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YALE UNIVERSITY
ART LIBRARY

MILITARY AND RELIGIOUS LIFE

THE MIDDLE AGES,

AND AT THH

PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE.

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ANNE OF BRITTANT QUEEN CF FRANCE, SURROUNDED BY HER PATRON SAINT?

of Anne of

MILITARY AND RELIGIOUS
LIFE IN
THE MIDDLE AGES

AND AT THE

PERIOD OF THE RENAISSANCE

By PAUL LACROIX
(Bibliophile Jacob)
CURATOR OF THE IMPERIAL LIBRARY OF THE ARSENAL, PARIS

iltastatJ-ei tttttlt
FOURTEEN CHROMOLITHOGRAPHIC PRINTS BY F. KELLERHOVEN,
REGAMEY, AND L. ALLARD
AND UPWARDS OF
FOUR HUNDRED ENGRAVINGS ON WOOD

NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND CO., BROADWAY
1874

LONDON :
PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO,,
CITY ROAD.

PREFACE.

ATELY we published the " Manners, Customs,
and Dress during the Middle Ages," a
necessary sequel to " The Arts of the
Middle Ages." To understand this im
portant period of our history, we must, as
was pointed out at the time, go back to the
very source of art, and study society itself
— the life of our forefathers. The volume
of " Manners and Customs " initiated our
readers into all the secrets of Civil Life;
the present work treats of the Mihtary and
Religious Life of the same period.
The subject is not wanting in grandeur, and we shall endeavour to throw
into relief the two parallel forces — namely, the military and the religious
life — which shaped the habits of the nation in the epoch of which our work
treats, i
The influence of these forces was immense. Society was made up of bar
barous nations and of the corrupt remnants of the heathen world. Conquerors
and conquered had nothing to put in common, with a view to forming a
new society, beyond their ruins and their vices. How was a state of
things, higher and better than that which had gone before, to be created
out of this shapeless mass ? "What principle of life was there powerful

vi PREFACE.

enough to evoke from amid this chaos modern Europe, with all its variety
of forces and of glory, its influence and authority over the rest of the world ?
Religious life, aided by military power, has brought about such a creation,
after all the misery and suffering preceding its birth. Gradually gaining
a hold upon society, and elevating its ideas as the tie became closer,
religious life endowed it with new manners, a new social life, a set of
institutions of which it before knew nothing, and a character which raised
it to a degree of moral grandeur which humanity had never as yet attained.
Christianity civilised the barbarians; by unity of faith, it established
political unity amongst peoples who were split up into hostile races — a
result which would only have been arrived at in former days by the
annihilation of nationalities, the dominion of Ihe sword, and the force of
oppression. History presents no spectacle more worthy of our attention
than the steady and deep operation of this new principle of life infused
into a society in a state of decay. This principle could only succeed
in remoulding and directing the world by first assimilating men as indi
viduals, and that amidst the excesses, the violence, and the disorders of
a barbarism which, even after the lapse of centuries, would not allow itself
to be crushed. But it was endowed with a persevering and indomitable
energy. Consider how it affected everything, how it enlisted into its service
all the forces which society from time to time placed at its disposal, or, to
speak more correctly, permitted it to create ! By means of the monastic
orders, how many necessary works did it not accomplish ? The soil was
transformed by cultivation ; bridges, dikes, and aqueducts were constructed
in every direction ; manuscripts were preserved in the monasteries ; educa
tion was given in numberless schools, where the poor were taught gra
tuitously ; the universities were made learned and prosperous ; architecture
was raised into a science ; beneficent institutions were established and liber
ally endowed.
"Christianity was the greatest benefactor of the Middle Ages," said
M. Benjamin Guerard ; "and what is most striking in the revolutions
which took place in these semi-barbarous times, is the action of the' Church
and of religion. The dogma of a common origin and destiny for all men

PREFACE. vii

•alike, was an unceasing argument for the emancipation of the people; it
brought together men of all stations, and opened the way for modern
civilisation. Men, though they did not cease to oppress one another, began
to recognise the fact that they were all members of the same family, and
were led, through religious equality, up to civil and political equality ;
being brothers in the sight of God, they became equal before the law, the
Christian became the citizen.
" This transformation took place gradually and slowly, as being necessary
and inevitable, by the continuous and simultaneous enfranchisement of men
and of land. The slave whom paganism, as it disappeared, handed over
to the Christian religion, passed first from a state of servitude to a state
of bondage, from bondage he rose to mortmain, and from mortmain to
liberty." Under the influence of the bishops, legislation was formed upon the
principles of Christian morality. In the great councils of the nation, and
in the royal councils, they gave a Christian direction to the government
of the country, and more than once preserved national unity from being
broken up. " The bishops," says Gibbon, " constructed the French
monarchy just as the bees construct the hive."
At the same time the popes were incessant in their efforts to convert
all the Christian peoples into one vast republic ; and they attained their pur
pose in a great measure. The idea was a sublime one, springing .so naturally
from the unity of the doctrines which all were required to profess. As early
as the twelfth century" the idea was thus enunciated by Tertullian in his
" Apologetica" — " "We remain strangers to your factions and to your parties.
. . . The republic of the human race is what we demand."
Such was the work of Christianity in that sooiety of the Middle Ages
of which it was the life and soul. It is necessary to follow it in the
accomplishment of this varied task, and, if we would thoroughly understand
it, we must consider it in itself, in its inward life, in its form of worship and
liturgy, in its monasteries, 'in its clergy, and in its different institutions, for
herein lay its means of action.
The military power placed itself, as a general rule, at the service of the

viii PREFACE.

Church, and it was thus that Christianity was enabled to complete its work.
Clovis, the conqueror of the Romans, the Germans, the Burgundians, and
the Yisigoths, was baptized at Rheims, and brought France within the
fold of the Church, just when a great number of the barbarians, the
new masters of the Roman empire, were embracing Arianism. In after-
days the Church, represented by the sword of Joan of Arc, was instrumental
in saving France and restoring her to herself. Between these two extreme
points of the history of the Middle Ages, Charlemagne, Godefroi de Bouillon,
St. Louis, the age of chivalry and the Crusades, prove to us that this com
bined action of military and religious life is a true exponent of the character
of France. But when we come to consider the ordinary condition of things
as they absolutely existed, we find it to be full of evils. Mihtary life
amongst the German people had produced feudalism, and with it a terrible
anarchy. Royalty was powerless. Authority had not, so to speak, any
centre ; it was cut up and subdivided throughout the nation. Private or
civil warfare became, by the mere force of things, legal for several cen
turies ; and disorder, violence, oppression, and tyranny followed as a
natural consequence. Military life, in all its manifestations, hampered
and counteracted the beneficent influence of Christianity, and served as
the last refuge of barbarism. The Church, however, managed to make
the principle of feudalism exercise a moderating influence upon its very
excesses, by the creation of chivalry, the noblest military institution which
the world has ever known. Chivalry represented the Christian form of
the profession of arms. The first duty was " to defend in this world the
weakness of all, but especially the weakness of the Church, of justice, and
of right." " Faia ce que dois, adviegne que peut,
Chest commands au chevalier." Ordinances of Chivalry.
It was, in fact, an armed force in the service of truth and justice, themselves
defenceless. It was at the same time a bright example, the influence of which
extended beyond the most brilliant of its exploits. Even this, however, was
not suflicient to check the evil and insatiable desire for fighting. Under the

PREFACE. ix

powerful impulse of the popes, the Crusades served to utilise this warlike
spirit, and acted as a diversion which saved Europe from the fury of its own
inhabitants and from the dominion of the Koran. Internal discords were
brought to an end, the Communes were enfranchised, feudal power decreased,
and the royal influence gained in strength, diminishing again during the long
crisis of the hundred years' war, and being once more reinstated by Joan of
Arc. Such was the part played by " Military Life in the Middle Ages."
The development of modern habits, however, is gradually to be traced.
The feudal army was replaced by mercenary troops. As military power
became concentrated within the hands of the sovereign, monarchy, in the
true sense of the term, succeeded to feudalism.
At the same time another and deeper movement was taking place in the
moral and religious order of things. A new spirit was convulsing the world.
The ideas and manners established in society by Christianity were destined to
undergo a change. After the capture of Constantinople, the Grecian savants
who had found a refuge in the courts of Italy inspired their "Western confreres
with such an affection for ancient literature, that everything which was old
came to be regarded with enthusiasm, while, as a natural consequence, every
thing which Christianity had produced was looked upon with contempt. The
faith in and the influence of the Church diminished, and individual reason
was tempted to throw off the yoke of all teaching authority. Printing, then
just invented, served to accelerate this mental revolution. The principle of
free examination was proclaimed by Luther, and one-half of "Western Europe
became Protestant. The tie, at once religious and pohtical, which held
Christian nationalities together was thus broken, and unity amongst people
who were divided in their religious doctrine became impossible. At the
same period the discovery of America and of a new route to the Indies lent
immense force to the development of material interests.
Thus we had the commencement of a complete reyolution. The world
entered upon new paths, along which it has continued to advance without
interruption to our own day.
This work derives a special interest from the circumstances amidst which
it is published. Ancient Europe has reached one of those solemn epochs

PREFACE.

of its history when, divided within itself and uncertain of the turn which
events may take, it finds itself face to face with the problem of its future
destiny, demanding an immediate solution. "What will that solution be?
The emotions of the present may incline us to look back regretfully upon
that past which reminds us of so much that is great and noble, in spite of
its many and inevitable drawbacks, and which, by showing us the origin of
modern society, by revealing to us the manner of its birth and its onward
progress, may give us the key to its present critical condition when a profound
and universal transformation seems about to take place.
It is superfluous to say anything about the chromolithographs and
engravings contained in this volume. They have been selected with the
same view that dictated the publication of those appearing in the two pre
vious volumes — a desire to produce a living image of the past. Each volume
forms a collection of archaeological treasures got together after the most
laborious research ; they are attractive to the eye, full of interest and in
struction, and we feel that our readers will have in them a complete museum
such as has not hitherto been within their reach.

PAUL LACROIX.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

FEUDALISM

Page 1

Origin.— Barbaric Laws.— Enfeoffment.— Charlemagne and the Church.— First Con
struction of Strongholds.— Vassal and Suzerain.— Feudal Rights.— The Truce of
God. — Feudal Churches and Abbeys. — Communal Principles.— New Townships. —
Origin of the French Bourgeoisie. — The English Magna Charta.— Alienation of
Fiefs.— Liberation of the Serfs.— Imperial Cities.— Feudal Rights of the Bishops.—
St. Louis. — "Wars between France and England.— ia Bulk a" Or.— The States-
General.— Origin of the Third Estate.
WAK AND ARMIES  38
The Invasions of the Barbarians. — Attila. — Theodoric seizes Italy.. — Organizations of
Military Fiefs.— Defences of Towns.— Totila and his Tactics.— The Military Genius of
Charlemagne. — Military Vassalage. — Communal Militia. — Earliest Standing Armies.
— Loss of Technical Tradition. — The Condottieri. — The Gendarmerie. — The Lances
Fournies. — Weakening of Feudal Military Obligations. — The French Army in the
Time of Louis XI. and his Successors. — Absence of Administrative Arrangement.—
Reforms. — Mercenary Troops. — Siege Operations and Engines.
NAVAL MATTERS  74
Old Traditions : "Long Vessels and Broad Vessels. — The Dromon. — The Galeasse. — The
Coque. — Caracks and Galleons.— Francis I.'s Great Carack. — Caravelles. — The Im
portance of a Fleet. — Hired Fleets. — Poop Guards. — Naval Laws.— Seaport Tribunals.
— Navigation in tbe open Seas. — The Bonssole. — Armament of Men-of-war. — Towers
and Ballistic Engines. — Artillery. — Naval Strategy. — Decorations and Magnificent
Appointments of Vessels. — Sails and Flags. — The Galley of Don Juan of Austria. —
Sailors' Superstitions. — Discipline and Punishments.
THE CRUSADES  104
Arab Conquest of the Holy Land. — Swarm of Pilgrims in the Year 1000. — Turkish In
vasion of Judea.— Persecution of the Christians. — Pope Silvester II. — Expedition of
the Pisans and the Genoese. — Peter the Hermit.— Letter from Simeon the Patriarch
to Pope Urban II. — First Crusade. — Expedition of " Gautier sans Avoir." — Godefroi
de Bouillon. — The Kingdom of Jerusalem. — Second Crusade. — St. Bernard. — Third
Crusade : Philip Augustus and Richard Ccsur-de-Lion. — Fourth Crusade.. — Fifth and
Sixth Crusades. — Louis IX. turns Crusader.— Seventh Crusade. — St. Louis taken
Prisoner. — Eighth and last Crusade. — Death of St. Louis. — Results of the Crusades.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page
CHIVALRY (Duels and Toubnaments)  136
Origin of Chivalry. — Its different Characteristics. — Chivalric Gallantry .— Chi vaby and
Nobility. — Its Relations with the Church.. — Education of the Children of the Nobility.
— Squires. — Chivalric Exercises. — Pursuivants-at-arms. — Courts and Tribunals of
Love — Creation of Knights: — Degradation of Knights. — Judicial Duels.— Trials by
Ordeal. — Feudal Champions. — Gages of Battle. — The Church forbids Duels. — Tour
naments invented by tbe Sire de Preuilly in the Tenth Century. — Arms used in a
Tournament. — Tilt. — Lists.— The part taken by Ladies. — King Rene's Book.

MILITARY ORDERS  172
Pierre Gerard founds the Order of St. John of Jerusalem ; History of that Order. — The
Siege of Rhodes.— History of the Order of the .Knights Templars. — Order of the
Knights of Calatrava.— Order of the Teuton Knights.— Order of the Knights of
the Golden Fleece. — Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus. — Orders of the Star, of
the Cosse de Geneste, of the Ship, of St. Michael, and of the Holy Ghost.

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES  203
Prayer. — Liturgy of St. James, of St. Basil, and of St. John Chrysostom. — Apostolical
Constitutions. — The Sacrifice of the Mass. — Administration of Baptism. — Canonical
Penances. — Plan and Arrangement of Churches. — Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. — The
Ceremony of Ordination. — Church Bells. — The Tocsin. — The Poetry of Gothic
Churches. — Breviary and Missal of Pius V. — Ceremonies used at the Seven Sacra
ments. — Excommunication. — The Bull In Ciena Domini. — Processions and Mystery
- Plays at the Easter Solemnities. — Instrument of Peace. — Consecrated Bread. — The
Pyx.— The Dove.
THE POPES  245
Influence of the Papacy in the Reformation of Early Society. — St. Leo the Great. — Origin
of the Temporal Power of the Popes — Gregory the Great. — The Iconoclastic Em
perors. — Stephen III. delivered by France. — Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the
West.— Photius.— The Diet of Worms.— Gregory VII. ; his Plan for a Christian
Republic. — Urban IL— The Crusades.— Calixtus II. ; Termination of the Dispute as
to Investiture. — Innocent III — Struggle of Boniface VIII. against Philippe le Bel. —
The Great Western Schism. — Council of Florence. — Battle of Lepanto. — Council of
Trent.
THE SECULAR CLERGY  274
The Minor and the Major Orders in the Early Centuries of the Church.— Establishment
of Tithes originally voluntary, and afterwards obligatory.— Influence of the Bishops.
—Supremacy of the See of Rome — Form of Episcopal Oath in the Early Centuries.—
Reform of Abuses by the Councils.— Remarkable Sayings of Charlemagne and Hinc-
mar.— Public Education created by the Church.— The Establishment of'the Communes
favoured by the Bishops.— The Beaumont Law.— Struggle with the Bourgeoisie in the
Fifteenth Century.— The Council of Trent  Institution of Seminaries.

TABLE OF CONTENTS. xm
Page
THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS  299
The First Monks. — St. Anthony and his Disciples. — St. Pach.om.ius and St. Athanasius. —
St. Eusebius and St. Basilius. — Cenobitism in the East and in the West. — St. Benedict
and the Benedictine Code.—Monkish Dress. — St. Columba. — List of the Monasteries
in Charlemagne's Time. — Services rendered by the Monks to Civilisation, Arts, and
Letters. — Reform of the Religious Orders in the Twelfth Century. — St. Norbert. —
St. Bernard. — St. Dominic.— St. Francis of Assisi.— The Carmelites. — The Bernar-
dines. — The Barnabites. — The Jesuits.

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS  339
. Christian Charity in the First Centuries of the Church. — The Eastern Empresses. — The
Holy Roman Ladies. — Olympiade, Melanie, Marcella, and Paula. — Charity at the
Court of the Franks. — St. Margaret of Scotland and Matilda of England. — Hedwige
of Poland. — Origin of the Lazar-houses. — The Lazarists in France and in England. —
Progress and Vicissitudes of the Order of St. Lazarus. — The Foundations of St. Louis.
— The Order of Mercy founded by St. Nolasc-ue.— St. Catherine of Sienna and
St. Francis. — Bernardin Ohregon. — Jean de Dieu. — Philippe de Neri.— Antoine Yvan.

PILGRIMAGES . •  862
The first Pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome.— The Worship of the Martyrs.— Pilgrims'
Hospitals. — Images of the Virgin Mary. — Relics brought from the East by the
Crusaders. — Celebrated Pilgrimages of Early Days. — The, Roman Basilicas.—
St. Nicholas de Bari— Notre-Dame de Tersatz.— St. Jacques de Compostella —
Notre-Dame du Puy, de Liesse, de Chartres, de Rocamadour.— Pilgrimages in
France, Germany, Poland, Russia, and Switzerland.

HERESIES

394

The real Meaning of the word Seresy — The Heretics'of the Apostolic Days.— Simon the
Magician— Cerinthus— The Nicolaitans.— The Gnostics.— The Schools of Philosophy
of Byzantium, Antioch, and Alexandria.— Julian the Apostate.— The Pelagians and
the semi-Pelagians.— Nestorius.— Eutyches.— The Iconoclasts.— Amaury.— Gilbert de
la Porree— Abelard.— Arnold of Brescia.— The Albigenses — The Waldenses.— The
Flagellants.— Wickliff.— John Huss— Jerome of Prague.— Luther.— Henry VIII.
and the Anglican Church. — Calvin.

<i?l

THE INQUISITION 
General Principles of the Inquisition ; its Existence amongst the Greeks and Romans.—
The Papal Inquisition.-The Inquisition in France.— The Albigenses.— The Royal
Spanish Inquisition; its Political Purposes; it is opposed by the Popes.-Inquisitors
of Toledo excommunicated by Leo X.-The Holy Hermandad.-The Spies of the
Inquisition.— The Holy Office and the Supreme.-The Prisons of the Inquisition.-
The Auto-da-fe.— The Inquisition in the Netherlands.— The Protestant Inquisition in
Holland, Germany, France, England, and Switzerland.
C

423

xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS.
Page
BURIALS AND FUNERAL CEREMONIES  447
Embalming and Incineration of Bodies amongst the Ancients. — Interment brought
into practice by Christianity. — The Wrapping of the Dead in Shrouds. — The
Direction in which the Bodies were laid. — Absolution Crosses. — Funeral Furniture. —
Coffins and Sarcophagi in the Middle Ages. — Funereal Sculpture and Architecture,
from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. — The Catacombs at Rome. — Charnel-
houses in the Churches. — Public Cemeteries. — The Cemetery of the Innocents, Paris.
— Lanterns for the Dead. — Funerals of the Kings and Queens of France. — The Rolls
of the Dead. — Consoling Thought of the Resurrection and of Eternal Life.

TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

I. CHROMOLITHOGRAPHS.

P**'6 _ To face page
1. Anne of Brittany, Queen of France,
surrounded by her Patron Saints. —
Miniature from the "Livre des
Heures " of Anne of Brittany. End
of the Fifteenth Century Frontispiece
2. Chateau Life : the Promenade. — Minia
ture from the Breviary of Cardinal
Grimani, assigned to Memling. St.
Mark's Library, Venice. Fifteenth
Century  16
3. Trial of Jean, Due d'Alencon. — Minia
ture by Jehan Foucquet. Fifteenth
Century  24
4. Arrival of Joan of Arc at the Chateau
de Chinon, March 6, 1428. — German
Tapestry of the Period. Orleans
Museum  56
5. Charles, Duke of Burgundy, sur
rounded by his Barons. — Miniature
from the "Abridged Chronicles of
Burgundy,'' a Manuscript of the
Fifteenth Century  68
6. Knights of the Holy Ghost embarking
for the Crusades. — After a Miniature
from a Manusoript of the Fourteenth
Century, in the Louvre  122

Plate To face page
7. The Tournament Prize. — Miniature
from the " Tournaments of King
Ren6," a Manuscript of the Fifteenth
Century  168
8. Bethlehem and the ShepherdB. — Minia
ture by Jean Foucquet, from the
" Heures de Maistre Estienne Cheva
lier." Fifteenth Century  204
9. Two Knights holding an Argument
about the Immaculate Conception.—
Miniature of the Sixteenth Century 272
10. Procession of King Rene at Aix (Pro
vence).. — Miniature from the "Bre
viary of King ReneV' Fifteenth
Century  294
11. The Angels presenting to God the Souls
of the Elect. — Miniature from the
Breviary of Cardinal Grimani. Fif
teenth Century  336
12. The Fortress of Faith. — Miniature of
the Fifteenth Century  408
13. The Triumph of Death.— Fresco by Or-
cagna, in the Cloisters of the Campo-
Santo at Pisa. Fourteenth Century 456
14. The Elect. — Fragment of Angelico's
Picture, " Tha.Day of Judgment."
Fifteenth Century  500

II. ENGRAVINGS.

Abbatial Ring and Cross of St. Waudru . . 312
Abbey of Saint-Germain des Pr6s, View of
the, in 1361  13
Abbey of Saint-Germain des Pres, North
View of the, Seventeenth Century.'  320
Abbey of St. Riquier, The, near Abbeville 311
Abbey-Church of the Magdalen, at Vezelai 120

Absolution Crosses of the Eleventh Century 453
Act of Faith and Homage, Thirteenth Cen
tury  8
Adoration of the Lamb, The  502
„ Magi, The  241
Altar of the Cathedral of Arras, Thirteenth
Century  243

XVI

ENGRA VINGS.

Page
Altar-piece at Mareuil-en-Brie  218, 219
Amaury's Disciples burnt by order of Philip
Augustus  404
Angels praying over a Skull, Fourteenth
Century  ; . . . . 298
Anne of Brittany, Funeral Service of .... 495
Antilles, Discovery of the, by Columbus . . 92
Antioch, Plan of, in the Thirteenth Century 130
Antwerp, View of the Port of  87
Arming a Knight  143
Armogenes, the Magician  383
Arquebusier of the Sixteenth Century .... 61
Artois, The Count of, presenting himself at
the Castle of the Count of Boulogne .... 149
Artus, King, fighting a Giant  137
Assault on a Fortified Place  135
" Au -juste poids veritable balance "  391
Auto-da-fe Procession, in Spain  436
Babylon the Great  396
Ballista  73
Banner of St. Denis, Representations of
the  60
Banner of the City of Strasburg, Thirteenth
Century  386
Banner of a Flemish -Lazaretto  353
Baptism of the Saxons conquered by Charle
magne  213
Barbarian (Mounted) in the Roman Service 4
Basilius the Great, Dream of  400
Battering-ram  71
Battle of Auray, The  54
Dreux, The  62
„ Lepanto, Plan of the  96
„ Tolbiac, The  2
Beacon in the Cemetery of Antigny, Fif
teenth Century  486
Beacon in the Cemetery of Ciron, Twelfth
Century  486
Beacon in the Cemetery of Feniou, Eleventh
Century  486
Beatrix Cornel, Tomb of  182
Beguin  329
„ Convent at Ghent, The Great .... 328
Beheaded Knight holding his Head in his
Hands  467
Bucentaure, The  77
Bull with which Boniface VIII. sealed his
Letters  ;  273
Burial among the Franks, Mode of  451
Caltrop, or Crow's-foot  66
Calvin, John  419
Caricature of the Third Century  206
Castle of AngoulSme, Thirteenth Century^ . 6
„ Loches, Doorways of the Old  37
„ Pierrefonds, View overlooking the 11
Catapult  72

Page
Celebration of Mass, The, in an Oratory,
Ninth Century  277
Celtic Burial  ,  451
Champion of the Tournament, The  166
Chandelier of the Virgin  217
Chanter or Psalmist, The, Minor Order . . 274
Chapel of Pilgrimage, Thanksgiving in a . . 384
Chaplet of Beads in Carved Ivory, and
Girdle, Sixteenth Century  330
Charlemagne, Statute of, Eleventh Century 5
Charles the Bold, Great Se^l of, Fifteenth
Century  55
Charles VI. fulfilling his Vow to Our Lady
of Hope  388
Charter of William the White-handed,
Commencement of the  295
Chasuble, Mitre, and Stole of St. Thomas a
Becket, Cloth and Embroidery of the
Twelfth Century  225
CMteau de la Panouze (Aveyron), Feudal
Castle of the Twelfth Century  10
Chivalry, Allegorical Figures representing 140
Choir Candelabrum, Foot of a large, Thir
teenth Century  .-  216
Christ descending into Hell  498
„ risen from the Dead  504
„ victorious over Death, Eighth or
Ninth Century  449
Christian Professor on his Deathbed, The . . 497
„ Religion, The, assisting at the
Death of Christ  247
Church of St. Antony, Padua  216
„ the Holy Sepulchre, Facade of
the  106
Clergy going in Procession before the
Emperor, Fourth Century  318
Cloister of the Chartreuse, at Pavia ...... 322
Clovis, Baptism of  2
Coffer containing the Hair-cloths of St.
Louis, Thirteenth Century  371
Concordat of Cambrai, Title of the (1466) 296
Conferring Knighthood on the Field of
Battle  141
Consecration of St. Remigius, Bishop of
Rheims  283
Constantinople, Second taking of, in 1204 . . 123
Coque, The  79
Coronation of an Emperor by the Pope,
Sixteenth Century  .'. 256
Cosmas and Damianus relieving a Sick Man 343
Council held to commemorate the Second
Council of Nice, Tenth Century.  249
Council of Vienne  190
Cross of the Bureau Family  476
Crown of Thorns, The, brought into France 375
» ,, „ worn by Jesus Christ 393
Cruelties committed by the Gueux  440
Cruet, silver-gilt, First or Second Century 208

ENGRA VINGS.

xvii

Page
Crusaders at Damietta, Disembarkation of
the  „  126
Crypt of the Chapel of St. Agnes, in the
Catacombs at Rome  474
Daggers with Moorish Blades and Flemish
Handles ,  45-
Dalmatio said to have belonged to Leo III. 255
Dance of Death, The  478—483
' Death of St. Benedict  496
„ Mahomet II  178
Dedication of the Church of the Monastery
of St. Martin des Champs, Paris  321
Degradation of a Knight  ,  154
Designs of Armour  170
Distribution of Banners and Helmets .... 164
Diver, The  91
Don Juan of Austria  133
Doorkeeper, The, Minor Order  275
Doria, Andrew  88
Dove suspended above the Altar, Thirteenth
Century  244
Dresses worn by Prisoners of the Inquisition 437
Duel concerning the Honour of Ladies .... 157
Earthen Vases found at Florence in'1863 . , 187
Ecclesiastical Tonsure, The  279
Edward the Confessor, Funeral pf  490
Entry of Louis VIII. and the Pope's Legate
into Avignon  ~.  406
Eudes, Bishop, frpm the Bayeux Tapestry 47
Excesses committed by the Huguenots,
Allegorical Picture of the  415
Exorcism of a Catecbumen, Fourth or Fifth
Century  212
Exorcismof a PerBonpossessed with a Demon 414
Exorcist, The, Minor.Order  275
Farel, William  420
Ferrand of Portugal, Count of Flanders,
being taken to Paris  22
Fight between Raymbault de Morueil and
Guyon de Losenne  156
Flemish Warrior, from the Ruins of St.
Bavon, Ghent  ,  26
Fortified Bridge of Leinantano, near Rome,
Twelfth Century  .'  33
Fortified Bridge from Valentre to Cahors . . 18
Fortified City of Carcassonne, Plan of the,
Thirteenth Century  ,  18
Fortress of the Knights Hospitallers, in
Syria  174
French Caravel, Sixteenth Century  84
„ Priory at Rhodes, Fifteenth Century 181
Fresco in the Cemetery of St. Pretextat . . 475
Funeral Service, Fourteenth Century . , . , 453
Funereal Lamps found in the Catacombs,
Third Century  276,424

Galley of the Sixteenth Century  78
„ Slave  90
„ Soldier  90
Gallic or Gallo-Roman Pottery  455
Gallo-Roman Lords of the Fourth Century 3
Gate of the Town of Aigues-Mortes  17
Gautier-sans-Avoir, Reception of, by the
King of Hungary  1 15
German Foot-soldiers fighting, Sixteenth
Century  57
German and Gallic Auxiliaries, Second
Century  40
German Knight, Fifteenth Century  147
Godefroy de Bouillon, crowned with the In
struments of our Lord's Passion  117
Godefroy de Bouillon, Tomb of  118
Golden Fleece, Chapter of the Order of the 197
Great Hospital at Milan  357
Greek Panagia  370
Gregory IX. handing the Decretals to an
Advocate of the Consistory (1227—1241) 266
Handbell, Romanesque perforated, Twelfth
Century  .*  227
Harold, King, Finding the Body of  48
Harvest of Souls, The, Twelfth Century .. 450
Henry of Anjou, Coronation of, as King of
Poland  29L
Henry I., Emperor of Germany, _and one of
his Generals _  368
Henry II. wounded by Montgomery in a
Tournament  169
Herald holding the. Banners of the Referees 164
Heresy of the Flagellants  407
Hincmar, Bas-relief on the Tomb of  289
Holy Bit of Carpentras  376
Hospitality, Fifteenth Century  340
Huguenots against the Catholics, Violence .
ofthe  421
Hubs, John  412
Italian Warriors of the Fifteenth Century 58
Jerome of Prague  412
Jewish Religion, The, assisting at the Death ¦
of Christ  '  246
King-at-arms proclaiming a Tournament. . 163
Khife for cutting Consecrated Bread  242
Knight in Complete Armour, Sixteenth
Century  ,  61
Knight setting out for the War  160
Knight of Death, The  476
„ Malta . .  185
, , the Order of the Holy Sepulchre 173
„ Rhodes  173
Knights of the Order of the Holy Ghost
from Pure Intent  358

ENGRA VINGS.

Page
Knights awaiting from the Marshal the
Signal to commence the Fight  159
Knights of Rhodes, Barracks of the  180
Knox, John  416
Last Supper, The, Eleventh Century  209
Legend of Christmas, Fifteenth Century . . 221
„ St. Martin, The, Tapestry of the
Thirteenth Century  281
Legend of the Passage of the Viaticum
across a Bridge at Utrecht  235
Luther, Martin  418
Machine to break the Ranks of the Enemy 70
„ shoot Arrows  70
Man-at-arms, The  51, 91
Man-of-war, Henry VIII.'s time  80
„ of the Sixteenth Century .... 101
Margaret of York, wife of Charles the
Bold  359
Maria de Molina, Queen of Castillo, handing
to the Cistercian Nuns the Charter of
Foundation for their Convent  332
Mary Magdalene, Removal of the Body of,
to the Church of St. Vezelay (Yonne),
Fifteenth Century  387
Massacre of St. Bartholomew, The  416
Maximilian of Austria, with his Wife and
Son  36
Members of the Dominican Order, The
most famous  331
Messenger bringing a Letter to the King's
Army  52
Messengers of the Sultan discussing with
Christian Prisoners  129
Military Costumes from the Sixth] to the
Tenth Centuries  42
Miraculous Mass of St. Gregory the Great,
' Sixth Century  210
Monograms of Christ  205
Mons, Mauberge, and Nivelles, Foundation
of the Abbeys of  316
Montefrio, Surrender of the Town of  193
Moorish Arms (Armeria Real, Madrid) . , . . 44
Mortars or Movable Carriages  65
Mortuary Cloth from the Church of Folle-
ville (Somme)  491
Mortuary Roll of Vital, Founder of the
Abbey of Savigny  ** 499
Mosque at Cordova, Interior of the; Eighth
Century  434
Mourning Costumes  493
Mystic Fountain, The, Eighth Century . . 223
Nail used in the Crucifixion of bur Lord . . 376
Nangasaki, The Great Martyrdom of (1622) 336
Nicsea, taking of, by the Crusaders  116
Norman Vessel, Eleventh Century  76

Offering a Child to an Abbot, Thirteenth
Century  313
Orphan of the Venice Hospitals, Sixteenth
Century  356
Orthodoxy surrounded by theSnaresof Heresy 398
Our Lady of Boulogne  390
„ Grace, Miraculous Image ot^
at Cambria  389
Our Lady of Grace sheltering the Grand
Masters of the Order of Montessa  192
Our Lady of Mountserrat, Sixteenth Century 381
„ Vladimir, Miraculous Image of 370
Painting symbolical of the Catacombs of
Rome, First or Second Century . . ...... 207
Pentecost  240
Peter the Hermit delivering a Message to
Pope Urban II  112
Philip Augustus, Consecration of  290
Philip the Bold in Royal Costume  24
Philip IL, King of Spain  439
„ „ „ Mausoleum of . . . . 470
Pilgrims of Emmaus, The  374
Plaintiff and Defendant taking Oath before
the Judge, Fifteenth Century  158
Pontifical Galley  98
Poop of an Ancient Galley  75
Portrait of Countess Matilda  260
Prester-John and his Page  109
Priory of the Benedictines, Canterbury,
Twelfth Century  314
Prize of the Tournament, The  168
Procession of the Host  238
„ Knights of the Order of
the Holy Ghost  200
Prows of Galleys armed with the Spur  95
Punishments decreed by Henry VIII.
against the Catholics  443
Quintain, The Game of  145
Raised Stone, near Poitiers  459
Reapers of Death, The  62
Reception of a Knight of the Order of St.
Michael  199
Refectory in the Priory of St. Martin des
Champs, Thirteenth Century  326
Relics of St. Philip, Touching the  378
Reliquary in chased Copper, Thirteenth
Century  ,  372
Reliquary of the Holy Thorn, Thirteenth
Century  ,  325
Remier, Count, bearing the Body of St,
Yeroriica to the Church of St. Waudru,
in Mons  ,  366
Rhodes, Plan of, Fifteenth Century ..,,.. 176
Richard Coeur-de-Lion mortally wounded
while besieging the Castle of Chalus .... 50

ENGRA VINGS.

xix

Page
Robert I., Duke of Normandy, on his Pil
grimage to Jerusalem  373
Robing a Bishop, The Ceremony of, Four
teenth -Century  285
Rodolph of Hapsburg, Emperor of Germany,
Equestrian Statue of  35
Rolling Tower for scaling the walls of towns 66
Sabbat, The  410
Sacrament of the Eucharist, The  234
Sacramental Cup, Twelfth Century  233
Sancha de Roxas  195
Seal of the Abbey of Si. Denis  317
„ . „ Commune of Soissons f . . .,  lfi
,, Conon de Bethune, Twelfth Century 7
„ Edward, Count of Rutland  • . 99
„ Gerard de Saint-Amand, Twelfth
Century  9
Seal of an Imaginary Bull of Lucifer, Fif
teenth Century  422
Seal of John, Bishop of Puy and .Count of
Velay (1305)  28
Seal of John sans Peur, Duke of Burgundy 31
„ the Knights of Christ, Thirteenth
Century  189
Seal of La Rochelle  103
„ the Lord of Corbeil (1196)  20
„ the Monastery of St. Louis of Poissy 338
„ the Town of Boston  94
„ Dover  85
„ „ Poole ..".  93
„ „ Sandwich  89
„ „ Yarmouth  86
Servetus,-Michael  "  445
Seven Christian Virtues, The, with their
Symbols  355
Shield presented to Don Juan of Austria by
PiusV  271
Ship of Baptism, The, Sixteenth Century. . 232
Siege of Toulouse, Episode in the  404
„ a Town: Summons to surrender. . 67
Single Combat to be decided by the Judg
ment of God  161
Sitting of the Council of Trent, 1555 .... 270
Sixtus II. handing to St. Laurentius the
Treasures of the Church to be distributed
among the Poor  341
Soldier of the Time of Philippe le Bel . . . . 61
Soldiers of the German Bands  64
Solemn Entry of the Emperor Charles V.
and Pope Clement VII. into Bologna, in
1529  268, 269
Solemn Procession for the Relief of the Town
ofDijon  239
Solemn Reception of a Bishop, Fifteenth
Century  286
Sovereign Pontiff, Public and Solemn Func
tions of the, Seventeenth Century  264

Spanish Caravel in which Columbus dis
covered America  83
Spanish Ship, Fifteenth Century  81
Spiritual and Temporal Powers, The, de
pendent upon Christ . . . .'  248
St. Anthony of Padua commanding a Mule
to adore the Eucharist  334
St. Anthony, a Statuette of the Third Cen
tury  301
St. Barbara  364
St. Benedict, History of  305, 307
„ " reproaching Totila, Fresco of
the Thirteenth Century  43
St. Bernard taking possession of the Abbey
of Clairvaux  327
St. Cecilia, and Valerian, her Spouse .... 425
St. Cesarius, Obsequies of  489
St. Denis carrying his head to the place of
burial  362
St. Dominic and the Albigenses  429
St. Elizabeth of Hungary, Fifteenth Cen
tury  348
St. George and the Dragon  ,., 202
St. Jean des Vigne's, Abbey of Regular
Canons at Soissons (1076)  323
St. Jerome in the Desert  .,. . 302
St. John of Capistran  132
St. Louis and his Brothers made Prisoners
by the Saracens . . . . ,  128
St. Louis at Carthage, Disembarkation of. . 131
„ serving a Repast to the Poor .... 351
St. Michael the Archangel offering the
Symbol of the Imperial Power to a Byzan
tine Emperor "  251
St. Peter  248
St. Radegonde receiving the Religious Garb
from the Bishop of Noyon  309
St. Savin and St. Cyprian before Maximus 426
„ „ Martyrdom of. . 427
St. Theresa  .'  336
St. Thomas defending the Monastic Orders,
Fourteenth Century  * 332
St. Vincent de Paul  360
St. Wulfram, Bishop of Sens  287
State Gloves formerly in the possession of
LouisXIII  201
Stone Coffins  457
Sufferers from St. Vitus' Dance going on a
Pilgrimage  392
* Superscription upon Our Lord's Cross .... 377
Surrender of the Garrison of a Town .... 68
Sword of Isabella the Catholic  139
Symbols of the Trinity  ,  204
Synagogue of Toledo, The Great, Third
Century  432
Templar in Travelling Dress  185
Teutonic Knight  196

ENGRA VINGS.

Thomas of Savoy granting a Charter to the
Town of Cambrai  16
Three-masted Galley, Sixteenth Century . . 82
Three Sacraments : Baptism, Confirmation,
and Penance  231
Three Sacraments: Marriage, Orders, and
Extreme Unction  236
Tomb, Gallo-Roman  452
„ of Adelaide or Alice, Countess of
Hainault  462
Tomb of Alexander de Berneval, Architect
of the Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen . . 472
Tomb of Du Guesclin  464
„ St. Elizabeth of Hungary  461
„ Louis, Duke of Orleans, and Valen
tine of Milan, his Wife  468
Tomb of Philip Pot, Grand SeDeschal of
Burgundy  466
Tomb of St. Remigius  469
„ Sibylle, Wife of Guy de Lusignan 471
Torments of Hell, The  485
Tortures inflicted by the Catholics upon the
Huguenots in the South of France  442
Tour du Telegraphe, Narbonne, Fourteenth
Century  6
Tower of Beaucaire, Thirteenth Century. . 6
„ the Castle of Fougeres, Twelfth
Century  6
Tower of the Castle of Loches, Twelfth
Century  ;  6

Page
Tower of Notre-Dame des Bois, Eleventh
Century  487
Tower of the Wall of Provins, Twelfth
' Century  6
Treaty of Arras, Conclusion of the, in
1191  293
Tree of Battles, The  29
Triumph of Christ, The, Seventeenth Century 272
„ the Lamb, The, Twelfth Century 229
Triumphal Vessel drawn in a Car -at the
Funeral Ceremony of the Emperor
Charles V  492
Turreted Vessel that protected the Port of
Venice  77
Tympan in the Portico of tbe Church of
Semur, Eleventh Century  345
Urban II. presiding over the Council of
Clermont, in 1095  262
Virgin of St. Luke, The so-called .".  369
War Trophy of Barbarian Prisoners,
Second Century  "  39
Watch-tower, Fifteenth Century  69
Wickliff, John  409
Works of Charity, Fifteenth Century .... 346
Zizim transferred to Charles VU.1  178
Zwingle, Ulrich  416

MILITARY AND EBLIGIOUS LIFE

THE MIDDLE AGES,

AND AT THE

PEEIOD OE THE KENAISSANCE.

FEUDALISM.
Origin. — Barbaric Laws. — Enfeoffment. — Charlemagne and the Church.— First Construction of
Strongholds, — Vassal and Suzerain. — Feudal Rights.— The Truce of God.— Feudal Churches
and Abbeys, — Communal Principles. — New Townships.— Origin of the French Bourgeoisie.—
The English Magna Charta. — Alienation of Fiefs. — Liberation of the Serfs. — Imperial Cities. —
Feudal Rights of the Bishops. — St. Louis. — Wars between France and England. — The Bu 11
a" Or. — The States-General. — Origin of the Third Estate.

^^^^^^^ff^^^^S. EFORE presenting any manifestation of its exis
tence, feudalism had long been gradually
developing, and seemed to be moving forward
invisibly at the head of the barbarian con
querors of Roman Gaul. From the day that
their great leader, Clovis, shared amongst his
Jeudes, or companions-in-arms, the lands that
they had won at the price^of their blood while
fighting under his orders — from the day when,
by his miraculous baptism after the victory of
Tolbiac (Fig. 1), he himself a proud Sicamber,
submitted himself to and became a vassal of
the Christian Church, simultaneously sprang into existence a theocratic
and a martial aristocracy. In this simultaneous double origin might
have already been perceived the hidden cause of the future inevitable
antagonism between the moral influence of the cross and the material power
B

FEUDALISM.

of the sword. Conspiracies, bloodthirsty executions, continual revolts, divers
plots, in which were concerned at one time the king's leudes, at another the
principal clergy ; ecclesiastical censures, ceaselessly threatening these blind and
savage tyrants, who, while bending to the reproof, at the same time panted for

Fig. 1.— Battle of Tolbiac and Baptism of King Clovis.— Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the " Mirouer
Historial'de France," in folio, printed in Paris by GaUiot du Pre in 1516.
revenge ; curbless ambitions, terrible hatreds, the continued strife of opposing
races ; on one side the Gallo-Romanic (Figs. 2 and 3) and its heir the Gothic,
on' the other the barbarous Germanic and Slavonian, more or less christianized;
all these were the endless signs by which the coming reign of feudalism, at
each successive stage of modern civilisation, marked its advent. The political

FEUDALISM.

system which a barbarous legal code had inaugurated for the benefit of the
leudes, was entirely opposed to the system sanctioned by the Roman law. It
was the desire of the leudes that a seignior, the owner of the land and of the
men who cultivated it, should possess the right of infeudalising, that is to say, of
ceding, as an inferior freehold, a certain portion of his own estate, abandoning
in so doing to the concessionary or vassal not only the rights of the soil, but
the sovereignty over those who occupied it. For a vassal to forfeit his rights,
he must first have failed to fulfil the engagements he undertook when he

Fig. 2.— Gallo-Roman Lords of the Fourth Century.— Sculpture from the Tomb of the Gallic
Consul Jovinus, General under the Emperor Julian, a*t Rheims.
received the investiture of the fief. ,The cession of lamds and the rights
attached to it, which were the foundation of dawning feudalism, remained
for more than a century in that state of oscillation which precedes a stable
i ...
equilibrium. Master of France, of Germany, and of Italy, and protector of the Church,
Charlemagne (Fig. 4) enjoyed all the prerogatives of the Western emperors.
On two occasions he delivered the Holy Seat from its enemies, and in Ger
many as well as in Italy he placed his sword at the service of the Christian
faith. One of the popes, Adrian, bestowed upon him the dignity of patron ;

FEUDALISM*

another, Adrian's successor, Leo III., placed, in the year 800, the imperial
crown upon his head. Then might have been seen, better than in the days
of the Roman and Greek Emperors, the spectacle of the Church protected
by the head of the State, to whom the seignorial aristocracy paid feudal
obedience, and who controlled with an iron hand their tendencies to schism*
Feudalism, which was gathering strength, and which already knew its own
power, never retrograded ; it sometimes halted and was at rest, but it was
only waiting a more propitious season to continue its path. Charlemagne's
successors were, in fact, neither the kings of France nor the emperors of
Germany, but the feudal lords, the great landowners ; and their power waxed
all the greater from the fact that, in 853, an edict of Charles the Bald ordered

Fig. 3. — Mounted Barbarian in the Roman Service. — From an Antique Monument.

the reconstruction of the ancient manors, the repair of their fortifications,
and the construction of new ones, so as to arrest the devastating invasions
of the Normans, of the Saracens, of the Hungarians, and of the Danes. Thus
Europe became dotted with fortresses, behind which both nobles and villains
found a refuge against the new flood of barbarians. There was soon scarcely
a stream, a mountain-pass, or an important road which was left undefended
either by military posts or by strong walls (Figs. 5 to 10). The invaders,
formerly rendered so bold and so indomitable by the fear they had succeeded
in inspiring, now ceased their raids, or at most ventured no farther than the
shores on which they had disembarked. Little by little a sense of security
returned to the inhabitants, and the welfare of the civilised world was
assured. A service of this importance, rendered by the nobles and seigniors

FEUDALISM.

to society at large, naturally gave them legitimate claims to the exclusive
guardianship of the frontiers which they protected from the common enemy.
Towards the tenth century, every
noble who desired to obtain from
another noble, richer or more power
ful than himself, a portion of land to
be held as a fief, and who consented
thus to become his vassal, personally
declared in the chief's presence that for
the future he wished to be his faithful,
devoted servant and his defender until
death ; with his sword girded to his side
and his spurs on his heels, he solemnly
swore this on the Holy Writ. In the
subsequent ceremony of hommage-lige
the vassal, bareheaded, knelt on one
knee, and, placing his hands within
those of his seignior, swore fealty to
him, and undertook to follow him to
the wars (Figs. 11 and 12), an obli
gation not entailed by the first act
of homage, namely, that of hommage-
simple. Thenceforward the seignior
ceded, to him the land or the feudal
domain, by investiture or by seizin, a
ceremony often accompanied by the
giving of a symbolical sign, such as a
clod of earth, a little stick, or a stone,
according to the custom of the soil.

The investiture of kingdoms Was COn- . ^S- 4.— Statue of Charlemagne (formerly in
e Church of Saint- Julien-le-Pa
Eleventh to Twelfth Century*

.. ii,, i ii i /¦ the Church of Saint- Julien-le-Pauvre, Paris)
ferred with the sword, that ol provinces __

with a standard.
The reciprocal obligations of the vassal and his suzerain were numerous,
some moral, some material. The vassal was bound to loyally preserve the
secrets confided to him by his suzerain (Fig. 13), to prevent and frustrate any
treachery on the part of his enemies, to defend him at the risk of his own life,

FEUDALISM.

- *c^r jJ^.sL-^'.-.iiiftSSWr-'.

¦Fig.5.— Towerof theWallsof Fig. 6.— Tower ofthe Castle of Fig. 7.— Tower of the Castle of
Provins, Twelfth Century. Fougeres, Twelfth Century. Loches, Twelfth Century.
to resign his own horse on the battle-field should his lord have lost his, to go
as a prisoner in his stead, to cause his honour to be respected, and to assist him

Fig. 8. — Tower of Beaucaire,
Thirteenth Century.

Fig. 9. — Tour du Telegraphe, Fig. 10. — Old Castle of Angou-
Narbonne, Fourteenth Century. leme, Thirteenth Century.

with his advice. At the simple request of the suzerain, the vassal was bound to
follow him to the field, either alone or accompanied with a specified number of

FEUDALISM.

armed men, according to the importance of the fief. The duration of this
military service varied, in like manner, in proportion to the fief, from twenty
to sixty days — a period that did not admit of very distant expeditions. The
feudal seignior stood in place of the sovereign, and being invested with execu
tive authority, had necessarily, in order to exercise it, recourse to the latent
force distributed amongst his vassals, and he naturally did so in accordance
with his own convenience. Justice, administered in this manner, was termed
fiance^ that is to say, public security. The seignior was wont to summon the
men of his fief or fiefs to his plaids, or assizes, either for the purpose of assist-

Fig. 11.— Act of Faith and Homage, Twelfth Century.— Seal of Conon de Bethune, preserved'in
the National Archives of France.
ing him with their advice, to act with him . as judges, or to carry out the
sentences he pronounced. He had a right to two kinds of assistance —
obligatory, or legal aids, and voluntary, or gracious aids. * Legal aids were due
from the vassal under three sets of circumstances : when the seignior was taken
prisoner and had to pay a ransom, when his eldest son was about to be made
a knight, and when he gave away his eldest daughter in marriage. In feudal
society these aids stood in the place of the public taxes, which in ancient times,
as in our own days, were collected by the State alone; they differed, however,
in this respect, that they were not due at any stated periods, nor perhaps could
they ever be absolutely enforced, they were a kind of voluntary gift — from
the bestowal of which, however, few vassals dared to free themselves.

FEUDALISM.

The seignior, who never abdicated his sovereignty over his vassal, some
times interfered in certain essential modifications necessary to the fief-
modifications that the vassal was incompetent to -undertake. These gave rise
to new rights, and became a fresh source of revenue to the seignior. For
instance, the seignior was entitled — first, to the right of relief, a sum of
money payable by every person of full age who succeeded to the possession
of a fief, which sum became larger as the line of succession became less
direct ; secondly, to the right of alienation, payable by those who sold
or alienated the fief in any way ; thirdly, to the rights of escheat and

' If
W  I

Fig. 12. — Act of Faith and Homage, Thirteenth Century. — Seal representing Raimond de Mont-
Dragon kneeling before the Archbishop of Aries, his Suzerain, in the National Archives of
France.

of confiscation, in accordance with which the fief reverted to the suzerain
when the vassal died without leaving an heir, or when, from some act of his
own, he had incurred the penalty of being deprived of his feudatory rights ;
fourthly, to the right of guardianship, in virtue of which the seignior, during
the minority of his vassals, held the ward and administration of the fief
besides enjoying its revenues ; fifthly, to the right of marriage, which con
sisted in finding a husband for the female inheritor of a fief; this right gave
the seignior the privilege of forcing her to select one of the suitors that he
chose to present to her.

FEUDALISM. 9
As long as a vassal scrupulously fulfilled his numerous and delicate
obligations he might consider himself as the absolute master of his fief, he
might partially or entirely sub-feudalise it, and become in his own turn the
suzerain of vassals of an. inferior order termed vavasseurs, who were bound
to render to him the same obligations that he himself paid to his own
seignior. On the other hand, the suzerain was bound to respect his
contract, not to dispossess his vassal without a legitimate motive, but to
protect him, and to render him on all occasions substantial justice. It was,
moreover, to his interest to do this, for the prosperity of the fief depended
upon the security and welfare of the vassal.
Vassals of the same suzerain, residing in the same territory, and possess
ing fiefs of a similar value, were termed pairs (pares), or equals. Suzerains

Fig. 13.— Act of Faiih and Homage, with the Legend, Secretum mrnrn mici ("My Secret is to
myself ").— Seal of Gerard de Saint- Amand, 1199, National Archives of France.
:of every rank, the king included, had their pairs, and all could claim the
privilege of being tried by these pairs in the presence of his immediate
seignior. If the seignior refused to act justly, and the vassal considered him
self unrighteously condemned, he had the right of making an appeal in default
of Justice to the suzerain pf his own seignior. Another right of appeal, that of
arms, prevailed also in feudal sppiety. The nobles, as a rule, preferred to
carry out their pwn justice rather than await from others a slow and uncertain
decision. This was the cause of there being so many little wars and so many
desperate and bloody struggles between different seigniorships. Might made
right; but pustpm, nevertheless, to some extent regulated the formalities that
prepeded these internecine conflicts, so that the seignior or the vassal who was
to be attacked might be forearmed, and might put himself upon his guard
(Figs. 14 and 15). Further, to remedy as much as possible the calamities

,0 FEUDALISM.
ensuing from these perpetual' contentions, the Church had the power of sus
pending and preventing them, under pain of excommunication, from sunset
on Wednesday to sunrise on Monday during the festivals of Lent and Advent,
and at all periods of high religious solemnity. This was the Peace or the .
Truce of God.
The seigniors possessed no right of uniform justice. In France, a

Fig. 14.— Chateau de la Panouze (Aveyrop), type of a French Feudal Castle of the Fourteenth
Century, of which remains still exist.— From a Miniature in a Manuscript in the National
Library of Paris.

superior, a middle, and an inferior judicial court were recognised. The first
alone possessed the power of life and death. The more considerable fiefs had
usually attached to them the right to exercise the highest justice, but there
were exceptions to this rule.. A mmsseur, for instance, might sometimes
appeal against this highest justice, while a seignior, who was only entitled to
exercise the inferior justiciary rights, might inflict death on all robbers
caught in flagrante delicto on his lands.

FEUDALISM.

ii

Fig. 15.— View overlooking the Castle of Pierrefonds (beginning of the Fifteenth Century), as
restored hy M. Viollet-le-Duc, in his " Dictionnaire d' Architecture."
The privilege of coming money, always a sure index of sovereignty,
together with the exclusion of all foreign jurisdiction and of all external

, 2 FEUDALISM.
authority from the area of each fief, also constituted two important pre
rogatives. Finally, the fief, with its privileges, always remained intact ; it
passed invariably to the eldest of the family, on the sole condition of his
paying homage to the suzerain.
Most of the churches and abbeys, such as those of Saint-Denis, of Saint-
Martin des Champs, and of Saint-Germain des Pr£s (Fig. 16), which proudly
reared their towers and spires opposite the Louvre of the kings of France,
exercised on their own account all the feudal rights which they had
acquired by reason of the territorial possessions as well as by the concessions
lavishly ceded to them by their sovereigns. The archbishops, the bishops,
and the abbots thus became temporal lords, and were consequently forced
to have vassals for mihtary service, to keep up a court of justice, and to
support a mint, thus uniting — hi the case of bishops who enjoyed the
temporal rank of count — spiritual with political authority.
This twofold power made the prelate the suzerain of all the seigniors in
his diocese. Towards the end of the tenth century the feudal ecclesiastics,
by reason of the permission granted to laymen to bequeath their property
to the Church, as well as of the strictness of the laws which forbade the
alienation of ecclesiastical property, possessed a fifth part of all French
and English soil, and nearly a third of Germany ; whilst the last surviving
Carlovingian could only claim the town of Laon, where he resided, to such
an extent had his predecessors despoiled themselves of their lands in favour
of their great vassals, who still, however, recognised him as their suzerain.
In the eleventh century Europe was divided into a multitude of fiefs, each
having its own mode of life, its own laws, its own customs, and its ecclesias
tical or lay head, who was as independent as he well could be. Around
these, but under certain conditions of dependence and of subordination,
was developed the much more numerous class of freedmen. Gradually
manual labour and the efforts of a growing intelligence led to the political
existence of the bourgeois, those worthy representatives of the labouring
portion of society. The part which was taken by the latter was not always
of a passive character. As early as the year 987 the villains of Normandy
rebelled and leagued themselves against their feudal lords, claiming the right
of fishing and of the chase, and the privilege of having an administration and
a magistracy of their own ; it was thus that the innate power of the people
revealed itself: the towns and the boroughs were peopled with inhabitants

Fig. 16. — View of the Abbey of Saint-Germain des Pres, from the East, as it stood in 1361. — Fac
simile of an Engraving in the " Histoire de Saint-Germain des Pres," by Dom •Bouillard : in
folio.
A, Road leading to the River Seine ; B, St. Peter's Chapel; C, the Close ; D, Road leading to the Pre*-aux-Clercs ;
E, Place of the Breach; I*, Ditch; G, the Pope's Gate; H, Cloister; I, Refectory; K, Dormitory ; L, the
Church ; M, Chapel of the Virgin ; N, Road between the Ditch and the Pre*-aux-Clercs ; O, Space between
the Barrier to the Rue des Ciseaux ; P, Great Gate of the Monastery ; Q, Road to the River ; R, Barrier close
to the Ditch ; S, the Inn called the Chapeau-Rouge ; T, the Pillory.

14. FEUDALISM.

who held their homes in tenure from the seigniors — who were the proprietors
of the soil — under certain servile obligations as to the payment of taxes.
As soon as the establishment of the hierarchy of fiefs had put an end to
discord and anarchy, the germs of the Great Revolution — destined to restore
civil liberty to the heirs of the countless inhabitants whom the misfortunes
of Gaul and the tyranny of the emperors had reduced to servitude — began to
show themselves. It was in this wise that the communal movement
originated, and the town of Mans is generaUy credited with having been the
first to set the example of having, through the agency of the working classes,
conspired against the seignior. We find in the annals of Metz, about the year
1098, record of the election for life of a maitre-ichevin (high-sheriff), named
Millon, in place of one, by name Hennolu-Bertin, who had been elected for
one year, but who, doubtless, was not the first in his office. And we find an
echevinal council, termed the council of the twelve, enjoying functions at
once magisterial, administrative, and military. Metz possessed at the same
time, by the side of their communal organization, a count of the name of Gerald,
who was succeeded in 1063 by another count named Folmar. It had also a
bishop, rich, powerful, firm, full of learning, named Adalb^ron, a favourite
both with the Pope and with the Emperor, influential enough to obtain any
thing, but never asking anything but what was just. It was, therefore, under
the protection of the sword of the count and of the crozier of the bishop that
the municipal liberties of Metz began to grow — liberties that became within
a single century so developed and powerful that Bertram, another bishop of
Saxon origin, undertook the task of restricting them, and endeavoured to
regulate them by a charter which restored to the Church its electoral but not
its governmental influence. This first communal organization, a type of many
other municipalities in France and in Germany, was inaugurated without
bloodshed. But this was not everywhere the case; at Cambrai, for instance,
the commune was only established after a century of open warfare between
the inhabitants and the bishop, their suzerain. At Laon— that ancient feudal
city where the nobility and the burgesses engaged in all kinds of brigandage,
where the bishop, who was a famous warrior and huntsman, was in the habit
of sharing with the dignitaries of his cathedral and with the aristocracy of
the town the fruit of his exactions—the commune inaugurated itself with the
blood of their bishop, who was assassinated in the midst of a terrible insur
rection. The towns of Amiens, of Beauvais, of Noyon, of Saint- Quentin,

FEUDALISM.

of Sens, of Soissons (Fig. 17), and of V^zelay, underwent nearly the same
vicissitudes that Cambrai and Laon had experienced, , and finally attained,
after similar trials, a similar position. Perhaps Cambrai, of all the French
communes, was the most exacting towards the feudal power that it was
¦trampling under foot.. " Ni l'eveque, ni l'Empereur, ne peuvent mia asseoir
ne taxe, ne tribut, et n'en peult issir la malice, fors que pour la bonne garde
et defense de la ville, et ce depuis coq chantant jusques a la nuit." * No

Fi"\ 17.— Seal of the Commune of Soissons, representing the Mayor of Soissons, armed at all points,
in the midst of the Sheriffs of the Town (1228).— National Archives of France.
vassal had ever claimed or obtained more in the exercise of his feudal
rights (Fig. 18).
The inauguration of the communal system had taken place without a
struggle, and almost without opposition, as a useful and necessary reform at
Metz, at Rheims, in a few midland towns, such as Bourges, Moulins, Lyons,

* " Neither the bishop nor the emperor can impose upon me any tax or tribute, nor have they
the power to call out the militia, except for the protection and defence of the town, and then only
from cockcrow to nightfall."

i6

FEUDALISM.

Perigeux, and in most of the southern cities, such as Aries, Aigues-Mortes
(Fig. 19), Marseilles, Narbonne, Cahors (Fig. 20), Carcassonne (Fig.- 21),
Nimes, and Bordeaux. This was explained by the fact that this indepen
dent action of the people had been prepared by the system adopted by the
Franks,, who allowed no difference to exist between the condition of the con
quered and of the conquerors. The rights they might enjoy and the duties

Fig*. 18.-Thomas of Savoy, Count of Flanders, and Joan, his Wife, grant to the Town of Cambrai
the Charter of Peace made between the Counts of Hainaut and the Chapter of Cambrai in
1240—Miniature from the " Chroniques de Hainaut," Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century
(Burgundian Library, Brussels).
they were to perform had been equally shared amongst all the freedmen of the
monarchy without any distinction as to nationality ; the Franks would have
feared, had they acted differently, that they were reserving for the sovereign
the possibility of using the oppressed nations as a weapon to overcome the
conquerors themselves, and that in this way they might be leaving a loophole
through which the monarchy might degenerate into despotism.

CHATEAU LIFE. STARTING FOR THE PROMENADE
The hostess is seen at the head of the cortege, riding a hackney, with a page in immediate attendance
To the right is the host dressed in green, the calvacade being preceded by trumpeters.
Miniature from the Breviary of cardinal Grimani, ausigned to Memling. S« Mark's library, Venice, xv" century.

FEUDALISM.

n

Beyond the Alps, particularly in Lombardy, under the fostering action*
of liberal institutions, commerce and manufactures developed themselves,
particularly at Milan, Pavia, Verona, and Florence ; and in a still higher
degree, owing to their position on the sea-board, at Venice and Genoa.
In these rich and prosperous cities the seignorial nobility and the Church
reigned side by side, enjoying a nearly equal and parallel influence, and
when feudalism attempted to absorb them by its inflexible despotism, the
manufacturing and the commercial classes, selecting as their leaders a few
more prominent of the artisans and some of the most respected of the clergy,

Fig. 19. — Fortified, Gate of the Town of Aigues-Mortes, which Town obtained in 1246 a
Communal Charter (Military Architecture of the Thirteenth Century).

allied themselves with the lesser rural nobles, and, with the assistance of the
latter's vassals, succeeded in repulsing its crushing yoke. This, however, was
not accomplished without tremendous struggles, nor without painful trials and
heavy sacrifices.
In the Low Countries, which had always so highly exalted the sentiment
of local patriotism, the struggle of the villains against the nobles, whether lay
or ecclesiastic, differed but little from the struggle of the towns in the north
of France against the seigniors, but it assumed larger proportions in accordance
with the immense resources of every kind which they had at their disposal.
The feudal lord had his drawbridge, his battlements, and his men-at-arms
D

i8

FEUDALISM.

cased in iron ; but his rebellious vassal could boast on his side, besides
the narrow and winding streets of his stronghold and the number of
Ms fellow-combatants, many warlike engines and well-made weapons
which he himself had manufactured. When feudalism, in order to
crush what it then termed the populace, summoned to its banner hordes
of adventurers recruited from all parts of the world, it was encumbered
by undisciplined levies of armed mechanics and artisans, who issued forth
from Ghent, from Bruges, and from Liege, and not unfrequently returned
victorious.

Fig. 20.— Fortified Bridge, from Valentre
to Cahors (1308).

Fig. 21.— Plan of the Fortified City of Carcas
sonne (Thirteenth Century).

Beyond the Meuse, the Moselle, and the Rhine, feudalism flourished.
Lofty fortresses, surrounded with a triple moat, everywhere cast their
shadows athwart the land, though the towns enjoyed a full share of
municipal liberty, and were not unfrequently the disinterested spectators
of the terrible struggles that the feudal nobility carried on between them
selves. Nowhere did feudalism display more arrogance or more barbarity
than in Germany, which resembled some vast camp to wMch the nobles
flocked to meet face to face in desperate combat.
When it came to pass that the industrial and populous towns of Germany

FEUDALISM. ig

cried out for municipal liberties similar to those enjoyed by the towns of
France, Italy, and the Low Countries, the emperor hastened to grant and
confirm their desires. He did more, he gave them the right of immediate
appeal against the princes of the empire — that is to say, any towns
situated in the territory of any prince were responsible, not to the latter,
but directly and immediately to the emperor himself, who thus laid for
himseK the foundations of strong natural supports in the very heart of
the larger fiefs. The towns of Germany, already rich and flourishing,
increased their commerce and their wealth, thanks to the new position they
thus acquired.
The Emperor Henry V. greatly assisted this pacific revolution by granting
privileges to the lower class of citizens and to the artisans, who -up to that
time had, according to the spirit of the Roman law, lived apart from the
freedmen and remained at the lowest degree of the social scale. He relieved
them, in particular, from the bondage of a custom by virtue of which the
seignior at their deaths became entitled to all their personal property, or, at
least, enjoyed the power of claiming everything worth having which they
had left behind them.
In many towns Henry V. deprived the bishop of his temporal authority,
and formed the burgesses into companies or guilds according to the nature
of their manual occupation, a custom that was immediately imitated and
adopted in other commercial countries. The bourgeoisie, organized in this
manner into distinct groups, soon elected councils among themselves, the
members of which, under the rule of senators, prud'hommes, bonshommes,
echevins, and jurymen, began by assisting the representative of the imperial
authority, whether duke, count, judge, or bishop, and ended by exercising
a special and independent authority of their own, not over the vassals, but
over citizens and commoners.
It will be asked, what then was the commune wMch had established
itself with more or less effort and sacrifice in the principal parts of Europe ?
and further, as the commune had succeeded in one way or another in
establishing itself, what privileges or immunities remained to the feudal
lord, whether clerical or lay ? Guilbert de Nogent, the open adversary of
communal institutions, will perhaps give the best answer to these inquiries :
" Those who pay taxes now pay only once a year the rent they owe to
their seignior. If they commit some misdemeanour they have at the most

20 FEUDALISM.

to pay a fine, the amount of which is legally fixed ; as for the moneys that
were wont to be levied from the serfs, they are now quite exempt from them."
Guilbert de Nogent might have indicated other victories obtained by the
bourgeois, victories that were still more important in their moral influence
and which sooner or later were destined to change the face of society. As
for the more intelligent seigniors who better understood their own personal
interest, as well as the logical results of a paternal administration, they
attempted to favour the instinctive movement of the rural populations, who
to shield themselves from the tyranny, the exactions, and the bad treatment

Fig. 22.— Seal of the Lord of Corbeil.(1196).— National Archives of France.
of their feudal masters, were in the habit of seeking shelter and protection
from some lord more humane or more politic than the rest, and who used, on
the faith of a communal charter, to settle beside the ramparts of some
seignorial manor (Fig. 22), around some loopholed church, or in the shade
of some fortified monastery.
The seignior in these cases was the gainer of so many able-bodied men,
either artisans or agriculturists, but soldiers in case of need; and he was the
gainer, moreover, in matters of revenue and influence.
It can easily be understood that in those times many charters were drawn
up similar to the following, which is worth quoting as a type : "I, Henry,

FEUDALISM.

Count of Troyes, make known to all present and to come, that I have esta
blished the under-mentioned rules for the inhabitants of my new town (in
the neighbourhood of Pont-sur-Seine) between the bridges of Pugny. Every
man inhabiting the said town shall pay every year twelve deniers and a
measure of oats as the price of his dwelling, and if he desires to hold a
portion of land or meadow, he must pay four deniers yearly for every acre.
The houses, vines, and fields may be sold or alienated at the pleasure of the
holder. The men who reside in the said town shall go neither to the ost (an
army in the field), nor shall they join any. expedition unless I myself am at
their head. I hereby allow them, moreover, to have six aldermen to administer
the ordinary business of the town and to assist my provost in his duties. I
have decreed that no seignior, be he knight or other, shall be allowed to
withdraw from the town any of the men inhabitants for any reason what
soever, unless such be his own men, or unless he owe the seignior any
arrears of taxes. — Given at Provins, in the year of the Incarnation, 1175."
This name of Ville-neuve, which is so often found repeated in the charters
and deeds of the Middle Ages, as, for example, Ville-neuve-l'Etang, Ville-
neuve-Saint-George, Ville-neuve-le-Roi, Ville-neuve-lez-Avignon, &c, is
evidence of what was an ordinary event in the twelfth century, namely, the
creation of a free town, enfranchised from its birth, and subject to some small
and insignificant payments to the seignior, and whose inhabitants, but
yesterday serfs or villains, were now proprietors of portions of the soil,
which they might dispose of or bequeath, either by gift or by testamentary
disposition, under the immediate protection of their nominal seignior.
Some ancient towns of the royal domains of France, such as Paris,
Orleans, Meaux, Senlis, and others, which do not seem to have preserved the
least trace of Roman institutions, always excepting the company of the
Nautes Parisiennes, who were the true founders of the ancient municipality
of Paris, were each governed by. a provost, who was the officer and lieutenant
of the king, their seignior, and they further enjoyed certain special liberties
and privileges. In 1137, Louis VII., at the suggestion of his minister, Suger,
forbade his provost and officers to annoy the burgesses in any manner what
soever, and fixed the amount of their taxation himself. Ten years later, the
same sovereign abolished the right of mortmain, repressed the abuses of the
fiscal taxes, instituted a judicial system, and greatly encouraged commerce. It
was not as king, but as seignior suzerain, that Louis VII. acted in this manner.

FEUDALISM.

The French bourgeoisie was at this time of but recent origin ; it had sprung
from a triumphant villanage, and was beginning to form a new branch, from
which was to issue, a few centuries later, the third estate. Legal jurisdiction
and the right of coinage, feudal privileges of which the royal suzerain had

Fig. 23. — Ferrand of Portugal, Count of Flanders, made Prisoner at the Battle of Bouvines, and
taken to Paris : " The Clergy and Laity singing Hymns and Songs." — Fac-simile of a Minia
ture in the "Chroniques de Hainaut," Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Burgundian
Library, Brussels).

always been very jealous, were favours it then but seldom enjoyed. Philip-
Augustus understood better than his predecessors the interests of the royal
power, for he graciously granted seventy-eight communal charters ; he was
rewarded by the effectual assistance the communal levies afforded him at the
battle of Bouvines (1214), when he was fortunate enough to overthrow the

FEUDALISM. 23

coalition that foreign feudalism had formed with his rebellious great vassals.
He forced the latter to return to their duty, and one of them, the Count of
Flanders, remained twelve years a prisoner in the principal tower of the
Louvre (Fig. 23). Philip- Augustus had not shrunk from granting a legal
constitution to the bourgeoisie of Paris and the principal towns, in opposition
to the feudal nobility.
The communal movement, a natural development of the legal rights
introduced by the Franks, was scarcely felt in England. Already, long
before the Norman Conquest, under the Anglo-Saxon rule, many busy towns,
wealthy and populous, such as Canterbury, London, Oxford, and York, took
a share in public affairs, a limited share, it is true, but one sufficient for their
wellbeing and prosperity. The victorious invasion of William of Normandy,
so fatal to the whole country, was still more so to the large towns, which were
compelled to behold their own material ruin, the sequestration and confisca
tion of their property, the dispersion and infeudation of their inhabitants,
their agriculturists and their farmers. Unable any longer to invoke the
protection of an easy-natured sovereign, they were forced to bow their
heads beneath the sway of strangers, lucky adventurers, bold, exacting,
despotic, and cruel men, believing in no faith and obeying no law, the very
dregs of French feudalism. King Henry I., the third son of William the
Conqueror, after many sanguinary struggles, in which his barons were not
found wanting in fealty to him, granted them the celebrated charter called
Magna Charta — usually, though erroneously, considered the fundamental
origin of English liberties, wMch, however, really dated from a prior period ;
at the same time (1132) he released the burgesses of London from the lament
able state of degradation in which they had existed since the Conquest.
In the reign of Henry II. — an administrative and judicial reformer — not in
England alone, but in those parts of Scotland and Jreland which he had
conquered (1154-1182), the inhabitants of many towns acquired the right to
purchase the freehold of the soil they occupied, and to free themselves from
several special taxes by paying a fixed sum to the feudal lord. Thence
forward arose that haughty bourgeoisie, with which the barons had soon to
reckon, a class which John Lackland favoured proportionately, as he dreaded
the continual rebellions of the feudal seigniors. Twice was Prince Louis,
the son pf Philip-Augustus, summoned by the Anglo-Norman barons to
cross the channel with an army to force the English king to fulfil the

FEUDALISM.

clauses of the charters he had granted to his great vassals (1215-1216) ; on the
other hand, the towns and communes, grown rich and powerful, thanks to the
privileges which had been granted
to them, as well as to the intelli
gent activity of their manufactures,
forced the nobles to respect them.
The latter no longer attempted to
compel assistance, but solicited it,
often even humbly, so that the com
munes and the landed aristocracy
held an equal position in the feudal
hierarchy. The title of noble and
baron, bestowed on the leading
citizens of London and the Cinque
Ports, raised the middle-class to a
higher position. Indeed, to enable
it, already powerful by its wealth
and by its alliances, to become
a political body, it only needed
the privilege of sending represen
tatives to parliament, a privilege
which was granted in 1264 to the
principal towns of the kingdom.
In France, about the same period,
the industrial and trading bour
geoisie had seats in the privy council
of St. Louis, and, advancing in letters
and science, it gradually obtained
possession of all the chairs at the
university. As early as the reign
of Philip the Bold (Fig. 24), it
Fig. 24.— Philip in., called " the Bold," in Eoyal occupied all the higher positions in
Costume. — From a Miniature in a Manuscript . .
of the Fourteenth.Century (Burgundian Library, the judicature, and hence it assumed
a place in the great bailiwicks and
parliaments, from which the feudal nobility did not condescend to oust it,
and which, after a time, enabled it to offer a successful resistance to the

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Hi I SAW

in. .

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If
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5
7
Il 4
TRIAL OF JOHN, DUC D'ALENCON,
Accused of having conspired with the English against France, he was brought before Charles VII holding
a bed of justice at Vendome in 1458.
Miniature bv Jehan Foucouet in the collection of Herr Brentano at Francfort-on-thc-Main. xv,h century.
FEUDALISM. 25

abuse of power on the part of this same nobility, whose authority steadily
diminished. Admitted by Philippe-le-Bel to the general assemblies of the
nation' and to the sessions of the states-general, the bourgeoisie became one
of the states, an order of the kingdom, that is, the tiers- Hat. It absorbed the
offices pertaining to the general administration and to finance, it furnished
the lower orders of the clergy with most of their distinguished representa
tives, and the municipalities with the most gifted of their magistrates; it
acquired the .right of purchasing offices which carried nobility with them, of
possessing seignorial domains with high and petty justice, and thus it forced
its way like ivy into the crevices of the feudal edifice, which stone by stone
crumbled to pieces. Philippe-le-Bel, surnamed the King of the Lawyers — who
helped him in a material degree to carry out his designs— showed himself, as
a natural consequence, the King of the Commons (tiers- etat), and the secret
enemy of the Church and the nobility. The latter, valiant and chivalrous,
but devoid of forethought, rushing headlong into every kind of adventure,
and caring only for deeds of daring and warlike achievements, regardless of
their material interests, gradually allowed themselves to be divested of a con
siderable part of their domains by the bourgeoisie, who lent them money upon
mortgage, and by the voues, or procureurs, who ruined them. The decadence
of their wealth dated from the First Crusade, when they encumbered their
estates to: pay the expenses of distant expeditions, which they undertook
almost entirely at their own cost; and when they wished to recover possession
of the properties which they had handed over to some third party, they
found them loaded with fresh debts, which had been contracted during their
absence, and producing but nominal revenues for want of hands to cultivate
the soil. They then were obliged to sell a portion of the property, and that at
a great loss. The only resource remaining was the concession of their feudal
privileges, and in this way the nobility lost the right pf coining money and
of exercising justice, while the sovereigns — Philippe-lerBel in particular —
seconded by the bourgeoisie, increased their absolute power.
The massacre of more than six thousand chevaliers at Courtray (1302), by
the Flemish militia (Fig. 25), was a heavy blow to the pride of the gene
rous but reckless nobility of. France. It was humiliating to these lords to find
that the villains knew how to wield the arms which they had been in the
habit of making for others ; they saw that they possessed the courage and
skill needed to win battles, and that henceforward they must be reckoned

2b

FEUDALISM.

upon as a force able to take the field as well as formidable when engaged in
street riots.
In Germany, the fall of the Hohenstaufen family, formerly Dukes of
Swabia and Franconia, favoured the enfranchisement of towns ; all the cities
in these two principalities, hitherto subject to the mediatised lords, reverted
to the emperor, who, without any real power
over them, left them free to establish the fran
chise and immunities of a republic. In order to
increase their populations, they followed the ex
ample of the sovereigns and feudal lords of France
and Lombardy in regard to the formation of new
towns, establishing around their walls, as feudalism
had done outside its donjons, fields of refuge.
These were occupied by a host of strangers, who
received the designation of Pfahlbilrger — citizens
of the palisades, or faubourgians, originally
sheltered and protected by a wooden barrier.
These receded in proportion as the number of
inhabitants increased, and according as their
trade developed. Many serfs deserted the neigh
bouring fiefs to seek in these free towns the
independence, position, success, and all the advan
tages which they could not enjoy under the feudal
regime. Their lords demanded their extradition
by virtue of their feudal rights, accompanying
the demand with threats, which were sometimes

•Vttowr
Fig. 25. — Flemish "Warrior in the
Uniform of the Van Artevelde effectual ; but the free towns, not less interested
Militia: StoneStatue formerly in k ; ^ f ^ ^
in one oi the niches in the t
Belfry at Ghent, no-* in the ^n remaining with them, endeavoured to gain
Ruins of St. Bavon of Ghent time and to favour his retreat until after the
(Fourteenth Century). . .
expiration of three hundred and sixty-five days,
when the right of the lord to his liegeman or vassal ceased.
The imperial towns— which, from the twelfth to the fourteenth century,
after having freed themselves from the fetters of feudalism, had risen to such
a height of independence that the emperor himself had but a nominal
supremacy over them — were Ratisbon, in Bavaria ; Augsburg and Ulm, in

FEUDALISM.

27

Swabia; Nuremberg, Spiers, Worms, and Frankfort-on-the-Main, in Franconia ;
Magdeburg, in Saxony ; Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, in the Hanseatic
League ; Aix-la-Chapelle, Bonn, Cologne, Coblentz, Mayence, Strasburg,
and Metz, in the Rhenish and Lotharingian provinces. These towns, essen
tially industrial and commercial, in which the middle- classes were for the
most part supreme, formed vast emporiums, teeming with the products of
the north, the south, and the east. They were looked upon as the store
houses and arsenals of Europe. Feudalism, unable to produce anything
for itself, was always replenishing from these depots the resources neces
sary for equipping and revictualling its armies. From them came the arms
and the engines of warfare, as well as the special workmen, the cross-
bowmen, the carpenters, the founders, and the artillerymen, who composed
the personnel of the artillery at this period. If the free towns had arrived at
a common understanding, and formed a pacific league between themselves,
they would have presented a serious obstacle to the struggles of the suzerain
lords ; but their distance from each other, especially those in the centre
of Germany, prevented them from coming to such an arrangement. Nor
could they, as in England, form an alliance with the feudal nobility, nor,
as in France, make common cause with the suzerain. As the emperor left
them to act independently, they were obliged to organize their own
defence, to contract alliances with some powerful neighbour, and weaken,
by dividing them, those enemies whom they deemed stronger than them--
selves. Thus these free towns never constituted a homogeneous body ; they
were isolated and spread over a vast extent of territory, being only brought
together by feelings of interest and sympathy, but without any mutual
tie or political cohesion. The lord with whom they were at war to-day,
would enter their service and pay the .next, with the title of soldarien ;
and at times a single town would have as many as two or three hundred
of these allies, who were always followed by a swarm of marauders, and who
spread desolation throughout the land. The lords who were without fortune,
who represented the petty feudalism of the country districts, finding in the
service of these towns a means for keeping up their state and paying their
followers, passed from one to the other, and only enlisted under the standard
of a sovereign prince for want of better employment, for the latter did not
as a rule pay so well as these free towns. '
From the eleventh to the fourteenth century, the position of the bishop,

28

FEUDALISM.

in point of political influence, did not improve in these free or republican
towns, either in England, France, or Germany. Suzerain lord by moral
authority, he was only so to a very limited degree (Fig. 26) in respect to
his temporal power. He only exercised justice over his vassals, or at most
over the members of the secular and inferior clergy, for the canons, the incum
bents, and even the deacons, enjoying as they did special immunities, would
have appealed, in the event of a dispute or of censure, to their metro
politan archbishop, or even to Rome. It is true that the lay depositaries of
municipal authority did not, on their side, take any judicial steps against
the ecclesiastics, except in case of conspiracy against the State, which alone
rendered them answerable to secular justice. Outside the subordinates of the

Fig. 26.— Seal of John, Bishop of Puy and Count of Velay (1305), holding in his right hand a
naked sword as a token of secular jurisdiction.
bishop and the chapter, the episcopal court or tribunal took cognizance of the
crimes, the offences, and misdemeanours against religion of which any citizen
might be guilty, and also of the heresies, blasphemies, breaking of images,
glaring infractions of the commandments of God and of the Church, insults
and assaults of the priests, &c. And even, in these cases, where the delinquent
could plead nobility, and especially, when he belonged to the higher classes
¦of feudalism, the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical tribunals could not reach
him. As the nobility could always claim to be judged by their peers, there
was rarely any infraction of this feudal principle, and then only where some
diocesan bishop or metropolitan was powerful enough to substitute his own
will for the customary right.
, In nearly all the episcopal towns, the judgment of the prelate or of his

FEUDALISM.

*9

Fig. 27.— The Tree of Battles : Allegorical Figures representing the discord which exists between
the various classes of society.— Reproduced from a Miniature of " The Tree of Battles "of
Honore Bouet, Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Burgundian Library, Brussels).
delegates was delivered from the square in front of the cathedral, or from
the doorway of some exterior and adjacent chapel. This practice, maintained

30 FEUDALISM.
during the first centuries of the Church's existence, ceased when another form
of justice, namely, civil justice, took its place. In order to avoid the conflicts
which must have ensued, and to furnish no pretext for popular disturbance,
the ecclesiastical justice took refuge in some special place, generally called
the Cour Vitesque, till at last the diocesan power, deprived of its temporal
prerogatives within the boundary of the free towns, found itself obliged to
transfer somewhere else the seat of its jurisdiction and of those feudal rights
which it still retained. The mint of the prelate was established there ; but so
wide was the disagreement between the ecclesiastical and the civil authorities,
and so sustained the struggle between the feudal and the middle-class interests,
that it often happened that the episcopal money was not accepted as current
coin, even in the town where the bishop was spiritually supreme, nor in the
territory annexed to the free town and enjoying equal prerogatives.
In Germany and in Italy the emperor, in France and England the king,
as the highest representatives of feudalism, possessed in every large city —
notably in the cities termed imperial or royal — an official delegate, called
burgrave, count, or viscount, who, originally at the head of the army, the
magistracy, and the finances, gradually lost his prerogatives till, in the
thirteenth century, he was scarcely more than a mere dignitary, without
either power or credit. Many bishops, authorised by the lay sovereign,
took the title of count, without, however, adding in any material degree
to their influence. Besides, whatever may have been the nature and
extent of the functions of a count, it does not appear that the free towns paid
any more heed to them than to the pre-eminence of the bishop in all that
appertained to the administration and government of the commune. In
many places, especially in Italy and upon the banks of the Moselle and the
Rhine, the bourgeoisie possessed councils invested both with the judicial and
executive power, also a senate and a parliament, which was summoned by
the ringing of a bell, and to which the lords inhabiting the adjacent castles
were admitted, but only as ordinary citizens ; without, however, losing any of
their domainial privileges.
Though feudalism possessed nearly the same generic type in all European
countries, it presented here and there varying shades of nationality, due to
the dissimilarity of race, to the habits of the people, to the different modes
in which it had been introduced, and to the diverse phases of its struggle
and growth.

FEUDALISM.

31

The illustrious house of Franconia, alarmed at the incessant progress of
high German feudalism and anxious to check it, created, in the midst of the
duchies by which it was threatened, a number of immediate lordships, owing
fealty only to the emperor, and having an hereditary right over the fiefs of
chivalry. This step met with an obstinate resistance from the great vassals
who possessed this hereditary right, which the elected monarch did not enjoy
of himself. On the other hand, the palatine lords, agents of the emperor,

Fig. 28. — Seal of John, Duke of Burgundy, Count of Nevers and Baron of Donzy, surnamed
Jem sans Peur (1371— 1419).— National Archives of Paris.
and empowered to represent him in the great fiefs or in his domains, and
the burgraves of the towns, impatient to free themselves from the imperial
suzerainty, displayed at the same time the insubordination which the leudes
had practised in the Carlovingian epoch, and endeavoured to establish for
themselves an independence transmissible to their heirs. While this move
ment was going on, the Pope was lowering the status of the empire ;
Innocent II. compelled the Emperor Lothair II. to receive in fee from him

32 FEUDALISM.

Tuscany, the Duchy of Spoleta, the Marches of Ancona, Bologna, Parma,
Placenza, &c, forming part of the legacy bequeathed to the Holy See by the
Countess Matilda. From this flagrant humiliation, submitted to by Conrad
of Hohenstaufen, the successor of Lothair, and haughtily rejected by Henry
the Haughty when he refused to render feudal homage to the Pope, arose the
celebrated quarrel of the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, which, from the banks
of the Rhiije, spread beyond the Alps, and implanted itself in the very
heart of Italy. Henry the Haughty, chief of the Guelphs, independent
and royal, was proscribed and stripped of his duchies, while Conrad, chief
of the Ghibellines, inaugurated the brilliant dynasty of the Hohenstaufens.
Thirty years of bitter warfare, during which the alliance of the papacy
with the national party was cemented, seconded by the efforts of petty
feudalism, led up to the treaty of Constance, which brought to a definite
close the struggle of the feudal empire against the popular independence
of the cities of Italy. The Pope had recovered the freeholds left him
by the Countess Matilda; the towns preserved their regal prerogatives,
entire liberty to raise armies, to surround themselves with walls (Fig. 29), to
exercise criminal and civil jurisdiction, and to form confederations with other
towns, &c. The emperor was left with no other privileges than those of
confirming, through his ambassadors, the consular elections, and of appointing
in each town a judge of appeal in his name. It was in vain that the
Emperor Henry VI. endeavoured to re-establish high feudalism ; he died in
the attempt (1199), and Innocent III., who considered himself to be the
natural defender of all the rights and the supreme judge in all the
monarchies in Europe, resisted every effort made by Henry VI. Several
Crusades, moreover, which occurred at about this period, created a modifica
tion in the warlike sentiments of the feudal nobility, until, thanks to the
policy of the illustrious pontiffs who had occupied the chair of St. Peter,
and to the efforts of the Italian free towns, backed up by the petty feudal
nobility, the independence of Italy rose triumphant from the tomb which
opened for the Emperor Frederick II. on December 13th, 1250.
In England, John Lackland had, by the Magna Charta of 1215—1216,
promised the clergy to respect the liberties of the Church, and notably the
freedom of election ; to the feudal lords he had promised to observe the
feudal conditions of release, of Ward, and of marriage ; to the bourgeois, that
no new tax should be levied without the consent of the common council ¦

FEUDALISM.

33

.and to" all his subjects he accorded the habeas corpus — that is to say, the
.liberty of the person, with trial by jury, by constituting the court of
common pleas at a certain fixed place. A second charter, called the Forest
Charter, mitigated the extreme severity of the penalties for infraction of the
laws appertaining to the chase, and guaranteed the whole of the liberties
which had been extracted from him by creating a tribunal of twenty-five
barons, entrusted with the function of seeing that this charter was carried
out, and, further, of keeping watch over the action of the crown. This was
submitting the Government to a regular course of discipline. Just as the
feudal nobility had been kept under and oppressed by the sovereign power,
so was the latter now hedged in, thwarted, and hampered in its despotic
tendencies.

WM

SPMi

Fig. 29 —The fortified Bridge of Lamentano, near Rome, theatre of the wars between the
Guelphs and the Ghibellines, inthe Twelfth Century.
'St Louis, following in the footsteps of Philip Augustus, laboured to
-suppress the. abuses of the feudal regime ; he compelled his barons to choose
between the fiefs which they held from him and those which they had
received from the kings of England ; he rooted out the old feudal stocks,
created a new feudalism, not less valiant but more moral than the old, and
never lost sight of the formidable opposition which the old nobility had
ventured to set up against the Queen-Regent, Blanche of Castile, when it
declared that the young King Louis should not be consecrated until the
suzerain aristocracy was restored to the plenitude of its privileges. After
Louis IX., French feudalism, transformed by the saint-king, was neither
less haughty, less trivial, nor less insolent than before, but it was more
favourable to the crown and less hostile to the Church. It formed a brilliant
array of chivalry, full of -enthusiasm and impetuosity, commencing a battle
F

3+ FEUDALISM.

well,, always winning it at the very beginning of the action, but losing it after
wards for want of being supported by a national body of infantry, whose help
it despised ; it made up a body of cavalry admirably adapted for tourna*-
ments and feats of arms, but incapable of carrying on a regular warfare, or
* even of ensuring success in a great battle. The victories of Mons-en-
Puelle, under Philip IV., and of Cassel, under Philip of Valois (1328),
increased to the utmost the blind confidence of the French nobility, and
brought about, by absolutely identical means, the disasters of Crecy, Poitiers,
and Agincourt (1346, 1356, 1415).
From the events which took place during the space of a century, from
the accession to the imperial throne of the Emperor Louis V. (1313) to the
Peace of Bretigny (1360), it was made manifest that the destinies of thfe
feudal world rested henceforth upon France and England, those two rival
powers, both of which were acquisitive and inflexible; that the Emperor
and the. Pope occupied but the second place in this latest evolution of
feudalism; that Rome, compelled to bend towards France, gave the latter
a considerable preponderance, and that the force of equilibrium must inevit
ably bring together the King of England and the Emperor of Germany.
The French royalty, despite the vicissitudes caused by an incessant struggle
against the English, despite the ravages of the plague, which had depopulated
two-thirds of the kingdom, despite its financial burdens and the pre
carious position of the monarchy, continued its work of assimilation and
feudal incorporation ; the suzerainty attaching to the great fiefs gradually
fell under the jurisdiction of the sovereign, while, upon the right bank of
the Rhine, the great barons remained almost as omnipotent as ever they
had been.
There existed in Germany at that time two kinds of leagues between the
nobility, the one offensive and the other defensive ; that of the Gauerbir
nate or Gauerhchaften, by virtue of which the petty nobility formed family
pacts for transmitting their fiefs by indirect line when the direct line should
fail, and for reconstructing or repairing their castles out of a common fund ;
and that of the Teutonic LTanse, the league of the prince-archbishops and
electors with sixty -towns upon the Rhine. Rodolph of Hapsburg (Fig. 30),
a monarch as resolute as he was able, put a stop to proceedings which were
full of danger to the imperial authority, compelled his vassals to do him
homage, and razed to the ground seventy fortresses whose feudal brigandage

FEUDALISM.

35

had scattered desolation and ruin ; but, after his death, the usurpation of the
suzerain lords began afresh, and the Bulle d' Or, which was the basis of public
right in Germany, confirmed the downfall of the imperial suzerainty (1378).
In France, on the other hand, as each convocation of the States-General
was attended with the creation or levying of some new tax, the third estate

Figf 30.— Equestrian Stone Statue of Rodolph of Hapsburg, Emperor of Germany, by Erwin de
Steinbach, placed above the Grand Portal of Strasburg Cathedral* (Thirteenth Century).
attempted to exact all the more from royalty in proportion as it gratified the
latter's pecuniary demands, claiming to have a voice in the question of peace
or war, to direct the financial affairs of the kingdom, to be convoked every
year, and to share,, with the two other orders, the weight of the charges
the profit of which ought to be shared by all. The feudal nobility resisted
the exorbitant pretensions of the third estate, but when they saw this class
forming a secret alliance with the clergy, and setting on foot a formidable

3&

FEUDALISM.

Fig. 31. — Maximilian of Austria, with Mary of Burgundy, his wife, only daughter of Charles the
Bold, and their young son Philip, afterwards King of Castile.— " Abridged Chronicles 'of
Burgundy," Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Library of M. AnjbroiserFirmin
Didot. '
league, the password of which was the destruction of the castles and" the
annihilation of the nobles, they hesitated, and did nothing until the horrible

FEUDALISM.

37

excesses committed by the league in the country districts had given the
feudal reaction a character of legality. In 1383, after the battle of Rose-
becque, which inflicted a heavy blow upon the communal cause in Flanders
and in France, it seemed as if the power of suzerainty was about to revive
once more. Froissart, in his Chronicles, rejoiced at this fact, because he
believed that social order was threatened with utter ruin (see his Chronicles,
year 1383) ; but French chivalry succumbed in.its turn at Agincourt beneath
the onslaught of the English archers. This was. the final condemnation of
feudal armies, as well as of the system which these armies represented, and
which they had failed in sustaining. French feudalism had already ceased to be
anything more than a storehouse of traditions which were still held in respect,
and of old customs which had fallen into disuse among the ancient nobility.
In England, Scotland, and Ireland, high feudalism was rapidly in course
pf decay, before Henry VIII. dealt it its death-blow.; in Germany it
struggled for existence during the reign of Maximilian (Fig- 31) ; in
France it was crushed by Louis XI. with the help of the third estate.
Beyond the Alps, in Italy, its existence was prolonged for a short period,
partly under a clerical disguise, partly by the hired help of the condottieri,
and in some places by the support of the urban democracy, that is the
industrial and trading part of the population.. Everywhere, however, it
disappeared with the Middle Ages, of which, both in its acts and in its fir$t
principles, it bore the ineffacable imprint (Fig. 32). >

ii".

Fig] 32'.— Doorways of the Old Castle of Loches, in Touraine, a favourite
.[ j .*.:'.. A < ... .Manor of Louis XL (Fifteenth Century)-

WAE AND ARMIES.
*The Invasions of the Barbarian***.— Attila.— Theodoric seizes Italy. — Organization of Military*
Fiefs. — Defences of Towns. — Totila and his Tactics. — The Military Genius of Charlemagne. —
Military Vassalage. — Communal Militia. — Earliest Standing Armies. — Loss of Technical
Tradition. — The Condottieri. — The Gendarmerie. — The Lances Fowrnies. — Weakening of
Feudal Military Obligations.— The French Arnly in the Time of Louis XI. and his Suc
cessors. — Absence of Administrative Arrangement. — Reforms. — Mercenary Troops. — Siege
Operations and Engines.

HE art of war had attained its
highest degree of perfection among
the Romans, when the successive
invasions of the barbarians began to
burst like an overflowing river. over
the richest of the Roman colonies.
These barbarians, most of whom were
natives of the Caucasian mountains,
were the Iberians, who never halted
till they had reached Spain ; the
Celts or Cimbrians, who installed
themselves among the Gauls ; and the Sarmatians and the Scythians, who
inhabited the vast forests of Germany before the great wars of Julius Caesar
(Fig. 33). Suddenly, in the fourth century of the Christian era, a movement
which commenced in the centre of Asia caused an irruption of a race hitherto
unknown upon the Caucasian races. These were the Huns, before whom the
terrified Goths retreated, but who at first made but a brief apparition in
Europe ; for if Rome at that time was wanting in seasoned legions, she could
rely, at least in the provinces of her empire, upon many numerous and power
ful auxiliaries who were accustomed to fight under her standard (Fig. 34),
some for the sake of pay, others to defend their own hearths.
In 451, in, the reign of the Emperor Valentinian III., who had bribed
the barbarians instead of repulsing theta with the sword, Attila, the King of

WAR AND ARMIES.

3"

¦the Huns, bore down upon Europe at the head of seven, hundred thousand
* fighting men of various races. In less than three months he" had' overrun
and laid waste Moravia, Bohemia, Hesse, and Wurtemberg, crossed the
Rhine below Strasburg, the Moselle at Treves and at Metz, the Meuse' at

'mm.

Fig. 3?.— War Trophy and Barbarian Prisoners.— From Sculptures on the Triumphal Arch
of Orange (Second Century). j
Tongres, *the Scheldt at Tournay; and after two sanguinary raids' into
Burgundy and the country around Orleans, pitched his tents in the plaids
•of Champagne. The tactics of Attila were to avoid pitched battles, to give
a wide berth to the fortresses,, contenting himself with sacking and plunder-

,40

WAR AND ARMIES.

ing their outskirts. He laid waste the open country, burnt villages, put their
inoffensive inhabitants to the sword, and making it his chief object to
divide and isolate the Roman legions, finally crushed them by the weight
/of numbers. The whole West was stirred up at the tidings of this terrible invasion.
-ZEtius, the Roman leader among the Gauls, had called to his aid the con
federates of Amorica, the Frank-Salians, whose leader was Merovius, the
Burgundians, the Saxons, and the southern Visigoths, whose king was

Fig. 34.— German and Gallic- Auxiliaries, one wearing Trousers (Braccee), and the other a
Tunic— From a Roman Monument of the Second Century.

Theodoric. This numerous army, composed of excellent troops under the
orders of iEtius, marched to meet the barbarians, and encountered them in
the neighbourhood of Chalons-sur-Marne. The battle lasted three days, and
the defeat of the Huns was complete.
The ferocious Attila, who had called himself the Scourge of God, and who
had run his course like some fatal meteor, leaving in his track nothing but
conflagrations and ruins, expired in the midst of an orgie in 455. A truce-
less, unceasing war was still being waged all over Europe, a sanguinary and

WAR AND ARMIES. 41

implacable war of race and of party. Political chaos, a chaos that
Christianity alone was destined to regenerate, was at its height in the old
world, when, towards the close of the sixth century, Theodoric, King of
the Eastern Goths, who had protected Byzantium when threatened by the
Bulgarians, and who had remained in the pay of the Emperor Zeno, deter
mined to find occupation for his warlike and restless subjects by leading them
against Odoacer, the sovereign of the Herulians, who at that time united
under his sway Sicily and the Italian peninsula, but whose subjects were
at best but a ferocious and turbulent mob. The young King of the Goths
(he was only thirty-four years of age) started from the depths of Mcesia (now
Servia), with the consent of the chief of the empire, at the head of an entire
warlike population, to whom he promised the conquest of Italy. He easily
overcame the King of the Herulians ; and, havjng conquered Italy, he posted
his soldiers in the various provinces of the peninsula, in such a manner that
their pay and their rations might continue to be supplied to them as regularly
in peace as in war.
The system of government and administration, established by Theodoric
had the advantage of distributing two hundred thousand excellent troops in
the midst of a population which, glad to find itself uncalled upon for military
service, and but little taxed, allowed the work of the conquest to be consoli
dated. The millenaires (soldiers of a battalion numbering a thousand men)
occupied with their families distinct portions of territory, and were bound to
hold themselves under arms, and ready to march, whenever the defence of
the country required it (Fig. 35). Theodoric had already recognised the
utility of urban garrisons. The flower of the country's youth, organized in a
military manner, flocked to the gymnasium of Ravenna, and the king himself
presided over their exercises. His levies, as regards their discipline, their
instruction, and their equipment, resembled the ancjent legions of Rome.
The iron cap, the shield, the broadsword, and the arrow of the Goths had been
replaced by the spear, the javelin, the helmet, and the cuirass of the Romans.
The old soldiers received from the royal treasury for their services as in
structors a particular grant, which was annually paid to them till they retired
altogether from the profession of arms. When the troops were about to take
the field, the intendants, under the orders of the counts, superintended the
commissariat and the gathering and the march of the different army corps.
The provincial officers had to distribute arms, food, and hay on the different
G

4*

WAR AND ARMIES.

points of the road that the troops were expected to follow, and the inha
bitants had to provide lodgings— this was the only military service expected
of them, but none could escape it.
The towns were at this time almost always fortified, and entrenched
camps covered nearly the whole of Italy. The castles in the rural districts,
constructed to protect the frontiers, were usually full of troops whose support

Fig. 35. — Military Costume from the Sixth to the Tenth Centuries. — From a Miniature in the
" Dialogues de Saint Gregoire," Manuscript of the Eleventh Century (National Library of
Paris).

was part of the duty of the pretorial prefect, and whose insubordination often
necessitated severe measures of repression. "Keep up a spirit of military
discipHne ; it is often difficult to enforce it under civil rule," said Theodoric
to Servatus, one of his generals.
If it is a matter of surprise to meet with such a right moral feeling in the
sovereign of reputed barbarians, barbarians half civilised, however, by their

WAR AND ARMIES.

43

contact with the Latin race, it is not the less so to find, in the wars which
occurred in the years 507, 508, and 509, other barbarian kings, namely,
Alaric, Clovis, Gondebaud, and Thierry, make use of and apply with skill
the rules of Greco-Roman strategy, either in executing long military
manoeuvres, or in displaying all the strategic science that sieges then

Fig. 36. — St. Benedict reproaches Totila with having deceived him, and predicts his death.—
Fresco in the Church of San Miniato, Florence, painted by Spinelli of Arezzo (Thirteenth
Century).
required, in attacking or defending the fortified towns of Avignon, of
Carcassonne, and of Aries.
In proportion as the preponderance of the Goths (Fig. 36), of the Ostro
goth?, and of the Visigoths diminished in Europe, that of the Franks and of
the Lombards increased. The latter were the first to institute in Italy the

44

WAR AND ARMIES.

feudal system, founded on the possession of conquered territory. The
conquerors established their camp in the midst of the vanquished country,
seized half the land, reduced into servitude a portion of the colons, and
imposed heavy taxes on. those whom they had not despoiled. The king

Fig. 37. — Moorish Arms from the Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century : Armlet. — From the
Armeria Real, Madrid.

Fig. 38. — Moorish Arms : Daggers. — Armeria Eeal, Madrid.

Fig. 39.— Moorish Arms : Trident. — Armeria Real, Madrid.
having at first distributed the great fiefs among his principal officers, these
great vassals then made a subdivision of the land granted them by their
suzerains in favour of their own men-at-arms and satellites, and these latter,
in their turn, ceded a portion of their lands to the common soldiers. The

WAR AND ARMIES. .

45

obligation of personal service, the hierarchic subor
dination of vassalage, were the necessary consequence
of feudal institutions.
In all probability the establishment of the
arriere-ban, or the ban-fieffe, dates from the sixth
century. It was a call to arms of the vassals that
the suzerain alone had a right to command. A
century later, feudalism, which was beginning to
establish itself in Gaul as in Italy, as a consequence
of the successful invasion of the Franks, was nearly
stamped out by the Mahometan invasion of the
Spanish Moors, who had been led by their chief,
Abderamus, as far as the banks of the Loire, where
they were stopped by Charles Martel, who routed
them with great slaughter.
After the brilliant victory of Poitiers (732),
where the repulse of Arab civilisation left the field
open to the defenders of the Christian faith, and to
the originators of the feudal regime, the victorious
army underwent a sudden change. The Frankish
knights adopted as an inheritance of conquest the
rich Saracen armour (Figs. 37, 38, 39, 40) ; the
feudal troopers donned a coat of mail, and, hence
forward, a full suit of armour became a necessary
accessory to a warrior of high rank. The bow, which
had long been thrown aside, was once more taken
into favour, and became the special arm of the foot
men. But we have exhaustively treated of the
armament and equipment of the soldiery of the
period (see the chapter on Armoury in " Art in the
Middle Ages"), and we can only here deal with
military tactics and organization ; in a word, with
the theoretical part of the art of war.
The reign of Charlemagne, which was one long
series of expeditions and conquests, was naturally favourable
and development of this art. The Emperor of the Franks, like i

feiw?

60a
O

o

o

W

a

oo

SObo

bO
E

to the progress
i man of genius,

46 .WAR AND ARMIES.

understood how to profit by the inventions and creations of his predecessors.
To the warlike traditions of Greece and Rome he added, step by step, the
improvements that were rendered necessary by the nature of the enemies with
whom he had to contend, namely, the Lombards, the Saxons, &c. He kept
up the feudal service of the ban; he established permanent orders of militia,
composed of his own serfs and vassals ; but, as soon as he undertook a distant
expedition, his auxiliaries, ten times as numerous as his vassals, rendered his
army rather a German than a French one. He caused a number of fortresses
to be constructed everywhere throughout his vast empire, but he never allowed
his subjects to build any on their own account. Yet he never seems to have
attached any importance, as a protection to his territory, to the larger
enclosed towns, in which he might have held in reserve considerable depots
of troops. He himself usually resided in rural residences and in open and
unprotected villages, barely guarded by a few military pickets. At the
slightest signal, it is true, a whole army of fideles and servitors would have
arisen as one man to defend him ; but under no circumstances would he have
consented to await his enemy under the shelter of fortifications ; he was always
the true primeval German, seeking for his field of battle the open plain rather
than the hillside, preferring cavalry to infantry, and a direct struggle, a hand-
to-hand fight, to encounters at a distance, waged and won by the missiles of
the slinger and the shafts of the bowmen. His principal victories were
gained in the open country, where he was enabled to deploy his masses
of mailed horsemen ; he never willingly sat down before a stronghold,
a circumstance which shows that he was aware of his want of skill in the
conduct of a siege ; and he was never fortunate in mountain warfare, as was
evidenced in the disastrous day of Roncevaux (778), which cast a shadow
over the last years of his Hfe.
Thirty years after the death of the great emperor, the treaty of Mersen
(847) freed the great vassals from the obHgation of answering the sum
monses of the sovereign, and of rushing to arms at his appeal, unless for the
purpose of defending the State, and substituted the practice of furnishing armed
contingents, whose services were to be rendered for a fixed period, settled
beforehand. Infeudation — a kind of political and pecuniary contract, in
virtue of which a fief was subdivided into several smaller ones— perpetuated
the feudal regime, each man becoming the man of another man, bound to
place himself at his disposal in time of war, and to be ready to start on any

WAR AND ARMIES.

47

expedition at his command, and according to the wishes of his immediate
seignior. During the tenth century this regime grew stronger and stronger. The
oath of infeudation, or the act of homage, remained a sacred tie between the
seignior and the vassal. This homage involved the rendering of numerous

HIOODOVEPS°BACVL

Fig. 41. — Bishop Eudes, holding his baton of office, encouraging the young soldiers of the Duke
of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings. — Military Costumes of the Eleventh Century, from
the Bayeux Tapestry.

feudal services, such as those of the ban, and of the arriere-ban, those
rendered by the servitors of different ranks, known as bachelors, clients,
esquires, bannerets, men-at-arms, barons, &c, names already ancient, but
whose rank and place in battle were only determined on the day when they
were all grouped and posted, each under his special banner or gonfanon, a
distinction that implied a separate kind of equipment for each.
Thus the vassals were in the power of the seignior, who, having the

48

WAR AND ARMIES.

right to dispose of their military services, enjoyed the right of reize — a right
that gave him the power of assembling and leading to battle a certain
number of feudal groups. " Obey my summons, or I will burn you ! "*
were the words of the seignior in the ban published by the crier, and, at
the second summons, the sound of the trumpet rang out in the cross roads,
in the streets, and in the country places, calling the men to arms. To fail

Fig. 42.— After the Battle of Hastings (14th October, 1066), the relatives of the vanquished came
to carry away their dead. The body of the Saxon King, Harold, is taken to Waltham by
the monks of that monastery. In the background is seen Battle Abbey, founded by Duke
William on the site of the battle. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the " Chroniques de Nor-
mandie," Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the possession of M. Ambroise Firmin-
Didot.

to answer the call of the ban was to commit a crime of the worst
character. In the great expedition of William, Duke of Normandy, against the
Anglo-Saxons (1066), he had no other auxiliaries than his Norman vassals
and subjects. He conquered Harold and took possession of England with a
numerous and trained army, furnished with terrible warlike machines and
engines (Figs. 41 and 42). The Norman Conquest was, to a certain extent,

' Arrivez, ou je vous brulerai ! '

WAR AND ARMIES. 49

a prelude to the Crusades, for those raids across the seas, repeated from time
to time for more than two centuries, bore no resemblance to the barbarian
invasions, either Saracen or Norman, which had been previously recorded in
history. New measures, inspired by the circumstances of the times, were the
consequence of the general crumbling to pieces of all the Eastern nations ;
among these may be mentioned the establishment of the communal miHtia,
which set out for a campaign accompanied by its spiritual pastors, and
received the last offices of religion at their hands on the field of battle ; the
regular pay allowed to those who were destitute of private resources (a
knight received at first ten sous a day — equivalent to ten francs of modern
money — and a squire received five) ; the chartering of ships intended for the
transport of troops ; the system of commissariat for armies in the field ; and
the supply of military equipments, arms, &c.
This communal miHtia, sprung from the freeing of the communes, and
detachments of soudoyers, or paid troops, soon grew into a standing army,
which was formally incorporated for the first time by Louis le Jeune about
1140, and increased by Philip Augustus, who added to it the affiliated
knights. Under the latter sovereign, an army in the field presented three
ranks of combatants — bannerets, knights, and squires, to whom were added
the men-at-arms. A motley crew of varlets on foot, without officers or dis
cipHne, followed the troops, and hovered about them during an engagement,
picking up the spoil of the conquered, and killing the wounded with clubs
or battle-axes, called glaives de mercy.
The disasters of the Crusaders in the East, after two centuries of useless
heroism and tremendous efforts, were principally due to the defects in their
military administration, which foresaw nothing, and was incapable of adjust
ing itself to the difficulties inherent to a war in a distant and almost
unknown land whither the enthusiastic crowds who wore the cross bent their
adventurous steps. Famine, plague, leprosy, and fever destroyed the Christian
armies on their journey to Palestine, and during their stay there ; and these
evils would have been greater still had it not been for the creation of the
different mihtary orders which sprang into existence under the pressure of
these almost inevitable calamities, and which suppHed hospital attendants,
chaplains, and soldiers. The continuation of the feudal wars (Fig. 43) in
Europe gave the last blow to the disorganization of the armies of Christ.
While Philippe le Bel was destroying the Knights Templars, whom he held
H

5°

WAR AND ARMIES.

to be obstacles to his political plans, he was at the same time seeking in every
way the means of restraining a haughty aristocracy, always under arms, whose
systematic want of discipline was a danger both to the throne and to the
country. As soon as he had obtained from the representatives of the nation,
assembled together in States- General, the right to impose taxes according to

Fig. 43. — Richard Coeur-de-Lion, King of England and Duke of Normandy, mortally wounded by
an arrow shot by Bertrand de Gourdon, at the Siege of the Castle of Chalus, in Limousin
(1199).— "ChroniqueB de Normandie," Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Library of
M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot).

the requirements of the sovereign, he set to work on the definitive organiza
tion of a permanent paid army (Fig. 44). He fixed the age of military service
at eighteen, and decreed that none of his subjects, except the old and the
sick, should be exempt from it, unless they paid a certain sum to the royal
treasury, and supplied, according to their rank and means, one or more sub
stitutes (decree of 1302, 1303, 1306) to, serve under the flag of the ost of the

WAR AND ARMIES.

5'

king (Fig. 46). Till that time, military service had only been obligatory for
forty consecutive days, or, at the most, for three months. This service was,
indeed, often of less duration, according to the different degree of infeudation
of any particular fief, and was hedged about, besides, with so many privi
leges and with so many exemptions, that if a feudal army did not succeed in

'Fig. 44.— Soldier of the Time of Philippe le
Bel. — Miniature in a Manuscript of the
Period (National Library of Paris).

Fig. 45. — Man-at-Arms with a. pot de fer with
nose-piece, a coat of mail over his leather
tunic, and armed with a short broadsword.
 Prom a Miniature in the " Dialogues
de Saint Gregoire," a Manuscript of the
Eleventh Century, in the National Library
of Paris.

bringing a short campaign to a prosperous issue, it generally met with a
fatal collapse. In accordance with his design, PhiHppe le Bel, at the opening
of the Flemish campaign, summoned "for four months to his standards,
archbishops, bishops, abbots, dukes, counts, barons, and other nobles, all
liable to the ban," each of whom could claim pay at the rate of twelve

52

WAR AND ARMIES.

deniers (about four francs) a day, besides a sum of thirty sous (about thirty
francs) for their equipment.
PhiHppe le Long (1314) and PhiHppe de Valois (1337—1340) continued
and improved the work of Philippe le Bel. Thenceforward, the ost or army of
the king was regularly established ; the cross-bowmen and the men-at-arms
were the first corps who received a permanent organization and a fixed rate
of pay. In the fourteenth century, the French infantry, composed merely of more
or less badly-armed archers, inspired its leaders with no great confidence.
Its want of skill and its cowardice too often compromised the issue of an

Fig. 46.—:

ger bringing a Letter to the King's Army.— From a Manuscript in the
National Library of Paris (Thirteenth Century).

engagement. It was necessary, in order to support those combatants always
ready to take to flight, to employ foreign mercenaries, English, ItaHan, or
German, who fought well when they were Hberally paid. These mercenaries,
more practised in war and more courageous than the soldiers of the ban,
were entrusted with the management of the cannon, which at this time were
first employed, and which were carried by the camp followers. We may here
repeat what we have spoken of elsewhere, viz., that the imperfections of the
earliest cannons, the difficulty which attended their use, and the danger
incurred by those who discharged them, caused the old arms to be long pre
ferred to these new ones. In fact, long after the new artillery had made
considerable progress) it was employed simultaneously with the ancient style
of projectiles.

WAR AND ARMIES. S3

The long period during which this important transition in projectile
weapons was slowly taking place, was one of the most wretched in the
annals of military art. All the great battles of the fourteenth century present
us with striking examples of an entire absence of skill in tactics. Mons-en-
Puelle (1304), where King Philippe le Bel was all but surprised in his camp ;
Cassel (1328), where PhiHppe de Valois escaped half naked from his enemies'
hands; Crecy (1346), where the English used cannon for the first time;
Poitiers (1356), where King John was taken prisoner on the battlefield;
NicopoHs (1393), where knighthood covered itself with disgrace ; Agincourt,
where the flower of the French nobihty perished — are all examples of the
most shameful confusion during the struggle, of the most disgraceful butchery
after the defeat. It is not too much to say, that during the whole of this
long epoch of bloody contests, true knights and staunch soldiers were very
rare, and that good leaders were even rarer still.
In Italy, the condottieri, whose principal commander was the Englishman,
John Hawkwood, and in France, the free companies, commanded by the
renowned Armand de Cervoles, and even those bands of routiers, Brabancons,
and tard-venus, who pillaged and plundered the realm to such an extent, says
an old chronicler, " that not even a cock was heard to crow in it," were the
only troops who showed any acquaintance* with the resources of mihtary war
fare or the shghtest knowledge of strategic science. It was amongst the
ranks of these indefatigable soldiers that the celebrated Bertrand du GuescHn
made his first campaign (Fig. 47).
The paid gendarmery, a mixture of heavy and light cavalry, committed,
in the reign of Charles VI., many breaches of discipline, without atoning for
them by lending any really efficacious aid to French chivalry, which was
almost entirely cut to pieces in the bloody disaster of Agincourt (October
25th, 1415). Charles VII., replaced on the throne of his ancestors by his
nobles after he had driven out the English, " by the help of God and Joan
the Virgin," determined therefore to disband the gendarmery. From the
picked men of the body he formed the framework of fifteen new companies
of artillery, numbering nine thousand combatants, amongst whom were
incorporated all the regular cavalry of the kingdom. Each gendarme,
thoroughly equipped,, was attended by two archers and two followers on
horseback ; this group of five mounted men was called a lance fully equipped.
In 1447, a sixth man and horse were added to it. A little later, Charles VII.

54

WAR AND ARMIES.

Fig. 47.— Battle of Auray (Sept. 29, 1364), between John de Montford and Charles de Blois. in
¦which Bertrand du Guesclin was made prisoner by Chandos. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in
the " Chroniques de Bretagne," by Alain Bouchard : 4to, Galliot du Pr6, 1514.

raised several paid bands, recruited by voluntary enlistment and commanded
by responsible captains, who were paid by the war treasurers, according to
the number of men on the monthly muster-roll. This creation of mer-

WAR AND ARMIES. 55

cenary troops diminished still further the importance of the ban, which was
no longer anything but a badly equipped secondary militia, though still
armed with bows and pikes, and still obliged to wear a uniform. On the
actual field of battle the pikemen were always posted in the van ; behind
them came the foot archers, wearing salades, or helmets without vizors,
the brigandine or short coat of mail, and armed with cross-bows. But
this reorganization of the troops had no invigorating effect on the infantry

Fig. 48.— Great Seal of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. The Legend, in Latin, enumerates
his titles and feudal possessions.— National Arohives of France (Fifteenth Century).
of the communes, and the franc-archer remained the type of the cowardly
soldier. #
The death of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, slain in the battle
of Nancy (1477), completed the downfall of the feudal chivalry, whose
last and most martial representative he was (Fig. 48). Louis XL, who had
gathered around him a devoted army, composed of mercenaries from all
countries, and who could entirely rely upon the fidehty of his Scottish guard,
began attacking the great fiefs, which were in reality the rivals of his throne,
and succeeded in destroying them, having no further need of them and their
haughty vassalage. Little by little the seigniorial standards disappeared, and

•-6 WAR AND ARMIES.

their war-cries ceased to resound ; a fief held under the obligation to carry arms
no longer forced the vassal, its occupier, under the pain of felony and bodily
confiscation, to equip and arm himself at the first appeal of his suzerain, and
to follow the royal ost with a definite number of fighting men. The principle
of purchasing exemption from military service being henceforward admitted,
all, whether nobles or villains, were at liberty either to serve or to purchase
their exemption. Some few feudal gendarmes still remained, but most were
free. Of the squires- at-arms, some were feudal, others free or even plain varlets.
Canons, abbots, and prelates whom feudal laws had forced to contribute their
personal military service, had long since found substitutes in the persons of the
attorneys or bailiffs, who superintended the ban and arriere-ban of the land
owning nobles. Some of the clergy, however, preferred to be individually pre
sent with the armies of their sovereign ; many a prelate or abbot was dehghted
to add to his coat-of-arms a cuirass, a sword, a helmet, or some other warlike
emblem. In 1356, the bishops of Chalons, of Sens, and of Melun distinguished
themselves by feats of personal bravery at the bloody engagement of Poitiers ;
in 1359, the Bishop of Rheims, by a few vigorous sorties, was the means of
saving that city when the English were besieging it ; the Archbishop of Sens,
William of Montaigu, fell sword in hand on the field of Agincourt ; in 1455,
a simple monk successfully defended Belgrade ; while at the siege of Plai-
sance, Philip of Savoy, Bishop of Valence, was knighted for his prowess in
the breach itself. It is true that many of these ecclesiastical dignitaries
had never been solemnly invested; but the example they followed was a
lofty one, for several popes, John X., Leo IX., Urban IL, Innocent IL, and
Julius II. (who had first distinguished himself as an able leader under the
name of Julien de la Rovere) had personally commanded the troops of the
Holy See.
The fire-stick, that is to say the arquebuse, which was then called hequebutte,
with difficulty took the place of the bow, and with stiU greater difficulty that
of the crossbow. In 1481, Louis XI. deprived his sergeants-at-arms of both
the latter weapons, not to arm them with fire-sticks, but in order to give
them the pike, the halbert, and the broadsword, of which the Swiss in the
recent wars had made such formidable use. Louis XL, however increased
the number of his mounted archers, and placed them later under the orders
of the colonel of a company of free-lances known as Albanais or Scouts.
These combined bodies formed the French national light cavalry till

ARRIVAL OF JOAN OF ARC AT THE CHATEAU DE CHINON, MARCH 6th 1428.
German tapestry of the period. Orleans museum.

WAR AND ARMIES.

5 7

Francis I. replaced them by the light horse, a. body chiefly composed of
mercenaries of different nations. In England, ever since the thirteenth
century, the mounted archers formed a considerable portion of the national
forces. An army of fifteen hundred complete lances, which represented a total
of six or seven thousand horsemen, required a complement of at least five
thousand mounted archers, who were all skilful marksmen. In the time
of Henry VIII., an English bowman could discharge as many as twelve
arrows in a minute, and he would have considered himself disgraced if he had
let fly a single shaft which failed to kill, wound, or at least strike an enemy.

Fig. 49. — German Foot-soldiers fighting. — From a Drawing by Holbein, preserved in the
Museum at Basle (Sixteenth Century).

The desperate melee of Fornoue (July 6th, 1495), which forced
Charles VIII. to retrace his steps after his successful ItaHan expedition, was
nearly the last of the confused and sanguinary struggles of the Middle Ages.
The sword and the bow contributed more than the cannon and the fire-stick
to the terrible result of the day. From that time the infantry regained its
old pre-eminence over the cavalry, and cannon were employed preferably
to all other projectile weapons. A complete revolution was also about to
ensue as well in the tactics of an army in the field as in the attack and
defence of fortresses. Louis XII. and Francis I., in their Italian cam-

WAR AND ARMIES.

paigns, in which they wasted so much of the resources and treasures of
France, had to contend with German and Spanish mercenaries, at that time
the best soldiers in the world ; they opposed to them bodies of foreign
infantry, sometimes lansquenets (Fig. 49), sometimes Swiss, who made a
trade of war, and who, to earn their pay, did not hesitate to fight against

Fig. 50.— Italian Warriors of the Fifteenth Century.— From a Bas-relief on the Triumphal Arch
of Castel Nuovo, Naples, erected in 1470 by Ferdinand of Aragon, to celebrate his Victories
over John of Calabria, Son of Rene d' Anjou.

their own countrymen. There was one drawback, however, to the acceptance
of their services, and that was that they frequently changed sides on the eve
of an engagement, or refused to fight on the slightest pretext. More than
once the knights of France saw themselves suddenly abandoned by the infantry

WAR AND ARMIES. 59

whose duty it was to support them, and who allowed them to be cut to pieces
before their eyes without stirring to assist them (Fig. 50). This happened
at the fatal battle of Pavia, when the king and his nobles struggled on foot
in hand-to-hand desperation till they fell or were taken prisoners.
In the ordinary arrangement, at this period, of an army giving battle in
the open field, the free archers, the men-at-arms, and the knights were posted
either in the centre or at the wings, while the infantry, properly so caUed,
divided into Httle groups of five, termed cinquains, was either thrown forward
to skirmish, or sent behind to cover the rearguard, or detached at intervals
on the flanks in order to harass the enemy and to protect the baggage.
During the engagement, all the knights, clad entirely in armour, dismounted
in order to fight, and left their horses to the care of the infantry. In these
days horses were only used to carry their riders on the march, which the
weight of their armour would not have allowed them to perform on foot.
A horseman, when disabled by long service or by age, was no longer
employed in the- cavalry, but retired into the infantry, where he enjoyed,
under the title of anspessade (from the Italian spezzate, broken), the privileges
that were at a later period granted to veterans.
No troops, until the time of the Crusades, had any distinguishing mark
among themselves, except the difference of their arms, and the idea of a
military uniform had not then arisen. But with the emblazoned arms, the
standards, and the pennants, there came into use scarves, worn as baldricks
or sashes, over the cuirass, and of which the colour, which generally matched
that of the standard of the feudal seignior of the wearer, became as much a
rallying signal as the standards themselves (Fig. 51). The necessity of
distinguishing friends from foes at a distance naturally also brought about
more or less marked distinctions of dress.
The administration and inner regulation of an army, which had been one
of the principal cares of the Gothic and earlier Frankish kings, were
entirely neglected, like everything pertaining to the art of war, for many
centuries. For instance, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, the
captains of the different companies were allowed to distribute the pay to
their men as they pleased after each muster, and were solely and entirely
entrusted with the administration of their companies. They were thus
entirely irresponsible, and did not concern themselves to see that the regu
lations, prescribed by superior authority, concerning the general discipline

6o

WAR AND ARMIES.

of the army, were carried into effect. In 1355, during the captivity of King
John in England, special commissioners were appointed, with the title of
controllers, whose duty it was to superintend the internal economy of the
army generally, with a view to put a stop to the numerous abuses that existed ;
but the disturbed and unfortunate period at which this attempt was made
rendered it almost necessarily a barren one. When the dauphin came to the
throne as Charles V, he returned to this project, which he had indeed himself
originated, but at his death anarchy again reigned for more than a century.

Fig. 51.— Representations of the Banner of St. Denis : No. 1, the oldest, is from a window in the
Cathedral of Chartres ; No. 3, the latest, is from a Manuscript of Froissart, No. 2644, in the
National Library (the original which it represents was carried at the defeat of Artevelde at
Rosebecque) ; No. 2, Drawing from tbe Library of the Celestins, preserved by Montfaucon.—
From " Paris and its Historians," by MM. Leroux de Lincy and L. Tisserand.
Civil and foreign wars laid waste and exhausted France, without bringing to
the surface one single creative mind, with the exception perhaps of Jean
Bureau, the grand master of artillery under Charles VIII. It is by no means
going beyond the mark to state that the reverses sustained in Italy, in the
reigns of Charles VIII. and Louis XII., were owing less to the chivalrous reck
lessness of the nobility and their ignorance of the first principles of warfare,
than to the gross faults of the mihtary administration of the country. Even in
Francis I.'s time, the public service was in such a miserable condition that he
was never reaUy properly informed of the actual effective strength of his army,

WAR AND ARMIES.

61

for his captains, whose interest it was to exaggerate the number of the rank
and file under their standards (Figs. 52 and 53), habitually deceived the
generals and their superiors. To such a degree was this carried that, on the
eve of the battle of Pavia, Francis I. was led to believe that his army was a

Fig. 52. — Knight in complete Armour. Fig. 53. — Arquebusier of the Sixteenth Century.
After Cesare Vecellio, " Degli Habiti Antichi e Moderni :" 8vo, 1590.

third stronger than it reaUy was. At last, however, in 1517, there issued
from this chaotic confusion the first germ of a proper system of supervision
and control of all matters relating to war.
If the tacticians of Italy were the first to fathom theoretically the
science of war, it was the Swiss, under Marshal Trivulce, the Spaniards,

62

WAR AND ARMIES.

under Gonzalvez of Cordova, and finally the Flemish, under the Duke
of Alba, who successfully restored the military combinations of ancient
Greece. They were the first to manoeuvre in dense masses and in battalions,
and they were the first to successfully employ the column formation of troops.
The pikemen of France followed their example, while the troops armed with
projectile weapons fought as skirmishers in the van, or in lines two or three
deep. It was not, however, till Henry IV. 's time that any considerable body

Fig. 54.— The Reapers of Death, an Allegory of War, from an Engraving of Hans-Sebald Beham
(Sixteenth Century).— Collection of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

of troops was seen capable of advancing in close column without breaking
its formation, and it was not till Louis XIII.'s time that the regiment, first
introduced in the preceding reign, became a recognised permanent military
unit. Towards the close of the fifteenth century the French native cavalry
still consisted entirely of heavy troopers. The Albanians, the mercenaries
of whom the French light cavalry were composed, sold their services, man
and horse, as the Swiss sold theirs, man and halbert. Charles VIII. enrolled

Fig. 55.— Battle of Dreux, December 19, 1562, won by Francois de Guise over the Protestants. In the foreground is. Marshal Saint-Andre
being shot by a soldier.— Fac-simile of an Engraving of the period by Tortorel and Perissin (Collection of M. Guenebaut). [To /ace page 62.

WAR AND ARMIES. 63

eight thousand Albanians for his Italian expedition ; but, fifty years later,
this foreign element had disappeared from the French army, which had by
that time, in addition to its heavy cavalry, a body of Hght cavalry of its
own (Fig. 55).
Until the reign of Henry IV., who was the first monarch to dispense
with their dangerous and immoral assistance, free lances were universally
employed even by those sovereigns who had promulgated the severest
decrees against them, but who, for want of regular soldiers, found them
selves forced to accept their doubtful services. Brantome has thus por
trayed them : " Vestus &, la pendarde, un haut de chausses bouffant ;
monstrant la jambe nue, une ou deux, portant leurs bas d^chausses pendant
a. la ceinture ; chantant en cheminant pour soulager le travail de leur
chemin."* These scouts, who served on foot, were only allowed I'itape —
that is to say, a daily allowance of food and forage; but they enjoyed
in war time the right of pillage in aU towns and fortresses taken by assault
(Fig. 56).
This system of paying auxiliary troops a V itape was first adopted in
France in the fourteenth century, and had continued in use in a desultory
manner till the reign of Henry IL, under whose order a ration scale was
drawn up, as well as a scale of provisions, cartage, and billeting due to
the king's troops from the churches, monasteries, communes, nobles, and
'l
burgesses, through the possessions of which and in whose neighbourhood
their road lay.
The legal age at which the enlistment of soldiers could be made, the
manner in which it was effected, and the length of service, varied con
siderably throughout the Middle Ages and the period of the Benalssance.
In Henry II.'s time it was a custom to hire the soldier for three months ;
Henry IV. increased this period, but not without difficulty, for, to quote
the words of Sully, "Our soldiers can now only be enlisted by force, and
can only be persuaded to march by the use of the stick and the threat of
the gibbet." To this picture we must add the significant fact that the
system of drill was a very insufficient one, and that it was by no means
unusual to find soldiers, whose stay with the standards was after all but a

* " Dressed like ragamuffins, with puffed trunk hose ; some going barelegged with their
stockings hanging to their girdle ; singing as they trudge along to lighten the toil of the road."

64

WAR AND ARMIES

very temporary one, entirely incapable of handling the arms they were
entrusted with. The urban miHtia were, however, far superior to these
recruits, for, since the reign of Charles V., it was customary to driU the
citizen every Sunday with pike, bow, and crossbow, particularly in the
frontier towns. It is not till Coligny's time, in the middle of the sixteenth

Fig. 56.— Soldiers of the German Bands. — From an Oil Painting by Joachim Bueclear
(Frankfort, 1548—1596), in the possession of M. Paul de Saint- Victor.
century, that traces can be found of any regulations imposing on command
ing officers the duties of teaching and drilling their soldiers.
We have attempted to outline the general military physiognomy of the
Middle Ages ; we will now rapidly examine the weapons and warHke
engines that were invented for the attack and defence of fortified places.

WAR AND ARMIES.

65

Until the invention of gunpowder, or rather till that of artillery (Fig. 57),
the whole art of fortification, says the learned Prosper Merimee, consisted in
foUowing more or less exactly the traditions handed down by the Bomans.
The stronghold of the Middle Ages had precisely the same characteristic as
the ancient castellum. The methods of attack against which the engineers
had to guard were the assault by escalade, either by surprise or by force of
numbers, and the breach, caused either by sapping, mining, or by the

Fig. 57.— Mortars on Movable Carriages. -From an Engraving in the " Kriegsbuch " of
Fronsperger : in folio, Frankfort, 1575.

battering-rams of the besiegers. The employment of machines or engines
of this description was much less frequent after than before the fall of the
Eoman empire, when the art of war knew no higher flight than to lay siege
to a place or sustain a siege.
The first operation of the besiegers was to destroy the outworks of the
besieged place, such as the posterns, the barbicans, the barriers, &c. As
most of these outworks were built of wood, attempts were generally made to
cut them to pieces with hatchets, or to set them on fire with arrows to
K

66

WAR AND ARMIES.

which were fastened pieces of burning tow steeped in sulphur, or some other
incendiary composition.
If the main body of the place were not so strongly fortified as to render
a successful assault by force impossible, it was usual to attempt an escalade.

Fig. 58. — Caltrop, or Crow's-foot (Fourteenth Century).
With this end in view, the moat, which was generally literally strewn
with caltrops (Fig. 58), was filled up with fascines, on which ladders were
reared against the ramparts, while archers on the brink of the ditch, pro-

Fig. 59.— Rolling Tower for scaling the Walls of Towns.— Miniature from the " Histoire du
Monde," Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century (Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot).

tected by mantlets stuck in the ground, drove away with their arrows
any of the defenders who attempted to show themselves above the parapets
or at the loopholes.
If the siege, in spite of the efforts of the besiegers, promised to be a long
one, a blockade was the sole remaining means of reduction, though this was a

WAR AND ARMIES.

6?

thing difficult to carry out with forces which were not permanent, and which
were generally far from numerous. It therefore became necessary for the
besieger to protect his approaches by wooden, earthen, or even stone works,
constructed under cover of the night, and solid and lofty enough to enable
his archers to aim right on to the battlements of the besieged place.
Wooden towers, several stories high, were also frequently resorted to, put
together piece by piece at the edge of the moat, or constructed out of bow
shot, and subsequently rolled on wheels to the foot of the walls (Fig. 59).

Fig. 60.—!

of a Town : Summons to lay down the arms and open the gates. — From i
Copperplate in the "Kreigabuch" of.Fronsperger.

At the siege of Toulouse, in 1218, a machine of this kind was built by the
order of Simon de Montfort, capable of accommodating, according to the
baUad of the " Albigeois," five hundred men.
When the missiles hurled from the higher stories of these towers — termed
chattes in the south, chats, chateaux, bretesches, in the north — had driven the
besieged from their ramparts and battlements, a movable bridge was lowered
across the moat, and a hand-to-hand struggle then took place (Fig. 59). The
besieged, to prevent or retard the approach of these dreaded towers, were

68

WAR AND ARMIES.

accustomed to hurl immense stones and lighted darts against them, or to
undermine or inundate the ground on which they stood, so that their own
weight might cause them to topple over. ".*
Besides the means we have just described, there sti1! remained the sap
and the mine. Miners, equipped with pickaxes^, were £ it into the d'tch
under the protection of a body of archers. A doping roof, covered with
mantlets, sheltered them from the missiles of the besieged. They then pierced
the wall, stone by stone, till they had made a hole large enough' to allow the

Fig. 61.— Capture of a Town : the Garrison surrendering and throwing themselves on the mercy
of the captors.— Miniature from the "Histoire du Monde," Manuscript of the Fourteenth
Century (Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot) .

passage of several soldiers at once, while the sappers put the finishing stroke
to the aperture. The besieged, observing in what direction the enemy was
pursuing his operations, strove to concentrate all his means of defence at this
point. Sometimes he attempted to crush the miners with immense stones or
pieces of wood, sometimes he poured molten lead or boiling oil over them,
sometimes, by hastily constructing a fresh wall in rear of the one the miners
were breaking through, he gave the latter the trouble of beginning their
work aU over again just as they thought it was complete.
The mine had this advantage over the sap— that the besieger, being out
of sight while engaged in the former method of subterranean work, had every

Schmit k C" Paris

CHARLES, DUKE OF BURGUNDY,
UPON HIS THRONE, SURROUNDED BY HIS BARONS AND COUNCILLORS.
Miniature from the Abridged Chronicles of Burgundy, manuscript of the ¦£•¦•'>• century.

WAR AND ARMIES.

6g

chance of surprising the besieged. In order to effect this, an underground
gallery was dug as noiselessly as possible, and carried beneath the founda
tions of the ramparts. When the mine had reached the walls, these were
propped up with pieces of timber, and the earth was dug away until they
were supported entirely by this artificial method. Dry vine wood and other
inflammable materials were then piled round the props and set on fire,

Fig. 62. — Watch-tower, lighted up with beacons and protected by dogs. — Fac-simile of a
Miniature of the Fifteenth Century, from a Drawing by M. Prosper Merimee.

so that when the timber was consumed the walls crumbled down and opened
a large breach to the besiegers. Nothing then was left to the garrison but
to surrender, in order to avoid the horrors of an assault and the sack of
the town (Figs. 60 and 61).
The only remedy possessed by a garrison against this last method of
attack was to keep a good watch and to endeavour to discover the where-

7°

WAR AND ARMIES.

abouts of the mine, and neutralise it by a countermine. At the siege of
Bennes, in 1356, the governor of the town ordered basins of copper, each con
taining several globes of the same metal, to be placed all about the ramparts ;
when these globes were seen to vibrate and tremble at each stroke of the
hidden pickaxe, it was easy to guess that the mine was not far off. There
was also a body of night watchmen, who carefully noted the enemy's move
ments, and who rang the alarm-bell at the slightest noise. These watchmen

w

w%
)-*S— »&¦
Y^^A/O \ \j
fllk
Hiil^\ °\<^
fS§*o X. )
•^o^^^^at
/¦^B^r ° i""
1 /Hff J
^^^.o ~J
o^^XW^I^^
Iwlj/
?Sllifl
¦».T){/
fjJ^^^M
*^^Y #
4^2^
^^^^^
<*. <^
— -
 :
a "^^ *""*
Fig. 63.— Machine intended to break the ranks
of the enemy and to crush his soldiers. —
Vegece, " L'Art Militaire:" 1532.
Fig. 64. — Machine to shoot arrows, and to assist
in approaching a besieged town. — Eobert
Valturin, "La Discipline Militaire :" 1555.
were often replaced by dogs, whose barks, in case of a surprise, gave notice to
the garrison (Fig. 62).
The slow and laborious work of the miner was often advantageously
replaced by the more powerful action of certain machines, which may be
divided into two distinct classes. The first, intended to be used at close
quarters and to make a breach in the wall, comprised several varieties of the
ancient battering-ram; the second, employed at a distance, were termed
pierriers, mangonneaux, espringales, &c. (Figs. 63 and 64.)
WAR AND ARMIES.

71

The battering-ram, which was probably well known from the remotest
periods, is described, in the documents of the Middle Ages, pretty much as
we see it figured on the monuments of Nineveh. " On Easter day," says the
anonymous author of the chronicle of the " Albigeois," " the bosson (the
southern name of the battering-ram) was placed in position ; it is long, iron-
headed, straight, and pointed, and it so hammered, and pierced, and smashed,
that the waU was broken through (Fig. 65) ; but they (the besieged) lowered
a loop of rope suspended from a machine, and in this noose the bosson was
caught and retained. "
Generally speaking, the battering-ram was a long, heavy beam, suspended

Fig. 65. — Battering-ram. — From a Miniature in Manuscript 17,33t> in the .National Library
of Paris.

in the centre from a kind of massive trestle. The end which battered the
wall was either covered with an iron hood or pointed with brass. The
beam was- swung backward and forward by the besiegers, and by dint of
striking a wall always in the same spot it often succeeded in shattering
or overthrowing it. At other times the ram, instead of being suspended in
an oscillating manner, was mounted on wheels, and run forward with great
rapidity against the wall to be battered. The chronicle of the " Albigeois,"
just quoted, alludes to the head of the ram being caught in a noose ;
besides this manoeuvre, the garrison would hurl stones and pieces of timber
upon it, in order to break it or to put it out of trim ; or else they would
strive to deaden its blows by interposing a thick mattress of wool covered
with leather between it and the stonework of their stronghold.
The machines which they employed to hurl their projectiles seem to

7*

WAR AND ARMIES.

have corresponded in nearly every respect with the catapults of the ancients.
It was often merely a species of gigantic sling, worked by several men, and
throwing pieces of rock and round masses of stone. The mangonneau, bricole,
or trabuch, was a kind of square wooden platform, made of thick planks laid
crosswise; a long beam, fastened at its lower end by a revolving axis to
the platform, was supported at an angle of about 45° by an elevated cross-
piece resting on two uprights. The distance between the revolving axis

Fig. 66. — Catapult. — "When the lever revolves rapidly on its axis, the centrilugal power causes the
loop C to slip off the hook D, when the barrel held on the fork E E is liberated and projected
to a distance. F represents the end of the lever when held down by the windlass A, and
loaded with a barrel of combustible matter or iron. B, rings of stone, iron, or lead.

and the point of support was about one-half of the length of the beam.
The latter was then secured in this position by long cords fastened to the
front of the platform. The men who managed the bricole then lowered
the beam backwards by a windlass fixed in the rear, till it (the beam) formed
an obtuse instead of an acute angle with the platform, and tiH the cord
securing it in front was stretched to its utmost tension. While it was in
this position the projectile they wished to cast was placed in the spoon-
shaped extremity of the beam. A spring, termed declic, then released the

WAR AND ARMIES. 73

tension of the windlass and the beam, obeying that of the cord fastened to
the front of the platform, swung rapidly forward, and hurled the projectile
to great distances and to some considerable height (Fig. 66). These bricoles
were sometimes employed to throw into besieged strongholds the dead bodies
of horses and other animals, fire-balls, and cases of inflammable matter ; but
they were generally used to shatter the roofs of the buildings inside the
waUs, and to crush the protecting wooden sheds constructed on the ramparts.
Their use was still continued long after the invention of gunpowder. In
the wars of the fourteenth century, particularly in the sieges of Tarazonia,
Barcelona, and Burgos, bricoles were made use of side by side with cannons
discharged with gunpowder. It was not until the close of the fifteenth
century that the rapid progress of the new artillery, which enabled besiegers
to breach a wall from a considerable distance, and with a smaller expenditure
both of time and men, caused the whole paraphernalia of the old-fashioned
balistic machines to fall into disuse. Thenceforward a new era commenced
in the science of attack and defence — an era of which the immense results
do not belong only to the period of the Renaissance.

S1L

Fig. 67.— Ballista. — From a Miniature in Manuscript 17,339, in the
NationalLibrary of Paris.

NAVAL MATTERS.

Old Traditions : Long Vessels and Broad Vessels. — The Dromon. — The Galeasse. — The Coque. —
Caracks and Galleons. — Francis I.'s Great Carack. — Caravelles. — The Importance of a Fleet.
— Hired Fleets. — Poop Guards. — Naval Laws. — Seaport Tribunals. — Navigation in the
open Seas. — The Boussole. — Armament of Men-of-War. — Towers and Ballistic Engines. —
Artillery. — Naval Strategy. — Decorations and Magnificent Appointments of Vessels. — Sails
and Flags.. — The Galley of Don Juan of Austria. — Sailors' Superstitions. — Discipline and
Punishments.

HIPS from the most remote ages have
been divided into two classes, namely,
long vessels, those propeUed by the oar
or by the wind, sometimes by the two
combined, and vessels of greater beam,
which trusted to their sails alone.
The Middle Ages conformed to these
traditions; they possessed gaUeys
which answered to the long vessels
of antiquity, and ships which corre
sponded to the larger class.
The galleys of the Middle Ages, like the long vessels of antiquity, may
be divided into several varieties. The large galley (Fig. 68), strong in build
and swift in sailing, had received from the Greeks the significant name of
dromon (runner). In the fifth century Theodoric had a thousand dromons
constructed for the defence of the Italian coasts and for the transport of corn ;
in the ninth, the Emperor Leo the Philosopher, in the mihtary precepts he
gave to his son, recommended the construction of dromons with two tiers of
oars, five-and-twenty in each tier on each side. For the flag-ship (if we may
use the term) of the commander of the fleet, he recommended the construc
tion of a much larger dromon with a hundred oars in each tier, similar to

NAVAL MATTERS. 75

those that used to be built in Pamphylia, and which, for that reason, were
known as pamphiles. The fleet was to be accompanied by smaller dromons,
with a single tier of oars, for the purpose of carrying despatches, and to act
as scouts. These bore more particularly the name of galleys. For more
than three hundred years the construction and rigging of ships underwent
no change (Fig. 69) ; in the twelfth century the dromon was still the
principal type of the class of ships propelled by oars. Next came the galley,
smaller than the dromon, but fitted, Hke it, with two tiers of oars, and
lastly, the galion or galiide (termed later the galiot), a much smaller vessel
than the galley.
The largest and the best-armed galley which at that period ploughed the
Mediterranean was the one encountered by Richard Coeur de Lion, according

Fig. 68. — Poop of an Ancient Galley. — From Pompeian Paintings collected in the
Bourbon Museum, Naples.
to the historian Matthew Paris, on the 3rd of June, 1191, near the coast of
Syria, and which was carrying large reinforcements to the camp of the
unbelievers, who were besieging at that time the town of Acre. When the
sailors of the English fleet first perceived this gigantic vessel, whose vast
huU was painted with the most brilliant colours, whose poop was surmounted
with a castellated tower, whose three masts unfurled to the wind an immense
expanse of canvas, and whose long oars beat the waves with majestic
rhythm, they were surprised, and undecided how to act. Eichard, however,
ordered his men to attack the floating fortress. His lighter galleys sur
rounded it on all sides, in spite of the arrows and glass vases showered on
them by the dromon. These vases broke when they came in contact with the
galleys, and enveloped them in Greek fire. The captain of the Arab craft

NAVAL MATTERS.

attempted to sail away from his swarm of assailants, but tbe wind feH, and
half his rowers having been slain by the English arrows, he was forced to
accept battle. The galleys skirmished around the dromon, striking it re
peated blows with their brazen prows, and making large holes in its sides.
At last, after a desperate resistance, the giant was engulfed in the waters
with all its defenders.
A companion craft to the dromon, as before mentioned, was the pamphile,
which, before disappearing in the fifteenth century, frequently changed its
shape and character. Nor must we forget the chelande (Fig. 70), or selandre,
which a writer of the eleventh century represents as a ship of extraordinary
length, of great speed, possessing two tiers of oars, and a crew of a hundred

Fig. 69.— A Norman Vessel (Eleventh Century).— Restoration from the Bayeux Tapestry.
and fifty men, and which, three centuries later, became a large flat saihng
vessel, and was termed chaland. The taride, a kind of merchant galley with
oars, and the huissier, the name of which was derived from a huis, or large
door, which opened in its side in front of the poop to allow of the embarkation
of horses, were contemporaneous with the pamphile and with the selandre; as
also was the chat or chatte, which William of Tyre mentions in connection
with a maritime war which took place in 1121. According to him it was a
ram-armed vessel, larger than a galley, and carried a hundred oars, each of
which was handled by two men.
Besides aU these there were the bucentaures (Fig. 71), large Yenetian
galleys, and the sagettes, or sdities (arrows), whose names denote their slender
shape and speed, and which, with their twelve or fifteen oars on each side,

NAVAL MATTERS.

11

played the same part in the twelfth century as the baliner, or barineal, and
the brigantin played from the fourteenth to the seventeenth.
There were two sorts of vessels used in the fifteenth and the sixteenth
centuries also belonging to the numerous and varied family of the galley —

Fig. 70. — Turreted Vessel which protected the Port of Venice. — From a Medal struck in
honour of the Doge P. Candiano L, who died in 887 (Venetian Museum).
the fuste and the fregate, both smaller examples of the galeace. A galley
was termed galiassc (Fig. 72) when it was of large size, powerfully armed,
and propelled by such long and heavy oars that it took six or seven men to
work one of them.

Fig. 71. — The Bueentaure, State Barge used for the Marriage of the Doge of Venice with the
Sea. — From the Model preserved in the Arsenal of Venice.

We have not by any means exhausted the number of long vessels pro
pelled by oars, but we will now turn to those which only used sails, and
which were termed nefs, or round vessels.
In the tenth century the Venetians employed these large heavy vessels,
which they had adopted from the Saracens, and which were termed cumbaries
(from the Latin cymba), or gombaries. To the same class belonged the coque

7?

NAVAL MATTERS.

(Fig- 73), which, according to an old chronicler, had a round stem and stern,
a high freeboard, and drew very Httle water. This style of vessel, which
from its shape was considered insubmersable, was largely used both for war
like and commercial purposes, from the twelfth to the close of the fifteenth
century. The coque, so frequently employed in the Middle Ages, doubtless
suggested the construction of another large vessel of the same sort, called
by the Venetians buzo, by the Genoese panzono, and busse by the Provencaux,
three words having a similar signification* These various names plainly indi-

Fig. 72. — Sketch of a Galley of the Sixteenth Century, painted in distemper on the door of a
cupboard preserved in the Doria Palace, Genoa.
cate the character of this kind of vessel, namely, that it was a broad-beamed,
slow-saiHng craft, but one capable of carrying large and heavy cargoes.
Such names, however, as gombaries, coques, and busses, are nowadays as
completely forgotten as the ships to which they were apphed, while such
terms as carraque and galliot still convey a meaning understood by everybody.
Indeed, they immediately call up in the mind the memory of the numerous
Spanish galleons which, according to popular tradition, were constantly
returning home laden with Peruvian gold, and of those gigantic caracks
which, hailing from the French ports on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean,

* Large-sided.

NAVAL MATTERS.

79

invested the navy of France, in the reigns of Louis XII. and Francis I.,
with such a splendid and imposing renown.
In 1545, Francis I. had a magnificent carack constructed in Normandy,
so richly decorated, with such lofty decks and towers, and so capitally
appointed, that it was caUed the Great Carack. It was anchored in the
roadstead of Havre-de-Grace. Henry VIII. ordered one equally splendid
(Fig. 74), in which he intended to embark when he started to meet his
brother sovereign at the famous Field of the Cloth of Gold. The French
vessel was about to set sail at the head of a powerful fleet dispatched to meet

Fig. 73. — The Coque. — From a Miniature in a Manuscript Virgil of the Fifteenth Century
(Riccardi Library, Florence).

the English. The King, desirous of inspecting it, boarded it on the eve of
its departure, accompanied by a numerous and brilliant court. A collation .
had been prepared for him and his suite, the band was playing, salutes
were thundering out in his honour, and he himself was in the midst of his
inspection of the floating citadel, when suddenly cries of alarm were heard.
A fire had broken out between decks ; it burnt with astonishing rapidity,
and, before help could be efficiently rendered, the whole of the rigging was
in flames. In a few hours all that remained of the Great Carack was an
immense hull, half consumed, aground on the beach, upon which the sea
was casting up the corpses of those of the crew who were killed by the dis
charge of its cannons during the progress of the conflagration.

8o

NAVAL MATTERS.

Fig. 74. — Man-of-War in which Henry VIII., King of England, embarked in 1520 at Dover to
come to France.— From a Drawing by Holbein.

The galliot occupied an intermediate place between the ship properly so
called and the large galley. It was, in fact, a slighter vessel, longer and
narrower in the beam than all other kinds of ships. Galliots were sometimes,

NAVAL MATTERS.

81

but not often, propeUed by oars (Fig. 76). The ordinary build of gaUiot,
whose poop consisted of two rounded quarter circles, separated by the
rudder-post, had two decks ; the largest of all had three. Two remarkable
gaHiots are mentioned in history, one of which was an exact model of the
celebrated Great Carack. It was built at Venice to carry three hundred
guns and five hundred soldiers, besides its own crew of sailors, but while
still in the lagoons it was caught in a tremendous hurricane. Being severely
tossed by the wind and the waves, its rolls threw the whole of its heavy
ordnance to the port-side, and, being unable to right itself, it turned over,
and went down in sight of the town.

Fig. 75.— Spanish Ship of the End of the Fifteenth Century.— From an Engraving in the
" Arte del Navegar," by Peter of Medina.

Merely mentioning the palandres, the kourques, the pataches, and the
mahpnes, which were smaller than the galHot, but which had certain advan
tages of their own, we come to a craft whose diminutive dimensions have
not prevented it from acquiring a kind of historical renown, in consequence
of the important events at the close of the fifteenth century in which it
played a part. The craft we refer to is the caravel (Fig. 77), which had the
honour of carrying Columbus to the New World. The design of the caravel
was taken from the caravoy& small barque used by the Spaniards. The grace,
the lightness, the fine outHnes, and the speed of the caravel, recommended
it to the hardy mariners who sailed, in search of new continents, across the

82

NAVAL MATTERS.

Atlantic Ocean. Narrow at the poop, wide at the prow, carrying a double
tower at its stern, and a single one at its bows, the caravel carried four
vertical masts and one inclined one. Two square sails were bent from the
foremast, while the three others each bore a single triangular one (Fig. 78).
The caravel sailed as well against the wind as before it, and tacked as
easily as a row boat ; so, at least, we are told in the log of the first voyage
of Columbus. It is, therefore, an undeniable fact that the sailors of the Middle Ages
did not lack large and handsome ships, though the boldest mariner did
not care to put too much salt water between his craft and the shore, and,
as a rule, the longest voyages were made by following the outline of the

Fig. 76.— Three-masted Galley, with Square Sails, of the Sixteenth Century.— From a Picture by
Raphael in the Cathedral of Sienna.
coast. The Middle Ages, moreover, could often boast the possession.
of considerable fleets. In 1242 the Genoese put to sea with ninety-three
galleys, thirty traders, and three large ships, to struggle for the supremacy
of the seas with a hundred and ten Pisan and Imperial galleys. At
the beginning of the same century the Crusaders, when they set sail to
attack Constantinople, had a fleet of three hundred vessels according
to one writer, and of four hundred and eighty according to another.
Amongst them there was one caUed The World, of such large size and so
beautifully finished that it. was the admiration of all the ports along the
coasts of the Mediterranean. Joinville, the ingenuous historian of the
crusades of Louis IX., tells us that that sainted king sailed from the port of
Aigues-Mortes with a fleet of " eighteen hundred vessels, large and small,"

NAVAL MATTERS.

83

some of which carried as many as a thousand passengers, and some a
hundred horses.
In 1295, the combined French and Norwegian fleets, intended to act
against the Enghsh (Figs. 79 and 80.) in the wars of Philippe le Bel and
Edward I., amounted to upwards of five hundred vessels, two hundred and
sixty of which were galleys, and three hundred and thirty ships of different

Fig. 77.— Spanish Caravel in which Columbus discovered America.— From a Drawing attributed
to Columbus, and placed in the "Epistola Christofori Columbi:" undated edition (1494?), 8vo.
sizes. Three centuries later fleets were not a whit more numerous or more
powerful, though better equipped and organized. In 1570, Sultan SeHm sent
from Constantinople, against the island of Rhodes, a fleet of a hundred and
sixteen galleys, thirty galliots, thirteen fustes, six large "ships, one gaUeon,
eight mahones, forty passe-chevaux (horse transports), and a great number of
caramoussats, laden with provisions, with artillery, and with stores of all

8+

NAVAL MATTERS.

kinds. The Christians, under Marco-Antonio Colonna, could only oppose to
this formidable flotilla one hundred and four galleys, twelve gateasses, one
large galleon, and fourteen large ships.
But in point of fact, and it was one of the consequences of feudaHsm,
large fleets were never constructed and kept up by the governments under
whose authority they put to sea. Kings and republics possessed, it is true,
a small number of vessels of their own that carried their flag, but, generaUy
speaking, too few to allow them to attack a formidable enemy, or to enable

Fig. 78. — French Caravel. — From " Premieres (Euvresde J. Devaux, Pilole du Havre," Manuscript
of the Sixteenth Century, in the National Library of Paris.
them to defend themselves against one. Here, again, a complete analogy
existed between feudal rights at sea and those on land. Feudalism possessed
its' ships as well as its castles. The barons who possessed estates near the
sea-coast were bound to keep up at their own cost one or more vessels, fitted
either for war or commerce. The rich merchants of Venice, of Genoa, of
Marseilles, and, in later times, of Havre, of Dieppe, and of Antwerp
(Fig. 81), by means of their vast wealth, either individually or by com
bining together, maintained flotillas of galleys and ships.
When war was imminent, and it became necessary to prepare a fleet to

NAVAL MATTERS.

carry the Crusaders, the sovereign directed the nobles who held fiefs and
were ship-owners to prepare their vessels for sea, and to equip and arm
them — an order which did not .require any long time or especial pains to carry
into effect, for at that period every sea being infested with pirates, merchant
vessels were always forced to keep themselves armed in self-defence. Each
sailor of the crew could, at a pinch, be turned into a soldier ; and, besides
these, there were always cross-bowmen and regular soldiers, whose duty it
was to be the first to board an enemy's ship, or to beat back his boarders

Fig. t9.— Seal of the Town of Dover (1281)

with handspikes and cross-bow shafts. To embark, therefore, a few catapults
and a few extra soldiers was all that was ordinarily required to transform a
peaceable merchant vessel into a ship or gaUey of war.
The admiral appointed to the command of the fleet published the order
to arm in every port under his master's rule. In virtue of this order, the
first proceeding was to exhibit the cartel— a. scroll fastened to the top of
a post or the end of a lance— announcing that so many vessels of such and
such a kind were to be ready equipped within a given time, to take the seas
against such and such an enemy, or to proceed in such and such a
direction. Besides the cartel, which was displayed on the shore or in the

86

NAVAL MATTERS.

gateway of the town, surrounded with garlands and pennants, floated the
standard of the prince, which had previously been blessed at a solemn mass
celebrated to pray for the success of the under taking. The sea trumpets rang
out their fanfares, and a herald at arms repeated in a loud voice the purport of
the cartel. A clerk stood by, pen in hand, for the purpose of registering the
names of the sailors and marines, who, as they gave them, settled the con
ditions of their engagement. A formal contract binding both sides was then
signed and sealed before a notary, and as soon as sufficient hands had volun
teered, the cartel was taken down and the trumpets ceased to sound.

Fig. 80.— Seal of the Town of Yarmouth (Thirteenth Century).
When the ships of the sovereign, and of the nobles and burgesses his
feudal vassals, were insufficient in number to form the fleet with which it
was desirable to put to sea, recourse was had to allies and to foreign navies
in general. Vessels were bought, hired, and chartered, but in the latter
case they were usually only employed as transports. The merchants of Genoa
and Venice were in this manner the principal charterers for the Crusaders.
In 1246, Saint Louis addressed a demand to them for ships, at the same
time making a similar request to the merchants of Marseilles. Emissaries
from the king were sent into Provence and Italy to make contracts for the
construction and chartering of vessels for the transport of the armed

NAVAL MATTERS.

87

pilgrims who were to accompany him to the Holy Land. These envoys,
amongst whom was Brother Andrew, "the prior of the holy house of
Jerusalem," made the necessary arrangements with the podestate of Genoa,
with the Duke of Venice, and with the syndicate of the commune of
Marseilles, and settled the size of the ships, the number of their crew, the
space reserved for each passenger and each horse, and the difl'erent tariffs
for the berths in the fore and aft .towers, for those in the main saloons

Fig. 81. — View of the Port of Antwerp in 1520. — Fac-simile of a Drawing by Albert Diirer,
in the Gallery of the Archduke Albert, at Vienna.

(termed paradis), for those between decks, and for those under the lower
deck. In 1263 the arrangements for St, Louis's second crusade were carried out
in a simUar manner.
Genoese vessels reappear in the " army of the sea prepared in the year
of grace 1295 " by Philippe le Bel against Edward I. of England ; in the
fleet equipped in 1337 by Philippe de Valois against Edward III. ; and in the
splendid flotiUa lost by Nicholas Behuchet, a French admiral, at l'Ecluse in
1340. Two centuries later the Genoese again contributed ten caracks to

NAVAL MATTERS.

the armada prepared by the order of Francis I. on the coast -of Normandy,
though most of them unfortunately foundered at the mouth of the Seine
through the ignorance of their pUots. History also informs us that Andrew
Doria (Fig. 82), a Genoese, was one of Francis' admirals, having commanded
that sovereign's Mediterranean fleet for several months.
The adventurers who served on board vessels chartered by a sovereign or a

Fig. 82.— Andrew Doria (1468— 1560).— From a Portrait of the Period in the CoUection of ihe
Doges of Genoa. — National Library of Paris.
foreign State were usually the sons, brothers, relations, friends, or dependents
of the captains who commanded them. Moreover, the chosen band which,
under the name of retenue de poupe * (Fig. 83), was entrusted with the duty
of defending the captain's flag, was solely recruited from among these
adventurers. Their principal duty being the defence of this flag, which
floated on the starboard side close to the entrance to the poop, they were

Poop Guard.

NAVAL MATTERS. «9

expected never to leave their post, except at the captain's express order.
Even when a gaUey was boarded at the stern, and its deck, up to the main
mast, was swarming with the enemy, all was by no means lost, for the poop
still remained, in the hands of its brave defenders, who died at their post
rather than yield. Among the splendid feats of arms which have adorned
naval history, many instances could be cited when a ship's safety was secured
by the desperate resistance of its poop guard. The warriors of the sea
(Figs. 84 and 85) were always distinguished for their extreme intrepidity
and boldness, and it is easy to believe that from them emanated the system

Fig. 83.— Seal of the Town of Sandwich, representing the Poop Guard
(Thirteenth Century).
of submarine warfare (Figs. 86 and 87), which, in the fifteenth century, gave
birth to a series of extraordinary inventions in nautical weapons.
It is to the credit of these benighted ages, too often accused of barbarism
and social anarchy, that in most of the Mediterranean ports overseers were
appointed, whose duty it was to inspect and survey everything connected
with voyages beyond the sea— that is to say, voyages to the Holy Land. This
friendly tribunal settled all differences between the passengers or pilgrims
and the ship-owners or captains, according to the terms of their reciprocal
contracts. One part of their duties was to carefuUy measure the space
assigned to each passenger, to see that every individual had his proper allot-

NAVAL MATTERS.

ment, so as to secure that all were made as comfortable as possible for the
voyage, which usually lasted for twenty-five or thirty days.
In point of fact, a perfect maritime code was drawn up to regulate during
the passage the mutual relations of the different inmates of the same vessel,

Fig. 84.-Galley Soldier (Sixteenth Century). Fig. 85.— Galley Slave (Sixteenth Century).
From Cesare Vecellio, " Degli Habiti Antichi :" 8vo, 1590.
and to establish a reciprocity between the ships of friendly nations. The
merchant, for instance, who spent a great portion of his life at sea, was
treated on board ship with greater deference than the soldier who was there
for a short time only. When several merchants chartered a vessel in common
for the transport of their merchandise, and proceeded to sea in it themselves,
the captain was bound to consult them and to follow their advice in aU

NAVAL MATTERS.

9>

perils, whenever storms threatened, or when from a dread of pirates it seemed
advisable to put into the nearest port. Before setting sail, the captain
and the crew swore upon the Gospel to defend the ship and its passengers
against the elements and against man. In the latter case, however, the
merchants themselves became soldiers for the nonce, and were prepared to
assist in the defence of their floating home.
It was usual, in order to give both vessels and merchants the best possible
chance, for ships, not strong enough separately to resist pirates, to sail

m

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Fig. 86.— The Diver.
Fig. 87.— Man-at-Arms.
From Woodcuts by Vegece, in " L'Art Militaire :" Paris, Christian Wechel, 1532, small 4to.
together in twos and threes, or, if possible, in stiU larger numbers. When a
large powerful ship feU in with a smaUer vessel which claimed its protection,
it was bound to throw it a hawser so as to fasten the two vessels together,
and enable them to assist one another in case of need. A ship's captain
who refused to render this service to a smaller craft than his own, would
have run the risk of a very heavy punishment. The maritime code, whose
regulations were decided by the overseers, laid down that aU merchandise
entrusted to a ship's captain should be properly stored away in the hold, and
not left on the deck, on which the rigging, the carpenter's and calker's tools,
92

NAVAL MATTERS.

the weapon cases, and the water casks were alone to be placed. SimUarly,
any damage done to the cargo during the voyage, owing to bad stowage
or bad ballasting, was liable to be made good by the ship-owner, who was
bound to have his ship in the best possible condition, and who was held
responsible for the proper preservation of the cargo.

Fig. 88.— Discovery of the Antilles by Columbus.— From a Drawing attributed to him in the
" Epistola Christofori Columbi :'' undated (1494 ?), 8vo.
Longer voyages began to be undertaken in the fifteenth century, naviga
tion having been rendered less dangerous by the improvements in the
mariner's compass, in the quadrant, and in other nautical instruments.
Ships went as far as to the Azores, and to the Canary Islands, to the coast of
Guinea, and to the East Indies ; and one even touched at the new continent
discovered by Columbus (Fig. 88), and named by Americus Vespazius.
Certain seasons of the year, however, were considered dangerous, during

NAVAL MATTERS.

93

which all navigation was absolutely forbidden by law. Already, in the
fourth century, the magistrates entrusted with naval matters closed the sea
from the third day of the Ides of November to the sixteenth of the Ides
of March ; in the thirteenth century, the season opened in April and closed
in October. In the sixteenth, no vessel could legally return to Venice from
Constantinople, Alexandria, or the coast of Syria, from the 15th of November
to the 20th of January. Although this regulation, which had for its object
the protection of seafaring men, was often broken, there were others emanat
ing from the same source, and issued in the same spirit, that were more

Fig. 89.— Seal of the Town of Poole (Thirteenth Century).

binding. For instance, galleys (galleys were frequently used in commercial
ventures), as soon as they were launched, underwent a minute inspection by
the overseers, who, after satisfying themselves of the solidity of their con
struction, gauged their capacity, and marked the water Hne on their side,
beyond which it was illegal to submerge them.
But we wUl leave a subject whose complicated details would lead us too
far, and return to the equipment proper of vessels. As far back as the tenth
century, . the Emperor Leo originated the practice of buUding towers for
attack and defence on the deck of the dromons ; these towers, from the centre
of which sprang the mainmast, reached half-way up the mast. This custom
was still observed in the thirteenth century, and was no doubt handed

94

NAVAL MATTERS.

down from very ancient times when it was usual to build towers and
citadels on the decks of triremes. The round class of vessels were also
provided with towers, one fore and another aft. In the smaUer vessels
these towers were simply- platforms surrounded with a crenulated parapet
and raised upon pillars (Fig. 89) ; in the larger ones, the towers were
constructed of several stories added to the normal elevation of the poop
and prow. Mangonels, catapults, and other projectUe machines were placed
on these towers and platforms. The big ships especially carried terrible
engines of destruction, sometimes a heavy beam which worked horizontally
like an ancient battering-ram against the sides of a hostile vessel, sometimes

Fig. 90.— Seal of the Town of Boston (1575), on which the hune is depicted at the extremity
of the mast.

an immense balk of timber, which was worked vertically from the top of the
mast in order to shatter and sink a smaller craft. Around the masts, too,
and nearly at their tops, chatelets or platforms were suspended, in which were
hidden, behind a low parapet, slingers, archers, and stone-throwers. In the
sixteenth century, these chatelets on board the vessels of the Mediterranean
were called cages or gabies, while in the North sailors designated them by the
Icelandic term of huncs (Fig. 90).
The introduction of gunpowder on board ship was long subsequent to the
invention of fire-arms, and was very slowly adopted by most navies.. From
the fact that, in the middle of the fifteenth century, a vessel of seven
hundred and fifty tons burden had only a single piece of artillery, and
one of fifteen hundred only eight guns, and as for a commission of four

NAVAL MATTERS. 95

months — the usual length of a ship's commission in the Middle Ages — each
piece of artUlery was only provided with five-and-twenty to thirty rounds,
we see with what difficulty and how slowly the new style of weapons
replaced the old one. In the ships' inventories of 1441, side by side with
bombardes, we find invariably figuring large cross-bows, viretons, darts, long
lances, and complete sets of armour for the sailors. Things were not much
more advanced than they were in 1379 at the celebrated naval battle of
Chioggia, in which the Venetians made use, against the Genoese, of cannon
constructed of pieces of metal, welded together and covered with a casing

Fig. 91.— Prows of Galleys armed with the Spur.— From Drawings by Breugel the Elder,
engraved by Fr. Huys (1550).
of wooden staves, bound round with stout iron bands and ropes. Some of
these primitive guns exploded at their first discharge ; one alone survives,
and is now to be seen in the arsenal at Venice, the soHtary specimen of the
first attempt at projecting iron and stone shot from a tube by the ignition
of saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal.
More than a hundred years passed away before marine artiUery attained
any importance; it was not till the close of the sixteenth century that
Brantome was able to put on record that he had seen in the Mediterranean
a galliot armed with two hundred pieces of artUlery, belonging to Cosmo I.
of Medici, the Grand-Duke of Tuscany.
The galleys of the Middle Ages and of tho sixteenth century, armed at

96 NAVAL MATTERS.

first with an iron spur and afterwards with four or five cannon placed in the
bows, always engaged the enemy prow first, and bore down in order of battle,
side by side, in a straight or curved line. The half-moon formation practised
by the ancients was reserved for the largest fleets. At Lepanto (Fig. 92),
for instance, the Christian fleet was drawn up in the form of a half-moon,
and was divided into four squadrons : one in the centre, two at the wings,
and one in reserve. In front of each division six galeasses were posted in
couples to open the engagement : they were all one hundred and sixty feet

lj£*:IO

:*:f

Fig. 92.— Plan of the Naval Battle of Lepanto.— From a Drawing by Don Juan, preserved in the
Archives of Simancas, Spain.
in length, twenty-seven in breadth, and fifteen above the water-line, and they
did a great deal of damage to the Turkish fleet with their powerful artillery.
Previous to the construction of these gigantic galleys, a Hne of round vessels
used to be placed in the van to receive the first brunt of the battle. Some
times, besides this vanguard of saihng vessels, ships were placed at the wings,
the most powerful in the quarter where it was imagined that the struggle
would become the hottest. The smaller craft formed a line in reserve,
always prepared to row to the assistance of a hard-pressed galley.

NAVAL MATTERS. 97

In the eleventh century, at the battle of Durazzo, the Venetian ships,
being hard pressed by the Italo-Norman fleet of Robert Guiscard, Duke of
Puglia and Calabria, and unable to make for the land owing to the dropping
of the wind, ranged themselves in a Hne, and bound themselves together,
leaving but a smaU interval between each ship, just sufficient to allow their
smaUer vessels to row out, harass the enemy, and hasten back again. This
style of battle was not a new one, being the reproduction of a manoeuvre
invented or employed for the first time by Scipio in the days of ancient Rome.
When time had developed the progress of marine artUlery, a fleet composed
of large ships, in giving battle to one consisting of galleys, always presented
their broadsides to their antagonists, since, in this position, the fire from
their double row of cannon could do the gaUeys the most harm. This order
of battle, however, was not always observed, particularly when the guns,
owing to their great weight, were placed in the prow (Fig. 93).
At first, merely to preserve the wood, the ship-builders covered every
part of the vessel exposed to the action of the air or water with a coating of
pitch, but this sombre and uniform tint soon wearied the eye. A more
briUiant colour, prepared with wax, was painted over the pitch ; the costlier
class of ships gHstened in all the splendour of white, ultramarine, and
vermUion, while pirates, and occasionaUy men-of-war, were covered with a
coat of green paint, which, blending with the colour of the sea, prevented
them from being distinguished at any distance. Gilding glistened on the
vessels of the rich, and the sculptor's chisel added busts and figures to the
decoration of their bows and sterns. Even in this respect the Middle Ages
still foUowed the traditions of antiquity.
The decorations of ships varied according to the caprice of owners and
the fashion of the times. The Saracen dromon boarded and taken by
Richard Coeur-de-Lion had one side coloured green and the other yeUow.
The Genoese at first painted their ships green ; but in 1242, when they were
at war with the Pisans, they coloured them white spotted with vermUion
crosses, that is, "red crosses on a silver ground," which resembled the
arms of " Monsieur Saint-Georges." Red was the colour generaUy adopted
for ships' hulls in the sixteenth century, though a pattern in black and
white was sometimes added, and sometimes the ground was painted black and
the pattern only vermUion.
In 1525, when Francis I., made prisoner at the battle of Pavia, was taken

98

NAVAL MATTERS.

to Barcelona, the six gaUeys which carried the captive sovereign and his suite
were painted entirely black from the top of the masts to the water-line. This
was not, however, the first time that ships had been known to put on mourn-

Fig. 93.— Pontifical Galley with Sails and Oars, and provided with heavy Artillery — Drawn by
Breugel the Elder, and engraved by Fr. Huys (1550).
ing : for instance, the Knights of St. Stephen, in the fifteenth century, hid
the brilliant hues of their Capitane,* and painted its sails, pennants, awnings,
oars, and hull with black, and swore never to alter the sombre hue tiU their

* The principal galley of the squadron.

NAVAL MATTERS.

99

order had recaptured from the Turks a galley lost by the Pisans in an engage
ment which, however, had not been altogether inglorious for the vanquished.
Vessels in the Middle Ages, as in ancient times, had frequently gold-
coloured and purple sails.. The sails of seigniorial ships were generally
brUHantly emblazoned with the coat-of-arms of the seignior (Fig. 94) ; the
sails of merchant vessels and of fishing boats with the image of a saint, the
patron figure of the Virgin, a pious legend, a sacramental word, or a sacred
sign, intended to exorcise evil spirits, who played no inconsiderable part in
the superstitions of the toilers of the deep. Different kinds of sails were

Fig. 94.— Seal of Edward, Count of Rutland (1395).
originaUy employed to make signals at sea, but flags soon -began to be used
for this purpose. A single flag, having a different meaning according to its
position, ordinarily sufficed to transmit all necessary orders in the daytime.
At night its place was taken by lighted beacons. Thej3e flags, banners,
standards, and pennants, most of them embroidered with the arms of a town,
a sovereign, or an admiral, were made of some Hght stuff, taffeta or satin.
Sometimes square, sometimes triangular, sometimes forked, each had its own
use and signification, either for the embellishment of the vessel's appearance
or to assist in its manoeuvring. The gaUeys were provided with a smaller
kind of pennant, which was put up at the prow or fastened to the handle
of each oar : these were purely for ornamental purposes, and were often
trimmed with golden or silken fringes.

NAVAL MATTERS.

Amongst the most celebrated flags and standards of the French navy we
must not omit to mention the baucents, a name that recalls the Bausiant, the
banner of the Knights Templars. These flags, made of red taffeta, and some
times " sprinkled with gold," were only employed in the most merciless
wars, for, says a document. of 1292, "they signified certain death and mortal
strife to all sailors everywhere." In 1570, Marco- Antonio Colonna hoisted
on his flag gaUey a pennant of crimson damask, which bore on both sides
a Christ on the Cross between St. Peter and St. Paul, with the Emperor
Constantine's motto, In hoc signo vinces. The banner which Don Juan of
Austria received at Naples, on the 14th of April, 1571, with the staff of
supreme command over the Christian league, was made of crimson damask
fringed with gold, on which were embroidered, besides the arms of the prince,
a crucifix with the arms of the Pope, of the CathoHc king, and of the republic
of Venice, united by a chain, symbolical of the union of the three powers
"against the Turk."
The Normans, or the men of the north, were as fond of these brilHant
standards as the nations of the Mediterranean. When they saUed on a war
like expedition, or when they celebrated a victory over pirates, they covered
their vessels with flags. The poet Benoit de Sainte-More tells us that it was
in this fashion, covered with seven hundred banners of different colours, that
Rollo brought his fleet back up the Seine to Meulan. The Middle Ages
made use of all kinds of fanciful decorations for their vessels ; during the
Renaissance, this taste was renewed and was an improvement both upon the
customs of antiquity, whence it drew its inspirations, and on those of the
thirteenth century, which it seemed anxious to forget (Fig. 95). "A gaUey,"
says the learned M. Jal, "was in those days a species of jewei, and was handed
over for embellishment to the hands of genius as a piece of metal was given
to Benvenuto Cellini." Sculptors, painters, and poets combined their talents
to adorn a ship's stern. No more striking example of this artistic refinement
in naval ornamentation could be well quoted than that of the Spanish galley
which was constructed in 1568 by order of Philip II. for his brother, Don
Juan of Austria, to whom he had confided the command of the fleet intended
to fight the barbarous Moorish States of Africa. The vessel's cutwater was
painted white and emblazoned with the royal arms of Spain, and with the
personal ones of Don Juan. The prince being a Knight of the Golden Fleece,
and the adventurous expedition on which he was bound being likely to be

NAVAL MATTERS.

attended with as many perils as that of the Argonauts, the history of Ja
and of the good ship Argo was represented in coloured sculpture on the

son
stern

Fig. 95.-Man-of-War of the Sixteenth Century,-Drawn by William Barendsz and engraved
by Visscher, from the CoUection of Engravings in the National Library of Paris.
above the rudder. This pictured poem was accompanied with four sym-
boHcal statues— Prudence, Temperance, Power, and Justice, above which

102 NAVAL MATTERS.

floated angels carrying the symbols of the theological virtues. On one side
of the poop might be seen Mars the Avenger, Mercury the Eloquent, and
Ulysses stopping his ears against the seductions of the Sirens ; on the other,
Pallas, Alexander the Great, Argus, and Diana. Between these were inserted
pictures, which conveyed either a moral lesson for the benefit of the young
admiral, or a dehcate eulogium on Charles V., his father, or on PhiHp IL,
his brother. All these emblems were chefs-d'oeuvre of drawing and sculpture,
which the brilliancy of their gold, azure, and vermilion settings tended to
enhance. A noticeable incident in the above description is its incongruous mixture
of Christian and Pagan allegories. It bears witness to the anti-religious ten
dency of the school of thought of the Renaissance, and is a faithful reflection
of the alteration in custom and behef. In the Middle Ages, saUors, and
indeed all classes of society, were imbued with a strong spirit of faith,
tinged, however, with a great deal of superstition. As in our day, they had
a sincere belief in Providence, and professed great devotion to the Virgin ;
in seasons of peril they invoked those saints who were supposed to take
special interest in ships and sailors ; but, in spite of their natural reverence
for religion, they allowed themselves, to be influenced by childish super
stition, and confused the promptings of their orthodox faith with all kinds
of vain imaginings. Sailors have ever been superstitious ; their credulous
brains are the parents of all the fantastic beings and animals that they
persuade themselves they have seen in their wanderings, and with which
they have peopled the mysterious depths of the ocean. The sirens of
antiquity, the monsters of ScyUa and Charybdis, have been far surpassed by
modern legendary creations, such as the kraken, a gigantic mass of pulp,
which attacked and dragged down the largest ships ; the bishop fish, which,
mitre on head, blessed and then devoured shipwrecked mariners; the black
hand, which, even in the days of Columbus, was depicted on the map as
marking the entrance to the sunless ocean ; and the numerous troops of
hideous demons, one of whom, in the sight of the whole French fleet of
Crusaders on their way to attack the island of Mitylene, in the reign of
Louis XII., clutched and swallowed up a profligate sailor, who, over his dice,
had " blasphemed and defied the Holy Virgin."
Blasphemy was by no means uncommon among seamen ; in spite of
the laws of the Church and the regulations of the Admiralty, they insisted

NAVAL MATTERS.

103

on using the most frightful oaths ; they swore continuaUy by bread, by wine,
and by salt, meaning thereby the very principles of Hfe itself, and by their
soul — an oath which was forbidden on pain of the severest punishment.
Yet the mariners of the Middle Ages had strong reasons for avoiding
open blasphemy, for, an offence against Heaven being considered far more
criminal than any injury to mankind, a blasphemer was liable to fine, to the
cat, and to death itself. Even in the thirteenth century the Danish code
inflicted a comparatively moderate punishment on a thief; it shaved his
head, tarred and feathered him, and made him run the gauntlet of the whole
crew, after which it contented itself with dismissing him from his ship.

Fig. 96.— Seal of La Rochelle (1437).

THE CRUSADES.

Arab Conquest of the Holy Land. — Swarm of Pilgrims in the Year 1000. — Turkish Invasion of
Judea. — Persecution of the Christians. — Pope Silvester II. — Expedition of the Pisans and the
Genoese. — Peter the Hermit. — Letter from Simeon the Patriarch to Pope Urban II. — First
Crusade. — Expedition of " Gautier sans Avoir." — Godefroy de BouiUon. — The Kingdom of
Jerusalem. — Second Crusade. — St. Bernard.. — Third Crusade : Philip Augustus and Richard
, Coeur de Lion. — Fourth Crusade. — Fifth and Sixth Crusades. — Louis IX. turns Crusader. —
Seventh Crusade. — St. Louis taken Prisoner. — Eighth and last Crusade. — Death of St. Louis.
— Results of the Crusades.

||H ERUSALEM," says Jacques de Vitry, Bishop of
Ptolemais in the thirteenth century, and one of
the most eloquent historians of the Crusades,
" Jerusalem is the city of cities, the saint of
saints, the queen of nations, and the princess of
provinces. She is situated in the centre of the
world, in the middle of the earth, so that aU men
may turn their steps towards her; she is the
patrimony of the patriarchs, the muse of the
prophets, the mistress of the apostles, the cradle
of our salvation, the home of our Lord, and the
mother of the faith, as Rome is the mother of the
faithful. She is chosen and hallowed by the Almighty, who placed his feet
upon her, honoured by the angels, and visited by all the nations of the
earth." A poet of the same period declares, in a burst of fervent inspira
tion : " She attracts the faithful as the magnet attracts the steel, as the sheep
attracts the lamb with the milk of its teats, as the sea attracts the river to
which it has given birth."
Under the influence of this belief it is easy to understand the powerful
interest which, in the eyes of the whole Christian world, was attached to a

ftSran

THE CRUSADES. 105

corner of the globe so marked with the impress of the Almighty, and the
object of so much* veneration.
Since the conversion of Constantine I., which so gloriously signalized the
triumph of the cross, and while the ostentatious but feeble successors of that
great emperor were preparing the dechne of the empire of Byzantium,
Jerusalem had frequently been forced to submit to infidel profanations, and
the Western Christians, in their visits to the holy places, had, in consequence,
many times encountered painful and almost insurmountable obstacles.
In the seventh century, the conquest of Palestine by the Arabs or
Saracens, attracted by fanaticism to the banner of Mahomet's immediate
successors, had occasioned the most painful, if not the' first of these terrible
trials to Christendom. Already pilgrims, on their return from the Holy
Land, had related to the dismayed West the sacrileges of which they had
been the witnesses, and the annoyances of which they themselves had been
the victims. Their dismal recitals represented the Christian population of
Judea as reduced to a species of slavery, groaning under heavy tribute, clad
in a degrading livery, forbidden to use the language of their conquerors,
banished from their temples, now transformed into mosques, and obhged to
conceal every external emblem of their religion, which they were no longer
allowed publicly to practise.
But a gentler rule succeeded these hardships, thanks to the internal dis
sensions of the Mussulmans, who, in the midst of their fratricidal struggles,
forgot to persecute the Christians ; thanks also to the policy of the famous
Haroun-al-Raschid and his chUdren, who, being constantly at war with the
emperors of Constantinople, dreaded lest the Eastern Christians should
summon the Western to their assistance, and, consequently, were always
showering on the latter every possible mark of deference, of kindness, and of
consideration. ,
Later, when the empire of Haroun-al-Baschid had fallen into decay, one
of Constantine's successors, John I., surnamed Zimisces (970), attempted to
accompHsh the freedom of the Holy Land, and had nearly succeeded, when
death struck down the leader of the Christian army in a battle with the
Arabs, and with him was destroyed the last hope of the faithful, who soon
found themselves delivered over to the horrors of a terrible persecution. " It
is impossible to put on record all the evils they suffered," says William of
Tyre, in his great history of the holy war.

io6

THE CRUSADES.

Fig. 97. — Facade of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, founded in 326 by the
Emperor Constantino, and restored by the Crusaders in 1099 (present condition, from a
Photograph).Towards the close of the tenth century, a false interpretation of a passage
in the Gospels, according .to which the end of the world and the second
coming of Jesus Christ in Judea had been fixed for the year one thousand,

THE CRUSADES 107

had struck all Christendom with stupor and affright. "The end of the
world being at hand," were the opening words of all deeds and contracts ;
and the vanities of the world being forgotten in the near approach
of the "supreme and inevitable catastrophe," every one was anxious to
start for the Holy Land, in the hope of being present at the coming of the
Saviour, and of finding there pardon for his sins, a peaceful death, and the
salvation of his soul. The immense crowd of pilgrims, according to another
historian of the Crusades, Glaber the monk, was far greater than religious
devotion alone could possibly account for. The first to come were the poor
and the working classes, and then counts, barons, and princes, who no
longer attached any value to the possessions of this world. And further, as
if the miraculous influence of this grand religious manifestation had inspired
the infidels themselves with admiration and awe, the cruelties and the
persecutions inflicted upon the Christians in Palestine suddenly ceased.
When the dreaded epoch had passed away, and no perceptible disturbance had
occurred in the 'laws of the universe, when each successive day had lessened
the fears and increased the courage of the Western Churchy the Holy Land
remained open to pilgrims, who came in swarms to thank the Lord Jesus
Christ for having a second time saved the world.
But aU this was merely a kind of tacit truoe granted to the chUdren of
Christ by the unbelievers, who had sworn to destroy the religion of the cross,
and to establish in its place the creed of Mohamet. The East, moreover, was
about to change masters. The Turks, an Asiatic nomadic people^ sprung from
the countries beyond the Oxus, had conquered Persia, and had thence borne
their triumphant arms towards Syria and the banks of the Nile. This- rapid
conquest included Judea, and was signalized by horrible excesses. No
quarter was given either to the followers of Moses, to those of Jesus, or to
the disciples of the Prophet. The same blow feU upon the Jewish syna
gogues, the Mussulman mosques, and the Catholio churches. Jerusalem
was steeped in blood. Deprived of their property, groaning under a bitter
and humUiating yoke, says a contemporary historian, the Christians suffered
as they had never suffered before.
Asia Minor, the land generally crossed by the pilgrims on their way to
Jerusalem, was also in the power of the Turks. In the principal towns,
Nicea, Tarsus, Antioch, Edessa, &c, whose names are inseparable from the
glorious memories of the first centuries of the Church, neither the Greek

jo8 THE CRUSADES.

nor the Roman Catholic ritual could be publicly celebrated. The precepts
of the Koran were the only ones that were rigorously observed; and
Christians everywhere experienced from the Mohammedans the same injus
tice, the same annoyances, and the same hardships.
The accounts of these persecutions, which seemed intended to utterly
annihilate the faith of the cross, filled the hearts of the faithful with gloom
and anger. The day was already fast approaching when the groans and
complaints that reached them from the Holy Land were to rouse and arm
the nations of the West for the deliverance of Christ's tomb, and the formid
able struggle, soon to take place between the Christian and the Moslem — a
struggle fated to last for two hundred years with alternate successes and
reverses on either side — was destined to decide the future of European
civilisation. So far back as the commencement of the eleventh century, Gerbert, a
French monk, one of the most remarkable men of his time, who had suc
ceeded to the papacy as Sylvester IL, attempted, under the influence of the
impressions he had brought back from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, to make a
fresh appeal to Christendom against the persecutions he had witnessed in the
East. Roused by his summons, an expedition of Pisans, of Genoese, and of
the subjects of the King of Aries, had put to sea and disembarked on the
coasts of Syria, where it inflicted a certain amount of injury on the cruel
votaries of Islamism; without, however, being able to penetrate very far
inland, but not without influencing to some extent the fate of the inhabitants
of Palestine. In fact, persecution for the time ceased, or at any rate was sensibly
diminished, and it was not untU half a century later that a fresh crusading
appeal rang through Christendom. This time the cry of sorrow and in
dignation was uttered by Pope Gregory VII., that iUustrious pontiff whose
ardent and resolute nature, in the midst of the universal disorder and
disorganization of government and society, seemed to have a divine mission
to fulfil in settling upon an indestructible basis the supreme authority of
the Church. " The miseries suffered by the Eastern Christians," he wrote,
" have so stirred up my heart that I almost long for death, and I would
rather expose my life in delivering the holy places than reign over the
universe. Come, sons of Christ, and you wiU find me at your head ! "
Such words as these at such an epoch necessarily rekindled faith and

THE CRUSADES.

109

hope in every heart that received them. Fifty thousand Christians bound
themselves by an oath to foUow the successor of St. Peter to Constantinople,
when the Emperor Michael Ducas promised to put an end to the dissensions
that had so long separated the Greek from the Latin Church, and to Jeru-

Fig. 98. — Prester-John, Chief of a Christian Fig. 99. — Prester- John's Page.
Tribe in Tartary.
From Cesare Vecelli's "Degli Habiti Antichi e Moderni:" 8vo, Venice, 1560.

salem, where the standard of Christ, supported by heroic hands and hearts,
could not fail soon to replace the standard of the Prophet. Rumours were
rife in Europe that a part of Asia was already christianised, and that
Prester-John, a powerful sovereign of Tartary (Figs. 98 and 99), had forced
his subjects to adopt the precepts of the Gospel.

no THE CRUSADES.

But the political struggles which Gregory VII. had to sustain against
the princes of the West, and the refusal of the King of Germany, Henry IV,
to grant him the assistance he had demanded, prevented him from under
taking the sacred expedition which was to have crowned his apostolic work.
Victor TIL, his successor, inspired by his example, continued to preach the
Holy War against the infidels. The latter not only manifested throughout
the entire East their implacable hatred to the Christian race, but, having
founded large settlements on the shores of Africa, they infested the seas,
endangered the security of all maritime trading, ceaselessly piUaged the
coasts of Italy, ravaged the greater part of Spain, and seemed to be within
very little of making Europe a tributary of Islam. But if Victor III. was
unable to give birth to a real crusade, he at least succeeded in persuading
the Italians to take up arms. An army of Pisans and Genoese landed in
Africa (1087), gave battle to the Saracens, killed more than a hundred
thousand of them, took and sacked two of their towns, and returned vic
torious with an immense booty, which they devoted to the embeUishment of
the churches of Genoa and of Pisa. But this daring enterprise, in spite
of its important results, is not mentioned by any of the historians of the
Crusades, although in every respect it had the characteristics of a holy war.
This appears to prove that its guiding principle was by no means entirely a
religious one, but was one bound up with many more material interests, par
ticularly with that of Italian commerce, which had suffered so much from
African piracy that it naturaUy wished at any price to punish the accursed
race from which it sprung.
The successor of Victor III. was Urban IL, a pontiff of French extraction,
who, foUowing up the pohcy of his predecessors, endeavoured with all his
influence to stir up the Christians against the infidels. But the Almighty
often confides the execution of his most important designs to the hands of
the humblest, and the honour of initiating the Crusades was not reserved for
the occupant of the chair of St. Peter. It was destined to faU to the lot of a
humble pilgrim, who, as the learned historian of these events tells us, was
inspired only by his zeal, and whose only influence was the force of his
character and his genius. This humble pilgrim was Peter of Acheris, better
known as Peter the Hermit. Descended from a noble family of Picardy, but
ungainly in body and short of stature, he had vainly sought happiness and
peace in the most opposite conditions of society. At first he embraced the

THE CRUSADES.

profession of arms, then he gave himself up to literature, then he married,
and being soon left a widower, he entered into holy orders. Everywhere,
however, he met with nothing but bitterness and deception. Having become
at last, to use the expression of William of Tyre, " hermit both in deed and
in name," he sought in solitude, in fasting, and in prayer to forget the empty
vanities of the world, and it was no doubt with a last hope of giving some
practical effect to his fervent but barren devotion that he undertook his pious
pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
His habits of meditation and prayer had infused a burning ardour
and an enlightenment into his soul. When he found himself on the very
soil that had been pressed by the Saviour's feet, when he witnessed the
hardships and the humUiations inflicted on the worshippers of Christ by
the infidels, when, above all, he heard the lamentations of the venerable
Simeon, the patriarch of Jerusalem, and had wept with him over the terrible
trials of the Eastern Church, indignation, grief, piety, and faith awoke in his
heart the feehng that he must at all hazards devote his life to a special voca
tion. He resolved to devote himself to the protection of his brethren in
Christ, and to the deliverance of the holy places.
One day, as he was secretly praying in front of the Holy Sepulchre, he
heard a voice saying, " Peter, arise ! go forth and announce the tribulation
of my people ; it is time that my servants be succoured and my holy places
delivered." Under the influence of this heavenly command, the poor pilgrim,
convinced that he was henceforward chosen by the divine will, determined to
allow himself no rest till the holy mission, with which Christ himself had
entrusted him, had been fully and faithfuUy accomphshed. He left Palestine
with letters from the patriarch Simeon to the Pope; he crossed the sea,
hurried to Rome, and threw himself at the feet of Urban II. , who, listening
to the pathetic and eloquent language of the poor pilgrim, fancied that he
was addressed by some inspired prophet, and entrusted him with the mission
of summoning the nations to the holy war (Fig. 100).
Peter the Hermit, says the historian whose account we are following, left
Italy, crossed the Alps, and wandered over France and a great part of Europe,
infusing into all the burning zeal with which he was filled. He journeyed
on a mule, a crucifix in his hand, his feet bare, his head uncovered, his body
girdled with a thick cord, and clad in a long frock and mantle of the com
monest, coarsest stuff. His pecuhar garments excited the curiosity of the

THE CRUSADES.

people, while the austerity of his life, his charity, and the morality he incul
cated, made them reverence him as a saint. He wandered in this guise from
town to town, from province to province, stirring up the courage of some and
the piety of others ; sometimes he addressed them from church pulpits, some
times in the highways and public places. His eloquence was keen and
vigorous, full of vehement appeals that carried away the multitudes who
listened to him. He recalled to their memories the profanation of the holy
places, and the Christian blood that had poured in rivers down the streets of

Fig. 100. — Peter the Hermit delivering the Message of Simeon, Patriarch of Jerusalem, to Pope
Urban II. —From a Coloured Drawing by Germain Picavet in the "Histoire des Croisades,"
a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Burgundian Library, Brussels).

Jerusalem ; he called on Heaven, the saints, and the angels, whose testimony
he invoked as to the truth of his statements ; he appealed to them by the holy
hill of Sion, by the heights of Calvary, and by the Mount of Olives, whose
slopes he declared were ringing with groans and lamentations. When words
failed him to further depict the miseries of the faithful in the far East, he
showed them the crucifix which he always carried about him, and, beating his
breast, burst into passionate tears.
The populace everywhere crowded around him. The preacher of the
holy war was received as the special envoy of the Almighty. To be allowed

THE CRUSADES. 113

to touch his clothes was considered an inestimable privilege, the hair even of
the mule he bestrode was prized and preserved as a relic. The tones of his
voice hushed domestic strife, forced the rich to succour the needy, and the
profligate to sHnk ashamed away. His austerities and his miracles, his dis
courses and his exhortations, were repeated to those who had not been fortu
nate enough to witness the former or to hear the latter. As his hearers
realised the fact that Jerusalem, Holy Jerusalem, was in the power of the
infidel, the emotions of pity and the desire for vengeance were kindled
within them. Every voice was Hffced up to beseech God to restore to his
keeping his once-beloved city. Some proffered their wealth, others their
prayers, and aU their life, to deHver the holy* places.
Everything in Europe was ready for the great expedition ; every heart
beat high and every voice re-echoed the solemn hope so ardently and so
persistently instiUed by Peter the Hermit. Nothing now was wanted but
to crown the work so far accomphshed, and some watchword that would
strike home to every heart, and raise, amidst the pious and countless
hosts pf the Crusaders, some one central banner around which they
could aU unite and rally. To this end Urban convoked a council on
the very spot in that land of the Franks in which he had been born, a
land which had always been foremost to set a noble example to surrounding
nations. The council assembled in Clermont, a town in Auvergne, scarcely large
enough to contain the crowd of illustrious personages that soon flocked
thither, "in such numbers," says the French chronicler, WUliam Aubert,
" that, towards the middle of November, in the year 1096, the neighbouring
towns and vUlages were so full of strangers that many were obliged to pitch
their tents in the midst of the fields and meadows, although the season was
extremely cold."
The first sittings of this council, about to proclaim war against the enemies
of the cross, were employed in decreeing the truce of God between all Chris
tians. Then came the question of the hour. The apostle of the Crusade,
Peter the Hermit, spoke first ; with that tearful voice, with that burning
emotion which had won him so many adherents, he depicted the miseries of
the Eastern Church. After him the Pope addressed the assembly, and with
such a distinguished and aristocratic audience, it may easily be understood
that his skUful and learned eloquence had at least as much influence as the
Q

,I+ THE CRUSADES.

simple and rough speech of the poor hermit who had such sway over the
minds of the masses.
The councU rose as one man, and one cry burst simultaneously from every
Dreast — u Dieu le veut ! Dieu le veut ! (Diex li volt)."* The pontiff repeated
in a stentorian voice these words, Diex li volt, words which for two centuries
were destined to be the war-cry of the Crusaders, and showed to'the excited
crowd the emblem of the Redemption. " Let the cross," he said, " glitter
on your arms and on your standards ! Bear it on your shoulders and on
your breasts, it will become for you the emblem of victory or the palin of
martyrdom ; it wUl ever remind you that Jesus Christ died for you, and that
it is your part to die for Him." At these words, all the princes, barons,
knights, prelates and clergy, artisans and labourers, swore to dedicate their
lives to avenge the outrages inflicted on Christ and on His followers. The
oath was cemented by a declaration of oblivion of all private animosities and
quarrels, and every one of the immense audience fastened a red cross to his
dress. From this the appellation of Crusaders was derived, a title which was
bestowed on the faithful who then enrolled themselves under Christ's banner,
and also that of Crusade, the name given to the holy war. The council,
before separating, confirmed and allotted the temporal and spiritual pri
vileges which were to be bestowed upon the Crusaders.
It is impossible to paint in sufficiently vivid colours the universal and
spontaneous movement which took place in Western Christendom, when the
faithful who had taken part in the council of Clermont went forth everywhere,
as formerly did Christ's apostles, repeating what had taken place, and pro
claiming the decrees which had been promulgated there. Thenceforward all;
in spite of age, sex, or social position, were carried away by the same enthu
siasm. Family ties were broken, riches were no longer held of any account.
The question was not who had taken up the cross, but who had hesitated
to do so. A poet of the time says, " I hold no man a true knight who refuses
to go willingly, with his whole heart and with all the means in his power, to
the assistance of God, who so greatly needs it." Women of every rank sewed
the cross to their clothing, children of every age marked it on their innocent
bodies. Monks left the retreat where they had hoped to peacefully end their
existence, hermits came out of their caves and forests, and even the very

* " God wills it.'

THE CRUSADES.

"5

robbers of the highway came forward, confessed their crimes, and swore to
expiate them in the ranks of the holy army. The train was laid, the match
was lighted, and for two centuries the Crusades were waged continually, with

Fig. 101. — Reception of Gautier-sans-Avoir by the King of Hungary, who permits him to pass
through his territory with the Crusaders. — From a Miniature in the " Histoire des Empereurs,"
a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century (Library of the Arsenal, Paris).
a few intervals of rest, caused by the enormous sacrifice of men and money
entailed by this gigantic undertaking, which, inspired and controlled by an
ardent faith, was persisted in, in spite of every reverse and every disaster.
The spring of the year 1096 witnessed the first departure of the

n6

THE CRUSADES.

Crusaders, in two numerous bodies, under the orders of Peter the Hermit
himself, and of a poor but valiant warrior, Gautier-sans- Avoir (Fig.* 101).
But these undisciplined masses, forced to. support themselves on their road
by pillage, were dispersed and nearly destroyed by the nations through whose
countries they had to pass, and who were ruined by their advent as they might
have been by an army of locusts. Only a few thousand ever reached Constan-

Fig. 102.— Taking of Nicsea by the Crusaders, in 1097 ; from a Window ordered by the Abbe
Suger for the Church of the Abbey of St. Denis, and now destroyed.— From the " Monu
ments de la Monarchie Francaise," by Montfaucon (Twelfth Century).

tinople, when the Emperor Alexis I., who had summoned the Western
Christians to his aid against the Turks, succoured them, and enabled them
to await the arrival of the more regular expeditions, which had started three
months later under Godefroy de Bouillon.
It was then only that the real Crusade, that is to say, the actual war
against the unbelievers, commenced. In March, 1097, the Christian army
crossed the Bosphorus from Thrace, seized Nicsea (Fig. 102), penetrated into

THE CRUSADES.

117

Syria, and laid siege to the important town of Antioch, which by an act of
treachery was forced to surrender in June, 1098. In the spring of the follow
ing year the soldiers of Christ entered Palestine, but it was not till the 15th of
July, 1099, that the holy city fell into their hands, and that Godefroy de
Bouillon (Figs. 103 and 104), elected king by the principal leaders of the

Fig. 103. — Godefroy de Bouillon, crowned with the Instruments of our Lord's Passion. — From a
Woodcut of the end of the Fifteenth Century, in the Burgundian Library, Brussels.

victorious army, under the modest title of Baron of the Holy Sepulchre,
founded the Christian kingdom of Jerusalem.
Half a century passed away, during which Christendom sent forth expedi
tion after expedition to defend the Holy Land and to consolidate its conquest ;
but with little success, for the Saracens never desisted from their attacks on

1 18

THE CRUSADES.

the Crusaders, and persistently disputed with them the possession of Palestine.
Moreover, the ardour of the pilgrims gradually diminished, the zeal for
the Crusades commenced to slacken in Europe, and indifference and apathy

Fig. 104. — Tomb of Godefroy de Bouillon, as it existed in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jeru
salem, with the inscription : — " Hie jacet inclitus Godfridus de Bulion, qui totam istam terram
acquisivit cultui Christiano, cujus anima cum Christo requiescat. Amen." (" Here lies tbe
illustrious Godefroy de Bouillon, who won all this Holy Land to the worship of Christ. May
his soul rest with Jesus.") — Monument of the early part of the Twelfth Century, now de
stroyed, from a Drawing taken on the spot in 182S, now in the possession of M. Ambr.
Firmin-Didot.

began to take its place. When the throne of Godefroy de Bouillon began
to totter upon its insecure foundations, the road to Jerusalem became
deserted, and the civilised world, absorbed and distracted by the nearer
and keener struggles continuaUy waging between its popes and its sovereigns,

THE CRUSADES. 119

soon preserved but a vague remembrance of the glorious enterprises of its
fathers. Suddenly, however, it was rumoured in the West that the city of Edessa,
the capital of the first Christian principality founded by the Crusaders in the
East, and considered as the bulwark of the kingdom of Jerusalem, had been
retaken by the Saracens, who had deluged its streets in blood. The painful
tidings were received with deep indignation ; but a man of genius w as at
hand to strike the keynote of distress and vengeance, and the voice of St.
Bernard, the Abbot of Clairvaux, rekindled the waning torch of crusading
enthusiasm. It was at Vezelai (Fig. 105), where Louis VII. held his court, that
the illustrious abbot, " fortified with the apostolical authority and his own
sanctity," first addressed the nobles and the populace (1146). "As there
was no room in the castle," says an eye-witness, Eudes de Deuil, in his
Latin chronicles, " a pulpit had been constructed in the open air upon the
plains which lay at the foot of the hill of Vezelai, into which Bernard
ascended, accompanied by the king, wearing the cross sent him by the pope."
When the heaven-born orator had aroused his hearers with the divine fire of
his eloquence, there arose a universal shout of " Crosses ! crosses ! " The
crosses which the abbot had prepared beforehand were soon exhausted, and,
tearing- his clothes into strips, he distributed them amongst the assembly,
who fastened them crosswise on their garments. He continued his exhorta
tions during the whole of his stay at Vezelai, giving proof of the sanctity
of his mission by the numerous miracles which he performed.
The pious and touching appeals of St. Bernard attained the success he
desired. King Louis, his wife Eleanor, his principal nobility and clergy,
many thousand knights, and a vast number of the lower classes, enrolled
themselves under the banner of the cross. "As soon as it was agreed that
they should set out at the expiration of a year," says another chronicler,
"all joyfully returned home. But the Abbot of Clairvaux went about
preaching from place to place, and it soon became impossible to reckon the
number of the Crusaders." From France, Bernard crossed over to Germany,
where the influence of his inspired words fully revealed itself, for whole
populations, unable even to understand the language he addressed them in,
carried away by the marvellous charm of his manner, smote their breasts, and
cried out, " God be merciful to us ! The saints be with us !"

120

THE CRUSADES.

The Emperor Conrad, whom the Abbot endeavoured to persuade to
join the King of France in the new crusade, at first gave the enterprise con-

Fig. 105.-Facade of the Abbey Church of the Magdalen, as it now stands at Vezelai, where, in
1146, St. Bernard preached the Second Crusade (Twelfth Century).
siderable opposition ; but at last, at a meeting held at Spires, the 28th of
December, 1146, Bernard's extraordinary eloquence produced such an effect

THE CRUSADES.

upon him that he vowed on the spot to assume the cross. His example was
immediately followed by several German princes, amongst whom was his
own nephew, the youthful Frederick of Suabia, who afterwards became so
celebrated under the name, of Frederick Barbarossa.
A few months later, the French and German armies, each of which
contained more than a hundred thousand fighting men, without reckoning
the swarm of pilgrims who accompanied them, set out, well armed, well
equipped, and fuU of confidence, for the East. ' The two armies contained
the ilite of the chivalry of both countries. " Europe," said St. Bernard
in one of his letters, "contained nothing but desert towns and castles,
nothing but widows and orphans, whose husbands and fathers were still
alive." But, alas ! this enthusiasm, this zeal, this heroism, displayed by all
classes of European society, were destined to end in miserable disaster. The
insubordination of the troops, the want of foresight and co-operation of their
leaders, -and the treachery of the Greek emperor Manuel, prepared a fatal
ending for this iU-omened undertaking, which saw its hosts melt away long
before their arrival in the Holy Land. After more than a year of
tremendous efforts and sanguinary reverses, its remnants struggled painfully
back to the West, leaving the kingdom of Jerusalem in a far more pre
carious position than before the arrival of the combined forces. " And
on aU sides," relates a chronicler, " were heard -complaints and reproaches
against the Abbot of Clairvaux, whose promises of victory had been so
little realised, who, it was said, had sent so many brave men to a useless
death, and who had plunged so many* noble families into mourning. The
holy man was mortified to the very depths of his soul, but rather than doubt
the beneficent wisdom of the Almighty, he exclaimed, ' If they must
murmur, it is better that they should murmur against me than against God.
I am rejoiced that the Lord has condescended to use me as a shield. I am
willing, to be humUiated, provided always that His glory be unassaUed.' "
Forty years later, after the terrible battle of Tiberias (1 187), where
so much generous blood was spilt around Guy de Lusignan, the last King of
Jerusalem, the Sultan Saladin, one of the most remarkable characters in
Mussulman history, seized the holy city, which henceforth was only destined
once, and then but for a short time, to fall again into the hands of the
Christians.

122 THE CRUSADES.

In 1181 the Third Crusade was undertaken, and PhUip Augustus, the
King of France, and Richard, the King of England, whose great deeds in this
holy war obtained for him the surname of Coeur de Lion, forgetting their own
personal quarrels, put themselves at its head. Subsequently, Frederick Bar
barossa, the Emperor of Germany, who had previously taken part in the
Second Crusade, joined the undertaking, in which he was destined to meet
his death.
After having shed more blood and displayed more bravery than would
have sufficed to conquer the whole of Asia, after the long and memorable
siege of the city of Ptolemais, after many signal successes, the Christian
armies, discouraged and diminished by more than one half, returned to
Europe, bringing with them "moult de gloire,"* says a chronicler, but
without having in reaHty obtained any material or lasting advantage over
the unbeHevers, who, it was true, had lost St. Jean d'Acre, but who still
retained possession of Jerusalem.
The Fourth Crusade (1198—1204), which some historians call the fifth,
was authorised by Pope Innocent III., and preached in France by the
celebrated Foulques de Neuilly. This crusade was remarkable in one
respect. Its efforts at first were directed against the persecutors of
Christianity, but events, as they developed themselves, modified its aim,
and the question of the holy places having become abandoned, it ended, after
the taking of Constantinople (Fig. 106), in the overthrow of the dynasty
of the successors of Constantine, and its being replaced by a French dynasty,
the founders of the Latin Empire of Byzantium. FoUowing the example of
Baudouin, Count of Flanders, the principal nobles of the crusading army
divided among themselves the spoils of the Greek Empire, and ceased to
think of the holy war.
In 1217, Andrew, King of Hungary, in company with several nobles of
Germany and France, assumed the cross. This expedition sailed for Egypt,
and laid siege to Damietta, which only capitulated after losing eighty
thousand of its inhabitants. From thence it moved on to Cairo, but, being
decimated by the plague, it was forced to retreat and return to Europe. This
was really the fifth crusade.
In 1228, Frederick IL, King of Naples and Sicily, having been elected

* Much glory.

Schmit & C'.' Paris

KNIGHTS OF THE HOLY GHOST EMBARKING FOR THE CRUSADES.

Regamey.liui.

This voyage was never undertaken; but the chevaliers were ordered to hold themselves ready in the event of their departure being resolved upon at Rome.
The artist has sketched all the preparatives for embarking; the crusaders, on horseback, have the bow upon their breastplates; the vessels awaiting them are
decked with banners upon which are blazoned the arms of the Pope, of the Emperor, of France, of England, of Anjou-Sicily, of Tarentum, etc.
After a miniature from the Statutes of the order of the Holy Ghost at Naples. Manuscript of the xiv1)" century, in the Louvre.

THE CRUSADES.

'23

Emperor of Germany, conceived the idea, more from political than religious
motives, of reconquering, in the name of Christendom, the Holy City. He
embarked, accompanied only by a few hundred soldiers, and, landing in

Fig. 106.— Second taking of Constantinople, in 1204. — From a Fresco by Tintoretto, in the
Palace of the Doges, Venice (Sixteenth Century).
Egypt", had an interview with the Sultan, who was persuaded, under some un
known influence, to sign a treaty, by virtue of which Nazareth, Bethlehem,
and Jerusalem were to be restored to the Christians, under the express con
dition that the Mussulmans should be aUowed to retain the Temple and to
erect a mosque in the city of Jesus Christ. This was at best a sacrilegious

i24 THE CRUSADES.

compact. It was neither approved nor kept by the Christians or by the
Saracens, and was soon considered by Frederick himself a worthless compro
mise, although he had entered Jerusalem in person, and had there crowned
himself with his own hands. This singular expedition was termed the Sixth
Crusade. But the hour was now fast approaching when the vigorous and sincere
faith which had inspired the apostles of the First Crusade was once more
to revive and to shine forth in all its pristine brUliancy; and it was
again in France that the flame of Christian devotion was to be re
kindled at the cry which still found its echp in every heart, the cry of
" Dieu le veut ! " The French nation, the eldest daughter of the Church,
had then at its head one of those pure and simple-minded men whom
Providence too rarely raises up for the honour and welfare of mankind.
Louis IX., the son of Blanche of Castile, and the grandson of King
Phihp- Augustus, united in his pure and magnanimous soul all the gentle
virtues of his mother to the generous and chivalrous sentiments of his grand
father. Whilst bestowing an assiduous and inteUigent care on the govern
ment, and, it may be said, on the regeneration of his kingdom, whilst
devoting the influence of his moral authority to appease the pohtical
discord which was agitating and devastating Europe, the sainted king
could not forget that his Eastern brethren were groaning under slavery
and persecutiqn. The object of his dreams, at some future day when
his kingly task should be nearing it§ accomplishment, when peace should
reign in his dominions and in those of his neighbours, was to dehver
Jerusalem and to drive the Saracen from the Holy Land. He was
forced to postpone this npble undertaking, but it was only to await a
more propitious opportunity of carrying it out in a thoroughly efficacious
manner. "Or advint," says the Sire de Joinville in his Memoirs, "que le roi
cheut en une grande maladie, et teUement fut au bas, qu'une des dames qui
le gardoient, cuidant qu'il fut oultre, lui voulut couvrir le visage d'un linceul,
et de l'autre part du lit y eut une autre dame qui ne le voulut souffrir. Or
Notre-Seigneur ouvra en lui et lui redonna la parole ; et demanda le bon roi
qu'on lui apportat la croix ; ce qui fut fait. Et quand la bonne dame, sa
mere, sut qu'il eut recouvre' la parole, elle en eut une si grande joie qui plus

THE CRUSADES. 125

ne se pouvoit, mais quand elle le vit crois£, elle fut aussi transie que si elle
l'eutvumort (1244)."*
Notwithstanding, however, the grief of the queen-mother, who, in spite
of her devotion to the holy cause, feared lest the absence of the king might
prove disadvantageous to France, Louis IX., having once taken the vow,
was determined faithfully to perform it. Moreover, he was encouraged by
seeing that his example alone had more influence than the warmest exhorta
tions of his preachers, . for, as soon as it was known that their revered
sovereign had, assumed the cross, zeal revived among all classes, faith re
gained its sway,' and an impatience to set forth on the crusade manifested
itself on aU sides.
But the king, sagacious and prudent in spite of his ardour, and fore
warned by the errors of his predecessors, was unwilhng to give the signal
until he had taken all proper precautions and made all necessary arrange
ments. Three years elapsed, during which Louis IX. continued his pre
parations, and coUected provisions of every kind, which were conveyed to
Cyprus, the spot chosen for the general rendezvous of the Crusaders ; in
the meantime, he busied himself in preparing, in the interests of his
kingdom, for the events that might take place in his absence. At length,
having appointed his mother regent, he embarked from the port of Aigues-
Mortes on the 15th of August, 1248, with his wife, his brother, and his
principal adherents. At Cyprus he was joined in turn by all the nobles of
France, with their men-at-arms and their vassals. He passed the winter in
organizing the expedition, which was first destined for Egypt ; for, of aU the
Mahometan chiefs who were at that time contending for the possession of
Palestine, the Sultan of Cairo, who had already made himself master of
Syria, was considered the most powerful, and it was the opinion of the most
competent soldiers that the conquest of the Holy Land must commence on
the shores of the Nile.
Everything seemed to promise a happy result. A considerable fleet, a
* " It happened that the king was seized with a serious illness, and was brought so low that one
of the ladies who was tending him, thinking that he was dead, wished to cover his face with a
cloth ; while at the other side of his bed was another lady who would not permit it. But it fell
out that the Lord worked within him and restored hjin his. speech, so that the good king asked for
the cross to be brought to him, which was dope. And when the good lady, his mother, learned
that he had recovered his speech, she was overcome with joy, but when she saw that he had
assumed the cross, she was as much grieved as if she had seen him a corpse."

126 THE CRUSADES.

numerous and weU-discipHned army, an abundant supply of provisions,
arms, and military stores, the supreme command concentrated in one hand,
and, above all, a real feeling of devotion to the sacred cause — a feeling
inspired by the exhortations and the example of the king — such were
the elements from which the Seventh Crusade might have hoped to attain
success. In the spring, eighteen hundred vessels saUed from Cyprus, where they
had been fitted out, and conveyed the crusading army to Damietta. The
king, armed from head to foot, was one of the first to spring ashore.
Several of his knights and men-at-arms followed him, and, in the midst of a
shower of darts, dispersed the Saracens, with whom the shore was covered,
and drove them back in disorder into the town (Fig. 107). The attack was
so bold and so unforeseen, that the infidels, struck with terror, no longer
believed themselves secure behind the waUs which thirty years before had
sustained a siege of eighteen months, and abandoned Damietta without
striking a blow in its defence,
The possession of this stronghold, situated on the sea-coast at the mouth
of the Nile, would have been of but little importance to the Crusaders, but
its conquest had been so rapid and easy that they were led by the intoxica
tion of success to neglect the first elements of prudence and discipline.
Their entry into the town was the signal for its piUage, in spite of the
orders and entreaties of the king, whose humane and generous character
was repugnant to this act of barbarism.
The Christian host should have profited by the enemy's discomfiture, and
immediately have penetrated into the interior of the country, instead of
remaining, as it did, stationary for five months, either on account of the
periodic inundations of the river, or in expectation of the reinforcements
which were due from Europe. This long delay, which fostered idleness, dis
sipation, and insubordination, was fatal to the expedition. When the king at
last gave the order to advance, he had under his orders none but effeminate,
enervated troops, without obedience and without discipHne ; and the Saracens,
who had had plenty of time to forget their panic and overcome their dis
couragement, found, in the demorahsation of their enemies, a stUl further
ground for comfort, and a fresh motive for confidence.
Thenceforward the Christian cause proceeded from bad to worse. After
several engagements in which they were worsted, after several battles, the

Fig. 107. — Disembarkation of the Crusaders at Damietta. — Fac-simile of a "Woodcut in the " Grand Voyage de Hierusalem," printed in
Paris in 1522 by Francois Eegnault, in the Library of M. Ambr. Firmin-Didot. [To face page 126.

THE CRUSADES. 127

effect of which was merely to sacrifice life — particularly after the battle of
Mansourah, in which Bobert of Artois, the king's brother, was killed, with
the flower of the nobility — the Crusaders found themselves surrounded in
their camp, a prey to a pestilential epidemic produced by want, which daUy
made considerable ravages in their ranks. French valour, however, was not
to be daunted, and over and over again the soldiers, though exhausted by
fatigue and disease and dying of hunger, put forth fresh efforts, and defeated
the Saracens ; at a cost to themselves, however, that each victory made them
less able to endure. At last they were forced to retreat on Damietta, where
the Queen with some reserve troops was awaiting them, and where they
hoped to reorganize themselves.
After they had been three or four days on the march, during which this
weary host of sick and wounded had been ceaselessly harassed by the enemy,
the king — who was seriously ill himself, but who always rode and fought in
the rear to protect the remnant of his ost, whose safety, he said, he valued
far more than his own life — was forced to halt in a vUlage, which the Saracens
surrounded and attacked on all sides, while the bravest and most devoted of
Louis's knights aUowed themselves to be cut to pieces to prevent their good
sire from falhng into the hands of the infidels.
Louis was lying on the field in a dying condition, quite incapable of
giving any command, when some traitor cried out in the midst of the fight,
" Yield, sir knights, yield aU of you, the king orders it ; do not cause him
to be slain." The fight immediately ceased, the knights threw down their
arms and asked for quarter. The Saracens pitilessly massacred not only the
sick, from whom they feared the effects of contagion, but every Christian
beneath the rank of knight. The king was taken prisoner, together with
his two brothers (Fig. 108), his principal barons, and the officers of his
household. This occurred on the 6th of April, 1250. *
History records the most touching incidents of the captivity of the pious
monarch. Never was Louis IX. so noble, so heroic, as during these thirty*
days of trial, of suffering, and of danger. Though a captive in the hands of
the unbelievers, subjected to the grossest outrages, loaded with chains, and
threatened with death, he stiU displayed in the gentleness of his disposition
and the serenity of his soul the high virtues of the Christian faith and the
nobUity pertaining to his kingly dignity. The Saracens greatly admired this
magnanimity in misfortune, and their principal leader, the terrible Sultan of

128

THE CRUSADES.

Damascus, entered into negotiations with his august prisoner, who was pre
pared to die rather than submit to some of the demands of his conquerors.
A miUion of golden besants (about half a million of French livres) for the
ransom of the Franks, the restitution of Damietta for that of their king, and
ten years' truce between the Christians and the Mussulmans of Egypt and
of Syria, were the conditions that Louis was obliged to accept. Joinville

Fig. 108.— St. Louis and his two brothers, Alphonse, Count of Poitiers, and Charles, Count of
Anjou, made prisoners by the Saracens.— Fac-simile of a Woodcut in the " Grand Voyage de
Hierusalem," printed in Paris by Francois Regnault in 1522 ; folio. Library of M. Ambr.
Firmin-Didot.
tells us that the emirs of the sultan were content to accept, as their only
guarantee, the bare word of this Frankish prince, the noblest Christian, they
said, they had ever seen in the East. Some of the Saracens, indeed, accord
ing to the same chronicler, had conceived the intention of offering the throne
of Egypt to King Louis (Fig. 109), so much respect and esteem had he
inspired them with.
Louis having recovered his liberty, would not return to France without
having tried every means in his power to alleviate the miseries of Palestine,
or at least to deliver the Christian prisoners whom the infidels still detained.

THE CRUSADES.

129

He went, with seven hundred knights who still remained under his orders,
to the Holy Land, and then, rather by conciliation than by force, and by the
exercise of a marveUous sagacity, he was enabled to a certain extent to re
establish the prestige of the defenders of the cross. He devoted four years to
this good work, and only consented to return to France on hearing of the death
of his beloved mother. He re-entered Paris, after an absence of six years (1254),
with a wounded and broken spirit, "because," says the English chronicler,
Matthew Paris, " through him disorder had overspread Christendom."
Palestine in 1268 had fallen into the deepest misery and desolation ; the
few towns and strongholds which remained in the hands of the Eastern

Fig. 109.— The Messengers of the Sultan, having at their head a, little old man walking with
crutches, come to discuss terms of ransom with the Christian prisoners.— From a miniature in
the " Credo de Joinville," Manuscript of the end of the Thirteenth Century, formerly in the
National Library of Paris, but now in England.
Christians had been pillaged and sacked by the Mamelukes, who at last took
Antioch, where they slew seventeen thousand of the inhabitants, and sold a
hundred thousand more into slavery (Fig. 110). These dreadful tidings,
which two centuries earlier would have caused a general indignation in
Christendom, reached the West without creating much excitement, in the
midst of the pohtical troubles which were agitating most of the states of
Europe. But since his return to France, St. Louis had worn the cross, if
not on his garments, at least in his heart, and had always cherished the
hope of realising the dream of his youth. "The cries of the miserable
Eastern Christians," says an old chronicle, " deprived him of rest ; and

•3°

THE CRUSADES.

he felt within him a deep anguish of soul and a passionate desire for
martyrdom." Accordingly he convened a solemn parliament, when he announced to
his assembled nobles his intention of undertaking a new crusade. At first
many were greatly surprised and afflicted, thinking, writes the Sire de
Joinville, " that those who had counseUed the undertaking had committed
an evil deed and a mortal sin." Some, indeed, of the king's most faithful

Fig. 1 1 0. — Plan of Antioch in the Thirteenth Century, with its five gates — of St. Paul, of the Dog,
of the Duke, of the Bridge, and of St. George. To the right is Mount Oronte; in the fore
ground is the sea. — From a Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century, No. 4,939, in the National
Library of Paris.

servants openly refused to join his crusade, not through fear, but from wisdom,
and with the intention perhaps of persuading him to abandon his fatal project ;
but the majority of the barons and feudal lords found it impossible to gainsay
the will of their sovereign, and the example of the king was of stUl greater
power than his orders. His three sons, the Counts of Toulouse, of Champagne,
and of Flanders, took up the cross, as well as his brother, Charles of Anjou,
who had recently been raised to the throne of Sicily, and many other princes
of the royal house of France.
The preparations for the crusade required three years, during which
St. Louis, in the hope of persuading every Christian state to send its troops

THE CRUSADES.

'31

against the infidels, did his best, but without success, to put an end to the
political quarrels that. divided kings from their subjects. He embarked, in
1270, with his sons and his principal nobles, for Sardinia, which had been
fixed upon as the rendezvous of the Crusaders. On his arrival there it
was decided that Tunis should be attacked first. A French chronicler
mentions that the king had been given to understand that " Tunis afforded
great assistance to the Sultan of Cairo, which was very injurious to the Holy
Land, and the barons believed that if that root of evil, the city of Tunis,

Fig. 111.— Disembarkation of St. Louis at Carthage.— Fac-simile of a Woodcut in tbe " Passaiges
d'oultremer :" small folio, Paris, 1518.

were destroyed, it would be of much advantage to Christendom." Other
chroniclers, on the contrary, and amongst them Matthew Paris, give a more
plausible motive for the expedition, viz., that the king had heard that the
Moorish sovereign of that part of the coast had shown a disposition. to embrace
Christianity and join the western powers in their attempt to conquer Egypt.
However that may have been, the crusading fleet sailed for Tunis, carry
ing an army sadly tried by sickness, and whose ardour had already strangely
begun to cool. The Moors permitted the Christians, almost unopposed, to
disembark and take possession of Carthage (Fig. Ill), which had dwindled

'32

THE CRUSADES.

down to a mere village. Some of the Crusaders housed themselves in the
ruins of the ancient Carthaginian city, the remainder bivouacked under the
burning sun of Africa, surrounded and harassed by the infidels, whose Hght
cavalry kept continuously
skirmishing around them. It
was not long before the plague
broke out in the Christian
army, whilst it was still await
ing the arrival of the King of
Sicily and his .troops, and
Louis IX., already in feeble
health, bowed down by pre
mature old age, and heart
broken in consequence of the
death of one of his sons, was
attacked by it.
As soon as this culminating
misfortune was known in the
camp, there was unusual con
sternation and despondency,
for every one knew that the
king was the, life and soul of
the expedition. From his sick
bed, where he was undergoing
the most cruel sufferings, he
still continued to issue his
orders with that composure
and gentleness which were
habitual to him ; but every
hour increased his feebleness,
every moment brought him
nearer to his end. As soon as
he perceived that his death was
at hand, he tranquilly dictated his last instructions to his son Philip —
instructions which have rightly been termed celestial; — then kneeling at
the bedside he received extreme unction, after which, stretching himself upon

Fig. 112. — St. John of Capistran, Franciscan Monk, who
defended Belgrade against the Turks. — From a Painting
by Bartolommeo Vivarini, in the Louvre. Fifteenth
Century.

THE CRUSADES.

'33

a bed of ashes as a sign of repenlance and humility, his eyes turned beseech
ingly towards heaven, and the words of the psalmist on his lips, " 0 Lord,
I wiU enter thy temple and glorify thy name," he quietly breathed his last
(August 25th, 1270).
And with the last beat of this grand and noble heart terminated the
eighth crusade, the last on the heroic list of these adventurous expeditions

Fig. 113. — Don Juan of Austria, holding a boarding-axe in remembrance of the Battle of Lepanto.
— From a Painting attributed to Alonso Sanchez Coello, Portuguese painter, in the possession
of M. Carderera, of Madrid. End of the Sixteenth Century.
in which the power and the influence of the Christian faith had been so
signally manifested. It had indeed required all the personal influence of
the revered monarch to re-awaken the religious enthusiasm, to quicken into
Hfe the zeal and faith of a state of society which had become more sceptical,
if not more corrupt, as it had become more civilised, and which occupied
itself less with the spiritual consolations of the soul than with the material
pleasures of the body. Never again was the sceptre of France to pass into

i34 THE CRUSADES.

such sainted hands, never again was the martyr's halo of glory to illuminate
its crown. It is true that more than once since the death of St. Louis a call
to the crusade has resounded from the pontifical chair and from the dais of
the council hall, but it never found an echo in the heart of either prince or
peasant. Nevertheless on two subsequent occasions have voices as persuasive
as those of Peter the Hermit and the Monk of Clairvaux attempted to re
awaken popular enthusiasm. In the middle of the fifteenth century, while
Mahomet IL, master of Constantinople, was advancing full of confidence
to conquer the West, John Corvin, vayvode of Transylvania, better known
under the name of Huniades, put himself at the head of the Crusaders
who had been assembled by the eloquent appeals of St. John of Capistran
(Fig. 112). Carried away with the enthusiasm of this man of God, who,
crucifix in hand, was wont to penetrate the ranks in the hottest part of an
engagement, the Crusaders showed themselves worthy of their heroic leader,
Huniades. At the close of a tremendous struggle, the Turks were put to
flight ; Belgrade remained in the hands of the Christians, and the haughty
Mahomet II. was wounded and hurried off the field by his foUowers.
Towards the close of the sixteenth century, the King of Spain and the
Italian princes concluded arrangements with Pope Pius Y. and the Venetians
for a crusade to defend Christian Europe against the Turks. Don Juan of
Austria (Fig. 113), who was appointed commander-in-chief of the troops by
Pius V., obtained, on the 7th of October, 1571, that tremendous victory in
which the Turks lost thirty thousand men and two hundred and twenty-four
vessels, a loss that destroyed their naval supremacy and saved Europe. But in
the meantime the Holy Land had again fallen beneath the yoke of the infidel,
and there was soon no trace left of those principalities beyond the seas which
the crusading nobles had founded in the Archipelago and in Asia Minor, and
which for a brief, a very brief, space had seemed so flourishing ; there was
soon, indeed, no trace left of even the name of the ephemeral kingdom of
Jerusalem, for the creation of which the nations of Europe had lavished, for
nearly two centuries, so much blood, so much wealth, and so much heroism.
The effect of the Crusades was nevertheless a complete revolution in the
manners and customs of the Western nations ; the suppression of servitude,
the founding of the free towns, the alienation and the division of the feudal
lands, and the development of the communal system, were the immediate
consequences of the tremendous emigration of men who went forth to fight

THE CRUSADES.

135

and die in Palestine. The nobles ceased to wage their perpetual private
quarrels, knighthood assumed a regular and solemn character, judiciary duels
diminished, religious orders multiplied, and charitable institutions were esta
blished on every side. Men's minds became more enlightened and their
manners softened under the influence of the growing expansion of science,
art, and literature. Law, natural history, philosophy, and mathematics came
to them in direct descent from the Greeks and the Arabians ; a new literature,
abounding in poetic gems, sprang forth all at once from the imagination of
troubadours, minstrels, and minnesingers ; art, the fine arts particularly,
architecture, painting, sculpture, and embroidery, began to unfold their
thousand wonders; industry and commerce multiplied a hundredfold the
pubHc wealth, which at one time had seemed nearly swallowed up in ruinous
expeditions ; and the art of war, as weU as the art of navigation, made im
mense strides in the direction of progress.

Fig. 114.— Assault on a Fortified Place.— From a Miniature in the " Higtoire des Croisades " of
Guillaume de Tyr, Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century, in the Library of M. Ambr. Firmin-
Didot.

CHIYALEY.
DUELS AND TOURNAMENTS.
Origin of Chivalry. — Its different Characteristics. — Chivalric Gallantry. — Chivalry and Nobility.
— Its Relations with tbe Church. — Education of tbe Children of the Nobility. — Squires. —
Chivalric Exercises. — Pursuivants at Arms. — Courts and Tribunals of Love. — Creation of
Knights.. — Degradation of Knights. — Judicial Duels. — Trials by Ordeal. — Feudal Champions.
—Gages of Battle. — The Church forbids Duels. — Tournaments invented by the Sire de
Preuilly in the Tenth Century. — Arms used in a. Tournament. — Tilt. — Lists. — The part
taken by Ladies. — King Rene's Book.

HE word Chivalry, according to M.
Philarete Chasles, whose ingenious
opinions we often borrow, expresses a
mixture of manners, of ideas, and of
customs peculiar to the Middle Ages
of Europe, and to which no analogy
is to be traced in the annals of the
human race.
The Eddas, Tacitus, and the Dano-
Anglo-Saxon poems of Beowulf con
tain the only positive documents con
cerning the origin of chivalry. It reached its apogee rapidly after its birth,
and gradually declined towards the close of the thirteenth century. At
that period ladies took a very prominent position ; they armed the knights,
conferred the order of knighthood, and bestowed the prizes of honour. It
was under the influence of the ideas peculiar to this epoch that Dante wrote
his great poem, " for the sole purpose," he said, " of glorifying Beatrice
Portinari," a child of eleven years of age whom he had accidentally seen
in a church. It was at this time that the Suabian knights, invaded by
the barbarous Hungarians, who were in the habit of slaying their enemies

CHIVALRY.

'37

with their enormous bows and arrows, implored them, "in the name of
the ladies," to take sword in hand, in order to fight in " a more civilised

Fig. 115.- -King Artus, protected by the Virgin, is fighting a Giant. — Fac-simile of a Woodcut in
the "Chroniques.de Bretagne," of Alain Bouchard: 4to, Paris, Galliot du Pre, 1514.
manner." But chivalry soon began to decline, both as an institution and as a
doctrine. Froissart characterizes and describes with picturesque liveliness this
tendency to decay, which, as time advanced, gradually resulted in a complete
T

,38 CHIVALRY.
transformation, so that the chivalric ideal became lost, and the independence
of the soldier, once the slave only of his God and of his lady, gave way to the
obsequiousness of the courtier, and finally bceame a selfish and pitiful servUity.
At these different epochs of organic transformation, chivalry was con
stantly modifying itself according to each nation's particular tendency. In
Thuringia and Saxony, in Ireland and in Norway, it resisted longer than
elsewhere the growing influence of Christianity. It exhibits its semi-
paganism in certain passages of the "Niebelungen," a German epic poem
of the thirteenth century, in which the rude impress of ancient Teutonism ia
stUl clear and distinct. Between the seventh and the eleventh centuries the
traces of this rudeness of origin still strongly showed themselves among the
Franks, whose bravery consisted in spilling their blood, in fearing nothing,
and in sparing nobody. This thirst for blood was unknown in the south of
Europe ; there men's dispositions were amiable and gentle, and as far back as
the eleventh century chivalric gallantry was regulated by fixed laws, and gave
birth to a learned and refined school of poetry. From Provence this spirit of
gallantry and poetry made its way into Italy and Sicily, where the barbarous
Teutonic knights had been so frequently turned into ridicule. Little by little,
however, German chivalry was affected by these southern influences. The
minnesingers softened to the best of their ability the Teutonic language to
permit of its repeating the softer songs of the Provencal muse, and the Hght
but lively imaginations of the troubadours assumed a gentle melancholy and
often a metaphysical grace in their German verses. In Great Britain, where
the actual has always overshadowed the ideal, chivalry remained cold, feudal,
and aristocratic, whUst it was passionately worshipped by the Spaniards,
those noble and knightly descendants of the Goths and Iberians, whose
struggle with the Arabs was one long tournament that lasted for more
than seven centuries (Fig. 116). In reHgious countries chivalry assumed
monastic characteristics ; among nations of a gay and Hvely disposition it
verged on the voluptuous and licentious. Alphonso X., King of Leon and
Castile, forced his subjects to submit to monkish regulations, and prescribed
the shape of their clothes as weU as the manner in which they were to spend
their time. In Provence, chivalry regarded unlawful love with an indulgent
eye, and made a jest of marriage.
Chivalry was in fact a fraternal association, or rather an enthusiastic
compact between men of feeling and courage, of deHcacy and devotion ;

CHIVALRY.

'39

such at least was the noble aim it had in view, and which it constantly
strove to attain (Fig. 117).
However praiseworthy its motives and intentions, chivalry was not
favourably regarded by everybody. In its feudal aspect it was displeasing

Fig. 116. — Sword of Isabella the Catholic. Upon the hilt is the following inscription, partly in
Spanish and partly in Latin : — " I am always desiring honour ; now I am watching, peace
be with me" ("Deseo sienpre onera ; nunc caveo, pax con migo ").— From the "Armeria
Real of Madrid," a publication of M. Ach. Jubinal's.

to sovereigns, who constantly endeavoured to create beside it, and sometimes
above it, a nobility of the sword, an individual and personal rank that could
not be handed down from father to son (Fig. 118). Thus PhiHppe le Bel,
being in want of soldiers after the Flemings had destroyed his chivalry — that
is to say, his nobUity — attempted immediately to replace it by ordering that

140

CHIVALRY.

the elder of two sons of a viUain, and the two elder of three sons, should be
admitted into the order of knighthood. In this way Frederick Barbarossa

Fig. 1 17,-Chivalry represented by Allegorical Figures.-Fac-simile of a Copperplate in the Spanish
translation of the <¦ Chevalier delibere " of Olivier de la Marche : 4to, Salamanca, 1573.
knighted peasants who had displayed personal bravery on the field of
battle. As for the Church, it contented itself with warning the knights against

CHIVALRY.

141

too bellicose a spirit, and with imbuing them as far as possible with the
sentiments of Christian charity ; in fact, knights were frequently considered
to be a species of Levite. " There was," says the " Ordene de Chevalerie " *
"a great resemblance between the duties of a knight and those of a

Fig. 118. — Conferring Knighthood on the Field of Battle.. — Romance of " Lancelot du Lac," a
Manuscript in the National Library of Paris (Thirteenth Century).
priest." Thence the reason that the priest was " the Tiero of the faith,"
and the knight " the pontiff of true honour." Thence the name of ordene,
or ordination, given to the investiture of knighthood. In the sixteenth
century, the Spanish knight Don Ignatio de Loyola, who became so famous
as the founder of the Order of the Jesuits, made himself a knight of the
Virgin, and solemnised his entrance into God's service, according to ancient

* The investiture of knighthoo*d.

142

CHIVALRY.

custom, by keeping the veilUe des amies * before the sacred image of the
mother of Christ.
The Church, although it seeks to maintain peace and has a horror of
bloodshed, has never forbidden legitimate wars, and thus good King St. Louis
never shrank on the field of battle from driving his sword up to the very
hilt into his enemy's heart. And the Church, whilst approving of the noble
character as well as of the enthusiasm of chivalry, always endeavoured to
restrain its more romantic and warlike tendencies. Its pacific and charitable
spirit is expressed in the solemn blessing on the sword of a knight, which we
take from the "pontifical :" — " Most holy Lord," said the officiating prelate,
"omnipotent Father, eternal God, who alone ordainest and disposest all
things ; who, to restrain the malice of the wicked and to protect justice, hast,
by a wise arrangement, permitted the use of the sword to men upon this
earth, and willed the institution of the military order for the protection of
thy people ; 0 thou who, by the mouth of the thrice-blessed John, didst tell
the soldiers who came to seek him in the desert to oppress no one, but to
rest content with their wages,* — we humbly implore thy mercy, Lord. It is
thou who gavedst to thy servant David to overcome GoHath, and to Judas
Maccabeus to triumph over the nations who did not worship thee ; in like
manner now to this thy servant here, who has come to bend his head beneath
the mihtary yoke, grant strength and courage for the defence of the fbith
and justice ; grant him an increase pf faith, hope, and charity ; inspire him
with thy fear and love ; give him humility, perseverance, obedience, and
patience ; make his disposition in everything such that he may wound no
person unjustly either with this sword or with any other, but that he may
use it to defend all that is just and aU that is right."
The bishop gave the naked sword to the new knight, saying, " Beceive
this blade in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and
use it for your own defence and for that of God's Holy Church, and for the
confusion of the enemies of the cross of Christ and of the Christian faith; and
as far as human frailty permits it, wound no one unjustly with it." The
new-made knight then rose, brandished the sword, wiped it on his left
arm, and replaced it in its scabbard. The prelate then gave him the kiss of
* This was the night-watch kept over his armour by the candidate for admission to the order
of knighthood.

CHIVALRY.

H3

peace, saying, "Peace be with thee." Then, with the naked sword in his
right hand, he struck the knight gently thrice across the shoulders, saying,
"Be thou a peaceable, brave, and faithful warrior." After which the other
knights present put on his spurs (Fig. 119), whilst the bishop said, "Valiant
warrior, thou who surpassest in beauty the children of men, gird thyself with
thy sword upon thy thigh."
The son of a noble, or even of a commoner, intended for the ranks of
knighthood, was at the age of seven taken away from the care of the women ;
who, however, never allowed him to reach that age without instilling into him
such sentiments of right and valour as should govern his conduct during the

Fig. 119. — Arming a Knight: whilst his spurs are being put on the prince girds the sword to his
side.— From a Manuscript of the Thirteenth Century in the British Museum.
rest of his Hfe. He was then entrusted to the men, of whom he became not
only the pupil, but the servitor ; for, says the " Ordene de Chevalerie," " it is
proper that he should learn to obey before he governs ; for otherwise he would
not appreciate the nobility of his rank when he became a knight." Moreover,
the chivalric code, which distrusted the prejudices and weaknesses of paternal
affection, required " every knight to place his son in the service of some
other knight." These youthful novices, particularly if they belonged to a noble
and honourable family, always found plenty of princely courts, seignorial
households, manors, and castles to receive them, which were, so to speak,
the public schools of chivalry. There existed, besides, hospitals founded
and maintained by wealthy and generous nobles, in -the same manner as are
the colleges of the University of Paris; and these hospitals were governed by

i44

CHIVALRY.

old knights without family or fortune, who considered it no shame to accept,
not a salary in money, but a retiring pension in the shape of a house with
board, in which to hold a kind of school of chivalry for the benefit of the
youths, who promised at some future time to prove a credit to the institution.
These youths were termed pages, varlets, and damoiseaux, and they
performed under their masters and mistresses the most humble and the
most domestic functions : they followed them in their travels and to the
chase ; they formed part of their suites on occasions of ceremony ; they Wrote
their letters and carried their messages; they waited on them at meals,
carved their dishes, and poured out their drinks.
In the eyes even of those nobles who were most jealous of their birth
and of their name, this temporary and casual servitude had nothing in it
either of a humiliating or degrading character, and its only effect was to knit
stiU closer the ties of respect, obedience, and sympathy which bound the
youth to his adopted parents, the aspirant for knighthood to his master and
teacher. The latter by no means neglected the moral and reHgious education
of the neophyte ; the first lessons which were given him taught him not
only to love God, but to respect women.
As soon as the young page had acquired sufficient experience and discern
ment to direct his own movements in the intricacies of chivalric life, he was
bidden to choose an ideal sovereign from among the noble and beautiful
ladies of the aristocratic world that he frequented, a sort of terrestrial divinity
whom he was to swear to serve, and to whom he was henceforth to recount
all his thoughts and actions, treating her at the same time with all the
delicacy and devotion which the example of those around him had shown
him to be her due.
He was taught, above all, to revere the august character of chivalry, and
to respect, in the persons of the knights who composed this institution, the
dignity to which he himself aspired. It was thus that, led by the instinct
of imitation pecuhar to the young, the pages habitually played at doing
everything they saw done by the knights. They practised wielding the
lance and the sword ; they played at combats, attacks, and duels between
themselves. Excited by emulation, they coveted the honour of being con
sidered brave, hoping if they attained their wish, that it would lead to their
being attached to the -service of some person of mark, or to their being
promoted to the rank of esquire.

CHIVALRY.

'45

When the young men abandoned the position of pages in order to be made
esquires, an event that never took place before their fourteenth year, their
change of social condition was celebrated by a religious ceremony, which the
Church appointed for the purpose of consecrating their knightly vocation,
and of hallowing the use of the arms they were henceforward destined to
carry. Standing at the altar and surrounded by his nearest relations, the
youthful novice received the consecrated sword from the hands of the priest,

Fig. 120. — The Game of Quintain: tilting at a quintain (revolving effigy of a knight). — Fac
simile of a Miniature in the " Chroniques de Charlemagne " (Fifteenth Century). Burgundian
Library, Brussels. »
promising always to wield it in the interests of religion and honour. A
higher position in the household of his lord or lady was then assigned to
the new esquire. He was admitted to their private gatherings, he took part
in aU assemblies and state ceremonies, and it was now his duty to superintend
the reception, that is to say, to regulate the laws of etiquette relating to the
foreign nobles who visited his master's court.
A passage from the history of Boucicaut, a marshal of France in the
reign of Charles VI., will give an idea of the laborious and arduous existence

:46 CHIVALRY.

of the young esquire who aspired to become a worthy knight: "Now cased in
armour, he would practise leaping on to the back of a horse ; anon, to accustom
himself to become long-winded and enduring, he would walk and run long
distances on foot, or he would practise striking numerous and forcible blows
with a battle-axe or mallet. In order to accustom himself to the weight of
his armour, he would turn somersaults whilst clad in a complete suit of mail,
with the exception of his helmet, or would dance vigorously in a shirt of
steel ; he would place one hand on the saddle-bow of a taU charger, and the
other on his neck, and vault over him  He would climb up between two
perpendicular walls that stood four or five feet asunder by the mere pressure
of his arms and legs, and would thus reach the top, even if it were as high as
a tower, without resting either in the ascent or descent  When he was
at home, he would practise with the other young esquires at lance-throwing
and other warlike exercises, and this continuaUy."
Besides aU this, it was necessary for an esquire who wished to fulfil his
duties properly to possess a number of physical qualities, great versatility of
talent and capability, and a zeal that never flagged. At court, as in the
larger seignorial households, there were various classes or categories of
esquires who performed totally distinct duties, which in less important house
holds were all entrusted to the same individual. The first in importance was
the body esquire, or the esquire of honour ; then the chamber esquire, or
chamberlain; the carving esquire, the stable esquire, the cup-bearing esquire,
&c, all separate personages, whose names sufficiently indicate their duties.
It is scarcely necessary to remark that esquires, besides the domestic
services expected from them within their master's house, had especiaUy to
give proofs of their vigilance and skUl in the duties of the stable — duties
which, as an historian aptly observes, were of necessity noble, since the
mUitary aristocracy never fought but on horseback. It was the duty of all
first esquires to break in their masters' chargers, and to teach the younger
esquires the routine of the stable. The duty of attending to the arms and
armour devolved upon another class of esquires. We may add that, as each
seignorial castle was also a species of fortress, most of the esquires, in
addition to their other tasks, were required to perform certain mUitary
duties analogous to those practised in a regular stronghold, such as rounds,
sentry duty, watches, &c. (Fig. 121).
When thei*r lord mounted his horse, his esquires shared amongst them

CHIVALRY.

'47

the honour of assisting him; some held his stirrup, others carried various
parts of his armour, such as the armlets, the helmet, the shield, the gauntlets,
&c. When a knight was
merely going for a ride
or on a journey, he usuaUy
bestrode a sober kind of
hack that was called a pal
frey, but when he was going
to take the field, one of his
esquires led at his right
hand (whence the name of
destrier given to this sort
of steed) a charger or high
horse, which the knight
only mounted at the last
moment; Hence the ex
pression, " to ride the high
horse," which has become
proverbial. As soon as the knight
had decided to mount his
charger, his squires' pro
ceeded to arm him, that is
to say, they firmly fastened
together all the different
pieces of his armour on his
body with straps attached
to metal buckles for the pur
pose ; and it may be weU
conceived that no slight
care was required to pro
perly adjust such a cum
brous and comphcated steel
or iron casing ; an esquire's neglect, indeed, frequently caused his master's
death. When a single combat took place, the esquires, drawn up behind their

Fig. 121. — German Knight, engraved by Burgmayer from
designs by Albert Diirer, taken from a collection entitled
" Vita Imperatoris Maximiliani " (Fifteenth Century).

1 48 CHIVALRY.

lord, remained for a few moments inactive spectators of the struggle, but as
soon as it had once fairly begun their share in the affray commenced.
Watching the slightest movement, the smallest signals of their master, they
stood ready to assist him in an indirect but efficacious manner if he attained
any advantage, without actually becoming aggressors themselves, in order to
assure his victory ; if the knight were hurled from his steed,* they helped him
to remount, they brought him a fresh horse, they warded off the blows that
were aimed at him ; if he were wounded and placed hors de corn-bat, they did
their utmost, at the risk of their own life, to carry him off before he was slain
outright. Again, it was to his esquires that a successful knight confided the
care of the prisoners he had taken on the battle-field. In fine, the esquires,
short of actually fighting themselves, a thing forbidden by the code of
chivalry, were expected to display the greatest zeal, the greatest skill, and
the greatest courage, and consequently had it very materiaUy in their power
to contribute to their master's success.
A long novitiate and the consciousness of an aptitude for a military
career were not always, however, sufficient to enable an esquire to obtain the
rank of knight. He was frequently obliged, in the intermediate rank of
pursuivant-at-arms, to travel through foreign countries, either as the acknow
ledged envoy of some prince or noble, or merely in the character of. an
ordinary traveller, and be present at chivalric games and tournaments,
without actually taking part in them himself; he thus acquired, by constant
intercourse with distinguished soldiers and high-born ladies, a thorough
technical knowledge of the military calling, and an intimate acquaintance
with all the elegant refinements of courtesy.
In this way pursuivants-at-arms went about everywhere, one day being
ceremoniously received at the court of a powerful noble, the next being
simply entertained in the lowly manor of a poor gentleman; acting, wherever
they might be, honourably both in word and in deed, observing scrupulously
the precepts both of honour and virtue, showing themselves to be noble,
brave, and devoted, and seeking every opportunity of proving themselves
worthy of ranking with the noble knights whose deeds and whose names
were the theme of constant and universal praise.
Chance alone was not allowed to direct their wandering and adventurous
steps, they eagerly sought the most renowned princely and seignorial courts,
at which they were certain to meet with chivalry!s loftiest traditions; they

CHIVALRY.

i49

thought themselves fortunate indeed when they were able to make their
obeisance to some hero famous for his deeds in arms, or to elicit a smile from
some lady celebrated for her beauty and her worth.
And while the most perfect respect and courtesy to ladies were the first

Fig. 122. — The Count of Artois, who has come from Arras to take part in the tournament at
Boulogne, presents himself at the Castle of the Count of Boulogne, and is received by the
Countess and her daughter. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the " Livre du tres-chevalereux
Comte d' Artois et de sa Femme," Barrois Manuscript (Fifteenth Century).
duties instiUed into each youthful aspirant, it must be owned that the
education received by the former was one calculated to make them in every
way worthy of such homage. To fit ladies for the queenly part they were
destined to play in the world of chivalry, they were taught from their child
hood to practise every virtue, to cherish every noble feeling, and generally

'S°'

CHIVALRY.

to emulate the dignity demanded by the social privileges of their rank. They
were profuse in their acts of kindness and civility to the knights, whether
friends or strangers, who entered the gates of their castles (Figs. 122 and 123) ;
on a knight's return from tournament or battle, they unbuckled his armour

Fig. 123. — Knight setting out for the War. — " II prist le dur congie de sa bonne et belle fimme,
en si grans pleurs et gemissemens qu'elle demoura toute pasmee " (" He said farewell to his
good and beautiful wife with such tears and groans that she was ready to swoon"). — Fac
simile of a Miniature in the " Livre du tres-chevalereux Comte d' Artois et de sa Femme,"
Barrois Manuscript (Fifteenth Century).

with their own hands, they prepared perfumed and spotless linen for his
wear, they clothed him in gala dress, in mantle and scarf that they had
themselves embroidered, they prepared his bath, and waited on him at
table. Destined to become the wives of these same knights who frequented

CHIVALRY. 151

their homes, they did their utmost to bring themselves under their notice by
their modest demeanour, and to make themselves beloved by the courtesy and^
the attentions which they lavished upon them. It was theirs to respond, with
admiration and tenderness, to the boldness and to the bravery of the knights,
who sought glory only to lay it at their mistresses' feet, and who asked for
nothing better than to be subject to the gentle sway of beauty, grace, and
virtue. It was thus, for instance, that in Provence, from the eleventh to the
fourteenth century, the most powerful nobles humbly obeyed, in everything
that concerned the heart, the decrees issued by the courts or tribunals of
love, a kind of feminine areopagus which was held with great ceremony on
certain days, and at which the ladies most distinguished by birth, beauty,
intelligence, and knowledge, met to deliberate, pubhcly or with closed doors,
with proper gravity and solemnity, on dehcate questions of gaUantry, which
in those days were considered highly important. These courts of love, which
appear to have been regular and permanent institutions in the twelfth
century, had a special code, in accordance with which the sentences pro
nounced were more or less rigorously in conformity ; but this code has not
been handed down to our day, and we only possess its outline conveyed in
the commentaries of the legal writers of the fifteenth century. Causes in
these courts were sometimes decided on written evidence, sometimes the
parties themselves were allowed to appear in person. Among the celebrated
women who at different epochs and in different places presided over these
romantic assizes, may be cited the beautiful Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of
France, and afterwards of England ; Sibyl of Anjou, who married Thierry,
Count of Flanders ; the Countess of Die, surnamed the Sappho of France ;
and the famous Laura or Lauretta of Sade, whom Petrarch, who chose her
for the lady of his love, has immortalised in his verse.
But to return to the esquire, who was left undergoing his laborious
novitiate. When he had at last performed all its numerous requirements,
the investiture of knighthood was conferred upon him, a symbolical cere
mony, as indeed were all that went to make up a chivalric ordination, but
one of a more serious and solemn character than the rest.
We have already said that this word ordination (ordene) implies that the
arming of a knight was a kind of sacred ceremony. A very curious poem
entitled " L'Ordene de Chevalerie " is still in existence. Its author, Hugues

•5*

CHIVALRY.

de Tabarie or de Tiberiade, undertook the task of explaining all the forms of
the investiture. In order to make his explanations more intelligible, Hugues
de Tab-Sriade supposes himself before an aspirant entirely ignorant of aU the
usages of chivalry ; ' he pretends that the Sultan Saladin, whose prisoner
he is, has forced him to confer upon him the order of knighthood. The
first thing Hugues does is to order him to comb his hair and beard, and to
carefully wash his face : —

Text.
Caviaus et barbe, et li viaire
Li fist appareiller moult bel ;
Ch'est droit a chevalier nouvel.
PuiB le fist en un baing entrer.
Lors li commenche a demander
Le soudan, que che seni&e.

Translation.
His hair, his beard, and his face
He made him carefully arrange ;
It is the duty of a new knight.
Then he made him enter a bath.
Then the sultan began to ask
What all this signified.

" Sire," answers Hugues, " like the babe that leaves the font cleansed
from original sin," —

" Sire, tout ensement devez
Issir, sanz mile vilounie
De ce baing, car chevalerie
Si doit baingnier en honest-5,
En courtoisie et en bonte
Et fere amer a toutes gens."

" Sire, it is thus that you must
Emerge without any stain
From this bath ; for knighthood
Must be clothed with honesty,
With courtesy, and with goodness,
And make itself beloved by all."

"By the great God," says Saladin, "this is a wonderful beginning!"
"Now," answers Hugues, "leave the bath and rechne on this great bed.
It is an emblem of the one you will obtain in paradise, the bed of rest
that God grants to his followers, the brave knights." Shortly after, whUst
dressing him from head to foot, he says : " The snow-white linen shirt with
which I am clothing you, and which touches your skin, is to teach you
that you must keep your flesh from every stain if you wish to reach heaven.
This crimson robe indicates —

" Que votre sane devez epandre
Pour Dieu servir et hounorer ;
Et pour defendre Sainte Eglise ;
Car tout chou doit chevalier faire,
S'il veust a Dieu de noient plaire ;
Ch'est entendu par le vermeil.

" That you must pour out your blood
To serve and honour God ;
And to defend the holy Church ;
For all this must a knight do
If he wishes entirely to please God ;
Such is the meaning of the crimson.

CHIVALRY. 153

"These trunk-hose of brown silk by their sombre hue are meant to remind
you of — (Text.) (Translation.)
" La mort, et la terre ou gisrez, " Death, and the earth where you will rest,
Dont venistes, et ou irez. Whence you came and whither you will return ;
A chou doivent garder votre ceil ; This is what you must keep before your eyes ;
Si n'enkerret pas en orguel, Thus you will not fall into pride,
Car orgueus ne doit pas regner For pride should never govern
En chevalier, ni demorer. A knight nor reign within him.
A simpleche doit toujours tendre. Humility should always be his aim.
" This white girdle which I place around your loins is to teach you to
keep your body pure and to avoid luxury. These two golden spurs are to
urge on your horse ; imitate its ardour and its docility, and as it obeys you,
so be you obedient to the Lord. Now I fasten your sword to your side ;
strike your enemies with its double edge, prevent the poor from being.
crushed by the rich, the weak from being oppressed by the strong. I put
upon your head a pure white coif to indicate that your soul similarly should
be stainless." Every pursuivant was perfectly well acquainted with the meaning of the
ordination of knighthood. The vigil of arms, the strict fasts, the three nights
spent in prayer in a lonely chapel, the white garments of the neophyte, the
consecration of his sword in front of the altar, were sufficient to prove to
the novice the gravity of the engagement he was contracting under the
auspices of religion. At last a day was fixed for the great ceremony, and
the neophyte — after hearing mass on his bended knees, and with his sword,
which he had not yet acquired the right to gird to his side, suspended from
his neck — received from the hands of some noble or of some noble lady his
spurs, his helmet, his cuirass, his gauntlets, and his sword. The ceremony
was completed by the colee ; that is to say, the investing knight, before
presenting him with the sword, struck hfm across the shoulder with its flat
side, and then gave him the accolade as a sign of brotherly adoption. His
shield, his lance, and his charger, were then brought to the new-made
knight, and he was thenceforward at liberty to commence the career of
glory, of devotion, and of combat, to which for so many years he had
aspired. The Christian symboHsm, which had accompanied the first steps of the
novice, followed and surrounded him in some way or other during the whole
x

1 54

CHIVALRY.

of his knightly career. Indeed, it took part in his punishment and degra
dation if he broke his plighted faith or if he forfeited his honour. Exposed
on a scaffold in nothing but his shirt, he was stripped of his armour, which

Fig. 124.— Degradation of a Knight.— Fragment of a Woodcut attributed to Jost Amman, bearing
the date 1565 and the monogram A. J. (Collection of M. Guenebault, of Paris).

was broken to pieces before his eyes and thrown at his feet, while his spurs
were thrown upon a dunghill. His shield was fastened to the croup of a cart
horse and dragged through the dust, and his charger's tail was cut off. A

CHIVALRY. 155
herald- at- arms asked thrice, " Who is there ?" Three times an answer was
given naming the knight about to be degraded, and three times the herald
rejoined, "No, it is not so; I see no knight here, I see only a coward who has
been false to his plighted faith." Carried thence to the church on a litter
like a dead body, the culprit was forced to listen whUe the burial service was
read over him, for he had lost his honour, and was now only looked upon
as a corpse (Fig. 124).
Although the Church was the protectress of chivalry, and even invested
it with an almost sacred dignity, she always refused to extend her protection
to tournaments, tilts, and assaults of arms, brilliant, but often dangerous
manifestations of the chivalric spirit, and particularly to judicial duels, which
were of German origin, and which dated from a period long prior to the
institution of Christian chivalry. When the Church found itself obhged to
show indulgence to these ancient traditions, which custom had interwoven
with the habits of the Middle Ages, she did so in as reserved a manner as
possible. She was always indignantly protesting against the barbarous custom
which compelled or allowed women, children, churches, and convents, to
choose from among the knights a special champion (campeador) who should
be always ready to sustain against all the patron's cause. The Church, while
approving the generous protection which chivalry extended to the weak and
to the oppressed, always endeavoured to destroy the savage doctrine of
paganism which confounded might with right; but it was in vain that
she opposed aU her influence and authority to the custom of duelling ;
she was obliged to restrict herself to lessening the evil effects of the
opinions that generaUy prevaUed, without hoping to destroy the opinions
themselves. The point of honour had no existence in the breasts of the warriors of
antiquity. They sacrificed themselves to their country ^nd to the common
wealth, and they loved glory — a sentiment which with them was collective
and not individual, for with them society, as a whole, was everything, its
unit, nothing. The modern duel, whether it be considered a brutal and
speedy method of setthng private quarrels, or a proper act of submission
to the divine wiU which cannot fail to crown right with success, springs
from the strong individuality of barbarism, and from the personal tendency
of savage dignity and independence.
This strange confusion of ideas relative to victory and innocence, to might

'56

CHIVALRY.

and right, first gave rise to trial by ordeal, or the judgment of God, which
included ordeal by fire, by boUing water, by the cross, and by the sword, to
which women, and even princesses, were subjected. Mankind, in the sim
plicity of its belief, appealed to God, the sovereign judge, and implored Him
to grant strength and victory to the just cause. Trial by ordeal fell into
discredit about the time of Charlemagne, and was superseded, towards the
latter half of the twelfth century, by the judicial duel. The institution of

wPPiiPn
lis?? 1 sm*KiMRiWH^k/)ia^-^..^^A-^mm

Fig. 125. — Fight between Raymbault de Morueil and Guyon de Losenne. The Abbot of St. Denis
at the feet of the Archbishop of Paris, taking oath tbat his cause, defended by Raymbault, is
a just one. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the "Romance of Charles Martel," enlarged by
David Aubert. Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Burgundian Library, Brussels!"
chivalry favoured this hasty method of decision, which was in accordance
with the manners and ideas of the period. Questions which otherwise would
have been difficult to solve were thus abruptly settled, and from these bloody
decisions there was no appeal. In some countries, indeed, the judge who
had decided between two antagonists had himself to submit to the judgment
of God, as represented by the judicial duel, and was forced to come down
from his judgment-seat and contend in arms against the criminal he had just

CHIVALRY.

'57

condemned. On the other hand, however, it must be said that the judge, in
his turn, possessed the privUege of chaUenginga prisoner who refused to bow
to his decision.
If. the principle of this rough combatant justice be once admitted, it must
be acknowledged that a spirit of wisdom dictated every possible precaution to
render its inconveniences as few as possible. The duel, in fact, only took
place when a crime punishable by death had been committed, and then only
when there were no witnesses to the crime, but merely grave suspicions

Fi»*. 126.— Duet concerning the Honour of Ladies. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the "Histoire
de Gerard de Ne vers," a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the National Library of
Paris.

against the supposed criminal. All persons less than twenty-one or more
than sixty years of age, priests (Fig. 125), invalids, and women (Fig. 126),
were dispensed from taking part in these combats, and were allowed to be
represented by champions.. If the two parties to a dispute were of a
different rank in Hfe, certain regulations were drawn up in favour of the
plaintiff. A knight who chaUenged a serf was forced to fight with a serf's
weapons, that is to say, with a shield and a staff, and to wear at leathern
jerkin; if, on the contrary, the challenge came from the serf, the knight

i5«

CHIVALRY.

was allowed to fight as a knight, that is to say, on horseback and in armour.
It was customary for the two' parties to a judicial duel to appear before their
count or lord ; after reciting his wrongs, the plaintiff threw down his gage 
generally a glove or gauntlet — which his adversary then exchanged for his
own as a sign that he accepted the challenge. Both were then led to the
seignorial prison, where they were detained till the day fixed for the combat,
unless they could obtain substantial sureties who would make themselves

Fig. 127. — " How the plaintiff and the defendant take the final oath before the judge."— Fac-simile
of a Miniature in " Ceremonies des Gages de Bataille," a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century
in the National Library of Paris.

responsible for their safe custody, and bind themselves, in case their baUee
failed to appear at the appointed time, to undergo the penalties attached
to the committal of the act that had necessitated the appeal to arms. This
was termed the viae prison.
On the day fixed for the combat, the two adversaries, accompanied by
their seconds and by a priest, appeared in the Hsts mounted and armed at all
points, their weapons in their hands, their swords and daggers girded on.
They knelt down opposite to one another with their hands clasped, each in his

CHIVALRY.

'59

turn solemnly swearing upon the cross and upon Holy Writ (Fig. 127) that
he alone was in the right, and that his antagonist was false and disloyal; and
he added, moreover, that he carried no charm or taHsman about his person.
A herald-at-arms then gave public notice at each of the four corners of the
lists to the spectators of the combat to remain perfectly passive, to make no
movement, and to utter no cry that could either encourage or annoy the corn-

Fig. 128. — " How both parties are out of their tents, armed and ready to dq their duty at the signal
from the marshal, who has thrown the glove." — From a Miniature in the " Ceremonies des
Gages de Bataille," a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the National Library of Paris.

batants, under pain of losing a limb, or even Hfe itself. The seconds then
withdrew, and the camp-marshal, after seeing that both antagonists were
fairly placed, and had their proper share of the wind and the sun, caUed out
three times, " Laissez-les alter !" and the fight began (Fig. 128).
The judicial duel never commenced before noon, and was only aUowed
to last tiU the stars appeared in the sky. If the defendant held out tUl

160 CHIVALRY.

then he was considered to have gained his cause. The knight who was
beaten, whether killed or merely wounded, was dragged off the ground by
his feet, the fastenings of his cuirass were cut, his armour was thrown piece
by piece into the lists, and his steed and his weapons were divided between
the marshal and the judges of the duel. Indeed sometimes, as, for instance,
in Normandy and in Scandinavia, according to ancient usage, the vanquished
champion was hung or burnt alive, according to the nature of the crime ;
while if he had fought as the champion of another person, that person was
usually put to death with him.
The Church, although she allowed a priest to be present in the Hsts, never
even granted a tacit approval to these judicial duels ; she excommunicated
the successful duellist, and refused the rites of burial to his victim ; nor
was she alone in condemning this barbarous custom ; the lay authorities did
all in their power, but without very much success, to restrict the number of
these sanguinary appeals. St. Louis, in a celebrated decree of 1260, sub
stituted trial by evidence in place of the judicial duel, but he .found himself
only able to enforce this reform within the area of his own dominions, and
imperfectly even there, for long after his reign it is on record that the
ParUament of Paris ordered certain criminal cases to be decided by personal
combat. When at last, in the fifteenth century, the custom of the judicial duel
feU into disuse, the nobility still retained and practised single combat
(Fig. 129). A personal affront, often an extremely slight one, a quarrel,
a shght to be avenged, were enough to bring two rivals or two enemies to
blows. This combative custom, which made a man's strength and personal
skiU the guardians of his honour, was sustained and encouraged by the
spirit of chivalry and by that of German feudalism. Sometimes, however,
the practice was considered justifiable on other grounds. History, for
instance, has honourably recorded the " Battle of the Thirty," which took
place in 1351, between thirty knights of Brittany, under the Sire de Beau-
manoir, and thirty English knights ; and another equally bloody struggle of
the same kind between Bayard and ten other French knights, and eleven
Spaniards, before the walls of Tranni. The national honour alone was the
motive of these two celebrated duels; but they were only the exceptions
to the rule. It almost seems as if the nobility, in their efforts to chng to
the shadow and the memory of the rapidly-expiring traditions of chivalry,

CHIVALRT.

161

became more inveterate in their adherence to the cruel system of duelhng.
In the sixteenth century, under the last monarchs of the house of Valois, the

Place Eoyale and the Pre aux Clercs were often watered with the blood of
the best families of France. In vain did Henry IV. and Louis XIII. issue
Y

1 62 CHIVALRY.
the most stringent edicts against this barbarous custom ; in vain did the
decree, called the decree of Blois, render nugatory all letters of pardon
granted to duellists, " even if they were signed by the king himself." In
spite of everything, the nobles, upon whose privileges the monarchy daUy
made fresh encroachments, had recourse to dueUing as if to assert* their
connection with a chivalric and adventurous past,, and the most trivial,
ridiculous, and shameful motives served as pretexts for a renewal of the
sanguinary struggles, which had been originally inspired by a generous
courage and a loyal sympathy with justice.
But we must go back to the time of the zenith of the Middle Ages
to see its tournaments, its tilts, and its passages of arms. In the halcyon
period of chivalry, its sham fights, its courteous tournaments, and its war
like exhibitions, occasioned many an accident, and brought about many
a fatal result. History mentions a tournament in Germany where sixty
persons perished in a struggle waged with weapons deprived of edge and
point. No question of mere gaUantry, no point of honour, was involved
in the oldest tournaments on record (the tournament was first aUuded to
in the chronicles of the reign of Charles the Bald) ; no pomp of drapery,
no brilhancy of banner, adorned them then. No princesses, no noble
ladies, showed themselves in all their pride of beauty and of dress around
those ancient lists. The tournament (in old French toumoiement) of those
days was merely a violent athletic pastime, in which the iron men of that
period measured their strength one against the other with sword strokes,
with lance thrusts, and with mace blows. But as the customs of chivalry
gradually softened the manners of the nobility, so the primitive coarse
ness and roughness of these trials of strength became modified and regu
lated. Tradition declares that the tournament properly so called was
first inaugurated in Brittany in the tenth century by Geoffrey, the Sire de
PreuilH. As a rule, tournaments were proclaimed, that is to say published, d cor et
d cri (Figs. 130 and 131), either when a promotion of knights, or a royal
marriage, or a solemn entry of a sovereign into a town took place ; and the
character of these chivalrous festivals changed according to the time and
place at and in which they occurred. The arms used on these occasions
varied in a similar manner. In France, the tournament lance was made of
the lightest and straightest wood, either fir, aspen, or sycamore, pointed with

CHIVALRY.

163

steel, and with a pennant floating from the end ; whUst in Germany and in
Scotland they were made of the heaviest and toughest wood, with a long
iron pear-shaped point. The tournament must not be confounded with the

Fig. 130. — " Here is shown how the king-at-arms, having on his shoulder the gold cloth with the
two leaders painted on parchment, and in the four corners the arms of the said judges,
proclaims the tournament, and how the heralds offer the arms of the said judges to whoever
will take them." — Fac-simile of a Miniature in the " Tournaments of King Rene," a Manu
script of the Fifteenth Century in the National Library of Paris.
tilt or joust (from the Latin juxta), which was a single hand-to-hand combat,
nor with the passage of arms, in which several combatants, both on foot
and on horseback, were engaged, and imitated the attack and defence of
some military position, some pass, or some narrow mountainous defile. Tilts

164

CHIVALRY.

usuaUy formed part of a tournament and marked its close ; but there were
also more complicated tUts, open to aU comers, which lasted for several days,
and were termed joutes pUnieres. As the ladies were the Hfe and soul of these
tilts, the knights always terminated the proceedings by a special passage of
arms which was termed the lance des dames ; they were always ready to pay

Fig. 131. — " Here is portrayed a herald holding the banners of the four referees." — Fac-simile of a
Miniature in the " Tournaments of King Rene " (Fifteenth Century).
this homage to the charms of the fair sex, and frequently fought for them
with sword, axe, and dagger.
The preparations for a tournament afforded an animated and interesting
picture. The Hsts, which at first were of a round shape Hke the amphi
theatres of antiquity, were later constructed in a square, and later stiU in an
oblong form ; they were gilded, painted with emblems and heraldic devices,
and ornamented with rich hangings and historical tapestries. While the
lists were being prepared, the knights who were to take part in the tourna-

Fig. 132.— The Banners and Helmets are ranged round a cloister, and are then distributed by the judges, in the presence of the ladies and those
taking part in the tournament.— Miniature from tbe " Tournois du Roi Rene," MS. of the Fifteenth Century, in the National Library, Paris.
[To face page 164.

CHIVALRY. 165
ment, as weU as those who were to be only its spectators, had their armorial
banners hung out from the windows of the houses in which they were
putting up, and affixed their coats of arms to the outer waUs of the
neighbouring castles, monasteries, and cloisters. When this was done, the
nobles and the ladies went round and inspected them (Fig. 132) ; a herald
or a pursuivant-at-arms named their owners, and if a lady recognised any
knight against whom she had any ground of complaint, she touched his
banner or his shield, in order to bring him under the notice of the camp
judges, and if, after an inquiry, he was found guUty, he was forbidden to
appear in the tournament.
Coats of arms, which were striking characteristics of chivalry, and which
were adopted by the nobility as one of its most striking attributes, had
no doubt a contemporaneous origin with the institution whose emblem it
became. It is supposed to have been in the eleventh century, at the time
of the First Crusade, that the necessity of distinguishing between the mul
titude of nobles and knights who flocked to the Holy Land led to the
invention of the different heraldic colours and devices. Each Crusader
chose and kept his own particular emblem ; these emblems became the
external marks of nobihty, and were to be seen everywhere — on the war
tents, on the banners, on the Hveries, on the clothes, and on every object
belonging to a noble family. Hence the language of heraldry, that figura
tive and hieroglyphic jargon, incomprehensible to everybody at that period
except to professional heralds-at-arms.
On the eve of the tournament the youthful esquires practised among
themselves in the Hsts with less weighty and less dangerous weapons than
those wielded by the knights. These preludes, which were often graced by
the presence of the ladies, were termed iproivoes (trials), vepres du tournoi
(tournament vespers), or escremie (fencing bouts). The esquires who dis
tinguished themselves the most in these trials were frequently immediately
admitted to the rank of knighthood, and aUowed to take part in the ensuing
feats. Like the Olympic games of Greece, tournaments, which were real
popular solemnities, excited the ambition and quickened the pulses of all.
Stands, usually roofed and closed in, were erected at the ends of the Hsts
to afford shelter to persons of distinction in the event of bad weather. These
stands, sometimes built tower-shape, were divided into boxes, and more or
less magnificently decorated with tapestry, hangings, pennants, shields of

1*66

CHIVALRY.

arms, and banners. Kings, queens, princes, dames, damoiselles, and the
older knights, the natural judges of the combats in which they could no
longer take a personal share, stationed themselves there. The camp

Fig. 133. — Tbe Champion of the Tournament, from the Collection entitled " Vita Imperatoris
Maximiliani," engraved by Burgmayer from drawings by Albert Diirer (Fifteenth Century).
marshals and the seconds or counsellors of the knights, whose duty it was
to enforce the laws of Christian chivalry, and to give their advice and
assistance to all who might require it, had also their respective posts. The
kings-at-arms, the heralds, and pursuivants-at-arms, stood within the arena
or just without it, and were expected to narrowly observe the combatants,

CHIVALRY. 167
and to draw up a faithful and minute report of the different incidents of
the combat, without forgetting a single blow. Every now and then they
Hfted up their voices to encourage the younger knights who were making
their first appearance in the lists : " Becollect whose son you are ! be
worthy of your ancestry ! " they cried, in loud tones. Besides these, varlets
and sergeants, who were specially entrusted with the duty of keeping order,
of picking up and replacing broken weapons, and of raising unhorsed knights,
were posted everywhere in and about the Hsts ; while musicians on separate
stands held themselves ready to celebrate with noisy flourishes every great
feat of arms and every fortunate and brilliant stroke. The sound of their
clarions announced the entry of the knights into the lists, stepping with
slow and solemn cadence, magnificently armed and equipped, and followed
by their esquires on horseback. Sometimes the ladies were the first to enter
the lists, leading in by golden or silver chains the knights, their slaves,
whom they only set at Hberty when the signal was given for the combat to
commence. The ladies almost always bestowed a favour on their favourite
knight or servitor, generaUy a scarf, a veil, a head-dress, a mantle, a bracelet,
or even a plain bow of ribbon, which had formed part of their own dress.
This was termed an enseigne or nobloy (distinguishing mark), and was placed
on a knight's shield, lance, or helmet, so that his lady might be able to
recognise him in the milee, particularly when his weapons were broken, or
when he had lost some essential portion of his armour. While the combat
lasted the heralds uttered loud cries of encouragement, and the musicians
sounded loud flourishes, at each decisive blow of lance or sword; and
between each tilt the nobles and the ladies distributed a quantity of small
coins amongst the crowd, who received it with loud and joyous cries of
largesse ! and no'el !
The combat being over, and the victor being declared according to the
reports of the heralds and pursuivants, the prize was given away with
all proper solemnity by the elder knights and sometimes by the ladies
(Fig. 134). The latter conducted the conqueror with great pomp and
triumph to the splendid banquet which foUowed the tournament. The
place of honour occupied by the successful knight, the resplendent clothes
in which he was dressed, the kiss that he had the privilege of giving
to the most beautiful ladies, the poems and the songs in which his
prowess was celebrated, were the last items in this knightly pageant, which

i68

CHIVALRY.

was generally accompanied by bloodshed, and frequently by the death
of some of its actors. As we have already stated, the usages of the
tournament often varied; nothing, for example, could be more unhke the
warlike sports of Germany in the thirteenth century, as related in the

Fig. 134. — The Prize of the Tournament. — From a Looking-glass Lid in Carved Ivory.
End of the Thirteenth Century.
" Niebelungen," nothing could be more unlike those sanguinary and ferocious
struggles, than the Provencal and SicUian tournaments of the fifteenth
century, described in such glowing language by good King Bene" in the
magnificent manuscript which he spent his leisure in iUuminating with
miniatures. This poet-king, refined in manners, generous in disposition, and
cultivated in his tastes, attempted, under the influence of the romantic and

THE TOURNAMENT PRIZE.
Miniature from the Tournaments of King Bene", manuscript of the xv,h century in the Bibliotb. nationale (Paris),

CHIVALRY.

169

religious charm which still pervaded the chivalric sports of this epoch, to
perpetuate with pen and pencil, in prose and in verse, the memory of a
magnificent festival over which he presided, and which may be considered
an unsurpassed example of the ceremonies of the time. All who take an
interest in the subject should read this curious manuscript, which describes
among other things the famous struggle between the Duke of Brittany
and the Duke of Bourbon. In this maybe found related to its smallest
detaUs the whole ceremony of a grand tournament, its forms, its progress,

Fig. 135.* — King Henri II. wounded by Montgomery in a Tournament (1559). — From an
Engraving of the Sixteenth Century in the possession of M. Ambr. Firmin-Didot.

and its incidents ; in it appear careful comments upon every trifle that
increased the brilliancy or added to the effect of this courtly festival, as well
as everything that threw a light upon the spirit in which it was carried out
or the usages that regulated every detaU, from the armour of the knights
to the smallest incidents of the ceremonial. In its pages illustrations
reproduce with exact truthfulness the helmets of the knights with barred
vizors and leathern shields, their maces, their swords, and their hourti,
intended to protect the croup and the hind legs of their chargers (Fig. 136).
Its text, written with great care and in an elegant hand, records the rules
z

CHIVALRY.

to be observed, in accordance with knighthood's truest spirit, at the different
stages of the combat and the tournament, and minutely describes aU their
preliminaries and accessories, the giving and the accepting of a chaUenge,

Fig. 136. — "Designs of armour for the head, the body, and the arms, helmets and streamers
(called in Flanders and Brabant liacheures or hachements), coats-of-arms, and swords for
tournaments." — From Miniatures in the " Tournaments of King Rene " (Fifteenth Century).

the mutual exchange of gages, the presentation of warrants of nobility by
the kings-at-arms, the distribution of the coats-of-arms or insignia of the
two parties to the strife, the entry of the nobles, and the bestowal of the
prizes upon the conquerors by the queen of the tournament.

CHIVALRY. 171

King Bene's book is a document all the more valuable to an historian of
the customs of chivalry, in that it was written at an epoch when they stiU
existed in aU their splendour ; although signs of their decadence had already
showed themselves. That punctilious sovereign, Philippe le Bel, with his court
of lawyers and usurers, had already dealt chivalry a crushing blow by the
regulations he drew up for the better government of single combats and
gages of battle. Between his reign and that of Charles VII. this decadence
became more marked. Commerce had made much progress, the wealth of
the middle classes had much increased, and the monarchy had acquired a
preponderating influence, to the detriment both of feudalism and chivalry,
which began simultaneously to decline; the reign of Louis XL, a reign
of espionage and of cunning, was fatal to them — thenceforward their little
remaining prestige rapidly waned and soon entirely expired. Francois I.
made several fruitless attempts to rekindle the dying embers of chivalry,
and, at a later period, Henri IV. and Louis XIV. vainly essayed, with
many briUiant pageantries and passages of arms, to quicken once more the
phantom of the noble institution which came into existence with the Middle
Ages, and with them passed away.

MILITAEY ORDERS.

Pierre Gerard founds the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. — History of that Order. — The Siege of
Rhodes. — History of the Order of the Knights Templars. — Order of the Knights of Calatrava.
— Order of the Teuton Knights. — Order of the Knights of the Golden Fleece. — Order of St.
Maurice and St. Lazarus. — Orders of the Star, of the Cosse de Geneste, of the Ship, of
St. Michael, and of the Holy Ghost.

NE of our great modern historians
remarks: — "The association of the
Church and chivalry, of war and
religion, culminated in the founda
tion of an institution hitherto en
tirely unknown, and owing its origin
principally to the Crusades, namely,
the institution of religious mihtary
orders 
" In nothing does chivalry show
itself more worthy of admiration
than in its religious military aspect ; in that phase it accepted the sacrifice
of all the affections, it abandoned the renown of the soldier and the
repose of the cloister, and it exposed its votary to the hardships of both,
by devoting him in turn to the perils of the battle-field, and to the
labours attendant upon the succouring of the distressed. Other knights
courted adventure for the sake of their honour and the lady of their love ;
these incurred it in order to help the unfortunate and to assist the poor. The
Grand Master of the Knights Hospitallers was proud of the title of
Guardian of the Redeemer's poor ; he of the order of St. Lazarus was of
necessity always a leper ; while the knight-companions termed the poor
'our masters.' Such were the admirable effects of religion, which, at a
psriod when the sword decided every question, knew how to chasten the

MILITARY ORDERS.

'73

faiHngs of valour, and make it forget the pride that generally accom
panies it."
As early as the middle of the eleventh century some merchants of Amalfi
had obtained from the Caliph of Egypt permission to build a hospital
at Jerusalem, which they dedicated to St. John, and in which were
received and sheltered the poor pilgrims who visited the Holy Land.
Godefroy de Bouillon and his successors encouraged this charitable insti
tution, and bestowed upon it several large donations. Pierre Gerard, a

W& I3S;— K-rfghfc of *ffi» Om-fer of the Holy- Fig-. TW.— Knight of the Order of Rhodes.
Sepulchre, afterwards called the Order of
St. John of Jerusalem.
Fac-similes of Woodcuts by Jost Amman,, in a, work entitled " Cleri totius Romanae eeclesia*) . . ,
habitus :" 4to., Frankfort, 1585.

native of the Island of Martigues, in Provence, proposed to the brothers who
managed the hospital to renounce the world, to don a regular dress, and to
form an unoloistered monastic order under the name of the Hospitallers.
Pope Pascal II. appointed Gerard director of the new institution, which he
formally authorised, took the Hospitallers under his protection, and granted
them many privileges.
The regulations of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem not only

i74

MILITARY ORDERS.

imposed on the brethren the triple vow of chastity, poverty, and obedience ;
they enjoined upon them, besides the duties of hospitality, the exercise of
arms, in order that they might defend the.kingdom of Jerusalem against the
attacks of the unbelievers. The opportunity was soon afforded them of
putting aside their purely charitable character, and of becoming men of war
(Fig. 139).

Fig. 139.— Fortress of tbe Knights Hospitallers, n Syria, taken from the Kurds by the Franks
about the year 1125, and rebuilt in 1202. A representation of it as restored. — Engraving
from " Monuments of the Architecture of the Crusaders in Syria," by M. G. Rey.

Driven out of Jerusalem by the victorious Saladin, who retook that city
on the 19th of October, 1191, the Hospitallers race the last to leave the
Holy Land, and transferred their hospital to Margat, after ransoming from
the Saracens more than a thousand captive Crusaders ; they remained there-
until the end of the siege of Acre by the Christians, in which they took an
active and glorious share, and they then established themselves in the*
reconquered city and took the name of Knights of St. John of Acre. Again'
driven from their new residence by the infidels, the Hospitallers asked the

MILITARY ORDERS. 175

King of Cyprus to aUow them to settle in his dominion, and to re-estabhsh
the central house of their order in the town of Limisso, at which they arrived
in small knots, as fast as they were able to escape from the cruisers of the
Mussulman fleet. As they disembarked, exhausted with war's fatigues,
.covered with wounds, and unable to console themselves for having survived
the loss of Palestine, they presented a really touching spectacle.
The grand master of the knights of St. John of Acre, Jean de Villiers,
assembled a chapter general in Cyprus to dehberate upon the best policy to
adopt after the last disasters of the crusade, and to take measures to prevent
the complete extinction of the order, which had been decimated in the war
.against the infidels. The HospitaUers of all nations answered the appeal of
Jean de Villiers. Never had a meeting been so numerously attended since
the foundation of the order; the knights present, carried away by the
eloquent appeal of their grand master, swore that they would shed their last
blood to recover possession of the Holy Sepulchre.
In spite of the wise measures recommended by Jean de Villiers, the
Hospitallers were no longer in safety at Limisso. They had to defend them
selves from two equally formidable enemies ; from the Saracens, who were
ceaselessly threatening their naval and mihtary organization, and from the
King of Cyprus, who seemed to desire the ruin of the order, upon which he
had just imposed a heavy tax, Indeed, Villaret, the new grand master, pro
posed to his brothers in arms that they should retire to the island of Bhodes,
entrench themselves there, and wait until a more propitious moment should
arrive for their return to Palestine. Unfortunately the forces of the order of
St. John were not sufficient for such a daring enterprise, and the grand master
invited the Western Christians to undertake a new crusade, keeping the
real motive of the expedition a secret. The Crusaders assembled in great
numbers at the port of Brindisi, in Italy, and the grand master, selecting the
noblest and the best equipped, set saU for Bhodes. There he successfuUy
disembarked his little army, with provisions and warlike materials, and laid
siege to the capital, which was well fortified and thronged with defenders.
After an investment of four years the town was taken by assault ; the other
strongholds met with a similar fate, and the whole island passed under the
sway of the HospitaUers in 1310. But for more than two centuries they
had to defend it against the constant attacks of the infidels.
Under the leadership of Joubert or Jacques de Milly, the grand prior of

1 76 MILITARY ORDERS.
Auvergne, the Knights of Bhodes (the Hospitallers had assumed this name in
memory of a victory that so redounded to the fame of the Order of St. John)
inflicted a first repulse upon the Ottomans in 1455. AU danger, however,
was not banished. A rupture seemed imminent with the Sultan of Egypt,
quite as formidable an adversary as Mahomet IL, the Sultan of Constan
tinople ; and the knights were also obliged to bestir themselves against the
Venetians, who had effected a landing on the island, and had been guUty of
greater cruelty and violence than the Saracens and the Turks. Baymond
Zacosta, the successor of Jacques de Milly in the grand mastership, took
advantage of an interval of truce to build a new fort intended to defend the
town and port of Bhodes. This impregnable fortress, constructed upon a
rocky promontory, received the name of St. Nicholas, from a chapel dedicated
to that saint standing within its walls (Fig. 140).
As, in spite of the truce, the Turkish corsairs made continual descents
upon the island, the grand master dispatched his galleys to the Ottoman
shores, and inflicted a series of reprisals. These so aroused the anger of
Mahomet II. that he swore to drive the knights of Rhodes right out of the
island. With this purpose he organized an expedition, and entrusted its
command to Misach Paleologus, a Greek renegade of the imperial household,
who had been appointed grand vizier by the sultan, and who was continuaUy
urging his master to take possession of Bhodes.
A hundred and sixty vessels of war and an army of a hundred thousand
men arrived off Bhodes on the 23rd of May, 1480. The Turkish fleet
endeavoured, under cover of the fire of their artillery, to effect the disembar-
cation of their troops, while the knights of the order, supported by the guns
of the town and its forts, waded up to their waists in the sea and attacked the
Ottoman boats sword in hand.
The infidels at last succeeded in making good their landing, and en
trenched themselves on Mount St. Stephen. After the knights had been
vainly summoned to surrender, a German engineer who had accompanied
Paleologus, and who was the superintendent of the siege operations, advised
the latter to concentrate his attack on the tower of St. Nicholas, the capture
of which would be certain to make him master of the place. After more
than three hundred discharges of cannon a breach was effected, and the
Turks rushed to the assault. Pierre d'Aubusson, grand prior of Auvergne,
recently elected grand master, stood aloft in the breach and set an example

Fig. 140.— Plan of the Island of Rhodes.— Reduced Fac-simile of one of the large TopograpUcal Plans in the " Saintes Peregrinations de Hierusalem," by Breydenbach ;
in folio, with copperplate figures : Lyons, 1488. (Library of M. Ambr. Firmin-Didot.) [Tofacepage ne.

MILITARY ORDERS. 177

of the highest courage to his knights : " Here," said he, " is the only post
of honour worthy of your grand master."
Exasperated by such an energetic resistance, the vizier determined to rid
himself by foul means of Pierre d'Aubusson ; but an engineer who had
undertaken the treacherous commission was detected, and torn in pieces by
the inhabitants of Bhodes on his way to the scaffold.
Misach Paleologus proposed to hold a conference to discuss terms of
capitulation. To this the grand master gave his consent, his real object
being to gain time to construct new defences in place of those the enemy had
destroyed; and the interview, between one of the principal officers of the
Turkish army and the casteUan of Bhodes, took place at the edge of the
moat. The vizier's envoy urged that in the extremity to which the town was
reduced, with its walls levelled, its towers shattered, and its ditches filled up,
it would be perfectly possible to take it by assault in a couple of hours ; and
that it behoved the knights companions to prevent, by an honourable
capitulation, a general massacre of the inhabitants. D'Aubusson, concealed
hard by, overheard these specious proposals : in pursuance of his orders the
castellan made answer to the Ottoman officer that his spies had misinformed
him ; that, behind the moat, defences had been constructed, the capture of
which would cost many Hves ; that the town was defended by Christians all
animated with the same spirit and perfectly resigned to sacrifice their lives
for their religion ; and that the order would entertain no proposal inimical
to its honour or to the interests of its faith.
The haughty vizier, irritated by this noble reply, swore to put every
knight to the sword; he even ordered a large number of stakes to be
sharpened on which to impale the inhabitants, and, under cover of a still
hotter fire from his guns, gave the signal for the assault.
The Turks succeeded for a moment in planting their standard on the
ramparts, but they were soon beaten off by the defenders, led by their grand
master in person : five times wounded, and covered with blood, Pierre
d'Aubusson refused to leave the scene of the struggle, which he animated by
his example. His lofty heroism infused new energy into his knights, who
rushed on the Turks with the courage of despair and put them completely to
the rout. But victory as it was, it was not sufficiently definitive or decisive
to secure to the order the tranquil possession of the island, and leave them
for the future free from Turkish aggression. Ever since the death of
A A

i78

MILITARY ORDERS.

Mahomet II. , they had had in their power a precious hostage, Zizim, a
brother of Sultan Bajazet, and his most formidable competitor for the throne
(Figs. 141 and 142).
In 1522, Sultan Soliman IL, surnamed the Magnificent, discovered
amidst his father's archives an exact account of the island of Bhodes,
and resolved to attack it. He put forward, as a pretext, a desire to punish

Fig. 141.— Death of Mahomet II. (1481) : the Fig. 142.— Zizim, who had been kept a prisoner
devil flying away with his soul. — His two at Rhodes, to which he had fled after bis
sons, Bajazet and Zizim, disputed the throne, defeat, and had afterwards been transferred
and the latter was defeated. to Rome, is handed over to Charles VIII.,
King of France.
"Description of the Siege of the Island of Rhodes," by G. Caoursin (Elm, 1496: Gothic folio).—
Library of M. Ambr. Firmin-Didot.
the knights of the order for the losses they were daily inflicting on the
Turkish navy, and the hope of paralyzing their efforts in favour of the Holy
Land. The treachery of Andre Amaral, the chancellor of the order and
the grand prior of Castile, who wished to revenge himself on his brother
knights for having preferred to himself as their grand master, Philippe de

MILITARY ORDERS. 179

VUHers de l'lle-Adam, made Soliman aware of the scanty material resources of
the island, and persuaded him to undertake the fatal siege, in which treachery
and deceit were his most powerful allies. In vain did he collect a fleet of four
hundred sail, an army of one hundred and forty thousand men and sixty
thousand pioneers ; in vain he swept the ramparts with the fire of his guns, in
vain he dug ditch after ditch, mine upon mine, and endeavoured to wear out the
besieged by his harassing and ceaseless attacks. His want of success would
have certainly exhausted his patience, and he would probably have raised
the siege, had not the traitor Amaral revealed to him the weak condition of
both the town and its garrison. At last, however, on the 30th of November,
the Turks made what was supposed to be their final effort. They pene
trated as far as the inner defences, and the struggle was a terrible one.
Boused by the tocsin, the grand master, the knights, and the inhabitants
poured on to the ramparts and threw themselves on the enemy, who had
already deemed themselves successful, and forced them to retreat.
Grieved and discouraged by this final check, Soliman proposed a capitu
lation. He threw letters into the town exhorting the inhabitants to yield,
and threatening them with the utmost severities if they persisted in a useless
resistance. At first VUHers de l'lle-Adam made answer that he only treated
with infidels sword in hand ; but he had to give way to the urgent
remonstrances of the principal inhabitants, who, showed a determination to
take at all hazards measures to ensure the honour and the lives of their wives
and their children. The sultan having hung out a white flag, the grand
master did the same, and demanded a truce of three days to draw up the
capitulation. But Soliman, fearing lest assistance might arrive in the
4interval, rejected this proposal, and ordered a fresh assault. The knights of
Bhodes, reduced to a mere handful, and having only the barbican of the
Spanish bastion left to protect them, obliged the enemy once more to retire.
On the morrow, however, another attack of the Turks drove the defenders
of the bastion back into the town, and the terror-stricken inhabitants
implored the grand master to resume negotiations. Achmet, Soliman's
minister, who knew how impatiently his master desired the end of the war,
obtained at last the surrender of Bhodes on terms so honourable and so
advantageous to its defenders, that they spoke volumes for the esteem with
which the conquered had inspired their conquerors. The knights, to the
number of four thousand, abandoned the island under the guidance of their

MILITARY ORDERS.

grand master, Villiers; after touching at Candia and Sicily, they finally
settled at Malta, which was ceded to them by Charles V., and which became
the definitive residence of the order. This was in 1530.
Thirty-five years later, at the end of Soliman II. 's reign, the Turks once
more attacked the order under the pretext of avenging the capture of a
galliot laden with costly merchandise, the property of the sultana ; and
Mustapha, Pasha of Buda, a brave officer, the general of the Ottoman army,
landed on the island on the 18th of May, 1565. After -a few skirmishes the

Fig. 143. — Barracks of the Knights of Rhodes. State of the Ruins in 1828.-
of Rhodes.'*

-From " Monuments

Turks made a fierce attack on Fort St. Elmo, and captured it in spite of
the brave defence of the Knights of Malta (the new title of the members of
the Order of St. John of Jerusalem) — a defence which lasted twenty-four
days, and cost the lives of four thousand of the assailants, amongst them
that of the famous pirate Dragut, the vicer- sultan of Tripoli. The fort of
St. Michael, and the suburb of that name, were reduced to ashes by the fire
of the enemy ; and it was only the invincible courage of the grand master,
Jean de la Valette, and of a small number of his knights, all to the last man
prepared to die for their faith — even after more than two thousand of them
had already perished — that still enabled Malta to hold out.

MILITARY ORDERS.

Fortunately, Don Garcias de Toledo, the viceroy of Sicily, came with
sixty galleys to their assistance. During the four months of the siege the
Turkish forces fired seventy-eight thousand rounds of artillery, and lost
fifteen thousand soldiers and eight thousand sailors.
The knights of the order had on their side to deplore the loss of more
1 i
than three thousand of their brethren. Their grand master decreed that

Fig. 144.— The French Priory at Rhodes (Fifteenth Century).— Slate of the Ruins in 1828.

annually, on the eve of the festival of Our La.dy of September, prayers
should be offered up in all the churches of the order, thanking God for the
providential succours which had delivered the besieged, and that on the
preceding day a commemorative service should be celebrated in honour of
those who had fallen in defence of the faith.
Henceforward neither the town nor the island, which remained the head
quarters of the order, was again disturbed by the Turks, and Jean de la
Valette built a new city in Malta, which was called Valetta, after him.

1*82

MILITARY ORDERS.

The members of the Order of Malta were divided into three classes : the
knights, the chaplains, and the serving brothers. The first comprised those
whose noble birth and previous rank in other armies marked them out for
mihtary service. The second consisted of priests, and ecclesiastics who
performed aU the ordinary reHgious duties, and who acted as almoners in
time of war. The last were neither nobles nor
ecclesiastics ; and all that was necessary to
admit an individual to this class, was for him
to prove that he was born of respectable parentB,
who had never exercised any handicraft. The
serving brothers were distinguished at a. later
period by a coat-of-arms of a different colour
to that of the knights. The aspirants were
' termed douats or demi-croix. The Order of
St. John of Jerusalem had merely a nominal
existence in the statutes of the Order of Malta,
although the knights of the latter, on their
reception into the order, were still termed
"servants of the sick and needy." For a
long time there existed in Spain, Lady Hospi
taUers of St. John of Jerusalem, who devoted
themselves to hospital work and deeds of
charity (Fig. 145). Every country in Europe
furnished its quota to the Order of Malta, which
had entirely replaced that of St. John, and
Fig. 146. —Tomb of Beatrix Cornel, was divided into eight different tongues or
Prioress of the Lady HospitaUers . , , , ,. . „ ,
„ T , .,,.., nations, each under the direction ot a grand
of St. John of Jerusalem, in tbe ° .
Convent of Sigena, in Aragon prior, viz., Provence, Auvergne, France, Italy,
(Fifteenth Century) .-From the Aragon, Germany, Castile, and England.
"Iconografia Espanola " of M.
Carderera lhese national grand priors were termed
piliers, or monastic bailiffs. Each nation was
subdivided into a number of lesser commands, to hold one of which was
equivalent to holding an ecclesiastical benefice, and which were subordinate
to their grand prior alone.
The regular dress of the order consisted, in each nation, of a black robe,
with a pointed cape of the same colour ; on the left sleeve of each robe was

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Military orders. 183
a cross of white linen having eight points, typical of the eight beatitudes they
were always supposed to possess, and which, according to a MS. preserved in
the library of the Arsenal, were : — 1, spiritual contentment ; 2, a life free from
malice ; 3, repentance for sins ; 4, meekness under suffering ; 5, a love of
justice ; 6, a merciful disposition ; 7, sincerity and frankness of heart ; and 8, a
capability of enduring persecution. At a later period the regulations became
less austere, and permitted the knights to wear an octagonal golden cross
inlaid with white enamel, and suspended from the breast with black ribbon.
A candidate for the robe of St. John of Jerusalem was obliged to present
himself at the high altar, clad in a long gown without girdle, in order to denote
that he was free from all other vows, and with a taper in his hand. The knight
assessor then handed him a gUt sword, saying, " In the name of the Father,
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," to remind him that henceforth it would
be his duty to devote his Hfe to the defence of religion. A girdle was then
fastened round his waist, to signify that he was bound for the future by the
vows of the order. The professing knight then brandished the sword round
his head, in token of defiance of the unbelievers, and returned it to its scabbard,
first passing it under his arm as if to wipe it, as a symbol that he intended
to preserve it free from stain. The knight who received his vows then
placed his hand on his shoulder, exhorted him to succour the' poor of Jesus
Christ, to undertake works of charity, and to devote himself to the welfare
of the faith. The new knight having promised to observe these exhorta
tions, golden spurs were placed on his heels as emblems that he was bound to
fly wherever honour called him, and to trample under his feet the riches of
this world. His taper was then lighted, and he continued to hold it during the
celebration of a mass, and while a preacher passed in review the rules which
should bind, and the duties which should sway a true knight. He was then
asked if he was in debt, if he was married or betrothed? if he ' already be
longed to any other rehgious order, and, finally, if he reaUy and sincerely
desired to belong to the Order of St. John. If he answered these questions
in a satisfactory manner, he was admitted into the brotherhood, and led
up to the high altar. There he pronounced the oath upon the missal, and
was declared formally invested with the privUeges granted to the order
by the pontificate. He was told that henceforward he must daily recite
fifty paters, fifty aves, the service of the Virgin, the burial service, and
several prayers for the repose of the souls of departed knights companions.

1 84 MILITARY ORDERS.

Whilst he was donning the dress of the order he was further instructed
in his duties. As he put his arms through his sleeves he was reminded
of the obedience he owed to his superiors ; as the white cross was being
adjusted next his heart, he was told that he must always be ready to shed
his blood for Christ, who by his own death had redeemed mankind. All
the insignia of the Order of Malta were symbols. The pointed black
mantle with its peaked cape, worn only on occasions of solemn ceremony, was
typical of the robe of camel's hair worn by John the Baptist, the patron of
the order. The cords which fastened the mantle about the neck, and feU
over the shoulder, were significant of the passion our Saviour suffered with
such calmness and resignation. In time of battle the members of the order
wore a red doublet embroidered with the eight-pointed cross.
About twenty years after the first establishment of the HospitaUers,
Hugues de Payens, and Geoffroy de Saint- Aldemar, having crossed the seas
with nine other nobles, all of French birth, obtained from the patriarch
Guarimond, and from Baldwin II. , King of Jerusalem, permission to form
an association, the objects of which were to act in concert with the Hospi
tallers against the infidels, to protect pUgrims, and to defend Solomon's
Temple. Baldwin granted them a dwelhng within the Temple waUs, a
circumstance which gave them the name of Templars, or Knights of the
Temple. At first they led a simple and regular life, contenting themselves
with the humble title of poor soldiers of Jesus Christ. Their, charity and
their devotion obtained for them the sympathy of the kings of Jerusalem
and the Eastern Christians, who made them frequent and considerable
donations. In the first nine years of their existence, from 1118 to 1127, the
Templars admitted no strangers into their ranks ; but their number having
nevertheless considerably increased, they soon preferred a request to the
Holy See to ratify the institution of their order. At the Council of Troyes,
in 1228, Hugues de Payens, accompanied with five of his companions,
presented the letters that the brotherhood had received from the pope and
the patriarch of Jerusalem, together with the certificate of the founding
of their order. Cardinal Matthew, Bishop of Alba, who presided over the
council as the pope's legate, granted them an authentic confirmation of their
order, and a special code was drawn up for them under the guidance of
St. Bernard.

MILITARY ORDERS.

185

The Templars* were bound to go to mass three times a week, and to
communicate thrice a year ; they wore a white robe symbolical of purity, to
which Pope Eugenius III. added a red cross, to remind them of their oath to
be always ready to shed their blood in defence of the Christian rehgion.
Their rules were of great austerity; they prescribed perpetual exile, and
war for the holy places to the death. The knights were to accept every
combat, however outnumbered they might be, to ask no quarter, and to

Fig. 146.— Knight of Malta. Fig. 147 .—Templar in Travelling Dress.
Fac-simile of Woodcuts by Jost Amman, in his work entitled " Cleri toitus Romanas ecclesiae ....
habitus :" 4to., Frankfort, 1585.
give no ransom. However irksome might prove the observance of these
regulations, they were not aUowed to escape them by entering the ranks of
a less austere order.
The unbeHevers dreaded no enemy so much as these poor soldiers of
Christ, of whom it was said that they possessed the gentleness of the lamb
and the patience of the hermit, united to the courage of the hero and the
strength of the lion. Their standard, termed Beauceant, was half black
and half white, and inscribed with these words : Non nobis, Domine, non
nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam*
* " Not to us, 0 Lord, not to us, but to ihy name ascribe the glory."
B B

1 86 MILITARY ORDERS.

According to the rules of St. Bernard, the Order of the Temple was
composed of milites, or knights commanders, of serving brothers, called
armigeri, or men bearing arms, and of clientes, or clients, whose duty it was
to attend to domestic matters. Their oaths were similar to those of St. John
of Jerusalem. They swore to live in chastity, poverty, and obedience. Some
of their number obtained permission to marry, but on condition of their no
longer wearing the white dress, and of their bequeathing a portion of their
property to the order. The distinctive mark of the Templars was, according
to some, a broad red patriarchal cross ; according to others, a red Maltese
cross embroidered with gold. As they aU made public profession of extreme
poverty, they were forbidden to use valuable articles of furniture, or gold or
silver utensils ; to wear velvet trappings in the field, helmets with armorial
bearings, silken sashes, or other superfluous articles of clothing ; and they
were only permitted to wear an under doublet of white wool.
The Order of the Temple had only been established fifty years when its
knights held at Jerusalem its first general chapter, attended by three hundred
gentlemen, and as many serving brothers, most of whom were French. The
chapter elected a grand master, Gerard de Bederfort, and in so doing freed
themselves from the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Jerusalem. The new
grand master transferred the seat of the order to St. Jean d'Acre, and
manifested the prowess of his knights on several occasions against the troops
of Saladin, who attempted shortly afterwards to capture the town, but who
was obliged to abandon the task.
The resources of the Knights Templars increased, in a very short space,
in such a remarkable manner, by donations and legacies, that some historians
declare that the revenue of the order amounted to four and a half millions
sterling ; others merely observe that the Templars possessed enormous
wealth in Christendom, one item being nine thousand houses. In 1129 they
already had several establishments in the Low Countries ; six years later the
King of Navarre and of Aragon, Alphonso I., bequeathed his states to the
order ; but it was with great difficulty that the knights obtained possession of
even a few of his towns. At that time, however, they possessed seventeen
strongholds in the kingdom of Valencia. In their quarters in London were
deposited most of the treasures of the English crown, and King Philip
Augustus, on the eve of his departure for the Holy Land, entrusted them
with the care of his jewels and archives.

MILITARY ORDERS.

'87

The Templars were magnificent soldiers, and the annals of the Crusades
are fuU of their feats of arms. Few knights acquired the fame they did in their

Fig. 148. — The Earthen Vase, on one side of which is seen, between two fleurs-de-lis, the figure of
St. Paul bitten by a serpent, bears a Latin inscription signifying, " In the name of St. Paul,
and by this stone, thou shalt drive out poison." On the other side is engraved in relief the
cross of the Temple, between a sword and a serpent. Another Vase bears the head of a saint
and a sword, and is surrounded by venomous animals and herbs. On the Medal is represented
a dragon with an Italian legend signifying, " The grace of St. Paul is proof against any
poison." These objects were found in 1863 at Florence, on the site of the old Church of the
Templars, dedicated to St. Paul. — Collection of M. Gancia.

expeditions across the seas ; though always inferior in number to the infidel,
who held them in greater fear than the Crusaders, they almost always
defeated them. The defence of Gaza, the battle of Tiberias, the capture of

1 88 MILITARY ORDERS.

Damietta, and the Egyptian Crusade, are all splendid attestations of their
courage and prowess.
The Templars in time reached the summit of their fortunes, the height of
their prosperity and their fame, and nothing was left to them but to decay.
Inflated with wealth, laden with privUeges which gave them almost sovereign
power, the only judges they recognised were the pope and themselves. The
order at last became so demoralised by luxury and idleness that it forgot the
aim for which it was founded, disdained to obey its own rules, and gave itself
up to the love of gain and the thirst for pleasure. Its covetousness and pride
soon became boundless. The knights pretended that they were above the
reach of even crowned heads ; they seized and piUaged without concern the
property of both infidels and Christians.
Their jealousy of the Knights Hospitallers induced them to interfere with
a man of position, a vassal of the Order of St. John, and to drive him from a
castle he possessed in the neighbourhood of their establishment at Margat.
This caused a violent quarrel between the two orders, which soon became a
permanent struggle for supremacy. The pope wrote to the grand masters of
both orders to exhort them to re-establish peace and good-wUl, and to forget
their mutual rancour, so dangerous for Christendom and so fatal to the
interests of the Holy Land. An apparent truce took place between them ; but
the Templars had not forgotten their hatred, and they lost no opportunity of
showing it to the knights of St. John. Moreover, they no longer cared to
support the holy cause that had led to the birth of their order. They signed
a treaty of alliance with the Old Man of the Mountain, the leader of the sect
of the Assassins or Ishmaelites, the most implacable enemies of the cross ;
they allowed him, on condition of paying tribute, to fortify- himself in
Lebanon ; they made war against the king of Cyprus and the prince of
Antioch ; ravaged Thrace and Greece, where the Christian nobles had
founded principalities, marquisates, and baronies ; took Athens by storm,
and massacred Bobert de Brienne, its duke.
In short, the consciousness of their strength, of their wealth, and of their
power, inspired the Templars with an audacity that nothing could restrain.
Their pride, which had become proverbial, was particularly offensive. Their
belief and their morals were very far from orthodox, and even in 1273, Pope
Gregory X. had thought of fusing their order in that of the HospitaUers*
In the beginning of the following century, PhUippe le Bel, King of France,

MILITARY ORDERS. 189

received weighty accusations against them of most serious offences, accusa
tions that were generaUy believed to be true, and consulted Pope Clement V.
on the subject. Clement at first declared the crimes with which they were
accused to be altogether improbable, but the grand master having insisted on
a rigorous inquiry, the pope wrote to the king for the details of his informa
tion. PhiHppe le Bel wished to decide the matter himself, and proceeded to
arrest aU the Templars within his jurisdiction, amongst them their grand
master, Jacques de Molai, who had just returned from Cyprus.'
One hundred and forty knights were examined in Paris, and aU but three
confessed that the order practised a secret initiation, in which the aspirants
were bound to deny Christ, and spit upon the cross ; and that, moreover,

Fig. 149. — Seal of the Knights of Christ (Thirteenth Century). — Early Device of the Order of
Templars, representing two knights on one horse.
immoral customs were practised amongst them. Many of them also confessed
that they had committed acts of idolatry. A learned contemporary writer,
De Wilcke, a German protestant clergyman, has epitomized the researches
of two of his co-religionists — Moldenhawer, who discovered in the National
Library in Paris the original records of the examination, and Munster,
who found in the Hbrary of the Vatican the original notes of the proceedings
that took place in England. This is De Wilcke's conclusion : " The two
facts of the denial of Christ and the spitting on the cross are attested by
all the witnesses who were examined, with one or two exceptions."
In spite of the scandal caused by these confessions, Pope Clement V.
urgently protested against Phihp's course of action, and represented to him
that the Templars were a religious body, under the control of the Holy See
alone, that the king was consequently wrong to make himself their judge,
and that he had no authority over either their possessions or their persons.
PhUippe unwillingly yielded to the pope's remonstrances, and the pontiff

190

MILITARY ORDERS.

himself examined seventy-two Templars, whose confessions tallied with the
avowals made in the first instance at Paris.
An inquiry was instituted in England, in Italy, in Spain, and in
Germany. The answers extracted in the course of the different examinations
were not exactly coincident, but the confessions of impiety and immorality
were very numerous, except in Spain. The Aragonese Templars took up
arms and held themselves on the defensive in their fortresses ; they were,

Fig. 150. — Council of Vienne. — fresco executed in the Vatican Library by order of
Pope Pius V. (Sixteenth Century).
however, conquered by King James IL, and thrown into prison as rebels.
The Templars of Castile were arrested, tried before an ecclesiastical tribunal,
and declared innocent.
The pope acknowledged the existence of serious irregularities amongst
the knights of the order, but persisted in reserving to himself the right to
pronounce a final decision. He, however, instructed every bishop in the
Christian world to investigate the cases within his own diocese, and to
absolve the innocent, and condemn the guilty Templars according to the
utmost rigour of the law.

MILITARY ORDERS. 191
The provincial council of Paris handed over the contumacious to the
secular authorities ; fifty-nine of the guilty knights were burnt in that city
at the back of the abbey of St. Antoine. A second council, at Senlis, in a
similar manner delivered nine Templars to the mercies of the secular judge,
who sentenced them to be burnt at the stake. It is said that the culprits
retracted their confession on the scaffold, and died protesting their innocence.
As soon as the commissioners appointed by the pope were informed of these
executions they suspended their sittings, declaring that the terror inspired
by these capital penalties deprived the prisoners of the tranquillity of mind
necessary to their defence. They further requested the council of Paris to
act with more deliberation.
When Pope Clement V. had obtained, all the necessary information he
convoked the council of Vienne (Fig; 150), and there, on the 22nd of March,
1312, pronounced his decision, which rather absolved than condemned the
order, and placed their persons and their property at his disposal and at that
of the Church. In Spain and in Portugal, this property was applied to the
defence of the Christians against the constant attacks of the Saracens and the
Moors (Fig. 151) ; but the greater portion of the possessions of the Templars,
and particularly those they held in France, was transferred to the keeping of
the Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, who continued to devote them
selves to the cause of the holy places, and kept up the good works to- perform
which the Templars had received so many "and such costly donations.
The serious abuses and crimes which caused the suppression of the order
had not fortunately vitiated the whole of its members : most of the Templars
were set at liberty, many of them, preserving their former rank, enrolled
themselves in the Order of St. John. In this wise, as is pointed out by
WUcke, Albert de Blacas, prior of Aix, obtained the commandership of
Saint-Maurice, as prior of the Hospitallers ; and Frederick, grand prior of
Lower Germany, retained the title in the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.
The pope had specially reserved his judgment in the case of the grand
master, Jacques de Molai, in that of the Visitor of France, and in those of
the commanders of Guyenne and of Normandy. Several cardinals-legate,
with some French bishops and doctors of the University of Paris, constituted
the tribunal which was to pass the sentence in the name of the pontiff.
After satisfying themselves that these four eminent knights had repeated
their avowals before a second commission, the members of the tribunal,

igz

MILITARY ORDERS.

convinced of their guilt, caused a scaffold to be erected in front of Notre-
Dame, and there, on Monday, March 18th, 1314, the four Templars were
publicly condemned to imprisonment for life. On the scaffold the grand

Fig. 151. — Our Lady of Grace sheltering under the folds of her mantle the first Grand Masters of
the Military Order of Montessa. This order was established in Spain in 1317 by James II.,
King of Aragon, with the approval of John XXII., as a substitute for the Order of the
Temple, with whose possessions it was endowed. — From a Painting on Wood of the Fif
teenth Century, held in veneration in the Church of the Temple, at Valencia; and from the
" Iconografia Espafiola " of M. Carderera.
master and one of the others recanted their confession of guilt and protested
their innocence. The cardinals, surprised at this recantation, committed
the prisoners to the care of the provost of Paris, with orders to bring them
before them the next day, when the tribunal had had time to deliberate

MILITARY ORDERS.

'93

on this fresh incident. But Philippe le Bel, learning what was taking place,
hurriedly assembled his council, and had the grand master, and the other
Templar who had similarly persisted in denying his twice-avowed guilt,
burnt alive the same night. _ They underwent this horrible torture pro
testing their innocence to the last. The two remaining knights who had
acknowledged their guilt were kept for some time in prison, but were
afterwards set at liberty.
Other orders of knighthood, having more or less of a reHgious character,

Fig. 152. — Surrender of the Town of Montefrio, near Granada, in 1486. ,The alcids and Moorish
chiefs, after the siege, delivering the keys of the town to Ferdinand the Catholic and Queen
Isabella. — Bas-relief on the stalls of the choir of the high altar of the. cathedral, carved in
wood in the Sixteenth Century.

were founded in the Middle Ages, or during the Benaissance period :* the
principal were, in Spain, the Order of the Knights of Calatrava ; in Germany,
the Order of the Teuton Knights ; the Order of the Golden Fleece in the Low
Countries, in Spain, and in Austria ; that of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus
in Savoy; that of St. Stephen in Tuscany; and in France, those of St.
Michael and of the Holy Ghost, which were merely honorary orders,
although the first Order of the Holy Ghost, founded in 1352 by Louis
d' Anjou, King of Jerusalem and Sicily, had for its object the. re-establishment

c c

ig4 MILITARY ORDERS.

of an essentiaUy military knighthood, as a means for bringing about a new
crusade. The Knights of Calatrava, on whom their founder, Don Baymond, Abbot
of Citeaux, imposed the regulations of his own monastery, distinguished
themselves by many brilliant feats of arms, particularly against the Moors of
Spain and Africa (Fig. 152) ; and the princes in whose cause they had
fought in these wars — termed, like the Crusades in the East, holy — granted
them large possessions and considerable privileges. They were bound by a
triple vow of poverty, obedience, and chastity, and, like the Templars, wore
a red cross embroidered on a white mantle. From the days of Ferdinand the
Catholic and Isabella, the sovereigns of Spain have always been the grand
masters of this order, which acquired and long retained a considerable amount
of importance, even when it had ceased to signify anything but an indication
of nobility. The order of Alcantara, which had a similar origin to that of
Calatrava, ran a like career and was in Hke manner doomed to decay. Spain,
too, was the only country that possessed a mUitary order for ladies. After the
heroic defence of Placentia against the English by the women of that city
in 1390, John I., the sovereign of Castile, created in their honour the order
of the Ladies of the Sash, which was united at a later period to the Order of
the Belt, founded in the fourteenth century to do battle against the Moors.
The Teutonic Knights, whose order had been founded in 1128, at Jerusalem,
by the German Crusaders, obeyed the rules of St. Augustin. They were
subject beside to special statutes somewhat similar to those of the Knights of
St. John and of the Temple, whose privUeges they also enjoyed. Their first
grand master, Henri Walpot, established his residence near St. Jean d'Acre.
This order was divided, like that of St. John, into knights, chaplains, and
serving brethren. Its members wore a white mantle with a rather broad
black cross, picked out with sUver, on the left sleeve. To gain admission into
the order it was necessary for the candidate to be over fifteen years of age,
and to be of a strong, robust build, in order to resist the fatigues of war. Its
knights, bound by a vow of chastity, were expected to avoid all intercourse
with women ; they were not even allowed to give their own mothers a filial
kiss when they saluted them. They possessed no individual property ; they
always left their ceU doors open, so that everybody might see what they were
doing. Their arms were free from both gold and silver ornaments, and for a
long period they spent their lives in great humility. Their most celebrated

MILITARY ORDERS.

!95

grand master, Hermann de Salza, received in 1210, from Pope Honorius III.
and the Emperor Frederick IL, whom he had reconciled, large possessions
and high honours.
The Teutonic Knights conquered Prussia, Livonia, and Courland, and in
1283 became masters of the whole territory between the Vistula and the
Niemen. In 1309 they abandoned Venice,  
where, twenty years earlier, their grand master
had fixed his ordinary residence, and selected
Marienburg as their head-quarters. At that
date the order had reached the culminating
point of its prosperity, and its sway in Germany
had the most fortunate results for Prussia. But
luxury soon began to undermine the religious
faith of the knights; and internal struggles,
caused by the elections of their grand masters,
introduced fresh elements of decay into their
organization. Dragged into endless conflicts with Lithuania
and Poland, the order lost its banners, its trea
sure, and its principal defenders in the disas
trous battle of Grumwald, in the year 1410, and
would have been utterly ruined but for Henry
von Plauen. After the death of this iUustrious
grand master, the knights, to whom the treaty
of Thorn had restored their territorial posses
sions, lost them one after the other in the few
years that elapsed between 1422 and 1436. For
thirteen years Casimir IV., King of Poland,
summoned into Prussia by the inhabitants, who
had rebeUed against the despotic sway of the
knights, laid waste the country that he had 'undertaken to protect. The
order, driven out of Marienburg and Konitz, only retained possession of
Eastern Prussia, and held even that under Polish rule ; its grand master,
whose head-quarters were now at Konigsberg, was, in fact, a prince and a
councillor of Poland. As Prussia was a fief of the Church, the grand master
of the Teutonic Order was bound by vow to preserve it to the Church and to

Fig. 153. — Sancha de Roxas, who
died in 1437, wearing the scarf
which was the insignia of the
military order bearing his name
(Fifteenth Century). — From the
" Tconografia EBpanola " of M.
Carderera.

196

MILITARY ORDERS.

his own order. Albert of Brandenburg, its last grand master, was bound by
this oath, and by the triple vow of poverty, obedience, and chastity, which he
had taken on entering the order. To rid himself of the fetters of these oaths
he joined the Lutheran Church, and divided the possessions of his order with
his uncle, the aged Sigismund, King of Poland, who for these considerations
bestowed on him the title of hereditary Duke of Prussia. This was the origin
of the royal family of Prussia. After this easy acquisition of title and

Fig. 154.— Teutonic Knight.— Fac-simile of a Woodcut by Jost Amman, in his work entitled
" Cleii totius Romanse ecclesiiB .... habitus:" 4to., Frankfort, 1585.
territory, Albert of Brandenburg married the daughter of the King of
Denmark. As a matter of course, the Order of the Teutonic Knights became
extinct. The Order of the Knights of the Golden Fleece was not founded till
1449. It was then instituted by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy and
Count of Flanders, in order to induce the nobles of his court to join him in
making war against the Turks, and to attach his subjects by closer ties to
the service of the state. The crusade never took place, but the order survived,
and still exists as an heraldic distinction.
This order, which was placed under the protection of St. Andrew, was
originally composed of twenty-four knights of hio*h rank and stainless

MILITARY ORDERS.

197

character ; their number was increased by the Duke of Burgundy to thirty-
one, and afterwards by Charles V. to fifty-one. The election of the knights
took place in the chapters of the order, and were decided by a majority of votes.
The distinguishing sign of the order was a necklet of gold, enamelled with the

' '^'WiW^f1''

Fig. 155.— Chapter of the Golden Fleece, held by Charles the Bold.— Manuscript of the Fifteenth
Century, in the Burgundian Library, Brussels.
duke's device, which was composed of two steels and two flints interlaced, with
the motto, Ante f erit quam micat (It strikes before it lights). From the collar
was suspended a golden sheep, or sheep's fleece, with the inscription, Pretium
non vile laborum (Labour's just reward) (Fig. .155). Since the marriage of
Philippe le Beau, son of the Emperor Maximilian and Mary of Burgundy, with

198 MILITARY ORDERS.

Jane of Aragon, in 1496, the King of Spain and the Emperor of Austria are, in
their own countries, the sovereign chiefs of the order of the Golden Fleece.
Savoy also possessed an order of military knighthood which has survived
till our time. When Amadeus VIII., in whose person Savoy had been
raised to the rank of a duchy by the Emperor Sigismund, determined to
live as a recluse, he desired to create an order of secular knighthood, with
himself as its chief. He accordingly built a retreat at Bipailles, near the
Lake of Geneva, as a residence for the new order, and placed it under the
protection of St. Maurice, the patron saint of Savoy. The first knights, only
six in number, were distinguished by a cross of white taffeta sewn on their
dress. The successors of Amadeus VIII., however, so neglected the order
that it was on the point of becoming extinct, when Duke Emanuel Philibert,
in 1572, obtained from Gregory XIII. a buU to reconstitute it ; and shortly
afterwards, by a second bull, the knights of St. Lazarus and those of St.
Maurice were united.
The knights took the same triple vow as the Templars; they swore
fidelity to the Dukes of Savoy, and undertook to wage war against the
heretics who from Geneva were continually threatening the frontiers of the
duchy. The order possessed considerable property, and its head-quarters
were at Nice and Turin.
The sign of the order was a white cross with flowered points, beneath
which was a second cross surrounded with green, with the image of the two
patron saints.
The Knights of St. Stephen, an order founded in 1562 by Cosmo de
Medicis, Grand Duke of Tuscany, played an active part in the sea-fights of
the Mediterranean, where they were constantly chasing the Ottoman gaUeys
or effecting landings on the shores of the surrounding barbarian states. In
the middle of the seventeenth century they boasted that they had released,
since the creation of the order, upwards of five thousand six hundred Christian
captives and fifteen thousand slaves.
This order, in its customs and ceremonies, was strikingly like the order of
Malta ; and, like it, was divided into military and ecclesiastical knights.
Several orders of military knighthood existed in France, created by its
sovereigns ; but their honorary character caused them to be looked upon
as rewards bestowed for good service rendered to the monarchy, rather
than as solemn engagements to take up arms in any definite cause. It

MILITARY ORDERS.

199

psp *. 1 mmmm
iHlH il

n

<$Nt

Fig. 156.— Reception of a Knight of the Order of St. Michael, which was
created on August 1, 1469, by Louis XL, at tbe Castle of Amboise.
— Fac-simile of a Miniature in the " Statuts de l'Ordre,'' dated
from Plessis-les-Tours. Manuscript of the Sixteenth Century, in
the Library of M. Ambr. Firmin-Didot.

is hardly worth while to men- ^^S&EPH&P'^ ^on *ne Order of the Star,
which it has been attempted 'O' to trace back to King Bobert
and to the year 1022, but the real origin of which only dates from King John.
The oldest royal military orders of knighthood are those that Louis IX.

MILITARY ORDERS.

founded to encourage his nobles to join him in his expeditions beyond the
seas, and to take . part in the Crusades. The Order of the Cosse de
Geneste, instituted in 1254, was bestowed at a later period on the sergeants
of the king, a body-guard of a hundred gentlemen specially entrusted with
the duty of protecting the sovereign's person against the assassins sent by
the Old Man of the Mountains. The Order of the Ship, instituted in 1269,
became extinct shortly after the second crusade of St. Louis, who had con
ferred it, before his departure, on some of his most illustrious followers.
The Order of St. Michael was founded in 1469 by Louis XI. to fulfil a
vow made by his father, who had a particular veneration for that saint, the
tutelar angel and patron of France (Fig. 156). The image of St. Michael
was already embroidered in gold upon the banner of the king, who created a
new order of military knighthood " in honour," say the statutes, " of the first
knight who in God's quarrel fought the ancient enemy of the human race and
made him fall from heaven." The order was composed of thirty-six knights of
stainless name and arms, with the sovereign who had appointed them at their
head. The collar of the order was composed of golden sheUs inlaid with
the figure of St. Michael overthrowing Satan. The knights, besides this
collar, wore on occasions of ceremony a white mantle with a hood of crimson
velvet. The Order of the Holy Ghost was the last military order that the
sovereigns of France themselves conferred towards the close of the six
teenth century. Both this and the Order of St. Michael were termed orders
of the king. Henry III., in 1579, created the order in honour of God, and
particularly in that of the Holy Ghost, under whose inspiration he had accom
plished " his best and most fortunate exploits," to use the exact words of
the statutes of the order. From the day of his ascending the throne he had
always intended to found this order, which had been suggested to him in
his childhood by the perusal of the statutes of the first Order of the Holy
Ghost, instituted at Naples, in 1352, by one of his ancestors, Louis of Anjou,
King of Jerusalem and Sicily. These statutes were carefully preserved in a
precious manuscript, the miniature of which represented with marveUous
art aU the ceremonies of the order. The manuscript was a present from the
nobility of Venice to Henry III. on his return from Poland. This prince, how
ever, borrowed but little from these ancient statutes, which had been drawn
up in view of the mihtary services which the knights of the order, three

A., the door from which the
knights issued, and then went
along the terrace marked B,
out at the door marked C, and
so to the place where the new
knights were initiated.
D, trumpets.
E, drums.
F, fifes and hautboys.
Gr, four heralds, walking two
and two.
5, king-at-arms of France, walk
ing by himself.
[, the Sieur de Bourgneuf, usher
of the order, walking by him
self.
£, the Sieur du Pont, herald of
the order, walking by himself.
j, three officers of the order
walking abreast — viz., MM.
d'Acheres, provost and master
of the ceremonies ; BouthilU>r,
grand treasurer ; and Duret-
Chevry, secretary.
M, M. de Bullion, keeper of the
seals of the order, walking by
himself.
N, the knights novices, walking
two and two, each according
to his rank.
O, the commanders, walking
also two and two, each accord
ing to his rank.
P, the king, walking by himself,
his train carried by M. le
Marquis de Gesvres ; behind
his majesty walks M. le Car
dinal, Due de Richelieu, by
himself, an almoner carrying
his train.

Fig. 157.— Procession of the Knights pf the Order of the Holy Ghost crossing the courtyard of the Palace of Fontainebleau on their way to the chapel,
for the ceremony of the initiation of new knights. [To face page 200.

MILITARY ORDERS.

201

hundred in number, might be able to render towards the Crusades in Pales
tine. The new Order of the Holy Ghost, although a military one, was destined
to gather round the king, who was its supreme head, a body of a hundred
knights, selected from among the most eminent and the most iUustrious per
sonages of the court, the Church, and the nobihty. The insignia of the order
were a coUar composed of golden fleurs-de-lis, surmounted with enameUed
flames, forming the initials of the king and his wife Louise of Lorraine,

Fig. 158. — State Gloves of embroidered silk, gold, and silver, with the Monogram of Christ, formerly
belonging to Louis XIII. — From the originals in the Collection of M. Jubinal.
with a cross bearing a silver dove, emblem of the Holy Ghost. At the
meetings of their order, the knights were clad in costly round-caped mantles
of blue velvet spangled with fleurs-de-lis in gold (Fig. 157). These meet
ings, which at first were held in the Church of the Augustines at Paris,
where the solemn receptions of the new members took place, were afterwards
transferred to the Louvre, where they were celebrated with extraordinary
pomp. It is true that the statutes enjoined on each lay knight the duty of
taking arms for his sovereign whenever the latter was preparing to go to
D D

MILITARY ORDERS.

war for the defence of his dominions, or in the interest of his crown ; but
they were never scrupulously obeyed on this point, and the Order of the
Holy Ghost, whUe preserving its military and religious character on all
ceremonial occasions, never played any other part than one of display and
heraldic pretension. The sovereigns, however, at all times showed them
selves extremely jealous of the privilege of appointing its knights, and the
latter for more than three centuries composed the actual guard of honour
of the royal house of France.

,/V//^a^:.ni»w.l^iiir:-i'.i'iaai'iii>,juy<jiLU  Jiiiiii'iiiM.i»ii-l>ws^*^llt*mjiM-. im m< *\ *\ 'v
1RHBSHH9H BMBSpgJ

BR SeKmilBSJP -VJP^
11! ¦ ! . vgstifrWwSsBlM

M

Fig. 159.— St. George, the patron of warriors, vanquishing the Dragon.— From the Tomb of
Cardinal Georges d'Amboise, at Rouen (Sixteenth Century).

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

Prayer. — Liturgy of St. James, of St. Basil, and of St. John-Chrysostom.^ApoBtolical Consti
tutions. — The Sacrifice of the Mass. — Administration of Baptism.— Canonical Penances. — Plan
and Arrangement of Churches. — Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. — The Ceremony of Ordination. —
Church Bells.— The Tocsin.— The Poetry of Gothic Churches. — Breviary and Missal of
Pius V. — Ceremonies used at the Seven Sacraments. — Excommunication. — The Bull In Ccend
Domini. — Processions and Mystery Plays at the Easter Solemnities. — Instrument of Peace. —
Consecrated Bread. — The Pyx. — The Dove.

T was the first Council of Nice, in the
year 325, that gave the dignity pf
canonical law to the custom of prayer
on bended knees, and it is a surpris
ing fact that none of the paintings of
the Catacombs represent a devotee in
the act of kneeling. We, however,
know from the Acts of the Apostles
that from the very first days of
Christianity it was sometimes cus
tomary to kneel at prayer. As for
the pubHc prayers of the early Christians, the text of the principal ones has
survived unaltered to our own days. As early as the > close of the first
century, the younger Pliny, writing to Trajan, told him that the Christians
were accustomed to assemble at daybreak to sing a hymn in honour of
Christ, whom they worshipped as God. This is a valuable piece of evidence,
and it is moreover corroborated by the known custom that prevailed at the
same epoch in the Church of Antioch, of celebrating the Holy Trinity
(Figs. 160 and 161) by singing anthems, and of glorifying Christ, the
Word of God, by the intoning of canticles and psalms. St. Irenaeus, who
wrote in the middle of the second century, also mentions in his work

204

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

against heresy, a kind of Gloria in excelsis, which was chanted in Greek in
Christian assemblies at the consecration of the host, and which may be
translated thus : " To thee aU glory, veneration, and thanksgiving ; honour
and worship to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and
ever, and for century upon century of infinite eternity ! " The people
responded, " Amen ! " In the dogmatic treatises written by TertuUian, at

Fig. 160. — Symbol of the Trinity, arranged ver
tically — the Son at the bottom, the Father at
the top, and the Holy Ghost in the centre.
The Holy Ghost descends from the mouth of
the Father and settles on the head of the
Son, and proceeds from both. Copied from
a French Miniature ,by Count Horace de
Vielcastel (Fourteenth Century).

Fig. 161.— The three faces of the Trinity on
one head and body. At first sight is read—
"The Father is not the Son; the* Father is
not the Holy Ghost ; the Holy Ghost is not
the Son." But, from the angles to the
centre, is also read— "Tbe Father is God;
the Son.isGod; the Holy Ghost is God."
Printed by Simon Vostre in 1524.

the end of the second century, that great pagan phUosopher, who had
become a convert to Christianity, aUudes more than once to the first
attempts at a Hturgy which the Church used in the administration of the
sacraments. He speaks of secret meetings where the psalms were sung,
the Scriptures read, and edifying discourses were delivered; he mentions
pubHc prayers on behalf of the reigning sovereign, of his ministers, and
of the great functionaries of the State; he describes ceremonies, forms of

BETHLEHEM AND THE SHEPHERDS.
The Virgin, with Sl Joseph, adores her Son. according to the saying : « A virgin has con
ceived and borne a child and after having brought him into the world she adores him of
whom she is the mother. »
Miniature of Jehan Foucquet, taken from the Beures of maitre Estienne Chevalier, treasurer of kings Charles VII and Louis XI.
In the collection of Herr Brrotano at Frankfort-on-the-Main. Fifteenth century.

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

20;

prayer, and religious chants which were used according to certain rites
authorised in the Latin Church, amongst which may be distinguished the
Pater of the New Testament, that simple and yet subHme and touching
invocation of feeble humanity prostrated before the Almighty.
The Church of Neo-Cesarea used from the first the liturgy of St. James,
the earliest of the Eastern liturgies, until St. Basil, justly surnamed the
great, for he was one of the most illustrious Fathers of the Greek Church in
the fourth century, modified and shortened it. A Httle later it came to be

IN

N

^

 ¦ jSK 
Us

Figs. 162 to 171. — Monograms of Christ, belonging to the first centuries of the Church, except the
last two. They are mostly composed of the letters X and P interlaced, letters which begin the
word Christ (XPISTOS); one is accompanied byan.N (Nazarenus) ; several have on either side
the letters a and m, in allusion to the text, " 1 am the beginning and the end." Two of these
monograms, from the Catacombs, recall the labarum of Constantino, especially the one bearing
the famous inscription, " In hoc signo vinces ;" but it is not certain whether they are rightly
attributed. The last two are from the Churches of St. Martin de Lescas (Gironde) and of
St. Exupere d'Arreau (Upper Pyrenees), edifices of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries.
known as the liturgy of St. Chrysostom,'on account of the important changes
introduced into it by that Father of the Church.
The canons of the CouncU of Laodicea, held in 364, contain many regu
lations for the recitation of the psalms and lessons, which, as early as the
second century, according to TertuUian, were recited at Tierce, at Sexte, and
at None, that is, at the third, sixth, and ninth hour of the day — at vespers or
evening prayer, and at the prayers offered up by the bishops, whether at the
ceremonies of baptism and the eucharist, or over catechumens and penitents.
It was not untU after the conversion of Constantine that public prayers became
general in Constantinople, even amongst the troops. Constantine built an

zo6

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

oratory in his palace, where his whole court worshipped with him. He desired
that his soldiers, whether Christians or pagans, should every Sunday repeat
aloud certain prayers belonging to the religion of Jesus Christ. Eusebius
is the historian who relates this fact. A record has been handed down of a
prayer that the Emperor Maximinius declared he had received from the
hands of an angel, and which he read out to his soldiers in 313, before he
gave battle to Licinius, his rival for the imperial throne.

Fig. 172.— Heathen Caricature drawn on the wall of the Palatinate, in the Third Century, and
preserved in the Kircher Museum, at Rome.— The object of veneration of the Christians is
represented by a crucified figure with a donkey's head, looking down on a small figure of a
man: it is accompanied by a Greek inscription signifying, "Alexamenus worshipping his
God." Reduced to a quarter the size of the original.
In the fourth century, it was customary nearly everywhere, in the West
as well as in the East, after having sung the praises of God, to put up
prayers for the reigning sovereign and the leading potentates of the
civiHsed world. For instance, when St. Athanasius cried out in the
presence of the faithful, assembled in the splendid basUica of the Caesars,
" Let us pray for the safety of the very pious Emperor Constantine," the
whole assembly answered with one resounding voice, "Christe, auxiliare
Constantio ! " (" Help Constantine, 0 Christ ! ")

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

207

The preceding examples, and many others that it would be easy to gather
from the history of early Christianity, prove that in the fourth century, in
France, in Italy, in Spain, as well as in the churches of the East and of Africa,
Christian worshippers were accustomed to recite either aloud or in a low tone,
a set form of prayers, to chant, or rather slowly to intone psalms, and to sing
hymns. Did not St. Pacome order his monks to recite twice a day a psalmody

Fig. 173. — Painting symbolical of the Catacombs of Rome: Jesus Christ, represented as Orpheus,
fascinating with the sound of his lyre the wild and domestic animals, as also the trees, which
are bending towards him to listen. — Fresco of the First or Second Century, from the Cemetery
of Domitilla.
which was composed of psalms interspersed with prayers ? Did not St. HUary
of Poictiers lay the foundations of the Gallican liturgy, as St. Ambrose did
those of the Lombard liturgy, at the time that St. Chrysostom and St.
Augustine revised the Hturgies of the Eastern and African Churches ?
It was generally the custom to foUow the precepts of the so-called
" ApostoHcal Constitutions," a primitive work that was supposed to date from
the second century. These Constitutions ordered the psalms to be recited to

208

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

the congregation in the morning, at the third, the sixth, and the ninth hours
of the day, at vespers, and at cock-crow, that -is to say, at dawn. But- the
faithful, who were long prevented by persecution from openly assembling in
sacred buildings, at first offered up their prayers in private, or perhaps
surrounded only by their families and a few intimate friends. TertuUian
teUs us that each strove to show the greatest zeal in singing the praises of
God. In the fourth century, the Christians both of the East and of the West

Fig. 174. — Silver-gilt Cruet, showing its different sides; on one side is depicted the head of
Christ, with a nimbus, and on the other that of St. Peter. (First or Second Century.) — Museum
of the Vatican.
were so zealously attached to their psalmody, that none would have willingly
missed saying it at its appointed hour, no matter where he might happen to be.
" Instead of the love songs formerly heard at aU hours, and in all places,
says St. Jerome in a letter to his friend MarceUinus, " the labourer at the
plough hums an Alleluia, the reaper, bathed in perspiration, repeats his
psalmody as he rests from his toil, and the worker in the vineyard carols
David's grateful verse as he plies his curved sickle."
Long before any churches were open to the public, the apostles " broke

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

209

Fig. 175. — The Last Supper, symbolically represented as the first eucharistic sacrifice. J*esus, sur
rounded by his disciples, and with John, his favourite disciple, leaning on his bosom, is adminis
tering his body and blood, under the form of bread and wine, to another disciple kneeling in front
of the table. — From a Miniature of the Eleventh Century in the Burgundian Library, Brussels.
bread with the faithful " in the guest chamber of private dwellings ; their
disciples followed their example in the subterranean cemeteries, termed
Catacombs, where the early Christians used to assemble to celebrate the
Lord's Supper (Fig. 175). This sacrament, the primitive form of which
E E

210

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

is unknown to us, was not termed a mass (missa) till the middle of the
fourth century. "It was on a Sunday," says St. Ambrose, who was the
originator of the Ambrosian rite, " that I first held a mass." The name
of mass, about the meaning and origin of which the most learned Christian
archseologists are by no means agreed, appears to have been derived from

Fig. 176. — Miraculous Mass of St. Gregory the Great (Sixth Century), depicting the real presence
of Jesus Christ in the eucharist. — Miniature from a Missal of the Fifteenth Century, in the
Collection of M. Ambr. Firmin-Didot.
a Hebrew word denoting an offering or sacrifice ; or perhaps rather from
the Latin missa, from mittere, to send away, or to take leave of. Apostolical
discipHne required that the sacrament should be preceded by a discourse,
and that before it was celebrated the catechumens, those who had not yet
been baptized, should leave the sanctuary. "After the sermon," says
St. Augustine, "the catechumens are sent out" (fit missa).

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES. 211
There was, however, a mass for the catechumens which comprised the
introductory prayers, lessons from the Old and New Testaments, and the
bishop's homily. The true mass, celebrated for the faithful alone, was
specially called the eucharist. "Those' are masses," says St. Cesafius
of Aries, " when the body and blood of Christ are offered up in sacrifice "
(Fig. 176). ¦¦ ' .
At first, mass was celebrated once a week, and always on the Sunday.
In the second century, the sacrament or eucharistic offering took place three
times a week, on Sunday, on Wednesday, and on Friday. In the following
century, the Eastern Church decreed that it should also be celebrated on
Saturday. In the West, mass was held only on Sundays, unless in exceptional
cases ; while in the days of St. Augustine, in the dioceses of Africa, Spain, and
Constantinople, it was celebrated generally every day. It was not till the
sixth century that it became usual in the Latin Churoh to celebrate mass
every day.
As time passed on, and as the number of worshippers increased, the
number of masses was considerably augmented, particularly on great festivals
and during Holy Week. The same priest was at liberty to perform several,
but after each he was bound to purify his fingers in a chalice, the contents
of which were afterwards poured into a fitting vessel and consumed at the
final mass, either by the priests themselves, by the deacons and clerks, or by
those of the laity who were in a state of grace. At first all masses were sung,
or rather chanted; they were all public, and could only be celebrated in
diocesan or parish churches. Necessity, however, soon instituted inferior or
private masses, thus named because they were 'held in one of the lesser shrines
or chapels, on an ordinary day; or before a small congregation.
The bishops, the apostles' successors, were alone entitled, during the first
two centuries, to administer the solemn rites of baptism. The priests, under
the authority of the bishop, were the assistant-ministers of this sacrament. The
deacons could only confer it when authorised by special episcopal sanction.
In cases of urgent necessity, laymen were permitted to baptize, provided they
were of irreproachable morals and had been confirmed. In the Latin
Church as weU as in the East, public baptism was only solemnised during
the vigils of Easter and Pentecost ; in the GalHcan Church, at Christmas, as in
the case of King Clovis. Private baptism might be administered at any period
whenever it- was deemed necessary.

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

On the day set apart for baptism, the chosen catechumens met in the
church at noon to undergo a final examination (Fig. 177) ; at midnight they
again assembled there, the paschal taper and the water were consecrated, and
the ofiiciating priest asked the catechumens if they renounced the devil,
the world, and its pomps. They made answer, Yes. The priest then required
of them a profession of Christian faith, carefuUy prepared beforehand, after
which they underwent a short examination on the articles of the Creed.
When these preliminaries were completed the deacon presented to the priest
the catechumens stripped of their clothing, but covered with a veil. Each
then stepped into a large vessel of water and was dipped thrice (Fig. 178) ; at
each immersion the bishop invoked one of the persons of the Holy Trinity, a

Fig. 177. — Exorcism of a catechumen by four of the clergy, who are applying the cross to bim to
drive the devil out of his body, prior to his baptism. — From a bas-relief of the Fourth or Fifth
Century, found at Perouse. Paciaudi, " De Sacris Christianorum Balneis :" Venitiis, 1750, 4to.

custom that prevailed till the sixth century in the Western Church, and till
the eighth in that of the East. After the immersion the assisting deaeon
anointed the catechumen's forehead with holy oil, and the priest put on him
the chrismal, a flowing white robe which he. wore for eight days. Thus clad,
and holding lighted tapers, the new Christians went in procession from the
place of baptism to the basilica. Before mass they received the sacrament
of confirmation ; they were then given a mixture of honey and mUk, a symbol
of their entrance into the promised land, that is to say, into the highway of
Gospel privileges. Whatever the age of the newly baptized might be, they
were termed chUdren (pueri, infantes).
Baptism by sprinkling, as practised now, was not unknown to the
primitive church, but it was only adopted in urgent cases, when immersion
might be dangerous to the catechumen, or when it was expedient to baptize

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

many at one time. In the ninth century baptism by sprinkling had become
customary, and it soon became the only method in use.
The dogmas of Christianity would have been a dead letter for most of the
neophytes, unless they had been accompanied by a rigorous and constant dis
cipline. The Church foresaw this, and showed its sternness, though at the same
time it held out indulgences to the penitent. It established a kind of scale of

Fig. 178. — Baptism of the Saxons conquered by Charlemagne. — Miniature in Manuscript No. 9,066,
in the Burgundian Library, Brussels (Fifteenth Century*).
punishments, whose severity were proportionate to the gravity of the crimes
committed. The privilege of oblation was taken from the lesser culprits —
that is to say, they were neither allowed to place offerings on the altars nor
to receive the eucharist ; the more hardened and rebellious sinners were
excluded from the communion of the faithful, and were not permitted to take
part in pubHc worship ; those who had been guilty of actual crime, or who
had shown themselves to be incorrigible, were expelled from the sanctuary,
and their names were expunged from the list of Christians.

2i4 LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.
These more rigorous measures, however, might be modified, according to
the repentance of the offender or at the discretion of the bishop, the sole and
sovereign judge in all such matters. Canonical penance was usually only
inflicted for great public crimes, such as idolatry, adultery, and homicide ;
and, moreover, certain classes of individuals — chUdren, young girls, married
women, old men, priests, clerks, and monarchs — were only subject to it
under the most careful restrictions ; while in every case it was necessary to
give legal and accurate proof of the alleged offence. When the period of
canonical penance was over, if the criminal showed signs of repentance, the
bishop, or even an ordinary priest in case of absolute necessity, was em
powered to reconcile him with the Church.
As public worship in the early Church was slow to exhibit itself as a
settled institution, so the more solemn and the more imposing it became
from the moment that it took its lofty position under the protectorate of
Constantine the Great. Then suddenly sprung up a number of Christian
places of worship and imposing churches, amongst which we may mention
the basilica of Tyre, restored and inaugurated in 315 ; that of St. John of
Lateran, constructed in Pome in 324, with the remains of the temples once
raised to the false gods of paganism ; and other sanctuaries in the same city,
which were consecrated by the Pope St. Damasius. The rites used at the
consecrations of the early churches are unknown to us, but each inauguration
had its solemn anniversary.
The position, the form, and the arrangement of the early churches were
not left to the whims of their founders and architects, even when these
churches were smaU and hidden for the most part in the catacombs, in
forests, and in deserts. In the second book of the " Constitutions" of Pope
Clement (chaps. 55 and 61), we read the following directions: " Let the
church be of a long shape, Hke a ship, and facing the east." Here, therefore,
in the first century of the church, is an authentic proof of the orientation of
the early Christian sacred edifices.
The method of construction of the primitive churches, however, accord
ing to the liturgical regulations of the period, is still an obscure question,
and one surrounded with uncertainty. It has been surmised, with much
probability, that the subterranean chapels of the catacombs of Borne were
the models of the first churches ; and such is the opinion of the most learned
archaeologists. It was from the very depths of these sepulchral caverns

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES. 215
that Christian art, bursting forth into open day after the long series of
persecutions, built its , crypts and its churches after the types of its hidden
shrines, at first in the transmural cemeteries, and afterwards, towards the end
of the third century, in the midst of the Christianized populations and in
the very centre of their cities. In 303, the date of the decree of Diocletian
closing the Christian places of worship, there were already forty churches and
chapels in Pome. The shape of these primitive sanctuaries is not well known ;
they were probably in general of one uniform pattern, specially adapted to
the Hturgical ceremonies of the day, though considerations of safety, the
capabilities of the site, and other imperious necessities, no doubt frequently
obliged their architects to depart from precedent and to vary the character
of their construction. It was not until the reign of Constantine that Christian
edifices began to assume the attributes of size, magnificence, and majestic
boldness of outHne. It was then that the emperor erected basUicas in the
interior of his Lateran and Yatican palaces for the first time, and consecrated
to the worship of the true God those immense edifices in which art was the
humble handmaid of rehgion and bathed itself in the ineffable splendours of
the faith.
The crypts or chambers (cubicula) of the Catacombs were reproduced in
the fuU light of day in the early churches ; they were of a quadrUateral shape,
with three arched naves, and three vaulted recesses (arcosolia) which served
at once as tombs for the holy confessors and shrines for the celebration of
the eucharist. These sanctuaries were generally of greater length than
breadth, after the analogy of the ship or vessel (navis), this mysterious
symbolism finding favour with the early Christians.
Crucial churches, that is to say, churches in the shape of a cross, were, how
ever, not uncommon, as well as round, pentagonal, hexagonal, and octagonal
buildings. But whatever their shape, they differed essentially from the pagan
temples, as much in their general internal arrangement as in their size, which
continued to increase in proportion as Christianity waxed in magnitude and
influence. The basUicas were divided into three principal parts : the vestibule,
or portico (in Greek, pronaon), the central area (in Greek, naos — in Latin,
navis, whence the term nave), and the apse, or choir (in Greek, ieratrion),
reserved for the officiating priests. The portico was supported by two, five,
or seven columns, and projected from the front wall. An iron rod furnished
with rings ran across the columns, and from it were suspended curtains of

2 l6

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

cloth or hanging tapestries which could be drawn or closed at wUl. Beneath
this portico the penitents, termed strati (prostrated),' were accustomed to
kneel, and from that position they could hear the psalmodyand the sermon
without actually witnessing the ceremony. The larger basilicas had
frequently three porticos instead of one (Fig. 179), the central one facing
the west, and the two side ones the north and south. A large vessel

Fig. 179. — Church of St. Antony, Padua, completed in 1307 ; the seven cupolaB were added in the
Fifteenth Century. The bronze equestrian statue which stands in front of the church was
executed in 1453 by Donatello, and represents the famous captain, Gattemalata.

(malluvium) full of water was placed in the centre of the portico, in which
each member of the congregation before entering the church purified his
face and hands. The clergy alone entered by the middle entrance (aula) ;
the worshippers entered by the two side portals, the men by that to the
right and the women by that to the left ; this division of the sexes was
maintained within the building also. The internal main area was sub
divided into three or five naves. The central nave was always left open and

- Fig. 180.— Foot of a large Choir Candelabrum in gilt bronze, with seven branches, nineteen feet high, and
known as the "Tree of the Virgin," because one of its ornaments represents the Infant Jesus adored
by the Magi, in the arms of the Virgin.— Work of the Thirteenth Century, in Milan Cathedral.
[Te fact page 216.

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

free, but in the others,
partitions six feet high
completely divided off
the catechumens, the
penitents, the virgins
consecrated to God, the
monks, and the mass of
the congregation. At the
end of the nave was the
choir (in Greek bema), in
front of which stood the
solea (the ceUar or wine
press, in aUusion to what
was called the vineyard of
the Lord), surrounded by
a chancel, an open-work
partition, in the centre
of which one or more
gates opened into the
interior. One or some
times two stands (called

pulpitum, pulpit), in
tended for the public
reading of the epistles,,
the Scriptures, and the
holy books, were erected
in front of the gates of the
choir. In Rome, and pro
bably in Constantinople,
Milan, Treves, and in all
the larger imperial cities,
there was in front of the
choir, between the staUs
of the secular clergy and
those of the holy. virgins
and monks, a space (sena-
torium) reserved for the
dignitaries and the noble
families of the place.
The solea was occupied
by the sub-deacons and
the minor clerks, whose

Fig. 181.— Chandelier, called Chandelier of the Virgin; the branches are of bronze, and the figure
is of carved wood. (Church in Kempen, Rhenish Prussia). — From Weerth's " Monuments
of Christian Art."
duty it was to intone the psalmody. One or two sacristies (secretaria) were
F F

2l8

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

placed at the sides of the solea. The sanctuary (Figs. 180 and 181), in which
the holy sacrifice took place, was surrounded with iron or wooden railings, and
communicated through one or three doors ^with the naves. The farther end
of the choir was semicircular in shape, and is now caUed the apse (in Greek*

Fig*. 182. — Altar-piece at Mareuil-en-13rie.

kongche, a muscle or cockle-shell ; in Latin, absida; in French, chevet); around
it were placed seats, amongst them that of the bishop, which Was raised above
the altar, and was visible to the whole congregation. The altar, which was
draped and surmounted with the ciborium (a canopy of a cupola shape — Italian,
baldacchino), was always placed in the centre of the apse (Figs. 182 and 183).

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

219

Such was the material framework, the normal arrangement of the Greek and
Latin Hturgy towards the end. of the sixth century.

No pope was more capable than Gregory the Great (590-604) of uniting
. the different and scattered elements of which the liturgy was composed.

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

To him is due the merit of having been the first to put forth a revised
issue of the books of religious service, and who impressed the stamp
of his genius on the Boman Catholic ceremonial. Before him, however,
Pope Gelasius had collected the prayers used in the administration of the
sacraments, and had prepared the first missal or book of masses. The latter
was remodelled and corrected by Gregory. The same pope gave a more
orthodox and popular form to the Antiphonary (Antiphonarium), sometimes
called Cantatorium and Graduate, a collection of anthems for every mass in
the year ; he amended and remodelled in the most skUful and learned manner
the anthems that were badly selected and ill scored — endeavouring, after
the example set by Solomon, to impart a harmonious and dignified character
to sacred music which it did not previously possess. It is tolerably certain
that the church chant dates from this period, and that notation by neumes, a
method the present age does not understand, of marking the rhythm and the
modulations of the voice, cannot be traced farther back than the pontificate
of Gregory the Great. John Diacre, who has written the life of this
illustrious pope, says that he has seen the school of choristers, founded at
Pome by St. Gregory, officiating in fuU splendour. The founder of this
famous school continued to give lessons to the pupils in spite of his old age,
his attacks of gout, and his other infirmities, even when he was no longer
able to stand or sit upright. Beclining on a narrow and very hard bed, he
infused emulation into the minds of the idle and reproved the disobedient.
Since the fifth century, the holy duties and the canonical prayers to which
the liturgy consecrated the different hours of the day have been known
under the name of offices, of canonical hours (Fig. 184), and of breviaries.
In TertulHan we already meet with the words Tierce, 8exte, and None.
St. Cyprian, St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Jerome, and many other fathers
of the Church, assigned certain hours at which to recite the different offices,
in such a manner that before the close of the fourth century psalmody seems
to have been already regulated in the principal churches of the East. The
practice of the Western churches differed, it is true, from that of the
churches of the East; many differences even were to be found in the
dioceses of the same country. But, during the earlier centuries, it was
everywhere customary to perform the principal offices at night, which was
divided into four watches of three hours each : these hours were measured
by a water-clock, termed clepsydra. The first watch commenced at sunset

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

Xi

(ad vesperas), the second at midnight, the
third at cockcrow, the fourth at dawn. To
wards the fifth century the piety of the early
Christians having somewhat abated, it soon
became customary not to go to church till the
fourth watch, when the whole psalmody, that
is to say, the twelve psalms, as there were
three psalms in each watch, was got through
at one repetition. Hence the name of matins
(matutince) . It would seem that the monks
themselves, who were more conservative
of ancient rites than the secular priests,
commenced about this period to chant the
Nocturn and the Laud at the morning
hours. Rome alone rigorously preserved
the distinction between the offices of the
day and those of night.
The Petites Heures were known as Tierce,
Sexte, and None; Prime, the sfirst of the

vSugvo agititonuTTitiif inn inte^"
,6 e. QomtTteat)a6imiQn5utne
fefKna.Otonapatrietfifto et

ffrtiL fattrtq^Mcut etat toyutu

cipio etnuncet fempev.(tr. Q Jgpmime

,£>jkpottretewii
Wftete Bugpe*
tit efdfaafqm.^
tou*epoute6?ffctf
frtea5oieza.mfa

Keu^toue^taV

Fig. 184.— Ancient Legend of Christmas, with the words of the old French plaint. The engravings represent
the Sibyl prophesying the Birth of Christ ; Jesus in the Stable at Bethlehem ; one of the Magi ; and John ihe
Baptist announcingthat Christ was born.— Fao-simiie from a book of hours, printed with illuminations at
Paris by Anthoine veraxd, towards the close of the Fifteenth Century.

222 LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.
canonical hours, was not instituted till the twelfth century, but the other
three appear to date from the earliest institution of Christianity. St. Cyprian,
who lived in the third century, says that prayers were said at Tierce in
honour of the descent of the Holy Ghost, at Sexte in memory of the Cruci
fixion, and at None to commemorate the death of Christ. Half a century
earlier Tertullian wrote that, independently of the mystic traditions conse
crated by prayer, the Church, in establishing the canonical hours, wished
to conform to the secular division of the day.
Yespers (Vesper a), so called from the star Vesper, which rises as the sun
is setting, also dates from the origin of the liturgy. The hour of vespers
was called lucemarium, because it was necessary to light the lamps at the
performance of that service. A hymn exists entitled "Ad incensum lucernm,"
that is, " To the lighting of the lamp." The Latins as weU as the Greeks,
until the eighth century, celebrated vespers after sunset ; but since that
period the usage of Pome, where vespers were said immediately after Nones,
prevailed and became universal. Milan, however, * still adhered to the
primitive form of the rite : vespers were commenced as soon as the evening
star appeared above the horizon, and terminated by torchlight. Until the
fifth century vespers were the last prayers of the day, and included the
psalms, which were said separately in the following century, as a last service,
termed Compline, and which at first only contained three psalms — it was
not till the ninth century that the thirtieth psalm was added.
The principal libraries of Europe possess several large manuscript volumes
written on vellum, as remarkable for their illuminations (Fig. 185) as for
the beauty of their calligraphy; they are termed the Evangeliarium, the
Lectionarium., and the Liber Benedictionis, and were frequently bound with
great magnificence. They belonged to different churches and dioceses
which, while generally following the rules of the dogmatic liturgy esta
blished by the councils, used several modifications of their own invention.
Some of these modifications were important ones, and were due either to
local feeling and the peculiarities of the congregation, or arose during the
anniversaries, the commemorative festivals of the diocesan ritual. The use
of the Evangeliarium dates from St. Jerome. Before him each of the four
Gospels formed a separate book, and the four were of different liturgical
importance. St. Jerome collected them, arranged them in their proper
order, and added marginal notes of the daily offices.

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

"3

Fig. 185. — The Mystic Fountain, from an Fvangeliariwm of Charlemagne (Eighth Century), in
the National Library of Paris. The jet of water represents the Church, the source of truth ;
the inner birds the souls of the elect ; while those outside seem to personify souls attracted to
baptism by divine grace. — From the large work of Count de Bastard.

A hierarchical order with defined powers and privileges existed from the
date of the first estabHshment of Christianity. In his sixth epistle to the
Magnesians, St. Ignatius, who had been a disciple of St. Peter, says, " I

22+ LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.
exhort you to behave, in all things, with that spirit of concord which comes
from God; and to look upon the bishop as the representative of God himself
in your midst, upon the priests as forming the august senate of the apostles,
and upon the deacons as those to whom is intrusted the ministry of Jesus
Christ." The faithful bowed the head to none but the bishop, to ask
his blessing ; and in the church the bishop occupied a seat raised above
that of the priests. The bishops wore a tunic and pallium, or long mantle,
a chasuble or dalmatic, and a circlet of gold or polished metal upon the
head. The latter was subsequently replaced *by the mitre, which for some
time was made of cloth, and was a circular pointed cap split at the top
(Fig. 186). The primitive insignia of office worn by the bishops were the
episcopal ring and the pastoral staff, made of wood, ivory, or metal. They are
mentioned as wearing sandals for the first time in the ninth century, and
gloves in the twelfth. The bishop of Rome, the first among his brethren
(primus inter pares), wielded over the whole Church a supremacy formally
enunciated by St. Irenseus, a disciple of St. Polycarp, a contemporary of
the apostles. Originally, however, he wore no distinguishing mark of his
pre-eminent rank ; but towards the fifth century, the term "pope" began to
be exclusively applied to him.
After the reformation of his clerks (clericl) by the famous Bishop of
Hippona, the former were called canonici, whence the term chanoines, because
they led a life in conformity with the canons of the Church. In Africa, in
Spain, and in Gaul these canonical clerks Hved together and boarded with the
bishop, and devoted themselves to science, literature, art, music, and especiaUy
to calligraphy. They thus formed a sort of religious school, whence their
title of scholastics (scholastici) — a title which they well deserved during the
reign of Charlemagne, but which they had ceased to merit at the time of
Charles the Bold. The priests attached to each church constituted what was
termed the assembly of the presbytery (presbyterium), or the ecclesiastical
senate of the bishop of the diocese (senatus ecclesim episcopi). It was permis
sible for the clerks at an early age to enter the minor degrees of their
calling, such as those of porter, exorcist, reader, and acolyte ; but they were
not allowed to assume the higher grades until they had reached a ripe age.
The minimum of age for the diaconate was thirty years ; for the priest
hood, thirty-five; ordination, from the fourth century upwards, took place
four times a year. We learn from St. Cyprian, who lived in the third

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

225

century, that from that date it was decreed that this ceremony should
only take place in the churches, publicly, at mass.
Before choristers were regularly introduced many churches had psalmists,
who constituted a distinct minor order. These psalmists were succeeded by

Fig. 186.— Chasuble, Mitre, and Stole of St. Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury (1117—
1170) ; preserved in the Cathedral of Sens. — Cloth and Embroidery of the Twelfth Century.,
chanting clerks. In the reign of the Emperor Justinian, the metropolitan
church of Constantinople possessed twenty-six choristers and a hundred and
ten readers. In the fifteenth canon of the Council of Laodicea we read
that " none but the canonical choristers are allowed to sing in the church."
The congreg'ation, however, stiU kept to the custom of joining their voices
to those of the choristers. G G

226 LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.
At first there no doubt existed a special dress worn during the hours of
service, but it is supposed that it was only in its colour, which was white,
that this dress differed from that worn by the deacons and the priests in
everyday life. The maniple (manipulum) and the stole (stola), accessories to
the alb, which was the original vestment worn by the priest, were not adopted
and consecrated by the liturgy till the third or fourth centuries. The deacons
only wore the stole during the sacrament, but the priests wore it continuously,
as a mark of their sacerdotal dignity. The use of the chasuble was subsequent
to that of the stole, the alb, and the dalmatic. The chasuble is first mentioned
in the twenty-seventh canon of the Fourth Council of Toledo (in 527 a.d.).
Prior to the fifth century, the clergy were obliged to wear no distinctive
dress in private life. As in the days of the Apostles, the bishops, the
priests, the clerks, the deacons, and the choristers wore tunics and sandals,
as prescribed by the Saviour in the Gospel of St. Mark (vi. 9). They
covered themselves with a square piece of black or brown cloth, which
was draped around the figure, and was fastened by neither hook nor tie ;
beneath it was a plain tunic of a dark colour. In the fifth century Pope
Celestinus disapproved of this costume, which caused the followers of Christ
to be confounded with the Stoic philosophers. In the sixth century the
laity had abandoned -the Roman style of costume, and wore short dresses,
copied from those of the barbarians who had become the rulers of Gaul ;
but the Church, careful of the dignity of its ministers, refused to adopt this
expensive alteration. Henceforward a broad distinction was established'
between the dress of the clergy and that of the laity. The Council of Agde
(506 a.d.) ordered all clerks to wear clothes and shoes of a peculiar cut, in
conformity with their religious profession. Two later councils forbade them
the use of the Roman military cloak (sagum) and of purple-coloured stuffs.
Gregory the Great forbade his household to wear any dress but the long toga,
as the one essentially appropriate to the people of the Church. This costume,
with scarcely any modification, was worn by all orthodox ecclesiastics, through
all the changes of the Middle Ages, until the seventeenth century.
The priest, when in the exercise of his holy functions, was not expected
to make any change in his dress. Still, from the fourth to the ninth century
everything seems to show that his proper costume was always white, or
at least that it was so during the celebration of the highest ceremonies.
St. Chrysostom, feeling the approach of death, and being anxious to partake of

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

%i~l

the holy sacrament, called for his white vestments, and distributed those he
was wearing, even to his shoes, among his assistants. The customs and
traditions of the West conformed in this to those of the East. The neophyte
was stripped of his worldly garments, he was clad in a white or religious
robe (habitus religionis), and was then considered fit to perform his duties.
Sometimes, however, the white robes of the sovereign pontiff were adorned
with bands of gold or purple. White was not mixed with other tints in the

Fig. 187. — Romanesque perforated Handbell, representing the symbols of the Four Evangelists
(Twelfth Century). — From the Archepological Museum at Rheims.

dress of the clergy till towards the ninth century ; the five hues 'admitted
by religious symbolism date only from the twelfth century.
Charlemagne, who was proud of his thorough acquaintance with the
liturgy, who esteemed it an honour to wear, on high occasions, the green
chasuble embroidered with gold, and to chant the epistles before the
assembled congregations, took the greatest pains with all the ceremonies of
the Church ; and it is an undoubted fact that the pomp with which they
were afterwards celebrated was inaugurated by him.
Charlemagne and his successors, Louis the Affable and Charles the

228 LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.
Bald, did not, however, content themselves with merely attending to
ceremonial pomp ; they did their best to introduce a principle of unity in
conformity with the Roman liturgy. At the commencement of the eighth
century Pope Adrian I., having sent to Charlemagne an antiphonary scored
by St. Gregory himself, the Emperor ordered all the churches in his
dominions to adopt the Gregorian chant. Thenceforward the ancient
Gallican liturgy almost disappeared, and when Charles the Bald was
desirous of comparing together the Greek, Roman, and GaUican liturgies,
he was obliged to summon ecclesiastics from Toledo to officiate in his presence
according to the Gallican rite. Charles preferred the Roman ritual; but
notwithstanding this, each diocesan cathedral, each separate abbey, intro
duced into the Gallo-Roman liturgy various accessory forms differing more
or less from one another.
It is possible to trace back to the sixth century the first use of church
bells, but their general introduction into the Western church dates from
the eighth century. They were termed seings (in Latin signa) ; they were
not rung, but were simply struck with wooden or metal hammers (Fig. 187),
as is still done south of the Pyrenees. From this practice comes the word
toc-seing or tocsin, appHed to the municipal peals of the Middle Ages and of
still later times. The organ (organum) also dates from the eighth century.
Imperfect as this instrument originally was, it caused tremendous en
thusiasm among its hearers. Indeed, it may be said that organs and
church bells had an equal share in raising the prestige of the ceremonial
liturgy, which charmed and captivated both the senses and the souls of its
hearers, by the display of its numerous officiating clergy, by the solemn
gravity of its chants, by the noble simphcity of the vestments, and by the
chaste and majestic arrangement of its ritual.
Under the last Carlovingians the Hturgy gradually deteriorated ; less in
the East perhaps than in the West, less at Rome and Milan perhaps than
elsewhere, but everywhere the signs of deplorable relaxation and falling
away were manifest. The choristers attempted to assume the privUeges of
the clerks ; the deacons arrogated to themselves impossible rights of inde
pendence ; the priests despised the bishops, and too frequently the bishops,
presuming on their power, had the audacity to disobey the pontifical decrees.
This change and deterioration principally showed itself in the psalmody, in
the chants, in the adornment of the sanctuary, and in the dress of the

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

229

Fig. 188. — The Triumph of the Lamb. — Christ, typified as the spotless lamb, with a glory roimd
his head and holding the cross, is at the feet of God the Father ; around him are the Four
Evangelists, represented by their typical attributes, and resting upon wheels of fire. The
archangels are bringing him their offerings. The firmanent is supported by four angels.
Beneath is St. John explaining the Apocalypse to his commentator. — From a Miniature in
the " Commentary upon the Apocalypse," by Beatus ; a Manuscript of the Twelfth Century,
in the Collection of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

ecclesiastics. The Byzantine methods of treatment, as applied to architectural
monuments and to the various forms of Christian art, did something to pre
serve the traditions of the liturgy, but from the close of the tenth century till

230 LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.
the twelfth much confusion prevailed in the Latin Church. It was reserved
for the Crusades, after a century and a half of adventurous expeditions, to
bring back from countries beyond the sea, from Antioch, from Constan
tinople, and from Jerusalem, the elements and the principles of a Neo-Greek
liturgy, in which the degenerate Gallo-Roman was as it were saturated, and
its whole character remodelled.
The CathoHc liturgy thus underwent a touching and marvellous trans
formation ; this transformation was inaugurated by the construction of new
churches, in which the Romanesque style gave place to that of the Ogive
or Gothic ; by the erection of slender belfries, recalling the minarets of
the Mahometan mosques ; . by the introduction of transparent pictures on
painted glass ; by the chaste but splendid appointments of the chapels ; by
the dazzling decorations of the altars ; by the melody of the church bells, the
sonorous messengers of religion calhng the faithful to prayer ; and by the
harmony of the human voice with the organ and other musical instruments.
A complete and ingenious symbolism was contained in this comprehensive
allegorical ritual, and rendered the liturgy a veritable sanctuary of Chris
tian instruction and sacred tradition, each mystery (Fig. 188), each precept of
which penetrated into the soul, as it were, through the medium of the senses.
In the thirteenth century, when the celebrated WUliam Durand, Bishop
of Mende, wrote his "Ratiopale of Divine Service," a complete collection of
the liturgy of the day, this sort of canonical legislation became settled as
much as a matter could be which the bishops and even the mere priests were
continually modifying. William Durand, following the example of his pre
decessors, included many innovations which were to be lamented, many eccen
tric rites foreign to the traditions of the primitive church, and lowering to the
dignity of divine worship. Enlightened minds felt the truth of this, and the
Council of Trent found it necessary tp demand a liturgical reforjn, In con
sequence of this demand Pope Pius Y., in 1568, issued the corrected form of
the Roman Breviary, and, in 1570, the new Missal. As the principal object
was to reform the errors which had crept in in later times, the dioceses which
possessed rituals of at least two hundred years old could either preserve their
own customs or adopt the Breviary and the Missal of Pius V.
The Church has deviated as little as possible from its ancient ceremonial,
particularly in what concerns the administration of the sacraments. Never
theless, seven sacraments, which we will rapidly notice in the order in which

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

23'

they are enu
merated by the
CouncU of Trent,
were formerly .
accompanied by
certain ceremo
nies which the
change of man
ners and customs
has caused to fall
into disuse, and*
which we shall
mention merely
as a proof of their
antiquity. 1. Baptism,
which St. Peter
had given by
aspersion to the
three thousand
persons whom he
converted by his
first sermon, was
also given in pri
mitive times by
immersion; final
ly infusion (from
the Latin verb
infundere, to
sprinkle) was
adopted in the
manner in which
it is practised, in
our own day
(Figs. 189 and
190).

Fig. 189. — Three Sacraments : Baptism, which inaugurates life ; Confirma
tion, which strengthens childhood; and Penance, which reconciles
manhood.
Left portion of the triptych painted on panel by Roger Van der Weyden
(Eogierdel Pasturle). — From the Antwerp Museum (Fifteenth Century).

232

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

2. Confirmation was
administered imme
diately after baptism,
when only adults were
admitted to the latter
sacrament ; but when
baptism was adminis
tered to new-born in
fants, confirmation had
to be postponed till the
receivers of the rite
were old enough to
answer for themselves
— that is to say, un
tU they were capable

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ti mm xmr
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of distinguishing be
tween good and evil
(Fig. 189).
3. The Eucharist
from the earliest times
was administered un
der the name of com
munion to those in
sound health, and
under the name of
viaticum to those at
the point of death
(Figs. 192 and 193).
The communion,
that is to say the host,
was received in the
hand, and was admi-

Fig. 190. — The Ship of Baptism, a Flemish work of the Sixteenth Century, in chiselled gold and
silver; from the Collection of M. Onghena, at Ghent  When a child was baptized, it was the
custom in the Low Countries to drink the infant's health in a cup of spiced wine. The cup,
shaped like a boat, is typical of the voyage of life : an aged knight is at the helm, two
others are fencing together, a sailor adjusts the rigging, the wind fills the sail, and at the
mast-head the look-out scans the horizon. The Flemish device runs thus : "A fortunate
voyage to the new-born."
nistered by the communicant himself. After the sixth century women were
enjoined to receive it in a white veil, termed dominical, with which they lifted

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

*33

it to their mouths without touching it with their hands. In 880 the
Council of Rouen decreed that in future the sacrament was only to be received
at the hand of the officiating priest. Until the thirteenth century the com
munion was always preceded by the kiss of love ; the men embraced the men,
and the women the women. After the distribution of bread the deacons came
forward with two-handled cups of large dimensions, containing wine for the
communicants, which each tasted through a golden pipe (Fig. 191).
4. Penance, the obligatory practice of which was reduced to once a

Fig. 191. — Sacramental Cup; a work of the Twelfth Century, in silver gilt, from the Abbey of
the Benedictines of Witten, near Inspruck.

year by the fourth Lateran Council, had always for its aim the absolution
from sin consequent upon confession.
Excommunication, the extreme punishment inflicted upon great sinners,
was pronounced by the faint Hght of a wax taper, which the priest afterwards
extinguished and trampled under foot. In some countries the populace"
used to carry a bier to the door of the excommunicated person ; stones
were hurled against his dwelling, and all kinds of foul abuse were heaped
upon him. Of "a stiU more solemn nature was the excommunication pro
nounced by the pope himself on Holy Thursday, in virtue of the buU
termed In Ccena Domini, against aU who appealed to the general councU
against the decrees and the ordinances of the pontiffs ; against the princes
H H

234

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

Fig. 192. — The Sacrament of the Eucharist, which keeps youth holy. — Central portion of the
triptych, by Roger Van der Weyden, in the Antwerp Museum (Fifteenth Century).

who exacted unfair tribute from ecclesiastics ; and against heretics, pirates,
&c. A deacon read the bull from the balcony (loggia, an open tribunal) of

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

235

St. Peter's in the presence of the pope, who, as a symbol of anathema, dashed
a lighted torch of yellow wax into the open court of the Yatican, which the
assistants hastened to extinguish by trampling upon it. It was also on
Holy Thursday that the reconciliation of the penitents took place, that is to
say, their general absolution, to enable them to take part in the mysteries
of Easter.

Fig. 193. — Legend of the passage of the viaticum across a wooden bridge, at Utrecht, in 1277.
Some dancers having allowed the host to pass without discontinuing their dances, the bridge
suddenly gave way and two hundred persons were drowned in the river. — Fac-simile of an
Engraving upon Wood by P. Wolgemuth, in the " Liber Chronicarum Mundi :" Nuremberg,
1493, in folio.

5. Extreme unction has always been given to sick people in danger of
death, according to the recommendation of the Apostle St. James. The
material of which this sacrament is composed is the oil of the infirm, but we
can see from old rituals that the place and number of the unctions have
varied at different times in the administration of this sacrament (Fig. 194).
6. Orders. Besides the higher orders, which were conferred as they are
in our own day, the Church included from the earliest times the four minor

236

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

Fia

194. — Three Sacraments: Marriage, at full manhood; Orders, at
old age; and Extreme Unction, at death. Right portion of
the triptych painted on panel by Eoger Van der
Wey d en . — Antwerp Museum.
Fifteenth Century.

orders, which
were bestowed,
as now, upon
the tonsured
clerks ; that is
to say, the
orders of por
ter, reader, exor
cist, aniacolyte.
The consecra
tion of abbots
and abbesses,
although made
with a great
deal of cere
mony, was not
considered as
an ordination,
but only, as a
benediction. The bishop/
after giving the
abbot the com
munion under
the form of
bread, blessed
him, placed a
mitre on his
head, and gave
him his gloves,
the symbols of
his rank, with
the customary
prayers. The
abbot's crosier
and ring were

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES. 237
bestowed upon him before the offertory. Alexander IL, elected pope in
1061, was the first to confer upon abbots the privilege of wearing the mitre.
Abbesses also enjoyed the right of carrying the crosier; they received it
from the hands of the bishop, together with the pastoral cross and ring. In
the synods and councils the abbots were only allowed to wear a mitre
ornamented with orfroi (a golden fringe)", but devoid of pearls and precious
stones ; the bishops wore the precious mitre, that is to say, one ornamented
with pearls and jewels.
7. The ceremony of marriage has altered but little. In old days, how
ever, it was celebrated at the door and not in the interior of the church.
In the ninth century the priest placed jewelled crowns upon the heads of
husband and wife ; these crowns were made in the shape of a tower, and
were afterwards kept near the altar.
Most religious ceremonies were accompanied with processions ; but
besides these there were great pubHc processions varying according to the
country and the diocese in which they took place. They were regulated by
special liturgies, which formed a separate ritual termed processional. The
procession of palms or of branches, which takes place the Sunday before
Easter, in remembrance of the entry of Christ into Jerusalem, had for a long
time been customary in the East, when towards the sixth or seventh century it
was adopted by the Latin church, which frequently added scenic accessories,
intended to make a still deeper impression on the minds of the spectators.
This ancient festival was distinguished by many names; by some it was
termed the Hosanna, in memory of the acclamations with which Jesus was
received in Jerusalem ; by others the Sunday of Indulgences, on account of
the indulgences distributed by the Church on that holy day. In old times
verses from the Gospels, inscribed upon a richly ornamented banner sur
rounded with palm-leaves, were carried in this procession, and it was fre
quently also accompanied by the chalice containing the host, in the midst
of consecrated branches. It was, as a rule, customary that the ashes
employed for the ceremony of Ash Wednesday should be those of the
branches carried in the procession of the preceding year, and which were
carefuUy preserved from year to year, and burnt when thoroughly desiccated.
In 1262 Pope Urban IY. confirmed and extended to the whole of
Christendom the statute of Robert, Bishop of Liege ; who, being of opinion
that the ceremony of the eucharist ought to be celebrated in a more solemn

238

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

Fig. 195. — Procession of the Host, in Paris i " The procession proceeds from the Maison aux Piliers,
the ancient Hotel de Ville, to the Place de Greve. To the left may be seen Jean Juvenal
des Ursins, on bis knees before the host, which is carried on a species of litter by a couple of
monks of the Sainte-Chapelle, and surrounded by the clerks of tbe brotherhood crowned with
wreaths of roses and carrying large lighted tapers  To the right, and towards the banks
of the Seine, and in front of the floating piles of wood, is the great Croix de Gieve. On the
other side of the Seine may be seen the Cathedral of Notre-Dame." — From a Miniature in the
Manuscript of the " Hours of Juvenal des Ursins," presented by M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot
to the town of Paris, and burnt in 1871 in the conflagration of the H6tel de Ville.

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

*39

manner than it was possible to do upon Holy Thursday, the day set aside
for the reconciliation of penitents, had decreed that every year, on the

[iiilllllilll[illMlilil-iilll!

w$bW* ' ¦' •*r?f
ISfciaililiii'Slii

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiMi

Fig. 196. — Solemn Procession made on the 7th September, 1513, by the clergy and inhabitants of
Dijon, to obtain from Our Lady the relief of the town, at that time besieged by the Swiss.
The ceremonj-- was afterwards renewed every year at the same epoch ; iff was termed the
"Festival of Our Lady of the Swiss." — Tapestry of the Sixteenth Century, in the Dijon
Museum. — From a copy in the possession of M. Acb. Jubinal.

first Thursday after Pentecost, the festival of Corpus Christi, or the Fete-Dieu
should take place (Fig. 195) ; the office for* which, the same as is used in
our own day, was composed by St. Thomas d' Aquinas.

240

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

The procession termed Litanies majeures, first instituted in 589 by Pope
Pelagius II. , owed its origin to a plague that desolated Rome after an
inundation of the Tiber.
In 474 St. Mamert, Archbishop of Vienne, in Dauphiny, in order to
thank God for having deHvered his diocese from the scourges which
desolated it, and from the wild beasts which ravaged it, founded the
procession of Rogations, which took place during the three days which

Fig. 197. — Pentecost. — Fac-simile of a Miniature from the " Psalmody of St. Louis." — Manuscript
of the Thirteenth Century, in the National Library, Paris.
precede the feast of the Ascension. This procession was ordered for the
whole of France by the Council of Orleans in 511 ; but it only came into
use at Rome towards the close of the eighth century, under Pope Leo III.
The procession which precedes the mass of Ascension Thursday is of
the highest antiquity ; but nowhere was it carried out with greater
ceremony, or attended by a larger number of pilgrims, than at the church
built in Palestine by St. Helen, mother of Constantine, on the very spot
where the ascension took place, and where stiU might be seen on the stone

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

241

the last footprints of our Saviour, as He left this earth and ascended to
heaven. In fact, in the Middle Ages there were an immense number of festivals
which gave rise to processions (Fig. 196) and to other religious ceremonies.
It must not be forgotten that all great festivals were indifferently termed

Fig. 198.— The Adoration of the Magi. — From a pax attributed to Maso Finiguerra (Fifteenth
Century), preserved at Florence. One of the kings is on his knees, and has taken off his
crown to present incense and myrrh to the Infant Jesus ; the others are riding towards the
manger, escorted by their varlets and pages, and followed by a long caravan ; there are angels
on the roof playing the viol and the lute.
Easters. The anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus Christ was the great
Easter, and in order to prepare worthily for it, the body was purified by baths,
and the hair and the beard were cut, as tokens of the care with which the
Christian ought to preserve the purity of his soul, and to remove the vices
that infect the unregenerated man. The Nativity, Epiphany, Ascension,
and Pentecost were also called Easter. In some churches, at great Easter,
1 1

242

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

dramatic representations were given of the mysteries the festival celebrated.
A procession was undertaken to a tomb cut in a rock. Three women and
two men in Israelitish dress represented the three Marys and the disciples
John and Peter, and others dressed in white, with crowns on their heads
and wings on their shoulders, played the part of the angels who communed
with them.
Pentecost (Fig. 197), or the Easter of Roses, was accompanied with
the same dramatic and reHgious accessories. In many churches during
mass, at the words Veni, Sancte Spiritus, a sudden blast of the trumpet was
given to recall the great noise in the midst of which the Holy Ghost
descended upon the apostles. Sometimes, indeed, to add to the scenic

Fig. 199.— Knife with which the consecrated bread was cut; on the blade maybe read on one
side a prayer for a blessing on the food, on the other a thanksgiving, both with music (Six
teenth Century).— Collectionof M. Ach. Jubinal, Paris.
imitation of the mystery, tongues of fire fell from the roof, or a shower
of red rose-leaves took place; and doves, emblems of the Holy Ghost,
were allowed to flutter about the church.
At high festivals the mass was followed by the ceremony of the offering)
at which all present were expected to deposit a coin in a plate, and kiss the
emblem of good- will presented to them (Fig. 198). This offering was in
memory of an ancient custom. The offerings, which in the primitive
Church the faithful were accustomed to make every day, consisted of
bread and wine. They were placed before the altar at the commencement
of the second part of the mass, after the reading of the Gospel and of the
Apostles' Creed. The capitularies of the early Frankish kings prescribed
that neophytes were to offer bread and wine at least every Sunday. Until
the eighth or ninth century, some authors assert that for the sacrifice of the

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

243

I nan I iiij

Fig. 200. — Altar of the ancient Cathedral of Arras (Thirteenth Century), now destroyed: from
a picture of the Sixteenth Century preserved in the sacristy of the Cathedral of Arras. — The
angels on the top of the columns bear the instruments of the Passion. Along the summit
pf the screen are placed six reliquaries containing the relics of different saints ; they form
a retinue for Jesus, the chief of all martyrs. The tabernacle is not a heavy square case, but
a suspended casket borne by an angel, who appears to descend from heaven. Higher up
three angels collect in the mysterious cup of the Grail the blood which flows from the feet
and Hands of the crucified Jesus.

mass, either leavened or unleavened bread was used indifferently ; but since
that period leavened bread has only been in use in the Eastern Church:
From this epoch, also, the offered bread was no longer used except for

244

LITURGY AND CEREMONIES.

distribution to the people, as a symbol of the communion, and it then took the
name of eulogy or consecrated bread (Fig. 199). These pieces of bread, which
the assisting priests and deacons offered successively at the altar upon white
napkins, were of a round shape. They were termed hoops, crowns, and wheels.
The custom of offering bread and wine whilst holding a lighted taper in the
hand has been handed down, and still exists at
burials in many dioceses.
The altar where the offerings were made was
surmounted by a cupola (called ciborium) sus
tained by four columns, between which were cur
tains, which were closed during part of the service
to hide the sacred mysteries about to take place
(Fig. 200). In the middle of the cupola, above
the altar, a hoUow dove, made of gold or sUver,
was suspended (Fig. 201) ; in this the eucharist
for the sick was kept. This sUver dove was re
placed at a later period by the tabernacle.
We have thus seen that time has only
brought about sHght modifications in the liturgy
of the Church ; on the other hand, we can satisfy
ourselves that nothing is left to conjecture or
hypothesis ; the most searching criticism only
Fig. 201.— Dove suspended above affirms the truths of tradition. M. Paul AUard,
the altar, containing the encha- a distinguished writer, has expressed this in
risticbox (Thirteenth Century).
-"Studies upon the Arch^o- a Tei7 Happy manner in his work, "Subter-
logyof the Altar, "by Laib and ranean Rome." "For two centuries," he says,
" the soil of Rome has been searched and dug
up with indefatigable ardour, in the hope of discovering the source of
the first Christian institutions, the very origin of the Church, catacombs
have been thrown open to the day, thousands of inscriptions have been laid
bare, and rare and precious paintings have been copied, or are stUl to be
seen. From those subterranean labours, which have left nothing to conjec
ture, the history of the origin of Christianity has emerged, complete and
renovated, but differing in nothing from that which tradition has handed
down to us, and which, confirmed as to a great number of points, has
been shaken in none."

THE POPES.

Influence of the Papacy in the Reformation of Early Society. — St. Leo the Great. — Origin of the
Temporal Power of the Popes. — Gregory the Great. — The Iconoclastic Emperors. — Stephen III.
delivered by France. — Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the West. — Photius.- — The Diet of
Worms. — Gregory VII. ; his Plan for a Christian Republic. — Urban II. — The Crusades. —
Calixtus II. ; Termination of the Dispute as to Investiture. — Innocent III. — Struggle of
Boniface VIII. against Philippe le Bel. — The great Western Schism. — Council of Florence.
— Battle of Lepanto. — Council of Trent.

DRING the Middle Ages the popes
exercised an appreciable influence
upon society, personifying as they
did the Christian, element which was
destined to regenerate the old world.
" A doctrine emanating from Asia
was not to subjugate, but to convert
Europe, to associate political and
religious truth, and, by the force of
conscience against idolatry, and of
resignation against tyranny, to
restore the human race in all its
dignity under the one true God.
With the power of the sword sprung up that of opinion, which, independent
of its rival, sustained the cause of progress in its struggle against this same
power of the sword, and prevented it from being overthrown. The Church,
representing the people and opening the way to the emancipation of aU who
were weighed down by conquest and by force, was unable to destroy servitude,
legalised violence, and rapine at one blow, but it encountered them with a
reproving doctrine and a condemning God.
" Nero and Domitian soon found themselves face to face with Peter and
Linus ; — the first, armed masters of the world, having upon their side legality,

246

THE POPES.

Saftr

which is so different from
justice, representatives of
the old world which cried
out in the circus, 'To the
lions with the Christians!'
— the latter, poor, weak,
misunderstood, and calum
niated, propagating the
kingdom of God by autho
rity, education, ceremonies,
and example; declaring that
unto Csesar should be ren
dered the things which are
Caesar's, but nothing more,
neither worship nor the
sacrifice of one's sentiments
and convictions." — (Cantu.)
This struggle, begun by
St. Peter, the first Bishop
of Rome and first pope, and
continued by his successor
St. Linus, went on for three
centuries. Nevertheless the
popes, unchecked by per
secutions, had effected the
moral conquest of the Roman
world, — even the palace of
the Caesars was full of Chris
tians when their legal exist
ence became recognised by
Constantine. The seat of
the empire was transferred
to Byzantium; the luxury

Fig. 202. — The Jewish Religion assisting at the death of Jesus Christ. The figure has a bandage
over the eyes, the Decalogue is falling from its hands, and its spear is broken to pieces. —
Sculpture in Strasburg Cathedral (Thirteenth Century). — From a Photograph by Charles de
Winter, of Strasburg.

THE POPES.

247

and effeminacy of the East
enervated the degene
rated race of the Caesars,
while under the influence
of the Bishops of Rome,
officiaUy recognised at
that date as the sovereign
pontiffs of the Christians,
the West continued to ad
vance rapidly in the path
of modern civilisation.
The emperors, con
verted to Christianity,
ere long became the
opponents of the popes ;
" laying aside the sword
of defence for disputa
tions on theology." Their
weakness handed the
West over to the Ger
manic races ; primitive so
ciety, whose organization
still remained heathen,
despite the change in
religious belief, was swal
lowed up by the invasion
of these Northerners,
whose institutions facili
tated the triumph of the
ideas of political Hberty
and equality, the germ of
which was deposited in
the Gospel.

Fig. 203.— The Christian Religion assisting at the death of Jesus Christ. Crowned and triumphant,
the figure holds in one hand the standard of the cross, and in the other the chalice of the
eucharist.— Sculpture in Strasburg Cathedral (Thirteenth Century) .— From a Photograph by
Charles de Winter, of Strasburg.

248

THE POPES.

The papacy of the Middle Ages was first made illustrious by Leo I., sur-
named the Great. Called to be Bishop of Rome by the people and the clergy
in 440, when twenty years of age, he rendered the greatest possible services
to civilisation during the twenty- two years of his reign. His preachings, his
writings, his decrees, aimed chiefly at the education of his clergy and his
flock, at the maintenance of the Nicene Creed (Fig. 206), the moral improve-

Fig. 204.— The spiritual and the temporal powers dependent upon Jesus Christ, who is handing to
St. Peter the keys and to Constantine the standard surmounted by the cross. — Mosaic of the
Tenth Century in the Basilica of St. John of Lateran, at Rome.
ment of the clergy, and the upholding of discipline. He fought the heretics
with equal energy and authority ; he continued the struggle of orthodoxy
against the errors which attacked the dogma of the Incarnation, which is the
basis of Christianity, and upheld with vigilant perseverance the primitive
doctrine of the Church, so clearly defined and proclaimed during the reign of
one of his predecessors at the Council of Ephesus in 431. He was, above aU
things, a skilful diplomatist and a great politician. He firmly maintained the

Fig. 205.--St. Peter.— Fac-simile of a Wood Engraving of the Old Masters, by Hans Baldung, otherwise

THE POPES.

249

apostolic pre-eininence of Rome over Constantinople — a pre-eminence which
was, moreover, recognised by the Council of Chalcedon.
The empire, like the Church, needed such a man as St. Leo in its days of

111
II
Els

adversity. The invasion of the barbarians was triumphant in the West, and
nearly all of the conquerors were either Arians, who denied the divinity of
Christ, or idolaters. Leo triumphed over all these calamities. Rome had
already been ravaged by Alaric in 410, but even he respected the churches in
K

2*50 THE POPES.

which the population had fled for refuge. Attila, at the head of seven
hundred thousand men, marched on Rome for the purpose of devastating it
with fire and sword ; resistance seemed out of the question, and the Emperor
was preparing to escape. Amidst the universal panic, Pope Leo, accom
panied by a consul, went out to meet the dreaded chieftain, and induced him
to turn back.
Some years later, Genseric poured his Vandals into Italy, and again
Leo boldly presented himself before his fierce assailant, and made him
renounce his intention of burning the city and slaying the inhabitants. Thus
did circumstances lead the way for the temporal power of the popes in Rome,
of which they eventually became the sole guardians and defenders.
But the genius of Leo served only to defer the downfall of the Western
Empire, which was doomed to disappear fifteen years after his death. His
successors continued to protect Italy, so far as in them lay, against the horrors
of war ; and Pope Agapetus, though weighed down by years, undertook the
perilous mission of going to Constantinople to make peace between the
Emperor of the East and the King of the Yisigoths. A few years after
wards, Pope Pelagius I. had the courage to seek an interview with Totila,
and so preserve Rome from massacre and dishonour. Pelagius IL, who
kept within bounds the Lombards, at that time masters of Italy, was suc
ceeded by Gregory I., surnamed Gregory the Great, one of the most iUus
trious of the Roman pontiffs.
Gregory, whose father was a Roman senator, and whose mother was
canonised, was praetor or chief magistrate of Rome, and his administration
had gained for him great popularity when, by his father's death, he inherited
a large fortune. This enabled him to found seven monasteries, and, having
distributed the remainder of his money amongst the poor, he became a monk
in the Abbey of St. Andrew, which he had founded previous to his entering
the priesthood. Chosen as pope on September 3, 590, he, in spite of his
resistance to the clergy, the senators, and the people, immediately made his
profession of faith in the customary manner. He converted the Lombards,
who were professed Arians, and even idolaters. This was no small triumph,
for it meant the peaceful subjection, or rather the alHance of a warlike
people, whose close neighbourhood to Rome had been a constant cause of
alarm. It was especially in his relations with the court of Constantinople
that Gregory displayed aU the loftiness of his character. WhUe he bridled

THE POPES.

25'

the ambition of the Lombards, so as to preserve for the emperors of the East
their' Italian possessions (Fig. 207), he defended with equal energy and tact
the independence of the Church and the in
terests of the Italians against the unjust pre
tensions of the Byzantine Court. He ren
dered more distinct the role of the papacy in
the Middle Ages, which was to uphold the
purity of dogma as opposed to heresy against
the theological pretensions of emperors, to pro
tect also the Catholic population, vanquished
and often persecuted by new masters, whether
pagan or heretic ; and, lastly, to convey the
tidings of the Gospel to the most remote nations
of the earth.
To this great pope appertains the glory of
having converted England by means of the
missionaries whom he sent thither. " There
is nothing grander in the history of Europe,"
said Bossuet, " than the entry of St. Augustine
into Kent with forty of his companions, who,
preceded by the cross and image of the Great
King our Lord Jesus Christ, prayed fervently
for the conversion of England. St. Gregory,
who had sent them forth, edified them by truly
apostolic letters, and constrained St. Augustine
. , 1 , .,1 ' , , .i Fig. 207. — St. Michael the Archangel,
to tremble with amazement at the numerous ?.. . , *„¦,„¦ t.
Minister of God, offering to a Byzan-
miracles which God wrought through him. tine Emperor the globe surmounted
_ . 1-111 ky *ne cross, the symbol of the
Bertha, a French princess, brought her hus- imperiai pc%er.-A leaf of an
band, King Ethelbert, over to Christianity. The ivory dyPtio or tablet of the Sixth
Century, preserved in the British
kings of France and Queen BrunehUd supported Museum.— From a copy by M. J.
.1 • • . m*u 17 1. -u* *L j. j Labarte. The second leaf of this
this new mission. Ihe Irench bishops entered , ,. , . , A iV n i-
r dyptic being lost, the Greek mscnp-
cordiaUy into this good work, and, by order tion, which signifies, " Receive this
« , i i ci a • object, and learning tbe cause,"
of the pope, they consecrated St. Augustine. js incomplete, and its meaning
The support which St. Gregory gave to the enigmatical.
new bishop bore abundant fruit, and the Anglican Church was thus formed."*

* Bossuet's " Histoire Universelle," p. 101, Firmin-Didot edition,

25 2 THE POPES.

Amidst these important engagements, the activity of Gregory found time
to superintend the reHef of the poor and the education of the young. He
built schools and hospitals in Rome, and increased the splendour of the
church services by a judicious and well-conceived reform of sacred music.
M. F. Clement, in his history of religious music, says, " St. Gregory, not
content with regulating the antiphon for every service throughout the year,
also founded a school of singing at Rome, and personaUy superintended the
teaching there. WhUe other masters were entrusted with the task of giving
lessons in one division of the school, at St. Peter's in the Vatican, he directed
another section at St. John of Lateran. We read in the Hfe of this pontiff,
written by John the Deacon, that, compelled by his infirmities to lie at full
length upon a couch, he stiU taught the children singing, and that the staff
which he used for beating time is stUl preserved."
A century after his death, two popes of the same name who succeeded
each other, Gregory II. and Gregory III., recalled to mind the virtues, and
above all the firmness, of their glorious predecessor. They had to struggle
against the extraordinary pretensions of the emperors of the East, who de
clared themselves iconoclasts — that is, breakers of images. Alleging certain
abuses, brought about by the ignorance of some unenlightened Christians,
Leo the Isaurian published in 726 an edict commanding the destruction of
the images — the crucifixes and the statues — throughout the whole empire.
Neither the clergy nor their flocks had ever seen any sign of idolatry in the
worship of these images, which were venerated as sacred symbols and respected
like family portraits. The Patriarch of Constantinople, refusing to obey this
edict, was banished. This new heresy was severely rebuked by Gregory IL,
and after him by Gregory III. The latter replied to the emperor, who had
requested him to convoke a council, in these noble words, " You have written
asking us to assemble an oecumenical council ; it would be futile, as you alone
persecute the images ; cease these evil deeds, and the world wUl be at peace,
and scandals wiU come to an end. Do you not see that your crusade against
the images is an act of revolt against the Church and of presumption ? The
churches were enjoying a period of profound tranquiUity when you excited
this tempest of disputes ; put an end to the schism, and then there will he
no need of a council." This apostolic firmness excited the wrath of Leo,
who dispatched against Rome a fleet of vessels carrying a large body of
troops, but they were lost in the Adriatic.

THE POPES. 253

Trasmund, Duke of Spoleto, and the Duke of Benevento, having risen
in revolt against Luitprand, King of the Lombards, took refuge in Rome.
Gregory received them very cordiaUy, and refused to deliver them up to
their redoubtable suzerain. Luitprand at once marched upon Rome, and
Gregory demanded help from Charles' Martel — which, however, he declined
to give ; and the good pope died j ust in time to be saved from witnessing
the sack of the Eternal City (741).
Zachariah, a Greek by birth, accepted the succession left vacant by
Gregory III. under such critical circumstances ; but he negotiated so skilfully
with Luitprand, that the king not only gave back to the pontifical domain
four towns which he had already seized, but further added, as an irrevocable
gift, the territories of the Sabines, Narnia, Ossimo, and Ancona, and consented
to evacuate the exarchy of Bavenna, occupied by his troops. Zacharias enjoyed
an equal amount of credit with the Emperor Constantinus Copronymus, who
granted him, in the interest of the Roman Church, concessions which were
more than could have been expected from an irritated suzerain. All the
sovereigns of his time seemed anxious to have recourse to his advice. Charle
magne, son of Charles Martel, and Rachis, King of the Lombards, went to
Rome for the purpose of seeing him, and he invited both of them to enter
the monastery of Monte- Cassino.
Stephen III., elected by acclamation to succeed Zachariah (752), was
carried from the pubHc square to the Lateran Church upon the shoulders of
his supporters ; and this custom has since been adhered to in cases where the
election has been unanimous.
He had concluded peace for forty years with Astolfo, King of the Lom
bards, but that ambitious monarch failed to keep his engagements, as, a short
time afterwards, he drove the exarch Eutychius . out of Ravenna, and then,
claiming for himself all the rights of the emperor, he aspired to become master
of Rome (753). This unjust warfare was fortunately carried on so slowly that
the sovereign-pontiff had time to go to France and intercede with King Pepin
for help against Astolfo. The French army was sent over the Alps, and Astolfo
had to submit, and to hand over Ravenna to the people, and surrender the
hostages. Stephen returned to Rome, accompanied by Prince Jerome, the
brother of Pepin ; but in the following year Astolfo again took up arms, and
Pepin, who had again crossed the Alps, this time compeUed him to abandon
definitely the exarchate of twenty-two towns, together with the territories

254 THE POPES.

attached to them, which he made over absolutely to St. Peter and his suc
cessors. This, with the Duchy of Rome, constituted the temporal dominion
of the Church.
A few years later Adrian I., who had avoided faUing into the political
snares laid for him by Didier, appealed to Charlemagne for his intervention,
and the latter, crossing the Alps, laid siege to Pavia, the capital of the, Lom
bard kings, took Didier prisoner, and sent him to the monastery of Corbie.
Not content with delivering Rome, Charlemagne, during the two visits which
he paid to that city, during and after the war, confirmed the gift solemnly
made by his father of the territories which were to be inaHenably annexed
to the Holy See ; and, at the same time, he added the coast of Genoa, Corsica,
Mantua, Yenetia, Istria, the duchies of Spoleto, Benevento, and the entire
exarchate over its thirty towns.
Adrian had the consolation of seeing the heresies of the iconoclasts
condemned by the second Nicene Council ; and the Empress Irene and her
son Constantine submitted to the decision.
Adrian died in 795. His successor, Leo III., sent to the great Emperor
of the Franks the standard of the city of Rome, and the keys of the
Confession of St. Peter, as to the protector of the Eternal City. The emperor
responded to this homage by the gift of immense treasure which he had
taken from the enemy, and the pope devoted the greater part of it to the
decorating of the Lateran Palace, and various churches.
A conspiracy, which Leo III. only escaped by climbing the waUs of
Rome and by taking refuge with the Duke of Spoleto, who had marched
to his succour, gave him an opportunity for going to see Charlemagne at
Paderborn, who promised to come himself into Italy to confound the enemies
of the holy father ; in the meanwhile he dispatched commissioners to Rome,
who reinstated the pope in his pontifical city (November 30, 799). Charier
magne came to Rome in the following year, when, convoking an assembly of
the people, he declared the object of his visit and summoned the accusers of
the pope to appear before his tribunal. As they did not dare to put in an
appearance, he declared that the holy father should be allowed to justify
himself on oath. Then in the great cathedral of St. Peter, in the presence of
a vast concourse of. people, Leo, with his hand upon the books of the Evan
gelists, cried out, " I know nothing of the crimes with which the Romans have
charged me." His declaration was received with shouts of applause that rung

THE POPES.

*5S

iPfl| i I '. 1 1 i I 1 1>.'  I m^fr

iik

wm^M

esE&XFfm.

&»W$

Spg?

Fig. 208. — Byzantine Dalmatic, said to have belonged to Leo III., but probably dating from the
Twelfth Century, preserved in the Treasury of St. Peter's at Rome. Upon this garment, which
is of dark-blue silk, are several designs embroidered in gold and colours. The most remark
able is one upon the front representing Christ in his glory. Seated upon a rainbow, with his
feet upon two circles of fire and the right hand stretched out, he holds in his left the New
Testament, which is open at the following passage : " Come unto me, ye chosen of my
Father.'' Above his head is seen the cross with tbe crown of thorns. Around him is a
choir of angels, the Virgin, the saints, David and Solomon, the bishops and the religious
orders ; below, to the right and to the left, St. John the Baptist, and Abraham receiving the
souls of the just; above, on the two shoulders, Jesus is giving the Holy Communion to the
Apostles, the wine being administered on one side and tbe biead on the other.
through the vaults of the sacred edifice. Charlemagne, who had returned to
St. Peter's on Christmas Day, for the service, knelt before the altar. The pope,

256

THE POPES.

upstanding before him, placed upon his forehead a golden crown studded with
jewels and proclaimed him emperor, thus giving him a real supremacy over
all the Christian princes and peoples of the West. (Figs. 208 and 209.)
The popes who were contemporary with the successors of Charlemagne,

Fig. 209.— The Coronation of an Emperor by the Pope, the Sovereign being represented by Maxi
milian I.— From " Des Sainctes Ceremonies," a Manuscript of the Sixteenth Century, in
M. Ruggieri's Collection.

though not of special note, governed the Church with wise moderation ; and as
they were all patrons of the Fine Arts, Rome is indebted to them for some of
her chief embellishments. Leo IV., in 847, was compelled to make Rome
secure from an attack by the Saracens, who were always making incursions.,
up to its very walls. For this purpose he constructed around the church of
St. Peter a regular town — the Leonine city— which he fortified with high

THE POPES'. 257

towers. He also fortified the places near Rome, and founded a new city,
caUed Leopolis, which he surrounded with ramparts. Rome thus being
out of danger, he imitated the example of his predecessors by ornamenting
the churches, to which he gave paintings and other works of art of the value
of 5,971 sUver marks. The fabulous story of Pope Joan — who was said to
have been elected pope, and to have concealed her sex, though she was
shortly after expelled,' after some great scandal — is placed by historians
between Leo IV. and Benedict III. ; but the falsity of the story is mani
fest, for there was no interregnum between the death of Leo, upon July 17th,
855, and the election of Benedict.
Nicholas I. (858 — -867), anathematized Photius, the usurping Patriarch
of Constantinople. The empire having fallen to Michael III., a child of
three years old, his mother Theodora, assisted by his uncle Bardas, carried
on the government in his name. When this prince grew up, Bardas ousted
Theodora, and, in order to maintain himself in power, pandered to the .passions
of his nephew. Michael gave himself up to such scandalous excesses that the
Patriarch Ignatius excluded him from the church, and excommunicated Bardas.
In six days,. Photius, a layman who could be depended upon "to do as he was
told, was made patriarch in the room of Ignatius. This was the prelude to the
separation of the Greek Church. Photius added heresy to his revolt against
the pope, by asserting that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father only,
and not from the Son. Nicholas' successor, Adrian II. , appointed his legates
to preside at the council which deposed the Patriarch Photius. He also
upheld the sentence of his predecessor against Lothair, whom he compelled
to renounce his adulterous union with Valdrade. When that prince came
before him to partake of the sacrament, the pope said in a loud tone of voice,
as he presented the host, " If thou hast given up thy adultery, if thou hast
broken off all connection with Valdrade, may this sacrament comfort thee !
But if thy heart is stiU perverse, it wiU be for thy punishment." This lofty
firmness of speech was all the more praiseworthy because the pope, in thus
maintaining the rights of morality, had to defy and admonish a prince who
had delivered Rome from the Saracens. No one can tell whether the doubt
expressed by Adrian, as to the sincerity of Lothair's conversion, was well
grounded or not ; but it is at least certain that the latter died forty days
afterwards, and that his death appeared to be a judgment from Heaven.
The legates of John VIII., the successor of Adrian, allowed themselves
L L

258 THE POPES.

to be intimidated and corrupted by Photius. Deceived by their false
representations, John VIII. at first approved of what they had done ; but
when he learnt the truth he publicly excommunicated at Rome both Photius
and the cowardly legates who had betrayed their trust in order to curry favour
with this impostor (880). John VIII. was the first pope, since the faU of
the Roman Empire, who had to decide between two competitors for the
Imperial crown. He declared, that as the empire had been conferred upon
Charlemagne by the grace of God and the authority of the pope, he trans
ferred it to the King of the Franks, Charles the Bald.
For a century and a half the factions of powerful Italian famUies and the
arbitrary will of the emperors interfered with the free election of the popes,
whence arose great scandals, and many unworthy persons were elevated to*
the pontificate. On several occasions the rivalry of parties led to the creation ;
of anti-popes, and at one time there were as many as three claimants to the
Holy See. It is little short of miraculous that the papacy should have kept
its place against so many causes tending to its ruin. At last, in 1049, the
Romans having sent to the Emperor Henry III., asking him to appoint a
successor to the pope who had just died, that monarch assembled the bishops
and grandees of the empire at Worms, and upon their advice selected
Bruno, Bishop of Toul.
Before repairing to Bome, Bruno went to consult Hildebrand, the monk
of Cluny, whose reputation for virtue and ability stood very high. The latter
received him very cordially, but pointed out to him the impropriety of a lay
election, and persuaded him to exchange the pontifical gown for that of the
pilgrim, until the people and clergy of Rome should have freely elected him.
Bruno entered Rome barefooted, and thus replied to the applause of
those who had gone to meet him : " The choice of the people and the clergy,
supported as they are by the authority of the canons, overrides aU other
nominations ; I am therefore ready to return to my country if my election
is not approved by all your suffrages." By Hildebrand's advice, the ancient
customs were observed. Bruno took the name of Leo IX. ; he was conse
crated on the 2nd of February, and enthroned ten days later. Thus did the
Roman Court proclaim that the emperors and princes did not possess absolute
power over the election of the pontiffs, and the right of election, after having
been thus restored to the people and the clergy, was subsequently vested in
the cardinals.

THE POPES. 259

With a view to reforming the morals of the ecclesiastics, to re-estabHshing
discipline and the liturgy, and to combat false doctrines and heresies, Leo IX.
held a vast number of councils, some at Rome, some at Vercelli, and others at
Paris ; he travelled all through France, Germany, and Italy, taking note of
all the abuses which he discovered, and showing himself determined to
correct them. Thanks to imperial munificence, he had increased very
considerably the pontifical power. Carried away by his zeal, he accompanied
the troops sent him by the emperor against the Normans who were
devastating Italy. His soldiers were defeated, and he himself was taken
prisoner ; but the Normans did homage to their captive, and begged him to
accept the homage of aU their possessions in Italy, so that Leo IX. actuaUy
obtained advantages greater than ever he could have expected. The nomina
tion of his successor no longer came within the province of the emperor, and
the iUustrious Hildebrand, who was at that time almost supreme in the Roman
Church, directed the election under the canonical form of four successive popes,
who required neither the approbation nor the support of the holy empire.
The last of them, Alexander IL, died in 1072, after having reigned nine years,
and the bishops were deliberating on the choice of a new pontiff, when a
voice was suddenly raised from amongst the people, " Hildebrand for pope,
St. Peter has chosen him." This was as the voice of God, and Hildebrand,
who had been pope de facto for so many years, was enthroned under the title
of Gregory VII. His first care was to arrange at a council the affairs of Italy
and of France, and to contract aUiances with Spain, Hungary, and various
German principalities. He judged himself strong enough to undertake this
severe and unwearied struggle, which he kept up throughout the whole of
his reign, in the interests of the Church, against the sovereigns of Europe.
He wished to obtain recognition of the independence of the Holy See, to dis
possess the abbots and prelates who had been guilty of simony, reprimanding
at the same time the emperors and kings who had trafficked in ecclesiastical
dignities. He desired also to reform the loose morahty of the clerks, at the
same time that he condemned the careless indifference of the episcopate. He
first attacked the Emperor Henry IV., he then threatened Philip I. with ex
communication if he did not mend his ways ; he launched an anathema against
five of the principal members of the imperial household, and afterwards
summoned the monarch himself to appear in person before a synod, to render
account of what he had done. Henry IV., victorious over the Saxons, and

260

THE POPES.

irritated at the pope's audacity, convoked a diet at Worms for the purpose of
deposing him, and dismissed the legates whom he had sent. During this time
a conspiracy was being hatched at Rome against the pope, the promoters
of which were Cencius, prefect of the city, and Guibert, Archbishop of
Ravenna. It was brought to issue upon the night of Christmas, 1075.

j.un
CO

Fig. 210.— Portrait of the great Countess Matilda. — From a Miniature in a contemporary poem of
which she was the heroine (Manuscript No. 4,922 in the Vatican Library).
Gregory, wounded in the forehead while he was Celebrating mass in the
basilica of St. Peter, was carried prisoner from the altar into one of the
towers; from which he was almost at once delivered by the people, and
brought back to the altar to terminate the service. The pope showed great
clemency towards the conspirators. Six weeks afterwards the Diet of Worms
pronounced his deposition, and the bishops gave in their solemn adherence to

THE POPES. 261

the decree. Gregory VIL, nowise cast down or discouraged, anathematized
the emperor at a council held in Rome ; and then, addressing himself
to the whole Christian world, he entreated it to join him in the defence of
their outraged religion. The most distinguished women of Europe — at the
head of whom was Matilda, princess of Tuscany (Fig. 210), widow of Godfrey
the Humpbacked — declared themselves openly for the pope, in whosp favour
a sudden reaction took place. Feudal Germany deserted the cat !+' th*
emperor, who was compelled to withdraw to Spires until a diet, convoked to
meet at Augsburg, should decide as to the respective complaints of the two
sovereigns. But the emperor, impatient to get rid of the sentence of
excommunication which had been passed against him, went to meet the pope
on his way to Augsburg with the Countess Matilda. This illustrious lady
interposed to effect a reconciliation between the two rivals, who had an
interview in the fortress of Canossa, near Reggio, when the emperor, in
order to obtain his pardon, submitted to the humiliation of going on his
knees to the pope to ask for it (1077). It was then that the Countess
MatUda bequeathed aU her patrimonial domains and aU her personal
property to the Church and to the Court of Rome. The unhappy
Henry, ashamed of the penance which he had been made to undergo,
peremptorily separated himself from the papal communion. Council after
council was convoked, and in the space of two years Gregory had convoked
no less than seven for discussing the general affairs of the Church. He had
not omitted to secure for himself allies, while the emperor was confronted in
Germany by enemies who were attempting to wrest from him the imperial
crown. Henry IV. succeeded in defeating them, and then turnr ' Ap
encounter Gregory, against whom he had set up an anti-pope. Aft. i&g|<
victories of Fladeheim and Marburg he crossed the Alps, crushed the /pafl.
army, and threatened Rome, where Gregory, inflexible as ever, had assemble*.
an eighth council, which excommunicated the emperor afresh. The invest
ment of the city had lasted three years when the emperor, by the sacrifice of
a vast sum of money, caused the gates of the town to be opened to him ; and
though Gregory attempted a last effort to assemble a fresh council, Henry
was already inside with his anti-pope, whom he had crowned under the title
of Clement III. The intrepid Gregory, immured in the Castle of St. Angelo,
held out untU the old Norman knight Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia,
came to his deliverance. He then convoked a tenth councU, which once

262 THE POPES.

more excommunicated the emperor, the anti-pope, and their numerous
adherents. Before the emperor could return to Rome for the fifth time,
Duke Robert Guiscard deemed it prudent to return to Apulia with the pope,
whose death occurred at Salerno shortly afterwards (May 25th, 1085).
Gregory possessed too much foresight not to have thought of naming
an heir capable of pursuing his vast designs. Amongst those whom he had
named, Danfier, Abbot of Monte- Cassino, was ultimately selected, and, though
it was not without hesitation that he accepted so heavy a burden, he was
made pope with the title of Victor III. The new pontiff came to Rome,
and occupied with his troops the Faubourg of Transtevere and the Castle
of St. Angelo, while the anti-pope Clement III. held the other bank of the
Tiber. This state of things could not, however, be of long duration. Victor,
overcome with grief, died soon after at Monte-Cassino, and was succeeded by
Eudes de ChatiUon, who took the name of Urban II. (1087). Of French origin,
and brought up in the MetropoHtan Cathedral of Rheims, he had for twenty-
eight years been prior of the famous abbey of Cluny. It was there that
Gregory, whose unbounded confidence he had enjoyed, first knew him, and,
under these circumstances, he naturally wished to continue the pohcy of that
pontiff. But the Emperor Henry IV. frustrated this project by suddenly
invading Italy, capturing Rome, and setting up a new anti-pope, Guibert, to
rule in the Holy City, under the protection of the German soldiery. Urban,
forced to abandon the Castle of St. Angelo, which was besieged by the
imperial troops, transported his seat of government to Benevento, where he
displayed more resolution than before, crowning Conrad, son of the emperor,
King of the Romans, after getting him to abjure the schism, and excom-
iruiricating Phihp I., who had sent away his wife in order to marry his
cojncubine. After this, he returned to Rome in time to celebrate the
Christmas services. He expelled the anti-pope, Guibert, and his foUowers,
recovered the independence of the tiara, and assembled at Placentia, amidst
the schismatical Lombards, a council which was attended by two hundred
prelates, four thousand clerks, and thirty thousand laymen. This was an
imposing protest on behalf of the peace of the Church, to which the presence
of delegates from the Empires of Germany and the East, and from the
Kings of France and England, lent additional significance. Urban went,
in the course of the same year, to Clermont, in Auvergne (Fig. 211), to
preside, under the auspices of PhiHp I., over another councU, at which the

THE POPES. 2b3

first crusade (1095), preached by him throughout France, was decided
upon; he afterwards returned in triumph to Rome (1096), happy in the
thought that he had realised the wishes of Gregory, who first conceived the
idea of the Holy War.
The Council of Rome, at which the sovereign right of the Church to
confer the investiture of ecclesiastical dignities was proclaimed, marked the
close of his reign. He died in 1099, upon the eve of that century of strife
and confusion over which his spirit and that of Gregory VII., as well as of
several other popes and learned doctors who had come from Cluny, were
destined, as it were, to hover, for the investiture quarrel was far from
being settled. Pascal II. imitated the firmness of his predecessors, and the
King of France gave way; but the Emperor Henry V., in spite of the
formal engagements entered into by his father, revived his claim to
appoint the bishops and the abbots, and to induct them into their charge.
After entering Rome with his troops, and after having given the pope the
kiss of peace, he had him arrested, together with several of his cardinals,
and, by means of a long captivity, by threats, and by violence, he induced
him to issue a buU, in which the pontiff acknowledged the emperor's right to
annul the canonical elections of bishops and abbots, and Hkewise promised
not to excommunicate him for the future. Pascal II. had no sooner
regained his liberty than he convoked a council at Rome, at which he
confessed that he had faUed in his duty, whereupon the council, with his
consent, condemned afresh the ecclesiastical investitures conferred by the
civU power. Another council, held in France, excommunicated the emperor,
who succeeded in taking Rome. Pascal being dead, Gelasius II. had to take
refuge at Cluny, and Henry V. appointed an anti-pope, who assumed the title
of Gregory VIII.
At the death of Gelasius IL, the cardinals who had foUowed him into
France elected as his successor a Frenchman — Calixtus IL, to whom
belongs the renown of having put an end to the quarrel as to investiture.
The emperor, finding that the irritation of the Germans, weary of his
despotism, was growing perilous to his throne, convoked a diet at Wiirtz-
burg, when it was decided by him and the princes of the empire that
ambassadors should be sent to negotiate with the pope, who had returned* to
Rome amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants.
According to the Concordat drawn up and adopted by Henry V. at the

264

THE POPES.

Fig. 212. — Public and Solemn Functions of the Sovereign-Pontiff. — From a Eoman Engraving of
the Seventeenth Century.
1. Solemn mass celebrated in St. Peter's by the Pope. — 2. Celebration of the sacred services in whieh
the Pope takes part, especially those of the Sundays in Advent and Lent. — 3. Coronation of
the Sovereign-Pontiff at St. John of Lateran. — i. The newly-elected Pope seated upon the
altar of the Clementine Chapel and receiving the homage of the cardinals. — 5. Solemn benedic
tion which the Pope gives to the people. — 6. Tribute of the white horse, formerly paid to
the Pope each year on St. Peter's-day by the King of Naples in token of his vassalship.—
7. Solemn cavalcade of the Pope upon his first journey from St. Peter's to the Lateran
Church. — 8. Public consistory for the reception of the ambassadors. — 9. The Pope carrying
the Holy Sacrament in the procession of the Fete-Dieu. — 10. Opening of the holy gate by
the Pope, for the twenty-five years' jubilee. — 11. Solemn procession on the days when the
Pope, clad in the sacred decorations, goes to the Basilica of St. Peter to celebrate mass.

THE POPES. 265

Diet of Worms, the emperor finally renounced his claim to investiture by
the ring and the orozigr, which were symbols of ecclesiastical dignity ; he
acknowledged the right of the dioceses and abbeys to elect their bishops and
abbots, and the investiture of the elected dignitaries into their domains
was to be conferred by the emperor, in Germany, before their consecra
tion, and in the kingdoms of Italy and Burgundy after it. This Concordat
was confirmed at the oecumenical council which Calixtus II. assembled at
Rome in 1125.
We have dwelt at some length upon these matters, but it was necessary
in order to show what was the action of the popes in the Middle Ages, and
it was at this point that their influence reached its apogee. The two
conceptions of Gregory VII. had been realised : in accordance with the
idea generally received at that time, the kings or emperors, in the eyes
of the people, only possessed authority as long as they were orthodox, and
obstinacy, under the ban of excommunication, amounted to heresy ; hence
the pope was regarded as the supreme chief of the Christian republic, and
was entrusted with the duty of making princes respect morality, the faith,
the rights of the Church, and the rights of the people. The election of the
head of the Church had, therefore, to be free from the influence of the
temporal power, since that head would be called upon to be its judge. This
was the point which Hildebrand caused to be recognised in respect to the
election of the popes, beginning with Leo IX. ; and the perseverance of
his successors got the principle extended to that of the bishops, during the
reign of Calixtus II.
The second object which Gregory VII. had in view, was the preservation
of Christian civilisation from the Mussulman yoke, by carrying the war
into the East ; and the Crusades realised this great design. We may now
sketch in a few lines the part played by the popes during the last centuries
of the Middle Ages.
The great Roman families, anxious to obtain power, elected an anti-pope.
By means of these agitations, Arnold of Brescia, under the pretext of
creating a Roman republic, established a kind of dictatorship in the city.
The emperor overthrew this usurper, who was burnt alive ; but he set up
anti-popes, and Alexander III., when besieged in Rome, declared himself
the ally of the Lombard cities, the chief of the Guelfs against the Ghibelins,
and the champion of Italian liberty. Under his pontificate, it was ordained
M M

z66

THE POPES.

(at the third Council of the Lateran, in 1179) that, for the. future, the
cardinals alone should take part in the election for the pontiff, without

Fig. 213. — Gregory IX. (1227—1241) handing the Decretals, which he had embodied in one work,
to an advocate of the Consistory. — Fresco by Raphael (1515), in the Stanzas at the Vatican.
the intervention of the clergy or the people. The Crusades occupied men s
minds during the last twenty years of the twelfth century. The thirteenth
began with one of the most celebrated of the popes, Innocent III., who,

THE POPES. 267

foUowing in the footsteps of Gregory VII., made emperors and kings
to tremble by his threats of excommunication, and preached the crusade
against the infidels and the Albigenses. His two successors, Honorius III.
and Gregory IX., imitated his zeal and resolution. Gregory IX., amidst
the multifarious cares of his holy office, found time to draw up a new
coUection of his own letters and constitutions, and those of his predecessors.
He confided this heavy task, which was carried out with remarkable skill
and order, to Raymundus de Pennaforti, his chaplain. This collection, which
was received with respectful gratitude, has since been called the Decretals
(Fig. 213).
, After these three eminent popes, sedition broke out afresh inside Rome.
The Holy See was vacant for a long period more than once during the
latter part of this century, as the cardinals could not agree in their choice ;
and in consequence it Was decided that the election should take place in con
clave. After a numerous series of popes, who occupied the chair for only a
short time, Boniface VIII. (Fig. 218) endeavoured to march in the footsteps of
Gregory VII. and Innocent III. Philippe le Bel, anxious to destroy all traces
of the feudal regime in order to obtain absolute power, would not submit to
the reprimands and menaces of the pope, and it is well known how he caused
the pontiff to be seized, at Anagni by Nogaret. The aged pontiff, whom
nothing could move, was set free by the people, who expelled Nogaret and his
soldiers ; but the rough treatment he had received hastened his death.
PhiHppe le Bel, who saw how seriously he had compromised himself,
profited by the dissensions which arose between the Guelfs and the
GhibeHns at the conclave to ensure the election of a Frenchman, Bertrand
de Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux, who took the title of Clement V., and
immediately came to reside in France, The prestige of the papacy was
diminished by this selection of Avignon as a place of residence, for the
Italians came to look upon themselves as being enfeoffed to the French
kingdom. Rome and the Pontifical States fell into a condition of .complete
anarchy, and a man of enterprise, Rienzi, endeavoured to re-establish the
ancient republic. ; The cardinals, nearly all of whom were Frenchmen, always
nominated popes of their own nationaHty. One of them — Gregory XI. —
who had come to Rome for a short visit, died there in 1377. The people
then induced the cardinals by threats to select a pope of Italian birth, and
their chbice fell upon the Archbishop of Bari, who took the title of Urban VI.

268

THE POPES.

The cardinals who were at Avignon when the election took place, at first
recognised it as valid, but when he manifested his intention of remaining at
Rome, they declared it to be irregular, and chose Cardinal Robert of Geneva,
formerly bishop of Cambrai, who took the title of Clement VII., and the
Christian world was divided between the two popes. Each had several suc
cessors, and this long schism proved the termination of the Christian republic
which had been the work of the Middle Ages. At last, the General Council of
Constance, convoked by one of the anti-popes, but confirmed by Gregory XII,

Fig. 214. — Solemn entry of the Emperor Charles V. and Pope Clement VII. into Bologna, Novem
ber 5th, 1529. The persons at the head of the cortege are the great dignitaries of the Church,
the first bearing the pastoral staff, the second the pontifical tiara, and the two others golden
candelabra. The taper-bearers precede the Holy Sacrament. (See next engraving.)

received that pontiff's resignation, and Cardinal Otho Colonna, a man of great
piety and zeal, elected by a unanimous vote, assumed the government of
the Church under the name of Martin V. He shortly afterwards repaired
to Rome, where he was received with enthusiasm ; and his presence brought
back the prosperity and prestige of the Holy City. Notwithstanding, one
of the anti-popes, with a following of two cardinals, still had a successor
who was recognised by the kingdoms of Aragon, Valentia, and Sicily ; but
he finally complied with the wishes of Christendom, and his abdication in
1429 put an end to the schism which had lasted for half a century.
Ten years after this, during the reign of the same pontiff (Martin V.),

THE POPES.

269

another and an older schism seemed to all appearance extinguished at the
Council of Florence, in which the Emperor of the East and the patriarchs of
his Church were present. After grave deHberation, the Greeks drew up an
orthodox profession of faith, and, by the complete submission of the Eastern
Church to her Roman sister, union was restored in 1439. But the emperor
and his patriarchs found upon their return that this was so deeply resented
by the Greek people, that they gave way to popular clamour and withdrew

(Remainder of Fig. 214.) — The Holy Sacrament, borne upon the back of a white horse, is
escorted by the patricians and doctors of Bologna. The Pope's sacristan marches alone in
the rear of the dais, and this part of the cortege is brought up by a group of princes, dukes,
and counts. — Drawn and engraved on brass by John Hogenberg : in the Collection of
M. Ruggieri, Paris.
from their formal engagements, the schism thus becoming wider than ever.
The ruin of the Eastern empire followed very closely upon this decision.
The fall of Constantinople into the hands of the Turks indicated only
too plainly the danger with which Europe was menaced, and the popes
endeavoured to impress it upon the kings and their subjects. Pius IL,
who had distinguished himself by his erudition and his writings, was
considered to be the most talented man of his day, and in a council held at
Mantua in 1459 did his utmost to hurry on the preparations for the crusade.
After five years' hard work, he collected a fleet at Ancona, and was about to

2 7o THE POPES.

set sail, when he was struck down by a mortal illness. His successors
continued the work which he had begun; but, though the Christians
obtained successes over the Turks which promised well for the undertaking,
their compatriots failed to respond to the appeals of the pope, who saw that
Italy was seriously threatened with invasion. It was under these critical
circumstances that the choice of the cardinals feU upon a man of extraordi
nary energy, Roderick Borgia, who took the name of Alexander VI. He
was charged with crimes which ought to have been laid at the door of
members of his family, and he struggled against the oppressive spoliation to
which the great Roman families had subjected the city, setting courageously
to work in order to reconstitute the temporal power of the Holy See.
Pius III., chosen as his successor, died a month after he was elected.
The Cardinal of Rovero was then nominated unanimously, and took the
title of Julius II. In pursuance of the idea of ItaHan independence, this
warlike pontiff carried on an obstinate struggle against Louis XII., with the
view of retaking several towns of Italy which had once belonged to the
States of the Church. Unintimidated either by the armies of Louis XII., or
by the threats of the councils convoked under the protectorate of the King
of France and the Emperor of Germany, he himself assembled a council at
Rome, and this inflexible old man, after having brought about wise
measures of reform which all Europe applauded, cited the king and the
members of his parliament to come and answer for their revolt against the
Holy See. But Julius IL, worn out by his exertions, died in 1513. His
successor, Leo X., who had effected a reconciliation with Louis XII., was
obliged to head the Italian league against Franois I. .An understanding
had been brought about after the battle of Marignano, and the Pragmatic
Sanction, which had been the pretext of so many disputes since the days
of Philippe le Bel, was given up and replaced by a concordat concluded in
1516 between France and the Holy See. Leo X., continuing the Italian
policy of his predecessor, also kept in view the idea of a crusade against the
Turks ; but this great work of the papacy was only realised half-a-century
later under the pontificate of Pius V. The faithful were aroused by his
voice ; Cyprus had fallen into the hands of the Mussulmans, and the whole
of Europe was in imminent peril. The cost of the expedition was divided
between the King of Spain, Venice, and the pope ; fifty thousand infantry and
four thousand cavalry were got together, and the command of the fleet was

J.FESPUET

Fig. 216. — A Sitting of the Council of Trent in 1555. — From a Painting by Titian, in the Louvre (Sixteenth Century).

HUKOT.

[To face page 270.

THE POPES.

271

given to Don John of Austria. It encountered the Turkish fleet, which con
sisted of two hundred and twenty-four vessels, in the Gulf of Lepanto, on
October 7th, 1571. The infidels were annihilated, losing twenty-five thou
sand men and ten thousand prisoners, while fifteen thousand Christians whom
they had chained to their galleys were set at liberty (Fig. 215). Catholic

Fig. 215. — Iron shield presented to Don John of Austria by Pius V., in recognition of his services
to Christendom by the victory at Lepanto (1571), with an inscription signifying, " Christ has
won the victory; it is He who reigns and governs." — From the "Armeria Real" (Madrid),
published by M. Ach. Jubinal.
Europe breathed once more, and in its gratitude attributed this prodigious
victory to the protection of the Virgin, to whom the faithful told their beads
at the hour at which the battle took place, and the memory of this event was
perpetuated by a yearly fete on the first Sunday in October.
Led away from our subject in order to relate an account of the struggle
against the then indomitable Islam power, we omitted to mention another

272

THE POPES.

Fig. 217. — The Triumph of Christ. — From an Engraving of the early part of the Seventeenth
Century, reproduced from a composition attributed to Titian.

Veulx soustemr ma mailresse et ma dame
Ti^e d honneur, belle de corps el de ame.
Car des 1'mstant de sa prime iacture
Elle a este et telle la reclame
Pure en concept oultre loy de nature.
¦t •¦ ,r , (Chan|s To-yauX' of maistre Jelinn Marol.l
TWO CHEVALIERS HOLDING AN ARGUMENT ABOUT THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.
Miniature from the Chants royatix of maitre Jehan Marot; ms. of the xvi"1 century.
In the Bibl. Nat. (Paris).
In a tournament commanded by the Emperor, the two chevaliers encounter each other. The champion of the doctrine of Immaculate
Conception unhorses his adversary with a thrust of his lance and compels him to confess his error.

Lorstme an palais de la cite de Basle
L'empereur tint cour ouvertc et planyere,
Un homme arme vint arriveren salle
L'espce au poing, parlant en tel maniere:
Lechevalierje suis aux grises armes,
->> 'V' u'cl Noble Cucur, <rui conlrc tons gens d'armes

THE POPES. 273

event which was the second greatest achievement of the popes in the sixteenth
century, namely, the Council of Trent (Fig. 216). The progress made by
Protestantism led to the convocation of a general council, which was to pro
nounce as to all the disputed points of doctrine, and to effect the indispensable
and long-looked-for reforms in ecclesiastical discipline. The town of Trent
was selected as the place of meeting, because its situation between Italy and
Germany made it so easy of access for those who were expected to attend.
Although the holding of this council was mutually agreed on by Pope Paul III.
and the Emperor Charles V., in concert with the other Christian princes, the
opening was deferred until 1545, and it lasted with frequent adjournments
until 1563, when Pius IV. was pope. No council ever dealt with so many
topics, both of dogma and of discipline. The abuses which had been pointed
out by many Catholic divines were abolished even before the Protestants
could draw attention to them. The catalogue of holy books which were
received as canonical was inserted in one of the first decrees of the council ;
and it was there declared, that the interpretation of these sacred works
should be given by the Church, to whom alone it belonged to decide what was
the true meaning of Scripture. The questions at issue were then gone into
minutely ; original sin, the justification of the sinner, the seven sacraments,
the mass, purgatory, indulgences, the worship of saints, &c. The twenty-fifth
and last session was held on the 3rd of December, 1563. But the hopes of
conciliation to which this assembly gave rise were not realised, and the
Protestant Churches rejected the decisions of the Fathers of the Council of
Trent, whose authority they refused to recognise. The unity of the Chris
tian republic, which had been the work of the Middle Ages, was destroyed,
and a new era brought with it new duties for the head of the Catholic Church.

mmmmW 

TBB1B ilifP

Fig. 218.— Leaden Bull with which Pope Boniface VIII. sealed his letters ; on it are seen the
names of Boniface VIII., and of St. Peter and St. Paul, with their effigies (Thirteenth
Century). — French National Archives.
N N

THE SECULAE CLERGY.

W*%

The Minor and the Major Orders in the Early Centuries of the Church. — Establishment of Tithes
originally voluntary, and afterwards obligatory. — Influence of the Bishops. — Supremacy of
the See of Rome. — Form of Episcopal Oath in the Early Centuries. — Reform of Abuses bj
the Councils. — Remarkable Sayings of Charlemagne and Hincmar. — Public Education created
by the Church. — The Establishment of the Communes favoured by the Bishops.— The Beau
mont Law.— Struggle with the Bourgeoisie in the Fifteenth Century. — The Council of Trent.
— Institution of Seminaries.

EAR the close of the ninth century,.
Anastasius the Librarian wrote, at ;
Rome, an Ecclesiastical History, from:
which we learn that the hierarchical;
order of the functionaries in the primi- -
tive Church was composed as foUows:
the doorkeeper (Fig. 220), the reader,
the exorcist (Fig. 221), the acolyte,
the sub-deacon, the keeper of the con
fessions of the martyrs, the deacon,
the priest, the bishop. To these were
afterwards added the chanters or
psalmists, entitled confessors, because
their function was to confess the
name of God by celebrating His
praises. The interpreter-linguists, the copyists, and the notaries, who
figure in the Greek as well as in the Roman Church down to the fourth or
fifth century, ranked with the order of confessors and that of clerks.
In the early days of Christianity the bishop in each diocese consecrated
to the service of religion, after the manner of St. Paul, those who were
represented to him as being the most worthy, or whom he himself deemed
fitting. The aspirant to the major orders sometimes rose very slowly, however

l. 219. — The Chanter or Psalmist, Minor
Order. — G-. Durand's " Rationale."

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

275

meritorious he might be ; thus Latinus, Bishop of Brescia, who died
towards the close of the third century, had been, as his epitaph recorded,
simple exorcist for twelve years, priest for fifteen, and bishop for three years
and seven months. There were, however, some rapid and almost immediate
promotions, called per saltum, because they jumped, as it were, from one grade
to another ; but these were made under exceptional circumstances.
At first the Christians had not any clergymen, properly so called ;
priests, however, ministered in each locality, for we read that St. Paul
appointed Titus "to ordain elders in every city" (Titus i. 5). But in

Fig. 220. — The Doorkeeper, Minor Order.

Fig. 221.— Tbe Exorcist, Minor Order.

Miniature from the " Rationale Divinorum Officiorum " of William Durand (Manuscript of the
Fourteenth Century), in tbe Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

most cases, during the first centuries, the bishop alone ministered in his
episcopal city, particularly in the East (Fig. 222).
• After the fourth century we find that, in the East as at Rome, there were
other churches in the large towns besides the cathedral ; the functions of the
clergymen, or cardinals, who ministered in them were confined to giving the
people religious instruction, and to keep the bishop informed of everything
relating to the government of the church. Down to the fifth century, the
administration of the sacraments and the celebration of the holy communion
took place in the cathedral only. Pope St. Marcellus founded, in the fourth
century, twenty-five titles or parishes in Rome, in order to afford greater

276

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

facilities for the preparatory instruction by which the sacraments of baptism
and penance were preceded. But in the fifth century, when the cathedrals

/%  ;  ;
§1 ;

k

Fig. 222. — The Good Shepherd, whose head appears as if crowned with seven stars, carrying the
lost Bheep upon his shoulders ; around him are collected the seven faithful sheep. On one
side Jonah is being vomited out by the great fish ; on the other he is lying beneath the gourd;
above him are the dove and Noah's Ark. The old man with a crown, with his hand raised
above the clouds, and the woman with a crescent on the forehead, personify the sun and the
moon. — Funereal lamp in baked clay of tbe Third Century, found in the Catacombs. In the
Christian Museum of tbe Vatican.
were found too small to hold all the congregation, it became the custom
to distribute, in the titles or parishes of the city, the holy eucharist

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

'¦11

which the bishop sent by the hands of deacons to the titulary clergy.
The bishops also delegated to their clergy the power of receiving the
reconciliation of the penitents in cases of necessity, of admitting heretics
in danger of death (but only in the bishop's absence), and of pronouncing
excommunications in their parishes, by virtue of a sentence delivered
by the bishop. The clergyman also visited the sick, administered the
sacrament of extreme 'unction, blessed the private dwelling-places, and
himself selected the staff for his church. At last, in the sixth century,

Fig. 223. — The celebration of Mass in an Oratory. — Fac-simile of a Miniature in a Manuscript of
the Ninth Century, from an Engraving belonging to M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.
clergymen celebrated, in the quarters or titles wherein they ministered, the
entire liturgy of the holy communion, and from the seventh century they
were empowered to diminish or to increase, as they thought proper, in accord
ance with the revenues of the parish, the number of the clerks, choristers,
and the various subordinate officers. In compliance with the wishes of the
faithful, the bishop would often authorise the clergy to celebrate two masses
upon the same day, one to take place of necessity in the parish church,
the other perhaps in some oratory attached to the parish (Fig. 223).
Independently of the offerings made by the faithful, the churches, which
already possessed landed property, after the conversion of Constantine found
their domains increasing in value. The barbarian chiefs who became converts

278 THE SECULAR CLERGY.
to Christianity outrivalled each other in their liberality towards the clergy/
Tithes, the regular payment of which was only proposed towards the close
of the fifth century, were soon made compulsory, more especially in the
countries subject to the Franks. It is incorrect that tithes were not made
obligatory until the time of Charlemagne ; all he did was to ensure their
coUection, and impose them upon the newly- converted under threat of
excommunication. In conformity with a decree issued by Pope Gelasius,
he ordained that the produce of the tithe should be equally divided amongst
the bishop, the priests, the fabrics in each diocese, and the poor — -that is to
say, the hospitals. These establishments were administered and provided
with religious services by the charity of the clergy ; thus the increase of
ecclesiastical wealth turned to the profit of the needy.
By the name of presbyters (from a Greek word equivalent to the
Latin words seniores, sages, and sacerdotes, sacred men) were designated the
functionaries who stood in the second rank of the ecclesiastical hierarchy.
From this term was afterwards derived that of priest. At first there was
no fixed age for admission to the priesthood ; but at the end of the fourth
century Pope St. Syricius decided that a clerk, promoted to be a deacon at
thirty, should not become a priest for at least five years.
The Emperor Justinian prohibited a deacon from being promoted to the
priesthood until he had attained the age of thirty-five ; but in Gaul, Spain,
and Germany the minimum age was thirty, and as soon as the people had
given their sanction to the ordination of a deacon, the election took place.
The functions of deacons are from the first clearly indicated by what they
did, for in the first century Philip, one of the seven deacon-cardinals chosen
by the Apostles, preached the Gospel and baptized. At the end of the third
century we find in Spain that St. Vincent, only a deacon, took Bishop
Valerian's place when he felt himself unable to minister the word. Moreover,
St. Stephen, the first of the deacons and martyrs, was also preaching, within
a few months of the death of Jesus Christ, when he was dragged from the
sanctuary to be stoned. The deacons, therefore, performed liturgical func
tions, but their ordinary duty was to preside at the tables of the Christian
communion. The tumular epigraph on the catacombs of Rome exhibits a curious
hst of the various special duties allotted to the priests as well as to
the deacons, besides the service of the altar : here we find a priest doctor ;

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

279

a priest guardian, overseer, possibly our inn or lodging-keeper (mansionarius) ;
again, we find a deacon archivist, or keeper of the archives (scrinarius), a priest
schoolmaster (magister ludi), &c.
In the first three centuries of the Church, holy orders
were conferred not only in the, basilicas and in the cata
combs, but also in private oratories ; some few recluses were
even ordained in their own cells. From the reign of Con
stantine, it was decided
by the councils that the
laying on of hands upon
the clerks to raise them
to deacons, or upon dea
cons to raise them to the
priesthood, should always
take place in public (co
ram populo) and at fixed
periods. The epoch chosen
was at first the calends of
December, afterwards ex
tended to each of the four
seasons. The iconography of the
officers of the sanctuary
nearly always represents
the bishop as seated upon
an elevated chair, laying hands upon clerks of a gradually
descending order ; the priest raising his arms and spreading
them out to give the benediction ; the ^leacon, bearing a
cross or a book of the Gospels, or perhaps both, as he is
portrayed in an ancient mosaic in St. Lawrence-without-
the-walls, at Rome. It must also be noted that the deacons
and the priests, as well as the clerks of a lower order, are
represented as beardless and with short-cut hair.
In the sixth century, the tonsure, or clerical crown, was universally
adopted by the Church. It was a mark of dignity which distinguished
the clerks from the monks and the rest of the faithful ; laymen wore their

ig. 224. — The Ecclesiastical Tonsure. —
Miniature from the "Rationale Divi-
norum Officiorum" of "William Durand
(Manuscript of theFourteenth Century),
Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

hair more or less long with a proportionate amount of beard, and the monks
cut their hair almost as close as if shorn.
The primitive Church had created the office of acolyte, whose duty
consisted in accompanying the bishops, the priests, and even the deacons.
Under the pontificate of Cornelius (251), there were forty-two of these
assistants. The Eastern Church also had its acolytes, but did not accord
them the importance which they had in the city of the popes, where
they formed three classes : the palatines, who assisted the sovereign
pontiff in the basilica of the Lateran ; the stationaries, who aided him
in the churches where the stations took place ; the regionaries, who assisted
the deacons in each of the regions or parishes.
The pohtical power of the bishops was founded in Gaul at the beginning
of the sixth century (Fig. 225), and down to the end of the first dynasty
they were the real organizers of the French monarchy. Converted to
Christianity after the battle of Tolbiac, and baptized by St. Remigius,
Clovis became the protector of the Gallo-Roman Church. The clergy then
enjoyed a legitimate influence, as is justly remarked by a grave historian :
" The barbarians, accustomed to carry all before them by the weight of arms,
could not be subdued by a force or civUised by a literature which they
despised or failed to understand ; but the clergy, surrounded by that pomp
which has so great an influence over uncultivated imaginations, combated
them with simple and plain doctrines, with a vigorous and united hierarchy,
and with a faith which, needing no subtle reasonings, imposes only the duty
of beUef, and leans for support upon a morality the sanctity of which they
could not but feel, even while violating it. Was it not most fortunate that
there should have been an order capable of arresting the universal disorder ?
Unarmed priests mingled with these savage hordes and inspired them, by
means of baptism, with some notions of humanity ; they taught them to hold
their hands, showing them that they whom they were about to strike was a
brother. " The bishops carried out, with as much dignity as benevolence, their
sublime mission of sympathizing with the people and those who were
oppressed ; having a paternal solicitude for their flock, they placed them
selves face to face with conquerors, whom they knew how to pacify and to
conciliate. The veneration with which they were surrounded and the
holiness of their lives earned them the respect even of Attila and Genseric,

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

They were entrusted with the embassies, and they administered in the room
of magistrates, whose power had been crushed. Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia,
was sent to the Burgundian kings Gundibald and GodegesU, to procure
the release of a number of Italian prisoners, whom he brought back with

Bib,

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lllftt1mmm
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Fig. 225. — The Legend of St. Martin. — From a piece of tapestry of the Thirteenth Century, in
the Louvre (No. 1117). — 1. St. Martin sharing his cloak with a poor man. — 2. He sees in a
dream Jesus Christ clad with this half of his cloak. — 3. The saint's baptism, the priest
sprinkling him with water, and Gtod blessing him. — i. He brings to life a catechumen, who
had died without being baptized, in his monastery at Liguge, near Poitiers. — 5. At the same
place he recalls to life a slave, who is first represented as hung from a gibbet, and afterwards
standing on the ground and giving him thanks. — 6. St. Martin consecrated Bishop of Tours
in 371. — 7. He evokes the spectre of a pretended martyr, held in veneration about Tours, and
when it appears and avows that it had been executed for its crimes, the chapel is demolished.
— 8. He gives his tunic to a poor man. — 9. He brings to life the son of a peasant in a heathen
village near Chartres. — 10. He drives out the evil spirit from the body of a mad cow. —
11. Seeing on the banks of a river some birds watching to catch fish, he bids them fly away,
saying, " Here we see the type of the enemies of our salvation, always on the watch to seize
our souls." — 12. Death of St. Martin. His soul, in the form of a child, is being borne off to
heaven by two angels.

him in triumph. When the Ligurians were ravaged by the incursions of the
Transalpines, the king remitted, at the prayer of the bishop, one-third of
the indemnity. St. Caesarius, Bishop of Aries, sold the patens and chalices

o o

282 THE SECULAR CLERGY.
to ransom the prisoners. Euspicius, Bishop of Sergiopolis, upon the
Euphrates, paid Chosroes for the ransom of twelve thousand prisoners.
St. Germain, Bishop of Paris, gave away even his own tunic by way of
charity; 'so that,' to use the language of an artless chronicler, 'he was
often shivering with cold, while those upon whom he had bestowed his
favours were warm.' "
The bishops were sometimes obliged to exercise the duties of royalty.
Honorius, of Novara, when Theodoric and Odoacer were at war, fortified, in
order to give shelter to his flock, a certain number of places similar to those
in which the mihtary were garrisoned. Nicetius, Bishop of Treves, "an
apostolic man, in his progress through the country, constructed, like a
good shepherd that he was, a fold to protect his flock ; he surrounded the
hill with thirty towers, which shut it in on all sides, and an edifice rose
where hitherto a forest- had cast its shadow."
During the reigns of the last of the Merovingians and the first of the
Carlovingians, the jurisconsults and the magistrates were generally bishops
or plain priests, whose venerable character, in addition to their knowledge
and wisdom, had caused them to be designated to fulfil these high functions.
Dagobert, when about to draw up the Capitularies which were to govern
the Germans, the Thuringians, the Burgundians, the Neustrians, the
Ripuairians, and the Romans, entrusted the work to four ecclesiastical
doctors, and consequently the disposition of this new code was remarkably
tolerant, — "for," said these pious legislators, "there is no sin so grave, but
that the culprit's life may be spared, if he will but hold God in fear and' the
saints in respect, seeing that the Lord hath said, 'He who pardons shall
himself be forgiven, but he who pardoneth not shall obtain no mercy.'"
In cases where the crime seemed of a nature to deserve no clemency,, the
law remitted the culprit to be judged by the bishop or a priest delegated by
him, whose tribunal, standing in the midst of a church, was from that very
fact inviolable, and placed under the tutelary protection of rehgion. The
royal decree added, " When the culprit shall take refuge in a church, let no
one dare to drag him out with violence ; if he has already crossed the .
threshold of the sanctuary, let the bishop or curate of that church be sent for,
and if they refuse to deliver him up, it is to them that the pursuers shall
look for his punishment."
For more than a century before, the spiritual and temporal constitution

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

283

of the Church was regularly organized throughout France. The diocese
comprised the territorial boundaries which the Roman administration had
established in the provinces for the civil government of the vicars and the
counts, and most of these dioceses were kept, within about the same limits,

Fig. 226. — Consecration of St. Remigius, Bishop of Rheims.— Fac-simile of an Engraving of the
" Rheims Tapestry," in the cathedral of that city, published by M. Ach. Jubinal. (Sixteenth
Century.)
down to 1789. The ecclesiastical province, of which the metropolitan or
the archbishop was head, was made up of several dioceses or suffragan
bishoprics, and when a provincial council took place, it assembled in the
metropolis under the presidency of the archbishop. Above the metro
politans there were the patriarchs and the primates, dignitaries occupying

284 THE SECULAR CLERGY.
the principal apostolic sees, such as Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch,
Jerusalem, Cesarea, and Heraclea in the East, and in the West, Milan,
Lyons, Rheims, Treves, and Mayence — which latter city became, under Pope
Zacharias (741 — 752), the metropoKs of all Germany. The supremacy of
Rome was acknowledged by the universal Church from the days of the
Apostles, as is attested by all the Fathers, and especially by St. Irenseus,
whose spiritual father was Polycarp, a disciple of St. John.
History has handed down to us the form of oath of aUegiance to the pope
taken by the apostle of Germany in the eighth century, Wilfred, better known
by the name of Boniface, who, in the course of a few years, made more than
a hundred thousand converts. So far from being exalted with pride at the
success of his mission, he continued to go for advice to Pope Gregory II.,
and to submit to his decision any intricate matters which might occur in the
course of his ministry. The following translation of the form which he signed
when raised to the dignity of bishop, will give an idea of his deference and
spirit of submissiveness ; it forcibly exhibits the power of the hierarchy at
this epoch : — " In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has saved us,
Leo the Great being Emperor, the seventh year of his consulate, and
the fourth of his son Constantine the Great, Emperor, — I, Boniface, by
the grace , of God bishop, promise to thee, blessed St. Peter, Prince of the
Apostles, and to thy vicar, the blessed Gregory, as weU as to his successors,
in the name of the indivisible Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, and by his most holy body here present, to observe in purity and
fidelity the Catholic Faith, and, with God's assistance, to persevere in the
unity of this same Faith upon which indubitably depends the salvation of
all Christians. I also promise never to yield to any instigation contrary
to the unity of the common and universal Church, but faithfully and
sincerely to devote all my strength to thee and to the interests of thy
Church, which has received from the Lord the power of binding and
loosing, and also to thy Vicar and his successors. If I find any prelate
living in disobedience to the ordinances of the holy Fathers, I undertake not
to hold any kind of communion with him, but to win him back if I can ; if
not, to send a faithful report of his conduct to my lord the successor of the
Apostle. And if (which may God forfend !) I should attempt to infringe the
terms of this declaration, at any time or in any manner whatsoever, I acknow
ledge myself guilty of eternal punishment, and deserving the fate of Ananias .

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

285

cotunanottfano eft*
fmumunifc babttwefiu^
camucftifco conrnrasttr*
teufU-poliutue mf&fco
mums etfocnstmilac

Fig. 227. — Ceremony of robing a Bishop for his consecration. — From the " Rationale Divinorum
Officiorum" of William Durand (Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century), Library of
M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

286

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

and Sapphira, who were guilty of fraud in the declaration of their goods. I,
Boniface, a humble bishop, have written with my own hand the text of this
oath, which I lay upon the most holy body of St. Peter, in the presence of
God who is my witness and judge ; I have taken, as is herein stated, the

Fig. 228. — Solemn Reception of a Bishop. Arrival of St. Gery at Cambrai, where he was appointed
bishop, in 589. View of the city, the ramparts, and the church dedicated to St. MiSdard, and
founded by St. Gery. — Miniature from the " Chroniques du Hainaut" (Manuscript of the
Fifteenth Century), Burgundian Library, Brussels.
oath which I undertake to observe." It is worthy of notice that this formula
was already in use in the time of Pope Gelasius, in the fifth century.
From the sixth century, the influence which the bishops enjoyed
under the Roman empire went on increasing. Chilperic I. was alarmed at
its progress, declaring that "the bishops alone were supreme in the cities."
Each one administered the affairs of his diocese with sovereign authority
(Fig. 228), and, by means of the councils convoked by the kings, they

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

287

governed the whole of the kingdom. In Gaul, there were twenty-five
councils during the fifth century, fifty-four in the sixth, and twenty in the
seventh, all of which were composed of bishops, supplemented by a few
abbots and priests who were either well-known masters of ecclesiastical law,
or eligible upon other grounds. From the diminution in the number of

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Fig. 229.— St. "Wulfram, Bishop of Sens, clad in his pallium ; died in 720 at the Abbey of St.
Wandrille. — From a Miniature in the " Chronicon Fontinellense " (Manuscript of the Ninth
Century), Havre Library.
councils dates the decline of the authoritative influence of the French
episcopacy; during the eighth century, in the first half of which there
were only two councils, it declined still further, because the intrusion of
the leudes in several bishoprics had brought about a great change in the
austere morals of the ancient Church, replacing the cultivated spirit, the
orderly conduct, and the charitable habits of the first prelates (Fig. 229)
by a display of gross ignorance and unbridled barbarism. Three successive

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

councils, held respectively in Germany, Belgium, and at Soissons (742, 743,
744), aimed at a reformation of the morals of the clergy, which were
thoroughly perverted, as iS evident from the decrees of these councils, for
bidding the priests to follow the chase with hounds, falcons, and sparrow-
hawks. Other provincial councils of the same epoch condemned simony, the
traffic in the immunities and privileges of the Church, and the plurahty of
benefices. This last abuse went beyond all bounds ; the same prelate would
hold three or four bishoprics at once, several abbeys, and the revenues of
numerous parishes left without a pastor. On' the other hand, many lay
lords, who had usurped the property of the Church, and appropriated to
themselves benefices, monasteries, and episcopal revenues, especiaUy since
the days of Charles Martel, created great confusion in the temporal economy
of each diocese.
Charlemagne applied himself to the reformation of these abuses. That
illustrious monarch at all times displayed the most respectful deference for
the clergy, from amongst whom he selected his principal ministers and most
trusted councillors. Two-thirds of his Palatine Academy were ecclesiastics ;
the missi dominici, the official inspectors appointed to visit the provinces, the
churches, the presbyteries, and the hospitals, to render justice upon appeal,
to suspend or dismiss the fiscal agents, were aU, or nearly all, bishops and
priests. Royalty was looked upon by Charlemagne as a kind of priesthood,
and his mission was to give the people greater facility for practising the
Gospel, and to bring it within the reach of the idolatrous nations. The
capitulars say, " The king must walk uprightly, as his name signifies
('Rex a recte agendo vocatur'). If he acts with piety, justice, and clemency,
he deserves the name of king ; otherwise he is not a king, but a tyrant.
The special duty of royalty is to govern the people of God, but to govern
them with equity and justice ; for the king is above all the defender of the
churches, of the servants of God, of the widows, the other poor, and all
who are in distress." These rules, laid down in the time of Charlemagne,
were adopted by all Europe. The king who did not observe them was
to be deposed ; his judges were the bishops, the councils, and the pope, as
head of the Church (Charlemagne, in a capitular from ThionviUe, in 805,
submitted his own sons to be judged by the bishops). If they refused
obedience, they were condemned to be driven from their palaces, deprived
of their dignities and goods, declared infamous, and sent into exile. This

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

289

is why, during the unhappy dissensions that broke out between the sons of
Louis the Good-natured, each one endeavoured to procure the deposition
of his rival by sentence of the council.
Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, the noblest representative of the
Western Church at this epoch, constituted himself the defender of the
throne (Fig. 230). He endeavoured to arrive at an equitable settlement
as to the respective limits of the two great powers — the Church and the
Crown. Commenting upon, but not receding from, the ideas expressed by
Charlemagne, he declared, "When it is said that the king is not subject
to the laws or judgment of any man, but only of God, the statement is
true if he be a king indeed, as his name indicates. He is caUed king

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Fig. 230. — Bas-relief on the Tomb of Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims, in the Church of St. Remi-
gius in that city. Monument of the Tenth or Eleventh Century. — Hincmar, upon his knees,
and followed by the Abbot of St. Remigius, is thanking Charles the Bald for his pious dona
tions ; the king holds in his hand a model of the church on which he bestowed his largesses.
because he reigns and governs ; if he governs himself according to the will
of God, if he directs the good in the right path, and corrects the wicked to
draw them from their evil way, then he is king, not subject to the judgment
of any man (Fig. 231 and 232) ; but if he be an adulterer, a homicide,
an iniquitous person, a, ravish er, then he must be judged* in secret or in
public, by the bishops., who are God's representatives." It is necessary to
bear well in mind these ideas, inculcated in the Middle Ages, if we would
understand the important functions of the secular clergy.
At this early period of society, civilisation was, beyond all doubt, in
the hands of the ecclesiastics. Public education, which the Church had
estabhshed, and which was given in one or several episcopal schools
in each diocese, under the direction of the archdeacon, was subject,
like judicial proceedings, to hierarchical regulations. Although the bishop
p p
290

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

was free to extend or to limit certain branches of instruction, all the clerks
admitted to follow the courses of these schools had to go through the series
of studies prescribed and specified in the capitulars of Charlemagne. Thus,

Fig. 231.— Consecration of Philip Augustus at Rheims, November 1st, 1179, by his uncle, William,
Archbishop of Rheims. — Manuscript 9232 of the Fourteenth Century, Burgundian Library,
Brussels.
at Metz and Soisspns, for instance, the school of singing was an imperial
institution, and the bishop, no matter what authority he might have in
other matters, had no power to suppress it. The same was the case with

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

291

¦liniHMllBlllMllilil!

Fig. 232. — Coronation of Henry of Anjou as King of Poland, February 22nd, 1573, in tbe Church
of St. Stanislaus at Cracow. At the termination of the consecrating ceremony the Archbishop
of Gnesen, Primate of Poland, places the crown upon the prince's forehead. — Bas-relief on a
French coffer of the Sixteenth Century belonging to M. Achille Jubinal (fac-simile of ite
present condition).
the courses on law and medicine, which had been founded, since the
days of Charlemagne, in various episcopal cloisters at Paris, Rheims,

2q2 THE SECULAR CLERGY.
Lyons, Metz, Treves, Canterbury, Milan, &c. Roman chanting, grammar,
Holy Scripture, the Liturgy, and caligraphy, formed the classical basis
of clerical education. Other studies were looked upon as accessories,
without being absolutely prohibited. At the same time, to the superficial
study of Latin, was added that of Greek or of German, or of the vulgar
idiom of the Latin, Teutonic, or Sclavic tongues, when deemed useful for
the purposes of popular preaching. In certain cases, and for the exclusive
service of the Church, the clerks were taught the rudiments of architecture,
painting, mechanics, agriculture, and hygiene, but it was more especiaUy
at the Palatine school, which was always open, and in the large abbeys,
that this literary and scientific course of education prevailed.
Clerical discipHne, though continually being reformed, was incessantly
needing fresh changes. The usurpation of the Church's domains by the
monarchs, the princes, and the great lay lords, contributed to the disorder
which prevailed in many abbeys. In some churches an intruder would thrust
himself into a canonry, usurp the abbatial seat, or live at the expense of the
community. The bishops were often powerless to get rid of these false abbots,
canons, and monks, who set them at defiance. Ecclesiastical cures and pre
bends were formed, like many public bakehouses and mills, sometimes as
dowers for daughters about to marry, and even for new-born infants. Severe
measures were adopted at several provincial councils (in 860, 863, 888, 895)
against the disorderly acts committed, to the detriment of the Church.
A diploma issued by the Emperor Henry III. (May 12th, 1052),
confirmed the doctrine of the Roman Church, declaring that the episcopal
jurisdiction was entirely independent of the civil jurisdiction. By this
diploma, all judges and officers of justice were prohibited from exercising
their authority in the churches, castles, villages, and parishes which formed
the temporal domain of the diocesan chapter.
When the Crusades brought about the concord, or rather the calm, of
which the Church had so long been deprived, its progress became more
regular, more marked, and more easy; it also suffered less from the encroach
ment of laymen upon its rights and privileges (Fig. 233), but the enormous
expenses of these distant expeditions had ruined it. There was not, indeed,
a single diocese where the property was not loaded with mortgages,- nor
where the services were not crippled by the reduction of the diocesan
revenues. This penury, coupled with the absence of a great number of the

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

¦*93

most esteemed ecclesiastics, who had taken up the cross, left many important
churches almost without resources or guidance ; hence arose a general
relaxation of morals on the part of the clerks, whose misconduct was in some
cases so flagrant that it became necessary to expel, them from the religious
houses and parishes which had been committed to their charge. The abuses

Fig. 233. — Treaty of Arras, concluded in 1191, by the interposition of William of Champagne,
Archbishop of Rheims, between Baldwin V., Count of Hainault, and Matilda of Portugal,
Widow of Philip, Count of Flanders. — Miniature from the " Chroniques de Hainaut "
(Fifteenth Century), Burgundian Library, Brussels.
of authority, the uncertainty in point of faith, and the Vaudois heresy, which
shot' through Western Europe like a poisoned barb, gave rise to frequent
dissensions amongst the faithful, the disputes being carried on even amongst
members of the same family, whilst in many localities the people, attracted
by a form of worship where the chanting and the prayers were recited in the
vulgar tongue, deserted their parish church for the heretic priest ; this was

294 THE SECULAR CLERGY.
the origin of an infinity of disturbances and tumults in the large towns,
especially in those governed by a municipality.
And yet the bishops had contributed in a material degree to the
establishment of the communes-; for, if history tells us of some towns being
at war with their ecclesiastical lord, in order to declare themselves inde
pendent, we find, on the other hand, that a great number of the charters of
enfranchisement were due to the initiative of the bishops. The two most
interesting of these documents which have been preserved to us in their
integrity, are the charter and the law of Beaumont-en- Argonne, formerly
a fortified place, but almost forgotten in the present day, until brought
into prominence by the war of 1870. This town had the satisfaction, not
of imposing its law, but of seeing it adopted by numerous communes,
amongst which may be cited Nancy, LunevUle, Verdun, Luxemburg, and
Longwy, together with all the Duchy of Bar, Montmedy, &c. A lord-
bishop, WiUiam, whose love of equity earned him the appellation of WUliam
the White-handed, was the author both of this law and of this charter,
in the twelfth century (Fig. 234). By the charter, the lord-bishop made
all the inhabitants of the commune of Beaumont proprietors of a sufficient
quantity of land to give them the means of subsistence, with the use of the
woods and water-courses ; every precaution was taken to prevent fraud in
commerce and trade, especially in regard to the millers, the bakers, and the
butchers ; and the administration of the commune was entrusted to so many
burghers elected by the most notable citizens ; whUe intrigue was powerless
in its attempts to bias the free and independent suffrages of the burgher-
electors. The time that the Beaumont law has lasted is a proof of its
merits, for, notwithstanding the vicissitudes of time, five hundred communes
were being governed by it in the eighteenth century.
In the communes which adopted the Beaumont law, the burghers,
exempt from all mUitary burdens, were only compelled to take arms in
the event of a sudden invasion of their territory, and this forced service was
only of twenty-four hours' duration. After that, the lord had to provide
for the ordinary protection of the inhabitants in return for the trifling
taxes which they paid him. In the commune of Escombes, for instance,
which, being a frontier village, was very exposed to attack, the right of
safe-guard (le droit de sauvement) consisted of two measures of oats, a
hen, and a French denier for each burgher. A charter of an archbishop

Schrait k C" Pans

PROCESSION OF KING RENE AT AIX (PROVENCE).
After a miniature from the Breviary of King Rene", collected, written and painted by the king
himself and some of his courtiers.
Manuscript of the XVth century (upon vellum, in-guarto) in the Biblioth, de 1 'Arsenal (Paris).

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

295

of Bheims, successor of William the White-handed, recounts how a
good chevalier, in return for the gift of a piece of land belonging to
the bishopric, undertook to bring together, train, and maintain a body
of armed men for the protection of the burghers of Beaumont, who
were thus enabled safely to carry on the tUlage of the land and their

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Fig. 234. — Reduced fac-simile from the commencement of the Charter of William the White-
handed, Archbishop of Bheims (Twelfth Century). — From the work of M. Defourny.
commercial operations. Towards the close of the fourteenth century,
the Archbishop of Eheims exchanged with the King of France the
sovereignty over the towns of Mouzon and Beaumont-en- Argonne against
the lordship of Vailly and its dependencies ; but the law of Beaumont was
respected, and by letters patent, "given at Montargis in the month of
September, the year of grace one thousand three hundred and seventy-nine,"
King Charles V. solemnly recognised and sanctioned all the advantages

296 THE SECULAR CLERGY.
which the law of Beaumont assured to the inhabitants. "By these
presents," said the king, "we approve and confirm all their charters and
liberties, franchises, usages, privileges, and customs which they have
been granted by our above-mentioned Archbishops of Rheims in times past,
to enjoy and use without deducting, innovating, or diminishing anything,
and in the same manner and fashion as they have formerly enjoyed and used
them before our acquisition."
Throughout nearly all France, justice, which had been for eight centuries
episcopal, became almost entirely civil ; but the bishop still levied a part of
the fines imposed, and when the citizens of a town or district were brought
together to settle some grave dispute, it was the prelate of the diocese, or the
dean of the chapter, or the precentor, who had the right of naming the
day and the place of the meeting, which they had no power to prevent.
Louis IX., great as was his piety, undertook the task of forming a lay
magistracy capable of rendering justice. To avoid a conflict with the
national clergy, he obtained from Innocent IV. a dispensation from the
ordinary jurisdiction for the person of the King of France, for his consort,
and his heir-presumptive. He solicited the intervention of the Pope to
reform numerous abuses that had crept into the Church in France, especiaUy
in respect of the right of asylum, and the excessive immunities accorded to
the ecclesiastical tribunals. Towards the end of the thirteenth century the
jurisdiction of the clergy was, with the exception of the episcopal court,
confined to the vassals of the bishops' temporalities.
Throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the episcopal power
was engaged in a ceaseless struggle with a turbulent bourgeoisie (Fig. 235),
whose spirit of opposition drove it into open and armed rebellion. In order
to obviate this, and to offer an effective resistance to the civil authority,
itself overpowered by the populace, several diocesan chapters formed a league
with the clergy and with the monks ; but this did not bring them any
increase of strength to combat the lay magistrates, because the bishop often
deserted their cause or showed himself indifferent to it. Hence arose
excommunications, imprisonments, proscriptions, and acts of seizure which
only led to increased scandal. The schism which desolated the Christian
world since the death of Gregory IX. (1378), the struggle for influence
between the anti-pope Urban VI. and Pope Clement VII., were not calculated
to allay the internal troubles of the Church.

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cwmau^u^* cmnte - CkpFcxuc (tut icet^uavco cownwofoee wnalu etiWoa? <rtf*u /
Fig. 235.— Title of the Concordat of Cambrai, agreed upon in 1466 by the bishop, the chapter, and the commune of the town, for the maintenance of peace.
This charter commences with the word NOUS in illuminated letters. The first letter (N) encircles an angel holding tho escutcheon of Bishop John of
Burgundy; the Latin inscription signifies, " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." The letter 0 represents the
arms of the chapter, surmounted by Notre-Dame des Flammes, with the words in Latin, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." The
third letter (TJ) is symbolic of the commune of Cambrai, and also expresses a peaceful idea in the motto, " His abode is an abode of peace." Amongst
the witnesses, numbering more than a hundred, who signed this Concordat, was the Chronicler of Cambrai, Enguerrand de Monstrelet— Fac-simile of
the original, preserved in the Archives du Nord, at Lille, and the text of which was published by M. L. Dancoisne, at Henin-Lietard. (The illuminated
letters in this engraving are one- fourth the size of the original.) [r„ fmt vage 296.

THE SECULAR CLERGY. 297
The desire to remedy this general disorder was at that time uppermost in
every Christian mind, for the question as to the territorial possessions of the
two Churches had long been settled. Rome possessed nearly aU Italy, except
the manufacturing and maritime States of the peninsula ; she also had
Germany, a part of Switzerland, Bohemia, Hungary, England, and HoUand.
The other Church was recognised by France, French or Vaudois Switzerland,
Savoy, Lorraine, Luxemburg, the Metz district, Scotland, and Spain. The
most respected of the Christians, alarmed at a state of things which was so
fatal to religion, in vain attempted to stem the torrent. The only remedy
lay in the reformation of the clergy, and the Church's independence of the
civil power. In the year 1469, a noble and pious woman, the Countess Vio
di Thiene, gave birth at Gaeta to a son, afterwards known as Cajetan, who
became cardinal- bishop, and was one of the greatest men of the age. The
Countess Vio di Thiene had resolved that the heir of her noble house should
be born, as was the Saviour of mankind, in a stable. It was thus that in an
actual manger this blessed infant first obtained his indifference to the world,
his love of simpUcity, his spirit of prayer and charity, his angelic modesty,
which made him a martyr of penitence, a hero of self-denial, and a model of
humility. When in 1505 Luther received the minor orders at the monastery
of the Augustines at Erfurt, and when, upon the occasion of a granting of
indulgences by Leo X. to the Dominicans (1517), he published the pro
gramme of his anti-papal and anti-canonical propositions, he at once found
himself face to face with Cajetan, who was the leader and promoter of the
CathoUc movement in opposition to the German pervert. Cajetan con
ceived the happy idea of instituting a vast confraternity of the regular
clergy, with the view of re-establishing ecclesiastical discipline. He was the
ideal of the praying and working priest, without family ties, with no close or
continuous relations with the outside world, and yet so brought up that while
mixing with it he could forward the interests of the Church. The Somasques,
regular clergy for the education of orphans (1528) ; the Barnabites, regular
clergy of St. Paul (1532) ; the Jesuits, regular clergy of the Company of
Jesus ; the Crucifers, regular clergy ministering to the sick (1592) ; the
Scholopians, regular clergy for the poor of the Mother of God ; the Minorites,
regular clergy of the minor order, and many other institutions of the same
kind, are the offspring of Cajetan's creation, and thus he has been caUed
the patriarch of the clergy. The project of the Council of Trent was the
U Q

298

THE SECULAR CLERGY.

conception, and its preliminary elaboration was the work, of Cajetan, and this
famous council, which was to have so much influence over the Christian world,
raised the moral dignity of the clergy, while it prepared the way for a general
reform of the Church.
The instruction of the young men who were destined for the priesthood
also dates from the same epoch. It is true that there existed in Italy,
France, and Spain, schools of theology frequented by the clergy, but the
latter prepared themselves for holy orders without rule or guidance, without
any of those intellectual and moral resources which a community can offer.
Many of the pupils wore no tonsure,
nor even a uniform ecclesiastical
dress, they mixed in society, some
times led a dissipated life, and
reached the solemn period of ordi
nation without having received any
proper teaching. The Council of
Trent, at the instance of Cajetan,
decided that each diocese should
have a school of ecclesiastics, termed
a seminary. St. Charles Borromeo,
Fig. 236. — Angels praying over a Skull.— Fragment
of a Bas-relief in the Cloister of the Chartreuse, Archbishop of Milan, the good Paul
at Pavia (close of the Fourteenth Century). d>Arezz0j Archbishop of Naples, and
several Italian bishops, set Europe the example by establishing these pioug
retreats in their dioceses ; the Cardinal of Lorraine imitated them by
founding the seminary of Rheims, and two French bishops also created
seminaries at Carpentras and Bordeaux. These were the only seminaries
in France for more than eighty years, and they were so badly managed,
so little in harmony with the importance of their design, that they were
looked upon as attempts that had miscarried. The seminary of Paris, the
most famous of all those in France, was not created until the middle of the
seventeenth century, when it was founded by the active and generous co
operation of two pious women, with the help of St. Vincent de Paul and
the Abbe" Oilier, for ecclesiastical retreats and for the establishment of the
Congregation de Saint- Sulpice.

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THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

The First Monks. — St. Anthony and his Disciples. — St. Pachomius and St. Athanasius. — St. Eusebius
and St. Basilius. — Cenobitism in the East and in the West. — St. Benedict and the Benedic
tine Code. — Monkish Dress. — St. Columba. — List of the Monasteries in Charlemagne's
Time. — Services rendered by the Monks to Civilisation, Arts, and Letters. — Reform of the
Religious Orders in the Twelfth Century. — St. Norbert. — St. Bernard. — St. Dominic. — St.
Francis of Assisi. — The Carmelites. -^The Bernardmes. — The Barnabites. — The Jesuits.

URING the early days of the Church,
monastic life began in the vast so
litudes of the Thebais, in Upper
Egypt. It soon extended to Pales
tine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia
Minor, and even beyond the hmits
• of the Roman Empire. St. Jerome,
just before the Middle Ages, wrote,
" We daily receive troops of monks
from India, Persia, and Ethiopia."
The fearful austerities of the first
ascetics in the East seem, at first sight, excessive, but they are jus
tified by their results, and may be explained by the state of society at
that epoch. A gross sensualism was generally prevalent, and people lived
only for pleasure. The slaves, after having accomplished the work necessary
for the existence of the free men, further assisted in satiating the disordered
appetites of this society, which had exhausted all the refinements of sensuality
and luxury.
The old world, absorbed in the worship of material things, had no taste
for the culture of the mind, and in order to arouse it from its intellectual
torpor, it became necessary to impress the senses and the imagination by
excessive austerities. Greedy of novelty and anything emotional, the
people flocked to visit those wonderful anchorites, who made a study of

3oo THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

martyrdom, some shutting themselves up in a den where they could neither
stand upright nor lie down ; others lying motionless day and night upon a
narrow plank, upon the top of a column, exposed to all weathers ; all of
them refusing meat, drink, and sleep, or only taking just enough to keep
body and soul together. These men, who only thought of their body as a
target for torture, in order to give themselves up exclusively to penitentiary
practices and the contemplation of a future life, attracted general attention.
As tender-hearted for others as they were pitiless for themselves, they took
an interest in all suffering, they consoled the sorrowful, they prayed for the
recovery of the sick at the request of the relatives. Their goodness found
them a way to many hearts, and, with the eloquent force of example, they
inculcated upon the crowds the vanity of sensual pleasures, they taught them
to look to heaven rather than to earth ; and they reminded their audience of
the immortality of the soul, of its destinies in a better world, and of the duty
of earning eternal happiness by the exercise of Christian virtues ; in their dis
courses, as in their lives, they preached the Gospel. They were first listened
to, then contemplated with curiosity, and afterwards believed in. People soon
came to admire them, and from that moment imitating them was a natural
consequence — in a few years the deserts were peopled with thousands of their
disciples, who gave themselves up entirely to prayer and to manual labour.
St. Anthony was the first of these Fathers of the desert who consented to
tear himself away from the austere charms of this solitude, and come with a
retinue of monks to reside in Alexandria, for the purpose of combating the
Arians, and inducing them to recognise the decisions of the Council of Nice.
After having won the admiration and respect of his adversaries by his
brilliant arguments against the philosophers of the school of Alexandria,
after holding his ground even against emperors, he retired to the desert, upon
Mount Colzin, with his disciples Macarius and Amathas, and only left it to
inspect the monasteries which he had founded, and which contained more
than fifteen thousand cenobites.
St. Athanasius, one of the most illustrious pupils of St. Anthony,
continued to spread, by his discourses and his writings, the doctrines of his
master. He went to reside at Rome in 340, with several eminent anchorites.
and he then preached by example as well as by precept, and became the
indefatigable promoter of monastic institutions in Western Europe.
At the same period, St. Pachomius, who had founded in the Thebais the

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

301

monastery of Tabennas, compiled the first complete regulations that have been
handed down to us for the use of the cenobites, in which manual labour as
weU as prayer was prescribed. Several celebrated doctors and fathers of
the Church, St. Gregory of JSTazianzus, St. John Chrysostom, St. Jerome
(Fig. 237), and St. Cyril, practised asceticism.

BiS

Fig. 236*. — St. Anthony, a statuette in stone of theThird Century, belonging to a gentleman of
Cambrai. This engraving, never before published, shows us what the holy doctors thought
of tho great anchorite of Egypt. He is treading underfoot the devil, who is represented
by the unclean animal in the flames. The closed book signifies that, without any study,
solely by hearing them read, he learnt the Holy Scriptures by heart ; and St. Jerome testifies
that he expounded them with wisdom. The triangular tau is the Egyptian shape of the
cross ; the bell signifies the power of driving away the evil spirit.
St. Eusebius, Bishop of Vercelli, was the first Western prelate who
associated monastic and clerical life. His clergy passed their existence in
fasting, praying, reading, and labour. St. Ambrosius says, "These clergy
only changed their condition for a bishopric or martyrdom." At about the

302

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

same period (352 — 360) St. Martin founded, in the neighbourhood of
Poitiers, the most ancient of the monasteries in Gaul (Monasterium
Locociagense), and twelve years afterwards, the famous Abbey of Marmou-
tiers, which was so rich a nursery of holy prelates and learned doctors.
The sermons of St. Basilius, in the kingdom of Pontus, his numerous
monastic foundations, the rules which he laid down, and which were forth
with adopted by all the Eastern monks, bear witness to the strength of the
Christian movement in Asia towards the close of the fourth century.
The great monastery of Tabennse, which at that time served as the type
for all conventual foundations, comprised a vast network of small houses,

Fig. 237. — St. Jerome in the desert : the saint is holding in his hand a stone with which he is
about to beat his breast. — From a picture of the School of Andrea del Sarto . (Sixteenth
Century), in the Louvre.
built one after the other, and united under the supreme control of one head.
The religious administration of the monastery was, moreover, entrusted to a
prior or abbot, who was assisted by a deputy, while the steward who was
entrusted with the secular duties — the daily expenditure, and the incidents
connected with material life — also had an assistant, who took his place when
he was absent. The monastery was thus divided into houses, each managed
by a prior ; each house contained a certain number of chambers, or cells, and
each cell was always shared by three monks. It required three or four
houses to constitute the tribe, or monastery.
The great monasteries had from thirty to forty houses, with about forty

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 303
monks in each, making in all seven or eight hundred persons. At the death
of St. Pachomius, the order of Tabennse numbered seven thousand monks.
Palladius says that catechumens preparing for baptism, children, youths, and
men of all ages were received there. All were obliged to study the New
Testament and the Psalter ; three times a day wholesome instruction was
given to those who required it, and three times a week the prior of each
house assembled the monks who were placed under his control to hold con
versation with them, called a catechizing, or argument, after which they
discussed amongst each other the questions that had been dealt with.
The teaching of the monks was not limited to this, it extended from beyond
the waUs of the monastery to the faithfol in the neighbouring district. Once
on Saturdays, and twice- on Sundays, the prior explained to them the
mysteries of the faith, to say nothing of the catechisms and lessons, of
which the chief or general of the order himself took charge every week.
St. Pachomius and St. Orsevius did not confine themselves to the mere
development of the moral principles taken from Holy Scripture; they
entered upon an exegesis of them, giving their audience the right of
questioning, replying, and discussing their statements, and afterwards
answering aU objections so made by writing. The study of the Fathers of
the Church was added to that of the holy books. The prior sometimes
authorised plain monks, who were learned or eloquent, as was a certain
Theodorus, to defend the truths of the Christian 'religion against the profane,
and to establish a series of public lectures.
The monastic discipline set up by St. Basilius was almost identical with
that of St. Pachomius ; his monks discussed nearly every topic amongst them
selves. He merely instructed them not to try and override each other in
these debating tournaments, urging them to avoid ostentation, empty words,
and the inspirations of vanity ; he even directed them as to the intonation
of voice, and the gestures most becoming. In the monasteries founded
by St. Basilius, many chUdren were taken as pupils, and sent back into the
world when they were old enough to select a profession and make their own
way in life.
The convents for women are contemporaneous with the monasteries.
The virgins devoted to the Church, the young widows, and the deaconesses,
led a kind of life calculated to prepare them for habits of reclusion, of
contemplation, and asceticism. The sisters of St. Anthony and St. Pachomius

30+ THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.
were placed by their venerable- brothers at the head of two communities of
virgins, in Egypt and in Palestine. In Pontus and Cappadocia St. BasUius
founded several convents, and their number increased so largely, that in the
beginning of the fifth century, one single convent (ccenobium) contained two
hundred and fifty virgins.
In Europe the convents for virgins increased no less rapidly. : Two
religious houses for young women were opened at Rome in the days of
St. Anthony, and, no doubt, at his instigation. Eusebius, bishop of Vercelli;
founded an establishment of the same kind close to his church ; but the most
remarkable of all these convents was that founded at Milan by St. Ambrose,
a religious asylum in which his sister, Marcelhna, and her faithful com
panion, Candida, took refage.
Towards the end of the fourth century, a Roman lady, St. Paula, built
three convents and a monastery in Africa, the management of them being
undertaken by St. Jerome. St. Augustine also founded two religious houses in
his diocese of Hippona, one for cenobites, the other for virgins, imposing on'
them the regulations of St. Anthony and St. Pachomius, as to life in common
and poverty. " There were at this time," says this illustrious father, " monks
all over the world." They were called monks, from the Greek p,6vos (alone),1
because of their solitary life ; and cenobites, from the Greek words koiuos and
/3/o? (hfe in common). They abstained from meat and wine, living upon
bread and fruits, and being only allowed to eat cooked vegetables-on the
Sunday. They were obliged to prepare their own food, and to make their
own clothing. Upon Sunday they took the communion with the general
congregation, and went back after the service into their monastery. •
Before the monkish order had been in existence a century, in the East as
in the West, the monastic regulations underwent considerable relaxation.
The monks having become part of the clerical hierarchy (by force of circum
stances, for there was often a deficiency of clergy), took precedence of the
latter ; their abbots, called archimandrites in the Eastern Church, were raised
to the priesthood and to the episcopate ; they even took part in councUs,
though these functions and duties interfered with their cenobitic life;
This manifest infraction of the primitive discipline, while it lowered the
moral position of the monks, rather increased than otherwise their social
influence, and gave them greater weight in the world. Their piety, too,
was only temporarily distracted from its original purpose, for men of note

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

3°5

like St. Honoratus, St. Maximus, St. HUary, St. Dalmatius, the two brothers
Romanus^and Lupicius, maintained the true tradition of monkish life ; and

Fig. 238.— History of St. Benedict.— On the left are the monks of a neighbouring monastery, who
have come to seduce him from his hermitage in order to place him at their head; but the
austerity of his rule soon dissatisfies them, and they resolve to rid themselves of him. On
the right the monks are offering him a cup of poison, but, on his making the sign of the
cross on the vase, it is shattered to pieces.— From a Fresco by Spinello d' Arezzo (1390) in the
Church of San Miniato, near Florence.
the famous abbeys of Lerins and Mount Jura were built. The ascetics of
Constantinople, too, were spoken of in high terms, as keeping up a perpetual
psalmody (401 — 405). In Palestine, not far from Jerusalem, a multitude of
E K

306 THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.
hermits, under the guidance of St. Euthymius, practised the most rigorous
abstinence. In* Africa, St. Fulgentius, exiled by the Arians, was the promoter of
regular observances — that is, he preached strict obedience to monastic
rule (501 — 523) ; while in the West there were founded, in the midst of the
Romagnol Alps, in the towns of Aries and St. Maurice d'Agaune, three model
monasteries, the first superintendents of which were St. Hilary, St. Caesarius,
and St. Severinus ; and its principal benefactors, Theodoric, King of the Goths,
Theodoric the Great, and Sigismund, King of Burgundy (504 — 522). In
the monastery of Kildare, governed by St. Bridget, and in the monastery
founded by St. Colomba, in Ireland, which was afterwards so justly caUed the
Isle of Saints, the teaching of Christian art, of the liturgy, of ecclesiastical
lore and profane literature, was unequaUed in its perfection, and the fame of
it reached even to Gaul.
Such was the general position of cenobitism when St. Benedict (Fig.
238), the future patriarch of the monks of the West, the supreme legislator
of the monastic order, abandoned his humble cell at Subiaco (528) to found
the immense abbey of Monte-Cassino (Fig. 239), which was the glory of
the age. The Benedictine rule, the result of profound physiological and
philosophical studies, a work of moral science, of wisdom, and of piety,
divided the monks' time between prayer and manual labour, to be succeeded
by the cultivation or exercise of the intellect whenever the glory of God, the
interests of the monastery, and the education of the people might require it.
St. Benedict soon had under his control an army of monks who spread
throughout the whole Christian world the rules of their iUustrious chief.
Amongst them were St. Maurus and Cassiodorus, the former minister of
Theodoric the Great : one of them founded the monastery of St. Maur-sur-
Loire, in France ; the other, that of Vivieri, in Calabria. Cassiodorus took
great pains to collect books of the Old and the New Testament, with their
commentaries. He went to great expense in coUecting all the writings of
the Greek and Latin Fathers, of the Jewish historians as well as of those of
the Church, and the principal works on geography, grammar, and rhetoric,
and even the best treatises on medicine, so that the monks attached to the
infirmary might be fuUy capable of tending the sick. The monastery of
Vivieri contained one of the richest libraries of the period. We find in the
collection of the Institutions of Cassiodorus the following remarkable homage

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

3°7

paid to the calligraphist monks, who were the greatest men of letters in that
day: "I confess, my brethren, that of all your physical labours, that of copying
books has always been the avocation most to my taste ; the more so, as by
this exercise of the mind upon the Holy Scriptures, you convey to those who

Fig. 239. — History of St. Benedict. — As his disciples were attempting to put a stone in place
for the construction of their chapel, the devil placed himself upon it, and the united efforts of
several persons failed to dislodge him ; but St. Benedict having blessed the stone, the devil
, took flight. — From a Fresco by Spinello d' Arezzo (1390), in the Church of San Miniato, near
Florence.

will read what you have written a kind of oral instruction. You preach with
the hand, converting the fingers into organs of speech, announcing silently to
men a theme of salvation ; it is as it were fighting the evil one with pen and
ink. For every word written by the antiquary, the demon receives a severe

308 THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.
wound. At rest in his seat, as he copies his books, the recluse travels
through many lands without quitting his room, and the work of his hands
has its influence in places where he has never been."
Those whom Cassiodorus calls antiquaries were simply scribes — that is to,
say, clerks or monks who deciphered the old manuscripts and transcribed the
books. In the monastery of St. Martin, at Tours, calligraphy was the sole
art practised. St. Fulgentius, a prelate distinguished both for his learning
and eloquence; St. Gregory, Bishop of Agrigentum, no less celebrated,
Mamertus Claudius, who was a regular walking library, themselves copied
manuscripts which they gave to the Church. Calligraphy and illuminating
were also favourite occupations with many nuns, amongst whom may be
cited St. Melanie the younger, St. Cesarie, St. Harnilde, and St. Renilde,
all Frenchwomen (Fig. 240), who, to use the language of the Christian
annalist, wrote with elegance, rapidity, and correctness.
From the time that the monks were raised to the clerical rank, after
first undergoing an examination, the clerks and monks studied together
just as they had before prayed and lived in common, a monastery
being a complete school of ecclesiastical research and administration. At
Monte-Cassino, at St. Ferreol, at St. Calais, at Tours, and in many other
flourishing abbeys in the* sixth century, the monks, and especiaUy the
novices, were instructed in religious and secular subjects as well as in the
duties of the priesthood.
The monastic dress was not in every case the same, for, though always
simple and coarse, it varied in shape and appearance with the statutes of each
order, and according to the necessities of climate. The cenobites in Egypt
wore the lebitus or the colobium, the pera or melote, and the cuculla. The
lebitus was a linen garment with long sleeves open at the hands, and some
times up to the wrist. The pera, a jacket of goatskin, is spoken of in one
of the epistles of St. Paul, who alludes to it as especially worn by holy
men and prophets, when they were driven by threats of persecution into
the desert. The cuculla covered the head, and came half-way over the
shoulders. St. Benedict, who borrowed it from the early monks, had it so
much lengthened as to envelop the whole body ; but as in this shape it
would have embarrassed the monks in their manual labour, he made it a
garment* only to be worn at ceremonials, and replaced it for ordinary
wear by the scapulary (scapulum), which covered the head and the back.

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

309

The Western monks also wore a short mantle — a sort of cape, called a
maforte, according to Sulpicius Severus. The Greeks and Orientals adopted
the pallium, which led to their being designated agmina palliata (an army in
robes), when they assembled in large numbers. Every Greek who devoted
himself to the cenobitic life was compeUed to wear a black paUium.
Pope Gregory the Great, who had been a Benedictine, was most ardent

Fig. 240. — St. Radegonde, Wife of King Clotaire (Sixth Century), receiving the religious garb
from the hands of St. Medard, Bishop of Noyon. — " Histoire et Cronicque de Clotaire" (16mo,
Paris, Jean Mesnage, 1513).
in the establishment of monasteries, of which he himself founded a large
number. He was the chief promoter of two important missions which took
place in 585 and 596 ; the first in Gaul, consisting of missionaries from
Ireland, headed by St. Colomba and St. Gall ; the second in Great Britain,
with monks from the Abbey of St. Andrew, headed by another monk,
St. Augustine. This latter, who converted the Anglians and their king,
Ethelbert, was the first Archbishop of Canterbury. Colomba founded the
Abbey of Luxeuil, upon the southern side of the Vosgian forests; while

3io THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.
Gall, his disciple, much younger than himself, penetrated into the country of
the Helvetians, who were as deeply sunk in barbarism as the Anglians, where
he founded a monastery which afterwards became famous under the name of
its founder, and which owed its celebrity to the variety of subjects which
were taught there.
St. Colomba was the first to draw up a complete set of monastic rules,
which were generally adopted in France, just as the rules of St. Isidore,
Bishop of Seville, and those of St. Augustine of Ireland, were followed in
the British Isles. These three codes, very similar in their general prin
ciples, varied from each other in many particulars, for they were applicable
to monks living in different countries. In the communities which adhered
to the rules of St. Colomba, as in all the great Benedictine monasteries,
prayer, mental culture, and manual labour were the invariable occupations
of cloister life (Fig. 241). The rules drawn up by St. Colomba and his
imitators, St. Isidore and St. Augustine, thus remained in force down to the
eighth century, in spite of the new system of education and religious teach
ing inaugurated so zealously throughout Gaul by the Anglo-Saxon monk,
St. Boniface ; in spite, too, of the industrial and artistic, rather than scientific
and contemplative, turn which St. Eloi gave to the studies of the monks in
his abbey of St. Martin at Limoges, and in the other monasteries founded or
reorganized by him. That illustrious Bishop of Noyon, Master of the Mint
to King Clotaire II. , afterwards treasurer, goldsmith, and minister to Dago-
bert I. (568 — 659), was at great pains to make the cultivation of art an
important feature in monastic life.
It would be incorrect to suppose that the interior of a monastery in the
seventh century presented the same appearance of asceticism and penance
that were afterwards characteristic of certain communities subject to the
most austere regulations. In the country districts the monasteries possessed
vast domains which yielded wheat, rye, oats, hay, vegetables, and fruits ;
and on which were produced wine, beer, cider, and hydromel ; they were
tilled by numerous labourers in bands of tens and hundreds, who whUe at
work sang hymns and prayers — a veritable religious mUitia, grouped beneath
the banner of faith in the populous centres and in the neighbourhood of the
towns. These monasteries were generally schools in which the monks
gave gratuitous education, vast workshops in which they followed and
taught every branch of trade — carving in wood, ivory, bronze, silver,

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

311

and gold ; painting on vellum, glass, wood, and metal ; weaving tapestry,
embroidering church ornaments and vestments ; damask work, and enamel
ling of shrines, tabernacles, diptychs and triptychs, church furntiure, and
book-covers; the cutting of precious stones to prepare them for setting;

Fig. 241. — The Abbey of St. Riquier, near Abbeville, founded in 799 by St. Angilbert, who gave
it its triangular shape in honour of the Trinity. — From a Drawing in a very old Manuscript
engraved in the Dissertation of Paul Petau, "DeNithardo" (4to., 1612).
the making of arms and instruments of music, illuminating, copying of
manuscripts, &c. The whole life of a monk or a nun was passed in the
exercise of one description of art, or perhaps even in executing a single work
which required miraculous patience.
As the regular associations became permanently settled in the towns, they,

312

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

began to construct for their use dormitories, cells, workshops, granaries or
sheds for their provisions, and built handsome churches with long cloisters
and vast chapter-rooms. Each community made a point of having within
its own boundary a library, a study, a lecture-room, schools, a cemetery,

Fig. 242.— Abbatial Ring and Cross (front and back) of St. Waudru, patroness of Mons, who
died in 670. The cross is in silver, with gold relief, and studded with precious stones.—
Reiics preserved in the Church of St. Waudru, at Mons.

some shady walks for meditation, as well as a fruit and kitchen-garden,
the cultivation of which was a healthy and agreeable recreation. In this
vast aggregation of monastic buildings and appurtenances (Fig. 244), we
have a holy city in the heart of the secular town, a retreat for the peaceful,
the devout, and the abstinent, amidst . the troubles and vanities of the
world.

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

3*3

The endowment of each monastery was generally made up of the property
belonging to the monks who had fixed their abode there. If the novice was
an adult, he was obliged to distribute all his goods to the poor, or to make
a solemn grant of them to the abbey, before he could be admitted to the
minor orders. If he was a child whose parents devoted him to the service
of God (Fig. 243), the parents either made no gift to the community which

Fig. 243. — The Offering of a Child to an Abbot.— From a Miniature in a Manuscript published at
the close of the Thirteenth Century (Burgundian Library, Brussels).

received the young novice, or they ceded the income of the lands and
the property by deed of transfer to the monastery. Enriched by these
successive donations, the monasteries, especially those which had acquired
a wide renown for learning or piety, acquired still more wealth through
the largesses of princes, great nobles, and bishops, through the economical
management of the abbots, and the annual produce of the agricultural and
commercial labour of the monks. To the various arts and trades which
were at first carried on by the monks with a view to do honour to the
s s

3H

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

Fig. 244. — Priory of the Benedictines at Canterbury (Twelfth Century), plan in relief drawn by
Edwin, a monk, about the year 1530.— A, belfry ; B, fountain ; C, cemetery; D, reservoir,
with conduit pipes ; E, Canterbury Cathedral ; F, vestry ; Or, crypt ; H, chapter-house ;
I, prior's house; J, infirmary and annexes; K, kitchen-garden, with well, pumps, and water-
pipes ; L, cloister; M, cellar; N, dormitory; O, refectory; P, kitchens; Q, parlour;
R, house for the guests and the poor ; S, water-closets ; T, baths ; U, granary ; V, bake
house and brewery ; X, the chief entrance ; Y, Z, fortified wall of the abbey and the city.^-
From an Engraving in vol. i. of the " Architecture Monastique," by M. Albert Lenoir.

cause of religion, those of the West afterwards added others of a more lucra
tive and worldly character. In the sixth century we find that they spun and

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 315
wove their own silk; that they possessed numerous receipts for preparing
liqueurs and drugs ; that they practised medicine, surgery, and the
veterinary art. Pepin the Short, suffering from incurable dropsy, went
first to the monastery of St. Martin at Tours, and afterwards to the abbey
of St. Denis, that " the servants of God " might give him relief by means of
their skill as weU as by their prayers.
The Church was very sorely tried during the reign of Charles Martel, and
monastic institutions were also exposed to many difficulties. In order to
win back the secular clergy to the habits of communal life, the wisest of the
bishops grouped around them the clergy who had remained faithful to their
cause, and laid down a code of regulations for their guidance.
Charlemagne, in the Capitularies, added the following excellent amend
ments to the rules of monastic institutions : — " Young men destined to
monastic life must first pass their novitiate, and then remain in the monas
tery to learn the rules, before they are sent forth to fulfil their duties outside.
Those who give up the world in order to avoid the king's service shall be
compeUed to serve God in good faith, or else to resume their former occupa
tion. All clerks shaU be required to make their choice between clerical life
in conformity with the canons, and monastic life in conformity with the
regulations. The abbeys shaU not receive too large a number of serfs, so
that the vUlages may not be depopulated ; no community shall have more
members than can be properly looked after by one superior. Young women
shall not take the veil until they are of an age to choose their own career in
life. Laymen are. to be disqualified for governing the interior of a monastery,
nor shaU they fill the post of archdeacon." Charlemagne and Louis the
Good-natured became members of the royal monastery of St. Denis under
the title of "conscript brothers" (fratres conscripti) — an academical rather
than a religious title, but one which nevertheless admitte4 them to certain
liturgical privileges. The Emperor Lothair, in imitation of his father and
ancestor, also got himself invested with this title by the monastery of
St. Martin-lez-Metz.
The Norman invasion, the feudal wars, the encroachment of the great
vassals, and even of the kings, upon ecclesiastical domains and rights,
impoverished the monastic orders, whose lands remained unfilled for want of
hands, and their schoolrooms often empty for want of teachers and scholars.
While the Normans burnt and piUaged the monasteries, fortified though

316

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

many of them, were, in the country districts, the urban abbeys, nearly
always protected by the diocesan power, preserved some remnants of their
former splendour.
There existed between the principal abbeys of the same order a spirit of

p (i;
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IMb* °*ffii8t

NMHU

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Fig. 245.— Foundation of the secular abbeys of Mons, Maubeuge, and Nivelles. The canonesaes
meeting at Nivelles, where Walcand, Bishop of Liege (810 to 832 or 836), promises to give
them a code of rules.— From the " Chroniques de Hainaut," Manuscript of the Fifteenth
Century, in the Burgundian Library, Brussels.
unity, a brotherly zeal to render help and service, and a reciprocal inter
change of learned and skilful clerks, who went from one community to
another to give it the benefit of their learning or manual ability. It was
in this way that the conventual churches and buildings were erected and
kept in repair; that they became rich in paintings, statues, and mosaics;
that the treasury was filled, and the library founded and maintained.*

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

3'7

Rupert, a monk of the Abbey of St. Gall (Switzerland), before his elevation
to the bishopric of Metz, a learned linguist, poet, and man of letters ;
Tutilo, his contemporary at St. Gall, a carver, painter, and sculptor;
Regino, Abbot of Priim, an excellent musician, author of a Treatise on
Harmony, are of themselves a proof that arts and letters were hidden
in the cloisters. At this epoch of barbarism and ignorance, the Church
organized what was good, strengthened the shattered foundations of the
social edifice, established new monastic institutions and reformed the old,
grouped around her the irresolute, lawless, and undisciplined minds

Fig. 246. — Seal of tbe Abbey of St. Denis, in the Twelf ih Century, in ihe National Archives,
Paris. — The saint is clad in his episcopal garb. It is, no doubt, as the apostle of Gaul
that the motto gives him the title of archbishop.

(Fig. 245), selling the principles of order and peace in opposition to those
of violence and disorder engendered by war.
Never was the monastic order* more numerous or better*organized, and
at no period, perhaps, were works of mental intelligence cultivated more
ardently or successfully in certain privUeged monasteries, than at this time,
Canterbury, Monte- Cassino, St. Maur, St. Denis (Fig. 246), St. Martin of
Tours, St. Gall, Remiremont, Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, Treves, St. Trudon,
St. Arnulph, St. Clement, and St. Martin of Metz, the Messina and the
Gorza basilica, were cited as so many foci of light whence radiated in
every direction the good doctrines set forth in certain remarkable works of
art, as well as in learned literary compositions.

3i8

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

In the libraries, which composed the principal wealth of the religious
houses, the cartularies of the diocese were preserved with great care. The
charters of institution, and the patrimonial titles of the chief abbeys, are
both the proof and the reward for the services rendered to civilisation by the

Fig. 247. — The Clergy, with tbe Cross and the Holy Images, going in procession before the
Emperor.— From a Miniature taken from a Manuscript of the Fourth Century (Library of
M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot).
monastic establishments : one abbey was given a domain on the condition
that it put the waste lands into cultivation ; another received its lands with
the understanding that it opened asylums and places of hospitality for the
poor and sick, for pilgrims, and for strangers; whUe a host of documents

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 3 '9
taken from the cartularies relate to the instruction of the clerks, the
education of the novices, the splendour of pubhc worship, and the duty
of the ecclesiastical vassals when the suzerain raised the ban and the
arriere-ban, &c, together with all the details of monastic life which are
connected with the various social movements of each territorial district
(Fig. 247).
Outside the abbeys there lived a population whose manual labour was
necessary to their inmates, and profitable to the material interests of the
house. Women, even when doing penance, and under religious vows, were
strictly forbidden to enter the monasteries. The aged mother of an eminent
monk, John of Gorze, unwilling to separate herself altogether from her son,
took up her abode just outside the waUs of his abbey, where she spent her
time in making cloaks for the monks.
It was around the abbatial close, perhaps beneath the shelter of a second
walled enclosure, not so strong nor so high as the first, but stiU capable of
resisting the attacks of the marauders which were so frequent in those days
of feudal disorder, that were built the shops, the stalls, and the sheds which
served for the sale of the crops, the cattle, and the agricultural and other
produce of the abbatial domain (Fig. 248). On the anniversary of the
festival of the saint to whom the monastery was dedicated there was a fair
— sometimes several — 'which attracted large crowds.
St. Romuald, the founder of the Camaldolite order ; St. Mayeul, Abbot
of Cluny, and the reformer of the Abbey of St. Denis; St. Dunstan,
the resolute Archbishop of Canterbury, who reformed the clergy of the
British Isles ; Adalbert, son of a Duke of Lorraine and nephew of Hugh
Capet, who was elected Bishop of Metz, after having been monk at Gorze ;
St. Cadroe, descended from the Kings of Scotland, Abbot of Vaussey and
contemporary of Adalbert, with whom he was associated in the reforma
tion of the abbeys in the north-east of France, were among the leading
figures who, in the tenth century, represented the reformed monachism.
Unfortunately, their wholesome influence could not make itself everywhere
felt ; it was a period of disorder, of pitiless and bitter wars, of usurpations of
every kind. Upon every side misery reigned supreme ; the serfs attached
to the domains of the canonical churches and to the monasteries left them
to find some more certain means of livelihood. The Cathedral of Metz
was in this way deprived of eight hundred serfs, who were heads of

320

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

Fig. 248.— North View of the Abbey of St. Germain-des-Pres, as it still existed in the Seventeentli
Century. — A, outer gates ; B, houses in the enclosure ; C, church square ; D, church ; E, Lady
chapel] F, sacristy; G, small cloister ; H, great cloister ; I, library; K, dormitory; L, refec
tory ; M, kitchen ; N, dormitory of the Superior ; 0, offices ; P, inner courtyard ; Q, houses
for the wine-presses ; R, bakehouse ; S, stables ; T, garden ; V, infirmary ; X, infirmary
garden; Y, lavatory; Z, dormitory for the gueBts. 1, abbey palace; 2, abbey garden;
3, courtyard ; 4, outer courtyard ; 5, officers' apartments ; 6, stables ; 7, barns ; 8, houses in
the abbatial enclosure ; 9, bailiff's house ; 10, outer gates ; 11, bailiwick prisons.— Fac-simile
of an Engraving in the " Histoire de St. Germain-des-Pres," by Dom Bouillart, in folio: 1724.

families. The only independent voices raised on behalf of these victims
of oppression came from the great abbeys, such as Stavelo, St. Arnulph,

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

3*'

Cluny, &c, to which monarchs and popes, under the pretext of dedicating
churches (Fig. 249) which had been recently built or restored, repaired in

Fig. 249. — Dedication of the Church belonging to the Monastery of St. Martin-des-Champs, Paris,
destroyed by the Normans and rebuilt by King Henry I. The artist has represented — 1st,
the ancient Church of St. Samson dedicated to St. Martin ; 2nd, the counts and barons who
signed the charter for the re-establishment of the monastery ; 3rd, the archbishops and bishops
who were present at the dedication of the new church. — Fac-simile of an Engraving from
Don Meurier's work, " Historia Monasterii regalis Sancti Martini " (4to., Paris, 1636).
secret to consult, with many members of the higher clergy, as to the political
affairs of Christendom.
The two CouncUs of Rheims and of Mayence (1049), devoted exclusively to
T T

•J2Z

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

disciplinarian reforms, are characteristic of the state of monastic institutions
at this period, just -as the journey of Pope Leo IX. through France and

Fig. 250. — The email Cloister of the Chartreuse at Pavia, with the cupola of the church in the
background (close of the Fourteenth Century).

Germany indicates the exact condition, the resources, the manners, and the
habits of the religious houses. The Ulustrious pontiff, when visiting these
houses, made them splendid presents, promised them important privileges*
and instituted minute inquiries into the studies pursued within their waUs.

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

3*3

At the Abbey of Gorze, in 1149, he even went so far as to note withiiis own
hand the noctum responses in the " Office de Saint- Gorgon."
At about the same period, WUliam, Abbot of St. Benigne de Dijon, re
established in several dioceses the monastic rules and studies; Sigebert, a
monk in the, monastery of Geinblours, came to Metz to teach the Holy
Scriptures, philosophy, and the dead languages ; St. William of Hirsange
reformed the cloister discipline in Germany ; St. Robert, Abbot of Moleme,

Fig. 251.— =Saint- Jean, des Vignes, an Abbey of Regular Canons at Soissons (1076), the entrance-
gate guarded by a barbican and bastilles— From an Engraving in vol. i. of "Architecture
Monastique," by M. Albert Lenoir. -<•
founded the Cistercian order ; St. Gualbert, the order of Vallombrosat in the
Apennines ; St. Bruno, the Carthusian order, which he established both in
the neighbourhood of Grenoble and in Calabria.
It is impossible to depict the profound disorder which reigned in the,
religious houses during the eleventh century, owing to the social disturbance
which had followed the terrors of the year 1000. There were but a few soli
tary monasteries, remote from the troubles and vanities of the world, which
stUl adhered to the rules (Fig. 251), and the monastic schools were nearly

3z4 THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.
everywhere closed, and the notes of song had ceased to be heard in the
churches, when, in the year 1095, the inspired voice of a monk, Peter the
Hermit, summoned the Christian peoples to the Holy War. At this voice,
which seemed to come down from heaven, the whole world was stirred up to
deeds of energy ; the young were inspired with a current of warlike and
adventurous ideas which converged upon one single object — the deliverance
of the holy places.
The difficulty of managing both the spiritual and temporal affairs of a
monastery or cathedral church had led to the appointment of a sort of steward
or lay administrator, termed an avowee, who was paid out of the dues which
he received from the vassals of the community. He generally levied on each
household a loaf of bread, a denier, a measure of oats, wheat, or barley, if the
land grew cereals ; a measure of wine, beer, or cider if the produce of the
domains was grapes, hops, or apples. The avowee was arbiter in aU disputed
cases, and himself fixed the remuneration, before and after giving his decision,
which the two parties to the suit had to pay him. He presided over judicial
duels, and ordeal by boiling water or fire. He had a right to one head of stock
at all cattle fairs, and he also received a draught or a saddle-horse, according
as the district bred the one kind or the other. The avowee of a cathedral or a
monastery always held a distinguished position in society ; barons, dukes, and
counts did not disdain to accept these functions— which they often abused,
it must be added, by keeping for their own use the sums which they had
received for the monastery. The usurpations of every kind which the
avowees committed had been flagrant enough during the investiture dispute,
but they increased enormously during the Crusades, owing to the absence
of so many bishops, archdeacons, abbots, and priors, who had started
for Palestine after loading their domains with mortgages, and even raising
money upon the sacred vessels of their church.
The Crusades, notwithstanding, had the unquestionable advantage of
sifting the clergy, and of removing from the cloisters a large number of
clerks who were less fitted for study and seclusion than for the hardships of
the battle-field. The monks who remained in Europe shut up in their
cloisters were nearly all acting in obedience to some special aptitude, and
they formed that band of artists, architects, painters, sculptors, and
musicians, calligraphists, savants, translators, philosophers, rhetoricians,
and preachers, which shed so much lustre upon the monasteries dunng

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

3^5

the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries. By their direct
action, as weU as by their
example, ecclesiastical archi
tecture made vast progress,
and the wonderful wealth of
decoration which accompanied
it, suddenly burst forth in the
erection of those holy-chapels
which seem like shrines of ,
chiselled stone, in which the
relics brought back from the
Crusades were deposited (Fig.
252). It was under these in
fluences that most of the great
abbeys (Fig. 253) were re
stored, that painting upon
glass attained its fuU perfec
tion, that the Roman tongue
reached the solitude of the
cloister, and the beautiful lite
rature of the ancient classics,
which had for centuries been
relegated to the dust of the
monastic libraries, once more
saw the light, and lent the aid
of aU its charms to combat the
invasion of the vulgar idiom
which the inhabitants of the
communes had everywhere sub
stituted for the Latin lan
guage. Contemporaneously with
the foundation in Palestine of
the order of the Templars — a
hospitaller and mihtary order,

Fig. 252. — Reliquary of the Holy Thorn, preserved in the
Convent of the Augustine Sisters at Arras. — Carved
brasswork of the Thirteenth Century.

3z6

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

Fig. 253.— Refectory in the Priory of St. Martin des> Champs, Paris (now part of the Conservatoire
des Arts et Metiers), the work of Pierre de Montereau, architect to St. Louis (Thirteenth Cen
tury). — Archaeological Restoration by M. Alfred Lenoir.
which had no connection with the monastic orders, and which for a long time
devoted all its energies to defending the holy places by prayer and force of
arms — St. Norbert, the reformer of the regular canons of the St. Augustine

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

321

Fig. 254.— St. Bernard taking possession, with the Cistercian Monks, of the Abbey of Clairvaux.
At the foot of the engraving is inscribed : "St. Bernard, Chaplain of the Virgin Mary, was
descended from the house of the Kings of Burgundy." He was, as a matter of fact, related
through his mother, Aleth (diminutive for Elizabeth), to the first house of the Dukes of
Burgundy.—" Chroniques abregees de Bourgogne," a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century,
in the Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

328

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

order, founded the Premonstrants in Picardy ; Stephen of Muret, a contempla
tive cenobite of Limoges, founded the order of Grandmont in his province ¦
another Frenchman, Aimeric Malefaye, Patriarch of Antioch, being alarmed
at the relaxation of discipline in the monasteries of Asia Minor, introduced
some useful reforms into the establishment upon Mount Carmel; while
Stephen Harding, third abbot of the Cistercians, an active propagator of the
rules which Robert de Moleme drew up under the title of " Charte de Charite,"

Fig. 255.— The Great Beguin Convent at Ghent, called the Convent of St. Elizabeth, founded in
the Twelfth Century, and which now occupies the same site as in 1234, when the Countess Jane
gave a code of rules to the community. — General View taken from the " Ghent Churches," by
Baron Kervyn de Volkaersbcke, reproducing the Engraving of P. J. Goetghebuer.
entrusted to his pupil, St. Bernard, the destinies of the new communities
which sprang from this glorious cradle. It was in the middle of the twelfth
century that there appeared upon the scene one of the brightest lights of
the Church, namely, St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux (Fig. 254), which he
founded, and which was called the third daughter of the Cistercians. He was
an admirable orator, a savant of the first rank, a brilliant writer, and an
eminent statesman ; he had under his control all the interests and secrets of
Christendom and of the sovereign papacy, and he never used them for pur
poses of worldly ambition, He sent forth vast armies of Crusaders to the East,

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

3«9

but he adhered to his character of monk and apostle, by devoting his energies
to combating the Oriental heretics by verbal arguments ; to preventing
schisms ; to appeasing the scholastic quarrels, in which the famous Abelard
was one of the disputants ; to aiding with his counsels the popes and the
monarchs; and to pouring forth, from diocese to diocese, from council to
council, and from synod to synod, that fervid and powerful eloquence which

Fig. 256. — A Beguin. — From an Engraving in the "Histoire de l'Origine dss Beguines Beiges,"
by Hallman.
won him all hearts. The death of the iUustrious abbot of Clairvaux, in 1153,
was a terrible blow to the Church, and an irreparable loss for monastic insti
tutions ; for there was no one to take his place or to continue his work of
reformation in the monasteries of the Benedictine order.
Amongst the contemporary monks, who were founders or reformers of
abbeys, we need only mention the Danish Archbishop Eckel, Felix of Valois,
John of Matha, the Englishman Gilbert of Sempringham, the Liege priest
Lambert Begh or Lebegue, who created the Beguin convents (Figs. 255 and
256), of which there are so many in the Netherlands, and which were pious
u u

33°

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

retreats where the Beguins lived in common without taking the vows. But
the eminent reputation of these austere personages sinks into comparative
insignificance before the touching legend of Heloisa, the unfortunate wife of

«flllCV*^V,0

Fig. 257.— Carved Ivory Chaplet of Beads and Girdle of an Abbess (Sixteenth Century).
Collection of M. Achille Jubinal.
Abelard, who quitted the convent of Argenteuil, near Paris, to immure
herself in " the Paraclete," a house which she had founded in Champagne,
to await and receive there the mortal remains of her beloved lord.
FoUowing her example, many women of equal endowments sought in

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

33«

mental labour and in devotional exercises an aliment for their moral
activity ; and, when the great St. Dominic commenced his apostleship
(1170 — 1221), he found them ready to receive his teaching. He accord
ingly created, under the St. Augustine rule, in unison with the preaching
brothers, afterwards caUed Dominicans (Fig. 258), a congregation of preach
ing sisters known by the same title, namely, Dominicaines. \

UUKSJ

Fig. 268.— The most famous Members of the Dominican Order. — 1. Hugh de St. Cher, Cardinal
of St. Sabine, the most learned theologian of his time, who died March 19, 1263. 2. St.
Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence, 1389—1459. 3. John Dominicus (the blessed), Cardinal
of Ragusa, 1360^-1419. 4. Pope Innocent V., born in Savoy, died June 22, 1276. 5.
St. Dominic, founder of the Order of -Preachers (1170—1221). 6. Pope St. Benedict XL,
born at Treviso (1240— 1304).— From a Fresco of the Crucifixion, by Fra Angelico, in the
Convent of St. Mark at Florence (Fifteenth Century).— From a copy belonging to M. H.
Delaborde.The vulgar tongue was absolutely prohibited in the Dominican houses,
Latin alone being used for conversation. The principal European languages
were, however, taught for preaching purposes : including the southern idioms,
familiar to St. Dominic and St. Raymond, whose eloquence had so deep an
effect in Languedoc and Provence, as well as in a part of Spain (1175 — 1275) ;
and the northern idioms of the Sclaves and the Tartars, which a preaching
brother of Breslau, St. Hyacinthus (1183—1257), used to some purpose in a.

332

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

successful mission that ended in the establishment of two monasteries, at
Cracow and at Kiew. In these still barbarous regions, St. Hedwige, the wife
of a duke of Poland, who died in 1243, founded at Trebnitz a convent of
the Cistercian order, and at about the same period a queen of Castille created
one at Valladolid (Fig. 259). At this epoch, also, the Sisterhood of St. Clare,
founded in 1218 by St. Clare, at the suggestion of St. Francis of Assisi, failed
in its attempts to extend the order beyond Italy.

w «M I

w

I'll

I

Iii

Fig. 259.— Maria de Molina, Queen of Castille (1284—1321)), handing to the Cistercian Nuns the
Charter of Foundation for their convent.— Bas-relief from her Tomb at Valladolid.— From an
Engraving in the "Iconografia Espanola" of M. Carderera.
The poor and docile religious militia organized by St. Francis of Assisi
under the name of Minors or Franciscans (1208), at that time set the world
an edifying example of Christian humility and self-denial. The chief charac
teristic of the Franciscans was their complete renunciation of all worldly
goods. This mendicant order increased so rapidly that their saintly founder
was able to gather round him, in his monastery of Assisi, five thousand
delegates from religious houses which had been built in nine years from the
founding of the order. There were occasionally some unfortunate quarrels
between the secular clergy and the monastic orders. One of the most

m

I

¦JFV'

fill¦Pi

Century), termed the " Triumph of St. Thomas of Aquinas." [To/acepage 66i.

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 333
notorious was that which broke out between the University of Paris and the
mendicant orders. The university was in the habit of suspending its
lectures when it had any dispute with the government. The Dominicans
and the Franciscans having refused to submit to this practice, their priests
were deprived of their professorial chairs, and all their monks excluded from
the university. A doctor, William of St. Amour, published a violent
diatribe against the mendicant orders. The quarrel lasted a long time, and
Popes Innocent IV. and Alexander IV. supported the cause of the monks in
several bulls issued upon this subject (Fig. 260). The university, in the
end, consented to reopen its doors to them, but only on the condition that
they should always occupy the lowest rank, and in the public disputations
not urge their views until the other doctors had had their say. It may be
imagined how this petty restriction was put up with by these humble
monks, when we remember that among those whom the doctors treated
with so much contumely were such men as Roger Bauer, Duns Scotus,
and St. Bonaventura among the Franciscans ; and Albert the Great, Vincent
of Beauvais, and St. Thomas of Aquinas among the Dominicans. It was the
last-mentioned of these who defended the mendicant orders from the attacks
of William of St. Amour.
Towards the close of the thirteenth century, and during two-thirds of
the fourteenth, many reforms took place in the monastic orders, especially
in that of the minor brothers (Fig. 261), who changed their name with
each change of rules. The new orders, however, obtained but a slight
celebrity, and lasted only a short time, with the exception of that of Mercy,
for the ransom of the captives — an eminently charitable work, instituted by
St. Nolasque, a Languedoc crusader, who died in 1256. We must not,
however, forget to mention St. Bridget, the inspired Scandinavian
(1302 — 1372), who, during a journey to Jerusalem, conceived the idea of
founding the order of St. Saviour, which she established in Sweden ; nor
Gerhard Groot, surnamed the Great (1340 — 1384), founder, in Holland, of
the Brethren of the Common Life, who devoted their time to the teaching
of the poor, and whose chief occupation was to copy the books of the
Fathers and of other ecclesiastical writers.
The disorder prevalent in that century extended unfortunately to the
Church ; the priests — notably the monks and the regular canons — gradually
laid on one side the spirit of holy meditation, the habits of prayer, seclusion,

334

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

Fig. 261.— St. Anthony of Padua, a Franciscan Friar, anxious to demonstrate to a heretic, who
asked him to perform a miracle, the truth of the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, commands a
mule to adore the Eucharist. The mule, though ravenously hungry, refuses the oats that his
master is sifting, and kneels down at the bidding of the saint.— Miniature from the "Heures"
of Anne of Bi-ittany (Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century), National Library, Paris.
and pious works. Young men were admitted into the abbeys without
having gone through the period of novitiate ; the monks were not compelled

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 335
to be resident, and many members of a chapter or of a congregation were never
or rarely present at the services. An increase of the penalties for breach of
discipline failed to suppress .these abuses, and in some churches and com
munities, those monks who attended the services were provided with counters,
each of which, when given up in the chapel, entitled the holder to a small
sum of money. Leave of absence was also granted quarterly and half-
yearly, on condition that the rest of the year should be passed in residence.
Different abbeys formed mutual communities for prayer and good works,
which bound them closely together ; while, at the end of the thirteenth
century, several diocesan chapters had drawn up new constitutional codes,
which were to be read each year, and adopted for guidance ; but the external
troubles were always reacting upon the internal quiet of the religious
houses. The abuses which had crept into many of them, in reference to
the distribution of the property belonging to the monks in each monastery,
also added fresh elements of discord ; for the laymen often retained possession
of these portions and diminished by so much the resources of the community,
which none the less continued to shelter the needy, to feed the hungry, and
to bestow alms.
Whilst Battista Spagnuolo, of Mantua, General of the CarmeUte Order,
and one of the most celebrated Latin poets of the fifteenth century, vainly
endeavoured to reform his Ul-disciplined monks, St. Bernardine of Sienna
(1380 — 1446), more fortunate if not more gifted, set a practical example
by joining the order of St. Francis, with the intention of introducing the
needed reforms. He founded three hundred houses of the Brethren of the
Stricter Observance, which, were urgently needed at a period when Europe
was being devastated by three scourges — the plague, famine, and the sword.
At about the same epoch, St. Colette of Corbie succeeded, by the exercise
of an angelic sweetness, in correcting the abuses which had found their way
into the convent of the St, Clare and many other female congregations,
more recently formed under the Franciscan rules ; St. Francis, of Romagna,
instituted the CoUatine order (1425), and St. Jeanne de Valois, daughter
of Louis XI. (1464 — 1505), founded the community of the Sisterhood of the
Annunciation, at Bourges, where her husband, the Duke of Orleans, had
banished her, previous to repudiating the marriage. This virtuous princess
was guided by the counsels of the Calabrian, St. Francis of Paula, the
celebrated founder of the order of the Minimi (1416 — 1507), who, when.

336

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

summoned to France by Louis XL, and resident in Touraine under the eye
of that most suspicious and mistrustful of monarchs, had so far won his
confidence as to induce the king to prepare for death like a Christian.
The Barnabites, and other religious institutions of more or less importance,
which had principally in view the conversion of heretics by preaching,
date from the close of the fifteenth century, and the origin of many of
them was due to the spirit of morality and philanthropy then in vogue.

Fig. 262. — St. Theresa, the Reformer of the Carmelites, who died in 1582. — From a Portrait of the
period engraved in the " Iconografia Espanola " of M. Carderera.
Thus the first house of the Penitents, founded at Paris in 1496 by a Gray
Friar under the name of Tisseran, afterwards became celebrated for its
wholesome example amid the dissolute morals of the sixteenth century.
A great literary event, though only indirectly connected with the history
of the monastic orders, nevertheless enables us to form an accurate judgment
as to the intellectual character of the religious houses during the last thirty-
five years of the fifteenth century, and the first years of the sixteenth : we
refer to the invention of printing. Whatever may have been the causes that
induced these houses to encourage the extension of printing, the action of each

THE ANGELS PRESENTING TO GOD THE SOULS OF THE ELECT.
Miniature from the Breviary of cardinal Grimani, assigned to Memling. S« Mark's library, Venice.
Fifteenth century. From a copy in the poisestion of M. Firmin-Didot.

-jmm mm

mm

¦cmi

m

HHHI

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mm*. ! ! !iii •' '' • i,l - m ,; i ' i (- ilf
¦SiF' U * I i -¦ li - IP pHj

ElilB

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Fig. 263. — The Great Martyrdom of Nangasaki (Sept. 10, 1622), iu which twenty-two missionaries and native Christians were burnt to death, and thirty others,
including several women and children, beheaded, in presence of a vast crowd. — From a Japanese water-colour Drawing of the period, preserved in the Gesu
Convent, at Eome. — Pope Pius IX. commemorated this event by the beatification of two hundred and five martyrs, which was decreed at Rome on the 7th of
July, 1867. [To face page 336.
THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS. \ 337
community is made manifest by its achievements in that vast laboratory which
typographical art had founded, in the stead of a few cells and studies where
the human hand had been wearily transcribing manuscript after manuscript.
In an obscure monastery at Subiaco, near Eome, two printers from
Mayence, Sweynheym and Pannartz, guests of the monks, published the
first edition of Lactantius, followed by several other valuable works of
ecclesiastical authors (1465 — 1467) ; in the monastery of St. Eusebius,
within the walls of Rome, George Laver, of Wiirzburg, printed many
pubhcations, about 1470. Several clerks, brought up in the episcopal schools
of Metz, Liege, Mayence, and Tuscany — Adam Eot, Paul Leenen, Ulric Zell,
and Jacob Caroli — superintended in person printing- offices at Eome, Cologne,
and Florence, which were worthy rivals of those which were being estabhshed
in every direction by ordinary traders. Colard Mansion, a clerk belonging
to a community at Bruges, who was specially entrusted with the copying of
manuscripts (1414 — 1473J conceived the idea of substituting for the tedious
process of the pen and the engraving pencil the rapidity of movable types and
screw printing-presses. The Brethren of the Common Life, his colleagues,
who were settled at Ehingau, near Mayence, at Val St. Marie, Nuremberg,
at Cologne, and at Eostock, imitated the example of Colard Mansion, and from
mere calligraphists became master-printers (1474 — 1479). Two theological
doctors of the Sorbonne, WUliam Fichet and Jehan de la Pierre, also induced
three skilful German workmen, Ulric Gering, Martin Crantz, and Michael
Friburger, to come to Paris, where they provided them with a place to set up
their presses and to establish a workshop (1470). This was the origin of
printing in Paris. Two years later, William Caxton obtained leave to print
in England, beneath the roof of Westminster Abbey ; while in Switzerland,
a canon of Munster (in Argovia), Helias Helye (1472, 1473) had some
small presses at work. Soon after this, the Dominicans, the Carthusians,
and the CarmeHtes estabhshed large printing workshops at Pisa, Parma,
Genoa, and Metz (1476 — 1482) ; the Franciscans, surnamed Freres Confi-
renciers, who had a settlement near Gaude, in Holland, also opened a.
printing-office; and lastly, such celebrated orders as those of Cluny and
Citeaux, branches of the Benedictines, sent for workmen to their houses
in Burgundy, at Clervaux, in Champagne, and Montserrat in Catalonia,
to print the principal liturgical books, which were termed the books of
common prayer. x x

33«

THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS.

The members of the Order of Jesus, founded in Paris by the Spanish
nobleman St. Ignatius Loyola, on his return from a pilgrimage to the Holy
Land (1534), from this period devoted themselves closely to the work of social
regeneration — an undertaking which, looked at in all its different phases,
seemed as if it could only be brought about by means of religious reform.
While St. Francis Xavier, the friend and companion of St. Ignatius, made
use of the influence of the Order of Jesus to convert the idolatrous peoples
in the Indian Ocean (Fig. 263), the Jesuit clerks, a learned and highly
intellectual body, in a short time obtained a hold over the whole world,
forming one vast army which answered as one man to the commands of the
Holy See, and whose representatives were everywhere to be met with, in the
professorial chairs, in the schools, in the affairs of State, and more especiaUy
in the various domains of literature, science, and art. Thus the sixteenth
century, during which Luther and Calvin made such an onslaught upon
the Catholic Church and the monastic orders, gave birth to a new religious
order, which, though the most recent, was the most powerful and invincible
of them all. Luther, who had worn the cowl in the monastery of the
Augustines at Erfurt, and Calvin, who had been canon in the chapter
of Noyon, urged the Huguenots to make away with the monasteries; but
tbeir number only seemed to increase whenever one of them was destroyed
by the sacrilegious hands of the heretics.

Fig. 264. — Seal of tbe Monastery of St. Louis of Poissy, belonging to the Order of Preaching
Brothers of the St. Dominic rule.— St. Louis, with a halo round his head, is covering with
the folds of his cloak the people who are imploring him for protection.

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

Christian Charity in the First Centuries of the Church.— The Eastern Empresses. — The Holy
Roman Ladies.— Olympiade, Melanie, Marcella, and Paula.— Charity at the Court of the
Franks.— St. Margaret of Scotland and Matilda of England.— Hedwige of Poland. — Origin
of the Lazar-houses.-^The Lazarists in France and in England. — Progress and Vicissitudes
of the Order of St. Lazarus.— The Foundations of St. Louis. — The Order of Mercy founded
by St. Nolasque.— St. Catherine of Sienna and St. Francis. — Bernardin Obregon. — Jean
de Dieu. — Philippe de Neri. — Antoine Yvan.

T Christ's coming, the Greco-Eoman civi
lisation had reached the last stages
of corruption, and the slavery of the
vast majority of men failed to satisfy
the thirst for supremacy which de
voured the small section of privileged
leaders in ancient society. The bar
barian peoples, on their part, recog
nised no other power than that of
, , brute force, nor any other pleasures
than those of sanguinary orgies.
To transform this condition of society, which toiled only for money and
sensual enjoyment, Christ gave forth these touching and4 sublime words,
"Blessed are the poor in spirit: blessed are the pure in heart" (Beati
pauperes spiritu; beati mundo corde). To the savage spirit of the barbarian
who deified brute force Christ opposed the reverence for all that is weak
and feeble by clothing himself with all manner of infirmities : " Come, ye
blessed of my Father ; I was poor, I was sick, I was in prison, and ye
comforted me ; inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these
my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
In these powerful words was contained the germ of modern civilisation ;

3+°

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

wherever the Gospel reaches a feeling of tenderness and respect for the poor
and the weak must go hand in hand with the spirit of chastity, selfcdenial,
and devotion. Two words unknown to the old world sum up this trans
formation — humiUty and charity. The rich, the high-born, and even the
offspring of royalty, from the moment they believe in the divine word,
are found tending the sick in hospitals, and the proof of true belief in the
Messiah is ever the same as that which He gave to attest his divine mission
to John's disciples : " Unto the poor the Gospel is preached."
From the first days of Christianity we find the great apostle of the

Fig. 265. — Hospitality. — Jesus Christ, represented as a Pilgrim, being received by two Preaching
Brothers of the Order of St. Dominic. — Fresco-painting by Fra Angelico 'in St. Mark's
Convent at Florence (Fifteenth Century).
Gentiles recommending the giving of alms, and stimulating, the generosity
of the faithful. "If the amount collected," he says, "makes it worth
while, I will come' myself and take it to our brethren." The apostles
appointed deacons to distribute the alms. One of those who reflected the
greatest honour on this appointment was St. Laurentius, the noble martyr.
He had seen his bishop, his spiritual father, led out to execution, and
he became entrusted with the care of the property of his church (Fig. 266).
The prefect of the praetorium said to him, " I know that you have gold and
silver vessels for your sacrifices ; let me have these treasures, which the priace
requires for maintaining his troops." The holy deacon replied, " I know
that our church is rich ; I will let you have all its most valuable contents,
but you must give me three days to put everything in order." He made

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

34'

use of this delay to bring together the poor whom he maintained, and
divided the silver and gold amongst them. The prefect came upon the

Fig. 266. — Pope Sixtus II. handing to St. Laurentius, in 258, the Treasures of the Church, to be
distributed amongst the Poor. — Fresco, painted by Fra Angelico, in the Chapel of Nicholas V.
in the Vatican (Fifteenth Century).
appointed day, and St. Laurentius, pointing to the crowd of halt and poor,
said with a saintly pride, which he afterwards expiated by his martyrdom,

342 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.
" here are the treasures which I promised you ; the real gold is the divine
light which illuminates these poor men, the disciples and brethren of Jesus
Christ." Thus Christian charity began in the days of the apostles, and went on
increasing even amidst persecution ; but it did not reach its full expansion
until the conversion of the Emperor Constantine at length obtained for the
Church peace and liberty.
Helen, the wife of Constantius Chlorus, and mother of Constantine
(247 — 328), may be regarded as having most brilliantly inaugurated the
era of Christian charity in the Middle Ages. Simple and modest, kind
to the suffering and to the needy, she tended and consoled the poor with
maternal solicitude ; her fortune was exclusively devoted to their rehef.
When, in her extreme old age, this pious lady went to visit the Holy Places
in Palestine; she made most munificent gifts to the sick soldiers, whom
the imperial government left without rehef; also to the places where tbe
inhabitants were poor ; and to the religious houses and churches, whose
mission it was " to succour the suffering members of Jesus Christ "
(Fig. 265), according to the figurative expression which the new faith
used to characterize human misery. She recalled the exiles, ransomed the
captives, released from the mines the unfortunate men who had been con
demned to labour underground, and obtained for them the means of living
in open daylight, thus causing them to bless her name and that of her God.
Her daughter Constance also devoted herself to works of charity ; she was
accompanied by a band of maidens whom she animated with her example
— and this was, in fact, the first school of Sisters of Charity.
Despite the religious disputes of this century, Christian charity did not
stop here ; it received a further impulse during the reign of Theodosius,
thanks to Placilla his wife, and to Pulcheria his daughter, both of whom
were canonised after death. Placilla and Pulcheria were the guardian
angels of the imperial palace. Placilla especially being full of compassion
for all those who were in distress. She would go, without attendant, to
visit the poor in their hovels ; she passed whole days with the sick in the
infirmaries attached to the canonical churches and convents, never shrinking
from any charitable service, however repugnant it might be. Pulcheria, a
worthy rival of her mother, was associated with her in aU these good works by
their eloquent panegyrist, St. Gregory of Nyssa. She was, nevertheless,

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

343

outdone by another Pulcheria, grand-daughter of the great Theodosius, who
was called augusta, and who already, at the death of her father the Emperor
Arcadius, though at that time only sixteen, was a model of piety and
wisdom ; she established so severe a rule of life and such complete asce
ticism around her, that her palace was commonly " the convent " (asceterium
vulgo diceretur). For forty years she reigned like asaint and a great
empress, and this period was for the Church a golden age.
Many other heroines of Christian charity descended from an iUustrious

Fig. 267. — The Holy Brothers, Cosmas and Damianus (end of the Third Century), visiting a sick
man and relieving him. — Picture on wood, by Francesco Peselli, in the Louvre (Fifteenth
Century).
family at that time exiled in the forests of Pontus, were also distinguished
by the same virtues ; to wit, Emmelia, mother of St. Basilius, Macrina his
aunt, and Macrina his sister, who were true servants of the poor, under
taking as they did long journeys to discover unknown suffering, with a
view to its relief. Anthusa, mother of St. John Chrysostom, suffered great
privations in order to give away as much as possible, whilst Olympiade,
widow of a prefect of Constantinople, and heiress of an immense fortune,
distributed her money with ungrudging freedom. The emperor, who was
anxious to marry Olympiade to a member of his own family) deprived her of

344 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.
the management of her property, but afterwards restored it to her, knowing
what a noble use she would make of it. Olympiade visited the sick, the
orphans, the widows, and the aged, gave alms to the prisoners and the
exiles, and ransomed the captives, for her liberality knew no bounds ; she was,
moreover, seconded in her works of charity by ecclesiastical virgins (viergcs
ecclesiastiques), devoted to the service of God. Never was woman's apostohc
mission more effective, nor had charity more zealous servants.
The wonderful influence which Olympiade and her companions exercised
in the Christian world, towards the close of the fourth century, was derived
from their ardent charity, which radiated from Constantinople throughout
the whole empire, and awoke a sympathetic response at Eome, Milan, Lyons,
Treves, Eheims, &c. Thus Melanie, the elder daughter of the Consul Mar-
cellinus, Proba, Falconia, St. Juliana, St. Demetriada, St. Paula, mother of
St. Ambrose, and her daughter St. Marcellina, Eoman ladies of the highest
rank, were endowed with the heroism of the Eoman character purified by the
Christian reUgion. St. Ambrose, who has given»us so touching an account
of their good works, caUs them " the august brides of Jesus Christ." They
dwelt with their own families, but passed nearly all their time in work
shops, where they laboured together for the benefit of the poor, leaving off
their occupations only to sing hymns, recite psalms, attend church for the
hearing of God's word, sharing with each other the task of instructing the
people, distributing alms to the poor, and giving succour to the weak. Thus
was prepared the way for the first charitable institutions which were called
into existence at the bidding of Melanie the Younger, Fabiola, St. Paulina,
and St. Pammachius, thanks to the help given by a great number of Eoman
ladies whose lives set an example of all the Christian virtues.
Whilst St. Melanie the Younger was exciting the enthusiasm of the
Catholic world by her ardent charity, St. Marcella, the most illustrious of
the gifted daughters of St. Jerome, was the pride and admiration of the
Eoman aristocracy. Gifted in the very highest degree both in respect to
birth, wealth, grace, and beauty, at a time, too, when these rare endowments
were rendered such a source of peril, owing to the capture of the Eternal
City by .Alaric (410), she had withdrawn to a modest dwelling on the
Aventine Hill, with Principia, a young maiden recommended to her by
St. Jerome. Here she had to submit to every kind of outrage, without
permitting her zeal to be lessened by this cruel trial. She afterwards

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

345

opened a fresh centre of charity, having founded not far from Eome the
Convent of the Eelieving Virgins ( Vierges Secourables), which was taken as a
model for many similar institutions throughout Italy.
Her friend St. Paula, who was Eoman by birth, and a descendant of the
Scipios, whose daughters were saints, whose theatre of action was in the
East, whose tomb was at Bethlehem, and whose panegyrist was St. Jerome,
followed in her footsteps. A widow at thirty, she effected a sweeping change
in her own household and property, set all her slaves at liberty, and devoted
herself to doing good ; then shrouding herself in an incomparable modesty,
and breaking off all her social ties, she emigrated to Palestine, where she

Fig. 268.— Robert I., Duke of Burgundy, having
slain his father-in-law, builds the Church of
Semur to expiate the crime, and has the parricide
represented on the building. — Tympan in the por
tico of the Church of Semur (Eleventh Century).
worked miracles of charity. Long before her death, in 404, she had distributed
aU her worldly wealth to the poor. She had herself become so needy that it
was necessary to borrow money to pay for her funeral, and her beloved
daughter, who closed her eyes, inherited nothing but her faith and charity.
The marvels of charity wrought by the Christian ladies for two centuries
were imitated in. the fifth by many bishops, who had in turn become mis
sionaries and dispensers of alms. St. Paulinus, the illustrious Bishop of
Nolo, who died in 431 at the age of eighty, after having for forty years fed,
clothed, and comforted the poor of his diocese, after having released the
insolvent debtors from prison, ransomed the captives, and allowed himself to be
sold as a slave to the barbarians in order to rescue from their hands the son of
an unfortunate widow, is the most perfect type of the prelates of this remark
able epoch. Amongst his many other remarkable contributions to Uterature,
must be cited his " Discourse on Almsgiving," which is an eloquent exposition
V Y

346 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.
of his doctrine. St. Paulinus, by his teaching and his example, had formed
an eminent school of disciples, amongst them Sulpicius Severus (363 — 420),
who, in concert with some pious ladies of the Eoman aristocracy, seems to
have been desirous of inaugurating a new era of things in the reign of
Gregory the Great.
The ransom of the captives was the most urgent of the works of charity in
the sixth century, for the wars and invasions of the barbarians had reduced
whole populations to slavery; and so the Church devoted all its resources
and efforts to this work of redemption, Pope Gregory deeming no sacrifice
too great for furthering it. He was, moreover, powerfully seconded by the
earnest efforts of women who constituted themselves the humble hand
maids of Jesus Christ. The Empress Constantina, her sister-in-law Theodissa,
St. Sopatra, and St. Damienna, all of whom were imperial princesses, sent
him enormous sums from Constantinople ; the Empress Leontia, Theodehnda,
Queen of the Lombards, and her son Theodoaldus acted in a simUar manner.
As Christianity extended westward, the bright light of charity radiated in
the same direction. St. Adelberga, wife of the first Christian King of
England, and her daughter Bertha, wife of Ethelbert, King of Kent, were
zealous in the cause of benevolence upon their conversion to the faith.
This impulse given to the Christian spirit did not slacken : St. Clotilda,
Queen of the Franks, who was guided by the counsels of the Archbishop of
Eheims, the eminent doctor St. Bemigius ; St. Albofleda, sister of Clovis ;
St. Eadegonda of Thuringia, wife of King Clotaire, who founded a hospital
at Athies, and a monastery at Poitiers ; and St. Bathilda, of noble birth, who,
after degrading herself to the humble condition of slavery, shared the throne
of Neustria as the wife of Clovis II. , were so many heroines of charity.
Bathilda, in the course of a long and wise administration of affairs (645 —
680), was the good angel of the unfortunate. The abbot St. Genes was
her almoner, and her privy councillors were St. Eloi, St. Owen, St. Leger
— venerable prelates whose active and pious co-operation was in perfect
harmony with the promptings of her own heart. She founded abbeys, and,
what was even more useful, increased the number of hospitals which were
built in every direction. The royal abbey of Chelles, near Paris, founded
by Queen Clotilda and rebuilt by Bathilda, and another monastery which
she constructed after the same plan, were establishments of religious educa
tion, literary instruction, and benevolence.

Fig. 269.— Works of Charity.— Reduced Fac-simile of a Drawing of the Fifteenth Century, attributed to Savonarola, in the National Collection of Drawings.
The artist shows the practice of works of mercy being carried on in each of the detached cottages, the mottoes recalling the texts in which Christ inti
mates that at the Last Judgment the exercise of charity will weigh heaviest in the scale. In No. 1, the sick are being tended in their beds or picked up
in the streets ; in No. 2, the people are being clothed ; No. 3 represents travellers who are being given to drink ; No. 4, the hungry receiving bread ;
No. 5, pilgrims being sheltered ; No. 6, a dead body being prepared for burial ; No. 7, the visiting of prisoners. The last scene is a sanctuary in which
the divine sacrifice — the true source of Christian charity — is being celebrated, whilst a penitent is obtaining the remission of his sins because he has prac
tised charity. In tbe foreground rich men are throwing their money into a heap, and the poor are receiving their share of it. The monk whose bust is
seen to the left is perhaps Bernardin de Feltri, preaching in encouragement of this good work. " [To face page 346.

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. . 347
During the eighth and ninth centuries, a great number of hospitable
houses were built upon the high-roads leading from France to Italy, from
France to Spain, and also from Spain to the confines of civilised Ger
many. The Carlovingian kings, beginning with Charlemagne and ending
with Charles the Bald, with the view of facilitating international com
merce throughout the vast extent of their empire, ordered the establish
ment of a number of free houses of which travellers might make halting-
places, and in which they could count upon finding not only security, but
any assistance which they might -• require. The establishment of lazar-
houses or lazarettos, the origin of which dates from the fifth century, seems
to have been less a work of charity than a sanitary measure of precaution
against leprosy, a terrible and incurable malady which was generally looked
upon as a punishment from heaven. These lazar-houses increased in the
West, as the relations of Europe with the East became more general. It is
from this period also that may be dated the foundation of many Hdtels-Dieu,
religious asylums, most of which were constructed in close proximity to the
porch of the cathedral churches, taking the place of the ancient canonical
infirmaries. Such was the Hotel-Dieu in Paris, the origin of which is lost
in the obscurities of the Middle Ages.
After an interval of dejection and selfishness which must be attributed to
the misfortunes that overwhelmed the peoples and ruined the Church,
Christian charity, though permanent and persistent in each diocese, though
too often ineffectual, was the distinguishing characteristic of several con
temporary sovereigns. Edward the Elder, son of Alfred the Great (900
— 925), surnamed in the Eoman breviary "the father of the poor and of
the orphan," must be mentioned as the first of them, for the various bene
volent institutions which he created were never a burden upon his subjects,
the whole cost coming out of his private revenues.
Canute I., leader of the Danes, converted to Christianity by a French
princess to whom he was married, did as much good at the close of his reign
as he had done evU in the early part of it by his persecution of the Christians
(1016—1036). Olaus or Olaf of Sweden, and Olaus of Norway, King of the
Scandinavians, founders of two Christian monarchies in the North, intermixed
works of charity with dogmatic principles, and rendered the religion of
Christ popular by making it contribute to the welfare of their subjects.
But the two noblest types of the Christian Church in Northern Europe during

34«

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

the eleventh century were Queen Margaret, wife of Malcolm, King of
Scotland (1070 — 1095), and St. Matilda their daughter, wife of Henry I.
of England. Margaret, the mother of the poor, the consoler of the afflicted, looking
upon her subjects as a large family com
mitted to her charge by providence, under
went constant privations that she might have
more to distribute in alms ; she relieved
sufferers before they had time to ask for
help ; inquired into hidden distress ; sought
out the insolvent debtors in order to free
them from their Uabilities; ransomed the
prisoners of war, and visited constantly the
hospitals which she had endowed or founded.
Before sitting down to table, she washed the
feet and dressed the wounds of the sick poor,
while nine orphans and twenty-four widows
pr aged persons were always partakers of
her meals, During Advent and Lent she
had as many as three hundred at her table.
Her daughter Matilda, who was also
canonised, survived her more than twenty-
six years (1118). She founded two hos
pitals in London, and took great pleasure
in visiting them, and tending the inmates
Fig. 270.-St. Elizabeth of Hungary, ^^ her 0Wn *hands-
going to relieve the poor, suddenly Before her day there was another St.
sees the folds of her cloak covered with
roses in full bloom.— From a Painting Matilda, who was early instructed in the ex-
^tlSS'jfiiSsC' ercise of ^[tJ> first bi her a^st mother'
and afterwards by her grandmother, abbess
of a convent at Erfurt, where she spent several years : she was a woman of
true piety. She married the Emperor Henry, surnamed the Fowler, and,
owing to the wars in which her husband was constantly engaged, the regency
was often entrusted to her. When she had resigned these high functions,
which were very burdensome to her, she again became the influential adviser
of the emperor, the counsellor of justice, the minister of clemency, and the

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 349
friend of the unfortunate. Left a widow, she retired, when her son succeeded
his father on the throne, to her favourite convent of Northausen, a vast
charitable foundation in which three thousand maidens belonging to the first
families of Germany passed their lives in holy meditation, and in the relief
of human suffering. Her three chUdren, the Emperor Otho I., the Archbishop
Bruno, the apostle of Germany, and Queen Gerberga, wife of Louis d'Outre-
mer, King of France, reflected the virtues of their mother ; but the memory
of St. Matilda of Germany was still more vividly awakened in the person
of her grand-daughter St. Adelaide, and of her great-grand-daughter Emma,
wife of King Lothair.
Under the Emperor Henry IL, surnamed the Pious, and the Empress
Cunegunda, charitable establishments, hospitals, houses of relief, and places of
refuge increased very largely, and when Conrad came to the throne at the death
of Henry IL, the empress-regent retired to the convent of Kafiung, which
she had founded in the diocese of Paderborn, and devoted herself to the service
of the poor and the sick who were under the special care of this institution.
Dambrooka, daughter of the despotic Boleslav, Duke of Bohemia, and wife
of a duke of Poland whose hardness of heart she succeeded in softening,
afterwards mother of Boleslav the Great, together with the Princess Adelaide
of Poland, mother of St. Stephen I., the most famous of the Hungarian
kings, were both celebrated for their charity and self-devotion, and, with
St. Margaret of. Scotland, Matilda of England, Matilda of Germany, and
Adelaide of Germany, they prepared the way for St., Elizabeth of Hungary
(1207 — 1231), who reflected so faithfully the angelic disposition of her aunt
Hedwiga, the patron-saint of the kingdom of Poland. It would seem,
indeed, as if they all foUowed the same programme of benevolence. St.
Hedwiga, daughter of the Duke of Carinthia, who by her marriage with
Boleslav the Modest became Duchess of Poland and Silesia, created a new
kind of charitable institution which was calculated to bring about the best
results. She founded a convent of the Carthusian order at Trebnitz, of
which her daughter Gertrude became an inmate, with the view of devoting
it specially to the education, the marriage, and the dowry of girls who had
been left unprovided for. She enriched it with very large donations, and a
thousand needy persons were fed there every day, exclusive of the abundant
alms and relief in kind which the community distributed without its waUs.
At this epoch, the Abbey of Longchamps, near Paris, began its existence

3So CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.
with the modest and touching title of " the Humility of our Lady." IsabeUa,
the only sister of Louis IX., whom the saintly monarch made the minister of
his bounty and kindness to the suffering, was the foundress of this insti
tution. The nuns at Longchamps educated and maintained poor girls, and
distributed the rest of their revenues in alms. Their rules, a model of good
sense, wisdom, and charity, approved of by St. Bonaventura, were copied by
several similar establishments. Isabella, who had consecrated herself to the
service of God by taking the veil, besides instructing, caring for, and feeding
the poor, also worked for them with her own hands. She estabhshed in the
abbey a kind of workshop in which ladies of the highest rank, while singing
hymns and reciting prayers, spun wool and made garments for the poor.
The Crusades, what with the additional calls which they made on public
charity, and the epidemic diseases which they brought, had rendered greater
development of works of mercy absolutely indispensable. Works of charity
are, in fact, the most marked characteristics of the reigns of Louis TIL,
Philip Augustus, and Louis IX. (1179 — 1270) ; most notably of the last, in
which the saint-king set all his contemporaries such an example of Christian
self-denial. We possess, under the title Etablissements de Saint Louis, a coUec
tion of the laws and ordinances framed by this great monarch, and forming
an administrative code which displays wonderful sagacity, firmness, and fore
thought. His saintly mother, Blanche of CastiUe, to whose counsels he
perhaps paid too little heed, seems to have taken a prominent part in the
drawing up of this admirable code, which seems to breathe the true spirit of
the Gospel. In St. Louis's numerous and important charitable foundations,
such as the Quinze-vingts, the Maison-Dieu, enlarged and endowed in Paris,
the Hostelleries des Postes, in the chief towns of the kingdom, we recognise
the collective work of this great king and his mother, who threw their love
for humanity into the scale of politics (Fig. 271).
The angel of charity spread its wings over the West and the East, and
whatever might be the final result of so many distant wars which were on
that account the more perUous, they could not fail to bring about an infinite
increase of benevolent institutions. The most important, in point of utility,
was the extension of the hospitaller order of St. Lazarus.
The Lazarists had two hospitals' in Jerusalem, when Godfroi de BouiUon
entered the holy city with the Crusaders (1099). Subsequently Louis VIII.,
having induced these monks to send some of their brethren to France,

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

35'

settled them outside Paris at the extreme end of the Faubourg St. Denis, in
the lazaretto originally founded by Queen Adelaide, wife of Louis le Gros.

HVVOT

Fig. 271. — St. Louis serving a Repast to the Poor. — Miniature from the "Petites Heures'' of Anne
of Brittany, which belonged to Catherine de Medicis (beginning of the Sixteenth Century),
in the Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.
These monks were also endowed with a rich domain at Boigny, near Orleans,
(1154), which afterwards became the head-quarters of their order. Louis VII.,

352 CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.
who had seen female communities in the East devoted to the tending of
lepers, and who wished to create simUar ones in France, founded a house at
La Saussaie, near Villejuif, where nuns had charge of leprous women, and he
assigned them, as a revenue, the tithe on the wine brought into Paris, which
belonged by right to the king and queen. This estabHshment rapidly became
rich : Philip Augustus bequeathed to it at his death all his gold and silver
seals, on condition that prayers should be said on behalf of himself
and the members of his family ; other sovereigns gave it the privilege of
claiming, at the death of a king or a prince of the house of France, his
linen, his mules, the state-horses, and all the other horses used at his funeral,
together with aU the mourning harness and drapery. These privileges were
so fully recognised, and the rights of the nuns so completely understood,
that, a century and a half later, after the death of King John in England,
eight hundred pounds (800 livres parisis) were paid to this convent as an
indemnity for the horses which, owing to the death of the insolvent monarch
in captivity, had not been bequeathed. Charles VI. paid the convent 2,500
livres to buy back the horses belonging to his father, Charles V.
A lazar-house had also been established by Louis VII. at Etampes, in
an ancient hospital for indigent lepers, and the monks of this house, being
entitled to caU themselves maltres and freres, were authorised to hold
chapters and to sign their own capitulary documents. Their founder assigned
them valuable property, with right of petty and ordinary justice, with right
of toll, of market, &c. Several institutions of a similar kind were also set
up in different parts of France, for the public health required that persons
afflicted with leprosy should be provided with asylums where they could not
come in contact with any one. Henry IL, King of England and Duke of
Normandy (1133 — 1189), founded one house at Eouen for lepers and for the
monks in charge of them, and another in the forest of Eouvrai, not far from
Eouen, for leprous women, with the condition that their nurses should be
ladies of noble birth. Henry IL, moreover, in founding a number of
lazarettos in England, did for his kingdom what Louis VII. had done for
France upon a much smaller scale. Both were seconded by the aristocracy
of their respective countries, as the progressive development of a disease
which science deemed incurable was beginning to cause great alarm.
Eichard Cceur-de-Lion, King of England, also supported the Order of
St. Lazarus, which he had seen doing good service during the Crusades. The

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

353

Fig. 272.— The Banner of a Flemish Lazaretto with the Arms of the G-ruthHiyse Family, dating
from 1502. — From a painted Curtain preserved among the Collection of Engravings in the
National Library. The picture refers to the life of St. Lazarus. In the middle are the Virgin
and St. Lazarus, the latter with traces of the sores which the dogs licked. In the top medal
lion to the left is the rich man driving Lazarus from his door. Opposite, Lazarus is
standing at the rich man's door, while a dog licks his sores. Below, the rich man is upon his
death-bed, with an evil spirit waiting to carry off his soul. Upon the opposite side, Lazarus
is lying dead upon the bare ground, but a dove is bearing his soul to heaven. The donors of
the banner are kneeling before the Virgin and St. Lazarus. The clapper (which was used
to announce the approach of the lepers) is depicted eight times in the border.

Lazarists, both men and women, who had taken up their abode at Jerusalem,
Acre, Jericho, and Bethany, were looked upon with admiration even by
z z

354 " CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

Saladin, who permitted them to remain in the first-named city a year after its
capture. They were also favourably treated by the Emperor Frederick IL,
who, in his fierce disputes with Eome, had occasion to notice their pacific and
conciliatory spirit. His contemporary and friend, Andrew II. , King of
Hungary, and father of St. Elizabeth, combined with his daughter and with
his son-in-law, Louis VI., Landgrave of Thuringia, to increase the lazarettos
throughout Germany. The hospital of St. Mary Magdalene at Gotha, which
was founded by St. Ehzabeth, and richly endowed by her family, was
administered by the Lazarists, who " received traveUers and needy way
farers." Detachments of the same order gave succour in Saxony, Poland,
the banks of the Elbe, the Danube, and the Maine. Wherever the brethren
were established they recognised the authority of the grand-master, who
resided at Boigny, in France, and the sovereignty of the King of France,
They all followed the rules of St. Augustine, and lived ia conformity with the
statutes which commanded them to visit the sick with pious zeal, to tend,
feed, and clothe persons afflicted with incurable diseases, and to receive
charitably the pilgrims, the poor, the desolate, and those who were unable to
earn their livelihood. The order, though at times a warlike one in the Holy
Land, was never any but a hospitallers' order in Europe.
During the latter half of the thirteenth century, various papal bulls,
decisions of councils, and official sentences testify very clearly to the emi
nently hospitable character of the Lazarists ; and these good brethren, far
from confining themselves to the care of the lepers whose numbers diminished
daily, relieved every variety of infirmity and sickness, and succoured all
kinds of misery and suffering.
The downfall of the Knights Templars, who had been rivals of the
Knights of St. Lazarus, in respect both of fortune and influence, proved
advantageous to the latter. The greater the severity shown towards the
Templars, the greater was the protection accorded to the Lazarists, the
Knights of St. John, and all the orders designated in the papal bulls as
hospitalarii milites, that is, warriors or knights of hospitality and charity.
In the time of St. Louis, a Languedoc knight caUed Nolasque, touched
with pity for the fate of the unhappy captives, men, women, and chUdren,
who were daily falling into the hands of the Barbary corsairs, and sold hke
cattle in the Eastern slave-markets, conceived the phUanthropic idea of
instituting an order of " Mercy," or Eansom. He died in 1236, after having

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

3SS

had the satisfaction of seeing this charitable undertaking make great
progress. The Brethren of Mercy preached and collected alms for the
ransoming of the captives ; they then crossed the seas with the produce of
their appeals to buy them back, and, if the sum was insufficient, they gave

Fig. 273. — The Seven Christian Virtues, with their Symbols. — From a Miniature in the " Ethics
of Aristotle " (Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century), Rouen Library.
On the left are the Theological Virtues : Faith, dressed as a nun, is holding a church, a New Testa
ment, and a wax taper; Sope, in the garb of a peasant girl, has a ship upon her head, a cage
beneath her feet, a beehive and a spade in her hands ; Charity is a young woman standing
on a hot oven, with a pelican upon her head, and her hair falling loose upon her shoulders ;
she has .in her hands a bleeding heart and the monogram of Christ surrounded with flames
of fire. Then come the Cardinal Virtues : Temperance, balancing upon tbe sails of a wind
mill, a bridle in her mouth, a clock upon her forehead, and a telescope in her hand ; Justice,
standing on the seat of justice, with scales at her girdle, and balancing swords ; Prudence is
in the garb of a nun, and is weighed down under her symbols, viz. a coffin, a mirror, a
Bieve, and the shield of faith ; lastly, Strength, mounted on a screw-press, and with an anvil
on her head, is holding a donjon in one hand, while she strangles a dragon with the other.

themselves to -slavery in exchange for the unhappy prisoners. The Christian
rehgion was alone capable of inspiring such feelings of self-devotion.

3Sb

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

Leprosy, however, still prevailed, and was, moreover, complicated with
strange and unknown epidemics which spread terror everywhere and depopu
lated the cities of the West. It was then that Providence raised up a
few saintly women and holy confessors who, amidst sickness and death,
pursued their charitable mission — such as St. Catherine of Sienna (1347
— 1380) ; St. Bernardin of Sienna,
who was born in the same year
that Catherine died (1380—1446);
St. Frances, a Eoman matron; St.
Juliana of Florence, and many others,
who taught men that God only sent
them trials in order to render them
more worthy of Him. St. Catherine,
from her youth, was a member of the
Order of St. Dominic ; she distributed
amongst the poor the patrimony which
her father had left her, and devoted
herself to teaching and preaching to
the salvation of souls. When she took
upon herself the further task of tend
ing the sick, she selected the most
painful cases, those in which the sores
were so contagious and so fearful to
behold that no one had the courage to
come near them. During the great
Fig. 274.— Orphan of the Venice Hospitals in plague at Florence (1374), her heroism
the Sixteenth Century. — From the work of it. • *ui ¦ j- ¦ •„ „„,"
Cesare Vecellio : octavo, 1590. WaS sometW suMime i ^ine ™P>
ration made up for a want of medical
skill, and she cured a great number of the plague-stricken ; she saved,
perhaps, even more of those who were hardened in sin — a double miracle
of nature and of grace.
In spite of the terrible vicissitudes to which Europe and Asia were
exposed for two centuries, the Order of St. Lazarus never lost, either in the
West or in the East, its essentially hospitable character. This it preserved,
notwithstanding the impediments placed in its way by the rivalry of the
Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and the avowed preference of the Court of

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

357

Eome for the latter — a preference which was due to the fact that the Popes,
who had never given up all hope of recovering the Holy Land, were vexed
to see the Lazarists renouncing altogether their military functions to devote
themselves exclusively to the poor, the infirm, the sick, and the pilgrims.
It was, however, their purely charitable mission which obtained for them the

Fig. 275. — The Great Hospital at Milan, founded in 1456 by Duke Francis Sforza and his Wife.
security, the protection, and the privileges which were everywhere accorded
them. *
The chief authorities at Boigny, who had remained intact amidst the ruin
of the Order of the Templars, acted with extreme prudence ; the chapters
were held very quietly, but always at fixed periods, and the nature of their
decisions, their choice of persons to direct the branch establishments, their
general administration of the property of the poor, were such as to give no
handle to hostile criticism and malevolence. Moreover, it was the sole
hospitable institution which was in proper and continuous working order.
The spirit which animated King Louis and Queen Blanche had communi-

358

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

cated itself to many of the lords and ladies of their Court, who, as volunteer
or auxiliary Lazarists, devoted themselves to the service of the lepers and
the sick. Such were Elzear de Sabran, Count of Arian, and his wife. Not
only did they assiduously frequent the lazarettoes and do work as menial as it
was revolting, but they collected alms in concert with the Lazarist brethren,
and assisted them in the most painful of their duties.
St. Cajetan the Dominican, so celebrated in the fifteenth century for his

Fig. 276.— Knights of the Order of the Holy Ghost from pure intent.— "Ytem doyvent jeuner
chascun jeudi de l'an si veullent ou ont le povoir, et se n'ont le povoir ou la volonte doyvent
donncr a mengier a trois poures en lonor du Pere, du Fils et du Saint-Esprit ou leur donner
tant qu'il puissent avoir leur sustenance pour le jour" (old French). — From the Statutes of
the Order of the Holy Ghost from pure intent, or of the Union, instituted at Naples in 1362,
by Louis of Anjou, the first of that name, King of Jerusalem, Naples, and Sicily. — Manu
script of the Fourteenth Century, preserved in the Louvre (Musee des Souverains), now
in the National Library, Paris.

controversy with Luther, his clerical institutions, and the energy of his
proceedings with regard to teaching and benevolence, sowed the germs of the
charitable congregations which, under various names, afterwards constituted
a splendid body of religious and hospitable establishments. At Naples
he founded the immense Hospital for Incurables, the Mount of Mercy
for the poor belonging to the better classes, asylums for orphans, and
houses of refuge for penitent women. Nor was this all, — with a view to
suppressing usury, which had ruined so many families and prevented the

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

359

unfortunate debtors from recovering themselves, he conceived the idea of
founding pawn establishments, and a lady, the Contessa^ di Porto, procured
him the sum of four miUion pounds (Italian) to establish the first house
which lent money at the legal rate of interest (1469 — 1534).

Fig. 277.— Margaret of York, third wife of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, one of the most
charitable princesses of her time, who died at Mechlin in 1503.— Sl-je ia represented on her
knees between the four Doctors of the Church, St. Gregory, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and
St. Ambrose. In the background is the Church of St. Gudule, at Brussels. — From a Miniature
in a " Traite sur la Misericorde," translated from Latin into French by Nicholas Finet,
Canon of Cambrai and Almoner to Margaret. (Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the
Burgundian Library, Brussels.)
The saddening spectacle of human misery excited the sympathy of Jean
de Dieu, a Portuguese gentleman, who had successively fought against the
French, the Turks, and the Hungarians; after having led a licentious life as
a soldier, he devoted himself to healing the wounded and to the care of the

360

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS.

sick (1540). The wounds inflicted by fire-arms required much more careful
treatment than those caused by steel weapons, for they were followed by sup
puration of a contagious character, and other dangerous consequences ; they,
moreover, entailed terrible operations, which made an increase in the number
of surgeons a matter of absolute necessity. Jean de Dieu determined to make
good this deficiency, and he was the originator of the corps of hospital attend
ants and sick-nurses. But the institution which he founded was not properly

Fig. 278. — St. Vincent de Paul. — Reduced Fac-simile of a Drawing by Edelmet
(Seventeenth Century).

organized and put in working order until after his death (1550), in the
midst of the Italian wars and the great struggles of France and Spain.
Obregon and Jean de Dieu were both contemporaries of PhUippe de
N^ri, founder of the Order of the Oratory, a learned Florentine, animated as
much by the spirit of charity as by his fondness for religious teaching.
The beneficent institutions of St. Philip were perhaps but the inteUigent
application upon a larger scale of the schemes of moral reform so wisely
conceived by St. Catherine of Sienna, St. Francis the Eoman, and St.

CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 361
Juliana. At about the same period, a Frenchman, less celebrated than
Philippe de Neri, but whose memory is cherished by his compatriots in
Provence, Antoine Yvan, inspired by the example of the Somasques, the
Crucifers, and the Scholopians (regular clerks whose office it was to care for
the orphans, the sick, and the poor), endeavoured to collect in one institution,
under the title of "Order of the BeKgious Clerks of Mercy," a staff
entrusted with the task of reheving these three classes of misery (1576 —
1653). And, lastly, there appeared in France that great benefactor of
suffering humanity, St. Vincent de Paul, who, having taken orders in 1600,
commenced his apostleship just at the close of the Middle Ages and the
Eenaissance period, bequeathing to modern generations the admirable
practice of Christian charity, organized, regulated, and disseminated with
wondrous forethought amongst aU grades of society in the Catholic world.

3 A

PILGEIMAGES.

The first Pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Rome. — The Worship of the Martyrs. — Pilgrims' Hos
pitals. — Images of the Virgin Mary. — Relics brought from the East by the Crusaders. —
Celebrated Pilgrimages of Early Days. — The Roman Basilicas. — St. Nicholas de Bari. —
Notre-Dame de Tersatz. — St. Jacques de Compostella. — Notre-Dame du Puy, de Liesse,
de Chartres, de Rocamadour. — Pilgrimages in France, Germany, Poland, Russia, and
Switzerland.

HE first of the Christian pilgrimages
were those made to the tomb of
Christ, when the apostles, the dis
ciples, the- mother of sorrow (mater
dolorosa), a few saintly women, and
soon, no doubt, many of the inhabi
tants of Jerusalem, paid their pious
visits to the sepulchre which the
resurrection had robbed of its prey.
Afterwards, when the Gospel became
known throughout the countries near
Judsea, St. Paul set the example of making a pilgrimage to the holy places
—an example which was followed by millions of the faithful in later ages.
In the third century, but even more so in the fourth, Christian men and
women of aU nations visited the places mentioned in the Gospel as having
been the scenes of some episode in the life of Jesus Christ, from the stable at
Bethlehem to the Calvary of Golgotha. Amongst this host of pUgrims, his
tory has handed down to us the names of St. Hilarius, St. Basilius the Great,
and his brother St. Gregory of Nyssa, who wrote a discourse concerning the
visitors to Jerusalem ; St. Jerome also, with the Scriptures in his hand, made
the solemn pilgrimage, accompanied by learned theologians such as the
Bishop of Gaza, Porphyrius, and Eufinus of Aquileia, and by several saintly

Fig. 279.— St. Denis carrying his Head to his place of burial : according lo the old -legend, he is
supported by two angels, and followed by a Christian lady, St. Catulla, who is going to put
him iu his shroud. In the scene above, tbe body of the martyr is being prepared for burial.
—After a Miniature in the "-Vie de Monseigneur Sainct Denis," Manuscript of the Four
teenth Century (National Library, Paris) . [ To face page 362.

PILGRIMAGES. 363

women, Melanie, Paula, Fabiola, Eustochia, who were scarcely less erudite
than the doctors.
We find the proofs of these early pilgrimages in the inscriptions traced
with the point of the stylus, or merely with charcoal, upon the plaster of the
walls of the Catacombs at Eome. There are many in the cemetery of
St. Calixtus which give expression to pious thoughts, touching prayers, and
some interesting events. In the crypt of the old church at Montmartre,
where, as there is reason to believe, the martyrdom of St. Denis (Fig. 279)
and his companions took place, there were found many similar inscriptions,
which would seem to indicate that there, as at Eome, the pilgrims have
left traces of their visits.
The Catacombs at Eome are full of images of saints, painted in fresco
on a groundwork of glass or mosaics in coloured stones ; and many of
them, some dating from the second and even from the first century of the
Church, seem to mark the stations at which the primitive pilgrims halted or
knelt or prayed.
The memory of any act which has excited admiration, or has impressed
itself vividly, long remains indelible in the heart of the people, to which fact
must be attributed the origin and long duration of a number of pilgrimages
which date from the early ages of Christianity. The commemorative marks
of these pilgrimages remained unknown to posterity, until recourse was had
to consecrated standards (signa), to images, and to amulets which generally
bore the monogram of Christ or the sign of the redemption. The cross was
never of the shape which it assumed in the fourth century, being rather the
cross termed commissa or patibulata — in the form of the Greek letter tau (T),
which, as tradition teUs us, corresponded exactly to the shape of the cross
upon which our Lord suffered death. This kind of cross is, in fact, to be
seen on amulets or reliquaries of the third century ; it was embroidered on
garments and engraved upon tombs. The cross was thus the symbol of
pilgrimage, as it was afterwards the emblem of the Crusades.
The worship of relics, whatever be its origin, was a natural adjunct to
the worship of the tombs in which Christ's confessors were laid, and of the
soil where their martyrdom had taken place ; thus the smallest fragment of a
saint's body, the most trifling piece of raiment, or most insignificant object
(tantillce reliquim) that had belonged to a blessed martyr, and more espe
ciaUy anything which represented a material reminder of the glorious death

364

PILGRIMAGES.

which a Christian had won in confessing the Gospel, was carefully preserved
as a relic. Thus the periods of persecution were the most favourable for the
multiplication of these relics. Almost before the martyr's sufferings were
over, a crowd of believers invaded the amphitheatres and arenas, carried off

Fig. 280. — St. Barbara, a Maiden of Nicomedia, who suffered Martyrdom in the Third Century.—
Drawn with the pen and pencil by John Van Eyck, called John of Bruges, in honour of the
building of a church dedicated to her. — In the Museum at Antwerp (Fifteenth Century).
and concealed the mortal remains of the victim, collected his precious blood
in sponges, and almost fought for the very sand upon which it was shed ;
and when the new saint had been laid in some sure resting-place, they vied
with each other in sprinkling sweet perfumes over the body, in wrapping it
up in white linen, and even in purple and gold. His solemn interment

PILGRIMAGES. 365

afterwards took place in some sanctuary (loculum) of the Catacombs, which
was afterwards visited by numerous and devout pilgrims who came to pay
their pious homage to his memory.
One of the earliest instances of this worship of the martyrs is furnished
us in the hagiography of St. Ignatius, who suffered martyrdom at Eome in
the reign of Trajan. We see" therein how, in spite of the armed attendants
and heathen crowds which filled the amphitheatre where the execution had
taken place, some courageous Christians, at the risk of their own lives,
secured the remains of the prelate in order to convey them to his own
church at Antioch. In a letter concerning the martyrdom of St. Polycarp,
quoted by Eusebius, it is stated that the faithful carried away his bones,
more precious in their eyes than gold and precious stones, and concealed
them in a fitting- place (ubi decebat).
The unanimous testimony of St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Leo, St.
Cyprian, St. Chrysostom, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and of all the most illus
trious Fathers of the Greek, African, Eastern, Eoman, and Gallican Churches,
proves that the worship of martyrs, of the places of their nativity (natalia), of
their burial-places, and of their relics, was established in the Christian world
before the close of the fourth century (Fig. 280). The various liturgies,
sacramentaries, missals, and rituals confirm this testimony. Moreoyer, the
primitive Church had, in a measure, joined the worship of relics to the
sacrifice of the eucharist by celebrating the latter upon the tombs of the
martyrs. This ancient usage was raised into a liturgical law under the pon
tificate of St. Felix (269), as St. Athanasius affirms in his biography of that
saint. When the persecutions had ceased, basilicas sub dio, or under the open
sky, were raised over the crypts which held the bodies of the martyr-saints.
The enormous sum of five hundred golden sous, representing seven
pounds of gold, the price for the body of an obscure m*artyr in the third
century, fails to give an idea of the fabulous sums which were expended at
that period to obtain possession of the bodies of the saints. Men hoped, to
use an expression borrowed from the Acts of St. Firnius and St. Eusticus,
that by so doing they were laying up treasures for the life to come ; and this
explains why Luitprand, King of the Lombards, purchased the relics of
St. Augustine for their weight in gold.
The flow of pilgrims into Eome, Jerusalem, and other places was so great
towards the close of the fourth century, and still more in the fifth, that it

366

PILGRIMAGES.

became necessary to regulate this display of devotion by some strict rules of
discipline. Many ecclesiastical writers, while deploring the abuses to which
it gave rise, were unable to point out any effectual remedy ; it being difficult
to separate the wheat from the chaff, to distinguish the false pilgrims from
the true, and to prevent vagabonds, ever ready to rob any wealthy travellers
they might fall in with, from assuming the garb of piety and religion.

Fig. 281. — "Count Renier bearing the Body of St. Veronica to the Church of St. Waudru, in Mons."
— After a Miniature in the " Chroniques de Hainaut " (Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century),
Burgundian Library, Brussels.

Every church, abbey, and chapel became at this period a place of refuge,
ever open for pilgrims, who were certain of being hospitably received there
at all hours, for their purse was generally light, and they lived upon
alms, if only for the sake of doing penance. Charity devoted itself to the
task of sheltering and feeding them during their journeys, whence they
often returned ill and weak, and poorer than when they started, but always
rich in indulgences, consolations, and relics.

PILGRIMAGES. 367

Eome had, from the earliest times, an inexhaustible stock of relics in
the Catacombs, which served for the use of the whole Christian world. By
one of the canons issued by the fifth Council of Carthage, it was decreed
that no church should be consecrated untU some well-authenticated relics
had been placed beneath the altar. In after-days, it was further required
that there should be relics visible at each entrance to the church, on the
diptychs fastened to the chapel walls, in the sacraria, in a number of the
private oratories, and even on the cover of the books of the mass.
This continual removal of rehcs from one country to another gave rise
to many imposing and touching ceremonies. St. Chrysostom has related, in
one of his homilies, aU the details concerning the translation of the relics of
St. Ignatius, who suffered martyrdom at Eome, to his episcopal residence
at Antioch, amidst a vast assemblage of the faithful.
From the seventh century the removal of relics became more and more
frequent, and the number of pilgrimages increased accordingly. Some
times the relics were those of unknown saints. When Pope Boniface IV.
(606) was about to dedicate to the Holy Virgin, and to aU the martyrs or
confessors, the Pantheon of Agfippa, by transforming it into a church, to be
called Sancta Maria Eotunda, he caused to be conveyed thither thirty-two
chariot loads of bones, taken from the Catacombs. Pope Pascal I. (817) also
deposited a vast quantity of saints' bones in the Church of St. Praxeas at
Eome, previous to consecrating it. The names of these saints were not
known, but the authenticity of their remains and of their claims to vene
ration were verified before the ceremony, by a committee appointed for that
purpose. In the course of three centuries, from the ninth to the eleventh, the
discovery and the disinterment of saints' bodies, their solemn removal
(Fig. 281), the foundation of monasteries, oratories, and churches in their
honour, the institution of anniversary f6tes, and the setting apart of a number
of private devotions at services, relating not only to relics, but to holy images,
abound in aU the annals of the Catholic world. This is supposed to be the
epoch when were introduced into Europe those ancient images, in sculpture
and in painting, of the Holy Mother of Christ, which were revered in the
Middle Ages just as they are in the present day ; among these were black
virgins, which were, no doubt, of Abyssinian origin; tawny or yeUowish
virgins, from some country of Africa ; and brown and Byzantine virgins, of

368

PILGRIMAGES.

a stern and hard-featured type, wanting in expression. These images, aU of
which were very coarsely executed — though the last-mentioned seem to be
copied from a picture attributed to St. Luke (Fig. 283) — often peculiar in

Fig. 282. — Henry I., Emperor of Germany, and one of his Generals, Gautier Von der Hoye. —
Equestrian statues in bronze, cast in 948 by order of the Emperor, and placed in the Church
of Our Lady at Maurkirchen (Austria), in commemoration of his victory over the Huns.
These Btatues, destroyed in a fire, were re-cast in plaster and placed on the same spot, where
they were visible until June 27th, 1865, when the church was burnt to tbe ground. — After
a Woodcut from a work called "Thurnier-Buch,'' in gothic folio: printed at Siemern in
1530.

their expression and character, but most of them of unquestionable antiquity,
were common in Italy, Spain, the Mediterranean Isles, and many of the
southern provinces of France. They were much rarer in the west of Europe,

PILGRIMAGES.

369

in Belgium, Germany, and Ireland, where, however, they were looked upon
with just as much veneration — as, for instance, the Notre-Dame de Luxem
bourg, which was tawny. In the North, in Hungary, Poland, and Eussia,
but especiaUy in Eussia (Figs. 284 and 285), there were only the dark and
Byzantine images of the Virgin.
The worship of relics, as well as that of miraculous images, had, beyond
question, sometimes degenerated into superstition ; but it is impossible to deny

Fig. 283. — The Virgin of St. Luke (so-called). — An image painted on wood, placed in the Church
of Sta. Maria Maggiore, now San Paolo-fuor-gli-Muri, at Rome, in the Fourth or Fifth
Century.

the services which it rendered to Christianity in these ages of barbarism.
The people, without anything to restrain or to guide them, were in a state of
perpetual commotion, easUy tempted to evU, a prey to the first adventurer
who could show them some ready road to plunder, impatient of all social
restraint, moving about from place to place, and dead to all family ties and
love of country. Amidst all this disorder, preaching unaccompanied by grand
reUgious spectacles would have been fruitless, and thus the Church revived
the worship of relics. Search was made in every direction for the bodies of
3 B

37°

PILGRIMAGES.

saints; the bishops themselves journeyed to Italy, to Africa, and to the East
to collect the precious remains of those who had sealed their testimony with
their blood. When these relics arrived at the place for which they were
destined, the people went out to meet them and escort them back. Their

Fig. 284.— Greek Panagia, or Image of the Holy Virgin, with a Portrait of Jesus Christ upon her
bosom. — From the "Antiquities of Russia," by Sevastianof (Thirteenth Century).

transfer to the sanctuary, in which they were solemnly laid, was made the
occasion for ornate ceremonies and for numerous pilgrimages (Figs. 286 and
287) ; and so devotion brought together hostile races which had long been
separated by bitter warfare. The deeds done by the saint, who seemed as
if present and visible to the eyes of the faithful, were read from the pulpit ;
the miracles which he had wrought might always be renewed under the

HU)OT

Fig. 285.— Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Vladimir, the goal of one of the most famous pilgrimages
in Russia — Emm rtm " in«mifi» ?f ^"¦"¦ia," by Sevastianof. (Twelfth Century.)
[To face page Sia.

PILGRIMAGES.

37'

influence of fervent prayer ; a few cures were soon worked in proximity to
his shrine, or upon his tomb. The pilgrims continually increased in number,
and the priests gradually regained the moral authority which they had
allowed to slip away from them.
The Crusades were in reality but the general application, upon a larger
scale, of those pilgrimages to the Holy Land which the inhabitants of

Bin

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Fig. 286. — Coffer containing the Hair-cloths of St. Louis, presented by Philippe le Bel, his grand
son, to the Abbey of Notre-Dame-du-Lis, near Melun. — The chest is in beech-wood, covered
with metal, and -with painted designs of the royal insignia of France and Castille, and various
allegorical subjects. — Work of the Thirteenth Century, in the Louvre, Paris.
*
Christian Europe had so long been performing. In the rear of the armed
hosts marched with unfurled banners a tribe of infirm pilgrims, women,
chUdren, and old men (Fig. 288), led by priests in their sacerdotal vestments
— undisciplined multitudes, into whose ranks inevitably crept a number of
those miscreants who were the real authors of all the misdeeds with which
history has reproached the Crusaders. As to the pilgrimages, the immediate
result of this great movement of the European population towards Palestine
was the creation, along the road which they had to travel, of a number of

372

PILGRIMAGES.

receiving-houses, supported and managed by certain religious and military
orders, who entertained the wearied and sick pilgrims, and helped them
on their journey.

Fig. 287- — Reliquary in chased copper (front and reverse), with movable Panels, and containing
round the Crucifixion Scene, and in the space between the columns, Relics of Apostles, Fathers
of the Church, Saints, and Martyrs.— Flemish work of the Thirteenth Century, preserved in
the Convent of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart, at Mons.
That model of pilgrims, the good King Louis IX., coUected, in the course
of his unsuccessful expeditions (1248 — 1270), a number of relics (Figs. 290
to 293, and 305). These, brought back to France as trophies of the
crusade, were offered as gifts to ancient and venerable churches already

PILGRIMAGES.

373

possessing many valuable relics, or deposited in new churches which were
built expressly for their reception, as in the case of the Sainte Chapelle at
Paris. And this brought about the increase of pilgrimages throughout

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Fig. 288. — Robert I., Duke of Normandy, father of William tbe Conqueror, seized with illness
during his pilgrimage to Jerusalem (1035), is carried in his litter by negroes : hence his
jocular saying, "I am being taken by demons into Paradise."— From a Miniature in the
"Chroniques de Normandie," a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Library of
M. Ambroise Firmin Didot.

Europe, in which the worship, not only of relics but of miraculous images,
was ardently pursued. At the end of the thirteenth century, which was
undoubtedly the most briUiant as it was the most solemn epoch of Christian
art, in respect to the processional and itinerant acts of devotion, there were
said to be no less than ten thousand Catholic sanctuaries, aU of more or less

374

PILGRIMAGES.

celebrity, and each of which attracted its share of pilgrims, either for its
Madonna or Notre-Dame. This was exclusive of the numberless images of
Notre-Dame which were occasionally honoured by a special worship, and
which were erected at cross-roads,
at street-corners, and upon the
fronts of houses, as a protection
for the wayfarer and for the in
habitants of the locality. Many
dioceses, such as those of Soissons
and Toul, each contained from
sixty to seventy places , of pil
grimage. The authentic titles of the
principal pilgrimages, apart from
those of Eome and Jerusalem,
thus date from the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries. Some,
no doubt, were anterior to this
period, but their origin, though
attested by tradition, cannot be
said to rest upon any indis
putable evidence. Of this nature
are the celebrated devotions of
Notre-Dame of Loretto, of our
Lord's robe at Treves, of the
seamless robe of Jesus Christ in
the village of Argenteuil, near
Fig. 289. — 'Ihe Pilgrims of Eminaus. — Pilgrim's dress _ . „ ~ T . xr i «
• 4.1. a i, if * 4i, rpv,- t «, n 4 Pans, of St. Larme at Vendome,
in the second half of the Thirteenth Century. — '
Portion of the celebrated Altar-piece of Mareuil- of St. Face at Chamb^ry, of the
en-Brie, reproduced in its entirety in the article ^^ of gfc Tariuarms at Naples,
"Liturgy and Ceremonies." of the stole of St. Hubert, &c.
Christian Eome, bedewed with the martyrs' blood and enriched with their
relics, has since the first ages of Christianity been the central object of the
great majority of pilgrimages. Her three hundred churches have one after
another been visited by a host of believers drawn thither by pious recollec
tions, by all kinds of effectual acts of grace or indulgences, by an abundant

PILGRIMAGES.

375

Fig. 290. — The Crown of Thorns brought into France. — The three lowertompartments represent :
1, the first visit of the king to the Sainte-Chapelle, expressly built to receive the crown of
thorns ; 2, the reception of the crown, presented by Baldwin II., Emperor of Constantinople,
and brought to Paris in 1239 ; 3, the adoration of the crown in the Sainte-Chapelle by the king
and his mother, Blanche of Castille. Above are the Island of Cyprus, the Crusaders' fleet, and
a battle with the Saracens, aa recalling the crusade of Louis IX. — In the Burgundian Library,
Brussels. (Fifteenth Century.)

hospitahty, by a pompous ceremonial, and, above all, by the ardour of their
faith. On great anniversaries, at jubilees and at the Inventions of the bodies
of saints, the number of pUgrims multipUed indefinitely. As many as twelve

376

PILGRIMAGES.

hundred thousand have been known to have arrived in the course of a
single day, from different parts of the world — pious bands which encamped
around the walls of the Eternal City, their ranks being constantly added
to by fresh arrivals during several consecutive months. Besides the basilica
of St. Peter, liome possessed several privileged sanctuaries which were at all
periods the chief haunts of the pilgrims : these were the Church of Sta. Maria

Figs. 291 and 292. — 1. The Nail used in the Crucifixion of our Lord, preserved in the Church of
Santa Croce di Gerusalemme, at Rome. 2. The Holy Bit of Carpentras, brought to that town
between 1204 and 1206. This is the bit which St. Helena forged for the horse of the Emperor
Constantine from nails which had been driven into the holy cross. — After the Engraving
of M. Rohault de Fleury, in his work called "Memoire sur les Instrumens de la Passion de
Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ."

Maggiore, where the manger in which our Lord was born was seen; San
Praxeas, the basilica which contained two thousand five hundred martyrs ;
San Giovanni Laterano, in which are the scala santa, the same steps blessed
by the blood of Jesus Christ when He was wearing the crown of thorns,
and which are only ascended by people upon their knees ; San Pietro-m-
Montorio, the crypt of which stands upon the spot where that apostle was
crucified ; San Sebastiano-fuor-gli-Muri, famous for its catacombs ; San

PILGRIMAGES.

377

Paolo da Tre Fontane — miraculous springs which gushed from the ground
with three leaps, just as St. Paul's head rebounded three times from the
ground when he was executed ; San Paolo-fuori-le-Muri, where is preserved
the crucifix which spoke to St. Bridget ; San Lorenzo-fuori-le-Muri, where
are interred the bodies of St. Stephen and St. Lawrence ; Santa Croce di
Gerusalemme (Fig. 293), a basilica founded by the august mother of St. Con
stantine on her return from a pilgrimage to Palestine ; St. Cecilia, a church
built upon the site of the house in which that saint lived, and containing the
bath-room in which she suffered martyrdom ; as well as twenty other churches

Fig. 293. — The Title or Superscription upon our Lord's Cross : fragment of the piece of cedar- wood
given to the Pope by St. Helena, and preserved in the Church of Santa Croce di Gerusalemme,
at Rome. — -The Inscription, which signifies " Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," was
in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, written backwards and in sunken characters ; only a third
remains. — Fac-simile from M. Rohault de Fleury's Engraving for his work called "Me-
moires sur les Instrumens de la PasBion de Notre Seigneur Jesus-Christ."

which have been the cradles of the Christian religion, and which, by their
origin, traditions, and reUcs, command the pious respect of those who
visit them. No matter by what road the pilgrims travelled, they passed
on their way to Eome a vast number of sanctuaries and stations which
were dedicated either to the Virgin Mary or to illustrious saints (Fig. 294).
Upon the sea-coast, the church of Our Guardian Lady and of Our Lady of
Genesta, the tutelary guardians of the Gulf of Lyons and the Gulf of Genoa ;
and with them St. Martha and St. Magdalene ; St. George, the legend of
whose warlike exploit is reproduced in so many pictures; at Lucca, Our
Lady of the Eose ; in the Neapolitan States, Our Lady of the Commence-
3 c

378

PILGRIMAGES.

ment, Our Lady of the Conception, Our Lady of the Assumption, Our Lady
of Naples, Our Lady of Mount St. Januarius ; in Sicily, Our Lady of the
Crown, St. Eestituta, St. Agatha, but particularly St. Eosalie ; towards the
eastern shores of the Ionian Sea, several virgins of Byzantine origin, who
were worshipped conjointly with St. Nicholas and St. Spiridion ; along the
Adriatic other Madonnas and other saints, conspicuous among whom, like

Fig. 294. — Touching the Relics of St. Philip. — Fresco Painting by Andrea del Sarto, in the Cloister
of the Church of the Annunziata, at Florence.

a precious pearl, shines the celebrated image known as Our Lady of Victory.
It was in her honour that an Eastern emperor caused a triumphal car to be
constructed, in order that she might be drawn through the streets of Con
stantinople whenever the empire was threatened with danger. Brought to
Venice and deposited in the Church of St. Mark, she was looked upon as the
safeguard of the republic, and, in place of the triumphal car, a magnificent
gondola was specially reserved for this image. From the days of Godfroy de
Bouillon, who, with a part of the Crusaders, made a pilgrimage to Bari, on

PIL GRIM A GES. 3 7 9

the "soU of Monseigneur St. Nicholas," before pursuing his journey to Jeru
salem, this august sanctuary became the scene of continuous devotions.
JoinviUe, Froissart, PhUippe Giraud de Vigneulles, and other chroniclers
speak of the number of pilgrims who visited Bari to do honour to the relics
of St. Nicholas. The miracles accomplished there through the intercession
of the blessed Bishop of Myra, form a rich volume of legends dating
from the eleventh century, when forty burghers of the town of Bari went
into Asia Minor to rescue his precious body from the violence of the
Saracens. We must not be astonished at the profanities committed by the Maho
metans at the places of pilgrimage in Palestine, since the cessation of the
Crusades left these venerable sanctuaries at their mercy. It was to preserve
the chapel of Nazareth from these outrages that God commanded his angels
to carry it into a Christian- country. According to a tradition confirmed
by several papal bulls, the angels who carried off this chapel deposited it,
on May 10th, 1291, at Eauneza, between Fiume and Tersatz, in Dalmatia.
On the same night the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream to a dying priest
named Alexander, and told him of the miracle. The chapel transported to
Eauneza was no other than the house in which the divine mother of God had
been born and had conceived the Eedeemer. After her death the apostles had
converted it into a chapel ; St. Peter had erected an altar in it, and St. Luke
had with his own hands carved in cedar a statue of the Virgin for it. The
priest who had had the vision rose from his bed cured of his disease, and
went to prostrate himself before the holy image previous to making a public
announcement of the apparition of the Virgin. The house of Nazareth was '
there standing to confirm the truth of his story. Then began the pil
grimages to Tersatz. The Emperor Eudolph, on being informed of this
marvellous occurrence, sent several persons of distinction into Palestine
to see whether the chapel of Nazareth had reaUy been removed. Their
report was of the most satisfactory character, and very soon the worship
of Our Lady of Tersatz had become very general throughout the Danu-
bian provinces. In order to preserve the treasure with which Provi
dence had endowed this spot, the santa casa was surrounded by a wooden
framework while the church of which it was to form the sanctuary was
being buUt. But after standing for three years in Dalmatia, this holy
house disappeared. Contemporary chroniclers relate that, on the 10th of

380 PILGRIMAGES.

December, 1291, it was carried up into the air by angels and borne across
the Adriatic.
It appears that the santa casa, before taking up its definite position,
halted near Eecanati, upon a property belonging to two brothers who for
eight months disputed its possession. In order to bring about a reconciliation
between them, and chiefly, no doubt, because they were unwilling to leave
this sanctuary at the mercy of these two jealous rivals, the angels bore it off
once more, and finally deposited it in a field belonging to a poor widow
of the name of Loreta — whence the denomination Our Lady of. Loreta.
Here may still be seen the santa casa, just as it came from Nazareth, but
not as it was decorated, endowed, and enriched by the sumptuous devotion of
the Middle Ages. Its treasures, valued at several milUon francs, already
much diminished by the religious wars brought about by the great Western
schism, ceased to accumulate in the sixteenth century during the struggle
of the Church against Protestantism, and they were almost all carried
off in 1796 by the pillaging armies of the French Eepublic. Nevertheless
the fervour of the pilgrims was not in the least abated, and the splendid
church in which the santa casa was as it were enshrined, was too small to
contain all the votive offerings brought thither from every part of the world.
The popes had granted numerous indulgences to those who made this pil
grimage, which was the most celebrated as well as the most frequented of
any outside Eome.
The legend of the pilgrimages, as marveUous in Spain as it was in Italy,
always associated the worship of St. James with that of the Holy Virgin.
After the ascension of our Lord and the descent of the Holy Ghost,
Santiago the Iberian — St. James, as we call him— bid adieu to his elder
brother St. John the Evangelist, and afterwards went to ask the Virgin for
her blessing. She said to him, "Dear son, since thou hast chosen Spain,
the country which I love best of all European lands, to preach the Gospel,
take care to found a church there dedicated to me, in the town where you
convert the greatest number of heathen." Santiago then left Jerusalem,
and crossing the Mediterranean, arrived at Tarragona, where, despite all his
efforts, he only succeeded in converting eight persons.
But in the night of February 4th, a.d. 36, whilst he and his eight
neophytes were sound asleep in the plain upon which Saragossa now stands,
they were awaked by celestial music, and this music was the voice of angels

PILGRIMAGES.

38i

celebrating the praises of the Virgin. Santiago prostrated himself with his
face to the ground, and before him he saw the august mother of Christ,

Fig. 295. — Our Lady of Mountserrat, with a Spanish Inscription signifying " Celestial abode of
Our Lady of Mountserrat." — This mountain derives its name from its rocks being shaped
like the teeth of a saw {sierra, saw). This symbolical saw is seen in the hands of the Infant
Jesus. — Reduced Fac-simile of a Woodcut of the Sixteenth Century, belonging to M. Bertin,
publisher, of Paris,

standing on a pillar of jasper, surrounded with angels, and with the same
smile of ineffable sweetness which he had seen on her features when he left
Jerusalem. " James, my son," she said to him, " you must build me a church

382 PILGRIMAGES.

upon this very spot. Take the pillar upon which I am standing, place it,
with my image upon its summit, in the midst of a sanctuary dedicated to me,
and to the end of time it shall never cease to work miracles." The apostle
at once commenced the work, aided by his disciples, and the church was soon
constructed. Such, according to the legend, was the origin of the cathedral
and the pilgrimage of Our Lady of the PiUar (Nuestra sefiora del Pilar).
The Virgin of the Pillar ( Virgo del Pilar) was not the only one held in
profound veneration by the Spaniards during the Middle Ages ; every petty
kingdom, every principality, every important town of the Iberian peninsula
had its Madonna, its SeTiora, which attracted numerous pilgrims. Amongst
them may be mentioned Our Lady of Mountserrat, in Catalonia (Fig. 295),
Our Lady of France (la Rena di Francia), half-way between Salamanca and
Ciudad Eodrigo, and Our Lady of the Dice (Setiora del Dado), in the kingdom
of Leon — sanctuaries which stood in the midst of mountainous ranges, and
which could only be reached on foot or with mules.
In a smaU town called El Padron — the Monument — which is but the
ancient Iria, where Santiago, called James the Elder, taught (Fig. 296),
and which was for a long time the guardian of his earthly remains, there
flowed beneath the high altar of the church, which was dedicated to him, a
stream of spring water, the ripple of which, like heavenly music, mingled
with the prayers of the pilgrims, who were so numerous that their knees
have worn holes in the stone slabs of the sanctuary. The body of the Ulus
trious martyr, when brought from Compostella to Santiago, was laid upon a
granite block which was miraculously fashioned into a tomb, and it never
emerged therefrom save as a phantom either to appear in vision before
kings, prelates, and other pious persons who had invoked it, or to. seize a
lance and combat the enemies of Christianity. Thus, the legend teUs us, he
was seen in 946, riding a white horse, holding in his hand a banner em
blazoned with a red cross (such as the knights of Santiago wear on the left
side of their mantles), and marching at the head of the Christian barons
against the Moors or Saracens.
The pilgrimage to St.- James of Compostella was famous as early as the ninth
century ; people came with votive offerings' from all parts of the Christian
world. The road leading to this sanctuary was perpetually crowded with an
army of pilgrims, and such continued to be the case throughout the Middle
Ages. On returning to their own country, the pilgrims of "Monseigneur

PILGRIMAGES.

383

St. James " formed a regular order of Catholic chivalry ; they kept up the
pious devotions in which they had engaged during their pilgrimage, and
maintained tiU their lives' end the spirit of religious fellowship which had
united them under the same banner.
France, notwithstanding her warlike spirit, did not pay so much honour
to the warhke saints as did Italy and Spain to St. George and St. James, but
she seems to have held in highest esteem the healing saints, as we may term.

Fig. 296. — The Magician Armogenes, in the presence of the Compostella pilgrims, orders devils to
bring him the apostle St. James (the legend of the saint gives the contrary version). — After
a Miniature from " The Holy Scriptures," a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Centnry (Burgun-
dian Library, Brussels).

them, such as St. Martin of Tours, St. Eoch, St. Christopher, St. Blaze,
St. Lazarus, &c, whose venerated relics have been the object of so many
celebrated pilgrimages (Fig. 297). She has also rendered touching homage
to certain specially holy women, the worship of whom has become almost
national, such as St. Mary Magdalene and St. Martha, St. Barbara, St. Gene
vieve, &c. But in no country has the worship of the Virgin Mary been
more general or more sublime than in France, where the mother of God had
so many venerable sanctuaries : such as that of Our Lady of Puy, Our Lady
of Liesse, Our Lady of Chartres, Our Lady of Eocamadour, Our Lady of the
Thorn, Our Lady of Auray, and Our Lady of Victory, amongst others.

3«4

PILGRIMAGES.

One of the first altars erected in France to the Virgin Mary was that
upon the summit of Mount Anicium, a volcanic rock near Velay, caUed
Le Puy (from the Italian poggio, high mountain). St. George, bishop of the

Fig. 297. — Thanksgivings made in a Chapel of Pilgrimage by a family carrying out a vow. — It is
believed that this is the chapel in which were preserved the relics of the saint in the Abbey
of Mont St. Claude (Franche-Comte). — French Picture of the Fifteenth Century, belonging
to M. P. Lacroix.
diocese, came to baptize a lady of the district, who became seriously iU,
upon which an unknown voice bid her repair to. Mount Anicium. Having
obeyed this command, she fell into a quiet sleep, during which she

PILGRIMAGES. 385

saw a celestial female figure, wearing a crown of precious stones. " Who is
this queen, so beautiful, so noble, and so gracious ?" she inquired, addressing
herself to one of the angehc host that surrounded her. The answer came :
" This is the mother of the Son of God. She has selected this mountain for
you to come and make your invocation ; she bids you acquaint her faithful
servant, Bishop George, of what has taken place. And now awake ; you are
cured of your illness." The lady, filled with gratitude and faith, went to the
bishop, who, when he had heard her story, prostrated himself to the ground,
as if it were the Virgin herself who was speaking. Followed by his clergy,
he then repaired to the miraculous rock. It was in the month of July ; the
sun was very hot, but the snow laid deep upon the table-land of the mountain.
Suddenly a stag bounded forward and traced with his feet the plan of the
sanctuary which was to be built upon that very spot, and then disappeared.
The bishop at once saw that a fresh miracle had been wrought in confirmation
of the first ; he had the spot enclosed, and made a vow to erect a church there.
This vow was executed by St. Evodius, seventh Bishop of Puy, in 223.
The statue of Our Lady of Puy, in cedar wood, blackened with age,
was the work of the first Christians of Libanus, who executed it after the
image of the Egyptian goddess Isis, sitting upright upon a stool, and holding
upon her knee the Infant Jesus, swathed in fine linen as if he were a little
mummy. This image was brought from the East by St. Louis in 1254.
The origin of the statue of Our Lady of Liesse also dates from the
Crusades, which inundated France and the rest of Europe with so many
images of the Holy Virgin. Thus, in 1131, Foulques d' Anjou, King of
Jerusalem, entrusted the guard of the city of Beer sheba to the Knights
Hospitallers of St. John, amongst the most distinguished of whom were the
three brothers of the house of Eppes, near Laon. These knights having been
taken prisoners, the Sultan determined to make them become Mahometans,
and imprudently selected his daughter Ismeria to effect the work of conver
sion. But she forgot the object of her mission, and aUowed herself to be
converted to Christianity by the arguments of the three knights. She asked
them to carve for her an image of the Holy Virgin, and though they were
utterly ignorant of the art, they began an image which angels came down
from heaven to complete. The Virgin appeared to the Sultan's daughter,
encouraged her in her project to set the three captives at liberty, and advised
her to foUow them in their flight. At about midnight she went to the prison,
3 D

386

PILGRIMAGES.

the doors of which opened, before her, as did those of the city. Ismeria bore
in her arms the image of the Virgin, and the sovereign virtue of this taUsman
overcame aU obstacles. The fugitives, who had gone to sleep upon Egyptian
soil, woke up to find themselves in front of the Chateau d'Eppes, and the
statuette, sparkling with light, selected the place which it wished to occupy

ltz&°*&
Fig. 298. — Ancient Banner of the City of Strasburg, on which is represented the Image of Our
Lady, to whom the city was dedicated about the middle of the Thirteenth Century ; the lilies
running round it are the emblem of the Virgin's purity. A Memorial of the Thirteenth
Century, burnt during the bombardment of Strasburg in 1870. — From a copy published in the
" Dictionnaire du Haut et du Bas-Rhin," by M. Ristelhuber.
in the middle of a wood. Ismeria caused to be erected upon this very spot
a plain chapel, whilst in the town of Laon a cathedral was built, dedicated
to Our Lady of Liesse. Since that period the great basUica and the tiny
chapel have shared between them the worship of the crowd of pilgrims
which the startling miracles have attracted thither. Both structures suffered
from the fury of the Huguenots in the sixteenth century, but the miraculous
image of the Virgin has always escaped from sacrilegious outrage.

PILGRIMAGES.

387

There is much analogy between the worship of the patronal Virgin of the
country round Chartres and that of the Virgin of the Pillar at Saragossa.
The two statues are alike in regard to posture, costume, and general character,
and moreover they date back to the same epoch — namely, the fourth or fifth

Fig. 299. — Removal, by St. Bodillon and the Chevalier Gerard de Roussillon, of the Body of Mary
Magdalene to the Church of Vezelay (Yonne). — After a Miniature in the "Chroniques de
Hainaut," a Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Burgundian Library, Brussels.

century. The Chartres cathedral, though ancient — for it was in existence
during the seventh century — was nevertheless posterior to the first pilgrim
ages established in honour of " the Virgin who has borne a child," according
to the denomination given to this Notre-Dame by the first apostles who
preached Christianity in this district, which was the centre of the Druidical
religion. During the whole of the Middle Ages, and down even to our own

PILGRIMAGES.

day, there have been daily arrivals of pUgrims at Chartres, and their
number always increases upon the fete days of the Virgin.
The worship of Our Lady of Eocamadour is very possibly contempo
raneous with that of Our Lady of Chartres — dating back to the first age
of Christianity in Gaul. Nothing is known as to the origin of this devotion,
which is supposed to have replaced that of some local divinity. The Virgin
of Eocamadour was famous as early as the eighth century, for, if tradition is
to be believed, Charlemagne and his brave foUowers came to pay it homage
on their return from an expedition against the Gascons ; and the sword of
Eoland, deposited as an offering upon the altar of the chapel of St. Michael,

Fig. 300.— Charles VI. fulfilling, his vow to Our Lady of Hope (1389). — The king, who was at
that time but twenty years of age, having lost his -way one night in a forest near Toulouse,
made a vow that if he recovered his road he would offer the value of his horse to Our Lady of
Hope. In the painting he is represented in the act of carrying out his vow, bareheaded and
on horseback, accompanied by his brother, the Constable of Clisson, and other nobles. Above
are seen angels with streamers, on which are written the word "Hope." — After an ancient
Fresco in the Cloister of the Carmelite Monastery at Toulon.

is still to be seen. Around this sanctuary, dedicated to the Virgin, were
seventeen chapels hewn in the rock ; they were dedicated to Jesus Christ, to
the Twelve Apostles, to St. John the Baptist, to St. Anne, to St. Michael,
and to St. Amadour, whose hermitage was here, and who had no doubt
brought from the East the black Virgin who has been venerated there for
twelve or fifteen centuries.
The pilgrimage of St. Baume, near Maximin, in Provence, was not in
honour of the Virgin Mary, but of the saintly women Mary Magdalene
(Fig. 299) and her sister Martha, Mary the mother of James, and Salome,
who were witnesses of our Saviour's life, of his miracles, and of his resur-

PILGRIMAGES.

389

rection. Whatever may be the truth of the alleged mission of St. Lazarus
and his two sisters Mary Magdalene and Martha, in southern Gaul, the
devotion paid to them amongst a people who believed in the legend was

Fig. 301. — Miraculous Image of Our Lady of Grace, at Cambrai, brought to that city by Canon
Furcy de Bruille in 1450 : this is one of the painted images attributed by a pious tradition to
St. Luke. — The inhabitants of Cambrai, having fervently prayed for protection to their
patroness when the English besieged their city, attributed the impotence of the enemy's attack
to her interposition. Hence is derived the poetical representation of the Virgin gathering up
the cannon-balls in a lace veil. To the right is the ancient metropolitan church of Cambrai,
a remarkable monument of Gothic architecture, destroyed at the beginning of the present
century. — Reduced Fac-simile of a Drawing of the Seventeenth Century, lent by M. Delattre,
of Cambrai.
almost as marked as the worship which was rendered to the Virgin. The
pilgrims never left St. Baume .without making a pUgrimage to the tomb
of St. Lazarus at Autun, after having visited the relics of the Marys in

39°

PILGRIMAGES.

the Island of Camargue, at St. Maximin, Aries, and at Tarascon. The
grotto of St. Baume, in which Mary Magdalene lived for thirty years in
fellowship with the angels who raised her into the air during her periods
of ecstasy, who brought her food and took every care of her, was, from
the fifth or sixth century, a rendezvous for the faithful who came to visit
the dread abode which had been sanctified by the long penitence of the
Magdalene. Popes, emperors, kings, and the most illustrious personages
considered it an honour to be numbered amongst these pilgrims, and those

Fig. 302. — Our Lady of Boulogne. — " One day," so the legend goes, " the Virgin appeared to
the burghers and inhabitants of the town of Boulogne in a hull floating upon the sea,
without mast, sail, rigging, or oars, having on board neither seaman nor any other living man,
only a young virgin, full of grace and modesty, eloquent of speech, reserved in her manner,
gracious of carriage, and more beautiful than all earthly women." — After a Miniature in a
Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in the Library of the Arsenal, Paris.

whose age or infirmities prevented them from being personaUy present
deputed others to bear thither their vows and their offerings.
The mere list of the pilgrimages of Our Lady in France, in that kingdom
of the lilies which has always been under the immediate protection of the
Virgin Mary, would fill several pages, and it would take whole volumes to
relate their origin and history. We will therefore only mention the most
famous and the most ancient : Our Lady of Alet, near Toulouse (Fig. 300) ;
Our Lady of the Fountain of the ArdilUers, near Saumur ; Our Lady of
the Virtues, at Aubervilliers, near Paris ; Our Lady of the Haven, at

PILGRIMAGES.

3QI

Fig. 303. — "Au juste poids veritable balance." — Picture by Antoine Picquet, Master-Painter in
the Brotherhood of Our Lady of Amiens, presented to the church of that city on the 25th of
December, 1518. This painting, now in the Cluny Museum, is but the symbolic development
of the above motto. The Virgin is in a standing posture beneath a canopy ; the Infant Jesus
is drawing towards him one of the scales of the balance in which God the Father, sur
rounded by his angels, is about to weigh the crowns of earthly sovereigns. In the back
ground, amidst beautiful scenery, on one side peasants are gathering in the harvest and the
vintage, and on the other is seen Queen Claude, mounted, and followed by a brilliant suite.
In the foreground are two groups : to the right Francis I., with Triboulet his jester, and
knights ; to the left, the emperor, the pope, a cardinal, the Bishop of Amiens, and several
abbots. — From an Engraving in the " Arts au Moyen Age," by Dusommerard.

392

PILGRIMAGES.

Clermont, in Auvergne ; Our Lady of Fourvieres, at Lyons ; Our Lady of the
Osier, near Grenoble ; Our Lady of Bonne- Garde, at Longpont ; Our Lady of
Bethlehem, at Ferrieres, G&tinais ; Our Lady of Good Hope, at Valenciennes;
Our Lady of Grace, at Cambrai (Fig. 301) ; Our Lady of Boulogne-sur-Mer
(Fig. 302), &c. Most of these are represented by painted images — some
brought from the East at the time of the Crusades; others, the origin of
which is only spoken to by the miracles which marked them out for the

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f< i^m ^ It' v — 4 .*^sft^ |1

w

Fig. 304. — Sufferers from St. Vitus' Dance going on a Pilgrimage to the Church of St. Willibrod,
Bpternacht, near Luxemburg. — After a Drawing by P. Breughel (Sixteenth Century), in the
Gallery of Archduke Albert, at Vienna.
veneration of the faithful. There are also statuettes in wood and stone,
nearly all of which belong to the Coptic group of black Virgins, which
throughout Europe are associated with miracles of an early age.
It would take volumes also to describe the numerous pilgrimages in
Germany, Poland, Eussia, and, above aU, in Belgium (Fig. 304). There,
as everywhere else, the mother of our Lord always attracted to herself the
most profound homage, and bestowed the greatest amount of favours upon the
zealous host of her worshippers. But it is worthy of remark that these acts
of devotion, so renowned and venerated in the country itself, scarcely ever
extended into neighbouring countries. Belgians alone went to worship the

PILGRIMAGES.

393

image of the Virgin known as Notre-Dame-sous-la-Tour, in the Church of
St. Peter, at Louvain, the image of Our Lady of Alzemberg, and the statue
of Our Lady of Verviers ; and yet the crowd of pilgrims was none the less to
Our Lady of Aflighem, Our Lady of Chevremont, Our Lady of Faith, near
Dinan, Our Lady of Wavre, Our Lady of BeUe- Fontaine, &c.
But for the most frequented pilgrimages we must look to Hungary, where
a statue of the Virgin, in Umewood, found during the twelfth century on the
trunk of an oak, became the famous Our Lady of Maria-Zell, which worked
so many miracles throughout the Middle Ages ; to Cologne, where the three
Magi, beatified by the Church, were venerated ; and to Treves, where, since
the fourth century, the jubUee of the Holy Eobe of our Lord has been cele
brated — a jubilee in which as many as a hundred thousand pilgrims a day
formerly took part ; and, lastly, we must mention the most renowned of those
sanctuaries of Notre-Dame des Neiges (Our Lady of the Snow) which are to
be met with on many mountains whose summits are covered with snow- —
namely, the magnificent Monastery of Einsiedeln, in Switzerland (Canton of
Schwitz), which was only an unpretending oratory when Meinrad, prince of
the great house of Hohenzollern, founded there the worship of Our Lady of
the Hermits.

Fig. 305.— The Crown of Thorns worn by Jesus Christ, preserved at Notre-Dame, Paris.— It is
composed of a ring of small reeds tied into a bundle (diameter, 21 centimetres inside) ; the
thorns are no longer visible ; it is enshrined in gold, and held together by three acanthus
leaves, also in gold.— Drawn from the original by M. Rohault de Fleury.
3 E

. HEEESIES.

The real meaning of the word Heresy. — The Heretics of the Apostolic Days. — Simon the Magician.
— Cerinthus. — The Nicolaitans. — The Gnostics. — The Schools of Philosophy of Byzantium,
Antioch, and Alexandria. — Julian the Apostate. — The Pelagians and the semi-Pelagians. —
Nestorius. — Eutyehes.- — The Iconoclasts. — Amaury.^— Gilbert de la Porree. — Abelard. —
Arnold of Brescia. — The Albigenses.— The Waldenses. — The Flagellants. — Wickliff.— John
Hues. — Jerome of Prague. — Luther. — Henry VIII. and the Anglican Church. — Calvin.

EOBABLY few persons are aware that the real
meaning of the word heresy, after its Greek
origin (hairesis), means only opinion. Heresy
consists in the pretension to explain Holy
Scripture after one's own private judgment or
personal opinion instead of receiving the inter
pretation given to the sacred text by the
authority of the Church. Heretics have existed from the
time of the apostles. St. Paul, speaking in reference to them,
recommends a course which, unfortunately, has not always
been followed. "If," he says, " any man obey not our word,
.... have no company with him ; . . . . nevertheless, count
him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother."
St. Peter, with his zealous ardour, exhorts the faithful, in
language full of imagery, to be on their guard against
the errors of the Gnostics (that is, the savants or the erudits): he
caUs them " wells without water, clouds that are carried with a
tempest." He then sums up the foundation of their doctrine in a
few energetic sentences : — " For when they speak great swelling words of
vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness,
those that were clean escaped from them who live in error." We know
that the Gnostics believed perfection to consist in science : they held that

HERESIES. 39S
faith and virtuous living were only meant for the common people. Infatuated
by their own learning, they even rejected the authority of Christ, whom
they refused to recognise as their Lord and their God; for the doctrine
concerning the angels they substituted a theory of divine emanations, and
they recognised the ancient doctrine of the eternal antagonism between the
good and the evil principle.
The Acts of the Apostles, in speaking of the success which attended
the preaching of PhUip the deacon to the inhabitants of Samaria, relate that
there was in that city a magician named Simon, who exercised so great an
influence over the people that they all took heed of what he said and called
him " the great power of God." But the miracles worked by Philip had
greater influence than the sorceries of Simon, and the people came in crowds
to be baptized, Simon himself becoming a disciple of Philip.
The remainder of the story told us in the Acts of the Apostles reveals the
origin of a word which appears too often in the religious history of the
Middle Ages for us to let slip the opportunity of here explaining it by a fact
which, moreover, helps to show how it happened that Simon fell from sincere
Christianity into heresy. The apostles at that time residing in Jerusalem,
having heard of the conversion of Samaria, they came to lay hands upon
— that is to say confirm — the newly baptized ; and the latter, when they
received the Holy Ghost, were visible partakers of His marvellous gifts,
which were general in the primitive Church. The Scripture says, "And when
Simon saw that through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was
given, he offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whom
soever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said unto
him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift
of God may be purchased with money. . . . Eepent, therefore, of this thy
wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be
forgiven thee. . . . Then answered Simon, and said, Pray ye to the Lord
for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me."
It is because Simon was the first who attempted to buy for money a
spiritual power that his crime was called simony, and that the epithet of
simonist was applied to aU who purchased ecclesiastical cures.
The repentance of Simon the heretic did not last long, for an author of
the third century, whose account is confirmed by a passage in Suetonius,
tells us that this neophyte having returned to his practice of magic, and being

39&

HERESIES.

jealous of the influence which the apostles had acquired by their miracles,
boasted that he would raise himself into the air in the presence of the

mmk

1,11 jp ^rr---' "A-, UI

Fig. 306. — Babylon the Great (mulier super bestiam), represented as a woman holding a cut), and
riding the beast spoken of in the Apocalypse.— Miniature from a " Commentaire sur quelques
Livres de l'Ecriture," a Manuscript of the Eleventh Century, in the National Library, Paris.
From Count Bastard's great work.

emperor and the people. In order to humiliate St. Peter, who was in Eome
at that time, he insisted that the apostle should be present to witness this
triumph of his magical art. At first his endeavours seemed as if about to

HERESIES. 397
succeed — he was hfted high into the air amidst the applause of the crowd ;
but Peter invoked the aid of his Divine Master to confound the spirit of
evU, and at his prayer the magician, suddenly abandoned by the demon who
had been lending him his aid, fell to the ground and broke his leg so near
to the spot where Nero was sitting, that, to quote Suetonius, the blood
spurted on to the emperor's mantle.
Amongst the heresiarchs of the first century must also be mentioned
Cerinthus the Jew, who had become a Christian, but who was looked upon
by the apostles as the corrupter of the religion of Jesus Christ. He taught,
in fact, that Jesus was not the Son of God, and that Christ, coming down
from heaven in the form of a dove, was only incorporated in him after his
baptism in the waters of Jordan. Ebion, a disciple of Cerinthus, also denied
the divinity of Christ, and was the founder of the sect of the Ebionites.
Nicholas the deacon, in his attempt to make the law of the Gospel fit in with
heathen customs, gave birth to the heresy of the Nicolaitans, . who were
afterwards merged in the Gnostics. This latter sect, to which we have already
alluded, developed enormously in the second century; and its doctrine, as
well as that of Manichseus, the originator of Manichaeism — that redoubtable
heresy which sprung -from the admixture of the ancient reUgions of India
with Christianity — constituted the basis of nearly all the heresies of the
Middle Ages.
The schools of phUosophy of Byzantium, Antioch, and Alexandria pursued
their career of scepticism and sacrilegious discussion concerning the divinity
of Jesus Christ during the second and third centuries. After throwing
doubt upon the divine essence of the three persons of the Trinity, others
still more daring, such as Sabelhus and Praxeas, attempted to show that
these three persons in God were but three symbolic names given to the
same substance. The Council of Alexandria (261) punished these culpable
errors. Soon after, an Egyptian priest named Arius took them up and
propagated them very widely, maintaining that Jesus Christ was a created
being, perfect no doubt and almost Hke unto God, but not himself God.
His doctrine also contained secret heresies which were condemned by
the Ecumenical Council of Nice (325). Nevertheless this doctrine, known
as Arianism, made great progress ; it was adopted and supported by several
emperors, it spread throughout Europe, and, in spite of the authority of
councils, and the efforts of popes and bishops, it seemed destined to lay

398

HERESIES.

the foundation of a new Christianity in which the divinity of Christ was
to find no place. But the most radical attack upon Christianity was un
doubtedly the conspiracy of divergent sects under the leadership of the
Emperor Julian (331 — 362), surnamed the Apostate because he abjured the

Fig. 307.— Orthodoxy surrounded by the Snares of Heresy. — Boniface Simoneta (1470 to 1500),
Abbot of San Stefano del Corno (diocese of Cremona), " calling God to his aid in order that
his work may be more efficaciously wrought, .... and desiring above all things to speak
reason and equity." — Fac-simile of a Wood-Engraving in the " Livre des Persecutions des
Crestiens:" Paris, Antoine Verard, gothic 4to. (no date).

Christian faith with the view of re-establishing paganism. His plan for
arriving at this result was very skilfully conceived. Perceiving that it
would be necessary to combine all the forces directed against the Church,
he showed favour to the heresies and the schools of philosophy which, after
obtaining a certain notoriety under Plotinus and Porphyrius, had lapsed into

HERESIES. 3gg
the ridiculous fancies of evocations and of demonology. But, under the pro
tection of the emperor, matters assumed a different aspect, as is pointed out
by M. Jules Simon in his " Histoire de l'Ecole d'Alexandrie." This school,
"humiliated by the triumphs of Christianity, reduced to silence and obscu
rity, without any fixed purpose, devoid of credit and influence, all at once
took up a fresh attitude at the accession of Julian, and attempted to employ
the sovereign power, with which one of its followers was clothed, for extin
guishing Christianity." The struggle was a terrible one, and the Church
seemed to. have lost all human means of defence. Her children implored
for help from on high, and the premature death of Julian was attributed
to the divine intervention. Ecclesiastical writers relate that St. Basilius
the Great, while praying God to protect his Church against the persecutor,
was transported in a dream: he saw Christ in heaven and heard him say
to St. Mercurius (the martyr of Cesarea, in Cappadocia), " Go and smite the
enemy of those who beheve in me." The holy martyr at once sped on his
mission, and, returning in a short space of time, said to his Divine Master,
" Your orders are executed, Julian is no more." St. Basilius had this
vision on the night of the emperor's death. Several writers assert that tho
emperor, knowing whence came the blow which was to prove fatal to him,
collected in the palm of his hand the blood which issued from the wound,
and scattering it towards the heavens, exclaimed, " Thou hast vanquished,
Galilean." These stories, popularised by the Byzantine art (Fig. 308),
testify to the importance attached by the Christians to the struggle in which
they were engaged with JuUan.
The fathers of the Church endeavoured to oppose to the schools of
phUosophy, which had done so much harm to religion, purely ecclesiasticah
schools, for the teaching of the faithful and in order to protect them from
the seductions of heretical learning. The school of Edessa was the most
flourishing of. these Eastern schools during the third and fourth centuries.
The part taken by the emperors themselves in the dogmatic disputes of
the Christians, and the notoriety acquired by the rhetoricians who attacked or
defended the truth, had made a number of vain nonentities rival each other
in extravagance and recklessness in their endeavours to become celebrated :
they tried to attract public notice by an excess of zeal against the heretics,
by the austerity of their habits, by some eccentric practice, or by the rashness
of their attacks against the discipline of the Church, notably against the

400

HERESIES.

v

HP #'a:

- *

Fig. 308.-Dream of St. Basilius the Great.-The Martyr of Cesarea, St. Mercurius, sent from
heaven by Christ, is in the act of stabbing the Emperor . Julian the Apostate, whom he has
thrown to the ground (see the text, p. 399).— After a Greek Painting of the Sixteenth
Century, though the "style is that of the Eleventh, in the Library of M. Firmin-Didot.
The matters relating to this subject will be found collected in the " Melanges d'Archeologie "
of P. Cahier, vol. i., p. 39 et seq.

worship paid to the Virgin. Such were Coluthus, Aetius, BonosuS, Helvidius,
Jovinian, the Barefooted Friars, the Messalians, the PriscilUanists, &c. Civil

HERESIES. 401
dissensions broke out and blood was shed, and the Court of Byzantium felt,
through the great officers of the empire — and especially through the women,
who took a passionate interest in these abstractions of dogma — the effect
of every reUgious colUsion.
During the fourth century Arianism, which only saw in the Word a
superior being created to intervene between God and man, was the prevailing
heresy. The fifth century was agitated by the Pelagians, disciples of
Pelagius, a native of Great Britain. This man, who was wanting neither
in talent nor in ability, endeavoured to promulgate his doctrine, based upon
the negation of original sin ; he maintained that man could observe the com
mandments of God and work out his own salvation without the supernatural
aid of divine grace — this was a virtual denial of Christ's word, " Without
me ye can do nothing." Celestius, one of his foUowers, promulgated this
heresy in Africa, where it was eloquently combated by St. Augustine, Bishop
of Hippona. The Council of Carthage (415) condemned it, and, upon the
demand of the Fathers there present, Pope Innocent I. issued his anathema
against Pelagius and his adherents. It was then that St, Augustine pro
nounced the celebrated .sentence, "Eome has spoken, the judgment of the
African bishops is confirmed by letters from the pope, the cause is at an end
— pray God that the error may be also ! " (Roma lacuta est, causa finita est).
But the leader of the sect wrote to Zosimus, Innocent's successor, a respectful
letter of justification, and, his envoy Celestius having presented to the new
pope an insidious profession of faith, by which he undertook to condemn
anything which should be reprobated by the Holy See, Zosimus intervened
with the African bishops on behalf of Pelagius, whom he sincerely believed to
be attached to the true faith. Those bishops represented to the pontiff that
his credulity had been imposed upon, and that the heretic, before receiving
absolution, ought to be made to adjure his errors form'ally and explicitly.
The pope then saw the trickery which had been attempted, and again
condemned Pelagius and his foUowers. The latter appealed to the Council,
but St. Augustine proved that the heresy imputed to them had been fully
inquired into by the African bishops and irrevocably condemned by the Holy
See, and that all that remained to be done was to put it down. The Emperor
Honorius, considering the political troubles which were engendered, in the
East more especiaUy, by reUgious dissensions, decreed that whoever should
persist in upholding the errors of Pelagianism should be punished with exile.'
3 F

40?. HERESIES.
The heresy did not, however, altogether disappear, but underwent a
modification of form, and the semi-Pelagians, whose doctrine was formally
expounded by Cassianus the monk, whUe admitting original sin, maintained
that God had given to man the innate and natural power of walking in the '
way of salvation, of believing and of freeing himself from the fetters of
sin without the help of divine grace. This was appropriating the reUgious
to the philosophical notion of free-will. These abstract questions may to us
seem, very subtle, but in these early centuries they were the great questions
which occupied the attention of society. A new heretic, Nestorius, Bishop of
Constantinople, created a vast sensation throughout Christianity by main
taining that Jesus Christ embodied two distinct persons. Hitherto all
Christians had believed as the Church taught them, that the divine and
the human nature of Jesus Christ belonged to one person — the Word, the
second person of the Trinity. Nestorius attacked this fundamental dogma
indirectly, declaring that the Virgin should be called the Mother of Christ,
but not the Mother of God. This doctrine, implying that in Christ there
were two distinct persons, was so repulsive to the faithful that, when the
bishop expounded it to them for the first time, they immediately left the
church for fear of seeming to approve this new heresy. The Emperor
Theodosius the younger, seeing what disturbance the preaching of Nestorius
was giving rise to in Constantinople, assembled a council at Ephesus, which
was presided over by St. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, on behalf of the
pope. The heresiarch refused to appear, and his doctrine was examined,
discussed, and condemned.
The people of Ephesus gave marked evidence of their satisfaction when
they found that the title of Mother of God was confirmed to the Virgin.
But the ambassador of Theodosius, a devoted ally of Nestorius, intercepted
the despatch of the proceedings of the Council, and sent to Constantinople
a garbled account. The approaches to the imperial palace were so well
guarded, that there seemed to be little hope of acquainting the emperor with
what had really taken place, until a deputy of the council resorted to the
ruse of disguising himself as a beggar and conveying the true written report
in the hollow of his staff. Theodosius then shut up Nestorius in a monastery at
Antioch, and, as he continued to promulgate his dogma, exiled him to Egypt.
A zealous monk, Eutyches, superior of a monastery near Constantinople,
while combating the heresy of Nestorius, fell into the opposite error, alike

HERESIES. 403

contrary to orthodox teaching. Instead of respecting the letter of the
dogma, he in his turn became a schismatic, as he maintained that there was
only one nature in Jesus Christ — the divine ; that this had absorbed the
human nature as the ocean absorbs a drop of water. Condemned at Con
stantinople, he appealed from the sentence to another council assembled
at Ephesus, the decrees of which were confirmed by Theodosius II. At
the accession of Justinian, the orthodox religion regained all its authority ;
Eutychianism no longer dared to attack it, but Arianism extended even
into Gaul in the track of the victorious armies of Theodoric, ' Egidius,
Odoacer, TotUa, and the long-haired kings.
The reign of Leo the Isaurian opened up fresh opportunities for error.
The sacred images, which had been held in veneration from the earliest ages,
became a cause of dispute in the East, where they were disapproved of by
Mahomet and forbidden by the Koran. It was alleged that the figurative
representation of human beings was subjected to certain astral and diabolical
influences, and that it was contrary to religion, not to say sacrilegious, thus
to disturb the quiet repose of their souls*. Leo the Isaurian, who had
imbibed this idea, which was, moreover, taught in oriental magic, issued
against aU kinds of images the celebrated edict which was excommunicated
by the pope, and which convulsed the whole Eastern world. Luitprand, King
of the Lombards, the Venetians, Charles Martel and his Franks, were
summoned to the aid of the Eternal City, menaced by the forces of the
empire, which was determined to impose the condemnation of images upon
the Western Church. Charles Martel, by his overthrow of the victorious
Saracens on the plains of Poitiers (732), rendered a service of inestimable
value to the Christian religion as well as to France, for Islamism was upon
the point of subjugating all Christian Europe.
During the reign of the Empress Irene, the secoiid CouncU of Nice
had re-established the worship of images (787), but, until the accession of
the Empress Theodora, who enforced the decisions of the Council, the
Iconoclasts upon the one side, and the Manicheans upon the other, con
tinued to disturb the East as well as the various provinces of Western and
Southern Europe. In this great civil war a hundred thousand persons
perished; and those who succeeded in escaping took refuge in the solitude
of remote yaUeys and inaccessible mountains, where they entrenched them
selves and incessantly made inroads upon and ravaged the territory of the

404

HERESIES.

empire. The separation of the Greek and the Latin Churches, prepared if
not actually effected under the Emperor Bardas (854 — 866), served to further
the spread of heresy. No new sect arose in the eleventh century, but
schisms broke out in the Church, some due to individual pride and ambition,
others emanating from the dialectics of Aristotle, from the strange abuse of

HIT .V'— • .'=-^1111*

Fig. 309.— Amaury's Disciples burnt by order of Philip Augustus (1208).— Fac-simile of a
Miniature in the " Chroniques de St. Denis " (Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century).—
Burgundian Library, Brussels.

syllogism, and the substitution of reasoning for faith. The mysteries were
radically changed by the endeavours to reconcUe them with ordinary ideas,
to interpret and accommodate them to the vulgar understanding. Berenger
(tenth century), in endeavouring to explain the dogma of the eucharist,
himself fell into heresy, and Eoscelin, the chief of the Nominalists (eleventh
century), in his efforts to clear up the mystery of the Trinity, was led to

Fig. 310.— Episode in the Siege of Toulouse, representing, according to tradition, the death of Simon de Montfort, who was killed on the 25th of
June, 1218.— Bas-relief in stone in the Church of St. Nazaire, in Carcassonne (Thirteenth Century). [To face page 404.

HERESIES. 40S
assert that it was but a name which did not correspond with any actual fact.
The Manicheans had made their way into Europe ; they affected a love of
poverty and humble conduct which predisposed people in their favour and
won them adherents. Many of them were burnt at the stake, but the sect
was not crushed out, often reappearing in different cities of Europe under
various names, now in one shape and now in another.
The civil tribunals also condemned to be burnt the disciples of a theo
logian named Amaury of Paris, who promulgated his dogma during the
reign of Philip Augustus (Fig. 309). He taught that God is the first
cause, and that the law of Jesus Christ was to terminate in the year 1200,
and to make way for the law of the Holy Ghost, which would sanctify men
without any external act ; by his denial of the resurrection of the dead and
of hell, he destroyed the essential basis of morality. This doctrine, as
convenient as it was dangerous, found many warm partisans.
Abelard, the most talented dialectician of his day, gifted with wonderful
learning, and armed with a rational theology which he made intelligible,
assigned a different origin and a differenl mode of action to each of the three
persons of the Trinity. The divines at once prepared to combat his views,
and St. Bernard constituted himself their champion. Abelard, when con
demned, repented, and, on his knees before his judges, burnt the books which
contained his heretical theories ; he showed himself, indeed, even a greater
man by this expiatory act than he had ever done by the brUliancy of his
teaching. Bishop GUbert de la Porree, a scholastic heresiarch like Abelard,
also met a terrible antagonist in the gifted Abbot of Clairvaux, and, bowing
his head, he confessed his guilt, leaving his disciples to maintain that the
attributes of God ought to be considered as distinct from his essence. Arnold
of Brescia attacked the temporal power, upon the ground that the Church
should be stripped of her property, that the wallet of St. Peter should be
given back to the pope, and the ancient Eoman Eepublic proclaimed in
the pontifical city. Valdo went stiU further ; he advised the Christians to
renounce aU kinds of property, in order to render their lives more spiritual.
The Albigenses (Figs. 310 and 311) and the Waldenses, who were Manicheans
under another name, eventually embodied in themselves all the heresies
which, towards the close of the twelfth century, had spread over Europe and
chiefly throughout the south of France. In the foUowing chapter ("The
Inquisition "), the account of the crusade preached against them is related

406

HERESIES.

at length. From every quarter of Christendom, but chiefly from Germany,
Flanders, and France, crusaders were enlisted beneath the banner of the faith.
This campaign was begun in 1196. The council which condemned the
new Manichean heresy met at Montpellier in December of that year, and
the first effect of the repressive measures which it very promptly employed

rail

Fig. 311. — Entry of Louis VIII., King of France, and of Cardinal St. Angelo, the Pope's Legate,
upon the 12th of September, 1226, into Avignon, which had just capitulated after a three
months' siege. — After a Miniature in the "Chroniques de Hainaut" (Manuscript of the
Fifteenth Century, in the Burgundiau Library, Brussels).
was to drive back into the Cevennes, the Alps, and the Vosges, and towards
the Ehone, the Moselle, and the Ehine, a host of heretics who endeavoured
to teach publicly in the free towns of Germany.
An excess of devotion, which had its origin in a wish to avert the wrath
of God, gave birth in Italy quite spontaneously to the sect known as the
Flagellants. This strange infatuation for scourging began at Perugia, whence

HERESIES.

407

it passed to Eome and afterwards to Germany and Poland. The nobles, the
elders, the people of all classes, the poor and even the children, traversed the
streets of the towns and the country districts with bare shoulders, scourging '

Fig. 312. — Heresy of the Flagellants. — The Latin inscription upon the streamer borne by the
Bishop of Hippona signifies, " They sacrifice to Satan, and not to God." — Fac-simile of a
Miniature in the " CitS de Dieu," by St. Augustine (Manuscript of the Fifteenth Century, in
St. Genevieve Library, Paris).
themselves mercilessly with- whips having leathern thongs (Fig. 312).
These fanatics, who travelled through all Europe, firmly believed that
an angel had brought a missive from Jesus Christ, which declared that
there was only one way for a Christian to obtain pardon for his sins, viz. to
leave his native country and scourge himself for thirty-three consecutive

408 HERESIES.
days, in commemoration of the thirty-three years which Christ had passed
upon earth. The Apostolicals, the Dulcinists, the Beghards, the Flagellants,
the Spiritual Brothers, the Brethren of the Free Spirit, the Turlupins,
&c, adopted these superstitious ideas, and constituted distinct sects which
were condemned by the Church as heretical. The sectaries appealed from
the sentence : the civil tribunals backed up the ecclesiastical ones ; the
faggots were kindled and a vast number of heretics perished ; many, however,
escaped, and, joining the Albigenses, they formed the sect of the Lollards.
The Englishman Wickliff, whose heresy had pervaded all Britain (1368 —
1384), openly attacked the Court of Eome, the upper clergy, the liturgy,
and the sacraments, with an audacity all the greater because he felt that
he had the support of the people at large and of several sovereigns. The
University of Oxford made a critical examination of WickUff's books, and
found them to contain two hundred and seventy-eight reprehensible pro
positions, which it submitted for censure to the Archbishop of Canterbury
and the Bishop of London. After he had declaimed against the Church,
its customs and its institutions, Wickliff attacked the very foundations
of civil society, by his doctrine that, to possess any right or authority
upon earth, it was necessary to be in a state of grace. Consequently
kings, nobles, and the landowners were to lose their political and domanial
rights, since they were in a state of mortal sin, just as the pope, the
bishops, and the priests through sin were to lose their spiritual powers.
He moreover denied the existence of free-will ; and his allegation that
everything which man did he was necessarily obliged to do, implied that
all punishment was unjust, for no one is guilty who acts under compulsion.
Lastly, he only recognised the existence of God to make Him responsible
for evil, maintaining that God also is moved by an invincible necessity,
that He looks with approval on those who sin, that He even constrains
men to commit sin ; " so that," as Bossuet remarks, " the religion of this
so-called Eeformer was worse than atheism." It is true that with Wickliff
God counted for little, for, according to his system, " every creature is
God, everything is God." It is easy to understand the effect of such
doctrines as these upon the masses ; the religious dispute was transformed
into a social question. The followers of Wickliff, when condemned, refused
to bow to the decisions of the ecclesiastical authority. Their books
were burnt, their apostles were sent to the stake, while others were

THE FORTRESS OF FAITH.

Schitnt k C" Fans

Miniature of the fifteenth century, from tbe collection of M. Firmin-Didot.]
The fortress, besieged by the impious and the heretics, is defended by the Pope, the bishops, the monks and
the doctors of the church, who are the chevaliers of the Faith. The bordering is taken from the ms. of the « For
tresses of the Faith .*>, n° 20,067 in the Bibliotheque nationale (Paris) ; it represents the arms of Louis de Bruges,

HERESIES.

409

imprisoned or exUed. But, in spite of this rigorous treatment, Wickliff's
doctrines made a deep impression in England, obtained shortly afterwards
the protection of the House of Commons, and disposed men's minds to bend
beneath the despotic will of Henry VIII.
The st'aunchest Catholic writers admit that the clergy are themselves
responsible for the triumph of the heretics. Moeller says — " The relaxation
of ecclesiastical discipline amongst the clergy and that in a great many reli
gious communities, from which the pontifical court itself was not always

Fig. 313.— John Wickliff, a theologian Heresiarch, the Precursor of Luther, born at Wickliff, in
England, about 1324, died in 1387.— After tbe "Vrais Pourtraits des Hommes Illustres:"
4to, Jean de Laon, Geneva, 1681.
exempt, gave the sectaries of the sixteenth century a pretext for their
rebeUion against the Church, its doctrines, its hierarchy, and its institutions.
To this moral decadence of a great part of the clergy must further be
added the profound ignorance of the upper clergy ; -and even those who
cultivated literature and science confined themselves almost exclusively to
the study of Greek and Latin literature, which directed the whole course
of scientific research from the fifteenth century downwards. Many pagan
ideas had pervaded men's minds, and had contributed to create a feeling of
contempt both for Christianity and for that beautiful Christian literature
3 a

4io HERESIES.

which had shed a lustre on the Church from the very earliest times. This
condition of the clergy had a baneful influence upon the mass of the people,
who lived in utter ignorance of religion, and who had lost their attachment
to the Church and all respect for its pastors."
This religious indifference of the clergy and of the people explains the
success, not only of the heresiarchs who presented themselves as reformers
of manners and discipline, but even of the sects held in the lowest
esteem, the sorcerers, for instance. The facts are too numerous and too
well-authenticated to admit of any doubt upon this head. There existed
throughout all Europe, in the Middle Ages, numerous sects of sorcerers and
witches who in all seriousness professed to give themselves over to the devil
in exchange for the gift of magic power. The Spanish Inquisition was not
the only body which sent them to the stake, after having submitted them to
trial and received the confession of their misdeeds; the French tribunals
pronounced sentence of death in similar cases when the accused, after long
and minute interrogatories, but without being put to the torture, made a
confession of their satanic orgies known by the name of sabbat (Fig. 314).
This kind of heresy eluded all the steps taken by the civil and the religious
powers to put it down. The " Histoire des Proces de Sorcellerie," by Soldam,
tells us that, even at the close of the sixteenth century, from 1590 to 1594,
thirty-five witches were condemned to be burnt, out of a total population
of six thousand, in the small Protestant town of JNordling, in Germany.
The enormities of the sect of sorcerers attest, no doubt, a profound depra
vation of morals, but they contained no germ of social revolution ; such,
however, was not the case with the theories expounded by the great'
heresiarchs. Wickliff 's doctrine soon made its way into Germany. It was propagated
by John Huss, one of the doctors at the University of Prague. When the
University discovered this, it solemnly condemned Wickliff 's books, and
prohibited them from being read. John Huss did not venture upon, any
overt opposition ; but, as the doctors of the University were Germans, he
called to his aid the vanity of the Bohemians and the personal ill-will of
King Wenceslaus against the Germans, who had deposed him from the
empire. The situation of the professors became untenable, and they left
With their two thousand pupUs for Leipsic, where they founded the Uni
versity. John Huss was joined by several ecclesiastics, who were anxious

HERESIES. 411
to acquire hberty of action ; but the leading Bohemian professors, convoked
by the archbishop to examine the works of Wickliff which John Huss had
distributed amongst the Bohemian nobles, decided that the possessors of
these books should surrender them to be burnt. John Huss again endea
voured to temporise, promising the archbishop to correct in his preaching
anything which might have escaped him contrary to Christian doctrine ; for,
in his view, this promise did not prevent him from propagating the doctrine
of Wickliff, which he believed to be quite orthodox. He was supported by
Jerome of Prague, a man of position, who, in addition to his ardour and
daring, was a bachelor in theology, though a layman. The latter was so
zealous in his partisanship, that he upon one occasion stopped three Car
melite monks who had been combating the theories of Wickhff, and threw
one of them into the Moldau. Denounced to the pope by the clergy of
Prague, John Huss and his adherents were declared heretics and excom
municated. A rebeUion got up in Prague by his partisans, headed by the
impetuous Jerome, cost a great number of them their lives', the senate
visiting their crime with capital punishment. John Huss appealed from the
sentence of the pope to the next council ; and this, which was held at
Eome in 1413, condemned afresh the writings of Wickliff and excommuni
cated John Huss, who had not put in an appearance, although he was cited
before the council. The Chancellor Gerson, the illustrious Dean of the
Faculty of Theology in the University of Paris, which had just condemned
the nineteen errors of John Huss, wrote to the Archbishop of Prague,
exhorting him to take the necessary steps for repressing this heresy.
That prelate, in conformity with Gerson's advice, obtained the support of
the King of Bohemia ; and it was decreed that all those who stUl adhered to
the condemned theories of Wickliff should be expelled from the kingdom.
John Huss was thus compelled. to leave the city, but he declaimed as vehe
mently as ever against the Church, and especially against the pope.
The CouncU of Constance, convoked for the 1st of November, 1414,
was ordered to examine his doctrines. John Huss, far from flinching at
this decisive moment, vehemently called upon his adversaries, by public
placards,, to come and put him to confusion before the council. " If,"
he stated in these placards, " I can be convicted of any error, or of having
taught anything contrary to the Christian faith, I am ready to undergo
the punishment inflicted upon heretics." He then solicited and obtained

412

HERESIES.

from the Emperor Sigismund a safe-conduct, in which it was stated that,
'** out of respect for the imperial majesty he was to be let freely and
safely pass, sojourn, remain, and return, and be provided, . if necessary,
with other fitting passports." John Huss left Prague on the 11th of
October (Figs. 315 and 316), and on the 20th, in a letter written from
Nuremberg, he expresses his satisfaction at the reception which he has
everywhere met with, especiaUy from the ecclesiastics, who seemed disposed

Fig. 315. — John Huss, the celebrated Here-
siarch, born in Bohemia ; tried, condemned,
and burnt at Constance in 1415.

Fig. 316. — Jerome of Prague, a Disciple of
John Huss, born at Prague about 1378;
burnt alive for heresy at Constance in 1416.
After the " Vrais Pourtraits des Hoinmes Illustres :'* Jean de Laon, Geneva, 1581.

to accept his doctrine. Upon reaching Constance, on the 3rd of November,
he expounded his ideas very freely, both by word of mouth and in writing ;
and, in spite of the excommunication hurled against him, he said mass
every day in a private room, but without making any secret of it, to the
inhabitants of the neighbourhood. Upon the 28th of November he was
arrested and cast into prison. After many witnesses had been examined,
thirty-nine articles taken from his speeches and writings were read in
public, the most important of which declared " that the elect alone are
members of the CathoUc Church; that St. Peter neither is nor ever has

HERESIES. \\3
been the chief of that Church ; that by the commission of mortal sin the eccle
siastical and civil authorities lose their rights and privileges ; and lastly, that
the condemnation of the forty-five articles of Wickliff was unreasonable and
unjust." The venerable Peter d'Ailly exhorted John Huss to submit him
self to the judgment of the council ; the emperor did the same, threatening
him, if he refused, with the rigour of the law. Upon the following day he
was given a recantation to sign, which he would not consent to do. A
fortnight afterwards, on the 24th of June, his books were condemned to
be burnt. On the 6th of July the council declared him to be a heretic,
and degraded him from his ecclesiastical orders, by which process he was
handed over to the secular arm. The emperor, who was present, had him
immediately seized by the count-palatine, and the civil law, which con
demned stubborn heretics to the stake, was applied in all its rigour. John
Huss submitted to his fate with courage. Jerome of Prague at first signed
the formula of recantation, but he soon afterwards disavowed it ; and, after
publicly declaring that he adopted the whole doctrine of John Huss, he also
was sent to the stake.
These pitiless measures failed to intimidate the partisans of John Huss ;
on the contrary, they became converted into a horde of fanatics, in which
all the sects hostile to the Church became indiscriminately merged. Ziska,
¦ the chamberlain of King Wenceslaus, placing himself at their head, ravaged
Bohemia, pUlaged the monasteries, massacred the monks, constituted himself
absolute master of the country, holding in check the whole mihtary force of
the empire. After his death (1424) the Hussites, far from giving in their
submission and avowing their errors, continued supreme in Germany, so that
Luther had only to cast seed upon the ground which they had bedewed with
blood. By a strange anomaly, the Hussites remained firmjy attached to the
dogma of the eucharist ; and the chief inducement of the people to join
their party was, in several cases, the privilege of being able to receive the
communion in both kinds. The Hussites, assembled to the number of forty
thousand in their celebrated camp of Tabor, by the wayside, without any
preliminary confession, received the communion under the elements of bread
and wine. Their leader signed himself Ziska of the Chalice ; and when the
moderate section of the party separated themselves from the more advanced
section, he chose the name of Calixtines to indicate his own foUowers. The

414 HERESIES.

Protestants, on the contrary, were not long in coming to deny the real and
abiding presence of Christ in the eucharistic elements. The importance
attached to this dogma drew general attention to the extraordinary case
of a woman possessed, who travelled through the dioceses of Laon and
Soissons towards the middle of the sixteenth century. This was a young
woman, recently married, of the name of Nicole, belonging to a humble but
very honest family. There were many public exorcisms, and the paroxysms
of the patient were always allayed by the giving of the sacrament. The
case was much criticized; it was submitted to a scrupulous examination,
and the agitation which it gave rise to was so great that the authorities
intervened. Nicole was handed over to the royal delegates (Fig. 317),
" who ordered that all the experiments should be made by physicians
and surgeons officially appointed, and selected from among Cathohcs and
Protestants alike, so that there should be no suspicion attaching to their
reports." The evidence of these doctors did away with aU idea of fraud,
which the judicial authorities would have had no hesitation in punishing
had it been practised. The Prince de Conde, Governor of Picardy, and one
of the warmest upholders of the Eeformed Eeligion, so called, detained for
several days at his residence the possessed woman, together with her parents,
who accompanied her wherever she went; but his interrogatories faUed
to shake their conviction that Nicole had been possessed, and that the
eucharist had restored her. At last, a royal order enabled these poor people
to return to their own home at Vervins.
The ecclesiastical authority, seconded as it was by the orthodox sove
reigns, had been nearly always sufficient to suppress the heretical movements,
which were circumscribed within a few provinces or dioceses ; but the violent
dissensions of Eome with the Empire, the two rival camps, formed during
two centuries between the popes and the anti-popes, the independent posi
tion acquired by the communes after reiterated uprisings against their
bishops and nobles, rendered necessary the intervention of a judicial autho
rity in the religious quarrels and contentions springing out of the heresies
and schisms which were constantly arising. The creation of this authority,
half civil and half ecclesiastical, emanating from the throne, was mainly
with a view to protect the legacy of the past against the encroachments and
the audacious claims of the future. This is how it came to pass that, from
the fourteenth century, the courts styled Cours des Grand Jours, the presi-

nvyar

Fig. 317.— Exorcism of a person possessed with a devil in the Church of Notre-Dame, Laon,
by the bishop of that city, on the 8th of February, 1566.— Reduced Fac-simile of an Engra
ving in the " Manuel de la "Victoire du Corps de Dieu sur l'Esprit malin," by Jean Boulaese :
16mo., Paris, 1575, [To face page 414,

HERESIES.

415

dential tribunals, the parUaments, and even the bailiwicks, together with
the Chatelet of Paris, intervened in matters of worship, though their rulings
were not always in accordance with canonical law. The Inquisition failed
to effect a permanent lodgment in France, but the ordinary tribunals

Fig. 318. — Allegorical Picture of the Excesses committed by the Huguenots. — The lion bound and
tamed represents France reduced to a deplorable position by the heretics, as much by civil
war, pillage, violence, and bloodshed, as by the impiety of which they left traces everywhere,
profaning churches, breaking the sacred vessels, and treading under foot tbe crosses, the
images, and the relics of tbe saints.— After a Drawing from the Manuscript " De Tristibus
Franciae," preserved in the Library of Lyons. (Sixteenth Century.) 5l
claimed for themselves the right to* take cognizance of crimes of heresy
without having recourse to the aid of the ecclesiastical authorities.
When Luther's protests against Eome and Catholicism (1517) 'first burst
upon the world, the heresy of Eeform had long slumbered in a chrysalis
state, so to speak, awaiting only some circumstance to favour its develop
ment. "The egg was laid," as Erasmus remarked, ." Luther had but to
incubate and hatch it." The corruption of the higher classes, of the clergy,

416

HERESIES.

and of the people, increased his chances of success. The suppression of celi
bacy amongst the clergy, and of monastic vows, was looked upon with secret
favour by the depraved among the bishops, priests, and monks ; the prospect
of seeing all the property of the Church fall into their possession excited
the cupidity of the princes and nobles; and the rejection of ecclesiastical
teaching flattered the vanity of the people, who were made supreme judges
of the dogmas through the right which had been given to them, themselves

Fig. 319. — John Knox, Propagator of the Re
formed Eeligion, so-called, in Scotland; born
at Gifford in 1504, died in 1572.

Fig. 320. — TJlrich Zwingle, the first champion
of religious reform in Switzerland ; born and
died at Wildhaus, in the Canton of St. Gall,
1484—1531.
From the " Vrais Pourtraits des Hommes Illustres :" Jean de Laon, Geneva, 1581.

to interpret the Bible, now translated into the vulgar tongue. For two cen
turies Eationalism had been disseminatiflg : the leaven of revolt against the
authority of the past, and the advent of printing lent it fresh force. The
apostle of the new doctrine had only to pronounce the word negation, and an
army of disciples rose up to follow him and fight under his banner— disciples
who, at first obedient to his command, soon became rebellious, and impatient
to obtain for themselves the liberty of inquiry and the independence of
principles which Luther despotically endeavoured to reserve exclusively for

Fig. 321. — The Massacre of St. Bartholomew, Paris, August 24th, 1572. — The principal subject is the murder of Coligny. To the left, the admiral is-
leaving the Louvre, and while reading a memorandum is wounded by an arquebuse fired by Maurevert from a window (August 22nd) ; in the back
ground, one of his equerries is communicating this fact to King Charles IX., whom he finds playing at tennis. To the right, Coligny, attacked by
soldiers in his hotel, Rue Bethisy, is assassinated by Besme, and his body, thrown from the window, falls at the Due de Guise's feet. In the next
house Teligny and other Protestants are being massacred. — After a German Engraving, a reprint of one of the Supplementary Plates of tho Collection.
engraved by Jean Tortorel and Jacques Perrissin. [To face page 416.

HERESIES. 4' 7

himself. Carlstadt, (Ecolampadius, Hutten, Zwingle (Fig. 320), Schwenck-
feld, Munzer, Staupitz, Knox (Fig. 319), and many others, while following
in the footsteps of the famous Wittenberg professor, had their own school :
" The teachings crashed like avalanches, the doctrines rattled like the tem
pest ; there was a dark abyss of neologies, inconsistencies, and contradictions,
amidst which no ray of the eternal sun of grace was visible," to quote the
poetic simile of Wieland. The intellectual movement was none the less
gigantic, especially in Germany and in the countries bordering on the
MoseUe. A deluge of statements, of pamphlets, and of stories, some true and
others false, issuing, most of them anonymously, from an infinity of printing-
presses, were rapidly disseminated, and made their way into every district;
the allegorical eucharist of Zwingle, the revolutionary appeal of Munzer to
the Franconian monks, the restoration of the letter by Schwenckfeld, the
trope of Carlstadt against Luther, assumed a thousand different forms ; while
the indefatigable Luther himself, in turn a Demosthenes, a Petronius, a
Danubian peasant, a beer-sodden drunkard, spun out in fifteen thousand
folio pages his senseless Protestant theories=-a chaos of eloquence, poesy,
impassioned simUes, tangible truths, audacious falsehoods, venom, hatred,
jealousy, and filth. The famous Leipsic dispute, the sessions of Worms
and of Augsburg, the war of extermination of the peasantry, the quarrel
about images, the interview of Mauburg, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew
in France (Fig. 321) — in a word, the numerous revolutions of this great
reUgious drama which Europe was watching with nervous anxiety, are
brought into less marked relief in the large works since published by
learned controversialists, than in these desultory pages, scattered to the
winds, sung at the streeticorners, accompanied by denunciations, threats,
and sanguinary struggles between the irreconcilable factions of Catholic and
Huguenot. Lutheranism, in consequence of a revolt in the cloister, had led to
anarchy in the Church, to the exile of Carlstadt, who was compelled to beg
his bread from village to village, to the persecutions against (Ecolampadius
and Schwenckfeld, and to the massacre of a hundred thousand rebellious pea
sants in Thuringia and Swabia. A multitude of sects^the Sacramentarians,
the (Ecolampadians, the Antinomians, the Majorists, and the Anabaptists
were given birth to by the heresy of Luther ; there were as many popes as
there were dissenting churches. The Lutheran creed was still confined
3 H

418

HERESIES.

Min<&ermd,vont>em Ymrecbteit0>ammon luce am xvf.
5&.m.lHt^er.2innom.S5.3t3eij.

ATERNA IPSA SVrt MENTIS SIMVLACHRA LVTHER
EXPRIMIT AT VVLTVS CERA LVCA OCCIDVOS.
M. D XXI.

Fig. 322.— Martin Luther.— Eeduced Fac-simile of a Portrait by Lucas de Cranach (1520),
published in the fly-leaf of a sermon preached by Luther against the authority of the Roman
Church (in octavo, Wittenberg, 1522), when be threw off his garb of an Augustine monk.
The Latin distich renders famous both the artist and the original in these words : — " If Luther
leaves imperishable traces of his genius, Lucas (Cranach) perpetuates for ever the features
which death will efface."

to the countries on the other side of the Ehine, when the French sectaries,
Farel and Froment (Fig. 324), set out to revolutionise Geneva and the neigh-

HERESIES.

419

bouring country. An unjust hatred for the House of Savoy attracted to
their standard a large body of patriots, who, aspiring after a democratic

Fig. 323. — John Calvin, called the Pope of Geneva, chief of the so-called Reformed Church ;
born at Noyon in 1509, died at Geneva in 1564. — Fac-simile of a Wood Engraving from the
works of Theodore Beza, translated from the Latin by Simon Goulart — " Les Vrais Pour-
traits des Hommes Illustres " (4to, Jean de Laon, Geneva, 1581). — One of the engraved
frontispieces of this collection bears the monogram of Jean Cousin.

independence, hoped to rid themselves of hereditary monarchy and to break
with Catholicism, its main ally.
In . England, the king separated himself from the Eoman Church/

4Z0

HERESIES.

Henry VIII., unable to obtain from Pope Clement VIII. a buU annuUino-
his marriage with Catherine of Arragon, and permitting him to espouse
Anne Boleyn, declared himself to be the supreme and only head of the
Church in his own kingdom, but he did not touch upon the dogmas which
he had defended against Luther; thus it was a schism rather than a
heresy. Under his successors, in conformity with a decision of the English
Parliament, a synod assembled in
London drew up the Confession
of Faith for the Anglican Church,
which differs less than any other,
in regard to dogma and discipline,
from the traditions of the Cathohc
Church. Calvin, upon arriving at Geneva,

his mind imbued with those evan
gelical novelties which constituted
a heresy essentially French, found
the Eeformation already accom
plished there. Its passage was
marked only too plainly by ruins
and blood-stains ; the stripping of
the vanquished by their conquerors
Fig. 324.— William Farel, preacher of the so-called had turned a reUgious reform into
Reformed faith ; born at Gap in 1489, died at a social revolution. Calvin, a
Geneva in 1565. — From the " Viais Pourtraits
des Hommes Illustres:" 4to, Jean de Laon, Jealous alld ^flexible Sectary, laid
Geneva, 1581. hold upon reform as an instrument
of despotism. In order to become
head of the Church as weU as head of the State, he proclaimed the
doctrinal negation of authority, thus beginning where Luther ended.
To the Saxon-like creed of the great Eeformer, he adapted a mixed
system concerning the Lord's Supper borrowed from Zwingle and (Ecolam
padius ; he was ardent and pitUess, as the sad fate of Servet and of
Gruet too clearly prove ; he was determined to reign by terror, for
he was a slave of pohtics rather than of spiritual ideas. This it is
which constitutes so marked and characteristic a difference between the
two champions of Protestantism, between the rebeUious monk of Witten-

HERESIES.

421

berg and the apostate priest of Noyon. Calvin entered upon an overt
struggle with all the renegades of the Catholic school, with Gentilis,
Ochino, Castalion, and Westphalz ; his doctrine and his teaching were alike
divergent from those of Zwingle in the mountains of Switzerland, of

Fig. 325. — Violence of the French Huguenots against the Catholics. — A. Noble lady of Montbrun
(Charente) being tortured by soldiers whom she had hospiiably welcomed. They are burning
the soles of her feet with red-hot irons, and with the sharp edges of the irons cutting the
skin from her legs in strips. — B. Master Jean Arnould, Procurellr-Royal at AngoulSme, after
having had his limbs mutilated, is strangled in his own house. — C. The widow of the
Procureur at the criminal court of that city, seventy years of age, being dragged by the hair
through the streets. — Fac-simile of a Copper-plate in the "Theatrum Crudelitatum nostri
Temporis" (4to, Antwerp,. 1587).
Melancthon in the University of Wittenberg, of (Ecolampadius at the
foot of the Hauenstein, of Martin Bucer at Strasburg, and of Brentzen at
Tubingen. Amongst the Geneva sectaries, two friends, Farel and Beza,
alone remained faithful to him, more through compatibility of temperament
than from identity of principles. The French Huguenots had, however,
accepted as their supreme chief a theocrat like Calvin, who, for four-and-
twenty years, never stepped without an escort of swords, of faggots, and of
executioners (Fig. 325).

422

HERESIES.

It is therefore to Calvin and his personal influence that must be
attributed the violent and merciless character which reform took during
the sixteenth century, when the horrors of religious warfare were excused
by the necessity of preaching the word of God to Christians who were
anxious to hear it !

Fig. 326. — Seal of an imaginary Bull of Lucifer, taken from the " Roi Modus," a Manuscript
of the Fifteenth Century, in tbe Burgundian Library, Brussels. The inscription on the seal
seems to be cabalistic ; at any rate, it is unintelligible.

THE INQUISITION.

General Principles of the Inquisition ; its Existence amongst the Greeks and Romans.— The
Papal Inquisition.— The Inquisition in France.— The Albigenses.— The Royal Spanish Inqui
sition ; its Political Purpose ; it is opposed by the Popes.— Inquisitors of Toledo excom
municated by Leo X.— The Holy Hermandad.— The Spies of the Inquisition.— The Holy
Office and the Supreme.— The Prisons of the Inquisition.-The Auto-da-fe.— The Inquisition
in the Netherlands.— The Protestant Inquisition in Holland, Germany, France, England, and
Switzerland.

T all times and in all places rehgion, which
is the basis of society, has had to be
protected and fostered in the public
interest. This is why most men,
especially those placed in authority,
have always attached the highest im
portance, to phUosophical ideas and
opinions, and still more to reUgious
ideas. In fact, experience has shown
only too plainly since the formation
of civilised States, that a change of
religious belief necessarily brings about a social transformation, and that
a poHtical revolution is but the putting into practice of a theory invented
and propounded by a more or less hostile and mischievous philosophy ; hence
the estabhshed principle which ordains that human and divine law should
alike be respected. It would therefore be erroneous to regard the Inqui
sition as an exceptional and abnormal fact, peculiar to the Middle Ages.
The search into religious creeds — for such is the meaning of the word
inquisition — was not only a natural consequence of the existence of forms of
rehgion, but an imperious function of government. All history — of anti
quity as well as that of the Middle Ages and the Eenaissance--— bears witness
to this fact. It is consoling to find that, as a general rule, even in the

424

THE INQUISITION.

midst of the fiercest persecutions, there were men of lofty views and generous
sentiments who did not hesitate to protest with undaunted courage against
the tyrannical and sanguinary excesses, by means of which it was attempted
to impose upon nations and upon individuals a religious conviction which
ought to be the offspring of reason, and which should be the sole result of
liberty of conscience.
The Inquisition — that is to say, the research of religious orthodoxy —
existed amongst the Greeks. The accusation of Melitus against Socrates,
compassing his death, says in so many words, " Socrates is guilty because he

Fig. 327. — Funereal Lamp from the Catacombs, representing a young Christian woman crowned
with the palm leaves of martyrdom. — Terra-cotta of the Third Century, in the Vatican Museum.

does not recognise the gods of the republic, and puts demoniacal extra
vagancies in their place." Tbe judges, yielding to the influence of the
democratic party, condemned. Socrates to drink hemlock, but the breath
was scarcely out of his body before the moderate men of all parties felt
what an indignity had been committed in the name of religion ; it was
not, however, in the cause of religious tolerance, but by proving that
Socrates had recognised and worshipped the gods of the republic, that they
obtained the condemnation of Melitus his accuser, by way of reprisal.

THE INQUISITION.

4*5

At Eome as at Athens, we find the people fuU of suspicion and merciless
towards those who refused to bow down to the gods of the republic ; this
was the cause of the cruel persecutions which, under the Eoman emperors,
led to the martyrdom of thousands. It was in vain that the Christians hid
themselves in the recesses of the Catacombs to pray to the true God and
partake of the holy- mysteries — it was in vain that they rendered their

Fig. 328. — St. Cecilia, and Valerian her spouse. — At their feet are roses and lilies in bloom, and
upon each side of them is a palm-tree loaded with fruit, a symbol of their victories and of
their meritorious martyrdom. Upon one of tbe palm-trees is a phoenix with a gloria around
its head, the ancient symbol of resurrection. — Mosaic taken from the Cemetery of St. Sixtus,
and preserved in the Church of St. Cecilia, at Rome (Third or Fourth Century).
lives irreproachable by fulfilling aU their duties as citizens — their religious
creeds, contrary to - that of the State, could not be pardoned, and whenever
they; were discovered, they either had to offer incense to the gods of the
republic or suffer death (Fig. 327). The mild Trajan replied to Pliny that
it w;as unnecessary to seek out the Christians, but that if they were denounced
and refused ,to change their faith, they must be punished. St. Ignatius,
Bishop of. Antioch, was . one of the many martyrs immolated during the
reign pf jTrajan, who allowed men of the highest honour and virtue, whose
only crime was their refusal to adore the image of the emperor and the
pagan idols, to be put to death. 3 1

426

THE INQUISITION.

Under the reign of Alexander Severus, many illustrious martyrs were
put to death : St. Cecilia, her husband, and her brother-in-law (Fig. 328)
among the number. St. Cecilia was descended from a very ancient family
which dated back to the time of Tarquin the Proud ; she belonged to the
same house as Metella, many of whose children were raised to the honours
of triumph and of the consulate in the heyday of the Eoman republic.
Her parents gave her in marriage to a young Eoman patrician, named
Valerian. But Cecilia had dedicated her virginity to God, and her husband,

Fig. 329.— St. Savin and St. Cyprian brought before tbe Proconsul Maximus in 458, and confessing
that they were Christians.— Fresco in the Church of St. Savin (Vienne), the oldest extant in
France (Eleventh Century).— After the Drawings of M. Gerard-Seguin.
converted to the faith by, her arguments and entreaties, respected her vow,
and himself converted his brother Tiburcius. They all three relieved their
persecuted brethren, and this Christian charity betrayed them. In spite
of their distinguished birth, their wealth and their connections, they were
arrested, and their refusal to sacrifice to the false gods led to their being
condemned to death. We find a multitude of analogous occurrences in
Gaul (Figs. 329 and 330), and also in the most distant provinces of the East.
After the conversion of Constantine, when the religion of Christ was
recognised as that of the State, the secular arm at once placed itself at

THE INQUISITION.

4^7

the service of the Church to uphold the unity of the faith ; but the civil
power, instead of limiting itself to seconding the ecclesiastical authority
in the repression of offences against the dogma as laid down . by tbe
councils, sought to obtain a sovereign influence in all the trials relating
to religious matters, and hence arose deplorable abuses. The Italian Inqui
sition, under the immediate direction of the popes, made its appearjnce in
the fifth century : Pope St. Leo, after having ordered a juridical inquiry
to be held concerning the Manicheans who had taken refuge in Eome,

Fig. 330.— Martyrdom of SS. Savin and Cyprian, their flesh being torn out with iron hooks.-*-.
Fresco in the Church of St. Savin, Vienne (Eleventh Century). — After the Drawings of
M. Gerard-Seguin.

stated, "What has been done is not enough; the Inquisition must continue
not only as an inducement for the devout to hold fast by their faith, but
in order that those who have been led astray may be converted from their
errors." The primitive and real object of the Inquisition was to discover
errors in doctrine, to stop them from being propagated, and to endeavour
to enlighten and to win back those who had been perverted by the apostles
of error. In the twelfth century Pope Lucius III., with a view of checking the
progress of the Manicheans, who reappeared under the names of Catharists,
Patarenes, the. Poor of Lyons, &c, ordered "through the council of bishops,

428 THE INQUISITION.

at the demand of the emperor (of Germany) and the lords of his court,
that every bishop should visit the districts of his diocese which were
suspected of containing heretics once or twice a year." They were to be
denounced by every one, so that the bishop might summon them before
him, make them renounce their heresies, or inflict upon them the punish
ment awarded by canonical law. Thus we see that religious error was
regarded as a breach of public order, and that the princes looked upon the
heretics as rebels or conspirators. This was in keeping with the ideas of
the Middle Ages, when the whole social system reposed upon the Catholic
faith. We must in fairness admit that, if the Inquisition of Eome was the
earliest, and the only one which outlasted the Middle Ages, it was also
the most moderate, for it alone never ordered capital punishment.
The Inquisition was introduced into France through a heresy of Eastern
origin, which endeavoured to associate the pagan ideas of Armenian Mani-
cheism with the ceremonies of Christianity. Originally centred at Toulouse
and Albi (whence the name Albigenses), the new heretics, numbering about
one thousand and fifty, graduaUy made their way into Perigord and
the neighbouring provinces. Towards 1160 another sect, the Waldenses,
founded by Peter de Valdo or de Vaux, arose at Lyons, and gave great
trouble to the papacy. The Albigenses were inferior in morahty even to
the Waldenses, and professed stUl more dangerous opinions. Immediate
followers of Manes the Persian, they had adopted his doctrine of the
double nature of man, of fatalism, of the origin of good and evil, &c. — a
monstrous doctrine, the direct consequence of which was a life of un
bridled license. In spite of the pious efforts of King Eobert (1022) and
the sentence of condemnation pronounced at the Council of Toulouse (1118),
the Manichean heresy of the Albigenses continued to spread throughout
the southern provinces of France, and obtained fresh adherents every day,
even amongst the clergy and the nobility. Innocent III., elected sovereign
pontiff in 1198, took alarm at the danger to the Christian religion, and
determined to reduce these daring sectaries to obedience, openly protected
as they then were by the Counts of Toulouse, Foix, and B^arn, and by
the Viscount of Beziers. But, before resorting to physical force, he at
first tried persuasion.
Two monks, Guy and Eaynier, of the Cistercian order, accordingly
repaired to the south of France to seek out these heretics. They were

THE INQUISITION.

4*9

the first commissioners of the Holy See to whom might properly belong
the title of inquisitors. The faUure of their mission decided Innocent III.
to give full powers ,to Peter de .Castelnau, Archdeacon of Magliano, and
to another Cistercian monk named Ealph. These two monks, accom
panied by.Amalric, Abbot of Citeaux, preached against the heresy of the
Albigenses at Toulouse; Narbonne, Viviers, Carcassonne, and Montpellier,

¦I il

9

15*

m13

iwwlfe

Fig. 331. — St. Dominic handing to an envoy of the Albigenses a book containing the profession
of faith in the Christian truths ; to the right, this book having been cast into the fire, is
leaping out of the flames, whilst the heretic's book is being consumed. — Predella of the
" Couronnement de la Vierge " by Fra Angelico, in the Louvre (Fifteenth Century).

but the heretics only displayed greater perseverance. Peter de Castelnau
and Brother Ealph,, disheartened at this result, enlisted in their difficult
mission twelve brothers of their own order and two distinguished Spanish
prelates — Diego de Azeles, Bishop of Osma, and the sub-prior of his
cathedral, Dominic Guzman, who, having witnessed the progress of heresy
in Languedoc, went to Italy to obtain the Holy Father's permission to
preach against it. Dominic had given proof of a gentleness, zeal, and piety
worthy of the apostles, and the renown of his exemplary life was counted

430 THE INQUISITION.

upon to give authority to his preaching (Fig. 331). Yet he was no less
unsuccessful than the preceding commissioners sent by the pope. Insulted
and mocked by an ignorant and brutal populace, he could not help
exclaiming, " 0 Lord, let thy hand smite them, that thy punishment at
least may open their eyes ! " The legate Peter de Castelnau, in despair at
the failure of his efforts to restore quietude and faith to men's minds, deter
mined to address himself directly to the Count of Toulouse, Eaymond VI.,
and to formally demand of him to lend his aid to the papal legates, or
else to proclaim openly that he sided with the heretics. After an inter
view during which bitter language was exchanged, two of the esquires of
the Count of Toulouse believed that they would be complying with their
master's secret wishes by assassinating the courageous legate upon the
banks of the Ehone (1208). Innocent III., when the news of this murder
reached him, at once determined to set on foot a new crusade against
the Albigenses. He appointed Milon in the room of Peter de Castelnau,
and declared that he took under his immediate protection all the faithful
who should take up arms for the defence of the Church. The Count of
Toulouse did public penance, and his nephew Eaymond Viscount of Beziers
was handed over to the papal legates. The town of Beziers, taken by
assault (July 22nd, 1209), was a scene of terrible carnage, for the crusaders
gave no quarter — twenty thousand inhabitants were massacred without
distinction of age or sex, and seven thousand were burnt in a church in
which they had taken refuge.
Simon de Montfort, who was at the head of the expedition, accepted
the effects of the Viscount of Beziers, and continued the war against the
heretics. In 1213, before the walls of Muret, he defeated Peter IL,
King of Arragon, an ally of the Albigenses, who was besieging the town,
and he afterwards stripped the Count of Toulouse of his domains, against
the wish of Innocent III., who would have preferred that the count's
hereditary rights, and still more those of his son, should have been
respected. Simon was supported by Louis, son of Philip Augustus, who lost no
time in fulfiUing the vow which he had made to take up arms against
the Manicheans of Languedoc, and, as the battle of Bouvines (1214) had
led to a five years' truce between the Kings of France and England, he
joined the Catholic forces in the following year. In 1218 Toulouse rose

THE INQUISITION. 431

in revolt, and Simon de Montfort was mortally wounded by a stone during
the siege. His son Amaury.put himself forward as heir to his father's
domains, and endeavoured to establish his claims to the countships of Beziers
and Toulouse, but he eventually abandoned them in favour of the French
monarch. Very rigorous measures were taken to put down the heretics.
An order issued by the Bishop of Toulouse decreed that " the inhabitants
of the districts infected with heresy shall pay one mark in silver for every
Waldensian found within their boundaries ; the house in which he is
captured, those in which he has preached, shall be razed to the ground,
and the property belonging to the owner of these houses confiscated. The
goods of the pervert shall also be confiscated, as well as those appertaining
to any person neglecting to wear or to display the two coloured crosses
which should be sewn on to the breast of the penitent's garment." The
Holy See, on its part, was not remaining inactive during this time, as in
1215 the fourth Lateran Council had excommunicated the Manicheans, the
Waldenses, and the Albigenses. The third canon of that council declared
that " the heretics who are condemned shall be handed over to the secular
arm, in order that they may receive their merited punishment ; the clerks
shaU be previously unfrocked."
Just before this council terminated its sittings, Dominic, presented to
Pope Innocent III., obtained, as a recompense for the services which he had
rendered to the Church militant, leave to found the order of Preaching-
Brothers, who from him took the name, by which they are more generally
known, of Dominicans.
Their pious founder battled against heresy with purely spiritual weapons,
and it is perhaps scarcely necessary to mention that he it was who, with
a view to obtaining the conversion of heretics, introduced the custom of
reciting the rosary. On his return to Toulouse, which eventually became
the centre of the Inquisition, he delegated to eight provincials of his order,
in France, Provence, Lombardy, Boinagna, Germany, Hungary, England,
and Spain the special mission of preaching against heresy. And, lastly, in
1229 Eaymond VII., who had succeeded to his paternal inheritance after
doing pubhc penance, was reconciled to the Church and reinstated in
his countship of Toulouse. His only daughter married one of the king's
brothers, thus insuring the transmission of his lands to the French crown.
Louis IX. lost no time in taking measures to consolidate the results

432

THE INQUISITION.

Fig. 332.— Great Synagogue of Toledo (Third Century), restored at different periods, and conse
crated for Catholic worship, under the name of Santa Maria Blanca, after the expulsion of the
Jews in 1405 : now used as a military storehouse. — After a Drawing by Don Manuel de Assas.

THE INQUISITION. 433

of this pacific arrangement. He addressed to all his subjects, . in the
dioceses of Narbonne, Cahors, Eodez, Agen, Aries, and Nimes, a
decree composed of ten clauses, by which it was sought to effect the
repression of heresy with the help of the secular clergy. Any one who
had been excommunicated for more than a year was to be compelled, by
seizure of his goods, to return to the Church. The tithes, which had long
been kept back, were re-established. The barons, the vassals, the large
towns and royal baUiwicks were sworn to observe and execute this decree.
Even the king's brother, when he assumed possession of the country,
took the same oath for himself and his subjects. The Inquisition
soon appeared to be unnecessary in France, and, with the consent of
the Holy See, it suspended its action in the countship of Toulouse in
1237. In Spain, the Inquisition was royal rather than papal. If we would
understand the part played by this remarkable tribunal, it must be re
membered that Spain took seven centuries to conquer its independence
against the Moors and the Jews. These latter, while feigning a readiness
to be converted, none the less maintained their antipathy for the Christian
rehgion . and their hatred of the Christians. Thus, when Ferdinand and
Isabella had the whole of Spain under their authority, they considered it
necessary to establish reUgious unity, in order to preserve national unity,
and the Moors and Jews were ordered to quit the country or abjure their
creeds (Figs. 332 and 333). The two sovereigns, who looked at the question
in a pohtical light, had established in their dominions a special Inquisition
placed under their immediate control. The popes protested at once against
the pretension of the Catholic monarchs to themselves superintend the Inqui
sition, and, on the tribunal being formed, Pope Sixtus IV. recalled his legate
from the Spanish Court, which latter in turn withdrew its ambassador from
Eome. A reconciliation, however, was effected, and a bull legalising the
Spanish Inquisition was granted ; but Pope Sixtus IV. soon regretted what
he had done when he came to know of its excesses. The Spanish sovereigns,
upon the other hand, did all they could to prevent the appeals made by con
demned heretics from being heard at the Court of Eome, while the popes
were obliged* to employ, stratagem in order to, protect the penitent heretics
from the merciless severity of the Inquisition. Llorente tells us that on
many occasions a great number of heretics received secret absolution by
3 K

134

THE INQUISITION.

order of the pope, but he further adds that these papal amnesties were not
always approved of by the Spanish government. Leo X. actually excom-

jSH

P|*jmm

mmMmm

Fig. 333.— Interior of tbe Ancient Mosque at Cordova, now a Catholic Cathedral ; built in the
Eighth Century by Abderhaman I., and altered for Catholic worship after the conversion of
the Moors ; it is one of the largest and most splendid monuments of MooriBh architecture.
municated the Inquisitors of Toledo, and Charles V., when he became
emperor, pretended to lean in favour of the Lutheran reform in order to
prevent Leo from interfering any further with the Spanish Inquisition.

THE INQUISITION. 435

This Inquisition was assisted by three corporate bodies, namely, the Holy
Hermandad, the Cruciata, and the Militia of Christ.
The Holy Hermandad (a corruption of the Latin word germanitas, con
fraternity) was at first an association of police officers employed in the
protection of the streets .and highways. Originally established in the three
royal residences of Toledo, Cuidad-Eeal, and Takvera, it eventually became
a military force, whose chief mission was to put into execution the orders of
the Inquisition.
The Cruciata, a society composed of archbishops, bishops, and other
personages of mark, was entrusted, under various circumstances, with the
task of seeing that the laws of the Church were obeyed and carried out
amongst Catholics.
The Family of the Inquisition, or the Militia of Christ, created during
the pontificate of Honorius III., and analogous to the Order of the Templars,
placed its forces at the service of the Inquisitors, and its pious zeal earned for
it the good opinion of Pope Gregory IX,
As we have already mentioned, it was in 1481, during the reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella, that the Inquisition, provided with a new code of
regulations, acquired a formidable power. Chiefly intended to bring to trial
the Jews and the Moors who had again relapsed into paganism, it was then
that it got the name of The. Holy Office, and was superintended by a grand
inquisitor-general and a council, termed The Supreme, consisting of forty-
five members. When the Holy Office had a heretic, or any one suspected of
being one, arrested, its agents stripped the aocused person of all he had about
his person, and took a detailed inventory of his clothing and furniture, in
order that they might be restored to him intact should he prove to be inno
cent. The money so seized, whether in gold or silver, belonged by right to
the tribunal, and went to defray the costs of the procedure. These formalities
over, the accused person was taken to prison.
Of prisons, the Inquisition had several kinds ; lat, the common prison, in
which were confined persons accused merely of ordinary misdemeanour, and
who, consequently, were aUowed to communicate with their families and
friends ; 2nd, the prison of mercy or of penitence, which was set apart for
those who were to be detained only temporarily ; 3rd, the intermediate prison,
reserved for those who had committed some ordinary delinquency which
brought them within the jurisdiction of the Holy Office; 4th, the secret prison,

436 THE INQUISITION.

the inmates of which were kept in solitary confinement. The dungeons of
the Inquisition were like all those constructed in the Middle Ages.
After an incarceration which varied in length, the prisoner was con
ducted, when the day of trial arrived, to the large audience hall, which
was hung with black, and adorned with a figure of Christ upon the
cross, the body being of ivory and the cross of ebony. At the extreme
end, before a circular table, sat the Inquisitor-general in a raised chair
covered with black velvet and surmounted by a canopy of the same material.
To his right and left, seats placed at a lower elevation were reserved for the
Inquisitors, who, with the secretary, composed the tribunal. Two clerks of
the court took down the questions put by the president and the answers
made by the accused ; behind them stood the spies of the Inquisition, and
four men wearing long black robes, with their faces concealed by a mask
with openings for the mouth, the nose, and the eyes.
The prisoner was seated upon a kind of raised stool placed opposite the
Inquisitor ; when, after a long interrogatory, he faUed to avow his guUt, he
was taken to the torture-chamber, preceded by the Inquisitor and the four
mysterious men in black who had been present at the trial. Here he was
again exhorted to abjure his errors, and, if these fresh entreaties were
powerless to move him, he was handed over to the torturer, who put him to
the torture with one of the four agencies employed by justice: — the cord,
the scourge, fire, or water (see the chapter on "Punishments/' in Manners
and Customs of the Middle Ages).
The torture as used by the tribunals of the Inquisition did not differ
from that employed by the civil tribunals, which, using it as unsparingly,
scarcely attained a more satisfactory result, for the victim steeled himself
against the pain and generaUy refused to reply to this interrogatory, though
accompanied by inconceivable tortures. The solemn delivery of the judgment
of the Inquisition and the execution of its sentences were preceded by a
peculiar ceremony, designated in Spain and its dependencies by the name
of Auto-da-fe, or Act of Faith. In most Auto-da-fes, the dismal proces
sion was. headed by a double file of Dominican brothers, before whom was
carried the banner of the Holy Office (Fig. 334), with the device, "Justitia
et misericordia." Behind them came the condemned, foUowed by the spies
of the Inqiusition and the executioner.
There were many kinds of san-benito for different classes of penitents.

Fig. 334. — An Auto-da-fe Procession, in Spain, according to the ceremonial observed from the Fourteenth Century. —Fac-simile of a large Engraving on
copper in the work of Philip of Limboroh, entitled " Historia Inquisitionis : " folio, Amsterdam, 1692. [To face page 436.

THE INQUISITION.

437

The first, for heretics who were reconciled to the Church before sentence
had been passed, consisted of a yellow scapulary, with large reddish-coloured
St. Andrew's cross, and of a round pyramid- shaped cap, called coroza, of the
same material as the san-benito and with similar crosses ; but no flames were
represented on the garments, as the accused by timely repentance had escaped
the punishment of burning (Fig. 335).
The second, for those who, sentenced to be burnt, had subsequently _
recanted, was made up of a san-benito and a coroza of the same material.

Fig. 336. — Fuego revolto. Gar- Fig. 337. — Samarra. Gar
ment worn by those who es- ment worn by those who,
caped being burnt alive by refusing to confess, were
making a confession after about to be burnt.
they had been condemned.
Fac-simile of Engravings on Copper in the work of Philip of Limboroh, entitled "Historia
Inquisitionis :" in folio, Amsterdam, 1592.

Fig. 335. — Sam-benito. Garment
worn by those who escaped
burning by making a confes
sion before being sentenced.

The scapulary was covered with tongues of fire pointing downwards, to
indicate that the wearer (Fig. 336) would not be burnt alive, inasmuch as
he was to be strangled before being plaoed upon the burning pile.
The third, worn by those who died impenitent, had at the lower end the
head of a man in the midst of fire and enveloped in flames. The other
parts of the garment were covered with forked flames shooting upwards, as a
token that the heretic would actually be burnt alive. Grotesque figures

438 THE INQUISITION.

of demons were also represented upon the san-benito and upon the coroza
as well. At the church whither the cortege repaired, chanting prayers on its way,
ten white tapers were alight in silver candlesticks upon the high altar, which
was hung in black ; to the right, there was a kind of raised dais for the
Inquisitor and his councillors ; to the left, another such a one for the king
and his court. Facing the high altar was a scaffolding covered with black
cloth upon which the reconciled stood to make their abjurations upon missals
which had been opened and arranged beforehand.
After the reconciliation of these latter, the impenitent . heretics were
handed over to the secular power, together with the prisoners who had been
guilty of ordinary misdemeanour. The Auto-da-fe was then over, and the
Inquisitors withdrew. An historian, in giving a detailed account of a trial
before the tribunals of the Inquisition, tells us that the civil punishment was
not inflicted until the day after the Auto-da-fe. Nor was it always the case
that it was followed by execution, for Llorente cites that of February 12th,
1486, at Toledo, when there were seven hundred and fifty heretics brought
up for punishment, not one of whom was put to death, though they had
to do public penance. At another great Auto-da-fe, also held at Toledo in
April of the same year, out of nine hundred repentant or condemned persons
none underwent the extreme penalty. A third, on the 1st of May, com
prised seven hundred and fifty persons ; and at a fourth, on the 10th of
December, there were nine hundred and fifty, but in both these instances
no blood was shed. Out of a total of three thousand three hundred persons
who had to do penance for transgressing the rules of the Church at this
epoch, Llorente states that only twenty-seven were put to death. It must
be remembered that the Spanish Inquisition, in conformity with the royal
decree, had to try not only heretics, but those accused of unnatural crimes,
brigands, lay or clerical seducers, blasphemers, persons guUty of sacrilege,
usurers, and even murderers and rebels. In addition to this, those who
supplied the enemy with horses and stores in time of war, together with the
then frequent cases of sorcery, magic, and other similar frauds, were also
brought within the jurisdiction of the tribunals of the Inquisition. Thus
the twenty- seven individuals who were executed in 1486 may have been
made up of malefactors of every class.
The political aim of the kings of Spain was attained, for the maintenance

THE INQUISITION.

439

of religious unity preserved the kingdom from the bloody catastrophes which
at that period spread desolation throughout France and England. This is
admitted even by Voltaire, in his " Essai sur l'Histoire G6n£rale." While
deploring the horrors of the Inquisition, he says, " In Spain there were none
of those, bloody revolutions, con
spiracies, or cruel reprisals which
disgraced every other European
nation. Neither Count Olivares
nor the Duke of Lerma sent their
enemies to the scaffold, and sove
reigns were never assassinated as
in France, nor did they suffer
beneath the headsman's axe, as in
England." The Inquisition was less success
ful in the Netherlands, for the Pro
testant cause made great progress
in Holland during the reign of
Charles V. The nobility and the
upper clergy, indignant at the
rigorous measures adopted by
Philip II. (Fig. 338) in his efforts
to put down heresy, countenanced
the general uprising against the
Spaniards. Emboldened thereby,
the Protestants flew to arms, the
churches were burnt, the priests
and monks were massacred, and
the Catholic form of worship sup
pressed in many locaUties. Philip
dispatched thither the notorious Duke of Alva, who, on assuming the com
mand, instituted the council of troubles, which the people nicknamed the
council of blood. The religious question resolved itself into a struggle for
national independence. A bitter war resulted in the definite separation
of the United Provinces, which afterwards became the kingdom of Hol
land. Belgium, created an independent province, was handed over with

Fig. 338. — Philip IL, King of Spain.— From the
work of Cesare Vecellio : 8vo., 1590.

440

THE INQUISITION.

hereditary rights to Archduke Albert and his wife IsabeUa, daughter of
Philip II.
The United Provinces were no sooner constituted than, notwithstanding
the Protestant principle of the liberty of free inquiry, they obeyed that

Fig. 339. — Cruelties committed by the Gueux, in Holland. A. Master John Jerome, of Edam, and
other Catholics of Hoorn, being put to the torture, at Scagen, in Northern Holland. Those who
survive the first tortures are tied down upon their backs, a large cauldron turned upside down
is placed upon their naked stomachs, with a number of large dormice underneath. A fire is
lighted upon the top of the cauldron, which enrages the dormice ; and as they are unable to
creep under the edges of the cauldron, they burrow into the entrails of the victim. B. Ursula
Talese, a. nun of Haarlem, having refused to renounce her faith when made to stand beneath
the gibbet upon which her father had been hung, is thrown into tbe water and drowned. C.
Her sister, bewailing her fate and that of her father, also refuses to change her creed, and
her skull is beaten in with a large stone. — Fac-simile of an Engraving on Copper in the
"Theatrum Crudelitatum nostri Temporis" (4to, Antwerp, 1587); witha translation of the
explanations given.

instinct which impels all governments to religious unity — Spain was out
done in the refinement of punishments which they invented to use against
the Catholics who refused to change their faith (Fig. 339). Nor was it against
the Catholics only that the Protestant Inquisition exercised its rigorous

THE INQUISITION. 441

authority. In countries where Calvinists and Lutherans were brought into
juxtaposition, religious persecution broke out between the various reformed
Churches, always, too, under the instinctive influence that religious unity was
necessary to ensure the stability of the State. A distinguished writer, Menzel,
in his " New History of the Germans since the Eeformation," gives some
very interesting details concerning this internecine struggle. At the end of
the sixteenth century, when, at the death of the Elector of Saxony, Chris
tian I., on September 25th, 1591, the government of Saxony feU into the
hands of Duke William of Altenburg, who was a rigid Lutheran, the Cal-
vinist party in Germany thought that the golden age was about to return.
Chancellor Crell, who in Christian's Ufetime had treated the Lutherans with
slight show of mercy, was cast into prison, together with Gunderman, a
Leipsic preacher. After five months' incarceration, the latter signed the
" Formula of Concord," in order that he might be able to visit his wife, whom
he had left enceinte, but he had no sooner appended his signature than he was
told that she had hung herself in a fit of despair. The unfortunate man went
out of his mind. Other preachers were treated with almost equal severity ;
and at Leipsic, in 1593, the Lutheran party set fire to the houses of the
Calvinists, who had to fly from the city to escape assassination. Such was
also the case in SUesia. Upon the 22nd of September," 1601, Chancellor
Crell was condemned to death, after having been kept ten years in prison, and
he was beheaded on the 10th of October.
At Brunswick, in 1603, the Lutheran preachers excommunicated the
captain of the burghers, one Brabant ; in 1604 it was rumoured that he had.
made a pact with the devil, and that the latter had been seen following them
in the form of a crow. Brabant tried to escape, but broke his leg in the
attempt. Brought back to Brunswick amidst the hootings of the populace,
who regarded him as a traitor and a magician, he was three times put to
the most cruel torture, to terminate which he avowed himself guilty of all
the crimes laid to his charge. His companions in misfortune were treated
with equal cruelty. While Zachary Druseman was suspended by the arms
in the torture-chamber, his judges went off to their supper. The victim
implored the executioner, by the wounds of our Lord Jesus Christ, to let him
down for a single moment and loosen the screws which were crushing his
feet, but the latter replied that he must wait untU the judges returned. When
they came in an hour afterwards, completely intoxicated, Druseman was dead.
3 L

442

THE INQUISITION.

Menzel goes on to teU us that on St. Michael's Day the Lutheran preachers,
at the request of the town council, undertook to justify from the pulpit
the executions which had been incessantly going on, and that on the 9th
of December a thanksgiving service was held in all the churches, in front of
which the gibbets and scaffolds were still displayed.

Fig. 340. — Tortures inflicted upon Catholics by the Huguenots in the South of France. — Thirty
Catholics, imprisoned at Augouleme, in the house of a burgher of the name of Papin, are
tortured in various ways : — A. Some, deprived of food, are chained together in pairs, so that,
becoming delirious through hunger, they may tear each other to pieces. B. Some are dragged
naked along a tightly-drawn rope, which acts like a saw, cutting the body in two. C. Several
are attached to stakes, and fires lighted a short distance behind them, so that their bodies may
burn slowly.— Fac-simile of an Engraving on copper in the " Theatrum Crudelitatum nostri
Temporis " (4to., Antwerp, 1587) ; with a translation of the explanations given.

In the southern provinces of France, where the party of the Eeformation
acquired the upper hand, excesses were committed which were as much
reprobated by the more enlightened of the Protestants as by the CathoUcs.
The town of Angouleme in particular was the scene of many such cruelties
(Fig. 340).
The dominant party was everywhere guilty of extreme intolerance, but

THE INQUISITION.

443

nowhere was the persecution carried on upon so large a scale as in unhappy
England. Protestant writers cannot find expressions strong enough to
characterize the unheard-of violence to which Henry VIII. had recourse
with a view to establish religious unity in his kingdom.
Cobbett, in his " History of the English Eeformation," says, " Previous

Fig. 341.  Punishments decreed by Henry VIII. against the Catholics. — A. John Fisher, Cardinal-
Bishop of Rochester, eighty years of age, .condemned to death on the 17th of June, 1535, is
beheaded on the 22nd of the same month. B. Chancellor Thomas More is also beheaded on
the 9th of July, 1535. C. The Countess of Salisbury, made to answer for the accusations
brought against her son, who had left the country, after being condemned to death, is
beheaded. — Fac-simile of a Copper-plate in the "Theatrum Crudelitatum nostri Temporis"
(Antwerp, 1587) ; with a translation of the explanations given.

to this reign of bloodshed not more than three persons on the average were
tried in each county at the annual assizes, but now there were as many as
sixty thousand persons in prison at a time. In a word, the Court of Henry
was a regular slaughter-house of human flesh.'
Henry VIII., from the very fact of his having broken with the principle
of authority in religious matters, found himself driven to an excess of severity,
feeling that it was by terror alone that he could put down resistance ; and,

444 THE INQUISITION.

as the example of those who are placed high in authority exercises a deci
sive influence upon the masses, the king singled out for attack those who
stood highest on the roll of magistrates and bishops — the ChanceUor,
Thomas More, and his illustrious friend Fisher, Bishop of Eochester (Fig.
341). They were both cited to appear before the King's Council, and the
ChanceUor was condemned to die. More was passionately attached to his
daughter Margaret, who, when the trial was over, threw herself upon her
father's neck, exclaiming, amidst her sobs, "My father, are you who are
innocent to die ? " To which, embracing her for the last time, and giving
her his blessing, he replied, "Would you have me die guilty?" When
he reached the foot of the scaffold he called upon the populace to witness
that he died in the faith of the Catholic, Apostolic, and Eoman Church.
The executioner asked for his forgiveness, and More, embracing him, re
joined, "You are rendering me the greatest service that can be done to a
Christian ! " He met his death with joy, and his head was exposed for»a
fortnight upon London Bridge. His friend, the Bishop of Eochester, had
been sent to the block a few weeks before (Fig. 341).
Switzerland suffered as much as England, for the Inquisition set up by
Calvin at Geneva defied all description. While Calvin, as it is reported,
was allowed to stigmatize those who differed from him as rogues, dogs, and
scoundrels, their emperor vermin, and their fathers and mothers imps of
Satan, the peasants who used rough language to their cattle were thrown
into prison. Three chUdren were publicly whipped because they had stolen
away from the meeting-house to go and eat cakes. The registers of the
town record that in the course of sixty years one hundred and fifty persons
were burnt alive as sorcerers. Another crime punishable with death was
" to speak ill of Calvin," who made no secret of his feelings upon this
point, as may be gathered from the following sentence in a letter he sent
to one of his partisans : " Do not fail to purge the country of the fanatic
scoundrels who go about exhorting the people to withstand us, who
blacken our conduct, and who try to depict our creed as an empty dream.
Such monsters ought to be put down." On these grounds, the poet Gruet
was put to the torture and beheaded "for having spoken iU of Calvin."
Michael Servetus, who practised medicine, astrology, and theology, ven
tured to contradict the teaching of the Eeformer, especially in reference
to the doctrine of the Trinity. Calvin wrote to Farel, under date of

THE INQUISITION.

445

February 13th, 1546, the following letter, the original of which may still be
seen in the National Library of Paris : " Servetus wrote to me the other
day, and sent with his letter a large book filled with his vain and arrogant
reveries, saying that I should find it full of wonderful and hitherto unknown

"^w^swrni

MWlOTfg"1"11111111

Fig. 342.-*-Miehael Servetus (born at Villanueva, Arragon,in 1509) burnt alive by order of Calvin,
at Geneva, in 1553. — After a Copper-plate in the "Historia Michaelis Serveti:" 4to., Helm-
stadii, 1727.

subjects. He promises to come and meet me here, if I wish, but I do not care
to enter into any arrangement, for, if he comes and I have my own way,
I shall not let him escape with his life." The unfortunate Servetus was
obliged to repair thither under the following circumstances. He had clan
destinely published at Vienne (Dauphiny) his book entitled " Christianismi
Eestitutio " (" The Eestoration of Christianity "). Of this book Calvin pro-

446 THE INQUISITION.

cured a copy, which he forwarded to the Cardinal- Archbishop of Lyons.
Servetus, thanks to Calvin's denunciations, was arrested and thrown into the
ecclesiastical prison of Vienne, as this book contained many obnoxious state
ments tainted with heresy. It happened that the prisoner, a better doctor
than he was theologian, had formerly saved the life of the only daughter of
the bailiff of that town, and the gaoler received orders to favour his escape,
which was effected without difficulty. Servetus unfortunately took refuge at
Geneva. Calvin's spies discovered him there ; he was imprisoned on the 13th
of August, 1553, and on the 26th of October, after a lengthened examination,
during which he defended himself energetically against the accusations of
impiety and atheism, he was condemned to be burnt alive. The sentence was
carried out on the foUowing day (Fig. 342). Calvin witnessed the execution
from his window, and was soon after congratulated on what he had done by the
Cantons of Zurich, Schaffhausen, Basle, and Berne. The learned Melancthon
wrote to him, "Your magistrates have acted in accordance with right and
justice in having this blasphemer put to death." These acts of cruelty and
vengeance, nevertheless, have excited the just indignation of several Pro
testant historians, who deplore the loss to Geneva of her ancient liberties and
franchises. " For more than eight hundred years," says Fazy, " the har
mony between the cause of the people and that of religion had placed Geneva
in the van of civihsation. Its laws were mild, acts of violence were rare,
confiscation was unknown, and nowhere do we find any traces of people
being persecuted for their opinions."

Fig. 343.— Ornament from the " Historia Testamenti" of Pierre Comestor. — MS. dated 1229.
Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

BURIALS AND FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

Embalming and Incineration of Bodies amongst the Ancients. — Interment brought into prac
tice by Christianity. — The Wrapping of the Dead in Shrouds. — The Direction in which the
Bodies were laid. — Absolution Crosses. — Funeral Furniture. — Coffins 'and Sarcophagi in
the Middle Ages. — Funereal Sculpture and Architecture, from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth
Century. — The Catacombs at Rome. — Charnel-houses in the Churches. — Public Cemeteries. —
The Cemetery of the Innocents, Paris. — Lanterns for the Dead. — Funerals of the Kings
and Queens of France. — The Bolls of the Dead. — Consoling Thought of the Resurrection and
of Eternal Life.

Etffl

|ft^tBB,^^*^r^~^jk^V^BW^iwj|

BOM

N the most remote epoch of the world's
history we find that the dead were
treated with respect, not to say wor
shipped ; for a natural sentiment
leads savage as well as civUised man
to pay the last tribute of affection
to the bodies of those for whom he
once felt affection, esteem, or fear.
Such is the moral principle of the
various modes of burial which have
been successively practised, viz., em
balming, incineration, and interment. Many ancient nations, and especially
the Egyptians, who sought to preserve the human body for an indefinite
length of time, embalmed their dead with extreme care, or rather, we should
say, with wonderful art.
The Greeks generally burnt their dead and collected their ashes in urns ;
with the Eomans the custom of burning was usual, at least amongst the rich,
and lasted long after the establishment of Christianity, which dogmaticaUy
enjoined the interment of the dead, though this mode of sepulture had before
been confined to slaves, suicides, and the poor.
The Christians introduced at the same time the old Jewish custom of
swathing the dead body in a winding-sheet, which was bound up with long

448 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
bands soaked in resinous and perfumed oil, after the fashion of the Egyptians.
Embalming was, moreover, prescribed and authorised by divine legislation.
It is said in Genesis that it took forty days to embalm the body of Jacob,
and in the sixteenth chapter of St. Mark we read, " And when the Sabbath
was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had
bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint Him."
AU the bas-reliefs of the fifth and sixth centuries, upon which figure
bodies prepared for burial, represent a regular mummy swathed in bands ;
and this mode of wrapping the body, which seems to imply that it had first
been embalmed, was still in use at the end of the eighth century. After
this epoch we do not possess sufficiently accurate data to say what was the
general practice. We know, however, that for a certain length of time
the dead were sewn up in leather prepared from the skins of stags or oxen.
The cervicorium, or stag-hide, was a kind of shroud specially used for warriors,
if we may believe the war ballads. Precious tissues were used at that time
for the winding-sheets of ecclesiastical persons ; and in a tomb of the tenth
century, in the vault of St. Germain des Pres, in Paris, a skeleton was found
which was enveloped in a piece of cloth, tied at the neck and the feet with
short narrow bands. The dead bodies of the lower classes were buried in
shrouds made of some common material.
Before burial, the hands were always folded across the breast. This was
customary in the East throughout the whole of the Middle Ages, and the
doctors of the Greek Church attached so much importance to it that, accord
ing to an author of the thirteenth century, they made it a great reproach to
the Latins that they neglected to observe this Christian law.
The direction in which the body was to be buried was, moreover, par
ticularly specified. Thus it was enjoined that it should be laid upon the
back "with the head to the west, the feet towards the east," says the
ancient writer John Beleth. Another liturgical writer scarcely less famous,
WUliam Durand, Bishop of Mende, adds, in his " Eationale Divinorum
Officiorum," that the body, when placed in this position, seems to be engaged
in prayer, and ready to rise when the first rays of the sun shine forth. It must
not be supposed, however, that this particular direction of the body (capite
versus occidentem et pedibus versus orientem) was rigorously adhered to by the
Christians alone, for it is found to have been observed during the second and
third centuries, which were assuredly not Christian. The custom of burying

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

449

Fig. 344. — Christ victorious over Death ; with the following Inscription : —
" Hie residens solio Cliristus jam victor in alto
Mortem calce premit, colligat atque fodit.
Dnmque salutiferam vult mors extinguere vitam,
Infelix hamo deperit ilia suo."
Fac-simile of a Miniature from the " Choir Book" of the Cathedral at "Worms.— Manuscript of
the Eighth or Ninth Century, in the Library of the Arsenal, Paris.
the dead, introduced by Christianity, was adopted in Italy long before the
Eoman provinces were converted to the new faith. Subsequent to the reign
of the Antonines, who by edict authorised the burial of the dead, there are
3 M

45°

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

numerous instances of pagan burials being conducted in conformity with this
edict, especially in Gaul.
 At a much later period the principle relating to the direction in

which bodies were laid fell into disuse at Christian burials. The persons
attached to the ecclesiastical edifices were buried with their feet towards
the west, and sometimes towards the south. There was another excep-

Fig. 345. — The Harvest of Souls : God the Father receiving the souls in his lap.— Miniature in
the "Dialogues of St. Gregory," a Manuscript of the Twelfth Century, in the Burgundian
Library, Brussels.

tion : the body was not always laid upon its back, but in certain cases it
was placed upon its side, or even with the face downwards. Pepin the Short
was buried with his face downwards ; Hugh Capet, in accordance with his
wishes, was also thus interred beneath the rain-spout which was above the
porch of St. Denis Cathedral, in order that his sins might be washed out.
This was termed adens burial (upon the teeth, ad denies).
In the sixth and seventh centuries we have many instances of persons
being placed in a sitting position in their tombs, with the legs and body

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

45 1

upright. This exceptional mode of interment was most frequently adopted,
though not exclusively, by the barbarians ; and the fact of Charlemagne
haying been so interred makes it peculiarly interesting. "Washed and

Fig. 346. — Celtic Burial. — The body, bent double, with the head between the knees, and with two
vases at the feet, is placed in a grotto or natural cave.
laid out," as we read in Legrand d'Aussy's " Sepultures Nationales,"
"arrayed in his imperial robes, at his side a sword with a golden
pummel, on his head a golden crown, holding in his lap a New Testa-

Fig. 347. — Mode of Burial among the Franks. — The body, laid in the grave, is surrounded with
arms, implements, and various articles for use : the sword or the ,jcrama sax under the right
armpit, the knife or poignard upon the breast, the hatchet at the knee, theframee or the lance
at the feet, comb, bracelet, &c. It is thought that the vase in red or black clay, which is often
found under the feet of the skeleton, had a symbolic meaning. This grave was discovered
during excavations made in Paris.
ment written in letters of gold, he was seated upon a throne of gold.
Before him were placed his golden sceptre and shield, which had been
blessed by Pope Leo. The vault was filled with perfumes and many
treasures (thesauris multis) ; it was closed, and even sealed down, and

452

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

over it was erected a golden arcade, upon which was engraved the
epitaph handed down to us by Eginhardt, and is the oldest extant of
all those which tell of our earliest kings."
When the pagans adopted the custom of interment (Fig. 348), they
laid by the side of the dead the insignia of his profession, and any
objects which had been dear to him during his lifetime ; to this they
added various vases containing food and drink, to serve him as a viaticum
during his more or less prolonged journey to a better world. In the
coffins of Christians, on the contrary — even from the earUest times — the
funeral furniture appears to have been next to nothing : a phial containing

Fig. 348. — Gallo-Boman Tomb, representing the deceased laid upon a funeral bed, and surrounded
by her weeping family and household. — Monument of the First or Second Century, found
during- excavations made in Paris. After a Plate in the " Statistique de Paris," by M. Albert
Lenoir.

some perfume, with one, two, or perhaps three vases, of wood, glass, or clay,
filled with holy water.
The perfume -phials had disappeared so early as the Merovingian
period, but the custom of placing the other vases in the coffin lasted, in
some countries, even down to the eighteenth century. Their presence in
a place of burial is not, therefore, a proof of its antiquity. The liturgists
have endeavoured to explain the origin and the meaning of a custom so
general and so long maintained ; and WUliam Durand suggests, in his
" Eationale," that these funeral vases, of whatever shape they might be,
were intended for containing incense. A miniature of the fourteenth
century would appear to confirm this theory, for we find that it repre
sents, at the four corners of a coffin covered with the pall, smaU pots

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

453

placed in a row with the tapers (Fig. 349) ; and there is reason to
believe that the incense in them was burnt during the funeral service.
In fact, the pots represented in this miniature are white; the reddish
colour of the holes with which they are perforated, and the smoke
issuing from them, show that there was fire inside. Perhaps this was
only the fire of red-hot coals, since they have been found to contain ashes
mixed with pieces of coal.
After the ceremony, these vases were placed, while stUl aUght, in the

Fig. 349. — Funeral Service, in which are shown,
between the candelabra, the incense vases
which were deposited in the coffin. — Drawing
of the Fourteenth Century.
From "Les Sepultures Gauloises, Eomaines, et Franques," by the Abbe Cochet.

Fig. 350.— Absolution Cioss of the Eleventh
Century, in lead, found in a coffin in the
Abbey of Bury St. Edmund's (1855).

coffin. And this brings us to another Christian usage, which has been
ascertained to have existed in France and England from the eleventh to
the thirteenth century. During this period, a cross was placed upon the
breast of the deceased person. This cross, in wood or in lead, sometimes
in silver, was caUed an absolution cross (Fig. 350), because the formula
of absolution given to the dead man was generaUy engraved upon it
— and even his name was stated in the formula. A fact related by
MabUlon, in his " Annals of the Order of St. Benedict," sufficiently proves
the importance and universal extent of this custom. In 1142, after the
death of Abelard, Eloisa, Abbess of the Paraclete, asked Peter the Venerable,

454 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
Abbot of Cluny, for a formula of absolution to place upon the tomb of
the illustrious theologian. This absolution was placed, as is related by
a Benedictine writer, upon Abelard's breast. The text is so interesting
that it is worth quoting, though written in Latin. Peter the Venerable,
alluding therein to the unwilUngness of the monks of St. Marcel to give
up the body of Abelard, says, " Ego Petrus, Cluniacensis abbas, qui
Petrum Abaelardum, in monachum Cluniacensem recepi, et corpus ejus
furtim delatum Heloisae, abbatissse et monialibus Paracliti concessi, aucto-
ritate omnipotentis Dei et omnium sanctorum absolvo eum pro officio
ab omnibus peccatis suis." Ancient burying-places are sometimes dis
covered with bodies which have been bound in chains, or, at aU events,
are loaded with iron and brass fetters. Thus at Couvert, near Bayeux,
a skeleton was discovered a few years back laid upon the face (ad denies),
upon a wooden cross, with a small chain around the neck. This is a
peculiarity having its origin in certain rules of penance which were
in force from the eighth to the tenth, and probably to the eleventh,
century. The pagan rite prescribed that a piece of money should be placed in
the urn or coffin ; and many antiquaries have suggested that this must
have been the obolus for Charon. This custom was perpetuated by the
Christians, for, throughout the Middle Ages, a coin was always placed
on the bier; and this practice stiU prevaUs in Poitou, Alsace, and other
places. The interments of the barbarians, even after their conversion to
Christianity, are specially characteristic, because, no matter to what
nation they belonged, they adhered to their own particular manner of
burial. They were interred in their finest clothes, with their weapons,
and, in some cases, with their war-horse. The women and children,
whose burial-place is easily discoverable, wore jewels, necklaces, rings,
fibulae, girdles, buckles, &c, to which are still found adhering bits of
tissue, the remains of some splendid costume.
Eesearches and excavations made in France of late years have led to
the discovery of numerous barbarian cemeteries, and have enabled us
to ascertain what were the Merovingian, or, as it would perhaps be more
accurate to say, the Germanic funeral customs. These customs evidently
were replaced by others when the barbarian finaUy settled in Gaul,

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

455

that is, about the middle of the ninth century. The habit of placing
in the coffin various pieces of black, red, or white pottery (Fig. 351),
together with small vases which seem to have been intended for the
same purpose as those used in Christian burials, existed during this period.
These vases, often very numerous, no doubt contained food ; they were fre
quently accompanied by a smaU wooden jar, the handle of which was very
richly mounted, and which the savans at one time took to be a Mero
vingian diadem. But a chemical analysis of the sohd residue found in
one of these jars, led to the discovery that they were filled with an
alimentary substance which gave out a strong odour of fermented beer.

Fig. 351. — Gallic or Gallo-Roman Pottery, dug up in Paris and in the neighbourhood.

Subsequently to the period when the barbarians were no longer interred
with their weapons of war, there still remained some traces of this primitive
custom in Christian society, both in France and Germany; thus, kings
were buried in their royal robes, with sceptre and crown. This continued
to be the case throughout the Middle Ages; but, in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries, the sceptres and crowns deposited in the coffins were
made of brass or tin, in order that thieves might not be tempted to
steal them. Such was also the case with bishops and abbots, as is
shown by Gregory of Tours, when he speaks of Saint Gall, the Bishop
of Clermont, in Auvergne, of the Abbot Mars, of the hermits Marian,
Leobard, and Lupicin, being buried in their robes of ceremony. They

456 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
were covered at their death with the most brilliant insignia of their
dignity; but after a certain epoch nothing was placed beside them in the
coffin but a wooden crozier, a chalice, and a tin paten. They were always
dressed, however, in their pontifical vestments, the gold lace and em
broidery of which has, when these tombs have come to be opened, often
been found undecayed, whUe the vestments themselves have crumbled
into dust.
In the monasteries and communities, the old barbarian rite was observed
after the tenth century, and the monks were buried with all their clothing
on them ; but as the wooUen material of which they were made was
consumed by age, it is impossible for the archaeologist to reconstruct on
opening these coffins the monastic dress as it must have been when the
body contained in it was buried.
At present we have considered only the different modes of burial
during the Middle Ages, but we may now proceed to speak of the coffin
and the tomb. No work of art is more curious, or fuUer of historical
and picturesque information, than the funeral monuments of all ages.
But it must be remembered that there is a marked distinction between
the coffin and the tomb, one being the receptacle of the dead, the other
only a monument raised to mark the spot of ground in which the coffin
has been interred.
At all periods Christians have used coffins cut out of stone; and this
custom only ceased in the thirteenth century, to make way for the use
of lead coffins. The stone sarcophagi were only for persons of a certain
rank. Soldiers, townsmen, and country people were buried in coffins
made of wood. The Franks gave the name of off or noff to these coffins,
which are alluded to in the Salic law. Gregory of Tours, speaking of
the plague which desolated Auvergne in 571, says, " The mortality was
so great at Clermont that it was found necessary to inter as many as ten
bodies in the same grave, because there was a dearth of wooden and stone
coffins." These ancient stone sarcophagi are met with in great numbers in those
localities which were the ordinary places of burial. They have been found
by thousands in certain towns and vUlages, such as Alichamps, Drevant,
and Grou, in the department of the Cher, as well as at Meunes and Naveil,
in the department of the Loir-et-Cher. The most ancient coffins are

THE TRIUMPH OF DEATH.
Fresco painted by Orcagna, in the cloisters of the Campo-Santo at Pisa. xiv,h century. From a copy belonging to M. Firmin-Didot.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

457

easily to be recognised by their large dimensions, their thickness, and their
regular shape (Figs. 352 and 353). They are, so to speak, chests with a
massive stone cover, two metres and twenty centimetres (about seven feet
two inches) long, and in some cases more. They are square, and resemble a

-ClTf-"-

Fig. 352. — Stone Coffin discovered during excavations made in the Rue de la Cossonnerie, Paris.
In the Cluny Museum.

rectangular trough. The lid, sloping in the shape of a roof, is quite free
of aU decoration.
In the sixth and seventh centuries the dimensions of the sarcophagi
began to decrease, being rarely more than two metres (six feet seven
inches) in length. Another distinctive mark of that period was that the

Fig. 353. — Stone Coffin of Gallo-Boman origin, in the Cluny Museum.
coffin, narrower at the foot than at the head, was covered with a large
stone, hewn like that of the antique coffins. Moreover, it was often a
trifle less deep at the foot than at the head ; but this is the special charac
teristic of the coffins of the eighth century. After this period, coffins
narrower at the foot than at the head, but of the same elevation on both
sides, again came into use.
In the eighth century, many coffins were found to contain a small
3 n

I

458 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
cell cut into the stone for holding the head of the corpse. This cell was
generaUy square, but sometimes round.
The further we get into the Middle Ages the more difficult it becomes
to ascertain the antiquity of a coffin. After the eleventh and twelfth
centuries, if not the tenth, the lids are ornamented with roughly-executed
sculpture work, crosses in bas-relief, triangular facets, indistinct tracery
work which have a distinct resemblance to the Eoman sarcophagi.
The ancient cemeteries of the French provinces also contain coffins
moulded in plaster ; and the Cluny Museum has some interesting speci
mens of these coffins, which were in use from the ninth to the fourteenth
century. Their sides are roughly decorated with very primitive orna
ments, round, lozenge- shaped, and convoluted, with emblems which enable
us to ascertain approximatively their date of execution. Thus, when a
plaster coffin is decorated with the fleur-de-lis, we may be sure that it
cannot be of earlier origin than the thirteenth century.
In the last few years of the twelfth century was invented a kind of
stone coffin, hewn outside in such a way as to produce the shape of the
head, and to represent the whole body as enveloped in its shrond, just
like a mummy.
In the early part of the fourteenth century personages of rank were
buried in stone coffins lined with lead. In the time of Charles V. stone
was altogether replaced by wood and lead, even in the burials of the
rich. The coffins of that epoch resemble boxes made in a great hurry by.
joining together sheets of lead of various thicknesses.
Square stone troughs, about twelve or fourteen inches in length by
from eight to ten inches in breadth, are also to be met with in considerable
numbers ; and they were . employed to receive the bones that had fallen
from disused burial-places, and from the vaults beneath churches when, in
the course of repairs, unknown or forgotten graves were disturbed. When
these repairs led to the disinterment of the coffins appertaining to some
personages of note buried in the church of which they had been the
parishioners and the benefactors, it sometimes happened that in moving
them they were burst open, and, in this case, the ' remnants of the broken
coffins were placed in these small troughs, which took up less room.
The tombs, that is to say the visible monuments of burial, were of nearly
the same shape as the coffins, from the earliest ages down to the close

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

459

of the ninth century, the only distinction being that they were made of
choicer materials and decorated with more or less magnificence. Thus,
all the coffins which contained the bodies of martyrs, nobles, prelates, or
kings, were exposed to the- view of the faithful, _ and served for tombs, so
that these Ulustrious persons were not, in the true sense of the term,
interred. The stone chest in which the body was placed being both a
coffin and a funeral monument, was not hidden beneath a tombstone,
but remained visible in a church — not in a sepulchral cave, but above
ground, often, indeed, raised upon columns. The early Christians of Gaul,

* ,_y
i*i ^ > i , *- »

Fig. 354. — Raised Stone, near Poitiers.— After a Plate in the great work of Count de Laborde,
" Les Monuments de la France : " in folio, 1816.

those at least who were distinguished for their achievements or their
virtues, were interred in this fashion in sarcophagi ornamented with alle
gorical subjects, very like those in which pagans were buried. A case
in point is the sarcophagus at Eheims of Jovinus the patrician, master
of the cavalry under JuUan, and, it is said, founder of the Church of
St. Agricole, since caUed St. Nicaise. This monument, removed from this
ancient church to the cathedral and afterwards to the museum, is of white
marble, sculptured upon three sides. The front represents various hunt
ing scenes, in which Jovinus is taking part, with a spear in his hand,
accompanied by a spirit which has the attributes . of Minerva. It is very

460 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
probable that this sarcophagus, which had been previously used for the
burial of some pagan, was used for its fresh occupant without any change
being made in its artistic features. An exactly similar one was made
for the King of Austrasia, Carloman, the brother of Charlemagne; an
analogous subject was also sculptured upon it, and it was elevated upon
four columns near the tomb of St. Eemigius.
The sarcophagi were sometimes made of a more costly material than
stone ; that of St. Cassianus, at Autun, for instance, was of alabaster. But
these were only exceptional cases; and Maurice, Archbishop of Eouen,
prohibited these funeral extravagances in 1231. It is curious, however,
to note the representation of scenes in profane history upon Christian
coffins. Sauval describes one that was discovered in the Church of
St. Genevieve, Paris, in 1620, which contained a box full of gold and
silver medals representing the boar-hunt of Meleager. Christian and
pagan emblems are sometimes found side by side : upon the sarcophagus
of St. Andoche was represented a wheel, a bird, vine-foliage and grapes,
a hatchet, and, amidst all these ornaments, a cross.
After the reign of Tbeodosius, there were in use throughout Gaul
sarcophagi the emblems of which were exclusively borrowed from the
Christian religion. As a general rule, the front surface is divided by
arcades of raised architecture, and between each of them is represented a
subject taken from the Old or the New Testament. Aries, in fact, appears
to have been the centre of a special manufacture which executed this kind
of work for all the south of France, untU the middle of the sixteenth
century. There were also manufactories of stone sarcophagi at St. Pierre
l'Etrier, St. Emelion, and, more notably, at Quarree-les-Tombes.
During the reigns of the first rois faineants, the successors of Clovis,
the decoration of the sarcophagi was affected by the barbarian style of art.
There were no longer any figures in relief — nothing but the monogram of
Christ, XP, with a circular or oval border. At that period the sarcophagus
took the exact shape of the coffin, being narrower at the feet than at the
head. The Ud was a large stone of the same character as the coffin, gene
rally decorated with concentric circles or the scales of fish, in memory of
Christ's monogram, IXOY2 (ixOvs, fish).
Funeral sculptures did not flourish during the time of Charlemagne ;
the bodies of the kings were placed in ancient tombs, which were every-

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

461

where very plentiful. Thus, the sarcophagus in which the body of
Charlemagne himseK was placed represented the abduction of Proserpine.
It is true that upon that of Louis the Pious was represented the Passage
of the Eed Sea, but this was manufactured at Aries. The churches in course
of time became so fuU of tombs that the councils were obhged to prohibit
interment in them, and this order, though only partially observed, effected
a change in the mode of burial. People preferred to have the coffins placed
in the ground, especiaUy as they were better protected in this way from
the robbers who violated the sanctity of the grave. Thus, from the ninth

Fig. 355.— Tomb of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, in the Church of Marburg, Hesse (Thirteenth
Century). She is represented upon her death-bed, and the angels are offering her bouI to
Jesus, who is blessing it, and to tbe Virgin. To the right are Duke Louis with the cross
of the Crusades, St. John the Evangelist, the special protector of St. Elizabeth, St. Catherine,
and St. Peter ; to the left, St. John the Baptist, St. Mary Magdalene, and a bishop. It was
before this bas-relief that the pilgrims knelt in prayer, and their knees have worn hollows into
the pavement around it.
to the beginning of the tenth century, sarcophagi gradually fell into
disuse. Burials above ground again came into vogue after ^the eleventh century,
and from that epoch dates the development of funeral art in the Middle
Ages. At first, the tombs, even of the highest personages,, consisted
only of a plain block of stone or marble, varying in shape, placed upon
the ground, or, as was more often the case, raised upon short columns.
In the twelfth century we meet with a new kind of monument: tombs
in the form of square altars, or altar-tables, with the image of the
deceased in relief or cut out on their upper surface. These tombs were
in general use throughout the Middle Ages (Fig. 355), and were com-

462

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

bined, subsequent to the thirteenth century, with another mode based on
quite a different principle. As, in spite of the decrees of the councils,
the churches were stUl full of graves, it was sought to make the tombs
erected in them as little cumbersome as possible ; and -hence arose the
custom of placing tablets or sculptures upon the waUs, at a certain eleva
tion above the ground, betokening the presence of a coffin in the vault

Fig. 356.— Tomb in the Church of St. Waudru, at Mons, of Adelaide or Alice, Countess of Hainault,
who died in 1168. This tomb is of stone, devoid of all decoration, with a triangular top in
the shape of a cross. (Twelfth Century.)

beneath. There were, besides, the flat tombs, the pompous epitaphs on
which were effaced by the footsteps of those who walked over them. These
were in vogue from the time of PhUip Augustus, and the use of them
did not die out till the reign of Louis XIV., especially in the northern pro
vinces of France.
Some detailed account may now be given of the square blocks of
stone employed as funeral monuments. These raised tombs (for that is
their proper name) were, in the eleventh century, larger at the top than at
the sides. They were ornamented with mouldings at the top and at the

FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 463
bottom, and either rested upon a stone slab or upon short columns. Other
tombs, equally massive, were prism- shaped, with three, four, or five
sides, and they too rested in the same manner. The oldest of these
monuments are 'almost exactly Uke coffins, and their surface is devoid
of all ornamental work (Fig. 356). The presence of sculpture about
a tomb constitutes one of the distinctive marks of art in the reign of
Philip I. (1059 — 1108). The sculpture generally consists of simple
circles enfolding busts surrounded with foliage. The solid square tombs
of that date are decorated with arcades in bas-relief, like the altars of
the period.
From this species of vault is derived the monument in the shape
of a table, the dimensions and decorations of which continued to increase
during the reign of Louis VIII. It was a block of stone surmounted
by a table upon which rested a statue of the deceased, with his hands
crossed upon his breast. Tables of this shape were chiefly used for the
bronze tombs which became very numerous in the early part of the
twelfth century. These bronze tombs, upon which the statue was laid,
had for supporters four or six couched lions. When Suger restored his
Abbey of St. Denis, he removed to the middle of the choir the grave
of Charles the Bald, and erected over it a bronze table with lions for
supports, and a statue designed to represent the features of the monarch.
The personages thus typified in stone, marble, or bronze, are always
represented with their insignia; kings and sovereign princes with a
crown and a mantle ; knights bareheaded, with their armour, sword, and
spurs of knighthood, and, in many cases, their coat of mail and armorial
bearings (Fig. 357) ; nobles, not knights, with their armorial shield, one or
two hounds couched at their feet, a falcon upon the wrist or the glove
with which the bird was held in their hand, — that is to say, with emblems
-**
signifying their right to take part in the chase, which was the special privi
lege of the nobility.
In the same way women, lawyers, and the secular and the regular
clergy, had the dress betokening their condition upon their tombs; but
the sculptors and carvers did not always adhere very closely to the
variations of fashion, and they often represented a personage of their own
day in a costume belonging to a previous generation. Thus, for several
centuries, kings were represented with the primitive mantle clasped or

4&4

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

tied in front; the knights appeared, even down to the time of Henry IL,
with the halberd and the helmet worn only by the ancient order of
chivalry. Funeral sculpture had its conventional and traditional rules,
like all other arts in the Middle Ages.
Archaeologists have endeavoured to discover the meaning of the recum
bent figures — some in full dress, others without clothing — which were placed
upon the tombs of Christians, and they think that this usage is but an
instinctive return to the customs of the ancient Etruscans, who represented

Illi ' *• r
I S T

*.

lliilM

fflf

ill

Fig. 357. — Tomb erected in the Church of the Dominicans, at Puy-en- Velay, to the memory of
Du Guesclin, by Marshal de Sancerre, his friend. — This tomb dates from the close of tbe Four
teenth Century.
upon the top of the tomb the body of the deceased, either bent double or in
a sitting position, or stretched at full length or leaning upon his elbows,
according as he had been laid in his grave. The early funeral sculptors, as
unskilful as they were ignorant, copying only some particular model set
before them, fashioned merely an imperfect and roughly-executed figure,
with scarcely any approach to bas-relief. In process of time the statue
became better defined, and, in the reign of Louis VII., was altogether
in alto relievo. The monks of the Abbey of St. Germain des Pres
did for their benefactor, King Childebert, what Suger had done for the
illustrious dead who had for several centuries been interred in the basilica

FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 465
of St. Denis, and erected a cenotaph with a life-like figure of the monarch,
the artist hollowing out the upper part of the tomb in the shape of a
basin, so as to make the features stand out. The king is represented holding
in one hand a model of the small church which he had founded, and in
the other his sceptre.
With the advent of Gothic architecture, towards the middle of the twelfth
century, the tombs were decorated with vaulted arches in the shape of
quarter-foUs, and these arches were afterwards made to serve as a framework
. within which the bas-reliefs were placed. Within the pointed arch of one is
represented a monk mourner, one of those who were hired to assist at the
funeral ceremonies. The figure lying upon the table was called the gisant, as
is proved by old account-books containing the following item : " So much to
a certain person for having carved the figure of a gisant." The essentially
French art of funeral architecture and sculpture reached its apogee in the
fifteenth century, and nothing can be more perfect or beautiful than the
tombs of the dukes of Burgundy at Dijon, and of the dukes of Berri at
Bourges. After the thirteenth century, one or two lions, or a dog, were placed at
the feet of the gisant ; and the war ballads relate that these symboUe animals
were termed cagnets or cagnons — the lion being the emblem of force,, and the
dog of fidelity (leaute).
The tomb of a personage of rank or wealth was often decorated with
secondary figures, carved in relief in marble or stone — sometimes the Virgin,
or some saint, or some scene from the Old or the New Testament ; upon one
side the personification of the virtues, upon the other, mourners, or perhaps
the famUy of the deceased. Thus there are carved figures of the princes
and princesses of the second House of Burgundy around the tomb of PhiUp
de Marie at Lille ; a funeral ceremony was represented upon that of -Philip
the Bold at Narbonne.
In the fourteenth century, the sculptors surmounted the tomb with a bed,
upon which a figure of the deceased was carved, with a kind of stone dais or
canopy ; two angels with outstretched wings held a spread-out veil, upon
which they were bearing aloft a smaU naked figure, standing erect, and
meant to represent the soul of the deceased person. Iri other monuments,
the angels had a censer, with which they are scattering incense upon the
soul of the departed, as at NeuiUy-sur-Marne, upon the tomb of the famous
3 o

466

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

preacher Foulques, who died about the year 1200. In others, the angels are
represented holding the helmet and shield of the deceased, bearing up his
train, or presenting him on their knees an open prayer-book. The tomb of
Philip Pot (Fig. 358), formerly in the abbey-church of the Cistercians,
was supported by eight statues of women dressed in mourning. Some of
the statues placed upon the tombs were carved out of hard limestone instead
of marble ; those of Charles VII. and his consort were of alabaster. In

Fig. 358. — Tomb of Philip Pot, Grand Seneschal of Burgundy, who died in 1494 ; formerly in the
Abbey of Citeaux, now in the Museum at Dijon. The knight is laid out upon a sepulchral
stone, which is being borne up by eight mourners, each of whom carries on the arm a shield
of his family alliances.

many cases the hands and the head only were of alabaster or marble, and the
rest of the body of stone. The tomb of the Sire de Barbazan, who died in
1432, was entirely of bronze ; that of Charles VIII. at St. Denis, constructed
of the most valuable marble, had on it the statue of that prince in bronze,
flanked by four angels, each with the royal shield.
From this period French art had to give place to Italian art, which
Charles VIII. had brought back as a trophy from his expedition to Naples,
and which eventually took root in France, and expanded with all the
splendours of the Eenaissance until the close of the sixteenth century.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

467

Foreign artists began to distinguish themselves in the composition of tombs.
Francis I., who had been struck with admiration by the monuments of this
kind at Florence, Eome, and Milan, determined to' have some equally
remarkable in his own kingdom. The tomb of Louis XII., the chef-d'ceuvre
of a Florentine artist, served as a type and a model for those of Francis I.

Fig. 359.— The beheaded Knight holding his fleshless head in his hands.— A bust in the Namur
Museum, dating from 1562, with this inscription: "A day will come when my account will
be squared" ("Une heure viendra qui tout paiera"). This sinister cry of vengeance was no
doubt addressed by the widow or the family of the victim to his murderer.
and Henry IL, which were completed with still greater magnificence by the
French artists Pierre Bontemps and Germain Pilon, under the superin
tendence of Philibert de Lorme. These funeral monuments are the most
marvellous of all that have been produced by French, in imitation of Italian,
art (Fig. 361).
Having passed in review the various kinds of funeral monuments in vogue
during the successive epochs of the Middle Ages and the Eenaissance, we may
proceed to consider certain accessory works of art; some of which we are only

468

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

acquainted with by written evidence ; which is, however, too detailed to permit
of any doubt as to their having existed. Such are the covers (coopertoria,
coopercula) under which were hidden the tombs, often plain and humble, of
martyrs and saints in ancient churches. These covers were often Uned with
sheets of metal richly chased and enriched with precious stones. None of them,
unfortunately, are now extant, and it is only from the ancient chroniclers that
we learn of the marvels of art produced by St. Eloi in the reign of Dagobert.

Fig. 360. — Tomb of Louis, Duke of Orleans, and Valentine of Milan, his spouse ; executed by
order of Louis XII.  Formerly in the Church of the Celestines, Paris ; now in the Church of
St. Denis. (Sixteenth Century.)
Coming down nearer to our own day, tombs were surmounted by a ciborium,
or small cupola. This was made of carved wood, and sometimes of stone,
notably in the fourteenth century. Thus the tomb of Marguerite of Flanders,
daughter of Philip the Long, was ornamented with open carving of the
Gothic order. In most cases a small edifice, with seven or eight supporting
columns, was erected over the tomb, and all the resources of art were employed
upon its decoration. During the period of architecture rayonnante, these light
and elegant constructions consisted of arches surmounted by pointed gable-
ends, which themselves served to unite the main supports of the work, which
was vaulted and topped with a roof. Erections of this kind are still to be

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

469

seen in the south of France, above the graves of Innocent VI. (Avignon
Cathedral) and of John XXII. (Bourg-de-Villeneuve). The tombs of
Charles VI. and Charles VII., at St. Denis, were shut in, so to speak, by
similar constructions. In accordance with a usage which dates back to the
very earliest times, the tombs of the Middle Ages were often placed in the
hollow of a wall arched inward, so as not to be in the way of the worshippers,
nor to interfere with the celebration of divine service.

Fig. 361. — Tomb of St. Remigius, erected (1526 to 1530) in the church dedicated to him by Robert
de Lenoncourt, Archbishop of Rheims. Around the monument, which has been destroyed,
were niches containing marble statues of the twelve peers of France ; to the right, the lay
peers in royal robes and with crowns upon their heads, bearing the insignia of royalty ; to the
left, the ecclesiastical peers with the sacred symbols.

We have already stated that, to prevent the churches from being over
crowded with tombs, stone or marble tablets — they were of painted wood
sometimes — were fixed upon the wall just above, or not far from, the
grave, with an epitaph and sculptural ornaments. Some of these tablets
were mounted upon two columns attached to the wall, or placed upon a
pillar. Before the time when statues on tombs were represented in a kneeling
posture, the sculptor often represented the deceased in an attitude of prayer

470

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

and this figure was placed upon a console at a short distance from the
grave, in the chapel belonging to the family or brotherhood. The figures

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Fig. 362. — Mausoleum of Philip IL, King of Spain, near the high altar in the Escurial. This
•group of gigantic statues in bronze gilt is by Leoni. The king, kneeling in front of a prie-
dieu, is arrayed in «, mantle, upon which are represented the coats-of-arms of his different
states. Beside him are his three wives — Elizabeth of France to the left, next lo her Anne of
Austria, and, to tbe right, Mary of Portugal. Behind him is his son, Don Carlos. — " Icono-
grafia Espanola," by Carderera.

thus reproduced in relief always wore the costume and insignia of their pro
fession, as is shown by certain monuments of the reign of Charles V.
The flat tombs consisted of a slab six feet six inches long, either of some
hard stone or of marble, let into the ground or the pavement above the

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

47'

coffin (Fig. 363). Upon the slab was originally carved the cross, no matter
what might be the condition of the person interred, with a crozier for a
prelate and a sword for a knight. These objects
were reproduced with considerable skill by carving
them out of the stone and plastering the hollow with
red or black cement, which had the effect of making
their outline more distinct. In the twelfth century,
the flat tombs were decorated with a bordering
around the stone, similarly engraved, and intended
to form a fillet within which came the epitaph, with
the name of the deceased and the date of his death.
Later stUl, as in the case of raised tombs, the figure
of the deceased came to be represented on them. This
was so in the time of Louis VII., the statues being
made to represent the image of the deceased in the
dress of his particular station in Ufe, with his hands
crossed upon his breast ; and, subsequently, lions and
dogs were added as accessories — the whole being
carved into the stone. The figure of the deceased
was often surrounded with architectural devices. At
first the figure was placed under a colonnade ; subse
quently a very complicated edifice was erected, with
the statue of the deceased erect in the foreground
(Fig. 364). The hands and feet were often cemented
on in white or black marble. Flat tombs made either
of brass, silver, or bronze were also used, the last-
named metal being much in vogue in the thirteenth
century; for example, we find it in the tomb of Inger-
burga, wife of PhUip Augustus, at St. Jean-en-Ile, near
CorbeU ; in that of Blanche, wife of Louis VIII., at
Maubuisson ; in that of Marguerite, wife of St. Louis,
and in that of Blanche, their daughter, at St. Denis.
Prince Louis, son of St. Louis, is also buried in that
church, his tomb being in copper enamelled.
Many tombs were far more sumptuous. Those of Louis VIII

,smsBH'6-yv:DeLClRnc-

Fig. 363.— Flat Tomb of
Sibylle (wife of Guy de
Lusignan, King of Jeru
salem), who died in 1187.
In the church at Nameche,
near Namur. The inscrip
tion, half effaced, may be
translated as follows : —
" Here lies tbe rightful
heiress of Samson (a vil
lage near Namur), who
was descended in a direct
line from the King of
Jerusalem. Let us pray
God for her soul's conso
lation."

Louis IX. were in sUver-gilt, decorated with carved figures.

and
Alphonse de

472

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

Brienne, Comte d'Eu, had a tomb of copper-gilt enriched with enamel. It
was probably at about the same period that the chapter of the Abbey of
St. Germain des Pres (Paris) covered with mosaics and filigree-work the

Fig. 364.— Flat Tomb of Alexandre de Berneval, architect of the Church of St. Ouen, at Rouen,
and of his pupil. — In.the Church of St. Ouen. (Fifteenth Century.)

ancient tomb of Fredegonde ; for it is difficult to believe, in spite of MabUlon
and Montfaucon, that this tomb dates back to her death at the end of the
sixth century.
In the fifteenth century the English, masters at that time of a consi
derable part of France, laid hands upon these plates of copper, sUver, and

FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 473
gold to convert them into coin ; others which escaped spoliation were melted
down during the Eevolution, so that we must look to England and Belgium
for flat metal tombs still in a state of preservation. _-
Such are the chief characteristics of funeral monuments in the Middle
Ages and down to the period of the Eenaissance. These monuments, many
of which are still extant, throw great light upon the costumes of their time.
We must now proceed to speak of the cemeteries, or places of public burial,
in which tombs above ground were legally permitted as soon as the Church
had established its authority. Burials within the churches were, in fact, a
special privilege for the rich, who were able to purchase it in perpetuity.
The presence of these graves in buildings intended for public worship was,
moreover, in accordance with the very essence of Christianity, by reason of the
practice already alluded to, of placing the body of some saint beneath the altar.
The primitive Latin Church, in the second and in the early part of the
third century, performed the ceremonies of worship in the cemeteries of the
Christians, that is to say, in the crypts and the Catacombs. The Christians,
in imitation of the pagan custom of converting old quarries into places of
common burial, called hypogea, sought refuge, during persecution, in some
disused quarries near the gates of Eome, and there they celebrated their
rites in secret and buried their dead. These are the Catacombs, which con
stitute a regular subterraneous town, and the galleries of which, composing
an immense .labyrinth, have been opened in the neighbourhood of and in
close proximity to the ancient roads which radiated from Eome towards the
surrounding districts. The appropriation of these Catacombs for Christian
burial-places unquestionably dates from the first century of Christianity.
The best known and the most famous are those which extend beneath the
basilica of St. Sebastian, and form part of what was called the Cemetery of
St. Calixtus, beneath the Appian Way. Since the sixteenth century, when
these Catacombs were first explored and thoroughly studied, this generic
name has been given to all excavations which have led to the discovery of
Christian graves. Each catacomb was caUed after the martyr whom the
faithful had interred there during the persecutions, and whose relics have
been found beneath altars, which were chiefly erected and decorated during
the eighth century.
The Catacombs are composed of very narrow galleries, from ninety-seven
centimetres to one metre thirty centimetres in breadth (thirty-eight to fifty-
3 p

474

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

one inches), cut irregularly through the stone. These galleries, most of
them very short, crossing each other in such a way as to form an inextricable
maze of streets and crossways, had an arched roof supported by masonry
here and there. At intervals there were chambers, or cubicula (Fig. 365),
hollowed out by the Christians to serve as chapels or oratories ; these were
either quadrangular or circular, of small dimensions, and often decorated with
fresco paintings of different epochs dating from the first to the fourth century.

Fig. 365. — Crypt of the Chapel of St. Agnes, in the Catacombs at Rome, set apart for tbe interment
of Christians. — From M. Perret'B work, "Les Catacombes de Rome."

But little fresh air could penetrate into these galleries by the openings which
had been made here and there, and also through old shafts situated at in
tervals of about three hundred yards from each other, which had been used
in working the quarries. In the lead-lined partitions, the graves, most of
which are still intact, were ranged in rows one above the other. Each
grave was a hollow of about the size of a human body hewn lengthwise in
the side of the gallery and closed with a large brick, or with a stone or marble
slab, set in cement. Five or six bodies— sometimes as many as twelve^were
so placed one above the other. The paintings (Fig. 366), the sculptures, and

FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 475
the mosaics of the Catacombs, are the first products of Christian art as it
shook off the traditions of paganism, and the subjects represented are gene
rally taken from the Holy Scriptures ; such as the Leaving the Ark, Abra
ham's Sacrifice, Jonah, the Good Shepherd, the Eaising of Lazarus. Many
very touching funeral epitaphs have also been discovered on them.
Nor is it merely from the day when the triumphs of Christianity led to
the building of the, basilicas in Eome that personages of rank have been
buried inside the churches. The bodies of bishops and leaders of the
Catholic community, those of patricians and of barbarian princes who

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Fig. 366. — Funeral Fresco discovered in the Cemetery of St. Pretextat, in the Catacombs at Rome.
The two doves, emblems of marriage, indicate the tomb of the husband and wife. — From M.
Perret's work, " Les Catacombes de Rome."
succoured the Church in her early days, were the first to be received within
the sanctuary in as close proximity as possible to the relics of the saint to
whom the building was dedicated. 4
Very soon these burial-places began to be classified according to the
individual merit of the dead, and the importance of their rank or fortune.
Laymen and priests had a right to be buried in the aisles of the church,
or in the part corresponding to the apse, and it is no exaggeration to say
that the interior was often so fuU of graves that they extended outside the
building. Such was the case after the seventh century. A smaU space,
either round or square, was left in front of the facade of the churches, to be
reserved as a privileged place of burial, and was called the aiire or parvis
476

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

it

Jhife'

Fig. 367.— The Cross of the Bureau Family,

(paradisus) ; hence the origin of the rural
cemetery which extends along the sides
of a country church, or forms a green in
front of it.
Burial in the churches was at first
interfered with, if not prevented, even
under the Christian emperors, by the
Eoman law, which prescribed that the
cemeteries should be extramural. Thus,
according to tradition, many of the
early French saints were first of all
buried outside the towns, and their re
mains were subsequently placed within
some consecrated building or a church,
erected over their original grave. The
ancient cemetery in some cases deve
loped into an inhabited suburb, as at
Tours, where the Quartier de St. Martin
occupies the ground where that saint
originally reposed. In other districts,
the Christian cemeteries occupied the
same site down to the thirteenth cen
tury, as at Aries, Autun, Bordeaux, the
cemeteries of the Aliscan (Elisii campi),
St. Seurin, and Champ-des-Tombes. Other
cemeteries, rendered necessary by the in
crease in the size of the towns, were
made at about this period. Thus, after
the accession of the Capet dynasty, the
capital increased so much in size that it
was necessary to limit the space ac
corded to burying-places, and twenty-two
parishes on the right bank of the Seine
had no cemeteries of their own. A track of

formerly in the Cemeiery of the Inno- waste land at Champeaux, running along
cents, Paris. — Lenoir's " Statistique n ._ „ _, . , . , ,
Monument-tie de Paris." the ftue St. Denis, was converted into what

Fig. 368. — The Knight of Death, by Albert Durer.— This celebrated engraving, so characteristic of
the fantastic genius of the Middle Ages, represents » fully-armed knight going to the wars
with u. presentiment of coming evil, and accompanied by Sin and Death, personified as his
running footman and esquire. — After the Fac-simile of the original Engraving, dated 1513, by
one of the Wiericx (1564). [To face page 476.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

477

was called the Cemetery of the Innocents (Fig. 367), and it consisted of a large
enclosure with three gateways ; the first at the corner of the Eue aux Fers ;
the second at the corner of the Eue de la Ferronnerie ; and the third in the
Place-aux-Chats. Philip Augustus surrounded it with a wall in 1186, to pre
vent it being overrun by animals and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood.
To this wall was afterwards added a covered gaUery, called the charnel-house,
in which were buried those whose fortune allowed them to purchase the
privilege of being interred apart from the masses. This charnel-house, which
was damp and dismal, was paved with tombstones, and its walls were covered
with epitaphs and funeral monuments. In the thirteenth century it became
a fashionable resort in which tradesmen placed their wares for sale, and the
abode of death was converted into a place of rendezvous and promenade for
the idle.
This long gallery was built at different epochs, out of the largesses given
by several inhabitants of Paris. Marshal de Boucicault built part of it in
the beginning of the fifteenth century, and the famous Nicholas Flamel, who
is said to have had a bookstall in the charnel-house, built at his own cost
the whole side which ran parallel with the Eue de la Lingerie, and in which
he and his wife Pernelle were buried. This charnel-house was surmounted
by large galetas (lofts) in which the bones of the dead were preserved. The
famous " Danse Macabre " (Figs. 369 — 392), that philosophical allegory
in which death was leading in the dance "persons of all conditions," was
painted about the year 1430 upon the walls of the charnel-house, on the Eue
St. Honore side.
When Charles V. began to construct his chateau of the Louvre, in 1363,
Eaimond Dutemple, the builder, purchased from the churchwardens of the
parish of the Innocents ten ancient tombs, each of which cost him fourteen
sous parisis, for the purpose of using the stones for his masonry work — a
proof that funeral monuments were not treated with much respect at that
epoch. At this same period, the clergy of the Innocents' parish sold part of
the cemetery, already too small, to the chapter of St. Germain l'Auxerrois,
who built thereon houses and stalls for the markets. It is estimated that
more than two million persons were buried in the Innocents' cemetery in
the course of six centuries. In it were accumulated masses of stones, crosses,
human remains, and filth ; the grass was growing in the midst of heaps of
skulls; the floors of the charnel-houses bent beneath piles of decomposed

47^

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

:4'

y^xm%twx4*&

Figs. 369 to 392. — The Dance of Death, a Fac-simile of "Wood Engravings executed after the Holbein
Drawings in the " Simulachres de la Mort;" small 4to., Treschel Brothers, Lyons, 1538. —
" As fish are taken speedily with the hook (aine), so does death take men ; for death spares no
man, king nor emperor, rich nor poor, noble nor villain, wise nor fool, physician nor sur
geon, young nor old, strong nor weak, man nor woman. Nothing is more certain ; all have to
take part in death's dance." — Explanation taken from the " Forteresses de la Foy," Manu
script of the Fifteenth Century, in the Library at Valenciennes.
bones ; graves had been dug in every available space of ground, and the smell
of the corpses was unbearable. Notwithstanding, this was the most celebrated

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

479

The Dance of Death, af„er Holbein's Drawings (continued).

cemetery of the Middle Ages, and the charnel-house which enclosed it upon
three sides served as a model for all those constructed for other Christian
churches and cemeteries, in accordance with a custom dating back, it is
reported, to the fifth or sixth century. Still, no traces can be found of any
such constructions around the Gallo-Eoman cemeteries, unless it be a rudely

480

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

The Dance of Death, after Holbein's Drawings (continued).

buUt boundary-wall. At a later date, the cemeteries contiguous to parish
churches or to the chapels of hospitals were surrounded with cloister-Uke
galleries, between the roof and ceiling of which was the charnel-house, where
the bones dug up when fresh graves were made found a last resting-place.
Inside the cemeteries there were other erections never omitted, as, for

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

ii

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The Dance of Death, after Holbein's Drawings (continued).

instance, a large stone cross with florid decoration and varying in design,
many of which date back to the eleventh century. After this period came
into vogue a small lantern, built in the shape of a very narrow tower, Uke
a hollow column, from twenty-six to forty feet high, the summit of which
was surmounted by arcades, through which glimmered the faint Ught of a
3 Q

482

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

\*T

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The Dance of Death, after Holbein's Drawings (continued).

suspended lamp. This small building was called " the lantern of the dead "
(Figs. 394 — 396) ; it was also termed a beacon (fanal), a Ughthouse (phare),
and a little tower (tourniele). These beacon-towers, intended to indicate from
afar during night-time the presence of a cemetery, generally had a door some
what above the< ground, which was reached by a ladder or flight of steps.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

483

The Dance of Death, after Holbein's Drawings (continued).

Upon the side opposite to the door, an altar jutted out at the base of the
tower. This altar was never consecrated, as the canons forbid any celebra
tion to be held upon those which were in the open air (sub dio). There
are many monuments of this kind in Maine, Berry, Angoumois, and Gas-
cony; they are all of Eoman architecture, or of Gothic bordering upon

484 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
Eoman, and, consequently, do not date back further than the eleventh
century. There was a tower of this kind in the Cemetery of the Innocents, at Paris
(Fig. 397), but of larger dimensions than any of those alluded to above. It
was a kind of octagon chapel, about forty feet high, and Gilbert de Metz,
who speaks of it, says that he was told it was the tomb of a rich nobleman
who had given orders that he himself should be buried beneath it in order
to save his remains from being profaned by dogs and vagabonds.
In the fourteenth century the lanterns of the dead, instead of being
isolated and inaccessible columns, were built in the form of open chapels, in
which a lamp was kept constantly burning. Previous to the erection of
these chapels in the cemeteries, there existed others which have often been
taken for pagan temples. We know, through writings of the ninth century,
that in the cemeteries of the Carlovingian abbeys there were chapels of this
kind, with two stories and a crypt ; that these funeral chapels were of the
same shape as the ancient baptisteries, without the surroundings. They were
octagonal buildings, the vaults of which rested upon the boundary-waUs of
the cemetery. There are still extant two belonging to the Eoman epoch, one
at Montmorillon, in Poitou ; the other, enclosed in the citadel of Metz, was
a dependency of the Abbey of St. Arnold.
Having treated of the burial-places and the funeral monuments of the
different epochs of the Middle Ages, we may now go on to speak of the
funeral ceremonies.
As soon as a king or a queen had breathed their last, the face was covered
with wax, in order to take an impression of the features and reproduce
them upon their effigies. Pending the completion of this Ukeness, the body
was laid by the chamberlains and the gentlemen of the chamber in a leaden
coffin, lined with wood and black velvet, covered with a white satin cross, and
was carried by the archers of the body-guard into a richly-decorated chamber,
and placed upon a bed trimmed with black cloth hangings which reached to
the ground. An altar was erected in the middle of the chamber for cele
brating mass while the body remained there.
When the effigy was completed it was placed in another chamber as
richly decorated as the first, and around it were placed seats, or formettes,
covered with striped cloth of gold, upon which the prelates, lords, gentlemen,
and officers took their places. The state bed, upon which the effigy was

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

485

Fig. 393.  The Torments of Hell. — The Latin inscriptions in this engraving may be translated as
follows : At the top, " The worm which feeds on the ungodly man shall never die, and the fire
that devours him shall never be quenched ; " in the centre, "Jews; Men of war;" beneath,
"Monk- Lucifer or Satan." — Fac-simile of a Miniature from the " Hortus Deliciarum," a
celebrated Manuscript of the Twelfth Century, executed at the Convent of Hohemburg in the
time of the Abbess Herrade de Landsberg ; destroyed in the fire of the Strasburg Library during
the Prussian bombardment, Sept. 24th, 1870. Reprinted from Count de Baslaid's great work.

486

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

laid, was furnished with a covering of clcth of gold reaching to the ground,
and decorated with a bordering of ermine spotted with black, which over
lapped by about two feet the covering, and was itself trimmed with
Hungarian point-lace.
The effigy was arrayed in a fine linen shirt, or chemise, trimmed at the

Fig. 394. — Beacon in the Cemetery Fig. 395.. — Beacon[in the Cemetery Fig. 396. — Beacon in the
of Feniou,nearSt. Jeand'Angely of Antigny, Vienne (Fifteenth Cemetery of Ciron, Indre
(Eleventh Century); it is formed Century). (Twelfth Century).
of eleven Roman columns. From the " Antiquites Monumentales " of M. de Caumont.
neck and sleeves with black silk, and over this was passed a doublet of scarlet
satin, lined with taffeta of the same colour, edged with narrow gold braid.
Over the doublet was a tunic of azure satin, spotted with golden fleurs-de-lis,
trimmed with a silver and gold lace about four inches wide, the sleeves
reaching only to the elbow. Last of all came the royal mantle of purple
velvet of an azure hue, spotted with golden fleurs-de-lis, six yards long,
open in front, without sleeves, lined with white satin, the ermine collar about
a foot deep, the facings and the train trimmed with ermine. From the neck

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

487

of the effigy hung the royal order ; upon the head was a small cap of dark
crimson velvet, surmounted by the crown studded with jewels. Upon the legs
were buskins of cloth of gold, with bright crimson satin feet ; the hands were

crossed upon the ehest.
At the head of the bed
were placed two cushions
of red velvet, trimmed
with embroidery; upon
the one to the right lay
the sceptre, which was
almost the same length
as the effigy, while upon
that to the left was placed
the hand of justice, open,
the staff being about two
feet and a half long.
The bed, which was
devoid of curtains,
was surmounted by
a very rich dais.
Beside the head of
the bed, to the
right, was the
chair covered
with cloth of
gold, with a
cushion of the
same mate
rial. At the

"mt.

foot was a stool, also
covered with cloth of
gold, for the sUver
vessel containing the
holy water, and upon
each side were two
other seats covered
with striped cloth of
gold, for the heralds,
arrayed iri their coats
of maU, who presented
holy water to the
princes that came to
view the body. The
lower end of the mor
tuary chamber, which
was just opposite the
effigy, was occupied
by a very richly de
corated altar.
The royal
effigy was laid
in state for
eight or ten
days, during
which time

Fig. 397.— Tower of Notre-Dame-du-Bois, constructed during the Eleventh Century,
in the Cemetery of the Innocents, Paris ; demolished jn 1786.

the ordinary service of the palace went on just the same as during the
king's lifetime. At the dinner and supper hours the table was laid by the
officers, and the courses arranged by the gentlemen-in-waiting, preceded
by the usher, and foUowed by the officers of "the king's buttery," who

488 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
approached the table with the customary obeisances. The bread was then
cut and placed ready for being handed round, the dishes were brought to
the table by an usher, the maitre d'hotel, the pantler, the pages, the squire
of the kitchen, and the keeper of the plate ; the napkin was presented by the
maitre d'hotel to the highest personage present ; grace was said by a prelate
or an almoner, who recited the prayers for the dead. All those who were
in the habit of eating at the king's table during his lifetime were expected
to be present at each of the repasts, together with the other persons of his
household, the princes, princesses, and prelates. The dishes were afterwards
distributed amongst the poor.
When the effigy had been removed the embalmed body was brought into
the middle of the same room, and the coffin — covered with a pall of black
velvet which touched the ground, with a large cross of white satin in the
centre, and on each side a scutcheon representing the arms of France — was
placed upon trestles ; over the whole was thrown another large pall of cloth
of gold with fringes, which had also in the centre a white satin cross, and at
each extremity the arms of France, but smaUer than those on the under pall.
The pall was trimmed with violet velvet of a fine azure, spotted with fleurs-
de-lis, and bordered with ermine. At the head of the coffin was a cushion of
cloth of gold, upon which lay the royal crown, with the sceptre to the right
and the hand of justice to the left ; at the foot there was a cross of silver-
gUt, and over it a splendid dais of black velvet; upon a form stood the
vessel for holy water, with a stool on each side for the two heralds arrayed in
their coats of arms, chaperons en tete. Beside the heralds there was a bench
covered with black cloth for the princes and cardinals, who were seated on it
during the celebration of mass. The coffin was surrounded by a black wooden
railing. At the lower end were two altars standing in close proximity to
each other ; that of the chief chapel for the high masses for the dead which
was chanted, and that of the oratory for low masses said by the chaplain
in ordinary to the late king. The nobles, several gentlemen, the officers,
and the body-guard, all in mourning, were present at these services. A few
days previous to the interment the new sovereign Tepaired to the mortuary
chamber, attired in a purple mantle — purple was the mourning colour for
kings, as tanne (brown) was that for queens— the train being borne by five
princes, each weariug a hood of the same colour. The chief gentleman of
the chamber presented him the cushion, on which the king knelt in prayer

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

489

after making, the customary, reverences. Then taking the aspersorium from
the hands of a prelate, he sprinkled the coffin with holy water ; this done he
withdrew, after making the reverences usual upon such occasions.
When a king or a queen died in Paris, a procession was formed to their
residence to conduct the body to the place of interment ; if he died outside
the city, the cortege started from Notre-Dame des Champs or St. Antoine
des Champs to meet it at its arrival. This cortege was composed of the presi-

® KAlCAfeiOCeNTAiplAZO

Fig.'398. — Obsequies of St. Cesarius, physician to the Emperors Constantius and Julian ; died
in 369. — Fac-simile of a Miniature from a Greek Manuscript of the Ninth Century, in the
National Library, Paris.
dents and other officers of the parliament in black robes, the officers of
exchequer, of taxes, and of the treasury, of the delegates, the provost of the
merchants, the aldermen, and the councillors of the city, all in mourning.
Early the next morning, the twenty-four criers of the city announced
the event " en la Chambre du plaidoyi, Table de marbre, et par[ les rues,"
enumerating the titles and quahties of the deceased monarch in the form
laid down by the Grand CouncU, and not by ParUament, which had refused
to draw up this cry for Xing Henry II. (27th of July, 1559), in compliance
with the request of his widow. 3 K

490

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

In the afternoon, the body was taken to the Church of Notre-Dame, in
Paris, and the effigy of the king was laid upon the coffin, in order to impress
yet more deeply the people who were admitted to do him homage.
By special privilege the hanouars, or bearers of salt, carried the coffin ;
but at the interment of Charles VIII. twenty gentlemen of his household
volunteered to act as bearers of the body from Notre-Dame des Champs to
St. Denis. At the death of Louis XII., the hanouars demanded and obtained
the restoration of their privilege.

UC PORTATVR: COP PVS
EADWARDl:ReGlS = ADseCCl6SIAN:5UL \P£J

Fig. 399. — Funeral of St. Edward the Confessor, the Anglo-Saxon king, who died on the 5th o'f
January, 1066. — The body, covered with an embroidered pall surmounted with two small
crosses, being carried by eight men to Westminster Abbey, of which he was the founder.
Behind come priests chanting the Psalms for tbe Dead, while two clerks are ringing bells. —
From the Bayeux Tapestry (Twelfth Century).
The ceremonial was altered at the funeral of Francis I. and Henry IL,
the body being placed in the chariot d'armes ou de parement, and the honours
due to the body, which was in the hinder part of the procession, were paid to
the effigy. The gentlemen of the chamber to Francis I., " with straps around
their necks," esteemed it an honour to bear the effigy of their late master ;
those who had been in the service of Henry II. only walked by the side of
his effigy, holding up the pall of cloth of gold. The Parliament, which had
always enjoyed the privilege of walking in front of, as well as of surrounding
and following, the body and the effigy, felt annoyed at being exclusively

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

491

Fig. 400.— Mortuary Cloth from the Church of FoUeville (Somme), now in the Museum at Amiens
(Sixteenth Century).— The cloth thrown over the coffin formed three crosses; the centre of
the largest of these lay over the breast of the deceased, the two others covered the two sides
of the bier; upon the white crosses are death's heads crunching bones between their teeth.
Two yellow-hued mirrors reflect the imag0 of a human skull. The crosses bear the Latin
inscription, " Memento mori."
attached to the latter, which still represented life ; whereas the body, repre
senting death,-wa,s already, so to speak, separated from the honours of royalty.
The funeral procession proceeded in the foUowing order through the streets

49 z

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

of Paris to the Abbey of St. Denis. First came an esquire in mourning and
on foot, carrying the banner of France covered with black crape ; then

8W*.

Fig. 401. — Triumphal Vessel, which was drawn upon a car in the solemn funeral ceremony cele
brated at Brussels, upon the 29th of December, 1558, in honour of the Emperor Charles V.,
who died on the 21st of September, in the same year, at the Monastery of St. Just. — This vessel
gives some idea of the shape as well as of the magnificence of the galleys constructed at that
period. Three symbolic personages are conducting the vessel towards eternity : in the stern
stands Charity (Charitas), ever glowing with love ; amidships is Faith (Fides), with her eyes
fixed upon the image of Christ ; and at the prow, above the gilt beak-head, is Hope (Spes),
standing with one hand placed upon the anchor of safety. The masts and bulwarks of tbe ship
are decorated with flags upon which figure the arms of the different Netherland States, of Bur
gundy, and the Tyrol — all direct fiefs or conquests of the deceased emperor. The triangular
sail in the stern indicates, by its colour (black), tbat the vessel is in mourning. The marine
monsters which are seen swimming around it represent tbe enemies vanquished by Charles V.,
and the columns of Hercules, surmounted by the crown and the tiara, typify the alliance
between the Empire and the Church, an alliance to which the Cesarean motto — " Non plus
oultre," lends special significance. — From the "Magnifique etSomptueuse PompeFunebre faite
aux Obseques du tres-grand Empereur Charles Cinquieme en la Ville de Bruxelles" (Plantin,
Antwerp, 1559). In the Collection of M. Ruggieri, Paris. ;

followed, bareheaded, the players of .the hautboy, the tabor, and the fife,
with their instruments reversed, and in their rear trumpeters with their ban
nerols flying.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 493
After these came the chariot d'armes, hung with black velvet which
reached to the ground, and upon it a large cross in white satin, and twenty -
four shields representing the arms of France. The coach was drawn by
six horses with black velvet trappings and the large white satin cross, and
on the near wheeler and leader postilions in mourning and bareheaded.
Around the coach were armourers and sommeliers d'armes, together with
some members of the four mendicant orders, carrying tapers to which
were affixed armorial shields. Twelve pages followed, dressed in black
velvet, who rode, bareheaded, upon twelve horses, also caparisoned in black
tEMKM ' KMl "BCBIttKUU-III
nmuM KtaiE „«.,,.,,,  uwutiwdncmi t£ooci£SA.ora

Fig. 402. — Mourning Costumes. — Group consisting of Gold Fleece, Herald of Spain; of King
Philip IL, son and successor of Charles V., accompanied by Henry IV., Duke of Brunswick ;
of tbe Duke d'Arcos, Spanish Grandee ; of Ruy Gomez de Sylva, Count of Melito, and of
Emanuel-Philibert, Duke of Savoy. The last-nafted wears, like King Philip, the mourning
hood, being the son of Beatrice of Portugal, sister-in-law of Charles V. The hood was only
worn by the heirs of the deceased sovereign. — From the work on the funeral of Charles V.,
quoted on the previous page (see Fig. 401), published by Plantin, at Antwerp, in 1559. In
the Collection of M. Ruggieri, Paris.
velvet with a white satin cross, each led by a footman dressed in mourning
and also bareheaded.
One of the esquires of the stable carried the spurs and another the
gauntlets ; a third, the arms of France, in the form ol an escutcheon, with
the crown ; a fourth bore at the end of a staff, in the form of a gaUows, the
coat-of-arms made of violet velvet, and studded with golden fleurs-de-Us. The
first esquire, or, in his absence, the eldest, carried the royal-crested helmet.
The state charger, with his housings entirely covered with crimson velvet
studded with Cyprus fleurs-de-lis' of gold, was led by two esquires ; and upon
each side came dismounted heralds-at- arms chaperon en tete.
Behind the master of the horse, hooded and wearing at his side the royal

494 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
sword, followed the effigy, drawn upon a car, and holding in its right hand
the sceptre and in its left the hand of justice.
It was succeeded by the personage who was conducting the funeral pro
cession, and by the first or high chamberlain, bearing the banner of France.
Next to them marched the provost of the merchants and the aldermen in full
dress, bearing the dais and the paU which had been used in the mortuary
chamber, and which were carried at a certain distance from the effigy, so as
not to prevent the latter from being seen.
Then came the princes, mounted upon smaU mules, the trains of their
mantles being each held up by a gentleman on foot in deep mourning. After
the princes were the ambassadors, dressed in mourning, but without hood ;
the royal knights, wearing their insignia and a mourning hood; the lords and
gentlemen of the chamber ; the captains of the guards and archers in mourn
ing, with their sUver-coated hocquetons (a sort of jacket). Towards the niiddle
of the sixteenth century, the prelates and almoners also foUowed the cortege.
In the evening a solemn service was celebrated at Notre-Dame, and
another the next morning. In the afternoon of the latter day the cortege
repaired in the same order to St. Denis, stopping half-way at a stone cross
caUed the Croix du Sien, where the monks of the abbey came out in proces
sion to receive the king's body and effigy from the Archbishop of Paris, who
thereupon withdrew, accompanied by his clergy. As soon as the body
entered the town of St. Denis, the monks of the abbey bore the paU. In
the evening the service was celebrated in the cathedral, and on the following
day the body was placed, covered by the great pall of cloth of gold, in a
chapelle ardente. The effigy was removed, and the crown, the sceptre, and
the hand of justice were given to the heralds, who handed them over to three
princes of the blood. The gentlemen of the king's chamber then took charge
of the body and carried it to the entrance of the vault in which it was to be
interred, and into which one of the kings-at-arms descended, and in a loud
voice bid the other kings-at-arms and heralds to do their duty. Thereupon
they all came forward and divested themselves of their coats-of-arms. The
king-at-arms standing in the vault bid five esquires bring him the spurs,
gauntlets, shield, coat-of-arms, and crested headpiece ; from the first valet
tranchant he received the fanion, and frorii the captains of the Swiss and
the archers of the guard their insignia ; the master of the horse handed him
the royal sword; the high or first chamberlain, the banner of France;
the grand master and all the maitres d'hdtel threw their staves into the

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

495

Fig. 403.— Funeral Service for Anne of Brittany, Queen of France, who died on the 9th of January,
1514 at the Castle of Blois.— The service was celebrated on the 4th of February, in the Church
of St Sauveur, Blois. In the middle of the choir was laid " the body of the noble lady, be
neath a chapelle ardente (catafalque) which had five pinnacles, each ornamented with a double
cross with lighted tapers, crowned with a circle of black velvet, and decorated with several
escutcheons." In front of the coffin stood the effigy of the Queen, holding the crown and
sceptre. Around are kneeling Franciscan and Jacobine nuns. Mass is being said by the
Bishop'of Paris.— From a Miniature in a contemporary Manuscript, the "Trespasde l'Her-
mine regrettee ; " in the Library of M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot.

496 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
vault ; the three princes brought to him the hand. of justice, the sceptre, and
the crown. He then cried three times in a loud voice, " The king is dead ;
pray to God for his soul ! " and he then added the cry, also three times
repeated, " Long Uve the king his successor ! " This cry was taken up by
another herald ; the trumpets sounded, and the ceremony was at an end.
After this the grand master, accompanied by the prelates and knights of
the royal orders, repaired to the principal table of the ParUament, where the
officers of the king's household were collected, and there he broke in their
presence " the magisterial staff," telling them that they were henceforth
without a master.
A similar order of proceeding was observed at the funeral of a queen,
where the crowned effigy, with the royal mantle studded with fleurs-de-lis,
and with the sceptre in the right hand and the hand of justice in the left,
also figured in the ceremony. But in addition to the princes, the body
was foUowed by the princesses, and by several ladies and maids-in- waiting,
aU of them dressed in mourning.
Isabel of Bavaria, widow of Charles VI., is the only queen of Franee who
was not buried with the honours due to her rank ; her body having been
taken to Notre-Dame (1435), where the customary prayers were said, the
funeral procession and the ParUament foUowed it to the Port St. Landri,
where the coffin was placed in a boat, and taken by water to St. Denis under
the escort of two clerks and a chaplain.
Under the first Merovingian dynasty, immediately on the death of the
king, his body was washed, embalmed, and arrayed in the royal robes ; it was
then taken to the church, which was always some basiUca of note previous
to St. Denis being selected as the royal burying-place.
At that period the kings of the Franks assisted in person at the obsequies
of the kings and queens their predecessors. Thus, ChUdebert and Clotaire I.
accompanied the body of their mother, Clotilde, from Tours, where she died,
to the Church of St. Genevieve, in Paris, where she was buried. The four
sons of Clotaire brought their father's body from Compiegne to the Abbey
of St. Medard de Soissons, where it was finally laid. Louis VI. foUowed
on foot the body of his father, PhUip I., from Melun, where he died, to
St. Benoit-sur-Loire, where he was interred. Phihp III. helped to carry his
father's bier from the Church of Notre-Dame, in Paris, to St. Denis. The
three sons of King John — Charles V., Louis, Duke of Anjou, and Philip,
Duke of Burgundy — followed their father's body to the grave ; but the fourth

Fig. 404. — Death of St. Benedict, surrounded by his monks, in his Abbey of Monte Cassino, on the 21st of March, 542. — The " Legende Doree "
says, "At the moment of his death, one of the monks who had remained in his cell saw him ascend to heaven ; and St. Maur, his disciple, in France
at the time, also saw what appeared to be a street, hung with rich tapestry and brilliantly lighted, which reached from St. Benedict's cell to heaven.
A man of majestic appearance approached bim and said, ' Behold the road by which Benedict, the servant and friend of God, is travelling to the
presence of the Divine Majesty.' " The artist has grouped the various incidents of this story into his painting.— Fresco by Spinelli d' Arezzo (1390),
in the Church of San Miniato, near Florence. [ r„ fme page 499.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

497

son, John, Duke of Berri, detained as hostage in England, was unable to take
part in the ceremony. Henceforward, the kings of France gave up the custom
of being present at the obsequies of their predecessors and of members of the
royal family. The sons of Henry IL, however, with the exception of the
dauphin Francis, who merely sprinkled holy water over the corpse, foUowed
their father to the grave.
In former times, the kings of the third dynasty were present at the

Fig. 405.— The Christian professor on his death-bed— the priest is exhorting him ; bis disciples are
praying for him; his wife is holding a flaming torch over his head in token of the resurrec
tion. The dying man contemplates the image of Christ on the Cross, who died for the sins
ofmankind ; the Holy Virgin, holding the Infant Jesus in her arms, implores pardon for the
sinner, while evil spirits are searching in the professor's works for some heresy which may
ensure his damnation. Death is there.-Fac-simile of a Wood Engraving in the " Cogita-
tione della Morte," by J. Savonarola ; the Florence edition, in 4to. (date unknown)'.
funerals even of their relations or friends. Joinville states that the bodies
of several nobles who had been massacred in prison by the Saracens were
given up to King Louis IX.,. who had them buried in the Church of
St. John of Acre. Amongst the slain was Gautier de Brienne, whose cousin,
Madame de Secte, discharged all the funeral expenses, while every knight
who was present at the ceremony gave as an offering a taper and a silver
denier. " The king," says Du Tillet, "was present, and contributed a taper
and a besant, which he took from the lady's purse, out of his exceeding
3 s

498 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
graciousness, for kings on funeral occasions always contributed money of
their own, and not that of those who invited them." Charles V. was
present at the funeral of Jean de la Riviere, his chamberlain, in the
Church of the Val des Ecoliers, Paris. Edward III. of England honoured
with his presence the funeral of G. Mauny, a knight of Hainault, buried
in the Carthusian monastery of London. After the sixteenth century, the
sovereign merely went to sprinkle the body with holy water, but did not
assist at the obsequies of great officers of his household, or of members of his
family. Funeral rites gave rise to a host of interesting and pecuhar customs,
which a want of space prevents us from enumerating and describing. Thus,
in the southern provinces of France, it was the usage in former days to carry
the dead to the place of burial upon their state-beds, which became the pro
perty of the officiating" priest as a remuneration for his services.
In Paris, down to the reign of Louis XIV., it was the custom, when any
personage of note died, for the " crier of the dead," dressed in black, to go
through the streets, ringing a bell and crying out, "Pray God for the dead! "
This usage stiU exists in certain districts. Another custom, altogether of
ecclesiastical origin, was that of inscribing the names of the dead upon
placards, and so commending them to the prayers of the worshippers in the
monasteries and churches. Upon some of these "rolls of the dead" (Fig. 407),
composed of several sheets of parchment sewn together, new names were added
to the old, and the good works of the deceased recorded thereon. These were
the perpetual rolls. Orderic Vital, in his " Ecclesiastical History," speaks
of a long roll in the Monastery of St. Evroul, upon which were inscribed the
names of monks, and of their fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. This
roll was laid upon the altar for the whole year, and only unfolded on the
Jour des Morts (All Souls' Day).
These annual rolls were sent each year from one religious house to another,
to announce the names of those monks belonging to the same order who had
died during the year. A separate roll was forwarded on the death of each
monk, in order to obtain on his behalf the prayers of his brethren in Christ.
A copy of the document was taken for each community, or perhaps the same
was made to serve for all the abbeys in the diocese. The style was simple or
pompous, according to the rank and position of the deceased.
With respect to the corporations and brotherhoods, the usages varied in
every district and in every town. Thus, for instance, when a member of

Fig. 406.— Jesus Christ descending into Hell, carrying with bim the victorious Standard of the Cros3 and trampling under foot the Spirit of Evil; the
wall of separation reared by sin falls to the ground, and the saints of the Old Testament are set free. — Fresco by Simone di Martino, in the Church
of Santa Maria Novella, Florence (Fourteenth Century). (For description, see text, p. 501.) [To face page 498.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

499

the community of criers died, in Paris, all the others were present at his
funeral in the dress of their order, the body being borne by four of his
colleagues. Two others followed the coffin, one having a handsome goblet

Fig. 407.— Mortuary Boll of the blessed Vital, founder of the Abbey of Savigny (in the diocese of
Avranches), who died on the 16th of September, 1122 ; it measures twenty-nine feet nine inches
in length by eight and a half inches in breadth. One of the words in this roll commences
with a capital T, representing Death in the act of devouring men and animals, while he treads
under foot the Cerberus of the pagans.— National Archives of France.
(hanap), the other a jar filled with wine. The remainder of the company
walked in front, with little bells in their hands which they kept ringing as
they went along. When they came to a cross-road the procession halted, and
the coffin was placed upon trestles. The crier who carried the goblet held
it out to be filled by the one who had the wine, and each of the four bearers

500 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
took a draught. Any looker-on, or any one who happened to be passing,
was asked to share in the libation. The obsequies of the ecclesiastical body
have alone preserved down to our own day a remnant of the reUgious pomp
with which they were conducted in the Middle Ages.
To form a correct idea of the pomp of these funeral rites, and of the strange
fascination which caused to be maintained, in the heart of a city, cemeteries
in which whole generations of the dead lay buried together, we must divest
ourselves of the positivism of the present day, and revert to the poetic
spiritualism of the Middle Ages, to the consoling mysticism which then
prevailed. Faith at that time reigned supreme over men's minds, and three
articles of the Apostles' Creed, " Christ died and was buried ; he descended
into hell; the third day he rose again from the dead," diffused over the
mystery of death an ineffable splendour.
Dante, theologian as well as poet, divides hell into successive zones, with
the degree of punishment increasing in intensity as the circles become nar
rower. In the first he places " Limbo," a happy resting-place for the good who
have not been baptized. Virgil, his guide, tells him : " I had not long been
here when I saw a mighty Being, crowned with all the tokens of victory,
come down amongst us. He took back with him to the realms of bliss our
first parent; Abel, his son; Noah; Moses, the faithful lawgiver; the patriarch
Abraham; King David; Israel, his father, and his chUdren; Rachel, for whom
Israel made so many sacrifices, and many others. And you must know that
before them no man had been saved." *
This imaginative idea was very much in accordance with the popular doc
trine of the Middle Ages, based upon the teaching of the Church. Hell, or
the infernal regions, was divided into four parts ; the deepest, the abode of the
damned ; above that, Limbo, in which unbaptized chUdren found a peaceful
resting-place ; the third region was Purgatory, or the place of expiation for
the souls which, after having been purified by temporary punishment, are
destined for Heaven ; lastly, and nearest to the surface, came the Limbo of
the elect, the temporary abode of the pious dead, from Abel to Christ. In
this latter there was supposed to be no other punishment than that of
expectant captivity. It was thither that the Redeemer descended, while his
body was at rest beneath the stone of the sepulchre, awaiting the moment of
His resurrection. The gracious Saviour hastened to gladden these beloved
* From Dante's "Divine Comedy," p. 15 in the French translation by Artaud de Montor.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 501

spirits with the news that' his blood had washed out upon the cross the
decree that had so long hung upon the children of Abraham, and that they
would soon be permitted to follow Him to the skies, and at last enter into the
heavenly Jerusalem.
The reader has before him the graceful composition in which the painter
has transferred to canvas (Fig. 406) the poem attributed to Venancius For-
tunatus, the Christian poet of, the seventh century. The wall of separation
reared by sin faUs to the ground at the approach of the Saviour ; the very
doors which had held the elect captive serve as a bridge for them to cross the
abyss, and the spirit of evU, trodden under foot by Jesus Christ, is convulsed
with frenzy as he clutches in his grasp the once fatal but now useless key.
The father of the human race ruslies forward with respectful eagerness towards
the new Adam, who bears the victorious standard of the cross ; joy, love, and
gratitude animate the majestic group of the elect, amongst whom are to be
distinguished Eve and St. Joseph upon their knees ; whUe Abel, Noah, Moses,
Aaron, David, Judas Maccabaeus, St. John the Baptist, and others, are to be
recognised either by their emblems or by their garb.
In the gloomy region hard by, whence flames are shooting up, the infernal
spirits are trembling with wonder and awe. A figure in the shadow of an em
brasure opening into purgatory, depicts the consolation and the reUef which
Christ's visit imparts to those souls whose purification is accomplished.
That which the painter here typifies to the eye, the anniversary of
Christ's burial, in the last days of the Holy Week, was brought vividly
to the Christian mind in each recurring year. When the long pro
cession of the people and the clergy wended its way to the sepulchre as the
resurrection morning drew nigh, a pious dialogue was exchanged between
the chanters and the crowd. It was Fortunatus' poem which ftfrnished
the faithful with the beautiful form in which they gave utterance to their
sentiments of faith. Voices repeated : —
" 0 Christ ! Thou art the salvation, the Creator, fuU of goodness, and
the Redeemer of the world. Only-begotten Son of the Father, Author of
the life of the world, Thou didst aUow thyself to be buried ; Thou hast
trodden the pathway of death to give us the blessings of salvation.
" The gates of heU have fallen before their Master, and chaos has been
seized with terror at the inrush of Ught.
" DeUver the imprisoned souls from the captivity of heU, and make to
ascend on high aU those who have gone down into the abyss.

S02 FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
" Thou snatchest from the dungeon of death a teeming host which, when
set free, foUows in the footsteps of its deliverer.
" 0 holy King ! the radiant splendour of Thy. triumph shines forth when
the purified souls emerge from the sacred bath of purgatory. They, resplen
dent in their newly-acquired liberty, array themselves in robes of innocence,
and the Shepherd contemplates with joy His flock, made white as snow."
This divine triumph, which the artist has so vividly depicted, and of
which the poet sings with such enthusiasm, was brought home to every
Christian by the aid of the imagination under the guidance of faith.
Nurtured in the doctrine of the Holy Scriptures, the people had got to be
famihar with the wholesome teaching of St. Paul, when he so eloquently
drew a comparison between the seed sown in "the ground and the corruptible
body of the Christian changed into the incorruptible. All men at that time
steadfastly beUeved in the truth of those sublime words : " The body is
sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption : it is sown in weakness, it is
raised in power : it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."
These thoughts, which softened the sense of sorrow at death in the days
of deep religious faith, have been beautifuUy expressed by the great painter
of the Middle Ages, so fitly named Angelico. In his splendid picture, " The
Last Judgment," the grouping of the elect is a chef-d'oeuvre of Christian art.
The green grass, the flowers springing up on all sides, bring before the mind
the resurrection, and the elevated spiritualism of the faces which are depicted
in this exquisite scene carries the imagination into an ideal world. Man, with
the belief in a life to come, looked on death but as a sleep stealing over the
traveller, wearied with his pilgrimage towards the heavenly country. The
place of burial became the place of sleep (which is the meaning of the word
cemetery). The corruption of the tomb was rendered poetical by comparing
it to the corruption of the seed, which decomposed only to be quickened and
to develop into a verdant stem, branching out into sweet-scented and graceful
flowers. The fear of yielding to the lusts of the flesh drove the faithful into
the extreme rigour of penance, but, when death had dispelled aU danger, the
body became an object of pious worship : it was encompassed with floods of
light and clouds of incense before being committed to the earth, which had
been blessed and consecrated to make it a fitting receptacle for so precious a
deposit — for faith saw in imagination the splendour with which it would one
day be clothed ; and, to help the imagination, art placed before the gaze the.
ineffable visions of the Apocalypse.

Fig. 408.-The Adoration of the Lamb by the Elders and Virgins of the Apocalypse.-Centre Panel of the Triptych painted on wood by Jean Van Eyck
g and preserved in the Church of St. Bavon, at Ghent (Fifteenth Century). . - C» face vage 502.

FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 503
Van Eyck has allegorically treated this great subject of the Resurrection
(Fig. 408), with as much approach to what the Church believes to be the
truth, and perhaps as artistically, as the painter of Fiesole. Amidst a
landscape flooded with Ught, bright with verdure and flowers, the Mystic
Lamb, standing upon an altar and shedding his exhaustless blood into the
chalice, is being greeted with homage and hymns of praise by the celestial
host. Upon the front of the altar is the inscription, " Behold the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sin of the world " (Ecce Agnus Dei, qui toilet
peccata mundi). Around the altar, angels form a circle ; two of them are
scattering incense over the Lamb, while twelve others, six on each side, are
bearing the instruments of the passion, and singing the praises of the Divine
Victim. In front of the altar, in the foreground, bubbles up a fountain,
which, in the language of the Apocalypse, is thus described, "The Lamb
shaU be their shepherd, He shaU lead them to fountains of living water,
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." M. Alfred Michiels,
in his "Histoire de la Peinture- Flamande," declares that "no allegory has
ever been painted with greater skill."
Four groups of worshippers are artisticaUy represented amidst verdure
and flowers. Above, on the left side, the holy martyrs are plainly recognised
by the palms in their hands ; and foremost amongst these stand the popes,
nearly all of whom, in the early ages, sealed with their blood their testimony
to the -divinity of the Lamb. Opposite to them are the countless virgins
who have claimed to be admitted to the mystic marriage ; and below them
stand a host of nuns, popes, and bishops adoring the Celestial Victim, and
celebrating His praises. Upon the other side of the fountain is the not less
numerous phalanx of Old Testament prophets, kings, and Ulustrious men,
whose presence completes the harmonious whole of this admirable composi
tion. The two figures standing out in the midst of this group are supposed
by many critics to represent Virgil and Dante. The white robe, the laurel
crown, and the bough with the golden apples seem, in fact, to point pretty
clearly to Dante'-s guide in purgatory ; but it is difficult to beheve that a
painter, who is in other respects the model of pious orthodoxy, should be
guilty of so gross a breach of propriety.
In the distant horizon, churches with their graceful towers and spires
form a-connecting link between heaven and earth. They seem to remind us
that it is amidst the notes of sacred music and the splendours of reUgious
worship, and, above all, by partaking of the mystic banquet of the Lamb

5°4

FUNERAL CEREMONIES.

invisible but yet present, that the soul, as it receives the earnest of the Ufe
to come, is enraptured with a prelusive ghmpse of the celestial glories.
The dominant idea in this Flemish masterpiece- is but the expression of
those mysterious words which connect the thought of the grave with the vision
of eternal bUss : " Christ is the first-born from the dead," He is our elder
brother in that new life where the bitterness of mourning and the sorrow of
separation are unknown. At the archangel's voice, at the blast of the trumpet,
the dead bodies of those whom we have loved shaU rise radiant from the earth,
within whose bosom they laid in calm repose, awaiting the morning of the
resurrection. They shall appear, having put on glory and immortality, con
formed to the divine image of Christ their divine brother, their Risen Lord.

Fig. 409. — Christ, risen from the dead, bearing in one hand the Palm of Martyrdom, and in the
other the victorious Standard of the Cross. — From a Fresco painted by. Fra Angelico, in the
Monastery of St. Mark, Florence (Fifteenth Century).

PRINTED BY_ VIRTUE AND CO., CITY ROAD, LONDON.

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