known moderation of Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, and other such princes, to exculpate them from the guilt of having been persecutors. Some of those emperors, we admit, did not enact laws agains* Christianity; but they at least suffered the ancient laws to be executed and themselves sometimes carried on the persecution, as we learn fron Eusebius (Ecd. Hist. lib. in, iv and v), St. Justin and Meliton, (in thei dpolog.), and Pliny the younger (Epist ad Traj.) Moreover, wnat doew their supposed moderation prove against the violence of the persecutions raised by Nero. Septimius, and others? 4th. Gibbon insists on the small number of Christians who were juridi- cally condemned. Small it may have been, but how many, how very many more perished every where, without the formality of a judicial sen- tence, as ancient historians testify ! 5. He emphatically adduces a sentence of Origen, which says that the number of martyrs was inconsiderable ( Contra Cdsum, lib. in, n, 8). But he ought to have added likewise what comes next in Origen, and shows his true meaning, viz. that there always remained more Christians alive, than had perished during the persecution, "God being unwilling," says he, "that the Christian society should be destroyed." Hence the small num- ber of martyrs spoken of by this Father, is to be understood relatively to the number of the survivors; which does not favor the system of Gibbon, nor contradict our statement ; the less so, as Origen wrote this before the per- secutions ofDecius, Valerian and Diocletian, the most cruel and bloody of all. 6th. Eusebius positively testifies that he was an eye-witness to th 10. Quo quidem tempore mirabilem imprimis awoiav ....... animi ardorem, verdque divinam virtutcrn ' ,' et alficritatem eorum qui in Christum Dei Tiaw i/ .... UTS ^rarr,v credidcrant oculis nosris conspeximils . o? fifiiov avTOv d>] li} Osiav 6vvantv ETwrapovo-av, si/apywj et semetipsam manifesto martyribus exhi- rt afciiv ro?ff fiaprvviv cjriSeiKvvffav bentem perspeximus .......... v . Lib. viii. cap. 7. NOTES. 491 his letters, confesses that he attempted to raise the Temple of the Jews from its ruins, and cannot help insinuating the insurmountable obstacles he met with, which obliged him to give up the enterprise. Above all, we have the express testimony of Ammianus Marcellinus, another heathen and contemporary author, who writes thus in the 23d book of his History.: "Whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the pro- vince, urged with -rigor and diligence the execution of the work, fearful balls of fire frequently breaking"" out near the foundations, several times burned or scorched the workmen, and rendered the place inaccessible. The terrible element continuing in this manner obstinately to repel every effort, the undertaking was abandoned." Cum itaque rei fortiter instaret Alypius, juvaretque provincial rector, metuendi -globi flammarum prope fundamenta. crebris assultibus erumpentes fecere locum, exustis aliquoties operantibus, inaccessum; hocque modo elcmento destinatius repellcnte, ces- ravit inceptum. Arnm. lib. xxin, c. 1. To such a mass of evidence what can be opposed, and what is really opposed by Gibbon and other infidels ? Do they adduce against the fact just related, any thing, I do not say evident, but even plausible; for in- stance, the contradictory statement of some historians worthy of credit? By no means ; they merely appeal to the silence of some ancient authors who thought it unnecessary to mention the wonderful event. But, when was it ever admitted that the silence of a few, and even of many, could destroy or even w r eaken the positive asseveration of others among whom collusion was utterly impossible, of numerous and learned, contemporary and unexceptionable vouchers? What can we believe in the annals of nations, in the transactions of human life, in courts of judicature, etc. if in order to obtain sufficient evidence of a fact, the express attestation of innu- merable persons is required? This is certainly a strange rule of criticism. Nor is there less fallacy ami absurdity in the affected doubts of our modern infidels, in their usual resource of a may-be or perhaps, in their vague charges of exaggeration, fanaticism, Christian credulity, and the like : what have such charges to do with an event equally important and noto- rious, with a fact openly proclaimed and recorded by a multitude of wri- ters, at a time when innumerable witnesses were still alive, and when, had it riot really taken place, it would have been related by none, by none have been believed? Let us then conclude, with the learned Warburton, in his dissertation on this subject, that the defeat of Julian's attempt by fire and earthquakes, stands forth in a full blaze of evidence, and is as incontestable as any event mentioned in history. Either it must be admitted, or we must fall into the most extravagant scepticism, and reject altogether the exploits and con- quests of Alexander, Julius Csesar, Charlemagne, etc., which indeed are not so w r ell substantiated as the event in question. But if, admitting the existence of the fact, infidels deny, or like the same Gibbon, call in question its being a real miracle, this new paradox is as easily refuted as the former. For it is impossible that any sincere mind should not perceive a supernatural intervention of God, and a deroga- tion from the ordinary laws of this visible world, in the event now before us, whether we consider it in its moral or in its physical circumstances In the first place, it is true that earthquakes and the eruption of volcanic fire are commonly the mere consequences of the ordinary laws of nature, and do not, of themselves, suppose or demonstrate any particular design of the providence of God. But, when these various phenomena come all together and unexpectedly, just at the moment in which a great and reli- gious object is to be obtained, or an impious attempt to be defeated, there can be no doubt that they are a special manifestation of the divine will and 492 NOTES. power, expressly made by the Almighty for the above purposes. To deny this, would be to deny the wisdom arid providence of God in the moral government of the world, and, with equal impiety and absurdity, to substi- tute in their stead a ridiculous chance or a blind necessity. These evident truths being presupposed, let us examine the peculiar ten- dency and circumstances of Julian's exertions towards the rebuilding of Ihe Jewish Temple. Since its irreparable and entire overthrow had been fore- told both in the Old and New Testament, Julian, by undertaking to rebuild it. bade defiance to Heaven itself, and was inclined, could he once succeed, to bring the charge of falsehood and imposture on those sacred prophecies. If then Almighty God, just at the moment when the intended work was to be begun, prevented it by awful earthquakes and eruptions of fire, though these effects might, to some, appear natural in themselves, who can doubt but that so singular a concurrence of the malicious attempt and the obsta- cles opposed to it, should be attributed to a supernatural intervention ? "What sincere mind will not, on beholding the Christian religion, as it were, pro- tected by the very elements, conclude. that the Sovereign Lord of nature is also the founder and preserver of Christianity? Moreover, all the physical circumstances which accompanied the event, concurred to prove it a real and most splendid miracle. Independently of the fact that there had never been a volcano in Palestine, we learn from Ammianus Marcellinus that the balls of fire came out of the earth near the foundations of the Temple at repeated times with a sort of deliberate intention to subdue the persevering obstinacy of the workmen, and, after consuming several of them, rendered the place inaccessible. According to Rabbin Gedaliah, a great earthquake took place, and a terrible fire melted the iron instruments, and burned a great number of Jews. Accord- ing to Rufinus and Theodoret, porticos under which the workmen retired, fell by the violence of the earthquake, and crushed them to death, whilst others were devoured by fire on the site of the Temple. According to St. Gregory Nazianzen, Socrates, Sozomen, etc. a brilliant cross appeared in the sky, and smaller crosses were imprinted on the garments of the specta- tors, etc. Who will not acknowledge in all this something manifestly above the laws of nature? "Who can explain, by those laws, why the balls of fire burst forth from the foundations, at the very moment when the work was begun, and whenever it was resumed; why the destructive element di- rected its whole fury against the workmen and the Jews, and not against other persons; and why it did not cease its attacks, until the enterprise was entirely abandoned? How did it happen that the shaking of the earth, overthrew the porticos, where many workmen were assembled, and not other buildings in the city ? Why no fissures and chasms were left in the ground, like those formed by natural earthquakes and volcanoes ! Why those crosses, great and small,' etc. etc. Did nature ever produce effects like these ? Was not the finger of God visible in every circumstance oi this awful event; and does not the man who voluntarily shuts his eyes against such light, deserve to be r>-;undoned with the Apostate Julian to his own obduracy, as to an equally just and rigorous punishment? NOTES. 493 NOTE E. PAGE 165 MAHOMET'S PRETENDED MIRACLES. ALTHOUGH Mahomet, on several occasions, disclaimed the power of working miracles, stiil he maintained that Almighty did wonderful things in his favor, and his followers also ascribe to him a great number of piodi- gies of the most extraordinary nature; for instance, that the moon was divided into two parts, one of which came down into the sleeve of their prophet, by whom it was sent. back to heaven; that fountains sprung forth from his ringers, &c.; but, who does not see that all these things are mere 'stories, unworthy of hawng the God of majesty for their author, besides being totally unsupported by credible testimonies or by any proof whatever? For, they were either blindly adopted upon the bare word of Mahomet, or forged "only after his death; most of them not being found even in the Koran, but in the Sonna, a fabulous and ridiculous record of somewhat later date, which holds among the Mussulmans the same stand ing that the Talmud holds among the Jews. The most famous of those prodigies is the voyage of Mahomet to the highest heaven. Of this he continually boasted ; this he adduced as the strongest proof of his favor with God, and, after his example, several Arabian authors relate it with the utmost gravity. They say that, during a certain night, the wonderful mare Al-Borak, upon which the ancient prophets usually rode, transported Mahomet from Mecca to Jerusalem, whence he was, by the help of the Archangel Gabriel and of a ladder of light, taken up, through an immense distance, to the summit of heaven, before the throne of the Almighty, there to receive his instructions from God himself. Most admirable were the things which he Daw in his journey thither, and on his way back ; among others ; 1st, the stars as big as the mountains of Arabia, and fastened to the first heaven by golden chains, (which shows, by the by, how learned a scholar and astro- nomer Mahomet was!) 2d, a cock, whose head reached the second heaven, though distant from the first where the cock stood, about ten or twelve times the distance from the moon to the earth ; 3d, an angel so tall and large, that it would have taken seventy thousand days to walk from one of his eyes to the other ; 4th, another angel who had seventy thousand heads, each head having seventy thousand faces; each face, seventy thousand mouths ; each mouth, seventy thousand tongues ; and each tongue being able to speak seventy thousand languages, of which he made use to praise Almighty God, etc. Mahomet returned iti the same manner, and with the same rapidity in which he had gone to heaven, the whole voyage having been completed in the short space of a few hours. (See Unwers. Hist. composed by a body of learned Englishmen, Parts edit. 1782, vol. XLI, pp. 92 116, where are found references to numberless writers, Abulfeda, Gagnier, Prideaux, etc. Anquetil, Precis de I'Histoire Unwers., vol. iv. inSvo. pp. 249253). Tales, not only so unworthy in every respect of being compared with tiie miracles of Christ and his disciples, but even so ridiculous and absurd, found admirers among the enthusiastic Arabs, Still, it must be observed that they were not believed by all the Mahometans ; nor did the followers of Mahomet support their preaching by the authority of his pretended mira- cles, but by force of arms. The use of their swords, aided on one side by the impulse of ambition, corrupt nature and fanaticism, on the other, by 42 494 JNOTFS. the weakness of the Greek and Persian empires at that period, was the real and only cause of the rapid progress of their religion. (See again Univers. Hist, same vol. XLI, pp. 45, 46 : tinnales du moyen age, vol. rv, last pages; Lebeau, Hist, du Bas Empire, b. 58, n. 31, 32; Bergier, Diction, de theol. art, Mahometisme) . As to the Koran, which the Mussulmans give also as a proof of the divine mission of their prophet, we have already observed that, with the exception of a glowing style and some beautiful moral maxims, it is, ac- cording to all persons of good sense, nothing but a miserable rhapsody. The Mahometan doctors themselves confess that it is full of perplexing difficulties and contradictions, which they endeavor to reconcile by admit- ting a distinction between its various articles, sorne, they say, being abro gatea, and some being destined to abrogate the ottiers; but, unfortunately for their purpose, the abrogating articles, instead of being, as they certainly ought to be, later, are on the contrary more ancient than those to be abro- gated. NOTE F PAGE 183. ANSWER OF POPE ZACHARY TO A CONSULTATION OF THE FRENCH. BY some authors and critics of later times (Le Cointe, Ann. Francor.; Feller, art. Childeric 111; Be"raut-Bercastel, ad. ann. 752, etc.], the fact of Pope Zachary being consulted about the accession of Pepin, has been called in question, but we think without sufficient reason. It is thus rela- ted by Eginhard, an almost contemporary writer: "Burcard (a bishop) and Fulrad (first chaplain of the palace), were sent to Rome, for the pur- pose of consulting Pope Zachary concerning the kings who were then in France, and who, having merely the name of kings, did not enjoy any por- tion of the royal power. The answer was : ' It were better that he should be king, in whom the sovereign authority resided.' Missi sunt Burcardas et Folradus Roman ad Zachariam, ut consulerent Pontificem de causa regum qui illo tempore fuerunt in Francia, qui nomen tantum regis, sed nullam potestatum regiam habuerunt; secutum est responsum: melifts esse ilium regem, apud quern summa potestatis consisteret. Eginhard. Annul. Franc. The same is recorded in substance by the authors of many annals of those times, Fuld., Helens., etc.; by the continuator of Fredegaire and others (apud Duchesne, vol. \. pp. 773, 796). From these it plainly appears that the fact in question is expressly asserted by a great number of contem- porary or nearly contemporary writers. To reject the unanimous testi- mony of so many and so respectable annalists, seems to be rather unreason- able criticism, there being no certain proof of their having wanted either sincerity or correct information on that point. This being presupposed, it would be still more unjust to blame the answer of Pope Zachary. In fact, no one can fairly doubt that, among the northern nations of Europe, the crown was originally elective, as Robert- son has well proved in his preliminary discourse'on the history of Scotland. It had indeed become hereditary among the French, owing to the uncom- mon ability of their first leaders; but, since the last kings of the family of Clovis had, by their indolence and incapacity, brought contempt upon them- selves, it was natural to expect that the French lords, in order to procure a worthy sovereign to the nation, would revive the ancient mode of succes- sion to the throne. NOTES. 495 On the other hand, the exercise of the royal authority had, for a long series of years, entirely devolved on the French dukes of Pepin's family : they alone carried the whole burden and discharged all the duties of sove- reignty at home and abroad; whereas the last Merovingian kings had accustomed themselves, generally speaking, to be satisfied with the easier duty of managing their private household. This was an excellent reason for the French to resume, under these circumstances, the ancient mode of electing their sovereigns, which had not yet suffered a very long interruption, and, by a very proper use of their right, to confer the royal title and prerogatives on such persons among them as exercised the royal power with so much glory and utility for the state. Since, moreover, the whole nation professed an explicit attachment and respect for the Apostolic See, it was likewise the duty and the interest of Pepin to have his election confirmed by the Pope. Zachary, in his answer, did not endanger the laws of wisdom and justice. In declaring that it was better to confer the title of king on that person who was already in possession of the sovereign authority, he merely ex- pressed a fact and a maxim which, far from disturbing the good order of the state, tended to re-establish it by the adoption of a measure equally prudent and decisive : "melius esse ilium (vocari) regem, apud quern suiiima potestatis consistent." Had the decision of the Pope and the conduct of Pepin left every thing as before, there would have remained in France, two sovereigns, the one nominal, the other real, contrary to the fundamental laws of that kingdom and to the just wishes of the nation. NOTE G. PAGE 185. TEMPORAL DOMINION OF THE POPE. AMONG the different temporal sovereignties which exist in the world, there is none so evidently irreproachable in its origin and formation, as that of the Pope. Here we see neither artful intrigues, nor sedition and revolt, nor unjust attacks and usurpation ; but we behold the liberality of Chris- tian kings and emperors, united with a series of singular events, whose coincidence led the way to the addition of temporal power to the spiritual authority which the Sovereign Pontiff had always exercised. It is a fact of public notoriety, and placed beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the Popes, for many years, and especially in the first part of the eighth century, made every exertion to preserve to the court of Con- stantinople its possessions in the West, (see Anastasius, in Pap. Greg. 11. et Stepfi. II; Thomassin. Discipl. de I'Egl. part in, book i, c. 29, vol. in, pp. 199, et seq.) They incessantly endeavored, by the exercise of their great influence, to maintain the Italians in their allegiance to the Greek emperors, and, by embassies and entreaties, to procure from the Greek emperors the assistance which the Italians needed in order to repel the repeated attacks of the Lombards. But those blind and wicked princes, instead of affording the relief so much desired, rather increased the public misery by tyranny and oppression. Thus, finding implacable enemies both in the barbarians and in their own sovereigns, the people, driven almost to despair, began to sigh ardently after a new and better order of things. The eyes of all were turned to- . % .1 i r*t AT _ __ r-j.i _^r _n .i* wards tress Is the Pope, as their only refuge and the common father of all in dia- . In this state of desolation, the Sovereign Pontiffs, unable any longer 496 NOTES. to resist the eargerness of multitudes flying into their arms ibr protection and refuge, and destitute of every other means, applied to the French, who alone were both willing and able to defend them against the Lombards. The sequel is known; and we shall not repeat here what Pepin and Charlemagne did for the people of Rome, and especially for the Pope with regard to^his temporal dominion; but we will ask, what can we find to censure either in the conduct of the French monarch, or in that of the Roman people? * It is a principle laid down by civilians, and founded on the law of nations, that he who conquers a country in a just war not under- taken for the former possessors nor in union with them, is not bound to restore to them what they would not, or could not, protect and secure. Such exactly was the case with Italy at that time. The Greeks had lost their right to their possessions in that country, by suffering them to be taken or laid waste by the Lombards, without sending succor to defend and pro- tect them. Those countries, therefore, by the claim of conquest in a just war, belonged to Pepin and Charlemagne, who bestowed them on the Pones. On the other hand, the Roman people, abandoned to barbarians, han a right, when the Greeks refused to afford them relief, to seek it froia others, and form themselves into a new form of government. This they did, by choosing, under the protection of the French, to be governed by him who, besides being the common father of the faithful, had been their only support in their distress. "II n'y a rien," says Count de Maistre, "de si e'videmment juste dans son origine que cette souverainete" extraordinaire. L'incapacite", la bas- sesse, la ferocite* des souverains qui la pre'ce'derent; 1'insupportable tyran- nic exerce"e sur les biens, les personnes et la conscience des peuples; 1'aban- don formel de ces memes peuples livrds sans defense a d'irnpitoyables bar- bares; le cri de 1'occident qui abdique 1'ancien maitre; la nouvelle souve- rainete' qui s'dleve, s'avance et se substitue a 1'ancienne sans secousse, sans rtvolte, sans effusion de sang, pouss^e par une force cached, inexplicable, invincible, et jurant foi et fide'lite' jusqu'au dernier instant a la faible et me'prisable puissance qu'elle allait reraplacer; le droit de conqufete enfin, obtenu, et solennellement c6dd par 1'un des plus grands homines qui aient existe, par un homme si grand que la grandeur a pe'ne'tre' son nom, et que la voix du genre humain I'a proclame' grandeur au lieu de grand : tels sont les titres des Papes, et 1'histoire ne prdsente rien de semblable." (Du Pape, vol. i, Liv. n, ch. vi). This truth is expressed in a recent history of the Greek empire, with the same elegance, perspicuity and energy of style, as follows: "A quel titre Copronyme revendiquait-il une souverainete* abandonne"e, ou quels droits pre"tendait-il conserver sur des peuples de'laisse's, qui des long- temps ne connaissaient plus 1'autorite" impe"riale ni par sa protection ni par ses bienfaits? Les empereurs avaient abandonne" Rome aux barbares; et qui 1'avait ddfendue, qui 1'avait sauvde ? L'histoire nornme Le"on, Gre"goire, ou quelqu'autre de leurs successeurs; et les peuples avaient reconnu pour maitres ceux qui s'eHaient montres leurs peres. La puissance des Papea 6tait un fait, quand Pe"pin la reconnut comme un droit; et jamais souve- rainete' n'eut une origine plus juste et plus sainte." (Hist, du Bas-Emp* s, 1338. vol. i, pp. 272, 273.) NOTES. 497 NOTE H. PAGE 251. POPES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. NOTHING in the history of the middle ages has been more frequently misrepresented and more grossly calumniated, yet nothing is more worthy of admiration, than the conduct of the Popes in the long struggle which they maintained against the depravity and tyranny of princes, in defence of religion and social order. It was truly the struggle of virtue against vice, of civilization against barbarism, of Christianity against the powers of dark- ness. At that time, whether the evil was owing to the invasions of new barbarians, to the feudal system, or to other causes ; national and civil wars scarcely ceased one moment to lay waste the whole face of Europe. Nations oppressed by their sovereigns had no other resource than the pro- tection of the Pope, and sovereigns who wished to act as tyrants, had no other check than his authority, which they generally acknowledged, not only in spiritual, but also in temporal concerns. The Pope then, in his proceed- ings against several emperors of Germany and some other princes, besides acting conformably to the common jurisprudence of those times, merely did what the state of society and the circumstances in which he was placed, evidently required of him as the head of the Christian family, and the common father of all the faithful. The better to understand this, we should revert to the epoch in which these. important transactions took place. At a time when the nations of Europe closely adhered to the ancient faith, and preferred it to every thing else, the profession of Christianity and submission to the Roman Churcn were conditions absolutely requisite in sovereigns, to exact and enforce obedience from their subjects. If a prince happened to revolt openly against the Catholic religion, or to incur, by his crimes, the penalty of ex- communication, it was the prevailing opinion that the oath of allegiance taken to him was no longer binding, since he had ceased to be the reli- gious prince whom the nation had intended to acknowledge for its mon- arch.* "Thus," says Schlegel, " we hear the Saxons declare to the empe- ror Henry IV, that, the Christian name being profaned by him, they were unwilling to disgrace themselves by having intercourse with a prince who insulted and despised the religion of Christ; and, since they had sworn fealty to him, on condition that he should reign for the edification and not for the destruction of the Church, were he to infringe this duty, they would think themselves no longer bound by their oath of allegiance to him. Shortly after, the same Saxons wjote to the Pope, to lay before his tribunal both their grievances and the crimes of Henry, and concluded their letter * This is very well explained by Fenclon, who says : " Sensim Catholicarum gentium haec fuit sententia aniniis alte impressa, scilicet, supremam potestatem committt non posse nisi principi Catholico, eamque esse legem sive conditionem appositam populos inter et principem, ut populi principi fideles parerent, modd princeps ipse Catholicae reli- gioni obsequeretur. Q.U& lege posita, putabant omnes solutum esse vinculum sacrament! fidelitatis a tola gente prastitum, simul atque princeps, ea lege violata, Catholics reli- gioni eontumaci animo resisteret." Again : " Nihil est mirum si gentes Catholicae religioni quara maximS addicte, princi- pis excommuriicati jugum excuterent. Ea enim lege sese principi subditas fore pollicita erant, ut princeps ipse Catholicce religioni pariter subditus esset. Princeps verd qui, ob )ia icsim, vel ob facinorosam et impiam regni administrationem, ab EcclesiA excommuni- catur, jam non censetur phis ille princeps, cui tota gens sese committere voluerat : und aolutum sacramenti vinculum arbitrabaiitur." 'Fcndon, Dissert, de auctoritate Summt is,c. xxxix). 42* 498 NOTES. by saying that, such a prince being unworthy of the throne, they therefore requested the Sovereign Pontiff to make use of the authority which he had over the empire, and, through an assembly of the princes, to procure for I hem a worthier and better monarch." "Not long before this, the emperor Henry III had expressly acknow- ledged the Church jurisdiction, even in temporal affairs, when he wished to oppose the rising pretensions of the king of Castile to the title of empe- ror. He referred the case to a council in which the legate of Pope Victor II presided, (A. D. 1055). The result of the consultation being sent to Rome, a sentence was passed; and King Ferdinand declared, in presence of the papal envoys, that he submitted to the decision of the Roman Pon- tiff. Hence, the high authority which Rome then exercised over kings and emperors, was grounded, first, on a political claim growing out of the circumstances which accompanied the revival of the western empire ; and secondly, on the general opinion of that time respecting the subordination of the temporal to the spiritual power." (Schlegel, Phtios. II. p. 137; Theo- rie soriale de VEvangile ; Memorial Caihol. vol. II. p. 375). "This doctrine," says Dr. Lingard, "hostile as it might be to the inde- pendence of sovereigns, was often supported by the sovereigns themselves. Thus, when Richard I was held in captivity by the emperor, his mother, Eleanor, repeatedly solicited the Pontiff to procure his liberation by the exercise of that authority which he possessed over all temporal princes. Thus, King John Lack-land ( whose excesses afterwards provoked against himself the animadversion of the Church) invoked the aid of the same authority to recover Normandy from the king of France. At first, indeed the Popes contented themselves with spiritual censures: but in an age, when all notions of justice were modelled after the feudal jurisprudence, it was soon admitted that princes by their disobedience became traitors to God : that as traitors they ought to forfeit their kingdoms, the fees which they held of God: and that to pronounce such sentence belonged to the Pontiff, the vicegerent of Christ upon earth." (Lingard's Hist, of Engl. vol. in, of the third London edition, p. 35, note). It was in virtue of these and the like principles, as the same historian relates, that Pope Innocent III did against King John Lack-land what St. Gregory VII had done against the Emperor Henry IV, when, solicited by Englishmen themselves, and moved by the recital of the repeated crimes and enormities of their sovereign, he absolved them from their oaths of fealty. This he did however, as the sequel showed, rather with the secret intention of terrifying the king, and bringing him back to a sense of his duty, than with a real determination to ruin him for ever. From these examples and testimonies, to which others might be added, we may form an accurate idea of the temporal power occasionally exer- cised by the Popes during the middle ages. They exercised it with the implicit consent of the sovereigns themselves, who frequently appealed to the decisions of Rome in their temporal debates, and none of whom scarcely eve* complained, except (as was natural) the individual affected by the sentence. They exercised it only against sovereigns who depended, more or less, on the free choice of their nation and the acknowledgment of the Holy See, as was particularly the case with the German emperors. They exercised it only in cases of paramount necessity, and after every other means, such as exhortations and remonstrances, had proved fruitless. They exercised it for the interest of the people and of society, at the request of the people themselves, and upon their earnest entreaties to be delirered from the sway of wicked, impious and tyrannical princes; but nerer through caprice, nor for personal interest: on the contrary, those courageous uid zealous Pontiffs, a Gregory, an Alexander, an Innocent, etc., saw before NOTES. 499 them the prospect of sufferings, and of every kind of obstacles and dangers, which they had to encounter lor the faithful discharge of their duty. Some Popes, it is true (though few in number), went farther, and. acting in their secondary quality of temporal princes, raised troops, and took a more or less active share in the military operations of other sove- reigns. But, even that step was taken by them for laudable, nay, for necessary purposes ; viz. to recover or defend their own provinces, to repel unjust attacks, to support the independence of the Italian republics, and particularly co check the alarming progress of the Mussulmans. Can any fault be found with such conduct ; and does it not rather afford a new proof of the truth, that the Popes have been the preservers of civilization and social order, as well as of religion, in Europe ? This indeed was the grand object which they had in view, and the end at which they continually aimed in the exercise of both their temporal and spiritual power. Having well understood the sublime office which they were called to perform, they discharged it with wonderful zeal and fidelity for the advancement of moral and religious principles. They protected the weak against their oppres- sors ; they restored peace and tranquillity among nations ; and, preventing the execution of wicked designs, they saved rising states and societies from the attacks of ambition, barbarity and licentiousness. Hence, in reading the history of the middle ages, it is impossible for a reflecting mind not to be struck with admiration at the sight of Christian Europe devoted to one form of worship, ruled by one grand principle, forming, as it were, but one empire, and acknowledging one supreme head whose exalted duty it was to promote the reign of the gospel upon earth. (See Michaut, Histoire des Croisades, vol. iv, pp. 98, 99 ; Count de Maistre, Du Pape, part n, c. v, x). Not bitter censure, therefore, but real praise is due to the exertions of the Popes, and to their acts of authority with regard to temporal princes. This is at length candidly acknowledged by different writers of the Protes- tant communion, after the example of Leibnitz in several of his works, especially in his first dissertation De Actorum Publicorum Usu. Very lately, two Protestant German authors, Hurter and Vpigt, have published, their excellent lives of Innocent 111 and Gregory VII, in which the charac- ter and the conduct of these great Popes are powerfully vindicated, and held up to the unqualified admhation of posterity. Let us hope that the clouds which have so long obscured this part of history, will be entirely dispelled by impartiality and truth ; and that full justice will at last be rendered to the Roman P^ntiils, for their noble eifbrts to promote the spiritual and temporal welfare of society. There is another charge to be examined with regard to the Popes of the middle ages. We allude, not to the ridiculous tale of the pretended Popesi Joan, which is now rejected by all learned critics, whether Catholic or Protestant, but to the more serious charge of the vices of some Roman Ponthfs. It is true, a few among them gave great scandals to the Christian world in their private character and conduct; but it ought to be remem- bered; at the same time, that, through a special protection of Divine Provi- dence, the irregularity of their lives' did not interfere with their public duty from which they never departed. The beneficial influence of sacred juris- diction does not depend on the private virtue of the persons invested with it, but ON their divine mission and appointment to feed the Christian flock. Christ did not say that there would never be scandals nor abuses, but that no power of darkness would ever prevail against his Church : nor did ha promise personal sanctity to its chief pastors, but gave to them authority to teach and govern the faithful ; and to the faithful, a command to follow their injunctions, without blindly imitating the bad example of a small number of them, whose conduct might not be edifying. 500 NOTES. It is moreover certain that the number of bad Popes has been, by som writers, greatly exaggerated. There were but few of this character, and those few lived, nearly all, in the tenth and part of the eleventh century, during which time the prevalence of civil factions in Rome obstructed the freedom of canonical election. Eren during that period, there existed many excellent Popes; men distinguished by their exalted virtues and intellectual endowments, patrons, in an eminent degree, of science, letters and the arts. Roscoe himself, though a Protestant, does not hesitate to say in his life of Leo the tenth, (vol. i, p. 53), that "the Popes may in general be considered as superior to the age in which they have lived ;" and an American editor of statistics has lately confessed that "most of the Popes were excellent men." These, however, are the sovereigns, whom a recent and elementary author has, in his profound wisdom, thought proper to compare with the Mussulman caliphs, namely, with men who were either the most unjust conquerors, or the most indolent and insignificant monarchs that the world ever saw; whereas the greatest enemy oi the See of Rome might be boldly challenged to show any where in history a succession of princes, who have been half as eminent for their virtues and piety, for their talents and learning, and for their benefits to the great family of man- kind, as the Roman Pontiffs. NOTE 1. PAGE 259. CONQUEST OF IRELAND. BEFORE we pass any judgment and censure upon past events, we should invariably weigh with great attention their causes, their nature and their real character, and also take into serious consideration, the manners, cus- toms and opinions of the age in which they happened. Had this equitable rule been constantly adhered to in historical composition, there would have been an end to those false assertions and unjust remarks which fill up the _ / TT Tr~lA~* ] At, ...~ll 1 1J 1 _. . __! -A upon diligent inquiry, that the conduct of Pope Adrian IV in this affair has been, in latter times, neither duly appreciated nor sufficiently understood. It was formerly a common opinion, that not only Ireland, but also every Christian island, was the property of the Holy See. "There is no doubt, as you yourself acknowledge," wrote the Pontiff to King Henry II, " that Hibernia and all the islands to which the sun of justice, Christ, has shone forth, belong to St. Peter and to the holy Roman Church; (Epist. i Jldr. papa iv, in collect. Cone. vol. x, Col. 1143). This belief, as we learn from John of Salisbury, who acted as negotiator between the king and the Pope, was founded on a certain donation of Constantino the Great, the authenti- city of which was never questioned by the critics of those ages : " All islands," says that author (Metalog. iv), "by ancient right and from a donation of Constantine, are said to belong to the Roman Church." This having been the case, it is hard to conceive why Adrian IV should be blamed for having performed (if he did perform), aii act of high temporal jurisdiction over Ireland; since in doing so, he merely acted up to the tenor of an instru- ment which all believed to be authentic, and he merely exercised, over Chris- tian islands, that right of sovereignty which w r as conceded to him by the general opinion of his age. To find a real fault in his conduct, would be NOTES. 501 preposterously to require that the Popes of the middle ages should have divested themselves of the feelings common to their contemporaries, should have rejected the opinions which were then prevalent about temporal sove- reignty, and, through an anticipation ol several centuries, should have fol- lowed our own views and modern political discoveries of which there was no idea in their time. It would be equally wrong to assert, that Adrian IV was led, in thia transaction, by human considerations, and that, being an Englisman by birth, he did not hesitate to sacrifice the interests of Ireland to those of his own country. This charge, if seriously made, would involve a complete injustice against the well known character and uncommon virtue of that Pope. For, how can such base motives be fairly attributed to a Pontiff whose whole life exhibited a perfect model of piety, whom personal merit alone raised from the lowest rank in the world to the highest dignity in the Church, and who constantly distinguished himself by the nobleness of his sentiments, as historians unanimously testify? So great indeed was his disinterestedness and delicacy of conscience, that he preferred to leave his mother in a state of indigence, rather than do any thing for her through pri- vate affection ; and he even contented himself, before dying, with recom- mending her to the charity and alms of the Church of Canterbury; (see Fleury, Hist. Eccles., ad aim. 1159). Is it credible then, is it even possible, that a Pontiff, so remarkable for the sanctity of his life and the purity of his views, who scrupled to raise his nearest and dearest relatives ever so little above their distressed condition, should have betrayed his duty and con- science in order to gratify the ambition of a monarch from whom he had received nothing, and had nothing to apprehend? Nothing then but pure and disinterested views guided Pope Adrian IV in his share of the transaction which regarded Ireland, even in admitting the supposition which presents the less favorable side, viz : that he made a erant of that country to the British monarch. But, is it true after all, at feast is it certainly proved, that he did so, and thus authorized the king to invade and conquer Ireland, as we find it almost every where asserted? We rather think not, and this is the reason why, in relating the fact (p. 259), we made use of expressions somewhat different from those in which it is mentioned by the generality of historians. It appears indeed certain, that the intention of Henry was, from the beginning of his reign, to add this important island to his dominions; and it is probable, likewise, that the Pope suspected his real design. Yet, it is not from half-concealed views or probable suspicions, that we should judge of the nature of the conces- sion made to Henry ; but from the manner in which the whole affair was conducted, and from the authentic words in which both the request of the king and the grant of the Pope were expressed. Now, we do not see that the English monarch asked the Pontiff's appro- bation of his design to conquer Ireland and to occupy it for his own advan- tage; but he requested Adrian to consent that he might enter that country for the purpose of subjecting its inhabitants to the laws, and repressing vice and disorder, ad subdendum ilium populum legibus, et vitiorum plantaria indd exlirpanda. The ambassador whom he sent to the Pope, was charged 10 assure his Holiness that Henry's principal object was to provide instruction for the Irish people, to extirpate abuses from the Lord's vineyard, etc. "but that, as every Christian island was the property of the Holy See, he did not presume to make the attempt without the advice and consent of the successor of St. Peter." (D. Lingard, reign of Henry II). On the other hand, it is very remarkable that Adrian, in the instrument of concession which he addressed in answer to the king, does not mention any absolute grant of possession and sovereignty, much less of invasion 502 NOTES. and con juest ; he merely signifies his acquiescence in the king's project', he is willing that Henry should enter Ireland for the zealous purpose! above mentioned, and that he should be honorably received and acknow- \edged as lord by the natives : " Graturn et acceptum haberaus ut . . . insulam iilain ingrediaris, et quod ad honorem Dei et salutem illius terra specta- verit, exequaris, et illius terrae populus honorific^ te recipiat, et sicut domi- num veneretur," (in Epist. citata, collect, concil. vol. x, Col. 1143). Hence, in the expressions and intention of the Pontiff, the whole concession made to the king consisted in approving the laudable views which that prince had manifested through his ambassador, and his future right of sovereignty over Ireland depended on the free acknowledgement of the natives. John of Salisbury, who negotiated the affair at the court of Rome, calls, it is true, this concession a grant of inheritance, "dedit Hiberniam hsereditario jure possidendam:" but, as the same author, in proof of his assertion, refers to the rescript of the Pope, by immediately adding, "sicut litterae ipsius tes- tantur;" his words, consequently, must be understood, like those of Adrian, to imply as a previous condition of the grant, the voluntary agreement and consent of the Irish people. At all events, we should always prefer the obvious meaning of the pontifical rescript to every other record of the transaction ; for, if any one understood well the real intention of the Pope, it must certainly have been the Pope himself. The truth of these observations is supported by the conduct of the Eng- lish monarch, both before and after the conquest of Ireland. The answer of Adrian to his request, had been obtained in the year 1156, and it was not till after the lapse of almost twenty years, and when a great part of Ireland had already submitted to the British, that Henry thought of pro- ducing the letters of the Pope, and presented them to be read in a synod of Irish bishops. Now, is it reasonable to suppose that, if these letters had contained a real and absolute grant of sovereignty, he would have kept them in oblivion all that time, and deferred so long to enforce their execu- tion? Would he not, at least, have exhibited them when the first English troops*entered the island (A. D. 1169), in order to justify himself befor the natives and gain them over to submission? Since, then, he did not do so, but postponed the exhibition of the important instrument till three or four years later, and even then directed it solely to an assembly of pre- lates ; are we not entitled to conclude that, ambitious and interested as he was, he saw little in the concession of the Pope, of which he might boast as giving him a claim to rule over the Irish, independently of their own consent ? Thus, the manner in which the affair was conducted, the expressions of the king and of the Pontiff, the conduct of Henry both before and after his attempt upon Ireland ; every thing tends to prove or to render it at leas* probable, that he received indeed an approbation of his zealous designs for the good of that country, and a wish that he might carry them into effect but no right to force the submission of the natives by invasion and con quest. Let us add to this, that Adrian very probably was not ignorant of the project which had been already formed by several of thie English inonarchs, viz : Henry I and William the Conqueror, to subdue Ireland. lu this critical situation of the Irish, continually exposed to the attacks of a formidable enemy, and divided among themselves, the best that could be done for them, since Henry II seriously entertained the same project and prepared to enter their country, was to procure that he should enter it with views the most favorable to the religion, the liberty and the improvement of the natives. This is exactly what the pope did, by the manner in which his letters of concession, or approbation of Henry's design, were written, discarding all notion of military conquest and absolute right of NOTES. 503 overeignty, but exhorting the king always to bear in mind the laudable purposes and conditions which he himself had proposed. No blame, therefore, can be attached to the conduct of this virtuous Pontiff; nor was it his fault, if his excellent and sincere intentions to procure the greater good of the Irish, were in subsequent ages so wofully frustrated. NOTE J. PAGE 304 PROSECUTION ANL- ABOLITION OF THE KNIGHTS-TEMPLARS. THE authentic acts of the whole trial of the Knights -Templars, are till extant (apud Natal. Alexand. Dissert, x. in Sec. xiv. Quast. n, Jlrt. i; Brumoy, Hist, de I'Eglise Gall., 1. xxxvi, ad a^i. 1307 1312; Du- puy, Baluze, etc). From those documents, it is manifest that the royal commissaries, men of exemplary virtue and probity, examined a vast num- ber of Templars in the different parts of France, viz : one hundred and forty at Paris, one hundred and eleven at Troyes, eleven at Caen, ten at Pont-de PArehe, forty-five at Beaucaire and in the neighboring places ; and that all, except three, acknowledged themselves guilty of the denial of Christ, of sacrilege, and other abominable crimes. We have moreover the acts of the Council of Vienne (Labbe, Colledio Conciliorum, vol. xi, part n, Col. 1557 1560), and the letters of Pope Clement V (ibid. Col. 1559 and 1572) concerning this affair. In one of these, addressed to all the Christian princes in Europe, the Pontiff declares that, when he himself examined at Poitiers seventy-two Templars on the charge of apostacy, sacrilege and other crimes, the}' expressly, spontaneously and repeatedly acknowledged the justice of the charges ; and that the same free and spontaneous acknowledgment was made, in presence of his dele- gates, by the grand-master and other chief personages of the Order. Nor was this depravity, although more common among the Templars in France, confined to that country ; several others were found guilty of the same enormous crimes in Tuscany, Lombardy, England, etc. (Natalis Alexander, in Dissertatione citatd vol. vii, pp. 505 and 512 ; Hist, de I'Egl. Gall. vol. .xii, pp, 431 and 433). The Pope, therefore, with the approbation of the general council then assembled at Vienne, published his bull suppressing fne institute, on account of the infamy of so many among its members, which had made it an object of contempt and scandal ; and decreed that their property should be given for ever to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem. The whole transaction being thus stated from original and authentic sources, it is impossible for any reflecting mind to consider the series and duration of the inquiries ; the fair manner in which they were conducted; the great number of witnesses that were heard ; the perfect agreement in the avowals made by the accused in so many different parts of Christendom; the high standing and character of their judges, who were the first and most commendable personages of Church and State ; in fine, the delibera- tions and unanimous decision of the Pope and of three hundred prelates assembled in the council of Vienne: it is, I say, impossible to take all these circumstances into consideration, without being at once fully con- vinced that the Templars deserved to be suppressed, and that the sentence pronounced against their Order, in the council of Vienne, was not only proper and just, but even, being the only sure means to remove a shameful scandal, ought to be considered as a very signal service rendered by Pope Clement V and King Philip, to religion and society. 504 NOTES. Who will not, after this, feel astounded and indignant at the following narrative of Hume, when, having stated the indolence and degeneracy of the Templars, he adds, in his usual positive manner: " But, though these reasons had weakened the foundations of this Order, once so celebrated and revered, the immediate cause of their destruction proceeded from the cruel and vindictive spirit of Philip the Fair, who, having entertained a private disgust against some eminent Templars, determined to gratify at once his avidity and revenge, by involving the whole Order in an undistinguished ruin/ On no better information than that of two Knights, condemned by their superiors to perpetual imprison- ment for their vices and profligacy, he ordered on one day all the Templars in France to be committed to prison, and imputed to them such enormous and absurd crimes, as are sufficient of themselves to destroy all the credit of the accusation. Above a hundred of these unhappy gentlemen were put to the question, in order to extort from them a confession of their guilt. The more obstinate perished in the hands of their tormentors : several, to procure immediate ease in the violence of their agonies, acknowledged whatever was required of them : forged confessions were imputated to others ; and Philip, as if their guilt were now certain, proceeded to a con- fiscation of all their treasures." The writer then proceeds to relate, at great length, the punishment inflicted on the Templars, which indeed he does with aliected pathos, but not without several inaccuracies; and at last concludes thus: " In all this barbarous injustice, Clement V, who was a creature of Philip, and then resided in France, fully concurred; and, without exam- ining a witness, or making an inquiry into the truth of facts, he summarily, by the plenitude of his apostolic power, abolished the whole Order. The Templars, all over Europe, were thrown into prison; their conduct under- went a strict scrutiny; the power of their enemies still pursued and op- pressed them ; but no where, except in France, were the smallest traces of their pretended guilt to be found. England sent an ample testimony of their piety and morals ; but, as the Order was now annihilated, the Knights were distributed into several convents, and their possessions were, by com- mand of the Pope, transferred to the order of St. John." (History of Eng- land, reign of Edward II ) . Such is, concerning the affair of the Knights-Templars, the narrative of Hume, which evinces indeed much of the inventive imagination of an orator, but very little of the exactness and sincerity of an historian. Here we see an almost uninterrupted series of inaccuracies and falsehoods blended with some true statements, a violent spirit of rancor against one of the two interested parties, scarcely concealed under the veil of affected compassion for the other, and an inveterate desire of finding fault with the conduct of the Pontiff and the king. Throughout the whole~of his narrative, the author takes little care to relate facts in the order in which they hap- pened, and does not even know the names of several among the chief per- sonages of whom he speaks, calling the grand-master John instead of Jainet of Molay ; and the companion of his punishment, a brother to the sovereign of Dauphiny, instead of a brother to the Dauphin of duvergne ; mistaking likewise the place in which they underwent their last trial, for that in which they suffered death. These blunders, however, are mere trifles, compared with the calumnious charges of precipitancy and want of inves- tigation ; of violence employed to extort a confession of guilt ; of avarice and revenge; of injustice and barbarity ; which he so readily lavishes on King Philip the Fair and Pope Clement V, and which we will now succes- sively examine. 1st. It is wrong to state that King Philip ordered the imprisonment of NOTES. 505 nil the Templars in France on the mere deposition of two Knights. Before issuing this order, he had instituted new inquiries whk-h gave additional strength to the former charges. Hence it is manifest that the imputation of enormous crimes to the Order of the Templars did not proceed from that monarch, as Hume asserts, but from the very members of the Order; it being, moreover, justified by their proverbially bad character, which gave rise to the expression, boire comme un Templier. 2d. It is equally false that the confessions of the Templars with regard to the crimes imputed to them, were forged, or wrung from them by the vio- lence of torture. The one hundred and forty knights who were tried b} the royal commissaries at Paris, and the seventy-two others whom the Pope himself examined at Poitiers, were not tortured, but voluntarily and freely confessed their guilt (see again Brumoy ; Natalis Alexander; especially the letters of Pope Clement V, quoted above; also Bergier, Diction. Theo- log. art. Templiers}. The grand-master and the chief commanders did the same, without any constraint whatever : liberb ac spontt, absque coactione qualibet et timore. Most of them persevered in their avowals ; and, if seve- ral afterwards retracted what they had said, this circumstance may prove indeed that they could no longer bear to see themselves the object of public scorn, but not that they were sincere in their retraction. For, how many culprits are there, who obstinately maintain their innocence, notwithstand- ing .the clear evidence of the crime laid to their charge; or, changing their plan of defence, deny what they had previously confessed, and vice versd. 3d. Notwithstanding the peremptory assertion of Hume, that no where but in France were there to be found the smallest traces of what he calls the pretended guilt of the Templars, the contrary is certain from various testimonies concerning the Templars of Tuscany, Lombardy, and even England, as Walsingham relates (Hist. Jlngl. in vltd Edward II), and Dr. Lingard acknowledges with regard to a few individuals (Hist. ofEngl. vol. in, p. 472). It appears, indeed, that in several countries, most of the accused were acquitted ; but this only proves what we before said, that the Order was not equally corrupt every where, and that the poison of impiety and vice had not infected the whole body of the Knights-Templars, although it had tainted many of its members. It was also incumbent on Mr. Hume to furnish some proofs of the reality of that violent and universal persecution which, he supposes, was carried on against the Templars, after the sup- pression of their institute : he probably thought it, as usual, an easier task to assert boldly than to prove. The truth is, there is no trace of such a persecution to be found in history. 4th. Groundless too is the assertion made by the same author, that King Philip acted as a vindictive and avaricious tyrant. That prince may have been eager and hasty in his proceedings, at least with regard to the chief personages of the Order ; still, it ought to be observed that, in inflicting the rigorous punishment of death by fire, he merely followed the jurisprudence commonly adopted in those ages against heinous crimes. With regard to the confiscation of the property of the Templars in France, there are unde- niable proofs of the disinterestedness of Philip in this transaction : all that he did, had for its object to preserve that property for the public utility of Christendom, as the Pope and the general council should deem advisable; nor did any portion of it pass into his own hands, except what was requi- site to defray the expenses which he had incurred in so long and so compli- cated a suit. The immense possessions of the Templars (except those situated in Spain and Portugal), were, as is well known, and as Hume himself acknowledges, transferred to the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. 5th. Still more iniquitous and atrocious than the preceding, is the charge of violence, injustice and barbarity directed against Pope Clement ; who > 43 506 NOTES. far from acting as the unfaithful historian assures us he did, adopted th diametrically opposite course, as all the monuments and ai thentic acts of this important anair invariably testify. He continually endeavored to tem- per the zeal of Philip; he constantly recommended equity and prudence to the commissaries appointed to preside in this complicated trial ; neither he nor his legates had any thing to do with the precipitate condemnation of the grand-master. Whilst the papal commissaries heard upwards of two hundred witnesses either ibr or against the accused Order, Clement himself tried and examined seventy -two knights, with equal impartiality and care, he took all possible means to know the truth, and had recourse to all possi- ble sources of information ; in a word, he continued the inquiries with in- defatigable patience during five years, before he would come to a decision respecting the Order, the persons, and the property of the Templars, la there, in such conduct, any thing that savors in the least of violence, in- justice and barbarity f 6th. Moreover, what can be more equitable, prudent and wise than the decision which the Pontiff, alter long deliberation, and many conferences with the cardinals and other prelates, published in the second session of the council of Vienne, on the third of April, 1312. In that document, he did not pronounce the whole Order guilty of the horrid ciimes which had been the object of so many inquiries; but, considering the state of acknow- ledged degeneracy into which it had fallen, the infamy with which it was loaded by the mere imputation of such disorders, and the well ascertained guilt of many of its members, he abolished it as having become not only useless, but even an object of scandal to all Christendom. Such was the dignified conduct which Hume has dared to brand with the appellation of barbarous injustice, and which another equally bold and superficial writer has presumed to call an infamous proscription. If there is, on this subject, any tiling calculated to provoke the feelings of a just indignation, let the reader judge on which side it stands: on that of a Pon- tiff and a prince whose proceedings, throughout the whole of this grand affair, were marked with so much equity and disinterestedness ; or on that of two unfaithful authors, who, careless about historical truth and justice, have ventured, without proof, and against all reason, to paint the important transaction in such sombre colors? NOTE K. PAGE 347. INQUISITION. WHAT has not been said about, or rather against, the Spanish Inquisi- tion? We everywhere see it depicted in the blackest colors, and repre- sented as the otfspring of papal ambition and ecclesiastical tyranny; as & bloody tribunal, condemning innocent persons to death for mere thoughui and opinions; an institution, whose proceedings are the most terrific that human bigotry and malice could suggest; etc. In answer to these charges we will remark, in the first place, that the Inquisition forms no part of the Catholic creed and of the obligatory disci- pline of the Church. We find, it is true, that it was established in some Catholic states as a political means to maintain the unity of religion within their limits, and remove from them the disturbances occasioned by newly invented systems ; but this was commonly done, either at the request, or by the authority of the sovereigns themselves, e. g., of King Ferdinand in NOTES. 507 Spam (A. D. 1480), of John III in Portugal (A. D. 1557)- This Inquisition therefore, besides being a local and temporary institution, was rather civil than ecclesiastical in its origin. Its chief members, particularly in Spain, were indeed selected from the ecclesiastical order, but they always remained under the authority of the king, without whose previous consent their de- crees could be neither executed nor even published. In the second place, the Inquisition, far from being as bloody and in- exorably severe as is commonly imagined, far from inflicting capital punish- ment even for mere thoughts and opinions, on the contrary never inflicted it even for open and atrocious crimes, the tribunal having never been au- thorized to pass sentence of death or of mutilation upon any person ; this power resided entirely and solely in the civil authority. All that the council of the Inquisition had to do, was to pronounce the individual arraigned be- fore them guilty, on the clearest evidence, of a crime declared capital by the law of Spain. There they stopped ; and, instead of prosecuting to death, they rather displayed a degree of indulgence and clemency seldom witnessed in any other tribunal. If the culprit manifested sincere repentance, he was immediately screened from capital punishment, and condemned merely to undergo temporary and trifling penances. If, notwithstanding the convinc- ing proofs of his guilt, he remained obstinate and impenitent, then, and not till then, was he delivered over to the civil power to be dealt with accord- ing to law; and, even in this case, the inquisitors recommended the wretched individual to the mercy of the secular judge.* They had nothing to do with his death ; and, when, at the moment of execution, the priest appeared by the side of the guilty man, it was only to inspire him, if possible, with sen- timents of repentance, to soothe his agony by words of consolation, and to prepare him for eternity. Even admitting that some inquisitors, from time to time, acted with ex- cessive rigor, which led to certain abuses and unjustifiableconclusions, still it is true that these proceedings should be charged only to the individuals in question, but not to the tribunal itself fairly considered in its nature, its end and its regulations, nor to the generality of its members, whose prudence, justice and integrity have elicited the admiration of all attentive and impar- tial travellers (v. g., Abbe" de Vayrac, in his Voyage en Espagne et en Italic, 1731; JBourgoing, Nouveau Voyage en Espagne; and Journal de I 3 Empire, 1805). Again, these abuses, whatever they were, might be ascribed to the civil, but not to the ecclesiastical power, as is well explained by Count de Maistre in his two first letters on the Spanish Inquisition ; much less could they be imputed either to the Catholic church at large, of which the church of Spain is but a portion, or to the Roman See in particular, since the In- quisition at Rome greatly differed from that of Spain, and always displayed such moderation, indulgence and meekness, as to astonish the French infi- dels themselves (Encyclop. art. Inquisition). With regard to the awful and terrible forms which the Inquisition is said to have adopted, the charge may be partly admitted without furnishing any ground for invective ; nor is it at all surprising that a tribunal should make an exterior show of rigor, the better to strike the minds of the people, and the more surely to prevent the perpetration of crime. It is, however, cer- * The case of the famous heresiarch John Huss, in 1415, was conducted in the same manner. The council of Constance, not having been able, by remonstrances and exhor- tations, to overcome his obstinacy and bring him to a retractation of his errors, handed him over to the civil power, without however soliciting his punishment. The secular court was not so indulgent: the emperor Sigismond thought it his duty to punish the man who, besides repeatedly infringing the conditions of the safe-conduct he had received, every where preached seditious doctrines ; accordingly, John Huss was placed under the custody of the magistrate of Constance, who, foHowing the jurisprudence of the age wilh regard to such trespasses, consigned him to the flames. 508 NOTES. lain that, on this point also, there have been many exaggerations ana slanderous reports. Thus, as Count de Maistre observes (leit. n.), it is by no means true that the most trifling charge was sufficient to cause a man to be arrested ; that the accused remained unacquainted with the reasons of his confinement, and was not allowed the privilege of a lawyer to defend his cause. The punishment of burning, too, far from being, as it is com- monly supposed, the ordinary one to which the convicted persons were condemned, was, on the contrary, very seldom employed, and that by the civil power only, and against such enormous crimes, sacrilege, apostacy, and the like, as were not more mildly treated by the other European nations. Faults of a less grievous nature were punished merely by exile or imprisonment, sentence of death being very rare, especially in lattei times, when, as well natives as foreigners, who did not attempt to disturb religious or social order, could live with as much tranquillity and security in Spain as in any other country. When the Spaniards are reproached with the rigors, real or pretended, of this famous tribunal, their answer is, that, by punishing a few obstinate individuals, it saved their monarchy from the awful disturbances and civil wars which desolated Switzerland, Germany, Holland, France, etc., in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; and did not, after aril, cause so much blood to flow in all their dominions together, as the Calvinian reformation did in the single kingdom of France. NOTE L. PAGE 357. BULL OF ALEXANDER VI, CALLED THE BULL OF PARTITION. " WRITERS," says Dr. Lingard, " have not always sufficiently appre- ciated the benefits which mankind derived from the pacific influence of the Roman Pontiffs. In an age which valued no merit but that of arms, Europe would have been plunged in perpetual war, had not Pope after Pope labored incessantly for the preservation or restoration of peace. They rebuked the passions, and checked the extravagant pretensions of sove- reigns : their character, as the common fathers of Christians, gave to their representatives a weight which no other mediators could claim : and their legates spared neither journey nor fatigue to reconcile the jarring interests of courts, and interpose the olive of peace between the swords of contend- ing armies," (Histor. of Engl. vol. iv,p. 80). These general remarks on the happy influence exercised at different times by the Sovereign Pontiffs, are particularly applicable to the conduct of Pope Alexander VI, with regard to the Spanish and Portuguese sove- reigns. He had to settle between them, by a solemn decision, the respec- tive boundaries of their foreign possessions, ajid, by so doing, prevent the endless and sanguinary contests that might have otherwise Followed; this the Pontiff did by issuing the famous bull Inter ccetera : he, at the same time, improved the opportunity of benefiting the natives of the newly discovered countries, by requiring of their conquerors that they should procure for them religious and Christian instruction.* Had he refused to listen to the The words of the Pontiff are these : "Insuper mandamus vobis In virtute sanctae obe- dicntise (sicut pollicemini, et non dubitamus pro vestra maxima devotione et regia mag- Baniinitate vos esse facturos) ad terras firmas et insulas predictas viros probos et Deum timentes, doctos, peritos et expertos, ad instruendum incolas et habitatores praefatos in ride Oatholica, et bonis moribus imbuendum, destinare studeatis, omnem dobitam diligen- tiuni in pnemissis adhibentes." Bulla Inter C'trtera, n, 7. NOTES. 509 appeal of the interested parties, he might indeed have removed the danger of being charged with entertaining ambitious views; but would he not have incurred the guilt of unjustifiable want of zeal and care, both to prevent the effusion oi human blood, and to promote the advantage of the defence- less Indians ? For, it should ever be remembered that the kings of Spain and Portugal would, in any hypothesis, have taken and kept possession of the lands lately descried by their navigators, this having been their full determination from the beginning; hence, there would have existed, on one side, a continued subject of quarrels between the two nations for the determination of their foreign limits, and, on the other, there would have been no condition imposed on them to better the fate of the Indians. The decision, therefore, of Alexander VI, was not only conducive to the preservation of peace among the conquerors, but highly advantageous to the vanquished themselves, ibr whom it secured the blessings of civilization and Christianity. " Ferdinand," says the elegant historian of Columbus, " had despatched ambassadors to the Court of Home, announcing the new discovery as an extraordinary triumph of the faith At least as politic as he was pious, he insinuated a hint at the same time, by which the Pope might perceive that he was determined, at all events, to maintain his important acquisitions. His ambassadors were instructed to state that, in the opinion of many learned men, these newly discovered lands, having been taken possession of by the Catholic Sovereigns, their title to the same did not require the papal sanction ; still, as pious princes obedient to the holy chair, they supplicated His Holiness to issue a bull, making a concession of them, and of such others as might be discovered, to the crown of Castile," (Irving's Columbus, b. v. ch. viu). From this it manifestly appears that the Spanish Sovereigns had not waited for the grant of the Pope, to take possession of the West Indies. "The question," says a learned critic, (Bergier, art. Demarcation) "was not to decide whether their conquests, and those of the king of Portugal, were lawful or not, but to remove, by the fixation of their limits, the evils of war which would have visited the European discoverers, without render- ing the fate of the Indians better." Hence, it is useless to ask what right the Pontiff had to give lands and countries which did not belong to him, since his solemn award, although it seemed to contain a real grant, was simply a measure tending to prevent bloody quarrels between two jealous and powerful monarchs ; whilst it also provided for the civil and moral im- provement of their new subjects. To act the part of an authoritative arbi- trator, does not require to have jurisdiction over the object of the debate, but over the contending parties ; especially, if they themselves have re- ferred the case to their common acknowledged superior, and have asked his decision. Instead then of inveighing against the bull of Alexander VI, it would be better, as Feller and Count de Maistre observe, to regret that the time has passed, when a single word from the Roman Pontiff was sufficient to main- tain peace among kings and nations, and when his impartial voice and universally revered influence easily removed the danger of obstinate dis- ensions and sanguinary conflicts. 43* 510 NOTES. NOTE M. PAGE 367. INFLUENCE OF THE ROMAN CHURCH ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF SCIENCE. AFFAIR OF GALILEO. THE CALENDAR. THE Roman Church, as we have already noticed in several parts of this work, has rendered multiplied and signal services to the arts, sciences, and uelles lettres. Still, it is often saicl that she has, within the last ages, rather opposed their improvement ; and were we to believe certain authors in their poetical, astronomical, and geographical descriptions, the very land and city in which there has always been found, to the present day, a greater share of true taste and solid learning than any where else, should be considered a half barbarous and hardly civilized region. The principal fact adduced to support this unjust charge, is the ailair of Galileo, whom a .multitude of writers represent as having been persecuted on account of his astronomical discoveries, and condemned by the Roman inquisitors merely for teaching, according to the opinion of Copernicus, the true system of the world. But it is now well proved, from the letters of Guichardin and of Marquis Nicolini, both of them disciples, friends and protectors of Gali- leo, from the letters and writings of Galileo himself, that, for a long time, the public has been grossly imposed upon with respect to this point oi history. This celebrated man was not arraigned as an astronomer, but as a barf theologian, and for having pretended to impute to the Bible dogmas of his own invention. His great discoveries, it is true, provoked envy against him; but his pretension to prove the Copernican system from the Bible was the real cause of his being summoned before the inquisitors at Rome; and the restlessness of his mind, the only source of the troubles which he underwent on that account. In his first journeys to Rome (1611, etc.), Galileo found only admirers among the cardinals and other distinguished personages. The Pope him- self granted him a favorable audience, and Cardinal Bellarmine merely forbade him, in the name of His Holiness, to blend in future the Bible with his astronomical systems. Other learned prelates equally pointed out to him the course of prudence to be observed by him on this point ; but his obstinacy and vanity did not permit him to follow their advice. Some years after, he published his "Dialogues and Memoirs," in which he again took upon himself to raise the system of the rotation of the earth to the dignity of a dogmatical tenet. Being summoned before the tribunals of Rome, the lodging assigned to him in that city, was not a gloomy prison, not a frightful dungeon, but the palace of Tuscany, and, for eighteen days, the apartments of the attorney-general, where he had every facility to take exercise and cany on his correspondence. During the trial, the main object of his answers was not the scientific view of the question, since he had been allowed to defend his system as an astronomical hypothesis, but its pretended association with the Bible. Not long after having received his sentence and made his recantation, Galileo obtained leave to revisit his native country, and, far from being persecuted, was dismissed with new marks of esteem for his talents and of regard for his person. For these interesting documents respecting the aifair of Galileo, we are Indebted to the researches of an impartial Protestant, Mr. M allet Dupaii NOTES. 511 of Geneva, who wrote a dissertation on the subject, in the Mercure dt France, 17 Juillet 1784, n. 29 see Be'raut-Bercastel, Histoire de rEglise, ad ann. 1634; and Bergier, Diction, de theol., art. Monde, and Sciences The Roman Church, far from impeding the progress of astronomy or of other sciences, on this or any other occasion, has on the contrary rendered, even in that respect, the most undeniable and signal* services. We allude chiefly to the reformation of the calendar, an event which took place uudei Pope Gregory XIII, some years before the time of Galileo, and which is well deserving of notice. By Calendar is meant a certain distribution of time adapted to religious and civil purposes, and pointing out the order and succession of the days, weeks, months and festivals of the year. All civilized nations have ever felt the necessity of having such a regular distribution of time ; but it required a long series of ages, a deep study of astronomy, and innumerable calculations, to contrive a good and exact calendar. In former times, the year was believed to be eleven minutes longer than it is in reality. This difference, though apparently trifling, had become, by being repeated from year to year during the course of many centuries, BO very sensible and material, that in the year 1582, the vernal equinox fell on the eleventh of March, whereas the calendar marked it on the twenty- first of the same month ; a day which had been assigned to it by the astrono- mers of Alexandria, in 325. The consequence was, that festivals were no longer celebrated in their proper time ; and Easter, in particular, which de- pends on the full moon of March, would, in the course of ages, have been successively found in Summer, Autumn and Winter. To remedy this confusion, Gregory XIII suppressed at once from the year 1582 ten entire days (those between the 4th and IStlrof October), by which the real equinox was in advance of the equinox of the calendar; thus making them again coincide, and restoring all Christian festivals to their proper epoch throughout the year. Moreover, measures and precautions, suggested by skilful mathematicians and astronomers, were taken to prevent the like confusion in future, and the whole work being completed, received the solemn sanction of the Pope, in his bull of the same year, 1582. These corrections in the calendar were successively ado.pted by nearly all Christian nations, even those separated from the See of Rome ; v. g., by the English, in 1752; by the Swedes, in 1753; by the German States, in 1776. The Russians are the only civilized people in Europe, who have hitherto refused to admit the important improvement, and still adhere to the old style ; the consequence of which is that they are now, in their computa- tion of the year, twelve days behind the real time ; thus preferring, as a judi- cious author pointedly remarks, rather to be at variance with the heavens and the stars, than to agree with the Roman Pontiff. NOTE N. PAGE 397. MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S DAY. NOTHING perhaps is more common, and yet nothing can be more unjust, than to take advantage of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's day, to in- veigh against the Catholic community and the Catholic principles, as if the awful deed had proceeded from their influence. If we consult the authentic and contemporary documents collected and adduced by those persons who have made a deep and impartial study of the whole transaction (v. g 512 NOTES. Caveirac, Dissert, sur la St. Barthelemi; Lingard, vnr, Note T.; Daniel, Hist, de France, ad ann. 1572), \ve shall find that religion had nothing to do with it, except to check its course as much as possible, and to weep over the devoted victims of the Massacre ; that the whole aiFair was merely the effect of political resentment and of a sudden ebullition of anger; in fine, that a much smaller number of persons perished on the occasion than is commonly believed. . The series and close connexion of the events immediately preceding the massacre, are sufficient to show that it originated in the animosity of the French court against the Protestant party, and was dictated by a violent desire of revenge. The mind of the young king, Charles IX, had been fre- quently harassed and exasperated by the repeated attacks of the Huguenots against his authority, and by the report of the many cruelties which they had committed throughout the kingdom during the last civil wars. Not- withstanding these causes of provocation, he would not have adopted the dreadful measure, had it not been for the positive assertion of his mother and chief counsellors, that he could no longer escape the plots of that party, without putting to death or in confinement its chief leaders, and that, were he to wait till next morning, his most faithful officers, his family, perhaps himself, would be sacrificed to their vengeance. The king then gave his consent to the projected massacre; the time was appointed, and the execu- tion took place during a considerable part of the following day, the twenty- fourth of August, 1572. Thus, the odious deed was not the result of a long premeditated and general plot, but the effect of a sudden fit of anger and revenge ; it was, moreover, projected against the leaders only of the Huguenot party, and intended to have taken place only in Paris. If the example of the capital was followed in many other cities, v. g., Lyons, Rouen, Toulouse, Bor- deaux, etc., this was owing chiefly to the violent excitement which the conduct and cruelties of the Calvinists, during the preceding insurrections, had produced in the minds of the Catholics. Far from sending orders to the provinces against Protestants, Charles IX, on the contrary, both in writ- ing and by word of mouth, frequently expressed his intention that the bloody scene should not be repeated, nor extended beyond the limits of Paris. And indeed, the great difference of the epochs at which the massacres were committed in the cities just mentioned, also shows that they ought to be attributed rather to sudden ebullitions of popular vengeance, than to any previously concerted and general plan. Every one may see the detailed proofs of these assertions in the two first authors above mentioned. Of the number of victims in all those towns, including the capital, it is impossible to speak with certainty. Among the Huguenot writers, some reckon seventy thousand ; others, thirty or twenty or fifteen thousand : but all these amount* seem to be exaggerated. " The reformed martyrologist adopted a measure of ascertaining the real number, which may enable us to form a probable conjecture. He procured from the ministers in the different towns where the massacres had taken place, lists of the names of the per- sons who had suffered, or were supposed to have suffered. He published the result in 1582; and the reader will be surprised to learn that in all France he could discover the names of no more than seven hundred and eighty-six persons. Perhaps, if we double that number, we shall not be far from the real amount." (Lingard in loco tit.) Above all, it is certain that religion had nothing: to do with the massacre, whether as a motive or an encouragement, fri the contriving of the wretched scheme, the passions of the French court, jealousy, animosity, revenge, were the real and only cause ; and the pretence was a supposed conspiracy of the Protestant leaders against the king, his servants and his NOTES. 513 family. No clergymen were consulted about tbo adoption of the awful measure; and, when they heard of it after its execution, far from obtaining their approbation, it rather excited in their bosoms feelings of horror for the deed, and of commiseration lor its victims. The only share which bishops, priests and monks took in it, was to save as many as they could of the Pro- testants, who, in many towns, v. g., Lisieux, Toulouse, Lyons, Bordeaux, had taken refuge in their hospitable dwellings. It is objected that Pope Gregory XIII publicly returned thanks to God on that occasion; but what was the real object of this rejoicing? Charles IX, in order to palliate the shame of his murderous edict against the Pari- sian Huguenots, wrote to every court in Europe, that, having just detected their horrid plots against his authority and person, he had been fortunate enough to escape from the imminent danger, by putting the conspirators to death without delay. The Pope then, under that impression, rejoiced, not for the death of the supposed traitors, whose rigorous punishment he on the contrary deplored, but for the preservation of the French monarch and of his kingdom from utter ruin : exactly, as in a case of war, and of a signal victory against invaders, public rejoicings would take place, and every sensible person would willingly share in them, not indeed at the blood shed in battle, but at the advantages gained over an unjust enemy ; and who could dare to find a fault in such conduct? NOTE O. PAGE 414. REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. BEFORE attempting to present a vindication of this famous Revocation, we will quote the words in which it is recorded by Hume, in the eighth volume of his History. "Louis XIV," says he, "having long harassed and molested the Protestants, at last entirely revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had been enacted by Henry IV for securing them the free exercise of their religion; which had been declared irrevocable; and which, during the experience of near a century, had been attended with no sensible inconve- nience. All the iniquities inseparable from persecutions were exercised against those unhappy religionists, who became obstinate in proportion to the oppressions which they suffered, and either covered under a feigned conversion a more violent abhorrence for the Catholic communion, or sought among foreign nations for that liberty of which they were bereaved in tneir native country. Above half a million of the most useful and indus- trious subjects deserted France, and exported, together with immense sums of money, those arts and manufactures which had chiefly tended to enrich that kingdom. They propagated every where the most tragical accounts of the tyranny exercised against them, and revived among the Protestants all that resentment against the bloody and persecuting spirit of popery, to which so many incidents in all ages had given too much foundation." Such is, without the change of a single word, the language of Hume con- cerning the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. That it is, in most points, and especially in the conclusion, the language of virulence, untruth and calumny, will appear manifest from the bare recital, in this, and the follow- ing note, of the facts connected with the important subject now before us, and of such notorious facts, too, as the most envious criticism cannot rationally deny. Previously to the reign of Louis XIV, the Huguenots, by dint of threats 514 NOTES. and violence had extorted from the French kings, particularly from Henry IV in 1598, innumerable privileges, and a sort of separate government in the very heart of the kingdom. Their repeated insurrections under Louis XIII were checked, and their military forces annihilated by the genius of Richelieu ; still they continued, even under this powerful minister, to pos- sess a legal existence, and to enjoy the free exercise of their religion. Unfortunately, their spirit of rancor and animosity always continued the same ; they constantly manifested the most shameful opposition to the interests of their own country, repeatedly endeavored to overturn her con- ititution and government, always favored her foreign foes, as was manifest Vom their authentic acts and writings, and carried so far their hostile de- >igns, as to open, 'as far as they were able, her frontiers to the Germans tnd tjie Dutch, and her maritime towns, Le Havre and La Rochelle, to the English, the greatest enemies of France; in a word, so multiplied were Iheir infractions of several articles of the Edict of Nantes, that it required no fewer than two hundred decrees of various courts of justice to check Ihese new encroachments, as may be seen in the work of Abbe" Caveirac on this subject, pp. 195 246, and LXI LXIII of the notes. Moreover, the bloody civil wars formerly excited by the Huguenots, were not yet forgotten, and the fresh remembrance of past evils inclined the nation to adopt measures calculated to prevent their repetition. "I do not speak," says the illustrious pupil of Fenelon, the duke of Burgundy, in his memoirs, "of the calamities produced by the new doctrines in Ger- many, England, Scotland, Ireland, etc.; I speak of France only. Nor shall I enumerate one by one, the evils of which it was the theatre, and which are recorded in so many authentic documents ; the secret assemblies ; the leagues formed with foreign enemies ; the attempts against the govern- ment ; the seditious threats, open revolts, conspiracies, and bloody wars ; the plundering and sacking of towns; the deliberate massacres, and atro- cious sacrileges: suffice it to say, that, from Francis I to Louis XIV, during seven successive reigns, all these evils and many others, with more or less violence, desolated the French monarchy. This is a point of history which, although it may be variously related, can neither be denied nor called in question ; and it is from this capital point that we should start in the political examination of this grand affair." Under the fresh recollection of so many trespasses and obnoxious deeds of the Huguenots, an intimate persuasion, founded on the natural rights of nations and the security of governments, had pervaded all classes of people^ that the king was justifiable in adopting vigorous measures for the purpose of checking this ill-affected portion of his subjects. It was the general opinion, that the Edict of Nantes, both from its nature and on account of its numerous violations by the very party whom it favored, might be re- voked, since the good and tranquillity of the state called for its revocation. So little doubt did there exist concerning this right of repeal, that even Arnauld, a Jansenist, and Grotius, a Protestant, openly acknowledged it in their writings;* nor indeed could it be denied without unjust partiality, since there was not, at this period, a single Protestant government in Europe, which, notwithstanding much more sacred ties or contracts, did not act more severely against their peaceful Catholic subjects, than the French court prepared to do against the restless and ever disaffected Huguenots. Moved by these considerations, the ministry under Louis XIV employed * The following are the words of the latter : " Ndrint illi, qui Reformatorum sibi impo- nunt vocabulum, non esse ilia federa, sed regum edicta, ob publicara facta utilitatem, et \evocabilia, si aiiud regibus publica utilitas suaserit. Ricetiani apologetici discusrio, p. 22. NOTES. 515 itself in gradually undermining their party, and taking away from them the power and opportunities of exciting new disturbances in France ; still nothing appeared to threaten the entire abolition of their privileges, when, alarming symptoms of insurrection manifested by them throughout the southern and western provinces, caused it to become a matter of serious debate in the council of the king. The proposed measure passed by the unanimous vote of the counsellors and ministers ; the Edict of Nantes was revoked , and, as the factious and hostile spirit of the Huguenot ministers was too well known to be safely tolerated, such of their number as refused to abjure their tenets within the space of two months, were commanded to quit the kingdom. As to the other Protestants, they were not only allowed, but even encouraged to remain in France, where they might freely carry on their business and commerce as before, and enjoy their property and their civil rights under the protection of the law, " without being troubled and vexed on account of their religion." These are the very terms of the repealing statute. It is, therefore, a gross inaccuracy to assert or suppose that the French Huguenots were promiscuously condemned to banishment, or doomed to oppression and all the iniquities inseparable from persecution in their native country. Many of them, it is true, preferred to follow their ministers into exile ; but this was a mere effect of their own choice, which the govern- ment never intended nor encouraged. It is true also that, in several places, acts of rigor, owing to unforeseen incidents, were exercised against them; but this happened only in the places where the religionists, misunderstand- ing the moderate views of their sovereign, provoked his justice by their excesses and revolts. As to the acts of violence which some individuals occasionally recommended or practised, they were entirely repugnant both to the character and intentions of the monarch, who bitterly complained of this criminal abuse of his authority. He not only published new enactments to check these disorders, but also endeavored to remove from the attendance of Protestants at religious in- structions even the appearance of constraint; following in this the advice of Bossuet, Fenelon, and other distinguished persons of the clergy, as Car- dinal de Bausset relates in the lives of these two illustrious bishops. Even before this, so remote were the ideas of the king from any thing like perse- cution, that, in a letter to the Intendants of the provinces, he said in express terms, that he recommended to them above all to treat the Protestants with mildness, je vous recommande surtout de menager avec douceur les esprits de ceux de ladite religion; and, when information was given him that two of these governors had followed a different course, he severely reprimanded one, and recalled the other. But did not Louis XIV at least commit a great political fault, or, as some call it, a suicidal act against France, by giving occasion to so many indus- trious and useful subjects to leave the kingdom ? So indeed it seems to several persons, but on what grounds does not appear. Even supposing the commercial and pecuniary disadvantage for some parts of France to have been as great as is commonly supposed, Louis XIV may have justly considered it a mere trifle, when weighed in the balance against the secu- rity and tranquillity of the whole kingdom. After all, there has evidently been much exaggeration in estimating the loss which France may have suffered on that occasion. Whatever were the complaints issued by some interested individuals, time and experience showed that arts, manufactures and trade had scarcely suffered any sensible detriment ; or it was, at least, quickly repaired, since from nearly that period, commerce and industry became more and more flourishing in France, and no later than two years after the Edict of Revocation, the revenues of the crown, without any 516 JVOTES. narsh or oppressive measure, were augmented. Nor is it at all true that the French refugees exported much money; the richest among them had remained in France, and those who freely chose to emigrate were mostly workmen and laborers, rather requiring support from the countries whick veceived them, than capable of enriching their benefactors, as their own historians confess; (apud Caveirac, pp. 93 97). Nor, in fine, did they materially contribute, except perhaps in Prussia, to the splendor of foreign manufactures, which were flourishing and prosperous before their arrival. As to the number of the emigrants, it is difficult to ascertain it, though we may be assured that there is another gross exaggeration in the amount of above half a million asserted by Hume. Larrey and Benoit, two Protestant authors, admit it to have been of about two hundred thousand persons ; but several critics think that it ought to be reduced, upon fair calculation, to one-fourth or at least one-third of that amount. Among others, the Duke of Burgundy, whose candor and sincerity, as well as means of research, cannot be doubted, assures us that the French refugees were not more than sixty-eight thousand in all; a number less than was carried oif by a single civil war. So little injury was thought at the time to result to France from the revoca- tion of the Edict of Nantes, that Louis XIV received innumerable con- gratulations on this account. Both subjects and foreigners appeared more surprised at the rapid execution of the measure, than at the measure itself; even the famous Bayle proved to his fellow exiles that it was their own conduct that had forced the king to revoke their privileges, and that, after all, the laws enacted in most Protestant countries against Catholics were more stern and rigorous than any published by Catholic princes against Protestants, (jlvis aux Refugtis, etc). If then the Huguenots filled the world with their invectives against the French government, no reasonable man will refuse to ascribe their conduct rather to the dictate of passion, than to their love of truth and justice. For, who does not know that the guilty commonly complain of the tribunal by which they were condemned? And who will ever consider as worthy of credit the historian who, lending an attentive ear to these complaints and invectives of one party, sets aside the victorious defence and, the unexceptionable reasons of the other? NOTE P. PAGE 460. ON RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. To all persons ever so little acquainted with the history of the last agea, it must be matter of the greatest surprise to see the charge of bloody and persecuting spirit so incessantly urged against the Catholic Church by those against whom it may be so easily and so victoriously retorted. Without again mentioning the rigors exercised by the late Prussian government, the oppressive yoke laid over Catholic Poland by the present autocrat of Russia, and the inhumanity of the former penal laws of England, etc., what violence and persecution did not the Catholics of the sixteenth century suffer in Denmark, Sweden and Scotland, although theirs was the ancient and established faith, whilst the doctrines of their persecutors were novelties both in Church and State ! What cruelties were not committed against them in different parts of Germany, where it may be said that streams of, blood marked the progress of the reformed religion ; in Holland, where the san- guinary Vandermerk slaughtered more unoffending Catholic persons in the NOTES, 517 year 1572, than the severe Duke of Alva executed Protestant insurgents during his whole government ; in France, where the fury of the Hugue- nots, oesides many particular atrocities, burnt nine hundred towns and nllages in the province of Dauphins' alone, and excited nine or ten civil wars, which cost the lives of more than two millions of men ; and that, too, upon avowed principle, and according to the maxims laid down by the very authors of the reformation, Luther, Calvin, Beza, etc. On the contrary, we have proved, in different Notes, that neither the pas- tors, nor the tenets and principles of the Catholic Church, had any share in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, in the Gun-powder Plot, in the abuses which may have accidentally taken place in the Spanish Inquisition, or in the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Sometimes, indeed, when there have existed sectarians, like the Albigenses, implacable disturbers of the public peace, and enemies of all social and religious order, the Church exhorted and requested the civil power to repress their excesses : but this surely cannot, without a manifest abuse of language, be termed pertecution; otherwise we ought to call by the same name all civil laws enacted against robbers and murderers. As to the acts of real persecution, cruelty and violence of which some Catholics may have occasionally been guilty, they not only never met with any kind of encouragement or approbation from her; but she rather endeavored, as much as lay in her power, to prevent or check those ebullitions of individual and popular fury ; and, however zealous to propagate the Christian faith, she always inculcated that principle, which has even become a part of the Canon Law, that no one should embrace it by force. That this has been constantly, from the primitive ages down to the present time, her true spirit and the rule of her conduct, may be easily shown from a great variety of facts and testimonies, even confining ourselves to such as are connected with the events and personages mentioned in the course of this history. The first Christian emperor, Constantine the Great, was far from retaliating upon the heathens the rigor which his predecessors had exercised against the Christians. However great was his zeal for the diffusion of the true religion, in which he had been instructed by Catholic bishops, he did not so much as attempt to compel, but contented himself with mildly exhorting his subjects to embrace it, and even gave orders that no one should be in the least annoyed on account of his religion. See his life by Eusebius, b. n. ch. 47, 48, etc. Another Christian emperor, Honorius, having in 410 passed very severe edicts to repress the horrid excesses and cruelties of the Donatists in Africa, St. Augustine and other orthodox prelates exerted all their influence to mitigate in favor of these wretched people the severity of the law, and to procure their conversion by instructions and conferences, rather than let their bodies perish by capital punishment. We learn from Possidius, the disciple and friend of St. Augustine, in the life of this holy doctor, (n. 14), that they had the satisfaction to succeed in their charitable undertaking. Pope St. Leo the Great, who lived at a time when the Church was at- tacked by very dangerous heretics, speaking of the Manicheans, the worst of all, says that " the ecclesiastical lenity was content, even in this case, with the sacerdotal judgment, and avoided all sanguinary punishments." A remarkable fact had recently proved the truth of his assertion. It was against a branch of these sectarians, the Priscillians, that the secular arm first exerted its severity, at Triers under the emperor Maximus, about the year 385. This event served to show how adverse the Catholic Church is to the bloody spirit of persecution : Pope St. Siricius, and the most holy prelates of the West, blamed the rigor that has been exercised against the PrUcilliaus, and the two bishops Ithacius and Idacius, who had obtained 44 518 NOTES. condemnation in a civil court, were themselves condemned for that very reason in the councils of Milan (A. D. 390) and of Turin (401). When Ethelbert, King of Kent, was converted to the true religion by the apostle of England, St. Austin, he had a great desire that all his subjects should like him embrace Christianity ; but, as venerable Bede relates, he did not compel any one to do so, because he had learned from the Roman missionaries that the service of Christ ought to be voluntary. Pope St. Gregory the Great, by whom these holy missionaries were sent to England, evinced on many other occasions his firm adherence to this mild spirit of Christianity. Writing to the bishop of Terracina, who had used some violence against the Jews, he said: "It is by mildness and exhortations, not by threats and terror, that the infidels must be induced to become Christians;" and again, to a patriarch of Constantinople: "This is indeed a very strange way of preaching, which enibrces the true faith by ill-treat- ment*!" Such were the principles and the constant doctrine of that holy pontiff. St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux and the brightest ornament of his age, having learned that a fanatical preacher exhorted the people to murder the Jews as enemies of Christianity, rose against him with all the force of his eloquence, and rescued these devoted victims from the danger which threa- tened them. Pope Clement VI, in a similar ebullition of popular fury, hastened to forbid, even under penalty of excommunication, any violence to be offered to them either in their persons or in their property; and it is well known in general that the Jews never enjoyed greater protection than under the Roman Pontiffs ; so much so, that the city of Rome, where they occupy a separate quarter, with mere precautions of police, has been proverbially called the Paradise of the Jews. Robertson, in his History of America, renders full justice to the zeal and charity of the Spanish ecclesiastics in favor of the Indians of San Domingo, at the time when these unhappy people were harshly treated by their con- querors. "The missionaries," says he, " in conformity to the mild spirit of that religion which they were employed to publish, early remonstrated against this conduct." Besides the Dominican fathers, and the zealous Bar- tholomew Las Casas whose exertions in that noble cause are so justly renowned, the monks of St. Jerome also " neglected no circumstance that tended to mitigate the rigor of the yoke ; and by their authority, their ex- ample and their exhortations, they labored to inspire their countrymen with sentiments of equity and gentleness towards the Indians." (b. in, ad ann. 1517). In the fifth book of his work, the same historian relates that Cortez having resolved, in his march towards Mexico, to destroy by open force the altars and the idols of the Tlascalans, was checked in his inconsiderate design by Father Olmedo, a chaplain to the expedition. This venerable man " repre- sented that religion was not to be propagated by the sword, or infidels to be converted by violence ; that other weapons were to be employed in this ministry, namely, patient instruction and pious example ..... The remon- strances of an ecclesiastic no less respectable for wisdom than virtue, had their proper weight with Cortez : he left the Tlascalans in the undisturbed exercise of their own rites, requiring only that they should desist from their horrid practice of offering human victims in sacrifice." We have already noticed the charity and mildness displayed by the French clergy in favor of Protestants, at the time of the Massacre ot St. Bartho- lomew's day and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. We may now make a similar remark concerning the penal statute passed, under the reign of Queen Mary, against her Protestant subjects, in consequence of tn provocations which she had often experienced from their inordinate zeal NOTES. 510 Motives of state policy actuated, indeed, the abettors of that rigorous mea- sure ; but, far from being supported by any argument from ecclesiastical authority, it was on the contrary powerfully opposed by Cardinal Pole in the cabinet council, and even by King Philip's chaplain from the pulpit. When likewise, Emmanuel, king of Portugal, ordered some violent mea- sures to be resorted to, apparently for the good of religion, the celebrated Jesuit and historian Mariana observed, that the edict was most repugnant to the laws and statutes of the Christian Church, decretum a legibuset insti~ tutis Christianis abhnrrens maxime. It was from these sacred statutes and laws, still more than from his own benevolent heart, that Fenelon drew the following beautiful maxims and counsels which he addressed to the son of King James T I, called the Pre- tender: "Above all, never force your subjects to change their religion. No human power can reach the impenetrable recess of the free will of the heart. Violence can never persuade men ; it serves only to make hypo- crites Grant civil liberty to all, not in approving every thing as good, nor regarding every thing as indifferent, but in tolerating with patience whatever Almighty God tolerates, and endeavoring to convert men by mild persuasion." " Sur toutes choses, ne forcez jamais vos sujets a changer de religion. Nulle puissance humaine ne peut forcer le retranche ment impenetrable de la liberte* du cffiur. La force ne peut jamais persua- der les hommes ; elle ne fait que des hypocrites Accordez a tous la tolerance civile, non en approuvant tout comme indifferent, mais en souf frant avec patience tout ce que Dieu soulfre, et en tachant de ramener les hommes par une douce persuasion." ( Vie de Fenelon, par Ramsay, p. 176 ; or by Cardinal Bausset, vol. in. p. 208). The same benevolent and mild spirit of Catholicity has been also strikingly displayed on this side of the Atlantic. To prove this, we need merely refer to the history of the settlers of Maryland, the only one of the early British colonies that was founded by a body of Catholics. " Its his- tory," says Bancroft (vol. i, p. 268), "is the history of benevolence, grati- tude and toleration The Roman Catholics, who were oppressed by the laws of England, were sure to find a peaceful asylum in the quiet har- bors of the Chesapeake ; and there, too, Protestants were sheltered against Protestant intolerance." (See also Wilson, Jlmer. Revol. ch. n, p. 21). Whilst the Episcopalians of Virginia would suffer no other form of worship than their own ; whilst the Puritans of New England punished with exile, fines, or tortures, the dissenters from their creed, the Catholics of Maryland alone, instead of imitating the example, invited the sufferers to come among them, and kindly received into their hospitable colony the victims of intolerance from the other settlements. Nor has the American Catholic of the present Jay degenerated from the maxims of his ancestors. However ready to defend his just rights against all illegal attacks and actual violence, he is equally disposed never to attempt the least unjust aggression against persons of a different creed. How strongly soever attached to his faith, it is only by a fair and mild ex- position of his doctrines that he seeks to vindicate them; being satisfied that the true religion neither needs nor requires to be defended or promoted by plots and associations, riots and conflagrations, misrepresentations and calumny ; he would be ashamed to use, and he is, above all, careful not to employ such unworthy weapons for the support of so sacred a cause. How falsely, then, do the enemies of the Catholic Church ascribe to her a bloody and persecuting spirit, than which nothing is more contrary to her constant maxims and conduct! Is it not rather evident that the same society to which we are indebted for the preservation of religion, civiliza- tion, literature and learning; for the complete revival of sciences and 520 NOTES. belles-lettres in the age of Leo X, and their greatest splendor in the age of Louis XIV; for the most successful exertions in repelling the invasion of barbarians and saving the liberty of our European ancestors ; for the mosi useful institutions ; for the most important discoveries ; etc., enjoys also the honor of having always maintained the true spirit of Christianity upon earth, and ever practised, together with unshaken adherence to the deposit of faith, that effectual benevolence and genuine charity which is so much recommended in the Gospel? Wonderful Providence of God towards man- kind in the institution of his Church, that, whilst she seems to have been established only to promote our spiritual and eternal welfare, she has, moreover, been rendered so zealously active and so vitally instrumental in procuring even our temporal happiness ! TABLES OF CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. " N. 8. THE DATES MARK THE BEGINNING OF EACH REIGN. 44* 522 CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. B. C. TABLE I. TABLE II. ROMAN EMPE- RORS. PARTHIAN KINGS: ARSACIDI:S. A. D. ROMAN EMPE- RORS. PERSIAN KINGS: SASSANIDES. 31 A. D. 14 18 37 41 50 54 68 69 69 69 79 81 90 96 9 107 117 133 138 161 180 189 Caesar Augus- tus. Tiberius. Phraates. Artabanus. 235 238 244 249 251 253 253 260 268 269 270 273 Maximin in 226 Artax- erxes I. Sapor I. Horiaisdas I. Varanes I. Varanes II. Narses. Gordian Philip. Decius. Gallus. ^Emilian. Valerian. Gallienus. Claudius II. Caligula. Claudius. Vologeses I. Pacorus. Chosroes. Vologeses II. Vologeses III. Artabanus. Empire of the Parthians de- stroyed in 226. Nero. Galba. Otho. Vitellius. Vespasian. Titus. Domitian. Aurelian. 275 276 282 284 284 .294 305 306 310 337 361 363 364 379 395 424 455 475 Tacitus. Cams. CarinusandNu- merian. Diocletian and JMaximian. Nerva. Trajan. ' Adrian. Constantius Chlorus and Galerius. Constantino the Great. Uorinisdas 11. Sapor II. Artaxerxes II. Sapor III. Varanes III. For the contin- uation, see table III. Antoninus Pius. Marcus Aureli- Oi Commodus. Constantine II, Constans and Constantius. Julian. Jovian. Valentinian and Valens. Gratian, Valen- tinian II, and Theodosius the Great. The em- pire is divided. In the West. Honorius. Valentinian III. Eight short reigns (see p. 133). Romulus Au- gustulus. Fall of the Wes- tern empire in 476. 193 193 193 211 214 217 218 222 Pertinax. Didius Julianus. Septimius Seve- rus. ^ Caracalla. Macrinus. Heliogabalus. Alexander Se- verus. CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 523 TABLE III. TABLE IV. A. D EASTERN OR GREEK EMPERORS. PERSIAN KINGS: SASSANIDES. A.D EASTERN OR GREEK EMPERORS. ARABIAN CA- LIPHS : ABAS- SIDES. 39 39 40 42 44 45 45 474 488 49 518 527 531 565 578 579 582 590 602 610 628 632 632 634 641 644 856 661 668 685 711 713 716 717 741 744 I Arcadius , Isdegerdes I. Varanes IV. Isdegerdes II Peroses. Balasces. Cabades. Chosroes I. Hormisdas III. Chosroes II. Siroes. sdegerdes III, the last of the Sassanidcs. Mahomet, the false prophet. Arabian Ca- liphs. Abu-Beker. Omar. Othman. Ali. Ommiades. VIoavias. After his death, there was a rapid succes- sion of twelve caliphs du- ring the space of sixty-four years, termi- nating in Mervan, the last of the Jmmiades. ' 75 75 77 78 78 78 80 80 81 813 820 829 833 842 Abul-Abbas. Abu-Giafar Alinanzor. Mohammed Mahadi. Hadi. Aaron-al-Ras- chid. Amin. Al-Mamon. Mutasem. 'he succeed- ing caliphs, devoid of per- sonal merit, lost an im- mense portion of their pow- er, and retain- ed little more than a certain preeminence Theodosius II. Leo Chazarus. Constantine V and Irene. Marcian. Leo the Thra cian. Zeno. Nicephorus. Anastasius I. Justin I. Justinian I. Michael I. Leo the Anne nian. Michael II, the Stammerer. Theophilus. Justin II. Tiberius II. Mauritius. Michael III. Basil the Mace- donian, ^eo the Philoso- pher. Alexander. Constantine VI] or Porphyroge- netes. lomanus I, Le- capenes; and Constant. VII continued, lomanus II. Vicephorus Phocas. ohn Zimisces. Basil II till 5 hocas. ieraclius. 867 886 911 912 919 959 963 969 976 025 081 Constantino III. Constans 11. of honor. "hen, after a se- ries of fifteen emperors, who just appeared and disappear- ed, came Alexius Com- nenus, whose long reign be ongs also to :o the epoch of :he crusades. Constantine IV, or Pogonatus. ustinian II. 3 hilippicus. Anastasius II. rheodosius III. ..eo the Isau- rian. Constantine V, or Coprony- mus. 524 CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. TABLE V. A.D. EMPERORS OF GERMANY FROM THE REVIVAL OF THE WES- TERN EMPIRE. KINGS OF ENGLAND THE END OF THE TARCHY. FROM HEP- 800 814 827 836 840 855 857 860 866 871 875 880 887 889 894 900 912 919 924 936 940 946 955 959 973 975 978 983 House of France. Charlemagne. Louis I, the De"bonnaire. Anglo* Saxon Kings. Egbert. Ethelwolf. Ethelbald. Ethelbert. Ethelred I. Alfred the Great Edward the Elder. Athelstan. Edmund. Edred. Edwy. Edgar. Edward the Martyr. Ethelred II. Lothaire I. Louis II. Charles the Bald. Interregnum of three years. Charles, the Big. C Arnold. JGuy. / Lambert. Louis III House of Franconia. Conrad I. House of Saxony. Henry I, the Fowler. Otho I, the Gieat. Otho II. Otho III. CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 525 TABLE VI. A.D. EMPERORS OF GERMANY. KINGS OF ENG- LAND. KINGS OF FRANCE from the beginning of the Capetian dynasty. KINGS OF SPAIN, from the time when Castile was erected in- to a kingdom. 987 996 1002 1016 1017 1024 1031 1035 1039 1042 1056 1060 1065 1066 1066 1072 1087 House of Bava- ria. jQnglo- Saxons, continued. Hugh Capet. Robert. i Henry I. Ferdinand I. Sanchez. Alfonso I, in Castile, and VI, as king of Leon. Henry II, the Saint. Edmund Iron- side. Danish Kings. Canute the Great. House ofFran- conia. Conrad II. Harold I Henry III. Hardicanute. Saxon line re- stored. Edward the Confessor. Philip I. Henry IV. Harold II. Norman dynasty. William I, the Conqueror. William II, the Red. 526 CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. TABLE VII. P. A EMPERORS OF CONSTANTINOPLE KINGS OF JERUSALEM. 1099 Alexius Comnenus. Godfrey of Bouillon. 1110 Baldwin I. 1118 1131 John Comnenus. Baldwin II. Foulques of Anjou. 1142 Baldwin III. 1143 1152 Manuel Comnenus. Almeric or Arnaury 1173 Baldwin IV. 1180 1183 1185 Alexius II. Andronic I. Baldwin V. 1186 Guy of Lusignan. 1195 1203 1204 1204 Alexius III. Isaac and Alexius IV 1'Ange. Alexius V Ducas, or Murzu- phlis. Constantinople taken by the Latins. Baldwin I Fall of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Greek Emperors at Nice. Theodorus Lascaris I. 1206 1206 1219 1222 Henry. Peter de Courtenay. Robert de Courtenay. John Ducas Vatace. 1228 1255 C John of Brienne. [ Baldwin II. Theodorus Lascaris II C John Lascaris. 1259 1261 1282 Constantinople recovered by the Greeks. Michael Paleologus. Andronic II. \ Michael Paleologus. CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 527 TABLE VIII. *. D. 1100 1106 1108 1109 1125 1126 1135 EMPERORS OF GERMANY. KINGS OF ENG- LAND. KINGS OF FRANCE. KINGS OF SPAIN. House of Franco- nia. Norman dynasty. Henry I. Capelian dynasty. jouis VI, the Big. House of Bigorre. Alfonso VII. Henry V. Lothaire II, the Saxon. House of Slots. House of Burgun- dy. Alfonso VIII. Stephen. Louis VII, the Younger. Sanchez III and Ferdinand II. Alfonso IX. Henry I. Ferdinand III, (St.) Alfonso X, the Wise. Sanchez IV Ferdinand IV. 1137 1138 1152 1154 Conrad III. House of Suabia. Frederic I, Bar- barossa. Plantagenets undivided. lenry II. 1158 1180 1189 Philip II, Augus- tus. Richard I, Cceur de Lion. John, Lackland. 1190 1198 1199 r?14 Henry VI. C Philip. I Otho IV. 1216 1217 1218 1223 1226 1250 1252 1256 1270 1272 1273 1284 TW Henry III. Frederic II. Louis VIII, Li- on-hearted. Louis IX, or St. Louis. C Conrad IV. < William of { Holland. Interregnum. Anarchy. Philip III, the Bold. Edward I. Rodolph I of Hapsburg. Philip IV, the Fair. 1292 1295 Adolph of Nas- sau. 528 CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 1 TABLE IX. A.D. EMPERORS OF CONSTANTINOPLE. OTTOMAN SULTANS. 1300 Othman. 1326 Orcan. 1323 1341 1360 Andronic III. C John Cantacuzene and ( John Paleologus I. Amurat I. 1389 Bajazet I, Ilderiin. 1391 1402 Manuel Paleologus. Soliman I. 1406 Musa. 1413 Mahomet I. 1421 Amurat II. 1425 1448 1451 John Paleologus II. Constantino Paleologus, or Dra- gazes. Mahomet 11. 1481 Fall of the Greek Empire. Bajazet II. 1512 Selim I. 1520 Soliman II, the Magnificent. 1566 Selim II. 1574 Amurat III. 1595 Mahomet III. 1603 Achmet I. 1617 Mustapha I. 1618 Osman I. 1623 Amurat IV. 1640 Ibrahim. 1648 Mahomet IV. 1687 Soliman III. CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. 529 TABLE X. A.D. EMPERORS OF GERMANY. KINGS OF ENG- LAND. KINGS OF FRANCE. KINGS OF SPAIN. 1298 Albert I of Aus- tria. Plantagenets. Edward II. Capetians. House' of Bur- gundy. Alfonso XI. Pedro the Cruel. Henry II, Tran- stamare Juan I. Henry III. Juan II. Henry IV 1308 1312 1314 1316 1322 1327 1328 1347 1350 1364 1368 1377 1378 1379 1380 1390 1399 1400 1406 1410 1413 Henry VII of Luxemburg. f Frederic of I Austria, j Louis of Ba- ^ varia. Louis X. John I. Philip V. Charles IV. House of Valois. Philip VI. John II Edward III. House of Lux- emburg. Charles IV. Charles V, the Wise. Richard II. House of Lan- caster. Wenceslaus. Charles VI. Henry IV. Robert, Count Palatine. Sigismond. Henry V. Henry VI. House of York. Charles VII. 1422 1438 1440 1454 1461 1474 1483 1485 1493 1498 1504 1509 House of Austria. Albert II. Frederic III. Edward IV.... Louis XI. Isabella and (Edward V... ^Richard III. House of Tudor. Henry VII. Charies VIII. Valois- Orleans. Louis XII. Ferdinand V. Castile and jlr- ragon united. f Philip 1 of J Austria, and | Ferdinand V ^ of Arragon. Maximilian I. Henry VIII. 1 45 530 CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. TABLE XI. A.D. OTTOMAN SUL- TANS. EMPERORS AND EMPRESSES Or RUSSIA. KINGS OF PRUSSIA. PRESIDENTS OF THE UNITED STATES. 1689 1691 1695 1701 1702 1713 1725 1727 1730 1740 1741 1754 1757 1762 1774 1786 1789 1796 1797 1801 1807 1808 1809 1817 1825 1829 1837 1839 1S40 1841 1845 1849 1853 Peter I, the Great. Frederic I. Frederic Wil- liam I. Frederic II, the Great. Frederic Wil- liam II. WASHINGTON, first president. John Adams. Jefferson. Madison. Monroe. John Quincy Adams. Jackson. Van-Buren. Harrison, Tyler. Polk. Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce. Achmet II. Mustapha II. Achmet III. Catherine I. Peter II. Anne Iwan Elizabeth. Peter II-Cathe- rine II, the Great Mahomet V, or Mahinoud I. Osman II. Mustapha III. Abdul-Hamid. Selim III. Paul. Frederic Wil- liam III. Alexander. Mustapha IV. Mahmoud II. Nicholas. Abdul Medjid. Frederic Wil- liam IV. CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS, 531 1 TABLE XII. A. D. EMPERORS OF GER- MANY. KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND. KINGS OF FRANCE. KINGS OF SPAIN. J515 1516 1519 1547 1553 1556 1558 1559 1560 1564 1574 1576 1589 1598 1603 1610 1612 1619 1621 1625 1637 1643 1649 1658 1660 1665 1685 1689 1700 1702 1705 1711 1714 1715 1727 1740 House of Austria continued. House of Tudor, continued. Valois JLngou- leme. Francis I. House of Austria. Charles I; same as Charles V in Germany. Philip II. Philip III. Philip IV. Charles II. House of Bourbon Philip V. Charles V. Edward VI Mary. Henry II. Ferdinand I. Elizabeth. Francis II. Charles IX. Henry III. House of Bourbon Henry* IV, the Great. Maximilian II. Rodolph II. House of Stuart. James I. Louis XIII. Matthias. Ferdinand II. Charles I. Louis XIV, the Great. Ferdinand III. Commonwealth. Cromwell, pro- tector. Restoration. Charles II. Leopold I. James II. Revo- lution. C Mary and William III. Anne. House of Hanover or Brunswick. George I. Louis XV. Joseph I. Charles VI. George II. Charles VII, of Bavaria. 532 CONTEMPORARY SOVEREIGNS. TABLE XII. CONTINUED. A. D. EMPERORS OP GER- MANY. KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND. KINGS OF FRANCE. KINGS AND QHEENB OF SPAIN. 1745 1746 1759 1760 1765 1774 1788 1790 1792 1793 1799 1S04 1806 1808 1814 1820 1824 1830 1833 1835 1837 1848 1848 1852 House of Lor- raine. Francis I. House of Hanover or Brunswick. House of Bourbon House of Bourbon Ferdinand VI. Charles ill. Charles IV. Forced abdication Spain invaded. Ferdinand VIL Civil war and Re- volutions. Regency of Queen. Christina Then, of Espar- tero. Isabella. George III. Louis XVI. Joseph II. Leopold II. Francis II. Revolution. Republic. Louis XVII. Napoleon, First Consul. Napoleon, Empe- ror. Empire oj Aus- tria. Francis. Restoration. Louis XVIII. Charles X. Branch of Or- leans. Louis Philip. George IV. William IV Ferdinand. Victoria Francis Joseph. New Revolution and Republic. Louis Napoleon, President. Louis Xapoleon, nr Napoleon III. Emperor. 1 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OF MEMORABLE EVENTS AND REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. N. B. The dates in the first column, denote the years in which the events happened ; those placed in the second column, mark the years in which the persons mentioned there, died. B. C. 81 29 20 43 60 64 80 79 PART I. MEMORABLE EVENTS. Battle of Actium. Change of the Roman Repub- lic into an Empire. Roman Ensigns recovered from the Parthians. Temple of Janus shut. BIRTH OF CHRIST, i A. D. 4 Conspiracy of Cinna. 9 Defeat of Varus in Germany. 15 German War.i 31 Conspiracy of Sejanus. 33 Passion of our Saviour De-< scent of the Hofy Ghost Foundation of the Church. Invasion of Great Britain. Conquest of Armenia. First persecution againstv the Church. Siege and destruction of Jeru- salem. Eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Second persecution. ^ Third persecution. 136 Final overthrow of the Jews. y 162 Fourth persecution. n 45* ^ B. C. REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. Cicero Sallust Varro- Cornelius Nepos, died about this time, or a little before. Young Marcellus died, B. c. 23 Virgil, poet, 19 Agrippa, general, 12 Drusus, general, 9 Horace, poet, 8 Maecenas, statesman, 8. A. D. Livy, historian, died A. D. 17 Ovid, poet, 17 Arminius, general, Ger- manicus, 19 Strabo, geographer, 25 Livia, empress, 29 Velleius- Paterculus, historian, 3 1 Phaedrus, fabulist, . . . . Quintus Curtius, historian, . . . . Philo, Jewish doctor. . . . Persius, poet, 62 Lucan, poet, 65 Seneca, philosopher, 65 Corbulo, general, 66 Suetonius-Paulinus St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles, 67. Pliny, the Elder, naturalist, 79- Agricola, general, 93 Josephus, historian, Quintilian, rheto- rician' St. John, the Evange- list, 101 St. Ignatius, bishop and 534 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. D. 174 193 197 202 226 235 249 257 260 262 273 275 286 MEMORABLE EVENTS. Miracle of the Thundering Le- gion. The empire put up at auction. Battle of Lyons between Seve- rus and Albinus. Fifth persecution. Fall of the Parthian empire New kingdom of Persia. Sixth persecution. Seventh persecution. Eigth persecution. Captivity of Valerian. Universal and dreadful pesti- lence. Destruction of Palmyra.v Ninth persecution. Martyrdom of the Theban Le v - gion. Tenth and last general perse- cution, the most bloody of all. REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. martyr, 107 Tacitus, historian, . . . .Pliny the Younger . .Ju- venal, poet, 128 Plutarch, histo- rian, 140 Justin, historian. . . . St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and martyr, 166 St. Justir, martyr, 167. Between 140 and 180, died Ptolemy, the astronomer Arrian, the histo- rian, and Lucian, the satirist. Galenus, physician, about 200. St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, 202 Clement of Alexandria, doctor, 216 Tertullian, about 220. Dio-Cassius, historian, about 230. St. Cornelius, pope and martyr, 252 Origen, 253 St. Cyprian, arch- bishop of Carthage, 258 St. Law- rence, martyr, 258. Plotinus, philosopher, 270 Longi- nus, rhetorician, 273 Zenobia, queen. PART II. v 312 Victory of Constantine over Maxentius Triumph of Christianity. ^ 323 Licinius repeatedly defeated and finally overthrown by Constantine. 325 First General Council, at Nice. 330 Foundation of Constantinople. 351 Battle of Mursa. 863 The attempt of Julian to re- build the temple of Jerusa- lem, defeated by a splendid prodigy His campaign and death in Persia. 378 Battle of Adrianople. 381 Second General Council at Constantinople. 388 Defeat and death of the usur- per Maximus. 390 Fault and repentance of Theo- dosius. 394 Miraculous victory of Theodo- sius over Eugenius and Ar- bogastes. 395 Final division of the empire. \ 402-5 Defeat of the Goths in Italy. Arnobius, rhetorician and doctor, about 320. Lactantius, historian and doctor, about 328. Eusebius, historian and controvertisl, 338 or 339. St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, 368 St. Athanasius, Patriarch of Alex- andria, 373 St. Basil, archbishop of Caesarea, 379. Between 364 and 394, died the his- torians Eutropius, Ammianus Mar cellinus and Aurelius Victor. St. Cyril, archbishop of Jerusalem, 386 St. Gregory Nazianzen, arch- bishop of Constantinople, 389 St. Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, 396. Rufinus, statesman, 395 St. Am- brose, archbishop of Milan, 397 St. Epiphanius, archbishop ot Salamis, 403 St. John Chrysos torn, archbishop of Constantinople-, CHRONOLOGICAL TABLEV 535 A. D. MEMORABLE EVENTS. 406-9 Gaul and Spain invaded by the Vandals and other bar- barians. 410 Rome taken and plundered by the Goths. 418 They settle in the Southern provinces of Gaul. 420 Beginning of the French mo- narchy. 421 Roman troops entirely with- drawn from Great Britain Inroads of the Picts and Scots. 430 Africa subdued by the Vandals. 431 Third General Council, at Ephe- sus. 438 Publication of the Theodosian code. 451 Ravages of the Huns Battle of the Catalaunian plains. 451 Fourth General Council, at Chalcedon. 452 Pope St. Leo before Attila Foundation of Venice. 455 Rome plundered by the Van- dals. 455 First establishment of the An- glo-Saxons in Great Britain. 472-3 Spain conquered by the Visi- goths. 476 Fall of the Western empire. REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. 407 Stilico, general and states- man, 408. Alaric, king of the Goths, 410 Ru- finus of Aquileia, historian, 410 Prudentius, poet, 410 Claudian, poet; and Macrobius, historian, about 415. Sulpitius-Severus, historian, 420. St. Jerom, doctor of the Church, 420 Constantius, general and states- man, 421 St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo, 430. Count Boniface, general, 432. Socrates, historian, about 440 St Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, 444 St. Peter Chrysologus, arch- bishop of Ravenna, 450 Sozomen, historian, about 450. St. Pulcheria, empress, 453 Attila, king of the Huns, 453 ^Etius, general, 454. St. Patrick, apostle of Ireland, about 460. Theodoret, bishop of Gyre, 458 St. Leo the Great, pope, 461. Ricimer, general and statesman, 472 Genseric, king of the Vandals, 477. PART III / - 486-96 Conquests of the Franks in Gaul Their conversion to Christianity. 489-93 Ostrogoths in Italy. 526 Tremendous earthquakes Overthrow and rebuilding of Antioch. 529 Justinian code. 532 First use of the Christian era in Italy. 534 Kingdom of the Vandals de- stroyed. 551 Silk manufacture brought from India to Europe. 553 Fifth General Council at Con- stantinople. 658-4 Kingdom of the Ostrogoths destroyed Battle of Casi- lino St. Sidonius Apollinaris, bishop of Clermont, 482 Evaric, king of the Visigoths, 484 Odoacer,king of Italy, 493. Clovis, king of the Franks, 511 Boetius, philosopher and states- man, 524 Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, 526 Amalasontes, queen, 535. St. Fulgentius, bishop of Rusp, 533. Dionysius Exiguus, the monk, 540 St. Benedict, founder of the Bene- dictine order, 543. Totila and Teias, kings of the Ostro- goths, 553-54. 536 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. D. MJEMORABLE EVENTS. 668 The Lombards in Italy Exar- chate of Ravenna remains to the Greeks. 676 Battle of Melitine Signal de- feat of the Persians. 584 Extraordinary inundations in Italy. 587 Conversion of the Visigoths to the true faith. 592 Bloody revolutions in Persia. 697 Anglo-Saxons begin to embrace Christianity. 602 Tragical end of the emperor Mauritius and his family. 614-15 Ravages of the Persians in Syria and Palestine. 622, etseq. Exploits of Heraclius , against the Persians. 622 Rise of Mahometanism. 634 Saracens invade Syria. 636 Persia. 637 Palestine, 639 Mesopotamia. 640 641 Burning of the Alexandrian library- 651 Extinction of the second Per- sian monarchy. 673 Invention of the Grecian fire Siege of Constantinople du- Oring seven years. 680 Sixth General Council, at Con- stantinople. 697 Northern Africa, subjugated by the Saracens Destruction of ^ -Carthage. 711 Invasion of Spain Battle of Xeres, which put an end to the kingdom of the Visigoths. 718 Saracens defeated by land and sea, near Constantinople. 732 Battle of Tours New defeat of the Saracens Germany receives the light of the Gos pel. 752 Merovingian family succeeded on the throne of France by the Dynasty of Carlovingian kings Exarchate of Ravenna conquered by the Lombards 755 Temporal dominion of th< Popes. 756 Foundation of the kingdom of Cordova in Spain. 763 Excessive cold and heat. REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. assiodorus, statesman and doctor, 662 Procopius, Historian^ Beli sarius, general, 565 Narses, ge- neral, 568. Alboin, king of the Lombards, 574. Svagrius, historian St. Gregory ol Tours, historian, 595 St. Gregory the Great, pope, 604 St. Augus- tine, first archbishop of Canter- bury, 607. Fortunatus, poet, 609. St. Isidore, archbishop of Seville, 636 St. Sophronius, patriarch of Je- rusalem, 638. About the middle of the 7th century, four celebrated Mussulmen gene- rals, Abu-Obeyda, Kaled, Amrou, Saad. Shortly after, four others, Moavia*, Oucba, Zuheir, Assan. Callinicus, chemist, about 675. Pepin Heristel, statesman and gene- ral, 714. Venerable Bede, doctor and histo- rian, 735 Charles- Mattel, duke of France, 741 Luitprand, king of the Lombards, 743 St. Zachary, pope, 752. St. Boniface, apostle of Germany, 7M. Pepin, king of France. 768. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 537 A. D. 774 787 796 "V 800 MEMORABLE EVENTS. Extinction of the kingdom of the Lombards. Seventh General Council, at Nice. The Saxons subdued, and the Avari prostrated by the arms ^of Charlemagne. Charlemagne crowned emperor of the West. REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. St. John Damascene, doctor of the Church, 780. Adrian I, pope, 795 Witikind, Saxon general, about 800 PART IV. 811 The emperor Nicephorus de- feated and slain by the Bui garians. 827 End of the English Heptarchy 841 Battle of Fontenay. 857 Commencement of the Greek schism. 869 Eighth General Council, at Con stantinople. 878 King Alfred compelled to take refuge in a small island ; then defeats the Danes, and re- % covers his kingdom. 912 Imperial crown transferred from the French to the German princes Normans take pos- session of Neustria. 921 Battle of Jonquera Christians of Spain defeated by the Moors. 939 Battle of Simancas Moors de- feated by the Christians. 955 Battle of Mersburg; Hunga- rians completely defeated bv Othol. 971 Tremendous battle of Drista between the Greeks and the Russians. 972 Fatimites in Egypt. 987 Capetian kings in France. Invention of clocks with ba- lance. Gothic Cathedrals. 1018 Normans in Italy. 1022 Invention of the Gamut, or scale of musical notes, 1030 First conquests of the Selju- kian Turks. 1035 The kingdoms of Castile and Arragon begin. 1053 Renewal of the Greek schism by Michael Caerularius Paul of Aquileia, historian, 801. Alcuin, doctor, 804. Eginhard, historian, about 842. Rabanus, archbishop of Mentz, 856 Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres, doc- tor, 862 Paschasius Radbertus, doctor, 865. Anastasius, the librarian, 880. Photius, first author of the Greek schism, about 892 Alphonso III, king of Oviedo in Spain, 912. Rollo, Norman chieftain, 932. Abderame III, king of Cordova, 961 St. Bruno, archbishop of Co- logne and statesman, 965 Flodo- ardus, historian, 966. Fernando Gonzalez, count, sovereign of Castile, 979 Mahomet Alman- zor, Saracen general, 998. Sylvester II, (Gerbert), pope. 1003. jfuy, monk of Arezzo, about 102& Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, 102 538 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. D. MEMORABLE EVENTS. 1066 Battle of Hastings ; England conquered by the Normans. 1085 Toledo taken from the Sara- cens. 1095 " Rise of the kingdom of Portu- gal. REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. St. Peter Damian, cardinal and doo tor, 1072. St. Gregory VII, (Hildebrand), pope 1085 Lanfrancus, archbishop of Canterbury, 10S9. Rodriguez Diaz-de-Bivar, (El CidJ general, about 1095. PART V. 1095 Council of Clermont First Crusade. 1097 Siege of Nice, and battle of Dorylaeum. 1098 Siege of Antioch, and battle of Orontes. 1099 Siege of Jerusalem, and battle of Ascalon. Kingdom of Jerusalem. Knights Hospitallers of St. John. 1118 Knights-Templars. 1147 Second Crusade. 1169 British enter Ireland. 1 170 Military order of St. James. ^1187 The Christians defeated V Saladin in the battle of Ti- berias. Fall of the Kingdom of Jeru- salem. 1188 Third Crusade. 1190 Teutonic Order. 1196 Fourth Crusade. 1200 Fifth Crusade. 1204 Latin empire of Constantino- ple. 1212 Prodigious victory of the Christians of Spain over the Moors at Murandal. 1214 Battle of Bouvines, in which Philip Augustus conquers all his enemies. 1217 Sixth Crusade. 1220 Battle of the Jaxartes, be- tween Genghis-Kan and Sultan Mohammed. 1230 Opposite parties of the Guelfs and Gibelins in Italy. Ma- riner's compass, invented some time before, began to be used. 1248 Seventh Crusade. Adhe"mar de Monteil, bishop of Puy, A. D. 1098. Urban II, pope, 1099. St. Bruno, founder of the Carthusian Order, 1101. Raymond, count of Tou- louse, 1105. Robert, earl of Flan- ders ; and Bohemond, prince of Tarentum and Antioch, 1111. Tancred, warrior, 1112. Peter the Hermit, 1115. Robert, duke of Normandy, 1134. William of Malmesbury, historian, towards 1150. Suger, abbot of St Denis, 1152. St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, 1153. Nouradin, conqueror, 1174. Alex- ander III, pope, 1181. William, archbishop of Tyre, historian, about 1191. Saladin, conqueror, 1193. Dandolo, doge of Venice. 1205. Averroes, Arabian philoso- pher, 1206. Maimonides, Jewish rabbin, 1209. Villehardoin, historian, 1212. Innocent III, pope, 1216. Simon of Montibrd, general, 1218. St. Dominic, founder of the Domini- cans, 1221. St. Francis of Assisium, founder of the Franciscans, 1226. Genghis Kan, Mogul conqueror, 1227 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 539 A.. D. MEMORABLE EVENTS. 1250 Captivity of St. Louis. 1258 Bagdad taken by the Moguls ; end of the Arabian Cali- phate. 1261 Fall of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. 1268 Eighth and last Crusade. 1270 Death of St. Louis. REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. Blanche of Castile, queen. 1252. Matthew Paris, historian, 1259. PART VI. 1291 Final overthrow of the Chris- tian power in Syria Inven- tion of gun-powder about this time ; also, according to many, of the magnifying glass and spectacles. 1300 Rise of the Ottoman Empire. 1308 Commencement of Swiss in- dependence. Conquest of Rhodes by the Knights of St. John. Suppression of the Knights Templars. Battle of Bannockburn, in which the Scots signally defeated the English. 1315 Battle of Morgarten, which secured the independence of Switzerland. 1340 Awful and complete over- throw of the Moors at Ta- rifa. 1348 Universal and dreadful pesti- lence. 1340 Battles of Sluys, 1 5 . 1346 Crecy, Nevil's Cross, 1356 Poitiers, 1367 Navarette. J | 1372 English fleet destroyed by the Spaniards near La Rochelle. 1396 Signal defeat of the Christians, at Nicopolis. 1397 Treaty of Calmar for the union of Denmark, Sweden and Norway. 1402 Tremendous battle of Ancyra between Sultan Bajazet I and Tamerlane. 1429 Siege of Orleans. 1140 Invention of the art of print- ing. St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bona- venture, doctors of the church, 1274. Charles of Aniou, conqueror of Na- ples and Sicily, 1285. Roger Bacon, mathematician, astro- nomer, etc., 1294. William Tell, warrior. Joinville, historian, 1318 Dante, poet, 1321 Robert Bruce, king of Scotland, 1329. Petrarch, poet, 1374-Edward, prince of Wales, 1377 Bertrand du Guesclin, general, 1380. Tamerlane, the Tartar conqueror 1405. Margaret, queen of Sweden and Den mark, 1412. 540 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. D. MEMORABLE EVENTS. 1450-1453 The English defeated at Jourmigny and Cha- tillon Lose their pos- sessions in France. 1453 Fall of Constantinople. 1456 Siege of Belgrade Mahomet repulsed with great loss. 1461 Destruction of the empire of Trebisond. 1480 First siege of Rhodes. 1492 Extinction of the power of the Moors in Spain. REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. Joan d'Arc, the maid of Orleans, 1431. Hunniades, general, 1456. Scanderbeg, king of Albania, 1467. Guttemberg, Faust, Shoefter, first printers. Thomas-a-Kempis, 1471. Warwick, general, 1471 Margaret of Anjou, queen of England, 1482. Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, 1490. PART VII. 1492 Discovery of America. 1497 Discovery of the Northern American continent. Discovery of the Cape of Good Hope. League of Cambray. Battle of Marignan. The Protestant Reformation. Egypt subdued by the Turks. 1519 ^ First circumnavigation of the 1521 ( Conquest of Mexico. 1522 Second siege of Rhodes. Battle of Pavia; Francis I taken prisoner. First siege of Vienna by the Turks. Malta ceded to the Knights of St. John. L497 1509 ,1515 1517 1517 1525 1529 1530 1531 1534 1534 1534 1545 the Conquest of England separates from See of Rome. Foundation of the Order of the Jesuits. Opening of the Council of Trent, the last general coun- cil. 1556 Abdication of Charles V. 1557 The French defeated by the Spaniards, at St. Quentin. 1568 The French recover Calais from the English. Picus, prince of Mirandola, 1494 Peter d'Aubusson, grand-master of the Order of St. John, 1503 Christopher Columbus, 1506 Gonzalez of Cordova, general, 1512 Bramante, architect, 1514 Albuquerque the Great, con- queror of the East Indies, 1515 Ximenes, cardinal and statesman, 1517 Magellan, 1520 Leo X (Medicis),pope. 1521 Emmanuel the Great, king of Portugal, 1521 Bayard, warrior, 1524 Vasco de Gama, 1525. Zuinglius, 1531 Ariosto, poet, 1583 -Wolsey, cardinal, statesman, 1533 Villiers de 1'Isle Adam, grand-master of the Order of St. John, 1534 Cajetan, cardinal, di- vine, 1534 Fisher, bishop of Rochester, and Thomas Moore, chancellor, 1535 Erasmus, divine, 1536 GarcUaso de la Vega, poet, 1536- -Guicciardini, historian, 1540. Francis Pizarro, conqueror, 1541 Copernicus, astronomer, 1543 Luther, 1546 Hernando Cortez, conqueror, 1547 St. Francis Xa- vier, the apostle of East-Indies and Japan, 1552 St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the society of Jesus, 1556 Pole, cardinal, 1558 Julius Scaliger, physician, phi- losopher, etc., 1558 Cranmer 1556 Robert Stephen, printer, 1559 Calvin, 1564. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 541 MEMORABLE EVENTS. 1565 Siege of Malta. 1571 Battle of Lepanto. 1572 Massacre of St. Bartholomew's day. 1580 Portugal annexed to Spain. 1581 Republic of Holland pro- claimed. 1582 Reformation of the Calendar. 1587 1588 1590 1610 $ 1620} 1626 1607 ^ 1608^ 1613 Unjust execution of Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland. Defeat of the Spanish Armada. Invention of the telescope by Jansen. Invention of the thermometer and the microscope by Dreb- bel. Invention of the barometer by Torricelli. Beginning of the English and French settlements in North America. Foundation of New Amster- dam, or New York. 1630 Foundation of Boston. 1634 Foundation of the colony of Maryland. 1648 Treaty of Westphalia. 1649 King Charles I beheaded. Commonwealth in England. 1688 Battle of Dunes. 46 REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. Michael Angelo, painter and archi- tect, 1564 V ida, poet, 1566 John la Valette, grand-master of St. John, 1563 S. Piua V, pope, 1572 D. Juan of Austria, general, 1578 Camoens, poet, 1579 Ferdinand Alvarez, duke of Alva, general, 15S2 St. Theresa, foundress of the Carmelites, 15S2 St. Charles Borromeo, archbishop of Milan, 1584 Gregory XIII, pope, 15S5 F. Louis Granada, divine, 1588 Sixtus V, pope, 1590. Alexander Farnesius, duke of Parma, general, 1592 Tasso, poet, 1595 Drake, admiral, 1596. Tyco-Brahe, astronomer, 1601 Ba- ronius, cardinal, historian, 1607 Joseph Scaliger, historian, poet, etc., 1609 Casaubon, historian, divine, etc., 1614 F. Alfonso Rodriguez, divine, 1616 Shaks- peare, dramatic poet, 1616 Cer- vantes, Spanish writer, about the same time Suarez, divine, 1617 Duperron, cardinal, controver. tist, 1618 Bellarmine, cardinal, controvertist, 1621 St. Francis of Sales, founder of the Visitation. 1622 Mariana, historian, 1624. Herrera, historian, 1625 Bacon, philosopher, divine, 1626. Kepler, astronomer,- 1630 Spinola, general, 1630-Tilly, general, 1632- Gustavus Adolphus, king of Swe- den, 1632- Walstein, general, 1634. Cornelius a Lapide, divine, 1637 Jansenius, 1638 Rubens, painter, 1640 Sully, statesman, 1641 Richelieu, cardinal, statesman, 1642 Galileo, astronomer, 1642 Bentivoglio, historian, 1644 Gro- tius, civilian, divine, 1645 Gerard Vossius, historian, 1649 Descar- tes, metaphysician, philosopher, 1650 Montrose, general, 1650 Petavius, divine, historian, etc., 1652-Van-Tromp, admiral, 1653- Usher, historian, 1655 Gassendi, mathematician, philosopher, 1655 Blake, admiral, 1657 Harvey, physician, 1657 St Vincent of 542 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE, A. D. MEMORABLE EVENTS. 1659 Treaty of Pyrenees between France and Spain. 1669 Conquest of Candia by the Turks. 1672 Invasion of Holland by the French. 1674 Battle of Senef. 1674 C Brilliant campaigns of Turen- T C 75 ne in Alsace and Germany. i676 Sea-fights near Messina be- tween the French and the Dutch. 1679 Peace of Nimeguen. 180 Foundation of Charleston. 1682 Foundation of Philadelphia. 1683 Second siege of Vienna ; Turks repelled with immense loss. 1685 Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. 1686 League of Augsburg. 1688 Revolution in England. Ib90 Battle of Boyne in Ireland. Naval battles of La Manche 1 590 and La Hogue ; French vic- 1692 torious in the first, defeated in the second. 1692 Splendid victories of Marshal Luxembourg over the allies at Steinkirk and Nerwinde. 1697 Peace of Riswick between France, England, Germany and Spain. 1697 Decisive battle of Zenta in favor of the Austrians against the Turks. 1699 Peace of Carlo witz, between the Ottoman Porte, Austria, Venice and Poland. 1700 Eight thousand Swedes defeat eighty thousand Muscovites Inear Narva. 1701 War for the succession of Spain. 1704 The French and their allies, defeated at Hochstadt. 1706 Ramilies and Turin 1708 Oudenarde. 1709 -..Malplaquet. 1707 Victorious at Almanza. 1710 Villa- Viciosa. 1712 Denain. 1713 Peace of Utrecht. REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. Paul, founder of the Lazarists, and of the sisters of charity, 1660 Mazarin, cardinal statesman, 1661 Pascal, mathematician, etc., 1662 Bollandus, historian, 1665- Anne of Austria, queen, 1666 Moliere, dramatist, 1673 Milton, poet, 1674 Turenne, general, 1575 Kiuperli, general and states- man, 1676 Ruyter, admiral, 1676 Monk, general, 1679 Montecu- culli, general, 1680 Bernini, architect and sculptor, 1680 Col- bert, statesman, 16S3 Corneille, dramatist, 1684 Prince of Conde", general, 1686-Solis, historian, 1686 Isaac Vossius, historian and phi- losopher, 1688 Ducange, histo rian, 1688 Duquesne, admiral, 1658 Lebrun, painter, 1690 Charles, duke of Lorraine, general, 1690 Boyle, philosopher and di- vine, 1691. Puffendorf, civilian, 1694 Arnauld, controvertist, 1694. Tillotson, orator, 1694 Huygens, mathematician, astronomer, 1695 Nicole, controvertist, 1695 Thomassin, divine, 1695 Luxem- bourg, general, 1695 Lafontaine, poet, 1695 Domat, civilian, 1696 Madame de.Se'vigne', 1696. So- bieski, king of Poland, 1696 Til- lemont, historian, 1698-D'Orleans, historian, 1698 Racine, dramatist, 1699. Tourville, admiral, 1701 Dryden, poet, 1701. Bossuet, bishop of Meaux 1704 Bourdaloue, orator and divine, 1704 Locke, philosopher, 1704 Bayle, 1706 Marshal Vauban, 1707 Aureng-zeb, Mogul empe- ror, 1707 Mabillon, historian, di- vine, etc., 1707 Flechier, bishop of Nismes, 1710 Boileau, poet, 1711 Dominic Cassini, astrono- mer, 1712 Malebranche, philoso- pher, metaphysician, 1715 Fene- IOD, archbishop of Cambray, 1715. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 543 A. P. 1715 1716 1717 1718 1734 1736 1739 '- 1740 1745 1746 1748 1752 1755 1757 1759 C 1760 1 1765 1775 1776 If77 1781 1783 MEMORABLE EVENTS. Regency ot the Duke of Or- leans. Turks si g na lly defeated at Pe- terwaradin and Belgrade by prince Eugene of Savoy. Treaty of Passarowitz. Naples and Sicily gained to the house of Bourbon. Voyages of the French mathe- maticians to the North and to the Equator, for the pur- pose of ascertaining the true figure of the earth. Capture and plunder of Delhi, by Thamas Kouli Kan. War for the succession of Austria. Battle of Fontenoy. The Pretender in England and Scotland. Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. Identity of lightning and elec- tricity ascertained by Fran- klin, at Philadelphia. About the same time, inven- tion of the achromatic tele- scope. Lisbon laid in ruins by an earthquake. The French are defeated at Rosbach. The French lose Quebec and all Canada. Stamp act, the first cause of the American revolution. Battles of Lexington and Bun- ker-hill. Declaration of independence. Surrender of Burgoyne. Surrender of Cornwallis. Treaty of Paris or Versailles. British troops evacuate New York General Washington resigns his commission into the Bands of Congress. REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. Leibnitz, mathematician, divine, etc., 1716 Charles XII, king of Swe- den, 1718 Addison, poet, etc., 1719 Madame de Maintfnon* 1719 Marlborough, general, 1722 Kang Hi, Chinese emperor, 1722 Prideaux, historian, 1724 New- ton, astronomer, 1727 Daniel, his- torian, 1728 Schelfmacher, con- trovertist, 1733 Villars, general, 1734 Ferreras, historian, 1735 Prince Eugene of Savoy, general, 1736 Boerhaave, physician, 1738 Polignac, divine and statesman, 1739. Rollin, historian, 1741 J. B. Rous- seau, poet, 1741 Montfaucon, his- torian and divine, 1741 Halley, astronomer, 1742 Massillon, bish- op of Clermont, 1743 Pope, poet, 1744 Thamas Kouli Kan, the Per- sian conqueror, 1747 Bernoulli, mathematician, 1748 Thomson, poet, 1748 Count Saxe, general, 1750 Calmet, divine, 1757-Bene- diet XIV, pope, 1758- Wolf, Mont- calin, generals, 1759. Clairaut, mathematician, 1765. Goldsmith, historian, poet, etc., 1776 Hume, 1776 William Pitt, Lord Chatham, statesman, 1778 Lebeau, historian, 1778 Voltaire J. J. Rousseau, 1778 Linnseus, naturalist, 1778 Warburton, di- vine, 1779 Cook, the navigator, 1779 Maria Theresa, empress, 1780 Blackstone, civilian, 1780 Alban Butler, biographer, 1782 Berthier, historian, divine, 1782 Euler, mathematician, 1783. 544 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. PART VIII. A.. D. MEMORABLE EVENTS. 1783 Balloons invented by Mont- golfier. During the following years of this and the next century, great progress of the natural sciences, chemistry, minera- logy, geology, natural his- tory ; invention of rail-roads, steam-boats, etc. Formation of the Federal Constitution of the United States. Federal government carried into operation Washing- ton unanimously elected president. Turkey and Poland humbled and almost prostrated by the arms of the Russians. French revolution Persecu- tion against the clergy and nobles Emigration. Battles of Jemmapes and Val- my; the Austrians and Prussians repelled from the French territory. Death of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette on a scaf- fold. The first general coalition against France. Battle of Fleurus Fall of the tyrant Robespierre. Total dismemberment of Po- land Holland conquered by the French The Direc- toryRise of Napoleon Bo- naparte. Brilliant campaign of Bona- parte in Italy Victories of Lodi, Arcola, Rivoli Cap- 1797^ ture of Mantua Treaty of Campo-Formio Extinction of the Venetian republic. 1798 'Ecclesiastical State occupied by the French Pope Pius VI dragged into captivity and exile. Second coalition against France. 1787 1789 1787 1793 1789 1792 1792 1793 1793 1794 1795 REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. Dr. Johnson, 1784 Greene, genera^ 1786. Buffon, naturalist, 1788. Franklin, philosopher and statesman, 1790 Bergier, divine, 1790- - Laudon, general, 1790 Roman- zow, general, 1790. Rodney, admiral, 1792 Mozart, musical composer, 1792 Robert- son, historian, 1793 Gibbon, 1794 Lavoisier, chemist, 1794. Wayne, general, 1796 Burke, states- man, 1797. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 545 A. D. MEMORABLE EVENTS. Expedition of Bonaparte in Egypt Battle of the Pyra- mids and Aboukir. 1799 Bonaparte, on his return to Paris, becomes the head of government under the title of Consul Kingdom of Na- ples subdued by the French, who are soon after driven from Italy by Suwarrow. 1800 Election of a new pope Sit- ting of the American Con- gress at Washington for the first time Invention of the Galvanic battery Battle of Marengo Exploits of Gen- eral Moreau in Germany Malta surrenders to the English. 1801 French evacuate Egypt Peace of Luneville between France and Austria. 1802 Treaty of Amiens between England and France Re- establishment of the Catho- lic worship in France, in virtue of aconcordate passed the year before. 1803 San-Domingo entirely lost to the French Republic of Hayti. 1804 Napoleon crowned emperor. 1805 Third coalition French and Spanish fleets destroyed at Trafalgar by Admiral Nel- son. Signal victories of the French 1805 At Austerlitz, over the Aus- trians. 1806 . . Jena, over the Prussians. 1807 . . .Friedland, over the Rus- sians. 1807 Treaty of Tilsit. 1807 C Invasion of Portugal and Spain 1808 1 by the French-Their defeat at Baylen Siege of Sara- 1809 REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. Pius VI, pope, 1799 Washington, first president of the United States, 1799 Patrick Henry, statesman, 1799 Saussure, naturalist, 1799. Suwarrow, general, 1800 Blair, rhetorician, 1800. Fourth coalition Prodigious efforts of the Austrians ren- dered unavailable by the courage and activity of Na- poleon Battle of Wagram terminates the war Peace of Vienna Attempt of the 46* Feller, biographer, 1802 O'Leary, controvertist, 1802 Gerdil, cardi- nal, metaphysician, divine, etc., 1802. Pichegm, general, 1804 Priestley, chemist, 1804. Nelson, admiral, 1805. William Pitt, the younger, and Charles J. Fox, orators and states- men, 1806 Walker, 1807 La- lande, astronomer, 1807. Haydn, musical composer, 1809 Lannes, general, 1809. 546 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. D. MEMORABLE EVENTS. French emperor on the Ec- clesiastical State Pope and cardinals persecuted. 1812 America declares war against England Disastrous cam- paign of Napoleon in Russia. 1813 Fifth coalition Campaign of Saxony French victorious at Lutzen, Bautzen and Dresden, are entirely de- feated at Leipzic, and lose all their conquests in Ger- many Driven also from Spain by Wellington ; bat- tle of Vittoria A British flotilla on Lake Erie all captured by the Americans. 1814 New defeat of the English on Lake Champlain Victo- rious at Washington, they are foiled in their attempt on Baltimore. Allies enter France Abdica- tion of Napoleon. 1815 Second American war closed by the signal victory of New Orleans. Return of Napoleon from Elba Sixth coalition against France Decisive battle of Waterloo, which prostrates the power of the French emperor His second fall, and exile to St. Helena. 1816 Independence of Buenos- Ayres. 1818 Independence of Chili. f Columbia. 1820 I Bolivia. 18241 Peru. ^ Mexico. 1820 Discovery of Electro-Magne- tism. 1823 Civil war in Spain Success- ful exertions of the French in favor of Ferdinand VII. 1827 Naval battle of Navarino, which secured the indepen- dence of Greece. 1829 Emancipation of the British Catholics. 1830 Conquest of Algiers by the French Revolution of July. REMARKABLE PERSOKAGM. Koutousoff, general, 1813 Moreau, general, 1813 Prince Poniatow- ski, 1813. Berthier, general, 1815 Ney, gene- ral, 1815 Murat, king of Naples, 1815 Robert Fulton, the inventor of steam-boats, 1815. John Carroll, first archbishop of Bal- timore, 1815. Sheridan, orator and poet, 1816. Kosciusko, general, 1817 Massena, general, 1817 Blucher, general, 1819 Count Stolberg, historian, controvertist, 1819 Count de Maistre, statesman, controvertist, 1821 Napoleon Bonaparte, the fallen emperor of the French, 1821 Castelreagh, statesman, 1822 Herschell, astronomer, 1822 Pius VII, pope, 1823. Milner, controvertist, 1826. Fifty years exactly after the declara- tion of independence, Thomas Jef- ferson and John Adams, its chief supporters in Congress, die both on the fourth of July, 1826 Laplace, astronomer, 1827 Davy, chemist, 1829. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 547 A. D. 1833 1S36 1840 1840 1842 ' 1843 1844 1845 1846 1847 1848 1849 1650 1851 1854 REMARKABLE PERSONAGES. Bolivar, general, 1830 Cuvier, natu- ralist, 1832 Lafayette, general, 1834 Humboldt, geographer, 1835 Marshall, chiefjustice, historian, 1835 Bowditch, astronomer, 1838 Talleyrand, statesman, 1838 Moehler, controvertist, 1838. John England, bishop of Charleston, 1842. Bernadotte, king of Sweden, 1844 Cardinal Pacca, statesman, histo- rian, 1844. Jackson, general, and former president of the United States, 1845. Vico, astronomer, 1848. Berzelius, chemist. Chateaubriand, prose writer and statei MEMORABLE EVENTS. New disturbances in Spain after the death of Ferdinand VII. Formation of the republic of Texas. Intervention of England, Rus- sia, Austria and Prussia, in favor of the Turkish sultan against the encroachments of the pacha of Egypt. :War between China and G. Britain, terminates to the advantage of the English. Fall of the Regent of Spain, Espartero. Petition for the annexation of Texas, laid before the Ameri- can Congress. Annexation of Texas. Mexican War Victories of the Americans at Monterey, Buena Vista, Churubusco, &c. Capture of Vera Cruz and Mexico. Peace between Mexico and tho United States. Great disturbances in Europe, especially in France, Italy, and Germany. France, a Republic. Signal victories of the Aus- trians in Italy and Hungary. Intervention in the affairs of Rome The factious con- quered by the French Re- storation of the Papal go- vernment. Return of Pope Pius IX. to Rome. I Wordsworth, poet C<>up d'etat of Louis Napoleon Taylor, general, and president o* the End of tho French republic. United States. War between the Russians and the Turks England and France declare against Rus- sia. Calhoun, statesman, 1850. TABLE OF THE AUTHORS AND WORKS, CHIEFLY USED IN THE COMPOSITION OF THIS HISTORY. ALEXANDER (NATALIS): Historia Ecck siastica, 8 vols. folio, Paris, 1699 ; the 6th and 7th vols. have been used. AN