Outlines of Universal History Part 23

LOUIS IX. OF FRANCE (1226-1270).--In _Louis IX._ (St. Louis) France had a king so n.o.ble and just that the monarchy was sanctified in the eyes of the people. At his accession he was but eleven years old, and with his mother, _Blanche_ of Castile, had to encounter for sixteen years a combination of great barons determined to uphold feudalism. Most of them staid away from his coronation. When the young king and his mother approached _Paris_, they found the way barred; but it was opened by the devoted burghers, who came forth with arms in their hands to bring them in. The magistrates of the communes swore to defend the king and his friends (1228). They were supported by the Papacy. In 1231 the war ended in a way favorable to royalty. The treaty of 1229 with _Raymond VII._, count of _Toulouse_, led to the gradual absorption of the South. _Theobald_ of _Champagne_ became king of _Navarre_, and sold to the crown _Chartres_ and other valuable fiefs. In the earlier period of his reign Louis was guided by his wise, even if imperious, mother, who held the regency.

ENGLAND AND FRANCE.--In 1243 _Louis_ defeated _Henry III._ of England, who had come over to help the count of _La Marche_ and other rebellious n.o.bles. In 1245 _Charles of Anjou_, the king's brother, married _Beatrice_, through whom _Provence_ pa.s.sed to the house of Anjou. The king's long absence (1248-1254), during the sixth Crusade, had no other result but to show to all that he combined in himself the qualities of a hero and of a saint. After his return, his government was wise and just, and marked by sympathy with his people. In 1259 he made a treaty with _Henry III._, yielding to him the _Limousin, Perigord_, and parts of _Saintonge_, for which Henry relinquished all claims on the rest of France. _Louis_ fostered learning. The University of Paris flourished under his care. In his reign _Robert of Sorbon_ (1252) founded _the Sorbonne_, the famous college for ecclesiastics which bears his name.

CIVIL POLICY OF LOUIS.--In his civil policy _Louis_ availed himself of the Roman law to undermine feudal privileges. The legists enlarged the number of cases reserved for the king himself to adjudicate. He established new courts of justice, higher than the feudal courts, and the right of final appeal to himself. He made the king's "Parliament" a great judicial body. He abolished in his domains the judicial combat, or _duel_,--the old German method of deciding between the accused and the accuser. He liberated many serfs. But, mild as he was, he had no mercy for Jews and heretics. In his intercourse with other nations, he blended firmness and courage with a fair and unselfish spirit. He refused to comply with the request of the Pope to take up arms against the emperor, _Frederic II._; but he threatened to make war upon him if he did not release the prelates whom he had captured on their way to Rome. The "Pragmatic Sanction" of St. Louis is of doubtful genuineness. It is an a.s.sertion of the liberties of the Gallican Church. With loyalty to the Holy See, and an exalted piety, Louis defended the rights of all, and did not allow the clergy to attain to an unjust control. _Voltaire_ said of him, "It is not given to man to carry virtue to a higher point." He stands in the scale of merit on a level with _Alfred_ of England.

PARLIAMENTS IN FRANCE.--The word _parliament_ in French history has a very different meaning from that which it bears when applied to the English inst.i.tution of the same name. There were thirteen parliaments in France, each having a jurisdiction of its own. They were established at different times. Of these the Parliament of Paris was the oldest and by far the most important. The king and other suzerains administered justice, each in his own domain. The Parliament of Paris was originally a portion of the king's council that was set apart to hear causes among the fiefs. It considered all appeals and judicial questions. But in the reign of _Louis IX._, commissioners, or _baillis_, of the king, held provincial courts of appeal in his name. The great suzerains established, each in his own fief, like tribunals, but of more restricted authority. Louis IX. made it optional with the va.s.sal to be tried by his immediate suzerain, or in the king's courts, which were subordinate to his council. As time went on, the authority of the royal tribunals increased, as that of the feudal courts grew weaker. In the Parliament of Paris, a corps of legists who understood the Roman law were admitted with the lords, knights, and prelates. More and more these "counsellors" were left to themselves. Later there was a division into _Chambers_, of which the _Grand Chamber_ for the final hearing and decision of appeals was of princ.i.p.al importance. _Philip the Fair_ (1303) gave a more complete organization to Parliament. He provided that it should hold two annual sittings at Paris. Thus there grew up a judicial aristocracy. After 1368 the members were appointed for life. At length, under _Henry IV._, the seats in Parliament became hereditary. The great magistrates thus const.i.tuted wore robes of ermine, or of scarlet adorned with velvet. _The Palace of Justice_ (_Palais de Justice_), on an island in the Seine, was given to Parliament for its sessions by _Charles V_. In its hall scenes of tragic interest, including, in modern times, the condemnation of _Marie Antoinette_ and of _Robespierre_, have taken place. The crown was represented by a great officer, a public prosecutor or attorney-general (_procureur general_). He and his a.s.sistants were termed the "king's people"

(_gens du roi_). They had the privilege of speaking with their hats on. It was an ancient custom to enroll the royal ordinances in the parliamentary records. Gradually it came to be considered that no statute or decree had the force of law unless it was entered on the registers of Parliament. Great conflicts occurred with the kings when Parliament refused "to register" their edicts or treaties. Then the king would hold "a bed of justice,"--so called from the cus.h.i.+ons of the seat where he sat in the hall of Parliament, whither he came in person to command them to register the obnoxious enactment. This royal intervention could not be resisted: commonly the enrollment would be made, but sometimes under a protest. Each of the local parliaments claimed to be supreme in its own province: they were held to const.i.tute together one inst.i.tution, and all the judges were on a level. Attempts at political interference by Parliaments, the kings resisted. At the French Revolution in 1790, the Parliaments were finally abolished.

HENRY III. (1216-1272).--John's eldest son, _Henry_, when he was crowned by the royalists, was only nine years old. For a short time he had a wise guardian in _William, Earl of Pembroke_. In two battles, one on the land and one on the sea, _Louis VIII._ (1223-1226), son of _Philip Augustus_ of France, was defeated. He made peace, and returned to France. Henry married _Eleanor_, the daughter of _Raymond_, count of _Provence_,--a beautiful and accomplished woman, but she was unpopular in England. The king, as well as his wife, lavished offices, honors, and lands upon foreigners. He was a weak prince, and unwisely accepted for his second son, _Edmund_, the crown of the _Two Sicilies_, which could be won only at the expense of England. This measure induced the barons to compel Henry to a measure equivalent to the placing of authority in the hands of a council. This brought on a war between the king and the barons. The latter were led by _Simon de Montfort_ (the second of the name), who had inherited the earldom of Leicester through his mother. Through him PARLIAMENT a.s.sumed the form which it has since retained. The greater barons, the lords or peers, with the bishops and princ.i.p.al abbots, came together in person, and grew into the House of Lords. The freeholders of each county had sent some of the knights to represent them. The attendance of these knights now began to be regular; but besides the two knights from each county, who were like the county members of our own time, _Simon_ caused each _city_ and _borough_ to send two of their citizens, or _burgesses_. Thus the _House of Commons_ arose. _Simon_ defeated _Henry_ at _Lewes_ (1264): but the barons flocked to the standard of Prince _Edward_, who escaped from custody; and Simon was defeated and slain at the battle of _Evesham_ in 1265. _Henry_ was restored to power. He died in 1272, and was buried in _Westminster Abbey_, which he had begun to rebuild. Under Henry, the _Great Charter_, with some alterations, was three times confirmed. A _Charter of the Forest_ was added, providing that no man should lose life or limb for taking the king's game. Cruel laws for the protection of game in the forests or uncultivated lands had been a standing grievance from the days of the Norman Conquest. The confirming of the _Great Charter_ in 1225 was made the condition of a grant of money from the National Council to the king. When the bishops, in 1236, desired to have the laws of inheritance conformed to the rules of the Church, the barons made the laconic answer, "We will not change the laws of England" (_Nolumus leges Anglice mutare_).

CHAPTER IV. RISE OF THE BURGHER CLa.s.s: SOCIETY IN THE ERA OF THE CRUSADES.

RISE OF THE CITIES.--Under feudalism, only two cla.s.ses present themselves to view,--the n.o.bility and the clergy on the one hand, and the serfs on the other. This was the character of society in the ninth century. In the tenth century we see the beginnings of an intermediate cla.s.s, the germ of "the third estate." This change appears in the cities, where the _burghers_ begin to increase in intelligence, and to manifest a spirit of independence. From this time, for several centuries, their power and privileges continued to grow.

GROWTH OF THE CITIES.--The same need of defense that led to the building of towers and castles in the country drove men within the walls of towns. Industry and trade developed intelligence, and produced wealth. But _burghers_ under the feudal rule were obliged to pay heavy tolls and taxes. For example, for protection on a journey through any patch of territory, they were required to make a payment. Besides the regular exactions, they were exposed to most vexatious depredations of a lawless kind. As they advanced in thrift and wealth, communities that were made up largely of artisans and tradesmen armed themselves for their own defense. From self-defense they proceeded farther, and extorted exemptions and privileges from the _suzerain_, the effect of which was to give them a high though limited degree of self-government.

ORIGIN OF MUNIc.i.p.aL FREEDOM.--It has been supposed that munic.i.p.al government in the Middle Ages was a revival of old Roman rights and customs, and thus an heirloom from antiquity. The cities--those on the Rhine and in Gaul, for example--were of Roman origin. But the view of scholars at present is, that munic.i.p.al liberty, such as existed in the Middle Ages, was a native product of the Germanic peoples. The cities were incorporated into the feudal system. They were subject to a lay lord or to a bishop. In _Italy_, however, they struggled after a more complete republican system.

CITIES AND SUZERAINS.--In the conflicts which were waged by the cities, they were sometimes helped by the suzerain against the king, and sometimes by the king against the nearer suzerain. In _England_ the cities were apt to ally themselves with the n.o.bility against the king: in _Germany_ and _France_ the reverse was the fact. But in _Germany_ the cities which came into an immediate relation to the sovereign were less closely dependent on him than were the cities in France on the French king.

TWO CLa.s.sES OF CITIES.--Not only did the cities wrest from the lords a large measure of freedom: it was often freely conceded to them. n.o.bles, in order to bring together artisans, and to build up a community in their own neighborhood, granted extraordinary privileges. _Charters_ were given to cities by the king.

Communities thus formed differed from the other cla.s.s of cities in not having the same privilege of administering justice within their limits.

GERMAN CITIES.--The cities in Germany increased in number on the fall of the Hohenstaufen family. They made the inclosure of their walls a place of refuge, as the n.o.bles did the vicinity of their castles. They eventually gained admittance to the _Diets_ of the empire. They formed _leagues_ among themselves, which, however, did not become political bodies, any more than the Italian leagues.

THE ROMAN LAW.--The revised study of the Roman law brought in a code at variance with feudal principles. The middle cla.s.s, that was growing up in the great commercial cities, availed themselves, as far as they could, of its principles in regard to the inheritance of property. The _legists_ helped in a thousand ways to emanc.i.p.ate them from the yoke of feudal traditions.

MUNIc.i.p.aL GOVERNMENT.--The cities themselves often had va.s.sals, and became suzerains. Government rested in the hands of the magistrates. They were chosen by the general a.s.sembly of the inhabitants, who were called together by the tolling of the bell. The magistrates governed without much restraint until another election, unless there were popular outbreaks, "which were at this time," as Guizot remarks, "the great guarantee for good government." Where the courage and spirit of burghers were displayed was in the maintenance of their own privileges, or purely in self-defense. In all other relations they showed the utmost humility; and in the twelfth century, when their emanc.i.p.ation is commonly dated, they did not pretend to interfere in the government of the country.

TRAVELERS AND TRADE.--The _East_, especially _India_, was conceived of as a region of boundless riches; but commerce with the East was hindered by a thousand difficulties and dangers. Curiosity led travelers to penetrate into the countries of Asia. Among them the _Polo_ family of Venice, of whom _Marco_ was the most famous, were specially distinguished. Marco Polo lived in _China_, with his father and his uncle, twenty-six years. After his return, and during his captivity at _Genoa_, he wrote the celebrated accounts of his travels. He died about 1324. _Sir John Mandeville_ also wrote of his travels, but most of his descriptions were taken from the work of _Friar Odoric_, of Pordenone, who had visited the Far East. Merchants did not venture so far as did bold explorers of a scientific turn. Commerce in the Middle Ages was mainly in two districts,--the borders of the North Sea and of the Baltic, and the countries upon the Mediterranean. Trade in the cities on the African coast, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, was flouris.h.i.+ng; and the Arabs of Spain were industrious and rich. _Arles, Ma.r.s.eilles, Nice, Genoa, Florence, Amalfi, Venice_, vied with one another in traffic with the East. Intermediate between Venice and Genoa, and the north of Europe, were flouris.h.i.+ng marts, among which _Strasburg_ and other cities on the Rhine--_Augsburg, Ulm, Ratisbon, Vienna_, and _Nuremberg_--were among the most prominent. Through these cities flowed the currents of trade from the North to the South, and from the South to the North.

THE HANSEATIC LEAGUE.--To protect themselves against the feudal lords and against pirates, the cities of Northern Germany formed (about 1241) the _Hanseatic League_, which, at the height of its power, included eighty-five cities, besides many other cities more or less closely affiliated with it. This league was dominant, as regards trade and commerce, in the north of Europe, and united under it the cities on the Baltic and the Rhine, as well as the large cities of Flanders. Its merchants had control of the fisheries, the mines, the agriculture, and manufactures of Germany. _Lubeck, Cologne, Brunswick_, and _Dantzic_ were its princ.i.p.al places. _Lubeck_ was its chief center. In all the princ.i.p.al towns on the highways of commerce, the flag of the _Hansa_ floated over its counting-houses. Wherever the influence of the league reached, its regulations were in force. It almost succeeded in monopolizing the trade of Europe north of Italy.

FLANDERS: ENGLAND: FRANCE.--The numerous cities of Flanders--of which _Ghent, Ypres_, and _Bruges_ were best known--became hives of industry and of thrift. _Ghent_, at the end of the thirteenth century, surpa.s.sed _Paris_ in riches and power. In the latter part of the fourteenth century, the number of its fighting men was estimated at eighty thousand. The development of _Holland_ was more slow. _Amsterdam_ was const.i.tuted a town in the middle of the thirteenth century. _England_ began to exchange products with _Spain_. It sent its sheep, and brought back the horses of the Arabians. The cities of France--_Rouen, Orleans, Rheims, Lyons, Ma.r.s.eilles_, etc.--were alive with manufactures and trade. In the twelfth century the yearly fairs at _Troyes, St. Denis_, and _Beaucaire_ were famous all over Europe.

NEW INDUSTRIES.--It has been already stated that the crusaders brought back to Europe the knowledge as well as the products of various branches of industry. Such were the cloths of Damascus, the gla.s.s of Tyre, the use of windmills, of linen, and of silk, the plum-trees of Damascus, the sugar-cane, the mulberry-tree. Cotton stuffs came into use at this time. Paper made from cotton was used by the Saracens in Spain in the eighth century. Paper was made from linen at a somewhat later date. In France and Germany it was first manufactured early in the fourteenth century.

THE JEWS.--The Jews in the Middle Ages were often treated with extreme harshness. An outburst of the crusading spirit was frequently attended with cruel a.s.saults upon them. As Christians would not take interest, money-lending was a business mainly left to the Hebrews. By them, bills of exchange were first employed.

OBSTACLES TO TRADE.--The great obstacle to commerce was the insecurity of travel. Whenever a s.h.i.+pwreck took place, whatever was cast upon the sh.o.r.e was seized by the neighboring lord. A n.o.ble at _Leon_, in Brittany, pointing out a rock on which many vessels had been wrecked, said, "I have a rock there more precious than the diamonds on the crown of a king." It was long before property on the sea was respected, even in the same degree as property on the land. Not even at the present day has this point been reached. The infinite diversity of coins was another embarra.s.sment to trade. In every fief, one had to exchange his money, always at a loss. _Louis IX._ ordained that the money of eighty lords, who had the right to coin, should be current only in their own territories, while the coinage of the king should be received everywhere.

GUILDS.--A very important feature of mediaeval society was the _guilds_. Societies more or less resembling these existed among the _Romans_, and were called _collegia_,--some being for good fellows.h.i.+p or for religious rites, and others being trade-corporations. There were, also, similar fraternities among the _Greeks_ in the second and third centuries B.C. In the Middle Ages, there were two general cla.s.ses of guilds: _First_, there were the _peace-guilds_, for mutual protection against thieves, etc., and for mutual aid in sickness, old age, or impoverishment from other causes. They were numerous in England, and spread over the Continent. _Secondly_, there were the _trade-guilds_, which embraced the _guilds-merchant_, and the _craft-guilds_. The latter were a.s.sociations of workmen, for maintaining the customs of their craft, each with a _master_, or _alderman_, and other officers. They had their provisions for mutual help for themselves and for their widows and orphans, and they had their religious observances. Each had its patron saint, its festivals, its treasury. They kept in their hands the monopoly of the branch of industry which belonged to them. They had their rules in respect to apprentices.h.i.+p, etc. Almost all professions and occupations were fenced in by guilds.

MONASTICISM.--Society in the Middle Ages presented striking and picturesque contrasts. This was nowhere more apparent than in the sphere of religion. Along with the pa.s.sion for war and the consequent reign of violence, there was a parallel self-consecration to a life of peace and devotion. With the strongest relish for pageantry and for a brilliant ceremonial in social life and in wors.h.i.+p, there was a.s.sociated a yearning for an ascetic course under the monastic vows. As existing orders grew rich, and gave up the rigid discipline of earlier days, new orders were formed by men of deeper religious earnestness. In the eleventh century, there arose, among other orders, the _Carthusian_ and _Cistercian;_ in the twelfth century, the _Premonstrants_ and the _Carmelites_, and the order of _Trinitarians_ for the liberation of Christian captives taken by the Moslems. The older orders, especially that of the _Benedictines_ in its different branches, became very wealthy and powerful. The _Cistercian_ Order, under its second founder, _St. Bernard_ (who died in 1153), spread with wonderful rapidity.

THE MENDICANT ORDERS.--In the thirteenth century, when the papal authority was at its height, the mendicant orders arose. The order of _St. Francis_ was fully established in 1223, and the order of _St. Dominic_ in 1216. They combined with monastic vows the utmost activity in preaching and in other clerical work. These orders attracted young men of talents and of a devout spirit in large numbers. The mendicant friars were frequently in conflict with the secular clergy,--the ordinary priesthood,--and with the other orders. But they gained a vast influence, and were devotedly loyal to the popes. It must not be supposed that the monastic orders generally were made up of the weak or the disappointed who sought in cloisters a quiet asylum. Disgust with the world, from whatever cause, led many to become members of them; but they were largely composed of vigorous minds, which, of their own free choice, took on them the monastic vows.

THE RISE OF THE UNIVERSITIES.--The Crusades were accompanied by a signal revival of intellectual activity. One of the most important events of the thirteenth century was the rise of the universities. The schools connected with the abbeys and the cathedrals in France began to improve in the eleventh century, partly from an impulse caught by individuals from the Arabic schools in Spain. After the scholastic theology was introduced, teachers in this branch began to give instruction near those schools in Paris. Numerous pupils gathered around noted lecturers. An organization followed which was called a _university_,--a sort of _guild_,--made up of four faculties,--theology, canon law, medicine, and the arts. The arts included the three studies (_trivium_) of grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy, with four additional branches (the _quadrivium_),--arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy. _Paris_ became the mother of many other universities. Next to Paris, _Oxford_ was famous as a seat of education. Of all the universities, _Bologna_ in Italy was most renowned as a school for the study of the civil law.

SCHOLASTIC THEOLOGY.--The scholastic theology dates from the middle of the eleventh century. It was the work of numerous teachers, many of them of unsurpa.s.sed acuteness, who, at a time when learning and scholars.h.i.+p were at a low ebb, made it their aim to systemize, elucidate, and prove on philosophical grounds, the doctrines of the Church. _Aristotle_ was the author whose philosophical writings were most authoritative with the schoolmen. In theology, _Augustine_ was the most revered master.

The main question in philosophy which the schoolmen debated was that of _Nominalism_ and _Realism_. The question was, whether a general term, as _man_, stands for a real being designated by it (as _man_, in the example given, for _humanity_), or is simply the _name_ of divers distinct individuals.

THE LEADING SCHOOLMEN.--In the eleventh century _Anselm_ of Canterbury was a n.o.ble example of the scholastic spirit. In the thirteenth century _Abelard_ was a bold and brilliant teacher, but with less depth and discretion. He, like other eminent schoolmen, attracted mult.i.tudes of pupils. The thirteenth century was the golden age of scholasticism. Then flourished _Albert_ the Great, _Thomas Aquinas, St. Bonaventura_, and others very influential in their day. There were two schools of opinion,--that of the _Thomists_, the adherents of _Aquinas_, the great theologian of the _Dominican_ order; and that of the _Scotists_, the adherents of _Duns Scotus_, a great light of the _Franciscans_. They differed on various theological points not involved in the common faith.

The discussions of the schoolmen were often carried into distinctions bewildering from their subtlety. There were individuals who were more disposed to the _inductive_ method of investigation, and who gave attention to _natural_ as well as metaphysical science. Perhaps the most eminent of these is _Roger Bacon_. He was an Englishman, was born in 1219, and died about 1294. He was imprisoned for a time on account of the jealousy with which studies in natural science and new discoveries in that branch were regarded by reason of their imagined conflict with religion. _Astrology_ was cultivated by the Moors in Spain in connection with astronomy. It spread among the Christian nations. _Alchemy_, the search for the trans.m.u.tation of metals, had its curious votaries. But such pursuits were popularly identified with diabolic agency.

THE VERNACULAR LITERATURES: THE TROUBADOURS.--Intellectual activity was for a long time exclusively confined to theology. The earliest literature of a secular cast in France belongs to the tenth and eleventh centuries, and to the dialect of _Provence_. The study of this language, and the poetry composed in it, became the recreation of knights and n.o.ble ladies. Thousands of poets, who were called _Troubadours_ (from _trobar_, to find or invent), appeared almost simultaneously, and became well known in _Spain_ and in _Italy_ as well as in _France_. At the same time the period of chivalry began. The theme of their tender and pa.s.sionate poems was love. They indulged in a license which was not offensive, owing to the laxity of manners and morals in Southern France at that day, but would be intolerable in a different state of society. Kings, as well as barons and knights, adopted the Provencal language, and figured as troubadours. In connection with jousts and tournaments, there would be a contest for poetical honors. The "Court of Love," made up of gentle ladies, with the lady of the castle at their head, gave the verdict. Besides the songs of love, another cla.s.s of Provencal poems treated of war or politics, or were of a satirical cast. From the _Moors_ of Spain, _rhyme_, which belonged to Arabian poetry, was introduced, and spread thence over Europe. After the thirteenth century the troubadours were heard of no more, and the Provencal tongue became a mere dialect.

THE NORMAN WRITERS.--The first writers and poets in the French language proper appeared in Normandy. They called themselves _Trouveres_. They were the troubadours of the North. They composed romances of chivalry, and _Fabliaux_, or amusing tales. They sang in a more warlike and virile strain than the poets of the South. Their first romances were written late in the twelfth century. About that time _Villehardouin_ wrote in French a history of the conquest of Constantinople. From the poem ent.i.tled "Alexander," the name of Alexandrine verse came to be applied to the measure in which it was written. A favorite theme of the romances of chivalry was the mythical exploits of _Arthur_, the last Celtic king of Britain, and of the knights of the _Round Table_. Another cla.s.s of romances of chivalry related to the court of _Charlemagne_. The _Fabliaux_ in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were largely composed of tales of ludicrous adventures.

GERMAN, ENGLISH, AND SPANISH WRITERS.--In _Germany_, in the age of the Hohenstaufens, the poets called _Minnesingers_ abounded. They were conspicuous at the splendid tournaments and festivals. In the thirteenth century numerous lays of love, satirical fables, and metrical romances were composed or translated. Of the _Round Table_ legends, that of the _San Graal_ (the holy vessel) was the most popular. It treated of the search for the precious blood of Christ, which was said to have been brought in a cup or charger into Northern Europe by _Joseph of Arimathea_. During this period the old ballads were thrown into an epic form; among them, the _Nibelungenlied_, the Iliad of Germany. The religious faith and loyalty of the _Spanish_ character, the fruit of their long contest with the Moors, are reflected in _the poem of the Cid_, which was composed about the year 1200. It is one of the oldest epics in the Romance languages. In _England_ during this period, we have the chronicles kept in the monasteries. Among their authors are _William of Malmesbury, Geoffrey of Monmouth_, and _Matthew Paris_, a Benedictine monk of St. Albans.

DANTE.--Dante, the chief poet of Italy, and the father of its vernacular literature, was born in _Florence_ in 1265. _The Divine Comedy_ is universally regarded as one of the greatest products of poetical genius.

The family of _Alighieri_, to which _Dante_ belonged, was n.o.ble, but not of the highest rank. He was placed under the best masters, and became not only an accomplished student of Virgil and other Latin poets, but also an adept in theology and in various other branches of knowledge. His training was the best that the time afforded. His family belonged to the anti-imperial party of _Guelfs_. The spirit of faction raged at _Florence_. _Dante_ was attached to the party of "Whites"

(_Bianchi_), and, having held the high office of _prior_ in Florence, was banished, with many others, when the "Blacks"

(_Neri_) got the upper hand (1302). Until his death, nineteen years later, he wandered from place to place in Italy as an exile. Circ.u.mstances, especially the distracted condition of the country, led him to ally himself with the _Ghibellines_, and to favor the imperial cause. All that he saw and suffered until he breathed his last, away from his native city, at _Ravenna_, combined to stir within him the thoughts and pa.s.sions which find expression in his verse.

No poet before _Dante_ ever equaled him in depth of thought and feeling. His princ.i.p.al work is divided into _three_ parts. It is an allegorical vision of h.e.l.l, purgatory, and heaven. Through the first two of these regions, the poet is conducted by _Virgil_. In the third, _Beatrice_ is his guide. When he was a boy of nine years of age, he had met, at a May-day festival, _Beatrice_, who was of the same age; and thenceforward he cherished towards her a pure and romantic affection. Before his twenty-fifth year she died; but, after her death, his thoughts dwelt upon her with a refined but not less pa.s.sionate regard. She is his imaginary guide through the abodes of the blest. His _Young Life_ (_Vita Nuova_) gives the history of his love. The "_Divine Comedy_"--so called because the author would modestly place it below the rank of tragedy,--besides the lofty genius which it exhibits, besides the matchless force and beauty of its diction, sums up, so to speak, what is best and most characteristic in the whole intellectual and religious life of the Middle Ages. _Thomas Aquinas_ was _Dante's_ authority in theology The scholastic system taught by the Church is brought to view in his pictures of the supernatural world, and in the comments connected with them.

PAINTING.--After the Lombard conquest of Italy, art branched off into two schools. The one was the Byzantine, and the other the Late Roman.

In the Byzantine paintings, the human figures are stiff, and conventional forms prevail. The Byzantine school conceived of _Jesus_ as without beauty of person,--literally "without form or comeliness." The Romans had a directly opposite conception. Byzantine taste had a strong influence in Italy, especially at _Venice_. This is seen in the mosaics of St. Mark's Cathedral. The first painter to break loose from Byzantine influence, and to introduce a more free style which flourished under the patronage of the Church, was _Cimabue_ (1240-1302), who is generally considered the founder of modern Italian painting. The first steps were now taken towards a direct observation and imitation of nature. The artist is no longer a slavish copyist of others. "_Cimabue_" says _M. Taine_, "already belongs to the new order of things; for he invents and expresses." But _Cimabue_ was far outdone by _Giotto_ (1276-1337), who cast off wholly the Byzantine fetters, studied nature earnestly, and abjured that which is false and artificial. Notwithstanding his technical defects, his force, and "his feeling for grace of action and harmony of color,"

were such as to make him, even more than _Cimabue_, "the founder of the true ideal style of Christian art, and the restorer of portraiture." "His, above all, was a varied, fertile, facile, and richly creative nature." The contemporary of _Dante_, his portrait of the poet has been discovered in recent times on a wall in the Podesta at Florence. "He stands at the head of the school of allegorical painting, as the latter of that of poetry." The most famous pupil of _Giotto_ was _Taddeo Gaddi_ (about 1300-1367).

SCULPTURE.--In the thirteenth century, the era of the revival of art in Italy, a new school of sculpture arose under the auspices especially of two artists, _Niccolo of Pisa_ and his son _Giovanni_. They brought to their art the same spirit which belonged to _Giotto_ in painting and to _Dante_ in poetry. The same courage that moved the great poet to write in his own vernacular tongue, instead of in Latin, emboldened the artists to look away from the received standards, and to follow nature. In the same period a new and improved style of sculpture appears in other countries, especially in the Gothic cathedrals of Germany and France.

ARCHITECTURE.--The earliest Christian churches were copies of the Roman basilica,--a civil building oblong in shape, sometimes with and sometimes without rows of columns dividing the nave from the aisles: at one end, there was usually a semicircular _apse_. Most of the churches of the eleventh and twelfth centuries were built after this style. Then changes were introduced, which in some measure paved the way for the _Gothic_, the peculiar type of mediaeval architecture. The essential characteristic of this style is the pointed arch. This may have been introduced by the returning crusaders from buildings which they had observed in the East. Its use and development in the churches and other edifices of Europe in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries were without previous example. The Gothic style was carried to its perfection in France, and spread over England and Germany. The cathedrals erected in this form are still the n.o.blest and most attractive buildings to be seen in the old European towns.

The cathedral in _Rheimes_ was commenced in 1211: the choir was dedicated in 1241, and the edifice was completed in 1430. The cathedral of _Amiens_ was begun in 1220; that of _Chartres_ was begun about 1020, and was dedicated in 1260; that of _Salisbury_ was begun in 1220; that of _Cologne_, in 1248; the cathedral of _Strasburg_ was only half finished in 1318, when the architect, _Erwin of Steinbach_, died; that of Notre Dame in _Paris_ was begun in 1163; that of _Toledo_, in 1258. These n.o.ble buildings were built gradually: centuries pa.s.sed before the completion of them. Several of them to this day remain unfinished.

FRANCE.--THE HOUSE OF VALOIS.

PHILIP VI, 1328-1350, _m_.

Jeanne, daughter of Robert II, Duke of Burgundy.

| +--JOHN, 1350-1364, _m_.

Bona, daughter of John, King of Bohemia.

| +--CHARLES V, 1364-1380, _m_.

Jeanne, daughter of Peter I, Duke of Bourbon.

| +--CHARLES VI, 1380-1422, _m_.

| Isabella, daughter of Stephen, Duke of Bavaria.