The Revolutions, Insurrections, and Conspiracies of Europe

Front matter

THE REVOLUTIONS, INSURRECTIONS, AND CONSPIRACIES OF EUROPE. VOL. I. THE REVOLUTIONS, INSURRECTIONS, AND CONSPIRACIES OF EUROPE. BY W. C. TAYLOR, LL.D. TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN J AUTHOR OF " THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SOCIETY ;" " ROMANTIC BIOGRAPHY OF THE AGE OF ELIZABETH;" &c. Scribere res gestas carptim. — Sallust. VOL. I. LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, Publisher m ©rtouiaqj to fecr KMajesiti). 1843. London : Printed by S. & J. Bentlby, Wilson, anil Fley Baneor House, Shoe Lane. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN GOD, RT CHARD WHAT ELY, D.D. ARCHBISHOP OF DUBLIN AND GLENfiALOUGH, THESE VOLUMES ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED BY HIS OBLIGED, GRATEFUL, AND nUMBLE SERVANT, THE AUTHOR.

Preface

. It has been the writer's object in these volumes to trace out the Revolutions by which modern so ciety was framed out of the ruins of ancient civi lization ; the imperfections which attached to these new systems, and the resistance which these imper fections provoked. M. Girardin justly observes that " the history of the Middle Ages belongs to our selves;" — all the great questions, political and religious, which still divide mankind came into existence during that period of intellectual darkness, but also of great mental activity. All the inferior powers of the mind were engaged in discussing; none of the superior faculties were summoned to decide. Just as a man groping in the dark will lay hold of many objects which he would not ven ture to touch in broad day; so men in an age of ignorance, and ignorant men in all ages, will raise questions of momentous importance, decide them with flippant dogmatism, and claim for their crude guesses the attributes of infallibility.

PREFACE.

. VIII The three great Revolutions which have chiefly generated the social condition of Europe in the Middle Ages appear to have been the political establishment of Christianity ; — the establishment of energetic, though almost barbarous, races as an ascendancy over races enfeebled by corrupt civi lization; — and the struggle for existence which the system resulting from the former causes had to maintain against the rival system of Mohamme danism while yet in the first fire and vigour of its youth. I have endeavoured to present these Revolutions to modern readers with somewhat of the same aspect which they displayed to their con temporaries, and the persons actually engaged in them. For this purpose I have hunted over old chronicles, searched out legends, and studied ballads ; believing it to be important to know, not only how men acted, but how they felt while act ing.

Evil deeds have been done, and will continue to be done, from the best motives ; and we lose no small portion of the benefit of historic example, when we pronounce sentence on a result without bestowing full consideration on its antecedents. In some respects, a legend is not less valuable to a historical student than an authenticated fact. Granted that the legend is not true ; still, men believed it to be true, and they acted on that belief. We cannot beneficially study events independent of concomitant circumstances, and one of the most important circumstances is the real pur-

PREFACE.

. IX pose or intention of those by whom they were effected. That which is unreal to one age or indi dividual, may be, and often is, real to another. It is easy to laugh at the delusion ; but, probably, a future generation may avenge the object of mockery by laughing at us in our turn. The course of investigation pursued points to the conclusion that the papal and feudal systems were hurried compromises to avert anarchy of thought, and anarchy of action ; and that there was little of predeterminate design in the establishment of either. Both became evil and onerous by attempting to render permanent that which was useful only as a temporary expedient : in general, those who cling most tenaciously to power, are those most incapable of using it aright ; and no rulers have more eagerly aspired after perfect despotism, than those who most narrowly escaped from being idiots.

Power was bestowed in the hurry of compromise, which fell into hands unable to wield it alone, and unwilling to share it with others. The abuses of power provoked insurrection : we may dispute, if we please, the amount of the provocation, or the prudence of revolt ; but let us be fully persuaded that there is no such thing as an unprovoked insurrection in history. In the present volumes, attention has been directed to two great revolts, which, though local in their operations, were almost universal in their influence throughout Christendom. Both were directed vol. I. b X

PREFACE.

. against the feudal system : the first was caused by the efforts of the peasantry to escape from per sonal bondage ; the second was a struggle of the mercantile and middle class to obtain commercial freedom. The Jacquerie of France, and the V\ hite hoods of Ghent, were but types of parties which have existed ever since in most European countries : and both mooted many questions which remain undecided at the present day. Conspiracies are of a more isolated character ; and thev, together with such insurrections as do not possess general and enduring interest, but at the same time illustrate great though isolated prin ciples, are reserved for succeeding volumes. The Notes have been desimedlv varied ; it was the author's object to collect such illustrative mat ter as might serve to exhibit social peculiarities of an age or country in a stronger light than direct narrative could afford, and also to impress particular facts on the memorv by pleasurable associations.

The authorities are for the most part quoted ; and, in reference to them, I have to express my obligations to the spirited publisher of an admirable edi tion of Froissart's Chronicles, for having placed that delightful work within the reach of persons of ordinary means. 38, Arlington Street, Camden Town. PAGE 1 45 80 07 144 200 CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME.

Chapter I

The overthrow of Paganism and establishment of Christianity in the Western Empire. — First Epoch : The struggle of Christianity for equality. Fourteen centuries have elapsed since the over throw of Paganism, — its temples are ruins, its al tars have crumbled into dust, and its idols have been broken to pieces ; but, though its physical empire has been destroyed, no small portion of its intellectual supremacy survives, and exercises a powerful influence, not only on the imagination, but the judgment. Its graceful fictions, its social sports, the manners which it formed, the writings which it dictated, and the monuments which it raised, still excite our liveliest sympathies ; and, if we attentively examine certain anomalous usages and superstitious practices still subsisting in vari- VOL. I. B ous Christian communities, we cannot fail to recognize the manifest imprints of a system of polytheism which entered into every detail of public and private life, and moulded every element of human society.

The revolution by which such a system was overthrown, was not the mere sub stitution of one religion for another; the triumph of Christianity over Idolatry was a political, a so cial, and a moral, as well as a religious revolu tion : when it was consummated, it might with truth be said, " Old things are passed away ; be hold, all things have become new." * The im portance of the epoch during which this revolution was effected in ecclesiastical history, has led most writers to confine their attention almost ex clusively to the religious change : the devout Christian and the sneering sceptic have equally limited their attention to the controversy of creeds, and have very faintly intimated that this controversy was in fact but part of a struggle be tween two social systems, neither of which could exist without the total destruction of the other.

If it were desirable, it would be scarcely possible for a believer in Christianity to write the history of this contest with perfect indifference to the issue ; he cannot forget, — and, even if he could, it is very doubtful whether he ought, — that truth was arrayed against falsehood, and a religion of purity against a creed that sanctified * 2 Cor. v. 17. many gross abominations ; but, without exposing himself to the imputation of undervaluing the blessings derived from the triumph of the Gospel, he may do justice to those who were defeated in the contest, afford pity to their errors, and not withhold sympathy from their sufferings. There is nothing gained by recording the struggles of expiring Paganism in a spirit of invective and sarcasm : while recounting the ruin of its temples, the overthrow of its altars, and the dispersion of its pontiffs, it is impossible to forget that for many ages it had exercised commanding influence over large masses of mankind ; that it had formed a state of society which, however imperfect, had afforded scope for the developement of many heroic virtues ; and that it had produced arts, sciences, and a literature by which mankind is still delighted, profited, and instructed.

With these feelings we enter on the examination of Roman polytheism, in order to discover what were the elements both of its strength and of its weak ness when it was brought into collision with Christianity. A very slight comparison between the mytho logies of Greece and Rome will show that the polytheism of the Greeks was essentially poetical, and that of the Romans exclusively political. The gods of the early Greeks were almost all warriors, but the favourite objects of worship among the Romans were the agricultural deities : their B founder, Romulus himself, was one of the twelve priests selected to preside over rural sacrifices ; the rest, according to tradition, being the eleven sons of his nurse, Acca Laurentia.* The god Terminus, originally a shapeless rock, such as in the earlier ages of almost every nation we find men selecting as a type or emblem of the mys terious powers of nature, was one of the most sacred objects of Roman worship ; it consecrated at once the sanctity of boundaries, the rights of property, and the extension of empire.

It is pretty certain, that, before the age of the epic poets, the religion of Greece, like that of the eastern nations, was purely elementary,] that is, founded on the adoration of some object or power of nature ; but these symbolical representations were early dismissed, and the Greek gods became " moral persons.''^ But symbolical worship was retained by the Etruscans, and by them transmit ted to the Romans, a great portion of whose * Festus. f Æschylus alludes to the change in the Greek religion, and insinuates that it was typified by the fable of the wars between the gods and the Titans. % " When we call them moral persons, we do not mean to say that a higher degree of moral purity was attributed to them than humanity can attain ; indeed, the contrary is well enough known : but, rather, that the whole moral nature of man, with its defects and its excellencies, was considered as belong ing to them, but with the additional notions of superior physical force, a more delicately organized system, and a more exalted, if not always a more beautiful form." — Heeren. religion was originally derived from Etruria.* At the rustic festivals in honour of Terminus f the neighbours met together to crown with flowers their common land-mark ; whilst the mysterious stone which was more specially the emblem of the national deity, appeared, by its immovable position in the temple of the Tarpeian Jupiter, to guarantee the eternal duration of Roman victory and success.

A conformity of opinions tending to the same end in different ages and nations, is a very strong proof that both have originated in premeditated design. When we find that the Romans regarded it as a sacrilege to give any retrograde movement to the god Terminus, and that the Turks have ever maintained the same principle in reference to their mosques,:): it is scarcely possible to avoid coming to the conclusion that both races sought security for their empires by representing the pre servation of their conquests as a religious duty. Although the Romans did not adopt so rigid a system of caste as that which prevailed in Etruria, it is evident, from their early history, that they recognized a distinction of races sanctioned by * Several other traces of the worship of stones may be found in Roman polytheism ; for instance, when there was a long drought, a sacred stone, called the Lapis manalis, was paraded through the city with great solemnity. — Festus. -j- The best account of the worship of the god Terminus will be found in the Memoirs of the Academy of Inscriptions, i. 50- X Segred, Hist, de l'Emp.

Ottoman, i. 42. religious institutions, if not based on religious traditions. It was held as immutable law, that plebeians could not " take the auspices ;" that is, perform the most important religious ceremonies : and it was on this ground that the law for allowing intermarriages between the patricians and the ple beians was most strenuously resisted.* The various ecclesiastical corporations were essentially aristo cratic ; and the senate itself acted in a hierarchical character, for it alone could authorize the con sultation of the Sibylline books, and the admission of a new deity into the calendar. The connection between the priesthood and the magistracy in the republic was not so much a union between church and state, as an identification of the church with the ruling powers of the state.

It was the obvious interest of the patricians to give the utmost pro minence to the sacerdotal character of their order, and they effected this by uniting every public act of state with some appropriate religious ceremony. After the third Punic war, the Romans made themselves masters of eastern Europe with a facility which astonished the conquerors, and which left no permanent enmity between them and the vanquished. But, while Rome gained a physical triumph, Greece effected an intellectual conquest : f * " Indignum diis visum honores vulgari, discriminaque gentium confundi." — Liv. v. 4. X " Græcia capta serum victorem cepit, et artes Intulit agrcsti Latio." — Hor. Epist. the arts, the literature, and the very language of Latium was Hellenized ; its religion alone remained national. This partly arose from the Grecian mythology having been amalgamated with the Etruscan ; as, for instance, when Consus was iden tified with Neptune, and Sancus, or Dius Fidius, with Hercules : but it must mainly be attributed to the exertions of the senate, who lost no oppor tunity of recommending to the people the objects of their native worship.

Not content with having deified Romulus, the personified city was itself declared a divinity, and thus piety and patriotism formed in Rome but one sentiment. No other metropolis had a religion so intensely national ; for what foreigners could worship at the Roman altars, to supplicate for the continuance of a power which bowed the whole of the known world beneath its yoke ? The political institutions of the republic owed their entire strength to the religious sanctions with which they were associated, and could not be shaken so long as that veneration continued un impaired. As the revolution in France was, to a great degree, matured by the Encyclopediasts, whom the nobles patronized without foreseeing that scepticism is a foe to all established institutions, so the civil tumults which devastated Italy during the later ages of the republic were in a great degree owing to the spirit of the Grecian philosophy, which cast doubt on everything that polytheism believed, and denounced as scandalous much that polytheism held sacred.

Many of the Roman cultivators of philosophy clearly saw the danger to which their speculations were leading, and frequently urged the necessity of maintaining the national religion as a valuable political institution. The Stoic, Balbus, averred that men ought to con tinue the worship of the gods, because the custom had been handed down from generation to generation : * and Cicero, whose philosophic works con tain many mortal blows against the religion of his country, declared that it was the duty of a wise man to remain faithful to the institutions and ceremonies which antiquity had consecrated ; f and that it was necessary to maintain religion, for the purpose of restraining the people, and preserving the constitution.^: It was a fatal error committed by many, both of the French and the Roman aristocracy, to suppose that the influence of religion can be main tained over the populace when it is ostentatiously neglected by the upper classes.

Some ambitious aspirant of their own order is sure to betray the secret, and to make it the foundation of his own personal greatness. A Mirabeau, or a Gracchus, can always find excuses for deserting his order, and exposing the fallacy of the pretensions on which its privileges are founded. The successive * Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 28. f Id. de Divin. ii. 72. X Id. ib. ii. 33. revolutions of France, and the civil wars of Rome, had a like termination ; both ended in the establishment of imperial power, which was speedily followed by the restoration of the ancient worship. Never did any religious system seem more devoted to speedy ruin than Roman polytheism during the last century of the republic; it was assailed not merely by the corrupt and daring spirits to which every species of restraint is odious, but by men of rank, intelligence, and high moral character ; on the contrary, infidelity had for its organs and apologists those citizens whom their social position and rare talents called to the defence of everything that was useful and honourable in the country.

Even the most conservative of Roman statesmen* openly avowed his contempt for the ancient ritual, declaring that he was astonished how one augur could look in the face of another without laughing. When the opinions on which the civil and religious constitution of the republic rested were thus shaken to their foundation, it seemed as if the storm of civil commotion Avould hurl them to ruin ; but, by an unexampled series of events, the greatest political convulsion that ever rent a state in sunder termi nated in re-establishing the ancient institutions of * Cicero, de Div. — The sentiments of Benjamin Coustant on this subject are worthy of attention : " We know that the beau ideal of certain statesmen, but this flattering chimera can never be realised ; they count too much upon our good-nature when they expect us long to believe that which our rulers discredit." — Du Polytheisme Romaiu, liv. xn. ch. Rome in their pristine strength and with more than their former security.

The cause of this great and unparalleled result is to be found in the condition of human society during the later ages of the republic. The great defect of the republican constitution was a definite organization of the central power. The an nual election of the supreme magistrates, the ill defined privileges of the senate, the anomalous position of the tribunes, and the direct interven tion of the entire people in the enactment of laws, were elements of confusion which could never, without some external compression, settle down into an organic constitution. Annual sovereigns, and universal suffrage, were, in fact, no thing better than yearly strife and general dissatisfaction. Every citizen, whether he belonged to the aristocratic or the democratic faction, per fectly comprehended the weakness of the ancient institutions, and saw the necessity of having a permanent power established somewhere.

Even Lucan, the devoted eulogist of republican usages, declares that the consular government had be come an intolerable nuisance : " The shameful magistrates were made for gold, And a base people by themselves were sold ; Hence slaughter in the venal field returns, And Rome her yearly competition mourns."* * Pharsalia, i. Never did any change less deserve the name of revolution than that by which the empire of the Cæsars was established. All the ancient traditions of the country were restored to their former ascendancy ; none of the old republican institu tions were abolished, save those which had be come a permanent cause of confusion. Such was the efficacy of this new organization of the sove reign power, that all the social elements, and religion itself, resumed their ancient influence as if by a miracle.

The bonds which had united polytheism with the state were drawn tighter; and Augustus, to point out the renewal of this alli ance, joined the pontificate to the imperial dignity, and erected the altar of Victory in the se nate-house. This was assuredly a more beneficial result than if Inevitable Destiny had been substituted for all the gods by the stoicism of Brutus, or Impiety raised to the rank of religion by the Epicurean philosophy of Cassius. An attentive study of the two first centuries of the empire is calculated to excite surprise at the ease with which Roman polytheism resumed the enjoyment of all its ancient prerogatives. It re appeared everywhere powerful and venerated ; its oracles, so long silent, resumed their voice and were heard with respect ; crowds began to flock to the deserted temples, the blood of victims streamed upon the neglected altars, and clouds of incense began once more to ascend to heaven.

The soldiers marched to battle with the symbols of their deities displayed on their banners, the senate deliberated in the presence of the national palladium, and the highest ambition of most of the provinces was to have their ancient deities recognized as citizens of the Roman pantheon. It would seem as if polytheism sought to strengthen itself against any new dangers by courting the alliance of foreign superstitions and barbaric rituals, all of which were collected round imperial majesty as their centre, while that ma jesty itself was invested with the attributes of deity. We have already seen that Roman polytheism was a political system intimately blended with the preservation of the ascendancy and privileges of the patrician aristocracy. Of that aristocracy the emperor was the recognized head, and therefore every care was taken to represent him not merely as the associate of their gods, but as their living representative on earth, and almost the incarnation of the national religion.

Thus, the oath " By the safety and genius of the emperor !" instituted by a solemn vote of the senate after the murder of Julius Cæsar,* was held more strict and sacred than those oaths in which the names of the dei ties were invoked. Caligula considered the refusal or omission of an oath " by his genius" as an overt act of treason, and punished it accord- * Dio, lib. ingly ; "* and one of the most affecting pages of ecclesiastical history records, that the life of the venerable Polycarp would have been spared if he had consented to swear " by the fortunes of the emperor." f Rome was the metropolis of the polytheism as well as of the government of the empire.

The nations of Western Europe, in particular, regarded Rome as a sacred city, the sanctuary of their hopes, and the point to which all their aspirations should be directed ; whilst the Greeks, with their usual exaggeration, declared that the ground on which it stood was a portion, not of earth, but heaven.} The wealthy aristocracy, invested with numerous pontifical dignities, and leading in its train a crowd of clients and freedmen, dazzled the popular imagination by the gorgeous magnificence of its religious solemnities, and, at the same time, gratified the populace by largesses of corn and shows of gladiators. § Those games of the circus, those sanguinary exhibitions of the amphitheatre, * Sueton., Vita Calig. xxvii. — On the same principle, Henry VIII. condemned Sir Thomas More to death for refusing the oath of supremacy. ■j- This extravagant adulation survived the overthrow of polytheism, for in the council of Ephesus we find that an oath was taken, " By the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, and by the Piety and Victory of the two masters of the world, Flavius Theodosius, and Flavius Valentianus, the emperors." — Cotel.

Patr. Apost. ii. X Libanii Epistolæ, 1083. § " Idololatria, ludorum omnium mater." — St. Cyprian. and those splendid processions, which afforded such delight to the idle and profligate commonalty of Rome, were not only connected with poly theism, but formed an essential part of its ritual ; so that the established religion was the source of pride and power to the nobles, of amusement and sustenance to the people. So long as the emperors remained at the head of the patrician aristocracy, it was their obvious interest to maintain all the prejudices by which the privileges of that body were supported : but when the armies ostentatiously set aside the authority of the senate, and raised their generals to the purple, they dispensed with those religious ceremonies which the senate alone could authorise ; and the subsequent ritual of installation, accorded to victory, was regarded as a mere form, and as such was sometimes neglected.

Polytheism, thus stripped of its political importance, lost the chief element of its vitality, for it had no moral principle on which it could draw for new aliment ; it became nothing more than the external official religion of the Roman empire. Its temples, its pontiffs, and its emblems, — the errors, the customs, and the habits they had created, existed everywhere, but faith was nowhere. The creed of paganism could never have had any hold on the reason, and its fabulous traditions be came wearisome to the imagination. In the ab sence of a definite creed, a taste was formed for the most absurd and degrading superstitious practices ; entire classes of society were impelled by this insane taste, not merely to the most ridiculous actions, but the most abominable crimes, until the insanity of magic was almost the only remaining proof that religion had once been powerful amongst the Romans.

The polytheism of Western Europe was iden tified with a special locality: so long as Rome remained the metropolis of the empire, the gods of the Capitol were able to defy all competition ; every act of administration was performed in their presence, and sanctioned by their names ; but when the imperial majesty was dissevered from the Ro man aristocracy, and placed at the head of a military despotism, to which all localities were indif ferent, and when Rome ceased to be the centre from whence all legislation flowed, and to which all aspirations were directed, the roots of polytheism were cut away, and, as Lucan says of Pompey, its own weight alone sustained the sapless trunk.* * Lucan's description of Pompey is so applicable to the state of Roman polytheism, that we cannot forbear quoting the passage from Rowe's imperfect translation : " Still seem'd he to possess and fill his place, But stood the shadow of what once he was.

So in the field with Ceres' bounty spread Uprears some ancient oak his reverend head ; Chaplets and sacred gifts his brows adorn, And spoils of war by mighty heroes worn. But, the first vigour of his root now gone, He stands dependent on his weight alone ; From the moment that Dioclesian revealed his intention of removing the metropolis of the empire to some more eastern country, the rival of Roman polytheism might fairly have calculated on having an ally. Passing over the Divine origin of Christianity, which comes not within the scope of the present inquiry, we must now examine the history of its growth as a political antagonist to polytheism in the Roman empire. About thirty-three years after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Nero, according to the common report of historians, set fire to the city of Rome, secretly intending to rebuild it with greater magnificence.

Terrified, however, by the burst of popular indignation which such an act of wanton destruction occasioned, he cast his eyes round for an object on which he might conveniently direct the public fury. A new sect is always an object of suspicion, and the Christians therefore naturally presented themselves to his unprincipled mind as precisely the objects he wanted. On them, there fore, the guilt was charged ; they were burned as All bare his naked branches are display'd, And with his leafless trunk he forms a shade ; Yet though the winds his ruin daily threat, As every blast would heave him from his seat ; Though thousand fairer trees the field supplies, That rich in youthful verdure round him rise ; F'ix'd in his ancient state, he yields to none, And wears the honours of the grove alone." Pharsalia, i. public spectacles of amusement, and the ingenuity displayed in aiding the scenic effect of these hor rible exhibitions was more unnatural and inhuman than the most brutal acts of malevolence.

The senate and Roman people applauded this persecu tion, not because they believed one syllable of the imputed charge, but because they were persuaded that the Christians were animated by " hatred of the human race."* The testimony of Tacitus is express that this persecution was based on the charge of " enmity to the human race," and we cannot long be at a loss to discover the grounds of this odious accusa tion. Polytheism, as we have shown, was so inter woven with every part of public and domestic life in Rome, that, the moment a man professed himself a Christian, he was inevitably placed in hostility with all the laws, institutions, and customs of his country. Imperial majesty was deified, but the Christian's loyalty could not extend to impious adulation ; and, though " he rendered unto Cæsar the things which were Cæsar's," he could not give all which public law and custom entitled the Cæsar to demand, — he could take no part in the public sacrifices periodically offered to ensure the continuance of Roman glory, nor share in the games by which such festivals were celebrated.