An Universal History, from the creation of the world, to the time of Charlemagne. From the French ... A new translation

Front matter

AN UNIVERSAL HISTORY, FROM THK CREATION OF THE WORLD, TO THE TIME OF CHARLEMAGNE. FnOM TJ1E FRENCH 0» M. BOSSUET, PRECEPTOR TO THE DAUPHIN, AND. BISHOP OF MEAUX. A NEW TRANSLATION. JLottfJOtr. PRINTED FOR SAMUEL BAGSTER IN THE STRAND. MercierandChervet, Printers, No. 31, Little Bartholomew Cl«se, London, MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. Jacques Benigne Bossuet was born Sep tember 27, 1627, of respectable parents at Dijon, the capital of Burgundy, and now of the depart ment of the Cote d'Or. He received his first instructions at the College of Jesuits in that city, where he gave early proofs of superior talents. Being intended for the Church, he was sent to Paris in 1642, to finish his studies at the College of Navarre. After completing his theo logical course, he received the degree of Doctor of the Sorbonne in 1652, and immediately removed to Metz, where he was first appointed Canon of the Church, afterward Archdeacon, and at length Dean.

Here he acquitted himself with great credit, and appears to have devoted himself to his clerical duties without any en deavours to obtain preferment He laboured a MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR. assiduously in the instruction of his flock, and though both learned and eloquent, was studious to accommodate his discourses to the capa cities of his hearers. He was at length invited to Paris, and preached before the king-, and obtained in 1669, without any solicitation, the bishoprick of Condom. But being ap pointed in 1670, Preceptor to the Dauphin, he resigned his bishoprick, that he might devote himself more entirely to that important office. When he had completed the education of the Prince, Lewis XIV. advanced him, as a re compence for his attention and fidelity, to the see of Meau,x. He was also made a Counsellor of State, and first Almor.er to the Duchess of Burgundy.

These offices he held till the 12th April 1704, on which day he died at Paris, in the 76th year of his age. He wrote much ; but his works are chiefly polemical. He took great part in the disputes which were carried on with the Protestants, although he was no advocate for the infallibi lity of the Pope, or his power of deposing kings ; both which pretensions he zealously opposed, and refused the Cardinal's hat, which was offered him by Pope Innocent XI. as an inducement for him to remain silent upon those subjects. MEMOIR OF THB AUTHOR. V His Funeral Orations have been much admired. They are certainly able compositions; and some of them record the praises of worthy and excellent characters; but it is painful to observe so much eloquence wasted on so un worthy an individual as the crafty and implacable Le Tellier.

Part I

First Epoch — Adam, or the Creation ... 7 Second Epoch — Noah, or the Deluge . . .10 Third Epoch — The calling of Abraham ... 13 Fourth Epoch — Moses, or the written Law 17 Fifth Epoch — the taking of Troy .... 21 Sixth Epoch — Solomon, or the Completion of the Temple 23 Seventh Epoch — Romulus, or Rome founded 30 Eighth Epoch — Cyrus, or the Jews restored 48 Ninth Epoch — Scipio, or the Conquest of Carthage - 76 Tenth Epoch — The Birth of Jesus Christ ... 92 Eleventh Epoch — Constantine, or the Peace of the Church - - - - - - -114 Twelfth Epoch — Charlemagne, or the Establishment of the New Empire . .... 152

Part II

The Progress of Religion. 1. The Creation and First Times - 157 2. Abraham and the Patriarchs - - - . 178 3. Moses, the written Law, and the Introduction of the People into the promised Land . - 189 4. David, the Kings, and the Prophets ... 210 5. The Times of the Second Temple - - - 246 6. Jesus Christ and his Doctrine .... 266 7. The Descent of the Holy Ghost, the Establishment of the Church: the Judgments of God upon the Jews and Gentile* ..... CONTENTS. XII Pag« 8. Particular Reflections on the Punishment of the Jews, and on the Predictions of Jesus Christ - 316 9. The memorable Predictions of our Lord explained, and their accomplishment evinced from His. - 330 tory . . - 10. The series of the Jews errors, and the way they explain the Prophecies - - - - 345 11. Particular Reflections on the Conversion of the Gentiles.

The profound Counsel of God, who was pleased to convert them by the Cross of Christ. St. Paul's n soning on this manner of converting them ------ 367 12. Differentforms of Idolatry; the Senses, Interest, Ignorance, a false Veneration for Antiquity, Policy, Philosophy, and Heresies come to its aid : the Church triumphs over all ... 377 13. General Reflections on the constant Progress of Religion, and the connection there is between the Books of Scripture 402

Part III

The Progression of Empiresi 1. The Revolutions of Empires are ordered by Providence, and serve to humble the Spirit of Princes .... - - - - - 437 2. The Revolutions of Empires have particular causes, ..which Princes ought to study ... 441 3. The Scythians, Ethiopians, and Egyptians - - 447 *. The old and new Assyrians, the Medes, and Cyrus 475 5. The Persians, Grecians, and Alexander . - 483 6. The Roman Empire ..... 504 7. The Progress of the Revolutions in Rome explained AN UNIVERSAL HISTORY.

Introduction

. TO THE DAUPHIN. IF history were of no use to other men, it ought to be made the study of princes. There is no mean so capable of discovering to them what passions and interests, times and conjunctures, and good and evil counsels may effect. History is entirely composed of such actions as they are engaged in, and every thing in it seems to be made for their use. If experience is necessary for them to acquire that prudence which enables them to govern well, there is nothing more conducive to their instruction, than joining their own daily experience to the examples of past ages. They usually learn only at the hazard of their subjects, and of their own glory, to judge of the critical affairs that come before them ; but by the aid of history they can form their judgment on past events, without any risk. When they B

INTRODUCTION.

. see the most secret vices of princes exposed to the view of all mankind, notwithstanding the false praises bestowed on them in their life-time, they feel ashamed of the vain delight which flattery gives them, and are convinced that true glory can only con sist with merit. Moreover, it would be shameful, not merely for a prince, but for any gentleman, to be unacquainted with mankind, and with those memorable changes which the course of time has produced in the world. If we do not learn from history to distinguish times, we shall represent men under the law of nature, or under the written law, such as they are under the law of the Gos pel. We shall speak of the Persians who were conquered under Alexander, as of the Persians who were victorious under Cyrus ; we shall represent Greece as equally free in the days, of Philip, and in those of The mistocles, or Miltiades; the Roman people as high-spirited under the emperors, as under the consuls ; the church as tranquil under D'oclesian, as under Constantine: and France, when torn with civil wars in the time of Charles IX. and Henry III. to be as powerful as in the time of Lewis XIV. when, united under so great a monarch, she triumphs alone over the whole of Europe.

It was, Sir, to avoid these inconveniencies, that you have read so many ancient and mo dern histories. It was, above all, necessary to make you read in scripture the history of the people of God, which is the foundation of religion. You have not been left igno-

INTRODUCTION.

. 3 rant of the Grecian, nor of the Roman his tory ; and, what was to you of still greater importance, you have been carefully in structed in the history of that kingdom, which you are bound to render happy. But lest these histories, and those you have yet to learn, should be confused in your mind, there is nothing more necessary than to set before you, in a distinct but concise man ner, the series of all ages. This plan of universal history, is to the histories of each country and people, what a general map is to particular ones. In particular maps you see the whole detail of a kingdom, or province, in itself; in general maps you learn the situation of those parts in the world as a whole ; you see what Paris, or the isle of France, is in the kingdom, what the kingdom is in Europe, and what Europe is in the World.

Just so particular histories represent the series of events, that have happened to a people in all their detail; but in order to understand the whole, we must know the relation each history bears to the rest: which can only be done by an abridgment, in which we see, as it were with one glance, the whole order of time. Such an abridgment, Sir, exhibits a noble spectacle to your view. You see all preceding ages unfold themselves, so to speak, in a few hours before you: you see how one empire succeeds another, and how religion, in its various states, supports itself equally from the beginning of the world to our own davs. B2

INTRODUCTION.

. 4 It is the progress of these two things, I mean that of religion, and that of empires, that you ought to imprint upon your me mory ; and as religion and political govern ment are the two points on which all hu man affairs revolve, to see whatever con cerns those points summed up in an epi tome, and by this mean to discover the whole order and progression of them, is to comprize in thought all that is great among men, and to hold, so to say, the thread of all the affairs of the world. As then in examining a general map, you leave the country where you are born, and the place that bounds you, to roam over the whole habitable earth, which you grasp in thought, with all its seas and countries; so in considering a chronologi cal epitome, you quit the narrow bounds of your own time, and reach forth into all ages.

But as, to help the memory in the know ledge of places, we mark certain principal cities, around which we place others, each at its proper distance ; so in the order of ages, we must have certain times distinguished by some great event, to which we may refer all the rest. This is what is called an Epoch, from a Greek word which signifies to stop; be cause we stop there, as at a resting-place, to consider all that happened before and after, and by this means to avoid anachronisms, or that sort of error which creates a confusion of times. We must first confine ourselves to a few

INTRODUCTION.

. epochs, such as are in the times of ancient history; those of Adam, or the creation; Noah, or the deluge ; the calling of Abra ham, or the beginning of God's covenant with men; Moses, or the written law; the taking of Troy; Solomon, or the foundation of tbe temple; Romulus, or the building of Rome; Cyrus, or the deliverance of the people of God from the Babylonish captivity; Scipio, or the conquest of Car thage ; the birth of Jesus Christ ; Constan tine, or the peace of the church; Charle magne, or the establishment of the new em pire. I give you this establishment of the new empire under Charlemagne, as the end of ancient history, because there you will see the ancient Roman empire totally at an end. It is for this reason I shall detain you at so considerable a period of universal his tory.

The continuation of it shall be laid before you in a second part, which will bring you down to the age we see adorned by the immortal actions of your royal father, and which, from the ardor you show to follow so great an example, has reason to expect additional lustre. Having thus exj. lained to you in general the design of this work, I have three things to do in order to make its usefulness answer my expectation. I must first run over with you the epochs which I have enumerated, and by pointing out to you, in few words, the principal events, which ought to be annexed to each of them, accustom your mind to arrange B3

INTRODUCTION.

. those events in their places, without regard to any thing but the order of time. But as my principal intention is to make you observe in this progression of times, that of religion, and that of great empires ; after carrying on together, according to the course of years, the facts which regard those topics, I shall resume in particular, with the necessary reflections, first, those which set forth to us the perpetual duration of religion ; and, lastly, those which discover to us the causes of the great revolutions that have befallen empires. Then, whatever part of ancient history you read, all will turn out to your advantage. No fact will pass, of which you do not perceive the consequences. You will admire the train of God's counsels in the concerns of religion; you will likewise see the concatenation of human affairs, and will thus be made sensible, with what re flection and foresight they ought to be go^ verned. A. m. B. c 1 4004 UNIVERSAL HISTORY.

Part I

/. Epoch. Adam, or the Creation. JL HE first epoch immediately presents to you a magnificent spectacle ; God creating the heavens and the earth by his word, and making man after his own image. With this Moses begins; the most ancient of historians, the most sublime of philosophers, and the wisest of legislators. He lays this as the foundation of his history, of his doctrine, and of his laws. He then shows us all men contained in one man, and his wife herself extracted from him ; matrimonial union and the society of mankind established upon this foundation; the perfection and power of man, so far as he bears the image of God in his first estate; his dominion over animals; his innocence, together with his felicity in paradise, the memory of which is preserved in the golden age of the poets; the divine in junction given to our first parents; the malice of the tempting spirit, and his appearance under the form of a serpent; the fall of Adam and Eve, fatal to all their posterity; the first man justly punished in all his children, and the human race under the curse of God; the first promise of redemption, and the future victory of men over the devil who had undone them.

B 9b7 1536 1056 The earth begins to be silled, and wick edness increases*. Cain, the first child of Adam and Eve, shows the new world the first tragical action; and from that time virtue begins to be persecuted by vice. There we see the contrary manners of the two brothers; the innocence of Abel; his pastoral life, and his offerings accepted ; those of Cain rejected, his avarice, his im piety, his fratricide, and jealousy — the parent of murders; the punishment of that crime, the conscience of the murderer racked with continual terrors; the first city built by this miscreant, who sought an Asylum from the hatred and horror of mankind; the inven tion of some of the arts by his children; the tyranny of the passions, and the prodigious depravity of man's heart, ever in clined to evil ; the posterity of Seth, faithful to God, notwithstanding that depravity; the pious Enoch, miraculously taken from the world, which was not worthy of him ; the distinction of the children of God from the children of men ; that is, of those who lived after the spirit, from those who lived after the flesh ; their intermixture, and the universal corruption of the world; the de struction of men decreed by a just judgment of God ; his wrath denounced against sin ners by his servant Noah ; their impenitence and hardness of heart punished at last by the deluge; Noah and his family reserved for the restoration of mankind.

B. C 3875 3017 2468 This is the sum of what passed in 1656 years; and such is the beginning of all his- 2348 * Genesis 4. B. C. 1656 2348 tories, wherein are displayed the omnipo tence, wisdom and goodness of God : innocence happy under his protection ; his jus tice in avenging crimes, and at the same time his patience in waiting for the conver sion of sinners; the greatness and dignity of man in his primitive state; the temper of mankind after their corruption; the na ture of jealousy, and the secret causes of violences and wars ; and, in a word, all the foundations of religion and morality. With mankind Noah preserved the arts, both those which are essential to human life, and which men knew from their original, and those which they had afterward in vented. The first arts which men learned immediately, and probably from their creator, were agriculture*, the pastoral art, that of clothing, and, perhaps, of building houses.

And indeed, do we not trace the commencement of these arts from those places of the East from whence mankind were first propagated? j- A tradition of the universal deluge is found all over the earth. The ark, wherein the remnant of mankind was saved, has in all ages been celebrated in the East, particularly in those places where it rested after the deluge. Many other circumstances of that famous history are to be found marked in the * Gen. ii. 15. iii. 17. 21. iv. 2. f Beros. Chald. Hist. Ch. Hieron. Ægypt. Phœn. Hist. Mnas. Nie. Damasc. 1. xevi, Abyd. de Med. & AsSyr. Ap. Jos. Antiq. 1. i. c. 4. & I. i. cont. Apion. & Eus. 1. ix. Præp. Ev. c. II, 12. Plut. Opusc. Plusne Solert. terr. an a<juat. Lucian de D. Syr. A.M 1656 1656 1637 1757 B.C. annals and traditions of ancient nations; the HwT dates agree, and every thing corresponds as much as could be expected in so remote a period of antiquity. 77.

Epoch. Noah, or the Deluge. Near the deluge are to be ranged the shortening of the life of man, — the alteration of diet, and a new food substituted instead of the fruits of the earth ; some oral precepts delivered to Noah; the confusion of languages at the tower of Babel,— the first monument of the pride and weakness of men ; the portion of the three sons of Noah, and the first distribution of lands. The memory of those three first fathers of nations and people has still been pre served amongst men. Japhet, who peopled the greatest part of the western world, has been celebrated there under the well-known name of Japetus. Ham, and his son Ca naan, have been no less noted amongst the Egyptians and Phœnicians; and the memory of Shem has always been perpetuated with the Hebrew people, who are descended from him. 2348 2347 2247 A little after this first division of mankind, Nimrod, a ferocious man, through the violence of his disposition became the first con querer: such is the origin of conquests*.

He established his kingdom at Babylon, in the same place where the tower was begun, and * Gen. x. 9, 10. 12. had already been raised to a great height, though not so high as the vanity of man had desired. About the same time Nineveh was built, and some ancient kingdoms es tablished. They were but small in those early times, for in Egypt alone we find four Dynasties or Principalities, those of Thebes, Thin, Memphis, and Tanis; the last was the capital of Lower Egypt. To this time we may also refer the commencement of the laws and polity of the Egyptians, that of their pyramids, which yet subsist, and that of the astronomical observations, both of this people and of the Chaldeans. vVc may also trace up to this time, and no higher, the observations which the Chaldeans, who were, without dispute, the first observers of the stars, gave in Babylon to Calisthenes for Aristotle*.

A.M. B.C. 1757 22*7 1771 2233 Every thing has a beginning. There is no ancient history in which there do not appear, not only in those early ages, but, long after, manifest vestiges of the newness of the world. We see laws established, manners polished, and empires formed. Mankind by degrees get out of their ignorance, experience in structs them, and the arts are invented or perfected. In proportion as men multiply the earth is peopled from place to place; they pass mountains and precipices ; they cross rivers, and at length seas, and establish new habitations. The earth, which at the beginning was only an immense forest, takes now another form; the woods cut * Porphyr. ap. Simp. lib. ii. de Ccelo. A. M. B. c. down make room for fields, pastures, hammi 2233 lets, towns, and at length for cities.

Men learn to catch certain animals, to tame others, and to accustom them to service. At first they had to encounter wild beasts. The first heroes signalized themselves in these wars : they occasioned the invention of arms, which men turned afterwards against one another*. Nimrod, the first warrior, and the first conqueror, is called in scripture a mighty hunter. With animals,- man learned also to ameliorate fruits and plants; he bent even the metals to his use, and gradually made all nature subservient to it. As it was natural that time should cause many things to be invented, it must also cause others to be forgotten, at least by the greater part of mankind. The first arts, which Noah had preserved, and which we find always flourishing in the countries where mankind was first established, were lost as they removed from thence.

So that they must either have been learned anew in process of time; or those who had preserved them, must have carried them again to the rest. Hence we see every thing derived from those countries that were always inhabited, where the principles of the arts remained entire, and where many important things were daily discovered. There the knowledge of God and the remembrance of the creation were preserved, but this gradually decayed. The ancient traditions were forgotten, and fell into obscurity; the * Gen. x. 9. fables which succeeded them, retained only a.m. b. c. gross ideas of them ; false deities were mul- 1771 223* tiplied; and this gave occasion to the calling of Abraham. III. Epoch. The Calling of Abraham. FOUR hundred and twenty-six years after the deluge, when men walked every one in his own way, and forgot him who made them, the great God, to stop the progress of so great an evil, in the midst of corruption begun to set apart a chosen people for himself.

Abraham was made choice of to be the stock and father of all believers. God called him into the land of Canaan, where he intended to establish his worship, and to settle the children of that patriarch, whom he had resolved to multiply as the stars of heaven, and as the sand of the sea. To the promise he made him of giving that land to his offspring, he added somewhat far more glorious, and this was that great blessing which was to be extended to all the nations of the world in Jesus Christ, who was to issue from his posterity. It is Jesus Christ whom Abraham honoured in the person of the high-priest Melchisedec*, who repre sents him; it is to him he pays the tithe of the spoil he had won from the vanquished kings; and it is by him he is blessed. . Though possessed of immense riches, and of a power which equalled that of kings, Abraham pre- 2083 1921 * Heb.

A.M. B. C 2083 1921 2143 1856 S45 1759 served the primitive manners; he led al ways a plain and pastoral life, which, how ever, was not without magnificence; which that patriarch principally showed by exer cising hospitality to all men. Heaven furnished him with guests; angels imparted to him the counsels of God ; he believed them, and in every thing showed himself full of faith and of piety. In his time Inachus, the most ancient of all the kings acknowledged by the Greeks, founded the kingdom of Argos. After Abraham we find Isaac his son, and Jacob his grand-son, imitators of his faith and simplicity in the same pastoral life. God repeats to them also the same promises he had made to their father, and con ducts them, as he had done him, in all things. Isaac blesses Jacob, to the preju dice of Esau his elder brother, and though deceived in appearance, he in effect exe cutes the counsels of God.

Jacob, whom God protected, in every thing excelled Esau. An angel, with whom he had a mysterious wrestling, gave him the name of Israel, whence his children are called Israelites. To him were born the twelve patriarchs, fathers of the twelve tribes of the Hebrew people; among others Levi, from whom were to proceed the ministers in sacred things; Judah, from whom was to spring, together with the royal race, Christ the King of kings, and Lord of lords; and Joseph, whom Jacob loved above all his other chil dren. There new secrets of divine providence are disclosed. We see first of all the innocence and wisdom of young Joseph, ever an enemy to vice, and careful to repress a.m. b. c it in his brethren; his mysterious and prowe v?5» phetical dreams; his brethren jealous, and jealousy a second time the cause of a par ricide ; the slavery of this great man ; the 2276 172* fidelity he observes to his master, and his ad mirable chastity ; the persecutions it draws 2287 1 upon him ; his imprisonment and constancy; his predictions; his miraculous deliverance; the famous interpretation of Pharaoh's 2289 1 dreams; the merit of so great a man ac knowledged; his exalted and upright genius, and the protection of God, who gives him rule wherever he is ; his foresight, his wise W9S ,7M counsels, and absolute power in the kingdom of Lower Egypt; by which he was the pre servation of his father Jacob and his family.

That family favoured by God is thus settled in that part of Egypt whereof Tanis was the capital, and whose kings all took the name of Pharaoh. Jacob dies, and a little 2315 1M» before his death he makes that celebrated prophecy, in which, discovering to his chil dren the state of their posterity, he points out particularly to Judah the time of the Messiah, who was to spring from his race. The family of that patriarch in a little time becomes a great nation; this prodigious multiplication excites the jealousy of the Egyptians; the Hebrews are unjustly hated, and unmercifully persecuted : God raises up Moses their deliverer, whom he saves from 2433 1 the waters of the Nile, and makes him fall into the hands of Pharaoh's daughter: she brings him up as her own son, and causes him to be instructed in all the wisdom of A lm.

B.c^the Egyptians. In those days the people 2433 157A of Egypt settled in divers parts of Greece. 2448 use The colony which Cecrops brought from Egypt built twelve cities, or rather twelve towns, of which he composed the kingdom of Athens, where he established the gods and the laws of his country*. A little after happened Deaucalion's deluge in Thessaly, confounded by the Greeks with the universal flood. Hellen, the son of Deucalion, reigned in Phthia, a country of Thessaly, and gave his Name to Greece. His people, before called Greeks, took after the name of Hellenes, though the Latins have preserved their ancient name. About the same time Cadmus, the son of Agenor, carried a colony of Phœnicians into Greece, and founded the city of Thebes in Boeotia. The gods of Syria and Phœnicia came into Greece with him.

In the mean time Moses was ?473 1531 growing up. When forty years old, he despised the riches of the court of Egypt ; and, touched with the afflictions of his brethren the Israelites, he endangered him self for their relief. But so far were they from taking the benefit of his zeal and courage, that they exposed him to the rage of Pharaoh, who resolved on his ruin. Moses fled out of Egypt into Arabia, to the land of Midian, where his virtue, ever ready to succour the oppressed, found him a secure retreat. This great man losing the hope of delivering his people, or waiting for a better opportunity, had spent forty years in feeding * Mann. Arund. seu Æra Att. C the flocks of Jethro his father-in-law, when A. M. B. ( he saw the burning bush in the desert, and 2513 1491 heard the voice of the God of his fathers, who sent him back into Egypt to bring his brethren out of bondage.

Then appear the humility, the courage, and the miracles of that divine lawgiver ; the hardness of Pha raoh's heart, and the terrible chastisements God sends upon him ; the passover, and next day the passage of the Red Sea ; Pha raoh and the Egyptians buried in the wa ters, and the complete deliverance of the Is raelites. IV. Epoch. Moses, or the zvritteit Law. HERE begin the times of the written law. It was given to Moses 430 years after the calling of Abraham, 856 years after the deluge, and in the same year that the He brew people came out of Egypt. This date is remarkable, being made use of to 1401 denominate all the time from Moses to Jesus Christ. All that time is called the time of the written law, to distinguish it from the preceding, called the time of the law of nature, wherein men had nothing to direct them but natural reason, and the traditions of their ancestors.