... A history of modern Europe

Front matter

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Contents

CHAPTER

I. — The modern nations II. — The Renaissance III. — The Reformation IV. — Wars of religion V. — Commerce .

VI. — The supremacy of France VII. — The eighteenth century VIII — The French Revolution IX. — Napoleon Bonaparte X. — The Restoration XI. — France since 1830 XII. — The German Empire .

CHAPTER I The Modern Nations

§ 1. France

1^0 sharp line of division separates the Middle Ages from modern times. The beginnings of the modern era, as distinguished from the medieval, must be The modem sought far back in the general political dis-

order of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. /The modern spirit is, however, none the less real because its beginnings are so closely interwoven with the declining medieval institutions."^ The ideas to which it gives rise, as they gradually free themselves from the grasp of feudalism and ecclesiastical control, struggle forward to become those typical features of modern life, the development and perfection of which have been the task of western civilization up to the present time.

One of the distinctive features of the new times is the

modern idea of government. In feudal times the sovereign

was little more than an over-lord, the great-

5i™ ... est noble of the realm. His contact with

government.

his subjects was not immediate, but only

through the medium of his feudal barons. The task of

the new movement, the transition from feudal to modern

government, was the substitution of a uniform central

administration for the numerous little states, independent

in fact, even though subject to the king in feudal theory ;

3 1 a gathering together into one hand of the scattered forces of the kingdom. That the establishment of this later form of government was at the expense of fendalism is evident ; so that the rise of the modern state, the establishment of a central power, is coincident with the decline of the feudal system.

Modern government includes among others two great

functions : the right of administering justice; and the

right of levying taxes. In his gradual asser-

The Mng's ^.j^^-^ ^f |-]-^q right of iustice the king was

justice, . ° •' . °

greatly assisted by the legists, a body of men,

chiefly of the middle class, who devoted themselves to the study of law. These men were the product of the revival

of interest in the Roman Law, which began in the twelfth century at Bologna. This study spread into France, and furnished men trained in the principles of a legal system, who, on account of their ability to solve the difficult problems of justice in accordance with equity and with the authority of a written law, soon became the necessary agents of the king.

The principles of the Ro- .\f'GS"bO(\JvTlc> man Law were opposed to the principles of feudalism. The Roman Law contemplated a rnler whose authority should extend throughoiTt the length and breadth of his kingdom, unhindered by the trammels of feudalism. This was the ideal of the legists, and it became

The King and His Councilors.

the ambition of tlie king whom they advised. " The king's will is law ; " " All justice emanates from the king : " such were the maxims of the legists^ and they are also the fundamental principles of modern government.

The entering wedge was the ^'^case reserved to the King's Bench." Gradually ;, through the interpretation of the legists, the number of these cases became greater, until the king's authority was everywhere established. His men, called iaillis, were distributed throughout the provinces, to safeguard the royal interests, judicial and otherwise. This was the beginning of a royal administration, which, strengthened and extended by the kings of France, became the centralized monarchy of modern times.

The authorities of the church were less inclined than

the feudal nobles to yield to the king's assumption of

judicial rights, and they were better organ-

Ecciesiastical :^^q^ ^^^ resistance, with a head at Eome.

and ciTLi courts, _ '

To conservative men of the time it seemed

questionable, no doubt, whether the rights of people in general, which had found their best protection for centuries in the co.urts of the church, might safely be entrusted to a temporal prince. Much less were they willing to permit the exercise of such rights over the persons of the clergy.

At the close of the thirteenth century the issue was joined between the church and the rising royal power of France. Philip the Fair, continuing the work of his predecessors in extending the royal power, came into hostile contact with Pope Boniface VIII. The pope denied the right of Philip to tax the lands of the church, or to sit in justice over a clerical person. A bitter strife ensued, in which, although Philip was forced to abandon the right of taxing the clergy, and to accept from them a free gift of money in its place, he nevertheless terminated the struggle in a manner which greatly injured the papal power for a long time. Fomenting an insurrection at Rome, he overthrew

Pope Boniface with violence, and on his speedy death caused to be elected a pope of French sympathies, and saw to it that the seat of the papacy was removed to Avignon, in the midst of French territory. Here the popes lived for nearly seventy years, 1309-1377, subject to French influence, and making no further resistance to the extension of French power.

The reign of Philip the Fair (1285-1314) gave rise to another great modern institution. Up to his time the Estates of the king had consisted of the great The Third lords and prelates, to whom he looked for

aid and counsel. In the struggle with Pope Boniface, Philip, in order to strengthen his position, called into the Estates the representatives of the cities, making of them a Third Estate. In this manner the king allied to himself the new and growing commercial and industrial element, whose prosperity was dependent on an orderly and uniform administration, and opposed to the disorders of feudalism. The Estates General of France, which in their origin resemble the Parliament of England, were destined to play no such grand part in the constitutional development of France. Now and then, at intervals when the crown was weak, they came forward to the relief of France ; but for the most part they were subordinated to the overwhelming power of the strong monarchy which governed France.

The political development of France was interrupted by a long period of warfare, arising out of the claims of

_, _ , . English kings to the French throne. With

The Hundrea . »

Tears' War Varying fortunes, the English at one time

(1346-1453). possessed the northern and southwestern parts of France, including Paris ; and the French king was driven from his capital. At this moment of greatest peril to the crown of France, a simple peasant girl, Joan of Arc, impelled by visions which she thought divine, came to the relief of her king, Charles VII, and infused new courage into the spirits of her countrymen. The tide was turned against the English, and step by step they were driven back, until, except the fortress of Calais, they had no longer any

Enactment of the Royal Edict.

possessions in France. Charles VII (1422-1461), delivered from his foe, took up again the centralizing projects of his predecessors, and in his reign the absolute monarchy advanced a long way toward its perfection.

o

SOURCE EEVIEW

I. Instructions to a hailli.—''li you are knowing to any abuse committed by the spiritual lords, it is your duty to infoi-m the king. If the nobles are about to betake themselves to violence, you shall not suffer it ; and if the lawyers are devouring the people, it is your duty to give information against them, and send them before the king."

STRUGGIiB OF PhILIP THE FAIR WITH BONIFACE VIII.

II. Extract from Bull " TJnam Sanctam," ' defining the authority of the church over the state : " In this church and in its power are two swords — to-wit, a spiritual and a temporal — and this we are taught by the words of the Gfospel, for when the Apostle said, ' Behold, here are two swords (in the church, namely, since the apostles were speaking), the Lord did not reply that it was too many, but enough. And surely he who claims that the temporal sword is not in the power of Peter has but ill understood the word of our I^ord when he said : ' Put up thy sword in its scabbard.' Both, therefore — the spiritual and the material swords — are in the power of the church, the latter indeed to be used for the church, the former by the church ; the one by the priest, the other by the hand of kings and soldiers, but by the will and sufferance of the priest. It is fitting, moreover, that one sword should be under the other and the temporal authority subject to the spiritual power."

Adams : TJie Growth of the French Nation, Chapters VIII. , IX. ; Lodge : The Close of the Middle Ages, pp. 49-65.

§ 2. Gekmant

In Germany the progress toward a modern form of government met with insuperable obstacles. Many things

' A leaden disk, called in Latin "bulla," engraved with the Papal emblem, was attached to the document with thongs or bands, and was especially prominent; hence the name Bulls are named from the opening words of the text.

prevented the Emperor from consolidating and extending his power, as the King of France had done so successfully.

In France the long period of subjection to and its authority in Roman times established a habit

Hmitations. ^^ obedience to a supreme power, which

the disordered conditions of feudal times had not wholly extinguished. In the countries east of the Rhine the people had never been subjected to the unifying influences of Roman administration, and here in German lands the old tribal spirit, the separatist tendency, was the stronger. Men were Swabians, Saxons, Bavarians, and Austrians in practical affairs, and Germans only by sentiment. Then, too, tlie Emperor, if he aspired to weld the German states into a united monarchy, was seriously hampered by the fact that his office was elective, not hereditary. The individual German states were too nearly equal in power, too jealous of authority, to permit the Empire to become anything substantial. Therefore the Empire came to be, as we approach modern times, a mere shadow of supremacy. Yet, unsubstantial as it was, its mere existence prevented, until its dissolution in the nineteenth century, any otlier progressive German power from rising to a position of leadership.

The connection of the Empire with the Papacy was also a bar to the development of German unity. Since

the memorable event of Christmas Day, 800,^ rndthe^Papacy ^hen the Empire took its rise, the Papacy

had claimed the right to iuterfere in the affairs of the Empire. Of the seven great princes who elected the Emperor, in accordance with the jDrovisions of the "Golden Bull " (1356), three were spiritual princes, who owed allegiance first of all to Rome. The papal coronation was generally thought to be necessary to the com-

' The coronation of Charles the Great ; the beginning of the medieval Empire.

THE MODEEN NATIONS plete possession of the imperial dignity ; and although the Emperor Lewis the Bavarian at one time (1338) formally declared the voice of the electors sufficient, yet later EmjDerors found it profitable to seek their coronation at the hands of the pope. Such foreign interference made it impossible for the Emperor to legislate, as Philip the Fair had done in France, against the interference of the church in the judicial and financial affairs of his territory. The formation of a modern state made necessary the transference of the affairs of government from the hands of the clergy to the king's agents, and this was impossible in the Empire, where, in addition to the three spiritual electors, quite one-third of the princes who assembled in the Imperial Diet (or Estates) were clergymen, dependent for their offices on the pope.

With the Empire in this condition of weakness, it was the individual states, such as Brandenburg, Saxony, Bavaria, Austria, and others less important, that were touched with the spirit of modern sovereignty.

The Grerman

states.

Their dukes and princes set about the task which resulted in the conversion of their feudal territories into states in the modern sense. They sought to bring under their immediate control all the feudal elements within their boundaries : the free cities, little republics, looking to the Emperor as their lord ; the free imperial knights, the remnant of medieval chivalry, who.

Imperial German City.

while holding estates within the ducal territories, yet claimed allegiance only to the Emperor, and refused to share the common burdens of taxes and military duty laid upon them by the ducal officers. Thus, in miniature, the duices and princes of the Empire were doing what the King of France had accomplished on a larger scale. The result in Germany was a group of small states, whose independence was limited only by the shadowy authority of the Emperor, with mutual jealousies and warring policies. Such have been the characteristics of German political life down to our times, when a partial unity has at last been achieved under the leadership of ancient Brandenburg.

With Albert II (1438) the imperial crown passed to the House of Hapsburg, there to remain, with one brief

interruption,^ so long as the Empire lasted. The House of ^^ ^^lis time the Hapsburgs, although rich

in territory, were poor in revenue. They had lost Switzerland, but they had gained Bohemia and Hungary. Frederick III (1440-1493), cousin and successor of Albert, is said to have driven about through his possessions with an ox-team, soliciting oiferings from his great vassals. In Frederick's time, however, came the first of a series of great marriages, which made the family rich and powerful. His son Maximilian married, in 1478, Mary, daughter and heiress of Charles the Bold, of Burgundy, thereby adding to the Hapsburg lands the provinces of the Netherlands, rich with commerce and industry. Maximilian's son Philip married Joanna, daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, and, although Philip died before his father Maximilian, the child of the Spanish marriage, Charles, united the lands of Spain, Burgundy, and Austria, building up a vast empire, the fortunes of which we shall follow in the history of the Eeformation.

1 1742-1745 the Emperor was a Bavarian, Charles VII. On his death, in 1745, the line of Hapsburg was continued through Maria Theresa until the imperial title was laid aside in 1806.

The Young Maximilian Instructed in the Mysteries op the Black Art.

I. Constitution of the German Empire :

(a) Holy Roman Emperor.

(&) Imperial Diet, consisting of three chambers : 1. Seven Electors : Archbishop of Mayence.

Archbishop of Cologne.

Archbishop of Treves.

Electoral Duke of Saxony.

Margrave of Brandenburg.

Elector Palatine of the Rhine.

King of Bohemia.

2. Chamber of Princes, spiritual and lay.

3. Chamber of imperial cities.

(c) Imperial Supreme Court of Justice, for the adjustment of interstate affairs. [Note. — In the inability of this court to settle the affairs of the individual states, and thereby to give peace to the Empire, is seen most clearly the impotence of the imperial power.]

II, Extract from the edict of Lewis the Bavarian, declaring the Empire independent of the Papacy (1338): "We, therefore, with the counsel and approbation of the electors and other princes of the Empire, do declare that the imperial dignity and power is derived immediately from God alone, and that, according to the law and custom of the Empire, approved from of old, after anyone shall be chosen Emperor or King by the electors of the Empire, either unanimously, or by the greater part of them, he is straightway, from the simple fact of his election, to be considered and entitled true King and Emperor of the Romans, and should be obeyed by all subject to the Empire. He should, moreover, possess full power in administering the laws of the Empire, and in doing all those things which appertain to a true Emperor, nor does he require the approbation, confirmation, authority, or consent of the Pope, the Apostolic See, or of anyone whatsoever. ' '

Frederick III, = Eleanor of Portugal.

Maximilian I, = Mary of Burgundy.

Philip, Margaret.

Joanna of Spain.

Charles V, Emperor, Ferdinand I, Emperor.

Isabella of Portugal.

Philip II of Spain and Portugal, = Mary, Queen of England.

THE MODEEN NATIONS 13

Seebohm : Era of the Protestant Revolution, pp. 26-33 ; Johnson : Europe in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 106-128 ; Lodge : The Close of the Middle Ages, pp. 394-418.

§ 3. Spain and England

In Spain the impulse toward national consolidation was

aided by external conditions. The mountain kingdoms,

which had struggled side by side against

Christians ^^q common foe, the Mohammedans of the

and Moors.

South, were welded together by their united effort. On the decline of the Moorish power this unioii was made permanent in the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, uniting the two great Christian kingdoms of the Spanish peninsula, Aragon and Castile. In 1492, the year of the discovery of America, the last of the Moorish states of southern Spain, Cranada, was overthrown. By the terms of the surrender of Granada, freedom of worship and of education, Mohammedan laws and judges were promised to the Moors. These terms were violated. Persecutions led to a series of revolts during the years 1500- 1501, and on the suppression of the rebellion in 1502 a royal Spanish decree offered to the Moors the choice of baptism or exile. Meanwhile the bigotry engendered by centuries of religious strife burst forth against the Jews, who were ordered to leave the country in 1492. The exile of these industrious peoples was a severe blow to Spain. The discovery of America and the consequent influx of precious metals seemed for a time to offset the loss ; but this source of sudden wealth was fleeting, and served rather to discourage habits of thrift and industry than otherwise. At a time when other nations were laying the foundations of modern industry the Spanish mind was turned toward adventure and rapacious methods of gaining wealth.

In organizing the royal power the rulers of Spain met with many obstacles. In no country of Europe were constitutional privileges, limiting the power of the crown, so

, ,. numerous and powerful as in Spain. The

Internal policy . ^

of Ferdinand Cortes, or National Estates, were more vig-

and Isabella. orous than any similar body in France or

G-ermany. In Aragon an official called the Justiciar, elected by the Cortes, claimed the right of hearing appeals,

inquiring into the legality of arrests and advising the king on constitutional questions. In addition to this there were powerful military orders, with wealth and authority similar to the

„ /-. T Templars in France. To over-

Lrown of C^ueen Isabella. ^

come these obstacles to their power the rulers of Aragon and Castile first brought the cities to their aid. The principal cities of Castile had organized an association, called the Holy Brotherhood, for the purpose of protecting themselves against the arbitrary demands of kings and nobles. They had established courts for the trial of offenses of violence, with mounted police to carry out the orders of the courts. This association was taken under royal control, and its system of justice used in the interests of the rulers, to curb the nobles.

The fact that for two centuries the wars of Spain had been crusades against the unbelieving Moors caused the

relations between church and state to be un- £^0?S.^''* usually close in Spain. The crown was given

the right of nomination to the great offices and dignities of the church, and they made use of this privilege in filling the great bishoprics with men devoted to the interests of the king, instead of filling them with proud and independent nobles. This led to the elevation of able men, of whom Francisco Ximenes, Archbishop of Toledo in 1492, is perhaps the most notable. He became High Chancellor of Castile, and his ability contributed much to the work of national unity and the building up of a strong centralized government in the modern sense. At the death of Ferdinand the Spanish possessions, handed over to the Spanish-Hapsburg Charles, embraced the whole peninsula, with the exception of Portugal, with conquered territories in north Africa and south Italy, and infinite possibilities of extension in the western hemisphere. The Spanish army, drilled by able generals like Gonzalvo, was the ablest fighting force in Europe, and Spain was rapidly nearing the zenith of her brilliant but brief career.

Psalter op Queen Isabella.

The beginnings of modern England are to be found in the failure to secure the French crown in the struggle of the Hundred Years' War. This fortunate ^ ' event threw England back upon her island

possessions ; her kings became English kings with English aims, and her characteristic development was begun. The bitter contest between the rival houses of York and Lancaster, known as the Wars of the Eoses (1455-1485), weakened the Euglish nobility, and paved the way for the coming of a strong monarchy, Tlie old

16 A HISTOllY OF MODERN BUKOPE

nobility was almost blotted out^, with slaughter, exile, and impoverishment, and new families came to the front with less prestige and power, and less inclined to champion feudal rights against the rising monarchy. The common people, less affected by the wars, were advancing in trade and manufacture, and welcomed a strong hand at the helm of state. Parliament had declined in power and influence, and offered few obstacles to strong government. When Henry Tudor came to the throne as Henry VII (1485) the ground was cleared for the erection of a modern state.

Revenues of the King of Spain.— Extract from the report of the Venetian ambassador to Spain : ' ' From New Spain are obtained gold and silver, cochineal (little insects like flies), from which crimson dye is made, leather, cotton, sugar, and other things ; but from Peru nothing is obtained except minerals. The fifth part of all that is produced goes to the king, but since the gold and silver is brought to Spain, and he has a tenth part of all that which goes to the mint and is refined and coined, he eventually gets one-fourth of the whole sum, which fourth does not exceed in all four or five hundred thousand ducats, although it is commonly reckoned not alone at a million, but at millions of pounds.

' ' From these, his realms, his majesty receives every year an income of five millions of gold in time of peace : one and one-half millions from Spain ; a half million from the Indies ; one from Naples and Sicily, and another from Flanders and the Low Countries. But his expenses are six millions, and this excess is covered by extraordinary taxes according to his pleasure."

References (For Spain) Seebohm: Era of Protestant Revolution, pp. 34- 40; Johnson: Europe in the Sixteenth Century, pp. 91-106; Lodge : The Close of the Middte Ages, pp. 468-493. (For England) Seebohm, pp. 46-55; Adams, European History, pp. 236-244; Grreen: Short History of the English People, pp. 281-288.

CHAPTER II The Renaissance

§ 4. Renaissance in Italy

The contribution of Italy to modern life was rather intellectual than political. Italy did not achieve a national

„ ,, . , unity after the manner of France, Spain, and condition England ; with her, as with Grermany, the

of Italy. separatist tendencies were too strong to be

overcome. In the Middle Ages many cities in northern Italy threw off the feudal yoke and became little republics, devoted to commerce and industry. Toward the end of the Middle Ages the democratic spirit waned. With the accumulation of wealth derived from commerce with the East, Venice and Genoa lost their spirit of liberty. Eepublics in name, they became in fact oligarchies, suppressing the voice of the people. Other states, like Milan, lost their freedom through violence. As republics they permitted a decline of their military spirit, and relied for defense upon bands of mercenaries, led by professional captains, condottieri. These men in many instances seized upon the powers they were hired to protect.

Florence came by another route to the same end. A

manufacturing city, thronged with artisans, the political

progress of Florence was toward a greater

degree of democracy. A clever political

trickster, a genuine ^'boss,'' Cosimo de' Medici, holding

no office in the state, succeeded, by means of money and

persuasion, in getting control of the government, and,

what is more remarkable, in passing this control to his

descendants. There was no employment of force, and

3 17

Cosimo's rule was endured, because it brought j)rosperity and splendor to Florence. In southern Italy the kingdom of NajDles, long a subject of dispute between France and S|)ain, was joined at last to the Spanish crown. Midway of the peninsula lay the Papal States. The Pope, their ruler, a s]3iritual lord throughout the rest of Christendom, was in the Papal States a temporal ruler as well. With his vague claims upon the lands of Italy, the Pope, in his Italian policy, was opposed to unity or to the erection of a power superior to his own.

The Eenaissance, as its name implies, is a re-birth ; in this instance a re-birth of the old Greek and Eoman manner of looking at man and the world in which he lives. It was, then, an escape from the narrowness of view which characterized the Middle Ages. The impetus toward the new ideas came from the recovery of the writings of the Greeks and Eomans. It is not to be supposed that these writings were lost during the Middle Ages ; they were merely unappreciated. With the establishment of Christianity in the Eoman Empire they came to share in the general abhorrence felt toward things of pagan origin. As the Middle Ages advanced, the peculiar type of mind, developed under the discipline of the church, had nothing in common with the literary products of Greece and Eome ; consequently they were neglected and left to moulder in the dusty corners of monastic libraries. When in Italy, with the general advance of culture, a higher order of intellect was developed which turned with sympathy to the life and

Cosmo de' Medici, 1389-1464.

The

Renaissance

Greek Literature.

thought of ancient times^ the hidden treasures were soon brought to light. The man who typifies this higher development in Italy is Francesco Petrarch, 1304^-1372, " the first modern scholar and man of letters." To Petrarch we owe the recovery of many priceless Latin works, and his enthusiasm was communicated to others, who carried on the work : to Poggio, who explored the cloisters of Grermany ; and to Boccaccio, 1313-1375, who prepared books of mythology, classical geography and biography, for the better understanding of the works already recovered.

The revival of the Latin classics led rapidly to a desire for Greek. Students of Koraan literature soon perceived that in their higher development the Romans sought their inspiration from the Greeks. In response to the Italian demand men of Byzantine culture came westward in Venetian and Genoese galleys, bringing with them a knowledge of ancient Greek and the manuscripts of the classical writings. Before the fall of Constantinople, in 1453, so much of Greek literature as still existed in the East had been transplanted into Italy. Thus, while the Latin manuscripts were rescued piecemeal from their dusty hidingplaces, the literature of Greece was recovered with less toil. Its recovery led to an advance in philosophical speculation, and in the time of Cosimo de' Medici the Florentine Academy was established for the study and discussion of the works of Plato.

The effects of the discovery of the ancient literatures were far-reaching, and may be said to mark the opening of the modern era. In the annals of Eome were portrayed

a highly developed civil administration, and a complete

system of laws. These afforded a stimulus

Effects of the ^^ modern princes, striving to establish their Eenaissaace. . .

authority against the trammels of the feudal

system. The bold, inquiring spirit of Greek philosophy broke down the narrow limitations of medieval thought, hemmed in with the authority of the Schools. Men saw, in the exploits of the Greeks and Komans, such possibilities as were not dreamed of in the days when this world was thought to be little else than a dreary pilgrimage toward the life to come.

With the revival of classical learning came a revival of

classical art. The importance assigned to art in the life

of the Greeks and Romans was reflected in

^°?*^^ the efforts of tlieir Italian admirers, who

Kenaissance. ^

eagerly sought and preserved such masterpieces as had escajaed the pillage of Italian cities. The group of the Laocoon, the Apollo of the Belvidere, and other triumphs of Greek art revealed new possibilities of pictorial representation to the artists who flourished under the patronage of wealthy popes and princes. The works of Raphael, 1483-1520, and of Michael Angelo, 1475-1564, in painting and in sculpture were the results.

I, The making' of a library.— Extract from Vespasiano's Life of Cosimo de' Medici : ' ' XII. When he had finished the residence and a good part of the church, he fell to thinking how he should have the place peopled with honest men of letters ; and in this way it occurred to him to found a fine library ; and one day, when I happened to be present in his chamber, he said to me, "In what way would you furnish this library?" I replied that as for buying the books it would be impossible, for they were not to be had. Then he said : '* How is it possible, then, to furnish it ? " I told him that it would be necessary to have the books copied. He asked in reply if I would be willing to undertake the work. 1 answered him that I was willing. He told me to commence my work and he would leave everything to me ; and as for the money that would be necessary, he would refer the matter to Don Archangel, then prior of the monastery, who would draw bills ui3on the bank, which should be paid. The library was commenced at once, for it was his pleasure that it should be done with the utmost possible celerity, and as I did not lack for money, I collected in a short time forty-five writers, and finished 200 yolumes in twenty-two months ; in which work we made use of an excellent arrangement, that of the library of Pope Nicholas, which he had given to Cosimo, in the form of a catalogue made out with his own hands. "