The Life of Hugo Grotius written by Charles Butler
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Charles Butler >> The Life of Hugo Grotius
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We have noticed the advance towards civilization which Henry I, made by
the construction of towns; he effected another, by the introduction of
tournaments and field sports, on a large, orderly and showy plan.
Speaking generally, society in Germany during the Saxon line of its
princes, was always improving.
II. 2.
_State of Literature during the Saxon Dynasty_.
[Sidenote: 911-1024.]
"In the school of Paderborn," says the biographer of Meinwert, as he is
cited by Schmidt, "there are famous musicians, dialecticians, orators,
grammarians, mathematicians, astronomers and geometricians. Horace, the
great Virgil, Sallust, and Statius, are highly esteemed. The monks amuse
themselves with poetry, books and music. Several are incessantly
employed in transcribing and painting."
A German translation of the Psalms, by Notker, a monk of the abbey of
St. Gall, shews that some attention was paid to the language of the
country. The Greek was cultivated; the writers of the times mention
several persons skilled in it. Notker, in a letter to one of his
correspondents, informs him, that "his Greek brothers salute him."
[Sidenote: II. 2. State of Literature during the Saxon Dynasty.]
Poetry was a favourite study: the celebrated _Gerbert_, afterwards Pope
Silvester II, and _Waldram_, bishop of Strasburgh, were the best poets
of their times. Hroswith,[004] a nun in the monastery of Gardersheim,
published comedies: "Many Catholics," she says, in her preface to them,
"are guilty of a fault, from which I myself am not altogether free;
they prefer profane works, on account of their style, to the holy
Scriptures. Others have the Scriptures always in their hands, and
despise profane authors; yet they often read Terence, and their
attention to the beauties of his style does not prevent the
objectionable passages in his writings from making an impression on
them."
To this age, the origin of Romances is usually assigned: but these
belong to the French; no specimen of them has been discovered in
Germany. Music was much cultivated. Hroswith introduced it into her
comedies.
It has been mentioned, that Sallust was read in the school at Paderborn.
It is supposed that Tacitus was known to Wittikind or Dittmar: both
relate visions, and several puerile circumstances; but they write with
precision, and shew, on many occasions, great good sense.
The same cannot be said of the Legend-writers; the account which the
authors of "The Literary History of France" give of them is very just.
"The ancient legends," they say, "were lost, in consequence either of
the plunder or the burning of the churches; it was considered necessary
to replace them, as it was thought impossible to honour the memory, or
to preserve the veneration of the saints, without some knowledge of
their lives. It is to be remarked, that the saints, whose memories were
thus sought to be honoured, had been long dead, or had lived in foreign
countries, so that little was known of them except by oral tradition.
From this it may be easily guessed, that those who employed themselves
upon the legends, were deprived of necessary information, and upon that
account could not produce exact and true histories. Thus, to the general
defects of the age in which they lived, they added uncertainty,
confusion, and some falsehood. Their pages abound with visions. In the
place of the simple and natural, they substituted the wonderful and
extraordinary. It even happened too frequently that they took leave to
tell untruths. Heriger, the abbot of St Lupus, says, in direct terms,
that they piously lied."
[Sidenote: 911-1024.]
Dialectic was in great favour: it was called philosophy; no work was
more read than "the Book of Categories," erroneously ascribed to St.
Augustine; and a work, upon the same subject, imputed to Porphyry.
[Sidenote: II. 2. State of Literature during the Saxon Dynasty.]
The schools of the cathedrals and principal monasteries contributed
essentially to the increase and diffusion of literature. Among the
monasteries, those of Fulda, St. Gall, Corbie and Kershaw, were
particularly renowned. Bishops and abbots exerted themselves to procure
books, and to have copies of them made and circulated: they were often
splendidly illuminated. Henry I. caused a painting to be made, of a
battle which he had gained over the Hungarians. Bernard, bishop of
Hildersheim, in imitation of what he had seen in Italy, ornamented the
churches of his diocese with mosaic paintings; he also introduced, among
his countrymen, the art of fusing and working metals; he caused precious
and highly ornamented vases to be made in imitation of the antients.
Large and small bells were cast; chalices, patines, incensories, images,
and even altars of gold and silver, or ornamented with them, were
fabricated. Aventin relates, that at Mauverkirchen, in Bavaria, figures
in plaster, hardened by fire, had, in 948, been made of a duke of
Bavaria and his general.
[Sidenote: 911-1024.]
The establishment of schools, and the protection given to the arts and
sciences, invited the whole body of the nation to the acquisition of
useful and ornamental knowledge; but the invitation was not even
generally accepted. There was much superstition in every order of the
laity. An opinion prevailed among them, that the world was to end, and
the day of judgment arrive, in the year 1000. An universal panic spread
itself over Europe. Strange to relate, the people sought to avoid the
catastrophe, by hiding themselves in caverns and tombs.
The existence of this ignorance cannot be denied: but, to the
ecclesiastics, who strove against it, who erected and fostered so many
schools to dispel it, and who exerted themselves in the manner we have
mentioned, to establish another and a better order of things, a great
share of praise and gratitude should never be denied.
The mines of Hartz were discovered in the time of Otho I. and diffused
so much wealth over Saxony, and afterwards over all Germany, as gave the
reign of that emperor the appellation of "the age of gold." Before this
time, Nicephorus Phocas had called Saxony, from the dress, or rather the
coverings of its inhabitants, "the land of skins." But all the wealth of
the country still continued to be concentrated among the great
landowners.
III. 1.
_Boundaries and State of Germany during the Franconian Dynasty._
1024-1138.
Under Henry III. the second prince of this line, the German empire had
its greatest extent. It comprised Germany, Italy, Burgundy and Lorraine.
Poland, and other parts of the Sclavonian territories, were subject to
it. Denmark and Hungary acknowledged themselves its vassals.
The emperors affected to consider all kingdoms as forming a royal
republic, of which the emperor was chief. For their right to this
splendid prerogative, they always found advocates in their own
dominions: they reckon, among these, the illustrious Leibniz. Out of
Germany, nothing of the claim, beyond precedence in rank, has ever been
allowed. This, no sovereign in Europe has contested with the emperors:
it is observable, that, as the French monarchs insisted on the
Carlovingian extraction of Hugh Capet, they affected to consider Henry
the Fowler the first prince of the Saxon dynasty, and all his successors
in the empire as usurpers. Lewis XIV. expresses himself in this manner
in some memoirs recently attributed to him.
III. 2.
_State of German Literature during the Franconian Dynasty._
[Sidenote: 1024-1138.]
Throughout this period, commerce was always upon the increase; and
literature, science and art, increased with it. The monuments of the
antient grandeur of the eternal city, began about this time to engage
the attention of the inhabitants of Germany, and to attract to Rome many
literary pilgrims. They returned home impressed with admiration of what
they had seen, and related the wonders to their countrymen. "The gods
themselves (they told their hearers) behold their images in Rome with
admiration, and wish to resemble them. Nature herself does not raise
forms as beautiful as those, which the artist creates. One is tempted to
say that they breathe; and to adore the skill of the artist rather than
the inhabitant of Olympus represented by his art." Thus the uncultivated
Germans began to perceive the beauty of these relics of antiquity, and
to feel the wish of imitation. This first appeared on the seals of the
emperors and bishops; several of distinguished beauty have reached our
times. The German artists soon began to engrave on precious stones, and
to work in marble and bronze. Four statues of emperors of the house of
Saxony, of the workmanship of these times, are still to be seen at
Spires; they are rudely fashioned, but are animated, and have distinct
and expressive countenances.
[Sidenote: III. 2. State of German Literature during the Franconian
Dynasty.]
When the emperors or nobility travelled, they were frequently
accompanied by artists. These sometimes made drawings of foreign
churches and edifices, and on their return home, raised others in
imitation of them. Thus the cathedral at Bremen was built on the model
of that of Benevento. The cathedral of Strasburgh, and many other
churches, were built about this time.
Music was considerably improved; the system of Guido Aretinus was no
where understood better, or cultivated with greater ardour, than in
Germany. Some improvement was made in poetry, but it chiefly appeared in
the songs of the common people. A monk of Togernsee, in Bavaria,
composed a collection of poems under the title of Bucolics; they
resemble those of Virgil only in their title. Lambert, of
Aschaffenburgh, published a history of his own times, inferior to none
which have reached us from the middle ages.
[Sidenote: 1024-1138]
Dialectic, however, still continued the favourite study; and the art of
disputation was never carried so far: the interest which the public took
in these disputes was surprising. When it was announced that two
celebrated dialecticians were to hold a public dispute, persons flocked
from all parts to witness the conflict; they listened with avidity, and
with all the feelings of partisans. This appears ridiculous; but, in the
present times, is there no _fancy_ which deserves equal ridicule?
IV. 1
_The State of Germany, from the beginning of the Suabian Dynasty, till
the Accession of the Emperor Charles V._
1138-1519.
The principal events in the reigns of the latter princes of the
Franconian, and of all the princes of the Suabian line, were produced or
influenced by the contests between the popes and emperors, respecting
investitures, or the right of nominating to vacant bishoprics;--by the
pretensions of the popes to hold their antient territories independent
of the emperors;--or by the new acquisitions of the popes in Italy.
1264-1272.
These contests reduced the empire to a state of anarchy, which produced
what is generally called, by the German writers, the Great Interregnum.
While it continued, six princes successively claimed to be emperors of
Germany.
1272-1438.
The interregnum was determined by the election of Rodolph, count of
Hapsburgh. From him, till the ultimate accession of the house of
Austria, in the person of Albert the Second, the empire was held by
several princes of different noble families.
1438-1519.
Albert was succeeded by Frederick III.; Frederick, by Maximilian I.; and
Maximilian, by Charles V.
To the period between the extinction of the Suabian dynasty and the
accession of the emperor Albert, may be assigned the rise of the Italian
republics, particularly Venice, Genoa and Florence; the elevations of
the princes of Savoy and Milan, and the revolutions of Naples, and the
Two Sicilies.
[Sidenote: IV. 1. The State of Germany, from the beginning of the
Suabian Dynasty till the Accession of the Emperor Charles V.]
The boundaries of Germany, during this period, were the Eider and the
sea, on the north; the Scheld, the Meuse, the Saone and the Rhone, on
the west; the Alps and the Rhine, on the south; and the Lech and
Vistula, on the east. They contained,--1. The duchy of Burgundy; 2. The
duchy of Lorraine; 3. The principalities into which Allemmania and
Franconia were divided; 4. The Bavarian territories, which the Franks
had acquired in Rhoetia, Noricum, and Pannonia; 5. Saxony; 6. The
Sclavic territories between the Oder and the Vistula: these were
possessed by the margraves of Brandenburgh, and the dukes of Poland and
Bohemia, and the princes dependent upon them in Moravia, Silesia and
Lusatia;--7. by the provinces of Pomerania and Prussia, on the east of
Saxony; 8. and the Marchia Orientalis, Oostrich, or Austria, on the east
of Bavaria.
At first, the emperor was chosen by the people at large; the right of
election was afterwards confined to the nobility and the principal
officers of state: insensibly, it was engrossed by the five great
officers,--the chancellor, the great marshal, the great chamberlain, the
great butler, and the great master of the palace. But their exclusive
pretensions were much questioned. At length, their right of election was
settled; first, by the Electoral Union, in 1337; and finally, in the
reign of the emperor Charles IV. by the celebrated constitution, called,
from the seal of gold appended to it, _the Golden Bull_. By this, the
right of election was vested in three spiritual and four temporal
electors: two temporal electors have since been added to their numbers.
IV. 2.
_State of German literature during this period_.
[Sidenote: 1438-1519]
While the empire was possessed by the princes of the house of Saxony, a
copy of the Pandects of Justinian was discovered at Amalfi. "The
discovery of them," says Sir William Blackstone, in his Introductory
discourse to his Commentaries, "soon brought the civil law into vogue
all over the west of Europe, where before it was quite laid aside, and
in a manner wholly forgotten; though some traces of its authority
remained in Italy, and the eastern provinces of the empire.--The study
of it was introduced into many universities abroad, particularly that of
Bologna, where exercises were performed, lectures read, and degrees
conferred in this faculty, as in other branches of science; and many
nations of the continent, just then beginning to recover from the
convulsions consequent to the overthrow of the Roman empire, and
settling by degrees into peaceable forms of government, adopted the
civil law (being the best written system then extant,) as the basis of
their several constitutions; blending or interweaving in it their own
feudal customs, in some places, with a more extensive, in others, a more
confined authority."
[Sidenote: IV. 2. State of German Literature, from the Suabian Dynasty
to Charles V.]
This was a great step toward the civilization of Germany, and of the
other countries in which the institutions of the civil law were thus
introduced. They certainly tended to animate the nations, by whom they
were received, to the study of the history and literature of the people
from the works of whose writers they had been compiled. They produced
this effect in several countries of Europe; but their influence in
Germany was very limited: the disposition to subtilize, which was at
that time universal throughout the German empire, led those who
cultivated literature rather to refine upon what was before them, than
to new inquiries. The language of the Pandects is of the silver age; it
might therefore be expected, that it would have improved the general
style of the times; but this improvement is seldom discernible.
[Sidenote: 1438-1519]
[Sidenote: IV. 2. State of German Literature, from the Suabian Dynasty
to Charles V.]
Good or evil is seldom unmixed: civil contests and dissensions,
generally produce both public and private misery; sometimes, however,
they generate mental excitement. This is favourable to Literature and
Science. Its good effects appeared in the contests between the Popes and
the Emperors. Great were the public and the private calamities which
they caused, both in church and state; but they promoted inquiry and
intellectual exertions. These were often attended with happy results.
Irnerius, by birth a German, had studied Justinian's law at
Constantinople. Towards the year 1130, he was appointed professor of
civil law at Bologna: the contests between the popes and the emperors
produced a warfare of words among the disciples of Irnerius. It has been
mentioned that the German emperors pretended to succeed to the empire of
the Caesars. The language and spirit of the Justinianean code, being
highly favourable to this claim, the emperors encouraged the civilians,
and in return for it, had their pens at command. The decree of Gratian
was favourable to the pretensions of the popes; and on this account was
encouraged by the canonists. Hence, generally speaking, the civilians
were partisans of the emperors, the canonists of the popes. From their
adherence to the law of Justinian, the former were called Legistae; from
their adherence to the decree of Gratian, the latter were called
Decretistae. The controversy was carried on with great ardour and
perseverance; the schools both of Italy and Germany resounded with the
disputes, and in both, numerous tracts in support of the opposite
claims, were circulated. The question necessarily carried the
disputants to many incidental topics: these equally increased the powers
and curiosity of the disputants, and stimulated them to better and more
interesting studies.
V. 1.
_Antient and Modern Geography of the Netherlands._
We have thus brought down our historical deduction of the German Empire
to the accession of the Emperor Charles the Fifth.
About 160 years before this event, that portion of the empire, to which
its situation has given the appellation of THE NETHERLANDS, began to
have a separate history, and both a separate and important influence on
the events of the times. To them we shall now direct our attention.
These spacious territories are bounded on the north, by the German
Ocean; on the west, by the British Sea and part of Picardy; on the
south, by Champagne or Lorraine; on the east, by the archbishoprics of
Triers and Treves, the dutchies of Juliers and Cleves, the bishopric of
Munster, and the county of Embden or East Friesland.
[Sidenote: V. 1. Antient and Modern Geography of the Netherlands.]
When the Romans invaded Gaul, it was divided among three principal
clans: the Rhine then formed its western boundary. The left banks of
this river were occupied by the Belgians: this tract of land now
comprises the catholic Netherlands, and the territory of the United
States; the right bank of the Rhine was then filled by the Frisians,
and now comprises the modern Groeningen, east and west Friesland, a part
of Holland, Gueldres, Utrecht, and Overyssell: the Batavians inhabited
the island which derives its name from them; it now comprises the upper
part of Holland, Utrecht, Gueldres, and Overyssell, the modern Cleves
between the Lech and the Waal.
In antient geography, the Netherlands were separated into the
Cisrhenahan and Transrhenahan divisions: the Cisrhenahan lay on the
western side of the Rhine, and included the Belgic Gaul; it was bounded
by the Rhenus, the Rhodanus, the Sequana, the Matrona, and the Oceanus
Britannicus: the Transrhenahan lay on the eastern side of the Rhine; it
was a part of Lower Germany, and bounded on the north by the eastern
Frisia, Westphalia, the Ager-Colonensis, the Juliacensis-Ducatus, and
the Treveri. The classical reader will have no difficulty in assigning
to these denominations, their actual names in the language of modern
geography.
The whole of these territories is called the Netherlands by the English;
and Flanders by the Italians, Spaniards, and French.
V. 2.
_The formation of the different Provinces of the Netherlands into one
State_.
In 1363, John the Good, the king of France, gave to Philip the Bold, his
third son, the dutchy of Burgundy: it then comprised the county of
Burgundy, Dauphine, and a portion of Switzerland. The monarch at the
same time created his son duke of Burgundy. Thus Philip, became the
patriarch of the second line of that illustrious house.
History does not produce an instance of a family, which has so greatly
aggrandized itself by marriage, as the house of Austria. The largest
part by far of the Netherlands was derived to it, 1st, from Margaret of
Franche Comte; 2dly, from Margaret of Flanders; 3dly, from Jane of
Brabant; 4thly, from Mary of Burgundy; 5thly, from Jacqueline of
Holland; and 6thly, from Elizabeth of Luxemburgh.
[Sidenote: Formation of the Provinces of the Netherlands into one
State.]
The possessions of the three first of these splendid heiresses,
descended to Margaret of Flanders. She married Phillip the Bold, who, as
we have just mentioned, was the first of the modern Dukes of Burgundy.
By this marriage, he acquired, in right of his wife, the provinces of
Flanders, Artois, Mechlin, and Rhetel; and transmitted them and his own
dukedom of Burgundy to his son Charles the Intrepid. From Charles, they
descended to his son Philip the Good. He purchased Namur; and by a
transaction with Jacqueline of Holland, acquired that province, Zealand,
Hainault, and Friesland. By other means, he obtained Brabant, Antwerp,
Luxemburgh, Limburgh, Gueldres, and Zutphen. On the failure of issue
male of Philip the Good, all these fourteen provinces descended to Mary
his only daughter. She married the Emperor Maximilian. He had two sons
by her, the Emperor Charles V. and Ferdinand. The former acquired, by
purchase or force, Utrecht, Overyssell and Groeningen.
These territories formed what are generally called the SEVENTEEN
PROVINCES OF THE NETHERLANDS.
In the language of the middle ages, they consisted of the Dutchies of
Brabant, Limburgh, Luxemburgh, and Gueldres; the Earldoms of Flanders,
Artois, Hainault, Holland, Zealand, Namur, Zutphen, Antwerp, (sometimes
called the Marquisate of the Holy Empire) and the Lordships of
Friesland, Mechlin, Utrecht, Overyssell, and Groeningen. Cambrai, the
Cambresis, and the County of Burgundy, though a separate territory, were
considered to be appendages, but not part of them.
V. 3.
_Brief View of the History of the Netherlands, till the acknowledgement
of the Independence of the Seven United Provinces by the Spanish
Monarch._
The laws, the customs, and the government of all these provinces were
nearly alike: each had its representative assembly of the three orders,
of the clergy, nobility, and burghers: each had its courts of justice;
and an appeal from the superior tribunal of each lay to the supreme
court at Mechlin.
Public and fiscal concerns of moment fell under the cognizance of the
sovereign. The people enjoyed numerous and considerable privileges: the
most important of them was the _Droit de Joyeuse entree_, the right of
not being taxed without the consent of the three estates. Commerce,
agriculture, and the arts, particularly music and painting, flourished
among them. The people were honest, frugal, regular and just in their
general habits; more steady than active; not easily roused; but, when
once roused, not easily appeased.
[Sidenote: Brief View of the History of the Netherlands.]
Charles V. made over his hereditary territories in Germany to his
brother Ferdinand; but retained the Netherlands, and annexed them to the
crown of Spain.
With that crown, they descended to Philip the Second, the only son of
Charles.
Unwise and unjust measures of that monarch drove the inhabitants into
rebellion.
On the 5th of April 1566, a deputation of 400 gentlemen, with Lewis of
Nassau, a brother of the prince of Orange, at their head, presented a
petition to Margaret of Austria, the Governor of the Netherlands. From
the coarseness of their dress, they acquired the name of _gueux_ or
_beggars_, and retained it throughout the whole of the troubles which
followed.
[Sidenote: Brief View of the History of the Netherlands.]
Calvinism had, before this time, made great progress in these countries,
and gained over to it numbers of the discontented party. Philip
proceeded to the most violent measures, and sent the Duke of Alva, with
an army of 20,000 men, into the Netherlands. William, Prince of Orange,
placed himself at the head of the malcontents, and raised an army. At an
assembly of the States of Holland and Zealand in 1559, he was declared
Stadtholder, or Governor of Holland, Friesland, and Utrecht: Calvinism
was declared to be the religion of the States. In 1579, the three
provinces were joined by those of Gueldres, Zutphen, Overyssell, and
Groeningen. All signed, by their deputies, the TREATY OF UNION; it became
the basis of their constitution: still, however, they acknowledged
Philip for their sovereign. But in 1581, the deputies of the United
States assembled at Amsterdam, subscribed a solemn act, by which they
formally renounced allegiance to Philip and his successors, and asserted
their independence. They declared in their manifesto, that "the prince
is made for the people, not the people for the prince;" that "the
prince, who treats his subjects as slaves, is a tyrant, whom his
subjects have a right to dethrone, when they have no other means of
preserving their liberty;" that "this right particularly belongs to the
Netherlands; their sovereign, being bound by his coronation oath to
observe the laws, under pain of forfeiting his sovereignty."
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